《Apocalypse Redux》 Prologue Prologue Well, at least the end is somewhat ironic. Isaacmented as he gazed out across the swarming mass of beasts below. Even in a world of monsters and demons, it was humanity that did itself in. Im d that you can see the humor in this. a voice rang out from behind him Not. Seriously, the world is ending and youre cracking jokes? The world already ended. If nothing else, because the only two humans left in the world are us two men. When we die, so does humanity. Isaac replied, sword jumping from his sheath for an instant so brief that a pre-[System] human wouldnt have even been able to see him move, then re-sheathed it just as quickly. An arc of power had burst from the sword during that single swing and hit the countless beasts milling around below like divine judgement, shearing through a countless number them. Yet there were so many more, assailing thest bastion of mankind. A vast castle wrought from the stone below, reinforced by the powers of countless [Architects], [Geomancers], and more. Once, it had been used as themand and control center for all of Europe. But then humanity had begun losing and losing hard. Now, there were just the two of them left here, and perhaps one or two others somewhere on the, though they hadnt heard anything from them. And that means you get tough about this? Kade asked, stepping up next to Isaac. When else am I going to look back on my life andugh at all the mistakes, other than right before its end? This isnt funny in the slightest, but I refuse to go to my death depressed if I can help it. he replied, another flick of the sword annihting the beginnings of a living rampart that threatened to spill into the inner courtyard. None of these weaklings could truly threaten either of them, but they werent the problem. They hadnt been for half a decade. That dubious honor went to the champions, themanders, [Demon Lords] and [World Bosses]. Yet if too many of those things got in, even this ce would finally fall, even though it had done so for all practical intents and purposes. [Final Bastion]. Kade said,ying his hand on one of the crentions There, that should hold them for a bit. Still wont drop the habit of saying your [Skills] out loud when stealth isnt required? Isaac teased even as every beast currently touching the walls was knocked away with enough force to turn them into paste. Kades reply was just a t stare. Anyway, about whats so funny. For one, the Karens were right. DnD and all that truly was the devils work, what with the whole world turns into a video game and suddenly everyone is summoning monsters to fight thing. Isaac shook his head But we made it to the top, didnt we? Took their power, summoned primordial beasts only for them to die momentster, until we reached the peak of what was possible. If only everyone else had been as careful That had been the truly insidious part of the [System]. A couple of years after Initialization, an entire genre of books had be truly popr, one that involved Systems descending on the and bringing countless monsters, turning the world into a hellhole. But theirs hadnt, it had merely provided the means of creating them. Initially, people had been careful, generally only summoning what they could handle. And the few times the creatures had been too powerful, everyone nearby with any measure ofbat power had dogpiled on the beast until it was gone. Nations had experimented with the stronger beasts, but theyd also taken adequate precautions, at least for the most part. At least fifty [Raid Bosses] had apparently been nuked in the Nevada desert by the US army once it was determined that they were too powerful to beat directly. It had ruined any chance of gaining XP from them, but it also seeded at stopping them cold. Eventually, however, people grew too strong for the weaker beast to push them further, and stronger ones had been summoned. And stronger ones still, more and more escaping until eventually they congregated and made summonings of their own. From there on, humanity had been crushed under an ever-escting tide of monsters. Humans arent cautious. Never have been, at least not as a whole. Were the monkeys who left the safety of the trees for the ground and never looked back. We created sharpened metal to stab each other with, gunpowder, and eventually even lit off a nuke to see what would happen despite one of the possible oues being lighting the atmosphere on fire and killing us all. Kade informed him, hints of pride and sorrow swinging in his tone. Ha, too true. Isaac barked augh. your humor is too fucking dark. Kade sighed I worry about you, sometimes. Eh, what other kind is there? Come on, live a little. Thest two peo- Isaac started, but was interrupted. Three. They both whirled around to see a third man standing there in incredibly dirty clothing that might have once been one of the [Mages] robes that hade into style three years after the Initialization. Mark? Kade was the first to ask. Who else? Mark shrugged as he walked over to them. Where the hell have you been? We thought you diedst week, during the fall of Rome? Isaac eximed. Making my way here. I''m thest one, everyone else died. Everywhere. [Scry] shows that the three of us are all that remains of mankind. Anyway, Im not staying long. Theres a [Demon Lord] a few kilometers to the west and Im off to kick it in the unmentionables. There is literally no point in protecting this ce anymore. he said fatalistically. The worlds ended, you can say balls. Isaac informed him in a mock-serious tone. Fine, fine, I want to kick a [Demon Lord] in the balls before I die, alright? Mark shot him a dark smile. I think that is something wed all have liked to do. Kade nodded. So what do you say, old friends? Shall we show those demonic bastards just what humanity is capable of, one final time? Isaac asked, feeling the dying embers inside him reignite a little. Standing here on these battlements for thest month, defending a lifeless fortress and cracking dark jokes had been the most depressing of his life. This, right here, was how hed now decided to go out. Not finally being swamped by the hordes of fodder below, suicide, or maybe overeating by devouring all the food still left in the stores below. Oh, what the hell. All for one, one for all, everyone gets a pound of flesh from the bastard. Kade grumbled, heaving himself over the wall. He fell like a literal meteor, not only utterly pulverizing the demonic beasts hended on, but unleashing a shockwave that destroyed hundreds more. Isaac took a more graceful method of descent, likewise jumping over the edge but activating [Featherfall] a split second before the impact tond lightly on the head of a hellhound. Two swings of his sword unleashed two immense crescents of energy and cleared the space around himself with contemptuous ease. Alright you lily-livered, yellow bellied, craven snotbags. Cmere. [Nexus of Conflict] Kade bellowed, his voice echoing across the battlefield like the crack of thunder. The taunting [Skill] drew the attention of every beast within a kilometer of him. An immense thunderstorm brewed in a matter of seconds as Mark, the [Archmage of the Tempest] used his own power and began tosh out at the mass below. Isaac, meanwhile, just charged through the ranks, swinging his sword in halfmoon arcs, unleashing crescent waves of energy whenever his mana topped up, tearing through them like a reaper through wheat. Out in the distance, a figure loomed. Deep crimson skin, bulls horns reaching towards the sky, ws of solid obsidian extending from powerful digits. A champion, a [Raid Boss] at the very least. [Spectral Charge], [Extended de], [Sacrificial Strike] A single heartbeatter, Isaac turned into a ghost that shed forwards, de perpendicr to the motion and extended almost a hundred meters as it passed cleanly through the bodies. For a second or so, it seemed like nothing had happened, but then a cut began to appear in slow motion on every creature struck, as if an invisible sword was slowly cleaving them in twain along the line where the spectral sword had passed through. Isaac raised the de in hand and pointed it at the looming champion. [de Javelin], [Sacrificial Empowerment] Angry red runes streamed from the unnatural cuts on his victims as the slow motion wounds suddenlypleted in one heartbeat. The next, they flew towards his sword that had already been enveloped by the grey sheen of the other [Skill] and merged with it. A basic, mana based [Skill] to throw a sword, boosted to insane heights by the deaths of countless monsters sent the weapon hurtling forward as if flung by a titan of old and struck the Demons chest like the fist of an angry god. Not even that kind of beast could survive having half its torso simply vanish. All it took to get his weapon back was a thought, the soulbound weapon vanishing and rematerializing in his right hand three secondster. Even bare handed, Isaac killed hundreds of enemies in that time with his bare fists. Punches shattered skulls with such force that the bone fragments shredded their allies behind them, limbs flew and tripped up those who still had the guts to charge The carnage continued on in that vein for hours, the three of them continuing to fight their way through the horde. Two more [Raid Bosses] appeared and two more [Raid Bosses] were felled, too weak to put up much of a resistance. If this kind of strength had been held by mankinds champions just a mere couple of years ago, they might have been able to beat back the encroaching hordes. As the final [Raid Boss] fell, the teeming mass of monsters fell away and returned to the castle. With the controlling intelligences dead and the humans no longer near the target theyd been ordered to attack, they chose to go for the building. They crested the final hill a minuteter to see the monstrous [Demon Lord] before them, over a thousand attendants between them and him. Hey, ugly! Mark called Eat voltage! A bolt of lightning as thick as the trunk of a giant redwood mmed into the chest of the [Demon Lord] and sent him stumbling backwards, roaring in pain. Lets go! Kade bellowed and charged. Isaac just melted into the shadows and popped up next to their foes foot a momentter, hamstringing him with a quick cut. A fist the size of apact car mmed down with earth shaking force a momentter, but Isaac wasnt there anymore, having vanished into the crowd of attendants. His heart sang as he soared between them, marking them with [Sacrificial Strike] in preparation for unleashing a devastating attack. For all the seriousness, for all the finality of this fight, it felt good to cut loose against a worthy target again. To fight the good fight even if all they could achieve was one final fuck you to the monsters that had ended humanity. They fought the beast for hours on end, until eventually, disaster struck. A hurled boulder the size of a tank smashed Mark out of the air and the demon was there to crush him an instantter. Even with that small victory, however, things werent looking good for it. One arm hung limply, most of the flesh at the shoulder just in gone, it limped from where Isaac had hamstrung it at the beginning of the fight and it was utterly covered in second and third degree burns. Kade arrived to pummel it, but was grabbed for the first time sincebat started. Hellfire pooled in the palm of the hand that held him and began to burn. But even with every iota of energy and attention devoted to the task, even a [Demon Lord] couldnt kill the worlds greatest tank so quickly. Ten seconds was all it took. Now that he wasnt forced to constantly dodge or readjust his aim as the demon did, Isaac couldnd devastating strikes that annihted vital organs and crippled its movement. The great beast fell, the first of its kind to be defeated by human hands. But he barely cared about that anymore as he scrambled over to the hand that had held his friend. A stench like burning pork wafted up from a charred ck mass thaty in the demons palm. Hey Kade, we did it. Isaac whispered as he caught sight of the person whod been with him for thest four years We got one. There was no response. de held loosely in his hand, Isaac turned back to the ce the demon had stood at the beginning, where a portal now hung. You know what, old friend? he whispered, his voice breaking Im going see how much damage I can do to their world. Real scientific, real slow, bit by fucking bit. The mask of levity dropped off his face as he walked closer. It had been his shield for so long, taking him through issues even before the Initialization. As the state of the world had grown darker, so had his humor. But now, there was no one left. No one but him. No one to perform for, no one to cheer up, no one tough with him. [Manifold de Empowerment], [Piercing Strike], [Sweeping Strike], [Power Strike], [Sundering Strike], [Strike of Destion], [Curse of Ruination]. he whispered This is for you, Kade. Im going to make them hurt. Ahem, you are, of course, free to do that. But perhaps, might I offer an alternative? a cultured voice called out from behind him, causing Isaac to whirl around, ready to bisect the speaker with the manifold [Skills]yered onto the de. When he saw whod said that, however, he froze. Janus? The god of doorways was one of the mere handful of deities that humans knew for a fact were real as they actually contacted humanity directly on a handful of asions. In the flesh. the god gestured at himself. He wore a perfectly normal toga, appearing like an ordinary human from neck down. His head, on the other hand, had two faces, one over each shoulder and facing off to the side, though he could likely still see what was in front of his body. How much do you know about the rules of deities meddling in the affairs of mortals? Janus asked, jumping straight into whatever topic he wanted to talk about. Any meddling will allow the other side to meddle to an equal degree, continued meddling without the other side having bnced the scales with interventions of their own bes exponentially harder. Isaac quoted from memory. That exnation had been given countless times when people had demanded help from the ostensible good gods. Whatever they did to improve humanitys lot, the dark gods would be given the chance to turn it into a monkeys paw. Supposedly, that had been what had happened with the [System]. One side had created it to allow humanity to grow while the other had added the monster summoning power that had created this whole mess. So, youre willing to try to interfere again? Isaac asked, extremely skeptical. He wasnt sure if things could somehow get worse than mankinds extinction, but it they could Yes. Though in this case, our meddling happened a long time ago, youre just reaping the rewards. The dark gods nudged things ever so slightly towards the apocalypse by screwing with a handful of key people, so we made our own alterations, simrly minute. Those portals right there, they allow a single person to jump back to the beginning a single time, if the guardian had been defeated and they are thest human on the. With their changes so minute, ours couldnt be any bigger and adding a bunch of prerequisites was a good way to make that happen. Janus exined. Isaacs sword slipped from a nerveless hand, which he then raised to point at the god. You youre you have to be that cant be true. heughed bitterly, though the sound contained a hint of insanity that sent shivers down his spine If you could time travel, then how could you let any of this happen? And what do you think would happen if even one enemy god survived past such an attack? Theyd have free rein to travel themselves. It is far too risky. Even sending a mortal might be devastating. Yet this specific situation, a tiny tweak that gives you a final chance in the remote possibility that someone fulfilled the requirements, that is doable. So, Isaac Thoma, will you do your damndest to save the world? Janus asked. I I still think youre crazy. But what the hell, what do I have to lose? Isaac said, half to himself, half to the god. Janus pped his hands and the portal shifted, turning from a wall of white mist into a solid sheet of blue light. Now, walk through the portal. Every step Isaac took felt like he was walking to his own execution, yet he never stopped. A chance to redo everything, try to save everyone, even if he wasnt sure this whole thing wasnt the worlds cruelest prank. A final step took him through the portal, which felt like falling into a freezingke. Ding! Isaac woke with a start, sitting bolt upright in his bed, a blue box hovering in front of him. Greetings, Isaac Thoma. Wee to the System. Would you like to select [Office Drone] as your ss? Chapter 1: Skill Selection Chapter 1: Skill Selection Yeah, nope. While the [Office Drone] was quite a bit stronger than the rather insulting name might indicate, granting [Skills] that boosted intelligence and even percentage based boosts if one was told to do something, it was far from fantastic. Mind you, it didnt even have to be a superior who gave the order. A simple Mate, do you think we should kill that monster? Yep. was enough to grant a ten percent boost to all stats with the right build. But at the end of the day, a hidden powerful side to that ss wasnt enough to make Isaac choose it, especially not with the knowledge he now had. Select [Rogue]. Isaac ordered, thebination of a verbal order and proper intent behind the words making the [System] obey. Figuring out how to properlymand the entire interface was something that took most people at least a few minutes to figure out. Even as he flicked the entirety of the screen that had just popped up in his vision of to the side, Isaac got dressed, then grabbed his phone, keys and wallet from his bedside table. Right now, people all over the world would be startled as that prompt appeared in their vision. For those in Germany and the rest of the Central European Time Zone, it was currently 7 am and a lot of people would still either be in bed or still waking up, while others were going along with their normal days or even still asleep. The initial reactions would be shock, disbelief, and then, the panic would start. Mad rushes to the supermarket, desperate fights over high calorie easy to keep foods such as rice, flour and oil. Also, for some reason, toilet paper. To get stronger quickly and prepare for the iing issues, he needed plenty of resources no normal person just happened to have on hand, himself included. It would be for the best to get them as quickly as possible, before everyone else fully recognized the breadth of this event and flooded any and all shops in preparation for the apocalypse. Isaac, of course, knew that the true apocalypse wouldnt happen for a few more years. Right now, however, there would be chaos for around a week until things calmed back down and he knew he had the food tost that time. Eating nothing but rice, beans and basic bread made from nothing but flour, water and baking soda wouldnt be fun, but It would keep him alive. It had taken him all of forty seconds to get ready and leave the apartment, passing the mirror in the hallway once hed locked the door. An unfamiliar face stared back at him. The green eyes were the same, as was the deep ck hair, but everything else seemed staggeringly unfamiliar. He was a bit heavier than he had been in the, er, future, not overweight, but still noticeable. His face alsocked the deep frown lines, worn into his face through a decade ofbat. Once outside, Isaac hurried to the hardware store, seeing only a handful of other people outside, looking harried and swiping at the air. Yes, smacking the illusionary projection of the [System] interface was a perfectly fine method of using it, but it also made one look a little silly. Isaac knew the way to the hardware store and followed it from memory, allowing him to use the Interface via mental control without running the risk of going the wrong way. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 0 XP: 0/100 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 110/110 Stats Fortitude 11 Perception 9 Strength 9 Agility 10 Magic Power 11 Magic Regeneration 10 Free Points: 0 Stat, 5 Skill Skills It was the same interface hed always had, though he was a little dismayed at the low stats. Even his dump Stats had been in the low hundreds during the final battle, but now he was back in the body of an ordinary human, with above average Magic Power and Fortitude, but below average Perception and Strength, with ten being the average across the entirety of the human race. Seeing as he was still at Level 0, he had not yet received any Stat points. Only the five Skill points hed received for choosing a [ss] were avable. [Skills] were graded on a ranking frommon, umon, rare, epic and finally legendary, costing one to five points to purchase. [Rogue], being amon rarity starter [ss], only had a mere handful of higher rarity [Skills], but those werent what he needed. Ultimately, each [ss] had some basic requirements. [Rogue] required a very basic understanding of how to use a knife and how to be sneaky, also on a very basic level. [Healers] needed a decent understanding of the human body, [Mages] needed some grounding in the sciences rted to their type of magic, and so on. Once one upgraded the [ss] at Level 10, his knowledge, [Skills] and the things hed achieved would be taken into ount when his options were generated. As for what [Skills] Isaac wanted, it hadnt taken him all that long to choose. Hundred Faces mon) Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable topletely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesnt have to be the users true face. This skill allows the user to adjust their face, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. Cost: 30 mana per minute while adjusting It was a rather basic disguise [Skill], but it might be needed sooner rather thanter. Getting those supplies was important and if whoever was running the store at the moment had run off, he might have to break in. Isaac pulled up his hood to ensure that his shifting face wasnt seen by any passersby or cameras that might be around. As for getting into the store, smashing the main window was the only real viable option, time wise. Isaac was actually rather good at picking locks, but chances were hed need an actual set of picks to crack whatever the stores main door used. Not having used a mirror for this, the end result was likely going to look extremely weird, but hed used the [Skill] often enough in the future calling it the future was just in weird, he realized with a start. The future was what was going to happen. Referring to the hell hed just escaped from as the future made it feel predetermined, after a fashion. It reminded him of those old Terminator movies, if he was honest. The future you were from was shit and anything you did here wasnt going to make it any less shit, only ensure that there were still humans out there toin about how shit it was. Damn, that was depressing. Anyway, hed used that [Skill] aplenty in that other timeline and could judge his appearance fairly well through the basic feedback it granted the user. He wouldnt be winning any beauty contests like that, hell, a hundred years ago he might even have ended up in one of those barbaric freak shows. But as long as the end result didnt look like him, that was fine. And now, on to picking the rest of his [Skills]. Stealth mon) Use magic to shield the users form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels. Cost: 1 mana/sec Piercing Strike mon) User''s weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for .5 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. Cost: 10 mana per strike Sundering Strike mon) Users next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. Cost: 12 mana per strike Power Strike mon) Users next blow will strike with as much force as though the users strength stat were 50%+1n% where n equals skill level higher. Cost: 12 mana per strike, low stamina drain In essence, hedbine the active [Skill] [Stealth] to fade from sight and using the knowledge about how to be stealthy hed gained in the other timeline to make sure he didnt disturb anything in his surroundings. There was also a [Sneak] [Skill] that granted knowledge of how to properly sneak around, but that could be earned through effort. [Skills] that were also skills could be gained with the prerequisite knowledge, effort and the desire to actually get it, while [Skills] that produced actual preternatural effects almost always needed to be bought with Skill points. Hed do the same to get the [Knives] [Skill] and then train them both up rather quickly thanks to his immense pool of knowledge. The rest of his [Skills] were used to modify how his weapons hit his enemies, from tearing through armor to permanently weakening said armor. By using multiple such [Skills] concurrently, he could even eventually gain the [Manifold Strike] [Skill], which hed eventually upgraded to [Manifold de Empowerment]. In fact, now that he didnt have anything better to do as he headed to the store, he attempted to carefully ce his feet to produce minimal noise. It took all of the remaining walk to the store, but eventually, the prompt hed been waiting for popped up. Skill earned: Sneak mon) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world atrge, to the point of nearplete invisibility. The description on that [Skill] was both exaggerated quite a bit and underselling it to an insane degree. If he could train it up high enough, then hed be a hole in the world, able to dance through a crowded mall in his underwear and no one taking notice, but a sufficiently high Perception stat could pretty much nullify its effect. Thankfully, the hardware store was open and empty. It had, after all, opened mere minutes ago and people tended to generally be more concerned with food at times of crisis, rather than the tools needed for survival. This ce would get swarmed soon, but for now, Isaac had the run of the store. He knew what to buy from memory, having summoned the beasts he wanted to summon countless times before. He also needed a proper knife to fight with. No German hardware store he knew of sold properbat or hunting knifes, but one of therger ones meant for wilderness survival should do just fine while he ordered a proper one from Amazon. So he grabbed the biggest one he could find, some tools to round out the small toolkit he had in his apartment, chalk, rock salt and semiprecious stones. Also, he got some more generic items such as boxes of screws and the like. If he left this ce with nothing except what people would soon be able to recognize as summoning materials, then that might rouse some suspicion. After all, what kind of person would know to buy these things a quarter of an hour after the information on what they were used for was released, buried under an encyclopedias worth of other information? ounts of what certain standout powerful people had done this day would be public in a couple of years, as well as statistics on just how many people had reacted in what way. Some people had panicked, others had ignored the weird floating boxes, thinking they were drunk, high, or both. And then, there had been the mere handful that had truly embraced the [System], choosing to delve deeply into its mysteries, gaining power and skill beyond what even the greatest of man would have been able to achieve before its advent. Yet even those people would not have been able to read far enough ahead to already know all of this. Therefore, Isaac walked up to the counter with only about half the items in his cart being what he actually needed, and most of those having myriad uses besides summoning. Good morning. he greeted the cashier once hed hefted the goods onto the counter, as well as a couple of bags so he could actually carry this stuff home with him. Morning. the man was a bit on the older side, looking at him with a bit of a side-eye. Interesting day so far, isnt it? Isaac asked, seemingly leaving it open as to what he was talking about. It made it sound like he wasnt actually sure the weird thing in front of him was actually real, asking the other person to confirm that theyd seen said thing as well without outright stating hed seen something that was likely a hallucination. I suppose thats one way to put it. Scared the hell out of a lot of people. Im actually the manager here and the only reason Im working the registers is because everyone else is trying to call their families or something. the apparent manager replied, far less guarded than Isaac had been. Yeah, phone lines are thoroughly blocked. There isnt much I can do about anything, so I just decided to say fuck it and go on with my day. Isaac shrugged. A lot of the people panicking had tried to contact friends and family, to see if they were alright or maybe do a sanity check, subsequently blocking the phone lines quite thoroughly. In his first life, Isaac had been one of them, stuck on his phone for hours until hed finally gotten through to his parents. Now that he knew he wouldnt get through anyway and that theyd be fine regardless, he didnt bother to try and wouldnt do for quite some time. Thats probably one of the biggest points in favor of the idea that all of this is real, isnt it? the manager asked What else could get literally everyone to start using their phones at the same time? What indeed? But life goes on and quite honestly, I dont think how I act right now will massively change things for the better or worse. Isaac shrugged, paying in cash, silently d for his habit of paying for everything without the use of a card when he bought things in person. This is going to be a mess for someone way above both our heads to sort out, thats for certain. the manager sighed. Hope you have a better day than Im having right now. Have a nice day. Isaac bid him goodbye and left the hardware store. and walked straight into utter pandemonium. Just from where he stood outside the hardware store, there was at least one car crash, two broken windows, one burning trash can and more panicking people than he cared to count. Yep, that was what people did when confronted with something upsetting and world-changing. Panic. Not everyone, mind you, but enough to cause this. Of course, the people who were panicking the most were those who were familiar with the heretofore fairly unknown genre of LitRPG, where life became a video game. Yet in the next couple of years, it would soar in poprity given how simr it was to how real life had be. The Apocalyptic LitRPG genre in particr had started being used as philosophical thought pieces based on what could have happened, seeing as they tended to be a bit more on the, well, apocalyptic side of things. And who better to imagine just how bad people gaining video game powers could be than those who had read hundreds or even thousands of pages of books rted to that topic? As he walked home, Isaac pulled the purchased knife from its sheath and ced it on his belt. From then on, he began to mentally go through how he could use this weapon. How to draw it in several different situations, where to target a multitude of different enemy types, how to use his [Skills] topliment this fighting style. Ordinarily, hed be going through the motions as he did that, but waving around a knife in public was rather frowned upon and would continue to be so. Isaac could y around with it in his apartment, . More chaos greeted him on the short walk and someone was even already drawing graffiti about the end of times on a nearby wall. All of this would calm down in a week, when it became clear there was no other shoe to drop. Of course, it did drop, but not in the foreseeable future. Once in his apartment, Isaac mmed the door shut and locked it behind him, set down his bags and drew his knife. Skill earned: Knives mon) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and nonbat applications. All knives are slightly reinforced and can take more damage. Perfect. Now, all he needed to do was summon eldritch horrors from outside of normal time and space, kill them by the hundreds and begin to walk the road to power. Chapter 2: Summoning and Power Metal Chapter 2: Summoning and Power Metal Summoning List (Ephemeral) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Ghost Tier 1 Circle, Rock Salt 10 Apparition Tier 1 Circle, Rock Salt 25 Spirit Tier 2 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings 50 Phantom Tier 2 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings 75 Specter Tier 3 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings, Candles 100 Wraith Tier 4 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings, Candles, String 150 Poltergeist Tier 5 Circle, Rock Salt, Iron Shavings, Candles, Blood 250 The list of creatures he could summon was immense, though only five were currently within his mana capacity. Each summon required a summoning circle on the ground, unified across all types of creatures that could be summoned. Those went all the way up to Tier 10 and in the other timeline, hed had a series of metal tes with each one carved into it to be used at will. For now, however, all he needed was a Tier 3 Circle. And as for why he was going to focus on Ephemeral Type summonings for a bit, there was a rather obvious reason. Coteral Damage. Those kinds of entities directly struck at the living, often through solid objects, without destroying the battleground. In other words, perfect for summoning directly into his apartment. Of course, the stronger ones, especially Poltergeists could easily toss around furniture and often did so to devastating effect, but Isaac had neither the inclination nor the mana pool for that. So, he went to work on the linoleum floor of this living room,ying out the circle in duct tape. Sturdy enough to survive for quite some time, yet still possible to remove them. Cleaning it up would be a pain in the ass as an unfortunate idea in his younger days had forced him to learn, but still doable in a reasonable timeframe. The [System] provided him with the design of the circle as a matter of course, even helpfully oveying it into the floor he was working on, though Isaac didnt need it anymore. He still used it, of course, seeing as any mistakes would be a serious pain to correct. It took him around twenty minutes, but then he was done. Now, it was time. Isaac piled the rock salt into the circle, grabbed a file and a piece of iron to add the iron shavings and ended the whole thing by cing three candles on the outside of the circle. Being from beyond the veil, I call to you. Specter, I summon thee. The chant for creatures this weak wasnt particrly long, mostly just necessary to signify intent. Isaac rubbed his temples as he felt a slight headacheing on. Hed just used up almost the entirety of his mana pool, but the summoning wasplete. All he had to do now was activate the circle to actually call the creature here. Hed do that only in half an hour, when all his mana had regenerated. The calction for that was rather simple, one regained the equivalent of ones mana regen stat, multiplied by ten, over half an hour, which came out to exactly 100 points for him. Isaac didnt sit idle during this time, however. He grabbed his knife, some disinfectant from a first aid kit and a band aid. The mechanics of fighting Ephemeral type enemies were rather simple. Ordinary, mundane objects couldnt touch them, let alone hurt them. Some of the beings did be solid for a split second tond blows of their own, but even then, only the parts it actually used to attack could be damaged. Therefore, a different kind of attack was needed. Magic worked well enough, as did [Skills] that required mana to activate, but that would burn through his reserves in short order and he needed to kill as many of these things as he could in a day. Thankfully, there was also the option of enchanting his weapon. True enchantments might require rareponents, specialized [sses] and a fuckton of mana, but there were several temporary ones that should work just fine. Isaac quickly disinfected the tip of his left index finger and swiftly stabbed it with the knife. It didnt go deep, but it did draw blood. Laying the knife on the ground, he proceeded to draw several arcane symbols onto the de, the wound pulsing with pain as each waspleted. Finally, he was done and both the runes and the wound red in a crimson glow before settling. Then, the band aid went on. This kind of enchanting was painful and the wounds the used blood was taken from wouldnt heal except slightly scabbing over as long as the enchantment persisted, but it was somewhat effective. A quick and dirty solution for small scale projects. The unfortunate fact that stronger enchantments not only required more blood but alsorger wounds kept the technique from finding all that much poprity amongst all but the most masochistic or desperate. It would do, for now. Isaac walked over to his phone, connected it to his blue tooth speaker and put on Sanctified with Dynamite by Powerwolf. The Power Metal wasnt his favorite kind of music, a friend had made that ylist for him, but it was just perfect for covering up the imminent sounds ofbat. Dressed in his shabbiest clothes, knife held in his right hand, he stepped up the circle and spoke. Specter,e forth. An unearthly howl that was almostpletely swallowed by the bombastic music tore through the apartment, followed by a pale blue form erupting from the center of the circle. A head wreathed in hair that streamed in all directions in full defiance of gravity turned to face him, blue eyes so dark they seemed ck locking in on him. Unnaturally long arms tipped in vicious wsshed out towards him, but Isaac dodged backwards,pletely avoiding the attack. The Specter floated closer, right hand swiping towards his head. Ducking under it, he flung himself forwards while activating [Piercing Strike]. A yellow glow wreathed the de just before it stabbed through the robe-like exterior of the monster, white whisps escaping in ce of blood. But that was only step one of the attack. The second began as the runes began to glow so brightly their crimson shapes could be seen even from the outside. Isaac simply let go of the handle and rolled to the side as the bottomless abyss with razor sharp incisors for outer gates that was the Specters maw tried to close around his head. It wailed, trying to grasp at the dagger, but between the [Skill] allowing it to prate so deeply and the runes fusing it with the flesh even as others tore the beast apart, it was an exercise in futility. All he had to do now was wait for it to die. He nced back over his shoulder at the specter to see the right arm shooting at his face and ducked, only to be forced to roll to the side once again as the left hand erupted from the floor to w at his leg. Typical Ephemeral Type, attacking through solid object that only their fleshy opponents couldnt see through, or were impeded by. Despite being solidly outmatched in terms of abilities and raw stats, Isaac still felt he was in a good position to defeat this thing. Hed fought so many of these things, he knew their move set pretty well. This being real life, those werent exactly set moves, but rather a general way of moving attacking. One arm began to il around, randomly trying to hit him while the second went into the ground while Isaac couldnt see where it emerged. Uh-oh. It ended uping out of the wall behind him. Isaac noticed and threw himself forward, but this time, he was just barely too slow. Four lines of pain burned down his back as the ws tore through his flesh. Hended on the ground with a pained exhtion of breath, but still dodged the follow-up strike, and the one after that. And that had been the final one as the Specter dissolved. Specter (Lv. 7) has been in. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity) Better yet, the beast had left behind a wad of gunk as it dissolved. An Aspect, a kind of Item one could fuel with XP to gain one of several [Skills] rted to the beast, as well as some stat points. Those were always easy to spot when it came to Ephemeral type monsters. Every human gained one slot for an Aspect every [ss] Evolution and further ones could be purchased for XP, with the cost increasing exponentially with each new addition. Theoretically, Isaac could have reached his previous level of power with just these Aspects, but that would have required more XP than all of humanity,bined, had ever earned. Exponential growth was no joke. And to put the cherry on top, this thing was why hed been dead set on killing Specters in the first ce. Score! Now all he needed to do was fill it with not score. He had nowhere near the required XP points to activate this thing just yet. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 0 XP: 67/100 Health Status: Slightly Injured (see breakdown?) Mana: 101/110 Stats Fortitude 11 Perception 9 Strength 9 Agility 10 Magic Power 11 Magic Regeneration 10 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces I Stealth I Power Strike I Piercing Strike I Sundering Strike I Knives I Sneak I Thankfully, one of the many things handled by the status was the assessing of injuries. Slightly injured meant that one was basically stillbat capable, though one would probably feel it if one kept fighting. Therefore, he was fine to continue, perhaps level up just once for the healing that happened with each level up. It wasntplete, mind you, dying and levelling up would still see you dead unless one gained a truly powerful regeneration [Skill] in the process, but it would make quick work with those scratches and also give him the edge to kill the next one far easier. Isaac set the ritual up again,pleted the chant and sat down on the floor with the Aspect while waiting for his mana to regenerate. No need to get blood on his couch unnecessarily, after all. Aspect of the Specter: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Specter a Specter. Walking through walls as if there were nothing there, a rather loose rtionship with gravity and the power to hunt the living with ease. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Magic Regeneration One of the following Skills: Spectral Shift Specters Flight Hunt of the Damned Yep, the cost to activate one of these things, especially below Level 10, was rather prohibitive, but oh so worth it. One more Specter to kill, then hed level once. Once that was done, hed save all the other XP and presumably be one of the first people with an Aspect, Setting the orb aside for a moment, he went to the first aid kit and wrapped the wound to reduce the risk of bleeding all over the ce before sitting down at the kitchen table with hisptop. A treatise on Summoning, Leveling, and the Risks entailed'' In essence, it was a scientific paper about the issues surrounding the Initialization and what could spring from them, based only on information that was currently avable to the general public. Hed initially nned on releasing something like this right at the start, but there were several issues with that n. The first of those was the fact that he actually had to write the paper before he could publish it, but that was a rather obvious stumbling block. Also, not the real problem. No one should have already been able to get that level of detail unless they had known ahead of time. If he started releasing build guides and dire warnings already, then people automatically assume that they were rted to the Initialization and the chaos it had caused. And even if it was merely based on the information that was actually avable to the public, then people would be quick to jump on the (anonymous) author and decrying them as the source of all their problems. People loved to pick on scapegoats when problems arose with no clear culprit to me for them. Give the issue a face, then punch said face, standard human behavior. So hed spend the breaks in between summoning typing the paper and release it in a couple of days when someone could have reasonablypiled all of that information. Of course, theyd have to have done nothing but research to finish it so quickly, but that wasnt as impossible. The actual build guides, dire warnings about specific summons wouldeter, when said summoning said creatures was actually within the realm of the possible. Thirty minutes passed in no time t, so Isaac closed theptop, returned to the summoning circle and activated it. Unfortunately, this Specter was a little smarter than thest one. It took one look at Isaacs enchanted knife and sank into the ground. He lunged, driving the knife into its neck before flinging himself back away from it to avoid the retaliatory strike. It had managed to leave the room almostpletely before the knife hit the solid object. The runes red brighter and brighter until all that was visible of the Specter was a crimson dome protruding from the floor. Simultaneously, the finger hed pricked to draw the runes began to ache as they drew more and more energy until the Specter just fell apart. Specter (Lv. 6) has been in. 65 XP gained (50 base * 1.30 due to level disparity) Hopefully, there hadnt been anyone in the room directly under him. Otherwise, his downstairs neighbor would have gotten the fright of their life. At least this type of enemy wouldnt leave blood and gore all over the ce as it died. Also, it hadnt had the fortitude to withstand the knifes power long enough to pull the weapon through the floor. There was a small gouge taken out of the summoning circle, so Isaac fixed that up before recasting the ritual. Lastly, he confirmed his first level up. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 32/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 12/110 Stats Fortitude 11 Perception 9 Strength 9 Agility 10 Magic Power 11 Magic Regeneration 10 Free Points: 10 Stat, 3 Skill Skills Hundred Faces I Stealth I Power Strike I Piercing Strike II Sundering Strike I Knives II Sneak I Ten stat points to make himself stronger, as well as three [Skill] points to enhance existing or purchase new [Skills]. Far Strike mon) Upon the Users next melee attack with a ded weapon, the de will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. Cost: 20 mana Sweeping Strike (umon) Upon the users next attack, 5 des of 3+.3n meters in length, where n equals skill level, will extend from the de, allowing the user to strike at arge area. Spread of des must be specified by user, maximum spread is 45. Length of des may be reduced to reduce mana cost. Cost: 30 mana + 5 mana/meter His [Skill] points onlysted a few seconds as Isaac immediately purchased all the remaining [Skills] he wanted. There were others that might be useful, but the ones he could get once hed reached Level 10 and evolved his [ss] were far better. He might have also upgraded his existing [Skills], but he could also improve those through mere practice, as hed already done with [Knives] and [Piercing Strike]. Alright, so that was done. Now on to distributing the 10 Stat points hed gotten for the Level up. Three went into Perception, two into Magic Regen and Agility and one into each of the remaining Stats to bring them all except Strength up to twelve, slightly above average. Not outstanding, but above anyone short of a serious athlete. He spent thest remaining few minutes to continue with writing his paper, then summoned the next Specter. Specter (Lv. 8) has been in. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity) Specter (Lv. 6) has been in. 62 XP gained (50 base * 1.25 due to level disparity) Specter (Lv. 7) has been in. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity) It took him a while, but eventually, his Status showed just how far hed gotten. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 1007/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 12 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces I Stealth I Power Strike I Piercing Strike II Sundering Strike I Knives II Sneak I Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Excellent. Activate Aspect of the Specter for 1,000 XP? Yep. It might not be strictly necessary to speak out loud tomand the [System], but doing so was what Isaac was morefortable with unless there were people around to overhear. Choose one of the Following Skills: Spectral Shift Specters Flight Hunt of the Damned [Spectral Shift]. Isaacmanded. Being able to selectively ignore gravity via [Specters Flight] was an enticing prospect, as was the incredible sensory power that was [Hunt of the Damned], but the [Skill] hed picked was the clear winner, at least in Isaacs mind. It had be one of his staple powers in the other timeline, and for good reason. A little bit of mana let him ignore most attacks or barriers. Mana based attacks or wards could hurt him, but only a small part of the damage would carry over to his fleshy body. And hed soon get a little something to deal with that. Spectral Shift (rare) Allows the User to shift into an Ethereal form, allowing them to pass through all non-mana-infused objects and non-Skill-enhanced attacks. Mana passing through the Users body will inflict small injuries both on the surface and the inside. Avoiding powerful attacks without a regeneration Skill is rmended. Cost: 10 mana for activation, 5 mana per second of upkeep Perfect. And hed even gained a second Aspect of the Specter during the grinding process. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 7/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces I Stealth I Power Strike I Piercing Strike II Sundering Strike I Knives II Sneak I Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift For his next n, it would be better to get another one, though it wasnt strictly necessary. As Isaac made to set up the next ritual, his phone rang. He nced at it, hoping it was his mother calling, but the disy simply read Boss. He sighed. He was currently working in a normal office job, hence having been offered the [Office Drone] [ss], while he was working on getting his Bachelors degree in economics. That man was an ingrate hed been promoted past the instant hedpleted his degree. Isaac sighed. This could only end in disaster. Good afternoon, Mr. Scott. I take it that means youre not nning on showing up like everyone else? the annoyance tinged voice of Isaacs direct superior replied. In case you havent noticed, the world is ending. Nobody ising in. Isaac snarked. And in fact, almost nobody was going in to work. It had been so bad that the governments had even had to pass a bill to prohibit people from getting fired over this. It was only the efforts of a few good Samaritans that kept the water, power and electricity going. I dont see any mushroom clouds or zombies outside, so where are you getting that information? Or are you, mayhaps, saying Im blind? Id tell you precisely how you can shove the idea that everyone needs toe in despite the situation up your ass Isaac waited until he heard a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line but Im fully aware that that is anatomically impossible, given that your head is already wedged up in there. YOU He just hung up before the tirade could start. Getting fired for a stunt like this would normally be an issue, but Isaac already knew what he was going to do for cash. It was a blob of ectosm lying in a bowl on the kitchen table. Chapter 3: Trains and Introspection Chapter 3: Trains and Introspection Isaac hopped on hisptop and bought a ka-bar off amazon, to be delivered in a couple of days. At least that was what the website still promised, though the current situation would likely throw a serious wrench into that. Of course, if there was one employer whose employees went in regardless of how terrible the overall situation and working conditions were, it was amazon. Once hed gotten that out of the way, he downloaded Tor Browser and installed it. Once Isaac had gotten truly involved in the mess surrounding powerful summons directly, a lot of the coordination had no longer needed to be hidden from various interested parties, instead running through themunication channels of the governments desperately trying to put a lid on the ever expanding problem. But he had spent enough time in that particr part of the inte to at least know his way around a little. Using both the limited anonymity provided by the Tor browser and various other anti-tracking tools he nned to download somewhere other than his home Wi-Fi, hed eventually release the paper he was writing. For now, however, all he needed to do was type in the URL for a particr website from memory. Hed only met with the people controlling it a single time and that had been well after everything went to shit, but someone had mentioned the innovative idea of having a proper website during a night of heavy drinking. Quickly, Isaac typed in a short message about having obtained a pair of powerful, [System] rted items and wanting to sell them. It took all of five minutes to get a response back. While it might have been an entire page long, it basically boiled down to were interested, but youd better not be screwing us. A couple of minutester, hed already booked his train ticket to Mn and was on the way to the station, with only a backpack for luggage. Isaac ran down the stairs of his apartment building, quietly reflecting on how easy this would have been if hed been willing to use his powers to their full extent. In the other timeline, during that short timeframe in between bing truly powerful and the world going to shit, hed had a habit of just walking outside his apartment and dropping through the floor using [Spectral Shift], one story at a time. But sadly, that kinds of shenanigans a mere eleven hours after Initialization would raise some serious eyebrows. Sure, selling to the people hed just contacted would do the same, but they wouldnt be quick to spread any information about him. Hed dressed in an incredibly eye drawing, neon green shirt, but he tried to avoid drawing looks as well as he could. The sheer incongruity of an eye-catching garb and avoiding actually catching gazes would help level his [Sneak] [Skill]. Once hed reached the central station, he immediately entered the train to Mn and started trying to lose peoples gazes the moment hed acquired them. Fundamentally, [Skills] gained strength through one of three methods. Continuous use did eventually level up a [Skill], but that would take for-ev-er. One could also use it against significantly stronger enemies. Andstly, one could train a [Skill] using ones own knowledge and experience about what the [Skill] manipted to make it stronger. Isaac did have over almost a decades worth of practice using [Sneak] to vanish from sight. Therefore, wearing something that would catch the eyes of his fellow passengers but avoiding their sight should increase his [Skill] levels quite a bit. Mind you, there werent many people whod used this particr method in the other timeline, at least not in a way that was documented, so there wast any historical data to back up the theory. Isaac leaned back in his train seat and sighed. It was only 6 in the evening, hed only been awake for eleven hours, but he was so bloody tired. Spending that time fighting monsters and considering monstrous invasions might tend to take a lot out of you, but the Level up had taken care of most of his physical exhaustion. It was his mind that was exhausted. Fighting that final battle, then ending up in bed without even a single second of sleep in between and doing all the things hed done he was asleep mere moments after hed sat down. He wasnt sure how long he rested, however, as he jerked awake the instant the train started moving. Constant fighting in the other timelines final years had led to him bing an incredibly light sleeper, ready to defend himself at the slightest disturbance. A lot of other people whod learned the same skill had also learned how to sleep through those normal and harmless noises, but he wasnt quite at that level. Isaac sighed, closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep again. He was just so tired. It felt like a moments inattention would cause his eyes to flutter shut and not open for a week. This cycle of falling asleep, then waking back up as the train a particrly loud rumble repeated itself perhaps seven, eight times until he eventually grew sick of it. A nce at his watch revealed that it was currently a few minutes after midnight. With a great sigh, Isaac heaved himself out of his seat and began to walk the length of the train to clear his head. He encountered a mere handful of other people, which felt weird. In his experience, at least half the seats were full. But this train was dead. People were scared, hunkering down in ce and waiting for the other shoe to drop. In fact, only a few trains had actually run in the first ce, many of them having been cancelled due to ack of personnel. It was only due to the actions of a handful of people who were either incredibly diligent workers, had ice water flowing through their veins, or were simply in denial about the state of the world. People barely going into work for a week had nearly been enough to end society. Vital services had been kept going by a handful of people for the first couple of days, at which point a proper workforce sufficient to tide everything over using abination of incentives and rather creative threats. Eventually, Isaac found himself in the trains restaurant/lounge car. Overpriced food and drinks whose quality in no way justified the cost, proper tables to sit down at, and arge TV screen on the wall. Currently, it showed a heart wrenching scene of a Ghost flitting along the street in some random city somewhere on the globe, leaving bodies lying behind it. Someone had made the mistake of summoning an Ephemeral type creature, been unable to defeat it and now, it was killing indiscriminately. Even the weakest Ephemeral enemy was sadly unbeatable without a proper attack [Skill] or magic, which very few people had right now. In the other timeline, Isaac hadnt known this had happened. It had just been one of countless small tragedies that happened after the Initialization, reported on in the moment but ultimately forgotten, drowned in the flood of simr incidents. Sadly, there was nothing he could have truly done to prevent this from happening. Even if Isaac had stood up in front of a camera the instant he got back and spilled the beans on everything, how many people would have listened? How many people would have even heard the message? He had no intention of revealing his entire past just yet, perhaps not ever, for obvious reasons. But knowing that even taking that step, that incredibly dangerous step, would barely help with the situation sucked. The TV was switched over to a different channel by the sole worker in the car. This time, it showed a more lighthearted, feel good story about a group of firefighters whod managed to pull off a near wless rescue during a high rise fire thanks to embracing the [System]. [Pyromancers] to redirect the fire, [Hydromancers] to create water from thin air, people with the actual [Firefighter] [ss] that had gained supernatural powers rted to their profession. The report didnt actually say just how theyd done this or what [sses] theyd used, but Isaac could think of plenty of possibilities. And it might even have made him feel a little bit better . if it hadnt been for the scorch marks halfway up the building that he could clearly identify as having been caused by a Fire Spirit. For all the good that the [System] had done in this situation, there wouldnt have been a situation without it. Seriously though, what kind of numbskull summoned a creature with fire in the name indoors? Isaac just shook his head and sighed. People, in general, were intelligent beings, he reminded himself. It was just that the most idiotic were also the ones you heard about on the news. Cue joke about Florida man. He snorted internally as he thought about that. Hed never even been to the States before, but even hed heard some of the more extreme, yet true, tales. Funnier still would be the reaction of those firefighters whod taken an Elemental-[ss] when they realized how much physically stronger their other colleagues would be when they levelled up. When humans tried to think of a fit group, firefighters came to mind, yet soon, some of those people would be nowhere near as strong as their toned bodies indicated. After all, their [sses] would need a very different stat distribution. Then again, everything would change. People would be able to do more, do different things, even be capable of entirely new actions that had only been possible in their wildest dreams. That alone would cause chaos, even without getting into the issue about how one person bing able to do the job of ten people would cause nine people to get fired. While people could gain XP just by taking actions in line with their [ss], such gains were incredibly small. Therefore, the whole issue hadnt really be a problem until right before the world had truly gone to shit, but people had been able to see the writing on the wall. Really, it was the whole automation putting people out of a job issue all over again. There would be new jobs, different jobs, entire new industries created, but how many people would be willing or able to make the switch? And all of that was ignoring the issue of a world filled with people that could bring down skyscrapers with a wave of their hand. Of course, not everyone would be willing to work to reach those heights as it would be increasingly more difficult and dangerous to advance as ones Level rose, but some would. At what point wouldw enforcement no longer be able to keep up with the criminals they tried to arrest? Isaac was here to save humanity from the monsters that the [System] had brought with it and even had the beginnings of a solid n on how to achieve that, but he had no idea how to save humanity from itself. Or even if he was the one whod be doing it. Sure, he wanted to help, but really, those kinds of societal issues would be better handled by someone with a wholly different skillset. One less focused on murder and mayhem and more on getting along with people you didnt really like. The sheer amount of change the world was about to go through was mind boggling. Even Isaac, whod both seen the beginnings of said change happen and over a decades worth of time to think about the possible consequences only knew about a fraction of what was going to change. Hey, can I get you anything? While hed been thinking, the attendant behind the bar hade over to him. Isaac had noticed, of course, but he hadnt expected the other man to strike up a conversation. No thanks. Isaac replied. He wasnt hungry or thirsty, nor did he currently have the disposable ie to spend on overpriced food just yet. Despite that, a can of coke was ced on the counter before him. On the house. the man winked Just dont tell anyone. Dont worry, I wont. Isaac nced up and down the train car And I dont think anyone else will either. Its crazy, isnt it? Whats happening in the world right now. Im Fabio, by the way. the man behind the counter introduced himself. Isaac, nice to meet you. Isaac replied and held out his right hand, which Fabio shook. I was getting off the train and suddenly, this screen popped up in front of me, I nearly fell onto the tracks. Fabio said. Ouch. I was in bed when it initialized. Scared the crap out of me, but that was all. Isaac grimaced. Waking up to a sight like that, you must have thought you were going crazy. Or still asleep. I cant decide which would be worse. Me neither. Isaac chuckled, at which point Fabio produced a second coke and they clinked cans. So, what brings you on this train? Fabio asked. Theres an acquaintance in Mn Im going to meet. Someone who might be able to help me in this entire mess. But what about you? Why are you still working? It seems like half of humanity thinks the world is about to end. Isaac replied. Well, I like this. the other man spread his arms in an all-epassing gesture. People think that trains are just a way to get from Point A to Point B and if you spend the entire ride with your nose buried in a book, they certainly are. But when you actually talk to people, it bes so much more. He gestured towards the closest table. Just a few days ago, there was a group of olddies there, and then a couple of criminology students joined them. They talked about a lot of things, but eventually, the students started to exin about their studies. And then, they pointed to each of the olddies and told them how suited they were to certain types of crimes. Imagine that, some young twenty year old looking a wizened grandmother in the face and saying and you, you would be a born conwoman. Imagine that. Isaac chortled. I just love this. All of this. The people. Even if the world were to end tomorrow, Id still be doing this. Going out doing what you love, what else is there, in the end? are you alright? Its its nothing. No, that was a lie. Isaac sighed I recently lost a couple of friends, just like that. But nothing you need to concern yourself with. My condolences. Fabio said. There really wasnt much more to say. Like you said, going out doing what you love, going out on your own terms, what else is there at the end? And thats what they managed to do. Doesnt make it suck any less for everyone else, though. Isaac replied after a short pause. Really? I suppose thats as much as anyone gets. Fabio said. Too right, Fabio. Isaac thought. Too right Kade and Mark might still be alive in this timeline, but that didnt make their loss in the other timeline hurt any less. And even if he did meet them again, they wouldnt be the same people hed known in the past. They wouldnt have had the same experiences, the same memories, the same everything. Even if he were inclined to carefully recreate their other lives, hed only be able to create some bizarre mockery of the people hed known. What were they doing at the moment, anyway? Mark was almost certainly still chasing storms across the American Midwest, an experience that had left him so in tune with the weather that hed even gained a powerful [ss] rted to it. Kade was still deployed somewhere in the Middle East unless Isaac was very far of the mark. The Professor would be getting just about ready to begin experiments to try and make sense of this strange new world. And as for everyone else? Isaac didnt actually know where they were right now, theyd never talked about it. Theyd all gotten involved in fighting the invasions and be people who fought monsters, different from whom theyd previously been. Their old lives, left behind, rarely talked about. It was ironic, he thought. Of all the people hed only met in the other timeline, it wasnt one of his best friends hed visited first, no long lost loved one, but a Mob Boss. Sorry, I didnt mean to bring up bad memories. Fabio apologized, clearly having mistaken his silence for him being upset. Its alright. Death is just another part of life, isnt it? Ignoring it isnt going to make it go away. Isaac replied. That probably makes you more epting of that than Fabio trailed off, gazing wide eyed at the TV. Isaac turned and his jaw dropped. On the screen, a little girl, perhaps nine, ten years old stood. It was a scene that would have looked perfectly ordinary if it hadnt been for the tentacled thing in her arms. The cute, cat sized thing with tentacles and googly eyes. What on Earth? Fabio asked. An eldritch familiar, adjusted for the kind of [ss] a child would get Isaac thought. Children usually didnt gain any [System] based powers until they were mature enough to handle them, but there were exceptions. And the [sses] they got tended to be a little more childish than normal. A pet Eldritch abomination that somehow managed to be cute sure. Weird as all get out, though. Thats something straight out of Lovecraft. Fabio muttered. If Lovecraft had also been the producer for My little Pony, sure. Isaacmented, drawing augh. I suppose so. I guess thats the world we live in, then. They continued to talk for a couple more hours until they reached the stop where Isaac had to get off and change trains. Isaac sighed happily as he stepped out of the train car, taking a deep breath of the cool night air. Hours of such a staggeringly normal conversation had been such a treat after an entire day of nothing but fighting and writing. He spent a few more hours waiting at the train station, then got onto the next train that would take him all the way to Mn. Most of that time was spent trying to sleep, even if said sleep was fitful. Looking out of the window, Isaac could see the sun slowly rise, illuminating the city as it slowly came closer. One way or another, the events in this city would change the course of his future, for good or ill. Chapter 4: An offer I can absolutely refuse Chapter 4: An offer I can absolutely refuse The person hed been on this date in the other timeline would have been disgusted with him, Isaac reflected. That him, twelve years ago, had been a perfectly normal person, living a normal life without significant scarcity. Crime, serious, organized crime, that was, had been something hed regarded as universally evil. Now he still didnt like it. None of the people he was about to meet were good people. But they were in an excellent position for him to sell to. Enough resources to purchase his goods, but not with quite enough reach to track him down the way the CIA, KGB or any other alphabet soup intelligence agency did. Those people would love to buy stuff like this, but trading with them would actually be more dangerous for Isaac. Most importantly though, he knew this guy. Hed met him in the other timeline and theyd gotten into a conversation about the good old days, which was how Isaac had known how to contact the man. Even if they hadnt been friends, hell, Isaac didnt really like the guy, this was aparatively safe and expedient method of gaining money and an avenue to get his hands on somewhat restricted goods. Yet that was the crux of the situation, wasnt it? Expediency? Compromising morals for the sake of achieving ones goals? People talked about the ends justifying or not justifying the means as though achieving the ends erased the damage inflicted by the means. But it didnt work like that. Burn down every orphanage on the to save the world and you get to still have a, but one that didnt have any orphanages on it and an ocean of blood on your hands. So, was a vast criminal organization getting their hands on a pair of decently powerful Aspects worth the potential benefits to him? Well, the answer was yes. But deep down, Isaac knew that the answer would have been different on this date in the other timeline. And that sucked. He took a deep breath and grabbed a pocket mirror from his jacket to examine his reflection. A face that wasnt his own stared back at him. Piercing blue eyes that pushed the boundary of what was natural, higher cheekbones and a slimmer skull. Hed spent almost half an hour before the mirror to make this happen, but he hadnt done a half bad job. The person he was meeting with could easily be aware of the existence of [Hundred Faces] and have a subordinate whod chosen it, but then hed also know how hard it was to properly use it. A natural face was, at least for now, near irrefutable proof that it hadnt been altered. Taking a deep breath, Isaac opened the door to the restaurant called Salutation and made his way inside. Good morning Sir, do you have a reservation? the host asked, a middle aged Italian man in a sharp suit. Yes, Im meeting someone. Names Holt. Isaac replied, giving a fake name for obvious reasons. Yes, hed named himself after a TV show character, but that was unlikely to be a problem. Only truly distinctive names like Kirk, Picard, or Bond would actually raise any red gs. And you needed to get your fake names from somewhere. Ah yes, youre expected. the host said, not missing a beat. Clearly, working at a restaurant that regrly held meetings between the owner, who was a mob boss, and the kinds of people someone like that met with was no longer something that fazed him. Or maybe, hed been chosen specifically for his unppable attitude. He led Isaac deeper into the building, past the normal seating area, until they came to a stop in front of a normal looking door. Wait here, please. the host said, slipping inside. And then, nothing happened, causing Isaac to internally roll his eyes. Making him wait was such a basic power y, but what else was he to expect? At the end of the day, he was aplete unknown asking directly for a meeting with a mid-level member of a ratherrge criminal organization. Or maybe, the man was just busy. Isaac took this as a chance to review his status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 394/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces I Stealth I Power Strike I Piercing Strike IV Sundering Strike I Knives V Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Not much had changed there, stat wise, but hed gotten [Sneak] up to Level 5 with his shenanigans on the train, plus [Piercing Strike] to Level 4 and [Knives] to 5 during his fights against the Specters. Hed used them quite a bit, but the enemies hed used them on had been easy for him. Finally, the door opened again and the host waved him in. The room that greeted Isaac was a rtively normal restaurant room, though a littlerge for one that only held a single table for two. There were currently four people in the room, Isaac included. The host, Isaac himself, aaaaand a pair of human boulders standing against the far wall, impassively looking at him. It seemed it would take a bit longer for the meeting to happen. Another basic power game, how lovely. Not wanting to be seen waiting for the person you were meeting, therefore appearing to be the supplicant, all of that had very little to do with actual power, only the appearance of power. Annoying, but this was what happened when one demanded a meeting with a rtively high up person in any organization while being an entirely unknown. One of the two security guards walked forward and Isaac spread his arms to be patted down, which the man did in a quite professional manner. He didnt find much, seeing as Isaac had phased most of his belongings into a wall to be retrievedter, including anything that might be construed as a weapon. ncing around the room, he noted there werent any other weapons around. Perhaps some of the utensils might be able to be used to hurt someone, but theyd only be brought out when there was any food on the table, if any. It was entirely possible that the only food that that table would see was food that did not require utensils to eat, but Isaac doubted it. That would not only be excessively paranoid, it was also something that favored the business owner with his guards. In the end, however, Isaac wasnt particrly worried. Precisely nothing here had been set up to contain someone who could walk through walls. I dont suppose theres a timeline on when this meeting will happen? Isaac asked, sitting down on the chair closest to the door without it being offered. Then, he pulled out one of the Specter Aspects and put it on the edge of the table. Lastly, he activated the description in such a way that it was visible to everyone, not just him. This was something anyone could do, but the virtual instruction manual included in the [System] was close to ten thousand pages thick and no one would have already been able to read it all already. Finding specific things was rather easy, but youd have to know they were there. Aspect of the Specter: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Specter a Specter. Walking through walls as if there were nothing there, a rather loose rtionship with gravity and the power to hunt the living with ease. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Magic Regeneration One of the following Skills: Spectral Shift Specters Flight Hunt of the Damned This is what Im selling. Isaac announced, looking at one of the bodyguards, holding the mans gaze unflinchingly. Eventually, the bodyguard blinked and broke eye contact. Isaac just turned towards the host In case this is going to take much longer, can I order something to eat? You know better than me whats good here, what would you rmend? The host stepped forward and began to suggest dishes until Isaac chose a charcuterie board. While he was a little irritated with the wait, outwardly, he didnt let anyone see that. Looking nonchnt would make it seem like he didnt give two shits about these childish power games and as if his position was a great deal stronger than it was. After another few minutes, a door that had been hidden between the two bodyguards opened to reveal a rather average looking Italian man in a sharp suit. Perhaps not entirely average, he was quite a bit more muscr than your average joe in this day and age, but not someone that would stand out in a crowd. And while the man tried to hide It, Isaac caught the expression of surprise on his face at the visible [System] screen. This was Francesco Calise, the man Isaac hade here to meet. On the outside, he presented the appearance of a clich Italian mobster, friendly until there was absolutely no reason to be. Beneath that was a ruthless businessman, one who did not let the limits ced by thew hinder him. But at his core, he was a ruthless pragmatist. Someone who always followed through on his word, not necessarily due to a sense of honor, but the knowledge that in doing so, he gained a reputation for this, making his word something worth believing. He might still screw people over, but never, ever, in a situation where that could bemon knowledge, his reputation was far too valuable for that. In addition, Isaac had found him to be rather helpful in the other timeline, towards the end. Calise had seen the writing on the wall far earlier than other people, recognized that while his own personal fortune might be able to make him fairly powerful, it wouldnt give him the strength to survive theing cmity. However, spread out among a few others, who would reach almost as high, it might make a difference. So, Calise had loaned out almost his entire fortune, including rare Aspects and artefacts that had been created since the Initialization of the [System], at absurdly generous terms, the kind that would have any normal loan shark catatonic from shock. In order to make people ept the offer, there had even been a use included that would forgive the debt in the case of their death against the monster horde. His actions had provided humanity dozens of powerhouses, most of which had changed the course of several battles on their own. Ultimately, it hadnt been quite enough, but that hadnt been his fault. In fact, in the European theater of war, hed done more than anyone who wasnt a powerhouse in their own right and more than many who were. All of thisbined to make him one of the better candidates for trading Aspects to. Someone who would y fairly straight with Isaac, all to protect his precious reputation. Someone who didnt quite have the resources to search for Isaac all the way home if he were so inclined, yet could both afford his prices and give him an in to the expansive ck market for mystical goods that would soone into being. And most importantly, however, was the fact that Isaac knew the man. Not well, but better than anyone else he might have been inclined to sell to. Besides, amongst the things he knew of the man had been a way to contact him via the dark. It had been old when theyd met the first time around, but it had been brought online only a couple of weeks ago and shouldnt have been known to too many people by now. Isaac simply using it should have and had given him an opening. Good morning Mr. Calise, thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I know you must be rather busy, given the unpleasantness of yesterday. However, I do believe youre going to be interested in what I have to sell. Isaac gestured to the Aspect already on the table, not getting up to greet the other man. A subtle snub, intended to make it rather clear that he didnt regard the man standing on the other side of the table as someone he needed to be wary of. And he really didnt. Literally no one would have any experience fighting Ephemeral foes right now, let alone chasing someone who could walk through walls or drop through the floor with a mere thought. Getting away if he needed to was a near certainty as things stood. As you can clearly see, this is something new, something that very few people will have any idea even exists for a while longer. Well, this is certainly rather interesting, Mr. Jacob Holt. Calise smiled slightly as he sat down and leant back in his chair Tell me, however, who told you how to contact me? The question was asked in an even tone, betraying not even a hint of the curiosity that Isaac knew had to be burning in his mind. I believe that particr piece of information is one I will keep close to my chest for now. Isaac replied with the same slight smile. There really were only so many ways someone could already have known to use that particr method of contact, most requiring a not insignificant amount of resources or connections. Luck was also a possibility, of course, but simply assuming someone had gotten lucky could easily bite one in the ass. As is your prerogative, I suppose. once again, nothing betrayed even a hint of curiosity Now, you said you wish to sell this Aspect to me. Something that interacts with this new [System] to grant new [Skills]. I must say, that is a rather unusual offer. Before he could say more, the host stepped inside, carrying the charcuterie tter Isaac had ordered earlier. Out of the corner of his eye, Isaac could see the two bodyguards tense as they spotted the rather sharp knife thaty next to the smi. Perhaps a demonstration is in order. he said, smoothly rising to his feet and walking to the host, where he picked up the knife from the tter. In response, the bodyguards visibly readied themselves to intercept an attack, but it had been entirely unnecessary. Isaac grasped the knife firmly in his right hand, ced the de against his left wrist and drew it along his flesh. It was a wound that would have bled terribly, been potentially even fatal if hed cut deep enough, but the piece of razor sharp metal simply passed through pale blue, ghostly flesh. The fact that Isaac had shifted his entire arm from the elbow downwards, along with the clothes covering that part of his body meant that everyone could clearly see the everything that happened. This is what Im offering you, Mr. Calise. Isaac announced as he sat back down. Color me intrigued, Mr. Holt. Now, I dont suppose youd be willing to tell me how you got those? Calise asked. I killed some monsters. If you get lucky, you can get a little something extra past the XP reward. Isaac shrugged, not bothering to borate past that. Sounds like thats something anyone can get, then. Calise said Let me ask you something, how many Aspects have you gathered to date, Mr. Calise? And please dont insult my intelligence by pretending you havent tried out the Summoning System at least a little. One, maybe two? Isaac asked, fairly certain that the real number was zero. Aspects dropped at a higher rate from stronger monsters, to the point where even [Field Bosses] were guaranteed to drop at least one. Also, drop rates were quite a bit better if one was fighting enemies stronger than oneself. Of course, that also ensured that there was one good piece of loot on each [Field Boss] that everyone knew was there, causing quite a few fights even after victory had been achieved. Yet another subtle trap in the Summoning System to encourage humans to fight amongst themselves, one that didnt even look like a trap unless one was already on the lookout for things like that and aware of the overall purpose of the Summoning System. That isnt exactly something one shares with a new acquaintance. Calise nevertheless avoided the question. Of course. However, in case you havent been able to gather an equivalent piece of loot and are interested in this Aspect and others like it, youll find my rates to be rather eptable. Isaac said, fighting to keep a sleazy used car salesman smile off his face. Now was not the time for stupid jokes, no matter how badly he wished it were otherwise. Just one more thing, Mr. Holt. Youve yet to prove that the object is genuine. Calise said. Id suggest that the [System] screen is proof. I might be able to lie to you, but I cant make the [System] lie to you. Is that so? Calise asked, a dangerous glint in his gaze, causing Isaac to swear internally. The truism of the [System] being truthful was something that wouldnte into being for quite some time. That is so. People have pored over every piece of the instruction manual and while ways to share ones screens and make those belonging to objects visible to all are avable, there is no way to falsify the information those screens contain. Isaac said. The fact that said research had been made public in another timeline rather than having been scrounged up by his non-existent minions wasnt something he felt the need to share. You put a lot of trust in something weve barely had for 24 hours. Calise observed. Well, everything Ive been able to verify about the [System] has proven true. And while the only source of information about the [System] being the [System] itself is a bit of a stumbling block, like I said, it hasnt lied to me yet. A certain healthy skepticism is obviously prudent, but barring information to the contrary, Im willing to trust in what its told me so far. Isaac exined. I suppose thats one way of looking at it. Calise shrugged. That it is. But how about we do something a little different? Isaac picked up the Aspect and ced it on the table, squarely between the two of them I could just leave this one with you and you can run whatever tests you want on it. Then, when I return tonight, you can chose to either return it or pay me. And if we chose to attempt to absorb it, wed be stuck with the cost. Calise shot him a dark look. In that case, why dont I make my offer a little more concrete? Isaac asked Im willing to sell you an Aspect of the Specter for ten-thousand Euros and I have a second one ready right now. In addition, I can get more in fairly short order. So, take that one, do whatever you need to do to confirm for yourself that it is genuine, and decide whether you want to own it. Ill be back tonight. With that, he pushed back his chair and made to stand up, but Calise stopped him. You just ordered food, why not stay a little, eat with me? Thank you. Isaac replied with a slight smile and sat back down. Breakfast with an Italian mobster was weird, Isaac reflected. He spent half the time looking out for ambushes and the like, even though he was pretty sure that nothing quite so tant would take ce. The two of them talked about business, the effects of the [Systems] Initialization and the like with Isaac dancing around who exactly he was working with/for. Eventually, however, breakfast had disappeared and he made his escape, er he left through the door like a normal person. But he still felt relieved to have left the room. Once hed rounded a corner and left line of sight of the restaurant, he activated [Stealth] and rushed to get further, phasing through a couple of walls as he did so. If anyone was trying to follow him, theyd have the devils time doing so. Finally, he reached the hiding ce of his phone and wallet, which he subsequently retrieved. Oh. Hell. Isaac went white as a sheet when he saw the screen. Five missed calls. From his mother. Chapter 5: Hydra Chapter 5: Hydra Hey Mom. Isaac said, walking towards the edge of town as he spoke. Thank God I got a hold of you, are you alright? a slightly panicked voice came from the other end of the line. Im fine, Mom. he said, wincing internally. It wasnt that he disliked his mother, it was just that she tended to worry when things like, say, ''the whole world has gained video game qualities'' happened. And when she hadnt been able to get a hold of him due to the phone lines being blocked, shed likely been terrified. Him having put his phone away while he met with Calise certainly hadnt helped matters. Really? there was a doubtful silence from the other end. Isaac just sighed, out loud, this time. Really, Mom. I tried to call you, noticed that the lines were blocked, figured that was because everyone was trying to call everyone else, so I stopped trying in the hope that that whole mess would fix itself eventually if everyone just stopped trying to call constantly. Isaac exined. But you are fine? she pressed. Mom! he said, sounding a little more indignant than hed intended. In the other timeline, hed lost his parents during the fall of civilization as a whole. Somehow, hed always been in too much of a storm of war and desperate battles to ever really feel the loss. Until finally, hed travelled back in time and all was right with the world again. For now. But that didnt mean he was happy to be treated like a twenty-year-old, barely having left the home, when he''d been alive for over thirty years. Im your mother, Im allowed to worry. she gently chided him. I know. But Im fine, seriously. Yesterday was weird and scary, but Im alright. he tried to reassure her. What are you doing? she asked. Uh Isaac nced around the moderately busy street. Saying Im in Italy, selling magical gear to the mob would go over absolutely terrible. Im sitting tight right now. It seems like things are going to stay fine right now, but I read some books with an eerily simr plot and that kinda scared me. Theres something like that out there? How bad is it? she asked. Its just me being paranoid, dont worry, Mom. Ive got a handle on everything, Ill find out as much as I can about this and I n to see if theres some effort at researching the [System] being made at my University that I can join. Ill be fine. he stressed the final line as much as he could, possiblying off as a little obnoxious. If theres anything wrong, you know you can tell me, right? Yes, I know, Mom. Im fine, love you. Love you, too. And then, he hung up. He did love his mother, but thest thing he wanted was to have to deal with her right now. Time was too precious at the moment. Thered be a couple of years of rtive peace for a bit during which he could somewhat rx, but right now, in the first couple of weeks, things were happening fast. There were people doing things right now he needed to interfere with as well as creating organizations he needed to integrate himself with. Now he had several hours to kill until it was time to return to Calise. Isaac was absolutely certain that the man would ept his offer, of course. There was no way he could have gotten his hands on even one Aspect of the Specter without knowing about blood enchanting or being a significantly higher level than they possibly could have achieved by now. Part of him wanted to run around Mn and go sightseeing, but he didnt even have to ruthlessly squash it. The fact that sightseeing right now was a truly terrible waste of time would have been apparent to even the dumbest person in the same situation as him. There was an excellent thing he could do instead. After all, there was something he still needed toplete the Skillset he was going for. With a thought, he pulled up a new summoning tab. Summoning List (Amphibian) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Giant Bullfrog Tier 1 Circle, Dead Flies 10 Devils Smander Tier 1 Circle, Wood Ash 25 Permian Dragonfly Tier 2 Circle, Chitin Pieces, Wood 50 Swamp Devourer Tier 3 Circle, Iron Shavings, Rocks, Rotting Meat 75 Lesser Hydra Tier 3 Circle, Iron Shavings, Fertile Soil 100 Swamp Knight Tier 4 Circle, Fertile Soil, Toxin 150 Hydra Tier 5 Circle, Iron Shavings, Fertile Soil, Acid 250 Man, the [System] could be rather unspecific about the requirements sometimes. Thankfully, Isaac knew from experience that any acidic liquid could be used as Acid and any substance that was toxic even in low doses were sufficient for Toxin. In the past, hed usually used pipe cleaner and moth balls. And right there, for a hundred points of mana, some more iron shavings and a little fertile soil, he could summon a Lesser Hydra. All he needed now was to stop by a local hardware store to buy some stuff and find a good ce to summon the damn thing. There actually was a good reason to go after that type of creature right now. Its Aspect, which could solidly fill in the one major weakness in his current build. [Spectral Shift] was a fantastic [Skill], but there was a slight problem with it. Damage transference. Any damage you took in your Ephemeral form would also remain as you shifted back into your human form. A furtherplication was how you took damage in that form. Very few things could injure you like that, but those that did caused mana disruptions deep within the body of the victim. Phasing through items or attacks too mana-infused to safely touch as an Ephemeral would leave you with countless small nicks and bruises on the inside of your body. A cut less than a millimeter in depth, a papercut, essentially, would be harmless yet painful on your skin. The same wound appearing on ones aorta the only thing you could really do was bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. For a true Ephemeral being, this wouldnt have been a problem. They took more damage the deeper their wounds went, but that was too their essence, they didnt actually have organs to damage. But sadly, he wasnt an Ephemeral being, leaving him stuck with the very real risk of just dropping dead unless he was very careful with using [Spectral Shift] until his Fortitude was a great deal higher. Then, there was the obvious solution, a Regeneration [Skill], like the kind that could be obtained from a Hydra. Of course, hed need to buy himself another slot for his second Aspect, but that was pretty cheap. For now. The first additional slot cost a mere 1,000 XP, but the cost doubled with every additional one. To put that into perspective, hed once heard a story about a wiseman being offered a reward by a sultan for inventing chess, so he asked for some rice. Specifically, one grain of rice for the first square, then double that amount for the next one over, and so on until the sixty-fourth square. The sultanughed until his mathematicians informed him that the sheer mass of rice that amounted to was greater than the yearly rice harvest by an order of magnitude. Buying new slots wasnt something he could sustainably do for very long, but hed do it just once. After all, there were several reasons to do that now. Killing creatures above your own Level had a higher chance of giving you Aspects, gave you more XP and increased the number you could kill before they stopped giving you any XP. That was yet another issue with the Summoning System. Killing the same foe over and over again would not only give diminishing returns as you got stronger, but it would also end with you being utterly unable to progress further unless you summoned something even stronger or attempted to punch well above your weight ss. Whether or not to tell the world that was something Isaac had struggled with for a while. On one hand, that information hadnt be public in the other timeline, which would indicate that it was the wrong choice. On the other, anything that encouraged people to pick fights well above their weight ss could only end in disaster. As he turned the problem over and over again in his head, he went into a hardware store to buy what he needed, then headed off into the wilderness. Well, not so much wilderness as a patch of forest that wasrge and impassable enough to ensure that any fighting happened well clear of the city. Someone might stumble onto the fight, but no matter where that happened, that was always a risk. A circle was quickly drawn on the ground with a stick once hed found arge enough clearing. Then he ced the ingredients in the circle, charged it, and sat down as he waited for his mana to regenerate. This was a fight he absolutely needed all the mana he could get for. Finally, it was time. Three heavy heads rose and three mouths roared as the massive Hydra emerged. It was easily as long as a car and the heads were currently held up high enough tofortablyy on such a car. A smell of rotten meat wafted across the small clearing Isaac had found as the beast rounded on him, mildly toxic saliva dripping from open jaws. Just as gross as always, d to see some things havent changed. Isaac smiled slightly, the small noise enough to draw the ire of the beast. Its leftmost head shot forward, mouth open and ready to chomp him in half with casual ease, but he jumped backwards, teeth gnashing a mere couple of centimeters in front of his face. Isaac immediately drove his knife into one of the eyes, empowering the attack with a [Power Strike]. A deep crimson glow covered the de and it was jerked forward, driven by a force greater than anything he could produce and mmed through the eyeball, which burst like a disgusting balloon filled with goo. The stamina drain hit him a momentter, leaving him feeling like hed done several minutes of hardbor in a single second. Stamina was weird like that, not even entirely quantified by the [System], only ever mentioned as ''this will make a you a tiny bit exhausted''. But that wasnt the end, the orbital socket breaking like dry wood as the de went deeper and tore through the Hydras brain. Isaac immediately drew it out at a different angle, the movement pureeing an evenrger portion of the single most vital organ any living organism had. The head dropped to the ground, temporarily dead. It would heal, in time, but Isaac didnt n on giving it that long. Hydras were a stone cold pain in the ass to kill, that was an incontrovertible fact. They healed like something out of aic book and while that healing cost a significant amount of mana, their regeneration increased with the number of heads. And you didnt even have to cut off a head to end up with two more, you just had to destroy arge part of it. In addition to having multiple brains, Hydras also had an additional heart under each head, giving them a level of redundancy found basically nowhere else in nature or the Summoning System. Therefore, killing one meant one had to eitherpletely blow one apart, remove all heads simultaneously or resort to the good old burning of a stump. Thetter was out of the question since Isaac didnt want to start a forest fire and the former would have required both a different [ss] and a significantly higher level. So, all he needed to do was destroy all heads, all at the same time. With the one dead head acting as an anchor that limited the Hydras movement, Isaac was easily able to dodge backwards as the middle head snapped at him, then vaulted over it to dodge an attack from the third head. Now, he was finally in a good position to finish it off. Another [Power Strike] swept his knife across the ce where the three necks met, cutting the beast down to the bone. Next, yellow light streamed off the de as he activated [Piercing Strike] and drove it into the ce he knew the split in the beasts spine to be located. He was in the wrong ce for the middle head to be able to get at him, but the right one twisted to bite at him, forcing Isaac do release the hilt of his knife to dodge. A smack straight to the eye caused the head to rear back in pain and Isaac darted in to tap the hilt of the knife stuck in the Hydras spine, activating [Sundering Strike]. Venomous green light shone from the de, visible even through the flesh. Yet that was only the surface level effect. Deep within the Hydras body, bone grew weaker as the light sank into it, more brittle, easier to destroy with a follow up strike. The right head struck again, forcing Isaac to roll under it, only to have to avoid the middle head a split secondter. Isaac darted in immediately afterwards, once again triggering [Sundering Strike]. And again. The Hydra attacked, he dodged, then darted back in to trigger the [Skill] over and over until he was practically out of mana. The middle head lunged right for Isaac, he ducked and it tore free with a wet squelch, flying over his head from the momentum of its movement. The rest of the ce where all three necks connected was disintegrating, bones having been reduced to brittle ss and flesh to literal jelly by the corrosive effects of his attacks. Lesser Hydra (Lv. 9) has been in. 98 XP gained (70 base * 1.40 due to level disparity) Nice. First proper fight of his new life. Isaac didnt really count the Specters, those had been closer to assassinations than an actual fight. Wrinkling his nose due to the smell, he walked forward to scan the body, unfortunately not finding an aspect. If the Hydra had dropped one, it would have been where the necks met, a ce that was already very much exposed to view, but there was nothing there. Oh well, it would have been too much to hope for. While he waited for his mana to recover, Isaac pulled up his Status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 488/200 Health Status: Exhausted, Lightly Poisoned Mana: 9/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces II Stealth II Power Strike II Piercing Strike IV Sundering Strike III Knives VII Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Seeing his Health Status, he winced. Hydra blood was toxic and unfortunately, he hadnt managed to stay entirely clean during the fight. A Lesser one was the least toxic, so hed be fine, but he probably shouldnt be fighting until that cleared up. On the other hand, hed gained quite a few [Skill] Levels. Two in [Sundering Strike], one in [Power Strike], [Piercing Strike] and [Knives] during the fight, as well as one each in [Hundred Faces] and [Stealth] while hed run away from his meeting. Now, he had to wait quite some time for his mana to regenerate. Thankfully, the addition of the Aspect of the Specter had added to his Magic Regeneration, making that less of an arduous task. As he did so, he pulled out his phone to browse the various news websites. Things had actually gotten quite a bit worse than yesterday. If the day of the Initialization had seen everyone utterly shell-shocked, then the second day saw all the emotions that had built up inside as people tried to process everything that happened erupt with a fury. Preachers were iming it was the end of times, quite a few cults had apparently somehow been correct about some random aspect of the current situation and were now acting like they had all the answers while the economy went into a nosedive. Gott verdammt. At least there hadnt been too many more monster attacks. Most of the people whod been stupid enough to summon one without significant precautions had already done so yesterday and likely died while those that would be careful were still working on getting said precautions in ce. Ironically, Isaac fell into both camps, depending on how you saw things. The way he saw it, his skill and knowledge qualified as precautions enough, and they had been so far, but he was also well aware that the beasts he was fighting were perfectly capable of killing him and going on a rampage if he fucked up. Lesser Hydra (Lv. 9) has been in. 98 XP gained (70 base * 1.40 due to level disparity) Another Hydra was summoned, another Hydra died, all without dropping an aspect. Isaac just shook his head, sat back down and waited for his mana toe back. He didnt need that Aspect right this instant, but he did need it sooner, rather thanter. So he went right back to it. Thirteen hourster, he was happily looking at a ruby-red crystal that seemed to streaked with mud on the inside. Aspect of the Lesser Hydra: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Hydra a Hydra. Regenerating from gruesome wounds in seconds, killing your enemies simply because they cut you as your blood poisons theirs or create redundant organs to survive lethal injuries. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Fortitude One of the following Skills: Hydras Regeneration Toxic Blood Redundant Organs And his Status wasnt looking too shabby either. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 684/200 Health Status: Severely Exhausted, Moderately Poisoned Mana: 3/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces II Stealth II Power Strike V Piercing Strike IV Sundering Strike VI Knives VII Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift [Empty Slot] Hed gained enough XP to buy the new slot, but not enough to actually slot the damn thing. And yes, hed gotten enough of the blood on him for the status to get worse, but hed be fine. Unless he saw a Fatally Poisoned, hed make it through, no matter how badly he felt. Also, fighting so many Hydras had also boosted his [Skill] Levels to new heights. Soon hed have one of them to Level 10, at which point he couldbine it with a second [Strike] [Skill], thereby also unlocking the [Manifold Strike] [Skill]. And then, things could really get started. ncing down at his watch, he noticed it was just about time to go back to the restaurant to hear Calises answer. except he was absolutely covered in scratches, mud, and Hydra blood. Sighing, Isaac undressed and threw his clothes into a stic bag hed pulled from his backpack, then got dressed in his spare set. It wasnt quite as nice as what hed worn to the first meeting, but it should suffice. Chater 6: Fat Stacks Chater 6: Fat Stacks What the hell happened to your hair? one of Calises bodyguards asked as he saw Isaac. Hydras are a pain in the ass. Good XP, though. he replied with a wry grin. Hed thought hed gotten all of that out of his hair, but that clearly wasnt true. I dont suppose that means youve got another Aspect for me? Calise called jovially from within the room the bodyguard was standing in front of. fraid not. Maybe some other time. But Im guessing that means youll take the Aspect? Isaac called back. Already did! Once hed entered the room, Isaac stopped for a second, stunned. Calise was currently standing in the table, looking like a, well, ghost. Uh, you do know you shouldnt be ovepping with another solid object when the [Skill] ends, right? Isaac cautiously asked. You couldnt manually end the [Skill] while within an object, but if you ran out of mana, it would shut off anyway, resulting in you getting ejected violently. As things stood, Calise could either get flung into ceiling and end up with a crushed skull as a result or get smashed into the ground with bone crushing force, neither of which Isaac wished upon him or wanted to be med for. Bah, dont worry, I have the mana to spare. Calise replied but did step out of the table and ended the [Skill] regardless. Im certainly d to have convinced you to buy one of the Aspects. Isaac said, sitting down at the table. Actually, Id like to buy the second one as well. At a gesture from Calise, someone stepped out of the door hed entered through the first time, carrying a briefcase, which he ced on the table in front of Isaac and flipped it open. Row after row of cash stared up at him twenties, fifties and a single stack of hundreds. A proper spread of bills that would avoid the attention drawing issue of paying with too many one hundred euro bills. Isaac could count the number of times he''d used or even seen one of thetter on his fingers. People just didn''t use physical currency on transactions that would require them. Someone running around with a bunch of hundred euro bills would look a tad suspicious, so Calise had spared him the work exchanging themter. Of course, getting caught transporting all that cash, across a border no less, would cause its own set of problems. But if it looked like anything would happen, Isaac could just use [Spectral Shift] to walk through one of the train''s walls and hike to the nearest bus stop or train station while changing his face. Some quick mental math, given the assumption that the kind of bill on top of the stack was the same kind that was below it, revealed that it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty thousand euros. In theory, there were a million ways for that to be less cash than Isaac had asked for, but he doubted that would be the case. Even if he hadnt been willing to trust Calise, he could trust in the other mans self-interest. Cheating him right here and now would utterly ruin any and all chances of any kind of future deals, not to mention the risk of retaliation from the backers or organization that Isaac may or may not have. Isaacs lips quirked into a wry smile at the sheer clich-ness of the situation. Thats twenty-two thousand euros right there, all clean cash, non-sequential bills. Ten thousand for each Aspect, as well as a little bonus for you, personally. I trust that will suffice? Calise asked. Of course, thank you for your generosity. Isaac said, looking the cash over onest time before he closed the briefcase back up and cing it on the floor next to him. Then, he pulled the second Aspect of the Specter out of his pocket and ced it on the table between them. It has been a true pleasure doing business with you. Isaac stood back up and shook hands with Calise. I do hope you arent nning on leaving already, are you? The cooks have prepared quite the feast for us. Isaac briefly nced down at his watch to make sure he wouldnt miss the return train, then smiled at Calise Id be delighted to. On an invisible signal, or, more likely, the waitress had been watching and waiting from the other side of the door, a tter of meats, cheeses and bruschetta was carried into the room. Have you ever had a traditional Italian meal before, Mr. Holt? Calise asked. Im afraid not. Ive been to Italy a few times on holiday before, but I mainly visited the typical tourist ces. Isaac said, truthfully. Ah, this should be a treat for you then. Calise said boisterously, grabbing one of the Bruschetta and hunk of cheese, then eating them far more daintily than Isaac had expected. Would you like some wine, Sir? a waiter asked from besides Isaac. No thank you, I still have to drive tonight. Isaac waved him off. It wasnt entirely truthful, but he really did want to keep a clear head in this meeting. May I suggest some locally sourced spring water, then? the waiter offered and Isaac epted, before focusing on the food in front of him. Soft cheeses, perfectly crisped bread with a satisfying crunch as he bit into it, mouthwateringly delicious smoked smi Wow, this is delicious. Isaac eximed. Isnt it? People like to hold up French cuisine as a perfect example of good food, but in my opinion, Italian foodes out favorably inparison. Calise grinned. And has the same tiny portions. Isaac mentally added but held his tongue. Thankfully, that had only been the first course, though. The second course, which was apparently also the first official course of a traditional Italian meal, consisted of a Risotto that, while not as good as the Antipasti, was still excellent. How does someone get into the business of selling monster parts anyway? Calise asked. How does anyone get into any business? Theres a need for something that is not yet freely avable, you have a way of getting it and know of someone who would buy it. The rest is history. How about you? Isaac said. Hah, too true. My story isnt any more interesting. The people want something, the government tells them they cant have it, I supply it. The end. Caliseughed. I suppose it really is that simple where most things in our line of work are concerned, arent they? Someone wants it and we are willing to provide it, and thats all thats to it. Isaac added. Yet people automatically consider us evil, without ever considering the context or the very concept of supply and demand. Calise said. If the government were to limit itself in what it forbade, wed be out of a job. Mark my words, the same exact thing will happen with the summoned creatures. Some politician will give an order to stop all summoning, dering it like the gods of old speaking from Mount Olympus and then pat themselves on the back for saving the entire world. Meanwhile, everyone who still wants to summon will just do it elsewhere and without oversight. Isaac just sighed. The same exact situation had happened with the Prohibition and quite a few other popr vices, though the United States attempt to ouw alcohol was easily the most famous. There had been attempts to forbid summoning, but given that criminals were doing it, the police did it. Some countries militaries did it, so all the others followed suit. Then people saw the governments literally raising an army of superhumans using means avable to literally everyone and the embargo had been ignored in short order. Hm, thats food for thought. What would you think of a hidden, well-fortified room where people can fight monsters to their hearts content, reaping the XP all without detection? Calise suggested. Eh, personally, I prefer to just pick a patch of wilderness and draw the circle in the dirt. Gives me room to move. But like I said, thats just personal preference. If you just add a few bars or something to make sure the monster cant move freely while providing your clients long spears or something, I dont see why it couldnt work. Isaac lied. While it was very possible to spawn camp your summons, there were precautions in ce to make that considerably less effective. Any traps emced directly in the ce the creature appeared would count as environmental damage and not give anyone credit for the kill, also denying them any XP. Putting them in a cage too small for them to move freely in wasnt penalized quite as stiffly, but it dide with a significant XP penalty. However, neither of those things were included in the instructions, which meant Isaac shouldnt know about them yet or be able to warn Calise. Not that he would have been willing to risk exposing anything by doing so. The sess of his organization wasnt truly Isaacs concern, just so long as it didnt copsepletely. He wanted a gateway into the burgeoning ck market, not to unduly strengthen a criminal syndicate. I think this is the beginning of a very beneficial arrangement. Calise announced, raising his wine ss To a fruitful partnership. "To a fruitful partnership." Isaac echoed. As Calises wine ss and Isaacs normal water ss clinked together, the next course was served. Perfectly grilled venison and potatoes on the side. The two of them spent the next couple of minutes eating, but the food vanished quickly. After all, multi course meals did not lend themselves to particrlyrge portions. Now, I might have to leave tonight, but Im sure to have more to sell in the future. I take it the method I used to originally contact you will suffice? Isaac asked, wiping a little sauce from his mouth. Of course. Thats why we set it up in the first ce. Calise waved a giving hand And Im always happy to receive an interesting offer, dont hesitate if you get your hands on something nice. That, I will. It might take a while, but I will. Isaac said. I dont suppose youd be willing to share which creatures are best to hunt for? Calise suggested. Trade secret, Im afraid. Isaac shook his head. As the two of them talked, the final course was ced in front of them. A truly divine tiramisu, thankfully with only a mere touch of alcohol. Isaac would have really hated to turn down this delicacy. I must say, Mr. Calise, it has been delightful meeting you. Im afraid I must be on my way, though. Isaac announced only after hed practically licked his te clean and got to his feet. Likewise, Mr. Holt. I wish you luck in your future endeavors and do drop by the next time youre in town. The two of them shook hands and Isaac left, doing his usual [Stealth] routine to shake off any possible tails. Once hed reached the spot where hed hid everything he hadnt ben carrying with him, Isaac used [Spectral Shift] to retrieve his backpack. Not wanting to walk around town with the briefcase after hes shifted his face back, he tried to shove it into his backpack but found it to be toorge. After several long moments of trying, he gave up, opened the briefcase and just dumped the money in, longing for the spatial storage devices that would be developed soon. Some small part of him was tempted to just rock up to the developers house with all the materials he knew were needed and every scrap of information he had about the construction process, but he knew it was stupid. Spatial storage devices had been invented by an otherwise unremarkable Brazilian high school physics teacher. Visiting him right now would make it abundantly clear that Isaac had knowledge from the future. There were plenty of people from the other timeline who he could visit for help without raising eyebrows because their future potential was visible for all the world to see. A slightly inte famous storm chaser who gained the ability to control the very phenomenon hed been studying for so long. A zoology professor at the forefront of research into the preternatural beasts the [System] had introduced into the world. And so on. There were a lot people he wanted to deal with hed only known in the other timeline, but he had excuses for that which other people could see and understand. But there was absolutely no reason to go to Brazil that literally anyone else could understand. Isaac just sighed and shook his head as he strode through the slowly darkening streets of Mn. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 684/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces III Stealth III Power Strike V Piercing Strike IV Sundering Strike VI Knives VII Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift [Empty Slot] A nce at his status sheet put a smile on his face. His Health Status had cleared right back up and hed also gained another Level in [Stealth] and [Hundred Faces]. Overall, his Level was not as high as it could be, given that hed spent 2,000 XP on Aspects and would be spending another 1,000 to slot his Aspect of the Hydra, but his [Skills] were all looking rather solid. [Sneak] alone had now reached the point where only the most professional normal human would have been able to match him. Part of the [Systems] absurdly enhanced learning under pressure capability. Couple that with a [Knives] [Skill] at Level 7, those two [Skills] alone would have him a deadly threat in the pre-[System] world. maybe medieval times. As Indiana Jones had so thoroughly proven in that iconic scene, guns beat edged weapons quite decisively. Now hed board a train, finish writing his essay on the dangers of summoning, and go on a shopping spree in one of those new age shops. A lot of the higher powered summons required such materials and those kinds of shops were a surprisingly good source of them. And then, tomorrow, Isaac could finally get on with his long term n. Chapter 7: Professor Chapter 7: Professor Isaac scrolled through the news on his phone while he waited for the person he wanted to meet to pass by. The people of Earth were slowly starting to realize that nothing bad will happen if we dont make it happen, therefore, there was little need to panic as long as people would. Just. Stop. Summoning. There was also rather frightening looking footage of the tail end of a riot in Russia. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail, but a man wearing a suit had stepped out in front of the mob and had plucked it out of the air with casual ease. Catching a thrown Molotov cocktail was well within normal human limits, especially those of action movie heroes, but making it look that easy it was intimidating as hell. The protestors clearly thought so, given that the riot dispersed within a couple of minutes of the man calmly pulling out the ming rag and stomping it out underfoot. Isaac himself could have easily done it just as impressively if hed invested all his XP into levelling his person, rather than acquiring aspects. After all, hed have been Level 7 by now, and given that he was going to go for a build based on Agility and Perception, that was literally what he would have been made for. However, the fact that already having the Aspects slotted before everything else would influence his future [ss] choices for the better while gathering them was also easier at his lower level had convinced him to do this before levelling up too much. So yeah, that kind of intimidation was clearly effective as hell, but only to people to who didnt know much about the intricacies of the [System]. Granted, most people wouldnt have that knowledge, but Isaac did. If that person was going for an Agility and Perception build, they might be around Level 2, if they were going for a more generalized build, they had to be around Level 5. But any way you sliced it, they werent that powerful. Yet theyd already had such an outsized impact on the world. However, even as the actual level of danger and mayhem were going down, the level of danger actually being reported went up as various news machines got revved up. The this is the end of days preaching had reached a new height and people were starting to roll out the first theories about what was happening that werent half baked. Sure, people were still iming the [System] had been created by aliens or heralded Judgement Day, but at least, they were somewhat thought out. Amongst them was his own essay, the one hed finished on the train ride back and then anonymously disseminated. It was a rather detailed essay on the nature and danger of summoned monsters, with each and every im backed by the instruction manual. Hed used the cash hed gotten from Calise to buy a brand new smartphone, used air drop to transfer the essay onto it, then used several methods to fuck with the embedded metadata to make it impossible for anyone to identify the device that had originally created the text. The actual release had happened during a two hour stop in the Swiss city of Chur. Isaac had walked to an inte caf well clear of the train station, using [Hundred Faces] to prevent any cameras from capturing his real face. Immediately afterwards, the smartphone met a swift and final demise as he pulled out and broke any part that looked even remotely important. Hed toss them once he was back in Germany, to avoid anyone from finding the parts along with his fingerprints in the trash near the inte caf. If someone was willing to go that far, that was. It might be overly paranoid, but Isaac was nning on using the identity of Insight hed created as the author of the piece in the future and that might prompt someone to go looking for him. The essay had gotten a surprising amount of attention, but it was the most detailed and thorough essay on this topic released to date. But parts of the information would need to be verified through experimentation, such as the hard to kill nature of Ephemeral entities. That meant that whenever he anonymously released anything that wasnt part of the written instruction manual that hade with the [System], people would likely be skeptical. What Isaac truly needed was to integrate himself with a person or group that was a public and trustworthy source. That was what had brought him here, to this ce, at this time. The biology campus of his university. The university whose business school he attended actually had three separate campuses, a mathematics, physics and engineering campus just outside the city, the biology campus well outside the city, and a campus downtown for everything else. Right now, Isaac was sitting on a bench in the mostly empty biology campus, waiting on him. The Professor, Adam Bailey. The most junior professor in the entire university who would be the foremost expert in the world on summoned creatures. While most professors and doctors were busy making sure their chosen fields of study still worked, someone had to research the basics, just so that such data was avable. For this university, that person was Professor Bailey. The man would not only be doing this from the instant it was safely possible to do so, but he was also smart as a whip. In other words, the perfect person to work with. Now, Isaac was sitting on a bench in front of the building he knew the first experiments would be taking ce and had been doing so since five in the morning to wait for him. In fact, hed used [Spectral Shift] to break in and check theb was still empty before sitting down out here. As to how he knew where the first experiments had been conducted, it was simple. This ce was truly famous. In the other timeline, Baileys work had long since moved on to a more secure, purpose-built location, at which point countless documentaries had been filmed in the former workshop of who was arguably the most famous living scientist in the world. Isaac shivered slightly as a cold wind blew past. It might be early May right now, but it was also still half past seven in the morning and an unusually cold one at that. After looking around for another few seconds to ensure Professor Bailey wasnt about to enter the building, he went back to looking at the news. He might have gone through all this before, but he had a hard time remembering everything that had happened twelve years ago, for him at least. It took another thirty minutes, but Isaac finally spotted the person he was looking for. A tall blonde man, head shaved down to the bare minimum where one couldnt quite be considered bald, looking like he was roughly in his mid-thirties. in other words, he was as young as anyone whod earned the vaunted title of professor could possibly be. Fucking finally. Excuse me, Professor Bailey. Isaac said as he jogged up next to the man, speaking English. The Professor was actually from America, so he chose thatnguage to approach the man. And as to how he could possibly know that, it was simple. There was a ratherplete profile on all the professors on the University website, even the very new ones. Good morning. What can I do for you? Bailey asked, half speaking, half yawning involuntarily. Clearly, hed been quite busy. Actually, its about what I can do for you Isaac trailed off as if he were reconsidering his phrasing Ok, Im just going toe out and say it. As scary as this whole mess surrounding the [System] is, I also find it fascinating. I asked around and, even as everyone else is desperately making sure the bases of their dissertations are still valid and functioning, youre going to go exploring the depths of the mystery surrounding the [System]. I want to join your work group at the university. Are you a student, then? Bailey asked, clearly stifling another yawn as he did so. Thest couple of days could not have been kind on him. Yep. Isaac replied, holding up his student ID as though it actually meant anything. Bailey frowned Economics student? Dont you study at a whole different campus? Well, I studied economics to earn money. But now, I want to study what lets me do this. Isaac said, phasing the hand holding the card, causing it to drop straight through, only for him to catch it with the other. I see. Clearly, youve yed around with the [System] a little. Bailey said, then started walking again, prompting Isaac to follow with a wave of his hand So, give me the elevator pitch, what would make you an asset to my department? Have you ever heard the term LitRPG, Professor Bailey? Isaac smiled. It might havee up in the countless documents that have been produced on the matter of the [System] in thest two days, but I dont know any of the specifics. Why? Bailey asked. Well, its rather simple. LitRPG is an entire genre of novels based around the concept of the world has be a video game. And I just happen to be a big fan of it with a significant base of knowledge around both it and mythology in general. Isaac said. Incidentally, hed also researched precisely which of the novels hed read in the other timeline had actually been released at the moment. Revealing his secret by talking about plot points that currently only existed in the authors head would be embarrassing. Thats certainly interesting, but I dont quite see the benefit it would bring to the department. So, tell me in your own words, how would your knowledge help us in the pursuit of knowledge? Bailey asked. He was evidently intrigued, though he was also clearly eager to keep Isaac talking about this.. Actually, its rather simple. The [System] draws inspiration from mythology, fantasy and pop culture for its creatures and powers. The original might not always match the creature that can be summoned exactly, but a Hydra is always going to be a Hydra, a Specter is always going to be Specter, and so on and so forth. I have a lot of knowledge to spread about context that would require more than a casual google search to uncover. In essence I offer a new and effectively unique perspective, something that should be very valuable while researching a brand new field, no? Isaac asked. However, putting all of that aside for a moment, Im willing to work incredibly hard, making this the only thing in my professional life. I looked you up in the university website, you literally became a professor less than twelve hours before the [System] initialized, you cant have had that much time to put together a department yet. Bailey just sighed Has anyone ever told you youre a bit of a smartass? Youre right, though, on both ounts. A different perspective can be incredibly useful and I could use the help. What indemnity form have you signed? I think the standardb forms should cover that for today, if you decide to stay with us after today, Ill get some proper paperwork drawn up. Economics student here, I dont exactly spend much time inbs. Isaac reminded him. Theres always a stack of those things in the office near the chembs, you can pick one up there. Bailey said, then stopped and turned back to Isaac Given your little disy earlier, Im guessing you have a bit of experience using the [System] and fighting the summoned creatures? I do. Isaac said, feeling like admitting that might be a mistake, but hed already said too much to convincingly lie on that respect. In that case, let me be clear. What you do in your own time is your business. Youve clearlye through whatever it was that youve been doing perfectly fine, but its important that you realize that working with me and my department will be a very different situation. Everything will be nned out ahead of time, carefully executed. Barring an utter emergency, youll have to follow that n. "No running off and doing that one thing real quick, order is very important in scientific research. In case there is an emergency, you can of course take action as appropriate. If someone is about to get electrocuted, hit the emergency breaker and so on. Bailey said. And stab the monster if its about to rip someones face off? I hear ya. Isaac nodded Im here to help and will do that within the confines of the rules you set down. Of course. But just so you know, this will probably be rather boring for you. Like I said, were going to be nning a lot, proceeding carefully and writing a lot of reports. Youve clearly experimented with the [System] a little before, probably fought monsters, but there wont be any big adrenaline fueled action here. Bailey cautioned. Unless something goes horribly wrong at least, I know. Look, Professor Bailey, I was going to go into business, be a manager at some ounting firm until its time for me to retire. Im no stranger to boring. And believe me, studying summoned creatures from myth and legend is not going to be boring, even if it takes a bit longer than one might expect. Isaac replied. Well put. Bailey smiled How about this, I get the standard indemnity form for today, which basically states Im going in there of my own free will and I wont blow up theb, but Im also now covered by the universitys insurance. Then, if things go well and you still want to work here, then I can get you a proper research assistant contract. Sound good? Sounds excellent. Isaac grinned. Great. Bailey smiled back at him, then gestured at a door they were about to reach Im just going to grab that form, then well have to wait for someone for a bit, anyway. Thanks. Isaac said, looking around the building as Bailey headed into the office. There were quite a few people here, more than hed have expected given the whole situation surrounding the emergence of the [System]. Then again, if anyone would take one look at a world changing event and then show up to try and analyze it, it would be a member of academia. It was the fear of the unknown that still paralyzedrge parts of the world, but these people were going to do their damndest to shine light on the matter. And now, he was going to be a part of that effort. It would cut into the time he needed to grow stronger, but it would earn him something so much more valuable. Knowledge for all of humanity and all the power said knowledge would eventually allow them to gain. After all, there were two things that had fucked over humanity in the other timeline. Theirck of knowledge had led to them making serious mistakes and theirck of strength had made fixing said mistakes that much more difficult. As to how he was nning onbatting that, it was simple. He was going to give humanity the knowledge it needed to both avoid mistakes and grow incredibly strong. Whilst also intervening in a few incidents the other timeline had proven to have incredibly dangerous long term effects. Andstly, hed be increasing his personalbat power to the point where he could deal with [Raid Bosses] on an even keel. Ambitious? Perhaps. But that was what he was nning on doing and what hed be achieving. Chapter 8: Monster Rights Chapter 8: Monster Rights Heres the indemnity form, Mr. Professor Bailey announced as he left the office, waving a piece of paper Actually, what is your name? I dont think it ever came up. Isaac Thoma. Isaac thrust out his right hand Pleased to meet you, Professor Bailey. Nice to meet you too, Mr. Thoma. Bailey said as he shook it That being said, Im truly terrible with names, so please dont take it personally if I make a mistake with yours. Dont worry, I know a few people whore like that, I''ll know youre not being malicious. But if youd like you can call me Isaac. Isaac replied while also filling out the form. In that case, call me Adam. Were probably going to be working together for a while and Im not really a fan of excessive formality in a situation like that. Bailey said. Yeah, excessive formality can be tough. Did you know that the German school system dictates a formal form of address from the 10th grade up? Well, literally the only teacher who tried to stick to that was my Latin teacher, and two lessons in, she just went fuck it, would anyone have a problem if we went back to the old form of address? By the way, thats a direct quote, or at least as close as you can get after tranting it. Like I said, Im not a fan of excessive formality. As long as you dont try to sneak any insults past me, you can call me whatever. Bailey replied with a wry grin, then checked his watch Seems the person whos supposed to be meeting us is runningte. If you have any questions, I suppose now is the time. Where are we going to be working? Granted, Im not the most knowledgeable on this part of the university, but Id be stunned to discover we have some kind of monsterproof bunker in here. Isaac asked after a few moments of silence. It wasnt designed to be monsterproof, but we do have a bunker of sorts. We used to use radioactive substances to mark specific points in the genome during DNA sequencing and theres a heavily reinforced, lead lined room in the basement where they used to be stored. That particr method got phased out as newer ones became avable, but the room is still there, in the deepest part of the basement, with heavily reinforced walls. A dozen people spent all of yesterday putting in cameras and securely sealing the holes they drilled toy the cables airtight. Bailey exined. That sounds great. Though there are probably creatures that can break out of there. Isaac said. And thats why Im getting a whole new building as soon as they finish building it. Bailey grinned [System] analysis is the greatest new frontier of science in our time and Im one of the people who will be at the forefront of that field. Therefore, were getting a purpose built facility to be used by everyone who needs to work with monsters. He nced over at Isaac Perhaps you should have a little talk with the people designing the chambers, tell them about any really strong monsters you summoned. That ce wont just have to hold the monsters we can summon right now, but also the upper end of what we will eventually be able study. Right now, theyre mostly going off scientific wild ass guesses and any real world experience could be useful. Sure thing. I havent fought creatures that powerful, Im not a reckless idiot, but I do have little experience and know a bit about stronger monsters. Isaac shrugged Just tell me when and where. Thank you, I Bailey trailed off, looking into the distance And theres the guy weve been waiting for. With that, he headed towards a man who looked like he was roughly in his mid-thirties, just starting to go bald, wearing a suit that practically screamed government employee with a briefcase slung under his arm. Are you Professor Bailey? the man asked and Bailey nodded Thomas Wechsler, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture. Im here to make sure your department is up to snuff where animal rights are concerned. Given the rather dynamic and ever shifting situation at hand, my boss felt it was best to send someone here who can authorize things in the moment to avoid dying things too much when something unexpected pops up. Hm, so youre going to be looking over everyones shoulders? Bailey asked, somehow managing to keep the irritation Isaac strongly suspected he was feeling out of his voice. Ill stay out of your hair whenever possible. Like I said, youll probablye up with a bunch of new stuff to try out, involving creatures who no one has any knowledge on or written any regtions on their proper handling. And when you do, you can have someone rubber stamp that stuff within moments. People well above me feel that this is something important which needs to be conducted with all possible haste. Wechsler exined. And you can just rubber stamp everything? Isaac wondered. How much do you know about thews surrounding animal rights whereb animals are concerned? Wechsler asked. Not much beyondmon sense stuff like dont be cruel, dont torture the animals. Isaac said Im guessing theres more to it than that? Yep. Wechsler said, lighting up a little. Clearly, he didnt get to talk about his job all that often. There are a lot of rules surrounding animal experimentation, but they can be summed up pretty easily. No animal experiments may be conducted formercial uses and no products tested on animals may be sold in the Federal Republic of Germany. Obviously, that isnt going to be problem here. Also, in order to qualify for the use of animals, an experiment needs to be necessary, there needs to be a need for it. Wechsler gestured around. The need for these experiments should be apparent to anyone whos turned on a TV at any point in thest couple of days. If you want to use animals in an experiment, that is only allowed if they are necessary for the experiment and cannot be reced by alternatives such as cell cultures and the like. And unless you happen to have something like that stashed away in your back pocket, the need to use the actual monsters should be rather apparent. Basically, most of those requirements are going to be fulfilled as a matter of course. As to actual limits on the experiments, I think you summed it up pretty well, dont be cruel. If Dr Frankstein or a Bond viin would do it, you shouldn''t. Thatment drew a snort ofughter from Bailey, and Issac joined in soon afterwards. Like I said, Im just here to speed things along, not put in extra roadblocks by insisting on the letter of thew being followed. Youd be subject to the same regtions regardless of whether Im here or not. Wechsler finished, with Bailey adding And wed be following them regardless. Like I said, precision is important here. When doing research, you follow the rules exactly. Thanks. Isaac smiled at the two of them as they walked down a set of stairs. Once they reached the bottom, they were walking along a cramped feeling passageway. It was actually fairly wide and the ceiling was high enough to give even the tallest of people half a meter of clearance, but it just felt small. Pipes ran along the ceiling, thick bundles of cables nestled in between them, only the asional door appearing in the walls. They were truly in the guts of the building now. Should I be leaving a line of string behind me? I think Im lost. Wechslermented dryly. Were almost there, dont worry. Bailey reassured him as he turned one final corner and gestured to a vault looking door at the end of the corridor. Incidentally, the corridor looked awful. Floor scratched to hell, streaks of color marring the white walls up to a meter in height and arge paint stain in one corner. Also, a small mound of construction debris had been pushed into one corner. Like I said, this ce was a rush job. That should be cleaned up by tomorrow. Bailey said, gesturing to one of the four doors that were on the side of the corridor If you would join me in my office for a bit, Mr. Wechsler? Then, he gestured to another door Isaac, we put in something of a lounge in there. Its just a sofa right now, but I think that might be morefortable than staying out here. Ive also got three other research assistants wholl be joining us, theyll show up soon, if they arent already here, that is. Thanks. Isaac said and entered the indicated room. It was a surprisinglyrge room, maybe a hundred square meters, but also pretty empty. One couch in the exact same shade of green that had stained the walls outside was the onlyrge piece of furniture inside. Clearly, it had been responsible for part of the mess. There was also a pile of folded camping chairs in one corner. Two other people were already in the room. A tall redheaded woman around Isaacs age sat on the couch, looking at something on a tablet while several books and folders were piled up next to her. The second person was a short Hispanic man on one of the folding chairs with what Isaac was ny percent sure was a gun case on the floor next to him. The mans eyes snapped over to Isaac as he entered. He put the book down and walked forward, sticking out his hand for Isaac to shake. Raul Mina, pleased to meet you. Im here from the forestry department of the university for knowledge on how to deal with wild animals. Isaac shook the proffered hand. Isaac Thoma, enthusiastic volunteer, Economics student and mythology expert, please call me Isaac. Im Amelia Shaw, cell biology. Call me Amy. the woman introduced herself from the couch, having put her tablet on the existing pile next to her. Nice to meet you both. Isaac said, grabbing a chair from the pile and putting it next to the couch while Raul pulled both his chair and the case closer. There was a moment of awkward silence, then Amy spoke So, what brings you to this ce? I joined because I dont just want to rehash past research in this new context, I want to do something new. Im here because they needed a volunteer from the forestry department with a firearms license and experience dealing with wild animals. I volunteered. Raul said. So, Im guessing thats a gun in there? Isaac asked, getting a nod in return Anyway, Im here because I find this fascinating and I want to do everything I can to understand it. Also, I have a feeling this whole [System] thing has a really dark side to it. Theres an entire genre of literature dedicated to stuff like this, where the world bes a video game and those stories tend to be kinda, well, apocalyptic. Either I help do important research here, or I do research that could literally help save the world. Either way, its important. Wait, seriously? Raul eximed Youre going to have to rmend me some of those books, that sounds awesome. Oh, they are. But so are horror movies until you suddenlye face to face with Michael Myers or Jason Voorhees. Isaac said, face incredibly serious and eyes locked on to Rauls face. He held the mans gaze for a few seconds, then burst outughing. Raul joined in after a moment Yeah, I can see that. Still, rmendations? Of course, happy to. Ill try and pick one thats less than terrifying given the new context. Isaac promised. Yeah, media can have that effect on you. Ive never watched another medical tv show after going to the doctor five times in a month over small stuff. That show very nearly turned me into a hypochondriac. Amy chimed in. Yeash, now Im d I never got into any of that. Isaac said. Back on the topic of the experiments, Im actually pretty surprised they let us do that in the university. It seems kinda dangerous. Or am I wrong? Raul asked. Theres a lot of kinda dangerous stuff in a university. We have a vast stores of various chemicals in buildings full of people who know exactly how to turn them into something that explodes. And the physicists have a giantser that can cut through a person like they aren''t even there. Amy replied. I think I actually saw that thing on a school field trip once, isnt it like twice the size of this room? Getting shot with that thing would practically require one to deliberately act like an idiot. It couldnt even really happen by ident, youd have to be willfully stupid. Isaac interjected. And we have a fortified, airtight room to conduct our experiments in. These experiments should be fine as long as we act like the intelligent people we are. Amy suggested Besides, people in this university and most other well equipped ones could do so much worse than just release a few monsters. And they could have already done so for years. If given a normal gicsb with all the stuff that goes in to it, an oligonucleotide synthesizer, an inte connection and a couple of months, I could splice gic material from the Spanish Flu into an ordinary cold virus to create a bioweapon. By the way, we have all that stuff in this very building. Seriously? Raul asked, doubt clear in his voice. Seriously. Its actually been done before. While researching the Spanish Flu, samples of the virus were retrieved from the bodies of victims that were buried in permafrost soil. To see if it were possible, they spliced them with a cold virus to see if it would work. To their utter horror, it worked. What followed was a lot of hemming and hawing about whether or not to publish the results. On one hand, publishing it would give any would be bioterrorist ideas. On the other, it would ensure that the world was aware of the threat. In the end, the study got published. So yeah, give me a way to look up that study, theb tools to use it and some time Amy exined, trailing off ominously. Thanks for that, I was currently a littlecking on the nightmare fodder front. Raul winced. Thats whats so bloody scary about the world. If someone is enough of a fanatic tomit terrorism, then they can easily get their hands on the necessary weapons. A copy of the Anarchists Cookbook or an inte connection is all you need to build a proper bomb while a knowledge of cell biology and some rather pricyb equipment is all you need to create a bioweapon. Amy said in her best sage voice. Thats whats scary about the world? Isaac asked Everythings scary about the world. Just look around, or turn on the news. Its just that for every asshole, extremist and would be terrorist, theres many more people willing to stand up to them. Thats the only reason us humans are still here, after all. I think we may have gotten a little bit off topic here. Raulmented, drawing nods of agreement from the other two. Then, the door opened to reveal a tall blond man with a frizzy haircut, built like a beanpole. On his back was a rather stuffed looking backpack. Hi, Im Patrick, nice to meet you all. he introduced himself, prompting the three of them to introduce themselves in turn. So, Im a zoologist like Professor Bailey. How about you? Forestry. Im here to take care of any creatures that pose a threat. Im a cell biologist. Im the random guy off the street who somehow has the exact kind of knowledge the main character needs, the kind you see in movies. Isaac echoed the other two, drawing augh from Raul and an eyeroll from Patrick. Patrick then joined Amy on the couch and the three others began to trade theories on how the [System] had been created and why it was here. Isaac chimed in with the asional exnation stolen from some random book, but he wasnt really into it. After all, he knew what the [System] was. A well meaning gift, if slightly ill thought out, twisted into something incredibly dangerous. After another quarter of an hour or so, the door opened again to reveal Professor Bailey. It seemed things were finally about to get going. Chapter 9: Golem Chapter 9: Golem As it turned out, there had been an entire meeting room behind the third door in the corridor. It was that strange mixture of state of the art and messy that spoke of a hurried construction built using a significant amount of funds. A solid looking metal table, surrounded by extremelyfortable chairs stood in the middle of the room while one of the walls waspletely covered in eight massive screens, each showing a different angle of the room where theyd be summoning creatures. Next to the door stood a metal structure, folded up it was clear even in this state that it was intended to be some kind of barrier. That being said, Isaac didnt have the foggiest what its purpose was. After all, the actual door to the former storage space was, as far as he could tell, stronger. I believe you all know why were here. Two days ago, the world became quantified. People gained the ability to treat the world as if it were a video game. Along with that came monsters. Not ones that randomly show up, but ones we create for ourselves. Now here we are, researching precisely those monsters. I wont lie to you, this will not be a simple or safe task. But it will also be the greatest and most impactful task that currently exists. I am honored to be undertaking it with you. Baily made a short little speech, making Isaac smile a little. The Professor, as Bailey would simply be known in the future, was only ten or so years older than Isaac, though you wouldnt know it most of the time. Isaac liked to make stupid jokes even when doing so was incredibly inappropriate. Bailey was just in mature. Except when it came to situations like this. This was one of those asions when he betrayed his inexperience as a professor, giving a speech like that without prompting. After all, hed be one less than seventy-two hours ago. Im guessing that means you have a fully fleshed out n? Amy asked. I do, in fact. Were going to start by summoning a weak creature without any special powers and observe it for as long as possible. Bailey exined, then summoned a [System] page with a wave of his hand. Clearly, he''d spent a lot of time reading the manual. Summoning List (Earth) Name Material Cost Mana Cost te Golem Tier 1 Circle, te 10 Lesser Earth Elemental Tier 1 Circle, Dirt 25 Animated Garden Gnome Tier 2 Circle, Ceramic Shards 50 Earth Elemental Tier 3 Circle, Dirt, Rock 75 Lesser Rock Golem Tier 3 Circle, Rock 100 Granite Golem Tier 4 Circle, Granite 125 Rock Golem Tier 4 Circle, Rock, Iron, Dirt 150 The Crusher Tier 5 Circle, Titanium, Iron 250 A te Golem. While the names of these creatures might not exin their capabilities perfectly, it will also not contradict their natures either. Which leaves us with an animated piece of rock, specifically, the rather breakable mineral known as te. Not only do we have an experienced wielder of firearms Bailey nodded towards Raul but we also have a barrier that can be ced in the corridor topletely block it and trap the creatures. As he said that, Bailey gestured towards the metal contraption besides the door. In addition, we have several sledgehammers that can be used to break a simple creature made from te. Besides, the cheapest creatures tend to not be all that powerful. Theyve only inflicted significant damage in situations where they are a hard counter to the forces opposing them, such as ghosts that are immune to physical damage or fire spirits that set the whole floor alight the instant theyre summoned. Patrick added, taking advantage of a short pause of Baileys. Also, that. Point is, we can deal with this thing. As it stands, the n is to summon the creature, then observe it for as long as is possible, then kill it and see what we can learn from its body. Bailey exined, sticking his hand into his pocket as the screens behind him changed to show a diagram of his n. Isaac just grinned internally. If Bailey wanted to hide that he was using a remote, then he should have done a better job of it. The diagrams themselves were clearly hand drawn and also incorrect on what a te Golem would actually look like. Clearly, theyd been created by someone who was yet to see one of the damn things. Isaac knew perfectly well that Bailey was right in how he estimated this type of Golem. They were made from te, which was rather breakable and pretty small, only reaching up to a normal persons midsection. Even a normal person with a proper bashing weapon, such as one of the aforementioned sledgehammers, would be able to easily handle one. So, quick question on the matter of the summoning. Whos supplying the mana? I know its only ten mana, but the quicker it gets regenerated, the sooner were back up to full power. So, whats everyones Mana Regen at? Mines at 17. Isaac interjected. 12. 11. 11. 9. Patrick looked around at the others as he realized how much lower his own stat was whenpared to the others. Isaac was fairly certain that meant hed have a rather high Magic Power instead. Those two Stats, in turn, were linked to a persons mental capabilities and Isaac was certain Patrick was no less intelligent than anyone else in the room. So if he was deficient in one, he likely made for It in the other. How do you already have it up that high? Amy asked. Ive already levelled up once and absorbed an Aspect that boosts it. Isaac exined. Whats an aspect? Bailey asked. Sometimes, when you kill a creature, it creates an Aspect. If you pay the XP cost, you can absorb it and gain one of the creatures [Skills], as well as five points in a linked attribute. Isaac exined I have an Aspect of the Specter, which gives me plus five Magic Regeneration as well as the ability to walk through walls. Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift [Empty Slot] With that, Isaac disyed the small part of the status that covered the Aspects. Huh. Id love to take a look at one of those. Bailey said, seemingly not addressed at anyone in particr, just thinking out loud. Sure thing. Ill bring the next one I get to you. Isaac promised, intentionally leaving out the Aspect of the Hydra hidden in the walls of his apartment, phased in there alongside most of the cash hed gotten from Calise. It was literally impossible to get at without a [Skill] like [Spectral Shift] or tearing through the entire wall, including several electrical cables and a water line. In other words, no one would have been able to easily or properly hide anything behind there using normal means. Hollow walls were a pretty standard bolt hole, but only ones where someone could safely break them down, then re-hang the dry wall. That would be great. Bailey said, then froze for a moment as he thought just to be clear, please dont take any stupid risks. Id like to see one of those Aspects, but I cant ask you to put yourself in danger to get some. Dont worry, Im careful. Isaac reassured him. Regardless, we have a n for the experiment we will be conducting today. That pile of paper in the center of the table is the scripts. Bailey said, picking up the top, stapled together, set of pages and slid them across the table towards Amy. Any objections? Bailey asked, looking around the room, gaze lingering on Wechsler for a moment. The government employee was sitting in one corner of the room, trying to avoid getting in anyones way. Clearly, he was taking his role of an outside observer very seriously. In that case, I think were done. Amy, Isaac, can you draw out the Ritual Circle? Theres water soluble marker and te in the storeroom. And with that, Bailey turned to the wall of monitors and began to switch them back over to the room where theyd be doing the summoning. I dont suppose you know where the storeroom actually is? Isaac asked as he followed Amy out into the corridor. Of course I do, I spent all of yesterday stocking the damn thing. Amy told him and opened thest door Isaac didnt know. It revealed a room even bigger than the meeting room, but its right half waspletely filled with shelves. Only a few were actually stocked, the rest empty and waiting to receive anything that Bailey decided the still developing department needed. Among the things that were stocked were water soluble markers that could create easily removable ritual circles, filler putty that Isaac assumed would be used to repair the floor if the ce the Ritual Circle was to be drawn out got chipped and also a multitude of basic summoningponents. Lastly, a variety of tools was visible, ranging from the basic surgical scissors and scalpels needed for dissections to an actual sledgehammer. The other side of the room was mostly empty, several neatly stacked piles of variously sized crates, some of them even in a dismantled state, taking up perhaps a quarter of the avable space. What are those crates for? Isaac wondered out loud. Storing the bodies of any creature we kill. Those arent refrigerated, so well have to stick to inorganic creatures for now, but Professor Bailey says well get refrigerated ones tomorrow or the day after. Amy exined as she handed him a chunk of te and one of the markers. They headed into the actual ritual room with their tools. It was a little smaller than the meeting room, after all, it hadnt had to store a lot of material, volume wise. But a Tier 5 circle could easily fit inside without any problems. Not that theyd be using one, mind you. The kind of monster that required a circle of that Tier would tear through lead and concrete walls like soft dirt. And even if that ended up bringing down the building on top on it, itd probably survive that as well. A gesture from Isaac not only oveyed an image of the required circle onto the ground, it also made said circle visible to everyone. He could have easily drawn one out from memory, but that wasnt something a person should have been able to reliably do after two days at most. They went to work and the circle rapidly took shape. Two minutester, it wasplete and Isaac ced the chunk of te inside. Alright, please double check that the circle is perfect, then charge it and get out of there. Baileys voice rang out over a speaker Isaac quickly located in one corner of the ceiling. Isaac obeyed, looking down at the ground onest time. Spotting any mistakes would have been childs y though, given that there was literally an image of the correct version oveyed. A mere thought was enough to drop the pittance of ten mana needed to charge it into the circle and then, the two of them beat a hasty retreat. Well, Amy did. Isaac just matched her speed. He knew from experience that there was literally no way for that thing to randomly trigger and dump a te Golem in theirps. But Amy didnt have the same certainty. All she knew was that theyd just taken all the actions needed to call a dangerous creature into this room, a creature the likes of whom had been seen on the news, killing people. Even if the instructions had said that one could charge up the circle and then activate it after getting a little distance. In fact, those were some of the only instructions avable on the process of summoning. The point of what little was written down was to ensure that it seemed safe, with options to get the hell out of dodge before the creature appeared, and the like. What wasnt written down were issues like the fact that leaving a monster in ce for too long would result in simr creatures appearing without humans needed to conduct the summoning. It was just as well that the people Isaac had chosen to work with were so careful. Sufficient caution and preparation would easily let one avoid most of the pitfalls baked into the Summoning System. Unfortunately, very few people were that cautious, which was why there had even been a problem in the other timeline, after all. The heavy door mmed shut behind them with a bang, closed by hidden motors that had clearly been activated from the meeting room. The meeting room was in a state of incredible tension and excitement, with everyone staring at the screens on the wall, showing the ritual circle glowing a soft, pale blue. It was something that even the most basic video editing program could have created, hell, there were probably some chemicals you could use to replicate that effect. But this was no movie, no video game, no fake image born of the mind of some author or screenwriter and brought to life by a talented artist or editor. This was real life, something that was urring a mere ten or so meters in front of them, even if they were only indirectly seeing it. Something entirely beyond the normal was happening, a preternatural effect likely none of them had ever seen before. Something theyd heard about on the news, whose aftereffects theyd seen, but now, they were doing it. Isaac decided to just wait a couple of minutes and not interrupt their moment of wonder. Once that time was up, however, he decided to break the silence. So, should I summon it now? he asked, calling up the relevant [System] screen so everyone could see it. Would you like to activate the summoning circle and summon [te Golem]? Do it. Ok, moment of truth time. Bailey said breathily, voice incredibly exited. Sure thing. [Activate Summoning Circle]. Isaac said. While verbal [Skill] activation wasnt necessary, it tended to be rather helpful while working together with other people to let them know what one was doing. In the middle of the room, the intricate circle of runes dimmed in a sh. Nothing seemed to happen for a mere moment and then the hunk of te in the middle of the circle seemed to explode, dark grey particles being flung around. The space between the particles began to rapidly get filled in with more dark grey stone until a stout creature stood there. A grinding of stone echoed through the room as it pushed itself to its feet. The te golem stood around a meter tall, but it was also at least half a meter wide and deep, with a head that looked like a squashed sphere, attached without a proper neck. My God Bailey whispered. The Golem began to walk towards a corner of the room, every step taking several seconds toplete. It might have been a tough looking being for a summoning cost of a mere ten mana, but it was so slow as to practically be harmless. How do you think its moving? Patrick asked, voice at a normal conversational level. In other words, far louder than the hushed voices of the others in the room. It sounds like it should be damaging itself with every step, but there isnt any dust king off. Also, it clearly doesnt have any visible muscture or anythingparable. What is it using to provide lotion? Magic? Amy suggested, sticking her tongue out when Patrick turned to her. Im being serious here. Patrick told her sternly. Yeah, me too. Magic is apparently a thing now and while we dont know how it works, what were doing now is trying to understand just what it is. Then we can say it moves via magic, as per so and sos effect and- Thud Amy went silent and stared at the monitors. Thud On the screen, the Golem was visible punching one of the rooms corners. Raul spoke up, nervousness creeping into his voice. Uh, thats the corner closest to where we are, isnt it? Chapter 10: Experiments Chapter 10: Experiments Seems that way. Bailey muttered, ring at the screen What are you doing, little golem? Is the wall going to hold? Patrick asked. Its getting chipped, but the concrete portion alone is a few centimeters thick before theyer of lead and the Golem has maybe taken off a couple of millimeters at most. Raul observed And even if it gets anywhere near us, its really slow. We can literally escape it at normal walking speed. But how does it know where we are? Patrick asked Any theories? As the actual scientist began to discuss the possibilities, Isaac began to pace the length of the room. Nothing happened for a short couple of minutes, until Isaac, stand still for a moment, would you? Raul called over to him and Isaac froze. Ok, go to the far corner of the room and stay there for a bit. Raul said, then added thirty secondster And now stand in the corridor, just outside the door to this room. As usual, Isaac obeyed. Does anyone else see that? Raul asked. Its following him, isnt it? It was subtle while he was just pacing in here, but now that hed outside, its pretty obvious. Amy observed It cant tell where we are, it can tell where its summoner is. And just like that, Isaac had sped up the discovery of that particr tidbit of information by a not insignificant degree. It was a part of the problem with the Summoning System, where escaping one of the creatures one summoned was nigh impossible. The simple idea of if I summon this thing, Ill have to deal with it being out there and scientifically proven should cut down on the number of idiots who felt they could try out summoning and just leg it if things got too dangerous. Besides, it would overall skip a lot of the false starts and start putting them on the path to stumbling across the truly important information. Basic this is how it behaves normally kind of research might be intriguing on a scientific level, but it would also contribute very little towards Isaacs eventual goal of saving the world. This style of research would help avoid idental deaths, help create strategies on how to more effectively kill summoned monsters and be one of the starting points when it came to discovering the truth behind the [System]. Said truth hadnt been so much discovered in the other timeline as much as simply beingid out by Janus, but Isaac was convinced that that dark secret was very important to be known. Or at least the part of it where the Summoning System was a fiendish trap to make sure people were really fucking careful when using it. I wouldnt go quite that far. Patrick cautioned Isaac should be the highest Level here, maybe thats why its focusing on him. ng The golems next punch hit the metal door and produced a far louder sound than any of the previous ones. I think we can- Amy tried to respond, but the sound of another stone fist striking metal cut her off. Isaac, would y- Raul tried to ask Isaac to step back into the meeting room, but was also cut off by another loud ng. It didnt really matter, though. Context made it quite obvious what he was trying to say. Thanks. Bailey said Regardless of why this thing is fixated on Isaac or how it can locate him through walls, I think its be rather obvious that the original n wont work out quite as well as I thought it would. At least in the current setup, there is no normal behavior to observe. As such, I want to draw up a n to determine just what it is the te Golem targets and if there is some kind of limit on how it can track a person, be it based on time, distance, abination of such factors or something else entirely. Thud. The next punch to the concrete wall perfectly punctuated the Professors speech. Are you sure its a good idea to let that thing keep destroying the wall while you work on that? Itll hold up for a while, but anything destroyed is no longer avaible to protect us from the next one. Raul asked. Youre right, we should take care of it. If a couple of you could help me with this thing, we can put the barrier in ce and then Raul can shoot the Golem. Bailey said. Barrier? Amy asked. The metal thing over there. Some of the people over in the engineering faculty made it to fit perfectly into the corridor and block itpletely, strong enough to stop even a charging elephant. Its also got a hole to hit or shoot through, which we need since the door to the summoning roompletely blocks anything we might attempt to get at the creature inside. Bailey said. Actually, I should be able to kill it from out here. Isaac said, hoping he managed to strike a proper bnce between being nonchnt and serious. Sounding like he couldnt care less would go over very poorly, but sounding like casually killing a monster whose fists could break concrete was easy would go over a hell of a lot worse. How? Raul was the first to speak up, sounding both incredulous and curious. Adam, do you remember that trick I showed you earlier? Isaac asked, looking directly at Bailey I can phase through far more than a piece of stic the size of a credit card. If you want, I can hit the golem without even having to open the door. So, while you work on preparing the experiment to determine the nature of the Golems choice of target and tracking, I can take care of the Golem. Are you sure? Bailey asked and Isaac nodded Alright, you can try. With that, Isaac walked out of the meeting room and ced himself squarely in front of the door. Thud. Thud. ng. As the noise caused by the Golems fists impacting the inside of the room changed, Isaac withdrew his kabar from the sheath at his belt, which was in turn hidden under his shirt. He waited another thirty seconds or so make sure the Golem had had the time to step directly in front of him, then walked backwards until he could see into the meeting room and observe the monitors. Now, he knew for certain that the te Golem stood squarely in the middle of the door. A few more steps put Isaac back in front of the door, a mere meter separating him and the creature. Well, a meter and a twenty centimeter metal door. [Spectral Shift]. he announced, his torso turning a pale blue and translucent, followed by him leaning through the door,ing face to face with the Golem. A mere thought was enough to rematerialize his right hand along with the knife even as a stone fist passed through his head. [Piercing Strike]. The knife sliced through the golem as if it were made from butter, piercing the dead center of its chest. Isaac knew that hit would have destroyed its core, but he knew he could use the excuse of having aimed for center mass to exin how hed hit it with the first hit. te Golem (Lv. 1) has been in. 3 XP gained Well Isaac heard Bailey''smenting from the meeting room and sighed internally. That was what hed been afraid off. That his power and willingness to kill would scare the people he was going to be working with for the foreseeable future. It didnt truly matter if someone would use their powers for ill, it just mattered that someone was powerful. People were naturally scared of someone who had the power to do anything to them without really being able to defend themselves given the difference in power. Hopefully, he hadnt scared them too badly. that works. Bailey finally finished. You know, we really need a better setup than what we have here. Raulmented I know this was set up in a hurry, but having to set up a separate barrier in the corridor and let it out in order to get at it is a little, just slightly pletely and utterly ridiculous. Well, thats why the university is creating a whole new building for [System] rted research. Bailey reminded them We just need to wait for that to be finished. Using the knowledge we gain from these experiments, we can even adjust the ns to be exactly what we need. And what we clearly need are some of those Aspects of the Specter. Amy said We dont have the shiny new building yet and unless we want Isaac to keep ying executioner until then, we need a way to effectively deal with creatures inside a sealed room without risking letting them out. I could get those for you, you know. You need a thousand XP to activate it, though. But I can get you some. Small word of warning, though, theres a limit to how many Aspects you can slot without a metric fuck-ton of additional work. Isaac said. You know- Wechsler started to say, but Isaac cut him off. Im well aware of the fact that I dont have to do that and Professor Bailey cant order me to without a whole lot of paperwork and hazard pay. Im also aware of the fact that this is a free country and Im allowed to volunteer to do this. Raul and Amy stifled a snort at that, while Wechsler just nodded at that, not looking particrly upset at being interrupted. If were going to be waiting a while since you have to finish the outline for the experiment, can I dissect the golem? Patrick asked. Of course. Bailey replied. In that case, can Isaac help? His power should help with cleanly getting through that rock armor? Patrick pressed. Isaac, would you mind helping out Patrick? Bailey asked in a tone that made it clear it really was just a very polite order, getting a nod in return. Isaac didnt mind, Bailey was the boss, even if he hadnt actually signed any contracts yet. Maybe we can also take the time to fix the wall? I mean, we could always use more stuff between us and the monsters. Raul suggested. Thats a good idea, but I doubt we can properly fix that in a few hours. Bailey cautioned. What if we used magic? Its a brave new world out there and Im sure theres [sses] out there that can work with rock and, by extension, concrete. Amy suggested. You know, thats not half bad. Raul said The real problem would be finding someone like that. Well, if anyone we know has a [ss] like that, it would be someone in the universitys engineering faculty. Amy, if you could call them up to ask for someone with the right abilities toe help? Bailey suggested. Sure thing. Amy said. So basically, me and Patrick go dissect the Golem, Amy sees if she can find someone to fix the walls and you go n for the experiment? Isaac asked. Exactly. Questions? Bailey replied. When none were forting, he added Alright, in that case, lets go do that, then. With that, they all spread out. Patrick walked over to the wall next to the door and hit a button the panel that was ced there. Immediately afterwards, the big steel door began to open. Come on, lets go. Patrick said and Isaac followed with a sigh. The Golemy on the ground, spread eagled, having simply toppled over the instant Isaac pierced its chest. Why do you have that knife on you, anyway? Patrick asked offhandedly. The world just changed and monsters asionally roam the streets. I figured a knife for basic self defense might be in order and ordered a proper one off amazon. Isaac exined. Im just d we have some rather strict gunws here. Can you imagine if everyone started running around with assault rifles? Patrick asked. I can, actually. But I dont think it wouldst too long, people would eventually return to a normal state of readiness. Constant vignce just isnt something the human body is built for. Isaac said. He actually had seen exactly what happened. Basically, people had started to buy and carry all sorts of self defense gear, but started to swiftly abandon it as the feared cataclysm failed to materialize and the bulkier of the items started getting in the way far too often. Unobtrusive things like pepper spray, tasers, knives such as his own and the asional Saturday Night Special had be more prominent with the rise of the [System], but nothing more had really happened. Besides, people didnt need guns to be dangerous anymore and oh boy, was there going to cause a shit storm once that became apparent. Anyway, how are we going to get that thing into the storage room? Patrick wondered out loud. Id guess with your big manly muscles. Amy cheerfully called from down the corridor, prompting Patrick to re at her Or you could grab one of the height-adjustable tables from the storage room. Slide it on while its folded, then use the wheels to get it to where you need it, then increase its height. Those things are weirdly strong, like a tire jack or something. You mean we have lifting tforms? Yeah, thatd work. Isaac replied Ill help. Raul offered,ing out of the storage room with the aforementioned table. What followed was a quarter of an hour of struggling, even with Wechsler joining in to help five minutes after they started. But after adding a dozen new scratches to the floor and door, wrecking one of the tables and putting a huge dent into the wall next to the entrance to the storage room. The lifting tform had helped a lot, but actually getting the damn thing onto the tform was a different matter entirely. Next Patrick sucked in a huge gulp of air time wheeze were getting a forklift. Or a hundred helpers. Raul wheezed. I think we can grab something from the engineers. Bailey suggested, popping his head into the room Ill ask Amy to see what she can get. Clearly, hed noticed the noise had stopped ande to check up on the trio. And with that, he left back to his office, with Patrick calling thank you after him. They all took a five minute break before Patrick was finally ready to begin the dissection. Isaac, how exactly does that [Skill] you used work? [Piercing Strike] is what I believe it was called? he asked. Piercing Strike mon) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for .5 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. Cost: 10 mana per strike Like this, basically. Isaac said Im guessing you need help properly cut through the Golems flesh? I think that just might be a distinct possibility. Patrick replied sarcastically as he stepped up to the table that held the body. The entire setup wasnt all that professionalpared to what Isaac had seen both on TV and in the other timeline, but it should suffice. One table held the body itself while another stood nearby, holding various containers ready to receive anything interesting Patrick could dig out. A nearby contraption that was essentially a long upright standing pole with a camera at the end would allow them to record the whole thing from up above. Raul gestured towards it Its a little exciting to imagine that that video will be known as the first proper scientific dissection of a monster. I doubt its the first one, there likely someone whos tried it, but were probably among the first to do this in a proper academic setting. And thats part of the problem, because now I have to invent the method used. Patrick corrected. Havent you dissected anything else before? Raul asked. Of course I have, but those werent rock monsters. Isaac, if you would, step up to next me and put your mana into this scalpel? Patrick asked. Repeatedly, Isaac lightly tapped the hilt of the scalpel in Patricks hand, who would then then make small, shallow cuts down the center of the body, also making two cuts along where the corbones would be on a human to create a Y-shape. I dont think this is working, all you can see is more stone. You probably need to cut deeper. Raul suggested. Possibly. But I didnt want to cut too deeply and identally destroy something. Im loosely borrowing from how one would dissect a frog by opening up the skin on the torso, then pulling it back and looking at theyout of the internal organs. Patrick replied. Clearly, that aint working. Raul told him. Does that thing even have internal organs? Isaac asked. Unless these things drop dead at the touch of a [Skill] strengthened de, you clearly hit something. Patrick said. Maybe we should see what that is? Isaac asked I also only have enough mana to use the [Skill] two more times before I have to wait around twenty minutes to recover. Ill try. Patrick said and after carefully positioning the glowing yellow scalpel,shed out at the body to create a far deeper cut than any to date, the de ending up embedded several centimeters deep and truly stuck. Er, a little help? Patrick asked. Wordlessly, Isaac reached over and grabbed the hilt, pulsed [Piercing Strike] and withdrew it during the brief moment of increased sharpness. And now, Im out of mana. he announced Also, I have a [Skill] that can permanently weaken armor. We could use that when we continue, or maybe on the next one if you dont want to damage this one. Next one. Patrick agreed. The three of them stood around the body for a bit more, looking it over. Well, Raul and Patrick looked it over while Isaac only pretended to be interested. This was a very weak creature with a known vulnerability, the only reason it was so much trouble was that they didnt have the right tools to properly dig through rock. Eventually, they were interrupted by Amy poking her head around the corner. Hey guys, look who I got. she cheerfully announced and stepped to side to reveal a tall, well built blonde man. Hi, Im Karl Siegel, Im a [Geomancer]. Apparently you need someone to fix some walls that got dama- the man trailed off as he saw the prone te Golem lying on the table Is that what it looks like? A te Golem, a summoned monster. Patrick said sinctly, then introduced himself and the others. Raul, on the other hand, had apletely different question Did you bring the forklift? Forklift? No, I brought this thing, its an engine hoist. Isnt that what you asked for? Karl asked, pulling some weird contraption into view. It reminded Isaac of one of those cranes one would find at a port to lift entire containers, ced on four wheels, with a hydraulic pump to be extend the arm upwards. Once whatever one wanted to carry was attached, one could pump that thing to rase the anchor point at the top end and lift it off the floor. One likely couldnt go too high, but it should easily suffice to get a te Golem onto a lifting tform. I think you might be my new favorite person. Raul sagged in relief. Im guessing that thing is heavy? Karl asked. You have no idea. See the dent in the door? Isaac said. Yeah, I saw that. Is that what you called me here to fix? Karl asked. If you could, that would be great, but actually we need to fix the inside of the summoning room. Raul exined Come on, Ill show you. Wow, so thats what one of those looks like on the inside. Amy sauntered over, then froze when she actually got a good look at the exposed insides Looks the same as the outside, doesnt it? Pretty much. We think the internal organs are deeper in. Patrick told her. My mana is almost back up to full, maybe we could check? Isaac suggested. Five minutester, his mana had run back out, leaving them with a properly sized incision to the chest, but it was still just showing more te. Once again, do these things have any organs? Isaac asked, getting shrugs from the others. Maybe deeper in? Karl asked from the door Walls fixed, by the way. I dont know if you need to do any kind of inspection or something I dont think we need to, but maybe Professor Bailey could take a brief look at it? Ill go ask him. Amy suggested, then danced away. So, thats what a monster looks like. Karl sauntered over and looked at the body on the table Do those things have any organs? Thats what I said. Isaacmented, shooting Patrick a pointed look We probably havent looked deep enough. If we could get through the flesh more easily, maybe wed be there. the man shot back, frustration creeping into his voice. Looks like you got in there pretty good. What did you use to cut it, those edges look weirdly clean? Karl asked. [Skill] empowered scalpel. With every [Piercing Strike], we can make one good cut. Eats through my mana like nothing else though and were currently waiting on it to regenerate. Isaac replied. How many cuts have you made so far? Karl wondered out loud. Too many. Its a pain in the ass. Patrick grumbled Maybe twenty or thirty? I think you might be going about this the wrong way. Youre doing this like a biologist. Karl said. And how should we be looking at this then, oh wise engineer? Patrick asked sourly. Youre trying to get through rock. Treat it as such. Use an engineers perspective. Karl said, immediately preceding to point out several stress lines and how the rock was structured in such a way that the rather brittle te arms wouldnt break when punching something, nor would the legs break under its own weight while walking. If we try and break through there, we can pretty much predict how the material will crack. If there turns out to have been something we missed and it breaks that way, we know to be more careful in that location the next time. he finished. Hm, if I use [Piercing Strike] on a chisel and stick it in there, we could hit it in the back with a sledgehammer and crack openrge chunks. Isaac suggested and turned to Patrick I know you want to do this perfectly, but there will be more Golems soon. No, I agree, this is taking too long. We can crack this one open, then carefully extract intact versions of whatever we find from the next one. Patrick finally conceded. Five minutester, the table was covered in cracked chunks of rock, only one of which truly looked interesting. An orb that looked like smooth, polished obsidian, around the size of a human fist. The only thing marring it was a nick at one edge, with small cracks radiating out from it. That is the only thing in there? Patrick eximed incredulously. Looks like it. Raul said If it has only one thing thats different from everything else and it died when that got damaged, Im guessing we found the heart equivalent? Or brain, I suppose? Anyway, were probably lucky you managed to hit it at all, Isaac. I aimed for center mass; luck didnt really y into it too much. Isaac replied casually. Next time, I think we should check if hitting the creature anywhere else does anything. Patrick suggested. What Id like to know is if a bullet could get in there. Raul added. Probably could. Karl said te is a fairly tough material, being rock, but its pretty brittle. The first bullet or even the second probably wont seed, but if its slow enough, you should be able to smash through eventually. The damn thing makes a turtle look like a form one racer; I think that shouldnt be a problem. Raul told him. But it can move, right? That a piece of rock can move at all without shattering is incredible. You know, Id like to see that, eventually. Karl said. Why dont you stay for a while, then? We could always use a little help, especially if we keep dealing with rock creatures. Isaac suggested I sincerely doubt Professor Bailey would mind. Youd just have to clear it with your own faculty. I already did, at least for today. It wasnt really clear how long this would take. Karl said. In that case, wee to the team. Isaac said, the others echoing the sentiment shortly. Now, everyone whod been on the team Professor Bailey had had in the other timeline was gathered here. The risk of Isaacs presence identally butterflying away that possible roster had been greatly minimized. Not only that, but they were also well on their way to getting some true results on the inner workings of the Summoning System. As that became known, this team would slowly be granted resources to do more than fundamental research, branching out, digging deeper and deeper into the secrets of the [System]. With Isaacs help, they should even get there soon enough to change the trajectory of history itself, steering humanity away from the abyss. Chapter 11: The Grind Chapter 11: The Grind So, is everyone clear on what were going to do? Bailey asked. Hed gathered everyone, Karl and Wechsler included, in the conference room and was presenting the experiment hed drawn up. It wasnt particrlyplex or outstandingly creative, but it would easily do the job and the results would be useful beyondpare. Im going to check the circle didnt get damage, charge it, leave, close the door behind me, then stand in the designated spot, moving to another when you tell me, I got it. Amy replied, doing what Isaac thought was an admirable job of keeping the irritation he was sure she was feeling out of her voice. It really wasnt thatplicated. Someone other than Isaac would summon a creature and then theyd see who it went after. Theyd check how quickly it tracked them, if there was any change in that based on distance, and so on. Basically, anything Bailey had been able toe up with. Exactly. Bailey said. While she went off and did that, everyone else gathered in front of the monitors, observing everything. Isaac could see that the walls which had been damaged by thest summoning had been repaired so thoroughly that he couldnt even tell where the damage had been. Alright, summoning. Amy called out from the room opposite theirs, the storage room. Holy shit. Karl whispered This is what you do all day? Literally only the second time weve done this. Raul replied But were going to keep on doing this for quite a while. What followed was a rather long and boring process involving Amy running all over the ce while they watched the Golems movements. Nothing to write home about, but this was what it took to conduct a proper and scientific experiment. Exhaustive trials and repetition to weed out any results that had urred purely by coincidence. In reality, it wasnt even that long, having taken only ten minutes ording to the clock on the wall. But since Isaac didnt have anything to do in that time, it felt so much longer. Alright, thats it. Isaac, if you would? Bailey said and Isaac nodded, simply getting up and walking over to the door. A mere thought was enough to phase throughpletely, stepping into the room. He strode past the Golem and even as it tried to turn, he drove a [Piercing Strike] into its back, aiming to miss the core. It didnt even seem to react to the damage, except by shifting its walk slightly to ount for the damage. Beyond that, it seemed unbothered. No observable sign of pain, no change in behavior, targeting switched from summoner to attacker, all good so far. Keep the distance open. Baileys voice came out over the inte. Any issues? Isaac asked. Nope, all good. the loudspeaker crackled back to life and after a few seconds added Kill it. The yellow glow of [Piercing Strike] flowed over the knife in Isaacs hand and sank into the te Golems body up to the hilt. It stiffened, keeled over and went still. te Golem (Lv. 1) has been in. 2 XP gained, 1 XP given to summoner. Upon seeing this, he left, not even bothering to wait for the doors to open. He just walked straight through it using [Spectral Shift]. did I get XP for that? Isaac heard the tail end of a conversation between Amy and the others. Theyd have just found out about the fact that the person who summoned a creature got a five percent share of the XP, but always 1 XP at a minimum. Yeah, the kill notification said 1 XP got given to you. Isaacmented from the doorway. Alright, were going to check up on thatter, though. Were going to focus on understanding the other mechanics first. Bailey said. Doesnt that mean someone could just summon a random creature in the middle of a crowded area and leg it, then reap the XP when someone else kills it? Karl asked Seems like thats something we should be concerned about. Except it would go after the summoner first. Unless were dealing with something super slow like these golems, it would take a hell of a lot more work than is really justified by the reward. It would be a hell of a lot easier to just kill a bunch of weaker creatures. Patrick pointed out. Oh, Im sure someone will delude themselves into thinking that theyre being smart by not having to kill the creatures while still gaining some rewards. Amy pointed out One of those idiot savant situations. Smart enough to create a system that forces others to kill their summoned creatures, too stupid to realize how inefficient it is or how much danger it puts other people in. Unfortunately, youre probably right. Karl said Ive seen it a bunch of times. People try to make something more efficient, all the while missing that the parts theyre stripping out serve a goal that isnt entirely apparent. Besides, what would you do with that XP if you cant also level your [Skills]? Levels and Stats count for a lot, but upgrading ones [Skills] is a rtively fast way that one can also get stronger. Isaac added, earning himself uprehending nces from the others. Right, the power boost every [Skill] got at Level 10 wouldnt be publicly known yet, if anyone had even discovered it at all. I think we should shelve that discussion for a bit and keep going on with the current experiment. Bailey suggested, to the agreement of everyone else. So thats what happened. Karl summoned a Golem, walked around a bit to see how it responded and then Isaac stabbed it through the door. Ok, am I the only one who thinks this is a little bit of an exploit? Karl asked Just summon the creature inside a locked room, stab it through the wall, automatic victory? Everything else in the [System] seems to require effort, this seems a little too easy. I think its more of a hard counter type of situation. Raul said Isaacs [Skills] are perfectly suited to this kind of situation and it would be weird if someone got punished for having a situationally powerful build. Yeah, Im also actually fighting them, its just that te Golems are really weak. Theyre tough for 10 mana summons, but weaker in other aspects. Speed, for example. I just make it look easy. Isaac added I dont think that strategy would work against something stronger. If nothing else, a proper foe would just tear itself free of the room. Well, thats a pleasant image. Bailey said, looking a little green at the thought of being trapped in the bowels of the building with something that strong. But getting back on the topic of what would happen if one summoned a creature into a situation where it would just die outright, what do you think would happen? If we put a barrel of aqua regia over the summoning circle, do we get any XP? Amy asked. I think youre all very smart people, I think you cane up with something more humane than dunking what might be a living being in a vat of acid. Wechsler spoke up for the first time. Might be a living being? Karl frowned. We dont really know how these things work, if they are able to feel pain. Until it can be definitively determined whether were killing animals or smashing robots, things like a barrel of the worlds strongest acid are off the table. Wechsler exined. With that little conversation out of the way, they continued with the experimentation. Someone summons the creature and then moves around while the others observe how it tracks the summoner. One person charges the circle, then passes control on to another. Someone starts walking away from a charged circle until the monster gets summoned without the summoners input. All very interesting, all very important, all very boring if one knew the oues ahead of time. The creatures would focus on the summoner until they found a helpless target or were attacked. And creatures would automatically get summoned if one went too far away from a summoning circle. In most cases, the creature would be able to catch up to the summoner eventually, but that obviously didnt apply to creatures as slow as these te Golems. As countless dead te Golems began to pile up, Isaac was very d that they were using these kinds of elemental summons to try this with. Otherwise, theyd already be ankle deep in blood. Also, that kind of bloodshed would have been hard on even him, let alone everyone else. Most of the people here were biologist of some stripe, likely having dissected more than a few animals in their time, but that didnt meant that theyd befortable with watching that many flesh and blood creatures die. As for the bodies, they were all getting piled up in the spare room. Using the [Piercing Strike], pickle and sledgehammer method, they broke open a part of the body and then carefully used the cutting [Skill] to extract a perfect specimen of the particr part they were aiming for, this time around. They also determined that the core was in the same location in every te Golem. Getting all that gravel out of there would be a huge projectter on, though Bailey had promised them all some help for that. Time seemed to stretch into infinity yet also loop as they did the same thing over and over and over andoverandoverandover again. At some point, Bailey had left to his office to do some important paperwork while his Research Assistants conducted the experiment in his stead. Eventer still, Isaac slumped down in his seat and bonked his head on the table What time is it? How long have we been doing this? Uh Raul said uncertainly, then said 7 pm. And I have no idea how long its been. A decade, maybe? Certainly feels like it. Patrick added, even the normally dour man having finally been worn down by the constant and repetitive work. Yep, but we are done, I didnt dream that? Isaac asked. Yep. I want to go home or get something to eat or something but I just cant seem to gather the energy for it. Yep. Isaac forced himself back up onto his feet and ambled out of the room to knock on Baileys door. Come in. the answer came a mere momentter. Hey, Adam, were done over here. Isaac said after opening the door. What, already? That was fast. I hope you didnt push yourselves to hard. Bailey said, looking up from what looked like a literal mountain of paperwork. I actually think we forgot it was interesting at first and before we knew it, we were almost done and pushed through. Isaac said tiredly. Yikes. Did everyone else already leave? Nope, theyre just resting in the meeting room. Isaac said. Well, I think it might seriously be time for a break, for all of us. You want a beer? Its from the microbrewery up the road and its excellent. Bailey offered. No thank you. Isaac said, though he really would have loved one. It was just that he still had some rather important things to do today and, well, fighting monsters while intoxicated was a level of stupid that earned you a Darwin award. Not that he expected to get drunk of a single beer, but better safe than sorry. Maybe the others would? Bailey asked, getting up and heading into the meeting room with Isaac. Thank you for the good work, everyone. Next time, please take a break, though. We were afraid we wouldnt find our way back if we left. Isaacmented. Idugh, but Im too tired. Amy added, voice incredibly tired. That being said, you seem to have done a wonderful job and you are all very much done for the day. Really, you did more than I expected. If you want, go grab yourself a beer from the mini fridge in the breakroom, then enjoy your evening. Goodnight, everyone. Bailey said, an encouraging smile on his face. Everyone just tiredly stumbled out of the room. Isaac,e join me in my office for a minute, would you? Bailey asked. Yes? Isaac sat down in the guest chair across from Bailey, the desk between them far more cluttered than it should have been after a mere couple of days of use. So, what did you want to talk to me about? Isaac asked. Well, youve been here for a day, what do you think? Would you like to stay here and be a permanent Research Assistant in this faculty? Bailey asked. Like you said, its a little slower than just fighting monsters on my own, but we already found out so much. I really do want to stay. Isaac replied, a tired grin creeping onto his face. In that case, heres the paperwork. Contract, employee information, proper insurance paperwork, questionnaire about constitutional loyalty. Bailey dumped an entire pile on the desk in front of Isaac. Come again? Questionnaire about what? Isaac said, incredulous. This thing right here. Bailey pulled out a particr set of stapled together pages and flipped them open Read this part. Are you a member of Al-Qaida? Seriously? Isaac read it out loud. Seriously. The whole thing is like that. It also asks you to confirm that you were never a member of the East German secret police or any one of several dozen different Neo-Nazi and other right wing extremist groups. Why anyone like that would tell the truth on a government form, I have no idea, though. But you are taking a job at a state funded university, by extension working for the state, so you have to fill out that thing. Bailey said. At least its worth augh. Isaac sighed, shaking his head and proceeded to start filling out the forms. All the forms. Eventually, he noticed that Bailey was still sitting there, but had stopped working at some point. Are you sure you want to stay here for this? Thisll take a bit. he cautioned. I want to file this as soon as possible so you can start getting paid, I can wait a few minutes. Bailey replied. Eventually, the paperwork was done and the two of them walked out together. So, what are you going to do now? Bailey asked. Bed. Now, that had been a lie. Isaac had absolutely no intention of going to bed just yet. He really wanted to go gain thest few XP points he needed to slot the Aspect of the Hydra. This would give him another five points in Fortitude, a stat which reduced the need for sleep. To be more specific, every ten points gained cut the amount of sleep someone needed in half, so getting it up to seventeen should seriously help him have the time to grind for more power. Yeah, sorry for not noticing you guys werent taking a break, I was so busy with the paperwork. Bailey apologized. Dont worry about it, were adults, we should have taken one on our own. Isaac told him Its fine. A few minutester, Isaac was walking outside, breathing the cool evening air. Now that that was out of the way, it was time for an actual fight. Chapter 12: After Work Chapter 12: After Work Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 799/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 12 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces III Stealth III Power Strike V Piercing Strike VI Sundering Strike VI Knives VIII Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift [Empty Slot] If viewed purely through the lens of raw gains, today had been a waste. A mere 118 XP from the killed te Golems, one Level in [Knives] and two in [Piercing Strike] for hours upon hours of work. In other words, basically nothing, at least when the Levels still this low. He could have literally killed two Specters and gained more XP than that. Isaac grumbled something unintelligibly as he stumbled up the stairs to his apartment, his mind a mess. That work had been the exact wrongbination of boring and repetitive but simultaneously still requiring too much attention to just do on autopilot. Also, dangerous, but that wasnt really an issue for Isaac. After all, he could literally phase and ignore a te Golems attacks outright. Once his front door mmed shut behind him, he kicked the shoes off his feet, took two steps to the couch and copsed into it. Today had been a good, productive day, but all he wanted to do was sleep. Granted, hed also been up since five in the morning, but today had also been incredibly draining, mentally. Just ... ugh. Isaac ended up blindly groping at his coffee table until he finally got his hands on his phone. Two more taps and the song Gloryhammer by the band of the same name, began to re out of the Bluetooth loudspeaker. A slight smile began to creep back onto his face, heart beating faster from excitement. Good music pounding in his ears, adrenaline in his veins, determination in heart. Great circumstances for a nice fight. He looked over the summoning circle on the floor of his living room, checking it for damage. A few nicks could be seen here and there where a Specter had tried to phase through the ground and driven the knife stuck in its body into the ground. Simr damage could be seen on the walls and even the ceiling, but that was alright, hed fix thatter. As for the damage to the circle, all it took to repair it was maybe thirty centimeters worth of duct tape and charging it went by quickly. Isaac made himself a coffee while his mana regenerated, then stepped up to the glowing circle. A pinprick of pain emanated from the tip of his left index finger, the spot hed drawn blood for the temporary enchantment from. The same enchantment that remained on the kitchen knife he held in his right. The kabar was a slightly better weapon, but it alsocked the enchantment, so he decided to forgo it in favor of being able to do this right now. The now very familiar sight of a Specter erupting from the ground greeted him, hands tipped with spectral ws reaching out towards his face. Isaac jumped backwards, letting the deadly weapons swiping past his face. Before it could pull them back for another attack, Isaac covered the distance between them and drove the [Piercing Strike] covered and enchanted knife into its center. It wailed and stumbled back while Isaac drew the kabar. The Specter swiped at him, but he simply activated [Spectral Shift] and turned into an Ephemeral existence, just like it was. Now that he could also touch it directly, he batted away one arm and cut at it with the kabar, likewise Ephemeral. Another ear piercing shriek tore through the apartment, drowned out by the pounding sound of Power Metal. Isaacs next punch sent the Specter reeling, already greatly weakened by the cursed knife in its gut. He followed it up with a stab from the knife, embedding it right next to the one already stuck in there. It flickered and vanished, both knifes embedding themselves in the ground with a wince inducing thunk. Isaac sighed, hoping they hadnt gotten damaged too badly. Specter (Lv. 8) has been in. 65 XP gained (50 base * 1.30 due to level disparity) Another minute after that, Isaac had fixed the circle back up, added the ingredients back into it, bandaged his finger and left the apartment to go buy some dinner. He did have plenty of food in the apartment, but it was the same hed had when hed arrived a couple of days ago, rice and the like. Somehow, that felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Since then, hed dealt with an Italian Mobster, gotten hired by a soon to be incredibly influential group of scientists and turned from an ambitious and driven office worker to a hardened warrior, something that had taken years in the other timeline. Hed also gotten fired sort of. His boss had yelled at him and told him he was fired, yet said boss was a known dumbass. Besides, Isaac hadnt gotten any paperwork yet, but hed been told he was fired, so he had a good excuse for not going in to work. When someone finally noticed that mess, hed probably either get actually fired or offered his old job back, which hed decline. Either way, there was a chance hed end up with some money in the form of a severance package and his boss would likely get into trouble, which he considered to be a bonus. Isaac sighed internally as he looked around for somewhere to get some food. A lot of the smaller and family run businesses were still not working, but in the case of the big chains, there would always be someone willing toe in. Those would suffice, of course, but hed have loved a proper Italian pizza from a stone oven or something, though it was not to be. Twenty minutester, Isaac was back in his apartment, subway sandwich devoured in under five minutes and mana fully recovered. He shrugged his coat off his shoulders, took off his shoes and charged the circle. While his mana recharged, Isaac flounced on his couch and switched on the Tagesschau, the biggest daily news in Germany. This was a familiar scene,forting. Sitting here right after dinner, waiting to see what fresh chaos the world had birthed. He hadnt done this in oh, had it already been three years? Yeah, that sounded about right. Thats when theyd stopped broadcasting it in the other timeline, and hed been on a train while it was broadcasted thest two days. The little melody yed as the neutral background gave way to the familiar blue of the studio. As it has been in thest couple of days, our main story tonight concerns the initialization of the so called [System] that has affected the entire world. As a result What else could there have possibly been? The world was absolutely not, in no conceivable way, settled after the mess that had been caused. The most severe consequences, stray monsters, were winding down a little. But the knock on effects from all that were only now truly bing obvious. The news only got hung up on this topic for only around five minutes, switching to a more regr story on the economy while announcing a special episode would ur after the actual news segment ended. That was something that happened fairly regrly when big events urred and apparently, there had been special episodes thest two days too. When his mana finally topped up, Isaac pushed himself off the sofa, summoned the Specter from the charged circle and stabbed it, dodging it until it dropped dead. Specter (Lv. 9) has been in. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity) And that was that. He reset the circle, charged it once his mana had recovered enough and resumed watching the news. The TV switched to a more regr entertainment show, some kind of soap opera involving a cloister, unless Isaac missed his guess. He switched it off and proceeded to read a book until he was back at 120 points of mana. Specter (Lv. 9) has been in. 67 XP gained (50 base * 1.35 due to level disparity) and now he had 998 XP. Urgh. Missing any kind of numerically defined goal by so little just ugh. Isaac sighed, trudged over to the pen cup on his desk and retrieved a pen and paper, drawing a simple Tier 1 circle on it. Hed created it as small as was possible and still have it work. One could actually vary the size of a circle by a lot, but it needed to berge enough for the specific creature one wanted to summon. Isaac sprinkled some rock salt on top of it and poured ten mana into it. A Ghost emerged from it with a loud wail, but Isaac just waved a hand holding the glowing red kabar, the [Power Strike] hitting it like a sledgehammer. There was a brief sound like a tearing bedsheet, then it was gone. Ghost (Lv. 2) has been in. 3 XP gained And with that, he even had a single point of XP left over. Yay! Isaac just shook his head at his own silliness. Hed truly been awake for far too fucking long. But he had the XP to do what he wanted, so he did it. Aspect of the Lesser Hydra: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Hydra a Hydra. Regenerating from gruesome wounds in seconds, killing your enemies simply because they cut you as your blood poisons theirs or create redundant organs to survive lethal injuries. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Fortitude One of the following Skills: Hydras Regeneration Toxic Blood Redundant Organs Three fine [Skills] to pick, but only one had an incredible synergy with his other Aspect and stood to be the cornerstone of his build. Hydras Regeneration (rare) This Skill allows the User to rapidly regenerate from injuries at the cost of mana. Regeneratingrge amounts of flesh may be ufortable. Cost: 5 mana per second of use, 50 mana per kilogram of flesh restored A mere thoughtter, five points of mana vanished from his pool and the stinging cut on his left index finger closed up, vanishing like it had never been. Perhaps not the kind of life threatening injury hed gotten the [Skill] to deal with, but it was useful to help with those as well. Finally. His Build wasplete until he gained an upgraded [ss] at Level 10. Hed be saving his [Skill] points until then as he didnt really need any more of the basic [Rogue] [Skills] anymore. Theft rted powers, the creation of toxins and traps, etc. But those wouldnt be nearly as helpful as gaining more [Skills] than he should have been able to with his next [ss], whatever that might be. [ss] Evolution options were determined by a few factors. Every [ss] had a few set evolutions that he would be able to easily predict, given that there had been plenty of people whod started out as a [Rogue]. Then there were altered versions of those [sses] avable based on what [Skills] one had upgraded the furthest or just really liked. Even though Isaac himself had barely used [Hundred Faces] and [Stealth], that was because he hadnt needed to use them, resulting in them staying rtively low levelled, hed likely get a [ss] based on at least one of them. After all, he liked those [Skills]. They let him and would continue to let him get away with a lot of crap he didnt want his face linked to. Andstly, there were the [sses] based on what Aspects one had. And he had two, something practically unknown for someone under Level 10. After all, the 3,000 XP needed to slot them and buy the additional slot would have sufficed to get him to Level 7 and left him just 2,500 XP shy of Level 10 and the [ss] upgrade. Very few people would and had put in that kind of effort into getting Aspect [Skills] with the alure of all those sweet, sweet Stat points and the superhuman physique they promised right there. Literally only a few Munchkins whod wanted to maximize their XP gains by fighting higher Level enemies without having all that unused XP just sitting there, tempting them, so theyd spent the experience points to slot Aspects. Oh, and thered been a handful of people whod found the idea of having the [Skills] of a monster so incredibly amazing that theyd simply had to get as many as they could get their hands on. Therefore, there were only a handful of examples that showed what kinds of [sses] one could get in that situation. And as tempting as it was to keep going at this Level, gain more and more Aspects to better his future [ss] choices, Isaac decided to dismiss it as a possibility. Hed need the Stat gains from levelling soon enough even if everything happened exactly as it did in the other timeline and the only incidents that urred were the ones he remembered. Chances were, there had been a lot hed never even known about, let alone cared enough to recall after theyd disappeared from the public consciousness. But there were enough that he did know about, big ones, and Isaac knew that a fully optimized build that gave him the absolute best choices at the cost of progression speed was simply not feasible. Maybe in a couple of centuries, some young prodigy would level up to Level 9, then proceed to farm every creature it could defeat at that point until they stopped giving XP and get a godlike [ss] for having something like twenty Aspects. Maybe. As fun as that thought experiment was, it wouldnt be him who achieved that kind of perfection. Isaac just shook his head. This, just ganking Specters over and over until they stopped giving him XP was just boring. But killing any other kind of enemy in his apartment was simply not feasible, if due to the fact that theyd leave a body behind for him to deal with, if nothing else. Also, his apartment would end up trashed in incredibly short order, which wasnt an oue hed have been particrly enthused with. But hadnt been there the option to create permanent extradimensional spaces linked to a specific location in the summoning list? Summoning List (Realm) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Extradimensional Pocket Tier 5 Circle, Lesser Space Elemental Core 250 Extradimensional Room Tier 6 Circle, Lesser Space Elemental Core 400 Eternal Wilderness Tier 7 Circle, 10 different Aspects, Elemental Source, Nature Elemental Corpse (minimum 200 mana summoning cost), 1-ton assorted monster materials (minimum 200 mana summoning cost each), 10 crystals (at least asrge as a ping pong ball) 100,000 (max. 500 people) Void Ind Tier 8 Circle, Elemental Samples up to atomic number 50, 5 [Raid Boss] hearts, Space Elemental Core, Earth Type Golem Core (minimum 500 mana summoning cost), 500,000 (max. 100 people) Void Archipgo Tier 9 Circle, Elemental Samples up to atomic number 75, 50 [Raid Boss] hearts, 10 Space Elemental Cores, 5 Earth Type Golem Cores (minimum 500 mana summoning cost), 5 Water Type Golem Cores (minimum 500 mana summoning cost), ... 750,000 (max. 100 people) Void Continent Tier 10 Circle, Elemental Samples up to atomic number 86, [World Boss] heart, Space Elemental Lord core, Void Ripper hide, 1,000,000 (max. 100 people) Ah, yes. But even the least of these things required the core of a Lesser Space Elemental, which were a stone cold pain in the behind to fight, let alone kill. Also, hed need another thirteen points in Magic Power before he could summon one, even if he managed to get his hands on one of the required cores. Given how he liked to spend his Stat points, it would take several Levels, not just two, to get his mana pool to that point. But that was merely the most basic of the extradimensional spaces one could get, there was so much more avable and it got crazy, fast. The next more expensive option was something called an Eternal Wilderness, an extradimensional ne filled with whatever monsters whose bodies one added. From then on, one could ughter ones way through to ones hearts content, something that sounded pretty good right about now. Or at least it would, if he were in a position to start taking on creatures with a summoning cost of 200. And given that one could have up to 500 people participate in the summoning, they only needed to have a mana pool of 200, each. As long as someone managed to get their hands on an Elemental Source, a rare drop one could get from a variety of Elementals, the participants should be findable. And from there, theyd be able to hunt and gain XP to their hearts content with the small caveat that an Eternal Wilderness continued to expand for as long as it existed, spawning in ever more monsters until a tipping point in poption was reached and the realm copsed, dumping every living being within on to the Earth, safe and unharmed. In other words, they were a big shiny trophy made rtively easy to get at, yet beyond devastating if the summonerscked the presence of mind to destroy the realm core before tragedy struck. As for the various Void ces, even Isaac didnt know too much about them. The closest anyone had ever gotten was summoning a single Void Ind and exploring it a little before a [Raid Boss] had entered the real world anchor of the realm, stepped inside, and killed the summoner. Basically, if what hed been told was correct, they were allndmasses surrounded by ocean and if one went out too far into the water, theyd get magically turned around and be walking back towards the shore. A ce that could be entirely created based on what one desired, a parcel ofnd farrger than anyone other than a billionaire would be able to get on Earth. The working hypothesis was that those were meant to be one of the ultimate rewards, intended to entice people to go after them, summoning and fighting countless incredibly powerful beings to do so. Also, the sheer mana cost, which could only be spread out across very few people would likely result in some people making poor choices while distributing their Stat points. After all, to get a Void Ind, everyone would need to have a mana pool of 5,000, something that would require 50 Levels worth of Stat points to go solely into Magic Power. It wasnt actually a bad Stat to invest in, it was just that such a level of overspecialization into anything was a bad idea. Too much Strength, too little Fortitude? Shatter your bones with the slightest movement. Too much Agility, too little Perception? Have fun running into walls, dumbass. And not having enough Magic Regeneration whenpared to ones mana pool would let one create great works of magic while being utterly useless for hours, days, or even weeks as the pool regenerated at a snails pace. Yet with the enticing lure of your own personal fucking continent, right there, it was pretty tempting to just focus a little more on that particr Stat. But there had been an entire different issue he was wrestling with. The summoning of creatures itself was likewise bing a problem. He was basically emptying his mana pool with every summon and having to wait for all that to recover was seriously slowing down the speed of his XP gains. It would have been possible to just focus on the weaker creatures like Ghosts, but that would have been even worse, given that the amount of XP they gave was a hell of a lot less, not just in terms of raw numbers but also inparison to the amount of mana invested. That being said, Isaac did remember that there were other options to get monsters to kill, such as the Eternal Wilderness located in the Realms section. Maybe, just maybe, he could even already get one. Summoning List (Structure) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Lair Tier 3 Circle, Aspect of desired monster, granite b 150 Dungeon Tier 5 Circle, baseball sized gem, 1 liter of human blood, 10 different types of rock, 10 different types of gemstones 350 Dungeon (limited) Tier 5 Circle, baseball sized gem, 1 liter of human blood, 10 different types of rock, 10 different types of gemstones, blood of the dungeon master in a silver chalice 350 Dungeon (bound) Tier 5 Circle, baseball sized gem, 1 liter of human blood, 10 different types of rock, 10 different types of gemstones, blood of the dungeon master in a silver chalice 350 Elemental Land Tier 6 Circle, Elemental Source of desired type, volcanic soil, 1 liter sea water, 1 liter freshwater, gemstone appropriate to element type (see list?) 10,000 (max 10 people) Cauldron Tier 7 Circle, Aspect of desired monster, 1 ton of Steel, football sized crystal, 10 diamonds bathed in the blood of innocents 15,000 (max 10 people) That was not the case, unfortunately. He could get a Lair after one more Level up, but it would be mostly useless, given how weak he knew them to be. Also, using an entire Aspect for that would be absurdly wasteful. There were also the various Dungeon kinds, monster and trap filled hellholes that would start spewing death and pestilence onto thend once they got too strong without being regrly culled. In fact, they were some the first sources of free monsters that hadnt been directly summoned by a human. One could also summon a bound Dungeon, which was less dangerous, but it would also not give any XP to its Dungeon Master or anyone he ordered the Dungeon to keep safe, making it a rather poor source of progression. Lastly, there was the limited Dungeon type, which was basically the same thing as a bound Dungeon, except it could both hurt and provide XP to the Dungeon Master without the risk of monsters escaping. The drawback to this was that the Dungeon Master had to feed it literally everything it needed to get stronger, since the limited attribute cost it any and all natural progression. Then there were the Elemental Lands, a ritual that changed an entire area into something befitting the element used and kept spawning in Elementals that befit the type. Those things were astonishingly beautiful, but also dangerous beyondpare. Especially the Death Elemental Lands, aka zombie apocalypse light. Those things would animate any dead flesh on it, creating a massive horde of undead that would kill anything it caught and could casually roam off the zone that had created them. But it was the ingredient list for the Cauldron that made Isaacs blood boil. Cauldrons were really useful as they would periodically spawn in monsters of the kind whose Aspect had been used to summon it, no matter how expensive the ingredients would have otherwise been. Specifically, it was thest one that made him angry. Countless atrocities had beenmitted to discover just what a diamond bathed in the blood of innocents was, when the reality was far simpler, yet no less horrifying. The [System] wanted conflict diamonds. One final fuck you to high Level people. The only way to get at the best sources of experience was to have, somewhere on the, a horrifying war where innocents retrieved the precious stones under horrifying conditions, at which point they would be sold to perpetuate the war. But no, it was gettingte and Isaac was getting tired. Now was not the time to get worked up. He decided to take one quick look at his stat screen before bed. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 1 XP: 1/200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 17 Perception 12 Strength 10 Agility 12 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill Skills Hundred Faces III Stealth III Power Strike VI Piercing Strike VII Sundering Strike VI Knives IX Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration His Character Sheet was starting to look really nice, now. But even with the 17 points in Fortitude he had now, he was still tired. It would take less time in bed to fix that, but hed have to first actually go to bed. It would have been too nice if boosting Fortitude immediately adjusted ones tiredness Isaac yawned, and before he knew it, he was asleep on his couch. Chapter 13: The Long Night Chapter 13: The Long Night Ow. Isaac grumbled as he woke back up, draped over the side of the couch in an ufortable posture that could have easily caused back problems in a normal person. Normal was however not a qualifier that could really be applied to him anymore. A nce at the window revealed that it was still in the middle of the night and Isaac wasnt entirely sure what had woken him. It clearly hadnt been the light of dawn or his rm clock and hed been sleeping like that for the entire night, so something else was clearly at work here. Isaac stood bolt upright, knife shing out of its sheath at his belt as he looked around, silently stalking through his apartment. Hed spent years essentially at war and gotten pretty sensitive to disturbances, making it entirely possible that something had happened but only been noticed by his subconscious. He ended up making three rounds through his apartment, checking every door and window for signs of a break-in, twice, and if any of the money was gone. That was when he realized what had happened. Hed gained five points in Fortitude from the Aspect of the Hydra, significantly reducing his need for sleep from one second to the next. It was something he could have easily realized if hed been fully awake, but he hadnt been. With a sigh and a few muttered curses, Isaac sheathed his de and plopped himself back onto the couch. Having more time to do things during the night was why he had done this, after all, hed just forgotten it for a brief moment. But what to do now? Normally, hed be summoning stuff, but as bad as calling a bunch of wailing ghosts into his apartment would be, using metal to cover up said wailing would go over a hell of a lot worse. As the old joke went, only a German man wouldnt ask you to stop sting music in the middle of the night because hed already be on the phone to the local police station. It was tempting to just run off into the nearest patch of forest and start summoning there, but he knew it wasnt a good idea. He preferred far off areas where no one was likely to stumble over him and the monster, the kind that wouldnt be well lit at all. Not that forest trails had any kind of lighting in general, but that was doubly true for those far off ces. There were night vision [Skills] hed eventually be able to get, or just naturally gain the ability to see in the dark once his Perception got high enough, but neither of those solved the immediate issue. And while bringing a light or two was an option until the monster smashed them and left him stumbling around in the dark. Ergo, not a good and proper idea, either. That ruled out the idea of spending tonight summoning monsters. There was a traditional activity most people did during the spare time an increased Fortitude afforded them, but that wasnt a viable option for Isaac either. A lot of people had picked up new hobbies in the form of enchanting, alchemy and other forms of crafting. Isaac hadnt. Hed been the Purser of his hunting group, the guy in charge of the books. It had been a fine use of his Economics degree even after hed stopped working in finance, making it a good choice. He did know how to make a few basic things that were so simple to create it was easier to make them yourself instead of buying the finished product from someone else. Basic health potions, basic mana potions, some basic but nasty poisons, etc. But even those required new and unique ingredients that required him to summon stuff, which hed already decided to not do. He might have also gone off to buy the materials needed for summoning, but it was the middle of the night, literally the only shops that were open were 24h supermarkets and those certainly wouldnt have the stuff he needed. Online shopping was, of course, also an option. Unfortunately, most of his liquid assets were in the form of bills hed gotten by selling Aspects to the mob, aka, not availed to pay for online purchases. That just left doing all the stuff hed been putting off while galivanting off to Mn. Check the countless emails hed likely received during that time, deal with anything that needed dealing with, and all that stuff. And once that was done, maybe, just maybe, he could find a good ce to start summoning. Lets see what he have here he muttered as he logged in. Would you like to protect yourself from monsters? Well, yes, but I sincerely doubt youre in a position to do that. Unfortunate misunderstanding involving a possible firing Yeah, no, I heard that loud and clear and I already have a job. Hey, are you allright, bro? End of the world party, my ce, Thursday, youing? Ah I almost forgot about that. Isaac muttered under his breath as he read the messages. There were arge number of [System] rted messages offering new technology to help protect oneself, an official university newsletter to the tune of were working on understanding this, dont do anything stupid and a general message from the government that basically amounted to dont do anything stupid. But most of it was spam that had somehow crept through the filters since their subject material was somethingpletely new and different, though it quickly petered out as time passed. Likely, someone at the email provider had caught on to the fact that there was an issue and updated the filters. Isaac wrote a quick email back to his former employer about having another job and pointing out that there was no misunderstanding involved at all, his former boss both had firing privileges andpletely exploded at him. Given the phrasing of the email, the words youre fired had clearly passed his boss lips, even if Isaac had already hung up at that point. But it was thest email that really grabbed his attention. The sender was someone he hadnt talked to or even thought about in literal years, theyd drifted apart after theyd finished university and then the usual shit had happened before theyd really had a chance to reconnect. Aka, the end of the fucking world. Also, as the title of the of the email would suggest, Samuel Barnes was a typical frat boy, or at least that was the image he liked to present. Much like Calise, Samuel was someone who enjoyed projecting the persona he wanted people to interact with while actually being incredibly cautions and reserved. Mind you, Isaac was pretty sure that Sam still enjoyed the parties he threw, it was just that he had desires beyond beer pong, girls and hiding reality beyond a haze of alcohol. At the end of the day, it was pretty likely that this particr message was a genuine invitation to an actual party that would be happening tomorrow evening. Particrly when one considered that this particr message had been mass sent to a few dozen people, likely everyone Samuel would have liked to be there but hadnt replied to his other invitations. Undoubtedly, hed also talked this up to everyone hed met in person and also sent out a mass of texts, precisely none of which Isaac would have read. Isaacs face sported a massive grin as he typed up his reply. A proper university party, divorced from the chaos hed been experiencing thest few years, something entirely different from the fighting hed been doing. Nonsense, drinking,radery, that was what he was looking forward to. The reply itself was a simple of course Ille, typed up and sent off in a matter of moments. But even with all of that out of the way, he still had hours upon hours to kill until the sun rose and he could do some of the other things he wanted to do. There was doubtlessly a good book he hadnt read for several years to be found somewhere in this apartment, but that was only something to use up the time, rather than something productive. So, he started thinking. What was the most important thing holding him back at the moment. What was the biggest thing holding him back? What did he need to grow stronger and save the world? Time, obviously. Time which he could easily get by increasing his Fortitude to reduce his need for sleep. He could also quit the job with Baileys research team, but that wasnt going to happen for obvious reasons. As to what he wanted and needed to do in said time, that was also easy. Grind, increasing both his [Skill] and [ss] Levels. To do both of those things, he needed summons and that was where the problems started. He could get his hands on powerful creatures by simply summoning them, but that would still leave him with massive corpses lying all over the ce for anyone to stumble across and he had absolutely no intention of sparking rumors of an insane fighting maniac stalking the streets of his hometown, summoning monsters from beyond the void to ughter them as if they were no more dangerous than a chicken. Yeah, that could only end terribly. There were a few creatures he could summon straight into his apartment, which didnt leave behind bodies, but they were few and far between. The Specters and their weaker Ephemeral cousins were perfect, but anything stronger would no longer work. A Wraith would cut this ce to pieces in quick session while a Poltergeists telekic field would utterly trash the entire apartment in seconds. Once he ran into his limit where the Specters where concerned, that was basically it. He needed to find something else to do, preferably safe, private and without the risk of random people stumbling over his monsters and ending up maimed or dead. This was the true crux of things. He needed a new ce, one that fit all those requirements. So that was what he did for hours afterwards. He checked the housing prices outside the city, how much it would cost to just buy thend and then somehow build a house on top of that he considered every conceivable possibility, but there were no two ways about it. There was absolutely no fucking way he could afford it. When he took the money from Calise into ount, he could sort of afford the cheapest ofnd out in the middle of nowhere, but that wouldnt be enough. But he couldnt really use that money. Funnily enough, Isaac was in the same situation that many a drug dealer found himself in. Hed read somewhere that while they had arge supply of cash on hand due to their profitable job, they had no proper excuse or exnation for actually having this money. Therefore, they couldnt really spend it on things that would be logged like cars and yes, houses, leaving them limited to smaller luxuries. You know, like hookers, blow and more sma TVs than any sane person could ever need. It would take a while for Isaac to get enough money in a way that could be exined, but it could be doable. He could use the money hed gotten from Calise to pay for everything that could be paid for in cash, then go ahead and save literally everything else. Eventually, there would also be legal and rtively open ways to sell Aspects and then he should be all set in short order. Even so, any actual purchases would remain a pipe dream for the near future, meaning literal years. That was way too long. He couldnt really think of a good alternative option to just summoning everything somewhere out in the woods and just leaving the bodies, but that didnt mean such an option didnt exist, just that he hadnt found it yet. After another few minutes of daydreaming over what to buy, Isaac sighed and snapped theptop closed. He wouldnt be getting anywhere right now, so he turned his apartment upside down while looking for a good book, found one, and retreated to the couch until morning. A contented smile was ying across Isaacs lips as he roused himself for work, hourster. Hed been spending so much time working and waiting for the time he could work to arrive that hed nearly forgotten what it was like to just rx for a bit. In the other timeline things had been so desperate hed been on duty basically twenty-four seven and when hede here, hed still been stuck in that same horrible mindset. Now, he had work and hed obviously be doing that to the best of his ability but after that after that, hed be going to his first party in half a decade. Or at the very least, his first party that hadnt had the apocalypse casting a deep dark shadow over it. Chapter 14: More Experiments Chapter 14: More Experiments When Isaac came into the meeting room, his backpack was filled with plenty of various items. A water cooker went on top of the mini fridge that mostly just contained the beers Bailey had offered them yesterday evening with several boxes of different kinds of tea next it. Great minds think alike. Amymented from the door They installed a beer fridge, but they forgot the coffee machine? But Miss, zis is German univerzity. How vould ve be able to keep our pride as citisens of zis country visout beer? Zurely, vu do not zuggest ve should go vizout? Isaac asked in English, putting on a German ent, badly. Thats your German ent? Amy barely managed to get out between peals ofughter. Isaac continued in fluent English Im actually pretty good at doing those exaggerated ents just not the one Im supposed to have. So thats what you sound like normally. Its nothing like what people expect a German ent to sound like. Amy observed. Yeah, the normal German ent is basically what happens when someone tries to learn English from a book, pronouncing everything phically using the German pronunciation. That got fixed basically the instant the schools got proper English teachers. How bout you though? How posh can a girl from Ennd make herself sound? I do believe that it is an indubitable fact that nothing canpare to the grace and poise of a member of the aristo- Amy told him in a wless high ss British ent for as long as she was able to suppress herughter. Seriously though, I think it was supposed to be easier that way. Most people get their coffee at home or on the way, but cold beer and soda are things you need to go to a supermarket for and Professor Bailey seems to like using beer as a reward for good work. Isaac suggested. I think it would have gone over a whole lot better if hed offered it a bit earlier. Everyone just wanted to sleep by the time he did. Amy said. Yeah. Leaving here after a hard day of satisfying work with an excellent, cold beer in hand I can imagine it would have been great. Stumbling home with my mind a whirl, less so. Isaac sprawled out on the couch for few seconds, sighing contentedly. He sprang up a momentter when the water cooker signaled that the water inside was boiling. No more than thirty secondster, he was back on the couch with a cup of green tea that still needed to steep for a bit. Thats an, ahem, interesting cup youve got there. Amymented. In response, Isaac pulled the cup up to his eye level and turned it so he could see the inscription as though he werent already well aware of what it said. Im not bitchy, Im emotionally flexible. Whats wrong with that? he asked, grinning widely. Nothing, its just an interesting choice. Amy said. Well, I like it. Lets people know what to expect from me without even having to say anything. Isaac replied, the idiotic smile still stered on his face. What, cockiness and sarcasm? Amy snarked. Also impossible charm, intellect, wisdom and artistic capability. Isaac added, voice deadly serious. Im beginning to see why you have that thing, then. Amy sniggered. Good morning. Bailey suddenly chimed from the open door. Morning Adam. Good Morning. So, Im guessing we have more interesting things to do today, then? Isaac asked. Yep, Ill tell you in the meeting room in a couple of minutes. Bailey replied and walked onwards, likely heading to his office. Isaac casually stood up, turned to the wall with the meeting room, and walked right through. After all, what was the point in having superpowers if one couldnt make ones life a little easier? He sat there with his tea for a short couple of minutes as everyone else trickled in. Raul carried the same inconspicuous case for his rifle hed had yesterday and a backpack while everyone else just had some kind of backpack or briefcase for their stuff. The only one who didnt show was Wechsler, though Isaac hoped that whatever Bailey was intending on doing, it had already been signed off on. Good morning everyone. First off, I just wanted to say, good job everyone. Yesterday went really well and once Ive finished typing up the rest of the paper, namely the conclusion, Im going to send it off for peer review. Bailey announced, grinning like a loon. Isaac couldnt me him, though. A new, important and very helpful paper released literally fewer than ny-six hours after bing a professor. That had to be some kind of new record, right? Starting today, I would like to begin investigating how the [System] defines its summoning materials. Specifically, when it uses terms with extremely imprecise definitions. Summoning List (Slime) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Basic Slime Tier 1 Circle, Bone 10 Acid Slime Tier 1 Circle, Acid, Bone 25 Poison Slime Tier 2 Circle, Poison, Bone 50 Giant Slime Tier 3 Circle, Bone 75 Toxic Morass Tier 4 Circle, Toxin, Mud 150 Devouring Horror Tier 5 Circle, Acid, Toxin, Mud, Fabric, Flesh, Bone 250 Specifically, just what it counts as acid. Technically, that means anything with a pH level under 7, but that covers everything from aqua regia to orange juice and even just normal rainwater. For that Ive had a series of reagents prepared, on a pH gradient from 7 to one in 0,1 increments, which will get dropped off hereter today. Well also be trying out the aforementioned orange juice and other variousmon household ingredients that also qualify as an acid by the strictest interpretation of the word. However, we will have to be exceedingly careful with regards to how we do this in order to avoid identally summoning the wrong creature. Therefore, Im going to ask you to see if there is anything else that could be summoned by thebination of a Tier 1 circle, a bone and whatever else we add. With that, Bailey put a list onto the table. This is what Im intending to use, Amy, Karl, Patrick, please check for any idental oveps. Raul, Isaac, Ive received a few requests for someone to check if its possible to kill a te Golem with a firearm. To that end, Ive secured you use of the firing range the forestry faculty uses for firearms training. Please summon one and take it down without breaking too much or damaging the front, then grab the engine hoist and cart it over there. Please be back here at around three pm at thetest. Questions? How are you going to deal with the mess? Isaac asked Theres a good chance those slimes stter and well be up to our ankles is acidic goop after a few die. Also, what happens when it starts to melt the floor? Excellent question. Bailey nodded approvingly Were nning on using their ability to track their summoner to get them to climb into an acidproof container and then kill it there. As to just how acidic they are, were obviously going to check what happens when their bodiese into contact with our containers or the floor. Anything else? And with that, the meeting broke up, Isaac heading straight into the summoning room. Why the hell are there a bunch of mattresses in here? Isaac called out as he phased back out. Those are so it doesnt crack when it falls over. Bailey called back. Ah, makes sense. Ill get back to it. Isaac said. A minuteter, he returned and grabbed the engine hoist. Wow, you really dont use doors, do you? Raul asked, shaking his head. Why would I? Isaac grinned back at him, drawing augh. Nice. Should we get a nket to cover that thing? I think tromping all over campus with a dead monster in tow is going to cause us a ton of trouble. Isaac suggested. If you can use the hoist on your own, I can go grab one. Raul offered and Isaac nodded. He was the veteran of over a decade of brutal warfare, he could handle a rtively basic piece of machinery. At least he hoped he could. Isaac tried, he really did. He fought valiantly, a battle fit for the ages, something that would be enshrined in history alongside tales of great heroes such as Gilgamesh, Solomon and Heracles. Yet despite all that, he failed. The dead te Golem slipped out of the straps grasp again and again, no matter what he did. And to make thing worse What the hell are you doing? We can hear the bang- I see. All you have to do is When it had taken Karl all of five seconds to fix his screwups, Isaac had contemted for a brief second to start hunting creatures whose Aspects gave memory maniption powers, then dismissed the idea. Wrangling the several hundred-kilogram te hunk across the entire campus wasnt exactly easy, but the engine hoist made it at least doable. A lot of the people they passed gave them one or two interested nces, but then looked away again. It wasnt like there were many people on campus, though. sses were apparently still cancelled, so very few students would be hanging out in between lectures. The few people who were here worked on campus and they were usually busy actually doing the work. Did you ever think this is what youd be doing with your life? Carrying dead monsters all over campus? Isaac asked. I dont think anyone ever expects to be doing stuff like this. Raul said But then again, the one constant in life is that you can never truly know what will happen. That is very true. By the way, can I ask what your [ss] is? In case its too personal, you dont have to say anything, of course. Isaac asked. Why would it be? Im a [Ranger], basically gives me [Skills] for wilderness survival, tracking and hunting. A single active [Skill] called [Enhanced Impact] that lets me make my bullets hit harder, though it apparently also works with any other kind of ranged weapons. Raul exined. Ah, yes. In the other timeline, a pretty serious taboo about asking other people about their [Skills] and [sses], given that it could also be interpreted as asking how to defeat and possibly kill them. Only close friends and teammates would be told the specifics, which would be needed to create proper ns of action. Literally anyone else would only know about various archetypes like Archer, Mage, Fighter, Healer and so on. But that taboo wouldnt really have developed yet, would it? As far as Rauls [ss] went, there were no real surprises there. It was essentially the job he was doing, magically enhanced. It would have somebat potential, but not too much. Some knife rted ones maybe, and the projectile one that also worked with bullets. Really, there werent too many good gun [sses] out there. Firearms simply didnt scale nearly as well with ones level as magic did. They were powerful and effective at the beginning, before people really got going with gaining their superpowers. And while there were [sses] like [Soldier] or [Policeman] that got [Skills] that involved the use of guns, those werent that impactful. An entire build based around the use of guns would require high amounts of Magic Power and Magic Regeneration, making it essentially a [Mage] build with extra steps. Meanwhile, a lot of the [Skills] that affected guns only worked on them, while most other ranged weapon [Skills] didnt affect them, forcing people to create specific and therefore rather limiting and inflexible builds. In addition, the sheer amount of effort needed to create magical firearms was insane. Magical materials were harder, more durable, overall just better than what humanity had been using for thest several millennia, and that didnt even began to ount for the strange and downright supernatural qualities they might have. Using modern tools and techniques to work on those materials didnt really work out all that well, often breaking even the sturdiest of machinery. Therefore, creating magical guns required not only getting the materials, but also redesigning the weapon from the ground up to take advantage of the materials special attributes, at which point one still needed to build the machinery necessary to actually make the weapons. And sometimes, build the machinery to build said machinery. In the end, magical guns were possible, but wouldnt be all that viable for a long while yet. That being said, while making them was still a gigantic, world ss pain in the ass, having a few magical bullets lying around could be useful. Making enough to use them all the time was not feasible, but a handful could make the difference between life and death in the right situation. Huh. So thats basically just your job, but with extra superpowers, isnt it? Isaac asked. Basically, yeah. Whats yours? Raul asked. [Rogue]. Knives and sneaking around, with a little ghostly boost from the Aspect of the Specter. Isaac replied. Hm, is that the one that got offered right of the bat? Whatd you have to do for that? Raul wondered. It wasnt, actually. It wanted to turn me into an [Office Drone], but I wasnt a particrly big fan of that. Plus, like I said, whenever the blue screens start popping up in the books, the world ends. I wanted something to fight with. Isaac exined. [Office Drone]? No offense, but that isnt at all the impression I get from you. Raulmented. Eh, its just that I get to do what I want to do right now. I started studying Economics to go into business, then start rising through the ranks, retire once Id saved up enough. A boring life, but a rtively normal one. Id be doing the actually interesting stuff in my free time, like parachuting, paintballs, all that good stuff. And then the you-know-what happened and I realized that I could do so many other awesome things. I want to know how all of this works, do everything it lets me do just live you know what I mean? Isaac exined. I do, I totally do. For me, it was pretty simr. I like the outside, Ive been going on hunting trips since I was a kid, and I love hiking. So I studied Forestry and grabbed the associated [ss] after the [System] initialized. Raul said. That reminds me, do you know what [sses] the others have? I think maybe we should check that one of these days, just so we know. Isaac suggested. The Professors a [Healer] variant of some kind, at least I think he is, Im not sure. Karls a [Geomancer], but you knew that already. Patrick and Amy I got no idea. Raul told him End of the day though, what someones [ss] is wont matter much if they stay at Level 0 for the rest of their life. Are you suggesting they should start summoning and killing creatures to gain some XP in addition to the dregs they get during the experiments? Not what I was getting at, but yeah. No offense, but I dont think its a good idea to depend on you for everything. Eventually, were going to have to summon and kill stronger creatures, or ones you dont counter quite so thoroughly and itd be great if someone else could help out. Raul suggested. Im just not sure if Bailey will go for that. Summoning and killing creatures for power isnt exactly his mission statement, is it? And thats assuming theyre even physically capable of killing one of the summoned creatures. Isaac wondered. As a [Healer], Bailey would make quite a bit of XP whenever he healed someone, especially when the injury had been caused by a summoned monster, so he wouldnt have to kill anything if he didnt want to. But the others would have to start to get stronger the traditional, bloody way. The XP gains for just doing your job when said job wasntbat rted were nothing to write home about. I think it might be worth suggesting though. Oh, it absolutely is, if for how useful increased Fortitude is. What about it? Oh, it makes you need less sleep. Its really useful. Did I not mention that Ive started waking up in the middle of the night since Ive started increasing that stat? Isaac smiled coyly. That sounds kinda amazing, actually. How much free time do you have on your hands now? Raul grinned back at him. More than I know what to do with. Really, I think suggesting it is worth it, maybe we can even phrase it as researching a good way for people to level when they aren''t particrly fond of or adept at fighting. Isaac told him Anyway, is it much further? Couple of minutes. Raul said as they kept chatting about how useful something like an increased Fortitude was outside ofbat. In reality, all of the Stats had hidden benefits in addition to their obvious effects. Fortitude hardened all of ones physical resistance, be it to avoid shock, reduce the need for sleep or survive horrific injuries. Once it was high enough, only losing ones heart or brain would be lethal and given that Isaac had [Hydras Regeneration], he could simply regrow the former if he had enough time and mana to do so. Meanwhile, Strength would slowly transform into a form of tactile telekinesis that helped people properly hold onto whatever they were carrying, allowing them to, in theory, catch a ne superman style. On the other hand, both Magic Regeneration and Magic Power increased the power of the human brain, allowing for better memory, faster and moreplex thinking and overall making it better. In other words, increasing them was incredibly useful even if one didnt actually need the mana. Agility, meanwhile, increased ones thinking speed in a different way, granting truly insane reflexes. As for Perception, while it might sound like having better senses woulde with some pretty significant downside, namely, overstimtion, it also granted a simr resistance to that as well as a perception filter to blot out unwanted sensations. All of that would be discovered and thoroughly researched in theing years, though some things, like the corrtion between Fortitude and sleep, were rather obvious. Were here. Raul said, gesturing at a nearby, chest high fence. Oh, thank God. Isaac slumped against the part of the engine hoist he was holding on to. Thest part of the journey here had been uphill. Only slightly, not something hed have normally even noticed, but when pushing around that stupid, multi hundred-kilogram hunk of rock even that slight incline made things that much harder. Morning, Mr. Mina. An elderly man in a sturdy looking suit waved towards them from behind the cage. He was around fifty, maybe sixty with an already receding hairline, but looked to be as healthy as Raul or Isaac. Clearly, this was not someone who let themselves go as they got older, instead staying active and fit. Morning, Professor Bishop. Raul greeted the man, then gestured to Isaac Id like to introduce you to Isaac Thoma, one of my new colleagues. He specializes in esoteric knowledge andbat. Morning, Professor. Isaac raised his right hand in greeting. Good morning, Mr. Thoma. Though Im curious, what exactly does esoteric knowledge mean? Bishop asked. It means I know a bunch of stuff about mythology, video games, and literature that seemed to have been eerily prescient in light of the situation involving the [System]. Isaac exined Also, like Raul said, Im a good fighter. Actually, Im the one who killed that thing. He jerked his thumb in the direction of the covered te Golem. Ah yes, the monster. Lets get it inside so I can get a good look at it. Bishop opened a door in the fence and helped push it inside, then pulled off the nket with a big grin. Its hard to believe that that thing used to move, isnt it? Bishop grinned. If I hadnt seen it, yep. Isaac told him It really is quite a sight. I can imagine. Shall we get it up to the shooting range? Chapter 15: Slimes Chapter 15: Slimes Are you sure were far enough away? Shooting rocks tends to result in razor sharp shards to go everywhere and then theres a risk of ricochets Isaac asked. While he was likely one of the most experienced fighters here, he could freely admit he knew bugger all about guns. The Golem had been propped up against the far end of the gun range, around twenty meters away. Itll be fine. Professor Bishop waved his concerns away, then turned to Raul What gun would you like to try first? As he said that, he stepped over to therge shed next to them and threw it open. Arge gun safe sat within, but there were also several other weapons next to it. Is that an atl? Isaac asked incredulously. Yes. Also, a blowgun, modern recurve bow, traditionally made bow and several varieties of javelins. I enjoy studying the older kinds of weaponry in my spare time. Bishop announced proudly while he opened the safe. So, which one would you like to try first? he asked. I think Ill try the hunting rifle since its what Id most likely be using to fight one of these things, then try the revolver and handgun on whatever is still intact. Raul mused. How hard are those to get? Bishop asked. Summon and kill? Not hard, its a matter of seconds. Getting it here, up that bloody hill if this is going to be a regr thing, well need some help carrying. Isaac said. Youll only summon them in that bunker of yours, then? How dangerous are they? Bishop asked. Not dangerous at all, at least not to me. I know exactly where the core is, and I have a [Skill] perfect for bypassing armor. Isaac told him I dont think Id be very popluar if I started summoning them where they could theoretically get away, though. And while I can handle them easily, using that as my defense is only going to make me look cocky. How about you, are you doing any experiments with the Summoning System? Not really, though Im preparing to. Were looking to check which creatures are the least likely to be a problem and find a good ce to summon it so we can see what their physicality is like. Though I dont think a little help from someone with experience fighting them would go amiss. Bishop offered. I think Id like that. As long as there arent any conflicts with my other tasks, Id love to be there. Isaac told him with a smile. Any kind of connection here could be helpful. I thought we were only allowed to summon in the bunker. Raul asked. Not exactly. Were only allowed to summon creatures in a situation that is as safe as we can make it, with unfamiliar creatures, that means a heavily armored and fully seble room in most cases. Also, where all your experiments are concerned, you need to conduct those in an environment that you can control. Theoretically, I could just start summoning anywhere as long as I take reasonable precautions, though in practice, Ill likely try to borrow your bunker. Bishop exined and Isaac took a mental note of that. If he ever needed to summon something while having some kind of official proof of where he did so, it sounded like Professor Bishop was a good person to ask. Im ready, clear the range. Raul announced, sounding overly formal. Isaac supposed it was some kind of verbal warning that needed to be given before one started flinging around chunks of lead at speeds that could easily kill a human. Mr. Thoma, you need to wear some ear protection. Bishop warned, holding out a pair of earmuff looking thing things. Ah, thanks. Isaac said, gingerly grabbing it and slipping it onto his head. He really needed to start learning some of the etiquette around guns if this was going to be a regr thing. As he watched, Raul carefully took aim with a normal hunting rifle and fired. An explosion of stone dust erupted, followed by cracks shooting across the surface of the Golem,rge rents radiating outwards while smaller ones spiderwebbed the space in between. It was still intact, but clearly damaged. Raul put down the rifle, flicked on the safety and announced Guns down, range is safe. The three of them walked forward towards the hunk of rock to inspect it. Its clearly still intact, but I dont know how much of that itd be able to keep if it kept moving. A lot of that would probably crack off. Bishop observed. Yep. Theyre definitely not bulletproof, but theyre not going to just crumble in the face of firearms, either. Raul added. Alright, time to shoot it again? Isaac suggested. The second bullet blew most of the damaged surface clear off, the third one turned what had been the inside of the Golem into a shattered mess and the one after that destroyed it for good. So, four bullets to kill a Golem? Seems doable, though a sledgehammer might be a better weapon. Bishop mused. Seeing as how slow they are, a sledgehammer is definitely a better choice, at least I think so. Though what Id like to know is if doing it like this would get the core. Isaac wondered You know what, Ill go see if Professor Bailey has one he can spare. And with that, Isaac headed off, jogging back towards the biology building. When he reached the meeting room, things were very quiet, just three people swiping at the air as they worked the [System]. Seeing as Bailey wasnt here, the Professor was likely in his office, so thats where he went next. Come in. Bailey called out mere seconds after Isaac had knocked. Adam, I was wondering if I could have one of the more intact Golem cores we got yesterday so we can see if a gun can destroy it. Isaac asked. Sure, go ahead. Does Professor Bishop want more whole golems, too? Not sure, I didnt ask. If he does, can we use the summoning room? Sure, just be as careful as you normally are. Bailey told him. Actually, that reminds me of something. While everyone is doing research, their Magic Regeneration is kind of being wasted, isnt it? In the interest of efficiency, could I suggest everyone takes turns to summon the various weaker monsters so we know what they look like. Isaac suggested. Ill think about it. Youre right, in theory, but there might be trouble with properly processing them quickly enough. Bailey cautioned him. Of course. We do have those storage boxes, though. And Patrick can do the autopsies while we do the tests regarding the definition of acid. Isaac said. Good idea. Quick thing though, when its preformed on an animal, the postmortem examination is called a necropsy, not an autopsy. Its not a big thing, but people are probably going to look at you weird if you refer to a dissection of a monster as an autopsy. Bailey said Also, do be careful. Nothing above a Tier 2 circle and bring the list to me for approval first, ok? Obviously. Isaac agreed Im going to head over to Raul and Professor Bishop, thene back. See you soon. See you soon. Bailey called after him, already turning back to hisputer. Five minutester, Isaac had returned to the firing range with the Golem core. So thats what they have for a heart then? Bishop asked. Yep, seems to be the only thing that they cant live without. Isaac told him. Im guessing that means you cant ever get an intact one not attached to a live Golem? Bishop asked. Unfortunately, thats right on the money. Isaac nodded. Alright, lets see what would happen if it got shot. Bishop said, a wide grin on his face. You like this sort of thing, dont you Professor? Isaac asked. I do, actually. I teach forestry here at the university, give most of the lessons needed for a firearms license, I spend a lot of time hunting in my free time. Theres a lot we know about the natural world and the usual hunting game, but now that theres monsters running around theres so much more to do, to see, to understand. Bishop kept the grin on his face, infectious excitement in his voice. Along with a heaping dose of danger. Raulmented Literally thousands of people have died at the hands of carelessly summoned monsters. Even if the modern world doesnt like to admit it, death is a part of life, everyone dies eventually, myself included. Im going to see where this [System] leads me and if that costs me my life, Im alright with that. Id definitely like to avoid that, in fact, Im going to do everything I can to do so, but Im still willing to risk it. Bishop exined, softly shaking his head But what about you, Mr. Thoma, are you really so different from me? You seem like a bright young man, yet you fight monsters up close. And if the state of that Golem you brought in is any indication, youve gotten rather good at it. You want to explore this brave new world too, dont you? Of course I do. Isaac said Now I have to ask though, howe you havent started summoning creatures yet? With an attitude like that, you mean? Bishopughed Simple. Im willing to do something exceedingly dangerous, but that doesnt mean Im willing to expose others to that danger. Ive spent a lot of time hunting with my new [Hunter] [ss] to find out what I can do and once Professor Baileys group has gathered more information on what a specific entry on the summoning list is, what it can do and how dangerous it is, I can prepare to fight that specific creature and safely dispatch it without needing a heavily armored bunker. Well, now I feel like a reckless idiot. Isaac sighed. If youve survived unharmed so far, you cant have been that reckless. Bishop observed Just dont summon a dragon just yet and I think itll be fine. Oh, believe me, I dont n on going that far anytime soon. Isaac smiled. The two of them kept chatting a little bit, punctuated only by the asional gunshot and subsequent inspection of the point of impact. As it turned out, Isaac really liked the Professor. The man was the exact kind of careful, yet also willing to take risks that would take him far in this brand new world of Levels and superpowers. Unfortunately, Isaac couldnt recall hearing about any famous Bishops in the other timeline, so something had likely happened to the man. He really hoped it was something more along the lines of retirement or a change in priorities as opposed to a violent death, but he couldnt be sure. Once the existing Golem body and the core Isaac had just brought had beenpletely destroyed, all three of them ended up walking back, getting joined by several burly men on the way. Apparently, Bishop had called for others to help carry the next Golem to the firing range after Isaac hadined about how heavy the damn things were. Hey Professor Bailey, nice ce. Bishop greeted once Bailey had called him in. Thank you, Professor Bishop. Is everything alright? Bailey asked and Isaac could see his forehead crinkling with consternation. Of course. I wanted to get another Golem and apparently, getting it up the hill is a bit much for just two people, so I brought help. Ah, do you need help for that? If youre alright with your assistants conducting summonings on their own, then I think were all set. Bishop said and Bailey nodded. While Raul showed Bishop into the meeting room, Isaac retrieved a chunk of te from the storeroom, phased into the summoning room and charged the ritual circle. The usual spectacle of a monster appearing urred, and then it keeled over less than a secondter as Isaacs knife shed. The door rumbled open after that, someone clearly having pressed the button in the meeting room. Like I said, if youve managed to get through everything unharmed despite casually fighting monsters, you cant be that reckless. Bishop observed. Thanks. Anyway, I have to do something else down here now, but if you need more Golems and the summoning room isnt in use, I can help you out. Isaac told him as he returned to the meeting room. Pulling out his phone, he began to type out a list of the creatures he wanted to summon, including a short exnation about why he felt it should be beatable. But then he saw two rather pertinent emails. The first was from Wechsler and had some kind of form from the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture attached. Apparently it was the one for requesting the use of animals in experiments, already mostly filled out. For example, the reason for experiment was current world situation as it rtes to summoned monsters and as to why one needed to use actual animals, it said no viable alternative exists. Isaac frowned as he read through it, wondering if the official whod be reviewing such a document filling it was even legal, until he came to the end. For obvious reasons, only use this form if its urate. But if you want to summon and kill monsters just to get a good look at them, which Im guessing youll do eventually, this should save you some time. Read everything before you sign it. Huh, that was actually very helpful. And clearly, the only way there was going to be trouble was if the stuff in the form didnt match his ns, which wasnt the case. The second email was actually one that Bailey had sent to the entire group, basically a form with which they could officially request being allowed to summon certain creatures. Hed been doing most of the paperwork up to this point, being in charge, but this would allow him to delegate some of that work. Isaac quickly filled it out, put a digital signature on it and got an answer a mere minuteter. Hed gotten authorization, but hed also gotten tasked with killing a single Acid Slime, sticking it into one of the acid proof boxes and then adding a whole list of various materials to said box to check how caustic the slime was even after its death. As for the summoning reagent, he was to use aqua regia, given how strong an acid that stuff was, there was very little risk of it getting interpreted as anything other than acid. Isaac had to fight to keep the smile off his face. This was a good way to actually start levelling while here. The powerful creatures which were well outside of his weight ss, such as the Lesser Hydras or Specters he normally liked to fight, were not allowed. But there were enough other creatures to make that pretty much a non-issue. The issue was that grinning like a loon after being told he was allowed to kill something would hardly be a good look. In fact, he was pretty sure there were already people out there concerned for his mental stability. And they were probably even a little correct. Hed seen the world end, if hed walked away from that perfectly fine, that would be concerning in and of itself. But until he actually noticed something off or anyone actually used him of something, it would hopefully remain a non issue. He put a beaker of the acid and a piece of bone he was pretty sure was just a thoroughly cleaned chicken wing into the ritual circle, then had Patrick charge it and closed up the door behind him. He then nted himself in one of the rooms corners and surrounded himself with a ring of boxes to force the slime to crawl through at least one to get to him. In theory, it could have also gone along one of the walls, but Slimes werent that smart. Isaac knew that from experience. Alright, Im ready. he announced, turning to look straight at one of the cameras. Immediately afterwards, the circle shed and venomous green liquid seemed to boil up out of the floor. The slime was around the size of a beer keg, giving it a volume of roughly five liters. Most of its body was a slightly opaque liquid, though Isaac could slightly see through it. Only a single spot in its body was different, having a fist sized dark orb sitting near the bottom of its blob. The core. It began to flow over in the direction of the meeting room, but Isaac chucked a marble at it. With a target that had attacked it avable and far easier to get at than the summoner, the Acid Slime changed targets. It was moving more quickly than one might expect a slime to be moving, but that didnt make it actually fast. In fact, Isaac was tapping his foot on the ground as he waited for it to get closer, clutching a battered looking screwdriver in his right hand. After all, he wasnt about to stick his favorite weapon into a pool of acid. Almost ten seconds after the pebble had smacked into the mound of living acid, it had finally climbed up one box,nded inside and was currently trying to move on into the next. Yeah, nope. [Piercing Strike] flickered along the screwdriver as Isaac rammed it straight into the core and the Slime immediately went limp. Now that whatever intelligence had been directing it was gone, it started behaving like a liquid. Acid Slime (Lv. 2) has been in. 10 XP gained Isaac snatched the top part of the box from the floor beside him and put it on top, then had Patrick open the door and carried said box into the storage room. There, he put it into a second,rger box that would prevent acid from sloshing everywhere in case the first one somehow got dissolved. Now that it was rtively safely stored, he dumped in a sample of every material typemonly used inside the building he was in, such as steel rebar, concrete, ss as well as a chicken thing and several materials that were normally resistant to acid to check what would be best for containing this particr species in the future. Aaaannnd done. Hey Adam, I got that Acid Slime sample safely stored away in the storeroom. Anything else you want me to do? Isaac asked, standing in the doorway of Baileys office once again. Actually, could you get me twenty more dead Acid Slimes with the following spread of materials? More if you have the time? Bailey asked, passing him a list. On it were some hastily written instructions for an experiment to check just what the Acid Slimes could dissolve. It would take a long, long while, but it would be helpful to avoid pitfalls when summoning these things in the future. Did the one you summoned damage the floor at all? Bailey suddenly asked, clearly just having thought of that. Nope. Seems like it only melts things on contact when it wants to. Isaac said. The summoning of all the other creatures you want to see will have to wait until tomorrow, unless you want to stayte? Bailey asked. Normally, I wouldnt mind stayingte, but I was actually invited to a frat party tonight. Im looking forward to doing something a little more normal, for once. Isaac told him. Well, have fun. Just try to be sober again before you summon something, wed catch hell if someone fought a monster while under the influence. Bailey cautioned him. Ay, ay, Sir. Isaac threw a mock salute and left the office. That would be it today as far as the whole summoning new and interesting creatures would be, but that wasnt that big a problem. Acid Slimes gave good XP and he had someone else to pay the mana cost. It would cost him a little XP, namely 1 per Slime, but that was well worth it in terms of saved mana. Acid Slime (Lv. 2) has been in. 9 XP gained, 1 XP given to summoner Acid Slime (Lv. 2) has been in. 9 XP gained, 1 XP given to summoner Acid Slime (Lv. 2) has been in. 9 XP gained, 1 XP given to summoner And just like that, the Experience started flowing in. Every person here could summon four Acid Slimes until their mana ran out and they had to regenerate it for around half an hour, depending on their rtion of Magic Power to Magic Regeneration. A total of 21 Slimester, he had exactly 200 XP, precisely what he needed to gain Level. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 2 XP: 0/300 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 120/120 Stats Fortitude 17 Perception 16 Strength 12 Agility 16 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Skills Hundred Faces III Stealth III Power Strike VI Piercing Strike VIII Sundering Strike VI Knives IX Sneak V Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration Two points had gone into Strength, bringing it up to 12, while four each where ced in Agility and Perception, the Stats that were technically meant to be his focus. But the stat boost from the Aspects hadnt really been in line with his intended build. Then again, that just meant he wouldnt have to spend the points he gained from levelling. As for the [Skill] points, hed be saving those. Also, [Piercing Strike] had advanced another Level. Once that was done, he summoned three more Slimes before he finally had the required number The others even managed to finish their task of looking through every possible summoning category for possible idental summons by 6 in the evening, allowing them to summon a single Acid Slime before Bailey decided it was getting toote and dismissed them for the day. Isaac was grinning as he left. He was going to a party. One that wasnt a desperate attempt to drown out the impending apocalypse in a haze of alcohol and other drugs, but a celebration of life and freedom even if there were going to be a lot of drunk people there. Chapter 16: Party Chapter 16: Party Isaac threw onest nce at the knife lying on his kitchen table before he closed his apartments front door and locked it. Hed spent several minutes thinking about whether or not to bring it, but in the end, hed decided against it. A kabar might have a lot of use as a tool, but it was also abat knife, intended to be used to badly injure or even kill other humans. Rocking up to a house full of potentially very intoxicated people with that on his belt would probably lead to some pretty serious misunderstandings, so it was staying here. Isaac grinned as he looked down himself, it had been a while since hed gotten a chance to wear normal clothes. A pair of nice ck jeans, a grey short sleeved t-shirt and an open nnel shirt with the sleeves rolled up. A nice and rxed outfit, one hed been able to select based on looks as opposed to how durable it was or how easily he could repair it. Half an hour on the subwayter, he was walking towards the fraternity house. Unlike their American counterparts, as seen in oh so many TV shows and movies, they werent your typical Greek letter organizations. Just groups of students who followed a certain set of traditions and helped each other out even after their time at university ended. The lower floor consisted of a series ofrge rooms, one of which contained a bar along the side while another was normally used for dancing during situations like this. Thest one had been used in a wide variety of ways, though it was normally a snack bar of sorts to clear up space in front of the bar that was dispensing the drinks. Ah, this brings back memories. Isaac muttered, grinning at the house. Hed been here plenty of times before, it being very close to where most of his lectures had been held. Hed attended many a party, many a drunken night of revelry here, though almost exclusively prior to the [Systems] arrival. And what a sight it was, this time around. Normally, it had had the normal party decorations consisting of streamers and the like. Now however someone had taken a lot of time and effort to turn this ce into the perfect monsterir. Sshes of red paint had been ced strategically to give the impression as if a bleeding corpse had been dragged along the floor. More brownish red blots, looking disturbingly like old, dried blood had been ced in other spots. Small paper mach monsters had been made as well, but carefully ced in spots where no one would identally break them. Obviously, these frat boys knew how destructive drunk people could be. However, the most impressive part was the trophy collection, a series of fake monster heads mounted on the wall, including a very convincing Devils Smander head, suspiciously so. Clearly, theyd gotten a good look at one from somewhere. The room entrance room had the usual array of coathooks and umbre stands, with the bar covering the entirety of the far wall. A quick look at the ckboard behind it showed that the drinks were monster themed, such as the Zombie, Green Eyed Monster and about a million this Monster Energy Drink and Vodka. One beer, please. Isaac ordered at the bar. With his Fortitude stat, he was actually a hell of a lot more resistant to alcohol than even the most experienced of drinkers, but he was still going to start things off slow. After all, he could always drink more,ter. Ice cold beer in hand, he ambled over to the where he expected the dance floor to be. It was still pretty empty in the house, but that was to be expected, given that hed arrived only a quarter of an hour after the partys official start time. The vast majority of partygoers tended to only arrive hours after the doors opened. The room was mostly empty, as hed expected, but not quite as much as he remembered from the other times. Several cases of beer were ced alongside the far wall while a bunch of beer tables covered roughly half the avable space,plete with the traditional red stic cups. Ah, Isaac, early as always. Where have you been thest couple of days? a well dressed young man strode over, grinning widely. Hey Sam, good to see you. Nothing much. What about you? Isaac asked. Same thing as now. Drinking, recovering from drinking, making sure sses are still cancelled, and drinking some more. Only difference are the decorations. Sam grinned. Yeah, I saw those. Really awesome. Isaac told him, then gestured to the tables. Of course. Ive been waiting on someone sober to y with. Sam told him, grabbing two bottles and expertly popping the caps off. So youve been doing this a lot? Of course. sses are canceled, the economy might be in shambles, but we dont know, theres too much chaos to tell one way or the other and someone read in a book that a [System] means an iing apocalypse. Hence Sam gestured around Party like theres no tomorrow, then make sure that tomorrows party is going to be even better than todays. Im guessing you were the only one in the office, getting every attaboy possible and are now running the ce? Actually, that was the n. But then I actually talked to my boss and he was such an ass about it that I decided against it. I gave him some anatomically impossible instructions on just where to shove his attitude, then hung up when he started yelling. Isaac grinned. In fact, that was what hed done the first time around. Hed made an absolute metric fuckton of money for being willing to work overtime, as well as mere justing in, gotten amendation and been subsequently promoted the instant hed gotten his Bachelors. It had helped his career and established him as a loyal and diligent employee, but neither of those things really helped in the middle of the apocalypse. Or were particrly useful in trying to prevent one, in fact. Oh damn, did you get fired? Obviously he tried to, but someone overrode him and sent me an email about how I shouldnt listen to the big bad choleric and could I maybee in because theyre understaffed? Then I actually quit, politely, because I already got another job. Isaac said, still grinning. Damn, that was fast. So, what do you do? Sam wondered. Actually, I work for the university now, doing [System] research. Isaac told him. System research? As in [System] System? Wow, that sounds awesome. What do you do all day? Sam asked. Well, it is awesome. Obviously, its a lot of repetitive stuff to make sure the stuff we discover wasnt just a fluke, but its still really awesome. Yesterday, I fought a bunch of te Golems and today I melted what feels like half a toolbox killing Acid Slimes. I dont even know anymore why I wanted to go into finance in the first ce. Isaac said. But now lets see if all that hard work has made you any better at y. Sam smirked as he dunked the first ball in one of Isaacs cups. That was bad and you should feel bad. Isaac deadpanned, chugged the cup and tossed the ball back, sinking it in one of Sams cups with a satisfying plop. Aw,e on, it wasnt that bad. No, it wasnt, just bad enough for me to give you crap about it. Isaac shed his best shit eating grin. The table began to empty at an incredible rate, each of them having maybe only tossed the ball thirty or so times before the twenty cups had each been hit. The way Sam had moved earlier had already made Isaac suspicious, but this left him certain of his hunch. Youve levelled. It wasnt a question or a suggestion, it was a statement. Even without an [Inspection] [Skill], something that most people would only gain alongside their second [ss], it was still somewhat possible to tell how strong someone was, at least in terms of Agility and Strength. All one had to do was see how a person moved. If someone had recently increased those Stats, that was likewise rather obvious, as they moved more uncertainly, more cautiously, unfamiliar with their new bodies. Fortitude and Perception were harder to determine, but it was still quite possible. By watching how someone responded to their surroundings, what they noticed and possibly just as importantly, what they withstood. Someone who could still hear after having a grenade go off near them, someone who could stare into the sun without blinking and be perfectly fine, that kind of person either had insane Fortitude or some degree of Perception and the resistance to sensory overload that came with. Meanwhile, Fortitude could be determined based on how badly someone was hurt by a certain attack, or how they were affected by certain substances, alcohol, for example. But Magic Power and Magic Regeneration, those could only be determined by watching someone fight or having an [Inspection] [Skill] the kind Isaac didnt have and wouldnt get as a [Rogue]. But soon, soon hed upgrade his [ss] and hopefully, the evolution would have what he needed. Based on how Sam was moving, he was likely a couple of Levels into an Agility and Perception build, but he could also have a Level in the double digits with those two as his dump stats. Given how long the [System] had been up, there was no possibility of thetter being true, Sam simply couldnt possibly have had enough time to reach that Level without being a highly skilledbatant and having spent every waking moment grinding XP. But that issue of not knowing whether the observable Stats were someones focus or dump Stats and the subsequent uncertainty about their Level was something an [Inspection] [Skill] could help with. Even if someone could prevent their Level from being read, just knowing someones [ss] usually revealed some details about their build. So have you. Sam replied, cautiously. Thats a natural part of my job. Cant kill monsters without getting XP in the process. But youve been summoning monsters for the express purpose of gaining power. Isaac wagged his finger Naughty, naughty. But clearly, everyone made it through alright or is there a pledge buried out back no ones found yet? Is that what you think of me? Sam asked, sounding a little hurt. Of course not, but monsters are really friggin dangerous, especially if you dont have abat [ss] and I dont think youd have been offered that as the best fit. Isaac told him. You wouldnt happen to know what a Mensur is, would you? Sam asked. If I recall correctly, its a kind of duel between members of different fraternities. Its also not a real duel because of legal concerns, I was under the impression its rtively, well, tame. Isaac said. But Im still a [Fencer]! Sam announced, striking a pose. Not bad, not bad. But you are being careful, right? Isaac asked. Obviously. But I dont suppose the professional has any tips? Sam grinned cheekily. First of all, the general consensus for summoning is simple, you dont. Isaac told him sternly as he set up the beer pong game for the next round. But if you absolutely have to, then be really fricking careful. If at all possible, only summon creatures where you know what they are and that you can beat. Even if you stick to Tier 1 circle stuff only, a bad matchup can easily kill you. A Ghost without a magic attack, a Fire Spirit without a fire extinguisher, a te Golem without a piercing [Skill] or a sledgehammer handy all of that can easily get you killed. Is it really that dangerous? Sam asked, his voice low. Yes. Isaac replied, incredibly serious And even beyond that, monsters can track their summoners. If you summon something and cant kill it its probably going to kill you. Sam went a little green at that. There will be other people summoning monsters, whether or not you want to join them is up to you. It offers plenty of power and other awesome things, but you need to be aware of the danger. Also, be really fricking careful because I really dont want to lose you to something stupid. Man, I care about you, stay safe. Isaac said. Love you too. Sam gave him a wry grin I can honestly say I have absolutely no intention of ending up on the news as the demon summoning frat, I got enough trouble with the neighbors as is. Seriously, weve hadints about someone vomiting too loudly. People, were a frat house and if you couldnt tell when you moved in next door, you have got to be blind. If it aint you, its going to be someone else. Mark my words, someone, somewhere, is going to summon a monster while drunk at a frat party and it is going to be all over the news. Isaac suggested. You really think someone is going to be that stupid? Sam scoffed. I think the answer to the question is someone that stupid?, the answer will always be someone is. There will always be a person stupid enough to think even the most idiotic, foolhardy idea is a good one. Isaac sighed. Never took you for a cynic. Sammented. Unfortunately, Ive learned a little more about the darker side of humanity since thest time you saw me. Of course, it had been years for Isaac while it had been mere days for Sam, but there was no reason to tell him that. Alright, another game? Isaac asked after hed drained thest cup of beer. I think we need to change something, superhuman stats make this way to easy. Sam told him. You know what, its a frat party, youre supposed to do crazy shit. Meet me on the roof. Isaac announced, grabbing another beer before sprinting at the wall. What are you- he could hear Sam say something as he nted his foot against the stone of the wall, kicked himself upwards and phased his hands into the ceiling. Now that he had good leverage, he yanked himself forward and phased his entire body to fling himself through the ceiling. He found himself in the attic for a moment, but another jump and phase put him on the roof. Yo, Sam, up here! Isaac waved. Have you gone mental? Sams exasperated voice rang out. Nah man, Ive gone and got myself some superpowers. Isaac called back, barely catching the muttered Good grief. thanks to his high Perception. Sam took a running leap at the building and snagged the edge of the roof, then pulled himself up with his superhuman strength. Youre nuts, you know that? Sam grunted as he sat down next to Isaac. Yep. Isaac gave him a one word reply and took a swig from his beer. The worlds changed, hasnt it? Weve only seen a fraction of the incidents that happened on the news, or even know about them at all. I can only imagine the chaos thats happened in the Third World. Sam said, voice mncholic. Fraid so. Changedpletely and utterly and I dont think its done changing. We can either ept that and use it, or ignore it and fall behind. And aint that a bitch. Isaac grumbled. But you really do love this stuff, dont you? What was that you did down there, that whole phasing thing? Sam asked. That would be [Spectral Shift]. Its a neat trick, isnt it? Isaac downed half his beer in one go, then continued A world like a video game sounds awesome at first, but you dont y video games twenty four seven. If I could shut it off, not live here in perpetuity, Id love this. But like this Im scared, Sam. Scared for the future, scared for what might happen, scared for what people might do with this power. Hell, I know someone will do something with this [System] that will make the world a worse ce than it already is. Humanity will always produce those kinds of people. Well, I think youre slipping too deep into the rabbit hole and you need to take your mind off things. Unless you somehow got awarded stewardship of the Earth, which would make it your job to make sure everything goes smoothly, hm? Come on, its a party. If you want to think deep philosophical thoughts about the nature of reality, at least do it drunk. Sam elbowed him in the side, drained his beer and took a running jump off the roof,nding easily. Clearly, hed gained quite a few Levels in thest four days. Isaac jumped down next to him and they headed back in for another beer. I do have to ask, though, how the hell did you manage to avoid getting seen when fighting monsters? Isaac asked. Before answering, Sam nced around to make sure no one was close enough to overhear One of the Old Men has a plot ofnd out in the forest we use for stupid shit like the one time we held a Walpurgisnacht for a joke. We use that. You know, if youd like to join us, I dont think anyone would mind a little help from a professional. Id like that. But I think Ill wait till Im sober enough. Isaac said. Oh, totally. Drunk summoning is idiotic. Like, Darwin Award level idiotic. Sam nodded along. The next few hours passed in a blur of good music, drinking, and the asional burst of [Hydras Regeneration] to control his drunkenness. Suddenly, the music cut out. Hue Guuuys, therea a magik somethig in te snakx room. Ut gnows. It took Isaac far longer than it should have to trante that from drunk speech to regr German, then he started sprinting towards the other room. There, a horrific sight greeted him. The table had been flung to the side someone, revealing a massive circle of runes, glowing a stark blue. A Tier 4 circle. Chapter 17: Monster from the Swamp Chapter 17: Monster from the Swamp NOBODY LEAVE! Isaac roared, voice cold as liquid nitrogen. It was not a tone he used often, but when he did, people listened. Hed only rarely led other people, preferring to only take as much authority as was needed to be able to order other people so they would stop doing something stupid, but he had. And when he had, hed learned to speak with authority, in a tone that brooked no argument. He was by no means a master in this skill, any first day drill sergeant was better than him by miles, but he was good enough. Especially for a group whose minds had been dulled by alcohol. And it had worked. People froze as they heard him, looking in his direction with a mix of fear and expectation. Whenever the person who charged a summoning circle gets a certain distance away from it, it automatically activates, so stay the fuck here! By the way, monsters have an instinctual sense of where their summoner is, so all running will do is paint a target on your back. Isaac announced, doing basically the only thing he could that might prevent the summoner from running away and dumping a very powerful monster in hisp. Reflexively, Isaac reached for his kabar, but it wasnt in its usual ce at his belt. Of all the times to not have a weapon He turned and looked at the gathering crowd, spotting someone wearing the traditional sash of a pledge. You! Get me a knife from the kitchen! he ordered the young man, who jumped into action immediately. After all, Isaac looked like someone who was in charge and that guy wasnt in a position to have met every member of this frat. Unfortunately, Isaac had only been in the rooms that were used during parties, so he had no idea where the kitchen was and he was utterly unwilling to go look for that while this runic circle could spit out a powerful monster at any moment. Thankfully, there was at least a slightly decent alternative avable. The bucket people ced broken ss in. It was by no means a proper substitute for his kabar, but the two shards of a shattered beer bottle he pulled out of it were better than nothing. And could someone please call the police and tell them we have an active Tier 4 summoning circle here, so theyd better bring heavy weapons. Tell them to bring the ''Sondereinsatzkommando''. People began to nervously move away from him while the pledge hed given an order to ran off. A few of them even began to pull out their phones. Hey, I can help. Sam told him, having just arrived in the doorway. He wasnt quite slurring his words just yet, but he was clearly far more drunk than Isaac was. And even if it hadnt been visible, Isaac had drunk just as much as his friend while repeatedly activating [Hydras Regeneration] to keep his level of intoxication at a slight buzz. Another burst of [Hydras Regeneration] cleared the rest of the alcohol out of his system, just so he could be certain he was going at this with all his mental faculties intact. Just maybe, this would go well at least thats what he thought until the circle shed, a silhouette rising from it, with said silhouette filling out rapidly. At first nce, the monster looked like a normal human, with the only real difference being that it had green skin. But then, the weirdness became all the more apparent. A round, bald head withrge eyes and an oversized mouth filled with triangr, sharp teeth, attached to the torso with a neck so short it might as well not have been there. Long, muscr arms that made it look like it was about to start knuckle walking at any moment. Overall, it looked like a kindergarten age child that didnt know what a human was meant to look like had tried to draw one and created some strange hybrid of a frog, gori and yes, a human, then dumped green paint all over the whole thing. In other words, a godsdamned Swamp Knight. Suddenly, Sam was standing next to Isaac with a rapier in his hands. Sort of. What hed grabbed was in no way suited forbat. You do realize that thats a wall decoration, right? he hissed, not taking his eyes of the still forming monster. Still enough of a rapier for me to use my [Skills] with. Sam shrugged. Isaac just rolled his eyes while internally using swearwords that could peel paint of the walls. Just be really fucking careful. he hissed. A Tier 4 circle meant that the summoned creature was between Levels 10 and 15. Seeing as this was a Swamp Knight they were dealing with, it was probably on the lower end of that spectrum, but that still put it at least eight Levels above Isaac. Thanks to his origin, he might be used to punching above his weight ss, but not by this fucking much! The instant the Swamp Knight had fully materialized, its head snapped over towards the wall and it began to take a menacing step towards it. Isaac internally swore at every deity he could name and even sent a few curses specifically at those he couldnt. In theory, whoever had summoned this fucking thing had put literally everyone else in danger and absolutely deserved to serve as a distraction while everyone else escaped. In practice, however, things simply did not work like that. It would charge at its summoner but right now, no one knew that it would zero in on its summoner and panic, possibly even hitting it and drawing agro in the process. Even if no one interrupted its mission to kill its summoner, no one knew to get the f away from the summoner and therefore, theyd all be in incredible danger the instant the summoner was dead. As tempting as the thought of removing the utter idiot whod decided to summon one of the strongest monsters that anyone could summon right now from the poption was, Isaac knew it was the wrong one. At a minimum, hed get a whole lot of innocents killed in the process. At worst, this thing would actually get away. Hey, fuckhead! Isaac roared as he charged. Hardly his most creative insult, but this thing was dumb as a bag of hammers, it couldnt really understand his words. But it could interpret his tone, which should let it catch the gist of his shout just fine. And while a mere shout would never dissuade any summon from murdering its summoner, that was hardly all Isaac had nned. He charged, wielding the two ss shards as if they were actual, proper weapons. It wouldnt be the first time he fought a monster with an improvised weapon, though he normally had other advantages. [Piercing Strike] covered the shard in his right hand in yellow light as he stabbed it into the Knights neck. He struck true, but it exploded in his hand as he did so. Razor sharp slivers of ss stuck in his hand, but that was something he could survive. Meanwhile, the Swamp Knight was bleeding from arge, gaping hole in its neck as well as countless smaller holes that surrounded it. Unfortunately, things wouldnt be that easy. That wound would be painful, yes, but not final. A fist was thrown at his face, whistling through the air with enough force to turn his head into a cloud of blood and bone fragments, but a mere thought triggered [Spectral Shift]. Isaac stepped through the Knight and whirled,shing out with the other shard. It was essentially the bottom half of a beer bottle with a single particrly long, pointy bit erupting upwards. That made it much more sturdy and a hell of a lot less likely to shred his hand when he struck the damn monster. It surged forward, wreathed in the red glow of [Power Strike] and smashed into the Swamp Knights back. it shattered nheless, but the vast majority of the shards ended up embedded in its back, which had to make every movement particrly painful. [Lunge]! Sam bellowed, attacking in an unnatural looking movement as his rapier seemed to drag him forward. Oh great, he was a [Skill] shouter. Isaac just rolled his eyes, then narrowed them as he realized what was about to happen. A brief burst of [Spectral Shift] carried him through the Swamp Knights body. What the- was all Sam had time to say before Isaac mmed both palms across his chest, flinging him away. A split secondter, another activation of the phasing [Skill] saw Isaac outright ignore the pair of incredibly powerful arms that swished through the space his friend had upied a split second ago, the space his own body was currently standing in. And there went another five points of mana, vanishing into the void. They might have been a mere twenty-fourth of his mana pool, but those small expenditures were starting to add up. Given how he intended to focus on mana regeneration of Magic Power, hed soon have a level of regeneration that could be properly calcted on a per second basis. But sadly, he wasnt there just yet. Yet even though this should have been a bad situation, standing up right in front of this things face, weaponless, it also offered an opportunity. It wasnt one he would have taken normally, but he was running out of mana. There was no way he could keep this up for long, so he had to take the opportunities where they presented themselves, even if they werent perfect. He drove his thumbs into the creatures eyes, feeling them deform under his fingers, but not squish just yet. Damn Tier 4 monsters and their high Fortitude. But that wouldnt be enough to save its eyesight. Crimson light red around his thumbs and pushed them forward with extraordinary force as Isaac activated [Power Strike] not once, but twice. Warm, gooey jelly spilled across his hands to create a truly disgusting feeling but he kept pushing forward, hitting the bone of the skull at the far end of the eye socket and breaking that too. Unfortunately, that [Skill] had never meant to be used directly on ones flesh, much less a single digit. The version a [Pugilist] got was, but not a [Rogues]. Isaac gritted his teeth against the pain as the bones in his thumbs cracked, ligaments tore and bolts of agony tore through him. It was a terrible feeling, debilitating to anyone not used to pain, but Isaac bore it stoically. Besides, hed hardly caught the worse end of that exchange. Roaring in pain and agony, the Swamp Knight reared backwards, bringing its arms back to its chest to crush the annoying insect that had dared hurt it such. Activating [Spectral Shift] and [Hydras Regeneration] simultaneously, he phased back out of the crushing, lethal embrace while also knitting the flesh of his most important fingers back together. Unfortunately, a quick nce at his mana revealed that he was down to hisst 19 points, and he only regenerated five every minute. While he had some, he could heal smaller injuries in moments, making things like his fractured fingers a trivial annoyance. But that wasnt free and he couldnt keep it up for long, especially once he started taking heavier hits. Even blind as it was, the Swamp Knight was sadly not helpless, or too stupid to have realized how Isaac had escaped. Itshed out with a furious blow and this time, Isaac just wasnt fast enough. He turned to avoid the blow, hoping to save the use of [Spectral Shift] and thereby not almostpletely deplete his mana and he almost made it. The fist only grazed the side of his ribcage, but the sheer amount of strength behind it sent him flying, the area hit feeling like it had been tenderized. Groaning, he pushed himself to his feet, the feeling of razordes shifting beneath his skin making him wince. At least a couple of his ribs had, at the very least, cracked, but he feared it was worse. A quick nce at his Health Status confirmed that fear. Internal Bleeding, broken ribs, punctured lung. Yikes. [Hydras Regeneration] activated once again and this time, he kept it active until it failed due tock of mana. The Swamp Knight charged, having clearly heard the impact of Isaac hitting the wall, but he flung himself to the side as his battered body screamed in protest. Hended in a roll, rising smoothly and silently, then turned to regard the Knight. It was trying to determine where hed gone to, but it couldnt. [Sneak] was a part of Isaacs powerset hedrgely ignored thus far. After all his usual engagements of summon monster, stab monster, watch monster keel over dead hadnt required a whole lot of sneakiness. Generally, it wasnt that useful against monsters youd summoned yourself. But in the other timeline, it had been a core part of his move set, especially when it came to killing monsters that roamed freely. He could see Sam rising to his feet unsteadily out of the corner of his eye and made harried stop movements, trying to wave his friend off. Sam nced at him, nodded, and slunk out through the door. If it hadnt been for the crowd, the monster would have easily zeroed in on him, but at least a hundred panicked people made for a significant degree of background noise. Isaac coughed wetly despite himself, trying in vain to stifle the sound with his hand. When he dropped it back to his waist, his palm came away red. His regeneration had fixed the injury, but his lungs had clearly been damaged by the strike, leaving blood inside them even as they healed. As the Swamp Knight continued to shift as though trying to find the right direction to point its ears, Isaac walked over to the bucket full of broken ss to grab another pair ofrge shards. The crunch of the mess inside shifting was loud enough to catch the attention of the monster, however. After all, it was at least Level 10 and while the way a monsters stats scaled with their Level didnt quite match how it worked with humans, its Level meant that it almost certainly had supernatural senses. It charged, roaring in pain and anger as its empty eye sockets wept bloody tears, but Isaac was already gone, having silently taken a few steps to the side. And that was that. He darted in, pointy bits of ss skittering off its tough skin and was gone again by the time the return blow begun, the heavy fist swishing past harmlessly. Normally, this would have been it. It was blind and its other senses werent up to the task of catching him. Checkmate. Normally, hed have been alone, well clear of anyone who could have be coteral damage. If he just stood there, walking silently around this Swamp Knight, it would simply stop looking for him and go after its summoner, with all the coteral damage that would involve. And that was only if the summoner wasnt out of range it didnt start massacring random people. Neither of those were oues he wanted to be reality. Even as the Swamp Knight turned towards the open door that lead into the entrance and bar room, Isaac charged once more, ss shards shing. They still did very little damage, given that he didnt have the [Skills] or Stats to bypass its Fortitude, but they had to be annoying. Another fist shed past Isaac by less than a meter, but hedfortably avoided the attack thanks to abination of its blindness and his own sneakiness. Once again, his ss shards left shallow cuts in the beasts hide but didnt do any appreciable damage. The Swamp Knight whirled and tried to strike him, but missed. Over and over, Isaac shed at the summoned monster without doing appreciable damage, avoiding the return blow with casual ease. Neither of them was doing anything to the other, the only thing that was changing was Isaacs mana pool. Even so, it was only ticking up by a hair over five points every minute, and it was still nowhere near high enough for him to do anything with it. Unfortunately, at some point, the Swamp Knight just got fed up with trying to hit Isaac and stopped trying. It turned towards the door and started walking, not even bothering to turn when his ss des tore across where the carotid would have been on a human. It didnt care. A few momentster, it had already reached the entrance room and was heading outside, much to the horror of the idiots whod been standing there and watching the fight as if it had been some kind of entertainment. Now, theyd finally realized in just how much danger their unwillingness to run had put them in. Isaac just internally rolled his eyes, surprised it had taken this long for the screaming to begin. He knew people couldnt have possibly already internalized the reality of the new world they found themselves in, a world of terrible dangers and horrible deaths, but would it have killed them to have a little self-preservation? The Swamp Knight continued to march towards the door that lead outside, ignoring the scratches he was inflicting. A single nce at his mana bar revealed that he had a mere thirteen points of mana remaining, enough to cast either [Piercing Strike], [Power Strike] or [Sundering Strike], but none of those would individually be enough to save him here. None of his strikes were garnering any attention anymore and with the destruction of its eyes, there werent really any major weakpoints left for him to strike at anymore. Isaac supposed the beasts unmentionables technically qualified, but he knew from unfortunate experience that a Swamp Knights were nowhere near as vulnerable as a humans. If hed had a knife, he could have actually done something, even a single [Piercing Strike] empowered strike able to pierce its skull and damage its brain. That being said, a Level 10 monsters Fortitude would likely allow it to survive even a little after taking brain damage. Hed have loved to go looking for a knife, but he was only familiar with theyout of the public part of this house and there were none located there. Isaac cast his eyes around the room, looking for anything that might be useful, until his gaze fell upon a rather unusual object. It would hardly have been his first choice, but then a series of seemingly unrted random facts began to arise from his memory when he spotted just what he needed. Dropping the ss shards, he grasped it. Someone had died from bathing in alcohol, as seen in one of those stupid people do stupid shit TV shows. A Daily Show Clip about how dangerous the act of butt chugging was due to how quickly alcohol was absorbed by a mucus membrane. Andstly, the fact that Amphibians were quite prone to absorbing things through their skin, basically being all mucus membrane. Keeping all of that in mind, Isaac reached over the bar to grab a bottle of Stroh 80, a particrly strong liquor. 80 % pure alcohol, so strong one really shouldnt drink it as was, in fact that was strongly discouraged. The only way anyone was supposed to use this was in baking or a cocktail. A cocktail you lit on fire to reduce the alcohol content. [Power Strike]! Isaac bellowed, breaking his moratorium on shouting [Skill] names just this once. The bottle mmed down on the Swamp Knights back and burst apart in a spray of ss shards and alcohol. Fragments of the bottle cut the skin of the monster, cuts that were immediately flooded with some of the most concentrated alcohol sold on the open market. And as anyone whod ever gotten disinfectant into an open wound knew, that shit burned. A disgusting smell wafted up, bringing up memories of kneeling in front of a trash can, vomiting, of the single worst hangover hed ever had, making his gorge rise. Hed felt a living beings eyeballs squish beneath his thumbs and this was what got him to throw up? Hell no! With admitted difficulty, Isaac swallowed and ignored the nausea. Screaming what could only be interpreted as agony out into the world, the Swamp Knight whirled and charged. But it was still blind and Isaac was as silent as a shadow thank to his experience and [Sneaking] [Skill]. The bar shattered beneath its fists even as Isaac casually grabbed another bottle of Stroh 80 and broke it over the Knights back. It whirled, missing him by several inches and he smashed the final bottle avable over its head. Screaming its pain and anger out into the world at a volume that hurt to listen to, the Swamp Knight kept swinging, keptshing out, trying to reduce the pesky fly that had hurt it so to paste. Needless to say, it failed. Unfortunately, it didnt need Isaac to have a target to take its anger out on. Instead, it charged at the crowd outside, already stumbling as its skin began to absorb the high concentration alcohol it was covered with. It began to stumble, its already unsteady movements bing even less graceful. But with its power, facing opponents as weak as regr, baseline humans, even a clumsy and poorly aimed blow could and would kill. Isaac ran after it, strike after strikending, only to be ignored. Only when it had almost reached the line of fleeing humans it whirled, to his utter surprise. He was still able to avoid the first hit, but the second smashed his arm aside and grazed his ribs. Survivable, but incredibly painful. Apparently satisfied with havingnded a hit, the Swamp Knight charged the crowd and ignited. Chapter 18: Aftermath Chapter 18: Aftermath It screamed, waving its hands in panic as it ran in circles, the high proof alcohol that Isaac had dosed it in for entirely different reasons having lit on fire. Even as the Swamp Knight spun in ce, burning and screaming, the guy responsible for its state was roaring with glee. Can of hairspray raised to the sky, he sent a burst of mmable liquid through the me of a lighter, roaring in glee. Take that! Yet another plume of fire shot off into the sky, unleashed by a clearly very intoxicated man. Isaac just hurried over, clutching his injured left arm in his right. Give me that! he snapped, injured arm screaming at him to stop as he released it to snatch the lighter out of the drunk idiots hand. Doy ou want me yo gireball yoy? came the slurred shout of indignation , followed by the man holding the can of hairspray in Isaacs face as if he still had the lighter, seemingly not having realized that it was now in Isaacs pocket. Can you? Isaac snarked, ignoring the pain from his arm and ribs, channeling every drop of his slowly recovering mana into [Hydras Regeneration]. It wasnt much, but he was focusing on his ribs to the exclusion of everything else, the entirety of the [Skills] healing power flowing into the broken bones in his chest. For a brief second, the liquid began to spray towards his eyes, but he shut them, gently lowered his broken arm to his side and grabbed the offending object with his intact one, then stepped backwards. Meanwhile, the Swamp Knight had copsed to the ground, dead. Had it been the breath stolen from its lungs, the shock of its entire nervous system exploding with pain, or maybe the damage its internal organs had umted had been too much? Isaac didnt know, or care. It was dead, he could infer that much from the [System] window hanging in front of him. Swamp Knight (Lv. 10) has been in. 70 XP gained (100 XP base distributed across three people as per their contributions) And just like that, that fucking thing was down, never to hurt anyone ever again. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 2 XP: 87/300 Health Status: Broken Arm, Cracked Ribs, Internal Bleeding (see list) Mana: 0 /120 Stats Fortitude 17 Perception 16 Strength 12 Agility 16 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Skills Hundred Faces III Stealth III Power Strike IX Piercing Strike IX Sundering Strike VI Knives X Sneak VIII Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration A quick nce at his status revealed even more information. Hed taken one hell of a beating, especially so given that he was only seeing the damage inflicted by the final attack. But hed also gained innumerable [Skill] Levels, namely one each in [Knives] and [Piercing Strike], as well as a whopping three in [Power Strike] and [Sneak]. Speaking of [Knives], another new window popped up in front of him. Knives mon, Level X) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and nonbat applications. In addition, the user may repair any ded weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the users hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool. The [Skill] had finally reached Level 10 and been upgraded, gaining a new power. Perfect. Though he could have really used the ability to turn anything sharp into a proper weapon a few minutes ago. Then again, any kind of advantage could have turned that mess back there into something a little less of an utter clusterfuck. A proper weapon, another Level or two, anything. Wincing, he sat down on a random rock in the garden and just waited. Hed been hearing sirens in the background for a while, but they were finally close enough that even the average human, drunk people here could notice them. First, a perfectly normal cop car roared into the lot, the men inside jumping out and drawing their guns the instant the car came to a stop. They spread out, guns still pointed at the ground until they spotted the monster, lying on the ground, only drawing them up by the time there was no one in the line of fire. Very professional, Isaac nodded in approval. No one here, except maybe him, could easily handle a bullet, and the cops kept up the level of professionalism one needed to expect from them even in the face of this monster. Hey, wheres the monster? one of them, a younger woman around his age, shouted. Tught ere. the guy whod barbecued the Swamp Knight slurred as he stumbled towards the pair. So thats it? the second cop, an older man who wouldnt have looked out of ce as the grizzled veteran cop in a noir movie. Yep. Monster got summoned, covered in alcohol and lit on fire. Now its dead. someone else told him, sounding surprisingly sober. Grabbing a long stick, the older cop instructed his partner to keep her gun trained on the monsters head and then poked it, repeatedly. When it didnt move, he dropped the stick, but drew his gun once again and pointed it at the monster. Clearly, they were taking no chances. More cars were arriving, including a second normal cop car, an ambnce and a heavy, armored transporter that disgorged policemen in heavy body armor and were wielding far heavier weaponry, machine pistols, assault rifles, and someone was even staying back and climbing atop the transporter with a sniper rifle on their back. When the group of people far better equipped to take down a monster like that arrived, the ordinary patrol officers stepped back from the body. If it somehow had still been alive, a sniper rifle round to the head or a spray of bullets from multiple machine pistols and assault rifles would have put it down far more effectively than the peashooters patrol officers had as sidearms. Isaac coughed wetly, more crimson droplets sttering into his palm. A nce at his Status Screen revealed that he no longer had any damage to his internal organs, but some blood had still found its way into his lungs. Having anything in there was naturally irritating to the body, prompting a bout of coughing to get it out. Every cough caused his still damaged ribs to shift against each other, blinding pain radiating across his torso. The movement was even enough to jostle his arm, sending a fresh wave of pain stabbing into his brain. If it hadnt been for the incredibly urate reports on his health from his Status Screen, hed probably have thought he was on the verge of death. As it was, he was going to live, though he definitely felt like shit. Sir, can I get your name? the older policeman whod been the first on the scene stepped up next to him, sketchpad and pen in his hands. Isaac Thoma, T-H-O-M-A. Mr. Thoma, are you alright? Can you tell me what happened? the man asked. Ill be fine. Isaac turned his head to look at the man, not a hint of pain evident in his tone or expression. Catching the first good look at him was clearly shocking, the man unable to fully keep the wince off his face. Sir, I think we should continue this talk in the ambnce. the cop said, voice cautious. Ill be fine. Isaac made a throwaway motion with his intact hand. If he got examined by anyone with even a passing understanding of anatomy now, hed be lucky to get away for hours unless he resorted to punching someone. And as to what happened, its pretty simple. The music suddenly shut off, then someone yelled about something glowing in the room with all the snacks, so I went over there and so did pretty much everyone else. In that room, there was a charged Tier 4 summoning circle on the ground, so I yelled at everyone to not run away because those circles automatically activate when the person who charged them gets too far away. Nothing happened for a bit, but then the monster got summoned. Isaac then gestured towards the house. It turned in the direction of the wall facing away from the street, so the summoner had to be standing somewhere around there when the circle finally activated. I proceeded to attack it, taking its eyes and inflicting some superficial injuries with a pair of ss shards forck of a better weapon. Eventually, it began to ignore me and went after the crowd, at which point I broke two bottles of Stroh 80 over its back. It returned to attacking me for a few moments, then charged outside. It was at this point that a highly intoxicated young man used a can of hairspray and a lighter to ignite said liquid, resulting in the monsters demise. Isaacs report was brief and sinct in a way that spoke of long experience stripping data down the bare minimum. Uh-hu. And what happened to your arm? the officer asked skeptically, clearly unwilling to believe that this kid, who was currently cradling a broken arm, had fought and helped kill that monster lying dead on the grass a few meters away. Didnt manage to dodge everything. Itll be fine, though. Isaac said. And how do you know that monsters always look at their summoners? the cop asked, clearly deciding to ignore Isaacs nonchnce about his injuries, at least for now. There was a study published this morning, I work with the team that wrote it. Isaac told him, nodding Is that all, and can I leave? Uh-hu. Ill get back to you on that. But how about we get you to the ambnce now? the policeman asked. No, Im fine. Regeneration [Skill], all this will be gone in an hour or two. Isaac waved him off. Look, Sir, there is blood on your chin, blood that clearly came from your mouth. Maybe you have internal bleeding, or maybe you just bit your tongue. But you need to get checked out by one of the paramedics. the officer told him sternly and Isaac had to fight to not visibly roll his eyes. Im fine. Perfectly fine. I dont want to talk to a paramedic. Isaac waved him off, causing the officer to grimace, then visibly steel himself. Ive seen this before, way too often. People under the influence, they think theyre fine because theyre overconfident, or because they just cant feel anything. And then they end up in the hospital toote, with injuries far worse than theyd have otherwise been. Or we find them in the morgue. Youre getting that checkup, buddy. the man just ignored him, looking Isaac up and down in a way that made him think the cop was trying to decide on the safest spot to grab him. Im not drunk, Im perfectly sober, and I have a Regeneration [Skill]. Isaac insisted. Sure you are. the cop nodded But first, youre going toe with me to one of the paramedics, ok? It was a testament to Isaacs mental and physical exhaustion that when the thought of simply punching the man with his intact hand crossed his mind, he didnt instantly dismiss it. Is there nothing I can do to convince you otherwise? Isaac red at the man. Normally, hed have probably been able to talk his way out this, but he wasnt in his normal state of mind. He was tired, he was hurting, he was cranky. He was in the worst possible state for this short of actually being drunk. The cop just tiredly shook his head. Fine. Isaac said. This time, he really did roll his eyes. When the paramedic saw the state Isaac was in, she immediately motioned him to hurriedly lie down on the stretcher and loaded him into the ambnce. Onest question, what you said about how summoned monsters always looking at their summoners, are you sure about that? the cop asked. Yes, study by Professor Adam Bailey, conducted right here at the local university, published this morning. Isaac told him Catch this asshole, would you? The cop just nodded grimly, then the door to the ambnce was shut by one of the paramedics. The vehicle began to move, clearly, someone other than the paramedic next to him was in the drivers seat. Isaac supposed he shouldnt have been surprised, having a patient who could easily panic or simply outright die when left alone stay in the back on their own was a bad idea. Of course there were two people in the ambnce, he should have expected that, it was just that Isaac had very little experience with ambnce rides. Before the [System] he hadnt needed one or ridden along with a loved one and while hed gotten injured plenty of times after, at that point, healing magic had made them quite redundant. Whats your name? the paramedic asked and Isaac introduced himself, then handed over his ID and insurance card, just to get that out of the way. So, do you hurt anywhere? she asked, looking Isaac up and down with a watchful eye, zeroing in on both his arm and the streaks of blooding from his mouth. A brief nce at his mana pool showed that a few more points had regenerated, enough to activate [Hydras Regeneration] and keep it active for a couple of seconds. His broken ribs jolted him as they shot back into position, painfully scraping across his passage in their movement and slid together with a faintly audible crunch. His Status now showed them as merely being bruised. What was that? the paramedic practically jumped, sounding rmed. That would be my ribs knitting themselves back together. Like I told the policeman, I have a Regeneration [Skill]. As far as to what hurts, my arm is ever so slightly broken, so Id appreciate a splint to keep it still until it heals. Isaac said, giving her a winning smile. Not appropriate, he knew that, but he was hardly in the best of mental states. Alright she trailed of, slowly reaching into one of the many cabs that lined the wall for some kind of stic and Velcro contraption which she promptly strapped his arm into. So, how are things in the hospital? Have they started magically curing everyone and now the only reason to have multiple doctors there is the limitation posed by their mana pool? Isaac asked her, trying to start up a conversation. No, theyre still trying to determine if that stuff is safe. she told him. Isaac shifted a little to try and get a little morefortable, only for her to sternly tell him off. I know you think your ribs are fine, but you at least had internal injuries. Stay still! My Status Screen says theyre fine, so I know theyre fine. It hasnt lied to me yet. Isaac told her, but given her expression, she clearly didnt believe him. He just slumped onto the gurney, resigning himself to not getting believed. It would take quite some time for the magical healing granted by the [System] to actually enter mainstream medicine. Just like with Baileys research group, authorization to start experiments with the [System] as it rted to healing had been granted with lightning speed, but theyd also been conducted with the usual thoroughness of any kind of medical research. Of course, thoroughness led to slowness, dragging the work out for a while. Plenty of people would proceed to use their Healing [Skills] without proper authorization, not content to see people die when they held the power to save them in moments, but widespread use would take a while. A minuteter, the ambnce came to a stop and the door was thrown open, two people in scrubs standing outside. Twenty year old male, left arm fractured in multiple ces, possible internal injuries, no loss of consciousness, alert and responsive the entire time, no medication was administered. the paramedic reported. Also, I have a Regeneration [Skill] thats been healing me this entire time and the only reason I even got on the ambnce is because a police officer who thought he knew better than me. Im fine, can I go now? Isaac asked hopefully and sat up, only getting stony looks back. He slumped back onto the gurney. If you do all your tests, do you think I can be out of here by tomorrow? No promises. Just try to lie back, rx, we have the very best of professionals on staff to make sure you recover well. Isaac supposed that had been a very reassuring answer ... if reassurance at a good recovery had been what hed wanted. Clearly, there was very little chance of him making it out of here anytime soon that didnt involve physical violence or walking out through the walls. The former was out for obvious reasons and he still needed the mana thetter would have required to heal the rest of his injuries. Schei? Party. Chapter 19: Interlude Bailey Chapter 19: Interlude Bailey Adam Bailey was not having a good evening. Thest few days had been great. Utterly exhausting, but great, amazing, awesome, and every other synonym for good he couldnt currently think of. Bing a professor, gaining his own research team, getting to investigate the scientific mystery of the century, if not the millennium all amazing. Hed even written a paper in what felt like record time, a paper that would almost certainly be very impactful when it came to making ns surrounding summoning in the future. Hed been tired, but it had been the good kind of tired, the kind that let you know youd been working hard and achieved something. At least that was how it had been right up until this moment. Now, however blech. He hadnt be a member of academia because he liked fieldingte night emergency calls. But some utter dumbass had decided to summon a powerful monster right next to campus, in the middle of a frat party no less, and both the police and university higher ups had decided that the situation needed the attention of the closest thing to an expert the world had produced thus far. Hence, he was driving towards a frat house at three in the morning, a stomachache forming from downing the monster energy drink he always kept in his fridge for emergencies such as this. It would have been rather obvious where the problem had urred even if he hadnt had the address. The blue lights were shing atop police cars while barriers and tape were blocking off arge area surrounding the frat house. Arge fire engine was also present for some reason, making Bailey wince. Had there been a fire too, or had the summoned monster been some kind of fire spirit? He certainly didnt know, he hadnt been told anything beyond get your ass over there right this instant. There were also a pair of ambnces there, their own lights not shing. Given that they werent driving off, there clearly werent any emergencies still happening. Excuse me, Sir, this is an active crime scene. someone stepped up to Baileys car window and rapped on it. He just rolled it down carefully, not making any hurried motions, stuck his head out. Im Professor Adam Bailey from the local university, I was asked toe here. Instead of answering him, the cop just reached up for his radio and asked for confirmation, then finally turned to Bailey Can I see some ID? Here you go. Bailey handed over his basic ID card. This just has your name on it, can I see something official from the university? the cop asked. I dont carry my letter of reditation in my wallet, sorry. But you could always just look me up on the university website? Bailey suggested, sighing internally. Yes, being cautious and bureaucracy were both important, but that didnt mean he liked having either shoved in his face. checks out. Ill just call someone over real quick. the officer told him, voice a little smaller than it had been. As the young man scampered off, Bailey shut off his car and got out, looking around. A faint scent of smoke and burnt steak. Something had clearly happened to require the fire brigade, though it didnt seem like whatever had caught fire had been a person. At least thats what decades of hearing burning human flesh described as burning pork led him to believe. God, he hoped that no one had gotten burned. Professor Bailey? an older woman was walking towards him, wearing a wrinkled uniform that spoke of something being put on in a hurry Polizeir?tin Eisenberg, currently in charge of this situation. Yes, nice to meet you, though I wish it had been under better circumstances. Bailey nodded, then shook her hand. He wasnt entirely sure just how highly ranked she was, but given that her title roughly tranted to police council member, he guessed pretty high. Likewise. How much do you know of the current situation? she asked. Not much. All anyone told me was that a monster had gotten summoned during a frat party and that I was wanted there, then the university called me like two minutester and told me basically the same thing. he exined. Alright, that is basically correct, but weve actually found out some more information. The summoner appears to have been a highly inebriated individual who overheard one of the more influential members of the fraternity talking about how stupid summoning drunk was and decided to take that as a personal challenge. When he actually saw the circle glow after he finished charging it, he got scared and decided to pretend nothing had happened, but then someone else noticed and warned everyone. He was, ording to his statement, willing to just let it lie there until it went away but then one of the people who showed up looked like he knew what he was doing, so the summoner decided to go through with things. she exined. Wait, you caught the guy? Thats great! How? Bailey eximed. Getting someone this criminally stupid off away from anywhere he might inflict significant damage could only be a good thing. It was pointed out to us that monsters are able to locate their summoner, always. Apparently, that was also announced before the monster actually appeared so people had already thought about that by the time we asked about it. This being said, a bunch of drunk university students arent the best source of information and there were a lot of false usations, but one of my patrol officers has a [Skill] to check mana levels and there was only one person with basically no mana who hadnt also been involved in the fighting. she exined. And youre sure those people arent the ones responsible? Bailey asked. Pretty sure. The man confessed practically immediately and of the two who fought, one has an alibi and the other ended up in the hospital with some pretty serious injuries. He still could have been responsible, but its unlikely, especially given how much he seemed to know about monsters and how bad of an idea this was. Eisenberg told him And here we are, one dead monster. Just for the record, summoning circles do not go away over time. They remain active until used and if the summoner gets too far away, they trigger automatically. If someone charges a circle, you need to keep them close enough to not trigger the automatic activation and get as much heavy ordinance as is needed to deal with the monster. If a circle gets charged, you need to deal with it the hard way. Bailey said grimly, looking over the charred corpse Do you know what Tier the circle is? Tier 4. Eisenberg replied. In that case, Im really d you caught the guy. How did you hear about the paper about how monsters can track their summoner? Bailley asked. The young man who went to the hospital told us. How about you, I hear it was released only a few hours ago? Eisenberg asked. I wrote it. Bailey grinned despite the situation, then went pale as he put two and two together. Whats wrong? she asked. A friend of mine said he was going to go to a frat party tonight and he helped me write that paper. His name wouldnt happen to have been Isaac Thoma, would it? Bailey asked. Er, she pulled out a sketchpad from a pocket Yes. If youll excuse me, I have a phone call to make. Ill get to the monster in a second. Bailey said, pulling out his cellphone and dialing Isaacs number. It rang once, twice and he was starting to get worried, even though it was entirely possible Isaac was just asleep. Whats wrong? came a serious voice from the other end, though it indisputably belonged to Isaac. Nothing. There was a monster summoned to a frat party and someone ended up in the hospital. I was afraid it was you from the description. Bailey sighed in relief. It didnt sound like Isaac was hu- Oh, it was. I have a Regeneration [Skill]. Im fine. Isaac told him. You got sent to the hospital, though. Bailey cautioned him. I got sent in here by a pushy cop who thought Id drop dead otherwise and anything that got me out of going to the hospital would have probablynded me in jail instead. Right now, Im being held overnight for observation, which seems to really mean Youre physically fine, but I dont trust this [System] mrky. Ive been told I can leave in a few hours and if they decide to change their minds on that, Ill just walk out through the wall, its that simple. Isaac grumped. Why dont you just sign one of those against medical advice forms they have, or whatever the German equivalent is? Bailey asked him. Apparently, someone who charges a monster, takes possibly lethal internal injuries and then decides to literally escape the hospital would be considered a suicide risk. Ive gotten threatened with a psychological hold, so Ive decided to just sleep here in lieu of getting into a fight, either verbal or physical, then go back to work tomorrow. Unless this happens again, its just not worth it. Isaac sounded pretty tired and cranky. You know, you dont have toe in tomorrow, right? Take the day off, rx, recuperate. Bailey said. Knowing that the circle had a good chance of triggering on its own because the numbskull who created it got too far away saved lives today, Professor. Im fine, physically healthy and unless you order me to stay home, Iming in. Isaac insisted. That sounds great. In that case, dont bothering in till noon, I still have to deal with this entire mess and Ill have to sleep a little to be of any use. Bailey told him. Unless somethings changed, Id like to do the experiment you authorized me to do yesterday, vis a vie summoning one of every monster up to Tier 2. Also, whats it looking like over there? Isaac asked. Messy. Theres firetrucks, police, ambnces and er, German SWAT? Bailey told him. SEK, the Sonder Einsatz Komando. But did anything else happen? Isaac asked. Nope. And feel free toe in tomorrow morning, but only if you want to. Also, be really fucking careful. Bailey implored. Will do, Professor. Aye aye. Have a good night and see you tomorrow. Bye. Isaac said. Bailey bade him goodbye in turn and hung up. Im sorry about that, a friend of mine ended up in the hospital. Bailey apologized to Eisenberg. Its fine, no one could ever fault you for being worried after a mess like that. she told him. Thank yo- Baileys phone rang Sorry about that. Professor Bailey here. Hey Professor Bailey, its Professor Bishop. I heard about the incident and Id like to assist with the necropsy, do you need any help? the familiar voice of his colleague greeted him. Id like that. Ill call you once I know when and where. Bailey said. Actually, Im at the incident, outside the police tape. Can you see me waving? Only a couple of minutester, the other professor met him at the body. Ity there like a block of charcoal, stinking fluids dripping from cracks in its surface. So, either of you know what that is? Eisenberg asked. No, but I doubt many people do. This was a Tier 4 creature, something well beyond the power level of most people to handle. Anyone whos summoned one in thest couple of days probably didnt survive. Bailey said And the sheer damage the fire inflicted makes telling anything from its looks pretty difficult. If possible, Id like to do a necropsy as soon as possible, for several reasons. We can find out how tough these things are and the internal organs might help identify just what this is. Necropsy? Eisenberg asked. Autopsy for animals. Actually, thats part of why I asked for your help. Well have this body transported to the nearest police morgue in a few minutes. Eisenberg told him. Excellent. Ill need a few things. A monster that came from a Tier 4 circle is likely to be quite tough, so I might need a lot of cutting power to get through, well, anything. Someone with [Piercing Strike] or an equivalent [Skill] would be great. Id also like a proper circr saw and a bunch of extra scalpel des wouldnt go amiss. Lastly, Id like Professor Bishop to assist. Is any of that going to be a problem? Bailey asked. No. Eisenberg said, then called over a younger police officer Wachtmeister Klebs will help you get everything you need. Then she hurried off to yell at two people who were currently arguing about something, Bailey wasnt entirely sure what. So, this is what happens when a monster gets summoned by someone who cant handle it? Bishopmented, looking everything over By the way, do those dents in the concrete steps look fresh to you? Bailey stepped over to them and frowned, seeing there was still concrete dust in the small impressions. If those were old, theyd be clean, washed out, not filled with dust. These are clearly fresh. he said, casting a look back at the charred body. Well, shit. Well shit indeed. Chapter 20: Necropsy Chapter 20: Necropsy Autopsy of unknown monster, Friday May 6th of 2022, Case number 0-3-0-2-4-9, conducted by Professor Adam Bailey and Professor Victor Bishop. The medical examiner finished speaking into the microphone hanging from the ceiling, then stepped back, looking at the alien body on the table with a mixture of interest and revulsion, though tiredness was evident in his bearing. None of them had been awake or nning to be so at the time of being informed about the situation, but none of them were willing to let this wait until morning either. I dont suppose you managed to find anyone with [Piercing Strike] or an equivalent [Skill]? Bailey asked, addressing the officer standing near the entrance to the room, but she just shook her head. All I have is [Hunters Tools], but I dont think that will be particrly helpful. Makes my tools slightly better, thats about it. Bishopmented. Every little bit helps Victor, every little bit. Bailey told him. Theyd decided to stick to first names before everything became professor this, professor that. In truly formal settings, theyd obviously return to formal means of address, but they didnt count this situation as being particrly formal. Should we start with the standard Y incision, then? Open up the torso, see where to go from there? he suggested. Bold of you to assume well get through that skin without a chainsaw. Bishop grinned But lets try, see if we get anywhere. Do you really think its going to be that big of a problem? the coroner asked. Might be. Bailey shrugged This thing got hit with a lot and still looks rtively intact if you ignore the burns and it throws punches hard enough to break concrete, I doubt its fragile. With that, Bailey grabbed the scalpel, slotted in a de and began the first incision. The skin resisted to a surprising degree, the de barely prating though it pushed through as he applied more and more pressure on it. Yep, that looks tough. Bishopmented, then turned towards the coroner Can you get us every spare scalpel de you have? I have a feeling were going to dull the ones we use at record speed. The coroner just nodded and walked off at a brisk pace. You wouldnt happen to have a hunting knife on you? Bailey asked and Bishop nodded See how that works. As it turned out, a hunting knife empowered by a [Skill] worked better than a normal scalpel purely by the virtue of having better leverage while being just as sharp. Therefore, Bishop used it while Bailey stuck to grabbing a new scalpel de every minute or so. After over half an hour of struggling, cutting, even grabbing the rotary saw normally only used to open up skulls on some of the tougher parts, they were finally able to peel back the skin to reveal the monsters insides. Well, part of them, anyway. Those abdominal muscles are going to be a stone cold bitch to get through, arent they? Bishop sighed. Ayer of skin that can be peeled back that easily wasnt what I expected. Bailey muttered Once more into the breach, I suppose. Pass me that saw? Initially, theyd thought they were cutting through both skin and muscle, but unfortunately, they were rather loosely connected, which meant opening up the torso was a hell of a lot harder, which was seriously tempting Bailey to just give up and ask for a chainsaw. But this time, there were no other impediments and the internal organs wereid bare, including the heart once they removed the sternum. It had a rather unusual shape for something that hade out of a humanoid creature, looking familiar, but he wasnt sure why. Ok, thats just weird. Bishop muttered under his breath, barely loud enough for Bailey to catch his words. Were conducting a necropsy on a gigantic monster summoned to this world by magic. Id be more surprised if it werent. Bailey told him. Thats not what I meant. Obviously everything is going to have a weirdyout and shape. What Im talking about is the state of the organs. Theyre perfect. Ive been hunting literally for longer than youve been alive, and Ive almost never seen organs that perfect. Most of them have some in good condition, but then they have liver worms turning their liver literally into soup or something. But here, I cant spot a single w on any single part of its body that the guy who killed it didnt inflict. Bishop exined. So, these things are summoned in a perfect form? Bailey asked. Thats possible. But it could also be that summoned creatures are created the instant someone activates the circle, leaving behind a summoned creature in peak condition. Bishop exined his thoughts. Well check on that,ter. Bailey told him. And with that, the two of them delved deeper into the organs of the beast while the coroner watched, narrating their actions for the benefit of the recording all the while. Whens thest time you dissected a frog? Bailey asked out of the blue. Forty, fifty years, maybe? Why? Bishop asked, confusion clear on his face. Because I think I know what this thing is and Im kicking myself for not realizing this sooner. The materials would have been avable, and the physical characteristics fit. Bailey exined. Huh, go ahead. Bishop told him. See that spiral thing in the heart? Thats called a septum and frogs use it to separate their oxygenated and non oxygenated blood because they dont have a mammals segmented heart. And look at what I found in the Amphibian section of the summoning system. A Swamp Knight, which requires fertile soil and toxin. I saw the frat has a garden and they serve alcohol, which is a neurotoxin. Therefore, Im pretty sure that this being in front of us is a Swamp Knight. Bailey exined. Are you seriously telling me all you need to summon that thing is some dirt from the garden, a shot of vodka and a sharpie? the police officer eximed, speaking without being prompted for the first time. I know alcohol is technically a neurotoxin, but is that enough to count as a toxin in the eyes of the [System]? Bishop echoed the policemans fearful question. A few hours ago, I summoned an Acid Slime using a can of coca c, you tell me how broad the [Systems] definitions are. Bailey replied. Thats disturbing. Someone summoning something that dangerous with suchmon materials, just yikes. Bishop said while the cop just nched and stood there as if hed been turned into a pir of salt. Disturbing is one way to put it. This [System] has ced incredible destructive potential in the hands of literally every person in the world. Sure, they have to escape their summoned monster first, but if they do Bailey trailed off, leaving the ultimate issue up to the imagination of the other people in the room. If you put that out in the world as a paper, Im not sure whether that will help or not. But I can already see the sheer amount of clusterfucks this will end up causing. Bishop grimaced. Yeah, me too. Bailey said, trailing off, deep in thought. But are you sure thats what you think it is? Bishop asked. Im pretty sure, but the only way to tell for certain would be by summoning a Swamp Knight andparing the two, but the only way Im summoning a Tier 4 circle after this mess is on top of a hill of Semtex. Bailey said. Thats probably a wise choice. Bishop replied off handedly. And with that, they continued their work. You know, Im starting to think that we shouldnt be worried about this Swamp Knight, we should be worrying about the person who took it down. Bishop said after a long while Think about it, weve been cutting at this thing for forever and barely gotten anywhere, but someone inflicted that level of damage in just the few minutes it took for the police to arrive. That kind of power how long before someone demonstrates that the power to kill a head of state doesnt automatically confer the ability to take their ce? Or just does something that stupid in general? Bishop asked. I think Isaac is good people, I dont think hed do something like that. Bailey cautioned his colleague Besides, he has plenty of [Skills] to enhance his blows. Im pretty sure those injuries werent inflicted just through pure force of Stats. Bailey replied. You know the guy who did this? Bishop asked. He works for me. Bailey said. Hm, Id like to meet him one of these days: You already did? Bailey frowned. Whats hisst name? Bishop asked. Thoma. Bailey told him and Bishop nodded Ah, that guy. Nice, professional, has no idea how to act around guns. That sounds about right. Bailey said. Now, if only we knew if he actually used those [Skills] in the fight, thatd be great. Bishop added. You know I can just call him, right? Bailey asked, already dialing the number. And you know its in the middle of the night, right? Bishop asked. He was awake earlier, its worth a try. Bailey replied. Adam, whats up? came the reply a few secondster, followed by a loud yawn. Were doing the necropsy on the monster you killed right now, and we were wondering if you used any [Skills] in the process? Bailey asked. Yep. [Piercing Strike] and [Power Strike]. But then I ran out of mana, so I stuck to trying to cut it with shards of ss. Isaac told them. And [Power Strike] just increases how hard you hit? Bailey asked. Yep. In that case, I think thats something we need to experiment with once youre out of the hospital. Bailey said. If Im going to be yingb rat, could you do something for me? Isaac asked, mirth swinging along in his voice. Depends, what is it? Bailey asked. I was wondering if you could get me some dinosaur fossils. If you check the prehistoric part of the summoning list, youll see that all you need to summon a real one are some bones. Isaacs grin at saying this was audible. Summoning List (Prehistoric) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Dinosaur (max. 1 meter) Tier 1 Circle, Bone or Fossil of desired Dinosaur 10 Dinosaur (max. 5 meters) Tier 2 Circle, Bone or Fossil of desired Dinosaur, Feathers 50 Dinosaur (max. 10 meters) Tier 3 Circle, Bone or Fossil of desired Dinosaur, Feathers, Pig Iron 100 Dinosaur (max. 25 meters) Tier 4 Circle, Bone or Fossil of desired Dinosaur, Feathers, Pig Iron, Granite 100 Dinosaur (max. 50 meters) Tier 5 Circle, Bone or Fossil of desired Dinosaur, Feathers, Pig Iron, Granite, Obsidian Chunks 250 Ancient Lands Tier 8 Circle, rock and soil samples, petrified wood, Samples of 100 different Dinosaurs, 10 different Fossil Pieces 10,000 (max. 10 people) I can see that. Bailey said. Theres a museum in Stuttgart thats absolutely filled with fossils, including a carnosaur And the Mensch und Natur in Munich has a T-Rex head, one of whose teeth they might be willing to part with in exchange for a brand new skull. Isaac suggested cheekily. Teeth arent bone- but fossilized ones should count as fossils, but if the ones gained from the body work would be intere- no, that is a test forter. Ill do my best to get my hands on some fossils, promise Bailey said. Thanks. Isaac said and hung up. You know, if youre going to be fighting dinosaurs, youre not going to do that alone, right? Bishop asked, hunger and excitement evident in his voice. yep. And just like that, he''d earned himself an entirely new branch of research. It would be useful, but also one step closer to his te overflowing. Chapter 21: All to myself Chapter 21: All to myself Yep, thats the first andst time I leave the house without my knife. Isaac mentally grumbled as he returned to his apartment after a way too long stay at the hospital. He reattached the sheath to his belt, feeling the familiar weight settle at his waist. Not bringing it had truly been a mistake of gigantic proportions. It wouldnt have turned the fight into aplete curb stomp, but it would certainly have made it a hell of a lot easier. Part of the reason hed felt sofortable leaving it behind was that he hadnt heard about this incident the first time around and assumed that it would have been a very big thing, at least on the local news. And merely switching on the TV proved that hed been right, the demon summoning frat having been mentioned several times. Therefore, he could be pretty certain that this little incident hadnt happened in the original timeline, so hed caused this. Somehow. Sam had imed that the idiot whod summoned it had taken their little talk about the dangers of drunk summoning as a challenge, but Isaac wasnt entirely sure if he believed that. How could someone possibly be this stupid? Taking down a Tier 4 in the current state of the world would have been almost impossible without heavy ordinance, the kind that one really shouldnt be using in urban areas. Or maybe heavy armor piercing weaponry, which would have taken a while to get to the ce they were needed. Isaac could feel his faith in humanity reach an all-time low, something he hadnt thought possible after witnessing human stupidity literally end the world. Literally the only saving grace was that for every idiot or malicious asshole, there was someone there who would stand up to tyranny or clean up the mess, whatever was required. In this case, that person had been Isaac. This was his life now, he supposed. One of the strongest people in the world, cleaning up after everyone. He probably could take on most people right now if things like equipment were equal, having a literal decade of experience fighting within the confines of the [System] on them and he was almost certainly one of the strongest in terms of purebat power, but not the strongest. Surprisingly enough, that honor didnt fall to people like Calise, or anyone else in a position of true authority, at least not if they wanted to keep their organization running. It was simply that theyd need to spend a lot of time on organizational and bureaucratic matters. Nor was it the people whod likely end up fighting monsters, like the police. They needed to be in a position to respond to incidents, something that was hard to do when they were constantly training and grinding. No, it was the people who had literally done nothing but train since initialization, and there were likely several of those, whod be the strongest. The people who maximized their time, had the resources to summon nonstop, whose seemingly only goal was to get stronger. Isaac had thought about going that route but decided against it. If things went as they had in the original timeline, then humanity would go extinct, that was just a in fact. Another fact was that literally the only thing that was different this time around was him and his memories. If things were going to go differently, then he was the one who needed to make that happen. But one person, no matter how powerful, would never be able to beat everything that the [System] had thrown their way. If nothing else, he could only be in one ce at once. That was why he was working with Bailey, giving him prompts for new avenues of research without making it obvious what he was doing. Information like that would lead to new discoveries, new tricks, reveal pitfalls that needed to be avoided, overall just improve the power and safety of humanity. He was still working on getting stronger, of course, but that wasnt his primary focus, empowering others was. Once hed showered and gotten dressed in new clothes, Isaac left for the university. He was going to be summoning anyway, he might as well be doing so where the bodies would be useful and on someone elses dime. The university building was fuller than it had been thest few days, not as full as it should have been during normal operations, but it was still noticeably different. Walking down into the bowels of the building felt weirdly normal by now. Hed only worked here for two days, but this, all of this, already seemed familiar. The normal, grey walls, the pipes and cables covering the ceiling as he walked through small corridors it was weird how something so mundane could be soforting. One final door opened and he was walking into the corridor that held Professor Baileys department. Four normal doors, two on each side, and the heavy steel b that served to close the bunker. The mess that the frat party had turned into had only been a few hours ago and taken all of ten minutes to happen, but it had seemed so long. It loomed in his memories like a stormfront, something that seemed so incredibly vast and blotted out everything else. So now, while it had only been fourteen hours since hedst been here, that felt like a lifetime ago. There was a certain alure to having a ce to yourself like this, Isaac mused. It was a little like the first time ones parents left you at home over the weekend, knowing you could do whatever you wanted just as long as the mess was gone before they got home. Being the only person in your ce of work, it was silly, it was childish, it was somehow thrilling. Once hed made himself some tea, Isaac sat in one of the chairs in the meeting room and put his feet up on the table. No one here toment, after all. Was it silly? Absolutely. But that didnt mean hed refrain from doing so. Isaac finished his tea, reading the news on his phone as he did so. Thankfully, no names had been published, just that belonging to the frat, but that could still change. He had a shape changing [Skill] in [Hundred Faces], but hed prefer to not use that too extensively in his civilian identity. Finally, he set the cup down on the table and went over to the inte connected to the inside of the bunker and plugged in his phone. The tunes of Gloryhammer began to faintly echo through the walls and he grinned. Lets go. There was still a mostly intact Tier 1 circle on the floor of the bunker from where hed been fighting all those Acid Slimes yesterday, so all he had to do was fix a few tiny ws and put in a few dead flies to activate it. Would you like to activate the summoning circle and summon [Giant Bullfrog]? Yes please. Isaac said and a truly gigantic frog appeared in the circle,rge enough to swallow half a cat in one gulp. The most basic of the Amphibian summons, but he was currently working his way through all of them. He had to start somewhere. It gave him an angry croak and leaped straight at his face, a long tongueshing out to try and wrap around his throat, but it didnt worry him in the slightest. He sidestepped the tongue, grabbed it and pulled. The frog went flying into the wall with a loud st, leaving it to slump to the ground, dazed. One [Piercing Strike]ter saw his knife embedded in its skull. And done. A simple Tier 1 monster, hardly a challenge to even a Level 0 human. But it was good enough to warm up with. Giant Bullfrog (Lv. 1) has been in. 2 XP gained Isaac put some wood ash into the circle and charged it, then stored the Bullfrog while his mana recharged. He put it into one of the refrigerated boxes from the storage room, then properly and thoroughlybeled it with the monsters name, date of summoning and death, then finished it off with his name. Then there was a whole other form to fill out about what he was doing for his research team and why he was working with others instead of trying to do his own research, essentially. People had managed to get funding for stuff like that in the past even without a science background, but trying to go that route would have resulted in such a titanic amount of paperwork as to be unfeasible, so Isaac had decided against it. Once he was done with all the necessary paperwork, Isaac walked back into the bunker and activated the circle, making a Devils Smander appear within it. Much like the Swamp Knight hed fought a few hours ago, a Devils Smander was abination of several other creatures, though not quite in such an extreme sense. The base for the Devils Smander was another smander, a giant version from China that was so aggressive its English name was literally Hellbender. Another very obvious feature was its coloration, the distinctive ck and yellow spotted form of a fire smander. Then, someone had infused those two newts with the razor sharp teeth of a shark and the bite strength of an alligator, creating a horrific amalgamation that could theoretically ur in nature, but was unlikely toe into existence naturally. And the few members of this particr species that had gotten out lets just say that there was a very good reason even Isaac had heard about the ecological damage a Tier 1 monster had inflicted. But none of that helped it in its fight against a seasoned expert. Isaac used [Spectral Shift] and it flew straight through him with enough force to literally st against the wall. Isaac whirled and impaled its brain before it could even start to slide down the wall. Aaaaaaand done. Tier 1 monsters simply werent a threat to him, in any situation. They had a maximum Level of 2 and while that wasnt quite equivalent to a Level 2 human in terms of stats, that still made them quite a bit stronger than a baseline human. Yet despite all that, anything that came out of a Tier 1 circle could be taken down by an ordinary person as long as their powers didnt counter standard weapons the same as Ephemeral beings did. And just like that, an incredibly dangerous and aggressive monster had turned into no more of an issue than the paperwork its killing prompted. The Devils Smander went straight into another box and that was that. Isaac took this moment as a chance to look inside the boxes that contained the remains of yesterdays Acid Slimes as well as a misceneous collection of mundane materials. Nothing particrly interesting had happened, some things had dissolved and others hadnt, but regardless, Bailey was well on his way to writing his next paper. Now that hed summoned the grand total of the two creatures in the Amphibian section that could be summoned with a Tier 1 circle, Isaac decided to switch over to other categories. While there might be hundreds of those, Isaac decided to finish up the ones which Baileys research group had already summoned some out of. Next up were some Earth creatures. Isaac assumed he could use the engine hoist in the next room over to move them out of the summoning room, but even if he couldnt, there was always the option of just leaving them lying on the ground in here. Them getting trashed wasnt really a problem, after all, he could just summon and kill some more. He decided to skip the weakest Earth type summon, one of the te Golems hed been trashing casually since the beginning of the [System], instead calling upon a Lesser Earth Elemental. The creature manifested in a swirl of dirt, creating something akin to a slimy blob that was alsopletely made out of pure dirt, and attacked in an instant. All very much the Standard Operating Procedure for a summoned monster. Isaacshed out, his kabar covered in the yellow light of [Piercing Strike]. He pitied the poor bastard who had to conduct the necropsy on that thing, well aware of the fact that hed just destroyed the only actual organ that thing had. In essence, a necropsy on a dead Earth Elemental of any type would involve digging though several kilograms of dirt over and over again until one gave up and used the person whod brought the body of getting the specimen at a garden center. He was still at it when his music cut off, only to be reced with a familiar voice. Hey Isaac, where is everyone? Didnt Bailey text you? Er maybe? Ok, point is, there was an incident involving a drunk idiot summoning a monster and Professor Bailey was up all night conducting a necropsy, so he wont be here till noon. Im just getting us a few more bodies to examine. Isaac told Patrick. oops. Anyway, Ive got a nice and fancy smander body over in the warehouse, why dont you check that out? Isaac suggested Bailey will be here soon enough. Which crate? Thebeled one. Isaac sighed. Clearly, Patrick didnt truly see him as a normal scientist who did all the normal stuff, such as properlybelling everything. Thanks. Patricks voice rang out from the speaker, then cut out. Isaacs music didnt return. Hey, could you turn the music back on? he called out, receiving no answer. It seemed like Patrick wasnt in the meeting room anymore and someone had wisely removed the option to open the door from inside the bunker. Isaac just sighed and left by the simple expedience of phasing through the door and visiting Patrick in the storage room. Thank you for the bodies. Patrickmented, not even bothering to turn around to look at Isaac, he was that focused on the Giant Bullfrog in front of him. Did you know that normal frogs dont have teeth? But this thing does, so it cant be a frog, at least not a normal one. These things are just in weird Isaac supposed that was the only answer hed get, so he returned to the summoning room with a handful of ceramic shards and a sharpie, then summoned an Animated Garden Gnome. The monster seemed to explode from the ground, turning from a mass of ceramic fragments into a demonic, hellish version of the stereotypicalwn ornament. It lunged, swinging a massive garden trowel. Isaac dodged the blow, then smashed a [Power Strike] into its chest, sending awork of cracks shooting across its chest. It counterattacked, but he dodged once again and kept hitting it until it finally came apart. Over and over again, Isaac tore his way through countless weak monsters, gaining small amounts of XP until eventually, Bailey finally graced them with his presence. Chapter 22: The reward for a job well done … Chapter 22: The reward for a job well done First of all, Polizeir?tin Eisenberg sends her regards. Bailey announced into the meeting room, sporting a wide grin on his face Tonight, our research into the tracking capabilities of summoned monsters saved lives. Also, weve been asked to be avable to support the police where monsters are concerned. Mind you, no one expects you to fight unless you want to, theyre just looking for a little academic help. If anyone doesnt want that, just tell me and Ill make sure to exclude you from the list. What exactly happened? Amy asked. Some drunk idiot summoned a Swamp Knight and it nearly killed me, then someone lit it on fire, and it dropped dead. Isaac said, sinctly. Wait, you know it was a Swamp Knight? How? Bailey eximed. Kill notification. Isaac shrugged Why? Because It took me finding a very amphibian specific part of its heartbined with the fact that it came out of a Tier 4 circle to identify it. Knowing what it was would have been great. Bailey told him, giving Isaac a sharp look. But you did find out it was a Swamp Knight, right? Isaac asked Identifying a monster based on just a crispy corpse should have been difficult, but you managed. I think thats pretty impressive. Thank you. Bailey grinned proudly But the fact that a kill notice reveals the name makes that kinda useless, dont you think? Monsters get free and or their bodies get left lying around and rotting. Being able to identify them without being the summoner or killer will be an incredibly useful [Skill]. Raul told him. if I grab a bunch of knowledgeable people and ask them to identify bodies, golems for geologists, animals for the zoologists, and so on, and so forth, that could be useful. Bailey grinned widely, then continued rambling. Isaac would have grinned just as widely, if he hadnt been deliberately suppressing the expression. The simple idea of learning to identify creatures based on just their looks and summoning tier would eventually lead to learning to rapidly identify a monsters traits and weaknesses, an invaluable skill. And best of all, Isaac hadnt even been trying to lead Bailey down that path of research, it had just happened that way. It was reassuring to see that research would rapidly continue even without his prompting. Hed known that Bailey was incredibly smart and talented, but seeing it was a whole other thing. He just hoped the man wouldnt burn out. After all, he was loading himself down with a whole lot of projects at the moment. And as it turned out, he wasnt the only one who thought like that. Are you sure you can handle all that? Patrick asked Not to be rude, but it seems youve got a lot nned. I do, but Im going to do this just as I normally would, one task at a time. Bailey grinned Well finish the test on how the [System] defines things like toxin or acid, next we check out how easy it is to identify a monster based on its physical appearance and then were going to go ahead and check out something else. Maybe well check what happens if a creature gets summoned into an area that instantly kills it. And that was what they did. Karl had taken the time to build some kind of sledgehammer crossed with a guillotine style contraption that would pulverize a te Golem the instant it got summoned onto the trigger. At least in theory. Would you like to activate the summoning circle and summon [te Golem]? Yep. Karl grinned, clearly eager to see his invention in action. The Golem manifested in the usual cloud of te dust and promptly burst apart in a shower of rock shards that Isaac could already tell would be a bitch to clean up. Well, that happened. Karl said, staring off into nothingness. You have got to realize we cant see your [System] prompts unless you share them with us, right? Patrick groaned. [te Golem] has been killed by Environmental Hazard [Sledgehammer Trap]. All XP has been lost, all possible Aspects removed. And there goes that idea. Patrick grumbled, then proceeded to swear under his breath. Not necessarily, there might be a way around that. Bailey cautioned, then proceeded to furiously scribble on his sketchpad for a few seconds. Once again, the list of things to do increased in size by an obscene amount. The answer was pretty simple, yet also incrediblyplicated. The monsters needed to be able to move at least a little before dying, appearing on top of andmine or, as just proven, a trap, would cost you almost all of the benefits its death might bestow. No XP and no chance at getting an Aspect, just a handful of materials. If you wanted to actually get XP and all that, the monster needed to end up in the trap normally, the way it might if it were a free monster, roaming through the world. There would be a bit of leeway given to [sses] built around trapmaking, but not much. Things were pretty simple like that, but this was where it gotplicated. Simply vaporizing the area a monster was summoned into using artillery or something like that still counted as an environmental hazard, at least most of the time. That depended on how strong the st was inparison to the power of the creature. During thest days of organized resistance in the other timeline, that had been proven rather spectacrly by the American Military. Said information had then been sent to everyone else who would listen in the hope that someone else would be able to make use of it. In essence, two extremely powerful [Raid Bosses] with extraordinary defensive powers called Fortress Tarasques had been summoned on United States soil. Their defensive power was so great, in fact, that no one had been able to really defeat it without gathering every elite on the continent to face just one of them. The first had been decently well ced so that a team of special forces had been able to sneak a tactical nuclear warhead with a yield of around ten kilotons into its path and blow it sky high, getting the XP for the kill in the process. The second had been called into the now deste wastnds of Nevada, which was popted by a rather rming number of Royal Wyverns at the time, making traveling there quite dangerous. Therefore, the decision had been made tounch a trident nuclear missile with W88 warhead attached, hoping that its sheer power would kill the monster before it summoned more of its kind even in the event of a miss. But when the missile killed the monster, the [System] reported it had died at the hands of the Environmental Hazard [Nuclear Explosion]. But if things went well, no one would ever have to figure any of that out because Isaac managed to avert the course of history and no one felt sufficiently pressured to lob around nuclear warheads. That could be interesting. Do you already have a n? Raul asked. Not yet, Im going to write one up while you guys handle the rest of the summoning material definition. I actually have a suggestion about that. Ive been ying hatchet man for a while now and its been working, but I dont know if that will keep working forever. I think it might be a good thing if everyone else gained a few levels as well. And even if we learned nothing else yesterday , we know that Acid Slimes are pretty handleable. What Im suggesting is that we all start killing monsters, working our way up through the levels. If nothing else, getting a few more points in Fortitude will let you get away with a hell of a lot less sleep. Isaac said. We know I can take these things pretty well, and that they are very vulnerable to any kind of hit to their central nucleus. You guys can take them, I know that. And if there is ever a problem, Ill be right there. Now, what are everyones [sses]? he continued, giving them a winning smile. Well, Im a [Healer], though I havent actively used any of my [Skills] so far. Theyre mostly focused on fixing up injuries, but the medical consensus is to not rely on those until theyre determined to be safe. Bailey said I think levelling could be useful, but Ill still wait to use magical healing until its determined to be safe. At least barring an emergency. Im a [Researcher]. Seemed like the natural choice when the [System] suggested it. Patrick said, shrugging. Well, Im a [Mage]. Got called a [Researcher] as well, but I wanted magic. Amy added, shooting a look in Patricks direction. You already know Im a [Ranger]. Raulmented sinctly Basically supernatural wilderness survival, tracking and hunting. Like you all know, Im a [Geomancer], but I focus on structural analysis and repair, I dont have anything offensive. Karl said. It made sense, after all, his [ss] had ess to plenty of attack [Skills], but he had indicated precisely zero capability to kill monsters on his own. Sounds like those could be incredibly useful with a few more [Skills]. Isaacmented, then turned to stare directly at Bailey I dont suppose were free to try and get some? So that was what they did for the rest of the day. Summon slimes and killing them, with Isaac keeping a watchful eye over everything. The Acid Slimes were actually rather easy to kill, dying to just a single hit, but they still gave plenty of XP. Why? Well, they were wicked dangerous and them merely popping would result in the caustic liquid that they were made up from to slop over their yers feet. The only reason that wasnt an issue here were the boxes lined with acidproof material that covered the floor. Patrick was actually not participating all that much, spending most of his time in the storage room, doing necropsies. He only asionally showed up to ask for another specimen in cases where a certain organ of interest had ended up mangled. Bailey, meanwhile, split his time between writing up experiments, interpreting data and writing the result into the beginnings of another paper, only asionally dropping by the summoning and storage rooms. Things were progressing well until Isaac hit the limit with Slimes where XP gains were concerned. At that point, the very concept of only being able to gain a limited amount of experience from a certain creature had only just been introduced and now Bailey wanted to check out that on top of everything else. Experiments were altered slightly, everyone was asked to keep a log of all their kills and the Level they had at the time, and so on, and so forth. To Isaac, it seemed like Bailey had heard the saying about killing two birds with one stone and decided to interpret it as having to try to take out an entire flock with a pebble. But they were still doing what theyd been doing all day, only asionally straying from summoning slimes to get a specific something that Patrick needed. By the time evening rolled around, everyone else had at least hit Level 1, and in Amys case, Level 2. Bailey had suggested they sleep on what [Skills] to select and theyd agreed to put off grabbing new ones until Monday. By then, everyone could think about where they wanted to go, build wise. Ok, so see everyone Monday. Isaac waved And if you need me in theb, dont be afraid to call, Id love to help out. Worst I can say is that I have no time or am too drunk to be allowed near monsters. Once everyone else had also said their goodbyes, he practically fled from the building, d to finally have an uninterrupted 48 hours of time to himself. He also knew that some of his colleagues, Bailey and Patrick especially, would likely be working over the weekend. But that work would mostly consist of consolidating what theyd learned and clearing up the backlog of monster bodies awaiting study and properly cataloging every scrap of data, neither of which were things he was needed for. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 2 XP: 411/300 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 22 /120 Stats Fortitude 17 Perception 16 Strength 12 Agility 16 Magic Power 12 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Skills Hundred Faces III Stealth III Power Strike IX Piercing Strike X Sundering Strike VI Knives XI Sneak VIII Sweeping Strike I Far Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration A thought flicked open his Status Screen. Hed gained enough XP to increase his Level once again, as well as a Level in [Knives] and [Piercing Strike]. The former was useful, but thetter was invaluable. Piercing Strike mon, Level X) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for .5 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to bebined with other Skills. Cost: 10 mana per strike First of all, any use of that particr [Skill] would refine the weapon it was used with, sharpening it and repairing any small damage to the edge. The second new power however Manifold Strike mon) The user maybine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X avable for each Skill used below that Level. Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.25^used Skills [Manifold Strike] had been arge part of his future build, allowing him tobine all the various [Skills] that directly empowered his de into a single, massive hit. Or justbine [Piercing Strike] and [Sundering Strike] into a single hit in situations where his tactic of stick em with the knife and pulse [Sundering Strike] until they fall apart just wasnt viable. Lastly, his often neglected [Skills] that increased the reach of his de could now be infused with others that massively increased their offensive power, making them truly useful. The only issue with that [Skill] was that the mana costs increased exponentially with every extra [Skill], not additively, and therefore reached exorbitant heights rather quickly. Then again, abination of every [-Strike] type [Skill] he had was more of a finishing move than something hed use regrly and those were never cheap. As far as thebat log Bailey wanted everyone to keep went, hed just fudge the numbers. After all, Isaacalready knew the form and could adjust it to keep any fights he didnt want to be public record out of it. Basically, you could kill a maximum of 100 creatures of each Tier, from each category. Once you hit that number in one category, the threshold in the others would be slightly lowered for the others. And when you hit it elsewhere, it would drop even further for all remaining categories. That would then continue all the way until you ran out of things to kill. At least that was what the initial experiments would show, the ones conducted with only Tier 1 and 2 creatures, possibly a smattering of Tier 3. But when you reached Tiers 4 to 6, that number cut in half, then again for 7 to 9. Finally, once you hit Tier 10, youd only be able to kill 10 of each species before they stopped giving you anything, but that limit stayed in ce and didnt lower. Then there was a whole other method of calction needed to figure out how things worked surrounding [Raid Bosses] and even the [World Bosses] that the Summoning System contained. But Isaac only knew they existed, hed never actually seen one. All of that was something hed deal with on Monday. Working here was important for a whole host of reasons and he liked his coworkers, but discovering all the knowledge he was already aware of was hardly the most stimting use of his time. A nce at his cellphone showed that hed gotten an email hed been waiting for, but it wasnt good news. Hed been trying to see if he could rent a cabin somewhere out in the woods since hed gotten the money from Calise, so he had somewhere to store the monsters bodies, but hed just gotten the final rejection. Isaac sighed and began to type out an email to Raul, asking if he knew anyone who had a suitable property avable for rent. Then, after a brief moment of thought, he sent it off to Professor Bishop as well. He might not have the same rtionship with the older professor as he had with Bailey, but then again, Bishop seemed a lot more willing to let him do things that were a little more risky. He could still do without one, but having a ce to process and store important or valuable loot until a proper market could be established would be invaluable. Sadly, a lot of that stuff wasnt the kind of thing Calise would necessarily be interested in, and that was ignoring the difficulty of transporting anything bulky across two borders on a train. If he could get his hands on a nice log cabin to cure hides in, make some interesting leather, that could let him show off some of the more impressive gear one could make even without having a proper Crafting [ss]. Then, he decided to send another message to Samuel, though he doubted much woulde of it. The entire frat was in very hot water at the moment and getting involved in any kind of summoning, however indirectly, would just make that worse. He dropped the contents of his backpack into his apartment and then rushed off to get to the various shops before they closed. His first stop was a chemical supply warehouse that sold, among other things, ss infused with bohrium, making it incredibly resistant to most acids. Hydrofluoric Acid would do one hell of a number on it regardless, but as Isaac understood it, there was a chemical reaction happening there that was entirely separate from the fact that that stuff was an acid. Regardless of those random factoids hed overheard at some point in his life, he knew that these things would suffice for what he had in mind. He left that store with a series of normal beakers and sixrge, thick walled bottles with a ss stopper, which in turn would be held in ce by a screw on stic top. From there, he went to a ce the old him would have probably just rolled his eyes at. A typical, clich new age shop. Before he entered, however, he changed his face using [Hundred Faces]. Isaac sincerely doubted that someone would use this ce to track him down or that it even had any cameras, but he was about to buy a whole lot of things that would soon be as dangerous as military grade explosives. Wee to the Sternenkreis, how can I help you? a young man greeted Isaac the moment he was through the door. The mans looks were, in so many words, those of a hippy. Isaac was aware of the fact that he was probably stereotyping in all sorts of ways, but literally all he could think about when seeing him was hippy,plete with long hair, headband and colorful clothing. There are some things Id like to buy. Hold on, I made a list. Isaac said as he dug through his pocket to find it. Ah yes, I need several different kinds of crystals, any kind of crystal ball at least this big he said, indicating the size with his hands and some incense, though I want to check on the exact kinds first. We should have most of that, depending on whats on the list. Can I see that for a second? the young man asked, looked it over and nodded Yeah, we have this stuff. Be right back. As the employee bustled off into the back of the store, Isaac walked over to the wall holding the various kinds of incense and started sniffing them. Ah, this brought back memories. All of these crystals had magical properties. Supposedly. Isaac knew that was BS. He also knew how to make it so it wasnt BS. Healing crystals, magical single use effects, underwater breathing charms, incense based wards that could deter weaker monsters just a whole lot of useful tricks. And then there were all the nasties he could call into this worlds with these materials In summation, given just a few more points towards his maximum mana and these supplies could have been used to destroy the city. Will that be all? the young man asked as he ced arge pile of stuff on the counter. Actually, Ill take one of those trees as well. Isaac said, gesturing to the wall behind it. They were pretty little things, maybe the size of a football all told, a tree of brass stem and branches, atop a hill of clear crystal, leaves made up of dark onyx or obsidianpleting the look of a bodhi tree formed entirely out of metal and stone. Well, there were ones with all sorts of different leaves, but Isaac wanted that one. They didnt have any special powers or were particrly responsive to enchanting either, not that Isaac was all that good at it. He just thought they were neat. So thatll be the one with the onyx leaves, then? the employee asked, following Isaacs gaze. Yes. Alright, thatll be 2307.01 . Big renovation or style change? the employee asked. Isaac gulped a little at the price, but paid, putting twenty-four 100 bills on the table. This was a farrger amount than hed normally pay in cash, he had a lot more lying around than he usual did. Not really, just had a bit of a perspective change and now Im stocking up. Isaac gave him a slight smile I dont suppose you sell bags that can hold this stuff? After all, his backpack was already filled with sses that were unlikely to survive having a bunch of crystals, some heavy, ced on top of them. Isaac left that shop with a big grin on his face. Lastly, he just dropped by a corner store and bought some basic stuff and a few cereal bars for the road. Once hed put all of the stuff he wouldnt immediately need into his apartment, Isaac just took the bus out into the middle of nowhere. Of course, this wasnt ancient, true wilderness, given that Germany was a very popted nation, but still well clear of anyone who might randomly stumble across him. Isaac got off at thest stop, far away from the city and even anywhere with street lighting. It was dark here, but the stars overhead twinkled far more brightly than they did in the light pollution of the city. Of course, that also made it nigh impossible to see, but he had a solution for that. Opening his Status, Isaac spent 300 XP to increase his Level, put three points into Magic Power to bring it up to the point where he could summon any creature up to Tier 3 and then dumped the remaining seven into Perception. The world warped, shifted, twisted, his view of it going well beyond what any normal person could perceive, and then stabilized into a far more clear and brighter image. As Isaac strode into the deep, dark forest with a backpack full of summoning supplies, a massive grin manifested on his face. Chapter 23: Weekend Plans Chapter 23: Weekend ns Oh, what did you do over the weekend? Well, I walked into the forest where Hansel and Gretel might have taken ce in, summoned a bunch of extradimensional horrors and killed them all to get stronger. How bout you? Isaac chuckled loudly as he imagined how that conversation would go. He ducked under another branch and adroitly danced up one side of arge rock and down the other, still chuckling. He loved this, exploring the woods in a way that no ordinary human could. His stats were nowhere near where theyd been before, but still noticeably beyond human limits, especially his Perception. Literally any man who had ever lived would have had at least some trouble making his way through a forest he wasnt familiar with in the dead of night. But Isaac could do so with ease. After a few more minutes, he finally found a nice and open clearing, perfect for what he intended. Isaac dug a small divot into the ground with his hands, then drew a simple, Tier 1 summoning circle into it. A chicken bone and a shot ss filled with coke went in after it, followed by a surge of mana. Acid Slime (Lv. 2) has been in. 10 XP gained The creature had barely had the time to manifest before he a glowing yellow stick pierced its nexus and killed it. Now, every second mattered. Using a metal soupdle, Isaac carefully began to fill one of the thick walled, acidproof, ss jars until the liquid turned cloudy from dissolved soil. Thedle was already starting to look pretty corroded despite only having been used for barely a minute. As he watched, the acid slowly grew the pit deeper and deeper, slowing down as it did so. It was a good thing, Isaac reflected, that that crap broke down ratherpletely while it was actively dissolving something, rendering it harmless if left lying around. Ergo, no pollution, which was a bit of a surprise given that these creatures were meant to be used to eventually end the world. Then again, monsters whose very presence corrupted the world were unlikely to be summoned too often. There were a lot of things that were dangerous that people did anyway, but living chemical spills were unlikely to be particrly popr choices in terms of summonings. Just like that, he had one half of the ingredients he needed. And the second was just another summoning away. Into a Tier 3 circle went a piece of chicken breast that had been left out far too long, a few iron shavings, and a rock. He charged it, but then decided to wait for his mana toe back before triggering it. He sat down on a small fallen tree at the edge of the clearing and pulled out his phone to check some headlines. First human hits Level 10, gains ss evolution! Idiots. Isaac muttered, not even entirely sure who he was addressing. He knew essentially for certain that there would be people whod hit that Level before now, theyd just been smart enough not to scream it from the rooftops. He himself was falling further and further behind in terms of raw Level and Stats, but the actual power differential wasnt nearly as great. People who zed ahead by ganking simple creatures wouldnt have the same [Skill] Levels that he did, something that wouldter trante into weaker choices at the [ss] Evolution. It would be the people hitting that first Evolution in the second week after the [Systems] Initialization that would be humanitys future powerhouses, its greatest heroes as well as its greatest viins. Or, sadly, both. Basically, a soldier in China had hit that Level and been hailed a great champion, followed by simr pronouncements from America, Russia and a few other nations. and then a poorly fotoshopped picture of the North Korean Supreme Leader with a Level 100 [System] window above his head had ended up on Twitter from the official ount of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, instantly bing everyones new favorite meme temte. Then again, both the picture and subsequent ridicule were perfectly in line with what one could have expected from that situation, so it was hardly surprising. Quite a few articles talked about all the new advances science had made, though to Isaacs knowledgeful gaze, it was clear that they didnt really know what they were talking about. Hell, any of his colleagues would have been able to tell the same. Only a handful talked about actual papers, of which there were few. Theirs had literally been one of the first, seeing as theyd done literally everything as quickly as they could. Theyd set up ab within a couple of days, ended up on track to write said paper thanks to Isaacs shenanigans and here they were. Lastly, there was a lot of chatter about the economy. It was a dry topic, but oh so important. Almost all people wereing back to work now, though some were still staying at home, all the more convinced the end hade now that theyd had a few more days to see the true extent of how much the world had changed. And just like that, twenty minutes had passed and his mana was back up to full. The Swamp Devourer rose from the ground like the thing from the ckgoon, at least if one imagined the ground was the surface of a muddyke instead. It had four legs as most normal creatures did, looking rmingly like an overlyrge crocodiles legs, attached to a body that was mostly a frogs mouth, except filled with countless needle teeth. Four eyespleted its image, two were the nostrils would be on a normal frog, the others slightly further back and to the side, all glowing a dark brown. Not even bothering to hiss at him, it lunged, mouth agape and tongueshing out to wrap around his throat. Isaac just grabbed it andshed out with his knife, empowering it with [Power Strike] and severing the tongue just as it escaped the monsters mouth. Now, whatever resolve was keeping it silent failed and it let out a roar of pain as it charged again, not bothering to jump again. It was clearly smart enough to realize that jumping made its trajectory predictable and leaping would just end with it getting sliced to pieces. It moved quickly, far faster than any crocodile could, mouth agape and ready to chomp down. It was fast, faster than Isaac by enough to make dodging an iffy proposition. So he didnt bother trying in the first ce, using [Spectral Shift] to phase through the charging monster and stabbing downwards with [Piercing Strike] as it passed through him. The Swamp Devourer stiffened and keeled over, dead. And that was that. A quick nce at his Status revealed that [Power Strike] had levelled up once again, bringing the [Skill] up to Level 10 and granting it an additional effect. Power Strike mon) Users next blow will strike with as much force as though the users strength stat were 50%+2n% stronger where n equals skill level higher. This Skill may now also be safely used on arms and legs and has a reduced bacsh on the users body. Cost: 12 mana per strike, low stamina drain The description itself hadnt changed that much at first nce, allowing for the use of the [Skill] on his limbs and being less draining to use. Isaac knew he still wouldnt have kept his thumbs intact during that stunt the other night, but it would have certainly helped. The bigger difference was that the increase in the [Skills] power per Level had doubled, from one percent to two percent, making it a good deal stronger. All of that would be quite useful. But simple XP and [Skill] Levels wasnt why hed chosen to summon this specific thing. Instead, he heaved at the body and flipped it over, leaving it lying on its back. From there, he began to slice open its belly and flipped therge skin p to the side. A little more digging then revealed a series of ordinary nds. Saliva, tiny sweat nds under the skin, the gall dder built into the liver and a rather nasty looking one that fed directly into its stomach. The acid nd the Swamp devourer had never had the chance to use. Isaac grabbed it and opened up the bottle of acid, taking a moment to judge if it was enough, and then just squeezed the contents inside. The resultingbination had reached a terrifying level of infamy in the other timeline, known to the world as Corpsemelter Acid. Through some kind of decidedly unnatural process, not really exinable by the current and non-magicalws of physics, the matter dissolving properties of the acid now only applied to organic material and the mass limited itself to eating the body of a single organism. Perfect for cleaning up after a battle and soon to be a favorite of hitmen and mobsters everywhere. When he released all those basic alchemy recipes he knew, this one would not be among them. The viscous liquid bubbled and frothed for a moment, then settled down. Aaaaaannd done. Now he could easily clean up after himself and melt anything he didnt want to take with him afterwards. But those fights would be something forter. For now, he needed something a little different. Drawing out a Tier 4 circle took what felt like forever, but he still managed to finish in a timely fashion and put the material inside. A fist sized rock, a hunk of iron, a handful of dirt. Isaac waited for thest ten points of mana to recharge, filled the circle with enough magic to get it ready to summon, and then waited until hed regained all that power. This time however, he decided against browsing online, instead practicing with [Hundred Faces] a little. His face slimmed down, cheekbones rising, eyeballs growing more visible. It slowly shifted to that of a wide eyed, innocent girl blinking at whatever weird thing that had happened. The very picture of someone who had absolutely nothing to do with the kaiju rampaging in the background. Of course, he still had a male body, so that whole idea was likely to go poorly if here were to try it in real life. But once the [Skill] hit Level 10, hed be able to alter the rest of his body. Compress his muscles to hide them, dpress them to make himself look like Schwarzenegger, the options were endless. He just couldnt use it to make himself physically stronger, sadly. But it was already pretty strong as was. Another shift, and the face of a famous actor stared back at him. He tried out a few more shifts before he decided to stop to preserve his mana and switched back over to his phone. He was just trying to do too much and outpacing his regeneration. More depressing facts about the world, some doomsday predictions, and an actress he didnt know was pregnant. In other words, the normal news cycle. He scrolled through it for a bit, filled the circle when his mana hit full and then went back to the news. Isaac noticed the battery was getting kinda low, so he hooked his phone up to the power bank hed brought, then just kept looking through the news. Not because he expected anything good or important to show up, he was just killing time. Eventually, his mana became full again and when he activated the circle, a rock golem erupted upwards. A body made from heavy rock, reinforced with iron bars where the bones would have been on a creature of flesh and blood, small streams of metal threading their way through the rock to reinforce it and keep it together, with severalyers of dirt beneath the surface to cushion the monster against blunt impacts. The monsters basic moveset and capabilities were basically identical to those of a te Golem, just scaled up to the level of a Tier 4. On the surface. In reality, it was many times more durable, far less prone to cracking inrge pieces, highly resistant to blunt impacts and simply too physically big for most standard weaponry to easily get at the core. In short, one nasty motherfucker, tough as hell to take down. But in the other timeline, these things had been known for an entirely other property, one that was exactly what he needed here. The Golemshed out, a massive fist whistling past with impressive force, but it wasnt quite fast enough. Isaac dodged that with a simple backstep, then sprinted forward and punched his de through a leg joint, the orange-brown glow of abined [Power Strike], [Piercing Strike] and [Sundering Strike] tearing rock like tissue paper. That single hit cost him almost seventy mana, but it tore through the metal rod at the core and sent out corrosive energies that weakened the surrounding material to the point where it couldnt keep up the weight of the body anymore. The weakened section of the limb crumbled and fell off to the side, the stump of the right leg smashing into the ground. To avoid falling t on its face, the Golem punched its right arm into the ground to hold itself up. Another [Sundering Strike] scraped along the side of the Golem, weakening the surfaceyer of armor, then punched it with a [Power Strike] in the same spot, causing arge chunk on the front of its torso to crumble away despite the metal reinforcements, followed by the firstyer of dirt. The next [Power Strike] mmed home, using the hilt of Isaacs knife to hammer into the nextyer, which had also been affected by the [Sundering Strike]. Another glowing red fist hit home, sting a hole in anotheryer of armor. Keeping its left arm firmly nted in the ground to keep its bnce, the Golem swept the right arm out to try and pulverize Isaacs skull, but he just dodged. The instant it had both arms back on the ground to push itself back into a pseudo standing position, Isaac lunged, a de glowing orange with both [Power Strike] and [Piercing Strike] hammered into the nextyer of armor, sting a basketball sized hole into it. He drew the knife back, then jammed it home one final time with a simple [Piercing Strike]. The Rock Golem stiffened and stopped moving, a trickle of dirt cascading out of the wound. Gotcha. And that was how the golem stood there, on arms and legs, a very durable roof kept up by four metal and stone columns. As nearly everyone in the other timeline had known, if you needed a temporary shelter against the wind and rain, just kill one of these guys in the right pose and hang up some leather or stic sheets to close up the sides. Isaac had actually brought a few sheets of tent fabric and was hanging those up to cover up three of the four open sides, thenid down a waterproof sheet underneath the Golem. Heid down, using his backpack as a pillow. Creating a temporary shelter could be this easy under the [System]. He took the time to draw out another circle, this time a Tier 3. He was looking for something that would be somewhat of a challenge, not a Tier 4 against whom he currently still needed a favorable matchup to safely kill. Eventually, he came across a proper category he liked. Summoning List (Feline) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Stray Tier 1 Circle, Dead Mouse 10 Puma Tier 1 Circle, Pelt, Mud, Rocks 25 Snowfall Lynx Tier 2 Circle, Ice, Pelt, dust 50 Shadow Cat Tier 3 Circle, Ash, ck Velvet, Razorde 100 Saber Tier 4 Circle, Kitchen Knife, Pelt 125 Jungle King Tier 4 Circle, Ember, Ivory Chunk 150 Sky Panther Tier 5 Circle, Eagles Feather, Cats Tooth, Pelt 250 Ah yes, the cats. Gigantic winged panthers that could snatch fighter jets out of the air, immense lions with manes of me, sabretooth tigers with literal sabers for teeth and a Shadow Cat. A proper stealth attacker,parable to him in stats, a challenge. While he waited for the mana toe back as he usually did, he began to properly scout the surrounding area. Every rock, every patch of leaves that might rustle when someone stepped into it, just everything. Time flew by in what seemed like seconds and all too soon, he had not only charged the circle, his mana had also maxed out. Darkness filled the circle, retracting a secondter to reveal what Isaac considered to be a rather poorly named creature. It might be called a Shadow Cat, but that thing was a goddamn panther. It seemed to fade into the darkness around it, whisps of vantack matter sinking into the surrounding area to make it even harder to see. But Isaac had already gained a good deal of distance and was in full sneaky bastard mode. The panther looked around, head flicking to re at anything that moved, but it could see nothing. The automatic summoner tracking power actually didnt kick in if the Summoner was in some kind of stealth mode as stealth based [sses] would have been useless otherwise. It sniffed the air and leaped, hurrying through the underbrush near silently until it was looking directly at Isaac but hed already activated [Stealth] and turned invisible. Hed been walking around for too long, spreading his scent far and wide, making tracking a good deal harder. It might have been able to tell in roughly what area he was, but not his exact location. When it had turned as far from him as it likely ever would, Isaac sprinted forward silently and drove his dagger into its haunches. It hissed and spun around with incredible speed, barely missing due to Isaac flinging himself backwards. For the very first time, he activated [Far Strike], raking the multi-meter spectral de across its nk, creating a deep cut. The panther sprinted forward, ws extended to tear him apart and flew right through him. By the time it had managed to turn around, Isaac had faded back into the darkness. The Shadow Cat activated whatever superior version of its normal stealth power it had and went almostpletely invisible, making tracking it a whole lot harder. Isaac grinned inwardly. This was what hed been hoping for. The Flow. That wasnt actually a gaming term, but rather an expression from psychology. It was the state of mind of someone doing something challenging but not so hard as to crush their spirits. The state that video games were meant to put their yers into, just as puzzle books and the like did. And that was what the Shadow Cat was. A fight against a proper enemy with powers that drew out the fight, challenging. A game of cat and mouse where the fighters yed both roles simultaneously. The ambush scene repeated itself twice more before the caty dead, but dead it was. Panting, Isaac sat down next to it and began to skin it. Good fight. Once the skin had been scraped free of flesh and hung from the side of the Rock golem, he poured a good amount of Corpsemelter acid over what remained, as well as the body of the Swamp Devourer, then fled from the noxious fumes. Isaacid down in the little shelter and pulled out his phone, checking the news once again, but he was getting bored. It didnt seem like there was much more he needed to know. So, he checked his various forms of social media. Sam had answered to his message with an ok, see what I can do, Raul had asked him if he would like to join him and some friends on a hunting trip and Bailey had sent out a generic have a nice weekend message. But those were only the kinds of messages he wanted to see. There were dozens of others, from friends and family, all umted over the past five days. His mother, his sister, his sister from another mister that had been one of his best friends since childhood he wanted to talk to precisely none of them. One by one, he deleted the messages, removed himself from any group chats and blocked them. Carefully, he set down his phone next to the charging bank and walked out of the shelter. Hed liked all those people in the other timeline, loved them, in some cases. And then, theyd left. Some had simply drifted away as more distant friends and acquaintances were wont to do, others had died, falling prey to the monsters that were slowly conquering the Earth. They were dead now, all of the people hed known in the other timeline, gone forever. The people theyd be, the experiences theyd had and been shaped by, destroyed by senseless cruelty. People with the same names, the same personalities theyd started out as, those lived once more, but they werent his people. Not yet. And the instant hed begun changing things, his friends from the other timeline had been erased. Oh, sure, he might try to create some fucked up facsimiles, piss poor knock offs of the real thing, by trying to recreate their circumstances. But it wouldnt be them, not ever. Those people were gone and would forever stay gone. Hed managed to ignore it. For five days, hed pushed all of that out of his mind and focused on his task. But now, those walls had crumbled. A young tree shook as a fist smashed into it, followed by a second that glowed crimson, leaving a massive dent in the wood. Skin split, bone crunched, blood dripped to the ground, pain creating a momentary distraction from the agony in his mind. Then he held up the mangled hand in front of his face, watching as bones slid back into ce with wet crunching noises, splinters of wood pushing their way out through holes that closed up behind them, more pain flooding his system. Isaac just sighed. Hed save humanity, but that life was gone. Those people were gone. And if it had been an option, hed have saved Earth from a whole other, escaping familiarity. The only exception was Sam, and that was only because theyd have both graduated and never spoken to each other again in a few months. This Sam was the Sam he remembered, and even then, Isaac had only talked to him because of the invitation to that damned party. Isaac nced at his mana bar, then punched the tree again. And again. And again until his hands were bloody but intact while his mana bar was empty. Hot tears stung in his eyes and he wiped them away angrily, ring around at nothing. He would save this world, that was all he could do for those hed lost. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 3 XP: 379/400 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 0/150 Stats Fortitude 17 Perception 23 Strength 12 Agility 16 Magic Power 15 Magic Regeneration 17 Free Points: 0 Stat, 6 Skill Skills Hundred Faces V Stealth V Power Strike XI Piercing Strike XII Sundering Strike VII Knives XI Sneak IX Sweeping Strike I Far Strike II Manifold Strike I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration Pulling up his Status Sheet showed that hed gotten Levels in most of his [Skills] and was a stones throw away from having enough XP for Level 4. He was getting to where he wanted to be, but he wasnt anywhere near even just his goals for the weekend. By the time the sun rose above the trees, he was Level 5. Chapter 24: Congratulations Chapter 24: Congrattions By the time Isaac was walking back into the university buildinge Monday morning, Isaac had calmed back down again. Itd taken him well over 24 hours to reach a state of mind fit to be amongst other humans with, but hed reached it, mbering over the bodies of countless monsters to do so. Flippancy aside, however, hed gained a lot of stuff during that little, impromptu, grinding session. He''d leveled up once again, bringing his Level up to 6, then saved the rest of the XP. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 6 XP: 2179/700 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 150/150 Stats Fortitude 30 Perception 25 Strength 12 Agility 18 Magic Power 15 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 15 Skill Skills Hundred Faces VI Stealth VIII Power Strike XI Piercing Strike XII Sundering Strike X Knives XI Sneak XI Sweeping Strike I Far Strike IV Manifold Strike I General Skills Gralloch Alchemy Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration Hed levelled up three more times and hit Level 6, putting points into Magic Regeneration and Fortitude until theyd both reached thirty. He now only needed two hours of sleep each night and regenerated 10 mana every minute, putting him well on his way to gaining a properbat regeneration of the stuff. Most video games operated on the scale that you were expected to get into a fight every minute or so unless you were exploring and forcing you to wait between encounters for longer than strictly necessary because your mana still hadnt reached max capacity was boring. Video games were not meant to be boring. Unfortunately, this was the real world where it would take half an hour to fully regenerate ones mana, and that was if Magic Regeneration was the same as Magic Power, which not everyone had because theyd chosen to pursue the shiny new Spells with a mana cost that was beyond them. In the original timeline, Isaac had primarily focused on Magic Regeneration to the point where he got back mana every second, giving him incredible staying power. He hadnt had any big, expensive finishers among his [Skills] and even his strongest attacks were merely a properlybined set of lesser [Skills]. Having a bunch of tiny, cheap, yet well levelled attack [Skills] had carried him far and let him reach the point where could fight one of the strongest [Raid Bosses] to ever exist in a party of just three people, the only problem was that he hadnt reached that level of power early enough to save humanity. He wouldnt be changing his general approach, just doing it a hell of a lot quicker. And yes, a couple of points had gone into both Agility and Perception to give those a slight boost as well. Unbncing ones Stats like that to optimize farming with very little need for sleep and a high Mana Regeneration actually wasnt the greatest idea in the world, simply because it left you fighting monsters with your stats somewhere other than where you wanted them. Hed fix it soon, though. Increasing Fortitude to ward off sleep had diminishing returns Isaac actually had enough XP to bring himself up to Level 8, but hed decided to wait to keep the XP boost for fighting above his Level as high as he could. There wouldnt be any actual penalties until he was fighting enemies that were more than ten Levels beneath him, but a loss of a boost was still hardly optimal. As for the [Skill] Points, hed saved them, simple as that. Most people bought a bunch of [Skills] with them, especially when they sounded good without them actually having seen it in action. While there were arguments to be made for having a lot of different [Skills], the fact of the matter was that there was only so much mana to go around. If you could grab a bunch of good, solid passive [Skills], that was great, but most [Skills] were of the active variety, meaning you had to pay to use them. In the end, a lot of people would end up focusing on their core [Skills], their favorites, which they not only knew everything about, they also levelled it up to a very high Level. An old quote from Bruce Lee sprang to mind I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. When practice tranted to a literal, measurable increase in power, that was all the more true. Isaac, meanwhile, knew what he wanted, what he needed, which [Skills] could take him to the peak of power, allowing him to save a lot of those mostly wasted points. But while the Levels were all well and good, they were hardly the only things hed gained. [Skill] Levels abound, putting two more of his [Skills] above the Level 10 threshold. Sundering Strike mon, Level X) Users next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. This Skill can also be toggled to be almost undetectable, destroying any nerves or creature specific equivalent upon impact, or cause maximum pain by directly irritating whatever pain receptors a being might have. Sneak mon,Level X) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world atrge, to the point of nearplete invisibility. This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world. Cost: 10 mana per minute [Sundering Strike] had just gotten a little better and more sinister, but that was about it. The real boost was that he could now, in theory, use all of his [Strike] type [Skills] in a single [Manifold Strike] and it hit a little harder, but it was hardly game changing. [Sneak], meanwhile, could now turn him into a hole in the world, something peoples eyes just slid over, easily missable unless he somehow drew attention. It was nowhere near as potent as [Stealth], but useful in its own right. Especially over long periods or in crowds, where running around invisible would just raise one hell of a ruckus. [Hundred Faces] and [Far Strike] had also gotten a bit stronger, but remained under the threshold for upgrading. Now, hed also gained a fuckton of experience and was debating on whether or not to spend it to upgrade his Level to 8 and was debating on whether or not to use it. On one hand, hed gain power. On the other, it would reduce his XP gains. Regardless of what choice he made about what to do right now, hed be leveling before the end of the week until he hit Level 10 and evolved his [ss]. It might not be the most efficient method in terms of maximum level of power, but that ultimate limitation wasnt the only thing Isaac had to consider. He was also on something of a time limit because hed eventually need to be strong enough to face certain foes, foes that were far stronger than his current Level. And while he could, in theory, wait until then to increase his Level, the more practice he got in with the [Skills] unlocked by his new [ss], the better. [ss] Levels were not everything, sadly. Lastly, hed gained two additional [Skills]. Gralloch mon) This Skill is quintessential for a hunter after the hunt is done. It teaches the User how to properly skin and clean a kill, separate out the important and valuable parts and reduces the risk of identally damaging any organs. Alchemy mon) Whenbining things with magical properties, many things may happen, some good, some bad, some just in explosive. This Skill is a catch all that supports these kinds of pursuits by granting basic knowledge and making its further acquisition easier. These two had been earned by repeatedly making what could be considered an alchemical concoction in the form of the Corpsemelter acid and properly cleaning the monsters hed killed. They were both things he could do normally since he knew how, but having them as [System] [Skills] helped quite a bit. Now, it might seem like the mere existence of the [Alchemy] [Skill] made [Alchemist] redundant as a [ss], but that wasnt actually the case. Sure, it formed the basis for that [ss], but it was only one of many [Skills] it gave. [Knives] and [Sneak] were also [General Skills] that could be gained through practice and formed the basis for the [Rogue] [ss]. But knowing which end of a knife went in the bad guy and mall-ninja level sneaking skills did not a [Rogue] make. A slight smile crept back onto Isaacs face as he recalled the events that had led to him gaining these upgrades. The monsters, the fights, all of that had been exhrating after the darkness in his mind had escaped his grasp. Normal social mores tended to frown on stuff like this, though. Fighting to burn off aggression nope. Hell, there were people who thought violent video games were problematic, let alone fighting dangerous monsters in the depths of the wood. Several more Rock Golems hadter fallen at his hands,rge sheets of reinforced material to cover the sides of the shelter until hed basically built himself a fort in the wood. A nasty carnivorous sheep had also died in short order, the wool making for an impromptu but good bed. Then hed summoned another Giant Bullfrog and cooked it up. Which creatures to summon to quickly build a shelter had been something nearly everyone had known in the other timeline, given how useful that knowledge was. Hed also ended up using a still energized piece of Shadow Cat fur as an Elemental Source of Darkness to summon a Shade Drake. Three meters long, four wed limbs and a massive reptilian mouth that spat whatever breath attack that matched the Elemental Source used in the summoning, they were one hell of a threat. Also, incredibly fun to fight if you were strong enough. The Shade Drake had breathed beams of pure darkness that clung to everything they touched, hiding it behind clouds of ckness so dark no light could prate it. Its ws could tear through stone with casual ease, and it was fast as hell to boot. Yet despite all that, it had fallen to his de and dropped an aspect to boot. He actually had done a few things other than killing monsters on the weekend. Hed deposited some of the money hed bought from Calise at the bank and invested into quite a few stocks he knew would take off, finally feeling like it was reasonable that a person in his situation would do this stuff. The problem with money andrge scale mary transactions was that they were on the record. Deposit thousands of Euros with no obvious source? Busted. Buy a house costing to the tune of hundreds of thousands of Euros with no obvious source or help? Busted. Invest in a bunch of stocks that were about to take off the instant the thing that would eventually make that happen happened? Well, not exactly criminal, but certainly suspicious. Of course, it would only ever be a problem if someone cared enough to look, but counting on staying under the radar while being a part of one of the most visible research teams in the world was just in idiotic. Besides, the first proper markets for monster bits were beginning to open, giving him a legal and traceable avenue for gaining cash. Meanwhile, he had quite a bit of untraceable money to spend on bribes and less than legal stuff. And he had an avenue to trade items for said stuff directly via the same method,plete with a broker. It would still take quite a bit of time, but hed eventually have the money to get all the stuff that could be got with money. There were now also a bunch of Aspects lying in his apartment, neatly sorted into piles of ones to sell, ones to keep and ones to gift to Bailey. But what a bounty it was. Isaac had maxed out the number of Specters he could kill and gained three Aspects in the process, killed a few more Lesser Hydras and gained two of their Aspects, one from a Shadow Cat and a Rock Golem each. Then hed also summoned a few Earth and Water Elementals, for building material and drinking water, respectively, and gotten one of each of those. The Shade Drake had also dropped one, luckily. Lastly, hed been summoning and knifing Apparitions using a Tier 1 circle on the way back to max out the use of his Mana Regeneration, just having them appear and then disappear with the sound of a bedsheet tearing as a [Piercing Strike] empowered dagger ripped through them. Those were actually pretty rare, getting one required either a lot of luck or fighting these things till judgement day, simply because they were so low level. So between the general low spawn rate of Aspects at those Levels and the fact that it was nearly impossible to gain the kill an opponent with a higher Level bonus this thing was so rare Isaac was tempted to just mount it on his wall. Being a Tier 1 Aspect, it was basically useless anyway. Right now, though, he didnt know which ones he was going to actually use. In the end, the main use for Aspects was gaining [Skills] that werent avable in your own [ss] [Skill-Tree]. But he had all the [Skills] he wanted right now, so hed be waiting for his Evolution before choosing his next one. Besides, all of the Aspects he had right now either gave him what basically amounted to [Rogue] [Skills] or ones that were entirely foreign to his build. Isaac did decide to hold on to one of the Hydra Aspects to be used as an eventual bribe in addition to the Shade Drake and Shadow Cat Aspects. Hed also gotten a surprise that had been quite a bit less pleasant. Someone had filmed part of the fight against the Swamp Knight and, of course, posted it online. Given how drunk the person holding the phone had been, the footage was incredibly shaky and hard to watch, making it difficult to identify him, but it was still annoying. His involvement in that mess was a matter of public record for anyone who cared to look for it, but it was still not something he was happy about. Isaacs phone chimed with an iing text. He pulled it out to see that it hade from Bailey. Meet me at the bio campus post office. Of course, just where that damn thing was located was mentioned nowhere. Ah well, hed just bug some random person he ran into. And that was what he ended up doing. Two short conversationster, Isaac finally spotted it, though he mostly just recognized it because Bailey was standing right next to it. Nice weekend, Isaac? Yeah, I went camping. Isaac told him Also, catch. Isaac tried to toss him an Aspect of the Specter, but Bailey ended up fumbling the catch, which ended with the gtinous orb dropping to the ground. Then, when Bailey tried to pick it back up, it ended up slipping out of his grasp. And again, until he eventually managed to grab it. Then, his eyes went wide. Wait, you actually got one? Do you have any idea how much these go for? Isaac actually didnt know what the current price was, it was still in constant flux, just that it was insanely expensive, far more than the ten thousand hed sold his first batch for. He might even have been upset about essentially taking a loss on that sale if that whole thing hadnt been mostly about setting up supplier rtions with Calise. And the money he had gotten would be enough for any short term expenses. Obviously. I hit the maximum number of Specters, though. And? What was it? A little over a hundred, but Im not sure, I didnt keep very good records in the beginning. Isaac said. It should have been exactly one hundred, but hed killed a lot of them while under levelled, thereby raising the threshold. "Seriously though, do with that what you will. Use it, experiment with it, something I haven''t thought of, anything that would help you with your research." Isaac told him. "I think I''ll be using it once I have the XP." Bailey said, sounding a little shaky "I won''t forget this, promise. Thank you." Anyway, why did you call me here? Isaac asked, smoothly ignoring the sudden rising awkwardness. For Bailey opened the door to the post office, revealing literal piles of mail all this crap. Holy shit! Whats all this about? Isaac yelped. Last Thursday. Or maybe Friday? That mess got prettyte. Bailey told him, scratching his chin thoughtfully. So, congrats and thanks? Isaac asked. Congrats, thanks, requests for data, suggestions, corrections, bribes for you guys to butter you up before they poach you a lot of stuff. Bailey exined. So, what pile is ours? Isaac asked, looking around the room that looked incredibly messy. All of them. They already handed out everything else, but this department isnt exactlyid out to transport this much on top of everything else. Bailey told him. Yeesh. Please tell me there are bags to gather everything in? Yep. Bailey said, giving him a pair of folded up stic sacks. Isaac just sighed and began to shove every envelope he could into them, wishing hed invested a few more points into Strength. Ten minutester, he stumbled down the corridor towards the meeting room with one bulging sack slung over each shoulder. Rather than fumbling with the sacks while opening the door, or, God forbid, putting them down, Isaac just phased through the door. Holy Patrick yelped and jumped away from him, fists half raised in a surprisingly decentbat stance, though he dropped them once he recognized Isaac. Ah yes, you get superpowers and all you do with them is go through doors without having to open them. Amy chuckled. So, mail? Raul asked. Mail. Bailey announced, havinge in through the door the normal way A metric ton of mail. Im afraid Im going to have to ask you to help me with that, lets separate them into normal congrattions or brownnosing, requests for data or suggestions for corrections and one just for hate mail. You really think we got hate mail? Raul asked. Yes, but it wont be obvious at first. The kinds of phrases where someone insults your mother to your face but dresses it up in so many flowery phrases that by the time you realize you want to smack them, theyve already run off. Amy suggested Academia can get nasty. Actually, thats exactly what meant. Hardly worth reading, but it helps to know who your enemies are. Bailey added Just read all of these and when you see something that you think everyone else might like to hear, read it out loud. So that was what they did. For hours. Only asionally did something deserve to be even justmented on. I think I got one of those disguised insult ones. Patrick announced Its from a professor from California and hesining about us snatching up his research topic and writing a paper while he was still writing the funding proposal. Too slow. Bailey shrugged Fighting for funding eats up so much time, its great to have a proper mandate. And that is? Isaac asked. Hm? What is our mandate, exactly? I think knowing the actual wording might be useful. Isaac rified. Find out anything about the [System] you can. Get any data that is avable. If something is liable to blow up, ask first. Bailey told them with a grin Basically, its that simple. But once that little discussion was out of the way, things returned to normal. Requests for data, people pointing out ws in their arguments,ints about research topics being stolen and, of course, congrattions from people who werent being sore losers. Suddenly, to everyones surprise, Isaac burst outughing. Hey Adam, do you actually know Dr. Frankenstein, or just have a friend with a unique sense of humor? What are you Bailey started to say, then caught the name on the envelope and froze Please tell me that isnt something too offensive? Eh, depends on your definition of offensive. Its a humorous description of new experiments that are possible now that there are humans that can survive that kind of stuff, obvious satire. I can see how someone could easily take that the wrong way though. Isaac shrugged, only for Bailey to grab the paper out of his hand. Youre not mad? Bailey sounded puzzled. Mad? This is dark, dark shit. In other words, exactly my kind of humor. Might want to separate this stuff from official mail before someone else reads the contents, right? Isaac suggested. After some begging and cajoling, the letter was passed around, but then things returned to normal. Finally, two hours after this thing had started, they were almost finished. Alright, so we have themendation from the police, which will go on the wall once Ive had it framed, a bunch of nasty messages for the files, and some requests for data that we can pass on to IT. Now, its time for the gift baskets! Bailey announced, finally letting them at the things theyd been looking forward to since the very beginning. Who is Samuel Barnes? Amy asked, looking at Isaac And why is he sending you, personally, booze? Hes a friend, the guy who hosted that party. Isaac said, slightly grumpy. Whats wrong? Amy raised her eyebrows at his reaction. Clearly his poker face had been insufficient. In response, he grabbed the bottle of Stroh 80 from the basket, opened it, and held it out for her to sniff. Smell that and tell me I should enjoy it. he told her. how can anyone drink that? she grimaced, holding the bottle as far away from her as she physically could. Patrick and Karl wisely decided against taking a sniff, but Bailey and Raul did stick their noses above the open bottle and subsequently proceeded to treat it as it were a biohazard. Once again, how can anyone drink that? Amy repeated herself. You dont. You put it in a cocktail and light it on fire, or use it in a cake, but you never, ever drink it raw. Patrick said. I can see that. Bailey said, distaste still evident on his face. Oh, and by the way, Isaac, Im working on getting you dinosaur bones. Mensch und Natur actually did give up a T-Rex tooth, but that species it so big itll end up Tier 4 and were not allowed to summon those yet. Bailey told them all. Dinosaur? Amy asked. Im guessing were taking advantage of the Prehistoric Summoning List? Patrick asked. Ye- Isaac started to answer, but was cut off by a [System] Screen popping up without his input. A very familiar screen. Uh-oh. Chapter 25: Title Chapter 25: Title Congrattions! For deeds rted to the System, you have achieved recognition by arge number of people. These people have used countless words and phrases to refer to you and the mostmon ones have been noted down. Choose two to keep and disy at will. Lunatic Frat Guy Rambo Ragdoll Ninja Wannabe As you have only just unlocked the Title System, you may give yourself a personal Designation. Warning! While you may be able to choose any name here, including the wording of another title, you will never get another chance to create a custom designation. Think this through! Titles were amon thing in stories about the real world turning into a video game, powerful boosts that made achieving great deeds that much more profitable. These werent that, sadly. Titles were, in essence, [System] enforced bragging rights. Once enough people had be aware of you for actions rted to the [System], you got ess to this cute little time waster. You could choose to add one of the many phrases people used to refer to you due to the actions that had earned you your fame to your Status and freely switch between them. But you also got to pick a designation, any designation, to be disyed in the final slot. People could check whether said title was [System] given or person chosen, so picking Lord Admiral, Supreme Commander of the Seven Seas as your designation would earn you, at a minimum, odd looks. Most people chose either gamer handles or edgy nicknames, though a few did create custom designations that sounded impressive at first, but they stopped disying those. As to how the [System] calcted fame, that had never actually gotten properly determined, simply because calcting how many people knew about someone or something with a significant degree of uracy was pretty damn hard. Sure, it was possible to check how many people had clicked on a certain video or bought a certain book, but that still didnt give any data about things like how many people had been in front of the screen while a video yed and so on and so forth. The only thing that had been determined and scientifically proven was that not all knowledge and fame were equal. A grainy cell phone video wasnt the equal of a high quality one, co-authoring a paper wasnt the same as actually writing the damn thing. Basically, the more you the thing people knew was, and the bigger your contribution was, the more it counted towards earning you a title. So between a poor quality cell phone video of him facing a powerful monster and having helped write a rather famous paper lets just say he was extra d to have [Hundred Faces] right about now. Isaac was also very aware of the fact that he needed to hit Level 10 soon and evolve, given that not only unlocked [Skills] to inspect people, but also ones to block said [Skills]. Everyone could get the basic version, regardless of their [ss], then spend more points to upgrade it into something more in line with itter. And being a [Rogue], his anti-Inspection [Skills] would be top notch. So, keep fighting at his current Level to enjoy the XP boost a little longer, then upgrade all the way when he had the points? Yeah, that sounded about right. Of course, cutting yourself off mid-word like that drew attention, so Isaac just made the screen visible to everyone. Oh. Bailey said You can never, ever make that public. Why? Isaac frowned. Because if people realize that there is a way to get what basically amounts to the world acknowledging your fame, then there will be idiots doing whatever they can to get that. I think we all know the stunts people have pulled for what amounts to worthless points in the inte, what do you think theyll do for this, especially given that it has to involve the [System]? Bailey said, sounding defeated. To be fair, some of those people use the fame from those worthless inte points tounch a career. Raul cautioned. And how many people have done more stupid things to keep that fame? Patrick just shook his head Besides, theres plenty of people who dont actually do anything with inte fame, they do something just for the sake of clicks, views, likes, what have you, and thats that. This is in no way something that will stay secret forever, but the longer it takes to get out, the better people will be prepared for the mess this will bring. Its like this whole Title thing is a trap for the dumbest and vainest of us. Its literally in the manual. Raul said, opening up the relevant page and leaving it hanging in the air next to him, visible to all. Except you knew it was there, which is why you found it so quickly. Normally, people would have to dig through the entire thing to get to that part. Patrick argued Besides, I never said it should be hidden forever, or that thats even feasible. We should prepare a statement about these things, gather as much information as we can and tell people when it wont cause mass chaos. Remember, Isaac clearly got that thing because he fought a monster that can punch through concrete. What happens when Inte Prankster Mc Brainless decides it would be totally cool to see what happens when he sticks a random dinosaur bone, which he bought at a whim, into a summoning circle? Exactly. Bailey ended Patricks diatribe while the younger man was pausing to take a breath Lets not give people a whole new reason to do stupid shit. Give it a week, see what other things weve managed to find out, then see where were at. Itll probably be out by then anyway, so well likely end up releasing our findings as well. Then, he turned to Isaac So, what will your custom Title be? Im not sure. Isaac replied, staring intently at the window before him. Part of him wanted to just acknowledge the fact that hede from an alternate timeline and just never disy that title. But there were ways to get a look at titles even if the bearer didnt want to reveal them, so that was definitely out. He could have also just gone with a generic, edgy name like Isaac The Knife Thoma, but chose to not do that, for obvious reasons. Really, anything to do with his [ss] or fighting style just made him sound like some pubescent edgelord, so, hard nope on that. And then there was the obvious option of just picking a gamertag hed used in the past. Reasonably unique and nowhere near crude enough to backfire. Simply a good way to identify himself until someone got their own chance at creating a title and decided to copy his. Part of him wanted to just leave that slot bare and empty till judgement day, but that was stupid as well. As long as nothing immediately incriminating went in there, he could show people. And as for ndestine meetings, if someone was able to pierce his identity shields thoroughly enough to get his title, theyd also be able to get his name, another reason to reach Level 10 and get those [Skills]. Then, a bolt of inspiration struck him. A way to make a statement of intent, of giving himself a Title that worked as a solid designation, while also acknowledging his past. Except it did so in such a way that it had a totally different meaning, his true intent only deducible by someone who already suspected the truth. I think I got it. Isaac announced, interrupting whatever the others had been discussing, then revealed his new namete. He''d also elected to keep the titles of ''Lunatic'' and ''Rambo'' so he could disy them whenever he wanted to make a certain impression. Name: Isaac The Completionist Thoma Thats an interesting choice. Mind sharing why you picked it? Amy asked. Because thats what I want to be. Someone who has done everything, seen everything, known everything. Before, that meant working hard, getting an early retirement and then travelling the world. Now, with the [System], I can do so much more. And I want to see it. I want to duel a Yeti on the top of Mount Everest, fight a horde of Tatzelwyrm in the Alps, summon Jormungandr in the Fjords of Norway, see the first new dinosaur in sixty-five million years walk the Earth, just everything. I can tell, no one gets a grin that dopey on their face unless theyre talking about something they really like. Amy said, snapping a picture of his face before he could say anything against it. When she flipped her phone over and showed the picture to everyone, Isaac had to agree. That grin was dopey. But the idea of wanting to do everything was near and dear to his heart. It was what had gotten him into hunting in the first ce, then determination, caution, and yes, no small amount of luck had carried him to the top. Now, he was just in it to still have a in a couple of decades. But eventually, one day, when all was said and done and humanitys future assured, it was what he wanted to be doing. Experiencing everything. Well said. Baileymented Now, I think its time to move on to a few more administrative things and then we can get back to doing some actual science. Double checking that there were materials for almost every Tier 1 and 2 summon avable in sufficient quantities, making sure the refrigerated boxes were actually made avable again as their contents were brought into more permanent storage facilities it was boring, but it had to be done, and it had to be done right. The door opened as they worked on that. Good afternoon, everyone. Wechsler announced, striding in with a briefcase slung under his arm Is now a good time to be talking about your new building? I brought the preliminary ns and approvals. Sure,e in. Bailey waved him towards the table. What do you mean, preliminary? Patrick wondered. It means no one knows about what is needed to confine some of the stronger creatures just yet, so the universitys getting preliminary approval to build most of the building. The ns for the rest will be approved on an apropos basis. Wechsler exined. Thats a lot more reasonable than any bureaucracy normally is. Why dont you do it like that normally? Patrick frowned. Because, while it might not feel like it, thats there to protect people. Imagine you build half your house, then want to build the other half but run into a million different issues getting the rest to also fit the building codes. No, its normally a whole lot better to approve the final design. This this is a unique situation. Wechsler exined. And why are you the one whos bringing us this? Patrick asked, sounding puzzled You dont work for the department of buildings, do you? Im awyer as well as someone with the [ss] of [Lawyer] and I have an existing rtionship with Professor Baileys department. Wechsler exined So, what do you know about the requirements for the summoning chambers? Ive fought a few of the bigger monsters and I can give you their dimensions. Isaac chimed in As far as how tough the walls need to be, I think we should summon a few different Tier 4 monsters because thats the current maximum for most people to summon, see how tough they are and how hard they hit, then double what wed need just for them. When everyone looked at him oddly, he shrugged Or something. A Tier 4 monster put you in the hospital barely three days ago. Bailey shot him a look. And Ive doubled my Level since then and I wont be wielding ss shards I dug out of the trash, this time around. Isaac said I know better than anyone how tough monsters can get, and I know I can beat, at the very least, a Tier 4, Level 10 Swamp Knight. Still not a good idea or something I can authorize. Bailey warned. We do have a massive list of summons below that Tier avable, though. Amy said Lets just grab a Lesser Hydra, maybe? You know, the thing directly underneath it in the list? Ive summoned plenty of Hydras and I know I can beat it, but those wont fit in the summoning room. Isaac shrugged, then shed open the Aspect tab of his Status as proof. Whats their average Level? Bailey asked, sounding intrigued. Six, though theyre sometimes Level 7 or even 8, but those are rare and have never been issue for me. Isaac said. And your Level? 6. Ok, Ill fill out in the paperwork to request us being allowed to summon a creature in an open space somewhere well clear of anything important on the basis of having a proven track record when ites to beating them. Once you hit Level 8, we might be able to get somewhere. I cant guarantee itll get anywhere, but we do have to check some things before we can build anything properly prepared and when we can prove that these creatures are beatable, the university higher ups might be willing to risk it. Bailey suggested. I can do that now. Ive got the XP, I was dying my Level up to keep the bonus for fighting against higher level enemies. Isaac shrugged. What did you do this weekend? Bailey asked, mostly to himself I thought you went camping. And what do think I did all the time, especially now that I only need like two hours of sleep? Isaac asked. Speaking of weird sleep habits, Ive been talking to a friend whos a doctor in a teaching hospital linked to the university about that and he wants to conduct a ratherrge sleep study on how changes with which Stats alter that sort of thing. Bailey spoke up. And how would they be levelling? Isaac wondered. That sounded like a good way to end up with a bunch of young people summoning when they otherwise wouldnt be and ending up dead. or maybe it would just die due to incredibly tight and over the top security precautions. Actually, the idea was that the participants would be charging circles for people who want to fight monsters to use. That seems to be a rtively risk free way to level up, though it might count towards the limit of how often you can get XP from a certain monster. Thats something wed be checking as well. Bailey said. So basically, all youd need is a safe area to do that, and then wed have a massive supply of monsters? Isaac said, barely suppressing a grin. Thought you might like that. Bailey said, giving him a proper smile in return The idea is to slowly level up the volunteers in a safe manner while someone who is actually willing to fight monsters can do the fighting. We monitor things like XP gains and maximum kills until they stop giving it while the hospital does a sleep study on the actual summoners. We still need a ce to summon the monsters, but this should still be good. Do we even need a fullplement of defenses against monsters up to, say, Tier 5, like we want for ourbuilding? Raul asked Shouldnt something that suffices against the specific monsters we choose to use be enough? We can safely summon them here and go from there? And if we do that, I can get a pretty good sense of how they hit and whats required to block them. Karl spoke up My [Structural Analysis] [Skill] is really useful for that sort of thing. The local police department is almost done building something to level up their officers and Ive been consulting with them. We should be able toe to an arrangement. Bailey threw in. That sounds just about perfect. Isaac grinned. And with the ns solidly made, things went back to the grind. Try something, see what happens, then try something ever so slightly, almost painfully, different. But before he knew it, the day was over and Isaac was walking home. He wouldnt be going back to the forest tonight, hed be finishing up his recipe book for potions as well as a few research proposals he was nning on submitting in time. Chapter 26: Eldritch Chapter 26: Eldritch Meet me in the vets office, we have an interesting case there. Isaac looked up from his phone and checked if the room in front of him had the same number as the subsequent text from Bailey had had. Hm, its probably something interesting. As he walked inside, he patted his back pocket to make sure the Aspect hed brought with him was still there. It was a second Aspect of the Specter, which he was nning on giving to either Amy or Patrick, then give whomever didnt get one thest one in a few days. They were the ones who could use it best, after all. He wanted his colleagues, dare he say, friends, to get stronger and more capable, but making it appear as if he had the vast resources he did not yet have could have unintended consequences. Better to make it look like he was asionally stumbling across these and giving them out, instead of having a vast store of the damn things. Well, by todays standards, he did, but not enough for his tastes. Good morning. Raul greeted him from the desk in the far corner of the room, then put away his phone. Morning. Patrick said, still looking down at his phone from a different corner Did you know that someone started selling Hydra skin handbags down in Mn? Some people im its the mob doing it. Nope. Isaac replied popping the p and sat down on a random stool. Then, he froze. Hydra, Mn, Mob. Shit! How had they known where Isaac just sighed and mentally cursed at himself. There was actually a very obvious exnation. Hed told Calise about fighting the Hydras and there were only so many ces near the mans restaurant that were out of the way enough to fight a monster that big without people noticing and calling the cops. Given the chance to find monster corpses just randomly lying around, of course any good businessman would try. You know, Id love to have one of those, they sound impressive. Baileymented, pushing himself away from the wall hed been leaning against Were here because theres apparently someone who managed to tame a monster and theyre letting us take a look at it. Also, theyd like someone to tell them this whole thing isnt about to blow up in their faces. While the four of us do that, Karl and Amy are getting started on the structural analysis project. Now, if youll excuse me, Ill lead our guests here. And just like that, the professor left the room. Tame monster? Seriously? Raul hissed, incredulous. Probably a familiar or something from a pet-based [ss]. Isaac shrugged Seriously though, does either one of you know how to work with leather? I got some Hydra skin back in my apartment and I really want to see his face when we gift him a handbag. I do. Patrick said, to Isaacs surprise. Hed expected Raul, the experienced hunter, to be the one to have that particr skill. But Patrick wasnt even done yet. Specifically, I know how to work with snake leather and how to turn it into a handbag. Sounds like theres a story there. Raulmented. There is, though I dont think its that interesting. I did an internship in a national park in Sri Lanka one summer. There, I met this guy who also worked in the rice fields on asion. They get a bunch of King Cobras in there every year and because those can easily kill someone, he catches them. And to make a little extra money, he turns them into handbags. Patrick exined. Arent those endangered? Raul asked. Yeah, but I dont think he really cared about that at the time. This was about preventing them from endangering people. Unlike Germany, where you arent allowed to damage a beaver dam even when it is actively flooding a vige. Patrick shrugged. So, will you do it? Isaac asked, an impish grin on his face. Obvious- The door opened back up again, to let in Bailey, followed by an average looking, middle aged man, a woman that looked to be around his age, and a young girl. And in that girls armsy something. It looked like someone hadpiled every horrific graphics glitch from a video game, spliced them together, added tentacles, and then run the whole thing through a snap chat filter for cuteness. Shifting, undting, being one thing, then another, yet having been both at the same time, but not changed ever, at all, in any way. No, Eldritch beings didnt make sense in the slightest, nor could anyone adequately describe their appearance in words. Some things, you just had to see for yourself. With the tiniest bit of mental effort, Isaac focused on the googly eyes at the front of its egg shaped, tentacle d, reality breaking body, the only part that wasnt outright mind breaking and unnatural. It sounded stupid, but Isaac had enough experience with Eldritch beings to know it would work. Mr. and Mrs. Heisterkamp, this is my team. Mr. Thoma, Mr. Mina and Mr. Lerch. Guys, these are Mr. and Mrs. Heisterkamp and their daughter Erica. And Princess. a small voice added. Isaac froze. The surname Heisterkamp meant fuck all to him, but an Eldritch familiar named Princess certainly. Did that mean no, she couldnt possibly have been just sixteen, could she? There had been a woman in his past life, a supremely powerful wielder of some kind of Eldritch [ss] known as the Scarlet Queen with an Eldritch familiar that went by the name of Princess. Except shed shown up during the fight against a particrly dangerous [Raid Boss] and the Princess hed known had been a truck sized abomination that tore through a group of Fomorians like they were made of tissue paper. But if this truly was no it couldnt be, right? Still, there was no reason to deviate from his Standard Operating Procedure of treating everyone nicely, and if she turned out to be a future powerhouse, that was even better, wasnt it? Hi there. Isaac said softly, crouching down in front of her and holding out his hand, the back of his palm facing outwards until it was only a few centimeters away from Princess. It was a ridiculous name for an Eldritch beastie, but it had been named by a ten-year-old, so what else could he have expected? Slowly, cautiously, a series of tentacles reached out, caressing the back of his hand. Are you seriously treating that thing like a dog? Patrick eximed. ording to the manual, familiars only get stronger when theirpanion humans do. Isaac continued in the same soft voice So unless the Heisterkamp family has been letting their little girl fight monsters, Princess is still a normal Eldritch familiar without any special abilities. So, Im treating her as what she is, a small, scared animal in a room full of strangers. As he said that, the tentacles began to grip his hand and drag it closer until it was within the perimeter that its tentacles creates and eventually came into contact with the core body, bean shaped core the size of a cats torso. Does Princess like scritches? Isaac asked, addressing the young girl. Obviously. came back an imperious reply and Isaac grinned, brushing his fingers along the section of skin his hand was being pulled against. The Eldritch familiar did something, a motion that Isaac could best describe as vibrating, something that likely amounted to a cat purring. She likes it. Erica turned her gaze onto him, staring at him with an intensity that made even Isaac flinch. Ah, yes. Ill keep doing that, then? As he continued to pet the little monster being held up by a young, pre-teen, girl, he could see several tentacles elongate and reach around him. After a mere moment of consideration, Isaacs eyes widened in shock and he flung himself backwards, using [Spectral Shift] to go straight through the wall. Hey! was the only response he got to that, having moved directly into an upied office. One [Spectral Shift]ter, he found himself in the outside corridor. Looks like Princess was after something in my pocket, Ill be right back once Ive stashed it. Isaac snapped off a quick text to Bailey, then hurried over to their normal workce and dropped the Aspect on Baileys desk- Given that he was both using his impressive stats and judiciously using his [Skills], that took only a fraction of the time it should have. Sorry bout that, everyone, I just needed to get something out of Princess reach before she ate it. Isaac announced as he stepped back though the door to the vets office, still mentally cursing himself. There was a difference between intellectually knowing something and truly having internalized it, sadly. The things you knew automatically and the things you would recall if prompted to do so simply werent the same. Isaac had learned about how Familiars ate Aspects to gain new powers in the other timeline, but hed never really interacted with one, so any information rted to them had been pushed to the back of his mind. until that had nearly cost him an Aspect. And what would that have been? Mrs. Heisterkamp demanded. An Aspect. Theyre very hard to get and very expensive. Isaac said, hoping to shut down this discussion as quickly as possible. How expensive? she asked. The price fluctuates, but its always in the six-digit range. Isaac told her and she relented. Obviously, few people would have the resources to buy one right about now. And where is it now? Bailey asked. On your desk. Isaac said Figured thatd be far enough away. Seeing as Princess doesnt seem to be moving in that direction, youre probably right. Bailey replied. If she wants it, cant we just buy it for her? Erica asked, turning a set of weapons grade puppy dog eyes on her parents. Isaac just mentally tuned all of that out. This thing was, for the most part, a waste of time. He could understand why Bailey wanted to get a good look at a living monster while it wasnt trying to tear his throat out, but Isaac had seen enough Eldritch beings tost him a lifetime and this one was nothing special. Then again, all of this was a part of what hed signed up for when hed taken the job. And that was already starting to show results. People were already starting to take great strides towards proper organized levelling in safe areas barely a week in, and ns were being made to check the power of Tier 4s and what might be needed to contain them. When the buildings for proper levelling were constructed with that knowledge, theyd be good for far longer than the flimsy constructions theyd first made in the other timeline. This however, ying with an Eldritch Familiar, no matter how cute, was a waste of time. Or at least, he didnt have to be here for this. Any hospital had the machines to do aplete physical on a human. But as far as an Eldritch being was concerned, the only things that could asses its physical state were the person bound to it or the [Skills] of a [Healer], such as Bailey. However, this would have been interesting to Isaac without his memories of the other timeline, so he pretended like he wasnt itching to go running off to kill something. Besides, this was a chance to make a good first impression on a future powerhouse. Hed eclipse even her peak power in the other timeline in a few years, but that hardly made her weak. Perhaps hed even give her some of the less useful aspects he gathered? The problem was that she was a kid, still in the middle of properly shaping her personality and morals. Who knew what would happen if he started handing her Aspects that cost hundreds of thousands of euros? Whatever Erica Heisterkamp would be doing in the next six or so years, at least if he didnt interfere, it would turn her into a force to be reckoned with, the kind the world sorely needed. Isaac made the asional kindment, but he stayed out of things for the most part. Let Bailey examine the tame Eldritch monstrosity if he wanted, Isaac would just wait and painfully anticipate those summoning centers being fully built. Hed be able to spend so much more time grinding, while the people who charged the circles gained mere dregs. Of course, there would be a warning about the fact that using others to kill ones summons would limit future gains, but if someone was willing to lean on others for enhancement so thoroughly, they were unlikely to advance particrly far. These centers would funnel XP, and therefore power, to the most ambitious of humanity, who were to be the strongest as well, while everyone else gained a mere handful of XP. But even those people would eventually be useful. One hundred people who could cast fifteen [Mage Bolts] each could shred even a Tier 6 creature with ease, for example. The point was that, at the end of the day, a society where everyone had at least some measure of power would be considerably better protected from monsters than one where that wasnt the case. Of course, by the same token, people having powers also tended to cause quite a bit more trouble than would normally happen. But given that it had been monsters whod ended society, not people, Isaac felt that that was a chance worth taking. Of course, those monsters had been summoned by people, but the ones responsible had been ambitious numbskulls whod bitten off more than they could chew, not Joe Shmoe off the street who happened to have gotten a mere taste of power. Eventually, the examination ended and Bailey thanked the Heisterkamps foring in and they left. Well, that was interesting. Baileymented as they walked back to their normal work ce I never thought Id be that close to a monster without it being dead or trying to eat my face. Honestly? I thought it was mostly just cute, but nauseating to look at. Patrick grumbled I could feel my sanity dropping when I saw it. Isnt madness inducing basically the definition of the word eldritch? Bailey suggested. So? Patrick sighed Look, I like the idea of being able to properly examine a living being. But not one that literally breaks your mind as you do so. All we need is another person with a [ss] that includes pets. Isaac reminded him Just wait till someone shows up with a bound Microraptor or something. Yeah, thatd be cool. Patrick agreed. Actually, we might be getting some Microraptor fossils soon. Also Velociraptor, Iguanodon and Archeopteryx. Bailey told them Maybe we can find someone to tame one? Speaking of summoning, here. Isaac said, pulling a sheath of paper out of his back pocket Thats a request to fight a Lindwyrm as soon as we have a good idea of how strong a Tier 6 Raid Boss is going to be. Any particr reason? Bailey asked. Generally, I want to check if a certain myth about the Lindwyrm holds true, specifically one about how eating a soup made from its flesh can grant additional powers such as the ability to speak to animals, heal and even see the future. There are a few creatures that share certain characteristics with the Lindwyrm or are asionally conted with it, such the Dragon, Tatzelwyrm or Basilisk, but all of those are listed separately in the summoning list. Meanwhile, the myth rted to the flesh of the Lindwyrm is pretty specific to it. Id like to see if things like that are included in the [System] versions of mythological creatures. Also, Id like to start exploring if there are additional ways of gaining [Skills] outside of the normal purchase via Stat points or practice. Isaac exined. It was a little premature to be asking about that, but he was trying to show he had some worth beyond fighting, prove that he hadnt been talking out of his ass when hed introduced himself to Bailey as an expert in Mythology. Also, he knew that that fable held true, essentially giving out one free but random [Skill]. In fact, every [Raid Boss] gave out more than just XP and Aspects. Each of them had some kind of unique resource they dropped or could be turned into, it just wasnt always immediately obvious. For example, the Blood Enchantments hed used to fight the Specters hade from a Spellbook dropped by a [Raid Boss] known as a Sanguine Monarch, a terrifyingly powerful vampiric monster. You want to fight a Tier 6 [Raid Boss]? Bailey asked, frowning hard. Not yet, just sometime in the future, when we have a good idea of how strong Tier 6 monsters are and what it takes to beat them. Isaac said A Lindwyrm might also be a good choice for the first [Raid Boss] we summon. Mythologically speaking, its ground bound andcks any kind of extreme mobility power, no legendary healing, no real standout dangers. And almost all of the myths agree on a powerset. Its all in the proposal I gave you. If were in a position to be fighting a [Raid Boss], Ill keep it in mind. Bailey told him But we might have some more information by th- What? Isaac asked, rmed. Nothing, I just got a title. Bailey said and a momentter, a new namete appeared above his head. Professor Adam Bailey I guess that choice was rather obvious. Patrickmented. Of course. Bailey replied. So, whats next? We summon a few more creatures until we have the new summoning rooms? Isaac asked. No, actually. We wait until one of us is at a Level where they can safely kill a Tier 4, then we use that to determine how dangerous and powerful they are and build appropriate ces to fight them in. Bailey said. Hold up, where are we going to fight them then, if were going to use that to determine how durable the rooms are going to have to be? Raul asked, frowning hard. Were going to be borrowing the cops'' summoning area, once its ready. An old factory with a solid wall around every circle. The idea is apparently that, even if the summoned monster gets out, there will a bunch of heavily armed police officers around to deal with it. Bailey exined. They do realize there will be a point where ordinary firearms will be about as useful as a bb gun, right? Patrick said How do they expect to know what they need when they summon something? Apparently, they used the body of the Swamp Knight and fired at it a few times. It was tough, but not indestructible. Bailey responded Its still going to be risky as hell, but eventually, the sheer volume of fire should bring down even one of those monsters. Besides, theyre going to have the SEK there, with all of its heavy weaponry. Something will kill it. So, just levelling up until were in a position to be confident in beating Tier 4s? Isaac asked. That and some of the messages we got made some rather good points. People were able to lose their summoned monsters once they got several kilometers away, so were going to be experimenting with that a little. Bailey said. Theyd only really tried with a distance of five kilometers or so. The actual drop off distance was at roughly twice that if you moved quickly enough and were only dealing with a Tier 1 monster. Also, that distance increased for slower monsters, further muddying up the calctions. But that kind of in depth research could be done after the fact. The fundamental experiments that had kicked off this entire thing had been done by them and earned them a spot at the table. From here on, subsequent experiments would be based on their work. Theyd made their mark, now it was time to move on to even more exotic things. When we do that, we might want to start spreading out who does the deed, see what other interesting [Skills] everyone gets. Isaac suggested. That is the n. Also, were going to see how much XP everyone gets, based on things like summoning cost, who did the summoning and rtive Level. Bailey said and Isaac could feel a grin creep onto his face. Things were going to slow down for him a bit, levelling wise, but then hed have an excuse for going up against powerful, Tier 4, creatures during worktime and on someone elses mana. Throw in the fact that his colleagues were well on their way to bing quite powerful in their own right. His personal power might not be as high as could be, but humanitys strength was about to grow in leaps and bounds. Chapter 27: Equipment Chapter 27: Equipment So, I have no idea why you want this, but I managed to build it exactly to your specifications. the goldsmith said, cing a ring on the table in front of Isaac. It looked to all the world like a filigreed steel ring containing a few sharp bits in the shape of a flower deep inside it. Not something that could ever cut anyone because there were always other metal bands to keep anything that might get damaged well clear, but it was still sharp. And therefore, he could project a [Far Strike] from it. To any conventional scan or search, it would look like a perfectly ordinary ring, but itd allow him to unleash a devastating long range attack without any warning. He wasnt nning on going anywhere without a knife ever again, but that didnt change the fact that thered be ces he couldnt take it in the future. Of course, this was a rather distinctive piece, which was why Isaac had also gotten a soldering iron to close up the outside, leaving him with a hollow spot in the center that held the sharp bits. And the rest? Isaac asked. That too. the goldsmith told him Wasnt nearly asplicated, though. A series of lockets and bracelets wereid out before Isaac, each far more durable than a goldsmiths normal work. They were pretty, but also quite functional, capable of securely holding one of his gemstones once hed enchanted them. Isaac had also started strategizing on how to take down the Crystalline Sage, the [Raid Boss] that would drop the book containing most crystal based enchanting methods. Hed memorized some, but not nearly as many as he would have if hed known hed end up in the situation he was in now. But that damn thing was Tier 7 and therefore worlds beyond anything that this timeline had seen. All in all, these little gadgets cost almost five-thousand Euros between them, but he could afford it and theyd be really, really useful in the future. But he was hardly done. Hed ordered a few things on Saturday while hed been waiting on his mana to fully recharge and promised to pay a premium for speedypletion of his orders. His next stop was a cksmiths shop. It was one that used modern tools and materials, though it was also perfectly capable of creating things the old fashioned, traditional way. Back already? the man asked with arge grin on his face If you hadnt paid so well, this stuff wouldnt have been ready by now. I know, thats why I did it. Asking someone to work on a Sunday thatd better be followed by a damn good reason. Isaac told the man. It was an unusual one, though. I think Ive only been asked to make one of these twice before? Arge item wrapped in cloth was ced on the counter between them and carefully unfolded to reveal a slightly curved de, around three quarters of a meter in length, with a handle reminiscent of one belonging to a kitchen knife. It only had a single sharp edge and surprisingly wide de, giving it a little heft. This de was a Kriegsmesser, a medieval weapon which Isaac had chosen to use as his future main hand weapon. While his knife was great for carrying without his being armed being all that obvious, it was too short to get at the vital organs on some of the bigger creatures, especially ones that only had one, like Rock Golems. Of course, for the truly big creatures, not even this weapon would suffice, but those would simply have the supreme misfortune of being subjected to a death by a thousand cuts. May I? Isaac asked as he reached for the de and got a nod in return. The familiar weight of therger de felt good in his hands as he took a few steps backwards to get some room and began to slowly, carefully, move into a variety ofbat stances. You do good work, Mr. Stagmer. Isaac grinned at the man. Thank you. So, how much do I owe you? Isaac asked. Theyd agreed on the price beforehand, of course, but it seemed like the polite way to ask to pay. 1,200 , please. And if you have any other interesting weapons youd like to get made, Id love to do that for you. Stagmer said. I do, actually. Could you forge me a proper Zweih?nder? A bit shorter than Im tall, with a shorter than normal crossguard, and a pronounced point at the tip? Isaac said as he paid, in cash, of course. Youre nning on going to fight some of those monsters, arent you? Stagmer asked. I already am. Its my job, actually. Been using abat knife, so far, but its a little short when measured up against therger monsters. I got the Kriegsmesser because I know a little about using it, but I think something really big might be needed sooner, rather thanter. Isaac said. A Zweih?nder, also known as a great sword, was a medieval weapon that could reach lengths of over two meters and were wielded with one hand on the actual grip and the other on the uppermost section of the de, which wasnt actually sharpened. They were heavy weapons, but with the advent of the [System], weight wouldnt really y too much of a factor any more. Onlyically oversized weapons might be problematic due to how swinging one could mess with the wielders bnce, but a Zweih?nder would have been fine regardless. That kind of huge weapon would be useful in a fight and Isaac knew how to wield it sort of. In the other timeline, hed used a standard arming sword for most of the time, relying on allies and [Skills] to make up for its pathetically short length. But as things stood, he could think of a dozen different scenarios where simply having a long weapon could be a gamechanger. Do you mean a two handed sword, or an actual Zweih?nder? Stagmer asked, clearly trying to ensure that Isaac knew exactly what he was asking for. An actual Zweih?nder, with a shorter crossguard, pointier tip and the length a little less than my height. Isaac confirmed. so youre actually going to use that inbat? Any other modifications you want? And are you sure about the ones you already mentioned? Stagmer asked, clearly surprised and slightly skeptical. Nothing I can think of right now and yes, Im sure. If I happen to have been wrong about either of those things, I know who to ask. Isaac shed the man a grin. Thatll take a while, though. Stagmer said. Of course. Quality takes time. Or a hefty payment for overtime. Stagmer suggested, mirroring Isaacs smile. I dont need it just yet. Isaac replied Thank you for offering though. Once the sword had been re-wrapped, Isaac departed the store. He bought a few more odds and ends on the way home and dropped them off once there, but then he headed out into the woods with some summoning materials, cloth covered sword slung over his shoulder. A nce at his Status revealed that he had 2,801 XP at the moment, almost six hundred short of what he needed to hit Level 10 in one fell swoop. That was actually something he could get tonight, especially given what he was nning on fighting. His goal was to hit Level 10 by the end of the week, so he probably had the time to squeeze in another new Aspect before then. But did he actually need one? The main purpose of using Aspects was to get [Skills] outside of ones [ss], rounding out or evenpleting ones build. Isaac had a bunch of [Strike] type [Skills] for offense and [Spectral Shift] for defense and to open up new mobility options. Then hed gotten [Hydras Regeneration] topensate for the internal injuries [Spectral Shift] was prone to inflicting, but it also ensured he could always fully recover after any fight he lived through, without help. He had people who would help him in his life, one of them was even a [Healer], but that didnt mean theyd be there right when he needed them. Sadly, neither of his [Aspect] [Skills] coulde from [Rogue] or one of its standard Evolutions. Regeneration [Skills] were the domain of [Warriors], [Brutes] and [Pugilists], or [Healers] who worked on themselves. Meanwhile, phasing [Skills] could be gained from some advanced [Rogue] Evolutions, but those were either really advanced Evolutions, or they required some type of Ephemeral Aspect to get. And at that point, he really could just directly grab a [Skill] that let him go Ephemeral directly, instead of devoting his entire [ss] to towards getting one. That just left him needing a kind of speed based mobility [Skill] for repositioning and something to make sure he always had a weapon on hand. Sure, the ring that now adorned his right middle finger was a step towards that end, but he really wanted a proper weapon he couldnt lose, like the kind a soulbinding [Skill] provided, or maybe something that let him conjure weapons. In fact, thetter was something the Wraiths he was heading out to fight could provide, albeit at one hell of a mana cost with the resulting constructs being a little fragile for his taste. Lastly, some long-range mobility options or spatial storage [Skills] would be fantastic. At the end of the day though, those two werent absolutely vital. Of course, having more Aspects meant getting a chance at a better [ss] Evolution, but Isaac didnt know how many he needed for a Legendary [ss]. Two Aspects before Level 10 would almost certainly give him an Epic one, but he wasnt sure how many more he needed for a Legendary one, the next one up the raritydder and the highest tier there was. Getting a Legendary [ss] usually required shit like kill a [Raid Boss] no more than twenty Levels below you on your own, defeat 10 people of a higher Level with a same rarity [ss] on your own or even something truly insane like hit Level 50 in all [ss] [Skills]. All doable, especially the first one, but not something he couldpare to just grinding out Aspects in terms of difficulty. Just having two Aspects this early guaranteed him a good Evolution, now he had no idea how much further hed need to go to get an even better one. And that just left him with another possible issue. Yes, he could always rece an Aspect if he decided another one would be better, burning it and 1000 XP to free up the slot, but that wasnt all he needed to consider. Aspect based Evolutions were based on Aspects, specifically, the ones he used when advancing. Removing one of the Aspects your [ss] was based on bad idea. Just really bad idea. The Aspect of the Lesser Hydra and the Aspect of the Specter were ones hed keep all the way to the peak, he knew that. An Aspect that might be obsolete by the next Evolution not so much. Maybe he could waste a slotter, but right now, he wanted to be economical about this sort of thing. Soon hed left the lights of the city behind and was entering the deep, dark forest. The Kriegsmesser jumped from the sheath and the cloth got stuffed into a jacket pocket. Mana flowed into the de as Isaac began to use the active part of his Level 10 [Knives] [Skill], improving the de. Not much, mind you, just the right amount to match his regeneration and keep his mana pool full for the summoning that would happen soon. asionally, he used [Piercing Strike] instead, leaving holes in the ground, rocks and the asional fallen tree, every use refining the edge of his weapon. He could have done the summoning after only a few minutes of walking, but he wanted to reinforce his chosen weapon a little first. Finally, Isaac judging that the Kriegsmesser would survive the fight without needing maintenance immediately afterwards, walked over to the closest clearing and drew a Tier 4 circle in the dirt. Rock Salt, Iron Shavings and String were dumped inside, then he finished it off by cing a single lit candle in the middle and pouring mana into it, leaving him with an empty pool. During the quarter of an hour it would take to fully refill it, Isaacpleted the rest of his preparations. Hed just summoned a Wraith, one of the more unusual members of the Ephemeral type legions. They always wielded one of several weapons and fought with some modicum of skill. Now that he had a proper weapon to fight one with, Isaac was eager to have a proper duel. Trying to use a knife against an opponent wielding a sword would have been not good, at least not in a straight up fight. Despite how movies portrayed it, one could block a sword with a knife. After all, there wasnt much of a difference between catching a blow with the ten-centimeter de of a knife or taking it on thest ten centimeters of a one handed sword, but theck of reach was a killer. [Far Strike] alleviated this issue somewhat, but using it was expensive in terms of mana used even if he refrained from using [Manifold Strike] to make it stronger. Of course, blocking a weapon required you to have the strength to block the blow and durability to not break your own bones from the transmitted force. With a Fortitude of 30, Isaac was good on thetter front, but not the former. But that was easily fixed. 700 XP vanished in a sh as he levelled up. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 7 XP: 2101/800 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 73/150 Stats Fortitude 30 Perception 25 Strength 20 Agility 20 Magic Power 15 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 18 Skill Skills Hundred Faces VII Stealth VIII Power Strike XI Piercing Strike XII Sundering Strike X Knives XI Sneak XI Sweeping Strike I Far Strike IV Manifold Strike II General Skills Gralloch I Alchemy I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration 8 points went into Strength and 2 into Agility, bringing them both up to 20. Man, those two had beengging behind. Hed improved the stats he needed to grind more efficiently first, Fortitude to stay awake longer, Perception to see in the dark, Magic Power to charge stronger circles, Magic Regeneration to summon more in the same amount of time. This had left Agility and Strength somewhat underpoweredpared to his Level, apletely crooked spread of Statspared to the build hed intended on having. But it had gotten him here rather quickly, so all was well. Now, hed just bring up everything to around thirty or so, then start focusing on Agility, Perception and Magic Regeneration. And as always, the [Skill] Points were saved for his next [ss]. A few minutester, his mana ticked up to full and it was time. Isaac rose to his feet in a single smooth motion and activated the circle. It turned into a t, pale blue and glowing disk from which a dark figure rose, head looking downwards as if the humanoid being had died and just kept standing despite that. ck armor wrapped pale white, see through, flesh. A soft light began to emanate from it, shining through the gaps in deep ck te armor, a glowing spectral broadsword manifesting in its right hand and a buckler in the left. The Wraiths head rose, then snapped around to re at Isaac, pale wisps emanating from the armors eye sockets. A proper warrior stood there, ring at Isaac from across the clearing. Strong, powerful, meh tier techniques. In essence, this was a fight between a proper body builder and a ck belt in any marital art you cared to name. Immensely strong, but perfectly beatable by skill alone. The sword shed forward, cutting the air with unnatural speed, but Isaac simply interposed his own de. Two swords, one made of mundane steel but then strengthened by sheer skill, the other born of a preternatural monster and strengthened by raw hatred, met. The sound of that meeting, however, was something neither of them had expected. Abined [Piercing Strike] and [Piercing Strike ] met and attack created from pure willpower and mana, something entirely different from what either of them had been prepared for. The sound that echoed across the clearing was beyond anything that could be found in nature, the scream of tortured metal and a mana-forged bit of metal impacting not something that could happen by anything even remotely normal. The Wraith withdrew its de a momentter, but Isaac just kept up his assault. The Kriegsmesser came down in an overhead chop like a meteor, but the Wraith simply interposed its shield and blocked the attack. After all, a little skill with the de was still some skill. The sword shed around in arc, moving so quickly it seemed to leave a trail in the air but Issac was already moving, letting himself fall backwards, going under the deadly conjured weapon as he brought his own around in a sweeping arc, a crimson bar of power that was abination of both [Far Strike] and [Power Strike] extending from it to bash into the side of the Wraiths knee with an ugly crunch. The monsters ck armor was actually rather resistant to magical attacks, but ragged, granting him a cheap shot right to the phantasmal flesh beneath. As his ass hit the ground, Isaac, turned his fall into a backwards roll, returning to his feet in a crouch, every muscle tensing in preparation for his next move. He lunged forward, high Agility and Strength letting him pull off the move with a power no normal person could ever wield. He slipped under the shield, the point of his Kriegsmesser glowing a dangerous neon green, abination of [Sundering Strike] and [Piercing Strike], with the former set to directly attack whatever nerves or nerve equivalent the monster had, thanks to its Level 10 ability. The Wraith screamed as agony erupted up from its healthy leg, but it managed to push the sensation down as it hobbled around to face the little human whod hurt it so. It swung the sword again, but Isaac danced out of range only for the sword to shift into a poleaxe at thest possible moment. It was a trick that burned a lot of mana, but the Wraith had clearly decided that saving the resources was pointless if it didnt survive this encounter. Isaac was still moving backwards, the very tip of the weapon carving a shallow cut into his chest, a cut that a mere moment of [Hydras Regeneration] fixed right up. It followed up the attack by dismissing its armor and charging, then it threw a punch with the hand that held the buckler. As it did so, the small shield transformed into a pata, an Indian gauntlet sword that was essentially a metal mitten with one-meter-long de protruding forward from the wrist. Someone less familiar with how a pissed off Wraith fought might have been caught off guard and ended up skewered, not aware of such a weapon even existing. Then again, most people wouldnt have known about the limitation of its weapon creating power, namely, the fact that they needed to be real. Regardless, Isaac used his tried and true method for not getting hit: be somewhere else. The Wraith continued to charge, faster without its armor but also a hell of a lot more vulnerable, burning mana on a per second basis to continuously adapt its weaponry. A towershield that hadnt been there before suddenly appeared to catch a devastating lunge from Isaac, the somewhat unwieldy polearm was reced by a saber as he slipped under the long weapon to inflict a cut on its calf, and the quarrel from a handheld crossbow that appeared from nowhere nearly tore through his shoulder Apparently, hed made it mad. But there was a reason Wraiths didnt start out fighting like this, instead summoning a basic weapon or two and using those like one normally would. And a few momentster, that became abundantly clear. The Zweih?nder the Wraith now held fizzled out, vanishing into motes of energy as the Wraiths mana ran out. It had burned all its mana in a rage fueled flurry of attacks as it switched weapons at the drop of a hat, doing everything it could to kill Isaac. Even as it stood there before him, weaponless, it charged, fists raised and ready to break his bones. It had thrown everything it had at him and was following it up with the kitchen sink. A credible threat to a human with somewhat weaker physical stats? Obviously, but the thing was, Isaac was still armed. The Wraiths fist met the point of Isaacs Kriegsmesser, covered in yellow light, and came apart as the de punched deeper and deeper until it came out of the back of its elbow. With a twist and a yank, Isaac removed the de from the Wraiths arm, whisps of the beasts essence leaking from the mangled limb. Heedless of the injury, it swung its other arm straight at Isaacs head, but he sidestepped the blow and brought his sword down on it, severing the limb above the elbow as red light red around the weapon. The Wraith stumbled, roared and tried to headbutt him, using one of the few weapons remaining in its arsenal. Before the monsters forehead coulde anywhere near him, the Kriegsmesser was buried up to the hilt in its chest. More essence burst from the Wraith as it slowly died, the beast falling to its knees. Finally, he withdrew his knife from its sheath in a single, lightning quick motion, and rammed abined [Power Strike] and [Sundering Strike] into its temple. A brown energy flowed around the de until it impacted, blowing apart the Wraiths head in the process. Wraith (Lv. 11) has been in. 144 XP gained (120 base * 1.2 due to level disparity) It writhed for less than a second, then crumbled into sparkly dust. Well fought. Isaac nodded to it, breathing heavily. Blood trickled down his cheek from a small gash on his scalp. Half a dozen small cuts burned on his body, mementos from blows hed barely dodged. But hede out of that fight with plenty of mana, so he spent some to fix them all. That had really been a tough fight, mostly because the Wraith had gone so utterly berserk. In hindsight, using [Sundering Strike] in the pain inducing mode had been a mistake. He simply hadnt known how painful that attack would be to the creature. Isaac himself had gotten hit with that [Skill] once, but his Fortitude had been a great deal higher at the time,plete with its power to suppress pain. And normally, Wraiths only went berserk when utterly outmatched, not just because theyd taken bad injuries. As it turned out, hed been wrong about that. Then again, you never stopped learning, did you? He certainly wouldnt be making that mistake again. If you learned something new during a fight, then you went into it with insufficient information. And that means youre a dumbass. The quote came to mind unbidden, making Isaac chuckle softly. It was a bit harsh and rude, but also pretty true, at least when you werent the very first person fighting a certain opponent. Ah yes, Sensei Michael Staller. A highly skilled practitioner of karate, but also an overweight, older man in his fifties with man boobs that sagged halfway down to his belly button. No one would assume he was as capable as he was from appearance alone, but skill counted for a lot. Short of actual MMA fighters, there were very few people Staller couldnt beat in a straight up fight. Isaac had seen the man fight. Once. That had been enough to convince him of his power. Staller had started out as some kind of pugilism based [ss], then advanced into one rted to teaching as well, something that had granted him the ability to teach some basic, active [Skills]. At his peak, a single lesson from him let people fight basic monsters on their own, solely using the active [Skills] they gained from him. An impressive man, all told, but more importantly, a good one. A tad gruff, perhaps, but then again, no one was without ws. Perhaps, Isaac mused, hed send him an Aspect or two once Staller began to walk down the path of empowering others in this timeline. As he mused about that, he gathered the dust into a small Tupperware container. It was a moderately useful Alchemy material, but also an incredibly fine, incredibly shiny particle. In other words, the next person to really tick him off would get this crap in the form of a glitter bomb. Next, he reset the circle, first repairing it and then putting in the ingredients. While his mana slowly ticked up to full, Isaac pulled out a small notepad and began to write down notes on his future ns. Hed been thinking about what to do a lot, but this was the first time hed actually written them down. What were the problems hed have to deal with? The Demon Lord in Korea, a few powerful monsters here and there, some dangerous dungeons, things that might not even happen anywhere. And then, of course, there was H.P. Lovecrafts underwear drawer, also known as Cthulhus Armpit, and a host of other, even less printable names. An Eldritch dungeon, known to drive people mad. In fact, the two above names had been given to it by people whod lost their minds to that damn ce, but theyd been crude, so theyd stuck. But the official name was hardly any better or less ominous. The Sanitys End Dungeon. A dungeon that had sprung up near the border of Ennd and Scond, offering great loot and XP alongside great danger. For those brave enough to enter it, at least. Until one day, the dungeon had sent out a flood of monsters, and consumed the British Isles in an orgy of insanity and death. Someone had created it and it had been stable for a long time until it hadnt been. Much like the Demon Lord, it was something that been summoned for a rather specific purpose, one that his actions were unlikely to change, so hed be wary of it. Head up there every few months, see if that ce had been created, and break the core if it had been. Then, someone had tried to create a park of dinosaurs in the middle of the Nevada desert. This had, predictably, backfired rather badly. Given the allure of the big lizards, that would likely happen again, in some form or other. All of those were situations where he didnt know who was at fault, so there was no one whose ass he could kick, or whose name he could pass on to the relevant authorities to have them kick the idiots ass for him. Soon, the next wave of powerful creatures would get summoned as people grew more confident and were willing to see what the next Tier of summoning circles could call. Isaac could recall several standout issues from the other timeline, but he had no way to know if theyd appear in this timeline as well. Him helping humanity advance in a safer manner was already paying small dividends, but in doing so, hed taken a sledgehammer to the known timeline of events. His mana topped up and he dumped it all into the circle, then went back to pondering the future. Realistically, there were certain events that would likely still happen, but plenty of others that wouldnt, or at least ur in a different form. All he had left now was years ofbat experience, knowledge of countless possible problems that could crop up and effective ways of dealing with them, not to mention a clear advancement n and knowledge of optimal improvement. More and more notes appeared, filling page after page with his nigh illegible, spiderlike, scrawl as he worked until his mana hit full once again. Isaac rose to his feet and retrieved the Kriegsmesser. Showtime. Chapter 28: Evolution Chapter 28: Evolution Isaac nced down at the dark orb in his hand. Aspect of the Wraith: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Wraith a Wraith. Create weapons from mana with a thought, find the living at a nce, be a ghostly presence and leave behind mortality, d yourself in magically resistant te at a whim. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Strength One of the following Skills: Ghostly Arsenal Hunt of the Damned Body of the Wraith te of Darkness It offered several interesting options, including a powerful and magically resistant armor, the ability to sense the living through walls and create the same kind of magical weaponry the Wraith had used. Lastly, it had a [Skill] simr to his existing [Spectral Shift], though it was also very different in some respects. It was intended for more of a long-term transformation, turning the users flesh into a pale mass simr to what the Wraith had had, providing significant protection for their internal organs. And with a little more mana invested, it also allowed for phasing through walls like [Spectral Shift]. Near total immunity to blunt blows,bined with a some rigid armor to transfer most other kinds of impacts into blunt hits in turn, made for one hell of a tankybination. But it was a [Skill] for [Knights], [Warriors] and the like, not him. Isaac sighed as he tossed it from one hand to the other, thinking. You could stack multiple Aspects in the same slot, if and only if both came from simr creatures and the new Aspect had a [Skill] simr to the one the old one gave. Doing so would upgrade the old [Skill] to the one the new Aspect had and give one the option of picking a second [Skill] from the new one. One could stack a grand total of four Aspects like that, one from a Tier 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and Tier 10 monster, under the above conditions. For a moment, he considered slotting this thing, but then solidly decided against it. [Body of the Wraith] was technically an upgrade over [Spectral Shift], but given how its core purpose differed, it would be a downgrade for him. Then again, he hadnt been fighting the Wraiths for the Aspects, so this thing was really just a bonus to give to someone who could use it, sell for cash on the newly emerging markets for [System] rted things, or trade to Calise for something hard to get via legal means. Isaac pulled up his Status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Rogue Species: Human Level: 7 XP: 3023/800 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 150/150 Stats Fortitude 30 Perception 25 Strength 20 Agility 20 Magic Power 15 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 18 Skill Skills Hundred Faces VII Stealth IX Power Strike XII Piercing Strike XIII Sundering Strike XI des XII Sneak XII Sweeping Strike I Far Strike VI Manifold Strike V General Skills Gralloch I Alchemy I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration [Stealth] and [Sneak] had gone up after one Wraith hed mostly attacked from stealth, sneaking around instead of facing it directly like hed done the others. Most of the [Strike] type [Skills] had also gone up a few times, with the ones above Level 10 obviously gaining the least. Lastly, [Knives] had gained another Level and the name had changed to [des] from his use of a proper sword. Well, sort of sword, the name still tranted to knife, but the [System] didnt take that into ount. The new [Skill] was basically the same one as the old one, just expanded to granting skill in all edged weapons, not merely knives. Not that Isaac needed much help with raw skills, countless years of training had put him above what the [Skill] provided at its current Level. 2700 XP vanished in a hearbeat, bringing his Level up to 10. Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the first Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new sses. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 10 until you evolve your ss. Here are your possible ss Evolutions: Rogue mon) The Rogue is the most basic of the stealthy sses, specializing in sneaking around and inflicting high damage from out of sight. It grants Skills rted to being unnoticed, setting traps and proper knifework. Active Skills, meanwhile, improve the force of attacks, bypass armor, and make detection more difficult. Assassin mon) The brief glint of metal, a sh of movement, blood spraying from a severed throat, the assant long gone by the time the body hits the floor. That is how an Assassin kills. Unknown, unseen, unstoppable, those are the characteristics of those who choose this ss. It grants Skills rted to human and monster anatomy to hit the most vulnerable points with ease, poison making, and massively expands on the basic knifework and stealth of the Rogue. Trapmaker mon) Nowhere is safe. Not if a Trapmaker was in the area at some point in thest decade, at least. This is a slight change from the normal modus operandi of a Rogue, but this makes you no less dangerous. Countless Skills rted to crafting, gaining materials, making deadly constructions and hiding them. Alsoes with a set of Darwin Awards to hand out to whoever is dumb enough to go after you in your workshop. Thief mon) This is yours? Too bad, its mine now. A simple philosophy, but an effective one. The Thief ss massively improves stealth rted active and passive Skills,bined granting Skills rted to climbing, lockpicking, safecracking and literally anything else one might need to break in somewhere. Deathstrike Assassin (rare) Not content to merely be a basic, cookie cutter Assassin, the Deathstrike Assassin uses a myriad of mystical energies to enhance his blows, countless Strike type Skills to tear any armor asunder and obliterate anyone in his way. This ss grants countless variants on the typical Strike type powers, and enhances them to a significant degree. A simpler powerset, but vastly deadlier. ded Trapmaker (umon) Bear Traps? You mean a pair of steel jaws with dinky little spikes on them? Nah, Ill put a bunch of impossibly sharp des on there instead. Any de created by a ded Trapmaker will be a cut above, leaving wounds that gush rivers of lifeblood at a mere brush. While it grants all the same basic crafting Skills the normal Trapmaker has, it also grants countless stronger versions specifically for creating des. Woe betide any who underestimate you. Spy (umon) Where a Thief steals physical objects, the Spy steals hearts and secrets. Ever the stereotypical charming rogue, the Spy gains the Skills necessary for smoothly navigating social situations and issues and bes a conman par excellence. They also gain an obligatory appearance boost that makes them a solid 9.5/10 in most peoples eyes. Hardly the best inbat, but that aint what this ss is for, darlin. Spectral Assassin (rare) An Assassin is a terrifying presence, even if no one ever catches a direct look at them. Mere proof of one being somewhere in the area is enough to cause a panic. But the Spectral Assassin surpasses them in all respects. A killer whose presence is as fleeting as the lives of his targets, something allowed by countless lethal attack Skills and incredibly powerful, ghostly movement Skills. Undying Assassin (rare) There are legends out there, stories of men who take horrifying injuries, continue moving forward even with a de thrust clean through, all to kill their intended target. Pushed forward by an indomitable will as well as the regenerative Skills to survive almost anything. It doesnt matter what stands in your way, what injuries you suffer, nothing will stop you or even do more than slightly slow you down. Nothing can keep you down, thanks to your countless powerful defensive and regenerative Skills. Phantasmal Trickster (rare) If you look up worlds biggest pain in the ass in the dictionary, youll likely find a picture of a person with this ss. A Phantasmal Trickster is fundamentally still a Trapmaker but not really. Their traps are no longer truly physical, instead being spectral constructs that summon evil spirits in the face of anyone who trips them, or strike directly at the spirit of the victim. the Trickster didnt make it create an outright fake world, fundamentally fucking with the victim''s sense of reality. Couple that with the ability to walk through walls and hide traps within, there is nothing that can ever truly stop the holder of this ss, or make sure that anywhereis safe. Mad Scientist (rare) There are some things that are important when doing experiments. Caution, safety, keeping the amount ofbustible liquids spilled on the floor to an absolute minimum. At least thats what the wimps think. A Mad Scientist will have a beaker of Nitroglycerin blow up in his face, blink, wipe away the soot and fix the injury. This is a ss that encourages innovation, courage, perhaps even recklessness, and gives incredible rewards for those willing to take them. Gain countless crafting Skills if you take this ss, just remember, the ones intended to avoid idents have been reced with ones meant to survive them. Phantom Thief (rare) Wasnt there a wallet there, just a second ago? A Phantom Thief is a thief, simple as that. But one that is so good that no one can ever truly be sure he even exists. With this ss, nothing will ever stop you, no wall will ever be able to bar your way, and no ones possessions will ever be safe from you. Relentless Thief (rare) Ah yes. Someone decided to be cute and put a bear trap on theirwn and you stepped in it? My, how adorable, Ill just chop off the leg and grow a new one. Nothing will stop you on your path to getting what you want, no traps or assassins, you can shrug off everything. Keep going until your prize is in your grasp, then limp out of there. Undying Wraith (epic) You wont see me unless I want you to, and if you do, itll likely be thest thing you see. If you manage tond a hit, better make sure you have a body, for anything else means Ille right back. Those are the kinds of things an Undying Wraith might say to exin its powerset. Because this is what it is. An eternal presence, impossible to escape, impossible to kill, impossible to stop or even see unless it lets you. This is a ss strongly linked to both the regenerative power of a Hydra and the fleeting presence of a Specter, drawing power from both Aspects for power. It offers countless Skills, each meant for a different purpose, depending on the direction the user wants to go. At its most basic, an Undying Wraith has powerful Skills for stealth and unseen movement. This is followed up with observation Skills to properly observe ones foes from hiding and gain all the information needed to figure out an optimal n of attack. And once that has been done, the attack itself can be conducted in an entirely new form, one forged from the Aspects the Wraith has bound to itself, aided by a soulbound weapon. Information gathering to start with, followed by deductions of the enemys capabilities, at which point they will be torn apart with overwhelming strength. Ultimately, this is a ss for sneaking up on ones foes, stalking them to gain an understanding of their powers and weaknesses, then tearing them apart with brutal strength as one transforms into a horrifying monstrosity. [System] Researcher (epic) You have delved into the mysteries of the System deeper than almost anyone else has dared to thus far. Uncover the secrets of the world and universe, young one, but beware, you might not like what you find. Stare too long into the Abyss, and the Abyss stares back. This ss grants Skills that boost intelligence, research speed, active and massively powerful analysis powers, and the like. But this ss standout ability is being able to create new Skills on its own, based on observations of other humans or monsters Skills. Using what essentially amounts to basic Mage Skills, a [System] Researcher is a dangerous foe right from the very start, but with an ever-expanding roster of new powers, there is very little that can slow them down for long. This is a ss that requires a lot of work and effort beyond merely increasing ones level in order to get stronger, but with that work, it can be one of the strongest sses in existence. Most of the offered [sses] were as hed expected. The [ss] he already had was offered, just like always. If one desperately wanted to keep leveling but was unwilling to pick one of the new ones offered, one had the option of keeping the current [ss]. It would dy future Evolutions by an entire threshold, sure, but there were reasons to pick that option. They were just rare and would have severe repercussion for future growth. Then he had the three standard Evolution paths for a [Rogue], as well as the same paths adjusted based on his [Skills] and Aspects. The [Skill] ones were all umon, except for the [Deathstrike Assassin], likely due to how many relevant [Skills] he had and how strong hed made them, making a rare [ss]. But all of those were,pared to the final two, garbage. The first epic [ss], [Undying Wraith] was perfectly in line with what Isaac had expected to get. A stealth based [ss] with significant defensive power, an option for a soulbound weapon as it befitted an epic [ss]. And it offered another really strong sounding [Skill] based on his Aspects, just like one could expect from a [ss] defined by said Aspects. The second one he had not. In hindsight, he should have, though. In essence, it was a far stronger version of the rare ranked [Research Mage] [ss], one defined by being willing to put in the work to figure out how anothers [Skills] worked and replicating them for oneself. At first nce, that sounded like an utterly broken ability, though it dide with a few caveats. Caveats that had fucked over quite a few people in the other timeline. While copied [Skills] werentpletely static like the ones gained from Aspects, they only advanced very slowly, even more so when one considered the sheer number of [Skills] a [System Researcher] would end up getting and how little time would be avable to train up any given one. And on top of that, it almost certainly couldnt copy [Skills] that werent visible. No soulbinding [Skills], passive defenses, passive boosts, etc. Therefore, anyone with this [ss] would have a million [Skills], each weaker than those belonging to a more focused [Mage], but if one had the tactical acumen to pick the right one for any given situation, it could have an outsized impact. In other words, a [ss] perfect for nning and counterattacking. Then again, the [Undying Wraith] was based on research, just in a different way. The kind of research you did when looking at an enemy, noting their equipment or natural weapons, their posture, feedback from inspection [Skills] and then used all that to nt a knife in their heart. One outstanding [ss] to study and subsequently steal the abilities of ones foes. A second to study the foes themselves and fight them directly. It was a difficult decision, one that would shape his entire future progression. Depending which he chose, Isaac would end up bing a [Mage] archetype or continue to be an Agility based melee fighter. But he wasnt just making this choice for himself. If Isaac and his future knowledge didnt exist in this timeline, it would end in the extinction of humanity. There was no guarantee that his presence would change that, but it was literally the only thing that might do so. And that put a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, and onto this decision. At that moment, Isaac felt like there was someone staring at him, waiting to silently judge whatever he ended up picking. Not anyone who was actually here at the moment, mind you, but the ghosts of timelines erased. Old friends,rades, others hed admired or respected. People were shaped by their experiences, changed, became someone else over the course of their lives to be who they were. Who theyd been at the time of their deaths in the other timeline. And that was what hed lost. The people theyd be, whod not just died, but been erased from existence the instant Isaac had started changing things. The mere existence of all those deities having been confirmed in the other timeline strongly indicated that at least some afterlives existed. ces for the dead to go. But they werent dead. Those people were gone, destroyed, removed utterly from the world and existence itself. The only ce they remained were his memories. Isaac sighed and hung his head, feeling his eyes grow moist as he forced back the flood of memories welling up inside of him. Alright, for you guys, Ill win this. he whispered, and made his choice. Congrattions on evolving your ss to be an Undying Wraith! Would you like to pick out your Skills now? Y/N As fantastic a path as [System Researcher] was, it wasnt his path. Isaac wasnt a [Mage], he was a fighter. It was what he was good at, the path to power hed forged for himself, the one that had taken him to the peak. Dropping that to follow the next shiny new thing, even if it might have been a better choice that wasnt him. The [System Researcher] was a [ss] for those who enjoyed research, poring over videos of a monsters attacks countless times to figure out the underlying mechanics, and that just wasnt him. Hed be a researcher for the sake of everyone else and while he did somewhat enjoy theb, that was mostly due to his coworkers, rather than the work itself. It was still a [ss] that required knowledge and careful forethought, just of a different kind. Undying Wraith Central Skills (double cost) Form of Horror (epic) The Chosen Weapon (epic) Skills Gaze of the Hunter (epic, requires Inspect) Unknown Fear (epic, requires Privacy) Phantom Step (epic) Tools of Terror (epic) Scare Tactics (epic) Fleeting Presence (epic) Hunters Mind (epic) Cripple (epic) Bestial Regeneration (epic) Undying Focus (epic) General Skills Inspect mon) Privacy mon) As all [sses] did, [Undying Wraith] had an absolute fuckton of avable [Skills]. And it being one past Level ten, it also had [Central Skills]. They were whaty at the heart of their [ss], the strongest ones, but they also cost twice as much. There were actually [sses] with a single [Core Skill] that cost three times as much as a normal [Skill] of the same rarity, but was insanely powerful. Of course, Isaac had an epic [ss], meaning all [Skills] were, at a minimum, at the same rarity and therefore cost 4 [Skill] points each. he was really d hed saved all those points. What was a little surprising was that the analysis Skill harped on about in the [ss] description was actually just the [ss] specific upgrade to [Inspect], but that was fine. Inspect mon) This Skill allows the user to look at anothers System given powers, including things such as ss, Stat distribution and Skills. This Skill is free and can be toggled on and off at will, though attempting to see through any kind of privacy Skill requires the user to spend 5 mana on each attempt. The effectiveness of this Skill increases with Perception and Level superiority. Inspect --> Gaze of the Hunter Gaze of the Hunter (epic) There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills. This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are very weak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the users foes. Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someones Stats are higher, lower orparable to the Users, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are. But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more. The power of this Skill increases with both personal and Skill Level, as well as Aspect count and Perception. Five [Skill] pointster, one for themon rarity basic [Skill] and four for the epic upgrade, a massive grin appeared an Isaacs face. On the surface, it was a downgrade, one that would give out far less information unless the target was absurdly weak, but that waspletely ignoring what appeared to be an absurd level of defense pration. The information that [Gaze of the Hunter] would give was rather unspecific, but it would always give it. And using that as a basis for his deductions, there would be very little he couldnt eventually figure out. Still research, but a kind Isaac much preferred. He was also very d to have saved all those [Skill] points, given that even just those two [Skills] would have required most of the points gained by two Level-ups. In fact, Isaac could pick up almost all of the [Skills] he wanted right off the bat, rather than having to wait until almost Level 20. Privacy mon) This Skill is used to protect the users privacy by blocking hostile use of the Inspect Skill. It will block any Inspect Skill of the same Level unless there is a massive disparity in Level or relevant stats, as well as almost all upgrades of said Skill unless they are a significantly higher rarity. The power of this Skill increases with the users Level, as well as this Skills Level and the users Fortitude Stat. The basic anti-[Inspect] [Skill] of [Privacy] came next, though Isaac decided to postpone the upgrade until after his next Level up. Between having a fairly high Fortitude for a [Rogue] and the fact that he was at a pretty high Level for how long the [System] had been around, it should suffice for now. That being said, the upgrade did look awesome. Unknown Fear (epic) There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown. With this Skill, the user bes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, be fear itself. It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility. Between [Sneak] and [Stealth], it would start out at effectively as if it were at Level 10 from the beginning. Well over half the [Skill] points hed had at the start and almost all of the ones he had left disappeared as Isaac bought both [Central Skills]. They were the strongest [Skills] offered by his [ss] and a core part of its skillset. Form of Horror (epic) There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, andstly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the users Aspects, and gains a 5 % boost to all physical Stats for each one. Current Aspects: Aspect of the Specter, Aspect of the Lesser Hydra If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the users new form. Furthermore, while in this form the users Strength and Fortitude are increased by 25 % while Agility and Percpetion are increased by 35 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated every 12 C 0.5*n hours, where n is Skill Level andsts for 30 seconds for each Skill Level. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. And there it was, his new ultimate attack. For a transformation [Skill], it was incredibly powerful, but also had an incredibly short duration. That made sense, though, given that it was meant to be used for a blitz attack to finish off the target after a while of observation and once the weak points had been determined. The whole cooldown and separate mana pool shtick would be a surprise for many people, but it was actually rather standard for those kinds of fight ending ultimate [Skills]. After all, what kind of [Rogue] had a mana pool above a thousand this early, or even by the time of the evolution after this one? The cooldown itself was an unfortunate side effect of that, though. The other [Skill] wasnt any less impactful, though. The Chosen Weapon (epic) There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent. But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death. And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then bes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user. As this Skills Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained. In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers. The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the users, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level in this Skill. Upon purchasing this Skill, the weapon must be selected immediately. A weapon that was always ready, always avable, always strong enough to be useful. Now he just needed to pick one. There were a couple of options avable, one strapped to his belt, the second resting against his leg. Therge and powerful Kriegsmesser, a sizeable weapon more suited to traditional de to debat. And the smaller kabar, the weapon that had been by his side since the very beginning. A slightly less useful weapon when fighting a powerful orrge foe, but oh so much more familiar. What was theoretically a few days more of experience with the weapon, felt like so much longer on an emotional level. It was the weapon that had brought him to this point, the weapon he would bring up to the very peak of power. He could also hide it far more easily, something that might be needed, given that society still frowned on the open wearing of lethal weapons and having to waste half the weapons mana pool to warp it into his hands for a fight was a tad suboptimal. Besides, hed be able to pick another form soon enough. As to what consecrating the weapon in the blood of legendary foes meant, a secondary tooltip helpfully exined that, though Isaac didnt have to read it. Basically, that meant either fighting [Bosses] or punching even further above his weight ss than Isaac was normallyfortable with. Another [System] window popped up as he chose his knife as the first weapon to be his for the rest of eternity. Would you like to name your weapon? Obviously. Isaac grinned, picking the name hed had in mind for his soulbound weapon since the very beginning. Weapon: Old Reliable Once merely an ordinary Ka-Bar, this weapon has been refined and strengthened by the Skills of a Rogue, bathed in the blood of countless powerful monsters and finally imed as The Chosen Weapon of an Undying Wraith, transcending its old purpose and limitations. Ever-growing with its wielder, the Old Reliable will not only gain strength, but entirely new powers as it is used in legendary battles and bathed in the blood of the enemies that fall in them. Mana Pool: 0/100 Skills: To Me: Calls Old Reliable back into the wielders hand in a straight line, costs 10 mana, at a range of a maximum of 10 meters. Always Armed: Teleports Old Reliable into the wielders hand from anywhere in the universe. The minimum cost is 50 and scales with distance and interfering effects. Eternity: Old Reliable is as eternal as its wielder. So long as he is alive, this weapon has the opportunity to be reborn. Doing so will require all of the materials used to build it in the first ce, as well as 500 mana. This cost will have to be paid by an external source. The kabar, no, Old Reliable, was now a [System] recognized Item, something that was also the case for potions or pieces of gear used by craftsmen so highly levelled that anything they touched gained preternatural properties. And to round out his new build, he picked up the most immediately useful movement [Skill], leaving him with just a single point. Phantom Step (epic) A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skills Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles. You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night. With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved. Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 1 mana per meter of unobserved travel, 5 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 10 m +2 m per Skill Level Really, Isaac wanted all of the [Skills] that [ss] offered, from the passive, trace obliterating, [Fleeting Presence], to [Tools of Terror], which allowed him to grow some of the natural weapons belonging to the monsters from whom Isaac had sourced his Aspects. Then, there was [Cripple], another [Strike] kind of [Skill] that reduced the useability of any body part hit. Even more impressive was that those were just the first few [Skills], ignoring the countless ones lower down on the list. Andstly, now that Isaac knew what kind of [Skills] his evolved [ss] gave him, he could start making ns for picking up specific Aspects. If it was at all possible, hed try to stack as many Aspects into each of those slots, which threw up another problem. Now that he was at Level 10, the drop rate for Aspects from weaker monsters would be a good deal lower, but there was a very simple solution. Isaac could just trade the powerful materials from high Level creatures that he could now fight. The kind any ambitious fighter below Level 10 would jump at in a heartbeat. As far as upgrading his existing Aspects went, he already had a couple of creatures in mind, namely a regr Hydra and a Poltergeist, though those would be beyond him for a short while still. But all of that was something to truly worry aboutter. For now, it was time to try out his new transformation [Skill]. Isaac set up his phone against a nearby tree stump to use as a mirror and activated [Form of Horror]. In a heartbeat, his clothes vanished as his body expanded, gaining another meter in height, skin turning deathly pale. Arms lengthened until they hung down to his knees, his entire body bing more and more muscr, appearing like the body of a serpent. Despite the sheer power of this new form, it felt light and ethereal, as if a simple breeze could blow him away if only he let it. ws like steak knives extended from the tips of his fingers, forged from the weapon that had be a part of his very being, shredding the wood of a tree as heid his hand against it and flexed his fingers. Teeth forged from the same material filled his mouth, the razor sharp edge clearly apparent as he ran his tongue over them. Isaac just knew that if it hadnt been for the fact that his soulbound weapon couldnt hurt him unless he let it, otherwise, hed have had a mouth filled with blood, gore, and minced meat. Cool. Not that he was nning on biting anyone, but it was still cool to have. In the ss screen of his phone, Isaac studied his new face, the t front, the two triangr slits that were now his nostrils, the mouth so wide it would have reached up to his ears, if hed still had any. Meanwhile, his eyes had turned into ck voids of nothingness, dark pools that seemed to stretch into infinity. Creepy as fuck. Isaac grinned at that, the face turning into something straight out of a horror movie. Perfect. Just perfect. All too soon, the duration of the [Skill] ended and he, once again, turned human, his clothes reappearing as he did so. In that moment, Isaac resolved to upgrade that [Skill] as quickly as possible. Chapter 29: Why the hell didn’t I think of that before? Chapter 29: Why the hell didnt I think of that before? Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 10 XP: 323/2200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 250/250 Stats Fortitude 30 Perception 30 Strength 30 Agility 30 Magic Power 25 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 1 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror I The Chosen Weapon I Skills Hundred Faces VII Stealth VIII Power Strike XII Piercing Strike XIII Sundering Strike XI des XI Sneak XI Sweeping Strike I Far Strike VII Manifold Strike V Hunters Gaze I Phantom Step I General Skills Gralloch I Alchemy I Privacy I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration [Empty Slot] Isaac grinned as he looked at his new Status,plete with all of his new [Skills] and the empty Aspect Slot hed gained as a result of his Evolution. He couldnt wait to fill it. Unfortunately, it had gotten reallytest night, and hed wanted to get his two hours of sleep before going into work the next morning. Hed also decided to try out one of his new abilities and left Old Reliable back in his apartment. A mere thought was all that was required to warp the de into his right hand. appearing as if it had always been there, with the slight weight of the associated sheath appearing at his belt, though Isaac could also tell he could havemanded it to stay behind. As he sheathed the de, a grin began to creep onto his face. This was amazing! As he crossed the university campus, it was noticeably more crowded than it had beenst week. Things really were returning to normal, well, new normal. Isaac swept [Gaze of the Hunter] across the crowd, the extremely subtle Inspection-[Skill] goingpletely unnoticed. These people were all quite weak, their stats well below his, and no [sses] that significantly shifted their affinities from normal. Affinities were a funny thing, and probably a very misleading way to name what they were. In essence, they described what any given [ss] or Aspect was good at. For a [Pyromancer], that would obviously be fire, while a [Student] or [Researcher] would give off a certain feeling of boundless possibility to those with the [Skills] to sense Affinities. But someone with no real power in their [ss] wouldnt have been greatly changed by it yet and gave of a feeling of simply being human. And that was most of the people here. Yet there were a handful of people who did stand out, whose stats were closer to his than everyone elses, who had slight but perceivable and identifiable affinities. People were beginning to take advantage of the [System], ordinary people. That was both intriguing in where it could lead, but also dangerous. Anyone who was summoning monsters might also release them into the world without meaning to. And that made them a potential threat. For a brief moment, the peaceful and hopeful image was oveyed with another one, a picture of a future that may or may note to pass, a future of darkness and bloodshed, a future of extinction. Isaac shook his head and blinked, trying to brush off the horrific mental images. That wouldnt happen. That would never happen. Not if he had anything to say about it. He took a few deep breaths and continued onwards. As he entered the building that held his research group, sunlight streaming in from the ss wall behind him, a crowd of staggering size greeted him. Well, not exactly, but one farrger than any hed seen in here before. And a lot of them seemed to be streaming towards the stairway leading down into where he worked. He started to push his way forward through the crowd for a few seconds, but then he decided to just go f-it and activated [Spectral Shift], running straight through everyone until he came to a stop beyond the throng of humanity. Isaac turned around to see Bailey arguing with the people at the front, though his immaterial dash through the crowd had caught everyone by surprise, causing a small lull in the conversation. Good morning Professor Bailey, whats going on, and can I help? he asked innocently, backpack casually slung over one shoulder, though he did have the handle of the Kriegsmesser poking out at the top, somewhat ruining the image. Its the study regarding the effects of stats we were talking about. The Dean and the Ethics Board okayed it, but through some bureaucratical mix-up, we ended being the ones in charge of epting the volunteers. And with the lure being basically free Levels Bailey demonstratively gestured at the crowd. Gotcha. Isaac replied. Unfortunately, I dont think you can really help beyond joining the others in the meeting room to make calls and yell at whichever pencil pusher might be able to fix this mess. Or, well, you could run up top and tell everyone that theres been a mix-up and that nothing will happen here. Talking to just a few people at a time down here is not working. Bailey said, then tossed Isaac his keyring Lock the doors once youve cleared out everyone, Ill apologize to anyone we lock out whos meant to be here, . Sure thing. Isaac said, giving a mock salute, jumped, and shifted. A momentter, he manifested on the ground floor of the building and noted the spot so he knew where he could jump directly into the lower floor in the future. Then, he inhaled deeply and bellowed. His voice was far louder than any normal person without a megaphone or equivalent piece of technology could reach, for one simple reason. Stats. Strength to inhale more forcefully, Fortitude to keep his delicate lung tissue intact despite that, then once again Strength to force the air back out with incredible pressure while Fortitude prevented him from shredding his vocal cords. HEY! Hardly the most articte of statements, but it caught the attention of everyone. Isaac continued talking, still louder than normal but at a far more reasonable volume. Thank you. I have an announcement regarding the study most of you are likely here to sign up for. Unfortunately, there has been a mix-up and youre not going to be able to do that here. Now, Im afraid we need this space, so Im going to have to ask you to leave. So, where are we doing that then? someone called out. Not here. Isaac said, unfortunately not having that information either. Ohe on, this is bullshit. Yeah, screw you! And so, the crowd replied with a range of statements and exmations, some polite, some very much not. Isaac just shrugged internally and decided it was time for a show of force beyond merely jumping up through the floor. Triggering [Phantom Step], he suddenly stood next to the entrance door and was holding it open, half his mana pool gone. But that wasnt visible from the outside and hed made it look effortless. Everyone, youre in the wrong ce. You cant sign up here and Im sorry that someone gave you the wrong information, but those are the facts. Please leave. Suddenly vanishing had caused the crowd to stir as people startled, staring uprehending at the spot hed just vacated. When his loud voice suddenly rang out from the opposite direction, the effect was even more dramatic. People whirled around, jumped or yelped in fright. That being said, this department is helping with the study, so if you want it to happen anytime soon, then please let us do our work. And with that, he nudged the door open a little wider, pushing it to the maximum limit the construction allowed. A clear and effective message. The first people began to filter out, a trickle that rapidly became a flood for all of a moment. But people began to talk to him, instead of at him. How did you do that? What do you do down there? Can you teach me to do that? Isaac answered the first couple of questions, but that kicked off a whole other issue of people stopping in the doorway to talk to him. Once again, he raised his voice and said Hey, everyone, we can have this conversation once everyone is out here. Ill dly answer your questions, outside. The sheer volume his voice could reach without him actually yelling made people jump, but it also got the point across very well. Once thest person visible had filtered out, Isaac pulled out his phone and called Bailey. Hey Professor, is everything clear downstairs? Yes. Ok, see you in a bit. Isaac said and locked the door. Then, he phased his hand through it and stuck the key into the lock, on the inside. Ive locked the door and left your keys on the inside. Then, he hung up and turned around to the crowd, putting on a warm smile. Alright, you guys had questions? How did you do that? someone near the front asked. Which part? er, all of it? The shouting was raw Stats, the phasing was an Aspect and the teleport was a [Skill] from a powerful [ss]. Isaac said If youre careful and level up properly, then anyone can learn to do that. As a part of this study, youll gain plenty of XP to either give you a head start on levelling or just give you a basic level of superhuman stats you can keep without ever having to fight again. Can you tell us what exactly happened there? someone else called, quickly being echoed by a whole babble of voices. Bureaucratic mix-up. The study is actually being conducted by the hospital linked to the university, Professor Baileys team and I are mainly going to be working in a support role, power levelling the participants. Not to an extremely high degree, but high enough that you can increase your stats to the point where it noticeably changes your physical or mental capabilities. Were also borrowing spaces for summoning from the cops because we only have the one room, which a lot of monsters dont even fit inside. Were not the ones whore going to be doing most of the work, nor the ones responsible for signing up people to the study. Ill make sure someone posts the proper contact information ASAP. The reply had been rather verbose, but it had been intended to entice as many of these people to sign up. Countless people summoning monsters for him to kill so their levels would increase ever so slightly, making them viable candidates for the study the hospital was conducting. Meanwhile, hed rake in a hell of a lot more and his Level would shoot through the roof. As more questions were asked and answered, Isaac saw Professor Bailey walk up to the door and tape up a note sternly stating not toe in for the study and retrieve his key. Isaac took this as his cue to reenter the building, simply walking through the door. What a mess, huh? he asked. fraid so. You get used to it, sadly. Bailey shrugged. I do have a question, though. Arent we locking out a whole lot of people? Eh, anyone who needs to get in has a key and there are side entrances, Ill unlock the doors soon, but leaving it locked for a bit should clear up the crowd a bit. Bailey said At least it looks like we arent going to have any problems finding volunteers for the study. I cant wait to participate. Isaac grinned And check this out! Level: 10 Congrattions. Bailey shed him a grin Did you evolve your [ss] yet? Yep. Thats actually something I wanted to talk to everyone about. Can I have a moment of everyones time in the meeting room? Actually, is everyone here yet? Isaac asked. Of course. Did you find out anything interesting? You could say that. Theres a couple of important facts I feel you all should know with regards to what kind of [sses] can be unlocked. Isaac grinned Also, I have little gift for everyone. As he said that, he jiggled his backpack a little. Cant wait. Will you need any time to set up? Bailey asked. Nah, all I need is a couple of seconds to plug in a USB stick and open up power point. Bailey nodded and they walked onwards, discussing little details about their current projects. While Isaac stepped into the conference room, his high Perception allowed him to keep track of Bailey gathering the others. Patrick and Karl where in the storage room, grunting and swearing as they lugged around something heavy, or tried to, at least. Amy was in the summoning room magically keeping a hold of something that caterwauled like the most demonic housecat imaginable, but fell silent a momentter after a sudden snapping sound, the abrupt end having a certain sense of finality about it. Isaac grimaced. On one hand, it was a good thing she was willing to do what she needed to level up, on the other he was leading people down the path of blood and death. Things that were necessary were, by definition, necessary, but that did not make them something good, something that people would apud you for. Personally, he didnt much care what the world thought of him, so long as there was a world to disapprove, but he didnt want to put that on anyone else. As far as he was concerned, there wasnt anything wrong with summoning these creatures to kill as the [System] intended, but that was something a whole metric fuckton of people disagreed with. The sheer amount of holy havoc various animal rights groups had been creating in just thest few days was mindboggling. Lastly, there was Raul, already in the meeting room and deeply engrossed in a thick book lying on the table. He looked up for a moment and greeted Isaac, who returned it, then returned his attention to his work of literature. Actually setting everything up was stupidly difficult, still perfectly handleable, but a hell of a lot less easy than one could expect from a technical university. Then again, that might exin all those interesting grumbles that came over the loudspeakers in the lecture halls whenever a lecturer unfamiliar with the room showed up. New issues with an unfamiliar setup there really was no reason for it to be a problem, but for some unfathomable reason, it was. In that time, the others had filtered in and the screen showed a ck, nk image. Morning guys. Isaac gave a rather simple greeting Turns out, I have something to talk to you all about. I hit Level 10st night and evolved my [ss], and I found out something very interesting. Plenty of people have already done the same, but they either didnt bother talking to anyone about the specifics, or they simply rushed the Evolution and didnt realize how to properly get more options. In essence, you get the option of keeping your old [ss], but you also get offered a bunch of other ones. To start with, you get three possible Evolutions that are straight up upgrades to your existing [ss], but take it in a slightly different direction and focus it in some ways. Then, you get versions of each of those upgraded based on what [Skills] you have and what Level they are, as well as your Aspects. Therefore, I believe that if there is anything you want to do, any Aspects you want to get, you should do it before your Evolution. And beyond those simple enhancements, there are the [sses] offered for great achievements. For example, I got offered [System Researcher], which is basically a research [ss] that analyses [Skills] and natural abilities, then copies them. I think youre all going to be offered the same one, though. If I understood you correctly, you didnt pick that one? Bailey asked. Exactly, I got a different one, still focused on research, just one of monsters instead of magic. Isaac told him, choosing not to mention the name because it simply didnt sound like a research [ss] But that actually brings me to my next point. This thing. He clicked on to the next page, using abinationser pointer and remote control hed found next to theputer. A decently well drawn picture, pencil on white paper, appeared, depicting his transformed form. By the standards of a proper artist, it was atrocious, but it still got the point across. Isaac was not even a remotely talented artist, but high Perception allowed him to see even tiny details while the mental enhancement provided by the magic stats helped keep all that in mind while drawing. The end product might have been closer to a printout of an incredibly shitty ck and white photograph, but that didnt make it impossible for his fellow researchers to identify the creature being depicted. Basically, I got a new [Skill] that lets me temporarily transform into that thing, so if you see that around the ce, please dont freak. I dont suppose you have a good picture? Patrick asked. No, fraid not. In hindsight, I should have set up my phone in video mode and captured at least one image, but I didnt figure that out in time. As for why I didnt take a picture, well, I didnt want that to happen to my phone. As he said that, Isaac showed the next slide, featuring a picture of the tree his ws had shreddedst night. Ok, not to be a fusspot, but how do you even know what you look like? That picture was clearly taken at night with a sh, wasnt it a little too dark? Patrick pressed. I set up my phone as a mirror and I have a high enough Perception to see in the dark? Does that let you spot tiny details, the kind youd normally need a microscope to spot? Mostly, depends on how good the microscope is? Isaac answered, not sure what he was getting at, but looking forward to finding out. Great. Patrick suddenly grinned wolfishly Now, how do you feel about knocking over Casinos? Do you mean knocking over as inmitting robbery, or as in winning by cheating? Isaac asked, almost simultaneously with Bailey saying Care to let the rest of us in on whats being discussed? Basically, Ive had a theory for a while. What can you see when your Perception gets high enough? What differences can you spot, what things can you differentiate between? And then that morphed into what use could differentiating between two functionally identical things be in the real world?. The answer should be obvious, shouldnt it? So, how about you take card counting to whole new level? Patrick exined, with a wild, yet infectious grin no one had ever expected from him lighting his face up. Chuckling softly, Isaac could feel his own face twisting into a smile just as broad. That was actually a really fucking good idea. Also, not one hed have ever thought of. Pretty soon, casinos would have all kinds of Perception and Scrying blocking enchantments set up pretty much everywhere, making those kinds of tricks useless and the casino floor a true ce of random chance once again. And Isaac wasnt a big fan of cing everything in the hands ofdy luck. Sure, he might do some risky shit, especially when he lost his temper, but deliberately nning around something wholly up to chance? Hell no! However, one could hardly describe ying Texas Holdem while knowing what cards everyone knew as random chance. Sure, if you were the small or big blind, meaning you had to put money into the pot right at the start as a matter of course, knowing that someone else had a full house wouldnt help you in the slightest. At least in the beginning, then you could just hem and haw and not increase your bid until you could fold without looking suspicious. But overall, winning at poker, and doing so with what essentially amounted to a surefire strategy, that would earn him a fuckton of money. Money that would not only be his, but came with a proper and legal exnationas to how it ended up in his possession. So, dearest and bestest boss of mine, would it all be possible for me to, maybe, theoretically, have Friday and Monday off so I can go to Vegas? Isaac asked, using overly formal and patently ridiculous phrasing as a substitute for outright begging. He didnt know just when the various Perception blocking enchantments had been invented in the other timeline, not that this one was likely to y out the exact same way. Bailey snorted, then chuckled Obviously you can go. Have fun. As Isaac was about to thank him, Bailey continued with a mischievous twinkle in his eye But dont y ckjack. Casinos use multiple decks, up to seven or eight, to make things harder for card counters, so youd have to memorize a lot more cards. Also, ckjack is a game where they watch out for any kind of irregrity very careful, and youd get found out as a presumed Cardcounter pretty quickly. y Texas Holdem instead. Most Casinos should have plenty of tables for that and there arent really any exploits like there are with ckjack, so someone on a hot streak is more likely going to have them checking for earpieces and people sending you information instead of taking you out of the game. Wow, I didnt know you were such a casino aficionado, Professor. Amymented Maybe we should go some day? All together, all winning almost guaranteed thanks to Patricks trick? Sounds like a n. But maybe lets put that off tilter? Bailey suggested, then returned his attention to Isaac I believe you had more things to talk about? Yep. Basically, Ive got a few more things to offer with regards to getting a better [ss] Evolution. As he said that, Isaac threw his backpack onto the table, the top already opened, which sent several Aspect marbles rolling across it. I got my hands on a bunch of Aspects in thest week or so and I was wondering if you could use any of them. Please do keep in mind that removing the Aspect your [ss] is based on might not go over all that well. What I have here is another couple of Aspects of the Specter, which I think Amy and Patrick could use. With that, Isaac sent the relevant orbs rolling over to the two of them. Ive also brought a couple of options for Karl. One belongs to an Earth Elemental, the other to a Rock Golem. Thetter offers [Skills] that mostly amount to Karl smash! while the former grants earth maniption powers, at least if the description is anything to go by. Finally, he looked directly at Raul. Im afraid I didnt find anything that would really fit you. Ive got an Aspect belonging to a Shadow Cat right here, as well as an Aspect of the Shade Drake or the Water Elemental, but neither of those really scream [Ranger] to me. You can have them if you want them, of course, or I could just keep going until I find one. But really, levelling good [Skills] and achieving everything you want to before Level 10 should earn you something good regardless. This is a lot. Bailey was the first to speak into the silence that followed. Someone handing out magical stuff with a possible value that exceeded a million euros. Isaac decided to just shrug it off, make it appear to not be a big thing. Hey, I care about you guys. Isaac shrugged We might not know much about how the [System] works, but getting a higher rarity [ss] sounds like it should always be a good thing, right? Like I said, youre worth it. And as it turned out, he truly meant that. No hidden agenda, no games, no ulterior motives. While doing this would provide some overall benefits to him, that wasnt why hed done this. He liked these people before him, considered them good friends, and hed seen a way for him to do something good for them, that was literally all. Are you sure we can take these? Patrick asked incredulously, snapping the whole dont look a gift horse in the mouth clear in half, seemingly not worried in the slightest that Isaac might take it back if he had a moment to think about things. I am. Isaac nodded I know what Im doing, what Im giving up, and I think its worth it. Take these, and get the powers sealed within. A couple of minutes of thanks and questions about the exact use of Aspects followed, until Raul broke in to change the subject. I know this might not be the best time, but I have a question about the status of the dinosaur bones Professor Bailey is getting us. I just got a [Skill] called [Hunters Companion] that will let me bind a monster as a pet, just like that familiar we saw a couple of days ago. Do we have a lead on any pet-sized ones? Archeopteryx, maybe? Or a velociraptor? Im literally trying to get a bone of each and everymon species of dinosaur and Im nowhere near done, but I have both of those. Bailey suggested. Theres a size limit, so velociraptors out. Raul said Besides, arent those a little big and way too dangerous? You know, Jurrasic Park style? Youre thinking of an Utharaptor. Karl pointed out The big ones you see in the movies are usually called velociraptors, but a raptor that size is definitely not a velociraptor. The real ones are about as tall as a Golden Retriever and two meters long, though most of that is just tail. Theyre probably adorable. When people threw him surprised looks, he just shrugged and said I like dinos, so what? I just noticed something. Patrick broke in The Prehistoric summoning menu has a maximum size for every Tier, but it doesnt say anywhere that theres a minimum size. Do you think that you can summon a small one with, say, a Tier 5 circle and end up with some kind of megaraptor? Probably, but a Megaraptor is actually its own species, so maybe a super raptor is a better name. Karl corrected him. I suppose thats another thing to check. Bailey said, putting an end to that discussion. But getting back on topic, what about a Microraptor? Theyre about the size of a normal raptor, er I mean the bird of prey kind, can fly, and should be pretty cute. Karl suggested. Hm, we do have a bone from one of those. Lets take a good look at that, see if it qualifies as a good familiar, then see what happens if we use a fresh tooth versus a fossilized one. Also, we can check Patricks theory about summoning small dinosaurs with high tier circles. Ill write up a proper experiment outline, and then we can get started. By the way, does anyone have an objective way to measure the power of those monsters, beyond just the Level you see in the kill notification? Bailey told everyone. About that, Id like to check something else, namely, how the tier of the summoning circle trantes to the power of the monster thates out of it. Patrick said Weve kept detailed notes on everything the [System] gives us before, during and after the summoning, but Id like to diversify the kinds and tiers of creatures we summon to get a representative overview about all of that. Ah yes, that old chestnut. Isaac could have, of course, told him everything right off the bat, though even in this new timeline, he had an excuse to know everything up to Tier 4. In essence, every Tier could summon monsters within a certain Level range, a range that expanded exponentially with each new Tier. Tier 1 could go up to Level 2, Tier 2 up to 5, 3 to 9, making the first three Tiers summon creatures no stronger than a person who hadnt even gotten their first Evolution yet. Meanwhile, a Tier 10 circle covered dozens of Levels and two entire evolutionary tiers. It really got nuts once one reached highly enough. And beyond that, there were the [Bosses], powerful monsters with superior durability and some additional area attacks to fight off crowds of human attackers. Eh, hed just give a general overview of where which of the creatures hed killed fell on the Level scale. He didnt actually remember, but then again, all he needed to do was give numbers within the range he knew they had to fall into. Helpful, yes, but it wouldnt invalidate the need for thorough experimentation either. Are you sure were not taking on too much, all at once? Bailey said Were already conducting what essentially amounts to two separate studies at the same time. Well, were a group of six people, all of whom are constantly regenerating mana. As long as we can coordinate use of the reinforced room, constantly summoning creatures for multiple parallel experiments should be doable. Isaac threw in And just incidentally, I have an experiment of my own Id like to run. Namely, what happens if a summoned creature exists in our world for too long? Thats an interesting thought. Do you have a specific creature and method of containment in mind? Bailey asked. Keep in mind that you need to keep it somewhere suitable. Even if we eventually discover incontrovertible proof that summoned monsters are just magical constructs, if it looks bad enough, you could still end up catching hell. Wechsler spoke up. Hed been sitting in the corner the entire time silently doing some paperwork andpletely faded into the background. I think a Slime should be fine. Basic Slime, no real offensive power against anything they cant suffocate and if we lock one in an airtight room, like our summoning room, we can be pretty sure itll stay put. Isaac suggested. You do realize well still have to use that room, right? Amy asked I mean, stick a couple of googly eyes on it and itll be cute enough, but that doesnt mean I want to be dodging it all the time while working. Weve got a bunch of airtight crates we didnt end up using. We can just stick a slime in one of those, then lock it down tight and just leave it in the corner for a couple of weeks. Isaac pointed out. As a very weak creature, a Basic Slime would only start summoning more creatures after around a week of existing in the real world. There were a few ways a monster could speed up the process, for example, by killing high level people and using their XP to fuel further summonings or devouring objects that contained magic, neither of which were particrly likely to ur, given where the slime was going to be staying. Also, hed timed the suggestion so that if he did this any time in the next few hours, hed be here, working, when more monsters manifested. Type up the actual experiment, reinforce the crate so it wont break when someone bumps it, give it to me, and then you can summon the Slime. Bailey told him. Thanks Adam. Isaac shed him a grateful smile. But now Bailey rubbed his hands together in a gleeful way that made him appear like a little kid on Christmas morning its time for dinosaurs to walk the Earth once more. Chapter 30: Dinosaurs! Chapter 30: Dinosaurs! The first dinosaur to set foot on the in sixty-five million years looked around, scratched at the ground, scratched at the door and then one of the screens went dark. Did that thing just eat a camera? Raul swore. Smart little blighters, velociraptors. Baileymented, then turned Isaac I think we shouldnt let that thing run around in there too long. Isaac nodded and phased through the wall, his knife warping straight into his hand a fraction of a second before it pierced clean through the velociraptors heart. Now that it wasnt rocketing around the room like a demented pinball, it was surprising how small it looked. A body that weighed about as much as the average dog, but more lithe, a feather covered tail trailing limply behind him as he stepped into the storage room and ced it on the necropsy table. It really was just a big, toothy chicken, wasnt it? A light and limber body, covered in feathers, albeit ones very different from what a modern bird had. After all, these had not been developed with the goal of flight. Instead, they would function as a very basic form of thermal instion, allowing a predatory dinosaur to keep moving for a bit after the ambient temperature had dropped past the point that other reptiles would be too cold to continue walking around. Im guessing that settles the whole feathers or not debate? Raul asked. Not necessarily. Patrick shrugged At a minimum, we know that the [Systems] ssifications as to what monsters are meant to be dont necessarily line up with biological definitions. Frogs dont have teeth, but all the summoned ones Ive personally dissected do. Anyone who disagrees with the feather thesis can easily just say that these arent the prehistoric dinos and have this evidence thrown out, metaphorically speaking. Im still having trouble imagining a Brontosaurus or Diplodocus with feathers, though. Amy chimed in. Brontosaurus isnt a real thing. Its a fake species created when two fossils got mixed up and turned into one. The resulting skeleton was so heavy, they named it thunder lizard for how heavy and loud its footsteps would have had to have been. The mix-up was cleared up, but the name stuck around. Karl corrected, clearly d to have something to put in on the technical side of the discussion. And they probably didnt. Big animals tend to have issues with venting heat, not retaining it. Thergest Sauropods were actually right at the edge of cooking their organs with their own body heat. Modern elephants have the same issue, they pump blood through their ears to cool it. Patrick corrected. Arent Sauropods something like 10 times as massive as an elephant? Raul asked. Those are also endothermic. Patrick pointed out. Im aware that this might be a stupid question, but endothermic? Isaac asked. Warm blooded. Amy answered Doesnt really make much of a difference, except ny percent of professors will have a conniption if you use the she dropped her voice to a low, conspiratorial, whisper wb word. Oh, I know about people being so in love with one way of doing something that even the idea of doing it another way borders on sacrilege. Usually, theyre in charge. Isaac sighed. Benefits of having a dynamic boss and working in a brand new field, right? Bailey cut in, raising his voice slightly to be heard over their discussion, mirth clearly evident in his teasing tone. Duh. was Isaacs immediate reply, using his best stoner voice, drawing a chuckle. I think the real question is, how the hell did that thing know to go right for the camera. I know theyre meant to be smart, but that smart? Even a human wouldnt instantly know whats breakable if put into a situation theyck all context for. Raul threw in. I think it might be because it isnt as smart as a human. Bailey suggested It just acted on instinct. Scratched at the concrete floor, scratched at the metal door, then went after one of the two objects in the room made out of neither, the other one being the crate with the Slime. By the way, well need to move that out of there or put a bunch more precautions around it before something breaks it. Isaac froze for a brief second after hearing that, but then rxed. Hed be here when the Slime started summoning more of its kind and even if he wasnt, these were most basic of basic monsters that posed an equally minimal threat. Quite literally, the safest way to identally discover that particr problem with summoning. Ill take care of that after weve gotten a good look at the velociraptor. Isaac nodded, eyes fixed on the table. For that matter, as were everyone elses. This was a goddamn dinosaur, for fucks sake. There was something seriously wrong anyone who wasnt entranced by a sight such as this one. Thats fair. Bailey replied But make sure to get it done before we summon the next one. Maybe nows a good time to call facilites, have them rece the camera while we work in here? Amy suggested. Do we have a spare? If we do, I can do that in a second t. Karl suggested I wont even have to crack open part of the wall to get at the wires inside, I can just magically peel it back and reseal it afterwards. Thatll also save us a lot of time because getting everything sealed back up properly will take the rest of the day. That putty takes forever to solidify. Good idea. Do you want to do that now or stay for the necropsy? Bailey asked. Stay, of course. Are you actually qualified to be doing electronic instation work? I dont doubt you can do it, but without qualifications, that could easily be a sticking point in the future. Wechsler threw in. When everyone turned around to look at him, he shrugged You think anyone could pass this up, no matter if Im technically supposed to be a part of the actual experiments? Nope. came a unanimous verdict. Alright, lets see what it actually looks like Bailey said as he set his scalpel for the first cut. In the end, its insides were an unusual amalgamation of avian and reptilian features, such as feathers and hollow bones being in the same body as a toothy maw and ack of a wishbone. Or as Bailey put it, after consulting a paleontology tome that had to weigh several kilograms, a picture perfect velociraptor skeleton, just like the fossils, just fresh. So, what happens if we try to summon another one with a tooth? Isaac asked, genuinely curious as to what would happen if they did. This was one of those things hed never tried or read about being tried in the other timeline. Well see. Once the summoning room is back in a useable condition. Oh, and I think it would be best for you to be in the room when it appears, we cant be constantly recing cameras. Bailey said, then threw a look at Wechsler For legal reasons, I have to offer you the option of opting out of that as I cant order you to be in a locked and isted room with a dangerous predator. I, Isaac Thoma, first of his name, have heard your offer and politely decline. Isaac replied in a deliberately stilted way. You know thats something he has to say for legal reasons, right? And that I have to point that out to him? Wechsler said defensively. Oh, I know. Isaac replied chipperly But that doesnt mean I wont poke fun at it. sides, I wasnt making fun of you, I was making fun of German bureaucracy. He walked into the summoning room to grab and remove the slime box, but then he paused and turned Look, I know you probably dont hear this a lot, but here it is. I appreciate you, and your job. Youre being really helpful and I dont think we could keep up half this pace if you werent here to help steer us through the bureaucratical maze. Thanks. Wechsler threw him a grin. As much as people liked to make fun ofwyers and stereotype them, they were people too. A few minutester, the summoning room was clear and fully repaired, the circle was ready for him to pour mana into it. Alright, walking with dinosaurs, take two. Isaac announced with a grin and activated it. Or at least he tried to. Mana sparked and fizzled, shooting at the feathers and devouring them, then wreathing the tooth and absorbing the blood on its base before zipping all over the ce. Uh-oh. Apparently, this particrbination of ingredients didnt match any particr summon and now the magic wasnt properly being directed. Something like that had happened before, but to a far lesser severity. With the Acid Slimes, theyd identally summoned small ss golems as the containers for the liquids used had been used as materials. Then there had been barely acidic water creatures that had been summoned instead and the like, not what had been intended, but nothing problematic. But now a ghostly thing erupted upwards, a tangle of feathers and countless wings that shifted around and through each other, a blood red core that seemed to call out to the crimson liquid flowing through Isaacs veins. He threw himself backwards a split second before a spectral pair of vampiric jaws snapped shut where his head had just been. An array of six ck bars of power extended from the tip of his knife and hammered into the abomination , tearing it into infinitesimal pieces that floated through the air before fizzling out and vanishing, leaving nothing behind. Vampiric Avian Mana Abomination (Lv.5) has been in. 20 XP gained Even after all that, it was still limited by the Tier 2 circle it hade out of. [Manifold Strike] using [Power Strike], [Sundering Strike], [Piercing Strike] and [Sweeping Strike] for the win. It had cost him over 150 mana, but it was an absurdly powerful hit, the very definition of overkill for something like this. But this thing had been an unknown threat, not something he could have made a n for before he faced it in battle. He could have used [Hunters Gaze] to check its stats, but the split second that would have taken could have been decisively fatal. Are you alright? What the actual fuck was that? The hell?! schei?e. It was hard to make out the individual voices as they ovepped to create a cacophony of noise over the speakers. But it was possible with his high mental and Perception stats. Im fine. The Kill Notification calls it a Vampiric Avian Mana Abomination, Level 5, aka the max Level for anything that cane out of a Tier 2 circle, at least in my experience. Isaac exined, breathing heavily. Complete and utter summoning fuckups happened asionally and they were usually not excessively dangerous, save for the surprise factor that tended topletely fuck over any and all preparations. He was fine, and had reacted about as well as he could have, given the circumstances, but damn, that had scared the hell out of him. Did anyone else see how the mana devoured the blood? Patrick asked. Sounds like there was no real summon for thebination of dinosaur teeth and feathers, so the circle locked on to the blood, which we didnt intend to be used as an ingredient. Amy suggested. Honestly, I think thats exactly what happened. Shall we try again, but with a Tier 1 circle this time? Isaac asked, stepping directly into the meeting room through the wall. Are you sure that isnt, well, super dangerous? Ive never seen you resort to something that powerful. Amy cautioned him I mean, just look at the room. ncing back at the monitors, the six massive shes running from the roof of the summoning room, flowing down its side, where they grew slightly fainter since the Mana Abomination had been between the wall and his de, and finishing in deep gouges in the floor. I had no idea what that thing was until I got the Kill Notification, so I hit it with everything I had. That was a [Skill] called [Manifold Strike] and is abination of every other [Strike] type [Skill] I have. Its expensive as hell, but it has increased striking and pration power, tears apart enemy armor on a fundamental level and makes me hit six times at the same time. Isaac said, then gave Karl an apologetic look I hope the mess is fixable. Should be. Karl shrugged, thoughtfully rubbing his chin as he observed the mess. You didnt answer my question about the danger. Amy said, giving him a pointed look. It wasnt and its not going to be. These creatures cant exceed the Level of the circle, they arent going to be exceedingly dangerous, unless you count the surprise factor. Isaac told her confidently. Based on what, the grand total of one example? Patrick challenged. A hypothesis needs to start somewhere, doesnt it? Raul threw in I think it might be safer to check that while were expecting something unexpected to happen, rather than getting bitten in the ass the next time a summoning goes off the rails. I agree. Bailey nodded Isaac, if you could write up a list of Levels and circle Tiers of anything youve fought, as well as what level yourefortable fighting if you dont know what to expect. Everyone else, were going to keep going with the dinosaurs. So that was what happened. Isaac wrote down everything he could remember and put a hard cap on a Tier 2 circle. Unexpected monsters that could have literally any kind of power those werent creatures to be overconfident with. In the background, more dinosaurs were summoned, this time far more carefully. Patrick had picked up some kind of cleaning and sterilizing Spell and was scouring every bonepletely clean before it was used. A precaution that was a bit over the top, given that such secondary summoning materials tended to be disregarded, barring an iplete recipe, but not one Isaac could me him for. Suddenly, there was a far brighter sh than ever before and Isaac jumped, leaping straight into the summoning room to help with any potential problem. But there wasnt one. Just a cute looking ball of feathers and fluff sitting on Rauls shoulder, licking his face in a decidedly unreptilian manner. Your familiar? Isaac asked. Yep. Raul said, chuckling as it continued to act like the worlds friendliest dog A microraptor. Cute, right? Obviously. Isaac said, grinning Can I touch him? Or her? Her. Shes called Brisa, that means breeze in Spanish. Go ahead. Raul offered and Isaac stuck his hand out, slowly running it down the dinosaurs back. The microraptor had a general four-legged build, massive feathers attached to the two at the front to allow it to glide and a long tail with a diamond shaped wedge of feathers at its end to stabilize its flight. And it was tiny, and small creatures were objectively cute. Unless they were insects, of course. Im guessing you guys figured that one was a good choice? Isaac asked. Yes, actually. You said that [Skills] and Aspects have an impact on [ss] Evolutions, and that got me wondering. What kind of [ss] will having a dinosaur as a pet earn you? Raul exined. A good one, probably. I look forward to seeing that. Isaac nodded, then headed into the storage room, the list hed written up still in his hand. So, based on everything I know, a Tier 2 monster isnt going to end up being any stronger than Level 5 and thats where Id like to cap any experiments, at least for now. The sheer breadth of possible abilities or resistances is too great for me to willingly go up against one at my Level if I can avoid it. Isaac announced I suppose that now all thats left to do is check a million different entries to make sure we actually use a wrong recipe. Someone else will do that. Theres always a few students willing to make some extra money doing grunt work. Meanwhile, Id like to check what happens if you create aplete summoning recipe, but then add something extra. Bailey replied. I suppose we either get a hybrid, or only one thing gets summoned. I checked, there is no Tier 2 summon for blood, feathers, teeth, or anybination of those three. Abominations probably only happen when the number of viable summons using anybination of avable ingredients is zero. Otherwise something as simple as the ss beakers we use for liquids would have caused problems. Isaac shrugged. Good point. So, shall we? Are we ever going to finish any experiment before haring off, chasing the next shiny thing? Patrick asked. Well, like Isaac said, we have six people with a constant stream of manaing in. All we need to do is properly schedule this and we can do both concurrently. And since we know Mana Abominations still conform to the regr Tier to Level rtions, we can do that as well. Bailey said Give me sec to make a schedule, then we can do all of this. Um, its getting a littlete. Karl chimed in, gesturing to the clock on the wall. Oh, right. Ill make sure you all get overtime payments, if you feel up to staying a while longer. But dinosaurs is an argument that will melt the heart of even the most hardass of bean counters. Bailey replied, a mischievous grin on his face. Isaac took this as a good opportunity to look around the room, noting the countless boxes with their meticulousbeling, each clearly filled with specific dinosaur bones, all ready to be sent to some kind of collection, or maybe shown to any paleontologist who cared to take a look. You guys have been busy. Isaacmented. Yes. Was a lot of work, but damn satisfying. Amy said, using some kind of telekic Spell to stack ones that had just been filled on top of everything else. I just hope were not going to be the ones carrying all of that. Isaacmented. cause thats going to take forever. Well probably get some help when we need it. Besides Amy began, making another box float right past Isaacs nose Superpowers, remember? Superpowers indeed. And just like that, it was on. Any dinosaur that would fit in the room was summoned and fell before it could break anything, something that was important given that they tended to have the sheer mass and strength necessary to do quite the number on even the reinforced room. But even as that was done, the first unworkablebinations came in, spawning monsters straight out of the collective nightmares of humanity. Well, except for the one time a banana from the trash ended up dumping a sewage elemental into the summoning room. The fight was a breeze. The cleanup not so much. Karl ended up doing a 10 pm coffee run, but Isaac declined the offer and just kept working. After all, he was nowhere near the point where hed get tired. Hey, arent you tired? Patrick asked, the question immediately followed by a clearly inadvertent yawn. At this point, it was nearing midnight and people were getting so tired that working with dangerous monsters was bing actively dangerous. Eventually, sure. But at this point, I only need like two hours of sleep each night, Ill be fine for a while yet. Isaac shrugged as he ced a few more random knick-knacks into the circle. It had gotten to the point where the number of summoned Abominations well exceeded the number of known wrong resourcebinations. So, theyd ended up sticking random crap into a circle and checked what came out of it. Either they got an actual, listed, summon and they could put the used stuff down as whatever category was needed to summon said thing, or they had a new and interesting Abomination type monster to look over. And while the Abominations were interesting, they werent all that useful. In the other timeline, the general consensus had been that they were born of the random mana that filled unviable circles, taking whatever direction they could using any material avable within the circle. To top it all off, they were subject to the same limitations with regards to XP gains as every other creature was. There were literally no upsides to them, especially as they didnt leave behind any kind of resources, only dangers. Given how hard it was to n for a monster whose characteristics you couldnt predict, there were really only negatives to summoning abominations instead of proper, defined, summons. Ok, this has been a great day, but at this point, its getting toote and I dont want anyone to get hurt because they were too tired to do things properly. Bailey finally cut in, barely managing to dy a yawn so he could finish saying that sentence. Im fine, Adam. I can keep going for a bit more. Isaac reminded him. Thank you. But its not going to do much good to have you here, working, with no one here to process any actual summons you trigger. Go home, do something fun, and Ill see you tomorrow, ok? And when we have a good space for it, well finally get a good look at a T-Rex. Bailey replied immediately. Oh, sure thing. Isaac replied, already plotting what to do now. After all, there were quite a few other things on his to-do list. But I dont suppose youd be willing to help carry all this? Bailey asked. Obviously. Isaac replied with a smile. What followed was precisely what hed expected, half an hour of slinging around boxes to make sure theyd end up where they were needed, be that some dusty storage locker where someone could go to get a reference specimen or the desk of some paleontologist who wanted a fresh bone, rather than a fossil. But then, he was free. Free to do stupid things on his own, free to do whatever he wanted, free to go fishing. Almost an hourter, Isaac stood on the shore of a smallke, a Tier 3 ritual circle made from pool noodles floating on the water in front of him. This ce was meant to be an artistically createdke for people to bathe in, but it had been the victim of a rather annoying algae bloom. It wasnt that bad, but anyone who identally drank too much of this stuff would end up on the toilet for the entirety of the next day. Of course, the easy solution to that would have been to tell people to try not to drink water, but clearly, the owners of this ce didnt trust their clients to think quite that far. Isaac wanted to disagree with that, but having seen the mess humanity had made of the other timeline, he honestly couldnt. He was here to address one of his bigger weaknesses, namely, his inability to fight underwater. He also wasnt exactly prepared for flying enemies either, but he had a n to upgrade his Aspect of the Specter to let him deal with those. Isaac had infused the circle with enough mana after putting in a bone, tooth, chunk of fish and obsidian shard, the ingredients needed to summon a Dunkleosteus. These things were nasty, nasty fuckers from the Prehistoric section of the summoning tab. A nine meter long fish from the Devon period of history, a time defined by heavily armored aquatic creatures and the beginning of life on thend, as well as the emergence of sharks as a species group. In a world where everything wore biological armor, one species had evolved to breach it. The Dunkleosteus didnt actually have teeth, rather its jawbones protruded out from its gums, sharpened to an obscene degree, to the point where scientists had hypothesized these things would be able to bite clean through chainmail. In other words, one nasty customer. Of course, there were plenty of fish-like species to get a water breathing [Skill] from, but Isaac had chosen this one for a reason. First of all, a Dunkleosteus was Tier 3, meaning it had a higher Aspect drop rate than its weaker brethren. But then, there was Isaacs new [ss] and the [Skills] it offered. Namely, [Tools of Terror] and [Form of Horror]. Both of them would draw on the natural weapons of the creatures whose Aspects hed slotted and right now, those were looking rather bleak. All the Lesser Hydra really had to offer in that department was fangs, and Isaac really wasnt into biting his opponents. But this fish, it both had heavy defensive tes of bone and the razor sharp bones that served as its teeth. Of course, thetter were unlikely to be used too much, but it was possible he could apply the idea behind them to the ones he used for armor? At the very least, these creatures would give decent experience. A brief pulse of [Spectral Shift] caused all of his clothes to fall through his body. Then, he picked an anchor up off the floor and waded into the deep, dark,ke. Actually, it wasnt all that deep, having barely enough depth to fully cover an adult Dunkleosteus. The rules as to what was considered an environmental hazard or an unfair battlefield were a little differentpared to terrestrial summons. Basically, getting full XP from an aquatic summon required a body of water that was deep enough for it to be able to move freely and wide enough for it to get away from someone just standing on the shore and bombarding it from range. And thiske qualified for both. The anchor wasnt just any old anchor either. Sure, it had started out as your regr, clich, steel bar with a shallow U of at the end, but that was a far cry from what it had been. Isaac had used [Piercing Strike] to cut through it to sharpen the points and the second they were sharp enough, hed improved and strengthened them with his [Skills], leaving him with one hell of a fishhook. As the dark and murky water reached his neck, Isaac activated the circle and began swimming. The titanic fish erupted into existence with an almighty ssh and flung itself in his direction, tail whipping from side to side with incredible speed. The gates of hell, ringed with razor sharp tes of bone, closed in on him and Isaac just phased straight through them, excluding only the anchor from the [Skill]. Inevitably, it ended up impaling the damn fish somewhere and got stuck, while the monstrous creature just shed off into the distance. Isaac waited until the rope attached to the anchor had just about reached the corner of the fishs mouth and then unphased everything. After all, if this fish could bite through chainmail, it could also bite through any kind of rope he might use. Lab-made, high tech, carbon nanotubes and the like might withstand that bite, having been evolved specifically to cut through armor and other tough structures, but that wasnt a risk Isaac was willing to take. Besides, it wasnt like he had ess to any of those fancy materials. The hook caught a moment after he unphased everything and the rope in his hand went taught, yanking him along. Even as he was dragged underwater, Isaac pulled himself closer, going hand over hand, until his Perception let him actually see the goddamn fish yanking him around. With both hands holding on to a rope for dear life, not even a knife that could be teleported straight into his hand was useable. Then again, this was what the damn ring was for. The instant the fish was in sight, he triggered a [Power Strike] infused [Far Strike] and hammered the crimson bar of energy straight into the monsters eye, which popped like a damn water balloon. The scream of agony was inaudible, yet oh so obvious to a man of his experience. This was a beast that had been hurt and wanted everyone else to know that, and how pissed off it was, that anything that approached risked getting torn to shreds in the crossfire. It was the kind of warning that might deter a normal predator after a quick meal, but a human specifically gunning for it? Hell no! The Dunkleosteus whirled and charged directly at him, but Isaac just repeated hisst maneuver, phasing and hooking once again. And just like that, the damn fish was dragging him along once again. Dragging himself forward, going hand over hand, Isaac closed the distance. Another devastating strike from his ring left a deep cut right along its gills, but it sadly missed hitting them directly. The Dunkleosteus whirled, but Isaac phased right through it again, leaving another deep gash along its side. A direct strike to the gills would be the equivalent of setting off a bomb inside a humans lungs if he could actually manage tond a hit. It whirled past three more times until it floated in theke, belly up, but die it did. Isaac poked his head above the water, sucking in huge gulps of air. The damn thing was dead, at the very least, hed gotten some XP and a chance at an Aspect. Grabbing a hold of the line, Isaac dragged the body on to the shore and poured Corpsemelter Acid onto it. Unfortunately, the hoped for Aspect failed to materialize, but at least hed tried. Or as the German saying went neues Spiel, neues Glck. Roughly tranted, that meant new game, more luck. Hopefully, it held true. Unfortunately, it did not. Again and again. Until eventually, the damn thing finally left behind an orb so dark it seemed to swallow the light, a little slice of the deep ocean abyss. Aspect of the Dunkleosteus: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Dunkleosteus a Dunkleosteus. Breathe underwater without any issues, manifest tes of bone to protect yourself or bite through literally any kind of armor with your new anti-armor teeth. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Fortitude One of the following Skills: Gills Ossified Armor Anti-Armor Bite Eventually, he did go to sleep, far toote by most impartial measurements. Usually, that would have been a bad idea, but Isaac was trying to y around with his sleep schedule. If he could make it so his next two hour sleep fell into the final descent to Las Vegas, hed be able to spend the longest possible amount of time working the various casinos without needing to pause his winning streak for something as banal as sleep. Chapter 31: Vegas Chapter 31: Vegas Purpose of visit? came the incredibly bored question from the guy at passport control. Isaac just sighed Gambling. I see. And just like that, he was through thestyer of official interference, free to explore the city of sin in any and all ways he desired. Isaac just kept walking, the only luggage he needed being his backpack. As he walked towards the taxi stand, he checked his status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 11 XP: 517/2400 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 250/250 Stats Fortitude 35 Perception 40 Strength 30 Agility 30 Magic Power 25 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror II The Chosen Weapon III Skills Hundred Faces VII Stealth IX Power Strike XIII Piercing Strike XIV Sundering Strike XII des XIII Sneak XI Sweeping Strike II Far Strike VIII Manifold Strike V Hunters Gaze IV Phantom Step III Unknown Fear I General Skills Gralloch I Alchemy I Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra Hydras Regeneration Dunkleosteus Gills Hed levelled up once again, not only buying the full and proper [Privacy Skill], but also tossing all of the free points into the Perception Stat. After all, that was what would be the most useful for what he intended to do. And that was to take Las Vegas, Sin City, by storm. Hed also tried out his new [Form of Horror], gaining bony ting on several vital areas, as well as four sharpened ones on his knees and elbows, meaning any strikes with those would be devastating. Lastly, there was the rather unimaginatively and possibly misleadingly named [Gills] [Skill]. In essence, it allowed him to breathe water, without any change to his external appearance. It cost five mana to apply and a whopping 1 mana every minute to keep up. In other words, basically free. Swimming like that once more was exhrating, and once hed strapped on a pair of fins, hed shot through the water like a seal, actually fighting the monstrous fish, rather than the bizarre amalgamation of fishing and waterskiing hed used to kill the ones before it. That single Aspect had opened up 70% of the as viable ces to operate in, leaving him with very few areas he couldnt survive in long term. The poles would be too cold for a while yet, though that was something that could be bypassed with proper equipment. His ability to go up against flying enemies might have been limited, but then again, if they actually wanted to attack, most of them would have toe down to attack him. Of course, there were flying monsters with ranged attacks, but those tended to be of a higher Tier than was currently summoned. But the water, that had the potential to be a very big problem. Aquatic creatures were limited in where they could exist per definition, which also meant that getting enough distance to break tracking would be easy. And that would leave the monster with direct ess to most of the,rge chunks of which required extremely specialized equipment to enter. Even then, between the crushing pressure of the deep ocean and the need to periodically return to the surface for air, getting anything done in that particr environment would be a pain in the ass. Of course, it would only be useful in case someone was stupid enough to actually summon a monster in a body of water that connected to the ocean, but if that did indeed ur, having this Aspect would be vital. Because one thing was certain, while most people were inevitably wise enough to not take a particrly idiotic course of action, it was likewise inevitable that someone wouldnt be that smart. As Isaac settled down in his taxi, his knife warped to his side, attaching to his belt. This action cost him the entirety of its mana pool and quite a bit of his own, but he now had his trusty weapon ready and waiting for anything he might encounter. Teleporting a knife halfway across the world wasnt exactly cheap, after all. Isaac had thought about talking to Bailey about this rather obvious security w, but decidedly chosen not to, for several reasons. First of all, the TSA sucked. Countless studies had shown that if anyone wanted to get dangerous stuff onto an airne, chances were, theyd manage to do so with barely any issues. Then, there was the small issue of Isaac simply not needing a weapon to be dangerous. A Strength stat in the thirties alone made him a serious threat on an airne, to say nothing of his ability to project powerful attacks from anything that could even remotely be considered a de. The stic cups water was served in during flights couldnt really shatter, per se, but one could break a shard out of one and then use the [des] [Skill] or equivalent ability to turn it into something actually sharp. And at that point, whether or not Isaac had a proper weapon going in wouldnt have mattered. Andstly, he simply couldnt afford to end up on any kind of no fly list and that was what would most likely happen if he dered himself to be in possession of a weapon that would always be on hand, with no way to deny it to him. Considering that anyone above a certain Level could easily take down an airne, banning him due to his soulbound weapon would be just silly. A [Mage] could burn through the paper-thin walls of a ne with the most basic of Spells, while anyone with a physical focus could just open the emergency door, oveing almost half a ton of pressure, or force open the reinforced door to the cockpit. Old Reliable shouldnt even make a single blip of difference on a ne rted threat assessment, but it almost certainly would. A magical knife that was always on hand simply sounded super dangerous, but it was a mere fraction of the potential dangers a person who spent the barest amount of time levelling could pose. Therefore, Isaac had decided to keep this whole thing to himself and hope there wouldnt be any issues in that vein for a good long time. As Isaac mused about that, the taxi headed towards the Las Vegas Strip. The local airport was technically within the city proper, but that still left it well clear of the really important parts. Slowly, neon signs and crowds began to popte the roadside, showing that he was getting closer to the Strip, a continuous line of the finest casinos in town. However, all of that soon began to grow sparse once more as the taxi hit the southern edge of what was considered to be the strip and dumped him off outside the casino known as Circus Circus. Vast skyscrapers reached upwards into infinity, a stylized circus tent made from concrete and ss out front all of that for was mostly for show. Isaac paid the cabby and entered the building, heading straight past the reception desk and deeper into the building. Though before he went in, he surreptitiously dropped his knife into a nearby trashcan. After all, carrying a concealed knife in Nevada required a permit, one he obviously didnt have. But on the off chance something did go wrong and he needed it, he wouldnt have to spend a buttload of mana to transport it halfway around the world first. Fifty mana would still wipe out half its pool, but that was still a lot cheaper thanst time and guaranteed to not touch his own pool. The lobby was rather ostentatious, decorated in red and gold. Colors that signaled royalty in times past due to how expensive they were and that concept had survived through to the modern day. But said paint was peeling in ces, and there were cracks in the ster. Not anywhere a normal person might notice, mind you, but forty points in Perception revealed quite a few things. Soon, Isaac left the hotel portion of the building and entered the casino part. Gold and filigree shifted over into neon signs and shops selling cheap crap to tourists. Shirts with some kind of electronics in them that lit up whenever a certain tone was hit, shing in tune with the songs that came over the loudspeakers. Fake tattoo ces, frozen yoghurt stands, and a whole lot of other stuff. Just as it had been in the other timeline, seven years in the future. Isaac walked past all of them, soon passing the entrance to Circus Cirucus very own amusement park,plete with several truly insane rides. Hed actually ridden a few of those in the other timeline and. They. Were. Nuts. One of theme involved the rider going upside down, but not in any kind of even remotely normal way, Instead, the getting pulled up to the start so gravity can take over part had been turned into some kind of topsy turvey lunatic ride that flung the rider through the depths of the casino. Of course, by the time Isaac had ridden the damn thing, he could have not only survived falling from that height, but he could also have easily weathered having the damn cart fall on him. Sadly, reprogramming the lizard brain wasnt quite that easy. All of the various rides were in a dome that was entirely separate from the main casino and cost an extra fee to ess, so Isaac ignored it. It might have been fun, in theory, but that didnt mean he was eager to try it out this time around. Isaac just kept walking, ignoring the various temptations, until he saw a shop that sold sweets. It had all the normal candies, from cotton candy to rock candy, but also a rather distinctive kind of lollipop. Clear, colorful sugar and a scorpion clearly visible in the center. That brought back memories. Kade had loudly proimed that no, there was no way theyd put an actual scorpion into a sweet, bought one, and chomped it in half immediately afterwards. and then discovered that, not only was the scorpion real, but scorpions did not, in fact, taste good. Isaac chuckled as he recalled that scene, the veteran of countless battles coughing and spitting, an almostical look of disgust on his face. But a swell of sadness welled up within him at the same time, because he knew that was unlikely to happen, this time around. All those little coincidences that led up to any given situation were unlikely to be replicated again. And all those incidents would eventually shape someones personality, those little moments of joy where they discovered their passion, or a moment of horror as a person came face to face with some of the true horrors of the world. And some, if not all of those would change in this timeline. Who would Isaac himself have be if he hadnt randomly run into Marc that day, which led to the two of them working together? If hed clicked one link instead of another, resulting in him getting slightly different information, which might have led to a different fighting style? Most likely, hed have just be another corpse on a dying, and unless things went very fortuitously for the remainder, there likely wouldnt have been another returnee, making that end final. Isaac just sighed and shook his head. He truly missed the people from the other timeline, but he still couldnt bring himself to do so. They were the basis of the people hed known, but the likeliness of them bing who theyd been was basically nil. Perhaps, they were closer to children, someone who was a part of them, but would grow up to be someone else? Unfortunately, Isaac happened to agree with that metaphor. By changing the timeline, hed effectively killed the people he knew and now it was up to him to protect their current versions, even if he didnt feel like hed ever be able to look them in the eyes again. Hed save the whole fucking world and kick the ass of anyone who endangered this humanity. Eventually, he reached the gambling floor, bought some chips and got ready to put this n into action, though he wouldnt be going all out right off the bat. Hed chosen Circus Circus for a reason. It might still be a part of the Strip, but it was also an older casino,cking the high stakes tables hed be ying at to win the highest possible amount of money, but if he only won a little money here, then he could start off in the next casino with no one in the security room suspicious of him. The first thing that jumped into view were the countless colorful slot machines, or as they were called in German, one armed bandits. Each of those things was fundamentally the same, a massive money pit even he couldnt trick right now. There were a handful of tricks that might work, but none he could use right now. A good [Enchanter] could mess with machines, and there were a few ways to get a hold ofbat scale precognition, but only at an absurdly high Level. And by the time Isaac was in any position to take advantage of those opportunities, countermeasures would have long since been put in ce. But on the way to finding the Poker section of the gambling floor, he stumbled across the Craps tables. Should he go there? After all, it was hardly the same quasi-sure thing that Texas Holdem would turn into after a few games, but his high Stats still gave him a small advantage. Good afternoon, gentlemen. he announced. Afternoon. someone grumbled, but the others were rather focused on the game. Eventually, the dice came around the table and ced a ten bucks worth of chips on the basic pass bet. In essence, all you had to do was keep rolling and not hit 2, 3, or 12. There were quite a few additional rules and qualifiers, but that was the long and short of it. If he could manage to not hit a one with just one of the dice, the chance of him losing this was practically nil. The first roll ended up on a 5, so he rolled again. And again, until he eventually hit a 5 and got back his ten dors, as well as another ten dors from the casino. Well, that cinched it. He wasnt in a position to properly control the dice yet. Later on, with higher Stats, he could have made those dicend precisely how he wanted them to, six times out of ten, but not yet. He was good enough to manipte them away from a losingbination, which was enough to likely eke out a win eventually, but that was all. As much fun as this had been, the original n of ying Poker and cheating by memorizing cards was a far safer bet. A few minutester, he was standing next to the fullest table in sight, with only one open spot avable. Theoretically, he could have sat down right now, but he decided to wait a little and watch. Every card he could spot a differentiating mark on was one hed be able to recognize during subsequent turns. In preparation for that, Isaac dialed down most of his senses to the absolute minimum, aka, baseline human. All except sight. The heightened perception provided by high Stats could be dialed up and down at will, or set to filter out annoying things, such as the neighbors TV and/or more amorous activities. Eavesdropping on everyone around him as a matter of course could hardly be considered polite or even necessary, so he usually kept his hearing rtively low, the same going for his sense of smell, given the fact that the world could contain some rather smelly substances. As for his vision, that was usually dialed up to the max 24/7 to provide an early warning of any kind of problem. Limiting everything else like that didnt improve his other senses, per se, but it also meant he wasnt being distracted nearly as much. In fact, that was simr to how blind people didnt actually get better senses, they just used the ones they already had to a far greater effect. Hede right at the beginning of the turn, so he ended up seeing both sides of all shared cards in the center of the table. Everyone except one person ended up folding, though, denying him any chance to see what their cards were. And stepping in to take a look at them, even after the turn had ended, would not go over well. Casinos might take great care to have clean and fully intact cards at their tables, but that was nowhere near what was needed to cover up minor damage, invisible to the naked, unenhanced, eye. But to him, it was quite obvious that the ace of hearts had been picked up by someone with a ring at some point, leaving a long scratch on the surface, the ten of clubs had had its corner banged against the table and the three of diamonds had been slightly stained by some amber liquor. Three cards were now a known quantity, ones he could recognize. Just three of fifty-two, though. The next turn came and went, showing him another seven cards. Hanging around a specific table, not ying, was a little boring though and might draw suspicion, so Isaac sat down at a free spot, his chips going on the table next to him. The cards were dealt, and as it turned out, two of the cards hed memorized ended up being dealt to other yers at the table. At that, he felt a little bad, knowing that while hed end up walking out of here with someone elses money, but not that bad. People came to Vegas knowing they could lose their money, that gambling was never a sure thing. Besides, he wouldnt be ying on normal tables for long, instead hed be heading over to some high roller table that didnt require an invitation. He ended up winning that round, but that was mostly due to having a trio of aces, aka sheer luck, rather than skill or subtle cheating. Only around a hundred dors worth of profits, though. Another round came and went, giving him an even greater grasp of the deck and further heightening the predictive abilities. He nearly ended up folding, though, simply not having had the cards to win, nor was he in the mood to try and bluff his way to victory. That would have required spending a lot of money matching bets he didnt want to risk losing just yet. But there was a secondary trick he also wanted to practice in a more low stakes environment. His poker face. It wasnt actually that bad, certainly above average in most ces, but he could take it to new heights using [Hundred Faces]. The ability to manipte his faces form could also be used to take direct control of his facial muscles, putting on whatever expression he wanted to and holding it. The technique cost him triple his regeneration in terms of mana, making it unsustainable to keep up permanently, but it coulde in handy in a cinch. It was also an incredibly tricky way to use it and he was likely the only person who could currently use it. After all, pulling the corners of ones lips up and to the side might technically be how a smile worked from the technical side of things, but pulling it off in a way that didnt transform you into a horrific caricature of humanity was a different matter entirely. Thank you, everyone, for this lovely game. I wish you all the luck. Isaac announced, stood up and walked away. He left the casino on the opposite end hed entered it from and headed towards the Strip proper. Circus Circus was technically a part of it, but separate from the true, world famous, casinos like Luxor or Mand Bay. On the way out, though, he bought himself a new shirt, short sleeved and with a Hawaiian print. It was a hell of a lot more expensive than anything hed normally buy for himself, but that was a part of the impression he wanted to give off. Of someone whod shown up here in this town and immediately bought an expensive article of clothing from a casinos store, possibly even after winning a few games and having gotten overconfident. It would certainly stand out less than the outfits he normally preferred, simple, unadorned shirts and jeans in colors that wouldnt show blood too obviously. Of course, those clothes would get progressively tighter as his Agility increased and air resistance became more and more of a problem, to the point where even dodging would end with him fighting in his birthday suit. Magical and [Skill] enhanced cloth were the obvious solution, but that would only be viable long after he hit the point where any ordinary clothing would be reduced to tatters mere seconds after moved at max speed. Isaac also purchased a sk from a random street vendor and some bottom shelf liquor to fill it with. Merely having a sk would indicate to most people that he was something of a drinker, and he could take a swig of that stuff at the table to get a message across. Namely, either Im losing and hiding in the bottle or Im so confident Ill win Ill even start drinking. Either way, it barely cost thirty-five dors and hed already won that much. Walking down Las Vegas Boulevard, Isaac grinned as he took in everything. In many ways, it was the same city hed visited, seven years in the future. The same buildings, roughly, crowds of people outside even in the sweltering sun of a desert in the afternoon, street vendors hawking things to tourists, the usual things that could be found in any touristy ce. But there were also many things that were oh so distinctively Vegas. The one armed bandits next to the entrances, proudly pronouncing one free roll. The people handing out do you want to see tits pamphlets to anyone who didnt look like they had spouses or girlfriends in the city with them. And then there was something oh so much more traditional, the Vegas showgirls ready to take a picture with anyone who wanted to pay for the privilege, in costumes ranging from the standard feathers and fiss to cowboy outfits if all cowboys wore was the hat, a near invisible thong and some ck tape masking the bare minimum to avoid an indecent exposure charge. Really, the moniker of sin city had been well and truly earned. Despite all the things that hadnt changed, the city still felt quite different. The most immediately apparent thing was theck of the physics defying edifices to human ambition that were ted to be built in five or so years, possibly sooner if Isaac managed to speed up humanitysprehension of the [System]. But the real difference was that this ce wasnt so damn suffocating. The Vegas of a future had every single even remotely private ce utterly nketed by Perception blockers, leaving the entire city drenched in privacy fields. Walking through the city and having your vision fuzz out as you looked at a protected area, having your hearing selectively blocked or having the air currents streaming across your skin suddenly disappear was just in annoying. The effect hadnt been quite as bad out on the street, but in the buildings, at least on the Strip yeesh. Theyd ended up leaving two days after arriving. Vegas did have a few attractions outside the casinos, but nothing that had really called to people used to high adrenalinebat situations. Who wanted the chance to fire an assault rifle at a firing range when they spent their days slinging around lightning bolts? Who wanted to go indoor skydiving when theyd jumped out of airnes without so much as a parachute on the regr? In theory, that kind of oppressive feeling should have killed everyones business, but really, all it did was keep the high Level people out, the ones who were the only ones to even notice and be bothered by the Perception blockers. And then, two years after that, the city had gotten ttened by Belzebub, Demon Prince of Gluttony, and Asmodeus, Demon Prince of Lust. Two immensely powerful [Raid Bosses] had been summoned to this ce, though no one knew if theyd been spitefully dumped into this city by someone whod lost their lifes savings in a casino or summoned naturally by a demonic presence elsewhere on the globe and migrated to, well, sin city. Regardless of which was actually true, the city would hopefully be able to survive, this time around. Given that Isaac didnt know the precise mechanisms of that particr cataclysm, he couldnt directly counter out, leaving him forced to hope his actions in this timeline, past and future, would either prevent those two from appearing, or ensure that they could be fought off. Soon, Isaac entered the massive mall that ran from casino to casino, connecting them underground to allow any tourist who wanted to stay inside to walk most of the strip without ever having to step into the sun. Soon, he reached the casino his online research on the ne had rmended, dropped off his backpack in its luggage storage and meandered onto the casino floor. Showtime! Chapter 32: Casino Chapter 32: Casino On the way to the tables, Isaac dropped by the bar and bought himself a ss of whiskey on the rocks. Showing up with a drink in hand might make people underestimate him, but at the very minimum, thebination of his shirt and drink should make him look like a tourist out for a good time, rather than a card shark out to make a profit. As he walked, Isaac panned [Hunters Gaze] over the crowd. He did this most of the time for the twin purpose of training that [Skill] up and getting a slight advanced warning of any powerful potential foes that got anywhere near him. After all, while some [Privacy] upgrades might be able to spoof the various [Inspection] versions to give a false reading, but the sheer simplicity of his version allowed him to bypass most of that. Just like everywhere else, most people here were still Level 0, identifiable by their barely detectable affinities. But there were exceptions. The most impressive of these was a man standing over in the corner, looking around with a watchful gaze, prepared to react to any disturbance. His Stats where high, with a Perception that matched Isaacs and a simr investment in Fortitude, but their total was still a bit lower. Given that Isaac had gained 15 points in various Stats from Aspects but couldnt sense any from this guy, it was entirely conceivable that he was Level 10 and had [Inspect]. Sadly, this wasnt an exact science, though. What he could tell was where this guys build was heading. High Perception to spot problems, high Fortitude to be able to stave off the tiredness, something he was undoubtedly being paid through the nose for, shored up by moderate Strength and Agility to allow for a rapid response anywhere within his line of sight. And as for the mans affinity, it was rather clear and easy to sense. Vignce, clear and sharp, and a readiness for anything. As unttering as theparison was, Isaac couldnt help butpare it to a faithful guard dog, eternally vignt and ready to face down any threat. On one hand, it was good to see at least someone hadnt just recognized the potential problems that could arise from the [System], but had also actually done something about it, as much of a pain this might end up being for him, personally. He kept walking, checking out what kinds of people sat at them. As he did so, he downed half his whiskey in a single gulp, ensuring that not only would his breath smell of booze in case anyone cared to take notice of that fact, but also to arrive at the table with a ss that had clearly once been fuller. Finally, he spotted a table whoseposition he kind of liked. There was a man in a sharp and extremely pricy suit with barely but still noticeably elevated Stats who gave off a feeling of, forck of another word, sharpness as well as a hint of ruthlessness. Of caution and mental power. The improved Stats were Magic Power and Perception, the clear beginnings of a mental celerity build. After all, it was rather apparent that Perception had to improve ones processing power to keep up with all the extra sensory input and Magic Power increased the size of ones mana pool, a role traditionally taken by the Intelligence stat,ying near the idea of the two being synonymous. Besides, that wasnt exactly wrong, merely iplete. Both Stats that influenced the users mana also granted a certain degree enhanced mental processing, after all. Between the feeling he got from the man and that Stat spread, Isaac thought he was either a [Businessman], [Cardsharp], or other [ss] in that vein. Also, someone wealthy enough to afford to lose the money he used here. The second person was, like Isaac, wearing a Hawaiian shirt from one of casinos stores, but one he recognized as being significantly more expensive than his. Between it, the gold Rolex at his wrist, and no noticeably increased Stats, Isaac assumed that this person was some novae rich guy, showing off his wealth. Or maybe just a yboy using daddys money. Either way, someone who either had money, or was so reckless with spending that Isaac beating him at Poker wouldnt make much of a difference. Someone who bought a Rolex, ludicrously expensive clothing and went to Vegas without being able to afford it would end up broke, regardless of what he did. The third guy was also Level 1, but with an incredibly weird aura. It felt squirrelly, somehow. There one moment, practically gone the next. Quite powerful, somehow, but also incredibly inconsistent. Just like Lady Luck, basically. A [Gambler], who was simrly wealthy, judging by his outfit. [Gamblers] and associated [sses] were a titanic pain in the ass to deal with, their [Skills] making infinitesimal alterations to reality, tilting events that happened by sheer chance into the users favor. Fighting one often felt incredibly frustrating, but they were rarely powerful. After all, even if it were possible to get to the point where you had a ny percent chance of winning in any given situation, after a mere thirty fights, the probability of winning every fight was below five percent. And given how lethal the [System] was, that usually meant death. As to what kind of life and outlook one had to have to be a [Gambler], to make the central thing in ones life the pursuit of fortune in gambling, Isaac had no idea. It was definitely an unusual mindset, though. All in all, three people he wouldnt feel too bad ying against. Isaac sat down, gave a generic greeting, downed most of what remained of his drink, and asked to y. He started out slowly, cautiously, but he was rapidly learning to recognize most of the cards. It was a fairly new deck, which made this harder, but still pretty doable, especially once he started tapping out little melodies on the table, masking it as a nervous tick, leaving small indents in the cards. By the end of hour one, the one thousand dors in chips hed started with had turned into ten, in a pile that looked to only grow bigger. During this, a fewplimentary drinks arrived for the yers, as it became clear they intended to stay a little longer. After all, drunk people got reckless and spent or gambled money, a lot of which would inevitably end up in the casinos pockets. Isaac took whatever they gave him, downed it in seconds, and then burned off the alcohol with [Hydras Regeneration] while acting progressively more drunk. Eventually, the deck was swapped out, something that apparently happened several times a day. Given that they were in almost constant use, they tended to wear down rather quickly and gained identifying marks that even ordinary people could easily spot. Isaac took this is a chance to identally knock over his half empty beer, spilling the liquid onto the table. Swearing loudly, he grabbed it and put it back upright, but the table still ended up dirty. There hadnt been any cards on the table at the time at the time, so the response from the other yers was closer to mild irritation, rather than true outrage as a turn was badly interrupted. The mess was swiftly cleaned up, but still left traces behind, which would end up on the cards and quickly give him marks to identify them by. While that was happening, Isaac took out his sk in what was clearly meant to be a surreptitious maneuver, but his attempts to hide it made everything all the more obvious. Or at least, that was what it appeared to be. Someone whod drunk a little too much, spilled his drink, and was now going back for his emergency stash. In the following few minutes, he began to use [Hundred Faces] to jam his pupils open progressively wider while adding a red tinge to his cheeks. To all the world, his physical appearance now also matched that of a drunkard. As for the little trick about making his pupils look huge, it actually came with something of a drawback as it allowed more light than normal into his pupils, which could easily blind a baseline human over time. But between his Perception letting him ignore overly powerful stimuli and Fortitude preventing his retina from taking damage, he was perfectly fine. He fucked up a couple of hands on purpose, but then returned to his normal style of y and making slightly more cautious bets. Things continued on in that vein until his fellow yers began to be reced by others, some of whom appeared to be ordinary casino goers, so he left as well to wander the casino floor in search of another table. So that was what he did for the next twelve or so hours, dropping by one of those pay by the hour motels to sleep for a couple of times, then returned to the casino floor. Hed won all the money he needed, including what he needed to pay in taxes, a few more hours after that. Now, he could just leave and either find somewhere to summon until his return flight took off, or maybe just see some shows and do the proper Vegas experience, but that would still leave his secondary objective unfulfilled. It was an idea that had urred to him a while back, right after Patrick had mentioned how a high Perception could be used to cheat at the card table, which hed slowly been refining constantly since. But now, hed run into an unfortunate hup. No one had called him out on his behavior yet. Before, that had been a good thing. Now, however, it was a problem. Isaac just sighed and left the casino after having his winnings transferred to his bank ount. His next tax bill was going to be painful. Clearly, hed just been regarded as a very lucky gambler whod somehow managed to keep up a winning streak despite significant alcohol consumption. As for constantly switching tables when his fellow yers changed, that could easily be exined away as wanting to y with rich people whod be willing to lose a lot of money. So, his money had been secured. Now, it was time to go back and use his abilities to make money in such a way that someone would notice. Instead of going for the Poker tables, he made a beeline for the Craps tables. They were hardly the most efficient way of making money, but someone literally never making a losing shot was almost guaranteed to raise some eyebrows. The art of dice control was arguably a real thing, a technique that allowed the user to somewhat control the oue of a dice throw, it was just not something that had been conclusively and definitively proven to work. But much like Card counting, it was just a useful trick used to win without being actually illegal. If anyone could actually pull it off, at least. Of course, much like with the other trick, casinos could deny you service and ban you from the relevant tables. So thats what he did, walk up to the Craps tables and start ying, rolling the dice over and over again, ignoring the rest of the world as he did so. Slowly, the pile of chips next to him began to grow and grow, until eventually, arge man stepped up next to him. Sir, Im afraid Im going to have to ask you toe with me. the human wall said, giving him a hard look. Ok. Isaac said and straightened, looking him straight in the eye. The security man took a moment to pocket the dice from the table, as well as his chips and then led Isaac into a separate room. It was clearly a security office, but still rather well decorated. This ce was clearly meant for people who might be cheating, but the casino wasnt willing to outright use of that fact just yet. Another man showed up, carrying a ss of whiskey. Judging from the smell, the exact same kind Isaac had ordered when hed first showed up. Clearly, someone had taken the time to watch the security tapes and not found any obvious cheating just yet but still noted down the beverage for this exact situation. Or something. Good afternoon, Mr. Thoma. he said, sitting down in front of him. Clearly, theyd gotten his name from the credit card receipt or something like that. Afternoon. Isaac shrugged. Im David Hart, the Casinos head of security. Is there anything youd like to tell me? he asked. Isaac shrugged Turns out dice control actually works. Seriously? Isnt that why Im here? Look, you have had a streak of luck that is downright unnatural. If it turns out you indeed made your own luck, by whatever means that may have been, that would be a problem. Were checking the dice as we speak, if theres something that well find, then youd better say that now. Hart said, Isaacs flippancy having clearly made him decide to cut right to the chase. Except I didnt. Just a little skill. Isaac nted his elbows on the table, inteced his fingers andid his head on top of them Why exactly are you so sure that something untoward urred? The door behind Isaac opened and revealed the gori from earlier, who shook his head. Hart just sighed. So, as it turns out, those were the casinos dice, normal and unloaded. I dont suppose you could tell me your [ss], Mr. Thoma? Ah yes, he clearly suspected telekinesis, or something in that vein. And what makes you ask that? Isaac asked. The fact that youve hit a Level that allows you to block [Inspect]. Hart said, bluntly. If you must know, its a kind of [Researcher], focussed on creatures. And no, I didnt cheat, I just used dice control, like I said. It works, if your stats are high enough. But youre right, there are countless ways to cheat using [System] powers, as you are no doubt aware, which is likely also the reason Im in here. But I didnt. Isaac told him seriously. A brief google search of your name reveals that youre a researcher into the [System], is that correct? Hart asked. Yep. Isaac told him proudly. Im guessing that you know of quite a few tricks, then? Yes. Thats why Im here, after all. Isaac said, sitting up straighter and cing his folded hands directly on the table Im a guy with high Agility and used that to control the dice in such a way that I won almost certainly. You noticed that, but how many things have you missed? After all, I made it rather obvious what I was doing, standing there like that. But if I hadnt, would you have caught that? Maybe, maybe not. Your point? You, and by you, I mean the entire gambling industry. Isaac told him High Agility leading to dice control is only the beginning. Then, theres a high Perception that allows someone to almost perfectly read other people, even taking their pulse by watching their carotid shudder ever so slightly with every heartbeat. And thats ignoring the mess any kind of [Telekinesis] [Skill] would make of the Roulette table, or how precognition would let people win a metric crapton of money from the slot machines. Hart smiled softly I see. Is it a job youd like? Or maybe some funding for your department? His voice was suggestive, enticing, and Isaac was aware he needed to watch what he said here. Funding, yes, but not for the department I work for. Im suggesting that there are solutions out there for all your problems, they just need to be discovered. And while you could just put out a bounty for anyone who invents or discovers something that could help, but allow me to suggest something else. Invest in foundational research instead. We dont have the basic knowledge to even be aware of where to start with figuring out how to block high Perception or [Telekinesis]. But something like that almost certainly exists out there. And foundational, basic research has had countless benefits in the past in ways that no one could have expected. For example, a quarter million dors that showed how massaging baby rats improved their immune system and growth rate, something that waster applied to human premature babies, something that massively improved their, well, pretty much everything. Isaac said proudly. Hed done a little research and gotten some basic ideas and background information from Patrick. In essence, as people start levelling up, youre either going to have to ban anyone above a certain Level, or end up going out of business. They dont even need to have [Skills] specifically for cheating, just high enough Stats. And I suppose youre doing all of that out of the goodness of your heart? Hart asked. Actually, no. Like I said, we still need to find out everything about the [System], we need to do all the experiments ourselves because we have basically no paper to read, to quote, to build on. Anything that gets discovered by anyone helps everyone. That research is already being funded by, well, nearly everyone. But Vegas had, as people like to put it, fuck-you-money. So, what do you think? he asked. I think thats a pitch for the owner. Stay here for a bit. Hart said and stood up abruptly, and left Isaac alone for half an hour. At that point, he returned with a portly man in his sixties. Good evening, Mr. Thoma. Mr. Hart said you had a proposal for me? he asked, not even bothering to introduce himself. Its not so much a proposal as an appeal to yourmon sense in the interest of preserving your profits in these tumultuous times. Isaac began, repeating his pitch, but also expanding upon it. Now, even ignoring the immediate problems, there are also countless new and spectacr possibilities. Can you imagine an enchanted roulette table specifically meant to be yed in such a way that all yers use [Telekinesis], maybe? But all of that requires research, research that could be massively sped up by an infusion of cash. Hm, you make some good points. But tell me something, Mr. Thoma, why the fixation on [System] research, no matter who does it? the boss, who still hadnt given his name, asked, steepling his fingers. Because no one knows much of anything about the [System], save the fact that it is incredibly powerful. And thats what scares me. Who made it? Why? Whats up with the Summoning Systems interpretation of certain monsters? Theres a dozen examples of it changing how certain monsters work, locking in on certain details in lieu of others, summoning the versions in the modern consciousness rather than the old and original version- Isaac began to exin, talking himself into a verbal frenzy, looking every bit the frantic research scientist What are they? Pardon? You said dozens of examples. Give me some. the boss said, eyes hard. Alright. For example, the Draugr is a monster found in the Undead section of the Summoning System, despite the Draugr as a zombie only being one version of its lore. Theres the eternal monster that can never be killed and returns to its grave whenever it dies, to rise again within hours. Others have them be straight up ghosts, which would put them squarely in the Ephemeral category. Then you have the version of them thats a zombie at night but turns into an immobile ghost under the light of the sun, and will glom onto any cart that runs into it invisible to try and drag itself back into the darkness. And also, Pterosaurs arent dinosaurs, but they can be summoned using the Prehistoric part of the Summoning System using a fossil and the recipe for a dinosaur of the appropriate size. But only the most diehard dino nerd or paleontologist would know to make that distinction. Why. Is. That. Isaac asked, punctuating every word of the final sentence by jabbing his finger on the table Why does the [System] sometimes pick the option in line with current humanitys collective knowledge, even if its incorrect, why does it veer from incredibly intuitive and user friendly to a deathtrap to all but the most cautious? I think its incredibly interesting, sure, but also a question that needs to be answered, for the sake of everyone. Isaac took a moment to take a deep breath to calm down. Im sorry, that got away from me a little. Point is, I think this is important to research, and you could profit immensely. Ill see myself out. And with that, he got up and left, seemingly ashamed of his outburst. Wait a moment, Mr. Thoma. the boss called after him, prompting Isaac to stop and turn around. You make some good points, which Ill take into consideration. But how would you feel about showing my security teams some of those security ws that you found? I cant allow you back at the Craps table though, Im afraid. Oh, Id be delighted. Itll be an interesting challenge. Isaac told the man with a grin. So that was what he did for hisst couple of days in Vegas, ying pration tester against the casinos security and pit bosses. As a part of it, he managed to confirm that until the ws were cataloged and did not coincide with already known cheats such as using [Scry] instead of hidden cameras, it wasnt cheating. Therefore, all his winnings were confirmed to be his and unable to be demanded back by usations of cheating. Incidentally, this was also the single most profitable job hed ever worked, at least barring monster extermination or Aspect sale. In summation, hede to Vegas, made a fuckton of money for himself, probably gotten a farrger amount invested in [System] research and made an excellent reputation for himself. Also, hed gotten quite a few job offers from people wanting to hire someone who not only disyed clear and obvious expertise with the [System], but also a high degree of creativity. Lastly, there was apparently now a standing offer for anyone from his research group to get a good room and free food for a few days in exchange for a few new security ws being found. Obviously, theyd have to stay away from the tables. All in all, a very sessful trip. The only sticking point was the fact that hed worked basically 48 hours straight, only taking brief breaks, in order to project the image of an incredibly hard worker, counting on sleeping on the flight back. and then the ne had flown through what felt like a hurricane. Of course, he knew it wasnt an actual hurricane, theyd never have been able to take off otherwise, but it still made it impossible to sleep. Isaac arrived in his apartment at four in the morning, incredibly tired and cranky, and just fell into bed after phasing out of his clothes without even bothering to shower. and then his fucking phone rang. Chapter 33: Impish Antics Chapter 33: Impish Antics Yes? he asked, not seeding at keeping the irritation out of his voice nearly as well as would have liked. Is this Isaac Thoma? a voice that sounded slightly harried asked. Yes? And you are? he asked, practically growling. It was in the middle of the sted night. Who the hell called at this time? This is Polizeimeister Langschwert, I was wondering if you could assist us at this moment. the man at the other side exined, then giving an address five of blocks south of his apartment I can send a car to pick you up, it would be there a couple of minutes. I Its four in the morning and Im dead tired. Isaac interrupted the man Whats the issue, why is it urgent, and how the fuck do you have my home address or private phone number? Theres a monster locked in a building here, we need to know what it is. I dont have either of those, I called the university and was forwarded to you because you work with monsters and live nearby. the man rattled off quickly. Ugh. Isaac groaned, making sure to do so loudly enough for the other man to hear. He couldnt in good conscience leave a monster running around, not when he was so close. Ill be there in five minutes, no need for the car. Isaac sighed and rolled out of bed with another groan, hastily dressed and started heading out. The moment he was outside, he phased and dropped through the floor, bing corporeal three floors down. Now that he was lower to the ground, he could jump the rest of the way without risk, so thats what he did. His next phase took him through the buildings outside wall and let him drop onto the street outside, at which point he just took off at a full sprint. It would have looked incredible to anyone watching, but it was the middle of the night and there was no one out here to observe his antics. He held his phone back up to his ear and spoke into it over the air rushing past him. Im running to meet you, Ill stay on the phone until then and tell you when I see the lights of your cars. The wind rushed past him as he leveraged his Strength and Agility to their utmost. In fact, they were slowly reaching the point where normal cobblestones didnt provide enough friction for him to just run. Instead, he aimed his feet right at uneven parts, hooking the tip of his shoes against them to yank himself forward. As soon as they became avable, he was buying one of those shoes with an enchantment against slipping. In hindsight, Isaac should have just gone barefoot. As of right now, there was very little that could damage his feet which wasnt an actual attack. Caltrops, bear traps, that sort of thing would be a problem, but would they really be lying around on a random sidewalk in the middle of a city? Soon, the shing lights of the police cruisers came into view, though there was also a heavier car, somewhat akin to an APC there as well. Clearly, at least some of the SEK was already there. Anyway, Im running in from the north, wearing jeans and a dark navy blue t-shirt. See you in a sec. he announced over the phone and hung up, slowing his run a little. Sprinting at full tilt towards a group of clearly nervous people was a recipe for idents, after all. Hey there, my name is Isaac Thoma, Polizeimeister Langschwert called me. he loudly announced Can someone point me his way? Ah, there you are, thank you foring. a surprisingly young looking man replied, walking forward to greet him. Polizeimeister Langschwert, I presume? Isaac asked and when he got a nod in return, he kept talking Considering how many policemen are here, weve clearly got a significant problem on our hands, one you felt you needed some scientific help with. What is it? Basically, a bunch of teenagers decided to y a prank on their churchs pastor by summoning a demon right in front of the altar, then run off and lock the creature inside,pletely forgetting that those creatures can track their summoners. But somehow, they still managed to keep it inside and get away. But then they started actually using their brains, realized how stupid an idea that was, and turned themselves in. the policeman exined. And what did they say they summoned? Isaac asked. They imed it was a basic Imp, from a Tier 1 circle. Im familiar. Theyre pretty weak and vulnerable to pretty much anything. Youve got guns and should be able to kill it no problem. And while Im always happy to help with situations like this, I gotta ask: what do you need me for? Isaac asked. I called you here because this situation stinks to high heaven. Obviously, the situation might be what it looks like on the surface, but it just seems too convenient. They do something so stupid and immediatelye to their senses and do the exact right thing? If a bunch of police officers show up, expecting to face the weakest of monsters and run into something that looks weak but is actually a high Tier monster with exotic powers? Itd be a bloodbath! That sounds like a trap nasty beyond belief. Now, do you want me to handle the situation, or Isaac trailed off suggestively. Hed be perfectly happy to deal with anything inside, but he sincerely doubted a police officer would use a civilian for something like that, at least not yet. God no! Langschwert almost yelped, taking a moment topose himself before continuing Wed like you to take a look at things, see if you can tell what were dealing with, if what we have here is enough or if we need heavy weapons anything you can tell us would be useful. Did you get a good look at the summoning circle or the monster? Isaac asked. Circle yes, basic Tier 1, monster, only glimpses. Langschwert said Thing is, we dont know if that was actually the circle used. Its entirely possible that the Tier 1 was ced in a prominent ce where we could see it through the window with a drone, but the actual summoning was done by a hidden circle or something. Or even if theres just one monster. Its just one, I can hear it scratching around in there. Isaac shrugged Its a light creature, rtively fast but it doesnt sound physically powerful. Basically, it sounds like what Id expect an Imp running around a church to sound like. Ill take a look, though. And with that, he started walking forward, heading to a point at the wall near where he could hear it, phased, and stuck his head through. At this point, [Hunters Gaze] simply confirmed what Isaac already knew. A basic Imp, weak beyond measure even by baseline human standards. Sharp ws, low Strength and Fortitude, decent Agility. A bipedal housecat, basically, albeit one that wanted to tear out your throat. True to form, its head snapped over to re at him, then it leaped straight at him, ws aiming right for his neck and he snatched it right out of the air. It dangled from his right hand, which was wrapped around its neck. He squeezed, its neck breaking with a dry crack. Now, he could also phase it, seeing as it wasnt a living being, so thats what he did, drawing back and straightening. Of course, the Imp still dangled limply from his hand. Got it. he called out Sorry about butting in, but it was right there. I can confirm from both my knowledge base and the kill notification, this is a basic Imp from a Tier 1 circle. Er ... thank you. Sorry about calling you for something like that. Langschwert apologized, awkwardly scratching at his neck. Eh, its fine. That sense of paranoia will help keep you alive in the future. Isaac announced magnanimously Im always happy to help the world in a more direct manner, rather than ephemeral improvements through research. Lets see if you still feel that way after all the paperwork. Langschwert joked, a little more at ease now. Paperwork? Really? fraid so. Isaacs only response was soft swearing under his breath. There is something else you could help me with, though. Could you exin why that Imp wasnt wing its way through the walls and going right for its summoner? Langschwert asked. Monsters do eventually lose track of their summoner, though were yet to determine what decides when and at what distance that happens. Weve got a hypothesis that the distance decreases with faster monsters and increases with slower ones, but we have to prove that first. Regardless, we do have theories about a lot of other parts of the summoner-summone rtionship. Sorry, this might be a stupid question, but whats the difference between a hypothesis and a theory? Langschwert asked. A hypothesis is something that a scientist thinks might be the case, then they have to actually prove it. A theory is as certain as anything scientific ever gets, something that has been proven experimentally, gone to review, has seen people try to disprove it ande intact out the other side. But scientists being scientists, theyre still hedging, because they know theres more to discover. Newtonsws of motion arent incorrect, just iplete, and were expanded upon by Einstein and his Theory of Rtivity. Stuff like that. Isaac exined, using the same example that Patrick had given when he had asked that question. Thanks. And about the Imp, anything useful you can tell me about it beyond its name? Langschwert asked. Sure thing. Isaac said as he took a moment to look around. Someone had already grabbed the Imp and stuffed it somewhere appropriate, and the rest of the gathering was breaking up as well as everyone got ready to return to their respective stations. An Imp has human Agility, decent Perception, but sucks in all other respects. No magic to speak of, physically weak and fragile. Basic fodder mob, in essence. Pretty much bottom of the barrel as far as Tier 1s go. And are those just gue- actually, could we continue this in the car? Im afraid Ill need a few signatures from you as our expert witness. Langschwert asked as he realized that they were practically the only ones still around, save the people guarding the crime scene to keep it fresh for the CSIs, cleaners, or something in that vein. Lead the way. Isaac said, gesturing towards the cars. Once inside, Langschwert repeated his question. So, were those Stats a guess, or do you have some kind of method to get actual numbers? So-so. I have an upgraded [Inspect] that lets me get a rough overview of a creatures Stats, but no concrete values. [Inspect]? Langschwert frowned, hard. A [Skill] you get once you evolve your [ss] at Level 10, along with one for blocking it. Isaac exined. Now, it was his turn to frown. Had no one told the cops about that? Ah. That wordless statement answered that, didnt it? And when you said bottom of the barrel Tier 1, does that mean there are dangerous ones? Langschwert asked, snapping his fingers as he suddenly remembered it. Actually, yes. Could you give me a list? Langschwert asked, practically throwing his notepad at Isaac. Sure thing. he said as he began to write, exining all the while Tier 1 creatures are basically weird looking animals with anger issues, not something someone with a gun should be worried about. The problem are creatures with standout qualities, who are extremely strong in one area even if they suck ass in all other respects. A te Golem can be outrun by a snail but can tank a few rifle bullets. Acid Slimes die if you sneeze on them but if one gets within striking distance, youre dead. Ephemeral beings cant do much damage, but theyre almost invulnerable to anything that isnt enhanced by magic. Well, fuck. Langschwert sighed, seemingly unaware that hed said that out loud. Now its my turn to ask a question, though. Whats going on with the dumbasses who caused this whole mess? Isaac asked. Massive fines, mandatory psychiatric counseling,munity service. At least if theyre found guilty. I just hope it gets the point across. Theyre currently cooling their heels at the station, waiting for their parents toe pick them up. Langschwert sighed again. Have you considered scaring them straight? Isaac suggested. As much fun as having you jump through the wall might be, that would be pretty illegal. Langschwert grumbled. Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of a stern talking to from a wounded warrior, who exins in excruciating detail just how badly that could have gone for them. Isaac said, turning to face the other man and activated [Hundred Faces]. His grin became wider and wider, unnaturally so, while making one of his eyes look incredibly bloodshot and hard to even look at. Nasty. Oh, I wish. Would be funny, but scaring the hell out of minors is best done with the parents permission and by someone with psychiatric qualifications. A man can dream. Isaac sighed. Yup. The car pulled up in front of the police station a couple of minutester and Isaac got out while Langschwert parked. Im really sorry about this, but even after all the help, youll still need to fill out that paperwork. If I were afraid of paperwork, I wouldnt have be a scientist. Isaac just sighed Lets get this over with. What followed was over an hour of giving witness statements, signing reports, and beginning the process of setting up a way to get the cops the creature information they were gathering over at the university. Well, that, and just in general trying to shore up as many gaps in their knowledge that were actually important. After all, the cops had gotten copies of a million different reports without a true awareness of what was actually important. In the end, he stumbled into bed half an hour before he had to get up for work. Time to take a catnap, then sleep on the job, he supposed. Chapter 34: Careful what you wish for Chapter 34: Careful what you wish for Isaac groggily stumbled into the meeting room an hourter and sat down, hard. Morning everyone. There was an incident near my housest night involving a band of idiotic teens, a church and an Imp. Cops called the university, uni called me, and in summation, Im tired enough to make being around anything even remotely dangerous a serious hazard. Isaac said, barely managing to avoid yawning in the middle of the deration. Yeah, I heard about that. By the way, youre getting paid for that, and overtime to boot. Bailey told him Go home, get some sleep, for we will be questioning you to death about Vegas andst night. Thanks, but I only need a couple of hours of sleep, Ill just hop on the sofa in the break room and take a nap. I dont suppose it locks? Sure. Sleep tight and donte out until youre fully rested. I dont need you stumbling around like a zombie. Bailey said and tossed him a key. Isaac just walked through the wall, locked the door to the break room from the inside and copsed onto the sofa. Two hourster, he unlocked the door and joined the others. Or at least, joined Patrick in the meeting room. Amy was in the storage room, doing something else, while Raul was chasing something noisy around the summoning room with Brisa, his pet dinosaur. Bailey was just typing away in his office. So, how was Vegas? Patrick asked, grinning expectantly. Pretty cool, though those rumors about casinos beating cheaters are thankfully just that. Wait you got caught? Patrick eximed. Not so much caught as noticed as having unnatural luck. They googled me and found out Im a [System] researcher and figured that had something to do with it. And then? Did you have to give up your winnings? Nah, I got a temporary job as a security consultant, pointing out potential vulnerabilities. By the way, we now have a standing invitation to that ce, free room and board, at least within reason, all we have to do is point out another w or two. Isaac exined. Face falling, Patrick replied So I wont be able to pull off the same trick? Sorry. Isaac cringed But on the bright side, do you know how much money casinos throw at you for just a few hours of a [System] researchers time? A lot, Im guessing. Patrick sighed, still clearly slightly upset, but rapidly getting over it. Hell, if I call them and point out that youre the one who figured out that possibility in the first ce, theyd probably fly you out there. You know, the Professor isnt going to be happy about you encouraging his assistants to run off. Patrick replied, a wry smile ying around his lips Oh, that reminds me, here. As he said that, he pulled something out of his backpack. It looked a little like a snakeskin handbag, albeit one that had been crafted from a truly titanic specimen. You finished it? Isaac asked. Of course I did. Lets call in the others and give it to him, shall we? Patrick grinned mischievously. Sure thing. So, two minutester, Professor Bailey walked into the meeting room, seeing all of them lined up with carefully curated expressions. While he did not have kids, at least to Isaacs knowledge, it was one he nheless one he should recognize. It was the I did something Im really proud off but might piss you off expression. Uh-oh. So, Professor, you know you sometimes wish for something, but dont ever expect to get it, possibly thinking that no one even heard you? Well, this time, youre in luck. And with that, Isaac whipped the cloth from the handbag. Ta-da! Bailey nkly at it for a moment, then frowned, hard. I sincerely hope you didnt buy this off any unsavory characters. Nah, Patrick made it. Isaac gestured to his colleague. Thank you very much for this handbag. Bailey said, letting slip that he wasnt all that hyped up for the handbag part of the gift, despite his best efforts to hide it. After all, a decidedly feminine handbag would look incredibly weird when paired with his usual rugged shirt and cargo pants outfits. Nheless, he slung the handbag over his shoulder and struck a clich runway pose, thebination of styles looking just as silly as anyone could have expected, something that was only made more ridiculous when Amy wolf-whistled. Once everyone had calmed down and stoppedughing, Bailey slid the bag back off his shoulder and onto the table, patting it. You do realize that when the building for our faculty is finished, this thing is going in one of the showcases in the lobby as the first example of a magical artifact constructed in this university? Bailey asked, shing them a wide grin. Crap, he turned it around on us. Isaac thought, chuckling inwardly. You know, we have a bit more of the leather left. Isaac said Perhaps a more appropriate briefcase could be constructed. Oh, not a chance. Baileyughed, a huge grin spreading across his face. You win this round, but mark my words, you wont win the next one. Amy chimed in, shing Bailey an impish grin. With all the little pranks out of the way, the normal research continued. Summons, their death, and subsequent necropsy, all for the purpose of conducting several different branches of research. In addition, forpletely unconnected reasons, they were getting some data on how quickly damage inflicted on concrete could be repaired by a [Geomancer] of a given Level. No, they truly hadnt caused nearly enough damage to get any even remotely useful amount of data, not at all. And no, Isaac had not, ever, identally used another fully empowered [Manifold sh] to attack an Acid Slime that had startled him, no, not at all. No siree. But all that time passed quickly, with Isaac just doing normal research assistant things until the thing hed been expecting to happen for almost a week, finally happened. Warning! Automatic Summoning has been activated on [Basic Slime]! Chapter 35: Aftermath Chapter 35: Aftermath The Slime itself had been sttered by Isaac mere seconds after the warning message had appeared, as had the newly spawned creature, but its mere existence had caused rm bells to start ringing, well, everywhere. Operations for their research group had been shut down temporarily and theyd gotten sent home while Bailey got dragged into an endless series of meetings. However, theyd managed to achieve a consensus by the next morning, which Bailey was nowmunicating to the rest of the team. The real issue had been the aftermath of the warning. Just as Isaac remembered from the other timeline, everyone within range received it and, well,pletely and utterly lost their shit. While theyd known that creatures were being summoned under their feet, something going wrong enough to prompt a warning from the [System] was rming beyond belief. Given the sheer amount of havoc that had been caused by that experiment and the bollocking they knew wasing, theyd cleaned up the mess, fixed the damage Isaac had caused to the room, and waited for various panicked officials to arrive. So that was how half a dozen important people, including the dean, found them. Standing there, looking innocent, with a research proposal regarding the potential issues with independently summoned monsters on the table in front of them. That had certainly helped with the matter, but the whole thing had still caused enough of a mess that summoning operations were suspended for the rest of the day while everyone except Bailey ended up getting sent home. Now, they were all sitting on benches in front of the cafeteria, watching the mess unfold in the news. And holy shit, everything had gone batshit bonkers. The idea that monsters being left in the world for too long would cause more monsters to appear wasmunicated to the press quite sinctly, but then the various news media had run wild with it, conjuring up various nightmare scenarios. And mind you, those werent the kinds of things that Isaac had experienced in the other timeline, the ones that had destroyed the world. Just fear mongering for the sake of clicks, newspaper sales, or whatever other metrics of sess a given media used. Mainly, the message was that summoning was bad, always and forever, regardless of circumstances. And while no human ever summoning again might fix the entire issue at hand, that was hardly realistic. The issue was, and had always been, reckless or idiotic summons. But Isaac wasnt the only one who thought so. As if thats going to stop things! Patrick scoffed Even if they passws to forbid any and all summons, what do they think will happen? All the rednecks will summon things without giving two fucks what the government think! Just the rednecks? Amy asked. Theyre just the most well-known and clich independent group. Anyone who disagrees with big government, even if they dont take an official embargo as a challenge, they still wont have a problem with summoning monsters to get stronger, no matter what anyone says. Patrick shrugged nonchntly. Thats a big fucking problem, and no one can deny that, but do you really think its going to be that bad? Raul asked, reaching up to pet the dinosaur sitting on his shoulder. It is. Isaac said, darkly Never underestimate what people will do with shit this dangerous. Isnt that a little over the top? Amy asked. Trust me, the issue isnt what all of humanity will do, its what someone might do. Isaac shrugged Theres enough idiots in the world, after all. Thats a little pessimistic, isnt it? Amy asked. Werent you the one who thoroughly exined how anyone can create a lethal bioweapon using just the things found in one of the universitysbs? Raul chided. But despite it being so damn easy, were all still here. she shrugged Look, I know the danger is there, but I dont think itll actually go that badly. You know what, we need something else to do. Isaac threw in Sitting here and wallowing, thinking about what might go wrong, its not going to help anyone. Weve been explicitly told not to go back down there until things are hashed out, so how about we do something useful? You just want to abandon the professor? Amy yelped. Who said anything about abandoning him? Isaac grinned, pulling out his phone and waving it around demonstratively I sent out some emails while we were waiting for the dean toe yell at us. Police, other researchers, everyone I know profited from our research. Us butting in and trying to talk to our ultimate boss despite orders to the contrary wont help things. The university getting inundated with derations of support from the outside, however He trailed of suggestively, grinning broadly. Still feels wrong to just leave. Raul insisted. We dont have to go far; well still be around. Well, I have to go pick up some stuff first, but then, well be good to go. Isaac said, getting to his feet If Professor Bailey asks, Ill be back in an hour. And with that, he left to head back into the city, going to a rather familiar cksmiths shop. The bell above the door jingled happily as he entered and a minuteter, the owner popped out of the back in a slightly scorched apron. Ah, Mr. Thoma, d to see youre back. I finished your order a couple of days ago, let me know what you think or if youre interested in any modifications or decorations. Stagmer called out and dipped right back into the storage area, only toe back out with the gigantic Zweih?nder a momentter. Well, gigantic whenpared to normal weaponry, at least. It was one of thergest and longest swords in existence, or any handheld weapon that wasnt an actual polearm. Its hilt was a good deal longer in rtion to the overall length of the de than one might expect from looking at smaller swords while the portion below the hilt wasnt actually sharp so the wielder could grab it for another point of leverage. Of course, the primary thing that jumped to mind when looking at this thing was still its size, an almostically oversized weapon that one could barely even wield with the same movements one would use with a more standard sword. No thank you, this is an amazing weapon. Isaac said, carefully running his hand down the length of the de I actually use these weapons, Id rather not add decorations that end up ruined two minutes in. Ah, I suppose thats reasonable. Im mostly used to people asking for movie replicas or decorative set pieces for theater and the like. Someone actually nning to use my weapons is somewhat of a rarity. Stagmer shrugged. What if I told you that could change? Is that something that would interest you? Isaac asked. Of course. What are you thinking? Stagmer asked, a grin creeping up on his face. Id like to work with you, be a patron of sorts. As a person with a profession for a [ss], you will level incredibly slowly, but that will speed up as youe face to face with greater challenges and surpass them. Like, say, mystical metals retrieved from monsters? I could provide those for you in exchange for weapons made from them. If this ends up working, I could even provide Aspects. Isaac offered. Aspects!? Do you have any idea how expensive those are? Stagmer eximed, but Isaac just shrugged. Only if you buy them. If you get them by killing a monster, theyre practically free. You see, I use these weapons against living pirs of mes, rock monsters, humanoid frogs with skin like iron. I have some [Skills] to make sure my weaponsst, but pretty soon, mundane weapons wontst for more than a couple of hours of use. So, Iming to you with an offer. Would you be interested in letting me level you up in exchange for you making me powerful and downright supernatural weapons? Isaac suggested. Theoretically, yes. What would I have to do in exchange? Stagmer asked, the barest hint of suspicion in his voice. Like I said, make me the gear I need, in exchange for marypensation. Perhaps, a slight priority over other orders without having to pay through the nose for the privilege, but nothing unreasonable. You see, I need someone who can make that quality of gear. That person doesnt currently exist upon this world, but I can change that. So, interested? Left unspoken was the threat Isaac could just go to literally anyone with the right [ss] and make the exact same offer. He wasnt even particrly attached to Stagmer, hed picked him for being nearby and having good reviews. He was the best local candidate, but hardly the only one. Of course, Isaac would have picked one of the legendary [Smiths] of the other timeline, if hed know any of their names. He knew plenty of titles and pseudonyms, but nothing that would help him find them in this one, at least not yet. There had been an unfortunate trend of kidnapping extraordinary crafters and giving them an offer they couldnt refuse. As powerful as they might be, they had nothing on abat [ss] of the same Level, and crafters were rarely anywhere near the strongest people in those terms, leaving them vulnerable. Hence, hiding. Alright, that sounds fundamentally reasonable, but I do have one more question. Youd mostly be paying me with materials, but I will need some money for tools and such, especially if Im prioritizing your orders. There will have to be some caveats to that end, but fundamentally, it sounds like a good deal. Stagmer said. Id never expect you to do more than is reasonable. I do have the money to pay you when necessary, but I would greatly prefer to use rare and exotic materials where possible. Issac said, pulled out his phone and ced it on the table between them Thats a sample contract I had drawn up. In essence, it covers most of what we talked about, including the fact that Id be paying you a significant marypensation should I need to monopolize your time at any point. Any materials I give you are yours to do with as you wish once the actual order has been fulfilled unless we are talking about something of significant rarity, etc. While Stagmer skimmed the contract, Isaac took the time to look around the shop for things that might be useful. A few minutester, Stagmer put the phone back down and nodded. Looks good. Ill still need to see a proper contract, but theres nothing in there that I have a problem with. Is there anything else youd like? Ill pay for the Zweih?nder now, but Id also buy a few things from your disy. Isaac said, pointing out the things hed be giving his colleagues. Thank you,e back soon. Stagmer waved after Isaac as he left, something hed thought would only happen in kids cartoons. But clearly, hed just made the cksmith very happy. What were some things that could be useful to him? Aspect of the Fire Elemental, Metal Golem, Forge Golem and the like. If one dropped and Stagmer had proven to be up to snuff, that was where it would probably end up, probably followed by Isaac letting him summon a few things for him to kill, thereby giving out the XP needed to slot them. As for materials, there were the magically enhanced alloys in the body of The Crusher, a Tier 5 summon from the Earth summoning list, bricks that burned long and hot from several fire type golems, and so on, and so forth. Once Isaac had gotten his hands on the Aspects he needed to upgrade his current ones and grabbed some of the ones he wanted to hand out, hed be grabbing materials for forging. He ended up taking the subway back to the uni, with the sword wrapped up tightly in arge cloth. Hed bought a back scabbard as well, but wearing that thing just screamed monster hunter, which would be a truly awful look in the current situation. Far too many horror stories from past incidents were back on the news,pounded with the constant barrage of new theories, each worse than thest, making someone who was clearly a summoner the target of oh so much anger. Now, however, people would likely just assume it was a curtain rod or something. After all, what kind of sword was that fucking huge? As he stood there, mana constantly flowed from his hands and into his weapons, strengthening them. Stagmer did good work but mming it against creatures as tough as rocks or actually made of the stuff would y merry hell on a mundane de. The university campus wasnt as full as it had been in the morning, but not the depopted, empty space the [Systems] warning had turned it into. Thergest concentration of people was, surprisingly enough, right near his friends, who were currently being inundated with questions. Also, there was the small issue of Brisa the microraptor sitting on Rauls shoulder, drawing stares. Now, trying to push his way through the crowd might be an option, but it was hardly the only one. A trickle of mana flowed into [Sneak], triggering its active ability and making peoples gaze just slide off him. Of course, this trick only really worked when people werent actually paying attention to or looking for him, but it was still useful. Now that people had stopped really paying attention to him, [Phantom Step] should be ever so slightly cheaper. Not by much, and certainly not enough for him to bother in most situations, but he considered it worth doing so just to see if anything unexpected happened. One moment, he was walking across the open space in front of the cafeteria, the next, he was sitting in the tree above his friends. Hey guys. he said, making Patrick and Amy jump, with thetter ring at him. Karl just nced up for a moment, then went back to his conversation. Raul just outright ignored him, moving not even a millimeter. Clearly, he had noticed Isaac from the beginning, just not bothered to say anything. Were you sitting up there the entire time, waiting for a good chance to scare the hell out of us? Amy asked, ring up at him. Nah, just got here and decided to avoid pushing my way through the crowd. Isaac said and dropped down, startling a few people who hadnt realized the voice hadnte from the crowd. Hey, you! someone in the crowd yelled Do you work with these people? Isaac just raised a questioning eyebrow. He hadnt been one of the people who could do that, simply pulling up the other one whenever he tried, but now he could bypass the whole problem with [Hundred Faces]. Ok, look, these people havent been telling us whats going on. They said that theres no problem, that the Slime has been dealt with, and now its just a matter of bureaucracy. So, whats going on? And dont you dare just give me thepany line! Does this guy realize that thered be no reason for me to step off thepany line if we actually had one? Isaac said to Patrick,pletely ignoring the question Also, if hes convinced that were sitting on top of a bunch of independently summoned Slimes, why the hell is he still here? Humanity produces geniuses, humanity produces idiots. Some people are sheep and will believe anything theyre told, no matter how stupid, others are uninformed contrarians who will speak against anything that is said in their presence. Guess where this guy falls on that spectrum. Patrick replied, voice as dry as the Sahara. Isaac just snorted. Basically, people think we know about everything thats going on, so theyve been asking a bunch of questions. When they didnt like the answer someone gave, they asked the others. And so on and so forth. We wouldnt be here anymore if we hadnt been waiting for you. Patrick continued. In that case, lets go. I got the goodies, now lets have some fun. Isaac said loudly enough for the rest to hear him. Ugh, finally. Amy sighed, stood up, and jumped clear across the heads of the crowd. Isaac grinned as he saw the rather unnatural arc of her mid-air movement making it very apparent that she was using magic to fly for a brief moment, rather than jumping with raw stats. Clearly, shed been experimenting with her [Skills] and seeded. Triggering [Phantom Step], Isaac suddenly stepped up right next to her and pulled a small bag from his package. Here. I thought you could use something to use your [Telekinesis] with. Are those kunai? Amy asked, surprised at first, but then she grinned Weeaboo much? I buy my stuff from a weaponsmith who makes a lot of useable movie replicas. I didnt think to order some throwing knives, but these were avable. Isaac shrugged I enhanced them with my [des] [Skill] and can make it even stronger with [Piercing Strike] in a bit. But only when were away from the crowd, shing a glowing de in this situation bad idea. Yeah. Amy nodded So, Im guessing the n is to go kill some monsters? Obviously. Our work is good for a few Levels, but all of you should be offered an epic [ss] that lets you copy magic abilities at Level 10. I figured you guys should get that sooner, rather thanter. Isaac nodded. The others stepped up next to them, having had to push their way through the crowd. Half an hourter, they were walking through the forest. So, is this the part where the sher movie viin jumps out behind the tree? Or is this a ir Witch kind of situation? Karl asked, breathing heavily. Clearly, he wasnt used to mbering through the wilderness like that. Well, the sher movie viin is right over there. Amymented, jerking her head in Isaacs direction. What? Patrick asked, sounding thoroughly puzzled. Impossible to stop, impossible to kill, can get in anywhere, runs around with a giant knife all the time do I need to go on? Amy asked with a wink. And has a giant collection of bodies in the middle of the woods? Raul asked, his voice awestruck. Wait what? Are you serious? Amy asked. Yep. Raul replied, pointing straight ahead Five hundred meters ahead, Brisa just found them. Dead Rock Golems thick enough to cover the ground. Turning to Isaac, he asked Is that what you wanted to show us? Yep. I wanted to wait until we were there to tell you everything, but I suppose now is as good a time as any. Isaac said, stopping and turning around Basically, Im worried. Worried that people will panic, overreact, and ban summoning until the next set of problems arise and it bes clear that some problems do require high Level [Skills] to be solved. But right now, the consensus is still that everything is alright unless someone gets hurt. He walked backwards and casually jumped to the top of a two meter tall boulder, arms spread in a ta-da gesture This is what Im offering. We should all have unlocked one of the worlds greatest [ss] Evolutions and this might be yourst chance to gain it in a timely fashion, at least legally. So, is anyone interested? So, youre finally inviting us along on your little power-levelling sprees? Raul asked. Yep. A chance to fight high experience monsters, safely. I wont judge anyone who decides theyd rather just work in ab, but this will give you true power, if you want it. Sounds good. Amy shrugged, trying to act nonchnt, but she was vibrating with excitement. Isaac remembered that shed picked [Mage] just so she could get magic. Of all his colleagues, she was the one who was the most simr to him. Its getting dark soon and I dont see anynterns, I dont suppose you have a way around that? Patrick asked. Over twenty points in Perception let you see in the dark. Isaac told him If you arent there by the time night falls, we can just go grab somenterns or something. Well need to go for some snacks and stuff anyway. So, shall we? As they walked thest few meters towards his fighting site, a massive grin grew on Isaacs face. There were a few things he liked to do. One was fighting interesting foes. The other was passing on that knowledge to others and watching them grow. Besides, a [System Researcher] could learn all sorts of awesome [Skills], including a million different incredible utility [Skills]. As for what he could pull off if he knew people who could cast [Portal] the sky was the limit. Chapter 36: Sink or Swim Chapter 36: Sink or Swim You did all this? Patricks jaw practically dropped as he got his first good look at the ground being utterly covered by dead Rock Golems, to the point where no normal dirt was visible underneath. Yep. Isaac nodded. Isnt it a little risky, leaving monster bodies lying around like that? Karl asked. Normally, of course. But these things are useless, check em with your [Skills]. Isaac suggested. In lieu of answering, Karl just walked forward andid a hand against one of the stone chunks. Yep, these are pretty normal. The rock has an abnormal internal structure, but its just regr granite. Interesting, but hardly valuable except as a curiosity. Karl said I dont suppose you have anything else cool I could look at? Not really, but I gave a bunch of magically modified kunai to Amy. Isaac shrugged, then hopped onto one of the nearby rocks to tower over everyone else Ok, were here. I have the materials to summon a bunch of different monsters stashed here, but there are a few things I think we should focus on. One of the things Ive noticed is that stronger monsters have a higher conversion rate of mana to XP. Tier 1 barely gives anything, Tier 3 gives half the mana cost, and Ive found that Tier 4 gives two-thirds of the mana invested back as XP, not to mention that there is a five percent XP boost for every Level an enemy has on you. Now, punching that far above your weight ss is risky as hell, but Ill be here to help mitigate that risk. To that end, Id like to demonstrate something. Picking up a stick, he walked over to the t area in the middle of the graveyard and fixed the badly smudged summoning circle there, dropped in a random rock, a handful of dirt and a piece of iron hed grabbed from his pocket. Mana red and suddenly, a Rock Golem erupted from the circle and froze. One moment, Isaac had stood there with arge mystery package under one arm. The next, he was frozen mid lunge, right arm extended forward with a gigantic Zweih?nder erupting from him and out of golems back, orange light ring around the weapon. It was an impressive looking move and all, though that was really the only reason to do it. For one, that kind of close in lunge was incredibly dangerous against almost all enemies. It would put you right up against their body and since very few creatures died instantly when pierced through any kind of vital organ, especially with a high Fortitude, there was a high risk of having your head torn off by something that was yet to realize it had been killed. Thankfully, that wasnt a problem with golems. Only having a single vital organ might let them outright ignore physical damage to literally any other part of their body, but it also led to them dying the instant that organ was destroyed. With a body not quite wide enough to block out a weapon as long as a Zweih?nder and the cores location being fixed in every iteration, it was a rather significant weak point in smaller golems. That being said, using the move against something made from rock also came with a significant risk. Namely, the fact that it turned into solid, immovable rock the instant the core broke and began to keel over, threatening to rip the Zweih?nder out of his hands with its falling body and shatter it against the ground below. Of course, there was a counter to that, namely, spending over thirty mana on [Skills], orange light ring as he drew the de back while slicing through the rock as he did so. Once the de was free, Isaac took two quick steps backwards to avoid having the damn thing fall on his head as the gigantic figure mmed into the dirt with a titanic crash. And what was the point of that? Patrick drawled, sitting down on the arm of an older dead golem We know youre capable, the mere fact that youre still alive after all the things we know you fought proves that. Isaac shrugged and opened up the kill notification in a way that was visible to everyone Visual demonstration. Rock Golem (Lv. 10) has been in. 100 XP gained Basically, you can get one hundred XP for the 150 mana you need to invest to summon the weakest of the Tier 4 monsters. Throw in the five percent per Level boost for each Level they have on you and you should be able to level after a mere handful of kills. Or, you can rapidly gain the XP but save it to get to Level 10 in one giant jump, speeding up your gains for as long as possible and saving your [Skill] points for all those cool advanced [ss] [Skills]. Point is, this is one of the fastest ways you can level, and with me here, you should be able to do so as safely as possible. That might be all well and good for someone with abat [ss], but Im a [Researcher]. Patrick pointed out I dont even have any offensive [Skills], let alone the Stats topensate for that. Then, slightly hopeful, he added But I suppose you have a n for that? I do, actually. I can see you havent slotted the Aspect of the Specter yet, but that means youve got a fair bit of XP saved up, right? How much do you need to hit 1,000? Isaac asked. Im guessing you have a nice and powerful offensive Aspect, then? Obviously. Isaac said, pulling what looked like an orb of water out of his pocket, then tossed it to Patrick Thats an Aspect of the Water Elemental. You can summon a few creatures for the others to kill, then use the XP you get as the summoner to slot it and do some more direct levelling. Ok, so now everyone has some offensive power. [Telekinesis], [Geokinesis], knives, soon to be water power and a fucking gun. But that doesnt mean we can take one of Amy said, gesturing empathetically at the dead golems strewn about those things. Of course not. Isaac said evenly, but even as her mouth opened to send what would most likely have ended up being a stream of rude exmations, he continued Everyones powerset lends itself to fighting a certain kind of enemy. [Telekinesis] coupled with razor sharp knives is lethal against creatures with vulnerable spots near the surface without significant armor covering them. Control of the earth is going to y merry hell with anything that has mobility issues. Water is going to kick ass against monsters with molten hot bodies as it chills and hardens vital portions and freezes them in ce. And then, well, we have a fucking [Skill]-enhanced gun. What followed was nothing much to write home about. Monsters were summoned and fell in short order. Patrick yed the role of mana battery for the first couple of hours until hed gained enough XP to slot the Aspect of the Water Elemental Isaac had gifted him and then gone up against a Molten Soldier, a kind of animated armor that glowed with radiated heat. A little dangerous to have in the middle of a forest, but the entire ground had been covered with rocks and Isaac had stashed a few fire extinguishers nearby. The strategy for killing it was rather simple. Lock up the knee joints with bolts of water to make it topple over, followed by a constant stream to cool down the chest and then finally cave it in with the Zweih?nder. It was pretty rough on the de, but Isaacs [des] [Skill] made repairing that a chinch. After all, he wasnt currently summoning and therefore had mana to spare. Several different kinds of giant slug or snail were vulnerable against Karls [Geomancy], a [Geomancers] basic earth maniption [Skills] while Rauls gun backed by [Enhanced Impact] was able to shatter the rather exposed cores of Water Elementals with casual ease. Meanwhile, Amy demonstrated true mastery of her [Skills] by simultaneously controlling several knives and small vials of Corpsemelter Acid, courtesy of Isaac. Any kind of biological creature had vulnerable points on their exterior, things that would be difficult to put on the inside. Eyes, other sensory organs, Achilles Tendon equivalents, things like that. And when you had someone able to strike at them from afar, ignoring range or the angle of attack, that was a little difficult to defend against. A Swamp Knight fell in under a minute, as did a Drake. High Level [Telekinesis], creativity and a good matchup made for one hell of an offensive potential. Time flew by in a sh, with Raul heading back into civilization to go get some supplies. Someone else might have gone, but their location was in the middle of nowhere, well clear of any trails and in a cellr deadspot, meaning it took an experienced woodsman to find his way back out. In other words, that meant the person who went had to be either Isaac or Raul, and one of them was far more vital to the process at hand than the other. The first to truly drop out of the fighting was Karl, pumping his fist as he finally gained the needed XP to hit Level 10 and retreating to think over his choices. Apparently, there were ones worth considering beyond just [System Researcher], though that was also an option hed unlocked. Soon afterwards, Amy did the same, followed by Raul and finally Patrick, leaving Isaac to breathe a sigh of relief. That. Had. Sucked. Constantly watching over other people who were fighting against perfectly beatable foes was boring as hell after the first couple of times, yet far too dangerous for him to just fall into a stupor and wait for everything to be over. Which left him in that highly unpleasant ce of having to be at high alert near constantly while having basically no mental stimtion. Blech. Annoying, but necessary. At least everything had been over faster than it normally would have been. Fighting stronger enemies was good even without the XP boost per Level above your own, while there was no penalty for having a build that countered ones foe almost perfectly. Unfortunately, this wasnt something one could repeat ad infinitum, given that one could only gain XP from an enemy a given number of times. Then again, if it were possible, the strongest people in the world, at least in terms of Levels, would be ones whod found such a matchup and exploited it ruthlessly. That would bring in immense amounts of XP, but also leave [Skill] Levelsgging badly behind, and only a handful of [Skills] would be levelled at all. Alright, I know you mentioned that [System Researcher] was a great [ss], but I decided to go another route. Karl announced, sitting down in the middle of the torn up battlefield As awesome as copying other creatures abilities would have been, its not me. This is. He spread his arms theatrically and the area around them rumbled, golem bodies seeming to liquefy for a brief second before re-solidifying in a smoother, more even configuration, leaving them all standing on what basically looked like a natural rock formation with a few odd shapes, here and there. But that wasnt all. There were still the asional monster bits, here and there, that they hadnt caught in the first round of cleanup, or at least, there had been. During whatever Karl had done, theyd been swallowed by the ground. That certainly made an impression. Patrickmented Specialized geomancy [ss]? No, [Magineer]. Karl corrected Epic rarity, knowledge based crafting [ss] focusing into engineering and architectural projects. Im still limited to minerals and metals, but if I can make a n in my mind, I can make it reality. Refining things is prohibitively expensive, so I basically need all the materials to be at the same level of refinement the final product will contain. I, for one, think its awesome. Isaac announced, stepping besides him and pping him on his shoulder [System Researcher] is awesome and all, but picking a [ss] will set you on that path for, at the very least, the time required to hit the next Evolution. If its the wrong choice for you, its the wrong choice, and thats that. Are you, perchance, avable to do that again within the next few weeks? Yeah, why? Thing is, Im in the process of buying a ce out in the middle of nowhere and this would make for an awesome base for building on. So, if I produce the material, is fusing them all something that you could help with? Isaac asked, spreading his arms in an inviting gesture. Sure thing, but youre buying beer and cooking. You can cook, right? Karl asked with a wink. Cook? Isaac asked, making a sort of gesture with his hand I mean, providing meals is something Ill do as a matter of courtesy, but most of what I make are quick meals for conveniences sake, not the good stuff. But Ill make sure to have something suitable. So, Vegas worked out well for you, then? Patrick asked. Sort of, but a lot of it came from helping discover the security ws afterwards. Isaac replied So, did you pick your Evolution yet? Obviously, wasnt like there wasnt a ringly obvious choice right there. Did you know that you look like a ck void to [Inspect], by the way? Patrick chuckled Ive got some pretty good sensory [Skills], others that enhanceprehension, and, of course, the ultimate copycat [Skill]. [Analyze and Replicate]. Expensive as hell to get, but wow! Just wow! A massive grin stretched across his face, his normally rather dour mood nowhere to be seen. Same here. Amy shrugged, lookingpletely nonchnt Now all we need is a target to test this out on. One magical monster,ing right up. Isaac nodded and with a blur of movement, arrived next to the summoning circle Now, everybody take few steps back please. And Raul, please keep a hold of Brisa, this is too dangerous for her. Now, see if you can copy the spectral weapons. He held the Ol Reliable, his soulbound weapon, in his left while grabbing the Kriegsmesser with his right. A Wraith manifested in the summoning circle a momentter, Isaac not even having bothered to recharge his mana. Hed been able to handily beat the first Wraith hed fought in this timeline a while ago, and since then, hed increased his Agility by 50%, among a massive list of other improvements. Arge kite shield and bastard sword manifested in his spectral foes hands, who immediately lunged, aiming to skewer Isaac in an instant. Using his knife, Isaac pushed the de to the side while thrusting his sword forward, driving it through a gap in the armor just above the elbow,plete with abined [Power Strike] and [Piercing Strike]. It tore through the flesh like tissue paper, nearly severing the arm. The Wraith screeched and banished the shield, recing it with a shortsword that nearly stabbed Isaac in the throat. Nearly. Isaac backstepped, easily leaving the weapons pathetically short range while sending out a [Power Strike] enhanced [Far Strike], making it stumble, then lunged back in to stab into it with both weapons. Newly manifested des shed, one going for his neck, the other aiming to plunge into his right kidney. Twisting, Isaac kicked off the Wraiths right leg to send himself flying skywards while it went down on one knee, thrown off kilter. But even in this new and infinitely less sane world, gravity was still a present and existing force, yanking Isaac back down onto his foe. des leading, he mmed down into the Wraiths back and kicked off, the conjured halberd swishing past with mere centimeters of clearance. Isaac just grinned. After all, close only counted in horseshoes and hand grenades, as the saying went. Sticking with the halberd for now, the Wraith advancedshing out. Isaac interposed the knife and slid it, leaving a shallow cut across its belly with his sword, only to have to dodge back hastily as his foe decided to re-equip itself with less cumbersome weapons. Now this was a more normal fight against a Wraith. When notpletely berserk, Wraiths would only switch weapons when it was necessary, rather than whenever their old weapon was no longer the exact perfect tool at the given moment. He dodged another swing and lunged in onest time, triggering [Sweeping Strike] and [Sundering Strike] while his knife was stuck inside the Wraiths body, six sweeping des tearing through its insides while weakening it on a fundamental level. The Wraith stiffened and after another moment, dissolved into nothingness. So, did you get anything from that? Isaac asked. So-so. Raul shrugged Copying a [Skill] just by seeing it is awesome and all, but I suppose I shouldnt expect to get it from watching a single fight. By the way, Im also a [System Researcher]. What he said, if with a little more disappointment. Amy added Where did you learn to fight like that, anyway? [Skills] and a hell of a lot of practice, followed by more practice. Isaac shrugged, stifling a grin. Just like Raul had said, it would be incredibly unfair to be able to instantly copy any magical ability one saw. Raul yawned loudly, then announced Anyway, its gettingte and Im going to bed. Anyone who cant find their own way out of the forest can eithere with me or stay here until Isaac leaves. Then, he yawned again. Patrick and Karl headed off with him after bidding Isaac goodbye, but Amy stayed, looking at Isaac expectantly. Hm? he asked. You know what. You were nning to stay behind after weve all left to summon something you felt was too dangerous to have around us. she grinned at him Well, go ahead. Ill be fine. There is a reason I dont want to do this around other people. Isaac insisted. Of course its going to be dangerous. Just like everything else worth having, it aint free. Time requirement, effort, danger, it doesnt really matter. If its worth having, so is putting in the effort. she gave him a confident grin I became a cell biologist because I thought that was an interesting thing to do. I chose to be a [Mage] instead of going with the safe looking [ss] thats basically my job, but as a [ss]. Im going to get whatever I can out of the [System], because thats what I find fascinating, because that is my chosen goal. If that ends up badly for me, then at least I tried. Isaac grinned A woman after my own heart, it seems. But that doesnt change the fact that Im going to be summoning a Hydra. A full Hydra. It isnt just risky to be nearby, its practically suicide. Why? Because that thing has toxic blood that will kill anyone who touches it without a self-healing [Skill] or a [Healer] nearby. Because if I have to slip into [Stealth] and retreat, its going to go after you. Because if I die, you will definitely join me. Need I go on? Like Patrick said, if you were in the habit of picking fights you cant win, you wouldnt be alive anymore. I think youre being a little more careful with other peoples lives than with your own, though. Thats a little silly, dont you think? Amy asked. Silly, maybe. But thats how I feel. I can make that choice for me, not for others. Besides, if I just live past the end of the fight, I can recover from anything. Can you do that? Its my choice too. But one Ill get med for if it goes badly. In response, Amy just whipped out her phone and held it in front of her face My name is Amelia Shaw and Im here in the forest, choosing to be near a summoned monster of my own free will. Now, I just sent that to Patrick, so youre covered. Were in a dead zone. Isaac replied deadpan. Fine, Ill go send it, but Ill be back. she warned Dont get started without me. Isaac hung his head, a grim expression on his face, though he was smiling on the inside. He could appreciate that kind of mindset, after all, it wasnt too different from his own. But while he was rather confident in his ability to win this fight on his own, protecting someone else at the same time would be difficult. Fine. But under a couple of conditions. First of all, you stay up in a tree as far away as you can be while still seeing the fight. Second of all, you dont join in and draw attention. Ill give you a few vials of acid in case of an emergency, but dont give it a reason toe after you. Sounds reasonable. she shrugged, suddenly all smiles. After a short walk so she could send the message, they returned to what Amy had started referring to as the arena and Isaac readied the summoning circle, pausing so his mana could refil. Do you get nervous, sitting here like this, knowing that theres a monster just waiting to erupt from the ground and kill you? Amy asked. The entire process of summoning feels weird. Its like opening the door and calling in the wolves for dinner. But its whats necessary. Isaac replied. Necessary? Theres almost certainly another shoe, ready to drop. Either someone summons something they shouldnt have, theres a [System] update and monsters start spawning autonomously, or something even worse happens, something I cant even imagine yet. The only thing Im certain of is that something dangerous will happen, something that Ill need all the strength I can get for. Isaac just shrugged How about you? The magic. I found magic in my work, in bing a cell biologist and modifying the very fundamentals of life. And then, I got my hands on literal magic. Youve been here for the rest of it. Amy said, mirroring his shrug. Anyway, time for you to hide. My manas full. Isaac said grimly, getting back to his feet. A half flight, half jump movement took Amy up into a titanic tree on the edge of the clearing. Meanwhile, Isaac slung a bandolier with sks of acid around his chest and ced five more on the floor in front of him. Then, he activated the circle. On the surface, the Hydra that came out of it was very simr to the regr old Lesser Hydra hed been demolishing since the second day of the [Systems] existence in this timeline. Big ass snake, multiple heads and all that jazz. Of course, this thing had heads high enough toy them on a truck and was longer than said truck would have been. Oh, and it had two extra heads, leaving it with a total of five pairs of eyes that red daggers at Isaac. He matched its stare and bent down to pick up the acid sks, but when he grasped them, his hands were no longer human. Instead, they were a bizarre amalgamation of snake scales and bony tes with steak knives for fingernails. The hands of his [Form of Horror]. With sks of incredibly caustic liquid in his left hand, he lunged at the monster before him. He slid over one head, ducked under another dodged a third, then dragged the ws on his right hand across the fourth neck before driving all five of them into the fifth and final one. Venomous green light red as he activated [Sundering Strike], spreading the effect out across all of them. This might weaken the effect on each of them individually, but the point in the middle, the ce where all the effects ovepped, actually held an even stronger effect, something that became abundantly clear when he red [Power Strike], shoving his arm into the Hydras neck up to the elbow. Another activation of the [Skill] let him rip it back out in a shower of toxic gore while he tossed in one of the vials with his free hand. It shattered, spilling caustic liquid onto the regenerating flesh, stopping the effect. Isaac flung himself backwards, the other heads shooting past, missing by a hair. Whirling, he drew his ws along one of them. A few more steps took him clear of the Hydras immediate striking range. Roaring in anger, it followed, dragging one useless head behind itself. Four left. Isaac dove in again, throwing himself under the headsshing out at him before kicking off the main body tond on the back of one extended necks, reaching out before hammering a hand wrapped in orange light into the closest eye, popping it like a grape. Another pulse of [Power Strike] punched even deeper, tearing into the brain matter. The neck under him copsed, falling to the ground as the controlling organ was destroyed. The three remaining heads came smashing down, forcing him to run, but not before tossing an acid vial into the gaping hole. Unfortunately though, one of the heads had been aimed a little too well. It would have hit him and pulverized his right leg, but he had something to deal with things like that. [Spectral Shift] activated and the Hydras skull smashed into the ground, throwing up clods of dirt and stone shards. Hed avoided most of the attack, but pain nheless red up as the sheer mass of magical energy in his opponents body inflicting damage upon his ephemeral form. Muscles tore, blood vessels popped and the bone fractured, Isaacs pained yelp leaving his monstrous form as a bestial roar. A twitch of his left hand smashed all his remaining acid jars against the head currently digging itself out of the ground while a [Far Strike], [Power Strike] and [Piercing Strike] projected from his right index finger and cut straight through the puddle of acid and into the skull, causing the caustic, regeneration inhibiting liquid pour into the monsters brain matter. Another skull smashed through Isaacs chest, forcing him to phase once more and immediately start regenerating when the Hydras body was no longer ovepping with his, then ducking under thest intact skull as it swished by overhead. But the head that hed let phase through his chest came back around, and this time, he didnt see it in time. Incredibly sharp ears warned him of iting from the air rushing over it as it moved, letting him dodge, but hed slightly miscalcted the distance while allowing it to chomp down on his shoulder. The tips of its teeth tore through his flesh and scraped his bone, but at least, he still had his arm. Swinging up both his arms, they came together with a [Power Strike] mming all of his ws through the skull from both sides. Flexing his fingers while casting [Sundering Strike] to weaken everything in range, then repeating the motion with [Power Strike] made the head explode, but the neck began to rapidly split to create two more heads. And Isaac had no more acid. Thats when his transformation [Skill] ran out, giving him back his clothes including the bandolier of all his additional vials. Two more shattered against the fresh stumps, and that was the end of that. Even as he did that, thest head tore through his chest again, and this time, he barely had the mana to fully heal everything. Mana he might still need to fight. Instead, he sent the barest trickle of magical energy to close the beginnings of a tear on his aorta, then used [Phantom Step] to escape well beyond the monsters current reach. With only one head still left intact, it crawled after him painfully slowly, dragging along four other stumps. Isaac red at it, blood still pouring from his right shoulder while clutching at his side. That had sucked, but now, this should be easy. With his left arm, he began to toss vials at the head, two of them hitting, then summoned Ol Reliable into his hand and mmed a [Far Strike], [Power Strike] and [Piercing Strike] into that part. Hydra (Lv. 17) has been in. 260 XP gained (200 base * 1.3 due to level disparity) And there, done. Isaac sat down hard, breathing heavily. Grasping his shirt, he ripped it off and tossed it away to get the toxic blood that soaked it away from him while concentrating all his healing into the bleeding wounds. Are you alright? Amy came bounding over, half running, half flying. Yeah, Ill be fine. Watch your step, toxic blood, Ill clean that up in a sec. She stopped when she got a good look at his injuries, her horrified look bing slightly less so as she saw it healing. Like I said, Ill be fine. Are you sure its dead? Something magicals happening at the base of the necks. Amys head suddenly snapped around to look at the body. Yes, I got the kill notification. And that is what all this was for. With a grunt of pain, Isaac pushed himself up on his feet, carefully mbering over the body while avoiding the pools of blood and hacked into the body, drawing back his arm, clutching a red and brown orb that practically glowed with power. Aspect of the Hydra: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Hydra a Hydra. Regenerating from gruesome wounds in seconds, killing your enemies simply because they cut you as your blood poisons theirs, growing a second head or createing redundant organs to survive lethal injuries. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Fortitude One of the following Skills: Hydras Regeneration Toxic Blood Redundant Organs Second Head [Second Head]? You have got to get that, for the memes, if nothing else! Amyughed. Isaac joined in, then cringed in pain Ow,ughing hurts. The orb vanished into his hand as he slotted it, picking [Redundant Organs] while upgrading his regeneration [Skill]. It didnt actually change the name or description, but Isaac knew it had gotten ever so slightly stronger. Redundant Organs (rare) This is a passive Skill that allows the Users organs to take over each others responsibilities, within reason. A liver that pumps blood, kidneys that remove alcohol, a pituitary nd that produces insulin. These effects will never be as strong as the original effect, but it will massively reduce the debilitating effect of any injuries. Almost immediately, he felt a slight sense of relief, the internal damage hed sustained no longer quite as debilitating. So, why the hell do you do that sort of thing? Amy asked, ring at him Id smack you in the back of your head, you know, but Im a little worried youd just drop dead if I did that. What, is the Aspect of a Tier 5 monster not enough of a reason? Isaac asked, shing her a grin that showed bloodied teeth But theres also the [Form of Horror]. I can only use it every twelve hours, which makes it incredibly hard to level. If I fight something as strong as the Hydra, however? Three Levels in one go, not to mention, a second Aspect I can stack on top of the old Hydra one? Wait, stack? Amy now lookedpletely lost. You can stack simr Aspects if they also have a [Skill] simr to the old one. The old Aspect [Skill] will be reced by the new and stronger one, you also get a second Stat boost. You know, you should add an Aspect of the Wraith to your Aspect of the Specter. It gives you a longersting defensive body form as an upgrade to your existing [Spectral Shift], as well as an anti-magic armor manifesting [Skill] that should suit a long range magical fighting style, like yours. Isaac exined. But your [Spectral Shift] looked the exact same, why didnt you do that? Amy asked. I need that rapid shift ability that [Spectral Shift] grants me because Im a melee fighter. Im going to grab the Aspect of the Poltergeist once I feel ready to fight one. So there is something. Amy sighed. What? Something you dont feel like you can fight. Just tell me youre not going to try and fight another Hydra once your injuries are healed. she sighed again. Yeah, nope, not a chance. Not until Im fully healed and I have my transformation [Skill] back. Isaac groaned slightly as heid back and rested his head against the ground. That reminds me howe you have that? What do you mean? It just feels a little off. Like it doesnt belong to a sneaky swordsman. Amy said thoughtfully. Howe you have a bunch of research [Skills] when you used to be a [Mage]? Isaac answered the question with another question. Why does that matter? Because its the same kind of effect. Our [sses] arent actually direct Evolutions of our starter [sses]. Theyre based on them, sure. But my [ss] is an Aspect-gatherers [ss] changed based on the fact that it emerged from the base [ss] of [Rogue], same as [System Researcher] is a research [ss] first and foremost, it just has a bunch of [Mage]-like traits. So of my two Central [Skills], one of them is based solely on my Aspects, while my other is a strong [Rogue] [Skill] that gives me a soulbound weapon. One for the new [ss] and the Aspects that form its basis, the second a legacy of my old one. Huh, never thought of it like that. Amy replied, thoughtfully stroking her chin. Anyway, enoughzing around. Cleanup time. Isaac announced, shooting to his feet, but winced as his injuries were stressed. That fight could have gone better. But maybe hed gotten something nice? Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 11 XP: 2397/2400 Health Status: Injured Shoulder, damaged Organs (see list), badly poisoned (priority: cleanse) Mana: 0/250 Stats Fortitude 45 Perception 40 Strength 30 Agility 30 Magic Power 25 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror V The Chosen Weapon IV Skills Hundred Faces VII Stealth X Power Strike XIV Piercing Strike XV Sundering Strike XIII des XIV Sneak XI Sweeping Strike III Far Strike X Manifold Strike VII Hunters Gaze V Phantom Step IV Unknown Fear II General Skills Gralloch III Alchemy II Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Isaac grinned as he saw his progress. Three whole Levels in [Form of Horror] and pretty decent gains in all of his [Strike]-type [Skills]. Though it was a little odd to have Fortitude be his highest Stat despite actually being one of his dump Stats. Consequences of Aspect use, he supposed. Far Strike mon, Level X) Upon the Users next melee attack with a ded weapon, the de will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. In addition, the User may now imbue his weapons with ten mana to create a range enhancing aura for a full minute. This extra reach is 0.5 meters, gaining an additional 0.1n meters, with n being every Level in this Skill over 10. Cost: 20 mana And hed hit the Level 10 threshold in another [Skill], perfect. Cleanup? Cant exactly leave a gigantic corpse lying in the woods, let alone one leaking toxic bodily fluids, can I? Besides, theres a ton of leather left on that body that Im going to grab. Isaac shed her a slightly pained grin. He walked over and pulled a jug of Corpsemelter Acid out of a hiding ce and began to erase the random puddles of toxic blood until Amy offered to take over, using [Telekinesis] to directly fire orbs of liquid at them. You know, that is fascinating! The magical energy in the acid is of a caustic type, when it hits the toxic energy in the blood, it destroys it and both just evaporate! I she continued to talk, slipping deeper into technical speak that even Isaac didnt know. Two hourster, he sat next to a pile of leather with more volume than his own body, evenpressed to the utmost. Isaac was also now dressed in fresh clothes and was, for the most part, healed. You know youre nuts, right? Amy asked as the two of them walked out of the woods. Oh, Im keenly aware of that. But where would we be if everyone just did the sane and normal thing? Isaac asked. Ive heard that before. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world, the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw said that, though I heard it when it was quoted on Greys Anatomy. Amy told him sagely. Could you send me that? I might need that for a potential future criminal trial. Isaac grinned at her. Bwhahahaha! Amy startedughing so hard she nearly tripped over a random root. Anyway, I think Ive earned some bedrest. night Amy. Isaac said as he headed off towards the subway. Goodnight, Isaac. See you tomorrow. Amy waved him goodbye. Isaac left with a grin on his face. She reminded him of himself, back when hed first started fighting monsters. Excited at every new monster, not really thinking too much about the danger of dying. Hed lost that spark pretty quickly but was d to see someone have that same spark. Hopefully, shed keep it even if things started to go downhill. The world was a bleak enough ce as it was, it needed people to light it up with joy and infectious optimism. But enough about old injuries and bleak philosophy. An evening on the couch and watching Clone Wars called to him. Chapter 37: New Reality Chapter 37: New Reality Despite all the excitement of the previous day, they were back the next morning, sitting in the meeting room, waiting for Bailey toy out how badly they were going to be limited going forward. Basically, were going to be allowed to continue as usual, but were going to have to confirm all our kills going forward, no one wants to end up with a series of creatures getting summoned without human input. Bailey sighed, clearly exhausted. Except creatures being summoned without human input could be a major problem for humanity as a whole. This is something that needs to be investigated! Isaac insisted, being echoed by Patrick a momentter. I know. But what would have happened if there hadnt been anyone nearby to get that warning? Bailey asked No one died, so we arent in deep shit, but this still scared the crap out of a lot of people. Until we figure out how to do this safely, were not allowed to do any experiments in this vein anymore. All wed really need is an around the clock guard, at least if the creature we use is weak enough. Assuming the time until the automatic summonings start is always the same, we could time it so a bunch of people nearby are asleep at the time, that way we could check if the warning wakes sleepers. If it does, all wed need is someone to be nearby in any capacity, which should be doable. Certainly, Id be willing to sleep on a futon in the breakroom or something if thats what it takes. But this needs to be investigated. Theres no way in hell some idiot isnt going to identally create a situation for this sort of thing to happen out in the world. Unfortunately, Im fully aware of that. Bailey sighed Just having someone here 24/7 would probably fix the problem, but wed still have to convince a whole lot of officials of that. Itd work, but itd also take a lot of time. It doesnt matter how long it takes, its beyond vital that we investigate this. Patrick said vehemently Monsters roaming around had the potential to be pretty bad. Reproducing monsters, on the other hand? Time to bend over and kiss your ass goodbye! Like I said, I agree that this is important. Write up a list of what measures youd be willing to personally do, for example, how often youd be willing to stay here overnight, at least if the warning wakes up sleeping people, and Ill do everything in my power to get it approved. Bailey sighed, betraying the depth of his mental exhaustion. Thest day could not have been kind to him. Despite that, the suggestions kepting, until he held up a hand to stop them, in a rather definitive way that brooked no argument. Look, the only thing certain right now is that well be allowed to continue our research. Between the fact that no one knows what the hell actually happened, the fear of it happening again without us recognizing the warning signs and the possibility of other incidents urring without us having discovered it under rtively safe circumstances, no one is going to dare tell us to stop. No one whos spent more than two seconds thinking about it, at least. Bailey said, then winked at them. And if anyone asks, you didnt call in a bunch of favors so people would tell the university how useful weve been. Apparently, the phones were ringing off the hook for a while and the dean wasnt too happy about being unable to get any work done. Therefore, I also cant tell you that it was a good job He trailed off suggestively. But about the whole research into autonomous problems, is there anything more you can tell us? Isaac asked. Bailey sighed deeply before replying Look, anyone whos actually thought things through and doesnt have their head stuck in the sand knows we need to study that whole mess, but it also needs to be done safely. Well need to submit an experiment protocol for approval before we do anything in that vein. and thatll take forever. Patrick sighed. At least we only have to do that for those specific experiments. Bailey reminded them Imagine we had to wait for approval before we do anything? As things stand now, we can do anything thats within our budget. Right, that reminds me, what kind of a budget do we have? Karl asked There are some cool tricks I can pull off with my evolved [ss], but Ill need the right materials and that can get expensive. Our budget is to be determined. Were getting a lot of additional funding, and as a result, I dont actually have any hard numbers, and a lot of it being invested in the new building were getting. But right now, weve got enough to rece our current setup three times over without any trouble. Then, he frowned at Karl Did you say [ss] evolution? When did that happen? And what was it? Oh, that happenedst night. Im now a [Magineer], which lets me create constructs and buildings with ease, as long as I have the materials and a n. Thats awesome. Bailey grinned Anybody else have an advanced [ss]? We all do. Amy said The rest of us are [System Researchers], with awesome Perception based abilities and the capacity to copy magic based [Skills] we see. How did you pull that off? Bailey asked. We may or may not have found a ce well clear of anyone who might be in danger and started summoning, with me making sure nothing went wrong. Isaac exined. May or may not? Which is it? Whichever is less likely to result in a scolding. Isaac shrugged. Bailey sighed again I wasnt there, so I dont fully know how it went, but youre all here and looking fine. If something went wrong or came close to it, please be very careful around that, and maybe dont risk a repeat performance. Be careful. Amy tossed Isaac a warning nce. Always am. he shrugged I know my limits and while I might, on asion, go right up to them, I never cross them. I know how to pick my battles. As long as you think before you act, you should be fine. Bailey nodded. Before we go in circles for the rest of the day, theres something thats been on my mind since yesterday, something I think I should share with you. Patrick broke in, looking at each of them in turn, gaze serious. I think this [System] might have been created with malicious intent. Chapter 38: Chaos Chapter 38: Chaos Thats quite the suggestion. Are you sure? Bailey asked. Sure? Of course not, but there is some pretty significant circumstantial evidence. Patrick replied. First of, there are the instructions. They contain more information than most regr instruction manuals, but that just means theyre absurdly thorough. Sure, theyck the usual this is all youre likely going to need summary at the beginning and take forever topletely go through, but theyre good enough to find out literally anything you might want to learn. The really important parts, the dangerous parts, arent well exined at all. Nothing. Jack squat. Bupkis. Fuck all. Just the key to unleashing monsters that havent walked the Earth in millions of years or even only existed in humanitys collective nightmares with no exnation. But all of that is rtively self-exnatory. Summon monster, kill monster, get stronger. The core idea is pretty basic and blindingly obvious. And then yesterday happened, when we learned that the monsters can spawn autonomously if theyre left alive for too long. Normal monsters that can still be taken down, even if it takes heavy ordinance. Once they spawn in and start causing a ruckus, whoever is needed to take down the monster in question will be contacted and that will be that. Until it causes any trouble, it can be left alone, right? Except that isnt actually the case. No, were dealing with creatures able to replicate on their own, and in a form of what is essentially a hyper fast version of parthenogenesis to boot. Sorry, Parthenogenesis? Isaac asked. Virgin birth. Patrick exined Summoning in new monsters on their own is basically the same thing, right? Anyway, point is, this is a gigantic sting in the tail of what appears to be a rather simple system on the surface. One we only discovered through sheer chance because Isaac got curious about apletely unrted matter. Then, there is the whole thing about how monsters track the summoners. How long would it have taken for us to figure that out if hed just sat in his chair? How many more nasty problems will we find by running head long into them, rather than careful study or discovery? Basically, we have the thoroughly well exined [ss] system, which looks attractive as hell, calling for people to take the obvious road to get stronger with all the hidden dangers that entails. Thats disturbingly usible. Wechsler was the first to answer. Type that up, but dont send it out just yet. A hypothesis that dark in the current situation might get us shut down, no matter how idiotic that is, long term. Bailey said. That sort of makes sense, but why give monsters the ability to track their summoner? Amy asked Isnt that a little counterintuitive if the entire point is to get us to dump more monsters into ourps? No witnesses. Raul said hollowly If the monster runs off, there will be at least one person who knows what it was, which people can deduce countermeasures from. But if it kills the summoner, followed by anyone who was nearby thanks to the general aggression all the monsters have, that unterally prevents basically all specialized preparations. Besides, no one would ever summon if the damn things just ran off. Theres a disturbing thought. Bailey replied after a moment Unfortunately, we dont really have a way to check whether any of that is true. If anyone realized something, spots possible proof or thinks of a way to prove it, make sure to write it down. Well gather it all and see if anyone can figure out any kind of proof, but until we have more proof, lets stick to giving warnings instead of telling everyone that the [System] itself might be out to get them. Like I said, rming everyone in an atmosphere this tense isnt going to lead anywhere good. Are you sure? Patrick asked. If we put a hypothesis like that out in the world, were going to scare the hell out of a lot of people, some of whom will take the idea and run with it, going inpletely insane directions and starting a panic. And then we might get shut down simply because the optics of having a [System] research group are bad, and then, we wont be able to find out about other problems ahead of time. Lets keep this in mind, but not publish it until we can find out something definitive, one way or another. Bailey dered with an air of finality about it. Theres almost certainly another shoe, ready to drop. Amy muttered softly, clearly having forgotten that everyone around the table had at least some degree of supernatural hearing. Well, everyone except Wechsler. What was that? Bailey asked. Something Isaac saidst night. About why he wants Levels, because theres likely going to be another problem were yet to see. she mumbled, slightly embarrassed. Like she said, Ive thought there was something nasty waiting in the wings from minute one. Isaac added Something with this kind of potential for destruction and no real exnation for anything that happened theres no way we start out knowing theplete picture. Plus, you know, all those stories that are, in hindsight, horror stories. So were back to those books, then? Patrick asked Do you have any particr insights from them, or just a general sense of unease? Im sorry, but what books? Wechsler interrupted. Normally, he stuck to the background and kept quiet, but this time, it seemed hedpletely lost any kind ofprehension for the conversation currently happening. Theres an entire genre devoted to the idea of a [System] existing in the real world. Sometimes, its in a fantasy world that just works like that, sometimes, its in a fantasy world the main characters get transported to, and sometimes, it just gets introduced to Earth. And when that happens, its usually apocalyptic. Isaac exined Its part of what had me worried all the way back at initialization. But there isnt much there thatsparable to our current situation except the setting and the [System]. Ive been able to draw some parallels based on the simr mechanics, but nothing that really helps. Most of my informationes from mythology. Do you think someone somehow predicted this and turned it into a book as a warning? Wechsler asked. The good ol warnings hidden in media thing? Raul asked Its a thought, but normally, those are a lot more popr, right? I mean, if you leave behind a warning, you make sure it gets heard. Everywhere Ive seen it done, its always something everyone has heard about, like zombies or dragons, not a rtively obscure and fresh subgenre of Fantasy and Sci-Fi. Those are stories, though. Assuming the real world works like that is going lead you down the wrong path. Patrick pointed out. Still, if you go through all the effort of nting stories, you make sure people hear about it and make sure the information is something actually useful beyond that the [System] is bad. Raul pointed out. They might not know any specifics. Bailey suggested. If all those books were warnings, their Systems sure as hell diverged pretty quickly into all sorts of different directions, so if any of them were warnings, we have no way to truly find the ones actually meant to be useful except maybe look at the earliest examples, but those might have been inspired by simple video games. Lets just drop this for now and if one of us notices something weird, we can revisit the topic. Isaac suggested. I, for one, dont really intend to go diving deep into literature because there might be information there, based on a mere hypothesis that someone else would have almost certainly stumbled onto in the past three weeks. Any author whod properly predicted this mess would be crowing from the rooftops, and if they didnt, their fans would. Bailey shut down that discussion. Now, moving on, today''s agenda, and some things we need to n for next week. I know its boring and I handle most of the administrative crap, but we have to get through this. he announced. Up first, future ns. Obviously, we need to investigate this new mechanic, but given the restrictions, thatll have to wait, pending approval. Isaac, Patrick, you both had some decent ideas, write those up and send them to me. In addition, we have a few other experiments to continue, but barring an utter disaster urring, I dont anticipate any problems. In fact, we seem to have gotten quite the boost from thetest revtions. In addition to state funding, weve received numerous private donations, some rather sizeable, like the one from a collective representing several gambling establishments from Las Vegas thats not telling us the reason for their support in a weirdly specific way. As he said that, he looked pointedly at Isaac. After all, he hadnt given them a thorough y by y of his time in Sin City and there was a lot one could read into something like that. Thanks to that and pressure from various offices responsible for public safety, our building is getting somewhat rushed. The underground portion for summoning is being built first, with overtime approved and all else that can be done to speed it up. We should be able to use them in a couple of months while they finish the rest. Karl, Isaac, see if you can find out the best material to armor the summoning rooms with. Now, did any of you happen to get the [System Researcher] [ss]? Raul, Patrick and Amy replied in the affirmative. Right, see if you can discover the principles behind your ability copying [Skill] and put together a list of useful ones to acquire, work with the others for that. Unfortunately, theres even more to do, though. The police are currently working on a pilot program to level up its employees and our local department was chosen due to proximity to us. At some point in the next week, a few of you will have to go over there to give them a good once over, make sure there arent making any obvious mistakes. And that brings me to myst point. On Monday, were going to have a demonstration in front of the building. Two of them, in fact. One is an animal rights rally; the other is demonstrating against the fact that were summoning. Just ignore them,e around the back, no shy maneuvers of flying over the crowd or walking through people, alright? Fine. Amy grumbled. Sure thing. Isaac shrugged. Thatstment had clearly been aimed at the two of them. Animal rights? Seriously? They do realize that monsters are rabid as a matter of course, and will kill any human theye across and need to be put down? Patrick practically spat Do those people do any research before they start protesting? Presumably, just on websites that agree with them. Echo chambers and all that. Some people actually do do their research, but not all of them. Wechsler sighed. How do you know about this ahead of time? Isaac asked. Any demonstrations have to be announced ahead of time. Havent you ever gone protesting? Karl asked. fraid not. Isaac shrugged. Now, I know weve got a lot to do, so wed best get started, shouldnt we? Ive got some more paperwork to do, but then Ill join you in here so we can put our heads together. Bailey announced and headed out of the room. The rest of the day was a lot calmer than normal, given that they were mostly in the meeting room instead of constantly summoning man-eating horrors from another dimension. Isaac himself was also a lot busier than he normally was, given that he was constantly rotating between the various groups. After all, knowing monsters was useful both when it came to finding durable materials, knowing where to get cool materials and what problems might ur with monsters that were left in the world for a long time. There was the asional summoning when Karl wanted to get some various monster bits to analyze with his new sensory [Skills], but not much. As it had slowly be par for the course, they stayed until well past seven pm, but eventually, they did go home. Well, all but two. Adam, can we talk for a moment? Isaac asked. Of course. Bailey said, instantly sounding worried Lets go to my office, shall we? Despite having been in here a mere couple of weeks ago, Isaac was surprised at how much it changed. The hydraskin handbag theyd given him as a joke had ended up in the ce of honor in a shelf on the wall, joined by various other knickknacks from their experiments. Meanwhile, the bookcase looked like a caricature of what a professors bookcase should look like. There were all the normal, standard zoology books that gave a rough overview over the entire field of study, joined by more specialized ones that focused on what Baileys specialty had been before all this, but those only took up about two thirds of the avable space. Then there was a mass of mythology books and a couple that even had titles like Cryptids: What they are and where to find them, though those were noticeably newer. But the most out of ce were the ordinary novels, countless books which often had the word LitRPG somewhere on their cover or spine. Isaac could tell that only a handful of them had been read through based on the cracks in their spine, or more often, theck of ones, but theyd all at least been opened. So, what did you want to talk to me about? Bailey asked. Im going to be frank for a second. Levels. More specifically, your Levels. Youve probably levelled up a couple of times just from someone else killing your summoned monsters, but that still leaves you well behind the curve. Isaac stated bluntly. Im not all that interested in fighting. Im a schr at heart and a [Healer] in [ss], I dont really intend on advancing that far. Bailey replied, shaking his head. Except you dont have to be. I know this might sound a little weirding from me, given that Im a bit of a martial person, but ultimately, there are countless benefits to levelling beyond just raw power. For one, simple being healthier, having senses far better than normal, and youll never need sses or anything else. Isaac, are you calling me old? Bailey asked, a twinkle in his eye. No, Im calling you human. Isaac shrugged Beyond that, youll only need a fraction of the amount of sleep you normally need and your mind will get faster. It wont be an outright intelligence boost, but your thoughts will be far faster than before. Even if you never have to fight, even just to defend yourself, just a few levels have the potential to change your life. And if you hit Level 10, you can actually get some privacy again. Privacy? Bailey asked. Anyone with [Inspect] can read your status as if it were their own. Isaac exined. Is that what youre doing? Bailey frowned. No, I actually cant do that anymore. My version lets me get a rough read on anyones stats, including those of a monster, where a normal [Inspect] will only return the name and Level. Isaac exined. Ok, assuming I decide to start levelling, how would you go around that? Bailey asked. However you want. Youre a [Healer], Im going to assume youre not that eager to jump right into warfare, but you can just keep levelling by summoning something I kill. Itll get you to hit the max XP you can get from a given monster a bit faster, but at most, thatll only feel the effect far, far into the future. Isaac said Of course, theres also the option of slowly levelling through doing your job as it aligns with your [ss]. I think Ill take the option of summoning monsters for you to kill. Bailey agreed So, I guess well get started on Monday? Actually, we can get started right now, if youre willing. I dont have any weekend ns I cant cancel at the drop of a hat and I think this is worth it. Isaac proposed. Thank you for that offer. Unfortunately, I do have some important things to do on Saturday. How about a few hours tonight? Bailey suggested. Alright, great. Shall we? Isaac asked, standing up and beginning to move over to the door. Actually, theres something else we need to talk about. Could you sit back down? Bailey asked, voice grim. Isaac froze for a moment, then turned around, walked back and sat down. What is it? he asked. Are you ok, Isaac? And I dont mean physically, I know you heal like something out of aic book. Bailey said, clearly unwilling to outright state what he thought I know Im not a psychologist, but please know you can talk to me. Isaac sighed internally, he supposed this conversation had been a long timeing. You mean normal people dont throw themselves at monsters all day, every day? Isaac asked in a mock-shocked tone. Hed have to be very careful about how he handled this, mostly because he was pretty sure his head wasnt on straight, at the very least, not as current society saw it. Convincingly looking fine would simply make it appear he was convincingly lying. But outright admitting to being in a bad ce mightnd him on some sort of administrative leave. And if he, gods forbid, outright told the truth actually, that might go well, but it might also backfire and go horribly wrong, so he mentally tabled that option for now. Im sorry, that was catty. Isaac sighed, taking a deep breath Im scared, Adam. Scared of the future, scared this power that people have been given, scared of what fresh hell someone might summon into this ne. When that first [System] screen appeared, it was like a horror moviee to life. Like watching Nightmare on Elm Street and then having a dream in which a creepy guy with a ok, bad example. Maybe likeing face to face with a guy wearing a hockey mask with a machete in their hand after watching Friday the 13th? Bailey suggested. I suppose. Point is, those books, Isaac said, gesturing at the bookcase standing off to the side They all depict most people dying. Sometimes, its just mentioned every time the heroes want to leave their safe area, that they have to go look for survivors. Other times, its front and center. You can hear the silence, the emptiness around the character, feel that hollowness in their heart as they realize there is no one left alive they might run into, picture that scene of countless broken-down cars on the highway like out of some post-apocalyptic movie. Entertaining to read, but not something I ever want to see happen. The first night after initialization, I had a nightmare to that effect. But then, things didnt immediately go to utter shit, I calmed down a little and realized that madly fighting wasnt what was needed, knowledge was. Thats when I went looking for you and things transitioned from dire and apocalyptic to fascinating, if still insanely dangerous. The power Id already gathered was useful and nice to have, but not a dire necessity in the face of an oing apocalypse. And then, something happened to change that. The party. Bailey said grimly. Actually, no. That was something I knew was happening from the news and having that appear in front of me and surviving, that was more of a confirmation of my own capabilities than anything else. Isaac shook his head It was our discoveries. Like Patrick said, its starting to feel like all of this was created with malicious intent, intended to kill us all. It felt like I needed to be strong enough to survive all that, so I started fighting again and I just kept going. And itll probably be a while before I stop again. Thank you for being honest with me. Bailey said, surprisingly formally That cant have been easy. Look, the most important thing here is that youre staying safe. Are you doing that? My status might im my greatest [Skill] is [Piercing Strike], but I know its actually knowing how to pick my battles. Remember, I had to survive long enough to actually get my regeneration. Isaac noted dryly. Bailey blinked owlishly at him, then let loose a bark ofughter, but quickly stopped himself from showing further signs of levity. I believe we both know that it hasnt killed me yet is not a good reason to keep doing something. Im aware. But Im not doing this because I simply want power, because I want to surpass everyone else. Im doing this because I want to make sure that when shit truly hits the fan, I can do something about it. And for that to happen, I need to still be alive. I am being careful. Isaac rified. Even if it doesnt look like it? Bailey asked skeptically. Even if it doesnt look like it. Isaac confirmed I know Im hardly in a position to im to be staying safe because summoning is inherently dangerous, but thats the truth. Ill only do something to truly risk my life in situations like that party, where theres a reason for picking the fight other than the pursuit of power. Power is meaningless if you arent alive to wield it. Lives saved, on the other hand, are worth it regardless. Mentally, he added And my survival isnt the win condition here, humanitys is. But he refrained from voicing that thought out loud, given how it would, at the very least, make him seem suicidal. Instead of answering, Bailey took a deep breath to buy himself a little time. Then he spoke. I think thats an interesting way to look at that. But it also sounds like something you cant keep up forever. If you want to talk to someone, Ill always be avable. Or if you want to talk to a professional, the university is perfectly willing to provide someone. Just dont keep all that trapped inside until it bursts out. You wont be doing yourself any favors, or anyone else, for that matter. Or just do something other than fighting. While I might be working myself like a dog, Im hardly the only one, am I? Sure, my work is one of battle and bloodshed instead of paperwork and bureaucratical infighting, but both are exhausting, arent they? Isaac said. What do you mean? Bailey asked. I have fantastic senses, remember? I can see the faintest hint of bags under your eyes, no matter how well you try to hide them, and smell the caffeineing from your pores. Youve been working hard, too hard. Youre just as rmed as I am, and were both pushing ourselves this hard. Isaac replied, sighing. I suppose thats true. Bailey sighed. It doesnt have to be, though. All you need is a couple of Levels to make working through the night perfectly doable. Isaac replied. To his utter surprised, Bailey just startedughing. What a pair we make, dont we? We both cant let well enough alone. We do. But weve also got a damn good reason. Saving the fucking world. Isaac said. Are you sure its going to get that bad? Bailey was suddenly serious again. Weve got no idea how powerful monsters will get at the higher Tiers. All we know is that theres a marked increase in power with each one, going from murderous housecat at Tier 1 to things that can beat basically any creature on the except a few apex predators and top tier herbivores at Tier 2. Tier 3 is already beyond anything the world currently holds, and Tier 4 are basically worth having their own legends. Tier 5 a Tier 5 monster could probably trash this entire building in a matter of minutes. As to where things go from there we can only specte, but its sure to be bad. And we can be certain that someone is going to end up summoning one of those, be that out of stupidity or for malicious reasons. Thats dark. Bailey stated, deadpan But youre right. Sooner orter, someone is going to end up summoning something high Tier and its going to be incredibly powerful. And then, well need the strength to fight it, or the knowledge to sucker punch it. In that case, why dont we work a little towards that end? Isaac suggested The summoning rooms free, after all. In a minute, Isaac. Bailey stopped him Before we got off track, we were talking about, well, talking. Im not going to make you do anything, but just promise me this: if you ever feel like you cant handle the situation anymore, like you might go off the deep end, talk to me. Or anyone else, for that matter. Just talk to someone. Thank you, Adam. I promise Ill talk to someone if I ever feel like Im not up to this. Isaac solemnly said Ive got no intention of going off the deep end as you put it. Its good to hear that, and my door is always open. Bailey nodded, getting to his feet I suppose nows the time to start summoning then, isnt it? Chapter 39: A slow weekend Chapter 39: A slow weekend This is a plot ofnd that can be anything you want it to be. Its zoned for construction, so unless youre nning on putting a factory here, you haveplete and utter creative freedom. the real estate agent announced, gesturing around him. Both he and Isaac were in the middle of nowhere, literally. Or at least as close as you could get while in proximity of a major city. But given that there wasnt even a road that could be reached with ten minutes of walking it probably still qualified. There was a forestry road slightly closer, but actually driving there was only something actual rangers and hunters were allowed to do so, anyone else was liable to get fined. But that didnt really matter to Isaac, he didnt mind walking, and soon, he could move faster than he could by car. Not the top speed one could reach while driving, but the speeds one could realistically use on those poor roads. I mean, it does look nice. Isaac shrugged But how is the ground, what kind of construction will it support? It should work with anything you want, within the constraints of the building code. the agent told him. And those are? Isaac asked, sharply. Hed read up on those, but he fully aware of the fact that this was an arena he knew very little about. Generally, theyre reasonable. If you chop down any of those trees, youll have to nt new ones elsewhere, you cant build a skyscraper or anything else too crazy. I think youll find them to be rather, like I said, reasonable. the agent stated. I see. And would I be correct in assuming something this good has just recentlye onto the market? Isaac asked. His tone and the question were innocent enough, but the agent reacted nheless, stiffening slightly, hand twitching infinitesimally as if about to reach up and scratch his neck, but stopped through sheer force of will. As good a poker face as the salesman might have had, he was nowhere near what was required to look innocent in the face of 40 points in Perception. No, weve had it for a bit, but the market for out of the way properties isnt the best. Trantion: No hookups for power or running water, and no cables to facilitate an inte connection. In other words, hed have to produce anything on site or somehow arrange for new utility lines beid to him, which would be unlikely to happen seeing as his new house would be the only one around. A major reason for anyone with the resources to build a new house all the way out here to instead buy a house closer to the city, but not an issue for Isaac. After all, he knew countless tricks for generating that stuff using magic, tricks that worked with any [ss]. The only real issue would be dirtying everything up so no one would grow suspicious as to how hed managed to obtain something like them, something no one else had the knowledge to construct yet. So no one was interested in privacy and seclusion? Isaac asked, letting a note of suspicion creep into his voice. He was pretty sure he knew the reason, but if there was something else, he wanted to know about it. Besides, you never knew what people would say if you acted like they had a secret and you knew about it. You see, some people have other priorities. the estate agent gave a nonmittal answer. And those are? Isaac followed that up with another question without missing a beat. Eventually though, he decided to stop torturing the poor man, whod eventually outrighte out and stated that anything he build here wouldnte with an easy source of power and water. That he could handle, and the istion wouldnt be a problem for someone who could literally take the most direct route to any possible goal, literally walking through any kind of natural obstacle and move at speedparable to a car in a city for extended periods of time. And hed only get faster. I do believe Ill take it. How much, including the fee for the notary? Also, could I get a rough estimate for how much fencing in this entire area with a basic wire mesh would cost? Isaac asked. The agent quoted him a price that would have made the old him of this time nch, but still something well within his ability to afford after his little trip to Vegas and still have some money left over to start construction. Yeah, that sounds good. Can you set up a meeting to get a contract signed and notarized as soon as possible? he asked. Of course, Mr. Thoma, that shouldnt be a problem. When would you be avable? I work for most of the day, so if possible, early morning orte evening would be best. That being said, I dont have any meetings on the agenda right now, so if I have to take time off work, I can do that anytime. Isaac said. Ill see what I can do, then contact you with the details. Thank you. And also, thanks foring out to meet me on a Saturday, Mr. Gl?ckner, have a nice weekend. Isaac shook Gl?ckners hand and while the other man walked off, he stayed and looked around. This was a nice ce, all told. There was a t area he could kill a bunch ofrge golems on, then bribe Karl with some beer or a barbeque to fuse them all together to form a tform to build a house on. Soon enough, hed be able to take on a Lesser Space Elemental and keep fighting those damned blighters until he got a core and was able to generate an Extradimensional Pocket to store things in. From there, there were many ways he could go with this ce, especially with an epic rarity construction [ss] holder to ask for help in exchange for rare materials or Aspects. Depending on how you looked at it, theyd either be two friends exchanging favors, or Isaac would be paying a professional with a unique skillset what he was worth. Regardless, he wouldnt be taking advantage of any of his colleagues. Maybe give them hints for getting good [Skills] and [ss] Evolutions that would also benefit him, but never to their detriment and hed make sure he repaid any favors in kind. Part of him was tempted to sanctify this ground with the blood of his sworn foes here and now, but he knew it stupid. Summoning was currently still very much a four letter word and if he started dropping bodies here and someone noticed, he likely wouldnt be able to buy the ce. Throwing onest happy nce at the site of his future home, Isaac started to jog back to the train station. Of course, what he considered to be a jog was a speed well beyond what most people could achieve at a dead sprint, but then again, all things were rtive. The rest of the weekend flew by in a blur of, well, rxation. Watching a few episodes of various shows, properly cooking a meal for the first time in weeks, even plopping down on the sofa and devouring an entire tub of ice cream just because he could. Baileys concern might havee a littlete for someone whod spent years limating to death, destruction and violence, but it had been genuine. And hed needed it. Giving one hundred percent, all the time, wasnt something anyone could sustain for long, not even him. Of course, that didnt mean that hepletely refrained from summoning, though, just another Hydra every time [Form of Horror] came off cooldown to maximize its gains, given that there was a pretty strict limit as to how often he could use it. But for him, that was taking things easy. And now, he found himself here, walking up the freshly repaired steps to Sams fraternity for a party on Sunday evening. Apparently, sses had been cancelled the next day for some reason or other. Just thest time, people were milling around, drinking, talking and ying games. But several things were different. For one, every side door was actually locked, not just closed with a private sign in front of it. Also, all of the tablecloths had been pinned to the underside of said tables to allow people to get an easy look at anything taking ce underneath them. While there were still ces to hide circles, there wasnt really enough space for anything bigger than a Tier 1 circle without actually hiding it in the walls. Like Isaac had said often enough, the monsters that came out of those usually werent too big of a problem. And those that were, well, they were usually weak in some areas. Slimes were fragile, golems were slow, and so on, and so forth. But if something did end up happening, well, Isaac was here to deal with it and this time, he was armed. Mind you, he judged the chance of a repeat ofst time to be practically non-existent. After all, everyone would be watching out for any kind of suspicious activity, especially given that a second incident would probably spell the end of this frat. Hey Isaac, you came! someone he very specifically didnt know greeted him with far more enthusiasm than he wasfortable with from a stranger. Despite that, he somehow managed to hold himself back from outright saying Do I know you?. Who could turn down an invitation from you guys. Isaac shrugged and walked into the building, but the guy walked alongside him and called out Hey, Isaacs here. When a lot of the people closest to the door heard that, quite a few raised their sses in greeting, notably, these were the people who belonged to the frat, clearly identifiable by their outfits. Then, it clicked. Sams been spreading stories, I see. Isaac noted, then winked at the audience Alright, what nonsense has he said about me? Only the truth. a familiar voice called from behind him. Hey Sam, how have you guys been? Isaac asked. Oh, you know, the usual for when a party gets out of control. A lot of Why the hell would you do that and what the hell were you thinking, plus the usual you shouldnt be drinking that much. Most of the messnded squarely on the idiot who caused the whole thing in the first ce, even if he was the one who ended up killing it for good. Also, it certainly helped that the only person hurt was fine again within minutes. right. Isaac said sourly, then facepalmed. Whats up? Sam asked, concern evident in his voice. Im an idiot. Isaac just sighed. Yeah, I know that, but why do you think that? Sam teased, having realized that there wasnt an actual problem at hand. The kill notification said the XP got split three ways. I also knew that the summoner gets a share of the XP when one of its summons is killed. You, me and fire guy makes three, so wheres the summoners share? Therefore, one of us had to be the one who did the deed, and I know that neither of us is that stupid. Isaac swore softly under his breath I should have put two and two together right then and there. You know better than anyone in how bad a state you were in at the end of the fight, youre fine. Sam patted him on the shoulder, then passed him a beer from the nearby table. Oh, I know, I still feel like an idiot. Isaac said, popping off the cap with his thumb and downing the entire thing in a single go Thanks, I needed that. Doesnt that hurt your thumb? Sam asked. After all, unlike the beers onemonly saw in movies with their twist off caps, this one should have required a bottle opener to remove. Of course not. Isaac shrugged. So, interested in a game of beer pong? Sam asked. Lets grab something with a bit more of a kick, shall we? Isaac proposed. Stroh 80? Isaac heaved and overly dramatic sigh, shaking his head Id rather drink hot sewage than that stuff. Or absinth. Sam let out a bark ofughter I wouldnt go quite that far, but yeah, that stuffs gross. Everclear? Never had it, but if youre suggesting it like that, Im sure its strong. Isaac shrugged. Oh, its strong. Believe me, you dont want to drink that crap repeatedly. Lets go to the bar and find something nice, shall we? You know, youre going to regret this. Isaac said I can probably drink you all under the table, one after another, all night long. Oh, youre on. Samughed. So that was how the rest of the night went, disappearing in a blur of booze and stupid yet hrious party games. Also, it was pretty noticeable how much more Everclear burned when drunk at under fifty points in Fortitude rather than over one hundred. In the other timeline, that strong alcohol had been often used for toast when the people involved were too powerful to be even remotely affected by anything lesser. In addition, his Fortitude was so high by now that by the time he needed to use [Hydras Regeneration] to burn off some of the booze, there were already multiple empty bottles whod had an alcohol content around 40%. Sure, there wasnt a particrly good use for being able to put away a lot of drinks in battle, but it was always fun to see the power of his Stats in action. He stayed at the party until it truly wrapped up at around four in the morning, then headed into the forest to use [Form of Horror], which had juste off cooldown and finally hit Level 10 in that [Skill]. The rest of his [Skills] had also advanced a little, but none of them had improved quite as much. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 11 XP: 3897/2400 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 250/250 Stats Fortitude 45 Perception 40 Strength 30 Agility 30 Magic Power 25 Magic Regeneration 30 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror X The Chosen Weapon IX Skills Hundred Faces VII Stealth XI Power Strike XV Piercing Strike XVI Sundering Strike XIV des XV Sneak XII Sweeping Strike VI Far Strike XI Manifold Strike IX Hunters Gaze VI Phantom Step VI Unknown Fear III General Skills Gralloch V Alchemy IV Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills And what an upgrade it was. Form of Horror (epic, Level X) There are many sides to the Undying Phantom. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, andstly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the users Aspects. Current Aspects: Aspect of the Specter, Aspect of the Lesser Hydra, Aspect of the Hydra, Aspect of the Dunkleosteus If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the users new form. Furthermore, while in this form the users Strength and Fortitude are increased by 35 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 60 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated every 2 hours andsts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. In addition, the user can now create a second form while drawing only on the Aspects they wish to use, customizing it for specific purposes. Once set, this form can only be changed after removing the previous form, which takes 24 hours. Additional Slots are unlocked at Skill Levels fifteen and twenty. Unfortunately, it didnt look like the cooldown would go down beyond two hours or the duration above five minutes, but then again, this was an incredibly powerful [Skill], not one meant to be spammed constantly. Isaac ended up sleeping an hour in his bed and then it was already time to head back into work. He walked across campus, earbuds in with music sting, practically skipping. Last weekend had been nice. A hell of a lot calmer than it normally would have been, but nice. And honestly, hed needed that, even if he hadnt been the one to actually realize it. That moodsted all the way until he caught sight of the building in which he worked. and the crowd that surrounded it. Signs, cards, megaphones and shouted slogans. He also knew the door was locked and could see the sign Bailey had taped to the inside, clearly legible through the ss. The only reason you know the true danger of summoning is our research Patrick had also suggested a sign that said if you think summoned creatures arent rabid monsters, why dont you see for yourself?, but then himself said that it would be a bad idea because someone would end up inevitably end up actually taking them up on it. Good choice. Now, Isaac could juste around the side and enter through the employee entrance, but then decided against it. Bailey had told him that he shouldnt make a spectacle of himself, so he wouldnt, but that didnt mean hed do this like a normal person. First, he triggered the active form of [Sneak], suddenly bing the single least interesting thing in existence, something that peoples eyes would just slide over without ever truly seeing him. Now that people werent really registering his presence anymore, he slipped into actual [Stealth], goingpletely invisible. He took a running start, making sure not to bump into anyone and jumped, then triggered [Phantom Step] in midair to teleport all the way up to the roof. He became briefly visible during this time, a blur of movement, but people didnt really look up all that much and the second hended, he went right back to being invisible. If anyone had noticed him, theyd dismiss him as a figment of their imagination. Once up there, he walked around a bit until he was right above the corridor in front of the summoning room and activated [Spectral Shift], then dropped five stories through solid matter andnded in his workspace, rolling to absorb the impact. What did I say about making a spectacle, Isaac? Bailey sighed, having heard his antics through his office door. Not to, which is why I did it while invisible. Isaac said, shrugging despite knowing Bailey couldnt see it. Force of habit, he supposed. Right, Ill be out in sec, please wait for me in the meeting room with the others. Bailey replied and Isaac obeyed, chuckling softly. People had gotten used to preternatural senses and being able to have conversations through walls without yelling pretty darn quickly. Then again, getting used to magic, monsters and superpowers was part of the job description and anyone who couldnt wouldnt be here. Chapter 40: There is such a thing as being too honest Chapter 40: There is such a thing as being too honest The week started off in the same vein thest one had ended in. Conducting normal experiments and writing down conclusions based on them, all the while creating and refining ideas on how to best research autonomous summoning without putting anyone in danger in the vain hope the powers that be would authorize one of them. Of course, there was a good reason for being super duper cautious about autonomous summons, given that they literally had the potential to end the world. After all, Isaac knowing something was safe wasnt exactly definitive proof without actual, well, proof. which would require him revealing the secret of his origins, which he may be willing to do for Bailey or the mans team, but not a room of bureaucrats whose sole reason for existing was nit picking everything. This, in turn, meant he needed proof entirely independent of his unique situation to convince them to let him conduct his experiments, which was hard to get. Fortunately, however, he didnt have to remain fixated on merely satisfying his bureaucratical overlords whose only perspective on the situation at hand came from dry and boring reports which failed to properly convey the gravity of the issue, there was so much more to do. The wheels of bureaucracy turned oh so slowly but turn they did. Eventually, something would get authorized, but it would take far longer than he was used to. Having what basically amounted to a nk check to experiment with so long as they showed at least a littlemon sense had been awesome, but sadly that didnt apply to the single most damaging experiment theyd ever done. Mind you, said damage consisted of a grand total of scratched walls in their summoning room, which had been fixed almost instantaneously, as well as rming a few people. But that was bureaucracy for you. All of that brought him back here to the engineering faculty of the university, chopping up random scraps of material with his soulbound knives, raw power, [Skills] and literally anything else the people around him coulde up with. Some of those scraps were the leftovers from old engineering projects about to be thrown out, others had once been a part of a [System] monster, donated by Isaac. That gave them a good variety of fancy, high tech artificial creations, more mundane, everyday construction materials and things that only existed since Initialization. The goal was to roughly determine how powerful the [System] had made him and what it took to withstand his attacks. Based on that data and what his [Hunters Gaze] could tell him about the stats of Tier 4 monsters, they wanted to extrapte what would be needed to properly secure the new summoning rooms. Thankfully, there was the small mercy of people being able to easily fix damage like that, meaning Karl. That let them build the rooms to a lesser standard given that they didnt need to withstand heavy impacts over the course of years before being reced, they just needed to survive for a couple of days before being restored to a pristine condition. Still, unless they wanted to get Karl stuck on that one job for the rest of eternity, they would need to make sure they didnt require repairs too often. There was a delicate bnce to be struck between cost, toughness, and time until repairs would be required. And quite frankly, those kinds of calctions were a little out of Isaacs wheelhouse, pulling it squarely out of his control. He was just here to y theb monkey, and to be honest, he didnt like it. But it had to be done, so here he was, doing anything and everything that was asked of him, until either the people he was working with were satisfied or he felt like things were getting ridiculous, at which point hed make up a convincing reason to leave. Besides, this would be over by tomorrow evening at thetest as the team had other requirements on their time, and theyd already promised to do certain things on certain days. Namely, giving the polices summoning rooms a good once over before they were actually used. Some of the research they were doing right now was going to be directly required for that, but mostly, this was something done to check things over from a new perspective, one that came from someone with far greater knowledge. The rest of the day flew by in a blur of doing things that didnt feel at all productive, even though he knew it needed to be done. Ordinarily, hed have been wary of giving people such an in depth look at his stats and [Skills], but right now, it was still early, his Stats would increase. And as far as the [Skills] he demonstrated went, those were pretty basic ones that people would soon be able to recognize on sight while also beingmon enough that their descriptions werent really secret anymore. Even if someone cared enough to go looking for a report on his capabilities, this was merely a momentary snapshot that showcased a small part of his abilities and would soon be redundant anyway. Later, however, hed be rather more cagey, paranoid even, with the precise state of his Status. It was inevitable that certain things would be found out, through simple observation, if nothing else, butst ditch defensive [Skills], Stats whose effects werent immediately visible needed to be kept hidden for him to be able to use them to their fullest. At least his powers didnt have any obvious weaknesses. The closest thing to one was cauterizing damage that countered his regeneration, but that was a general weakness of all healing [Skills] and could be powered through with enough mana. Other [sses] could be countered far more easily, for example, if ones [ss] was based on an element, introducing another element you knew would react badly with the existing one could take out powerful enemies in a matter of moments. Of course, that still left the entirely different issue of needing a source of said element, but that was where [sses] like [System Researcher] really shone. Isaac, meanwhile, just beat his opponents with raw power and skill because his [ss] didnt really afford him what he needed to exploit weakpoints like that. The next day was a lot more of the same, though they spent part of the afternoon actually summoning, finally free of the engineering faculty. Which brought him to Wednesday. He showed up bright and early, dropped a few different reports on Baileys desk and then headed to the ce theyd actually be working today, a police station. It was one that was rather out of the way, with half the building having been mothballed because it was no longer needed as the industrial district began to slowly fall into disuse. But now, that meant there were severalrge and avable warehouses within spitting distance of that police station, making it a convenient spot to use for this. Good morning, my name is Isaac Thoma, I believe Im expected? he asked, presenting both his ID and the Email the team had received on his phone. Let me check real quick yeah, Ill call someone down to show you to your workspace. the man at reception said after checking some kind of log on the desk before him. When someone joined them a few minutester, however, it wasnt the junior officer Isaac had expected, but a middle aged woman with a single gold star on her shoulderpads. He didnt actually know what rank that corresponded to, but he could infer it because he recognized her. After all, not looking up the teams new ally on the police force would have been criminally negligent. Good morning, Polizeir?tin Eisenberg. Isaac greeted her, noticing her do a small double take. After all, theyd never met face to face before. Good morning Mr. Thoma. she responded Walk with me to the new summoning center, would you? Of course. Isaac nodded and the two of them walked out of the front door, with her setting a very sedate pace as they walked next door. He felt a slight shift in their surroundings the instant they exited the building. He knew exactly what it was, but he shouldnt. So, he just asked. Was that you? Yes, I just put up [Off the Record], a [Skill] that lets me have private meetings even with all thats happened. Im surprised you noticed. shemented. Im a sensory specialist. Isaac shrugged Id be bad at my job and [ss] if I hadnt. Heh. she chuckled What else can you detect? Pretty much everything. he shrugged again Detect most chemicals based on the slightest trace of it in the air, hear the slightest rustle in the underbrush, spot the slightest movement at a distance measured in kilometers though I have to actually know what it is to identify it. A lot of the things I can now sense werepletely hidden from me before, so I have to work to identify them. I suppose thats to be expected. Eisenberg said, then shed him a wry smile You know, Ive wanted to talk to you for a while. That mess back in the frat house we got lucky. Believe me, no one is more aware of that than me. I survived that mess by the skin of my teeth. Isaac sighed Of course, I can fully recover from anything I survive, which made getting stuck in the hospital a tad annoying, but I made it through that as well. I heard about that. Eisenberg shook her head sadly Hardly our finest hour, I have to admit, though were making sure that something like that doesnt repeat itself. Mostly, were working on properly incorporating this new reality into our training. Yeah, I can see how that might be a bit difficult. Dont get me wrong, getting practically shoved into that hospital didnt feel good, but I could see that guys point of view. How can you know someone isnt just being stupid? That being said, next time, Ill likely be pretty mad regardless. And that makes you more understanding than most people would have been in that situation. Eisenberg nodded But that brings up something else. Ive been wanting to talk to you for a while about this: What makes an average student suddenly turn into a professional hunter of monsters? Isaac sighed inwardly, then rattled off the standard exnation hed cooked up for anyone he didnt want to show much vulnerability in front of. Mind you, rattled off didnt mean he wasnt convincing, just that hed actually practiced this whole thing. The end of the fucking world. he stated dryly, shing her a wink, then shifted his face over to a far more serious expression I dont know how much you know about the literary corrtions to this situation, but suffice it to say, theyre not good. Seeing that screen pop up means the world is about to end. Sometimes, theres a bit of a grace period where people can train themselves up before the monsters get dumped in humanitys collectivep, sometimes there isnt. But just in case, I grabbed a [ss] with all the [Skills] I thought I needed. Something to give me basic knowledge of how to fight, something to let me hide, something to let me do damage, everything I thought I needed to survive anything the world could throw at me. And then, well, nothing happened. Eventually, I realized that the apocalypse I expected wouldnt being, but I still had an entire build devoted tobat. But I still wanted to learn more about the [System], so I looked around, found Professor Bailey and joined the team. The rest is history. I suppose assuming the world is ending is reasonable, given the situation. she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose You would not believe some of the messes we had to clean up that day. Oh believe me, I know what kind of nonsense people get to. After all, I was involved in the mess with the Swamp Knight and the Imp in the church. Isaac said Ive seen humanity at its dumbest firsthand. About that, I just wanted to thank you for your patience with Polizeimeister Langschwert. Most people would have bitten his head off for calling them in the first ce, let alone having to do all that paperwork afterwards. Eisenberg said. Look, Im not going to insult your intelligence by pretending that I was happy about getting called out in the middle of the night after an intercontinental flight, but the thing is, he had a point. That could have been a fiendish trap, especially in hindsight. Id rather get called in one too many times instead of people being too afraid of me to call for help and ending up dead. Hindsight? she asked. I thought about the situation afterwards and realized it could easily have been a nasty trap. How much do you know about how monsters track their summoners? They automatically know where the summoner is and track them for a considerable distance. Eisenberg said. True, but iplete. Isaac said See, something was bugging me when we first discovered the tracking ability. Namely, doesnt itpletely negate all stealth [Skills]? Eventually, we figured out that the tracking doesnt kick in if the summoner is using any kind of active stealth [Skill] and close enough that theyre clearly not running away. So if I wanted to pull off that trap, Id summon a stealthy fighter or two, then slip into [Stealth] myself to force them to try and track me. The monsters wouldnt be prone to running around breaking things, instead ying cat and mouse until another human shows up and their inborn aggression kicks off. End result massacre. Eisenbergpleted his sentence, grimacing I really need to stop talking to you people before I fall into a depression. The truth sucks. Isaac sighed To be honest, the more we find out, the more its starting to look like we might be headed towards a catastrophe anyway, one of our own making. Unfortunately, thats pretty much our thinking as well, which is why were setting up this summoning center in the first ce. Eisenberg nodded Otherwise, this would have taken a hell of a lot longer. Now, here we are. As she said that, she opened the door to arge warehouse, leading him in through the administrative part into therge open storage space. In addition to the regr admin portion, there was a foremans office up near the ceiling, to be reached by a long set of metal stairs. Perfect for keeping an eye on the happenings below, whether those were boxes being moved around or monsters being fought. I do have one more question: howe no one talked to us about the possibility of someone pulling off those summoning traps? Eisenberg asked. Mostly, were trying to figure out how to warn people without giving them ideas. After all, how many people would be told scan your mail for mana in case someone drew a Tier 1 circle on paper and dropped it in your mailbox and hear draw a summoning circle on a sheet of paper, charge it and send it to yourpetitor? Believe me, were working on it though, anding up with new and nasty tricks every day. If Im ever in need of some nightmare fuel, I guess I know where to go. Eisenberg sighed. The warehouse floor had been covered with several sets ofrge walls, made from thick, interlocked iron bars with concrete walls reaching up to waist height to ensure that the various fluids created bybat wouldnt slop everywhere. In addition, there had been a sort of firing range set up in one corner, with summoning circles drawn on the floor at the far end so that monsters could be summoned and gunned down before they reached their summoners, with a heavily reinforced back and side walls ensuring that it would survive the punishment itd be put through for a while. Though soon, it would grow obsolete as monsters grew too powerful for that setup. That looks good, but it would require the people fighting to be able to kill the monsters. Given a concerted effort, it wouldnt survive for too long. Isaac observed, walking around one of the arenas, and finally turned back to Eisenberg Might I make a suggestion? Sure, go ahead. she nodded. Basically, the way I see it, your biggest problem is that the police are a fundamentally reactionary force. You need time to train, but you also need to be avable to respond to issues, while the criminals you deal with can spend all the time they want to level before engaging with you. In addition, you have the small issue of how long it takes to level, time youll have to take out of all your other responsibilities. But there is a way to level up your officers over time while still having them avable to do their other jobs. This will also somewhat circumvent the issue of the danger summoning would put your officers in. And that would be? Eisenberg raised an eyebrow. Someone else could level them up instead, killing monsters they summon. All theyd have to do is walk over here, power a circle, and then get XP without ever having to lift a finger. Isaac said If the monster summoned is near the upper end of what a given person can summon but the guy killing it can do so in a single hit, things should progress quite rapidly. A couple-minute walk over here every half hour or so, and theyd hit Level 10 in a week. Now all Id need is someone who can take out a Tier 3 or 4 monster in one hit whod be willing to do nothing but kill for extended periods of time. Unless youre volunteering? I kinda am, actually. I need less than an hour of sleep every night and Ive recentlymissioned a twohanded greatsword that will let me reach even thergest of monsters vulnerable spots. When dealing with monsters such as Golems with a single vital organ that die instantly if said organ is destroyed, it really is quite easy to take them down in one hit, freeing up the arena for the next monster while the mana spent will be recuperated in under a minute. Given how long I can be physically active without needing rest, I could kill dozens of golems every hour, each one giving out 10 XP, as well as whatever bonus would be applied due to it being a monster well above their Level. Now, it would obviously take five hundred and fifty golems to hit Level 10, but it wouldnt require too much time on their part. Isaac exined. Its that easy? Eisenberg asked, skeptically. Shed been a public servant for quite some time, likely having had to deal with countless budgetary discussions during that period and been feed numerous lines from people trying to sell their shit. Basically, there are three problems with that approach. Summoning monsters that someone else kills will still count towards the limited number of times you can get XP from a given Tier in a certain category, which will reduce the overall amount of XP they get in total. But thats only ever going to be an issue for people striving to reach the very top, the highest peak possible. Then, theres the issue of time. Anyone who epts this offer would only be working towards levelling for a few minutes every day, but it would take a day or two for every Level. If you need rapid levels, youre better off just setting them to kill monsters on their own. Itll eat up arge chunk of their time, but youll see results sooner. Lastly, well, how much of a drawback this isrgely depends on how much you trust the person doing the killing. After all, theyd be levelling up quite a lot faster than anyone else involved. If you have high level elites of your own, you can use them, but like you said, youre only getting started on a levelling up program. There is such a thing as being too honest, you know? Eisenberg asked him with a wry smile. Oh, I do. But the point is, I want to be honest here, all cards on the table. Besides, how would it have looked if I hadnt mentioned Id be getting a lot out of this as well? Not good, thats for sure. she nodded. Ill get you a preliminary proposal by tonight and get started on writing down a guide on what to best summon for levelling and how to beat them, though thetter will probably take a while. Anyway, Ill be off for now, checking over those arenas of yours more closely. It was nice to see you, Polizeir?tin Eisenberg. Its been nice meeting you as well. Isaac nodded and bade her farewell, then joined the others, whod arrived while the conversation had been taking ce. Hopefully theyd be taking him up on his offer. The police having Levels would hopefully allow them to avoid getting massacred by future summoning mishaps. And if he had dozens or even hundreds of police officers summoning monsters for him to kill, hed shoot up through the Levels at an insane rate. Eventually, theyd be cutting him off, no question about it, for the simple fact that he might grow too powerful for him to be handled. He might have worked hard to create a reputation for helpfulness and reliability, but there were limits to how far that went. People could count, adding up the XP hed be getting from all the monsters hed be killing for the cops and figure out where his Level should be. He, Karl and Amy spent the rest of the day looking over everything, even summoning a few monsters to ensure everything worked as intended. A Slime to make sure the drainage system was up to snuff, a Rock Golem to make sure the floor could survive arge monster dropping dead, and so on, and so forth. It was actually pretty cool, having arge warehouse practically to themselves, exploring every nook and cranny. asionally, people would drop by and ask them questions, making Isaac feel like a true-blue scientific expert. That was nice. Near noon, though, all that changed when a young man came running into the warehouse, calling for them toe over. Now, while this messenger was around Isaacs age or even slightly older, he looked so incredibly young to his eyes. A little panic shining in the eyes, breathing far heavier than should be needed after running here from literally right next door, the unusually high-pitched tone in his voice. Hey, something happened, get over here! the police officer yelled and ran off, prompting Isaac to sprint after him, a single jump catapulting him through the wall and out onto the street, arriving at the reception desk two secondster. Hi, Im Isaac Thoma, I was here this morning, a young man just came running over to tell us toe here. Where should I go? The receptionist jumped as he arrived, with the same expression on his face. Now, Isaac was getting seriously worried. Just what had happened? Someone couldnt have been stupid enough to still summon that Elemental despite all the warnings? The dates certainly matched, but seriously? Conference room, two floors up, the signs lead the way. And just like that, Isaac was off again, sprinting through the building while asionally phasing through people standing in his way. But when he reached the conference room, he froze in his tracks. What seemed like half the station was standing in the room, staring at the wall mounted screen, which showed a dark city with lightning shing deep within it. So not quite what hed expected but just as messy. Chapter 41: Just because you can see it coming … Chapter 41: Just because you can see iting Lightning Elemental spotted in Los Angeles Wholesale District That was the horrific message at the bottom of the screen, apanied by grainy footage of LA at 3 in the morning, street lights having gone out inrge sections of the city. Instead, flickering arcs of lighting illuminated those sections. What hed been expecting was a Wildfire Gestalt, a living me that could split apart and rbine at will, drawing any natural mes it ignited into itself to be usedter. There was nothing quite like it to scorch an area clean of all life. The only reason this replication didnt allow it to turn into a city sized monster unstoppable by any kind of force was that there was an upper limit to how strong a single Gestalt could be. The regenerative aspect of that ability was bad enough. The individual parts were quite weak however, making it easy to attack and wound while it was dispersed. But the instant it decided the threat wasrge enough to pull itself back together the fact that gestalt was defined as a whole greater than the sum of its constituent parts really said it all. Fighting a swarm of lesser Elementals was bad enough, but thebined form could vaporize APCs with ease and obliterate anyone that wasnt at least Level 25 or specialized in defense. Coupled with it beingprised solely of magic and fire and therefore being almost immune to most physical attacks, it had powered through anything the LAPD andter National Guard had thrown at it. In the end, its death hade from an entirely different ce, though perhaps one that was rather obvious. Firefighters. More specifically, firefighters using the equipment designed for the mess that were California wildfires, dumping hundreds of tons of water straight on top of its head in a well-coordinated strike, extinguishing enough of it that the rest could be finished off by people using either spells, powerful mana-based [Skills] or simple firehoses. After an entire day of raging fires, the great beast had finally been brought down, seeing several square kilometers of the city burnedpletely to the ground,rge chunks taken out of the rest, and hundreds of thousands dead. And to top it all off, no one had known who was behind it, or what it had been meant to achieve? Some kind of terrorist attack intending to dump a nasty monster in thep of the American people, which, for some unknown reason, no one had taken credit for. A summon by some random person who underestimated its power and burned up Another drunken mistake, someone whod decided getting drunk of their ass was a good idea and that making major life decisions in that state was an even better one and died for it. A top-secret levelling operation conducted by the CIA, NSA, or any other alphabet soup agency. A leveling operation conducted by some other part of the government, then gotten covered up when it went pear-shaped. Countless theories had been created, each worse than thest, filling the void left by ack of an official statement even on the news. Even if the truth had been discovered at ater date, Isaac had never heard about it, probably because the world had already gone to shit by then. If hed known about his trip to the past ahead of time, hed have spent considerable time tracking down whoever was responsible for all the early catastrophes and making sure he could stop them. And anyone willing to do something like this was someone hed have dly handed over to the NSA without a care of what happened to them. Because quite frankly, someone willing to cause that much damage, cause so many deaths, was unlikely to change in the course of less than a month, the amount of time hed have to fix or prevent this situation. As far as the person responsible for the current crisis, Isaac was damn certain that it was the same one. Same date, same category of monster, even if it had a different element, that couldnt possibly be a coincidence, could it? ring at the Stormheart Gestalt on the screen, Isaac felt a deep seated impulse to run to the airport at full tilt, get on the first flight to LA and try to take that thing down himself. A mere momentter, he ruthlessly quashed that impulse. The fight would be over by then, especially if other people had been closer. After all, he was hardly the only high Level person in the world. No, the right choice was to stay here and try to help in the same way hed wanted to from the very start. Knowledge and advice. Hard to believe anyone could be that stupid. someone loudly muttered. You dont end up on TV for not doing the stupid thing. someone else argued This is a one in eight billion idiot. Thats a high tier monster, a minimum of Tier 4. No normal person has that much mana right from the get go. So, more like a one in a few million idiot? Actually, that makes it worse. Karl cut in The idea that someone whod already been summoning and levelled up a bit could still be that stupid is horrific. As the discussion ramped up, other people began shushing them to watch the tragedy unfolding before them. Alright, Ill try to see if I can figure out what that thing is. Isaac announced loudly Could someone else see if theres a way to contact someone involved in that mess so we can get any information we get directly to where its needed. Also, I need a list of all [Skills] that any variation on [Policeofficer] gets which use mana in any way that could be considered offensive. Despite any cultural differences, the LAPD should have ess to simr [Skills]. Why mana [Skills]? Eisenberg asked, having just arrived in the room. That thing, whatever it is, looks intangible. The way to fight those is to put as much mana into ones attacks and whack anything that looks remotely important. Isaac loudly stated. Right, Ill call the Professor, he should be able to get us in. Amy nodded thoughtfully He should have the necessary star power for that. In that case, Ill get started on cataloging [Skills]. Karl volunteered, immediately pulled out a sketchpad and began to start questioning everyone present. Meanwhile, Isaac shed open the summoning screen, visible to all so it made for a highly effective Im busy so leave me the fuck alone sign. Summoning List (Elemental) Summoning List (Elemental, Lightning Subtype) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Sparkplug Tier 1 Circle, Copper Shavings, Battery 10 Jolter Tier 2 Circle, Copper Wire, Battery 50 Lightning Elemental Tier 3 Circle, Copper Wire, Water, Iron Shavings, Battery 100 Thundercloud Tier 4 Circle, Water, Coal, Kite, Car Battery 150 Stormheart Gestalt Tier 5 Circle, Car Battery, Fractal Diagramm, Copper Wire 450 The real challenge here wasnt identifying the monster, hed done that at a single nce. Well, in theory at least. A well timed wave of Lightning Elementals would look a hell of a lot like a Stormheart Gestalt in its disassembled form, but the kind of coordinated effort that would require to pull off was, well, significant, so he doubted that was what he was facing. Instead, the issue was making it look good, taking a convincing amount of time and alsoing up with proper arguments using only the knowledge he was supposed to have. Besides, there wasnt much he could do until Amy got a hold of Bailey. So he just sat there, swiping away parts of the summoning section to indicate he didnt believe that particr monster was the one at hand. All the while, he softly muttered to himself, voicing his thoughts out loud without really giving anyone the chance to properly catch on to what he was saying, not even if they had a very strong Perception. Hey, I got through to Bailey, apparently hes already a part of the conference to deal with this. Amy called, then turned to the gathered group of police officers Can we please get a hookup to a conference call using aptop or something? Gimme a second. a middle aged man jumped and hurried towards the door, then turned Do you want to take it in private, or here? Here. Amy said We wont have speaking privileges anyway. I just need all you people to pipe down, if that wont work, then please get us an office. The already low thrum of conversation stopped as people shut up so they could view another part in this historic event. Because as horrific a situation as this was, it was also a historic moment. There had been messes like this before, right in the beginning where Tier 1 monsters had rampaged because no one had really known how to fight them. Then, there had been a smattering of incidents involving stronger beasts, but with the novelty of monsters rampaging in the streets having worn off, those had usually been relegated to the local news, only mentioned onrger scale reports if they had been significant in some way. Hell, there had also been a couple of Tier 5 monsters that had gotten summoned and trashed the ce they emerged in but ended up stopped in the end. The news had assumed it was something weaker and no one had bothered to correct them. But Isaac knew, hed looked the pictures up online. The shattered and twisted remnants of a The Crusher Tier 5 Earth summon beneath the wreckage of a skyscraper in Caracas. The burned remains of a five headed hydra amidst a fire ravaged slum in India. And a few others that had either not made it into the news, or barely been mentioned. Perhaps if people had known from the beginning that the monster was Tier 5 it would have gotten more attention, but a few days or weeks after the fact? There were more important news to be spread, be those more current monster troubles or thetest celebrity pregnancy. This mess, on the other hand, was not only happening in the west, it was also happening live. While some people, like Isaac and the policemen, were watching this to figure out what was happening and maybe offer advice, others were watching it purely for the spectacle. A real-life disaster movie, modern diatorialbat, the ultimate entertainment. And perhaps it would have been a nice form of entertainment if it hadnt been so damn serious and gotten so many people killed. On the TV, the scene suddenly changed, showing a live stream from some poor saps bodycam, prompting Isaac to re at it. This was far closer to pure spectacle than the previous view, and he didnt like it. But at least, this perspective gave him a better way to see some things he couldter reference when arguing his case. An arc of lightning shed across the screen, narrowly avoiding smashing someone t as it hammered into a lightning rod and was sucked into the ground. The next one blew apart a nearby parked car, causing fuel to ignite and leak out all over the ground. Thankfully, cars couldnt explode like they did in the movies. Almost immediately, the camera cut away again, showing a more distant view of the situation. Clearly, this particr news organization wasnt eager to show someone die in a closeup shot. The view from the sky, broadcasted from either a helicopter or drone, showed the lesser parts of the Stormheart Gestalt having spread out even more, though their number seemed to have stopped increasing. Hey Isaac, we got things setup. Amy called, waving him over. She and the guy whod volunteered to help with hooking them into the conference call were wheeling in arge screen on wheels, showing a call with about a dozen experts and government officials arguing with each other. One of the people with Director, Office of Operations had a clearly artificial background and was looking rather irritated. Clearly, he was in the middle of trying to direct the police to deal with the situation while also having to babysit a bunch of scientist who werent contributing anything useful. Or at least, Isaac assumed that if theyd been helpful, the man wouldnt be looking so damn pissed. Basically, whenever we activate our mike, we can talk directly to Bailey, then he can unlock the conference so we can talk to the rest, which would include showing them the video from our webcam. she exined. Alright, thanks. Isaac said, immediately leaning forward and clicking on the crossed microphone icon to let him talk directly to the professor. Adam, I think I know what this is. Its too powerful to still be a mere Tier 4. Then, theres the fact that its clearly some kind of electric or lightning Elemental, which puts it solidly into the Elemental category. In the electric Subtype, weve got the Stormheart Gestalt, and going by the English definition of the word, a whole greater than the sum of its parts, I think that means it can split apart and then rbine to create an incredibly powerful form. Also, Im pretty sure that theyre absorbing electricity from the grid and that might be why it split up, so it cane back far stronger when it rbines. It was a testament to how good their working rtionship was that the reply wasnt are you sure or a confused wait, what, but a far simpler and encouraging answer. Alright, I believe you. How certain are you? Ny-five percent. Isaac nodded. Bailey immediately ryed that to the rest of the group, and the conference exploded into noise. Chapter 42: Heart of the Storm Chapter 42: Heart of the Storm I find it very hard to believe that you managed to figure this out already. someone scoffed. Ive named several good arguments and not heard any counterarguments. Barring anypelling reasons to not uphold this hypothesis for now, we should operate under the assumption that these things can rbine and that we need to destroy each and every single one of its parts to kill it. Bailey shot back. Before this devolves into bickering, tell me something, Professor Bailey. How does that help us? the Director, Office of Operations, asked, his name of Elliot Allen appearing beneath his face now that he was speaking. For one, it warns us of the fact that the Gestalt will likely soon reform and be stronger than it was when it first split apart. And if its split apart, theres a reason for that, I think its after electricity, absorbing it straight from the grid. You need to cut off the power from LA in arge radius. In addition, having found its name confirms the Tier. That will give us an idea of how strong Tier 5s will be in the future. Bailey replied evenly. Alright, anything else? It was at this point that Isaac spoke directly to Bailey once more. Do those things have cores? Can you ask him that? We already covered those. Bailey said, quickly muting himself They dont, theyre raw elementals. Why? If theyre raw Elementals without any kind of physical core, that means that theyre coreless masses of power. No real physical weaknesses, but they should be massively vulnerable to mana, just like ghosts. Also, exploitation of elemental weaknesses should y merry hell with them. Isaac exined and suddenly, Baileys face lit up. Actually, I have something else. Those things dont have a solid physical form, so they have to be held together with mana the same way Ephemeral beings are. Fighting those requires putting as much mana into the attacks that hit it as possible and one of my other assistants just sent me a list of such [Skills] that should be avable to anyone with aw enforcement [ss]. Anyone who still has unused [Skill] points and can get those particr [Skills] should do that. he said. So, how would you lot fight that thing if it were here? Eisenberg asked. Just like Professor Bailey said, grab my sword,yer as many [Strike]-type [Skills] onto it as I have ess to, then shove it where the sun dont shine. Isaac saidconically. I dont think thats exactly what he said. Karlmented while he continued to type his list into theputer. Its the gist though. Take mana using [Skill], hit anything that looks remotely important, rinse and repeat till enemy is dead. Isaac shrugged Doesnt matter how you phrase it, the core idea doesnt change. Does anyone have any idea why lightning rods still work to send electricity into the ground while anything that directly hits the earth doesnt? another scientist asked, making Isaac celebrate internally. Now he didnt have to bring it up himself, thereby allowing him to not appear suspicious by having all the answers. Because it takes a lot of mana and concentration to make any kind of element behave in a way contrary to how it normally acts. Dirt and concrete are extremely bad conductors and asphalt is so bad its actually considered an instor. Bailey replied immediately, having done experiments about that upon Isaacs prompting. Of course, Isaac had wanted to do them on fire so Bailey could tell everyone about just that, but didnt really have a way to exin his insistence on why that element had to be fire and he didnt want to let the others pick a random one, which would run the risk of the chosen element not being fire. Therefore, hed suggested testing a bunch of different ones to see if there were any differences. And one of those had been lighting. We got so fucking lucky! he sighed, sagging in relief We literally just tested that. Better lucky than good, eh? Amy asked, jabbing him with her elbow Now shut up, I want to listen to this. Isaac shut up. Magically generated elemental energies are, fundamentally, the exact same as their mundane counterparts with a little magic mixed in. Without input from the controlling entity, itll act exactly like youd expect it to. If the lightning hits something rtively unconductive, like the ground, the Elemental can call it back into itself rtively easily. If it hits something like a lightning rod, itll get sucked straight into the ground. Bailey exined. At this point, I think it might be a good idea to start hammering metal stakes into the ground to divert the energy or at the very least force it to use more of it. Professor Bailey, how certain are you of that? Allen asked. Dead certain. Im currently in the process of writing a paper towards that end, but the experiment part of that has already beenpleted. Bailey replied. Does the fire department still have all those [Hydromancers]? someone else asked. Probably. Isaacs mouth twisted into the barest hint of a grin. While a lot of firefighters had ended up grabbing their job as a [ss] and never looked back, those that had looked through the list of what was avable had often ended up bing mages of some stripe. Therefore, there should be at least some [Hydromancers] avable. And their powers could block out electricity. In that case you should ask if theyd be willing to use [Water Control] or [Aquashield] to block some of the lightning. Block electricity with water? Are you nuts? I dont think we have the time for me to exin how water isnt actually conductive, its the ions in the water that allow electricity to travel through it and the water generated by [Hydromancer] [Skills] is pure water unless its explicity stated otherwise in the [Skill] description. That sounds made up. a police officer next to Isaacmented quietly. Im assuming if it were, everyone else here would have corrected that in a heartbeat. Amy corrected. Meanwhile, the main screen shifted again, giving a closer look at a fight unfolding in one of the citys many suburbs, a broad street lined with simr looking, one-story houses. Police officers with riot shields were lining the street, catching stray arcs of electricity on them while the majority of the Elementals attacks struck the extendable batons that had been jammed into the road, acting as impromptu lighting rods. For a brief moment, it looked like theyd win this handily. Several other police officers were firing their guns into the mass of electricity, each projectile stealing away a tiny bit of charge, weakening it in an infinitesimal way. Some of the bullets left faintly glowing trails in the air, showing that they were being empowered by some kind of [Skill], but they were few and far between. Clearly, only a few people had them and their mana was clearly quite low. The Elemental started moving around to the side, trying to get past the line of lightning rods, but these cops had surrounded themselves with the batons. Given how slow that thing was, it took a while to find that out. Now, Elementals were generally dumb as a bag of hammers, and being only a small part of a greater whole, that went doubly for this one. But they still had some kind of instincts, as clearly evidenced in its response to the situation at hand. Arcs of lightning began tosh out directly at the officers taking cover behind their lightning rods and some were simply absorbed and sent into the ground, but then the elemental flickered and the lightning arced upwards and over the barrier, weakening in the process. The camera cut away for a moment, showing a brief interview with a terrified local. Another minuteter, however it showed the scene from before again, with some rather conspicuous looking Lichtenberg fractals burned into the ground, a couple of the batons had fallen over and were glowing with molten heat and there were fewer police officers there than before, but the Elemental itself wasing apart at the seams and copsed. Sparks flew, most of them smacking into the batons and vanishing, but others lit a handful of small fires where they struck dry grass and bushes. The next scene shown was another Elemental being destroyed, but in a far more PG-13 way that could be shown on TV in its entirety. A woman, no, teenager stood in front of the monster and held up a hand, sending a cloud of suffocating darkness straight at it, tearing it to shreds. The quorum of scientist, meanwhile, had gone back to brainstorming possibly solutions. Do you think a Faraday cage would work, given that it generally behaves like normal electricity? Mostly behaves like normal electricity. It might be able to force itself out with enough energy. Shouldnt it take more energy the further it tries to deviate from its normal behavior? It does. So why not use a cage with a finer mesh? Itll just end up burning its way through. Bailey cut everyone off Magical lightning can be focused in such a way that it can melt metal even from the inside of a Faraday cage. Its an order of magnitude more difficult, but doable. How do you know how hard it is? someone asked, voice suspicious. We checked. Watch. Bailey said coldly, then pushed himself back and away from the rtively fragile electronics he was using tomunicate, grabbed a hollow ball of mesh from the shelf and opened up a door on the side. One of the miniature Faraday cages theyd used to check if it was possible to get out of. To the surprise of everyone except Isaac and the rest of Baileys team, the professors right hand turned into an orb of lightning and jumped inside, then vanished into the cage, which he subsequently shut. This was Baileys evolved [ss], [Biological Researcher]. It was ranked epic, the same as [System Researcher], but changed in acknowledgement of the fact that Bailey had reached a very high academic rank in that particr field. But unlike [System Researcher], [Biological Researcher] was far more focused on the creatures instead of the [System] itself, alsocking the cheat-tier power of copying magic simply by seeing it happen. What it did have was an even more BS [Skill] called [Corporeal Mimicry] that allowed him to scan so called patterns from monsters, be they purely biological or magical, so long as they were part of a beings body, he could copy it, as evidenced by turning his hand into a tiny elemental. He could then apply those patterns onto himself and other people, though he was very reserved when it came to doing so, given that theyd be permanent. Well, technically permanent, he could reverse them with a single touch and a trickle of mana, but without his intervention, anyone who worked on would be stuck with the changes. So, Bailey had stuck to seeing what could be done on himself for ethical reasons, reversing them all moments after they were no longer needed. But if they ever got the authorization for him to do that for someone else, even just temporary before a battle to be reversed the instant the fighting was over, it would be an utter game changer. Mind you, the only abilities he could copy were the ones directly linked to something physical, so mimicking something like a Wraiths weapon or armor manifestation wouldnt fly, but regeneration was something they could easily swing. Blood marrow of a troll, muscles of a hydra, cellr structure of a slime, the possibilities were practically endless. Of course, there was a very good reason to limit what someone with that kind of power was allowed to do, given the sheer mass of horror scenarios could be created. Isaac knew Bailey wouldnt do anything crazy, but thew- and policy-makers didnt care about that. Nor should they, a general everybody, lets be really frickin careful with this without special treatment for specific people. Thered be enough times to create a way to apply for usage or something like that, . Through Baileys webcam, they could clearly see the orb of lightning zip around inside the Faraday cage, bouncing off the walls repeatedly, then suddenly glomming onto a specific section and condensing, an action that was apanied by a look of strain appearing on the professors face. Suddenly, a part melted and droplets fell into Baileys other hand, though he didnt seem to mind, the palm having been shifted to match the scrap of me Drake hide Isaac had gifted him. As you can, see, it is possible to destroy a Faraday cage using lightning elemental abilities, but our experiments have clearly and conclusively shown that this takes a considerable amount of focus and far more mana than any other application of this power. Bailey finished his exnation. Youve been levelling. The t, usatory statement rang loudly in the brief silence that had followed Baileys exnation. Yes. If you have a better idea to examine [System] monsters than simply summoning them, lets hear it. Bailey replied icily. HEY! Allen snapped, ring at the collection of scientists Lets table that discussion for now, people are dying. If it doesnt have the potential to help, it doesnt matter. The professor whod spoken looked sheepish and kept quiet. Looking at the man, Isaac realized this was the same professor whod sent them an angry letter after their first paper had been published on a topic hed been researching himself. No wonder hed taken a shot at Bailey when the opportunity presented itself. Allen then took a deep breath and continued So, youre saying Faraday cages are out. The powers off and were working on creating temporary lightning rods to protect my men and force the Elementals to spend more energy in attacks. Ive also had people grabbing the [Skills] Professor Bailey sent over. Anything else? Actually, has anyone asked the civilians if they have any mana based [Skills]? I realize this might a very dicey proposition, but some people might have what you need. A defensive [Skill] here, picked up just in case, something to infuse tools with mana to make them better there, and so on, and so forth. Anyone with a [ss] that uses guns should be able to get [Enhanced Impact] or an equivalent [Skill]. Raul suddenly appeared next to Bailey and spoke into the mike. Allen pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed Ill see what I can do and make sure that anyone who helps has the absolute minimum of discipline to actually be helpful. I Suddenly, Allen vanished from the screen, the artificial background nketing the entire screen. Yells and curses suddenly echoed from the speakers, followed by some very loud gunshots. Chapter 43: Interlude LAPD Chapter 43: Interlude LAPD Assistant Chief Elliot Allen was not having a good night. Well, in all honesty, his entire month had been shit after that god-damn [System] had been initialized. Initially, it hadnt been all that bad. Sure, people had freaked out a bit, but that was perfectly understandable. Then, the monsters had shown up. Unlike some other cities, LA had ended up with a surprisingly normal and beatable spread of beasties. Sure, the three meter tall mass of moving rock had been a pain to beat, but it had also been very slow, allowing them to take it apart with several anti-materiel rifles found in the LAPDs armory. The next few weeks had been a constant deluge of [System] rted messes on top of ordinary crime, from small monsters showing up on the street and attacking people to criminals levelling up a little and thinking they could utterly obliterate the police force, only to find out that being twice as hard to kill as an ordinary human wasnt nearly enough to survive a bullet to the face. The most rming of empowered criminals however, had been the [Thief]. A young man whod gained the ability to steal objects at a distance, causing them no end of trouble as valuables seemed to simply vanish into thin air. When theyd finally spotted him on camera and confronted him, hed first snatched the cartridges out of the would be arresting officers taser. Then, when guns had been drawn, hed repeated the same trick with the bullets, only to find out afterwards that using this same trick on the can of pepperspray that had then been produced was a truly terrible idea. Once the cloud of irritant had dispersed enough for other people to approach, the man had been arrested, booked, and locked in a cell that had literally been welded shut to make escape harder. After all was said and done, Allen wasnt entirely sure what was worse. The fact that such power had been acquired in so short a time, or the fact that it had been achieved by such a dumbass. Stupid people were bad enough, God only knew how many idiots hed dealt with during his days as a patrol officer, but stupid people with superpowers? Sheesh. But tonight, tonight was especially bad and would forever live in his memory, though it wasnt clear yet whether it would just be one of those days or something that would haunt his nightmares for years toe. Which brought him to the current clusterfuck. Someone had not only unleashed an extremely powerful monster on this city, theyd also picked one that was practically immune to conventional weapons, making the normal methods of dealing with strong monsters, which mostly consisted of using increasingly heavy weapons against them, utterly useless. To top off the pile of shit already on his te, when the power had failed and the precincts backup generator had kicked in, one of the Gestalts subunits had gone straight for the renewed source of power, just like everything else that still contained electricity. Thankfully, cars were themselves Faraday cages and while hed just learned the Elementals could burn through those, it was clearly too much work for a dinky car battery, at least judging by the fact that their squad cars werergely left alone so long as there was no one actually inside them. Now, he stood here in the middle of the precincts parking lot with a barely working generator powering aptop and some doodad a technician had dug out from some backroom that connected him to the rest of the world via a direct satellite link. Apparently, it had been designed for just such a situation where the regr cell lines werent avable. At least it wasnt raining and theyd see the next creature to approach before it crawled out of the nearest electrical socket. After all, the asphalt street was a piss poor conductor, as confirmed by the surprisingly helpfulb coat wearing peanut gallery. The young man with the rifle slung on his back had just finished exining about how many people should have had ess to [Enhanced Impact] when something shed nearby. His head snapped around to look at it and when he saw what it was, he swore loudly. Another damn Elemental was approaching, heading straight for the generator. This was the third of its kind that had decided that the generator powering his video conference looked tasty, but it was the first one that had gotten close enough for him to see. There might be the entirety of the LAPD, LAFD, and a lot of people from the local air force base out here, but there were a lot of these things and they were far too hard to put down. Or at least, they had been. Hemming them in with batons turned lightning rods, using something as simple as a restraining [Skill] meant to at least weaken the magic powers of people they arrested on the rampaging beasts and slightly draining their mana and everyone grabbing any mana [Skills] they could had given them the advantage. It was rather unfortunate that too few people had chosen them beforehand, instead going with defensive [Skills] or ones that helped with investigations, but that was something they were currently working on changing. In this case, however, there was a simple fix. Allen took a couple of steps closer to the Elemental to give him a clear line of fire without anyone who might end up in the way by taking a couple of steps in the wrong direction, tore out his gun and fired. The .500 Smith &Wesson Magnum revolver that appeared in hand was the most powerful handgun on the market, with a kickback well beyond what most people could be expected to handle in abat situation, but it would do one hell of a number on anything it hit. It roared in his hands, the massive projectiles further enhanced by his [Skills] leaving the barrel as harbingers of the monsters destruction even as people did everything they could to not get fried. The bullets tore through the air, wreathed in a dark brown energy and leaving behind a shining trail, them hammered into the Elemental, leaving behind massive gaping holes. It recoiled and tried to retreat, but it was a great deal slower now that it was also struggling to pull itself back together. Before it could get anywhere, however, three more rounds empowered by thest of his mana smashed its remains apart. And that was that. Allen reloaded his revolver yet again and holstered it, getting pained looks from the people around him. Powerful as it was, the Magnum was loud. If anyone had actually taken damage to their hearing, that was just one more thing hed have to answer for after this, he supposed. After the incident with the [Thief], he and a few colleagues had begun to level in secret. They very much werent supposed to, summoning having been very much verboten, but if they were forced to use the [Skills] they gained, things were bad enough that it wouldnt really matter what theyd done to get there. Keeping that in mind, hed pped his [Skill] points into powerful offensive and defensive [Skills], perfect for a fight, and upgraded to this truly insane handgun now that he could easily handle the recoil. Alright, is anyone hurt other than having ringing ears? Allen asked, looking around. He got plenty of stares at the nonchnt question, but no one spoke up. A few people were still rubbing at their ears, but it looked like theyd truly made it through that skirmish just fine. This is Chief Allen at temporary HQ, we just got attacked by an Elemental after our generator. Does anyone have eyes on Elementals near our position? he asked, returning to his table and snatching up. This is Lieutenant Nieves from LAFD, Ive got two here, four blocks west of your position. a voice crackled out in return Ill take care of it. Chief, we got some more drones out of the storage. Officer Bradford ran over, waving one box in the air while carrying two more under his arm. Good, get them in the air and hook them up to theptops, quickly. Allen ordered, then returned to the teleconference. It seems the battle hase closer to my position. The Elemental has been taken care off, but I wont be constantly avable anymore. If you have anything else to tell me, do so now. he said. His reply was nothing but silence. Hed learned some tricks and the battle was going better than before, but it was still a gigantic mess. Chief, the feeds up. Bradford suddenly appeared at his side and gestured to aptop set up on another table. On the screen, a man in full turnout gear with a halligan confidently grasped in his hands approached two Elementals, seemingly without worry. Lighting shed and wreathed him, but he casually shrugged it off and swung the massive, crowbar like tool and cut one of the monsters in half, straight down the middle, then stepped into the middle of the lighting as it wreathed him and thrust his hands off to the side. It flickered and sputtered, then came apart in shower of sparks. The second Elemental threw itself forward, flinging energy bolts ahead of it, but they were almost harmlessly deflected by the turnout gear. The man simply rammed the halligans pointy end into the ground, asphalt bursting apart, and then pushed it over in the direction of the monster. As it fell, the halligan expanded, erupting to a length of almost five meters. The mana Allen knew to be infusing the weapon pinned the Elemental to the ground. It tried to worm out from underneath in, but the firefighter simply walked across it, stomping down with every step and sting away the Elementals body with every single one. That was Lieutenant Nieves of the Los Angeles Fire Department, one of the strongest people in the city. The strongest one actually known to the public. His Level was very low, but the real source of his strength was his [ss] and the fact that hed massively levelled the [Skills] it provided. Callum Nieves was a [Gearmaster], someone whod spent over a decade trusting his life to a basic set of heat resistant fabric, air tank and mask, and that halligan in his hand. In turn, hed taken good care of said gear, religiously repairing even the slightest rip. And when the [System] had arrived, hed been offered that [ss], based on his efforts. Nieves had actually been surprisingly open about all of that, hoping to allow others to gain simrly powerful [sses]. [Gearmaster] was ranked as rare, and had a [Skill] called [Equipment of the Soul]. Both the turnout gear and halligan were now practically a part of his very being, infused with mana strengthened beyond all reason. That meant walking around in full, heavy turnout gear in the LA summer heat without pause or ever being in danger of heatstroke, shrugging off literal lightning and obliterating Elementals with a simple metal rod. And given that Nieves had been using the gear near constantly, that [Skill] was now at a very high level. A fighter jet screamed past overhead, Allens own [Weapon Sense] highlighting the guns as having been infused with mana, be that by a [Skill] from the [Pilot], the [Engineer] whod done maintenance or someone with more inventors spirit thanmon sense having jammed monster bits into bullets or something. [Weapon Sense] was a very good [Skill], but it also had its ws. For one, the old adage about assuming that something wasnt a weapon usually meant one wascking in imagination yed merry hell with what it highlighted, meaning he had to filter it through his own perception of what he thought constituted a threat. Secondly, it didnt give him an in-depth breakdown of how a weapon worked. Basically, it told him the gun was loaded with very basic bullets, interspersed with tracer rounds, given that the main damage dealer would be the mana they were infused with. Though the [Skill] wouldnt tell him where the mana actually came from. His sensitive ears allowed him to pick up the roar of the nes cannons in the distance, followed by a sh below as an Elemental died. Another stato of fire, another dead Elemental. And again. Three monsters destroyed in a single strafing run, clearly, that was a pilot of not insignificant skill. Allen shook his head. Fighter jets firing into LA, what had the worlde to? Sure, they were being incredibly helpful, but it was also a sign of how bad things had gotten. The ne banked sharply,ing back around and sting apart another couple of Elementals, but Allen could tell that its mana had almost been used up. As thest dregs of magical energy disappeared, the pilot clearly decided that there was very little they could do and return to base. Before it could get anywhere, a massive bolt of lightning split the sky and hammered into the jet. The fact that nes were also, in fact, Faraday cages was something hed known ahead of time, but that wasnt a perfect defense, especially for the sensitive electronics that kept it up there. The ne seemed to stutter for a moment, and then the next bolt hit it. And another one. Two more hit home near simultaneously and then, the ne began to fall out of the sky, trailing sparks. Allen could see the parachute that showed the pilot was almost certainly safe, but that still left the multi-ton ne toe down on top of a goddamn city. Under normal circumstances, that would have been an all hands on deck emergency, but right now? A mere footnote in the clusterfuck that was today. Chief, Ive got an Elemental retreating here. a report crackled from the radio, but it was only the first of many. Is it retreating towards the ce these things originated? Allen asked, suspicious. When the affirmatives came rolling in, he put down his radio and let lose a blistering barrage of swearwords in both English and Spanish, likely managing to offend anyone within earshot who spoke eithernguage, but right now, quite frankly, fuck decorum. Picking the radio back up a momentter, he spoke into it in a far calmer tone. The Elementals are re-merging and turning into something we only know to be greater than the sum of its parts. Anyone with a few Levels under their belt and has defensive [Skills] that can protect groups or attacks that can hurt it, meet me at Allen paused for a moment, picked a good spot on the map and passed along the address, then continued snapping off orders. If there is anyone else whos willing and able to help,e as well. Those who arent, evacuate the civilians. Then, he switched radio channels to the one used by the higher level officials to coordinate between departments. The Elementals are pulling back to the site where they originated. ording to the think tank, were dealing with a Stormheart Gestalt, which can re-fuse and be far stronger. Im heading there now with anyone whos got the right [Skills] to try and take it down. If we fail, take advantage of them all being clumped together and st them to pieces. At this point, theres almost certainly one left alive in that area. The real question was if the Air Force had anything that could hurt that thing after the ne with the mana guns had ended up getting shot down. After all, bombing the summoning site down to bedrock would barely hurt the monster if it did anything at all, that was. Chief, Lieutenant Nieven is on the radio, hesing over here. a nearby officer, whose radio was on a wavelength that she could talk to the fire department on, called out. Thanks. With that, Allen took the car keys from a random nearby officer, unlocked the matching car and waited for a few moments until Nieven showed up. Chief Allen, are you really going to go there yourself? Nieven asked, shooting him a quizzical look. Ive got a handful of useful abilities. We dont have nearly enough people who can say the same, so each and every one counts. And with that, Allen floored the gas pedal, shooting off in the direction of the gigantic mess that was the summoned monster. The streets heading in that direction werepletely deserted, people having already fled past the precinct. There, the gridlock of the century could be seen. Another would normally be a problem, but right now, no one cares situation. People were gathering in the spot hed indicated. Some policemen, firefighters, soldiers, civilians with rifles, all the people youd expect to be here. But then, there were also the people in their civvies, and if they were armed at all, it was with things like kitchen knives, bows, or other things that looked like they belonged in a cosy shop. The exact kind of person who was likely responsible for this mess. Allen gritted his teeth. He needed them. And, of course, he was guilty of the exact same thing, but hed done so so he could deal with irresponsible summoners, damnit, not to be one himself. Alright, we should go with basic monster fighting rules. Tanks draw aggro, healers make sure they survive the experience, everyone el- Anyone who can heal injuries, raise your hands. Allen ordered through the megaphone hed gotten from the squad car. A few people raised their hands. You need to stay back and out of the line of fire, well bring the wounded to you. This time, he didnt use the megaphone. I need a few volunteers with first aid training who can also survive at least the corona of one of those sts to retrieve the wounded and get them to the healers. If you match those criteria, join the healers. A few people, all of them in varying uniforms, stepped off to the side after hed said that. General tactics, if you spot a weakpoint, call it out. If you can take a hit others cant, try to protect them. If youre using a [Skill] that can damage an area, call it out. Also, nt lightning rods if you see an opportunity. Pay attention to yourrades, avoid friendly fire, and if you run out of mana, retreat while it regenerates. Now, lets go. Allen marched forward, projecting an aura of confidence even while he was swearing up a storm in his mind. They really should have practiced it, but the powers that be had clutched their pearls and decided to hem and haw in an attempt to create a safe way to deal with the situation and then this had happened. Suddenly, there was a shift in his surroundings. The air began to smell ozone, a pale blue aurora illuminated the surrounding area and, in the distance, a glowing figure wreathed in arcs of power rose. It had fused. Shit! Get ready! Allen roared over the noise the Elemental was generating as it charged Healers, take cover! A little over a hundred people against that thing, what could possibly go wrong? The fully fused Gestalt had taken a basic humanoid form, five meters tall and zing with power, five orbs of energy connected by even more energy orbited it, each of themshing out at them with arcs of energy. Nieves threw out his arm and barely caught the first st, the second causing his ludicrously durable sleeve to actually start smoking, and then it reached his position and kicked him. The fireman went flying and mmed into a wall with a crunch audible even over the noise of crackling lightning. A young man in military fatigues darted out and began to hurriedly drag him away and to where the healers where to ensure he lived. It uses the orbs to shoot and the body to hit! one of the people with a bow yelled, clearly very proud of himself for having made that very basic observation. Destroy the orbs! Allen ordered, [Dangersense] providing a warning that just barely let him throw himself to the side and avoid getting charbroiled. Even so, the energy that boiled off the impact site burned and blistered his exposed skin and his muscles spasmed from the electric shock. The Magnum barked in his hand, smashing apart the nearest orbs with six heavy and [Skill]-empowered bullets as he emptied the cylinder. Allen swore under his breath, realizing that that had been utter overkill. Hed spent almost two thirds of his mana and a fifth of his dwindling bullet reserves on that attack. The Elemental took a rapid step towards him but he dodged to the side and rolled past him, forcing it to turn. No, turn was the wrong word, this thing wasnt limited by normal human physical, well, limitation. It loomedin his direction and he could feel its attentionnd on him even as the orbs continued to rain hell on the brave people facing it. His little maneuver had unfortunately put that thing between him and the others, putting him in danger of physical projectiles flying through it, but the others were actually focusing on the orbs, which put them in danger at range. Yet even as he watched, two orbs reformed. It did dim a little, but it still looked powerful as hell. [Arctic Domain]. someone called out, warning everyone else that something was about to happen, and the world itself seemed to freeze. The moisture in the air crystalized, falling to the ground as tiny ice crystals. He could barely feel it and judging by the others faces, neither could they, but the Elemental. Went. Apeshit. It began to flicker slightly, clearly weakening, and then all its orbs unleashed a single, concentrated beam at the young man whod managed to hurt it, only to be stopped by a shield of absolute darkness. For all of five seconds. From this moment on, that image would be burned into Allens memory. He wasnt even sure what hed seen, but hed still swear up and down that for a brief moment, hed seen the teenage girl whod cast it, the same one shown on TV half an hour or so ago. Her eyes flying open in terror, her face shifting from a furious snarl into a mask of fear as she realized what was happening and then she keeled over, a dinnerte sized hole burned through her chest. Another beamshed out, obliterating the ice-caster and sweeping across the crowd, taking down another dozen or so people. Allen emptied the Magnum into the closest orb, only having the mana for the first four bullets, but it was enough to reduce it to faint whisps of energy. Then, a piece of metal came flying through the air, [Weapon Sense] highlighting that it was utterly drenched in mana, and blew apart another orb, then boomeranged back through the chest of the Elemental to smack into the hand of a scorched but healthy looking man in turnout gear. The Gestalt lunged straight at Nieven and everyone scattered, opening up the area around him and began to bombard the monster from all sides. It unleashed its energy upon him until it was satisfied he wouldnt be getting up anytime soon, if ever, and then attacked the surrounding people. Magic, batons hammered into the ground, even riot shields were thrown into its way, but they barely slowed it down. The instant he could, Allen fired another empowered bullet into the monster, then kept closing the distance, the report of the gun echoing periodically as he advanced. Reduced to the size of an ordinary human, the Stormheart Gestalt whirled around and tried to lunge past him to flee, but the motion lined it up almost perfectly with the barrel of his gun, allowing the next empowered bullet to tear all the way down its body, reducing it a collection of weak sparks on the ground. A hail of attacks from the handful of survivorster, it was dead. Stormheart Gestalt (Lv. 24) has been in. 200 XP gained (360 XP base distributed across 17 people as per their contributions, XP increased by 1.95 % due to Level difference, additional modifier triples XP due to excessive difference) Heroic Deed has been noted and will increase future ss Quality Several more notifications announcing truly insane increases in [Skill] Level shed into his vision, including one that turned his [Dangersense] into a precognition power that let him see up to a second into the future, but he removed them all with a wave of his hand as he quickly headed towards the rest, doing a quick headcount. Eleven people were still clearly alive, so those ounted for some of the people in the Kill Notification, but the rest? The medical team had had quite a few more than just six people, even not counting the paramedics. Allen took off at a dead sprint, ignoring his body screaming at him as he moved at top speed,ing to an equally sudden stop as he rounded a corner and saw them all, perfectly fine. Did anything else happen? the woman closest to him stood up sharply, rmed. Allen recognized her as Doctor Grant, an ER doc hed dealt with a few times while hed been a patrol officer. He hadnt really expected her to show up to a thing like this on second thought, he should have. She was a consummate medical professional willing to go to great lengths for peoples health, he just never would have thought shed be involved in magic. No. Allen sagged in relief The Kill Notification said the XP got split between fewer people than I thought were still alive and I was afraid something had happened to you. Nah, were fine. Grant shook her head We didnt get any XP for the kill, we got a truly insane amount for doing our jobs in a situation like this. Huh. It was hardly the most intelligent of responses, but right now, he was mentally and physically exhausted. Come to think of it, he should probably give the all clear. He reached down to his belt to grab his radio, but when he tried to use it, all he got was an electric shock and a face full of smoke. Does anyone have a working radio? he called around and got one a momentter. All units, this is Assistant Chief Allen. Weve taken down the monster, confirmed to be a Stormheart Gestalt. Send ambnces and hearses, I need transportation for He rattled off a list of orders, then asked everyone who heard him to call in to get a rough overview of who was still there. The number of responses ounted for most of the LAPD, but still indicated immense casualties. Sure, some of those that failed to call in likely simply had broken radios, just like him, but he sincerely doubted that ounted for all of them. Slowly, he walked back towards the scene of the battle. Thest few sparks were dying down, forcing him to pull out a small shlight that had miraculously survived the fight intact. If someone didnt get the power back on, there would be a lot of cranky people,e morning. No AC in the LA summer heat, yikes. Allen shook his head as if that could shake out the inane thoughts. Looking around, he spotted the body of the teenager whod blocked that electric beam, face still frozen in the shocked expression shed worn when shed died. He reached down and closed her eyes, holding back tears. He hadnt even known her name. But hed make sure to find out, to talk to her parents and tell them that their daughter had saved everyones lives. Looking around for the body of the [Ice Mage] to do the same, all he could find was a bodypletely reduced to charcoal. The shadow girl had caught a highly concentrated beam meant to punch through something and ended up looking mostly intact. This wasnt that. This was someone wrapped in lightning and held there until they were nothing but, well, charcoal. There was going to be hell to pay for this. A lot of the bill would be his to pay, given that not only had he levelled a little despite official disapproval of the process, hed also been in charge of arge part of this mess. Granted, he literally hadnt had any of the tools needed to fight a being like that, but that would only soften the blow a little. Other people who needed to get ready for an ass-chewing was anyone whod spoken out against summoning and prevented him from preparing for a mess like this. And that was the truly insane part of this situation. You could fight physical monsters with regr ordinance, even if things could eventually escte to the point where what was required to kill one was a Tomahawk Missile, but that was still something they already had avable. But these things, those could only be fought using mana, things the [System] provided. To fight the [System], you needed to use the [System]. And if you managed to fuck up any part of that, you became a part of the problem. To top it all off, there was the situation of the gains from the fight. Sure, the XP gains being spread out across seventeen people meant they were rather anemic for any one individual, even with all the bonuses and the fact that several major contributors had died in the fight, but the [Skill] gains had been amazing. And then thered been that ominous message Heroic Deed has been noted what the actual fuck? He''d do his best to burry all of that before some absolute lunatic decided to try and replicate this situation for some great gains. Fuck this. Fuck it all. Chapter 44: Proposal for a safer Future Chapter 44: Proposal for a safer Future The Rock Golem crumpled with Isaac standing on its chest, riding it all the way to the floor, core neatly impaled on his sword. As it fell, he made the kill notification visible to all. Basically, thats how Id suggest we level your officers. Isaac announced, withdrawing his Zweih?nder and resting it against the wall of the arena, then leaving it with a single leap. Thats the idea Im proposing. For us to work together to find an enemy that can be easily taken down with a given officers skillset so they can farm it until they hit the XP cap for that particr creature. One of the problems with this kind of levelling style is that while you get a lot of XP, your [Skills] dont grow nearly as quickly. In the beginning, the greatest gain in strength stem from Stat increases and [Skill] gains. Increasing any Stat by ten points the first time is literally life-changing. The ability to see in the dark, be as strong as any strongman, keep going on four hours of sleep, and so on, and so forth, you get the idea. In addition, you can use the [Skill] points to acquire the [Skills] needed to properly fight monsters even if their nature makes them hard to touch by ordinary means. Later on, however, at Level five and beyond, [Skill] Levels will be more and more impactful, especially given the bonus gained once you get a [Skill] to Level 10. But that can be deferred until a good basis with increased Stats and all the necessary [Skills] have been gained. However, it should be noted that having high Level [Skills] is necessary for [ss] Evolution, as it has been proven to increase the power of the [sses] that can be gained. In essence, the core idea of my proposal is this: people work in the office space attached to this warehouse for a day or two, drop by down here to charge the circles whenever they have the mana and someone else kills the appearing monsters while they go back to work. That way, they can gain those first few Levels with a minimum amount of time being taken away from their work. Once theyre at a point where they can take on most Tier 3 monsters, theyll be able to deal with most monsters that appear in the city and need dealing with. Or they can take over killing the summoned monsters. At that point, the XP can be concentrated in the people whove shown aptitude for [System]bat, slowly levelling up the entire force while making sure there are people avable to handle threats at the upper end of the powerscale. The SEK might be a good choice for that. Isaac finished his little speech and looked over at the group of middle aged and elderly men and woman watching from the balcony in front of the foremans office. Polizeir?tin Eisenberg, her superior, Leitender Polizeidirektor Kaiser, the mayor and a bunch of other officials who had less immediately impressive job titles but were nheless in the possession of significant authority, Eisenberg convinced them all to hear out the fully fleshed-out proposal Isaac had given her the evening after the Los Angeles disaster. It was by no means the only one avable, but it was one of the most fleshed out ones and Isaac had heavily drawn on Baileys star power when hed handed it over. Proposal from the staff of the guy whose papers had rocked the world multiple times simply sounded damn impressive and theyd needed a proposal, badly. Politics, the inte, everything had exploded into a mess of arguments with some people holding fast on the position of summoning being awful, anything and everything it touched basically being radioactive, truly terrible creations that corrupted the very soul of anyone who used them, metaphorically speaking. Or there were people who argued that summoning was wonderful and pointed out that it was summoners whod saved the city. That the only reason there had been any kind of issues was that someone had made a mistake, which had almost certainly only happened because the summoner had felt pressured to stay hidden. That dichotomy was nowhere more apparent than in the treatment of Reba Hess, a teenage [Umbramancer] whod fought the Elemental and died in the process. Chief Allen of the LAPD had held a big speech in front of a couple of reporters a few hours after the Elemental had been killed, thanking her personally andmending her courage and sacrifice, then promising that if there was ever anything he or anyone he knew could do for her family, theyd do it. Subsequently, she was either being hailed as a shining example of how anyone could be a hero, of what even a teenager could achieve, or being condemned as the single most irresponsible human in the history of the world. The whole situation was a mess and would likely continue to be for some time, but at the very least, it looked like there would be a small scale summoning programunched in the city. As for the survivors of the actual battle, Isaac had to wonder, had they been acknowledged as having achieved a [Heroic Deed]? Or some other variant on [Legendary Deed]? Basically, pulling off a truly legendary deed would be apanied by an acknowledgement by the [System] and would almost certainly giving the recipient a chance at a legendary [ss]. At the very least, theyd get an epic one. The [ss] itself would be powerful, but vored based on the exact deed achieved. Isaac suspected thered be quite a few new powerhouses popping up in LA in the near future. Of course, he himself would never try for one because having something actually acknowledged required that thing to be a truly insane challenge, the kind not even he feltfortable tackling. The less impressive and not officially acknowledged deeds that could still him a [ss] that strong if he collected enough of them would suffice. At least someone had had the good sense to tell everyone to not immediately shout that acknowledgement from the rooftops, otherwise, theres have been a horde of copycats summoning Tier 5s in minutes. Im guessing that youre volunteering for the job of initially being the one to kill monsters, Mr. Thoma? Kaiser asked How would that work, when would you have time, how long could you do that for? Ive got basically no need for sleep at this point and can take down most Tier 4 monsters as easily as the Golem. Ive got a meeting at the university in a couple of hours, then Ill be free to work on this till Sunday, levelling anyone who happens to be working at the time. Isaac told him That should be enough to give you a decent cadre of levelled officers to work with without taking them out of cirction for other tasks while also working to figure out whatbination of [Skills], gear and summons work best. Well have to discuss that, please await our call, but I dont anticipate any problems. Good luck in your meeting. Kaiser dismissed him and turned to lead everyone else into a meeting room. Chapter 45: Calm after the Storm Chapter 45: Calm after the Storm How did it go with the cops? Amy asked as Isaac entered their meeting room. Well enough, I think theyll ept the proposal by the end of the day. LA shook up everyone. Isaac said. I hope thatll prevent a repeat here. Karl sighed in relief. Eh, part of the problem was that the Stormheart Gestalt was an insanely bad matchup. Isaac said A monster that strong, immune to conventional attack, it would have steamrolled any police force that currently exists in the world. But there are plenty of decently levelled people here. You think you could have taken it? Raul frowned. God no. Isaac shook his head But Id have gone through the little ones like a reaper through wheat, which would have resulted in a weaker Gestalt once it reformed. And we could have taken that. Maybe, maybe not. But I doubt theres any single person in the world right now who can fight a Tier 5 monster one on one and win. Bailey shook his head in annoyance. Amy threw Isaac a questioning look, after all, shed seen him beat a Tier 5 Hydra on his own a few days ago, but he declined to say anything about that. That thing isnt representative of its Tier. Its got a summoning cost of 450 mana, as opposed to the 250 points almost all other low end Tier 5 creatures cost. Also, the weakest Tier 6 monster costs 500 mana, meaning that monsters within spitting distance of the next Tier, at least in terms of cost. Summoning, say, The Crusher from the Earth category would probably not go nearly as badly. Isaac said. Probably. Bailey repeated Please dont repeat that disaster here. Well have to go there eventually, but lets make sure we prepare properly for that and get some kind of official authorization, otherwise well be in deep shit even if everything goes perfectly. I still cant believe someone would ever be that stupid. Patrick cursed Thats not even just idiotic, thats, like, Schildbrger level idiotic. Schildbrger? Bailey asked. His grasp of the Germannguage and culture might be superb, but that didnt mean he was aware of each and every childrens story. Its an old story about the stupidest people alive. Trying to multiply their stores of salt by sowing it in their fields, trying to illuminate their town hall by carrying the light inside in buckets, stuff like that. Karl exined. Thats certainly an aptparison. Bailey nodded. Actually, thats not the whole story. Patrick cut in Yes, the Schildbrger are stupid, but the story is about a lot more than that. You see, in the beginning, they were smart, some of the smartest people alive, so smart that every Lord and King had to have one of them as an advisor. But with so many people out of the town, all the time, the town began to decay. So everyone put their heads together as to how they could fix the situation so they decided to get out of their advisors duties by acting like fools. So thats what they did, doing all the stupid things Karl mentioned, as well as oh so many more. Things went to a head when they bought a cat and due to a misunderstanding, they thought that the cat would also eat people and were afraid it would go after them once it had eaten all the rats and mice. Therefore, they went after it with torches and pitchforks. The cat being a cat, it just climbed up on top the nearest house, which they lit on fire to get rid of it. Of course, it just jumped onto the next house, which was also put to the torch. This continued until the entire town was burned to the ground and the cat came strolling out of the ruins, just fine. With their city destroyed, the Schildbrger left it behind and headed off into the four corners of the Earth. And it is said that whenever you meet a particrly stupid individual, theyre a descendant of the people of Schilda. Its a tale of willful ignorance and stupidity, of people doing things so incredibly idiotic the only way for it to be possible for them to ur is if someone is actively trying to be an imbecile. That is what I think of the person responsible for the LA incident. Actively trying to be an imbecile is a good way to describe them. Bailey nodded. End of the day, all we can really do is be smart, be ourselves and try to fix the ignorance that causes these kinds of messes. I know that part sucks, but when there isnt something that needs fixing, this is the best job in the world. Isaac shed them all a grin Hell, we all actively helped fix that situation from across an ocean. What else can we achieve if we put our minds to it? Bring the dinosaurs back. Raul said, reaching down beside him and pulling Brisa, his pet dinosaur, onto hisp and scratching her back. Learn cool magic. Amymented, putting her feet up onto the table and pushing herself backwards, the chair beginning to topple over but getting caught by a softly glowing field to leave her lounging in a chair leaning at a 45 degree angle. And anything else we put our minds to. Bailey finished, shing them all an equally broad smile Now, like I said, we arent allowed to summon Tier 5s just yet, but someday soon, we might be. But until then, we do have a list of other cool stuff to do as long as my arm and growing every day. Who wants to see a Pisanosaurus? Isaac grinned as the tension in the room rxed and the sense of gloom and doom faded slightly. Hede here from a truly terrible ce, but somehow, without even noticing, hed found a new home. Hed never forget his origins, what hed lost, that was for sure, but he could appreciate what hed gained. And together, theyd save the fucking world, any other oue was unthinkable. Chapter 46: New Beginnings Chapter 46: New Beginnings Alright, Im ready, summoning in one minute, over. Isaac said into the radio, which immediately crackled out a response. Understood, well stand by to intervene if you call it in or run, over and out. That out of the way, Isaac walked over to a tree at the edge of therge forest clearing and hung it on one of the lower branches. While he had absolutely no problem surviving the microscopic rips and tears that phasing through a powerful enemy would inflict, the same could not be said of the delicate electronics within the radio. Looking over into the sky above the clearing, he could see several drones hovering above it, ready to film the approaching fight. This would be one for the history books, after all. The first Tier 5 monster summoned in an official capacity. It had been one hell of a fight to get here, but with Baileys help, hed managed to convince people. Between the fact that hed made a very good case for why this monster would be a good matchup for him, a not insignificant increase in Level, his excellent track record and the fact that there would be an opportunity to set up countermeasures and emergency protocols. The rest of the team was out there as well, but theyd only engage if he called them. After all, his fighting style, lovingly referred to as the way of the demented pinball, tended to y merry hell with clean sightlines and could easily lead to friendly fire incidents. And friendly fire wasnt, well, friendly. With sufficient coordination and practice, this issue could easily beid to rest, but they were yet to actually train any of that. After all, they were a research team, not abat team. And while he trusted them a lot, said trust did not extend to their fighting prowess. Isaac took a deep breath, smelling the grassy scent of wilderness, gun oil, and deer. Theyd ended up doing this on the base of the military training grounds Grafenw?hr. It was a several hundred square kilometer area with no civilians allowed, ensuring that even in the event of a utter disaster, there would be time to do something before things actually got dangerous. Also, there were about a dozen pieces of artillery aimed at his position, ready to blow the entire clearing to kingdome. After all, he could phase through the storm of fire and steel theyd drop on both his and the monsters heads, the entirely corporeal monster could not. Isaac nted the Zweih?nder in the grass so he could grab it when he needed itter, fully confident that hed be better off with his soulboundbat knife, Old Reliable, and the Kriegsmesser in the beginning, then carefully schooled his expression into one of caution and alertness. His mana continued to tick upwards, hitting the maximum a momentter. A split second after that, he triggered the charged circle in front of him. And. It. Was. On. The Crusher erupted from the intricate circle painted on the grass with a spray can, a four meter tall golem forged from iron and titanium in a roughly humanoid form with two overly long arms and legs, but no head. Its Fortitude is through the roof, the same goes for the Strength. Perception is mediocre, Agility is incredibly low, magical stats are practically nonexistent. Primary means of attack are almost certainly physical, punches and kicks, general strategy is going to be kiting that thing til it drops dead, using [Sundering Strike] to corrode defenses, [Power Strike] to increase the impact, [Piercing Strike] to get past those defenses in the first ce, [Manifold Strike] tobine them all. The n asid out ahead of time. Isaac exined, knowing that the others would hear him via the drone. The real difficulty here wouldnt be the actual fight, it would be making it look good. If it looked too easy, then it could lead to a whole host of results, none of them good. Maybe people figured out that Isaac was too powerful and skilled for how long hed been fighting, far more so than could be exined by simple [Skills]. Or maybe people began to underestimate the monster and got themselves killed. Or something else he couldnt think of yet. Point was, it wouldnt be good. And if he made it look too hard, well, that would likely be the end of ying around with high Tier monsters in an official capacity. Dangerous but doable was an entirely different look than he barely survived that, after all. If this looked too much like a fluke win, then this whole program would get shut down after just a single fight and that would seriously slow down future research. They were being given enough rope to hang themselves with here, now it was his job to make sure to not identally make a noose and slip his head in. The Crusher began to march forward, every step sinking a few centimeters into the ground and sending clods of dirt flying, building up momentum and bing a nigh unstoppable juggernaut that could walk through a main battle tank and barely even notice. Im going to use my knife to test that thing a little first to see how my [Skills] affect it before using weapons without a self-repair function. Isaac said, sheathing the Kriegsmesser. Part of making things look good was exining what he was doing, to make it look less like he was pulling his tactics out of his ass. Isaac took a couple of steps to the side, fully aware of the fact that the golem couldnt follow that movement. It was a matter of simple physics. Its Agility might be sufficient to redirect its trajectory, but it was simply too heavy. Anything it tried to push itself off of to change course would crumple in moments, and that went doubly for the soft dirt they were fighting on. Nevertheless, it reached out and tried to smash his skull with a fist that was simply a gigantic block of square metal. Deadly if it hit, but Isaac simply leaned back, leaving it to swish past overhead. As that happened, he phased his left hand and reached up to let it pass through the limb. A slight ache appeared as its mana density inflicted a small amount of damage, but the damage healed a momentter. I can phase through it with very little issue. Isaac announced,ing to a stop behind the golem. It too had stopped, sending up a fountain of dirt as it jammed its feet into the ground to stop itself. Before it could start moving again, however, Isaac charged, driving a glowing yellow de enhanced with [Piercing Strike] into its leg, just below where it joined the body, leaving behind a cut maybe ten centimeters deep. Under normal circumstances, before the [System], a human inflicting that kind of damage against solid metal with a simple knife would have been ludicrous. With the [System], on the other hand it was a little pathetic. Isaac sidestepped the gigantic fist that hammered into the earth with enough force to make the ground shake, then hammered his knife into the golem a centimeter below the cut hed already made, the glow bing orange as he added [Power Strike]. The knife sank in half again as deep, a significant impact, but nothing that would bother a monster with only one organ that mattered. Isaac knew where to find it, but going right at it would look suspicious, so hed just rip this thing apart piece by piece until he found it. Besides, this thing was too tough for a coup de grace. The Crusher spun, twisting its entire torso as its left hand swung around like a pendulum and shed clean through Isaac as he phased again, thenshed out with a single, all-epassing attack. Every [-Strike] type [Skill] was infused into a single devastating sh, [Sweeping Strike] splitting it into six separate, jet ck lines of destruction that raked along the limb. It was the strongest [Manifold Strike] he could use, or as he called this trick in his head, the [Fuck-Off Strike]. At the end of the day though, most of the attack simple served the goal of sending the energy from [Sundering Strike] as deep into the body as possible. It was split apart and weakened on each individual beam, but the center area saw multiple effects ovep and utterly melt the metallic flesh of the monster. It stumbled, the already half severed limb crumpling under its own weight, so it fell onto all fours and began to lope forward like any regr quadruped, four legs blurring as it ran. Damn. Isaac muttered. It was a rather mild curse as far as things went, but he didnt want to sound panicked while acknowledging that this was an annoying twist. The Crusher stampeded forwards, drove its fully intact forelimbs into the dirt and suddenly flipped, bringing down the limbs that had previously been its legs like a pair of meteors, revealing that it was perfectly capable of fighting upside down, in fact, it was actually identical to its original stance, the limbs able to swivel around the corners of the monsters square body to put them either beneath the body as legs or on the side as arms so they were closer to the foe to crush it. A devastating attack that should destroy anything it was used on except it needed to actually hit. Isaac just walked straight through the Golem, the infinitesimal amount of damage healing in seconds, then spun around to inflict another fully empowered [Manifold Strike] onto another leg. The Crusher shifted again, cing its full weight on its intact legs and lunged. Isaac dodged and vanished. The full attack cost a lot of mana, almostpletely draining it, but there was a simple trick of regaining it. [Stealth]pletely hid him from view as he ran towards the treeline, shifting over into [Sneak]. It hid him a lot less well, but it was a stealth [Skill] that kept the summoner tracking power from kicking in. And given how poor a golems senses were, that was enough. Isaac reached up and grabbed the radio to call in before someone decided that it was time to call in the artillery strike. Im fine, not hurt, just recovering mana, hold off on the emergency response, over. During the Level ups hed had to do to qualify for this fight, hed invested a significant amount of Stat points into Magic Regeneration, so this wouldnt take too long The Crusher continued to march around the battlefield, ring at everything in sight. As a creature without eyes, it couldnt actually do so, but its overall demeanor made it abundantly clear that it was pissed. Its not recovering from [Sundering Strike], the damage is sticking, over and out. And with that, Isaac charged back into the fray, snatching the Zweih?nder out of the ground, leaping, and bringing it around in an arc and hammering it right into one of the damaged arms, a cold yellow glow wreathing it and shearing through the weakened monster body with a screech of tearing metal. The golemshed out with its one remaining arm and it flew off on its own, too badly weakened by Isaacs attacks. This just left it two limbs that could be either arms or legs, but given that it still needed to move, it was effectively stuck having to crush him with its bulk forck of another offensive option which it immediately proceeded to try to do. It might be greatly weakened, but it was still a powerful monster that was not to be underestimated and far too tough for him to kill with his current mana pool. At least if nothing changed. Isaac put down the sword and. activated [Form of Horror], his body instantly ballooning in size, shooting upwards to almost be as tall as The Crusher. A sinuous body, overly long limbs, covered in white scales and bone tes, ws like steak knives forged from his soulbound weapon and a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. It was something out of a horror movie and perfect for this fight. Venomous green light red across his ws as Isaac activated [Sundering Strike] and began to rake the golems chest, the massively heightened stats and increased reach afforded by the transformation making it childs y to avoid getting hit by the slow kicks or body ms his opponent had been reduced to using due to the damage hed already inflicted. As he attacked, the consistence of The Crushers chest slowly shifted from solid metal to soft y, every hit diggingrge clumps of material until he caught a glimpse of the core, glowing blood red deep within the chest and felt it was time for the final strike. Isaac disengaged, flinging himself backwards towards where hed dropped the sword, picking it back up and lunging an instantter, the de covered with yellow light. It tore through the metal that was practically hanging in tatters, slowing slightly as it reached the parts that had been less affected by the corrosive [Skill], continuing onwards until the golem suddenly froze, core split in half. The Crusher (Lv. 17) has been in. 200 XP gained and then it began to fall forwards, straight at Isaac. He simply shifted and dodged, only the very heel of his right foot passing through the falling remains, but it had been a good precaution nheless. There was another squeal of tortured metal, followed by a loud breaking sound as the Zweih?nder shattering beneath the massive dead golem. Ah hell. All clear. Isaac said, looking up at the drone, finally allowing a grin to show on his face. That had been an exhrating fight, but people already thought he was a fighting maniac, no need to fuel those rumors by grinning like a loon while facing a powerful monster. Honestly though, the bureaucratical fight prior to this had been a hell of a lot tougher than the actual battle. Two weeks ago: So, you want to summon a Tier 5 monster? You do realize that one of those things just trashed a city of almost four million people in a single night and required military intervention to put it down? Polizeidirektor Kaiser looked at them all, sounding both exasperated and outraged. Look, I can understand the impulse to want to look at anything and everything, but this is just too dangerous. Dean Kass, one of the university higher ups agreed. Fundamentally, I agree that this is dangerous, but any threat we can analyze, we can develop counters to and then deal with when someone else summons one. Weve seen the devastation that a monster with no known weaknesses can cause just a few days ago. Weve also seen the profound impact that a scientific analysis of such a monster can have. Lastly, it was made quite clear that there are people out there who are willing to summon dangerous monsters, no matter how idiotic that would be. Bailey replied grimly. So, your solution to people doing stupid things is to do the exact same thing before anyone else has a chance to? Kass raised an eyebrow. Actually, weve put a lot of thought into this. Isaac said, sliding two sheaths of paper across the table towards the two most important people here. There were other people here, but the Chief of Police and the universitys dean were the ones actually in charge here. Among other things, the reason the situation in LA got so bad is that the monster was at the upper edge of Tier 5, costing almost as much as the cheapest Tier 6 creatures. Meanwhile, the monster we want to fight, The Crusher, is on the weakest end of Tier 5. In addition, weve determined the upper Level limit of Tier 4 monsters, a limit which I will soon surpass. Ill be able to fight it on equal footing and take it down. Lastly, weve specifically picked a monster that will be vulnerable to my powers and exceedingly bad at pursuit, making disengaging possible. What were looking for is permission to conduct this experiment, as well as a ce to do so and some help setting up proper precautions. Bailey jumped back in. In the end, that would leave you fighting a single monster, one you yourself stated is on the weaker end of the Tier. What would the benefit be? Kaiser asked. For one, materials gained from monsters work differently, being tougher than they have any right to be. The universitys engineering faculty is very interested in it, weve also received cautious requests from both the military and variouspanies for information on those kinds of materials. The Crushers summoning materials are all metals and through extensive research, weve discovered that elemental beings are almost exclusively made from the materials required to summon them. Karl exined If you want, I can forward you our research or some of the requests. Lastly, this will let us get started on figuring out what kinds of stats monsters at that Tier have. Obviously, a single monster will not be representative of its entire Tier, but it will be a start. Bailey added. I was under the impression it was impossible to know what Stats a monster has outside of rough gestimates? Kass asked, puzzled. Actually, I have a [Skill] that can give me that information. It wont be an exact number, but it will still be useful. Isaac said. That exists? Kaiser frowned at him. [Skills] exist for everything. Isaac replied confidently Its just that some are extremely hard to get. For example, this one originated as an upgrade to [Inspect] belonging to an epic Evolution of [Rogue]. Are there any ns to attempt to summon a monster akin to the Stormheart Gestalt, ever? one of the officials near the back asked. Our mission statement is to study the [System] and all its monsters, which includes the really dangerous ones. However, prior to summoning any new monster, we conduct a thorough review of what we know about any given monster type, including the weaker members of its category and how its special abilities will react to their confinement, often using any spells we have ess to that might properly mimic them. Given how many [System Researchers] and [Biological Researchers] we have on the team, we can test a lot of monster powers under controlled circumstances. Bailey exined. In addition, weve been testing how an Elementals mana cost corresponds to how much damage it can take, and how much mana it takes to disperse using abination of practical experiments and my ability to scan Stats. Isaac added If a Stormheart Gestalt or simr monster ever gets summoned here, well be able to deal with it. Thats interesting, but lets circle back around to matter at hand. First, wed need some kind of proof that youre actually able to do something like that, then a proper and concrete proposal, as well as Mr. Thoma actually reaching the required Level. Then, we can talk more about all of this. Kass said. Even if that satisfies the scientific requirements, there are no circumstances under which I will allow someone to summon a Tier 5 monster in my city! Kaiser growled, now ring at every scientist in the room. And there are no circumstances under which we would actually be doing it in the city. Isaac told him Part of our preparations are properly selecting the battleground and ensuring that there is a significant distance between us and any civilians that might get hurt. What followed was an hour-long three-way argument between Dean Kass, Bailey, and the assorted officials until eventually, they managed to settle for asking around if there were any military bases that fit the bill. After all, those were usually isted and had enough heavy weapons on hand to well and truly ruin any monsters day. Chapter 47: Advancement Chapter 47: Advancement As he waited for the others to get here, Isaac checked his Status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 16 XP: 5761/3400 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 27/300 Stats Fortitude 45 Perception 45 Strength 30 Agility 50 Magic Power 30 Magic Regeneration 50 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror XI The Chosen Weapon X Skills Hundred Faces VIII Stealth XII Power Strike XVII Piercing Strike XIX Sundering Strike XVII des XVIII Sneak XIII Sweeping Strike VIII Far Strike XII Manifold Strike X Hunters Gaze IX Phantom Step VIII Unknown Fear VI Bestial Regeneration II Undying Focus I Tools of Terror III General Skills Gralloch VII Alchemy V Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Hed used some of his banked XP to level up to 16, the Level theyd assumed The Crusher would be, and then invested twenty points into both Agility and Magic Regeneration, bringing them up to fifty, then split the two remaining ones between Magic Power and Perception. Of course, hed also grabbed himself three new [Skills], which left only one more [Skill] he needed from this [ss], leaving him free to save his points for the next one. Tools of Terror (epic) An Undying Wraith is never unarmed, eternally equipped with the tools of his in foes. This Skill allows the user to draw upon the natural weapons once possessed by any creature whose Aspect he holds. Cost: 10 mana per weapon minimum, up to 50 mana forrge weapons, 1 mana every second to sustain it The first one was a basic extension of [Undying Wraiths] use of Aspects, which let him mimic some of his Aspects monsters abilities, like the Dunkleosteus bony tes or a Hydras toxic blood despite not having taken those [Skills] when slotting them. For someone who fought using weapons like him, it was a bit of a niche ability, but so incredibly versatile that it would have practically been a crime to not get it. Undying Focus (epic) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, includingpletely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing ones sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. The second [Skill], on the other hand, solidly fell into the category of I never want to use this because if I needed it, I was in incredible danger. The first effect of blocking out pain was very much meh, especially given that pain grew to be less and less of a problem as ones Fortitude increased, but the rest was incredible. The resistance to mental effects alone made in invaluable, but thest one was even better. In the other timeline, hed dealt with a lot of [Healers], [Doctors] and other healing [sses], whod exined to him how lost memories could be restored. Apparently, all of what made a person, well, them, was also contained in their soul and someone with the right [ss] could use that as a temte to regenerate brain damage and restore any memories destroyed. Isaac had taken them up on that more often than hed like, taking knocks to the head was an unfortunate upational hazard. Bestial Regeneration (epic) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the users regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the users mana pool. This pools size is Skill Level*10 Upst was probably the most mundane of all his new [Skills]. Basically, it gave him an overhealing pool. Butbined with [Undying Focus], it was truly insane. It allowed him to empty out his mana pool without needing to worry about being unable to heal and then also heal from everything. It was a tad OP, but then again, this was an epic [ss], in the same category as the rest of the teams cheat-like copycat powers. Amon [ss] might have cheaper [Skills], but evenbined, fourmon [Skills] would only barely match an epic one if they worked together and even then, grabbing literal metric crapton of cheap [Skills] would only get you so far. There were people who were already near Level 25 and shooting towards their next Evolution, but Isaac could easily kick any one of them around like a pinball with casual ease. Hell, Amy, Patrick or Raul could do the exact same even without Isaacs decade ofbat experience. Shooting up through the Levels on the backs of weak monsters was a perfectly eptable way to go about that, passing through thresholds and subsequently evolving like that was not. And to top it all off, hed brought both [Manifold Strike] and [The Chosen Weapon] above Level 10. The former now simply gave a slight boost to all [Skills] used and the exponential increase in cost was now slightly lessened, while thetter let him absorb one additional weapon as an alternate form. In the end, the choice was rather obvious and the Kriegsmesser vanished into motes of light that were immediately sucked into the knife. He looked it up and down, admiring the sleek de, edge glinting in the light. And then it was suddenly more than twice as long as it shifted into its new form, returning to the smaller knife once more. And the weapons Status sheet wasnt looking to shabby either. Weapon: Old Reliable Once merely an ordinary Ka-Bar, this weapon has been refined and strengthened by the Skills of a Rogue, bathed in the blood of countless powerful monsters and finally imed as The Chosen Weapon of an Undying Phantom, transcending its old purpose and limitations. Ever-growing with its wielder, the Old Reliable will not only gain strength, but entirely new powers as it is used in legendary battles and bathed in the blood of the enemies that fall in them. Mana Pool: 200/200 Forms: Ka-Bar, Kriegsmesser Skills: To Me: Calls Old Reliable back into the wielders hand in a straight line, costs 10 mana, at a range of a maximum of 10 meters. Always Armed: Teleports Old Reliable into the wielders hand from anywhere in the universe. The minimum cost is 50 and scales with distance and interfering effects. Eternity: Old Reliable is as eternal as its wielder. So long as he is alive, this weapon has the opportunity to be reborn. Doing so will require all of the materials used to build it in the first ce, as well as 500 mana. This cost will have to be paid by an external source. Shapeshift: Old Reliable can now shift between Forms at will, every shift costing 1 mana. Duplicate: This Skill calls out as many of Old Reliables forms as the user wants, having them exist simultaneously until it ends. This costs 10 mana to activate and 1 mana per minute for every manifested weapon. Honestly, I didnt expect you to go beast mode against that thing. It looked like you were about to just chop that thing into bits with your knife. Amymented, having used flight [Skill] to get here faster than everyone else. While Isaac had been off powerlevelling the police and fire department, the others had started working towards making good use of their own epic [sses]. Eh, it was either that and use the Stat boost to keep dodging while using just [Sundering Strike] to dig it apart or kiting it for an hour while my mana regenerated. Those all-epassing strikes are pretty expensive in terms of mana. Isaac said, then decided that he was sounding a little too flippant after a battle with a monster whose Tier was synonymous with mass deaths and devastation, so he added With the stat boost and longer limbs, I could have disengaged at any moment if need be, so I was perfectly fine. That certainly looked pretty cool, though a little too savage for my taste. Less skillful martial artist dismantles monster and more kaiju battle. shemented. Eh, I had to find the core. Digging around its chest like a dog wanting to burry a bone was pretty inevitable. Isaac shrugged Can you lift this thing? I wanna see if I can get the pieces of my sword back. Its a little too heavy. Amy shook her head So the swords gone then? Probably. Ill take it to my [cksmith] and see if I can get it fixed. Isaac sighed. Wait, whered the other weapon go? a young woman in a military uniform asked, having just arrived with an entire troop of people, both in military uniforms and protective gear designed for the safe handling of power tools. Soulbound gear can be pretty nifty. Isaac shed her a smile, holding up his right index finger and as if by magic, his kabar appeared on top of it, resting on the tip of its de, not injuring him in the slightest. Then, Isaac let his hand drop back to his side, the de beginning to fall yet it vanished before it could travel more than a few centimeters. I can see that, I dont suppose you could tell me where to get one of those things? an older man with a single silver star-thing wrapped in aurel wreath on his shoulder pads asked, having arrived with them. Its a part of my [ss]. Started out as a [Rogue], then evolved it with Aspects from a Lesser Hydra and a Specter. Isaac told him. That part was practically public knowledge, after all, so there was little reason to hide it. Those are a little pricy, arent they? the man asked. Only if you buy them. Isaac said, deciding to not borate further. Anyone with a brain could deduce that he summoned privately, but that didnt mean that he wanted to outright say so in the presence of high-ranking officials. Mind you, summoning itself wasnt illegal yet. The precedent for people being responsible for the things their summoned monsters wrecked had been set within days of Initialization and codified intow, at least here in Germany,st week and the rest of the world was, for the most part, in a simr state. But a simple no summoning, under any circumstances, everw had not been passed, and it would have been rather difficult, anyway. After all, a lot of people did summon and it was beneficial. For example, Baileys research group, but that was only the very beginning. The industrial uses for monster materials were still in their infancy, but it was clear they existed and could change the world, never mind the military applications that were clear as day. All of that meant that simply forbidding it out of hand was not an option. It was, of course, possible to dere summoning the exclusive privilege of the government and the people they gave exceptions to, but anyone with half a brain could tell how that would go. Either thered be literal riots, people would summon in secret and without oversight, or both. None of that was good. That was certainly one hell of a fight, kid. the man continued, Isaac internally rolling his eyes at the form of address If a civie can do that, what do you think a trained soldier will be able to do? Fly faster than a speeding bullet, jump over buildings in a single bound, beat up everyone with a shield? Isaac suggested flippantly. I think youre mixing up your heroes there. Amy stage whispered, elbowing him in the side. Point is, theres a great deal of possibilities out there, especially past Level 10 and the first Evolution. Isaac finished. To be honest, Ive read a dozen reports on that, but Im still not entirely clear on how that is supposed to work. I dont suppose you could exin it in a way that doesnt require a Doctorate in Systemology? the man asked. At this point, Isaac resolved to memorize the rank insignia of every military he would likely encounter so he could tell at a nce how rude he could be to a given person and still get away with it. Then, he heard Bailey mention his name from over where the bodyy. It had clearly been in casual conversation and the only reason he heard it was his high Perception, but it nonthelesss made for nice excuse. Im really sorry, but Professor Bailey just called for me. Isaac announced and made head over. I didnt hear anything? the man gave him a look, but Isaac just threw him a smirk and tapped his ears. I suppose there are benefits to having underlings with a high Perception, namely, not having to yell to get them toe over. Mrs. Shaw can tell you everything you want to know. And just like that, Isaac swiftly headed off, leaving Amy alone with the brusque officer. You asked for me? Isaac asked, stepping up to Bailey. No, I actually, I could use you over at the body. The titanium is shredding the rotary saws. Bailey turned around for a moment to talk to him, then returned to his conversation. What followed were a few of hours of dismantling a gigantic mass of inert metal, digging the shards of his de out of said chunk of metal, debriefs and arguing over the distribution of the loot. Thered been rough agreements hammered out ahead of time about whod get what, but now that there was an actual golem to fight over and its durability had been handily demonstrated by the ruined power tools and sheer amount of power drawn used the sma cutters that had also been employed had awoken peoples avarice. But once that time had passed, the team left levitating along an entire limb of the Golem, as well as few of the titanium bones that formed the core of the monster that Isaac had dug out. Hed be getting one of those to turn into a new swordter. While hed gathered up all the shards of his old Zweih?nder, he doubted it would be repairable. Hed needed to drop by Stagmers cksmiths shop anyway. Hed do that after work tonight. Isaac sighed and rested his head against the car window as thendscape blurred past outside, deep in thought. His own personal circumstances might have been a hell of a lot better than theyd been at this point in time the other timeline, and Baileys progress had been massively sped up by his presence, but the world still looked much the same. Sure, the situation was massively chaotic, and changes took time to propagate, but theck of progress was still quite disheartening. Already being aware of the automatic summoning issue was a huge win and shouldprevent, or at the very least, mitigate, a few future issues. But whether or not that proved true remained to be seen. Penny for your thoughts? Amy asked, looking at him from the drivers seat. Eyes on the road. Isaac mumbled. Im keeping a [Scry] on the road, I can look at both things at once. Trust me, my superpower makes this perfectly safe isnt an excuse that cops ept, I learned that the hard way. Isaac grumbled. Still, you ok? So-so. he sighed again That was a damn tough monster. Maybe not as destructive as the Stormheart Gestalt, but how the hell would you stop it? Artillery? By the time that thing goes down, the shells will have levelled everything within a couple of city blocks, even if they all hit. In that case, you can help me get a long range teleport and then I can drop you on top of the next big summons head and then you can take care of it. Amy winked at him. Im chasing a few leads towards that end, but Im waiting to outlevel the spatial monsters by quite a bit before I fight them. If theyre able to turn the world into an M. C. Escher painting, Im going to be in trouble. Isaac replied But the instant I feel ready, Im going to tell you. Can you take the wheel for a sec, I wanna check if hell has frozen over? Amy asked. Meaning? Isaac asked sardonically. Isaac Thoma, not jumping straight into a fight with a monster. Something terrible has clearly happened. she winked at him. Yeah, yeah,ugh it up. Isaac replied, unable to stop himself from chuckling So, like I said, Ill see if I can find something with a portal power or something and call you when I got one. Thanks. Amy said, returning her gaze to the road By the way, hows your houseing? Slowly. Ive managed to properly cover the ground in fallen rock monsters during my off time and Karl fused them into a proper foundation. Now Ive got a couple of shipping containers there to give me a little shelter and storage space, but Ive got a looooooooong way to go. Isaac told her, pulling his head off the window as he sat up straight. Still, your own house at your age? Thats awesome. Amy said. Isaac shrugged Those Aspect trading tforms are up properly now, you could easily afford to buy one too if you sell a dozen or so. By the way, howre things going on your end with collecting those? Amy asked. So-so. The monsters I fought for the cops dropped a few, but those mostly went to the police department, as per our contract. The ones I got went to Bailey, but I think they just got used traded to other departments and universities for favors. Isaac said. Huh, thats nice of you. Amy said But lets talk about something more cheery. Any big parties happening this weekend? They ended up talking about pleasantly mundane topics for the rest of the drive back to the university. Half an hour after arriving there, theyd dropped off samples with everyone who needed them and were walking back down into their own department. Someones here. Isaac said nonchntly as they stepped onto the stairs to their rooms Waiting in the conference room. This was almost certainly a benign visitor, but even if they were, a warning couldnt hurt. And if they were hostile, it would be invaluable. Ah, hes early. Baileymented, intriguing Isaac. This could be interesting. Straining his ears, Isaac tried to figure out who was in there. He was pretty sure it was a man in there, but he wasnt speaking, so identifying him via his voice was out of the question. In theory, it was possible to figure out who someone was without looking at them via their breathing, but that was an incredibly difficult [Skill] to master and required a massive amount of Perception. Bailey having called the man here narrowed it down some, but he still had no idea who it could be. Then again, they were about to see who it was. Good afternoon, Peter. Bailey greeted the Dean as he walked in through the door. Isaac stepped to the side after entering the room so he could let the others in and took in the scene. Dean Kass sat in the chair next to the one Bailey usually upied, a tabletid down and pushed to the side from where hed likely been working while waiting, with five piles of paperwork resting on the table. Good afternoon, Dean Kass. Isaac greeted. Afternoon. Is there something I can do for you? Patrick asked. Actually, this is about what the university can do for you. Kass said, gesturing to the paperwork before him Please, sit down, and Ill exin everything. They obeyed and Amy levitated one of the piles over to her. This is the paperwork for registering in a course for System Sciences? she frowned. Yes. Kass told her Were currently working towards creating a new faculty to teach that, were about to register it as an actual course students can sign up fore Wintersemester and it will bergely based on your work. As such, you could practically teach most of the [sses] and once you sign up, we can give you a Bachelors degree the moment the course if approved and legally recognized. As far as the thesis goes, youve all been working on various papers with Adam, so thatll count for that. Youre also going to get a Masters once weve got enough to actually set up a program. At that point, youre likely going to be in a position to be writing a Doctors Thesis and gaining that title as well. That seems a little fast. Patrick observed, tone neutral. From the inside, youve likely not had the perspective I have. Youre doing groundbreaking work and judging by the sheer number of angry letters and calls my office has received from people who saw their dreams of fame disappear as you guys wrote their paper before they could, youre very much ahead of everyone else. You deserve this. And if you check the second page, youll learn about the raise which you also deserve.Kass added. Im guessing thats code for bribe so you wont take one of the countless offers youve no doubt received? Isaac suggested. A lot of people had been trying to hire away Bailey after the impact hed had on a global scale, but the Professor was closely aligned with their university and loyal to it, unwilling to leave. Theyd also tried to hire away his team and kept doing so, in the hope that they werent quite as attached to their current position. Well, I wouldnt put it quite like that Bailey said, trailing off. but thats still what it is, isnt it? Amy finished his sentence for him. Look, theres something I want to say. Isaac said Ill take the raise because it is, well, a raise, but Id stay even without one. This team has already discovered so many incredible things and even turned some into practical applications. Beyond that, we helped save a goddamn city. I aint leaving. What he said. Patrick said The pay doesnt matter as long as I can live off it. We discovered the biggest trap in the history of the world before anyone set it off when that thing with the slime happened. Other people might pay better, but here, I know Im working towards something that has the potential to save everyone. I agree with the drama queens. Amy shrugged, leaning back in her chair. The rest of the evening was spent filling out paperwork and making in-person funding requests now that they had the Dean here as a captive audience. When Isaac realized how many concessions theyd wrangled out of him by the end of the day, he actually felt a little bad. Chapter 48: Equipment (again) Chapter 48: Equipment (again) Good Evening, Helmut. Isaac called out as he entered Stagmers shop. Theyd decided to get on a first name basis with each other when theyd actually signed a contract. Hey Isaac. What can I do for my favorite customer? the man called out from the back of the shop,ing out a momentter. What Im hoping you can do is fix my Zweih?nder. Isaac said, setting the bag on the counter between them. Stagmer winced as he heard the nk of metal hitting metal. Im guessing thats it? What happened to it? Big golem fell on it while it was rammed clean through its heart. Is it fixable? Stagmer was silent for thirty-some seconds as he slowly and carefully pulled out the shards and spread them out across the counter. The singlergest piece was a half-meter chunk that included was essentially just the hilt and a little bit of de that had ended up getting driven into the ground before the de had broken. In theory, yes. Do you know how broken des are repaired? Stagmer asked. Not really. Isaac admitted. In essence, the pieces are stacked on top of the remains of the handle part via a weld or other method, then reforged into a de. Stagmer exined, cing a few chunks on top of the handle part for emphasis But that process is almost as much work as forging an entirely new weapon, takes almost as long as is almost as expensive if you dont count the material costs. And with the [System] involved, the product will also be inferior. My [Skills] enhance the products of my craft and have increased significantly since I made this weapon, meaning the reforged part will be considerably stronger than the original handle. I guess getting it fixed was a pipe dream anyway. Isaac sighed Could you make it whole again in such a way that shows where it broke? It doesnt have to stand up to any kind ofbat. Thats certainly possible. Can I ask what for? Disy purposes. Were getting a new building for our faculty and university buildings are normally filled with disy articles and posters about papers written by the people working there, but were a little light on both. Monster parts are at a serious risk of being stolen and while our papers have been very impactful, there are only a handful of them. I figured a weapon used in a pretty big experiment might look good on the wall. I see. Im guessing youd like a recement weapon? Yeah. In fact, thats whats in my other bag. Isaac said, hefting the mass of magically enhanced material onto the table Iron from the body of a Tier 5 Golem, and one of its titanium bones. I was hoping that youd be able to turn the bone into another Zweih?nder with the same specifications, with any leftovers getting turned into boar spears with no wings so it can go deeper into the monster. The iron is for you to y around with. I can certainly do that, but heres the thing. Titaniums tough, but it has shit edge retention, so it doesnt really work as a de. Stagmer warned. I see. Isaac replied That being said, I have a fantastic [Skill] called [des] that repairs my weapons and turns them into des if they werent already. so you can use this weapon with total impunity and not have to sharpen it every five seconds. Nice. Stagmer nodded at him That being said, a regr titanium de would take a while to make, never mind one forged from magical material. In addition, its going to be hell on my tools, so I might even have to wait on some recements. I see. Isaac grimaced But I guess it cant be helped. Did you make any progress on that other project? You mean finding other people with actual crafting [sses], as opposed to ones dedicated to working the machinery thats reced working by hand? Stagmer nodded Of course, I work with people like that all the time. Ive asked plenty of them, but Ive gotten back a lot of answers I didnt like. Some people got really worried at the mere mention of the [System], others got really excited and I got really worried they were going to do something stupid given the slightest bit of encouragement. And then there were the people who practically started drooling at the mere mention of getting to y around with monster bits. I generally dont mind working with overly eager people so long as they have a smattering ofmon sense. Isaacmented. But I do. Ive seen to many people get hurt because they were too eager to y around with new toys and techniques in an environment like a cksmiths workshop. Mind you, something like, say, sewing isnt nearly as dangerous, but the point still stands. I wont work with people who are going to end up putting themselves or others in danger. Stagmer sternly told him. I guess Ive spent a little too much time at a job you practically have to be crazy to do. Isaac sighed Look, you know more about this than I do and I value your input, but this job needs people who are willing to experiment a little. Is there anyone who didnt give you a bad vibe? I found a few people who didnt immediately want to get a bunch of expensive materials or help with levelling and are willing to enter the same kind of arrangement the two of us have. Here, I have a list, as well as my impression of them. Picking the list off the table, Isaac looked it over, noting that he didnt recognize a single one of the names on it. Then again, there were hardly any craftspeople whose names he knew. But it looked like a good list with [Leatherworkers], [Jewelers], [Tailors], and so on, and so forth. A little short, perhaps, but that was to be expected. True crafting [sses], the ones he needed, were rare and almost exclusively found with people who produced their products the old-fashioned way, the kind who held stalls at renaissance fairs and the like. A lot of the things that used to be made by hand were now being created by machines, and the [sses] gained by those people reflected that, being more closely focused on empowering the machines used in the production, rather than the product itself. Quantity over quality was a perfectly workable model when producing mass-use items, but utterly uneptable where protective, life-saving equipment was concerned. Ill look these people up on my end, I should have my selection in a couple of days. Isaac said, then reached into one of his jacket pockets and ced the orb he withdrew on the table between them. It resembled a perfect sphere made from steel wool encased in epoxy resin. This is the Aspect of a Barbed Dervish, a Tier 3 metal monster. I think it would make a good base to stack your Aspect of the Forge Golem onto once Ive gotten it. Er, stack? Stagmer asked. Ah yes, I forgot to tell you about that. Isaac sighed and shook his head I recently found out that you can stick an Aspects simr to one you already have into the same slot so long as it also has a [Skill] simr to the one you grabbed from the old one. Then the old [Skill] upgrades, turning into the equivalent from the new Aspect, and you can even pick up a second one. Slotting that one now should let you grab two from the Forge Golem. Thats awesome, thanks. Stagmer said, picking up the orb and staring in wonder at something Isaac couldnt see, almost certainly the item description. Isaac just busied himself looking through the merchandise lying out. He could spot several nice pieces that were markedly superior to others also present. It made for a clear visual disy of Stagmers improving skill and increasing [Skill] Levels. Picking out a few from each tier of quality, he returned to the counter, where Stagmer had just absorbed the Aspect. The engineers would love him for giving them such a great example of how [Skills] interacted with materials. Id like to take these as well. Sure, sure. Stagmer waved him off, currently ying around with a floating cloud of metal scraps. Ok, Ill payter, then. Isaac said. Oh, dont worry about it. Stagmer said This Aspect is worth a million times more than those. Thanks. Isaac shed the man a grateful smile that went unseen. As per their agreement, the Aspects were given in exchange for highly preferential treatment and a massive discount for services, not direct marypensation. Isaac could afford to shift away his target for levelling to something that gave the specific Aspects he wanted to give away but very few people were in a position to buy them at the current prices. Stagmer had therefore essentially gifted him his purchases even though he hadnt had to, and Isaac appreciated it. Do you have a rough timeline on when youll be able to get an Aspect from a Forge Golem? I know fighting a Tier 4 monster is a big deal and I dont want to pressure you in any way, of course, so just a rough guesstimate would be nice. Week, month, you know. Stagmer asked, sounding incredibly apologetic. Remember, that bone on the counter came from a Tier 5 monster. Fighting the Forge Golem isnt going to be a problem, its just that with this kind of material list Isaac waved a hand and opened the relevant page all anyone can imagine is a humanoid form made from metal that is some degree of molten and that makes it a bloody fire hazard. Summoning List (Elemental, Metal and Fire Subtypes) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Forge Hazard Tier 1 Circle, Coal Dust 10 g Slug Tier 2 Circle, g 50 Molten Beast Tier 3 Circle, Molten Iron, Photo of an Animal 100 Forge Golem Tier 4 Circle, g, Iron, Coal, Steel 150 Crucible Warrior Tier 5 Circle, Crucible, Coal, Iron 250 Thermite Avatar Tier 5 Circle, Aluminum Dust, powdered Iron Oxide 350 Yeah, I can see that. Stagmer whistled as he looked the list up and down You know the Crucible Warrior sounds pretty cool and useful as well. Then, he nched Sorry, my mouth went a little too fast for me to think better of it. Dont worry about it. Im interested in seeing what new monsters look like as well. Isaac grinned. Can I help figure out a safe way to fight the Forge Golem? Stagmer asked. Hm, I dont think so. Weve already got a closed off summoning room without any mmable materials inside, but Im afraid filling it with a molten mass of slowly cooling metal would pretty thoroughly ruin it and probably get a hit put out on me from my colleague who has to fix it. If nothing else, Karl will likely soon reach a point where he can make that room impervious to the metal and then I can use it to summon the Golem. Or maybe Ille up with something before then, who knows? Point is, I should have the Aspect for you in a few weeks at thetest. Isaac promised. Hey, just dont put yourself into danger for my sake. Stagmer told him earnestly. Dangers practically in the job description. Isaac shrugged Im still alive, though. I know what Im doing. Overconfidence gets people killed, you know. Stagmer warned, suddenly seeming quite a bit older than before, reminding Isaac that the man across from him had at least ten years on him. Well, this timeline him. Including the life erased by his jaunt through time, Isaac was actually the older of the two, but no one knew about that. Oh, Im keenly aware of that. I train every day so Im able to clean up after those people when they summon something they cant handle. Isaac told him, voice deathly serious Despite what it looks like, I am careful. And I believe you, but it never hurts to remind someone of the dangers. The master I apprenticed under had us recite the basic rules of the safety every single day. It got on my nerves after a week and I got very close to snapping at him that I knew all that a couple of times, but then I saw the aftermath of an ident at another shop. And then I realized that the old man actually had a damn good point. Isaac shrugged Safety regtions get on everyones nerves, but gods know wed be in a world of trouble without them. Exactly. They spent another half hour or so talking about future expansion of Isaacs craftingwork, and then he headed out to go back home. Chapter 49: Home Sweet Home Chapter 49: Home Sweet Home Isaacs face sported a wide grin as he headed home, weaving through the forest at speeds that would trigger traffic cams if hed done so in a city. Moving like this, no holds barred, was exhrating. Not quite as much as, say, fighting a monster of the right strength, but still fun. Fat drops of water sttered into his face as the rain poured from the sky and lighting crackled overhead, soaking him to the bone despite his raincoat, but that didnt matter. Anything that couldnt get wet was safely stored in a waterproof bag, so there were no issues on that front, and dashing through the woods in this kind of weather was somehow even more fun. And as for that other thing he wanted to do, well, this weather was actually kind of perfect. Isaac reached his house after maybe a quarter of an hour of running, the isted clearing hed bought with the money from Vegas came into view. It had been incredibly isted, making it rather unattractive since it was so hard to get to. But Isaac hadnt had a car when the [System] had appeared and with what he knew now, he was aware of the fact that hed never really need one. Even the superhuman physical abilities he had now were enough to make the direct route through the forest faster than going around via the roads as hed have to with a motor vehicle, after all. Also, the fact that it was so isted meant he had his privacy. He cleared the chain link fence hed had put in with a single jump and then, he was home. Just like hed told Amy earlier today, arge chunk of the ground was covered in rock from defeated Golems that had been fused together by Karl. Hed set it up during one of the few breaks from working with the police hed had to take due to some archaicborws that had failed to take into ount superhumans with no need for sleep. Then, with a little help, hed brought two dismantled shipping containers here from the road five minutes away and set them up here. One was set up as his temporary house, the second was there mostly for storage purposes. When he entered his house, he stripped off his jacket and ced his phone onto the table in the center of the room. Arge closet absolutely stuffed with clothing sat against the far wall, with his bed sitting beside it. Ordinarily, this was where one would change out of the wet clothes and try to get dry as quickly as possible, but hed transcended the point where themon cold posed any kind of threat to him. He also switched out of his truly soaked jeans, recing them with a more tightly fitting pair of shorts that would not get in the way. Given how isted his property was, there was really no reason he couldnt just run around in his birthday suit, but that just felt weird, so he didnt. With those preparations out of the way, he headed over to the other shipping container to grab some supplies. There was the g hed gotten from Stagmer when hed first brought up the idea of getting an Aspect of the Forge Golem, some iron and steel bits, chunks of coal from a garden supply store. He also took some of his emergency long-reaching weapons hed prepared in case he didnt have ess to the Zweih?nder for some reason. They were basically just two meter long metal fence posts transformed into rudimentary des using the [des] [Skill], but they should do the trick for now. Back outside, Isaac ced the summoning materials into the Tier 4 circle hed carved into the rock using a chisel and judicious application of [Piercing Strike]. In fact, hed carved all circles up to that Tier into the ground so he could summon easily without having to repeatedly create new ones. Hed purposefully left out the Tier 5 circle, though. While summoning wasn''t illegal, it was frowned upon and Tier 5 was stillrgely decried as a city killer. Having hard to erase proof of the fact that he summoned those monsters on the regr would have been a capital B bad idea. As Isaac sat there in the rain, waiting for his mana to recharge so he could actually fight the monster, he thought about how easy it now was to gain resources just by summoning and what pitfalls there were he needed to warn people about. Sure, summoning monsters and killing them for theirponents was an easy way to get metal and the like, at least on the surface, but sadly, it wasnt quite that easy. A lot of the weaker monsters were made from really low quality materials, if they were useful at all. That meant that getting useful things required going after things like The Crusher and that was not going to be easy or painless. Bringing one down required someone like Isaac with a decently high Level and appropriately levelled [Skills]. Creating a person with that skillset required a not insignificant amount of time and effort to be invested, which was, in turn, yet another major source for monsters that could potentially escape and wreak havoc. What was perfectly possible was to get the really basic building blocks of the world from weak monsters, water, decent quality soil and the like, something that hade into practice in the Third World recently. A certain someone had written up a lot of good advice for that, including a strongly worded warning about how Water Elementals should not be drunk directly because they were made from pure water and that was decidedly bad for humans. Well, only if you drank it, but still something people needed to be aware of. After posting the little essay on the inte, Isaac had also made donations to several charities and asked them to spread the word. Given the state of the infrastructure in the ces that really needed this information, Isaac wasnt getting any direct feedback, but things seemed to be getting better. Also, it seemed that things would be as calm as in the other timeline, with very few extraordinarily powerful monsters getting summoned. Given the option of fixing their basic needs using summoning, a lot of people seemed to be content with that. There were several instances where people had marathon-summoned to topple the local warlord, which often ended up working, but the vast majority of summoners were being surprisingly reasonable and cautious. Not that ousting a despot wasnt reasonable, it was merely that doing so via summoning required a not insignificant degree of risk taking. Isaac wished he were in a position to help more there, but he simply didnt know anything that would be useful. The media had simply not covered those things nearly as thoroughly as it had the messes in the west, leaving him sorelycking in the information department where the third world was concerned. He did know about several notable incidents, but they were only the biggest ones, and still fell into the category of if people properly research these monsters, theyll know better than to summon them. And really, that was his solution to this situation. Just arrange to summon each of those monsters before they could y a part in those incidents and make sure the world was aware of the dangers. And then, his mana ticked up to full and Isaac rose in a single smooth motion, fencepost spear in his right hand as the Forge Golem erupted from the summoning circle. Just like everyone had thought, it was a tall, humanoid form made from red hot metal, a white hot circle of material around where the mouth would be on a regr human. Steam hissed it as the rainwater sttered off the monster, vaporizing instantly, dark splotches instantly forming as the material cooled. It began to march forward, shedding metallic kes as the hardened outer shell broke off. Now, Isaac could just kept backing off, letting the monster die from the environment alone, but that would be boring as hell and him precisely jack shit in terms of rewards, so he didnt. He did back up a little to get it clear of the summoning circles though, semi-liquid metal sttering across those would be a bitch to clean up. The golemshed out with one of its arms, the limb suddenly elongating to twice its original length, taking full advantage of the incredibly soft metals malleability. Isaac let it phase through him and charged, severing the arm at the shoulder with his fencepost spear. A burning sensation spread out from his chest, the mana constantly superheating the golems body lightly scorching his insides, but the arm was severed nheless as a glowing neon de empowered by [Piercing-] and [Sundering Strike] even as the overhealing pool from [Bestial Regeneration] vanished along with the injuries. The de, meanwhile, unfortunately came apart after the strike, having decidedly not been made to hit solid metal with, or be exposed to those kinds of temperatures. The golem whirled again, the other armshing out even as more material was pulled from the core body to regenerate the missing one. This time, Isaac decided against trying to phase through the attack, a glowing red Old Reliable in the Kriegsmesser form chopping off half of it. The Forge Elemental then decided to switch tactics, growing more arms that turned into a variety of weapons, from wire-thin whips to flexible arms closer to octopus tentacles withrge spiked balls at the end. Isaac flung himself to the side as the heavy weapons hammered into the ground, sending shards of rock flying. The whips came from every direction, trying to trap him, but he jumped skywards and phased through the handful of limbs there while healing the infinitesimal amount of damage they inflicted, then tore off all of the extended limbs with a fully empowered [Manifold Strike]. That hadnt been the best idea. The white glowing circle on the monsters face had been burning steadily despite the torrential rain, but as Isaac hung there in midair, it red even brighter and spat out a stream of molten metal, easily enough to burn a hole clean through him, a wound he wouldnt be able to heal with his current mana pool due to the fact that cauterized injuries were crazy expensive to heal. Also, one of the most vulnerable positions anyone could be in was midair, where dodging was nearly impossible due to ack of anything to push against. But there were ways to get around that with ease. Flight and other movement [Skills] that didnt require the user to actually move to initiate them, for example, and it just so happened that Isaac could teleport. [Phantom Step] engaged, fifty points of mana spiraling off into the void, carrying him well past the monster to grab the second fence post spear hed left lying on the ground while the swash of fully liquid metal sttered over the ground, sending up clouds of steam and smoke. Now significantly smaller, the ranged attack having wasted a huge amount of mass, the Golem began to run at him, not even bothering to turn. With its physiology, terms like front side and back side were utterly meaningless. The mouth slowly shifted back around to face him, ring dangerously, the glow sting through the wall of steam like a searchlight. Isaac flung himself forward,shing out with the Kriegsmesser to chop off a leg, sending it crashing to the ground. Instead of getting back onto its feet like a normal humanoid would, it simply grew eight spider legs and scuttled forward, creating a tough outer shell of cool metal while keeping the insides and joints malleable. Much like a Hydras Magic Regeneration was linked to the number of heads it had, this thing regenerated the resource needed to keep itself liquid and therefore mobile at a faster rate therger it was. The fact that it was smaller also increased its surface to volume ratio, making it lose heat at a significantly greater rate rtive to its regeneration than before. In other words, this thing would have been pretty much screwed if it had kept fighting as it had before. But that kind of solid material was a lot easier to destroy than something mostly liquid. Thetter needed to bepletely severed in a single hit, utterly disconnected, and if your de was too slim, the appendage might regenerate behind your weapon as it passed through. The solid material, on the other hand, could barely regenerate. Also, given that it had cooled down significantly overall, shuffling the core around to deny him an easy shot at it should be considerably harder, if it was still possible at all. A devastating overhead chop removed two legs on its right side even as four multi-segmented, razor-edged limbs rose from the forge Golems back andshed out at him. They came down in a deadly stato of blows, the sound of breaking rock audible even over the pounding of the rain and the hiss of the steam being created as it struck the still quite hot monster. Another glowing red [Far Strike] bent two of the arms so badly out of shape that they could no longer be used as they had been, forcing the monster to slowly shift it back into shape. Isaac lunged forward and chopped into the beasts side, evaded the follow-up attack by a hairs breadth, and fully cut it in half. Only one of the two pieces was still moving, telling him exactly where the core had to be. And then, he caught a glimpse of a white orb that glowed with incandescent light, retreating deeper into the small bit that remained of the Forge Golems mighty form. It was already too deep for him to reach with either of Old Reliables forms without burning himself down to the bone in the process. But that was why hed grabbed the spear in the first ce. Covered in a yellow glow, it slid through the soft metal like butter and for the briefest moment, struck something solid, but the resistance vanished a mere momentter and the Forge Golem slumped to the side, forcing Isaac to jump backwards as all of the still liquid metal sloped out of the outer shell and spilled towards him. Forge Golem (Lv. 12) has been in. 100 XP gained Isaac wiped the sweat from his brow as he stared down at the mess hed made. The summoning circles were still fully intact, but there were chunks missing from his previously pristine rock arena all over the ce, not to mention the mess created when liquid or semi-liquid metal had hit the ground, hot enough to slightly liquefy the rock and bond with it as it cooled. The holes could be quickly filled with the quick setting cement hed bought a while ago once the weather stopped trying to create a biblical flood but removing the metal would be a pain in the ass. Still, looking at his Status sheet, he could see that hed managed to get three [Skills] to the next threshold, including the two he needed for the fight against the Space Elemental. Piercing Strike mon, Level XX) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for .5 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to bebined with other Skills. After countless battles where this Skill was used to pierce the very core of an enemy and y them in a single, swift, strike it has evolved into an even deadlier form. It may now stab through space itself, any thrusting attack empowered with itunching a beam of all-piercing energy at quadruple the mana cost. In addition, using this Skill will give the user insight into the location of his opponents vital organs. Cost: 10 mana per strike for regr use, 40 mana per ranged attack The stronger the [Skill] was, the harder it was to disrupt. Simply applying it meant that weapon was more there, more real, piercing through magical effects like, say, the space-time twisting powers of a Space Elemental. And while stab through space itself was almost certainly just a particrly fanciful way to phrase stab at a distance, it was still an incredibly powerful upgrade. The first threshold might upgrade a given [Skill] with a new power, but the second one actually gave an upgrade based on how you had used a [Skill], creating a powerful new effect. The other two [Skills] might have only hit Level X, but that was still a nice upgrade. Phantom Step (epic, Level X) A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skills Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles. You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night. With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved. This Skill may now also be used simultaneously with either [Spectral Shift] or [Stealth]. Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 2 mana per three meters of unobserved travel, 4 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 10 m +2 m per Skill Level [Phantom Step] had gotten a little cheaper, which was always nice to have, but the real win was the ability to use his invisibility or walk through wall [Skills] in conjunction with the teleport, letting him jump directly through walls or rapidly move using the teleport [Skill] while staying invisible. Gaze of the Hunter (epic, Level X) There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills. This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are very weak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the users foes. Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someones Stats are higher, lower orparable to the Users, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are. But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more. In addition, this [Skill] allows the user to see mana and sense the purpose of Skills being used in front of him. And then there was this gem. [Hunters Gaze] let him see anything an opponent, be they monster or human, tried to use before the actual effect urred, giving him an incredibly valuable split second warning for almost all [Skills] while the ability to see mana was all-round incredibly useful. Thebination of those two effects would also make navigating the spatial anomalies wielded by the Space Elemental a hell of a lot easier. But first, hed try and finish getting that Aspect before the rain let up. Chapter 50: Interlude ??? Chapter 50: Interlude ??? Hey, wake up! The crack of her hand against the young mans cheek echoed through the cer like a gunshot. The young man strapped down to the table suddenly bucked, eyes shooting open as he woke with a start. Mana red as he tried to activate some kind of [Skill], but her [Final Chains] made short work of that. They were expensive as hell to create and took a while to activate, but once they were on, they stayed on, hence the name. What the fuck! It was as much a statement as it was a question, anger and outrage bleeding into his voice, making it rather apparent that hed not yet grasped the gravity of the situation. Really, I dont know why Im surprised by yourck ofmon sense after that stupid video. she scoffed, turning to the side and opening up a surgical set. Not that she was nning on using them or even knew much about how to do so, but that wasnt the point. Help! Hey, anybody, theres a That was the point. She ignored him for a few minutes, waiting for him to scream himself hoarse, but for some reason, that didnt happen. Even as she activated [All Things Lie Bare], she shot him a re. The [Skills] name was incredibly fanciful, but she couldnt deny that it was powerful. The fact that his Fortitude was incredibly high was the first thing that drew her attention, but shed already learned that the first time shed scanned him. Then there was the fact that his body was barely damaged and not really getting any worse despite all the loud shouting. The high Fortitude was letting that idiot keep that up for far longer than it would ever have been possible under normal circumstances. Of course. Once again, the aura of defeated foes wreathed the helpless looking person on the table, powerful beasts that only a terminally reckless person would ever consider unleashing upon the world. You know, were in the middle of a city. Therere people all around us, as they always are in a ce like this. Maybe not right outside the walls of this house, but still within ten, twenty meters or so, close enough to hear cries for help makes you think, doesnt it? Think about what, you crazy bitch! the man spat, both figuratively and literally, clearly having decided that the surgical set was just for show and that he was once again in a position to start acting all macho despite being affixed to a table with a downright unnatural set of restraints. If people are close enough to hear you scream for help, that means they must be very close indeed. Close enough to, perhaps, be caught by a monster summoned in a basement like this one? Of course, her [Death in Solitude] [Skill] meant that there wouldnt be anyone actuallying, under any circumstances, ever, but that wasnt the point here. Is that wha- the outraged yell cut off as she whipped out another knife. This time, it was a basic self-defense knife with a cute little floral pattern on it. It was one of those silly gadgets made for women that was 100% identical to the mens product, except for the incredibly clich paint job. Still, it did the job and her now-dead husband had gifted it to her, so shed not only kept it, but shed also turned it into her [Chosen Implement], a weapon that could never be lost, never kept any traces of the people cut by it and was impossible to identify as the tool used in anything via forensic sciences. The de was forcefully dragged over his arm, yet didnt so much as scrape the skin, even as the strength behind it popped the blood vessels under the skin, bruising instantly. Impossible under normal circumstances, but perfectly doable with a weapon that she had perfect control over. What the hell is wrong with you, you damn pervert? She just shook her head sadly. This man was truly too stupid for his own good, spitting vitriol at thedy with the knife while utterly helpless. Then again, too stupid for their own good was a good way to describe all the people whom shed gone after. Pervert? Thats a new one. shemented conversationally, looking around as she did so I suppose that doing this in a basement does somewhat scream sex predator, but we can hardly do this out in the open, can we? Her knife trailed down his chest, not even damaging his shirt in the process, but it got the message across fairly well. You you you dont have to do this, you know. I wont tell. he promised, nodding empathetically. And the allies could have simply chosen to not execute the Nazis found guilty after the Nuremberg trials, but they did, because the convicted were terrible people. she shrugged. But Im not a terrible person! I have a family, I have a girlfriend! You have my wallet over there, look, theres a photo of the two of us in there! Please! And now you start begging, as if that changes all the things youve done. She shook her head. This idiot hadnt even considered the consequences of his actions, then proven hecked even the slightest degree ofmon sense when hed yelled at her, only to do aplete 180 the instant he realized that he was in actual danger, way toote. Youre not just summoning monsters, youre doing so without precautions and youre fucking filming it. People watch that, you know. Children! How many people did you nearly kill with the monsters you summoned? How many died because you encouraged them to summon? They warned you! She took a deep breath to calm herself, then continued. They had a warning out the instant someone realized the [System] let people summon monsters. They had a proper essay out less than two dayster. And they had the first paper written in less than a single work week. Everyone who had the slightest bit ofmon sense knew that what you do is a truly terrible thing to do. Her hand blurred, the knife dancing across his chest, neck and head as she triggered [Art of a Beautiful Death], leaving behind fatal wounds that looked like somerge monster had dragged a paw with four razor-sharp des across his face despite how much hed been trashing. Like all of the others shed gotten from her evolved [ss], it had an absurdly over the top name, but it was also a damn good one. At first, shed gotten mad when the first evolved [ss] the [System] had offered her was [Serial Killer], followed by stronger and stronger versions of the same [ss] as per the things shed done to get to that point. But then, shed realized something. At its base meaning, serial killer simply referred to a person who killed a lot of people. And that was what she was doing, except she was actually targeting these reckless idiots who ended the lives of others through reckless selfishness, not too differently to how a policemen or soldier would. Sure, calling that serial killing was a little weird, but it was technically the truth. And now, she was serially removing the people working to make the world a worse ce. Between the ones who publicly posted their exploits and the in monsters her upgraded [Inspect] gave her, finding them was easy enough. Chapter 51: Funhouse Mirror Chapter 51: Funhouse Mirror Summoning List (Elemental, Space Subtype) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Lesser Space Elemental Tier 3 Circle, Measuring Tape 100 Space Elemental Tier 6 Circle, Measuring Tape, House Blueprint 350 Greater Space Elemental Tier 9 Circle, Measuring Tape, Map 6,000 Lord of Time and Space Tier 10 Circle, Measuring Tape, rm Clock 12,000 The summoning list for Space Elementals was incredibly tiny, but simultaneously incredibly terrifying. At least the fact that it was pretty hard to imagine how a monster created from, well, space, looked meant that all but the most terminally reckless idiots refrained from summoning them. Pretty soon though, people would start to figure out that one could get the so-called reward summons that were things like pocket dimensions, legendary weapons, and the like. Mind you, in this case, legendary referred to actual weapons from myth and legend, not just powerful ones. They werent defined as such, looking just like regr monster summons in the menus until you summoned one for the first time. But the requirements for those rewards were pretty steep, like the fact that one needed to kill a bloody Space Elemental for even the most basic of spatial storages. That was a hurdle that had killed almost anyone who tried to go for them and would continue to do so for a while yet, but eventually, it would be surmounted and then, there would be hell to pay. Then again, there should be people able to handle even Tier 6 Space Elementals by then. He hoped. Isaac tossed the measuring tape, a representation of space itself, into the summoning circle and charged it, then sat down to wait for his mana to fully recover. This was not a fight he wanted to enter in anything less than perfect form. Once that was done, he activated the circle and ... reality itself shattered like a broken mirror, bits and pieces of the world floating off in a dozen different directions while others fell into ce where theyd been, a single step in any direction able to fling him dozens of meters in one direction or bepletely unable to shift his position, at all. Space twisted into a Mobius Strip in one ce, an infinite loop one could never escape, and the very concept of a straight line ceased to exist. Somewhere overhead, a massive spiraling fractal pattern the size of a car hung, the pattern growing denser and denser towards the center until it simply looked like a single solid chunk in the very middle. The core, the only part of its monstrous body that actually mattered. Up was down, left was right, and when he thrust Old Reliable in its knife form towards the Elementals core, yellow light glimmering for a ranged [Piercing Strike], the de hammered into the ground instead, tearing through the rock still covered in metal from a dead Forge Golem like tissue paper. A sharp branch from a tree that should have been halfway across the clearing suddenly swished past as it was carried past him, or maybe he was moving past it, but there was no way to tell. A sharp piece of metal suddenly whizzed towards his chest, despite still being stuck in the ground,pletely unable to move. Isaac jumped over it, or at least tried to, but hed barely moved ten centimeters off the ground before his skull impacted the hard metal his feet had pushed off from mere moments ago. Ow. The de swished past, missing him by a mere hairs breadth, him falling slightly to the left of where hed jumped from enough to make the attack miss, no matter how razor thin the margin might have been. Slowly, oh so slowly, his [Hunters Gaze] began to unravel the spatialyout of this topsy turvy world, warning him when moving in the wrong direction would fling him face first into the pointy end of a branch or twenty meters up in the air. He began to advance, phasing through some pointy objects that swished past, chopping up others. [Far Strike], the new ranged stab granted by evolving [Piercing Strike], thrown projectiles enhanced with whatever [Skill] would work with it flew out, shing upwards to obliterate that thing. They all missed by a mile, sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally. In reality, it was only affecting an area around thirty meters across, but within that area, its power was absolute, twisting anything and everything to its whim. The only thing that could resist was him, his Fortitude solidifying his body, preventing it from being twisted and warped into unnatural shapes that would break the mind of anyone to whom it happened. Thankfully, that thing was merely a Tier 3 monster and Isaac had a heavy investment in that Stat, making that not much of a threat. The only problem was the motherfucking monstrous special warp that would not let him get close enough to stab the fucker! Two steps forward, one step to the side that somehow still carried him onwards, then his intuition failed him as the next step suddenly left him further back than hed started out from. Isaac dodged another volley of attacks, barely avoiding some, phasing through others, especially when an attempt at ducking under a metal spike ended with him flying face-first towards another, evenrger spike while space twisted and bucked like a wild animal. A rabid, possessed by the devil, batshit insane animal with a side helping of berserk. Finally, Isaac made it right underneath the core and summoned both of Old Reliables forms, then began tossing them skywards. A spike hed missed tore through his gut, but one of his desnced downwards and severed its connection to the ground, allowing him to yank it out and toss it to the side, the wound healing the instant the de was no longer blocking the wound. His attacks were flung every which way, even ones that categorically on target suddenly veered away as the Elemental flexed the slightest bit of its will, rendering all his tricks null and void. Then, Isaac jumped straight up, [Piercing Strike] ring along the Kriegsmesser, the mana and core purpose of the [Skill] cementing its position in space as he flew skywards, applying the same energy onto the knife and flinging it at the core and then it simply moved to the side. For the briefest moment, he saw an opening, and stepped. His teleportation [Skill] dropped him off on the exact opposite side of the core of his knife, thrust out his hand and used the des own [Skill], [To Me]. A basic ability that let him call the de into his hand in a straight line, even though the current state of the world made mockery of that very concept. But there was no such thing as Old Reliable and him. There was only Isaac, a human with a part of him that very much resembled a weapon, asionally physically separate from him, yet having intrinsically and eternally be a part of his very soul. So even if it was currently over there, it was still a part of him. The de and his hand, were one and the same thing, hardened as everything about him was, impossible to break, bend or twist. Still glowing yellow, the de flew through the core as if it wasnt even there, having utterly ignored the spatial warping. A momentter, everything snapped back into ce, dumping him back onto the ground after a brief moments fall. Isaac looked triumphant, copsed to his knees and threw up. He should have been immune to nausea at this point, but as bad as having everything suddenly twist like that had been, having it snap back into position even more quickly had been too much for his poor, abused, inner ear. Thirty seconds or soter, he wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand, then rubbed at it too clean it in the rain. It was no longer pouring like a dozen gods were trying to drown him on drynd, but it was still raining. A small spere densely covered in intricate patterns that flowed into each other, making it utterly impossible to tell where one ended and the next one began. The core, a guaranteed drop from an Elemental, the only problem when it came to actually getting one was, well, killing the fucking Elemental. With the core clutched in his hand, Isaac walked into his living container and briefly phased once inside, deliberately excluding the water, letting all the moisture fall through him, leaving him perfectly dry. From there, it was a matter of moments to draw out a Tier 5 circle, drop the core in and charge it once his mana hit the required amount. After all, creating an Extradimensional Pocket required a whopping 250 mana. Congrattions! Youve surmounted immense odds and managed to create an Extradimensional Pocket, a member of the [Rewards] type summons. (Rewards tab in the instruction manual unlocked) Your Extradimensional Pocket can be opened at will, by you and only you, within fifty meters of the ce where it was summoned and has a volume of 3x3x3 meters. Each person can only have one Extradimensional Pocket, to ess it from elsewhere requires a Remote ess Core (inscribed Lesser Space Elemental Core, see inscription?) that will be consumed upon use and grants the user five minutes of ess to his core. Re-using this ritual will move the existing Extradimensional Pocket to the new site, anchoring it there until it is moved again. There was a shimmer in the air as he opened the Pocket. It wasnt an actual room he could ess, sadly, but the actual Extradimensional Room exceeded his current mana pool by quite a bit, though it required the same ingredients. He could also instinctively tell what was in the Pocket at all times, currently, it was obviously empty. Then, he walked around the clearing and tossed each of the Forge Golem bits into it. The next time he visited Stagmer, he could just use the temporary ess version of the Pocket to drop it all off there. Easy as pie. While it would cost him a very painful fight each time he used this trick to transportrge amounts of material, but he could do it. Isaac sat down at the kitchen table, scooped up a book off of it and read a few chapters, then headed back out for the next fight against an Elemental. And again. And again until he was left with a total of five cores and had even gained an Aspect that offered [Spatial Affinity], [Funhouse Warp] and [Spatial Turbulence]. Thetter two were cool enough, but utter mana hogs and wouldnt fit him at all, so he decided to not get those while the former would enhance all space aligned [Skills], including teleportation, but that would be a hell of a lot more useful in someone elses hands. Probably a nice gift for when one of his colleagues gained a portal [Skill], and given their [sses], that shouldnt even take very long. Soon, hed be in a position to start making moves on Tier 5 and above monsters, but there was one big problem with that. He now had a property he could summon at, out of the way and all, but it was also legally tied to him, which meant that any messes that urred on it were also his. Now, he was very much off the beaten path here, but he was also under an open sky, so there was a direct line of sight to any and satellites that might have this ce in their field of view. Everyone who met him in a professional capacity and had half a brain could tell he summoned on the side, but having big and clear video evidence of fights against some of the more dangerous ones would be bad, especially if they were retroactively identified as being Tier 5. There were solutions to block that with magic tricks, but at that point, the concealment would be even more conspicuous that the actions it was hiding. The solution for now was pretty easy though, just put a roof over it, then p an illusion onto it that made it always look the same when viewed from above. Hed already hired people for that, though, so he could just stick with the more basic monsters until then. Eventually, theyd figure out a solution for Vegas casinos and then he could apply it here too. Well, he saidfigure out, but he really meant was that hed feed them the solution, earning the team all a niece cash infusion from people with fuck-you money and possibly earning themselves more actual sponsors and support. Right now though, it was time for a break, so fall asleep with a good book in hisp while the rain gently pattered against the metal roof of his house. Chapter 52: Hunted Chapter 52: Hunted Isaac came in the next morning, happy as always whening into work. It was just like Confucius had said, if you loved your work, it wasnt actually work or something to that effect, it had a while since Isaac hadst heard it and it had been tranted so often that the original phrasing had been lost somewhere along the line regardless. But the point remained, he liked this. Doing things that would have been considered crazy by any sane standard despite their precautions, delving deeper and deeper into the guts of the supernatural, researching parts of the [System] even he didnt know much about. Sure, a lot of their research involved him deliberately triggering the summoning systems traps before someone else tripped over them, but others were truly new things that were being explored just for the sake of knowledge. And it certainly didnt hurt that he got along with everyone, even the government overseer who always sat in the corner to make approve their nonsense or point out the obvious when they got a little carried away. If hed actually known how to whistle, that was probably what hed have been doing. Good job, spatial storage, friends, theyd managed to severely reduce the severity of the LA catastrophe and a few other incidents simply had never taken ce. Things were good. and then he entered the meeting room and got a caught a look at Baileys face. It had something of a thundercloud, anger slowly bleeding over into fury, mixed with profound sadness and worry. Uh-oh. On the table in front of himy a file that strongly resembled the stereotypical police folders one saw in movies and tv shows, closed and ubeled, but it was clear that Bailey had read it from the fresh crinkles in its spine and way the dust, a small amount of which had settled here in the few days since thest time this room had been cleaned, had shifted. So someone had handed him a physical copy of something incredibly upsetting, in a format that the university didnt use. A death threat, maybe? Whats wrong, Adam? Can I help? Isaac asked. Potential issue for all of us, Ill exin in a moment when the others arrive so I dont have to go through it several times. They said theyd some more of the refrigerated storage crates beforeing in today. Bailey sighed. Mind if I check out that file, then? Isaac asked. He really wanted to know what was going on. Might be better to get some context first. Bailey suggested, so Isaac pulled the hand hed already been reaching towards the file back. The air in the room was tense for a minute, thick and heavy, until the sounds of familiar footsteps reached Isaacs ears. The others wereing. There was a ttering sound in the storage room as the crates were dropped off, then the door flew open to admit Amy, who froze at the first sight of the two of them. Something happen? she asked, sounding extremely worried. Were about to find out. Isaac shrugged, eyes locked on Bailey. Everybodye in, you all need to hear this. the professor said somberly, prompting Patrick to squeeze himself through the doorway past Amy and sit down at the table, followed by Karl and Raul. Amy, for some reason, continued to stand in the doorway for a few seconds even after everyone else had entered before she too joined Isaac and Bailey at the table, albeit a little apprehensively. Some of you might have already found out about this from the inte, but in the event you havent, itll almost certainly be on the eight oclock news tonight. But it affects us directly, so we got a heads-up from the police directly, as well as this file. Bailey said, gesturing to the offending object on the table in front of him. I find it hard to believe thats the actual case file. Patrickmented, taking advantage of the brief pause. No, its not. This is a proper collection of all the information thats been released to the public and the press so we can get it without it being altered or embellished by the media, as well as know everything that might not be deemed necessary by the news. Bailey sighed. Theres no easy way to say this, Im sorry, but it needs to be said. Theres a serial killer out there targeting summoners. They only put the pieces together a couple of days ago, but then, well, they figured out the number of dead exceeds twenty, and that is only the ones definitively identified. Based on the victim profile, there could be as many as four hundred, though that would include every murdered summoner in Europe, regardless of location and method, so a lot of those were almost certainlymitted by someone else. The method in the definitively identified cases is ratherplex. The victims are all summoners, several of them with some kind of public presence that includes encouraging others to summon in some form or other. Theyre abducted, taken to some ce thats near people but out of sight, one where people have caused issues by summoning before. Closed off areas in public parks, random peoples basements, all in the kinds of ces that offer some degree of privacy but are in no way able to contain a rampaging monster. Then theyre killed using man-made tools, but in such a way that it superficially resembles the work of a monster, often one that the victim recently summoned. Lastly, the body is dumped in a semi-public ce that is either good for summoning and might even have been used for it in the past. Abandoned warehouses, wooded areas in public parks, storage facilities, even a high school gym one time with the victim being one of the PE teachers there whod uploaded a video of himself defeating a te Golem with his bare hands. Now, the police are fairly certain theres a criteria to their victims beyond merely being summoners, otherwise the killer wouldnt have travelled to Germany, France, Italy, Pnd, Spain and Denmark to make their kills. At least one victim in every city they visited was moderately famous for some reason rted to summoning, but others were only discovered to have been killing monsters after their death. In summation, weve got a serial killer who, depending on their exact motivation, might be targeting us. Bailey exined. Lets see what the file says. Amymented, then made a e here gesture with her right hand and it suddenly flew into her hand Hm. What have you got? Bailey asked. Nothing, I just realized I might have been watching a little too much Criminal Minds. she answered offhandedly, the earlier apprehension nowhere to be seen. This isnt the time for jokes. Patrick shot her a re People died horribly and we might be in danger of the same thing happening to us. Actually, now is exactly the time for these jokes. No need to fall into depression if you can avoid it. Amy told him, shing him a brief grin. Let me see that. Patrick replied, telekically snatched the file out of her hands and deposited it in his own. All three of the [System Researchers] here had learned that little trick, it was simply too useful to pass up given that they could learn a truly massive number of [Skills]. How about you give that to Isaac or me, then you three can look at it with [Scry]? Karl rumbled, ring at the two of them That way, were not constantly yanking these things out of each others hands or huddled together like penguins, all trying to read the same file? Patrick just sighed and tossed it over, Karl grabbing it while Isaac read it from his seat next to the engineer. Mana red and suddenly, three magical spy cameras were hovering behind his head. That was another one of the amazing utility spells hed suggested they all learn. Amy had [Mage] as her base [ss] and had grabbed it a while ago, which had made teaching it to them easy enough. As concerning as this is, there are things we can do to help things. Try to vary out routes home, taking basic precautions like buying a deadbolt, being a little more careful walking home alone without anyone around, maybe getting a proper lock for this ce. Karl suggested Also, were probably among the most well known summoners in Europe right now and smack in the middle of this guys hunting ground. Or girl, you know women can be serial killers too, right? Amy threw in All I can say that Im learning a portal spell and then just teleporting to work, problem solved. Are we sure this is person is even human? Raul frowned, hard. His pet dinosaur, a Microraptor called Brisa, was sitting on hisp, where he was absentmindedly petting her. This is a death made to look like it was caused by a [System] monster, but noticeably done so with tools, thats downright inhumane. Theyre dying all over the continent, that looks weird. And then theres the fact that these people are all summoners with a decent Level, they arent weak, but the file doesnt mention any sign of a fight. This killer has to be travelling so much that it prevents them from constantly summoning and getting stronger, but some of the victims are full-time summoners. What if its a monster? One that hasnt triggered the whole automatic summoning issue despite being active for at least five weeks, possibly for the whole eight weeks since the initialization? Patrick pointed out. The [System] is literally magic, whos to say its the only kind that exists? Raul argued. Nah, I tried out all of that, magic was fake before. Amy shrugged Maybe someone summoned Jack the Rippers revenant? Thats oddly specific suggestion. Karl frowned Any reason? Nah, that was just the first serial killer that came to mind. Amy shrugged. A revenant? Raul asked. Theres an Undead section in the summoning list, theres probably necromancy as well. she shrugged again, then added Hm, do you think you could talk to the ghosts of dead people then? Children, please, can we go back to the topic at hand, the normal stuff that exists in the real world instead of fantasnd? Patricks voice cut through the argument, reverberating oddly in such a way that made it clearly audible over everyone elses. Given that his entered university at 16, finished it at 18 Wunderkind status made him the youngest person here, his use of the word children was a bit rich, but he had a point. Theyd gone off on a bit of a tangent when they should have been talking about the very real issue at hand. I think it goes without saying, but until someone figures out exactly how the victims are chosen or how this fucker is able to defeat such powerful people, we should be on our toes, take the precautions that Karl suggested, and those of us with [sses] that can copy [Skills] or other abilities can grab some specific things that would help, I have some suggestions. Also, Adam, the next time the police talks to you about this, please tell them Im willing to help any way I can. Isaac offered. Look, Isaac, I know youre powerful, but this isnt a random monster that popped out of the ground. Bailey said This is a human with clear fighting prowess whos hunting people like you, specifically. The professor didnt directly mention Isaacs off the clock summons, but it was clear that was what he was talking about. I know. Isaac insisted But Im also a sensory specialist with excellent tracking abilities and the [Skills] to see through a lot of stealth and concealment [Skills] that only very few members of the police force will have already unlocked. Look, Ill suggest it and theyll probably jump at the chance, especially with your good rtionship, but personally, please dont do this. Bailey shook his head. Honestly, chasing after the killer surrounded by armed officers might be the safest possible ce for me. Isaac said, letting none of his inner turmoil show. Now, this could just be a coincidence, but this strongly reminded him of a case that had been on the news in the other timeline, of a serial killer whod murdered irresponsible summoners, but that had been a few years from now. Could it be the same person? And if so, what had happened to change that? Or maybe hedpletely missed this entire mess in the other timeline, to focused on advancing his career after hed been one of the few people toe in immediately after the initialization and gotten a promotion for it. Hed had a bit of a habit to focus overly much on one thing to the exclusion of everything else and missing things. It was possible that had happened here too, it was sadly a possibility. Hed definitely have to make some enquiries about that. Fundamentally, he could understand the reasoning behind all of this, especially given that some of the victims were truly irresponsible idiots whod have likely run into him in a dark alley sooner orter if they didnt learn somemon sense. But random murder was wrong on a fundamental level, for obvious reasons, no matter how much he wanted to throttle the idiots that had ended up dead, especially the ones who encouraged others to follow into their footsteps. Sure, there were the nihilistic fuckwits who summoned monsters because they felt the end was nigh and they might as well elerate is, or maybe that the world was diseased and needed to be purified by having all of humanity wiped out by monsters, or maybe point was, those people were in a ss of their own, a ss hed have very littlepunctions about going after with lethal force. Now it only he had actual legal names for them However, one thing was for certain. Whoever this was, they had some kind of extraordinary [ss], unique [Skill], or monstrous level of talent. Or maybe they were a gigantic hypocrite who summoned while punishing others for the same thing. except Raul had been right, between travel time and however long it took to kill the victims, the killer couldnt be possibly be a full time summoner. Regardless of if the people in the room with him were going to be a target, hed be going after this person, that was for certain. Now, how to get his hands on the official police files? Chapter 53: Shady Deals Chapter 53: Shady Deals Now that he knew about the killer, Isaac had started actively looking for them online. Previously, all there had been were reports of viscous murders, but the fact that theyd happened all over the ce had prevented the cops from putting things together for far too long. But nothing had happened to any member of the team for three weeks, no one had noticed anything and bodies had continued to drop in other ces, so it had seemed like they were going to be safe. They were all still taking precautions, but it seemed like any kind of organized and official summonings with all the needed precautions were safe from the killers wrath. Isaac, meanwhile, had just kept going as normal. He had [Hunters Gaze] always active as a matter of course, scanning everyone he encountered. If he ran across someone who could somehow block the [Skill] or was actually identified as having the [Serial Killer] or equivalent [ss], then he knew there was about to be trouble and could get ready. And at this point, he was almost certain that this killer had a [ss] like that, or at the very least, an evolution of [Rogue]. Subduing people like the ones that had fallen to this killer wasnt easy, especially if one had to do so quietly. Of course, those were also the [sses] that were the best at blocking [Inspect], so simply trying to scan everyones [ss] to find them would be functionally impossible for the police. For him, it would also be difficult, but if he ran across someone he couldnt identify, the potential for trouble was there, so hed get ready for a fight as a matter of course. Right now though, none of that mattered, there were other matters to pay attention to, namely, a business deal. You know that list of yours was any Interpol agents wet dream, right? Calise chuckled as he greeted Isaac from his seat in the restaurants private room. I mean, you asked for a dozen different nt products whose possession and use is frownedupon, conflict diamonds, endangered animal parts the list goes on and on, and its a good one. Isaac shrugged I need all of that stuff and if were legal, Id be getting it from a supermarket. This was another facet of the [Systems] nastiness. There were essentially two kinds of summoning resources. There was the cheap, abundant kind that pretty much anyone could get their hands on, which made summoning most monsters stupidly easy. And then you had the rare stuff, the kind that was either hard to get and forced people to fight over what little there was or needed to be created by doing awful things. Some were illegal, others could only be sourced through truly despicable means. The greatest examples of this were conflict diamonds, or as the [System] referred to them, diamonds bathed in the blood of innocents. The problems began with the circumstances that were required to create them, but that was quite literally only a small part of that mess. Then there was the small issue that the supply wasnt that big when conflict diamonds specifically were required, especially if the world ever achieved argely peaceful state. At that point,ary scale powerhouses would have likelye into existence, which was about the level where people would start to run into roadblocks to progression and looking for new ways to advance. These ambitious people would also have the power to manipte events in such a way as to eventually lead to the creation of more conflict diamonds. And all of that was ignoring the fact that the [System] never outright listed that it required conflict diamonds, instead describing them with a fanciful term that would make people think simply drenching diamonds in literal, physical, blood harvested from people they deemed innocent. When the first attempt inevitably failed due to the fact that it was wed from the start, theyd go after other innocent types of people. People never convicted of a crime, virgins, children, newborns. Over and over until someone figured out the wordy, after all, it was blindingly obvious in hindsight. Isaac would point that out when it was time in order to prevent the senseless ughter of people who would be considered innocent as per any definition of the word, but not before. There was no real right solution to this insidious mess, but this was the least bad option, at least the way he saw it. As for the other stuff, well, a lot of potion ingredients were pretty illegal as it were. For example, mental celerity and mana restoration potions contained cocaine. No knew for certain if the alchemy system had been set up to contain crap like that or it was just a coincidence that the ingredients to such useful potions would inevitably lead to butting heads with thew, but that was indubitably the end result. I suppose thats one way to look at it. Caliseughed It wasnt easy, but I got everything you wanted. Not here, mind you, but in a location that actually has the space for it. Also, I got that file you wanted. With that, the mob boss slid a mani folder across the table, so Isaac stepped up and picked it up, seeing crime scene photos on first few pages. This would be incredibly useful. He hadnt been able to find out much about the serial killer, sadly, and theyd kept killing all throughout thest three weeks. Now, I have no idea why you wanted the file for the Monster Killer, but here you go. Calise asked, giving Isaac a questioning look. Isnt it obvious? Isaac closed the file, pulled out the chair and sat down That whole mess has a good chance of sttering onto us as well. Unless you stopped levelling? Of course, no one in this room had done so. The human goris were the same asst time, solidly above Level 10 with one of them having an Aspect of the Specter while the second held some kind of Rock Golem Aspect. Their [sses], meanwhile, were something like [Bodyguard], able to lend their boss their Fortitude in case of emergency, allowing him to tank a hell of a lot more damage than he had any right to. Of course, there was a way around that. Namely, attack the person being protected to trigger the defensive [Skill], then murder the bodyguard before the Fortitude could be transferred back. Calise, meanwhile, felt like some kind of it was actually kind of hard to describe in words. He had a certain affable warmth to him, like a kindly grandfather, but it was all just ayer over a hard and razor sharp core, one that would poke through the exterior and slice you to ribbons if you decided to push against that warmth and revealed the darkness within. It was times like this when he reallymented his [ss] inability to get him actual names because knowing the precise phrasing would have been interesting. Then again, likely the only reason he''d been able to get anything was that [Hunters Gaze] bypassed [Privacy] and most of its upgrades. Hm, I suppose so. But whoever this guy is, theyre tilting at windmills. We have more people use our summoning facilites every day than have been killed by him to date. Sure, some of them were idiots whod have ended up dead sooner orter, getting a lot of others killed in the process, but the rest, theyre people just like us. Calise chuckled. And if he goes after you? Then I kick his ass. Killing dumbasses is very different than fighting an organized group with considerable Levels of their own. Calise shrugged dismissively. On the other hand, this is a serial killer. Who knows what kinds of anti-human [ss]-[Skills] they have? Besided I find it hard to believe that killing humans gives out no XP and given how many people have already been killed look out for yourself. Isaac said seriously. He didnt really value the rtionship with Calise that much, but getting another contact for ck Market goods would be a pain in the ass. Ive had peoplee after me for reasons a lot more personal me being a part of some vague group that might have roused someones ire. Calise shrugged Besides, our summoning rooms are well-fortified. Nothing is getting out of there. And you would not believe how much spoiled little rich kids pay for someone to hold down a hydra so they can decapitate it with a red-hot de. People will pay for the craziest things. Isaac shrugged I hope you have a way to deal with the fumes, though. Hydra blood is toxic and I doubt itspletely safe to inhale. It isnt, we found that out the hard way. But thank God for healers, eh? Caliseughed Youre a quick one, arent you, Mr. Holt. You have to be, in our line of work. Finding a need isnt exactly worth much if someone else did it first and is already fulfilling it. Isaac shrugged. He seemed to be doing that a lot today. Then, he frowned. Earlier, you mentioned my list made me look like a narc. What made you decide I wasnt? It wasnt an important question, but one hed very much like to know the answer to. Calise threw his head back and startedughing, great, booming guffaws echoing off the ceiling. You contacted me hours after Initialization. Those pansies who work for all those alphabet soups agencies wouldnt dare to summon without filling out a request form, in triplicate. And thening to visit us the next da- Whatever he was going to say next was swallowed by moreughter. Looking at it like that, that was a stupid question. Isaac admitted Now, back on the topic of business. Ive brought the Aspects you specifically requested, as well as enough to cover the rest. He then moved to heft his metal briefcase onto the table, when Calise shook his head. Why dont we discuss this over lunch? Of course. Isaac agreed and the moment those words passed his lips, a waiter entered from a door well camouged in the wood paneling of the wall. After finishing his sd, Isaac set down his fork, ced the briefcase on the table and flipped it open. Ten Aspects sat in perfectly smooth holes in the ck velvet covered foam that filled the briefcase, the whole thing looking quite impressive and semi-professional. Hed gathered quite a few of them by fighting monsters above his weight ss. Some had gone to Bailey, some had gotten sold for some clean cash, others he was saving for when he needed them. This was one of those times. What I have here is two Aspects of the Wraith. They function as upgrades to your current Aspect of the Specter, falling into the same slot while upgrading the existing [Skill]. Isaac exined, gesturing to the two dark blue spheres Next to it, we have two Aspects of the Lesser Hydra and one Aspect of the Hydra, the Tier 5 version, and can upgrade the lesser ones. Then we have one Aspect of each of the Lesser Elementals, Air, Water, Fire and Earth. Thest one belongs to a Tier 5 golem by the name of The Crusher. All in all, I believe this suffices? Now, Im aware that that would make these Aspects considerably more expensive than the ones fromst time, but Im afraid my luck getting them thest time made them appear to be considerably moremon than they actually are. Thats still cheaper than some of the other offers Ive gotten. Your prices are quite good, which begs one question: why? Calise asked, the seriousness of the question somewhat undercut by the fact that he was wiping some sd dressing from his mouth as he said this. That had clearly been deliberate, making the question seem more innocent. While I value money and the things I can get with them, I value rtionships more. I can get money easily enough, I can get goods too, but gaining rtionships or regaining integrity is neither fast or easy. Showing up here, cheaply selling Aspects and then jacking up the prices the next time we meet perhaps a smart business decision, but less so from a personal point of view. As Isaac said this, Calise startedughing again. Business over rtionships, hah, youd fit in pretty well here. he chuckled Some people will tell you to always get as much money as you can, but those people are idiots. Cant put a price on good will, after all. You know what, Ive got a few bottles of nice wine in the cer, the kind you cant really buy without obscene wealth or the right connections. Why dont we crack open one of those and toast to this, Mr. Holt? Or do you still need to drive home? I do, but alcohol cant really affect me anymore. Isaac nodded and Calise called the waiter over and ordered a bottle that Isaac didnt know anything about, but it sounded fancy. So, to good rtionships, and may this whole mess with the serial killer blow over. Calise toasted. To good rtionships, and may people start using their heads when the summon. Isaac altered the toast slightly, then their sses clinked together and they drank. He didnt know much about wine, but he had to admit this one was pretty good. Would you like to take a bottle or two home with you? Calise suggested. Id like that, thank you. This is an excellent vintage, perfect for celebrating milestones like this one, everyone should have a few of those in their wine cer. Isaac nodded. The rest of the meal passed quickly with a bunch of inane chatter. As Isaac sat down his spoon after scarfing down a te of tiramisu, Calise got to his feet. I believe weve kept you waiting long enough, shall we go see your new belongings? One short car rideter, they were strolling through argely empty industrial area and for a brief moment, Isaac feared an ambush. But he couldnt hear anyone around and Calise waspletely rxed, making him rx in turn. Besides, he was incredibly good at surviving ambushed with his [Skill]set. And here we are. If you brought a truck, well dly help you load it up. Otherwise, feel free to keep this stuff here until you figure out how to transport it. Calise said as he opened up the door to a storage locker utterly crammed with stuff. The diamonds didnt take up much space, and the same thing went for the drugs. He only needed a few for potions, but when heter released potion recipes or someone else figured them out, him having bought only the ones needed for potions would look suspicious, so hed bought some of basically all of the ones hed ever heard about. No, it was the rare animal parts that were taking up vast amounts of space. They might have been good resources to summon rare creatures, but Isaac actually wanted them for different reasons. Amongst the Reward type summons, there were several wildlife sanctuary types that could serve to preserve living species in their proper ecosystem but only if someone had preserved the necessary bits beforehand. People didnt know enough to hunt them down yet, so this was the best possible time to make sure he could generate those spaces in the future, before anyone else could drive up the price beyond what he could pay. Thank you for the offer, but thankfully, I have something for that. Isaac drew a small, fist sized, metal ted ball out of his coat pocket, held it out to the storage locker and suddenly, it vanished along with everything in the storage locker. The orb had, of course, been an engraved Lesser Space Elemental Core, used to remotely ess his storage space, covered in embellishments to hide its true nature that had been sucked into the storage as well. Huh. How much for that? Calise asked, seemingly struggling to keep the hunger out of his voice. Proprietary technology, Im afraid, single use and dangerous to create. Isaac shook his head Once were in a position to safely and consistently create these, theyre probably going to go for maybe ten thousand each. And he really didnt want to encourage anyone to summon any kind of Space Elemental. I see. Calise looked like hed bitten into a lemon. Now, Im afraid I have another meetingter today. Isaac began cautiously and Calise nodded. Ah well, the world stops for no man. I wish you good luck with that, and may our next meeting be just as fruitful as this one. They shook hands and Isaac walked off, doing his usual disappear the moment Im out of sight shtick. Then he changed clothes before going to the train station and boarding the train back home. He was nning on taking a brief catnap to take care of all his sleep needs, then review the case file. Chapter 54: Solstice Chapter 54: Solstice The rattling of the train under his ass made sleeping a bit more difficult than it was normally, but he still somehow managed and it didnt take very long for him to stave off sleep until evening on the day after this one. Hed spend the rest of the day and night summoning once he was back home, then go to work in the morning. Once hed managed to snatch a few minutes of sleep, Isaac opened the case file and began to study it. Hed made sure to sit somewhere the cameras couldnt see over his shoulder and Calise had actually given him a different cover so it looked less like your stereotypical police file. All in all, it shouldnt look too weird, especially given that he was still wearing a face other than the one hed been born with, thanks to hundred faces. The file was very useful and it would have been great to have earlier, but getting it had posed a few problems. Stealing it would have been easy, but if he got caught, thered have been hell to pay. Talking his way onto the investigation might have also been possible, but it might have looked damn suspicious. The whole serial killer inserts themselves into the investigation might have been a trope for the most part, but he didnt have any obvious skills that would have benefited the investigation, given that his tracking abilities needed an actual specific person to track. Of course, Isaac hadnt sat idle until hed gotten his hands on this thing, but that didnt mean hed really gotten anywhere. Hed looked into the current whereabouts of Arianne Krebs, the killer from the other timeline, but it hadnt been easy, given that she lived in northern Germany, far from him, and he didnt really have the ability to track people via things like credit card purchases. Askingw enforcement to track one specific person would have been the single most suspicious thing he could have possibly done. Also, shed dropped off the face of the Earth, something that might have been suspicious, if her husband hadnt recently died to an irresponsibly summoned ghost and the apartment building she lived in destroyed by someone who tried to blow it up using a gas stove. Well, Isaac had said recently, but this had happened right after Initialization, something that made it supremely unlikely that it would have been changed by his existence as a time traveler. There had been a suspicious death after that, a friend of the original summoner had said hed summon and kill a Ghost in the honor of the dumbass whod gotten so many people killed, once it had bemon knowledge that Ephemeral foes were vulnerable to mana based attacks. Someone had smashed in idiot number twos skull with a rock. While that looked pretty damning, there was an entire building full of people who might have also been the culprits. Isaac had left an anonymous tip with a voice changed by shortening his vocal cords using [Hundred Faces], saying hed just remembered seeing a person matching Mrs. Krebs description right before the guy had been killed, but that was all. As far as hed been able to tell, she didnt have any kind of home address other than the burned down building and if she was actually the culprit, she had no reason toe back. Instead, she was travelling all over Europe to murder stupid summoners and Isaac wasnt in a position to drop everything to track her down. Regardless of if it was her or someone else, the [System] was still the biggest problem and the one he needed to focus on. Right now, the only public and obvious summoners were dumbass posers, influencers, and people like Polizeir?tin Eisenberg who were leadingrge scale, organized summoning programs, and hed never gone after thetter. Sure, going after a high ranking member of the police force would have been terminally stupid, but there were people who werent cops and still creating properly organized summoning groups. Firefighters, military, even a couple of civilian organizations. All had gone untouched. Clearly, the issue wasnt summoning itself, but unorganized summoning without precautions. But somehow, the killer was identifying summoners even when they didnt have a public persona as one. Clearly, some manner of [Skill] was being employed. Isaac strongly suspected that the killer was first travelling to a given location in search of a public summoner, killed them, and then went after a whole bunch of other people identified as summoners by whatever [Skill] they possessed. And that [Skill] would probably ping off of Isaac and the rest of the team as well. A killer going after the summoners so willing to take risks that a google search would identify them as such, those who encouraged others to summon wantonly without reminding them of proper precautions, they were a problem and while Isaac wasnt about to kill them, he did hate them. There was an argument to be made to go after this killer as a matter of general human decency, but the same one could be made for every other serial killer in the world. Everyone else, however, they might be the future powerhouses of humanity or someone who summoned as a part of one of the aforementioned summoning groups, people who werent the problem. Like the team. People were only fame-adjacent, so they might not be safe. And that elevated the killer from a general problem for humanity in general to a specific threat to his loved ones. Yet even then, he couldnt take off a few weeks or even months to hunt an elusive killer all over Europe, if it even was her. There were plenty of other people who might be it, hell, it could be someone hed never hear off. And while this killer was a problem, the [System] research couldnt afford to slow down a single bit. Isaac shook his head and cursed under his breath, then proceeded to look over the victims autopsy reports. Wounds that looked just like theyd been caused by [System] creatures, except with man made tools. des instead of ws, blowtorches instead of fire magic, all of it had been done using perfect precision, though the autopsy report imed that injuries suffered concurrently with the time of death had been caused by the victim thrashing around. Some kind of absurd precision [Skill], possibly even one that allowed for supernaturally skilled handling of any tool the killer picked up. If that was useable in actualbat, rather than being restricted to executions, that might actually be trouble. Of course, that only held true if the killer was anywhere close to him in level, but regardless, it was a bad sign. As he read further and further through the file, Isaac became more and more certain that the killer was Mrs. Krebs. Now all he needed was a shot at her. Still, this certainty meant that he could go straight for her if he ever caught a whiff of her presence anywhere, and at that point, a single [Hunters Gaze] would give him certainty. And until then, he could go ahead and send the police her way using any method he could think up. All he needed was an opening. Then again, Amy was about to learn [Portal] and would then be able to drop him off throughout most of Germany at the drop of a hat. If a summoner vanished within her range, she could drop him off with the local police department to help track. A while ago, while looking up Krebs, hed also found a short video clip of her yelling about bastard summoners, as well as a trail directly leading to the apartment building massacre and subsequent fire. He could then im to recognize her from a past sleuthing session. Not his best excuse, but when her [ss] was identified as something rted to murder, that sess would likely bury the issue. Perhaps, a simple assassination would work better, but that would require him to know someone had vanished before they were killed and she moved on, which would be hard without police help. And getting there without a portal would also be a pain in the ass. Besides, hed love to see this entire mess dragged out in front of a court ofw and therefore into the light, because then, the summoning affair would have a face. A grief-stricken widow, and a parade of idiots who put others in danger and might even have gotten them killed. Sure, the grief-stricken widow was a serial killer and all, but herwyer would probably try to y up the sob story. And then, that might hammer home the idea that summoners needed to be fricking careful. At least that was what he hoped would happen. If he was even right about the killers identity in the first ce. Isaac just sighed and leaned back in his seat, swearing internally. All of this was so goddamnplicated. But the roof for his summoning area had finally beenpleted, so he could finally summon monsters that wouldnd him in a world of trouble if they were caught on satellite. After all, these things were Tier 5 and visible as hell. Well, the Poltergeist was the only one at Tier 5, but one of the others was an electric elemental, and those were very much a no-no summon, given the whole nearly lost a city of millions incident. The train ttered along the tracks, taking him back to where he wanted to be. Three hours to go. Isaac sighed again and pulled up his Status screen to look it over. In thest few weeks, hed gotten quite a bit stronger. Hed wasted quite a bit of time on the experience front murdering Lesser Space Elementals even after hed exceeded his XP limit for them, but gained plenty of cores in exchange. Then quite a bit of time had gone into summoning and then keeping upied monsters that held interesting powers that the others to copy. Then thered been the three days stuck at the police station fixing the titanic mess that the summoning program had turned into after the bureaucratical overlords had misunderstood something and decided the whole thing was too dangerous and hed been asked to present a professional opinion. Five friggin times. But in the end, it had worked and the program had even gotten a bit more funding. Overall, things had gone pretty well on every front other than personal improvement. Still, multiple weeks of improvement were multiple weeks, so he had gotten stronger and it showed in the Status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 16 XP: 34,916/3,400 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 300/300 Stats Fortitude 45 Perception 45 Strength 30 Agility 50 Magic Power 30 Magic Regeneration 50 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror XIII The Chosen Weapon XVI Skills Hundred Faces XIV Stealth XIV Power Strike XXII Piercing Strike XXIV Sundering Strike XXII des XXIII Sneak XVII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XVII Manifold Strike XV Hunters Gaze XVII Phantom Step XIII Unknown Fear IX Bestial Regeneration IX Undying Focus IV Tools of Terror VIII General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy VII Aspects Aspect Skills Specter Spectral Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Hed managed to get multiple [Skills] above a threshold, thetest being [Hundred Faces], though all that did was increase the area that could be manipted to his entire body. Full body shapeshifting was an awesome ability, but also a titanic pain in the ass to use properly. Still, he had the practice to use it, even if no one else had already gained it. The others though there was a reason Level 20 was a big deal, and it was extremely interesting how it interpreted his fighting style when assigning bonuses. Sundering Strike mon, Level XX) Users next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. This Skill can also be toggled to be almost undetectable, destroying any nerves or creature specific equivalent upon impact, or cause maximum pain by directly irritating whatever pain receptors a being might have. After countless battles where this Skill was used to tear apart the users foes, shredding them on a fundamental level until their own movements tore them apart, it has evolved to destroy them, rather than merely weakening them. For an additional 18 mana, this Skill will now inject a weakening, magic-based poison that rots an enemys flesh and corrodes their defenses until nothing but soup remains. Cost: 12 mana per strike, 30 mana per poisoning Strike That one had been kinda obvious in hindsight, though. Pulsing that [Skill] until his opponent fell to pieces would obviously then result in a destructive, poison like evolution, rather than anything more mundane. Power Strike mon, Level XX) Users next blow will strike with as much force as though the users strength stat were 50%+2n% where n equals skill level higher. This Skill may now also be safely used on fists and legs and has a reduced bacsh on the users body. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to drive a piercing de into an enemys flesh, it has evolved to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction, driving the cutting edge into the foe while pushing them with vastly reduced strength, massively improving armor pration. Cost: 12 mana per strike [Power Strike], on the other hand, was a very pleasant surprise. After all, he used it over and over again in conjunction with [Piercing Strike], and now it had part of the other [Skills] effect as a matter of course? Perfect! But the clear winner was [des]. des mon, Level XX) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and nonbat applications. In addition, the user may repair any ded weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the users hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool. After countless battles where the user has obliterated his foes using a soulbound de able to gain new abilities from power foes while making extensive use of Aspects, it has gained the ability to infuse the weapon, Old Reliable, with the power of said Aspects to give it new forms. In theory, Old Reliable could gain new abilities by fighting powerful enemies, but in practice, that meant either a [Raid Boss] or punching above his weight ss to a truly insane degree. But with this [Skill] upgrade, hed now gained three new weapon abilities just from the Aspects he held. Besides, hed soon be grabbing some more for himself. Aspect Infusion: This gives Old Reliable a variation on each form based on the users Aspects (Hydra: Venomsteel, Dunkleosteus: Bonede, Specter: Astral Piercer). This costs 15 mana each time a new Aspect is infused, and 10 mana per minute of keeping it active. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. The weapon ability didnt look that impressive, but going deeper into the exnations revealed how good the upgrade was. Or at least, it would have, if Isaac hadnt already known all of that from the other timeline. Venomsteel was what it said on the tin, a basic weapon envenomed with the blood of a Hydra, even if the name was likely incorrect. After all, Hydra blood was a poison, not a venom. The difference? Venom is a problem when it bites you, poison is a problem when you bite it Isaac chuckled softly at the memory of a marine drill sergeant shouting that in some poor kids face after hed asked a poorly timed question. The bone version wasnt that powerful, but if Isaac Thoma never used it, it would let him freely use his soulbound weapon inbat while using another identity. And then there was the Astral Piercer, a nasty piece of work that directly attacked the spirit of anyone stabbed with it. Ephemeral beings would take immense amounts of damage, almost as much as if hed used a blood enchantment, while more corporeal foes and humans would take direct damage to their ability to use magic. Stab them enough times and their mana would directly flow out of them without any input from them until the wound healed. And being a spiritual injury, most normal methods wouldnt really work. In most situations, it would be easier to just stab his opponents with a corporeal and far more immediately lethal weapon, but he could see quite a few uses for it, especially against [Raid Bosses]. Damaging the parts they used to unleash their strongest wepons, for example, could change the course of a battle in a sh. Well, that had kept him upied for all of ten minutes on the outside, what to do for the rest of the hour long drive? needless to say, Isaac was practically bouncing off the walls by the time the train pulled into the home station and he tore off like a bat out of hell the instant doing so wouldnt scare the hell out of a bunch of passers by. Soon, his new and improved home came into view. Three more containers had been added and properly connected to the others in such a way that he did not need to go outside to go between them, but that practically went unnoticed whenpared to the other new addition. A fifty by fifty meter area was now covered by a ten meter tall metal roof that brought to mind one of those old school convention halls, though it was far sturdier than its looks might suggest. Both Stagmer and Karl had applied every reinforcing [Skill] they had to this ce and soon enough, Isaac would hopefully figure out a way to make basic enchantments known to the world in a non-suspicious way. Isaac took a moment to put away his stuff, then put away everything loose around the center of the summoning area, and then drew the Tier 5 circle out in chalk, ced in the materials, and then charged it. While his mana regenerated, he stripped naked and put his clothes away as well, until the only thing not nailed down within his line of sight was Old Reliable. The weapon shifted into its Kriegsmesser configuration, then he drew it across his left palm and ced it down on the ground in front of him. He dipped his right index finger in the blood and began to draw out the best blood enchantment for fighting intangible foes while applied to an Astral Piercer weapon. And then, the Poltergeist erupted from the summoning circle the instant his mana was full after the Kriegsmesser had been transformed into something that looked like pale blue and translucent crystal. An immense pressure wave washed out from it, trying to grasp the weapon and stab him with it, but it was a part of him. The roof groaned as it was exposed to forces it was not meant to be exposed to, but only for a brief moment as Isaac crossed the distance in a heartbeat and drove the deadly weapon into the monsters gut, red blood flowing from the wound in his right palm as the enchantment red. Blood enchants were powerful, but while they were in use, the wounds from which the blood for them had been drawn couldnt be healed and also bled the more power they needed. The Poltergeist continued to try and find something to hurl at him, but everything here was nailed down and the ground was one solid piece of rock. A Poltergeist could barely directly affect living beings and Isaac wasnt even wearing clothes that might be manipted. That thing was fucked. A wave of power hammered into him directly as his foe came to that very conclusion and attacked him directly. The move was only a fraction as effective as it should have been, but it still forced him to his knees, insides feeling like they were being crushed in a giant vice. But its powers sucked against living beings. It was able to keep him at a distance and inflict mild damage, but it was dying all the while. Isaac had known all of this ahead of time, and figured out that hed have survived the ordeal with mild internal injuries even without the upgraded weapon. As it was, the Poltergeist fell apart more quickly than his initial calctions would have indicated and the fight was over and all his wounds healed, save the injury to his palm. He left that because he still needed the blood enchant for the next one. It too died rather quickly, to the exact same method. That just went to show that if you could figure out how to properly counter a foe, beating them could be pretty easy. A storm of every movable object within ten meters trying to shove itself through your heart was a tough, nearly impossible flight. But take those objects away Well, not easy, Isaac grumbled, rubbing at his injured side, but rather simple. It was inevitably painful, but a guaranteed sess. And this time, hed even gotten the Aspect. Aspect of the Poltergeist: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Poltergeist a Poltergeist. Walking through walls as if there were nothing there, a rather loose rtionship with gravity, the power to hunt the living with ease and toss around cars as if they were mere Legos. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Magic Power One of the following Skills: Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hunt of the Damned Telekic Domain The choice was simple. Upgrade [Spectral Shift] to [Poltergeists Shift], then grab the misleadingly named [Poltergeists Flight]. [Telekic Domain] was awesome, but it was a mana hog of titanic proportions, making its use the privilege of magic users. Poltergeists Flight (rare) Gravity, whats that? Something a user of this Skill doesnt have to worry about, thats for certain. Activating Poltergeists Flight will nullify the effect of gravity on the user and for an increased mana cost, it will also prevent the user from being affected by the wind. Cost: 1 mana per second of use, 3 mana per two seconds of use if wind is nullified The [Skill] should probably have been called [Poltergeists Floatation], but then again, it did let you fly like a Poltergeist. That being said, there were tricks to turning a basic immunity to gravity and the winds into true flight, it just required a few other [Skills] which he already had. But before he indulged in that, he had something else to do. Get himself a proper generator for this ce. Also, he should probably take a look at his other new [Skill]. Poltergeist Shift (rare) Allows the user to shift into an Ethereal form, allowing them to pass through all non-mana-infused objects and non-Skill-enhanced attacks. Mana passing through the Users body will inflict small injuries both on the surface and the inside. Avoiding powerful attacks without a regeneration Skill is rmended. The user may also manipte light objects without making their hands corporeal. Cost: 10 mana for activation, 2 mana per second of upkeep Basically, the upkeep cost was a little cheaper and he could affect the physical world more easily. Nice, but the real winner had obviously been [Poltergeists Flight]. Isaac called an odd looking contraption out of the spatial storage and ced it on the ground. It was a sphere made from metal tes, covered in basic runic script with some technical doodads attached in a couple of ces. These were one of the basic survival things almost everyone had memorized the building instructions for. A way to convert mana to electricity. Some basic enchantments, a transformer to turn the electricity flowing off the Elemental Core stuck inside into useable electricity, and some other stuff to make sure nothing there blew up in his face or fried the things he hooked up to it. Now for the part he really didnt like. While the Tier 3 circle already charged and ready to summon a Lighting Elemental, Isaac cut both of his palms and drew blood enchants on the back off his hands and along both forearms. If it werent for [Hydras Regeneration] constantly draining mana to replenish his blood, this would have been really dangerous. As it was, this was merely incredibly ufortable. Once he was done, the monster manifested, lunged at him and was sucked into the space between his palms. The blood sizzled, his skin crisped, then ckened and burned as arcs of electricity hit it, but slowly, it condensed. And then his hands pped together, cupping a spherical space in between them as if he had a butterfly in there or something. Lightning Elemental has died to Environmental Hazard [Blood Magic Field] and has been transformed into Lighting Elemental Core Isaac finally pulled his hands back apart and there was an orb of living electricity lying in his right palm, continuing to burn his skin, so he hastily tossed it into the awaiting magical generator. Getting a magical generator was damn easy, so everyone who could survive the process had learned how to, but there was a reason most people preferred to only use it at a higher Level. Still, hed known he could survive it, so hed done it and now had a proper source of electricity. He couldy his hand on it, feed mana into the glyphs on the outside, which would then agitate the core, causing it to throw sparks that would then be absorbed by the surrounding metal and fed through the transformers to power whatever this thing was hooked up to. The method was incredibly inefficient, a single discharge of his current mana pool only able to power a normal, single family house for perhaps a day, when one could throw lightning for a mere two hundred or so mana points. Still, now all there was to do was take the generator and hide it somewhere, then add a normal generator as a cover for where he was really getting his energy from. And given that he was in range of his dimensional storage, he could not only move it using that, he could also banish it in case anyone ever came snooping, putting it firmly out of sight. Isaac sighed and went to put his clothes back on, noting that it was nearly 1 pm. Oh, how time flew when you were trying to avoid having your face ripped off by monsters. Now, though, he could try his hand at fl- Wee, one and all, to the Summer Solstice EVENT! (As this is the first event in the history of the [System], there will be a short exnation given for the entire concept. Events give all users ess to temporary summons until the end of the event, many of which give new and unique rewards.) Are you ready for the heat? For today and only today, you may summon monsters that burn with the fury of a proper summer solstice bonfire, like the Sr Giant, Mare of Helios, or defeat foes that threaten the very sun itself, like the [Raid Boss] Apothis (see full list?). But that isnt all, we Isaac stopped reading at that point, frozen solid in shock. That hadnt happened in the other timeline, this was new. And it employed a very basic marketing trick by making something only avable for a limited time, FOMO prompting overly rash buying, or in this case, summoning, something that the hype only encouraged. Also, a quick check revealed that no one would be able to summon Apothis by now, the sheer cost far too much, which would inspire people whod wished to fight him but missed their chance to do so to rush their levelling so they could grab the next unique boss. And he knew exactly who to me for this. Isaac jumped upwards, phasing through the roof andnding on it, and then shouted his rage up towards the sky. GO SHOVE A RED HOT POKER UP YOUR COLLECTIVE ASS, YOU FUCKERS! Suddenly, the gently blowing wind disappeared, the movement of the branches all around him stopped actually, everything seemed to have slowed down. And then, the world began to take on a slight purple sheen. Ruh-roh. Chapter 55: Divinity Chapter 55: Divinity Well, that wasnt a very polite thing to say, now was it? a voice asked from behind Isaac in nordically ented German, causing him to whirl around in shock. There hadnt even been the slightest hint of the strangers presence, no shift in the air as he moved, not even the tiniest sound made as he appeared and not the slightest amount of mana had been used to enter this bubble of altered time. Going unnoticed by him in the chaotic environment that was Earth was quite possible, if unlikely given that he had a Perception/Agility build and was fairly high Level. But even someone with a Level nearing one hundred or even having surpassed it would have likely left some kind of noticeable trace, even if he could only have spotted it in hindsight. Completely and utterly traceless was incredibly hard to achieve, but there was one group that had it as a matter of course. The gods. Then again, that should have been obvious from the get go, given how the world had shifted after hed started screaming insults at the sky. Standing on the roof maybe three meters away from him was a man. His overall body shape was normal, even if he stood at least two meters tall. Long blond hair flowed down his neck, ending the small of his back. His skin was fair, almost pale enough to qualify as unhealthy without quite crossing that boundary. He was wearing a suit in a surprisingly subtle purple color, as well as green pants which might have looked good if theyd been paired with something other than the purple suit. But all of those observations were rather mundane, given the mans most obvious feature. His eyes. They were green, or at least, that they were by the normal naming conventions of using the iris color to describe the entire thing, which didnt do them justice as the rest of the eyeball was a deep crimson faintly streaked with white, as if hed had the worlds worst night and burst every blood vessel within, resulting in incredibly bloodshot eyes. Surrounding these already disturbing featuresy burned and blistered skin, as if hed been using battery acid for eyedrops. And Isaac had no idea who this was beyond a god, any god. No description of any being even remotely fitting this guy had ever be public, so if hed ever made an appearance, Isaac had never heard of it. He rxed his stance, standing up straighter while letting his arms drop to his side while Old Reliable shifted into its knife form and warped into its sheath on his belt. At least it was unlikely hed be obliterated by divine power, given that doing so would give the other side a chance to take a free action. And when one considered that doing that after already giving them a chance to retaliate for the [System] alteration, that would likely be a very painful retaliation. So, this guy was unlikely to havee here to kill him, even if there was a good chance he had less extreme measures to make him suffer avable. Hm, pity. Normally people freak out a lot more when I show up. My oh my, whatever must have happened in that other timeline? the man tsked, sitting down. For a brief moment, it looked like he was about to lose his bnce and end up on his ass, but then afy armchair manifested under him and he sat down. I can tell you that. Isaac said But I do have one question: whose side are you on? Neutral. the man shrugged, manifesting a dainty little teacup and saucer, then taking a sip,pletely nonchnt. Wha- Isaac mmed his mouth shut with enough force to make his teeth hurt as they mmed together. No demanding answers of deities, dumbass! And there. It. Is! the man burst outughing Its not a good idea to keep in all your emotions, you know. I prefer to not wear my heart on my sleeve and thats not exactly an easy habit to get rid of. Isaac stated matter of factly, wracking his brain to try and remember who this guy might be. But thats boooring. the man sighed I suppose I could tell you about how being neutral works while you think about how to be a better person. See, there are people who are assholes. Some of them are humans, some are gods, some are other. Point is, theyre assholes, jackasses, jerkwads, douchebags, what have you. Those with divine power are limited by the normal constraints of that type of power brings, namely that anything they do gives the goody two shoes a chance to counter it. The others, the boundless optimists, the idiotic idealists, the sunny morons who never manage to see the darkness in others before it bites them in the ass you know the type, dont you? The same applies to them. They want to help, to fix all the problems for everyone, no matter how useless it makes the recipient because they never had to struggle for anything and all that. But they cant, because then the assholes would heap on just as much crap as got shoveled off by the bright and sunny nitwits. And then, you have the neutral ones. The ones who do random shit, some good, some bad, depending on a whim or perspective, all of that. Nature makes cute and cuddly animals and then has then has themmit patricide, fratricide, filicide, what have you. Did you know that duck galia have evolved to alternatively aid and prevent insemination via rape? Mischief is, well, mischief. Do random shit to whoever someone wants to do something to. Sometimes its a douche who gets hit and its a good thing, sometimes its a good person and its a bad thing. It all evens out in the end. Also theres things like love, revenge, war, stuff like that. Context matters. War? Isaac frowned. The others he could sort of see, but war? War to create an empire of purity for an antisemitic jackass failed painter from Austria, war to save the confident from said jackass. was the immediate, dry response. And what do you fall under, then? Isaac asked. Mischief. My name is Loki, by the way. Isaac froze as he nearly facepalmed. Blistered, bloodshot eyes? ording to mythology, Loki had been sentenced to have the venom of a serpent drip into his eyes for the rest of eternity for his role in the death of Baldur. In hindsight, it was obvious. This was incredibly dangerous. The fact that there was a god here at all was a problem, but someone as tricky as Loki? This could go incredibly dangerous. Nice to meet you, Loki. Im Isaac, but Im sure you already knew that. Isaac introduced himself as well. Of course I did. Loki winked at him. Would it be possible to hurry this along? The world could easily be tearing itself apart out there and I want to help. Isaac said imploringly, hoping to get out of here as soon as possible. Nervous, are we? Loki chuckled Im promising you, right here and now, that I wont hurt you, I wont cripple you, I wont do anything to harm you or that is contrary to your interest save perhaps the fact that youd prefer I didnt scare the hell out of or tease you. Also, were currently in a bubble of slowed time, so the world isntcurrently burning out there. You will not walk away from this conversation the poorer for it, mkay? pat, pat, pat Suddenly, the god had shifted positions and had his right hand reaching out and was patting Isaacs head as if he were a small child. That was certainly reassuring, even if Isaac was very unhappy with the from those reassurances had taken. In the myths, which were really all he had to go on, Loki kept his promises, but was so incredibly good and adhering to only their letter that they were pretty much meaningless. Then can I ask why youre here? Just so you can mess with me a little? And wheres the fun in giving out all the answers directly, hm? Loki raised and eyebrow, then rxed But the truth is pretty simple, Im messing with the others, all of them. Isnt sticking me directly into the crosshairs of the divine a little dangerous, making it, well, harmful? Isaac grimaced, images of spears forged from holy light hammering down from the heavens and reducing him to ash. No one would dare. Loki chuckled It would be way too much work. Work? Im human. Isaac frowned. No. Youre champion. Youre the only person from another timeline, the only one who knows what actually happened then. The stupidly idealistic halo-toters certainly dont, adding the functionality of sending back their own memories with the traveller would have blown the budget, so to speak. Youve clearly had some experience with how divine politics work, given that you knew to ask the right questions. How big of a karmic imbnce a certain action creates can shift around based on how likely it is to happen. Take you for example, ensuring thest surviving human would get another crack at saving everyone would create a titanic imbnce. Setting up an obscure trigger, on the other hand? Thatsparatively cheap. Youre thest survivor of a dead timeline, knowing things not even the god do. Even if youd sat down and never lifted a finger to help anyone after your return, you still held the possibility of saving the world. You certainly had a better chance than all the others, given that your very existence proves that they failed. Taking any kind of action to help or hinder the person who is in a position to save the world is he expensive. I could have killed you here and now if I hadnt promised to. Isaac froze as he heard that, tensing up even though he knew he was helpless in this situation and then Loki started speaking again, ten secondster. But if kill the man who would have saved the world, that means now I basically have to save it myself. Thats why no neutral god will dare help or hurt you and as for the others, they wouldnt touch you with a ten lightyear pole. Anything they do to you has a chance of reaping big results, to the others have basically free reign to make an equally big y. So, dont expect any divine favors now, you hear me? Isnt that what this is? Lokiughed in his face You already knew all this, you were just too much of an idiot to put it all together. Speaking of big ys though, I dont suppose you could give me some information on what is going on right now. The event, I mean. Ah, that would be telling. Youll find out soon enough. Loki shook his head Anyway, Im off to bnce out my own standing after this conversation. If Im looking too nice, Ill get some kid to drop his ice cream cone or something. If I look too bad, Ill make sure it ends up on some jerk businessmans expensive Italian leathers. Isaac gave him a t look. Oh,e on, that was a metaphor. Id never mess with a little kid. Loki sighed All they do is cry, that isnt fun. But you offered to tell me about the other timeline, didnt you? Come on, lets hear it, I want something I can hang over Hermes head. Isaac sighed and told the sad tale of a dead world, suppressing the urge to re at the god all the while. Theres just one more thing Id like to know: where were the gods all this time? If you can tell me, I mean. he asked, hoping to get and answer, because that had been seriously weighing on his mind. Why had there been not a single divine miracle caught on camera, at all, in all the times when the technology had been avable? Oral and written ounts were all well and good, but also a hell of a lot easier to fake. Loki got to his feet, straightened a tie that suddenly appeared from nowhere, and intoned a very rehearsed sounding sentence. Were the gods from your myths, but that doesnt make us your gods. The deity grinned down at Isaac. Try and have a little fun with this event, I promise it wont kill you. Well, the fun part wont, anyway. Helios damn horses though those are some ornery sons of bitches. And with that cryptic warning, the god grew until their rtive heights were less average person stands in front of tall person and more adult stands in front of child. Isaac knew what was about to happen. pat, pat, pat Then, the god vanished, taking the purple tint and the bubble of slowed time with him. Well, that happened. Isaac muttered, phased through the roof to fall to the ground and ran to retrieve his cellphone. Then, he called Bailey. Sleeping people werent woken by [System] notifications, so if the professor was still doing the stay upte and get up early, semi-normal sleep cycle he said he did, as opposed to Isaacs schedule of random catnaps, hed be in bed right now. Given his Fortitude, hed likely wake in a matter of a couple of hours, but a lot could go wrong in that timeframe. Therefore, it was time to get the guy with starpower out of bed while finding out as much as he could about the pitfalls of the [Event], then warning people about them before it got out of hand. The only other choice was ying damage control right here, protecting a single city while the rest of the world burned. It might feel good, but it wouldnt even qualify as a single drop in the bucket, so insignificant was it on a global scale. Whats wrong? Baileys tired voice came from the phone as he picked up after the second ring. Check your [System] notifications, Ill call the others. Ill be in theb in maybe half an hour. Isaac replied and hung up, then made the same calls to all the others, waking them all up and sending them to theb. While hed been busy doing that, Bailey had sent him a short text. be there in thirty, getting help Not informative in the least, but pretty promising. Isaac then took a running start and leaped. His new [Skill], [Poltergeists Flight], nullified the effects of gravity, letting him reach a height of fifty meters with ease. He briefly deactivated it to nullify his upwards momentum, and then he was flying parallel to the ground at a decent clip, but not an outstanding one. This was where his next trick came in. He twisted until he was facing backwards, drew Old Reliable in itsrgest, heaviest configuration of a Venomsteel Kriegsmesser and threw it backwards. As per the very basic principle of every action causes an equal and opposite reaction, the same force that flung the de away from him pushed him faster along his route, then he teleported the de back to his side in its smaller configuration before it could hit the ground. It matched his vector and speed perfectly, nay, magically, not affecting his movement in the slightest. Then, he drew the de and shifted it again, then hurled it, again. And again. Every throw made his flight less and less steady, but he also grew better and better at using this technique. Thending when he grew low on mana was still quite rough, but it sure as hell wouldnt be the next time. And the time after that would be smooth as butter, or at least that was what he hoped. Regardless, it would have to wait, he had an [Event] to outsmart and a world to save. Chapter 56: Event Chapter 56: Event Isaac had been sprinting through the forest at top speed, moving so fast and pounding his feet into the ground with such force that he had to actively step on roots and push off them, ordinary dirt being thrown away like feathers in the face of a hurricane and sending him flying as he stepped on it. His shoes hadnt survived the ordeal particrly well either, so hed phased out of them after maybe ten seconds of running. Normally, he ran through these woods free of care and full of exuberance, enjoying the freedom that came with cutting loose. This, this was desperate sprint, a race against time as he tried to get to theb as quickly as possible, to try and reduce the impact of this new situation as much as possible. Then his mana hit full again and he jumped, activating [Poltergeists Flight] and elerating himself by using the sword throwing trick once again. This time, hed even somewhat figured out how to control the spin of that movement, turning into something closer to the side-to-side waving motion of skating, still chaotic, but he was quite a bit better at this than before, not that it really mattered right now. His second flight allowed him to reach the university campus and he deactivated the [Skill], falling straight towards the building in which they worked. It was probably locked, but he wasnt aiming for one of the doors anyway. One brief phaseter, and his naked soles were sliding along the linoleum floor with a painful squeak. He took a couple of steps to the side and dropped through the floor, plopping straight into the meeting room and sitting down. No one was here yet, but that was alright, it gave him a couple of minutes to think. First of all, there was the small issue of XP, namely, where to put it. Hed been nning to stockpile it and stay at Level 16 for a while, grinding [Skill]-Levels, Aspects and then spending them all in one big burst once he was ready to evolve, but the situation had changed now. In all likelihood, there would be at least one major incident close enough for him to be able to help, and he needed to be in his best shape for that. Also, hed be fighting new and unfamiliar foes for the first time in he wasnt actually sure. It certainly had never happened in this timeline. When he was fully aware of an enemys capabilities, tactics and temperament, he was perfectly willing to go at it underlevelled, but doing the same to apletely new opponent bad idea. Capital B Bad Idea. Over thirty-two thousand experience points vanished into the ether as he levelled,ting him eighty Stat points in a single go, which he promptly spent. Five went into Fortitude and ten into Magic Power, bringing them both up to fifty. Fifteen into Strength to bring the Stat that had beengging behind somewhat back in line with everything else. Another ten points went into Magic Regeneration to increase his ability to fight continuously for a long time, while his main Stats of Agility and Perception were each increased by twenty points. His body shuddered at the suddenness of the increase, the single biggest number of Stat points hed ever used at once being applied in less than five seconds. It was incredibly ufortable, but the feeling passed quickly. As long as he appliedmon sense to what he summoned, even unfamiliar creatures should be easy enough to handle, right? And then something else dawned on him, horror flooding his veins like liquid nitrogen, a burning cold feeling that sapped both strength and will. Something had clearly been changed in the [System], given the Event that was currently happening hadnt taken ce in the other timeline. Who was to say that other things hadnt been changed as well? Little alterations that wouldnt change them in major ways, but still be enough to trip him up, or aplete overhaul whose end result still fit the meaning of the name whilepletely negating his other timeline knowledge. and then Isaac facepalmed, his hand blurring through the air with enough speed to generate a noticeable gust of wind. Loki had said they hadnt been and hed also been right on the money about Isaac having had everything he needed to figure that out as well. There were a few people in the world who could make or break humanitys struggle for survival, people whod have an outsized impact on the course of history. Therefore, anything targeting those people would be arge-scale alteration, making it something neither side wanted to risk. Who knew what kind of advantage could be wrung from a nk check for a decent sized divine intervention? And Isaac was one of those people. There was only one man whod get tripped up by monsters getting altered before they were first summoned, and he was immune to divine meddling. Something that might be possible was simply removing monsters or [Skills] that he wanted to get from the [System] entirely, or making obvious changes on the off chance that that might interfere with some ns he might have made, but that would have to be made obvious. Isaac resolved to be super careful and pay careful attention to each and every menu he came across. But hidden alterations that would trip up him and only him were impossible, the gods own rules said so. And as far as his ns went, he was the only one who knew them and while hed told Loki plenty, it was nowhere near enough to betray his attentions. Hacking out parts of the [System] wholesale in the hopes that hed needed one or more of the removed parts was an option, but not a very good one. It could very well utterly ruin any and all of his carefullyid ns, but even if it turned out to be a rtively cheap option, bnce wise, given that he wasnt being targeted directly, making suchrgescale changes would essentially allow for the world to be saved in one giant Deus-Ex-Machina and that was the end of that. No, his divine foes would be forced to sit still and wait patiently to see if humanitys darker instincts brought it to extinction, only able to make tiny alterations. That was actually kind of pathetic, Isaac reflected. He might be a mere mortal, but he could do whatever he wanted as long as he could whether the consequences. The gods, meanwhile, powerful as they were, couldnt. They did one thing and were then forced to wait for their enemies to react, unable to prevent whatever move they were about to make, until they could do anything. Even neutral gods like Loki were trapped by the limitations of their domain, forced tomit evil to even out any good they did and vice versa, all within their narrow slice of reality. Even as weak as he waspared to them, he was free. Not just free to do what he wanted, but also free from any kind of direct interreference. Something that affected him peripherally might be fine, but anything that was specifically aimed to include him in the targeted group, area, or category was not. Or at least not if his foes wanted to still have any chance at victory. This current mess was a fine example of the former, screwing him over not specifically, but as a member of the human race as a whole. Nasty, nasty business. Yet despite that, Isaac could feel a familiar excitement bubble up from the very center of his soul. A new foe to fight, to discover, to ovee. No matter how bad this might be for the world, a part of him found it incredibly invigorating. Isaac shook his head quickly, as if that could banish the dark thoughts. Well, they werent dark per se, but incredibly inappropriate. Time to get his head in the game. He pushed himself to his feet and strode over to the store room, the Events summoning list open in front of him so he could see what they could summon, what was the easiest to summon and would therefore have to be a priority and so on and so forth. For a brief moment, he also looked over at his Status sheet and noticed just how many [Skill] points he had and decided to grab a few new ones. The first one, [Fleeting Presence], wouldnt really help him with the situation at hand, but hed been eyeing it for a while, so he decided to go ahead and grab it. Fleeting Presence (epic) There one moment, gone the next. Completely gone. This Skill tells the user how to erase all traces of their presence, such as footprints, avoid breaking branches and trampling shrubs. However, it also stops the user from shedding all the usual traces that all humans leave behind, such as skin and hair cell. It also prevents the oils found on human fingers from leaving behind fingerprints, though it will not prevent fingerprints from appearing if the user were to touch a material that is easily imprinted upon, such as soft wax, putty or a heavyyer of dust. The second one was considerably more useful, and also a hell of a lot nastier. Fights during which he used it heavily tended to end with the enemy blind,me and crippled, a miserable existence whose end might even be a mercy. But sometimes, picking an enemy apart piece by bloody piece was the only way to win. Crippling Blow (epic) Striking down a target with a single attack is the sign of a truly excellent Assassin or other stealth basedbat ss. But sometimes, that simply isnt possible. A foe is toorge, too good at regenerating, or simply has more than one point that needs to be targeted in order to kill it. And thats where this Skilles in. Activating this Skill will cripple any mechanism, biological, mechanical or magical, that the user touches and can be projected through armor or hide at a length of up to 5 cm, increasing by 1 cm per Skill Level. This requires the user to focus on the specific thing they want to disrupt (i.e. sensory organs to impede perception, limbs to slow down movement, natural weapons to reduce offensive power, etc.). By default, this Skill is very painful, but that can be increased to near-crippling levels for a slight increase in cost. Cost: 20 mana per use minimum, can be increased up to 100 to affect powerful enemies or tough body parts Really, it wasnt a very nice [Skill], but it was also going to be damn useful. It was designed for use against bosses and the like, with [Hunters Gaze] helping to identify the best spots to target with this [Skill]. Back when hed actually known the anatomy of basically all his foes, hed have been able to achieve the same goal with his existing [Strike]-type [Skills], but that no longer held true. Now, the sheer convenience and ease of use [Crippling Blow] provided trumped the need to save a few [Skill] points. Though save the rest he did. During the first two [sses], up to Level 25, each Level gave three [Skill] points. This would drop to 2 per Level for the third [ss] and then finally to 1 per Level from that point onwards. If he needed to spend the points he would, but having some left over was still incredibly important. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 24 XP: 1,524/5,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 387/500 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 65 Strength 45 Agility 70 Magic Power 50 Magic Regeneration 60 Free Points: 0 Stat, 19 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror XIII The Chosen Weapon XVI Skills Hundred Faces XIV Stealth XIV Power Strike XXII Piercing Strike XXIV Sundering Strike XXII des XXIII Sneak XVII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XVII Manifold Strike XV Hunters Gaze XVII Phantom Step XIII Unknown Fear IX Bestial Regeneration IX Undying Focus IV Tools of Terror VIII Fleeting Presence I Crippling Blow I General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy VII Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Still, his Status sheet was looking nice. A little bare on the Aspect front, but that was perfectly fixable. And hewould be, before evolving, if he had any say in the matter. There were a few he certainly had an eye on, but he still needed to go ahead and grab them. That was guaranteed to be a pain, though. There was a solid increase in Aspect drops when fighting higher Level monsters, and other than that bonus going away, there was no decrease when going up against lower Level enemies. However, the 5 percent overall drop rate for Tier 5 monsters was going to make getting arduous. Then again, his current powerlevel was high enough that he could simply tear through his foes at high speed, making up for the reduced drop rate with the sheer volume of in monsters. Isaac was now standing in the storage room and rooting through it, picking out all the materials necessary to summon all the monsters up to Tier 5. Realistically, that would be all anyone would summon, and if they went above it, well, Tomahawk or equivalent missile time. No one knew this yet, but the first five Tiers were taking it easy. All of the monsters should be beatable by a human of the same Level, barring a supremely bad matchup like Ephemeral vs. physical fighter or Lesser Space Elemental vs. anything other than a [Spatial Mage]. That no longer necessarily held true from Tier 6 onwards. Some monsters, without even being bosses, needed multiple people of a simr Level to defeat, never mind the actual bosses, all of which were at least at that Tier. Lastly, there was a significantly greater range of possible Levels at that point. Tiers 1 through 5 covered twenty-five Levels. Tier 6 alone covered twenty. Once people broke into summoning those kinds of monsters, there would be hell to pay. But given that people had barely started summoning Tier 5s after the LA disaster, hopefully not even this gods-damned Event would prompt someone to go for a Tier 6. And if they were willing to risk it, then nothing he could do about it except spit on their grave. For him, in this current situation, summoning a monster that powerful just so he might be able to warn some utter, weapons-grade nitwit, who probably wouldnt bother to check for any information prior to summoning anyway. It would barely help matters and put the entire team in incredible danger, even him. Isaac soon realized that almost all of the Event monsters could be summoned by basic materials, which, in hindsight, actually made a hell of a lot of sense. After all, the point was to push people to summon recklessly and forcing them to search for a bunch of super hard to get and expensive materials might prevent them from doing so, or at the very least give them the time to think about what they were doing. Then he checked their current stock of those materials and as it turned out, they had everything, though their stores of various elerants were lower than hed like. A recent experiment with teaching the [System Researchers] various fire Elementals me control abilities had depleted them and most of the monsters belonging to the Event required them. On the other hand, a lot of things counted as elerant. Disinfectant, booze, gasoline so plundering one of the many chemistrybs on campus or doing a run to the gas station would quickly and easily solve the supply situation. Finally, Isaac began to create ns on what monsters to summon. Start with a Tier 3 and scan it with his [Hunters Gaze] to see if its stats wereparable to a non-Event Tier 3, then head on from there. Those monsters should be weak enough to definitively beat, but high enough that he could sense something about its stats other than pathetically weak. After all, [Hunters Gaze] only told him where their Stats rtive to his, rather than hard numbers. Suddenly, his phone chimed and he whipped it out to see a message from Bailey. It was actually located in the research groups chat and it told them all to head to the site of the new building that was being constructed, a building which, as far as Isaac could remember, wouldnt be finisher for three months, minimum. Isaac left the building the same way hed entered it, a gigantic leap in an intangible state, followed by a rapid run across campus. Seeing it at night was somewhat surreal, the normally well-lit and bustling roads and paths dark and dreary, utterly devoid of life. He left behind the core part of the campus, containing the canteen, main lecture hall and the like after five seconds, heading out through the scattered greenhouses and other agricultural research buildings. Orchards, immense flower gardens, the campus really was beautiful, wasnt it? Hed simply never truly paid attention to it all. And then hed arrived, at the edge of the campus, where the bones of a truly gigantic building rose. A two-hundred meter by two-hundred meters mess of concrete and steel girders, surrounded in a basic construction fence with a pair ofrge cranes rising right inside the perimeter. The base for the building waspleted, but they hadnt even started with everything above ground. Isaac also caught sight of Bailey, standing on the concrete, so he hopped the fence just like the professor must have done. Hey Adam, what are we doing here? he asked. Id hoped to show you this building while it waspleted, but then this happened and we need the summoning areas. Theyre therge boxes in the corners of the building. While we wait for the others to get here, Id like you to go ahead and draw out the summoning circles, do your own analysis of what should be summoned and retrieve the summoning supplies. Bailey said, tossing him a ring of keys. Actually, I have a solution for the resource situation. Isaac said, withdrawing the inscribed Lesser Space Elemental Core he always carried with him in case of emergency and triggering it. Several more cores, a dozen in all, dropped out of the sky and Isaac pulled the bottom of his shirt forward, catching them all in it. I figured out how to kill a Lesser Space Elemental. You can use one of these to create a dimensional storage you can ess from anywhere within fifty meters of where you summoned it, or you can ess it from afar by spending an inscribed core. If someone creates their space here, we can then move 27 cubic meters of stuff for every core we spend, and I have a bunch. Ill do that once everyone is there. I Hey Adam, hey Mr. Thoma. a new voice called out, followed by an older man in his fifties or sixties going over the fence with a flying leap. He also had a crossbow and quiver strapped to his back, as well as arge hunting knife attached to his belt, all clearly enhanced with [Skills]. An aura streamed off him, feeling like wilderness, blood, patience, danger, echoing with the twang of a bowstring and the thump of a falling body. It really was quite fascinating how different scanning basic and evolved [sses] using [Hunters Gaze] felt, but regardless, the man was clearly some kind of evolved [Hunter]. There were also two Aspects present, one once having belonged to some kind of very dangerousrge cat, the other having been sourced from some kind of veryrge serpent. Good evening Professor Bishop. Isaac greeted him I see youve levelled. Are you here to help? I am, Professor Bailey called me. Apparently you all expect there to be a wave of panicked summoning as people see the great treasures promised by this even disappear before their very eyes? Bishop sighed Youre probably right about that, but the chances of you actually preventing anything are slim. Cant fix stupid, sadly. Im going to try, though. Isaac shrugged, then tossed the older man another Lesser Space Elemental Core. He liked the Forestry Professor well enough, and could appreciate his attitude towards risk taking as well as life and death. Not fatalistic, but realistic and epting. Thats a Lesser Space Elemental Core, you can use it to get a dimensional storage space. Huh, thank you. Bishop inclined his head So, what are we doing? Im waiting here for the rest, youre checking the summoning list and seeing what you think might be best to summon, and Isaac is getting the circles ready. Bailey said. Isaac took this as his cue to leave, heading down into the guts of the building via the half-open staircase. It split into four corridors, one in each cardinal direction, once it reached the bottom. Some basic signs drawn out in spray paint clearly denoted where certain things were meant to go. In the middle of each corridor, on the right side, a massive metal door was located, leading into what was likely the summoning room. No other doors were on the same wall, but the opposite one was lined with normal office doors. He could even spot several that had the sign office of Professor Baileys team put on there. Clearly, there was a summoning room in each corner, essible from one side via the corridor, two other sides facing the outside and thest one being lined with offices and conference rooms, connected to a different corridor. Isaac decided to just go ahead and pick the summoning room opposite to what was likely his future office, slid the key Bailey had given him into the lock and pulled it open. The door was heavy. Fine for him, but a hell of a lot heavier than any normal door, not even the solid steel doors that held shut the cabs for explosive chemicals. It was at least a meter thick and strongly reminded him of the ones that guarded the crown jewels in the Tower of London, which hed once seen while on vacation, years ago. But that was besides the point. Seriously though, these doors would have withstood an attack from many Tier 5 and functionally all Tier 4 monsters even if theyd been just normal, ordinary and mundane. But they werent. Theyd been reinforced with every [Skill] avable to the [Architect], [Construction Workers], [Steel Mill Foreman], and so on. Mind you, not just the ones theyd had before, but the University had paid each of those people to select every reinforcing [Skill] their [ss] had avable and infuse them into his building. And then Karl, wielder of an epic magic and engineering [ss] at Level 20 thest Isaac had seen the man, had thrown everything he could have at it. You could set of a bomb against this door and barely leave a scratch, and the rest of the building was built to the same standard. Isaac slowly trailed his hand along the smooth metal for all of two seconds before he hurried in and drew Old Reliable in its knife form. The ces where the circles were meant to be chiseled into the ground had already been outlined in spray pain. They lined the far end of the room, on the opposite side of the door. He hurried over, wreathed his de in [Piercing Strike] and began to make smooth, straight cuts to carve circles for Tier 2, 3 and 4 into the ground. Then the headed outside and drew a Tier 5 circle on the ground of the corridor in front of Baileys future office with a sharpie. Then he headed back outside, where he saw Bishop was gone, but Karl was there, talking animatedly with Bailey. Hey Adam, I have a nice list of monsters which should give us good information on whats going on, carved circles into the summoning room opposite our future offices and prepared a circle for you to get your Extradimensional Pocket with. he reported. Right, Ill do that in a second. Bailey said, then turned back to Karl So basically, what you want are as many material samples as possible out of this because youre fairly certain you can replicate them using your [ss]? I dont see a problem with that, once weve figured out as many traps in this Event as possible. Isaac, do you have your suggested summons yet? Yeah. I thought wed try with an average Tier 3, then we can use our various versions of [Inspect] to check if it has Stats and magical abilities in line with what we can normally expect form its Tier. Then we can repeat that with a few others, possibly branching out into other Tiers to see if we need to be any more careful than we normally are. Isaac suggested. That was my thinking as well, but I think we should start at Tier 1, lets not take any risks. This entire thing makes my skin crawl, it feels like Patrick was right on the money about this whole thing having been created with malicious intentions. Bailey sighed. Unfortunately, if a monster is far stronger or weaker than me, all I can tell about its Stats is that theyre very high or very low. Isaac shook his head. Fine, Tier 2, but no higher for the first summon. Bailey told him, then swore under his breath. I brought as many summoning materials as I could carry. Professor Bishop called out, running over with a wheelbarrow full of stuff as well a stuffed backpack on his back. Thanks. Can you wait up here for a few more minutes until the others arrive, point them our way? Bailey called back, receiving a nod in reply, and then hurried down the stairs at a rapid pace. Suspiciously rapid. Someone with his stats should have fallen down them in a heartbeat, but handily survived the impact even if it happened to be skull-first. Isaac grinned inwardly. Bailey was just as adamant about not modifying others as always, but clearly, hed changed things about himself. The [Skills] use was not visible to [Hunters Gaze] as they were only used during the alteration process and were now inactive, which was interesting. Hed have to watch out for that in the future, it could be used to easily conceal a certain level of power from his sight. Sure, at some point, the alterations would be significant enough to be visible from the outside, no [Skills] needed, but everything up to that point? Dangerously hard to spot. The ritual of getting Bailey his Extradimensional Pocket flew by in a sh, followed by the Professor goggling at the new [System] tab for a moment, but then he entered the summoning room and closed the door behind them. Pulling out a few odds and ends from his jacket pockets, he headed over to the Tier 2 circle and readied the summon. Im calling a Dwarf Sr Dragon. You guys ready? he asked, receiving two nods in return Isaac, youre the toughest one, try and keep it off us without getting hurt in turn. Ill heal, Karl, your priority is limiting its movement. Were all smart people, I trust we can figure out when to deviate from those roles and when to stay within their constraints, but in essence, lets do this like we talked about before. Isaac nodded Sure. They had talked about some basic tactics if they were ever in a fight together, but this would be the first time actually using them. How did that saying go, break a leg? Isaac just chuckled inwardly. I can regenerate and Bailey is a healer, what could possibly go wrong? Chapter 57: Limited Loot Chapter 57: Limited Loot Alright, summoning Dwarf Sr Dragon. Bailey announced loudly authoritatively. The warning was solidly superfluous, given that both Karl and Isaac had been watching him from the very beginning and were very much aware of what he was doing, but this was the agreed upon procedure when summoning with other people around. You warned them, simple as that. If you started skipping out on safety procedures that involved warning everyone of dangerous actions because you thought they were aware of it, well that could go off without a problem until it didnt. So, they did it each and every time, lest they get in the habit of doing otherwise. The summoning circle red and spat out a small monster. It was around the size of a veryrge cat and looked like your stereotypical western dragon, albeit with white eyes glowing so brightly they left trails in the air, as well as a bright glow shining out from between its scales. It was cute, though in a murderous kind of way. It hissed and leaped forward, but two tentacles of rock burst from the ground and snatched it out of the air, yanking it to the ground and tying it down. All of that was well and good except it also caused the projected [Piercing Strike] to harmlessly sh over its head. The extra split-second of life it had just gained shouldnt have really had much of an impact, but they did. Its jaws opened and it was like staring straight into the sun. That wasnt much of a problem for him anymore, but it was still ufortably bright even before the bolt of lightnced out. Mind you, it wasnt actual light, otherwise it would have struck him at the same time as he saw it, it was more like a bolt of white energy tinged with gold at the edges, but it was still a hell of a lot faster than a normal energy attack at that level had any right to be. Of course, that level was well below where he operated, not only giving him enough time to react, but also enough time to analyze the attack before he had to react. Isaac charged, intercepting the attack with his left arm, making sure that his shirt didnt get burned. Hed heal, his shirt, not so much. Hed also recognized that the beam wouldnt have the power necessary to damage him. The surfaceyer of skin ckened and ked off, followed by theyer below that, but by the time it would actually hurt him, he could have killed it twenty times over. at least in theory. Karl had begun to raise a section of the floor to cut off the steady stream of energy, but timed it so incredibly poorly that it appeared in front of Isaacs foot toote for him to react, prompting him to trip over it. While the [Magineer] had likely seen Isaac move, he didnt have the reflexes necessary to abort the spell before anything happened. As Isaac went flying, he engaged [Poltergeists Flight], keeping his forward momentum and gliding along, parallel to the ground at running speed, de outstretched and glowing with yellow light. It slid through the rock trapping the little dragon like butter, shearing the creature in half with contemptuous ease. Then he bodily smacked into the rock, using it to arrest his forward momentum. Hardly the most graceful of kills, but it was dead, something the kill notification could attest to. Dwarf Sr Dragon (Lv. 4) has been in. 4 XP gained (20 XP base distributed across 3 people as per their contributions, reduced by 10 % due to Level disparity) Reward Gained: Dwarf Dragon Fruit? That was new. Isaac frowned at the new addition and straightened, only to smack the back of his head against something. It suddenly lost its ability to hold its position and fell, nearly smashing against the floor before he caught it and held it up to his face to examine it. It looked just like a normal dragon fruit,plete with the weird scale-like leaves that covered it, though this time, the leaves were glowing warmly. And it had its own status screen, to boot. A true blue [System] item, with powers beyond the normal. Only things forged by true masters, soulbound equipment, spellbooks and the like had those. And here it was, simply handed out by this Event. Im so sorry, Isaac! Are you allright? suddenly Karl was standing next to him, looking him and down. Its fine, but lets try to avoid a repeat performance next time, shall we? Isaac shed him a reassuring grin Were all still here and the only casualty was my dignity. Of course, hed rather not have another clusterfuck like this, but hed honestly expected something like this to happen at some point. He could have tried to avoid it by creating a proper procedure for fighting and warning others before moving, but getting the point across merely by talking was unlikely to work. As the old saying went, safety regtions were written in blood. With a clear example of what could go wrong, people were inspired to be more careful and take the rules and regtions more seriously. Absentmindedly, he brushed the ash from his arm, the wound having already healed. Given that it had been caused by fire and cauterized, it was quite a bit more expensive to fix than normal, but still perfectly within the realm of what he could pay. Thirty mana was nothing to him. And your shirt. Baileymented, gesturing at Isaacs grey t-shirt, which sported severalrge rents from having fallen against the jagged rocks. I suppose. But I think this thing is a lot more interesting, no? Isaac said, the item up to his face. Dwarf Dragon Fruit? And Item generated upon the death of a Dwarf Sr Dragon during the Summer Solstice System Event. Whatever could it be? Now the [System] was just being silly. Isaac could see a small dragon moving around in egg, her its heartbeat through the shell, feel warmth radiating off the small object. Its an egg! he grinned. Then, it vibrated in his hands and a new window popped up. You have correctly identified the object! Would you like to hatch Dwarf Sr Dragon Egg and gain it as a familiar? Well, that had been easy. Then again, this was a very low Level itempared to him. Its an egg that can be made to hatch into another Dwarf Sr Dragon, which will then be your familiar. Isaac said I think we all know who this should go to? Raul is going to need a bigger apartment if this keeps up. Bailey chuckled First a dinosaur, now a dragon? I suppose having to many incredible pets is the kind of problem you want to have, isnt it? Certainly better than having too few. Isaac added, smiling. The real question is if this is going to happen with all the Event creatures. Bailey stated, face twisting into a frown. It might. Or maybe we get the item for each monster the first time we kill one so were inspired to get more of them. Or the chance could be increased for the first few monsters of the Even we summon to whet our appetite, then reduce it so we summon a bunch more in the vain hope to get the rewards we know are there. Or the chance could be increased for the first few people killing Event monsters so everyone else hurries up to be the first to summon one to get the reward. Or maybe were dealing with an actual [System] update and everything has changed, who knows? Youre assuming Patricks evil [System] hypothesis is true, then? Bailey asked, frowning hard. I do. This Event in particr was practically perfectly designed to entice people to summon dangerous monsters and end up dead. I know that in theory, this could just be due to the creator being ipetent, but do we really think someone who created something as incredible as the [System] could be ipetent? The phrase idiot savantes to mind. The voice rang out of midair, startling everyone except Isaac, whod noticed the use [Scry] and [Ghost Voice] a while ago, but not deigned to say anything after realizing that the way theyd been cast were very familiar. Hi Patrick, how long have you been listening? he asked. A couple of minutes. Ill be by in a quarter of an hour but I didnt want to miss anything. the voice responded. Next time, please warn us when youre watching. Bailey sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Anyway, lets get back on topic. Isaac, what were its Stats like? Very low, with the exception of Magic Power, which was a little higher. But overall, this thing was quite a bit stronger than your average Tier 2 monster. Well, that aint good. Bailey sighed, then cursed softly under his breath. Well, it was still clearly audible to everyone present in the room, but it was the thought that counted. The thing we need to check is if the loot being generated upon death is limited to the Event monsters. Karl said. Lets check using the monsters we use for our other experiments, te Golems, Acid Slimes, things weve killed enough of to know that that they dont normally generate loot. Ill go grab the stuff from Victor just brought the Event stuff. Bailey sighed Isaac, if you can spare a couple of those cores, Ill transfer the entire storage room over here, including the changes of clothes we keep there, I have a feeling well be needing them. Patrick, please move your [Scry] to the surface and direct Amy and Raul down here. You two, see if you can work out a good way to avoid friendly fire. Sure. Isaac said and tossed over a couple of inscribed Lesser Space Elemental Cores, then turned to Karl Suggestions? If Id known what you were going to do, Id have known to watch out for it and if youd known what I was nning, you likely wouldnt have ended up tripping. Karl said. So basically call out or attacks, Anime style? Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow. Maybe something a little less cringey. I mean, I love Anime and all, but it would sound a smidge silly. I think it might be a better idea to just sit down, discus our preferred tactics so we know to be aware of them. And when its actually time to summon, inform each other of our initial ns so we dont run into each other, like the whole you attacking, me yanking the monster out of the way incident. Karl suggested. So, what are we discussing? Professor Bishop called from the corridor Also, can someone let me in? right, Isaac had given everyone on the research team Aspects of the Specter a while ago and Bailey had just walked out through the door with the motherfucking keys. Crap. We dont have the key because Professor Bailey ran off with it and the doors are locked. Isaac sighed and phased through them to join the older man Were discussing how to avoid interfering with each other. Friendly fire? Bishop asked, gesturing at the tears in Isaacs shirt. Tripped over a rock wall created to protect me from a dragons sr breath. Isaac shook his head. Is that what were calling that, then? Karl asked, phasing through after him. Its the breath weapon of a Dwarf Sr Dragon. What else are we going to call it? Isaac shrugged. I think that is a question that needs to be answered with proper rules of nomenture, given that there will be more dragons, who will likely have different modes of attack. Bishop informed them whatever the dragons element is breath sounds good enough, now you just have to make that known to the scientificmunity atrge so it actually gets used. Otherwise well end up with a bunch of different naming systems, all iming to be the right and proper one. Eh, I think well be fine. Once we have a proper list of Event monsters,plete with mystical abilities, weaknesses and all required warnings, Professor Bailey is doing an announcement, if not a full press conference. Isaac told him Cementing that as the system of nomenture should be easy enough to slip in. I suppose that should work. So, have you reached a conclusion about how to avoid friendly fire? When hunting deer, we wear bright red warning vests the animals cant see but we can, but I doubt that applies here. Bishop asked, so Isaac and Karl gave him a basic rundown of the n, followed by running through a couple of scenarios. It felt a little like roleying, something that felt rather weird to be doing deep beneath a constructions site, in the middle of the night. And then Bailey came back and unlocked the door for them, but then he ran off again, only stopping long enough to dump out some summoning materials and yell something about waking up some people toe and help them by providing mana. All right, so now youre nning on summoning some more Event monsters? Bishop asked, looking around the room This is a nice ce, perfect for what you guys do, isnt it? It is and were not going to be summoning Event monsters, we need to check something first. With that, Isaac grabbed a hunk of te from the pile Bailey had left them, walked over to the Tier 1 circle and ced it inside. Summoning te Golem, Im going to stab it the instant it appears. he announced. It felt silly, but getting into the habit would save lives down the line. The golem itself died less than a second after appearing. Isaac didnt even bother using [Skills], he simplyid the tip of the Kriegsmesser on top of its body, them hammered the heel of his palm into the back of the hilt, driving it clean through its body and shattering the core as if it were made of ss. The kill notification appeared as normal, without any mention of a reward being generated or an item appearing in front of him at chest height. Doesnt look like normal monsters generate loot, even during an Event. Isaac said. Not necessarily, it might just be a fluke. Lets try again. Karl said, walking over Summoning te Golem, Ill break it with a rock. Once again, a golem rose from the glowing circle on the floor, then burst apart in a shower of gravel as a hunk of the already dead monster lifted off the ground and hammered into it at incredible speed. Still no reward. How long does it take to get ready again after that? Bishop asked. Less than a minute. Isaac said and Karl nodded Ditto. Id suggest checking a few more times, maybe for a total of ten, then return to checking out the Event monsters. Bishop said and they agreed. Once the pile of gravel had been moved outside by Karl, they got ready to summon another Event monster. An Uraeus serpent, a monster from Egyptian mythology associated with the Pharaoh, who, in turn, was often associated with the Sun god Ra. The n was set and Isaac triggered the circle, causing a three meter serpent to erupt from the circle, hissing angrily, eyes like burning coal ring at them. A simr glow was visible on its two venom teeth as it exposed them to hiss at them nope, it had done that to spit at them. Twin streams of burning liquid flew through the air but sttered against the Kriegsmesser. Isaac would not be tanking this with his body, no siree. The ground around the snake suddenly softened and it sank in quite a bit before it resolidified, solidly trapping it. And then, a crossbow bolt skewered it through the head. Isaac to keep the monster at a distance, Karl to tie it down, Professor Bishop to kill it. The n had been highly effective without having to be needlesslyplicated. Reward Gained: Ster Venom Can I see that? Isaac asked and was handed the small ss vial that had appeared in front of Bishop. Ster Venom The Venom of an Uraeus Cobra, burning with the fire of the sun itself. It can be used to coat des or start fires. It may also be drunk to provide a slight but permanent resistance to fire if you can survive it. Additional Information provided by the Alchemy Skill: This substance can be used to produce Fire Resistance Potions, coat des or be infused into fire magic to increase its effectiveness. But a new notification suddenly pinged him. Old Reliable has gained a new Skill due to absorbing an extraordinary material! New Skill: Starfang: This infuses the de with the power of the sun itself, superheating it. This heat will only damage the user, the environment or other individuals if the user wills it. This costs 5 points of mana for a single strike or 50 points of mana to sustain for thirty seconds. The new [Skill] wasnt that goodpared to his other [Strike]-type [Skills], but the fact that it could be cast from the weapons mana pool rather than his own made it amazing. But the really incredible thing was that hed gotten it from the venom of a Tier 3 monster, especially not when Isaac was at Level 24. Alright, this stuff just gave my weapon a new [Skill], even though thats only supposed to get those from extremely powerful enemies. I think it might be pretty valuable. Isaac announced. Then I suppose we should give it to a professional. Bailey suggested,ing down the stairs with Amy and Patrick. He couldnt see them on ount of there being several walls between them and vice versa, but they could all hear people trough those kinds of obstacles and long since learned to recognize each others footsteps. Ive got a friend I can call for that, hes a chemistry professor who lives five minutes from here. Its Professor Chandler, isnt it? Patrick asked Do you think hed let me work with him? Bailey chuckled He usually enjoys teaching the next generation. Just ask him, hell almost certainly say yes. Yes! Patrick grinned, then looked down at the ground, slightly ashamed. Clearly, he was a fan of this other professor, though Isaac had never heard of the man. Still, there were a lot of professors around here, plenty of whom had done something noteworthy, he could hardly be expected to know them all. Bailey took a few steps away and made the call, then came back, handed over the vial of venom to Patrick and told him how to find theb where Chandler would now be heading. Alright, what did I miss? he asked those still here and Bishop gave him a brief rundown of what had happened. For the next summon, Id like to summon the Mare of Helios. Isaac suggested It was a named in the Event announcement and I want to know if those monsters are more powerful than the rest. Sure. Bailey nodded n? Isaac quickly outlined the n, and Bailey agreed that it was eptable. The monster was summoned and manifested, whining at a volume that made them all wince. Then, it took to the sky, galloping across the empty air, the full salvo of attacks uselessly shing past below it. Shit! Karl yelped and threw himself to the ground, a ming hoof stomping down where his skull had been mere moments before. Limbs of concrete reached out from the ceiling as he tried to limit its movements while a few te Golem hed kept on hand for that exact purpose. The air around it suddenly thickened as Amy cast a spell, slowing it down and allowing both Isaac and Bishop tond attacks, a crossbow bolt and [Far Strike] respectively. It then whirled and charged straight at her, intent on crushing her under its hooves and then one of its hooves fell through the air. The way it moved and the shocked impression clearly identifiable even on an equine face made it clear it had been expecting to put it down on a solid tform instead of the empty air. Its entire body followed and it flipped through the air, mming into the ground onto its back with a loud, wet crack. Then a crossbow bolt thunked into its skull. What just happened? Bishop asked even as what looked like a shredded horse girdle appeared in the air in front of him. I figured out how it flew. Amy shrugged nonchntly It creates tforms out of mana under its hooves and I broke one right before it stepped on it. Checkmate. Huh, check this out. Bishop said, making the window visible to everyone. Girdle of Helios (parts gathered: 1/3) A replica of the girdle used by the Mares of Helios that pull his flying chariot. A horse dressed with it gains the ability to fly until it is removed. This is only a part of the item, bring it into physical contact with two more like it to create a the final object. I think the real question is if that also works on someone whos been transformed into a horse? Amy asked, shooting a wink at Bailey Think about it, you could y Pegasus. Very funny. The professor gave a weak smile, but it seemed that he didnt find that joke particrly amusing. Anyway, lets see if we can get two more for the full set, shall we? Bishop grinned, walking over into a corner and depositing it there for safekeeping Papa needs a new flying horse. Isaac returned his grin. This might be happening in the middle of a night under a massive time crunch as they were trying to catalog the monsters and loot, but it somehow, he was also having fun. Fighting new monsters with people he liked, without the world literally ending, it was nice. Well definitely have to do that before the end of this Event, but I think its more important to have fought each monster at least once. he sighed turning to Bailey only for the other professors phone to ring and he turned away to take the call. Isaac supposed that was the life of a Professor. Having significant amounts of resources at your hands, conducting great experiments, but not being able to do too much personally because one had to deal with paperwork and fight bureaucratical battles. Of course. Bonfire Golem? Bishop asked, an almost feral grin on his face. He was clearly enjoying this as much as Isaac was, danger be damned. Chapter 58: Interlude Patrick Chapter 58: Interlude Patrick What a day. Patrick yawned before sting himself in the face with a gust of freezing cold wind in the hopes that it would wake him up a little more. At a mere twenty-five points in Fortitude, he needed a mere fraction of the sleep other humans did, but that was a far cry from some of the other people on Professor Baileys team, who could literally sit down, close their eyes for less time than it took for someone to grab coffee and then stay awake for another twenty-four hours. He''d considered going that way with his build, but decided that having more mana and getting it back quicker had a higher priority. The sheer amount of options that opened up for him was simply incredible. Patrick yawned again, resolving to invest all ten points from the next Level-up into Fortitude. Less sleep meant more time to do things, even if hed be slightly less capable at doing those things. He quickly nced into the summoning room once again, [Scry] showing them fight a four meter tall ming stick figure made from wood. Crossbow bolts thunked into it in a steady stream, each and every one being wreathed in a gigantic spectral broadhead as some kind of [Skill] was being applied. Hed have loved to be there and try and copy that and then use it as another building block for custom spells, but he had other things to do. Forging new spells based on existing ones was not something he could do yet, but both Raul and Isaac insisted it should be soon, possibly as early as the next evolution, given that that was the natural progression of the [System Researcher] [ss]. At least ording to game and story logic, which may or may not apply to real life. Patrick really didnt know, hed never really had much time for fun and games, hed been too busy studying. He could have fun when he was retired. However, as interesting as being in the summoning room with the others would be, this was an even greater opportunity. Professor Chandler was a legend. Gained a full professorship at 22, created several separate startups and sold them off, making millions in the process and hed narrowly missed getting a Nobel Prize on two separate asions, but still stayed here at this university, working to teach the next generation of chemists while still doing incredible research. A chance to work with him directly, while he was doing research on a substance that no one could have used before now, making literally any discoveries something worth following up on? Now that was worth abandoning the event over. As for the [Skills] hed be giving up his shot to copy right now, that was no problem either. Amy was there and shed be copying as many [Skills] as she could get her hands on. While her overall attitude was far more rxed and careless than he felt was appropriate for such serious research, no one could deny her ability and dedication to copying as many [Skills] as was humanly possible. The ming stick figure, which he assumed to be the Bonfire Golem from the Event summoning list, finally fell over as Karl yanked its feet out from under it and then Isaac cut it to pieces with a sweeping attack that projected out six ck bars of energy that cut most of the way through it, then a wave of force erupted from Amys hands and shattered it in a dozen ces, the spots where in had been damaged before. The reward for killing that particr creature turned out to be some kind of extremely durable and element resistant hardwood, prompting Isaac to wonder if he could use the roomter to he could gather enough of it to build a house from. That wasnt actually a bad idea if one was interested in living in a log cabin in the middle of nowhere. Patrick could see the appeal of being well clear of anyone who might disturb him, having peace and quiet, and the spot Isaac had chosen was beautiful, but he preferred to be closer to theb. Or rather, he wanted to be closer to theb and was currently in the process of moving here, but he still lived in the nearby major city while the part of the university he worked at was a twenty kilometers from there. After all, this was the biological and agricultural campus, thetter of which required vast amounts of space, nevermind the fact that the Forestry faculty needed to be close to the woods. Then they were back to tossing around ideas for why the ever loving fuck would someone create an event that is practically designed to make someone summon something they couldnt handle?. as it turned out, Professor Bishop had a bit of a potty mouth. Because it probably was. seemed to be the consensus. Bailey looked thoughtful, Bishop looked annoyed, Amy was clearly hiding her true feelings because Patrick doubted shed be smiling otherwise and Isaac looked uncharacteristically thunderous. They continued to discuss the matter while Amy used magic to cool the room back down and blow in fresh air. Finally, he reached the chemistry building. Not the universitys main one, that was in the city, but a secondary one that had been built to ensure that practical lessons for the biology students could be held near their other lectures. He pushed against the door, trying to open it, but it was locked. Professor Bailey, the doors locked. Should I just walk in or wait outside for Professor Chandler? he asked, magically projecting his voice into the summoning room, close to a kilometer away. Now that there wasnt an actual fight going on, startling them wouldnt risk causing fatal consequences. Hes probably already in hisb. If he isnt, he wont mind you being in there already as long as you dont mess with anything. Bailey stated offhandedly, trying to look at Patricks point of view while speaking to him, but he was off by around ten meters. One of these days, Patrick would have to learn how to project an image along with his voice so he could have a proper conversation, but that wasnt a priority yet. And now that he had permission, at least sort of, to go into the locked building. He phased through the door, then used [Levitation] while still incorporeal to reach the top floor, where theb was located. He could have taken the stairs, but that would have required him to search for them and there really wasnt a point when he didnt need them in the first ce, now was there? Finding theb itself was pretty easy to find, given that it covered the entire top floor. Patrick emerged through the floor betweenrge cabs full of various chemicals. Most were rtively standard metal ones with a pane of ss in the door to show their contents, but two were practically safes, massive and bulky, designed to withstand thebined force of all their contentsbusting at once. And then there was the crown jewel of this storage room, a smaller, hefty cab that looked weirdly ancient despite having been made quite recently, given theck of wear and tear. That alone might have been enough to make it stand out, but the thing that really drew his attention was the mana imbued into it. Was Professor Chandler researching magic as well? It certainly looked like it. Suddenly, the lights were flicked on and Patrick reflexively closed his eyes, then opened them again. He could see perfectly well in the dark and was immune to such changes in the light level, but hed not yet managed to get rid of those pesky superfluous reflexes yet. Made yourself at home already, I see? a voice called from somewhere else in theb, even though there was no line of sight between the professor and him. But somehow, the older man had known he was here. I got here just a few seconds ago. Patrick replied, trying to find his way around the ce using abination of walking in random directions and scrying random spots until he found the way anding face to face with Professor Chandler himself. The older man matched Patrick for height despite his age and despite thete, or early, depending on how you looked at it, time, he was wearing a very sharp looking polo shirt and pants that were practically good enough to wear for at a proper event. His stark white hair was cropped close to the skull and a pair of sses withrge lenses were perched on the tip of his nose. In total, he looked like the stereotypical mad scientist pre-explosion and without the frizzy hair style. Good morning Professor Chandler, Im Patrick Lerch, one of Professor Baileys assistants and Ive brought you the Ster Venom retrieved from the Uraeus Serpent included in this Event. he introduced himself, holding out the vial of glowing orange liquid. It reminded him ofva or maybe one of those scientific pictures of the sun. Ah yes, very good. Chandler muttered, staring hungrily at the vial before finally looking at Patrick himself Follow me please. And with that, he spun on his feet and hurried off in a seemingly random direction, forcing Patrick to practically run after him until the pair of them reached a separate room,pletely closed off from the rest of theb. Unlike the rest of the ce, which looked like a perfectly normalboratory, all of the various ssware and other devices properly packed away under the tables, a small centrifuge on every other table with arge one in the corner of every room, stores ofmonly used materials easily reachable in every room while the less often used chemicals were stored in the ce hed first entered. But this ce was Patrick couldnt decide if you could call a genius workspace messy if it was still working. It certainly was full, though, and in use. In many ways, it reminded him of how chemistrybs in movies looked, with the tables covered in impressive looking ssware, given that the normal clean and packed up lookbs held most of the time would be rather boring. It also held a faint whiff of magic, which he hadnt expected. This is my personalb, normally, no one else is allowed in here. Venom, please. Chandler announced, holding out his hand expectantly. Patrick immediately gave him the vial and his jaw hit the floor when he saw what the professor was doing with it. Chandler had uncorked it, then waved his other hand through the air to send the smelling from the opening towards his nose, the standard procedure for not directly inhaling any potentially dangerous fumes when dealing with chemicals. Then, he stuck his nose in before jerking his head back with a disgusted face and began to practically run through the room like a scalded cat, yanking things out of cabs and drawers and tossing chemicals together before adding in tiny drops of the venom at speeds that would have been unsafe even if there hadnt been fragile ss objects all over the ce. And then, one of the vials seemed to explode, mana ring, the entire thing shining as if a miniature sun had appeared within. Patrick reflexively raised a shield in front of himself, then created a second one between Chandler and the potential bomb in his hand. If he could just survive the initial detonation, everything else could be fixed. but nothing actually seemed to happen. The light dimmed down to something closer to a regr lightbulb, and it was now actually possible to tell that the vial was empty, with the light emanating from the ss itself. The Chandler put it between his hands and rolled them as if he were trying to create a ball of dough and when he pulled them back apart, a ss marble that shone with an inner lighty there. Patrick frowned. [Deep Analysis] showed how mana flowed from the professors hand and into the freshly created orb, where it was turned into light. Seeing his stunned look, Chandler grinned at him I suppose a little exnation is in order. Im not actually a [Chemist], not anymore. Im an [Alchemist], and that [ss] doesnt quite work the same as my old job. Youre a world renowned chemist, why Patrick mmed his mouth shut the instant his brain had caught up to what he was saying. why would I change my career sote in life? Chandler chuckled Let me tell you something about academia, young man. In broad strokes, it applies to plenty of other things as well, but thats not really the point, now is it? You see, getting a Bachelors is easy enough. All one needs is a little bit of intelligence, a good memory, or simple determination. Then one can go ahead and grab a Masters as well, given that its not that much more difficult. If one then has the necessary determination and willingness to work hard, as well as the time and a good idea, one can get a doctorate and eventually be a professor, something only one in two thousand people ever manages. But then, while one has gotten pretty far, there are still plenty of other people at the same level and from that point onwards, one needs to reach for sky. Publications in major scientific journals, major improvements to humanitys knowledge base, even the Nobel Prize. Smarts, determination, none of that will bring you that far. No, that requires vision. A willingness to leave behind the normal and safe established areas of study, merely slowly expanding on existing ideas. To go down a new route just because you had an idea and want to pursue it. So thats what I did. There are plenty of professors of chemistry in the world, but I am one of the first [Alchemists] and likely the first one who is also a chemistry professor. And now Ive turned some gold powder, a standardboratory beaker, all three different kinds of phosphor and some venom from a magical snake into a magicalmp. All you need to use it is the mana that every member of the human race has ess to, or at least all the adults do. Your team wouldnt happen to have figured out why only some of the people under sixteen have ess to the [System]? Patrick blinked a couple of times as the steady stream of consciousness came to an end, then shook his head. We think it might have something to do with maturity, but we dont know. Oh well, it would have been nice to know, but I suppose the [System] is rathercking in the information department, isnt it? Chandler sighed. The going theory, at least for our team, is that it was created with ill intentions. Which somehow doesnt really mesh with the fact that its the more mature young people who have the [System], not the idiots, but everything else take this Event, for example. Awesome prizes, from creatures slightly stronger than their Tier would indicate, avable for a limited time? That practically screams that it was intended to cause trouble. Patrick said. Its a good thing you have that soldier guy, then? Chandler suggested Always better to have a good fighter there to keep you safe, be it from [System] monsters or idiots who think your experiments are going to end the world. Soldier guy? Patrick frowned. The one who dresses in colors that dont really show blood, at least in all the videos Professor Bailey makes to show monsters. The one with the knife. You mean Isaac? Hes just a mythology buff whos dedicated to getting stronger. Patrick shrugged. Nah, thats someone whos seen more darkness than any normal civilian does in a lifetime. He hides it well, but Ive spent a lot of time around people like that. Actual soldiers. Not tin soldiers in a peacetime military that only sees two casualties a month, but ones who fought in bloody wars. Chandler said seriously, then shrugged Or maybe Im getting old, who knows? Anyway, youre a [Mage], right? Can you check what happens when you use a magical me on this venom? Patrick blinked in surprise at the sudden change in topic but obeyed. Chandler handed him a ss dish from a random drawer, put in a drop of venom and gestured for him to light it. He did so, and a [System] window popped up, which he promptly shared with the professor. Starvenom me A normal magical me infused with the venom of the Uraeus serpent. This can also be done to enhance attack spells in order to create firebolts that both burn and poison anything they hit. Well, this is interesting. Chandler noted Too bad it requires this venom to create, which is in very limited supply. Actually, that isnt going to be an issue. Patrick grinned proudly at the older man and shared another window. Firebolt -> Starvenom Bolt; me Creation -> Starvenom me Creation; All fire type Skills may now be created from Starvenom me. Would you like to upgrade them all, or create an alternate Skill for each one while retaining the original effect? Y/N Im a [System Researcher], I can copy things like that rtively easily, though that one was faster to pick up than anything else Ive encountered. My [Skill] list might be full to bursting, but as long as I can pay careful attention to which one would be best for a given situation, I can do anything. Good on you. Chandler nodded appreciatively Your Professor Bailey gathered up quite the nice group, didnt he? Then, he turned and walked out of the room, only turning back once he was out of the door Im heading over to Baileys bunker to tell him how useful that stuff is and to try and get as much as he can. Are youing? Yeas, but theyre not there. Patrick warned and hurried after him. That analysis hadnt taken long, but it had been interesting. Now theyd be working together on actually gathering the samples, which was almost as cool. Onwards! Chapter 59: Skalli Chapter 59: Skalli Desert Amphitere, Agility somewhere in the forties, Strength and Fortitude in the thirties, Perception somewhere above fifty, Magic Power and Regen practically nonexistent. Primary weapon is a secondary tongue with a pointed spike at the end that can pierce magically reinforced concrete. No generated loot, but the sharpened tongue is removed upon death and floats before the person who dealt the final blow like all other Event loot. Isaac slumped and let himself fall on his ass, carelessly tossing the pointy, razor-sharp bone spur into the corner with all the other stuff theyd gained that wasnt particrly valuable or fragile. Well, he made sure no one ended up skewered, but that was about the extent of his caution. And now were done. he sighed Every creature from Tier 1 to 4 as well as all Tier 5 but one fully analyzed, including Stats, loot, abilities and weaknesses, all avable in an understandable format. Finally. The fights themselves hadnt been that bad, but constantly doing so, while paying full attention to every little move their foe made, all with precisely zero foreknowledge about its capabilities that had worn even on Isaac. He was no stranger to summoning and fighting for hours on end, but that usually included some downtime while his mana recovered. That, or he was simply going through the motions while he killed things summoned by other people to level them up in turn, but that was pretty easy too. Just doing the same motion over and over again. But here, they were cycling out the summoner and whomever was in charge of crowd control to maximize the use of their mana regeneration and he had to pay attention to all the monsters instead of being able to effectively switch his brain of while he did the same thing over and over again. The only reason no one had gotten seriously hurt was that they outpowered the monsters by a significant degree. Raul, Amy and Patrick all had a vast library of copied [Skill] that could exploit any possible elemental weakness, Karl could not only twist the concrete that surrounded the monsters on all directions but also fix any damage the room took, so they didnt have to hold back. Then there was Isaac, with a de that could crack practically any defense. With a lineup like that, the nutty [Alchemist] that hade back with Patrick and Professor Bishop with his lifetime of hunting experience and the high levelled [Skills] rted to it hadnt even had much of an impact. I suppose the real question is if we continue to, say, Skalli? Bishop asked What is that thing, anyway? Its a wolf from Norse Mythology. In some versions, its the one who eats the sun, in others, thats Fenrir. Point is, ording to myth and legend, this thing is meant to be apocalyptically powerful. Isaac responded Its weird that its only Tier 5 despite all that, thats for sure. Its summoning cost is only 250, thats the minimum for Tier 5, right? Bishop asked. Assuming that summoning cost is a measure of danger level would be dangerous even if the [System] wasnt created with ill intent. Patrick argued. And making those kinds of assumptions with regards to the [System] would be presumptuous. Chandler threw in, not even bothering to raise his head from where he was examining some monsters insides Its done plenty of good and the bad its brought can all be traced back to it being poorly handled. Im not going to deny that its incredibly dangerous and the evil [System] idea does have some merit, but lets not assign evil intentions without proof. But assuming something is safe forck of proof that it isnt is a fast way to the grave. Bishop said sternly. The thing is, if it were that easy toy a trap, humanity would already be extinct. Bailey corrected If it were possible to summon a monster that strong with barely any mana, then wed all already be neck deep in dragons, sea serpents and krakens. In all situations weve seen, theres a corrtion between summoning cost and power, there has to be a reason for that. Assuming the evil [System] hypothesis is one hundred percent correct, wouldnt we be able to summon dragons for no cost and the first starry eyed dreamer to called upon one, wed all be dead by now. Thered be no reason to put a single trap into the summoning system if it were possible to turn the entire [System] into a trap. So, just assume that everything is safe? That seems overly risky. Raul muttered. No, but true safety is an illusion anyway. Bishop scoffed Well be as careful as the situation warrants it, but assigning attributes such as being a trap to monsters at a whim isnt productive. Its not random, though. The name indicates its strength is at an apocalyptic level, even if its mana cost indicates otherwise. But the corrtion between mana and power is clear. This thing is going to be Tier 5 and slightly more powerful than normal because its an Event monster, but it should still be beatable. Isaac threw in his two cents. Hed normally have been a hell of a lot more careful, but he knew the corrtion was indeed true and that breaking the truisms from the other timeline wasnt possible even in this one. The mana spent to summon a monster was actually what summoned/created the monster, no one had been precisely sure which it was, but despite that, the mana used was needed. You could not get an apocalypse level enemy for 250 mana. Sure, there were some, like all those bloody Space Elementals that were a supremely bad matchup for basically everyone and therefore quite powerful, but those were the exception. And even theyd sacrificed in exchange for their power. They were utterly immobile, only had a single ability, and if that ability hadnt been so incredibly versatile as to be useful for offense, defense and general utility, theyd have been well and truly screwed. Overall, there was a little wiggle room to the rtion between summoning cost and power, but the variations shown in this Event were just about the full extent of that. Meanwhile, fighting an unknown monster in the mid-Tier 5 range was something hed have been willing to try on his own at this point, never mind with all these people here. Sure, Chandler probably shouldnt be here for this, but everyone else would be able to hold their own. And if the wolf didnt get summoned here and now, hed probably be doing soter, on his own, but the question at hand wasnt what he was willing to do, it was what everyone else was willing to do. Youve got the most experience with Tier 5 monsters, what do you think? Bailey asked, looking straight at Isaac. Theyre dangerous on a fundamental Level, and have at least one kind of extreme standout ability. High toughness, speed, power, regeneration, and so on. Nasty, but this thing would be at the lower end of Tier 5 given the mana cost, at least outside of the Event. Given that it is a part of the Event, itll be a bit stronger, but not extraordinarily dangerous. I reached the Level the Los Angeles Stormheart Gestalt had earlier tonight, which has been the single highest Level monster to date. We can definitely beat it, the question is how many people will end up dead in the process. he replied. I think this is definitely going to have to be a longer discussion. Bailey loudly announced Lets all take five minutes to rx and recover, check the news and thene back to this. The group split apart after that, some heading upstairs to go grab something from the gas station five minutes from here, Bailey went right back to calling people on his phone and Raul had the Dwarf Dragon egg lying the palm of his hand, infusing mana into it in the attempt it would hatch. Isaac just continued to lie there, rxing and listening to everything that was going on, mostly Amy and Patrick, who were busily checking the news. Campus Wi-Fi didnt reach down here and you could only check all the various news sites so fast, so theyd gotten creative. A dozen universityptops had been set up in the closest building and each showed a different news site, with some kind of macro automatically refreshing them every five minutes. That way, all it took to check what was going was one of the three [System Researchers] to cast [Scry] and see a quick overview. If anything required an actual response, someone would go up and do so, otherwise, they could continue as theyd been for thest few hours. Then, every half an hour, Bailey would upload a brief overview of what theyd found out about the monsters, though there was a massive these monsters are more powerful than their tier would indicate, so be fucking careful warning at the beginning of the page. Of course, there wasnt much information about the loot just yet, that would posted when theyd actually discussed it. Right now, all that particr page on the university website held were a bunch of name, what it looks like, what its stats are like, why its really frickin dangerous and should not be summoned entries. Still, if the news were any indication, it seemed to be working. Sure, there were people summoning the monsters and there had been a whole string of nasty incidents that could be directly med on the events, but far less than anyone had expected there to be. The promise of other people risking their lives to uncover the secrets of the Event monsters, people who would be done in a few short hours, was enough to stay the hand of most levelheaded people. People willing to risk it all to be the first to summon a particr Event monster were unlikely to reach the heights needed to summon the truly dangerous crap, thankfully. Of course, the impressive research progress had resulted in intense media scrutiny and people were camped out right outside theirb their oldb. They were currently in the bowels of a construction site, well clear of that ce. And since everyone here had passable night vision, there were no visible lights up top, and there was a construction fence around the ce anyway. And when people had inevitably started assuming that they were full of crap because no one was avable for ament, Bailey had sprinted over there, very politely told them to buzz off because he was busy and left in apletely different direction. He was perfectly able to move faster than normal, or even slightly superhuman people would be able to track. Raw stats alone helped, but throwing in the basic enhancements the professor had, his speed was downright zing. Then, a new conversation began, one that really interested him. With another sigh, Isaac pushed himself to his feet and sauntered over. ying tank for literal hours on end, with maybe sixty seconds between each fight, had worn him down mentally, but he was perfectly fine physically. Heres the thing: we need to put this information out there to satisfy peoples need to know what these things look like without having to summon them on their own, but we dont want to encourage them to try and go for loot belonging to monsters that they arent ready to fight yet. I dont suppose you two have any ideas? Bailey asked the other two professors. Im guessing simply leaving out the loot is not an option? It would make us look maniptive in the long run, but it might save lives in the short term. Bishop suggested, prompting Chandler to vehemently shake his head. You need openness. True openness about everything would be problematic, that is correct, but even the mere appearance of it will make you appear more trustworthy. And past that, its simple. Overstate the danger, understate the value of the loot, then discuss each separately once the Event is over and there is little danger of causing people to mass summon dangerous creatures. And how exactly is an obvious maniption going to help things? Bishop grumbled Keeping mum might look bad, but actual Machiavellian tactics are going to make us look a hell of a lot worse. Simple. Most people wont see through it and take it at face value. Those that see through it should also be the ones smart enough to obey the warning anyway. There will never be a one hundred percent effective solution to problems like this one, but ones that effectively warn off almost everyone are good enough. Chandler rolled his eyes Ive seen it time and time again. People not reading far enough to get to the danger warning, or forgetting all about that pesky little warning note in the beginning once they read about the good stuff. Theres a pretty simple way to deal with this. We bracket the juicy information in warnings, start off with one, and because the final argument is the one that sticks in the readers mind the best, end off with one. But at the end of the day, people who understand enough to call us out on how we phrase it will also understand why were doing it. And at the end of the day, regardless of what we do, there will be numerous negative examples to prove our point., all over the globe. I still think doing this will damage our credibility in the long run. Bailey insisted, his internal turmoil clear in his voice. He wanted to do what scientist had done since time immemorial, uncovering the secrets of the universe and publishing them, for fame, fortune, or just for the hell of it. But this was a situation where doing so could do serious harm. As long as all the information we have is actually included, it wont. Warn people, give them information while sneaking in other warnings, tell them about the loot alongside the danger posed by the monster that provides it, then finish it off with a dire warning that references as many public disasters linked to the matter at hand as are easily findable. There are some examples of people doing things like that in the past, here, Ill show you some. Chandler said, pulling out his phone and typing in something. It was at this point that Isaac realized he may have had a bit of a blind spot. Hed been focusing too much on people whod be famous in the future, people who he one hundred percent knew were able to adapt to the new reality and had, at the very least, the potential to work with the [System]. After all, that was what had prompted him to seek out Bailey and start with. But these people werent famous yet and had a limited amount of influence as a consequence and there were countless people who either had or would achieve great things without reaching the level of fame where everyone had heard of them. Isaac had basically learned everything there was to learn about the [System], but that didnt mean he knew whod discovered those things. Only truly prolific researchers, like Bailey, were known to him. And then there were people from the previous generation of academics, or even the ones before that who were in a position to help him, yet hed truly never heard of them. Much like most people, in his first life, Isaac hadnt known about many scientists other than the truly famous ones. Pasteur, Curie, Einstein, Te, Newton, Mendel, and so on. He really needed to start looking for other people who were in a position to help, but it would be difficult. There were a metric fuckton of academics on the world with varying levels of fame and influence, and he needed to somehow find the exact ones who could help the best. Still, even with all the things that had changed from the original timeline, it would be just about time to start enacting some of his other ns. Plenty of summoners were starting to reach the level where they could actually fight Tier 5 monsters and the few times people had tried to go for Tier 6, theyd gotten brutally pped down and the race for next Tier had slowed down significantly. And given the sheer breadth of Levels that Tier epassed, it would take years before people tried to go for, gods forbid, Tier 7. That would give them all a crucial chance to slow down a little, no longer forced to madly sprint to keep up with the most powerful summoners so they could research the same monsters that would be catastrophes if unleashed, go for some more in depth research into each and every monster, start to figure out how some of the non-monster mechanics of the summoning system worked, and so on, and so forth. And for him personally, that meant he could travel the world. Not for pleasure, but to make connections and collect some research data in person. It was research he hadnt bothered trying to convince Bailey to do because hed known other people had been doing it this early in the other timeline and confirmed it via the inte. Dungeons in particr were an incredibly powerful resource for levelling and gaining resources, but there was no way in hell to convince people to create them in the west, given that they created monsterspletely independent from any human intervention. Other ces, where the concept already somewhat existed in popr culture, had made them the sort-of primary method of gaining XP. Making the right connections there, perhaps convincing the local researchers to give him some specific pieces of research, he should be able to create some here as well. Regardless, that was a matter for the future. Right now, they still needed to deal with this sted Event. People were trickling back in and pretty soon, everyone was back. So, what has everyone decided on, should we summon thest monster of Tier 5 despite the danger its name indicates? Bailey asked. The question is if you youngster can manage to beat it. If you think so, then you should go for it. These creatures are a wealth of resources and new avenues of research even if they dont generate additional resources upon death. Take the Uraeus venom, for example, it can transform magic, upgrade soulbound equipment and is an incredibly powerful alchemical reagent. Image how much wed be kicking ourselves if we hadnt summoned those serpents and discovered how useful it was after the Event had already ended. Any of these creatures could hold something of equivalent usefulness. Chandler replied. Now, I will not be fighting alongside you because, quite frankly, I am more likely to get into your way then help, so I have no right to demand you risk your lives for this, but it is something that should be considered as you make your decision. I, for one, think we should go for it. Weve only got so long to fight with this thing and like Professor Chandler said, we could regret not fighting this thing for the rest of our live. Bishop threw in. And if we do summon it and it turns out to have been a mistake, we wont have the rest of our lives to regret it. Patrick stated bluntly, earning himself a dirty re from Bishop. Then, he shrugged. Just figured someone should keep the potential negative consequences in mind. But my vote is also to summon it. I agree that we should also summon it, but heres something we need to keep in mind: everyone on Baileys team can phase out through walls and escape with ease, Professors Chandler and Bishop cant. So they should stay near the doors, with the key, so if things go wrong, they can get out and lock the monster in here. Amy suggested. And how to we deal with the monster, then? Isaac asked Sure, this ce is tough enough to contain a Tier 5 monster for a while, but not forever. Magically infused hardwood reduces to slivers, coated in Starvenom, wrapped around some kind ofbustion device. Phase it through the wall and wait for the explosion, then follow it up with a slightly opened oxygen tank to fan the mes and supercharge the venom. As long as this Skalli has some kind of ordinary, organic physiology, this should kill it, it might just require several tries. Chandler mentioned nonchntly. Clearly, hed already thought about how to weaponize his new tricks. Why dont we just do that, then? Bishop asked As much as Id like to fight this thing, if theres a way to deal with it safely, we should do that to see what it actually drops. It would likely count as an environmental hazard, so if it dies to it, it wont drop anything. Raul exined Weve also discovered thatpletely safe methods of taking down monsters will give no XP and destroy any Aspects that might be held in their bodies, I sincerely doubt that wed get Event loot when we dont get anything else. I guess thats it then? Professor Chandler prepares everything needed for that emergency measure while the rest of use up with a n. Unless you object, Isaac? Bailey summed up the discussion thus far. Nah, Im fine. Isaac shook his head Lets get nning, shall we? It took a full twenty minutes, but eventually, they were all satisfied with the n. Alright, summoning Skalli. Isaac announced, standing right in front of a brightly glowing summoning circle. Bailey stood two meters behind him and slightly off to the side, having fully transformed his body for the first time. The professor stood a full three meters tall, still humanoid, but no one would ever mistake him for actually being a human, not anymore. His internal modifications were significant enough, his entire skeleton having basically be rubber and his organs had been segmented and toughened while also more able to shift past each other, making him effectively invulnerable to crushing blows. Blood and bone marrow had be that of a Hydra, granting him the same regeneration as the serpent monster while a little mechanism borrowed from the Horned Lizard let himunch the toxic liquid at range. Bone scales that had been outright stolen off Isaacs ultimate form covered the entire thing, interlocked with metal threads copied off a metal slime the same way rebar strengthened modern buildings. And then, there were the ming ws taken off a Jungle King, the original having been a gift from Isaac. All in all, his Level was only 17 so his Stats werent that high, but unless the monster was Level 24 or something, Bailey might even be able to take it on his own. It wouldnt be guaranteed win by any means, but he was still damn strong. Karl, Amy, Raul and Patrick had spread out, each ready to rain fire and brimstone on the monster while the two other professors were waiting by the door, ready to run and lock the door behind them, should worsee to worst. And then, the wolf arrived. Its shoulders were three meters above the ground, the head rising even higher. Its fur was ck as night and its eyes were even darker, seeming to suck in the light to the point where it was visible even against the darkness that surrounded it. It roared and lunged, only to be met with a salvo of devastating spellfire. Freezing sts, lighting bolts, streams of fire weirdly reminiscent of the venom of a Uraeus serpent. The wolf howled even as it continued to charge, slowed slightly by the attacks, sprinting past Isaac to quickly for him to block it with his body, aiming right for Patrick. Isaac just gave it a feral grin and stuck out his arm, he could reach that far. It chomped down, drawing blood and let go a momentter. [Tools of Terror] let him copy the natural weapons belonging to the monsters whose Aspects hed slotted, and incredibly toxic blood counted to that purpose. It staggered briefly, working to try and break down the toxin with its power, a moment that Bailey took to touch Isaacs shoulder and heal the injury. Streams of fire and fury hammered into it while the ground began to liquefy to try and trap it. A projected [Far Strike] shed several times across its nk and Skalli lunged, trying to take his hand off at the wrist, but Isaac just tossed the de down its gullet and yanked back his hand. The danger seemingly over, it whirled again and charged at the [Mage] group, only to be met with three ovepping barriers, which it promptly crashed into, stopped cold. Instead of futilely scratching against it, Skalli simply opened its jaws wider than should be possible, and then a vantack orb manifested right there, obliterating any parts of the barrier it touched, followed by it sucking in more and more of it even further away. Meanwhile, any attack spells from the front began to distort and fly towards it, disappearing on contact. And then, the wolf stumbled, whined in pain, smoke trailing from its insides and flowing into the orb, and turned back to nce at Isaac. He just stood there, hand open and outstretched towards it. The stupid thing had swallowed a soulbound weapon. [To Me] was a basic ability belonging to the weapon itself that recalled the weapon back into Isaacs hand in a straight line. If the guts of a one ton wolf happened to be in the way, oh well, theyd just have to end up getting chopped in half, didnt they? Oh, and Isaac had also activated the brand new [Starfang] ability, lighting it on fire with a venomous fire that both burned and poisoned its flesh. Sadly, the wolf wasntpletely stupid. It whirled, lining up itself so a secondter, a blood, gore, and other things he didnt even want to imagine-covered Old Reliable pped into Isaacs hand, still on fire. It was looking slightly warped, but despite all appearances, that thing in its mouth wasnt a true singrity. Skalli tried to jump towards him but the leap ended up rather anemic, as it had to first pull itself out of the concrete, which was now far closer to quicksand than anything else. More and more spells burned through it, electricity causing spells to make its muscles spasm, ice freezing flesh solid, venom necrotizing flesh. The wolf copsed a momentter, but no kill notification showed up. Bailey held up a hand and the barrage stopped, his [Skills] letting him tell that the monster was practically already dead, now all they were doing was tearing up valuable materials. Isaac stepped forward, ready to jump back at a moments notice, de elongating back into its Kriegsmesser form. He lunged, de glowing orange, and drove it through the skull up to the hilt. As the wolf stiffened with finality, a beautiful cloak appeared before Isaac. It was a wolf pelt cloak, albeit in the grey color one normally associated with wolves, the fur on top of the head still attached to go on top of the wearers head, strongly resembling what a druid might wear in a work of fantasy. It looked cool as hell, though it would make the wearer give off some pretty strong cosy vibes. Isaac made the [System Window] visible to everyone. Cloak of the Ulfhednar This is a cloak made from the hide of a mystical wolf, empowering the wearer with the fury of that same wolf. While wearing this cloak, the wearer gains +10 to Perception, +5 to Strength and Agility. It can also bank 100 points of mana that may only be used for transformation Skills. Earning 5,000 XP while wearing this cloak will make it soulbound (so long as the user does not already have a piece of soulbound equipment, each user may only have one piece of soulbound equipment at a time) and unlock the Ulfhednar (minimum rare for the first Evolution, minimum epic for second Evolution, rarity will be altered and upgraded based on the users ss, Skill Level, Aspects and achievements) ss at the next Evolution. For 100 mana, the form of this cloak may be changed, once unless it is soulbound. If soulbound, it may be repeatedly altered. What on Earth is an Ulfhednar? Chandler asked. Tossing the cloak over to Bailey, Isaac began to exin. Im sure everyone is familiar with what a berserker is, right? A powerful warrior that fights with the fury of a rabid animal, at least thats the modern interpretation of it. Historically though, they fought with the fury of bears, or so they said, and the name itself roughly trantes to bear-shirt. An Ulfhednar is the wolf equivalent, though few people other than mythology nerds like myself know it. Whatever it is, the stats on that thing are amazing. Raulmented. Should we try to get one for everyone? Bishop asked. Theyd figured out a while ago that some loot that directly came from the monsters body, like the Uraeus Venom, dropped with every kill while loot that had to be generated, like the Dwarf Dragon eggs, would only drop the first time a given person summoned the monster. That being said, Isaac suspected things had been set up like that to entice people to summon one of each monster for the guaranteed loot, and that guarantee would be dropped eventually, so everyone would desperately summon to get the same bling the early birds had earned. It would be an easy way to counter the researchers trying to diffuse the danger posed by the Event. But for now, that still meant that they should be able to get one each pretty quickly. Lets get another two and then see what time it is. Ive got the press conference in 90 minutes and at least some of us need to be there and presentable. Now, is everyone recovered, should we try and kill another one of these apocalypse wolves? Bailey asked, tossing the wolf pelt over to Bishop. Do you really need to ask? Chapter 60: The Press Chapter 60: The Press You arent seriously going to step out in front of the press in that, are you, young man? Chandler scoffed, looking Isaac up and down. Sadly, the professor had a point. Isaac was looking rather unpresentable. He was a good fighter, but the small stains, burn and rips added up after several hours of fighting. Embers flying when a Bonfire Golem was struck or some creatures fur burned off, random sparks arcing off a bolt of lightning, the asional ssh of blood he was unable to avoid and attacks he only avoided with enough clearance to keep his body from being damaged, but not his clothes bined with his regeneration ability, he looked like the hero of a 16+ action movie, one not afraid of to show blood and other grossness but unwilling to let the hero actually be seen hurt. Ive got a change of clothes in Professor Baileys spatial storage, Ill change before the press conference. Isaac shrugged. By change of clothes, I suppose you mean an intact version of your current outfit? Chandler asked, an eyebrow raised. Yes? Isaac frowned. That question had seemed a little pointed. That simply wont do. Chandler stated matter of factly, then raised his voice Everyone follow me, Ill make sure you look presentable. Dont worry, I have experience in announcing big news to the press and a source of good and proper attire. Isaac just sighed and plodded after him. The man shared the annoyingbination many older people in leadership positions had, consisting of intelligence to quickly realize something, the experience to know what to do about it and their being so used to being in charge that they rarely bothered to exin their exact reasoning. Still, they had close to three quarters of an hour left and he did need a new outfit. If said outfit wasnt jeans and a shirt in a color that blood is less visible on, all the better. Bishop stayed behind, experimenting with various moves while wearing his Ulfhednar cloak. He had a wide, ted grin on his face, eyes glowing a warm yellow. He was also standing a few centimeters taller and had gained a sprinkling of grey hairs all over his body. The transformation as he fully drew on the cloaks power was rming, but theyd all analyzed it and its effect and noticed nothing wrong. Then again, Bishop had a verypatible base and evolved [sses], which might y into how smoothly the new form of power was being integrated. He''d also kept his outfit in the original, druid-cosyer form, something that Isaac had categorically refused to do. Hed been the one to get the second cloak and immediately reduced it to a spiffy leather jacket, though he wasnt currently wearing it. He didnt want to damage it before he had a chance to experiment with it, something that had a serious chance of happening if he continued to y frontline defender. A few minutester, Chandler, Bailey, Isaac, Amy and Raul found themselves in some kind of costume warehouse, or at least that was what it looked like on the surface. Patricks appearance had been deemed eptable by the old professor, the younger man had for some inexplicable reason decided to put on a white polo shirt and cargo pants beforeing in this earlyte. Apparently, it was just the rightbination of nice and functional while also having survived the events of the nightpletely intact, mostly due to the inordinate amount of spells Patrick had picked up to get out of mundane chores. Cleansing, clothes fixing, rain repelling all gained as soon as humanly possible so he had more time for other stuff. What is this ce? Isaac asked, head whipping from side to side as he tried to take everything in. Costume storage, basically. If we need an outfit for a photo op, its in here. Old equipment that is no longer suitable for actual use but still looks good. A few suits bought by the university for professors to borrow if they need a specific type. Old suits that people no longer need or were willed to us, stuff like that. Chandler exined. Wow, I had no idea this was here. Bailey said in wonder, letting his hand run along a line of fancy outfits. I suppose it must have slipped everyones mind. This ce is really only for professors, but the world went to crap literally the day after you became one, so Chandler trailed off as Rauls MIrcroraptor sneezed. Shed been running around on the floor, sniffing the old coats, and ended up getting a nose full of dust. How old are these things? Raul wondered. Old. Chandler chuckled Some of the suits were worn by professors while doing experiments in suits, oh, a century or so ago. That sounds pretty unsafe. Raulmented. Oh, it was. Lab coats are somewhat fire retardant and can survive basically all chemicals long enough for the wearer to tear it off. Suits not so much. Chandlermented dryly Why be safe when you can look refined? As interesting as this is, I believe we were here for a reason? Bailey suggested. Ah yes, making you lot look presentable. Feel free to choose anything here, just make sure it looks right. It needs to be something that you might have worn while fighting. If it looks too fancy, youll look fake. If it looks too much like youre trying to be cool, youlle across as a poser. Or worse, one of those ridiculous cosyers. And if you look too bad, uncultured, or otherwise like you wouldnt make for an upstanding member of society, youll make a terrible impression, obviously. Lastly, if you look too rough, it might appear that you barely walked away from a given situation, which is very much not the impression we want to give. Chandler exined. His observations were pretty obvious, but they were also good points. The real challengey in actually implementing that advice. And as it turned out, it really was a challenge. No, youre not trying to look like you just came out of theb, Bailey. You called a press conference, youre expected to look halfway presentable. What do you think ab coat makes you look Once again, Chandler had the experience to make good calls, but not the tact to properlymunicate that. Isaac suspected that would change when he was actually standing in front of the cameras, given that the old professor was an old hand at dealing with the press. In the end, Isaac had been given an old suit in an ever so slightly outdated style, but it looked hefty, as if it could be worn while exploring ancient ruins and be just fine. Or so Raulmented while pointing out that Isaac would look like Indiana Jones without his hat once he put on the Ulfhednar jacket. Hed also be strapping Old Reliable to his belt in its Kriegsmesser configuration. Overall, it would make it very clear what his role on the team was while also making him look good. Raul had ended up getting a falconers jacket that included several heavily reinforced sections that raptors and even eagles would be able tond on, grip tightly with their talons and never even leaving a scratch. Meanwhile, Bailey and Amy came out of the sudden makeover mostly normal looking, wearing clothes that looked slightly fancier than regr streetwear, but not so much so that no one would ever wear it to a risky area like a summoning room. Alright, now none of you are allowed to go back to the summoning room. Mr Thoma, Ill have someone bring out that magic leather jacket of yours. Chandler ordered, shoed them all out and locked the door behind them. He had a point, though. Given how many creatures had already died in the summoning room, theyd have been standing ankle deep in gore if it hadnt been for the regrly used cleaning spells. So while it had never even looked like a ce where animals were ughtered, their goal hadnt beenplete cleanliness, it had been a passable state. So if they went in there now, there was a fairly high chance that theyd end up dirty. They headed over to the storage rooms, collected the others, and walked over to the building that held their old office. Well, it was technically still their office, but they probably wouldnt be using it after tonight. Their new office space was alreadypleted and while there would be construction happening overhead, both Karl and Amy had ways to blot out the noise. That extra mana expenditure and the harder ess was well worth the vast universe of new possibilities opened up by not only having four summoning rooms, but also having farrger summoning rooms. The crowd of people setting up at their destination was very clearly divided into two groups. There were the people with a more basic setup, each looking tired and borderline exhausted. These were likely the ones whod been sent out here when Bailey had first started posting his things on the university website and just camped out here, waiting for ament. The other group had a professional setup, several different ones, in fact,plete with pole microphones, or whatever they were called,rge cameras, microphones, all taken out of vans with rather prominent logos. They were here for the guaranteed story of the professor whod touched the whole world with his research today, and then announced a press conference. Professor Bailey, could I get ament? someone called out. Several someones, in fact, all blending together in an auditory mess that even Isaacs Perception had to struggle to pick apart. Bailey merely stopped walking and looked at them with a sternly neutral expression as the questions continued to rain in, almost exclusively from the first group of reporters. When they didnt get a response, of any kind, they began to slowly peter out, at which point Bailey started to walk again, stepping up behind a stone bench, near the entrance to their old building. A split secondter, the bench warped, rising upwards until it looked like your stereotypical speakers podium. Isaac knew that Karl had done that and anyone with mystical senses could find out, but it still looked damn impressive. The team might be extremely used to magic and used it to rece mundane methods with a frequency that was practically unnatural, but these people werent. Hence, this had quite the impact. Silence fell, true silence. Not just one where most people didnt talk and those that did keeping their voices down to a hushed whisper, but the quiet of a graveyard and midnight under a new moon. Good morning,dies, gentlemen, thank you foring. My name is Adam Bailey and I am a Professor of [System] Sciences. he began, voice strong and clear. Eight weeks ago, the world changed with the introduction of the [System]. Six hours ago, it changed again when the [System] started what it referred to as an event, temporarily opening up new summoning options. Since that time, my team has worked tirelessly to analyze each and every single one of those creatures, all the way up to and including Tier 5. During the course of that work, we have found out that these monsters are consistently stronger than In essence, it was the speech whose precise wording theyd hashed out over and over again. An introduction followed by a warning, then he went into a little more detail on a few interesting monsters, pointing out the problematic abilities in each of them. Then he exined that yes, these monsters did give new rewards and they were somewhat good but getting them meant fighting dangerous enemies. The speech ended soon after that, with a sincere appeal to anyone who thought about summoning these Event monsters to think about it thoroughly, as whatever instincts theyd acquired during thest 8 weeks would not work here, given the strength differential between Event and normal monsters of the same Tier. This was followed up by him pointing out that all of the information was avable on the university website,plete as to the full extent of their knowledge and updated every hour until the Event ended. And then about a million questions rained in. Do you have an exnation for the increase in monster power if the cost doesnt change? Not at the moment. However, weve determined that the increase is always roughly the same across all tiers. It might be an inherent feature of Event monsters that will persist in future Events. Weve been able to determine that the strength of normal monsters has not changed. Does that mean you expect there to be future Events? This Event was explicitly linked to an astrological event with major cultural and religious significance all around the globe, rather than being a celebration of the [System] having been here for a specific length of time. There are also three more simr astrological events each year, the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes, as well as the Winter Solstice, and there is a very real chance that each of them will also see a simr Event urring. Where were you summoning these monsters, if not in the building behind you? Arger space that has recently be avable. Was anyone hurt during the research? How did you get the exact Stats? Will you be selling some of the loot you got from the Event monsters? Some of the questions were truly ridiculous. Isaac was just d that hed asked Bailey to not reveal detailed information about his own [Skills] and [ss], also suggesting that the same went for the others. Even if the whole treat your stat sheet like its one of your most embarrassing nudes and be as careful about sharing it attitude hadnt really established itself yet, the logic behind the request was undeniable. Slowly, the big group began to break up and Isaac slowly left away from the solid group standing behind Bailey as silent and stoic support. His senses were extended to their maximum, vacuuming in every word spoken in arge radius, giving him a level of localized omniscience these people would be supremely ufortable with if theyd been aware of it. The existence of people with supernatural powers was something everyone was well aware of but internalizing something like that was a whole other kettle of fish. There were a lot of interesting conversations taking ce. Many of them were in awe of Baileys big brass balls and how hed stood in front of the world, proudly announcing that hed taken a bunch of students to fight Tier 5 monsters, but most werent nning to twist this into something malicious. Nothing bad had happened and his experiments had stayed so many would-be summoner turned corpses hands that trying to nder his good name was unlikely to go over well. Certainly, some would try it, but the overall reception was positive. Then, a particrly enticing conversation reached his ears and Isaac immediately changed the direction of his footsteps until Hi there. Youre on Professor Baileys team, right? Would you be willing to answer a few questions? The asker was a preppy looking young woman, done up in expensive but not extravagant clothing, much like Isaacs own. There were several other people on the prowl for people other than Bailey to interview, but only one of them had had a fairly sessful blog in the other timeline. There were, of course, plenty of others who were even more sessful, but they werent from the local area. Well, Isaac said local, but that really included everything that could be reached with a three hour drive, which Kiara Knoer had apparently undertaken for the mere chance at getting a good interview. She had a very solid think things through attitude towards the [System] and summoning, something Isaac could appreciate. Besides, it wasnt like he could just call up any current and or future famous reporters to ask them to write something on the [System]. Well, there were a few things he could use because they were extraordinary stories, but those were also things that hed rather keep to himself. Bailey was the one with all the press contacts. Yes, I am, and Id love to. What would you like to talk about? he replied, shing her a slight smile. Great. Would you mind stepping to the side for a moment so weve got a bit of space from the crowd? Sure thing. Can you tell me your name? Isaac. Isaac Thoma. A momentter, a young man around their age stepped up with a decent looking video camera and aimed it at Isaac. Alright everyone, Im Kiara from Kiaras Craziness, here with Isaac Thoma, a member of Professor Baileys team. Yes, that Professor Bailey. Isaac, can I ask you how you were able to react so quickly? I mean, the [System] doesnt wake people up and the Event got started in the middle of the night. Isaac chuckled softly Well, some us are at the point where we have the Fortitude to keep a supremely unnatural sleep schedule. So when the first one noticed the message, they called the others and kept calling until everyone was awake. After that, well, a few people live nearby and got here maybe ten minutes after everything started. What exactly do you mean when you said you had the Fortitude to do that? Can you rify? Its pretty simple actually. The higher your Fortitude, the less sleep you need. There are ongoing studies to determine the exact nature of that rtionship, but there are a few people here who only need a catnap every day or two and can stay awake for the rest of the time. Its certainly nice to be able to work for absurdly long hours and still have more free time than ever before. So, you work long hours? That must be exhausting. Not really. As Confucius said, choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life and I love this job. Oh, I see. Have you been working here long? Depends on how you look at it. Isaac chuckled Ive worked here for less than two months, but Ive also worked here since day one. And as for the long hours, thats usually due to everyone not wanting to put off a given experiment until the next day. With our Fortitude, we can easily do so without losing all our free time. Besides, Professor Bailey asks us if were willing to stay and doesnt force us to if we cant or simply dont want to. At the end of the day, were a bunch of very curious people, asionally very nerdy, able to freely explore the biggest scientific mystery of, well, ever, and research whatever we want. How safe would you say your work is? I know the departments track record so far is zero injuries, but youre fighting monsters. Isnt that a little scary, sometimes? Of course its scary, its monsters. But weve got very good safety measures in ce and like you said, weve never had an injury during the teams existence. Just like all the people working with pathogens, mmable, corrosive or mutagenic chemicals, and so on, and so forth, were doing something dangerous but being careful as the situation demands it. And what is your role on the team? Sensory specialist and hatchet man. Isaac chuckled softly. So, is that your [ss]? [Hatchetman]? No, Ive got a monster analysis focused evolution of [Rogue]. Isaac exined. The police had as much on file, so he felt perfectly justified sharing that much. Oh, that is very interesting. How do you get something like that? Basically, your [ss] evolves based on what you do, what your [Skills] are like and which are at the highest Level, things like that. Theres actually a pretty exhaustive exnation on the university website. Well, two of them, anyway. One is a proper scientific paper, thorough as all get out and appropriately long. And the other is there for people who dont feel like spending the next several hours picking through jargon. Kiara giggled Thats good to know. Are you ok to answer a few more question? Sure thing. Were mostly done with the research for today, we know all the important things, now its just a matter of digging deeper on the topics we find interesting. But seriously, Im enjoying talking like this. Usually, its Professor Bailey who talks to the press. If you ever feel like interviewing a famous scientists minion again, Im game. Oh, does that make you Igor to his Dr Frankenstein? Kiara giggled. I mean, sort of? We are a bunch of scientists pushing the boundaries of established science by literally calling monsters into this world. Isaac joked. Thats certainly one way of looking at it. Thank you for your time and I think I might just take you up on that offer, Mr. Thoma. Please, call me Isaac. In that case, call me Kiara. See you around, then, Kiara. Bye, Isaac. She bustled off in search of her next victim while Isaac walked off in a different direction, a smile creeping onto his lips. That had been a pleasant conversation. Now all he had to do was survive until the crowd of reporters dispersed, then he could go ahead and y around with the Event for next rest sixteen or so hours. Now that he had an alchemist avable, there were so many things they could try. Chapter 61: Let’s play Chapter 61: Lets y Isaac sighed in relief as he tossed the formal shirt into the empty room that would soon be an office, then put on a regr t-shirt. That ce waspletely clean thanks to Patricks efforts and was well clear of anywhere blood and other fluids were being tossed around, making it a good ce to store all the borrowed outfits. Hey look, we got another one! Bishop called from the summoning room. Hed ended up staying behind instead of joining everyone at the press conference and Patrick, while he had gone, had also returned rather quickly along with Chandler once it was clear that things hadnt gone horribly wrong, nor was there much of a risk of disaster urring during the questionnaire. And apparently, those three had managed to take down a third Skalli, all on their own. The method was starkly apparent on the body, both through the damage inflicted and the traces of magic detectable by [Hunters Gaze]. Slivers of the wood retrieved from the Bonfire Golem, mystical in nature, infused with the venom of the Uraeus Serpent, the toxic liquid that burned with the fury of a star yet somehow flowed smoothly into the very mmable substance, properly stabilized by an [Alchemists ] [Skill]. Not much had been used, the attack kept well below the threshold where it would be considered an environmental attack, but still enough to wreak havoc on the wolfs system, razor-sharp shards flung by telekic force tore through its fur and the flesh below, burning into it and leaving behind scorched muscle and skin, fully infused with necrotizing venom. And then, a pair of additional [Skills] had hit it, enhancing both the quantity and quality of the toxic liquid. And all of that had just been the opening attack. Its lower jaw was in ruins, bent and twisted as if it had been caught up in the wolfs own ck hole that isnt a true singrity. This would have been weird if it hadnt been for the crossbow bolt stuck in the back of its mouth, off to the side and a couple of centimeters behind thest mr, twisted in the manner characteristic of something that had flown through the mess of twisted gravity that was the pseudo-singrity. Meanwhile, the numerous scrapes on its body and the painful looking bruises on its forelimbs coupled with the stone blocks that had risen from the ground showed how badly it had been tripped up by an Earth-shaping [Skill], one suspiciously simr to Karls, but the [Magineer] hadnt been. A [System Researchers] cheat-Tier copying [Skill] at work, no doubt. Those three had taken all the knowledge gained from just two fights against this kind of enemy, found weaknesses, and exploited them ruthlessly. A basic attack that used a not-insignificant amount of Event-materials in the form of venom and mystically charged wood to weaken it, rock walls raised barely high enough to trip it up, but still high enough that the wolf had to jump over it to avoid falling t on its face, timed perfectly to make it hard to actually manage the jump. Already burning, poisoned and now lying on the floor, the wolf had engaged its special ability to try and suck in some of the iing spells, crossbow bolts and vials of nasty alchemical brews. And then some kind of spellbreaker bolt had hammered clean through the ball of darkness. It was slightly thrown of its original trajectory so it didnt end up flying down its gullet, but the ck hole must have lost containment, ripping apart its wielders flesh. It was a surprising sight, but not nearly as surprising as it would have been if Isaac hadnt known about Bishops [ss]. The older man had a rare Evolution of [Hunter], either [Monster Hunter] or something with simr [Skills] and purpose, but a different name. Not just abat [ss] that lent itself to killing monsters, hunting them, but an actual [ss] tailor made to bringing down monsters of myth and legend. Isaac might not have had ess to the mans character sheet, but he didnt have to in order to know what kinds of [Skills] he had ess to. Tracking, analysis, projectile enhancement, tool enhancement, and the kind that had been used here. The kind that could counter a beasts magical abilities, if the Level difference wasnt too great and the user knew what he was up against, which Bishop had known perfectly well in this situation. Overall, those three had put their knowledge to devastating use, hitting weaknesses, countering trump cards, reacting to attacks impossibly fast because theyd predicted them. Real monsters might not have had the set attacks and movement patterns of their video game counterparts, the kind one could memorize and then dance around final bosses and tear them to shreds with nary a scratch, but there were certain patterns that one could pay attention to. The way Skallis jaws opened impossibly wide to project the ck hole, how it lifted its legs to run, what it preferred to go after if aggroed off the summoner all of that could be figured out and used against it. So, whos getting the pelt? Isaac asked. We were thinking Patrick. Bishop replied Figured a few more points towards physical ability wouldnt go amiss. The professor was currently in full beast mode, faint wolfish features visible all over his body. And then we can get one for everyone else who wants one. A proper piece of soulbound gear usually doesnt go amiss. How about it, Mr. Siegel? No thank you. Karl called back Ive already got one. Oh, do tell. Bishop asked, eyebrow raised, so Karl withdrew arge wrench from a pocket, which was weird. It was toorge to have fit in there without its outline showing, but Isaacs ability to see magic revealed the truth quite handily. Its called [Any Tool, Anytime, Anywhere]. The name is a bit silly, but it also sums it up pretty well. Karl said as the wrench shifted into a glob of silver somewhere between a baseball and basketball in size, then condensed into a hammer, strange looking as one made from a uniform metal was I can turn it into anything I can picture decently well in my head, but it cant get any bigger than this blob. Smaller is possible, but bigger isnt. And I couldnt wish for a better soulbond. Can it turn into a weapon? Say, a gun? Bishop asked. Weapons are fine as well, anything within the size limit goes as long as there arent too many pieces, but it has to be all metal, though parts of it can be altered to gain unusual attributes, like sticity, not being conductive to electricity, all to a degree not possible within the bounds of non-magical science. For example, I made a voltmeter. Guns are tricky. Modern guns are tooplicated, have too many pieces, for me to create in their entirety. Ive been sticking to things like flintlocks and blunderbusses, but those arent really useful, my earth magic is better. Why dont flintlocks work? Patrick asked. They work, but theyre a pain in the ass to load. Karl exined. How well can you control the shifting? Isaac asked Can you pull outside objects into the mass and them ce them in a specific ce? Ye Karl facepalmed Just stick a bunch of bullets in my pocket and then mold a basic gun around it. From the mouths of babes. Chandler muttered softly, though still loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, and then raised his voice I think we could all stand to listen to some outside advice where ites to the [System]. Weve all got preconceived notions based on our past experiences and fields of study, but were studying an entirely new phenomenon here, something we knew nothing about until less than two months ago. We all almost certainly have massive blindspots that someone else can get past in moments. Isaac snorted softy Yeah, found that out the hard way. Then, he turned to Karl But why limit yourself to using normal bullets? What if you stick with the flintlock model, having it ce the gunpowder in the back of the barrel, and then you can put all sorts of fun stuff in front of it. There are countless mystical materials avable that pack one hell of a punch even before you consider what an [Alchemist] or simr [ss] can refine them into. As interesting as this is, I think we should be very careful about blowing up magical materials with gunpowder. Im sure we can get a firing range properly set up to contain all conceivable oues, but until then, we wont try that out. Bailey interrupted, pping his hands to draw attention Regardless, the Event will end tonight, so well need be done with all the experiments we want to do by then. So, questions, suggestions, ideas? Food, maybe? Coffee too? Karl suggested Well be here a while and if we arrange to have it brought to us now, itll be avable when we need itter. Now, I dont know about coffee, but we do have a pile of steaks in the storage room. Does anyone know where the uncursed part of the namees back, though? Amy suggested. Actually, I do. Its from the Odyssey. Odysseus and his mennded at an ind covered in cows, Helios'' sacred cattle, which you couldnt eat without being cursed. Of course, the hungry sailors ignored the warnings and ate one. Its been forever since Ive read the Odyssey so I dont remember what exactly happened, but it was either something involving the wrath of the sea, the uneaten remains moving and scaring the hell out of people, or both. Isaac exined. The real question is if this is something along the lines of this stuff isnt bad for you, wink, wink or a genuine attempt to show that it is, in fact, safe, and simply tranted poorly. Patrickmented. Thetter was actually a very possible scenario. The [System] always showed up in your mother tongue, though you could easily switch it to anynguage you knew. Isaacs, for example, was in English. After all, it was thenguage of science, and the [System] might trante something a little differently than he would. By having it show up for him in thenguage hed bemunicating with people in, he kept the number of possible mimunications to an absolute minimum. Honestly, I think its just very badly phrased. How else would you put it? Apollos definitely not cursed Cattle? The Cattle that isnt cursed the way it is in the stories? Isaac asked Besides, even with all the nastiness that hase from the [System], it hasnt lied yet. And even if it does turn out to be a trap, if it even lies once, people will stop believing it. Also, my [Alchemy] [Skill] isnt showing it to be as anything other than food. [Alchemy] [Skill]? Chandler asked. It showed up as a [General Skill] when I triedbining some monster materials. It gives me some basic information and help, but iming to be an [Alchemist] because of it would be like someone who fix a rip in their shirt iming to be a tailor. Isaac exined But do your [Skills] show something else? Nah, it just looks tasty. I dont suppose theres a kitchen in here? Chandler asked. No, but Id love to demonstrate to everyone why I threw out my microwave. Amy announced, striding forward while everyone else was still trying to parse out what shed just said. The stark red cow had turned into a pile of thick cut steaks upon death and she levitated one of them over to her, cast a quick spell to clean off the surface. A prudent measure, given that shed gotten it from one of the specimen boxes. Finally, a heat haze appeared between her hands, prating the steak that hung in between them. What exactly are you doing? Patrick asked, frowning hard Fifty degrees is nowhere near hot enough to cook a steak. Chandler chuckled softly Thats because she isnt cooking it, shes Sous-Videing it. Bringing its temperature up to 54 degrees Celsius and holding it there, creating what amounts to the center of a perfectly made steak throughout it in its entirety. Then all you have to do is sear the outside for a brief moment. Its thezy way for an unskilled chef to create a perfect steak that wouldnt look out of ce in a Michelin Star restaurant. Now normally, this would take hours, but magic can yank the core temperature up to whats required and hold it there, instead of the heat simply propagating throughout. Or am Ipletely wrong about this, Ms. Shaw? Youre absolutely correct. Amy shed him a grin A fellowzy cook, then? Anyway, time for the grand finale. Twin disks of fire manifested, one on either side of the steak, and mmed into it with a loud sizzle. They vanished a few secondster, the mouthwatering smell of cooked steak filling the air. Another gesture, and the steak fell apart into cubes, which were then sent flying throughout the room. Isaac snatched one flying towards him out of the air and popped it into his mouth. It was delicious, utterly perfect, beyond any mundane steak hed ever eaten. If you knew which monsters to kill, you could create foods beyond what could be achieved by mundane means, though most of those were only avable in the higher Tiers. The others echoed the sentiment, making appreciativements. Alright, this stuff is excellent, but I think Id rather eat off a te. Baileymented Karl, could youe with me to go grab some cutlery? Amy, if you would be so kind as to teach that trick to the others who can pull it off? They both nodded, and the group split apart. Chandler and Bishop started talking in one corner, Amy was instructing Raul and Patrick while standing over the pile of steaks in another one, leaving Isaac on his own, listening in on everything going on around him. but the big limitation to what I can create is my equipment. Some of the things I deal with now are dangerous due to being somewhat explosive, but others simply leak mystical energies that need to be contained using simrly mystical means. Ive got the [Skills] topensate for that somehow, but they really need properly made ss with inherent resistances of its own to work with. I dont suppose you know any high-Level ssblowers? Chandler asked. Im afraid Im in the same boat. Crossbow arms break, strings snap, arrows shatter midflight. I dont have the mana to infuse my weapons for every shot, but if I dont, they break pretty quickly. People actively using magical materials or summoning simply need tougher equipment, but theyve levelled far faster than the various craftsmen whose [Skills] could make said equipment. Bishop sighed. In hindsight, I should have aimed for a [ss] with a soulbound weapon that automatically repairs itself, or maybe something with magic, because [Mages] dont need weapons. Isaac waited for that conversation to continue for a short while, then slowly ambled over. I couldnt help but overhear your conversation, but I believe I have a solution. That hadnt even been a lie. They all had excellent senses, and while they could be limited to the level of a normal human, as Isaac often did with his sense of smell, for obvious reasons, doing so felt like giving up a piece of yourself, like physically removing part of the relevant sensory organ. Only semi-permanent reductions that were used for a long time felt alright. It was simply morefortable and expedient to keep the senses where they were, and try to not listen in on every conversation happening nearby. Youd still catch the asional snippet, but it was far less intrusive than one could be with this level of Perception. Oh, do tell. Chandler said skeptically. Its simple. Powerlevel craftsmen. Give them rare materials from powerful monsters that they cant handle yet and have them try anyway. Youll lose a lot of valuable materials, but the gain in [Skill] Levels is incredible. Throw in a few of the right Aspects and youll have someone who can make anything you could possibly need in no time. Thats what Ive been doing and already seen. Isaac exined. Sounds expensive. Chandlermented Expensive and risky. Im guessing youve got some kind of contract to keep your craftsman from running off with everything you helped him gain? Of course I did. Isaac nodded But it isnt that expensive when you get the materials yourself. I dont suppose I could see some examples? Bishop asked. Ive got a titanium Zweih?nder, forged from the bones of The Crusher, but thats still back at my ce. There are some throwing knives made by my cksmith here, but theyre locked away in the dimensional storage and Bailey is the only one who can ess it, so well have to wait a bit. Isaac exined. I see. Thats useful, but what I really need isboratory ssware, you wouldnt happen to know a ssblower? Chandler asked. No, but I think Mr. Stagmer should be able to manage ssware with few issues. I got him an Aspect of the Forge Golem, and one of the [Skills] it grants allows the user to control molten materials. Not all liquids, mind you, but things that are solid at room temperature and need a level of heat that would burn humans to ash to liquefy. He mostly uses it for metal, but I dont see a reason it shouldnt work on ss. His material reinforcement [Skills] are intended to work with rigid materials, like metal, but Im sure itll work with ss. And even if they dont, hes constantly recruiting new people to join him in building the worlds first crafters guild. Isaac proudly exined. Huh. That certainly sounds like impressive work, Mr. Thoma. Id like to see his crafters guild, though. Chandler said. Oh, that can certainly be arranged, but it will have to wait until tomorrow, Id like to get as much work out of today as possible. Isaac said. Thats certainly something I can appreciate. That Uraeus venom is one of the most useful liquids Ive encountered to date and Ill try to arrange for the collection of as much as possible until the end of the Event, Id just like to see the rest of what Professor Baileys team cane up with. Now, Im afraid youll have to wait a bit to find out what other crazy shit we decide to try, but I think I can help on the get as much venom as possible front. I can take care of a dozen snakes at the same time, all Id need is them to actually be summoned. If we carve the circles into the ground of one of the other summoning rooms, then have peoplee in and charge them, lock the door with me inside and summon them. Ill cut apart the snakes with a single [Far Strike], collect the vials of venom, rinse and repeat. Isaac suggested. That can certainly be arranged. Chandler nodded. Actually, I had another idea with regards to the crafters. Isaac added This ce was built by countless people with their [Skills] focused on creating durable buildings, something that would be incredibly useful to have as a crafter. So my suggestion is pretty simple: try to bind the constructionpany to us, making it so we have first crack at hiring them, and in exchange, we could powerlevel them, and give them Aspects. Ive certainly got quite a few Golem ones lying around. Chandler chuckled softly Youve got objects worth several hundred thousand and possibly millions of euros just lying around? They arent scattered all over the floor, if thats what youre asking about. Isaac replied dryly Theyre safely stored in a pocket dimension. But yes, I do have them on hand. He might have been running out of most normal Aspects, like the various Elementals, but the ones belonging to his favorite punching bags he still had in abundance. In essence, there were two ways of getting Aspects in a reasonable amount of time. The first was the more risky one, given that it involved fighting monsters well above your own Level. But up until Level 30, every Level a monster had one you increased the Aspect drop chance by a whopping 5%. So if you killed a bunch of Level 6+ Specters at Level one Point was, Isaac had killed a fuckton of Specters after returning from the other timeline, massacred Wraiths after getting the Kriegsmesser and ughtered the various Rock Golems using the Zweih?nder after receiving it, all while having a 4+ Level difference, so hed ended up with a metric crapton of them. Some had gone to the team, others sold both to Calise and on legitimate markets, and even others hed fed to various famrs like Rauls microraptor and the Erica Heisterkamps eldritch monstrosity, Princess. But even so, hed hit the max with each of those monsters while well below their Level and plenty of them were still left. You keep mentioning pocket dimensions, where did you get them? Chandler asked. The Realms section of the summoning system. Isaac said Youll need a Lesser Space Elemental Core, though, and those monsters are nearly impossible to defeat without a very specialized skillset. I had some, but I gave almost all of them to Professor Bailey, and the ones I kept, I need to remotely ess my space in case of emergency. Youll either have to ask Bailey if he can spare some, or I can give you some in a few days when Ive had the chance to get some more. I think a few days wait wont be an issue. Chandler replied Professor Bailey needs them as much as I do. But if itll help speed things along, I can pay above market rates for those cores. Thank you, thats very generous. Isaac nodded But there isnt really a market price for those, given that no-one is selling them yet. Regardless, Id prefer something a little more quid-pro-quo. Were all here to discover the intricacies of the [System] and all the threats it hides. Id much rather gain a steadfast ally than some cold, hard cash. Chandler chuckled softly Thats a very enlightened attitude you have there. We can certainly do that. Mind you, I havent been able to create proper potions yet, which my students tell me are a staple of alchemy in the games this [System] seems to be based on. You were able to create magical weapons from Event materials mere hours after gaining ess to them. I dont doubt that youll find something useful. Isaac replied. They continued to talk like that for a bit, with Bishop asionally asking questions, until Bailey returned. The professor set down a box of various dishes and walked over to Isaac. When is thest time you talked to your mother? Welp, that hade out of nowhere. What makes you ask that? Isaac asked, his own heartbeat pounding in his ear. I was approached by a very irate woman on the way back. Well, she didnt actually yell at me, she was perfectly polite, but she was also very, very pissed off. She said that her son dropped off the face of the Earth, left his apartment, she couldnt get him on the phone and then he showed up in the news as a member of my team. Sound familiar? I didnt tell her where you were, you deserve your privacy, but if that is your mother, you should probably go talk to her. Isaac? Chapter 62: Understandable Reaction Chapter 62: Understandable Reaction Isaac froze, turned to a pir of salt. Not literally, but he was so still he might as well be. And given how rmed Bailey was acting, it was obvious. Fingers trembling, Isaac pulled out his phone and searched for his mothers number in his contacts it was blocked. He had blocked it during that night a long while back. The first time hed let himself feel the repressed loss from that other timeline, the loss of humanity in its entirety. And then hed basically blocked everyone and not even noticed hed also blocked his mother in the process. That wasnt good. And just like Bailey said, hed moved and not yet left a forwarding address as he was still renting his apartment, he was just never there. that was probably something he should fix in the near future, but right now, it was quite literally the least of his problems. Email would have been possible, but hed stopped looking into his ount once it had started to umte job offers by people trying to poach one of Baileys team members. Any member. It didnt really matter which one, nor did their individual qualifications, especially as their research didnt properly indicate which one of them had contributed what. People were simply desperate for any kind of edge in the race to turn the [System] into something profitable, and a member of one of the worlds most prominent research teams, the most prominent after tonight, was assumed to be useful in some way. All in all, between him ignoring his email, blocking a lot of numbers, moving and focusing on the [System] research hed fucked up royally. Where is she? Isaac asked hollowly. On campus, between us and all the reporters. Bailey said. Can you ask her to head away from there, somewhere clear of the cameras or anyone with supernatural hearing? Ill meet her there, promise. Isaac told him, still reeling. Of course. Bailey nodded Actually, she gave me her number in case that kid realizes that theres more in this world than his projects. Ill call her. Fair warning, theres a whole bunch of reporters up there, but that shouldnt be a problem for a [Rogue] like you. Shouldnt be. Isaac echoed the older mans words, still sounding hollow. Anyway, youd best get going, Ill tell her to meet you at that old statue of the globe. Bailey nodded. Isaac walked out of the room, activating [Stealth] for the first time in ages and goingpletely invisible. There were a bunch of reporters outside the door, but Karl had physically sealed up the staircase. They could get out, but the reporters couldnt get in. He went visible for a brief moment as he phased, using [Phantom Steps] Level 10 upgrade to teleport right through the solid material and then repeating the [Skill] midair, appearing on the nearest building. Really, he could have just saved the mana for going invisibility. He ran onwards, a blur as he leaped from building to building, until he reached the statue Bailey had indicated. As he jumped down, he went invisible. His mother was (justifiably) mad at him, no need to pour more fuel onto the fire by pulling what looked to all the world like a suicidal stunt. Hed live and it would be immediately obvious when he hit the ground, but that brief, heartstopping moment as he flew through the air yeah, he really should be careful there. From there, he walked into the clearest alley, still invisible, and waited. An older woman, ck hairs streaked with grey falling down to her shoulders in a ponytail, the same piercing green eyes he shared, and anger bubbling underneath the surface. That was his mother, alright. Isaac emerged from the alley with trepidation, fully visible. Hi, mom. It was hardly the most intelligent of greetings, but what else was there to do? Nothing really, but take it on the chin. She red at him for a moment and he could barely stop himself from fidgeting nervously. A normal parent had only one chance get it right, only one chance to learn, at least for their firstborn. A kindergarten teacher, on the other hand theyd have a lifetime of practice dealing with unruly children, which sadly prepared them for far more than just three- to six-year-olds. Isaac, what you did hurt me deeply. she said tly Ive been worried sick because after that one call, you never once talked to me over the phone, you never once picked up, and you werent at you apartment. You vanished of the face of the Earth right as the world became dangerous, as the news showed mass casualty events every other day. I thought you died. If disappointed looks could kill, the re she shot him could have reduced a [Raid Boss] to ash. Im sorry. Once again, there was nothing else to say. She sighed. Godd- she paused, clearly biting off a curse. You got too focused on one of your projects again, didnt you? First your studies, and then this. Systemology. It keeps happening, then someone beats you over the head with a brick and you remember the rest of the world exists until you forget again. That isnt good, not for anyone. I know. Adam gave me that particr talk, this time around But you didnt call your family? she said sharply And whos Adam? Isaac froze. He was currently talking himself deeper and deeper into the hole. While he was quite adept at doing this in political situations, but when dealing with his mother all that went out of the window. Thats Professor Baileys first name. Isaac told her And Ive mostly been partying when Im not working or summoning. Summoning. It wasnt a question, or an usation, just a t statement. HAVE YOU GONE INSANE?! No, Ive Isaac sighed and looked around. Youre not getting out of this, Mr. What are you doing? she red at him. Im making sure that there isnt anyone nearby to overhear. I get that youre being careful, but that isnt going to help much of anything. his mother admonished. Actually, it is. I specialize in Perception, so I can tell there isnt anyone close enough to overhear. Isaac exined Basically, theres something we need to talk about, but its something that the team only suspects without having been able to prove it. Its still not something we want to put out there in the world. Slowly, Isaac began to walk north, away from the major concentration of people near the teams new worksite. The [System] seems to be a trap. It has so many hidden dangers, nasty traps that entice people to call powerful monsters into the world and get a lot of people killed. Like the LA incident with the Stormheart Gestalt. I was actually there, on the teleconference, helping to figure out what they were fighting. But as far as weve been able to tell, that wont be the first orst such incident, even without things like this Event. I need to be ready for that. So you do one of the most dangerous things you could possibly do? his mother redoubled her re. I have two thing to say in my defense. First of all, Ive spent every waking moment learning how to best defeat monsters. Professor Baileys team excels at figuring out weaknesses and how to exploit them. Second of all, Im really fucking strong. Language. Sorry, mom. Isaac apologized What Im trying to say is that Im very powerful due to training diligently. Im beingpletely honest when I say I could now take down a Stormheart Gestalt like the one that attacked LA on my own. His mother just shook her head. Oh Isaac, you always have things you focus on, and then you forget about everything else. The rest of the world, people you love, yourself and your own wellbeing. First your studies to be an ountant, and now this. I could appreciate you trying to get a good job, and I can appreciate you working to save the world even more, but you still cant do things like this. Youre my son, and I love you. Id support you even if you wanted to go to Las Vegas to be a male stripper. Id try to talk you out of it, of course, but if you were absolutely certain that was what you wanted to do, I wouldnt stand in your way. The only thing I wont do, I cant do, is support you ignoring me. Why werent you at your apartment? I kinda moved. Isaac admitted I moved and forgot to leave a forwarding address. Da- Isaac, I taught you better than that. she sighed again. Shed been doing a lot of that,tely. Where do you live now, whats your address? I dont really have an address I kinda live in the woods. Youve gone camping for eight weeks? she asked skeptically. No, I bought a property and build a house out of shipping containers my colleagues helped me get out there. How did you manage to afford all that? I won it in Vegas. Isaac admitted. You she took a deep breath You went gambling and won enough money to buy property? I specialize in senses, remember? I memorized all the cards, then got a fat paycheck from the casino for helping cover up the new security ws created by the [System]. So, you had time for that, but nothing else? I also got a lot of funding for the research team. Isaac admitted. Like I said, I can appreciate what you do here, but you need to learn to avoid tunnel visioning like that, and stop dropping off the face of the Earth for weeks and bing apletely different person. I know, and Im trying. But that doesnt change the fact that I have a new and very demanding job,plete with international travel. I promise Ill call and stop by ever so often, but I dont have that much free time. I suppose thats all I can ask for. But if you ever do something like that again Fire and brimstone, got it. Isaac nodded Now, theres something else we need to think about. And that is? she sounded curious, now. Making sure youre safe. Your [ss] is something like [Kindergarten Teacher], isnt it? he asked. Was that a guess or can you tell? I have a [Skill] that lets me glean enough to make an educated guess. Isaac exined. I see. You were right about my [ss], so what? It means you dont have any [Skills] for fighting, and given what I know about the [System], youll likely have to face a monster at some point. So youre going to try and persuade me to start summoning and killing? and the re was back on. No. Ive got several Aspects and Ill give any one you want. Dad, too. Ive got some great defensive ones, including one that bestow the regeneration capacity of a Hydra or a Specters ability to phase through walls. And if you want to, I know people who could reinforce your house and the kindergarten to the point where even a Tier 5 monster would have trouble getting in. For the first time, her only reaction was stunned silence. After a long moment, she looked at him with astonishment. Aspects? Aspects. I dont know if Im willing to be part monster. Isaac held up his right hand, palm facing towards him, and phased it. It turned a pale blue and became translucent, the cobblestones clearly visible through it. Ive seen people whose [sses] partially turn them into monsters. Aspects arent that. Theyre more like a cheat sheet that lets you grab [Skills] that your [ss] doesnt provide. Just give me some time, alright? she asked. Of course. Now you just have to show me where you work. Absolutely not. Now it was Isaacs turn to shoot her a re and she chuckled. Is it really that embarrassing to have your mother show up at your work? Oh, it absolutely is. Isaac glowered. Besides, ording to Professor Bailey, youll be working on this all through the day, I wont interfere with that. Yeah, so I have to go back to that Isaac cautiously said and took a careful step backwards Hold it right there, Mr. she said, freezing him in ce Youll text me, tonight. And youll sent me a photo of where you live now. Yes. Goodbye, mom. The two of them slowly split up and Isaac slowly walked back to the new building, emotions roiling. That had been oddly cathartic, seeing his mother in person again. Or at least, this timelines version, one he barely recognized anymore. It had awoken a fierce protective instinct of not wanting anything bad to happen to his mother ever again. No longer content with merely saving them along with everyone else on the, he wanted to protect them, specifically. Hell, he wanted to wrap them in cotton wool and keep them away from anything even remotely dangerous, but that wasnt realistic. Yet it had also hurt. It had hurt more than anything else hed ever done, even taking an [Acid Bolt] to the family jewel couldntpare ifbined with every near death experience hed ever had. Yes, it hadpounded his wish to save everyone, but it had also somewhat proven his point about not wanting to seek out people from the other timeline. They were so different from the people he remembered, changed by years of living, but they looked so simr. It was impossibly painful, and wasnt that the understatement of the century. He needed to deal with this, somehow. This sucked. Isaac clenched his fists in anger, unsure just what he was angry at. The gods? The world? The [System]? Himself? Or was it just a general sense of impotence that boiled over into a thunderous fury? Regardless, while it might not be the healthiest way of dealing with anger issues, he was in a position to take his feelings out on a bunch of monsters. Now just to make sure his face didnt scare the hell out anyone who saw him [Hundred Faces] activated and he took manual control of every aspect of his face, carefully schooling his expression into something mainly neutral, with a tinge of contrition for good measure. A quick check of his reflection in his phone and done. Monster punching time! Chapter 63: What a Day Chapter 63: What a Day What the fuck! Cursing and yelling was rare in the research group, but it wasnt unheard of. It usually only happened when something went very wrong though. rmed, Isaac used a phased [Phantom Step] to jump straight into the summoning room, but the situation was nowhere near as bad as it could have been. Patrick was in the center of the room, hair standing on end, breathing rapidly but not quite hyperventting, an Ulfhednar cloak lying on the ground in front of him. Whats wrong? Isaac called out, his voice intermingling with everyone else there as they all shouted in rm. Im not exactly sure what happened, but that felt awful. Patrick said grimly, ring at the innocent looking piece of clothing The instant I began to draw on it to get the stat boost, it felt like I know it sounds stupid, but it felt like a volcano of rage was bubbling up inside of me and if I kept going, I was going to go insane. Thats bad. Very bad. Bailey observed Victor, youve used it several times, did you notice anything like that? No, I just got stronger, with no emotions or anything attached to it. Bishop said, sounding extremely puzzled Isaac, did you use yours yet? No, I havent. Should I try? Only if youre willing. Bailey cautioned We dont know what negative side effects these things could have. Alright. Isaac nodded But I think its worth the risk. And then, he drew on the cloak, feeling his body morph slightly, growing taller and hairier, while he could see his newly glowing yellow eyes reflected in Baileys pupils. It had to look scary as hell from the outside, but all he felt was the increase in power. Better vision, faster and stronger movement. It went over just like all the other pieces of stat-boosting equipment hed ever used. The transformation was a little more extensive than normal, but still well within the limits of what he could have expected. Really, everything felt, well, perfectly normal. Nah, Im good. Isaac said. Seems like only certain people are affected. Patrick observed. The question is if there is some kind of identifiable factor that determines who can use these cloaks safely. Who else has used one of these? Isaac asked. You, me and Patrick. Bishop answered We were working on getting one for everyone and wanted to wait until then to try them out, seeing as fighting with an ability you cant control yet is a bad idea. Patrick was just going to tap into it for a few seconds to see what it felt like while we reset the circle and, well, you know the rest. So then everyone who is willing to try one on should do so, and then we see where the results lead us? Chandler suggested. That was what they ended up doing, stopping each activation the moment things went any way other than perfect. It went fine for Raul and Bailey, but Amy and Chandler had the same reaction as Patrick had had. So, what the hell is going on? Patrick asked,nguage uncharacteristically inteced with swearwords. The answer was obvious, to Isaac at least, but everyone else also had all the information necessary toe to the same conclusion. Therefore, he felt safe in immediately presenting it. ording to the items description, it empowers the wearer with the fury of a wolf. What if that was literal, giving them the fury of a wild animal? The people who can use it safely have a direct connection to nature. Raul might be a [System Researcher] now, but he started out as a [Ranger] and has a wild animal as a pet, with another on the way. Professor Bishop was a [Hunter] and has evolved into a stronger version of that. And Professor Baileys [ss] is all about borrowing the power of other creatures. he exined. And what about you? Chandler asked. It made sense for him to ask, given that Isaacs public persona was very much still that of a [Rogue] and he hadnt seen [Form of Horror] yet. Hes always been a bit feral, aint he? Amymented, having walked up next to Isaac during the testing and she was now reaching up and scratching the top of his head as one might do with a dog. Isaac chuckled, rolled his eyes and teleported a couple of meters to the right. Raul and Karl chuckled, Patrick red, and the professors just calmly waited for the juvenile behavior to be over. While that was put a little weirdly, Amys right. Ive used several Aspects and was then given a [ss] that makes use of them to give me new physical abilities in addition to the actual Aspect [Skills]. In some way, its a significantly limited version of what Professor Bailey has, which should let me safely use the cloak. Isaac replied. Well, that is a very good hypothesis that fits all the information we currently have, we still need actual proof. Were dealing with a nasty mental effect here and we dont want to take any chances. Bailey cautioned them Ill check to see if any [Psychologists] or other mental health professionals have [Skills] that can check for mental alterations. Ive actually got something like that, at least for me. Isaac said It protects me from mental attacks and it didnt get tripped by me using the cloak. Also, he really didnt want some headshrinker mucking around in his mind. Uh-hu. Regardless, I dont think we should use the cloaks until we can get to the bottom of this, but we should still get one for everyone, just in case they turn out to be safe or can be made to be so. Bailey suggested With the loot drop guaranteed the first time each individual summons this monster, it should be easy. While Bailey readied the summoning circle, Isaac walked over to where Professor Chandler was standing. I dont suppose youve given any more thought to my proposition for mass-producing venom? I did, and Ive set everything in moment. People will be here in half an hour to provide the mana, and Ive cleared the use of one of the empty summoning rooms with Professor Bailey. Now all theres left to do is carve the summoning circles and wait. Chandler replied Are you still willing to help? Of course. So half an hour and several dead ck hole wolvester, Isaac stood in a room identical to the other one, save for one very important fact. The floor was covered in a series of identical summoning circles, all fully charged. Ready. he announced and heard the reply Commencing summoning. from the other side of the door. The snakes emerged from the circles, their venom teeth glowing dangerously as they got ready to burn him to ash and then they all fell apart, sliced into multiple pieces as abined [Far Strike] and [Manifold Strike] swept through them. Isaac couldnt be certain that theyd all have vital organs at the same height, so killing them all quickly enough that they didnt get the chance to spit venom with just [Far Strike] would have been hard. Ripping them into multiple pieces might have been a little more expensive in terms of mana, but the hassle it saved him was well worth it. All done. he announced, and the door opened. Professor Chandler entered, absorbed both the mess and vials into the storage space hed established with a core hed bummed off Bailey. Isaac had managed to convince everyone that even Lesser Space Elementals were too dangerous to fight without one of a very few, very specific set of abilities, one of which he had, so there was little risk of disaster on that front. But this also meant he had to get his ass in gear and get some more because they were about to run out even with economical use. Still, right now, there were more important things to gain, things that were only avable for a limited time. While Chandler headed back upstairs to a pair of cargo containers, strategically ced to be close enough to the summoning room that the dimensional storage could be essed there, meaning it could also be emptied into them. Due to bureaucratical weirdness, while monster materials could easily be used for item creation, research, hell, they could be stuffed and mounted on the wall, they counted as a biohazard when thrown away. Thankfully, they had gained a special dispensation that allowed them to immte this stuff themselves using magic after proving its efficacy, but they still had to store it in a fully qualified vessel until then. Therefore, the storage container for the snakes wasnt actually a normal shipping container but rather a ten-thousand-euro high tech, ceramic lined overly expensive something. And they needed it, regardless of it the snakes were inside for ten seconds or ten days. In this case though, it was temporary storage, with the [System Researchers] alternating every half hour to cast cold spells onto it to keep the snakes fresh, just in case there was something else useful inside. So, what was that about earlier, anyway? Bailey asked, having entered the room along with everyone else If yourefortable telling me, that is. Eh, its not a big secret, really. I have slight tendency to get a little overly focused on work and I forgot to mention to my mother that I moved. She tried to visit me, I wasnt there. Called, and I didnt pick up. And Ive stopped checking my email since all those job offers started pouring in. and then she saw you on TV, doing one of the worlds most dangerous jobs. Sheesh. Bailey clearly struggled to fight down a chuckle, managed it, and continued I dont think I have to remind you about work life bnce and how that is a thing? No, not again. Isaac shook his head But I still forgot to call because my life was mostly other stuff. Uh, yeah, thats not good. Bailey nodded along If you ever need time off to deal with something like that, you know all you have to do is ask, right? Thanks, that means a lot, but I think Im safe on that front. For now, at least. Isaac shook his head. Well, the offers always open. Have fun with the snakes. Bailey bade him goodbye and headed back over to the other room. Well, the original one, anyway. Theyd ended up spreading out across all four, doing various experiments that needed to be done during the Event, or harvesting as much as they could of all the Event materials deemed useful. Chances were it would return in exactly one year, but not only wasnt that guaranteed, it was also pretty far away. Today was going to be busy as hell, and Bailey had offered them all tomorrow off in exchange for their efforts during the Event. Eventually though, they had to take a break. Working throughout the day, even with supernatural constitutions and basically no need for sleep, was already problematic due toborws. Doing so without breaks, even if some of them could have gone without, took those samews and snapped them in half. Theyd paused for a bit here and there during the day, but on 8 oclock in the in the evening, they all huddled together in front of aptop to watch the Tagesschau, one of Germanys more popr daily news segments. Fifteen minutes to sum up all of the most important world events and give a weather report. At least that was how long it normally took. But if something particrly important happened, there was an additional segment, called a shpoint, tacked on at the end, pushing back all other programs by a decent amount. Needless to say, this situation qualified, taking up almost all of the regr fifteen minutes, the only reason they were able to talk about anything else at all was because they shoved off a lot of the Event stuff into the extra segment. Of course, their contribution was mentioned, and part of the press conference was shown, but no one went look, were on TV!. No, the situation was far too grim for that. 50 Million. 50 Million people. That was the number of dead being thrown about. That was the equivalent of well over half of Germanys poption, or 0.6% of theEarths poption. The Event hadnt killed nearly as many people as it could have, and their work had not only helped reduce that number, they were also being credited for saving those lives. It was gratifying, but far too many people had still died. Even one would have been too many, but getting through any day without [System] rted deaths would have been unrealistic, nevermind one with a godsdamned Event. Theyd certainly screwed up some divine asshats ns, but not to the degree Isaac had hoped for. The only thing they could hope for was that said number would reduce as actual reports came in and werepiled, rather the current guesstimate, based on thousands of fragmented, iplete reports. For example, something had happened in Beijing, as proven by pictures taken from the roof of and sent out by the American Embassy, but no one knew just what precisely had happened and how many people had died, so a fairly high guesstimate had been used. It wasnt mentioned on the news, of course, but theyd done a little bit of research themselves. The same thing had urred in several other ces, over and over again, as well as a few barely scientific guesses about third world countries, all cumting in a number that might be far too high or far too low. They just didnt know, not yet. Some of the dead had summoners had been greedy bastards, willing to endanger others just for the chance at getting rare loot. Others were idiots. Certifiable idiots, as proven by cell phone videos retrieved from the shattered remains of said electronics found near the scene, of jeering numbskulls eager to see the first dragon they were actually able to summon with their meager mana pools. The news shut off, transitioning to the intro for some kind of nunnery based soap opera, at least going by the first few seconds. They didnt see more because Patrick snatched up the remote and mmed his finger down on the off button. Greedy people are a problem, but they have their reasons for doing what they do, and by figuring out what that is, you can predict and deal with them. Stupid people are the most dangerous people in the world because you cant predict them. Theyre going to do something just because it pops into their idiotic little minds, be it putting ice cream on pizza or mixing bleach and ammonia, and them we all have to live with the consequences. Chandler ranted, breaking the silence All of those assholes can drop dead as far as Im concerned, as long as they stop fucking things up for the rest of us. Amen to that. Isaac muttered. So, what now? Do we keep going on the material gathering front? Our storage areas are getting full, even with the extradimensional storage spaces Isaac provided. Patrick asked. I think now might be a good chance to reassess our needs, and then proceed ordingly. Bailey suggested. And that was what they did, though as it turned out, those needs turned out to be a fuckton of coffee and energy drinks, followed by even more monster parts. The FOMO was real, given that this might be the only chance at getting some of this stuff, ever. But the end came eventually, the Event tab on the summoning section winking out with little fanfare. Isaac slumped in relief, jumped through the ceiling and then onto the nearest roof with another giant leap. And then, heid down to look up at the stars. Finally, a moment of peace. With a light thud, Amynded next to him, likewise staring up into the skies. Its pretty, isnt it? she asked. Even prettier without the light pollution. Isaac shrugged Have you ever seen the sky out in the desert? Its filled with millions upon millions of stars, more than you could ever count, beautiful beyondpare. As people started dying in the future, the lights of cities winking out one by one, more and more stars once again bing visible. In many ways, seeing a sky so devoid of stars was a relief as it showed that they werestill here, that they were still No, but Id like to see it sometime. she replied, interrupting his train of thought. Believe me, its worth it. Patrickmented, having also appeared on the roof next to them. and there went any chance for him to have a little peace. Isaac sighed, wiggled around a little to get morefortable on the roof. You know, maybe we should go travelling, sometime after you lot figure out how to create portals. Isaac suggested Chances are, youll need to have been somewhere to teleport there, so once you can teleport, a little world trip might be in order. They had been trying to get their hands on a power like that, but the only one monster had shown any inclinations in that direction. The Rifthunter was a humanoid being with dark blue, practically ck skin and a spindly body, incredibly long arms ending in w-tipped fingers that could shred flesh with ease. They could exist into a dark-blue-and-purple pocket dimension, creating portals and reaching into the real world to murder people, or open portals at a decent range. Theyd also been definitively proven to be quite limited in where they could open their portals unless theyd been there, but if locked in ce too long, theyd just start opening portals randomly until they could leave the room theyd been locked in. This made them incredibly hard to contain, meaning they had to be killed quickly, which in turn slowed down the research progress. But once someone learned that [Skill], theyd get both an Aspect of the Lesser Space Elemental and an Aspect of the Rifthunter which had been gathered by now to enhance its range or at least that was the n. Isaac knew it would work, but there were enough indications to support it that everyone else had gone along with it. now someone actually needed to learn the damn thing. So, what are you going to do tomorrow? Amy asked, then nced at her watch Er, today? Free day and all that. Sleep right here on this roof because I have not slept in thirty-six hours, then eat something, go home, and then have some mindless fun. Video games, Anime, Manhwa, anything that doesnt require me to focus. Isaac sighed and closed his eyes. You arent seriously going to sleep here on this rooftop, are you? Patrick asked. Not with you two jabbering right next to me, Im not. Isaac mumbled and ignored them. Sleeping under the open sky on the hard roof like this was less fun than, say, actually camping, but he was willing to do anything once just to have experienced it. There were worse things to do. For example, he knew a couple of fes whose im to fame was having urinated off the roof of every dormitory in the university town. What was sleeping in strange ces just for the hell of itpared to that? The others, at least the ones able to jump up to the roof, stayed around a little bit, chatting, and by the time they left, Isaac was feeling refreshed again. Everyone went home soon after that, having agreed not toe in tomorrow. They needed to rest. Even Isaac would calm down a little. Sure, hed be summoning a few monsters here and there, but no way in hell would he go at anywhere to close to his top possible speed. As he kept getting beat into his head with a brick, over and over again, he needed his rest and rxation. Still, a little wouldnt hurt. He did have a few Aspects to grab, after all. Chapter 64: The Lazy Grind Chapter 64: The Lazy Grind Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 24 XP: 10,316/5,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 500/500 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 65 Strength 45 Agility 70 Magic Power 50 Magic Regeneration 60 Free Points: 0 Stat, 19 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror XIII The Chosen Weapon XVIII Skills Hundred Faces XIV Stealth XVII Power Strike XXIII Piercing Strike XXV Sundering Strike XXIII des XXIV Sneak XVII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XVII Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XX Phantom Step XIII Unknown Fear X Bestial Regeneration IX Undying Focus V Tools of Terror X Fleeting Presence I Crippling Blow I General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy IX Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Examining his status as he walked home, Isaac grinned. The Event had been exhausting as hell, but the XP gains were insane. The [Skill] Level gains were less so, but he hadnt really gotten that creative with them, or struggled that much. At least discounting [Hunters Gaze], which had gained a whopping three Levels in a single day, hitting Level 20, while [Unknown Fear] had reached 10, giving both of them a new effect. Unknown Fear (epic, Level X) There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown. With this Skill, the user bes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, be fear itself. It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility. In addition, this Skill may now be used to project a false status when Inspect style Skills are used. However, the user of Unknown Fear does not have true control over what the other person sees, they can only switch between showing them whatever they hope to see, something menacing, or merely a nk fa?ade. It was an excellent way to fuck with anyone trying to get a good look at him. Hunters Gaze (epic, Level XX) There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills. This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are very weak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the users foes. Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someones Stats are higher, lower orparable to the Users, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are. But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more. In addition, this [Skill] allows the user to see mana and sense the purpose of Skills being used in front of him. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to seek out every secret an enemy held has evolved to see absolutely everything an enemy might try to hide, instantly recognizing passive Skills, all manner of active abilities and slotting them into a newly gained mental library and highlighting any past experiences with simr Skills. Lastly, it gains vastly enhanced Privacy pration abilities and further grows as the users Perception increases. There were many ways his vision [Skill] could have evolved. Something that showed him how to react to attacks he foresaw, allowing him to methodically pick apart his enemies, avoiding attacks with seemingly casual ease. He was really d he hadnt gotten that, though. He could already do that somewhat well on his own without [System] assistance, which would have made that a waste of a [Skill] evolution. Another possibility he could have seen was a more precise scan that actually gave him names and numbers if he used it long enough or on a weak enough target. But this was a hell of a lot better. It could now pick up more than ever before and ensured that he could recognize anything hed seen before again, without needing to even think about it. It made sure the information he needed was always right there, no matter how brief his first encounter had been. Given the reality of new monstersing from Events, it was more valuable than ever before. Soon, his home came into view and he could ess his dimensional storage room without having to waste any more of his Lesser Space Elemental Cores. Not that he had any to waste in the first ce, not anymore. Hed used thest one he had to store close to a ton of beef from the Helios cattle hed negotiated for himself. It sounded like a lot, but really, that was something you could gain from a mere three summons. Hed also managed to grab enough Uraeus venom to give himself a decent level of fire resistance once hed drunk them. Hed certainly earned them. He''d also ended up briefly demonstrating his Elemental-Hunting method and made sure everyone ended up with one core to ess their storage in case of emergency, though theyd have to inscribe the cores themselves. He hadnt taken one for himself, given that there was only a small risk of him running into issues during the twenty minute walk to his home, and if he did, the soulbound weapon he could always ess would be a hell of a lot more useful than anything he had in his storage. But in his frazzled, still mostly exhausted mind, it was the beef that was the real prize. Just thinking about it made him drool a little. It possessed a level of marbling youd be hard pressed to find in the finest of wagyu steaks, never mind the other vors it contained, vors not found anywhere in the natural world. Carne Asada Tacos, Burgers, hell, just a properly seasoned steak hed need to go shopping before he could make most of that, which would have to wait until morning. It was still the middle of the night, sadly. Still, he had a grill in one of the containers, so he could throw some steaks on there right now after seasoning them a little. So that was where he stood twenty minutes afterwards. Charcoal burning merrily, him drinking beer while he waited for the coal to be reduced to embers so he could toss on the steaks. Next to him, the ground was soaked and covered in icy fragments, a decently sized tub filled with both in addition to several bottles of beer and soda lying in the middle. Hed summoned an Elemental type monster called a Freezing Torrent right above the tub and chopped its core in half before it could do more than stare at him. It was a pretty basic Elemental, made from ice and freezing cold water, useless in most respects though it made for a pretty easy way to fill a tub with ice water. Still, his current tub was a little too small, which left him with a muddy mess surrounding it. Perhaps he could buy somethingrger? Hell, perhaps he should just turn the grocery run into arge shopping trip? He''d need a few more cores unless he wanted to buy a car, but he had hours until the shops opened. He could kill a few Elementals without turning this into a work thing. Thest dregs of the beer left the bottle and Isaac tossed it into the spatial storage, then picked up the whiskey tumbler off the table next to the grill. Hed filled it half full with whiskey, then added some water to ensure it definitely wasnt mmable anymore, and finally topped it off with Uraeus serpent venom. The whiskey made it quite a bit less disgusting, and both his [Alchemy] [Skill] and past experience had told him that it would enhance the effect slightly. He even got another Level in [Alchemy] for his troubles, putting it at Level 10. Alchemy mon, Level X) Whenbining things with magical properties, many things may happen, some good, some bad, some just in explosive. This Skill is a catch all that supports these kinds of pursuits by granting basic knowledge and making its further acquisition easier. It will also highlight useful alchemical ingredients and give information about their mostmon uses. Perfect. Isaac rarely actually did alchemy, and when he did, he almost always followed a given recipe instead of developing his own brews, but it was still a nice upgrade. And speaking of alchemy, in a month or two, hed likely start releasing recipes from the other no, bad Isaac, now was not worktime. Silently chuckling, he tossed back the entire ss of socially eptable neurotoxin and ming snake venom. It burned going down and settled in his stomach like a miniature sun. A ruptured stomach, scorched stomach lining warning popped up in the Health Status part of his stat sheet before vanishing along with a decent chunk of [Bestial Regenerations] banked mana. Supposedly, hed increased his fire resistance like that, at least a little. Slowly, Isaac reached out and lowered his hand into the grill, and it took an unnatural amount of time for it to even feel ufortable. After all, he wasnt vulnerable to fire, he was just not excessively able to recover from the injuries it inflicted and at his Level, he was pretty tough. There might have been a slight gain in resistance, but nothing significant. Shrugging, he mixed the next batch of whiskey-and-venom, downed it, and repeated the test. This time, the amount of mana needed to heal the damage hed just inflicted upon his insides dropped by a couple of points. Huh, and there it was, proper, quantifiable proof for his increased resistance. After all, hed used one whole vial in both batches. So, he repeated the process. Again and again, until his stomach stopped feeling like hed drank tabasco straight from the bottle and his mana stopped vanishing to heal internal injuries. At some point during these efforts, [Bestial Regeneration] hit Level 10. That one had always been a bit of a pain to raise, given that improving it required him being hurt. Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level X) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the users regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the users mana pool. In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others. This pools size is Skill Level*15 The gained mana storage per Level had increased, as was the ability to set it to prioritize specific things. All in all, a very simple yet powerful upgrade. Isaac just shook his head, irritated with himself. It was far too easy to get sidetracked and start some form of grinding. Again. Still, he could now safely put his hand into the grill,ying in into the bed of glowing coals, all without taking a lick of damage. He wasnt stupid enough to assume he was nowpletely immune to all fire and heat, powerful magical mes would likely still hurt him, but as far as the mundane stuff was concerned, he might as well be invincible. The steak had finished by now, so Isaac pulled it off the grill with his bare hands and ted it up, then did the same with a couple of balls of aluminum foil he grabbed straight out of the embers. Baked potatoes, made properly, wrapped in aluminum and ced directly in the fire. Delicious. A single long jump took him to the top of the roof hed had built over his summoning area, almost as high as the surrounding trees were tall, the sky filling his entire field of view. Only him, his food, and the endless vastness of the universe. Awn chair appeared in front of him, summoned from the storage room. But mostly the food. It was divine. Well, the potatoes werent, but that was besides the point. Isaac chuckled softly at the unintentional pun. And then, he set down the te, sank back into thewn chair, and closed his eyes. For the first time since returning from the other timeline, he slept properly. Not to get enough rest as to no longer be tired, not because he had to, but simply because he wanted to. It was an indulgent, unproductive waste of time, but the same could be said of basically everything people did for fun, for leisure, anything but work. At least from a certain point of view. From another, the one he was taking, rxing was good for him, so it was productive in that sense. Just taking a nap did feel good, but he woke up after maybe an hour or so regardless. His body was simply no longer built for sleeping a third of to half a day, sadly. Isaac decided now was a good time to check the news again. Thest Event monster had been taken care of, people were pretty confident on that front, so people had stopped dying to it directly, but casualty numbers were still fluctuating wildly. Estimates were being overthrown, like some analyst simply assuming that the people of Africa would jump at the chance to get limited time loot and had assigned five hundred casualties to every known incident of any kind, resulting in vastly inted numbers. And so on, and so forth. But even as some overestimates were being proven false, underestimates were alsoing to light. A Skalli breaking a dungeon core near a major city, unleashing the monsters within as an artificial dungeon break. Why it had even been in there and how it had reached the core without ughtering all the monsters guarding it was anyones guess. Sure, breaking the core would unleash all surviving monsters upon the surrounding area, but if that had been a deliberate act of terrorism, why on Earth wouldnt the people responsible just break the core directly, instead of somehow getting the damn wolf in there? Or had the wolf somehow chased a fleeing dungeon master into their own bound dungeon and killed them in the core chamber, then turned its wrath upon the core itself? Isaac just shook his head in annoyance. If he found out who was responsible for this, theyd better pray they didnt encounter him in a dark alley. That being said, he suspected hed have to get in line. And then there were the additional casualties that were piling up as the Event materials were being misused. The news only referenced a certain video of someone drinking venom to gain fire resistance without having the necessary toughness and/or regenerative ability to survive the experience. Said video was avable online and Isaac had decided to watch it. As one might expect, the sight was harrowing. Some poor sap had also quite clearly demonstrated what happened when the user of an Ulfhednar cloak didnt stop despite its use feeling wrong. The team was allprised of scientists, whose usual reaction so something going rmingly wrong was to try to get to the bottom of the situation. This person had decided to ignore the feeling of wrongness that apparently apanied the transformation if the user wasnt qualified and ended up turning into a lycanthrope, or as a normal person would put it, a werewolf. But not the standard transforms into a wolf kind of werewolf. No, a two legged beast, three meters tall, arms like tree trunks and fingers tipped with ws like steak knives. And they were probably stuck that way, but there was no way to tell. Theyd been struck with the rage and feral instincts that often apanied the transformation in stories, gone on a rampage and been gunned down. Well, blown up by multiple rocket propelled grenades. Regr bullets had just bounced off, leading to the deaths of the officers whod fired them, dying the monster for all of thirty seconds before it continued to hunt down civilians. The local National Guard equivalent was what had eventually gotten the kill. Isaac nearly put down the phone but hiding from the world would not make said world any less bad. The next news segment he came across was somewhat more humorous, though, being greatly reminiscent of that one meme of two people in a Spiderman costume pointing at each other in an usatory fashion. But these two werent wearing superhero costumes, at least not a proper, modern one, which was probably for the best, given that they likely would have otherwise been sued. No, this was the uniform of someone people considered to be one of the worlds oldest superheroes, hailing from ancient times, the Great Sage, Heavens Equal, Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King. One would not have been wrong to simply call these two cosyers, but that was a vastly oversimplified way to put it. They were people who were picking [sses], [Skills], equipment and everything else to emte the mythical figure and eventually gain the right [ss]. [Monkey King] was an extraordinarily powerful, legendary, fourth Evolution [ss]. It wasnt entirely clear if the [System] had just given up and generated it because people were trying to get it, or it had always been avable, but the point was, it existed. And what a [ss] it was, generating Jingu Bang, the staff of the Monkey King, as a soulbound weapon and even granting a cloning [Skill], one found in no other [ss] or Aspect, at least not as far as Isaac knew. Oh, and then there were the dozen or so truly insane defensive [Skills] that rendered the user close to unkible. Isaac wondered which of the two was the real Monkey King, or if it even was one of them. Well, both of them were fake, obviously, but someone had gotten that [ss] in the other timeline, changed his race to [Mythical Stone Monkey] and chosen the title [Great Sage, Heavens Equal]. A very impressive future powerhouse. Still, that was hardly the only [ss] like this that existed and those two werent the only ones who chased the specters of ancient myths and legends, of great historical figures and actualic-book heroes. Davy Jones prowled the depths of the ocean on a ship filled with the animated bodies of the dead, asionally running into a submarine captain whose every [Skill] flowed into making his vessel more and more self-sufficient and increasing its size. Also, he styled himself after Captain Nemo, from the old novel 20,000 miles under the sea, his ship was called the Nautilus and one of his [ss] Evolutions had been [Captain of the Nautilus], though near the end, it had evolved into something whose name Isaac didnt know. Of course, other people were creating themed builds without having a specific person in mind to emte. A man styling himself a pirate, going by the name of Captain Thatch, sailed the seas with the Jolly Roger flying high, all the while acting out the overly romanticized version of his profession. He didnt give a flying fuck about navalw, taxes or any form of authority, but he also ran around kicking assholes in the teeth, killing monsters and saving people. No one reached the higher Levels without being at least a little kooky. Others styled themselves after historical figures or merely happened to follow a simr path and gained an inheritor [ss] as a result. Thered been a serial killer who went after prostitutes in London whod be [Rippers Heir]. All of those [sses] were pretty damn strong and being deemed to be the inheritor of, say, Gregor Mendel or Louis Pasteur came with one massive heaping dose of prestige, but Isaac was on a pretty damn powerful path as well. His own. One shaped by his own choices and custom made for what he needed it. Besides, there werent any historical or literary paths that fit what he needed, not as far as he knew. Isaac reached into the pocket space to try and grab another beer, but his hand came back empty. Right, they were all in the tub of ice water which was still on the ground. With a sigh, he dropped through the roof,nding right near one of the summoning circles. Actually, he did need a few more cores, didnt he? Besides, there was something he wanted to try out The Lesser Space Elemental appeared and was torn to shreds by a fully empowered [Manifold Strike]. With the high Level of all theponent [Skills], it was able to tear through the spatial warp as if it were made of tissue paper, something he couldnt have managed a mere twenty-four hours ago. Hed have tried that at the university, but he was trying to demonstrate his technique, not brute force. And given how easy that had been maybe chopping up another one or two to go shopping with wouldnt be too bad? Still, beer first. It wasnt like hed be affected by just one in any way. So that was how things went. Get beer, jump onto roof, drink beer, drop down and kill Lesser Space Elemental, then return to the roof with a new drink and read a book or watch the news. All the way until the first soft rays of dawn began to peek over the horizon. Isaac picked up the phone to call his mother, but swiftly put it back down when he realized it was still 5 in the morning. It was literally the morning after the longest day in the year, sunrise was obviously going to be damn early. Still, he had the all the cores he needed and he could finally get the second stage of extradimensional spaces, the Extradimensional Room. It required the same core, but more mana than hed had a day ago. So, why the hell not summon it now, right before he went out to buy stuff? He could certainly pick up furniture as well. He headed over into his storage container and retrieved arge tarp, then painted a Tier 6 circle onto it. The mere sight filled him with apprehension, he was fully aware of just what coulde out of one of these things. But he was summoning an inanimate area where thews of spacetime where a little screwy. Congrattions! Youve surmounted immense odds and managed to create an Extradimensional Room, a member of the [Rewards] type summons. Each person can only have one Extradimensional Room, and it may be essed from anywhere within 10 meters of the original ritual. Re-using this ritual will move the existing Extradimensional Room to the new site, anchoring it there until it is moved again. The room itself is 5x5x5 meters in size and is inessible to anyone other than the owner while there is no one within. If there are living creatures within, the doorway used to enter it is faintly visible to anyone with powerful magical senses and can, in theory, be broken into with extremely powerful spatial, portal or teleportation magic. The user may also add in a material sample to create the illusion of the rooms boundaries being made of this material, as well as windows to observe the outside, antennas to ess satellite feeds, (see full list?). Isaac grinned and stepped inside, finding himself in a decently sized cube bordered in walls made from ck matter and azure lightening. It looked spooky, but hed be able to change that with just a sliver of any other material, which he could soon get. Anyway time to take another nap before going shopping. It was nice to take it easy like this, even if it wouldntst beyond today. Chapter 65: Retail Therapy Chapter 65: Retail Therapy Isaac slowly hiked through the forest, emerging into the parking lot of the mid-sized shoppingplex and getting a few odd stares for his trouble. After all, there was just forest behind there for as far as anyone could see. But by andrge, no one paid attention to him. He was acting in an unusual way, but not threatening or particrly shy, so they put him out of their minds. Theplex itself was halfway between the uni and his home, located slightly off to the side and it was where he usually went to shop from both locations, given that it conveniently contained both a furniture house and a hardware store, as well as all the normal things like a supermarket. His first stop was the hardware store, where he bought quite a few nks and beams of lumber, and enough various material samples that the guy at checkout threw him a seriously odd look. It wasnt like they were particrly useful, after all. But when he had an entire room that would transform with just a sliver of this stuff, a sliver was all he needed. He was also sitting on a pile of various crystals hed bought way back, which were also a possibility, he''d have to y around a little. Of course, a few carpets for the floor and some ss so he could add windows to the pocket dimension were also purchased. His cart filled to bursting, Isaac walked out of the store and into a narrow alley between buildings. When he couldnt see anyone looking at him, his purchases simply vanished into thin air. Or rather, they were sucked into his dimensional storage, filling it almostpletely. That was fine, though. He only needed to purchase groceries and one of those doohickeys that let you create a wifiwork and ess the inte via a mobile signal, rather than needing an ovend connection. He thought that it might also be called a router, but Isaac wasnt sure. Oh, and he needed to get a power strip to add some sockets to the wall of the pocket dimension. All the various bits and pieces that belonged in the wall of a normal house could be put into the wall of the pocket dimension, you just needed them first. He already had a generator, though, in the form of the Electricity Elemental Generator hed made before the event gods, had that been less than two days ago? And then on to the thing he was actually exited for, food. Isaac began to practically drool as he walked into the supermarket and bought up what felt like half the barbeque section. Expensive, fancy mircobrews, a bottle of proper whiskey to rece the one that had been used up because hed mixed it up with the venom, and some damn nice sodas. It was more than hed have normally spent, but today was hardly a normal day. Maybe hed even invite some people overter? Still, his mother was almost certainly awake by now, so he called her. Morning, mom. Good morning, Isaac. How are you? Oh, you know, free day. We finished up in the middle of the night and I basicallyid in awn chair on my roof till morning. How about you? But youre fine? I saw the news, that was a strangled sound was audible over phone terrifying. Like I said, everythings fine. Were careful, always. No one got hurt, and we learned a lot. Isaac tried to reassure her. Im your mother, Im allowed to worry. I know, mom. Isaac rolled his eyes. So now you have a day off? his mother asked. Yeah. Pretty sure someone is going to go in anyway, but I wont. By mom, have a nice day. Bye Isaac. He hung up and went on with his shopping, big grin on his face. While he walked through the aisles of the supermarket, he took this time to think about where he wanted to take his [ss]. Isaacs current Level was 24, one shy of the next Evolution, though hed wait to hit it despite having the required XP. He really wanted to get some more Aspects and grind his [Skill] Levels a little higher. This was something hed thought about a lot, usually changing his mind every few hours or so. His path was his own, a new one, which no one had trodden before him, in either timeline. There was no one to lean on, no one whod made mistakes which he now knew to avoid. They were his mistakes to make, and his alone. Still, there were a handful of Aspects he wanted to grab. Well, he wanted to get a hell of a lot more, but these were the ones he was actually sure about. The first one was an illusion and cloaking Aspect, just like the ones which the Perception blocking fields would eventually be based on. This would have two effects. First of all, he could point to them and go hey, casino boss, I solved your problem, now pay up! and get the team a level of cash flow best described as fuck you money. However, this wasnt his only reason for getting it. Well, them, hed get two different ones so he could stack them, but that was beside the point. What these kinds of Aspects would do for him, personally, was enhance his stealth, resistance to [Inspect] and [Scry]. And depending on which one hed end up getting, they might even have some decent use inbat. Also, he wanted to get the Aspect of the ded Tempest. Summoning List (Metal) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Clockwork Arachnid Tier 1 Circle, Copper Wire 10 Iron Cloud Tier 2 Circle, Iron Shavings, Marble 50 Barbed Dervish Tier 3 Circle, Barbed Wire 100 Animated Armor Tier 4 Circle, Tinfoil, Screws 200 de Tempest Tier 5 Circle, Five Edged Implements 350 He still had an Aspect left over belonging to a Barbed Dervish, hed grabbed a few so he could give on to Stagmer and other cksmiths that might get recruited, so he could use that as a base to stack the more powerful Aspect with. The way an Aspect of the floating des would interact with a soulbound weapon that gained new abilities based on his Aspects well, he didnt know what hed get, but it was sure to be good. His phone chimed and he checked it, finding a link to a video there, sent to the research group by Patrick. It showed a rather angry looking man in his mid-twenties yelling into the camera about how the only reason those people had gotten hurt was because they were a bunch of pansies and . Well, suffice it to say, this guy managed to use everymon racist and homophobic slur in the German and Englishnguages, and more besides. Reading between the lines, this person had summoned something during the Events, someone had ended up hurt, and apparently, hed decided that the best way to address it was to insult everyone whod had anything bad happen to them during the event, often because they were, ording to this asshole, too stupid to know when to duck. What a jackass. Isaac shook his head in annoyance. Hed better be as tough as his talk, otherwise, someone was likely to smash in his skull quite soon. And now the idiotse out of the woodwork. Amy sent back in reply of the video link and Isaac agreed. The conversation developed from there, revealing that this clip had been taken from the news, meaning that nitwits rant had been seen by everyone. And that meant that Isaacs phone rang and he didnt recognize the number, but picked up anyway. Is this Isaac Thoma? Im with the Police Department, you helped us out a while back with the levelling program. You were put down as a sensory specialist on a list of people who volunteered to help track down the monster killer. Do I have that right? came a harried sounding voice, talking a mile a minute. Yes, all of that is correct. Whats wrong? Isaac replied curtly. We believe weve identified the next most likely target and right now, were calling in everyone who sounds like they might be helpf- the voice broke off. Werent supposed to say that, I suppose? Isaac asked into the silence Look, Im here, and I have time. Just tell me where and Ill be there as soon as I can. Right. So, someone posted a video, insulting anyone who got hurt during the Event and it just ended up on the news. Yeah, I saw that. His home address is known, and he has no intention of entering protective custody. Instead, hed apparently galivanting all over the ce. So, please call the local police department and theyll give transport to you and anyone else in your city, and transport you guys here to Leipzig. click The man on the other end hung up and Isaac was left standing in the middle of the supermarket, a little shellshocked. Then, he called the number Polizeir?tin Eisenberg had given him a while ago, in case he needed to talk to someone in the department without going through the emergency line. It was quickly revealed that no, that other call had not been a prank and when hed told Bailey to pass along the message that hed be willing to help with tracking down the killer, it had been noted. His help would apparently also be appreciated, if he could spare the time. And if the answer was yet, someone woulde pick him up and drive him along with a couple of high Level SEK members to Leipzig to help out. A serial killer would always be an important priority to the police. But a serial killer who got stronger, faster, tougher, harder to catch and contain that was the stuff nightmares were made of and the police were acting ordingly. And this apparently included getting help from civilians, who really had no ce in a police action. Then again, this entire situation was abnormal to an absurd degree, so who was he to say what was and wasnt a good idea? Maybe ten minutester, hed paid for his stuff, stored it and was standing in the parking lot, waiting for his transportation. ording to google maps, the drive to Leipzig would take around four hours, but a ring siren and shing lights should shave off quite a bit of time. And speak of the devil, there it was, a cop car came sting along the road, thening to a stop next to the parking lot. Isaac ran over, covering the thirty or so meters in a sh. Someone opened the door to the back from the inside and he came to a stop just outside. Name? Isaac Thoma. Do you need anything you dont currently have on you? No. In that case, get in. And ten seconds after that, the car tore off, heading towards Leipzig at quite frankly insane speeds. Either this would be a waste of time, or the exact kind of hectic, life or death clusterfuck hed specifically wanted to avoidtonight. Whichever it ended up being, it was sure to be memorable. Chapter 66: Hell is empty ... Chapter 66: Hell is empty ... Oh, and if you could sign this real quick, I can give you the casefile to study. the driver said, blindly waiving a clipboard in Isaacs direction as he fixed his eyes on the road. Sure. he replied, grabbing it What is it? The I promise wont go running to the nearest journalist the moment I leave the station form you have to sign as a civilian consultant. Case information is a little sensitive, you see. the driver said. Uh-hu. Isaac signed it So, do I give this back to you? I mean, youre driving and all A brief conversation between the driver and the guy in the passenger seat erupted, involving the driver saying where to put the signed document and where to find the actual file, apanied by a lot of rummaging around. And then, after a couple of minutes, the file was in Isaacs hands. It was pretty simr to the one currently buried at the bottom of his storage space, but a hell of a lot thicker. The real question was how to quickly go through it without the car full of police officers catching on to the fact that he was familiar with it. The solution? Skim read and lie his ass off. He flipped through it until he came to the autopsy reports, then let his eyes roam over them for five minutes. You got something, doc? the officer sitting in the back with him asked. Maybe. Isaac hummed softly, rubbing his chin with his free hand But Im no Doctor, just a researcher. Is it something youre willing to share with the group? she asked. Talking to people here about the stuff in the casefile is fine, right? Isaac asked. He really couldnt see any reason why it shouldnt be, but the rules and arcane regtions of any bureaucratical system often deviated from such expectations. Sure. this time, it was the driver who spoke So, whatcha got? Its the wounds, theyre odd. The coroners report says the victims were alive and awake while those monster wounds were being inflicted and trashing around ordingly. But you wouldnt know that from looking at the injuries themselves. Someone managed to make perfectly straight cuts, all nice and parallel, in such a way that it looked like, say a w wound or bite. Thats probably hard enough to do under normal circumstances, but if the victim is moving all over the ce, it should be impossible. The point? the mountain of a man sitting in the passenger seat asked. The point is that this is clearly a [System] given ability and while I can think of several different things that might allow for something like this, all of them have bad implications. A high Agility, for example, would let this guy dodge bullets at close range. A high Level weapon handling [Skill] would basically make them a god of their chosen weapon, in addition to the bonuses obtained at [Skill] Levels 10 and 20, respectively. Or maybe its a [Skill] that makes blows functionally undodgeable. Any of those would be bad. Isaac exined. Let me guess, you moonlight as a horror writer? the woman next him asked, the grimace clearly audible in her voice. I wish. Isaac shook his head Im afraid Im quite serious. How strong are those Level 10 bonuses? the man in the passenger seat asked. I can demonstrate, if someone had a pen they dont mind losing. Isaac replied. Sure. Isaac casually caught the ballpoint pen tossed his way, held in up by its back end and announced This is myLevel 10 Bonus. stic bent and twisted,pressing itself into a thin sheet until a slim stiletto was pointing towards the sky, edge glinting dangerously. Anything I touch can be turned into a deadly weapon. It was a reasonable thing to let people know about, especially as that little trick was madepletely redundant by having a soulbound weapon. Then, he pressed the pens clip against the rest of the handle, hard, venomous green light faintly glinting away from the point of contact. A few momentster, the pen-turned-knife disintegrated into kes of stic that further fell apart before they ever reached the ground. What did you do that for? the male officer asked. Its a razor sharp de thats almost as tough as a proper steelbat knife. Its not something we want lying around the car. Imagine someone sits on it I think were all adult enough to not identally stab ourselves. the drivermented dryly. We probably are. Isaac shrugged But I figured it was better to be safe than sorry. Besides, all I need to make another one is a fifty cent ballpoint pen. I think the scary part is what that kind of power would look like if focused on actualbat. the officer next to Isaac added. Good point. the guy in the passenger seat said, turning around in his seat to face Isaac Therell be a short conference in Leipzig in ten minutes. Apparently, basically none of the experts they called in are there yet, but they want to gather as much information as possible now in case they need to engage before everyone else arrives. Should I see if I can teleconference you in via tablet? Sure. Just give me a bit more time with the case file until then, please. Isaac replied and busied himself with the autopsy reports. The killer had been thorough, and clearly gotten a hell of a lot stronger than shed been the first time hed gotten his hands on a casefile. des were now shearing straight through bone and the abductions were happening in more and more risky ces, without the police able to get any additional information. People would give a decent amount of experience, sobined whatever bonus she got from acting ordingly to her [ss], shed be levelling up pretty damn quickly. And not only that, her entire kit would be based around killing humans. One day soon, she might be pretty close to unstoppable, at least by people who mostly knew how to fight monsters. And at that point, stopping her would be incredibly difficult. So if she suddenly decided all summoners needed to die yeah, this situation was shifting from bad to worse. The worst-case scenario his mind had ever so helpfully thrown up couldnte to pass for a while yet, maybe even a year or two, but still, this needed dealing with. While Isaac was busy internally doomsaying and looking through a folder detailing the worst of humanity, the car sped down the highway at truly ludicrous speeds. Some kind of [Skill] was being used upon the car, flowing into it and reducing air resistance, fuel consumption and the damage driving the car at speeds higher than it was meant to was inflicting upon the engine. The effect was subtle, and the only reason Isaac was able to notice it in use at all was that he could see the [Skill] itself using [Hunters Gaze], but someone familiar with this kind of car would have noticed the difference in performance without having to lean on any [Skills]. Still, it was an interesting sign. People were beginning to integrate [Skills] into their everyday life, not just something they grabbed so they could fight monster, but actually, properly, use them. All three of the officers in here were at Level 9, but that was the only simrity. The driver had grabbed a bunch of different [Skills], all low Level. He had almost certainly been levelled up via summoning monsters for others to kill, all the way up to one Level shy of Evolution, then stayed there to improve his [Skills] and his eventual evolved [ss]. The other two had a series of higher Level [Skills] focused onbat, as well as several other, more general [Skills] that any police officer should have, but at a very low level. Clearly, they had been levelling up the traditional way, with summoning. They were members of the SEK, Germanys equivalent of the American SWAT, elites of the police force. They were the ones whod be doing most of the fighting, so they needed the serious firepower. In all likelihood, the rest of the police force were the ones providing the mana for the summoning circles so they didnt have to Of course, that they were only Level 9 was a little weird. Isaac could think of several reasons for that, but was unable to determine which one was correct merely based on the information he currently had. Which left him with only one good way to get to the bottom of this. Hey, quick question, is there a particr reason you two are only Level 9? Everything else about you says youve been working to increase your power, yet youve stopped just one Level short of evolving. Is that something you can tell me about? he asked, making sure to not force the issue. He doubted the details of the levelling program, which he had had arge part in creating, by the way, were considered a secret, but taking for granted that theyd talk about it might sound rude. Just waiting for some prerequisites to be met before evolving. the man in the passenger seat grunted. And Im guessing those are considered a secret? Isaac suggested. it certainly wasnt the [Skill] Levels, those were already high enough to get a good Evolution, a rare one. Epic and, gods forbid, Legendary required more than mere [Skill] Levels to get, at least unless you went really overboard. Ten Level thirty [Skills] before the first Evolution kind of overboard. To put into perspective how hard that was, Isaac didnt have a single [Skill] at that Level despite all the crazy stunts hed been pulling and gaining [Skill] Levels ordingly. Nah, not really. I dont suppose you have any Aspects youd be willing to give up? the man asked, sounding half sarcastic, half hopeful. Now things started to make sense. Research had shown that Aspects guaranteed a minimum rare Evolution, and it overall added enough to [ss] quality to make it a good idea to slot at least one prior to evolving. if you could get one, that was. Buying them was expensive as hell, even if the price had somewhat fallen from the ludicrous heights it had been at when the first Aspects had been sold on the open market. As it just so happens, I was nning on dropping by the Uni for a quick second and drop off some Aspects with Professor Chandler to see what craziness he coulde up to with them. Isaac reached down into the bottom of his Aspect and made some clearly visible searching motions, grabbing an inscribed Core and essing his storage, causing half a dozen different Aspects to pour into the backpack. He withdrew his hand, clutching an Aspect of the Hydra within. Based on your current build, Im guessing youre usually first through the door and focused on surviving the consequences? Isaac asked In that case, might I suggest [Hydras Regeneration]? Itll let you fix pretty much anything not involving fire or acid and even regrow limbs. The look he got in return was absolute gold. This was his second tost Lesser Hydra Aspect he had, but he was willing to give it up. If he ever desperately needed to give someone regeneration, he still had a bunch of normal Hydra Aspects from when hed been training up his transformation [Skill]. Isaac really did enjoy showing off what he was capable of, now and again. Wait, I can have that? Isaac snorted Yeah. Id prefer getting paid for that at some point, but right now, were about to go looking for someone whos killed Level 15batants without any sign of a struggle and is fully sped to murder people. Thisll do a lot more good slotted by one of you than lying at the bottom of my backpack. Do you have the XP to slot it right now? Sure. Ill work to ensure you do get paid for that Aspect, Im on the list to get one once the department finds one or the funds to buy it, but that might take a while. the man told him. If you need more, Im sure I could give a little discount, assuming the Aspects get slotted immediately and not shipped off elsewhere. Isaac offered. Are you suggesting the police is corrupt and those Aspects might go missing? the man sounded quite offended. No, Im using it of being a bureaucracy, and that someone, upon seeing an Aspect be avable, might decide itd be more useful wielded by one of the Bundeskanzlers bodyguards or some Spec Ops soldier. Isaac replied with an apologetic smile, getting a deep sigh in response. Yeah, thered probably be a serious risk of that happening. the man conceded. It just urs to me that I never caught your name. Mine is Isaac, Isaac Thoma. Introductions really should have been done at the beginning, but the situation had been somewhat hectic. Im Polizeiobermeister Wirt, Sondereinsatzkommando. A very brief and sinct introduction, but a sufficient one. Im Sonja Hersh, same rank and division. his fellow passenger in the back of the car introduced herself, followed by the driver. Not that Im someone who has a role in this mess beyond ying taxi, but Im Polizeimeister Sanner. he called back, eyes still locked solidly onto the road. As in, his head never so much as twitched while the car roared down the highway at close to 300 kilometers per hour. Anyway, like I was saying, Ive got a few different ones and given the situation, Im willing to give them away in exchange for the promise that youll make a good faith effort to get me paid when all is said and done. So, Polizeiobermeisterin Hersh, Im guessing youre teams sniper or just a general form of long range support? Isaac cautiously suggested, getting a nod in return. Between the massive rifle in the trunk, her main Stats being Perception and Agility and the kinds of [Skills] shed grabbed, that had been a simple deduction. So, I have a couple of things here that might be useful. Aspect of the Specter will let you either phase through solid objects, temporarily ignore gravity or see living beings through walls, any of which could be useful for a sniper. I also have an Aspect of the Earth Elemental, but I doubt thatd fit into your build, seeing as its got [Skills] best suited for a close range brawler. Also All in all, Isaac had grabbed six Aspects, belonging to a Specter, Wraith, Rock Golem, Lesser Hydra, Shadow Drake and Giant Slime, respectively. The Hydra one was almost certainly going to end up with Wirt, while Hersh eventually picked the Aspect of the Specter. Oh crap. Wirt suddenly swore and literally threw his tablet at Isaac Conference is starting. Isaac caught it easily and saw that it was already connected properly, showing a small meeting room as well as a small image of himself in the top right corner. Your image is being disyed on a screen in the back with a webcam in the back. Wirt told him, then busied himself with the red and brown Aspect in his palm, cradling it with the care only used on extremely valuable or fragile items. Isaac chuckled inwardly. His own perspective on their value might be a little skewed. On the screen, a man was standing in front of a whiteboard with an image of the guy whod posted that video projected onto it. I know this has been a chaotic situation, and Id like to apologize for that, but it also represents our best chance to catch the serial killer the media has dubbed the Monster Killer. Im Polizeirat Schmied of the Leipzig Police Department and currently in charge of the operation. The man rapped the whiteboard with his knuckles. This man is Till Herbig, an influencer and streamer who summons monsters and then talks big after the fact. Last night, during the Event, one of his helpers was hurt, but it was clearly due to their own negligence, something that was supported by video evidence. However, he still felt the need to make and post online a rather caustic video, in which he insulted every summoner and innocent bystander hurt during the Event. Between his status as a summoner and the newly gained publicity, he is a prime target for the perpetrator. Unfortunately, Mr. Herbig has been sternly against any kind of police protection and even run off, repeatedly, when seeing officers. How do you expect to catch a serial killer when you cant even catch one civilian proven to have a severeck of intelligence andmon sense? someone called out, rudely interrupting. Isaac didnt even have to identify the speaker to be certain of what kind of man he was. A summoner whod managed to reach a decent Level and offered his help to the police,cking the basic politeness and professionalism he should have had but had been epted because his power/specific skillset was needed. Isaac couldnt wait for the police to be able to afford to do away with people like that, them having even the slightest measure of official authority was a scary thought. But sadly, as things stood right now, only those who recklessly charged ahead were truly strong. Because generally, you dont catch civilians so you can put them into protective custody, nor do you chase them through gardens and other private property when they decide it would be good fun to make sure even protection from afar is insulting. Schmied replied dryly, masterfully concealing the irritation he was sure to be feeling, and continued his presentation. Multiple profilers have determined that there is a very high chance that the perpetrator will strike here next, so we have called for reinforcements. Dr. Sarai here is a profiler from the Bundespolizei, and were having other experts in [System] Sciences and forensicsing here, as well as powerfully [System] enhanced officers. Now, Ive been told that one of them, Mr. Thoma, has a theory on what [Skills] the perpetrator might have. If youll please turn your attention to the screen in the back? Thank you. Isaac nodded, then proceeded to exin the possible [Skills] and builds that might ount for the injuries shown. but the important thing to remember is, these are not mutually exclusive. We might be dealing with a killer using a high Agility build who is also preternaturally skilled with every weapon they care to pick up. And how would be tell the difference? a severe looking woman asked from the side of room. [Inspect] or its many upgrades. Im specialized in senses, so if I can get a direct look at the suspect, I can tell you virtually all their [Skills]. However, they are likely to have ess to a very good upgrade for [Privacy]. Isaac replied. What makes you so sure? What do you think would happen if somes [ss] showed as [Serial Killer] or [Cannibal]? Isaac asked rhetorically Weve seen that both [Inspect] and anti-[Inspect] [Skills] change based on the [ss] they belong to. Weve also seen that [sses] that involve sneaking around or hiding, like [Hunter] or [Rogue] have better upgrades for [Privacy]. It stands to reason that this goes doubly for [sses] whose very name could put the bearer in jail. We dont arrest people for having odd [sses]. came back a terse reply from outside the cameras field of view. No, and that is a good thing. But please dont insult my intelligence by iming that someone whose [ss] is literally [Serial Killer] would not get a second, thorough, look. Isaac replied evenly. Are we sure that is even a [ss]? Schmied asked, clearly at least trying to get the conversation back on track. Everything is a [ss]. Isaac said [Office Drone], [Doctor], Ive even run into [yboys] and [Gamblers]. There is no reason against [Serial Killer] being a ss and we have every indication for it. What kinds of [Skills] would someone like that have? a new voice cut in, followed by a man who appeared to be Indian walking up next to Schmied and introducing himself My name is Dr. Zorawar Sarai, Im a profiler with the Bundespolizei and I specialize in serial killers. We seem to be moving into the arguing portion of this meeting and if at all possible, Id like to make sure we all have all the fact avable before proceeding. Good point. Schmied nodded Mr. Thoma, if you could just answer the previous question, and then Dr. Sarai will present his findings, please try to refrain from interrupting until after it has beenpleted. In essence, [sses] always provide the [Skills] needed to do properly perform their purpose. Sometimes, if the [ss] in question is something that would typically belong in a video game like [Warrior] or [Barbarian], the [Skills] somewhat match those from a game. But with real-world [sses], all you gain is the ability to do the things your [ss] name implies you should be able to do at a preternatural level. [Cops] end up with lie detection, magically enhanced guns, improved bulletproof vests, extrasensory perception to find evidence better, and so on, the ability to recognize people more quickly and so forth. The same pattern repeats with all other [sses] that have been thoroughly analyzed. Researchers gain early warning [Skills] that let them know to hit the deck before something blows up, vastly improved memory and analysis power, while some evolved [sses] effectively allow them to simte their experiments and conduct them without ever needing funding or physical resources. In conclusion, there is no reason someone whos avoided the police thus far doesnt have a [ss] like [Serial Killer]. As for [Skills], like I said previously, there are many they could have, including ones rted to stealth, ambushes, avoiding tracking, analyzing their possible victims to see if they qualify for their attention. In addition, they have at least one of the [Skills] I mentioned while talking about the wounds. Overall, if thises down to an actual fight, there are a few things you can do to help your chances. They havent demonstrated any kind of ranged ability, and while we should by no means assume they dont have one, there really isnt much we can do counter one anyway, safe hope the vests are tough enough or stay behind cover. All of their confirmed victims were killed at close range, which lets us conclude they have one of several [Skills], any of which makes them a great threat in a melee engagement. I believe the going rule of thumb is that an assant can cover 7 meters in the time it takes for an officer to draw their service weapon? That should be doubled to 14 meters, and then no one should get within that radius unless the suspect is down or has very clearly surrendered. And even should thetter be the case, they should still be covered by several other officers with their weapons ready. Theres a good chance they can cover even that distance in a second or less. That suggestion caused a collective sharp intake of breath, but Isaac continued reagardless. In addition, that speed wille with significant Agility as well, which will make urately firing at them incredibly difficult. Id advise the use of pepper spray or other airborne irritants that do not require high uracy to be effective. People with high Fortitude do gain a certain degree of resistance to them, but the ability to be truly immune to them is beyond event the current highest Level people. That is all I can tell based on the information I currently have avable, but if I can ever get a good look at them, directly, not through a photo or over a video feed, Ill be able to tell you nearly all their [Skills], as well as details of their Stat distribution. Isaac finished his exhaustive exnation. Thank you. Schmied replied sourly, though Isaac was certain that feeling wasnt aimed at him, but rather the messy situation he was currently in charge of. Dr. Sarai, you have the floor. And with that, Schmied stepped off to the side, to allow the profiler to present his findings. The suspect in question is what is known as a moral crusader, a mission oriented killer who seeks to stamp out behavior that they personally find morally objectionable but which is either not illegal or only lightly punished. The victims are all summoners who have summoned creatures more powerful than what your average, casually summoning civilian might call upon, indicating that the suspect has a method of identifying them. As Mr. Thoma said earlier, this is likely the work of a [Skill]. The first victim in each area of activity is always a famous summoner with some degree of online presence. This ranged from YouTube channels to someone who posts the asional TikTok video. However, each of them had a substantial following and at least some of their content involved a degree of risky behavior. It is conceivable that the suspect found each of their initial victims with a casual google search. None of their initial victims was a part of an official orrge scale organized summoning effort, they were, without exception, working with very few precautions or contingencies. Subsequent victims, however, were asionally part of such organizations, which would indicate that whatever [Skill] is used primarily evaluates Level and monsters killed, rather than a broader scope of information. The projected image behind Sarai changed from various crime scene photos to a series of graphs and pie charts, describing methods of killing or various motives a serial killer might have. Were this a normal case prior to the [System], the evidence would indicate we are looking for arge, physically powerful male suspect, but with the [System], ones physical build is no longer an indication of physical strength. The preferred method of killing, almost always involving weapons, also indicates a male killer, given that they are extremely rare in female killers. In addition, the fact that the victims are killed in such a way the suspect can see them from up close and while they are still alive suggests that the suspect craves a sense of power and control, which once again indicates we are looking for a man. Given the timing of the first murder, as well as their choice of target, the suspects trigger event was likely the loss of a loved one to a [System] monster, prompting them to need to punish people whose actions run the risk of causing a simr event while reiming their own sense of power and agency, which they lost during the original monster encounter. We have gathered a collection of some of the most vocal anti-summoner advocates whose known locations do not rule out them being the suspect and will be running them through facial recognition, but there is a significant risk that this suspect has not made any public statements other than their crimes. Based on our profile, we are likely looking for a male suspect between 18 and sixty years old, who has recently lost a family member to a summoned monster while they were nearby and physically unable to help. However, due to the fact that we are unable to narrow down their geographical origin, locating them via that profile requires searching through too many records to make this not viable in the short term. While on the streets, you are looking for someone wearing average clothing that would let them conceal at least some weapons. This is someone who knows that they need to avoid standing out, but also not someone who will naturally try to blend into the background. They hide when they have to, but only as far as is necessary. Im fully aware of the fact that this description will only be of limited usefulness, but Im afraid this is as far as Im willing to go with confident statements. But you are certain the suspect is a man? came a question out of the audience. No. Sarai said, bluntly The avable signs point towards a male perpetrator, but exceptions do exist. Missing an obvious suspect because they do not match the profile to some small degree is something we should endeavor to avoid at all costs. The meeting slowly came to a close and Isaac was about to shut off the tablet when Wirt waved frantically at him from the front seat, motioning for Isaac to not hang up and instead pass it along to him. Of course, Isaac did so. Herr Polizeirat, Im Polizeiobermeister Wirt from the Sondereinsatzkommando. I was wondering how many officers with an Aspect and evolved [ss] will be present? There are several Aspects that are avable for purchase, and I believe buying all of them would significantly increase our chances at sess. I myself have recently gained an Aspect and evolved [ss] and it is a difference like night and day. I see. How many? Schmied asked immediately, prompting Wirt turn to Isaac who immediately phased his arm through the other mans back and stole the tablet straight out of his hands. In order to expedite this, I believe it would be best to put all the cards on the table. I was heading over to the campus to drop off a few Aspects with Professor Chandler when I got the call, so Im currently sitting on several Aspects that belong to me, personally, and I can part with. Isaac had decided to lie about the fact that he could ess an extradimensional storage space because he didnt want to make that known to the police force. Because if they knew, everyone else would soon after, and then people would try to go after Lesser Space Elementals, which could be devastating unless someone was nearby and powerful enough to stop it. The damn things were pretty slow, so they couldnt, say, depopte a city in a couple of hours, but theyd still wreak holy havoc upon their immediate surroundings. I dont require immediate payment, Im perfectly willing to discus that after the fact, the important thing is catching that damn serial killer. Thats very generous, but I do believe we need to have some kind of agreement in ce prior to the exchange, otherwise, there is a risk of massive disagreements, someone feeling cheated, etc. Schmied cautiously replied, as if already hating himself for potentially jeopardizing the sale. Call it 50% percent market rate for any that gets used immediately, market rate for any that do not get used to help resolve the current situation. Im not opposed to selling Aspects to the state, but Im not willing to give the this is about to help catch a serial killer discount. Thats Schmied moved to wipe some sweat from his brow Thats very generous, thank you. Pulling together those kinds of funds and approving the transaction will take a bit, especially given that Ive got my hands full with the current situation and might even have to draw on federal funds, which is its own arduousbor. Were having this conversation in front of a bunch of other people, Im willing to make this sale over a verbal agreement of payment at ater date. Like I said, catching the so called monster-killer is the priority. Alright. Schmied nodded, straightened up, cleared his throat and formally stated I, Polizeirat Johan Schmied of the Leipzig police department promise to give render payment in exchange for Aspects as soon as it is feasible to spare the time needed to do so. Thank you. Isaac nodded See you in a couple of hours. Actually, well be there in one hour. Sanner called from the drivers seat. Right, they were being chauffeured around by a wannabe stunt driver. Ah, Ive just been told well arrive in an hour. Isaac corrected himself and hung up. The rest of the drive passed in a blur of shop talk, with the two newly aspected SEK officers asking countless questions about proper levelling and [Skill] point allocation. It made sense, given that Isaac was not only the foremost expert on the topic, in the world, but people actually knew about that. And while he wasnt being practically interrogated, he was asking in depth questions in turn. Hed asionally worked with the police in the other timeline. However, the rules had been pretty lose back then, generally consisting of dont kill the suspect unless you absolutely cant avoid it and watch out for coteral damage, but that had been near the end. Right now, they were in the first Era of the [System], where people were only beginning to use the many things it offered, and people often needed to call on professional summoners to help with [System] stuff because only they actually had the necessary [Skills]. even if they were difficult people, like the interrupter from earlier. Then hade the second Era, where people had taken full advantage of the [System], integrating it and the [Skills] it offered into their lives and the number of professional summoners had skyrocketed. This meant that people and the police could often handle the situations theyd had to call in a summoner for in the past on their own. And when a summoners touch was required, they had plenty to choose from and could pick someone agreeable, like Isaac. In the end, the third Era, however, professional summoners had eclipsed all the casuals and when they were needed, they were needed. At that point, difficult personalities and ack of professionalism were the least of anyones worries. As long as they showed the bare minimum of caution and willingness to follow orders, they were hired. If Isaac had his way, the world would not reach the third Era for a second time. And then they arrived, the SEK officers and Isaac jumping out of the car and hurrying towards the precincts main entrance while Sanner parked. Raised voices could be heard as they closed, making Isaac grimace. -n what world could we conduct a manhunt for a civilian who has notmitted a crime? He chose to run around town and toss insults at any police officer he saw. We cant deploy airships and put everyone on high alert to track a man who might need police protection, but doesnt want it. a voice Isaac could identify as Polizeirat Schmied argued. The man got kidnapped by a serial killer, couldnt you have just arrested him? an extremely angry man yelled. For what? Terminal stupidity isnt a crime and I dont fabricate charges, if that is what youre suggesting. Schmied growled back You might be the deputy major and Till Herbig is your nephew, but there are limits to what I can do and what you can demand of me. Then Wirts phone rang. Where are you? The influencer just got kidnapped and were about to go searching. a voice crackled out of the loudspeaker. We heard, Schmied is yelling at the deputy major in the lobby. Wirt replied grimly Well be right in, lets just hope were not toote. Well, fuck. Isaac muttered. This had just gotten a hell of a lot moreplicated. Chapter 67: … and all the devils are here Chapter 67: and all the devils are here Ah, Mr. Thoma, youre here. Schmied turned to face the trio entering the building while very clearly ignoring the irate deputy mayor Ill go with you to the conference room in a second. Then, he red at the deputy major Im going to head off to try and rescue your nephew, anything you do to dy me or bother any officer will hinder that. Goodbye. The group of now four people hurried through the building until they reached a briefing room. It wasnt the same one seen in the video call, it wasrger and contained quite a few more people, most of the in uniform. Presumably, this was the stations primary briefing room, while the previous one had been used to avoid disrupting general operations. After all, the danger had only been theoretical up to the point where the abduction actually happened. A quarter of an hour ago, a streamer and influencer by the name of Till Herbig was abducted by a person we believe to be the so called monster killer. Polizeiobermeister Mller has patrol routes as well as a physical description of the victim and the suspects profile, along with what to look out for, which he will hand out ot all patrol officers. Schmied gestured to a man leaning against the wall next to him. Dr. Sarai, Mr. Thoma, please join our crime scene investigation scene at the likely site of the abduction. Members of the SEK who have joined us from other cities, thank you foring, our local SEK chief will give you your assignments. And then they basically ended up getting chased all over the ce. Isaac had to grab a bulletproof vest hed like phase out of the instant a fight urred, given that it barely provided any protection and seriously hemmed him in. Normally, hed have argued more, but time was of the essence right now. It was more important to get out there quickly than it was to be right. Another ten minutes after that, Isaac was stepping out of a police car, not the same one that had carried him to Leipzig, and into the public park where the abduction had likely taken ce. The so-called influencer had walked into the park, but note out the other end. At that point, his various groupies/supporters had immediately called the police, then charged into the park to rescue him, as if they stood any chance against someone who could take down their boss. The actual location of the fight was rather clear, given the gigantic sh across a tree next to a trail that had not been there the day before. Given that Herbigs preferred weapon was a sword big enough to prompt ovepensation jokes, there was a good chance that hed been the one responsible. However, no blood had been located in the initial survey, so it had most likely missed. The actual crime scene investigators that were here now had the ability to find the trace amounts a casual survey wouldnt have found, but probably wasnt anything there to find. A blow like that, which had chopped through several centimeters of wood, was extremely powerful. If it had hit, it would have a massive wound, with a blood spatter to match. Good afternoon, Dr. Sarai. Isaac greeted the good doctor as the two of them walked towards the area roped off with police tape. The other man had the typical thin but not unhealthy look of your typical scientist or bureaucrat, with a bulletproof vest bulging out under his raincoat. There wasnt even a light drizzleing down at the moment, but the clouds overhead spoke of a serous downpour in the near future. is it normal for a profiler to go into the field, and potentially confront the suspect themselves? Isaac asked. Hardly, Im meant to avoid the fight itself like the gue. But this particr suspect moves their victim immediately after the abduction. The fact that they were here means they arent here, now. Sarai shook his head. And the vest? Isaac asked. If the police was so damn certain there was no danger, why the hell did they have to wear this damn thing. Protocol. Saraimented in a tone that made it quite clear he was as unhappy with it as Isaac. I see. And then they were there, on a path of sand and gravel, slightly scuffed in one location. near it was singlerge drag mark, as if someone had toppled onto it and then been hauled upwards. Are you two Drs Sarai and Thoma? a man in the stereotypical, doctor in surgery theater outfit of a crime scene investigator. Yes, but its just Mr. Thoma for me. Isaac replied. That was going to get old fast. He couldnt just let it go, because that would make it seem like he had a doctorate and when someone hed letbor under that misconception found that out, hed look like an ass. Ah. was the only reply for several seconds, then the man caught himself and continued Theres a truck over there with a mobileb, as well as ess to all the surveince cameras from around here we got permission to ess. If you need anything, just ask. And if you have any suggestions, please tell us. However, Im afraid Im going to have to ask you to stay outside the marked area without one of these suits. Alright. Isaac nodded and took a couple of steps to the side and headed towards the crime scene, past the investigator. Hed already spotted something, but he couldnt be too fast. The media might like to exaggerate a serial killers tendency to insert themselves into the investigation, but it still happened. And here in Leipzig, he didnt have the same good reputation he had back home. Sure, they knew hed been helpful there, but that was only a vague sort of positive inclination. So he let his eyes roam for maybe another thirty seconds, then raised his voice and asked a question. How likely is it that someones shoes naturally dont leave behind any sort of residue? And by that, I mean it looks like someone pressed those footprints into the ground with telekinesis. There isnt even a spec of rubber there, nothing tracked in from elsewhere, just the vague impression of a hiking shoe pressed into the ground. That that is very weird. Are you sure its a shoeprint? the man from earlier, whod been talking to Sarai, walked over. Yeah. Isaac said, gesturing to the closest one, barely visible in to the unenhanced eye, but still clearly present Theres an entire trail of them across the crime scene, and a bunch around the site of the scuffle. And you can tell there isnt anything else in there, nothing? I specialize in senses. Isaac replied All other shoeprints here have microscopic traces of the shoes that left them, as well as the materials that clung to the soles. Those dont. So tell me, is there a normal exnation for that? No, youre right, that is odd. Could it be a [Skill]? In that case, it definitely is a [Skill], one thats perfectly in line with what wed expect a [Serial Killer] to have. It would also exin the ck of DNA traces at any crime scene. There werent any, right? I only had the file in my hands for barely an hour Isaac asked carefully. fuck. the man swore Please point out any boot prints inside the roped off area, given that we can be more certain those havent been disturbed. Alright, nice catch. Sarai said, nodding approvingly Ill be in the van, seeing if can spot anything on the surveince tapes. With that, he bustled off while Isaac craned his neck to look over the police tape and examine ground around the crime scene. There really wasnt much there. Not a single drop of blood was visible, clearly, neither of the people involved in the scuffle had been injured. There were traces of material that had clearlye from heavybat boots visible, most likely belonging Herbig. Another couple of minutes after that, Isaac feltfortable heading over into the van. Maybe theyd even have caught the killering or going? But having seen the crime scene, Isaac was more certain than ever before that the perpetrator was Arianne Krebs, someone whod been notorious in the other timeline due to her hunting down reckless summoners, or even those who merely appeared reckless. Those footprints hade from aparatively light person, and he was pretty sure that was a shoe meant for women. Mind if I join you? Isaac called from the door of the van and Sarai waved him in. All done out there? he asked. Looks like it. There wasnt much evidence in the first ce, and now were pretty sure that theres some kind of [Skill] in y that destroys physical evidence. Isaac said Anything good here? No one carrying a suspiciously shaped sack of potatoes on their shoulders, sadly. Sarai replied dryly. In that case, I have something that might help narrow this down. Isaac said The footprint we found indicates our suspect weighs around sixty-five kilograms and wears rtively small shoes. The consensus among the crime scene techs appears to be that were looking for a female perpetrator. Sarai muttered something that sounded rather unsuited in politepany under his breath and red at the monitors. Run that back again, along the route we think she went along. The tech running the screensplied and the images disyed began to change. You know, Im surprised there are so many cameras around. Isaacmented offhandedly while the right footage was being searched for. These mostly belong to nearby businesses. the tech told him Theyre usually pretty willing to give us ess to their external footage, as long there is a good enough reason. And Im guessing a serial killer is a damnpelling one? Isaac asked. Yep. Not wanting to distract the man any further, Isaac shut up. Sarai, meanwhile, was fiddling with his phone. He didnt strike Isaac as someone who would randomly check their texts or emails in the middle of a case, right after a major revtion, so he was probably onto something. Isaac was curious but looking over someones shoulder to look at their phones screen was a considered rude. Given that they were working together on this, though, hed almost certainly learn what it was soon enough. Besides, if he spotted Krebs in the footage, he needed a usible reason to recognize her. He ended up pulling out his phone and googled woman angry over summoned monster, then set it to show the earliest results from the day of initialization onwards. There were quite a few short videos posted off people ranting about monsters, as well as the asional talk show that had gotten heated, but one of the first few results was the one he was looking for. Isaac continued to scroll through it, pausing as each new face appeared as if to memorize them all. Alright, were ready. Ill just y videos on all these screens simultaneously, starting at ten minutes prior to the abduction. If you have any questions or want me to do something, all you have to do is ask. the tech said, hit a button, and nine separate video feeds began to y. Were running facial recognition for the existing list of suspects, correct? Sarai asked. Of course. Weve run it over every piece of video footage avable for all confirmed abduction and dump sites, but none of them have been seen, nor do we have anyone confirmed to have been at multiple sites. the tech confirmed. And then the waiting began. The video was being yed at one and a half speeds, blurring past. This ran the risk of them missing something, but they couldnt afford to take their time right now. Despite how quickly the video was running past, all he needed to do was spot a single specific person, a single face hed memorized every facet of. So when he saw her face, he recognized her immediately. Rather than pointing it out instantly, he decided to wait five seconds before saying anything. After all, if anyone would be in able to figure him out within mere minutes of meeting him, it would be the people around him right now. But when a finger stabbed the screen, apanied by a snapped pause the video, it wasnt him that did it. Right there, her. Sarai red at the screen Shes the monster killer. She looks familiar. Isaac said thoughtfully and pulled his phone back out Let me see right here. Arianne Krebs, widowed by a Ghost right after the [Systen] initialized, ranting at a reporter about how all summoners should be put to death. So you were also checking news reports? Sarai asked, ncing over at him. Yep. I hate to interrupt, but you put Mrs. Krebs onto the list of possible perpetrators a while ago, Dr. Sarai. Shes on the list of people we use facial recognition to check for every time we get video footage from near an abduction site. This isnt her, otherwise, shed have been gged a while ago. the tech cautioned them. In response, Isaac held his phone, disying the paused video, next to the still on the screen. These two videos are of the same person, no doubt about it. Isaac said Or do you disagree? I dont doubt that these are two very simr people, but if they were the same, theputer would have recognized her the instant we ran the search. These are two very clear images, there is no real chance of a mistake. the tech insisted. Thats a sane world exnation. But the world isnt same anymore. Isaac replied Can youpare these manually, somehow? Compare the mathematical forme the program turns these pictures into topare them, and then run those? You think a [Skill] is messing with us, then? Sarai asked. Hed clearly caught on to what Isaac was trying to say, and he also had the authority to decide to override what the program was saying and positively identify the woman in that video as Arianne Krebs. No, that didnt sound right. Perhaps it was more urate to say he could dere theputers analysis to be wed and tell people to disregard it in favor of what their own damn eyes were telling them. Still, it didnt really matter. Point was, they got her. All units, we have positively identified a suspicious individual near the site of the abduction as one Arianne Krebs, who has made numerous threatening remarks against summoners after the death of her husband at the hands of a [System] monster and was also implicated in the death of a summoner by an anonymous call. We have reason to believe she is the serial killer known as the monster killer. Her image will be distributed to you shortly. After that short speech was over, Sarai put down the radio and turned his attention to the tech. I send you a link to that news clip in second. Get a good picture of her from there as well as from the surveince video, then disseminate it to the officers on the ground. Once thats done, put together a group to try and track her through surveince, manually. Sure thing. But do you think there is any way to get around that [Skill]? the tech asked, directing the question at Isaac. In theory, it could be as easy as getting a [Skill] that counters whatever is messing with your program. But the issue with that solution is that whatever this [Skill] is, shes clearly been using it for a while, therefore, it is almost certainly going to be at a higher Level than something you pick up now. Isaac exined. In addition, you would need actually have something like that avable for purchase. It should be something avable for [Police Officers] and their tech support personnel, but I dont know if its something that requires an evolved [ss] to get. The only other option I see is that we might be able to work around this [Skill] on a technical level. There has to be a significant distance between us and her by now, yet were still being affected. And whatever servers your facial recognition program runs on has to be even further away. Every time youve run this search to date, you havent got a result. This is clearly a very long range [Skill] that affects most of the continent, that means it cant be very strong. Even with the [System], big effects have big costs. So we send this footage to, say, Interpol, and have them run the search on an American server? Sarai suggested. Maybe, we certainly can try that, but there might be some kind of magical virus-equivalent attaced to any image that is taken of her, which travels alongside the image to anywhere it is processed. Well have to check. Isaac responded. Yeah, except thats not going to be a fast method. Sending things across agencies is a bureaucratical nightmare, itll take a while for something like that to be approved in the first ce, never mind actually doing it. the tech threw in. So much for that idea. Sarai sighed Back to the manual search idea, then? Actually, I have another idea. Isaac told them Like I said, there has to be some kind of limit to this [Skill]. We might be able to dodge its effect by decoupling theparison from the picture itself. Using the algorithm that reduces the picture to a set of mathematical descriptors which the program actuallypares without it being connected to the program itself, then transferring it to a differentputer, and then doing the same thing with the picture youre trying topare it to, so all youre doing isparing two mathematical descriptions that are entire separate from the pictures themselves. Or something. You really think that would work? the tech asked skeptically. I genuinely do not know how to counter something like this. Maybe if I had the [Skills] actual description, Id be able to deduce a direct way to get around it. But as things stand, I have to deduce its modus operandi based on limited information, and then make suggestions based on that. What I do know is that there is no such thing as an insurmountable [Skill]. Sure, there are mana hogs that block what theyre supposed to block through sheer power, but thosee with their own set of problems. This is an extremely powerful [Skill], but it affects such a wide area, it cant be that powerful. If we y enough games with the processing of the images, we might be able to sidestep the problem entirely. But as far as my earlier suggestion goes, Im sure someone who actually knows how this stuff works can work with this a hell of a lot better. Ill see what I cane up with. First, Ill send out the pictures, then call around to anyone who might be able to help, and together, well figure something out. the tech nodded grimly, possibly even taking the very existence of this [Skill] as a personal affront. Thank you. Sarai said Well stop bothering you, then. He then left, with Isaac following behind him. So what now? Isaac asked Do we have to go back to the station and stay there? Normally, that is what the scientific support personnel do. Sarai agreed We help from there. But based on your question, Im guessing thats not what youre nning on doing? Id like to try and help track her. Isaac agreed See if I can try and spot any more weird tracks, or maybe see whatever [Skill] prevents her victims from being heard while she stashes them just out sight of the general public being used. Would you be able to see something like that? After all its main purpose is to avoid being noticed? Sarai questioned. Maybe. But I specialize in senses and prating information defenses. Weve run some experiments with low level [Rogues] and the like, getting some interesting results. In essence, stealth [Skills] are functionally impossible to detect as long as the person doing the detecting is anywhere even remotely close to the hiding persons Level. But if there is a significant Level disparity, or there are anti-stealth specializations in y, at some point, the stealth [Skill] bes visible to [Skills] that can detect other [Skills] in use, one which I possess. At that point, my high personal Level, [Skill] Level and anti information defense specialization could very well let me see something. Isaac exined mentally adding I also know exactly what to look for. Are you sure you could see something? Sarai asked. No. But even the mere chance is worth a try. If you need anything else from me, Ill, of coure, be avable. Good. Ill need to talk to someone about sending a few officers along with you for protection and so theres someone right there to immediately act on anything you find. Sarai nodded Give me a couple of minutes. Once those minutes were up, Wirt joined Isaac near the crime scene in full battle rattle, wearing a heavy set of bulletproof gear, including the helmet, with a submachinegun strapped to his side. Three other people followed behind him, dressed simrly. Good afternoon, Mr. Thoma. The four of us were assigned to you, well be right there with you every step of the way, ready to step in if need be or act on any information you discover. Thank you. Isaac nodded Do we have a car? Ill be going at this mostly on foot in the beginning, but having a car avable will be usefulter. We do actually have one of the armored cars the SEK uses waiting for us outside the park. Ill tell it to meet us wherever well leave the park. Wirt told him. Alright, lets go, then. Isaac said, and began to follow the weirdly traceless tracks, but lost them the instant they left the park. A lightly built woman would, for obvious reasons, leave no tracks on solid asphalt. Wait here a moment, Im going to try and get an aerial view. Isaac told Wirt, and jumped. All of his formidable power flung him almost thirty meters straight up, and at the apex of the leap, he activated [Poltergeists Flight], leaving him hovering up there for about twenty seconds. There was nothing there he could see, so he deactivated the [Skill] and reunited with good old terra firma by way of free fall. To the officers credit, they didnt so much as give him a weird look after that disy. He repeated this several times, seeing nothing but earning him three Levels in [Hunters Gaze] and a whopping four in [Undying Focus]. Thetter told him that this was at least partially a mental effect, like [Sneaks] active effect, while the fact that he was levelling meant she was close enough for him to theoretically discover. I think this might be a partially mental effect. Isaac spoke into the radio which hed borrowed from Wirt There are stealth effects that work by making the thing theyre hiding seem less interesting. If you notice youre paying less attention to an area than you know you should, that is likely something. Also, if your investigative or tracking [Skills] start levelling like mad, youre likely fighting her [Skill] or [Skills] directly. But after hed sent out that message, he didnt gain another [Skill] Level. Clearly, shed left the area, or hed gotten too far away from her to be fighting her [Skills]. After several hours of running around the city, leaving his escorts panting and sweating buckets in their heavy getup, they finally got the dreaded call. A body had been found. They got into the car and raced over, arriving simultaneously with the crime scene techs. Isaac hopped out of the car and walked over. Mr. Thoma, seems like were always fated to meet under the worst of circumstances. a man sighed. Isaac didnt recognize him without the getup from earlier, but the statement made it clear who he was talking to. Yeah, sure seems like it. Isaac replied, eyes raking over the body. I dont suppose you know what that wound is meant to represent? the CSI asked, the two of theming to a stop just outside the police tape. You mean that big, ragged hole in his chest? Yeah, I can also tell you how she did it. Isaac said, grimacing. That bad? The hole is consistent with what Skalli, an Event monster would cause by driving its ck hole into a persons chest. As to how those were inflicted, I cant speak as to how she got started because the parts in the middle are missing, but as far as the outside goes, I can clearly see the knife wounds and tear marks. The killer stabbed the victim just outside the existing wound, de parallel to the edge, leaving about a millimeter of clearance, and then pushed it towards the center, t of the de pressing against the thin strip of flesh until it tore free. And then, that was repeated, over and over again, tearing through more and more of his flesh while his supernatural endurance staved off the shock, bloodloss, and even superficial damage to heart and lungs until he either bled out or shit, I think he actually bit off his own tongue and choked on it as a method ofmitting suicide, going by the blue tinge of his lips. Isaac swore softly What a fucking monster. The CSI next to Isaac had turned an rming shade of green during Isaacs description, and some retching sounds echoed out from behind the pair. Are you sure? the CSI asked. Positive. Youll have to wait for the official coroners report but examining wound patterns is a part of what I do for a living. Granted, I normally work with monsters, but the basics are simr enough. Isaac replied, glowering at the scene. Everything shed done in the past had been bad enough, but this, this was beyond the pale. Are you alright? Wirt asked from behind Isaac. Do I look alright? Isaac glowered at him for a moment before his posture turned into a slump No, Im not alright. Im upset. Upset at the situation, at what people are capable off at their worst well, this entire situation is supremely unpleasant. This kind of thing is rough even on us. Wirt put a reassuring hand on Isaacs shoulder Dont worry about it. And if you do need to talk to someone, be it a police psychiatrist or just someone whos experienced more than their fair share of this crap, that can certainly be arranged. I can deal with this on my own terms. Isaac replied For now, lets find this lunatic. Lets go hunting. Chapter 68: The Hunt is on Chapter 68: The Hunt is on Despite his earlier zeal, finding a single woman whose very nature made her hard to track down in a city of nearly six-hundred-thousand people proved to be rather difficult. Isaac and his minders stumbled into the police station tired and worn out at four pm, with precisely nothing to show for it. In the end, theyd been ordered to return there and regroup. Ah, there you are. a young man bustled over, handing each of them a stic keycard Weve gotten everyone here from other cities rooms in the hotel two houses over, here are the keys, room numbers are written on them. Food is avable in the precincts cafeteria, or you can eat in the hotels restaurant and put it on the rooms tab, which the department will be picking up All in all, the department was basically trying to make sure that they had everything they needed. Also, Mr. Thoma, there is a sales contract for the Aspects avable for you to sign, as well as one that marks you as a temporary consultant, so you can get paid for that as well. the young man said, addressing Isaac directly. Thats good to hear. But would it be possible to get some clothes? I got picked up on the supermarket parking lot and I didnt really get a chance to pack anything. Also, forter, pajamas, toothbrush, stuff like that Isaac trailed off, not in a mood to list off the everything a human adult spending the night in a foreign city would need because those requirements were pretty much universal. Yeah, follow me please for the contracts, Ill have those for youter. And another five minutester, Isaac was dejectedly sitting in the corner of the meeting room, waiting on the rather depressing recap of the incredibly messy situation. Good afternoon, everyone. Schmied greeted the group, sounding utterly exhausted. Most of the people whod been outside looked sweaty and worn out, but the boss seemed to simply be worn down. Really, he looked like hed aged a decade in the mere handful of hours since Isaac had first met the man. Two hours ago, the body of the first confirmed victim of the monster killer in this city was located. If the pattern holds, we expect to see several more murders in this city before the suspect moves on. Well be issuing a general warning in half an hour, telling summoners to stay home. All abductions to date have been from public ces, possibly that is even where the suspect chooses her victims. Now, Dr. Sarai has some new insights to share. Schmied stepped backwards and sat down in the first row of seats. He looked defeated. Poor bastard, having something like this ur while he was put in charge of preventing it had to be wearing on him, nevermind all the crap that had to be raining down from his superiors. Thank you. Sarai stepped up next to the projected image, flipping it over to a photo of the crime scene, as well as a second picture of an empty hallway in a schoolhouse. The victim had summoned within two blocks of a school, so hed been killed in one, though thankfully, everyone had already left by then. But that didnt mean it wasnt still bad. Isaacs predictions based on the state of the body had been correct, shed torn that hole out of his chest piece by bloody piece, scattering it all over the area. Small strips of flesh clinging to childrens artwork, crimson spots on the walls where bits of the victim had struck and fallen to the ground, leaving behind bloody smears. Peoples reactions made it abundantly clear who had or hadnt seen the pictures before. Mouths drawn in grim lines, frowns, other stony faced reactions from the people whod known what to expect, people going green or looking away when they hadnt. While sitting here, Isaac had heard severalments about just how bad it was. Even the police werent used to crap like this. Then Dr. Sarai began to give a proper exnation, so Isaac switched his focus over to that. Thistest murder has disyed a marked level esction. The method used was vastly more brutal than anything we have seen to date, and has kept the victim alive for far longer during the execution than ever before. We do have a likely exnation for this, though. We have managed to get a positive ID on the perpetrator, which let us identify her first victim. The screen changed to show an screenshot of someones Instagram ount, showing your stereotypical dudebro pointing excitedly at a crudely drawn but still functional Tier 1 summoning circle on the ground, with several other people also visible in the background. This event ended with the death of every person in this picture, as well as 37 people in the adjoining apartments, including our suspects husband. Three dayster, when it had been discovered that Ghosts were vulnerable to mana based attacks, a friend of the young man in this picture decided to summon and kill a ghost in honor of the dead and publicly announced this on social media. He waster found dead with a broken skull. Eventually, we received an anonymous tip that someone saw our suspect carrying away the body, but weve thus far been unable to verify this. In summation, it seems that Mr. Herbig was very simr to the original target of her rage, thus, she went after him with extreme prejudice. At this point, there is a very real risk of her growing bolder and more ruthless, especially now that weve identified her. Do we know for sure she knows? someone called out. No. But she is clearly a very high Level individual and likely has a high degree of supernatural senses. The chances of her not having overheard anything from anyone on the streets are practically nil. Sarai answered immediately. So, in other words, we need to find her, now? a different person called out. Id say that that applies to all serial killers, wouldnt you? Sarai replied sourly People are dying, and the person responsible for this needs to be stopped. Like Polizeirat Schmied said, were about to tell people to stay inside if they fit into her victim pool, but that will under no circumstances be enough to prevent all deaths. Then Schmied stepped back up to the front of the room Each of you will be given separate assignments, were going to be doing everything in our power to locate her, well pass along any newly gained information along directly into the units in the field. There were a few more bits of information shared, but nothing that helped Isaac right now. And then came word of another body, another person killed mere hours after first. Panicked calls wereing in, asking for ways to protect themselves, summoners showed up at the various precincts all around the city, even people whod only thought about summoning. People were scared and it seemed like the police was unable to do anything. Sadly, that was partially true. Sure, theyd identified the killer, her name and face were known to the world, but finding her was still impossibly difficult. Facial recognition finally been able to recognize her, but only after spreading out the process to a massively higher degree than Isaac had suggested earlier. It wasnt something that could be automated, however, so all they could do was confirm a sighting after the fact, not actively search through all the video footage they had. They still needed to manually find her in the videos, and that was a Sisyphean task. Isaac swore internally and tried to find a way up to the roof, and nearly made it, only to be stopped by a metal door with a sign that said roof ess restricted. Isaac sighed and phased through it, stepping out onto the rain slick gravel that covered the ground. It had started pouring a while ago, and now streams of water were pounding down at him, but he didnt care. All of this fucking sucked! Isaac red out across the city, cold fury bubbling up inside of him, though he wasnt sure who he was mad at. This insane world filled with both monsters and humans who were monsters in all but name? This woman who was running around, brutally murdering anyone she perceived as being a danger, even if they were perfectly benign summoners? Or maybe himself, for feeling that she, just maybe, had a point? That those people were monsters whod end up killing the world because they couldnt leave well enough alone? There were some notoriously reckless summoners he knew, but their true reigns of terror were still years into the future. He was and would continue to check up on them via the inte and if it seemed like they would turn out the same way they had in the other timeline, there would be hell to pay. But he wouldnt run around murdering people over what they might do. And as for the idiots she found over social media, well, he despised them as well. But his weapon against them would be something a little less fatal than brutal torture. He was already working on it. Tearing down their reputation, ensuring that everyone knew how dangerous what they were doing was and how to do it safely, hed been working on this from the very beginning. But even so, the simple, obvious solution of raw violence sang its siren song, tempting him. It would fix things, for the moment, if every summoner in the world dropped dead, but this was a systemic problem. You couldnt fight the people responsible directly, because there would always be more. You needed to change the world that had lead to the situation in the first ce. There was one silver lining, though. Right now, the situation was rtively low stakes. A Stormheart Gestalt gorged on the power of a city of millions appeared apocalyptic to anyone there, and for them, it was the end of their world, but on a global scale, it was nothing. Even for the stupidest, most reckless people who charged ahead with absolutely zero thoughts to the consequences, there was no way of summoning a threat that could end the word. Yet. Right now, they could afford to make mistakes, to make sure summoning was conducted safely. As the old saying went, safety regtions were written in blood. So even if there were things he could not stop, those tragedies would not be the end of the world. Isaac swore internally, not wanting to scream out loud where people might overhear downstairs. Several officers had decent Perception scores, and he didnt want it to look like hed lost his marbles. In the end, it didnt matter whether or not Arianne Krebs had some kind of point with in her choice of target or not. Shed been in the wrong well before shed gone off the rails. He sighed deeply and walked back inside, right through the door, letting the water drop straight through him as well. Sure, hed look a little rumpled, but hed be dry. After asking a few of the right questions, Isaac found himself in an area positively stuffed with screens, running into Dr. Sarai in the process. Going stir crazy as well? Sarai asked upon seeing Isaac. Maybe. I havent been able to help anywhere else, so I figured I might be able to help go through the footage here. Isaac sighed You guys get anything? Other than a million panicked phone calls about a serial killer being in town, most of whom were people jumping at shadows, and the other set of panicked calls were getting as the magnitude of the casualties during the Event sink in nope. Sarai sighed. At this point, Im half tempted to just go out there and run around, run all over town, on the off chance that I catch a glimpse of her stealth [Skill], just to feel like Im doing something. Isaac growled. Thankfully, youre capable of recognizing that that would only serve to make yourself feel better, rather than being actually useful, so you came here instead. Sarai replied Pull up a chair, grab aptop, we could use the help with anything were currently in the process of doing. Two more hours passed, one more body dropped. It was a horrific feeling to be sitting here, trying to do something, anything to try and catch a murderer, having people die while you did so, making it abundantly clear that theyd failed. A macabre reminder that a few more hours had passed without them reaching their goal. In his mind, Isaac likened the experience to huddling in a bunker or foxhole, waiting while the artillery boomed in the distance, desperately praying that one wouldnt get hit. Never able to rx, stretched taught like a rubber band microseconds from snapping, impotent and unable to affect anything in any meaningful way, until something urred to change the situation. He just sat there, watching a grand total of 48 videos spread out across 12 screens simultaneously, each ying at three times normal speed, nheless missing nothing thanks to his high Perception and experience in using it. There were far fewer cameras in the city than needed to conduct a proper manhunt, given Leipzig was a somewhat sleepy town despite its size, but that was probably a good thing, given the whole we have to go through everything manually issue. Found her. Isaac finally said That particr video is half an hour old, though. Still, we know where she was. a woman he didnt know but assumed to be of decently high ranked based on how people were reacting to her presence nodded to him Screenshot it, timestamp it and then send it out using the internalwork. If you dont know how, any of the people here will be able to show you how. Good work. And then she walked off to another section of the room and began a conversation about the ongoing efforts to work around the [Skill] fucking with facial recognition. The manually moving each stage of the program fromputer toputer was simply not feasible. The seconds continued to trickle past, each and every oneden with the possibility, nay, the fear, that the news of another dead body woulde in. And it did, officially putting the number of victims at three, though how much longer it would remain at that remained to be seen. Isaac caught two more glimpses of her on video, but neither of the clips were live, allowing her the chance to get away. And three other sightings were achieved by other people, but those didnt go anywhere either. But then, finally, another hourter, something finally worked out. An panicked eyewitness report from someone calling the emergency line, one of hundreds that hade in and were usually just people being paranoid, had coincided closely enough with a sighting and a call from young woman worried about her boyfriend, who was both a summoner and had failed to show up to a date they might have finally gotten ahead of her. Might. In which direction is that? Isaac asked the closest tech. Are you sure you want to go out there? The apprehension is normally left to the field officers. Sarai chimed in. Yes. But if I can get just one good look at her, Ill be able to tell you her Stat distribution and most of her [Skills], and maybe I can even get a good enough grasp on whatevers messing with your facial recognition programs to figure out how to get around it? Isaac suggested Ill stay out of any danger. Of course, that had been a bold faced lie. Isaac had no intention of sitting this out, because if his estimate of her strength was even remotely correct, there was no way those cops would be able to stop her. Besides if he saved a lot of peoples lives after showing up for perfectly non-violent reasons, well, theyd be hard pressed to actually get mad at him. And if they did, theyd look like ungrateful assholes. Good point. Sarai conceded, then turned to an officer standing near the door Could we get a car to drive us to the site of the raid? Actually, I think Ill get there faster on foot. Isaac corrected But I think someone should call ahead so no one panics when I arrive there like a bat out of hell. So, can someone who lives here show me where this ce is on my phone? The officer pointed it out to him and Isaac was off. He didnt need the precise location, just the general area was enough, he could figure out the rest on his own. He simply kicked off the ground and used abination of phasing and teleporting to ce him just barely outside the building and kicked off the fa?ade, flinging him onto the roof of a building on the opposite side of the street. Chimneys, solid looking bits of roof, anything that looked solid enough for him to nt one of his feet on and push off without causing property damage, each of them was kicked only a single time before he was at the next building, blurring across the city. Normally, hed have flown for something like this, but he was trying to save his mana for the actual fight. Soon, he heard the low murmur of people preparing for a massive assault onto a fortified position. It wasnt actually fortified or manned by more than a single person, but given the level of power they suspected she possessed, there was a good chance those precautions would be insufficient. A mere moment after that, he first caught sight of them and began to carefully observe the surrounding buildings. And there it was. Hed almost missed it, but there it was. A field that held in the sound, smells, and anything else that might give a hint at what was urring inside, while also subtly diverting the attention of anyone outside away from it. But that effect was subtle, so if you were really intent on staring at the area under its aegis of protection, it wasnt that effective. Besides, if there was a building you literally couldnt look at, that would be a dead giveaway that something was wrong. Still, if it hadnt been for the fact that he knew exactly where to look, what to pay attention to, had a [Skill] for piercing just such an ability as well as one that protected his mind from mental effects, he would one-hundred-thousand percent have missed this. Going by the murmuring going on down there, they werent entirely sure in which of the surrounding warehouses she was in, though. Isaac began to slow down, his mad dash turning into something akin to parkour until he lightly dropped down next to an officer, scaring the hell out of the poor man in the process. It couldnt really have been helped, though. There were people all over the ce, trying to cover every exit of every building. Dropping down out of anyones sight would have put him a significant distance away from the people he was trying to reach and making his way over would have either required a lot of time or a level of speed that would have scared people anyway. The hand already halfway towards the officers pistol stopped suddenly. You Thoma? came a sour question. Yes. Isaac told him. Why the was that really necessary? I needed to get here quickly and I called ahead for a reason. Isaac shot back Now, whos in charge of here? Polizeimeister Habicht. The man was still very clearly upset with Isaac, but that didnt really matter right now. Hed apologize when all was said and done. Can you point me over there? The man did and Isaac hurried over at a still somewhat measured pace. He could have dropped in right there, but that would have run the risk of pissing off the people he needed to work with closely. Good afternoon. he announced as he closed the group of four armored cars with well over a dozen people in full gear standing around. Well, standing around was making it sound like they were beingzy. All of them were doing something, but Isaac wasnt entirely sure to what end. If he hung around this group a few more times, hed probably figure it out. Youre the consultant? a short man built like a brick shithouse asked, looking up from a tablet that showed a satellite feed of the surrounding area. Yeah. You got here fast. So, I was told you can Shh. Isaac said, then continued hastily as the man began to turn an rming shade of purple She can almost certainly hear us. Exin. Habicht said icily. I can clearly hear anything in a three block radius and a faintly hear things that are quite a bit further away than that. If you say your ns out loud, shell hear. I also figured out in which building she is, its that one. Isaac said, choosing to point right at the one in question, rather than describing it. That one? Why? Theres no reason for her to choose that one? Well, see Dont look at the building while doing that, look anywhere else, the [Skill] has a mental effect that makes it seem less interesting. This better not be a GOTT VERDAMMT! Habicht snapped, took a deep breath to steady himself and muttered a few more choice words under his breath. Isaac winced in sympathy. Subtle mental effects like that tended to break if anyone under their influence noticed them, which usually required someone pointing them out and then making the effect obvious by making then figure out a reasoning for their actions which they didnt have, because they had been caused by the mental effect. Of course, it would have likely eventually broken anyway when someone noticed that a single specific building hadnt been searched for no clear reason, but she might have already left by then. Alright, gather around, everyone. Habicht said and began to exin the n half with words, half with hand gestures and pointing things out on the floor n, which hed pulled up on his tablet. And Mr. Thoma, stay behind us. We both know what youre here for even if we shouldnt rify it here because it is likely going to be overheard, but stick to that. Habicht told Isaac sternly, who nodded. Seeing the SEK in action was pretty awe-inspiring. Isaac had managed to get part of the n, but these people had understood everything and were moving in near perfect synchronicity as they headed inside. It was the kind of proper coordination Raid Groups would eventually reach, but that was basically all [Skills]. [Skills] to show what other people were going to do, [Skills] to prevent friendly fire, [Skills] to make ns understood to everyone and impossible to forget until the raid was over. This, however, was all training, and that was, well, damn impressive. The handheld battering ram smashed in the metal door as if it were made of tissue paper, supported by the wielders significantly increased Strength stat. Isaac also recognized the person who actually went through the door. It was Wirt, now empowered by an Aspect of the Lesser Hydra and having gained a [ss] that felt like a solid, unstoppable wall. [Skills] triggered, turning his bulletproof vest impossibly durable, highlighting any potential booby traps, etc. Drop the knife, step away from him and put your hands on your head! A bellow rang out from ahead and a mere momentter, they reached the main area of the warehouse. It had the clean clutter look of a ce in use, where there was crap all over the ce but in an organized sort of way that left paths for everyone to walk and/or drive forklifts, and if you knew the organizational structure, you could find anything you wanted. Oh, and there was a man with several bloody but not immediately fatal wounds on his torso lying strapped down on a table in the middle, with a woman taking a couple of steps backwards, looking perfectlyfortable despite all the guns pointed at her. The victim, on the other hand, looked hopeful and relived and then Isaac recognized him. Hed watched a handful of the first victims videos a while ago and this guy had been in them, often egging him on. This guy was even worse. He was responsible for nasty monsters being summoned, but he wasnt even the one taking the risk, someone else was. At the very least, most idiot summoners had the decency to die the first time they overestimated their abilities. On the other hand there could always be an unfortunate meeting in a dark alley, . Right now, he had a serial killer to catch. Isaac focused in on Arianne Krebs, drinking in any and all information that could be derived from her via visual means. Her right hand opened, and a knife ttered to the ground. It was an odd-looking thing, covered in a floral patternpletely at odds with the blood, both old and new, that stained. Somehow, felt too innocent to have been the implement that had taken so many peoples lives. But that weird look was only skin deep, limited to the visual spectrum. [Hunters Gaze], on the other hand, told a different story. It was incredibly magical, a powerful soulbound weapon. That alone spoke of a decent level of power and marked her as wielding at least an epic [ss]. And then there was the scan hed taken of her. She stank of blood, fear and death, emanating the feeling of someone looking down their nose at a person beneath them. Judgement and murderous intent, what a lovelybination. Isaac sighed internally, then raised his voice and spoke out loud That knife of hers is soulbound, she can teleport it back into her hand at will. Krebs suddenly zeroed in on him, ring with a level of vitriol that was the very epitome of if looks could kill, all there would be left was ash. And her voice was no less dripping with anger, condescension and scorn. So, Im guessing youre a summoner, then? Someone they hired, or just someone whomitted his crimes against humanity andmon sense, then ran to the cops when things got hot? Actually, Im a researcher into the [System], I try to find out things that help make sure fewer people get hurt. Isaac shrugged nonchntly But let me make a guess in turn, would you? So, Im guessing youre whateveres after epic, then? Whats it called? Mythical? Legendary? Relict? She snapped her fingers at that. So thats how I know you. You gave that interview yesterday, werent you? Yes? In that case, would you mind just turning around and leaving? Id rather not kill you, given that youre also working to prevent [System] rted disasters and all? To everyone else, it must have looked like theyd both lost their minds. Casually chatting like this during a situation this serious? But there was a method to both their madness. While they chatted, they were each analyzing the other, trying to find out as much as they could. With his [Hunters Gaze], Isaac could clearly see that she had an Agility build, but she was also peering into his very soul, or at least that was how it felt. It was a different vor of [Inspect] than he had, more focused on determining what the people she was looking at where like than their [Skills] or stats. She could see what someone had killed, be it monsters or people, all of which was feeding into an analysis [Skill] that was creating a psychologic model of him. While [Inspect] was solidly legendary, the psychological analysis [Skill] wasnt, and unless Isaac was very far off base, it was self created, just like his [des]. Not something granted by spending a [Skill] point, but through intense practice and a desire to understand others. Yet that wasnt the only thing her knowledge of him was being used for. There was another [Skill], one that truly terrified him to his very core. Its name was likely something poetic, as it befitted a legendary [ss], but that didnt matter. The important part was what it actually did, and what it did was a massive problem. It let her create a n of action that chained together several motions or [Skill] uses, moving in a set pattern even if she would normally not have the precision toplete it normally. In other words, this was her execution [Skill], but it could also be used to put that knife of hers precisely where she needed it to be, including directly in the path of a strike she knew wasing, thanks to that godsdamned analysis [Skill]. That kind of [Skill] being in y should have made anything other than an immediate attack beyond foolish, but there was more to consider. In other words, he was gaining just as much information. Besides, if he attacked first, hede out of this looking really fucking bad. No one was shooting her, not yet. She was just standing there, unarmed, not threating the hostage or anyone else. Opening fire right now would just be an execution of someone not found guilty in a court ofw. Also, the fact that shed stepped away from the hostage was making it seem like she was surrendering. And normally, that would have been a good thing, given that she was in no position to hurt the hostage and could easily be gunned down if she made a single wrong move. But that was in a normal, sane world. This world was neither. Right here and now, this stance was a matter of her being under the impression she was untouchable, that no one here would be able toy even a single finger on her. Isaac grinned in response to her request. Step aside so she could kill her hostage and possibly everyone else here? Yeah, hard pass on that. I came here to help stop you, not be an aplice through inaction. Do you really think that saving scum like this makes you the hero? she spat These assholes summon and summon uncaring of what happens to everyone else, growing fat and bloated on the power they gained by putting everyone else in danger. And now Im the bad guy? A vein began to throb over her right eye as she racked her re across the crowd of policemen. HEY! Habicht snaped, patience finally worn thin Stand down, put your hands over your head, or we will shoot you! She moved. A normal person would not have even seen her properly, her form a blur, de teleported back into her hand and aimed at Habichts neck. ng The ring of metal striking metal echoed through the warehouse, Old Reliables knife form meeting her implement of death and parrying it while Isaac manifested the Kriegsmesser in his left hand and lunged forwards, aiming for her gut. He might have been standing a few meters behind the man, but a simple teleport had put him in the right position. For a brief moment, it looked like hed pierce her body clean through and end this in a heartbeat and then she dodged, flinging herself backwards. Isaac lunged after her, activating [Starfang], wreathing the Kriegsmesser in venomous me, and hurled it at her while projecting a [Far Strike] from the knife and trying to bisect her. Keyword being try. She swayed out of the way, then flung the knife straight at his heart. For a brief moment, he considered phasing through it, but then realized it would have been a truly terrible idea. First of all, soulbound equipment was utterly soaked in mana and while he could probably ignore it if it was merely a normal piece of soulbound gear. But this was a weapon of ughter, bathed in the blood of countless human beings, designed to murder people just like him. It would tear his immaterial flesh like tissue paper. So he dodged, catching the merest hint of a [Skill] attached to the weapon, barely dodging in time as she appeared next to him, already aiming to take his head. She can teleport to her weapon, has a high Agility build and great analysis [Skills] that lets her pick apart movement patterns and then adapt to them, as well as a [Skill] that lets her create movement patterns using that information and weave through even a hail of bullets! Isaac warned, his des blurring as he attacked while she ducked and weaved. Her Agility was higher than his, and that made hitting her a pain in the ass. One of his des went flying, and he dodged backwards as she advanced, circling around until she was between him and his weapon. That nastybat analysis and counterattack [Skill]bination on top of the fact that she was faster than him actually saw her winning, but only for now. Isaac had barely used any of his own [Skills] while she was already going at her maximum capability. And then Isaac called back his knife. Unlike when he normally did this, he didnt have to hold out his hand to call it into his palm, he merely activated the [Skill] without any intention of actually catching it. When she noticed the weapon, it was rather apparent, the shocked expression on her face the first emotion shed shown except anger. But it was slightly toote, the de already tearing through her calf, and then it ignited to boot. She screamed and flung herself to the side, hurling the de the other way. Isaac chose to follow the weapon. Hisbat knife had pped back into his palm and he aimed it right at her weapon while projecting another [Far Strike] at her body. She, of course, vanished and grabbed her weapon, only for a yellow bolt, courtesy of the evolved [Piercing Strike], to tear through her shoulder. He continued tosh out, repeatedly lengthening his des to turn attacks that would otherwise have been unable to reach her into lethal strikes. Well, potentially lethal. She just dodged, over and over again. Bloody cuts showed where shed been a little too slow, but wounds were also umting on him, or they would be, if they werent healing as quickly as she could inflict them. Leaning backwards caused his Kriegsmesser to whistle past and then her knife knocked his other weapon out of his left hand, but instead of calling his de back, he seized her wrist and yanked. The Kriegsmesser was already overextended far towards his left, putting it out of position to easily stab her, but he didnt need to. Instead, heshed out with his elbow, growing a razor sharp bone te out of it using [Tools of Terror], aiming to put it straight through her sternum. and then she vanished, reappearing close to his feet, but he was alreadyshing out, a [Power Strike] enhanced kick mming into her midsection. Hed been holding her by the wrist and felt it when shed dropped the de without having to see it. She skipped of the floor a couple of times before she got her feet under her, sliding along the floor with a loud squeal of tortured rubber. Isaac cocked his head to the side, her pink eyesore of abat knife shing past his ear. He whirled, a ming Kriegsmesser ready to bisect her if she decided to pull the teleport behind and stab move her powerset oh so clearly lent itself to. Sadly, she was smarter than that, appearing a couple of meters behind him and well clear of his attempted bisection and flicked her de towards the ceiling. She might not have as big a mana pool as he did, but that was the des ability, meaning it paid the cost instead of her. Reappearing just below the roof, she kicked off it and flung herself downwards at insane speeds, aiming right for Habicht. At this point, she wouldnt even have needed her de, the impact alone would have been enough to kill him. Isaac simply teleported to the wall just above Habicht and kicked off that to intercept her in midair. He couldnt do that often because his teleport was fucking expensive, but this situation called for it. The two of them collided and went spinning, him under her, about to meet the hard concrete below, spine first. Isaac simply phased a split second before impact. He hadnt done so before due to the danger of that damn weapon, but in this particr setup, hed simply fall into the ground. Her, not so much. A hand holding onto his shirt mmed into the ground at a supremely unfortunate angle, prompting a yelp of pain, and then her knees hit. If hed still been there, one would have dug into his stomach and second would havended right on his unmentionables, but he wasnt there, so her kneecaps smashed right into the unforgiving concrete floor. She was tough enough to survive that without breaking anything, but it still hurt like a bitch. And then the fusge of fire started. Isaac only heard it, currently being underground, but it was a good sign. They hadnt fired to start with because thered still been the expectation that shed surrender, and by the time anyone had realized shed actually attacked, Isaac had already been way to close for anyone to feelfortable using their guns. But now, she was alone, and wasnt moving for a brief moment, stunned and in pain. Using the ability to touch stuff without actually manifesting granted by [Poltergeist Shift], Isaac swam through the dirt and erupted two meters in front of her, already swinging. Hed also emerged straight into the line of fire, but he was still phased, allowing the lead projectiles to phase straight through him. Several bullet wounds marred her outfit and body, but she seemed staggeringly unconcerned while the police stopped firing with Isaacs reappearance. Shed started dodging again anyway. She wasnt quite fast enough to directly avoid the bullets themselves, and obviously neither was Isaac, but that wasnt really needed. All one had to do was pay attention to where the barrel was pointing and avoid that, dodging the bullet before it was even fired, be it by actively avoiding standing in front of them or just running around and speeds too high to be urately targeted. Isaacs hands blurred again, activating [Starfang] on both of them, and yelled Shoot her with your sidearms, they wont hurt me. Sadly, that was a bold-faced lie, and one of the more maniptive stunts hed pulled today. Normally, hed catch hell for it, but catching the most notorious serial killer of recent times coverd a multitude of sins. He was incredibly durable, but not bulletproof, he was merely able to heal the wounds they hurt, which would be abundantly clear to the officers after a few seconds, at which point theyd stop firing. But this stunt should alsoe to an utter surprise to his opponent as well, being outside the established pattern of fighting she was already weaving through with masterful ease. The volley of gunfire came and went, both of them staggering under several more hits, but Isaac was the more durable to the two and was able to weather it a hell of a lot better. Several more shallow cuts marred her body in addition to two new bullet wounds but then nothing seemed to hit her. Shed achieved a truly insane degree of knowledge about both his and the cops fighting styles, behaviors, movement patterns in other words, had this been a board game, shed have not only been ying with loaded dice, shed have known what his dice would say even before he did. Isaacs solution? Flip the damn table! [Form of Horror] activated and his height doubled while his weapons vanished, absorbed into his body as fangs and ws. All the knowledge about her abilities and fighting style remained, while what she knew was pretty much useless now. As he lunged forwards with vastly enhanced physical power, her de stabbed straight towards his wrist, aiming to take his hand. In response, Isaac shifted his arm slightly, ensuring that all shed catch was the shallow edge of his wrist, tearing through the veins on the inside of his arm and spraying blood all over her face. Blood hed just shifted to match that of a fucking Hydra. She stumbled backwards, desperately wing at her face to try and clear her vision. Isaac grasped both her wrists, one in each hand, and headbutted her. Well, it wasnt so much a headbutt as him yanking her towards his and just cing his skull into the path of hers. And again. And then for a third time. Poisoned, shot and almost certainly severely concussed, she slumped to the ground as he let her go while he shifted his ws over into their Astral Piercer form. They werent the greatest inbat against beings that werent ephemeral, given that damaging someones manawork when you could stab them with a normal weapon and just kill your opponent, but right now, he had a chance to take her alive, so he took it. Wrecking her ability to use all her active [Skills] should make keeping her locked up a hell of a lot easier. If she died, this chapter of history was closed, and she might even end up bing a martyr. If she survived, this could be spun in any way they wanted, he could try and make this carry his message. That summoning had stopped a horrible serial killer, but safe summoning. Unsafe summoning had created the threat in the first ce. Unsafe summoning wrecked lives and got those that did it killed. There was a way to do it wrong, and there was a way to do it right and grow to great heights. He wanted to ensure there was a chance for elites to grow while making those who only might do somethingnd solidly on the not do the stupid thing side of the equation. Isaac drove the ws on both hands into her gut just above her hips and ripped them upwards, fragmenting her spiritual body and ruining her ability to channel mana, at least for now. Her mouth opened in a wordless scream, but she fainted before a sound came out. Isaac winced in sympathy. Spiritual injuries were incredibly painful. And then the already long healed gash on his arm glowed a deep crimson, power from a [Skill] even he hadnt noticed surging. With a yelp of surprise, Isaac jumped backwards and thrust his arm out to the side as a crimson disk of force nearly a meter in diameter erupted from the injury, shredding his wrist and sting off his hand. If that limb had been close to his torso, he might have even been cut in half. Ast-ditch vengeance [Skill]. Isaac growled in anger, frustration and pain as he pressed the stump into his shirt, stemming the tide of blood flowing from the badly injured limb while his regeneration focused on sealing off thergest blood vessels. But thergest issue was that that had not been a first Evolution [Skill]. Rather, it had belonged to her secondEvolution, he just hadnt realized she was at that Level because she hadnt had an aura, which was normally the first thing one picked up at that point, the [System] even told you so. There was just one more thing to do before shifting back to human. Well, two things. First, he removed the toxic quality from his blood, so the person who pped cuffs on her didnt end up dead. He grasped her knife in his left hand, cing it in his palm and curled his fingers in to drive his ws into it. Venonous green light flowed from his fingers, slowly corroding the weapon until it crumbled like wet y under the pressure of his ws. Hey, that was evidence! Habicht snapped. Yeah. Isaac replied, back in his human form It was also something shed have had ess to anywhere, no matter what you do, and able to cut through solid steel like tissue paper. Just stay there, dont move, the paramedics wille and well see if we can reattach the hand. Habicht sighed, sounding worn out Can it even be attached if theres already skin grown back over the injury? Isaac shrugged I dont know, but I can regrow limbs. Itll be back no matter what I do. Do you need a paramedic, at all? No. The health status says that Im perfectly healthy, except Im down a hand. A change of clothes would be much appreciated, though. Isaac replied and sat down on the ground right there. By the way, shes unconscious and the description for that [Skill] says it damages someones ability to use mana. She wont be able to do much until that heals. He was so damn tired, but he was still aware of his surroundings. People were staring in awe at him, at her, at the damage wreaked upon the building. Horror starting to creep onto their faces as they realized just how badly this would have gone if he hadnt been here. While she as getting cuffed, the first hushed and whispered conversations were starting up. All he wanted to do was go to his hotel room and sleep for a week actually, he wanted to call his mother first, because if she found out hed been in mortal danger from the news for the second time in two days, he was a dead man. But then, he wanted his fucking rest. Yet he wouldnt be getting it, because he needed to deal with the fallout from this mess. This goddamn fucking mess. Chapter 69: Interlude Leipzig Police Department Chapter 69: Interlude Leipzig Police Department There were meetings, and then there were meetings, the kind whose resolution would change the course of event in a noticeable way, the kind that was actually important and which you attended because you were needed, rather than simply having been told to show up. This one not only fell solidly into thetter category, it would be one of the most important ones Polizeimeister Franz Habicht would likely ever attend. They were all sitting around a table in one of the precincts medium sized meeting rooms, talking over the events that had urred two hours ago. It was well past the time where any of them would normally be working unless they were on the night shift, but this mess was the very opposite of normal. The people present were an eclectic bunch, consisting of Polizeirat Schmied, a secretary to take notes, Habicht himself, the profiler whod identified that terrifying woman, an official from the Bundeskriminmt and Polizeiobermeister Wirt, a visiting member of the SEK whode here to support the local department in these trying times. He was at a high Level, holding both an evolved [ss] and an Aspect. There was a screen embedded in the table, showing the serial killers arrest file,plete with a thorough exnation of her [Skills], as well as the name of her [ss]. Whatever else those crystal ws had done, theyd also broken her defense against being analyzed, so theyd immediately checked for that. The level difference between her and Wirt, whod done the analyzing because all Thoma could do was detailed descriptions of what something did but not their names, was high enough that checking [Skills] wasnt possible, but at least they knew what her [ss] was called. [Humanitys Judgmental de of Damocles]. The name said it all, really. And then there was the elephant in the room, the consultant. A few years ago, Habicht had been a part of an effort to track down a group of arms smugglers and the Polizeiobermeister in charge of that effort had decided to make sure they paid attention by demonstrating the stakes which had involved bringing out a confiscated bazooka and putting it on the meeting table. Of course, this had had the exact opposite effect than hed intended, with everyone staring at the weapon as if it were a live snake, instead of listening to him ramble. You left a lot of idiots in the dust as you rose through the ranks, but you couldnt get rid of all of them. Isaac Thoma, the consultant, was having a simr effect on Habicht right now. Hed pulled of something that had to be seen to be believed and even then, Habicht had had to already rewatch the footage from his bodycam to try and convince himself he hadnt gone crazy. Twice. Prior to the raid, when theyd been waiting on a target, Habicht had decided to do a little snooping, ask around if anyone knew the new people whode here to help with the serial killer. The non-SEK people, anyway. The local summoner had been utterly useless, having made a couple of stupidments during meetings and otherwise being a waste of time and money, not even having shown up for the actual arrest. The profiler was alright,ing with solid rmendations and everything else needed to make him sound good, but Habicht didnt know enough about his profession to make a proper judgement. And then you had the [System] researcher whod helped out the police in his hometown several times, and all the anecdotes had pained a picture of helpfulness and a level of patience and understanding that was practically saintly. There was one story making the rounds about him havinge off an intercontinental flight, after not having sleep for multiple days, then getting called out to help with what turned out to be the most basic of monsters, followed by six hours of paperwork. And all throughout that, hed never gotten annoyed, or so the story went. Yet it had held true, for the most part. Even covered in blood, severed hand lying at his feet as the stump slowly healed over so he didnt bleed out, Thoma had been calm. The only crack in that fa?ade had been when hed gotten truly fed up with all the people asking about the hand and if he was sure it would grow back, but all hed done was ask for a permanent marker, drawn a circle around the base of the stump and then told people to pay attention to how the circle would grow further and further away from the tip of his arm as it regrew. Now, though, both the mark and stump were covered in an oven mitt. The regrowing flesh had looked positively ghastly, so Thoma had asked for something to cover it up with and a mitt from the cafeteria had been on hand. The rest of the outfit, on the other hand, was pretty formal, being just a police issue shirt and pants without rank insignia, given that that had been the easiest thing to find in a specific size. So that was how he sat there, the man who could have killed everyone in the building with ease, manifested his soulbound weapon and obliterated everyone on the floor with a single projected edge, the most terrifyingly powerful person Habicht had ever met. Dressed in a police uniform without a proper rank and an oven mitt on his right hand. First things first, is she secure? the official from the Bundeskriminmt asked If she were awake, will that cell hold her? Would it hold you, Mr. Thoma? Habicht rolled his eyes. Would it have killed that man to read the reports beforeing into the meeting. Or, hell, just watch a video barely a minute in length? No, but I can walk through walls. Thoma replied, managing to keep any irritation out of his voice, though Habicht was damn sure he also thought less of the official for having asked that question. She, however, cant do that. She doesnt have the right Aspect, in fact, she doesnt have any Aspects. Could you simply have been unable to see it? Like you got caught of guard by that vengeance [Skill]? Wirt asked. No. Aspects are the most obvious things about a person to my sight. Yes, I missed one of her [Skills], but that was abination of several factors. For one, that [Skill] belonged to her second Evolution [ss], while Im still on my first Evolution, which made it considerably harder to see. In addition, it was designed to be hard to notice, which further exacerbated the issue. Lastly, the [Skill] clung to my flesh while I was busy analyzing her. And that reminds me, the department should consider limiting what it writes down about its officers [Skills] and builds. Habicht blinked in surprise at the non-sequitur, and he wasnt the only one. What makes you say that? Schmied asked. Something I realized during the fight is how valuable information is. It was basically all information gathering, trying to figure out what the other person can do to predict what they will do and then ruthlessly exploit that information. For a few moments, she knew everything I could do, and at that point, shed have kicked my ass even if Id been twice as strong as I am now. But you won? Habicht asked. He recalled that moment, where she was smiling at all of them despite the multiple gunshot wounds scattered all over her body, the cuts and burn marks Thoma had inflicted looking painful beyond all reason, yet there she was. Grinning like a loon, dodging bullets as she were making sure a few soap bubbles drifting in the breeze didnt pop against her body, contemptuously parrying Thomas strikes without even properly looking in his direction. Yeah. She knew the rules of the game, so I flipped the table and chucked the rulebook out of the window by shifting into my other form. After all, she hadnt spent any time analyzing that. Thoma exined. Right, that brings up another thing: what the hell was that thing and why didnt you use it from the beginning? Wirt asked. Two reasons. First of all, I dont have any weapons in that form, just my ws. Im fast, but my offensive options are somewhat more limited than theyd be with the two weapons that I can juggle, transform and light on fire at will while still human. In addition, that shift is a cooldown [Skill], so I couldnt just activate it to try it out. Cooldown [Skill]? This time, it was Sarai who asked the question. I figured that would be the best descriptor to use. A powerful [Skill] thates with a massive cooldown. Other possible descriptors would be Ult, Ultimate, Finisher, and so on, and so forth. I need to be judicious in how I use it, so when I caught her analyzing me, I decided to safe it until I had everything I needed from her. But I think weve gotten a little off topic. As I was saying earlier, Id suggest not writing down every [Skill] your officers have, just the ones directly necessary for their tasks. Otherwise, anyone who got their hands on their file could make a n to efficiently dismantle their defenses and kill them with casual ease. Only exin what is necessary for people to know about when hiring them, and let them keep theirst ditch defensive powers secret. Im guessing youll follow that same policy of keeping your abilities a secret? Habicht asked. Ill tell you about anything thats actually important to the matter at hand. Thoma exined. Still, I think this meeting has gotten very far from its intended purpose. Habicht said Were here to discuss how to properly hold our newest prisoner as well as how we can try to develop our personnel better so that next time, we wont have to hope a civilian who lives halfway across the countryes to rescue us. And that was truly how he viewed that. That hed been utterly screwed going into things and dying had been the only oue if it hadnt been for a random consultant. That woman had just kept going after being shot multiple times, and the only reason theyd even been able to hit her in the first ce was that Thoma had maneuvered things to give them the chance. First, by literally falling through the walls and letting her smash into the ground in such a way that would have seen her crippled if shed still been even remotely human. And then Thoma had told a partial lie that had made them open fire, shooting her and also hitting someone who was on their side because of that lie. Normally, Habicht would have been utterly furious over that, but this time, he wasnt. While he hated to admit it, he knew that without seeing that happen, he wouldnt have been willing to believe someone telling him about what was about to happen. Stand back because there was no way he could win this, let the civie handle things? Shoot at the civie because while the bullets might tear through his flesh, the wounds would heal momentster? Habicht sighed. He knew why Thoma hadnt told him about any of that, and sadly, he had to admit the other man had been right, even if being lied to, both directly and by omission, did not feel good in the slightest. That was certainly something hed change in the future. Anyone could be a truly lethal threat now. In the old world, people could be dangerous without looking it, but there were always signs. People with some form ofbat or military training tended to be at least moderately fit, alert, and you could also be pretty certain that anorexic teens or beached whale impersonators wouldnt pose a physical threat to you. Sure, they could always be armed, but often, people were wearing clothes that could not hide weapons or be conspicuously dressed in something that worked perfectly to hide something. Now though, someone could be running around fully nude, leaving any watchers with the absolute certainty that they didnt have a weapon readily avable, but still be able to bring down a building with a flick of their finger. Going forwards, hed certainly be spending every free moment working in the summoning program, at least for a few months. Hed make abundantly clear to Schmied that hed be taking one of those Aspects the department had recently acquired. As far as holding a prisoner with literal superpowers, there are very few currently proven ways to do that. The first is pretty basic, all you have to do is counter someones [Skills]. For example, the LAPD had a thief who could teleport anything he knew was there into his hand at a decent range, meaning that keeping things that could be used as a lockpick or, gods forbid, the key, out of his hands would be an exercise in futility. So they ended up welding the door shut. With your current prisoner, the method is simrly simple. She specialized in analysis, her weapon and stealth, with her Stats being primarily ced in Agility and Perception, rather than Strength. A normal cell door should be able to hold her in as long as she doesnt have any tools. Mind you, if her [Skill] for using knives is anything like mine, she could quite likely be able to turn any rigid object into a knife. What defines rigid? Schmied asked. Anything that doesnt flop around if you only hold it by one end, basically. stic, metal, rocks, ceramics, stuff like that. Also, the same material may only work under some circumstances, for example, I cant turn a cooked noodle into a weapon, but I can do the same to one before it goes into the pot. The official from the Bundeskriminmt sniggered, but Habicht red at him and shook his head disapprovingly. There wasnt much to find funny about the fact that there were people who could take a piece of pasta and turn it into a weapon that could tear through solid metal. Anyway, like I was saying, as long as there isnt anything in her cell that she could use as a lever or weapon, she wont be able to break down the door. That being said, the guards and other personnel who interact with her should be changed repeatedly. Her analysis abilities are, quite frankly, bullshit. If given too much time to work on someone, she might even be able to convince someone to let her out by exploiting some weakness or personal trauma. Alright, thats one. Got any more? Schmied asked. The second one is pretty basic as well, though it might be illegal. Might be? the official frowned at him. Thing is, the biggest danger she poses right now stems from her [Skills], which she cant use because I broke her ability to channel mana. So once we know how long thatsts, all you need is a [Skill] that damages the spiritual body and apply it whenever shes nearly regained her ability to use mana. Couldnt we just check when we stop being able to [Inspect] her? Sarai asked. Theoretically, yes, but we dont know if all [Skills] require the same level of mana channeling ability to use. Her [Privacy] ability might be the first thing toe back online, or it might be thest. Good point. Schmied said But you mentioned that this might be illegal? Thoma took a deep, fortifying breath before answering Im pretty sure that taking damage to ones spiritual body hurts a lot. As in, I think she fainted from the pain. Schmied gulped Yeah, I dont think were going to be able to get away with torturing prisoners in the name of preventing them from escaping. Why was the illegality even in question? Because first of all, we dont know if it actually hurts. Also, where the [System] is concerned, we dont have manyws beyond if your summoned monsters do anything bad, its on you. Like I said, its probably illegal, but we dont know for certain and I figured Id mention it forpleteness sake. The real question is how were going to get our hands on a weapon like that. Whered you get yours? Habicht asked, eagerly leaning closer as if to hear the answer more clearly. That weapon had been impressive as hell, and hed have loved to get his hands on one. [des] [Skill] over Level 20, Aspect of the Specter, epic rarity Evolution of [Rogue]. Thoma said. Yeah, Habicht couldnt match that. He sighed and leaned backwards in his chair, feeling like someone had dangled a bar of gold in front of his nose and then snatched it away. But Thoma was already continuing The third option is one that should be avable if the observed patterns of the [System] hold. In essence, [Judges] should eventually gain the ability to magically enforce their rulings, [Prison Wardens] should be able to actually hold their prisoners in their cells. Weve seen lesser versions of some of those before, but something all [sses] have inmon is that they provide [Skills] to fulfill the [sss] purpose at supernatural levels. The issues I foresee with this solution are twofold. First, we actually need to get someone to the Level where they can get those [Skills]. And the second is if that Level is sufficient to hold a serial killer with a legendary [ss] above Level 25. So now all we have to do is get someone with one of those [sses] who is willing to fight monsters, and can do so withoutbat [Skills]. the official said, thoughtfully rubbing his chin. Actually, Im pretty sure I have a solution for that. Object empowering [Skills] cost mana, or at least the ones that have been observed in [Engineers], [cksmiths], and [Construction Workers] do. The same should go for [Prison Wardens]. Therefore, their build will require a heavy investment in the magic Stats. If you get them an Aspect with a mana hungry offensive [Skill], they should kick ass. Some bodyguards to make sure they dont get eaten when they dont manage to kill the monster wouldnt go amiss, but otherwise, it should be fine. Thoma shrugged, clearly taking it for granted that someone would be willing to face down a monster with only a singlebat [Skill]. All of those are solutions we should look into, but I think this is as far as we can go on this topic without needing to do some research. Schmied said, and the meeting continued, though it grew far less interesting from there. It was mostly basic discussion about how to best level officers and spread out Aspects, an issue that Thoma referred to as the Cultivation Sect Problem. Reaching truly extraordinary heights required not just time, but very specific resources, which could either be spread out across people to produce a mediocre result, or concentrated on specific talented individual to produce powerhouses. Eventually, the meeting drew to a close, and they began to talk about everyones general thoughts on the whole summoning problem. At the end of the day, simply ouwing summoning isnt going to work. It offers too many benefits and is too damn easy. Thoma exined If aw is passed that renders it illegal, people will just do it in secret and be very disinclined to help the government in any way, shape, or form. If, on the other hand, summoning specific, highly unsafe summoning practices were made illegal and heavily punished, it should seriously cut down on the number of innocents caught in the crossfire. If I may ask, where do you summon? Sarai asked. A heavily fortified bunker able to stand up to most Tier 5s or my backyard but I live in the middle of nowhere and Ive set up a system that automatically warns anyone nearby of whatever monster Ive summoned if it goes badly. Also, Im careful. You lost a hand. the official grumbled. Yes, I lost a hand in a situation that would have cost anyone else their head. Thoma replied icily. Habicht didnt me him. Someone who hadnt been involved in a mess like that for years, if ever, had no business nitpicking people about it. They talked a little more about the basic ideas of safe summoning as an actual specialist saw it, rather than the so-called experts that the department had hired in the past. Theyd talked a good game to actually get the job, but then, all theyd had was spection and that was when they werent outright guessing. Thoma, on the other hand, actually knew what he was talking about,plete with being able to reference specific examples of when something had or had not worked, point out exceptions and overall, he told them useful things. And when he didnt actually know something, he A. admitted it and B. still made well-reasoned and thoroughly exined guesses. And I dont suppose youd be amenable to being hired by the Bundeskriminmt directly? the official asked as the meeting broke up, looking at Thoma. Habicht hadnt learned the mans name in the beginning and at this point, he was refusing to do so on general principle. Hard pass. No offense, but I really like my current job. Thoma grinned But if you ever need help for another situation like this, feel free to call. I bet the consultants sry doesnt hurt. the official grumbled, making it abundantly clear that he was unaware of how good peoples hearing could get. Actually, I didnt even sign anything other than the NDA until well after Id started working here. Im not going to insult your intelligence by pretending I dont appreciate the money, but Id say that taking someone off the street who is not only a serial killer, but a serial killer who targets people like me, is worth a hell of a lot more. Can you really put a price on ones peace of mind? Thoma asked, shing the official a smirk. Flushing, the man bustled out the door and once he was a bit further away, Sarai, Thoma and Habicht burst outughing. So, what [sses] do you two think youre going to get when you evolve? Thoma asked [Second Coming of Sherlock Holmes] and [Stone Cold Badass]? Sarai burst outughing for the second time, then shook his head Those names are rather silly, dont you think? Thoma put on an offended face at that and replied in a very clearly fake British high ss ent We just caught someone with the [ss] [Humanitys Judgmental de of Damocles]. Dr. Sarai, as a man of science, how dare you use the [System] of having any sense of shame when ites to naming its [sses]! This time, it was Habichts turn to roar withughter. Chatting about topics considerably less heavy than the ones of the meeting theyd just left, passing the time until they were out of the building. The two others headed off towards their hotel while Habicht walked home. His [Evidence Sense] suddenly activated, highlighting a goddamn bootprint on the fa?ade of the precinct. That [Skill] tended to light of whenever something that could let him answer a question hed been asking himself, be it the solution to a case or something as simple as how the hell did that guy get across the city so dam quickly. There were no other bootprints visible anywhere within his current line of sight, but on the side of a chimney atop the building across the street from the precinct, there was a partial print, just beneath the top, the rain having washed away the rest. That absolute mad had rooftop hopped all across the city. Habicht startedughing, again, though it sounded a bit manic to even his own ears. The world had lost its fricking mind and now it was up to people like him to make sure it didnt spiral into the abyss. Chapter 70: The road to home Chapter 70: The road to home So, how was Leipzig? Wirt asked Isaac as he got into the back of the car that had brought them to this city. Oh, you know, its a nice enough city, but I can still only give it two out five stars, too many serial killers. Isaacmented dryly. d youre able tough at that. But if that ever changes, youll always have people to talk it over with in the department, we owe you that much. Wirt said seriously At least assuming we survive two hours of Sanners driving. Isaac winced. Theyd been driven to Leipzig by a police officer who specialized in motor vehicles, pushing cars well beyond anything theyd ever been intended to for while also ensuring they didnt tear themselves to pieces in the process. And yes, he was a good enough driver to ensure that no idents urred, but anyone whod ever ridden with him would insist the man was certifiably insane. After all, the journey to Leipzig was meant to take four hours by car, not two. I cant possibly be that bad, can I? Sanner asked, from the drivers seat, turning his head to face them and raising a single eyebrow. He turned back to face the road a momentter, though, and they were still in the city, so the car wasnt going that fast. After all, there was a hard speed limit inside cities, while you could, in theory, drive as quickly as you wanted to while on the highway. That was something that would probably have to be changed ASAP as new options opened up for people to hit truly insane speeds in normal, street safe cars. But before the various governing bodies dealt with any of that, the issue of summoning needed to be addressed, and it was finally starting to look like that might be happening soon. Sure, having the sentiment of youre responsible for anything your summoned creatures do actually be codified intow had helped somewhat, but it hadnt been nearly enough. However, between the Event and the serial killer, things had seriously kicked into high gear. People had been working towards the goal of creating safe summoning regtions before, but the sense of urgency driving it forward had redoubled with each incident. In addition, between Baileys and Isaacs actions in the two incidents, theyd managed to give quite a bit of additional input. Hopefully, in a week or two, that would be fully over and done with, and low-level summoning would ur rtively safely, at least for everyone except the summoner. Isaac already knew roughly how that would end up looking, both from the other timeline and the input hed given into it, both official and unofficially. Sure, hed been asked for a little input here and there and given it, but hed also been dropping words in all the right ears whenever he got the chance. In essence, there would be hard rules against summoning inside residential buildings and near other people. Summoning would only be possible when it was A. clear of other people and B. the summoning area was clearly marked in such a way that people could tell there were monsters ahead without stumbling over them. And in the months following thisw, people would start to set up summoning areas, properly closed off from the outside and manned by people who could actually handle the monsters. The summoners themselves, though, would not be directly protected. If they decided to summon something, their judgement needed to be sound. Should someone prove said judgement was wed by endangering others, theyd lose summoning privileges and would only regain them after rigorous training and jumping through countless hoops. While on summoning time-out though, theyd have to officially demonstrate that they hadnt been summoning by showing their character sheet to the appropriate bureau once a month once that was actually set up. Thered also be a privacy of Status Sheet use written intow someday soon, with proven to be foolish summoners being one of the obvious exceptions. The one or two points of XP gained by Tier one monsters wouldnt really be obvious in a months worth of normal Job Experience, but then again, those were rtively harmless to anyone of a decent Level. But given how slowly that umted outside of extraordinary circumstances, such as ying field medic while a Stormheart Gestalt raged a mere ten meters from your position, anyone summoning strong monsters would stand out quite clearly. Isaac grinned. People making him show his status screen was something that could really fuck him over, but his little people can use that knowledge to kill you speech during the debriefing had really worked wonders. He nced down at his right hand, flexing it experimentally. It had grown back early Saturday morning, butcking use of it for several hours really had sucked. As tough as that fight had been, however, it had also been well worth it in terms of [Skill] Level gain, even putting two of them above an evolution threshold. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 24 XP: 10,316/5,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 500/500 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 65 Strength 45 Agility 70 Magic Power 50 Magic Regeneration 60 Free Points: 0 Stat, 19 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror XVI The Chosen Weapon XXI Skills Hundred Faces XIV Stealth XVII Power Strike XXV Piercing Strike XXVI Sundering Strike XXIII des XXV Sneak XVII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XIX Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXIII Phantom Step XIII Unknown Fear XIII Bestial Regeneration XII Undying Focus XI Tools of Terror XII Fleeting Presence III Crippling Blow I General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills [The Chosen Weapon] had hit Level 20, and he could finally absorb the Zweih?nder, though there was a nice surprise avable on top of that. The Chosen Weapon (epic, Level XX) There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent. But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death. And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then bes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user. As this Skills Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained. In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers. The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the users, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level in this Skill. Based on the users Level in the de Skill, The Chosen Weapon (Old Reliable), gains a new ability for every Aspect the user holds. This weapon may now absorb two (one remaining) additional weapons to be used as an alternate form for The Chosen Weapon. This number will increase by one with every [ss] Evolution. Hed already absorbed the Kriegsmesser at [Skill] Level 10, taking up one of the absorbtion slots already, and now hed gained a second one at Level 20. What he hadnt expected was the fact that hed be gaining anotherslot every time his [ss] evolved, which would happen literally the next time he levelled up, which left him with an embarrassment of riches of sorts. Hed already nned for the first slot, but hed need to think on what he wanted to put into the one after that. Hm, maybe a bow or something? He wasnt that good with it, but having a ranged weapon avable could be useful. Sure, he could always throw his knife, but the range of that would be limited. He should probably wait, though, and see what wonders Stagmer could create one he evolved his [ss]. Or maybe the next Event would drop something nice? Because there would be another Even, he was certain about that. Now if only the response to that were apparent Still, hed also brought [Undying Focus] to Level 10. Undying Focus (epic, Level X) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, includingpletely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing ones sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. Furthermore, this Skill boosts the users resistance to hostile aura effects. it now increased his resistance to other peoples auras and that was, in a word, useless, at least for now. Auras were unlocked by the second Evolution, which basically no one had at the moment. And Isaac himself had almost a decade of aura practice on the rest of the world, so when he got his, he wouldnt need it. Still, the [System] didnt give you different [Skill] upgrades because you didnt need them, they gave you the upgrade it had on file for that particr [Skill], so to speak. Isaac looked back out of the window as the car sped onto the highway, leaving the city behind them. Leipzig really was pretty, and hed spent every spare moment exploring it, eating at nice restaurants, and even going to see a movie. He might not have gotten the Friday of leisure hed wanted, but in exchange, hed gained nearly an entire weekend of exploring a beautiful city on someone elses dime. Well, that went by a hell of a lot more quickly than expected. Wirtmented. Whats the normal timeframe for something like this? Isaac asked. I dont really have a directparison for something like this because you dont normally need more than your average citys SEK contingent to catch a serial killer, but if something is serious enough to need reinforcements from elsewhere, say a massive drug bust or coordinated strike against every safehouse a specific gang, it normally takes a few days between preparation, execution and debriefing. Hersh replied from the front seat. This time, she was sitting there and Wirt had joined Isaac in the back. Apparently, that had been arranged beforehand and Isaac didnt get a say, leaving him stuck in the back going both ways. Yeah, the sad thing is, it wouldnt have mattered how many people they brought in to deal with her, wed still have all died. At some point, mere numbers stop being enough. Wirt added grumpily What kind of [ss] lets you pull stuff like that, anyway? Assuming youre willing to share the name, that is. Oh, I dont mind. I hold the vaunted [ss] of [Edgelord Supreme]. Isaac replied, voice dry as the Sahara Desert. Oh well, that makes sense. Wirt replied in the same manner, making it abundantly clear he didnt believe Isaac, but Sanner burst outughing. In response, Hersh spun around in her seat two re at the two men in the back. If we crash because you two are distracting the person driving at racecar speeds, Id going to kill you. she growled. that was thest straw and Wirt burst outughing as well, trying to apologize in between peals ofughter. Anyway, Im hungry, does anyone else want something? Isaac asked, phasing his arm and grabbing a box of leftovers from one of Leipzigs best steakhouses from the trunk. There were a few foodstuffs and the like belonging to Isaac back there, as well as a bottle of wine which hed never, ever, open. In a few decades, hed be telling his kids or grandkids and this is the bottle of wine I was awarded for saving a city from a serial killer. By then, the world would be used to the existence of extraordinarily powerful beings and the saved the city bit wouldnt sound quite as oundish as it did now. Thats handy. Wirtmented, nodding at Isaacs arm which was still shoved through the seat behind him Any chance youve got another one to sell? Maybe. Though Ive got a feeling that the phasing and healing Aspectbination will soon be a ssic among cowards and mobility based fighters. Isaac replied. Cowards? What betterbination to get the hell out dodge than being able to walk through walls and heal any injury you receive? Isaac replied Ill see what I can do, though, look over what Aspects I have to actually sell and all that. What other use do you have for those? Oh, Ive got a couple from a Rock Golem that are earmarked for certain engineers and the like. Were also in the process of researching how to best farm Aspects, depending on the answer, there might also be an abundance of specific types soon enough. Isaac exined At the end of the day though, you can get pretty far without Aspects as well. A rare [ss] can easily be obtained by getting all of ones [Skills] to a high Level. Anyway, you didnt answer me yet, do you want something? No, Im good. Wirt sighed. Something wrong? Isaac asked. Wirt sighed again You know, same as always. Monsters show up, do bad stuff, and then humans prove that theyre worse than any monster. The usual mess caused by working in the justice system. Then, he turned serious I know youve already received a job offer or two, and youll likely get a hell of a lot more in the near future, but if youre not certain this is what you want, dont take them. This job can be very rewarding, but it can also be depressing as hell, too. Oh,e on. Hershined from the front seat Now the moods ruined. How about it, what are some funny stories I could tell dogs. Those silly little buggers are always good for augh, arent they? Wirt. Went. White. Do not tell that story, Ill do Yeah, not a chance. Hersh shook her head, and looked straight at Isaac. So, this was way back when the two of us where still patrol officers. We got a call about a very aggressively barking dog that was scaring passersby and apparently, the fence keeping it off the street was looking sort of rickety. We headed out there and yes, it looked like it would get free any second, so I say this is a case for animal control and let them handle it but no, he gets it in his head that he can just talk it down. He gets out of the car, walks over to the fence and stares down this bundle of canine fury and the fence gives way. Two secondster, hes gone right up the nearest tree and the dog is going apeshit at the bottom. At that point, Im already calling animal control to have them deal with it and then dispatch contacts us because we got a call about some creep sitting in a tree to spy on people right where you two are. Isaac chuckled softly. That was certainly an interesting mental image, but Hersh was still talking. Except I havent told you the best part yet. The dog? It was just a pug. Giant pug, I swear the damn thing had a Doberman for a Wirt tried to add, but Hersh cut him off Nope, just a normal, average size, pug. Okay, that was a good story. Isaacughed. The real question is whats going to happen with all those [System] pets. hey, my neighbors eldritch pet is bothering me in my dreams and stuff like that. Wirt added sardonically People need to teach their pets some manners. What did we just talk about? Hersh red at him So, Isaac, got any funny anecdotes from theb? You bet your ass I do! So, do you know what a microraptor looks like? One of my coworkers has one and then it He went on to tell a long tale involving Brisa somehow getting into the vents, getting lost, and somehow managing to find itself into a video lecture on paleontology. The professor in question had been recording the Zoom session, including the feed from his webcam, which meant the image of an utterly shocked Professor side by side with a dinosaur doing a beautiful dear in the headlights impression had been preserved for all eternity. That was how they ended up passing the time, telling silly stories and bringing up interesting anecdotes, until they reached the same supermarket parking lot Isaac had been picked up two days ago. Are you sure you dont want us to drive you to your house? Sanner asked. I live in the middle of nowhere, itd take longer for you to drive me there than itll take me to walk and even then, Id still have to walk a fair distance. Here is fine. Isaac said Seriously though, it was nice meeting you all. Next time we see each other though, lets hope its for less serious reasons, shall we? They said their goodbyes, Isaac got his stuff out of the trunk and then headed away into the forest. Tonight, hed be hunting. Well, first, hed absorb the Zweih?nder into Old Reliable, but then hed be hunting for some Aspects and then, hed be evolving at least if he actually got the Aspects he wanted. He just wished hed thought of his current build before hed outlevelled the monsters whose Aspects he needed. Then again, he was creating a path from scratch, getting used to all his new [Skills] and their specific quirks, as well asing up with new ideas all the time. He was experienced with the [System], but he wasnt a nigh-omniscient genius, sadly. Chapter 71: A nice way to finish off the weekend Chapter 71: A nice way to finish off the weekend Aint no ce like home. It was an old quote, but it held weirdly true even when said home was a set of shipping containers, rock floor and sheet metal roof over said rock in the middle of nowhere, something Isaac really should change at some point in the near future. The moment he entered his storage spaces range, all the various bags hed been carrying vanished off into the ether, making him feel oddly light even though with his level of strength, all that stuff might as well weigh nothing. He held out his right hand, now fully regrown, back of his hand facing towards the ground, and then the massive, off-white titanium Zweih?nder manifested within. It really was a beautiful weapon, masterful craftsmanship, though hed rarely used it until now. Now though, it would be with him, always. Old Reliable manifested in his left hand in its Kabar form and touched the tip of it to the de of the Zweih?nder. Therger weapon seemed to waver for a moment, warping and twisting as it waspressed into a single point maybe a millimeter across, which was subsequently absorbed into the smaller weapon. All it took was a mere thought, and theparatively tiny weapon shifted into the gigantic two handed sword, which then ignited. Isaac went through a few different sword forms, leaving fiery trails in the air as the de flowed from one stance into the next. The fire winked out as though it had never been there in the first ce as Isaac deactivated [Starfang]. Isaac proceeded to use a few moves with every form his weapon had, as well as the variations based on his Aspects, and having multiple weapons out to see what went well together. As expected, using a second weapon while using the Zweih?nder didnt work out too well. He was strong enough to swing that thing around as though it were a cheerleaders baton, but his increased stats didnt make him any heavier. Between the weapons weight and length, casually flinging it around could also throw him off bnce. When it was the only weapon he held, that was perfectly manageable. Using it alongside something else was a recipe to end up tripping over his own feet. With that little bit of practice out of the way, it was time to go ahead and get those Aspects. The first one was a basic illusion and sensory dampening Aspect which would allow him to mess with his foes in new way, royally screw over anyone trying to use the same tactics to beat him as Krebs had and fulfill his part of the bargain hed made with that one Las Vegas casino owner. Namely, giving him a way to prevent just anyone with a high Perception topletely and utterly rip him off. This would in turn help him build his reputation as not only an expert on the [System], but also as someone who did as he promised. The fact that he was also nning on using the Aspects also gave him a convenient fig leaf as to how hed stumbled across it. The idea of a using illusions should have probably urred to him before now. He could move so damn quickly that any small mistakes opened up massive opportunities for him, which he could then ruthlesslyexploit. Really, it was such an obvious fit for his fighting style and his Aspect slots were still rtively cheap, the fact that hed only thought of it now was worthy of one hell of a facepalm. The crack of his palm meeting his forehead was loud enough to startle nearby birds into taking panicked flight, making him chuckle softly. It was one thing to feel himself grow stronger, faster, tougher and overall more capable in a fight. It was an entirely different thing to have reached the point where such a normal motion had such an outsized effect. Anyway, it was time to get back to the matter at hand. Summoning. Summoning List (Light) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Discoball of Doom Tier 1 Circle, Mirror Shard, Lightbulb 10 Hardlight Gremlin Tier 2 Circle, Mud, shlight, Powdered ss, Mirror Shard 50 Lesser Illusionist Tier 3 Circle, Mirror Shard, Lens, 5 different colored Lightbulbs 100 re Beast Tier 4 Circle, Animal Bone, Powdered ss, Lightbulb, Battery 200 Lightstar Tier 5 Circle, Glow-In-The-Dark Sticker, ss Shards, Clear Gemstone 250 Fata Morgana Tier 5 Circle, Water Pitcher, Palm Frond, Sand, Fist-sized ss Orb, Lightbulb 350 The Light category of monsters had some really interesting, but also bizarre entries, made all the more extreme by the rather silly names. The so-called Discoball of Doom sounded nasty as hell, but the reality of what it was actually silly as hell. A single lightbulb, glowing brightly, surrounded by a cloud of reflective ss shards that could send that light into any direction it wanted to. The shards could only exist very close to it and it was incredibly slow, so it couldnt realistically use them to cut people. Instead, it would try to blind people, but it took a lot for people to take damage to their retinas if they had anydegree of enhanced stats. Really, it was more of a joke monster than anything else. It was also not what he was after. Instead, hed be summoning a Lesser Illusionist until he got its Aspect, and would then continue on to the Fata Morgana. There were already summoning circles up to Tier 5 carved into the rock that covered the floor of the summoning area and the sheer amount of crap he had in his storage area meant that he could summon basically any and all creatures up to Tier 5. Lastly, the circles were close enough to where hed created the storage area that he could just summon the materials straight into the circle. It was charged immediately afterwards, and an odd creature erupted from it. It looked like someone had created taken a mold of a human body, half filled it with luminescent white liquid and then turned the mold itself invisible, leaving the glowing liquid to slosh around in a vaguely humanoid area. The full shape itself was never quite visible, but Isaac knew that the if someone mapped out everywhere the liquid had been andpiled that into a single image, youd get a perfectly average looking, androgynous, human. Except, he didnt see any of that, having had his eyes closed since before the circle ever went active. Illusions were nasty, insidious and royally fuck up your fundamental understanding of reality. However, they were mostly a visual thing, with auditory and tactile ones also existing, but the Lesser Illusionist rarely used them as they were too taxing for it. But despite the lesserbel, the monster was dangerous as hell. Even knowing his surroundings, where it had been summoned rtive to him and what was supposed to be there, it could screw with him. Sure, if pink elephants and Victoria Secret models appeared, he could safely dismiss those as illusions, but what if it merely changed the world, slowly? Like, say, rotate his surroundings by half a degree or so every second, until he was running in theplete opposite direction, or simply go invisible? Besides, seeing something with your own two eyes had a way of overwriting what you knew without you necessarily being aware of it. End of the day, it was much simply much easier to just close his eyes, ignore anything he heard, and attack the area that the summoning area was in. Meanwhile, he might run into a tactile illusion, but that was much easier to get around, after all, Isaac knewthat there was nothing around him, given that he kept this spacepletely clear as a matter of course. Nothing to trip over, nothing to bump into, nothing but the damn monster. Anything he came into contact with, other than the ground, of course, was either it, or a fake. He lunged forwards, straight at the circle, and spun around, a de in each hand, arms spread out to the sides, abined [Sweeping-Far Strike] rending apart anything within range. Lesser Illusionist (Lv. 8) has been in. 40 XP gained (50 base * 0.8 due to level disparity) And that was that. Isaac opened his eyes again, seeing the glow of the liquid sttered all over the ce slowly fade. Then, he did it again, over and over, until his mana ran out. He stood there, soulbound weapons disappearing, the ground around him soaked in sticky liquid. A wave of his hand sucked it into his storage space, then headed over to a designated rubbish container and emptied most of the mess into that. The rest went into a ss bottle hed be bringing to Professor Chandler tomorrow. As far as he knew, this stuff was useless, but the somewhat kooky older man might be able toe up with something, especially as he had ess to materials that hadnt existed in the other timeline. Now though, he had a little bit of time to kill until his mana refilled, so he headed over towards his Extradimensional Room. It could be essed from anywhere within ten meters of where it had been summoned, creating a white-edged doorway that led into the very basic, albeitrge, space. He could still ess his storage from within it, though, given that the site of the rooms creation was within the other spatial pockets range. As the portal into his future home irised open and Isaac stepped through, a small hunk of crystal dropped into his hand, which he then ced against the ground. It was immediately sucked in and the entire 5x5x5 meter cube shifted to match its color and took on an interesting, crystalline, pattern, though it remained perfectly smooth to the touch. After all, it only appeared to have been turned into crystal. In the end, hed likely be going with some kind of hardwood or something, but having a room made entirely out of crystal, hell, made entirely out of diamond or even gold looked cool at first. Once the initial this looks so freaking cool wore off, it tended to make most owners cringe just looking at it, and then change it soon after. But there always those who kept the rooms made entirely from incredibly expensive materials and expected people to look upon it with wonder, rather thanughing at the pretentious creation. Overall, while the 25 m2 floor was prettyrge, using just it was a little wasteful. Therefore, he nned to put in a second floor. Creating it was pretty simple, really, and he even remembered how to do so from the other timeline. Each and every Extradimensional room had the exact same dimensions, so creating a plug and y blueprint for a second for that literally anyone could use hadnt really been difficult. In essence, you put a wooden beam in each corner, then connected them with another beam, properly supported by an additional beam in the middle. Do that for all four sides, put in the supporting beams, ce an additional beam in the center of the room and connect it with all others, then finallyy wooden boards over the top and nail them down. Isaac never imed to be a great craftsman, but this was a stupidly simple creation. And even if he managed to fuck this up badly enough to bring the entire affair down on top of his skull, then, well, the only problem would be the wasted time. Isaac himself would be perfectly fine, it would take a hell of a lot more than that little mass of wood to even require him to activate his regeneration. Drawing his knife, Isaac went to work, easily chopping through the thick wood until he was left with all the beams he needed. Perfect. At that point, it was time to start nailing everything together. And yes, he used nails for that. Massive, oversized things hed gotten custom from a machine shop. Normally, youd drill holes into the beams and then run metal rods, maybe a centimeter in diameter, with a screw on the end through it and add a nut on the other end to hold it together. However, normally, people didnt have ess to something like [Piercing Strike], which let him drive therge nails through with casual ease. That being said, he was trying to regenerate some mana, so he cut that out as soon as all the beams were in ce. Nailing the boards into the beams from above was perfectly possible regr old nails and the hilt of his knife as a hammer. His mana hit full when he was around a quarter of the way done with the new flooring, so he hopped out of the pocket dimension, obliterated several more Lesser Illusionist, and then went right back to building his new apartment. No Aspect, sadly. Now that he was done with the supporting structure and could focus just on nailing down the boards atop them, he nearly finished the entire thing by the time his mana refilled yet again. Head out, ughter monsters, get basically no XP and literally no Aspects, go back to crafting, rinse and repeat. By the time he finally held a gently glowing orb in his hand, hed created some stairs, had said stairs copse under him the first time he walked up to, gotten help from google to create a second, better, version that had nheless also gone the way of the dodo, finally managed to create a workable set, put in some windows, made use of the Extradimensional Rooms ability to absorb basic utility devices and incorporate them all in all, it had taken for-e-ver to get this thing, but now, finally, there it was. Aspect of the Lesser Illusionist: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Lesser Illusionist a Lesser Illusionist. Mess with your enemies senses, create false images to trick them, or simply create holograms for less bloodthirsty asions. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Perception One of the following Skills: Lesser Perception Block Basic Illusion Mobile Illusion He grabbed the [Basic Illusion] [Skill]. [Mobile Illusion] wasnt bad per se, allowing for the creation of truly incredible, variable illusions that could disy anything its user wanted it to, but it also required an incredible amount of focus to use, the kind that was hard to spare in the middle of a life or death fight. Basic Illusion (rare) When first using this Skill, the user must choose a single subject to create an illusion of (specific person, object, creature, etc.). From that point onwards, the user may create an illusionary version of this at will (the illusion will update to match the chosen subject). Cost: 15 mana per activation, 1 mana per second of upkeep While the [Skills] description wasnt the clearest before youd actually used it, the situation was actually rather simple. You picked something you wanted to create an illusion of, and then you could create that thing in any position or pose you cared for. It would also update, so if he chose himself as the subject of the illusion, it wouldnt be stuck with the clothes he had on the first time he used it. Of course, he did pick himself. An illusionary double would be exposed as a fake after mere moments, but those moments would be enough for him to bury his des in some vital body part. now he just had to get an Aspect to upgrade it. Isaac hung his head as he walked over to the Tier 5 circle. This was going to take forever, and he absolutely hated fighting illusion users. The Fata Morgana appeared in the middle of his summoning area and the world warped. For the barest of instants, a ssy orb that shone with an inner rainbow light had hung there and then, it was gone. Fata Morganas were incrediblycking in the offense department, especially so for a Tier 5 monster, making it pretty weak in a fight, but that wasnt what made them such a pain in the ass. Right now, he knew it was somewhere around here, even if it had cloaked itself damn near perfectly. If one of these stupid little blighters got out into the wild and started to summon more of its kind, how the ever loving fuck could you ever know there wasnt one sitting by the side of the road, one which was incidentally hiding the sinkhole you were about to drive into? A [Sweeping Strike] swished right through where the core had been mere moments ago, but it had moved, the air rippling as if caught in a heat haze. He chased after it, nearly tripping over a rock telekically hurled at him, but he saw it at thest possible second and jumped over it, chasing after the damn thing. This continued on for two more minutes, as itshed out with water whips and rocks, him dodging or tanking each and every one, putting enough pressure on it that it couldnt outright disappear, but urately targeting the damn thing was still incredibly difficult. Eventually though, it fell apart as he managed to catch the edge of hit with the tip of his Zweih?nder. of course, no Aspect, meaning hed have to do this again. And again. And a-fucking-gain. Killing these things werent so much a fight as a struggle to not lose his freaking mind as he chased a motherfucking invisible orb of speedy ss all over the ce, unable to stop for even a few seconds for risk of it escaping out into the wild. Twelve hourster, Isaac was in a truly foul mood. He was heading back towards the university for work and he hadnt gotten a single godsdamned Aspect for all those long hours of work. Killing monsters at your own Level gave you a very small chance of actually getting an Aspect, so if hed really wanted to get one, he should have done this before the emergency Level up during the Event. But he hadnt, so cest vie. Going for Tier 6 was an option, in theory, but those things all had auras of their own and trying to fight them without having one himself was incredibly dangerous. And getting ess to his own aura would require levelling up one more time and evolving his [ss] except he wanted to get the Aspects before then. In other words, hed have to tough it out. Grumbling inwardly, he marched onwards. This would take way too fucking long. Chapter 72: Plans for the future Chapter 72: ns for the future Summoning List (Metal) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Clockwork Arachnid Tier 1 Circle, Copper Wire 10 Iron Cloud Tier 2 Circle, Iron Shavings, Marble 50 Barbed Dervish Tier 3 Circle, Barbed Wire 100 Animated Armor Tier 4 Circle, Tinfoil, Screws 200 de Tempest Tier 5 Circle, Five Edged Implements 350 Isaac looked the summoning list for monsters he could actually face in a traditional battle over with longing in his eyes as he waited on the others in the meeting room. But hed wait and finally get that damnable Fata Morgana Aspect first. You know, get the hard stuff out of the way, and all that. Still, while Aspects were rare, they werent that rare. ording to thew of averages, he should be getting one of them sometime soon. Hopefully. Maybe. Possibly. In theory. He sighed and tried to put the matter out of his mind. There were better things to do than dwell on than Lady Fortune trying to make him lose his marbles. But when he reached the site of the new building, he found his way barred by a guy wearing a hardhat. Hey, buddy! the man called out, rushing over This is an active construction site, you cant just walk on here without a hardhat. If youre looking for the foremans office, thats over there. The construction worker gestured over towards a container sitting in the corner of the fenced off area. I actually work in there? Isaac said carefully, though now that he was actually looking for it, he noticed that there was no one in the basement of the building that was currently under construction. He wasntte by any stretch of the imagination, but he was also rarely the first one here, hed have expected to hear at least one of his colleagues to have arrived before him. This ce is still being built. The unspoken addition of you nimrod was quite clear. I know that, but we worked herest Thursday and then yeah, on second thought, I should have figured that I should go back to the current office. Isaac sighed, internally cursing himself. Constant frustration had left him in a bad headspace to make such basic deductions. Wait, youre one of the researchers, then? the man suddenly grinned at him Theres something I was wondering: you guys spent all of Thursday fighting monsters down there, right? How the hell is that ce still undamaged and spotless? Isaac shrugged Magic. Literal Magic. That got a chuckle. Fair enough. Anyway, now I have a question: how the hell did you build all this since the event? Isaac wondered, giving the construction site a good once over. The girders that everything up to the third floor would be up around were already in ce, and several tons of concrete had been poured since hedst seen this ce. Hed be the first to admit he didnt know much about how construction worked, but this seemed unusually fast and he couldnt see a single person above Level 4 here, meaning that this speed couldnt be wholly attributed to [Skills]. Sure, there were some in y, but nothing that would make a huge difference, not quite yet. Two words: overtime pay. Theyve been hurling money at you guys since the Event and what better way to spend it than to get us to work on a Sunday? Isaac chortled at that Im guessing thats a lot of money? Oh yeah. the man nodded happily Anyway, you have a nice day now, gotta get back to work. You too. Isaac bade him goodbye and left, internally scolding himself for noting to the very rational conclusion that thered normally be people working at an active construction site. A quick nce at his watch revealed that he was now on the verge of actually being , so he decided to hurry, moving at speeds normally reserved for the woods or emergencies. Being able to take it slow and walk was nice and avoided scaring the hell out the people he passed. Then again, that was what [Stealth] was for. Going invisible, Isaac broke into a run, his feet only touching the ground every ten or so meters until he was nearly there, phasing to let hisst step carry him straight into the teams little part of the basement from the street outside. Morning Isaac. Bailey called from inside the room, clearly pausing whatever he was doing to wait for him to enter, which he promptly did. Sadly, in a group this small, surreptitiously sneaking in while beingte simply didnt fly. You know, after that weekend you had, you could have stayed home, right? I started the meeting already because I thought you were taking the day off. Bailey told him. Actually, thats why Im here, to ask if there was anything you needed me to do before I took a few days off. Isaac replied. Hol up a second, what exactly happened during the weekend? Amy asked, looking back and forth between the pair. Hm, what big thing did happen over the weekend and might have been in the news? Patrick asked, waggling his eyebrows at her, causing everyone else to roll their eyes. She gave him a t look in response. Look, I know Isaac can get a little intense sometimes, but that doesnt mean that itll inevitably end up the news. except there he is, in the background of the press conference during which they announced that they caught that damn serial killer. Raul said, holding out his phone so everyone could see the screen. He didnt bother zooming in, though, literally everyone here was focused into Perception to some degree. And then Isaac noticed the baby dragon poking its head out of the former rangers pocket. Generally, Isaac paid attention to everything around him to make sure there wasnt anything dangerous around him, that peoples weapons were sheathed and the only monsters there were familiars, pets, and other tamed versions. Brisa, who was currently curled up on a doggy bed in the corner, and this new pet were safe, so hed registered their presence and then dismissed them as a potential threat. This skill was something hed been practicing for close to a decade and hed gotten damn good at it, but it could miss things that werent a threat as that was primarily what he was looking. In this case, what hed failed to notice was how damn cute the little critter was. Noticing his gaze, it looked back at him and roared. or tried to, least. The dragon was tiny, if its headid on Rauls wrist, then the tail wouldnt reach the tip of his index finger, it was that small. So, in the end, all that came out of its maw was a cute little squeak, revealing toothless gums and a soft light glowing from deeper inside its body. If Isaac didnt know better, hed have thought it had yawned. With great effort and force of will, Isaac dragged his attention away from the adorable little critter and back to the conversation at hand. I spend the weekend clubbing and you go out and catch a serial killer, whats next? End world hunger? Amy jokingly asked. I think the more important question is, what exactly happened during the apprehension and why Isaac is conspicuously hiding his right hand in that picture. Karl suggested. The engineer also looked quite a bit differently than he had during the event. He was currently wearing a sweatshirt with metal weaved through it, though it wasnt just any metal. Rather, it was the malleable-beyond-all-sanity solid steel blob that made up Karls soulbound piece of gear. Essentially, this would allow him to manipte it as if it were a part of his own body, as well as making it tougher than any personal protective equipment currently in existence. Lets just say that people at our level are really fucking terrifying and leave it at that, shall we? Isaac suggested. Is there even a single thing that we might be able to learn that could, in theory, be useful? Karl countered. Fine. Isaac grumbled Basically, she specialized in her senses, analyzing anything and everything that the people she saw did and then extrapting their future actions from that. Then she had a [Skill] that let her act on that, perfectly executing counters to anything her opponent did once the analysis had gone on long enough. As in, she can literally dance through a hail of bullets unleashed by sixteen submachineguns while Im projecting [Far Strikes]. Wait, you actually fought her? Raul asked. Yes. If I hadnt been there, all those police officers would be dead and shed have gotten away. That isnt an overexaggeration to pad my own ego or put down those officers, that is the gods honest truth. She could run faster than they could aim, keep moving almost normally even after taking multiple gunshot wounds and had a soulbound knife she could teleport to. Isaac exined Also, I found out where the next evolutionary Level is, its either 25 or 30, because thats where her Level was at and she had a [Skill] that I could clearly identify as belonging to a third Evolution [ss]. Damn. Bailey cursed mildly You seem to havee through fine, though. What kind of power level does something like that have? A retaliation [Skill],pletely unnoticeable even to [Skills] that specialize in uncovering hidden things right up to the point where it activated, which attaches to the wounds she inflicts and makes them a million times worse if she loses the fight. Blew off my hand from a healed cut that was maybe a millimeter deep. Isaac said, wincing at the memory. It was hardly the first limb hed lost, but it was never a fun thing to have happen. [Hydras Regeneration]? Amy asked. [Hydras Regeneration]. Isaac nodded. Alright, so lets just get back to the topic at hand. Patrick interrupted Basically, you headed to Leipzig, helped track down this serial killer, then fought her when it became apparent that the police wouldnt be able to arrest her and then caught her but lost a hand which you then regrew, do I have that right? Yes. Isaac sighed Your point? Just how dangerous are high Level people? Very. If we wanted to, we could be walking natural disasters worse than the LA incident. And right now, there are maybe ten other people in the country that are on our Level. Isaac pointed out. that would exin the letter I got from the department that issued my visa yesterday. As in, hand delivered and tossed into my mailbox because mail doesnt get delivered on Sundays. Raul added thoughtfully. Theyre kicking you out? Isaac asked, aghast. Nah, the letter basically said your visa has been extended indefinitely, you wont have to bother reapplying. Reading between the lines, theyd really like for me to emigrate here. Raul replied Its a little weird, really. Normally, that entire department is like an enhanced interrogation technique in paperwork form where you basically have to be Sherlock Holmes just to figure out where to send the damn forms. And now, theyre not only doing everything without me having to lift a finger, theyre going out of their way to be helpful. Bureaucracy can move at light speed when theres a need for it. Thats probably how they justify being so damn slow normally. Amy said By the way, I got the same letter. How about you, Professor? Im actually a German citizen, so I didnt. Bailey replied But I must have gotten a dozen letters, emails from the US, asking me to return to the country of my birth. And when I turned that down, the Ambassador showed up on my doorstep. As they stared at him questioningly, he shed them a reassuring smile Dont worry, Im staying. I like it here. Anyway, that was basically it as far as the fight went. Ill write a proper report and put it into our archives, if anyone is interested. Isaac announced, trying to bring the meeting back to its original topic before it had gotten sidetracked Like I said earlier, Im going to take few days off to get some more Aspects and then evolve my [ss]. In case I need more XP to slot the Aspects than I get while acquiring them, are there any monsters whose Aspects you guys would like? I cant guarantee theyll actually end up dropping, but I can try to get them. Also, I do have a few more Aspects from a Wraith, Hydra and Poltergeist, if any you want one of those. Thats very generous, but why the sudden you can have whatever you want attitude? Patrick asked, clearly skeptical of the sudden generosity. I got in a fight with someone who was potentially the worlds most dangerous murderer and that made me think. Fighting against a person at our Level is fucking terrifying, and now the whole world knows it. Theres bodycam footage and I sincerely doubt theyll manage to keep that out of everyone elses hands in the long run. Everyone knows we work together and that you also spent all of Thursday casually beating Tier 5 monsters. Theres going to be a lot of scrutiny on everyone here, and that could result in some really dangerous scenarios. Id like to make sure everyone here has what they need to stay safe. Welp, thats dark. Thanks for thinking of us. Amymented dryly. Good luck. Bailey added Now though, there are a few things Id like to talk about. First of all, weve finally gotten permission to do run some experiments on the nature of autonomous summoning. Our bureaucratic overlords are yet to agree on what specific security measures they want to have in ce for creatures that can move freely, but we can run some on aquatic creatures because they cant move around without a waterway and Professor Sturm from the Aquatic Biology faculty has a suitable location. Also, theyre currently pretty much throwing money at our faculty and the construction on our new building is proceeding with record speed. Hell, theyre lighting up the entirety of the construction site so they can work overnight. Lastly, Im pretty sure theres another raiseing all our way. I havent been told anything concrete, but thats usually the go to response to the whole world trying to poach valued employees. The meeting continued on in that vein for a short while, dealing with boring bureaucratical crap until the others went to work doing some experiments while Isaac headed back home, already dreading having to fight oh so many more illusion creating monsters. But Bailey followed him and caught up to him right outside the building. Isaac, wait a second. Sure, whats up? Isaac replied, already wary and expecting a new problem to have cropped up. Show your face around here once or twice, ok? We both know how you can get, try to do something other than battle and ughter, at least for a little bit. Isaac grinned in response Sure, I will. Thanks for worrying about me, though. Always. Bailey nodded Anyway, good luck with getting those Aspects. Thanks, Ill probably need it. And if you need me for something, Im only phone call and ten minutes away. Isaac said and waved goodbye before running off. First, he activated [Sneaks] passive effect to seem less and less interesting and causing peoples gazes to slide off him so no one noticed him winking out from one moment to the next, then going full [Stealth] and running off. He returned to full visibility the moment he left campus though, running through the woods while the wind ruffled his hair. He knew he always said it, but he loved that sense of freedom that came with being able to run around wild and free. As his home came into view, he spotted someone tearing off into the woods while trying to be sneaky. That certainly hadnt taken. Sure, people knew by now that he had plenty of Aspects somewhere, but he hadnt expected someone to go ahead and try to rob him this quickly. He slowed his run and then a gun manifested in his hands. Spinning around, he took a moment to line up the shot and fired, hitting the man in the back of the head. He yelped in pain, stumbled, tripped over a root and falling t on his face. The would-be thief rose groggily, reaching up to touch the back of his head, fingersing away stained blue from the dye that had been contained in the paintball. And then Isaac shot him twice more, then waved as the man turned to re at him. The dye was something used in biochemistry to stain proteins and was something you never ever handled without gloves because there was nothing to stop it from bonding with the proteins in your skin if you spilled it on yourself. It wouldnt wash off because, well, it didnt so much end up on you skin as the skin itself changed color and would remain that way until the cells died and were reced by new ones. Sure, that happened every couple of weeks or so, but until then a fourth and fifth paintballs smacked into the mans corbones, paint stting upwards to stain his throat and chin. The thief shot him a dirty look and showed him both middle fingers, but Isaac just startedughing uproariously. There were no cameras or other recording devices around, hed checked, so the only thing that could get him in trouble was that mans word, except that would require that idiot to exin just where the incident had taken ce and why hed been trespassing. Besides, this guy was just the patsy, someone sent to see how hed respond. Now, Isaac could try to track down the people behind this mess, but then decided against it. It would take a while and it wasnt like there was anything to steal here. Well, there was, but it was all in pocket dimensions which were, in the case of the storage space, imprable while the room required a Level 100 plus spatial [Mage] to break into, so for all practical intents and purposes, his stuff would be safe for the foreseeable future. The real issue would be someone cing surveince devices around his property, but there was the simple solution of just buying the entire area around him, then he could destroy any surveince devices because they would be on his property. And as for drones, well, those wouldnt live long enough to see what destroyed them. After snapping off a quick email to the real estate agent, Isaac returned to the summoning area and called up a Fata Morgana. And another one after that, and so on, and so forth. It took him until well into the afternoon, but then he finally held a ssy orb streaked with grains of sand. Aspect of the Fata Morgana: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Fata Morgana a Fata Morgana. Mess with your enemies senses, create false images to trick them, or simply create holograms for less bloodthirsty asions. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Perception One of the following Skills: Perception Block Improved Basic Illusion Hologram Tactile Illusion The [Basic Illusion] hed gotten from the Lesser Illusionist was upgraded to [Improved Basic Illusion], which allowed him to pick a second subject to make illusions of, and he picked his [Form of Horror]. This would let him fake shifting into his ultimate form, tricking people into burning whatever theirst resort tricks were on a fakeout. And they had to react to that, because the time needed to tell whether it was real or not was enough for him to strike a lethal blow. As for the [Skill] from this new Aspect, he chose [Perception Block]. Perception Block (rare) This Skill allows the user to create a two-meter diameter sphere in which enhanced senses function considerably more poorly, reducing their effective power by the equivalent of 1 point of Perception per 10 mana invested. Cost: activation cost variable, upkeep cost 1/5 of activation cost per minute It was an incredibly basic [Skill], but useful as hell. For one, it would allow him to actually have private meetings with people, something would otherwise be damn near impossible, at least until science figured out how to replicate the effect of this [Skill]. They would do so eventually, but it would take a while and all the help Isaac could offer on that front was to point out what they could model such a device after. Mere momentster, hed finished writing the Email to the casino owner about having found a solution to his problem, including the [Skills] description in it. Then he paused and rewrote the whole thing to be less calm andposed scientist and more breathless youth exited to share his discovery with the world. After all, that was how hed acted in Vegas, when theyd actually met face to face. He also included a brief description of the monster and how to best fight it and prevent it from running amuck. Mainly, by summoning it in an enclosed space, which was advice he himself hadpletely ignored. Then again, he knew he was perfectly capable catching it given enough time, the only difference between doing it here or the summoning room was that here, it was his rock floor that was destroyed, rather than the brand spanking new floor of their building. But now, he could finally get on with the stuff he was actually interested in. Actually crossing des with a monster, rather than chasing one of those stupid little fucks all over the ce literal heaven. Hed already gained an Aspect to build upon from when hed been looking for something that one could stack and Aspect of the Forge Golem onto. Hed wait to slot it though, just in case he didnt wind up grabbing the Aspect of the de Tempest he was going for. The setup only took a moment and there it was, a trio of floating falchion-looking weapons surrounding a whole mess of smaller floating daggers, shing past each other to form a deadly glittering defensive field that would obliterate anything that came into contact with it, all to protect the fragile core hidden within. Isaac charged in, Kriegsmesser in his main hand, kabar in his off hand, and began to duel it. A falchion shed past his face, and if he hadnt knocked it off course using the kabar, hed have been down an ear. The Kriegsmesser parried a second falchion as he lunged, leaping over the third as he aimed to skewer the core in a single strike. It dodged, of course, swooping in from the side to destroy him with the meatgrinder that was its main body. Isaac twisted midflight, swinging the Kriegsmesser through the swarm, knocking several des away and making the swarm spasm for a moment, knives twisting and corkscrewing to avoid crashing into each other, with a mere handful even slowing their movement to a crawl, leaving them as a barrier between his weapon and the core. And then, Isaac stuck out his finger and poked one of these slow moving weapons, activating [Crippling Blow]. It was a [Skill] hed grabbed during the frenzied Level up during the Event but never ended up using because he could usually turn any opportunity to use it into an opportunity to kill his opponent. This, though, was the exact kind of situation this [Skill] had been meant for. The Tempest lost control of that weapon as it began to wobble, though its location rtive to the core remained constant. It shifted again, des swarming around the area where its control was weakened, so Isaac repeated the process, damaging its ability to control the swarm of des bit by bit all the while contorting in increasingly ridiculous ways to avoid getting skewered. But then, finally, there was arge enough gap for him to shatter the core with the tip of Old Reliable in its Zweih?nder form. des of all shapes and sizes flew every which way as the force controlling their flight suddenly vanished, forcing Isaac to fling himself backwards to avoid getting hit and even so, he still had to phase to avoid a couple of des. Then he gathered up all the des into his storage space and then he did it again. Hed drop theses des off with Stagmerter, maybe he could make use of them. Thered been a massive grin on his face during the fight, though. This was a proper battle, not what essentially amounted to a high stakes game of tag. He repeatedly summoned the same monster, over and over, until he got an Aspect. It might have taken until well past sundown, but he didnt really care as he was actually enjoying these fights. And now it was time to start using these things. The slot alone cost a whopping 4,000 XP, almost as much as the next Level would. The one after that, which he wouldnt be using until after the Evolution, would cost 8,000 and that was thest one he was likely going to be able to buy anytime soon. As for the cost of slotting each Aspect, that cost another 3,000 XP, which he wouldnt even have been able to afford if not for the XP gained from the monsters hed killed to actually get the Aspects. Aspect of the Barbed Dervish: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Barbed Dervish a Barbed Dervish. Manifest barbed wire at will or control it as if it were a part of your own body. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Strength One of the following Skills: Barbed Wire Manifestation Wire Control A Barbed Dervish was an incredibly nasty little critter that was effectively an animated ball of barbed wire. Hed seen its [Wire Control] be used to devastating effect in the past, but he wouldnt be using it. Instead, he immediately also slotted the next Aspect. Aspect of the de Tempest: This is the distilled essence of what makes a de Tempest a de Tempest. Manifest edged weapons of all stripes at will, strengthen them to an extreme degree or manipte them using your will alone. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Strength One of the following Skills: de Manifestation de Control Eternal des [Wire Control] turned into [de Control] and [Eternal des] became his Aspect [Skill]. de Control (rare) How many weapons can a man wield? One? Sure. Two? Also sure. Three? Well, maybe you could hold it in your mouth and make your dentist a millionaire by the end of the year if you keep using that technique? Or you could use this Skill. It gives the user perfect awareness of where each affected weapon is, as well as letting the user freely levitate each weapon within two meters of themselves. However, it does not grant a multitasking power, so caution is advised. In addition, proper and safe use of this Skill requires caution and a lot of practice. Cost: 5 mana per second of use per kilogram levitated This [Skill] was pretty much perfect for someone who had a multitude of weapons that could be manifested and demanifested at will, as well as having multiple different effects added, such as being able to damage someones ability to use magic and the like. The warning about not granting a multitasking ability and the general difficulty of using telekinesis while not focusing solely on it was entirely on point for most people, but not him. Not because he was already an expert at it, though, but rather, because his soulbound weapon quite literally could not hurt him unless he wanted it to. Having his Zweih?nder smack him in the face might feel a little weird, but it wouldnt actually hurt. Eternal des (epic) After infusing his weapons with mana, the user will never have to worry about their weapons breaking ever again. They will slowly repair themselves over time, a process that can be sped up by applying additional weapon. However, unless the weapon is reduced to atoms, the initial mana investment will suffice. In addition, the weapons be twice as durable withoutpromising flexibility. Cost: 20 mana per kilogram the weapon weighs He could repair Old Reliable using one of its intrinsic abilites even if it had been reduced to nothing but dust, however, that required all the materials used in its construction, a list that was constantly getting longer and longer. Right now, it was perfectly manageable, but once he started absorbing Event items and weapons forged from the remains of [Raid Bosses]? Hed rather waste an Aspect [Skill] than go through that a few years down the road. As for the new abilities the Aspects gave the weapon via its [Skill] of [Aspect Infusion], they were annoyingly vague. Aspect Infusion: This gives Old Reliable a variation on each form based on the users Aspects (Hydra: Venomsteel, Dunkleosteus: Bonede, Specter: Astral Dagger, Fata Morgana: Invisible de, de Tempest: Triple Threat). This costs 15 mana each time a new Aspect is infused, and 10 mana per minute of keeping it active. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. A few minutes of experimentation yielded the answer, though. Basically, the form based on the Fata Morgana was pretty normal, but barely visible beyond a faint heat haze, making it a stone cold pain in the ass to fight against. As for the one hed gotten from the de Tempests, it manifested two more des identical to the one he applied it to moving on a parallel vector and with the same momentum. It was awesome, but taking a hell of a lot of time to master, as the two instances of having a Kriegsmesser bounce of his nose could attest to. Mind you, he was being a hell of a lot more reckless than hed normally be on ount of the only thing that could be hurt being his pride. Testing the limits, at least when it was possible to do so safely, was a good way to learn. Forcefully stabbing the de in the direction of a nearby, but still out of reach, tree caused to identical daggers to manifest next to it, flying towards the unfortunate nt. Yellow light red as he applied [Piercing Strike] to it and the weapons sank into the wood up to the hilt. It was a pretty cool trick and would let him wield three identical versions of the same weapon using [de Control], but using it cost 1 mana per second of manifestation per de, making it too expensive to use for extended periods of time. What he could do though was cut into a monsters hide, then manifest the copies at the exact right moment to see them fly in through the wound and apply [Starfang], leaving two burning, envenomed weapons stuck deep in its body while he could still use his other weapons freely. That left just one more thing to do before evolving, get an Aspect to stack onto his Aspect of the Dunkleosteus. He already knew which one he wanted but he wouldnt be getting it anytime soon. The Megalodon was a gigantic, prehistoric shark, effectively a normal Great White but a whopping 25 meters long, the length of a standard swimming pool. He could get away with summoning a Dunkleosteus and melting the body in some random nearbyke in the middle of the night. Doing so with this thing yeah, hed get caught and look like one of those crazy summoners hed been warning about. It wouldnt matter that this thing was basically just one big brute that was quite literally stuck in theke and even if he couldnt kill it, a few depth charges would. It was big, scary and Tier 5 was still a pretty rming word. Summoning it in a public ce was not a good idea, even if no one was around. And it wasnt like he could just go to some random little puddle, either. For it to not count as an environmental kill, aquatic monsters needed adequate space. Given how big that thing was, there werent may candidates. or he could just make a space like that. He was buying up thend around him anyway and he was about to get a significant windfall from selling Aspects to the police department. Building himself his ownke so he could summon aquatic monsters was perfectly doable now, though it also fell solidly under the umbre of crazy shit that only people with too much money on their hand do. Still, he could afford it. End of the day though, it just wasn''t realistic to get the Aspect anytime soon, and trying to get it would dy his evolution by far too long. So now, hed evolve his [ss]. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Undying Wraith Species: Human Level: 24 XP: 1,372/5,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 500/500 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 80 Strength 60 Agility 70 Magic Power 50 Magic Regeneration 60 Free Points: 0 Stat, 19 Skill Central Skills Form of Horror XVI The Chosen Weapon XXI Skills Hundred Faces XIV Stealth XVII Power Strike XXV Piercing Strike XXVI Sundering Strike XXIII des XXV Sneak XVII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XIX Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXIII Phantom Step XIII Unknown Fear XIII Bestial Regeneration XII Undying Focus XI Tools of Terror XII Fleeting Presence III Crippling Blow IV General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des once hed regained some of the XP spent on Aspects. Isaac sighed and proceeded to summon a Hydra. After all, those Aspects were selling like hotcakes after hed regrown a hand. Or rather, they would, once he actually started answering the literally hundreds of requests that had been pouring in via email. Chapter 73: Evolution, the second Chapter 73: Evolution, the second Isaac took a deep breath and spent the 5,000 XP needed to Level up one final time. Every Evolution was important, but that went doubly for the second one. For one, it was the first one that gave options to change ones race. Right now, most people considered the Race: Human part of the Status Screen to be the most ridiculously superfluous thing on there. Of course, the number of people whod reached the second Evolution and knew better was vanishingly small. As in, if Isaac needed to take off his socks to count them, hed be very surprised. As to what racial options would be avable, he could only specte. There were certainbinations of Aspects and [sses] that could unlock them, like any kind of [Warrior]-style [ss] and the Draugr Aspect would grant the [Draugr] [ss] along with the Draugr race. The [ss] provided incredible [Skills] both for offense and mobility, while the race passively provided incredible survival and regeneration. All for the low, lowprice of ones good looks and human appearance. Also, a certain focus in ones build could also open up new racial options. For example, an aquatic build granting the option to turn into a fishperson or mermaid, and so on, and so forth. Still, even if he was offered something good, he almost certainly wouldnt take it. Changing races tended to lead to being treated differently. Anyone stupid enough to do that to peoples faces was a near-automatic Darwin Award winner, given that the very thing they were mocking people for also marked them as being extraordinarily powerful. Isaac shook his head at focusing too much onto specting instead of actually looking at what he had avable. He quickly tossed the ten Stat points hed gained from the Level up into Mana Regeneration, and then pulled up the Evolution Tab. Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the second Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new sses. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 25 until you evolve your ss. Here are your possible ss Evolutions: Prophet of Loki (legendary) You have gazed upon the magnificence that is the divine trickster, in all his ultimate glory. So you now gain the option of joining him in the pursuit of making the world a less boring ce, isnt that exciting? To gain the incredible power this ss grants, all you have to do is join Loki in his cause and spread the good word, fighting boredom, mundanity and stagnation as you go along. After all, nothing is as boring as everything staying the same. And towards this purpose, you may invoke the divine wrath of the greatest Norse god, thus is the power of a Prophet. So join him, be an agent of change and good natured fun, what other choice is there` (Unlocks Liosalfar racial option) Isaac stopped reading further down the [ss] list to facepalm. Hede face to face with a god, and now he was being offered the [ss] for that, a [ss] which he would not, ever, under any circumstances, be taking. The simple fact that it was a divine [ss] was reason enough for that, never mind that Isaac could not stand the god it was attached to. In essence, divine [sses] came with a bunch of strings attached, but they were pretty powerful, granting rare, epic and in this case, even legendary levels of power, all in exchange for appropriate levels of worship. This worship would, in turn, allow the gods to reciprocate using some tiny measure of their true power without jostling the bnce between divine factions. However, at the end of the day, these kinds of [sses] were only normal [sses] of their rarity, and on the weaker end at that. A true blue legendary [ss] would go just as far, if not further without, any kind of annoying caveats. Besides, you couldnt just grab a legendary rarity divine [ss] without actually seeing the relevant god or achieving something equally insane. An epic [ss] was easier to get, but it still required a ratherrge sacrifice of goods, livestock, or if the god in question was dark enough, human lives. Anyone could get a rare [ss], but getting a normal rare [ss] was easy enough and Isaac would look down on anyone who took that easy way to power. End of the day, power borrowed was power that wasnt yours. Really, there was no way in hell hed pick that. However, he was d that hed seen the option, because it confirmed a couple of things for him. The first was that some gods were writing [System] messages. That message up there had been incredibly silly, not asional [System] silliness, but rather Loki level ridiculousness. Also, the [System] usually didnt blow smoke up peoples asses as it had done here. This had pretty clearly been written by the god himself. It gave all the information needed to understand what the [ss] required and what it offered in return, it merely did so using supremely weird phrasing. It also represented solid proof that none of his achievements from the other timeline carried over. After all, hede face to face with the god Janus there, so he should also have been offered something along the lines of [Prophet of Janus], but he hadnt. And that incident had taken ce mere moments before his return to the past, no less. If anything were to carry over, it should have been this but it hadnt. On some level, that was disappointing, but weirdly enough, he was feeling pretty relieved. Somehow, this represented a kind a separation from that timeline of death and Armageddon, that he wasnt tied to that great failure anymore. Now though, hed check out the race just for the hell of it. After all, the Liosalfar, or as most people knew it, the elven race was pretty famous and one of the few that he might have considered taking when offered, though right now, it was solidly off the table due to it being linked to a [ss] that was, in turn, linked to Loki. Congrattions! Youve reached the point where you may change your race! Sticking with your old race might not give you exciting new body parts and bonuses, but it sure isfortable to stick with what you know, isnt it? Human (natural, mundane (current race)) Homo sapiens sapiens, the wise man, the Earths premier species, or at least thats what they think. Hell, the very word primates is derived from the Latinnguage and means first or noble, which is where the people who named them think they are when ranking all living beings. Humans are adaptable, intelligent tool users descended from endurance predators, their ability to sweat allowing them to cool without having to stop and pant, letting them outrun anynd creature at a distance. In addition, their hands are highly flexible and allow them to grasp and manipte most tools while the high number of neurons in their brain grant them a high level of intelligence, pattern recognition and creativity. Benefits: intelligence (current level), Base Stats: 5-15 for a normal adult Liosalfar (supernatural) I believe the phrase Bow Chicka Wow Wow is appropriate here. Sex appeal made manifest. Hottest thing under the sun, and maybe even hotter than the ming ball of sma and nuclear fusion itself. That is how someone might describe the, if you want to be boring, fair folk. Beauitful, long lived, strong as hell. Who wouldnt want to be one? Benefits: increased lifespan, increased magical sensitivity, increased affinity with wild animals and nature magic Base Stats: 10-25 in physical stats (Strength, Fortitude, Agility, Perception), 30-35 in magical stats He hadnt been offered any races other than his current one, human, and the Liosalfar, which was attached to that stupid [Prophet of Loki] [ss]. Also, hed gotten a chance to read the proper description for that race in the other timeline which most certainly wasnt what was written here. Someone had clearly had a lot of fun with that one. Overall though, it seemed to be the same race that hed known from the other timeline, just described by someone with the emotional maturity of a toddler. It offered great strength through a decent boost to the physical stats and a massive one to the magical ones, though the biggest draw would always and forever be the massively increased lifespan. But there were plenty of good alternatives for thetter, some avable through [sses], others gained from Aspects. [Draconic Lifeforce], [Eternal Vigil], [Perfect Regeneration], [Stabilized Gics], and so on, and so forth. Isaac facepalmed again. How the hell had a being older than all countries and most civilizations, at the very minimum, managed to sound so utterly juvenile? But yeah, who wouldnt want to be an elf, a light elf to be specific? Well, depending on who you asked, that distinction wasnt actually necessary. Alfar were elves, split into the Liosalfar, the light elves and clich blonde beauties with immense magical power and the D?ckalfar, the dark elves who lived underground and were amazing metalsmiths. However, some scrs thought that the D?ckalfar were actually dwarves, given how simr they were. Others used the term Svartalfar, ck elves, for dwarves, meaning that both they and the dark elves lived underground. The [System] hadnt been any help either, calling the people whod chosen the dwarven race Dwarves. Sometimes, it felt like it picked which words to use purely based on what would fuck with humanity the most. Thankfully, he still had plenty of other options for a [ss], even if they didnte with a cool new race. Beast of Infinite Forms (epic) Turning into a massive Kaiju and finishing a fight in moments sounds great, right? But what if a Kaiju is the only thing you can turn into, do you think it might end up being a little inconvenient? And that is what this ss is for, granting countless Skills to improve shapeshifting, gaining and customizing additional forms, perfectly adjusting the new bodies. Be the deadly predator you always were on the inside! Weaver of Deathly Images (epic) What was that, right there in the shadows? And wasnt someone standing right there just a moment ago? and what is that, is that wind in your neck the hot breath of some monster? Point is, a person with this ss can be bloody terrifying, for they are some of the worlds deadliest assassins. Masters of stealth and manipting their victims senses, and they even have the ultimate ability to snatch their victim out of this very reality and trapping them with you in a pocket dimension for a few minutes. But really, how many people are still going to be alive after that long. Reeve (epic) What is justice? Blindly following the letter of thew? Aplex moral question without any clear answers? Merely a title the powerful p onto their decisions to make them seem alright? Yet despite all those questions, there are a few things that are unquestionably good, right and just. For example, stopping a notorious serial killers murder spree. And this ss is about things like this. Catch the bad guy, save the people. This ss grants you Skills to solve crimes, find criminals, take them down, and finally, the ability to actually contain them. dewraith (legendary) There are as many paths of the de as there are grains of sand on a beach, each only differentiated by a tiny facet of their being. A different weapon, a different Core Skill or set of Central Skills, just a tiny change that alters how the ss is used. But this ss is more than any ordinary, focused one. This is the true essence of fighting with a sword of any type, shape, elemental affinity and every other kind of modification. This is the power of an adaptable soulbound de, one that can be anything it needs to be, anything you could possibly want to y a monster. This ss is all about de and the Skills it grants reflect that. With this ss, you can boost the power of your sword, strengthen your strikes and empower your fighting skills. Machiavellis Heir (legendary) Movers and shakers shape the world. Some do so openly, leading nations as democratically elected leaders or monarchs, others do so from the shadows. A word here, a gift there, and maybe a little espionage out of the public eye. You have shaken the world multiple times, all from your position first a student and then a research assistant, while pawning the credit off to someone else, and continue to do so. You have proven yourself worthy of inheriting the mantle of the father of modern political philosophy. The knowledge he once held now passes to you, you may call on his instincts and even, once a week, his advice. In addition, this ss will bring with the ability to conduct negotiations and statecraft at preternatural levels, letting you sense motives, see through lies and visualize interpersonal connections without ever having to do more than activate a single Skill. (see all avable sses?) There were only a handful of [sses] avable, and only half of them were actually linked to his current [ss], the others having been unlocked by his achievements. However, that was to be expected. Having picked such a specialized [ss] with such a specific purpose had already set his path rather thoroughly. Now, hed gotten the option of choosing to focus either on direct fighting, stealth fighting and ambushes, or his shapeshifting. Sure, there were others he could look at, but that list covered literally all of the ones hed unlocked, ever. However, the ones shown were always the best ones, meaning that that list was pretty superfluous. Given that the lowest rarity [ss] he was being shown was epic, that meant that everything on that list was rare, meaning they were effectively trash, at least to him. He''d also gotten a [ss] for catching Krebs. It was only epic, but it seemed that the [System] deemed the fact that hed caught a notorious serial killer whod left a trail of bodies all over the continent significant enough toment on it, but not significant enough to give him something legendary. After all, hed only caught one such criminal. Oh, and then there was [Machiavellis Heir]. He wouldnt have thought hed unlock an inheritor [ss], given that his situation was kina, sorta, utterly unique. Well, at least as far as he knew, though if someone had ever travelled to the past and prevented an apocalypse, Isaac assumed hed have been offered the chance to pick up their mantle as well. But he definitely hadnt expected to get that inheritor [ss], even though it made a hell of a lot of sense after that exnation. He had taken a rather significant number of world changing, world shaking actions, all from his lowly position as a research assistant to one Professor Adam Bailey. His knowledge from the other timeline had certainly helped with that, but as hed just found out, the [System] didnt acknowledge any of that. But also, ouch. The word machiavellian had some damn serious negative connotations and smacking him with thatbel could easily be taken as an insult. In some ways, it was the perfect [ss], quite literally designed to change the world. In others, it was the worst possible choice. It was a nonbat [ss] and once the [Skills] from his old [sses] stopped being quite as effective,bat would no longer be a good shortcut to power. Besides, it just wasnt him, it Isaac sighed. Thatst point had sounded whiny even to his own ears. He also realized that he was justing up with reasons to not take it because he truly did not want to. This [ss] wasnt what hed envisioned taking and that was one of the factors to consider. A [ss] became a part of you and it was a hell of a lot easier to advance it if one actually enjoyed what it let you do. Grinding a bunch of [Skills] one did not enjoy using was annoying as hell and provided subpar results. In the end, while he didnt have to be the strongest person in the world, he did need some measure of power to properly deal things, as that little incident with the serial killer had sadly proven. Taking a nonbat [ss] was simply not an option, even if [Machiavellis Heir] would have been truly incredible. Hell, having any kind of inheritor [ss] would have been awesome simply because of how it linked you to one of historys greats. Also, while this [ss] would have been truly amazing when dealing with people holding politician [sses] of their own and help him sessfully lie to people despite them having [Sense Bullshit] or simr [Skills], there were alternatives. Specifically, he was great at concealing his status and the vast Level difference stemming from the fact that he was advancing so incredibly quickly throughbat would do the rest. As long as the people facing him across the negotiation table werent also fighters who spent all their free time wrestling Hyrdas and Trolls, he should be fine. That just left the three [ss] focusses. Stealth, shapeshifting, the de. Shapeshifting was awesome, but not his primary focus. And his need to stay at least somewhere in the vicinityof the top meant that he couldnt sit and grind both Aspects and the XP to slot them for months on end, as that would either slow his overall progression to a crawl or take too much time away from his work in research. Stealth was a solo way of fighting unless it was mostly limited to scouting, but Isaac was likely going to be fighting alongside people a lot in the future. His fighting style, the way of the demented pinball, made massbat difficult enough without throwing in an Evolution that made it hard for his allies to see him, which in turn massively increased the risk of not-so-friendly fire. And then there was the path of the sword, the [dewraith]. It was a different path than the one hed walked in the other timeline in some ways, but very simr in the sense that stealth had slowly be less and less of a focus. In the end, a [Rogue] needed to focus either on stealth and ambushes or a more upfront fighting style, and hed picked thetter the first time around and hadnt regretted it, so he saw no reason not to do so again. Besides, it was the only legendary of the bunch and the best one to pass on, given how many ways there was to end up with a [ss] all about the de. So that was what he picked. Congrattions on evolving your ss to be a dewraith! Would you like to pick out your Skills now? Y/N Yeah, no, there was something else he needed to do first and then he could see if he could still afford to get some [ss] [Skills]. After all, Level 25 was when you got your [Aura]. Chapter 74: Aura Chapter 74: Aura [Auras] were an interesting part of ones powers, and one that youd be stuck with for a long time. Much like you got your [Inspect] and [Privacy] upgrades with your second [ss] and were stuck with it. Sure, they got stronger as you levelled and further scaled with some other Aspect of your kit, but their basic form would not change from what someones first Evolution offered. That being said, [Auras] werent necessarily linked to your [ss]. You were offered an absurd number of options, the first based on your personality, then a few based on your various achievements, one for every Aspect, one for every [ss], one for every [Skill] you used a lot, one for every point was, there were a lotof options. Finding the right [Aura] was somewhat simr to digging through the bargain bin at the supermarket. There was a lot of crap there, some decent things, and some that were literal gold. Unfortunately, the [Systems]bels didnt really help here, though. The various [Auras] were ranked frommon to legendary, but that generally referred to acquisition difficulty, rather than raw power. Sure, legendary was better thanmon in almost all circumstances, but not always. For example, a luck aura unlocked by winning the lottery would be ranked pretty highly, possibly even being considered legendary, but luck effects were generally not the strongest. For example, if there was a banana peel near where someone was walking, luck could interfere and increase the probability of someone stepping on it, but no fighter worth their salt would miss a banana peel lying on the ground and definitely not put their feet anywhere near such an obvious tripping hazard. At the end of the day, luck didnt create situations, it made beneficial things that were fated to happen do so sooner orter, depending on what was helpful at a given moment. A lightning bolt being dyed until the target had walked right up to its intended point of impact, old masonry crumbling ever so slightly prematurely and the like. Except people paying attention could see most of those things were about to happen and then, they could simply step out of the proverbial line of fire. And that was how it went with the auras. Congrattions! You have reached Level 25, gained your third ss and are now eligible to choose your Aura! Your Aura is a projection of your will, manifested out in the world, able to be felt by all it touches (barring Auras specifically meant to unnoticed). Each Aura also has their own, unique power which can be applied within its area of control. When Auras ovep and conflict, you may use your Aura to fight your foes, but the effectiveness of your efforts may differ significantly based on your respective Auras. Each Aura has several key words that describe its attributes, such as range (short: 2 m, medium: 5 m, long: 10 m, very long: 25 m), purpose bat, sensory, utility, mobility, domination) and affinities (specific element, emotion, concept, etc. ) Projecting your Aura costs 10 points of mana per minute, certain auras have the option of investing additional mana to create additional effects. Upon first activating your Aura, it will reach full strength slowly, use this to familiarize yourself with it, how it feels, what it does, and how to best manipte it. Warning: only one [Aura] can be used at a time (without specific [Skills], which are only avable in [sses] that specialize in their use). Activating two [Auras] is not fatal or causes permanent disabilities, but you will not like what happens when you try. Each [Aura] costs ten [Skill] points. It was the same screen asst time, including that stupid little line that practically dared you to try and use two [Auras] concurrently and end with them both intermingled, locked together, unable to be used or deactivated until you somehow managed to separate the two again and deactivate one of them. If you hadnt gotten good enough with either of them before then you had to shut them down forcefully using something like a spiritual attack, which both messed with your ability to do quite literally everything [System] rted and hurt like a godsdamed bitch. Also, trying to figure out the intricacies of two [Auras], rather than sticking to one, massively limited how good you could get with either. Lastly, it was simply very expensive to buy two of these things, given that after the second Evolution, you only got two [Skill] points per Level and from the third onwards, you only got one. However, hed saved plenty of points, which meant that he did have the points to spare. Whether or not he would, well, that depended on what was offered to him. General Auras Personality Aura: Aura of Obsessive Focus Goal Aura: Aura of the Desperate Seeker Achievement based Auras Aura of the Reeve (epic) Aura of the Hidden Master (legendary) Aura of the Teacher (rare) Aura of Reckless Hunter (rare) Aura of the Ambitious Summoner (legendary) Aura of the Shady Savior (epic) Aura of the Tarnished Knight (epic) Aura of the Crimson Dawn (legendary) Aura of Divinity Endured (legendary) Aura of the Subtle Leader (legendary) ss based Auras Aura of the Hidden de mon) Aura of the Beast Within (epic) Aura of Swords Intent (legendary) Aspect based Auras Aura of the Ghost (rare) Aura of the Spectral Haunt (epic) Aura of Depths Hunger (rare) Aura of Constant Renewal (rare) Aura of Eternal Renewal (epic) Aura of Reality Altered (rare) Aura of Reality Faked (epic) Aura of the Cruel Binding (rare) Aura of the destorm (epic) Twenty-four options. Twenty-four. That that was a lot. But then again, Isaac could dismiss all of the ones linked to Aspects out of hand as they were simply too hyper-focused to be useful in all situations. [ss] based ones were very much meh as well, giving the ability to hide better and pointing out the best ce to stab when attacking from ambush, hiding an intent to attack and then bursting out with an intense wave of killing intent upon initiating the offensive and projecting des at close range, respectively. Thetter, linked to his new [ss] was definitely good, but there were plenty of others that were also good. And then there were the [Auras] based on him, specifically, rather than his [sses], Aspects or achievements. Aura of Obsessive Focus (medium range, utilitybat/, temporal/mental) Some people are unable to focus on any one thing long enough to finish it. Others, those being the vast majority of people, can finish projects, but are also willing and quite able to take time off for more mundane pursuits. And then you have people who focus on one thing to the exclusion of everything else. People like you! And this Aura is about that feeling condensed to its absolute extreme, granting the user the power to sense things within his Aura to a limited degree, then focus in on a specific area at will. As to what happens to that area? Simple, time itself will slow to a crawl (or at least moves 10 % more slowly, though this can be increased with enough practice). This can be used on the user himself to give him more time to think or slow down enemies and their attacks. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), can be overcharged with up to 50 mana per minute to enhance temporal effects Aura of the Desperate Seeker (very long range, sensory, mental/emotion) We all search for things in this life. Money, wealth, power, freedom, those are themon ones. But others seek knowledge instead, be that for knowledges sake, slowly and methodically uncovering all the secrets the world holds, or to achieve some goal, desperately searching for the solution, wing at the world to make it release its secrets. This Aura embodies the spirits of thetter, of grabbing reality itself by the cor and shaking it until it gives up all that delicious information. It is a sensory Aura that given the user information about anything it touches, and can be focused to further enhance the amount of information it gives. It may also be used in conjunction with Inspect and its upgrades to gain information on monsters and other people without needing direct line of site on them, so long as they are within the Auras range. Lastly, this Aura may be infused with the frantic, manic energy of desperation and can be used as a (weak) mental attack. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), can be overcharged with up to 25 mana per minute to enhance information defense pration and secondary mental effects. Yikes, the [System] was not pulling any punches today. That Aura based on his personality felt a little pointed. But vor text aside, the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] was bloody fantastic. It was also a sensory type Aura, just like hed had in the other timeline. A sensory [Aura] not only made for a fantastic fig leaf for discovering certain things, it was also something he could manipte with the deftness of a virtuoso. If he also grabbed an [Aura] forbat, hed be far stronger in a fight while also having an excuse for how hed figured out some things. The [Aura of Obsessive Focus] was good as well, but the sensoryponent was vastly inferior and the temporal effect wasnt that vital to him. A proper, true-bluebat [Aura] would produce superior results and if he picked another one for the express purpose of wielding it inbat, that was what he would get. The problem of training two [Auras] at the same time would be a non-issue as he was already highly proficient with one of them. As for the cost, he could afford it right now and it would likely be worth it. Now he just had to pick one. Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood/renewalbat) When the System descended, it brought war with it. War, conflict, bloodshed. Some people drowned in it, their lives ending in one of a myriad of horrible ways. Others, though, they survived and rose back up, stronger than ever. A phoenix, rising from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield and taking flight among the pirs of smoke that rise from the field of corpses, reborn anew in the crucible of blood and steel to take war to take war to the very heavens themselves. This Aura allows the user to wreath themselves in an aura of blood and violence, projecting hardened bs of crimson energy around themselves, to be used as a means of attack and defense, as well as to enhance the users stats by up to 10% (this can be increased through practice). However, while this Aura is active, the user embodies the very spirit of a phoenix emerging from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield, healing in the midst of a storm of violence, constantly increasing as conflict continues and esctes, and as more blood and more blood soaks the soil underfoot. If the user wants to, it can also show those who sense it the entirety of what the user has killed, demonstrating their power and achievements to all those who would dareto face them on the field of battle. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), cannot be overcharged with mana, projections cost vary between 5-20 mana per second or spilled blood Aura of the Tarnished Knight (medium range,bat/domination, leadership/weaponry) Knights. Brave warriors who travel the countryside, ying bandits, saving princesses from dragons or waking them from a curse of sleep via true loves kiss. That is the knight as he appears in a fairy tale. Knights. Lesser nobles given a little bit ofnd, power and influence, all so they were in a position to afford upkeep on a warhorse and set of te armor with the end goal of serving the king in times of conflict and strife. They were also expected to uphold their code of honor, the code of chivalry, upholding such values as faith, charity, justice, hope, diligence, valor, truth, temperance and other high minded ideals. This is the idealized version of the historical knight. The real life version a little less so. Sure, they were expected to be all those things, but in reality? Yeah, things were nowhere near that rosy. The knights were an elitist group of pricks that was almost impossible to join, and the people who tried and failed but still wore the armor were often decried as Raubritter. Better? Maybe, if a little pessimistic. This Aura embodies the idea of a knight in the realistic sense. A warrior who works towards good causes, while realizing there are certain actions that would further those causes while also being looked askance upon by others. As such, it gives the user an aura of truthfulness and might, while helping hide some of the darker aspects of their being. And should those things nheless reach the light, it may create an effect that helps convince others of the necessity of those deeds. In addition, the user may manifest a full set of spectral armor (modelled after any historical armor the user wishes for) for a slight additional mana cost. This Aura ces you in the world as you are, a warrior striving for a goal without being bogged down by the chains of propriety. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), 20 per minute if armor is manifested, can be overcharged with up to 30 mana per minute to enhance the users charisma ormassively strengthen the power of the spectral armaments Both of these were pretty cool, though as far as he was concerned, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] was the clear winner here. It was even pretty damn simr to his old style of fighting. Killing minions, using their life force to power up certain attacks that epted it as an alternative power source, and then using them to obliterate [Raid Bosses]. With the right setup, it could be incredibly powerful, though it was massively weaker when there werent any little minions scurrying around underfoot, not that that was ever likely to be an issue in a world overrun by monsters. The [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] was obviously a hell of a lot weaker than a well thought out build with proper synergies, but it was the exact kind of thing an endurance fighter like him needed, especially when fighting against hordes of enemies. Therefore, he took both the [Auras]. This meant hed have to level a little bit before he could get any of his [ss] [Skills], but that was fine. [Auras] would always be relevant, while a lot of the older [Skills] could easily be less and less useful as time passed. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: dewraith Species: Human Level: 25 XP: 1,372/8,400 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 500/500 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 80 Strength 60 Agility 70 Magic Power 50 Magic Regeneration 70 Free Points: 0 Stat, 2 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XVI The Chosen Weapon XXI Skills Hundred Faces XIV Stealth XVII Power Strike XXV Piercing Strike XXVI Sundering Strike XXIII des XXV Sneak XVII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XIX Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXIII Phantom Step XIII Unknown Fear XIII Bestial Regeneration XII Undying Focus XI Tools of Terror XII Fleeting Presence III Crippling Blow IV General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Fata Morgana Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest de Control Eternal des [Empty Slot] And now, it was time to try it out. The [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] activated slowly, a tingling feeling manifesting at first in his eyes, soon jumping to all the normal sensory organs like the ears and nose, and then, finally, moving on to his skin, the biggest sensory organ of all. Everything felt a million times more intense for a moment and then he felt thing normally again, but what he could sense was everything. Well, everything within twenty-five meters, that was. It felt good. It felt right. It fit like a godsdamned glove, like an old friend finally returning, or maybe like finally going home. Of to his right, a mouse went running, scared nearly to death by the sudden burst of foreign will. Isaac muttered a silent apology and retracted his [Aura] from it, but only it. By checking for things like air currents, radiated body heat and the like, he could perfectly keep track of other living beings without actually having to touch them. Good for stealth, but also for avoiding angering people. After all, you could feel the vor of an [Aura] that touched you, so if it was a sensory [Aura] that swept over a person and that person took it the wrong way, well, lets just say that being careless with a sensory [Aura] was an excellent way to end up having to have teeth regrown. Hence, the trick of not directly scanning people. Of course, this technique disyed true mastery of ones sensory [Aura], something he had precisely noexcuse for having at this point in time, so hed stick to tearing ragged holes into his [Aura] wherever there were people and he was aware of that, the quick and dirty version of what hed used to do. And now, it was time to y around a little. The [Aura] cracked through the air like a whip, zeroing in on a specific tree and scanning it down to almost the cellr level, then sweeping through the air like gossamer thread, weaving through a nearby blue tit without the bird so much as twitching in response. Sensory type [Auras] could were rather ephemeral, at the end of the day. They were utter garbage at auricbat, but could even survive ovepping with more solid [Auras], though the amount of information gained would drop as a result. And given that sensory types were always the longer ranged of the two without a truly ludicrous level difference, a sufficiently mobile fighter could easily avoid having to defend themselves from an [Aura] more directly suited to auricbat. Now though, he wanted to fight something. A few momentster, the Tier 5 circle lit up and disgorged a Hydra, five heads roaring their fury at him, and then they lunged. Isaac closed his eyes and stepped to the side. Sure, with a high enough Perception you could do effectively the same thing, but not needing to rely almost exclusively on your eyes was a truly massive boon. Five heads struck, five heads missed, four heads came back around to try again. Thest one, meanwhile,y on the ground with massive brain damage. Isaac had punched it in the skull in just the right spot to fracture it, shards of bone shredding the grey matter below. It was one thing to know intellectually where a good spot to try that was, it was an entirely different matter to be able to see it and track it in real time. He sidestepped the first one, swayed his torso to the side to avoid the next, then leaned backwards as if he were ying limbo when thest two tried to pincer him and prevent him from stepping to the side. He chased them and leaped atop one of the necks, and jammed two fingers into its neck, aiming for a specific vertebra that had been slightly damaged when the first missed attack had smacked it into the rock ground. His strike broke the bone, severing that ones spine, rendering it thoroughly unable to move as everything between the break and the base of the neck was no longer receiving nerve signals. The Hydra tried the same method of attack, over and over, each time losing the ability to use one of its heads until all five were lying on the ground, desperately trying to heal from major brain and spinal trauma. Old Reliables Zweih?nder form manifested in Isaacs hands, ignited, and in a single sweeping arc, removed all the beasts heads. Sure, hed had seven Levels on this thing, but other than his [Aura], he hadnt used any [Skills] to take it down. Pericogntition, knowing exactly where to dodge and where to aim his blows, all of that added up to an insaneadvantage when no one could interfere with it. Isaac then wrote and sent a couple of Emails. The first went to Bailey, saying that hed been right about his hypothesis with regards to the next Evolution Level and it had unlocked apletely new style of power, so hed be taking a few more days off to try and master it to a certain degree. Of course, what hed really be doing was spending a couple of hours figuring out how to appear less skilled, then seeing how well he could handle the other [Aura] and once that was done, write an instruction manual. Hed then slowly be releasing this guide to [Aura] control bit by bit at a realistic speed. This manual would include some descriptions of his own [Auras], but only the parts that would be immediately obvious at a nce. He simply wouldnt be able to keep that secret in the first ce, and the mere appearanceof openness could win you a lot of goodwill. The second email went directly to Polizeir?tin Eisenberg, warning her about how much of a gamechanger [Auras] were and how badly things would have likely gonest Friday if Krebs had had one. It pointed out a few tricks for levelling quickly, and also mentioned how someone involved in the takedown would likely be offered a good [ss],stly offering that someone could drop by his house and buy some Aspects, also giving a shortened list to choose from. He''d sent it to her, specifically, because she was ostensibly the teams police contact, though there was no doubt everyone in the department would have it an hour after she read it, and then, so would everyone else. The police were pretty good at keeping their business secret, but they were hardly Fort Know when it came to information security. And finally, it was time to try out the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn]. When it went active, a fire erupted in the pit of his stomach, as if hed downed a bottle of everclear, and Isaac hunched over, gasping in shock and pain. But then, it began to spread, the pain going away as it was reced with fire and fury, bursting through his skin and erupting outwards and for the barest instance, a pair of bloody wings erupted from his back and curved around the front, though he might have imagined it. He straightened, his very being singing with fire and fury, a few small scrapes, which hed gotten when the [Aura] had first activated and sent that bolt of pain through him, disappearing into nothingness. Blood-red streaks appeared around him, disappearing momentster as he stopped feeding mana into them, the projection power at work. And then, the Hydra manifested and charged. Nothing better than a field test, amirite? A massive red chunk of matter, angr and sharp edged, appeared over his right hand and he drove it into the side of one of the Hydras necks. Blood spattered over him and the ground, and the [Aura] swelled while the toxic substance burned right off his skin wherever hed been struck as the regeneration truly kicked into high gear. The next hit severed another heads spine and more crimson liquid fountained into the air and flowed around him, the ongoing mana cost to support the [Aura] vanishing mere momentster as the blood took over that task. Bleeding shes appeared in the very air itself, cutting into the Hydra whenever it touched them, both they and his fists shredding it to pieces even as it regenerated. But Isaac was growing slightly faster, though there was a clear limit to how far it could boost him. Still, both the constructs and his regeneration were growing as the ground was stained crimson, even oveing the beasts regeneration until it died despite how quickly it was healing. Sure, theck of an interfering enemy [Aura] and the Level difference had made the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] seem more powerful than it actually was, but it was still damn good. Mostbat type [Auras] were pretty nasty when one could get ones foes within their range, but this one fit his fighting style perfectly. Yet despite how useful it had been, hed made several serious errors, des going awry, manifesting too early or toote, and so on, and so forth. It seemed like hed have to train it a little more than hed originally expected to have to. Training montage time! Chapter 75: A new era Chapter 75: A new era It was a beautiful morning as he headed over to the aquatic biology area of campus. It was a beautiful ce, with the main building being an old mill standing across a quietly babbling brook. Starkly contrasting the old-fashioned center of logistics was a massive area under arge metal roof on the other side of the brook, covering several small ponds and stic tubs. Even further were massive concrete pool-looking things shielded from birds of prey withrges. yeah, that part wasnt so pretty. But its surroundings certainly were. The biology sub-campus of the university was out in the middle of nowhere to give it space to expand, as well as ess to things that couldnt really be set up in the city, like forests for the rangers, fields for the agricultural students, and this ce. Isaacs [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] billowed out, leavingrge gaps around any locations in which he heard or saw people in. Pretty soon, it swept through mill, and he sent it zeroing in on interesting things. There was a little bit of a bandwidth issue when trying to take inrge amounts of data, for example, he couldnt just read every book in a library just by walking in because the sheer flood of information would be utterly overwhelming, and he wouldnt remember everything he casually nced at with his [Aura], but in the end, he learned just as much about fish in those few moments as he had in his entire life. Clownfish changed sexes when there were no females avable, there was a perch that protected its young by hiding them in its mouth and no one knew how heavy a whale shark was because no one had ever managed to weigh one. A bunch of interesting factoids which he could throw out at family dinners when someone asked about his work and he didnt feel like talking [System], but nothing lifechanging. He also managed to find a picture of Professor Sturm in some faculty directory, so he now knew what the man looked like nowadays. Hed looked him up online, but the photos from the university website werent always the most up to date, as hed had to find out the hard way a couple of weeks back. But when he got his first look at the pond the summoned fish was in, it turned out that that precaution hadnt been necessary, because A. Patrick was already there, his presence clearly showing which one was the one hed be heading to, and B. there was a sign. Really though, he should have expected that there would be a sign, though. This was a university, an institution of science, theybeled everything to the point of absurdity. Thankfully, the team had finally gotten a secretary, which took a lot of the logistical burden from them. Hey Isaac. How have you been? Patrick muttered as he heard Isaac approach. At this point, everyone on the team had figured out how to identify everyone they met on a regr basis via their footsteps. Eh, so-so. Third Evolution is cool, but Ive barely gotten a chance to look at it with how much time I spent practicing with my [Aura]. Thats what that field around you is, then? Patrick shrugged. Isaac hadnt brought the [Aura] anywhere near him, but a [System Researcher] could sense something like that pretty damn well even without being affected directly. Is it harmful for people, or why do you keep it away from them? Nah, its just a little intrusive. Not something you want to st around if youre at all interested in keeping your nose intact for longer than a few minutes at a time. Isaac replied with a wink. That bad? The animals around my home certainly seem to thing so. If I dont keep my touch extremely light, they run like all the hounds of hell are chasing them. Yikes. What does it do? Sense things. I basically know everything that happens in it. That sounds useful, I think I might pick up something like that myself. The two of them fell silent a momentter, peering into the depths of the water. It wasnt anywhere near as cluttered as one might expect, but there were still a few things down there that a monster could hide behind, which was probably what was happening here. Otherwise, that would mean that someone either killed it, or stole it, which would be a truly ridiculous thing to do, given that literally anyone could summon one of these with two minutes of effort. Then again, this was a university campus. The less said about what drunk students got up, the better. Isaac cast his [Aura] out, focusing it downwards and forwards, leaving the 25 meter limit behind, though pushing it out that far increased the overall volume it could by quite a bit. Sacrificing volume for range was a pretty basic trick, though. Found it. he announced, pointing. It was a Venomspine Catfish, arge catfish with the added danger of it having barbs that were quite toxic. ording to one of the books hed read just now, there were a few species of catfish in South Africa that were simrly armed, but they werent anywhere near this bad. I still cant see it. Patrick grumbled I think it might have figured out whats waiting for it. Probably. Isaac replied. And then, they went back to staring into the pond for another minute or so, until Professor Sturm arrived. Good morning Mr. Lerch, its good to see you again. And Im guessing youre the elusive Mr. Thoma? he asked, addressing Isaac. The professor was a middle aged white guy, with blond hair so sparse that it looked like he was actually bald unless the light caught it in just the right way. Thats correct. Isaac nodded, shaking hands with the professor Im guessing youre Professor Sturm, then? Yeah. If you dont mind me asking, what were you trying to figure out while the rest of the team was doing this? Oh, I dont. I was advancing to the next Evolution and then practicing with the [Aura] thates with it. Isaac replied. Aura isnt that some kind of new age crap? Sturm asked. Eh, same term, different effect. Isaac said, holding up his hand and wreathing it in crimson light as he switched [Auras] So far, it seems like its a highly versatile energy field that costs a decent chunk of mana to maintain, but can be manipted in far more ways than any other [Skill] Ive seen to date. Sounds like thats something I should get as soon as possible, then. Sturmmented. Isaac threw him a look, analyzing him. He felt like water, slimy scales, with a hint of something sharp hidden underneath. A [Fisherman] or something simr, though he was clearly also above Level 10, based on his Stats. Can I ask how youve been levelling so far? Isaac asked, hoping the answer wasnt something too dangerous. Fishing, basically. Normal fishing for the Tier 1 and 2s, spearfishing for the rest. Sometimes, the [System]ins about how the fishing rod is considered an environmental hazard, and sometimes, it isnt. Its weird as all get out. Sturm shook his head The world is now a video game, and that video game doesnt have a wiki. Isaac snorted. Its great you had this pond avable, though. Something so thoroughly isted and already officially approved, we got damn lucky. Eh, its the standard pool qualified for the gmos we work with. Sturm shrugged. Gmo, as in, gically modified organism? This thing is designed to withstand monster fish or something? Isaac asked, and this time, it was Sturm whoughed, though the professor looked contrite immediately afterwards. Nah, just normal fish that are even sterile in most cases, but if some fisherman catches one, fish and wildlife will string the closest person dealing with them up by their own entrails. Sturm shrugged again But now Im definitely going to get a qualified to house mutant monsters card for this thing. They kept going like this for a while, with the others arriving one at a time, greeting Isaac and asking about how his training had gone, until Sturm asked a question that was rather interesting. Or rather, one that lead somewhere interesting. So, how long does it take for this automatic summoning to kick in? Weve only run a couple of experiments, and therefore, this data is hardly conclusive, but both times, its taken roughly six days, twenty-three hours and thirty-two minutes for the situation to go to hell in a handbasket. Bailey exined. You know, its nice to see something in the [System] doesnt match up perfectly with human units of measurement. That was starting to get a little creepy. Sturmmented, but then Patrick snapped his fingers excitedly. Actually, it does, I just figured it out. Its twenty-eight minutes less than a full week, or seven times four minutes, which is the exact amount of time the sidereal day is shorter than the sr day. and there it is. Sturm sighed Je-sus this fucking creepy. Its almost like someone created this thing for us. Uh, quick question, sr and sidereal? Isaac asked. A sr day is how long it takes for the Earth to spin and the sun to be back in the same ce, the sidereal day is how long it takes for the stars to be back in the same position. Patrick exined, suddenly even deeper in thought. The conversation likely would have spiraled from there, if it hadnt been for the [System] window that popped up in front of each and every single one of them. Warning! Automatic Summoning has been activated on [Venomspine Catfish]! y the original monster to stop this effect. that was sorta kinda very much categorically incorrect. Normally, all monsters could summon more of their kind, though with each new one that was summoned, their countdown started anew and the summoning speed would be half as quickly as their progenitors. There was also some kind of mechanic where the original monster dying would result in everyone elses generation number being reduced by one, speeding up their summoning, though that also slowed down given enough time. Isaac had declined trying to truly understand theplex mechanical forme that governed this because otherwise, hed only end up gaining true understanding alongside his PhD in mathematics, it was that messy. The basic summary was good enough, anyway. Kill the monster, make sure it doesnt get into the wilds, otherwise youll be ying whack-a-mole for the better part of the year until the spawn rate of thetter generations finally slowed down to something manageable, and even that only worked if you could get the original and its first few descendants. This though, giving the infestation a single point of failure, this it. Was. Everything. Also, he supposed it was the response to the utter bullshit that was the Event, well, Events. There was no way in hell that new mechanic was going to be limited to just one, really. He now had a real chance to save everyone, he hed be doing nothing but messing around with basic monsters, trying to figure out why such a basic mechanic had fucking changed, for the next few weeks, wouldnt he? Ah, hell. Chapter 76: Interlude Wirt Chapter 76: Interlude Wirt Polizeiobermeister Lukas Wirt made his way across the university campus, sounds of fighting echoing in his ears. He knew it was urring underground, in a properly secured ce, but it was still rming to hear. His [Threat Sense] certainly wasnt helping, either. Unlike [Dangersense], which warned him about threats to his person, [Threat Sense] made him aware of situations in which he, as a police officer, should intervene in. And right now, that [Skill] was going a little crazy, yelling about how many living beings had already died and about how the perpetrator was at a very high Level, and wouldnt shut up until he was either off the clock, or actually went to investigate it. To be fair, he was heading over there right now because it had been his destination this entire time, but the [Skill] didnt care. Unconsciously, he tightened his [Aura] around himself while scanning the surrounding area for a clear ce to direct iing attacks. It wasnt even something he was really aware of anymore. After that email describing the power of [Auras] had made the rounds, a pretty significant focus had been put on that, and the following email with some basic yet also extremely helpful tips on its proper use had certainly seen heavy use, once people actually hit the required Level. Ahead, a pair of signs hung. The first was a basic printed sign that said [Aura] training in progress, some difort may be experienced past this point (its perfectly safe, but it can feel a little weird). Below that, someone had scrawled TF are you talking about, followed by a barely legible yet still correctly spelled what kind of pussy cares about weird vibes?. His [Evidence Sense] lit off suddenly, pointing out the faint traces of beer and Schnaps around the two additions. Drunk students, of course. Who else would write on random signs? As a tactical officer, Wirt very rarely did any investigating, meaning he rarely needed that [Skill], but hed gotten it as a matter of policy, along with every other member of the department. After all, they were at crime scenes all the time, and being able to spot useful information at a nce was damn useful. Given how much time he spent at various crime scenes, it was levelling at a decent speed. Nowhere near the speed of his core [Skills], mind you, but still rather quickly. Below the scribbled-over note was a rather professional looking deration,plete with the deans signature, properly protected in a stic cover, dering that there was experimentation with [Aura] urring nearby, and that odd effects might ur, nothing dangerous, but possibly disturbing. Down below, the battle seemed to reach a fever pitch, the severalrge beings torn to shreds audible only to his vastly enhanced senses, followed by an explosion of [Aura] that he could feel all the way from up here. It felt intense and intrusive, but it was also incredibly powerful for a sensory [Aura]. Another loud crash followed, and then there was silence. Suddenly, a young man emerged from the ground, as if hed jumped up onto a rock, except he hadnt leaped from somewhere lower, hed leaped straight through solid rock and concrete. For someone whod clearly just been fighting an entire horde of monsters, he was surprisingly clean. In fact, there wasnt so much as a hair of ce. Good afternoon Mr. Thoma. Its nice to see you again under less dire circumstances. He greeted. Likewise, Mr. Wirt. Thoma replied How much did they tell you about what youd be doing here? [Aura] testing and training, mainly, but apparently, you also want another body in the building in case your current experiment goes pear shaped? Thats true for the most part, but not the whole story. I did ask around to see if I could get some help from someone with an [Aura] so I could train with a new person, see how well that works without a preestablished rtionship. I mean, the two of us have met before, but we still dont know each other particrly well outside of the stories we told on the car ride back here. That being said, for the most part, its the university higher ups and Polizeidirektor Kaiser who arent all that enthused with me being the only one sitting on a dozen monsters crated up until they end up autonomously summoning more of their kind. Thoma shrugged, clearly not even slightly concerned about that. In that case, where are all your coworkers? Wirt asked. Dealing with the shark. I wasnt allowed to go because someone needs to stay here and watch over the caged monsters, which really stinks because I made sure to get myself a water breathing Aspect because I fuckingknew someone would eventually summon something in the water and it would be damn hard to get at, but no, they had to introduce that damn make sure you can kill three times as many monsters as you are storing in under five seconds qualification, and refused to test everyone in the time between us getting the call and needing to leave. Thoma grumbled, then caught himself. Sorry, still a little salty about that. They can handle themselves, but I dont like being stuck here while theyre off putting themselves in danger. Ah yes, the shark. Some kind of gigantic, monstrous shark that eyewitness reports put at least twenty-five meters in length had somehow ended up in the Bodensee, a veryrgeke and now there was chaos. There were rumors of ns to carpet bomb theke with depth charges being worked on by the Luftwaffe and Marine, though personally, he doubted that they were true. Or at least, they werent the governments first choice. It seemed like right now, they were content to send in the experts first. Wirt shook his head I think thats a very understandable sentiment. People you know are off, putting themselves in danger and there is nothing you can do but sit and wait for news, imagining all the many horrific messages you could get even if youre desperately trying to think happy thoughts? I know a little something-something about that. It sucks, it always does. Also, whats up with that qualification? Basically, fully autonomous summoning by leaving monsters to their own devices is just about the most dangerous thing we could do here and the powers that be have finally settled on a specific procedure with regards to how they want these to be conducted. The first they want is someone who can kill all of the monsters, as well as any that they summoned autonomously, in under five seconds, which is an utterly arbitrary number, go figure. To test that, we needed to show that we can take care of all the monsters were keeping here until they start autonomously summoning more, as well as two more of each, to ount for the additional monsters that would then appear. We can all do that, but the others are [Mages], and the big spells that could destroy the monsters would also end up bringing the building down on our heads, but Ive recently gotten a [Skill] that means I literally cant cut anything unless I want it to be cut, which lets me unleash a fully empowered attack with no fear of coteral damage. And now, Im stuck here. Postponing the experiments wasnt an option? Wirt asked. Of course it was, but these things cant be sped up by any method weve been able to find. Killing all the crated up monsters now and starting over would cost us five days of work, and no one want to waste that much time. Doesnt mean Im happy to be left behind, though. Thoma sighed Still, it is what it is. I suppose its time for the grand tour, then? Havent shown it to many people, have you? Wirt asked, a slight twinkle in his eyes. The pride and anticipation in the young mans voice was unmistakable. If hed already been forced to show around a bunch of people, it simply wouldnt have been there anymore. Nope. Its still being built, but there are already so many cool features in there. Not bad. Actually, now that I have you, theres something Ive been wondering about. Wirt began as they headed over towards the half-finished building Id like to get some kind of secondary melee weapon, something that can actually take advantage of my physical power. I got a new, bigger gun that I can only use because my stats let me pretty much ignore the recoil, but that isnt really what I was looking for in a weapon. I was thinking about getting a sword, maybe a katana? A secondary melee weapon isnt a bad idea, per se, but dont get a katana. Thoma replied You need a rtively flexible weapon that, while it will bend a little if exposed to forcesing from the side, will flex back into its original shape. Katanas are thicker, sturdier des that wont bend for something that will have a European sword make a very convincing banana impersonation, but by that same metric when they bend, they stay bent, it just requires a lot more force. And given the current state of the world, basically everything can exert that kind of force. Sure, there are limits to what even reasonably flexible swords can endure, for example, a multi-ton golem falling on your weapon will break basically everything, but a more flexible sword is still more likely tost you the full length of a fight. All that being said, you wouldnt happen to have picked up the [Toughened Gear] [Skill] would you? I believe it is a part of the [Police Officer] [Skill]-tree? If so, it might be better to go with an extendable baton or something else that works with your [ss], that way, theres a higher chance to get other [ss] [Skills] that work with it. Huh, thats actually a good idea. Howe you know so much about what kinds of [Skills] I get? Wirt asked. We got a prettyplete list during the LA incident so we could figure out which [Skills] would work best against the Gestalt. Thoma exined. I see. Once youre figured out what you want, I know a guy who makes excellent gear and has ess to monster materials. You wont find finer gear anywhere. Thoma said. Is that safe? I mean, a [cksmith] or [Machinist] hunting monsters sounds like a recipe for disaster. Wirt asked. Yeah, dont worry. Im the one who supplies him with his stuff. Aspects too, by the way. Thoma shrugged I figured it might be a good idea to have ess to someone who can create powerful items. Right now, his stuff is damn tough and sharp, but who knows what kinds of things hell be able to make once he gets his third [ss]? Anyway, here we are. He made a sweeping gesture, pointing towards the under construction building in front of them. It really did look weird because it was oh so clearly already in use, and there were already windows put it ce on the bottom floor even though the ones above it were clearly still being constructed. Wirt was hardly an expert in the regtions covering this stuff, but this still looked odd. A temporary tunnel of wood and metal, designed for easy assembly and disassembly lead from outside the fenced off construction site into the building itself, meant to allow safe passage inside, mitigating the risk of things getting dropped by construction workers working overhead and braining an unsuspecting passerby. These things were rathermon, often protecting parts of the sidewalk near construction sites, but they rarely lead into ces that were actively being built. On the inside, the building was rather different as well. Wirt had been inside university buildings once or twice before, people getting mad at professors over grades, idents inboratories being taken as deliberate assault or destruction of properties, etc. Therefore, he was familiar with the usual decoration of posters showcasing past projects and disy cases containing objects befitting the faculty that worked there. Deer heads,plex mathematical forme, even the asional pinecone but this wasnt what this ce contained. Several monster bits were wrapped in ss, not just inside a ss case, but literally sitting inside a solid block of the transparent material, which had to cost a lot. Also, how had they gotten them in there? Molten ss was damn hot, but those materials didnt look scorched in the slightest. magic, of course. There were also several interesting diagrams on the walls, showcasing basic magic and [Aura] techniques, and Wirt was sorely tempted to just head over there and examine them, yet there was more besides. On the wall of the central stairwell, several different weapons were located, also encased in solid ss, closer inspection revealing that it, as well as all the other ss around the room, had been magically reinforced, putting it somewhere close to bulletproof ss. The good stuff, the kind hed had the supreme misfortune of having to have to get through, once, to get the body of a man whod had a heart attack and died inside his heavily reinforced car. Stealing anything out of this ce would be an exercise in frustration unless one was very powerful. As for the weapons themselves, they ranged from medieval style swords to more modern military and self defense knives. The center of the disy, meanwhile, was a massive, two-handed sword that had been broken in half in several ces, the damage quite clearly visible due to the fact that it had been repaired with a different material. That had obviously been on purpose, likely to demonstrate that this weapon had, in fact, been used inbat. That example you mentioned, about a golem falling on the sword, Im guessing thats what happened there? Wirt asked, pointing at it. Yep. First Tier 5 we fought, big ass The Crusher golem. Stabbed the core and it toppled over like a felled tree. I dodged, but didnt get the chance to remove the sword before it hit the ground. Thoma shrugged Anyway, I just need to clean up the one summoning room not currently stuffed with crated up monsters, itll just take a second, and then we can start figuring out what kinds of tricks your [Aura] is capable off. Thanks. If you dont mind me asking, what were you doing earlier. It sounded pretty hectic. Wirt asked. Ah, I was testing some of the limits of the Lair type summon. You feed it an Aspect, and then you end up facing a flood of monsters until you break it, but you dont have to keep spending mana. Unfortunately, a Lair counts as its own type of creature, so you can only create one for each Tier and gain XP, but on the other hand, it is a chance to gain a little more XP from a specific monster youve maxed out in the past. That being said, I did just max out my XP for Tier 3 and its quite the mess in there. Thoma said. I thought you werent allowed to use any kind of autonomous summoning, nor is anyone else. Wirt frowned, hard. Dungeons and a lot of other things like them were solidly illegal right now, and keeping monsters around long enough for them to autonomously summon more was also severely frowned upon outside of such experiments. Dungeons are an issue because they need time to build and grow, but when they do, you cant really predict what they grow into, which is a little too scary for the people that be. Well be heading to Koreater this month, where theyve been using dungeons, safely, for a while now, and see if we can change some minds here. But thats beside the point. Lairs just dump out more and more monsters until you break them, but they will not deviate from the type they were originally set to, nor will they deviate from their spawn intervals. You create them, use them, and break them when youre done, just like summoned monsters. Sure, theres still a danger, but right now, were sticking to Tier 3 monsters despite the fact that Lairs can be created up to Tier 5, and mybat [Aura] lets me handle a literal horde of Tier 3s. Hol up. Thoma had a sensory [Aura], Wirt had felt it. And in the currently still very basic [Aura] training manual, which he had written, it had been one of the two [Auras] being used as an example. Wait, so the blood [Aura] is yours, not the sensory one? Actually, both are mine. Thoma replied, holding up his right hand. The faint, ethereal threads of the sensory [Aura] that propagated everywhere there werent people, winked out like a light. Then, a red glow manifested around his hand. It held echoes of war and blood, but despite that, it felt oddly hopeful? At first, Wirt found it odd that someone who was generally a pretty private person and very careful about sharing information about his Status sheet would put so much about themselves out there, but after hed thought about it for a little bit, it actually made quite a bit of sense. Everything hed put out there was something that anyone with auric senses would be able to tell at a nce. There were secrets that you simply couldnt keep, and merely trying would make one look like an idiot. Of course, Wirt worked for the immense bureaucratical mess that was the German government, and wasintimately familiar with people doing just that. And then there were secrets that simply werent worth keeping, like that secret family recipe that people treated as if it were the secret of transmuting lead to gold. This one sort of fell into both categories. It would be damn hard to keep and revealing the most basic information wouldnt reallye with any inherent downsides while allowing Thoma to use concrete examples in that instruction manual. Besides, revealing aplete looking set of information lent the appearance of openness to the things attached to it. The police did it often. They gave out very basic pieces of information to the public while protecting the actual casefiles like a dragon hoarding gold. It really did make plenty of sense how that had been handled, Wirt just hadnt expected it from someone so private and then he remembered that theyd basically had that exact same conversation after arresting Krebs. Ok, so you have two [Auras]. Didnt the [System] explicitly warn against that? he frowned. Yep. But Im a scientist, I need a sensory [Aura], and Im the teams primarybatant, so I need something forbat. Therefore, I grabbed both. Thoma shrugged. Right. But the [System] had to have issued that warning for a reason, is there anything actually dangerous about it? Wirt asked. Not dangerous, just possibly unpleasant. Suddenly, the red aura wreathing Thomas hand was invaded by a sliver of clear energy, the sensory [Aura]. For a split second, nothing happened. And then, a sound like the worldsrgest vase shattering echoed through the room while the energy fields crackled, a jagged line of energy like a bolt of lighting raced through the red glow, looking like a jagged crack in a piece of ceramic, ripping and splintering as it further shredded the field, racing up his arm, the red [Aura] bing visible and cracking. With obviously great effort, Thoma stopped the shift at his shoulder and the red [Aura] swelled, erasing the sensory [Aura] and returning to invisibility now that it wasnt actively being strained. Basically, thats what happens. The two [Auras] glom together like a pair of mas and stay that way,pletely and utterly useless. Their special abilities will not work, they cant be projected more than a few centimeters from your body and you cant shut them off either. And theyll stay that way unless you manage to unstitch the pair and shut down one of them or you somehow manage to forcefully power them down. Thoma exined. Forcefully power down an [Aura]? Is that even possible? Wirt had never even heard rumors of such a thing existing, and while it was perfectly possible for it so simply be a secret, if that was the case, it was incredibly weird that Thoma was talking about it so damn openly. The same way you can forcefully power down any [Skill], use astral weapons to damage the spiritual body. Thoma shrugged. You mean the thing you used against Krebs? The thing that you were almost certain made her pass out from the pain? Wirt practically gaped at him. Yep. Hurts like a son of a bitch, but using your [Aura] with a damaged ability to channel mana is pretty useful for practicing control. Thoma shrugged, again. He threw open the door to a stairwell that lead downwards, lights switching on automatically thanks to a motions sensor located somewhere out of sight. Anyway, like I said, I have to clean up a little and then we can see what youre capable off, [Aura]-wise. Now, you know I have a sensory and blood aspectedbat [Aura], but what about you? no, dont tell me, I want to figure it out myself. Mid-range,bat and utility, aspects of unyielding force, defense and self-sacrifice. Kic and magical redirection, slight sensoryponent to sense the power and vector of an iing attack, with the primary power allowing you to draw the attacks at yourself and then tank the attack. In essence, the ultimate tanks [Aura] in the video game sense of the word. You can defend yourself or draw attacks away from your team-members and at yourself, but youre tough enough to tank basically everything. Whats it called? Wirt chuckled softly. Thoma certainly never failed to disappoint when it came to figuring out things like this. And there was an entire team of a total of six people out there, all simrly focused on discovering the secrets of the universe. did privacy even exist as on a conceptual level around a group like that? [Aura of the Sacrificial Lion]. Wirt exined Its my [ss] [Aura], designed to make sure everyone else stays fine in a fight. Not bad. Thoma said Im going to head in there, Ill be done in a couple of minutes. Then, he phased through the closed door in front of them, with Wirt opening it and following immediately and froze at the sight. It was a charnel house in there, blood and scales covering the ground, the heads of massive serpents lying all over the ce, at leat thats what he thought before he caught a look at a rtively intact body and its multiple necks. A hydra. This guy had killed more hydras than he could count without a forensic team and didnt think it was a big deal. You know, you could easily do this too. Thoma said, turning. Arge part of the mess around him vanished as if it had never been there, and then he jumped, nearly reaching the ceiling beforeing back down. The moment he touched the ground, more of the mess vanished, he jumped again, the process repeating itself over and over again while Wirt just stared, trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Thoma, meanwhile, just kept talking. These monsters are all between Level 6 and 8, meaning the two of us around 20 Levels and an [Aura] on them. Its just that your lizard brain still equates something being big with it being powerful and dangerous, and youre age and professing means youve been in situations that confirmed this instinctual assumption over and over again. Soon, though, youll realize how little size matters inbat outside of how it pertains to someones reach. My age? I cant be more than ten years older than you? Wirt threw him a dirty look. But those years were spent as an adult, in a very stressful day. Most people in the western world do not get into fights like you do before theyre 18. Thoma shrugged, thest bits of monster disappearing as he made his final jump. Maybe. But how the hell are you doing that? Wirt asked, unwilling to stay quiet any more. Inventory, basically. I moved mine here for the duration of this experiment, and I can open it basically anywhere in the building, but I can only pull stuff in or out near my body. So I walk towards the mess, suck it into my inventory, then jump up so the biohazard waste container is within range, and then I deposit the waste into it, rinse and repeat until everything is clean. Wirt had heard of these things, but hed never seen one in action before. Also, hed moved it, just for a few days, so hed likely be returning it, which required a total of two space elemental cores? Things that cost 50,000 , each? they got them themselves, of course. How do you get the cores for that? Im under the impression that those are damn hard toe by. Wirt asked. We fight them, theyre damn annoying but not that dangerous. How about you fight one, see for yourself? Im very much not supposed to fight anything like that if I can avoid it, department policy. I believe your guys research is responsible for that. Wirt frowned. The real problem with them is how hard they are to get at, but they are highly unlikely to be able to harm you with your regenerative abilities and defensive focus. As in, the odds are mathematically indistinguishable from zero. That was supremely unusual way to phrase that. That wasnt a perfectly safe, though. Wirt raised an eyebrow. Im a scientist, Mr. Wirt. Were all about precision, and that results in us being worse thanwyers when ites to qualifying statements. There is no situations Ive ever seen that would even remotely put you in danger, but what happens if this thing creates a rip in space and this ce swaps ces with a part of the suns corona? I mean, its never shown any inclination to be able to do anything even remotely like that, it can only warp space around itself, but weve also not disproven it either, nor have we disproven that it has a million other weird powers it almost certainly doesnt have, but you cant prove a negative, so you know what, Im rambling. Thoma sighed and gave him an apologetic look Point is, this will be an exercise in frustration, but not dangerous. Would you like to try it? Sure. Wirt replied, intrigued. Even if this went off the rails in the most extreme of ways, there was an expert here to deal with it. It would likely be the safest way to try this out in the near future. And then, a couple of minutester, there was a glowing circle sitting on the floor against the far wall. Ready? Ready. And then, the world turned into a funhouse mirror, space bending and twisting, warping and shifting. Wirts [Aura] burst out of him, pushing the effect back and holding it at a distance of maybe five meters from him. Space itself shuddered as the twin forces of his [Aura] and willpower grappled with the intrinsic abilities of the Lesser Space Elemental. He continued to move forwards, making slow but constant progress, the monster still sitting against the far wall and then the far wall suddenly was behind him. He whirled and charged, but was forced to slow down quite a bit to focus on beating back the spatial warp as he chased it. Then it relocated. Again. He whirled, and activated [Breach]. The [Skill] had initially just been a [System] empowered way to kick doors in, but with Level 10, hed gained the ability to smash it into less physical barriers. The spatial barrier shuddered slightly, but stayed up, so he threw in more mana, and when that only garnered a slightly stronger reaction but didnt break the effect, he added more still. It shattered and he lunged forward it reestablished itself, and the monster was gone. Again. Eventually, after what he thought were a mere five minutes, but it could easily have been as many as fifteen, his fist finally hammered through the fractal that was that things core, and it vanished. Finally. You cannot expect me to believe you do that every time you want to move your inventory. Whats the trick? he demanded. Normally, he would have found a better way to say that and do so in a far less abrasive tone, but that had been one of the most frustrating experiences of his life, and given his choice of profession, that was saying something. The trick Thoma announcd, striding over to the summoning circle, dropping in the required materials and charging it is to have something it cant throw around like a leaf in the wind. That either means throwing an attack at it that is so massive it cant move it, like a gigantic explosion or you have something that literally cannot be shifted. For example, soulbound weapons are considered to be a part of the users body, and that is a bond these things cant mess with, at all. Thoma threw out his hand, Kabar manifesting within and flying towards the monster it missed by a mile. But the scientist mere grinned and held out his hand for it, causing the de to stop in midair ande flying back. Two more weapons, the saber hed used again Krebs and an oversized sword simr to the busted one upstairs, manifested next to it, and then each of the three weapons gained two copies on top of that. The literal cloud of des flew straight at the core, which moved slightly, but Thoma stepped to the side, ensuring that ity right on the straight line between his outstretched hand and the cloud of des. Predictably, it died. By the time the weapon returned to its owner, it was once more a merebat knife, the rest of the weapons nowhere to be seen. The small orb the monster had dropped upon death had also vanished. Basically, if you have a trick that can bypass the defense those things can erect, you can kill them quite easily. The problem is, those abilities are rare and the demand is insane. Thoma shrugged But that wasnt really what youre here for. So, [Auras]. Theyre awesome powers that can wreath the wielder in a field of energy, but theyre also the single most missexined part of the [System]. Auric categorizations are a great overview, but vastly iplete. Only sensory [Auras] can give you information? All [Auras] have a sensoryponent to them. At a bare minimum, you can tell where other living beings are because your [Aura] moves through them less easily than unliving materials. They also tell you where the thing they can affect is, or if it is even present. Onlybat [Auras] can be used to fight? We both know how unpleasant sensory [Auras] can be, how is that not a mental attack? Or, what about your [Aura]? If it can redirect things in motion, why not redirect your opponents face into your fist? Your [Aura] isnt ssified as a mobility [Aura]? You can still use it to speed up your movement with a little creativity. Thats what Ive found to be the secret of proper [Aura] use. Now, how about a little sparring? Two hourster, they were both soaked in sweat and breathing heavily despite never having used anything other than their [Auras]. Wirt saw the young man across from him in a new light. Hed seen him as rather impressive since witnessing that fight with Krebs, hell, immediately after seeing that, hed applied to and gotten a spot in the police forces enhanced training program, which was the only reason hed already hit his second Evolution already. But now, he was in awe of his creativity as well. The first time, hed merely seen the power gained from the [System] through great effort, but when it came to [Auras], they were pretty equal. Yet even with that, hed gotten his ass whopped by someone using a sensory [Aura] and only a sensory [Aura]. How did you get so strong? Whats the secret? Practice. Its godsdamned hard to seriously hurt yourself with your own [Aura], so youre free to try out very extreme things, so extreme that trying it with any other [Skill] would be truly insane. But with [Auras], the worst that can happen is you end up with a bruise or headache. Its like trying to punch yourself in the face. If youre not drunk or an idiot, its damn hard to do at full force and to actually hurt yourself. Thoma shrugged Like I said, when ites to [Auras], push boundaries, experiment, ande up with new tricks, thats how you be truly strong. Later still, the two of them were sitting on the edge of the first floor, legs dangling over the side where ss would be put in when the building was finished, eating sandwhiches and watching the sun fall below the horizon. So, is this what you thought youd end up doing as an adult? Wirt wondered. Use magic and work with someone who has a pet dinosaur? Thoma replied thoughtfully No, I thought Id be the one with magic and the pet dinosaur. Wirt had been taking a drink from his water bottle while thatment had been made and ended up performing an unwanted spit take. I suppose thats fair. Its an entirely new world, isnt it? And a hell of a lot more dangerous. Thoma sighed You know, we, the two of us, are going to end up having to deal with a lot of messes going forward. Weve already seen superpowered serial killers, city-wrecking lighting monsters and now prehistoric monsters inkes. Im d to see others levelling at the same madcap speed I am. Eventually, well be needed. There are people in the news with Levels as high or higher every day. Wirt reminded him. Perhaps, but theyre on the news. That always feels distant, somehow. Its stuff happening elsewhere, the people are not ones I can just randomly talk to. You were in the background of the Tagesschau just a couple of weeks ago after helping catch the serial killer. Wirt reminded him. Its a psychological thing, those dont have to make sense. Thoma shrugged, chuckling softly. Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, I just wanted to say, I learned a lot today, even if you are a little bit of a crazy teacher. Wirt winked at him Anyway, Im off shift in an hour, someone else will show up here, and theyll probably start sending in people specifically for training. After all, everyone knows that one person could oversee that experiment downstairs on their own but Im still getting a babysitter. Lovely. Thoma sighed. Chapter 77: Jaws? Chapter 77: Jaws? Two days ago Isaac headed deeper into the under-construction building, a slight smile ying on his lips. His first stop was his office to drop off some things, and then, hed head over to the new meeting room. And yes, he did get his own office now, decorated with fanciful weapons and pelts, as well as a couple of little trees made from metal wire and little crystals, making it look like something in between the inside of a hunting shack and some fortune tellers tent. That was on purpose, though. He didnt want to look crazy or as if he were a part of some kind of fringe ult thing, but seeming a little kooky would help cover up any small inconsistencies. Overall, the team had gotten quite a bit better equipped on the bureaucratical side of things. Theyd been borrowing other professors secretaries up until now, but Professor Bailey seemed pretty sure hed narrowed the list down pretty well. Sadly, theyd gotten a ridiculous number of applicants owing to the fact that they offered power levelling as one of the perks. Good morning, Adam. he called out So, did the rest of the things for the Korea trip get prepared? It was something hed brought up a while ago, as an example of dungeons actually working, and wanted to visit because them being defined merely as autonomous monster spawners had made them very much a no-no topic. Yes, dungeons were dangerous, but they could also be fantastically rewarding if properly handled. Sadly they did it on the other side of the world and it worked, heres the research wasnt enough to convince anyone of something that, at least conceptually, was a world ending danger. Temporary spawners like Lairs were fine so long as you broke them when you were done, but dungeons took time to grow and had to be left alone to do so, and no one feltfortable with that. But South Korea had done a pretty good job of using them to grow the strength of their people. This was something they could point to, but there was only so much you could get out of the currently published works. After all, this was only a two and a half month old branch of research and there were only so many academic papers you could put out in that span of time. A lot of the time, when they were applying to try out new branches of research, they were basically throwing a bunch of research notes at the relevantmittee and that was that. But from foreign research groups, all they saw were theplete projects, and there were very few of those. So, theyd be heading over there soon enough. Him, Bailey, whoever had advanced the furthest in analyzing that damn Rifthunters portals the most. That damn monster was pretty strong and damn hard to contain, so they could only analyze it in brief bursts and it was such aplex ability that it took for-e-ver to actually get. [Portal] would be beyond fantastic but they had to get it first. And after theyd explored some dungeons, gained some good XP and information from that, itd be just about time for the first big summoners convention, which would be taking ce in Singapore, just a hop, skip and a jump away from Korea. Well, that depends on if weve gotten that damn shark out of theke, but I think we should be all set to head off to Asia by our original date. Bailey replied offhandedly and Isaac nearly walked into a wall. well, not exactly. He had years of experience on battlefields and solidly superhuman levels of physical ability, there was no chance of him failing to turn a corner just because hed heard something surprising. But if it hadnt been for that, if this had been the him from this point in the other timeline, he probably would have ended up kissing concrete. Wait, what? Isaac frowned. Hed spent most ofst night and all of this morning adding to his [Aura] control instruction manual, nning to look up the news once he was in the meeting room, waiting for everyone to arrive, trusting that either automated alerts or the people in his life would tell him about things he needed to deal with now. Someone summoned arge shark, we think its a Megalodon, into argeke. Apparently, we were the local coast guards first call once theyd gotten started on theke evacuation order. Well, Im not sure if coast guard is the right word when theyre on ake, but thats beside the point. No boats, no swimmers, no one is supposed to go out onto the water until we can deal with this. Still, the shark cant get out of theke, so this is both a decent way to check how monsters behave in a natural ecosystem and someone needs to try something before the Marine and Luftwaffe carpet bomb theke with depth charges. I think its going to go fine, though. Professor Sturm from the aquatic biology faculty knows more than I do, you remember him, right? Anyway, Id like you to stay here, watch over the experiment, well deal with the shark and hopefully be back in time to watch the monsters to start spawning in, otherwise, just take notes on as much as you can handle and kill the rest. Anyway, itll be interesting to see how the news handles this. As far as I know, there are seventeen people confirmed dead, but now theke is clear of potential targets and no one is stupid enough to go out there with that thing in the water. Generally, whether they make an attempt at fear-mongering or put out a somewhat optimistic piece about how we can now deal with these monsters, thatll tell us a lot about the general attitude towards the [System] as a whole. Isaac grimaced at that. First, there was another dangerous monster out there. Contained, sure, but still out there in the wild, which sucked. Also, hed be staying behind as the team, his closest friends in this timeline, went off to fight their first wild monster without him. Sure, if Baileys assessment of it being a Megalodon was correct, theyd be fine. Hell, all of them except Raul had their second Evolution, and the only reason Raul wasgging behind was because he was still trying to decide on which [ss] to pick, not because he was putting any less effort into advancing. The [System Researcher] might be a truly fantastic [ss], but it was also quite solidly a [Mage] [ss], which simply didnt fit him. He was an outdoorsy person, whod gone to university to get a degree that wouldter see him spend almost all of his time out in the wilderness as a ranger. Your [ss] needed to be something you liked, doing something you hated to get stronger was a more difficult route to power. And it wasnt like Raul hated magic, it was just that he liked nature a hell of a lot more. Really, they could handle themselves, and the chances of this being a Tier 6 with casualty numbers that small were practically nil. And even it was a weak Tier 6, theyd be able to handle it after all that time spent practicing with them. They werent helpless chicks and didnt need him ying mother hen. But godsdamnit, it stung. He knew he couldnt do everything himself, hed always known. But at the very least, hed have wanted to be there for the first thing the team dealt with personally. Yet despite all that, he would stay. Becauseing along would only make himself feel better while dying the experiment about autonomous summoning by the five days the monsters had already spent locked in cages, time that would have been wasted if they had to kill them all and start over once they were done with the shark. Going just for the sake of his own feelings would be, in short,pletely unconscionable. But that didnt mean staying here wouldnt suck, especially given that hed inevitably get stuck with some kind of babysitter. He didnt need one, but it made sense. No one would trust a single person to be able to keep a lid on potentially hundreds of monsters in case things went bad. Hell, if it hadnt been for his new [ss] and the newly weakened automatic spawning, he wouldnt have trusted him to deal with that. Survive? Sure. But kill each and every single creepy crawly as a literal horde? Yeah, nope. Still, his Status was looking pretty nice. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: dewraith Species: Human Level: 31 XP: 7,439 /9,300 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 600/600 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 95 Strength 60 Agility 95 Magic Power 60 Magic Regeneration 80 Free Points: 0 Stat, 9 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XVIII The Chosen Weapon XXII Skills Hundred Faces XVI Stealth XVIII Power Strike XXVI Piercing Strike XXVII Sundering Strike XXV des XXVI Sneak XVIII Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XIX Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXIV Phantom Step XV Unknown Fear XIII Bestial Regeneration XVI Undying Focus XIV Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence VIII Crippling Blow VI Absolute de Mastery II General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Gills Fata Morgana Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest de Control Eternal des [Empty Slot] Sadly, legendary [Skills] were damn expensive, so hed only been able to grab one, the one best suited to dealing withrge groups of enemies without wrecking the surrounding area with his AOEs. Absolute de Mastery (legendary) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the de. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, other spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. Yet none of them have ever reached this stage, because they couldnt. Normally, there is always more to learn. At some point, you will solidly run into the issue of diminishing returns, but your path will never truly end. And then, theres this Skill. Might not grant absolute skill with the de, but it allows the user to truly master it in all of its forms, in two different ways. Firstly, now any and all skill and experience with any de carry over to any and all other des. Never, ever, under any circumstances, will a tiny difference in bnce, length or weight screw you up, never again. You can pick up an entirely new type of sword that youve never even conceived of, as long as you are a master of some manner of sword, you will also be a master of this one. Secondly, never again will you cut something you did not mean to cut. You have absolute control over your weapons, you could shave a furious cat actively trying to murder you with a gauntlet sword without ever even so much as inflicting a single scratch, this is the level of fine control you hold now that you have this Skill. Hell, you could wave a chainsaw around in a crowded disco and unless you want to hurt people or destroy objects, the only issue would be the noise. The first boon didnt sound all that great, given that hed been easily using the many different weapons his soulbound knife, Old Reliable, could turn into. But that was a skill gained over nearly a decade ofbat, not an absolute ability. If he switched over to an entirely new weapon, then there was every chance that he wouldnt be able to use it properly. And even just focusing on the various forms of Old Reliable, there might still be an issue given that he primarily practiced with certain forms and barely used others. Up until now, this hadnt been an issue, but those small differences would be a huge problem when extreme precision was required and taking this [Skill] would ensure that never came to pass. And he could pick up new swords with casual ease now, even if he hadnt used anything like them before. Still, if that had been all this [Skill] did, he wouldnt have picked it. It wouldnt have been worth the 5 [Skill] points, well, it would also not have been worthy of the legendary title, but that was neither here nor there. It was the secondary effect that made it so incredibly valuable. High-Level fights were incredibly destructive, especially when the situation came down to having to make the choice between a measured attack that would give ones opponent to get another attack off and an all-out attack that would destroy anything in its path, but also, well destroy anything in its path, environment included. Sure, it only worked with des, but with Old Reliable, he always had one on hand. And all he needed was one more Level and then, hed be able to buy one of the two central [Skills] of his new [ss]. dewraith Central Skills (double cost) I am the Sword True Cut Skills Endless Cut Wave sh Absolute de Mastery Shockwave Cleave Parry Anything Indestructible des Eternal Arsenal ded Armor Perfect Strike Compounded Blows General Skills Aura of Swords Intent All of these were damn strong, but also damn expensive. He was used to being able to buy a handful of [Skills], the ones he really needed, and then save the rest to get all the [Skills] he wanted from his next [ss], and so on, and so forth. That stopped now, sadly. Just another 2,000 XP to go, and hed get his first properultimate attack. [Form of Horror] technically counted, but that was a transformation, not a single strike. Once in the meeting room, he plopped himself down in a random chair and waited, already nning for the future. Hed have a full te a few weeks from now, first going to Korea, a time during which he was guaranteed to be very busy, and then he was going to be a witness in the trial against Arianne Krebs, the serial killer hed helped catch a couple of weeks ago. Well, in all honesty, hed caught her, full stop. The police had been there, theyd led him there and theyd have tried to take her in themselves, but they would have all died if he hadnt also been there. With everyone else gone, annoying as that was on an emotional level, it would leave him plenty of alone time until the monsters started spawning in. Well, hed inevitably end up with someone else because him being the only person preventing a literal horde from erupting from the basement of this building would look safe to precisely no one. But until then, and whenever his babysitter wasnt looking over his shoulder, he could get some stuff ready to release to the world. Mostly more [Aura] stuff to be released as soon as it could have realistically been discovered, but also a list of potential future baddies that people could pursue right now. Hed looked into each of them and was only including the ones he could confirm were also present in this timeline. Anything else had a high likelihood of damaging his credibility, or at least the one of his fake persona he used to release that stuff, and that would be an issue in the future. So far, all hed released was a rough this is why summoning is a bad idea essay a few days after Initialization, but now was a realistic time for at least somestuff to have been discovered and released. Sadly, there wasnt that much to tell. Most of the big bads had used aliases, usually Dao names and the like, which made tracking them down here tricky. If he had individual targets to go after right now, whose trajectory was set to take them down the same dark road theyd taken in the other timeline, theyd already be dead right now. But he didnt, other than a few burgeoning organizations that didnt deserve to be brutally shattered. Yet. And he''d feed that info to various intelligence agencies and have them deal with them. Those people would be more dangerous than any terrorist group currently in existence, and between the data hed send out and the stuff people with an intelligence agencies research capabilities, that should be rather apparent pretty soon. The other thing hed be releasing were some very basic potion recipes, and an iplete set at that. Humanity had discovered a lot of truly incredible things in the other timeline, but that hadnt been enough to save them, so he needed to speed it up. When it came to the [System] itself, he was already doing so, and he was funding and giving materials to people finding new and interesting ways to create things, like Helmut Stagmer, the [cksmith] and Professor Chandler, the Professor of Chemistry turned [Alchemist]. But as much as things had already been sped up, making things go even faster would be great. The real issue with speeding things up was the precise method. He could just dump any and all information he had out into the world, but even discounting the issue of him outing himself, that would actually be a really bad idea. For one, having to dig yourself through all those literal mountains of unearned knowledge would have subpar results. Figuring out what was important, understanding how something worked without having ess to bunch of supporting literature that Isaac sadly hadnt memorized, all of that would be difficult. Also, having all that information handed to them would leave humanitys scientists in a far worse situation, given that they wouldnt gain the Levels, [Skill] Levels, high rarity [ss] Evolutions and simple experience when dealing with the [System] that they would have gotten if theyd reached this level of understanding the normal way. But here, he was going to be handing them a few basic potion recipes that would be incredibly useful and would save many lives in the future, also giving them a basic idea of what a potion recipe was meant to look like, while still forcing them to figure out how those damn things were meant to work. It should speed things up quite a bit. Hed upload the information to the inteter, and byter, he meant on some weekend when he was free. Hed use the same tricks of buying a new phone while wearing a different face, shifting forms several times whenever he was out of sight of both people and potential cameras, and then upload it in a random inte caf. To this purpose, hed even be heading out of the country, into the Swiss city of Chur, where hed released his first bit of information. He really didnt want to offer any option for geo-profiling by giving people the chance to start extrapting data from the multiple times hed uploaded things. Still, between his ability to shapeshift and not leave behind any physical traces like hair or skin cells, hed be a stone cold pain to track down, worse than Krebs. She might have been impossible to recognize via facial recognition, but at the very least, she had the decency to always wear the same face. Him, not so much. Hed also set up a way to dy the public release of the data until he was in Korea, hopefully making it appear as if he werent he one whod uploaded it, being halfway around the world. Well, there really shouldnt be any reason for people to suspect him in the first ce, but this should prevent him from ever really being considered in the first ce. As for making sure no one connected this to his other famous public manuscript, the one about [Aura] control, by analyzing his writing style, he had a trick for that. Simply, hed written that one in German, rather than English, used autplete on a lot of the sentences rather than making his own word choices, and then run it through multiple different trantion programs, only smoothing out the grammar afterwards. It was still the same in terms of content, but it used very different phrasing than he normally did while writing something in the Englishnguage. And when it came to how hede to gain his auric knowledge, that was pretty exinable, given that there was a pretty straightforward line of reasoning people could easily follow. First, hed gained strength as part of the research team, working himself to the bone to stay ahead of the strongest monsters that were currently being summoned. and then, hede face to face with someone stronger, someone who was, arguably, a monster. Hed won but lost a hand in the process. Driven by a need to never feel that weak ever again, to win the next fight like this one decisively, hed run off into the woods for a training montage, evolved, and unlocked his [Aura]. Hed then taken that [Aura] and tried out literally everything there was to try, and everyone knew about it thanks to the erratic bursts of [Aura] that had been clearly noticeable even from outside the building. While he just sat there, thinking, Professor Sturm bustled into the room, heading straight for theptop connected to the big screen on the wall, with several students or assistants Isaac didnt recognize streaming inside after him, sitting down around the table. Finally, thest people of the team trickled in, and Professor Sturm straightened up, ready to present while Bailey sat at the table like everyone else. Alright, depending on when youst looked at the news, you might not have heard about this, but theres a shark in the Bodensee, Germanys arguablyrgestke, and based on a few blurry photos, were pretty sure were dealing with a Megalodon here. Patrick raised his hand, indicating he had a question Er, arguably biggestke? It borders Austria and Switzend as well as Germany, so some people argue that it isnt Germanys biggestke. Its not really important, though. What is important is the shark itself. Based on your experiments with the dinosaurs and how you managed to corrte Stats to Tier and how that differs from what they should have, based on size and muscle mass, that thing would be able to shatter any unenhanced boat on thatke like kindling, with the sole exception of the big ferries, and even those are at risk. Were going to be using a normal Great White Shark, Carcharodon Carcharis, forparison when ites to hunting methodology, aparison that has held true so far. Basically, they dive deep into the water to conduct an attack from below, impacting their target at high speed. Great Whites use this to stun seals while the prevailing theory on a Megalodons hunting habits is that they use this burst of speed to surprise whales and damage their flukes, limiting their mobility until they bleed out. Im sorry, but whats a fluke? Isaac asked. Thats the tail fin. Sturm said Given what we know about how monsters that are essentially [System] empowered animals grow stronger, that same attack could reduce a sailboat to kindling with one hit. The point is that right now, that entireke is a deathtrap, and no one is sticking so much as a toe into the water. Shouldnt the shallows be safe? Raul asked. Not necessarily. A Great White can swim in water with a depth as little as a single meter. Assuming that the this scales precisely with size, all a Megalodon needs is water maybe three meters deep and that covers most of theke. Believe me, no one is going out on the water right now. And what about the risk of this shark escaping theke, swimming out along some river and reaching the ocean? Isaac asked. That might take care of the immediate issue of having a bloodthirsty monster in ake that was popr for swimming, fishing, recreational sailing, etc. but it would also ensure that a countless swarm of said bloodthirsty death machines would haunt the Earths oceans once more. Very little. The Rhine river does eventually reach the ocean, but it runs through several narrow areas before then, and the military is already working towards ensuring it does not survive going through those chokepoints. Sturm replied However, the biggest issue right here and now is getting the shark out of theke. Ive already gotten request from the Marine to do projection about the ecological consequences of hurling depth charges into theke until the shark is dead. I dont have the precise numbers on that, but just from my work with the fish farms that work to ensure there are still fish in theke, year after year, I know the consequences would be bad. Putting aside the human element for a second here, this thing will cause a massive, if localized, ecological disaster, either when they start spawning in more of their kind or in their violent removal. But this situation, as horrible as it is, also represents an opportunity to observe a monster in the wild, how it interacts with other animals, if it needs food if it is avable and to what degree it will go to get it. As of right now, the goal is to get a good look at it and how it acts, then get it the hell out of there Sturm went on to talk about a few weak points and ns, but there wasnt much he had. When he studied sharks, he studied their physiology, not how to fight them with magic powers that hadnt existed back then. Everyone but Isaac headed out after that, first helping grab some gear and then they drove off in one of the universitys busses while he flipped open a spareptop and started typing. He didnt want stuff he specifically released anonymously on his workptop, ever. Babysitters cycled in and out, asionally it was Professor Bishop, whod evolved his [ss] into an [Ulfhednar], sometimes Professor Chandler talked his ear off about histest discoveries, trying to convince him to try them out, but most of the time, he was dealing with high Level police officers and even, on one asion, a Bundeswehr soldier. Basically, if they were over Level 25 and could be assumed to be reasonably professional, they were in the building to ensure that there were multiple people guarding the three rooms of monsters, counting down towards the autonomous spawns. Isaac sighed internally. He knew there was no way in hell hed be allowed to do so, but he wished hed been doing this alone if the rest of the team couldnt be here. Chapter 78: The Clock strikes Thirteen Chapter 78: The Clock strikes Thirteen The sound of weapons shing filled the empty summoning room, Isaacs souldbound de in its knife form striking a telescoping metal baton, over and over. No teleports, no preternaturally lengthened weapons, no active [Skills] of any kind. This was about speed, and only speed. Well, personal skill also counted for something, but was only a distant secondary concernpared to the sheer impact their difference in speed had. Around them, two [Auras] red, both covering a huge area, interweaving and pushing against each other. One, the weaker one, was pale blue and gave of the feeling of a solid wall despite how ephemeral it was. Amanders [Aura], that connected a group of people, transmitting orders instantaneously while also able to immediately return any responses given. It was simr to a sensory [Aura] in the sense that it wasnt all that immediately durable could be pushed aside easily enough, but it could also be projected past other [Auras], albeit at a vastly reduced strength. As for the person wielding that [Aura], well, it was the extendible baton, it was Polizeihauptmeister Habicht, and he really shouldnt have been here. First of all, unlike Wirt, he was from Leipzig, a city halfway across the country. Also, he wasnt just a member of the polices tactical unit, the SEK, he was in charge of the damn thing, at least the local department. Or rather, he had been in charge of the Leipzig Police departments tactical division and even then, being a babysitter this far away would have been beneath him. Yet Now though, hed been put in charge of a newly created department meant to take care of any and all monsters that went free and endangered the general public. Grenzschutzgruppe Thirteen, or GSG 13. They were in goodpany, thest GSG unit, GSG 9, being the German Federal Polices anti-terrorism strike group. Someone had clearly had a lot of fun naming the new one. In the other timeline, it had had a different name. It had been formed in response to an incident simr to the damn shark in theke, but it definitely hadnt been the exact same one. Something involving a Hill Troll, maybe? It had certainly been something chaotic in an already chaotic time, so Isaac didnt remember the particrs. First, it had been called the Emergency Anti-Monster Response Force, die Anti-Monster Notfall Gruppe, or AMNG for short. Theydter dropped the Emergency, calling it just the AMG, but the name still held echoes of the desperate circumstances that had create it. Now though, someone had taken the time to create it thoroughly and from scratch, and then given it a name that was both well thought-out and kind of badass. It was a truly ridiculous thing to be so deliriously happy about, but he was. It was a sign that hed changed things for the better, not because hed made it happen, not because hed worked tirelessly to change something big, it was simply a cute little sign that things had changed. And even though he had all those responsibilities, someone had still felt it was a good use of his time to have him train under Isaac, and that also felt good. He was certainly being helpful, but he was also being seen as helpful. Also, he was strengthening one of the people whod be standing between the people of this country, and by extension the world, and the monsters. Not only that, but Habicht would likely also take arge part of that training with him to train others, his future subordinates, with it. Gotcha. Isaac said, lightly tapping Habicht on the forehead with his knife. Normally, this would have been supremely unsafe, but his ability to prevent his des from inflicting any damage made this pretty ok, though convincing him of that hadnt been easy. Damn, youre fast. Habicht grunted. He was a few Levels below Isaac, but that was only part of the reason for their difference in speed. The older mans second Evolution [ss] was a Commander-type, and that demanded a vastly different attribute distribution. Commander-type [sses], meaning anything designed tomand other people, empowering them and granting supernaturalmunication channels. But such [Skills], ones that affected multiple people over a decent period of time and to a significant degree, cost a lot of mana. A metric fuckton. And that was mana the user had to pay, it didnte from the environment or the recipient. Well, there were versions where the Commander activated aparatively cheap [Skill] that gave his subordinates temporary ess to a new [Skill], and then they could pay the mana cost that created the actual effect, and then there were variations that involved the linking of mana pools to sustain [Unit-Skills] and about a million others. But in the end, it all boiled down to this: nothing happened for free, everything incurred an energy cost, and the caster/user/wielder/whatever-else-there-was had to pay it. Of course, anything that had arge scale effect, like [Unit-Skills], was stupidly expensive. Much like with his [Form of Horror], his ultimate [Skill], that cost usually exceeded the mana pool of most people who held such [Skills], at least when they first got it. Instead, they came with a separate capacitor that any excess mana regeneration would flow into until it was full, and that capacitor could only be spent the specific [Skill] it was attached to, and nothing else, though in certain cases, there was the option of only spending some of the capacitor. Anything that functioned like that also had a cooldown, which, depending on the [Skill] in question, could be measured in months. Most people only got one or two every Evolution, their central [Skills] if they were active ones. But not Commanders, they were basically all cooldown-[Skills]. Sure, you had a [Sense for Tactics] here, a [Battlefield Eye] there, the usual enhanced senses and interpersonal [Skills] one would expect a [Tactician], [General] and the like to have, but the rest everything else required an absurdly high amount of mana but was independent of the users mana pool. All of that was a very roundabout way of saying: Commanders were basically all Mana Regeneration, stat wise, leaving Habicht a little bit below Isaac in terms of physical stats and that gap would only widen as their Levels increased. It really wouldnt have been a very fair matchup even without Isaac having ten years of [System]bat experience on the man. But Habicht had wanted to spar to see what it was like to fight against someone that much faster than him, so that was what theyd been doing. This is hardly a fair contest. Isaac replied in response to thement about his speed Id rather not fight a [Iron-willed Guardian of the Law] when he actually has the proper support, even if said support is at a lower Level than either of us. One on onebat isnt what your [ss] is meant for and we both know it. Yes, that was Habichts actual [ss] name, but only in the Englishnguage. In German, thenguage his Status screen had been using during the Evolution, [Gesetzeshter des Eisernen Willens], the name sounded good and proper, it had gravitas, it fit. Hed earned it for staring down the continents most prolific serial killer, someone who could have torn his head off before he could even blink and had nearly done so several times, after all. But when it was tranted into English, even the [System] badly mangled it, there were simply certain phrases that didnt trante properly. And as to why most people used English [ss] names, it was pretty simple. English was thenguage of science, and most of the discoveries about the [System] had been made by science. Well, arge chunk of them had been made by them, but that was beside the point. I suppose. Habicht shrugged But who can choose to fight all their battles only when the conditions are favorable? Certainly not me. Speaking of favorable conditions, why arent you at the Bodensee with the others, dealing with that shark? Isaac asked. GSG 13 isnt quite ready yet and if a big intervention is necessary, it will involve the kind of heavy ordinance that only the military has, a paramilitary police unit like mine isnt allowed to use them. In the end, I decided that learning how to better use my [Aura] was the best use of my time. How about you, why arent you there with all your coworkers.? Isaac sighed I have to babysit the monsters. Wont be much longer though, theyll start spawning in maybe ten minutes from now and then Ill have to start writing down everything that happens. But until then, another round? The ring of metal striking metal began to fill the room once again, knife nging off baton, until another [System] window popped up. Warning! Automatic Summoning has been activated on [Acid Slime]! y the original monster to stop this effect. Isaac jumped backwards to create a little space between the two of them, to give the other man a chance to read the notification and stop. But he didnt need to, because Habicht had stopped fighting just as quickly as he had. In the other timeline, Isaac had sparred with people who were better fighters than Habicht, people who had better reflexes, but hed only rarely sparred against someone who had the kind of discipline that proper training instilled. Warning! Automatic Summoning has been activated on [Stray]! y the original monster to stop this effect. He pulled aptop from his spatial storage and sat down on a chair which likewise appeared out of thin air. There were several Excel sheets that had been prepared well ahead of time, all he had to do was put in the data as he got it. His [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] was pushed out to the max, epassing all of the various crates and cages that held the various monsters, and he just sat there, writing. There were a lot of experiments being conducted here. Would the monsters start autonomously summoning in the same order they themselves had been summoned it? Would having multiple monsters of the same kind speed up the process, or slow it down? Would the autonomous summoning slow down as the number of newly created monsters increased? And if so, would killing the newly spawned monsters bring the speed back up? And so on, and so forth. To test thest hypothesis, Isaaczily swung his knife, a [Far Strike] projected through the wall, [Starfang] active and turning an Acid Slime into a sooty stain on the floor. It was a cool trick, though. He could slice through the walls of this ce with his des, but his new [Absolute de Mastery] meant he wasnt doing any actual damage in the process. Sadly, this little trick wouldnt let him outright bypass armor, at least not unless it was so weak as to be inconsequential. Annoying, that. So that was what he spent the next couple of hours doing. Typing, sttering monster guts all over the ce and watching Habicht grow more and more nervous as the flood of Warning! Autonomous summoning has been activated on [Organism X]! messages continued. At some point, [Far Strike] went up a Level, hitting Level 20 and Isaac took a moment to read it''s new description, but then went right back to documenting the results of the experiment. Far Strike mon, Level XX) Upon the Users next melee attack with a ded weapon, the de will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. In addition, the User may now imbued his weapons with ten mana to create a range enhancing aura for a full minute. This extra reach is 0.5 meters, gaining an additional 0.1n meters, with n being every Level in this Skill over 10. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to destroy foes that thought they were safe due to being out of range, this Skill has evolved to grant him even an greater reach. The user may now input more mana at will, with the range doubling with every additional 20 points of mana invested. Caution: Extremely long des may give way if engaged along their entire length, this may be mitigated by applying a second Skill to strengthen it (elligble Skills: Piercing Strike, Power Strike). Cost: 20 mana minimum, no maximum mana investment Not bad, not bad. He now had the reach to cut apart skyscrapers, though it was more likely going to be used against monsters than buildings. So far, this had been a good day. He wondered how the others were doing? Chapter 79: Interlude Amy Chapter 79: Interlude Amy There were many, many benefits to increasing ones stats that werent immediately apparent. For example, not having any cramps after a three-hour car ride with no breaks and being able to watch a movie during said ride without getting carsick. Sure, there were plenty of people whod been able to do that before, but it was such a visceral change from before that sometimes, it was truly shocking. As for the movie itself, it had been an old BBC documentary that Karl had picked out. Well, it was sort of a documentary that followed a team of scientist who travelled through time on a yacht, visiting the seven most dangerous seas in the Earths history, one of which belonged to the Pleistocene Era, which was when the Carcharodon Megalodon originally prowled the seas. It had been interesting and been surprisingly helpful with the situation at hand. Patrick had actually had his nose buried in Google Schr and kept up a runningmentary on the scientific uracy of everything, but also how some of the information that it contained might help. Overall, while it might have been produced with your average TV viewer in mind, rather than a scientist, it had given them several ideas they might end up trying out. Theyd driven to theke in one of those ser mom picks up multiple kids and theres a TV in there so she doesnt have to keep them entertained minivans, with Karl following behind in arge truck that held the equipment. Bailey had originally referred to the minivan as a bus, but apparently, he hadnt seen it before theyd started loading it and hed been misinformed as well. And now, they were here, walking alongside the harbor. It was an artificial harbor, withrge concrete walls wrapping around it, protecting it from waves, should there be a storm. The harbor was pretty deep, deep enough for the shark to get in, though even it wouldnt be dumb enough to try. There might be enough space in terms of depth, but not enough for it to turn. If it got in here, it would get stuck. This particr creature was a ram-venttor, meaning it needed to keep moving if it wanted to keep breathing. Therefore, going into the harbor would have been a death sentence for it. Good. The harbor smelled like surprisingly bad, the stench of algae and stale water making her crinkle her nose at it hit her. Across theke, the Alps rose, a beautiful mountain range inviting her to go running up them once this was done. But looking out across the vast expanse of water, nothing was more eye-catching than the orange lights, shing discordantly at intervals of less than a second. It was very out of ce on the otherwise surprisingly natural lookingkeshore. What are those? she asked Sturm, the older Professor grimly looking out across theke, mouth set in a thin line. Warning lights. Normally they get turned on when the weather forecast expects strong winds, 40 shes per minute tell people it might get a little rough out on the water, 90 say youd be risking your life if you leave the harbor. Theyve been blinking constantly since they first saw the shark. Come on now, Ms. Shaw, lets make sure they can turn those off again. The ferry bureau is over here. Ferry bureau? Were bolting a bunch of equipment to the ferry that normally carries cars over to Switzend and then taking that out. Its the biggest vessel here and one of thergest on the entireke and the hope is that itll be too big for the shark to easily sink. Sturm exined. And were allowed to use a civilian ship, to take it into a situation that could very well end with it at the bottom of theke? she asked, surprised. Its not so much a let kind of situation. Sturm replied ominously But youll learn about that soon. And wasnt that the truth. She could hear the orders being barked in that unmistakable I give orders and Im used to them being obeyed and people scurrying around from the parking lot, she just hadnt known that was their destination. As they headed over there, telekic [Skills] levitating along boxes and crates, she felt a sensory [Aura] brush against her arm. She rolled her eyes, shoot Patrick a dark look, and smashed it away. They had three sensory [Auras], sort of. Bailey had one that let him tell when people around him were injured, but that one was functionally impossible to notice and didnt bother anyone. It also had a secondary ability that only came into effect when he charged it with a significantly greater amount of mana, reducing its range in the process, namely, it could heal. Isaac had a rtively calm sensory [Aura], with just a hint of frantess as befitting the mans living life a mile a minute personality, and he had the good sense of keeping that well clear of people because it would get on their nerves. Of course, hed promptly undermined that point by suggesting that it might be possible to sense the presence of people without hitting them with the [Aura] directly by checking for environmental factors such as radiated body heat. something that Patrick had promptly decided he just had to figure out so he could have his [Aura of the Hungry Mind] active at all times, which would have been bad even if that particr [Aura] hadnt been the single most obnoxious and intrusive sensory [Aura] anyone had so much as heard about. Therefore, she first smacked his [Aura] back all the way to him and then used her own [Aura] to condense all the water vapor in her range back into a liquid right above his head. He shot her a brief re, but he knew what that had been for. As Amy retracted her own [Aura] to the point where it wasnt felt by everyone nearby and continued walking. Her [Aura of Mystic Union] couldbine things within it, something she mainly used for fusing spells under battlefield conditions, giving her a new and unparalleled flexibility, but it had a lot of other uses. Instantaneously dissolving sugar cubes in her coffee, dousing annoying colleagues in water without needing shy magic or just affixing someones shoes to the floor. Really, it was incredibly versatile, she just needed to get a little creative with it. On Rauls shoulder, Brisa, his pet Microraptor suddenly squawked loudly and took flight, settling on the roof of the building and looking down. A few weeks ago, she hadnt been able to do that, her flight limited to something akin to what a sugar glider could achieve, including having to climb to a high ce to get started, but not anymore. Not since shed eaten an Aspect of the Lesser Air Elemental. Pets and familiars didnt absorb Aspects the same way people did, spending XP and gaining a single [Skill] with varying degrees of flexibility and power. Instead, they ate them and became a hybrid of the monster that had dropped the Aspect and their original species, and then decide how much they wanted to change, but they were always at least 50% their initial species. So now, the little microraptor was capable of true flight, and two Aspects from a Specter and Lesser Hydra providing survivability. She squawked again and took off across theke, even her vastly improved eyesight quickly losing track of it. Wheres she going? Amy asked. To look for the shark. I know its a long shot, but I figured it was worth trying. Raul shrugged and reached up, patting his pet sr dragons head. Aurelian had grown to the size of a Golden Retriever, but as a dragon, he also had size-changing powers and spent most of his time in Rauls breast pocket, thezy bugger. He was cute in that form, though. They entered the small, squat office building next to the ferry terminal and came face to face with a scene of absolute chaos. A woman in a navy blue uniform, wearing a white hat Amy assumed to be a captains on her head was arguing with someone in a regr civilian suit. She looked incensed and frustrated, the man looked supremely annoyed and a little scared. On her shoulder, there was a military rank insignia Amy didnt recognize, but that was what Wikipedia was for. She stuck her hand in her jacket pocket and cast [Scry], looking at the screen without making it obvious. As it turned out, she was a Kapit?nin zur See, a rank just below the lowest kind of admiral. A quick [Absolute Inspect] revealed that this was also the name of her [ss]. Look, Mrs., you cant just take one of our ferries out on ake that is inhabited by a monster. Youre literally a navy officer, cant you take a ship thats actually meant for fighting? Or a helicopter? First of all, were not taking the ship, the Marine is borrowing it and will pay for any necessary repairs or even a recement, should one be necessary. Secondly, what ships actually meant for fighting? This is ake over six hundred kilometers from the ocean, and there hasnt been a naval engagement here since before the founding of this nation. Your ferries are thergest vessels on theke and their size makes them the ones most likely to survive the initial attack. Most vessels here will get chomped in half with a single bite. Now, I am sorry about interfering in your business, but lets not kid ourselves here, you dont have a business so long as theke is effectively a deathtrap. A deathtrap? the owners voice was suddenly a full octave higher Why would you be safe on a ship that is otherwise not allowed outside the harbor? And why cant you just use a helicopter or something? We have [Skills] that make this considerably safer than it would be without them. And now, if youll excuse me, the people wholl be helping fix this mess have just arrived. The woman turned to face them and introduced herself. Im [Kapit?nin zur See] Caroline Meier, from the Marine. Ive been dispatched here to act as a liaison between the university and everyone that whose help might be needed, as well as help keep everyone safe using my [Skills]. As she said the word [Skills], a faint hint of distaste appeared in her voice. Which was somewhat understandable, if she thought about it for a couple of seconds. Meier was surprisingly young for someone of her rank, something shed almost certainly worked her ass off to achieve. She was also incredibly fit and, given her rank, highly trained. And then, the [System] hade along and flipped the bloody table. Wevemandeered one of the ferries here with the expectation that its size will provide some degree of protection against the shark. Unfortunately, other than the ferries, there were no big boats avable, meaning it was our only choice unless we want to go out there in a small yacht or sailboat. I trust you have all the equipment youll need and know what youre doing here? Her tone was a little grating, but Amy could tell where she was going with this. Meiers Level 19 put her well below Professor Baileys team in terms of power, though, meaning she had very little idea what someone like them was capable off. Also, a [System Researchers] [Privacy] upgrade, [Information ckout], meant there was literally, absolutely, no way for Meier to have analyzed her, Patrick or Raul. Bailey and Karl had different [sses], but theirs were also epic rarity research-[sses] and had simrly powerful information defenses. Sure, we brough everything we need, including a handful of drones, periscopes, and all the other gear used when observing normal sized shark. Everything except the bait, that is, but given this creatures aggressivity and the fact that were going to be the only vessel out on theke, were not going to need it. Sturm exined. The real question is why the hell someone would summon a creature like that in thergestke avable. Is there any way they could have possibly made it any easier for the summon to get lost and be a problem for everyone else? Werent there any smaller bodies of water around that could have been used? the guy whod been arguing with Meier earlier grumbled. People do stupid stuff all the time. Meier replied, the undertone of like prevent the professionals from solving your problem quite clear. It wasnt quite that simple, but Amy could understand why she was being grumpy. Half an hourter they were walking onto the ferry, several bits and bobs having been bolted to the side, like some kind of small sonar dish that Sturm had brought, originally intended to be mounted on rowboats, speedboats or other, smaller vessels that did not normally have one but needed it to spot therger fish and whales an aquatic biologist might be looking for. The ferry itself had a radar, but not one with the level of precision they needed right now. Whats up with those boats? Patrick asked, gesturing to a smaller, two-keeled motorboat sitting on the back of the ferry. Said ferry was designed to carry cars as well as people, leaving it with arge, t strip right down the middle of the deck, the forward and rearmost areas not being beneath therge sunroof that was almost as big as the main deck. And in those spots, two smaller boats sat, with two parallel keels instead of a single, central one. At the back, between them, a massive engine sat which would likely let it st off like a rocket. Im pretty sure those are supposed to be lifeboats, in case the ferrys size isnt enough to keep it afloat. Baileymented. Really? Patrick asked, casting out his [Aura] and sweeping it over the closer of the pair of lifeboats They feel a little flimsy. Yeah, but theyre also damn near unsinkable. Karl replied, eyes glowing as he used some kind of structural analysis [Skill] Those keels are filled with polyurethane foam, wont fill with water if they get punctured or damaged even worse. You could reduce those things to kindling and any given bit will continue to float even in the face of that. Id rather be on the big ferry instead of those things, but when ites to lifeboats, I dont think theres anything better than these two, especially on ake. Also, those ships can float upside down. If they capsize, all you have to do is swim out from underneath and they you can sit on the bottom until someonees and rescues you. I had to do that off the coast of California once. Wasnt fun, but I imagine trying that with a different boat would be a hell of a lot more unpleasant. Sturmmented Incidentally, I was also researching Great White Sharks back then. I just hope one doesntnd on the boat, this time around. and then he looked around sheepishly, as if hoping no one had heard. Everyone had been able to hear him and would have heard him even if theyd all still been regr humans, nevermind with how good their hearing was now. Im almost afraid to ask, but what happened? Raul asked. See, we were out on the ocean in a boat much like that one, and we were looking to catalog the Great White poption. Their dorsal fins are highly distinctive, so if you can get a good picture of both sides and without any water distorting the image, you can differentiate the sharks pretty definitively. For that purpose, we use a tuna head for bait to lure it towards the surface, which they then breach in ordance to their normal hunting method when we pull the head back on board, giving us a good shot at the fins. Of course, sometimes the shark jumps higher and at a bad angle and smacks into the boat. And one time, itnded on the boat. Cue desperately driving back to the harbor to get one of the big cranes, the kind meant to lift boats onto the drydocks, to get it back into the water. We managed to rescue the shark, but it was pretty damn terrifying to have that thing lying two meters away from us on that small boat. Sturm shrugged, clearly cursing himself for having said anything in the first ce. yeah, lets hope that doesnt happen here. Raul replied, clearly also deciding that it would have been better to not have that story stuck in everyones minds. Alright then. Bailey pped his hands to draw attention Does everyone have everything? Id rather not have to turn the entire boat around just because someone forgot to pack something to drink. It was a clearly superfluous statement, but I served quite nicely to distract everyone from the story hovering over them like a dark cloud. So then, they got on the damn boat and drove off, engine chugging along quietly below. Well, it was quiet if you were upstairs on the sundeck or the bridge at its front. While on the deck where the cars would normally be, it would undoubtedly have been deafening. And now, we wait to be attacked. Great. Patrick sighed. Eh, weve got several kinds of sonar, plus me and a couple of my assistants have [Skills] that effectively make us human sonars as well. Well get some warning. Sturm added. It was an odd feeling, being out on a thiske without any other vessels present. After all, the Bodensee was nearly seventy kilometers long and fifteen kilometers across where they were currently leaving port. And in all that space, that expanse just begging someone to hop in, given that it was the middle of summer. But there was something out there in the water, hidden somewhere beneath the waves, and it was going after any human that entered its domain with murderous intent. Even while theyd been driving here, a few more people had died. One person had decided to head out on the water despite the danger, but there had also been an incident involving swimmers whod thought that the shallows would be safe. Sturms warning about how sharks could get into extremely shallow water had proven true, but it hadnt beenmunicated to the public nearly as well as the general about the shark in theke had been. Theres nothing on the radar, any of you guy see anything? Meier asked from the helm. Shed been standing there, tense as hell. Amy knew that between its cost and Tier, the Megalodon couldnt be too tough, especiallypared to Professor Baileys team. As for the boat, arge part of its ability to endure hits stemmed from its size, but there were also multiple [Skills] flowing into its superstructure, ovepping and interweaving, strengthening it well beyond any ordinary material. Still, there was nothing normal about the monster that would be attacking them, either. Nothing near the surface either. Raulmented Ive had both Brisa and Aurelian flying around out there, scouting, but they havent found anything either. Isnt this thing supposed to be super aggressive? one of Sturms assistants asked Shouldnt we have seen it by now? Its a bigke. Sturm replied Its almost certainly heard us, but it might take a while to get close enough to detect. The ferry continued to plod along slowly, everyone waiting for something, anything to happen, anything to break up the monotony. They were all some degree of anxious, and they were hoping to have the danger be visible, rather than being forced to wait until it appeared. And then, finally, Sturms assitant spoke the sentence theyd all been both dreading and hoping would happen soon. Its here, right under us,ing up fast. Just as nned? Yes. Get ready! Meier snapped and suddenly, things went from zero to a hundred in a mere fraction of a second. And then, Meier activated a [Skill] and the boat dodged. The immense metal vessel, clocking in at over sevenhundred tons, flung itself several meters to the side and the massive shark erupted out of the water, fully clearing theke in a shower of glittering droplets two meters to the side of the boat. It was a third the size of the ferry but given that the ferry was nearly a hundred meters long, it was rming that it was only three times as long. Amy jumped down to the lower deck,nding next to the railing, and extended both her [Aura of Mystic Union] and [Basic Hydrokinesis] into the water right where the shark was going tond, increasing the surface tension by several orders of magnitude. So when the shark came back down, it was likending on a b of concrete, rather than ake. It began to trash and struggle, but it was helpless. And given that it was a fish, if shed been able to hold it there for long enough, it would suffocate, but shed only be able to hold this little trick for maybe thirty seconds. Still, even five seconds would have been long enough as a highlypressed ball of sma erupted from Patricks right hand, mming into the beasts gills and exploding, tearing the fragile flesh to pieces. The effect was simr to a firecracker going off on the inside of a humans lungs. That had been the n from the very beginning. Theyd wait for it to attack, and then Meier would use her first Evolution cooldown [Skill] to move the vessel out of the way, then Amy would prevent it from going back in the water and escape, and then the closest [Mage] who wasnt her would strike at its gills while it was vulnerable. And scene. Megalodon (Lv. 23) has been in. 120 XP gained (280 XP base distributed across 4 people as per their contributions) Amy sighed in relief and let go of her active abilities, the massive mana drain ceasing instantly. Wait, stop! Sturm yelled, storming down the stairs, waving his arms Keep it over the water, sharks arent naturally buoyant, itll sink! Aaaaaand it was toote. The tailfin had already disappeared under the water. That was something he should have mentioned hours ago. Oh, it isnt that bad. Patrick added, stepping up to the railing and looking over Theke is what, a hundred and fifty meters deep? Everyone who could learned a water breathing spell a while ago, we can drag that thing up here no problem. We might want to get some of those buoyancy bags used for underwater object retrieval first, though. Theyre something like Ill have to show you a picture on my phone, Im not sure how to properly describe them. I think I know what youre talking about, Ive used those things while training for my SCUBA certification. Sturm nodded They should be avable somewhere around theke. Well, that was certainly anticlimactic. Baileymented as he joined them, havinge down from the bridge at more normal, sensible speed, rather than a madcap sprint down a set of water-slick stairs. Admittedly, they were all tough enough that even falling down at full speed and hitting the ground skull-first would have been perfectly survivable, but no one wanted to take a fall like that in front of ones coworkers. I expected that to be tougher. Goes to show how valuable a proper n can be, doesnt it? You know, I think we might have been asking the wrong question earlier. the same one of Sturms assistants whod first noticed the shark threw in It isnt whod be stupid enough to summon one of these things in ake thisrge, it should have been Theres two more! Patrick snapped. The aquatic researcher might have had been specialized in seeing through water and detecting aquatic life, but Patrick had the best senses overall, allowing him to detect the iing threat almost as quickly. He pointed There and there, theyll be here in maybe ten seconds. That wasnt good. In fact, it was really fucking bad. Theyd been able to kick the ass of the first one pretty easily, but it had been just one shark and the the entire fucking ship dodges [Skill] was now on cooldown. Meiers grumbling, which she hadnt realized that they could quite clearly hear, about how a bunch of civilians should not be hunting monsters with bloody superpowers suddenly hit a lot closer to home. Maybe if theyd been practicing fighting against surprise attacks or how to properly coordinate against a monster when you had only a few seconds to do so, like the military undoubtedly did, theyd have been able to make a proper n on how to deal with this thing. As it was, though, things ever so slightly went to shit. Patrick gathered his [Aura] and mmed it into the leading shark as a massive column of power. Hed sacrificed almost all the volume for range, but the intense focus and, quite frankly, viting level of scrutiny was not appreciated by the shark hed targeted. It veered away, diving deeper into the water so it could attack from below, rather thaning in from the side, attacking at an angle and aiming to m into the ships side. The second one, however, only caught the periphery of the auric st and seemed to have taken this as a challenge and aimed straight at him. Patrick raised a magical shield in front of himself, but then Bailey intervened, clearly assuming that a 50 ton shark would be too much for the shield to survive. He pushed the student backwards at full force, sending him sliding backwards all the way to the stern of the boat but the hand was still outstretched when the shark leaped out of the water, jaws snapping shut right where Patrick had been staying. It kept going, Professor Baileys hand still mped in the monsters jaws and then the newly evolved [Biological Savants] arm stretched as if it were made from rubber for a mere fraction of a second, then the arm reached its maximum extension. The area around Bailey, maybe three meters from where his feet touched the deck and where his other hand rested on the railing, bent, warped and twisted, crumpling and being pulled towards the shark, the entire bloody boat rocking from the forces exerted upon it, but whatever Bailey had done to anchor himself, it had worked. Also, his arm somehow held up to strain, and the arm twanged back like a rubber band from hell, pulling the shark towards Bailey. Except theyd been standing near the side walls of the car deck, and the sharks momentum had carried it two thirds of the way across the deck, so when it was yanked backwards, it ended up unwillingly kissing the superstructure supporting the bridge and sunroof. Of course, that part of the superstructure was also part of the frame for therge window that lined the wall, which promptly exploded into shards of what was, thankfully, safety ss. In the next second, though, it became starkly illustrated which one of the people present was either a [Mage] or was able to create magical shields. Why? Because they were the only ones who were still clean. And mind you, these werent a few droplets of blood here or there which, while damn near impossible to get out of clothing without specialized magic, werent much of a problem. Instead a literal flood of crimson sshed over the people by the railing, utterly drenching those without appropriate defenses. Well, almost everyone. Bailey ended up messy, but the blood disappeared mere seconds after striking him. Oi, Jrgen, we have a Megalodon for you take apart down here. He called out to Sturm But lets wait till were done, shall we? As he said that, he began to shift, gills opening up at the side of his neck as he began to bulk up, skin changing and growing hundreds of tiny tooth-like structures. Sharkskin, basically. His feet grew, shoes being torn to shreds in the process, while webbed skin appeared between his fingers and toes. Clearly, he was preparing to leap overboard and deal with the shark mano a mano. Then, the boat rocked as something heavy smacked into the bottom hull, followed by something exploding and another violent movement underfoot, hurling one of the lifeboats overboard. That was one of the engines.Karl called out from the bridge Were taking on water, but not much and Ill fix it. You guys make sure that doesnt happen again, we only have one more engine and I cant fix that. Then, there was a weird slurping sound and not even his footsteps or breathing were audible anymore. Clearly, hed used his new [Skill] to dive into solid materials and reform them from the inside while his [Aura of the Limitless Engineer] flowed through the material around him, reshaping it and fusing it where necessary. The screeches of metal being twisted back into ce vibrated through the hull, but Amy knew it was a good thing. Power swirled around her as her [Aura] unfurled and she cast spells into it, a full sized [Wall of me]pressing into a single orb the size of a marble, which was then wrapped in a basic [Thermal Shield]. It was a rather basic utility spell that prevented the transfer of thermal energy, intended to prevent a room from losing heat in the winter or from heating up in the summer, but right now, it was intended to do something else, namely, prevent the orb from detonating the instant it hit the water. And then, two more orbs appeared, all three swirling around each other, ready to be flung at the shark the moment it entered his field of view. Patrick had chosen to be a [Magical System Researcher], focusing more on the research aspect of his former [System Researcher] [ss], while Amy had evolved hers into a [System Magus], choosing to focus on magic. The first orb rocketed away, plopping into the water like a rock and going deeper until she removed the [Thermal Shield], and it reacted with the surrounding water. Violently. The water was superheated, turning into steam after mere microseconds, expanding and erupting into an immense shockwave that buffeted both the boat and shark. The monster lurched away, skin blistering as it swam through the boiling liquid, one eye popped like a goddamn water balloon, leaking gross liquid was made no less disgusting by the fact that she could identify precisely what it was. The shark circled back around, leaping out of the water and aiming straight at only other concentration of humans on the boat, the bridge. It also, wisely, decided to attack from the opposite side of where they were. Suddenly, the floor below the bridge tore away, dropping everyone in it several meters to the lower deck amidst a shower of equipment that was probably rather expensive. Mere momentster, the shark flew by overhead, ripping what remained of it away and into the water. The people whod ended up falling to the lower deck hadnt really enjoyed the experience, but Karl had almost certainly saved their lives with that stunt. And so long as they were alive, Bailey could heal them. And then there was nothing between the shark and the pair of Patrick and Amy. Also, fun fact, altering ones trajectory midair required certain kinds of magic, wings, something to push off of, or a jetpack, none of which the shark had. Therefore, it was utterly screwed. It seemed to hang there in the air, travelling overhead on a fixed trajectory, as they bombarded it with spells. Both of her orbs of fire mmed against its side, detonating and tearing its guts open while Patrick unleashed a series of airdes and Starme bolts. By the time the shark hit the water, it was in pieces. That was weird. Patrickmented I could buy someone being stupid enough to summon one shark, but three? Whats that saying about once being an ident, but three times being enemy action? Its an English one, does anyone know it? You know, I think it might be something from Sun Tzu or some other kind of military saying. Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. Meiermented, standing up and brushing herself of But that isnt some profound piece of military wisdom, thats from an old James Bond movie. That being said, its now be rmingly clear that this wasnt some kind of ident, this was deliberate. There are now hopefully no more sharks in theke, but there might be more and we have to assume that even if there arent, the person or persons responsible will likely summon more. Therefore, well be heading back to shore, and making sure the appropriate authorities are aware of the situation at hand. She held out her hand, used a [Skill], and suddenly, the boats one remaining engine roared to life. The remains of the bridge, including all the controls, might have ended up at the bottom of theke, but the captain of a warship was clearly prepared to deal with the loss of her ships helm. Then, she turned her head to face them and shed them a smile. Oh, and by the way, nice job. That was a truly impressive thing you just pulled off. And then she returned her attention to her driving. It had taken them half an hour to get out here, but it took them almost two hours to get back to their port of origin. Karl took that time to fix whatever damage he could, his powers allowing him to simply buff out massive structural damage, but the ship still looked like hell as they pulled into the port. A good third of the broken window, as well asrge chunks of the bridge and arge part of the upper deck had ended up overboard, and the electrical work wasnt something he was confident in being able to fix. Hed said hed fix the electrical systems in case of an emergency, but if he did, it would be a quick and dirty patch, which would likely have to be fixed once more before this ship would be ready to sail theke once again. It was a damn good thing the navy would be paying for the repairs, because all of this would be damn expensive. After handing the ship back to a very upset ferry director, Meier headed to the small local military base to give a report while Bailey dropped by the closest police precinct to tell them what was going on. Then, once that was done, they headed over to their hotel and turned in for the night. Today had been interesting. Also fucking terrifying, but there was something about the mess had been oddly thrilling. Amy sighed as she headed into the shower to clean off all the grime that had umted during the day, her [Aura] mming into ce against the walls, ensuring that no one could peek in. Not that she thought someone would, mind you, but it was a clear sign that ying around with any [Aura] near this room would result in a swift kick up the ass, no matter how much of an ident it had been and how little had actually been seen. Tomorrow tomorrow could go any number of ways, some good, some bad, some interesting and some utterly terrifying, depending on how their as of yet unknown adversary reacted. Chapter 80: The Madness within the Method Chapter 80: The Madness within the Method Theyd decided to meet up again in the morning, but with their Fortitude, even the weakest among them was back up and fully awake mere hours after going to bed, leaving them ready and raring to go at 2 in the morning, So that was where they were doing now, sitting around a table in a random conference room in their hotel, though it clearly was just a random spare area that got rented out by the owners to make a little extra cash. It was also the very definition of not secure, but that didnt matter, given that they could throw up a magical privacy shield with casual ease. Most people who reached high Levels throughbat had to invest most of the their gained [Skill] points intobat [Skills] to keep growing stronger, but not for them. Their [sses] let them pick up countlessbat focused abilities while also gaining ess to every utility spell under the sun. Sturm was sitting at the head of the table, tapping away on a tablet. Its screen was getting scanned by a [Scry] spell and projected onto a nearby nk, white wall so everyone could see what was going on. Basically, I ran the numbers. The model I used earlier, the one based on your research into how much prehistoric summons were boosted by their Tier, was pretty urate based on what I saw earlier today. He paused for a moment and looked at his wristwatch Er, yesterday. Point is, my earlier hypotheses and calctions were correct and the math on all the known incidents having only involved a single shark holds true. On the screen, a map of theke appeared, popted with dots marking the location of each incident,plete with a timestamp. Based on travel time, this shark either did not take the direct route or move at its absolute top speed, but that is well within the margin for error for any wild animals movement. And that time difference is key. If there were multiple sharks, it would be quite conspicuous for them to all strike at intervals that would allow for them to be mistaken for a single individual, no? But we know there was more than one shark in thatke. So heres the issue: I think that the other two sharks were summonedter, between the original sharks attacks and our arrival, but I cant fathom why. The original summoning was stupid enough and should have proven without a doubt that that was truly terrible idea, so why do it again? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Patrick quoted Youre going into this assuming the person or persons responsible for this are in their right mind. But assuming that ones opponent isnt mentally sound is as bad an idea as assuming theyll act rationally. Bailey reminded him after a brief moment of silence. Amy had always been able to tell he didnt like to y devils advocate, but he always did when no one else would speak up. Letting people continue making false assumptions wouldnt do them any favors. Right now, all we know is that these sharks were summoned after the initial incident was already over and done with, but we can only specte as to the reason behind it. he concluded, Maybe they wanted to block theke for some reason, but also wanted to keep casualties light? Dump in the first shark to scare the hell out of everyone, make sure they stay out of the water, then add more to make sure everyone stays off theke permanently. They just wanted to avoid causing a higher number of casualties by letting lose multiple sharks right from the get-go. Raul suggested. I doubt it. If theyre willing to kill in the first ce, would they really care about a few more people dying? Theyve crossed the line into murder already and there was no way for them to direct the shark, so they couldnt have spared a specific group of people that they didnt want to kill for ideological reasons. Karl suggested. What if they were there for us? Patrick asked, face grim What if they summoned the first shark to create the reason of drawing us in, and then the other sharks were summoned to He swallowed, steeling himself, and continued. What if this was some kind of hit? That was a terrifying thought. Amy glowered at the map, that seeming like the safest ce to re. Theoretically, yes. Bailey agreed after a long moment of silence But if so, it was an incredibly poorly thought out one. We dealt with the first shark easily enough, and the others two were doable, though not nearly as simple to take down. Also, that was with an understrength group, which they couldnt have anticipated. Isaac staying back was only nned for after we learned about the first shark. Hes actually properly geared up for a fight underwater, and his reputation forbat prowess is towering after the Leipzig incident. Either wed be dealing with someone who didnt know about thetter, which would make them woefully underinformed, or someone who did know but massively underestimated him. As terrifying as the idea of someone going after us with murderous intent is, I do believe we can safely dismiss it. Uh, whos Isaac? one of Sturms assistants asked. Hes thest member of my research group, he stayed back to babysit a few of our experiments. I originally hired him because he had a lot of knowledge on mythology and literature, he was also incredibly enthusiastic. Now though, hes our self-proimed hatchet man and a professional paranoid to boot. He manages to set up some pretty solid protections for new creatures, perfectly covering every power we know they have, as well as all we can assume they have. Hes also prepared for a wide variety of monsters ending up in the wild and needing to be hunted down, including a monster ending up in the ocean by grabbing an Aspect for water breathing. If hed been here yesterday, hed have probably taken out the first shark before it ever got close enough to strike at the boat and fought the other two in the water while we peppered them with spells. I dont think he could have beaten all three simultaneously, but his help would have made this go a hell of lot more smoothly. Sturm tsked Yeah, I think noting back with a wrecked ferry would have gone over a lot better than that hulk we dragged into the harbor. We might have even been able to get back out on the water. Oh, I doubt it. Patrick chimed in With more sharks being summoned, possibly because we were out on theke, wed have been told to stay on the shore until that situation was solved no matter wha- He paused, staring off into the distance. Sturm threw him a questioning look, but he was the only one. Baileys team knew what it meant, though. Patrick had incredibly powerful magical senses and could even tell when other people were summoning nearby. When he sensed that, he tended to get incredibly antsy. Just basic, Tier 2 summons. Its also nowhere near theke, doesnt seem like a problem. At 2 am? Karl asked That alone makes it weird, anyone still going after Tier 2s shouldnt have the Fortitude for minimal sleep. Maybe. Patrick grumbled. Does it really matter? Bailey asked Someone can checkter if theyre still there with [Scry] and if theres a problem, cleanup should be a piece of cake. For now, lets focus on the situation at hand, shall we? And that was what they did from then on. For hours. Create hypothesis, tear them down, create a new one, tear that one down as well. And so on, and so forth. First of all, theyd managed to pretty definitively figure out that the bodies in theke were unlikely to be a big issue, long term, but theyd still get them out just to be sure. Plus, they belonged to a pretty damn impressive species of monsters, so there were countless uses for them. At some point, a text from Isaac came in, half-jokingly asking if they could get him an Aspect so he could stack that with his existing underwater breathing one. Bailey had replied with a short well try and also sent along a brief overview about how the day had gone. What followed was a series of curious but nervous questions, but eventually, they managed to convince him to not abandon the experiment and rush over here. He sounded damn worried though. As for the reason behind the sharks being in theke, they couldnt settle on any one thing. One hypothesis had been that this might have been an attempt at messing with the three nations that bordered theke, but why? Theke was big, but not so big that getting around it was particrly difficult, be it by train or car. There was no flow of goods across theke, and fishing industry wise, well, it existed, but they were already having to increase its fish poptions via fish farms. Hell, the onlyrge vessels out on theke were big ferries like the one theyd taken out yesterday, no cargo ships, no nothing. You had tourism, booze cruises, sailing sports and the like, but none of those were important national industries one would go after to weaken, well, and entire nation. Theke wasrge, yes, but deaths aside, this entire thing had been almost petty. Yet whatever the intention behind this had been, it hadnt been pettiness, nor a simple prank. Anyone who did this because they thought this was funny would not, under any normal circumstances, summon more sharks after seeing the holy havoc the first one had wreaked. So, was this really just the work of a madman? It was possible, but like Bailey had said in the very beginning, just assuming that someone was mentally unstable was an invitation to underestimate them, and that was just in stupid. They kept going in circles, over and over again. Rational actor? What kind of rational actor would target this ce? An irrational actor out to hurt people by any means necessary? Then why use that monster, one that would be stuck within theke, functionally unable to get out, instead of something that could exist in a wider variety of areas? Or had they truly been targeted, but in such an inexpert, poorly thought out way that they hadnt even noticed? Aaaaannnd that brought them back to the original idea, of there being some kind of properly thought out idea, one they couldnt figure out, but they just couldnt see a rational reason for that. So then what were some less rational ones The discussion was only interrupted once when Patrick noticed that the constant stream of summoning had ceased, checked what was going on and found the group of legally adults but still basically teenagers whod been doing the summoning trying to run away from their first Tier 3 summon. It got fried with a single wave of his hand and he then spent the next ten or so minutes until the police arrived verbally tearing them to shreds. Those folks would now be subjected to monthly checks of their Level and XP amount as theyd solidly proven irresponsible summoners. When it worked as intended, that system would be a solid way to ensure people with a past history of irresponsible behavior wouldnt keep going, the [System] equivalent of taking away someones drivers license after a DUI. But even with one of their members away saving the world, the discussion continued to rage. Eventually, Meier showed up, though it was morning by then. They then spent another hour or two brainstorming new ways to deal with the sharks without trashing a million Euro ferry in the process and then they got word. There was another goddamn shark in theke. *** This looked like a terrible idea, but it really wasnt, no matter how bloody stupid it seemed while she watched it go down from the shore, safe and sound. They all were there, on the shore, all of them except Patrick. Sure, they were ready to unleash hell on any shark that dared show itself, but the point was to only have one person out on theke, someone who could both sense the shark well before it showed up, and then also escape. Patrick was out there, in water barely deep enough for the shark to try its attack that involved diving deep and erupting from the water, on a small motorboat with stupidly easy controls that even someone with no prior experience concerning boats could drive, waiting for the shark to attack. The moment that happened, hed use his newly gained flight ability to get the hell out of dodge while his colleagues on the shore obliterated the monster while it was busy chewing through his boat. Then, he could just head the few hundred meters back to shore and that was that. One dead shark in exchange for one tiny, dingy, motorboat. As for the trick with the flight, it had an absurd ongoing mana cost that made it ill-suited for travel and the like, but a short hop like that was no problem, no problem at all. Just like with the first shark, taking this one down was stupidly easy, practically anticlimactically so. Patrick took a giant leap out of the boat, which erupted into a mass of splinters as it was crunched between the emerging sea monsters jaws. Less than a secondter, it was falling back into the water, dead. And ten minutester, once everyones mana had recovered, he headed back out there to see if doing so would attract another shark, but it didnt appear. Now the only question was if that particr shark had been new to theke, or if it had been there yesterday but not attacked for some reason. From then on, they continued to try and figure out new tricks, ones that worked on any situation they might expect to encounter here, from something improbable like mad cultists or something more logical, if unlikely, such as some weird stock market manipting scheme. Throughout the day, Patrick continued to pick up faint hints of high Tier monsters being summoned, but it was too distant for him to be sure about anything, so there was nothing actionable. Also, given the distinctck ofrge spread devastation or new sharks in theke, it didnt seem like there was actual trouble urring, just someone reasonably summoning monsters to farm for XP. At some point, an email from Isaac arrived, detailing the results of the experiment into autonomous summoning. Eventually, they found themselves back around the hotel conference room table. Well, some of them. The Professors, Karl and Sturms assistants were working to design a new ship that could effectively fight a Megalodon or otherrge aquatic monster. Raul had gone shopping, picking up food for his pets and seeing if he could find something unique to the area at one of the many farms that were located ind. Patrick had gone out for a walk and so had Amy, though theyd gone in opposite directions. She sighed as she walked along the harbor wall gazing out across the water, bathed red in the light of the sinking sun. This whole thing had been interesting, exciting, unique, but also incredibly stressful. Outside of sleeping and eating, shed spent maybe 6 hours out of thest 36 hours not working. Around her, the world slowly dissolved into a swirl of colors. Magical, mysterious lights glowed from her surroundings. This was her world. Not the basic one that a [System Researchers] sight [Skills] let them see, but one only avable to a [System Magus]. One where most of the normal issues didnt seem so important, where nothing mattered but the magic and other effects that swirled around her. It was her world, her sanctuary, her sanctum sanctorum. Eddies of dark mana swirled in theke, echoing of rot and death. The Megalodon closest to the harbor, the one theyd only just killed, was starting to rot, but theyd decided to not try and get it out just yet, not until someone had caught the summoner. Really, that wasnt their job, though. They were [System] and monster researchers, not detectives, no matter what certain colleagues of hers did in their off time. After today, theyd likely be able to present a cookie-cutter solution to the problem at hand, and the locals could take it from there. Magic swirled around her, making the dizzying rainbow tapestry of mana shift and warp, covering up the mess. Shede out here to get away from work, after all, not so she could wax poetic about it. She stood like that for a few more minutes, observing this strange, other, world until a massive wave of power tore through it. Thankfully, this wasnt quite what happened, though. It was less physical threat, more rming by its very existence. Someone was fighting over there, a dark column of power erupting out of the woods and vanishing in the sky above. A vast [Aura] manifested near the origin of the attack, hungry and demanding. Sadly, it was one she knew. What had that idiot done now? Amy sped off, heading towards the site of the battle while dialing Professor Baileys number on her phone. Patrick got in a fight with someone in the forest to the east of the hotel, Im heading over there now. We might need help, and could you please direct the police to us? Just tell them to follow the explosions. And then she hung up again. She used her own flight spell to make it to the roof of the nearest building and kicked of the chimney, going from rooftop to rooftop in gigantic bounds. It was nowhere near the madcap sprint that Isaac had apparently pulled off in Leipzig, leaving boot prints on random walls all over the city in the process, but it still got her across the city far faster than even a car could have managed. Ahead, magical energy crackled, though the physical effects were still thankfully quite minor, something that would likely still change soon, given how things were going. She took one final leap upwards, flung herself forward with her flight spell and then came down like a damn meteor. Her [Aura of Mystic Union] burst out of her, collecting the air and beginning to stick together more and more nitrogen molecules,pressing it and cast [Thermal Conductor], allowing thermal energy to flow and disperse more easily. It was an engineers spell, designed to rapidly cool down hot equipment without risking said equipment being damaged by the sudden contraction. Normally,pressing air heated it up, but said heat flowed away like water off a ducks back while her [Aura] ensured that the nitrogen actually stuck together, rather than merely reacting to the sudden closeness to other molecules with increased movement. It was a little moreplex than other methods, but infinitely cheaper. So when she mmed down the middle of the forest, near Patrick and the guy he was fighting, but far enough away that the literal sheet of liquid nitrogen didnt hit anyone. Mist erupted from the frozen ground around her as she red at Patricks opponent, a Level 26 [Instinct Mage]. She didnt have much time to skim through his list of abilities, but from what little she caught before he sped off, it seemed a lot of his magic wasnt structured, but rather, well, instinctual. It was somewhat simr to how she used magic, but infinitely lessplex. The man took one look at her and the st of ice shed seemingly created with barley any effort at all, and ran, a wave of his hands unleashing a massive bank of fog to cover his retreat. What the hell is going on? she snapped, ring at Patrick and raising a magical barrier to ensure that if that guy came back, she wouldnt be leftpletely open. Her colleague could be annoying, but usually not to a murderous rage inducing level. He was also smart enough to not pick random fights. So what the hell had just happened? Went for a walk, trying to see if I could figure out where the summonings were happening, found a far closer summoning, it was a shark, tried to call you, he attacked. Then you showed up, now lets get this guy. As he said that, his [Aura] suddenlypressed andshed out, seeking the man within the fog. He was taking the concept of reducing the overall volume of an [Aura] to increase the range at which it could be projected to the absolute extreme, three thin needles less than a millimeter across extending hundreds of meters away and sweeping through the forest. They werent anywhere near wide enough to paint him a proper picture of his surroundings, but they didnt have to, all they needed to do is tell him whenever they touched human flesh. Fucking asshole. Amy stated matter-of-factly, eyes sweeping through the dispersing fog. No, found asshole. Patrick replied, making his first idiotic joke, at least where shed heard it. Bubbles of temporal distortion burst from his hands,ncing through the air anding to a sudden stop at one specific tree, a tree from behind which their quarry suddenly burst at three quarters of whatever his normal speed was. Magic glimmered at his fingertips, the ssic, stereotypical fireballing into existence, but Amy generated another mass of liquid nitrogen using her [Aura] and heat dispersion technique and flung it at him with a telekic spell. This time, though, she wasnt actively working to avoid hurting him. The mass of liquid nitrogen erupted as it was sh-boiled by the fireballs, but said fireballs winked out the instant they touched it. A few drops still got through and the asshole summoners skin turned blue wherever it hit, eliciting a yelp of pain. He cast a more ssical attack spell, [Force Bolt], she ducked and then, he was within the range of her [Aura]. The [Aura of Mystic Union] couldbine many things, but there were some limits. For example, sapient beings, high Level beings or simply things soaked in mana that werent her spells were a lot harder and slower to trulybine with other things, but a full bonding wasnt always necessary. Therefore, she stuck him to the ground, his shoes melding together with the dirt instantly and he pitched forward, arms iling wildly as he facented. His shirt and pants glued themselves to the ground as well. The man himself, meanwhile, wasntbining with the ground, but he was sinking clean through in preparation of the dirt actually melding with him. She stopped the process before things went that far, but he was still well and truly stuck, especially as she cast spells to harden his new earthen shackles, trapping him. He did try to fight her [Aura] with his own, but he clearly hadnt had much training. Sure, her training had consisted mostly of pushing various effects until something blew up, and then, depending on the result, trying to make it happen onmand or ensuring it never, ever, ever happened again. But that was alright, as chaotic as it might have been, it had also worked, as evidenced by her victory here. Patrick was beside her a momentter, casting a series of spells that should keep him down. [Magic Dispersion], [Mana Channel Dampening], [Temporal Bubble], [Sensory Block], Yeah, he wasnt going anywhere. And then the cops finally showed up. *** Three hourster Amy red at the battle-axe at the reception desk. The middle aged woman looked like shed seen some shit, but the looks she was giving Amy didnt really reflect that. They seemed to seesaw between fear and pity, fear of her power, and pity for someone she saw as a young girl whod been involved something no one should have been in. Except Amy was not a little girl, not this time around, and that desk sergeant or whatever her title was should not only be aware of that, she should also have made up her frickin mind on what she thought of Amy. Pity was annoying, but it was understandable. Fear of the person whod blown apart a good chunk of forest close enough to the police was also understandable, but it was unreasonable to pity the helpless little girl while also being terrified of her, as that implied a level of power significantly greater than helpless. The others were scattered to the four winds, with Bailey on the phone with the university higher ups to exin the situation, Sturm and most of the rest trying to help. Patrick was trying to discreetly listen in on the jackass interrogation, while Raul was scouting the area around the site of the battle for clues. Meanwhile, Amy had just parked her ass in the precincts front lobby and cast a spell that enhanced her hearing and listened in. It was an interesting tale, but also quite rming. There was the usual Im not alone and theres thousands standing behind me, ready to pick up the mantle bluster one saw from zealots in movies and TV shows, but it didnt feel like bluster. He imed that their ideals were the world was ruled by the [System], where it wasnt the government forcing people to study whatever they deemed important, but people learning what they needed via gaining and levelling [Skills], as the single diamond located in a mountain of literal garbage served up by some aging Politian. That had been followed by some bullshit statistic about how you only heard half of what a teacher said, remembered half of that, kept half of that past school age and then only needed half of whatever remained. The conviction and eagerness in his voice was downright scary, especially when he started talking about how gaining ess to the [System] had felt like a god had reached out and given him a purpose. These people hated the idea of structured searching for knowledge, of institutionalized learning, of, well, everything shed been doing in thest few years. So, as it turned out, it had been a hit after all, executed by an idiot. Or a group of them, if this one was to be believed. The basic idea had been to see whoever came to investigate the shark killed by their own research subject, but that had gone incredibly poorly and not worked at all. As she continued to listen to the rambling of the likely madman, a soft thud from outside reached her ears. She got up and walked towards the ss doors to look out, only to spot a familiar figure walking towards the precinct. It was Isaac, though he looked unusually exhausted. His massive pool of Fortitude should have made it near impossible for him to show any sign of physical exhaustion. Had he run here in the two hours since the incident? Chapter 81: Once more into the breach … Chapter 81: Once more into the breach The Children of the System, or Systemers for short. He should have known. They were actually on the list he was nning to publishter, but the issue was, there were simply too many people on it, even though hed limited it to the ones he had solid information on. After all, namedropping a bunch of people he didnt know anything else about would detract from the lists appearance of legitimacy. Also, there were way too many fucking people and organizations on that list for him to deal with them on his own, not to mention that he didnt have things like those organizations full rosters or the civilian names for most of the big bads. But damn if hindsight didnt make him feel like he should have been able to do something, even if the rational part of his brain was probably right about the fact that he couldnt have predicted this, that all he could have done was go after everyone on that list and random chance would have decided if he got the right group to prevent this. And as for the Systemers themselves, he didnt know much about them either, but he knew enough. Among other things, he had a solid grasp of their doctrine. Basically, they wanted to put all knowledge in the hands of the [System], and gain it back by levelling and improving their [Skills]. Where that would lead was eminently predictable, though. Hell, it had been thoroughly predicted in literature even before the [System] had be reality and after the initialization, countless philosophical and sociological papers had been written on the topic, all of them boiling down to a world that rose and fell with the Level of its inhabitants, hardship bringing levels and advanced science, the easy living that followed dropping the Level back down, bringing that level of prosperity crashing down, hardship returning and resulting in the Levels increasing again and so on and so forth, leaving humanity stuck in an endless loop until the end of time. The basic idea of strongly disliking institutionalized learning wasnt that wrong, but most cults, and most conspiracy theories, for that matter, had some reasonable elements to them, they just either took things way to fucking far or hid a bunch of bullcrap underneath that one reasonable and logical thing. Really, the biggest lesson for his adult life hed learned in school was how to keep his temper and not punch the petty tyrant whod let the most infinitesimal shred of power go to their head and was abusing it to the absolute maximum. These guys werent that big an issue in the far future, where their unwillingness to learn lessons from others failures would bite them in the ass, big time. But for now, that was still a sustainable way to live. Isaac was also pretty sure that idiotic, self-destructive ideology had been provided by one of the dark gods, making them one of the people nudged down the wrong path that Janus had mentioned way back when. But theyd still let themselves be convinced and they couldnt be receiving constant guidance, so he still held them culpable for their actions. Hed thought they were safe to leave to the various intelligence andw enforcement agencies once he sent out the list, because he hadnt known about them causing any big incidents until a year or so from now. Hed also assumed that the dark gods couldnt sic em on the research team because going after him, be it directly or by targeting his friends, allies and loved ones, would affect the bnce between the two sides too drastically to be worth it. But knowledge of future events was growing less and less useful with every passing day. That being said, some things were linked to symbolic dates that had existed before the [System], and those could still happen. Like that guy whod summoned a gue Wight on Louis Pasteurs birthday and killed it as a symbolic defeat of disease and to honor a great man, then uploaded the video onto the inte. Of course, that had gone over like a house on fire, but Isaac didnt really much worry about that. All the right precautions had been made and all that, so not only had no one been maimed or killed, there had never even been a real risk of that happening. And as long as everyone kept their lives and limbs, it was the thought that counted, right? But other than said incidents linked to symbolic dates, he couldnt count on anything happening again, and the risk of incidents that only happened in this timeline urring rose exponentially, incidents he couldnt predict or deal with directly, only make sure that others had the tools to deal with them. And one of those incidents had been this one. These assholes had decided to go after the team on their own, with no input from any divine jackasses. That being said, theyd screwed up by the numbers, as usual. They hadnt known the teams Levels, they hadnt considered that a bunch of academics might know how to fight even if said academics had spent most of their working time taking down mythical monsters and given how Patrick had found that one guy, they clearly hadnt thought things through and realized that a researcher might just have good senses. The guy whod summoned thetest shark was now in custody, but there were undoubtedly several more around here, but he knew where to find them. Simply put, they were almost certainly the people whod been summoning Tier 5 monsters to power level themselves after the first attempt had failed miserably. And to how hed found out, it was simple. Patrick had texted him about the issue and asked for tips with handling sensory overload. It hadnt meant much before the deliberateness of the shark summoning had been revealed, but now that it had been, things made sense. From then on, tracking them down had been easy. Hed had a rough direction, east of the hotel, and a starting point, the site of the battle. There were cops there, gathering evidence, but none of them were able to even catch a glimpse of him as he practically floated around the area, noting some of the more interesting and unique tricks employed by Amy and Patrick. Theyd been practicing, good for them. Here, hed located the guys footprints, noticing the small amount of monster bits in his bootprints. A smattering of Drake blood, Rock Golem powder, shed Hydra scales, all tracked along on the bottom of his shoes. The police had locked the area down pretty well, locating the weird material traces in the prints and concluding what hed been doing prior toing here and dumping more sharks into theke, but they werent quite ready to try and backtrack his path through the forest. Isaac, on the other hand, could see perfectly in the dark and had a nose like a bloodhound when he wanted to. One could choose to not utilize certain aspects of ones enhanced senses, so he kept his sense of smell at normal human levels because if he didnt, the world simply stank. Hed then flitted through the woods like the wraith both his current and previous [sses] had been named after, reaching the next town over in mere minutes and locating these guys base of operations mere momentster. It was arge, covered arena, the faded sign outside proiming it to have been used for something involving horses. It was definitely too small to have been a racetrack, so maybe something less speed focused and more acrobatic what was that thing called where someone held a line attached to a horse, leaving the animal to run around them while someone did tricks on its back? Eh, it wasnt like it really mattered. What did matter was that the ce was pretty perfect. The sandy-like substance that covered the floor was both solid to provide solid footing, but also somewhat yielding, it could be easily drawn in to create summoning circles and it would absorb blood pretty well. Couple that with facilities would take care of athletes before and after theirpetitions, or at least had done so, it was a pretty good ce to use as a summoning arena. Now all that remained to do was to decide how he would deal with them and in what state they would be afterwards. It was oh-so-tempting to give in to the fury burning within his chest, ping that ce with his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] to find out how many people were in there and their locations, switch over to the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] and go full berserker on their ass, to rend these motherfuckers limb from limb and then wash his hands of the whole affair. [Fleeting Presence] would remove all of the physical evidence humans normally shed, except what hed carried around on his clothes, but hed removed all that beforeing to the forest. Hed simply put his current outfit into storage and pulled out a new one, but only the outfit, instructing the storage space to hold onto anything and everything on the clothes. But a massacre, no matter how awful the would-be victims were, wasnt the right choice. For one, these guys were pretty well spread out, and the fact that had happened so early was another point in favor of the egged on by a god theory. He could kill these guys, but that wouldnt take care of all of them. Sadly, their aversion to writing crap down and instead relying on [Skills], their own memory and [Skills] that enhanced said memory had inadvertently given them a pretty solid level of information security, which would be one hell of a problem if he killed them all. Also, if he killed them all, the headlines wouldnt read murderous religious cult exterminated, people praise unknown savior, theyd read followers of a new religion butchered, manhunt underway. It would make him look awful, but if he was careful about it, he wouldnt be connected to it. But these guys would be, and theyd be martyrs. There was another way though, simply rendering them unable to hurt anyone else while still leaving them alive. Their quality of life would suffer grievously, sure, but he didnt care about that. Now he just needed a n. A lot of his [Skills] were both distinctive and known, meaning that using them might lead to this being tracked back to him, which limited him to his basic, generic active [Skills]. His regeneration and phasing should be fine, though, given that that particrbination had already be a ssic, in no small part due to his rmendation. A [Rogue] type using them wouldnt raise any red gs. As for his [Aura], now that was a problem. [Auras] were pretty distinctive, and incredibly easy to recognize again, but there were ways to disguise them. The best one was to use a minimum Tier 6 Chimera core to temporarily splice an Aspect into ones [Aura], changing how it felt. Sadly, there was a little issue with obtaining them, namely, that the monsters themselves ran on a gacha system. Summoning List (Chimera) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Chimera Tier 1 Circle, Dice, Parts from one Animal 10 Chimera Tier 2 Circle, Dice, Parts from one Animal 50 Chimera Tier 3 Circle, Dice, Parts from two Animals 100 Chimera Tier 4 Circle, Dice, Parts from two Animals 150 Chimera Tier 5 Circle, Dice, Parts from three Animals 250 ssic Chimera Tier 5 Circle, Hair of a Lion, Skull of a Goat, Fangs of a venomous Serpent, Amethyst Crystal 400 Chimera Tier 6 Circle, Dice, Parts from four Animals 600 Basically, you stuck in the bits from as many animals as the summoning list specified, then the [System] would add in one of any animal that had ever walked the Earth and hybridize all of them into one giant monstrosity. With how many animals were fused into a Tier 6, the number of ways to possiblybine them all was immense, making preparing for them damn hard. Therefore, hed decided to not get some just yet. Thankfully, that wasnt a problem, though. Hed just stick to his sensory [Aura] and keep his touch light, avoiding intersecting with other [Auras] too much, etc. It would require techniques he couldnt possibly have ess to right now, but those very same techniques would ensure no one, least of all these guys, was aware they were even in y. Lastly, there was merely the small, infinitesimal issue of someone being able to recognize him or his rather distinctive weapon, but there were also solutions avable to both problems. For the weapon, he simply manifested Old Reliable in the bonede form, the one based on the Aspect of the Dunkleosteus. It was one hed never wielded where it could be seen and he hadnt told anybody that his des forms were based on his Aspects, just that he could unlock new ones by fighting monsters. Given that his penchant for fighting Ephemeral beings and Hydras was fairly well know, he also had a solid exnation for why he had them. And as far as his face and body went, well, that was what [Hundred Faces] was for. His skin rapidly grew taught, stretching over a bony, practically skeletal body, growing baster white at the same time. Meanwhile, the whites of his eyes went red as he erged the blood vessels within and his green irises turned into a brown so dark even hed have thought they were ck. If thered been a mirror before him, a creature of nighmares would have been staring back at him. Bone-white skin, red eyes with ck voids in the ce of an iris, clothes so dark they seemed to suck in the light. A massive Zweih?nder made from bone waszily resting on his shoulder, while a ritual dagger looking knife, also made from bone, hung from his belt. And with that done, he charged. Chapter 82: Someone call for an exterminator? Chapter 82: Someone call for an exterminator? Isaacs [Aura]shed out,pressed and lengthened to its absolute, a vastly more advanced version of what Patrick hade up with. It could detect people just from the way their breath disturbed the air and the heat they emanated, not even needing to touch them to note their presence. And if it did touch someone, well, if a normal sensory [Aura] was as unsubtle as the spiderweb one had just run into, face first, trying to notice this would be like an unenhanced human trying to notice a single grain of dust touching their skin. There were people in the main arena, partying, and based on the amount of ethanol contained in their breath, they were well on their way to getting hammered. Clearly, they hadnt figured out that theirrade had been caught. Then there was someone in the office, literally pushing papers, and a bunch more people sleeping on cots in what used to be the stables. There was also an absurd amount of evidence in there. A Tier 6 summoning ring made from pool noodles with traces of Megalodon summoning materials on it, as well as fresh Megalodon scales, sketches of how these nutcases had imagined the hit would go down, and so on, and so forth. If the police raided these guys, they were fucked. And now, he was going to not only make that happen, hed roll out the godsdamned wee mat for thew enforcement officers. The first target was easy enough to choose, the sleeping people. He phased through the wall on the far side of the stables, walking up the nearest sleeping person, inspecting them. No regeneration or healing Aspects, no [ss] that would give them either, this guy wouldnt be able to heal from disabling injuries in a reasonable timeframe. Isaacs de shed, [Sundering Strike] glowing on the edge. He was using an effect he rarely used, but it was perfect for something like this. It could destroy nerves around the injury, preventing it from being felt. So, when he severed the mans spinal cord high enough to turn him into a quadriplegic but low enough to ensure he lived and keeping the cut shallow and precise so hed survive, he didnt feel a thing. A spiritual injury inflicted by his weapons Astral Piercer from would have been both more elegant and effective, but that trick wasnt only known, it had been used in front of themander of thew enforcement unit that would most certainly be investigating this mess. In other words, if he used it, he might as well be signing his work. Isaac continued walking through the stable like the specter of death itself, ensuring that each and every one of these people would not be able to escape or attack him and stay that way until a [Doctor] or [Healer] of the appropriate Level became avable. Given how difficult something like that was, it would be a while until anyone without an epic or legendary [ss] would be able to do so and even longer until someone like that woulde around to perform that procedure on wanted criminals, not when their services were needed by so many people. One person had an Aspect of the Hydra and would be able to fix the damage, so Isaac went a little further. Two quick stabs with this knife to sever the vocal cords, and then he went to work, cutting and chopping at the guys body, leaving it a mangled wreck. Hed checked the mans Magic Power and calcted it so that the man would be able to fix his lethal injuries, but hed have to use up the entirety of his mana pool for that, and then have to use anything he regenerated to regenerate lost blood and slowly close profusely bleeding wounds. That was loud enough to attract some attention, but a swift [Power Strike] punch to the temple of the waking man sent him right back to sleep and then, heshed out, severing another spinal column. These guys would live, but Isaac had no doubt that many would wish hed just killed them outright. With that done, he phased a homemade smoke bomb through the door to the arena and leaped in after it suddenly became very hard to see. Isaac swept through the area like the grim reaper, the long reach of the Zweih?nder letting him chop at people without him getting close enough to be more than an indistinct shape in the smoke, limbs flying like the sweets at a carnival. Ephemeral, practically unnoticeable threads of [Aura] weaved through the area, telling him exactly where these guys were. Someone charged through the smoke behind him, blurring along with [Skill]-enhanced speed and swung a de glowing with an evil ling in an arc, aiming to bisect him at the waist. Isaac didnt even bother turning, he simply leaned forward, causing the de to safely swish over his back. In the same motion, he mule-kicked with his right leg, further empowering the attack with another [Power Strike], sending his assant to the ground with a cracked skull and shattered jaw. Another man raised a magical barrier and started flinging spells at him, to Isaac leaped upwards, hitting the roof and kicking off the roof toe down like a meteor. The shield shifted to intercept him, but a quick [Phantom Step] took him a couple of meters to the side. The Zweih?nder flicked out, and the [Mage] hit the ground in four pieces, both legs, right hand, and the rest of his body. Isaac continued the motion, projecting a [Far Strike] and raking his de through the entirety of the room, hitting everyone who was still standing and scratching the hell out of the walls and doors. It was at this point that the guy in the office realized something was up and charged out, letting Isaac properly analyze him. Fortitude and Strength stats were somewhere in the 120 area, with agility a distant third, and the rest of the stats barely increased. Clearly a basic brute, both in [ss] type and intelligence level, given that anyone with half a brain could have told him that Perception and Magic were kinda important, even if they werent ones primary focus. A stream of fire shed at Isaacs face, but he swung his massive de clean through it, the [Far Strike] parting it as if it had been mere air while the flood of ming sma sttered of his skin like bugs of a windshield thanks to the fire resistance hed gained from the Event. Sure, the clothing covering his torso disintegrated within moments, but it hardly mattered. He had a spare set of clothing in his storage space, several, in fact, and an inscribed core had been hidden outside before charging in, just in case he somehow lost his clothes. The [Pyromancer] fell, down an arm and a leg and holding in his guts, and that was that. The smoke had mostly dissipated by then, leaving Isaac staring down the boss and three armed men, wielding a longsword, oversized nged mace and spear, respectively. The trio flinched as they saw his face properly for the first time, the monstrous visage of his executioner face startling them. So youre the one whose been saving those idiot schrs. the brutemented, then sighed And do you really think a Hellraiser reject look is going to scare me? Isaac startedughing, he couldnt help it. These guys still thought the team was helpless? Man, it really takes a special kind of person to assume that people are weak because theyre smart and that their very knowledge isnt worth anything because it can be gained from [Skills]. The same kind of person, in fact, as someone who assumes that the ignoring the very basic survival mechanism of fear somehow makes them special. Well, it does, actually. It makes you a future Darwin award winner. The brutes only response was to m his fists together, creating a small shockwave, and activating a bunch of boosting [Skills]. A basic brawler, through and through, though his build gave him an incredible amount of staying power, perfect for soaking up damage while the other three attacked Isaac from behind. He didnt even bother making an attempt to engage the big guy. Instead, he spun on his heels and lunged forward, both des shing, and removed the spears head with casual ease, then cut the quarterstaff it turned into down to size with a second sh. A proper fighter would have been able to enhance the spear to a point where it would have withstood that attack, but Isaac was a little too strong for that, his [Skills] to highly levelled and focused on tearing asunder tough materials, be they armor or hide. The nged mace came down on him, but he sidestepped with a teleport, removing both hands of the longsword wielder before he could react to Isaacs sudden appearance, then kicked of the screaming mans chest to rocket into thest person other than the boss, smashing him to the ground and stabbed him in the gut, catching his spine in the process. With how much Fortitude the guy had, it wouldnt kill him, but it would seriously ruin his day. And that was that. The boss had closed the distance between them in the time Isaac had needed to beat these three guys, but that was all hed managed to do. A fist swished past with enough force to shatter boulders, but it needed to actually hit to manage that. The brute, whose name Isaac still didnt know, had focused almost exclusively on physical strength and passive enhancement [Skills], which was a pretty solid strategy against most monsters below Tier 7, but not against other humans with their massive spread of varied [Skills]. Generally, people had so many different tricks, each of which could counter something, that one needed a massive variety of [Skills] or spells to beat them, or either overwhelming numbers or overwhelming power. Physically, this guy was definitely superior to Isaac, but that wouldnt get him far. The mans fists blurred, nearly taking of Isaacs head, but he leaped backwards and kept retreating, none of the blows connecting. Really? Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow You sure do talk a big game, but can you back it up? I gotta say, it sure doesnt seem like it. Under normal circumstances, he wouldnt have mocked his opponent because it was a waste of time and effort. But this guy, he was driven by base emotion, and as such, banter was actually an effective trick. The only reply was a wordless shout of inarticte rage and a st of [Aura] which sank into the ground and began to reshape it. Isaac chuckled softly as he saw that. Seems like you didnt have many points in your magic stats before you hit your third Evolution and then found yourself unable to run your [Aura] constantly. he mocked, teleporting to avoid a tentacle of sand that tried to wrap around his ankle, shing backwards and projecting another [Far Strike], almost hamstringing the man. Sadly, the brute was too tough for a clean cut without significantly more power. Screaming in pain and anger, his foe flung himself at Isaac, the ground reshaping into a tough tform to kick off of. A fist crashed into Isaacs shoulder, shattering it into dust, but at the same time, a [Piercing Strike] covered Zweih?nder erupted from the guys back. Isaac took a step backwards, withdrawing the de in a single smooth motion while the other guy fell down,nding heavily. To keep moving with spinal damage was possible, but that required a Fortitude somewhere around 150 or higher, and this guy wasnt quite there. So why not trade getting hit a single time for absolute victory, when his opponent was so damn willing to throw himself onto Isaacs de to reach him? Also, dropping the sword in his right hand, reaching over and yanking the loosely dangling, rubberlike, limb back into position and suddenly having it fixed was damn intimidating. Leaving both his weapons lying there, having dropped the knife when his shoulder was broken, Isaac stalked forward. The bruteshed out, still able to move his arms, but Isaac sidestepped and smashed a fist into his opponents shoulder, applying [Crippling Blow]. It was a somewhat rare [Skill], but it was also one he rarely used and no one knew he had. The targeted shoulder popped out of its socket, eliciting another scream. Isaac continued tosh out until the leader of the local Systemers until there was no chance of the man getting back up, then grasped him by the cor and dragged him over to the office. So, tell me something, young man, why do you do what you do? he asked in a conversational tone as he walked towards the small room I mean, I cant fault you for summoning and levelling, thatd be hypocritical, but why go after those academics? I mean, its not like vivisection and all those other horrid methods of research are legal anymore. Or do these folks use such methods and then you want to kill them for that? It wouldnt absolve you of your sins, given the sheer number of innocent people who got killed, but it might lessen the burden on your soul. Fuck you and fuck them. You want to know what they did? the man asked, ring up at Isaac despite the agony he had to be in. Gutsy. Would I have asked otherwise? Isaac looked down, raising an eyebrow unnaturally high. These guysmitted the worst sin of all, they tried to take the magic out of the [System] by trying to research it and quantify it. And then, wed lose it. Wed lose the [System] because someone couldnt leave well enough alone and simply ept things as they are. They The man stopped talking as Isaac startedughing, deliberately keeping his voice an octave higher, making it sound like the bone chilling chittering of a demonic chipmunk. Man, they really got you good, didnt they? Isaac keptughing. Whoever told you that told that to you folks and only you folks, and then aimed you squarely at the people working to improve the lives of everyone on the. Anyone with half a brain would have started wondering why that is, but youre here, so critical thinking clearly isnt your strong suit. He then heaved the body of the man he was carrying, flinging him through the door and into the office. And now, youll tell me about everything else. What youve done, what youve been nning, and who else you know. Write it down, and every time I have to ask a question for a second time, and every time I catch you in a lie, therell be hell to pay and youll receive the bill. At that point, Isaac raised both eyebrows as high as they would go, made his eyeballs bulge out and whispered in a terrifyingly friendly voice I ept payment in limbs or suffering. Yeah, there wasnt much resistance, the biggest dy being writing stuff down with badly mangled limbs. This left him with just one more facet to his n, get these guys and the physical evidence into the hands of the police department. Letting them simply raid this ce would have made that a hell of a lot easier, but that would have required him to convince them that these fes were, in fact, the perpetrators. But hed gotten here a lot faster than anyone could have assumed thanks to a new flying trick that involved elerating by pushing himself forward with the [Aura of the Crimson Dawns] projected weapons, so no one knew or even assumed hed already be here. Pulling a stunt like this when no one knew he was in the area was one thing, but when everyone, police included, knew? Yeah, better to go for the direct route and make sure things worked properly. He cast his [Aura] around, locating the nearest inhabited building and a cellphone. Isaac phased inside, stole the cellphone and dialed 110, the police emergency number, shifting his voice into that of a panicked woman, throwing in the asional sob to y merry hell with whatever voice recognition program was employed. After giving a half hysterical report of people with high-Level powers fighting and sounds of people getting seriously hurt, he hung up, snuck back into the house and put the cellphone right where hed found it. Then, he headed back into the building full of assholes and ran around the ce, banging the weapons he found there into walls and dragging them through the pools of blood lying everywhere, to make it look a little less like a single person hade through and moved them all down and more like an internal power struggle. It wouldnt hold up to scrutiny, but it didnt have to. All it needed to do was get the police through the doors and start applying said scrutiny, then theyd find all the evidence and that would be that. After all, evidence found in private ces such as homes while the officers in question had been there for unrted matters, such as chasing another criminal, were admissible in a court ofw. Now he just circled back around to approach the precinct from the direction hed have beening from if hede right from the university, took a dip in theke to wash off and got dressed in the sweaty clothes hed worn while running here. Slowing down, he walked into the lobby, about to ask the desk sergeant for where he could find his team, but then he spotted Amy and walked over to greet her instead. Hey, how are you holding up? Good. Itd be great, but people keep looking at me like they expect me to burst into tears at any moment. Been there, done that. Isaac sighed You should have seen how I got treated after Leipzig. She winced Yeah, that had to suck. Anyway, where are the others? he asked. Talking to the university higher ups. She said, but pulsed her [Aura] against his, spelling out a second message in morse code, which theyd all learned after getting their [Auras] at Patricks suggestion But mostly, we were listening in on the interrogation. Its a little scary how some peoples brains work. Soon afterwards, they headed back to the hotel to meet with everyone and to get Isaac a room, spending most of the night discussing the issue at hand. The next morning though, they got called back to the police station, running into an interesting collection of people. GSG-13. Chapter 83: Old acquaintances, new problems Chapter 83: Old acquaintances, new problems You know, we really gotta stop meeting like this, Isaac. Habichtmented as he saw them arrive. Eh, we both work on fixing [System]-rted messes, its inevitable that well keep meeting like this. But how about you, I was under the impression that your unit wasnt ready yet? Isaac asked. Oh, you know how it is with a bureaucracy. One moment, nothing is ready and wont be for months yet, the next theres a need and suddenly, everything is a-okay and you get yelled at for having been out of the door before anyone could even order you to do so. Habicht replied But were dealing with a terrorist group and potential wild mon- Holy fuck! Patrick yelped, having entered far enough into the building for his [Aura] to touch the holding cells ... and see the people within. Whats wrong? Isaac asked, concern evident in his voice, and extended his [Aura] in turn fuck. Would you two mind not snooping in a police precinct? I know the soundproofing isnt up to snuff, but could you at least keep your [Auras] to yourselves? Habicht sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose And yes, those would be the people responsible the monsters. Someone chopped them up like that and called the local police station with a noiseint. Ah yes, a slight but noticeable difference from what had really happened, Isaac had, in fact, called in toin that people were fighting. But if anyone actually knew that and let that slipped, that would pretty clearly implicate them. Not bad. The important question was if Habicht actually suspected either of them, or if he normally did stuff like that. So, is this another Krebs situation? Patrick asked, worry creeping into his voice. First of all, what the hell is actually going on? Amy interjected We were summoned here, probably as witnesses, and then the two people with sensory [Auras] freak out. Seriously, whats happening. Theres a bunch of mutted people in the holding cell. Habicht sighed And this might be another Krebs situation. Might be? Isaac frowned, hard That looks pretty nasty up there. Might be. Habicht confirmed See, theyre all still alive and were worse than any of Krebs victims ever were. Every single one of those people knew about the attack with the sharks and most were even directly involved. This was what Krebs could have been if shed cut the unnecessarily brutal execution methods and did her due diligence. The scene might have looked like a horror movie set rejected for being too gory, but the attacks on the people themselves, it was almost surgical. Im of half a mind to just assume that this was a BND operation they wanted to fork off to the police. BND? Amy asked. Bundesnachrichtendienst, German intelligence. It was a pretty decent operation, took down everyone and got us thoroughly involved he trailed off you know what, I shouldnt be about this in the lobby or with you, Im sorry. Would you all please follow me so I can take your statements on the incidents yesterday and the day before yesterday? Actually, I wasnt there for any of that, Im here because I have an idea regarding as to why they did what they did. The attacker? Habicht frowned, hard. No, the people who summoned the sharks. I was up most ofst night and I think I figured it out, it really reminds me of another, pre-[System] phenomenon that sparked off myth and folklore. But in this case, instead of a new monster legend being created, it was a demented cult. Isaac said. It was a new idea hed had only recently, one that could seriously help paint a target on the Systemers backs. But is there a profiler we could loop in, just for a sanity check? After all, Im not a profiler myself and my imagination might have gotten away from me. Hm, Dr. Sarai got roped in a couple of hours ago. But well talk about this in a more private ce, even if some people can still hear everything going on within. Habicht replied, giving some of them hard looks. Sometimes, it feels like theres only a handful of people inw enforcement dealing with the [System]. Patrikc noted Wasnt Sarai the guy from Leipzig? Yeah, thats actually the [Systems] fault. Habicht exined The people who dealt with the initial big cases had the highest [Skill] and personal Levels, so they got assigned to the next big case, this one. And so on, and so forth. They headed forward, ending up in arge room that, if not for its size, would have looked exactly like an interrogation room,plete with cameras in the corners and some serious soundproofing, but otherwise, this was a conference room style setup. Habicht dialed the phone and ced it on the table in speaker mode. Hi Zorawar, its Franz. Im here with Mr. Thoma, who Im sure you remember from Leipzig. He had a theory on the cult and hed like to get a professionals opinion on it. Go ahead, Mr. Thoma. Thanks. Alright, so basically, what do you know about the subus? Isaac asked. Theyre a Tier 6 monster? Habicht suggested, making Isaac snigger. Its my job to memorize summoning lists, but howe you were able to remember that so quickly? he teased, but then grew serious once more. Jokes aside, this is about the origin of the myth. Myths, and monsters in general, were created as a way to deal with, given a face to or exin certain phenomena. Theres the Wendigo, embodiment of winter and hunger and what people are willing to do out of desperation. There are countless versions of the story, from the glutton that grows fatter and stronger with every victim, its appetite increasing alongside everything else, to the eternally emaciated, starving beast that devours ever more in a vain attempt at filling that void in its stomach, but in the end, they all tell the same tale, represent the same thing. Then, youve got things like the countless variety of sprites, pixies, brownies and what have you, all exining various forms of misfortune and household idents, or things suddenly being cleaner than one remembered. You can find such a logical and rational source for most mythological creatures, including the myth of the subus, which originates from the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. People would wake up, unable to move, and assumed that demons were responsible. Later, clergymen would me their impure thoughts and morning wood on demonic influence, which eventuallybine to create the myth of a sex demon that preyed on people, sucking out their life force, leaving them prone and unable to move in their own beds. This is all very interesting and I can either confirm some of that and the logic tracks for everything else, but I fail to see what this has to do with the situation at hand. Sarai asked, sounding exhausted. Hed likely been awake for quite a while but without a Fortitude high enough to avoid the effects of getting so little sleep. In essence, I think thats what happened here. Isaac said The phenomenon of the [System] was turned into a some kind of guiding principle or deity. We know that the [Systems] messages will not wake people who are fully asleep, but what if some of that trickled through anyway, or someone was half asleep during initialization and got parts of it and their minds cobbled together some kind of pseudo-religion? If people can turn sleep paralysis and unwanted boners into a demonic woman that visits them at night, whos to say that they couldnt turn a thing that quantifies the world into a divine message to destroy all other forms of understanding the world? That tracks. Sarai sighed The going theory was charismatic high school dropout cult leader, someone who got screwed by the current system, but thats a really good point. There are chapters of the children of the [System] on other continents, though. They have to be connected somehow, how does that make sense with the delusion theory? Habicht asked. The inte is a fantastic way to connect with others. Also, theres such a thing as a shared illusion. People start to see things after hearing about them, like someone iming to have seen a ghost and suddenly, that shadow there starts to look particrly spooky. Its the power of suggestion, basically. Sarai exined Someone cooked up this divine message that Mr. Thoma suggested, posted it on the inte, and suddenly, people start to recontextualize their past experiences with the [System] as being a part of this message. A concrete ideology begins to form and all of a sudden, you have people going after scientists with summoned monsters all over the ce. Having an actual, tangible thing with proven supernatural capabilities to put on a pedestal certainly wont help matters. go after scientists with summoned monsters That phrase continued to rattle around Isaacs head. Why? It was something he knew had happened to his team, hell, it had happened in the other timeline as well, at least asionally, so what was with it? And then, he got to his feet and facepalmed with enough force to make the door rattle, making Habicht jump in fright. What was that for? Whyd you get up? I got up because I didnt think the chair would survive that, and I did that because I think I just figured out something I should have realized long ago. You mentioned there were chapters of the children of the [System] all over the ce. There wouldnt happen to be one or two in California, would there? You think they were responsible for the LA incident? Sarai asked, surprise and skepticism painfully clear in his voice. Maybe. Isaac shrugged Ill need to have someone back home check, but after releasing our first paper, the one on monster-summoner tracking interactions, we got a really pissy letter from a Californian professor who was researching the same topic. Now, I dont know if this professor was from LA, all I know is that they were from the state in which LA is located, but its possible, isnt it? You know what, we do have some support staff back at the university, I could have one of them che- He trailed off as he caught a good look at Habicht. The police officer face had turned an rming shade of red, and steam was practically rising from his ears as he glowered down at the tablet in front of him. It took a brief moment for Isaac to read the title upside down, but once hed managed it, it became clear that this was a report on the California incident, the single most lethal incident since initialization. Well, technically, the Event had killed a lot more people, but the actual deaths had urred in a series of unconnected events, rather than a single monsters rampage. Regardless, anyone whos a member of the children of the [System] will be on all the lists by tonight. Saraimented One of the groups chapters alreadymitted an act of terrorism, and their overall ideology condones things like that. That group wont survive for long. Habicht took another deep, fortifying breath and added Ill make sure everyone who needs to know about this knows, Isaac, could you please get someone to check for that letter. Ill talk to your colleagues soon, but could I talk to you after that? There are a few questions Id still like to ask. Sure, see youter. Isaac replied and left, grimacing internally. Hed ever so slightly lost his temper back there. There was no set of circumstances in which hed have left those bastards alone to keep doing what they were doing, also, hed have always ensured that the people who came to investigate didnte face to face with a dozen people over Level 20 and one over Level 25 and, well, end up dead. The end result would have been simr for the Systemers, but there were a lot of things he could have done better. For example, he could have circled around further ande running in through several smaller viges on the rout from back home to here, making sure to get caught on camera in the process. Mind you, not in an obvious way such as buying something at the gas station, that would just scream trying to get an alibi. Instead, hed run along the highway that ran through town, passing through the line of sight of some random camera and that would have been that. Then again, being too slow to show up, taking longer than it should have, given his publicly known speed, would have also raised some ufortable questions. As it was, though, there was no way in hell anyone could prove it had been him whod done that. There was no physical evidence thanks to [Fleeting Presence], which had hit Level 10 during the fight and gained a new effect. Fleeting Presence (epic, Level X) There one moment, gone the next. Completely gone. This Skill tells the user how to erase all traces of their presence, such as footprints, avoid breaking branches and trampling shrubs. However, it also stops the user from shedding all the usual traces that all humans leave behind, such as skin and hair cell. It also prevents the oils found on human fingers from leaving behind fingerprints, though it will not prevent fingerprints from appearing if the user were to touch a material that is easily imprinted upon, such as soft wax, putty or a heavyyer of dust, instead disturbing the material until the fingerprint is no longer visible, but that by itself could be spotted. Likewise, nothing will transfer from the users clothes or shoes to any surfaces, and footprints will be removed, but the signs that something was removed might still be visible. In other words, youd have better luck finding proof of a yeti than of him having been in that arena. Well, the cryptid yeti, that was, not the Tier 6 monster and its pain in the ass frost [Aura]. In addition, while many of the [Skills] hed used were ones people knew he had, but they were the most basic of [Skills], ones anyone with a melee [ss] could get. well, most of them weremon, anyway. But no one knew he had [Crippling Blow] or [Fleeting Presence] and while the way [Phantom Step] grew cheaper when unobserved was rather unique, that wasnt something people could tell from the outside. You might as well try to track a person based on the fact that they had green eyes. Sure, those were rare and only found in 2 % of the poption, but that percentage of just the local area was still a gigantic number of suspect. End of the day, could that have gone better? Absolutely. But had it gone terribly? Absolutely not. Now he just had to endure whatever talk Habicht wanted to have and hope it wouldnt be an interrogation. Mind you, without a confession, there was no risk of him getting convicted, but if people thought he was responsible, well, then that would still be a massive problem. Isaac pulled out his phone and called up one of the teams support staff. The core group was still the same, original team that hed met months ago, given that they had the Levels and high rarity,bat and research applicable, [sses] to stay at the forefront of science, researching monsters that a mere fraction of a percent of the human race could face and survive, but six people couldnt do everything on their own. Well, seven people if you included Wechsler, their government liaison, but he rarely showed his face anymore, instead working dutifully to file paperwork and ensure that things ran smoothly on the bureaucratical side of things. After all, theyd all managed to get a good, solid handle on what was eptable and what wasnt, reducing the need to finagle out the specifics for most experiments, and hed simply be too busy to sit in on meetings. Still, hed been a godsend and Isaac had slipped him an Aspect to show his appreciation. Each of those was still valued at a vastly greater price than they would be in a couple of years or so, but Isaac still had a pretty decent supply, which made them pretty effective brib- er, gifts. Gifts to inspire loyalty, gifts to convince people that continuing to work with them was a great thing. Therefore, Bailey had hired more people. They didnt work out of the new building as only the basement and first floor were finished, and neither of those had the needed office space, instead being located in their old ce, but they still helped immensely. A lot of what they did was grunt work, data entry and the like, but eventually, theyd be able to choose to help out in the summoning rooms once they were a high enough Level. A level-up program was in the process of being instituted, but it was slow going, something about how they were a research team, not a battle squad, but Bailey should be able to ram it through eventually. And until then, they could just have them summon monsters and send a trickle of XP their way like that. The phone rang a couple of times, and then the call got picked up. Hi Khaled, its Isaac. Do you have time to check something in the archives real quick? Sure, what do you need? came the reply mere momentster. Khaled had been one of the first people to join Professor Baileys team during the second round of hiring and hed been incredibly helpful ever since, always able to jump in for things like that. Thanks, I need you to tell me where a specific letter is from. We got it on the Monday after we published our first paper, the one about how monsters track their summoners. It was very unpleasant, and it originated from California, but I need the specific city. I dont think we got another letter from that area, so there should be only one, but if theres more than one, its the one that sounds the most like the writer wanted to strangle Professor Bailey. Ok, Ill do that, how soon do you need it? As soon as possible. Thanks, youre the best, see you soon. Isaac bade him goodbye and hung up. If that theory was true, then he actually felt bad about his actionsst night. Bad because he hadnt done worse things to them. In hindsight, it was rather obvious, as was the reason why he hadnt figured things out before. If the Stormheart Gestalt hadnt been summoned to farm it for XP, then why else had it been summoned? Why, to kill someone, or destroy the city, of course, but then why summon it in aparatively isted warehouse? But there was another reason, and they hadnt thought of it. The very concept of summoning was poison in LA right now, and therefore, so was the idea of [System] research. If the researcher whod sent that letter really had been on the precipice of making the same discovery as Bailey had with Isaac helping him, then he must have been very good indeed. And then, the [System] research in LA had ended before it could ever really begin, in both timelines, before anyone had ever really been aware of the Systemers and thought of them as suspects. Now though, after this mess, they were under immense scrutiny after getting caught for trying to kill a group of researchers. And if the LA incident turned out to have also been aimed at stopping research, well, that was one mystery solved. He just hoped he was right about that. He also hoped no one discovered he was the person behind the fightst night or suspected him strongly enough that it ended up ruining his reputation. Chapter 84: Darkness Revealed Chapter 84: Darkness Revealed Isaac had been sitting in the lobby, tapping away on his phone, while the rest of the team was giving witness statements to Habicht. Theyd already done so to the local department, but GSG-13 had its own questions. What had once been intended to be just a tactical unit had acquired a few additional responsibilities and the people to do those things. They were still going to be primarily a tactical unit, but it was easier to grab a handful of personnel from various units and stick them together than it was to create an entirely new branch ofw enforcement. That would have to happen sooner orter, but even if the government had been working on that since the very beginning, throwing every scrap of its considerable might behind the effort, an organization that size took time to create. And until that was achieved, stopgap solutions like a strike team with an expanded degree area of responsibility. And then, after listening to five different versions of the exact same tale, one after another, followed by several thorough additional questions, he got the call hed been waiting for. So, this thing was buried deep, those letters should really be sorted properly or digitalized, but I found it. There were a bunch of letters out of California, only one of them was obviously rude, but I decided to pull them all, just in case. Khaled announced, rattling of a whole list of names and associated universities, one of which belonged to a certain Professor Webber, who worked out of Los Angeles. Shit. Isaac said softly Alright, great work Khaled, could you scan that letter and send it to me, then research Professor Webbers work with the [System] to date and email me that was well? Sure thing. Khaled said and hung up. Well, that was one hypothesis that was looking more and more probable. Sure, the presence of a possible target in a city which was then attacked with a method consistent with the Systemers single modus operandi as ascertained from a single incident wasnt that damning, but it was a step in the right direction. And investigating that incident was the United States various alphabet soup agencies highest priority and the unknown perpetrator had been on the FBIs most wanted list since two hours after the Stormheart Gestalt had been summoned. His phone dinged, indicating that hed received an email. It was a new ount, one meant solely for intra-universitymunication, as his old ount was, in a word, overflowing with job offers, even more so after that [Aura] instruction booklet had been published. It was a digital scan of the letter, along with a link to one of Professor Webbers published papers. It wasnt a full paper, but rather a stub that had been published a week after the incident with the Gestalt as a way to make all the research gathered to date avable as Webber would be unable toplete it with the bias against summoning rted research. It was surprisingly good and thorough, not on the same level as what Bailey had already published at that point, but Isaac had been nudging that along. The fact that Webber had gotten so damn far with so little to go on was nothing short of astonishing. But in the other timeline, Webber hadnt be famous and other than dumping all of his gathered information out for all the world to use, hed dropped off the face of the Earth in this one, so hed probably left this field of researchpletely. What a fucking waste. For a brief moment, Isaac felt the impulse to run over to Bailey to suggest he try and hire Webber, somehow, to rescue him out of the funk hed clearly ended up into, but then decided quite solidly against it. The only reason he even knew about Webber was that the man had sent them a very acerbic letter after theyd done some research faster than he could have. He might be genious, but he sucked with people, that much was apparent. A talented researcher was valuable, but only if he didnt ruin team cohesion and others focus by his very presence. Professor Baileys current team might have been thrown together pretty much at random, but they got along. They liked each other and asionally met outside of work. Mostly, they were doing the same thing that they did during work time, summon monsters on Isaacs property with some burgers on the grill at a safe distance, but they did meet, and they had fun in the process. Throwing in a new person who, based on their one and onlymunication with the team, was aplete ass and jealous to boot was a truly terrible idea. But there were other options that didnt involve him taking a direct hand in things. There were other people who worked to research the [System] but werent him and his team. He snapped off a quick email to his friends in Vegas, pointing them in the direction of a likely traumatized and grouchy but incredibly talented researcher that they might want to look into. Depending on his current state of mind, that might not pan out, but if it did, it would pay off in spades. While Webbers future research would mostly be focused on blocking high Perception stats, but that was alright, the principles he would uncover in the process should be widely applicable. And that was the biggest hole in Isaacs knowledge, the basics, the underlying concepts. He knew plenty of recipes for useful potions, he could create an electricity generator from the core of an Elemental and a bunch metal scraps, he could use basic blood enchantments and the like, but that was practical knowledge. It was the equivalent of a soldier knowing how to fieldstrip their weapon or a baker knowing how to bake. He didnt know why that shit worked, he just knew that it did. Therefore, he was publishing the shit he knew and making other people figure out said principles. Now that hed taken care of that, he went looking for Habicht, which was surprisingly less easy than it should have been. He wouldnt be sting around his [Aura], as per the mans request and while the light touch method would have worked, using a technique he didnt want people to know for something like this would be idiotic. Also, Habicht wasnt talking, so tracking him like that wasnt easy either. In the end, he had to resort to tracking the man by the sounds of his boots on the ground, identifying him by the rhythm of his footsteps. It was something that was quite with people he knew well, but Habicht wasnt one of them. Hey, I found that letter I was talking about earlier. he called out and jogged up besides Habicht, though what he considered a jog was a blur for most people. That was quick. Habicht deadpanned So, what about it? It was sent by a certain Professor Webber out of Los Angeles, who stopped his research after the Stormheart Gestalt incident. He dumped the unpublished results of his various experiments on the inte a week afterwards and stopped working. Professor Webber was a brilliant researcher, the exact kind of person these so-called children of the [System] would go after, but that Gestalt sessfully killed his drive. Isaac exined. Schei?e. Habicht muttered, then shook his head If weve caught the people responsible for that massacre, that would be great, but an international terrorist cell forming mere weeks after initialization? Gott verdammt! Anyway, Ill pass that on to the FBI via Interpol, and hopefully, theyll manage to get a clean sweep. Lets hope so. Isaac growled There are criminals, and then there are people who make me want to believe in hell just so they can go there, and these fuckers are in thetter category. You dont believe in an afterlife? Habicht asked. Im agnostic, sort of. I believe that theres something out there, something greater than what we currently know and can be exined by science, but its not any given religion. I cant worship the old gods because theyre all so fucking petty and I dislike the new religions because theyre all just cherry picking passages from their holy books to justify whatever stance they have, even if its contradicted elsewhere. There has to be something out there, but I dont think its something weve already discovered. One too many run-ins with the judgmental, fundamentalist aunt, then? Habicht asked, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile. Coworker, but yeah. Called out people for every little thing, but either did the something equivalent or worse and thought herself divinely justified in everything she did. Oh, I know the type. Habicht winced The nice thing about being the boss is being able to tell people to knock it off. Now, Ill go ahead and send this out, and then, we need to talk. Could you forward that to me? Ten minutester, the two of them were heading out of the buildings and towards the woods. Both of them were sweeping the area with both [Auras] and heightened Perception to make sure no one was around. There wasnt a ce in the precinct with anything approaching even remotely approaching the right level of soundproofing, especially with the rest of the team there. ording to Habicht, they wouldnt be talking about anything overly sensitive, but privacy was still nice to have. So, what did you want to talk to me about? Isaac asked. If you decided to do something, anything, you could do it, couldnt you? Habicht said thoughtfully No matter who or what tried to stand in your way. There were a few ces he could be going with this, ranging from a talk about the ethics of having powers, aka the with great power talk, or maybe a sneaky interrogation? Or maybe Habicht just wanted to talk to someone about this new reality, one that had to be utterly terrifying for him, with someone who wouldnt immediately run to his boss with concerns regarding the mans mental health. Regardless of what was actually the case, he was going to respond the same way, absolute honesty unless he was about to incriminate himself, in which case hed be as honest as it was possible but not actually say something incriminating. Hm, Im pretty sure I couldnt survive someone deciding to carpet-bomb the general area Im in, but there are few things short of drastic measures that could stop me. Isaac shrugged But is that really what youd like to know, that I still have some weaknesses? Or is there something else? You were an ountant before all this, right? Isaac nodded. Then you must be pretty new to all this? Another nod. Habicht sighed Ive spent almost two decades with this badge, seeing the worst of humanity while holding this badge, a badge that gives me a hell of a lot of power. And that, in turn, begets temptation. You asionally hear stories of the police looking the other way when an abused wife kills her husband, or taking a pedophile they just barely cant convict out back and kicking the snot out of them, stories of people with power fixing problems they see with said power, because that power lets them get away with it. Now, its never happened where Ive worked, but Ive heard the stories and gotten the usual remind your subordinates that this is fucking illegal memos. Isaac turned his head to look at him and raised an eyebrow. My point is, I know what its like to have power and be aware of problems said power could solve, and Ive seen countless cases of people doing just that. So, from an old man to one so young hes barely out of diapers, thats a damn slippery slope. I can imagine. Isaac nodded. It looked like this was going down the be responsible route, but with a hefty dose of suspicion mixed in. Also, this was definitely a reaction to what hed done to the Systemers, otherwise, hed have gotten this talk during one of their previous encounters. Habicht sighed, again. He seemed to be doing a lot of that,tely. Can you keep a secret? Of course. But only if it doesnt put lives in danger. Isaac replied, earning himself a frown The two kinds of people wholl always be exacting and overly correct with their statements,wyers and scientists. The corner of Habichts mouth twitched but he didnt smile I suppose thats fair. Now, I really shouldnt be telling you this, but a while ago, a couple of days after we caught Krebs, I got a call. A call about you. Basically, I was asked to write up a full report on what youre capable of, and then I was told about an unofficial policy change. For the most part, it was about how we should be careful about how we handle high-Level individuals and that even though, for any given crime, at least one of them would have the means to do so without getting caught, that we should be very sure of our case before going to meet with any one of them and using them. On a personal level, I think its nice to know that I wont get harassed if I look like a good suspect. On a rational level, the idea of someone with power being treated with kid gloves is bloody terrifying. Isaac replied grimly. That, it is. Its also how the world has worked since time immemorial. It doesnt matter how much a nation focusses on the concept of equality, there will always be people who somehow get treated better. Habicht literally spat to the side after thatment. My point is that, well, someone chopped up a bunch of terrorists with terrifying efficiency, and we both know youre capable of that. Isaac opened his mouth to respond, to point out that hed been halfway across the country when that had happened, but Habicht cut him off before he could get a word out. Now, this is the part where you shut up dont say anything that could be construed as being self-incriminating and listen, because this part is actually kind of funny. See, whoever did that, they saved lives. Those of my people, sure, but also those people in that horse ce. Storming an entire building full of literal terrorists usually ends with most of the terrorists dead. Whoever did that, they actually owe them their lives. And tonight, Im probably going to get another phone call, reminding me to watch out who I use, because there are certain people that shouldnt be taken on lightly or discouraged from future cooperation with the department. I dont know if that call will have been needed, but Ill probably get it. At the end of the day, what Im trying to say is this: people who seem to be able to do the impossible start looking very good for crimes they couldnt possibly havemitted, but whether those people and those impossible crimes will be at the top of everyones priority list, well, that depends on the exact nature of those crimes, doesnt it? Well, that was certainly the most thorough, clear speech that was nheless circumspect Isaac had ever heard. The point was pretty clear though: I know you did that, I dont know how, and be fucking careful next time. Hed gotten away with that through abination of being helpful and aplete and utterck of evidence. Maybe, if he pulled simr stunts in the future that also had very clear and beneficial reasons, hed also be given a certain degree of unofficial leniency, but that was something he neither wanted or should count on. On the suspicion front, hed very clearly failed, but the real question wasnt what Habicht thought, it was what his superiors thought that mattered. Had that phone call been because theyd actually thought he was a shady sort of character, or had it merely been a reminder a please dont piss of the guy who can chop buildings in half? And why had Habicht told him about it? Did he want Isaac to pull more stunts like that? Or had it been a warning of the fact that even if he couldnt be convicted of anything, suspicion was a hell of a lot harder topletely avoid. The only thing Isaac was certain about was why Habicht had said things as circumspectly as he had, and that was to avoid truth-telling [Skills]. The most reliable of these was a simple [Ascertain Truth] which could determine whether a given statement was true or false, and did so with almost 100% uracy, but there was a catch: technicalities could fuck that over royally. [Sense Guilt] could get past that hurdle, but it detected, well, guilt, which was an emotion, not its source, which made it unreliable. But using either [Skill] extensively enough to get past the various countermeasures would require a damn good reason to avoid alienating the person being interrogated. At the end of the day, it seemed Isaac had gotten away with everything and normally, he wouldnt be so damn close to something like this, normally, there wouldnt be any connection between him and the people he went after, at least none that could be seen without knowledge from the other timeline. Or had he? Had that all just been a way for him to identally incriminate himself. Or maybe But theres one more thing Id like to pass on to, a piece of advice given to me by my mentor. And that is a good cop must be as yielding as steel, and I think that applies to you as well. Shouldnt that be as un-yielding as steel? Isaac asked cautiously. Probably. Habicht chuckled softly But this is a different sort of metaphor. See, steel is damn tough and doesnt like to bend, but it does have a tiny bit of give, every time it is affected by an external force, it shifts a little bit. If it didnt, it would shatter like ss at the first impact. But it doesnt, because it can yield to a tiny degree. And ording to my mentor, the same goes for a good policeman. 99.9% of the time, rules and procedures will be all you need to go by, and theyll be enough. But there is no guarantee that itll always be enough. Sometimes, in the 0.1% of the time, the rules and procedures wont tell you what to do, or theyll be straight up wrong. Thats when people who are utterly fixated on the rules, who forget that they have a brain, break. Recing your own personal morality and offloading the need to think onto a little booklet of rules doesnt make you smart, or a good cop, it makes you a zealot, and I dont think I need to tell you how destructive zealotry can be. Now what did that mean? Was the main message use your head even if the rules tell you something otherwise or was Habicht indirectly letting him know that he secretly approved of what Isaac was doing? And once again, was he letting Isaac know that he himself had suspicions but wouldnt say anything, or was he passing along the governments stance, which it couldnt hold publicly? Really, the core meaning still remained the same, Isaac needed to watch himself and what he did. Anyway, I was wondering whether youd be willing to give up a couple of those timeslots you have with your cksmith? Habicht asked,pletely interrupting Isaacs train of thought and making him gape in surprise at the non-sequitur. Wait, what? Habicht chuckled softly at his expression You sent Wirt to him to get himself a master crafted melee weapon to be used in case of emergency and I tried to get one for every person in my unit but apparently, you two have a deal that involves you providing Aspects in exchange for a monopoly on a fair bit of his work time. So I was wondering if you could find it within yourself to give up your im to some of that time for the next couple weeks? Im afraid that wont quite work, sadly. Theres a project Ill be working on next week, but after that, Ill be out of the country and he shouldnt be busy with my crap. You can have that time. Isaac shook his head. I suppose thats all I can reasonably ask for. Habicht replied, inclining his head I suppose youre all eager to get back home, do something a little more peaceful than dealing with terrorists? Yep. How about you? Isaac asked. Once weve dealt with all the new sharks in theke, Ill have my guys running drills until they drop. Actually, could I ask you for one little favor? See, theres this Aspect Ive been looking for Chapter 85: The only monster of the Deep Chapter 85: The only monster of the Deep The water surrounded him, seemingly stretching infinitely in all directions, as he hung there, 40 or so meters underwater. A pair of fins were strapped to his feet, which,bined with his massively improved stats, let him shoot through the water like a torpedo. Other than the fins, the only article of clothing he was wearing was a very tight pair of swimwear. It was hardly his usual style, but he really wanted to reduce drag, something thest thing on his person didnt do the best job at. It was a small bag strapped to his upper right arm, containing both a pair of inscribed Lesser Space Elemental cores to ess his storage space in case of emergency, and several trackers he was meant to tag the bodies with, meant to be attacked to normal sharks to track their movements. The first Systemer arrested had sang like a canary on most topics, but categorically refused to tell people how many sharks hed stuck in theke, as if that was somehow some great secret. But Sturm had insisted that however many more sharks were going to die here and now, it would likely be enough to seriously fuck with the ecology of theke, so theyd need to be retrievedter. Meanwhile, his [Aura] was fully extended, scouring the surrounding area for any sign of the sharks. The conversation with Habicht was still somewhat on his mind, but distant, as if it had happened weeks ago. Right here and now, it was just him and the monsters out there, man vs nature, just the way he liked it. No politics, no lying, just good old fighting. He grinned a smile that Isaac knew had to look more than a little feral, but right now, he didnt care about that either. A dark shadow approached, cutting through the water like a knife, immense jaws opening to create a gate straight to oblivion, two meters across and able to swallow him whole without him even touching the teeth. It really wasnt a contest. Isaac kicked his feet and flung himself straight into the jaws of hell itself. As the twin rows of ivory passed him, revealing countless more behind them, invisible from the outside, he flung out both his arms, hurling both his Kabar and Kriegsmesser into the the gills from the inside. See, one the way sharks, or at least the ram-venttors among them, breathed was by swimming through the water, periodically opening their mouths to let it stream into them thanks to their forward motion and then push it back out over their gills. In other words, you could strike at the gills from the inside, especially with an [Aura] that could tell him precisely where the biggest blood vessels within were located. A mere thoughtter, the hurled des duplicated twice for a grand total of three tearing into the gills on each side, telekically guided for maximum effect with [de Control]. Lastly, Isaac phased everything except for a single one of the trackers, which remained corporeal and inside the shark as it swept past Isaac, trailing blood from both sides of its neck like a damaged airne leaking smoke. A few momentster, it ckened and began to sink. Apparently, sharks didnt go belly up like other fish because theycked a swim dder. Megalodon (Lv. 23) has been in. 280 XP gained Isaac swept his [Aura] across the body to check for an Aspect but came back empty. Unfortunate. If he didnt get an Aspect now, hed likely end up having to wait for the artificialke on his property to be dug, and that would take a while. But right now, this was another thing that was rtively average in terms of danger level and power but had inflicted so much damage and killed so many people that summoning it would look truly awful. It would have to be summoned somewhere absolutely no one ever used for other purposes, or not at all. At least until the general populus forgot about this entire mess. In the distance, another shadow approached, the next shark having noticed his presence. It had taken a little while for these two to realize he was here, but once the blood from the dead one had had time to spread, hed be up to his neck in them, at least if there were enough of the damn things in theke. He spun, winding up a [Far Strike] and shing across its snout. He could feel the sheer pressure of the water pushing against the attack, threatening to break it, but the projection held. Barely. As the attack got longer it would grow increasingly unstable, and shing through something as dense as water instead of air was reducing the effective range even further. The shark veered off, going deeper beforeing at him with its explode from the depths trick. That went about as poorly as one might expect. Isaac teleported out of the way at thest second andid open its gills with a single attack. It spun around, diving right at him, crimson clouds spiling from the massive wound. He evaded and it charged at him once again, and once more after that, until it too began to sink, dead. Isaac took a moment to dive down next to it and p a tracker on it, and that that was that. The third and fourth sharks attacked almost simultaneously, and this time, Isaac shifted into [Form of Horror]. Not because he needed to, but because he wanted too. Since thest time hed used this ability inbat, hed gained several new Aspects and it had changed significantly. The basic form of anky humanoid was still the same, but that was all. Countless additional bone tes covered his skin like armor, but beneath each and every one of themy an extendible de, allowing him to turn into a ded porcupine at a moments notice. In addition, hed gained an extra pair of arms that connected to his torso at the exact same point his old ones were, moving through each other as if one pair were intangible, which neither was. That was because the new ones werent real, they were wholly illusionary, making him able to pull off feints with casual ease. Meanwhile, controlling the new limbs could be as easy or tricky as he wanted, depending on the setting. They could movepletely autonomously, attacking depending on his current intentions, or they could be directly controlled for maximum efficacy, but thetter option was incredibly tricky. The human brain could be wired to control all sorts of things, but the human mind took longer to adapt. And this wasnt something that Isaac was particrly good at, sadly. Still, there were sharks, fancy tricks shouldnt be needed. Isaac kicked his feet to get above the first shark, driving his ws into its snout and letting the water resistance pull himself along its back, tearing at it like a cat did to a cat tree, but doing a hell of a lot more damage in the process. As he reached the tail fin, he covered his ws with a [Sundering Strike] in its enduring version, leaving behind a vicious green glow in the wound, continuously eating at the base of the fishs spine until the tail fin fell off. And that shark was dead. Ram-venttor sharks needed to keep moving forward if they wanted to keep breathing, but this one was dead in the water, metaphorically speaking. And soon enough, literally as well. The second one rushed past, catching a w to the face buting away rtively intact. Over and over, it charged,ing away with a new set of scratches while the asional headbutt or tail swipe managed to knock Isaac away, but they couldnt actually hurt him, that would require biting him, and it wouldnt be able to manage that. A few seconds after the transformation ran out, Isaac managed to solidly dig the ws on his left hand into the top of the sharks skull and then drove his right arm into the beasts gills, where it disappeared well past the elbow. He swiped around in there for a couple of seconds, a wash of red blinding him and forcing him to depend on his [Aura] to see. Megalodon (Lv. 23) has been in. 280 XP gained But the cherry on top was the fact that the first of the pair hed killed had dropped an Aspect. Isaac kicked his feet, blurring through the water straight towards the body, Kabar swiping back and forth until the body fell apart in two halves before him, Aspecting free. It was a beautiful aquamarine gemstone looking orb, only marred by a single streak of ivory. Aspect of the Megalodon: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Megalodon a Megalodon. Gain a form perfect for underwaterbat,unch yourself forward into a devastating charge, regrow your teeth and other natural weapons ad infitum or gain the ability to sense electricity. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Agility One of the following Skills: Sharks Body Wave Charge Revolver Dentition Electrosense It offered several cool [Skills], as well as the single most useless [Skill] Isaac had ever seen, the ability to grow additional rows of teeth inside his mouth to rece any he lost nigh instantaneously. Sure, regrowing teeth was incredibly useful, but devoting an entire Aspect [Skill] to that? Bollocks to that! The Aspect vanished a momentter, [Gills] upgrading to [Sharks Body], with [Wave Charge] being his new [Skill]. Sharks Body (epic) There are plenty of Skills to let one breathe underwater, but for most of them, thats all they do. This one is a little different, in addition to gaining the ability to survive theck of gaseous oxygen and the crushing weight of the ocean overhead, it gives the user an additional form, said form being a shark-human hybrid,plete with sharkskin, as well as webbed hands and feet, electromaic senses, and an improved sense of smell. Clothing worn in the human form will vanish with the human form, though some articles of clothing may be kept on. (The passive effect of the Gills Skill will continue to work even if this Skill is not active.) Cost: 7 mana to transform, 1 mana per minute to maintain transformation Essentially, [Sharks Body] was the bootleg version of [Form of Horror], but incredibly focused on underwaterbat. Isaac activated it the instant he got it, feet suddenly doubling in size, something that whenbined with the webbed skin between his toes effectively gave him a natural pair of fins. The same happened with his hands, allowing him to plow through the water at speeds equal to these damn sharks, the altered skin allowing him to cut through it like a knife. Meanwhile, theke lit up with an entirely new kind of sight as the electromaic detection ability of his altered form kicked in. The effect wasnt quite as strong as the dedicated [Electrosense] [Skill] the Aspect had offered, but it was cool enough. Byparison, [Wave Charge] was almost stupidly simple. Wave Charge (epic) There is a charge, and then there is a charge, something that isnt merely the act of rushing forward at an enemy. Activating this Skill will fling the user forward, running at a chosen target, without needing a solid surface to jump off of. In addition, it ignores all kinds of non-solid resistance. Cost: 15 mana He could charge at something, and unlike a [Warriors] [Charge], he didnt need ground to run on. Also, it let him ignore both water and air resistance while it was active, but that was really weirdly phrased. It was one of those things that made the the [System] was created in a givennguage and perfect trantions dont always exist hypothesis seem more and more likely. Sure, some [ss] and [Skill] names had obviously been created in a givennguage, but generally, the names seemed to not point to any givennguage or region of origin. And here was another shark, helpfully volunteering to y the target for when he tried out his new [Skills]. He spun through the water, running rings around therger shark, ripping open the gills on one side, then appearing on the other less than a secondter, and ripped open those as well. Megalodon (Lv. 24) has been in. 280 XP gained Two minutester, another shark arrived, jaws open and ready to chow down. Isaacs slight smile turned into his full feral grin as he activated [Wave Charge], sting into the gaping mouth and erupting out a the side, passing through the gills in the process. Sure, teleportation was the best movement ability barring things that could interfere with it, but sometimes, you just needed a little personal momentum. As it turned out, that was thest of the bunch. Five sharks, more than had been summoned either of the previous times. That that was more than a little stupid. You either finished someone off with the opening attack and made damn sure to send enough to finish the job, or you left them well enough alone. A failed attack let the target know there was a threat and let them start preparing a countermeasure. Then again, the Systemers were some of the least problematic foes hed be facing, they were just too impulsive. When he posted that list of potentially trouble-making factions, for most of them, it would be early enough for them to be stopped before they grew big. The Systemers, on the other hand, were godsdamned crusaders, gathering up followers with inspirational speeches and zeal, but quite frankly, they were simply toocking in the intelligence department to reach the endgame. Still, they should cease to be a threat in a matter of months, if not weeks. And with the idea that the [System] might have prompted a psychosis that would create simr movements, any other even remotely simr group would get erased like a cockroach in a cleanroom. Grasping the nearest shark by the tail, he began to kick his feet to drag it too shore, but he couldnt. He was easily strong enough to carry a dead shark, especially with the water carrying part of the weight, but that didnt change how buoyancy worked. Now, he could drag it along the bottom of theke, climb up the sharp incline to the shore and move the bodies that way, but did he really want to do that when there were alternatives avable? Yeah, that was a solid nopefrom him. Isaac sped off towards his port of origin, casting his [Aura] forward just before emerging from the water to check what was awaiting him. His team, part of GSG-13, and the reporters that were asking them question after question. The press had been sniffing around them for a while, but while in the police precinct or the hotel, the team had managed to doge them decently well. After all, they hadnt had much to tell yet. He dove deep for a moment, then burst upwards and out of the water like a porpoise, shifting back to human mid-flight while pulling a bathrobe out of his spatial storage. Hended lightly and walked up next to Bailey as if hed just walked out of the other room. The bathrobe wasnt the only in case of emergency, cover up with this article of clothing he had in there, but most of them were dark trench coats as no matter how messy or injured hed gotten, or how trashed his outfit was, those covered anything not on his face or feet. But given his current state of nearplete undress, wearing a trench coat would make him look like he was about to sh people. That wasnt a look he ever wanted to wear, let alone in front of a crowd of reporters. So, Professor, I took care of the remaining sharks, but I cant get them out of theke on my own. Ive tagged each one, so we wont lose track of them, but retrieving them will require the rest of the teams help. Isaac reported, talking to Bailey as though the reporters werent even there. Thank you, Mr. Thoma. Bailey replied Weve already gathered the lift bags and other necessary gear, well be ready in five minutes. Uh, Mr. Thoma, was it? Would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions? the closest reported asked, sensing the chance to interview someone no one else here had interviewed yet. Sure. Isaac shrugged. Previous attempts at eradicating the sharks within the Bodensee have been made in groups and fromrge boats. What makes it safe to go at it alone, this time around? Knowledge. Isaac shrugged again We know what these things weak points are, we know how to counter their attacks, we know their limits. Couple that with me being in a position to exploit those weak points, this has be considerable easier. Would you say that the ships damaged in the previous attempts were a necessary sacrifice, then? Yes, I would. The first attempt might have been overly cautious, but initially, we didnt know what the Megalodon type summon is capable off, so we prepared for every eventuality. Those preparations could be fine-tuned after the first encounter, and further refined after the second. And now, cleaning out the sharks is somewhat akin to clearing out cockroaches from the bathroom, the real problem lies in finding them, rather than taking care of them. How can a shark the size of a yacht be that easy to beat? Simple. I have an underwater breathing Aspect [Skill] and a high Agility which lets me freely move underwater and dodge their straight line charge attacks, as well as the reach to strike at vulnerable points such as the gills or the base of the tail. At this point, several other reporters had noticed Isaac and were asking questions as well until he used the preparations being finished as an excuse to run off. *** Alright, lines are secure. And now, inte the ballon. Isaac announced,municating via [Aura]-pulse-morse-code. Yep. Patrick replied, sticking his right hand under the balloons opening, began drawing all the dissolved gasses from the surrounding water and push them inside Though its called a lift bag. The balloon, er, lift bag, slowly began to inte, along with its twin near the front of the shark, where Amy was mirroring Patricks actions. After a couple of minutes, the body began to rise until it was bobbing at the surface of the water. High overhead, Isaac could see it getting lifted out of the water by the rest of the team and hefted onto the ferry Meier hadmandeered for this exact purpose. The ferry owner had been pretty mad about it despite the fact that it wouldnt be used forbat, but mandeered in the name of the Federal Republic of Germany with a solid supporting argument was pretty hard to overturn. *** Four hours after that, they were in the car, driving back to the university. Sturm was staying back, arranging for transport for three of the Megalodon bodies and Karl had decided to join him in case some trucks needed to be reinforced to carry them, but the others had all decided to go straight back home. You know, you might want to call your mother before that news segment airs. Amy teased Remember what happened thest time she learned of a major life even of yours from the TV? I sent her a text a while back, Im going to visit her soon anyway, so I figured that should be enough. Isaac repliedconically. Oh, by the way, I think the bosses realized what it meant to have you give lectures on [Aura] techniques in Korea and they want you to hold one here in a week. Bailey suddenlymented. Sure. Was his only reply. During the visit to Korea, they were going to make their own impression of how dungeons worked, as well as doing a handful of experiments of their own with the local universities cooperation. In exchange, theyd be helping with their hosts experiments and Isaac was going to be giving a few lectures on auric techniques, something he was yet to do in the university that actually paid him. And now the people in charge of said university had finally wised up to the fact that they might miss out on the prestige of the first proper [Aura] control lecture and were trying to avoid that. Still, it shouldnt be too bad, he might even make some new contacts. But he hadnt gone into this with the intention of actually holding lectures and it wasnt something he had much experience with, so he was pretty nervous, overall. Chapter 86: Family Matters Chapter 86: Family Matters It was a quaint house, Isaac reflected. Two stories, small yard out front, sandwiched between the houses on either side, a thick hedge obscuring most of the lower floor save for the gate that allowed ess to the house. Isaac cast out his [Aura] to get a good look at everything from a ce where he could have his reaction without being observed. There was a midsized garden behind the house, with a few toys neatly packed away in the garden shed. His sisters might be a pair of little hellions, but his mother still had them under control. His father was in the cer, in that familiar soundproofed room, practicing. He was an opera singer and therefore, that got a little loud. Isaac had been maybe 5 or 6, his parent had just bought the house and theyd fought about this, a lot, until one day, him and his mother hade home from school and the house and been utterly silent. Normally, this would have been his fathers practice time, which made it incredibly weird to not hear anything. Eventually, his father had burst up from the cer, proudly announcing hed managed to soundproof his practice room all by himself. The intention had been to show up just as they did but hed lost track of time. Isaac chuckled softly at the memory. His [Aura] continued to sweep through the building, finding his mother upstairs, ying with a pair of precocious six-year-olds. Where Isaac had the same ck hair as his mother Tanja and Viktoria shared their fathers blond hair, shaved down to a pixie cut. Longer hair tended to get caught on stuff or messy really quickly and, well, they were like a pair of whirlwinds, only even more energetic and destructive. The feeling of grief hit him like a godsdamned truck, a chocked off sob escaping his throat. He triggered [Stealth], going invisible as he didnt want anyone to see him like this. They hadnt been like that in the future, mellowing out from the literal embodiments of chaos into stalwartly optimistic beacons of hope, whod managed to keep peoples spirits up even in the darkest of times, right up until the end. And then theyd died. But now, they were right there in front of him, and he loved them, but those other versions of them, those grown up women that anyone would be privileged to know, were dead, and would always be dead. Isaac balled his right hand into a fist, mming it into the ground and bing briefly visible before he re-cast [Stealth], the ground splintering like balsawood under his fist. A few drops of blood emerged from his skin, along with the asphalt shards that had found their way into his fist, before everything healed over. He wanted to love those two little girls, and he did, but there was and would always be that other timeline hanging over his head, a constant reminder that these two werent the people hede to know, that they were almost a recement? And any love he felt for them would be a betrayal of the original? no even in his current state, he knew thetter was bunk. The idea that after losing a friend or loved one, a person could no longer befriend or love anyone else was one of the most self destructive ideas known to man. Isaac punched the ground again, though this time, he reduced his strength to not further damage the ground. One hole In the sidewalk would be hard enough to exin, a second would be a real issue. Yet all of that didnt change how much this hurt. Because he would always love those two, but the women theyd grown into would always be gone. Now that he was here, on his knees in front of this house, invisible, he realized how stupid hed been, because he did love everyone here, even if they werent the people in the other timeline, because those people were still dead. That had simply been a stupid excuse to avoid dealing with this. Isaac squeezed his eyes shut, feeling the tears streaming down his face, taking deep breaths. These were mistakes he could fix. They werent dead, none of them were, and he could still make this right. It wasnt like hed made massive mistakes in the other timeline, some stupid fight hed never had the chance to apologize for, theyd simply died and hed given up on ever seeing them again, even despite this incredible opportunity hed been given. No, his mistakes had been made right here and now, and that was where hed be able to fix this if the grief didnt break him first. Isaac straightened and got to his feet, surreptitiously grabbing the bloodiest of the stone shards and chucking them into the hedge. Sure, there was still a hole in the sidewalk, but now it wasnt nearly as obvious that it had been created by someone punching it. He reached up and wiped at his eyes with his sleeve, clearing away most of the tears, but a quick check with his [Aura] revealed that his eyes were rimmed red and his checks still glistened red. With a sigh, he pulled up the front of his shirt to wipe away the rest of the tears even as [Hundred Faces] shifted his expression back into a form more appropriate for someone visiting their family. That stupid little [Skill] was going to end up with one hell of a screwed up Level 20 evolution if he kept using to hide his true feelings from his family, wasnt it? He pulled out his keyring, something he hadnt needed to use in months, and unlocked the front door, covered the few steps to the front door in a few steps and opened that as well. Hi, Im home! he called out. it took less than ten seconds for a pair of little, blond, bottle rockets to m into his midsection. Laughing, he put a single foot back to prevent himself from falling over while he swept both of them up in his arms, easily holding both of them in his arms. Isaac, youre back! Tanja chirped. Thedy on the TV said youre a superhero now! Viktoria added. Maybe. But are you two supposed to be watching the news? Those are awfully grim, you know. Isaacmented dryly. We are! We are! Now let me down! Viktoria grumbled, squirming in his arms and he dropped both of them, ready to steady them at a moments notice if it looked like they were about to fall. These two were about to go into first grade and currently in the middle of their Im in school now, Im grown up and too much of an adult for hugs phase but he only knew that from the other timeline. A fist of grief grasped his heart in an iron grip at that thought and he choked back a sob. Isaac, are you alright? his mother asked, havinge down the stairs at a far more sedate pace. Yeah. he gasped, wiping at his eyes with his sleeve Im just so d youre all alright. What happened out there, at thatke? she asked. His eyes flicked down to the twins and she understood immediately. Girls, how about you go tell your dad that Isaac is here? she suggested and they were off at speeds that frankly boggled the mind. What happened there? she asked softly, quietly enough so the pair of six-year-olds wouldnt hear. Nothing. I I wasnt even there for most of the time, I was at the university, babysitting one of or projects, I only went there at the end to clean things up. Isaac sighed But I got a front row seat to learning just what crap people are capable off Im just so d youre all alive. Alive? she asked, surprise and sadness swinging in her voice in equal measure. Yep, that had been a very bad way to phrase that. A lot of people arent. he replied grimly, finding himself wrapped in a hug a momentter. He jumped in surprise, and she let go in an instant. You know, youre never too old for a hug. Yep. Isaac sighed, again Im just a little jumpy, I guess. His mother slumped, shoulders hanging low In that case, should you keep working at that job, if it has that kind of effect on you? Maybe, maybe not. But someone needs to do this. The world has gotten very dang- he cut himself off as the twins came rushing up, dragging their father along with them like a leaf caught in a tornado. Those two were in a league of their own when it came to force of personality. Hey, can you do a magic trick? Viktoria chirped and for a moment, Isaac nked on what he could do. Sure, he had a massive list of avable [Skills], but they were all dangerous, destructive, or knife rted, nothing he wanted to show to a pair of little kids. a few minutes from now, hed realize that there were plenty of things he could do, but in that moment, he was unable to think of anything that wasnt violent, save one. I can fly. Isaac announced, activating [Poltergeists Flight] and tapping his foot against the floor to send him floating a few centimeters above the ground. Oh wow! Tanja eximed, even as Viktoria added Teach me! Isaac chortled When youre older. In response, she made a pouty face at him Thats something you grown-ups always say when they dont want to deal with us. But I can teach you suddenly, the glowing orb of an Aspect of the Specter was in his hands with this. But you need the [System] to use it. Then I want the [System]! Tanja cheered, raising both tiny fists towards the sky as she cheered. Doesnt work like that. Isaac told her, internally adding a thankfully. Everyone got ess at around 20 at thetest, but most got it earlier, when they were at least somewhat mature. That was likely a legacy from the [System] as it had been intended, a way for humanity to grow beyond its previous limitations,plete with the appropriate security precautions, which werepletelycking in most other aspects of [System] use. So now, you two will have to grow up a little, and then, Ill show you a few more tricks. Can I have a little time alone with Mom and Dad? he asked and the pair nodded in sync, then ran off. That little synchronized trick was something theyd use to freak out a lot of people in the near future, once they realized that it could be used to freak people out. Hi Dad. he greeted his father, feeling another, overwhelming surge of sorrow and rage wash over him, but hed also managed to perfect his poker face by using [Hundred Faces] while constantly updating the end result with his [Aura]. Can we talk in the kitchen a little bit? he asked, then headed into it and sat down at the table, pilling several glowing orbs onto it. Aspects of the Specter and Hydra, as well as four Lesser Space Elemental Cores, two inscribed, two not. Are those his father trailed off, words failing him as he saw the wealth piled onto the table before them. Aspects, yes, and some cores from a Lesser Space Elemental. Now, Mom, I know you werent sure whether you wanted to use them, but I figured Id offer these anyway. The glowing blue Aspect is helpful because it lets you walk through walls and the other one can let you heal from almost any injury. I really want you to have some of these, I need to know youre safe. We are safe. his father responded Were not about to start summoning monsters here, dont worry. Its not about what you will do, its about what everyone else is already doing. Almost twenty people died because a group lunatics decided to dump a shark into ake popr for recreation. I need to know that you have something that can help keep you alive. Isaacs control slipped slightly, but he managed to ster over it or so he hoped. What exactly happened there? The news said something about a group of summoners doing that, but they werent exactly there? his father asked And how did you find out? The soundproofing on police precincts isnt really up to snuff whenpared to the what kinds of people the world currently harbors. Isaac exined And the group they were a bunch of whackos who thought the [System] was a divine epiphany and started summoning willy-nilly. Convincing the various government agencies of the fact that there was some kind of mass delusion going on that lead people to pulling crap like the Stormheart Gestalt and Megalodon was something he was particrly proud of having managed. Now these agencies wouldnt be on the lookout for specific people whodmitted crimes like this, theyd be going after the dark gods agents as a matter of course. But the Aspects are only part of what I have for you. Whats your maximum mana? he asked, though he already knew before hed even analyzed them that it had to be at a decent level. After all, most civilian job based [sses] had [Skills] that cost plenty of mana, so people who werent manualborers or had illusions of bing superheroes tended to mostly invest in the magical stats. 270. Dad said. 320. Mom added. Well, this right here is a Lesser Space Elemental Core and you can use it to make yourself an inventory er, thats an extradimensional space you can use to store stuff in. If you create one right here, youll be able to ess it from anywhere on the property. He ran them through the process with plenty of trepidation from them at the process of summoning anything, but pretty soon, the two of them were experimenting with the inventory. Isaac took this as a chance to head out and y with his little sisters. Hey, who wants to join me up here? he called out, bncing on his Zweih?nder, which he was levitating using [de Control]. He was also currently weightless, which meant that, whenever it shifted under his feet, he should get catapulted off into space, but he had his Kabar attached to his belt and was using that for bnce and control, firmly anchoring himself on the sword. Me! Me! the two of them began to jump up and down, reaching upwards, so he jumped down, wrapped them both in a hug, and leaped up on top of the sword. He didnt do much after that, other than slowly circle around above the garden with them. Youre going to take us to school on our first day like this. Viktoria dered, making him snort withughter. Im afraid I cant, youre going to have to go by car, just like everyone else. After that, they yed hide and seek, though in this case, that meant him going invisible and his sisters trying to find him by way of the garden hose. That was followed by a cake in the afternoon, but then, Isaac made his goodbyes. This was really nice, thank you everyone. I love you all. After the round of hugs that followed, he left on foot, beginning to run and going invisible the moment he was out of sight. That was when the tears began to flow. Chapter 87: When normal no longer cuts it Chapter 87: When normal no longer cuts it So, what is that thing you wanted me to look at? Stagmer asked, leading Isaac towards the shop of the tailor hed recruited. There were now almost a dozen craftsmen whod moved into the area specifically because Isaac was providing them materials. Stagmer was the one responsible for finding the people and ying middleman to ensure that Isaac wasnt bothered by constant requests for specific stuff. I dont know, yet. Were going to be exploring some new summoning categoriester and expect to be confronted with a lot of stuff with properties we havent even imagined yet. And like it or not, youre one of the foremost experts in handling [System]-enhanced metals and the expert where shaping them using traditional methods are concerned. Isaac exined Oh and by the way, Ill be flying to Korea on Sunday, so Ill need the weapons I ordered by then. Also, while Im over there, Id like to give my time slots to a Polizeihauptmeister by the name of Franz Habicht. Weve met. Apparently, you sent one of his former subordinates my way and now they want to outfit an entire special forces unit with my gear. Stagmer replied That was different. Well, better get used to it. Isaacughed and pped Stagmers back Youre famous now, youre thecksmith, the modern incarnation of Wand the smith or the dwarf Alberich. Your peers can now be counted on hand. Welp, thats a thought. Stagmer nched I hope Ill prove worthy of that responsibility? For what its worth, there are a lot of people suddenly finding themselves as world level experts without even realizing it. Isaac replied Were in new waters now and even small advances can put you above the rest. Uh-hu. Still weird. Stagmer shook his head Anyway, here we are. Fabian is an old friend, and an excellent Tailor, but stubborn as an old mule. It took him a while toe on board, but once he did, he jumped right on making those clothes you wanted. Er, weaving the cloth, he still needs to get your precise measurements. What kind of silk was that, anyway? Spider silk. Isaac replied But those things are a million times more dangerous than their Tier would indicate, much like with that Stormheart Gestalt. When you summon a Weaver Queen, you dont just summon a big spider, you summon a bloody swarm. Summoning List (Arachnid) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Nope Spider Tier 1 Circle, handful of dead bugs, 2 Thumbtacks 10 Lupine Spider Tier 2 Circle, Hair, Thumbtacks, Acid 50 Eight-Legged Stalker Tier 3 Circle, Paint Drops, handful of dead Bugs 120 Eight-Legged Horror Tier 4 Circle, Cobwebs, Paper Mobius Loop 200 Weaver Queen Tier 5 Circle, Cobwebs, Silk, handful of dead Bugs 400 He shed open the relevant summoning list. Basically, each of the small ones that gets away can grow into a queen in their own right and they will do so if there isnt another queen around. Therell always be a queen unless you get them all, and that makes them a huge problem. Yeah, you might want to stress that when you talk to Fabian, he was tickled pink when he got his hands on that silk and Id really rather he didnt try to get that silk on his own. Stagmer warned. Oh, I will. But Ill also do my damndest to make sure he has more of the stuff than he can use. Isaac reassured him My [ss] lets me harvest this stuff pretty handily. And here we are. Stagmer announced, gesturing at a small, unmarked shop. It had the typical disy windowmon for these kinds of shops and the door with arge window, but there were curtains drawn on both, denying them a look inside. There were also no signs or nametes on the wall outside or in any of the windows, making it look like it was no longer being used as a shop, but the tter of a sowing machineing from inside told a different story. Rather than knocking, Stagmer walked up to the door and opened it, directly, entering into a room that looked a lot more like a tailors than the outside. Rolls of fabric neatly stacked in shelves that covered one wall in its entirety, a series of posters depicting odd designs covered another. In the far corner stood some kind of loom, though that was all Isaac could tell with his limited knowledge. Next to that loomy two additional rolls of fabric, off-white and glowing with power when he checked them using his [Aura]. Clearly, this was the product of his work with the spider silk Isaac had gotten. Obtaining the raw silk had actually been pretty easy, all hed had to do was set up a series of scaffolds in his summoning area, summon the Weaver Queen, and then wait under [Stealth]. Being an ambush predator, this species of spider began to build a massive web, weaving it throughout the scaffold. All the while, hed kept track of each individual spider with his [Aura], using a soft touch to ensure he didnt tip them off to his spying. As his mana had dipped under 100, he vaporized almost all of the spiders with a [Sweeping Strike], leaving behind only the main Weaver and a handful of little ones. The rest was easy. Crush all the little ones, skewer the big one, collect the cobwebs. Sure, sweeping a stick through the sticky mass of spider webs created quite the mess, one that people would be hard-pressed to untangle even with modern technology, but not for the [Skills] a [Tailor] could get. And the rest was history. Hed sent the silk to Stagmer to see if he knew anyone who could use it, whod then found Fabian Arlt and passed it along. Any [Tailor] worth their salt would have then recognized how useful the silk could be and picked up the necessary [Skills] that would let him utilize it. Ah, Helmut, there you are. Arlt called from a door that led deeper into the shop And Im guessing youre Isaac Thoma, then? Yes, I believe we have an appointment? Isaac replied. Thats correct. Ive managed to turn that silk into proper fabric, which, I might add, required specific [Skills], now I just need your measurements. Arlt said. Good to know. How many [Skills] did you have to get? Isaac asked. Two, why do you ask? [Skill] and [ss] choices stick with you and can have longsting consequences. Isaac exined Generally, if someone has to make those choices to fulfil an order, theyre paid for that. Generally? Ive never heard of it. Its pretty new, just like everything else about the [System]. Isaac said. I suppose so. But this was already expensive enough, is all of this worth it for a couple of shirts and pants? Arlt wondered. Isaac justughed Oh, it absolutely is. With how fast Im getting, air resistance is bing quite a problem. Pretty soon, Ill have to make the choice between fighting in my birthday suit or breaking out the spandex. Or Id have to, if Mr. Stagmer hadnt pointed me your way. Arlt joined him in hisughter You know, if youre interested in a superhero costume, I do make those as well. Hm, maybeter. A Halloween costume, perhaps, but not something Id ever wear in my ordinary life. Isaac said. Arlt shrugged Sure, if thats what you want. With that, he broke out the measuring tape and began to take Isaacs measurements. What kind of clothing are you looking for? Helmut told me about basic shirts and pants, but nothing more specific. Clothing you wear while doing strenuous physical activity, something that wouldnt look out of ce on a university campus, at least initially. After that, Id also like something akin to regr workout clothes. They should be tighter than normal to reduce drag, but still something I can freely move in. Isaac said Muted colors, something that doesnt show stains well, especially blood. The only response he got was a single raised eyebrow. I suppose I should exin that Im a [System] researcher and spend most of my time summoning, shouldnt I? he added. Ah, that makes more sense. Arlt said Now, this is going to be made out of the silk, correct? It might be tough, but it stains very easily when ites into contact with liquids. Also, silk is usually limited to dress outfits, running around in pure silk outfits is definitely going to look out of ce. Maybe I could mix in some other fibers to create something that looks more like ordinary, every-day wear, if that is something youre interested in. Not looking like a peacock would certainly be nice, yeah. I usually wear pants with plenty of pockets that can be securely closed, that kind of look would be great, but I also need some ce to attach the sheath of mybat knife. Youre the expert here, you know better than me what that would require. Isaac said while Arlt rolled up his measuring tape and stepped away. So, you need tight clothing with minimal drag, plenty of pockets that wont spill even if youre doing crazy acrobatics and a ce to attach your knife? Would you prefer some belt loops so you can wear a belt, or a specialized attachment point so you dont need to be wearing a belt to properly carry your weapon? Hm, can you me two pairs of pants, one with a belt and one with a specialized attachment? Yeah, I can do that. Anything else? Arlt asked, already writing down some ideas on a piece of paper. Id also like a set of semi-formal wear, polo shirts and pants in brighter colors. Azure, Navy-blue, burgundy and dark green, but that can wait. Isaac said in addition, if you have [Skills] that would reduce the wind resistance of the clothing you produce, Id be willing to pay you for taking it. Sure. For future reference, is there a list somewhere as to how much people get paid to adjust their build for their clients? Arlt asked. No, but there probably will be, eventually. Ive been tangentially involved in situations like this before, and we created a rough calction for the price. Depending on how useful the [Skill] or [Skills] chosen would be outside of the project youre getting them for, the [Skills] rarity and your Level, something like that can theoretically cost over a hundred thousand euros, but that would be for someone at their first Evolution getting something that they cant get much use out of otherwise. Getting a few [Skills] to help your customers ignore wind resistance is something Id offer you five thousand euros for. And once you do have it, youve got a guaranteed customer in me at the very minimum, but once other people start running into the wind resistance issue, theyll flock to someone who can help alleviate that issue. Isaac said, and then gave Arlt the same spiel hed given Stagmer so long ago, about how he could provide Aspects in exchange for some a monopoly on a certain amount of the other mans time and so on and so forth. Arlt declined the offer but said hed think about it, but Isaac knew hed take the offer, just like Stagmer had, and several of the cksmiths colleagues, none of which Isaac had met, but hed seen some of their products, they were excellent. The point was, this was an excellent deal, but Arlt hadnt wanted to seem too eager. Now Isaac had an entire weekend to prepare for theing few days, because they were going to be busy as hell, as the Sunday after the next one, they were going to be flying to Korea and he wanted to have broken ground on a few new areas of research by then. Because if they didnt, itd have to wait until Professor Bailey returned, weekster. It wouldnt be the end of the world, but it would be rather suboptimal. So they needed to break into the sixth summoning Tier, figure out how the monsters there worked, realize they also wielded [Auras], even if they were rather simplisticpared to what humans did. That way, whoever stayed behind could explore the wonders of Tier 6 monsters while those who went were deciphering the secrets of the dungeons. And then there was the titanic mess that were the less than friendly extradimensional spaces. They contained monsters but also fancy treasures, and there were wonderful things you could turn the cores of those temporary realities into. But before then, he needed to level up a little, so that was what hed be spending the weekend doing. Chapter 88: Strange Beasts and Horrific Combinations Chapter 88: Strange Beasts and Horrific Combinations Name: Isaac Thoma ss: dewraith Species: Human Level: 31 XP: 8,129 /9,300 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 600/600 Stats Fortitude 50 Perception 95 Strength 60 Agility 105 Magic Power 60 Magic Regeneration 80 Free Points: 0 Stat, 9 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XIX The Chosen Weapon XXIV Skills Hundred Faces XIX Stealth XIX Power Strike XXVIII Piercing Strike XXVIII Sundering Strike XXV des XXVI Sneak XIX Sweeping Strike IX Far Strike XXI Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXIV Phantom Step XV Unknown Fear XVI Bestial Regeneration XVIII Undying Focus XV Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XI Crippling Blow VIII Absolute de Mastery IV General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Dunkleosteus Sharks body Wave Charge Fata Morgana Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest de Control Eternal des [Empty Slot] His [Skills] wereing along nicely, and he was within spitting distance of the next Level and having enough [Skill] points to buy the first [Central Skill] of his second Evolution. And now was the time to get that XP. Isaac strode onto his property, walking through the woods as he swept the ce for anything that didnt belong with his [Aura]. Hed bought quite a bit morend surrounding his original purchase so he had space to expand, but that also meant that it was nowrge enough that he couldnt check over all of it from his home, he actually had to get off his ass and move around a little. Sadly, it wasnt just paranoia driving him, hed been given an actual reason. People had snuck in bugs and cameras when he wasnt here, and given how much time he spent at work, that was easy enough to do. Actually keeping the surveince devices there was a whole other story, though. There was very little technology out here and he knew exactly where the each and every device hed ced here was, so anything foreign stuck out like a sore thumb. From there, it was a simple matter of obliterating them with a [Far Strike]. Also, other than that one dupe hed shot with paintballs filled with a paint that was quite literally impossible to remove from ones skin, no one had dared show their face around here. which might have something to do with the fact that hed started leaving while invisible, making it very difficult to ascertain whether he was actually gone or just out of sight. An eye in the sky was always a concern, of course, but that was why hed had a roof put over his summoning area. Drones were always a possibility, of course, but once he became aware of them, their lifetime was measured in milliseconds. His privacy wasnt something he could be assured of to an absolute level, but there was a limit as to how far people would be willing to push this. He was a pretty famous schr, an expert, no, the expert when it came to [Aura] use, but he was also a powerhouse and the kinds of people who spied on someone like him knew that. In the end, forcing the issue could backfire in far too many ways. After a whole two minutes, the bug sweep was done and he was back in the summoning area, tossing a dice and some mixed ground beef and pork into the Tier 3 circle. The meet was from the supermarket and was the most stupidly simple way to grab a part of two different animals, literally no mixing needed. This would summon a Chimera made from a cow, pig and one other animal, chosen at random,bined in an optimal way. In the past, the team had summoned a couple of Tier 1 and 2 Chimeras, figured out that there was that element of random chance to their form and basically left it at that. The sheer variety ofbinations would take an actual lifetime to explore, so theyd decided to move on to other things. Theyd published a very bare bones article on the phenomenon, and then left the entire field to someone who wanted it, while the materials theyd gotten had been distributed among the more crafting inclined of their colleagues and acquaintances. Isaac had decided not to try and press the point, because the Chimera rabbit hole went really fucking deep and would take for-e-ver to properly explore. Instead, theyd researcher several other, and far more important things and learned so much more while spending far less time. Now he could stumble across the various fancy materials while summoning for himself and pass them out for the crafters to y around with, but still maintain that someone else should take care of thoroughly researching the topic. He knew that, while rather interesting, this was a dead end branch of study that would lead to some discoveries as to how Chimeras worked and some interesting things in the biological field, but nothing on the same level as their other discoveries. The real use for Chimeras were their bindings, which were a basically a knot of magic given physical form that could be used tobine two things and were mostly used in crafting. That use would be for said crafters to discover, not Professor Baileys team. As for the monster that emerged from the circle now, it was incredibly odd to behold. Its base form was squat and low to the ground, somewhat reminiscent of the stereotypical pig youd find in a childs book about a far, but that was where the resemnce ended. It stood on four pairs of legs, each ending in a split hoof with ws at the end, courtesy of whatever additional creature had been mixed in. That was the issue with the chimeras, really. You could add in parts belonging to creatures whose strengths were mutually exclusive and hobble the resulting creation, but there would always be an additional, random creature mixed in and you could never predict what it was. In this case, it had clearly been some kind of bird, some kind of seabird, perhaps, judging by the feathers that stuck out all over the ce. Massive tusks and a pair of horns adorned its head, drawing on the natural weapons of both the animals hed added in while a dualyer of hide with feathers in between created a durable natural armor that could cushion even decently powerful blunt impacts and even do somewhat well against cutting attacks. In other words, for a Tier 3 summon, it was not only an absolute monster, it was a monster no one could properly prepare for but it was only Tier 3. Chimera (Proceriidae-Suidae-Bovinae) (Lv. 6) has been in. 50 XP gained Isaac hadnt even bothered to use any [Skills], hed just summoned Old Reliable in its Zweih?nder form and chopped it in half. A second strike exposed the binding, which was located near the heart, then the pushed the tip underneath and flicked it out of the body, then drew it into the spatial storage. Then he repeated the process, over and over, all the while barely paying attention to it because he was also typing away on hisptop, ever so often tossing the summoning materials into the circle to summon the monsters. Because even though getting stronger was important, this work was to be his Magnum Opus, the single most important piece of literature he would create. It was a proper, structured way for regr people to summon and get stronger. Hed made sure the world knew the basic realities of summoning, such as summons tracking the summoner and autonomous summoning, with the team. Hed implemented the first proper summoning programs with the local police department withing weeks of the Initialization, showing everyone a proof of concept. And now, he was creating the structure for a massive, near universally applicable Level-up program with all the proper precautions, to be published by the team once thest few preparations had beenpleted. Said preparations were going on even as he was writing this stuff down. In the summoning areas at the university, a member of the team would be killing monsters someone else was summoning until one dropped an Aspect, then have the summoner absorb it for abat [Skill] so they could, in turn, start killing monsters on their own. It was their idea for allowing people withoutbat [sses] to grow in power throughbat. With that, hopefully, things would start to seriously look up for humanity as people gained magic power without leaving a bunch of monsters of middling strength running around all over the ce. That just left a few people to deal with. The assholes, the opportunists, the assholish opportunists, the opportunistic assholes, the nihilists, the idiots, the greedy bastards, the dark god worshippers, the fools who thought they could use monsters as weapons of war yeah, the vast majority of issues in the other timeline hadnt been caused by Joe Shmoe, but a few extraordinarily destructive people, but this would help a bunch. Once hed gathered enough bindings tost the craftsmen, those at a high enough Level to make use of them, at least, a good while, he stopped and took a look at his current avable XP amount. It was more than enough for the next Level. All ten Stat points went into Magic Regeneration, as hed need it, now that hed spent ten of his umted [Skill] points to pick up another cooldown-[Skill], and oh boy, it was a good one. A good and proper ultimate attack. I Am The Sword (legendary) In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal. And with this Skill, both is the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the users form will be indestructible, immoveable, and invible while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 750 banked mana A literal split-second of invincibility was nice, sure, but that was nowhere near as useful as the fact that his momentum was maintained. If he body-checked a monster with this [Skill] active, one of two things would happen. Either it would take more force to pierce its hide than it took to move it and it would move, or the hide would break before the monster moved and hed go through it like a hot knife through butter. If he focused that force on a smaller surface area for the initial strike, like a fingertip, the edge of his hand or Old Reliable, he could practically guarantee thetter would happen. The same went forrge monsters, which were far harder to shift than smaller ones. In other words, it would do an absolute number on [Bosses], allowing him to tear a human-sized hole through their body with a single [Skill]. Unfortunately, when it came to [Bosses], redundancy was the name of the game. They all had something simr to his own [Redundant Organs] that let intact organs somewhat take over the function of damaged ones, mitigating the consequences of even serious injuries such as a destroyed heart to something not immediately fatal. They could channel nervous impulses straight through flesh in case of spinal damage and there was a certain degree of instinct that could let them fight on somewhat even if one managed to carve arge slice out of their brain. These things were not meant to go down easily, and had been designed to be functionally immune to being one-shot. Still, having this meant he could inflict massive damage in a single attack, targeting whatever he would reduce the monsters capabilities the most, making the rest of the fight considerably easier. And now, it was time to test this nasty little piece of work. Isaac walked over to his Tier 6 circle, and tossed in a single dice, some more of the mixed minced meat and a bit of chicken from his pantry, some salmon hed had left over from the sushi hed had for dinner a couple of nights ago, and summoned the creature. He wouldnt even be properly fighting it, hed just be smiting it with his new Ultimate. The beast rose every natural weapon itsponent animals held wreathing it, the salmons scales facing the world, edge-first, ready to cut right through anyone who came too close, severalyers of hide making it tough beyond imagination and precisely none of that helped it in the slightest. Isaac activated [Wave Charge], flinging himself forward far faster than he could have ever managed afterwards, holding out his right hand, open and with the fingertips pointing forwards, straight at the monster. Then, a split-second before impact, he activated [I Am The Sword]. His skin turned a silverish-grey, just like the de of Old Reliable, and then the world vanished in a haze of crimson, Another momentter, Isaac was on the other side of the monster, once again able to move his limbs, and, surprisingly enough, clean. Thankfully, the blood, gore, and other icky shit had sloughed right off. Chimera (Geckota-Suidae-Bovinae-Salmonidae-Phasanidae) (Lv. 27) has been in. 500 XP gained He turned, looking at therge body behind him, lying dead on the ground with a tunnel carved straight through and a massive pool of blood beneath it, dead before it had even had a chance to bring its [Aura] to bear. That was the power of a legendary, second Evolution cooldown [Skill]. Unfortunately, that kind of power came with some serious drawbacks, namely, he could only use it once an hour and even that required him to regenerate 750 mana while his pool was full during that hour or it wouldnt have the power to activate. Isaac walked over to the body and began to hack into it with his sword until hed retrieved the binding, a ball of weird, wormlike, glowing strands located near the heart. As a Tier 6 binding, it could be used to hybridize [Auras], or temporarily make them feel more like certain Aspects, whether said Aspects were slotted or on your person didnt matter. That meant, he could add the desperate portion of the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker], which hed been sessfully managed to avoid properly being sensed by others, to the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] to make it feel like the emanations of a powerful vampire, hungry for blood. Or he could aspect the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] with blood, making it seem like something was seeking the blood of the living. Of course, merely having a different [Aura] would not be enough to make him seem innocent if his [Aura] was registered while doing something illegal, because as far as the world was concerned, if anyone could falsify their auric signature, it would be him. But this was still a very important development. Isaac began to channel his [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] into the orb, which began to glow red, and then added in his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker]. Rather than both [Auras] glomming together and bing unusable, only the sensory [Aura] remained, spreading out as normal but with a noticeable red tint. Nice to see that the instructions on how to falsify your signature when you had two [Auras] had been urate. And now, on to the next one so he could practice with his woefully neglectedbat [Aura]. Hed stuck with the sensory one for the most part, it was the one that was familiar, it was the one he was good with, it was the one that felt right. But hed grabbed a second [Aura], one meant forbat, for a reason. While his mana regenerated so he could start the fight with full mana, he continued to write the n for safe summoning, then kept going once it his full so [I Am The Sword] could recharge as well. This time, sadly, the beast got really lucky with its random addition. It had ended up gaining the parts of some kind of squid or octopus, long tentacles lined with ws on the inside whipping through the air. Its build was also far more like that of a cow, built for charging and running down its target while the tentacles would ensure that merely sidestepping the attack wouldnt be enough to dodge. The Chimera pawed at the ground like a stereotypical bull while its [Aura] fully extended, mming into his. The beasts [Aura] was simr to Amys in that it could fuse things together, but far cruder. Mostly, it could bog you down by attaching your shoes to the ground or thicken the air to impede passage, but it also had the inconvenient ability to bind things to the physical realm, meaning phasing wasnt going to work here unless he could push the [Aura] back. It mmed into him, hot, heavy and oppressive, running into a field of dark red that wrapped around him. He grinned and pushed it back out, stopping the attack cold. They charged at each other and moments before impact, Isaac jumped, creating a wedge of [Aura] right in the beasts path. Tentacles whipped up and around, aiming to intercept, bind and tear him to shreds, but he forged a shield out of his [Aura] over his head, kicking off it to rocket straight back down onto its back. [Form of Horror] activated and by the time he impacted, ten razordes tore through its spine, then Old Reliables ability to triple its manifested forms activated, sending another twenty identical des moving along at the same vector, at the same speed, shing through the openings in the hide and tearing at its insides. At the same time, the cow mmed right into the construct and was stopped cold, blood trickling down its forehead. Sadly, a severed spine wasnt enough to cripple everything below the damage, as separate brains existed for each limb, as a quick check with his sensory [Aura] showed. Whatever the mystery addition had been, it was starting to get on Isaacs nerves. He switched back to the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] and began to dodge, weave and dance atop the chimera, carving up tentacles with ws and auric constructs as he did so, blood flowing freely and being absorbed by the [Aura] to power it. Cuts began to umte on his skin, but they healed after a split second, the recovery part of the [Aura] working overtime to keep him safe. All the while, de control was directing the little copies of his ws to tear at the internal organs, shredding them. It was a hell of a lot less effective than it would have been if hed had his sensory [Aura] to see where they were going, but the des were inside the torso of a being with rtively normal organs, even if it had a lot of them. Something in there had to be important. Two minutester, the chimera finally fell and Isaac breathed a sigh of relief. These things were a fucking pain to fight, even if you tried to weaken them by tossing together a bunch of random and weak crap, they could still get a lucky bonus that turned them into a true threat. Isaac phased for a brief moment, causing the blood and viscera that had sttered him to drop to the ground, and jumped back onto hiswn chair. Hisptop appeared on hisp, pulled from the storage space, with a whisky tumbler appearing on the small table next to him. Hed been writing for maybe a couple of minutes when his phone rang. Hi Isaac, its Raul. Do you have a time right now? Sure, whats up? I finally settled on my third [ss] and now Id like to learn how to use my [Aura] before work on Monday. And, well, we both know youre pretty damn good at teaching that stuff. Yeah, sure. I need a little bit of time to clean up here, but you cane over right now, the mess should be gone by the time you arrive. See you soon. Isaac said and hung up. [I Am The Sword] hade off cooldown by now, so he summoned another Tier 6 Chimera and tore it apart with his new [Skill], then began the long and arduous process of removing the giant carcasses. His spatial storage wouldnt have fit them even if it had been fully empty, but right now there was so much crap in there that barely a third of the body could be transported at a time. It took some doing, but eventually, they were all piled into the disposal pit and dissolving under the acid hed poured onto them. By the time Raul wandered onto the clearing, Isaac was back on his chair with his drink and was merrily writing down the secrets of the universe. Using [Hunters Gaze], Isaac looked his colleague over. The results were interesting. At first, Raul felt like an ordinary huntsman, someone who worked outside and spent a lot of time in nature. Yet he was also very, very different. Rather than the rifle hed had when Isaac had first met him, he wielded magic that crackled under his skin and instead of his faithful hound, there was a dinosaur sitting on his shoulder and the friggin dragon in his breast pocket, currently doing its finest teacup chihuahua impression. Likewise, instead of a nice and proper wilderness outfit, resistant to the elements and blending into his surroundings, he wore his [Skills] like a mantle resistant to all things he might encounter out here. The [Aura] still wildly flickered around Raul, but Isaac could tell at a nce that that was partially down to its nature. It was suffused with power and magic, but its true nature was, well, nature. Rauls [Aura] was the embodiment of the mystical aspects of the natural world, serving as a magical focus, sensory ability and even providing weak healing and phytokic abilities. It was a solid jack of all trades [Aura], with the tradeoff being that Raul would have the devils time trying to control it and it was only a mid-range [Aura], far too short for the sensory abilities to be truly useful. Thats certainly an impressive upgrade. Isaacmented You know, I can see it now: In ten years, youll have an entire nature reserve of creatures straight out of the old myths and ride a dragon to work every day. Oh, thats the dream. Raul agreed Getting out of the cities, away from the crowds, not to mention the magic Nature is good, nature with magic is better? Isaac suggested. Yep. And now, its time to see what that [Aura] of yours is capable of. Isaac announced, spreading his arms even as his [Aura] swept out, wrapping around Rauls, testing and probing. It reacted immediately, instinctually, beating it back with a burst of power. Was that deliberate? er, maybe? Raul said sheepishly. Yeah, first step, lets make sure youre able to control it enough to notsh out when provoked, then go from there. Isaac said. This was going to take a while. Itd be worth it when Raul had it under control, but damn, it would take forever time. Chapter 89: A new kind of monster Chapter 89: A new kind of monster Come Monday morning, Isaac once again found himself on a military base. Just likest time, breaking into a new Tier of summoned monster required a hell of a lot more than just the normal precautions, the kind that came out of the barrel of a Panzerhaubitze and could level a house or tear a main battle tank to shreds with a single shot. Paradoxically, unlike for Tier 5, they didnt go to the singlergest military base in the country for Tier 6, but there was a very good reason for that. Trust. Theyd proven time and time again that they knew what they were doing and could properly predict the level of threat a monster posed. So instead of a full, all hands on deck, everything and the kitchen sink approach that saw the military throw everything they could into position in preparation of facing a godsdamned Kaiju, they saw a measured response. Mobile Panzerhaubitzen were stationed in a ring around the summoning area, with a dozen or so Mars II long range rocketunchers ced almost 50 kilometers away, well clear of anything a Tier 6 monster should be able to reach. It something went wrong, all thered be left of the monster was a smoking crater. This little trick wouldnt work on monsters Tier 7 and above, but it would still be doable here. Besides, by the time those things showed up, thered be enhanced artillery avable. Isaac had levelled once more during the weekend and thrown all of the Stat points into Magic Regeneration. Sure, his Strength and Fortitude were falling badly behind, but that was fine. His phasing and regeneration couldpensate for ack of thetter and he didnt need the former because, well, his fighting style didnt require it. He used a bunch of cheap, practically free [Skills] to augment his strikes rather than relying on brute force. It gave him flexibility and the power to pour so many more points into Agility and Perception, his main Stats. Getting onto the base had been a pain, though. Hed been tagged as being at a high Level and therefore a very dangerous threat and been treated as such. Sure, the gate guards had been warned that the team would being and that they were damn powerful, but they were still wary and had triple-checked his identity before letting him in. But now, finally, everything was ready, the circle was prepared, the team had gotten into position, and the military could turn the entire area into a crater at a moments notice. Ready? Bailey asked, looking each of them in the eye in turn If you dont feel ready, we can still turn back, dont feel like you have to risk your lives. Ever the caring the boss, eh Professor? Amy chuckled, quite deliberately using his title instead of his first name Were ready. Alright, summoning. Bailey announced and triggered the circle, the piles of various rocks, dirt and metal vanishing only for a gigantic golem to rise in their ce, ten meters tall, with a skeleton of titanium, sheathed inyers of rock and dirt to withstand various kinds of attacks. A Lesser Rock Titan. An oppressive [Aura] that felt like a mountain pressing down smashed into them, or rather, it tried to. Raul, Karl and Amy stood in the front, using Amys [Auras]bination ability to meld their [Auras] into a massive wall of power. Patrick and Isaac stood on opposite sides of the trio, their sensory [Auras] sweeping over the rock monster, dragging out its secrets no matter how hard it tried to resist. Behind all of them stood the healer, Bailey. Hed not been happy about having to use his students as shields, but recognized the logic of so long as the healer is still alive, everyone else can be saved. For this fight, hed stuck with his preferred rubber-man form, which provided a decent level of protection against many types of attack, but was especially resistant to blunt impacts. So, monsters gain an [Aura] at Level 25, just like people. Isaac observed Physical Stats in the low two-hundreds, Perception around fifty, both magical Stats around eighty or ny, higher than expected. It might have that magic just to support the [Aura], but it might also have some active abilities. Ill intercept anything earth- or rock-based. Karl said. Its powered by a magicalwork simr to the human circtory system, with a core near the deepest part of the body, but not in the dead center. There are also several redundancies built in, destroying the core will kill it, but not immediately. Patrick added. Anything that might pose a problem? Bailey asked even as the Titan began to charge. Nothing we can see yet. Patrick said. Alright, were going with n A but call out any deviations. Bailey ordered. Theyd made several predictions for how the monster could end up looking and then created ns for how to beat each possible iteration, but this thing really wasnt thatplicated. It was a big, tough brute with weak geokic attacks and an auric battering ram that could push aside foreign [Auras] or be turned into a shield. The opening step for n a was a magical barrage to check for potential anti-magic protections, which it sort of had in the form of its [Aura]. The oppressive feeling vanished as the Titan yanked the energy field back and focused it tightly on the area that a dozen different spells were flying through, weakening them all somewhat, but only snuffing out the weakest, ones included just to see if they could be snuffed out. Some sttered harmlessly against the outeryer of dirt, the most effective being a [Fireball] that blew away a lot of loose material, but no real damage was done. That dirt had been there as an ativeyer or armor, not meant to endure any significant punishment. Amy flung out a sheet of liquid nitrogen, condensed with her [Aura], onto its right leg, freezing it solid. A telekic st from Patrick then snapped it off, causing the monster to pitch right forward, right into a patch of dirt Karl had loosened up to the point where it was practically quicksand. The Titan tried to counter with its geokic powers, keyword being tried. First, Amys [Aura] turned the quicksand back into a single, solid, block of material, then Karl had hardened it to an absurd degree. It could still try to struggle out, cracking its earthen straightjacket, but it nheless failed to get out. At that point, it had already lost, but no one would rx until it was dead. As per the n, Isaac moved to the front while cramming every pration-based [Skill] into his de in case the monster got free while Patrick and Amy rose into the air and began to bombard it with anti-armor Spells. It was interesting to watch how they cast. Amy wove the magic like a conductor directing an orchestra to create wonders, abination of [ss] [Skills] and his [Aura] creating a devastatingly powerful, armor-shattering bolt of sma able to outright ignore armor, which ended up tearing a gigantic hole into the monsters back. Patrick, meanwhile, had a far more cold and analytical approach to things, casting several Spells in quick session, nestling them inside each other, still separate but as interwoven as they could be without an [Aura] like Amys, creating the magical equivalent of an armor-piercing bullet. Needless to say, when it hit the hole Amy had made, it tore almost all the way through the monster even as she followed up with the next st. It turned out to be thest one that was needed. So, its very tough, has geokic powers that arent very powerful and only used as a matter ofst resort, a defensive [Aura], and no clearly visible signs of intelligence. Bailey summed up Ludicrously high Stats, though, and well need to seriously upgrade our summoning rooms to handle those things. Yep. Isaac said I believe that the individual fights should be feasible? Of course. Bailey said. Theyd agreed to all fight together for the first one to reduce the risk to the maximum amount possible, but if the monster turned out to be weak enough for one or more of them to fight on their own, they could choose to do so. Can I go first? Isaac asked, getting a nod in reply Alright, so I got a new cooldown [Skill], which Id like to show you. Its a pretty solid counter to extraordinarily tough monsters. Two minutester, he was facing a monster theyd faced as a group of six the first time all on his lonesome. Shit odds, for his foe, that was. Isaac charged, hopped over a spray of stone shards it sent its way using magic, made himself weightless to turn that jump into a leaping attack, kicked off a rocky arm that was swung at him, and then, when he was right over it, flung himself downwards with [Wave Charge] and belly-flopped clean through it, ending up buried almost a hundred meters underground. For a single, incredibly juvenile, moment he considered taking a few seconds to emerge just to screw with the military officials, butmon sense prevailed. He phased and used [Poltergeist Shifts] selective tangibility to treat anything he was standing on as solid ground and began to jump up upwards, emerging from the ground before the monsters two halves had even had time to topple over. Like I said, anti-tough monster [Skill]. he shrugged Also, I think geokinesis might be used even if it isnt an emergency. Yep, lets do another one, who wants it? Bailey asked, looking around. Now that the monsters abilities had been appraised and found to not be overwhelmingly powerful, a lot of the tension had drained away, leaving behind just infectious enthusiasm and a burning need for discovery. What happened next must have looked extraordinarily odd to the military personnel watching. Everyone but the person fighting backed up a hundred meters, close enough to intervene if necessary but far enough away to not get identally targeted by the monster or caught in AOE attacks. And then, they pulled outwn or camping chairs andptops from thin air and began to type up their reports on the monster, be that its anatomy, powers, or the myriad uses for its parts, seemingly oblivious to the magical storm raging a short distance away. That was how the rest of the day went. Monsters rose, fought them all together, died, fought them mano-a-mano, died, and then the team moved on to the next type. There was the asional injury, here and there, caused by a flying piece of monster or someone getting too close to a monster that created some kind of environmental hazard, such as heat being generated by a monster that was on fire. But nothing so much as slowed their efforts and any damage vanished within literal seconds of being inflicted. Isaac ended up levelling once again, split the Stat points between Fortitude and Perception, and bought himself another [Skill]. Compounded Impact (legendary) When striking at the same ce, over and over again, each blow will cut deeper than thest. With this Skill, a bond will be created between the users de and an opponent, every additional strike hitting harder and harder, drawing an ever increasing amount of mana until even a casual tap contains the force to shred mountains. (Combo resets after 3 seconds of no sessful hits) Cost: 1 mana, doubles every use, resets after 3 seconds It was a wonderful [Skill] that could use as much or as little mana as he wanted, and would grow massively stronger as his mana pool increased. Between it and [I Am The Sword], his anti-boss abilities had grown massively stronger. [Sweeping Strike] had also finally hit Level ten. Sweeping Strike (umon) Upon the users next attack, 5 des of 3+.3n meters in length, where n equals skill level, will extend from the de, allowing the user to strike at arge area. Spread of des must be specified by user, maximum spread is 45. Length of des may be reduced to reduce mana cost. The user may also now choose how the des are spread, it is not necessary for them to be evenly spaced. Cost: 30 mana + 5 mana/meter By the time the sun fell behind the trees, theyd thoroughly looked over the Lesser Rock Titan, Lava Warrior, Lesser Cleaving Tempest, Lesser Nature Titan and Animated Tidal Wave, leaving what had once been a pristine grassy field a mess of mud, scorch marks and craters. The materials were shipped off to the various organizations theyd agreed to supply ahead of time, such as the Crafters Association that Isaac had created, the universitys various faculties and the Bundeswehrs R&D division. As it got dark, they turned in for the night, though not to sleep, as they didnt really need to, not anymore. But the soldiers did, and trying to hit a monster in the dark would have been a hell of a lot harder than during the day. In the end, it wasnt a big problem, though, theyd gotten oh so much information that needed to be written down and analyzed. Besides, tomorrow was likely going to be a hell of a lot more hectic than today had been, a little rest would be good for them. Chapter 90: Other Worlds Chapter 90: Other Worlds Two Weeks ago We need to talk about the Realms section of the summoning system. Isaac said, showing a slide that was just a photo of the relevant section. Right now, he was holding a presentation on the topic hed ostensibly been looking into for the past couple of weeks, facing a conference room fuller than it had ever been. The team was there, sure, but so were Professors Chandler and Bishop, who were normally off doing their own thing. Summoning List (Realm, Hunting Grounds Subtype) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Dark Forest Tier 5 Circle, Lesser Space Elemental Core, 20 different Medicinal Herbs, 5 Tree Saplings, ss of Water 2,000 (max. 10 people) Floating Isles Tier 5 Circle, Rock Shards, Grass, Soil, Embers, Raptor Feather 20,000 (max. 50 people) Expanse of the Crimson Frost Tier 5 Circle, Ice, Blood, Crystal, Antifreeze, Elemental Aspect, Fist sized Crystal 20,000 (max. 50 people) Fragrant Fields Tier 5 Circle, Ten different Nature aspected Monster bodies, 2 Bags of Fertile Soil, Volcanic Ash, 50 different Medicinal Herbs 20,000 (max. 50 people) Bloodore Mountain Tier 6, Stainless Steel, 1 Liter of Human Blood, 20 diferent Mineral samples, Bones, Obsidian Shards, Blood Rted Aspect, Earth Rted Aspect, 50,000 (max. 100 people) ins of Ash Tier 6, Obsidian, Pumice, Volcanic Soil, Ash, 10 different mundane Ore Samples, 10 different Rock Samples, 50,000 (max. 100 people) Eternal Wilderness Tier 7 Circle, 10 different Aspects, Space Elemental Core, Elemental Source, Nature Elemental Corpse (minimum 200 mana summoning cost), 1-ton assorted monster materials (minimum 200 mana summoning cost each), 10 Crystals (at least asrge as a ping pong ball) 100,000 (max. 120 people) Graveyard of Endless Night Tier 7 Circle, Gravesoil, Undead Aspect, Darkness Elemental Source, Bones of 20 different Species, Human Skull, Marble b 100,000 (max. 120 people) Evergrowth Woods Tier 8 Circle, Space Elemental Core, Four different Elemental Sources, Nature Elemental Corpse (minimum 500 mana summoning cost), 50 Crystals, 250,000 (max. 200 people) Ancient Lands* Tier 8 Circle, rock and soil samples, petrified wood, Samples of 100 different Dinosaurs, 10 different Fossil Pieces 10,000 (max. 10 people) A Road Paved in Good Intentions Tier 9 Circle, Greater Space Elemental Core, 1 liter of Demon Blood (minimum Tier 8), Leaf-Gold coated Rocks, Coal, Obsidian, Brimstone, 1,000,000 (max. 500 people) (* rewards type summon) There are a few Realms there marked with an asterisk, which are a part of the reward-type summons, much like the Extradimensional Apartments some of us have. Most likely, they contain something akin to a nature preserve, but that is something well be able to safely check at ater date. Those that arent rewards, the rest of these things, they almost certainly harbor some kind of danger. However, I believe Ive figured out what theyre for. My hypothesis it that these so-called Hunting Grounds create temporary, extradimensional, spaces containing a variety of monsters appropriate for the environment within, but mostly to guard the materials I believe can be found within. There are [Skills] belonging to crafting [sses] that work with certain magical resources that clearly donte from monsters, even though they are currently our only source for preternatural materials. These Hunting Grounds are the most likely ce to find them. However, retrieving materials from these spaces will likely result in having to face some kind of threat, possibly even a wave of monsters that increases with the amount of materials retrieved, or a guardian that grows in strength based on factors such as time spent gathering or amount of materials taken. What makes you assume that? Chandler asked. Logic. Its a conceptmonly found in video games and the like, where abusing a certain mechanic to gather absurd amounts of materials results in having to face a great threat, and the [System] doesnt give away free things either. Isaac replied. But this isnt a video game, isnt it? Chandler challenged. Nope. Isaac said, popping the p But the underlying logic is simr in some cases. Like I said, the [System] doesnt give away things for free, and neither do video games. Sure, in video games, these are often unintended exploits that then get hotpatched with a monster that manifests to kill those who use said exploit while the [System] seems to be a mature program, even if it is sometimes a little light in the instruction department, but it is still the same situation, in the end. There are magical materials there that will almost certainly not be free and unprotected, and Id like to look into that. Absolutely. Bailey agreed But this is definitely something that well have to do with significantly greater precautions than normal, seeing as this is so very different from what we normally summon. I agree. Bishop said With what Professor Bailey said about precautions, that is. Im a little skeptical about your assumption that there is loot in these Hunting Grounds. Yeah, I can see that, but I do have strong circumstantial evidence that materials other than what we can gather from monsters exist, that we know of. During the general survey of [Skills] weve started doing, we havent found anything that would indicate that gathering [sses] such as [Miners] or [Woodcutters] can create magical materials. It is theoretically possible that this might be a high-Level [Skill] no one has ess to yet, but that is something we can only specte on, this is something we can look at now. Once weve summoned the Realm, where would you go from there? Bailey asked, his tone making it very clear he knew Isaac had already made a n for that, he was just providing him a prompt to present them. There are a few things I want to check for. First of is the search for the materials Ive spected are there, but that is only the start of it. After that, Id like to ascertain where the threat that apanies the opportunities lies, be it a horde of guardian monsters, a single powerful boss, the environment itself, or something I havent even considered yet. In addition, we need to know under what conditions these spaces disappear again. Do they vanish after a given span of time, after a set amount of material has been retrieved, or is there something that anchors it which needs to be destroyed or killed? The most important of questions though is how dangerous these things are, and if we can research them here. In reality, these spaces were pretty simple. You summoned them, walked in and could gather a lot of stuff, but the longer you took, the more monsters woulde out of the woodwork until they broke out and swarmed the world beyond the portal, something that made keeping them open for any long extent of time incredibly dangerous. To close the space, you needed to destroy the core of the Hunting Grounds, which was guarded by a monster that grew stronger over time, causing the space to slowly fade out of existence, starting out at the end furthest from the portal and progressing increasingly quickly until it was all gone, but it didnt stop there, oh no, that would have been too easy. The moment the portal snapped closed, it would spit out a massive horde of monsters, one which grew exponentially bigger the more stuff had been retrieved and what was worse, the size of the horde didnt always grow at the same rate, making it functionally impossible to predict how strong of a force youd face at the end of a gathering run, or determine how much stuff you could safely grab. In other words, these things were nasty, nasty traps if you didnt know what you were doing and even then, you needed to be careful as heck when dealing with them, but they were also sources of materials you quite literally could not find elsewhere. Now, theyd be discovering them early, figure out how fucking dangerous they were, and proper precautions would be written into thew. Regr summoning could be done pretty safely at the lower Tiers, but these things were always really fucking dangerous and opening one would hopefully be locked behind a whole lot of paperwork. There were a few more questions after that, but nothing tooplex or important. *** Now Where yesterday had started out with them apprehensively standing in front of a summoning circle, their expressions a ranging from apprehension to excitement, today they looked like they were about to go on the worlds most murderous hike, decked out in proper outdoors attire, including wilderness survival gear and a whole bunch of Lesser Space Elemental cores. But it wasnt just Professor Baileys team that was going, they were also apanied by Professor Bishop for his knowledge of the wilderness, in the assumption that at least some of it would be useful here, Professor Chandler, whose [Alchemist] [Skills] would hopefully help him identify useful herbs and the like, and a pair of Bundeswehr soldiers at Level 20 to bring their total number up to 10, which was the maximum number of people who could pool mana to summon the Dark Forest, as that seemed to be a reasonable number to go at this with. Isaac watched the pair, a man and a woman, amused. Other than Professor Chandler, who was looking rmingly like a stereotypical mad scientist even without hisb coat, they were the weakest people here despite being trained soldiers. In thepany of five students, a young professor in his thirties and two professors who were at least sixty, they should have been the most capable, as well as been in charge of this expedition. In thispany, however? Their guns might as well have been peashooters and even when they used their [Skills] to improve them, they had nothing on the Spells a [System Researcher] could throw around or Bishops crossbow. Speaking of the Forestry Professor, he was wearing the wolfhide jacket hed gotten from the Event, having soulbound it and even gained the [Ulfhednar] [ss] as his second [Evolution], bing truly powerful, with an [Aura] of power and ferocity that reminded Isaac of a wild wolf. Appropriate, he supposed. Isaacs jacket was in his storage space, ready to be retrieved at a moments notice if he needed it, but safe. Until he knew for certain that Event would be a yearly urrence, he operated under the assumption that it waspletely and utterly irreceable, so he wouldnt risk it for anything short of an absolute emergency. Alright, is everyone ready? Bailey called out, though the question was, as usual, superfluous. Theyd spent almost an hour getting ready in front of the pre-prepared circle, hours if one counted all the nning theyd donest night. But it was good to take precautions, always, making their application a matter of routine and instinct. That way, you didnt forget to do so the one time they were actually the difference between life and death and got yourself killed. As far as Isaac was concerned, this was all a superfluous, if rather amusing, waste of time. They were going to go into the Dark Forest, which could best be described as babys first Hunting Ground. Everyone was so damn overdressed that, to Isaacs knowing gaze, this had gone from a serious expedition into unknown and dangerousnds to a tourist group loaded to the max with random crap peddlers and con artists had managed to convince them was essential, life-saving equipment. This was still a Hunting Ground and therefore dangerous, but they could have gone in wearing what theyd had on yesterday and a few bags to collect stuff in, but Isaac could hardly have told them that. Well, Im ready. Isaac shrugged, taking point at the front of the group, Kriegsmesser in his right hand and Ka-bar in his left, ready to tear apart anything that looked at him funny. Behind him and slightly off to the side for a clear line of sight stood Professor Bishop, crossbow at the ready. His [Ulfhednar] [ss] had mostly given him [Skills] befitting his previous [ss] of [Hunter], but also several that would make him a powerhouse in close quartersbat. Baileys shapeshifting and flesh manipting could make him even stronger than Bishop, but he wasnt a fighter, so he stayed in the back to heal. Further back and spread out on both the formations right and left sides were the soldiers, assault rifles at the ready, just in case something jumped out the instant the circle was triggered. Everyone else was in the center, behind Isaac, which would give them the chance to prepare Spell. Once said Spells were ready, they could tell Isaac to move to the side with [Aura] and hed do so, giving them a clear shot at the enemy. And then, finally, Bailey activated the circle, which shed brightly for a moment, then the light flowed out of it and formed into a glowing, circr disk of energy that hovered an inch above the ground, until it shed once more and the monochrome, luminous surface was reced with the view into what looked a hell of a lot like a normal, central European forest, albeit one very much untouched by man. Someone chuck something at the edge of the portal, if things can go in partially, that edge might be able to chop off limbs. Patrick warned. If no one had spoken up, Isaac would have said something, but these were smart people, someone had been bound to figure out how dangerous that could be. Wordlessly, Isaac worked his foot under a thick wad of grass and dirt that had been torn three during yesterdays excitement and kicked it at the portals edge. Half flew into the magical forest, the other half staying outside. Yep, thats sharp. Bishopmented dryly Watch your step. Inside the portal, something rustled in the underbrush, making everyone tense. Casually throwing something into the unexplored space might not have been the best idea, but on the other hand, they had to check how dangerous the act of walking through the door was. There was more rustling, ferns and shrubs shaking in locations increasingly close to them, until a furry, horned missile shot right at Isaacs face. Well, shot would only have been an urate descriptor of the things speed if it had gone after a normal person. For Isaac, it arced through the air like azily lobbed feather, giving him plenty of time to analyze the horned rabbit, getting aplete rundown on its Stats, which were normal for its kind. Just a regr Jackalope, just like you could summon directly. He simplyshed out with the Kriegsmesser, cutting straight through it while ensuring that only part of its body were cut, destroying the brain and heart while leaving everything else intact, then caught it before it could flop against his shirt. Can someone tell me if this thing registers as being the same as the regr summoned Jackalopes? he called out, getting an affirmative from Patrick. Ok, so weve got pretty basic monsters in there, just like we can summon normally, from the Forest category at the very least. Also, the portal is very dangerous. Isaac summarized what theyd learned so far So, shall we go in? Bailey nodded Yes. Be very, very careful with that portal. Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at the very obvious and somewhat superfluous statement, Isaac marched through the circle, sensory [Aura] extended to the max to catch anything and everything that might be a danger to them. There was something profoundly unnatural about this ce, Isaac reflected. Sure, everything you normally saw in a forest was present, rocks, nts, shrubbery and trees, but only the things mere ordinary human eyes would have been able to see. To him, it was quite clear what was missing, theck of insects buzzing around, of birds and squirrels hiding in the trees and a ground devoid of worms and the like. All of this felt less like a real forest and more like some kind of bizarre, partially alive museum exhibit created by someone who didnt entirely know what was supposed to be there. The nts themselves also felt dull and lifeless, only a mere handful holding the ordinary vibrancy one might expect of living foliage. These were what they were here for, interesting medicinal herbs that Professor Chandler would love to get his hands on. A nasty little blighter known as a Dire Squirrel, one and a half meters long, with teeth that, instead of having evolved to bite straight through nuts, were cruel and vicious implements of death that could chomp off a human leg with casual ease. But once again, the things in here were pretty weakpared to a second Evolution human. Isaac didnt even have to chop in it half, a crossbow bolt wreathed in a silver nimbus of power tore through its chest like it was nothing, leaving behind a neat little hole the size of a one cent coin and that was that. The Dire Squirrel dropped out of the trees, hitting the ground with a thump, dead. Look at that! Professor Chandler eximed, running in and ending up just behind Isaac, pulling up nts by the armful. Professor, remember that there is almost certainly something guarding these things, and that therell likely be a price of some kind for everything we take. Please restrict yourself to gathering a couple of samples of each material you find interesting. He reminded the man, getting an annoyed grumble in reply, but Isaac noticed that the man stopped avariciously grabbing everything in sight. How is everyone feeling? Isaac called out, not turning to look at the others, instead keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. This ce is fucking weird. Patrick grumbled Like some kind of bizarre parody of a normal forest. More like an artificial forest whose creator blew the budget on the magical herbs and had to get the discount versions of everything else. Amy added. Are you alright here? Isaac asked Am I ok to go exploring? Sure, be careful ande back here before you do anything dangerous. Bailey waved him off, joining Chandler in checking out the local flora. And with that, Isaac left, heading out into the forest as thoroughly cloaked as he could be with his avable [Skills]. Behind him, the rest of the team spread out slowly, preparing magical barriers to catch any sneak attacks, [Scry] Spells sweeping through the air as they worked, collecting small samples of everything that could possibly be useful while Isaac went scouting. This ce was actually pretty tiny, a mere circle of exactly one square kilometer with a mid-sized hill in the center. Well, it certainly looked like a hill from out here, but Isaac knew there was actually a ravine that ran through the center, containing both the realms core and its guardian, a simple Nature Golem. Hed discover both right now, go back for the others, then remark that it had grown in the few minutes it had taken to fetch them. Eventually, when they had all their samples, theyd break the core and retreat, at which point hed remark on how easy that had been, endure the usations of having jinxed everyone and then theyd deal with the horde together. Mind you, they were taking very little and were quite a bit stronger than was needed for this ce, it would be a piece of cake, but it would still neatly demonstrate both how useful the Hunting Grounds could be, as well as how dangerous. As he snuck around the ce, Isaac pocketed samples from a few fibrous nts and rocks that contained tiny chunks of pure metal to give to the various crafters hed sponsored. it wasnt nearly enough to be turned into something, but it should still demonstrate how many useful materials could be found here. During his travels, he spotted countless woond monsters, ranging from what basically amounted to a preternaturally strong deer with sharpened antlers to a nasty as fuck wolverine with ws that dripped with acid and fur that would act like barbed wire if you came into contact with it. Still, neither was above Tier 3 and while their abilities were damn good on a conceptual level, there was simply not nearly enough power behind them to endanger anyone here except maybe Professor Chandler. Isaac left these creatures alone for the most part, only killing a few when he found them isted and taking a few biopsies topare to samples from summoned monsters, but he wasnt here to get into fights. His path took him around to the far side of the realm, which was just more of the same. nts ranging from basic ferns, grasses and trees to supernaturally powerful medicinal herbs and even ones that hadnt existed before the [System], just the normal, basic crap you could find inside of a hunting ground. In other words, it was very, very basic. Once hed checked that ce, which waspletely in line with his expectations, he ran up the hill and looked down into the ravine, which widened in the center to create a circr sort of arena, with a basketball sized crystal lying in the middle, half buried. The core. Standing over it was a quadrupedal mass of bark and vines, with a b of craggy wood for a face, and a little smaller than an Indian elephant. Big, sure, but this thing would keep growing until it hit Level 24, the cap for this ce, and be around half again asrge as an African elephant. At that point, it might be a contender for the title of slight annoyance, but a single belly flop of doom would obliterate it instantly. Isaac had tried to fight the title, but was just the sort of silly name that would stick for the rest of eternity. Damnit, Amy! Schooling his face into a rough approximation of oh shit, big monster back there, Isaac took off at a run, covering the four hundred-odd meters between the center of the realm and the team in a matter of seconds. Guys, theres a big monster in the center of this ce, guarding what looks to be the magical core of the realm. Oh, he- heck. Bailey caught himself before saying hell. As it turned out, that word was considered to be too much profanity for the universitys current face and hed gotten a stern talking to about hisnguage from the PR department, now he was trying to break the habit, badly. I think we should probably take care of that before it shows up when west expect it. Bishop said sinctly Lerch, Shaw, Mina, you make sure everyone else is safe, Thoma, do you think you and I will be able to take care of it on our own? Isaac shrugged I could take it on my own, but I know that in this situation, we need tomunicate about what we do to avoid interfering with each other. But I dont think this thing is too dangerous, it doesnt have an [Aura] and Statsparable to something a little under Level 20. Were all going, Id rather not split up before what seems to be a boss fight. Bailey said. It took a minute to pry Professor Chandler away from a bed of herbs, time which Isaac used to hand off his samples, and then, they were off. The return walk took quite a bit longer as they, well, walked, and every so often, someone spotted something interesting that they just had to grab or otherwise investigate. The vastly reduced speed suited Isaac just fine, the longer this took, the more obvious the size difference would be. Its down there. Isaac said, pointing over the lip of the ravine at the beast, then frowned, hard Its gotten bigger. And I think the Stats are quite a bit higher, too. A Level in the mid-twenties, perhaps? We should probably take care of it now. Well, heck. Bailey said But I think you can still get it easily? I think youll be highly unlikely to break that crystal by ident. Belly flop of doom, again? Amy asked, making Isaac roll his eyes, but he still jumped down. The beast turned, took two steps towards him and copsed, a massive, gaping hole right down the center. Nature Golem (Lv. 22) has been in. 375 XP gained All clear! he called back up, and the others began to make their way down the slope using a variety of methods, ranging from levitation to mad scrambling. Bailey was especially interesting to watch, as hed taken off his shoes and transformed his feet into a mountain goats hooves and mbered down with casual ease. He took this time to check up on his notifications, seeing that both [Sneak] and [Stealth] had finally gone over Level 20. They were [Skills] he rarely used, so it had taken a while to improve them, but now that hed had a reason to use them, theyd gotten pretty damn useful. His [Gralloch] [Skill] had also improved, though he wasnt sure just why it had taken so long. Stealth mon, Level XX) Use magic to shield the users form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels. However, users expertise has increased the power of this Skill, allowing it to suppress the users smell and prevent the user from leaving physical traces while it is activated. After countless battles where this Skill was used to stalk and eventually take down prey, be it animal, monster or human, it has evolved to reflect this, the process of the hunt. While in stealth, the user may instill a sense of dread and foreboding in his intended victims, ensuring they know there is something hunting them, and even create sounds and shes of something in the dark at a distance to serve as a distraction. Cost: 1 mana/sec, doubled while secondary power is in effect Oh yeah, that was going toe in real handy if he ever went after another gang of nihilistic, idiotic cultists. He also resolved to not mention this new effect to any member of the team, thered already been enough jokes about how simr his [Skill]set was to a sher movie viin. Sneak mon, Level XX) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world atrge, to the point of nearplete invisibility. This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world. After countless situations where it was used to hide in in sight to avoid public attention, this [Skill] has evolved to create a permanent (toggleable) effect that makes supernatural or attention-grabbing disys by the user less obvious. (This effect is powered by ambient mana, ack of such will require the user to power it themselves) Cost: 10 mana per minute Another solid upgrade, and exactly what hed needed. It wouldnt stop people from noticing if he flew right over their heads, surfing on a massive Zweih?nder, but it should prevent him from being noticed when he dropped down into the street from a nearby rooftop and the like. Gralloch mon) This Skill is quintessential for a hunter after the hunt is done. It teaches the User how to properly skin and clean a kill, separate out the important and valuable parts and reduces the risk of identally damaging any organs. It also points out some basic uses for the harvested parts. Eh, it was useable, but not the greatest. Still, an upgrade was an upgrade, wasnt it? So, this thing was guarding that rock? Bailey asked, then turned to Patrick Can you tell what that thing is? It seems to be connected to everything here, keeping up the dimensional barrier. He replied after a few seconds. Once were done here, we should break it, since no one will thank us for leaving behind this mess for others to deal with. Isaac suggested. You want to break the core of the realm were standing in, are you nuts? Amy eximed. wed be doing so from outside. Isaac deadpanned. But only once Im done collecting everything. Chandler said, looking up from the body of the Nature Golem for only long enough to meet their eyes as they turned to him, then went back to extracting random gunk from the corpse. Isaac rolled his eyes but stayed put, guarding the man, while the others checked out the rest of the area. Eventually though, finally, it was time to get out of here and break the damn ce. This left Isaac and Patrick standing in front of the portal, with the [Mage] lobbing bolts of sma at the core and trying to direct them into the ravine from the top while Isaac yed spotter. Patrick, unfortunately, couldnt extend his [Aura] to the core as he needed it to keep track of the sma bolt while Isaac had his locked solidly on the destination, even as Patrick was busy charging the next attack. Little to the left, and a meter closer to us. That hit the far wall. Fuck! half a meter to the right. Five minutester, Isaacs [Aura] clearly showed the crystal shattering into pieces and the clear sky outer barrier shed red, then began to contract, starting from the far side. That was easy. Isaac shrugged Lets wait until that space ispletely gone, but it looks like I was wrong about there being a danger. See, now youve jinxed us, theres going to end up being arge ass kaiju, you just wait. Amy elbowed him in the side Come on, valiant knight, you have to stand in front of us, this is your mess to fix. Sure. Isaac shrugged, summoned the Zweih?nder and got into position in front of the portal. He thought about striking a pose, but then decided that would look wildly unprofessional to the soldiers watching in the distance. The far wall kepting ever closer, the realm shrinking more and more, until only a few square meters of space remained on the other side. Looks like theres nothing going to go wrong. Bishop said, putting down his crossbow I guess it takes a while to close so everyone has the time to get out. Thats when the first Dire Squirrel appeared in ce of the portal, which had just snapped shut. It fell apart in two halves a split secondter, but by then, over a dozen more various woond creatures were there, and they were pissed. The strongest of these beasts was a stag with a gleaming white coat, sparks of power glimmering among its antlers, ready to be hurled at its foes, at least if it was given the time to use its abilities. A few seconds afterwards, there was nothing left but a pile of shredded and burned bodies. The important question now is if the number of monsters increases if we retrieve more. Bishop said I must say, Mr. Thoma, that was some very nice deductive reasoning. Thank you, but that was just my finely tuned sense of paranoia talking. Isaac waved it off. Hey, does it look like theres less stuff out here, like some grass and dirt vanished? Raul frowned at the ground, pointing to several spots Its almost like someone dragged stuff out of there and He looked right at the bags of stuff theyd grabbed from the realm Does it look like thats just about the same mass as what we removed from the Hunting Grounds? A careful review of the cameras watching the portal revealed that he was, in fact, right about that. So what, stuff around the summoning circle gets drawn in to form the extra mass? Bishop asked Wouldnt we have noticed if stuff all over the ce vanished in your building as you kept summoning? Well, the matter needed toe from somewhere. Bailey said We always knew that, it was just that we assumed that the mana invested created the matter that made up the monster. This is something well have to investigate, thoroughly. After Korea, right? Isaac asked. Sure, this stuff was kinda interesting, but also boring, given how the [System] never tore matter out of anything that could be considered a finished product or where it would cause something to crumble, be it a buildingcking foundations or a mountain with new Faultline and it even actively avoided draining material deposits such as mines. In fact, outside of Hunting Grounds that would often need to retrieve vast amounts of varying materials which they normally drew from an area as close to the entrance as was possible, it was almost impossible to notice the effect. Hell, theyd been summoning on campus for what seemed like forever and no one had noticed, it was that subtle. Still, theres a whole lot of stuff we need to figure out with these hunting grounds, so how about we get to it? Isaac suggested. First, well retrieve different amounts of material, count the number of monsters thate out at the end, then see if theres a corrtion. Bailey nodded Then, well see if we have more time to check out one of the other hunting grounds. Sadly, by the time theyd figured out everything about how the numbers scaled and the scaling could vary, it was already dark and the military ended up calling it off. Them missing a monster in the middle of the night would be a serious issue. They did catch one of the jackalopes and locked it in a cage to be stored in a spare summoning room so they could see if these things could summon autonomously. Spoiler alert, they could, and even did so on a shortened, halved, in fact, timer, and the sooner they figured that out, the better. Still, today and the asional mad scramble to catch a monster that had decided discretion was the better part of valor and tried to run off into the wild had solidly convinced everyone of something: the Tier didnt matter, hunting grounds were fucking dangerous. Chapter 91: Of all the things to be scared of … Chapter 91: Of all the things to be scared of Wednesday came and went, and nothing important or even remotely interesting happened. Their building was scanned from top to bottom to check for structural ws or undermined areas, but there were none, simply because the summoning system was specifically designed to not tear apart things mankind found useful. After all, few things would have reduced peoples willingness to use it like their homes being torn apart with every summoning. Isaac couldnt really help with that, so hed ended up relegated to busywork, getting a few extra samples where they were needed and helping rify some things in various reports. At least theyd managed to determine that summoning even a Hunting Ground didnt endanger the building and theyd also gotten permission to summon them on university property so long as proper precautions were taken, so it wasnt aplete waste of time, just boring and monotonous. Today, though, today stood to potentially be a far worse experience, albeit in a very different way. Isaac sighed as he walked into the [System]-research building, walked down the stairs and into his office. Hed put a Tier 3 summoning circle under his rug, so when he dropped a Lesser Space Elemental core onto it, he could immediately call his storage space here and anchor it at his ce of work for the rest of the day. It had be a daily ritual for everyone a while back due to how easy they made both the retrieval of stored goods and cleanup, and he always did it, even though he probably wouldnt be using it today. Over in the nearest summoning room, someone was messing around with another Dark Forest hunting ground. Well, there had to be two of them, the new protocol Bailey had drawn up decreed that there had to always be an appropriately levelled person keeping watch on the outside, no matter how strong the person inside was. Normally, he might have dropped by and joined them, but right now, he had to prepare forter. Isaac quickly stripped out of the clothes hed run here in, and switched them out for his public appearance outfit. An obvious option would have been a suit, but that would have looked overly formal in one of todays lecture halls, nevermind while worn by a student. A hundred years ago, sure, every professor had worn a suit, even Chemistry professors in the middle of doing experiments, something that Professor Chandler often made fun of. Besides, this was his first proper public appearance, not a blurry cellphone video of him fighting a Swamp Knight, not a two minute interview with a blogger in between fights during an Event, not a handful of statements to a reporter after hed jumped out of ake, but an extended period of him interacting with the public and being the main focus of attention. Therefore, it would not only set the tone for how he presented himself, it would also be somewhat off putting if he ended up wearing something totally different in the future and this outfit needed to be him. A navy blue polo shirt and dark grey formal set of pants gave him a solid, nice to look at, semi-formal appearance. He could move in it, it wasnt a major departure from his normal outfits and it didnt make him look like a peacock. He slipped a pair of leather bracers onto his wrists, far shorter than traditional ones meant to be used as armor but longer than typical fashion essories, perfectly splitting the difference by looking nice while still being functional. All in all, he was both prepared to fight but not aggressive, his outfit looking nice withoutcking functionality. He was currently getting a few simr outfits made from magical materials, but they werent ready yet, sadly. Isaac sighed again as he sat down at his desk, summoned hisptop from storage and went over his presentation for the millionth time. Sure, he could be pretty good with individual people, but those were individuals, people he could get to know and adjust his approach to. Crowds, on the other hand? Blech. The one upside was that his sensory [Aura] let him check his notes without anyone being the wiser. Later, he wasnt entirely by how much except that it wasnt time for the presentation yet because his rm hadnt gone off, his focus was interrupted by a knock on the door. Come in. Isaac called, spinning around in his swivel chair to face the neer. Hey Isaac, how are things? Would you like a little help going over your presentation? Bailey asked. That obvious, huh? Very. Bailey nodded Youre normally a boundless font of energy, practically bouncing off the walls when theres nothing challenging to be done. But you havent so much as snuck a peak at the experiment next door all day. Doesnt take a genius to figure out whats on your mind. Damn, figured I was harder to read than that. Isaac sighed for the third time But yeah, someone to actually give me advice rather than doing the same thing over and over would be great. *** Two hourster, Isaac walked into the universitys Auditorium Maximum, a rather grandiose name that was usually shortened to Audimax and referred to thergest lecture hall a university possessed. And mind you, it wasnt the Audimax of the agricultural section well outside the city, but the one that belonged to the inner city, main campus, and it was huge. Two tiered seating, enough space for well over a thousand people and a sound system that would have put any cinema to shame. As for the room itself, It. Was. Packed. The room had 1,200 seats avable, but in most situations, not all of them were filled, with gaps between the various friendship groups and the like, but not today. Today, there was a butt in each and every avable seat and people were sitting on the stairs or standing in doorways. In a sane world, this would have made for one hell of a fire hazard, but that was what magic was for. A lot of the people here were at a point where very few idents or anything short of a deliberate attack would be able to threaten them. And what an eclectic crowd it was. There were quite a few students from the university here, after all,pletely closing off a university event from the students it was meant to teaching wasnt a good idea from a PR-angle. But aside from them, the people in the audience were from every walk of life. Professional summoners, military personnel,w enforcement, but also politicians and journalists and a metric fuckton of academics from what seemed like all over the world. These people had been here for a while, waiting for him, but Isaac had timed it so he arrived on stage two minutes before his lecture was meant to start to avoid having to stand there awkwardly, doing nothing but wait for the clock to keep ticking onwards. If hed had to set up his presentation himself, hed havee sooner as hed heard far too many horror stories from the professors about university tech acting up, but one of the IT staff had thankfully dealt with that. Few things made for a worse first impression than struggling with tech in front of over a thousand people while reassuring everyone that itll be ready soon. A murmur passed through the audience as he stepped out onto the stage, people pointing him out to their neighbors despite them being just as able to see him. There was aptop on the lectern, already open and connected with both the lecture halls projector and a remote control that let him control the power point presentation without needing to be hunched over theptop. One click on the remoteter, and the opening slide was projected onto the wall behind him. It simply read [Aura]. The [Aura]. In the past, people considered it to be the energetic emanations of a person, something one could read and then make deductions about them. At first nce, the real thing is nothing like that, but only at first nce. Which [Aura] a person chooses and how they wield it can, in fact, tell you a great deal about them. Ones emotions can even be sensed through ones [Aura], confidence turning it into a solid wall while uncertainty can see it wavering, tion turning it into a exultation of happiness that thrums with power while fear sees it relent far more easily than it should. But at the end of the day, the choice of ones [Aura] is where all of this beings. Each and every [Aura] offered, save the ones linked to Aspects, represents a part of you. Your goals, your personality, your greatest achievements and your [sses]. One option is to choose the [Aura] that appears to be the strongest, and while that is a viable way to go about this, going with your heart is what can truly show you the path to proper auric power. Most [Skills] are very much plug and y, you can buy them and then use them as advertised, but not [Auras]. They are a representation of the self and ones willpower, and it isrgely about feelings and emotions. An [Aura] you feel drawn to is an [Aura] that you can do great things with. Now, this brings me to the most important part of this lecture, and it is this: the [Aura] is the single most flexible and versatile power the [System] has bestowed to date. The attached description gives a decent starting point, but creativity and willpower can take it so much further. An [Aura] thats about connection and more specifically, sticking together spells can be used tobine spells, but it can do so much more, ranging from acting as a chemical catalyst to gluing objects together. Abat [Aura] can be used to project weapons, yes, but it can also be used for mobility by using the weapons as tforms, or create a thinttice of small objects at the edge of ones [Aura] to detect anything that tries to sneak up on you. Another thing that should be noted about [Auras] is how their properties vary based on their range. To start with, the flexibility of an [Aura] increases with its range, where close-rangebat [Auras] are locked into their basic shapes and long-range sensory [Auras] can bepressed to a single beam less than a millimeter across that reaches for kilometers He continued on like that for close to an hour, going into details in asion, but sticking to a general overview for the most part. The main point was love your [Aura] and get creative with it. And now, are there any questions? Isaac really wished he could have avoided this part, because for a brief moment, it felt like each and every person in the room wanted to know something more. Many of the questions were just about asking for rification, but some of them were things such as thinly veiled job offers or bribes, others were either the academic equivalent of gotcha journalism or actual gotcha journalism, and so on, and so forth. He had answer for basically all of them, but that didnt make it much better. The battlefield might be a fiendishlyplex ce with countless moving parts and things you needed to keep in mind, there was a certain level of simplicity to it. You win or your opponent does, the methods dont really matter. Here, he couldnt really know whether hed made the right choice or not, and wouldnt for months or years, or if there had ever been a right choice in the first ce. And even after that, he wasnt done yet. The universitys Dean, Peter Kass, walked up to the podium, with a piece of stiff, formal paper in his hand, the kind one used for degrees and the like. Isaac didnt even have to check it with his [Aura], as his Perception caught a reflection in a distant lightbulb, so he began send a message to Bailey in the first row of seating using auric morse code. You sneaky bastard. Not bad. Yeah, hiding this from someone with your senses was a pain, but it was definitely worth it. Bailey sent back with a barely hidden smirk, getting up and joining Kass. Several other people Isaac recognized as other university higher ups, though hed never directly interacted with them, also joined the Dean. Mr. Thoma, in the name of the university, I would like to thank you for holding this lecture and your fantastic work discovering the principles, functions and uses of the [System] power known as [Aura]. In recognition of this achievement, it is my great honor and privilege to hereby bestow upon you the title of Doctor honoris causa. As the Dean continued to prattle on about this, both about how Isaac was a credit to his generation, but also slipping in university-aggrandizing statements, Isaac felt well, he actually wasnt sure how he felt. On one hand, he felt good, he felt appreciated, even if this was alsorgely a PR stunt. On the other, this was something that had been sprung upon him and that soured the mood quite a lot. Someone had pulled something over on him, surprised him, and that was bloody terrifying. Sure, hed been looking out for people trying to assassinate him, or kidnap him and squeeze him for information, not someone trying to give him an academic title, but still he felt vulnerable. He didnt like feeling vulnerable, in a fight, vulnerable was usually followed by dead. But none of that showed on his face. [Hundred Faces] went on, and his expression stayed as that of someone trying to not look like a drooling idiot, overwhelmed with happiness, but only partially seeding, happiness shining through the cracks in a stoic fa?ade. and then the [Skill] levelled up, hitting 20 and evolving. Hundred Faces mon, Level XX) Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable topletely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesnt have to be the users true face. This Skill allows the user to adjust their entire body, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. This will not, however, affect the users physical capabilities. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to hide the users true feelings it has evolved to act as a method to hide the users emotions as it does their true appearance. It is now far more capable of changing facial expressions to reflect false feelings and these false feelings will also be what emotion-sensing Skills will see. Cost: 50 mana per minute while adjusting, 15 mana per minute while cloaking emotions Yep, weird Evolution, just like hed predicted. But it sure was useful. Not the time, Isaac. He scolded himself, internally shaking his head. Thank you, Dean Kass. Isaac inclined his head to the older man Im humbled to have been deemed worthy of this title, and I will bear it with pride as I continue to work towards understanding the intricacies of the [System], working under Professor Bailey. He then shed the audience a brief smile. And then, in a few years, Ill try to get a Doctorate the proper way, along the academic track. In that case, I wish you good luck in your endeavors. Kass said, sticking out his right hand, and the two of them shook hands. Things continued in that vein for another half hour or so, with peopleing up to him to congratte him or ask further questions, which he answered the best he could. Eventually though, things did wind down, so Isaac and Bailey headed back to their building. That was Im sorry for springing that on you like that. Bailey said It was surprise that was meant to be, well, a surprise, but in hindsight I can be a little jumpy? Look, I get it, it was partially a PR thing on top of all other considerations. Isaac sighed Just dont surprise me for the sake of surprising me and Ill be fine, anything more than that is my issue to deal with. Have you considered talking to someone about that? Someone who isnt me or one of your friends, that is? Bailey suggested. Considered? Yes. Ill give it a little longer, try to see if I can just get past my stupid hang-ups and be done with them, but if I cant a little therapy never killed anyone. Isaac lied. Hed never be going to see one simply because he couldnt talk honestly about his feelings without revealing what was probably the worlds biggest secret, but in a few days, he should be able to hide his feelings from even someone who knew him as well as Bailey did. Chapter 92: Some things not even magic powers can fix Chapter 92: Some things not even magic powers can fix GOTCHA! The yell was loud enough to rattle the newly framed and wall-mounted degree in Isaacs office. At least there was enough tion swinging along in it that he could be sure it wasnt a problem. Still, hed go check it out because he wanted to know what was going on. Before he could rise to his feet, though, there was a knock on his door. Come in. he sighed, but the door didnt open. Instead, a doorway appeared just inside his office, revealing Amy standing outside his room, a wide, nay, manic grin on her face. So, you finally got [Portal] to work? he asked What about the others? Rauls got it too, Patrick will take another try, but hell get it soon. She grinned Im just on my way to go meet Professor Bailey to tell him Iming with you two to Korea. Ah yes, theyd agreed that the first person with [Portal] would go on the next few excursions to collect as many portal locations as possible. They hadnt known thered be a can only teleport ces youve been limitation, but it had been an educated guess that turned out to be correct. Right, that way, well only be stuck in a metal tube for hours on end, once. Isaac said. Eh was the only response he got. Range limit? Range limit. She sighed Ive slotted the Aspect of the Lesser Space Elemental and then stacked on the Aspect of the Rifthunter, which gave me a solid range increase on portals and [Space Affinity], which gives me even more range, but its still currently limited to 200 kilometers. Thats still really fucking far. But not intercontinental. Throw in a twelve hour cooldown, and travelling with it is going to take a while until I can train it up. Amy said. Still, thats already enough to reach Munich, in a month, well be able to pop right over for the Oktoberfest. Isaac observed But on a more serious note, if we have three portal users, we can chain those together. Once all three of you have [Portal] and boosting Aspects, well have a range of 600 kilometers. That covers most of the country. Yep, thats pretty cool. But I gotta go. She said and headed over to Baileys office. Today was Friday, and on Sunday, theyd be leaving for Korea, so everyone who was going had to spend the day wrapping up loose ends. And thanks to that little stunt with the doctorate, there were a lot of those for him. Mind you, he was extremely happy about the acknowledgement, but it hade with quite a few new chores. One of those was getting some new business cards. Up until now, hed had a very simple Isaac Thoma, [System] researcher on the front and some of his offered services like material procurement, and those had been sufficient, but not anymore. Now that he had a title, he should use it. Besides, if he gave out the old ones now, it would be rmingly apparent that they were, in fact, old and outdated. Now, Kass had given him a set after the initial awarding of the title, but unsurprisingly, theyd prominently disyed the universitys logo. Just like the title itself, they were meant to show his allegiance to the university. He couldnt really use those, either. So now, he was setting up a rush order to get some custom ones made by Sunday, but that was only the first task of many. Hed also sent a message to his parents about the title, promising to drop by tonight, but that was all. Then there were the various profiles that needed updating, ranging from his Linked-In ount to his bio on the university website, that had somehow ended up referring to him a Doctor of Science, rather than his true title of an honorary doctorate. Bailey had also told him in no uncertain terms that it was time to thoroughly check his email. Isaac had been studiously ignoring it for a while due to being inundated with job offers and calls for a couple of days of consultant work, both of which hed already known ahead of time he wouldnt be epting. The Professor had been right, though. This was stupid and boring, but it needed doing, and at the very least, the deluge of new emails seemed to have slowed downtely. The fact that he didnt respond to such impersonal requests might have finally sunken in, though Isaac feared there would be a fresh surge of contact attempts once the fact of his promotion became more wildly known. Even with a reading and clicking speed that theputer quite literally couldnt keep up with, it took him several hours to go through these. As expected, they were almost exclusively people looking to hire him, either on a temporary or permanent basis, but there were quite a few sent by his mother from the time when he hadnt been talking to his family. just seeing those stung. Hed been such an idiot about that. But as the job offers began to peter out, some of the more interesting offers began to stand out. A suggested trade of Aspects, someone looking to be hired by him, an ancient Viking sword known as an Ulfberht being avable for purchase all in all, there was some pretty cool stuff here. Especially the sword could be incredibly useful to certain people with the right [sses] or [Skills]. To be precise, it was possible to draw upon the history of certain items, their legend or the fear they inspired. It wasnt something Isaac would go for because he had a soulbound weapon, but it was still a solid path to power. And then, there was the invitation that hade in yesterday, and it was interesting as hell. Dear Dr. Thoma, you are cordially invited to the Symposium on [System] affairs to be held on the 14th of September in Singapore Well, theyd used his new title within hours of him getting it, they were certainly on top of the information side of things, at the very least. This symposium hadnt happened in the other timeline, at least not as far as he could recall, but that was a good thing, wasnt it? It certainly made sense for it to happen in Singapore. The small city-state at the southern tip of Mysia had emerged from the tumultuous transition to the [System]-world as a clear winner. The high poption density and a distinctck of wilderness meant that monsters very rarely went unnoticed if they escaped their summoner, for one. In addition, the existence of earth, rock and sand-maniption abilities had been a massive game-changer, on a level far beyond mere people can now do things supernaturally well. For over half a century, Singapore had been expanding, gaining almost a quarter of its size in newly creatednd by, well, building it using imported sand and then an embargo had stopped the import the materials they needed. Now, though, that was pretty much a non-issue. Couple that with a frankly unreal level of efficiency in its bureaucracy, and the city-state had been in an excellent position to flourish, and it had, all the way until the end. But even then, it hadnt been them whod brought it about, but the overall state of the world declining to the point where it could only be described as apocalyptic. The invitation then went on to mention a few important talking points, such as the possibility of another Event urring precisely one week afterwards, on the Autumn Equinox, a few variations on how can we make levelling safer, as well as a very politely phrased wed like to have an instruction on [Aura] use, could you, pretty please with sugar on top, hold that for us?. He would, of course, assuming he went. Isaac got up and walked to Baileys office, two doors down from his, and knocked. Come in. the professor called and Isaac entered. So, theres going to be a symposium on the [System] in Singapore in three weeks, and I just got an invitation. Isaac said, but the response wasnt one he ever could have imagined. I know, I got one too. Were all going. Bailey said. We Isaac threw the professor a positively filthy look you were seriously checking if I was actually dealing with my emails? Baileys only response was an eyebrow that rose to a height that was simply impossible on a normal person. point taken. Isaac grumbled, then shifted his face into a more neutral expression So, were going, and Im going to be holding another talk about proper [Aura] use there, all of thats settled. Now though, I was wondering about something else. Right now, were ted to spend two weeks in Korea, which is pretty close to Singapore. Therefore, I was wondering if our time might be better spent staying another week, instead of going halfway around the world only to go right back. Eh, for you and Amy, maybe, but I cant be away from here that long, even if it is for work. Bailey shook his head You two can stay if you want, but Ille back here for that week. About that, I think I might know of something productive we can try. Now that several of us can cast [Portal], I think it might be time to start exploring the world around us, finding new ces to teleport to so we can get basically anywhere in a few, short jumps. Isaac said. And how exactly do you see that working? Bailey asked. Basically, university sponsored daytrips. When a university groups head to ce within their [Portal]-range, one of them cane along, [Portal] back the instant they arrive and show us here the ce as well. Like I said, if we keep that up, as their range increases well be able to reach anywhere on the continent within however long it takes to cast [Portal], have someone step through, and cast it again. Oh, its going to be hell to exin to the bean counters, but I think we can do better than that. Bailey shed him an impish grin Paid weekend trips out to nice, touristy locations, then theye back with portal, travel to the next ce via train or cab, on the universitys dime and spend some quality time there, rinse and repeat. They spent another half hour or so trying to properly nail down the logistics and debating what spots needed to be the highest priority to acquire as teleport locations. Eventer, at half past 5, they met for one final time before half the team went off on a trip and Bailey was giving Patrick, Raul and Karl a long speech. Alright, youre all adults with good heads on your shoulders, so I dont need to tell you this, but I will anyway. Think things through, dont put yourselves in danger and try not to wreck the ce. Now, we do break a lot of stuff and we all know if Karl werent fixing the damage we do on a daily basis, the maintenance department would have pictures of us on their dartboard. I dont need this ce to be sparkling clean and looking like it was build five minutes before I came back, Ill be happy so long as this ce is still standing and Im not tripping over rubble in the hallways point is, treat this building like a ce of work, with respect but not like its made of ss. Also, Professors Chandler, Bishop and Sturm will be dropping by asionally to check up on you. This wasnt actually my decision to make, Im afraid the Dean dont feel like leaving three twenty-year-olds alone to summon, but the professors will behave themselves. Like I said, I trust your judgement. As for what youre going to be doing, we have a list of experiments we need to have done and it would be great if you could get that done. If theres anything thats not on the list youd like to check out, call me about it and Ill approve it, though depending on what you actually want to do, you might have to get another professor to supervise you. Beyond that, good luck and have a nice weekend. Questions? There were none, simply because theyd worked well enough together long enough to know how this would work. The meeting broke up after that. Isaac dropped by the family house, had to console his sisters about just why they hadnt been able to see him receive his title (they turned out to know some very age-inappropriate words), and stayed overnight. The next morning, he went back to his home and spent most of the time until the flight on Sunday grinding for XP, reaching Level 35 in the process. *** I should have just said Id make my own way to Korea and snuck into the cargopartment. Isaac swore for at least the tenth time as he made his way through the airport with Amy and Bailey. First you had to deal with dropping off your luggage and getting your boarding passes, and then you had to deal with checking in stuff you werent allowed to have in your hand luggage. Normally, these were things like knives, but they needed to store Lesser Space Elemental cores and those were absolutely forbidden to be in ones hand luggage. But there was a small issue with that, namely, none of the people responsible for checking in these things knew what they were supposed to look like, and someone assumed they were dangerous. And so things had continued to go, from crowds to queues to some random member of airport staff seeing their Levels and freaking the fuck out. They had called ahead, waring senior management that theyd be leaving from here today, then Habicht had called and assured the airport staff that the three of them were alright, and it had helped, but not a lot. Now though, they needed to deal with the most annoying part of all of this. The security check. Isaac felt so, so very sorry for the poor security guard as he walked up to him, cing his backpack on the conveyor belt. The man had started sweating profusely the moment hedid eyes on Isaac and was clearly very unsure of how to react. He seemed to want to wilt right then and there, backing down to avoid conflict, but also unwilling to show that level of weakness, a bright and shiny spine showing, even barely. The guard was caught in a truly shitty situation there, staring down someone who could squash him like a gnat, with no supervisor in reach who could intervene, but he also had a job to do, one that he had to deal with in a way quite prone to pissing off the people he interacted with in a professional capacity. Yep, poor bastard. Did you that the TSA misses somewhere between 70 and 80 % of all dangerous things people smuggle in during tests? Bailey asked. Not out loud, mind you, but muttering it so softly that only Isaac and Amy could hear him. Hed even shifted his vocal cords around a little so his mouth wasnt moving as he talked. For how thorough theyre being, youd expect that theyd actually catch everything. Isaac said, using auric Morse as talking would have involved him visibly moving his mouth, ncing over at the Professor, whose bag was currently being rifled through. From the sounds of it, the guards doing it were trying to prove that they werent intimidated by the high Level visitors in the least and had decided to use Bailey as their example. You would, wouldnt you? I once got used of being a smuggler of rare animal parts because I went to the airport to pick up an international package from a colleague. And mind you, this was a package with all the proper documentation, and I came in there with a stack of forms and authorizations half a centimeter thick, plus a university identification, and they still thought that there was something up. Bailey said. Petty tyrants or people trying to show theyre still able to do their jobs, thats the question. Amy chimed in, using a form of voice projection magic. Maybe, but the more important question is how useful checking for knives and the like is going to be in the face of someone who can tear cockpit doors like tissue paper and vaporize anyone who tried to stop them with a nce. Isaac said, talking to both of them using his [Aura]. Would you rather get banned from flying altogether? Bailey asked, finally done with the thorough check and continued towards the gate. I dont think well need to fly much in the future, not when magic is avable. Isaac observed And honestly, it wouldnt really fix things to ban high Level people from nes, those with that kind of power dont need nes to be dangerous. This world is getting quite terrifying. Amy said in a low voice Itd be a whole lot more terrifying if we werent the thing everyone was scared of. Sure. Isaac sighed. They continued onwards, and he bought a jumbo bar of Toblerone from the Duty Free shop for them to eat until the ne arrived. The flight itself. Was. Hell. Thirteen hours locked in a metal tube with absolutely nothing to do, and it felt like he waspletely wasting his time. That feeling was something he asionally had about other things that werent summoning or experimenting, but only until he reminded himself that there was some reason behind it, be it that it needed to be done or that it was good for his mental health. This, though, this left him unable to do anything for. Thirteen. Hours. No summoning, no training, he didnt have anything he wanted to write down, at least nothing he could write down where others could see, and he couldnt even pace properly in this ce. At least they were in business ss, which insted him from the worst aspects of flying. No overweight people in seat next to you, no screaming children, no mbering over other people, possibly sleeping ones, to get to the bathroom. If the university hadnt paid for them all to fly business, he would have. But even the nicest seat didnt change the fact that he was stuck up here with basically nothing productive to do, for another C he nced at his watch C 12 hours. Godsdamnit. then the salted peanut bounced off his skull. Isaacs head snapped around to shoot Amy a dirty look. Youve had your own personal thundercloud hovering over your head for thest ten minutes. Come, whats wrong? You dont like flying? she asked. I dont like being stuck in a ne with nothing to do for over half a day. Isaac sighed. Come on, lean back, rx, watch a movie and shock the stewardess by drinking the entire nes supply of booze without so much as slurring your words afterwards, I think you can afford to spend a hell of a lot more than a few hours doing nothing, Dr. Isaac. Amy said. Probably. I still cant wait until we can teleport around, I really dont like being so limited in where I can go and what I can do. He sighed. Maybe, better get used to it, though. By the time I get that good with [Portal], Ill probably have a Doctorate on my own and will be off at Harvard or something with a research group of my very own. Then, Amy stuck her tongue out at him. Isaac was pretty sure she wasnt nning on leaving and had just said that to tease him, but she was right that shed probably end up with a doctorate of her own pretty damn soon, be in an honorary or academic one. After all, as someone whod had [System Researcher] as their first Evolution, she had an unparalleled ess to learning, using and experimenting with magic and there were very few of those to go around. The [ss] was there as a reward for trailzing research into the [System] and there were only so people who could walk on a trail before it got trampled down into a proper path. As such, there was a pretty solid limit as to how many people could get it. Between working with one of the finest scientific teams that were researching the [System] and the massive advantage in the form of her [ss], there was little doubt shed end up a titan in the academicmunity sooner orter. Oh, youre leaving? Thats too bad. Isaac put on a mock pouty face as he replied to her. Only if Im going to be used as a taxi. She said, a slight edge entering her tone. Yeah, that was fair. I think we cane up with a proper way to handle that. Isaac assured her. Youd better. She shot him a mock threatening look, which then switcher over into the expression of someone deeply in thought I wonder how long it takes to reach the shore when teleported into the center of the North Sea? The conversation went downhill from there, but it was a very wee distraction. Chapter 93: Interlude World Chapter 93: Interlude World You do realize Im not a soldier or a spy, right? Habicht asked, ring balefully at the nondescript man on the other side of the table. And in this case, nondescript really did mean that if hed met the man on the street a mere hour after leaving this meeting, he wouldnt have been able to recognize him. Clearly, there was some kind of [Skill] at y here, one that made him functionally impossible to recognize. In theory, Habicht should have had [Skills] of his own to counter that effect, but he hadnt had a typicalw-enforcement [ss] since his first [Evolution], choosing to instead focus on improving hisbat and leadership abilities. And that basically left him about as prepared to deal with an intelligence operative as a normal person on the street, unfortunately. Now why the hell had anyone decided that making a guy like that brief him was an even remotely good idea? I know your listed job is leader of GSG-13, this nations anti-supernatural strike force. The nondescript man, whod introduced himself as Jonatan Schmidt, said, leaning forward But can you really sit still and do nothing in the face of threats just because theyre outside this nations borders? Habicht shot the man a dark re. Right now, they were solidly in the middle of the creation of the Bundesargentur des bernaturlichen, the Federal Bureau of the Supernatural, normally shortened to BAU and a lot of wires were being crossed. Under normal circumstances, hed have been cursing the people responsible for this custerfluck to high heaven, but as things stood, he could understand why things were this chaotic. Even just assinging the various portions of the [System] to several different parts of the existingw enforcement apparatus was a massive amount of work he couldnt reasonably expected to have gone any better than it had. But now, the powers that be were trying to pull all that together into a single coherent department, yet things were still nearly as messy. And all of that was ignoring how loosely defined their area of operations was and how theyd be stepping on toes as a matter of course. Right now, they were meant to deal with anything supernatural, which included crimes with a significant amount of [Skill] involvement, something that was solidly the polices area of responsibility, and that was just the start. That whole thing was going to be a huge mess until the various otherw enforcement departments would be able to deal with standard [System]-rted crime. But until then, chaos was practically a guarantee. Yet here was this guy, trying to convince him to step on the feet of literally every military, intelligence andw enforcement department in the country and out of it. Ive got to listen to what you have to say for the duration of this meeting, because thats what Ive been told to do, but youre not my boss, in fact, I probably outrank you. Habicht said, leaning back in his chair until it was leaning backwards, leaving him bncing on the back two legs, and put his feet on the table. So, lets get this over with. Inform me about how bad things are in out there in the big bad world, tell me why I should consider moonlighting for other departments until the BAU is fully set up, convince me why this entire meeting isnt a giant waste of time. He finished up that little speech by quirking a single eyebrow, staring Schmidt down, daring him to open his mouth. In thisplete mess of a situation, sometimes you weird directives and this was one of them, getting a briefing from this spook about how chaotic things were out there, which would likely be followed by a request to do something outside of his normal area of responsibilities, something he couldnt actually be ordered to do. The real issue was that, right now, it was hard to tell where orders came from, or who he could safely tell to fuck off with varying levels of politeness, or even if a given order was fully legitimate so long as it originated somewhere within what would one day be the BAU. So, when it came to something rtively harmless like having to be talked at for an hour or so, he just obeyed and wound up the other person as much as he felt he could get away with. Are you aware of the rise of people attempting to create independent fiefdoms in existing natures, dering an area to be theirs now, taken by right of might? Thankfully, we havent had that issue in Germany yet, and as much as Id like to trust in the good sense of our countrymen, there is still a distinct possibility of someone trying to pull a stunt like that. Remember that mess in Texasst week? If the world werent amidst such upheaval at the moment, that would have been cause for worldwide headlines. And we both know that the issue was made worse by how the responding people stuck to outdated protocols that barely worked even before people got magic powers, yet you dont seem to be willing to even consider doing anything other than vishly follow the rules, and wait for something to go wrong before reacting. Habicht chuckled softly. This was hardly aughing matter, but it would serve to annoy this prick. Ive actually talked about the whole fiefdom issue with a few people, you might have heard of them. The President of the Bundespolizei, the vice director of the Verfassungsschutz, and the Minister of Defense dropped by for a few minutes. Sure, I might not have been one of the primary contributors at that meeting, but I was invited. And do you know why we figured the risk another firefight with a self-dered king in Germany is low, why we havent had anything even remotely like it happen yet? Its not that were more sensible, or anything even remotely like that, and its real obvious to boot. Care to guess? Not particrly. Schmidt said sourly. Bah, youre no fun. Like I said, its simple. Poption density and distribution. Over eighty percent of the US poption lives inrge cities, and two thirds are concentrated at the edge of the country, living within a hundred miles of the border. There are vast tracts of opennd in that country, ripe for the picking, whereas in Germany, trying to annex an area a fraction the size of what normally gets grabbed would inevitably involve trying to im ownership of peoples homes and the like, which is going to be a hell of a lot harder than dering yourself the owner of arge stretch of empty desert. And when something like that crops up, believe me, GSG-13 will deal with it using all the force that is required, and not an iota more. So, next issue? Habicht could feel the irritatione off the intelligence officer in such volume that bordered on outright hatred. He didnt care, though. Perhaps youre going to appeal to my sense of justice, tell me about some horrors in the developing world to convince me that I need to transfer from the police to the military and go out as a member of the special forces, because I can do more good there? he continued, certain that had been the next point on Schmidts agenda. Because fundamentally, there werent many ces that hade out of the chaos directly following the [Systems] arrival mostly intact, and you didnt hear about most of the awfulness on the news because there was just so much of it. The Los Angeles incident, for example, was the most well known mass casualty event to have happened in the United States, and then thered been that recent chaos in Texas where a man had gotten into fire-and-magic duel with the FBI, but those were hardly the only ones, just the ones most widely known. And even with that, the US had gotten off somewhat lightly. It was nowhere near the most intact of ces, but it still ahead of most of the. ces in the middle of conflict, on the other hand they were in real trouble. At the end of the day, some of the most inhospitable ces, with the most destitute poptions ended up managing handle the issue the best. It had been a tad surprising at first, but it made sense when you thought about it. The [System] allowed people to summon creatures made from water, soil, or meat fit for consumption, so through careful and judicious use, one could get everything one needed to survive just with a few basic bits of summoning material and a little mana. People whod had to spend their entire life being incredibly careful with everything they had because there would not be anything once that was used up tended to be careful with something like this as well. Between those two facts, there were a lot of poverty-stricken areas that werent also embroiled in a violent conflict which had managed to flourish since the [System] had arrived. But a lot of countries werent asparatively safe and free ofrge-scale, systemic, conflicts as others, and they had been hit hard. Countless warlords had died within hours or days of [System] day as people grasped [sses] that provided immediate power with both hands and used them to burn away the rot that was destroying their country with fire and fury. Even as many people settled down in the aftermath of the regime change, using the [System] to better their lives and gain resources they hadnt been able to get before, others had learned, truly internalized it rather than merely being aware of it on an intellectual level, what power could do for ones standing in life. And then, things usually went south at a truly astounding rate. Others saw rising stars as future warlords in their own right and reacted ordingly. If things went badly enough, you ended up a situation like Zamfara, where anyone who was at a decently high Level was seen as intending to be the next warlord, then usually got hunted down and subjected to the justice of the mob. The whole area had ended up in a vicious spiral of a few people getting above Level 10, gaining ess to [Inspect] and bing able to point out others at a high Level, which inevitably ended with almost all the powerful people six feet under, rinse and repeat. Wouldnt you like to fix that, save those people? was a pretty nice hook to convince someone like Habicht to do something, but it suffered from a few issues like the fact that those issues were incrediblyplicated and a bunch of foreigners crashing the proverbial party to announce that only they were able to fix the situation would only make things worse. If you thought about it for more than a few seconds, youd realize that, but Habicht was pretty sure Schmidt saw him as little more than a blunt instrument. The spook folded his hands in front of him and took a deep breath before continuing, looking right at Habichts face and ignoring the feet on the table. Schmidt had managed to hide his irritation well, but not nearly well enough, making Habicht smirk. As a police officer, even one in what is technically a federal anti-terrorism task force, youre limited to operating within the borders of the Federal Republic of Germany. But were pretty fortunate when ites to [System] rted incidents, and a lot of the incidents we do have are down to foreign agents illegally acting on our soil. Can you honestly tell me you arent interested in dealing with those before things go truly off the rails? Sure if I actually thought you lot capable of urately predicting those incidents. Habicht shrugged, pulled his feet of the table and sat up straight again. That way, the next time he felt hed made a good point, he could lean and put his feet up again. Im aware of the chaos happening out there in the world, in fact, Ive got ess to more information about that than most people who arent creepy fuckers who live in the shadows, spying on people, and I use that ess, but Im also fully aware of howplicated this all is. Im a blunt instrument but neither that nor a crude tool is going to be particrly helpful in a situation that requires a scalpel. And with that, he leaned back in his chair and nted his muddybat boots firmly on the table once more, within a few centimeters of the spys hand. The spooks mask slipped ever so slightly, unnoticeable to practically everyone. Habichts grin, on the other hand, was quite broad. Chapter 94: Culture Difference Chapter 94: Culture Difference Two weeks ago Isaac, you said that you had a few things to tell us about Korean summoner culture? Bailey asked. The meeting had been intended to be a standard we spend seventy-five percent of our time working together, we all know what were doing, but the university is making us do these things, but Isaac had told the professor that there were a few things he wanted to talk about, vis-a-vie the trip that would happen soon. Eh, its not often you get to im reading webtoons is research and put it down as work time. Isaac shrugged, chuckling Point is, weve talked a lot about LitRPG and [Systems] descending to destroy the world, but that is a rather niche genre of literature in the west. In eastern Asia, on the other hand, things like that are rather moremon, alongside Isekai stories and the like. As such, culturally, people have more of an understanding and preconceived ideas of what the [System] is and what can be done with it, which is reflected in how they did deal with it. Isaac clicked a button on the remote in his hand, and the power point presentation flipped over to the next slide, showing the cover of one of the aforementioned stories. This here is one of the more popr Manhwa with a [System] arrives and plunges the world into chaos and fundamentally, it contains a lot of the elements that make up the summoning culture that has sprung up in South Korea. So, is a Manhwa a Korean Manga then? Patrick asked, sounding genuinely curious, then looking very confused as Bailey shot him a disapproving look, Amy facepalmed and Isaac shook his head. Manhwas are South Koreanics. Manga and Manhwa are both used to refer toic books originating from Japan and South Korea, respectively, and are simr in that respect. But in case you end uping, never, ever make thatparison again, because there is a lot of bad blood between those two nations. Isaac said imploringly. The question had been innocent enough, but it could have gone very poorly if it had been asked in front of the wrong person. The only response he got was a solemn nod. They both knew how it had been intended, and nothing more needed to be said. Isaac flipped towards the next slide, which was covered in pictures of what appeared to be entrances that led straight to various circles of hell, burning pits, freezing nes, forests of trees that seemed to be humans and animals transformed into grotesque abominations, terrible storms that shouldnt even have fit into the hillside the entrance was located in These are Dungeons. He dered Theyre vast ces that look like something straight out of fantasy or Isekai novels, containing monsters, traps, magical loot and we arent allowed to summon them because a punch of politicians crapped their pants at the thought of an autonomous summoning machine that cannot just be destroyed once youre done with it because they need time to grow to be actually useful. However, theyre also a staple part of these stories, usually being the primary or only source of supernatural entities. Monsters spawn within to guard treasure or the core, but if they arent cleared regrly, the dungeon overflows and unleashes its beasts upon the world to destroy everything nearby. This phenomenon is known as a Dungeon Break and unfortunately, it isnt confined solely to the pages of these books. Seoul University has conducted several studies and confirmed that Dungeons can and will endanger their surroundings, though stronger ones take longer to be a threat. But despite the danger they pose, there are ways to arrange things to create a safe ecosystem, if people are willing to go Dungeon delving at a constant pace and problematic Dungeon Cores are destroyed in a timely fashion, and the Hunters have managed that thus far. Hunters? Patrick asked. Thats what they call the people who strive to gain Levels by killing monsters. Summoner isnt really applicable, as they dont summon because they have far more ready ess to monsters in their Dungeons and thanks to that, individual summoning is far more regted and limited. In addition to a general goal of exploration and power, there is the very real and present threat of North Korea deciding that the [System] represents a chance at reunifying the nation and there is a lot of focus being put towards ensuring that anything they try can be countered. They then continued to discuss the various kinds of experiments they wanted to try out, ranging from simply observing a Dungeon Break, to tossing several things into a newly established Dungeon, just to see what happened. Though at the end of the day, the goals of both research groups were the exact same. Working together to find new approaches to each others issues, with people whod been tackling the problem of the [System] from an entirely different angle andcked a lot of the preconceived notions someone whod been dealing with a given issue for an extended period of time inevitably picked up. Chapter 95: Seoul Chapter 95: Seoul You know, any other city with that many monsters in it would already be a smoking pile of rubble. Isaacmented as the ne was about to begin its final descent Their system of handling them must be incredibly intricate, I cant wait to see how it works in person. It was a nice looking city, with a farrger number of skyscrapers than Isaac was used to seeing. Then again, German cities tended to have few truly tall buildings, whereas Seoul had several areas with veryrge houses, not to mention several towering skyscrapers that made the rest look positively tiny. Nestled within those buildings was a horde of monsters, and given that most monsters only existed in this world for a few minutes at most, that horde represented the singlergest concentration of supernatural monsters in the world at any given time. Yet. It. Was. Safe. There were several warning signs of a Dungeon being about to spew monsters out into the world, some obvious, some not, and while a few were yet to be discovered, most were known to the world. Of course, relying on Dungeons instead of summoned monsters came with its own set of problems. First of all, they started out very weak, so in order for people at higher Levels to be able to get any use out of them, they needed to be left alone to grow. Then, there was the whole issue surrounding how if a Dungeon was created, it needed to be dealt with. You could draw a summoning circle on the ground and, as long as it wasnt powered, forget about it until you needed it again. A Dungeon, on the other hand, needed to be paid attention to from the moment it was created, which severely limited how many different ones one could have at any given time. Except you needed those many different Dungeons due to the XP limits on any given kind of creature. You had the normal number of free kills for each Tier for Dungeon creatures which would fill up first, but then, you started taking up the regr slots that ounted for creatures summoned normally, so just creating a single Dungeon and farming that ad infinitum was not a viable strategy. Yeah, sounds like they created something straight out of a story down there. Amy murmured, then threw Bailey a suggestive look Maybe we could do the same, create a portal another world, even stick it in the back of a wardrobe or something? Eh, Im more of a fan of generic Isekai, you know, truck hits you and you end up in another world with an overpowered as hell ability and all that. Maybe Karl could enchant us a Truck-kun? Isaac replied, drawing a guffaw from both her and Bailey. Oh, is the super secret bunker full of toys not enough for you kids? the professor deadpanned. Well it does have a distinctck of a waterfall as a main entrance. Amy said, managing to keep a surprisingly straight face while she did so. Honestly though, what really surprised me is how young most of the people directly involved in the Dungeon creation are. Bailey said, changing the subject as the seatbelt light shed on. Meh, its not that surprising. Isaac said What is it young people want? Excitement, another life, one filled with adventure and superpowers, anything but the mundane drudgery of the life they are afraid awaits them. They go to parties, mow down monsters in video games, read books that are filled with action and dream of being whisked away to worlds where they can be a hero. Now, people in their thirties, theyre mature, thinking about how to take care of their families and mortgages, and theyre fully aware of how dangerous all those bright and shiny adventures are, how dangerous a world with any superpowers would be. All of that is a very long-winded way of saying: Young people are the ones who want a world straight out of their danger and adventure filled stories, so theyre the ones who made that happen by creating Dungeons andrgely ended up in charge of them. You know, youre actually the second youngest person in the group. Howe youre the one talking about maturity and what old people worry about? Amy observed, prompting a shrug from him. Old on the inside, I suppose. Im sure theyre capable. It doesnt really matter who created thework, if they werent able to properly maintain it, they wouldnt still be in charge of it. Bailey said. In any case, theres nothing to do but wait to meet them. We have that meeting at Seoul University first, followed by a visit to the show Dungeon, Dungeon Guild andstly our hotel, then well see what we want to do afterwards, right? Isaac asked. Yep. Bailey confirmed and turned to look out of the window the observe the citying ever closer. The ne hit the tarmac soon afterwards and the three of them headed towards the customs area. Once again, they got some intense looks the instant someone realized they were at a high Level. Each of them had a very powerful anti-[Inspect] [Skills], but their presence automatically put them at over Level 10, never mind the implications of them having [Auras]. Thankfully though, theyd called ahead and their soon-to-be local contacts had also confirmed that they were there for a reason and had a good reputation. It wasnt exactly that high Level people were forbidden from travelling, per se, it was just that everyone got really fucking nervous when just one of them showed up, never mind three at once. Thank you, and once again, Id like to apologize for the scare we gave you, I hope you have a nice day. Isaac bade goodbye to the guy at passport control in fluent Korean. How manynguages do you speak? Bailey asked. If knowing enough insults and swearwords to pick a fight with counts, then forty-two. Bailey just gave him a t look while Amy elbowed him in the side. Ok, Im actually fluent in threenguages. English, German and the International Phic Alphabet. Isaac said, this time earning a raised eyebrow from Bailey, while Amy just elbowed him again. Then, realization dawned. Theres a dictionary in your pocket, isnt there? Bailey asked. Yep. Isaac said. That was most of the truth. Isaac did have a dictionary in his backpack, but it wasnt made from something as primitive as a paper book. No, this was a small block of ss, with a German to Korean dictionaryser engraved within in a truly infinitesimal font, twice, once alphabetically arranged ording to the German words, and once for the Korean ones. He also had ones like it for Japanese and Mandarin on him at the moment, but he''d ordered one for most of thenguages in the world. Normally, one did not use a sensory [Aura] to scan down to that level of detail to avoid sensory overload, but it was fine as long as the user restricted themselves to a small area. Also, he did speak passable Korean, hed spent enough time here in the other timeline for training and a lot of that had remained with him even though his mental Stats, and therefore his memory, were a lot worse than they had been. He was also decent in Japanese, but that was about it withnguages he could actually hold a conversation in. Still, having the dictionaries avable was both helpful and served as a useful exnation as to how he could speak anguage he hadnt ever learned in a way that could be verified. Everything else he had as far as foreignnguages were concerned was an extensive knowledge of swearwords, insults, toasts and simple sendoffs to be used when time didnt permit a proper eulogy. From passport control, they skipped right past the baggage im area and on to the office where one could im items that were either bulky or illegal to keep in ones normal luggage, let alone take into the cabin. All theyd brought were some inscribed Lesser Space Elemental cores and had carted along everything else in their storage spaces. That would be a massive pain in the ass soon given how abusable that little trick was for smuggling and the like, prompting them to be some of the most illegal things to take across borders once the governments got around to banning them. It was a little silly, though, given that people could easily store something in one country, then travel to another and get a core there to retrieve their stuff, but bans like that werent always properly thought out. And then, finally, they left the terminal and headed out into the main area of the airport. There was the usual gaggle of people waiting for family members, cab and shuttle drivers holding cards with peoples names, as well as a handful people wearing what seemed to be the lovechild of modern high fashion, tactical armor and medieval cosy outfits. They also had unusually high Levels, with most being near the high end of the first or low end of the second Evolution. In other words, these were the Hunters, likely here to pick up people looking to be ones themselves. If you wanted XP and were willing to follow the sometimes grueling schedule required to keep all the Dungeons under control, there was no better ce to go than here. Their own ride, though, was a smartly dressed young man holding up a card that read Professor Bailey, so they headed over there. Good afternoon Professor Bailey, Ms. Shaw, Dr Thoma. Its nice to finally meet you face to face. Im Hak Jae-Hwan, Professor Kims assistant. The schedule I have says were going to go straight to the university? And is there any luggage we need to get? he asked. Yes, thats correct. Weve got our luggage in our extradimensional storage spaces, it wont be a problem. Bailey said. That makes things easier. Should we get going, then? Hak asked and Bailey nodded. Once in the car, Hak was happy to talk about points of interest and share some interesting gossip about work, the university and the Dungeon Guild, the organization that oversaw the creation, running and eventual destruction of Dungeon Cores. Normally, scientists protected any unpublished data like a dragon guarding its hoard, but this was a rather different situation, given that Bailey and Professor Kim Ye-rin focused on very different fields of study, meaning there was very little ovep that could, in theory, get stolen. Not that that was something they were truly worried about in the first ce, the two professors were highly intelligent people and fully aware of the gravity of the situation. As great as being the pioneers of an entirely new field of study was, they were also aware of the massive, looming danger and handling it with all the seriousness it demanded. Baileys focus on the meta aspect of the [System], how [Skills] and [ss]-Evolutions worked, how it granted ess to new materials and the like was incredibly useful in a general sense while Kim was an expert on Dungeons and the interaction of various Spells and martial [ss] features, which would be invaluable once it became necessary to createrge Raid-Groups to tacklerge collections of monsters. The city itself, though, was a little off. There was a sense of adventure in the air, of frontier spirit and eagerness to discover new things, both from people whom he could identify as Hunters from their Levels or outfits and others, who were merely emting the style. But an undercurrent of tension and fear was also present. A mere fifty kilometers to the north of the cityy the North Korean border, and these people were fully aware of how dangerous they could be with the [System]. Sure, the Level 100 [Supreme Leader] picture had a thousand percent chance of being fake, but other than that, there was very little known about the actual state of things up there. And. That. Was. Fucking. Terrifying. Also, very, very real, Isaac well knew. He was working on it, having added quite a few tidbits of relevant information in the potions and threats information dump that would be released in a few days. So, Dr. Thoma, are you using your [Aura] right now? Hak asked him I thought I sensed something but its gone now, can you really hide it that well? Yeah, I can teach you, if you like. Isaac offered Maybe after Ive given a general lecture on [Aura] use? Id appreciate that, Dr. Thoma. Hak replied, once again using Isaacs title. Damn, hed have to get used to that at some point. His honorary doctorate was in a bit of a weird ce though. It was legally distinct from a traditional academic doctorate, and in written correspondence, it even had a distinct addition that made it quite clear that it was, in fact, an honorary degree. He also really shouldnt run around referring to and introducing himself as Dr. Thoma, so he didnt. That being said, sometimes, others did, on asion, use this title when appropriate, so he usually took his cue from others. Besides, he wasnt a person from outside of academia whod gained an acknowledgement, he was a member of a universitys academic staff working towards his regr doctorate, hed just skipped ahead a little. After half an hour or so of driving, the car pulled up just outside of the university and they got out. Isaac had to admit the ce was rather stunning, though. He liked his current ce of work and felt a certain amount of pride at everything theyd achieved and all their new buildings, but he had to admit that Seoul National University was miles ahead of it. Still, it was also the university of this country, right in the middle of the of the capital, so it made a hell of sense lot of sense. Hak lead them across campus, which had several areas of recent construction, which Isaac noted with interest. These additions were allplete and wouldnt normally have stood out, but there was something that set them apart from pre-[System] construction rather clearly, if you could see it. And that was that they were reinforced and improved with [Skills]. For the most part, though, these were small additions to existing buildings. Their final destination, though, waspletely new and unfinished. The outside wasplete, making it seem like the entire building was done, but a quick check with his [Aura] revealed thatrge chunks were just a skeleton. Much like the building he worked in back home, there were enough areas finished for the building to be useable, though there were only a few of them. As they entered he lobby, a woman in herte thirties, perhaps early forties entered the room from the other end. Her hair was tied up in a bun at the top of her head, safely out of the way and hard to get tangled up if she got in a fight. She was wearing a pantsuit, though it likewise had design elements to make it useable inbat, with a cut that made it easy to move in and a level of reinforcement that made it tougher than the finest modern tactical armor. When he looked her over with [Hunters Gaze], he got an incredibly weird sense from her, as if he were staring right into a mass of raw mana, but Isaac had actually met her in the other timeline and knew what her [ss] was. Professor Kim Ye-rin was a [Manaweaver], able to directly manifest and shape mana to create shields, projectiles, fly and the like, at least for now. Later, in a year or so, shed even gain the ability to directly turn the mana into various elements, further increasing her already unparalleled flexibility. Sure, she might havecked the shortcut that were individual spells, that could be activated with a single casting, but practice meant that she could use defensive moves practically instantaneously, buying her the time needed to create offensive construct specifically adapted to the enemy at hand and clobber them. This ability was further boosted by her [Aura of Arcane Shaping]. It could reshape any non-living objects within it, albeit at an atrocious mana cost, but that was only the start of what it could achieve. Her assistant, on the other hand, was merely a second Evolution [System Researcher] and a sensory [Aura] which he wielded with a level of control that was second only to Isaacs and that of the people hed personally taught. Good afternoon, Professor Bailey, Kim greeted him Its nice to meet you all in person. Now, Im afraid we wont have quite as much time to talk here as Id hoped, as the Dungeon were meant to be looking overter is starting to spit out monsters earlier than expected. A Dungeon Break is happening, right now? Isaac frowned Isnt that extremely dangerous? No, its one of the very weak Dungeon we use to test hypotheses about what the warning signs of a Dungeon Break are. The monsters arent an issue, weve taken adequate precautions, but you might miss it. Kim said with a reassuring smile Now, are you able to fly, or will you need a car? Isaac nced over at Bailey and Amy, questioningly. He could fly and knew Amy could at least hover, but he wasnt so sure about the professor. Were good. Bailey nodded. In that case, follow me. Kim nodded and strode out of the building. The moment she was outside, she began to hover a meter or so off the ground, waiting for them. Amy teleported after her and was outside a momentter, also flying. Everyone else followed at a more measured pace, though. The moment there was space avable, Bailey began to shift and grow, a pair of massive, feathered wings erupting from his back while the rest of his body seemed to shimmer and then shrank in a sh, reced with swirling eddies of wind. Wings for flight and Air Elemental bits for control, a very usefulbination. Isaac, meanwhile, was stuck with the burden of choice. All of his methods of flight were based on reducing his weight to zero and then using a variety of ways to fling himself towards his destination, but each came with their own set of reasons for and against them. For example, sword-surfing was designed to show off, but it came with a hell of a lot of connotations here. Using the first method of propulsion hed tried, flinging Old Reliable behind him and using that to throw himself forward was effective, but looking as if he were tossing around lethal weapons wasnt a good thing. That left his [Aura] method. Isaac activated [Poltergeists Flight], then switched over to the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn], manifested a bar of power under his feet and knocked himself skywards. Hak just started flying with a spell, with very little fuss needed. That was an ability Isaac would have loved to have, but it wasnt something he was willing to use an Aspect Slot or, gods forbid, a [ss] on. Kim lead the way, with everyone else following behind her in a graceful fashion everyone except Isaac, that was. He was pinging through the sky above Seoul like a pinball, smacking an auric construct into himself every time he needed to make a course correction. Still, he was able to properly control his flight and didnt run face-first or bellyflop into any of the constructs, so it wasnt that bad. Near the edge of the city, they finally dove back towards the ground,ing to a stop just outside arge concrete dome, protected by armed guards in military uniforms. At the sight of Professor Kim, the gates were opened immediately and she strode in, hurrying inside to a room in the beginning stages of utter pandemonium. Several brightly colored slimes were emerging out of a gateway on the other side, withrger swarms clearly visible within, ready to swarm them. Still, there were people there already, stting the low Level monsters the instant they got somewhere they werent meant to be. Im surprised you can fly so easily here. Bailey observed Id have thought the local air traffic controllers would have a conniption at the thought of hundreds of small, person sized objects with no flight n in their airspace. Oh, they did. Kim said Now though, we have several set flight corridors which were allowed to use. She then gestured towards the glowing doorway in the distance. That is a basic Acid Slime Dungeon which weve left alone since its summoning, and weve recently determined a dozen different warning signs of a Dungeon Break being imminent. Also, our ability to predict when Dungeons are about to be dangerous based solely on mathematical forme has grown to near perfection, we were off by less than an hour this time. Wow. Bailey said That is incredible. What is that brown and bubbly thing? Amy asked, gesturing to a nearby slime I dont recognize it. Thats a C Slime. Hak exined. Wait, what? Where can you get those? she asked. Dungeons have different rules for how they can create their creatures. Theyre generally the same ones from the summoning system and thats how they show up on the kill notifications, but they can change them slightly. For example, C counts as an acid for the purposes of summoning an Acid Slime, but tossing a few cans of coke into an active dungeon with a Slime theme lets it create creatures whose form is based on, well, coke. Amy began to chuckle, but was cut off by a cacophony of noise emerging from the direction of the Dungeon. A literal swarm of slimes wasing out in a true flood, a terrifying wave that coudl have razed a town to its foundations, pre-[System]. Now, though, it was just a question of who got to them first. A hail of spells tore through them as Kim attacked, while both Amy and Hak created barriers and supercooled zones that slowed the creatures progress to a crawl. A few secondster, there were none left. Above Kims right hand, a massive, glowing, spinning mass of mana was shrinking, condensing, until it was reduced to the size of a pea, shining like the sun. It shed forward, flying right through the entrance. A momentter, there was a surprisingly mute explosion, and the energy that filled the doorway vanished. Goodbye Dungeon. Very impressive. Bailey observed And quite terrifying. Doesnt that describe all aspects of the [System]? Kim asked, raising an eyebrow Now, I believe there are about a million forms that need to be signed before we can formally start working together? Bailey sighed What will humanity be able to create first, a way to bring back the dead or a world without paperwork? Kim justughed and lead the way to a nearby office space, leaving Isaac, Amy and Hak behind in the room. That was how academia worked, wasnt it? As much as the doctors and professors would have loved to do experiments themselves, they were forced to deal with a lot of paperwork and delegate most of the actual experimentation to their assistants and grad students. So, I hear youve been experimenting with Hunting Grounds? Hak asked What are those like? Yeah, theyre pretty cool but very terrifying. Every time you dismiss one, you basically end up with a mini Dungeon Break on your hands. Isaac said How about you, what are some interesting things youve seen in Dungeons? They explored the dome for around an hour, sharing stories, while the professors wrestled with the indefatigable foe that was paperwork. Once that was done, they proceeded to the Dungeon Guild for their next meeting. Chapter 96: The Guild Chapter 96: The Guild The Dungeon Guilds administrative headquarters were located in what appeared to be an ordinary Highrise in downtown Seoul, but that only told a small part of the story. Massive retrofits had been done to reinforce it to an absolutely insane degree. Judging by the sheer power behind them and the Level that would require, theyd been done at some point in thest month or so. Plenty of older upgrades were also visible, but they were drastically less powerful. This building could withstand either an artillery barrage,plete with reinforcing [Skills], or an attack by a powerful [Mage] over Level 40. The sad thing was, it might have to. Mind you, this ce was only an administrative center, the training was being done in apletely new building in a nearby park. Having people trainbat [Skills], some of which could be incredibly destructive, in a skyscraper was just asking, nay, begging for trouble, regardless of any reinforcements it might have. But that wasnt what stood out, oh no, something else took that honor. Namely, the nametes everyone had floating over their heads, asionallyplete with a Title. There were quite a few people whod reached the Level of acim needed for the [System] to bestow one upon them, allowing them to both add ways people referred to them as or a custom title to their namete. Then, one could make said namete visible to everyone else, making for both a convenient way of introducing oneself and showing what Im all about. That being said, sinceing to this timeline, Isaac hadnt really run in circles that used Titles. Sure, most of the team had ones, Habicht almost certainly did as well, but they werent the kind of people who liked to have silly nicknames floating above their heads. This ce, on the other hand, was exactly the kind of ce youd use your Titles to introduce oneself. Now, Isaac had chosen the title the Completionist when hed gotten the chance, then taken both lunatic and Rambo from the list of phrases people had used to describe him, just in case he could use them. That had been shortly after the whole Swamp Knight at the frat party cellphone video incident, meaning that his nicknames hadnt exactly been ttering. But hed also gained new ones for the few interviews hed given when the press had showed up to talk to Bailey, as well his work on [Aura], though the strangest ones hade from the capture of the serial killer. The actual details on how the only reason there hadnt been a massacre had been the presence of a civilian consultant werent something the police force had been eager to share with the world, and the body cam footage had still not be publicly avable. But people still knew that something had happened, and that something had involved a civilian, which had been enough for the sparked rumors to earn him some truly fantastical nicknames. Right now, though, hed decided to go with something a little more appropriate for the asion, the nickname hed earned for his work with [Aura]. Isaac Thoma, Auric Sage Thered been other options avable, like Auric Teacher and quite a few variations on that asshole whos flinging around [Aura] and scaring the living daylights out of anyone who walks past at the wrong time, but he felt that the Sage Title fit him the best. It had been granted to him on the basis of his teaching people about how [Aura] worked, a notoriously weird and ephemeral subject. Hell, Sage was probably a more appropriate title than Doctor, even though thetter was a better choice to use in academic circles. Everyone else had also had Titles avable to disy, with both Kim and Hak having used theirs a moment before Isaac had. Haks was Omnimage, while Kim had picked the boring route, just like Bailey, and used her Title to add her qualifications to her namete. Amy, meanwhile, had gone ahead and called herself Lady Myriad. In Isaacs opinion, it suited her. All of their names were incredibly tame, though. Isaac was already starting to dread how that would go in the Singapore convention. Sure, they might go with simplenyards to identify themselves, rather than [System] nametes, but there was also a distinct chance of them going with thetter. And given that it wasnt just leaders and thinkers that had been invited, but also people with a high Level, there was sadly going to be an abundance of weird and cringy names. Then again, Isaac had been young and absurdly powerful once, too, and he knew what that could lead to. As they entered the lobby of the office building, Amy just stopped and stared, being the only one who could see the magic that suffused everything in sight, was here for the first time and hadnt been able to see it from the outside. And what a ce it was. Each and every part of the lobby was enchanted to the point where theyd likely have a [System] window if you looked at them hard enough. In todays world, most newly made things were reinforced by [Skills] to some degree, just like Isaacs new spider silk outfits, but [System] windows were limited to truly powerful items like the Event loot. The sheer level of security within this ce would have been over the top anywhere else, except maybe the Pentagon of Bundestag, but here, it was barely enough. In this building, countless, incredibly valuable, pieces of Dungeon loot were stored, as well as records about peoples builds, which could inflict untold damage if they became public record. Professor Kim, Professor Bailey and assistants, here for Guildmaster Seon. Hak said to the receptionist in Korean, who looked them all over in turn, multiple subtle [Skills] activating to make sure they were who they said they were, not carrying high explosives and the like. Yes, youre expected, though youre meeting is set for fifteen minutes from now. He should have time in two minutes, but Im afraid youll have to wait that long. Isaac rolled his eyes internally. It was almost certainly another basic power y. The Guildmaster was a powerful force in his own right and jumping to greet them the moment they arrived, particrly earlier than scheduled, would make it look like he had nothing better to do than wait on them hand and foot. On the other hand, he also couldnt afford to offend them by making them wait unnecessarily, so hed cut short the waiting time. Besides, it''d take a decent chunk of those two minutes to actually get up there. They headed onto the elevator, which was likewise interested, but in a very different way. Where the lobby had been reinforced to stop an army, the elevator had been designed to look impressive as hell. Rare metals, ss and crystal, covered every surface, though in a way that actually looked good, rather than someone tastelessly throwing expensive crap at the interior designer and telling them to make sure all of it was on disy. The machinery on the outside of the elevator was impressive as hell as well. For example, the elevator cable was made from a metal that was most certainly not the usual steel alloy, but something that likely hadnt even existed before the [System], and the motor was insanely powerful, to the point where the inertial dampening enchantment was necessary as long as anyone under Level 10 used this elevator. The cabin shot upwards at speeds that were practically unheard of, depositing them almost two-hundred meters above the lobby after mere seconds. Well, Isaac had clearly underestimated how long that would take. Isaac softly reached out with his [Aura] to get a good picture of his surroundings. To his surprise, they were noton the top floor, where one might have expected the big boss to have his office, but the one just below that. And as to why that was, well, that was probably meant to be hidden, but the enchantments meant to keep out prying sensory [Auras] didnt, at least not when it was Isaac trying to take a peek. Massive arrays of enchantments and runic inscriptions covered almost every avable surface, providing not a powerful defense against both magical and conventional attacks, but also a myriad of offensive options. Of course, the disciplines of enchanting and runecrafting were still in their infancy, limited to just the information that came with picking the appropriate [ss] and Amy or Hak could likely match around a third of its output on their own, but the defenses were nheless damn impressive for how short a period the [System] had been around. The elevator doors opened with a soft ding, revealing a massive, open lobby. Unlike the one on the bottom floor, which had been designed to make sure anyone who wasnt meant toe in didnt, this one was actually inviting. Plush chairs and couches were scattered around invitingly, and greenery was winding around all over the ce, forming intricate patterns around columns and the ceiling, clearly the construction of some kind of [Druid], [Gardener] or [Botanist]. That being said, most of Koreas highest Level people were the ones whod gone Dungeon diving, so Isaac was pretty sure this had been the work of a [Druid] or some other, nt-rtedbat-[ss] whod gotten bored. Another secretary sat behind a desk, which, in turn, was located right in front of the elevator doors, outfitted with anything one could possibly want in a desk. The tabletop was a b of beautiful marble, with a touchscreen located right inside the rock, beautifully blending in with the surrounding material, a few other fancy gadgets, and a defensive array that could probably tank a single, fully empowered, strike from Isaac. Well, at least if he didnt use [I Am The Sword]. Guildmaster Seon will be ready in a minute. The secretary informed them the moment he saw them. That seemed like too short a time to bother sitting down, so they stayed standing near the door that was clearlybeled Guildmaster Seon Yoo-Jin. The door was even more heavily enchanted than the desk, but the focus was on defending against eavesdropping, rather than attacks, for obvious reasons. The Guildmaster was a damn powerhouse, with a [ss] along the lines of [Everfrost Guildmaster], a hybrid [ss] thatbinedmander, warrior and [Cryomancer] features into a single, powerful package, coupled with an incredibly powerful frost [Aura]. He didnt need some random wards to defend himself, what he needed was privacy during the many sensitive meetings he had in there. It didnt take long for said doors to open, though, followed by a call of e in. Bailey was the first to enter, followed by the rest of them. Yoo-jin was standing behind his desk, which held several knickknacks made from monster materials and a fancyputer that looked like a smooth b of obsidian from their side. Good afternoon, Professor Kim, Professor Bailey, Dr. Thoma, wee to the Guild tower. Its good to meet you, Guildmaster Seon. Bailey greeted the man. The Guildmaster inclined his head Likewise. Now, I havent been informed on what precisely youre nning to investigate or experiment, but Id like to assure you, just like Professor Kim, youll have the full support of the Dungeon Guild behind your efforts. It might take a couple of days to free up a specific Dungeon, but I believe were all looking forward to seeing what you can do with them. As far as the sharing of the results goes, our current arrangement with Professor Kim is that any newly gained information is shared with the Dungeon Guild and, should it have real-world applications, jointly published. Otherwise, it remains with her team to be released as part of arger publication, with appropriate credit being given to the Guild. Would that be satisfactory? Of course. Bailey nodded. In that case, wee to the team. Yoo-jin grinned Youve already met Professor Kim and Mr. Hak, but the Guild does have some researchers of its own. He gestured towards the door behind them, which had opened once again Mr. Park will give you a tour of our facilities. Professor Kim, weve added a few additional features you havent seen yet, I believe youll like what you see. It was a rather abrupt dismissal, but Isaac had a feeling that the Guildmaster wasnt really into dealing with them. Bailey might be internationally famous, yes, but very little of his research helped the Dungeon Guild much. Hed met them as a matter of courtesy and offered all the necessary help, but not done much more. Oh, and Dr. Thoma, could stay behind for a few minutes, theres something Id like to discuss with you? Yoo-jin called after them. Aaaaaannnd there it was. Bailey might be a great researcher, but Isaac held the secrets to immediate power, and that was immediately interesting. Of course. Isaac nodded, then turned to Bailey Ill meet you in the hotel at thetest. Once the door had closed behind him, Yoo-jin spoke again. So, Dr. Thoma, I hear that its possible to break downbat [Auras] with sensory [Auras], is that correct? Yes, and I can demonstrate not only how to do that, but also how to defend against it. But please, call me Isaac, I have a feeling well be working together very closely in the future. Isaac suggested in fluent Korean. Now, he wouldnt have dared to suggest this with someone hed only just met under normal circumstances, but he knew Yoo-jin from the other timeline. Theyd met in person a handful of times, but that had been a quick handshake and greeting kind of deal, rather a proper interaction. But Yoo-jin was someone preferred to interact with people on a more personal level when it was appropriate, getting on a first name basis with many people he worked closely together with. He was a highly intelligent man,fortable both on the battlefield and in the boardroom, but he was also just twenty-seven. Under normal circumstances, the only way someone would get into a position this high up was nepotism, but these werent normal circumstances by any definition of the word. Yoo-jin had been there for several of the earliest Dungeon Breaks, organizing the defense of the city and smoothing over many of the ruffled feathers the situation had created and growing in strength all the while. Once the dust had settled, that left him as not only someone with a lot of power, but also a proven track record of being able to navigate the kinds of situations the Guildmaster would have to deal with on a nigh-daily basis and a significant amount of respect from all the right people. That had made him eptable to most whilecking attachments to other groups that might make his appointment politically dicey. Isaacs suggestion was met with a bright smile, and a reply that was likewise in Korean dly, please, call me Yoo-jin. The Guildmaster came around to stand at the front of the desk. So, could you exin how its possible to break something as solid as abat [Aura] with something as ephemeral as a sensory [Aura]? Simple, distraction. Isaac shrugged You project the sensory [Aura] past the defending [Aura], and poke the defender. It gets weakened by that, but itll still be distracting. Then you just keep poking, over and over again, until you find a weak spot and push through that until youve won. That makes sense, but it sounds remarkably difficult. Could you demonstrate? Yoo-jin asked, eagerness in his voice. Sure, are you ready? Isaac asked, getting a nod in return. Suddenly, the office began to cool down a little, going from thefortable mid-twenties the air conditioning provided to somewhere in the low teens, though it got far, far colder the closer you got to the Guildmaster. Actually touching him would likely cost someone a limb, if they could even get that far. But Isaac just took a few steps back and roused his own [Aura], mming it into Yoo-jins. Most of its strength evaporated as it passed through the defensive field of frost, but enough got through to give Isaac a decent scan of the Guildmaster. Yoo-jin flinched and Isaac withdrew his [Aura], only to project it at him from another angle, and then from a third one, each and every strike carrying with in a sensation of intense, intrusive, scrutiny. Yoo-jin tried to focus his [Aura] to keep out Isaacs, but wasnt quite seeding. After all, sensory [Auras] were notoriously difficult to keep away. Normally, that wasnt much of an issue, but here, it was being used as a kind of mental attack. The defending [Aura] began to waver, and spears of Isaacs [Aura] hammered at each weak point, this time focusing on striking the defending [Aura] itself, until it could be pushed back in its entirety. A momentter, it copsed, and Isaac wrapped the other man in his [Aura] so tightly that any attempt to bring his own [Aura] back up was instantly squashed. Not bad. Yoo-jin nodded, covering his shook fairly well, though not perfectly You said theres a way to block that? Yep. Isaac nodded Your [Aura] is an ice [Aura], right? Visibly restraining himself from rolling his eyes, Yoo-jin nodded. Youre wielding it as an [Aura of Frozen Water], but thats not its actual name, is it? Its got a different name, and you need to focus on that. You need to focus on projecting an [Aura] that contains that meaning. My own [Aura], for example? Its a basic sensory [Aura] and I use it like that, intentionally keeping out the aspects of urgency and demanding intensity to avoid getting on the nerves of everyone I run into. But during that little experiment, I put as much of that intensity into my [Aura], practically turning it into a mental attack. Your [Aura] is an [Aura] of frost, yes, but theres more to it, and you need to use that. Is it an [Aura] meant for defense? Then turn it into an insurmountable bulwark. Is it an [Aura] that emtes the ideas of the eternal cold of winter, that saps the energy of those caught without cover until their death? Then create a defense based on that, which slowly destroys all those who push past. Or does it harbor the unrelenting and furious onught of a blizzard? If so, use that and counterattack! In summation, using [Auras] in their generic configuration works well enough, but it can be vastly improved from that point by using the idea behind it. That Yoo-jin broke off, thinking about his reply for a disquieting amount of time that was a lot easier to understand than during your lecture. Isaac grimaced Probably. Im still working on my presentation skills. No matter, I think I have it now. Yoo-jin nodded, and suddenly, his hand turned snow-white and whisps of fog began to rise from it, the effect rapidly spreading until he dropped his [Aura]. would you mind relocating to the training center? he asked, and Isaac nodded. Sean Yoo-jin held the [Aura of the Winters Child], a legendarybat [Aura] that would suffuse both him and his surroundings with a deadly chill, using any of the various aspects of winter, including all of the examples Isaac had given. In that sense, it was a lot like Rauls [Aura of Arcane Nature], and equally difficult to control. Yoo-jin trying to wield the power of one of the four seasons, rather than merely using ice, for the first time in his office would havepletely trashed the ce. The knickknacks werent particrly expensive and the data on theputer was probably backed up somewhere, but it would still have been annoying. Of course. Isaac nodded Is there a flight path from here to the training center? Yep. Yoo-jin grinned So, race you? The Guildmaster stepped up to therge, floor to ceiling window, pushed it open and stepped out on what had been empty air mere moments ago. Now, there was arge pane of frozen air there, almost fifty meters across, vapors streaming off the bottom while his powers added more air at the top. The sheet was a fraction of a millimeter thick, only kept intact by a [Skill] that flowed through it, and the vapor streaming off the bottom was being pushed down with additional force, keeping it in the air in a way that weirdly reminded Isaac of a VTOL aircraft. Come on! Yoojin waved and Isaac followd, hopping onto the disk, almost slipping and falling on his ass, though he used [de Control] to yank on Old Reliable, which was, in turn, attached to his belt and helped stabilize him. The window mmed shut behind him without anyone having touched it, courtesy of a motor in the frame. Clearly, Yoo-jin left that way often enough for that to be needed. And then, they were off, part of the disk melting to provide thrust and flinging them towards the training center, which had been built close to the administrative tower, for obvious reasons. Ten meters above the street, the disk disintegrated, leaving the pair of them to drop the rest in freefall, though that was hardly a threat to them. Yoo-jin lead the way inside, taking a moment to duck into an office to grab a key or something, while motioning for Isaac to wait. It would have likely only taken a few seconds without interruptions, but sadly, things didnt go smoothly. After all, someone shouting YOU DARE! had a way of thoroughly destroying peace and tranquility in a way few other exmations could. Chapter 97: … should have expected that Chapter 97: should have expected that The moment Isaac got a good read on the screamers [Aura], he knew what had happened. The man quite literally burned with rage, and that wasnt merely a metaphor. mes streamed off him as he ran at Isaac in a [Skill] boosted charge, ring at the namete above his head. Isaac hadnt done anything wrong per se, but for a person so inclined to fly off the handle as to get an [Aura] based on just that, it still sufficed as a reason for this level of aggression. Sure turning his behavior to date into Foreigner walks right in,cking the usual ess cards Guild members had on their belts, proims himself a Sage and stands around as if waiting for someone to wait on them hand-and-foot took some mental gymnastics and should by no means result in this kind of aggression, but sometimes, someone just wanted a fight and picked the first fight that seemed even remotely justified. Isaac had been well aware of the fact that calling himself Sage might rub a few people the wrong way, but there were no universally praised titles that had been used in reference to him, so he hadnt been able to choose them. It had just been poor luck to run into such a hothead without Yoo-jin next to him. Even this guy should have been smarter than to pick a fight with a man being escorted by the Guildmaster. Isaac teleported a few meters to the back and side, dodging the rush, but he neednt have bothered. Screamer, as hed begun calling the man in his head, came to a stop right next to where Isaac had been. If he hadnt moved, Screamer would have gotten right up in his face. You daree in here, proiming to be one of great Sages and Yeah, in hindsight, unequipping that title might have saved him a lot of trouble. Then again, most people wouldnt fly off the handle like that at the mere sight of it. Of course, there was always the distinct possibility of the whole thing having been set up like this, with a hothead in ce to pick a fight with him. The arrival of the foreign experts had not only almost certainly been announced ahead of time, there were undoubtedly elements that had been rubbed the wrong way by that. And given that Screamer had been yelling in English, with the clear assumption that Isaac didnt speak a lick of Korean. Someone was cruising for a bruising, and normally, hed have been willing to oblige, but that would have been the wrong way to handle this. Reaching out with his [Aura], Isaac poked Yoo-jin a few times, hoping to get him out of the office and out here. Unfortunately, those offices were soundproofed, so no one within had been aware of the mess out here to date. Isaac supposed that this ce could get rather noisy at times, so the soundproofing was a great idea for most of the time, but it was really fucking inconvenient at the time. so kindly get the fuck out of here, and take that fucking title off your namete, you arrogant bastard! Right, while there were ways to see whether a Title had been given by the general popce or chosen by the bearer, but Isaacs ludicrous level of information defense had made that impossible. First of all, I earned this Title, it was given to me by the [System]. Isaac said, poking Yoo-jin five times in under a second, hoping to properly convey the urgency of the situation. Your ims are worthless! Screamer, well, screamed, ncing over at the st of cold air that apanied Yoo-jin storming out of the office And now youve had to drag the Guildmaster into this, have you no shame? Well, I wanted to make sure he knew that I didnt pick a fight the instant he wasnt next to me. Isaac exined in fluent Korean So, can we please not escte this? You! Screamer snarled Coward! A ming fist flew towards Isaacs face, apanied by the same rush-[Skill] that might have seriously hurt had it actuallye anywhere near its intended target. Isaac flowed to the side like water, Old Reliable appearing in his right hand, extending to its full form, and then he smashed the t of the de against the back of the mans legs, sweeping his feet out from under him. From there, it came around before Screamer could even start to fall, hammered down from above, enhanced by a [Power Strike], spiking the jackass right into the ground. In the split second before the impact, Isaac switched over to the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn], creating arge, t tform beneath him. The ground here, while somewhat reinforced, couldnt hold a candle to the sheer durability of ces built to be fought in. And yes, he could have afforded to have it fixed after the fight, but shattering the floor like a frozenke that had had an anvil dropped on it would not have made a good impression. Screamer mmed into the ground with insane but still perfectly survivable force. Isaac had also mmed the de into his gut, just below the ribs, thoroughly knocking the wind out of him. Old Reliable vanished as he dismissed it, leaving him standing over the groaning form of the jackass. The moment a weapon had been drawn, everyone in the room had tensed and even, on asion, drawn weapons of their own, but those were already being put away. Isaac hadnt struck first, had finished the fight quickly and cleanly and even spared the building. What the hell is going on? Yoo-jin growled, ring at the man on the ground. Hed probably already figured out what had happened from context and what little hed caught of the argument, but he wanted someone else to confirm it. Isaac kept mum, though. It would sound more sincereing from someone else. The foreigner came in, Sehan flipped out because of the Title and you saw the rest. One of the bystandersmented off-handedly, with a strong implication of you know how he is. Yoo-jins eyes narrowed as he nced over at Isaac, but upon seeing the same title as before, he sighed heavily and then red at Screa-, no, Sehan Was that really necessary? Hes earned the title of Sage, but even if he hadnt, in what world would that have been an appropriate reaction? The man being scolded was still lying on the ground, slowly getting his wits back about him, but still nowhere near ok. He might have been uninjured, but that didnt mean he was unhurt. And yet, he was still a Hunter with a physical [ss] and a Level well into his thirties, he could recover incredibly quickly. That man?! How can he possible have earned that kind of title? Sehan coughed, pushing himself into a sitting position. Youre thest person toment on people having earned anything, Mr. Yoo-jin began to shoot back, but then the jackass surged to his feet, ming [Aura] swelling into an inferno that wreathed the man in fire, but a burst of frigid cold quashed it a mere momentter. The frigid grasp of winter held the man down, but it shed erratically and expanded to trap Isaac as well, but disintegrated as a crimson burst pushed it back. Right before a major fight was absolutely the wrong time to fundamentally change ones [Aura] use. After all, using the extremely powerful [Aura of the Winters Child] as if it were a basic frost [Aura] might have cost it a decent chunk of its power, but it had also made an extraordinarily tricky [Aura] a cinch to control. Even as Sehan and Yoo-jin were ring at each other, [Auras] shing erratically, Isaac intervened. His fist, wreathed in his aurora of power, tore through the mes like they werent even there and then, he grasped the other man by the cor, yanking him up until mere centimeters separated their faces. From that point of contact, Isaacs [Aura] swept onwards, brushing aside the mes until Sehan waspletely wrapped in the red field, utterly preventing any more fiery [Aura] from being generated. And while, from the outside, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] felt just like it always had, a mixture of healing and bloodshed, but that the inside was a whole other story. Around the idiotic, stupid, hotheaded jackass, the only thing that could be felt was the aspect ofbat, of war, of the blood of the countless monsters that had fallen at Isaacs hands since the initialization, all of it drenched in the rage and intense hatred that burned within his heart. Hatred for the gods, hatred for the people whod worked with them like the Systemers had, and morons who didnt know their own limits and created immense amounts of trouble that others would have to get them out of. Oh, the things Isaac would have one if there hadnt been a hundred people watching them it would have been a sight to behold, a lesson even this assholes grandchildren would still feel. But they did have an audience, and that just pissed him off further, though he didnt let any of that show on his face or in his bodynguage. Look, how about we either stop this, or take it into one of the trai- Isaac jerked back, taking the headbutt to the sternum. As Sehan pulled back, Isaac returned the favor, the red glow of the enhancing [Power Strike] hidden by his [Aura], mming his forehead into the other mans face with enough force to almost give himself a concussion. The force of the impact was so great that even the looted-from-a-Dungeon, tougher than anything made by mortal hands shirt whose cor he was holding onto tore, sending the numbskull to the ground, nose broken and torso bare. This time, he justid there, unmoving. Yoo-jin pped his hands, the noise echoing like a gunshot, while he used a [Skill] to hold the unconscious Guild member in ce and prevent another attack, and made an announcement. Everyone, this is Dr. Thoma, he literally wrote the book on the use of [Auras] and hes here to see what can be achieved when people are actually allowed to use all aspects of the [System] and give lessons on improving [Aura] control. Everyone who isnt getting expelled from the Guild for constantly picking idiotic fights is wee to attend. Now, someone please heal Mr. Hyon back to consciousness, I need to have a stern talk with him. A half-dozen beams of golden light washed over the area, the shattered nose stitching itself back together at lighting speed, but the man was clearly still very much out of it. Alright, up you go. Yoo-jin growled, seizing the numbskulls arm and hauling him to his feet, dragging him into a nearby office, lecturing him in a low voice, but everyone could still understand him rather clearly. In this world of superhumans, a private conversation without some serious privacy [Skills] or enchantments was a thing of the past. Isaac just walked towards a bench and sat down to wait, fully aware of all the eyes on him, some hostile, some sympathetic, some appraising. None one approached him for a long while, but eventually, a broad shouldered young man approached, an [Aura] that felt like a mountain wreathing him, but it felt weak. Like a heap of cracked and broken shale, rather than a true monument of nature that could stand for millions of years. So, the Guildmaster says youre pretty good with [Aura], huh? How would you go about using an [Aura of the Enduring Mountain]? Isaac nodded thoughtfully and swept the man with his sensory [Aura] in such a way that made it obvious to everyone here that hed actually done so, rather than putting the information out of his ass. Id focus on the idea behind that name. Mountains dont move, at least not in the timescale us mortals deal in. But they also dont change, able to endure far more than any edifice built by human hands, use that as your inspiration. Dont create a flexible shield if you dont need it to be, create a shape and expression youre happy with and solidify that. Who could withstand the might of a mountain in motion? A thoughtful expression flitted across the mans face, which was quickly followed by a shift in his [Aura]. The maniption was crude and basic, but perfectly serviceable and even after merely a few seconds, it was already starting to show strong improvement. So, its that easy to improve your [Aura]? Just focus on the name? another person asked. No. Isaac shook his head Its important to understand the meaning behind the name. Theres a reason the [Auras] descriptions are practically essays on certain aspects of reality, those tend to be very helpful. Can I ask whats yours? a third person asked. Hope, the idea that theres always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if sometimes, you need to stand up for what you believe in to reach it. But theres always hope. Isaac lied through his teeth. Knowing the exact idea behind an [Aura] could be exploited, so he hadnt told everyone about just what his [Aura] represented, but given them a nice and usible alternative that also made him look rather good. That turned out to have broken the dam and he was soon inundated with questions and advice, but only part of the crowd was interacting with him. There were still quite a few people who looked unhappy, or just in afraid. There was another burst of [Aura] from the office into which Yoo-jin and Sehan had disappeared into, but it quickly vanished again. Damn, those two were still fighting? And how the hell was that idiot still not seeing sense? Another ten minutes after that, a portal irised open outside the training centers doors, spitting out everyone whod stayed behind in the administrative building. Professor Kim was the first through the door, but the moment she saw the scorch marks on the floor, she froze. What happened? she asked sternly, giving the people closest to the entrance a hard look. The Guildmaster showed up with an expert in [Aura] and one of the hotheads picked a fight. Bailey slowly picked his way through the crowd to Isaac and likewise gave him a stern look What exactly happened here? right, he hadnt understood a word that had been said so far. Eh, some guy took offense at the title and picked a fight, it went a little further than it should have, and now Im giving little [Aura] lessons to everyone while the Guildmaster is cleaning up the mess. Isaac said, voice contrite. Well, damn. Everyone alright? Yep. I suppose theres nothing to do but wait, isnt there? Bailey sighed and headed back to the others. There, Amy and Hak were already deep in conversation about how their very simr [sses] could be used to their full effect, while Professor Kim was practically being mobbed a group of people with various magic [sses], looking for advice. Eh, at least the time spent waiting wouldnt be wasted. Chapter 98: Training Mishaps Chapter 98: Training Mishaps Alright, ready? the ringmaster asked, getting nods from both Isaac and Yoo-jin, and then practically ran out of the room. The whole mess with the asshole had been dealt with, hed been banned from all Guild services, including the Dungeons themselves, for an unlimited amount of time, had to pay for the damages to the building and was currently exining to the police just what had gone through his head when hed pulled that stunt. Initially, Sehan had imed someone else had fed him a line about Isaacs character but as it turned out, that person not only had absolutely no reason to do anything like that, they had also been Dungeon diving at the time in question. At that point, it had be rather apparent that the whole thing had been arranged to happen the way theyd actually ended up unfolding, but the maniption didnt really absolve the idiot of anything. Now he was getting charged with terminal stupidity instead of assault well, actually, terminal stupidity wasnt a crime, so the official charge was still assault with a side helping of property damage and endangering the lives of others, but everyone knew the real problem with him was the fact that he was reckless and irresponsible. So now, there was one less idiot with superpowers around, or at least one idiot who wouldnt be growing any stronger for the foreseeable future. He couldnt ess Dungeons and given that summoning was very much illegal here, his growth would stagnate, leaving him falling further and further behind and into irrelevance. At the end of the day, it hadnt gone too badly, though. Handling that magnanimously and only holding the actual perpetrator ountable had earned them all a decent amount of goodwill and also impressed the need to watch out for high Level idiots, which could only be a good thing. But neither Isaac or Yoo-jin was dealing with that directly anymore, they were in one of the buildings training rooms to spar with their [Auras], with a [Ringmaster] right outside to reinforce it to make sure this didnt end with the ceiling falling on their head. This was a [ss] that could seriously support the training efforts of the people affected, but didnte with many [Skills] that increased personal power, so the man had undoubtedly decided that near them when their [Auras] went to work was a distinctly unhealthy ce to be. One moment, there were two people standing in front of each other, motionless. The next, shing fields of energy ravaged the space between them, bitterly cold, artic winds shing with the blood-drenched air of a battlefield, both wrapping around each other, shing, withdrawing in ces only to m back together with renewed force elsewhere, over and over. Yoo-jins [Aura] control had returned with a vengeance after maybe half an hour of practice and now, it burned with a terrible cold that, against any other opponent, would have practically guaranteed his victory, slowly yet inevitably wearing down his opponent until they were frozen in ce, helpless. Unfortunately for him, his opponent was Isaac, who was pushing forward with the same inevitability, not because it was a function of his [Aura], but by his own indomitable willpower. Attacks that bore down with all the weight and inevitability of a cier were deflected and pushed to the side, while his own strikes carried with them the full power of an army. The cold was affecting him somewhat, but even without the regenerative effect of his [Aura], Isaac would have been fine long enough to win this. In the end, though, the match ended in a solid draw as the ground began to crumble under Isaacs feet and he flung himself backwards, retreating all the way to the far wall, the mere brushing of his [Aura] against the ground reducingrge parts of it to dust. oops. In hindsight, it was obvious what had happened. Yoo-jins freshly enhanced [Aura] had dropped the temperate of the floor down into the double digits on the Kelvin scale of measurement and when Isaac had stepped onto a patch that hadnt been shielded by his own [Aura], the tough, reinforced to the point of absurdity, floor of the training room had crumbled like a childs sandcastle that a particrly assholish adult had decided to tten. When hed then jumped backwards, hed flown over other spots that likewise hadnt been shielded by his [Aura], likewise making it incredibly fragile and brittle. The [Ringmaster] had tried to stop the fight at the first sign of trouble, but [Skills] that should have shut this whole affair down in a matter of milliseconds affected the pair ofbatants about as much as a bee sting would affect a dragon. Thankfully though, the pair of them knew on their own that now was the time to stop. I dont suppose youve got someone whos able to fix this? Isaac asked One of my colleagues is a [Geomancer] and can repair any damage we do in seconds. I swear, hes the only reason our pictures arent being used as dartboards by the maintenance staff. Yoo-jin justughed I do know someone like that, except he is the maintenance staff. And it isnt pictures he throws darts at. ah, I see. Isaac said. He did know people like that. They had the knowledge and skillset to be incredibly useful, but they were also very aware of where the line was and what not to do to cross it. They were demanding, criticized stupid actions and the like, never so much as putting a single toe across said line. But they were also oh so worth it, experts that could do the work of a hundred lesser people and still have enough time left over to tell cool stories or mentor the younger staff. In other words, a curmudgeon whod earned the right to be a curmudgeon. Besides, none of the people whod had darts chucked at them would be in any real danger, given that they were able to damage a ce this tough to such a degree as to actually piss off the maintenance guy. Well, the issue is that people with that [Skill]set are incredibly hard to Level. Yoo-jin sighed. The issue was rather clear, though. [Geomancers] and simr [sses] excelled at fixing this kind of damage, but they were a stone cold pain in the ass to level when all you had avable were Dungeons. After all, they were meant to manipte existing earth and stone, but the Dungeons walls, floors and ceilings were flooded with their mana, making them incredibly difficult to manipte. This made [Geomancers] practically useless in Dungeons and therefore, they were very difficult to properly level using them. And given that regr summoning was very much a no-go here, due to how easy it was to concentrate all the monsters, and therefore, the danger, into a handful of ces using Dungeons. I wrote an essay on the uses of [Geomancers] and rted [sses] in military matters a while ago. Isaac said Maybe that could be used to convince the local officials to grant you an exception. Maybe. Yoo-jin sighed They certainly dont listen to me. They probably believe Im exaggerating things to get more people with those [Skills] and making things up. Bureaucracy is the same everywhere, isnt it? Isaac asked. Yep. Yoo-jin said But while we clearly cant practice in here anymore, why dont we go to a Dungeon and work in there? As he said that, he turned to the observation area How about you guys, should we go together? Weve got a new Dungeon with Tier 6 monsters Id like to show you, Professor Kim. Chapter 99: A proper Dungeon Crawl Chapter 99: A proper Dungeon Crawl The Dungeon in question was located outside the city, its entrance surrounded by heavily reinforced concrete walls and a series of automated weapons that would at the very least slow any monsters that came from within. Actually, slow down was just about all theyd be able to do, sadly. These were Tier 6 monsters and the weapons were barely enhanced. However, this issue was greatly alleviated by the presence of over fifty Hunters in the fortifications, not-so-patiently guarding the active Dungeon. The big issue was that, right now, no one had the proper forme to calcte how long it took for a Dungeon at this Tier to break, and until Professor Kim could figure that out, a heavy guard contingent was needed. After a short, rapid-fire conversation between Yoo-jin and one of the guards, the door leading into the fortress opened, revealing the way inside. The area outside the Dungeon was nothing but naked dirt, with a small concrete path leading to the entrance itself, and nothing else. It was a killing field out there, designed to allow the guards to obliterate anything that came out. Thankfully, people were taking all the right precautions. Well, all save not having a Tier 6 Dungeon in the first ce, that was. Still, the reason for creating this ce was the same as the one the team given for summoning their Tier 6s, they needed to know what was what with those things. Besides, unlike Germany, Seoul had enough high-Level people to spare some to babysit this ce. Basic ns is going to be just as we agreed on: Isaac is the scout, Professor Bailey is acting as the healer, Professor Kim and Amy are magical support and Im ying frontliner. Yoo-jin summarized the conversation theyd had on the way here and activated his leadership [Skill]. Would you like to join a party with Seon Yoo-Jin, The Shield of Seoul? Y/N Isaac, of course, clicked yes. You have entered into a party. Party members: - Seon Yoo-Jin (Party Leader) - Isaac Thoma (you) - Kim Ye-rin - Adam Bailey - Amelia Shaw You are afforded the following buffs: - Warning Signs: you may highlight object to your party members in a way only members of the party can see - Tracking: you are aware of your party members location so long as they are within one kilometer of your location - XP Share: you are awarded XP in ordance with your contribution to the fight, monsters in count towards XP limit in proportion to the contribution Isaac sighed dly. Hed missed this. A proper party, with someone who actually had [Party Leader] and arrange for proper cooperation, it felt like returning to the golden age of the [System] from the other timeline, the time before, well, everything had gone to crap. Still, just having a Party menu wasnt a great enough boon for him to actively pursue getting the [Leadership] [Skill]. First of all, just that [Skill] alone wasnt that helpful, you needed others to support it, and at that point, you needed an actual [ss] dedicated to leadership. Just getting that one [Skill] required a [ss] at least partially focused on leading others, which could be an eptable deviation from ones path under certain circumstances, but Isaac wasnt some great leader of men, someone who could use that [Skill] to its fullest effect. Instead, hed grabbed a strongbat [ss] and when fighting together, the team used the good old, supremely basic method ofmunication known as talking. The biggest advantage of this party interface was XP Share, though. It remediated the issue of how when killing monsters together, each kill counted towards the XP limit as, well, one kill, while only rewarding each individual a partial share of the XP. With this [Skill], though, you could get the maximum avable amount of XP. With how Bailey had dealt with things, though, even that boon wouldnt have helped much. They fought together against unknown monsters and that cost each of them a small handful of experience, but on subsequent fights, they dealt with the monsters on a one-on-one basis. After all, once it was known that a monster wasnt insanely powerful or harboring nasty surprises, one could adapt to its abilities and take care of it withparative ease. Everyone ready? Yoo-jin asked, and upon receiving a series of affirmations, they got going, heading into the Dungeon. Trap. Isaac said tly, less than thirty seconds after entering. He highlighted the edge of the pifall bright red in the party menu, clearly marking it for everyone. Thats unusually early for a trap. Kim observed Most Dungeons wait a bit before putting those in and usually pair them with something else, because naked traps tend to easily avable as long as the Hunters take the bare minimum of the needed precautions. How old is this ce, exactly? A few days. Yoo-jin answered Its still learning. Should we be talking about this in the Dungeon? Amy asked Arent we teaching it how to kill us more effectively? Not really. Kim said Dungeons have a way of sharing information. Weve been able to determine that they cant share the patterns for creatures and they seem to have real trouble adequatelymunicating trap blueprints, but basic information can be shared quite readily, once the Core has figured out how. Us talking in here will only speed up its proper trap cement by a few days at most. Is there any difference between Dungeon types, or can different kinds of coresmunicate with each other? Isaac asked. If that hadnt been investigated so far, hopefully, it would be soon, because otherwise, there were all sorts of ways that could go wrong. History told him that things shouldnt go that badly, but he still hoped to create the best possible oue. In essence, there were three kinds of Dungeon Cores that could be summoned. The first was a normal,pletely unbound and unrestricted free Dungeon. They did whatever they wanted, got to choose their type when they were first spawned and started out with appropriate monsters, but could gain more if humans decided to feed it bits from others monsters. That being said, though, it was possible to influence the original choice by giving them the right materials immediately after summoning them. These kinds of Dungeons were also the most problematic ones, which would eventually break if not cleared often enough, or simply cleared to shallowly, they could not be controlled and might even end up doing something really dangerous, like create creatures that carried diseases and the like. Then there were the bound Dungeons. They were summoned under the control of the summoner, who could direct it to create itself in whatever way they saw fit. They were considerably safer, but also far less useful. They couldnt kill anyone the controller didnt want to hurt, even subconsciously, but it would also not give out loot or XP to said people. So, if the controller was a decent person, they were pretty much useless. Usually, they were built as training centers. You might not get any [Skill] Levels of XP from them, but practice was still useful. That being said, they were hardly safe, as monsters could easily end up killing someone without meaning to, and at the end of the day, summoning with a high Level person nearby to keep a close eye on things was far more useful. Besides, monsters that were trying to avoid killing you fought differently and training against them could easily lead to acquiring bad habits. There was another use for them, though, and that was to keep something safe. Dungeons were great at that, and whats more, the controllers ill will towards would-be thieves usually overrode the I dont want to kill people shackle. However, if the controller ended up dying, the Dungeon would be a free one, and if no one noticed, well, that could end really, really badly. And that just left the third of the summonable Dungeon types, the limited Dungeon. It was, like the name suggested, incredibly limited in what it could do, but also highly controble. You could make it do whatever you wanted, and even flick the safeguards on and off at a moments notice, giving you incredible flexibility when it came to using it safely, and it even wouldnt go wild if you died, but all that came a cost. A financial cost, to be sure, but one that wasrge enough to seriously bite for all but the richest of people. Basically, whatever you wanted in your Dungeon, you had to add yourself. Rocks and the like were cheap enough, sure, but you couldnt just use bodies for monsters, no, you needed Aspects. And not just one Aspect per monster type, oh no, that would have been far too easy, but one for every single individual monster you wanted to have in the Dungeon at the same time. Even for Isaac, those kinds of numbers were difficult to raise. But in addition to the three summonable types, there was one more. Well, technically it was just an upgraded version of the standard Dungeon, but that was just semantics. A bonded Dungeon, one which had a human servant, whod been sworn to service in exchange for a few special [Skills] that couldnt be obtained otherwise. The issue was that, whenever someone was stupid enough to offer such a deal, a Dungeon would be able to affect the real world in a far more immediate and direct manner, possibly gaining ess to unusual materials, such as nasty chemicals or even bioweapons. Hell, just a few of the right,monly avable tools and reagents for gic research could be used to create terrifying gues. well, you didnt need a Dungeon for that, a regr truck and a reasonably knowledgeable person were enough, but it certainly made things easier. As dangerous as both a regr, free Dungeon and a freed bound Dungeon could be, bonded Dungeons were infinitely worse and were usually destroyed the instant someone found out about them. There werent any around at the moment, at least none that Isaac was aware of, so there were none on the naughty list that was about to be published, but that didnt matter. Professor Kim had already figured out the issue with the bonded Dungeons and there was already a taboo against bonding with Cores in ce. Were not entirely sure whether or not the various Dungeon types canmunicate between each other, but in general, we set clear limits on what Dungeon Masters can teach their pet Dungeons, just to be on the safe side. Kim said. What about a range limit? Isaac asked If some idiot hillbilly decides to tell his Dungeon how to build a fertilizer bombs, will one of your Dungeons gain the same capability? None that weve been able to detect, but then again, there is only so far we can get from Seoul to check. Kim said. Well, if we ever get the go-ahead on our own Dungeon experiments, wed love to help. Bailey said. Another trap, des in the wall, to many triggers to avoid easily, disarming. Isaac rattled off a quick exnation while he threw out his right arm, a glowing yellow Zweih?nder shing out and slicing through the wall. It still prated rather easily, but nowhere near the ease of a hot knife through butter it usually did when striking rock. Dungeons were tough. Still, it went through the rock and obliterated the trigger mechanism, then vanished and was flung through another section of wall, and another, until all the traps were disabled. Simply making sure not to step on the pressure tes would have been a viable alternative, to be sure, but a hell of a lot harder to do in the midst ofbat and Isaac wasnt liking the soundsing from further down the hall. That could have really hurt. Yoo-jinmented as they carefully made their way through the field of triggers. Sure, the traps had been disabled, but that didnt mean that anyone wanted to actually step on the things that would, a few scant seconds ago, caused them to be skewered. Still, the next room is free of traps, and we should start to see some monsters in there. Isaac said, his voice appearing seemingly from out of nowhere as he deactivated [Stealth] near the front of the group Theyre hiding in the walls right now, but those tunnels are only connected to the next room over. The trapped corridor opened up into arge chamber, the rock of walls, floor and ceiling kept in the same dirt brown as the rest of the dungeon and the barren space outside. It was a very boring color, but no one hadmented on that thus far, insulting a Dungeon you were actively diving wasnt a good idea. Iing! Yoo-jin warned as the first monsters began to leap from holes in every surface, each visible only long enough to spit out a dog sized insect, granting no chance to flood the tunnels these things used to get around with fire. Each beastie covered in a dark green carapace, with a series of legs located all around their bodies, much like a centipede where every second segment was upside down, sharp ws that dripped with poison topping each leg, while a pair of scythe-like appendages, reminiscent of a Praying Mantis. In other words, they were butt ugly and damn terrifying to boot. Yoo-jins [Aura] immediately red to life, hitting full power after a mere fraction of a seconds, drastically slowing all creatures that entered it. With his position in the mouth of the tunnel, it covered any and all paths the bugs could take to get at the squishier party members behind him. His gear might just be a buckler, arming sword and clothes he could move well in, far more basic than one might expect from the Guildmaster, but he was much like Isaac in the sense that he summoned most of his actualbat equipment. A bug smashed into a tower shield of deep blue ice, legs stabbing deeply into the surface, and then, it died, more ice having manifested andpletely encased it. The sword, meanwhile, had grown to berger than even Old Reliable in itsrgest form, the ice de shattering with each swing, sending razor sharp shards into the besties behind the one that was actually hit, drastically slowing down the hoard. Even then, only a handful of creatures actually died to him, but killing wasnt his job, he was the tank. The actual damage dealing fell to Kim and Amy, who stood in the tunnel, unleashing hell upon the insectile hoard. Mana shaped into a dozen arrows, each perfectly guided into a dozen different foes hammered home at a rate of a salvo every two seconds, each lethally wounding a monster upon hit. The wounds werent immediately fatal, but they still hurt them badly enough that they usually died by the time Yoo-jins frost field slowed them down. Amy, meanwhile, had gone for area denial, two literal whirlwinds, each of which generated [Winddes] within itself, chopping up anything that got caught inside, appearing in the middle of the horde. And when monster, usually seconds from death, got anywhere close the mages, they ran right into the guarding that was Bailey. Hed blown himself up to the size that usually promoted hey, did you eat a grizzlyments, reinforced himself to the nines, added razor sharp ws andstly, abination of Bombardier Beetle nds, Porcupine Quills and Cone Shell poison to give himself the ability to shoot neurotoxic projectiles. In other words, they were all perfectly fine and well protected. Isaac, meanwhile, was in the middle of the room, fighting in ordance with his role as the partys [Rogue]. That way, neither his mobility nor sneakinessnded him in the path of everyone elses attacks, and he wasnt impeded by having to dodge around his teammates, just the way he liked it. A monster dove for his face, its own momentum impaling it on his Zweih?nder. Isaac phased, letting both the dead body and a few live ones sh through him. He then dropped to his knees, crouching and swinging his de around him in a full circle, several beasts falling apart in two pieces. Momentster, one more monster leaped at the back of his head, but he straightened, ramming a construct from the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] right through the body. All the blood and gore around him began to sizzle and spark as it was absorbed by the [Aura], not only fueling it in ce of his mana, but also empowering it. Finally, it had hit the level of power where Isaac could fully unleash it fully without using any mana. A dozen broad wedged of crimson energy shed around him just like his normal floating swords, smashing and knocking away any bug in range as he flitted over the battlefield, breaking up any groups that looked like they werent going to get smashed by the others AOE attacks. Also, there was a new trick hed figured out that was perfect for this situation. Recharging Old Reliables mana pool using the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] and the mana it drew from shed blood. A person couldnt absorb it without badly damaging their own spiritual body and thus, their ability to use mana, but the de was not only designed to absorb environmental mana, but it was also a hell of a lot sturdier than him. This freed him up to use the des abilities freely, creating as many des as he could, three of each shape, lighting them on fire and lobbing them into the crowd, then pulling them back towards him, shredding and burning anything they touched. All in all, though, there wasnt much for him to do, with most of the beasts going after the main body of the party and getting obliterated. Your Party has in 57 Reaping Centipedes (Lv. 18-24). 4617 XP (27% XP share) awarded wow. Amy said in a small voice Thats a lot of XP. Is this where we get the Bailey began to ask, but was cut off by a loud fluttering noise as every body in the room suddenly vanished, filling the entire chamber with fluttering pieces of paper. Is that money? Yoo-jin asked in a disgusted tone. You really need to talk to your people and tell them to be more polite to their Dungeons, Guildmaster Seon. Kim said, and a split secondter, every note in the room was shredded to pieces. Uh, whats going on? Amy asked Didnt you just destroy a literal fortune? No. Any Dungeon-made money is, per definition, a forgery, and cant be legally spent. If it is, then not only does the person who spends it get in a whole lot of trouble, but I get to repeat the same meeting with the Bank of Korea for the dozenth time, exining why we cant just prevent the Dungeons from dropping cash. Its usually used by the Dungeon as a means of expressing displeasure over insults and the like, which is why Im going to have some stern words with the guys outsideter. Yoo-jin said. Does that mean that Dungeons are smart enough to understand the basic ideas behind the economy? Bailey asked. A cat does not need all the information about what yourptop is, what it does and how it works to know youll get upset if it takes a dump on the keyboard or throws the whole thing off a high shelf. Yoo-jin said Its the same thing here. Someone once ranted about getting money as a drop early on, that information got spread around and then some joker started feeding cash to all Dungeons so they had a way of retaliating for real or perceived slights. So, how does that work, then? Dont insult the Dungeon, get good loot, insult the Dungeon, get forged money that needs to be destroyed. But what happens when Dungeons dont y ball, and just give crap loot as a matter of course? Amy asked. Kim just gave her a t look that, under any circumstances, might have been interpreted as displeasure. Here, though, it was very clearly a we kill those, dont talk about it here. Amy just nodded in reply. Generally, though, there are a few things that piss of Dungeons. Yoo-jin said Going in with partiesrger than five people, insulting the Dungeon, graffiti, using the Dungeon as a trash heap, and so on. Common courtesy is generally enough to avoid the Dungeons ire, though. Anyway, thats floor one done, theres the staircase. Care to continue? Of course. Bailey nodded Do you know how far in the Tier 6s are? Floor three and four. Yoo-jin said Well see different monster types on each one. Thankfully, the second floor looked considerably better than the first, with proper, grey rock on the walls, torches in sconces casting beautifully flickering lights all over the ce. Oh, and the foes here were nasty as fuck lizard-things. The closestparison Isaac could make was an oversized Basilisk Lizard, also known as a Jesus Lizard, blown up to the size of a person, given poisonous breath in line with its namesake, and a body adapted to use the ability to run on two legs it already possessed as a deadly charge. Behind me! Yoo-jin ordered, projecting his [Aura] as far forward as it would go, royally fucking with the cold-blooded monsters metabolism while his Isaac retreated to his side, the two of them preventing any lizards from passing. And then, Amys [Aura of Mystic Union] flowed into the fray, seamlesslybining with the frost [Aura], which was instantly followed by Isaac unleashing the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] and full st. The supporting [Aura] not only increased the other [Auras] range, it also allowed both of their effects to take effect. Blood boiled away and cured party members of the lizards poison, crimson shards of ice manifesting and tearing through the monsters bodies, with the full force of two legendary [Auras], controlled by some of the worlds strongest people, behind them. The second floor was just a long series of hallways that turned at odd angles, perfect for lizards toe charging in from either side, with more creatures emerging from hidden tunnels to attack from the back. It was a nasty setup against most parties, but Isaac and Yoo-jin shredded anything that came from the front, and the two world-ss spellcasters in the back demolished the small handful of creatures that came from the back. And as for the loot I dont suppose you have an [Alchemist] or two here who could make use of those? Bailey asked, looking down at the odd assortment of poison dders at their feet. No. A few people dabble and have the [Alchemy] [Skill], but no one with that [ss]. Ill let you keep em in exchange for all uses you discover being shared with us and some a few hours of your [Alchemists] time, though. Kim suggested and Bailey readily agreed. This deal would make Professor Chandler really happy, and not really cost them much of anything. The modern day mad scientist was always sharing information with others, and convincing him to speak with someone who had ess to a million different ingredients he wasnt allowed to ess in Germany would hardly be difficult. Your Party has in 56 Runner Basilisk Lizards (Lv. 22-25). 6,664 XP (34% XP share) awarded Okay, those are some incredible XP gains. Amy nodded Serious question: Howe youre not all at an insanely high Level? Dungeons are very dangerous, far more so than it would seem with a party this experienced. Kim said Also, [Skill] Level gains from easy Dungeon runs tend to be very low, so a lot of remedial training to get those up is needed to getbat power in line with ones Level. There are a few who dont do that, and it tends to be very obvious when that happens. High Stats can carry you far, but a 5% overall increase doesnt make nearly as much of a difference as evolving a core [Skill] of your fighting style. Yoo-jin added So, third floor? Thats when we should be seeing the first Tier 6 monsters. He got a round of affirmations, and off they were. This time, the staircase was trapped, though. Copsing steps, darts tipped in the toxin from thest floors lizards in one section of the wall to be triggered by a tripwire, etc. Nothing that could get past Isaacs sensory [Aura], but still annoying. As he set the first foot onto the sandy ground of the third floor, a massive [Aura] that felt like a sandster mmed into Isaac. After switching over to hisbat [Aura] and batting away the onrushing force of will, Isaac lunged. Ill get the one on the far side, you handle these three! he yelled, intercepting the furthest sand and rock serpent. He sidestepped the first strike, throwing the Zweih?nder into the body, triplicating it using one of its abilities and lighting it on fire. Roaring in pain, the elemental serpent plunged into the ground, erupting from underneath his feet. Isaac sidestepped, shed through it with a ming, [Power-Piercing-Sundering-Sweeping-Far Strike] to take a massive chunk out of it, two more copies of the Kriegsmesser manifesting, flying along the same arc the original weapon had taken. The roared at him, a cataclysm of rock shards and stone bursting from its mouth and descending upon him or at least the ce hed been standing. Instead, Isaac had teleported to its other side, drawing the ming des towards him, through the body of the monster, shattering even more of the vital mana links that held it together. It was still alive, but badly weakened, letting him easily disengage. The rest had been holding off the other three serpents with ease, but he could help that further along. Engaging the left one. Your left. He called out a warning to avoid friendly fire and lunged, [Wave Charge] flinging him forward, de leading and skewering one of thest vital mana locations. The rock serpent copsed instantly. Sure, it began to reform, but at an incredibly slow pace, giving Isaac the chance to go at the middle snake, once again calling out a warning to ensure he didnt get zapped. That snake turned to face him, but in the process, it revealed its weak spots to the others and got sted to bits. Meanwhile, the final snake tried to heave itself on top of the party, but only ended up bellyflopping onto an igluthat hadnt been there a split secondter, where it was frozen in ce, superchilled, and finally shattered like ss when a thrown rock smacked into it. The first snake hed struck here with the team was swiftly dispatched, followed by the original snake hed attacked. Was that it? Amy wondered. Something rumbled in the distance. Do these Dungeons, mayhaps, have a sense of dramatic timing? she asked sourly. Some do. Regardless, tempting fate is a bad idea. Yoo-jin said. Actually, can I try something with this one and take it on my own? Isaac asked, getting an affirmative in response. With a wry grin on his face, he sped onwards, activating [Compounded Impact] for the first time in realbat. On the far side of the room, arge golem appeared, humanoid with a squat neck and massive fists. Seemingly, this floor had a mini boss, and it was perfect for trying out that [Skill]. Isaac slid under the fist that flew at his head, de scraping against the underside of the arm, spun, and chopped at the leg. He kicked off the far wall, mming against its back, de digging deeply into the rock. Then, with the fourth, fifth and sixthblows, his mana began to plummet precipitously but the de began to hammer home like a giants mace, sting massive rents into the golems body. He leaped skywards, [Wave Charge] flinging him all the way up to the ceiling. Isaac nted both feet against the rock, bent his knees to absorb the momentum, and jumped upside down, de first. The seventh blow, empowered by a [Skill] whose costs doubled with every hit, hit like a godsdamned meteor, the body shattering to pieces beneath him. What kinds of [Skill] does that? Yoo-jin asked, thoughtfully. Hed been able to tell that all that damage hade down to a single [Skill] that showed an extremely weird damage pattern. An anti-boss one I wanted to try out. Isaac shrugged Combo damage, basically. So,st floor? Well, after a small strategy session? *** The boss of the worlds first Tier 6 Dungeon was a great hulking beast, with a corrosive, toxic [Aura] that dripped with hate for all things outside world. It was a hybrid of all monster types that popted the Dungeon, with four great big mantis scythes that could attack from any direction, rocky carapace automatically regenerated while the broken shards could be telekically controlled and made to extrude toxins. In other words, a true monster. It also died in under a second. A massive, motorbike-sized icicle, enchanted and dripping with toxins specifically concocted to kill the insects from the first floor, whose flesh made up the majority of its biomass, empowered with all of Yoo-jins and Isaacs [Skills] that could be used, hammered through its center at a third of the speed of sound, destroying 90% percent of its vital organs in one shot and fatally damaging the rest. Still, the Dungeon couldnt have been too mad, given that the boss loot chest contained a fancy, shapeshifting sword that could wreathe itself with Starme and a pair of bracers that could transform to gain the properties of whatever monster hide they were fed. The bracers went to Isaac, the sword went to Yoo-jin, while the various valuable minerals and gemstones were shared among Kim, Bailey and Amy. Do you know whates after the creation and first sessful clearing of a Dungeon? Yoo-jin asked Isaac. A party? he guessed. Actually, a thorough debrief. Yoo-jin shook his head sadly But on an unofficial basis, people tend to n them whenever they discover a new Dungeon with great loot. Isaac just rolled his eyes, but he wasughing on the inside. Chapter 100: Celebration Chapter 100: Celebration Bracers of any Defense A beautiful pair of Bracers made from the only vaguely defined form of a Dungeon monster, which, in turn, wasprised of many other beasts. And just like that monster, its form is variable. Its default form uses Reaping Centipede Chitin on the outside, with Runner Basilisk Lizard leather coating the inside, but all it takes to change that, are some material samples and a little mana. Current Configuration: Default Come on, either marry those bracers, or get out there. Amy said, elbowing Isaac in the side for emphasis. Sure, be there in a sec. He replied, slipped them on and followed her outside. While hed been dealing with all the various gains from the Dungeon run, a serious party had been developing out here. After all, a fresh Dungeon had been fully cleared and spat some pretty nice loot, at least if you ignored the incident with the literal fortune that had be destroyed. This Dungeon was basically the equivalent of a newly discovered gold mine being acquired by onespany, or a new market being conquered. It was a promise of wealth and prosperity toe and of course, it was celebrated. Besides, most Hunters were on the younger side and rather excitable, they needed an outlet that wasnt the wanton ughter of monsters. To be that young again Isaac chuckled softly, shaking his head at the silliness of his thoughts. To be that young again? He was twenty, damnit, and here he was, was acting like some wizened old grandpa. well, he was technically thirty-two, but even that wasnt as old as he was acting right now. He shook his head again and pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, keeping them there as he walked out into the party proper. Yoo-jin had spent arge part of the time Isaac had taken to check his notifications to y around with the shapeshifting sword and it showed in how easily he was throwing that thing around now. He couldnt use it to its fullest potential since his [ss] was ice aspected and the des elemental attack was fire based, but it wasnt that much of a problem. The greatest boon granted by the de was its ability to shift shapes and gain alternative abilities based on what its wielder needed, with the ability to ignite it at will being a distant secondary benefit. Yet even then, igniting the sword while it was stuck in a frozen opponent or solid object would use the concept of expansion and contraction and shattering the target into pieces. Besides, even a poor knockoff of Old Reliable was still a shapeshifting weapon whose usefulness could not be underestimated. Things like this, inferior copies of equipment that was brought inside or borrowed some features from [ss] [Skills] were rathermon loot, or at least they would be a few months from now, but they rarely matched ones requirements exactly. Of course, theyd also walked away with a literal fortune in rare minerals and gemstones, to be used in summoning, enchanting, or simply sold for cash, but those could be sourced from elsewhere, you didnt need to go fight monsters for those. By the time Isaac got out into the main hall of the training center, the party was in full swing. And just like any party with high-Level people a few months after the [Systems] Initialization, youd think everyone here was an alcoholic. Magically infused drinks that affected people with their Fortitude beyond fifty were still a pipe dream, so to get even the most remote semnce of normal drinking, a different approach was required. Namely, a high volume of a high proof beverage. Mind you, even that wasnt enough to affect people for long, at least not how they did it here. A round of drinks was poured, something in the same vein as Everclear in volumes of maybe a quarter of a liter each, downed in a single motion and maybe ten minutester, everyone was stone cold sober again. With how much was being drunk, one would not have expected the party to be this controlled and normal. Isaac had a few memories of how frat parties had gone totally off the rails, with people desperately chasing the sweet nothingness of drunkenness, literally downing multiple bottles of vodka and the like in less than a minute, then drinking more by the bottleful every time the fog of alcohol began to lift ever so slightly. Isaac grabbed a bottle from a nearby table and poured two sses, one for Amy and the other for himself. Well, first Dungeon clearedpletely safely, and met some really interesting people, I think that deserves a toast. Cheers! he said, their sses clinked together before they threw them back. How can anyone drink that? Amy red at him. Meh, its not that bad. He shrugged. Remember when you got that bottle of weird rum after that one frat party? You looked like someone sent you a dead skunk and that stuff is just as bad. What gives? Memories. This stuff is nasty, but it doesnt make me remember hanging over the toilet bowl, puking, followed by the worst hangover I ever had. Isaac exined But yeah, I think we should switch to something that tastes good, getting tipsy is just not an attainable goal at the moment. Chicken. Amy mumbled. Pragmatic. He corrected So, see you around? The party continued on for maybe another couple of hours or so, with people filtering in and out the whole time. Yes, it was a party, but between ack of drunkenness that ruined peoples self-control and the fact that it was a Monday night when people did, in fact, have stuff to do, it stayed pretty down to Earth. The whole atmosphere had slowly shifted from party to formal gathering with people wheeling and dealing, striking deals and hiring new party members. Actually, it was Amy who was getting propositioned the most. Her [ss] was an Evolution of [System Researcher], which Hak, Professor Kims assistant, had proven to be very powerful. He was also South Koreas only [System Researcher] and quite definitely not budging from his current position. This had led to a situation where everyone wanted a [System Researcher] on their team, but there was only one person in the country who fit the bill and looked like they might be convinced to change jobs. In addition, both Bailey and Isaac were far more tightly tied to the university through their official titles, which meant that people were less willing to approach them with a basic so, how about you join my team and run Dungeons with us offer. Then, the cleanup after the party was over in a literal sh as someone waved their hand, utterly disintegrating any trash, then cast another spell that packed up everything else. Magic could be damn handy at times. Isaac, could we talk in my office for a bit? Yoo-jin asked, stepping up next to him. Sure. He said, then, once he was seated across the desk from the Guildmaster he asked So, whats up? First of all, I have something for you. Yoo-jin said, sliding what looked like a cross between a badge and a medal, made from redgold and with a stylized S on the front, across the table. You introduced letter grades, didnt you? Isaac asked. Were working on it, sure. People wanted to use these from the very beginning, but its a little tricky to do when the power scale keeps moving up. Any system we introduced would have been outdated within days. Now though, its been arranged so the ranks reflect the bearers strength rtive to their Level, rather than their overall Level. You, for example, are hardly the highest Level but can probably take most of those. So, after that Dungeon run, here''s your S-Rank. It entitles you to ess any Dungeon thats not currently being run by someone else, regardless of official Level restrictions and gives you a certain degree of authority in case of emergencies. Then theres the bragging rights Yoo-jin stopped talking as Isaac chuckled softly. Is something wrong? he asked. Not really. Isaac shook his head Im grateful, really. Its just that I realized whates next. Yoo-jin nodded In that case, I suppose its time to cut to the chase. Another object was slid across the table, this time, it was a pretty thick wad of paper. Youre a powerful fighter, have a high degree ofmon sense and youre the expert on [Aura]. The Guild would like you to stay here as an instructor, and is willing to offer you a great deal in exchange. Yeah, I can see that. Yearly sry to the tune of nearly five million Euros a year, a penthouse apartment, with the choice of either getting one in an existing building, or taking up residence in a hotel until the new, specialized Hunter Housing buildings arepleted. Priority ess to all Dungeons, limited Dungeon creation ess authority, the ability to create my own squad well, all of this is very generous. Isaac observed But Im afraid Ill have to decline. I like my job just the way it is and what Im doing is, well helping a lot of people. That being said, I dont see why I couldnt drop by here every couple of months to grind some XP and teaching some of your best and brightest in between Dungeon runs. Yoo-jin started to say something, but Isaac held up his right hand to stop him. Look, I appreciate everything youve offered here, but there is nothing, material or otherwise, that will convince me to leave my current job. Now, dont get me wrong, I like it here and Im perfectly willing to drop by every so often, but Im afraid Im not relocating here. Yoo-jin merely pulled the paper off the table and reced it with another one. In Germany, you have a good set of facilities, which we will be using to, among other things, level some [Geomancers]. For that purpose, the Hunters Guild has several private nes. You could simply hop on one of those flights and be very wellpensated for your time. With the basic idea of their rtionship going forward having been determined, it was time to get down to brass tacks. In essence, it boiled down to, those nes will be there a lot, hop on whenever you want and get paid a lot. Isaac was pretty sure he wouldnt be taking advantage of that too often, given how much time would be wasted in the air even with a [Pilot] whod been powerlevelled all the way to their second Evolution, but it was still a fantastic option. Besides, hed have to drop by a couple of times in the near future anyway. And after that, finally, they checked into the hotel, dropped off their luggage and went to bed. Well, they only slept for maybe a quarter of an hour, but it had still been needed. Tomorrow would be awesome. Hopefully. Keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited Keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited Thank you all for checking out Apocalypse Redux, but Im afraid Ive had to take down book 1 in ordance with Amazons rules. The rest of the story will stay up, though, and I will continue to post here until the story is finished. If youd like to continue reading, the book can be found on Amazon (https://.amazon.de/-/en/Jakob-H-Greif-ebook/dp/B0BFTLZGCS/ref=sr_1_1?crid=13IN8XO6ZF1N7&keywords=apokalypse+redux&qid=1664793743&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjU4IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=apocalypse+redux%2Caps%2C105&sr=8-1) as of October 4th 2022. An Audiobook is alsoing, and although I dont have a link for that just yet, Ill be posting it as soon as I get it. Thanks to everyone who read the story, and enabled me to get this far. Chapter 101: What we came here for Chapter 101: What we came here for On one hand, Isaac was functionally immune to fire thanks to the rewards from the original event. On the other these things were made of thermite and that crap wasnt just used to weld railways, it burned even underwater. In the end, Isaac flung himself out of the sandy, gritty, body of the Thermite avatar, which was currently zing like a noonday sun, only lightly scorched, parts of skin damaged to a level that barely qualified as a first-degree burn. The body of the monster, on the other hand, fell to the floor, still very much on fire. With its death, the mixture of iron oxide dust and aluminum shavings continued to burn and would continue to do until all the fuel was used up. Thermite Avatar (Lv. 23) has been in. 350 XP gained Isaac did a quick check of his XP bar and sighed. Still a bit to go. All the normal duties theyd agreed to had been over and done with,pleted without much trouble. Isaac had held his lectures about the proper usage of [Aura], making sure emphasize the importance of thinking about the inspiration behind it, this time around. Thered also been a few auric sparring matches, but theyd moved outside for that, tearing up an empty patch of dirt rather than an expensive and reinforced training room. Hak and Amy had spent quite a bit of time exchanging spells, teaching each other their favorite tricks. And then thered been a bunch of Dungeon runs to check what the cores would spit out as loot after someone with such exotic powers as them had gone in. The results were always vastly inferior knockoffs, in the rare cases where they got anything, but even those could be invaluable. After that, Isaac had split off with the promise that hed rejoin them once hed unlocked the second core-[Skill] of his new [ss]. Another Thermite Avatar loomed over him, its rough face expressionless as its arm stretched and contorted, spearing straight towards his head as it burst into a terrible me. Even after a perfect dodge, thest scraps of Isaacs t-shirt disintegrated as mere proximity immted them, but the only thing preserving his modesty was the soot and ash that had umted on him during the dive. Still, it wouldnt have mattered anyway, given that he was alone in this Dungeon. He wasnt supposed to be, given how dangerous these things were, but that S-Rank hed been given came with a lot of perks, including being allowed to outright ignore such things as this ce is too dangerous for one person, regardless of whether or not it came as advice or an order. S-Rank came with a lot of power and authority, but also danger. S-Rankers might either end up with a reputation for being so powerful that none of the ordinary rules applied, or being a bunch or arrogant idiots who thought they couldnt be hurt, disregarded any and all standard precautions, and died because they bit off more than they could chew. But Isaac didnt need the knowledge from the other timeline that it would be the former that would prove true. Yoo-jin might sometimes not seem like it, but he was an excellent administer and judge of character. Some people might qualify for S-Rank based on their power, but if their personalities made them unsuitable, theyd be limited to A-Rank, no matter what. He spun, his de shing red as he activated [Power Strike], sting clean through the arm that had shed past his head and causing arge chunk to drop off. The Avatar closed, then ignited, its whole body erupting in mes so hot even Isaac began to sweat a little. Thankfully, they couldnt use that little trick too often, as it used their form for fuel, but when they did, it was devastating. With a slightly insane grin on his face, Isaac backflipped to dodge the Avatars ming kick, took two steps backwards, and grabbed the core of the closest Lesser Water Elemental. The hapless monster sailed through the air, impacted the still ignited body of the Thermite Avatar and erupted into a st of steam. The sheer heat the Avatar emitted sh-vaporized the water, causing it to go off like a damn bomb, sting awayrge chunks of therge monsters granr body, exposing the core, which was sliced cleanly in half by one of Isaacs [Far Strike] a momentter [Lesser Water Elemental] has been killed by Environmental Hazard [Immense Heat]. All XP has been lost, all possible Aspects removed. Thermite Avatar (Lv. 23) has been in. 350 XP gained This Dungeon he was currently in had been created specifically to farm XP in, with the high-Level, high XP value Thermite Avatars being paired with the rtively weak Lesser Water Elementals, which would go off like bombs the moment they came into contact with ignited Avatars, massively limiting the movement and power activation of the stronger monsters. These kinds of Dungeons gave out incredible amounts of experience, and could be incredibly easy if properly built and calibrated, but there was a rather nasty trap in that entire principle. You could shoot through the Levels through easy ess to XP, but [Skill] Levels were slow toe under those kinds of circumstances. But Isaac wasnt nning on using them for long, just get enough to gain a few more Levels and unlock the right [Skills], then train them up against some extremely powerful monsters back in Germany. He was currently at a point where jumping Tiers was beyond dangerous, but he knew exactly which monsters he could beat with his current [Skill]set. Another Avatar charged bodily at him, its form distorting to cover the entirety of the room and Isaac just [Wave Charged] right through its massively thinned out form, grabbing the core along the way. This trick spelled death for the rest of his outfit, but he had plenty of spares in his pocket space and a few spare Lesser Space Elemental cores on hand. Sure, they had now dropped to the ground, the pockets hed stored them in having finally given up the ghost, but he could just as easily carry them in his off hand while he used his main hand to wield his weapon or flinging around the Elementals. There were more Avatars in the next room, and they likewise charged, carefully avoiding the Elementals underfoot. One of them identally stepped on one of the smaller monsters, soaking the leg. His grin still slightly manic, Isaac rushed past that particr monster, which tried to light itself on fire and promptly exploded as the water in the limb was vaporized. The monster pitched forwards, falling onto another Water elemental, and practically blew itself to pieces. The core itself survived, but little else did, making it a piece of cake to take the monster down for good. And then, Isaac began to dance, weaving through the throng of beasts,shing out at weak points, tossing water monsters at burning Avatars and tripping Avatars onto lesser monster that were basically bombs in this particr setup. It took clearing not only this room, but also the one after it, but hed finally gained enough XP to hit Level 39, and buy his next Core [Skill]. The Stat points, meanwhile had been put into both Magic Power and Magic Regeneration, putting thetter at 110, the same level as his Agility and Perception. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: dewraith Species: Human Level: 39 XP: 23/12,000 Health Status: Scorched, First Degree Burns (13 % of Surface, see precise breakdown?) Mana: 354/700 Stats Fortitude 60 Perception 110 Strength 60 Agility 110 Magic Power 70 Magic Regeneration 110 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XIX The Chosen Weapon XXIV I Am The Sword III Grave of Swords I Skills Hundred Faces XX Stealth XXIII Power Strike XXVII Piercing Strike XXVIII Sundering Strike XXV des XXVI Sneak XXV Sweeping Strike X Far Strike XXII Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXV Phantom Step XV Unknown Fear XVI Bestial Regeneration XIX Undying Focus XV Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XIII Crippling Blow IX Absolute de Mastery VII Compounded Impact IV General Skills Gralloch IX Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks body Wave Charge Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des [Empty Slot] The Stat points were always nice, but the real win was the [Skill]. Grave of Swords (legendary) A vast field, countless des thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space. Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another ne (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the users soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though. The Skill ends if onebatant dies or it hits its time limit, it cannot be deactivated at will. When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new de is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger. However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+10 mana per opponent Level over the users, +100 for each Tier barrier between the users Level and the monsters, overall cost doubled for Bosses, quintupled for Raid Bosses and increased tenfold for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 6 hours and cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored des. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost forbat purposed, cost increases with targets power, increase must be paid from stored des or the users mana pool Isaac confident that, in a one-on-one fight, there were only a handful of people whose ass he couldnt handily kick, and even then, he figured he still had far greater than merely even odds at winning. Those calction changed drastically when he thought of fighting multiple opponents, though. At its most basic, this [Skill] would let him turn any fight into a one-on-one battle, but that was only the beginning of its myriad uses. In addition, using this [Skill] let him drag a monster out of reality and away from anything they might wreck and anyone they might end up killing, handily taking care of that issue. If he could charge that [Skill] up enough, he might even be able to suck in a [Raid Boss]. Sure, taking one down on his own wouldnt really be possible, but he could buy everyone time to prepare and tear the ever loving fuck out of its weakpoints. Sure, their endurance-focused design prevented easy killshots, but that didnt mean they wouldnt be any weaker after being enucleated, hamstrung, stabbed in every sensitive ce he knew about and put on the road to exsanguination by devastating damage to major blood vessels. And if he ever found any worthy human adversaries, he could train against them as often as he wanted. But now, it was time to try it out. He burst through another room, annihting all monsters within, but his main target had been the one behind it, the Boss chamber. With his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker], Isaac had already been able to determine that the Boss was an oversized Thermite Avatar that was far more capable of changing its shape, making it an incredible threat, as well as having several backup cores to prevent it from being destroyed in a single strike. It also had a pair of regr Avatars as attendants/bodyguards, but Isaac wasnt worried about those. He walked into the next chamber, seemingly without a care in the world, ducking under the first swipe from one of the lesser Thermite Avatars, leaped over the seconds kick and triggered [Wave Charge] in midair, flinging himself right at the main foe, the point of his de leading the charge. As it impacted the monsters chest, a violet light began to shine from the point of contact, and the world warped. The Avatar seemed to twist andpress as it was sucked into a single point, while Isaac simply fell forward, right into the spatial fold and then, neither of them were a part of normal reality anymore. Instead, they stood on opposite sides of a t disk of ck dirt, dark fog wreathing the outside, something he knew to be an imprable wall. The mist continued skywards, forming a dome, though it lightened somewhat and acquired a violet glow, which illuminated the ground, casting the entire world in a sinister light. With a soundless roar, four humanlike arms emerged from the monsters torso,shing out at him. The fingers elongated and intertwined into a ming of death, almost impossible to destroy. Isaac charged, dropping the Lesser Space Elemental core from his left hand and summoning a copy of the Kriegsmesser, then began cutting, tearing the to shreds even as fragments broke off and smashed into his skin. Unfortunately, the second he was through, the arms began to retract, nearly catching him in the back. He continued to charge, barely staying ahead of the attacks, and flung each of Old Reliables forms, then triggered its weapon triplication ability for a total of nine flying des, then applied [Compounded Impact] to each. A total of nine des hammered home, the [Skills] exponential cost draining him of over five-hundred mana, but it also blew apart the creatures mass, the monsters multiple cores dropping to the ground. Several cores had been destroyed in the initial impact, but plenty more survived. Isaac surged forwards, and even as the monsters body came back together, destroyed each core with a [Power Strike] boosted stomp. As thest rock splintered beneath his heel, the space seemed to shiver. The entirety of the monster suddenly vanished and a bright, orange light appeared overhead. A brilliantly shining rapier slowly fell toward the ground, point first, until it touched the dirt, sank in a few centimeters and finally stilled. It just sat there, immobile, but Isaac could tell that if he wanted to, he could call up a copy of the monster whenever he wanted to so he could fight it once more. He also knew that he wouldnt do so. Instead, it would be fuel for this space so he could draw in stronger monsters. Hell, the only reason hed been able to grab this one was that he had over ten Levels on the monster and boss or no boss, that had been enough. Then, the space winked out and dumped him straight in theps of two normal Thermite Avatars, but both fell in a matter of seconds. The boss chest, meanwhile, contained nothing but cash. Yep, this was one pissed-off Dungeon and it would likely have to be destroyed soon, but until then, it was a great XP source for him. A minuteter, he emerged from the Dungeon, still covered in soot but wearing almostpletely clean clothes, his S-Ranker badge attached to his belt. Good Dungeon run? one of the Hunters outsidemented. Yep, youve got a nice setup here. Isaac nodded. Wed better. We took our time, and set up a proper system of levelling, unlike some other nation that shall remain nameless. The man grinned at him. Of course, Isaac knew exactly what he was referring to. There two East Asian nations with unique and truly public summoning cultures. Sure, there were freaky things happening in China and North Korea, but you didnt really hear about any of those. What you did have was South Korea and its Dungeons, and Japan. Where South Korea, and as it so happened, Singapore, hade out of the Initialization smelling like roses and far stronger, Japans response to the [System] had been rather more rocky. Depending on the location, they managed to achieve great things, or barely stave off utter disaster, all depending on the individuals involved. There were many people who felt that in this new world, one that looked so much like something from one of their stories, they were in the role of the protagonist. Sure, people like that existed all over the world, but in areas with literature closer to the [System] itself had a far greater number of those. Some of the protagonists were actuallypetent, gaining a great deal of power, but others suffered from some serious delusions of grandeur. And the initial wave of incidents had ended up informing the future of the area in which they happened, some creating a popce-wide aversion to summoning, or turned summoners into celebrities. Hell, Tokyo had a bunch of new monster-themed attractions, including things like an indoor-yground kind of arena in which you could chase around a convincing illusion of a monster and pretend to be a badass. Isaac ambled across the city, buying street food at every opportunity that presented itself, gorging himself to a degree that would have ended with a burst stomach in a normal person. It might be a bit small minded, but to him, new cuisine was one of the best things about going to a new country. Two minutes before he reached the Guilds main building to meet Bailey and Amy, his phone rang. Hey, whats up? he asked. Of course, he knew exactly what was going on. The big information packet hed uploaded had just been released. Chapter 102: The Anthill has been kicked Chapter 102: The Anthill has been kicked After Bailey had given him the head-up, Isaac had hurried to meet them all at a speed barely low enough for people to still recognize him and not take him to be an intruder. He scared the hell out of everyone he met regardless, given that some kind of emergency had clearly urred. Most Hunters didnt carry their cellphones on their person due to the danger of them getting wrecked. The rapid movements and direction changes modernbat required could easily shake loose vitalponents that had not been designed to stay in ce in the face of such forces, electrical magic could fry it, many liquids could short circuit them, and so on, and so forth. In other words, the [Systems] battlefields were not safe ces for people to be carrying mobile devices, which was why Isaac kept his in his extradimensional storage space most of the time. It also meant that the people gearing up to go Dungeon diving or training had no idea what was going on at the moment. After all, the info packet had dropped a mere two minutes ago and that kind of information took time to be discovered by most people. Professor Bailey, on the other hand, had dozens of direct subordinates and hundreds of people who supported his work in some way. There was always someone on the inte, researching something, so the message had been picked up almost immediately, then instantly passed on to Bailey, whod then called in everyone here. Back home, though, things were probably getting truly insane. Professor Chandler was probably chasing grad students all over the campus to get him the ingredients, and Isaac suspected hed even be working on some improvements as early as the second batch. After all, the recipes hed given out had been the most basic ones avable, something any reasonably skilled [Alchemist] should be able to improve with ease. But at the end of the day, that was the entire point. He didnt want to give outpleted answers, he wanted to show people the correct starting points to reduce the amount of time wasted up front. So, someone released a bunch of potion recipes online? he asked, his tone one of curious reservation, as though he wasnt entirely sure what to believe. Yep. Patrickmented aputer screen sitting on a table in the corner. He was currently sitting in front of an open portal that led to a Hunting Ground, making sure nothing got out while someone else was inside. The whole assembly was in a new building that Bailey hadmissioned just before leaving to Korea. It wasnt anythingplicated, just a heavily reinforced concrete tunnel with multiple st doors that would help prevent anything from getting out. The fact that it had been so simple meant that it could be built quickly, further aided by the fact that Karl had helped. Sure, the building inspectors had a little something-something to say about magic being used to construct buildings, but there was nothing they could say about how the hole the building was put in was dug. Hi there, is this thing on? a wild-haired Professor Chandler appeared on the videocall besides Patrick, his expression somewhere between a toddler on the worlds greatest sugar rush and an addict whod just gotten their hands on something even better than their normal stuff, all in all not something that inspired confidence in his ability to make god use of this information. Still, his [Skills] couldpensate for a lot of that, and he was an excellent [Alchemist]. But the part of the professors video that stood out the most was how shaky it was, and how the buildings and trees kept blurring past in the background. Clearly, he was running to the university at full tilt, desperate to get started as soon as possible. Meanwhile, on Patricks screen, the portal suddenly copsed, leaving behind only Raul and a few monsters that were torn apart in a wave of magic a split secondter. So, Patrick told me a bit about whats going on, do I have this correct: someone posted a bunch of potion recipes that are years ahead of what anyone should have been able to develop since the emergence of the [System]? he asked. Yeah, I think so. Isaac answered. Hm, sort of. Amy corrected Theres also a bunch of wild usations about various people bing what can only be described as superviins. Shed managed to keep a straight face as she said that for the most part, but her amusement at the idea of a Real-Life superviin was apparent. Sure, the idea ofic book level incidents bingmonce was utterly terrifying, bute on, real superviins? It just sounded in daft, no matter how serious it actually was. But that isnt what were going to talk about. Bailey stated tly I know weve helped with stuff like that in the past, but we should leave that to the professionals for now while we focus on our job, which is figuring out how all those potions work. Actually, I have an idea about that. More specifically, where they came from. Patrick said I think it might be some kind of Illuminati-style organization. Isaac just gaped at him and so did everyone else. Patrick was the most straightced, down to Earth person on the team, and now he was suggesting something like this? Look, I know how this sounds, but think about it for a second, please. Who has the kinds of resources to pull something like this off? And then tell me, which one of those people would release that information like this? A government wouldnt say a peep about a discovery like this until they were ready to make a massive profit off it, and then actually get something for it, at least if they didnt conquer the world first. A corporation, assuming they even had the resources to create something like this in a few short months, they wouldnt give it away, theyd sell it. And a scientist would be crowing it from the rooftops if they created something like this. No, theyd make sure they got credit for it, then send it too all the important scientific magazines, and thencrow it from the rooftops while waiting for their Nobel Prize nomination. Chandler corrected. Maybe. Patrick said What Im trying to say is, there isnt anyone whod publish this via infodump. Even charitable organizations would make sure people knew where it wasing from, for future funding, if nothing else. But someone had to have paid for all this research, meaning some kind of organization has to have been involved, except they dont want to show themselves, or anyone to so much as put a name to them. Obviously, the chances of this being the historical Illuminati is near zero, but some kind of hidden organization had to have been behind this. It could always have been a whistleblower in a regrpany, apany that is now scrambling and wasnt able to im credit yet. Amy suggested, which Isaac found even weirder than Patrick ming the Illuminati for something. A whistleblower? One who not only had ess to the recipes, but also knew enough to post a plots that might fuck up the world list? Patrick said Im reading through this list right now, and if even half this stuff is real, then weve got a serious problem on our hands, and by us, I mean the whole human race. Isaac sighed internally, getting caught up in a discussion about the Illuminati of all things was pretty much the exact opposite of what he was trying to do here. All of that is assuming that the recipes are even real. What if someone just tossed together a bunch of random ingredients, gave the whole thing an interesting name is nowughing themselves silly at all our reactions? Oh, its very real, have you even looked at that? Chandler grumped, outraged I can tell at a nce how useful these are going to be! and there it was. Thing is, medicines like that need to be tested, and that takes time. To have them this soon someones gotta have cut corners at some point. Amy said, suddenly onboard the Illuminati train of thought What if it was an organization out of the public eye, doing crazy shit for the benefit of humanity, even if they ckened their very souls so badly no one would ever appreciate their efforts? Ok, if were going with crazy theories, heres mine. Raul said Hear me out: Reverse-Isekai. What if someone from another world, one that always worked like this, fell through a portal or something, ended up on Earth, and has been trying to get their feet under them all this time? They sent out those warnings a day after initialization because they realized what was about to happen, what could go wrong, and now, theyve finally managed to adapt their potion recipes to this world and figure what dangers this world holds so they could tell us about it. Thats disturbingly possible. Isaac repliedmely. It was nowhere near the truth, but it matched it in the absurdity department. Well, these potions certainly require some very weird ingredients. Bailey said, once again bringing the situation back down to Earth, running his finger down a printed copy of the list Illegal, frowned upon, veryillegal, I have no idea what this is, I do know what that is but no one sells it,mon enough,mon enough,mon enough but not somon that any will remain once people read this, what the heck, none of this makes any sense. Hey, so where are we with the recipes? a new voice echoed from theputer. It was Professor Bishop, though his video was off and the sound of footsteps in the background indicated he was running somewhere while the phone was in his pocket. Working on them. Bailey said What are you doing? Chasing TAs and grad students all over the city to collect ingredients. David, do you need anything? he asked, addressing Professor Chandler by his first name. There are some coca leaves in the Pedology department, building A, ground floor, take a right at the entrance, furthest door on the right, in the -70 C freezer, pine box in the back left corner. If someone could retrieve it for me, that would be great. Chandler rattled off. Wow, you sure knew where the drugs were. Bishopmented dryly after passing that along, prompting Chandler to shoot a truly caustic look at the camera which Bishop didnt even see, given that his phone was still in his pocket. [Know Thy Inventory], nitwit. Chandler said, his voice a low growl. The real question is whether a few random nt samples that are, from the sounds of it, ancient will be enough. Bailey asked. We should be able to get some from the universitys hospital, right? They do still use that stuff for some medical procedures? Amy suggested. Maybe. Ive already sent in a request, but when youre not right there, breathing down their neck, they tend to drag their feet. Chandler grumbled. Ok, but its still weird that a mana potion would require stuff like this. Now, Im no chemist, but even I know none of that makes sense. Sugar, white tea, whatever that is, and, oh yeah, cocaine, a bunch of other wild nts and random chemicals? That aint chemistry. Bishop wondered. That is because this is Alchemy! Chandler snapped, Bishops earlier needlingbined with the stress of the situation clearly having seriously annoyed him This isnt chemistry, where everything can be discovered based on the strong force, weak force and electromaic force, allbined into mess thats thankfully mostly understood. No, this is Alchemy, which is basically old school witchcraft where the idea and purpose behind something is more important than even its chemical properties. Trying to use Chemistry to exin this stuff Victor, what youre doing is the equivalent of using a pocket calctor to do psychology. It just doesnt work. Dolt. And youve somehow figured out how that worked in five minutes? Bishop asked, voice extremely skeptical. Anyway, do we tell people about how were working on this? Isaac asked loudly, interrupting the bickering. We already said were working on it. Bailey said Just a quick post, but it seems to have gotten some positive tracktion. It said a lot about their reputation that an official statement that basically amounted to fes, we know fuck all, but were working on changing that was actually taken at face value and believed, rather than being thought of as the meaningless statements of an organization desperately trying to appear in control. About that, mind if I send some more information along to some of the people I know in the government andw enforcement? I know we havent really talked about it, but some of the other information here is super disturbing and if its real, they need to deal with it. Isaac asked If we can confirm part of it is true, it should add a little sense of urgency. Sure. Bailey nodded, prompting Isaac to immediately pull out his phone and snap off a few short messages. The other messages, the ones he couldnt get caught sending, had been sent off automatically, though, having been uploaded alongside the main information packet. They continued on like that for a good long while, as Professor Chandler reached hisboratory and they all watched him bang around it. Yoo-jin poked his head in at some point, asking if they knew what was going on, but he had to leave to calm down some of the louder Guildmembers. Apparently, they were slightly panicking at this shift in their world. Thest one had brought monsters, what fresh hell would this one create? Professor Kim also sent Bailey a text, asking if he needed to borrow some of her facilities, but hed just thanked her and declined. Having Chandler take care of things was just far easier and simpler. And then, finally, the potion was done. To Isaacs eyes, this had taken far too long, but then again, this was the Professors first tame making this stuff. So, how do we test that? Bailey asked. Like this. Chandler shrugged and chugged the gently glowing blue liquid as if it had been a shot. Weird, strangled sounds came from both Bailey and Amy, as they saw the old man break just about everyboratory safety standard in existence. What? he shrugged with mock innocence Im fine, thats what [Skills] are for. So, this potion gives the drinker 50 points of mana over ten seconds but for thirty-five minutes afterwards, your Mana Regeneration Stat acts as if its 5 points lover. So basically, you lose a little more mana than you gain over time, but it gives you an immediate burst of power? Isaac asked That sounds incredibly useful in a pinch. Maybe, maybe not. Raul said thoughtfully Id guess theres a cooldown on drinking one, or maybe the side effects worsen if you drink multiple ones in quick session. Perhaps the effects grow weaker with repeated consumption? Isaac suggested, then proceeded to rattle off a bunch of examples from literature, though he was fully aware of the fact that Rauls guesses aboutpounding side effects and reduced efficacy had been right on the money. That then turned into watching a man who was nearly seventy down dubious concoction after dubious concoction, making everyone act incredibly concerned after each one. He was going to be fine, Isaac knew, but everyone else acting like it wasnt was starting to wear on him. Still, soon enough, there should be the usual well, this isnt how things are normally done, but due to extraordinary circumstances, well allow you to drink those potions announcement, and then they could get back to other stuff while the mad scientist nearly blew up theb every other day. So, were going to be here for the remainder of the nned stay, but once we get home, well all work together on figuring out how all of those potions work. But David, wait until Im there to fix you if things go wrong. Bailey insisted, getting a grumbled, mocking Sir, yes, Sir in response. With that, the call came to an end, and the three of them went out for something to eat and to make up some more fantastical theories on where that message could havee from. Chapter 103: Interlude The Ants Chapter 103: Interlude The Ants Sometimes, people did things just because theyd gotten used to doing them a certain, even if the world had made it beyond unnecessary. For example, there might have been a few hundred people in the room, but each and every single one should have been able to easily pick out the voice of their respective conversation partners from the general cacophony, making talking at a normal level perfectly viable. But they werent. Instead, everyone was trying to yell over everyone else, and with over two hundred people, each with enhanced lungs and therefore a very loud voice it was a madhouse. Utterly insane. Polizeirat Franz Habicht was truly fed up with this state of affairs. His [Aura] cracked like a whip, passing through the crowd and smacking everyone, affecting them for a brief second, before continuing on. That seemed to have gotten peoples attention. Habicht sighed. His current rank of Polizeirat was several grades above his previous one of Polizeihauptmeister, and hed only been promoted this highly because someone needed to be in charge of the anti-supernatural strike team, based on his experience with the supernatural and how hed seemingly already adapted to the [System]. Hed have been happy justmanding GSG-13 but the powers that be had decided that hed be in charge of the whole support structure surrounding it as well. Mind you, said support structure didnt even exist yet, but hed still been given the rank and said rank now meant he was in charge of this whole clusterfuck in front of him. People, I know were all stressed, but please use your inside voices. He growled, making his voice reverberate around the room, scaring the hell out of several analysts. Still, it had gotten the point across rather nicely, hadnt it? Besides, they were hardly the only people whod gotten startled today. The doorman of this building truly deserved a raise, after having to endure countless people arriving faster than the eye could follow and actually demand a form of identification from people who could turn him into pink mist with a flick of their wrist. You, what have you learned so far? he demanded of the unfortunate woman whod been standing closest to him. Someone had to make sure he was caught up, and hed been out on a training trip when the information bomb had dropped, meaning he was very much out of the loop in regard to what the various analysts had figured out. And there were a lot of them, ranging from his people, the ones whod been working for him all along to a bunch of randos whod eventually end up in the overall organization of the BAU, the Federal Agency for the Supernatural, including a certain spook Habicht had had an unfortunate run in with in the past. So far, weve been able to corroborate several different pieces of information about specific threats. The analyst began cautiously. Habicht flinched. Hed skimmed that threat list on the way here, and it was a true horror show. Several different cults, each basically being a variation on the standard doomsday cult with a focus on the [System] were already bad enough, even if there wasnt that much information to go on. Then there were quite a few rather targeted usations against organizations and in a couple of cases, individuals. ns for terrorist attacks involving Tier one circles being drawn on sheets of paper, charged, and dropped off on the intended victims stoop or in arger buildings post office. Once the summoner got far enough away, the circles would trigger automatically, at which point the specifically chosen monsters would touch and detonate with building-wrecking force. A nasty usation of dangerous experiments involving using autonomous summoning as a form of mining being levied at a certain major mining conglomerate. A differentpany, a loggingpany this time, was supposedly nning to spawn a bunch of wood monsters and let them replicate a bunch toter harvest them all in the supposedly empty of people area of the Amazon Rainforest. Experiments involving the grafting of monster bits onto humans with, well, horrific results. A half dozen, half-baked ns to drop monsters on foreign nations as a weapon of war. Apparently, that trick was going to end up getting dered a war soon enough, at least if the UN carried through, but then again, war crimes weremitted for the purpose of expediency all the fucking time! And then there was the additional issue of how people suspected the potion recipes had been discovered. Human experimentation? People who wouldnt be missed getting kidnapped off the streets? And where the hell had all those illegal substancese from, given how many would have been required for experimentation? It certainly hadnt helped that some joker with an Illusionist [ss] had staged a scene just like that and leaked pictures of it on the inte, with predictable results. To top it all off, there was a pretty hard limit as to the consequences there could be for simply posting pictures, given that the jackass had never imed they were real or made any allusions to them being connected to something else. Still, Habicht knew having drawn the ire of everyw enforcement officer and half the investigative reporters in the country was a nasty punishment in its own right. Also, there was the small issue of all the illegal substances that had now vastly increased in value and all the crimes that would likely result from that. And it wouldnt remain limited just to the crime of people buying illegal substances, but the power struggle in the criminal underground as people tried to gain a monopoly on the new hotmodities In other words, it was going to be one hell of a mess, and a mess hed have to clean up at that. His phone rang, the song If It Bleeds We Can Kill It sting out. Hed set that the ringtone for a particrly violent consultant, simply because it fit. Habicht sighed and held out a hand to pause the exnation being given to him by the consultant and picked up the phone, already dreading what fresh hell Isaac Thoma had just discovered. So, I already sent you a text about it and its on the university website, but I figured Id call you directly to make sure you got it because its kind of important In that case, spit it out. Habicht said, sighing internally. We checked the potion recipes, they work, and one of the worlds leading [Alchemists] said he can recognize the logic behind them. Thoma said. Oh really? You were able to check all the recipes? Habicht frowned. Its truly ridiculous what you can find on a university campus with a [Skill] that tells you about everything thats in it and how to find it. Thoma said nonchntly My point is, at least part of the information in that release is true and has been verified. Thanks. Thats good to know, I have to go now, though. See you around. Habicht hung up, looked around and raised his voice Everyone, I have confirmation that part of the information, namely, the potion recipes, are true. However, Id like everyone to remember the concept of hiding a nugget of bullshit under a mountain of truth, so check everything. Then, as the noise crescendoed to heights it hadnt even reached when hed entered the room, he pped his hands together hard enough to blow away some papers on a nearby desk and bellowed Inside voices, everyone.. Now, please, continue. He asked the analyst at a more normal voice. One of the things weve noticed is that this release is outdated. It still lists the Children of the [System] as an active and present threat, but they got stamped out weeks ago. Maybe, maybe not. Habicht said, then took on a disappointed demeanor Do you really think thats the right approach to this, though? That when, as far as we know, a certain terrorist group has been destroyed and then theyre still dered a threat, its the other person thats wrong? That it isnt possible for us to have been incorrect when we assumed that wed won? And that message was sent out to the entire world, who says that part was even referring to the groups that were already taken care of? The analyst nched, and so did quite a few other people in earshot. Habicht swore internally. Some of the smartest people could turn into idiots in moments just because they were too damn impressed with their own intelligence. this was going to be a pain in the ass to deal with, wasnt it? *** There were many ways people had referred to Francesco Calise. Criminal. Mobster. A few dozen variations on bad person, asshole and arrogant ass. And yes, that was a fair description of most people in his perception, but there was one thing that set him apart. In fact, he considered it to be his superpower, something hed had even before the [System], and that was his enlightened self-interest. Others decided to use their need to protect the dignity of their position to excuse brutal retaliation for disrespect, even when said disrespect had urred in private and therefore not damaged anyones dignity. They reveled in their position, mistaking money for power, fear for respect, and thought that shooting the messenger was the same thing as taking care of the issue at hand. Oh, and then there were the issues of nepotism and all the messes that followed However, none of that bothered Calise though, and that made him one of the few people who could rationally deal with this steaming pile of crap that had been dumped in humanitys collectivep. Some people needed to end up in the ground, and others merely needed to be convinced to not only amend their ways but also of the fact that it would be very obvious if they faked it. A couple of hours after the information had appeared on the, Mr. Holt had sent him a link to the website of some German university with the caption IMPORTANT, READ BEFORE YOU MAKE ANY POTIONS. First of all, the eggheads had demonstrated a lot more balls than he ever would have expected in even trying to make those potions, let alone actually drink them. There was also an addition that would have been rather amusing to anyone but him. Please do not use cocaine bought off the street as it may contain additions that react poorly in this situation It had been good to know that, but the information had been a little toote for one of his men, whod tried to make a mana potion using some product he had on hand. He was now stuck with no natural mana regeneration for an undetermined period and had severe eyesight problems. The crap people cut their product with was usually not or any more dangerous than the product itself, after all, dead customers couldnt also be return customers or maybe they could be, with the [System] and all, but given that no one knew just how to make that happen, that was besides the point. Anyway, the issue was that all the other crap that went into the product was normally not an issue, but it was now, and he was far enough down the production pipeline that very little of the stuff that made it to him was 100% pure. The big advantage of knowing about that issue was that he knew what had caused the problem, and that he could now go ahead with the production of potions. Now, he just had to convince his supplier of powdered sugar that no, he did not need the whole baking set, he just needed the sugar and yes, it did make a difference and there was no way in hell he wouldnt notice because, oh, any cake woulde out toxic as hell, and that would sure as hell be noticeable, WOULDNT IT? And the problem persisted, well, that was one business rtionship that would be ended on a permanentbasis. Yet that entire clusterfuck hadnt been the biggest part of the crapstorm created by that literal bomb masquerading as a bit of helpful information. No, that honor went to the issue of what some of his colleagues were up to. You see, they might all be doing some seriously illegal shit, but there were limits. Mind altering substances that the pansies in office didnt allow people to have because they felt the sheep would do something stupid under their influence? Sure, he and his colleagues would sell those, no problem. But blowing up city hall or equally destructive actions were stupid, unproductive and bad for business. And ording to that message, a few of Calises peers were on the cusp of conducting summonings that would be as destructive as the mother of all car bombs, aka the exact sort of thing anyone with half a brain knew not to do. After all, theyd wreck shit that someone would have to fix, kill people for no clear gain and that would bring serious heat down on them and to top it all off, it would put a serious dampener on the idea ofmercial summoning and that would hurt them all. Therefore, it was time to have a discussion. Whether or not it was conducted with fists or words, well, that was up to the numbskulls ying with forces beyond their control, wasnt it? *** Three dayster Some people never got any appreciation for their work, not because others didnt gain anything out what they did or because it was otherwise inconsequential, but simply because they didnt know about it. Jonathan Schmidt sighed as he got back to his work. The current state of the BAU meant he worked closely together with a bunch of people, many of whom were rather judgmental and acted like there was something inherently sinister about his work just because he couldnt talk to them about it when really, all he did was boring data analysis. A certain, recently promoted Polizeirat came to mind. Sure, he wasnt supposed to have said data, but he was here to rid the world of terrorists, whether they wore suits and pretended to be heads of state or lunatics who camped out in the middle of nowhere, dering themselves true believers or some such nonsense. His current project, though, was a hell of a lot more public than his usual work. Someone had decided to rock the world by publishing a bunch of what would normally be considered very sensitive data, as well invaluable information about alchemy. If the whole thing had merely been a prank, a bunch of data made to look nice and proper, that would have been bad enough. But this was real, substantiated information about people with some degree of power, influence or firepower, enough to cause real trouble. And now, they needed to deal with that, something that would have been greatly helped if a certain field teammander would act on this information, rather than waiting for irond proof,pletely notarized and even then, hed probably want the Lord himself to descend from the heavens and put his seal of approval on the proof before that bastard got off hiszy ass. Of course, that information drop had only been the first bomb. The second one had only struck the intelligence agencies, but it had been pretty terrifying nheless. Certain messages had been sent directly to certain junior employees with no rhyme or reason anyone could see because these people were practically nonentities. Maybe, these people would be someone of importance in a decade or two, but now? Had the person whod sent the message somehow gotten his hands on the employee rosters of most of the worlds intelligence agencies and then picked the recipients by throwing darts at the rosters? Still, each of the messages had called out specific agencies, pointing out the potential consequences of notacting upon the provided information, which would likely prompt them into acting, or at least so Schmidt assumed. Hed heard about a few of these messages, but dealing with them was the pejorative of foreign intelligence agencies and they didnt make a habit of making their dealings public. As for the origins of the message itself, they were frustrating as all get out. The electronic trail had been easy to follow, almost stupidly so, the message had originated from an inte caf in the Swiss city of Chur. But that was where that ended. The systems of the caf had been badly hashed by something, including some physical damage to some of the machines, so while the IP address had pointed directly to the inte caf, that was all. They didnt know when the message had been uploaded and even with the strongest [Skills] avable to an intelligence agent at his second Evolution, including some that literally let them see things as they happened in the past, could see nothing. In fact, the person whod uploaded the message had so thoroughly hidden any trace of themselves that Schmidt was seriously questioning if the message had even been uploaded in Chur at all. After all, what if the amateurish cybersecurity had, in fact, been a brilliant false trail? Regardless, had this been an old school spydrama, the residents of Chur would have gotten quite the eyeful. As it was, though, if even one of the locals had noticed something was off, the various spies, secret agents and spooks would have been very bad at their job. As to how all that information had been gathered, well, there were many options, each more ludicrous than thest. A few of them were of the crazy enough to maybe be true variety, especially given how the [System] had redefined the meaning of impossible but even then, there were too many of them to truly investigate them all. If there was just one or maybe two of them, that could be investigated as a Hail Marry. But over twenty, half which basically amounted to this conspiracy theory might be true? Hell no! Cursing the bastard of an uploader under his breath, Schmidt continued his work. Chapter 104: Departure Chapter 104: Departure Leaving South Korea was a bittersweet experience. On one hand, it had been amazing to be somewhere so much like the other timeline in its heyday. And then thered been the joy of finally diving through Dungeons again it had been pretty fun. However, hed really missed his home. Sure, theyd each had a hotel room to sleep in and store stuff they didnt want to have to dip into their storage space to get, but that was very different whenpared to how normal people dealt with it. Normal people needed eight or so hours of sleep every night, spent a little time before and after sleep in that room as well, and that could make a hotel room feel a little like a home away from home. Not so much when all you needed in terms of sleep was maybe fifteen minutes. You walked into your room, copsed into bed, and woke up in less time that some people took to shower. In and out in maybe half an hour, total. Hell, you could do that on a park bench if you wanted, but Isaac had done that on holiday once or twice, and it absolutely sucked. It made you feel alone and untethered and that wasnt fun. And that effect was present even when you had a hotel room because you spent so little time in there. Sure, Isaac spent very, very little time in his actual room at home, but it was there and it was his. He was really looking forward to going home, even though hed still miss this ce. The flight itself, though, was far more pleasant than the flight here. Yoo-jin had sent his second inmand with them to the airport, which had seriously helped with the security issue. Whening here from Germany, theyd had a decently high ranking police officer call ahead and say youve got some high Level folks heading your way, dont panic. This time around, the equivalent of the Deputy Chief of the Police Department probably came close,ing with and vouching for them. As a result, airport security barely nced at them and then they were past it. Now though, he was on the ne and this time, hed actually brough along something to do, or rather, a bunch of books to read, as well as downloaded some news stories to peruse at his leisure. The consequences of his infodump had been, in a word, immense. The alchemical secrets alone had been impactful, but whenbined with and lending credibility to the assholes of the century list, it had been downright Earth-shaking. Things were settling again now, but the back to back impacts of the [System] arriving, the Stormheart Gestalt, the Event, the [System] based terrorist group and now this had exposed some serious cracks in society. Those cracks had been there before, theyd always been there, but you normally didnt really see them unless you looked for them or were directly affected. But when something intensified those situations, be they racial injustices or wealth disparities, things went usually went to hell in a handbasket. And everything that hade with the [System] had struck at least one of the cracks. Consequently, the world was in a far more precarious ce than it had been at this point in the other timeline, society-wise. It wasnt people that were in danger, it were the societal structures that held up the world, but theyd bounce back, stronger than before and hopefully with a lot fewer harmful ns on what to do with the [System]. Hopefully. However, even with all the tensions happening at the moment, theyd gained a lot of security from the [System]. Assholes off the street, cults smothered in the cradle and there were some very interesting rumorsing from North Korea at the moment. Of course, that was all they were. Rumors, hearsay, and odd urrences that media censorship hadnt quitemanaged to cover up. At the end of the day, very little concrete, first-hand information came out of North Korea was avable, but reading between the lines, it was abundantly clear that something was very, very wrong in not-actually-paradise. One of the allusions hed made in the infodump had been about how easy it was to powerlevel a few people up by a handful of Levels, force them to put all their Stat points into Magic Power, creating individuals that were fragile, weak and slow as hell, but could collectively summon [Raid Bosses]. Theyd die, of course, but drop a terrifyingly powerful monster on someonesp in the process. Oh, and North Korea had been founded on October 3rd, 1948, it was currently September and wouldnt the anniversary of a countys founding be an auspicious date for reunification, hint hint? Well, it seemed that someone had picked up what hed put down and actually done something about it. He, along with most of the world, couldnt tell what was going on, but as long as people were taking some steps, that was good. In the other timeline, there had been an incident involving a Demon Lord getting summoned in the middle of Seoul and afterwards, the entirety of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea had copsed not with a bang, but with a whimper, and that was the end of that. That attack had been thest straw and someone had finally stepped in and it hadnt even been that difficult. Simply put, the [System] had massively changed the bnce of power between democratic and totalitarian states for one simple reason. In the old world, physical power was to political or financial power as a firecracker was to a nuke. The head of state might have been a fragile old or an young, overweight, unhealthy man that most of the people he dealt with on a daily basis could break with their little finger, but no one ever did because there were others with aparable level of physical power that the leaders political power would send against any would be attacker. And if the state in question was nasty enough, the attackers family wouldnt be safe either. That changed with the [System], where courageous or foolhardy individuals could reach levels of power sufficient to level city blocks with a wave of their hand and now, the leader of an autocratic state needed to be the strongest, period, because others that wielded even greater physical power could take over by sheer force of arms. And that left any tyrant two options: they could either gain Levels and remain the strongest, or they could make sure everyone else stayed weak. Sure, powerlevelling the big cheese was a problem, but there was the small issue of the fact that the other people would level faster than the boss, meaning they needed to be actually trusted and an absolute ruler had precious few of those. Therefore, when someone went after those people, you ended up matching Level 30-odd [Supreme Intelligence Agents], [Masterful Operators] and [Phantom Spies] fighting [Supreme Leaders Babysitters] who might be Level 10. Maybe. Isaac could have done the same on his own, hell, he could have probably waltzed straight into the White House or Pentagon if he wanted to, they hadnt had the proper defenses needed to keep someone like him out put it yet, but there was a very good reason against it. He might have had the power to kill any head of state he wanted right now, and probably topple the state while he was at it, but he had no idea what to do afterwards. well, he knew what to do intellectually, but he certainly didnt have any practical experience with it and he wasnt willing to experiment with the lives of people to gain it. Of course, various intelligence agencies had screwed up changes in government before, theyd screwed up by numbers and created tyrannical states that trampled human right in the past, but if Isaac had tried to go at this alone, anything hed have created would have been worse. On the other hand, things were entirely outside his control now and that was making him seriously anxious, leaving Isaac feeling like hed just sat down on top of an anthill and now, they were crawling all over him. Isaac decided this was a good time to stop obsessing about things he couldnt really control anymore and checked his character sheet as a way to distract himself. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: dewraith Species: Human Level: 43 XP: 12,739/13,200 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 1,000/1,000 Stats Fortitude 60 Perception 110 Strength 60 Agility 120 Magic Power 100 Magic Regeneration 110 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XIX The Chosen Weapon XXIV I Am The Sword III Grave of Swords I Skills Hundred Faces XXII Stealth XXV Power Strike XXVIII Piercing Strike XXVIII Sundering Strike XXVI des XXVII Sneak XXVI Sweeping Strike XIV Far Strike XXIII Manifold Strike XVII Hunters Gaze XXVII Phantom Step XV Unknown Fear XVI Bestial Regeneration XIX Undying Focus XVO Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XIII Crippling Blow IX Absolute de Mastery VIII Compounded Impact VI True Cut I General Skills Gralloch X Alchemy X Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeist Shift Hydra (2 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks body Wave Charge Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des [Empty Slot] Hed gained another four Levels, bringing him up to Level 43, and gotten [Skill] Levels across the board. Meanwhile, thirty of the Stat points had gone into Magic Power to give him a total mana pool of one thousand, enough to summon the next tier of monsters. Sure, jumping Tiers was pretty dangerous at this point, but by choosing his battles, he could be reasonably certain of winning. Also, his new [Skill] was expensive as fuck. Thest ten points had gone into Agility, though, he really needed to get that Stat up. Also, hed bought another [Skill] and hoo boy, it was dozy. True Cut (legendary) What can be cut? Paper? Flesh? Bone? Rock? Metal? Air? At what point is something too hard to cut, and can you even cut liquids or gasses? What about things with no physical form to cut? Well, with this Skill, the answer is that everything can be cut, no matter how hard, no matter how immaterial, no matter how conceptual it may be. Defenses sundered with a swipe as a magical shield is destroyed in a single swipe or the very concept of armor ceases to function for the brief instant it takes for the target to lose its head. However, not all uses of this Skill are as grand as that. At its most basic, True Cut can be used directly on the effects of another Skill and cut it, disabling it for a period dependent on the amount of mana invested. IMPORTANT: Concepts cannot be destroyed, only damaged, and will return rapidly, possibly instantaneously, and can only be affected in a small area. WARNING: The cost of this Skill depends on the target and may exceed the users mana pool by a significant degree, attempting to overdraw the mana pool will lead to the users death. Cost: variable, depending on type (no types discovered yet) The [Skills] description made it sound incredibly powerful, but Isaac knew full well that it was nowhere near as good, based on having had a simr one in the other timeline. Yes, [True Cut] could be used to damage anything and everything, but the cost was almost always insane. For example, it could be used to disrupt and slow the passage of time, but the cost was astronomical. Someone with a mana poolparable to a Level 200 [Archmage] might be able to disrupt an area of space a few nanometers across for, at most a couple of attoseconds. The real advantage of [True Cut] was that it was a [Skill]-breaker. It could disrupt [Skills] it hit, destroying them and making it harder, if not impossible, to use them for a brief period of time. Isaac could, of course, do something simr with Old Reliables Astral Piercer form, given that it disrupted peoples spiritual bodies, but that required him to strike at a persons body directly while [True Cut] could be used on the a [Skills] effect to disrupt it. Of course, that was also still very expensive and the mana cost was usually double or even triple that of the disrupted [Skill], so it wasnt always worth it. But if an opponent had built their entire fighting style around one or maybe a handful of [Skills] and one of those suddenly became unavable, they usually lost in short order. Also, some people had set up certain devastatingbos that could blow you into next week and were usually damn hard to get out of once the first few strikes hadnded, but not if you had this [Skill]. And then you had the old ssic of simply cutting at the world itself, leaving immobile gashes that were as sharp as the edge of a portal. Once hed finished with his character sheet, read all the news articles hed downloaded and devoured all the mythology books hed bought, they were nearly home. Bailey had convinced the two students to drop by the university before going home, though that suited Isaac just fine. After all, there was something he still needed to do. When they finally go there, though, the sheer number of changes was staggering. Not only had the new area to summon a Hunting Ground in been created, but the foundation for several heavily reinforced and hermetically sealed greenhouses had beenid, as that was where theyd be storing and trying to proliferate flora samples from the Hunting Grounds. There had also been arge area earmarked for future construction to support their efforts, and it was fairly obvious where that area was. Why? Well, a bunch of [Biologists], [Botanists] and the like, who hadnt sped up the power gain process by killing monsters, were starting to hit Level 10, evolving, gaining ess to new abilities and could now control nt life to some degree, shape the earth or do something else in that vein. The end results were a corn maze, arge mountain covered in alpine nts, a field of flowers that had, at one point, spelled out a naughty word which was still visible despite what had been done to cover it up and the like. Apparently, superpowers and an area that they knew wouldnt be used for a few months, minimum, had led to some people going a little, well, crazy. And if Professor Bailey pushed hard enough, they might even get to use that area when they wanted to. The teams building, on the other hand, was a mess. Well, it was cleaner than practically any apartment Isaac had ever seen, but it was still quite a bit messier than it had been. Well, it still looks better than expected. Bailey nodded thoughtfully Good job everyone. He raised his voice slightly and called out for the others to meet them in the conference room. Once everyone was there, Isaac stood up. Theres something I need to talk to you about, but first, I need to take care of a few bugs of the electronic variety and then make sure there arent people listening in via other means, its kinda private. With that, he drew a set of tiny daggers, each about the size of a sowing needle, from a pocket and used [de Control] to send two straight at the pair of surveince devices, reducing them to scrap metal with casual ease. Then, he activated [Perception Block], creating a field around the walls of the room that made overhearing anything with high Perception damn difficult. It wasnt a [Skill] he often used, but it wasnt one he needed to use often, given that it wasnt abat [Skill]. Ok, now Im starting to get nervous. Amy chuckled, but a serious nervous edge was also present. Its a serious topic. Isaac replied It affects the future of this world, touches the secrets of the [System] and will determine the eventual fate of the human race. You see, once upon a time, I was Hah, I knew it! Raul jumped to his feet Youre from another world! Isaac chuckled nervously Actually, no, but what makes you say so? You always curse gods instead of god. Who says godsdamnit? At first, I thought you were just a neo-pagan, but a lot of other things didnt add up, so other world? Raul asked. No, Im from Earth, always have been, but I dide from somewhere else. Another, alternate, timeline Chapter 105: Confession Time Chapter 105: Confession Time The [System] is a creation of the divine, made by gods. But there is something very important here with regards to how the gods are able to affect the world. You see, there are two factions and a neutral group, and whenever one of the two sides makes a move, each subsequent action they take bes harder and harder, until the other group reacts, so they usually dont do that, waiting for a response, which turns the whole thing into something of a chess match, with them taking turns acting. Isaac exined, while the others listened with bated breath. From there, he exined how the world had ended in the other timeline, how people had summoned monsters as weapons, tools, or out of sheer foolishness, slowly pushing it towards the brink. How great warriors, champions, had risen, beating back the hordes for a while, until they stopped being able to gain XP from them and were therefore not growing in strength to match the ever-growing mass of beasts. To gain power, theyd summoned stronger beasts to gain more Levels. When it worked, it was great. When it didnt it failed rather spectacrly, not only creating a new source of monsters, but a source of beasts that were stronger than the ones that had been around before. And then, finally, he finished his story. and then there were just the three of us, up against a monster that could raze a country with casual ease. We won, but no, I won. The others Isaac took a deep steading breath and continued When I stood there, in front of the portal that the [Boss] had created and was spitting more monsters out into a world already overrun, I was ready to just jump through and fuck up anyone and everyone I came across. And then, he appeared. Janus. He told me about how I could go back, how that was a chance earned through sheer luck because theyd created it in response to some light meddling by the dark gods and how Id met those through sheer coincidence. Then, I woke up in my bed on May 2nd, 2022, with a prompt in front of my face asking me if I want to be an [Office Drone]. There was a long moment of silence, until Bailey finally, his voice hollow, asked Isaac, how old are you? Thirty-two. Isaac responded in an equally despondent tone. So thats it, then? The world ends in twelve years if nothing changes? This time it was Raul who replied. Surprisingly, he sounded rather hopeful, as if he took it for a given that things would change. Then Amy added Things have changed, right? Were not blindly heading for disaster anymore? Everything has changed. Isaac said There are some minor changes, like how LA was attacked by a Stormheart Gestalt instead of a Wildfire Gestalt, and big ones somerger ones like the fact that the city is still standing. I caught a serial killer, jumped [System] research ahead by a few years and given out information to base future research on. [System] rtedw enforcement agencies are being created in an orderly fashioned, rather than in a desperate scramble. I even used information from the other timeline to make sure some of the nastier organizations got caught up in the wheels and crushed. But the [System] has also been changed to adapt to our improved circumstances, then changed again by the nominally good gods as they used their change option to respond to the first alteration. Events werent a thing in the other timeline, but when we got them, we also got vastly nerfed autonomous summoning issues. Honestly, I think we lucked out on that front, that things improved, but I dont know for certain. I think the real question is why you decided to tell us about this now. Patrick stated bluntly What happened? Or is something nasty about to happen? And there it was, the question that was the most likely to lead to hurt feelings. Isaac sighed. There are a lot of factors that led to this. But the big one is that, well, it was time. I know you guys now, I trust you, and the longer I waited, the worse the situation would have been when I finally told you guys about it. Any one of us could walk out that door and have a new job five minutester, with a sry in the millions and possibly a custom built skyscraper to boot, thats what each and everyone one of us could do. But were all still here and working towards saving the world from the [System], that tells me I could talk to you about what is, without exaggeration, hubris or arrogance, the single greatest secret of the modern age. Also, Ive hit the limit of what I can just give you in terms of research without outright teaching you what I know. Basically, my role here is the equivalent of a modern day army field medic ending up in the 19th century to assist Louis Pasteur. I know a lot of practical things, but my knowledge on the theoretical side of things is rather limited. Then, theres the whole issue surrounding my how my knowledge of future events is basically useless now. Ive changed so much that I cant really predict whats going to happen next. Maybe a few incidents on significant dates will still happen, but even thats just a hard maybe. But the biggest reason is that things are about to be very, very dangerous. The first [Raid Boss] got summoned on October 3rd and while I sincerely hope I managed to prevent that specific incident, I cant guarantee I managed to stop it. And even if I did, there will always be more. Im telling you about all of this so that you can think of the questions you want to ask, and then Ill give you the answers. If Im not around anymore, its important that all my knowledge does not die with me. Suddenly, Bailey barked augh. He had the good grace to look embarrassed, but it was still a very weird reaction to the current situation. What? Isaac asked. Im sorry, its just all those warnings Ive given you over the months, about how you should be careful I must have seemed like quite the nag. Isaacughed sadly Yes, you did, Adam. Youre a nag, and we all love you for it. You care and that counts for more than I can put into words. Thank you. Bailey said, and wiped at his eyes. It had been a purely symbolic gesture, but it got the sentiment across nheless. Ok, has no one else realized that there are literal gods that have a reason to squash us like bugs? Amy broke in with a clear undercurrent of Ive stayed quiet on this topic for so long, why is no one saying anything. Actually, that isnt a worry. The cost for divine intervention increases therger scale the consequences can be expected to be. Were changing the world, and that makes us untouchable. Isaac told her. What about our loved ones? I mean, Im not really a big fan of my mom or my stepfather, but that doesnt mean I want them to get struck by lighting or something. She growled. An indirect attack on us is still an attack. Ive talked to gods in the past and gotten a pretty solid grasp on how the divine power structure works. Any action taken with the intention of affecting a person who helps the entire world will carry a huge cost, and it doesnt matter how direct or indirect it is. An attack against a social group that person just so happens to be a part of, an infinitesimal alteration that will eventually cause trouble for them, it alles with the same exorbitant cost. The same goes for our loved ones, a strike against them will be seen as a lesser attack against us, as long as theyre attacked because theyre our loved ones. Were safe. Couldnt they just lie? Patrick asked Would whatever judge controls this system notice everything? No, because there is no such thing as a judge. Apparently, this whole system of checks and bnces is baked into the very fabric of reality. Call it karma, call it whatever, intentions matter and are always registered. Were safe. Isaac insisted. Ok Amy trailed off and Isaac could practically hear the gears rattling in her head. Well, theres something else Id like to address. The elephant in the room, basically. Your maniptions. Bailey said I know why you did it, why you didnt tell us and I get it, but understanding does not erase hurt feelings. So if anyone has a problem, lets deal with it. Five silent faces stared back at him for a long moment. As for me, I get it, but its important to me that, going forward, you remember that you can now talk to us. You dont need a cover story for your suggestions anymore. Fine. Amy sighed Im not happy about being manipted, but I get and Ill need a little alone time, ok? Then, she slumped in her seat, looking defeated Look, I really do get. And I cant even begin to imagine what youve gone through, meeting people youve seen die, I Her eyes narrowed Did we know each other in the other timeline? Aaaaannd there it was. The big question. Had he known them, all their secrets and weaknesses, the things that would let him y them like a fiddle? Distantly. Isaac said I knew of Professor Bailey and his team, you were all famous then as well, and I was one of the stronger Summoners around, but as far as I can remember, we were never even in the same room together. I she broke off with a strangled sound were all dead, arent we? As far as youre concerned It certainly wasnt fun. Isaac shook his head. As far as Im concerned, you did what you had to, and my feeling dont matter. Patrick threw in Ill deal with them on my own right. Expect a lexicons worth of questions tomorrow, though. Raul snorted While I dont think thats a particrly healthy attitude to have towards your emotions, I agree with Patrick. I get why you did what you did, and Ill have to think about it, but Im fine. If you ever need to talk, Im game. I suppose there isnt really much else to add, is there? Karl asked No judgement here and Im here to help you save the world. He chuckled nervously help save the world, now thats a phrase I never thought Id use in reference to myself, but I suppose I never expected to have magic either, so you know what, Im rambling, sorry, Ill shut up now. That got a round of chuckles, and they didnt even sound all that forced. Ok, but now I have a question: why dont we just tell everyone? Make up a bunch of things, conduct a few targeted experiments to get the data we need, and then make sure everyone knows that the [System] will end the world so everyone stops using it? Because thatll never happen. Amy replied It offers too much power, if most of the world gives it up, all were doing is handing it over to the nastiest, greediest fuckers on the face of the. And if said fuckers mess things up, we wont be able to fight back against the hell theyve unleashed. And even if we somehow manage to stop those people, the [System] is too damn useful to stop using it. It can fix almost all of the problems humanity is facing at the moment, if used properly. Eventually, even if nothing else goes wrong, some doe-eyed idealist will create a n about how one problem or other can be solved with the [System], except the n will be far too simple and ignore some of the harsh realities of the situation, and then that is where the problems wille from. Patrick added. Unfortunately, I agree. We cant stop the [System], we have to use it. Were surfing a tsunami at the moment, its giving us a great amount of speed, but the slightest mistake will see us crushed. We as a species need to keep going, keep getting stronger, alongside the monsters that are summoned, all the way to the top. Never growing so strong as to summon monsters no one else could deal with, not falling behind the peak of power, just Bailey had gotten up to give a grand speech, but then lost his trail of thought. ride the tsunami? Isaac suggested. Exactly. Now, I believe there are a bunch of things youd like to tell us about? Yeah. For example, I know a bunch of basic survival tricks and potion recipes. So, heres how you can create a magical generator with a little blood magic and a summoned lighting elemental Chapter 106: Relaxing through Combat Chapter 106: Rxing through Combat Isaac ended up stumbling home several hourster. Scratch that, an eternityter, or at least thats what it felt like. It couldnt have been more than twelve hours, given that it had barely been evening when the discussion had begun and it was still dark, even so, hed clearly spent a damn long time talking with the others, talking about powerful Aspects, important Spells to acquire, and all the magical things he knew how to make. There wasnt too much of thetter, given that his knowledge on that front was mostly limited to creating shelters and the like, but those would still provide an incredibly useful starting point to many branches of research. Yet he could and would face countless additional questions when he showed up for work tomorrow. That was a problem forter, though. For now, he needed a bit of pte cleanser, something to get his minds somewhere out of the turmoil that was his thoughts at the moment. And what better way to do that but go fight a powerful monster for an Aspect he needed. When his home came into view, Isaac, couldnt help but grin. Hed had some work done while hed been in Korea, and it was a thing of beauty. Hed also significantly added to his holdings, giving him the space for a vast number of expansions. First off, there was therge artificialke hed wanted to summon Megalodons in before those idiot Systemers had done it for him, making it useless for its original purpose. On the other hand, it was a private , it could be used for a whole host of reasons. If nothing else, his sisters would be ecstatic at the privateke if they visited him before it got too cold to go bathing. actually, with it being the beginning of September, theke was probably freezing to them at this point, wasnt it?It probably was, he just hadnt realized because hisfortable temperature range was far greater than that of a normal person. His summoning area had also been expanded, though. Arger area had covered by a roof, but it had also been vastly deepened, leaving him with a fifteen meter deep pit several hundred meters across. Between that and the height of the roof, he could summon some seriously big monsters down here. As he briefly looked over everything, Isaac also went around trashing every bug he came across. Shouldnt they have learned at some point? Before Isaac went after his true target though, he needed to use [Grave of Swords] because it was off cooldown. Every monster that died inside of that [Skill] generated another sword, which he could then burn to supercharge it, allowing him to draw in Bosses or monsters above his own Level, so hed taken every chance he got to use fill that tank. He really hoped he wouldnt have to use it to trap a [Raid Boss] or something, but if he had to, he wanted the option. Summon Rock Titan, [Grave of Swords], [Sweeping-Power-Piercing Strike], and that was that. A craggy, rocky de jutted up from the ground, visible to him for a brief moment before the [Grave of Swords] vanished, dumping Isaac back out into reality. While his mana recharged, Isaac drew out a Tier 7 circle in the summoning area in chalk. He simply couldnt afford to leave that thing around for others to see, so engraving it was out of the question. Now, what he was doing here was incredibly dangerous. Jumping Tiers at his current powerlevel was about as stupid as walking up to a prospective father inw and saying you know, your daughter calls me daddy too. In other words, if stupidity could be weaponized, this would have been considered a WMD. But that was under normal circumstances, and nothing about Isaac was even remotely normal. You could jump Tiers, if you knew everything there was to know about the monster in question and had the right set of powers to take advantage of its weaknesses while countering its strengths. And it just so happened that there was a monster that had an Aspect he wanted, which was also one he could take. A Greater Hydra. High regeneration, high attack power,paratively slow movement rate and a vulnerability to fire, something he could exploit with his speed and the sword that could be lit on fire at will. Just him against a monster that was Level 45 at a minimum, but was probably closer to Level 60 and could even be as high up as 75 on the outside. And yes, that thing was damn dangerous, but Isaac had one more advantage: hed memorized its moveset. Sure, these were living, breathing beings, not video game monsters, and therefore werent limited to a handful of specific movements as their video game counterparts were, but some things held true regardless because there were only so many ways a given organism could move, and only a fraction of those ways was actually useful. So with his experience, hed be able to predict the monsters moves with, quite frankly, impossible ease. So once his mana pool had regenerated, which had taken quite a while, given that the monster required its full 1,000 points to summon, Isaac activated the circle, causing a massive monster to erupt from it. And what a monster it was. Where a Lesser Hydra couldfortably rest each of its three, anvil sized heads on a normal car, a Greater Hydras seven heads were eachrger than said car, on necks that were almost two meters thick and came together a full twenty meters below the base of the skull, where the rest of its bodyy coiled. It wasnt possible to tell how long that was from where he was standing, but Isaac knew that it was around one hundred and fifty meters long on its own. The sheer physical power behind that body was an immense threat on its own, but this stronger Hydra not only had incredibly toxic blood, it had also gained venomous fangs which could even shoot its venom. A modern tank battalion would fall in the face of this monster, a fullbined arms regiment wouldntst much longer, and even the full might of a Carrier Strike Group might not be enough. It could tank a lot of hits and heal through most of what got through. The fire involved in modern explosive munitions would reduce that recovering somewhat, but it simply didnt burn hot enough to cauterize tissue that tough. Tier 7 was the near absolute limit of where normal military action would be effective. Beyond that, it would be all MOABs and tactical nukes at a minimum, eventually increasing in power all the way up to ICBMs until they, too, would be ineffective. And now, Isaac would tear it apart with just a few sharp pieces of metal. He dove forward in a burst of speed, his movement creating a shockwave that made the dust and debris scattered around the ce fly away from him, just as the first massive head smashed into the ground where hed been standing a mere fraction of a second ago, sending shards of rock flying everywhere. Another head had jerked back to open up the range and thenunched a cream of venom in his path, forcing him to leap over it, then instantly trigger [Wave Charge] to fling himself forwards in anticipation of a third head deciding to take advantage of the airborne target. After all, people and monsters usually had real trouble dodging without anything to push off against. The Hydra was unable to stop the attack that was already in motion so Isaac used that as a springboard tounch himself straight over the ce where the necks joined, triggered another [Wave Charge] to alter his trajectory, and smashed himself straight through the monster with [I Am The Sword]. The attack was lead with his de, pointed straight at the center of its mass. A split second before impact, he summoned all the additional des he could and using [de Control] to fling them back upwards into the hole hed left with his passage. It had closed even before hed returned from the plunge into the ground, but that had been what Isaac had wanted all along. Now, there were a bunch of really sharp implements of death near the Hydras most vital organ, cutting it every time it moved. Of course, that would heal, but only if the injuries werent cauterized. Isaac lit them on fire using Old Reliables [Starfang] ability, a venomous me destroying and scarring the tissue they touched. The Hydra jerked, multiple heads flying forwards to try and crush them while the rest of the heads rose to their full height so they could act as impromptu turrets, unleashing beams of acid from their new, high, vantage point. And then it realized that moving hurt. The Hydra screamed, an unearthly sound from many throats that shook the air and ruptured Isaacs eardrums. It healed, but it was still painful. Well, he healed, the Hydra was just creating more and more scar tissue on a very important body part, the poison part of the Starme further weakening it. Not by much, but still to a noticeable degree. Fourteen eyes red down at him with burning hatred, the body underneath slowly shifting as it tried to find a fortable position, which just gave Isaac another good shot at it. A head mmed down where hed been standing a moment before, shifted into [Form of Horror], and shed across the neck with ws that glowed a venomous green. The monster tried to jerk back, but Isaac got several more hits in as he did so, then sent a [Far Strike] after it. The massively weakened flesh of the neck came apart like a sandcastle that had been attacked by a leaf blower, leaving the head flop to the side. [Phantom Step] ced him squarely on the bleeding flesh, at which point Isaac just bellyflopped into the viscera and suddenly every de on his body was alight. Sure, originally, the only parts of his altered body that were Old Reliable and could therefore use its [Skills] were his teeth, finger- and toenails, but that had changed with the Aspect of the ded Tempest. After it, he looked like a razor covered porcupine and now, he was a ming razor covered porcupine. By the time the other heads came back around, the wound was already cauterized and the head was well and truly gone. A stream of venom smashed into the stump, but Isaac had already jumped to another head and was savaging it like a rabid wolverine, wing out both eyes and severing the ligaments that kept the jaw shut. The rest of the heads descended, ready to pluck him off like a particrly annoying flee and crunch him between their jaws, but Isaac just dove into the mouth that could not be closed, leaving four separate impacts to nearly brain the head he was hiding in. Oh, and he was still on fire, finger-ws jammed into the skull at the top while the toe-ws were jammed into the bottom jaw, leaving him solidly wedged in ce, burning the mouth to a crisp. If this process had gone on for long enough, this head would have been left a smoking brick of charcoal, but the Hydra decided that just wasnt done. The head turned to face a second one, which opened its maw and unleashed a constant stream of venom down its siblings throat. If Isaac had still been standing there, he might have been in trouble, but he just phased right through the back of the neck, jammed his ws him and reached down until he managed to get a good whack in on the spine, burning the somewhat important bundle of nerves there to a crisp. With one head gonepletely, a second one hanging limply and the ce the necks met slowly turning into a solid mass of scar tissue, the Hydra was in real trouble as its necks slowly became more and more entangled. A fully functional Hydra would have never gotten itself tanged in any way, shape or form. A Hydra with necks it couldnt move, on the other hand Isaac hopped down right between the nexus and pulled one of the copies of his soulbound weapon towards himself, further shredding the flesh and expanding the area that got burned. After all, the original location was already well and truly trashed. The Hydra screamed again even as it struck out at him, but Isaac had already relocated to a new location and moved another de into a new location. And again. And again. More cries of agony rang out, and thest of the woond creatures within earshot fled in fear, their instincts finally kicking in. Throughout all of this, the Hydras venomous [Aura] was pressing down on him, but the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] kept it at bay, constantly healing away the damage the venom was doing and purging his system. It was a battle of attrition where both sides where constantly healing, except Isaacs [Auras] healing power was ever growing as the amount of blood on the ground increased while more and more of the Hydra was cut and burned, while the mass of scars at its core grew evermore. Hell, one of the heads even went limp as the entirety of the connection to the rest of the body was cut off by the mass. It took almost ten more minutes, but the battle began to wind down as Isaac heard something odd in the woods. He quickly switched over to his sensory [Aura] to get a better look. As it turned out, there was nothing to worry about, it was just Amy. Just finishing something up, be with you in a sec. he sent using auric morse, getting an affirmative in reply. Amy reached him before he killed the Hydra, but she didnt interrupt, she just waited patiently until he was done. All right, Im finished. You cane down, but dont step in the blood, its really toxic. Isaac called out Or do you want me to Offering to head back up became a moot point as she hopped down, floating above the ground a momentter. While he walked over to her, Isaac scanned the body and noticed that an Aspect had formed, inrge part thanks to the massive Level difference between a Level 43 human and a Level 60 Hydra. [de Control] in conjunction with his [Aura] let him use his des to cut it out while he had a conversation with Amy. So, I wanted to apologize. Amy said, shuffling her feet, which looked damn weird given that she was floating through the air. For what? I manipted all of you into researching what I knew to be the best things to go after and despite all the justifications, it was a maniption. Isaac said evenly. If someone was upset at him, he understood, and take whatever came on the chin. Sure, thats all true, except I wasnt mad at you. See, I have this stepfather whod always use things I didnt know he knew to trick me into doing what he wanted me to do, and to get that information, hed pull crap like read my diary or bribe my therapist to tell him what I sai- sheughed bitterly Listen to me whine to someone who went through crap I cant even imagine. Isaac joined in the chuckling, though his was equally false and hollow Everyone needs to vent, and Im not made of ss. Hold on a second He then took a moment to straighten, puff out his chest and, in the most pompous voice he could manage, announced Im not made of ss! Amy burst out into genuineughter. And even then, I couldnt me any of you for being mad at me. Maniption is still maniption. even if it was done for the best possible reason, in the gentlest possible way. I get it, and Im not mad at you. Thanks. Friends? What? she blinked at him in surprise. Well, in kindergarten, making friends was as easy as asking will you be my friend, but we dont do that as adults anymore, we have to be stoic and everything and I think thats stupid. That earned another genuineugh. So Im guessing thats the end of serious talk then, friend? Isaac snorted and nodded. Now, what exactly did you summon here? I cant think of a single creature from Tier 1 to 6 that would fit the bill. Sure, there are Hydras, but theres the Tier 5, which Ive seen and know is a hell of a lot smaller, and a Tier 7. So is this a Tier 7? I mean, youd know whats safe, but its still a lot. Yep, Tier 7 Greater Hydra, it contains the next Level of stackable Aspect. The Hydra series provides a bunch of extraordinarily survivability [Skills] that make the wielder the closest thing to unkible. Like I told you earlier, I might end up fighting a [Raid Boss] in October if I havent changed things enough. I want all the protection I can get for that. He exined. You know, the Professor was right. Every time we told you to be careful, we must have sounded like right berks. Amy said You were, no, are literally the most knowledgeable person in the world when ites to the [System]. You sounded like you cared. Isaac replied And that counts for a lot. She nodded People who genuinely care thats someone you grab on to with both hands and dont let go. As she said that, Isaac quickly dodged out of her range, and they both started tough. They kept messing around for a short while after that, cracking idiotic jokes. Anyway, thats all I wanted to say, thanks for listening. Ill leave you to clean this up. Amy bade him goodbye Do you need this blood for something? Isaac shook his head and she waved her hands, cleaning away most of the liquid part of the mess, then she left. That had been a good talk, and he felt incredibly light despite being elbow deep in Hydra guts. But as nice as the conversation had been, the fight had also been very beneficial. Aspect of the Greater Hydra: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Hydra a Hydra. Regenerating from gruesome wounds in seconds, killing your enemies simply because they cut you as your blood poisons theirs, outright ignore damage to your body or create redundant organs to survive lethal injuries. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +15 Fortitude One of the following Skills: Hydras Regeneration Toxic Blood Redundant Organs Second Head Ignore Injury Another solid Aspect that upgraded both of this core healing [Skills]. The names might not change, but he knew that they improved all the same. And as for his new [Skill], there really was only one good choice. Ignore Injury (epic) There are Skills to mitigate the effect of certain injuries, there are Skills to fix such injuries without the services of a healer. And then, theres this Skill, which lets the user act as though theyd never even been injured in the first ce. While this Skill is active (can be toggled on and off at will), the user is able topletely ignore any and all injuries, but all actions that would be impeded by injuries grow more difficult and draining. Moving broken toe will be about as difficult as picking up ones phone while moving the same finger while suffering from a severed spinal cord might be as difficult as carrying a mountain. Also, [Bestial Regeneration] had hit Level 20 and evolved, which was great. Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level XX) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the users regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the users mana pool. This pools size is Skill Level*25. In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to keep its wielder alive through horrific injuries, it has evolved to provide a speed to boost to all of the users self-healing powers, with the mana cost increasing proportionally to the boost, with a maximum increase of one hundred percent. Now he just had to fill thatst empty Aspect slot Chapter 107: One more step Chapter 107: One more step For the most part, Isaac had all the Aspects he needed. Defense from the Hydra, Mobility and more defense from the Specters, extra mobility and environmental resistance from the fishes, de-based telekinesis from the de monsters and sensory fuckery from the illusionists, though he rarely used thetter. However, his second Evolution had opened up a new slot and it practically begged to be filled. If nothing else, having more Aspects could help bump the rarity of his next Evolution to the next tier if all he needed was one push. At the same time, randomly choosing Aspects just because you could had a decent chance of biting you in the ass further down the line, wasting the XP used to slot them, as well as the extra 1,000 XP fee needed to remove each Aspect. Still, two factors yed in his favor right now. First off, Isaac simply knew there were certain Aspects hed need in the future, even if theyd be useless at the moment. Also, even if it turned out that the specific [Skills] he wanted to get down the line were less useful than he expected them to be, he knew that the higher Tier the Aspect in question was, the easier it would grow to pick upgrades that differed from the original. The first upgrade needed to be a straight, well, upgrade. The second only needed to be of roughly the same type while the third could be anything even remotely rted. For example, [Gills] had been upgraded into [Sharks Body], which kept the original power of surviving underwater, then tacked on some proper underwater maneuvering capability. The next upgrade could be something as different as wholesale resistance against environments without air or focused into gaining an alternative form. Then, the final upgrade, one that would be conducted with the Aspect of a Tier 10 monster could even be an overall environmental resistance [Skill] or even a regeneration [Skill] because that would help you survive in hostile environments. In the same vein, hed grab the initial Aspect right now, then upgrade it once finally got the chance to fight a Lindwyrm [Raid Boss], then p on an Aspect of the Dragon, which was also a kind of [Raid Boss], then cap off the whole thing with an Aspect of the Void Dragon. That one wasnt a [Raid Boss], but it was a Tier 10 monster and didnt really need the extra boost. All in all, that was a part of the space travel Aspect package Hermes had given humanity in the other timeline. It had likely been meant to help, to give people a chance to escape, but it had gone exceedingly poorly. A bunch of people had decided that they just had to have to escape, gone after the powerful monsters that held the needed Aspects and failed miserably, making the situation even worse, as was par for the course for the whole [System] clusterfuck. That entire Aspectbo held a multitude of uses, but he didnt need many of them, so hed waited to get any until hed grabbed his important [ss] [Skills]. So now, hed grab just one Aspect to gain a small boon and fill that slot. For this purpose, he proceeded to summon monsters, Acid Drakes, to be exact, drawing multiple circles and tossing out ingredients for efficiencys sake. Isaac had taken care to move away from his normal summoning area and was doing this in the open forest, simply because these things were hell on the environment. If he did this in the regr ce, hed have to spend days fixing the mess. This way, though, he could just summon a few Rock Golems and dump their bodies here to cover up the mess. And with a chorus of sibnt hisses, the monsters erupted from the ground. Each Drake stood about as high as a pony, though their overall body mass exceeded that of a horse. They resembled nothing so much as a Komodo Dragon that had been exclusively fed steroids from birth, then gained glowing contact lenses and had a bunch of edgy spines and spikes glued all over them. Jaws opened wide, glowing yellow acid bubbling up from the depths of their bodies and then they fell apart, neatly split in twain, while the ground began to smoke as their caustic blood burned it. Sadly, he hadnt gotten any Aspects, so he had to summon another batch. but first, he needed to summon a fuckton of Rock Golems to cover up this mess. It would be an acidic swamp either way, but at least this way, itd be buried as the acid was slowly diluted into uselessness. Once thest golem had toppled over with a loud grinding of stone, Isaac headed over to another area, drew more circles into the ground, and repeated the summoning. That didnt work either, nor did the one after that. It also pushed him all the way to the XP limit for the Drakes, which made this entire exercise even more frustrating. The next mass-summoning ended upting him his prize, though. Aspect of the Acid Drake: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Drake a Drake. Wield elemental breath weapons of any kind, armor yourself with the scales of some of the greatest creatures of myth and legend or have their ancient and powerful heart beat within your breast. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +5 Agility One of the following Skills: Acid Breath Drakes Heart Drakes Hide Once again, the choice was damn easy. [Acid Breath], like almost all breath weapons, were mostly there for showing off. If you had the money to buy an Aspect, the XP to slot it and werent someone who needed to munchkin their build, it was a cool thing to grab. [Drakes Hide], meanwhile, provided you with the ability to grow a set of scales that acted as armor, as well enhancing magic of the same element as the creature that had provided the Aspect. It wasnt a massive boost, mind you, but it was still nothing to sneeze at. One would have assumed that it would be the heart that provided the magical boost, but there was a corrtion between how magic was projected out of a caster and passed through the scales on the outside which tied that property to them. That had been one of Professor Baileys discoveries in the original timeline. And that only left one real choice. Drakes Heart (umon) Within your breast now beats the heart of the most legendary of beasts. A dragon (technically, a Drake does qualify as a type dragon, but has nowhere near the same level of power). This confers a few benefits. First off, it provides a certain degree of resistance to the element wielded by the Drake that provided the Aspect. In addition, it grants a sliver of draconic vitality, increasing resistance to diseases, as well as the users longevity. As this Aspect hade from an Acid Drake, it provided Isaac a good deal of protection from the one thing that would still fuck with his regeneration. The resistance wasnt nowhere near as great as his near-immunity from fire, but it was still very useful. Besides, it would reach the same heights once he upgraded it with an Aspect of the Lindwyrm. The longevity ability of [Drakes Heart] would stack with the general health boost and slowed aging provided by a high Fortitude, then grow even stronger when it turned into [Lindwyrms Heart] and finally hit insane heights once it became [Dragons Heart]. But that was something forter, soloing [Raid Bosses] was beyond him at the moment. Hed fuck one up if he had to fight one, but actually killing something so thoroughly built for survival would be impossible. With that done, Isaac ran around to grab all the stuff he wanted to gift everyone else. They already had a bunch of Aspects, given that hed handed those out like candy in the beginning, but there were some other things they could use which he wouldnt have been able to give out without bringing up some serious problems. Therefore, he packed a few Dungeon-made weapons hed brought from Korea, a few high-strength potions that could save them in case of an emergency, a prototype, basic magitech generator for Karl and a list of easy to beat Hunting Grounds that held stuff they could all use. Also, he brought a bunch of rare animal bits for Bailey to copy, just in case it would be useful, as well as some tissue samples from the Greater Hydra. As the sun rose above the trees, Isaac jogged over to the university with a big grin on his face. Finally, he could deal honestly with his coworkers. Chapter 108: Let’s make a plan Chapter 108: Lets make a n Is there blood on this? Karl asked, looking down and the doohickey in his hands with a puzzled expression. He didnt look upset, or disgusted, just very, very confused. Yeah, thats mine. Isaac said apologetically I guess I didnt clean it well enough. See, theres a branch of magic that anyone with blood running in their veins can use and its involved in creating that magical generator. You draw the right runes on your hands, tear out the elementals core and stick it in an enchanted container. So wait, you use your own blood to draw magical runes on stuff, its that easy? Amy asked. Yes, but also very much no. When using this branch of magic, any wounds you draw blood from will continue to bleed while there are active effects in y. If you heal them, the magic stops. Furthermore, the more magic is used, the more the wounds bleed. In other words, theres a pretty hard limit as to how much you can use it and there have been quite a few incidents where overuse has killed people. Where does magic like that evene from? How can you use it without a [ss] and what on Earth would even lead to someone discovering this stuff? Patrick asked, aghast. To answer your questions in order: the [Raid Boss] called the Sanguine Monarch dropped a tome detailing how it works, anyone can use this magic and as for the answer to the third question, see first answer. Isaac said. What the hell is a Sanguine Monarch? Raul wondered. A very powerful vampire. It starts out just like youd expect,plete with pasty white skin and robes, but from the moment its summoned, it begins to transform, bloody mist streaming into the environment as it mutates and transforms into a horrific monstrosity. Throughout all this, it sucks the life out of anything that isnt extremely powerful and therefore able to resist, as well as having an insane recovery ability. Truly killing it during this phase is theoretically possible, but extraordinarily difficult. If it survives to fully transform though, it bes incredibly powerful and starts to affect the blood of anyone below its level, ever so slowly making it start to boil, until someone dies, at which point all the blood is ripped out of him and further empowers the Monarch, and so things continue until either it dies, or the challengers do. Jesus fuck. Bailey said in a tone that Isaac interpreted as too stunned to express shock. Thats an adequate way of describing it. Isaac nodded The whole fight is a battle against time, and its gotten a lot of people killed. On the other hand, all [Raid Bosses] drop some kind of special reward. A while ago, you proposed we go after a Lindwyrm because its flesh gives a random power. Is that true, or just something you found in mythology? Bailey asked. Both. Its a real phenomenon which Ive used in the other timeline, but there are also myths about that happening. Isaac said. You know, you got hired as an expert in mythology, but Ive been wondering how much you actually know about it, and how much of what you knowes from the other timeline? Amy wondered. A little of this, a little of that. A lot of the stuff I told you guys about were basically things I found out in the other timeline with a few relevant mythological sources tacked on to exin how I knew them, but Im pretty knowledgeable about mythology in general. I already knew a little bit, but for the most part, I found out a lot of that stuff as it rted to the [System]. People starter scouring the old stories for anything that might give them a leg up when dealing monsters, ranging from trying to get an advanced warning about nasty abilities to ferreting out exotic weaknesses. Any particr books you can rmend? Bailey asked. Not really. All the most important ones are already in your office, everything else is locked inside of exotic, extremely specialized tomes you probably dont need to get unless you have a specific need for them. Isaac said But I think weve seriously gotten off topic here. I thought this was about gifts, not interrogations? Arge package appeared on the table, which Isaac then pushed over to Bailey. Just a few cool and interesting monster and animal bits I couldnt give you before. Now, just to head off any potential misunderstandings, yes, a lot of those materials are from endangered animals, but theres a good reason I have those. You see, eventually, well be able to unlock something called a Wildlife Sanctuary, which is exactly what it sounds like. Ive gathered materials from a bunch of species that are either already highly endangered or about to be due to some of their materials being useful in the [Systems] games, and when we reach a high enough Level to summon that Sanctuary, we can safe those species. Well, I didnt know that Greater Hydras were animals. Baileymented dryly. Yeah, that was a new fight. Isaac said. You have no idea what a relief it is to know that youre only picking fights you can win and that youre perfectly aware of which fights qualify. Bailey shed him a grin. Youre wee. Isaac said. In that case, can I ask how strong Tier 7 monsters are inparison to the Tier 6s? Patrick threw in his own question. Iparably stronger. Isaac said Theyre the very edge of what can be fought with conventional armament without some seriously powerful [Skills] behind it. That Greater Hydra whose skin Professor Bailey is ying around with? A full Carrier Strike Group would be hard pressed to beat. Beyond that, Isaac didnt really have many more truly interesting, personalized gifts to hand out. Lists of useful Spells to grab as well as the monsters that had them, which he handed out to the three [System Researchers], though Raul also got several recipes for good, magical pet food. And that just brings me to one final set of gifts for all of you: potions. I released a series of basic recipes so people could build on that, but I actually know a bunch of better ones,, so I made those for you. Theyll be very, very useful, but please be careful when using them, because you should not have these. If youre caught with one, therell be some hard questions to answer. But I still want you all to have these because if you have to use them, that means theres a lot of trouble and in all likelihood, people will have more important things to pay attention to. As he said that, Isaac began to pluck glowing vials out of his pocket space and ce them on the table. This is a proper health potion meant specifically for first aid. Its primary goal is to stop things that are still actively hurting you, like arterial bleeds and other stuff like that. It wont regrow limbs or set broken bones, but itll ensure that any fatal wounds are fixed. Its an emergency measure, a quick and dirty fix, not something you want to use after the fighting is over and done with. If youre looking to properly recover from injuries, then you can use this potion instead. It works a good deal slower and wont prioritize dangerous injuries, but it will heal things far more cleanly. Someone to set broken bones will still be a good idea, but making sure the limb is roughly pointing in the right direction will help for the most part will help a good deal. Still, if a proper, magical [Healer] is avable, thatll be even better. Then, weve got the mana potions. This one gives you an immediate lump sum of 200 points of mana, but will reduce your regeneration so youll gain 150 less points of mana over the next ten minutes. Meanwhile, this other potion increases your Magic Regeneration by twenty-five percent for five minutes but cuts it in half for five minutes after the beneficial effect ends. Both of them need to be used judiciously, otherwise the downsides could bite you in the ass. Finally, Ive got you a booster potion. Itll increase your Strength and Agility by a significant degree for ny seconds, after which youll feel like utter crap and be barely able to move at speeds beyond what a normal human will be able to achieve. Take this and run, using it inbat will almost certainly get you killed. Furthermore, it grows less and less effective the higher your Stats are while the bacsh will still be pretty nasty, so you shouldnt use it if both stats are above ny or so. He was greeted with stunned silence for a couple of seconds, at which point Patrick cautiously said Can I ask why you didnt release those recipes along with the others? Because giving out high level information would only provide an immediate boost while hamstringing future developments in the alchemical field. An advanced recipe might allow for the immediate use of powerful potions, but the basic recipes will allow for the development of new potions well beyond what I have the recipes for. Think about it like this: what would you give Otto Lilienthal to further his experiments into sailnes, a paraglider or a fighter jet? Wait, theres really that big of a gulf between these and what you posted on the inte? Amy asked. I might have been exaggerating for effect, but not by much. But it shouldnt take more than a three or so years for people to reach this level of potion sophistication with [System] assisted research. Isaac said. I suppose that makes sense, and I can confirm the research part, though that might have worked a little toowell. Last time I visited Professor Chandlersb, I interrupted him mid-experiment and he threw a beaker at my head. Patrick added. Bailey sighed Im just d hes only started throwing things after knowing that his visitors were too tough to be hurt by the impact. Once the round of chuckles had abated, the professor spoke up again. Ive gotta ask, though: do these potions also require highly illegal ingredients? he asked. Yes. Isaac said bluntly That is an unfortunate reality of the [Systems] kind of alchemy. However, Ive chosen my source very carefully. Still someone who dabbles in things very much illegal, but hes at least hes likely to deal with [System] rted problems when they crop up. Sometimes helpful is about as good as you can hope to get from a ck market dealer, isnt it? How do you know hes that kind of guy? Patrick asked. I know him from the other timeline, where he was famously willing to go to great lengths to deal with monster problems. The methods were often questionable, but he did more than 90 % of the world, and hes very protective of his reputation for ying things straight, so Im fairly certain he wont pull one over on me. Isaac said. Uh, quick question, arent you running a big risk by doing anything illegal, arent you afraid of getting recognized. Its not like there arent a bunch of pictures of you online, or am I missing something? Amy asked. Yes. Isaac said I can shapeshift and Im practically immune to identification [Skills]. Huh. How well can you change? Can you walk around as someone else? she asked. Completely, but its a surface-only change and I need to sculpt my features, which is pretty tricky. Im fairly good at it, but nowhere near the point where I can be a human chameleon. Also, theres a lot more to imitating someone than their outwards appearance. Bodynguage, movement, knowledge, little quirks, hell, even smell matters. Its a really basic [Skill] thats really limited and rather difficult to use. Well, theres nothing to do but trust your judgement on which contacts are safe. Bailey said That just leaves one more thing we need to talk about: the future. You mentioned that there are things you wanted to talk to us about in case you, well, are unable to do anything about them yourself. So, what are they, what do you want to tell us? I gave you the broad strokes about the futurest night, and Ive written down all the important stuff and hidden it in my extradimensional apartment. In the event that I cant give it to you, youll be able to break into it using dimensional magic. Isaac said Also, a most of the things we can deal with now have been deal with by others because I exposed them to the world. There are a few incidents that might happen in the near future, ones that we might have to deal with directly. The first is the summoning of a Demon Lord in or near Seoul, which I n to be there for. Wait, how can you know thatll still happen when everythings changed? Even if it happens, isnt it likely that, at the very least, the date will have changed. Patrick asked. Im certain because its linked to a symbolic date, the founding of North Korea. Isaac said After that, Ill visit Great Brittain and see if a rather nasty Dungeon called Sanitys End in the other timeline has been created yet and if so, destroy it. Couldnt you have just added that information to the infodump? Patrick wondered Its not like a Dungeon would move. For a couple of reasons, that would have been a really bad idea. Isaac said First of all, I only included things in that infodump that I was certain existed in this timeline as any mistakes would have damaged its credibility and I dont know when that Dungeon was or will be constructed. It was bad enough that it still contained information about the Children of the [System], no need to add in potentially fictional Dungeon Cores on top of it. Also, that Dungeon is one of the most dangerous kinds of Dungeons, an Eldritch Dungeon. Theres a reason for its name, after all. People mighte out, fully confident in the fact that they destroyed the core, except they were tricked by a series of illusions and also had a few nasty emotional issues inserted in their minds. From there, those people could go on to be thralls to the dungeon, go on a killing spree or turn into terrorists. Anyone I send in there could end up suffering a fate worse than death. I am the only one in the world who has any experience with that crap, and Ive got a mental resistance [Skill] to boost. I can clear it, should it have already been built. If it hasnt been, well, Ill turn right back around and pick up some nice bottles of Scotch for you guys on the way. Isaac promised. Ok. Bailey nodded, followed by Amy asking Is there any extra nightmare fuel youd like to share? Nah, but theres something even more terrifying well need to n for: meetings. Isaac hissed with mock horror, drawing a fewughs. Hed been joking for the most part, but it would still be tedious and unpleasant. He could deal with people on a one on one basis pretty well, but getting tossed into a crowd, then trying to make as many connections as he could, getting rid of people he didnt want to talk to and also just dealing withrge crowds nope. It would be like the lectures on [Aura] use hed given in the past, just a million times worse. Personal feelings aside though, Singapore should be very beneficial. Chapter 109: In the air once more Chapter 109: In the air once more Isaac spent the flight to Singapore grumpy as hell. Somehow, flying seemed to be all he was doingtely. To South Korea and back, now to Singapore and back, then to South Korea in another two and a half weeks. Intellectually, he knew only a small fraction of his time was spent on nes, but it didnt feel like it. At least, this time they wasnt flyingmercial. There were enough people from Germany government employ going that a government transport had been provided. However, said transport wasntpletely filled by government personnel, so the rest of Germanys delegation got toe along. It did tie their appearance to the government somewhat, but it was mostly known that they worked together and the sheer amount of hassle they spared themselves by not flyingmercial was absolutely worth it. Airport security would probably recognize them this time around, but that wasnt a given, sadly. Also, there was more space avable on this ne, which had properly cemented their choice. There was a small issue, though. The powers that be had checked the [Auras] of a bunch of people on this flight to make sure they didnt affect their environment in any destructive way, then sent them Isaacs way for training, given that there was nothing to do for twelve hours. tant maniptive BS, but Isaac didnt mind people benefitting from his instructions. Well, there were quite a few individuals he personally wouldnt have liked to teach, but none of them were present. Then again, the people whod be sent to a conference on how to best deal with the [System] would be people involved in those sorts of things. Sure, a few pure politicians had been involved, but they were in the minority. There were people like Habicht here, who dealt with monsters directly, others were like Dr. Sarai, who pried into the mindset behind people who delved too deeply into the [System]. All in all, it was pretty even mix between people who dealt with the [System] in some kind of intellectual capacity and others who grappled with problems in a more direct, forceful, way. Even as his sensory [Aura] casually batted away three other [Auras], his thoughts drifted off towards the future. Things had been rtively calm so far. Sure, thered beenrge scale monster attacks, a serial killer, an Event that had gotten literally millions killed, but all of those things would have eventually gotten dealt with, somehow. Heavy use of military grade ordinance would have eventually killed the monsters, and at some point, someone would have caught that serial killer, hell, Sarai had already been damn close before Isaac had showed up to help. But even if the whole Korea incident didnte to pass, at some point, people would start going after [Raid Bosses] and the world situation would ever so slightly go south. Hopefully, Isaac had stilled enough good summoning etiquette into humanity to stabilize the situation. idents, breakouts, party wipes and other catastrophes would happen no matter what he did, but hopefully, theyd be outliers, rather than the norm. In a way, it wouldnt be the worst thing if the Demon Lord was summoned, so long as it was stopped before it hit a popted area. Because if Isaac managed to y arge enough role in defeating it, that would give him a solid tform to speak about summoning from, how to properly do it, what not to but most importantly, how badly a t ban could end for everyone involved. But whatever ended up actually being the case, the most important thing would be that there wasnt a city razed or poption massacred to get him there. Isaacs thoughts continued to drift as his [Aura] tore the opposing energy fields to shreds with casual ease. His first few sparring partners had either been people hed trained directly, like Habicht, or people his pupils had trained. Those could actually put up a decent fight. Not too big of one, not in the least due to the fact that an [Auras] strength rose with the wielders Level and Isaac had reached Level 44 beforeing here, but a decent one nheless. Once he was done with the sparring, a full four hourster, Isaac just leaned back in his seat and popped in a pair of headphones. Thats a very interesting choice of song, nothing like your usual taste music, you normally listed to stuff intended to get the blood pumping, this is weirdly calm. Patrickmented from the seat across from him. Of course hed been able to hear what Isaac was listening to, hell, practically everyone on the ne probably could if they strained their ears. Coupled with a sense of curiosity that often overrode standard boundaries and privacy concerns. Well, just like the lyrics. Isaac said There are some sentiments I can really appreciate, ones that most people should remind themselves of every once in a while. What song is that, anyway? Patrick asked. My Way, by Frank Sinatra. Be happy with what youve aplished, dont let others dictate your actions, live your life in a way that you wont look back on with shame. Isaac answered wistfully. Not letting others who have no business ordering you around tell you what to do is an important life skill. Patrick nodded, a faraway look in his eyes. The conversation took a turn for a depressing after that, in that it stoppedpletely. It wasnt that Patrick had said something particrly depressing or offensive, it was just the way hed said it, so morose and final, that it had left them both deep in thought. The flight continued, and Isaac somehow managed to avoid going stir-crazy, but eventually, after a long twelve hours, the city-state of Singapore was finally in sight. But it wasnt the same ind it had been a mere six months ago. Vast expanses of ground had been added to the southern edge, some still stained with algae from when it had been at the bottom of the ocean. Sure, they were still a small fraction of the actual city, and far less than what a handful of people with high rarity [sses] could have achieved, but it was still incredibly impressive. As to why Singapore had more high Level people rather than ones with such [sses], well, that was a byproduct of their caution. Powerful [sses] sprang from extraordinary events, most of which happened to also be extraordinarily dangerous. Steady, safe power growth was the calling card of Singapore, and it showed. A few minutester, the ne touched down so smoothly that Isaac probably wouldnt have even felt it if it hadnt been for his enhanced senses. Damn, that was a good pilot. Sure, he was probably also using [Skills] to help them, but it was still an impressively donending. Leaving the airport was likewise an incredibly smooth process, with them barely receiving any scrutiny. It was more than theyd gotten getting on the ne back in Germany, but it had nothing on ordinary entry into a foreign country. One quick nce at their passports, and that was that. Even Rauls two supernatural pets were let in with nary ament. So, weve got a few hours until the conference, Id suggest we go check into our hotel, explore the city, then get changed into our formal outfits and head over to the conference center. Bailey suggested. When no one spoke up against it, they headed out into the city proper using a taxi. Personal flight was an absolute no-go in Singapore unless there was a dire need for it, at the streets were a little to crowded to go running about without bumping into a whole bunch of people. Oh, Karl, Isaac, here are a couple of umbres. Bailey said, handing over the devices in question Make sure to roll down the stic sheets on the side until they reach the ground, It rains heavily enough here that youll end up drenched up to your chest if you just use a regr umbre. Dont we get any? Amy asked. You have magic. Bailey reminded her These umbres are clunky as hell, but theyll need those if they ever head out without a [Mage]. Is the rain really that bad? she asked. Were in the tropics, even if it doesnt look like it, here in the city. The rain is almost daily and its vicious. As they talked about nothing in particr, the city blurred past outside, beautiful, tall buildings rising into the sky. And it was a beautiful city, staggeringly clean by anyones standards. Most German cities looked like a rebellious teenagers room inparison, but there wasnt so much as a single piece of gum so old that it had practically be one with the pavement visible, a single piece of trash outside of the trash bins, and a notableck of graffiti even in side streets and tiny alleyways. It was a beautiful ce that Isaac could have seen himself moving to and working from if he hadnt had Bailey right there in the same city as him. It could have be a far greater jewel than it had be on its own. On the other hand, being here would have massively limited his ability to go off on his own and pull stunts that would have been incredibly stupid if hed been anyone else. Isaac nodded thoughtfully. Despite all the bad things that had happened even with his intervention, things had worked out ok for the most part. Suddenly, Patricks phone rang. He rolled his eyes and answered the call, listening to the person on the other end of the line grumbling something. Isaac tried to avoid overhearing, bringing his hearing down to normal human limits, but even so, he was sitting right next to Patrick, he couldnt avoid overhearing that side of the conversation. Nah Dad, I told you Im going on holiday sure, maybe I might do that eventually that sounds like work All in all, it was a very weird conversation that showed a very different side than Isaac had ever seen from his colleague. He sounded well, he soundedzy, bored, aimless and parts had been bold faced lies. Isaac declined toment, but he didnt bother controlling his expression either, and something must have showed on his face as Patrick answered the unasked question immediately after hanging up. Those were my parents. They keep bugging me about continuing onwards, striving for excellence, above all else, no matter what Ive reached and what Ive aplished. Now that Ive got my Masters, they want me to join some famous research group. Isaac raised an eyebrow And Professor Bailey doesnt count? He would if they ever stopped nagging long enough to realize what Ive achieved or even just ask what Im doing right now. Patrick answered with a sad smile So Im telling them nothing until they get their heads out of their asses. I suppose thats one way to deal with it. Isaac nodded, and shut up, the conversation once again very much dead. Soon afterwards, they reached their hotel, the Fairmont, checked in and ced the few belongings they didnt want to carry in their storage spaces within, then explored the city for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, there was only so much you could do with so little time, and most of that was spent exploring a food court. The freshly squeezed sugar cane juice in particr was a great hit. With that done, they briefly returned to their hotel to get changed. Wearing fancy clothes and then going out to eat bad idea. Cleaning magic could fix a lot of stuff, but not everything, especially if the stains were particrly stubborn. Isaac was wearing the bracers hed gotten from the Dungeon, shifted to look like sleek and smooth leather bracers, a dark green silk polo shirt and a pair of formal pants, also made from mostly silk, but with enough other fabric woven in to remove the characteristic shimmer. The whole thing offered him his full range of motion, and offered a degree of protection that eclipsed pre-system bullet proof vests, as well as having an additional effect that slightly reduced air resistance thanks to the tailors [Skills]. The entire outfit split the difference between formal beauty and raw utility so perfectly that it was hard to tell which of the two had been the designers original goal and which had been addedter. He also had Old Reliable in its Kabar form clipped to his belt, half hidden beneath his shirt, the S-Rank hed gotten from the South Korean Dungoen Guild clipped to his belt, likewise half hidden beneath his shirt. Lastly, his nametag would read Dr. Thoma once they were actually there. Each one of these things showed one of his allegiances, representing his power, dedication to research and willingness to reach out to others across the world, without shoving any of it in peoples faces. Karl, Raul and Bailey all wore proper and traditional suits, well, at least Bailey and Karl did. Rauls was normal for the most part, but it had been reinforced on the shoulders to allow Brisa to settle there, as well as an extrarge breast pocket to amodate his dragon, Aurelian. The Dwarf Sr Dragons true size was about that of one of those house ponys, whatever those were called, but having a dragon that big around a bunch of summoners could get dicey, a creature that big would put everyones hackles up. No one could be mad at a widdle baby the size of a newborn kitten, though. Patrick and Amy, meanwhile, had gone with some strange fusion of stereotypical mages robes and traditional formal wear. It looked strange in a modern, non-Renaissance Fair context, but that was only for right now. Theyd asked Isaac what would be in style a few months or years from now and hed obliged. Hell, his own outfit was the typical clothing for a fighter who wasnt expectingbat in the immediate future. With that done, they hopped into a pair of cabs and rode them all the way to the conference center. After maybe a quarter of an hour, they left the city itself, heading through a field of new construction that covered the newly acquirednd. Yet they left even that behind, heading out into a vast stretch of emptynd, utterly untouched except for the road, which wasnt really a road at all, but rather a smooth pane of rock created by a [Geomancer] or simr [ss]. There was only a single building there, another kilometer in the distance, rising from the green-stained rock as a massive edifice of ss, metal and crystal. It wouldter go on to be the administrative hub of Singapores supernatural affairs, but as of right now, it was being used as a conference center. There were countless busses, taxis and cars outside, sending forth a constant stream of people. This was going to be rather cramped, wasnt it? But that wasnt what stood out the most were peoples outfits. Many people were simply wearing standard suits and dresses. Some werent. They were wearing clothes clearly modelled after what he was wearing at the moment, the same thing hed been wearing during parts of the Korea visit, as well as several of his lectures. Sure, it was a nice outfit that showed ones profession without looking weird as hell, and could easily reflect the wearers Level by the monster bits woven into them without being fully in your face. Isaac shook his head, a wry grin ying pulling at his lips. Of all the things hed expected to be in this new timeline, a fashion timeline wasnt one. Chapter 110: Auspicious Meetings Chapter 110: Auspicious Meetings The main lobby of the conference center was a vast space that would likely be further subdivided at someter date, but right now, it was still a single immense room the size of a football pitch with a curving roof overhead. Said roof was made mostly of ss and steel, but someone with earthmoving and manipting [Skills] had clearly been involved and added a bunch of fancy crystals to the whole affair. It looked pretty, but also somewhat pretentious at first nce. Pre-[System], doing something like that would have gotten rather expensive, so someone sticking that many crystals on a building would have been the very definition of trying way too damn hard. Depending on how you looked at it, this interesting design choice could be taken as being gaudy, forward thinking, or simply the work of a designer whod taken advantage of the sudden avability of crystals. Another thing that was apparent at a nce was that weapons were permitted at this conference. Sure, banning weapons would have been rather pointless, given that half the people here could either summon their own or simply didnt need them, but it was still odd to see people having swords, daggers, and in one case, a spear strapped to their bodies like that. That being said, there were two kinds of armed people. Some, like Isaac, simply considered their weapons to be a part of their standard outfit and wouldnt leave it behind, but didnt unt their armed status either. As such, the weapons were strapped casually wherever they belonged, practically blending in with the rest of the outfit. Others, though, unted their instruments of death so tantly that Isaac reduced his estimate of their mental maturity by a couple of decades. Bandoliers of throwing knives strung across someones chest, twin sabres crossed on someones back, and so on, and so forth. Wearing full battle rattle to an event like this, as if they expected to be in for the fight of their lives it was nice to know who here was too caught up in the mor of monster fighting and who was here to take this seriously even if it was just a bunch of people standing around and talking. Yet the most astounding thing was the sheer variety of other species present. Everyone one Baileys team was still human, even if that was a pure technicality in the professors case due to his extensive self-modification. Meanwhile, Isaac had been offered the chance to turn into a Liosalfar, also known as a Light Elf, but that had been attached to a truly terrible [ss], so he hadnt taken it, and none of the others had even been offered the option. All in all, changing ones race during the first or even the second [ss] Evolution was rare, but it did happen, and many of the people who managed to do so were present here. Some people had been changed in incredibly obvious ways, like a young man with green tinted skin and a violin strapped to his back. He was a Nixie, a kind of water spirit from German and Nordic folklore with incredible skill in music, to the point where they could make furniture dance, or even ramp it up to the point where people couldnt stop dancing until they quite literally dropped dead. They were also meant to be stuck at the bottom of the body of water they were associated with, but when humans evolved into supernatural beings, those weaknesses tended to be somewhat reduced to make the whole thing somewhat more ptable. For example, Vampires didnt burst into me the moment sunlight touched them, they just lost all the racial bonuses, as well as another ten to twenty percent of their strength until nightfall if they got struck by the sun. Still a painful consequence, but hardly lethal. It was simr with the Nixie, they had their associated body of water and they needed to jump in every so often, otherwise their racial bonuses would slowly drain away over a span of several weeks, then reducing Stats after that, but not to the point where theyd be crippled and it would all be restored after they visited home again. In other cases, you not only needed to look for the changes, but you also needed to know what to look for. For example, in the far corner, an elderly Japanese man stood, with hair like quicksilver and only showing a handful of signs of age, none of which impacted his looks in the least, only serving to make him look distinguished. But that wasnt what made him stand out, that was the ethereal, practically invisible, fox tail that whipped around him. Patrick nudged Isaac with his [Aura], using it to point out the elderly man. Of course hed notice the magical tail, given that his [ss] was focused on researching stuff like that. That would be a Kitsune. He replied, likewise speaking through his [Aura], though he was addressing everyone in the team, feeding the conversation through Amys [Aura of Mystic Union] so no one else could overhear. Gossiping about anyone here was bound to get overheard and could easily lead to trouble. Arent those usually young women, mythologically speaking? Raul asked. The standard human forms of a Kitsune are a young woman or an elderly man, though their shapeshifting can get as extreme as a titanic tree or even a second moon in the sky. Their human shapeshifting grows more refined as they gain more tails and grow stronger, but for now, that guy is locked into the two standard forms for now. In fact, Im pretty sure hes nowhere near as old as he appears and because the only limitation on that form is old, he turned himself into quite the silver fox. Amy looked at him with a raised eyebrow, silently judging him for the terrible pun, but Isaac just shrugged and continued. Once a kitsune grows a second tail, they gain the ability to use foxfire, as its generated by them rubbing their tails together, which is a nasty offensive power. Eventually, once they grow their ninth tail, they be damn powerful, but thats supposed to take a thousand years and Ive never seen it. So are the tails linked to age, raw power, or number of [ss] Evolutions? Patrick asked. I genuinely dont know. Isaac said The first tail is gained with the race, the next twoe hand in hand with the next to [ss] Evolutions, but where it goes from there, Ive got no idea. Also, while they barely gain anything when they first get the race, they grow vastly more powerful as the number of tails increases, until it bes the strongest race I know about. Interesting. Bailey replied aurically, then spoke out loud So, lets meet here again in three hours, each of you has a list of talks you want to see and people you want to meet, and I dont want to keep you. Before the group could break up though, a middle-aged man in a stereotypical man in ck suit approached them. They might have never met in person, but everyone on the team remembered that night, when the city of Los Angeles had nearly been destroyed by a monster and the man whod had to deal with it all. Chief Allen, its nice to finally meet in person. Bailey greeted. Actually, its Special Agent in charge now. Allen corrected, reaching up to scratch his neck as he did so I left the LAPD after an irreconcble difference in opinion. Im sorry to hear that. Bailey said. Ah, dont be, my new job lets me work to ensure that something like that night doesnt happen again. Allen replied That night is actually why I came over here. Id like to thank all of you for your help during that Event. I was too busy to say so that day, and anything other than an in person conversation would have been insufficient to convey my gratitude. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Your warning about the Elementals helped us prevent the beasts final form from destroying the city and your ideas for fighting the individual fragments saved countless lives. You all are a credit to your profession. Thank you for saying that. Bailey nodded. Isaac took this as an opportunity to ask a question that had been burning on his mind Excuse me, Agent Allen, but your new job with the FBI wouldnt happen to be rted to taking down wild monsters, wouldnt it? It was a stab in the dark for the most part, but it made sense. A man far older than traditional FBI recruits immediately ending up in a rank one step down from a director was a strange urrence, and wouldnt have happened without someone having a n for him. And what possible use could a federalw enforcement agency have for a man who not only had some experience dealing withrge scale monster attacks, but had also set up a small scale levelling program, even if thetter had been unofficial? Thats right? Allen confirmed, raising an eyebrow in response Why? Well, your German counterpart, the guy in charge of the strike wing belonging to our agency for the supernatural, is here as well. If you want, I can introduce you. Isaac offered. Thats very generous, but dont you have other things to do? Allen asked. Sure, but I can spare a few minutes and this could be rather beneficial to everyone involved, couldnt it? Certainly, a face-to-face meeting would be a more effective way for you two to get to know each other than any other method? There wasnt much one could say against that and Allen agreed, leaving with Isaac after promising everyone hed help if they ever found themselves in trouble. The actual meeting between the two federal officers went by quickly and smoothly as well. They were somewhat simr people and smart enough to immediately realize what they could aplish together. By the time Isaac left the pair to their discussions, the rest of the team had already scattered to the winds, leaving him alone to go exploring. There were a lot of interesting things here, ranging from people selling devices, gadgets and weapons that wouldnt have been possible without the [System] to talks by some of the worlds greatest experts. Hell, Isaac himself wouldter be giving a talk on the proper use of [Aura]. But even though he hadnt been this conventions equivalent in the other timeline, he didnt really feel the need to go exploring. After all, Isaac knew the contents of most of the talks that would be given here, none of the devices were new to him either, and any ns for the future that others had made, the team coulde up with as well, there was simply only so much you could n for without knowing what to expect. No, the reason he was here, the reason hed actually been excited toe here, was the people. Flexing his [Aura], sending nigh-imperceptible threads of his will through the entire building, Isaac found quite a few he recognized. For example, the tall woman with tanned skin, a long ponytail and a bronze short sword strapped to her side that was currently inspecting a stall that promised extreme enivornment safe clothing by a Level 20 [Tailor] wouldter be known as the Antean Sentinel, after her [ss] of the same name. Wielding a devastatingbination of [Warrior], crowd control and hydrokic [Skills], Areti Tassa was a terrifying foe underwater, able to obliterate both swarms of monsters to thick you could walk on them to marine leviathansrge enough to bite an aircraft carrier in half. Shes died a year ago, killed by an ice-based [Raid Boss] called The General of Cocytus. If Isaac had any say, by the time that thing showed up, there would still be other people avable to fight that thing, people who werent hard-countered by its ability to freeze everything in sight. On the other side of the room, observantly looking around, was another familiar face. Thomas Stanley, a sensory specialist just like how Isaac had pretended to be for a while during the serial killer investigation. He coupled that with the [Telekic Domain] [Skill] and its upgrades from the Aspect of the Poltergeist to devastating effect. However, thebination of his name and specialization had earned him the unfortunate nickname Peeping Tom, not because he had any such inclinations but because some hrious jackass had decided to crack stupid jokes. Right in front of him was a rather in looking man, the only thing that stood out about him being a pair of curved, goat-like horns that asionally red with dark mes. ording to the namete, this was Jaden Burns. He also had a title, The ck me, but he was constantly changing between feeling ashamed of having picked such an edgy name and feeling proud of having actually earned a title. Right now, he was just another person with Levels to match the current frontrunners, but once he got proper control of the [Hellfire] hed essed via an Aspect of the Imp, hed grow to be a standout powerhouse. So much talent in one room would have been intimidating even to the Isaac of the other timeline. He might have survived until the end, but as much as his own personal power had helped on that front, Isaac was under no illusions that luck hadnt yed a major part in his continued survival. He might have been powerful and locally famous, but not someone with world-wide renown. In this timeline, though, he was arguably one of the most widely known people, given how many people were using his [Aura] techniques. At the end of the day, though, there was only one group of people he was looking for, and they were currently examining the series of weapons stalls set up near the center of the room. Isaac strode forwards, heading in that directions, but cautiously changed directions and took a more circumspect route to avoid one of the folks there, because the man was probably looking for him. He reallywasnt looking forwards to a personal conversation with Wyatt Reyes. That man was curious little puppy, sticking his nose literally everywhere no matter how much it didnt belong there, backed by a series of investigative and analysis [Skills]. It was an attitude that should have gotten him killed in short order and it would have done so if it hadnt been coupled with near-clinical levels of paranoia that led him to have counters prepared for basically anything he encountered. He was also a master with his sensory [Aura] and someone who Isaac had based his own [Aura] use off. Thankfully, Isaacs current tricks were far in advance of what the other man could have right now, so theyd avoid notice, otherwise, hed already have been boned. At the end of the day, there was a good chance that a conversation between Wyatt and Isaac would go off without incident, but it was also possible it wouldnt. And with Wyatts persistence, any small opening could lead to the man doing an in depth investigation, which would be problematic. Therefore, if Isaac could avoid it, he would. Isaac reached the group he was heading towards a few minutester. It consisted of three men and two women, all of whom were dressed in what could only be described as a modern tailor got his hands on medieval clothing patterns, then made them using current day fabrics. The end result was a little out there, and definitely unique in this room, but it also fit the group, and its somewhat entric leader. Arthur, The Returned King The mans surname wasnt showing up on the namete alongside the title because the government had told him to stick the idea of changing it to Pendragon somewhere unfortunate, which was quite understandable. As his power and influence grew, that would eventually change, but for now, Arthur Wells was merely apetent fighter whose first name happened to match a legendary king hed decided to style himself after. Well, styling himself after King Arthur Pendragon would have been one thing, but Arthur Wells was actually iming to be the embodiment of the ancient tale of how the legendary king would return in Ennds greatest hour of need. As Isaac got within a few meters, an [Aura] washed over him, immense pride echoing within, but also protective warmth, all submersed in a sea of authority. This was the [Aura of the King]. But a second [Aura], slightly visible in several different shades of steely grey, feeling like metal, oil and leather, the [Aura of the Knight], was wrapped around him. Two [Auras] should have been impossible, and it was for almost everyone but the rare few holding [sses] that had [Skills] which changed that. These [Skills] were expensive, costing four times as much as standard [Skills] of the same rarity and the [sses] they belonged to were epic at a minimum. Lastly, [sses] with those kinds of [Skills]cked other central [Skills], meaning Arthur didnt have an equivalent of [Form of Horror] or [I Am The Sword], but the [Auric Knight] wasnt meant for one on one fights against powerful fights, involving huge, incredibly powerful attacks. Instead, he had two [Auras], one for creating close range effects, personal defense and enhancing attacks, the other meant to be used to strengthen andmunicate with his allies. Combine that [Skill]set with a few strong allies, and you got a group that could defeat most other groups of equal size with ease. But a fairly unique [ss] wasnt what made Arthur so important to Isaac. No, that honor went to the vast following hed amassed. He was the leader of one of the few western Guilds that also used the name, the Guild Camelot, for obvious reasons. He was probably getting crap for picking that name, though that would clear up once he started actually helping out around the Isles. Good afternoon, Mr. Wells. Isaac greeted him, inclining his head in greeting Or would you prefer Pendragon? One thing is for certain, Mr. Thoma, youre fairly well informed. Arthur replied with a grin so bright it could seemingly blind someone Wells is fine, though Id like it if you called me Arthur. I have a feeling well be working closely together in the future. In that case, call me Isaac. And I do believe well be seeing a lot of each other from now on. After all, we live only an couple of hours travel apart, and I think theres a lot we can do for each other. Isaac replied. Well, theres that. But first of, Id like to thank you for your papers on [Aura] use, they were quite useful. Arthur said. Youre wee. Ill hold a talk on thatter, in case you want to drop by, but Im also avable for a few private training sessions in a few weeks, though. Isaac said. Thats certainly a generous offer, though I dont suppose theres any chance youre willing to ept a more permanent ce in my court? After all, theres a lot Camelot can do for you. Arthur offered, his megawatt smile on full disy. Isaac shook his head Im afraid arge reason for my ability to instruct your people is that I work with some of the finest minds in the world. Once all is said and done, thest mystery is lifted and all there is left to do is lead a horde of brave souls to y the dragons, Ill dly ept a ce at your court. Until then, though, my ce is with Professor Bailey. Thats hard to argue against. Arthur nodded If you dont want a position though, what is it youre looking for? Allies. We live in a dangerous world, and no man can do all there is to do. Should an incident like what happened in Los Angeles ur closer to home, can I count on your help? Or, should some additional support be needed to conduct arge scale experiment, would you be willing to assist? Isaac said. Of course. Arthur dered magnanimously. For a moment, it seemed like he was about to throw an arm around Isaacs shoulders, but he clearly thought better of it and straightened Your research helps the entire world; how can a king do anything but support you? Isaac shrugged Assuming you know someones allegiance can bite you in the ass rather badly. Therere many people who support what we do, but discussing terms and gaining confirmation is what Im here for. So, the stalls and talks dont interest you? One of Arthurspanions spoke for the first time, sounding surprised. No. Isaac shook his head empathetically The only talks Ill be attending are the ones Ill be giving, and Germany has no shortage of skilled craftsmen. Allies, on the other hand I understand. The woman nodded, holding out her hand for him to shake Elena Hightower, pleased to make your acquaintance. Would you be avable to hammer out the particrs before the end of this conference? Im avable right now. Isaac said Also, I believe there are private workspaces avable for that purpose. As the two of them headed off, Arthur was already busy chatting up someone else. He was personable and charismatic, able to sell the idea of himself as a champion of whatever the hell it was he wanted to achieve, but his support staff held a huge amount of power and influence as well. An hour afterwards, they had aplete agreement in ce, signed and notarized, which would see Isaac drop by for two days every three months. It really wasnt that big a drain on his time, but it allowed him to easily point out and help remove thergest ws in someones [Aura] use, and that could make a huge difference. By binding himself more closely to Camelot, he could help ensure that there was a powerful force to defeat free monsters and [Bosses] in Europe, easily reachable via portal from the university. A second portal user could be sent through and then put the warriors of the Camelot guild anywhere within their range. He spent the rest of the time talking to random people. He sought out some of them, others came up to him because they recognized him from the recordings of his talks and lectures. Sometimes, the conversations were simple Im an admirer of your work, in other times, there were suggestions for cooperation or trade deals, given that it was well known that Isaac had amassed a huge stockpile of valuable monster bits. Running into so many people, seeing all those lives hed impacted, maybe even improved, made it very hard to not just spend the rest of the conference floating on cloud nine. He also ran into Yoo-jin during that, but they only had a brief conversation during which Isaac told the Guildmaster about his ns to visit Korea post-Event. Well, it was still up in the air whether there would be an Event during the Autumn Equinox, but chances were there would be another Event. And then, finally, the main even arrived. The big, round table discussion on what to do about the Event, should it ur, except very few people actually had the political power to put the eventual decisions into action and a lot of people here thought they were the most important ones there. this was going to be a clusterfuck for the history books, wasnt it? Chapter 111: A difficult conversation Chapter 111: A difficult conversation and that is why we should limit the use of Events to those who have proven themselves on the field of battle! the man, who happened to be wearing a fur coat in the tropics as some kind of bizarre fashion statement, finished off his two-minute speech. And the only reason the tirade hadntsted even longer was the hard 120 second limit on how long a given person could talk. If they surpassed that limit, one of the local [Mages] would cast a spell that prevented the sound of their voice from travelling across the room. One way or another, the speech would end, others could respond for the next two minutes, and then the next speaker would talk. The rules were draconian and thoroughly enforced, but the mess was big enough as it was even with them, Isaac shuddered at the idea of how this would have gone otherwise. How the fuck would that ever work? someone else snapped You know what, just give me some of whatever youre smoking and be done with this affair, sounds like thats some good The voice suddenly cut off, followed by the speakers mouth moving soundlessly as he responded in kind, but someone had clearly silenced him. Once again, please refrain from personal attacks or random interruptions. The voice of the nominal chairman rang out. Hed been calm and collected in the beginning, but that had long since changed. For another few rude interruptions, hed hidden it well enough that most people hadnt noticed, but even his iron will and god-tier poker face could only carry him so far. Another person calmly raised their hand and waited to be called upon. When that happened, their statement was almost as impolite as thest speaker. You do realize that Events provide incredible rewards that few people will be willing to pass up, right? If we tell people they arent allowed to get anything out of the Event, theyll ignore us outright. Remember how spectacr a failure trying to ban alcohol was? This will be worse. The next speaker asked Which time? Every time. Banning something many people want and can get fairly easily will never, ever go well. Oh y- the original speaker lost his temper, but noise cancelling magic could shut down a screaming match better than anything theyd had before the [System], at least when it came to an in person meeting. would anyone else like to reply to Mr. Denisovich? the chairman sighed. A few people mouthed insults and several rude gestures made it absolutely clear what people thought of him and his statements, so he decided to move on. Up next is Polizeirat Habicht of the German Federal Burau for the supernatural. The chairman didnt quite sound like a man whod lost the will to live, but it was a close thing. Still, he was certainly doing better than practically anyone else in his position would have. Good afternoon,dies and gentlemen. I stand before this august body not as a summoner, but as a representative of the German government. As such, I present to you a proposal: none but a select group of researchers and other,rge-scale organizations that work towards the public good will summon monsters from the Event for the first six hours after it begins. These organizations include, but are not limited to, the Dungeon Guild of South Korea, the Independent [System] Research Group, The sheer amount of ham in the police officers speech could have fed a family of four for weeks, and it drew a fair amount of chuckled, but there was a good reason for that. He was treating this entire group of disparate people, including academics, government officials like himself, professional monster hunters and even just a few powerful people who thought they were far hotter shit than they really were, but had gained enough strength to warrant an invite. Thetter group was nodding along, actually considering the whole thing, which was probably a lot more than they likely would have if this had been another egghead thering on. They were being respected here, and they appreciated it. Hell, theyd probably rarely been addressed like this before. Habicht was treating them like they mattered, like they had a ce at the table, and that had garnered their respect and consideration. Of course, many others were internally rolling their eyes at what he was doing, but they werent really the people who mattered. The ones who did, well, they realized what he was doing, understood the reason behind it and thought all the more highly of him for it. in addition, this same proposal has been submitted to the UN security council and will be submitted to the general assembly tomorrow. I hope that it will have the support of some people present here. Thank you. He nodded and stepped back away from the podium, heading towards his seat before anyone could ask questions. The proposal was effectively set in stone now, all he wanted was to make sure that everyone new about it. And instead of questions directed at the speaker, the response to that offer was a general swell in murmurs and whispered conversations. The next person to speak was an elderly woman who couldnt have looked any more like a historian if she tried, and given that she was announced as Dr. Boulet and belonged to a society that researched European history, that seemed to be exactly what she was. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for agreeing to let me speak. She began, looking around the room for a brief moment, acknowledging important individuals with her gaze, while people began to wonder just what a historian would talk about, then continued mere moments before the silence became unbearable. Thus far, we have heard a lot of opinions, a lot of ns, a lot of abstract ideas on what we should do and how we should do so. Im not going to do that, thats not why Im here. Instead, Id like to provide some perspective on what it is were discussing. Somewhere between one and two-hundred-thousand people die every day, and a simr number of births ur. Against the current world poption of seven point seven billion, that is barely anything, a mere rounding error in the grand scheme of things, a tiny mistake while taking the census, thats all it would take. On June 21st, 2022, we lost eleven million people. More people died in one day than soldiers lost their lives throughout the entirety of World War 1. In one day, a measurable percentage of the human race was wiped out, something that even the deadliest wars in human history took years to do. It might not have been phrased that way in between the reports on what the Event materials could be used for, but make no mistake, this was a cataclysm, an urrence that has reshaped the world as we know it, even if those changes vanished amidst everything else the [System] altered. So while we discuss ns for the future, please keep in mind, this is more than just a small inconvenience that needs to be discussed. The choice made here and now can and most likely will shape the future of this world. Thank you all for listening. While there was a smattering of apuse, most people were looking shocked, dismayed, and other variations on unhappiness, but there was also arge group that had a deer in headlights look, as if theyd been called out on something. Which they technically had been, given that few enough of them had been thinking of the whole matter in those terms. Isaac nodded at her in approval. People had been talking about all this, the danger the [System] posed, in abstract terms. Now though, theyd been pped by reality, which had been shot into their faces as if fired from a canon. He certainly hadnt needed the reminder, but it was a good that everyone had gotten it. The next speaker had something more normal to say, but after that speech, it didnt really have much of an impact. Not that Isaac would have expected anything else, given how not-earthshaking it was. More people came and went, some rattling off scripts that had clearly been prepared prior to the history lesson, others hastily altered to match the new, dour mood that had settled in the conference room. Finally, a familiar face stepped up to the lectern. Up next is Guildmaster Seon Yoo-jin from South Korea. The chairman announced, his voice that of a hundred-year-old man on the brink of passing on. Going sote might have been a mistake, given that everyone was tired and had probably also formed an opinion based on what everyone else had said, but then again, you only got one speech and there was a certain power to having thest say. Everyone, I know youve already heard a lot of propositions, a lot of suggestions, a lot of ns, so I promise Ill be brief. In case you arent already aware, I represent the entirety of South Koreas summoners, and it has already been decided that we will give the scientists six hours of grace before we ourselves will use the Event. This will save lives by ensuring that the desperate scramble for information as well as the devastation that followed during thest Event will not repeat themselves and I hope you will all join us. And if youre nning on charging ahead, remember this: whatever instincts youve acquired over the months of battling monsters with regards to their fighting power, they wont apply during the Event. With an imperious look on his face, Yoo-jin returned to his seat, his expression making it abundantly clear what he thought of anyone who charged ahead to fight in this event on their own. Peoples attentions further waned during the next few speakers, thest ones, but when the final person stepped up to the lectern, most of them perked up again. Professor Bailey had been the one whod mitigated the first even from apocalyptic to merely exceedingly destructive and had thus truly earned the right to have the final word. Good evening,dies and gentlemen. Im Professor Adam Bailey, and Im a [System] researcher. Throughout the course of my work, Ive discovered many hidden facets of the magic that now infuses this world. And Im sad to say that many of those facets are beyond dangerous, things that could easily get a summoner killed if they arent carefully ounted for. It is an indisputable fact that the [System] has brought us incredible things, such as the ability to heal almost any injury, conquer famine and disease, literal magic. But it is equally indisputable that it has brought with it incredible danger as well. Living natural disasters, man portable weapons and even abilities that can unleash destruction on a scale that is normally reserved for heavy military or even nuclear ordinance, but evenpared to all of those things, an Event is unmatched in its destructiveness. My team and I will be working tirelessly to understand everything there is to know about this Event and the monsters it brings. Unless this Event is markedly different than thest one, well have every monster up to and including Tier 6 and their loot properly cataloged. This information will be made avable to everyone, regardless of nationality of ideology. We do this for the safety of the world, not to help any one group gain an advantage. Any help towards this goal would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for listening, I hope everyone has a good flight back. Apuse rang out, but it abated fairly quickly as people filed out of the room, some slowly waking up from the stupor theyd fallen into during the discussion. In the beginning, thered been huge fights and arguments, but everyone had quickly grown tired of those. And the people who hadnt, well, theyd ended up stuck in a permanent bubble of silence that was only removed when they properly raised their hands to talk, and even then, it got mmed back down with lighting speed if they overreacted. Isaac wasnt in much better shape, though in his case, the reason was that hed been so incredibly focused on everything that was said that his brain was now thoroughly fried. He managed to have a few conversations with people, and the rest of the team did the same with no small amount of sess, but he soon copsed onto a random bench and fell asleep. Hopefully, this had been enough. Chapter 112: The Potential For A Cataclysm Chapter 112: The Potential For A Cataclysm The entire area at the bottom of the hill was covered in swarming people, bustling around and doing stuff. Most of said stuff should have been long sincepleted and was probably also done by now, but no one was standing still. Either nervousness was driving them to do make-work, or someone in a position of power had gotten a serious case of anxiety when theyd seen their subordinates werent doing anything. They were, once again, back in Grafenw?hr for this Event. By now, Professor Bailey practically had a timeshare on the military base and that joke had, in fact, been made by several people. But there was a reason these kinds of experiments were conducted here. Large open area, no civilians to get caught underfoot and, oh yeah, the shitload of heavy artillery that could be dumped on the heads of any unsuspecting monsters. But that was the normal setup, with a few heavy weapons in ce. This wasnt that. What felt like the Bundeswehrs entire engineering corps had invaded Grafenw?hr like a swarm of locusts, chopping down trees, evening out the ground,ying out plenty of summoning circles in quick-setting concrete, putting up temporary shelters to be used for rest or administrative matters It had taken merely a couple of days, but several square kilometers of woond had been turned into a fully furnished summoning base. The whole thing affair and the professionalism with which it had been handled thus far gave him hope for the future, but Isaac was fully aware of how dangerous this was, and how badly it could go. They had six hours to research every monster up to Tier 6, and that was simply far too little time. Sure, theyd dealt with the relevant monstersst time, but even if the overall number of possible summons was simr, adding an entire Tier would vastly increase theplexity of the mess. For one, higher Tier monsters required more mana to summon and that would slow down the progress of work, not to mention how much more varied their powersets could be. Six fucking hours. Really, that was barely enough for a meeting with a halfwayplex subject matter, never mind fighting a vast horde of monsters while trying to observe every facet of their being. Sighing, Isaac slung himself onto a rock, sitting down cross legged as he observed the action going on down below. Cant sleep? a voice rang out from behind him. Just did. Now Im just observing the goings-on down there until everything kicks off. How about you, Ms. Hightower? Isaac replied. Oh yeah, there were actually quite a few more people here than just military personnel and the team. This ce was one of only two ces in Europe currently researching the Event and a lot of people had showed up to help, including most of Camelot and arge chunk of the BAU. GSG-13 wasnt among them, though. No, those people were scattered all over the country in case they were needed and the issue could be dealt with by a single high-Level fighter. Anything more than that, well, that would be dealt with via airstrikes or a group dispatched from right here via a [Portal]. Thetter might have been a viable option for dealing with everything, except the spell had that pesky little cooldown problem. They had three people who knew it from Professor Baileys team, as well as two soldiers and one federal agent who had an inferior version of [Portal] with a longer cooldown and shorter range. Even if all incidents were perfectly spaced out, they would still only be able to deal with thirteen of them via [Portal], ruling it out as a viable solution for everything. There were also a handful of independent summoners here, but they were only a fraction of those that had applied to be here or simply offered to help. The vetting process had been thorough. The same, She shrugged There isnt anything to do for me except make-work, and doing things just for the sake of being busy is a waste of time, wouldnt you agree? Eh, time spent thinking, all alone with your thoughts, can be pretty productive as well. Isaac replied, turning his head to face her For example, I think I just figured out something very interesting about you. And that is she asked. People have likened you to being Arthurs Merlin, his stalwart advisor and powerful magician to boot. And thats true to an extent, but not entirely. Youre the power behind the throne in a far more abstract sense. Youre in charge of ensuring he has all the weapons he needs, both in the literal sense and in the form of alliances. And to top it all off, youre even of a simr species and wield simr magic as your mythological counterpart. Youre Nimue, the Lady of the Lake. My species? Do tell. She said with a this should be good expression on her face. Youre an Asrai, an aquatic fairy from English folklore. Isaac said. No one told you that, it wasnt a question, but rather a confident statement based on whatever truth-telling [Skills] she possessed So, howd you figure that out? Youre the first person to get that correct without some serious help. First of all, youre a water-based magic user. Youre also British, and while our sample size is tiny, there does seem to be a certain degree of corrtion between the mythology of someones home and the species they evolve into. That already massively narrowed things down. Then theres the fact that you were using a lot of things to prevent sunburn in Singapore, even though people at our Level are immune to it. The real thing clearly isnt as sensitive to daylight as their mythological equivalent, but it clearly still affects you. What cinched it though is seeing you now, in the light of the moon. Even though its waning and will be gone in a couple of days, youre still practically radiating power. So in summation, you have the same powerset, strengths and weaknesses. Huh, I suppose that would do it. Though the real question is: why are you telling me this? she asked. Well, Ms. Hightower, call it a demonstration of my other abilities. The whole world knows that Im an expert at [Aura] maniption, and while footage of the incident in question thankfully hasnt surfaced, me taking on a very powerful serial killer is likewise fairlymon knowledge. This was me showing that Im good at more than just fighting. Before, you said you werent interested in joining Camelot, yet here you are, proving how worthwhile hiring you would be. Whats the endgame here, Mr. Thoma? You make it sound so sinister, Id just like toy the basis for future cooperation. Isaac responded dryly Really, theres nothing much to it. We work together exceedingly well, I think we can do great things together and Id enjoy working together more closely going forward. [Portal] makes travel practically a non-issue, and both Camelot and us are capable of doing things the other cant. That is either the most upfront, simplistic offer for an alliance or the worst pickup line Ive ever heard. Hightower replied equally dryly. Cant it be both? Isaac asked, shing her a wry grin But all jokes aside, the preparation for this Event has been a good proof of concept for future cooperation. I have knowledge, and a huge number of contacts in the scientificmunity, as well as several excellent crafters who prioritize my orders. Also in Germanw enforcement, but I doubt youre going to have need of those. You, meanwhile, have ess to a far greater number of high Levelbat [ss] holders, and are far more able to create projects without government interference than I am, given that I work for a research group thats part of a state funded university. Perhaps. But the abstract idea of future cooperation was always on the table, Im guessing theres something more concrete youre nning? Hightower asked. Isaac nodded Theres a list, but it mostly boils down to the following: sparring partners around my Level for me, which would also provide your people another fighting style to train against, and manpower. Right now, breaking into new Tiers effectively requires an entire battalions worth of soldiers to stand watch with heavy artillery. That not only means we need to coordinate a lot of peoples avability, but theres also the worry that mere artillery might not do it against the next Tier. When we fought the first Tier 6, it was a rock monster with an [Aura] that could have blocked at least a partial artillery barrage. The artillery operators will have better [Skills] next time, but that might not be enough. In other words, youre asking for support with research while also offering us first crack at the next Tier. I suppose thats reasonable. I dont think well have enough time to hammer out a full contract but putting down the basics should be possible. Probably. But for now, Id befortable with a handshake deal. Isaac said, holding out his right hand, which she immediately shook. Im surprised, though. Id have expected you to want a contract, or at the very least a witness to make this whole affair legally binding. Hightowermented off-handedly. I trust you. Isaac said Were both smart people, we know how dangerous the [System] is and how important it is to properly understand it. Theres going to be more driving this forward than mere ink on a page, Ms. Hightower. Ive heard plenty of people talk about the danger posed by the [System], and heard some bad end predictions, Mr. Thoma. She stated But Im curious, where do you see this end if things go poorly. Isaac looked her straight in the eye and held her stare for a moment, then bluntly stated I see this ending with the extinction of the human race. She grimaced Well, thats a sobering thought. Youre right, though, theres more to support our cooperation than just the letter of our agreement. Unfortunately. A world without such a pressure that would be nice. Isaac said wistfully Where theres no such thing as an agreement you have to keep because to do otherwise might get you and everyone you love killed. On that depressing note, if were going to be working together a lot in the future, perhaps we should take some of the formality out of this. She mimed tipping a non-existent hat Elena Hightower, pleased to meet you, but please call me Elena. Thoma, Isaac Thoma. Isaac said, reaching up, pulling a fedora out of his spatial storage, tipped it and made it vanish before his hand had dropped back to his side. It was a bit of a waste to use an inscribed core on something like this, but the stifled bout ofughter made it worth it. Elena hopped onto the rock besides him, much of the earlier tension having melted away. So, could you exin something to me? A few hours ago, a bunch of people freaked out and ran all over the ce because they thought the Event might have dropped six hours early, but asking didnt get me an exnation that was even remotely understandable. Oh, that. Isaac sighed When the [System] says day, its referring to the sidereal day, which is four minutes shorter than the calendar day. Someone cooked up the theory that the Event might not kick off on the Autumn Equinox, but rather ny-one sidereal days after the Summer Solstice. It would have been very weird if it did that, given that doing so would make the Events happen earlier and earlier until they didnt even happen on the equinoxes and solstices, but it made enough sense to get everyone in a tizzy. And you dont think there was even a chance of that happening? Elena asked. Not any more than some other unexpected thing cropping up we dont have any hope of predicting. Isaac replied We might only have two examples of [System] stuff urring, but they both happened exactly at midnight, Greenwich mean time. If the [System] based its announcement on a certain number of sideral days having passed, that wouldnt work out. On the other hand, why wouldnt they just stick with the sr days? The [System] can be really weird sometimes. Then again, if it werent, Id be out of a job. Out of this job, certainly. Elena said Wed still hire you, though. Thanks. Isaac gave her a grateful smile But could we talk about something else for a bit? Were going to be stuck doing nothing but fighting for twenty-four hours pretty soon, and Id like to spend at least a little time doing something before then. *** And then, 2 am on the dot, the message shed in everyones faces. Wee, one and all, to the Autumn Equinox EVENT! As summer fades, the harvest is brought in and leaves die, darkness stirs. For today and only today, you may summon monsters that represent the bountiful harvest that you have received at the end of the year, but also the horrible fate that awaits those who failed to gather enough supplies for the winter. So, step into your boots, put on your jackets, and fight creatures such as animated scarecrows, dead yet living trees, a literal murder of crows and so much more, culminating in the [Raid Boss] The Spirit of Famine. Will you earn fantastic rewards by proudly charging ahead, or cower in fear until the eggheads tell you everythings alright? Ok, thatst one feels kinda like a pointed insult. Isaacmented dryly, but he was already moving in the ways theyd worked out so long ago. Theyd had the time to make a million ns, so that was exactly what theyd done. It had been decided that Isaac would start out with Tier 5 monsters a rough gage on how strong these things would bepared the norm, then use that information to decide where to go from there. Isaac stood there in front of the circle for a moment as one of the bystanders charged the circle so he didnt have to waste time recharging the mana needed to summon the monster. Then, he charged, shouting Strength around 60, Agility at maybe 80, Fortitude around 140, bugger all for Perception and Magic Stats. Over on the side, someone wrote this down into aptop, the information immediately being whisked off into a localwork set up by the engineers a while ago to bepiled in a location a fair distance from any fighting. But that wasnt Isaacs problem right now. No, that honor went to the Harvest Reaper in front of him, a three meter tall mass of corn stalks and vines in a shape somewhat reminiscent of the Grim Reaper, with two long, whip-like arms that ended in literal scythe-des that did their damndest to lop off Isaacs head. This thing was fast, far faster than a normal Tier 5 and coupled with an ungodly toughness, this made it a scary foe to face or at least it would have been for someone of the appropriate Level. As it was, the whip-like arms struck out with a speed that almost matched that of bullets, but to Isaac, they seemed to almost be moving in slow motion. Old Reliable switched over to its Zweih?nder form and struck an arm a couple of times, leaving shallow gashes. After all, his Strength was his lowest Stat, which was why he infused almost all his attacks with a [Strike-Skill], and this thing was crazy tough, but he hadnt intended to inflict damage, he was just creating cuts forparison. As the arms whipped back around, Isaac ignited Old Reliable and struck out, cutting almost halfway through the thick, tough wood. Fire greatly increases the damage of strikes. Isaacmented, slowly dancing closer to the man body while deflecting every strike, his counterattacks hitting chipping away at the arms until they fell off, one after another. When he walked right up to the main body, nost-ditch counterattack urred, no shockwave to open the distance flung him away, just a desperate iling of shorter arms. Hed expected it based on itsck of magic, but it was nice to confirm it. Isaac cut it in half with a single [Piercing-Power-Strike]. The top half flopped to the ground, dead, but the bottom one continued to il. Clearly, that was where the brain was. Cut after methodical cut slowly took it apart until hed located the central core, which he then speared. The loot from this Event monster turned out to be the scythes des that had once graced the ends of its arms. Scythe of Bountiful Harvest An old iron de that reaped countless things, from grain to lives. And from there, it grew, gathering ambient mana to discharge it when it is in use. Whenever this Scythe is used to harvest any kind of grain, vegetable and other food crop, the amount of gained material is increased by twenty-five percent. If the stubble is returned to the soil, it will imbue seventy-five more nutrients for further farming endeavors. I honestly have no idea if this would make it worth it to harvest a field by hand, but someone here probably does. Send it to the relevant group, and summon me a Reaping Field. Isaac said as he dropped off the two sharp des by the side of thebat area. While he did that, people ran into the center of the square, dropping in the required materials, charging the circle, and then getting the hell out of Doge. It really was a very efficient system, but it hadnt been easy to set up. After all, it had required them to get everything they might need to summon these monsters and yes, that had been exactly as easy as it sounded like. But that mess was out of his hand now. Instead, he had to deal with this mass of weaving stalks in front of him. Low Strength and Agility, but the same Fortitude as the other monster and high Magic Stats, it was another threat far nastier than regr Tier 5s. Still, it had nothing on Isaac. *** Two hourster, the dreaded call finally came, someone had summoned something they couldnt handle. Of course, this was also in grant vition of an international treaty, but that was the least of anyones troubles right now. To top it all off, the incident was ever so slightly out of [Portal] range, so they couldnt even get there immediately. Therefore, they ran, desperately racing to get close enough to leap right into the center of the action with a single cast of the spell. Chapter 113: Interlude Clusterfuck Chapter 113: Interlude Clusterfuck The situation could hardly have been any worse if someone had deliberately engineered it to be as bad as possible. It had been a tense couple of hours after the Event had appeared and the first bits of information had be avable. Living fields out for blood, vine monsters with scythe des for hands that could ignore armor piercing bullets, nasty Jack OLanterns that spat fire real nightmare fodder right there. But nothing bad had happened, not then. Just the five members of a rural towns police force sitting in their meeting room/kitchen, twiddling their thumbs, with Polieziobermeister Lehman cracking stupid jokes that no oneughed at, not even a pity chuckle for their boss. Then, the phone had started ringing off the hook. At first, it had been panicked voices on the other end, then it had been just screams. Lehman had prepared for any potential monsters by telling everyone to have the heaviest ordinance in the station avable to grab at a moments notice, and this had proved prescient. Theyd charged out of the station, with the single machine pistol theyd been allowed to have in his hands, everyone else wielding their service weapons, which were mere pistols. And that was when theyd seen the first monster. It looked like a Goblin at first nce, but when a half-dozen bullets had torn through the thing, it had turned out to be some kind of scarecrow beast made from random nt materials. Now, if the situation had stayed at just one monster, things would have been perfectly fine. Hell, even ten wouldnt have been a problem. But there were far more than ten, so many more. Everyone,e this way! Lehman roared [Loud Voice] amplifying the shout to window-rattling levels of noise, then snapped off orders at a more reasonable volume Move those cars into a barrier, make sure you have a good shot before firing, conserve your ammunition. One good thing about the [System] was that smashing windows, unlocking the handbrake and pushing the vehicles into position could not only be done in under thirty seconds, but it only took a single person. Suddenly, Lehmans radio crackled to life Reinforcements iing, GSG-13 officer will be there in five minutes, jets from the Luftwaffe will be overhead in two minutes. If you have any areas clear of civilians, call it out. Furthermore, I need your exact GPS coordinates. That had been something included in the pre-Event briefings, so Lehman had packed a basic GPS device that would give him his exact coordinates as precisely as was possible and quickly passed that along. Even in the brief time required to do that, almost a dozen shots rang out, and people screamed as the bullets whizzed past them, each taking down a monster. The flow of people swiftly tapered off another couple minuteter, leaving maybe two thousand people running into the night behind the barricade. Said barricade had grown more and more, with cars thrown onto the top to create something the monsters would have to climb. A motorcycle roared in the distance,ing to a screeching halt next to Lehman a momentter. It was a police issue motorcycle and the man who leaped off like some kind of action hero was dressed in full tactical gear. Where do you need me? he asked in a gruff voice. Can you look for civilians out there? Lehman asked. Sure, hold the line here. The man grunted and cleared the barricade in a single leap. A batton appeared from empty air and whipped around to smack a goblin in the head, the beast promptly exploding. Two more monsters came apart as he struck them, while another four were dropped by bullets fired through the barricade. The sound of monsters getting torn apart echoed in the distance for another minute, then the reinforcements came sprinting back at speeds that would have been record breaking a few months ago, spraying a literal horde of beasts with bullets from his machine pistol. Monster after monster dropped as the officers manning the barricade joined in, and by the time the monsters were in melee range, there were only three left, enough to handle. That was when they got their first injury, a set of nasty ws marks that shredded through Lehmans uniform as if it were made of tissue paper. There arent any people out there that I could find, this needs to be less barricade, more fortress. If we stay here, the monsters will go after as everyone else runs off. The tactical officer suggested in a tone that made it sound like an order. Lehman almost certainly had seniority here, but the other man likely had more experience with this crap, so that was what they did. Cars were shifted, until they stood amidst a trio of cars, with motorcycles and bicycles wedged into empty spaces to ensure there was no easy way to get at them. Also, they had a lot of stuff to throw avable. Jet is going to be in range in 30 seconds. Is there any ce thats clear of civilians? the radio demanded and Lehman felt his heart skip a beat The streets are, I dont know about anything else. Concrete dust and body parts erupted from the street as the fighter jet shed past in a strafing run, giving them some much needed breathing room. From there, things were fine for another couple of minutes, but then the first person ran out of ammo, just as the swarms grew ever heavier. [Mana Bullet] couldpensate for that for a while, but only while peoples manasted, and enough [Reinforces] and [Force Shots] had been used that no one had a full mana pool. More monsters screamed and died, with individuals asionally leaping onto the cars but getting shot off a split secondter. By now, everyone was using [Mana Bullet], not a single real projectile had been fired in almost a minute, and for the first time, a monster managed to get on the barricade and survived for more than a second. It still died, but it was a sign of things toe. They began to swarm the barricade, green, chlorophyll-like blood making the surface of the barricade slick. These things could be beaten in melee, but only one on one and every second a gun wasnt being pointed at the monsters outside was another monster that got that much closer to breaking in itself. And that damn fighter jet was still buzzing past overhead, the munitions for its cannons long since spent. But Lehman could clearly see the bombs strapped to its underside and he was grimly aware that once they were dead, those things would obliterate the remains of theirst stand to wipe out the monsters that had killed them. Suddenly, the first bomb did fall, mming into the densest concentration monsters, a ce where the pilot could be sure no one could have possibly still been alive. It wouldnt be long, now. Thest time monsters got in, there were three of them and it had taken ten seconds to kill them, during which two more and leaped inside. Gritting his teeth, Lehman smashed the butt of his gun into the nearest beasts head, over and over again until there was nothing left but mush. Hed be sure to take down as many of these things with him as he could. then the man fell out of the sky, great glowing beams of greyish light sweeping down to bisect the monsters inside. The moment he hit the ground, a bloodred [Aura] shed out, crimson constructs squashing the few monsters still near the fortress into paste. Then, he leaped again and waved his de, a fan of six jet-ck beams burst from the tip of his de, tearing all the way down the street, obliterating whatever had been left after the jets firing runs. Those attacks were powerful and doing one hell of a number on the monsters, but it had to be running his mana pool into the ground. Once that ran out, hed be as vulnerable as they were. Where did these thingse from? the man called out, voice cracking out like a gunshot. No idea. Lehman called out. The red [Aura] winked out for a moment and was reced with a terrible feeling of overwhelming scrutiny, then it snapped back up. Then the man ran off, heading deeper into the remains of the town, his short sword suddenly shifting into a massive, two-handed instrument of death that hacked apart anything that got into range. The number of monster that reached them was far smaller now, but a few still closed in on the fortress. Lehman sighed. That man might be able to get to the source of this mess, but whether theyd survive this was still up in the air. And then the monsters burst into mes as a dragon swooped past. It wasnt very big, maybe the size of a pony, but the ray of light that burst from its maw made the wooden goblins go up like matchsticks getting hit by an arc welder. A second man fell from what Lehman now realized was a portal four meters in the air andnded next to him, bending his knees to absorb the shock. He was Hispanic, maybe twenty-five at the most, wearing what looked like a hunters outfit crossed with SEK-officers tactical uniform. Dont worry, hell handle it while I keep the monsters off you guys. Also, proper reinforcements to sweep the city will be here in ten minutes. For five minutes, nothing much happened. The asional monster showed its face, got lit on fire or shot, and that was that. Then swordsman returned, a thunderous expression on his face. The sword was nowhere to be seen, instead, he was cradling a ck, malevolent looking book in his right hand while dragging along a twisted, gooey mass of vines with his left hand, leaving behind a trail of things Lehman didnt even want to think about. What were these things called, Raul? he asked. Stalks of Death, with a tag that said minion. The Hispanic man said And that mess is to wrecked to be identified. Still, Im pretty sure this is the Tier 6 Field of Death, but none of these things were that strong individually. The swordsman grimaced The circle back in that basement was definitely Tier 6, but overall, the designation should be Pseudo Tier 6, as these things are definitely that strong, collectively. He paused, looking around Im guessing you dont just have bare earth lining the sidewalks in this town? Lehman blinked in surprise, then likewise looked around. Now that the man had mentioned it, all of the nt life in the area seemed to have disappeared. Nope. Sounds like that thing sucked up all of that biomass to form these minions. The swordsman followed that statement up with a couple of muttered curses. And whats up with that book? Lehman asked. The loot drop, a spellbook for [Des Gevatters Umarmung]. What does Gefatter mean? the other neer asked. Very old-fashioned way to say Godfather, almost exclusively used as an epithet for the embodiment of death. Roughly tranted, it means [Deaths Embrace]. Unless someone disagrees, Ill be learning it. Now, there are no monsters left here, Ill take some pictures and head back to continue research and be ready for the next incident. Dr. Thoma, what did the summoning area look like? the GSG-13 officer asked. Clearly, he knew the swordsman. A bloody ruin. I saw a few pamphlets about how the [System] belongs to everyone and crap like that. Thoma replied. Crap. More Children of the [System]? I hope not. But thats for someone with a skillset I dont have to determine. I suppose. Good luck with the rest of today, youll need it. Thanks. Thoma sighed, pulling a camera out of thin air and snaping a few pictures. Are you really going to post those? Lehman asked These are peoples lives, their deaths youd be publishing. That depends on everyone else involved in this. But if the powers that be do decide the publish at least some of these pictures, then theyll serve to remind people how dangerous this Event is. A picture is worth a thousand word and it might be what gets through the thick skulls of idiots like the one who caused this mess. And with that, Thoma leaped up and into the portal, vanishing inside. The other man followed, then the dragon flew through, and then they were gone. Lehman slumped, his gun ttering to the ground as it fell from nerveless fingers. He stared around the ruin that had been his home for going on fifteen years a mere had it really been less than an hour ago? Chapter 114: Slow Down and Take a Breath Chapter 114: Slow Down and Take a Breath Deaths Embrace (epic) A hug is nice, isnt it? The warm embrace of a loved one, assuring you that you are not alone in this world, that you are loved yeah, this isnt that. This is the cold embrace of skeletal arms wrapped around you, bones poking into you as the deathly cold that radiates from them saps your life force. This terrifying effect can be created in one of two ways. The first of these is to infuse you Aura with this Skill, increasing its ability to inflict damage, temporarily reducing an opponents regenerative ability and physical Stats upon dealing damage. This has an ongoing cost of 50 mana per minute for the Aura of the Desperate Seeker and 20 mana per minute for the Aura of the Crimson Dawn. The second fills the space around the caster with a dark miasma that weakens any designated enemy to a degree proportional to the amount of mana invested. The target area is a circle with a diameter of 20 meters centered on the user and does not move with them, remaining where it was first cast. This costs thirty mana to activate, as well as twenty mana per minute as upkeep, and will reduce all Stats of affected enemies by 5. Investing an additional 20 points of mana will further reduce your opponents Stats by 10. Each set of twenty mana invested beyond that will be ten percent less effective, additively. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 50 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 20 mana per minute Area Debuff: 30 mana to activate, 20 mana per minute of use, more mana may be infused at will While the pair of them were running back to their work area, Isaac read over the description of his new [Skill]. It was pretty damn expensive to use, but would wreak havoc upon his enemies. The first way of use would stack perfectly with his ludicrous Level of [Aura] control. The second one was pretty good as well. Unfortunately, the fact that it wouldnt move meant that under normal circumstances, an enemy could just move out of it. However, Isaac had a second [Skill] that synergized perfectly with this one. All he had to do was suck in his enemy with [Grave of Swords], which would be almostpletely covered by the field of death, greatly weakening his foe in the process. Not only that, but thebination would put quite a few foes into his weight ss that would normally be outside it. You know, godfather is an interesting name for the personification of death. Raulmented, interrupting Isaacs musing. Oh, absolutely. Isaac agreed. So, what was that old fairytale you mentioned? Raul asked. Basically, a destitute man wanted a godfather for his child and went looking. He met God himself, who offered to take the role of, well, godfather, but the man decided he didnt want that because he med God for letting inequality exist in the world. Then the Devil showed up, promising the world, but was likewise rebuffed because the man said he was a liar and a trickster. Then, the man met a thin and emaciated being, the Grim Reaper. This was who the man chose to be his childs godfather as all are equal in death. Thats a rather depressing story, isnt it? Raul asked. Eh, its a German childrens story. Most of those are either dark, depressing or both. Isaac replied. And are you really going to post those pictures of the carnage? Raul asked I mean, I can see why you would, but thats a little fucked up? Fucked up would have been heading over to that group of dead pre-teen children having a sleepover I saw in with my [Aura] and posting a picture of that. Isaac growled People need to remember that this isnt a game. That there are real consequences to doing stupid crap. Putting pictures of dead children on the inte is where I draw the line, but every fucker on this stupid who thinks were being overly cautious needs to see what were trying to prevent, what theyre advocating for when they call us out for oppressing them. One of these days, Im going to learn how to bring back the dead just so I can murder those bastards with my own two hands! The conversation came to a stop after that. They continued to hurry back to where everyone else was, not quite running, but still going at a good clip. But even as he stayed silent, Isaacs mind was awhirl. This mess had urred far enough from their research camp that they couldnt immediately go there via [Portal]. Hell, the only reason theyd been able to portal somewhere Raul had never been before was a very specific set of abilities from his second Evolution that had allowed him to teleport somewhere nature rted, which this town counted as, when he had the exact coordinates of where he wanted to go. Thankfully, running at a dead sprint for ten minutes had gotten them close enough to use that spell, but those ten minutes had cost lives. Many lives. Enough to perfectly embody the saying of one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic. Hed seen every body, every face locked into the ghastly mask of death in that town when hed used his [Aura] to search for the source of the horde, but the only thing that had stuck in his mind were those children in their pillow fort. So, had that been a carefully calcted move to make themte? To ensure that the ughter didnt end after thirty seconds when he fell out of the sky like some godsdamned superhero? Or had it merely been horrible luck? Really, it didnt really matter until the investigations had beenpleted, and he knew whose ass hed have to put six feet underground. If someone had deliberately unleashed those monsters upon that little vige and was still breathing, well, they wouldnt be for long. As the two of them got within sight range of the experimentation grounds, a lot of concerned faces greeted them. Those faces began to grow even more worried, those with a high Perception getting a good look at them first, but pretty soon, everyone was staring at them with a mixture of worry, but also no small amount of horror. What happened? Bailey asked. Bad summon, horrible consequences. Killed the monsters, left the cleanup to the local police and emergency services. Isaac replied tly There are a few things about the Field of Death that need to go into the report and the body needs to be dropped off. Then we can get back to it. And with that, he stomped off to the area where they kept all the dead monsters for closer examination. How bad was it, really? Bailey asked at a low whisper, far lower than most humans could even produce, but even so, it was just a hair too loud to go unnoticed by Isaac. First of all, Im pretty sure he heard that. Raul hissed back It was really bad, though. I could only see a tiny bit of the carnage but Ive never seen something so horrible. And he saw everything, and I do mean everything, in that town when he used his [Aura] to look for the source of the swarm. I I wouldnt be fine if Id seen something like that. At least not the first time. Most people would have interpreted thest statement as referring to the mess with the serial killer three months back, but to those who knew the whole truth behind Isaacs past life would understand the true meaning. Hes seen worse, hes probably handling it better than I am, or something to that effect. Isaac realized that throwing himself into work, blowing off steam by hacking apart monsters wasnt exactly the healthiest way to cope with his emotions, and everyone else would be able to tell, but he didnt care. After all, he wouldnt be hurting anyone else. *** Four hourster, their deadline was up, and the whole world got the official green light to start summoning Event monsters themselves. Everyone here would have loved to have more time, but that time had been chosen specifically because they knew that trying to keep people from the goodies for too long would have simply resulted in the boundaries being ignored wholesale by all but the mostw-abiding summoners. There had been a grand total of two additional incidents within their [Portal] range, but they hadnt had to actually intervene, because it had been handled locally. It was a good reminder that even if the strongest people in the country were a professor of biology and his research assistants, the members of the anti-supernatural branch ofw enforcement were hardly slouches either. Everyone involved in the research was somewhat tired after six hours of non-stop, fast paced work, but Isaac knew they had nothing on the people who were on ready response for today. All those pilots who were on overflight all day, ready to take their jets to the fight against monsters at supersonic speeds. All those people in their bombers, waiting to take off at a moments notice and turn a few hundred square meters of this country into ss. All those police officers sitting in their station, fully geared up, looking at their phone and praying it wouldnt ring as much as ying ready response for most of the country sucked, there was actually something useful to do here. Just sitting there, waiting for something to go wrong Isaac would have gone crazy within the first five minutes. Really, all of this was a state of readiness that could squash almost all [System] incidents in moments, stop them before things got really bad, but it was utterly unsustainable in the long run. Ok, so we got a good look at all the beasties, and now were done with that part. Arthur announced, pping his hands to gather attention What monsters do we need to get good parts? Or would anyone be interested in seeing if we can recreate the fighting style of medieval armies? Well, those scythes could be really useful once some [Farmers] gain [Skills] to clear entire sections of a field using medieval tools. I dont see anyone using something that old fashioned as if it were still the fifteen hundreds when there arebine harvesters avable, but those could be a game changer if they can be used on arge scale with a little help from the right [Skills]. [Large Area Harvesting], [Scythe Master], or something like that. Patrick suggested. Or maybe we could just donate some to ces that dont havebine harvesters. Amy added in a this should have been obvious tone. Charity work sounds good. Arthur suggested Any tricks to speed that up? The next few hours were an orgy of violence and bloodshed, monsters appearing and dying mere momentster, but no serious outside incidents urred. There was trouble, sure, but nothing that required them. At least, nothing that happened where they could intervene. It was harrowing, hearing all the horror stories about what was happing yet being unable to help matters. At the very least, having other people summon for him was doing wonders for Isaacs Level. Hed increased it twice, reaching Level 48. Ten points went into his dump stat of Strength, the rest got split between Perception and Magic Regeneration, bringing both to 125. And there was a picture of that bloody pillow fort posted in the end. All the bodies in that town had been long since cleared out, but the image still had the potential to shake anyone who saw it to their very core. If nothing else went horribly wrong, Isaac was sure that this photo would go down in history as a representation of the horrific toll the [System] extracted from those who used it carelessly. That was how the rest of the day went, fighting, trying not to think about the dead, instead attempting to focus on the living, the lives saved. Emphasis on attempt. *** How are you doing? Bailey asked Isaac. They were strolling through the woods a good distance from everything else, with [Perception Block] ensuring no one would overhear. Crappy. No rest, non-stop fighting, and dead kids. The only thing that could make this day worse would be getting dumped, but Id need be dating for that to happen. Isaac said despondently. We got the preliminary casualty numbers in. 1 million deaths. Bailey said, though his voice was merely grim Bad, but its got nothing on the first one. Whatever else happened, we saved lives. Sure. Maybe Ill even internalize that some day. On the other hand dead kids. Bailey took a deep breath before replying with a simple nod. There was nothing to be said to that, and he knew it. I already asked the BAU gal back at camp, but did you hear anything about the background of the summoners on that? Isaac finally asked. Not really. Seems to be the general freedom from rules, but not in an anarchy way, but its still kind of like anarchy. Bailey growled and spat on the ground. Isaac raised an eyebrow, so the professor borated. Ive known people like that, and we do not get along. I get it,ws can be stupid,ws can have been created specifically to target minorities even if they dont expressly say that but ignoring them because you dont understand why they were written after thinking about them for two seconds is incredibly moronic. Drunk driving because I can handle it, what do the politicians know and all that crap. Ouch. Isaac winced. That had sounded personal. Bailey sighed. If you ever want to talk, about anything, you know Im here for you. And if you dont, well, thats fine too. Just, if you ever feel like youre about to do something you might regret, speak up. Please. Thanks, Adam. Isaac said But Im fully aware of how irrational my feelings are. By all objective measures, today was a win. It just doesnt feel like this, it feels personal. Theyre feelings, so I cant just rationalize them away, but Im also not going to let them drive me to do something stupid. He chuckled darkly. No, Im going to go to a ce where a demon lord might be summoned even though the government that called it here in the other timeline is now gone, but Im doing that fully aware of the danger involved, not as some kind of bizarre suicide by monster. I wasnt Bailey began to say, but Isaac cut him off Oh,e on, we both know thats what you meant, you just didnt want to put it in inly. Isaac swore under his breath in four differentnguages for a few moments, then sighed. Im sorry, Im he lost his train of thought and stopped talking. Youve had one hell of a day, I think theres very little you could I do I wouldnt be understanding about. Bailey assured him. Thank you. Isaac slumped Ill take a couple of days, get my head straight, probably go visit my family something. Bailey just nodded as they continued to walk through the woods, not speaking, just paying spending a little time together and knowing they werent alone in this fucked up world. Chapter 115: Familiar Surroundings Chapter 115: Familiar Surroundings By the time Isaac got to his childhood home, it was still in the middle of the night, only the slightly yellowish light of the streemps providing illumination. The entire neighborhood looked normal, so incredibly, unbelievably, painfully ordinary. Nothing like the charnel house the small town had turned into or the ordered chaos of the research camp, just a normal, peaceful neighborhood full of blissfully sleeping people. well, there was a couple having indecently loud sex two houses over and a group of people sat around a dying campfire, drinking beer and talking about politics in a low voice, but that was beside the point. But this entire ce was so incredibly peaceful, a calm oasis of peace in this entire, messed-up world, and he wished it could just stay that way. And hopefully, it would, but if it didnt there would be blood. Yet Isaac didnt entirely feel like he belonged here, not really. This ce was beautiful, sure, but the entire ce seemed like a huge trap, like something nasty was lurking just around the corner to devour him whole the second he let his guard down. There was nothing there, of course, hed checked, but that didnt make the feeling vanish. No matter how much he didnt want to admit it, the battlefield had be his home, the ce things made sense. This peaceful ce didnt. Isaac let himself into the house, not with his keys because the damn lock was old and pretty loud, but by simply walking through the door as if it werent even there. His boots went neatly on the shoe rack, jacket onto the coatrack, all perfectly normal, ordinary, despite the microscopic specs of blood that still discolored both. Hed cleaned his clothing as best he could and gotten almost all of it, but with his incredible senses, he could spot each remaining stain with absolute rity. None of his family members would notice, mind you, but still He continued through the house, silently wandering through all the ces he hadnt seen for so damn long. The wall where his parents had marked his height as he grew, the dents hed identally smashed into the wall when hed thought he was a knight and swung around a toy sword with abandon. The wall of pictures drawn by the children, first by him, then his sisters, starting out with crude stick figures and soon evolving into something more beautiful. Well, theirs did, his had continued to be limited to stick figures. Isaacs face slowly grew into a sad parody of a smile, still recognizable as one, yet also unmistakably tainted by a bottomless ocean of sadness. They were all dead, the ones hed known for most of his life but they werent. Those twelve years hed gone back in time, those were dead, not the people, but for a pair of six-year-olds, twelve years changed everything. Twelve years took someone from being a little kid to a sort-of adult, and massively changed ones personality. His parents were simr enough now as they had been near the end, but his sisters With another sad sigh, he continued to the next floor, sneaking a peek into Tanja and Viktorias room. Theyy there on their beds, blonde hair syed out on their pillows, thoroughly tangled up in their sheets only a little kid who still moved around in their sleep could manage. In other words, they were incredibly adorable. He longed to hug them, hold them, squeeze them tight and never let go, but Isaac stayed his hand, for a few reasons. First of all, if he woke them now, they wouldnt go back to sleep for a while, and that woulde back with a vengeance in the morning. Then there was the risk of scaring them half to death, what with the whole snuck into their room in the middle of the night thing. Lastly, well, if he disturbed his sisters sleep, his mother would skin him alive, literally. Convinced that they were safe, Isaac retreated back to his own room, and changed into a pair of his old pajamas. They still fit, but he hadnt worn them in a couple of years and hed gotten a lot more fit as he levelled up, so they were a little tight in ces. But that didnt really matter, either. Isaac just yanked the dustsheet off his bed and flopped onto it, not even bothering to crawl under the duvet. He was asleep practically before he hit the mattress. Of course, he had 75 points in Fortitude, so he didnt get to spend much time resting. Paradoxically, the way to get around that was to further increase his Fortitude until he only needed to sleep for a few seconds a day because then, he could actually make himself sleep. Just in sleeping was a good way to dpress, but it was currently unavable to him. When Isaac woke up, he turned in his bed andy there, face up, staring at the ceiling, deep in thought. The heartbeats of his family pounded in his ears like the crashing of waves upon shore, reassuring him that they were all still here, still present, still alive. What had happened in that small town whose name hed never even learned, it had happened there, not here. Yet his mind continued to supply the things hed seen there, superimposed with the images of his loved ones. Damnit. At least there would soon be something he could do to help change things. You got [Inspect] and [Privacy] at your first Evolution, your [Aura] with your second, and your third, well, it got you improvements for your family. Most of those were meant to be passed on to your descendants, but there were a few that could be given to other blood rtives as well. Mind you, any advantages given by a bloodline could be achieved by a normal person as well. Children born with the Stats of a Level 5 human wouldnt gain any Stat points by levelling until they hit Level 6, children born with an Aspect Skill would start out with one less Aspect slot, and children who had a [Skill] or two from the get-go would start out in the negative in regard to [Skill] points. But once he hit Level 50 and evolved, he could give his sisters a serious head start. And if they grabbed a [ss] that greatly differed from his, they could have an incredibly powerful [Skill] they wouldnt normally have been able to get. At the very least, he could give his sisters [Hydras Regeneration] and a few extra Stat Points, it would give them a nice head start. Hardly a definitive or insurmountable advantage, but an advantage nheless. So that was what he did for an hour or so, justy in bed and think, but eventually, he was starting to go a little stir crazy. Sadly, it was still dark outside, meaning it was far too early for him to wake his sisters or start rattling around the kitchen. Isaac rolled out of bed in the direction of the wall, falling straight through and out into the yard. The night air was cool on his skin as he walked towards the street. ncing down at himself, he reassured himself that he was sufficiently covered to not count as indecent exposure. Sure, he was still running around in pajamas, which was weird, not hardly problematic. As he walked through familiar streets like a sleepwalker, the asphalt rough under his bare feet, his mind continued to wander, throwing up images of his surroundings destroyed and ruined, strewn with the corpses of the people he knew here. Yet they were soon reced by images of a brighter future, one where most of the current problems guing the world had been eliminated and humanity was reaching for the stars. This brave new world was dangerous as hell, yet it could be so incredibly rewarding. This would end either with humanitys extinction, or apotheosis, with very little middle ground. And Isaac would do everything in his power to make sure it was thetter that came to pass. As the sky lightened and people started toe out of their houses, Isaac decided to go invisible while heading back home, phasing and jumping straight back into his bedroom. He grabbed an inscribed core from his pocket and headed down into the kitchen. Even if him rattling around in there while he cooked woke someone, it was 6:45, getting up now wouldnt be the worst thing in the world. Now, Isaac was hardly the best cook, he was merely adequate in the kitchen, but he could cheat. Literally divine cuts of steak from the summer solstice Event, [Skill] enhanced herbs hed convinced Raul to nt atop their office building, all retrieved from his storage space sure, those high-value ingredients were absolutely wasted on someone like him, but theyd turn this from a decent meal into something truly fantastic. Steak and eggs, put inside a ciabatta which hed purchase as soon as the bakery opened as packed lunch, some regr scrambled egg and fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast, it should go over pretty well. While the steak sizzled in the pan, Isaac left the house and crossed the street in a single massive leap, startling the baker just as he opened the door. Hi, Id like to order four ciabattas, please. He said, holding out a five euro note. Sure. The baker nodded, heading back behind the counter. While he did that, Isaac leaped back into his kitchen, flipped the steak, and returned before the baker had even packaged up his order. So, you just moved into this neighborhood? Itll be good to have someone here to deal with monsters if they crop up. the baker asked, clearly, he hadnt recognized Isaac. Actually, Im just visiting, but Im well acquainted with the police in the precinct a few blocks over, theyll be able to handle anything that can reasonably crop up. Isaac responded. So, youre a cop then? Nah, Im the guy who trained them. But believe me, the only safer ce in the city is the university with their [Mages]. Isaac assured him I gotta go, though, steaks in the pan and need to be taken out. And just like that, he was back in the kitchen, cing the sizzling bs of beef on tes while tossing in onions to fry in the fat that had been rendered out during the frying process. Something smells good ISAAC! He flinched slightly at his mothers exmation of surprise, but turned to face her with a slight grin on his face. Hey Mom, sorry for dropping by like this without announcing it, but I figured a phone call at 3 in the morning wouldnt be appreciated. True. She said, stepping in and wrapping him in a tight hug Its so good to see you, I I saw the news. That stuff was horrible, just horrible. Please tell me you werent Dont worry Mom, I was just researching stuff. Sure, there were monsters involved, but I can handle monsters. He reassured her, then looked towards the door at the sound of two pairs of little feet running down the stairs. ISAAC! He caught the little blond missile in his arms, spinning her around to absorb some of the momentum, only for a limpet to attach itself to his leg a momentter. You can cook? Tanja asked, looking up at him with the kind of wide eyed innocence that only a little kid could produce. Everyone can cook, youll need to learn as well. Their mother said with a chuckle, reaching out to tousle her hair. Tanja, of course, protested, but failed to safe her currently nonexistent hairstyle. Yes, I can cook. Isaac added with augh. So, what are you doing here? Viktoria asked as she squirmed out of his hug I thought you had important work to do? I did. Yesterday. Today, I thought Id bring you to school. Isaac offered Is it so weird that Id like to spend a little time with my baby sisters? Im not a baby! Viktoria protested and stuck out her tongue, her sister joining in a momentter. This, of course, prompted their mother to scold them for the rude gesture, but Isaac just burst outughing, earning him the evil eye from the matriarch of the home. He justughed harder and so did his father, once hed finally made his way downstairs. It was all very domestic, very calm, and absolutely, chaotically, perfect. Once the somewhat chaotic breakfast was over, his mother had finished grilling him over yesterdays events and the twins were dressed, the three of them headed towards the school. The twins had wanted him to fly them there, but Isaac had decided against it,promising on carrying them on his shoulders, one on each. That seemed to have been an eptablepromise. Bye, Isaac. Tanja waved as she headed inside. Go kick some monsters butt! Viktoria added before following her sister. Isaac headed off towards the university, but only after scanning the entirety of the building with his [Aura], making sure there was no frayed wiring, no badly stored, vtile chemicals and no spoiled meat being sold in the kiosk as a cost-cutting measure. Not that he thought thered be any of that, but, well, he had to be sure. *** You know, you didnt have toe in today, right? Bailey said the moment Isaac walked through the door Raul didnt see half of what you did, yet he decided to take a few days off and went to talk to a professional. Isaac shrugged That was his first massacre, Ive seen worse. Still sucked, but Ill get over it. Also, I did talk to someone, I went to see to my family, walked my sisters to school Im in a far better ce than I wasst night. Sisters? Amy asked Im guessing theyre a lot younger than you? Yes? Isaac asked. Oh, I can see it now. Future boyfriends arent going to have Dad give the youd better treat my little girl right talk, its going to be big brother Isaac giving the you hurt my sister, theyll never find the body speech. Sheughed. Alright, thats enough. Isaac sighed, shaking his head Now, can we get back to work? I hear Professor Chandler is tickled pink at some of the herbs we got from the bodies of the monster and I havent had the chance to catch up yet In the end, the day turned out very, very boring, and it was utterly perfect. No big fights, no moral quandaries, not even a hint of dead children, just normal time in the office with coworkers who were also good friends while feeling the thrill of discovery for the first time in a long while. Isaac would enjoy it while itsted, because in this world, it never did. Chapter 116: Another Departure Chapter 116: Another Departure And youre absolutely sure theres nothing else youd like me to tell you? Isaac asked for what felt like the millionth time in thest hour. Yes, were sure. Patrick sighed And asking over and over again isnt going to change that. Weve asked you about everything we could think of, and you have that in case something happens list hidden on your property, I think thats about all we can do to prepare. Well probably be able to think of a million things the moment you walk out of the door, but for now, Patricks right. Amy added. Now, are you sure you have everything? Karl asked All the potions you need, enough cores to summon them when you need to, no custom gear that needs to be put on rush order hell, I could probably still make some basic stuff in time for your flight. Nah, Im fine. Isaac shook his head Thank you for offering, though. Are you sure you dont want any of us to go along with you? Bailey asked I know you said you wanted to go at this alone, but Absolutely. Isaac cut him off Look, I appreciate the offer, but Im not going to change my mind. Someone needs to remain to continue our research. Ive already given you most of what I know and much of the rest, the stuff that would do more harm than good if I just handed it over at this time, that is written down in case I dont live long enough to pass it along myself. He paused, wiping at his eyes Iming back, you know. But Id still like to thank you all, for everything youve done for me thesest few months. Youve been the bestpany I could have hoped for, and I appreciate it. Hey, right back atcha. Amy waved And in case nothing bad happens over there, dont forget to have some fun. Scratch that, whatever happens, do something you enjoy, dont just sit there and brood for a week. Isaac gave a sad chuckle in reply Ill try. See you on the flipside, guys. With a heavy heart, he turned and walked out of the door of the meeting room after saying his goodbyes. Once outside, he strolled across the university campus, watching people go about their daily lives. A pall hang in the air, turning the atmosphere incredibly heavy despite the fact that nothing bad had happened within two-hundred kilometers of here during the Event. But most people were fully aware of the fact that it could have, that there was no real way to predict this ahead of time, and the effects of that realization were still being felt, over a weekter. And this was a university campus, these were smart people, they knew how badly yesterday could have turned out. But things had gone well here at least, and that was a good sign. Sure, Isaac might not have had a situation from the other timeline topare the Event to, but he could still tell that things had gone so much better than they could have. Soon enough, he left the campus behind and was making his way through the wilderness. It wasnt true, unimed nature, just the closest thing you could get this close to a major city, but it was still fairly free of people. And then he finally reached the airport, getting a couple of odd looks because he was walking to an airport that most people reached via public transport or car, not by jumping across the nearby highway. From there, things went surprisingly smoothly. After the kerfuffle his Level had caused thest two times hede through here, it seemed security had gained the ability to recognize him and ended up letting him through without an absurd level of scrutiny. While waiting at the gate, Isaac ended up buying a whole bottle of whiskey and downing it in the time it took to get back to his seat. There was a brief spell of tipsiness, but even that wore off after a couple of minutes. Alcohol being unavable as an escape was definitely a damn good thing, and in general, it was great that high Level people wouldnt do something stupid just because theyd gotten drunk, but it was still a reminder of how much hed changed, how different he was from a regr person now. And then came the flight. As usual, it sucked, but there was still some new information from the Event to work through, so at least he was able to keep busy. Typing up reports, mentally going over his memory of the fights anding up with ways for the various archetypes to defeat them. It was rtively basic work but fulfilling. It certainly worked well to fritter away the hours of enforced immobility. As the ne banked to the side during its final descent to the airport, Isaac dug his S-Ranker badge out of his backpack and attached it to his belt, then tucked in his shirt to make sure the badge could actually be seen.. Some Hunters wore them around their neck, others clipped it to their chest armor, right over their heart, and others still had in on a wrist bracelet, but Isaac preferred to have in on his belt. Pretty soon, Isaac was walking out into the airport, backpack slung over one shoulder, his badge of rank glinting brightly at his belt. After all, hed just polished it. Plenty of the people who got off the ne with him didnt seem to care, but those were mostly tourists and foreign businessmen. The returning locals and the airport staff though, they knew what the badge meant. It marked him as being powerful, trusted by at least some people high up in the government, but also as being incredibly dangerous. Security was a breeze after that. The gal at the counter took one look at his badge, checked the registry of Hunters and waved him through after just ncing at his ID. Mr. Thoma, theres a standing order to ask Hunters returning to the country to drop by the Dungeon Guild Administrative Center. She said offhandedly. Sure. You have a nice day. Isaac nodded. Shed been technically wrong about him being a registered Hunter, only someone known to and somewhat aligned with the Guild, but quite frankly, that didnt matter much to him. It might have ruffled another persons feathers, but Isaac was perfectly fine with it. Getting to downtown Seoul on foot would have been perfectly possible, but in the end, Isaac chose to take a cab. In fact, he didnt even have to name his destination, the driver merely nced at his badge and asked Dungeon Guild Headquarters? Isaac had nodded, and then been driven here, to the massive, heavily enchanted building in the heart of South Koreas capital city. On the way here, hed paid a fair bit of attention to the mood here, and it hadnt been good. People were scared, and it was a far more visceral fear than what hed felt back home. It wasnt merely an awareness of a disaster having happened a few days ago, there was so much more to this than that. No, a true awareness of the fact that their neighbor to the north wasing apart at the seams had developed and with it hade information on just what said neighbor had been doing. Theyd always known nasty shit was happening up north, but it was an entirely different thing to learn how many nukes thered been, how crappy said nukes had been and how high the risk of them just randomly cooking off had been. And, oh yeah, the mysterious message that had rocked the world had also specifically warned them of a Demon Lord being used to attack them, and those rumors had been confirmed. Nothing had happened yet, but the supposed date of the attack was still two days in the future. And that was scary as hell. A horrifying foe was bearing down on them, but they didnt know anything more about it than the fact that it had existed at some point in the past. The nukes, meanwhile, shouldnt be a problem going forwards. Official pronouncements from independent UN investigators had announced the North Korean nuclear programs as dismantled, individual bombs defused and disposed of. That probably wasnt the truth. In the other timeline, that whole affair had been over and done with mere months after the [System] had initialized and the method was incredibly weird. And it was, well, a researchers dog had eaten the bombs. A press ganged scientist had been summoning in secret and abination of his education, vocation and goals had given him a variant on the [Summoner] [ss] that had upgraded his dog into a part-time, radiation powered hellhound straight out of a post-apocalyptic horror movie. So hed sent the pooch into the bases while transformed, had it eat the fissionable material, and get out. Then the whole affair had gotten med on monsters, and hed gotten away scot-free. If the same affair had yed out in this timeline, he should be revealing himself in a year or so. However, with the North Korean government all but gone, there was a decent chance of that happening a great deal sooner. All in all, this should have been a happy time, but the fact that thered been an apocalyptic threat about to be unleashed upon this city and that said threat was not yet confirmed to be neutralized people were scared. So youre here in case something happens, right? A lot of people assume the day that hellhole was founded is when they wanted to drop that [Raid Boss] on us and people are a little worried. Im here mostly on business, but if something kicks off, Ill definitely help. Isaac said as he paid the cabbie and exited the car Dont worry, well take care of it if something happens. He wasnt nearly as confident about that, but it would do him no good to tell the man that. The Demon Lord would be stopped, that wasnt in question, but whether or not there would be much of a city left after that was still up in the air. Hell, most of the country could end up trashed, depending on how it was countered. As he walked towards the building, it jumped out at him just how many people were wearing Rank badges now. te grey for F-Rank, aka anyone who still had their starter [ss], but only if said [ss] wasmon and the person in question didnt have outstandingly powerful [Skills] or Aspects. D through B Rank were evenly distributed between the weakest people who werent F-Rank and the strongest who werent A-Rank, which was the current peak power, around the million strongest people in the world. And then, there were the S-Rankers like Isaac, those who would be A-Rank based on their Level, but broke the mold. High rarity [sses], vastly upgraded [Skills], an immense skill and talent inbat there were many things that could qualify one for that vaunted Rank, and Isaac ticked most of the boxes. Appraising eyes zeroed in on him, looking at his badge, his clothing that had clearly been made by a high Level [Tailor], a magical weapon that no one could [Analyze] because his personal anti-inspection [Skills] extended to it. All in all, even those who didnt recognize him could tell that he was someone important. Quite a few people looked like they wanted to walk up to him for a conversation, but Isaac simply stared straight ahead as he headed inside. Not as if he were above them, mind you, he just made himself look like he was busy. Throw in with his presumed position of political power, and it suddenly interrupting whatever it was he wanted to do seemed like not such a good idea. Where he was supposed to go just so happened to be rather obvious, given that there was a sign stating returning Hunters, please check in with Deputy Director Im on the 14th floor. Sure, the sign was in Korean, but that was hardly a problem for Isaac. Now, at this point it would have been fun to just jump up there by phasing and normally, Isaac might have even done that, but people were so damn on edge here that doing so would probably cause quite the kerfuffle. Therefore, he made his way upstairs the old fashioned way, easily reaching the office. In fact, there wasnt even a closed door barring his way. Isaac knocked on the wall besides it and the man inside looked up. He was middle aged, maybe fifty, which was rather unusual for a member of the Guild. Summoning and Dungeon diving was a young mans game, and the organizational structure reflected this. Good afternoon, Im the man broke off as he got a good look at Isaac and his badge Good afternoon, Mr. Thoma. Can I ask how long youre nning on staying? As long as it takes to level up a few times. Isaac replied And whats going on here? I know theres the whole thing with the [Raid Boss], is that connected to why I was told toe here? Yes, actually. The information we have is that the people who were meant to summon this thing have a build meant specifically summon monsters without having the power to endanger their superiors. High Magic Power, very little in all other Stats, barely any spells known? Isaac suggested. Exactly. Im nodded Ive been told you have a [Skill] that can see other peoples stats? Isaac nodded in turn. Therefore, Id like you to be on the lookout for anyone with that particr Stat spread, as well as take part in the courses for anti-[Raid Boss] protocols. Theyre still in their infancy, but its important to have at least some kind of n in the face of such a threat, wouldnt you agree? Absolutely. Isaac said Would you mind if I took a look at those protocols though? Ive worked with several both the police and military back in Germany to develop simr tactics, and I believe my insight could be valuable. Of course. Im replied And while Im fully aware of the fact that youre not a full member of the Guild and therefore under no obligation to do so, but would it be possible for you to give another lecture on proper [Aura] use. Oh, Id be happy to. In fact, I think it might be a good idea to identify those whose [Auras] would have the greatest impact in massbat so I could give them some one-on-one training. Hm, I dont think releasing the files needed to make those determinations to you would be possible, but Ill get a few people together and get you a list. Now, I believe theres a drill starting in thirty minutes, I believe you can still catch that if you leave now. Of course. Isaac dipped his head Please let me know when you have that list and where I should go for that. With that, he headed out of the building and over to the training center. Once again, he got a lot of odd looks as he entered the training room with his S-Rank badge. Most likely, the other high Rankers had already received exhaustive training, which would have exined why the highest Rank in the room after his was C. In other words, this current situation was akin to a ck belt showing up in a childrens karate ss for more training. Training itself was pretty basic involving simple strategies like the toughest person drawing in the attacks that could be blocked, someone agile drawing AOE attacks away from the main group, proper coordination to avoid friendly fire, etc. All of these things should have been obvious and they probably were, but pulling them off without at least some training was hard. That being said, high Level South Koreans had some of the finest small team tactics in the world and this was just a moreplicated version of that. Time flowed like sirup as Isaac pretended to learn stuff he already knew, but at least it seemed that the ns had been well thought out. If only he hadntmitted himself to suffering through it Still, all things came to an end, and immediately afterwards, Isaac just fled into the nearest Dungeon of an appropriate Level, shing his badge to get past the only teams of five appropriately levelled people allowed. He spent four hours tearing a bloody swath through a swarm of monsters that looked like vastly empowered versions of the animals youd find in a normal boreal forest. Massive razorbacks with glowing coals for eyes, pumas that were functionally invisible before attacking, with a titanic Grizr for a boss. Isaac wouldnt have known what that was if it hadnt been for the information pamphlet at the entrance, and that species was actually kind of interesting. It was a hybrid of a Grizzly and a Pr Bear that had started cropping up in the wildtely and someone had decided to feed the dungeon some hair. Isaac sighed as Old Reliable switched from its Kriegsmesser form to the Zweih?nder. Whoever had tossed in that damn hair had been an idiot. As high Tier, from Tier 6 onwards, versions of normal animals were created by [Beast Tamers] or Dungeons, they gained magical powers. He knew that Grizzlys gained earth magic, while Pr Bears got some measure of control over ice, snow and the cold. In other words, a Tier 6bination of those two could be a serious pain in the ass. The truck sized bear was lying on its side, looking to all the world like a boulder, or maybe the worlds most misshapen sofa, seemingly paying very little attention to its surroundings. Isaac slowly snuck closer, all his stealth [Skills] deadening the sounds of his footsteps, wiping away the scent of his sweat, and even if the damn furball had been looking around, it wouldnt have spotted him. That worked for a bit, but eventually, he crossed the border into the beasts [Aura], which held abination of frosty coldness and the overwhelming, indomitable might of an ancient mountain. Normally, this would have been the end of the road without a specific sneaking-rted [Aura], but Isaac merely shifted his regr sensory [Aura] to gently push apart the beasts [Aura]. A few more steps, and he was in range, lunging forward in a [Wave Charge], a [Piercing-Power Strike] rending flesh like tissue paper, with the first charge of [Compounded Impact] applied. The bear managed to move just in time to avoid getting a de to skull, but it still ended up with a horrific wound to the chest made all the worse by Isaac applying the full suite of attack enhancing [Skills] as he yanked the de back out. Blood sprayed through the air as the bears roar of agony shook the cavern. Both the beasts magic and [Aura] red to full power, a field of bitter cold suffusing the entire area as earth bullets tore themselves free from the floor, walls and ceiling. Isaac ducked and weaved, dodging those with too much mana to phase through safely while letting the rest fly straight through him. His de danced, lightly smacking the bears head five times, more and more mana flowing into the attacks until the skull cracked. Sure, the bear might have been able to dodge under normal circumstances, but the earlier injuries were hindering its mobility. All it took was one more hit and the bear dropped to the ground, dead. Isaac skinned the bear but decided to leave the meat alone after sniffing it for a moment. Hed been told by some old-school hunters that some bears tasted rather nice, but others didnt. Grizzlys and their diet of fish gave them a distinct fishy taste, which matched the gross odor that wafted up from the body. Wrinkling his nose, Isaac rolled the pelt up into a neat package, slung in over his shoulder and headed deeper into the cave, where the Core and boss loot would be located. The treasure chest looked cool and all, resembling a beautiful, handcrafted box that seemed to have been taking straight out of some pioneers log house, but the loot was disappointing. Great Bears Visage The upper jaw and skull of an immense bear, hollowed out to be worn like a cap. Wearing it grants immunity to beestings. Basically, it looked like the headpiece of a Halloween barbarian costume, and that was exactly what Isaac would be using it for. With the headpiece safely stored in his storage space and the pelt slung onto his back, he headed outside, where a young woman in a fancy runners uniform was waiting on him. And that was exactly what she was. A courier that worked for the Dungeon Guild, not just transporting materials, but also asionally delivering personal messages. Mr. Thoma, Director Im has written up that list you wanted and would like to see you in his office at your earliest convenience. She said. Well, that was fast. Thank you. Isaac replied, bade goodbye to the people guarding the Dungeons entrance and sped off, running towards the admin tower at speeds exceeding that of a car on the highway by a decent margin. *** You need to harden your [Aura] as you push it forwards. The people behind you are your teammates, you dont need to protect yourself from them, youre protecting them. Do it like this! Isaac ordered one of his trainees and the man jumped in fright, hed been concentration so much he hadnt noticed his teacher standing there for a good thirty seconds. This was how thest couple of days had gone. Teaching people, looking over protocols, dreading that damn message from popping up because, well, the appearance of a [Raid Boss] was announced to everyone within a hundred kilometers. This wasnt a kindness, though. Instead, the message would make sure everyone knew there was a [Raid Boss] whose loot could be ninjad, forcing anyone who tried to go after it to keep back a lot of their manpower to keep away said looters. Really though, Isaac was starting to let himself hope none of that woulde to pass. The North Korea of a few months ago, the one whod caused this problem in the other timeline, no longer existed and with every passing day, the chance of the summoners getting caught rose ever higher. And if there really wasnt a problem, well, hed create a well-trained force of fighters and theyd owe him a favor to call in if a [Raid Boss] popped up elsewhere. Hed wait a few more days, then go back to Germany to continue his regr research. His work here wouldnt have been as impactful as it might have been, but it should still have been Least Demon Lord (Tier 6) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Kijong-dong (62.9 km away, direction NNW) Chapter 117: An Expected Catastrophe Chapter 117: An Expected Catastrophe A Demon Lord. The weakest of the [Raid Bosses] which went by that name, the name addendum of Least being literally the weakest possible version of any given monster, but this was still a peak Tier 6 monster with all the toughness, anti-army abilities and other fuckery that came along with being a [Raid Boss]. Wait here, coordinate with the others, attack that thing in concert. Isaac ordered, fixing everyone in the room with a stern look Ill see if I can buy you the time needed to properly go after that thing. As an S-Ranker, he had the authority to make that an order. Unfortunately, there was a second S-Ranker in the room, an [Archer] with a [ss] that turned historical artefacts into weapons of monstrous power who wielded his familys ancestral bow and said [Archer] was unwilling to follow this suggestion. So Isaac cracked his [Aura] like a whip, causing the man to flinch back as Isaac red at him This isnt a game where we can afford to go off half cocked. Neither can we assume a summon powerful enough to trigger a message like that is weak enough that the military can stop it. I have a powerset that lets me get there quickly, and is perfect for going against individual, powerful targets. You work best in the back, highlighting weakpoints for others and destroying them. And that was all the time he could realistically spare to give instructions, now he needed to go after the monster itself. Isaac began to run. He leaped through the first few buildings as such a long straight line let him gather a lot of momentum, then turned onto a wide street that lead in the direction he was going. Sure, he might not know where Kijong-dong was on the map, but the prompt had told him it wasnt that far away and that it was located north-north-east of his current position. Just heading in that general direction should let him find the beast in short order, Demon Lords werent exactly subtle, after all. A fighter jets engine roared somewhere to the south east, while the sounds of detonations and angry roars came from the direction he was heading in, albeit at a vastly lower volume. As he ran, Isaac reached into his spatial storage to pull out his prepared gear. The [Bracers of any Defense] hed gotten from a Dungeon a few weeks ago, now modified to resist fire and with a custom holder for an inscribed core went onto his arms first. This way, he would use the core to ess his storage without needing to go groping around for one in the pockets that might soon have been burned away, and he could always summon another core into the empty slot every time he used up the old one. Then, the [Cloak of the Ulfhednar] obtained from the first even settled on his shoulders, increasing his Strength and Agility by five and Perception in ten points. Isaac had never used it before because he had no way of recing or properly repairing it, preferring to save it for an emergency and, well, this situation definitely qualified. Thebat up north came closer and closer, and the head of the Demon Lord appeared over the horizon. It was a massive monster, more than twice as tall as the horrid beast Isaac and the others had killed in the final hour of the other timeline, rising a full 50 meters above the ground. A crown of nasty-looking spikes rose from its skull, two massive bulls horns adding another three meters to its height, ck mes wreathing its natural weapons and bathing them in a horrific light. shes of light smashed into its hide, taking out shallow gouges as Hunters engaged, and an armored figure bounced off the beasts chest, falling back down to the earth as a ming meteor. These were the people who, for whatever reason, had been closer to the border were already engaged in battles and dying in droves. Meanwhile, a constant stato of explosions rang out as mines blew before the advancing demon, its ming [Aura] igniting and detonating the explosives within. Even a series of missiles that had been unleashed by a fighter jet exploded harmlessly over a hundred meters short of their intended target. Now, modern munitions should not just be cooking off like that because they got lit on fire because they used stable explosives. Hell, you could light a stick of TNT on fire, hold it in your hand and be perfectly until the mes started licking at your fingers. But this was no ordinary me, it hellfire, dark as the starless void that birthed cosmic horrors and even merely looking at it gave even Isaac goosebumps. This crap didnt give two shits about how fire was supposed to act. It moved against air currents, burned stuff in ways it in no way should be able to and could ignite the very life force of those it injured, striking wounds that were inordinately hard to heal and going so far as to shorten the lives of those who were unable to put it out in time. Isaac might be functionally immune to normal mes, but this hellspawn burned hotter than those damn Thermite Avatars and could partially ignore normal fire resistance to boot. In others words, this was about to be a shitshow. More and more explosions hid the Demon Lord from view as every military unit in the DMZ and general Seoul area opened fire, but nothing was getting close enough to do any damage. High explosives detonated harmlessly at range, the detonators in armor-piercing shells blew and fouled the trajectory of the munition, electronics fried while dumb munitions with explosives removed mostly missed and even when they hit, they barely inflicted any damage. Fragmentation munitions might have worked, but they had to be detonated well outside their effective range or theyd blow automatically upon entering the [Aura], with the fact that the casing would be half melted by then utterly ruining the intended dispersal pattern. Sadly, most [Raid Bosses] without the inherent toughness to shrug off modern weapons had ways of preventing them from being particrly effective. A column of me roared out of the demons wed hand, wholly enveloping the ne. Mere momentster, the attack stopped and nothing remained of the pilot or their vehicle, both seemingly having been erased from existing. Everyone back, gather up and attack in a coordinated manner! Isaac roared, but even screaming at the top of his lungs, few people heard him over the din of battle. The Demon Lord staggered as a trio of metal slugs fired out of a piece of heavy artillery struck its chest, each projectile enhanced by a dozen different [Skills] as all the military personnel nearby pooled their abilities. Sadly, the response to the most effective attack to date was swift and final. A wed hand reached down, yanked a massive boulder out of the ground and hurled it in the direction the attack hade from, hellme wreathing the rock as it flew. It hit like a godsdamned meteor, obliterating the offending heavy weapons and ttening everything within a hundred meters. Isaac continued to charge forwards, using his [Aura] to smack anyone who wouldnt immediately die because theyd been distracted, then yelled at them to get back. There were some civilians whod been startled out of their shock and gave him grateful looks before fleeing, while Hunters or soldiers nced at him guiltily and ran to wherever they were supposed to be. Suddenly, the Demon Lord gave another furious roar and a flood of hellfire began to st from its hands, covering the ground and flowing outwards as if it were a liquid. This was the gaining a little breathing space move of the Least Demon Lord that chased away the pesky little flies that were inflicting tiny little stings. Of course, running through a literalke of hellish fire was absolutely off the table, so Isaac took to the skies. He jumped, nullifying gravitys hold on him while kicking off a telekically wielded Ka-Bar to control his movement. A mid-range ballistic missile suddenly dropped out of the sky, aiming straight for the Demon, but its predictable arc made it a decently easy target. Isaac phased as it blew, the massive shockwave passing straight through him. It would have done one hell of a number on him if hed gotten caught by it, but itcked any magic that could affect his phased form. The monsters eyes narrowed as it finally saw Isaac as a genuine problem that needed dealing with and raised its hand, another column of hellfire already forming. Isaac shed it a mocking grin as he flung himself to the side with [Wave Charge], then triggered the [Skill] again to fling himself forwards, parallel to the beam, Zweih?nder aimed straight at the beasts chest. [Grave of Swords] triggered as the tip of his de touched the monsters chest and the world quaked. Every iota of power stored within that field of des from all the monsters that had fallen within flowed into that single activation of the [Skill] as it was forced to contain an entity that it had never been intended to be used on. A momentter, they stood there, ring at each other in the vast space. It had expanded vastly with the increased power draw enforced by overdrawing the [Skill]. Countless des had already been wiped out, and even as he watched, another one disintegrated into motes of energy with a sound of breaking ss. But that was fine, that was why hed gathered so many of them. Now all there was to do was beat on that damn Demon Lord like a drum until it was either weak enough for the others to beat or the [Skills] timer ran out. Chapter 118: Man vs Beast Chapter 118: Man vs Beast 5 minutes. 300 seconds. 600 heartbeats. That was how long [Grave of Swords]sted at Level 5, and how long Isaac had to survive. The demon looked surprised for a moment, then pped its own chest in an attempt to crush him, but it only managed to drive the sword stuck there in up to its hilt, which would have been bad enough on its own, except Isaac had switched it over to its astral form the instant it was deep enough. Even as the pain of the spiritual damage began to sink in, Isaac leaped straight into its face, driving a dagger into its eyeball. But even that nigh-universal weakpoint required a [Piercing Strike] to injure, that was how tough that fucker was. Isaac [Power Strike] booted the other eye as he kicked himself away from the skull, avoiding a pir of hellfire the beast had sted into its own face to get him off. The demons head jerked back as it began to roar in pain while the human whod half-blinded it went rocketing away, only toer boomeranging back an instant after the ck fire had died down. Isaac simply maneuvered a dagger in the path of his jump, kicked off it and activated [Wave Charge] to elerate him once he was pointing in the right direction. He flew forwards, right hand extended with middle and index fingers aimed straight at the single remaining eyeball, [I Am The Sword] activated. Normally, Isaac pulled this move in a Vitruvian man pose to maximize damage, but with a [Raid Boss], there actually was a risk of the monster being pushed away before its skull broke. Therefore, he picked a pose that concentrated all that force into a single point while aiming for the rtively thin part of the skull thaty behind the eyeball. The move worked to great and gory effect. Isaac exploded out of the back of the demonss skull in an explosion of blood as the monsters head snapped back, brain matter and bone fragments,nding in a ssic superhero pose, dripping grossness. It stumbled for a few moments, then straightened despite having a hole clean through its skull. Even humans could survive damage like that in theory, so long as no major blood vessels had been hit at overall, the injury was in just the right ce. It was something that would be apanied by major personality change and memory loss, but with a lot of luck, it could be lived with. But this was a [Raid Boss], thosepletelycked any way to be killed in one hit, so even blinded and with what would be catastrophic brain trauma on any other creature, it endured. ck fire shed, wildly shing every which way while the monstrous [Aura] red to full life, filling the entire space with a constant, low level me. The only space that was safe was the area immediately around Isaac, dyed crimson and reeking of bloodshed as he used his own [Aura] to fend of the attack. As such, the monster still knew exactly where he was even without eyes. Strike after strike shed past, columns of fire melting pickup truck sized holes into the ground, kicks and stomps sending out shockwaves that forced Isaac to phase to avoid being blown away. Isaac snatched the bracer with the sp for the inscribed core off his arm, threw it in the air and shifted into [Form of Horror], then put it back on, the magical piece of gear automatically resizing. Then, he charged, scrambling up the demons body like a chipmunk straight out of hell, all his ws glowing a venomous green from the applied [Sundering Strike]. And it wasnt just the regr, good old version of the [Skill], but rather the evolved version that further weakened anything it struck over time. Later on, someone would be able to attack perfectly through those weak points. More hellfire swept the beasts hide in an attempt to get him off, near misses scorching his side. Another hand smacked into the monsters shoulder just as Isaac had jumped upwards, then sent himself flying back down with [Wave Charge], stabbing each w into the shoulder underneath him with [Compounded Blow] applied to each, sting apart the base of the limb. It was still mostly attached, but hed still caused a horrific wound. Then, Isaac lunged over towards the skull, driving his arm into its ear canal and tearing apart its eardrum with a single swipe. From there, he started wing at any part of the skull that looked thin, acting like a rabid wolverine, but that couldntst. A [Raid Bosses] stronger [Skill]-equivalents usually had cooldowns, but all of those things had stuff to buy them breathing room, stuff to prevent them from being torn apart from the inside out and stuff to send little pests flying. Isaac leaped away, kicking off an empty wound for good measure, but it was a little toote as a massive shockwave erupted from behind him, smashing into his backside and sending him flying all the way across the space. Another fiery beam was sent after him. It was off-target by a fair bit, in no part due to its sensory impairment, but even with ast second [Wave Charge] it partially hit. Isaac screamed in agony as his right eye went blind, his right arm suddenly became extremely hard to move and his right leg crumpled beneath him as he hit the ground. [Hydras Regeneration] immediately went to work, stopping the constant burning sensation and putting out the fires, but the actual injuries were barely being mitigated as his mana pool emptied like a bathtub with a stopper that had just been removed. As he stumbled off to the side, the core in the bracer flickered as the old one was used up and the new one clicked into ce while a vial of the strongest mana potion he knew how to make appeared in his palm. With narry a thought, Isaac threw the vial into his mouth and crunched down, his mana pool shooting upwards instantly. Hed regret eating ss tomorrow, but for now, it was saving him vital time. He leaped out of the path of another attack as he charged back in, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] glowing brighter and brighter as it sucked in all the blood and viscera that coated the ground, using it to empower itself and fix Isaac. Much of that energy was being funneled into Old Reliable to fuel the [Starme] burning copies of his ws that hed embedded all over the demons body, poisoning and burning it. Another flood of hellfire covered the ground, a repeat of the previous breathing room ability, so Isaac leaped back up at the demons upper body, tearing apart its throat like a wild animal, [Power Strike] letting him inject [Sundering Strike] poison deep into its body. Isaacs mana pool ran out once again but he gobbled down two more ss vials. This would massively reduce his natural Mana Regeneration, but for now, he was the mana equivalent of a nuclear power nt. A devastating backhand smashed him back into the ground and hey there for a brief moment while his spine stitched itself back together and his mana ran out for the third time. More hellme sted the area but even barely able to move, a [Phantom Step] powered by thest dregs of his mana let him dodge it barely, though the attacks corona still fried the surface of his skin. Thest dose of mana potions went down the hatch, that was it for mana. Yet even this badly injured, Isaac charged, striking out at any joints he could reach with [Crippling Blow], massively limiting its mobility while inflicting untold agony upon it. Until eventually, they were stumbling around like a pair of drunk boxers, horribly injured and barely able to move. In a certain fashion, it looked like they were both in equally bad shape, but that was an absolute lie. The monster was a [Raid Boss], a kind of creaturepletely focused on survival and endurance, able to keep moving after having taken a dozen injuries, any one of which would have killed every other species in existence. Isaac was a mere human with his mana regeneration shot to hell, third and fourth degree burns across a third of his body with lesser ones covering most of the rest, internals broken, while the only thing holding his body together was the healing from the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn], which was, in turn, only able to be kept active since it could be powered by blood. But hed timed it well. As he gazed up at the beast, the dome of dark purple fog theyd been fighting in for thest five minutes dissipated, reced by a smoke-filled sky dotted with jets, gunships and flying [Mages]. Isaac shifted back to human, stumble-ran over to thergest pool of blood and copsed into it as the world behind him exploded into an orgy of violence. Chapter 119: Interlude Yoo-jin Chapter 119: Interlude Yoo-jin Yoo-jin stood in front of a vast group of high Level people, the militarys vehicles swarming around him, but even while he snapped out orders, he only had eyes for one thing. The purple crack in reality before him. He was, of course, familiar with most of Isaacs signature [Skills], just as hed memorized all publicly used abilities of every other S-Ranker and A-Rankers. It let the man take a single opponent off the battlefield, isting it from itsrades while making sure his own allies were safe from it. And Isaac had used it to buy them vital time. Yoo-jin hadnt known the man for very long, but in that short time, theyd at least started to be friends. But he was also fully aware of the fact that the two of them would likely never meet again. That dying move would undoubtedly save countless lives, but Yoo-jin was under no illusions that hed be seeing Isaac again. Fighting that beast one on one for however long the [Skill]sted was unlikely to be survivable. Guildmaster Seon, how much longer do we have? a voice rang out beside him, though the speaker was actually fifty kilometers behind him, fed through aplicated web of [Skills]. Yoo-jin himself didnt have a true Leader-[ss], only the [Party Leader] [Skill], but that was enough. Hed put several [Generals] and a couple of [Admirals] into his party, and then theyd be the ones using the Army-[Skills]. One of them could make it so that Yoo-jin was treated as the source of any [Skills] used at a slight increase to their mana cost, allowing them all to support the war efforts from afar. Another minute passed with the rift just hanging there, unmoving, and people began growing antsy. Or hopeful. Some were fidgeting wildly, others starting to drop their current state of readiness as they assumed the [Skill] being up so long meant Isaac had won. But Yoo-jin ignored all of that as he continued to snap out orders while using his [Skills] to create frozen defenses for use in the uing fight. cial bulwarks and spikes to pierce the feet of the monster in case it charged at them. Nearly five minutes after it had appeared, the crack in reality shifted for the first time, purple light twisting and ring as a wed arm came into view. rm and horror rippled across the faces of the gathered warriors, previously hope-filled expressions turning horrified, all assumptions of victory wiped out. Then, two beings popped into reality, both looking horrible. It took Yoo-jin a second to connect Isaac to the horrifically burned reptile-thing that stumbled away from the demon, but by then the man had already shifted back to human. The right half of his face was a burned and ckened mess of flesh, but the left was twisted into a horrific, rictus grin of savage glee. Most of his clothes were still intact, likely having been protected by the transformation, but it didnt take a medical professional to tell that he was in a horrible state. Yet as bad as its opponent looked, the Demon Lord looked worse. If Yoo-jin was forced to describe it, hed say it resembled a corpse killed by the worlds most ipetent executioner, subsequently dragged behind a motorcycle for a couple of kilometers, then finally reanimated and sent to fight a particrly ornery stray cat. A suspiciously person-shaped hole clean through its head, an arm nearly severed by a series of increasingly powerful de strikes, countless wounds that glowed green and seemed to have the flesh around it sloughing away each of them signatory [Skill] of Isaacs. And even with all of that damage, far more than Yoo-jin ever could have imagined even another S-Ranker to be able to inflict, the damn thing was still alive. Hed stacked half a dozen vision and sensory-rted Aspect [Skills] to grant him an incredible array of perceptive abilities so he could make his ns with as many facts as he could and right now, all of them were telling him the exact same thing. That absolute monster was still alive andbat capable. [cial Fortress]! he roared, the shout not necessary to activate the cooldown [Skill], but it functioned as a warning to everyone else that something big was going on. Even if you didnt recognize the specific [Skill] being used, the fact that someone felt the need to yell it meant that it might be a good idea to hit the deck. Now that he had eyes on the monster, dropping the massive iceberg-like structure around it almost perfectly and locking it down was perfectly doable. He then followed this move up with an order to get Isaac out of there as the world exploded into a storm of fire and fury. Professor Kim had arrived four minutes ago and immediately gone to work, setting up a massive magical array through which every iota of mana not desperately needed otherwise was fed. An immensence of lightning with dozens of nasty curses hammered into the demons chest, knocking it on its ass. It had been an incredibly powerful attack, but Yoo-jin could tell that it was one of her cooldown abilities, so a second strike would not be forting. As the monster rose back up, a gigantic crater in its chest, a hail of lesser abilities hammered down on it, each inflicting a small amount of damage, but even all of them together came nowhere close the amount of damage the opening blow had inflicted. The first few jets shed past in strafing runs, sticking to their guns as the [Aura] was still ying merry hell with any explosive or powered weapons used. Meanwhile, the helicopter gunships were surrounding the monster at a safe distance, guns zing, but they were likewise saving their missiles until something could be done about the [Aura]. For now though, that [Aura] was being pressed down on the front ranks of melee fighters as the demon charged, threatening to obliterate them all, though enough of them hadbat [Auras] and the right training to block out the sphere of ck fire. Shields! Yoo-jin snapped and cast his own [Winters Vanguard], manifesting a truck-sized sheet of ice in front of himself. Countless more panes of energy and tough material joined it, creating a thick yet scattered wall of defenses. It seemed like it might be able to stop the charging hulk, yet it might fail as well. [Unified Defense]. The [Skill] name was announced in an even, calm tone, as though the entire battle was nothing more than an academic exercise in fighting a [Raid Boss], and it the very air itself shivered as it rang out clearly throughout the battlefield even though the user was all the way in Seoul. It was a [Generals] cooldown [Skill] and it hit like a damn truck. In a sense, all Army-[Skills] were a lot like cooldown [Skills] because they had separate mana pools that could only be used to activate that specific [Skill], but their strongest [Skills] also incurred week- or month-long cooldowns and had power to match. The countless shields suddenly came together in midair, pping against each other and sticking in ce,yering into an incredibly tough barrier. So, when the building-sized [Raid Boss] barreled into the wall in an attempt to leap among the army of Hunters, it bounced. Countless shields cracked and even broke, but they were only the surfaceyer, everything deeper remined intact and then shifted, creating a slightly smaller but fully intact barrier. Even as it flew through the air, the demon gathered a ball of hellfire between its palms, then unleashed a massive st of power down at them. The various gunports that had opened up in the shield snapped closed in an instant, but the attacks power was so great, the top threeyers of the quadrupleyered shield shattered, yet thestyer suddenly flexed and warped, redirecting the vast majority of the energy into a single pane, which began to glow brighter and brighter. And Yoo-jin recognized it as a fellow S-Rankers cooldown [Skill], one which could absorb an insane amount of energy and if it survived an attack, in would invert and reflect it. He was pretty damn sure that under normal circumstances, that particr shield would have shattered like a coffee cup run over by a steam roller, but the [Unified Defense] had somehow managed to divert only as much energy as it could take into the reflective shield, which now shifted from ck fire so dark it seemed to devour light into a mass of roiling golden mes. And as the Demon got back to its feet to charge at the now unprotected army, ance of said golden fire tore through its already injured right shoulder,pletely severing the arm. Theyd already inflicted a massive amount of additional damage to the [Raid Boss], but most of that stemmed from their big attacks, the ones they couldnt use continuously because they couldnt continuously use them. Cooldown [Skills] could make this thing flinch, but unfortunately, it was starting to look like only they could inflict significant amounts of damage. That wasnt to say regr attacks werent doing anything, the small strikes that had been peppering the monsters hide had removed the topyer of skin from most of its body and savaged the muscles and organs underneath, but they still had nothing on the stronger strikes. An angry roar smashed into them as if it were a physical thing, sending people who werent properly braced or had anti-knockbakc [Skills] stumbling and hurling a single ne that happened to be too close out of the sky, but that wasnt the dangerous portion of its response. The demon might be down a hand from thest time it had used this particr trick, but even with the liquid mes streaming from just one palm, the ke of fire still threatened to engulf their front ranks. [Tyranny Breaks]. Another of the people supporting their efforts from afar used a powerful [Skill], the Army-[Skills] name ringing out, audible to all. Though this time, instead of a clipped, professional tone, the statement was delivered with conviction, with unshakeable confidence that no tyrannical structure wouldst forever, that it would always be torn down. The onrushing mass of fire came apart into ineefectual sparks, and those vanished the intant Yoo-jin swept his [Aura] against them. [Frozen de] activated, turning the oversized longsword in his hand into an insanelyrge thirty meter instrument of death that no normal person would have been able to move. He jammed it into the deepest injury on its torso, then triggered [Winters Frigid Grasp], his other cooldown [Skill], and the demons chest was suddenly covered in a thickyer of hoarfrost. Ance of ck fire tore over his head, someones shield barely blunting the attack. Rapidly cut off screams told Yoo-jin that the attack had, in fact, hit at least a few people. A half dozen fighters charged into melee while the tanks remained as living bulwarks against attacks, tearing into the monsters feet and calves with their weapons while sending anything with at least a little range at vulnerable spots out of their normal range. [Empowered Barrage], [Phantom Salvo], [Instantaneous Reload]. Three different people activated their [Skills] in rapid session, the names not ringing across the battlefield but rather being fed directly to Yoo-jin through the [Party], informing him of what was about to happen. The up until now mostly useless fleet of gunships suddenly seemed to ripple as they emptied every weapons rack they had at the monster in a single massive, magically empowered salvo, which was immediately followed by a spectral copy of the first, not empowered by the same magic but immune to the premature detonation effect of the [Aura] because theycked physicalponents. Another secondter, every single one of those weapons was fully rearmed, the relevant munitions teleported from the various airbases around the city straight into the battlefield, and then those too were unleashed. The monsters [Aura] swept through the first two salvos, barely knocking down a twentieth of the iing munitions and withdrew suddenly as if the monster had decided it was useless. This allowed the final salvo to strike unimpeded, the smoke and sprays of gore hiding the monster from view for a moment. A momentter, all of that was blown away as the [Aura] shed out as a massive shockwave. The tanks in the front row of Hunters managed to block it and many of the flying [Mages] dropped down behind them, and half the melee fighter at its feet likewise survived, but the airborne war machines werent nearly so lucky. The jets came in on strafing runs and therefore, only a few were in range of that attack at any given moment, but the helicopters not so much. Theyd stayed nearby at what should have been a safe distance, but that had still put them within range of the attack and not a single one remained in the air as the demons [Aura] reestablished itself. But even with all the damage that the demon had inflicted, it had suffered greatly in return. Flesh hung ragged from exposed bone in its sole remaining arm, something that might have been its kidney-analog had simply fallen out of its stomach cavity and merely standing seemed to take an inordinate amount of effort. And then, the confident voice from earlier spoke once more, though this time, it was closer to a spiteful hiss. [Tyrants Die] For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then the Demon Lords flesh rippled and tore as whatever ridiculous, unnatural force had held it together thus far lost an immense amount of power. A keening wail escaped its mouth as its injuries began to affect it almost as they would a normal creature, but whether or not that would be enough to kill it, or if the reduction in its resistance would be permanent, theyd never find out. Why? Because everyone decided to take that as their cue to unleash everything they had, burn every cooldown [Skill], blow through everything theyd been saving for an emergency, and the Demon Lord was torn to shreds. Even as it fell to the ground as a mess of pulped meat covering mostly shattered skeleton, the fire didnt abate, even though the notification that indicated victory had long since appeared. Least Demon Lord (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been in. 8,000 XP gained (50,000 XP distributed across 1,349 people as per their distribution) Heroic Deed has been noted and will increase future ss Quality It was an absurd amount of Experience, and the will increase future ss Quality part sounded fantastic, but Yoo-jin couldnt even begin to feel happy about any of it. Not with everything that had been required to get here. Chapter 120: Pyric Spoils Chapter 120: Pyric Spoils Least Demon Lord (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been in. 19,000 XP gained (50,000 XP distributed across 1,349 people as per their distribution) Heroic Deed has been noted and will increase future ss Quality theyd finally managed to finish that thing off. They got the bastard. Isaac croaked, forced to overenunciate every single syble due to the damage his face and only being able to properly move half his mouth, the end result still being barely understandable. This statement had the twofold effect of reassuring the [Combat Medic] currently patching him up, but also making her jump. After all, by every pre-[System] and most current metrics, Isaac should have been in too much pain to do much of anything, and he probably was, but [Undying Focus] pain mitigation power was letting him endure. Hell, hed ramped it up to one hundred percent, which was a bad idea because you could get injured and not notice and the [Skill] itself even warned against it. But right now, it was necessary. And man was that [Skill] doing some work, it had gained a full three Levels and evolved. Undying Focus (epic, Level XX) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, includingpletely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing ones sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. Furthermore, this Skill boosts the users resistance to hostile aura effects. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to ignore even horrific injuries and terrible pain, it has evolved to allow the user to remove health seeping and other negative status effects through sheer force of will. If hed had this improvement mere minutes earlier, he would have gotten burned a hell of a lot less. Then again, if he hadnt gone through such a harrowing experience to evolve it, it likely wouldnt have turned out like that. However, [Undying Will] was hardly the only [Skill] that had levelled from that fight. Hell, all of them had grown massively, with [Bestial Regeneration] gaining a whopping five Levels, though it hadnt passed a threshold. [Piercing Strike], on the other hand, had not only passed a threshold, it had also hit the maximum Level of 30 and grown massively more powerful. Piercing Strike mon, Level max) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for 2 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to bebined with other Skills. After countless battles where this Skill was used to pierce the very core of an enemy and y them in a single, swift, strike it has evolved into an even deadlier form. It may now stab through space itself, any thrusting attack empowered with itunching a beam of all-piercing energy at triple the mana cost. In addition, using this Skill will give the user insight into the location of his opponents vital organs. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. It will now linger on any de it is used upon, constantly providing it a degree of unnatural sharpness that can also cut immaterial things, which will only be further boosted if this Skill is used actively. Using this in conjunction with True Cut will reduce the cost of the other Skill. Lastly, Piercing Strikes base cost has been reduced while it has also gained the ability to be overcharged. tier Cost: 5-50 mana per strike, 40 mana per ranged attack And then, there were also the others that had gained new tricks. [Grave of Swords] had, of course, grown the most and using such an extreme method to level it had let it gain new tricks practicallyparable to an Evolution at just Level 10. Grave of Swords (legendary, Level X) A vast field, countless des thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this space This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space. Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another ne (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the users soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though. The Skill ends if onebatant dies, it hits its time limit, or is deactivated by the user, any leftover mana will be refunded and ced in the When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new de is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger. However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+5 mana per opponent Level over the users, +50 for each Tier barrier between the users Level and the monsters, overall cost doubled for Bosses, tripled for Raid Bosses and quintupled for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 5 hours, cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored des. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost forbat purposed, cost increases with targets power, increase must be paid from stored des or the users mana pool All the costs for absorbing stronger monsters had been massively reduced, which was only the cherry on top of the massive boon that the ability to deactivate this [Skill] at will was. Crippling Blow (epic, Level X) Striking down a target with a single attack is the sign of a truly excellent Assassin or other stealth basedbat ss. But sometimes, that simply isnt possible. A foe is toorge, too good at regenerating, or simply has more than one point that needs to be targeted in order to kill it. And thats where this Skilles in. Activating this Skill will cripple any mechanism, biological, mechanical or magical, that the user touches and can be projected through armor or hide at a length of up to 5 cm, increasing by 1 cm per Skill Level. This requires the user to focus on the specific thing they want to disrupt (i.e. sensory organs to impede perception, limbs to slow down movement, natural weapons to reduce offensive power, etc.). By default, this Skill is very painful, but that can be increased to near-crippling levels for a slight increase in cost. Cost: 20 mana per use minimum, can be increased up to 150 to affect powerful enemies or tough body parts Compounded Impact (legendary, Level X) When striking at the same ce, over and over again, each blow will cut deeper than thest. With this Skill, a bond will be created between the users de and an opponent, every additional strike hitting harder and harder, drawing an ever increasing amount of mana until even a casual tap contains the force to shred mountains. (Combo resets after 5 seconds of no sessful hits) For an additional cost of 10 mana upfront, the first strike can be enhanced to count as the fifth hit in the series. Cost: 1 mana, doubles every use, resets after 3 seconds Absolute de Mastery (legendary, Level X) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the de. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, other spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. Yet none of them have ever reached this stage, because they couldnt. Normally, there is always more to learn. At some point, you will solidly run into the issue of diminishing returns, but your path will never truly end. And then, theres this Skill. Might not grant absolute skill with the de, but it allows the user to truly master it in all of its forms, in two different ways. Firstly, now any and all skill and experience with any de carry over to any and all other des. Never, ever, under any circumstances, will a tiny difference in bnce, length or weight screw you up, never again. You can pick up an entirely new type of sword that youve never even conceived of, as long as you are a master of some manner of sword, you will also be a master of this one. Secondly, never again will you cut something you did not mean to cut. You have absolute control over your weapons, you could shave a furious cat actively trying to murder you with a gauntlet sword without ever even so much as inflicting a single scratch, this is the level of fine control you hold now that you have this Skill. Hell, you could wave a chainsaw around in a crowded disco and unless you want to hurt people or destroy objects, the only issue would be the noise. Lastly, this truly legendary level of skill with the de can now be shared with others. The secondary effects of this Skill will not be imparted, but proper use of the de can turn even a blunt pair of scissors into a lethal weapon, and this is what your students will learn. Form of Horror (legendary, Level XX) There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, andstly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the users Aspects. Current Aspects: Aspect of the Poltergeist, Aspect of the Greater Hydra, Aspect of the Megalodon, Aspect of the Fata Morgana, Aspect of the de Tempest, Aspect of the Acid Drake If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the users new form. Furthermore, while in this form the users Strength and Fortitude are increased by 45 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 70 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated once every hour andsts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. In addition, the user can now create a second form while drawing only on the Aspects they wish to use, customizing it for specific purposes. Once set, this form can only be changed after removing the previous form, which takes 24 hours. Additional Slots are unlocked at Skill Levels fifteen and twenty. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to annihte foes that should have been well beyond his capabilities, it has been increased to a level of power worthy of its own legend. The user may now transform into any non-Boss creature whose Aspect he holds and has a Level that does not exceed his by more than 10 (more powerful creatures may suffer from a shortened duration). In addition, the user may manifest body parts of the monsters for a cost dependent on the specific body part copied on their normal body. All of those [Skills] had improved massively, but [Form of Horror] was the clear winner, with the boosts further increasing, coupled with the insane ability to transform into the monsters whose Aspects he held. Sure, the may suffer a shortened duration was almost certainly a euphemism for barelysts for any amount of time, but it was still awesome. Also, hed actually created those alternate transformation forms, one specialized in aquatic and the other in aerialbat, but his standard form was still the best for the kind of battle hed just fought. Do you need anything? the [Combat Medics] voice broke into his deep thoughts a momentter. Nah, Im fine. Isaac tried to shrug, but the sound of tearing flesh and charred skin breaking told him exactly how bad of an idea that was. The look she gave him in response was in no way professional, yet there was very little one could do in response but goggle at the utterly nonchnt, critically injured patient. Time. Isaac added You can get me time. This will all heal eventually, just dont let me die until then. She still stared at him oddly but proceeded to use analytical and first aid [Skills] as the army truck sped into the city, heading straight towards the best hospital in the country, which was probably an urate im, given that they were in the nations capital. Look, Im damn tough, as well as in possession of several Aspect [Skills] that vastly improve recovery. If I dont die here and now, Ill be fine. Ive also got a [Skill] that ensures that Im not in incredible pain right now. He added, and a look of realization came over the [Combat Medics] face. Do you need a mana potion? she asked, suddenly knowing what he needed. Im afraid I already took too many of those. then thats actually ss in your stomach? Do you know if it can still cut you in there? she asked and Isaac shook his head with incredible slowness, bits of burned skin king off. As she continued to work to patch up his many injuries as best she could, Isaac just blended out the goings-on around him as he threw most of the XP gained into gaining another Level, and evolving. Chapter 121: Evolution, the third Chapter 121: Evolution, the third Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the third Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new sses. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 50 until you evolve your ss. Here are your possible ss Evolutions: deking (epic) It is one thing to wield a weapon, it is an entirely different thing to focus ones entire life on bing the greatest there is, bing one with these weapons, ascending to be the monarch who rules over all edged weapons. Whether it is you who holds them, or other people trying to attack you with them, you are the one who controls them. With your de proudly raised to the sky, nothing and no one will stand in your way. This ss vastly expands on current your current abilities with the de, and opens up now new and unique uses for ded weapons. Master Demon Hunter (epic) There are great hunters in this world, those who brought down some of the greatest beasts the System has produced. These people are master hunters, able to track anything they wish, and then systematically pick it apart, exploiting the countless weaknesses intense studies have revealed. A Demon Hunter is someone who has specialized in bringing down the worst, the most dangerous prey there is, the beasts of hell itself. Someone who has gazed into the darkness that these monsters can contain, only to decide to stand up and do something about it. And above them all stands the Master, a Hunter who has inflicted untold damage on the apex of demon kind, a creature he never should have even been able to touch without supreme skill. This sses with countless Skills that make beating further demons a breeze, as well as a full set of standard Hunters Skills. Machiavellis True Heir (legendary) Movers and shakers shape the world. Some do so openly, leading nations as democratically elected leaders or monarchs, others do so from the shadows. A word here, a gift there, and maybe a little espionage out of the public eye. You have shaken the world multiple times, all from your position first a student, then a research assistant, while pawning the credit off to someone else, and continue to do so. And finally, you have brought down nations with mere words, further proving your bona fides. You have proven yourself worthy of inheriting the mantle of the father of modern political philosophy. The knowledge he once held now passes to you, you may call on his instincts and even, once a week, his advice. In addition, this ss will bring with the ability to conduct negotiations and statecraft at preternatural levels, letting you sense motives, see through lies and visualize interpersonal connections without ever having to do more than activate a single Skill. (Unlocks High Human racial option) Sage of the Auric Arsenal (legendary) Aura. The power of mind, of will, one that represents the true core of a person. It might be a nigh-ubiquitous ability for everyone at or past their second evolution, yet there are only a handful of people who can use it properly. Well at least there werent, not before you began to share your knowledge with the world. You have delved deeper into the mysteries of this force than any other, and taught others to wield it to great effect. Their efforts still fall well short of your abilities, though. A few hundred years down the line, your teachings will almost certainly continue to be taught, and even in if they arent reproduced word for word, your discoveries will still form the basis of all future auric research. So long as humanity endures, you will be remembered. As the person who represents arge part of humanitys power and potential, you will likely be a legend in your own right. As such, you have gained ess this ss, Sage of the Auric Arsenal. With it, you gain the ability to wield two Auras simultaneously, as well a choice of one additional Aura to gain for free. Adjusting to this may be difficult, but hardly outside of what a Sage can manage. (Unlocks High Human racial option) Hildebrands Heir (legendary) An old warhorse, knowledgeable and strong, yet tired. The master at arms to a king of myth and legend, Dietrich von Bern, his constantpanion, his trainer, his greatest ally. Not the hero of the story, yet integral to the whole affair. A great power both upon the battlefield and in the ballroom, a man whose training allowed another to shape the world. You have seen it all, done it all, and you have passed those lessons onto others, granting them the abilities needed to be legends in their own right. Great kings, mighty warriors, those who write history. Those who take up this mantle, this burden, will have to bear it for the rest of their lives. But they will raise up countless people, either into positions of power or as bulwarks against the darkness. (Unlocks High Human racial option) Storied Warrior (legendary) A lone warrior, holding off a monster of cataclysmic strength, buying valuable time for a city of millions. That is the thing stories are made from. But whether or not that story is a legend of bravery or a tragedy depends on how well said warrior does. But anyone seeing this message, well, they must have survived, right? A Storied Warrior is the embodiment of that certain je ne sais quoi that makes for someone whose entire life will be an epos after their death. As such, they gain some degree of subconscious insight into when and where trouble will arise, and will find them in a position to engage. (Unlocks High Human racial option) Legacy of the 300 (legendary) des sh, blood spatters, a new injury appears on an already horrifically mangled body. Yet the warrior refuses to move, not even in the face of overwhelming power, because he knows there is something worth protecting behind him, something he will never expose by moving from his current position. Eventually, that man died. But knowing that the enemy leader had ordered to have his body mutted in a sacrilegious way, his forces drove back their vastly superior foes four times to retrieve him. You have shown that same unflinching resolve, that same willingness to die for those unable to defend themselves and lived to tell the tale. Through this, you have gained their approval and right to carry their strength onto new battlefields, both as spectral warriors to fight by your side or to enhance your personal power. (Unlocks High Human racial option) That was a lot of [sses]. The first one, [deking], was a straight upgrade to his current [ss], even though it had dropped down a rarity rank, though the reason for that was rather apparent. When hed evolved thest time, bing a [dewraith], hed just grabbed a bunch of new Aspects, each of which gave his soulbound weapon a new ability. At that point in time, Isaac had had the single greatest weapon in the world, with an immense number of possible uses, which had qualified him for his current legendary [ss]. But during the advancement to the next Evolution, the one he was currently undergoing, hed not focused on that particr part of his build and the weapon that had been considered legend-worthy at Level 25 wasnt quite that impressive at Level 50. Also, while [dewraith] had been fantastic at Level 25, sticking to that precise path for the rest of his life wasnt really what he wanted. [Master Demon Hunter] was clearly the [Systems] attempt to give him a [ss] directly rted to the demon portion of his recent fight against a powerful demon. But the sheer focus on demons as foes meant it was right out. [Machiavellis True Heir] was an upgrade of the previous [Machiavellis Heir], and while it was ttering and a strong [ss], all the reasons against the previous one still held water. [Sage of the Auric Arsenal], meanwhile wow. Just wow. Being able to use two [Auras] simultaneously and gaining a new one for free was damn strong, never mind what other [Skills] that [ss] held, but he wasnt going to pick it. For someone whod been using [Auras] for ten years, Isaac was still above average, but onlyabove average. If his main concern had been fighting other people, hed have picked this one in a heartbeat, but only then. Sure, it would be a great boon against monsters as well, but it was perfectly possible that other [sses] fit that bill even better. Isaac actually had to think a little about who the hell Hildebrand of [Hildebrands Heir] was even with the [ss] description explicitly stating which legend he was associated with, but when he remembered, he nearly grinned despite his injuries. Dietrich of Bern was a king based in what today was Switzend in modern day and was essentially its equivalent of King Arthur. The mythical one, at any rate. Hed fought giants, trolls, dwarves and other mythological creatures, all with his faithful Master Hildebrand by his side. The old warhorse hadnt been the main character of the story, but nothing would have worked without him. Hed trained up the man whod shaken Europe, just like the [ss] description had said. It was a [ss] that offered both great personal power, as well as the ability to empower others. It fit him like a glove, it gave him everything he ever could have wanted. Yet there were more great [sses] to look over still. [Storied Warrior] sounded like it would give him a degree of literal plot armor and if the insight into future trouble hadnt been subconscious, hed have taken it in a heartbeat, but as it was, he liked to n and that required concrete knowledge of what specifically he was going to end up fighting. And then there was [Legacy of the 300], which was a lot. It was incredibly tempting, to lead those 300 exemr warriors into battle would have been a childhood dreame true, but it the end, nothing beat [Hildebrands Heir], so he picked that, dismissing the would you like to pick your [Skills] message. Andstly, he had the option of changing his race, due to the [ss] hed chosen. Congrattions! Youve reached the point where you may change your race! Sticking with your old race might not give you exciting new body parts and bonuses, but it sure isfortable to stick with what you know, isnt it? Human (natural, mundane (current race)) Homo sapiens sapiens, the wise man, the Earths premier species, or at least thats what they think. Hell, the very word primates is derived from the Latinnguage and means first or noble, which is where the people who named them think they are when ranking all living beings. Humans are adaptable, intelligent tool users descended from endurance predators, their ability to sweat allowing them to cool without having to stop and pant, letting them outrun anynd creature at a distance. In addition, their hands are highly flexible and allow them to grasp and manipte most tools while the high number of neurons in their brain grant them a high level of intelligence, pattern recognition and creativity. Benefits: intelligence (current level) Base Stats: 5-15 for a normal adult High Human (preternatural, advancement of current race) Humans are primates, a name taken with no small amount of hubris, given that it refers to the fact that they are supposedly the peak of creation. And in a sense, they are correct. Others might be stronger, have greater magic, or any of a host of fancy tricks, but humans are infinitely flexible. Yet there is one more race, one with all the same advantages, butck many of the weaknesses. The High Human has incredibly resilient physique, being highly resistant to toxins and mutations, and has increased physical Statspared to ordinary humans. Benefits: improved healing, naturally improved bloodline, superhuman physique Base Stats: 15-20 The choice of whether to evolve or not was rather obvious, wasnt it? A High Human was to normally people what an action movie hero was to the faceless mooks they moved down in droves at least at Level 1. Later on, 3-6 Levels worth of Stats wouldnt make that much of an impact, especially as from the third Evolution onwards, one gained 20 Stat points instead of the usual 10, but it was still a pretty good improvement and hardly the only one. The mere act of evolving cleaned up ones gics, improved cognition, and made sure those improvements would be passed on to any children one might have. And despite all that stuff the description said, a High Humans capabilities were still technically within regr human limits, but that was an incredibly strong technically. Of course, there were plenty of stronger races one could attain, but it was possible to pick those even if one was no longer human, it was just that shifting over would hurt a hell of a lot. Im going to get a new [Skill] that will improve my physique, it might look a little off from the outside. Isaac said, prompting the [Combat Medic] to jerk back as if hed just turned into a live snake. After all, when the expert spoke a warning, people tended to treat it quite seriously. He clicked the mental prompt and spasmed once, but that was the end of it. After all, he was basically still human and the minor changes wouldnt affect him overly much. Still scared the hell out of the [Combat Medic] and driver, though. But it had been worth it, as shown on his Status. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 50 XP: 12,991/25,500 Health Status: Charbroiled Mana: 0/1,050 Stats Fortitude 80 Perception 145 Strength 85 Agility 145 Magic Power 105 Magic Regeneration 135 Free Points: 0 Stat, 17 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXI The Chosen Weapon XXV I Am The Sword VIII Grave of Swords XII Skills Hundred Faces XXIII Stealth XXVI Power Strike XXVIII Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXVI des XXVII Sneak XXVI Sweeping Strike XIV Far Strike XXV Manifold Strike XIX Hunters Gaze XXVIII Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XIX Bestial Regeneration XXV Undying Focus XX Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XIV Crippling Blow X Absolute de Mastery XI Compounded Impact XII True Cut III General Skills Gralloch XI Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace I Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeists Shift Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks body Wave Charge Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des Acid Drake Drakes Heart [Empty Slot] Now he just had to pick his [Skills] and make his choices rting to how he could strengthen his family at ater date, preferably when face to face with them. Having his family suddenly shift into something else unexpectedly would, at the very least, be terrifying if it arrived without warning. He looked over the avable [Skills] as well, but decided there was nothing he needed immediately, so he could relegate that to ater date, especially as he could feel his mind starting to grow frazzled. The truck rolled to a stop outside a building that was clearly the hospital hed been promised. A full medical team had been waiting outside with a stretcher for a while, but now, it felt like half the staff of the emergency room were out there, preparing for the legion of injured people that would soon arrive from the battlefield. Isaac rolled to his feet to make it easier to get him out of the back of the truck, yet ended up stumbling and barely managed to change the endpoint of his fall to the stretcher, and then everything went ck. He came to again a mere momentter, the stretcher hadnt even been moved a meter towards the hospital, but it was still an rming sign of how badly he was injured. Still, he wasnt going to be doing much work now, things would shake out over the next few days without needing his direct intervention. From here on out, his only task was getting better. Chapter 122: Long Term Issues Chapter 122: Long Term Issues As you can see here, Mr. Thoma, theres significant damage to your muscles in your right arms and leg. Youre healing on your own, somehow, which is a very good thing, but it will take a while. The [Doctor] exined, gesturing at a [Skill] generated image of Isaacs body. The mere fact that your body is regenerating and the scar tissue is being broken down at all is nothing short of a miracle, but it also means there is nothing I can do that isnt already happening on its own. That is the good news. Unfortunately, it will take a long while for everything to properly fix itself, and Im not familiar enough with your abilities to know if this regeneration will allow you to regain use of your right arm. There is a massive amount of scar tissue formed inside the limb, with the muscle fibers woven between them. The only reason you can still use it is one of your [Skills], but with even that, I dont Then remove it. Isaac interrupted her Amputate the limb, remove any damaged portions of the socket, ligaments and nerves so I can grow a new one. That sounds extreme. Are you even certain that regrowing limbs wholesale is within your capabilities? the [Doctor] cautioned, though she hid her shock at the drastic suggestion masterfully. I regrew my right hand when my Level was less than half of what it is today, and Ive since gained associated [Skills], as well as upgraded the associated Aspect. Also, my [Skills] explicitly state that they can regrow limbs. Isaac said reassuringly. I see. She frowned While that does sound like a viable option, Im not sure that is a procedure I or anyone else at this hospital can perform. Its very extreme, like I said. Isaac could suddenly feel his temper re. Not nearly enough to make him loose it or say something stupid, but still to a degree he was not used to. It wasnt even his anger, not really. Ever since hed gained his [ss], something had changed. A certain presence had made itself known in the back of his mind. Now, hed known that choosing an inheritor [ss] would give him a new set of memories, but it was an entirely different thing to experience it. Mind you, Hildebrand wasnt a historical figure, he was a figure of myth and legend belonging to the pages of old legends like the Niebelungenlied, but like Sherlock Holmes, Davy Jones and Aeneas, he still qualified as an inheritor. These people were no longer specific characters from a given story, they were closer to ideas. As such, Isaac didnt actually have another set of memories rattling around his brain, he just felt the presence of the old weapons master. He knew that whoever Hildebrand had been, if hed ever existed outside the pages of a storybook, he would have already told the doctor what would happen in no uncertain terms. He wouldnt have gotten rude, he wouldnt have raised his voice, he would have merely given the order in such a way that it would be followed. Isaac wasnt that willing to throw his weight around, not when there were other options avable. I realize that amputation is a very out there procedure, and something that goes against the very core of what your profession represents, but it is viable in this new world. Try and think about it like this: surgeons cut bits out of people to heal them, chemotherapy pumps poison into peoples veins to kill the dangerous parts before it can kill them, and live vines involve literally infecting people with incredibly dangerous diseases. Yet outside of an incredibly small percentage that has negative oues, those horrifically sounding procedures work hard to save lives, dont they? Isaac gave her a wry smile. This is a new world, with new rules. Scarred flesh thats basically still charcoal in ces should have been removed, but it wasnt, because I might be able to salvage it with my own natural healing ability. But by those same rules, amputation will actually be what fixes me. I realize this is a massive departure from any and all standard ways of doing things, but please, consider this like you didnt know anything about medicine. There is a procedure that looks scary as hell, but it will return a patient control of a limb in a matter of days, possibly in less than twenty-four hours. Does this procedure sound like a good idea? Yes, but this is still something Ill have to talk over with some people, the hospital board, if nothing else. She said. In theory, theres another option, but it could be incredibly difficult to use. Youre a [Doctor], your [Skills] are all about healing injuries. But my injuries are already gone, its just that they healed in such a way that is giving me serious trouble now. Your [Skills] might not be what is needed here. A [Flesh Mage], [Biosculptor] or the like would be able to get rid of all the scar tissue in moments, but Isaac gave her an apologetic look Im sorry, its my turn to speak at the video conference dissecting the events of yesterday. Id really have liked to finish this discussion, but it seems my colleagues didnt stick to the schedule. I Really, its alright. You do what you need to do, Ill talk to the necessary people about how to fix your arm, you take your time to make sure that the next Demon Lord that appears goes down easier. She assured him and swiftly retreated from the room. It seemed that hed earned himself a measure of respect and leeway. Meanwhile Isaac grabbed theptop that had been streaming the video conference with the speakers turned all the way down and pulled it into hisp. When he switched on the camera, he got a good look at his current appearance. The left sight of his face had only suffered light, first and second degree burns and already healed up almostpletely. The right, on the other hand, was swathed in thick bandages that didnt really serve a medical purpose, but everyone else was probably d he had them on. In fact, one of the mostmon pictures about the fight was an image of his own face on one side of the frame, and a picture of the battlefield on the other, perfectly covering the horrifically burned side of his face. It had been a good decision, though, given that there were limits as to what kinds of pictures could grace the front of newspapers. Therefore, hed decided to keep on the bandages for the call. His mouth had been somewhat fixed Up until now, the people on the conference call had been discussing the general logistics of the catastrophe that had urred, everything from casually numbers to the estimated cost of repairs, all for the purpose of ensuring that the next time wouldnt end up being nearly as bad. But now, it was time for Isaac to present his paper on [Raid Bosses]. It wasnt a full paper given that hed barely had a day to create it and most of it had been spent to badly inured to do much of anything. Yesterday, we saw an incredibly powerful and dangerous monster appear. Now, said monster was beaten back, but not without grievous losses. The emergence of the Demon Lord alone inflicted untold damage and loss of life in the DMZ, followed by a running battle against military personnel and individual Hunters on the path to Seoul, until it was stopped for a time by a dying action and finally brought down by a concentrated effort from the military and Dungeons Guild. I fought that thing for a full five minutes and in that time, I believe Ive figured out some things about it. First of all, the descriptor of [Raid Boss] seems to fit the definition of the word in the realm of video games. Arge monster, with extremely high offensive power, methods of blocking easy win scenarios, area-of-effect abilities to counter arge number of attackers and keep them away so that overwhelming them with sheer numbers doesnt really work, but most importantly, they have an ungodly amount of health. Well, in the real world example, were dealing with extreme durability and redundant organs coupled with a near immunity to exsanguination, shock or death due to loosing individual vital organs. [Raid Bosses] are simply built tough. Built? another person on the call interrupted. For the rest of my presentation, Id prefer to save questions to the end, but that question is actually pertinent, so Ill answer it. Isaac warned Let me ask you all something: does the [System] feel natural, like something that coulde about on its own? Or does it feel like someone took a bunch of video game ideas, the moderninterpretation of several mythological beings, and brought them into reality? I have no idea who is responsible for the [System] or what we can do about it, but the thing is that it has almost certainly been constructed in some way, and its creations reflect that. Case in point, the power distribution of this [Raid Boss]. Everyone here had probably had simr thoughts at some point in the past, just not vocalized it in such a public forum, so when Isaac just breezed right past that, it wasnt nearly as much of an issue as it could have been. The circle used was Tier 6, but the aspect of the monster which reflected that was its speed. The demon lord was faster than some creatures of its Tier, but nowhere near the top. Its strength, meanwhile, was immense, well beyond the strongest Tier 6 monster Ive ever seen or even heard about. In fact, depending on how strong Tier 7s are exactly, it might even have been able to reach that level of strength. If the exponential growth of the previous Tiers holds true, its strength will be just below the seventh Tier, but not by much. Strong enough to topple the strongest of tanks like a bowling pin, but not enough to squash them like bugs. Meanwhile, its magical power is rather odd. Producing those area of effect attacks has to take an insane amount of mana, and its [Aura] should be ssified as being a short-rangebat version, even though its range is greater than even that of a sensory [Aura]. But while it clearly has an insane amount mana and offensive power of the magical nature, it is not overwhelmingly damaging, at least not on the same scale as the mana pool that supports it. It can be blocked by second Evolution [Skills], some of them not even cooldown [Skills], at least for the most part. When it cant be, the power takes long enough to gather for people to react. This thing might be able tounch a hell of a lot more spells than any human [Mage], and target farrger areas, but they can still be survived, they arent as overwhelmingly powerful as they should be on something with such high Stats. Lastly, it is absurdly durable. Ive fought monsters with some bits that were tougher than the matching body parts on the Demon Lord, but nothing thatpares in terms of sheer overall toughness. And that is ignoring how its able to seemingly disregard fatal injuries. It needed to lose most of its vital organs to truly die. Heck, I might have been able to kill it on my own, otherwise. I was able to st straight through its skull and out the other side, but it kept going. I cut its throat, tore open many major blood vessels, any one of which should have killed it. But it didnt die. Again, this makes sense. After all, what use is a [Raid Boss] in a world with unstoppable, invible force attacks if a single one can kill it by sting straight through its brain? But this leads to a situation where what would be a fatal injury on any other creature gets reduced to a mere flesh wound. Coupled with its overall toughness, I was barely able to do more than scratch it. That thing came out of your dimensional space looking like someone had identally stered an entire horror movie casts worth of fake injuries onto a single unfortunate extra. Someonemented, prompting a slight chuckle from Isaac. I suppose thats an adequate way of describing it. However, are those injuries really that bad whenpared to what it looked like dead? I suppose that at the end of the day, a [Raid Boss] isnt going to be a chump, is it? Bailey asked, the question clearly rhetorical. It also had a neat effect of putting an end to the whole discussion on the subject whenbined with him moving on to the next topic. Now that we have a rough overview as to what level of strength and what abilities a [Raid Boss] has, we can try to n around it, we can create a SOP for dealing with its kind. So heres what I propose we do *** The whole discussion had continued on for several more hours, with people getting into idiotic fights over the stupidest crap, arguments that Isaac could have cut short in seconds if hed been able to reveal his knowledge from the other timeline. But he couldnt, so he had to stare at people fighting over inconsequential crap. at least a few good ideas came out of it. Also, when the whole affair had ended, a whole herd of doctors had entered the room to discuss the whole limb removal thing. It had taken a bit for them toe around, but Isaacs new status as a national hero gave him a degree of influence even in areas where such influence shouldnt exist. After all, saving a city didnt mean he knew anything about medicine, but that was how people worked. A famous person could get away with a lot. From there, convincing them that he could stay awake and actually needed to be to empower the scalpels to be able to cut his flesh had been easy. The procedure itself went off without a hitch, but while Isaac sat there in his bed, waiting for his arm to fully regrow, a visitor arrived. It was a visitor hed expected, it was a visitor hed nned on dealing with, but that didnt mean he was looking forward to this meeting. It was Germanys ambassador to South Korea, here to talk about how he wanted to enforce Isaacs right to the loot from the Demon Lord, and how Isaac, as a German citizen, had earned his home nation some small im on the loot. Ugh. At least Isaac knew what use he could get out of this. Chapter 123: Spoils of War Chapter 123: Spoils of War Ambassador Schulz, wee to my humble abode. Please, take a seat. Isaac greeted, making a pleasee in gesture with his left hand, the only one he had remaining. His right arm had already regrown to the point where hed nearly regained his elbow, much faster than the first limb hed regrown, but it was still nowhere near useable. He was currently sitting in a chair by the window, back ramrod straight and giving off an aura ofpetency and alertness. Even though hed initially been leery of the mass of new knowledge and experiences in his head, and it had been strange, but now, he was incredibly d to have it. Isaac used to have ten years ofbat experience to draw on, but with his new [ss], another fifty-odd years of that had gotten tacked on, as well as knowledge on how to handle people and politics, the kind of knowledge that couldnt be taught, only learned from experience. Hed managed to muddle through thus far, drawing on the life experience no one could have expected him to have, supplementing his meager acting skills with [Hundred Faces], but what he could do now surpassed all that by a mile, and he didnt even need to purchase or use a [Skill]. One of his new [ss] [Skills], [Legacy of a True Warrior] would have further boosted the inherited knowledge, but he couldnt get that just yet. Besides, he was getting by perfectly well just with the knowledge hed gotten when hed grabbed the [ss]. In summation, the challenge when greeting the German ambassador didnt stem from trying to appear truly professional, it came from the fact that he didnt want the change to overly obvious, at least not at first. The fact that he held an inheritance [ss] would probablye out, through the [Skills] he taught others if nothing else, but if he got one was suddenlypletely different, that might put others off using inheritance [sses]. Also, none of his other [sses] names were written down anywhere, at least none except for his first one. That meant that if people assumed hed always had an heir [ss], which would offer a convenient excuse for most of his entricities. Of course, how could I do otherwise? Schulz asked, pulling up the second chair and sitting down I realize that you havent had to go to an embassy for help before, but something that isnt talked about all that much is that their purpose is to be a source of help in case of emergency for people far from home. While Schulz talked, he drew a wad of papers out of his briefcase. As such, among other things, Ive been working tirelessly to ensure that you receive all the recognition and rewards you are due for your efforts a few days ago. Meaning? Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow. The Demon Lord that died just fifty kilometers north of this city is the only [Raid Boss] to have been killed, ever and people are appropriately desperate to get their hands on its body. Under normal circumstances, people might summon one of their own, but given the near disaster that was the battle against the first one, theyre holding off on that. Which leaves just one possible source of those materials: the body of the first [Raid Boss]. So now everyone and their dog wants a bit of that monster and youve been cooped up in here since the incident in question. As such, Ive been working tirelessly to support your immiserate with your contribution. It took a while, but I was able to dig up the picture of your kill notification and ascertain the fact that you are owed 38% of the reward. I Let me stop you right there. Isaac interrupted, holding up his hand to stop the diplomat First of all, I appreciate you stepping up to the bat to ensure I get what I am owed, at least from a certain point of view. However, Im afraid I have a bit of an issue with how youre handling this. Primarily, loot distribution based on kill contribution based on XP gains leaves out the fallen, and the logistics personnel, and that is not a precedent I amfortable setting. In addition, theres the small issue of me already having made arrangements as to the loot distribution. The look on Schulzs face was hard to describe using a single word. Heartbreaking was perhaps an adequate way of putting it, but that was still iplete. It was the look a child might wear after being promised a puppy for Christmas, only find out a couple of days before the big event that not only werent they getting a puppy, but the holiday had been cancelled in its entirety, except said child was still attempting to put on a brave face. After all, this was a career politician he was talking to, they didnt wear their hearts on their sleeves. And yet Isaac knew that on the inside, Schulz had to be feeling just like that child. If thats the case, why did you take this meeting with me in the first ce? Schulz worked out after a long moment of shocked silence. Normally, Isaac would have just shrugged and phrased the next statement as a joke, but now, he didnt. Instead, he calmly leaned forwards, folding his hands on the tiny hospital table between them, and spoke. Well, Mr. Schulz, I wanted to talk to you, face to face, and then you offered to have this meeting. Need I say more? Of course, seeing as the loot is what this meeting should have been about, Ill tell you about whats going to happen to it. The Least Demon Lord dropped three Aspects, the first of which has gone to an army [General], Guildmaster Seon took possession of the second and Ill be slotting the third once I get the base Aspect Ive been promised so I can build on it. In addition, several bits of the body have remained suspiciously intact even though the body itself has been savaged. Four bones perfectly sized for swords, a few pieces of hide that turned into leather, and two crystals that are apparently intended to be turned into [Mages] staffs. Ive received one bone and a crystal. Lastly, theres the body itself, which could turn out to be refinable into something useable. Im getting a t ten percent of the mass of viscera and bone splinters that was left after the fight and Im willing to share. My team will, of course, get some of that, but we can hardly use all of it. The rest, on the other hand, will be disseminated to people and institutions who are likely to be able to crack their secrets, and one of those institutions will be the Federal Republic of Germany. If nothing else, theyll be able to do certain experiments using machines and materials that mere mortals such as myself would never be allowed to use. Thats very generous. Schulz said, dabbing at the beads of sweat that had formed as Isaac talked as he did so. Part of the reason why Isaac was so willing to share this stuff because keeping it all would have been a major fight. As Schulz had so adequately put it everyone and their dog was desperate to get their hands on this stuff. But it was hardly the main reason. A Demon Lords blood and tissue could be alchemically reduced to an oil-like substance that was very simr to gasoline, but inordinately powerful. A shot ss worth of the stuff could take a ne around the globe, for fucks sake. It could bring around massive innovations in aviation, automobiles, and space explorations and the only thing Isaac knew about it was to not put that literal hellstuff in a normal engine because it would get blown to kingdome. Everything else, well, that would have to be discovered the old fashioned way. Now, there is something Id like to ask of you. Isaac added, earning a decently well-hidden internal groan from the politician Nothing overly tedious, I can assure you. Id like to request a diplomatic transport back to Germany. For me because of the obvious issues Ill have flyingmercial in the foreseeable future, and the materials because I dont have the space to keep them in my spatial storage. Mr. Thoma, of course we can do that, but we would have offered that as a matter of course. Schulz assured him. Probably. Isaac said tly But I find that its good to have an actual confirmation on matters like that. As that saying goes when you assume, you make an ass-of-u-and-me. Its a bit silly, but it fits. However, that is also not what I wanted to talk to you about. Schulz had calmed down somewhat, but he still seemed nervous And that would be? You. Isaac said, earning a nervous jolt from the other man Specifically, your role as Germanys ambassador to South Korea. Im certain you have received countless instructions on what to do and how to do it from your bosses in the government, but Id still like to talk to you about a few things. As the ambassador, youre the primary contact point between Germany and South Korea, and you might not even be aware of the true importance of your position. You see, there are only so many ces that havee through the [Systems] arrival rtively intact and with a proper form of government, this nation being one of them, alongside Kanda,rge chunks of Europe, Australia, Singapore, and so on. ces with dictatorships, countries where those in power used to keep it by force of arms, are now in shambles as people desperately try to gain the strength to either take control or keep it. The US is fine for the most part, but there are a lot of people who tried to imrge areas as theirs, which is causing trouble. Japan tends to alternate between better than fine and totally not fine, depending on the area. And so on, and so forth. South Korea, meanwhile, has flourished. And in a way, so has Germany. Were on the leading edge of [System] science, we have the means to deal with monsters both in the form of military might and powerful individuals and while our [System]-crimes agency is still squatting in the basements of other agencies, they exist and still only need a little polishing. We can do a lot for each other. Information on proper Dungeon creation and farming, tricks on safely summoning, German engineering and Korean magic, etc. There are countless worthwhile allies, of course, but youre not the ambassador to those people, so I wont bother you with that. My point is a deeper alliance with this great country we find ourselves in could do a lot of good for Germany. It could also help the world as a whole, but that isnt your priority, is it? Isaac shed him a grim smile Im well aware of the fact that Im in no position to be issuing orders, but there is something I can give you, my name. In thest few days, it has begun to carry a not insignificant weight in this country and while Ick formal power both here and back home, were both fully aware of the fact that there are other kinds of power. So if you would be so kind, try and use this to your full advantage? Though the ambassador still held his decent poker face, hed acquired some serious pit stains during Isaacs little speech. I I suppose I can do that. Schulz swallowed wet his dry throat Thats a rather novel way of looking at it. Thank you. Youre wee. Isaac nodded graciously I hope your day will be more pleasant going forward than mine has been. He waved at the ambassador with the regrowing stump of his arm. Me too. Gute Besserung. The ambassador gave the German equivalent of get well soon and got up to leave. Oh, and one more thing. Isaac called after him Ive called for a little press conference in tomorrow, noon, outside the Dungeon Guilds headquarters. Guildmaster Seon has already been drumming up some awareness, and so have a few others, but a little help from you would be much appreciated. I will. Schulz nodded and began to hurry out of the room. The instant the door fell closed again, Isaac walked into the bathroom, pulled off the gauze covering his face and went to work. This wasnt a trick he could have used on his shoulder sadly. Fixing an arm would require fixing all the ces the various muscles and ligaments attached, which in turn would have required him to either remove arge part of his torso or get the help of a surgeon to directly dig those ces free. But on his face yes. He was using a pocket mirror and a toothpick his [des] had turned into a proper weapon and channeled a fully empowered [Sundering Strike] into it. The flesh the de touched instantly weakened to the point where it practically fell apart as Isaac channeled more and more mana into the [Skill]. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. With every move of the knife, a mess of blood and tissue fell from his skull, stting into the wash basin. With every cut, more and more of his insides wereid bare, fresh skin growing over the area while some portions remained scarred. That was where there were deeper injuries. But even as Isaac subjected himself to things that even the most hardcore of masochists would have flinched at, it felt oddly liberating. Like the weight of the battle was dropping off his shoulders. The most visible of the injuries which remained was vanishing, cut by bloody cut. It would have been painful without his pain mitigation, but even then, it would have been the good kind of pain, the one that meant you were getting better. In the end, one could still see hed been injured on the right side of his face, but it was a held a sparkler to close to my cheek kind of damage, rather than a got my face burned off horrific scar. Now that he was presentable, he gave his mother a quick call to prove that the Im fine statements hed given earlier hadnt been him talking out of his ass, then told her he wanted to talk properly in person when he got back to mollify her. *** Eventually, a young woman in the half armor, half trendy clothing outfit of a Hunter with an F-Rank badge at her belt visited Isaac in his hospital room. Guildmaster Seon sent you this package, along with a message. She ced both a small box and an envelope on the table near the window, throwing surreptitious looks at Isaac, stars in her eyes. Tell him thank you from me. Isaac replied And thank you for bringing these. She began to head out of the room, then stopped and turned around, stuttering out Thank you thank you for saving the city. I Youre wee. Isaac said Have a nice evening. After she had left, he checked out the stuff hed received. The package contained an Aspect of a weaker Demon that gave 5 Agility, and a very weak fire attack that he could upgrade with his Aspect of the Least Demon Lord. The letter, on the other hand, was not the silly little note from Yoo-jin hed expected, but rather a formal summons to an awards ceremony. Medals to be received, five days from now. He was going to be stuck in this nation for a while, wasnt he? But that was a problem of future Isaac. Present Isaac had some Aspects to grab. The weaker Aspect was absorbed in seconds, but he didnt even bother to read the [Skill] description, instead absorbing the Aspect of the Demon Lord an instantter. Aspect of the Demon Lord: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Demon Lord a Demon Lord. Physical Power, control over the most lethal me in existence, an immensely powerful personal defense Skill or merely a way to guarantee a little breathing room, no matter how obstinate the people bugging you may be, if you dont choose to take on the form of a demon for a brief moment to take care of things in a far more direct manner, that is. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Strength +10 Constitution One of the following Skills: Grand Hellme Moment of Immortality Hellborn Avatar Personal (Hell)Space [Raid Boss] Aspects were expensive as fuck to slot, but oh so worth it. He upgraded the weak me attack and grabbed the aptly named [Moment of Immortality]. Grand Hellme (epic) The flickering me of a candle. A crackling fire in the firece. The burning heat of a cksmiths forge. An welding torch. Sure, all of those things could be considered fire, but dont really seem like they deserve the monikerpared to what this Skill can produce. The holder of this Skill can wield the fires of hell, in their full all-consuming, life-force destroying glory, while gainingplete immunity to any and all fires up to and including this Skills power level. Cost: 100 per second to generate, 10-50 per second to control, 200 to extinguish all fires caused by generated me [Hellme] was far too expensive to truly use inbat for a non-caster like Isaac, but that wasnt why hed grabbed it. Instead, it was the near-immunity to one of the few things he couldnt properly heal that was important. If hed had this during that fight, hed havee out the other end pretty much fine. Moment of Immortality (legendary) What kind of monster can have its guts hanging out, be bleeding from countless arterial wounds, and still be fighting? One with this Skill, thats what. Moment of Immortality activates automatically when it is needed, granting the user the ability to survive with massive bloodloss and without aplete set of internal organs. In fact, few things short of being pulverized will be able to kill the Skill user while it is active, but it is by no means a perfect defense. Moment of Immortalitysts for twenty seconds and can only be activated every 168 hours. And that was the real prize, the power only [Raid Bosses] held and could provide. Its usefulness was massively limited by the fact that you still needed to live even after the [Skill] had ended, but that was what Isaacs regeneration was for. Now Isaac just had to go ahead and prepare for a less literal fight. Ugh, politics. Chapter 124: Speech Chapter 124: Speech If it hadnt been for the ludicrous level of enchantments on the Dungeon Guild HQ, the noise from outside would have been deafening. Not because people were yelling, mind you, but because the sheer number of human beings talking, the volume swelling to ludicrous heights. Isaac nced over at the clock on the wall, confirming that the time was just right. He looked himself over with his [Aura] onest time and headed outside. His head was bald, courtesy of having lost most of hair to hellfire and then shaving off the rest to avoid looking utterly ridiculous. The still slightly scorched bracers hed worn during the fight were back on his wrists, cleaned but not repaired to empathize what theyd been through. His own ever-present formal outfit of a heavily reinforced polo shirt and pantspleted the ensemble, though instead of his K-Bar, a beautiful sword, adorned with gold, hung from his belt, courtesy of his new [ss]. [Armory of Ancient Times] was one of the two core [Skills] belonging to [Hildebrands Heir], and hed bought it primarily to show of this de, right here and now. Armory of Ancient Times (legendary) They had some good stuff back in the time of legends, didnt they? Legendary swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings and belts that granted the strength of ten men all that good stuff. But we dont have that stuff anymore, they were either lost to history or they never existed in the first ce. But with this Skill, it doesnt really matter which of those is true, because Hildebrands Heir is able to summon anything he wants, so long as Hildebrand once held it, such as his sword Balmung, once wielded by Siegfried. You may only summon one weapon (or object) at a time, and doing so will reserve 100 points of your mana to maintain it unless you can find alternative ways of sustaining it. As you learn more about Hildebrands legend, youll learn more about what you can summon. Currently avable gear: Balmung, Nagelring, Eckesachs, Mimung, assorted mundane gear, Laurins Ring, Hildegrim That list had been far shorter in the beginning, offering only the de Balmung, which Hildebrand had taken after avenging Siegfried during the massacre at king Etzels court, but it had expanded as Isaac went through the legends that involved Hildebrand in his head. Hed already been somewhat aware of those stories, but once hed gotten the [ss], hed read up on everything properly. Hildebrand had only held most of those des briefly, given that they hadnt been his, but apparently, that still counted. So now Isaac would be wearing the beautiful, master-crafted de on his first proper public appearance after reaching his third Evolution. Balmung A legendary de, forged from the broken halves of a legendary weapon. Upon being reforged, it brought low the dragon Fafnir, and eventually won its wielder a kingdom. When Siegfried was eventually in by the treasonous Hagen, the traitor continued to wield the weapon until he too died in the battle at the court of king Etzel, captured by Dietrich and subsequently executed by Kriemhild. When she too died, the de passed on to Hildebrand. And from the hands of that warrior of ancient myth, this peerless de passed onto Isaac Thoma, the Auric Sage, the man who fought a monster that killed an army to a standstill for five minutes. No armor withoutparable pedigree can withstand Balmungs blows, no foe can survive its bite so long as its wielder is capable of wielding it properly. (this is a summoned weapon) Eventually, someone would ask about the de. If not now, then afterwards as people poured over the footage of the interview to analyze it as fully as they could. And then, Isaac would be in the perfect position to talk about his new [ss], and what he had to offer, all the while subtly implying that hed had a whole series of inheritance [sses] to exin any oddities about him that might have tripped up people in the past. It wasnt something hed nned on from the start, but now that he had an inheritance [ss], it would have practically been criminal to waste it. As Isaac stepped out of the building, the noise abruptly fell. There were still people chattering here or there, but the front rows, the journalists, were silent. The stage itself was nothing but a marble lectern that had been erected out here overnight and enchanted to function like a microphone. The enchantment was crap and would fail soon enough, but like the mobile rock lectern, it had been chosen over something more practical to impress the onlookers. The same went for the guards that stood to the right and left of the doors. They were a pair of S-Rankers, people that should and did have far better things to do than y bouncer, but Yoo-jin had gotten them to take the job anyway and their mere presence lent the whole affair a degree of gravitas that even Isaac could not have achieved on his own. Good afternoon,dies and gentlemen. Isaac announced as he stepped up to the stone plinth Thank you foring. Thest bits of conversation petered off as his gaze racked across the crowd, allowing him to give his speech without any disturbances. Five days ago, a monster was summoned, both in the figurative and literal sense. A Demon Lord that ignored all mundane strength of arms and ughtered some of the best and brightest of this nations Hunters. But sadly that has been a mere ripple in the pondpared to everything else that has urred this year. Be it through divine intervention, the interference of alien races, or the naturalws of the world reasserting themselves, humanity has been given the [System]. Gifted, some might say, while others might refer to it as a curse. I stand before you not as a warrior, but as a researcher and as such, I tell you this: like so many things before it, the [System] is both. A blessing that can turn into the worst bane humanity has ever suffered if mishandled, just like every world-shaking event before it. Isaac paused for a moment, once again looking out across the crowd, giving it a moment to sink in. The Haber-Bosch-Verfahren is the only reason the human race isnt currently starving. It is a process that allows for the binding of atmospheric nitrogen for the production of fertilizer, and in doing so, it is allowing all of this you see before you to exist. Yet that process wasnt created to feed hungry children, but as a weapon of war. There was an embargo upon the sale of Salpeter, aponent of gunpowder, to Germany during the first World War. This might have proved crippling, if it hadnt been for the brilliant invention of two scientists whose invention allowed for the continuation of the most devastating conflict to date. And more so, one of the men who created it, Fritz Haber, is also known as the father of modern chemical warfare. The man who brought untold suffering to the fields of battle by unleashing chlorine gas upon unsuspecting soldiers. Now tell me, doesnt that invalidate the existence of the process which allows our civilization to exist? Does the fact that its history is linked to bloodshed mean we shouldnt use it? I, for one, believe the answer to be rather obvious. I also consider the [System] to be more of the same. It has brought vast advancements in medicine, people get sick less often and Im told that a few police officers who plowed ahead in Levels cleared up most of my home citys unsolved cases. Yes, it has brought with it great cmity, yet we can directly link much of that to the [System] being misused. No one can deny that what happened just north of this city was a tragedy, and a war crime even if the use of [System] monsters is yet to ssified as such. But likewise, no one can im that that was how the [System] was meant to be used. So I stand before you today, humbly beseeching not just you, but all of humanity: be mindful when using the [System]. This is a power gifted upon each and every one of us, and each and every one of us can use it for good or ill. This is not a battle of politicians, or one of legality, it is one ofmon sense struggling against recklessness and ignorance. There already exists a list of banned summons, as well as monsters that may only be legally summoned with certain precautions. The Tatzelwyrm, for example, is merely a Tier 3 monster yet it is so incredibly toxic that the legends of knights and their steeds dying merely from the blood that travels up thence thrust into the beasts breast seem credible. And Im certain that soon enough, [Raid Bosses] will go on that list as well. This is what it means to survive in this new world. Picking your battles, summoning only what you can handle, rather than assuming that anyone telling you not to summon something is out to pull one over on you. Isaac paused once more and, moving faster than most peoples eyes could follow, leaped up onto the lectern. It wont be recklessly charging ahead that brings greatness. To paraphrase the old saying being cautious is staying alive, staying alive lets you progress, all the way to the top! Thest six words were practically shouted, and met with an overwhelming shout of approval. Even many of the journalists, whod onlye to ask questions and record him, joined in. As the crowd quieted down again, Isaac leaped off the lectern and walked a couple of steps closer to the people listening. Questions? For a mere moment, only silence answered him, but then, a whole bunch of reporters began shouting over each other. Two hourster, Isaac was seriously regretting ever offering to answer anything, but then again, given that he was able to reply to most questions in a way that further pointed out the usefulness of advancing with caution, he wasnt too unhappy with the end result. Besides, he might not have realized it in the beginning, but his new [ss] had also given him a whole lot of patience, even with stupid people or questions. In the end, he was just d that not only had be arranged for Bailey to relocate his family to his home in the forest until all of this blew over somewhat, hed also had things set up receive normal people ahead of time. A couple of log cabins, a storage for foodstuffs and consumables that wasnt a spatial pocket, a satellite dish, etc. Hed also used his mental connection to his extradimensional apartment to open it and set it to stay that way. Sure, that robbed him of any control over who went in, but it wasnt like there was anything vital in there. Also, Raul and Amy had agreed to stay over in case anyone decided to trespass. All in all, things should be safe until he returned after the medal awarding scheduled to take ce in four days. Chapter 125: Schmoozing Chapter 125: Schmoozing Are you sure you want to absorb Balmung into Old Reliable? Y/N Isaac approved and the projected weapon vanished. He might not have been one hundred percent certain of the exact oue, but he knew that it couldnt blow up in his face too badly. He was still ying within the standard constraints of the [System], at least the [Skills] part of the [System], which had originally been intended to be helpful. Therefore, if hed been about to fry his face off, again, he would definitely have gotten a warning. Balmung has been absorbed into Old Reliable, taking up one of the two avable slots. This slot will be avable again if Balmung is unsummoned. While Balmung is absorbed, it can be wielded as if it were a regr form of Old Reliableand the upkeep cost neednt be paid. Perfect. Isaac grinned as he took his first few steps into the Dungeon. Hed managed to get himself the run of many of the citys dungeons since hed be leaving soon enough but still wanted to grab some XP, and well, his current status as somewhat of a folk hero made that an easy ask. The first monster that lunged at him was an animated suit of armor that fell apart in two halves as Balmung passed through it, Isaac not even needing to apply [Piercing Strike] to enhance its cutting potential. The monster fell to the ground with a tter, but even as thest piece of metal came to a stop, two more creatures came charging out from the depths of the Dungeon. Likembs to the ughter. *** Half an hourter, Isaac waltzed back out of the Dungeon, not a hair out of ce. The only thing that that gave away that hed just spent thirty minutes tearing apart monsters were the spots of light-colored rock dust that starkly contrasted the dark clothing it had stuck to. Nice Dungeon run? a voice called out as Yoo-jin got up from the small waiting bench near the entrance. Nice enough. Isaac shrugged After a while, every Dungeon just sort of blurs together. Thats what, seventeen dungeons in thest five hours? About that. Isaac shrugged again Dont worry, Ill make sure to stop before the meeting and get cleaned up though. Thats not what I was going to talk to you about. Yoo-jinughed Im pretty sure that youre adult enough to not show up in that, let alone covered in monster dust while wearing those clothes. Yoo-jinughed I just figured I should talk to you about what happened on October 3rd. Do tell. Isaac said. First of all, thank you. I didnt really get the chance to visit you in the hospital, and Im sorry about that but you were busy cleaning up after a massive disaster while I sat on my ass. Isaac finished the other mans sentence for him I get it, no hard feelings. Yoo-jin let out a barely hidden sigh of relief before replying Anyway, I was wondering what your ns were, going forward. Youre obviously going to stay until the award ceremony and are going to take advantage of the avable Dungeons. But afterwards would you be amenable to, perhaps, staying? I would be lying if I said it hadnt urred to me, but Im afraid theres nothing you could offer me to get me to stay, I believe my work is far too important. And after that [Raid Boss], Im more certain of that than ever. Yoo-jin shook his head I told them youd say that, but they insisted I make an offer. And if I say no to you, Ill just get that offer againter? Exactly. There are far too many factions that want to hire someone of our power and youre the only one unaffiliated. I have a job Isaac trailed off. A job at the other end of the world, out of sight, out of mind and all that. The only other people withparable levels of contribution are extremely high ranking members of the Guild or military. And the only ones who also got Aspects are myself and [General] Blockhead. Im guessing thats not his real name? Isaac asked with a slight chuckle. Nope, of course not. Its just that [General] Park doesnt like the idea of civilians with Levels inbat [sses] and the Dungeon Guild as a whole. Hes also not shy about expressing that idea and now hes acting like the Demon Lord could have been taken down without casualties if everyone involved just had a little military discipline. Yet he still got one of the Aspects? Isaac asked. Yeah, the government mandated it. Yoo-jin said. Id guess they did that to create a counterweight to the power of the Guild. Someone whod be unlikely to join you guys without a damn good reason, who wont be seduced by what you offer. Isaac supposed. Exactly. Unfortunately, hes now also in almost any meetings involving the military, government and Guild leaderships, and hes always negative just for the sake of being negative. Hence [General] Blockhead. I know the type. Isaac chuckled. Everyone does. Theyre the scourge of modern society. Yoo-jin said dryly and they bothughed for a bit as they walked along the street of one of the many little Dungeon towns that had sprung up around the city, chatting about random stuff. Even with the signs advertising monster meat being served visible in the windows of restaurants, and the bodies belonging to creatures out of myth and legend being carted around, it felt wonderfully mundane. The medal awarding ceremony, on the other hand, would be a dreadfully formal affair, and Isaac was just d that hed gained the patience of a far older and more experienced person. *** As it turned out, the awarding of medals themselves wasnt all that extraordinary. Sure, there were medals being handed out by the President of a country, but Isaac had been through this a couple of times, and they were always the exact same thing. Thank you for doing x-thing, heres the appropriate medal, were grateful and if I you were to stay/enlist/keep helping, that would be great. Nice, but very structured. Isaac had just stood there and politely thanked the President when receiving the Order of National Security Merit 1st ss. The lesser versions of this were given to most Hunters, though Yoo-jin had also earned himself the 1st ss order. Many received it stoically, but there were a few exmations of yeah and people punching the air. juvenile idiots. Meanwhile, the various members of the military whod earned this degree of official recognition received the Order Military Merit, rather than the Order of National Security Merit. That whole affair had taken a surprisingly long amount of time, but eventually, it was over and they were all released to join everyone else in massive ballroom. That was when the schmoozing and negotiating began. and that is what I can offer to you, should you choose to the Japanese diplomat had been right in the middle of offering Isaac a generous amount of money and non-material support in exchange for a couple of months training Japans elites when he was suddenly cut off by a truly massive fart. His own. Isaac sessfully stifled a chuckle or any other response that indicated amusement while surreptitiously threading his [Aura] through the crowd until he reached the person responsible for that breach of politeness and smacked him. The man, likewise a diplomat, went white and hurried off towards the bathroom as quickly as he could without it being obvious he was fleeing. On the inside, Isaac was torn between amusement and exasperation. On the battlefield of politics, people had plenty of [Skills] avable, just as they did everywhere else. [Skills] to draw the eye, to make others lose their train of thought, [Skills] to reveal embarrassing truths and then there were those that interrupted people while talking. Thetter ranged from literal fart magic, which was exactly what it sounded like, to [Skills] that simply triggered the biological process that was the closest to urring naturally. A sneeze, a burp, and yes, a fart, all of which would not only represent a faux pass but also massively throw most people off their game. And if Isaacs [Hunters Gaze] hadnt allowed him to track [Skill] use, that guy would have gotten away with it. As it was, though, Isaac wasnt interested in the Japanese mans offer and even if he had been, he wouldnt have epted it at a Korean event. Therefore, he cut in just as his conversation partner tried to start talking again. Im afraid I wont have the kind of time epting your offer would require for a while. Then, in a low voice that [Perception Block] ensured only the other man could hear, he added Some [Skills] to ensure that other people cant embarrass you like that again wouldnt go amiss. With that, Isaac headed into the crowd. There were a couple of people who stood out like beacons, like they held the answers to all his problems, so he fixed each of them with a hard stare for a few seconds, then pointedly ignored them. There was a big difference between using [Skills] to get an advantage, and using them in a way that was borderline mind control. Perception altering crap could be annoying, and Isaac let those that tried to use it know exactly what he thought of it, but actual mind control was a hard line that shouldnt be crossed and would be treated ordingly. Mostly, Isaac was here to drum up support to the Treaty of Seoul, which was currently being negotiated. Like many such treaties, it was named after the location where it had been signed, or would be signed, in this case. And because the incident that had prompted it had urred so close to Seoul and a lot of the responses had been brainstormed there, it was where the particrs were being hammered out. It would take a while for everything to be finalized, or even to get everyone here for the official negotiations, but the basics had already been determined. In essence, if someone summoned a [Raid Boss], they had to announce it, and get permission. Otherwise, if anyone found out such a creature had been summoned, and they would find out due to the fact that their presence was announced to anyone and everyone nearby, it would get obliterated. Not just attacked with everything avable, but nuked, if that was what was required. A literal nuclear warhead wasnt mandated as a method of disposal, of course, but it would likely be what was required anyway. But that kind of response had probably been nned anyway, by a significant number of governments. The important part was that, well, once that treaty was signed, it wouldnt matter who or what around the [Raid Boss]. The summoners would get blown up if they were still alive, but quite frankly, screw them. The most extraordinarily part of the whole affair, however, was the idea that it neednt be the nation on whosend the monster had been summoned which destroyed them. If the monster was close to a border, endangering another nation, they too could engage. The particrs involving how much firepower could be thrown how deep into foreign territory and what kinds of safety radii needed to be given for what protected areas still needed to be discussed, but at the end of the day ideas were unlikely to change. In the other timeline, thered actually existed a simr creation, but it had been a hasty, twisted thing created in the wake of a true tragedy, a city of millions razed and appropriately messed up. No proper discourse to discuss the parameters under which actions on foreign soil would be alright had urred, and several wars had nearly broken out as a result. Hopefully, this time around, it would be a fully mature creation which allowed the signatory nations to destroy the [Raid Bosses] without nearly sparking World War 3. Yet even with a world ss, [Skill]-strengthened poker face, his personal nigh-bottomless well of patience and the serenity of an ancient warrior at his beck and call, the constant barrage of political [Skills] and asionally stupid questions managed to wear him down. First time at one of these ces? a voice rang out from beside him as a field of mana enveloped the table he was standing at, preventing the words from being heard by anyone other than him. Mostly. Isaac sighed A few symposiums, a big discussion at a police precinct during a massive inter-agency manhunt for a serial killer, but nothing like this. In that case, youre in for one hell of a ride. Or were, I suppose. Yousted longer than I expected. Professor Kim told him. Thank you. Isaac said as he snatched up a couple of hor doeuvres and ate them Its fascinating being here, but Im practically exhausted. Everyone wants something, and so few of them really know enough about me or the subject matter to make the right kind of proposition. You think its bad now, just wait until the third Evolution powerup besmon knowledge. Kim told him with a dark expression that was at odds with the joking tone of her statement. Youd think people would have the maturity to turn down those advances if theyve got the maturity to wield third Evolution power without immediately getting themselves arrested and/or executed. You would be wrong. Kim said Just like youd be wrong to assume that people would know better than to make indecent proposals to people who could turn them into a grease stain with a thought. Levels arent usually visible externally. Intellectually knowing that someone is that powerful doesnt elicit the same fear as facing, say, a dragon. Isaac suggested. Its a tale as old as time. If it doesnt look scary, it cant hurt you. Kim said, her head suddenly snapping around and zeroing in on a person in the crowd, Yoo-jin. Whats up? Isaac asked. Oh, I was just wondering if one of us needed to drag that kid over into a corner by the ear and give him that talk we just had. Kim sighed. That kid is almost half again my age. Isaac pointed out. And yet in a way, youre older. Kim told him I realized it shortly after we met, Dr. Thoma, you are an old soul. It was obvious even then, but its grown far more pronounced since the fight against the [Demon Lord]. Noticed that, did you? Isaac chuckled wryly. Kim raised an eyebrow as she looked back at him Im guessing you hold an inheritance [ss]. He nodded Hildebrand, a hero from Germanic mythology and the Song of the Nibelungs. Who was he? The teacher of a great king, an old warrior who fought to alongside a great hero. That that would exin a lot, actually. Kim nodded. Aaaaaannnd there it was. Someone with the right knowledge to understand the impact that kind of knowledge might have on a young twenty-something man knew about the inheritance [ss], and would make some assumptions from there. Those assumptions would be wrong, but theyd provide a perfect exnation for Isaacs weirdness. Now, Professor Kim was hardly a gossip, but that knowledge would still spread. And back in Germany, something very simr would happen once more as Isaac organically brought his status as an inheritor up in conversation with the right person. Anyway, Im heading back out there, wish me luck. Isaac bade her goodbye and left the bubble of isted space. As much as he would have loved to continue having an intelligent conversation with one of the most interesting people in the room, this gathering represented an opportunity he couldnt afford to waste. Sigh. Chapter 126: Homecoming Chapter 126: Homing Once, the low rumbling of the nes turbines would have ground at Isaacs nerves, a perennial reminder of the fact that there were better things he could be doing with his time. And while he still would have rather just stepped through a portal and been home in under a second, he wasnt quite as annoyed at his current mode of travel. Isaac leaned back in his seat and sighed as he opened up the [Bloodline] menu. Familial Powers (High Human, Hildebrands Heir) Racial Bloodline (automatically unlocked) Aspected Bloodline I (Cost: 1 Skill point) Improved Stats I (Cost: 1 Skill point) Skilled Bloodline I (Cost: 1 Skill point) Empower Rtives I (Cost: 5 Skill points) Emergency Beacon (Cost: 3 Skill Points) Situational Activation (Cost: 1 Skill point) Permitted Activation (Cost: 1 Skill point) Inherited Aura (Cost: 5 Skill points) Craft specific Bloodline? Y/N (Cost: 5 Skill points, will deactivate this menu in its entirety) Making other people stronger could be done really cheaply, or it could get super expensive, depending on how you went about it. Adding individual abilities as you gained them was perfectly workable, but it would result in a vast collection of seemingly random [Skills] that would supersede the holders regr abilities. Holding someone elses Core [Skill] meant that one would be able to get one fewer core [Skill] belonging to ones own [ss] of an equivalent Evolution, and so on. One could pack on a fuckton of powerful abilities, but it could prevent future descendants from collecting the [Skills] that were right for them, potentially even crippling them. Then there was the small issue of high Evolution [Skills] needing a certain degree of Stats backing them. Someone trying to summon a legendary weapon like Balmung at Level one would probably burn out their mana channels. Something like that would heal, sure, but it would be incredibly painful. Normally, that wouldnt be a problem because it wasnt possible to get ess to high Evolution [Skills] without having the required Stats. Sure, you could level up without spending Stat points, but that would have been just in daft, wouldnt it? Then you had the option of making your [Aura] inheritable, which was a terrible idea. [Auras] were the most personal part of the [System], something that needed to be chosen by the wielder themselves. An ancestors [Aura], even a legendary one, would likely be nigh-useless. Another awesome trick was the ability for [Bloodline]-holders to send out a distress call to everyone else who had it, a must-have in the current climate. A couple of young girls, with a powerful bloodline but their only defender being away most of the time terrible things might happen otherwise. Of course, [Bloodlines] also risked granting people whod only just gained ess to its powers the ability to throw around fireballs or bolts of lightning. Given that this usually happened in toddlers yeah, the two limiting powers of [Permitted Activation] and [Situational Activation] were likewise absolutely vital. The former would lock the selected [Skills] unless both parents granted permission for them to be used, and they would then be permanently avable once the children became adults. Thetter, meanwhile, let the progenitor of a bloodline create certain circumstances that would allow for the use of the selected [Skills]. The optimal choice truly was simply creating a [Bloodline], spending a mere five [Skill] points to createplete package and being done with it. Of course, doing so would make sure youd never get the chance to fix potential mistakes. Another thing to consider was the limit of how strong a given [Bloodline] be, which was limited by the rarity of the third Evolution [ss] of its originator. Amon [ss] might allow for a couple of Levels worth of Stat points and maybe one [Skill] to be imbued into the bloodline. Meanwhile, Isaacs legendary third Evolution would let him dump an absolute fuckton of power in there, making his family the equivalent of a peak second Evolution fighter. Yet that would lock them into that particr niche for essentially the rest of their lives, and he didnt want to do that to them, let alone any potential new siblings, nieces, nephews, children or grandchildren. What he wanted was something to keep everyone safe, to allow them to defend themselves, without removing future choices or taking up core [Skill] slots. Therefore, he first bought [Empower Rtives] so he could actually pass his [Bloodline] on to his family, then set out to create it. Bloodline of the Hellborn Survivor (legendary) The legacy of a warrior who lived through countless battles, countless injuries, countless tragedies, someone who came through it allpletely intact. And that is what this Bloodline represents. As its first holder was a High Human, all others also gain this powerful Race. In addition to this, it grants countless Skills useful to surviving attacks. Firstly, ites with extraordinary regenerative capabilities, which even extend to injuries to the brain, a separate mana storage to power said regeneration and the power for organs to take over the function of other, damaged ones. And when all of that proves insufficient, the body will temporarily gain the power to ignore nearly all injuries. Starting once they have reached the age of majority, they also gain significant resistance to pain. Secondly, the holder of this bloodline has the ability to phase through solid objects, granting them the mobility needed to escape all confinement. Thirdly, it automatically grants a preternatural level of skill with all ded weapons, as well as stealth. In addition, this Bloodline makes analyzing its holders nearly impossible. However, there is more to this Bloodline than mere survivability. Its holders may wield the very Hellfire that forged its progenitor, but only in the most dire of circumstances, with their parents permission, or if they have reached the age of majority. Lastly, anyone in possession of this Bloodline is able to use it to signal distress to anyone else who hold it once a year. Finalize Bloodline Y/N? In essence, it would grant most of his survivability rted [Skills], the [Emergency Beacon] [Skill] to prevent kidnappings and [Grand Hellme] to give everyone some teeth, though hed locked down the highlydestructive [Skills]. What hed also locked down was the pain-dampening aspect of [Undying Focus] during the developmental phase. His descendants would be able to fall out of a third floor window, hit the ground head-first, and still be perfectly fine, but they needed to still feel the pain of the impact. Children learned things in one of two ways. Either they were told not to do them by their parents and they listened, or they ignored the sage advice and skinned their knees or something, and then there hopefully wouldnt be a repeat performance. The thought of a person whod grown up unable to feel pain and didnt take damage from anything that was a scary thought. Hell, it was a stretch to assume that person would even reach adulthood instead of dying in some incredibly reckless, Darwin-award worthy stunt. Once they were adults, being wrapped in proverbial cotton wool when it came to injuries should have been fine. Before then, all theyd get was the ability to survive almost all injuries. Now that he was done with that, Isaac had nothing else to really do, so he decided to lean back in his chair and went to sleep. Hed levelled up a couple of times to afford the [Bloodline] and [Empower Rtives], and invested the Stat points hed gained along the way into his various Attributes. During this, hed passed a hundred points in Fortitude, which gave him back some measure of control over his body, including the ability to extend his need for sleep beyond the few minutes per day he actually needed. It was aplete and utter waste of time, but he could afford it. *** Isaac woke up shortly before the final descent and spent it staring out of the window, watching the city grow closer and closer. Not only that, but he also even managed to spot his home, making the ssic I can see my house from here joke actually true. Getting out of the ne and the airport, meanwhile, was stupidly easy. After all, hed gotten here on an official, governmental ne. That sort of thing tended to open quite a few doors. As for the materials hed gotten, the stuff that didnt fit into his storage space ended up having to be ced in massive crates which Isaac carried with some difficulty. Weight wasnt really the issue, but bncing it was a little tricky, but doable. And that was when they ran into the reporters. A whole sea of people had gathered around the exit that they would have been the most likely to take, and the guess had been correct. But theyd been afflicted by a case of old world thinking when theyd assumed that this meant hed have to go past them. Instead, tall, thin, blonde German man stepped out in front of them, greeted Isaac with a wave and suddenly, a swirling portal appeared next to him. So, how was your Korean vacation? Patrick asked. Not very vacation-y. Isaac replied, barely suppressing an eyeroll What about you guys? Hard at work. So, shall we? Patrick waved at the portal. Isaac nodded and marched through, immediately dumping the boxes on the ground once he was on the other side. Patrick had opened the portal in such a way that the only thing people could see was the woods, but it was actually located right next to his home. And it was a good thing that hed put down the heavy stuff, because a pair of tiny blond missiles smashed into him a momentter. Hey there! he eximed, sweeping up both his sisters in a huge hug Were you waiting for me? Of course. Viktoria said, though then her face fell The news said you got hurt. there was nothing more depressing than a teary eyed preteen, was there? Isaac sighed and put the pair down, then ruffled their hair. Yeah, but I got better. And now Im fine. Really? This time, it was Tanja who asked the question, sniffling. Really. Im fine, fit as a fiddle. That put a little smile back on their faces and Tanja poked him with her finger Only old people say stuff like that. Isaac let out a bark ofughter. If I were old, could I do this? And just like that, he swept up the pair in his arms once again and tossed them onto his shoulders, one of his sisters sitting on each one. Lets go find Mom and Dad, shall we? As it turned out, their parents had been waiting over by the containers Isaac had lived in when hed first moved here all along, it was just that theyd decided to let their kids greet their big brother first. After getting what would have been bone-crushing hugs under normal circumstances from both his parents, Isaac looked them both right in the eye before saying We need to talk. The reactions that elicited were rather grim, but sadly, that was appropriate for the situation. Basically, once someone hits Level 50, they gain the ability to pass down some of their powers to their children. However, theres an option that allows direct blood rtives, like parents and siblings, to also gain those benefits. And thats what Id like to do. Were getting superpowers! Tanja cheered, echoed by Viktoria a momentter. Sort of. Isaac said. Are you sure this is safe? his mother asked. Absolutely. You can choose what to pass on, and I picked the powers that would make you safer. Isaac nodded Is there a reason I shouldnt pass on those powers? His mother hummed thoughtfully, then nced at the twins, so Isaac added Theres also an option to limit the use of certain powers and I locked down anything dangerous. Aw Tanja moaned, sounding heartbroken, prompting a slight chuckle from the adults. So, shall we? he asked, and his parents nodded. [Empower Rtives] Isaac stated with authority, and suddenly every member of his family was wreathed in a red light that sank into their skin as power built within them. Ok, please remember that youve suddenly gotten a whole lot stronger and faster, so be careful for a few minutes. Youll adapt quickly, but he broke off, looking at Tanja who was sitting on her ass at the base of arge tree, looking dizzy. Ok, see, that cant have actually injured her. He told his parents before they could rush over But that doesnt mean you should keep running into stuff because you cant constantly regenerate! Tanja quailed under his re, but didnt look all that sorry. All that being said, I do have ake nearby that I had built for aquatic monsters but didnt get around to using for that. So, did you two bring your swimsuits? he offered to give his parents a little time to talk. His sisters cheers were all the answer he needed. So after waiting a couple of minutes for them to get changed, they headed out into the forest. Of course, it was mid-October by now, but with superhuman Fortitude that was hardly a problem. Yet when they arrived at therge body of water, Isaac first sat down his sisters at the shoreline. You two are really strong now, you know that, right? They both nodded. That means youve got a really big responsibility now. You need to be careful with other people now, ok? No roughhousing with friends, no hitting people if you dont have to defend yourselves, alright? More nods. Now, all three of us know that you watched that movie Mom didnt want you to watch. So, as they said, if you have power, you need to be responsible, ok? A third set of nods. Alright, now I can show you some of the fun you can with these powers. Isaac announced proudly, earning cheers. And that was how his sisters found out that it was possible to waterski with a person yanking on the rope while standing on the opposite shore. All in all, that was a good day. Isaac wished it could have gone on forever, but eventually, hed have to leave, do other things. Hell, after Korea, he had a good excuse for dropping off the face of the world to recuperate after such a traumatizing fight. And there were a few people that deserved some of his personal attention Chapter 127: Interlude The League Chapter 127: Interlude The League 9 years 198 days 53 minutes 7 seconds. 6 seconds. 5 seconds. 4 seconds. 3 seconds The clock on the wall continued to count down, as it always did even when there was no one in this chamber. A constant tick, tick, tick, a constant, inexorable march towards zero, and with it, the end of all. None of the people in the chamber knew why theyd been given orders to not make overt moves until ten years after the Initialization, but that was just how theyd been told to set things up. Mind you, the doomsday clock had been their own choice, though. None of the people in the chamber knew the reasons theyd been chosen, though theyd tried to figure it out. Realistically, a group chosen with the purpose of ending the world would have been more established personages, not them. Theyd all been standing on the precipice of great cmity, with a slight chance of even greater gains being avable. So while there had been a chance for them to reach the heights that would let them truly shape the world, there had also been a good likelihood of them turning out to be nobodies. Yet theyd risen, one and all, to have a seat at this table. And furthermore, none of these people were honestly sure of who their backers were, beyond that they had something to do with the [System]. Also, while their backers, be they gods, demons, or beings that had ascended to be made up entirely of energy, theyd created other subordinates that no one in this room was allowed to contact or even work with. All in all, very strange. Yet theyd all joined in regardless, the offer had simply been too enticing. Power in this life, infinite pleasure in the next. It had sounded utterly fantastical, just like all those little cults that promised its members to ascend, except their benefactors had had the greatest proof of concept to ever grace the world, the [System] itself. Well, that was a shitshow. a man in a fox mask sighed as the video clip ying on the massive screen in the corner. What did you expect, Fox? a woman in a deep crimson full face mask asked They had more time to prepare than we ever could have expected, so they stomped the Demon Lord into the ground. If we ever try something like that, all well need to do Is ensure there isnt someone who can pull his opponents into a whole other world in the area. Really, War? If? another figure, fully wrapped in figure-concealing clothing and with a ck mask, asked with suspicion Are you nning on staying out of future events? We didnt have to do anything and a capital city nearly got ttened, Pestilence. War rebuked Do you really think well have to lift a finger by the time that clock hits zero? Do we really have to discuss this now? another man, this one wearing a mask fashioned after a hissing serpent growled Weve already seen that video a hundred times, individually and together, let us be done with that crap and get on with what this meeting was supposed to be about. Really, Jorm? We know you named yourself after something of a glutton, but do you also have to act the idiot as well? another man, his mask a statues stony face cut in. How about you save the insults forter and tell us what you actually want, Kronos? the figure at the head of the table cut it, his voice cold as an arctic wind. Like Pestilence, he was wearing vast, ck robes, but his voice was unmistakably male. As for his mask, it was a thing of terrifying beauty, fashioned from a pale, ethereal, transparent blue covering a human skull. In a small, shocked voice, the man known as Kronos whispered a sorry, then shut up. Now, heres what you shall do: take note of the standout contributors in that battle, and start to create a n to counter them. When that clock hits zero, our followers and subordinates will take the war to them and end this world. And the five other people around the table responded as one For the next world! But even as that statement echoed around the room, more and more figures became visible in the distance, beyond the confines of this room yet still connected by the chairmans [Skill]. A bone white mask was the closest, closely followed by a metal sheet with Norse runes in the shape of a horn adorning it, a pair of figures that hadskulls for helmets, one seemingly burning, the other fashioned from ice. Yet those were the only ones who could clearly be seen. Thousands more were merged into a seemingly unified mass in the distance, awaiting orders. Chapter 128: The Trossachs Chapter 128: The Trossachs Isaac took a deep breath of fresh air and sighed contentedly. He might live in the woods, but there was something entirely different about the beautiful Scottish valley hed found himself in. Sadly, in the other timeline, this breathtaking scene before him had housed a dark secret, the horrific Dungeon that would eventually gain the designation of Sanitys End. First, it had be a ck hole that people walked into, but never came out. Then, that wave of deaths had seeminglye to an end, and people hade back out of the Dungeon, sometimes carrying one of the supposed casualties out along with them. But that had only been the opening shot of an even worse catastrophe than the deaths of Dungeon delvers. Some of the people who returned. Went. Nuts. A few simply rampaged through whatever they were in when the madness began, but those were the lesser issues. No, the real problems were the people who had been set up to specifically cause trouble, keeping it together until they were in a position to inflict maximum damage, effectively crippling everything in the area. Law enforcement, summoner association, emergency services, everything. And finally, when it seemed like things couldnt possibly get any worse, the Dungeon had erupted into a flood of monsters, a vering horde of beasts that tore apart a good chunk of Britain before an effective defense could be mounted. And even then it had taken weeks to put a lid on everything and shatter the Dungeon core by way of a trio of magically enhanced, nuclear, bunker busters. Millions dead, a country in ruins, and the manipted cropping up even years after the Dungeons destruction to cause further havoc. Yet despite all this, Isaac had been unable to ce it in his data-dump because he hadnt known when that ce had been created. Well, in theory, he could have put it in anyway, but this was a situation where he absolutely had to make sure everything was correct. Any mistakes and that did mean any mistake, no matter how small, would have damaged his credibility, which he couldnt have afforded under any circumstances. A message using a whole lot of people, some of them very influential would have been screwy enough. That same usation apanied by a bunch of mistakes would have sounded like a prank or attempted nder, rather than anything genuine and actionable. Also, there was the small issue of him not knowing what kind of Dungeon this was. Had some numbskull created a regr ol Dungeon and identally turned it into a huge threat by giving it the Eldritch type, or was this all the work of a Dungeon Master whod been a fan of Lovecrafts work, built a Dungeon based on it and gotten himself killed, thereby freeing it? Or had it been a deliberate, slowly progressing terrorist attack? Regardless of the information he found out about this particr mystery, at some point, hed have to release an updated list, but that would take a while. The political and summoningndscape had shifted so massively that Isaac would have to put in a lot of research to make it good or even just eptable and useful. But that was a problem for future Isaac. Current Isaac had a Dungeon Core to find and if it had indeed already been created, obliterate. Sadly, theck of information about the creation of the Dungeon meant that he might also have to kill a Dungeon Master, and that could be a problem. As such, Isaac had made sure it would be damn hard to track him. Instead of taking a ne or even a car here, Isaac had swum here. It had taken several hours, almost a day, in fact, but it also meant that there was no record of him ever having even entered the country. Coupled with the fact that hed used [Hundred Faces] to make himself look both incredibly androgynous and of an indecipherable ethnicity, no one should have been able to connect him to anything that happened here. Thest identifiable thing about him might have been his weapon, every single form of his soulbound weapon, Old Reliable, having been caught on camera at least once. But he had a counter for even that. His [Skill], [Armory of Ancient Times], let him summon any weapon the progenitor of his [ss], [Hildebrands Heir], had ever touched. The primary use of this [Skill] was, of course, summoning legendary swords, but it could also project any one of a hundred different perfectly mundane swords. So Isaac had just grabbed one of them and slotted it temporarily in his soulbound weapon, boosting its characteristics by a significant degree and letting him call it back into his hand. And just like that, there shouldnt be anything overly traceable about him. Of course, he still had to find the damn Dungeon, and that was proving to be more difficult than expected. Hed seen a photo of the entrance in the other timeline and spotted that location, but there wasnt anything there. If that Dungeon truly didnt exist, that would have been a good thing, and it might not even be created in the future, which would have been fantastic. However, Isaac was also fully aware of the fact that any of a dozen tiny ripple effects from his actions in this timeline could have resulted in the core being put somewhere else in this valley. In theory, there was also a chance of the Dungeon being somewhere else entirely, but at that point, Isaac wouldnt be able to do much about it. With a sigh, he resigned himself to searching for a while. So that was how he spent the next three or four hours, marching through the wilderness, eyes roaming over everything while poking his [Aura] in ces he couldnt easily see. Finally, he found it, and he honestly wasnt sure whether or not to be happy about it. On one hand, he was in a position to destroy the sanity-wrecking Dungeon. On the other sanity-wrecking Dungeon. At least [Undying Will] protected against mental attacks. Muttering obscenities in a dozen differentnguages, Isaac leaped into the deep, dark hole. Almost twenty meters down, hended hard, bending his knees to absorb the impact. [Deaths Embrace] flowed into his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker], turning it dark and making it visible to normal, unenhanced eyes. The field of death stabbed out, piercing clean through the half-dozen balls of tentacles and rotting flesh that hid in the crevices that surrounded the entrance. Normally, [Deaths Embrace] only inflicted debuffs, but these things were so weak they actually died. With a his mouth set into a grim line, Isaac unsheathed his boring, generic sword and marched off into the darkness. Shadows yed across the walls, stgmites and stctites appearing like the teeth of an immense beast whose mouth he was walking through, but that too faded as he left the daylight behind. Even for Isaac, the effect was somewhat disconcerting, so the gods alone knew how bad it would be for others without his experience. A few more beasts moved in the shadows, all writhing tentacles and broken reality, flickering static wreathing them as they continued to change, but somehow always staying the same, shifting yet static, a set of living break impossibilities. They were hard to look at, and the effect grew even more pronounced whenever his [Aura] brushed against them due to the sheer amount of information it could collect, yet all of that was perfectly manageable. They werent a physical threat to him and while they could inflict significant damage upon his psyche by attacking his head with their tentacles, precisely none of them lived long enough to get anywhere near him. If this, a series of caves and corridors meant to slow down people while wearing down their wits and sanity was all there was to it, Isaac would have been happy. However, he also sincerely doubted hed ever be that lucky. Hiss. Another mess of eldritch energy and tentacles lunged at his face, a great maw opening up at its center, gaping wider than the creature itself wasrge, appearing to all the world like an entrance into a dimensionprised solely of pain and horror. One moment, the beast approached him like a bat out of hell, the next, it hung skewered on the tip of his sword, dripping vital fluids. Yes, these things were Dungeon monsters with very little sense of self preservation, but seriously, youd think theyd try something new after having already died by the dozens. They werent even getting any clo -- Isaac was standing on a battlefield, crimson skies extending overhead as far as the eye could see, a carpet of corpses covering the ground, spilled blood turning the dirt into a marsh. Hed never travelled to the past, there was only this world, and he was the only one, thest one,st survivoreveryonesdeadwhattodowhatdoIdoI C And then the yellow thing copsed, sliding off the tip of Isaacs de. FUCK YOU! he roared, spinning in ce as a ray of [Far-Power Strike] obliterating every stgmite and stctite in the corridor, along with thest few Eldritch Spawn that had still been hiding and a second Yellow Lord. Breathing heavily, Isaac continued to re around. On some level, hed been aware of the fact that the other reality had been an illusion, half his mind stuck in the false world while the other had managed to hunt down the damn thing basically on autopilot, but that crap still absolutely sucked. Most people could break free of the illusion in a couple of seconds, but the mental attack had a nasty secondary ability that sped up time inside said illusion, so even if two seconds might have been fast enough to counter the follow-up physical attack, but not necessarily sufficient to save their sanity. But with enough training, defeating the illusion wasnt even necessary. If one had internalizedbat to the point where it was practically instinctual, one didnt even need to mentally be present to cut apart a creature that was physically helpless. Thankfully, the Yellow Knight was the nastiest pure mind controller in this Dungeon and would be for at least a decade. All Eldritch beings had a nasty, deleterious effect upon the psyche of their enemies, but these things were specialized in fucking with peoples minds. He continued onwards, the corridor opening up into a vast cavern, with ake of bubbling tar in the center. Most likely, this was their of the floor boss. Isaacs ck-tinged [Aura] tore through the room, thest few Eldritch Spawn withering and dying as it tore through them. Normally, this was where hed have stopped enhancing his [Aura] with [Deaths Embrace] to save a little mana as it wouldnt do much against the boss that had been sitting in the pool of tar, but he kept it up as it quite handily disguised the exact nature of his [Aura]. After all, anyone could have gotten that [Skill] during the Event. And as for the boss, it mostly was the pool, a thinyer of tar over the top of the vast mass that was the rest of its body. Isaac leaped skywards, unleashing a fully stacked [Manifold Strike] at the pool even as said pool exploded, a mass of tendrils and tentacles, exploded out of it and obliterated the ce hed been standing a moment before. The damn thing was fast, but he was a fair deal faster. Unfortunately, even the incredibly damaging attack failed to kill the monster. Sure, its top half exploded into mush, but the lower half hauled itself out of the hole and reformed into a smaller version of the original beast while additional tentacles emerged from the mass to drag some of the sttered biomass? into the main body. This thing might not be a regenerator in the ssic sense, but was rather a shapeshifter which was so incredibly capable that it might as well be a Hydra. In other words, a pain in the ass to kill. Isaac sighed and flung his de downwards, piercing the center of the body. The monster spasmed, and then went berserk, tentacles whipping around, yet where before theyd been changing length as required in a matter of seconds, they now seemed to be barely able to shift. Using [True Strike] was something of a risk when he was worried about being recognized, but its nature was rather hard to determine from a visual inspection alone, never mind the fact that no one knew Isaac had it. Summoning the weapon back into his hand, an ability was ubiquitous enough that he felt he could use it safely, Isaac dropped down, hitting the beast like a meteor with the red light of [Power Strike] glowing on both his feet. Gtinous flesh rippled and burst, sttering every which way as goo leaked out of the terrible wounds. Another jump got him clear of the monsters remaining tentacles as it seemingly whipped in random directions, having most likely lost its eyesight. Isaac unleashed a [Far Strike], lopping off a good third of the monsters remaining body, observing which part continued to move. That would have been the one that contained the closest thing to a brain that thing had. To his utter annoyance, both parts kept moving. Clearly none of the rudimentary organs his [Aura] could detect with were as vital as a standard animals brain was, but there seemed to be a hard limit as to how small its body parts could be and still function. Otherwise, every small piece hed chopped off during the fight would have been up and attacking. Muttering curses, Isaac charged, de shing, hacking apart the monster until it stopped moving. Eldritch Flesh Abomination (Lv. X) has been in. 500 XP gained And just like that, thest bit of the monstrosity stopped twitching and the whole affair slid to the ground as a gory, disgusting mess. At the end of the room, a small treasure chest suddenly began to glow in a strange color, one Isaac wouldnt have been able to put a name to even if someone had put a gun to his head. It was still firmly located in the visible spectrum, yet by all rights, that meant he should have been able toe up with some kind of name for it. Yet no matter how long he thought about it, the only thing his mind seemed to be able toe up with was wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrong swearing softly, Isaac pulled back his [Aura] and closed his eyes as he marched forward, using his memory of the boxs location to navigate. When his hands brushed across the top of the treasure chest, he flipped it open, the feeling of oddness vanished and Isaac opened his eyes to observe the contents. It looked like a block of grey putty, much like what the now-dead monster had been made off, but Isaac knew it was a actually a set of stem cells that could adapt their DNA to match that of a body they were imnted in. In other words, these things could be incredibly useful in creating limb/organ regenerating medicine that didnt require a high-Level [Doctor] or [Healer] to administer. A fantastic find, in other words. On the other hand they came from a ce called Sanitys End. Isaac tossed the glob into his dimensional storage so he could incinerate it after he was done here. A low rumbling sound rang out from behind Isaac and he turned to see the ground in the pool the boss had been sitting in split open to reveal the path deeper inside. Shit. He muttered. It seemed the Dungeon had indeed been here for a while, and created at least two floors, possibly more. Thankfully, hed just passed the XP threshold to Level 58, so hepleted that Level up, gaining his fifth [Skill] point in the process and immediately spent it. Legendary Blow (legendary) A single blow to shatter mountains, raze city walls or split the sea, these are the things stories are written about and when someone uses this Skill, there is a good chance that too will end up being turned into a story. When Legendary Blow is activated, the user may use any of their Strike/Blow/Shot Skills up to five times to enhance a single attack, massively increasing its power. With every Level in this Skill, the cost ofponent Skills is reduced by 5 %, up to 25%, Levels past that merely boost the already ludicrous levels of power this Skill harbors into the stratosphere. [Legendary Blow] was the epitome of the kinds of [Skills] that worked with and improved the basic [Skills], rewarding people whod created a good foundation and brought said basic [Skills] to a high Level. A [Rouges] [Strikes], a [Warriors] [Blows], the various [Shots], all of them could be used with [Legendary Blow] and be useful all the way up to the final Evolution. Best of all, it looked identical to a regr [Power Strike/Blow] despite its vastly increased power, so he could use it freely in this ce. Finally, before descending into the darkness below, Isaac allocated his Stat points. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 58 XP: 208/29,500 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 1,200/1,200 Stats Fortitude 100 Perception 180 Strength 100 Agility 200 Magic Power 120 Magic Regeneration 180 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXI The Chosen Weapon XXVI I Am The Sword IX Grave of Swords XII Armory of Ancient Times III Skills Hundred Faces XXIII Stealth XXVI Power Strike XXVIII Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXVI des XXVII Sneak XXVI Sweeping Strike XIV Far Strike XXV Manifold Strike XIX Hunters Gaze XXVIII Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XIX Bestial Regeneration XXV Undying Focus XX Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XIV Crippling Blow X Absolute de Mastery XI Compounded Impact XIII True Cut V Legendary Blow I General Skills Gralloch XI Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace III Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Aspects Aspect Skills Poltergeist (2 stack) Poltergeists Flight Poltergeists Shift Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des Acid Drake Drakes Heart Least Demon Lord (2 Stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Overall, with the increased Stat point gain per Level from the 3rd Evolution onwards, hed nearly doubled his primary Stats while increasing even his lowest Stats to one hundred points. de held at the ready, Isaac descended down into the darkness. The second floor kept up the stgmite/stctite theme of the first, but it was far wetter than the first and stank of mold, decay and seaweed. Isaac wrinkled his nose but continued while reducing his sense of smell as far as he could. The floor had also gotten incredibly slippery, making the very act of walking a risky endeavor. His [Aura] spread out once more, still empowered by [Deaths Embrace] even though it had be near useless. The single Eldritch Spawn hed spotted so far was too strong to die just from that [Skill] but it was too weak for him to have to apply a debuff to beat it. His de alone should suffice. Suddenly, the entire space rippled and warped, twisting into a massive spiral of altered space that seemed break the very concept of a straight line. A swarm of Eldritch Spawn exploded from their hiding ces, charging straight at him, each one seeming to vanish amidst the warped space, functionally invisible among the mess of mind-bending effects, his [Aura] being hammered by a multitude of iprehensible impressions that were starting to give him a headache. Increasing Perception might give a significant degree of resistance to sensory effects, but this crap managed to bypass that rather handily, not to mention it was hell on a sensory [Aura]. [True Cut: Sunder Eldritch Warp] The energy field popped like a soap bubble, for the low, low cost of 200 mana, leaving the octopus-things out in the open and exposed, spears of deathly [Aura] hammering into each. The effect might not have been needed, strictly speaking, but given that he had it, he would use it. Reality stuttered for a second as another Yellow Knight tried to attack him, but mental effects grew less effective the more often they were used, especially in quick session. Between that, Isaacs experience and his resistances, he barely even noticed the attack. He still killed the damn thing, though. The swarm soon began to flee as it realized that not only was its defensive screen gone, its physical abilities alone were utterly useless against its foe. Letting loose another set of expletives, Isaac gave chase. No need to leave foes in ce to attack him from behind at the worst possible moment. Ten minutester, he was covered in monster bits and dripping Eldritch vital fluid, but not a single one of the little fuckers still lived and a significant amount of mana had regenerated, almost topping it up. From there, Isaac made his way along the corridor, ducking under and leaping over a few different dripstones in his path that shot out of the floor and ceiling like spears. They might have been a bit of a clich, but they were effective at least if theyd actually hit their target. The risk of getting stabbed would have also been massively increased if the Eldritch Warp had still been up and Eldritch Spawn had been leaping at him, but well, those were all dead and gone. Finally, he reached the end and for the first time in a good long while, used [Phantom Step]. The teleport [Skill] was more expensive than [Wave Charge] andcked its ability to easily redirect his own momentum, but it still had its uses. For example, when a Subway-car sized monster was sitting over the entrance into the next cave. The mass of protosm with countless eyes roaming, appearing and disappearing constantly, limbs that had no earthly way of being described waving in the air, seemed to stutter in surprise as its prey vanished. Isaacs true target, a misshapen man in a cattle ranchers outfit with a gun barely had time to react as he mmed his de into his chest, the sword glowing like a red star with a full five stacks of [Power Strike] infused into a single [Legendary Blow]. Boom. The humanoid monsters torso exploded into a shower of tar-like gore and scraps of clothing with the lower half slowly copsing and sliding out of the cargo pants, revealing a tightly packed set of tentacles covered in pustule-yellow eyes. Meanwhile, the massive, magical, revolver the monster had stuffed in its pants hit the ground as a mangled wreck. And then the immense mass of flesh hed so handily avoided dropped down onto the floor with an almighty ssh, took a moment to collect itself, and charge. Muscles were formed, used in ways that no ordinary living being could have without inflicting incredible pain upon itself, torn to shreds and dissolved in mere moments. vering mouths shed into existence to take a bite out of the ground, the minerals being dissolved in digestive organs that hadnt existed a moment earlier, then spat out of orifices Isaac didnt even want to describe at half the speed of sound. He shivered as his [Aura] passed through that mess of impossibility and sanity-wrecking fuckery, then leaped over the attack, hurling down a [Legendary Sundering Blow] into the center of the body. As hended on the end, he pulled his sword back into his hand, spun on his heels, and [Wave Charged] right back at the monster. Sure, it didnt so much turn as form the necessary organs on the opposite side where theyd been previously, but it was still not fast enough to prevent a [Legendary Power Strike] from mming into its main body. With its insides practically melted from [Sundering Strike], getting hit by a strike that powerful made the monster pop like a water balloon. Cursing once again, Isaac leaped back to avoid getting covered in that mess. He stood there for a moment to wait for any additional movement but rxed as the kill notification arrived. This time, no treasure chest appeared, thankfully. What he found instead was a hole behind where the farmer had been standing, and with his [Aura], Isaac could see hed reached the Dungeon Core. Perfect. Sure, the Dungeon had already gotten moderately difficult, but not insurmountably so and now, he was in a position to end it. His de burned like the sun as two [Piercing Strikes] and three [Power Strikes] flowed into it, ready to shatter the damnable crystal, when a voice rang out from far behind him. Please dont! Dont do it! Oh, what was it now? Chapter 129: The Truth behind the Myth Chapter 129: The Truth behind the Myth Isaac was sorely tempted to shatter the core outright, but maybe, maybe there was a reason not to? The desperation in the voice had certainly not seemed fake. He red down the corridor, sending his [Aura] billowing outwards and towards the man, pouring an incredible amount of mana into the [Deaths Embrace] that enhanced it. At the same time, his sword went flying towards the core, now glowing green as he switched the applied [Skill] over to [Sundering Strike]. As it impacted, he hammered a spike of [Aura] into the point of impact, thebination of deathly and corrosive energies badly damaging it in a way that would destroy it in time. That way, he could defer the choice of whether or not to truly destroy the Core untilter without leaving it in any shape to get up to shenanigans in the meantime. The first thing he could tell about him was that he was at most Level twenty. Strongpared to the vast majority of humans, but pathetically weakpared to Isaac. Yet despite that, he was breathing incredibly heavily, something that no person at that Level should be doing without extreme exertion. If nothing else, this mean that the man had been in a serious hurry to get here and pushed himself to his utter limit. As for his [ss], it felt like a ssic [Mage], but with a feeling of disgusting wrongness stered over the top. Not a part of the [ss], but still deeply entangled with it. Whoever this guy was, something odd was going on here. Also, there wasnt a single Aspect that Isaac could detect. actually, as the interloper got closer, Isaac was forced to seriously revise his estimation of his age. Downwards. The teen still had that awkward gangly look of someone whod just gone through a massive growth spurt and could not be older than seventeen. At least that was how he looked. Of course, Isaac knew that it was entirely possible that the interloper had simply shapeshifted into a form that he was less likely to obliterate on sight and didnt lower his guard. You have five seconds to exin why I shouldnt. Isaac stated icily as his de pped back into his hand. I the teen bent over, hands on his knees, wheezing for breath. Isaac shot him a truly withering look and poked him with his [Aura], causing the teen to jolt in fright, but he was still too busy wheezing to properly respond. That thing had the potential to destroy the country. Isaac snapped If youre trying to save the core, could that actually be your goal? I no, I wheeze My name is Mr. Lenue. I fix issues like this before they actually be issues. The core is an issue and I will remove it and anything else even remotely linked to it unless you manage toe up with some veryconvincing arguments in the next thirty seconds. I dont care how tired you are, I dont care how important that core is to you, I care about fixing issues. He said sternly, once again smashing his [Aura] into the kid and holding it there. His chosen alias was, well, it was actually just a pronounceable version of the abbreviation L-N-U, meaningst name unknown, which the American legal system assigned to people without a known surname. It was about as on the nose as an alias got, but that was deliberate. Nondescript, revealing nothing about himself except for the fact that he didnt want to reveal anything about himself, it was perfect. Well, it also implied that he had a passable knowledge of the American legal system and most people would have to google it, but that was perfectly fine misdirection. In fact, the face he was currently wearing served much the same purpose. It was nondescript, average, forgettable, but in an obvious way sort of way if you actually looked at it and tried to analyze it. A deliberate effort had been put into making him functionally invisible. Lastly, hed activated the Level 10 effect of [Unknown Fear] for the first time in a while. It made it so that any attempts to [Inspect] him got somewhat threatening feedback. Normally, looking intimidating to random people he met with wasnt a good thing. Here though looking every bit the scary ck operator was a good thing. Isaac wasnt quite sure how much of that subtext actually got through to the kid, but judging from how he turned white, something had. Sucking in another huge gulp of air, the teenager straightened and stuttered out a rough approximation of an exnation, a mess of frantic exmations interspersed with brief periods of self-imposed calmness, hyperventtion, or just a moment for the kid to collect his thoughts. One thing became abundantly clear, though, and that was both why the Dungeon was here and why this teenager was so desperate to save it. The idiot had bonded to it. Bonding to a Dungeon Core involved summoning a free one, then drawing a certain series of runes buried deep, deep in the [Systems] user manual, and finally evolving ones [ss]. This would create a [ss] closely linked to the enruned Dungeon, gaining a few [Skills] based on the Dungeons type. The person could still gain XP from delving through their Dungeon, but alsocked any kind of protection that a normal Dungeon Master would gain. The Dungeon would grow as its bonded person fed it materials, said person grew by ying the monsters within, until the person evolved once again, and gaining dominion over the Dungeon. Its fabrication abilities were crippled in the process, but the bonded human gained the ability to summon some of the Dungeons monsters under their control, along with some decently powerful [Skills] and an overall boosted [ss] rarity all of which would be lost if the Core was destroyed. Overall, it was a shortcut to power, with appropriate drawbacks. Still, overall, choosing an Eldritch Dungeon wasnt a bad n. Their primary strength were their mind- and reality-warping tricks, something the linked person gained immunity to. And yet Why on earth would you do something so stupid? Isaac red at the kid Binding a Dungeon that would be a threat to everyone around it? Of course, Isaac Thoma wouldnt know the particrs of what a bound Dungeon was, and there was no official record of him having ever researched the topic, but he wasnt Isaac Thoma here. He was Mr. Lenue, the terrifying enigma. The the voices told me to. Miles Anthony Wright, you will tell me the whole story and you will tell me now. Isaac took a threating step forwards, pushing his [Aura] up against Wright while slowly but surely increasing the pressure. That,bined with the use of the kids full name which he shouldnt have known though hed just read it from his ID, which was located in his pocket, prompted another terrified jump. Isaac wrinkled his nose as the acrid stench of urine reached his nose. If this kid really was a terrified as he appeared to be, well, he might even feel slightly bad after all this. But this was someone whod dumped a mind-wrecking horror amidst a bunch of innocent people. His sympathy would never get very significant. I I had a dream. I know how it sounds, but a few days after the [System] arrived, I started having these dreams. Voices promising power, money, anything Id ever wanted. It sounded nuts, but then it happened again. And again. Over and over and then I finally looked it up in the manual. Everything was true. Theres nothing there other than the fact that theres an option for bonding to a Dungeon. Isaac stated Are you telling me theres more there for you? Yes, I Gods- fuck. Isaac muttered. It was pretty clear what had happened here. Dark god offered power, dark god unlocked extra sections in the manual to make power seem more enticing, idiot teen did idiot teen crap. So youre telling me that some strange, dare I say, eldritch, being contacted you, and because it looked like it was saying the truth, you did exactly what the creepy, maybe even tentacle-faced, fuck said and now here we are. Isaac mmed his [Aura] forward at full power while reducing [Deaths Embrace] to the absolute minimum, the amount needed to ensure his [Auras] specific signature was still hidden. To the teen at the receiving end, it had to feel like he was an ant being examined by a giant with a magnifying ss, examining every bit of him,ying all bare, all the while a single twitch away from moving the ss so it acted as a burning lens rather than a magnifying ss and setting him on fire. That is my [Aura], slightly enhanced with a basic [Skill] gained from the most recent Event. Its not even designated as a mental attack, Im just focusing it on you a little more than I normally would. It is also a mere fraction of the impact your little creepy crawlies have onto anyone who sees them, a mere fraction of the anguish theyve inflicted, that youve inflicted. Isaac took another step forwards, prompting Wright to stumble backwards, hitting the wall in his attempt to get away from the terrifying presence in front of him. Ill be destroying that core now, and the bacsh will absolutely suck for you. While youre recovering, Ill be contacting the local cops, and then youll tell them about everything youve done here when they show up, and then youll never pull something like this again, you understand that young man? The only response Wright could manage at that point was a terrified nod, but Isaac wasnt done yet. He leaned forwards until he mouth was right next to Wrights ear and whispered his final statement. Im not above killing people who insist on doing things that threaten to kill others. I dont care who they are, what their age is, all I care about is that theyre too sane for me to have them tossed in the insane asylum until they die from old age and that theyre going to hurt people if I dont stop them. Permanently. Isaac then drew his head back and locked eyes with Wright, he threw his hand out, flinging the sword towards the core, then using [de Control] to curve it around the corner that was in the way. In the moment the rock shattered, Isaacs face was still right in front of Wrights, and [Hundred Faces] was in the process of turning his sclera red. The moment the core shattered, Wrights eyes shed open in shock and horror, then he fainted. Isaac left the cave, still fuming at the entire situation. That little turd had summoned the Dungeon, and likely eventually gotten himself killed at some point, freeing the Dungeon, or maybe hed just snapped and unleashed his pet horrors onto his countrymen. Either way, hopefully, Wright had been scared straight. And even if he hadnt been, the Core was broken. Recreating the original circumstances would require the summoning and binding of another core, followed by an Evolution. Hitting the second Evolution was perfectly doable. Hitting the third far harder. Given that binding a Dungeon was the very embodiment of taking the easy route, Isaac sincerely doubted Wright would be trying that again. And if he did, well, Isaac had meant what hed told Wright. If a person insisted on making themselves a threat to innocents and couldnt be removed safely, hed end them. Still, as it turned out, there wasnt much trouble. He called the cops, pretending to be a terrified little olddy, then stayed nearby under [Stealth] while observing the whole interaction. Yeah, Wright was not going to be doing much of anything in the near future as hed just gotten arrested and it didnt seem like hed be getting out anytime soon. But now that that was done, Isaac had other ces to be. Chapter 130: Introspection Chapter 130: Introspection Even though the mess in Scond had urred over a week ago, it was still living rent free in Isaacs head. That incident had been resolved fairly well, the local constabry had dragged that teenage idiot all the way to the University of Edinburgh, where hed given a full report on the additional information his manual contained to its anemic [System] research department in exchange for a marginally reduced sentence, and there was no way in hell hed be trying something like that again. But that, the memory of the Eldritch that would have birthed cmity, wasnt what was bothering Isaac, no, that would have been too fucking easy. No, it was the principle behind what had led to the formation of the dungeon in the first ce. It had been a dark god giving a small hint to a random kid who might or might not follow through, creating a Dungeon that might or might not actually turn into a nuisance for humanity. The theory behind it was simple, sadly. Taking a direct action was expensive in terms of how it shifted the bnce. Having someone else take that action who would almost certainly be sessful would be almost as expensive, with the cost decreasing as the intermediary grew less and lesspetent and therefore progressively more unlikely to seed. Hence, long shots grew increasingly cheap to the point where even time travel was on the table. And yet, as cheap as the exotic activation requirements of Isaacs journey had been, that little trick had to have been more expensive than giving a little hint to a single person. So there had to be more. Hed seen the fallout from one of the hints that had paid off in the darkest of ways and hed stopped that from happening again. But how many more such attempts had been made, that hadnt panned off? How many more people had been set on a path that might turn them into what effectively amounted to a terrorist? Sure, those people, if they existed, had failed in the other timeline. But he wasnt in that other timeline, was he? Chaos Theory, that asshole, also known as the Butterfly Effect could easily result in some of those other plots seeding. Of course, it was entirely possible that his efforts to change the public perception of summoning actually seeded to such a degree that those people would stop listening to the voices over their ownmon sense. Then again, it was highly unlikely that anyone would try to manipte someone with enoughmon sense to outright ignore the maniptions. It wasnt like there werent plenty of alternatives avable. After all, sadly,mon sense wasntmon. At the end of the day, those people wouldnt look all that different from regr dumbasses. They were both just people who made the wrong choices in pursuit of power and ended up causing trouble for everyone else. Regardless, all Isaac could do was continue on as he always had. Make suremon sense grew actuallymon, make sure defenders existed to clean up after those whocked it, and personally p down any idiots he encountered personally. Besides, worrying about what might be wasnt getting him very far. This new realization wouldnt change his overall strategy, and he already had a full te of stuff to do before he returned to the university. Chapter 131: On Walkabout Chapter 131: On Walkabout The man sat in his small apartment, dirty cutlery piling high in his sink, slowly scooping soup out of a stic microwave dish as some cop show yed brightly and noisily on the small TV screen mounted in the corner of the room. It was a scene that looked mundane, one repeated countless times across countless cities in countless countries. And it was almost as mundane as it appeared. Sure, the man had a [ss], and it was an odd one along the lines of [Combat-Capable Number Cruncher] or something else with a stupid name created by a person with abat [ss] for their starter [ss] and then changing their mind about it at their first Evolution. Of course, such a scene could hide many a dark secret, weapons caches hidden beneath the garishly painted wood of the couch, stashes of drugs concealed under fake paneling, or maybe a corpse obscured behind some drywall. But there was nothing. It was a pleasantly normal scene, one a person more adventurous than the man having dinner might have called boring. An interesting fate for a man upon whose choices entire poptions had risen and fallen in the other timeline. That insane, reckless drive that had taken Luka Nikyevich to the peak while grinding underfoot anyone who got in his way had sputtered out at some point in thest few months, prompting him to take a hard turn away from the domineering build hed created when the [System] had first dropped. Isaac would never be able to truly determine which one of his actions had altered the trajectory of Nikyevichs fate, but it was clear that something had. That was one potential threat down, so many more to go. Isaac withdrew his [Aura] and walked away from Nikyevichs apartment, heading towards the local airport, not standing even though he was one of the only people out on the streets thiste at night. Hed spent the better part of two weeks travelling the globe while incognito, checking up on situations too chaotic, too fluid, to publicize with everything else. Hed also dropped by a few interesting people from the other timeline and given some subtle help from the shadows, slightly clearing the path ahead. Slight material or mary help, a certain jackass official got sacked because some very interesting photos were suddenly no longer properly hidden, etc. Of course, a good Samaritan suddenly showing up might have raised some eyebrows, and when someone figured out all those acts of charity happened at a point in time when Isaac had rather conspicuously not been seen in public, it would have be a pretty big problem. which was why hed made sure the people he dealt with felt like they were missing something, like someone had taken advantage, like the stuff theyd given up in exchange had somehow been more valuable than theyd thought During the course of these travels, Isaac had made his way across borders on foot, hed hitched a ride on smugglers vehicles and even hidden in the cargopartment of amercial airne a couple of times. It had been interesting exercise in creative thinking and evading detection. Hed also sent the asional anonymous message to Calise, the mob boss he used to trade stuff on the ck market, via the dark. Normally, these messages involved negotiating prices for the next shipment of monster bits in exchange for materials Isaac needed but couldnt legally get his hands on. Well, there were some things he could legally obtain but would need to do so through very official channels, which would have involved a lot of scrutiny, so he decided to go another way, but for the most part, the stuff was just in illegal. But then hed received a very interesting tidbit of information. Hed asked Calise to keep an eye out for people who threatened to unleash dangerous monsters upon the world and when his infodump had dropped, sent along a personalized message about some of the mans rivals that needed dealing with. Those rivals were now out of business and that was the full extent of what Isaac had expected toe of that, but hed been wrong before. Now, he had the location of what might be thest vestiges of the Children of the [System], and hed be taking care of them personally. Onest hurrah before returning back to his normal life as a researcher. *** The building was just like the first one Isaac had found these idiots in. Well, it wasnt an old horse riding arena, it was a single story warehouse with a rtively low ceiling a mere 4 meters high, with maybe 200 square meters of floor space avable, but it was still the same kind of outdated, unused spacious building the first one had been. Three [Aura] holders were within, but each of those was meant for close rangebat, making them utterly useless for detecting someone weaving a sensory [Aura] into the base to scout it out. Not that merely having a sensory [Aura] would be able to do much against the undisputed master of [Aura] use in the world, but it would still have been a prudent precaution to take when trying to protect their base. Sure, there were enchantments that could detect auric spying, but they didnt have any of those either. How this lot hadnt been arrested was beyond Isaac. Most likely, sheer dumb luck. Or maybe theyd had the worst luck of all the chapters of their idiotic organization. After all, now theyd have to deal with him. Sadly, things werent quite as easy as sweeping the building he saw. Someone had decided to be a sneaky little fucker, used magic to dig out a lower floor and then covered the hole with the original concrete, leaving behind no trace of the changes. If theyd properly sealed everything back up and made sure there wasnt any debris, not even Isaac would have been able to notice the hole from scanning the building itself. And the halfway decent soundproofing for the lower floor would have ensured that anyone under Level 20 specialized in Perception or up to Level 35 who wasnt specialized in their senses wouldnt have noticed a thing. However, there were signs and even if there hadnt been, Isaac still would have checked underneath the building. After all, of the two parties involved in this war of espionage, the person with the how to hide stuff in the era of the [System] ybook wasnt the party trying to hide stuff. And thanks to that soundproofing, the two groups of people in the building were well and truly separated. Not just that, but the only person with a [ss] capable of moving earth was downstairs. A quick phaseter, he emerged from behind the [Earth Mage] and mmed his fist into the mans temple. The [Mage] went rocketing away, but Isaac snatched him out of the air with his other hand, grabbing the already unconscious man by the cor and gently lowered him to the ground. Thats when the smell hit. Burnt pork, but not quite, and utterly nauseating to anyone whod ever smelt it before. FUCK! Someone had clearly been using fire to destroy human bodies down here, then used a spell to clear the air so no one suffocated in the enclosed space. Had the dead been police officers and other members ofw enforcement whod gotten too close to discovering the cult, or maybe regr people whod gotten too close to discovering this cults secrets? Or maybe some bizzare human sacrifice rite? Sure, blood magic existed and could be used to devastating effect, but Isaac couldnt see anything there that would indicate that it had been used here. Isaac went invisible as he stalked through the underground tomb, random, zigzagging rooms that wouldnt have passed an official inspection if the inspector had somehow managed to be shitfaced and hungover at the same time. If it hadnt been for the first person Isaac had knocked out, and maybe others like him, this whole thing would have alreadye down on the heads of everyone here. Sadly, these people had a ridiculous level of hate against organizing and paperwork, which meant that other than the asional grocery list, there was nothing there to go overter. And then, he came across the fucking hitlist in the wastepaper basket,plete with addendums like fuck this guy up and in one case I dont care who whacks him, but someone needs to do so, now. Isaac swore internally. It was like a bunch of teenagers at the height of teenage stupidity had gained superpowers, let that go to their heads, decided that they were above thew and also adopted clich mob-lingo just for the hell of it. and I told you, I just need to try again. I know I can do it, its just thatst time didnt go so well. Didnt go so well he says. Try again he says. A second voicemented dryly, in a mocking yet friendly tone Were talking about a zombie here. One that was meant to be a perfect servant. First, it rotted fast enough for us to watch and dripped in the tea, then it tried to brain me with the serving tter. Does that sound like you were close? Like at all? Isaac balled his hands in anger. How callous were these people, how often did they talk about murder as if it were no big thing for him to just casually overhear that conversation? The first time hed fought these people in this timeline, hed restricted himself to crippling everyone so theyd be avable for questioning and didnt turn into martyrs. Now, the people whod murdered enough human beings for the stench to cling to everything and were apparentlypletely used to the smell were just that. Murderers, publicly known and reviled. Now they were just murderers who were the exact kinds of people whod injure or kill those that sought to bring them to justice. In this timeline, Isaac was yet to kill a human being, he realized. It was odd, given how many huge issues hed stuck his nose into, but all of his opponents were still alive. Crippled, cursing his name and potentially wishingthey were dead, but alive nheless. However, in this situation, things were different. None of the previous reasons for taking them alive still held water while all the reasons for killing them still held water. His hand shed through the air, de wreathed in a glowing swirl of crimson and green as it sted clean through the wall that separated him from these three chuckleheads. The sword continued onwards, decapitating the closest man, then teleported to the other side of the room. Human (Lv. 23 Anarchys Disciple) has been in 460 XP gained Between the weakening effect of [Sundering Strike] and the sheer force of impact that had hit the load-bearingwall, the ceiling caved in. Sure, these guys had almost certainly seen the glowing sword, but their fallingrade was obscured and buried by the falling rubble a split secondter. A three stacks of [Power Strike] flowed into his fist as he legendary-punched the closest man, flinging him straight through another important-looking wall, which promptly brought down the whole affair on the already very dead man. Human (Lv. 27 Deathwielder) has been in 1080 XP gained The final man whirled, winddes forming in front of the windwall hed manifested. Isaac dodged as the razor-sharp hardened bits of air shed past. [Aeolus Annihtion]! the man shouted, a beam of devastating power tearing straight at Isaac, but he simply stabbed his de at the attack. [True Cut: Sever Mana Bonds] He might not have yelled the attacks name like an Anime character, but that didnt make it any less effective. The massive collection ofpressed air simply fell apart to create a massive shockwave. Isaac hit the wall back first and felt something in his back crack ever so slightly, but the damage vanished a fraction of a millisecondter. The same the same could not be said for the smear that remained of his opponent. Human (Lv. 21 Aeolus Sorcerer) has been in 420 XP gained That same blow was likewise the deathblow to most of the structure, which caved in. Isaacs [Aura] whipped through the space, detecting where everyone from above fell. He lunged forward, phasing, and decapitated everyone who hadnt gotten out of the building above in time. Of course, given that the fight had started a mere three seconds ago. Most of the people who were actually here had fallen into the pit and were now dead. Isaac used [Hundred Faces] to alter his vocal cords as he pulled a burner phone hed bought an hour ago out of his pocket and dialed the police. You missed a chapter of the Children of the [System]. He quickly gave the address I took care of it. These cultistsmitted multiple counts of murder, there was a list in the basement, I ced it outside with a rock on top. The bodies themselves were clearly burned in the basement, judging by the smell. Just like that, he walked off, changing clothes as he passed through an alleyway. By the time he left the city, there were a bunch of police crawling over the crime scene. All theyd find were the dead cultists, and hopefully, the bodies of the murder victims. *** It had taken a while, but eventually, Isaac found himself hiking up a random mountain in the alps just for the hell of it. Hed dealt with everyone he needed to deal with, stopped those that needed to be stopped and now by the gods, hed be taking that vacation he was supposed to have been on this entire fucking time! Chapter 132: Halloween Chapter 132: Halloween Mom, I wont let them keep the swords when they go to school. They can have them to show off outside, but I wont let them bring actual weapons to school. Isaacughed, reassuring his mother once again. Hed returned a couple of days before October 31st, bringing with him a pair of fancy medieval-looking outfits for his sisters which hed ordered before his departure. Of course, theyd wanted to wear the half formal outfit, half gambeson suits of armor on Halloween. And the swords hed also gotten them to teach them with absolutely had to be brought along as well. In fact, hed gotten them a trio of des each, a dagger, training de and actual sword, but given that they werent going to be keeping the weapons today, hed decided to let them run around with the actual sharp weapons. Of course, his mother had immediately taken askance to this, hence, the current argument. Ok, but theyre not allowed to y around with them on the way, no yfully threatening, nothing like that. His mother insisted. I wouldnt let them. Isaac assured her de safety is very important to me, and Ive made sure they realize that. In fact, hed included his [des] [Skill] in his [Bloodline], so they were already damn good with those swords, but the act of teaching them had actually gained them said [Skill] while the [Bloodline] boosted its advancement to an insane degree. Or rather, it would have, if theyd had the [System] unlocked. Isaac judged their current proficiency to be around Level 14 already. But what he really needed to train them and others was his new [ss] other central [Skill], [Legacy of a True Warrior]. And that was just the beginning of what he wanted to get. But it would take so damn long to get. Even getting the second central [Skill] would take ten more Levels. Hildebrands Heir Central Skills (double cost) Legacy of a True Warrior Armory of Ancient Times Skills Burden of Power Legendary Blow Fully Geared Knightly Leader Grizzled Visage Valiant Charge Experts Insight Analyze Person Empowered Endurance Continent Strider General Skills Aura of the Old Warhorse But that was an issue forter. For now, it was time to walk his sisters to school. Of course, Isaac was in costume as well. Hed used [Hundred Faces] to spin the hair that had regrown since the battle in Korea into a pair of cat ears, then used some makeup to draw a ck button nose and some whiskers on his face. It was, in essence, an incredibly basic costume yet done in a way that almost no one would have been able to replicate. So, are you two ready yet? he called upstairs. In lieu of a reply, a pair of tiny adventurers came tromping down to the first floor, looking like someone stole the outfits of a [Rouge] and [Bard], then spliced them together in a coherent and beautiful outfit. You two look so good! his mother praised the two in that special tone only parents can pull off without sounding condescending. The twins preened like a pair of peacocks in their armor/costumes, then rapidly shifted to embarrassment and ran outside with Isaac following after them. So, when are you going to fight another demon? They say you were awesome! Tanja chirped, bouncing up and down next him in excitement as she anticipated getting to hear a war story. goddamned kids. Isaac simultaneously sighed and swore internally. The twins were kids, who hadnt been exposed to the worst parts of the world, the darkness that permeated it, but theyd also grown up on a steady diet of Harry Potter, superhero movies and epic Fantasy. Saving a city still sounded like fun to them, like something incredible and worth striving for, not a horrible, desperate struggle against overwhelming force as your friends andrades died, with you unable to so much as shed a single tear in grief for fear of losing focus and a short whileter, your life. Never, if I can help it. Isaac told her You know fighting isnt fun, right? Not when its serious? We know. Viktoria replied with a long suffering we know tone that sounded almost petnt. Hed told them this before, but there were certain things one couldnt truly internalize from merely being told about. No, the true cost of war was something that, sadly, needed to be felt to be understood. Maybe he could try to get them to understand by pressing the issue, exining precisely what had happened to him, how peoples entrails had slopped out of their bodies as the monster tore their stomachs open, the horror in their eyes as they died but was that really something one should be telling a pair of six-year-olds? The answer was, of course, a hard no. They behaved themselves, no one had gotten hurt by their newfound strength, not even by ident, and that was what was really important. They didnt run off to fight monster, which was more important than them truly internalizing the potential consequences ofbat. And if you dont want to fight, you can always y a cute kitty. Tanja told him, and suddenly, she was sitting on his shoulder and trying to ruffle his hair, which popped back into ce the second she was no longer holding it down. Hed seen her jump, of course, but chosen to not stop her. She didnt do that with more fragile, meaning normal, people, and that mattered a lot more than trying to save his already nigh-invulnerable hairdo. They continued to walk towards the school like that, with Isaac answering the asional question while the twins showed off some of their tricks. The pair had managed to figure out what fences and buildings were sturdy enough to be used like a jungle gym, so that was what they did, mbering over everything like a pair of monkeys. Isaac just watched them with a wry yet proud smile on his face. They reached the school soon enough, finding arge cluster of costumed people. Children in costumes ranging from wearing dads clothes to intricate makeup that looked almost professional were being escorted by parents who mostly wore normal stuff. Of the adults, Isaac had the most borate costume. Well, unless you counted the woman in the police uniform, but Isaac recognized her as being an actual police officer from the nearby precinct. Most likely, shed just put her uniform on ahead of time, or maybe she always dropped off her kid in uniform. Isaac himself got a few inquisitive looks for his costume, but that was the full extent of responses. And now, the swords please. Isaac asked, holding out his hand. His twins responded with semi-annoyed eyerolls, but unbuckled the sheaths and handed them over. He simply cradled them under his arm, choosing to not store them as that would have drawn a lot of attention. Fancy costumes were just that, costumes. Magic powers, on the other hand Of course, the policewoman had noticed him instantly and given him an I see you look. Not unfriendly, but appreciative. Of course, she recognized him, hed trained her briefly a while ago and there was no way in hell he wasnt at the very tippy-top of the local threat briefing. Not because anyone thought he was actually going to do something bad, but simply due to the fact that his power represented a danger in and of itself. Besides the acknowledgement, there was nothing else that needed to be said. Hell, the acknowledgement itself wasnt necessary either, but nice. He waved his sisters goodbye, then turned and walked away while sweeping the building with his [Aura] to check for potential dangers. Faulty wiring, broken fire suppression systems, improperly stored chemicals, etc. Hed checked thest time hed been here, but could it really hurt to check, could it? And yes, to no ones great surprise, the school was in no immediate danger of spontaneouslybusting. Unfortunately, the same couldnt be said of the people within. Isaac had long since gotten in the habit of scanning each and every person he saw, using [Hunters Gaze] to get a rough gage on everyone. After all, you never knew when youd spot a [Serial Killer], or even a [Pickup Artist] whose [Skills] got a little to close to mind control forfort. In general, he might just find the kind of person hed prefer to take off the streets and be able to stop a tragedy before it happened. The thing that tripped him off wasnt a [ss] that was a raging red g. It was a [Teacher]. But not a normal [Teacher]. At first nce, it just felt a little odd, strange, different from the others. That small issue was enough to make him zero in on the woman and take a closer look, and the [Teacher] became a thing that fell solidly into the uncanny valley, something still simr enough to what it was emting so one could recognize it, yet different in that it looked ever so subtly wrong. In other words, a false Status. And not just a simple [Skill] that could fuck with [Inspect], but a [ss] based around the idea of assuming another identity. A [Spy]. And given that this was no private institute in Berlin being patronized by the children of politicians and ambassadors, it was abundantly clear why someone would want a spy here. Fuck! But rather than charging in there, beating the [Spy] unconscious and dragging her to the nearest police precinct, Isaac snapped off a quick text to Bailey to tell him hed bete, then called Habicht. The police officer might be associated with tactical operations, rather than intelligence gathering, but hed definitely know a better way to deal with this than immediate violence. Also, given how entangled everything was in the Bundes Argentur fr das bernatrliche, the BAU, hed likely also know a few intelligence officers he could put Isaac through to. Good morning Mr. Thoma. Habicht picked up after the second ring Is the world on fire? wasnt that a lovely reputation to have? Not yet. Isaac responded through gritted teeth, hearing a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line I just noticed a [Spy] at my sisters school and Im trying to decide on what to do. Whats the protocol for that? The fact that violence was still on the table was merely implied. Actually, theres someone who knows how to deal with a situation like that whose office is within earshot of mine and hesing over here right now. I hope this can get resolved cleanly. There was a little bit of rustling on the other end of the line, followed by a tense voice immediately snapping of what sounded suspiciously like orders. Do not do anything down there, you hear me? Look, I realize that that must have been shocking, but But nothing. This is a normal school, the only even remotely interesting thing about it is that my sisters go to it. And now Ive found a spy here, with the right [ss] and all. Now, from where Im standing, that would mean theyre there for my sisters in some way, right? Maybe they just want to make sure theyre in a position to overhear anything my sisters say about me, or maybe theres a more sinister side to this. Either way, something is going to happen here. There was a long moment of silence on the other end of the line. Ok, Im going to stop you right there, Mr. Thoma. Were aware of Mrs. Miller, and have been for quite some time. Shes one of ours. We put her there to keep an eye on things, to prevent the exact kind of situation youre worried about. The man exined. Oh really? Isaac said And Germany intelligence agencies have never done anything questionable? Of course we have. Isaac blinked in surprise at that response, but managed to control himself enough to not say something stupid. Is that so? Look, youre an intelligent man and Im not going to insult you by pretending otherwise. However, Mrs. Miller was put there with the express purpose of keeping an eye on things to make sure nothing happens to your sisters. You do realize that I could take that both as reassurance and a threat, right? Isaac replied in an enforced calm tone. Lets speak bluntly, then. Mr. Thoma, youve been an incredible asset to this country so far, but it doesnt take a genius to realize that youd make a terrible enemy. I have no intention of picking a fight, or loosing ess to your experience and expertise. And if someone else decides to pick a fight, your anger might not be directed at us, but still I doubt that would end well. So were making sure nothing bad happens to your family, and that no one is sniffing around them, just as we do with all the other people ofparable power. All of this is pure self interest. As you yourself often say Im saving the world, but dont worry, its purely selfish, I gotta live here to. Isaac grimaced So thats how it is? Were both intelligent people, so when I make my next statement, I know you get my drift. I care about my family very much, and Id be willing to do everything to keep them safe. If I cant save them, Ill make sure that nothing that harms them can be turned into a profit, spun in such a way that benefits the perpetrator, whatever happens to them will be paid back a hundredfold because no one will ever touch them if they know all theyll reap is cmity. He dropped the low, threatening voice as he continued As the old saying goes, he who sows wind will harvest a storm. Is that clear? With admirable calmness, the spy replied Crystal. And one more thing: Id like to talk to Mrs. Miller. Theres a break in one and a half hours, right? Tell her to meet me in the small forest just outside the school. I can arrange that. And I hope that our future interactions will be less tense. Ill give the phone back to Polizeimeister Habicht now. There was another set of rustling, and then Habicht was back on the other end of the line. So, what was that about? Ive never seen that jackass so nervous? You couldnt overhear? Isaac asked. Sensory dampening field. Habicht replied. So, this guy, whats his name and position? Johnathan Schmidt, the BAUs spymaster. From context, Im guessing hes the one who sent the spy? Yep. Says its for their protection, which makes some degree of sense, but I still dont like it. At least now I know who to me if something happens. Thank you for your help. Isaac hung up. On one hand, thered always been that worry in the back of his mind, just how exposed his family was and what might happen to them while he wasnt there. Hed always known that his only recourse was to take such terrible vengeance that hurting them would simply not be worth it, that anyone who tried would find their lives in ashes before they died in agony so no other person may make such an attempt. Therefore, having someone else working on keeping them safe was an incredible relief. On the other someone was watching his family. And that was creepy as fuck. Isaac ended up walking in circles around the school, using [Sneak] to fade from peoples attention as he did so. Otherwise, a man hanging around a school meant for five to ten-year-olds not a good look. He could have talked himself out of that, especially with his connection to the cops, but that didnt mean he wanted to risk it. And then, the second period ended and the children streamed out of the building and into the schoolyard to y. Isaac chuckled as he watched his siblings y tag though in this case, everyone else was it, a huge crowd chasing the blonde whirlwinds. It was cute, especially as he could tell they were holding back and letting themselves getting caught. But there was a person leaving the schoolyard as well, draped in stealth [Skills], but still perfectly visible to Isaacs senses. Miller was around Level 30 or above, with a mid-range [Aura] that helped her blend in or disappear from view as she wanted to, helping her blend in as anything she wanted. She entered the small copes of trees, looking around, failing to spot Isaac until he let himself grow visible behind her. Good morning Mrs. Miller. He said, and she barely managed to avoid jumping in fright. She might be a spy, with a few years of work under her belt and all the right training, but shed also just gotten a call from what sounded like a person who was a few steps above her direct superior and told to meet a terrifyingly powerful person in an isted locale. And not just that, but said person had been able to hide from her. She might hide it well, but she was scared. Good morning Mr. Thoma. She replied cautiously. So, youre here to keep an eye on my sisters? he asked. Yes. She nodded. What are your orders? he asked, his [Aura] tightening around her, able to notice even the slightest hint of deception. To watch your sisters, look into anyone who hung around and looked suspicious, and make sure nothing happens to them. She seemed sincere, but as a [Spy], there was a fair chance that she had a [Skill] to fake that. But short ofpletely blowing his top, there was very little Isaac could do about this situation, so he responded calmly. I suppose thats a good thing. But let me tell you the same thing I told your boss: I couldnt do much about you if you had bad intentions here and now, but after something goes wrong well, I suppose Ill leave that up to the imagination. Isaac grinned darkly and cocked his head to the side. But thats not anything you or your colleagues have to worry about right? She nodded uneasily. So we understand each other, good. Isaac pulled an Aspect of the Poltergeist out of his storage space and tossed it to her Catch. Even off kilter as she currently was, Miller was a very high Level human and managed to snatch the glowing orb out of the air with casual ease. Youve already got an Aspect of the Specter, I think thatll give you a nice upgrade. Isaac shed her a grin. Hed now let her, and by extension, her superiors know that none of their obfuscations worked against him, but he was willing to y ball and could be generous. Im gonna go to work now, and I think you should to. And lets try to avoid having meet again, shall we? And with that, Isaac teleported as far as [Phantom Step] could take him, engaging his [Stealth] [Skills] simultaneously, so when he emerged out of her line of sight, there was nothing to indicate he was still in the area. To her, it would have looked like hed teleported a hell of a lot further. His insides were still in turmoil by the time he reached the university, but he decided hed work through that on his own time. He had work to do. Chapter 133: Unpleasant Revalations Chapter 133: Unpleasant Revtions It was only after the confrontation that Isaac had realized he was still wearing his Halloween costume, but then again, the fact that hed managed to intimidate a hardened spy in an outfit that ridiculous made a rather strong statement about his abilities. By the time hed reached the university, the costume waspletely gone, though. It would have drawn an annoying amount of attention. Besides, hed have drawn plenty of that anyway if he hadnt been using [Sneak] to fade into the background. which was a hell of a lot less effective against people specifically looking for him and further lost in effectiveness against someone who actually knew him. So when the shout of Hey Isaac reached his ears, there was only a very short list of suspects even before he recognized the voice. Hey Sam. Isaac greeted him at a more reasonable level of volume Whats up? I missed you, man. Sam eximed, affectionately slugging Isaacs shoulder You werent here when we threw the party to celebrate your victory in Korea, but I think we can arrange to have another one now that youre here Ill have to take a raincheck, Im afraid. Ive got a lot of work to catch up on. A lot. Isaac bade off. I think you work a little too much. Come on, you cant spare a couple of hours to have a little fun? Hell, you can sober up in a matter of seconds and be fine afterwards! Sam suggested Blow off a little steam, maybe even find a littlepany? You know the whole world saw you on TV as a hero, right? Im well aware. Isaac said, barely able to suppress a sigh But Im way too busy, sorry, maybeter. Im also already toote for my first day back, so anyway, it was good to see you, but I gotta go. And with that, he jetted off towards his facultys building. As he ran, Isaac was cursing his past decisions, ever having gone to that damn frat party in the first ce. There was a reason he and Sam had lost touch in the first timeline. One of them was diligent at everything he did and enjoyed the asional burst of hedonistic excess to blow off a little steam. The other spent most of his time arranging the parties that were filled with said excess, doing little but that. Isaac had craved that feeling of freedom from burden of his responsibilities when hed received that invitation and hed had the time, so hed grasped that responsibility with both hands. Hell, hed even left his weapon behind, for crying out loud. Later on, hed gone to the frat for a second time, for yet another party, and then never returned. That whole thing was not him anymore. He was a different person now, and quite frankly, far too old to be going to frat parties. As fun as that drunken chaos had been for him in his twenties, once hed stopped seeing it as a way to reim the innocence of the past, it no longer held any appeal. Besides, there were far more adult parties happening in other ces, like the Dungeon Guild, Camelot, or the general slew of diplomatic meetings. These parties ranged from the extremely formal to something akin to a modern re-interpretation of a medieval feast, but were generally more his speed. It had taken him a while to reach this point, but he could admit that. even if Sam and his fraternity probably thought he was me now. Isaac reached his destination in a matter of seconds now that he was moving faster than walking speed, but then he froze. The whole ce had changed. Massively. First of all, the main building had finally beenpleted, reaching its full height of ny meters, almost enough to qualify as a friggin skyscraper. Four massive summoning rooms were still in the basement and hadnt changed any since theyd been broken in during the first event, as well as the teams offices. The ground floor was mostly one massive entry hall/museum with a bunch of trophies from their various efforts. His first Zweih?nder, broken when a The Crusher had fallen top of it. The Hydra-skin handbag theyd made for Bailey as a prank. And several preserved nts from the various Hunting Grounds. Many of those things were, of course, replicas. The sword was real, but its real value was sentimental, and the same went for the handbag. Many of the other decorative objects would have been massively expensive as hell if sold on the open market, had they been real, and securing everything to the same level as the sword and Zweih?nder would have gotten expensive. The floors above contained a myriad of offices andbs, though all thebs were meant for pretty basic, non-destructive experiments. Gic testing, dissections and necropsies, things like that. The [Chemists] under Professor Chandler made things go boom in another building, the one right next door, which hadnt been there when Isaac had left. It only had a ground floor and a basement, but was almostpletely made out of [System] materials and reinforced to the nines by [Skills]. A half-kiloton st from the inside might be able to break it. Might. However, there were also a couple of rooms with the same ungodly level of reinforcement that were clearly being used by [Engineers] to avoid blowing up their regr workshops. Behind the main building was a small underground chamber to be used for hunting grounds. Basically, a staircase that led twenty meters deep and ended in a five meter corridor with a couple of storage rooms on its sides. That way, the monster horde created by a destroyed Hunting Ground would only be able to escape single file, and right next to a building that housed some of the deadliest people on the. As long as everyone made sure to be careful with the Tier of space they summoned and didnt get too greedy, there wouldnt be any trouble. That had already been there, though. The same went for the greenhouses that had finally been finished while hed been gone, edifices of bullet proof ss and air filters as befitting something that housed species that were alien to this world. Though apparently, if you ignored the safety features straight out of Sci-Fi, it apparently was a near-precise replica of Munichs Botanical Gardens. What was new was an entire vige being built in what had been a grain field the agriculture faculties had been using for experiments and unless Isaac was very far off base, it looked like that was going to be a crafter vige. When the saw the map that had already been put up so people couldter find who they were looking for though, it became abundantly clear that it was his crafters that were being relocated. and then he remembered hed actually talked to Bailey about that a while ago. Basically, everyone Isaac had gathered and many more besides were being offered free housing, courtesy of the universitys [Engineers] and [Geomancers]. Building mere residential houses was absurdly cheap and in fact, theyd been offered for free for anyone who had the requisite abilities, moved here, and were willing to reserve a few slots formissions specifically for the university. A simr deal to what Isaac had with them, though right now, hed let his team use most of his timeslots. And even further out, trees had been razed and parcels drawn out for the construction of even more buildings. By the time all things were said and done, the campus would most likely end up doubling in size. With an expression of awe mixed with a massive grin, Isaac headed downstairs and into the teams very own conference room. The lower floor of the [System]-sciences faculty had originally been intended to be the core of the whole affair, but in the end, it had been almost entirely taken over by Professor Bailey and his direct subordinates. Hence, the meeting room had very much be their meeting room, with everyone having their own chair, personally selected, a minifridge with everyones favorite beverages and a bunch of personalized decorations, whose number had only grown while hed been gone, on the walls. Between the leather seats, the table that Raul had grown and now appeared to be a massive b of extremely expensive hardwood, and the monster trophies/weapons on the walls, it now looked like their of a superviin. And while that impression was obviously wrong, it was also awesome. Honey, Im home! Isaac hollered, using [Perception Block] to make sure the sound didnt travel up the stairs while the noise cancelling built into the structure itself prevented it from going through the concrete. This joke was meant for his colleagues and dear friends, not the random strangers on the upper floors. Im not wearing the right kind of jewelry for that joke, you do realize that? you do, right? Patrick asked dryly as he emerged from his office, holding up his hand and waggling his hand. There were three enchanted rings on his fingers, none of them on his ring finger. Was that a joke? Amy asked, emerging from the wall behind him, then fixed her eyes on Isaac Hey, you came back just in time to witness a miracle, Patrick found his sense of humor! Patrick shot her a dark look, but Isaac just threw his head back and roared withughter. A momentter, a dinosaur-bird appeared in front of him and nudged him with its beak. Hey Brisa, missed you to. Isaac said, and patted the Microraptor on its head. I think she mostly just missed the Aspects you get for her. Raul called as he marched closer, arms spread wide Wee back. The pair of them hugged for a moment, then separated. I give those to you, though. Isaac observed How does she know theyre my Aspects? Shes a smart little dinosaur, aint you, Brisa. Raul replied, pulling the Microraptor on his shoulder and petted her. Its great to see you. Bailey eximed as he finally reached the group How was your trip? Did you manage to do what you wanted to? Mostly, yeah. Things are looking up, but there are a bunch of things I need to talk with you guys about. Wheres Karl? Blowing stuff up in the mad scientistsir. Hell be here soon. Amy said, and Patrick added Thats what the building that houses theboratories hazardous and explosive materials ended up being called. To be fair, thats exactly what it is. Raul said Stuff shouldnt explode during the course of normal experimentation, even I know that. Hey, were not that bad. Karl called down from the top of the stairs, having just arrived We havent damaged theb even once since we got it. And how often did Professor J?gers [ident Simtion] trigger and show you just how destructive an experiment would have been if the cooldown [Skill] hadnt stopped it? Amy shot back, a statement that was met with silence. Isaac knew [Skills] like that, ones that could stop experiments or crafting processes as they started to go off the rails, then show the person conducting said thing just how badly things would have gone if it hadnt been for the arcane intervention. A lifesaver for the enterprising [Engineer], and given that those people were ying around with some of the most energetic materials in the world, a truly mandatory [Skill] for everyone who could get it. Anyway, good to see you Isaac. Karl greeted Did you have at least a little fun? I mean, it was supposed to be a holiday, right? I went mountain climbing, but I can tell you guys about thatter. For now, I really need to talk to everyone. Isaac gestured to the conference room Shall we? A mere momentter, they were all siting around the table, with everyone else staring at him expectantly. The reason I waste today was because I discovered that my family was being watched by the German government. He took a brief pause to let them react, but they kept their cool, so he continued. I managed to get in contact with the boss of the agent in question and he reassured me that theyre just there for their protection and I believe that is true to a certain degree, but theres also a certain implied threat to the whole affair. Now, I dont think its possible to watch someones family without telling them and not be at least a little creepy, but its still not a good sign that they didnt tell us. As the guy I spoke to put it, I make a good friend but would be a terrible enemy and I think thats a good way to describe all of us. They know how bad going after our families or using them as coteral could go and how much our current level of cooperation benefits everyone, Germany included, but it shouldnt hurt to remind them of that asionally. Sounds like you had it better than I did. Baileymented Ive been contacted by every agency with even the slightest amount of skin in the game about how I should e home and have some patriotic pride, with some darkly ambiguousments thrown in. Ive lived in this country for twelve years, ever since I came here for my studies, so I moved my folks here and put a stop to all of that. If I catch any German spooks sniffing around them they can either be an official security detail or back off. Suddenly Amy began giggling, then tried and failed to stifle her mirth as the others turned to look at her. Ok, so my stepdad is a conspiracy nut, and now hes got he [ss] to go along with it. He recently started iming his [Skills] were telling him he was being watched, but it sounded like he was nuts as usual. And hes cried wolf so often that no one listens to him anymore, the one time hes actually right she ended that exnation with another burst of giggling. Yeah, Amy did not like her stepfather, that had be rather apparent even from the handful of times shed mentioned him. I think my parents will be ttered when they figure it out. Patrick added Then again, they havent figured out I work for the finest research group in the country, so that might take a couple of decades. That isnt going to be a problem for my folks, theyve got their own bodyguards. Raul shrugged They might not be intelligence agents, but theyve been with the family for a while, they can handle things. Ok, that was interesting, and exined a lot, but wasnt germane to the situation at hand, so Isaac filed it away forter. And what about you, Karl? Isaac asked. What does it really change, in the end? Im going to keep working as I always nned to, and if anyone tries anything, therell be hell to pay. Domestic intelligence agents, foreign intelligence agents, the Mob, doesnt matter. Karl said grimly. Isaac grimaced as his friend echoed his thoughts. Nothing to do but hope nothing went wrong and take brutal revenge if it did. Anyway, now that thats out of the way, I brought presents. Isaac announced and began pulling stuff out of his spatial storage. Chapter 134: Surprisingly useful Paperwork Chapter 134: Surprisingly useful Paperwork First of all, I got an amazing new [ss], the inheritance of a warrior from the Song of the Niebelungs, called [Hildebrands Heir]. Its a hybrid fighter and trainer [ss] and once I get a few more Levels, I can actually give you guys some [Skills], ones that cant be gained from your [sses] or by slotting Aspects. In other words, these will be your hidden trump cards, something that people can only specte on you having until you use them in public. I also got a couple of useful [Skill]-upgrades after the fight against the Demon Lord that lets me pass on some useful stuff right now. As he said that, Isaac pulled five kabars out of his spatial storage, cing them on the table between them. Each weapon glowed with a low yellow light, slowly sinking into the metal until only a slight glimmer along the edges remained. Normally, this glimmer would have been all that was visible, but Isaac had enchanted the weapons and immediately put it in storage so he could show off the process. Mastercrafted Unblockable Kabar A standard knife designed for both utility functions in the wilderness andbat, forged by a master cksmith and empowered with a maximum Level Piercing Strike by Hildebrands Heir. No unenchanted armor created by a craftsman of aparable Level will be able to withstand it. These weapons have a permanent lesser form of [Piercing Strike] enhancing them thanks to my bonus for reaching Level thirty in the [Skill]. I can also grant you an incredible skill with them and other ded weapons thanks to another [Skill] gaining a new effect upon hitting a Level threshold. I think Adam especially could seriously use a de [Skill] because it should work with spikes, ws or other natural weapons. Bailey nodded Ive got a [Skill] called [w Combat] that helps a little, do you yours will work better? Probably. These are martial arts movie level de tricks, I think those should be useful. Isaac replied with a cocky grin But trainings forter because I got some really cool toys for you guys. A hermetically sealed ss box appeared on the table next, containing a block of what looked like grey putty. That is a set of stem cells that can integrate with any organism by adapting its DNA. However, I got that out of an Eldritch Dungeon famous for mental magic and other nastiness, so only open that book in a Security ss 4 Laboratory to study it, do not use it or integrate it with anything, just look at it, understand what you think could be useful and then atomize it. Do not replicate anything you dont one-hundred percent understand, do not use it for anything when you cant fully predict what will happen. Bailey looked at the odd mass with barely disguised avarice, but everyone else backed away and stared at the thing in disgust. That thing was an incredible boon for one of them, a terrible threat for everyone else. Like I said, be really careful when using it. He reminded the professor, before pulling out another set of boxes, each meticulouslybeled What Ive got here are a bunch of weird or strange materials from the various Dungeons I inspected during my travels, as well as some exotic potion materials. It should go without saying, but please keep those off the books and in your storage spaces, away from prying eyes. Isaac continued to exin the particrs of the many, many gifts hed gotten them, ranging from tissue samples belonging to nearly extinct animals that hed liberated from a smuggling operation hed stumbled across to a bunch more potion ingredients that would have been sold for the benefit of criminals if he hadnt grabbed them. With that done, they headed into one of the empty summoning rooms for the actual training. To start with, everyone please take out the knives I gave you. He announced. How his friends and colleagues held their gifted weapons was very telling. Raul held it firmly, but as if he were about to start whittling something. Amy held hers in what was clearly meant to be an icepick grip, but it was clear that she didnt entirely know to do so properly, while the others held theirs with some degree of trepidation and expectation for Isaac to offer instructions. In essence, there are multiple ways of holding a knife, each with advantages and disadvantages. For example, Amy is holding hers in an icepick grip, which offers greater power but reduces her range. In that grip, you should primarily be It took a couple of hours, but eventually, Bailey announced that hed gained a [Skill] and then showed Isaac its description. Inherited de Mastery (epic) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the de. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, other spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. And from one of these people, you have learned the art of the de, granting you the ability to wield all edged weapons at a decent level of skill even if you never held this particr weapon before, gain a vastly enhanced learning rate when using edged weapons and an easier application of knowledge to entirely new kinds of edged weapons. When you hold a sword in your hand, none shall stand before you. Thats an interesting choice of name. Isaac observed. It was a downgrade in rarity from his legendary [Absolute de Mastery], but it was a functionally free [Skill] that would give them all the skill of an average Level 30 melee fighter. They might not haveparable physical Stats, but the surprise factor alone would make up for a lot of that. Do you think its because of your inheritor [ss], or will it would always have been named that? Patrick asked. Isaac shrugged I dont know. Maybe we could find someone else with a teachable [Skill] and find out? Ill try. Bailey promised Later. Another thirty or so minutester, everyone else had also gained the [Skill] and the group broke up, everyone heading off to do their own thing. Karl returned to his workshop, Bailey grew a series of thorns, spines and quills on his arm to practice with and everyone else headed into the other summoning room to experiment with a different monster. Isaac, meanwhile, headed into his office to finish off what little paperwork had umted while hed been away. It wasnt much, given that he hadnt been here to generate any, but it did need to be done and putting it off would only serve to utterly ruin the day when he was actually forced toplete it. Updated insurance for dealing with monsters new insurance required for working around the explosive demons blood which is not covered by regr insurance for reasons another few waivers about utterly random crap some forms that would only be useful on the off chance that he got interns or TAs basic stuff that he only did because the bloated monstrosity that was German bureaucracy had deemed it necessary, not because it was truly needed. All in all, it took him an hour to make the (digital) pile of paperwork vanish but vanish it did. and then Bailey knocked on the door and when Isaac called him in, dumped a stack of folders almost thirty centimeters thick on his desk. Isaac literally jumped out of seat in surprise. What the he bit off a swearword What on Earth are those? Grant proposals. A bunch of people who want to research something and need money or resources to do so. Yeah, I know what a grant proposal is, but arent we the ones who submit them, not the ones who get them? Isaac asked, puzzled. Ordinarily, these are submitted to the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to ask for federal funding, but the [System] has added a bunch of hard to get materials to the world that arent avable in exchange for money, or at least not at rates that are even remotely reasonable. My research team and this university are a major supplier of safely sourced monster materials, so a lot of the material-focused requests get re-routed to us for review because we have both the required knowledge about how valuable those materials are and how likely the research is to seed and in exchange, we are awarded a lot of additional funding. We also get a lot of requests through other channels from abroad as were one of the premier [System] research groups. Isaac nodded That part makes sense. But why do you want me to go through he scanned the pile with his [Aura] a months worth of proposals? I figured you might be able to recognize some names from the other timeline and select proposals you knowwill pan out. Bailey exined. Isaacs facepalm sent some of the papers fluttering into the air. Yeah, I should have thought of that. He added, gritting his teeth, then added in a more chipper tone Thats a great idea, Ill look these over now. If the paperwork had been as dull and nd as oatmeal boiled with water for hours until all that was left was a disgusting mush, these grant proposals were that same oatmeal with a million different spices packed into waterproof but edible capsules added in,pletely unnoticeable until you bit into them and got a mouthful of whatever was inside. Sometimes it was something good, at other times, you got a mouth full of capsaicin. And what was worse, you never knew which was which until it was far toote. There was the asional madmans rant about what horrible tools that were really weapons could be created, other stuff that sounded good on paper but Isaac knew wouldnt work, etc. One of the good ones was a project to create a flexible waterskin that was extremely resistant to blunt force and could be stored in a pouch fairly safely yet could be bitten open very easily. Those were for potions and exactly what Isaac had used in the other timeline. And if hed had those in Korea, he wouldnt have ended up eating almost a kilogram of ss during the fight. Therefore, that went onto the absolutely fund pile. Then there were a few proposals from people who wanted to try their hand at creating new materials with the [Systems] materials, which Isaac put on a second pile hedbeled interesting, but have someone else look over. But there were a lot more of these things wants to create a Wolpertinger pretty sure thats about making sex toys boring generic what happens if I throw this stuff together Nr. 314 Eureka! Isaac shouted, leaping out of his chair and through the wall, running to Baileys office like a whirlwind on a sugar high. Come in before you break the door down. Bailey called as Isaacs frenzied knocking reached his ears. So, we need to get this guy here, pronto. Isaac said, mming the relevant folder down on the table This guy is Daniel Naves Malo, the inventor of the spatial storage device in the other timeline. Not the Extradimensional Pocket you need to burn a core to move or ess from afar, but an actual ring that you can put things in by touching the ring to them. And whats more, hes offering to move here if we promise to fund him for the next two years. Ok, we can do that, but this sounds a little I dont think Id approve this without you supporting it. Bailey replied. Yeah, itll look a little sus, but we can disguise it a little by offering him basic materials, then find the results so miraculous we simply have to sponsor him. Weve got a good enough track record that people give us a little ck. Isaac suggested. Ill figure something out. Also, will he need other stuff? We could send him a lot of additional things that we thought could be useful and identally give him a massive leg up. Ill get you a list. Isaac promised and headed back to his office. The rest of the stack of paperwork called. Chapter 135: Training Montage Chapter 135: Training Montage And who are these guys? Isaac asked Bailey via auric Morse, keeping his frown to a minimum to avoid scaring the group of twenty-something people, most likely students. Potential interns for you. People whose growth you can shape to create any support [sses] you need.Bailey replied using the same method, while adding out loud Everyone, this is Dr. Thoma, the second inmand of the [System] research team. Isaac blinked in surprise at that promation. Sure, it was probably right given that everyone else would listen to him under almost all circumstances and even Bailey usually deferred to what Isaac thought was correct, but hed never heard it stated out loud. Hi everyone. Isaac gave them all a little wave I look forward to working with you. So, are you interviewing them, or why else are they all lined up outside your office? Isaac asked. I was waiting for you to show up so I can get started while you listen in from your office. Bailey replied as he called in the first person. Isaac just headed to over to said office while threading his [Aura] through the wall and into the Professors room. The interns were somewhat of a surprise, but Bailey had told him to think about what he wanted in a subordinate and Isaac had sent him a list, something that had evidently resulted in this whole affair. So, what makes you want to work here? Bailey asked. This is the hottest ce to be right now, who wouldnt want to work here? the interviewee answered the question with another question. Isaac grimaced. He wasnt a big fan of that attitude. It sounded like this person was in this for the prestige, but Isaac needed someone who would be excited for the magic to continue to get stronger and grind for not just XP, but [Skill] Levels. Yet that person could not be so focused and ambitious that they wanted to follow their own path, because what Isaac needed was extra mana for summoning and someone to learn spatial magic for a whole host of potential applications. So Isaac sent that along to Bailey, who quickly brought the interview to a close. The next few candidates also fell through for one reason or other. One woman already had a pretty solid [Warrior] build that Isaac couldnt use for the purposes he needed his assistants for, a man who had his heart set on a general [Elementalist] build, and so on, and so forth. Then there were the people who were clearly only here for the support for levelling that was being offered, given that they were going to have to be a considerably higher Level to be of use, but it was abundantly clear that they were going to be cutting and running the instant they felt they were strong enough. Of course Bailey had put uses in the contract that would make that a very costly affair, as well as a very hardass nonpete to ensure that they couldnt run to argepany and have them pay of the breach of contract. Stuff like that was going to be verymon, very soon. Training and job experience had been valuable before, sure, but actually power-levelling employees was vastly more expensive and Levels far easier to take to another employer. And then you had people with the wrong level ofpetence. Some would have to be watched constantly or else theyd end up dead while others would have been wasted as mere assistants. After all, true power came from following your own path, not the one set by another. Therefore, Bailey and Isaac tried to send those on to other faculties where their services would be out to better use and future growth assured. But in the end, they did find a few solid candidates, and Bailey brought them into an empty summoning room, where Isaac stood waiting behind arge table covered in seemingly random equipment. Good morning. He greeted Youve talked to Professor Bailey about the theory behind this job, but theres a lot of practicality to this job as well. Isaac gestured at the glowing Tier 2 circles behind himself. As the professor told you, were looking for someone to Level up into a spatial [Mage-ss]. Youre both under Level 10, so youll need to grind a lot of XP to get to that point. Now, Ill be watching over you as you do that and make sure you dont get hurt, but fighting to gain power isnt for everyone. So, I gathered arge array of equipment that you can use, please pick something, tell me when youre ready, step up to a circle, and Ill activate it. Once again, Ill make sure no one gets hurt. The response to that announcement was incredibly varied. Some immediately went for a weapon, with many grabbing swords. Notable were the ones who picked basic weapons like a mace, spear, or even a Bec de Corbin, because those didnt require much knowledge to properly use. Poke until the other guy stops moving, or crush them t, those weapons were that simple to use. Swords werent overlyplex, mind you, but still not as easy as the other weapons. Can you tell us whats in those circles? a ck man who hadnt moved from his spot besides Bailey asked. Isaac grinned internally. Finally, someone asked. Slow creatures with an easy weak point. Animated Garden Gnomes. Isaac stated. Can I ask what that weak point is? A politely phrased question, acknowledging that that might be something Isaac wanted to keep to himself, but the guy had had both the balls and insight to actually ask. They have a core at their center. Smash the ceramic exterior to expose it, then break the core itself, or stab at the joints from afar until they fall apart, then go for the core. Isaac exined. The man nodded and finally chose his weapon, arge nged mace that required some degree of enhanced strength to actually wield, but he seemed to have that. At the same time, there was a scramble to switch out there weapons, but Isaac had only ced out one basic weapon per student, then surreptitiously removed many of those when they werent being watched. A couple of people threw down their swords in disgust and left, but the rest remained. Several more people backed out when the monsters emerged. Isaac gave them a bit of time to rally, but the moment someones opponent got closer to another person than them, an [Aura] with a vastly empowered [Deaths Embrace] made it crumble into dust. That [Skill] couldnt normally kill people, only reduce their Stats, but when Fortitude dipped into the negative, that was usually pretty fatal. In the end, there were two people Isaac wanted to hire. The man whod asked the questions, a foreign exchange student from South Africa by the name of Andre Nkosi, and Zhou Li-Mei a petite Chinese woman in her mid-twenties whod picked up the Bec de Corbin. Once the mess was cleaned up, easily done by tossing the debris into storage, Isaac stood before the pair, happy with his choice. So, before youll officially be employed youll still need to deal with a mountain of paperwork in the normal German style, but once youre done with that, I have some stuff for you. On the table before him, Isaac ced hisst few first stage Aspects. Fire, Air and Water Elementals, Shadow Drake, and a pair of Lesser Space Elementals. We dont actually know how to obtain a [Space Mage] [ss], but slotting an Aspect of the Lesser Space Elemental is almost certainly a requirement. Youre also free to pick one of these other Aspects to gain somebat power to tide you over until you evolve your [ss]. Isaac waved them out of the room. See you soon. While they left to wade through the literal mountain of paperwork, Isaac stayed in the room, preparing circles for them to use, whileying out instruction manuals on how to most efficiently the monsters that would pop out when the circles were powered. Andstly, he dumped a small desk and office chair in the corner of the room so he could work while his assistants trained. Eventually, theyd be fine on their own, but they needed to be supervised at least in the beginning. Soon enough though, far faster than hed expected, the pair of now official assistants came into the room. Well, Isaac had actually been pretty far off in his original estimations because he hadnt expected them to have [Skills] for quickprehension and writing even though theyd had the [Student-ss] because if your Stats were high enough, you were nearly as fast as those [Skills] would made you. Themon versions of those [Skills] that was. Higher rarity ones would have given other, significant boons. It was a lot like [Teaching] in that way. Themon [Skill] most lecturers in this university had were pretty good, letting the recipients of said teaching quickly learn and maybe gain the subject of the [ss] as a [Skill] that was essentially a way to keep track of onesprehension. Someone like Isaac, on the other hand, could teach ridiculously powerful [Skills] with a supernatural ir to them. For someone like Isaac, who had his eyes set on reaching the peak, those [Skills] would have been a waste of points. But for a regr [Student], reaching that Level would have taken literal years. Gaining [Reading] at a high rarity might have been useful for Isaac, but the basic version was not. Alright, Im d to see youre both now officially a part of the team. Ive prepared a training regimen for you guys, and Ill be right here in the room to make sure nothing goes wrong. Isaac gestured to the desk hed stuck in the corner, then handed each a small rubber ball. And this is a little demonstration of how safe this is going to be, please put one of those in a pocket, any pocket, and at any time during training, shout help and Ill cut it apart in under a second without damaging whatever pocket you put it in. I know fighting monsters isnt the safest profession, and it can get scary at times, but its safe with me here, and its important to me you know that. But first, Ill teach you a [Skill] that will make all of this a lot easier. The Andre looked surprised while Li-Mei seemed skeptical, but when Isaac proved that he was paying absolute attention to their actions and perfectly able to intervene even with his nose buried in a book, that worked wonders for reducing their tension. Also, ending up with an epic [Skill] after less than an hour of instructions worked damn well to establish what he could do for them. Even though Isaac spent much of the day working on writing a paper on [Skills] and their various advancements, the impact rarity had and so on, he also observed his assistants intently. Not just to make sure they survived their training, but to understand them. It was fascinating how much one revealed about themselves in their fighting style. For example, Isaac himself was a very utilitarian person. If something worked, it worked, no matter how it looked. If someone saw it or was likely to see it, on the other hand, hed change his approach but only by so much that it didnt look too bad. Andre was simr, but vastly more cautious. Utilitarian, but he approached each fight as if it were a cornered housecat, spitting and hissing and ready to w the face off anyone who got too close. Hed either end up a fantastic [Mage] as he grew more practiced, or merely a good one if he kept up the current pace. On the other hand, Li-Mei was excitable, curious, and adventurous to the point where she would have likely ended up injured if it hadnt been for Isaac. Yet it was also abundantly clear that the only reason she was willing to take those risks was the safety her new boss provided and when Isaac told her to be more careful, she immediately changed her approach. Eventually, Isaac went into the next room over to start summoning on his own, but not before proving that the walls between them were no obstacle to his ability to make sure nothing went wrong. And at the end of the day, the two were chomping at the bit to continue, but Isaac reminded them that they could continue tomorrow, but also gave them a little homework in the sense that they should be practicing certain [Skills] when they had the time. But while they got to go home, Isaac was finally in a position to go after certain foes and that needed to happen ASAP. Then again, when had he ever not had a ton of work to do sinceing to this new timeline. Chapter 136: Topsy-Turvy Chaos Chapter 136: Topsy-Turvy Chaos Just like thest time hed fought a monster like this, Isaac had made sure there wasnt anything loose, non-living around in his summoning area. No chalk for drawing out circles, no random rocks, and even most of the dust had been sucked into his storage space. Heck, Isaac was even in his birthday suit because getting strangled with the cor of your own shirt by an Arcane Poltergeist was a shitty way to go. Not because it was particrly painful, but because it was so damn avoidable. The beast in question was only the second Tier 7 monster that Isaac had summoned in this timeline, the first having been the Greater Hydra. But where the first one had merely been at the very top of can still be beaten by mundane weapons without going nuclear, this one was utterly invulnerable to conventional armament. If this thing got free, it would be very, very bad. Isaac wouldnt have picked this fight if he hadnt known he could win. [Legendary Blow] was at a Level he was satisfied with, he had the right Stats, and everything else that he needed. Once again, he drew out a series of blood magic runes on Balmungs de. He still rarely used this kind of magic, but then again, it was pretty damn situational. In some fights, that blood loss could be enough to get him kill, so he didnt use it then, and in others, his regr [Strikes] were more than enough so he didnt have to resort to self-muttion. These Ephemeral things, on the other hand, were the rightbination of annoying and exceedingly vulnerable to make them the perfect target. Against more physical enemies, hed have needed regr runic magic, whose description could be gained from the Crystalline Sage [Raid Boss], but sadly, Isaac hadnt memorized many of them. And the few he did know, he couldnt properly use. That being said, he had passed them along to Karl so he could see what could be done with them, and it had paid off in spades. After all, his coworker was now a [Magitech Innovator], legendary [ss]. Isaac had expected a [Magitech Engineer], the standard [Enchanter]-[Engineer] hybrid. What he hadnt ounted for because he hadnt known it was a thing was the [ss] explicitly gained for being the first person to create things using those runes, seamlessly integrating magic and technology. Sure, higher rarity [sses] for people who charged ahead was something Isaac had experience with, for example, his own [dewraith] or the [System Researcher] [ss] several of his teammates had, but it was the first time hed seen the bonus be so obvious. As Isaac activated the circle, he stood there with a blood-covered Balmung in his right hand, shining like the sun from a fully [Piercing Strike]-filled [Legendary Blow], while a trio of Kabars floated overhead, likewise enchanted and controlled with [de Control]. The Arcane Poltergeist emerged from the circle with the terrifying screech customary for this kind of beast, which shifted into a scream of fury as the daggers plunged into the beasts energy-wreathed form, and stuck there. Angry red energy erupted from the points of impact, burning through its form. It would die in time, but until then the monster was still a massive threat. Arcs of blue energy burst from the Poltergeists body, tearing through the surrounding rock as its [Aura] tried to tear Isaac apart. Unlike the telekinesis, it could affect living tissue, but it was an [Aura]. Using that on Isaac was about as effective as trying to drown a fish. More worrisome were the rocks being gouged out of his surroundings, but he had a couple of seconds before those became a problem. Isaac charged and swung Balmung through the monster, the overcharged Level 30 [Skill] not only tearing through its flesh and also rending the spiritual energy that kept the whole affair together. The energy hurling rocks at him seemed to stutter for a moment, then resumed with a vengeance as the monster threw an unsustainable amount of energy behind the effort. In maybe five minutes, the monster would die from using too much of its energy, but it wouldnt get that far if Isaac had anything to say about it. A rock nearly managed to brain him, but Isaac just ducked under it, then mmed a glowing green Balmung into another one, which then sttered against his bare chest like a water balloon. Sadly, the Poltergeist responded to that by mming multiple rocks together and trying to force the resulting dust cloud down Isaacs throat. But its human foe just phased right through it. The Poltergeist tried to use its force now that Isaac was in a state it could affect, but the [Skill] was only in effect long enough to avoid the attack. [Wave Charge], [Legendary Blow: Fivefold Piercing Strike] Another attackter, Isaac had lopped off a massive chunk of healthy mass, leaving the monster mostly shaded a sickly crimson. It tried a variety of different rock attacks in the next twenty seconds or so, but none hit home, and then the monster vanished, the knives that had been stuck inside it ttering to the rock below. Arcane Poltergeist (Lv. 51) has been in. 1,200 XP gained No Aspect, sadly, but he could always try again. And try again he did, though Isaac first removed all the debris that had umted during the first fight, leaving the whole area looking like the surface of the moon. Another fight, more craters, no Aspect. And again, over and over again,ting him the XP hed need to slot the Aspect five times over, except he didnt have the bloody Aspect. All hed earned was some XP and a dire need to have Karle out here and fix his summoning pit. But in the end, an hour before he had to go back to work, his work finally paid off. Aspect of the Arcane Poltergeist: This is the distilled essence of what makes an Arcane Poltergeist an Arcane Poltergeist. Walking through walls as if there were nothing there, a rather loose rtionship with gravity, the power to track the living with casual ease, see through walls, or just toss around buildings as if they were mere Legos. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +15 Magic Power One of the following Skills: Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Telekic Domain Ghostly Senses [Poltergeists Flight] became [Flight of the Poltergeist], [Poltergeists Shift] became [Ephemeral Form], and he picked [Haunting Pursuit] as his new [Skill] Haunting Pursuit (epic) It doesnt matter where you try to run, where you try to hide, what you try to use as a shield. Nothing will stop the Elder Poltergeist when it has decided to kill you. This is the power of the deads unending hatred for the living, the need to tear them apart and bathe in their entrails. This Skill makes its user aware of all living beings around themselves in a radius of a hundred meters for 5 mana per minute, and can give more precise locations the more mana is invested, up to a maximum of 100 per minute. One the user has chosen a target, they can spend another 50 points of mana to mark them, gaining the ability to track them precisely so long as they remain withing 10 km, as well as knowing the most direct route to reaching them. Cost: 5-100 mana per minute for a passive scan, 50 points per mark per hour In other words, sneaking up on him had just be even more difficult, and only the strongest stealth [Skills] would be able to get unnoticed. Sure, his [Aura] could do much the same job, but that would require him to devote at least a part of its volume for that purpose. As such, this [Skill] would let him focus on other stuff without sacrificing his situational awareness and ensure he didnt have to spend precious time reading tracks if he was chasing after someone. Of course, his existing [Skills] got some nice upgrades as well. Ephemeral Form (epic) Walls, fortresses, even bunkers that sit at the heart of a mountain, none of these can stop an Ephemeral being. The only thing able to damage such a being is raw mana or Skills fueled by it. But transforming would be rather risky if an errant Spell would tear through them, wouldnt it? Thats why true powerhouses among the Ephemeral are able to spend additional mana to reinforce their bodies and mitigate said vulnerability to some degree. While shifted, the user of this Skill can choose to treat objects as physical and interact with them normally or treat them as though they didnt exist. Cost: 10 mana for activation, 5 mana per second of upkeep, upkeep can be increased up to 50 mana per second to resist foreign mana Overall, this was just a basic upgrade and reduced some of its weaknesses, but it was still really nice to have. Flight of the Poltergeist (epic) Once you are dead, you are free. Free from responsibilities, free from death, free from gravity. With this Skill, you gain a Poltergeists ability to nullify gravity and take to the air, nullify the effect of wind and air resistance to avoid being blown away like a leaf in a hurricane by the slightest breeze and start to elerate yourself at a constant rate of 1 m/s^2 for a maximum speed of 150 m/s. Cost: 1 mana per second per active effect (air resistance nullification, gravity nullification or telekic self-eleration) On the other hand, [Flight of the Poltergeist] was a great upgrade because it finally granted him true flight, as opposed to his old method of reducing the effect of gravity upon himself to nothing, then flinging himself all over the ce by kicking off his floating des. Sure, he could run faster than the top speed of the [Skill], but there was a reason as the crow flies was how the optimum path was described. Not having to phase through buildings was also easier on his mana pool. Andstly, this method made carrying passengers far easier, so his sisters were sure to be delighted. But Isaac still had a little more time before he had to go to work, so he chose to use it to summon the second kind of monster he now feltfortable fighting. A Space Elemental. Isaac was already at a Level where a mid-range Tier 6 monster shouldnt have been a problem, but it was a fucking Space Elemental. Those were a ss of their own to anyone whose powerset wasnt a direct counter to their abilities. Sadly, these cores were also a necessary part of many important things like storage space and Hunting Grounds. Hell, he could summon a Void Ind, a vast and permanent extradimensional space from the Rewards section of the summoning tab. There were sadly a whole host of materials that he couldnt grab yet and the mana cost for that thing was ludicrous beyond belief, but it wouldnt hurt to stock up on these things now. When they actually started using them, their supply would disappear like a pile of snow his by a methrower. As he once again cleaned up his space, Isaac also wiped the blood from his weapon and healed the wounds it hade from. Replenishing the blood itself took a bit longer, but even that wasnt overly difficult, not with his manapool and the power of his regeneration. The Space Elemental erupted from the summoning circle like a geyser, power flooding the while area and turning it into a Lovecraftian nightmare of warped space. Even as random jagged chunks of rock face were suddenly far closer than theyd been a millisecond earlier, a terrifying [Aura] began to rip at Isaac, trying to shift his muscles out of ce, making them impossible to use. He blocked it for the most part, but it still affected him. [True Cut: Damage Spatial Warp] Even slightly dinging the mess the local area had be cost over a thousand mana, but Isaac didnt have to do anything more to win. And then the whole effect disappeared as though a switch had been flipped, the monster in by one of the countless des Isaac had scattered behind it and called towards him the moment the monster had appeared. Arge corey there, swirling with colors that moved in ways that were liable to cause nausea in even him if he closely examined them for too long. It went into storage, the mess was cleaned up, and the area reset for the next fight. Space Elementals were good XP and his next goal was hitting Level 68 and gaining ess to [Legacy of a True Warrior]. And all the while, hed be writing papers, powering up his assistants and arranging for them to officially break into the seventh Tier of monsters which would be a hard sell to all involved. It was rather apparent to people who researched the topic that the military forces that had been acting as an emergency fallback option would barely be effective against that caliber of foe. But mostly, hed be power levelling though. *** And then, eventually, finally, hed unlocked what he wanted. It had taken him weeks, but hed gained the Levels to be able to purchase the [Skill]. One point for each Level-upbined with the vastly increased XP cost per Level had made this a very lengthy process. On the other hand, the twenty Stat points per Level during the third Evolution were much more ptable than the reduced number of [Skill] points. Isaac had been able to invest 70 points into both Magic Regeneration and Perception, then tossed another 50 into Agility and thest 10 into Strength. His Status was looking fine. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 68 XP: 17/34,500 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 1,350/1,350 Stats Fortitude 100 Perception 250 Strength 110 Agility 250 Magic Power 135 Magic Regeneration 250 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXI The Chosen Weapon XXVI I Am The Sword IX Grave of Swords XIII Armory of Ancient Times X Legacy of a True Warrior I Skills Hundred Faces XXIV Stealth XXVIII Power Strike XXIX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXVII des XXVII Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XV Far Strike XXVI Manifold Strike XIX Hunters Gaze XXIX Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XIX Bestial Regeneration XXV Undying Focus XXI Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XIV Crippling Blow XII Absolute de Mastery XIII Compounded Impact XV True Cut VII Legendary Blow VII General Skills Gralloch XI Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace V Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des Acid Drake Drakes Heart Least Demon Lord (2 Stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme And yet, it was the new [Skill] that would make the biggest difference in the end. Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary) Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and hispanion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that mans legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience inbat both figurative and literal. But even though Hildebrands personal achievements are hardly small, they pale inparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others. Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly elerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is rted to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, orbat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear). But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your ss Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself): -Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination) -Epic Blow (downgraded from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows) -Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space) -Veterans Teachings (downgrade from Experts Knowledge, grants overall knowledge and the asional sh of insight) You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior. Skills taught this week 0/6 Time to put some coworkers and subordinates through the training from hell. Chapter 137: Blacksmith Woes Chapter 137: cksmith Woes While his trainees were whacking away at a set of heavily reinforced training dummies, sweat fell like rain. Sweating at their level of bodily enhancement in the first ce meant that they were being pushed astoundingly hard, but theyd already all gained [Epic Blow], which allowed them to triple-stack the relevant [Skills] and that was only the start of things. Theyd all gained extraordinary skill with various melee weapons, better than any professional prior to the [System]. Not all of them had the Stat spread to get the most out of their new abilities, but this had hardly been time wasted. Isaac himself hade to realize quite a few things about himself as hed had truly think about what he was doing in order to exin it to his trainees, which had, in turn, levelled many of his own [Skills]. And hed even managed to push [Armory of Ancient Times] to Level 10. Armory of Ancient Times (legendary, Level X) They had some good stuff back in the time of legends, didnt they? Legendary swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings and belts that granted the strength of ten men all that good stuff. But we dont have that stuff anymore, they were either lost to history or they never existed in the first ce. But with this Skill, it doesnt really matter which of those is true, because Hildebrands Heir is able to summon anything he wants, so long as Hildebrand once held it, such as his sword Balmung, once wielded by Siegfried. You may summon multiple weapons (or objects) at a time, and doing so will reserve 100 points of your mana to maintain it unless you can find alternative ways of sustaining it for the first, with the cost doubling with every additional summon. As you learn more about Hildebrands legend, youll learn more about what you can summon. Currently avable gear: Balmung, Nagelring, Eckesachs, Mimung, assorted mundane gear, Laurins Ring, Hildegrim It was a great upgrade, letting him wield multiple powerful pieces of gear at the same time. Sure the cost got pretty astronomical rather quickly, it was still an awesome upgrade. And thats when the penny dropped. Isaacs facepalmed with enough force to rattle the nearest windows, causing all his trainees to stop and look at him in concern. I just realized something, but it can wait until this is over. He assured them. But once that was, ten minutester, he rushed off like someone whod left the oven on, heading towards the crafter vige. As he moved, for the very first time since getting [Armory of Ancient Times], he summoned a new weapon. It was an incredibly thin, sharp de, looking more like a rapier or maybe a training sword meant to bend like a limp noodle when it struck someone than a proper weapon of war or at least it would have, if it hadnt been so sharp it practically disappeared when viewed edge-on. [Hildebrands Heir] was at its core a training [ss]. One of its core [Skills] was specifically meant to facilitate that, but the other didnt seem to be, at first nce. So Isaac had used it as the name indicated, and done great things with that. But he had a massive roster of powerful pieces of equipment that he could summon, and upon re-reading the [Skill] description, he could just take those things to a good [cksmith] and have them try and replicate it. Sure, Balmung had its roots deep in mythology and been created by a god, so it was unlikely there were forging techniques that could be copied, but there was also a weapon that had not only been created normally, but also in a way that was documented in the legends about it. This was the de currently resting in his hands. Mimung A legendary de, forged thrice by the greatest cksmith of ancient times, Wand, also known as Wind and Volundr. Forged once, it astounded all those who saw it. Forged a second time, it exceeded any other weapon in the kingdom. Forged a third time, only the most legendary weapons could rival it. This is a de that has tasted the blood of kings and peasants, monsters and heroes bringing death to all and making them equal after their life has ended, unstoppable by all armor and other defenses. (this is a summoned weapon) By the time Isaac reached Stagmers shop in the crafters vige, hed already been able to hear the [cksmith] hammering away on a project for a while. It sounded like he was hard at work but Isaac was pretty damn certain that there wasnt a [cksmith] in the world who wouldnt drop everything in a heartbeat if given the chance to work with something like Mimung. The front door was locked, a clear indication that this current project was important, or at least that he didnt want to be disturbed right now, but Isaac just walked up to the door, knocked, and held up Mimung for inspection. Any craftsman worth his salt would have at least some sensory [Skills] and a masterpiece like Isaacs currently projected sword should be shining about as brightly as a burning bar of magnesium to those senses. The sound of hammering slowed, then came to aplete stop. Less that a second after the loud nk of a hammer being put down, the door burst open to reveal the cksmith standing there, looking at the sword with a mixture of wonder and barely disguised avarice. What what is that? he asked, a slight tremble in his voice. This is Mimung, and Id like to see if you can make me a copy. Isaac said with a wry smile Shall we go in? Id rather not have this conversation out here. Stagmer just mutely stepped back to let him in, eyes still fixed on Mimung. Isaac just walked deeper into the building until he reached the forge itself and carefully set down the sword, intensely focusing on not letting the edge touch the table. If it had, Stagmer would likely have needed a new one. Basically, I have a [Skill] that lets me create copies of weapons out of ancient Germanic myths, and this sword is Mimung, a weapon created by the legendary Wand the cksmith. He once forged the greatest sword the king had ever seen, then ground it down into powder, fed it to a bunch of geese, then melted the metal out of their droppings and forged it a second time, creating a second, vastly superior de. But even that wasnt good enough, so he repeated the process, finally creating one of the finest des in the world. Thats basically nitration, isnt it? Using the nitrogen in the birdcrap to strengthen the metal? Stagmer finally asked and Isaac shrugged. If you say so, youre the expert here. I really dont know anything about metallurgy or cksmithing. But I figured between a sword to look at and the myth, you might be able to make something cool. Oh, that I can definitely do. Stagmer grinned so broadly that it looked like his face might split apart at any second Getting some geese could be a bit tricky, so Ill use something chemical for nitration on my first try, but Ill definitely try to make a copy using the traditional way. How long can you leave that sword here? A few days. Isaac replied Having it manifested reduces my mana pool, so Ill need it while actively fighting, but otherwise, Ill drop it off here. Does that work for you? Oh, absolutely. Stagmers grin, somehow, got even wider. Isaac bade him goodbye and left the shop. *** It ended up taking five long days, but Stagmer still managed to be far faster than the story. Sadly, he was very unhappy with the end result. Vastly Inferior Copy of the Sword Mimung A sword our of ancient myth and legend, recreated by the Skill of Isaac Thoma, the Auric Sage and copied by the cksmith Helmut Stagmer. It is one of the finest swords created by human hands in the modern age, though it is iparable to the genuine article. Isaac frowned. Whats your Level? Twenty-one, why? Stagmer asked. It was an astounding Level for a craftsman to reach given the short amount of time the [System] had been in ce, but it still paled inparison to where fighters like Isaac were at the moment. Because it exins the vastly inferior descriptor. The power of the sword is dependent in my Level, which is higher. And my sword is the only one of its kind, therefore treated as the original, so any copies created by someone of a lower Level and with weaker [Skills] cant match that. But its still one of the best weapons created by a living human! And youre what, Level 60? Stagmer asked. Thereabouts. Isaac said. Yeah, that makes sense. Though I still have high hopes for the sword created using the traditional weapon. Stagmer added Ever since I got my hands on that weapon its like I couldnt stop thinking about the forge, all the cool stuff I could make. Like I like theres a million things about cksmithing out there that I didnt even know existed, and the only reason even know theyre there is because I caught a glimpse of them in that sword of yours. Isaac stroked his chin thoughtfully. You must have been massively levelling from all that new stuff, right? He asked How close are you to hitting Level 25? Im at Level 23 now. Stagmer replied Why? Because I have an idea. Drop what youre doing right now for a bit, and try to replicate as many of my projections as you can. Then, Ill give you a bunch of exotic ores and other materials I gathered from all over the world, please use those for whatever you want, however the fancy strikes you. And when you hit Level 25 and evolve, I think the chances are good that youll either get an [Heir-ss] or a great [ss] for being such an outstanding [cksmith]. Ok, I cant lie, that sounds like an awesome idea, but why should I take a break on my other projects for that? Because the longer you take, the greater the risk someone else will start to recreate the ancient masterpieces and possibly take your shot at an [Heir-ss], not to mention that gaining much of the XP needed for the final stretch of levelling by recreating old masterpieces will almost certainly boost your chances at getting such a good [ss]. And I even know what you should craft next. As Isaac said that, he dismissed Mimung and reced it with an old fashioned helmet. Hildegrim This helm once graced the head of the legendary king, Dietrich von Bern, keeping him safe throughout countless perilous battles. Forged by the dwarf Alberich, won inbat from the giants Grim and Hilde, its origins are as legendary as the helm itself. It is incredibly durable, functionally indestructible to people on its level, and will also reduce damage to the wearers neck and spine that might be caused by taking a blow to the head while also preventing concussions and other forms of traumatic brain injuries from being caused by impacts to the helm. (this is a summoned piece of armor) A kings helmet? Stagmer raised an eyebrow Just who the hell reincarnated into you? Isaac shook his head with a soft chuckle [Heir-sses] arent reincarnations, its more like getting onest massive training session by one of the old masters. In my case, I was taught by Master Hildebrand, the trainer and master at arms to the king in that story. Interesting, Sir Knight. Stagmer mused, but he was clearly already enraptured by the new piece of gear. Anyway, Im gonna go ahead and bring you those materials now. Isaac said in that same soft voice one might use to not wake a sleeping person, then withdrew from the shop on tiptoes, only to burst outughing once he was out of earshot. Crafters and new ideas/inspirations were like cats andser pointers. Nothing else existed. Hede back hereter, and it would be glorious, though. Chapter 138: Stress Testing Chapter 138: Stress Testing Hey Isaac, Im getting some food from the cart outside, do you want anything? Karl asked as he walked past his office. Isaacs door was closed, but with their level of senses, that didnt really matter. Sure, everyone politely pretended that they werent all fully aware of what everyone else was doing, but that didnt change the fact that having a regr conversation with someone who was already walking away through a closed door was now perfectly doable without even having to yell. Is it any good? Isaac asked. The cart had appeared at some point during his walkabout and somehow, hed managed to avoid interacting with it beyond the mere fact that he knew it was there. If the cook made normal food, it would be divine. After all, shes Level 15. Karl said But shes always experimenting with ingredients only avable thanks to the [System], so the food can be a little hit or miss. But would she really be that high a Level already if she werent constantly ying with new ingredients? Isaac asked Hell, its a miracle shes already as high a Level as she is. Or does she summon as well? Its probably got something to do with the fact that shes getting a lot of ingredients from us. Karl said Hydra steak, Drake gosh, all that stuff. Please tell me she makes sure to detoxify everything because Hydra meat is usually fatally toxic. All I can say is: she always tries and even if she fails, she always gets better the next time. Apparently, trying to make a Hydra steak edible got her a whole entire Level. Sounds interesting, and like something the health department would have a massive problem with. Isaac said. Karl sighed You literally have to sign a release that youre willing to take a chance on her food before youre allowed to order anything. It doesnt save her from the consequences of true negligence, and she still has to take massive numbers of precautions, but it still feels like youre taking your life in hand every time you order. I suppose it doesnt hurt to have Bailey and his healing here, does it? Isaac asked. Apparently, that was one of the reasons she was even able to open that shop. Karl said No magic healing, no experimental food. At least thats what Wechsler said thest time he dropped by. How is our favoritewyer, anyway? Isaac asked. Overworked and underappreciated by everyone except us. Karl said. Thomas Wechsler was their teams liaison with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, working to make sure their experiments were legal. Originally, hed been right there in the room with them to constantly approve new experiments, but that role had slowly be superfluous as proper rules and regtions about experiments with monsters were established. which had done precisely nothing to lighten the mans workload and that apparently continued to be a problem. Hell, it was probably worse now because instead of sitting in the same room as a bunch of scientist and rubber stamping a couple of documents every day to having to do his regr work amidst the upheaval created by the [System]. Eh, thats the fate of many public servants. Isaac shrugged Ill make sure to get him something ... actually, I think I gotta go. Isaac wasnt a big fan of just running away from conversations like this, but he really wanted to follow up on histest [System] message ASAP. Congrattions, Hildebrands Heir, for granting the world another legend! Under and thanks to your support and tutge, Helmut Stagmer has imed the ss of Wands Heir. For crafting one of your students into a person of truly exemry, world shaking ability, you have gained 5,000 XP! what. Isaacs just dropped. Sure, as a trainer-[ss] he could and did get XP from, well, training people, but that had been a trickle of one and two points at a time, with time spans ranging from thirty minutes to several hours in between each awarding. This was on a whole other level, though. Sure, hed known that having a [ss] partially built around training others would let him gain XP from following that nonbat path, but 5,000 XP was more than hed ever expected to get. Of course, 5,000 XP were worth barely more than a seventh of a Level to Isaac, but he was an entire evolutionary step and over forty Levels above his trainee. 5,000 XP was the exact amount needed to hit Level 25 and evolve, so the amount made sense and wasmensurate with theirparative powerlevels. The phrasing granting the world another legend was also very informative. Hildebrand was the teacher of a king whod turned into a legend, and apparently, that was the requirement for those big chunks of XP. It also exined why Isaac hadnt gained much XP from training the others. His team members had a level of power and [ss]-rarity that would have also qualified them as a legend, but hed done all the teaching prior to bing [Hildebrands Heir]. Sure, their Evolutions had urred afterhis, but he hadnt done any training in between those two incidents and as such, in the eyes of the [System], Isaac was apparently not deserving of any credit. Isaacs interns, meanwhile were yet to evolve and that was most likely the big chunks of XP would be doled out. At the end of the day, it was nice to be able to get XP in an additional way, but there was the small caveat of needing to create actual legends to gain useable amounts. And even if he did manage to create people at the required Level power, levelling by killing monsters would still be faster. After all, murder was still the fastest way to power in this new world. Uh, Isaac, are you ok? Karl asked, realizing that Isaac wasnt going to keep talking. Sorry. Isaac apologized Something came up and I got lost in thought. Thanks for offering the food, but Im afraid I gotta go, see youter. And with that, he jetted off, phase-leaping through the building and out on the za outside, then headed over to the crafters vige. Sure, he didnt need to talk to Stagmer right the hell now, but Isaac was burning with curiosity. He really wanted to know what his favorite [cksmith] could now do. However, he didnt even have to reach the forge to meet the man as he was currently in the process ofing over to the teams building, a gleaming helmet tucked under one arm. Hey Helmut. Isaac greeted, slowing down to the speed of a casual walk as he did so. Oh, Isaac, I was justing over to see if youd help me stress-test this thing. Stagmer said, handing over the helmet. Inferior Copy of the Helmet Hildegrim A piece of armor out of ancient myth and legend, recreated by the Skill of Isaac Thoma, the Auric Sage and copied by the cksmith Helmut Stagmer. It is the finest piece created by human hands in the modern age, though it is iparable to the genuine article. Yet save the original, there is nothing that can surpass its protective abilities. This helmet not only provides immense protection against all kinds of impacts for the skull itself, it also reduces the other consequences of taking a blow to the head, such as spinal trauma, whish or concussions. It was still not the juggernaut of defensive power that the original helm was, aplete set on that level of power would have made the wearer the closest thing to invulnerable, but it was still incredibly powerful. And the [System] agreed, given that it had removed the vastly from the item description. That is one nice helmet. Isaac said But are you sure you want to stress test it? I dont think it would survive Oh, it will, at least with a little elbow grease. I got this new [Skill] with my Evolution, it Stagmer closed his mouth with an audible click as Isaac held up his hand. Announcing your [Skills] where anyone could hear is not a good idea when youre in the public eye. And believe me, when your new [ss] bes public, you will be. Thats why I created a field around us that makes overhearing with enhanced senses impossible. Isaac exined. But Im not famous yet. Stagmer said Why would someone care about what I say now? Because there are plenty of people wo try to listen in on my research team. Isaac said And were literally right next door to that building, close enough for them to hear. Isnt that a little, well, paranoid? Stagmer asked I get what youre saying, but this sounds like something out of an old school spy drama. Youd think so, but there are people looking out for all high Level or important individuals. Some apparently are there to protect them, for example, German intelligence is working to protect my family. Isaac exined Either way, people not being able to predict what youre capable off outside of beyond making quality weapons and armor will be to your benefit. Hm, thats a dark way of seeing things. Stagmer grumbled But no one can overhear us, right? Unless theyre somehow standing between us, no. Isaac said. Good. Stagmer replied Basically, I got a few great [Skills] avable from [Wands Heir], my new [ss]. Then, he facepalmed. Right, I forgot to tell you after you interrupted me: I hit Level 25, evolved and was offered [Wands Heir] as a [ss] because Id recreated one of his swords. Actually, thats why I wasing to visit you in the first ce. Isaac said, quickly exining how hed received a message prompt. Thats a little weird, I guess. Stagmer replied, sounding a little put out by the fact that someone else was receiving such detailed progress updates about his person, but continued nheless Anyway, I got a few cool [Skills] I want to get, including one that lets me apply my expertise at desmithing to every project I do in the forge, even if its somethingpletely different, like this helmet. Then I got one that is meant to let me recreate some of Wands greatest works, though apparently, their usefulness scales with my Level. And then I got a [Skill] that lets me test my creations under battlefield conditions, then have them automatically fix themselves afterwards. It takes a lot of mana, but it can also take that from volunteers who are involved in the process. So I can just cut loose? Or are there some kinds of stated limits? Isaac asked. Please dont atomize it? Stagmer asked, half serious, half joking. I honestly dont think I could without using specific [Skills] meant to do that. Hildegrim is looking tough today. Stagmerughed. How about we go to the yard behind my house? the cksmith suggested. Sure. And then, a few minutester, they stood in arge grassy field with the helmet resting on a rock. Helmut Stagmer would like to activate the Skill Consequence-free Testing to experiment with a piece of equipment while working with you. Donate 500 mana to support this Skill? Y/N? Isaac, of course, clicked yes. Ready? he asked, turning around to look at Stagmer to ensure he had safely hidden behind a tree. He could have looked with his [Aura], of course, but sometimes, it was important that other people knew you were paying attention to them. Andter on, once this was done, hed walk Stagmer through picking and using his own [Aura], but now, it was helmet-smashing time. Isaac manifested a normal, regr sword via [Armory of Ancient Times] because he knew that Mimung, Balmung or even one of Old Reliables other forms would not have been a proper test, they were just too strong. He lifted the sword above his head and brought it down at full power and the sword practically leaped out of his hand after bouncing off the target, while the helmet only gained a small scratch. Thankfully, the stinging in Isaacs hand faded in less than a second thanks to his regeneration. Impressive. Isaac remarked Id like to try hitting it a little harder. Sure, go ahead. Stagmer encouraged. Ok, [Power Strike]. Arge dent was created, but that was buffed out a mere momentter. The end result would have been very unpleasant for the person actually wearing the helmet, but hardly fatal or even particrly debilitating. The metal would have bent far enough to cut the scalp of the wearer, but not crack the skull. Hit it harder. Was all Stagmer said in response. [2x Power Strike]. Isaac said, intentionally misnaming [Legendary Blow]. boom! please tell me you have a way of getting that helmet back? Stagmer asked intively, staring at the massive hole amidst the shards of the rock that had served as an anvil. Yep. Isaac said grimly. On second thought, it was rather apparent what had happened. The helmet had clearly taken a lot more damage, but the sheer force hadnt just exceeded what the helmet could withstand but also utterly overwhelmed the whish protection for the wearer, aka, the stone it had been sitting on. As such, the stone had been pulverized and the helmet punted close to a hundred meters into the ground. Isaac phased, falling through the ground until he reached the twisted mass of metal which was all that was left of the helmet, grabbed it, and leaped back out. By the time he was walking over towards Stagmer, it was back in one piece, though. That is one hell of a helmet. Isaac eximed Now, I know youve got a lot of work to catch up on, but once youre done with that, do you think you could create a suit of armor fit for a king? Chapter 139: Interlude Karl Chapter 139: Interlude Karl Dont you ever feel its weird, handling stuff this expensive? Weinbaum, another engineer, asked Karl as he withdrew a carefully measured amount of Demon Lord Blood from his storage space. Sure, its as weird as everything else. Karl said through clenched teeth as he concentrated on carefully pouring the substance into a prepared metal vessel, then added a few different chemicals Just as weird as me being able to do this. As he spoke, the metal vessels top closed shut on its own ord, sealing itself with no seam or sign that it had ever been anything other than a featureless metal cylinder. It seemed to be an odd way to conduct an industrial chemical reaction, or rather, an alchemical reaction, but this was an exceedingly odd substance. If this reaction wasnt conducted in a perfectly sealed container, and not just any container, but one far stronger than anything normally used in chemistry, it would blow up quite violently. Or at least this kind of mixture would. Professor Chandler had created a dozen different processes to refine the Demon Lords Blood and each was vastly different from thest. Sometimes, this stuff was distilled down using traditional methods, with the apparatus all the while being reinforced by the half dozen strongest [Engineers] on campus to prevent it from tearing itself to pieces. The resulting syrupy liquid had been more uniform than the initial substance and less likely to react volitively as the part actively being burnt switched from extremely slow to react to highly reactive. However, even though it burned evenly, it also burned far hotter than any device Karl and his fellow [Engineers] constructed could utilize or even survive. Meanwhile, the current method used a few alchemically enhanced fire-suppressing chemicals to slightly reduce the vtility and chemical energy contained within, reducing the potential yield but making it actually possible to use. the entire process also made precisely zero sense to Karl. As an engineer with a Masters degree, he should have been fairly knowledgeable about how this stuff worked and he also had a decent grounding in chemistry. Yet all that was telling him was that none of this should work. Fire suppressing chemicals reducing the chemical energy in mmable materials that were not currently on fire, all without creating an appreciable amount of heat or pressure, yet explode if there was a way for the energy to escape? Impossible! In fact, it was almost as if there was something malevolent left in the blood, trying to ensure that no one could adequately use it. Sure, Isaac had reassured them that this wasnt the case and that the substance was merely supremely vtile, but Karl was painfully aware of the fact that there were hard limits to Isaacs knowledge. By his own admission, the returnee had not been a researcher in the other timeline and as suchcked the kind of knowledge that would have been truly useful in everyones research efforts. If there had really been some kind of issue with using Demon Lord Blood, would he even have known about it? But at the end of the day, there was nothing else to do, nothing except to continue experimenting until either this stuff finally submitted or an ident got past their myriad safeguard [Skills] and this entireb got shut down. Careful, careful, we dont have much of that stuff. Weinbaum warned Karl, but he merely rolled his eyes. Whenever Karl was handling this precious substance, Weinbaum started acting like a helicopter parent whose child had gone to school for the first time. Not only were they peers, but they actually had far more of this stuff than one might assume because Isaac had given them a lot of it. Sure, hed pawned off some to many different organizations and institutions, but those had been tiny portions, creating an illusion of scarcity, and all the recipients had been incredibly grateful. I wont juggle it, if thats what youre worried about. Karl grumbled, stepping up to theirtest engine prototype. Once hed judged the reaction in the metal vessel hade to a stop, so he peeled open the top and ced it in the intended receptacle. Then, he skipped out of the room, shut the door behind himself and took up his position behind the massive, armored window that allowed them to view the process within. Ready? Weinbaum asked. Ready. Karl nodded, flipping open theptop next to him [Automatic Transcription], [Sense Structure]. In other words, anything that happened in that room and was picked up by their senses or [Skills] would now automatically be taken down, and that range would now be vastly expanded. [Understand Process], [Sense w], [Pristine Measurements] Weinbaum chimed in, tacking on his own [Skills]. It was a little weird for people to speak all their [Skills] out loud, certainly, in Professor Baileys team, they only announced them when someone else should hit the deck to avoid it. But here, it worked a little differently. It was important for everyone to be aware of what everyone else was doing, and so that everyone knew that every item on the checklist had beenpleted. And after another minute, things were ready. Karl pressed the button, a big, red one for reasons, and the machine in the secure experiment room activated. It wasnt anything fancy orplicated, just a basic engine that converted burning fuel into kic energy that could power, for example, a car. An old, slow, incredibly basic one. And until they knew what worked, there wasnt really a reason to get fancy. At first, it seemed like things were going fairly well, the engine slowly grinding to life and then it was as if a miniature star had been born at the heart of collection of moving parts, metal cracking and splintering as energy surged outwards. The world inside that room seemed toe to a sudden halt, the incredible sheer wrongness of an incredibly vtile situation turning into a three-dimensional still of an explosion, shards of metal and gouts of me hanging in the air. Then reality itself suddenly seemed to rewind, leaving behind a mere afterimage wreathing the seemingly repaired machine. And finally, the afterimage became a little more saturated and yed out what would have happened had the [Skill] [ident Simtion] not kicked in. When all was said and done, all that was left was a smoking engine with cracks running across it sitting on the table and a massive ident report scrolling across the screen of theptop, being written far faster than any human could manage even now. Sadly, as powerful as [ident Simtion] was, there were limits. For one, it couldnt fully repair anything damaged in the beginning stages of an ident, it could only stick the broken various pieces back into ce but not fix the damage. In addition, the [Skill] wasnt prescient. It could only kick in when it was clear that an ident was actually happening, as machines started breaking down and rivets started flying at speeds that could take someones head off. Therefore, there was always a significant amount of damage. Andstly, it didnt kick in if the intended process urred in a way that wasnt intended, something that theyd tested out with a few literal explosives. Since the whole affair was meant to explode, and it exploded due to faulty wiring rather than being detonated using the intended method, well, that was that. Better not stand to close! As Weinbaum began to swear next to Karl, a xon call rang all through the building. Unlike otherbs, this rm didnt mean danger, evacuate, but rather, it merely informed everyone to stop any and all dangerous experiments that had been conducted under the assumption that any ident would be mitigated as the [Skill] that would do the mitigating was on cooldown. Get any closer? a new voice, tinged with sympathy, rang out from the corridor. A little, Professor J?ger. Karl sighed and pulled a few mana potions out of his spatial storage, passing them into the already open and outstretched hand. This was how these things usually went. It took a while for the Professors mana to recharge [ident Simtion], even if he didnt use it for anything else. As such, without these potions, it would take a good long while until the dangerous experiments could resume and the head researcher would have been functionally useless as well. Eh, itll take a while. Youre making great progress. J?ger said with an encouraging grin, making Karl chuckle. J?ger was busy with his own things, he couldnt know that, but he was nheless trying to encourage them. *** BOOM! another day, another explosion, more mana potions paid to the good Professor. So thats what happened when you try to add the dust of a Thermite Avatar to the Blood of a Demon Lord. The other Professormented. Really, Professor Chandler? J?ger sighed That seemed like an obvious result. But now we know its the result. Chandler replied. Was it worth it, though? An irreceable substance burned to ash, [ident Simtion] on cooldown, and the room is more scorched than Ive ever seen. It was. Chandler said with the infectious enthusiasm of a six year old let loose in a chocte factory. Karl just sighed and moved on to properly repairing the machine, his [Aura] sinking into the whole affair, each bit clicking into ce and sticking there like a puzzle piece, foreign, burning mana being pushed out of the material to prevent it from interfering with the repair process. Once more into the breach, he supposed. *** And this is the part where it explodes, right? Amy asked, looking over the machine carefully reinforced by bands of telekic force. Its not supposed to. Karl muttered under his breath. But nothing happened, the machine happily chugging along, growing faster and faster andfasterandfaster and [ident Simtion] activated, Professor J?ger came running, and Karl handed over some mana potions. This is new. The Professor observed, looking over the melted mass on the table What happened? Everything worked perfectly, the machine was going faster and faster and then it turned out that the Blood can make the engine work at speeds well beyond what we built it for. We can harness the fuel, now its on us to provide it an engine that can take advantage of that power. Alright, carry on. *** Engine number seven-hundred-and-neen chugged away happily, seemingly fully functional. Karl stood in the room with it, proudly gazing out through the safety ss window where a bunch of his colleagues were standing, looking extremely apprehensive and like they were ready to fling themselves behind cover at a moments notice. And the worst part was, he couldnt entirely me them. Chapter 140: Material Gathering Chapter 140: Material Gathering A vast mountain extended upwards in front of Isaac. Deep crimson rock pierced the sky with vast gashes granting ess to its insides, and the ores within. The rather dramatically named Bloodore Mountain looked exactly like youd expect it to. Bloodred everything, pools of what looked like blood, monsters tarred in the same color, and a sky over top that wouldnt look out of ce in a post-apocalyptic hellscape. For the first time in this new timeline, a Tier 6 Hunting Ground had been summoned and now, he was about to explore it. Normally, this would not have been summoned at this point in time, and while there were where no outrightws against it, anyone else would have gotten in a world of trouble upon this ce being discovered. However, there were a few things ying in the teams favor. Firstly, this wasnt on the books just yet, merely a material retrieval mission, so unless someone decided to somehow back trace the exact time something was forged using the materials they were about to retrieve, then cross-match that information with the known average power Levels of the team and if they should have already been able to summon a Hunting Ground with a Space Elemental Core. And by that point, it should have been abundantly clear that nothing had gone wrong and that theyd been correct in estimating their strength. Secondly, the reason not to publish the fact that they were going against Hunting Grounds that powerful wasnt that they didnt want people to go after the Hunting Grounds themselves, the real issue were the Space Elementals you needed to kill to ess them. After all, Hunting Grounds at Tier 6 and onwards couldnt be created using the Lesser Space Elemental Cores theyd been using to date. Therefore, even though they were currently in possession of what were most likely the only Space Elemental cores on Earth, which screamed to all the world that summoning these things should have been beyond most humans power to deal with, things were actually not that bad. Also, there was the aspect of how Space Elementals werent actually strong, just annoying to fight. Space-warping one trick ponies who were far stronger than normal Tier 6s against someone who couldnt counter them, yet utterly boned against someone in possession of a counter to their abilities. And [True Cut] was the death to trick ponies. Meanwhile, the kinds of foes theyd face here were perfectly average Tier 6s, though thered be a lot of them. And thirdly, theyd been given a lot of leeway to y with due to their exemry safety record. A few nicks and scratches here or there, sure, but those were to be expected given the nature of their work, and they happened with a frequency that was vastly lower than in other professions that dealt with animals like a zookeeper or vet. Hell, theyd never had a single ident in this facultys entire existence at least if you didnt count that one spill Patrick had taken down the stairs because hed thought his [Aura] control was good enough to keep track of his feet while he had his nose buried in a book. Spoiler alert: it wasnt. Are you sure you dont want one of us toe with you? Patrick asked from his desk on the other side of the portal. Yes. Isaac nodded I only need a few things, and I can carry those by myself. No need to waste anyone elses time. Then what do you call me having to sit on my ass out here to make sure nothing saunters out while you go in? Patrick shot back. I say its doing paperwork at a different desk. Isaacmented dryly. It was a task they all did on asion, as even with all the power each and every one of them possesses, simultaneously being inside the space and adequately guarding the entrance wasnt possible. But given that they all had vastly heightened senses, merely being in front of the exit was enough to be able to stop all monsters that might want toe out even without focusing their attention on that task. And with that parting shot, Isaac marched into the vast space that, oddly enough, didnt stink like a charnel house. There were many resources one could retrieve from this Hunting Ground, ranging from rare ores that couldnt be found anywhere else to the blood water that sat in ponds at the base of the mountain, which had several alchemical uses. It would have been easy enough to clean out the whole ce in a matter of days, but that would have been an epically bad idea. The level of retribution from the space after it was closed scaled exponentially with the amount of stuff plundered, but the exact rate of increase varied randomly between summons, so it was functionally impossible to exactly predict what level of resource extraction would cause a cataclysmic reaction. They might have ced the entrances to the various Hunting Grounds inside a buried, heavily reinforced corridor that made for a perfect kill-zone if one decided to stand at the top of the stairs and bombard the monsters below as they tried to get out, but that wasnt a perfect solution. Why? Because the number of monsters could swell up to the point where their sheer mass would rupture the room and crack open the earth above, leaving them free to swarm the campus freely. Therefore, Isaac would only be able to take a small number of things from this realm of blood and monsters. He slowly headed towards the mountain, separating his [Aura] into two parts. The first was an incredibly thin shell held at a distance of one hundred meters. Itcked the fidelity to properly analyze much of anything, but it could fulfill two very important tasks. First, it could tell when something passed through it, be that a projectile or a lunging monster. It wouldnt tell him what that was, but the mere fact that something had passed through this outer shell would give him a lot of information. Secondly, it could tell when certain materials, such as the ore he was looking for, were in range. It wouldnt give him a proper overview of the deposits size and purity given that he only saw a progression of molecule-thin slices as his [Aura] passed over it, but he didnt need it, given that he could just do a deeper scan once he had its location. Meanwhile, the second portion of his [Aura] was wrapped around him as it normally was, a single solid shell with a few longer beams roaming around to catch anyone who thought they were safe merely by being outside of the 25 meter radius his [Aura] had as its default area. This was a highly advanced form of [Aura] projection that offered great information gathering potential withoutpromising ones defense. It was something that offered great benefits, but was also ludicrously difficult to learn. In fact, even though it had been invented in the other timeline, Isaac had never been able to master it until now. Once this little trick got out, people would once again believe him to be a genius of [Aura] control when hed merely had a ludicrous amount of practice. Still, the mere fact that hed learned a new technique like this was an indicator that he could still grow with his [Aura], and that was an excellent sign. Isaacs first target was one of the pools of blood. He just walked over to it, dipped in a ss bottle, screwed the top shut and stored just the bottle and its contents, leaving all the liquid that had clung to the outside to fall right back. Despite its appearance, this stuff wasnt actually a collection of blood cells and sma but some alchemical sludge with a lot of energy that mimicked what could be drawn out of blood and could be worked into several potions. Some of there were health potions, while others were exceedingly nasty poisons. But Isaac didnt actually know any of those recipes, so this batch was solely there for Professor Chandler to y with. It could also be used to form permanent versions of the temporary blood enchantments Isaac liked to use, but that required a ton of additional ingredients, expertise he didnt have and By the time the Blood Elemental, one made of actual lifeblood, not the fake blood that made up the pond, surged out of the liquid, Isaac was already backing up and bringing his sword around in an arc while infusing his [Aura] with [Deaths Embrace] as he copsed it around the enemy, ruthlessly squashing the hostile energy field as it tried to make him bleed from every orifice. The Elemental jerked away instinctively, focusing more on moving away overall instead of trying to shift its core. The thing about all manner of liquid Elementals was that their cores were constantly moving, making them a monumental pain in the ass to kill. But while these kinds of creatures didnt really feel fear as beings of flesh and blood did, they still had survival instincts. And those now told the Blood Elemental to run, stiffening its body to maximize its speed, with the small side effect of not being able to shift its core anymore a core that was promptly bisected by Isaacs [Far Strike]. Blood Elemental (Lv. 39) has been in. 500 XP gained As the monster fell apart, Isaac snatched up both halves of the core, after all, they could be useful. But as the blood stopped being contained by the creatures powers, the liquids coppery stench began to permeate the air. Even if Isaac hadnt had a limit on how much he could take with him and therefore had a limit on how much productive time he could spend in here, the stench would eventually have forced him out. Sure, it wasnt that bad after one monster died, but the chance of the number of the dead remaining at one was basically nil. Isaac continued to head towards the mountain, asionally slightly altering his course to dig out material deposits found close to the surface. But there were also monsters. So many damn monsters. Pink crystals veined with crimson, countless razor-sharp fragments all piled together into a roughly humanoid mess of sharp edges that would cause terrible wounds that literally dragged the victims blood out of their body. Volcanic -looking rock golems that boiled the blood of those they struck at the point of impact. Wyverns that spat crimson-colored acid. And then, at the core of this temporary world, the Devouring Golem waited, a spike-covered metal monster that could absorb all blood and any non-mana infused metal that struck it to heal itself and in the absence of injuries, growrger and stronger. if it hadnt been for the monsters, this would only have taken half as long. Isaac bent over, punched the ground with a [Power Strike], shattering rock into powder and grabbed a twisted chunk of Bloodore, the stuff the mountain had been named after. Thats when a series of crystal chunks tore through the outeryer of his [Aura]. He whirled, Old Reliable morphing into its Zweih?nder form with two copies appearing next to it, all three des smashing aside the volley. Many crystals outright shattered, continuing along their previous trajectory until they eventually dropped to the ground, while the intact ones were merely deflected and returned to the monster that had unleashed the attack. The Bleeder Crystal stood a full three meters tall, individual shards moving around topensate for the damage with a sound of a bucket of broken ss being shaken. Isaac charged, flinging the Zweih?nder at the core with immense force, enhanced by [Power Strike]. Piercing individual crystals wasnt the problem here, punching through the mass and shattering the heart gems was. The golem charged as well, unleashing another volley of shards, though it was forced to recall each crystal once it missed. [Hunters Gaze] told Isaac that these crystals were flying based on their own power, which they didnt carry very much of and had to recharge by docking with the main body. No vast flying clouds of crystalline des, and any crystals Isaac broke were out of the fight, then. Balmung shed into existence a moment before impact and cut through everyyer of crystal covering the second heart gem as well as the gem itself as if they werent even there. Dozens of tiny shards tinkled against his skin, creating tiny cuts that bled far more profusely than they had any right to, but this fight was over. During his charge, the Zweih?nder had constantly been drawn towards Isaacs hand until it had gotten stuck in the Bleeder Crystals back,cking the momentum to prate the defensive crystalyers. Its location? Right above the third and heart gem. So while Isaac was moving past the monster, he spun on his feet and mmed a glowing red foot into the pommel of the Zweih?nder, a [Legendary Blow: fivefold Power Strike] punting the de into his foes body with such force that it not only was the intended target blown to flinders, but every shard within thirty centimeters of the impact site fell to powder as well. Bleeder Crystal (Lv. 47) has been in. 750 XP gained And that was not only the fight, but also what finally brough [Power Strike] up to Level 30. Power Strike mon, Level XXX) The users next blow will hit as though their strength were three times as high. This Skill may now also be safely used on fists and legs and has a reduced bacsh on the users body. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to drive a piercing de into an enemys flesh, it has evolved to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction, driving the cutting edge into the foe while pushing them with vastly reduced strength, massively improving armor pration. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, infusing each and every attack with a permanent 20 % increase in impact power, regardless of whether or not this Skill was activated. Cost: 12 mana per strike Firstly, the first line of the description had shifted from a mathematical forme that calcted the enhancement based on the [Skills] Level to a t tripling of the impact power, aka a 200% boost, which was far more than the forme could have provided with the [Skill] Level cap in ce. Secondly, it now boosted every attack by a t 20%. No cost, no limitation, just a solid boost in attack strength. In other words, a power befitting a [Skill] at the Level cap. Isaac cautiously reached out and rapped his knuckles on the ground. He didnt feel like he hit any stronger, but there might be a good exnation for that. Therefore, he punched the ground, and suddenly, he felt the power kicking in. Then, he rapped his knuckles on the ground again, but this time he did so with the intention of breaking the rock. Once again, he hit harder than he should have. That left him convinced that the [Skill] really only kicked in when he attacked, and when he meant to attack, neat. However, based its increase based on the force hed invested, which would take a while to fully adjust to as every move of his hits harder than hed grown used to. Still an awesome upgrade, though. Before Isaac continued, he scooped up a bunch of crystals and stored them by burning another Lesser Space Elemental Core. He wasnt entirely sure what they were used for but hed seen them used in many weapons and pieces of armor but not in a decorative way, so they were likely useful for something. In the meantime, his profusely bleeding scratches had healed when the Bleeder Crystal died and its curse had ended. He continued deeper into this strange space, beginning to climb up the mountain at its center. It would have been a hellish climb for a normal person, but Isaac just kicked off his boots and jammed his toes into random cracks, then used that toehold as a springboard to jump off of. From there, hed catch himself with his fingers wherever there was space and then either fling himself higher or find somewhere else to hop onwards from. There was such a vast disparity between his Strength and the weight of his body that that flinging himself around like a demented pinball was perfectly possible. and thats when some manner of living being sted through the outeryer of his [Aura]. Isaac kicked himself away from the mountain, manifesting a Kabar and telekically fixing it in ce in front of him right where his foot was about tond and used it as a tform to cross the remaining distance between himself and the Wyvern, the less than a hundred meters that separated them not necessitating true flight. He crashed into the winged beasts belly, plunging a quickly conjured Balmung into the rtively unarmored flesh and gutting the monster. Even before it began to fall, he [Power Strike] kicked it with both legs, flinging himself straight back against the cliff face, where he clung like a spider. Bloodborne Wyvern (Lv. 24) has been in. 244 XP gained The monster had been pathetically weak, but still far stronger than a regr ol Wyvern, which was a mere Tier 3. Isaac nced down at the mangled, pulped corpse lying at the bottom of the cliff and considered going back down to harvest it but decided solidly against it. In this ce, using every bit of your kills was the exact opposite of a good idea. Youd still end up with the monsters on your ass if you only retrieved sup-par goods, with a vastly lower downside. Hed walk out of here with top-quality, nothing less. Besides, thered be more Wyverns. He continued to climb, eventually reaching a series of nests established event though this world had only existed for a couple of hours and would likely cease to be in a simr timespan. Just another stylistic choice, he supposed. The Wyverns did not take to his intrusion kindly and took to the air, voicing their displeasure with a mixture of a dinosaurs roar and a birds angry squawk. Isaac just took his position on thergest t section of rock and began to dodge globs of acid as the monsters began to bombard him. He kept dodging and weaving until one of them had enough and decided to charge, attempting to crush him in its ws. This was, of course, not to be. He just jumped upwards, decapitated it, then relocated to a new spot so the perfectly harvestable corpse wouldnt be destroyed by future acid attacks. The pattern repeated over and over again, until Isaac ran out of avable space and killed the rest of the Wyverns with a few well-ced [Far Strikes], then went on to harvest the finest bits of leather from the bodies. Everything else was left to rot, though they would never start to dpose as the world would have ended before then. Another handful of minutester, Isaac reached the top of the mountain, arge, t teau with the Devouring Golem waiting in the middle. It looked like a cross between a tortoise, pangolin and hedgehog, the top of its shell standing a full four meters tall. Twin heads sat at the end of long necks, not necessary for the golems survival, but functioning as a fantastic way to extend its reach. A low growl shook the air as it charged, one head moving to each side to be in a position to catch him in case he decided to make a break for it. Not happening. Isaac charged in turn, and as he did so, he grew. Up until now, hed only used the most basic version of [Form of Horror], a transformation into an amalgamation of all the monsters whose Aspects hed slotted. And that had been enough. So when hed gained the ability to create new forms based on his slotted Aspects and save them forter, hed created one optimized for aerialbat, the other one meant for use underwater. But eventually, after the [Raid Boss], hed had too many Aspects, creating a massive messprised from tiny fragments of various monsters, still functional but hardly optimized. And thats where this new form came in. Isaac rose up to match the monsters four meter height, a crown of ded horns jutting from his scalp. Overall, he kept the same basic form it had had in the beginning, a humanoid with serpentine features, long limbed, flexible, sinuous, perfect for his quick and agile fighting style. Old Reliable was turned into natural weapons, ws on his hands and feet, his teeth, and spikes on his knees and elbows that turned strikes with them into nasty weapons. Two additional swords floated around him, courtesy of the de Tempest, while an outeryer of shimmering energy wrapped him, obscuring his form and when he attacked, it would slightly distort his image to fuck with those who would be on the receiving end of his attacks, or ensure that counterattacks would be off-target. Finally, hed added the Greater Hydras Acid-Spitting nds to his throat. One head snapped at him but Isaac leaped over it, running past the side of his opponent to sh at its side, but before he could attack, the second head swung around, passing over the first, and tried bite him in the ass. It missed by half a meter, though, as it had been aiming for the illusion, not his real body. For its trouble, it had a pair of floating des driven into it, a venomous green glow slowly beginning to erode the metals structural integrity until there was nothing left but soup. Meanwhile, Isaac just began to start wing at the Golems side, the long w-des beginning to glow with the light of Hellfire. Old Reliable had gained that power from killing the Demon Lord, though hed rarely used it, given that it was vastly less flexible than his [Grand Hellme] [Skill] as he could only apply it to the sword, rather than freely wield it. But it was fueled by the sword, rather than draining his own mana pool, and given that he was in a position to carve the thing up at close range, it was perfectly useable. The various spikes on the Devourer Golems back grew, shortened, and shifted orientation as needed, trying to impale him, but Isaac just dodged most and lopped off the rest. In the meanwhile, the first head and been reduced to goop so the flying des thudded into the other one to work on that. But that wasnt all that necessary, given that the entire thing was currently aze. Hellme could burn on life-force alone and given that the golem was partially based around blood and vampirism, it held said fuel. As the heat grew greater and greater, the beasts hide softened ever more, Isaacs ws tearing huge chunks out of it with every strike until eventually, the Devouring Golem just stopped moving. Isaac leaped back, expecting a trap or trick, but then realized that hed cut apart the core without even realizing it. Devouring Golem (Lv. 70) has been in. 2,000 XP gained And wasnt that a fitting ending for this Hunting Ground run. Isaac threw the XP hed just gained as well as sever ten-thousand into levelling up once again, hitting Level 73 and gaining thest [Skill] point hed needed to buy [Fully Geared]. Fully Geared (legendary) The historical definition of a knight is a lesser nobleman who maintains his own set of heavy armor and a warhorse. Therefore, a knight without his armor is no knight at all. And as sturdy as armor is, it can break, get stolen or simply fall apart if it gets too old. If you want your armor to survive for more than a couple of fights, this Skill is essential. It allows the user to store three full outfits in an extradimensional storage and dress themselves with a mere thought. Armor and clothing is cleaned upon being stored and light damage is repaired. Equipped armor can be reinforced using mana. Cost: 10 mana to store/equip/switch outfits, 5 mana per second to repair clothing, 50 mana per minute to reinforce armor Pieces of gear slotted into this [Skill] might not be soulbound, but they were the next best thing, practically indestructible. To truly turn this into a [Skill] worthy of the title legendary, it needed armor that was likewise worthy of being written into a legend which he didnt have. But he would, and even before then, it would be damn useful. For one, he could now teach a lesser version of this [Skill] to others, but there were also other awesome uses. Reaching into his storage space, Isaac drew out several sets of clothing/armor,plete with underwear. Using an auto-equip [Skill] to armor up and forgetting the stuff you normally wore underneath, yep, that was the kind of mistake you only made once. The first set of equipment was every piece of magical equipment hed gained from Events and Dungeons, the ones he didnt use in battle unless it was desperately needed because getting recement would have nearly impossible. The second was a set of regr clothing because, hey, instant clean clothes. Meanwhile, the third was his storage set. A bandolier of potions, which would allow him to quickly switch over to this set, then grab a couple of bottles. And by the time he started chugging said bottled, hed already be back in his regr suit of armor. Over the top he wore a massive trench coat whose insides were utterly covered in pockets to the point where it resembled a cartoons shady dealers favorite piece of clothing. It would let him store a lot of stuff without needing to burn a core. Sure, [Fully Geared] didnt let him store raw materials and the like, but it would definitely take the stuff that were in his pockets. Now all he needed was a full set of proper armor, which would likely take a while. Stagmer was an incredible [cksmith], but he was a cksmith. What Isaac needed was a high-Level [Leatherworker]. His fighting style was all about mobility and flexibility, something that would be more difficult in metal armor, especially the full te armor that offered the greatest protection. It wasnt necessarily the weight that would be a problem, at if one discounted several mystical metals, but flexibility. Metal armor, even chain mail, was far stiffer than properly treated leather, even with [Skills]. With all that done, Isaac summoned his Zweih?nder and nted it in the earth, piercing the realms core, then left the space. It copsed behind him soon after, spitting out almost a dozen Blood Slimes, Crystals, and a single Wyvern whose wings instantly broke as the struck the walls of the narrow corridor. The fighting took less than a minute. The cleanup far longer. Chapter 141: Interlude Andre Chapter 141: Interlude Andre This job is insane. Fun. But insane. Li-Mei gasped, leaning over, hands resting on her knees. Andre couldnt help but agree, especially as he wasnt in any better shape. Reducing someone with enhanced Stats to such a State was damn difficult, yet Dr. Thoma managed it on a daily basis. Mind you, on top of everything they gained from levelling, theyd each slotted several Space-rted Aspects, further boosting their Stats beyond what they should have been able to have. And that wasnt even mentioning the [Skills] theyd gained that werepletely unconnected to any traditional method of gaining power. [Fully Geared], [Legendary Blow] Of course, the former was currently only being used to quickly switch from his work clothes and at-home outfit, but if something worked, it worked, and he didnt have a better use for it yet. As for thetter, it required a basic [Strike], [Blow] or [Shot] to work off of, but Dr. Thoma had also had a solution for that. Hed found a Karate teacher whod learned how to impart the basic [Powerful Blow] to his students over a matter of days and paid for everyone except the good Dr. himself to go there. The training itself had taken far longer than Dr. Thomas and the end result had been somewhatcklusterpared to the Epic [Skills] theyd gotten, but that just enhanced how odd of a duck his boss was. In one of the stories the man so often referenced, hed have been referred to as a monster, potentially an old monster, except for the fact that this was impossible given how recently the [System] had appeared. As for the work itself, well, Andre was forced to agree with Li-Mei. It was the strangest situation hed ever found himself in, and hed once been present for a call to the police that had involved the officer saying something along the line of You said you have guns in the house, just shoot the guys trying to break into the garage and dump their bodies in the river. Lazy Jackass. But even that situation had been less strange than his current one. Physical exercise as if one of hells torturers were ones personal trainer, mystic exercises that seemed like a cults pseudo-pagan crap and monster hunting, all interspersed with the most mundane of tasks like a running a sample to ab across campus or getting coffee for everyone as he arrived in the morning. And why couldnt his boss get his own coffee? As it turned out, he lived in the middle of the woods and there was no ce to get it on his way in except for the campus cafeteria, and its coffee was crap. Ah yes, Dr. Isaac Thomas secret home in the middle of nowhere, far from civilization. Everyone knew he had it, no one who knew what it was cared to share. And what was one to do but specte wildly? Some people thought it was a secret sex dungeon. Others thought it was an actual dungeon. Or a Dungeon in the [System] sense. Not to mention some of the crazier ideas, like the ims that hed built a methb over there, creating all those potions the team drank even though it was well known that Professor Chandler made those. Or maybe he was producing many other, more exotic substances? The rumors that made the most sense just stated that he was conducting risky summonings over there. except that also made zero sense. No one could survive constantly skating at the edge of disaster, constantly attempting to grow stronger by fighting monsters at the very edge of what they could beat and remain alive. Simple probability dictated otherwise. Even if a group of people were skilled enough to win ny-nine percent of all fights, calcted across even a mere hundred fights which barely enough to reach the first Evolution, two-thirds of those people would be dead. The mere fact that Andre and Li-Mei still had a boss meant that that particr rumor was almost definitely bullshit. Hey, are you ok? Li-Mei asked, nudging him in the arm, apparently, hed been too deep in thought and that had caused her to worry. Yeah, just thinking. Andre shrugged But youre right, this job is insane, but the good kind of insane. I suppose that means that youre ready to work even harder? speak of the devil, here was Dr. Thoma. Andre nched at the thought of a worse set of exercises. Dont worry, I dont have anything else for you to do, at least no physical training. Magic is up next. His boss said, handing over a folder. Weve already managed to earn you two [Spatial Magic Affinity] through using several different relevant Aspect [Skills], now its time to raise that [Skill] to Level 20. As he said that, he pulled what looked like the worlds most sadistic engineers take on the Rubiks Cube, built from the bastard lovechild of a beartrap and an Iron Maiden. Try to see if you can warp space enough to solve that cube, be careful, and remember that Professor Bailey is a healer. yep, that sounded like a great time, fun and all, and like the worlds biggest workce safety vition. Andre strongly suspected that this thing wasnt nearly as dangerous as it looked, simply because Dr. Thoma was generally pretty careful. Most likely, the absurdly dangerous appearance was intended to make this as close to a situation that was actually threatening. After all, bat against a dangerous, superior foe gave great returns in [Skill] Levels. Anyway, Ill be in the next summoning room over if you need something, and please let me know if that device helps with your training. And with that, Dr. Thoma just waltzed out of the room, going straight through the walls. Strange, but that was how this job was. Odd as all get out. *** Alright, now the two of youve levelled up your [Skills] to a high degree, grownfortable with your Aspect [Skills], and gathered all the XP you need to hit Level 10. Dr. Thoma told them with a massive grin on his face, So congrattions. Im pretty sure youre among the most prepared people to ever hit your first Evolution. That doesnt seem right. Andre said cautiously. There were so many powerful people in this world, with all sorts of insanely rare [sses], how could the two of them possibly be among the best prepared people in the world? It is, though. Dr. Thoma told him with a reassuring grin There are certain kinds of preparations that can only be achieved with the help of someone more powerful feeding you Aspects and teaching you [Skills]. So now, please choose a new [ss] and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. With that, he sat down on a his chair and pulled out hisptop to do something productive. Not that Andre was paying attention to him anymore, he had his own task to focus on. Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the first Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels and Aspects, you have unlocked several new sses. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 10 until you evolve your ss. Here are your possible ss Evolutions: Student mon) A student is someone at the very beginning of their journey, not knowing much about anything yet willing to learn anything their teachers have to learn. This is a ss that focusses on knowledge acquisition, retention and eventual application. It is one of the least specialized sses avable, and therefore the most flexible and varied when ites to your eventual Evolution. Eternal Student (umon) First, you are a student, learning the ins and outs of your future profession, be that in trade school, under a master, or in the ssroom of a university. Then, you put that teaching to use, going about your business while learning through doing. And finally, you will have be the master, teaching others to follow in your footsteps. But what if you dont want to do that, what if youd rather continue your journey towards wisdom? This is the domain of the Eternal Student, who is not only the embodiment of the idea you never stop learning, but takes it to a whole other level. This is a ss that will never exceed the power of a more focused one, but so long as the Eternal Student spends enough time learning about the ss he wants to emte, he can get close. However, there are some limitations to this mimicking ability where magic and highly mana-intensive Skills are concerned. Diligent Student (umon) The Diligent Student is an ambitious person, focused on reaching their goals, one test score at a time and this ss reflects that. It is not a ss that will do much for you by itself, yet vastly enhance the power of the ss it evolves into, taking into ount not just Skills, Aspects and outstanding achievements, but everything the Diligent Student has learned. Student of Ancient Teachings (rare) There are many people who recreate things from the time before anything that could even remotely be considered modernity. Some people merely recreate certain small aspects as a part of cultural experiments, others attempt to live their entire lives ording to scattered records that were barely readable even by the greatest of archeologists. And then there are the people who somehow managed to directly learn their craft from the ancient masters themselves. A Student of Ancient Teachings gains the ability to re-create the knowledge of the past with very little to go on and a high degree of uracy. Perfect for an Archeologist, or maybe someone looking to explore fields of study that have vast stores of lost knowledge. Space Elementalist (rare) Space. Everywhere, a part of everything, vast and unknowable. Now, why on Earth does it suddenly look like a pretzel? theres a Space Elementalist nearby, why else? A Space Elementalist is a ss that can manipte space through a direct application of mana, twisting and warping it, turning reality itself into a funhouse mirror. They gain Skills based around enhanced spatial visualization while making manipting space cheaper, easier, and far simpler to keep existing maniptions in ce. Space Mage (rare) Space. Expanding or shortening it, increasing distances or shrinking them to an absolute minimum, creating an infinite loop thats almost impossible to escape as well as all the standard abilities like teleportation, both short and long range, and portal creation. A Space Mage gains a vast library of spells, most of them focused on manipting space and reality, turning any battlefield into something that is to their advantage. Genius Spatial Mage (epic) Here, there, and everywhere (maybe even all at once?), that is a power beyond what a normal Space Mage is capable of. A Genius Spatial Mage is someone who has unlocked the Space Mage ss, yet vastly overshot the basic requirements. In your case, you did that by using your various space-rted Aspect Skills, both exploring andbining them to the point where this exceeded their normal bounds, bing a new Skill in their own right. As a Genius Spatial Mage you will be able to do everything a Space Mage can do, but better. Teleportation, Portals, and, of course, the obligatory spatial maniption. Adapted Human (epic) Slotting an Aspect lets humans gain the powers of monsters. Now the question is: are these people still human? The answer is, of course, no. Why else would that person still have their species read Human? This is, in fact, still the case with an Adapted Human as well, with this merely being a ss. But what a ss it is. The Adapted Human gains a vast store of Skills that can make far more use of their Aspects than anyone else does, up to and including the ability to transform into a hybrid form made up of all the monsters whose Aspects you have slotted. Hey, Dr. Thoma, whats the difference between a Mage and an Elementalist? Andre asked. It might be already a sure thing that hed be a [Genius Spatial Mage], but now he was very curious about this other topic. Think of it like this: theres an expert martial artist, and aputer program that can simte a person, with all the limitations thates with it. The martial artist does everything on instinct, moving perfectly as befits countless hours of study, easily able to adapt new moves to their existing skillset oring up with new ones. But going outside of what they know can be difficult. Meanwhile, theputer program cant do anything unless its told exactly what to do, but it can be programmed to do everything. However it ispletely useful when ites to altering moves outside of the pre-prepared list of changeable attributes. This is a Mage, a ss that can cast known spells decently well, draw on a vast number of tricks and useplex magicparatively easily. The Elementalist is like the martial artist, able to create a form of magical muscle memory, using basic elemental maniptions with about as much effort as it takes to lift a finger. They can also weave their chosen element with contemptuous ease, making it do anything they need it to. But they have to do everything manually, without the help of spellforms, which can be a real pain in the ass when ites to the more extreme or mystic workings. Dr. Thoma exined So, which one are you going to pick? Neither, I was offered [Genius Spatial Mage], so thats what Im choosing. Andre said. Congrattions. Dr. Thoma said, a massive grin expanding across his face Ill go get the champagne, and then, you can start searching for your portal locations. How do you two feel like Mallorca? in other words, he was sending them off on a vacation, probably because another round of hellish training was about toe down on them once they came back. As it turned out, Li-Mei had received the [ss] of [Leap Mage], which was fully focused on teleporting and was likewise epic. To reward them for their efforts, Dr. Thoma handed them several ne tickets that would take them all over Europe so they could memorize them so they couldter portal there, with the first andst airports being near major tourist locations. That was nice of their boss, sure, but Andre couldnt help but fear that they were merely a premature apology to whatever he had nned for them once they returned. Chapter 142: Preparations for a “State” Visit Chapter 142: Preparations for a State Visit And you bought all this stuff why, exactly? Amy asked in a tone ofplete puzzlement Isaac had only rarely heard from her. not that he could me her, as he was currently shoveling several million euros worth of endangered animal bits and assorted other stuff that was various shades of illegal into her storage space. I mean, ivory, seriously? A lions mane? And is that a hippopotamus head? What were you going to do with all this stuff? Isaac chuckled softly I bought that stuff well ahead of time to make sure that I got some of it before it was all gone. I wont need any of this for a good long while, but theres no guarantee Ill be able to get it by the time Ill actually need it. And as for why I need it, simple. These are samples of these various endangered species that could very easily be eliminated if some greedy fuck decides they need a quick buck by going on a hunting spree. Never mind what will happen when a few weaker monsters get out into the wild. They wont be able to do much to humans by that point, but theyll y merry hell on the ecosystem. But what can you actually do with those samples? Amy pressed. Recreate them. Isaac stated bluntly Itll be expensive, damn expensive, but eventually, well be able to ensure that no species we know exist and have samples of go extinct. hot damn. Amy nodded And I have to hold all this stuff in my storage space why exactly? Because mine is almost full. This stuff isnt something I can just leave lying around, so Ive been keeping it in my extradimensional space since no one can look inside. That wasnt a problem before, but I need a little extra space now. Isaac exined, the flow of random things petering off. He got up, removed the sensory dampening field from his surroundings and left the meeting room with Amy falling in step besides him. For once, they werent the only people in the corridor. Before, the basement had been their ce, their territory, somewhere no one else went. At first, that had been because the rest of the building had been a construction site. That had, of course, changedter on, but the basement had still been the ce full of monsters and somewhere to be avoided, at least subconsciously. Now though, there were other peopleing down here to use the summoning rooms. It was a great sign with regards to where the local [System] research was going, but it would also slow things down by a non-insignificant degree because there would be others taking up time in said summoning rooms. Sure, the university was about to break ground on a copy of the basement, but it was still not fun to have less freedom of use than before. Isaac sighed as he looked around, then continued to speak There really is a lot of stuff I need to carry on my trip to Camelot. Yeah, but why though? Youve got Stagmers working on a suit of armor fit for a king, youre taking a few thousand potions from our stores, enchanted items from Koreas Dungeons, not to mention food and even booze. Its almost like youre treating this like youre really back in the middle ages, going to meet a foreign king. Are you really bing the person whose power you inherited or what gives? Amy asked. No, Im still perfectly in control of faculties. Isaac stated as he re-extended [Perception Block], then turned a corner to head to the nearest empty summoning room. Once they were in there, he continued. His [Skill] might prevent people from overhearing him with supernaturally sharp senses, but even normal people had ears and could listen in on a conversation happening a few short meters away. Its just that Arthur is a bit special. Camelot is equal parts medieval reenactment troupe, corporation, paramilitary force and sovereign nation. They y into the reenactment bit a lot to seem harmless, and so does Arthur, but they also really do enjoy that. Its how they are. How they were. Im treating them ordingly. He exined. Ok, that makes sense, but thats a normal strategy. Why did you refer to Arthur as special? Amy asked, already using [Telekinesis] to draw out a Summoning Circle on the ground. After all, theyd beening here to work, and there was no reason to not do that while talking. Because theres more to it than just an act for him. Arthur Wells, soon to be Arthur Pendragon once he finally talks his way around the British government, is a perfectly sane man. But on some level, he does see himself as the person who will save the British Isles. And for a while, he even managed to do so in the other timeline, until he fell along with the rest of the world. He is a man in possession of greatbat power, leadership ability and knows when to delegate, but hes also ying the fool sopletely no one in either timeline has been able to figure out just who he is at his core, whether he truly believes himself to be the reincarnation of Britains national hero, or merely pretends to think that, inspired by a shared name. Amy grimaced You make him sound so sinister. Like someone who should have gotten [Machiavellis Heir] instead of you. Hiding his true self from the world, creating a paramilitary force with basically no oversight Except its not quite like that. Isaac shook his head Every organization like them is a paramilitary force in a way, from the Korean Dungeon Guild to, well, us. In a remotely sane world, that would have put all the governments hackles up, but the world stopped making sense when the [System] appeared. Nowadays, though, all it takes is a little fig leaf that makes it seem like the force is under control. For us, thats the fact that we work for the university. For Camelot, thats the fact that theyre not acting like a proper paramilitary force, being very helpful where they can be and seemingly being under the control of the government. Seemingly being? Amy frowned Sure, theyre powerful, but are they really that divorced from the proper authorities? If they wanted to, they could be running the country. It wouldntst long because no one wants to set a precedent for summoners taking over nations, but they could do it. Instead, theyre pretending to be ying at being knights, growing in power and preparing to deal with the mess that our world has be. And mind you, Im talking about the romantic ideal of the knight, not the ones from the middle ages who merely paid lip service to the ideas of chivalry. And now they sound like a bunch of lovable rapscallions, not a serious group. Amy remarked. Isaac justughed People areplicated. I suppose so. Amy shrugged Now Im really bummed out I cant join you, though. Id have loved to visit Camelot. What are you doing instead? Isaac asked. Bailey is sending me to New York for a conference. Amy sighed. Ah yes, that conference. It was one of many theres a [System], now what? type conferences that had been held this year, but this one was actually being conducted by people important and influential enough that someone from the team should make an appearance. Not necessarily the professor in charge of the whole thing or the honorary doctor who was their biggest im to fame, it wasnt that important, but someone had to go and apparently, Amy had drawn the short straw. I see. Have fun. Isaac told her Hopefully, youll get the chance to enjoy yourself in the city and not have to spend all your time working. Heres to hoping. She mimed raising a ss as a toast See you around, Ive gotta go pack. *** Magnificent. Isaac stated simply as he looked at the suit of armor Stagmer had set up on the armor stand in the corner of the cksmiths shop. Silvery tes over chainmail so fine it could flow like cloth, a visor that provided a high degree of protection while still somehow granting a good look at the person wearing it, ensuring that this armors bearer wouldnt turn into some anonymous tin can. So, what do you think? Anything youd like added or changed? Stagmer asked. Nope. Magnificent is all I have to say about this. How much do I owe you? Isaac responded. Can I be honest with you? Stagmer asked, drywashing his hands. Of course? Isaac told him, not entirely sure what he was about to be asked about, or asked to do, for that matter. Thank you. Stagmer took another pause, taking in a big breath to buy a little more time Idontknowwhattochargeforthisstuff. He paused, again, then repeated himself more slowly. I honestly have no idea what to charge for this. Its weirding from a cksmith, I know, but this gift you gave me Im one of the best cksmiths in the world, damnit. What the hell is any of this worth. I Im sorry, I didnt mean to snap, Im just a little wound up. I got some crazy offers, crazy letters, just crazy messages in general. The cksmith sighed and wiped some sweat from his forehead. It wasnt something that could havee from the ambient heat, though, a [cksmith] had [Skills] and the Fortitude to withstand the heat of the forge directly, and said forge wasnt even in the same room as the two of them. Clearly, he was very ufortable with this conversation. Normally, something like this would cost around fifty thousand euros, materials included. But this is a set of te armor made using mostly magic, and made from magic metals, and Ive never anything like it. I dont know if anyone has ever made anything like it. So, as the closest thing to an expert on this stuff that I know, how much do you think this is worth? and that would have been why Stagmer had been so damn ufortable. Asking a customer to name the price was unconventional to say the least. Honestly? Id say that is worth around half a million euros. ording to aplicated forme an economist professor created for us, you can generally double the sale price of your goods for every Evolution youve got under your belt, at least until the average Level starts going up. And as the holder of a unique legendary [ss], you can tack on a significant additional fee of increasing the price two and a half fold. Wow, in that case, its a good thing youre getting that armor for free cause thats a lot of money. I didnt ask for that. Good craftsmanship needs to be rewarded. Isaac responded. And it has been, a hundred times over. XP for crafting, the leftover material from this work, my very [ss] youve done so much for me, I cant take your money on top of all that. Now, if I worked for you exclusively, I would need to be paid, but I dont. I do so many things for other people, and I get paid very well for those things. But whenever you walk through that door, I get excited because I know youve got something cool for me to make, some awesome new material to y with I love working for you. You owe me nothing for that suit of armor, I owe you. Isaac awkwardly scratched his neck at this promation. Im d you enjoy your work, and Ill always be happy to work with you. This is a great gift, thank you. He reverently reached out and touched the armor, causing a [System] screen to pop up. Kings Armor A suit forged of the finest metals, made as a gift for a king. Created by the heir to one of the greatest cksmiths in the world, the greatest living cksmith, consisting of mystic metals gained from monster infested Hunting Grounds, it is the strongest set of personal armor that is currently in existence. Perfect. Then, he pulled the armor into his storage space and turned to face Stagmer with a grin on his face. Youll probably see this suit on TV one day. Now, I was wondering if you could make a set of chainmail as fine as whats under the Kings Armor for me. The important thing for me is flexibility. Would that be possible? Isaac had been aware of the possibility of weaving chainmail so fine it wouldnt hold him back in the least, but hed expected it to take quite a while longer for people to be able to make it. Stagmer mirrored his grin as he replied Sure thing. Ill make sure to drop off some more materialster. Isaac bade him goodbye and left his armor. Of course, hed actually add a lot of stuff to that material shipment as payment, but it wouldnt have been something as crude as money. But he couldnt just ept everything hemissioned with his favorite cksmith as a gift, that would have been just exploitative. Chapter 143: Camelot Chapter 143: Camelot Shall we, mdy? Isaac asked in a mock-formal tone, holding out his right hand like a gentlemen trying to lead hisdy friend to a ball. We shall. Amy replied, dipping her head as she took his hand and the pair walked straight at the wall until a portal irised open, opening up into a cordoned off section of Heathrow Airport. Zipping straight past the borders of a country wasnt a good idea and was frowned upon. In the EU, it wasnt a problem given that you never had to show your passport, like, ever. But Britain wasnt a part of the EU anymore. Of course, actually enforcing these borders was going to have the devils time detecting these portals, forcing them to rely solely on people obeying thew and teleporting into set locations with passport control and the like. Amy and Isaac, of course, did exactly that. Heathrow Airport was Londons teleport location, including such things as a passport control booth, customs booth and even a small lounge that people could wait at until their ride, aka someone with a long-range teleport ability to arrive. Amy had teleported Isaac here as a favor, then followed along herself because she her flight to New York was from here rather than the airport near the university as the flight from Heathrow was marginally shorter. Good afternoon. Miss. Shaw. Will you be staying long? The guy at passport control greeted Amy before hed even received her passport. Clearly, hed recognized her, most likely because he was often in this position and she was a frequent flyer. Good afternoon, Miles. Nope, Ill be flying out from here in a hot minute. Passport opened, scanned and returned, simple as that. After all, she had a British passport. For Isaac, it took a little longer. Purpose of visit? the man asked as hepared Isaac to his picture in the passport, then scanned the document. Business. A new stamp was added to his passport, and that was that. Now, the signage is still very messy at the moment, so take a left at the emergency phone, continue onwards for maybe fifty meters, then take another left until you reach the security door, go through that but make sure you have everything you need because it will lock behind you Yeah, based on the lengthy description the guard had to rattle off to let Isaac know how to get out into the airport proper, it was a mess. But hed been able to memorize it, and soon enough, he was standing outside the airport, several taxicabs already ready and waiting to take him to his destination. He didnt need them, though. Using [Sneak], he reduced his noticeability, then exploded into motion. Sure, the somewhat shy acrobatics meant that the stealthy effect was vastly reduced, but it helped. He leapt across the road in a single jump, lingering there for a brief moment before taking his next hop, until he wasnt just no longer standing in front of the airport but also outside the whole tangle of roadways that connected the highways to the airport. At that point, he just ran alongside the highways, Five minutester, Camelot came into view in the distance. The inspiration was rather obvious, even from afar. It was apound with all the stuff needed to be fully self-sufficient. Farms that were almost certainly being worked by high-Level [Farmers] and [Botanists] who could grow crops in a matter of weeks, or even daysy on the outside. A series of traditional training spaces such as archery ranges and dusty dueling groundsy within, interspersed with three- and four-story buildings that likely served as dormitories and logistical buildings. At the center of all this, though,y a massive castle-like structure. It wasnt the ssical logistical and bureaucratical centerbined with a fortress of a true historical castle, but rather a massive, old-style building, yet the inspiration was clear. It was at least as tall as a regr three-story building, a massive block of stone with a series of small windows covering the outside, just like the small openings of a real castle meant to conserve heat. Four small towers jutted up at the corners of the building, nowhere near high enough to be of any use, clearly decorative. All around the edge of the buildings, crentions rose, most likely also decorative. It certainly helped show that the building was meant to be a castle. Lastly, a massive and perfectly roundkey off to the side of the road that led towards the castle. Surrounding that were a series of twenty-eight mosaics, each one showing the moon in a different stage, the full cycle of waxing and waning on disy. No doubt as to who that area belonged to. Isaac vaulted the guardrail onto the street that led towards thepound and strode along it at a more mundane pace that hed been going at earlier. His [Aura] whipped out once he was close enough, scanning the areas below the surface that werent immediately visible. Highly modern plumbing and electrical systems, countless subterranean rooms, etc. The entirepound was filled with life, ranging from people training in the facilities to just regr workers going around, doing their jobs. As that happened, the [System] was on full disy. An archery range that was a mere fifty meters long had targets that were up to a kilometer away, space withing warping to allow high-Level people to be trained without needing an insane amount of space. A training filed that should have been engulfed in a massive dust cloud after a single fight still looking perfectly fine after what must have been hours of use. A courtier deciding the paths were too cramped and just waltzing along on the rooftops. And so on, and so forth. Sure, the university had started shifting over into full [System] use, with everything adapted to take full advantage of the new possibilities offered, but this ce had already achieved that. Hell, even South Korea was only partially there. But Camelot had managed it. And. It. Was. Glorious. One day, the entire world would be like this, technology continuing to do the heavy lifting yet magic and [Skills] practically erasing small problems and inconveniences, cracked mugs being fixed with a wave of ones hand, damage to buildings that should have taken weeks or months to fix melting away at the touch of a [Geomancer]. It could be a wonderful world. Countless people would be out of a job due to how capable a single worker could be and something would have to be done about that. The economy would shift to an insane degree, and that would cause a lot of trouble until things settled. And there were oh so many more problems that would need to be dealt with. But eventually, this world would grow to be a paradise. If only humanity lived long enough to reach it. He''d been told to head straight into the main building, so he didnt linger, instead taking in everything in passing. Quite a few people noticed him, but no one so much as batted an eyelid. There were so many people here that it was impossible for everyone to recognize everyone else and a series of early-warning [Skills] and enchantments hung in the air, massively mitigating the damage someone could do just from waltzing in here. Taking part in the actual events or entering the buildings, on the other hand, would definitely result in one being challenged. There was a distant sound of people walking through the main building at a rapid pace, which soon stopped. Clearly, everyone was ready on that end, so Isaac picked up the pace, striding through the vast wooden gate that led inside a few seconds after the court had gotten into position. Greetings, Dr. Thoma. Wee to Camelot! Arthur announced at wall-shaking volume. The main man was sitting in arge chair, not quite a throne but certainlyrger than was needed. Several people were standing around the chair, most unnecessary yet also needed, just for appearances sake. Isaac looked up, meeting the kings eyes, then dipped his head. Slightly. No one would have ever mistaken it for a bow, or anything in even the same remote area, but it was an acknowledgement. It clearly demonstrated that he acknowledged the man sitting in that chair up their as the person in charge. It was also the start of ying along with this whole affair. This was Camelot, home to a delightful mixture of medieval reenactors, medieval martial arts fanatics and in a certain sense, doomsday preppers. And Isaac was all there for it. Thank you for this wonderful wee. Isaac announced warmly I have brought with me good tidings from Germany. Ive recently evolved my [ss] and stepped into the shoes of Master Hildebrand, teacher andpanion of the legendary king, Dietrich von Bern. Ive travelled here for the pleasure of training with your knights, working together and discovering new horizons. That would be lovely. Arthur mirrored Isaacs warm expression. However, courtesy dictates that one not show up empty handed to an asion such as this. As such, I have brought you several gifts, both from faraway Korea, and the forges of my home. Oh yeah, Isaac was definitely going all out on this. It was silly, but why not be a little silly? He made a sweeping gesture as an engraved core vanished in his pocket, allowing him to ess his storage space and letting materials spill out. Well, spill was a bit of an exaggeration. Everything was packed up and neatly stacked as he manifested it, but the sheer variety of boxes still gave the whole affair a bit of a messy air. Rare materials and fancy equipment from Koreas Dungeons, fine clothes spun from spider silk from the crafters at the university, all immediately apparent as useful and beautiful. And thats when the suit of armor appeared, properly disyed on the armor stand. Lastly, I have here a suit of armor created by the worlds greatest living cksmith, heir to the great master of old, Wand, forged for a king! Isaac announced proudly, making the [System] description be visible to everyone. Arthur, whod been about to respond, suddenly swallowed his tongue in surprise. He covered it well, but they all lived in a society of superhumans. Everyone noticed his little stumble. Elena Hightower, his primary mage, right hand and person in charge of Camelots diplomatic rtions, was doing a far better job of concealing her amusement at Arthurs antics. Yet she was also deliberately not doing a perfect job. Isaac had to bite back a chuckle of his own as Artur finally caught himself. This is a kingly gift. Im honored and grateful to have received it. Truly, words alone cannot express what this means. Arthur rose from his seat and slowly walked towards the armor, one hand reaching out to reverently trail down its front. I believe therell be time to try that onter. Wasnt there something you needed to do? Elenas voice cut through the silence, the first sound in a while seemingly deafening. Shed spoken softly, yet her voice rang through the throne room like a gunshot. Ah. Was the extremely unintelligent reply that Arthur gave in response. Really, thank you Isaac. She said, addressing their guest Ill make sure this all ends up getting put to good use. A wave of her handter, the whole assemge, armor included, vanished. Ill be around, if youd like to talk in private. She said, before suddenly vanishing. It seemed someone had learned to teleport. Arthur awkwardly scratched at his neck, still looking at the ce the armor used to be, then cleared his throat. So, Isaac, I believe this is your first time in Camelot? I think youd like this ce. He gestured at a door, recessed in the wall Shall we? He led Isaac towards the door, with only a single courtier following. Incidentally, this was the courtier whod been projecting a do not eavesdrop bubble around everyone present, though said bubble was now copsed around Isaac and Arthur. Clearly the tour Arthur was pretending to give was nothing more than the pretext for a conversation. Everyone else, meanwhile, busied themselves with the goodies Isaac had brought. Of course, the physical objects were no longer present, but theyd memorized what had been there using some king of bureaucracy [Skill] and were now animatedly discussing potential applications. This really is a wonderful ce. Isaac began the conversation I dont think theres anything like it on Earth, at least not yet. Hopefully, thatll change at some point. Not being unique anymore wont be fun, but nothingpared to what we as a species stand to gain. Thats very admirable. Isaac replied. They continued to talk about Camelot in non-specific terms, a topic that most certainly didnt necessitate an anti-eavesdropping [Skill]. Until, finally Arthur just went ahead and finally got onto the meat of the matter. What will happen the next time a [Raid Boss] is summoned? Arthur asked. It gets nuked? Isaac asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow. In theory yes, But that requires someone to act. And what happens if it emerges in, say, London? A nuclear warhead stands to kill far more people than a [Raid Boss] in a situation like that. Youre assuming that theres anyone avable to beat it. Isaac responded. I know theres no one avable to beat one, not yet. Arthur sighed Not even us. But people will still hesitate to go to the nuclear option in that situation, because people are people. Because people are people. Isaac echoed, pausing for a moment to let it hang before continuing Thats the exnation behind just about every ill on the, isnt it? Climate change? Human greed. Racism? Because people can be jackasses. Drunk driving? Human irresponsibility. And then weve got the [System], all of that can have massively worse consequences. Yep. Arthur sighed People are horrible. Theyre also awesome, creative, wonderful, but also horrible. So, is that what you wanted to talk to me about? The future? Isaac asked. In part. But Id also like to ask you about your experiences in Korea. Youre one of a mere handful of people whos fought a [Raid Boss], and the only one whose done so mano a mano. How do we beat the next one who isnt nuked into oblivion? Together. Isaac stated simply. Obviously. Arthur said, raising and eyebrow. The only way to beat one of these things is teamwork, and Camelot has a good foundation for that. Youre knights, in [ss], but also in deed. Youre a leader who almost certainly has the [Skills] avable to create a formal Party, granting all the cooperation boosts thate with it. Every [Knight] is also able to build themselves as a tank, and even those who went in a different direction, so long as theyre fully specked into damage, they can function somewhat as tanks. Throw in Camelots magical arm and youll be able to beat a Demon Lord like the one I fought in Korea. Youd suffer great losses, no doubt, but youd win. That is my professional opinion. You can win, but it would be a pyrrhic victory. Youll need to train together, train formation fighting, then, and only then, youll be able to crush your foes into paste. Even if theyre [Raid Bosses]. Thank you. Arthur sped Isaacs shoulder Youre a good man, Isaac Thoma. Dont thank me yet, I havent even gotten to the good part. Isaac shed him a smile I can grant epic-rarity [Skills] with my new [ss]. Give me an hour, and youll be able to equip that armor with a thought. Now that sounds awesome. Arthurs face seemed to crack in half, his grin was so wide My [ss] has a [Skill] like that, but it would have cost me the points needed to get an important team-boosting [Skill]. He gave Isaac a raised eyebrow And you can just give me something like that? Id be happy to. Isaac said You, and some of your knights. There is a limit as to how often I can do so every week, but Id dy use those charges up here. They continued to walk side by side, discussing the particrs of the training program, until eventually, Arthur lead them into a massive underground room. It looked like a Sci-Fi nerds wet dream, withrge screens lining one wall, cameras and other doodads cramped everywhere else. It was almost certainly the ultimate multi-purpose room, the heart of the Camelot. Right now, though, it was currently configured to be a training room, with mats like what youd see in a martial arts dojo lining the floor. Fighting, in such a room, even for training purposes, should have been recipe for massive and expensive damage. But a powerful [Skill] drenched the whole affair, solidly preventing any kind of damage from being inflicted from someone below Level 50 not using a cooldown [Skill]. And in one corner, Arthurs armor waited for him. Im guessing this is the part where we spar so you can get my measure as a warrior? Isaac asked. Youre the man who beat a Demon Lord into paste, nearly getting ripped to shreds in the process, all to protect a city you have little connection to. I know you are. Arthur shook his head But Id still like to spar against you, away from prying eyes. Indeed, the courtier whod been following them had remained outside, all the while extending his anti-surveince field over the entire room. How about I first teach you how to directly equip your armor, and then, we spar? Arthurs only reply was an infectious grin. Actually teaching the [Skill] was a matter of a quarter of an hour, of Isaac exining how to put on the armor with the intention of passing along the [Skill]. [Fully Geared] and its weaker, taught version [Phantom Armor] were both incredibly useful quality of life [Skills], but normally not worth buying instead of others with a more direct use. Isaac certainly wouldnt have grabbed it in his first life. But having it, and being able to switch armor and clothing at a whim did allow for quite a few new tricks to be used, not the least of which was instantly restoring ones defenses in the middle of a fight. Just being able to change clothes like that would still not have been worth five [Skill] points, though. Everyone he chose being able to do so, though? Abso-friggi-lutely worth it. And then it was finally time for Arthur to wear his suit of armor for the first time. It manifested on him in an instant, and he transformed from very fit medieval cosyer to storybook hero. Gleaming silver te covered every inch of exposed skin, save his face, yet even that was vastly more covered than it appeared. As it was, one could basically not see the bars of the visor, yet Isaac knew that more than ny percent of Arthurs face was covered. [Skill] and [System] fuckery at its finest. So, shall we begin? No [Skills] except for what is needed to make sure no one dies? Ive got one that can turn my all my blows non-lethal. Isaac asked, his own clothing being reced by a full suit of ck, incredibly fine chainmail, with a metal cap covering his face, essentially wreathing him in stab-and-sh-proof cloth, so light was the metal. The level of protection this suit afforded against blunt impacts was functionally nill, and any attack that was stopped from piercing or cutting him would basically be turned into one, but that didnt matter. Blunt hits were damn easy to survive, simply by turning on [Flight of the Poltergeist], nixing gravitys influence on the situation, and just letting the force sweep him away, absorbing the impact not with his body, but his momentum. Ah, I was wondering why someone with such an excellent cksmith wasnt armored. Also, I agree with your terms. Arthurughed, drawing his sword. It was beautiful and well made, but Isaac had a sneaking suspicion it wouldntst another week. Another consequence of the sheer Level difference between crafters and fighters. I just dont like to wear armor when I dont need it. Isaac shrugged, then exploded into motion, swinging his de in a blow that would have decapitated his opponent if neither of them did anything and [Absolute de Mastery] hadnt ensured that even a direct hit to the jugr wouldnt do any damage. Arthur meanwhile just interposed his sword, then countered with a sh that forced Isaac to backflip away, pushing himself into the ceiling. He kicked off the thankfully highly durable ceiling,ing back down like a meteor. Even though the impact knocked him off his feet, Arthur managed to m his sword into Isaacs, sending him flying. The two were suddenly almost twenty meters apart, but Isaac hadnded on his feet while Arthur was still scrambling to his feet, only to be knocked t on his back as Isaac closed the distance between them. The knight actually had a couple of Levels on Isaac and the raw Stats that went with that, but Isaac still had a few extra points of Agility and he was trained in getting the most out of his speed. As good as Arthur was, in a real fight, hed already have been dead. They shed, again and again, until suddenly, Arthur spoke up. Do you believe in reincarnation? he asked, causing Isaac to pull his sword strike, then dismiss Old Reliable as he settled into a rxed stance. What makes you ask? Arthur sheathed his sword before responding You introduced yourself as the heir to Master Hildebrand earlier. That information was already publicly avable, and I read up on him. A grizzled veteran, a man who taught a king and led his men. Are you truly just a normal man with an odd [ss] who took on the demeanor of a grizzled veteran? Or are you truly him, reincarnated, with your power and memories returned once you hit the required Level? Ah, now things were starting to be a little clearer. Youre worried youre just him, arent you? Another person, reincarnated? Isaac asked. Arthur grimaced. Before I answer, tell me, would it matter? Isaac asked If you were King Arthur reincarnated, that would mean that King Arthur was you. It means that youre the one legendary king, that theres no need to feel inadequate. If I were truly the reincarnation of Hildebrand, instead of just a person who got his inheritance, so what? Do I exist then and now, or just now? If my past life did something incredible, that means that I did something incredible. Its as simple as that. That helps. Arthur nodded But you didnt answer my question. Right you are. Isaac replied Basically, I dont believe in reincarnation because I havent seen the evidence yet. But I do believe its possible. Looking at everything else that has happened in this world, everything that is now in this world why cant reincarnation be possible too? But just like belief in the divine without having seen the gods with your own two eyes, its a matter of faith. Have you? Arthur asked, startling Isaac. Huh? Have you seen the gods with your own two eyes? Isaac shook his head No, not directly. But I believe theyre out there, that theyre behind the [System]. crap. Thats an issue for another day, though. Isaac shook his head I dont want to open that can of worms just yet. Old Reliable manifested once more and he grinned. Shall we? *** This is your room for the entirety of your stay, the bed will be made every day unless instructed otherwise, if you need anything, all you have to do is ask. Will that be all? the man asked from the door of Isaacs room. Perhaps he was a concierge, or maybe a seneschal? Isaac wasnt entirely clear on the exact role his guide held, but the man was professional and had showed him everything he might need after the sparring match had ended. No thank you. Isaac shook his head, then walked over to his bed and flopped into it. Today had been exhausting. Awesome, but exhausted. The room itself was arge room with a massive four poster bed, a firece that was currently lit, and a massive fireproof shag carpet on the floor. It was a beautiful room, with a nice medieval ir to it. Isaac would explore itter, though. Today, hed inspected a lot of people and been inspected by a lot of people, and that had boosted all the right [Skills]. For example, [Hunters Gaze] had finally hit Level 30 and evolved. Hunters Gaze (epic, Level XXX) There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills. This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are very weak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the users foes. Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someones Stats are higher, lower orparable to the Users, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are. But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more. In addition, this [Skill] allows the user to see mana and sense the purpose of Skills being used in front of him. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to seek out every secret an enemy held has evolved to see absolutely everything an enemy might try to hide, instantly recognizing passive Skills, all manner of active abilities and slotting them into a newly gained mental library and highlighting any past experiences with simr Skills. Lastly, it gains vastly enhanced Privacy pration abilities and further grows as the users Perception increases. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, able to read the past Skill use of those that would oppose the person wielding the Hunters Gaze. The more powerful a Skill, the greater and longersting an imprint it leaves in its users spiritual body. And the more recently it was used, the stronger and clearer said imprint was. Should a foe have used all their Skills recently, this can be read like a book, figuring out the entirety of their Skillset at a nce. And even should that not be the case, this Skill will still be useful as it provides a vastly improved ability to understand an enemys powers and abilities, eventually allowing them to be beaten or countered with contemptuous ease. It had now doubled down on the know thy enemy portion of its purpose, allowing him to read his opponents like a book if theyd used their [Skills] in the recent past. A truly fitting capstone for one of his favorite [Skills]. [Unknown Fear], meanwhile, had also gained an awesome new effect. Unknown Fear (epic, Level XX) There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown. With this Skill, the user bes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, be fear itself. It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility. In addition, this Skill may now be used to project a false status when Inspect style Skills are used. However, the user of Unknown Fear does not have true control over what the other person sees, they can only switch between showing them whatever they hope to see, something menacing, or merely a nk fa?ade. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to hide its users true nature from warriors and kings, knaves and stalwart defenders of justice, it has evolved to hide even its own attributes. Initially, Unknown Fear merely showed the vast, unknowable abyss to those who dared to Inspect its user, yet that, in itself, could identify them. This kind of all-epassing darkness is by no means unique to Unknown Fear, but it is hardly amon impression to receive from a failed Inspect. Now, however, whenever the user chooses to take on a different persona, the feedback likewise subtly shifts to the point where it cannot be connected to them. In addition, it will always take on the same feedback type when the same persona is taken up. As the [Skill] said, someone connecting him to a fake persona of his based on how he swallowed [inspect] like a ck hole was damn unlikely, but it could still happen. No, it could have happened. Not anymore, though. Nope, not at all. Perfect. But before Isaac did anything else, he just wanted to go to sleep. Non-Canon Interlude Christmas Non-Canon Interlude Christmas Isaacy in the bed hed had since childhood, sleeping. Hed been at it for quite a while, far longer than necessary, but staying asleep had been damn easy since hed passed one hundred points in Fortitude, which had returned a high degree of control over his sleep back to him. On December 23rd, hed had dinner with his family, gone to bed after reading his little sisters a bedtime story, and slept from eleven pm onwards. It was a waste of time, but one that eh considered worthwhile. If he couldnt sleep in on Christmas, when else could he? Being wrapped in Hypnos warm embrace was truly wonderful at least until his phone literally exploded. Well, it didnt physically blow up, but hed set an absurdly loud ringtone for whenever Bailey called because when the Professor felt that he couldnt wait on Isaac to answer a text, that he needed a response right the hell now, then that meant there was a massive problem. Yet Isaac didnt even have to pick up his phone to know what he was being called about. Wee, one and all, to the Christmas EVENT! (Also a bted Hanukkah Event, also also Yuletide, why dont you jackasses celebrate that anymore, also also also an early New Years Event!!!) Deck the halls with boughs of mystic snow tis the season to be fighting snow golems Literally troll this ancient Yuletide Carol and so much more. During this Event, you gain the power to ensure a white Christmas, grow fully decorated trees and even face off against the General thatmands Winter. Theres a jolly good time to be had by all, if only you dare to take advantage of all the things that have been generously provided for your summoning convenience. What. The. Fuck. Isaac took two seconds to leap to a fair distance out off and away from the building before letting loose an inarticte scream of range, then picked up the phone. Yep, saw the message,ing in now. And then he hung up again, used [Fully Geared] to swap his pajamas for something a little more work-appropriate, and sped off towards the university. As he ran, he sent a message to his mother about where hed run off to. Soon enough, Isaac had reached the teams building and phase-jumped straight into the meeting room. Although it had taken mere minutes to get there, he was hardly the first one there. Amy was sitting there in one of those stereotypical Christmas sweaters, sweatpants, and there was a cup filled with eggnog in her hand as she red at her [System] screen. Raul was also there, though he was wearing his pajamas. It took Isaac a moment to realize why they were here the first and dressed like that, but when he did, it made quite a bit of sense. Theyd both been out of town for Christmas, so theyd returned via [Portal], wearing what theyd been dressed in at the time. Meanwhile, those who lived nearby, like Isaac, had likely taken the couple of seconds needed to get dressed before jetting off. Patrick was the next to arrive, using a phasing [Skill]bined with a flight spell to drop straight into his set. It would have looked cool if hed hit the chair properly. Instead, hed managed to nt half his ass on the armrest, the other half dangling over the seat, then promptly lost his bnce and ended up sprawling over the chair in a heap. Professor Bailey will be here in a sec, until then, were reading through the summoning list to get a solid overview of what well be dealing with. Amy told him. Isaac nodded and went to work. Summoning List (Christmas Event) Name Material Cost Mana Cost Snowball Cloud Tier 1 Circle, Shaved Ice, Mitten, Ice Cream Scoop 200 Snowcloud Tier 2 Circle, Shaved Ice, Wool, Candle 1,000 White Christmas Tier 3 Circle, Shaved Ice, Pine Needles 4,500 (3 person maximum) Nichs of Myra Tier 4 Circle, Shaved Ice, 1 kg of Chocte, Red Velvet 1,000 The General thatmands Winter Tier 5 Circle, Carrot, Shaved Ice, Coal Chunks, Top Hat 1,500 Just five monsters? Isaac asked, more out of surprise than anything else. Yep. Its weird, right? Amy said Also, do those mana values look right to you? You said that the mana invested is what creates the monster, so you need a certain amount to summon high Tier monsters? But the fact that those low Tier monsters are that damn expensive would indicate that theyre a hell of a lot stronger than their Tier would indicate. Shit, I didnt even notice that yet. Isaac muttered A thousand-five-hundred is a mid-range Tier 7, not a Tier 5. Four-thousand-five hundred? Thats an upper end Tier 8. This is insane. Absolutely insane. Bailey finally burst through the door, not even bothering to sit down before barking orders. His shirt was buttoned wrong, and his legs were still facing the wrong way, hed clearly transformed them into those of an animal better suited to quick movement. In other words, his travel here had been a mad dash and he was still very frazzled. I just got off the phone with the Bundeswehr, well be able to teleport to Grafenw?hr in a few hours. Until then, check out the weakest monsters ande up with some theories as to what the stronger ones will be able to do. And then, he stepped back out as he started to dial another number on his phone. Normally, theyd have teleported straight into Grafenw?hr during an Event, but that was a damn military base. With all previous Events except the first one, theyd known ahead of time and everyone in the base had known not to freak out at a bunch of people suddenly appearing. So now, they were stuck waiting for some official approval. Monsters. Patrick stated simply The General has to be a snowman, right? Yep. Isaac said Big ass golem, with what Im assuming is a bunch of minions due to the general moniker. As for Nichs, Im pretty sure thats a giant chocte Santa. Nichs of Myra is the patron saint of a whole bunch of stuff, including children and students, and the basis for the modern Santa us. And the clouds nasty crap, but I dont know what exactly thats going to be. But White Christmas with four and a half thousand mana behind it, that sounds like a localized apocalypse. Is it really that bad? Amy asked I dont know what kind of power that mana buys. The Tier 8 kind of power. Tier 7 is where the mundane, ordinary, non-[System] stuff starts to stop working, at least unless you go nuclear. Tier 8 you need a good matchup, or even an entire carrier group will be as useless as tits on a bull. The only thing other than a high Tier monster that would require that much manapared to the normal amount for its Tier is a [Raid Boss], yet the maximum number of people who can contribute would indicate a lesser type of [Boss]. This is something entirely new, something I cant even properly categorize. And that is fucking terrifying. I can always count on you to bring the nightmare fuel, cant I? Raul said after muttering a few swear words in Spanish. Isaac just shrugged Summon the Snowball Cloud, see what happens? Sure. Isaac scraped some of the frozen condensation from the back of the drink fridge, then followed the others into a summoning room. Amy had meanwhile grabbed the ice cream scoop from the cutlery drawer from the small kitch across the hall and Raul had plundered the lost and found for a mitten. Anyst predictions? Isaac asked as he poured mana into the circle. Youre going to end up with snow down your top. Amymented dryly. Very funny. Isaac said, and then his eyes damn near jumped out of his skull as everything in the circle simply vanished. The fuck? Patrick gaped at the space the stuff had upied, swearing for the first time since Isaac had known him Hold on, somethings outside! With that yell, he leaped out through the ceiling, with the others chasing after him. That cloud is awfully low, isnt it? Amy asked, not even bothering to wait for an answer before she sent ance of me straight through its center. That thing is only a hundred meters above the ground and getting lower. Isaac observed, only to blur into motion a momentter, his [Far Strike] obliterating the first snowball as the cloud reformed to remove the hole Amy had blown through it. Snowball Cloud. Just what it says on the tin. Raul shrugged Aurelian, melt it. The little sr dragonunched itself off his shoulder, expanding to his full size,parable to a pony, andunched a dazzling beam of light that obliterated half the cloud. The response was immediate and violent. A massive swarm of snowballs began to hammer down like rain yet strangely enough, the attack was perfectly survivable even by an ordinary, unenhanced human. It would have been overwhelmingly powerful against anyone under Level 25, yet even a Level 0 child would have been fine if hit by the attack. What. The. Hell. Patrick just waved his hand and sent the orbs straight back through the cloud and surprisingly enough,rge parts of it vanished. Did did you just kill a cloud with snowballs? Raul eximed in surprise. Seems like it. Should we try again? Patrick asked. Yeah, but where are we getting another ice cream scoop? Isaac asked. Break into the other faculties and steal theirs? Amy suggested Its for science, hopefully, theyll understand. As it turned out, they didnt have to go quite that far, though. Bailey got the military on the horn, and they teleported to the military base and were allowed to raid the dining hall for ice cream scoops. The whole affair was a massive mess, though. Almost all the people there were wearing incredibly furious expressions, annoyed at having been torn away from their families on Christmas. Sure, some of them had had to work anyway, so this mess wasnt that big of an inconvenience, but still annoying. Super annoying. And things. Still. Made. No. Bloody. Sense. Snowball Clouds that died to snowball fights. A chocte golem that copsed into perfectly packaged squares of fine chocte, each in a traditional Christmas shape. And a literal army of animated snowmen that worked hard to not kill anyone while falling apart as they were hit by snowballs. Awesome for a snowball fight, but as a monster? They didnt even give any XP, for fucks sake. Meanwhile, Isaacs family had headed over to his home at his request for safety. Better safe than sorry and all that crap. The sun rose in the sky, and began to fall, and they were still getting nowhere. Just summoning crap,pletely destroying the remains as theck of a kill notification was making everyone antsy, over and over again. Over and over, with no effect. The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different oue. What are we doing different? What are we doing wrong? Isaac muttered, copsing into the snow onto his back, sighing deeply. What the fuck is all this? What is this? Id call it a prank well yed. A disturbingly family voice rang out from behind him. Isaac leaped to his feet in fright, somehow not having noticed any sign of a person approaching him, Balmung already manifesting in his hand. Loki. He sighed. Ah-yup. The god grinned broadly Gotcha! What do you mean, gotcha? Isaac asked, a horrible suspicion already bubbling up from deep inside. Had all this really Well, this is the worlds safest Event. Its all in the spirit of Christmas! Loki shouted the final word, throwing up his hands in mock celebration. Weve been chasing our tails because we were looking for danger where there was none. Isaacs facepalm blew away all the snow around himself But why is it all so expensive? Why, to prevent the snow from affecting the weather, of course. Loki announced with a shit eating grin, clearly fully aware of the fact that the costs had massively contributed to everyones paranoia. fuck. Isaac sighed And now, fuck off. With that muttered profanity, he headed over towards the others, shoulders slumped. *** Basically, all of this is just a temporary Christmas Event that gives us the option of summoning holiday appropriate stuff. Its not monsters were dealing with its magical holiday decorations. And now Im leaving, heading home because I know my sisters are nning an ambush and if I take too long, that ambush might actually kill me. Goodbye, Sayonara, Arrivederci, Auf Wiedersehen. Can I get a portal? Isaac finished his exnation and pretty soon, he was sitting in the bottom floor of his magical extradimensional apartment with his family, a gorgeous Christmas dinner on the table in front of them. With a massive grin on his face, Isaac re-read the description of the new summoning option that had popped up. Apology Christmas Feast (only summonable by Isaac Thoma) A great big feast of traditional German, British and American Christmas foods, created by the power of the Norse god of trickery and mischief as an apology for a nasty prank. P.S. Someones sleeping on the couch for the rest of the millennium. That was uncalled for. -Sigyn It seemed that even a god was powerless against the fury of his enraged wife. And as his family began to dig in, snow gently fell outside, courtesy of the White Christmas that his colleagues had helped him summon before returning home to their families. Chapter 144: Knightly Tales Chapter 144: Knightly Tales Of course, Isaac woke up a few minutester, but even though hed only been asleep very briefly, there was something awesome about spending the night in a medieval castle. He got up and burned a core to pull hisptop out of thin air, then started to write up his training n. Hed gotten started on it back home, but now that he knew what was avable here, he could refine it. What to teach them, what to focus on, what they could handle. All of these varied widely on the power of the people he was dealing with, but now that Isaac had that information, he could make his preparations. And then there was the big question. Who would receive the legacy [Skills]? [Legacy of a True Warrior] was up to Level 8 now, giving him a total of thirteen slots per week. One of those had already been spent giving Arthur [Phantom Armor], which left him with twelve. Or six, if he decided to give everyone involved both of the [Skills] he could offer. That took a few hours, but by the end, Isaac had a very well thought out n on what to do, and even created a personal checklist for how to decide who to empower. Though the real question was if there were any people in this ce that met his criteria. Well, that and actually needed the [Skills]. For example, Elena definitely qualified but as a spellcaster, [Epic Blow] was pretty much wasted on her. Still, it wasnt like there was any risk of the slots going to waste. Isaac was going to leave before the slots reset at the end of the week, and once he was back in Germany, finding soldier or police officer whod make good use of the [Skills] would be pretty damn easy. Before any of that happened, though, Isaac wanted some food. And based on the delicious smells wafting in from downstairs, it seemed like breakfast was ready. Of course, given how oddly peoples sleep schedules now worked and the fact that no one here was at all hindered by working at night, breakfast didnt really work all that well as a concept anymore, but that didnt matter to the apparently wonderful cooks that toiled somewhere beneath his feet. Once again, Isaac used the absurdly hard to get [Skill] of [Fully Geared] to switch over to his street clothes. Using a legendary [Skill] to avoid having to change clothes the normal way some might go so far as to call that sacrilege. Not Isaac, though. The [System] was a tool, not something to be held in reverent admiration, and he used it as such. As for his clothing, Isaac had gone with a generic set of functional clothing. Pants with enough pockets to be useful, but not so many that they got in the way, a shirt that didnt slow him down via drag without being so tight that it looked ridiculous, and a scabbard for Balmung. He normally didnt have the sword out and about, but that was in normal, polite society. This was Camelot, home to the first group of knights of the new era, and he was dressing appropriately. And, of course, everything was made from incredibly durable materials, ranging from spider silk from monsters to [Skill] produced and/or enhanced string, creating an end result vastly stronger than pre-[System] body armor. Now adequately dressed, Isaac headed down into the great hall, which had been transformed into a massive breakfast buffet. In a case of highly effective and well thought out design choices, the great hall could be used as throne room and looking the part, while also being perfectly able to be transformed into a cafeteria that worked perfectly. No inefficiencies due to things being in the way that only the throne room needed, no half hidden kitchen appliances that ruined the aesthetic, just a room that equally served both purposes. When Isaac entered the great hall after having walked down an impressivelyrge spiral staircase, the noise hit him like a physical thing. Countless people were already here, enjoying the food, and things were, well, rowdy as all get out. Sure, there were other ces to eat in Camelot, but the great hall had the great confluence of free food, good food, and greatpany. As with everything in Camelot, the whole affair had to be damn expensive, but that was hardly a problem, considering how it was being financed. Camelot had been founded by a group of millionaires, people whod made their money as entrepreneurs, creating new goods or services ex nihilo because there was a demand. People with the intelligence and drive to invent something, then build and finally run a business built up around said invention. Among them? Arthur Wells and Elena Hightower. And then, when the [System] had dropped, these people had seen the writing on the wall, pooled their knowledge, connections and resources, and finally created this ce. Now, while creating something like that was one thing, but sustaining it was an entirely different beast. Obviously, spending money like water without a sufficient stream of ie was doomed to failure. That was where the [System] came in. More precisely, the material generation capabilities of summoning monsters as well as the vastly increased farming potential of even small plots ofnd, whichbined to allow Camelot to be almost self-sufficient. Meanwhile, the things that couldnt be produced in house and had to be purchased were funded by the sales of monster bits. This wasnt something that the [System] as it had been intended to be could have created at this point in time, though. The original [System] had been intended to give XP in a trickle as people acted in ordance with their [ss], granting slow but steady gains. But now that it had been possible to use monsters to speed up XP gains, this virtual paradise had been able to be created mere months after the [System] had appeared. On one hand, Camelot was awesome. On the other the idea that anyone could create all of this with just a little power was a very dangerous one. How many people would look at this ce and go I can do that too, right?, then get themselves and others killed trying to gain the power needed for this construction? But Isaac had almost a week to think about all these things. For now, it was time to explore the fantastic spread avable on the breakfast buffet. Unsurprisingly, the food avable wasrgely a typical English Breakfast,plete with crispy bacon, delicious sausages, eggs both fried and scrambled, hashbrowns that were wonderfully crispy on the outside while being light and fluffy on the inside, a dozen different kinds of toast, ranging from the traditional sliced bread ready to be stuck into the toaster to pre-made French Toast, stuffed and baked mushrooms and a massive metal dishbeled bread pudding. Not immediately piling his te half a meter high with what was essentially a French Toast casserole dish was quite the struggle. Once hed chosen what to get, he waltzed over to the tables and sat down in a decentlyrge open space that had still been avable near the center of the room. This put him in a position where people could approach him without intruding on anyone else whod been having their own semi-private conversations. Sure, with peoples senses being what they were, anyone in the room could listen in on anyone else, but that didnt matter. It was now simply a matter of social convention to at least act as though you had normal senses, and givepletely useless amounts of space that didnt impede your ability to eavesdrop in the least. Good morning Isaac. Sleep well? Elena asked form the other side of the table as she approached him. But even before shed finished speaking, though, the same anti-eavesdropping [Skill] from earlier had settled over the pair of them like a heavy nket, ensuring that even if this discussion turned to sensitive matters, nothing of any importance would get out. Sure. Isaac nodded Though it seems like beds are beginning to be obsolete. You spend so much on the mattress, nice sheets and everything else, and then you only spend a handful of minutes a day inside it. But if we ever tried to get rid of them thered be a riot. Elena remarked. Obviously. Isaac nodded along But that doesnt mean there arent other options. For example, the fact that people only need to use their beds for an infinitesimal fraction of the day means that hot bunking is a lot more viable. It would, at the very least, save a lot of space. It was also what it had boiled down to in the other timeline, at least among groups of people whose high Fortitudergely removed the need for sleep. Whats hot bunking? she asked. Ah, its a military term. It means that multiple people share the same bunk because they have different shifts and therefore, sleep at different times. Isaac exined. Sounds unsanitary. Elena remarked. You can always make it so everyone has their own set of bedsheets and just swap them out. Weve got a sleeping room at the university for people who work to long thats arranged just like that. Of course no one uses it because we all either live right next to our workce or can teleport, but its still nice to have. Isaac exined But Im not saying that having ones own bed is a bed thing, Im just suggesting that as Camelot grows, the space taken up by the beds will add up. Maybe think of it more as being like the on-call-rooms hospitals use? Maybe. Still not too keen on the idea. She shrugged That doesnt mean it wont be necessary at some point. But for some reason, sleeping arrangements isnt what I wasing to talk to you about. Isaac chuckled Obviously. You know, that was quite the gift you made Arthur. Elena said, changing the subject When the [System] calls something the finest set of armor, that means something. She chuckled softly I dont think Ive seen him that surprised, ever. Not when I saw him the first time after the [System] dropped, not when the first Event happened. And not even when that onema spat straight at his most expensive suit. Now that is a story I have to hear. Isaac remarked. Its nothing, really. Elena replied in mock nonchnce One of our business partners decided to hold an event to raise awareness about climate change at the zoo. The whole affair was dreadfully boring, though, nothing but meaningless grandstanding and dhanding. Arthur, of course, got bored and paid more attention to the animals that thetest blowhard giving a speech. He got way to close to thema pen, stepping into the bushes to get a better look and, as they say, the rest is history. Of course, when he yelped in surprise, that woke up everyone whod fallen half asleep during the speech and then they were all paying attention to him instead of said speech. At that point, the event organizers got really mad, and so on, and so forth, until eventually, the whole thing ended. It did make a lot of money for charity though, after Arthur proudly announced that he was officially joining the zoos adopt an animal program for themas, then talked about how there were other species worth protecting in the wild. Isaac chuckled. He hadnt heard that particr story before, but it sounded just like the man. Good hearted, able to turn social situations right around, but also slightly little impulsive and a slight tendency to bend minor rules, such as walking straight through bushes clearly meant to prevent the exact kind of incident that had taken ce. But enough about ancient history. Elena shook her head Id like to talk a little bit more about that armor Arthur got. Did you reallymission that just for him as the description indicated? Of course. Isaac nodded, then leaned back in his chair and put on the mannerisms and of a high society socialite while making sure to avoid doing a British ent, no matter how great the temptation might have been Showing up without a gift for my hosts would have been downright rude, wouldnt it? That only got a briefugh, though, and Elena just looked at him perplexedly? The finest suit of armor in the world he says? A gift for his hosts he says? That seems a little disproportionate. Maybe. But in this time of change and chaos, functionality is king and dependable allies are worth more than anything else in this world. I thought it was appropriate for the situation. Isaac gave an exaggerated shrug Besides, the look on his face really was priceless. This time, he did get theugh hed been hoping for. Im guessing that silver cloth-like armor was made by the same [cksmith]? Elena asked and Isaac nodded. Can I ask why that isnt considered the best suit in the world, then? she followed up her previous question. Simple, it isnt. Isaac stated, earning himself a t look in response. Basically, my [cksmith] cant build an optimal suit of armor for a speed-based fighter like me. This incredibly fine chainmail is fantastic, sure, but that isnt the thing I truly need. A full set of leather armor would work, except there isnt a [Leatherworker] who can do the job out there. A gambeson would have worked, but my [Tailor] isnt quite there yet. Brigandine would be easiest, but while the metal inserts would be tough beyond imagination, theyd likely tear through the material that holds them the first time I got hit. In other words, the person whod get the first set of full te armor was always going to be someone else. Makes sense. Elena nodded along, then suddenly perked up Is that [cksmith] of yours able to make des? Yeah, why? he asked. Elena lowered her voice to a stage whisper and said Arthur keeps breaking his sword. We named the first one Caliburn, gave it to him in a big ceremony and then it broke a monthter. Not Excalibur? Isaac asked. No, we were saving that for when he gets a weapon that will actuallyst. Caliburn was meant to be his first sword, Excalibur hisst. She exined You know, Caliburn was actually the sword in the stone, not Excalibur. Yeah, depending on the story in question, Caliburn is either returned to the stone or breaks, at which point, the Lady of the Lake gifts the historical Arthur Excalibur. Isaac showed off his knowledge. Elena blinked at him in surprise, then facepalmed Right, mythology expert. I dont suppose youve also found Avalon and can show him where to get a sword that willst longer than a couple of weeks? In theory, Elenas Lake could be Avalon. If she took on the role of Nimue, the Lady of the Lake, she could gain the sword of kings so she could gift it to her chosen champion. But that wasnt how this was going to go, wasnt it? The historical Nimue had been a rather passive character, who didnt really take many overt actions. In fact, she even removed Merlin from the picture in a couple of versions of the tale. Sometimes the wizard was a dirty old man who pursued her, in others, she was a dangerous seductress, but both versions ended with the wizard sleeping for eons, sealed in a tree. Even though Elena was most closely aligned with the historical figure of the Lady of all the people in the stories, she was still very different from her. She wouldnt be Nimues heir; she just wasnt that passive. Isaac raised his gaze to look straight into her eyes Are you sure you want to go there? Thend of the fae can be tricky, dangerous. This is a joke, right? Because I was joking when I asked you if you knew where Avalon was. I Nice to see youre still capable of being surprised. Isaac chuckled And yes, I was joking. Sort of. I dont know where Avalon is, but I do have a weapon that mightst him a little longer than his current swords. She threw him an irritated look, but Isaac just reached into his pocket, drew out and inscribed core and plopped it on the table between them. As he ced his hand atop it, it vanished, only to be reced by a slim weapon wreathed in a fain yellow glow. A Vastly Inferior Copy of Mimung? Elena frowned as she read the des description. A de fit for a king, historically speaking. Isaac said. How so? Elena asked, brow furrowing. Wand, the cksmith who forged the original Mimung initially made it for his king, but then gave the king a fake while keeping the original. So theres a precedent for kings running around with crappy knockoffs that are nheless vastly superior to anything an ordinary knight might wield. And its enchanted? Eh, sort of. A lesser version of [Piercing Strike] is perpetually active on the de. Isaac exined Not quite how actual [Enchanters] work, as far as I know, but still simr. Uh-hu. Elena nodded, then grew far more serious But dont you think youre taking this whole Arthur is an actual king think a little far? I mean, theres something there, he is the ruler of a castle, he is in charge of a group of knights and everything, but an actual king? In the old world, all of this would have been ridiculous, yes. A man functionally dering himself king? But like I mentioned so many times before, this world has changed, far more so than is currently apparent. Arthur is the sovereign of what is currently bing an independent state, for most practical intents and purposes. Hes going to be fighting monsters, demons and dragons soon enough, like some hero straight out of the storybook. Quite frankly, at some point, he might even be able to legally change hisst name to Pendragon. Youre more confident about that than I am. Elena observed. Ive got the spirit of an ancient warrior, master at arms to a king with a historical impactparable to King Arthur, at least locally. Isaac reminded her I know what a true king looks like to a far greater degree than anyone else alive today. And when I look at Arthur, at what hed built here, I can see that look. This ce will go far, and Arthur will rise with it. Thats I really dont know how to put it, exactly. It Elena paused, taking a deep breath before continuing It means a lot that you said that. Youre wee. Isaac said And please, the de is a gift. This is my [cksmiths] number, in case you want tomission a customized weapon for Arthur, or if you need the Mimung copy repaired. Oh, believe me, Ill be calling that number right after breakfast. na said Thank you. No problem. Us people who try to stem the tide against the monsters of this world to stave off the apocalypse need to stick together. Isaac replied. Do you really think its going to go that far? Elena asked I mean, things are chaotic and will be for a long while, but apocalyptic? There are ten Tiers of monsters, each of which exponentially stronger than thest. And so far, weve only seen the first six. Given what human nature is like, is there any chance people wont summon everything there is to summon? Its more likely that a snowball can survive in hell than that people will stop summoning. Elena agreed with a sigh. What we do have is us, our preparations, and the fact that there are other good people out there who are doing the same. We can make it through this, itll just take a lot of work and elbow grease. Isaac said, swallowing his final piece of bacon Now, it was nice talking to you, but I do have to get going if I want to make it to the training grounds in time. Elena gave him a bright smile It was nice talking to you too. See you around. Returning her smile, Isaac got up, carried his te over to the dirty dishes collection area and subsequently left the great hall. That had been nice, but now, it was time to whip some cosyers into shape. Chapter 145: Training Grounds Chapter 145: Training Grounds As Isaac headed towards the training ground, the first thing that jumped out at him was the field of energy that permeated the whole thing. Without [Hunters Gaze], he might only have seen a fain bluish shimmer, but with its ability to read active [Skills], both the field and its purpose became clear as day. It was a variation of [Training Isnt Meant to Kill You] or something along those lines, something to ensure that the trainees waving around weapons with superhuman strength and using magical powers didnt identally reduce each other to paste or total the training grounds on a daily basis. It wasnt something Isaac had ess to despite [Hildebrands Heir] being a trainer [ss], but that made sense. As an [Heir] [ss], it was meant to facilitate its bearer stepping into the footsteps of their historical forefathers. With someone like Hildebrand, that meant everything from training, travel to distantnds, politics, leading men into battle, and yes, fighting. Therefore, the [Skills] Isaac got were all over the ce, not going nearly as deep into the training or fighting [Skill] tree as a more focused [ss] did, but that was actually fine. Sure, spreading oneself that thin on ones final [ss] could lead to trouble, but Isaac still had a few Evolutions more to go. By grabbing a diverse set of [Skills] now, he could be assured that he had some for most situations, then focus again duringter Evolutions. So no, Isaac didnt have a fancy [Skill] to make sure no one got hurt during training, nor could he get one, but then again, he didnt need one because others could provide it. Things looked like theyd be going great until Isaac stepped into the training field and the whole thing shrieked in protest, blue energy wrapping around both him and his sword, trying to slow him down. Isaac sighed. He was pretty sure he already knew what was wrong, but he was going to test that out nheless. As he continued to push into and through the field, he reached down to his sword and hooked his middle and index fingers under the cross guard and drew it a couple on centimeters from its sheath. Promptly, the energy field redoubled its efforts, focusing on the tiny portion of exposed de to such a degree that even a standard human would have been able to see the light. In essence, Isaac was so powerful that anything he did counted as dangerous, and Balmungs very presence was considered a deadly threat, prompting a massive response. However, by the same metric, he was well beyond what the field could hope to stop, so he could just push through it, only somewhat inconvenienced. Hell, if he started swinging around his weapons, the training field might actually end up breaking. Ah, Im so sorry Mr. Thoma, but Im afraid the filed might not be up to handling you. Weve had a simr problem with Arthur, er, Mr. Wells in the past. Im afraid this simply will not work here, however, we can always relocate to the field outside. It willck many of the amenities and protections we enjoy here, sadly, but it will be workable. Once again, Im really very sorry, but Isaac held up a hand to stop the flow of apologies. Its not your fault. But before we relocate, theres something Id like to try. Please step back for a moment, would you? The trainer stepped back so quickly that an even slightly less capable man would have ended up on his ass, but there was a reason this guy was training others, he was a pro. With the field now rtively clear, Isaac fully drew Balmung, and the field reacted. Blue light coalesced around the de, bright enough that some people were forced to avert their eyes, and a high-pitched whine began to sound out, growing louder whenever he moved the weapon. everybody took a few more steps back at that disy. He might not have the training field [Skill], but he did have a training [Skill]. [Legacy of a True Warrior]. And he might be able to interface the two. There were [Skills] that were meant to work together like that, ones that allowed a high level fighter to interface with protective energies like that, empowering it with their own mana pool to make sure it could handle them. [Legacy of a True Warrior] was meant to train people, and the training field was meant to be used for that purpose. If he was able to make those work together Tuning out the rest of the world, Isaac focused inwards, concentrating on his mana pool. Manually using it was pretty useless for a melee fighter like him, mostly being used by [Mages]. It was marginally useful activate some artefacts and the like, but only required a very slight amount of training. However, Isaac had learned the technique to a vastly higher degree before that was discovered, and never gotten any use out of it until now. Normally, activating [Skills] was a matter of merely thinking about using them, as easy and instinctual as moving ones little finger. But it was possible to manually move mana into the [Skills] impression in ones spiritual body and activate it the hard way. Within that spiritual form, every [Skill] was recorded, ready to be fed mana and used, sitting in a sea of mana, waiting to be used, either the traditional, or the manual way. In essence, manual activation was akin a pre-[System] human lugging a 20 liter water drum up onto the top floor of an apartment building, then removing ones tap from the wall and pouring the water into the back of the tap to get water out of it instead of, well, just leaving the damn thing in the wall and turning it on. Iparably more work for the exact same result. Normally, that was. Here, though, there was something else involved. Isaac focused on both [Legacy of a True Warrior], feeding mana into the [Skill] that normally didnt use any, all the while bringing mana into Balmungs de, touching the energy that was attempting to render his weapon safe. Normally, there was very little he could do with that, he had no ability to properly use raw mana, not forbat purposes, not for any others. However, he was connecting simr [Skills], once that should have been fully working together, and along that bridge of energy, they began to resonate. Work together. Connect in ways they probably should have been able to but hadnt. Suddenly, mana began to slowly leak from Isaac while the pressure of the training field ckened off. In essence, the field was directly working with him, knowing he didnt mean to attack and therefore wasnt in a constant state of anticipating him making a cataclysmic move while also using his power to support itself when necessary. Ok, gimme another second. Isaac announced and exploded into motion. He whirled through a kata at an insane speed, and anyone who decided to get too close would have been in serious danger if it hadnt been for the training field. The energy was still there, but it was no longer actively fighting him, instead flowing along with him, ready to save anyone who might be hurt by him. To finish off the whole affair, Isaac leaped into the air, then let himself fall back to the Earth like a meteor, mming a [Legendary Blow] with a full five [Power Strikes] within into the dirt. Instead of the explosion of dirt and dust that would have normally resulted from such an attack, however, there was only a brief re of energy as the attack was prevented from wrecking the ce. A brief nce at his mana pool, however, revealed that that stunt had been absurdly expensive. He was now down to less than two hundred points, having both used his strongest non-cooldown attack and had to pay to absorb all the damage it did. But it worked, that was what mattered. Also, [Legacy of a True Warrior] had jumped up another two Levels, all the way to Level ten. Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level X) Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and hispanion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that mans legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience inbat both figurative and literal. But even though Hildebrands personal achievements are hardly small, they pale inparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others. Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly elerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is rted to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, orbat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear). But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your ss Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself): -Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination) -Epic Blow (downgraded from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows) -Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space) -Veterans Teachings (downgrade from Experts Knowledge, grants overall knowledge and the asional sh of insight) You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior. Skills taught this week 0/15 However, there is one more way the Heir of Master Hildebrand can teach people. After reaching Level 10 in this Skill, the Heir may teach groups of up to five people at a time. This will only grant a rare Skill, rather than an epic one, but only use up a single timeslot. Using a few hours of one-on-one training and 80% of a slot, the Skill can be upgraded to its full power. In addition, this Skill allows the Heir to seamlessly interface with training Skills used by coworkers. It still read the same as before, except for thest two paragraphs, those were new. Firstly, it would now let him teach small groups at the once. Sure, the efficiency might be lower, but it would help a lot in situations where he didnt have enough slots for everyone. The salient line, however, was the one that told him he could now seamlessly interface with any and all training [Skills] he encountered, no arduous five-minute long mana wrangling necessary. What what just happened? the man whod greeted Isaac earlier stammered My [Safe Training] [Skill] suddenly levelled up, and its working on you? I interfaced it with my training [Skill] and its now drawing from my mana pool to protect you from me. Isaac said, exining everything and nothing. huh? Not bursting outughing at the puzzled and confused faces that gazed out at him was a struggle, but Isaac managed as he exined what hed done, stressing that manually using mana was no game breaking ability or exploit. It couldnt hurt anything by itself without a [ss] to support it, like Professor Kims [Mana Weaver], and could generally not even be projected outside the body. The only the reason Isaac had been able to use Balmung as a focus was that it was soulbound, and therefore a part of his body. He didnt doubt that at least a third of the people present would still try it out, but it was their time to waste. Fine tuning [Skills] like that was pretty much impossible without a very fortuitous set of circumstances. Eventually, though, it was time to start the actual training. Alright everyone, grab a heater shield and an arming sword, then line up. Isaac ordered, resulting in a disordered mess of people pushing and getting in each others way, a mess that would have driven anyone inclined towards order to madness. But after five minutes of barking orders, fully drawing on Hildebrands experience, Isaacs students were in a proper formation and prepared to be drilled in the art of medieval and [System]rge scale tactics. Things were starting to look up, and they were getting into formation properly faster and faster and then it all fell apart again. Hey, I got a [Skill]! It was an odd urrence, given that Isaac hadnt actually started giving out [Sills] yet. Whats it called? he asked. [Medieval Training]! the excited man announced, opening the [System] window for all to see. It was a basic [General Skill] that granted a learning boost to all [Skills] rted to the stuff it was about, like medieval weapons training and yes, tactics. Isaac had had a hunch that something like this might happen, but he hadnt quite been certain hed manage to impart it. After all, this was the first time hed taught people everything he knew. When teaching his colleagues, hed mainly been focusing on imparting his [Skills], not general medieval-style training. All right, great job everyone. Isaac pped his hands, followed by several cheers That means we can now go at it twice as hard. *** Congrattions, Hildebrands Heir, for granting the world another great warrior! Under and thanks to your support and tutge, Steff Cooke has imed the ss of Exemr Knight. For crafting one of your students into a person of truly exemry capabilities, you have gained 7,500 XP! And then, hed finally started pushing people over the Evolution thresholds. In the process, hed also figured out the XP gain for training people worked. Basically, hed get the amount of XP the student in question had used to hit the Level required for Evolution if said student gained a legendary [ss], half that for an epic [ss] and a quarter for a rare one. As for umon andmon, they didnt actually know due to the simple fact that none of his students had gotten [sses] ranked so low. In fact, Steff Cooke was the 7th student whod evolved, finally giving him the XP to level up and gain the fifth [Skill] point needed to buy another [Skill]. The choice as to what to get was obvious, this time around. Knightly Leader (legendary) Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonyer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires,rades in arm and asionally, a mentor thats along for the ride. This Skill is an essentialponent of leading a group of your fellows intobat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each others health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, sses and Skills) Thirdly, anymands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary. Finally, the user can remotely talk to party members up to five hundred meters away, with the distance increasing another one hundred meters per Level in this Skill. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain Basically, it was a solid leadership [Skill] formunication that also came with a massive knowledge boost when it came to applying Hildebrands knowledge to the situation at hand. Not to mention that it let him override irrational panic, but only irrational panic. It wouldnt force people to keep fighting when they knew they were about to die, but it would massively reduce the problems that came with leading inexperienced troops, the exact kinds of people he was teaching at the moment. Perhaps now it was time to send some of them against one of the [Knights] whod already been at the third Evolution for a while? Maybe. And at the end of the day, it was simply a fantastic [Skill], one with a myriad of applications, useful whenever he was working with others. Alright everyone, time to try something new. Isaac called out, seeing his students go white at the suggestion. Now, lets Isaacs next order was interrupted by his phone ringing. Hed set it to only let through certain important numbers and people knew not to call him unless he was needed right that instant, so this was bound to be a call he should answer. Sorry about that, please give me a second. Isaac, someone attacked our offices. Bailey said grimly, sounding more rattled than Isaac had ever heard him Get back here as soon as possible. Book 2 Amazon Release, keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited Book 2 Amazon Release, keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited Thank you all for reading Apocalypse Redux. But I''m afraid that I now have to take down book 2 (everything up to chapter 75) in ordance with Amazon''s rules as it will be released on Kindle Unlimited tomorrow. If you''d like to keep reading, you can find it here: /amazon/B0BGSZNPJD Meanwhile, the audiobook for Book 2 has already been finished and released, it can be found here: /amazon/B0BRBLS31N Thank you everyone for reading this story, and enabling me to get this far. Also, there''ll be a chapter releasedter today. Chapter 146: Interlude Demons run when a good Man goes to War Chapter 146: Interlude Demons run when a good Man goes to War Ten minutes previously Paperwork was the bane of all civilized societies. Paperwork could neverpletely be done because there was always more to do just around the corner. Paperwork was a foe not even magic could beat. And yet, paperwork was a necessary, nay, vital part of modern life, something you could not ignore. You just had to suck it up, do it, and then do it all over again as more umted, until the day you shuffled off this mortal coil. Bailey reminded him of that fact for what felt like the millionth time in thest three hours. That was how long hed been working on filling out the paperwork for the Winter Solstice Event that was expected to take ce in little over a week. He longed to be out there, actually doing the experiments, but the idea of professors personally conducting experiments instead of being forced to have their assistants do them sadly only existed in the realm of fiction. At least with most of his team gone, they werent adding to his already massive pile of paperwork. Isaac was in Camelot, Amy was in New York, Raul had a family thing and Patrick and Karl had decided to take this as an opportunity to get a little vacation in. After all, with half their colleagues gone, there werent any big cooperative projects they were needed for and the Winter Event looming on the horizon, now was a good time for that. In fact, once he was done with this pile, Bailey was also going to go out for a little self-care. Visit the huge local waterpark and the attached spa with his husband, followed by a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, then they could see where the evening went. Maybe he could even pick up a good bottle of wine on the way ba- he paused for a moment, looking around in rm. What had just happened? Nothing had. But something had tipped him off. Something was off. Hed incorporated sensory organs from countless different creatures into his body, even gaining a part of that sixth sense that animals seemed to have with regards to natural disasters, among other things. There had to have been an incident that had prompted his hypervignce, even if his conscious mind failed to perceive it. He strained his senses as much as he could, but there was nothing there. There were no weird sounds, no smells, nothing setting off his electroception and mana sight, nothing. Perhaps it really was time to take a break, given that he was jumping at shadows? Shaking his head, Bailey went back to doing paperwork for about thirty seconds before something else happened, passing just under the level he could consciously perceive. There was a problem here, but what? He pushed himself to his feet, straining his senses to the utmost as he made to leave his office. Sound? Nothing out of the ordinary. Footsteps, muttered conversations, people fighting in the summoning rooms, and so on, and so forth. Sight? Well, he was in the basement and only saw a small corridor from his position, so obviously nothing. Smell? Nothing, except for the realization that they desperately needed to deep clean this ce one of these days. He continued to slowly move down the corridor, trying to pay attention to everything. Everything. Barely ten seconds in, he was already getting a headache, but if this turned out to be nothing in the end, hed be d, because it meant that there wasnt a problem he needed to deal with. And then he finally figured out what was wrong. The vibrations from footsteps moving around the building. Sure, there were plenty of those to go around, but these didnt have the sound that normally apanied them. And even those footsteps were muffled, like the person walking was the weight of a child, but that wasnt possible, given how far each footfall was from the previous one. Now that he was paying attention to them and morphing more and more of his senses to be able to detect subtle vibrations, even these tiny details were perceptible. It was weird as all get out. Now, there were some people who did walk simr to that, Isaac for example. He naturally walked softly even when not trying to sneak around. This, on the other hand, was someone actively suppressing the sound of their footfalls, and even dampening the vibrations of their feet striking the ground. People were sneaking around here, and that was a really bad sign. There were innocent exnations for this, at least in theory, but in practice? He just wasnt willing to take that kind of chance, especially with so many vulnerable students around. Bailey pulled out his phone and snapped off a message to Polizeir?tin Eisenberg, his teams police contact. Normally, texts took a while to be read, but he knew she practically lived next to her phone, and even had a [Skill] to automatically read any and all iing texts. Shed get the message in a timely fashion and send in the professionals. It might have been a tad premature, he wasnt even sure if there was a problem yet, but he was willing to take the chance of calling a full rm over nothing. Slipping his phone back into his pocket, he realized the soundless footsteps were converging into one location. Sadly, he realized just what was going on, as said location told him what the mysterious visitors, no, intruders, were after. The vaults. As their material resources had grown greater and greater as they continued to kill monsters, their extradimensional storage spaces had proven insufficient to store it all. Thankfully, adding another, smaller subterranean level hadnt been that hard. The biggest hurdle had been cracking open the heavily reinforced floor to add stairs so they could actually get at the bottom of the building, but even that had been as simple as asking Isaac to it, then retreating to a safe distance. Then, a massive vault had been added, one that most likely put Fort Knox to shame, with the same going for the door that led into the stairs. It had seemed like overkill for a good long while, but then Isaac had showed up with the one-of-a-kind material that was Demon Lords Blood. And just outside that door, the phantom footsteps had converged. Bailey changed the direction of his movement to the area, doing everything he could do to not change his walk from slow, yet normal walk hed employed thus far. Nothing would be more suspicious than someone trying to sneak around because there was no way in hell they wouldnt hear him. As he approached thest corner, he switched from focusing on sensing vibrations to sensing air currents. Sure, there were absolutely no noisesing from the corridor, it was as silent as the cold vacuum of space, clearly a [Skill] at work, but that didnt mean there wasnt anything to detect. The powdered concrete hanging in the air, the sudden shivers in the air as though someone were banging on a hard surface, though the absence of sound was making it hard to determine what precisely was going on. Regardless, all of the odd footsteps were now there, and the only way out was past Bailey. Not only that, but he was now also absolutely certain that the people in there were going to be a problem. Stretching his arm, he pped the emergency alert button on the wall, the one that told everyone to get the hell out of the building, setting off a screeching rm. He had no doubt that the people around that corner had noticed he was there and were about to jump him. Hopefully, between the rm and him telling him the cops had already been called, he could convince them to leave. These were almost certainly thieves, not vicious killers, and if there was no way for them to get their loot, theyd likely just leave, choosing not to throw good money after bad. The air shuddered again as someone suddenly appeared in front of him, a half-magical, half technological thing with electricity crackling around it. Even before the person had rounded the corner, Bailey had activated both [Physical Boost] and [Neural Overclock], both [Skills] massively boosting him, increasing his thinking speed, perception, strength and celerity. It was like every pre-[System] stimnt had been injected straight into his brain at levels that would have ended any pre-[System] human a hundred times over. Heart thudding like a jackhammer, veins straining to explode from the sheer force of the beats, neurons pushed to the brink of outright burning up, but it would be fine. They were something hed had to adjust and mold his body to be able to withstand every time the [Skills] levelled, but hed managed just fine. Look, the police are already on their way, just get out of here and you can probably get away. Bailey said, hand raised up to his chest, empty palms facing outwards. Defensive, showing he was unarmed, but not theplete surrender that raising his hands over his head would have been. Hopefully, this guy would just run past him and leave, and that would have been that. Instead, the guy raised what he was pretty sure was a massively souped up taser, something that would have been incredibly dangerous if not fatal to anyone under Level 40. Oh dear. Baileys standard form was a rubber man with massively flexible, well, everything, interwoven with demonic flesh for its resistance to fire and pockets of Acid Slime substance to absorb and thereby block corrosive substances to ensure that nothing cauterized potential injuries. The bouncy, malleable flesh made him functionally immune to blunt impacts while a series of small armor tes under his skin worked to ensure that cutting or piercing impacts would push him away rather than tearing into him. Overall, it was a great standard form to take and resist surprise attacks, but it wasnt that great in a fight. However, not that great wasnt the same thing as utterly useless. His right hand snapped forwards, stretching like something straight out of a cartoon, surprising the intruder, but not to such a degree that he forgot about the weapon he was holding. Both prongs leaped onwards, mming into the fist and discharging enough electricity to act as an impromptu arc welder and was sucked into the fist like the contents of a beer can vanishing into the belly of a frat boy. The fist continued, smashing the taser to bits, them mming into the wielders chest and discharging enough energy to almost kill them. Almost. Baileys analysis didnt quite allow him to outright see Stats, but he could perfectly analyze peoples metabolism and had [Healer] as a starter [ss], so using a carefully measured, non-lethal amount of electricity was easy enough. Even as his first enemy fell to the ground in a heap, unconscious, Bailey stood forwards and rounded the corner, cracking his knuckles, strengthened by his self-biokinesis to echo like a gunshot, the intimidation effect further amplified that in those handful of steps it had taken to step into view, hed bulked up to an inhuman degree, now standing so tall his head nearly scraped the ceiling, and knuckles grew nasty bone spikes. His clothes, meanwhile, stretched out thanks to a [Skill] hed grabbed to ensure he didnt go broke every time there was an incident while he wore one of good suits, but even so, there were limits to said [Skill], the shirt stretching to the point where it looked like his buttons were about to turn into supersonic projectiles from the strain. Now, get out. Cops are on the way, and I wont stop you if you just leave. Bailey rumbled, his voice sounding as if it wereing from the depths of the underworld itself. Hopefully, that would get them out of here. They could even take their buddy with them, so long as there wasnt a fight in a building that still wasnt evacuated. Regardless, there were very few things that would make him raise his fists in anger, and Isaac dealt with most of those things without him needing any help. But Isaac wasnt here, nor were any of the other heavy hitters who usually worked here, no one except him. If these guys turned this into a fight, then hed teach them that waiting until the best publicly known fighter on the team wasnt there wouldnt help them one iota. The would-be thieves nced back at him, standing in front of a half demolished armored door, somehow looking like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar despite the seriousness of the situation. He gazed out at them, analyzing them, and they returned the favor. Metabolic rate, physical [Skills], some estimation as to their Aspects and favorite elements to use, all of that his eyes saw. As for them, they gained far less. His own [Adaptive Information Defense] started out massively effective, but grew weaker and weaker the more his opponent knew about him. On anyone else on the team, it would have been worse than useless. They all had rather static ability sets that only grew in scopes, but didnt change all that much. Not so for him. He was constantly changing, evolving his powers, incorporating every new trick and biological sample he found, for he was the [Embodiment of Evolution], always shifting, always growing, never static. Overhead, the sound of feet hammering into the ground started to quiet down slightly as people started to leave the building. As Bailey nced up, the first of the thieves attacked. Short range teleport, temporary movement speed increase, [Powerful-Piercing-Sundering Strike] and a massivebat knife was sticking out of his chest, stabbed all the way into his heart. The man was experienced enough to know that that sucker punch wasnt necessarily instantly fatal and was leaping backwards to avoid anyst-ditch counterattacks. What he clearly hadnt expected was for his foe to be utterly unfazed, though. Bailey pped him with a hand the size of a wheelbarrow, growing nasty spikes through his palm. These subsequently hammered through the thief and pierced into the wall behind the man, the spikes slightly adjusting turn into a copy of a burrowing monsters, allowing them to shred the concrete with casual ease, then remaining firmly stuck as they turned back to solid bone. The end result left the man nailed to the wall like a butterfly,rge bony ted forming on the spikes ends as they detached from his palm, ensuring his foes couldnt just slide their friend off to free him. Hed live, but he was unlikely to be happy about it. Sadly though, it seemed that was the end of the easy victories. The four remaining thieves had seen what he was capable of, that he was willing to fight, and that he was perfectly able to tank a hit that would be lethal on anyone without a series blood vessels turned tube-hearts, a design ruthlessly stolen from wasps and their rtives, as well as countless interconnections able to bypass potentially damaged vital organs which he could close at will. A knife to the heart was hardly fun, but not exactly dangerous. They began to run, leaping past him and sprinting off into the distance. A suddenly appearing tail caught thest one, wrapping around him and hammering him into the ground with bone-cracking force, but the thief phased out of the hold and ran, scrambling after the rest. Bailey took off, hurrying after them at a measured pace. Enough to keep up the pressure, but not enough to potentially force them to take hostages. thats when an nearly-dead body entered the range of his [Aura]. Heart stopped, electrical burns radiating out from two small stab wounds in the chest of the was that a STUDENT? Nearly killing anyone was bad enough, but this was a clear case of someone having used that overpowered taser on a person who in no way warranted such a measure, and an innocent kid at that. A kid that would have been dead for good pre-[System], as well as in the hands of most post-[System] medical professionals. Thankfully, and damned lucky for the kid, he wasnt just any person. Even though he wasnt a medical professional, he could heal. With no brain death, and the heart having barely stopped for two minutes, he could fix that with just his [Aura]. Especially as the injury itself had left the almost-corpse withparatively little damage. All he had to do was restart the heart and nervous [System], a simple get-better energy being sent through his [Aura] was enough as Bailey sped up massively, body changing to grow faster and more optimized for speed. He was willing to let them all go, the people whod actually attacked him were out for the count. But hurting his students nope. Not happening. NOT HAPPENING! All students evacuate! he bellowed, loud enough to make the floor shake even two floors up Armed and dangerous criminals on the premises! He exploded into the lobby mere meters after thest thief, turning his left arm back into rubber before throwing it after the furthest man and grabbing his cor. The man immediately leaped behind a column, dragging the arm behind himself, then wrapped the limb around the concrete pir in a cartoonish fashion. Normally, it would have been a problem, but Bailey just dislodged the limb, turning into a iling tentacle covered in glue and nasty contact poisons. Being detached from his body, he couldnt control it, but there was a way around that. Lizards could detach their tails to distract predators, and make them flop around for a while. And hed engineered his body to be a hell of a lot more capable than a mere lizards tail. The victim of the suddenly wildly iling limb managed to escape, but still looked sick from the poison that now flowed through his veins. A hail of spells and bullets mmed into Baileys chest, flinging him backwards and to the ground. Even more mana went down the drain as he shifted again, his entire lower body turning into a series of octopus limbs, each covered with the cling pads of a magically empowered gecko, anchoring him to the floor and ceiling as he flew backwards. As they reached the maximum amount they could normally stretch, he turned them to rubber as well. He continued to fly backwards, but his limbs began to stretch like a rubber band, flinging him at his foes like a rock fired out of a slingshot. They closest man turned to look at him, horror visible even through the eye-slits of the mask as the one-ton octopus-rock-giant hybrid came down on top of him, another bone spike subsequently nailing him to the ground. Sadly, it was so dusty out here that octopus body parts didnt really work, so he switched back to normal legs, clothes likewise reconstituting themselves. And then everything above the diaphram vanished as a pair of guns shed far more brightly than they ever should have been able to, twin cooldown skills hammering near-hypersonic rounds through him, the shockwaves alone shattering many of the windows in sight. The rest of his body sat down, hard,nding on its ass. Well. That happened. Bailey swore internally as he pushed more and more flesh out of the pocket dimension that held his surplus mass, as well as his brain, reconstitution his body. Sadly, his brain was connected to his outside body near the skull, as having the brain close to the sensory organs was important for processing speed, so he had lost control over his physical form when his skull had been obliterated. That had been way to close. Having everything that was him in the real world destroyed would kill him, and the same went for him being forced to keep drawing on surplus flesh until his brain was back in the real world and then getting shot in the head. But he was still here, and he would rain hellfire upon these fuckers for that. He surged onwards after them the instant his head has regrown, a series of quill-like spikes growing out of already tense muscle tissue, then beingunched like a series of javelins as he flexed his forearm. As they left his flesh, they grew a series of fins and a single sensory organ simr to an eye, allowing them to steer themselves straight at their target like a heat-seeking missile. This was his only active core [Skill], one that allowed him to use a single major shift using mana from the [Skills] pool and not having to even pay attention to what he was doing. One man dodged, phasing into the ground. The next took an arrow to the gluteus maximus and stumbled but circled around to get into an advantageous position. And thest was practically riddled with quills and fell to the ground, unmoving. Bailey was painfully aware of the fact that hed feel utterly awful about thatter, but that was . Now was, well, now. And now was time to make sure everyone knew that running around nearly killing students was well so far beyond the pale that he couldnt even think of a metaphor that adequately described his rage. He lunged at the spot where number one emerged from the ground once again but dodged, not that thatsted him very long. Baileys legs melted together into the tail of a massive serpent, wrapping around the man and squeezing hard enough to turn his ribcage into a loose collection of splinters. A slight application of his [Aura] pulled one of the shards free from the mans heart, then fixed the hole, but everything else was something this bastard would just have to live with. Still keeping a hold of the foe hed caught, he turned, using the tail to raise his torso several meters above the ground as ck fire began to drip from his outstretched hands. The whole world knew that the Demon Lord in in Korea had dropped three Aspects. The first had gone to Guildmaster Seon. The second had gone to General Park of the South Korean military. And the third had been used by Isaac, but he hadnt actually used it where others could so, so no one knew what hed done with it. So, when ck mes dripped from the hands of the terrifying snake man that loomed over the final member of the thieves no robbery crew was more appropriate, Bailey now realized, the man all but shat his pants and surrendered without a second thought. Sirens began to close in, and Bailey shifted back into a smaller form, still excellent forbat but one that no longer risked him being mistaken for a monster and attacked. It was also great for using without having to constantly spend mana to optimize his form mid-fight. After all, his mana pool was almost empty. He couldnt afford to run empty, not when there might be more of these assholes around. Also, there were many, many cell phone cameras being pointed at him, standing there in torn clothing, covered in dust and blood spatters. The instant the police had taken custody of the robbers, hed call his husband because if Gabriel found out about this from bloody TikTok or the news instead of him, Bailey was going to be in the doghouse for the rest of the year. Then, hed call back everyone to ensure that any follow-up stunts would fail and think of something to prevent something like that from ever happening again. Also, he desperately needed to directly check up on the student whod gotten tased and stuffed in a broom closet. But first, to give these utter monsters over to people who werent tempted to wring their necks. Chapter 147: A Panicked Return Chapter 147: A Panicked Return That that was For a brief moment, Isaac froze, shock, fear and rage momentarily nking out everything else. But only for an increment of time so small no one except him could have even noticed. No, panicking in a situation was merely a sign of a personcking experience, or simply having a temperament wholly unsuited to stressful situations. Neither of those described him in the slightest. Somethingse up, Im afraid I have to leave. Is your [Portal Mage] avable? he asked, looking at the seneschal as he spoke, the man shown up to watch the training a while ago. Unfortunately, he got a solemn shake of the head in response. In that case, Ill have to head home on foot. Ill be back eventually, I dont know when, but Ill return. And with that line, Isaac vanished, Using [Phantom Step] to teleport above the roofs of the buildings in his way, then flung himself homewards using [Wave Charge], [Flight of the Poltergeist] already active to remove both gravity and wind resistance as obstacles. The [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] red to life around him, bathing the world a glow the color of freshly spilled blood, conjured obstacles manifesting under his feet and mming into him to fling himself onwards, growing ever faster. At the same time, an orb of energy wrapped around his head, right hand, and the phone he was holding up to his ear to prevent the roar of the wind from drowning out his voice. The dial tone sounded out, the beep that signaled that the other phone had been reached but wasnt being picked grating on his eardrum like a fire rm, setting him on edge to such a degree that truly shouldnt have happened from the mere fact that it took one of his assistants more than ten seconds to pick up the phone. Fifteen seconds. Twenty. Thirty. Mailbox. Shit. Ok, so Andre wasnt answering his phone. There were be plenty of possible reasons for that, though. Bailey would have said something if someone had died. Right? He would have told Isaac? Damn. It. Isaac swore internally, furious with not only the situation, but also himself. There was absolutely nothing he could do to change anything as things stood right now, panicking or even just worrying was a waste of time and mental energy. Selecting the next number in his contacts with deliberate slowness as he focused on calming back down. And this time around, his call was answered before the second ring. Dr. Thoma, something happened, I The simple fact that Li-Mei was addressing him with his title instead of his first name was unusual, given that shed been calling him Isaac since hed asked her too on day one. Clearly, she was feeling more than a little rattled. I know. He cut her off Im on my way back. Im west of London at the moment, whats the closest point to my location you can open a portal to? It took a few minutes of furious discussion to properly determine the best point for him to head to, taking into ount things such as Isaacs mobility onnd and in the sea, which areas hed have to slow down in if he passed through them while he didnt have the mana to sustain flight and so on, thenparing that to the points Li-Mei had memorized as teleportation points. Unfortunately, those points where scattered all over the ce as theyd been gained by one of the people whod had [Portal] for longer showing her where their teleportation points where through a briefly opened mystical gateway. Coupled with the currently still pretty damn low range of her [Portal], that was a problem. In the end, there wasnt really a good option other than Isaac continuing home in a near-straight line, then get picked up at Strasbourg Central Station by Li-Mei and skip the final third of the journey ahead. As he alternatively flew, ran, and while crossing the English Channel, swam, Isaac continued to make calls, trying to get a better overview of what was happening. Calling his friends inw enforcement didnt yield anything, sadly. The information he wanted simply hadnt reached anyone who wasnt directly dealing with the situation at hand. Nope, utterly useless, the lot of the- ok, no that wasnt fair. There was a very good and obvious reason they didnt know anything. But between that and the fact that the people directly involved with the situation werent in a position to drop everything for a chat with him. Bailey, meanwhile, was super busy, picking up Isaacs call, saying Not dead, just busy, see you soon and hanging up once again. Yet even with such a sparse amount of information to go on, a picture began to form, and it wasnt pretty. A bunch of people had broken into the building to try and rob their stores of monster materials. Theyd had incredibly strong tasers and used them on a couple of students, one of whom had been Andre and would have died if it hadnt been for Baileys intervention. that would have exined why his other assistant hadnt picked up. But hed be fine. Hed live. Bailey had noticed the thieves, chased them out and ended up losing his absolute shit at some point, going all out and utterly obliterating the thieves, killing two in the process. Given what Isaac knew about the range of the Professors [Aura], theyout of the building and the timing of Baileys rage, that should have been about the time that he realized a student had nearly died due to a stupid overpowered taser. But that had been oh so fucking predictable. Non-lethal weapons utterly sucked in the world of the [System]. Peoples Levels, Fortitude, resistance [Skills], regenerative capabilities, racial features and a million other things changed how much could knock a person out, so something meant to be used against high Level people like Bailey and would inevitably be extremely dangerous when used on anyone weaker. Weapons with a toggleable yield were a theoretical option, but not exactly feasible. Creating an enchantment that could reliably detect every factor that went into the amount of power needed would have been hard enough, creating one that could then adjust the yield based on that information and not run a high risk of messing that up and kill someone in the process nope, not happening anytime soon. Meanwhile, if the yield had to be toggled by the wielder, then the wielder would not only have to be able to get all the information needed to properly adjust the weapon, but need to be in a position to do said things. Weapons, even non-lethal ones were used in high stress situations where matters of life and death where decided in split-seconds. You didnt want to be fiddling with your taser when some drunkard was drunkenly lurching towards you with a bottle ready to bring down on your skull. Yeah, that was probably something he should talk to someone inw enforcement about. Non-lethal takedown [Skills] were essential forw enforcement. Non-lethal weapons were a recipe for someone ending up dead, either the suspect got fried by a too strong weapon or the officer got his ass beaten by a suspect whod simply shrugged off the taser, or whatever else was used. As Isaac continued to fly, he could feel his rage boil to ever greater heights, burning beneath his skin like a nuclear reactor slowly sliding over into a meltdown. In a perverse way, the people whod gotten caught were the lucky ones, he couldnt touch them. The ones who werent locked up were now free in the same sense an ouw was: theyd ignored thew and were now beyond its protection. Sure, official ouws didnt exist anymore, but same difference. If he could obliterate these people without having suspicion fall on him, he would. The thing was, he hadnt felt like thisst time. After the Bodensee incident, hed been angry, but not the white-hot rage that was coursing through his veins right now. War and bloodshed had been a part of his life for far longer than was healthy, and hed learned to deal with it. These guys had gone after a ce he considered his home, though. This was a million times more personal than anything the Systemers had done, and they were going to reap appropriately terrible consequences. Eventually though, Isaac finally reached the city of Strasbourg, using [Stealth] as he headed towards the central station to avoid causing a scene. After all, even today, a flying human wasnt amon sight. He switched over to a more normal set of clothes and then finally let himself grow visible once more. Im here. The text he sent Li-Mei was short, but it got the point across. A portal shimmered into existence in the Long range portal travel area that had been added since Initialization, revealing a frazzled looking Li-Mei standing in the teams old meeting room, with Patrick pacing in the background and Raul sitting on the couch, absentmindedly running his hand across his pet Microraptors back all the while staring off into empty space. While Isaac approached the booth, one of the millions that had been set up in airports, major train stations and other transit hubs, Li-Mei told the attendant that he was the person she was here for, and he was subsequently let in. Waaaaay less hassle than it had been in London, open borders for the win. As Isaac took his first steps back in Germany, he was greeted with a flood of questions and worried suggestions, to which he responded with his own. In the end, they corroborated much of what hed figured out based on the reports hed gotten enroute, then exined that they werent allowed in their building so theyd retreated here at Rauls suggestion. After all, it still officially belonged to the [System] Sciences Faculty, even if theyd long since stopped using it. After spending a couple of minutes talking and a further couple of minutes sweeping most of the campus with his [Aura] to check for suspicious characters, Isaac finally made his way over to the teams regr building. Ive scanned most of the campus, and it doesnt look like therere any more issues. Things should be fine now. Im heading over to our offices to see if I can find out anything more. With that final deration, he headed over to the vast hive of activity the battlefield had be. And yes, battlefield was the right term to use. Shattered windows all over the ce. Almost a hundred quills covered one of the roads, with a conspicuous spot empty of projectiles being dyed with enough crimson that Isaac was sure that was where one of the attackers had died. A fine mist of various bodily fluids had covered the front of the building where Bailey had proven just how resilient he was. And, of course, the corpse flies waving around microphones and cameras. Now, Isaac didnt mind reporters exactly, in fact he highly respected those who risked life, limb and reputation to break important news. But that wasnt what he was seeing here. This was the harassing of everyone for a million different interviews that would inevitably end up as B-roll unless someone had a meltdown or had some other spectacr emotional reaction. Vultures. What. A. Mess. Hey, do you have time to talk to me for a se- Dr. Thoma, what are your thoughts on the current situation? the first reporter who noticed him asked, sparking a feeding frenzy. Noment. Isaac announced, raising his voice to make sure no one could pull the I didnt hear you excuse without looking like an idiot. Then, he just phased and walked straight through the crowd with the same grim expression hed worn since leaving the old break room. Excuse me, theres a one of the police officers trying to keep away the looky-loos tried to stop him, but then she clearly recognized him. Please state your name and what legal justification for being here. She said in a tone that spoke of deep formality as several [Skills] activated. Im Dr. Isaac Thoma, I work there and was contacted by Professor Adam Bailey, whos in there. Ive got pre-written and signed consulting contract with the Federal Bureau for the Supernatural, was professionally instructed on how toport myself in a crime scene and will likely have valuable insights into the matter at hand. Isaac responded in the same formal tone. Everything hed just said was 100% the truth, and with her [Skills], she could tell that he was being truthful. End result? He was let in but escorted by a couple of police officers in fullbat gear, looking like they were about to try and arrest a domestic terrorist. He lead the three of them all over the ce, finding quite a few interesting things, but his main goal was reaching Bailey, who was outside in one of the CSI trucks, talking with a few different police officers. The moment he could get away with it, he header over there and asked for a little time alone, then raised his privacy barrier, [Perception Block] ensuring that no one could listen in without some damn strong [Skills]. The Professor looked rough. His shirt was clearly a loaner, the original clearly having been destroyed during the same attack that had forced him to reveal the full extent of his regenerative capabilities. As the police officers left, he seemed to curl in on himself, further retreating into his shelf. He was also three meters tall, still in one of hisbat forms despite the danger having long since passed. It was the one meant to be used without further active shapeshifting, to be held while his mana regenerated. It should have long sincee back, yet he hadnt shifted into something that could fit through normal doors without needing yact as a contortionist. The worst part, that was how he kept rubbing his hands together, as though he were trying to scrape off something. Isaac knew what that was like, what he was doing. Even if youde away from the fight clean, even if you hadnt gotten a single drop of your enemys blood on you after a battle against another human, one whod ended up dead you didnt feel clean. It was there, the phantom sensation of their blood on your skin, indelibly staining it, impossible to remove and seemingly spreading. Every stain growing more and more, the lifeblood that no longer ran through their veins dripping down your hands until it felt like you were soon standing in an ocean of the crimson liquid, the extinguished life seemingly drowning out the whole rest of the damn world. It didnt matter that it had been them or you, that youd done everything right, that there was nothing no one who didnt have their head up their ass andcked any semnce ofmon sense could use you off, it just in didnt matter. Not at first. It was something police officers, of all people, should have known to talk to Bailey about, but they hadnt. Isaac assumed that was because theyd somehow assumed that Bailey knowing how to handle himself in a fight meant he knew how to deal with the aftermath as well. After all, the one and only experience most of them had had with an academic inbat was, well, Isaac himself. And if that was what you based your n as to how deal a member of Professor Baileys team post seriousbat that wasnt going to end well. Hey Adam. Isaac started the conversation, speaking softly How are you feeling? Crappy. Bailey admitted And stupid. Heughed bitterly The first thing one of those assholes did was try and shoot me with a probably lethal taser. The next one stabbed me in the heart. Two more literally tore me in half. And I won, but I feel guilty. How stupid is that? Very. Isaac replied, forcing a slight teasing tone into his tone, then shifting into something warmer, more supportive The same kind of stupid that each and every person suffers from. Ive got two lifetimes worth of memories locked away in my head. Two lifetimes of war and bloodshed. I can remember Hildebrand having had this conversation over and over, people whod be children in the modern day having been forced into war by cruel times. I know it doesnt feel like it now, but youll be alright. I never took you for a liar. Bailey replied, ring at the wall. As for whaty behind that wall? The building. And I never took you for a pessimist. Isaac responded, reaching out and taking Baileys hands in his own, preventing him from continuing to rub them against each other. The Professor turned and looked at him, their eyes meeting for the first time since hed entered. Isaac did not like the look he saw in his friends eyes. Do you want to leave? Or do you maybe want to break something? Isaac shed a reassuring smile Im pretty sure I could smooth things out even if this whole trailer got wrecked. Leaving sounds good. Bailey mumbled, eyes once again fixed on the far wall. But first, youre going to need to shift into something a little smaller, I dont think we fit through the door together. Uh-hu. Bailey nodded slowly, sounding astounded, as though the thought of transforming into his normal form hadnt even urred to him. As the pair slowly walked out of the trailer, Isaac strengthened the [Perception Block] field while creating a shell around them with the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] that could barely be defined as translucent. They could still see out, but no one was getting a good shot of the two of them. Time feels it cant have been three hours since everything happened. Bailey muttered to Isaac, voice so slow that even Isaac could barely hear him despite being right next to him. Tachypsychia. Isaac exined Thats normal too. I dont know how it works exactly, but it happens in time of stress. Bailey just nodded mutely. On the other side of the police tape, Li-Mei approached, space subtly shifting to allow her to weave her way through the throngs of reporters. Then someone noticed that and suddenly, she had far more space than she needed, reporters looking at her, startled and a little afraid. Heh, serves those jackals right. Bailey cracked a slight smile No mystery here, bastards, just some robbers got their clocks cleaned. Remember that. Isaac said If you feel like you might have done something wrong, remember that you were the one who saved Andre, who stopped a group of dangerous criminals who were undoubtedly going to hurt more people. Of course, as the two of them closed in on the crowds of reporters, they were starting to yell out more and more questions, but they just ignored them. Getting through them would be a problem, though. Or at least it would have been if it hadnt been for Li-Mei opening a short-range portal to reveal a small-ish apartment building, with arge man in his thirties standing outside it, clearly waiting for something. Theyd never met before, but the ring on his right ring finger was an exact match for the one Bailey had stopped wearing to work right after the first time hed fought a monster himself to ensure it didnt end up broken. Isaac dismissed the crimson shell on this side of the portal and strode forwards. Gabriel Bailey? he asked, getting a nod in return. Im Isaac Thoma, I work with your husband. I believe you know what happened? Yeah, he called earlier. Gabriel said, sounding grim. Isaac pulled out a few business cards out of his pocket and handed them over. This kind of thing is rough, on everyone. If you need anything, anything at all, call me. Groceries, someone to talk to whos experienced things like this, anything. If you need to get somewhere, please call Miss Zhou for a [Portal], right now, there are too many vulture reporters out there. These are some professional people you can call for him to talk to, if he wants that. Then Isaac leaned in and whispered conspiratorially And if the reporters out here get on your nerves too much, also call me, Ive got some water balloons with their names on them. Its much appreciated. Gabriel said grimly, all the while throwing worried nces past Isaac, looking at Bailey. I could do nothing less. And really, please, dont be shy about asking for help, or making him get help if he needs it. This is going to be tough, to get through, but there are a lot of people ready and willing to help. Isaac reassured him. Once hed made sure Bailey and Gabriel were good, Isaac and Li-Mei headed back to the university. After being let back into the building once again, Isaac came out with all the stuff needed to run the faculty and set himself up in the old meeting room. Sure, thered never been a former hierarchy created, but now that push hade to shove, hed slid into the second-inmand role seamlessly. Also, Bailey had managed to do most of the paperwork before shit had hit the fan. Also, both Bishop and Chandler often dropped by to help. All in all, Bailey being gone sucked, but not because he wasnt there to work, theyd managed topensate for that. It was just that they were all worried sick about him. They dropped by the Baileys often, and apparently, the professor was bouncing off the walls after a couple of days, raring to go back to work, but the whole affair had still left them shaken. This this had hit way too close to home. But slowly, things were getting back to normal, or as normal as they could get. So, Professor Bailey, still not in top form but able to function at work, returned just in time for the meeting that would determine the future of their faculty. Whether their work would end up shackled by a million different rules, whether or not they would be able to keep staying at the university because there could always be the next person trying to steal the stuff they were known to have This was going to be rough. Chapter 148: A Grim Discussion Chapter 148: A Grim Discussion Should you be back at work so soon, Professor Bailey? dean Kass asked, sounding like he hadnt slept in three days, which was entire possibly exactly what had happened, given the situation at hand. I can either work, or drive myself crazy at home. Bailey responded, sounding much better than the universitys dean, but still less well than normal Missing this I need to be at this table, a part of this discussion. In addition to Bailey and the universitys dean, there were a five other people present. The first was a politician by the name of Martin K?stler who was peripherally involved with Germanys efforts to adapt to the [System] and was here to represent the interests of the voters, which Isaac mentally tranted to I have an inted sense of self-importance and dont know enough to even be aware of the gaps in my knowledge. As a member of the German parliament, the Bundestag, he did wield some measure of influence, but not nearly as much as he thought he did as he hadnt actually been put in charge of this matter. Sure, he might act like that was how things had gone, but that was all it was. An act. The second was someone both Bailey and Isaac had worked with in the past, though their interactions had always been brief. Oberst Gram was the second inmand of Grafenw?hr, where the team always fought against the first monsters of a new Tier and had spent the second Event. As extensive as the ns theyd made had been, theyd mostly been made over Email, in person meetings had almost never taken more than a few minutes and from then on, the Oberst had been far away coordinating everything involving the military. The third was a member of the BAU, the Federal Bureau of the Supernatural, by the name of Else G?tz. She was on the administrative side of things, though, not even a member ofw enforcement whod been directly involved in a situation like the one that had necessitated this meeting. Isaac didnt really mind the fact that someone didnt want to do a job that actively endangered their life, but he still wished someone else could have been sent. People without that kind of experience could have a somewhat warped sense of such situations. This could go fine, but it could easily go awfully wrong as well, and having someone like her here increased the risk of thetter happening. Sure, politician was a far bigger risk, but everyone here knew how out of touch one of those could be. A member ofw enforcement, on the other hand That being said, he had asked Habicht about her and hed said she was a good egg. As it turned out, she was on the same level as him in the org-chart and theyd worked together plenty of times. This new information helped soothe Isaacs nerves, but he was still far from calm. The fourth person was another familiar face, Professor Bishop. He knew a lot about what the team did and the precautions they took but he wasnt a part of it, having his own faculty to run. Thisbination of a high degree of insight and personal detachment meant that Cass couldnt have wished for a better candidate to sit in. And the fifth person, well, that was Isaac himself, wearing a proper three-piece suit for the first time in this new timeline. But it wasnt a regr suit, oh no, that would havepletely contrary to the image he was trying to project. Like literally every other article of clothing hedmissioned sinceing to this timeline, it was armored and reduced drag when moving at high speeds, with slight visual cues that let others tell that the stuff he was wearing was functional as well as (sometimes) stylish. It told people who he saw himself, or rather, what. A consummate professional, prepared for the unexpected even outside the workce. Someone whose job wasnt just, well, a job, but a part of their identity. But even though hed dressed to the nines for this meeting, as the others traded pleasantries, Isaac was deep in thought, reying thest couple of days in head over and over again. The first thing hed done after dropping Bailey off at his apartment was visit his family, reassure himself they were safe, but he hadnt spent much time with them, there was simply too much for him to do. And as for his second trick, hed damn near given the spy watching over his sisters a coronary when hed dropped by her apartment. It would have been funny, but the situation had been far too serious. Also, shed assured him that shed die in their defense. Reassuring but also slightly terrifying. Because she meant it. Somehow, the loyalty to whatever specifically it was that she was loyal to, had been applied to that to this mission. The idea that there were things like that moving behind the scenes, the government pulling a million different strings to try and keep his loyalty more than a little intimidating. What was worse was that none of that was happening behind the scenes, outside the public eye. This wasnt something official, like the indefinitely extended visas Amy and Raul had received, or the offer of immigration coupled with a fantastic job offer from the Dungeon Guild hed received from South Korea. No, this was some real spy movie shit, where no one was acting out in the open, constantly existing in a state of unspoken quid pro quo, with the actors being secret agents and even spooks. Where nothing was written down or even properly agreed upon, just a bunch of favors being done for each other with repayment most likely being expected, but never defined ahead of time. With that done, hed turned to the task of hunting down the backers of the people whod tried to rob the team. Hed gone at it with all the fury burning in his chest, ready to kick some ass and crack some skulls, but that wasnt at all how it had gone. Instead of an orgy of fire and brimstone level revenge, one that would have gone down in the history of the criminal underworld but only been spoken off in hushed whispers for fear of bing the next target, it had been an exercise in futility. Sure, Isaac had sense better than any bloodhound, and knowledge of another timeline that quite often gave him a starting point where others would have had to start from zero, but that hadnt helped him here. This mess hadnt happened in the other timeline, and as to why it had happened in this one, well, he knew exactly what had caused it. Greedy jackass see valuable thing. Greedy jackass try to steal valuable thing. Greedy jackass gets his ass beaten. End of story. Soooooo he didnt have a better starting point. His tracking ability was also bloody useless, given that everyone involved had already been locked up and anywhere he could have backtracked their movements to had already been found and investigated by the police. Andstly, Isaac was not an investigator, for fucks sake. He was a warrior. In one timeline, hed started out as a [Rouge], then as things had started to go bad, shifted over into a different build. One based on blood and sacrifice, or rather, making ones opponents sacrifice themselves on the altar of your wrath. Gaining power by killing minions, leaving them dying on the ground and only killing them by triggering the curses infused into the wounds hed inflicted, then using said curses to shunt their life force into a single powerful attack that could, given the right setup, obliterate [Raid Bosses]. In the other, hed also started out as a [Rouge], but then grown into a more ssical warrior, with a side gig of teacher. Neither lent itself to doing the grunt work of investigating a crime, especially when his primary leads were money sent through a dozen different shell corporations. All hed had was his intimate knowledge as to how deep humans could sink, and that hadnt exactly helped. What he had done was create a schematic of the souped up taser, taken out a few vital runes and disguising that as battle damage to prevent more of them from being built, and then sent it to Calise, asking if he could find out where the damn thing hade from. The response? I got no idea where that thing came from, but Ive got a dozen people here who want to buy them by the bucketload. Several people had gotten arrested for asking to buy Demon Lord Blood and/or offering money to the would-be robbers to go ahead and steal it, but that didnt help Isaac either. Sure, watching rich pricks whod thought themselves untouchable get arrested was funny, given what he knew was behind it, but it didnt help much. See, they hadnt quite realized what a few forensic ountants and people of a simr vocation whod been power during thest event by a certain consultant were capable of and now they had some fancy new silver jewelry, but they werent the direct cause of the attempted robbery. They were connected to it in ways that were direct enough to earn criminal charges, but no one had outright gone ahead and said go steal me some [Raid Boss] gunk. The only big question mark left was the origin of the tasers. The maker could be the trigger puller, and even if they werent, those things were going to get people killed and needed to be removed from cirction. It was also the thing that he had the fewest clues for. As for the robbers, theyd sung like canaries, but they knew fuck all. Or at least, the few things theyd known were utterly useless. Thered been a job, powerful and often enchanted tools had been provided, the tasers had been given as a bonus, no one knew who the mystery client had been. Isaac had read every report, spied on every interrogation he could, and that had been all hed been able to find out. Hell, hed even dropped by the prison to scare the truth out of them, but as it turned out, the truth was the stuff hed already been aware of. As for how hed dropped by the prison without catching hell, that was actually pretty simple. He and Amy had worked in the summoning rooms, then taken a brief pause, during which shed opened a tiny portal into the cell of the robbers leader, making sure to pick the cameras dead spot. Isaac had then used his oft-neglected illusion power to project an illusionary copy of himself into the cell, then hammered his [Aura], infused with [Deaths Embrace], into the man within. Hed held up a few cards with pre-written questions, receiving answers in between sobs of terror and hyperventtion. And when hed been questioned about it, a mere couple of hourster, hed been able to truthfully state Ive been here all night and never left.. It had been a straightforward statement with no weasel words, and the officer whod asked had had the [Skills] to know Isaac was telling the truth. That had been that. Now, after that entire mess of frustration, he was here, having to fight for the future freedom of his research team with two politically-minded civilians, and thew enforcement representative hadnt experiencedbat. This was going to suck, no matter how necessary it was. as interesting as this has been, unfortunately, we didnt meet for the excellent pastries. K?stler announced, thest bit of his croissant vanishing down his gullet. No surprise that he loved them, given that the maker was the cook whod been powerlevelled by the team in the sense that theyd sent a bunch of monster meat for her to figure out how to cook. You couldnt find better food in a Michelin star restaurant. Isaac just sighed internally. This was already off to a bad start, given K?stler was only partially wanting to talk about the matter at hand, the career politician wanted to take this as an opportunity towork. Yes, lets. Gram responded, slightly sourly. If Isaac had read him correctly, he was simply too polite to interrupt, at least not unless the people here had stretched out the small talk to a far greater degree than they had. Then, he pulled a sheath of paper out of his briefcase and slid it across to Bailey and Kass. Before we start this properly, theres an offer the Bundeswehr would like to extend to you. In the past, weve worked together several times to break into new Tiers and during thest Event, and as such, its been suggested that you might want to move to Grafenw?hr permanently. Weve got the space to build any facility you might need, the engineering corps to set up basic structures in a matter of hours, and moreplex ones in a few days. The only thing that might take longer is something that requires specialized equipment that isnt freely avable, but even that shouldnt take more than a month at the very outside. Youd also have a literal army avable in case of containment issues, or whenever youd like to get started on the next Tier. Your manpower here is likewise impressive, but itsbat power cant match what would be avable in Grafenw?hr. Of course, being a military base, it would provide a degree of personal security no other ce could match. Regardless of the measures you take here, this building wont be able to match the sheer protection that are already in ce at your average military base, especially one asrge as this one. Lastly, your budget would be provided directly by the state, vastly exceeding what you have right now, but it woulde with the same degree of creative freedom you have now. Isaac had already skimmed the folder with his [Aura], while Bailey had grabbed it and flipped through it. On paper, it was a very good offer. And in reality, it was still a somewhat good choice. The problem was, well, it was wrong for reasons none of the people making the offer were aware of. Grafenw?hr was aways from Isaacs current home, and staying here would leave him with one hell of amute. Moving was an option, of course, but that would leave him very close to a military base, with all the security precautions that entailed nearby. Given all the summoning shenanigans he got up to back home, that could easily end up biting him in the ass. At the very least, his current home had a vast roofed section that prevented spying from overhead and he owned enoughnd that no one could reasonably get close enough to spy on him directly without trespassing, at which point he could legally throw them out. And all of that wasnt even mentioning that no matter what Oberst Gram said, theyd still be working directly with the military and that entailed a certain degree of military discipline. Here at the university, theyd started out with nearplete freedom because no one had known how to research the [System] and by the time things had been properly set up, Bailey had proven himself capable, which had then led to him being given enough rope to hang himself with. However, hed continued to act with caution and thoughtfulness, bringing fantastic results in the process. In the end, the overall mentality of both the dean and his beancounters had been let Professor Bailey do whatever he wants, and so long as he doesnt nuke the budget, he can also get whatever he wants. After all, it had already paid off for them in them and continued to do so. The military was an organization that ran on discipline and a clear hierarchy, which very much at odds with how the team was run. Also, the team often ran experiments with specifically based on Isaacs knowledge of the other timeline, which they could easily get away with due to their rtiveck of oversight. That would be something that wouldnt work if they epted this offer, not at all. Yet he could hardlye out and say that, could he? Thankfully, hed both anticipated an offer like that and talked it over with Bailey ahead of time. That sounds like a good solution, doesnt it? K?stler announced, shing a winning smile to the rest of the people at the table More resources, a vast area for summoning already fully geared to blow monsters to pieces and the security your work needs. It is the man that has nothing to lose or is willing to lose everything to beat you that I am afraid of. If a man is willing to lose his life to bite off my nose then I dont care how good I am or what I do to him- hes gonna get my nose. Isaac responded, his tone that of someone quoting scripture. The person who said that was Bruce Lee, the greatest martial artist of the 20th century. And its a principle that applies here as well. We live in a world where people can, quite literally, do anything. If a determined enough foe wants to get in, theyre going to get in, no matter what we try to do to keep them out, even on a military base. What we can do is ramp up our defenses up to such a level that it simply wouldnt be practical to try and rob us. You seem to be under the impression that a military base is an easy target. K?stlermented, sounding like he thought Isaac was a bit of an idiot. Now this was where things could get dangerous. If the politician in the room decided to push for a move for the safety of the university, that could end badly. Politicians were annoying. They needed to at least look like they were trying to follow up on the promises theyd made to the voters, so there was a limit as to how much they could faff around in the parliament or onmittees rted to said promises. This, though, wasnt either of those situations. K?stler having been voted into office didnt make him an expert on the topic of everymittee he might join, and he really shouldnt have any say or sway here. But he did. First of all, Isaac could probably waltz straight through there and not even notice. Bailey pointed out And secondly, Grafenw?hr is a training area. Lots of practically untouched areas of forest, a few administrative buildings in one cluster, then theres the airfield, but thats about it. Were not talking about a heavily guarded fortress here. While the buildings do have guards and all the other protections military buildings usually have, I think you might have the wrong mental picture of the ce. Is that right, Oberst? K?stler asked, looking at the military officer while pretending to ignore Bailey. While Id love to be able to im that wed catch Dr. Thoma if he decided to go sneaking around, it would be a lie. And Professor Baileyspletely correct in his assessment. Gram replied, sounding contrite but Isaac caught that little twitch in the corner of his mouth. He didnt like the politician any more than Isaac did. In addition, the security features that do exist could pose a problem. Bailey added We rely on a lot of students and TAs to help us with our research, something wedck if we moved to a military base. I believe Oberst Gram offered the help of military personnel? the dean asked. He did. This time, it was Professor Bishop who answered But in the military, people in the lower ranks are trained to be disciplined and follow orders. If you know what you want to happen, that is a good thing because you can be sure that orders get followed even if they dont have an obvious logic behind them. But were experimenting here, and that requires a slightly different mindset. In addition, any military personal would require intensive instruction on what constitutes an anomalous result of an experiment as theyck the proper grounding in this topic to be able to identify one. Kass ufortably shifted in his seat and turned to the Oberst Im afraid it seems like a permanent move to Grafenw?hr wont be viable. Isaac sighed internally. The fact that the move was most likely not going to happen had been obvious to everyone here, but Kass had felt like he needed to mention it for some reason. Had he suggested it? Probably. Of course, politics were important, constantplete and utter honesty would cause a hell of a lot of trouble, but this was supposed to be a reasonable conversation between adults. Yet people had tried to cut a dozen different backroom deals and conducted pre-negotiations, and so on, and so forth. And because of that, no one had all the information, and that was going to make this whole thing a million times more frustrating and more annoying. Youre telling me no one here can think of a way to protect something from thieves? In this room of experts? K?stlermented with deceptive nonchnce. Actually, I do have a solution, a very simple, very obvious one. G?tz finally gave her contribution to the discussion The BAU is still in the process of being created, but its rather obvious that it cannot remain limited to the few buildings in Berlin that we currently use. As such, were nning to create several satellite offices from which to dispatch and coordinate tactical operations. And why not create one here, cing a group of highly trained GSG-13 officers within spitting distance of the university, able to respond to incidents like the one that urred a couple of days ago or a containment breach in a matter of second? Shouldnt something like that be put inside a major city? K?stler asked This is a university town with barely fifty thousand people in it and the only major sites its got are the university and the dairy factory. Actually, it shouldnt. G?tz said We wont have the personnel to guard all major cities, so each of the BAUs site will need to cover a vast area. Given the kinds of deployment distances were looking at, the time needed to get out of a major city can easily cost lives. In addition, the kind of space one of our facilities need would be hard toe by in a heavily popted area. Where exactly would you suggest you ce this new building? Theres plenty of woond around, yes, but Im already catching hell from environmental protection groups over the current expansion of the campus. Kass threw in. While I cant help with the optimal cement of the BAU building, I do have suggestion for your other problem. K?stler interjected Your [Biologists] and [Rangers] have some degree of affinity for nts, dont they? Theyre able to grow trees in a matter of days, and lesser nts in a matter of minutes? Isaac, Bailey, Bishop and Kass all nodded. They why dont you send some of them to the Amazon, regrow twice as much forest as you fell here? Or use them in other ways to restore nature in a region that is in the public eye? In hindsight, that suggestion had been bloody obvious. Isaac fought down the urge to facepalm. That just leaves one more question to be asked: when can you move? Kass asked. Im afraid thats where it gets tricky. G?tz sighed We dont have another group of GSG-13 trained officers ready to go. And until then, Im afraid an alternative solution will have to be found until then. Or we could always train them up faster. I could help. Isaac suggested. Thank you for the offer, Dr. Thoma, but Im afraid you dont have the right kind of qualifications to teach people to be police offers. G?tz apologized But I dont have to teach people to be police officers. GSG-13 is made up of the best of the best, the finest officers on the force. They know how to be police, what they need to learn is how to fight monsters and use the [System] to its greatest effect. Isaac then tapped his temple Thanks to my [ss], Ive got as muchbat experience as a veteran member of the military, and thanks to one of its core [Skills], that knowledge has been upgraded so its useful in a world with a [System]. I was hoping to have unlocked all teachable [Skills] before I started teaching people in earnest, but I can still grant the [Skills] and training needed to make your officers fight as if they shared a brain, and give them [Skills] that will massively boost theirbat power, [Skills] they have no chance of getting elsewhere. Have you ever thought about talking to a historian, sharing some of that knowledge? K?stler suggested. I did, but before I could take any steps towards that, I got absolutely hounded by people who felt that I was wasting my life by not spending every second of it sharing my first hand knowledge of ancient history, so I decided to give them all some time to calm down. I see. Also, have you considered training some members of the Bundeswehr? K?stler continued, as if everyone else wasnt here I think you could really be a huge help to this country. I think I do more good here, Im afraid. Isaac shook his head. All turning Germany into a superpower would achieve was destabilize politics, and maybe help keep this specific country safe, but in the end, even the strongest bastion would fall if all most of the world was consumed by monsters. I see. Though I do have to mention that there are some great things this nation can do for you. For example The politician stopped talking as Oberst Gram surged to his feet and then, voice sickly sweet, asked Can I talk to you outside for a second? Clearly, the military officer had realized the same thing Isaac had, the politician was about to start on a whole spiel about the carrot and the stick. All very polite, designed to make anyone getting offended seem like a crazy person who was overreacting and also something Gram knew Isaac could see through. Once outside, one of the pair activated an anti-eavesdropping [Skill], but it was insufficient to keep out someone with Isaacs Perception. if you piss him off, hell head to South Korea and all that will be necessary by the time his ne touches down will be his signature on the immigration paperwork, theyll dly handle everything else for him. You Yeah, Isaac should probably try and help out of the Oberst if K?stler decided to retaliate. But hopefully, he wouldnt, or if he did, be blocked. Gram had been very polite the entire time, mindful of the damage a politician could do to his career, but when the politician had been about to damage the governments rtionship with a vital asset, hed acted. Hopefully, that would be enough to for his superiors to actively work to inste him from consequences, or maybe even get K?stler in a position where he could be useful. Because the politician wasnt stupid. In fact, Isaac would have hired him as a PR agent or simr role for the team in a heartbeat. It was just that those werent the qualifications that one should have to talk at this table. I think that might take a while. Bailey observed, addressing G?tz Shall we get down to brass tacks? After several hours of negotiation, Isaac ended up getting voluntold to train officers a few hours a week by Kass, Bailey would teach the finer points of monster anatomy, and a few of the university crafters would be avable for hire by the BAU. Kass had folded like a wet nket, especially after G?tz had cheekily asked him to put a mary price of safety and peace of mind. Hed ended up getting surprisingly flustered when he realized he couldnt give a proper answer. But they hadnt gottenpletely ripped off. GSG-13 had temporarily relocated to the university, the offices would be set up in a couple of months and theyd get an official authorization to borrow manpower from the soon-to-be nearby office of the BAU for their experiments. Also, after K?stler had left in a huff, Bailey and Isaac had been able to make a full set of ns for the uing Event with Gram. All in all, the whole affair had been tiring as all get out, but it had been worth it. Now if only he had some leads vis--vis the robbery then again, maybe some of the police officers would let something while he was training them? Chapter 149: A Frustrating Rest of the Week Chapter 149: A Frustrating Rest of the Week Aaaaand thats it, Im done, humanity can go die in a fire. Isaac muttered as he mmed hisptop shut with more force than was strictly necessary. Everything alright? Wirt asked, poking his head into Isaacs office through the open door. Yeah, just finishing off some paperwork before Ill join you guys outside. Isaac called back. He was currently at Grafenw?hr, a few days too early for the Event but that wasnt why hede here, not really. Sure, some preparations were easier to make with a member of the team here, but that hadnt been necessary before, and it wasnt now. However, there wasnt really anything else to do, the teams building was still being repaired and with half the people who worked for them not even there, him staying wouldnt have gotten him anywhere. And as far as his investigation went, well, it hadnt. All the current leads were exhausted, and all he could have continued to do was spin in circles, which wouldnt exactly have been very productive either. No, Isaac was here to y trainer to the soon-to-be members of GSG-13. After all, this ce had the space to conduct somerge-scale exercise and a notableck of people who might end up underfoot and get injured. That way, they could cut loose without risking others. However, Bailey was still mostly on leave, so Isaac was still left doing most of the paperwork. Today, that had included looking through the grant proposals and offers of funding in exchange for specific studies being that had umted. Most of theter had been about stuff the team was already going to do, while Isaac sent on almost all of the former ones to the relevant government agency. Neither him nor Bailey should have had to handle those, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft should have been the ones to handle it except they didnt have the right expertise to decide what proposals had merit, so they were being sent to the experts for review first, save those that said experts or their collogues had themselves submitted. In the process, Isaac had discovered a folder in the cloud that was simply titled Nope, besides the epted Studies, Rejected Studies, and epted, butter Studies. Aaaaaand hed made the major mistake of clicking on it. As it turned out, Bailey had only kept the files within in case of a court case because he seriously felt that someone else might take money for that study and cross some boundaries. Or maybe theyd just been saved because as a scientist, Bailey was loathe to delete any data, even if it solidly fell into the categories of disturbing, disgusting and a horrific view into the darkest and most depraved parts of humanity. Still, ew. Just ew. The one that had asked them to figure out how to create Catgirl had been the least problematic of the bunch, but it had been damn clear in the subtext that the person whod made that suggestion had watched way too much hentai. The rest of the stuff hed only read a handful, but theyd been enough to make Isaac seriously regret how good his memory now was. But that crap was over and done with, and now Isaac had a chance to whip some people into proper shape, the exact kind of people whod end up massively reducing his work going forward, ensuring that he wouldnt have to run all over the country to stomp out monster infestations. With a broad grin stretching across his face, Isaac shifted his clothing over to his newest piece of gear, the bastard lovechild of police tactical armor and chainmail, slightly modelled after the equipment GSG-13 would soon get but clearly distinct from it. The end result aligned him with them and made it clear how he saw their rtion, without impersonating anyone. Also, it made it easy to pick him, the trainer, apart at a distance. You know, that must have been something pretty bad to make you swear like that. Wirt observed as he fell into step alongside Isaac. The darkness of humanity revealed, a million study proposals with hentai search terms attached. How anyone would imagine any institution of higher education would pick that up is beyond me, never mind someone as busy as us. Isaac shook his head in annoyance as he recounted some of the proposals. Those people sound like they should end up on a list. Wirt observed. Oh, we already have one: banned from campus for life for making incredibly indecent proposals after it became know how [Bloodlines] work. Isaac responded, earlier good mood fled There may or may not have been a lot of indecent pictures attached to emails before IT reworked the spam filters. People sometimes really suck. Wirt observed with a knowing grimace Most people are good ones, or even just decent, but its the worst of them that are the loudest, the ones you end up interacting with because you have to, and that can give you a seriously warped view of humanity as a whole. Dont let it. Im not nning to. Isaac reassured him But right now, I kinda hate people. Yep. Wirt nodded, and fell silent as he led Isaac through the building. It wasnt that Isaac didnt know the way though, but rather, no one wanted him loose in a military instation, even if there wasnt any sensitive material on hand as far as he knew. But still, an escort had been necessary. Of course, the whole thing had an air of weirdness about it because said escort was a member of the police force, not the military. Where people genuinely scared he might do something stupid if the escort wasnt someone he knew? Or was this simply an offer of goodwill? Either way, it was certainly something to keep in mind. Yet even with all the somewhat annoying stuff here, parts of the whole affair were actually great. Firstly, he was training the people whod take over hunting monsters that got loose, letting him focus more on research. And secondly, what better ce to find new leads than a horde of police officers who might let something slip or open an email with relevant information in a ce he could see? Overall, it wasnt the worst way to spend his time. It might feel like there were better things he could be doing, but he knew that was incorrect. Soon enough, theyd left the building and were heading out into the boonies, walking through woods that had been mostly untouched since the creation of this training ground. Sure, there was the asional crater where a live artillery shell had been used during an exercise, and a bunch of old campsites created during wilderness survival training, but that was pretty much it. More creatures lived in these woods than any others Isaac had been in, including the ones around his house. An absurd number of squirrels, deer, and boar. Look, dinner. Isaac observed, gesturing at arge hog that was giving them the stink-eye from the tree line. Is that really the first thing you think of when you see a wild animal? Wirt asked, giving him the side-eye It is when the deputy basemander tells me to feel free to stock up myrder with those damn hogs. Apparently, theres enough of them to be a problem, and there have been problems getting the right authorization to sic the soldiers on them, or even just let them go hunting on their own outside of relevant training exercises. Wirt chuckled a little, paused in thought for a moment, then burst outughing Bureaucracy at its finest. How much forest gets wrecked every time the artillery is used in an exercise? Not to mention how much forest is getting ttened as we speak so we can use the space in the uing Event? And hunting boar to practice surviving in the wild is perfectly fine. But shooting a few hogs as a poption control measure is somehow a huge problem. Then he cocked his head to the side and threw Isaac a puzzled nce Wait, why are you allowed to stock up yourrder? Technicalities. I got a variant on a standard hunting license so I can pretend to be a professional when ites to killing monsters. And since Im currently allowed on here and getting rid of boars when there are too many is part of what a hunter should be doing. Since Im currently allowed on the premises, Im in a position to get a few for us to roastter. Oh, that sounds good. Wirt replied, practically salivating. Well, I have to apologize for putting you guys through the wringer,somehow. Isaac replied in apletely nonchnt tone that nheless made the veteran police officer flinch. Hed taken itparatively easy in Camelot, given that the people there had functionally been civilians. The same clearly didnt apply to his current pool of trainees. By the time they reached the area that was being prepared for the Event, said trainees were already in the middle of getting warmed up. Wirt joined the others, while Isaac waited for them to be done. Finally, they all stood ready and the Feldwebel with a protective training [Skill] Isaac had asked for arrived, already looking incredibly nervous. Dr. Thoma, Ive got the [Skill] you requested, but Im afraid it wouldnt work on any of you, youre so powerful that youd tear right through it. Ah, that was why Isaac liked working with professionals, theyde out and say it when there was a problem like this. No beating about the bush, no trying to shift the me, just the hard truth. Itll suffice, please cast it. He ordered, activating both [Knightly Leader] and [Legacy of a True Warrior] Everyone please ept the party invite. The first [Skill] simply let him interact with the others better, while the second sent all of them into the field, properly interacting with the field and supplementing it with their mana to prevent their attacks from hurting anyone or tearing up the ce. Whats the radius on your training field? Isaac asked the Feldwebel. Fifty, no sixty, seventy meters. The man exined, earning himself several confused nces, sheepishly adding It just levelled up. Good. Isaac said Tell me whenever it gets stronger again, so we can use that. Then, he closer to his trainees and announced Were going to start this off with a sparring match. To make sure we still have the mana for the field, no one is allowed to use a [Skill] that would put them under fifty percent of their mana pool. The training field can pull you under it, that is no problem, but the [Skills] cost mustnt. In addition, no cooldown [Skills] and nothing that costs over a thousand points of mana. Otherwise, feel free to cut loose. Anyone who is saved by the field is out and leaves the field. Questions? None came forward. So now, Im going to use one of my [Skills] to transform into arger form for five minutes. How you fare against it will give me a good idea as to where to go from here. The training ends when I shift back. And with that, Isaac lunged, transforming into the [Form of Horror] mid-stride. Large, serpentine, spikes all over the ce, twin floating swords ready to tear apart anyone who got in his way. But those des ended up nted in the ground and left there because in this situation, Isaac was giving himself a bit of a handicap. His trainees reacted immediately, riot shields manifesting out of seemingly nowhere, with the people with tank builds moving to the front, trying to intercept him. A good move, protect the squishier people, the ones who were meant to be dealing the majority of the damage. It was also eminently predictable, and Isaac had already been angling to kick off the closest shield,unching himself skywards and over the shield wall. Normally, this would have left him stuck in midair, an easy target. But Isaac simply activated [Wave Charge],ing down like a meteor into the second line of fighters. As blue light red and coalesced into shields, that turned into an undignified tumble, the functionally immovable shield fueled by his own mana preventing him from causing injuries. Out. Isaac growled, voiceing out low and menacing without him having to even try. Five people scrambled out of thebat zone, the rest pressed in. ws shed, skittering off suddenly appearing shields and more people left, but Isaacs mobility was vastly reduced. For a moment, it seemed like this would all be over in thirty seconds until Isaac swept out his arms, stacking every [Strike-Skill] into a single attack, then projecting it from all of the spikes on his body. That knocked out a good third of the people there, but the rest were continuing to press in. Yet now, there were enough holes in the formation for him to flee, so Isaac grasped onto that option with both hands, opening the distance. They continued to sh, Isaac sticking to just big, sweeping, stacked [Strikes], [Wave Charge] and asionally sting [Deaths Embrace] through his [Aura]. Right now, he was ying the part of a [Raid Boss], which had powerful single-target attacks, AOEs and debuff powers, sticking to just that and nothing else. Using all his [Skills] would have turned this into a pointless exercise, given how this was set up. None of his opponents could use their cooldown [Skills], while hed used his transformation cooldown [Skill] and that aside, most of his power was concentrated in non-cooldown [Skills]. Meanwhile, his trainees had a lot of strong [Skills] that they werent allowed to use. [Lockdown], [You are Under Arrest], [Hold it Right There], [Caught Red-Handed] A dozen different [Skills] meant to stop a criminal, freezing them in their tracks or preventing their escape, mmed into him, slowing his movement to a crawl. Some required a little lead time, others only worked if the user had seen someonemit a crime, etc., but with enough nning, they could still be used simultaneously. And with the partys chat function, theyd been able to set it up without Isaac overhearing. He could still move, but not quickly enough to avoid getting dogpiled. Isaac tapped out, stood up once he no longer had a dozen people sitting on him, and shifted back to his regr form. Now, what did we learn? he asked. Not having cooldown [Skills] sucks ass. Yeah, but theyre cooldown [Skills]. Out of all your [Skills], theyre going to be [Skills] youre going to lose ess to the most. Theyre great to have, but not something you can rely on having to bail you out. Were going to train with thoseter, but not before then. Having a [Skill] that lets you ignore your lizard brain is important. Weve had to train hard to ignore the part of our brain that makes us run from danger so we can do our jobs, but thats not really applicable when youve got a three meter snake monster up in your face. Another person called out, clearly referring to one of [Knightly Leaders] secondary benefits. Isnt that going to cause problems, though? Fear is a survival mechanism, after all. The third speaker pointed out right on the heels of the second. It might be, but it only affects irrational fear. It prevents morale breaking in inexperienced units, and given how destructive a full rout is, its value cannot be overstated. Being able to choose what to do with a clear mind is incredibly useful, however, I do see a potential issue in people who always fight in parties with this effect active bing dependent on it. Isaac added What else? Communication is key. If one of the people who lost had been the party leader, we wouldnt have been able to coordinate enough to win. Precisely. Isaac nodded approvingly Thats the power of a proper Party, something you can only get from an appropriate [ss], which loses a little bit of its direct striking power in exchange. However, I can grant a lesser version of that to others. Itll have a shortermunication range and the irrational fear immunity will be weaker, but itll give you a backup Party leader. Lets see how the next training match will go, especially after I switch up what [Skills] I use. At thatst promation, several people nched. Until my [Skill] is off cooldown, though, there are other things we can do. This time, everyone grew nervous. *** Two dayster, Isaac was out of training slots, and he was beyond happy at the progress everyone had made. Three people had been taught the epic version of [Knightly Leader], [Knightly Discipline]. It was weaker in all measurable respects, but still damn good. Hed also taught the epic versions of the various [Skills] to those that could use them the best, often those whod also received [Knightly Discipline], then used the remaining slots to dole out as many rare versions in mass-training as he could. [Legendary Blow] had been reduced to [Epic Blow], which could only stack up to three attacks, then further weakened to [Double Blow], which could merely double the force of an attack. Meanwhile, the taught epic version of [Fully Geared] only allowed for the storage of a single set of armor, and the rare one put a fifteen second dy on any equipment swaps, and bothcked the option to reinforce armor with mana. Overall, the past couple of days had incredibly exhausting, but also rewarding. Theyd practiced re-establishing the Party at the drop of a hat, using the coordination feature to its greatest effect, and practiced anti-[Raid Boss] tactics. Also, Isaac had shown a lot of his nastier tricks, and how to counter them. Someones leaping through the ground via phasing? Use a reinforcement [Skill] on the topyer of whatever floor they were standing one. Weird things flickering in the corners of their eyes as someone is sneaking around? It had taken quite a while to figure out a near-universally applicable anti-assassin defensive formation, but theyd managed it. And so on, massively increasing the level of the training protection [Skill], to the point where it evolved so that not only could any too powerful person join it without needing Isaac to facilitate it, but people could also donate mana to empower a single person within to let them y the part of a Kaiju in training. They didnt actually grow stronger, but the training field would change how they interacted with others and how much force they could exert. Clearly, having Isaac bounce around someones training field could grant some pretty nice upgrades. But it wasnt just the training that had made this worth it. As a secondary benefit, the police officers impression of his power had massively shifted. They now knew he was someone they could arrest, worst case scenario. In a real worldbat scenario, on the other hand, hed win handily with a few nasty aces up his sleeve hed told no one about. For one, he could transform into the form of any monster whose Aspect he held, though the transformation time could be massively reduced if the monster was too strong. In fact, while he could shift into a Demon Lord, he could only remain in that form for two seconds, one if he used any of its hellfire abilities. A waste of a good ability under most situations, but triggering a [Raid Boss] give me personal space AOE in the middle of a crow, that was basically the win right there. Or he could use the extraordinarily lethalbination of [Wave Charge] and [I am The Sword] to plow straight through the defenders and take out the squishier damage dealers or crowd control specialists. Given that he was invulnerable while thetter [Skill] was active, even hostile cooldown [Skills] wouldnt be able to keep him out. Andstly, he could always abduct a cornerstone of his opponents defense using [Grave of Swords], then pop back out unexpectedly. Sure, people knew roughly where hed return, but the when wasnt something anyone could determine from the outside. All in all, hed managed to make himself look less like some kind of untouchable threat, well beyond their power to affect while also ensuring that they saw him as an ally. Also, the boar roast as an apology for putting them through the wringer ended up being both necessary and massively appreciated. You know, were going to end up having to chase a million more poachers now that people are so much more capable than animals. Wirtmented as he reached for another rack of pork ribs And I do mean us, specifically, because I can gua-ran-tee that someone will assume that can kill wild animals like they were nothing means they have a bunch of powerfulbat [Skills]. Are you sure? Isaac asked I mean, Ive seen a bunch of very stupid pencil pushers, but wont you guys have your hands full with stuff like what happened in the university? Wont theyd literally have to stop chasing an armed robber or mass murderer be a pretty strong argument against that? In theory, yes. In practice those blockheads wouldnt recognizemon sense if it took a dump on their desk. Wirt shook his head Also, there is the small issue of us currently not having direct leads we could be following up on, and the idea that units like GSG-13 need to be on standby tends to not prate the thick skulls of some of those people. Wait, no leads? Isaac frowned Is it really that bad? Yes and no. Wirt made a so-so motion with his hand The perpetrators themselves are already in custody thanks to the professor, we caught a bunch of their backers and some reasonably big names who employed them in the past, but nothing more. Whats got everyone in a tizzy that there are groups we know are connected to this, but who we cant track down. The source of those tasers, someone who paid them to be on retainer but werent nning on using them for a literal decade, just demanding training and Level standards. Crazy, just nuts. Theyre also protected by [Skills] on top of more traditional means of disguising financial ties, and the analysts are tearing their hair out. Well, crap. Isaac muttered. Sure, it was great that he was freely getting information, but that information was bloody useless. And there was the part about someone making a very strange investment either those guys were nuts, or knew something he didnt. Neither option was good. Its not all bad, though. Wirt suddenly let out a low chuckle Were not the only ones chasing after those guys. Oh, how so? Isaac asked. See, someone managed to get their hands on a diagram of one of those tasers and has been asking around about them. No one knew about where to get them, but a lot of people are very interested in getting their hands on one. Whoever spread around the diagram censored it in such a way that showed it was a workable design without making it possible to replicate the device based on it. Hm, was it just a publicity stunt, then? Load up some disposable pawns with tools, then ask around for them and drum up awareness? Isaac asked. Of course, it had been him whod leaked the taser diagram, not its mysterious manufacturer, but it was entirely possible hed done so faster than they had. Yet the entire reason people had known about the taser because the robbery had gone so badly, and that had only been caused by Bailey being far stronger than anyone could have expected. All in all, that sounded less usible the more he thought about it. It could have just been a theft gone wrong and he was overthinking it to an absurd degree. The perpetrators had been caught, as had most of their backers, with only a few unknowns remaining. But until he knew everything, it would continue to eat at him. Because the unknown could be hiding multitudes, things far more dangerous than they appeared at first nce. Maybe. Wirt shrugged It isnt the craziest suggestion Ive heard, but its out there. Some of those people are seriously nuts, whos to say we arent driving ourselves crazy trying to understand a reason that only makes sense to a person that doesnt have any? Also, if those people wanted to sell those tasers, wed already be seeing them used all over the ce. Based on what I heard, theyre hiding under a rock and noting out. Isaac just sighed and started eating a rack of ribs of his own in lieu of answering. Wirt really had been very helpful, but sadly, he hadnt been very useful. Still, Isaac had just learned that hed identally mightily inconvenienced the people whose tools had nearly killed Andre, so that was worth something. Now all he had to do was make it through the next few days, which would include more training, the Event and theyd also be officially summoning the first Tier 7 monster, which would be chaotic as hell. The minimum Level for a beast of that Tier was 46, well below not only his own but also weaker than the lowest level police officer here. Normally, this would have been done long ago, but the Demon Lord in Seoul had put everyone off summoning new things for a good while. *** Thank you foring everyone. Bailey announced, looking at everyone whod showed up a day before the Event just for this. Hed known that a Tier 7 monster was well within the teams capability to beat, but the world atrge didnt. So, him taking extra precautions signaled that he was taking this seriously. Today was a particrly good time to do this, as the current and future GSG-13 members had not yet scattered to the four winds as they did during Events and several of the groups who usually helped with Events had agreed toe a little earlier than normal. Of course, normal and usual were weird words to use when thered been precisely one Event theyd nned for in the past, but then again, all traditions had to start somewhere. To all those of you who havent been here for one of these, in essence, your role will be to intervene if the monster gets away from us, at least initially. My team and I will be taking down the first monster as quickly as we can to ensure that the monster can be taken down by a small group. Then the next one will be analyzed for its Stats, magical abilities and potential weakpoints. Well repeat this process a few times with different monsters so we can get a decent grasp on the power of this Tier. Once weve managed that, well know how many people to put into a group to continue the research. For now, however, youll be serving as our emergency backup. There were quite a few disappointed murmurs at that promation, but Isaac had expected that. Not the police officers and soldiers, they were professionals, but the people from Camelot, the Dungeon Guild and the few other independent summoners. No one entered this profession without being at least a little bit of a thrill seeker. As everyone else cleared the field, Isaac carved the summoning circle into the soft dirt with quick and precise motions, then tossed in a series of materials hed gotten art supply and gardening stores. There was a reason they always used solid Earth Elemental summons to break into a new Tier. They were slow,cking powerful magic and had clear weak spots in their cores. They were also incredibly tough, but the team had an absurd amount of firepower even if Isaac didnt resort to [I am The Sword]. And when he did, well, slow creatures made from a substance prone to cracking once damaged were especially vulnerable to such an attack. Summoning now. Isaac announced once everything was ready, giving a verbal warning as the protocol for instances like this instructed. He gave it a few seconds for people to object, then activated the summoning circle, causing the monster to erupt out of it. A five-meter-tall creature forged from dark grey rock with clear, white crystals stood in the middle of the rings of strange sigils. It looked far more humanoid than most Earth type summons, with near-human proportions, twin glowing crystals where the eyes would be on a person, and a slit for the mouth. All in all, while it was less than half the size of the Lesser Rock Titan theyd summoned to break into Tier 6, it looked vastly more dangerous. It spent a mere split-second to take in the situation, then exploded into motion, leaping straight at the group of humans that had dared to bring it into existence, all the while hammering its [Aura] into them, one that felt like a sea of jagged rocks and shards of broken ss. The auric assault achieved diddly squat, breaking on Rauls [Aura] like a wave splitting around a rock in the surf. And the only reason it was Raul whod blocked it was because his was the further forward [Aura] that wasnt a sensory one. Literally any member of the team could have blocked that attack. And as for the physical attack, well, that ran straight into a threefoldyer of conjured shields, blocked with casual ease. Multiple cores. Isaac warned, highlighting the secondaries in the party menu as he counterattacked, leaping up and above the shield. [Piercing-Power Strike], power quintupled by [Legendary Blow], hammered into the monsters chest just as his [Wave Charge] ended. The Titan was forced to take a single step backwards, its sheer mass ensuring an eighty kilo fighter couldnt really push it back all that far. However, it couldnt shrug off an impact like that anymore than Isaac had been able to knock it back more than one step. Rock and crystal fragments exploded outwards, leaving a massive crater in its chest, Balmung embedded in the main core up to the hilt, wedged in too hard to easily retrieve it. Isaac just left it there, kicked himself skywards and teleported the de back into his hand the monster below seemed to stutter for a moment. With its secondary cores, it was still alive and could move somewhat, but even collectively, none of the lesser magical crystals couldpensate for the loss of the primary one. Two secondster, a series of magical bolts had torn through the remaining cores, finishing it off. Lesser Crystal Titan (Lv. 51) has been in. 444 XP gained (1,500 XP base distributed across 6 people as per their contributions) Aaaaand done. Fortitude somewhere around three hundred, Strength thereabouts, Agility high one hundreds, Perception, Magic Regeneration and Magic Power around one hundred. Isaac rattled off One primary core provides most of the motile and processing power, four secondary cores can continue to move the body at a lesser efficiency. Each of the secondary cores are located very close to a limb. We should destroy them in sequence, see if the associated limb is more severely affected than the rest of the body. Patrick added. Also, Id like to check what happens if the secondary cores go first. Karl said Id say that that things power level is so that each of us can take care of one on our own. Agreed. Bailey said simply But well fight the next one together and analyze its abilities. Isaac, please reset the summoning circle. And two minutester, the next circle spat out another monster, erupting into motion, only to be brought up short by another magical barrier. Fists blurred, and the mystical wall began to waver, but Isaac just smacked it in the leg and escaped back behind the barrier. That thing almost certainly had some magical abilities, now it better use one. The beasts seemingly useless mouth then fell open and a momentter, a shotgun st of crystalline fragments exploded out of it, bringing down the first barrier and nearly doing the same to the second one. The slit slid closed with the sound of grinding stone, but using his [Aura], Isaac could see that additional crystals were being generated within the cavity, ready for another st like that. However, the mana was being drawn out of the core. Its fueling that attack from the same pool its using to move. Isaac nonchntlymented Well see what happens when we force the next one to only use that attack. Will it slow down, or just power down for a while until its power recharges? The next one. Bailey agreed. In the end, it turned out that the Titan didnt have anything truly special other than the crystal breath, but it was vastly more agile than its brethren from the Earth group of summons and generally better at moving and fighting. They also were the first to summon the Wandering Mountain, that was more like a walking boulder than anything else. At thirty meters tall, it was big, but the main problemy in clearing the field after the fight, not in killing it. The next monster to be summoned was a Swamp Elemental, which they only fought once because reiming their battlefield from the bloody bog it had gotten turned into after a single fight was in no way worth it. Then they summoned a Tempestborne Griffin, which provided even more information on what they could expect from Tier 7 monsters in terms of physical capabilities and magical tricks. From then on, people were free to pick Tier 7 monsters which were on the lower end of mana costs for that Tier, summon them, and turn them over for dissection and anatomical analysis, though theyd get them back afterwards. This was about analysis, not material gain, after all. There were a few injuries, but no deaths or anything remotely serious. With so many people around and all the preparations that had been made in case the monsters had turned out to be stronger than expected, help had been literally seconds away whenever something went wrong. As the sun fell behind the horizon though, Bailey practically had to chase everyone off the field with a broomstick, as the engineering corps needed the space to fix up everything. Sure, everyone had the stamina to keep going, but far too many people had ended up forgetting that theyd be even busier tomorrow. So now, Isaac retreated to the edge of the field, lit a campfire and just sat there with a book in hisp, watching the rack of pork ribs hed set up over it slowly brown. That looks good. A familiar voice called out from behind him. It is good. Local boar, marinated in a sauce prepared by the best cook on the base. Would you like some, Elena? he offered. Sure. She sat down on a rock next to him Howe youre sleeping not at the barracks like almost everyone else? My senses and [Aura] make me a bit of a security risk, and Id rather be out in the wilderness and free than sleep on a military cot with a babysitter. Isaac remarked. Elena chuckled Thats a new one. Camelots delegation is also out camping, but there was a small issue with the supplies where someone didnt get the memo about having to bring food and now theyre arguing that they should get some food from everyone else because theyre unwilling to swallow their pride and ask at the barracks cafeteria for some food, and I figured Id get away from the chaos. Isaac sighed I do have a bunch more meat in my storage space, we cut down the local boar poption to a more manageable size and I got arge chunk of the proceeds. I can share. Dont, Jason needs to learn to read the memos. But if I could get a piece Sure, go ahead. Isaac offered, pulling the now-done set of ribs out of the fire with his bare hands, then split it in half. They both started to eat, until he ended up chuckling as he spotted arge smear of sauce on her cheek. You know, youve got a little something on your face. He carefully pointed out. A momentter, a ssh of water moved across her face, removing the mess in its entirety. Best part of water magic, instant cleaning. One of them, at least. She replied with a wicked grin, then Isaac noticed the freezing water trickling down the back of his neck and let out a small yelp. Hed noticed what she was doing ahead of time, of course, but he yed along anyway. You know what, Ill retrieve my tent and move here before someone trips over it. She suggested You dont mind, do you? Of course not. Ill also toss some foil wrapped potatoes in the fire, so theyll be done when you get back. Isaac offered. Sounds good. As Elena left, Isaac smiled. Tomorrow would be messy, but tonight, camping in the wilderness, rxing in a way he rarely did, would be nice. Especially with the right kind ofpany. Chapter 150: Another Game, another Chance for a Horrible Death Chapter 150: Another Game, another Chance for a Horrible Death By the time 1 am rolled around, everyone was already up and ready to go. That was the best part of the people you worked with having a level of Fortitude. No one was hungover, no one had woken up drunk because theyd forgotten theyd had to get up earlier than normal and wouldnt have nearly enough time to sober up, and no one was standing there with bleary eyes because they hadnt gotten the sleep they needed. No, everyone was bright eyed and bushy tailed, standing there, ready for anything, waiting with all the discipline they had. When it came to the professionals, that was the utmost professionalism, clearly. When it came to the others not so much. But no one was causing actual trouble, even if literally bouncing in ce with excitement was a truly terrible look. And then it happened, therge hand of the clock ticked over to the top most position and another twenty-four hours of incredible danger began. Wee, one and all, to the Winter Solstice EVENT! Snow falls, nketing thends in white like a shroud, one might say. Winter is a dangerous time, after all, the cold, starvation and starving beasts waiting around every corner. This is a time to hide in ones log cabin, stare into the crackling fire andprehend just how screwed youd be if your supplies ran out. Or maybe look to the skies to see if you can spot Ol Saint Nicks sleigh so you can hide because you know all youre going to get is Krampus dropped off at your front door and a vicious beating from Santas dark counterpart? Either way, you will be free toze about in your favorite armchair, or get off your ass and take the fight directly to the monsters that make winter as dangerous as it is, earning fantastic rewards in the process? So pick up your weapon and stride out into the night, going up against the freezing cold of winter manifested into an avatar for you to fight, fend off the Krampusing to punish you for your misdeeds, or will you dare to face the embodiment of Hunger, Selfishness and depravation of Winter itself, the Windigo. A few spoilers about what monsters theyd be fighting, some vaguely threatening hints, and some subtle insults, all par for the course. wait, that didnt look right. Wasnt it meant to be Wendigo? Actually, there were multiple correct versions of that name, Isaac recalled, and Windigo was definitely one of them. But Wendigo was the mostmon spelling, so that was how most people would assume that it was a typo. And then the muttering had already begun. Isaac sted his [Aura] out with a vengeance, the energy sweeping out across the area and making everyone who came into contact with it very aware of the fact that Isaac was trying to get their attention. I know a few people believe theyve found a typo in the [System], that Windigo should be spelled with an e instead of an I and that that the first typo in the [System] might indicate something greater. That is not the case, both ways of spelling it are correct. He took a deep breath to calm down, contacted Khaled, who was in charge of IT and updating, Sure, there were only a few hundred meters separating them, but shouting orders at max volume without a clear necessity wasnt a good look and he didnt quit have the time to head over there. Unfortunately, the Party created by [Knightly Leader] was unable to take in everyone present, that would have been a little too convenient for them, but it was enough. Khaled, I want you to find a website or digital dictionary that can confirm that Windigo is indeed a proper way of spelling, then add a link to it to the top the website for this Event. Then, please record a message to that effect and arrange it so anyone calling the tip lines will have to listen to it before theyre put through. That was an awkward way to phrase that, but Isaac sadlycked the technical knowledge to put it more precisely. But this was going to be such a pain the ass. People who thought theyd noticed something that could be a scientific breakthrough felt the need to share it, and then often called the local university. For example, there was a parasite that looked a little like a baby eel that lived in the swim dders of fishes such as adult eels. And ording to Professor Sturm, head of the aquatic biology faculty, there were dozens of people who called and tried to get in contact with him to tell him that theyd just discovered eels gave birth to live young, every year. The number of callers had gotten annoying, and the only people whod called had been fisherman from the local area whod just so happened to have caught an infected eel. This was a typo that was visible to everyone in the world, and all of those people would be calling them. at least if the typo was visible to them, which might just be the English speaking world nope, flipping his [System] to German revealed the same issue but a quick check of the inte revealed that it likewise could be properly spelled multiple ways. Korean, same issue. Also Japanese. He couldnt check any othernguages because he couldnt view their versions of the [System] as he didnt speak them, but it would presumably be the same there. He quickly gave the order for people who spokenguages other than the ones hed already checked to see how things were set up there, but he doubted there was a difference. Anynguage with multiple correct ways of spelling the name used a lessmon version, to the end result of giving the impression that the seemingly infallible [System] had made a mistake. And then, theyd either call someone, or panic, because something that had invaded every part of their lives seemed like it was wed. And the worst part? It wouldnt even seem like a deliberate attempt to cause a mess, because Windigo was seemingly the most correct way of spelling because it was the one mostmonly used by indigenous authors, even though Wendigo was the mostmon version in general. All in all, that little letter being different would cause a lot of trouble over utterly nothing and in hindsight, it would be blindingly obvious what had gone wrong, namely, that nothing had actually gone wrong, things had just unfolded in an unexpected way. Therefore, no reasonable person would read malicious intent into it. This day was less than five minutes old an already practically guaranteed to turn into a disaster. Well yed, assholes. Isaac thought Well fucking yed. Chapter 151: The Usual Suspects Chapter 151: The Usual Suspects With the initial problem hopefully handled, or at the very least mitigated, Isaac could now turn to the standard program of an Event, namely, fighting new monsters. Bailey and Oberst Gram were already chasing everyone into the correct position and assigning monsters to certain people to summon. But that was something that Isaac didnt really need to deal with as his assignment had been known from the start. Find the strongest thing you can take on, and kick its ass. Because really, if he couldnt defeat something, there were very few other people on the face of the able to beat it, if any. Anything beyond that, well, that would likely necessitate a tactical nuke in response, as would most of monsters he was going to go up against should they kill their summoner and run wild. With Isaac being the one dealing with those things, there shouldnt be a problem. By the time the first monster burst out of the ground in front of him, most of the people were still being given their marching orders. Isaac might have be the number two of the research team in an official capacity, and he was the de-facto leader inbat situations, but Bailey was still in charge overall and would continue to be. That also meant that he could deal with the less vital bureaucratical crap, thank you very much. It didnt take an expert to dole out monster hunting assignments when the monsters werent in a position to be a threat to them, just someone in charge. As for the monster, well, it was surprisingly simr to a regr, non-Event monster. An Ice Titan was a Tier 7, fifteen-meter-tall moving ice sculpture that could liquefy parts of its body without increasing its temperature, allowing it to shift mass from point to point with blinding speed, constantly regenerating and recing hacked-away armor to keep its core safe. Meanwhile, its even counterpart stood a bit taller at seventeen meters, with countless branches and bits of driftwood stuck within it, creating a rough facsimile of a titanic wicker man. At a minimum, that would provide a massive degree of protection againstrge chunks cracking and splintering from heavy impacts. Sure, the originals regeneration abilities vastly already provided some degree of protection, but non-crystalline reinforcements to the icy body were vastly superior. And that was if that was all that separated the Winter Lake Titan from its lesser brethren, Isaac would count himself lucky. The monsters body was human shaped, including apletely superfluous head, and a jagged shard of ck ice sat in the core of the driftwood man, visible only through Isaacs [Aura]. For a second, the pair of them stood there, gazing at each other, sizing up their opponent. That was odd, most monsters usually attacked immediately if it was feasible. Was it charging up something nasty? Isaac immediately opened up the distance as he scanned the monster with his [Aura], searching for any sign of energy buildup or other malfeasance. None there. But the monster was just staring at him, its only movement being to shift so it was still facing him head on. What. The. Heck. First the not a typo that implied that the infallible [System], in fact, was fallible, now a monster that tried to psych out its summoner? Once again. What. The. Heck. Isaac began to carefully circle the monster, sometimes moving further, sometimes getting closer but ensuring to keep the original distance at the time of summoning open. It continued to face him, but that was it. No attacks, no energy buildup, no ranged abilities used. The damn thing was just staring at him. Yep, that was definitely some psychological warfare nonsense, emphasis on nonsense, no need to keep ying this game. Isaac exploded into motion, [Wave Charge] increasing his forward momentum as heshed out with Balmung, cleanly hacking through one leg, the material failing to provide the slightest bit of resistance in the face of the legendary weapon. The Titan tottered for a moment, then whirled, the ice on the removed limb having melted, then returned to its rightful ce on the monsters body, sans wood. Recovering body parts sans internal reinforcement was definitely something the Ice Titan hadnt been able to do. A giant fist swished towards Isaacs head, but he leaned casually out of the way, reached out and smacked the monsters elbow with a palm that burned with hellfire. Steam exploded away as the surfaceyer was vaporized, quickly followed by a wave of hellfire as the driftwood under the surface began to burn. The body began to reconfigure, wood being relocated to the limb to lengthen it, ice reforming to put additional mass between the core and the encroaching me. Seemingly, dropping limbs in their entirety wasnt in its toolkit. A wave of water engulfed the unnatural fire as almost all the ice on the body, everything save for a tiny bit to keep the torso together and the limbs properly attached, was used up in ast-ditch defensive move. It failed. [Grand Hellme] was a [Skill] drawn from the Aspect of a [Raid Boss], and could burn magic or life force instead of oxygen, mere cold water wasnt going to be enough to extinguish it, not when it was actively burning the creatures core body. Isaac leaped up and thrust Balmung forward and skewered the core with a single strike, then spent two hundred mana to extinguish the fire. Winter Lake Titan (Lv. 64) has been in. 1,500 XP gained So, a big weak point that few people could exploit in exchange for heavy reinforcement against everything else, interesting tradeoff. It was also faster than the Ice Titan, though simple Stat superiority was pretty normal for Event monsters. The psychologicalponent, on the other hand, could be annoying, and was in line with the nasty prank yed in the Event announcement. If this crap continued with everything else that would not be good. Isaac reached down and snatched his radio from his belt and dialed in themand-level frequency. This is Dr. Thoma, I just beat the first Tier 7 monster. It deliberately acted in such a way as to unnerve the summoner, please pass along to everyone else. There is a good chance the other monsters in this Event might also act in such a way as to unnerve people. Over. This is Oberst Gram, what exactly did it do? It just stared at me until I did something. It was like some kind of horror movie stalker. Over. This is Arthur. Whod freak out about that? er, over. Aaaaaand of course Arthur was using his first name on the radio channel. Its unnatural. Isaac responded Obviously, peoples reactions will vary, and not everyone will be creeped out, but its still something to be aware of. Over and out. The next monster was summoned a few momentster, another Winter Lake Titan. This time, Isaac was going to take it apart carefully, see what hed missed the first time around. Because that thing was an Event monster, but hadnt dropped any kind of special loot, the original most likely having been burned up in the hellfire. Like the first one, the monster just stared at him until he made the first move. This time, Isaac didnt get fancy, didnt try to exploit weaknesses, he just leaped upwards, used [Wave Charge] to fling himself forwards andyered three [Power-Piercing Strikes] onto the de. It went straight through the core, which promptly splintered. Unfortunately, three more parts of its icy body, ones that had seemed slightly different before but not extraordinary, turned ck and the Titans body lurched into motion, secondary cores taking over from the primary one. Annoying, but typical for a Tier 7, as that was where Elementals and other creatures with cores gained some degree of one-shot protection. With normal monsters, the difference was much less stark as they just naturally became harder to kill in a single hit as their Fortitude grew, gaining increased resistance to things such as brain trauma, shock, blood loss while also getting a lesser version of Isaacs [Redundant Organs]. Elementals, on the other hand, went from break this one thing to kill to y whack a mole with vital organs, which was annoying. Isaac kicked off the chest and lightlynded on a floating de he conjured a few meters up, then summoned his Zweih?nder back into his hand. Moving blindingly quick, the Titan scooped up a massive chunk of dirt and hurled it at him, but Isaac just leaped to another location, manifesting a new de for him to stand on. As the monster bent down to pick up another projectile, Isaac dropped down, conjuring a copy of his Zweih?nder into his left hand, letting abination of gravity and [Wave Charge] provide the force needed to drive the des deep into its back. One core was hit dead on and broke, but the second one was missed by less than a millimeter. Ah well, trying to urately aim two weapons as long as he was while falling through the air was never particrly easy, nor something hed practiced very much. [Sundering Strike] to soften up the surrounding material, [Power Strike] to jerk the de to the side and shatter the lucky core. The monster under him spasmed as the sole remaining back up was suddenly forced to bear the full load of magic and processing required to move the body. Isaac shifted his weapon back into Balmung and hacked off arge chunk of armor covering the final core, then thrust the sword clean into the monsters remaining vital organ. Hed have normally pierced it with a single attack, but sadly, Balmung was just a little too short for that while there was still armor over his target. As the kill notification shed past his eyes, parts of the Winter Lake Titans body vanished, then reappeared in front of him. Everfreeze Ice A form of Ice that will absorb any the thermal energy from any object with a higher temperature than it, without growing warmer itself. It is an extremely useful crafting material. And where did that energy go? Ah well, theyd have to figure that outter. Isaac tossed the ice into his spatial storage as it would otherwise start sucking up heat from all nearby objects. Hey, is it just me or is it getting a bit nippy? a voice asked over the radio. It took Isaac a moment to remember that was British ng for cold. Now that he really looked for it, the ce where the second Titan had died was slightly colder than the rest of the area, most likely, it had absorbed the heat from the ground as it, well, had a lower temperature than it. It wasnt much, nor something different from what hed expected whenying something on cold on a slightly less cold surface, but it had annoying implications. Given the Level of his monsters, there was a dy in between summonings due to the amount of time it took to regenerate the required mana, not to mention that he needed to fix the summoning circle each and every time because a seventeen-meter-tall monster wasnt exactly gentle on little scribbles on the ground. But the others would have been summoning weaker monsters, and with a vastly higher number of summoners, theyd have ended up killing a lot more monsters than him, likely by a few orders of magnitude. All those bodies pilling up, slowly draining the heat from their surroundings even if the Everfreeze Ice or lesser equivalent was ced in thermally insted storage containers, it would get frightfully cold, frightfully fast. And given how an increase in Fortitude also granted a decent degree of protection against extreme temperatures, no one was wearing proper winter clothing, or even had brought any in the first ce. The only person who wore something even remotely warm was Arthur, but there was no way in hell hed chosen the massive, overdesigned, fur-lined-and-decorated te mail for its thermal properties. Are you currently near a pile of frost monster bodies? Isaac asked This is Professor Bailey, Im putting an immediate stop to all summoning operations. Everyone, melt any dead ice monsters that cant be stored in extradimensional spaces. Please head towards the control center right now so we can discuss our ns going forward. Ah, the joy of working together with people who were not only intelligent, but also knew you well enough to understand what you meant with barely any words being needed. *** So basically, we arent allowed to summon any more cold monsters because it gets colder whenever one appears, until we all freeze to death? Oberst Gram asked, rubbing at his temples as though trying to banish a headache I was under the impression that monsters didnt leave behind dangerous residues? For the most part, that is true, but there are exceptions, such as the Taztelwyrms toxic, well, everything. Bailey exined What has proven true is that no monster leaves behind subtle or hidden danger. For example, a Tatzelwyrms toxicity is well documented in mythology and any reasonable person would assume that a thing with fire in its name burns, and winter themed monsters are obviously going to be cold. The issue at hand is that were summoning a lot of ice monsters in a small area and that said ice monsters are a few degrees cooler than were used to, and thats had apounding effect on our environment. Thats it then? We pack up and stay on call in case a problem kicks off somewhere else? Arthur asked. Not really. All we have to do is space out the summoning circles and limit how many ice monsters we summon. Elena suggested Right? Pretty much. Instead of repeatedly summoning monsters until were sure weve seen everything they can drop, well summon one of every monster, figure out which ones are problematic and focus on those that arent. Bailey suggested. When no one spoke out against it, they got down to the nitty-gritty of revising the entire bloody summoning n, though first, they shared the issue on the website to ensure this issue wasnt repeated. Another issue dealt with, and the damage done had been limited to, well, a few nts. All theyd done was kill some grass. And to inflict true damage would have required a truly insane number of monsters, for this issue to have been overlooked for several hours. In essence, it was just like that typo. Once the issue was resolved, everyone was left facepalming andmenting how they hadnt figured it out sooner. These were problems that werent really problems, in the end. They caused a fuss and yed holy havoc on their ns, but they werent things that would make people distrust the [System] in the long run. All they did was fuck with the intellectuals researching the [System]. It would have been great if this interference meant they had another boon to look forward to from the divine beings on the side of humanity, but Isaac doubted it. More likely, this had been a part of the Events from the beginning, and the Events had been added to the [System] as a new function instead of being manually activated. And theyd already gotten the nerfed autonomous summoning in exchange for that. Something to remember: one side might do something and the other could respond immediately but said response could take the form of Rube-Goldberg level scheme which only became noticeable years or decadester. Hell, Isaacs own situation was a prime example. The dark gods had meddled, and the response to that had been the creation of the contingency that had allowed him to take another crack at saving humanity. Isaac just grumbled internally and left, heading over to his summoning circle. There was work to do. *** The monster in front of Isaac was only three meters tall, but that didnt make it any less dangerous or intimidating. ck fur so dark it seemed to swallow the light covered its body. Four hours jutted from a goat-like skull, one pair curling at the side of its head like a rams while other two jutted backwards as seem on more typical goats. But what set it apart from being just another basic humanoid monster was the basked tied to its back byrge chains and the bundle of switches held in one hand, ready to beat unruly children into the ground because for some reason, a single tree branch would not have sufficed. This was the Krampus, known to some as evil Santa, while others saw him as merely being the other side of the coin to Saint Nichs generosity for good kid, the dark punisher who gave coal to the bad children, beat the worse and abducted the worst in his basket toter eat them. The beast stared at Isaac, and cocked its head to the side. You you reek. Rude. Isaac scoffed while mming [Hundred Faces] into ce to cover up his shock. Sure, there were monsters that could talk and used that to mess with people, but those were usually at a higher Tier, which made this whole thing more than a little concerning. You reek of blood. It stains your hands, your every step leaves behind crimson footprints, and even your very soul is drenched in the lifeblood of those you have in. How much is your power worth, are you happy with the price you have paid Isaac rolled his eyes, metaphorically speaking, and attacked. For a moment, hed feared that thing had some kind of deep personal insight and was able to target deep seated insecurities, so hed listened to see if that was actually the case. But no, just a generic you killed some things for your powers, doesnt that make you a bad person? speech. Bah, boring and unless the target was incredibly insecure, pointless. But wasnt that the entire point of this bloody Event, being annoying? Isaac swung Balmung around in a devastating arc, a [Power-Piercing Strike] applied threefold to the de, aiming to split the monster in twain. Krampus interposed merely interposed his bundle of branches and it was as if Isaac had hit a [Siege Shield]. It impacted the bundle and sliced clean through the first couple of whip-thin bits of wood and then stopped. Just stopped. Isaac could have tried to keep a hold of his sword if hed put it a lot of effort into it, but he didnt. He let Balmung leap out of his hands yet before it bounced into him it vanished into the ether, instantly reced by a trio of floating Kabars and Kriegsmessers, each as he leaped backwards to open up the range. All of the flying des suddenly became sheathed in a bright neon green halo as both [Sundering Strike] and [Piercing Strike] were applied to all of them. And then, the piece de resistance, [Compounded Impact]. It wasnt a [Skill] that saw much use as it was rather situational, but this was a foe that called for it. Normally, Isaac could beat his foes without having to resort to this mana hog, so he didnt. Meanwhile, extremely strong foes, like [Raid Bosses] wouldnt be brought down even if Isaac threw his entire mana pool into thebo attack, so he was better served applying debuffs with [Crippling Blow] and inflicting a death by a thousand cuts than trying to go for the big finisher. This though, this was a exact situation hed gotten [Compounded Impact] for. A foe that could actually be taken down by the [Skill] but was too strong to be brought low by anything less. It also served topensate for the fact that he could only put an extremely limited amount of force behind weapons directed by [de Control]. Coupled with the effect the [Skill] had gained at Level 10, namely, the ability that it could treat the initial hit as if he was already well into the attack series, it would let him tear this thing appart. Either of his active cooldown [Skills] might also have worked, but he was saving those in case an emergency happened. The Krampus reacted instantly, likewise leaping back whileshing out with its branch bundle even though Isaac was too far away by nope, its size had just increased tenfold, dozens of incredibly long and flexible branches aiming to take his head off. Isaac phased and dropped into the ground, causing the branches to hammer into the ground hard enough to shake nearby trees instead of beating him to a pulp. Through his [Aura], he could see the oue of his own attack. Sadly, it was nearly futile as that of the monster. The first few des were intercepted by switches, each of which was apparently separate enough from the others that [Compounded Impact] affected them individually. This also meant each instance of the [Skill] only cost as much as the initial hit would, saving Isaac from having to pay a truly ludicrous mana cost, but it was still a huge waste of an opportunity. Only a single Kabar made it through, leaving a shallow cut along the beasts nk, the [Sundering Strike] applied to it weakening its hide there. The Krampus roared with fury, drew back its arms, and brought the bundle back down though this time, the branches bent unnaturally and pierced the ground like spears, aiming to run Isaac through. Isaac simply let himself fall deeper into the earth to avoid the attack, but that was hardly a tactic he could use forever. His mana was constantly being drained by the phasing [Skill] and if he kept heading deeper, hed be too far to control the floating weapons. At his instruction, his des aboveground continued to dance. [Compounded Impact] was only ever being applied at thest possible second, and eventually, it began to have an effect. One branch shatteredpletely after a quadruple stack of the escting damage [Skill], then a second one. There were enough branches left to keep up the attack, but the string binding them together hadnt tightened due to holding fewer sticks. As such, the whole assemge began to rattle around a little, making it harder to control. Where he couldnt stack enough [Compounded Impacts] onto a single branch, Isaac had used [Sundering Strike] to weaken it for follow up attacks. Meanwhile, Isaac put himself almost directly under the Krampus and erupted upwards, Balmung glowing eye-searingly bright from all the [Skills] affecting it, forcing the Krampus to leap to the side, covering almost a hundred meters in a single hop. Gotcha. Isaac had deliberately put himself slightly off to the side, allowing him to predict the direction his opponent would jump and had been maneuvering his des so most of them were in a position to intercept. Four weapons connected, the first only leaving a bloody furrow, the second sinking into the monsters flesh up to the hilt, the third leaving a gaping wound. The fourth the fourth hit the Krampus in the shoulder de, tearing clean through the bone and exploding out of the front of the beast, removing the left arm and arge chunk of the chest. The impact also knocked the monster off bnce, causing it hit the ground in a tangle of limbs, digging a furrow into the frozen dirt. Still alive, sadly, but injured. Isaac took off after it, Balmung still glowing, only for the bundle toe screaming back around, far faster than hed expected. He could teleport to dodge, he could phase into the ground, he could expend the power invested into his sword to obliterate a branch to clear his way but his mana was getting too low for big tricks. The Krampus had swept the branches out to wide for anything less than a vast mana expenditure would let him avoid all of them, but this also meant that he would, at most, only be hit by one or two. With that kind of setup, Isaac took the path most people would have considered stupid. He took the impact on the chin. With his left arm somehow both broken and dislocated from a single impact, Isaac stood in front of the Krampus as it tried to pull its weapon back for another blow. Too slow. Way too bloody slow. Big weapons could be great, but they were far from perfect. Balmung shed and Krampus head was separated from its head. Krampus (Lv. 81) has been in. 3,000 XP gained Sheesh. Level 81, one more than him. Isaac lifted the radio to his lips. This is Dr. Thoma, I just fought the Krampus. That thing is damn tough, from here on out, no one is fighting it without two other people of Level seventy plus present and ready to assist in case of emergency. Also, it gave a creepy youre a terrible person speech, if someone decides to fight that thing with the proper precautions, please record it as Id like topare the various version, at least if there are differences. Over and out. He then switched over to themand channel. Im heading over to themand area so we can discuss further actions. As he began walking, he wrenched his arm back into position, the bone having already long since healed. Then he began to study the small bundle of switches the Krampus had dropped. Krampus Beatsticks for Punishing the Naughty Once again. What. The. Fuck. Isaac had take a moment to just let sink in how ridiculous the name was before he continued reading. Krampus Beatsticks for Punishing the Naughty This is a bundle of birch rods meant for beating on those who are deserving of punishment. By infusing them with mana (100 points max.), the size of this weapon can be increased up to a maximum of ten times its original dimensions. This is a weapon of punishment, but it will only strike the deserving if there is a way of determining guilt. In the hands of a person in possession of a truth-detecting orw enforcement ss, it will automatically draw on their Skills to determine who is guilty of breakingws (misdemeanors dont count) and then only strike those people. Ah yes, that was going to cause trouble. On the surface, it sounded great, perfect for a hostage situation and other circumstances where criminals who needed to be stopped were intermingled with innocents. Just put enough force into the blow to turn the bad guys into paste and watch all your problems vanish. But what if one of the innocents had broken aw, one that exceeded the level of a misdemeanor yet was far from bad enough to deserve the death penalty? Someone would inevitably think it was a good idea to use the weapon and then tragedy would ensue. As Isaac reached themand area, which had been set up in a temporary housing facility provided by the Bundesewehrsbat engineers, he was greeted with some concerning stares. What is it? he asked. Gazes wandered, Arthur looking at the floor, Oberst Gram meeting his eyes but looking ufortable, and Bailey threw a dark look at the pair. G?tz just sighed, shook her head, and told him what was going on. They want to summon the Wendigo. Its Tier 7, so it should be within our capabilities to defeat, especially if we get everyone above Level 70 involved. oh, for fucks sake. Chapter 152: Incarnation of Selfishness Chapter 152: Incarnation of Selfishness You want to hunt the titr monster of this Event? The one that is ranked at the Tier we literally just broke into yesterday? Isaac asked. On one hand, it was understandable that they wanted to try fighting the first main monster of an Event that was within their capability to beat, on the other hand, that thing wouldnt have been named in that way with no Crap. Isaac muttered. Right now, its just an idea, one I do not support. Bailey told him Theoretically, we can beat it, but how that will work in practice is up in the air. The reassurance was helpful, but Isaac hadnt sworn just because someone here had suggested they summon a monster that might easily be able to beat most of the people here in a one on one fight. No, the issue was that Isaac had just put together something extremely unpleasant puzzle. The Summer Events main Event had been Apophis, an apocalypse-level monster from Egyptian mythology and its [System]-equivalent had lived up to the hype, being a Tier 10 [World Boss]. Summoning it had also been well out everyones price range. Even if a thousand people, the maximum amount that could contribute to its summoning, had been training since day one, levelling up as quickly as humanly possible and thrown each and every Stat point into Magic Power, it still would have been impossible. The Autumn Equinoxs strongest monster had likewise been a Tier 10 [World Boss], known as Hrym. In Norse Mythology, he was the helmsman of the Naglfar, a ship made from the fingernails of the dead that appeared in the beginning of Ragnar?k, the end of times. Yet the named monster had been the Spirit of Famine, which was Tier 8 and just a [Field Boss]. And while the Tier 10 [World Boss] this time around was the Avatar of Fimbulwinter, another Ragnar?k-rted piece of nastiness, the named monster had been a mere Tier 7, non-Boss, non-anything beastie just at the time humanity started going for the first monster on that Tier. I thats not what I meant. Isaac sighed It just seems like the Event is trying to, forck of a better word, goad us into going for it. He then proceeded to exin what hed figured out. The [System] being out to get us Gram had stayed on his feet longer than the others, but even hed eventually had to sit down That is a terrifying prospect. He sighed deeply and pulled out a handkerchief to dab non-existent sweat from his forehead. It was clearly a purely psychological thing, but it still sufficed to fully restore hisposure, or at least to let him fake it. That thing affects literally every part of every single persons life. If it turned against us were dead. Just how certain are you? The sheer amount of hopefulness in thest sentence, especially from someone who was normally soposed was heartbreaking. Of the fact that the Wendigo is a trap? Pretty damn certain. But Im even more certain of the fact that the [System] itself is not out to get us, that it wont lie to us. Because if we ever noticed a mistake, no one would ever trust it again. This little psychological bullshi- ahem, nonsense is just a repeat of how summoning as a whole works, of how the previous Events work. Dangle some tasty bait, anyone stupid enough to bite into it dies horribly. If we use our heads, and notice things like the power level of named monsters decreasing, well be just fine. This whole thing is nothing new, its just the first time the people here nearly fell for it. Shit. That tosser of a [System], what a Arthurs tirade could have gone on for a good long while, but Grams [Aura] smacked into him and jerked him out of it. At the end of the day, we dont know how dangerous the Wendigo is, if the [System] really was creating a trap and anyway, Dr. Thoma is right, the [System] doesnt lie, it just lets us dig our own graves. Lets leave the Wendigo alone. That just leaves one question: do we talk to people about the theory? G?tz asked If we do, itll definitely cause at least a small panic, especially after the mess with the non-typo. People that he hadnt talked to about the [System] before were starting to put things together. Isaac just telling people about its dark purpose without also revealing his origins would have made him sound like a kook. On the other hand, if he made a good case for caution based on knowledge that was publicly avable, using a train of logic that was easy to follow, he could toy the groundwork to prepare the world for the big revtions that would likelye in the future. Yet her point about the chaos was a good one. People were antsy enough already after the opening mess, this was the wrong time to release that information to the whole world. Someone else would put that together, sooner orter, and if they didnt, Isaac would put the idea out into the world. But now was the wrong time. I think we shouldnt. People are already in enough of a tizzy, I dont think theyd finish reading our post about how the [System] doesnt lie, or even mislead, it can just make things appear slightly more appealing than they are to people who keep their brain switched off. Bailey stated, causing both Arthur and Gram to wince. Damn, the professor was taking no prisoners. Isaac chuckled internally, but Bailey wasnt done talking. Well just point out how the Wendigo costs more than the Krampus, and how that was already a decentlyrge pain in the ass, right Isaac? Thews written specifically for the Event make it illegal to summon monsters that havent been cleared, that coupled with a properly worded warning should ensure that this Event stays the most peaceful thus far. Ok, sounds good. Isaac replied. The little group split up soon afterwards. G?tz headed over to themunications center, supervising the release of the information and Bailey joined her, but Arthur and Gram were staying behind. Theyd suggested the summoning of a powerful monster and even though nothing had happened, nothing had gone wrong, they hadnt insisted everyone continue with the summoning and Isaac likely wouldnt even have had to make his argument, his word would probably have been enough. But theyd nearly fallen into what was most likely a trap, and that had affected them. Badly. Isaac, meanwhile, had chosen to head over to the loot storage area to see if this Event had dropped anythinggood. The stuff hed gotten hadnt exactly been ster, thus far. And if those two where still deep in their funk, hed try to get them out of it. If he focused hard, he could still hear those tow talking in low voices, alternatively cursing themselves out or trying to figure out just why theyd thought summoning a Wendigo had been an even halfway good idea. In the end, it hadnt been that terrible of a suggestion, given that by rights, they should have been just fine fighting a Tier 7 non-Boss. But this situation with the Wendigo stank to high heaven, and that changed the calction. Still, it seemed like theyd gotten a handle on it now. Hey Isaac, what brings you here? Karl asked, looking up from the pile of loot he was busy picking apart. I wanted to look over what we got from the Event, see if there was anything good. All I have is a chunk of ice thatll freeze world solid if left lying out, a whip with an idiotic name and some random alchemy bits. Actually, the Everfreeze Ice isnt nearly as bad as it sounds at first. Theres a maximum amount of energy that can be absorbed at once and that stuff is really finicky in general. Please tell me you have a lot of it? The hopeful note near the end made Isaac chuckle softly. How much have you guys already broken? Too much. Were currently working on arranging to get more farmed somewhere other than here, though. How bad was the cold, in the end? Isaac asked We shut down that part of the summoning because we werent sure, but did you manage to figure out what would have happened if wed kept going? Lowering the temperature in such a small area so drastically would have yed merry hell on the weather and killed most of the nts here, at a minimum. If wed kept going after that, some of the people with a low Fortitude could have ended up dead. Karl replied with a grimace Im just d we caught it because it got cold, instead of by someone getting frostbite. Yeah. Isaac agreed But can you please show me some of the more useful loot? Because so far, today has been one crappy day from start to. Days not over yet. Karl pointed out. But with how its gone so far, that statement will still hold truee morning. Isaac shook his head. I can see that. So let me show you the new cave of wonders, filled with horribly dangerous mystical weapons, alchemical reagents, and for some incredibly strange reason, a few magical sex toys. Isaac blinked in surprise Youre kidding, right? Nope. Maybe something intended to deal with the loneliness of winter? Isaac sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Today had been a mindfuck from the onset, and hed never looked forward to a holiday more. But he would take a break soon. Two more days that would mostly be dedicated to paperwork, and then Christmas and the entire week that followed it, up to new years. It would be the longest continuous break hed taken since all this had started, and he bloody well needed it. *** Hey look at this, theres a picture of a Wendigo on the inte. Steff Cooke, one of the knights Isaac had trained at Camelot, called out only to yelp in shock as Isaac suddenly appeared behind him so quickly he might as well have teleported. Who? The question was simple, but there was no mistaking both the anger and gravity behind it. Seoul University, but it apparently went well. Ah. Isaac sighed. It was all too easy to forget that there were others out there who were exploring the Event, and the others were no slouches either. Id have expected a better quality picture from them, though. The picture was incredibly blurry and showed an emaciated figure that was perhaps three meters tall, with unnaturally long arms and grey skin, surrounded by incandescent lights and dust clouds. Apparently, they set up for it as though it were a [Raid Boss], then blew it to pieces the millisecond it got summoned. Even wrecked the loot. All they wanted to do to get a good look at it, not chance the fight. That picture got published with a message about how they fully support you guys statement that no private summoners should go after one because apparently, while it died, itsted longer than expected. Good. Isaac nodded. But Im not sure that thats actually a Wendigo. Where are the horns? Steff asked. Where they belong, not on its head. Isaac told him Wendigos dont have horns, that was an addition from the book Wendigo. That thing right there, that seems to be based on the original myths. Isaac headed out of the main gathering area after that to go look around. With the limits on what could be summoned, there were far fewer spots for stuff to be summoned, and now people were bored. If it hadnt been for the fact that they were also on standby in case disaster struck, so ending the day early and going home wasnt really in the cards. But maybe there was something else they could do, a continuation of the research theyd done yesterday. For example, they could see what a [Field Boss] was like. Those were vastly weaker than a [Raid Boss], having a vastly inferior version of its insta-kill resistance and being designed for teams of around 10. The issue was that after Korea, the word Boss was radioactive. That particr piece of research had been talked about before, and theyd been authorized to go for it, but it had been ted for early in the next year. With so many bored yet capable people around at the moment, it seemed like doing it a little earlier as viable. Isaac wandered off to look for Bailey and Gram. Hopefully, things would work out. *** Someone summoned a bloody Wendigo! The cry echoed through the camp like a p of thunder, though an actual bolt of lightning striking the ground amidst them would likely have had less of an impact. The use of someone meant the person shouting didnt know the summoner. That, in turn, implied it hadnt been summoned by anyone here, otherwise the promation would have been something more akin to that jackass summoned, One of the Brits summoned or just something a bit more specific. Where? Isaac, Bailey, Gram, Arthur, Elena, G?tz and quite a few other other people snapped at the same time, making the Khaled, whod told them about the issue, flinch back. Northern Ennd, which is technically outside our jurisdiction. Still, there are people here who are citizens of that country. Isaac said We can start a portal chain but we should try to make sure that no one identally gets pulled along for the ride, even if they stand way to close to the first portal. It spoke to the gravity of the situation that no one rolled their eyes at the tant hint. Meanwhile, the chance of them getting into actual trouble for crossing borders to help protect the citizens of the country theyd illegally entered was functionally nil, but on the other hand, the chance of some jackass with no knowledge or understanding of the real world would kick up the fuss neared one hundred percent. Gather up, while Amy sets up the portal chain, Id like to talk tactics. Isaac straightened up and leaped onto a nearest crate while cancelling the current Party, creating a new one with just the people whod be going. Arthur, Cooke, Person, youre on frontline duty. Wendigos are meant to be fast, staying safe and keeping it away from the people behind you is the priority, inflicting damage is a secondary concern. Hightower, Shaw, Barker, Dixon, youre our [Mage] group, stay behind the frontliners, and keep a defensive shield up at all times. Use crowd control to slow that thing, when dealing damage, prioritize fire based spells, those should do more damage ording to the myths. Marshall, Porter, youre with me, well be acting as skirmishers. Do you have enchanted or soulbound weapons? When they shook their heads, Isaac pulled a pair of silver short swords out of his storage space. While he was somewhat doubtful of the myths that silver would be extra effective as that myth smacked of having been added by Europeans after the fact, these were still fantastic des as Stagmer had made them. Isaac himself had also enchanted them with [Piercing Strike]. He continued to snap out orders until in the end, they had a formation of twenty people, built around a core of magic users, three tanks on the outside and three skirmishers trying to harass the monster and drive it closer to the main formation. Three healers were also along for the ride. Arthur, use [Aura of the Stalwart Knight] for personal defense and wrap your [Aura of the Stalwart Leader] around everyone else. Also, once again, prioritize self-protection over inflicting damage. Call out offensive AOEs ahead of time and stay in formation. ording to the stream that showed the summoning and following disaster, well be fighting in a heavily wooded area. Individually, most of us dont stand a chance. We dont know how to kill this thing, not fully. The legends range from a simple pierce its heart with a silver dagger to aplicated ritual that will see the Wendigo revived if a single mistake is made. Were waiting for the kill notification, and until we have it, that thing aint dead. Lastly, Arthur is in charge of the melee fighters, Amy directs the magic users and Im in overallmand. If this had been a movie, this was where the portal would have irised open behind Isaac and theyd have bravely charged through. Except it didnt. They just stood there, waiting for the portal to open. Thirty seconds passed. Someone began to nervously tap their foot, another person got a nervous coughing fit. One minute. Most people where now fidgeting. And then, finally, the first portal shed open and Amy stepped through, opening another portal, this one leading as close to the forest of nightmares as possible. The summoning site is a five minutes walk that way. Isaac announced once hed oriented himself Were heading there at the best possible speed. The march was grim and full of tension, people looking around nervously even before they entered the woods. Seriously, what had possessed that utter numbskull to summon a fast monster that was supposed to live in forests in a bloody forest? Was there a worse ce that could have been chosen? Still, they likely wouldnt have to look hard. The Wendigo was eternally hungry, never satiated, it would go after anyone it sensed. On one hand, that would help them find the monster. On the other, if they werent the first ones to find it There would be countless people heading this way, members of the military, police, civilian volunteers withbat [sses]. Thankfully, Bailey had informed everyone that Arthur was here, otherwise, theyd have run a serious risk of a friendly fire incident. Suddenly, something tore through the outmostyer of Isaacs sensory [Aura], which extended a full two hundred meters away from him. Iing, two oclock! Isaac roared, a split second before the grey blur rocketed into view. And there it was, the Wendigo, in all its horrific glory. Three meters tall, utterly emaciated, like the body of an anorexic about to be hospitalized. Grey, pallid skin like that of a frozen corpse. Its lips were non-existent, chewed off, revealing a maw full of ck, needlelike teeth. And its arms, they dangled down to hallway between its hips and knees, fingers ending in five-centimeter-long ws meant for rending flesh and ripping organs from stomachs. Blood still dripped from them, small spatters painted its chest, and its chin was dyed red. Cooke, who was the tank closest to its path, was its first target, and it cleary intended to tear his head off before continuing into the squishier ranks to finish them off. It was fast, too fast, out-speeding even Isaac. If raw speed had been what governed the speed of Cookes block, hed have ended up dead. But it didnt, he had [Skills] for that. Train one that was technically just a you can do this mundane thing high enough, and it let you go beyond what your body should have let you do. The wall of metal sprang into ce and the Wendigo bounced off, then kicked at it. Cooke staggered ever so slightly, but the move had clearly had a different intention. The monster had flung itself into a tree and instead of shattering into kindling as one might have expected, the wood acted like an immovable wall, allowing the Wendigo to use it to scamper into the trees and use even the thinnest branches as though they were as solid as the ground below. Damn, that wasnt good. In addition to its speed, it also had a method of movement they couldnt replicate. Sadly, the Wendigo wasnt retreating though. Instead, it dropped down straight at the inner group. A yellow shield of power red into view, protecting them, but that precaution didnt look like it would hold for long. The incredibly long arms of the monster blurred, hammering into the barrier so rapidly the punches sounded like a continuous roar of noise rather than individual impacts. But everyone within rangeshed out, and the monster was forced to leap away just as the shield was about to break. And away it was, scrambling out of view, circling them. Three oclock, four oclock, now two oclock Isaac was constantly updating people on its position, but so long as that thing stayed away, there wasnt much he could do. Also, there was the whole issue of the monsters speed. He could not just match but exceed it if he used [Form of Horror], but once he did that, he wouldnt be able to use it again for hours afterwards. If it took one look at him and decided to retreat until he was forced to change back, that was that. Which meant he needed to trap it in [Grave of Swords] first, which meant it needed to get within melee range of him, which it refused to do. Or he needed to catch it out of position some other way. Either way, that thing was far too smart for his liking Spells were flung, [Far Strikes] and equivalent uselessly tore up the forest, but nothing hit the monster itself. And then it was back, going for Arthur this time, bodily mming into him and scrambling back onto its feet with a cut on one arm and its torso mangled by his [Aura]. Yet by the time it was back on its feet, the flow of ck blood had been reduced to almost nothing by its regeneration. Granted, the wounds hadnt been that bad, but this was still an awful sign. While the attack might not have done much to injure Arthur, it had put him out of position and again it lunged, bearing down on the third tank and this time, it tore its ws across her throat. When the two other designated skirmishers nearly chopped off one arm, though, it retreated and the injured tank had almost regenerated the wound on her own by the time the healing spells hadnded. However, that was how it continued to fight. Blitz in, avoid Isaac as if it knew he was the biggest threat, and get out, each time disrupting their formation a little bit more. [Fire Walls] blocked some avenues of attack, and mystic shields harried it enough for some attacks tond, but it simply wasnt enough. Flying des that burned with fire left shallow cuts, yet the Wendigos hide was sturdy enough that they simply didnt do very much damange. [Eruption]! A massive plume of molten rock exploded from the ground right in its path but it veered to the side and caught Porter, the second skirmisher just as hed been about to attack it. Cruel ws tore through his chain mail as though it were mere tissue paper, they were then yanked right back out, clutching what appeared to be his liver. Marshall, the third skirmisher attacked to drive it off, only to have hisrades dripping organ flung at his face. He managed to avoid a direct hit and being blinded by the blood, but the Wendigo went under the desperate [Sweeping Strike] hed used to try and keep it at a distance, then tore off his right leg. As he fell, its ws dug deep into the mans spine, and were pulled back out with an ugly cracking sound. It took a dozen separate hits from various fast to cast butparatively weak spells, but that didnt really make up for the casualties theyd already suffered. Another attack run saw the Wendigo run straight at Arthur and, to everyones surprise, have an arm chopped off. Yet even as the knight caused a massive shockwave to emanate from his body, causing ensuring that the Wendigo couldnt attack him while he was blinded by its blood, the severed limb was pressed to the cut and attacked soon afterwards. The formation moved, taking Arthur into the center while he pawed at his eyes, and the mounting number of injured were also protected there, but things were looking worse and worse. Damn, I should have thought that thing alone, that way, it would have had to go for me. Isaac tried to intercept it yet again, but it backed away. If they had to endure much more of this, hed shift and use the gained speed to keep it away as long as the [Skill]sted, then hope they came up with an alternate solution. Debuffs, binding spells, all of that had worked to an extent and as parts of the beast were torn off wholesale of burned away, its regeneration did slow, but was it enough? NO, it bloody wasnt! More and more people were left with bloody chunks torn out of them, and missing flesh was harder too heal, slower, more expensive. Reinforcements inco- So that was why it had run off five seconds ago, tearing off in a straight line towards something Isaac hadnt been able to see yet. Three, four, seven people died in less than ten seconds and then it was back, wounds regenerating at an even faster pace. The boost left it maybe a minuteter, yet that minute cost them their first life, a head being separated from the owners body and crushed like a walnut being beyond and healers ability to fix. Another man was well and truly blinded, eyeballs cut apart alongside a good chunk of his nose and cheeks. Hed been the lucky one. The sheer ferocity of the attacks made the formation draw tighter together, to the point where people began to interfere with each others movements. [Auric Casting], [Supreme Magic: Final Frost]. One cooldown [Skill] to cast the spell via her [Aura], a second to boost it beyond all sanity. Amys attack stopped it in its tracks while also making the area around the monster too cold for anyone to walk through and snuffing out several fire attacks that were travelling through it. Yet Isaac could also tell that the monster was nowhere near as slowed as it should have been. A monster linked with winter was resistant to frost. Godsdamnit! It used the area that was currently also damaging spells as a shield to scramble away, but this time, it was just a little too slow. It had simply gotten too cocky, gotten careless and clearly not been expecting the humans to hold back so many powerful [Skills] for the perfect situation tobine them. With the Agility boost from [Form of Horror], Isaac had outsped the Wendigo by a good margin, though it had still had the overall mobility advantage in the forest. But now that the monster had lost a good third of its maneuverability it was an execution. Five ws, glittering metal instead of matte obsidian, tore into the Wendigos stomach and pressed upwards, a sickly green and yellow glow shining out through its ribs as its insides were turned to soup. The massive hand of Isaacs new form closed around the only solid thing left inside its chest cavity, a freezing cold object a littlerger than a human fist. Then, he yanked his hand back. Windigo (Lv. 85) has been in. 5,000 XP gained (3,000 base plus 2,000 named Event monster bonus) Due to monster-specific trait, only you, who dealt final blow, will receive any XP. Loot Item [Heart of Ice] is held by High Human [Isaac Thoma] Wendigos were associated with greed and selfishness, but this was Isaac couldnt even bring himself toin about the mess. And why was the loot being deliberately being mentioned in the kill notification. Its dead. He announced. Yeah, and it says we dont get any XP and that the only piece of loot is held by you, as in, it mentions you by name. Elena frowned, hard That cant be normal, have you ever seen something like this before? No, I think its meant to make us fight. Isaac grimaced as he inspected the item. Heart of Ice This is the heart of a Windigo, in inbat. By pressing this item to your heart and wishing to absorb it, you too can im its power. It grants a t +25 to Agility, +15 Strength and +30 Perception. In addition, you gain a regeneration Skill if you do not possess one or your existing one is improved if you do, and it gives you the Skill Gluttonous Boost, which further improves your physical abilities after consuming a suitable meal. Finally, you gain an additional point in Agility for each Level going forward. In exchange, your Race changes to Windigo (Transformed Human), which will look nearly identical to your old form. You will, however, have to feast on fresh human flesh to keep your powers. It was a fantastic boost, at a terrible cost. Isaac shared the [System] screen and once he was sure the injured had been stabilized, began to speak. This, right here, is temptation made manifest, right in line with the legend of the Wendigo. Wendigos are people transformed for resorting to cannibalism, choosing to kill others to survive. Or they are greedy people, whose hunger for material things destroyed the lives of others. This this thing is just another object to hunger after. Anyone who uses it makes the selfish choice to use this thing is literally choosing power over their humanity, making themselves the enemy of every other living human on this world, for power. Anyone who uses this thing cannot be allowed to walk freely. Even if they havent attacked anyone yet, they made the choice to be a murderer the instant they used this thing. Surveince, house arrest, anything to keep them from hurting people until this hunger they have chosen to inflict themselves with kills them. Isaac paused for a moment, breathing heavily. Would anybody object if I destroyed this thing right now? Hey. Elena red at him People died fighting that monster. We can learn from the heart without destroying it, and not even trying to get something good out of it would be a waste, spitting on their memory! Then, she raised her voice and turned around to look at everyone in turn. But hes right. Anyone who uses this thing, be they among us or someone weter meet, theyve made their choice, and I wont let them go free. That [Heart of Ice] does not leave your sight, Isaac. If anyone asks for it, destroy it, you hear me? If its a choice between letting that thing get out into the world and destroying it, fucking destroy it! Isaac didnt say anything, he merely stored it in his storage space and pulled out his phone to call home. Tell them that theyd won, and for the most part, survived. That this was going to have so many more consequences than just a few deaths, yet those alone were bad enough. Bad. Enough. What a fucking pathetic, insufficient way to talk about the deaths of people hed fought besides. Schei?e. mping down on the emotional roller coaster that could turn into and the shes of dark memories, Isaac went to work with grim determination. The original summoners body needed to be found, someone needed to contact the local authorities and oh so many other tasks needed to bepleted. Once again, all together. Schei?e! Chapter 153: How to die a Horrible Death in a Few Easy Steps Chapter 153: How to die a Horrible Death in a Few Easy Steps Of all the people whode here with him, only one had died, but several more were injured badly enough that theyd require either a healers attention or an Aspect of the Hydra. Yet that was only a small part of the destruction the Wendigo had wreaked. There were the seven people whode to help halfway through the fight, whod been ughtered before Isaac had even caught a glimpse of them. In addition, Isaac sincerely doubted the initial summoner had escaped. With a monster that fast, getting out of its tracking range would have been incredibly difficult, and the same went for surviving long enough to open a portal away. As for fighting it off and running the other way while it regenerated its legs also unlikely. In theory, someone could have been strong enough to manage one of those three scenarios, but the sheer amount of power required would have made them one of the strongest people in the world, if not the strongest. Also, the Wendigo had eaten something before theyd arrived, there was a good chance that had been the summoner. Im going to search the woods, see if I can locate the original summoning site and maybe some of the other people that things killed. If you need me, just holler. Isaac announced as he left the Party, which Arthur promptly reestablished without him. Iming too. Marshall announced, rising to his feet. Hed lost a leg in the fight earlier, and the Wendigo had torn out a piece of his spine, but hed slotted both an Aspect of the Troll, which specialized in detailed flesh reconstruction and an Aspect of the Hydra, which was fantastic at rapid biomass generation, then picked an endurance-focused [ss] at both his second and third Evolutions. The leg had simply been held up to the hole and the flesh had reconnected, and the missing vertebrae had been reced in less than a minute. In other words, if the Wendigo hadnt injured him so damn badly, he could have just tanked the hits and gotten right back up. It was an odd focus for a [Skirmisher], but then again, it was a lot better than deciding to fully forego picking up a regeneration Aspect. Isaac shrugged Sure,e one. The pair of them hurried through the woods, Isaacs [Aura] condensed into over a dozen micrometer-thick needles that reached for kilometers, set to detect any human flesh they touched. It took less than ten seconds for Isaac to get his first hit, which he immediately followed up by focusing more of his [Aura] on that area so he could get a higher-resolution andrger area scan of what hed found. As hed expected, seven bodiesy where hed seen the Wendigo run off to. Two were police officers, based on their badges, another was, if Isaac was reading the business cards in her wallet correctly, a park ranger and thest four seemed to be civilian volunteers. It was possible they were hunters, given their rifles, but that wasnt something Isaac could determine at a nce. Reaching into his storage space, he withdrew a series of cloths sheets. Those look a lot like what they use on TV at crime scenes. Marshall observed as they arrived, choosing to focus on Isaac instead of the dead bodies. Isaac couldnt me him for wanting to avoid paying attention to the corpses, especially as hisrade still looked like he should be among the dead. His injuries might have healed, but his clothes were still torn and stained with more blood than most people could lose without dying. Because thats what they are. Isaac responded somberly I end up at way too many of these scenes, so I asked for some and got them. He snapped a single picture of the scene in case the police needed it, then covered each body with one of the sheets. Once that was done, he sent their current GPS coordinates to Elena, as well as the names hed read from the IDs of the deceased. He knew shed pass those along to Arthur, who was currently on the phone with the authorities. There was an immediate response, apparently, said authorities were currently very wary of sending anyone else into the forest of death. Apparently, something that had somehow failed to bemunicated back in Germany was that the monster had been summoned during a live stream, the monster had then ended up ughtering its summoner and run off, then that information had been passed along to the researchers in Grafenw?hr without mentioning that very pertinent information. As for what had happened on the stream, well, there wasnt much there to tell. A sh of ws, a stter of blood, and the camera had gone spinning away. With that kind of information out there, as well as an awareness that the monster in question had already killed someone damn strong, they werent willing to send in their people piecemeal. Probably, the people theyd just seen had been volunteers. Poor bastards. Poor, brave, stupid bastards. But their hearts were in the right ce. Had been. Damnit. This couldnt happen again. But they really needed to make sure such a failure inmunication didnt happen again, either. They located another two bodies a few minutester, and elderly man and his dog, lying at the end of a line of churned snow besides a hiking trail. Wrong ce, wrong time, horrible consequences. Damn. Isaac draped two more sheets over the bodies, passed along the information, and then they continued. The pair of them continued to explore the forest in ever-shrinking circles, thankfully not finding another body. Fuck that summoner. Marshall growled into the silence a whileter. Pretty sure the Wendigo took care of that for you. Isaac muttered, gesturing ahead I finally found the circle. And the guy whos at fault for all this. They walked over, though, of course, their walking was well beyond a lower-Level persons t out run and if they hadnt had [Skills] for less than obvious movement, their every step would have flung up huge plumes of snow. The site of the Wendigos entry into this worlds was, in a word, a titanic mess. The summoning circle was surprisingly intact, fully visible and probably still useable, only marred by a huge spatter of blood that died a third of it crimson. As for the summoner, well, it was barely possible to tell which wound had been the fatal one. Isaac suspected it was the torn-out throat, based on the position of the body and the look of thergest blood spatter. But based on the condition of the body, it could just as easily have been the massive chunks torn out of the legs, wounds that clearly included a severed femoral artery. Or the utterly shredded sword arm. Or the fact that both the stomach and chest cavity were empty of organs and had been, quite literally, licked clean. To top it all off, Isaac actually recognized this guy. Teddy Byrne, one of the highest Level humans on the, someone whod clearly assumed that his high Level had meant the rules about careful summoning didnt apply to him. In fact, the exact opposite was the case. This was a man whod rushed through the Levels, gaining XP by killing the easy monsters, not, in his words, wasted XP on Aspects and just gone for the easy gains of Stat points and [Skills], rather than high rarity [sses] and [Skill] Levels. This was bound to happen sometime. Isaac muttered as he surveyed the scene But it still sucks. How so? Marshall asked. You know this guy, right? Ill be the first to a Level one-hundred, right? Isaac asked. In passing. Marshall shrugged He always seemed like a clown. I you know, this is an incredibly fucked up conversation to have while standing over his dead body. Cant we head off, leave this for the cops? Isaac waved his phone in front of him. Elena sent me a text, passing along a message from the NCA. Were to stay here and watch over the scene, make sure nothing is changed. Is that why you didnt put a sheet over the body? It would be interfering with the crime scene? Yep. With the others, we know what happened. They died as coteral damage from that guys actions. Here, theres a mystery involved. Potentially, there is stuff that couldnt be seen from the live stream. Isaac said. Marshall nodded But what did you mean when you said that this was predictable? Basically, rushing ahead like that, focusing only on Levels is not feasible and will cripple your power, long term, until even monsters with the same level as you pose an insurmountable threat. Low rarity [ss], no Aspects, low-level [Skills], all of that leads to a low rarity and therefore weak [ss] in the next Evolution. And so on. Dont you still get Stats, though? Shouldnt that have made this guy pretty strong? He always showed his full Stat screen and he was Level 97st time I saw. Marshall suddenly seemed very confused. And thats the only thing he got out of levelling. But high-level [Skills] are vital, especially the Level 20 and 30 capstones. Those can do things like granting you a lesser variant of an active enhancement that is permanently active, ovee inherent drawbacks that have weakened them at lower Levels or turn said [Skill] into an enchantment-like effect that one can apply to weapons for others to use. All Stats will do is improve you on the most basic of levels, as well as strengthening [Skills] that scale off it, but there arent many like that. Finally, the big problem is theck of strong cooldown [Skills]. Isaacs Kabar appeared in his hand and lit up in a deep crimson as he fully stacked a [Power Strike] into it. Increasing the power of my basic attack [Skills] fivefold, that is a legendary [Skill]. Granting a [Skill] thats almost as strong to others, five every week to start with and with that number only going up, thats a central [Skill] worthy of a legendary [ss]. Amon or umon [ss] central [Skill] will be strong, but only barely. Rushing ahead like he did it will catch up with you, sooner orter. Especially as you run out of weak enemies you can gain XP from and have to kill strong enemies to advance, which you will have the devils time fighting because youre nowhere near as strong as a person on your Level should be. Sure, Isaac had just revealed what some of his [Skills] were, but only in an extremely circumspect way, and people could have easily learned the same thing just from watching videos of his fights. The only thing that was precise was that [Legendary Blow] let him stack five [Strikes], but that information was outdated as it had hit Level 10 after the fight with the Wendigo and gained an additional stack. So what youre saying is that unless you can get a legendary [ss], you shouldnt advance? Marshall asked. Not necessarily. Isaac said You shouldnt settle for the most basic of [sses], but you dont need the absolute highest rarity either. The requirements for a legendary [ss] are, quite frankly, nuts. Spending half your live stuck at Level 10 because you cant get a legendary first Evolution that wouldnt really be worth it, in my opinion. Its a bncing act between rushing ahead and getting stuck, one each and every one of excuse me, I gotta take this. Isaac stopped talking as his phone rang. Adam, were fine here. Is something wrong? he asked. I know youre fine, I can hear you. The stream was always still active, but it was stationary and showing only a closeup of the ground so people assumed the camera had been dropped when the cameraman died. Damn, he should have realized there was no camera here, also, there was neither a tripod or conveniently ced tree stump that said camera could have been ced on, there was no remote or phone that could have been used to control a drone either, which meant there should have been a cameraman. And seeing as there wasnt a corresponding dead body here, Isaac knew exactly what had happened. The cameraman was still here, invisible, one of the few people who could hide from even him. Because [Cameraman] was a damn curious [ss]. For what was a cameraman? Someone who got close to interesting things, filmed them, and then shared them with the world. Sometimes, said things were cute cats, celebrities, historical monuments. At other times, they were riots, wars, wildfires and more besides, showing violence and cmity to those sitting on the other side of the television screen. Yet the cameraman didnt possess the same level of istion from the dangers he was witnessing. But a [Cameraman] did. If they spent their lives pursuing dangerous stories, theyd grow able to survive said stories. Sneakier than an [Assassin], tankier than a [Meatshield], more able to endure harsh conditions than a [Wilderness Survival Expert]. Sure, there were a few [Skills] for image quality and stable transmission of said images, but there was no [ss] that could so thoroughly focus on stealth and defensive [Skills] aspletely as a [Cameraman] could. [Assassins] also needed to be able to inflict damage, [Meatshields] also needed crowd control and aggro drawing [Skills], and so on, and so forth. And this was someone whod been following around a person crazy enough to summon a Wendigo for ages. Who knew what kinds of shenanigans hadnt been as noticeable as the Wendigo? Where Byrne had taken the extremely easy path with regards to his own levelling, hed been inadvertently power-levelling his [Cameraman] in the process. If anyone was going to be able to hide from Isaac, it was going to be someone whod been hiding from the countless monsters his boss had been summoning since the very beginning. However, none of that really mattered right now. What did matter was that someone whod been involved in the summoning of the Wendigo was still alive, and almost certainly still here. A [Cameramans] protections were conditional on them staying out of the fight, and staying put in the case of their stealth. And with how good the Wendigos senses had been, there was only a very small chance that this fucker had been able to run off. You have until the count of ten to show yourself, [Cameraman]. Isaac ordered, infusing it with every ounce of authority that Hildebrand had shown him to project. Ten, nine, eight, Nothing moved, no one suddenly popped out of thin air, and Isaacs searching [Aura] didnt find anything either. It would, eventually, given that he knew someone was there and could just keep scanning the area he found the bastard, but that was taking too long for him. zero. Times up. [Sweeping Strike]. The beams of energy fanned out from the point of Isaacs de, tearing gouges out of the dirt and reducing dozens of trees to kindling. A man promptly yelped in shock and began to paw at his own body as if to convince himself that he hadnt just been sliced to ribbons, but he was perfectly fine. After all, using [Absolute de Control], hed set it so the only things that were cut were the things that he could see. Which meant that the once-invisible [Cameraman] hadnt been in the least bit of danger. But unless Isaac had been very wrong in his assessment of this guy, he would have panicked at the site of the cutting beams of energy sweeping towards him. Youre fine. Isaac said as he teleported right in front of the man, snatched up the camera and turned it around on its owner Everyone whos still watching this stream, I didnt hurt anyone, just scared him out of his invisibility. With that settled, Im going to end this stream, this is still a crime scene and hes about to be arrested. He immediately switched off the camera and red down at the still panicking individual, [Aura] bearing down on him like the weight of the ocean. Talk. The [Cameraman] immediately went from hysterical to deer in headlights, staring up at Isaac. I I didnt do anything. You were there when a monster was summoned in clear and grant vition of internationalw, and then just in watched as the monster in whose summoning you were involved in proceeded to ughter nine more people. You didnt even think to post your exact location on the stream, so hunting it down would have been easier. We only knew the forest where it appeared, the exact location would have been really bloody helpful! Isaac red down at the once again sniveling person at his feet. So, tell me, what on the gods green Earth possessed you to do something so utterly moronic? Did someone pay you? Because really, that is the only thing that could shift some of the me away from you. Otherwise, youre thest person to me everything on. [Deaths Embrace] slowly leaked into Isaacs [Aura], the pressure growing ever greater, the [Cameramans] own [Aura] never even had the chance to unfurl. He was pushing this guy a lot harder than he normally would an idiotic summoner, let alone someone who was merely employed by the summoner, but this whole situation stank to high heaven. Byrne was someone who Isaac would have believed capable of doing something this stupid, but there was a good chance that someone had influenced him. A little money offered in exchange for summoning an Events named monster, or maybe Maxim dared him to. The [Camerman] whispered. Speak. Up. Isaac ordered, wanting to make sure that, at the very least, Marshall heard this as well. An extra person to corroborate anything Isaac learned, which would be useful if he decided to leave pursuing this lead to the police. After all, if this wasnt something he needed to deal with personally, he wouldnt. Gods only knew he had enough on his te. Maxim dared him to summon the Wendigo, and he did. This would be Maxim Hawkins, then? Isaac sighed. Another streamer and rapid-fire summoner, and one who was a hell of a lot worse than Teddy Byrne had ever been as evidenced by the fact that hed clearly realized summoning the Wendigo had been a bad idea but then caused someone else to do so. You might want to make sure the world knows that this is partially his fault. The oppressive [Aura] vanished as Isaac turned on his heels and walked over to the nearest rock, kicking in with a [Power Strike], turning it into powder. Gods-fucking-dammit. A conspiracy or paid assassination would have been bad enough. But just a couple of influencers, one of whom had been unwilling to ignore a bloody dare? And yes, Isaac did believe the [Cameraman] on what he''d said. It would be easy enough to check, and he hadn''t gotten the sense that guy was lying. If he had been, though, then that was a bridge to nuke when he came to it. Fuck Hawkins, fuck you, and fuck not talking ill of the dead, so fuck Byrne as well! Er, Dr. Thoma? Marshall carefully ventured and Isaac stopped cursing up a storm. Yeah, yeah, I know. Isaac waved him off as he stalked over to an avable tree stump and sat down with enough force to crack the wood. He really had lost it there. The fact that this was yet another mess that hadnt been caused by a big conspiracy, no evil intentions, just sheer stupidity just, absolutely fucking sucked. This whole damn situation nope, he wasnt even going to think about it, he was just going to sit down, review his Status and stay busy until someone else arrived to take over the scene, then return to Grafenw?hr and once the Event was over, see if he could start his vacation early. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 80 XP: 11,190/41,500 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 1,500/1,500 Stats Fortitude 160 Perception 265 Strength 160 Agility 300 Magic Power 160 Magic Regeneration 290 Free Points: 0 Stat, 2 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXIII The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword IX Grave of Swords XVII Armory of Ancient Times XVII Legacy of a True Warrior XII Skills Hundred Faces XXV Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXVIII Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVI Far Strike XXVII Manifold Strike XIX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XXII Bestial Regeneration XXVII Undying Focus XXII Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XIV Absolute de Mastery XIV Compounded Impact XV True Cut VIII Legendary Blow X Fully Geared IX Knightly Leader X General Skills Gralloch XII Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace VII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Fata Morgana (2 stack) Improved Basic Illusion Perception Block de Tempest (2 stack) de Control Eternal des Acid Drake Drakes Heart Least Demon Lord (2 Stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Hed gained a few more Levels, massively increased his Stats and was within three Levels of gaining his next [Skill]. Byrne might have had over ten Levels on him, but Isaac would have utterly obliterated him in a fight. Also, hed managed to put three [Skills] over a threshold during the fight against the Wendigo. Knightly Leader (legendary, Level X) Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonyer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires,rades in arm and asionally, a mentor thats along for the ride. This Skill is an essentialponent of leading a group of your fellows intobat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each others health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, sses and Skills) Thirdly, anymands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary. In addition, the user can remotely talk to party members up to five hundred meters away, with the distance increasing another one hundred meters per Level in this Skill. And finally, the user can set up contingencies ahead of time, so orders are issued without the user needing to fully articte potentiallyplex statements in the middle of a fight for their lives. These orders can be cancelled at any time, should it be necessary, and new ones can always be added though it would be inadvisable if a distraction would endanger them. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain The [Skill] had only changed in a single point, thest paragraph had been added and everything else was still the same. It was an incredibly valuable addition, though, especially for someone like him. Isaac liked to create countless contingencies and prepare for situations, and now he had an ability that perfectly synergized with that. But [Knightly Leader] wasnt the only one that had been greatly improved. Legendary Blow (legendary, Level X) A single blow to shatter mountains, raze city walls or split the sea, these are the things stories are written about and when someone uses this Skill, there is a good chance that too will end up being turned into a story. When Legendary Blow is activated, the user may use any of their Strike/Blow/Shot Skills up to six times to enhance a single attack, massively increasing its power. With every Level in this Skill, the cost ofponent Skills is reduced by 5 %, up to 25%, Levels past that merely boost the already ludicrous levels of power this Skill harbors into the stratosphere. Once again, the [Skill] had barely changed, this time, only a single word was different. He could now use six [Strikes] at the same time instead of five. A simple and straightforward upgrade, but a damn good one. Andstly, there was [Sundering Strike]. Sundering Strike mon, Level max) Users next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. This Skill can also be toggled to be almost undetectable, destroying any nerves or creature specific equivalent upon impact, or cause maximum pain by directly irritating whatever pain receptors a being might have. After countless battles where this Skill was used to tear apart the users foes, shredding them on a fundamental level until their own movements tore them apart, it has evolved to destroy them, rather than merely weakening them. For an additional 18 mana, this Skill will now inject a weakening, magic based poison that rots an enemys flesh and corrodes their defenses until nothing but soup remains. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. What once merely weakened armor to make follow-up attacks more effective was supercharged to melt flesh wholesale, eventually being used to simply destroy the entirety of a monsters internal organs. Now, Sundering Strike is able to disintegrate matter through touch or weapon, though its cost climbs exponentially as the target bes tougher, has the properties of armor or is intended to be used for defensive purposes. Cost: 12 mana per strike, 30 mana per poisoning Strike, 100 mana minimum for disintegration (unarmored flesh belonging to a being at your Level) Level 30, that was the big one. In this case, it had given him the power to disintegrate stuff, at least if it wasnt magical armor. That whole caveat was actually touching on several moreplicated parts of magic. In essence, when an object was infused with magic through crafting or [Skills], that objects identity and purpose influenced said magic. This was what allowed magical equipment to do things regr materials could not replicate, having material properties nothing mundane could match. Magical swords were more than just bits of metal with a thin edge that could cut through stuff, they also had magic within that allowed it to cut through stuff, damaging force fields more than an object that wasnt a weapon would, even if it was swung with the same amount of force. Outside of specialized fields like Alchemy, though, it was mostly an academic curiosity, not something you needed to worry about unless you specifically had a [Skill] or even a [ss] that dealt with mystical concepts. Isaac continued to read through his Status, then re-read the Event description and the attached summoning list, followed by him randomly flipping through the [System] user manual just to have something to do. Eventually though, the authorities finally arrived, Isaac gave his statement almost robotically and finally stumbled through the portal back to Grafenw?hr. Once there, he basically spent the rest of his time talking with his friends, only getting involved with thebat side of things when it was absolutely unavoidable. And then, finally, 1 am rolled around, the Event was over, and they could all head home. Today had been one hell of a day, but it was finally over. Two more day, during which hed hopefully be able to take it easy, and then hed take his first proper holiday in a long time. Chapter 154: Threat Rankings Chapter 154: Threat Rankings And why exactly do you think that the Korean threat ranking system is good enough to be used globally? needless to say, those two days of taking things easy hadnt happened. Instead, after the mess with the Wendigo, hed gotten sucked into a morass of bureaucratic quicksand that had utterly refused to let him go, all of which had cumted in todays meeting. This little meeting room, buried in the guts of the teams buildings, where everyone had their own personal chairs and the mini fridge was filled with all sorts of weird crap, it was normally used for intra-team meetings. But today, it was being used in a global video conference, discussing the future of, well, everything. The previous Event had been the cleanest to date, with the fewest deaths overall and basically no destruction of property, yet the perception of it had been massively warped due to the sheer amount of attention a certain pair of jackasses had caused. Couple that with the fact that governments were starting to not just react to the new state of the world but properlye to grips with it, and the powers that be were reacting on a far greater scale than before. Which had then lead to this, with the conference table that normally held theirptops, coffee cups and snacks being moved to the corridor outside, and the massive wall screen being used for a grand video conference for the second time in its existence. Overall, the whole affair greatly reminded Isaac of that ssical conference of world leaders so often seen in alien invasion movies, though here, it wasnt actually heads of state arguing their points, it was high ranking military officers, scientists, and ministers. Sadly, the armchairs that normally sat in this room would have given an odd impression to the people on the other side of the screens and had also been moved outside, which left Isaac sitting on an ufortable standard conference room chair, and hed already been doing so for close to an hour. That would have been bad enough already, but the fact that the conversation had only gotten started properly five minutes ago made Isaac want to curl into a ball and die. But that wasnt an option, and this was important, so he put on a nice mask with [Hundred Faces], as he internally imagined fireballing the damn screen. Yes, I do. Isaac nodded The South Korea letter ranking system is an urate and easy to understand way to describe the power a person holds while also being flexible enough to ount for humanitys constantly rising power level. Dont we literally have a baked-in way of ranking people within the [System]? one of the UN appointees asked and Isaac nearly facepalmed. Amy, whod deliberately shifted her chair out of the cameras field of view, did smack her palm into her forehead, using magic to ensure the sound wasnt heard by the other people in the conference. This whole affair might not have been picked over during the conference, sure, but Isaacs inadvertently broadcasted speech about how Levels didnt necessarily correspond to ones power level had been the subject of many discussions during thest couple of days. Talk shows, reworked training methods, and so on, and so forth. No one should have had to go over it during this meeting. I believe that that has been gone over to death in both the media and government-internal discussions. Levels alone only give Stat points, and those are only a small part of what can be gained through the [System]. Professor Kim pointed out, her face failing to betray any indication of the annoyance Isaac was sure she had to be feeling. Good self-control or magic? Ah yes, the infamous graveside speech, the one th- The man was suddenly muted and he turned off to the side, speaking to someone off-screen. Clearly, someone over there had more brains than the nitwit whod actually ended up in front of the camera. That was the annoying thing about politicians. The skills needed to get a political position were often very different from the ones needed to properly execute said position. Fundamentally, the ranking system assigns everyone a letter rank from F to S, with F being the lowest and S being the highest. F will always describe those who still have their starter [ss], unless they have greatly boosted themselves using Aspects. Meanwhile, the strongest one thousand people are assigned A-Rank, Ranks D, C and B are distributed between those extremes. Then, anyone currently in the A-Rank category who greatly exceeds the average power level of said Rank are assigned S-Rank, which is sometimes referred to as the Supetive or Standout Rank. Of course, that system was built around the poption of a single nation, to adequately decide on what level of strength is needed for A-Rank on a global scale wed clearly need to base it on a far greater number than just one thousand people. Yoo-jin exined. That way, the scale can easily keep up with the constantly rising power of the people it measures. Then monsters and other threats are then ranked in ordance with what kind of person is needed to beat them without undue danger. And what is beyond the S-Rank? Isaac just sighed internally. What part of highest rank had failed to register. Nothing. Yoo-jin said tly Hence the name Standout. S-Rankers break the mold, greatly exceed the power of your average strongest person in the city or state, epic or even legendary [ss] holders that can affect change on a national scale. And S-Rank threats are problems of the same scale, the kind that shouldnt even be attempted to be fought, just hit with a nuclear or simr scale response because theyre too powerful for even the strongest regr response. And beyond that, so strong they cant even be fought? Why do those still have the same rank? Because at that point, it doesnt matter. A gruff voice cut in, and it took Isaac a bit to realize it had been one of the Americans whod spoken, a woman in the uniform of a Major General. If were dealing with something so strong it breaks the mold, outpowers our strongest fighters and cannot be taken down using the nuclear options, weve already lost. Not only that, but it will be able to almost certainly destroy or at least severely damage the whole world at that point. Standing back wont be an option, all youd be doing is waiting to die. If something that strong appears, well throw everything and the kitchen sink at it because it might work. Because the only remaining option will be lying down and waiting to die. All adding a were boned threat level would do is ruin morale. That should have been the end of that, but this wouldnt have been a political discussion if it had been. So, two long, boring, pointless hours of discussionter, that part of the meeting was done. Were all agreed, then? Both people and threats will be ssified based on their strength, from F-ss to S-ss, with the exact definitions being created after this meeting by the Dungeon Guild of Seoul, Research Team Bailey, Aaaaaaand the only thing that had been changed was that the word rank had been swapped for ss. Bloody fucking pointless. But sure, the politicians had had to change something so they could feel like theyd contributed something. Still, it wasnt all bad. As far as Isaac was concerned, they could have called it the Adorableness Scale and named each Rank, er, ss after increasingly cute animals, starting with Spider ss as the weakest and Kitten ss as the strongest, all that really mattered was that there was a ranking system being implemented globally and that the people who were working out the nitty-gritty knew what they were doing. And given that he was one of the people working on that, this was a given. Three hours in, the meeting had finally achieved something useful. Problem was, it was Friday the 23rd of December and due to the time difference to New York, it was already 11 pm. By the time this mess ended, it would probably be mere hours from Christmas morning for Isaac. That is the first talking point done, next on the list is the overall discussion of how to deal with low Level monsters that have gotten out into the wilderness, but during the initial discussion, I received several messages asking me to add an additional talking point about how to best create society of high rarity [ss] holders. The chairman leading the meeting said Unless there are major objections, that will be the next talking point. Isaac immediately jammed his finger on the Id like to talk button in the video conferencing program. Ah, the first speaker on this topic will be Dr. Thoma. Thank you. Isaac responded There are quite a few papers on that topic that have been written on that subject and perusing a summary of those should answer most questions on that topic, but Id like to give a brief overview now so we can move on to the next point. A full, in depth discussion here and now would have required a level of preparation that no one here has done. Fundamentally, one can gain XP from just living ones life and evolve ones [ss] once one has enough. However, the quality of said [ss] depends wholly on the exact path taken to get there. People who have dedicated themselves to improving one or more parts of their [ss] will receive an Evolution that focusses on this. Another way to improve [ss] quality is to do great deeds, defeating devastating threats, training legends, or making some kind of great contribution to humanitys knowledge base. In addition, slotting an unusually high number of Aspects for ones Level can also grant a high rarity [ss]. Lastly, being some sort of trailzer can grant a great [ss]. But taking the easy road will cost you a great deal in terms of [ss] quality. Weve proven that conclusively in the case of Aspects, someone who is merely gifted Aspects instead of earning them will not receive a [ss] as good as someone who slotted Aspects they gained from monsters they killed themselves. Bing extremely proficient in using said Aspects will bring the quality up again, but it will then be a different high-rarity [ss] that is offered, being based on the proficiency rather than the Aspects themselves. Weve also seen a simr phenomenon in people who gain their Levels by fighting the weakest possible monsters that will still give XP, never levelling their [Skills] or really putting in much effort. That is how people like Maxim Hawkins and Teddy Byrne reached Level 90 before nearly anyone else, yet only hold umon [sses]. In essence, the [System] penalizes people who take the easy road, and there are no real exploits either. Ambitious, hardworking individuals will excel in this new world, likely even more so than in the old one. Excellent training, preferably by high-Level [Trainers] can help, but a working education system alone would be a good start. The path to getting citizens with good [sses] is the same one that was needed to get highly skilled and educated citizens before the [System]. Five minutes of a seemingly pointless Q&Ater, they continued on to the next topic, which was once again just a rehash of previous discussions. Monsters got out into the wilderness and needed to be dealt with, yada yada yada. They already had the Treaty of Seoul as a guideline as to what to do about [Raid Bosses] and many of the weaker monsters werent such a big problem, not really. The stronger a monster was, the bigger and harder to miss it was. And if it wasnt big, it was fast, and fast monsters tended to easily find people to attack and when that happened, the cops or military were dispatched to deal with the matter. Simply put, strong monsters couldnt hide well enough to survive until they replicated. Weaker monsters, meanwhile, were a huge problem. Children were at a severe risk of dying as they didnt have any kind of strength enhancement, where almost every adult had put at least a few points in their physical Stats and could take care of the weakest of monsters. The real issue was the ecosystem and how monsters could utterly demolish those, especially carnivorous ones. The solution was to just use park rangers, the coast guard and so on to clear out the ces monsters were likely to be hiding, yet somehow, by the time the politicians came to that conclusion, it was Christmas for Isaac and Christmas morning for many of those who were located east of Germany. It was probably a good thing there wasnt a table in here now, otherwise, Isaac would have been severely tempted to bang his head into it, over and over again, until either the table broke or he finally slipped into blessed unconsciousness. And finally, thest point, proper summoning regtions are currently in the process of being written. The final wording will be the responsibility of the individual nations, but a degree of international homogeneity will doubtlessly be helpful. Sadly, recent events have necessitated this discussion to ur before a moreprehensive draft could be prepared. Isaac skim-read the proposal and could feel his heart skip a beat as he figured out the full extent of the trouble thetest Event had caused. The governments cracking down in a knee jerk reaction to an utter idiot getting himself killed would not go over well. And based on what Isaac was reading here, it would also likely be an over-reaction. Which would lead to the mess that hed been afraid off, where the government would seemingly hoard power as they levelled the police and military while suppressing the power gain of the general poption. And then people would rebel. In many cases, the rebellion would remain verbal, but not everywhere. In others not so much. And as social order grew shaky, the world would slide that much closer to Armageddon. Thankfully, Isaac managed to be the first person to speak once again. Fundamentally, this is a veryplicated problem, and Im afraid Im going to make it even moreplicated. At this point in time, levelling has very much be a part of the culture, and any suppression of it must be carefully managed. Most importantly, it must avoid giving the impression of the governments of the world hoarding power while restricting their citizens growth. Undue restrictions, or even those that merely appear to be such, will just drive summoning underground and remove all chances at proper oversight. On one hand, no stupid decisions were made. On the other, no decisions were made as it finally got sote that the meeting ended and people would mull things over during the Christmas holidays. The worst part was, Isaac couldnt really have hoped for a better result. Still, once hed properly recovered, Isaac could try and go for one his [ss] political [Skills] and make sure the next meeting went over a hell of a lot better than this one. But now, finally, he couldy down his head and just sleep. Chapter 155: Explosions and Christmas Trees Chapter 155: Explosions and Christmas Trees Isaacs insanely high Perception let him figure out the thread count of a bedsheet at a casual nce, feel every bit offort provided, drink in every amenity hed purchased for his home. Amenities his childhood bedroomcked. Yet he hadnt slept this well in ages, even choosing to extend his time in the barelyrge enough bed well past what he could ever need, though hed still nned on waking up at 5 am, plenty early. Or so he thought. What he hadnt entirely put together was that when hed made it so every direct blood rtive of his shared his [Bloodline], hed also massively boosted their Fortitude. Hence, what had been astoundingly, smash the rm clock or clock the person waking you, early, was now a perfectly normal time to get out of bed for his family. And they did try to let Isaac sleep in, but for someone as paranoid as him, having people marching around right outside his room while his level of tiredness wasnt dead to the world wasnt an environment conducive to him sleeping. Another thing he really needed to get used to was that everyone in the house had a high degree of superhuman hearing. Sure, Isaac himself might have been stealthy enough that he could walk without being noticed, but he was still a decently heavy adult man shifting his weight in an old and somewhat creaky bed. It took all of two seconds for Isaac to figure out exactly what he needed to do with his sisters tomorrow. Hed be teaching them that while they might be able to walk through walls, this didnt mean that concepts like knocking ceased to exist. Merry Christmas. He announced in a grand tone as he rose to greet them, sweeping them up into a huge hug as he phased to take the three of them into the kitchen down below, where he could already hear breakfast being made. Lets visit Mom, shall we? Before, this would have resulted in the two little ones banging into the floor, but they could now phase as well, and hed used [Flight of the Poltergeist] to slow his decent to give them time to engage their own phasing abilities. The three of them fell into the kitchen, identally scaring their mother half to death. The twins fled, while Isaac valiantly took the admittedly well-deserved lecture on the chin. Apparently, there were rules on phasing in the house, it was just that those little hellions had clearly decided that those didnt apply when the person they were popping in on didnt know about said rules. With that knowledge in mind, Isaac chased after the twins. Theyd clearly decided discretion was the better part of valor and fled outside into the snow. Bad idea. Really bad idea. By the time Isaac heard his mother finish up breakfast and the trio went back inside, all three of them were half covered in snow but grinning ear to ear. Of course, Isaac had been holding back, which had then ended with what felt like a metric ton of snow stuffed down the back of the pajamas he was still wearing. Good morning. His mother said, looking them up and down Now, breakfast is ready, so change quickly before it gets cold. Tanja pouted at her before heading up the stairs, but Viktoria ran up so fast she might as well have teleported, moving so quickly that when she closed her rooms door behind her, it mmed shut with a bang that rattled the floor. Their mother sighed and Isaac caught the irritated look she gave him. Whats wrong? he asked, but his mother made a shush gesture, then pointed at her ears and then the ceiling above. Of course. [Perception Block] went up a momentter and he exined that now, she could say whatever she wanted without everyone else in the building overhearing it as a matter of course. Instead of speaking, his mother just shook her head and sighed. Again. Im sorry I left so quickly after giving you these abilities. It couldnt have been easy. This time, it was Isaacs time to sigh. I was I really wasnt in a good headspace back then. Knowing his mother as he did, Isaac was aware that he hadnt been about to receive a stern talking to, just something along the lines of it hasnt been easy but were managing. Hed even predicted what happened instead, yet when she did wrap him in a wordless hug, he realized hed vastly underestimated how badly hed needed this. After maybe thirty seconds, though, he decided that it had gone on for long enough and she let go as he stepped backwards. She chuckled softly. Whats so funny? he frowned. Youve acted so grown up since this [System] appeared, like a real adult. But now, youre just as embarrassed by a hug as your little sisters. I Isaac broke off whatever he was going to say with a strangled cough, but then, he couldnt help it. He just burst outughing and couldnt stop. His mother tried to keep a reasonably straight face, but just as hed nearly managed to regain control over himself, she finally lost hers. So when Isaacs father came looking for them, already a little worried because he could normally always hear where his wife was if she was in the house, that was how he found the pair of them. Whats so funny? he asked, curious. Oh, its just that our six-year-olds are as just as mature as our adult son. Funnier with context, Im guessing? Yeah Isaac said cautiously. He then dropped [Perception Block] and a few secondster, Tanja and Viktoria came tromping down the stairs. Breakfast was a lively affair, and yet it was a lot less chaotic than it could have been. Isaac had been to shared meals with children who had [System] ess and it was usually a zoo. Telekinesis stealing food, phasing into the table to reach stuff that was just a little too far away, running around at speeds which created drafts that whipped napkins or even cutlery of the table not here, though. Sure, the twins were still rowdy as all get out, but that was just how they were. A pair of little hellions, and he loved them for it. But they were still a lot better behaved than hed expected. Then again, maybe he should have given his mother more credit. She was a kindergarten teacher, vastly more knowledgeable about raising young children than basically any other parent. So as much of a handful as his sisters were, theyd still turned out good kids. After breakfast, their parents went to read books on the couch and an armchair, respectively, while the children spent more time ying in the snow. This time though, they were properly dressed. Sure, they could have run around in swimsuits and been just fine, but not getting the ice and snow directly onto ones skin was nice, as was not having ones clothes freeze to ones skin moments after getting wet. They could have probably stayed out there for a couple of hours, but one of their neighbors yelled at them to get back inside because apparently, theyd woken him up. Sure, seven in the morning wasnt inordinately early, but today was a holiday, so it wasnt that out there to have people still asleep. That left them stuck inside, at least until it was time for the family Christmas hike. As usually, the twins were roaming around ahead of them, exploring woods and climbing on everything that looked even remotely interesting. Isaacs mother made a little circle-gesture that he didnt understand, so she whispered Can you put up the sensory barrier again? He promptly did so, yet she was still speaking far more quietly than normally, as if she didnt entirely believe that the [Skill] was working. How did you get that [Skill]? Is that something that isnt linked to a [ss]? Because in a house where everyone can hear everything Yeah, nope, Isaac was pretty sure he knew where this was going, so he theatrically stuck his fingers in his ears and proimed Its an Aspect [Skill], Ill get you one after New Years and I dont want to talk about this anymore. Thats not what she was talking about. His father said. Does it matter? Isaac asked as he dropped the [Skill] and began to hurry towards his sisters This conversation is over. *** Christmas day passed normally, with all the usual family stuff being done. The adults were happy enough with the situation as it was, but the two six-year-olds were practically bouncing off the walls form excitement, barely able to wait to tear into their presents. And then, finally, as darkness fell outside, the lights on the Christmas tree lit up. From that point onwards, the twins presents didnt survive for more than a few minutes, the two of them diving onto the pile of cardboard boxes and paper-wrapped objects like a pair of starving wolves tearing into a steak dinner. Meanwhile, the adults in the room would wait to open their own presents until the children were done, and then open them individually and thank the person whod given it to them sincerely. Thank you, Isaac. Viktoria beamed at him, looking at him over the top of a child-sized dy of the castle costume that could also double as a mages robes with stars in her eyes. He shed her a grin Check the jacket pocket. With a look of surprise and glee on her face, she dove into the costume, digging around the depths of the cloth in what was probably the least efficient way of searching for the pocket that was humanly possible. You too, Tanja. By the time Viktoria had decided she was well and truly stuck, forcing her to phase out of the cloth prison with an envelope victoriously, his other sister had retrieved the envelope from her ren-fair pantsuit. The envelopes joined the packaging paper in the great paper recycling nt in the sky a momentter and the twins beamed up at him. What did you get them? Isaacs dad asked him. Tickets for a few renaissance fairs,plete with costumes and a promise that Ill take them there. And dont worry, I made sure the dates dont conflict with anything you, they or I haveing up. And that was only the start of things. In hindsight, Isaac realized, hed gone overboard with the gift giving. By a lot. Puzzles, games, books, a couple of one of those junior scientist kits. But things wouldnt stop there, hed be getting them quite a bit more stuff before he left on January first, though that would be exclusively useful things. When it came to gifts for children, Isaac had a rule for himself that he wouldnt give gifts just because they were useful. If a kid needed something, theyd get it because it was required, not because it was Christmas. Therefore, the massive pile of useful training gear, high quality, damage resistant clothing and the pair of starter swords that hed have to talk his parent into not locking away the second they saw it, all of that would wait untilter. Once the children were done, Isaac and his parents unpacked their gifts, though those were mostly on the useful side. The kinds of things you might think about getting for yourself, but decided against because it was too great an expense to buy casually. But when it came to his own gifts, it had be rather apparent that his parents were no longer quite sure what to get him. Hed received a couple of books on medieval history, a nice suit that hed have worn to meetings if he hadnt already bought himself a much better one It was nice to see them putting in the effort, yet all it did was serve to remind him that he was no longer the person theyd known for so long, make him remember just how much he was keeping from them. And that hurt. So when he went to sleep that evening, he wasnt feeling all that great. The memory of the looks on his sisters faces when receiving the gifts hed gotten for them had been nice, but had nothing in the bone-deep sadness that rested on his shoulders. *** The rest of the holidays went pretty well, with Isaac not doing anything that constituted work for a whole seven days. No summoning, no fighting, no nothing. Even though he did end up getting a little antsy near the end, staying put and calm did more good for him than he ever could have thought possible. The holidays were filled with delightfully mundane things, like getting stuck on the sofa after watching a movie with his sisters because theyd fallen asleep, or getting chased out of the kitchen by his mother because she needed make dinner. Sure, given that they could both phase, it would have worked on a technical level, but somehow, that argument failed to get him anywhere. It was only on New Years Eve that he properly used his powers. Theyd gone to the square in front of City Hall to watch the fireworks and some jackass had decided to throw firecrackers at the crowd. Every. Single. Bloody. Year. Someone would decide to pull this crap, sometimes the targets would be the cops in riot gear who showed up when parties went way too far out of hand, but civilians in winter clothing, which tended to be mmable The look on those little turds faces as Isaac suddenly teleported in front of them, snatching the first firecracker out of the air then holding it up in the air as he kept eye contact with them until it blew was something hed treasure for a good long while. Theyd run, though Isaac had read their IDs using his [Aura] and then passed their names along to the police. That shit just wasnt on, though it was also not quite on the ass-kicking by a third Evolutionbat [ss] holder, not when theyd run and nevere back. Yet on January 1st, all of that was over. Isaac bade everyone goodbye and left for his home in the woods near the university. It was time for him to go back to work, yet he was going back to it. War, strife, bloodshed. That was what was required to save the world, yet it wasnt what he wanted to be doing for the rest of eternity. But that was what things were starting to look like. Chapter 156: Political Animals Chapter 156: Political Animals The world around Isaac twisted and warped as if all of existence had just spontaneously decided to stop making sense. Up was down, left was right, and when he got his hands on that damnable Twilight Weaver, that thing was going to suffer. Not really, he was going to just kill the damn thing and if he didnt get the Aspect he wanted, hed do the exact same thing all over again. Taking out his frustrations with the situation out on the monster hed summoned would be rather pointless but fantasizing about it felt damn good. 39 of the fuckers had already died on his de, but theyd tantly refused to yield the desired loot. Reality itself warped again, and Isaac was once again reminded that people had gone mad from fighting these things in the past, no longer willing or even able to trust what their senses were telling them because theyd been under the sinister influence of one of these monsters for too long. [True Cut] tore through the sinister energy once again, gutting one of the monsters world-distorting effects, but the remaining ones were still left in ce, and cutting through everything would have blown through almost all of his mana pool and left him screwed. But he didnt need to remove all of them, just enough that he could finally get his auric hands on the damn thing. [Aura] a [Aura], Isaac could have trashed this thing in seconds, but the various other illusions were interfering with his attempts at locating the Weaver enough to ensure he couldnt cheese his way to victory. His inner ear screamed a warning at him, shouting that he was about to topple over, yet that waspletely and utterly false, he knew that. Yet convincing himself of that fact, truly internalizing the idea that he was not, in fact, about take a big spill right at the feet of a terrible monster, that was vastly more difficult. But what he could do was simply ignore the extreme sense of oddness and distraction, moving on regardless of what fakes and apparitions tried to push him away from his path, even as they grew ever stronger. [True Cut: Annihte Sensory Warp] Another sweep of his de and the energy lifted enough for him to continue his path, but a momentter, he realized he hadnt even needed it as he was left standing in front of a beast of ck mist, glowing white eyes hanging in midair, ws of ck obsidian glinting at the end of barely material hands, and a lower body that diffused into mist rather than forming legs or any other kind of coherent form. Coupled with the oppressive [Aura] of wrongness that rivaled many a true Eldritch being, the Twilight Weaver struck an intimidating form. However, that was just as much smoke and mirrors as the rest of its powerset. Striking out from the safety of its illusions, this thing was dangerous as hell. Once one got to the real thing, though, it was dead. One sh of Balmungter and the smoky monster disappeared, yet a part of it remained, finally coalescing into a ck orb that seemed to be continuously streaming mist. Fucking finally. Aspect of the Twilight Weaver: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Twilight Weaver a Twilight Weaver. Create illusionary doubles of yourself, manifest things straight out of your imagination, cloak yourself from downright unnatural senses, impact a foes mind or even turn their own senses against them. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +15 Magic Power One of the following Skills: Lesser Illusion Warp Field Perception Interdiction Sanity Rend Lesser Illusion (epic) When first using this Skill, the user must choose two subjects to create an illusion of (specific person, object, creature, etc.). From that point onwards, the user may create an illusionary version of them at will (the illusions will update to match the chosen subjects). In addition, the user may directly create illusions based solely on their imagination, though it will require a high degree of focus and concentration, with the cost scaling with the area of manipted space. Cost (preset illusion): 15 mana per activation, 1 mana per second of upkeep Cost (direct maniption): 50 mana per minute per cubic meter [Improved Basic Illusion] became [Lesser Illusion], letting him do all the stuff he used to be able to do, as well as create illusions wholesale. What the [Skill] didnt explicitly state was how difficult it was to use to fool someone, but that wasnt why Isaac wanted it. Instead, he could use it as the ultimate visual aid, and then, as long as the parts he was trying to exin were correct, irregrities wouldnt matter. Perception Interdiction (epic) This Skill allows the user to create a five-meter diameter sphere in which enhanced senses function considerably more poorly, reducing their effective power by the equivalent of 1 point of Perception per 10 mana invested. In addition, the user may infuse a room with this energy, creating a stationary effect that willst so long as the user does not dismiss it, continues to pay the upkeep cost, and remains within 100 kilometers of the room. The cost is identical to the first effect but increases if the rooms size exceeds 125 m3. Cost: activation cost variable, upkeep cost 1/5 of activation cost per minute Once again, it was an outright upgrade of his previous [Skill], and it would let him help with private meetings without actually being stuck in the room while said meeting went on. As for his final [Skill], hed gone with [Warp Field]. It was an immediate sensory disruptor, rather than [Sanity Rend], which was a debuff that would lightly fuck with peoples perceptions for a few hours until they felt like they were going crazy. Nasty and powerful, but the more immediate power of [Warp Field] was what he could use more. Warp Wave (epic) Up, down, left, right, whats it all mean? Nothing! This Skill emits a st of energy that impacts nearby enemies and disorients them by messing with their senses, even inflicting synesthesia or swapping the sensory inputs between identical sensory organs. The power of this Skill increases against weaker enemies, as well as those whose Aura has been suppressed. Cost: 50 mana Now, in theory, Isaac could have also gone ahead and tried to harvest two more illusion Aspects for his parents, but there was no way in hell hed remain sane throughout all that, which was why hed already made arrangements to buy them instead, all he had to do was pick them upter. First, though, he needed to also upgrade his Sword Aspect. [de Control] wasnt letting him put enough force behind his blows and [Far Strike] was a little too fragile to properly use at his current level of strength without spending absurd amounts of mana to reinforce it. To fix that, all he had to do was kill a bunch more monsters and pray for an Aspect. Blech. But what needed to be done, needed to be done, that was how the damn world worked. The Razor Apparition was a nasty piece of work with a humanoid central body, appearing to be a piece of modern art at first nce. But then, weird things would start to be noticeable. How the air seemed to move oddly around it, strange glints with no clear source, des of grass or motes of dust being cut apart with so sign as to the source of the phenomenon. But Isaac never got the chance to observe any of those little clues, the Apparition attacked far too quickly. It appeared in front of him in a blur, arms unfurling into a series of strings best described as the bastard lovechild between a barbed wire and a razor de. A dozen different tendrils crashed down on him like a tsunami but were met with a cloud of des as he threw Old Reliables many forms against the attack. Yet the flying des were pushed back, or even outright knocked from the air, the power of Isaacs [Skill] insufficient to hold up to the force they were subjected for. This was exactly why he needed this things Aspect. Bright green light stained the withdrawn limbs, courtesy of [Sundering Strike]. Isaac grinned viciously as he advanced, making sure to carefully avoid stepping into the ces the des on the monsters arms had swept through. The incredibly sharp trails of energy that had been torn into the very world itself. Theyd fix themselves soon enough, but until then, so much as brushing against them would leave a bloody wound. The Apparitions legs split apart next, spearing the ground and then raising it into the air, making it appear taller and giving it a wider field of view. Another tendril mmed into Isaacs de and fell apart, [Sundering Strike] having eaten right through it. So when the Apparition attacked again, it had a dozen tendrils woven together into a massive club, studded with spikes and des like a cactus raised in the bowels of hell itself. Balmung shone an incandescent orange as it met the attack, shearing through it and sending a cloud of splinters and wires up into the air. At the same time, [Warp Wave] triggered, further reducing its ability to keep track of him. Andstly, [Lesser Illusion] triggered, creating an illusionary Isaac that charged ahead recklessly, outright ignoring the remaining trails. This made it vastly less believable than it could have been, but it didnt need tost long. With its senses disrupted, albeit only slightly so, its limbspressed to give Isaac more space instead of covering the entire area in flesh-rending tendrils, and an easy target avable, the real Isaac was able to slip in right under its nose. That was the thing about monster trivia, sometimes, it decided the fight outright. For example, a Razor Apparition had several strands of glowing gold wires deep inside its body which served both as magical cores and sensory organs, ones that were unable to see through its own body. Using the thick limbs as partial cover, Isaac unleashed another [Warp Wave] just as a Kabar hed phased into the ground ignited, creating a pocket of superheated matter deep inside which subsequently exploded, throwing up another massive cloud of dust and debris. Balmung came around in a devastating arc, carving clean through the main body and three of the wires. The top and bottom halves of the monster slowly slid apart, top half inert, bottom half twitching feebly as the monster tried to adjust to the damage, but as usual, Isaac didnt give it the time. Razor Apparition (Lv. 73) has been in. 2,440 XP gained But no bloody Aspect. Summon. Kill monster. Be disappointed. Redux. In between the pitched battles that were slowly reducing his nice summoning grounds into a debris field, he worked on the final draft of the proper threat ranking proposal. Much of it had been finished well before it had even been discussed officially, but hed had to wait and adjust his proposal based on the discussions that had urred during the initial proposal. It was simultaneously both very simple, and veryplex. ssifications from F to S, based on power. Simple, right? But hed also had to add a lot of side-grades that were added to monsters that were firmly located in one category in terms of power, but had annoying gimmicks that meant that not all people of the same ssification would be able to beat it. Spatial fuckery, intangibility, and oh so many more. Yet the most important addition wasnt on the page, it was in the hearts and minds of the people whod be reviewing this proposalter. Through various backroom channels, hed pointed out how stupid calling the ranks ssifications was and that maybe, they should change that back. Really, it was a win-win-win situation. He got what he wanted, the politicians got to feel smart, and the ranking system didnt have stupid terminology. But work wasnt the problem, getting the Aspects was. And he didnt even have the time to finish getting them because he needed to head to Korea. Hed arranged quite a few things for this visit well ahead of time, so not going wasnt an option. Maybe he could even find an Aspect of the Razor Elemental avable for purchase. *** Isaac sighed happily as he downed a can of ginger ale, crumpled it up into a ball, and lobbed it in the recycling bin without even looking. Then he flipped theptop open again and continued to work. Normally, he hated flying as it normally involved him being stuck in a metal can and unable to do anything productive. This time around, though, he not only had work but his ne was also one of the Dungeon Guilds transport nes with a convenient flight n. Instead of needing everyone with [Portal] to work together so he could walk straight to Seoul, all it had taken was a single hop to Rome and then hed gotten on the ne there. So, Dr. Thoma, can I ask why youre going to Seoul? one of his fellow passengers asked. Oh, someone clearly remembered what had gone down thest time Isaac had visited the country. Just nning on doing some grinding in Dungeons and there are a few things we need to iron out for the new ssification system that Ill take care of in person. Why write a million emails back and forth when a single face-to-face conversation will do just as well? I see. The disappointment in the response made clear what the question had really been about. Thats not to say I wont be teaching any [Skills] Ms. Bak, Isaac said with a wry smile ying around his lips. The problem with preparing pleasant surprises for your subordinates was that if said subordinates expected to get said surprises but werent told theyd receive the useful or needed things morale tended to take a hit. You managed to read my ID in my pocket without me realizing. How? I didnt, actually. I know all A and S-Rankers of the Dungeon Guild. I could have, though. Would you like to know how to prevent that? Of course. But didnt the rank get changed into ss? Isaac shrugged Were working on that. So, ready to learn some auric tricks? Time flew by as they were ying around with their sensory [Auras] and soon enough the ne finally touched down and let its passengers out. The other passengers all had their own ces to be and headed off in all directions. Isaac just walked over to the designated anyone who flies away from the airport from anywhere but here gets arrested for endangering air traffic spot and took off, sedately flying over the city of Seoul. It had changed a bit sincest time, with new defenses being erected in case of another [Raid Boss] being dropped on their heads, a couple of summoning centers being created, and several memorials stood tall to remind future generations of that days horror. Soon enough, Isaac strode into the reception hall of the Dungeon Guild, being waved in by the receptionist without even needing to announce himself. The various sensory [Skills] and enchantments had already ensured he wasnt using a shapeshifting [Skill] to disguise himself, nothing about him was throwing up any red gs, and he was expected. As the elevator lifted him up to the second uppermost floor, Isaac considered how inefficient that was. Most buildings frequented by fliers had ces tond on the roof, but that wouldnt be possible here as the topmost floor was a huge mess of defenses and enchantments. Sure, the windows of Yoo-jins office opened, but mbering in through those for a meeting wasnt a good look. This left Isaac knocking on the door and being called in a momentter, very unenthusiastically. Hede here to talk to Yoo-jin about whom he should teach, and discuss some other things, but this didnt seem like the right time for that. Whats wrong? And what can I do to help? Bureaucratical issues, and nothing. Some deals fell through and some materials wed purchased went missing at some point, poof, vanished. Before, Id have chalked it up to human error, but theyve disappeared even from my [Advanced Bureaucracy]. Thats not normal. Yeah, that was definitely odd. [Skills] to keep track of inventory worked damn well, and they would normally make finding missing inventory a piece of cake. The fact that it didnt show up had to have a damn good reason. Or a concerning one. But something else was odd. [Advanced Bureaucracy] was a [Skill] that Yoo-jin shouldnt have had ess to, so Is it possible you have a person who can teach [Advanced Bureaucracy]? Isaac asked. Yes. Yoo-jin sighed and flipped theptop closed That was meant to be a surprise for you, a little something in exchange for everything youre going to be teaching my people. Sure, Isaac was also getting the run of several Dungeons in exchange for this service, which was plenty in his opinion, but he appreciated the gift. Finding someone to teach him a bureaucracy [Skill] would have been great, but he hadnt known anyone from the other timeline, which had made finding someone a tad difficult. Now, you said you were missing some stuff. Do you need the exact stuff you lost, or would something equivalent work. Yoo-jin sighed again, opened theptop and turned it around so Isaac could see the list on the screen. I can get you some of that. Isaac told him, pointing out the specific materials he could retrieve Theyre back in Germany, though. Anything is appreciated. Were trying to summon a few rewards structures, and if we suddenly miss materials that should not have ever been able to be lost, therell be hell to pay. Working out the specifics of that took a few more minutes. Isaac ended up agreeing with Yoo-jin, whatever had happened to those things, theyd disappeared in an incredibly odd way. Many of the materials were also vtile or could be used in nasty ways, and where therefore either regted, or its trade was frowned upon. Why someone would have snatched it was obvious, and they were now pretty certain that it had been snatched. But at the end of the day, this wasnt a problem Isaac could help with, so he eventually headed back downstairs to teach the assembled A and S-Rankers some of his [Skills]. [Epic Blow] to increase power in those whose current [Skill]set could benefit it. [Knightly Discipline] to allow for more Parties to be established. And [Phantom Armor] for all the rest. It was an incredibly versatile [Skill] whose primary use was mere convenience, but that was only the start of it. Instantaneously recing a ruined set of armor and facing a foe whod been about to win almost unhurt was a nasty trick. But that wasnt even getting into the option of creating a suit of berserk armor. In essence, a berserk armor was a frankensteinian suit that looked like a torture device, with a series of needles that would pierce the skin of the wearer the instant it was put on, injecting countless stimnt potions, with additional potions being injected as needed. Sure, [Phantom Armor] wasnt needed for that, auto-equipping enchantments did exist, but those would cut into the amount of other enchantments that could be added. The only issue with that n was that, well, someone had to actually invent the damn things in this timeline. What followed after that, though, that was something that would live on in Isaacs nightmares. Whereas his [Skill] teaching took a few minutes at the outside, getting [Advanced Bureaucracy] from the professor of economics required him to sit through five hours of the single driest academic lecture hed ever heard. It was worth it in the end but getting it had not been fun. Advanced Bureaucracy (umon) As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. But what makes money move? Bureaucracy. And that is what this Skill is all about. It grants you a high degree of awareness into the rules that govern what you are doing at the moment (this effect can be toggled on and off), and allows you to integrate your bureaucratical tasks into the System, creating task lists, taking inventory without having to be physically present once it was taken in-person, and so on. But as you continue to hack your path through the jungles of paperwork, this [Skill] is capable of extending to cover new applications. Hed also have to send Bailey and the rest of the team over here now, this [Skill] was just to useful. From now on, though, Isaac could go into the Dungeons and power level. He would still be on Christmas break until Monday, January 9th, and if he spent all that time fighting, he should be able to bag a decent amount of XP. That date came and passed, but all that changed was that hed now officially transitioned from being on holiday to working, which basically tranted to showing up at Seoul University and working with Professor Kim on refining the ranking system. He also managed to find a pair of Aspects that could grant [Perception Block] for his parents, and even an Aspect of the Razor Apparition. Thetter ended up being priced insanely high, but one couldnt put a price on the [Skills] Isaac taught, so that didnt end up being a problem. Aspect of the Razor Apparition: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Razor Apparition a Razor Apparition. Make your weapons as eternal as a mountain, wield said weapons without needing to physically hold them, leave behind devastating cuts in the air for your foes to stumble into, or ensure that your wounds continue to grow more severe even after your weapon has long since been removed from your enemys body. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +15 Strength One of the following Skills: Immortal des Remote Wielding Razor Trails Wound Shred Once hed slotted it, he chose [Razor Trails] as his new [Skill] and watched the existing ones upgrade. [Remote Wielding] turned out to be the exact same [Skill] as [de Control], having identical wording in the [Skill] description, though Isaac knew it would let him put more force behind his floating des. Meanwhile, [Razor Trails] was awesome. Razor Trails (epic) A de is a nice weapon, isnt it? Carves through flesh with casual ease, leaves big gashes that bleed so much that you can just take a step back and watch them keel over a momentter, dry as a bone. But its a little slow, isnt it, not when the monster is dancing around you like pinball gone wild? Razor Trails allows you leave behind a barely visible trail behind any attack you made, following the movement of the des tip. Anything that brushes against them will be sliced to ribbons. WARNING: These trails are not indestructible and will break if struck with too much force. Cost: 1 point of mana per centimeter of trail per second, cost doubles every second of an individual trail remaining It was a nasty [Skill]. Sadly, the exponentially increasing cost meant that he needed to be tactical and cautious in its application, but it was still awesome. And then there was [Immortal des]. In theory, using it was a waste of a [Skill] slot, given that Isaac had a soulbound weapon, but in practice, that simply made the [Skill] all the more necessary because fixing one of those was a pain in the ass. It could regenerate itself if he provided the right raw materials, but that weapon had absorbed so much stuff, including the blood of a [Raid Boss] that getting all those materials could be a serious pain in the ass. But the reason hede here in the first ce was an entirely different one, and after a little over two weeks here, he finally hit Level 83 and got the political [Skill] that had been so incredibly overdue. Analyze Person (legendary) Politicians, managers, hucksters. All kinds of people have all sorts of insights into the human condition, and the associated sses have a myriad of Skills to help them with that, each one purpose built for a specific kind of analysis, giving them the exact kind of knowledge needed to do what they do. This Skill, on the other hand, is the distition of a lifetime of experience reading people, empowered to a supernatural degree. It might not have the power of a focused Skill and therefore falls far short of thebined abilities of a social ss, but it doesnt have to match the might of an entire ss because that is not its purpose. This is a Skill that makes your current social skills useful in a world where magic can interfere with social interactions, as well as empowering said social skills with a lifetimes worth of experience. In addition, it allows for a degree of insight into what Skills are interfering with your mind/arguments. In addition, blocking hostile social Skills will be easier and will work with a smaller Level gap than normal. It was simultaneously incredibly powerful and utterly useless. If he was on the same Level as his opponent, he was fucked. If he wasnt, he grew progressively more untouchable. As the Level gap between two people increased, the resistance to things like [Inspect], mental powers, and so on, steadily grew. Otherwise, a Level 1 [Pickup Artist] could trounce a Level 99 [Paragon Warrior] with ease. Given that the people hed be wielding [Analyze Person] against were politicians, whod be people with a far lower Level than him, making it very useful. It was also another [Skill] that didnt really help with his fighting power, but that was alright. Now that he had something that ensured he wasnt at the mercy of social [Skills], he could focus his growth elsewhere. This also brought up another interesting issue. During this trip, the other Hunters had been treating him differently. Before, hed been getting respect both for his power and knowledge. Now though, hed given up strength so he could empower others. And suddenly, he was being treated less like a person respected for his power and general capabilities, but rather like a vige elder. Greatly, well, respected, but seen as more than a little fragile. Sure, that view was correct in the sense that other people of his Level were almost certainly stronger on paper. But Isaac was not fragile, and he could still whoop any one of their buts because hed created ns for that. Heck, he figured out how to defeat anyone he met once hed discovered their [Skill]set, that was just how his mind worked. By the time Isaac returned to the university after almost a month of being absent, it was almost time for him to leave again, though. The trial of one Arianne Krebs was going to start soon and hed been called upon as a witness. Chapter 157: Return to Leipzig Chapter 157: Return to Leipzig Isaacs return to the university went off without any fanfare or chaos, thankfully. He got a high-five from Raul for getting the damn ssification system changed back to a ranking system, and some more paperwork had been piled on, but that was about it. He was only there for a single day, though, so he mostly took care of the paperwork that had umted in his absence, met a few of the new additions to the team, and checked in on Andre to see how he was doing. Of course Isaac had also visited him in the hospital, but now that the man was back at work, there was always the chance of nasty memoriesing back with a vengeance. However, it seemed like the [Psychiatrists] had done a fine job. Isaac himself would have liked to visit one, but, well, there were confidentiality issues. And not just the kind where the shrink might start bbing, because that could be mitigated by some of their [Skills], which would have made the confidentiality utterly binding in a way he could verify. No, the real problem was that they might be made to tell. People didnt need to know he was from another timeline to want to get at his secrets, which meant anyone he publicly confided in would be in trouble. Family was sacrosanct, and all but the dumbest criminals could figure out what kind of bloody vengeance hed wreak if they were touched. And the dumbest ones, well, theyd run into the spooks that watched over them. Hed also made sure to discretely spread the word about how terrible his fury would be. People had pictures of what hed done to the Demon Lord, and the fact that no one knew just how hed soundly beaten a certain serial killer made him seem even more intimidating. Fear of the unknown was a truly powerful force, after all. As for his colleagues, well, the whole world had seen what happened to people who picked a fight with them. Isaac was in the middle of filling out a form that would, in excruciating detail, exin to a certain bureaucratical blowhard why bing the official partner university of Seoul National University was a good idea when a knock on the door sounded. He was surprised by this, as he normally recognized anyone who dealt with him by their footsteps. Normally, hed just call in whoever knocked, but normally, he knew who was outside. So instead, Isaac just got up, walked to the door, and opened it manually, inadvertently scaring the hell out of the man on the other side, who clearly hadnt expected for it to open less than a second after rapping his knuckled against the wood. Yes? Isaac asked as he looked his visitor up and down, only realizing who was standing before him after the fact. He knew this guy, but as a sessful scientist, inventor, and businessman who carried himself with confidence and wore the finest enchanted clothing that money could buy. That wasnt who was standing outside the door. This was a man barely past Level 10, with a mousy bearing and a pair ofrge sses prominently ced on his nose. Daniel Neves Malo, the inventor of the spatial ring, had clearly changed greatly after his sess. Er, Dr. Thoma, s- Malo broke off with a cough, clearly about to call Isaac sir, then thinking better of it. Yeah, ripping open the door like that had startled him, coupled with Isaacs reputation doing the rest to scare this guy witless. There were multiple ways Isaac could have handled it, from demanding answers to keeping his trap shut and leaving the silence to hang until it got awkward, then waiting some more until Malo finally started talking. It only took ten seconds for that to take effect. Malo took another deep breath and started anew. Dr. Thoma, first off, Im a huge fan of your work. As tempting as it was, Isaac did not raise an eyebrow at the obvious attempt to butter him up. My name is Daniel Neves Malo, and Ive been invited here to do some research. Spatial storage devices, right? Isaac asked rhetorically before Malo could continue I saw the proposal you submitted, I think youre really onto something. While that interruption did manage to serve the purpose of reassuring Malo, the unexpected praise seemed to have also seriously thrown him. Yet a few secondster, he continued, though he took a moment to wipe the sweat from his brow. Thank you. But Im afraid I theres something I need to ask of you. You see, theres Malo took another pause, dry-washing his hands Ive been working with your assistants, Ms. Ling and Mr. Nkosi, and theyve been a huge help. I know theyre your assistants, I cant depend on them being avable. But if you can afford to spare them for even a few hours each week, I cant even begin to exin how much that would mean. I Im well aware of the fact that I cant make any demands here, that youre my boss. Malo paused the stream of conversation for a moment to take a deep breath, which Isaac took as a chance to get a word in edgewise. Dont worry, theyll still be avable. Theyll still need to do quite a few things for me, but I have no intention to monopolize their time just because Im back. That being said, I would like to see some of your work. I have some additional resources in my personal stash that might be of use to you. As it turned out, Isaacs assistants had been delegated to the role of gophers when they werent training their [Skills], fetching materials from other cities or even countries, or demonstrating their abilities so they could be copied by their the [System Researchers] or the people working on understanding spatial magic. Oh, sure. I have a prototype ring right here. Malo said, fumbling around as he retrieved said ring from his pockets, getting his fingers tangled up in the process. Oh dear, he really was incredibly nervous. But he did get the ring out and practically threw it at Isaac, who caught it without difficulty. As the small band of metal with an inset gemstone, which was really just a synthetic mass of a dozen different spatially aligned alchemic materials, all carefully arranged in patterns that drew on humanitys admittedly anemic knowledge of magic runes. Isaac opened it with a thought, or at least he tried to, that is. What would have been enough to open his old spatial ring didnt garner even the slightest bit of reaction. So, he gathered his will and focused on it, yet once again, no reaction. Simple mentalmands were simply useless. On his third attempt, Isaac manually gathered his mana and hurled it all at the damn ring, earning himself a small flicker above the gem, but nothing beyond that. And then, finally, he grabbed his mana, pushed it in, and held it there until a proper connection to the pocket space was finally established, letting him sense the small amount of storage volume within, maybe a liter at the most. Isaac sighed. He hadnt realized these rings had ever been this user-unfriendly, though he really should have. Of course, an interface that easy to use had been the result of hard work and research, not how it had been in the beginning. Thats when he noticed that Malo was staring at him with a look of utter astonishment on his face. Isaac raised an eyebrow. How did you do that? I thought only [Mages] could wait, are you a [Mage]? Isaac suppressed a chuckle at the puzzled expression as he answered Thats actually not the issue. Directly manipting mana is whats needed to use this ring, and its an ability that can help [Mages] grow stronger and vastly empower [Elementalists]. Im probably one of the only sword fighters in the world whos trained that ability. Oh. Malo nodded It just seemed so obvious how to do it If you can do something, the how seems so obvious that teaching others how to copy you seems impossible, doesnt it? Isaac suggested. Malo nodded again, looking grateful. Now, it seems like youre on a promising path with your research and as promised, I have a few things for you. An inscribed core appeared in Isaacs hand and immediately vanished as a massive pile of materials poured out of thin air andnded in the bag that had materialized in his hands. Dozens of Space Elemental Cores, bits and pieces belonging to more corporeal monsters with spatial powers, some metals Isaac knew to have spatial magic affinity and some that didnt, but were included anyway so it didnt look like he had unnatural knowledge. His collection would still help but do so without revealing knowledge hed rather stay secret. And then, three dozen Aspects appeared on the nearby table. Ill give you the Aspect of the Lesser Hydra, and two more of your choice. If you need XP to slot them, Ill dly help you fa- This time, Malo actually fainted. Less than Level 10, dump Stat Fortitude, yeah, still affected by normal human issues. Isaac caught him before hed even begun to sag, though. It wouldnt even have been a big deal except Bailey had noticed that someones health status had changed with his [Aura], run over, and that mess had taken forever to untangle, with how many people had gotten startled due to the professor running through the building at top speed. Eventually, though, things calmed back down and Isaac got a portal to Leipzig after saying goodbye to everyone. Overall, it had been a good day, and knowing that the spatial research was progressing well was a relief, but seeing Bailey take an early leave so he could get some space hurt. *** Isaac stepped through the portal into a ludicrously fortified room in the main police precinct of the city of Leipzig. It was a truly ridiculous choice that only made sense to a bureaucrat, as there was no reason that a hostile teleporter would choose the designated long-range portal spot as their target. Sure, if there were a city-wide teleport blocker involved, that would be a different conversation, but there wasnt. But Isaac would have been understanding of the fact that people needed to feel like they were doing something if it hadnt been for the fact that it took ten bloody minutes for someone to let him out, despite the fact that hed announced his arrival time days ahead of time and called ahead right before teleporting. If youre going to lock your visitors in a room for your own peace of mind, the least you could do is make sure they arent left alone long enough for them to seriously consider cutting their way out cause the walls are too mana dense to be easily phased through Im so sorry Dr. Thoma, a thousand apologies And now he was getting an apology spiel straight out of the servant of an insane despot ybook. Urgh. Understandable, but still urgh. The path out of the building led straight out of the building, having been designed to go through any sensitive areas. In essence, it was the idiot cousin of the standard [Portal]-rooms that could be found in airports and train stations in cities other than Leipzig. Then again, those other cities hadnt had a horrifying serial killer caught in them. On the surface, Leipzig hade through that fine. But scars werent necessarily visible. As Isaac passed through the lobby, he spotted a familiar person. Short, build like a brick shithouse, a heavily reinforced extendible baton made from the toughest and most expensive of materials hidden under a jacket that was likewise far stronger than its mundane counterpart. The rest of the outfit was improved in much the same way, with wires and spider silk threaded throughout, the whole ensemble basically being ready to go charging into a drug dealers hideout in. Good afternoon Herr Polizeirat. Isaac greeted Habicht Its been a while. Yep. Habicht said, How does it feel to be the number one cause of coronaries in intelligence circles? It took a hot second, but Isaac realized that they hadnt spoken in person since hed caught the spy at his sisters school. Was it really that bad? he asked. Oh, absolutely. Ol Jonatan tried to hide it, but he was right in front of me, I have the [Skills] to counter his, and I know him well enough to see through most of his bullshit. In other words, you havent missed a single instance to remind him of me and how badly I scared him, Isaacmented dryly. Instead of augh, Habicht replied with an appraising stare, the privacy field already expanding You got social [Skill], didnt you? What gave it away? Isaac asked they began to walk through the streets of Leipzig, though their walk was still fast enough to overtake cars on the road. Youve always been perceptive, but more in the genius detective way, not so much in the social sense. And youre a lot harder to read now. Habicht shed Isaac a malicious grin. How about you drop by my office one of these days, and see how badly you can spook the spook? Wait, youre still working next to each other? I thought that was a temporary solution. Isaac asked. So, did I. But apparently, he thinks that having easy ess to me is worth putting up with my principled rants. Ah yes, those. Isaac had gotten one of those after hed fought the Children of the [System] at the Bodensee. No one could have proven that, but Habicht had suspected and strongly hinted that he was alright with what had happened. That sometimes, there were situations where the rules didnt cover everything. And that Isaac should be more careful when hed been gone after those jackasses. He could imagine how one of those directed at an annoying intelligence agent would go. I see. But are you sure I should be dropping by your office before the trial is over? It might look like collusion. Isaac said. Were talking now. Habicht pointed out. Were also working. Dropping by as a prank or for a job interview is a lot different and could look a lot worse. Theres a reason the formal job offer has been dyed. Maybe. But honestly, youre practically an arresting officer in this case. I dont think theres anything I could tell you to bias you against her any more than you already are. Yep. But will the mediamunicate it like that? The difference between the truth, and the truth the public receives is a pain in the ass, I know. Habicht sighed Were here, by the way. In this case, here was the jail where Arianne Krebs, the monster yer, rested her head nowadays. Getting in was a simple matter of Habicht shing his badge followed by what felt like hours of intense security scans. But they ended soon after, and then the pair were following the warden deeper into the prison. As you can see, weve already earned our nickname Gleipnir ten times over. Theres enough mana invested in these walls that even a true Ephemeral monster could not phase through safely, let alone a human using a cheap knock-off using an Aspect. And that would require them to gain an Aspect in the first ce, which wont happen. Weve been able to prevent every attempt at smuggling one in and no one can summon in here. How do you do that? Isaac wondered Its true that theres a mana surge associated with summoning a monster, but detecting it is almost impossible for the equipment avable at the university, bleeding edge magitech. Whats your secret? Vandalism. Warden Schwan said with a smug grin More specifically, were checking for the circles. The inmates arent allowed to draw on the walls or floor, so if they try, it gets noticed. If they use the library books, the librarian will raise hell. And so on, and so forth. Couldnt they use their clothing? Habicht asked. Not without potentially nuking themselves. Cloth doesnt stay rigid, and the circle can get ruined by an errant gust of wind and poof, mana aberration. Mana aberration? Schwan asked. Mana forced into an unstable form, itll either rip your face off or blow it off when it reaches the end of its lifespan, a few seconds after appearing, and all killing it will do is make it blow earlier, Isaac said. Im surprised I havent heard about those before, Schwan frowned. Firstly, circles are incredibly forgiving, so blowing yourself up is pretty hard. And secondly, these things leave no trace of their presence other than the destruction they wreak. It doesnt really get talked about outside general be careful and exact when drawing out the circles. Ah, I see. Schwan nodded Anyway, I have more to tell you. We do weekly checks of everyones XP and Level status, so if anyone manages to somehow summon despite everything, theyll get caught. And how do you deal with the XP gains from acting in ordance with their [ss]? Isaac asked. We make sure they can get as little as possible. Its difficult with [Jailbirds], [Masterminds] and other [sses] that can work well in here, but it stops most of them. What about Mrs. Krebs? Isaac asked, Her [ss] is meant to be judgmental, isnt this the exact kind of thing that it would excel at? Unfortunately, yes. Schwan said Weve managed toe to an arrangement involving her throwing all the Stat she had when we started verifying Statuses into Perception and that if she ever truly increases her Level from this point onwards, shell be sedated and kept in a medically induceda until at least three guards hit Level 50. A judges decree to that end is already prepared and signed. Then why havent you already done that? Habicht glowered You havent seen her fight, if she gets out, youre all done for. Perception. Using that would inevitably cause a public outcry, and we might be forbidden from using itter. Right now, its still legal, and using it before we have to could do more harm than good. Schwan sighed. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to have for dinner. Habicht muttered in a less thanplimentary tone It works, its better than living in a dictatorship, but God, so many people feel qualified to stick their noses in where they dont belong. Democracy is the worst form of government Isaac said with a fatalistic air about him except for every other form of government there is. Schwan nodded Churchill, right? Yep. It took a little bit longer, but eventually, both Habicht and Isaac agreed that the jail would likely hold her going forward, at least so long as Krebs didnt get her hands on an Ephemeral Aspect of get somewhere near Level 40. Id like to [Inspect] her, Isaac said. Phrasing. Habicht sighed. Pay attention to my inflection. Isaac shot back. Her cell has a walkway above it, with a one-way mirror to ensure she doesnt see you. Schwan nodded Im assuming your [Skill] can work through one of those? Isaac nodded and they soon arrived back at the cell. It was a single free-standing cell surrounded by open space on all sides in arger room, with stilts propping it up. Using his [Aura], Isaac had also spotted cameras that gave the guards a view of every square centimeter of the cell, ensuring that nothing got past the guards. It was also a huge privacy concern but, well, superpowered serial killer. They headed up onto the catwalk thaty over the top of the cell, allowing guards to view the inside of the cell without having to rely on hackable electronics. Aaaaand shes staring at us. Again. Schwan sighed The cell is meant to be soundproofed, but its still not working. Isaac nodded, not wanting to speak out loud to avoid her from recognizing his voice. It might work, it might not, but it was still preferable that she didnt get furious right here and now, what with the person whod tossed her in here within a few meters of her. Weve been checking her Level, and it hadnt gone up, Schwan said. But shes 10 Levels higher than when I fought her Isaac typed out on his phone Im guessing theres something were not seeing. That being said, her Stats have mostly been allocated to Perception. I dont know what her game is, but it could be worse. Schwan grimaced, again. Once she is convicted, well get a pretty hefty addition to our budget. Then we can beef up security and make some additions so we can start holding more Superviins? Habicht suggested. Schwan just groaned and shook his head. Dont start with that. All the petitions to rename this ce after certainic book jails are bad enough. I wonder why. Once they were all outside the jail, Isaac, and Habicht headed back into the city and checked out the courthouse. It had likewise been ludicrously upgraded in preparation for the uing trial, but this time around, there were gaps that would need to be filled. Of course, the pair of them werent the first people to do such inspections, but they were the highest Level ones and they had [sses] and Aspects that could allow them to escape a locked room more readily than a [Civil nner] or [Security Consultant] could, meaning they had far great insight into the matter at hand. After that mess had been handled, Isaac finally headed out to his hotel room, at one in the morning. What a clusterfuck. But things had been handled, the trials security and prison cells were up to snuff, hed passed a couple of important [Skills] onto Habicht, further deepening his connection withw enforcement, and so on. A good day, but an exhausting one. Isaac copsed into bed, asleep the moment he hit the pillow. Yet the moment his eyes fell shut, he suddenly found himself elsewhere, an empty white void. What. The. Hell. Chapter 158: A Long Overdue Conversation Chapter 158: A Long Overdue Conversation Power swirled around Isaac as the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] burned to life, dark red energy filling the space while parts of itpressed into needles and des that would tear anyone who came close to bloody chunks. Meanwhile, Old Reliable appeared in his hand, but not Yet that was all that happened, none of the reinforcing [Strikes] appeared on the de, neither did [Fully Geared] provide him with his armor nor did [True Cut] find even the slightest bit of purchase in this ce. When Isaac finally tried to summon [Grand Hellme], that too didnt achieve anything. Nothing worked, nothing save his [Aura] and the weapon that was tied to him on such an intimate level. That settled it. He wasnt here physically. We misread your [ss], didnt we? [Humanitys Judgmental de of Damocles]. The [ss] of a judgmental person, choosing who wins and who dies. An ber-Karen with a murderous streak, someone once said. Isaacs mouth twisted into a feral grin as he fixated his re to the point hed figured shed appear. [Humanitys Judgmental de of Damocles]. Youre someone who wants to judge the whole world. Punish the guilty wherever they are. And if youd been more than two Levels into your second Evolution, that would probably have been reflected in your powerset. But you werent, and we were all working on crappy intel. So, this has to be some kind of dream control, but even though a certain horror movie series would like to have us believe otherwise, that cant be enough to kill someone. At least not someone who is at allparable to you in terms of Level. Legendary [sses] might break the very concept of bnce over their knee, but even they have limits. Im gonna take a wild guess here and say you can normally invade dreams good and proper, catch a glimpse at all the things the subconscious tries to hide. Or maybe you can create a nice and proper environment to trap people in, something that encourages them to spill their guts. Or maybe its both, maybe even neither. Either way, Im too strong for you, the Level differences too great, so were stuck in this boring void which feels like I could tear it to pieces with my [Aura] if I pushed just a little. So, is that the truth, or did I get that right? Incidentally, the fact that she could confront people in their sleep also exined part of why she was leveling so quicklypared to the other inmates. Shed literally been doing it in her sleep. I have to admit, you live up to your reputation. So few people do, not when theyre in the public eye. Everything they do that can be seen is an act, something meant to show how great they are. And all the ws, they end up hidden away from the very world itself. When they eventually get revealed, oh the outcry is great, but does anything ever change, hm? People should remember, but theyre more like sheep, arent they? What should never be forgiven is simply forgotten and the sheep go right back to bleating. You though, youre, at the very least, every bit as capable as people think you are. But what about your morals? How about you find out, in a conversation I dont have to have with an empty void because youre too afraid to show your face? Isaac shrugged. Silence. You know I can get out of here on my own, right? You dont have an [Aura], Id have noticed, so you cant keep me trapped in here. And when I get out of here, Im going to tell the guards at the prison, and theyll either stick you in a medically induceda or keep you awake as long as possible without it being considered sleep depravation, limiting your use of this [Skill] to a few minutes each day. How does the saying go again? Speak now or forever hold your peace. Isaacs [Aura] began to shine more brightly, pushing against the fragile boundaries of this [Skill], threatening to break out of it like a wet cardboard box. In lieu of an audible response, the space in front of him flickered and slowly, painfully so, revealed the figure of Arianne Krebs, dressed in the same prison jumpsuit shed worn when hedst seen her. The empty void flickered again and with what was clearly a great deal of effort, a pair of chairs manifested,cking proper definition or any color that differentiated it from its surroundings. If Isaacs guess was correct, he was simply too strong for this ce, which would make manipting it nearly impossible even when he wasnt actively working to block such manifestations. Once the affair seemed done, he sat down without waiting to be asked, then stared at her silently while questioningly raising a single eyebrow. I solemnly swear that I wont reveal anything we talk about here, nor will I share any information this conversation or you being here lets me deduce, even if it could have negative consequences for you. Nor will I share that you know some of my secrets should you choose to not reveal them, so you not spilling the beans about my dream walking will likewise not pose a threat to you, she solemnly promised. [Arianne Krebs], the [Humanitys Judgmental de of Damocles] has sworn [Oath of Secrets Taken to The Grave] to you. Would you like to review the wording? Isaac did, but all he got was a rehash of what shed literally just said, with no new additions. This would make this conversation a lot safer for him, but it didnt take a genius to figure out what the trap was. She wouldnt share any secrets she learned in this little heart-to-heart, but there was nothing preventing her from acting on that information herself. The secrets would be taken to the grave but said grave could just as easily belong to the person whom the oath had been sworn to if they turned out to be morally reprehensible enough. Well, now isnt this interesting. Isaacmented as he leaned back in his chair, feeling the poorly formed surface dig into his back Are you a [Priest] now, taking confessionals? Despite what the flippant suggestion suggested, he had figured out how her [ss] worked, at least for the most part. The dream maniption was clearly one of the central [Skills], with the ability to reassure anyone who talked to her, maybe get some more secrets out of them. Sure, most of her data would likelye from interpreting the dreams she visited, but a conversation like this could also be helpful if her conversation partner waspletely convinced that their information would be kept private. Shed gained 10 Levels since theirst meeting, which tranted to 20 [Skill] points. Ten had been spent on the dreamwalking, five on the [Oath], and thest five had either been saved or spent on something she hadnt shown yet. Meanwhile, the other central [Skill] of this [ss] was absolutely abat one. If the first one was meant to deal with the problem of finding the guilty, the second one should be based on tearing apart the people she found. Maybe an adaptive offensive ability akin to an auto-adjusting [True Cut], or an improved version of the adaptive powers shed used in theirst fight. Maybe. But most priests dont punish those who confess crimes to them. In aic book, properly. Isaac suggested None of that is an exnation of what all this is about. So, talk or I walk. Fine, fine. She shrugged You and I, we both want the same thing, dont we? I saw that little speech you gave in Seoul, about how we need to deal with the [System], use our heads, and if we act like idiots, were all dead. Jumping on the podium was a bit much, though. See, youre acting far more like a normal member of society than I am, letting people break the world over selfishness and stupidity instead of putting them down like the dogs they are. But you want to, I can tell. She leered at him Oh, I can tell. Youd tear people apart in a heartbeat if you thought you could get away with it. But that doesnt change the fact that we arent just not so different, were the same. Isaac nodded Yep. I wait, what? Ah yes, nothing was as disorienting as gearing up for an argument and then having the person you were about to argue with instantly agree with you. Isaac sat up straight again and looked her dead in the eye as he replied. We both want to stop the [System] from breaking the world, from killing all of humanity. We both recognize the danger irresponsible summoning poses. And we both did something about it. He paused, only to interrupt her just as she opened her mouth to reply. The problem is that youre the living incarnation of taking things way too fucking far. You see killing as the onlysolution, and you wield that like its going out of style. Hell, youre not even properly discriminating when ites to your victims. The guy who wanted to summon another monster to honor his dead friend, the mass murderer? Eh, I get that one, even if Johnny Law will disagree. ughtering every summoner you find? Really? Youve killed too. She said, It took me a while to spot it, between all those monsters, but there are people out buried in some field thanks to you. She shot up out of her chair, ring at him And you dare sit there, lecturing me? Isaac mirrored the motion, blurring to his feet and ring at her. Do you know why youre still alive? Because unlike you, only I see killing as a solution. Those people youre so outraged about? Murderers. Murderers that I saw literally standing over the corpse of one of their victims. I could have killed you, easily. I had a knife in your heart! If I hadnt switched it for a form that damages your ability to use [Skills], youd be dead. But I didnt, and you arent. Because Id have made you a martyr. Youre alive because youd have caused more trouble dead. You see, thats the real difference between us. You found out that killing is a possible solution, and youve used it every bloody time it seemed like it fit, at targets who were never truly guilty in the first ce because you never did the slightest bit of due diligence. If theyd been here physically, there would probably be spit flying by now. I use my head. I think things through. I treat killing as thest resort, and only kill when not doing so would get someone else killed. Youre a rabid wolf thinking youre morally superior to the fucking park ranger! There was more he might have said, but he finally caught himself. That blowup had been a long timeing, but that didnt make it a good idea to just unleash it like that. He sat back down and raised an eyebrow. So, thats my truth. Whats yours? Krebs sighed and sat down I thought you were a short-sighted fool. Doesnt seem like its true, though. Not anymore. Isaac raised an eyebrow, declining to reply. But that doesnt matter anymore. What I wanted to talk about, well, I want to help. The world is ending, and Im stuck in here. Are you asking me to get you out of there? Isaac raised an eyebrow Or offering to gather information for me? Either way, heres what Im going to do. Im going to do everything I can to make sure this world doesnt end, with or without anyones help. Im not going to endanger people, and thats what I consider letting you out to be. If you want to help, Ill dly ept. But unless your little [Oath] can let you make [System]-enforced promises that dont involve secrets, I dont really see how you can make promises I can believe. If you can offer help that doesnt require a huge amount of trust on my part, by all means, go ahead. Krebs raised an eyebrow Just like that, youre willing to ept my help? I believe weve already established that Im a rational person. I dont like you, but you have the same goal as I do, and if you can help without bing a huge problem in your own right why not. Her wolfish grin made a pit open up in Isaacs stomach until a massive binder appeared in herp and she flipped it open, revealing pages upon pages of meticulous notes. It was obviously not a regr notebook, considering this was a dream, but rather the physical representation of her memories. Youve been reading through the dreams of your fellow inmates. Inmates from organized crime and other high-caliber criminals are stuffed in your jail because the [Warden] has the highest Level in the country. They wont know anything up to date, but what about the people who visit them? Im going to guess there are certain limits to your [Skill], like distance, or maybe you have to tag the person whom you want to talk to. Otherwise, wed have had this conversation a long time ago. Krebs nodded. Will you be able to reach me back home? Isaac asked and she shook her head. Ill drop by Leipzig once in a while then. Im assuming thatll work with your [Skill]? Of course. Krebs still seemed surprised at how this was all turning out. Isaac, meanwhile, started to rifle through the folder, memorizing as much as he could. Therere a lot of interesting things in here, but thats oddly iplete. Also, it seems like this would be of more use in the polices hands. Maybe. But its not actually iplete. That information just isnt there. A lot of people who dont know their employers, which is strange, isnt it? Criminals being anonymous, how shocking, Isaac observed. Anonymous with the exact same modus operandi? Krebs challenged. Maybe. But it really would be weird if it were a coincidence. Ill look into it. Isaac said calmly, though, on the inside, his mind was going at a mile a second. Anonymous, impossible to find, criminal. Over and over again, that came up. It could still be a coincidence, but what if it wasnt? Sure, nearplete anonymity let one hide ones identity damn well, but it was also conspicuous in and of itself. And? Well see whates off it. If were jumping at shadows, oh well, cest vie. But if were not, this is important to get right. Thats it? Thank you for giving this to me. If it leads to something, youll have been a great help. And if you find anything else like this, Ill dly take that as well. Isaac shrugged Like I said, I dont have a problem with you helping, so long as that doesnt put anyone else in danger. You dont have a [Skill] that can let you swear fealty or otherwise assure me you wont fall into old habits, and I dont have one that would let me assure it on my end. And as far aswyers go, there isnt a single one that I know of who can write a contract with true fiat backing. But hey, if I start acting on your information and you eventually hit Level 50, youll probably be able to choose a [ss] that will allow for that. And then we can talk about this again. With that, Isaac continued to read through the binder of information until hedpletely finished memorizing it. The recollection wouldnt be perfect, but it would still be almostplete. Oh, and a couple more things. He said as he got out of his chair and leaned closer. First, if you break out of jail, I will find you, hunt you down, and this time, Ill leave that [Skill]-breaking de stuck in you. She nched. And secondly, if you want to be really helpful, heres what you should do at the trial Chapter 159: Interlude Patrick Chapter 159: Interlude Patrick The courtroom was unusual, to say the least. On the surface, it was just like the one the school had dragged him to in eleventh grade that one time, only bigger. A ce for the judge to sit at the far end of the room, with the two members of the jury besides him and the court stenographer off to the side. Near the back of the room sat the benches for reporters and the general public to observe the goings-on from. And on the left and right walls sat identical benches, one for the prosecution, one for the defense and one for the prosecution. Traditionally, the defense and therefore the defendant were located on the side opposite the windows for fear of the usedmitting suicide and that was where the serial killer had been put here. However, the reason for that had changed. Nowadays, the problem wasnt the used stting on the pavement outside, it was them getting up afterwards and cutting through the closest civilians like a farmer went through wheat. But even though the used was well clear of the window, the ss had still been reinforced ad absurdum. Not only that, Patrick hadyered on a good three dozen separate yet mutually reinforcing wards, able to stand off a full artillery barrage for several minutes. Kic shielding, thermal dispersion, spell disruption the list went on and on. It had taken a good long while to cast and even longer to design, yet the ability to create something like this alone, in a matter of hours no less, was precisely why hed picked [Arcane Polymath] as his third Evolution. It doubled down on the analysis and copying powers hed gained with [System Researcher] and improved upon with [Research Mage]. Sure, if he didnt have the right spell for the right situation, hed be in trouble, but his spell list was already long enough to fill a good third of an average encyclopedia. So, when the Leipzig courthouse had needed some security holes patched, Isaac had volunteered him and yes, Patrick had had spells for almost all the spells needed ready to use. Even with the magic, none of these things were the issue, they just made this a regr courtroom in this [System] world. No, that honor went to the fact that this ce was a total zoo. People shouting at each other, spectators yelling insults at the defendant, others trying to shout down those people because they felt that Arianne Krebs hadnt done anything wrong. And then there was the gaggle of old retirees just watching, and if it hadnt been for the fact that you werent allowed to eat in the courtroom, Patrick was certain theyd have been munching popcorn. If the guy whod been giving his ss the tour back then hadnt been talking out of his ass, that wasnt an umon sight, bored senior citizens deciding to toddle over from the retirement home to watch court cases. [Order in the Courtroom]. The judge announced, not raising her voice, not banging a gavel (which werent even a thing anymore), just announcing that it was time for everyone to shut up for the fifth time in as many minutes. The [Skills] spoken name reverberated through the room, silencing conversations, shouting people being reduced to furiously opening and closing their mouths without making a peep, and one man who was half-leaning over the banister was forced back into his seat. This was a courtroom, every [Judges] seat of power, and their [Skills] suffused it so thoroughly that Patricks [Aura] could barely pick out anything other than it. Yet the [Judge] was still only at Level 26, too low to restrain higher-Level people for long even with the increase in power that came with being in her own courtroom. Mind you, if anything dangerous happened, there were police officers with the required Levels standing by, but that didnt really help much against those who were just being rude. All in all, a good twenty-thousand eurosof fines had already been handed out for various in contempt of court offenses, but that hadnt really helped. There were ever more people who had something to say, who felt that it was worth it eating the fine just for a chance to sling some insults. And because in Germany, trials were public, locking the doors wasnt really an option. At the end of the day, there was a very good reason for that, transparency was vital to the process, but by God was it a pain in the ass right now. these vile, senseless acts of murder [Objection]! the defensewyer snapped. Normally, this was where he would have continued to exin what was the problem, yet when hed shouted that [Skills] name, there had been more to it than just the single word. Countless additional pieces of information echoed within it, informing all those who heard it just what the problem was. In this case, the issue was that murder was legally defined as the killing of another human for lesser reasons or in inhumane ways, which was yet to be officially ascertained. The reaction inspired no confidence in the justice system. The whole affair looked more like a bunch of actors ying at being officers of the court, and once who barely knew their lines, at that, constantly looking to each other for cues. Sure, this was probably everyones first major trial under the [System], but still, sheesh. What a mess. Really, this was how today had gone from the beginning. Everyone might have gotten used to utilizing [Skills], but not shing them against other peoples supernatural abilities, especially ones on their level. Hence, utter pandemonium. If he was honest, the whole affair reminded him of those glorious chaos anime his colleagues couldnt know he watched. You know, the ones that had ludicrously insane powers or settings that were insanely fun to watch but if you tried to exin it to someone else, youd sound like an escaped mental patient. The kind that, when you wanted to rmend them to another person, the most you could say was its really good, just watch it. Anything else escaped mental patient. However, as funny as that was on the other side of a TV screen, it was utterly horrifying to behold here and now. In a very real sense, the [System] had broken this world, and as fantastic as parts of it were, it was also horrifying in ways beyond just the dangers posed by the monsters. After a long moment of awkwardness, the prosecutor used a [Skill] of his own, one that seemingly brushed off the effects of [Objection], albeit after an ufortably long moment of silence. It is an indisputable fact that several of the killings the defendant is used of were conducted in such a brutal manner that veteran police offers were sick upon seeing the scene. Therefore Cut it with the weasel words and say it straight out you cowardly fuck! For what had to be the fiftieth time, someone decided to scream at one of the people amidst their heated discussion. But this time was the first one where someone had unleashed their [Aura], a crimson glow manifesting and threatening to squash the people sitting next to him. And then, the [Aura] promptly vanished into nothingness as Patrick crushed it into nothingness. Auric suppression was a part of why he was here, after all. His [Aura of the Hungry Mind] had been spun into a series of thing strands that built attice which filled the entire room in a way it couldnt in its standard, spherical configuration, its touch light enough that no one would feel it, but ready to tear apart any new [Aura] that was activated as it would intersect it from the very beginning. Coupled with the fact that he could easily smack it into the [Auras] wielder to break their concentration and the fact that his own [Aura] was strengthened by his Level, utterly erasing hostile [Auras] was a piece of cake. The technique was something that Isaac had taught him for just such a purpose and worked exactly as intended. And as for why Isaac wasnt taking care of this himself, well, he wasnt allowed in the courtroom. As a witness in the case that was currently ongoing meant hed only be let in when it was time for him to give his statement. From that point onwards, hed be able to stay, but until then, he wasnt allowed to observe. So now Isaac was cooling his heels halfway across the city, well out of even his hearing range. But that didnt mean that he wasnt listening in. If Patrick hadnt known where to look, he wouldnt have noticed the tiny strand of [Aura] protruding from the top-right corner of the room seemingly doing nothing at all. What it was doing was, well, sucking in every bit of information that was avable. At the end of the day, light and sound waves were just other bits of information that could pass through a sensory [Aura] and be recorded. Then, with enough practice, apparently, around ten years of it, one could actually use ones senses through the [Aura]. Touch was easy, part and parcel of this kind of [Aura]. Smell and taste were essentially the same thing, amounted to a specialized kind of chemical analysis and were useable through the [Aura] but could be tricky. But seeing and hearing? That seemed like an impossible goal, though thankfully, Isaac seemed to think that it would be easier to teach than try to learn on ones own. Bailiffs, arrest that man. The [Judge] announced, voice cold as liquid nitrogen [Immediate Arrest]. Anything the man might have tried, any [Skill] he might have activated, it wouldnt have mattered. And two secondster, the bailiffs had dogpiled on him, their own [Skills]yering on, suppressing the mans mana, Stats and [Skills]. Such anti-[Skill] abilities usually grew stronger when back by a legal authority, and further boosted by such things as cooperation and happening in a courtroom that was enhanced by a [Judge]. What the hell? I didnt do anything, I just showed my [Aura]! One can also wave around a gun without firing it, that does not mean it wont cause any trouble. The [Judge] replied. That guy was also doing that! The man tried to point at Patrick, but there was literally someone sitting on the arm hed have used. And that guy is here for that precise reason. Im fining you one thousand euros for contempt of court, and cing you in the courthouse jail pending a hearing about your endangering of others with you [Aura]. The [Judge] fixed everyone in the room with steel in her eyes. This is not a circus, this is not a zoo, this a courtroom. I understand that tempers are running high, but this. Is. Enough. From this point onwards, anyone seeking to enter this room will first tell the officers at the door that they do not seek to disrupt these proceedings while they are using their truth-telling [Skills]. In addition, anyone who so much as steps a toe out of line will be banned from the courtroom. In this country, trials are fair and open to the public, but that does not mean we have to put up with disruptions and disrespect. [Implement Ruling]. And just like that, the decision was implemented and anyone who was going to be affected by it and was within a kilometer of the courthouse was immediately informed of that fact. Things were calmer after that, for a certain definition of the word, but still chaotic and peoplesck of experience with disrupting [Skills] was still being rather obvious. But when things finally got going, the first thing the defense did was give a list of what many of Krebs victims had done, who they had endangered, statistics about summoned monsters destroying and/or ending lives. And now, my client has asked me to read out the following statement: My name is Arianne Krebs, and the media has dubbed the monster killer. One might pretend that all of this is the result of a broken mind, an mental condition that qualifies for the descriptor of insane. Yet there is far more to it. Weve just heard testimonies on how many people nearly died due to unsafe summoning, of how careless many of those who ended up murdered were. Monsters summoned near public spaces, unprotected camera crew and other support personnel by streamers, many, many human beings have already died, and many more would have likely joined them. I did it. I confess to it, on the record, I killed every single person on the list that mywyer will provide. And if I had to do it all again, the only thing I would change is I would be more careful. I did make some mistakes, went after some summoners who were more careful than it seemed at first nce, and I do regret those mistakes. But this isnt about what a lonely widow feels, this is about the survival of the human race. Because there are people on that list who got others injured, even crippled, for the simple reason that they didnt care enough to take the needed precautions. I am aware of my mistakes, and I will pay for them as many of my victims would have if thew and justice system had been up to snuff. But it wasnt, so idiots summoned monsters, the monsters maimed or nearly killed others, and I killed the idiots. If this situation isnt brought under control, there will be more like me, careless summoners will get additional people killed, and maybe one day, therell be an actual monster killing people in the same manner I did. So yes, I will take my punishment and rot in jail, secure in the knowledge that even if the world goes to shit, the precautions needed to keep me in will be enough to keep the monsters out. Ho-ley-shit. When the courtroom exploded into noise once more, even the [Judge] was dumbstruck, [Order in the Courtroom] only arriving after the noise had begun to die down naturally. That certainly took things in an interesting direction. And it was incredibly convenient, staggeringly selfless for a serial killer. Sure, shed, at a minimum, been caught on several bodycams trying to murder police officers. The chance of her walking out of this were basically nil, and given that shed killed literally hundreds, shed likely die in prison. But it was still odd. Oh so incredibly odd. Chapter 160: A Public Platform Chapter 160: A Public tform Isaac sat in the rtively bare, generic government meeting room, deep in thought. Normally, witnesses would have been ced somewhere in the courthouse, possibly even on a chair right outside the courtroom itself, with just a small amount of supervision to ensure they didnt try to sneak a peek or talk to other witnesses that might be present. But making sure the witness wasnt biased by overhearing the various charges was obviously a hell of a lot harder where someone like Isaac was concerned, so hed been banished to a random building that housed some tiny, practically insignificant part of government bureaucracy and had a room avable for him. Hed even revealed the limits of his hearing, but that was A. only his current limit and B. his new [Aura] trick meant that the limits of his hearing didnt matter anymore. Unfortunately, there were limits to his auric senses. Mainly, sensory overload. In exchange for using his [Aura] in such a way, he had to vastly reduce his normal senses and turn his [Aura] into a series of thin shells that surrounded him, able to tell when something passed through it and nothing else. The only thing that made this even possible was how ones [Aura] grew stronger with your Level, more malleable, and lost less volume when stretched beyond its normal size. Where at Level 25, extending any part of the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] to fifty meters would reduce its overall volume by half, nowadays, he could push it to a couple of hundred meters and still have almost ny percent of his sixty-five thousand cubic meters of [Aura] avable. But he wasnt really listening to the trial as there wasnt anything interesting happening. Hed known about everything she was going to be charged with ahead of time, and while the chaos in the courtroom was a little funny, it wasnt worth devoting his time and attention to. Instead, he was mentally running through the list that Krebs had given him. Shed been trawling through the dreams of her fellow prisoners for information ever since shed gained the ability and it had shown. As for the inmates themselves, they were an eclectic bunch, ranging from career criminals whose Level was too high for most prisons and had therefore been concentrated in a single facility to those who were at risk of being broken out by people who could not be kept out by regr walls. And then you had those who were here to show them that their new superpowers meant nothing. Businessmen, mostly, whod been involved in shady enough dealings to end up arrested and too influential to be let out on bail as they posed a serious flight risk. These were people whod be [Businessmen], [Day Traders] and the like and kept going as normal, all the while not realizing that blocking investigation [Skills] required [Skills] of their own on top of the methods of obfuscation that had been employed to date. Sure, those [Skills] had been avable, but theyd have required [sses] with unsavory names, and bing a [Corrupt Businessman] would have gone over like a house on fire if the [ss] name had be public knowledge. The [System] had changed many things, but crime and the justice system were among those most fundamentally altered. Casual crime would soon be almostpletely non-existent as people whomitted criminal acts were caught in moments without the [Skills] needed to evade detection. In other words, if you wanted to find sess as a criminal, you needed tomit to the bit. You needed the [Systems] assistance to escape [System]-empowered members ofw enforcement. This was a double-edged sword, though. On one hand, few people would want tomit to bing stuck on the wrong side of thew, and fewer people would be criminals bymitting crimes of opportunity as getting away with them was just not going to happen. On the other, rehabilitation was almost impossible. [Skills] were needed to work, no matter what the job was. So if someones [Skills] were all geared towardsmitting crimes, that person was functionally unemployable, often forcing them back on the wrong side of thew to earn an ie, which would thennd them right back in jail. What was really nice though was how this new reality affected corruption inw enforcement. Getting away with crap wasnt a part of the standard [Skills] avable tow enforcement [sses], which meant that when someone pulled something, that would be proven so thoroughly that not even the powerful police unions would be able to get them out unless you had a non-standardw enforcement [ss]. But how long would a [Dirty Cop] or [Crime Familys Little Bitch] remain employed? So those were the two hundred people who shared a prison with Arianne Krebs. And of those, seven had been contacted by the mystery organization that was driving Isaac up the wall. Almost four percent of the poption of a prison for serious prisoners were connected, and what was worse, the prisoners themselves werent connected in other ways. Seven distinct people from business, the financial sector, and organized crime, as well as a couple who were just highly capable in their own right without any connections or backing. What was worse, though, was how many of them had been dealt with rather superficially, preparations being made, and deals struck, but nothing overt was happening. No big ns were being made, and Isaac couldnt even make out any coherent ns unless it was something along the lines of make a mess of society. A threat you could seeing was one you could prepare for, but only if you knew what that threat was. But if you didnt, well then, all you had was a timeline for when you needed to finish your bucket list. Preparations, connections made with no clear final goal, true benefits put off into the distant future. Didnt that sound familiar? Isaac facepalmed with carefully measured strength, ensuring he didnt inflict structural damage to the building. The robbers. The bloody robbers! Theyd made a basic deal with these cowardly fucks, then been more tightly tied together by the gift of fantastic tasers and other things besides, all in exchange for repayment in the future, years from now. Ten years. By then, the whole world situation couldpletely change. Governments and corporations needed to have ns that far ahead of time, sure. But here, it seemed like there was a concrete n in ce, and that wasnt normal. And sure, it was possible that there were multiple groups running around, all being at a level of integration with the [System] where they could not only hide themselves from mundane scrutiny but reliably and thoroughly defeat [Skills] meant to track them down. But Isaac doubted it. These people were ghosts, and theyd have to level up a whole hell of a lot to reach that point. For arge-scale organization, that kind of program came with idents galore, and when it came to summoning, idents were rarely quiet. Thered been a lot of incidents like that in the past eight months, and several had involved organized crime. But Isaac hadnt heard anything that would indicate an organization like the one suspected he was tracking had slipped up in that way. Because that was the crux of the matter. It was entirely possible he was reading too much into the information a serial killer had provided, especially given that he hadnt had a chance to verify it yet. The people connected to the robbery at his workce though, they had been thoroughly investigated and deemed ghosts. Therefore, he could say for certain that at least a single organization had managed to gain the degree of information security needed for the things he was seeing. So, keeping that knowledge in mind, it stood to reason that the organization that had contacted the inmates with the same degree of inscrutability and simr requests was, in fact, the same one that had been in contact with the robbers. He just needed to find a way to truly verify it beyond drawing superficial connections and then go after them, hard. The issue was, he couldnt. Going up against [Skills] without [Skills] of a simr kind was hard. Crossing swords with a same Level melee fighter without useable [Skills] was always going to end with you losing, and the same went for trying to track down people hiding behind obfuscation [Skills] with zero investigative [Skills]. Unless Isaac focused on [Analyze Person]. It had imed that it could bring his experience to bear when going up against hostile social [Skills], and being secretive was social in a way, wasnt it? It worked, sort of. Barely. He could see a little more than before, his knowledge of investigation piercing the shields set up, but the change was barely even noticeable. And why would it? Neither Isaac nor Hildebrand had been great investigators, and [Analyze Person] worked off of ones knowledge. Which he didnt have. Isaac wished he could say that he was some kind of universal genius, good at anything he needed to do, but he wasnt. In reality, he had a fairly limited skillset focused around fighting, [Aura] use, cooking, and a few social tricks. Everything else was either fake it till you make it or borrowed from Hildebrand. So this mess was something hed have to somehow hand off to others. When it came to kicking down doors, hed be right there in the front lines, sharing risks with everyone else. Then again, Isaac himself was effectively a ghost to investigation [Skills] himself. [Unknown Fear] was an epicupgrade to [Privacy] and [Fleeting Presence] erased traces of his DNA as well as his fingerprints. [Psychometry] was a thing, but they were blocked by [Privacy] and that wasnt going to be a problem for him. He could just send that list to the team himself and heard you had some trouble with these folks. Someone would have toe out and ask him to his face Dr. Thoma, did you send that list to yourself?. And even that wouldnt work if there was arge enough Level difference between them. Work smarter, not harder, and all that. Hed be doing some investigation on his own, but hed offload most of it as well. And then, it happened. The speech. Cameras were clicking obnoxiously, people were shouting and even the [Judge] seemed utterly stunned, but the situation had yed out exceedingly well. This was a speech that would end up on the news tonight, that would be known to everyone in the country, if not the continent. And it would hopefully spur change because the powers that be had just been humiliated. Called out by a serial killer, an objectively terrible person, that had to sting. Isaac didnt react though, just kept dumbly scrolling on his phone until the bailiff whod led him in here pocked his head in. Uh, Dr. Thoma, something happened in the trial and your testimony will not be necessary anymore. The defendant confessed to everything, The sentence is being deliberated. Would you like to watch the rest of the trial? Isaac nodded Sure. And barely a minuteter, he was stuck in front of the security checkpoint in the lobby of the courthouse, along with several other witnesses. Of course, there were very few witnesses for Krebs crimes, so most of them were cops from Leipzig. Does that happen often? Isaac asked, Someone just confessing in the middle of the trial with no clear reason and throwing deserved shade at the government? I havent heard of something like that, specifically, but Ive seen some crazy stuff. One time, there was this guy whod damaged a couple of rich guy cars while drunk. Hiswyer then read the statement I did it, Im sorry, Ill pay for it. Id like to petition the court to legally ban me from entering bars. The judge obliged, and that was that. Trial over in two hours. A police officer whom Isaac barely recognized said. Nah, I can top that. Habicht dered. He was already on the other side of the checkpoint, but the conversation had clearly sparked his interest. See, there was this witness who was aplete jackass. The judge had already fined him, and that helped a little, but this guy was still acting like a total bastard. So when the witness statement was over and done with, the cross-examination ended, the judge didnt ask him if he wanted to stay behind and watch the rest of the trial. He paused for a moment, so Isaac obliged and asked What does that mean? You know how we were just asked if we wanted to watch the rest of the trial? Basically, thats because trials have to be public in Germany, but witnesses arent allowed to watch until theyve given their statement to avoid bias. Afterward, though, they have to be officially asked if they want to stay, permitting them to watch and therefore keeping the trial public. So do you know what the defensewyer did? He asked for a recess and once it was over, asked for a mistrial as the public had been excluded. Oh shit, Isaac observed. Yep. Habicht chuckled Except there was a small wrinkle in that n. See, the witness hade by train and the station was right outside the courthouse. So some poor bastard of a bailiff had to chase him down and apparently managed to drag the witness back out of the train car by his jacket, then bring him back to the court for the judge to ask the question, and the defense attorney looked like an idiot. But the sheer look of panic on that judges face obey the rules of the court or there will be hell to pay. All is well that ends well, I suppose. Isaac shrugged Lets hope the same goes for this trial too. Lets. *** and Arianne Krebs is hereby sentenced to life in prison, with Sicherheitsverwahrung being strongly advised. And that was that. Life in prison, which tended to trante to around fifteen to twenty years of time served, as well as Sicherheitsverwahrung. This was an extension of a persons sentence that could be added when there was a serious danger of themmitting a crime once they got out. Where a normal prison sentence was meant to rehabilitate the offender, a Sicherheitsverwahrung was meant to protect everyone else. Things had gone about as well as they could have. She was stuck in prison, but her powers werent going to waste and shed already proven useful. The threat she posed was neutralized and shed forever serve as a representation, a tangible example of what coulde from careless handling of the [System]. However, should there be a problem, should she put one toe out of line, hed always be there, ready to stop her in as final a way as was required. Now if only his new adversary was to be as easy to deal with. If they were even real, that was. Chapter 161: A Troublesome Letter Chapter 161: A Troublesome Letter Coming back home was less troublesome than Isaacs travel to Leipzig, simply because their building didnt have any useless arrival room. [Portal] opens, person steps through, done. How was Leipzig? Bailey asked as soon as he saw them. On the surface, it was a waste of a trip because neither of us was needed. Except, reading between the lines, I did figure out a few interesting things. Ill tell you about itter. Isaac said. None of his coworkers had the same level of information defense he did, so telling them about the new developments before the message about what Krebs had told him arrived. Knowing about that ahead of time might result in the police picking up on something and digging deeper. To his credit, Bailey didnt press the issue, instead nodding and heading back to his office after exchanging a few more pleasantries. Isaac, meanwhile, headed right into the nearest summoning room while looking at the requested materials list avable on the teams private text channels in the universitys internal messaging system. The crafters wanted a bunch of stuff, one of the new research assistants had a hypothesis involving a monster too powerful for her to fight and wanted help with that, and there were some projects he wanted to initiate. Three hourster, the list waspletely worked over, the crafters were happy and there were several other researchers that would almost certainly be staying veryte, digging into the information that Isaac had provided. Others, meanwhile, had been inspired by a few of his asking boy, I wonder how that thing worksbined with a few subtle hints and were now practically in a fugue state. Some of these topics were ones where he knew everything and just wanted to ensure that the world figured things out on its own, but others were ones where his knowledge was extremely superficial and hed only been able to help avoid a few false starts. Things wereing together now, just in time for him to run off chasing ghosts. Isaac swore softly. Before going home though, Isaac dropped by Stagmers to put in a few orders. Specialized pieces of armor to counter specific threats, some ideas he wanted to see put into action, and the like. Once hed finished writing the information packet, he doubled back, dropped it into the [System] research facultys mailbox, and made his way home. And with all that out of the way, Isaac headed home and spent an hour in front of the idiot box, watching the evening news, followed by a crime show that managed to have him facepalm at the end as he realized that hed missed a rather obvious clue right at the beginning. Sure, he hadnt been putting in quite as much effort into predicting the plot as he had into finding his mystery organization, but the failure still stung. What followed was a night of grinding XP and Aspects to be usedter. Right now, his priority was gaining the full set of [Skills] he wanted from his current [ss]. Then, when he hit Level 100 for the fourth Evolution, he could check his current avable Evolutions and decide whether to slot them before or after he evolved. Really though, Isaac doubted the Aspects were what would make or break the next Evolution. They were an easy way to get a better [ss], but Isaac had a lot of other things going for him now, ones that would grant him great upgrades independent of his Aspects. For example, [Hildebrands Heir] waspletely independent of them, being instead based on his actions as a teacher. If his actions hadnt been enough to earn him a good [ss], then what the hell had he been doing? So, if all things worked out properly, hed be gaining the Aspects now, at a point when their drop rate was higher due to his lower Level but slotting them at ater point. These Aspects werent ones that he needed right now, but theyd be importantter as he started stacking on more and more, creating powerful synergies that would utterly kick ass in the endgame. As for right now though, slotting them would have been a waste of XP, and using the gained [Skills] a waste of mana. The only real exception had been the Aspect of the Acid Drake, but that one actually served a purpose here and now in that it mitigated his weakness to acid. One brief catnap at 6 amter, and Isaac was up and raring to go, heading to work at a little after seven. Once again, the building had grown more crowded. It was finally finished, with even the topmost floor having all the interior furnishings needed to turn it into a functioning office space. And now that that space was avable, it was being used. Ironically, Bailey and his direct subordinates, Isaac and the rest of the team only used a single floor, the basement, and had done so since the very beginning. The rest of the building was upied by research assistants doing mundane drudge work or testing their own hypotheses, and the support personnel. IT, manufacturing of reagents, all of those things were done in-house if possible. Or at least if there wasnt a verysolid outside provider avable. Sure, there were certain things that the whole world sourced frompanies that had their production down pat, but for most things, thosepanies were yet to even be created. Actually what if that was exactly what he did? Createpanies that could create the base materials for potions, mystic alloys that required specialized equipment to create that most people whod use said alloys didnt usually possess. It hadnt been a viable option before as the world as a whole hadnt known how to make these things, so creating thosepanies would have drawn a lot of eyes. Now though, his knowledge would only help put him ahead of the curve, and his sources would be easy to exin enough based on his job. On one hand, creatingpanies would require much of his highly limited time and to be entirely honest, he didnt need the money, at least not as things stood currently. On the other hand, one could never really have too much money, at least until you had fuck off levels of wealth. And once he did, there were so many things hed be able to do with that cash. Funneling money into the team was only the start, hed also be able to pay for leveling schrships, forck of a better word, ensuring that people with a level head would shoot to the top of the power rankings. Also, enough money would lend an additional degree of weight to his words. He had physical power, influential allies, and the power to make others stronger. But not money, at least, not yet In addition, there was something else that could happen if he was able to properly streamline the production process. Safety not just for the workers, but for the world itself. Many, if not most of the problems the other timeline had faced had been caused by people looking to get stronger, but industrial idents caused by insufficient safety precautions during material procurement had been damaging as well. But if he was a part of that industry, he could help set the safety standards, prove that it was possible to make a profit without ending up with an ident report a mile long at the end of each fiscal year, and with his connections, he might even be able to help determine the official requirements for workers safety. This was a new idea, born of idle musing, but it was one that was worth following through on. However, it would also be one of his most ambitious projects, well, ever, and it would take a hell of a lot of time to see through. In addition, his [ss] was highly unsuitable to administration, leaving him without [System] assistance on that front. The [Advanced Bureaucracy] hed picked up in Korea would help, of course, but hed still have to hire a lot of people to help him. And those people would need to be trustworthy, and that would be the real hurdle. Isaac would be able to draw on the Dungeon Guild, as well as the universitys graduates and possibly police officers whod changed careers for reasons other than misbehavior. But it would still be a pain in the ass to achieve. If, no, when he went to work on starting apany, it would massively eat into his free time, to the point where his time would be evenly split between university and his start-up, with very little left for levelling or leisure. Yet the university didnt really require his input to run smoothly anymore, and hopefully, it wouldnt take too long for his potentialpany to achieve the same degree of independence. But before he did anything here, he needed to weather the storm the message someone would read sooner orter would kick up. Isaac, whats got you so excited? Bailey called from behind him, then suddenly appeared next to him and matched his stride. Sure, people didnt normally run anywhere near this fast in the building and really werent supposed to either, but there were exceptions. And catching up to someone was one which was often ignored. How do you know Im excited? Isaac asked. Youre louder than normal, and you dont have youre not wearing your normal resting poker face. If you were ten years younger, Id be assuming youd gotten into the cookie jar and eaten the whole thing in one sitting. Baileyughed So, which canary did you eat? Isaac activated [Perception Interdiction] and exined his new realization. Basically, Id be able to essentially set industry safety standards, wed be able to fund even more research than we already can, and so on, and so forth. Thats going to be a lot of work, though. And I know how much you hate paperwork. Baiely remarked. Ill still do it, though. If its necessary. Isaac said Hating paperwork is not the same thing as being unable to use bureaucracy. That wasnt a criticism, that was an offer of help. Unless Im banished to sleep on the sofa or in danger of losing what Ive built here at the university, my time, influence and expertise are at your disposal. Thanks. That means a l- Professor Bailey! Look at this! Aaaand there it was. Whats wrong? Bailey snapped, rmed. I just found this in the mail! The young man running down the corridor, waving a mani envelope in the air, wasnt someone Isaac recognized, but that was to be expected, considering how many new people were in the building. Given that youre waving it around like that, Im assuming that isnt a bomb? Or anthrax, for that matter? Isaacmented dryly, startling the kid enough to nearly trip over his own two feet. Bailey gave him a gently rebuking stare as he epted the envelope. Then, his eyes went wide. If this is real Im going to make a copy, then take this straight to the police. The real question is who sent it to us. Checking will be simple enough to check, the list says part of the connection is how the contacts are impossible to track, right? If the cops can look into this and dont encounter information defenses, this is fake. And if they have problems, thats going to be a problem, sure, but well still know something is there. True. Bailey nodded. Ill check the mailbox, see if I can figure something out, Isaac said and turned on his heels, striding back out. Ten minutester, half the lobby was cordoned off and being checked over by crime scene investigators and several detectives were ring at their copies of the letter with an intensity that indicated true hatred. Clearly this letter had given them new leads, given that they were studying it so intently, but they were also obviously not getting anywhere. Of course, now that the professionals were here, Isaac had bene removed from the investigation area and was now outside the building, talking to Habicht on the phone. Can I ask you for a favor? As long as it isnt illegal, sure. But Im very busy, so if it isnt something I can justify as work, it might take a while. Habicht said, and Isaac could hear aputer keyboard being used in the background. Dont worry, this shouldnt take long. Isaac assured him I need a good PI, but discretion is even more important. I can power level them if necessary, but trust is harder to get. Did you know there are people who gain [Skills] that let them swear [System]-enforced oaths? We locked up a bunch of jackassesst week who literally cant talk and its been a pain to deal with them. Yeah, I heard about that. Isaac said Trustworthiness is great, but it being verifiable is even better. Im guessing you have someone in mind? A couple. Ill send you their contact details in a sec. Habicht promised. I dont suppose you could put in a good word with them for me? Isaac asked. Obviously. Oh, and did you already get your job offer from the BAU? Yeah, I got it this morning. And? Habicht asked. Iming in for an interview, but I dont think itll work out, Isaac said. Thought so. Habicht sighed What do I need to tell them to sweeten the pot with? Isaac let out a bark ofughter before responding. There isnt really anything specific I want. I like my current situation, and I like seeing what I do affect the world. Can you offer the same thing? We can try. Habicht said Talk to youter. Then he hung up. Once the cops had retreated from the lobby, unhappy about having found precisely nothing, Isaac gathered the rest of the team in the meeting room, heavily protected from eavesdropping. I have a confession to make. Isaac began, earning himself odd looks from everyone except Bailey, who was giving him a you brought this on yourself, but I get it look. I wrote the letter we got earlier today because I got the information from a source I couldnt reveal to the police. And I didnt tell you guys ahead of time because that knowledge might not have stayed secret with so many cops sniffing around. Isaac decided to not beat around the bush If thered been a safer way, Id have gone that way. Let me guess, the serial killer? Patrick asked The only thing I cant quite figure out when you talked to her. Did you break into jail? That does sound like something Isaac would do, isnt it? Amy suggested. The real question is if everything in that letter is true, Raul said, giving Isaac a disapproving look. I verified as much as I could, and the cops did too. Theres something out there, but the only conspicuous thing about it is its absence. In other words, this is a mess, one none of us possess the knowledge or experience to clean up. So I passed it along to those who do, and with any luck, the situation will resolve itself without any of us needing to lift a finger. But you dont expect things to go that well, Karl stated, not even bothering to phrase it as a question. A man can dream, cant he? Isaac asked rhetorically. The important thing is that weve got a lead to the people behind the robbery. Bailey said No matter how long it takes, we need to deal with this. Is no one going to talk about the fact that Isaac broke into jail to talk to a serial killer? Karl burst out. I didnt break in, she has a dream walking [Skill], Isaac exined. And now were dealing with Freddy Krueger? Amy groaned Why did you let her live again? Because I know the limits of even high Level dreamwalking. Isaac exined Firstly, you cannot take damage in a dream that will be transferred to your real body. The only potential threat is a non-stop onught of nightmares making it impossible for someone to sleep and eventually doing damage that way, but that would be very hard to kill someone with as very few peoples Fortitude is low enough to make sleep deprivation a true danger in a reasonable timeframe. Secondly, the sleeper can always escape up on their own. There are [Skills] that can make it harder, but even those can be ovee. Theyre just like real nightmares, they suck while youre in them, but youll always wake up, eventually. And thirdly, if the sleeper realizes what is going on, they can use their [Aura] to fight back, and the user of dream magic is vulnerable. They can cut the connection very quickly, but quick is not the same as instantaneous, especially if they get caught by surprise. Theres also a range limit, and if this does end up getting abused, well hear about it as a rash of odd nightmares will be noticed and the connection to [System] shenanigans will be obvious. So who will get called about that? Ghostbusters, obviously, Amy replied instantly. Raul and Karl groaned, Patrick just sighed and slumped back into his seat. And what about the fact that youre talking to a serial killer? Karl continued That it doesnt seem right. Or like a good idea. I know, Isaac said. He understood, he really did. Dealing with someone who had done such awful things felt like taking a bath in raw sewage like youd tainted yourself irrevocably like you were dirty in a way that could never be washed away. At least the first time. Eventually, with time, you learned to adopt a more utilitarian approach. But this wasnt something I could just turn down without a concrete reason. We have a lead, for the first time ever. It also wont suddenly make her a threat again. And if it does, I will take care of that. Im not washing my hands of this situation, Im fully aware of what my actions can result in, and Im choosing to do what I do. Sorry, Karl said in a small voice. Isaac shook his head Dont apologize. You were right, there was a danger there. And just assuming that the person youre talking to has thought everything through is how you end up with a mistake happening that could have been prevented with a thirty second conversation. He looked around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone here. I do have some good news. How would you all feel about making a few million euros? *** It had taken several hours, but theyd eventually managed to hammer out a decent business n, as well as determine what materials would be the easiest to mass produce. Now though, Isaac had something else to do. An important meeting that might allow him to get more information on his mystery organization. The restaurant named Salutation stood before him, lights starkly illuminating it amidst the ckness of the night. Isaac could hear that the bar was stuffed to the gills with patrons, but it was a surprisingly calm atmosphere for such a crowd. Also, it was very noticeable how the reception area was out of view of the main seating area. It was something hed spotted during his first time, but it hadnt been as apparent as it was now. Good evening Mr. Holt. The ma?tre de greeted him If youd follow me, please? Isaac was, once again, wearing a tailored suit, though one deliberately not purchased from his usual tailor. The path to the private dining area was likewise familiar, and very noticeably away from the crowd, in such a way that no one not currently entering or leaving the establishment would encounter those heading deeper into the building. Isaac entered the room a momentter, being greeted by the familiar sight of the pair of human goris in suits, standing beside the hidden door in the wall opposite him. Theyd leveled to almost sixty and gained quite a few Aspects, including the standard phase-healingbo that Calise had also had thest time Isaac had seen him. Throw in some that provided shielding [Skills], ones that could buff another persons speed, etc. Overall, they were very powerful by most normal standards, making them able to deal with almost any threat their boss would reasonably encounter. Ah, Mr. Holt, its been a while. Calise greeted as he entered the room, never one to be seen waiting for another person. That it has. I hope business has been treating you well. Isaac replied. So, what do you have for me today? Calise asked before calling over the ma?tre de and ordering a bottle of good wine. Aspects, information, and a request, Isaac responded, gesturing to the suitcase hed set down against the wall. Information. Calise steepled his fingers as he ced his elbows on the table That can mean a lot of things. He looked Isaac straight in the eyes Am I going to be happy about it? Maybe, maybe not. But its definitely going to be useful. Remember that group I asked you to track down? I found more information. Isaac slid a mani folder across the table. It contained a version of what hed sent to the police, but with one fewer person included and the information was slightly different. Calise had contacts inw enforcement and was in a position topare both documents. While it would be obvious that they shared amon source, they wouldnt be quite as closely linked. Unfortunately, its more of the same. A ck hole that no [Skills] can pierce, noticeable only because of what isnt there. Thats unfortunate. Calise sighed I dont know whether I want to hire these people, or drive them out of business. They havent directly picked a fight yet, but indirectly, theyre a pain. The wine had arrived by now and he paused to take a drink before continuing. These jokers actually contacted me through a few intermediaries, all hush-hush, asking if Id like some free money. Free money, hah. They wanted to make connections and n for the future, but they couldnt even tell me what they were all about. No standards, probably. Contacted for connections and barely described ns. Thats a story youll find over and over again in the file. Isaac gestured I dont suppose you remember if they contacted you before or after you asked around about them? After. Calise grumbled Annoying bunch of pricks. What the hell do they want? There is more there, no doubt. Isaac said Theyre clearly working towards something, but in a way, it feels almost clumsy. Like theyre using [Skills] to ster over ack of true experience. Thats it! Calise pped his hands Thats why they act like a bunch of wise guys who picked up what they know from movies. Heughed Damn. Any clown can be something in this world, cant they? If they were actually clowns, I wouldnt be worried about them, Isaac replied coldly. Who said that clowns cant be dangerous? Calise raised an eyebrow. Isaac shrugged Point taken. Now, you said you had something to ask? Im assuming you didnt mean wanting me to look into our mystery friends again. Its rted. Isaac said, In essence, Im looking to hire an investigator, someone who isnt afraid to get his hands dirty but is also excellent at staying under the radar. Not trustworthy? Calise asked. I figured that was a given, Isaac replied with a wry smile. I might know a couple of guys. But why are you looking for someone to do this exclusively? Ive already got plenty of people working on this. Calise said. Someone who can focus on this exclusively might be more helpful. And an investigator for other things would be useful as well. Isaac then mirrored Calises earlier stance, elbows on the table, fingers steepled. Of course, that is something Id be willing to y plenty for. However, there is another option. Id like to hire someone, permanently. A few days ago, I met someone who was able to give an [Oath] that the [System] itself guarantees and enforces, making them utterly trustworthy if their specific [Skill] allows for it. So, in that case, is there someone like that whom you know of? A skilled investigator whom Ill be able to trust absolutely? Isaac then leaned back in his chair and reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a small ss vial before continuing. Of course, given that you would be losing a subordinate permanently, the payment would be vastly more substantial. This here is a vial of Demon Lord''s blood, and I dont think I have to tell you what this is worth. You can have this, and the entire case of Aspects I brought if you can find me someone to fill my needs. Calise froze, looked at the vial for a moment, and licked his lips before finally replying. How hot is that? Not at all. It was never recorded on any lists because they left it to soak into the soil back in Seoul. You might want to wait before selling though, given that there is currently only a single source where this could havee from. But once a few others have gone down, there shouldnt be a problem. Isaac exined. In fact, the blood wasnt from the dirt underneath where the [Raid Boss] had died but rather retrieved from his bloody clothes, which hed stored right after arriving at the hospital and no one had bothered asking about them. This had resulted in him having five such vials, ones that werent on any lists, a ghost to the systems of bureaucracy. It wont be nearly as valuable then, though, Calise observed, so Isaac just pulled the second vial out of his pants. Itll still be extremely rare. You cant summon a [Raid Boss] without everyone nearby learning, so getting it on the sly is nearly impossible. So youd have to steal it. And given that itll be in the possession of people capable of taking out a monster strong enough to trash a city, that might be more than a little difficult. Sure, he was giving away a very dangerous substance, but he trusted Calise because the man was one of the most logical people hed ever met. The mob boss knew what kind of hell messing with this stuff would bring down on his head, no matter what kind of profit he might be able to get. So hed be just as careful with it as Isaac was. So sure, he was making a criminal richer than he already was, but honestly, that was a worthwhile trade in his mind. If he could get a subordinate on the other side of thew, a minion, he could do so much more than he currently was. But hed have to be able to trust that person, which was why an appropriate [Oath] was so important. And if anyone would have gotten one, one of Calises subordinates or acquaintances would have. Now, if Habicht also came through and gave him a proper investigator with a confidentiality [Skill], finding the group would be a cinch. Sure, the cops and organized crime were good at finding people, but the sheer boost he give them by stacking on a million useful and synergistic Aspects was not to be discounted. Besides, as great as it would be if all this resolved itself without needing his input, he couldnt afford to leave this be without doing everything he could to ensure that this ended well. Calise nodded slowly I suppose you make a good point. Ill make some inquiries, but it might take a while. Thank you, Isaac said. I think you might be overestimating how much my guys are worth. By a lot. Calise observed. You cant put a price on true loyalty. Loyalty that you can see is real, written ck on blue in the [System] window. Coupled with the knowledge, skills, and experience youd be losing ess to, I believe its fair. Isaac said. He also briefly consideredmenting on how one shouldnt be too generous to a sucker but decided against it. Calise valued loyalty over short-term profit and would have been extremely insulted by it. Eh, thats your choice to make. Calise shrugged Like I said, Ill look into it, but finding an appropriate person wont be fast. Sooner is better, but not necessary. Isaac said How about we move on to the next topic? I brought some fantastic Aspects with me this time Chapter 162: An Enemy that cannot be Defeated Chapter 162: An Enemy that cannot be Defeated Paperwork. Effing Paperwork. Countless piles of it, multiplying like the proverbial rabbits, a foe that wed at the sanity of those unfortunate enough to face it, until the only thing left to was to surrender, to drown in an endless sea of ck and white pages until finally, the weight alone was enough to crush a humans fragile body to paste. Of course, none of those things described reality, but it sure felt like they did. In this new world of magic and superpowers, how was there not a [Skill] that let him treat paperwork like the danger it was, an enemy he could face de in hand, put to the sword and leave it lying on the ground behind him, never to bother anyone again? Isaac sighed and slumped in his chair, forehead bonking into the table hard enough that a normal one would have gotten a sizeable dent. The only thing saving this one from the scrapyard was the fact that literally every part of the building had been designed to stand up to not just normal wear and tear, but the abuse that came from being used by a bunch of people with superhuman capabilities. He knew that whenever he was contemting murder, it was time to do something else. Like actually killing something. Stagmer wanted some more golem-sourced titanium, and one of those monsters would make a fine target to work out some aggression on. A nce at the clock revealed that it was almost midnight, January 31st. Wow, hed been at this for quite a while, hadnt he? But it had been worth it. Thepany had been created, officially registered, and he was currently in the process of finding people to fill all the required positions. Thanks to enthusiastic help from the rest of the team, he already had a chief engineer in Karl, Patrick and Amy would be taking care of the chemical and alchemical processes that would produce nigh-universal potion bases, Raul would be working with Isaac to work out an optimal hunting/harvesting method. In addition, the university itself proved to be vastly more able to spit out adequate workers for his business than hed expected. Something he hadnt quite ounted for was that the university had ab and office space avable to any students or faculty that had an idea that might be turned into a business and, of course, a bunch of people had decided to try and create a startup based on the [System]. Many of those startups hadnt gotten anywhere, stumbling over issues that theyd run into head-first as these things literally hadnt been discovered before then. Sure, others had failed due to ipetence, but that still left Isaac with a massive pool of ambitious individuals who were d to be working in this field. It certainly hadnt hurt that hed looked through all the ideas for the startups that hed been able to locate, picked out those that would do well, and promised to fund those once hispany took off. Sure, the people whode up with the idea would end up as subsidiaries of Isaacspany rather than their own independent entity, but it was more than theyd have gotten otherwise. And theyd even gotten their first building. Well, they were in the process of buying one, anyway. It was an regr transit warehouse with three separaterge halls, ten meters tall and four hundred square meters each, an elevated foremans office in each hall that allowed for six people to work within and overlook the goings on downstairs, as well as three stories of open floorn offices on the street-facing side of the building, covering the entire front. That gave them one hall for storage, one for safe material processing and one for summoning. On the back lot, where the trucks dropped off their contents, there was enough space to erect a separateb for the more vtile alchemical processes to be conducted. Of course, the whole building was still in use and the owner had only been looking to sell in a year or so, but Isaac had bribed him. Not with money, mind you, but by teaching him [Phantom Armor]. Sure, the man wasnt a fighter, but that wasnt why hed find it useful. Instead, it was the cleaning part of the [Skill] that made it so good. Instant clean suit, no matter what you spilled on it. Assuming it wasnt caustic or damaging in another way, at least. And he could store one of his fancy suits and switch it out with his normal outfit when he went to work, then swap it back the moment he could, not having to endure confining formal wear for a second longer than was necessary. Coupled with the fact that Isaac was paying ten percent over the asking price, it was a no-brainer. The final costs came out to a little more than Isaacs current fortune would allow him to pay, but that was easy enough to fix. He had piles of job offers sitting in inbox, so he picked the ones that paid the most for the least amount of effort without being morally questionable and did them. Teach a rich guys bodyguards to handle their [Aura]? Sure, and he was immediately close to a hundred thousand euros richer. Someone wanted the stuffed head of a Tier 7 monster for his wall? That one was even more expensive. And so on, and so forth, money flowing in like a waterfall, even though he also had to give up basically all his free time. But the sale was currently in the process of being finalized and in a week or so, he should be able to squeak by with ten or so hours ofpany work per day in addition to the eight to ten hours at the university and whatever was required to advance his less public or aboveboard projects. Isaac entered the summoning room, walked over to the wall-safe that contained the summoning materials and retrieved a series of metal bits, tosses them into the summoning circle that had been iid into the concrete (and repaired a thousand times over for obvious reasons), and then activated it. The giant metal monster erupted from the ground, and fell apart in a dozen different chunks, neatly diced. [Absolute de Mastery] let him decide that the massively overcharged [Sweeping Strike] fired from three separate floating des only carving through bits of it instead of reducing it to a pile of titanium shavings. He swept up the loot, then returned to the wall safe when he heard the rest of the team head towards this room. Hm, odd. People workedte a lot, especially when they barely needed to sleep anymore, but everyone showing up all at once was far lessmon. Instead of resetting the summoning circle, Isaac dismissed his weapons and headed over to the door, opening it just as Bailey was about to reach for the handle. The sight that greeted him wasnt what hed expected. Instead of the grim expressions and dark looks hed have expected, given that he thought an emergency had brought them here, they were wearing bright and happy smiles, with bottles of booze in each of their arms. Congrattions! Bailey eximed Youre finally old enough to drink legally! Wait, Isaac had been able to drink since he was sixteen oh, right, Americans and their drinking age of twenty one. But why now Crap. Isaac spat I missed my birthday, didnt I? Yep, worked straight through it. Bailey said with grin So, cakes being delivered from the bakery and weve hidden some more other party supplies around the ce. Shall we? Thanks, Adam. Isaac replied, a genuine smile stretching across his face But I just need to send a quick text, then youll have my full attention. Then he turned and hastily yanked out his phone and messaged his mother. Shed asked him if hed be dropping by today and he hadnt put two and two together,pletely failing to realize that what shed meant was are you visiting us on your birthday. After promising to drop my tomorrow, er, today evening, he joined Bailey in heading upstairs. Er, quick question, whats up with all the booze? Isaac asked I mean, I like alcohol, but its a little noticeable? What do you get the man who has everything? Bailey asked We got you some other stuff too, but I figured booze was good choice for what to show up with. True. Isaac shrugged. He had to admit, this had been well nned. He was aware of literally everything that urred within these four walls but didnt dig as deeply into the goings on as he could have. And he didnt doubt that such a level of scrutiny would have been necessary. In the brief amount of time the text and conversation had taken, arge party table had been erected on the roof. You know, I dont think Ive ever been up here. Isaacmented Its nice. Yeah, we figured a ce to rx this close to our workspace was a good idea, considering how stressful it can be, Bailey said. Maybe. Somehow, for me fighting is the least stressful part of the whole affair. Isaac said As dumb as it sounds, for a moment, everything else stops crowding my mind, I can just focus on me and my opponent. Its stressful in a different way, but somehow still rxing. At least under the [System], you have an endless supply of eptable targets. Bailey observed and Isaac just nodded. But now youre up here with us, no need for distractions, right? Amy announced, draping one arm over Isaacs shoulder Come on, its time for the cake. Happy birthday to you, happy birthday Once the song ended, Isaac blew out the candles, then lopped off the top before the trick candles could reignite. Yeah, we couldnt really expect him to miss that, could we? Amy deadpanned Its cute you tried though, Isaac said, slinging his arm around her shoulders in a mirror of her earlier action. The party continued like that for quite a while, with the alcohol being put to the side rather soon. There were certain fancy boozes that certain people drank specifically for the taste, but in general, getting drunk was a part of why alcohol was consumed. But without that acquired taste and the idea of getting tipsy a pipe dream to poison resistance, drinks just tasted bad. Bailey and Isaac shared a bottle of whiskey, but that was You know shell get you back for that, Raul told Isaacter, jerking his head towards Amy. Oh, Im counting on it. Isaac shed back an evil grin A little prank war sounds like just what the doctor ordered. Youre on. Amys disembodied voice rang out from right behind his ear, the far-speaking spell having been perfectly ced to be out of Rauls field of view. Isaac had noticed it through his [Aura], but his philosophy on pranks was that hed not outright ruin them. Turn them around, sure. But not trash thempletely. They danced the night away bute morning, Isaac returned to the fields ofbat, ughtering paperwork by the folderful, the horde endless but ever so slowly shrinking until the next set of documents arrived in both his inbox and mailbox. This time, his forehead did leave a dent in the table. Karl fixed it with a wave of his hand when he passed by him to get to the minifridge, but it was still not a good sign. *** Happy birthday to you Thankfully his family birthday cake wasnt topped with trick candles. Just a wonderful New York Cheesecake that his sisters were already drooling over. The twins on a sugar high best to be far away by the time that kicked in. After the cake had been devoured, it was time for presents, but just like Christmas, it was painfully obvious that no one was entirely sure what to get him anymore. And the mood dropped like a rock after that. Isaac slunk back home after that, feeling barely better than he had before Bailey and the others had thrown his birthday party. He let himself fall, face first, into his bed and sighed. Hed wait a few weeks and then let it be known that he was too old for presents. Finally, he curled up into on his pillow and fell asleep, taking a five-minute break until he had to go straight back to work. Chapter 164: Hell, literal Hell Chapter 164: Hell, literal Hell Oh, what did I do to deserve this? Isaac sighed, and hed have either put his head in his hands, downed several bottles of Everclear in under a minute, or just banged his forehead into the nearest avable solid surface. Except he couldnt, because he needed to watch, there were children present and there was nothing to m his head against. However, the question remained: what had he done to deserve this? Sure, hed made deals involving illegal materials, with major criminal organizations. Hedmitted several (vignte) killings. There was a whole hospital full of cultists hed maimed. A certain serial killer had a powerful ability he really should have warned people about but hadnt. And if someone had ever thought to writews about it, using time travel to cheat at work and on the stock market would definitely have constituted some kind of fraud. All of those things were terrible unless given the right context, yet even discounting said context, even all those thingsbined shouldnt have earned him this terrible punishment. AND WHY THE HELL DID YOU GIVE MY SON A YELLOW CARD! the frumpy, beer-bellied father yelled while jabbing his finger in Isaacs face. Thats right, he was currently ying referee at a childrens ser game and seriously regretting it. Hed let himself get talked into it as an apology for not visiting or even talking to his family on the phone and figured that watching over a few kids while they yed with Tanja wasnt going to go too badly. Hed fought demons, serial killers and murderous cults, just how much trouble could children be? As it turned out, quite a bit, especially when theyd been raised by people like the grease-stain in front of him. It hadnt taken long to figure out just why thered been trouble finding someone willing to referee. Your son kicked my sister in the shin. In full view of me, you, and literally everyone else. Isaac said with the best Youre an idiot voice he could muster. Bah, the little bitch might as well be made of stone, she didnt even Isaac closer so quickly he might as well have teleported for all this bastard would have seen, leaving their faces barely five centimeters apart, then continued talking at a far higher volume in his best customer service voice. See, this is about the principle of the thing. For one, there are children present, kindly moderate yournguage, sir. In addition, it does not matter how badly or even if the person who got fouled was hurt, but that a foul wasmitted. Just because my sister did not get hurt does not mean the next person wont be. Or are you under the impression that kicking other people is ept- You sancti- the man just him off, finger poking into Isaacs chest. It wasnt the first time hed pointed at Isaac, but it was the first time physical contact had been made. Big mistake. Isaacs right arm flew into the sky and his hand fell back down with all the inexorability of a meteor streaking through the sky until itnded heavily on the jackass shoulder. Then, he slowly but inexorably extended his arm, forcing lord entitlement to take a few steps back or risk getting pushed over. Thats assault! beer-belly squealed. Technically, any unwanted physical contact can be considered assault. However, you are the one who poked me first, sir. Isaac continued, customer service voice all the way You are, of course, free to escte this as much as you want, but please keep in mind that at some point, this will transition from technically assault to actual assault and garner an appropriate response. Isaac continued to walk forwards, slowly but inexorably, still keeping a death grip on his foes shoulder. So how about you get off this field and then the kids can keep ying, mkay buddy? When beer gut was finally outside the field, Isaac spoke up once again, not bothering to release the iron vise that was his hand and keeping eye contact with this guy. Of course, his victim had long since started looking away, but Isaac just continued to stare right at where the other mans eyes used to be, utterly uncaring of the clear difort being disyed. From now on, therell be a new rule introduced: Any child whose parent enters the pitch will immediately receive a yellow card. Any child whose parent starts yelling insults at either the referee or one of the yers will receive a yellow card. And any parent who does both will earn their a red card for both their offspring and themselves. This is the childrens game, there is a pitch for any adults who want to y right over there. With that, Isaac finally let go, turned, and started the game up again. Things went well from then on for about five minutes. Then the next parent got up and charged right up to the pitch, at which point Isaac teleported in front of her, still facing the pitch, far enough away that she could stop in time and not run into him. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it, he did startle her enough to spill her slushy down her front. And to finish out the response, he very slowly reached up and stuck his fingers in his ears. She slunk back with her metaphorical tail between her legs, not having said anything or stepped onto the pitch. The next challenger received the same treatment but took the time to swear at Isaac before returning to the bleachers, which earned his kid a yellow card. It only took one more person, and then the message finally was received. Blessed peace. Once the game was over, Isaac swept up Tanja and ced her on his shoulders, then slowly flew towards the nearest kebab store. Im proud of you, you know. He said. We lost. Tanja said, barely managing to avoid sounding pouty. Yes, you lost. Because you yed fair. You didnt use your powers, which none of them had the chance to earn yet. This was supposed to be fun for everyone, not apetition. And you made that happen. So heck yes, Im proud of you. And now were getting a couple of kebabs for us, and some cake to share with oour sister when we get home. Can we get donuts instead? she asked. Of course. Isaac told her But only if you can wait to eat them until were home. I can. She protested. Isaac justughed. Chapter 165: A Less Unpleasant Job Interview Chapter 165: A Less Unpleasant Job Interview 2023s Berlin was a surprisingly filthy city, especiallypared to the other German cities Isaac had seen. This wasnt his first time here, but in the other timeline, hed only gotten here muchter, at a point where the [System] was fully integrated into society. At that point, the streets were being cleaned by people using magic and [Skills], and as such, any city that put even the slightest amount of effort into staying clean, well, stayed clean. Peoples ability to remove rubbish had increased by several orders of magnitude without the amount of rubbish in need of removal experiencing a simr increase. But he wasnt here to sightsee orin about the city, he was here to talk to a man about a job. It had taken a good long while to get here, to this point, but the trial was over and now, he was being officially offered a job by Germanys supernaturalw enforcement agency, the BAU. He probably wouldnt take it, but showing up would allow him to make quite a few points to the right people. Isaac had actually walked here, striding through empty fields in the early March sun. Hed finally unlocked [Continent Strider] and was now going everywhere on foot to level it as quickly as possible. Only movingparatively short distances in Germany wasnt doing very much, but when he had time, hed pop by Seoul for a weekend. That should give it the much-needed shot in the arm. Continent Strider (legendary) In olden times, it could take months or years to go from city to city, from country to country. Modern technology has shrunken the world somewhat, but it still takes quite a while to move significant distances. This Skill not only removes the need for modern technology to travel vast distances in a reasonable timeframe but further boosts the travel speed while moving on foot. Your movement speed on foot or horseback will increase exponentially with this Skill active. Continent Strider cannot be activated inbat or while fleeingbat, it is purely a utility Skill. This Skill can be applied to all party members so long as said party members are within 100 meters of the user and the user is the party leader. Cost: 500 mana per hour, plus 100 per party member It was a mana hog and the fact that it wasnt useable inbat sucked, but the benefits could not be denied. His journey to Berlin had taken barely thirty minutes, half the time it would have otherwise. That reduction in travel time increased exponentially, so the roughly day and a half walk to Seoul should be reduced not to sixteen hours, but something even lower. Coupled with the fact that the power could be extended to his party members, so entire military formations could be moved great distances in very little time. Hopefully, the power to use this [Skill] inbat would appear when it hit one of its milestones, but Isaac doubted it. If his guess was correct, the [Skill] erected a subtle field of manipted space and time that reduced travel time around the user, at a staggeringly low price no less, but this would make it extremely fragile. As such, any kind of hostile magic, [Aura] or just mana being projected outwards with hostile intent would tear it to pieces. More likely was that it would evolve a portal-style ability that allowed him to bypass the walking part of walking to your destination. Either way, the [Skill] was already very good, though it had only reached Level 2 so far. Isaac continued through the streets of Berlin, entering the area that held the governmental buildings, nearly all of which were still in the process of being upgraded and reinforced. With every new discovery, new security ws were discovered and needed to be patched, which, in turn, meant the state had to bleed even more money, right in the middle of a major recession. The [System] might have brought countless opportunities and those were currently being explored and soon, the economy would enter a historic upswing, but right now, faith in old certainties had been too badly shaken for things to continue as they had. And as such, investments had stopped, funds had dried up as certain industries had be nearly obsolete overnight, and so on. In any other situation, this would have been a much bigger deal, but right now, everyone had other issues to focus on. As things stabilized and the economy started fully taking advantage of the [System], well, things would go pretty well at least if the world didnt end. In the other timeline, that was what had ended the economic boom, after all. But economic numbers hadnt told the whole story back then. As individuals became more capable, fewer were needed to do a given job, which had vastly shrunk the avable number of jobs. End result? Mass joblessness that could and would have ended very badly if it hadnt for the fact that the government had started supporting those who the [System] had put out of work. Not with universal basic ie and social reform, that could have actually fixed the situation instead of merely tiding the recipient over, but food, housing and other necessities that had be so much easier to provide under the [System]. Among all the constantly renovated buildings though, new construction was also taking ce. High security high-rises built from the ground and the like, several of which would soon belong to the BAU, but also a couple of smaller halls that could not be mistaken for anything other than training centers. They were also the furthest along as they were something that was far harder to substitute old construction for. After all, unless it was used by people with an unhealthy door-mming habit, it didnt matter whether an old office building was used by people with a Strength Stat of ten or one hundred. The same could not be said of buildings meant for training, anything pre-[System] would have ended up in pieces after a couple of hours of use. His current destination was one of the intact buildings. It was tall but also wide enough to give it a somewhat squat look despite its height. The outside was mostly concrete with only a bare handful of windows, creating a depressing monument of Soviet Brutalism architecture. But as dark as the exterior rooms undoubtedly were, Isaac knew there had to be countless more inside, windowless cubes that crushed the souls of those who worked in them. It was very much a terrible look for a government agency, let alone aw enforcement one, very 1984, but there had been practical reasons this one had been picked. Its design meant that it had a very high useable volume while having aparatively small amount of external surface that needed to be enchanted, guarded and enhanced with [Skills]. It also sat right next to what used to be arge open space, which was now being transformed into a training center for not just the elite of GSG-13, but also the regr street-level personnel the BAU would need. All in all, this was a utilitarian building down to its very foundations and being used as such, it was just that when there was an inevitable scandal, be it deserved or not, this look would not help matters. Heading inside through the main entrance, Isaac was immediately stopped by a security check. The guard manning the station was looking very ufortable as Isaac summoned Old Reliable in its Kabar form and, with deliberate slowness, ced it in a basket very reminiscent of those that were always next the metal detectors at an airport. Neither the weapon or its wielder could be seen as anything other than infinite darkness which revealed absolutely nothing and to a person who was meant to be guarding the building, that had to be terrifying. However, Isaac had been expected and any good [Security Guard] would be able to detect disguise [Skills]. This detection was by no means perfect and hardly guaranteed to pierce said disguises, but it was enough of a reassurance to not prompt further inquiry. The soulbound weapon stayed in the basket, though. There were sensors inside that would raise an rm if it was summoned to its wielder, ensuring that there was some kind of warning if an intruder armed themselves. Said warning might only arrive less than a second before the intruder did whatever they were here to do, but it was a warning nheless. And after the initial strike, everyone else would be warned. Actually, I have more weapons, youre going to need more baskets. Isaac pointed out as the security guard was about to let him in and proceeded to pile a literal mountain of des onto the front desk, every single weapon ever absorbed by Old Reliable, five times over as the number of summonable copies had increased when hed upgraded his de Aspect. The guard stared at him, bug eyed, but declined toment as he packed up the implements of death and destruction. Please wait here, someone will arrive to take you to your meeting shortly. As it turned out, the secretary of the guy he was here to see had already been waiting nearby, and showed up less than thirty seconds after Isaac was done with the security check. It was nice to not have to deal with the whole Ill make you wait a bit to make it seem like I wasnt waiting for you schtick, for once. Dr. Thoma, if you will follow me please? the young man said, Isaac nodded and walked after him. His guide was young, maybe seven years older than Isaac on the outside, and did not at all look like a secretary. A very small pistol was tucked into the back of his suit jacket, not visible from the outside. It wouldnt have a lot of power, but its wielder had the [Skills] to make up for it. Sure, the gun likely wouldnt be intact by the time the first magazine had been emptied, being barely more durable than a pre-[System] version and therefore not capable of withstanding the force the [Skills] of a third Evolution human would impart. But merely being armed wasnt that unusual, not for the secretary of a high ranking member ofw enforcement, especially one who was likewise a member ofw enforcement. The weird part was the second pistol in the ankle holster, two knives, ones Isaac could tell had been made by Stagmer, up his sleeves, the potion bottles in the lining of his suit and the fact that said suit had been sown for the same level of protection that Isaacs did. All of that wasnt even getting into what Isaac could read with [Hunters Gaze]. There were the usual information gathering, retention and use [Skills], self- and boss protection [Skills], analysis [Skills], but far more abilities forbat than Isaac had expected to see. And mind you, those were just the [Skills] he could read as theyd been used recently, not the whole list. The secretarys [ss] was, well, a variation of [Secretary] or [Assistant], but with quite a few other abilities thrown in as well. A hatchetman. Someone who could do things on the down-low, out of the public eye, unofficially. And he was at an absurdly high Level, somewhere north of 60. If Vice Director Lauterbach, the person Isaac was here to meet had put anything close to the same degree of effort into self-improvement, then this agency was in good hands. In fact, Lauterbach was in charge of the whole ce because people were still fighting about who was going to be in charge. A lot. So the person who was currently the highest ranking member of the BAU had ended up being the temporary boss. The way Isaac had heard it, there was no way in hell Lauterbach would end up permanently in charge because he was too young, so he was a safe choice. After all, if there was no chance of promotion in the near future, there was nothing encouraging him to do something stupid to impress his bosses. Just preventing the whole affair from imploding was enough. Lauterbachs office, meanwhile, was as far from the entrance as was physically possible, and the elevator situation wasnt too good either. If the ground hadnt been marked to create runningnes where people could move at their full, [System]-granted speed without fear of running anyone over, people would have had to spend half their working days just getting from ce to ce. The coffee machine had also been made [System] grade and able to affect even the people using it by someones [Skill], and someone had gone through and ensured that all doors could stand up to at least some level of mming. The agency meant to deal with the [Systems] crazy was adapting to it. That was a great sign, wasnt it? The pair of them reached the only even remotely spacious area since the reception hall, the secretary made his way behind a stupidly armored and enchanted desk, then gestured towards the wooden door next to him. It was a nice door, made from [Druid]-grown hardwood, strengthened to the point where Isaac would be hard-pressed to break it in a single strike without resorting to [I Am The Sword], [Legendary Blow] or [True Cut]. An additional enchantment would dissipate magical attacks while a third ensured that the person within could tell who was outside while also preventing those outside from looking in. Whoever had made that was a world-ss enchanter, literally one of the best craftspeople in the world without exaggeration and hyperbole. They were taking this very seriously. Good. The door opened on its own, without input from Isaac or the secretary, making it clear that the person in the office had been the cause. Come in, Dr. Thoma. A voice called from within and Isaac followed suit. Kasper Lauterbach was in his mid-thirties, yet already losing his hair with his hairline receding at the temples in a style that was apparently called Geheimratsecken, which roughly tranted to secret council corners, a decidedly ridiculous name. He was almost Level 70, a ridiculous height for a desk jockey to have reached. [ss]-wise, he was a rtively normal bureaucrat, evidently, the secretary was going to do most of the fighting, but hed almost certainly been training with the troops to get to this point. Throw in a few elemental Aspects to take advantage of his prodigious mana capacity and hed be a solid A-Ranker despite not being at all sped inbat. Take a seat, please. Isaac sat down in arge and exceedinglyfortable chair with, feeling it adjust under his back. It really was a very nice ce to sit down, much nicer than the basic metal seat over in the nearby closet. That one was probably for when someone came in here because they were in trouble. Thank you foring, Dr. Thoma. Lauterbach said, flipping open a folder and sliding it across the table This is what were offering, including pay and benefits, should you decide toe work for us. Its a lot. Isaac observed, But I cant help but notice that it doesnt say what youd be hiring me for. Thats on purpose. We want you to work for us, to be able to call on your expertise, whether that means having you as a researcher, trainer, or just another boot on the ground. We know what youre worth, and what were willing to do to get you. Thank you. Isaac nodded All cards on the table, I can appreciate that, so Im going to do the same. This, our cooperation, is like an arranged marriage, were going to end up together, the only thing in question is the precise terms. Thats an interesting way to put it. Lauterbachmented. Fitting, though. Isaac responded But heres the thing: I n on going where I can do the most good, for the greatest number of people. And right now, thats with Professor Bailey and his team. The world is in a perilous ce, and Im afraid that if we dont do everything in our power to prevent it, the world will be a far worse ce. He leaned forward in his chair, one elbow on his knee and chin resting on his palm, then winked But Im just being selfish, after all, I have to live here too. That joke had had to be made, simply because otherwise, Isaac might easily seem fake. Perfect paragon heroes could exist, they probably did, but that didnt change how people saw things that were too good to be true. I want to save the I live on was a perfectly understandable raison d''tre. I want to be a hero and do the rightest thing possible would have people go whats your game here. By turning the whole affair into a joke, especially a self-deprecating one, hed removed much of that uncertainty. Sure, he now also seemed like a bit of a pessimist, but that wasnt nearly as bad as potentially being seen as a huckster. Ah yes, protecting everyone you love and cherish. Horrifically selfish, you terrible, terrible person. Lauterbach added. Isaacughed Yeah. Like I said, while the world is still in flux, Id like to make sure it turns out better than before, not worse. If that requires me to join the BAU, Ill do so in a heartbeat. And now its up to me to prove that. What specifically are you worried about? Lauterbach asked Agency focus, funding, policy, or time invested here? Incidentally, Id like to mention that it is possible to work for the police part-time. My biggest worry is leadership. Isaac said Youre a perfect candidate. Experienced in working forw enforcement, flexible enough to use the [System] to the fullest extent possible, and you know how to y politics. The person who ends up in charge of this agency needs to be the same. Im worried about being stuck under a career politician, I believe we can both think of a few people who ended up in charge of things they dont understand. Are you worried about not being able to do your own thing, being bogged down by the orders of a superior, then? Lauterbach asked. I follow rules and procedures if possible. And if theres a question about it, I ask if at all possible. When that incident with the serial killer happened, I didnt have the time to ask. You came here by way of the military, didnt you? If I recall correctly, Germany trains its soldiers to be able to think and act without needing input from the higher-ups in case of emergency? Yes, if this ce gets saddled with a fool or a person whos terrified of the [System], Ill be badly hampered precisely because I follow the rules. Isaac said, But when snap judgments are required, I make those judgments and live with the consequences, though one would hope that doesnt have to happen too often. Youre used to basically having a nk check from the university, Lauterbach said. It wasnt a question. Isnt that basically what you offered me earlier? Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow. Yes, of course, its just that, well, we have more rules here than at a how did we end up talking about this again? Lauterbach sighed and shook his head So, its important to you that you dont end with a jerk for a boss. Isnt it too all of us? What else do you need? An office? Ab? A training center? Time to research at the university, time to run mypany, unless you can offer me the ability to do all those things here, Isaac said. Like I said, part-time work is possible. Youd need a lot of formal training, but we can arrange it so that it urs on your schedule, in between your other responsibilities. Lauterbach said. And thats much appreciated, but theres a different problem. Isaac replied My [ss]. The [System] is bing an ever more important part of peoples lives, and that includesw enforcement. I dont have any of the restraining [Skills] that your people do, nor do I have the ones meant for uncovering the truth or locking down hostile preternatural abilities. Its a new paradigm that, well, doesnt quite work with career changers. It would take a hell of a lot for me to switch over my [ss], whenever the next Evolution will be, so I probably wont and therefore wont be nearly as good at aw enforcement job as I could be. As such, a new strategy might be required. Ive already got a consulting contract with the BAU, that could be expanded upon. Even without one, so long as I can help without getting arrested, I will. Why would you get arrested? Lauterbach asked. I dont exactly know what degree of help constitutes vigntism or interfering with aw enforcement action. Im a careful person, if I can cover my ass before jumping headlong into danger, I will. I see. Lauterbach nodded slowly Thatll require some conversations withwyers, some discussions with my bosses in the government, but I think I might be able to find something suitable. Thank you. Isaac said, And another thing: I need to be able to quit, to have the option of resigning in lieu of doing something thats against my morals ormon sense. You really think itlle to that? Lauterbachs question was met with a nk stare, so he cautiously continued I believe you might have been told about this in school, but being able to refuse orders over morals is an important part of both our military and police forces. Sure, the Nrnberg trials decided that I was just following orders wasnt an excuse, but now that excuse is even less worthwhile. That wont be a problem. Thank you. Isaac said All we have to do now is talk hours, sry, and [Skill] training. My offer is five training slots per week as my [Skill] defines it, each slot can give either an epic [Skill] to one person or a rare one to five, as per how you decide to use those. As for my swordsmanship, if thats what you want me to do while you got me, thats your choice. The big issue for me is that right now, Im very busy with mypany, and in a week, were summoning the first [Field Bosses] and testing the area meant to be used for [Raid Bosses]ter. In addition to my continuous responsibilities at both the university and mypany, there are a lot of things that just e up that are also a draw on my time. This will need to be a very carefully worded contract, and one that has a great deal of flexibility. That that can be arranged, of course. Excellent. Isaac grinned Also, I just so happen to have cleared my whole day for this and fifteen open training slots that Id be happy to donate to the BAU. So if we can finish this in a timely manner, Id be happy to get started on training, both giving and receiving. The contract wont be ready by then, Lauterbach warned. I know. Isaac said But heres the thing, Im perfectly willing to ept a verbal agreement right now and put in some hours. I know you, I looked into you, I met you. You, I trust. But my contract will need to work not just when Im dealing directly with the boss, but also when Im caught in the wheels of bureaucracy or when the boss is someone other than you. Im ttered, but Lauterbach didnt seem quite willing to put into words that he thought Isaac was being a hair na?ve right now. Mr. Lauterbach, I might only be twenty-one, barely old enough to drink in some countries, but as a colleague of mine once told me, I have an old soul. I have literal decades of experience dealing with and reading people thanks to my [ss]. In a very real sense, Im actually older than you. Isaac said, then nearly burst outughing at the perplexed expression on Lauterbachs face. Nearly. In the end, Isaac left the meeting with ludicrously flexible hours, the ability to make up any of the ten hours he was required to put in each month up to three monthste if necessary, and with a good quarter of the necessary sses to joinw enforcement in a more active role already done. At least how it was designed right now. Right now, Lauterbach was working on punching through a change in regtions that would allow for the easy hiring of outside personnel inbat positions and as such, the list of needed sses wasnt actually set yet, but hed still had a pretty good idea of what was necessary. Skill with firearms, or the [System] equivalent, was already something Isaac had. Hed also have a very different way of investigation, which would render most of the sses rted to that unnecessary. The really important parts were ethics, restraint in the face of danger andbat, and how to arrest someone in such a way that wouldnt see them walk on a technicality a few minutester. Throw in the sheer volume of information a [Trainer] could impart, and learning was a very quick process. Chapter 166: Bossy Problems Chapter 166: Bossy Problems It was finally done. A sword. The sword. A full eight meters long, twenty centimeters across at its widest point,pletelycking anything resembling a handle or grip. Just a massive de forged from the densest metal avable for another fifty Levels or so, with an edge so fine that referring to it as razor sharp was an insult. There was just one small problem with it How exactly are you going to wield that? Stagmer asked, sounding extremely confused I mean, it was fun to make, but it doesnt seem like it would be useful in a fight. Im not, damn thing weighs more than I do. Isaac said as he manifested Balmung and touched the tip of his sword to the gigantic weapon lying before him, which shimmered briefly and disappeared If I try to sling that around, Ill end up on my ass before I can blink. Its also too heavy for [de Control] to be used for long periods. But Ive got two good friends backing me up, gravity and momentum. Wait how oh. Drop a giant sword out of the sky, use your telekinesis to slightly adjust the trajectory if necessary, and watch the other guy turn into a giant shish-kebab. Interesting. The smith surmised, thoughtfully rubbing at his chin Do you have any other tricks like that youd be willing to share? Designs to exploit the unique opportunities granted by enchanted weapons? Maybe. Isaac said But each of these weapons has its own special little quirk, and that will require a different approach every time. Old Reliable can transform between forms very quickly, so a weapon like the giant sword can be summoned above someones head at a moments notice. Other people bind a single de and can summon additional des that mirror the movements of the original at a distance, but that would still require the de to be wieldable. That sword I asked you to make isnt. Fair enough. Stagmer said. Ill be sure to tell you how well it works. Were going to be fighting a big monster in a few hours. Isaac said Oh, and someone came up with an interesting new alloy that you might be interested in. He pulled a few bars out of the metal out of his storage space. Thank you. Stagmer said, practically salivating over his new toy. By the time Isaac bade him goodbye, the smith was utterly unaware of what was going on around him, a massive grin on his face. As Isaac left, a simr expression graced his own face. It was nice to be able to bring some joy to people once in a while, rather that constantly being a harbinger of doom or the prophet warning people of the end of the world. He entered one of the teams summoning rooms and stepped straight through the portal there after grabbing a couple of crates. There was too much here for their storage spaces and burning cores just to avoid having to carry a few crates maybe fifty meters was a waste, so they hadnt done that. On the other side the of the portal, the smell of salt water, fish, and fresh concrete hit him like a solid wall and he pushed his sense of smell down as far as it would go, regr human levels. Blech, this ce stank. But it was new, hopefully, it would change in time as it grew and aged. The artificial ind had been given the name Etzel, after the fictional version of Att the Hun present in the Song of the Nibelungs. Hed trapped the warriors of Burgundy in his hall and attempted to murder them to avenge Siegfried. And that was basically what theyd be doing here. Summon beings from strange ces, then brutally end their lives. It was meant to be used for summoning [Raid Bosses]ter on, but right now, it was being stress tested with [Field Bosses]. This ce was meant to contain thend-based monsters as massive boss monsters would have real trouble swimming. An aquatic equivalent was also being built in the middle of Germany, meant to be used for monsters whose primary method of lotion was swimming. Theyd be stuck there and that should have been the end of it, but there was a small problem. Those monsters could easily have had some kind of toxic substances that would seep into the surrounding soil and poison the ecosystem. Sure, hidden toxins as a trap werent a thing, but a venomous sea serpent very much was. so theyd had to waterproof every inch of the titanic artificialke to an absurd degree, and they were still doing so. This would actually be the first [Field Bosses] summoned to be fought, the only other ones to ever grace the face of the Earth had been left alone long enough for the United States Army to get a good look, then been blown to smithereens when the ten kiloton nuclear warhead under the summoning circle had detonated. As far as [Raid Bosses] went, not a single additional one had been summoned. The governments of the worlding together and saying Do this and well nuke you had a way of ensuring that people didnt do anything stupid. The entire ind was still bustling with activity as the final touches were being added, but soon enough, only a handful of people would remain, the fighters, with navy frigates nearby to provide fire support in case things went sideways. Hey Isaac, can youe here for a second? Amy asked, waving at him from another portal. Sure. He said and joined her, gazing out across what looked a lot like a fjord Whats going on? Were hunting King Crabs. Raul squared both the travel and fishing license with the local authorities and this ind just so happens to be close enough to reach here with only one portal. So while things are getting squared away on Etzel, were getting as many crabs as we can get before the time on the portal runs out for lunch. Er, whats the maximum? Isaac asked For me, as many as I can get would be every single one in the bay. I don think the locals would be too happy with us if I did that. And thats the best part. Amy beamed Theyre invasive, so feel free to cut loose. Even as they talked, another dozen or so crabs rocketed out of the surf, were wrapped in ropes and joined the growing pile next to her. Meanwhile, in the distance, Isaac could see Raul erupt from the ocean like a porpoise with his pet dragon beside him, both of them clutching several of the offending crustaceans. Is there anything I have to watch out for? Some organ Im not supposed to puncture because it will ruin the taste? If I remember that right, youre not supposed to kill shellfish because they start rotting very quickly. Also The rest of his questions was cut off by Amy bursting outughing. Really? Really. She responded with a grin Youre always so confident, know everything, and now, you ask a million She just burst outughing once more. Yeah, yeah, Im an ignoramus on this topic, so Im looking to correct that. Isaac sighed So, anything I need to watch out for? We only need the legs, and were using them very quickly, so hack away. She said, smugly grinning. Isaac couldnt even me her for that. One de appeared, hovering above his right hand. One turned into two, two turned into three, until a full twenty des were hovering there, every weapon at his disposal except the new giant sword. Finally, they shot into the water and tore clean through the crabs, [Absolute de Control] ensuring that once the crabs were fully impaled, their shells stopped being cut, leaving the soon-to-be-lunch properly stuck on the des. The Kabars came flying back out with only a single impaled King Crab on their ends, but the other weapons took longer. The Zweih?nders took the longest to return, yet when they did, there were a dozen impaled crustaceans on them, each. And every sword went right back out, constantly returning with ever more weapons. In the end, it turned out that Isaacs suggestion that he might be able to clear out the bay turned out to not be nearly as arrogant as it had seemed. When they returned to Etzel a few minutester, mere seconds before the portal would have snapped shut on its own, they had a massive pile of crabs several times the size of a main battle tank. Enough that it would have spoiled before they could have been eaten if Amy hadnt draped a food preservation spell over the lot of them. That would be awesome,ter on. And until then, itd just serve as something for them to drool over. But even with that little distraction done, it still took almost an hour for things to truly get finished. Not on their side, Bailey and Isaac had prepped everything in advance and even with Isaac beingte, it had all been done very quickly. In fact, by the time Isaac had shown up, thered been nothing left for him to do but go crab hunting. The military, meanwhile were still working on putting the finishing touches to their part of the affair and kicking off the reporters. Given that everyone knew these things they would soon be dealing with was almost certainly not as strong as a [Raid Boss], this was likely going to go well. But that was based on the [System] guidebook stating that [Field Bosses] was weaker, not information theyd gathered themselves. And as such, even though part of the point of doing this was a PR windfall, any reporter left on the ind had had to sign a liability waiver longer than most novels. That should have been the end of it, but now many were suddenly deciding that they need to stay without signing or wanted to sign well after the final offer had been rescinded. Ugh. But eventually, thest reporter had been sent off to one of the nearby vessels so they could still view the action, if only through binocrs. From that point on, things went smoothly and easily, almost as if someone had actually put some thought into how this was meant to go. An area in the center of the ind had a small, one centimeter deep pit for mud, silt and sand to be added into, so they could draw the circles within. It was easy to work with, easy to reset by smoothing it over, etc. Sure, the same thing could have been achieved by cutting rock with a de, but the ground had been ludicrously reinforced so the ind could survive for longer than a couple of fights, so that was out of the question. With the circle drawn into the dirt and the materials piled on, five people stepped up and charged it, then retreated back as rapidly as they could. Sure, the circle wasnt going to blow up in their faces, but that didnt mean that standing over a charged boss-summoning circle was a good feeling. Three groups of people surrounded the glowing runic formation, ready to jump on the monster the moment it appeared. The first was a division of GSG-13, officers with incredibly durable riot shields in the front, others with rifles and melee weapons sheltered behind them. The second one was from the Bundeswehr, a standard fireteam spread out and ready to riddle the monster with bullets, only a single person was set up for defense with another riot shield. It was strong enough to deflect plenty of attacks, but its wielder didnt really seemfortable with the tool as it wasnt very familiar with it, not being amonly used piece of equipment in the Bundeswehr. And the third group was Baileys team. Isaac stood in the front, ready to block a monsters charge, Rauls dragon holding position in the air above him. Patrick and Amy stood behind him and off to the side, giving them an open field of fire, with Bailey in the back for healing. Meanwhile, Raul and Karl were even further away, well clear of where the monster might be. Their job was area control, notbat, which they could do from afar. Also, having fewer people directly behind him meant there was less space that he needed to guard. Ready? Isaac asked, getting affirmative answers from everyone. Alright, summoning now. He announced. The circle zed even brighter, a column of light shooting into the sky. The Lesser Lindwyrm followed suit a momentter, erupting from the circle like a shark breaching the surface of the ocean. Thick serpentine coils, fifteen meters long and almost two meters thick jutted upwards like a tree, supporting the draconic head at its end for a brief moment before it toppled over, letting itself fall while fully outstretched, hammering into the ground with enough force to make footing precarious. All the while as it fell, its venomous green eyes were locked onto the GSG-13 group as its breath howled out of its gullet, blowing over the pair ofrge vampire-like fangs and picking up the liquid collecting there. The ray of acidic mist sshed off the shield wall, [Skills] even ensuring it didnt slip through the gaps, but the shields themselves were already melting. No matter what [Skills] were behind them, if mass-produced things werent soulbound, they werent up to snuff against [Field Boss]. To make things worse, the mist wasnt just acidic, it was also toxic. It would melt flesh upon contact, leak into the bloodstream, and then slowly destroy internal organs not just through sheer corrosiveness, but by actively preventing vital functions from working by disabling entire enzymes with a single molecule each. Magic based venoms were scary. However, even as the monster lunged forward, clearly intending to crush the shield formation with its bulk, a barrage of attacks hammered into it. Lage caliber bullets smashed its eyeball on one side, an incandescent ray of light from Amy obliterated the other one. Empowered shots from the front punched small holes into the armored scales, drawing small puffs of bloody mist, but those were barely doing anything. What was having an effect where the skillfully fired shots that ended with the bullets rattling around the monsters nostrils. As the Lindwyrm inhaled for another st of acid, it lookedically puzzled for a moment, then sneezed loudly, head jerking from side to side in a vain attempt to remove the irritants. A massive block of ice blocked where it was swinging its head, courtesy of Raul, which Karl reshaped a momentter. When the crest of spines and spikes at the base of the monsters head struck the blockade, it got stuck at a rather unfortunate angle, leaving its throat exposed for GSG-13 to fire at. Sure, that thing was a [Field Boss] and still rtively mobile despite having been blinded and all the other injuries inflictedter, but itcked the unholy durability of a [Raid Boss]. It was hampered enough to be less mobile than it would have been while healthy, and stuck. Time to finish this! Through the party menu, Isaac dered his next actions, showing where hed be in a second while using the same menu to figure out where people were aiming their guns. The heaviest gun [Skills] tore massive chunks out of the Lindwyrms body, some of the police officers charged out of their formation with mastercrafted batons out, [Epic Strike] massively amplifying the amount of force they could put behind their attacks. It shouldnt take too long to ovee that things insane constitution. But the Lindwyrm next acid breath was far more weak, causing the caustic liquid to drip out and begin to attack the ice. Raul and Karl had been growing the restraint everrger, but the monsters head didnt manage to slip out, but rather, the acid had eaten away at the concrete beneath the ice. The snake straightened, its head hovering two meters above the ground with a gigantic block of ice attached to the side, causing it to list over from the weight. Acid, blood, and disgusting, viscous fluids sprayed the area as it shook its head in anger, causing several of the closest people to leap backwards to avoid getting struck. Isaac sprinted forwards, knowing just what was going to happen next, but he was just a little too slow. The serpent straightened further, shooting up into the sky in a movement eerily reminiscent of its summoning. The acid had already started jetting skywards to rain down around it by the time Isaac mmed into the side of its head, driving Balmung straight through the bone and into the acid nd underneath, popping it like a soap bubble. The deadly liquid stopped spraying out on one side, instead running down the inside of its throat. As the first drops began to return to the ground, Isaac kicked himself backwards while shifting the de into its newest,rgest form. The block of ice exploded on the other side of the head as the sword pierced all the way through, likewise destroying the other acid nd. With a pained, furious roar, the Lindwyrm tried to shake the weapon out but failed, instead overbncing and falling over with a tremendous crash. Leaping skywards, spraying out acid and finishing it by falling on the nearest human was how that was supposed to have gone. This was a good deal less graceful than that. The absurdly sharp and durable de piercing through the monsters head struck the ground, cut straight through, and grew stuck. Again. More acid poured out, and began to eat away at the concrete trapping the de, but it didnt do so anywhere near quickly enough to keep it alive under the renewed barrage of attacks. Your Party has in Lesser Lindwyrm (Lv. 45). 300 XP (5 % XP share) awarded As a [Field Boss], that thing had been designed for a group of five people, so the XP had been pretty much crap. If they hadnt been as concerned about equipment damage, that thing would have died within seconds. People could have just charged in, torn it apart and had Bailey heal everyone up a momentter. End of story. Well, that, and the higher degree of caution exercised with an unknown kind of monster. Does someone have a [Skill] to check if that thing is edible? Isaac asked There are several stories about how eating a Lindwyrm gives supernatural abilities. Its edible. Raul called over But I wouldnt eat that, have you seen the state its in? The radio at Isaacs belt crackled Is the idea that eating the monster will give new abilities credible? Do you believe that killing one more cleanly will be possible? Mythologically speaking, its sound. Isaac said In addition, the one [Boss] we have information on gives not just the usual Aspects, flesh and bones, but also an additional lets call it a boon in the form of blood that can be refined into a potent fuel. What if other [Bosses] also give such boons? What proof do you have? the voice asked. Isaac thought it was one of the military officers. What we have is a hypothesis and a way to check it. Bailey said So, wed like to summon another one and kill it in a way that doesnt leave it so utterly ruined. Can we deviate from the submitted n? Permission granted. The next Lindwyrm appeared a few minutester and was instantly decapitated as Isaac tore through it using [I Am The Sword] with the Zweih?nder outstretched to increase his length as he was too short to fully do the job just using his body. Is it always this easy? One of the soldiers asked. It is when we have all the information we need. Isaac said as he lightlynded next to the body. But isnt decapitation always fatal? Why is that something you need to check? This time, it was Patrick who responded Because we needed to know if anything short of decapitation would work or if we always had to resort to it. Or maybe wed have had to tear it apart as if it had gotten caught in a meatgrinder. I dont suppose youve seen any pictures of the Demon Lord from Korea? Wait, it might have been that tough? someone else eximed. It could have been anything. Isaac pointed out But now we know better. Because we checked. So, who wants to eat some dragon? While Raul and Amy figured out how to cook the Lindwyrm, Isaac, Bailey and Patrick got started on the report. The Lindwyrm had had peak Tier 6 Stats across the board, coupled with a lesser version of the durability power that the Demon Lord had wielded to great effect, coupled with a versatile ability that could be used both against single targets and areas. Soon enough, though, the food was done. Here you go, Amy said with a shit-eating grin as she passed him what looked like a dark green steak that smelled off. Damn. Isaac shouldnt have suggested they check what the meat did as he knew only the regr Lindwyrm, the [Raid Boss] version granted preternatural abilities. These basically amounted to a random [Skill] at no cost save the opportunity cost in the form of not being able to get a second try. These [Skills] were never [ss-Skills], and rarely synergized well with ones build, but they were mostly free and therefore pretty worth it if you could get the meat of a Lindwyrm without anyone dying in the process. Down the hatch. He said grimly and bit down. The meat was tough, hard to chew, and overall pretty gross. Isaac swallowed and made a face Yeah, no new ability, and it tastes like crap. Maybe its the regr one who gives powers? Youd still be willing to eat it? Bailey called over I mean, you can eat anything, but can you eat it more than once? If its not going to kill me, Ill try it. Isaac called back before disintegrating the remains of the steak between his fingers and wiping them on a handkerchief hed pulled from a pocket So, whats up next? *** Lunch hade and gone a while ago, King Crabs devoured by hordes of hungry soldiers, sailors, and researchers, but they were still at it. Over a dozen kinds of [Field Bosses] had died thus far, none giving more than XP, their bodies and a handful of Aspects, but no boons. Their strength had also been properly confirmed, finally. A maximum of five people could donate mana at the same time, and that was also the proper number of appropriately leveled individuals to fight one. Things went well for the longest time until they didnt. That fucking thing flies! The Stormbringer Serpent was, in fact, a snake the size of the Lindwyrm but able to float. The moment it appeared, it rocketed skywards and hung there, sparks shing in its eyes as lighting gathered around it. Ill deal with this, Isaac announced. Fighting flying monsters out in the open was a pain, and he had a good counter to it. Hed also been the one to pick that monster fully aware of the fact that reporters would be there. So now, he could demonstrate just why he, and by extension, the rest of the team,manded the respect they did. As Isaacunched himself skywards, his body morphed in an instant, taking on an ethereal quality, four surprisingly small wings sprouting from his back while long ws erupted from his fingers and toes. [Form of Horror: Ruler of the Airspace] That [Skill] had started out with one form that was an amalgam of every Aspect hed ever collected. Useful but it grew too extreme, too overdesigned in short order as he slotted more of them, countless physical features bing unusable as they started shing. So when given the chance to change that through [Skill] evolution, he had. One form for the ocean specialized in underwaterbat. A second one had be a more streamlined version of the original, sleek and deadly. And then there was this one, the third one. An ethereal body, practically weightless, one that could be flung around with the tiny wings that were really just hydraskin stretched across wing bones that consisted of the wires of a Razor Apparition. des for ws on fingers and toes were a simple enough addition, but hed added coils of wire to their base, allowing him to use them like ded whips if the need arose. And to top it all off, a haze of fog-shrouded him as he drew upon the powers of the Twilight Weaver. As he moved, illusionary duplicates would appear in the mist, thoroughly messing with anyone trying to fight or intercept him. A bolt of lightning shed past, harmlessly crackling through the fog. A tail whipped out, only to be withdrawn shed to ribbons. Isaacs face slowly gained a feral grin as he dodged yet another attack, his near-weightless body able to be easily propelled along even by the tiny wings, with their small size making them very hard to target. More energy and winds shed brightly, tearing through the sky around him, but he dodged the former and phased to avoid thetter, constant strikes tearing at vulnerable points. The eyes long since gone, streams of blood raining out a shed open jugr-equivalent, the Stormbringer Serpent fell from the sky, the [Mages] down below redirected it using telekic [Skills] so itnded on the ind. A [Boss] monster, killed in less than a second by a single man. All caught on camera. Much of what Isaac had done had been away from the public eye, mere rumors and stories. This was tangible proof that showed his capability in an undeniable way without revealing any tricks. He returned to the ground in a sh and changed back. I think thats a good endpoint. Its gettingte and were getting tired. Lets continue once weve had a chance to rest and recover. The Leutnant in charge of the Bundeswehr contingent suggested and the suggestion was taken up dly. The next surprise was better faced properly rested. Isaac took it as a chance to check out his Status screen and look a the bonus [I Am The Sword] had gained for hitting Level 10. I Am The Sword (legendary, Level X) In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal. And with this Skill, both are the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the users form will be indestructible, immoveable, and invible while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. In addition, the users static body acts as a de, far more likely to cut through instead of push away the target, and Skills that require a de can be used upon it. This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana As it had just been Level 10, the bonus was not that extreme, but the ability to be better at cutting through his foes and apply [Skills] like [Sundering Strike] would stille in extremely useful. Meanwhile, his Status was looking very good. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 88 XP: 7,190/42,500 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 1,500/1,500 Stats Fortitude 185 Perception 320 Strength 185 Agility 330 Magic Power 185 Magic Regeneration 320 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXIV The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword X Grave of Swords XVII Armory of Ancient Times XVII Legacy of a True Warrior XII Skills Hundred Faces XXV Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXVIII Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVI Far Strike XXVII Manifold Strike XIX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XXII Bestial Regeneration XXVII Undying Focus XXIII Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XV Absolute de Mastery XVII Compounded Impact XVI True Cut VIII Legendary Blow XII Fully Geared IX Knightly Leader XII Analyze Person V Continent Strider II General Skills Gralloch XII Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace VII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VI Police Procedure I Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Acid Drake Drakes Heart Least Demon Lord (2 Stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Two more [Skills] to get from his current [ss] and two more Levels after that, and hed be at the fourth Evolution. That was a big one. But also a scary reminder of what power individuals could nowmand, and how much damage they could inflict. Which was precisely why it was so important that he found the people causing all the trouble as soon as possible. Chapter 167: Back Alley Meetings Chapter 167: Back Alley Meetings Isaac backflipped away from the next swipe of the gigantic cat-like beasts ws, leaving his sword stuck in its throat. Just one more after this, and theyd have enough materials to fulfill every order for enriched Crimson Ore for the rest of the week. It was a highly useful material with an incrediblyzy name, as it was literally just the ore from the Bloodore Mountain Hunting Ground which was red in color, infused with a few additional materials to improve it. The end result was a metal that could be melded together without the need for a tool, just mana and will, leaving behind no seam or other weakpoint. And this seamless meld would only ur when it was handled by a person with the intention of melding it, not when being hammered into a new shape on its own, allowing it to be turned into parts for any kind of project before being assembled by nothing more than a person with two hands and a mana pool. All in all, it was an incredible material that manypanies wanted to work with, but they were only set up for that, not procuring it. In other words, a perfect product for Isaacspany to sell. It was also somewhat expensive to hire people capable of harvesting the needed materials, which was why Isaac often helped out. He wasnt getting paid for this, so it was essentially free materials. Or at least that was what hed thought before hed made that statement in front of one of the beancounters and nearly gotten his head bitten off. Something about opportunity costs and how he was losing money because he could have earned more by doing something else. But as long as those costs stayed the hell off thepanys bnce sheet, Isaac was happy. Then, his phone rang, and he had to abandon both the fight and his musings. Isaac took a step back and fished the loudly ringing device from his belt pocket while transforming the de currently stuck in the monsters throat into the giant sword. Ordinarily, the result of that would have been a ruined summoning bunker, but [Absolute de Mastery] ensured that both the floor and ceiling stayed intact, the sword striking them as if they were immovable and indestructible objects, its expansion forcing it to fall sideways to avoid getting wedged in between the two barriers. This might have killed the monster, given that the de was still wedged in its body, but an eight meter long metal b tearing its way through a living being still made a terrible mess. Yes? Isaac asked as he dodged the spray, the de ttering to the ground a momentter. Is this a bad time? Brandt asked, clearly having heard the noise from the other side. A busy time, but its handled now. Isaac assured him as he waved off the concerned faces staring at him from the door So, what have you got for me? Plenty of nothing. And by nothing, I mean the productive kind. These guys are so good at staying under the radar that once you look at something, its pretty damn obvious that they were involved. But Brandt trailed off, sighing. even if you know where they were, the same thing that lets you find them means you cant track them. Damnit. Isaac swore softly Send me what you got, and please, keep trying. At some point, someone has to make a mistake. Leave behind a piece of physical evidence torge or significant for their [Skills] to erase, just something. Thank you. Lets hope youre right. We need to get these guys. Brandt said, then added in a rather more thoughtful tone Its weird, though. For all the small things I find, it doesnt seem theyre doing anything specific, or even extreme. Just lots and lots of small grey or barely illegal thing,bined with connections to and support of serious crimes. I just dont get what they want to do. We dont need to get it, we just need to stop it. Isaac said Good luck and good hunting. Thanks, you too. Brandt hung up and a couple of secondster, the promised data arrived in an email. Once the final monster had been summoned and in, Isaac looked it over, finding nothing actionable, only a few promising leads that Brandt had already run down and found nothing. He wouldnt be able to get anywhere with them, but maybe another investigator would? Now if only Calise would finally find him his investigator from the other side of thew *** and next week, well all be meeting in Grafenw?hr for the Spring Event. The Dean asked me to ask you if you had any good ideas that could be implemented. Bailey finished his part of the meeting So, has anyonee up with anything they, for some reason, waited to share? Ah yes, bureaucracy. They were constantly refining their processes, but the Dean somehow thought that the mere action of asking then for ideas would produce something productive. The meeting ended after a few more ideas and projects were brought up, the others had given input or added new ideas of their own. And with it, so did the workweek. Isaac dropped by thest summoning room that was in use to check up on his assistants and showed them a couple of new tricks they were now able to use, then headed back home. Once there, he checked all the various things he was keeping up on, and then, he finally got the message hed been hoping to receive for a good long time. Well, his weekend ns were out of the window, but in this case, that was a good thing. *** Back in Italy once again. Isaac had been here more often in this timeline than thest, even though this timeline was less than a year old. And not just that, but every time hed been here, it had been to meet with a mob boss. Not really a great look, all in all. But it had been worth it, oh so much. Foolish summoners about to do terrible things stopped using means that werent exactly legal, because the mob didnt want the world aze any more than he did. Dead men buy no product or something. And without Calise, he would have had a good deal less information on the people he was hunting than he did now. Hell, hed have probably had trouble figuring out just how bad the state of things with his target was. Yet he was dealing with people who had blood on their hands. Isaac was not the kind of person whod just go it was necessary and happilymit countless crimes in the name of a just cause. However, he was also someone who could look at a situation, tell that resolving it without getting his hands dirty was going to be functionally impossible, and then would do so. The real question was: had he correctly estimated what necessary meant in his current situation? If his actions were ever revealed to the general public, history would judge him. And if they werent, it would be him judging himself with the benefit of hindsight. Now wasnt the time to focus on any of that though. There was a meeting to get to. The meeting ce was another restaurant, but it wasnt Calises Salutation, but one hed rmended. A neutral meeting ce, with a proprietor who knew what privacy was and had [Skills] for selective deafness. However, Isaac could see several design elements it had inmon with the other restaurant. An entrance that was hard to surveil as there were few things around that would serve as an excuse for hanging around, the path from the door to the various private dining rooms wasnt visible to anyone else who wasnt also on that path, etc. There was also a noted absence of surveince devices anywhere on the premises despite being such a high-ss establishment. Dressed in his finest suit not made by his usual tailor, Isaac stepped into the entrance room. Do you have a reservation, sir? the ma?tre de asked while tensing up extremely subtly, preparing to throw out the person who might have wandered in here by mistake, or maybe was a snoop. An unfamiliar face could be trouble in this ce. I do, under the name Holt. Im meeting someone, though the meeting was arranged by a colleague, so I dont know who with. Isaac said Are they here yet? Yes, he is here already. That emphasis on the male gender of his meeting partner was very much received and understood. Someonewas a little too old-fashioned for this world. If youll follow me, please? The ma?tre de seemed perfectly normal, hamrless and polite at first nce, but had no fewer than five Aspects slotted, a Level in the low forties and several well hidden weapons on his person. As they headed into the building, the ma?tre de spoke up once more. Im assuming that you are aware of the rules? Yes. Isaac nodded No snooping, no fighting, no messing with the people you meet with. This is a ce for conversation to be had and deals to be struck, nothing more, nothing less. Hed gotten that speech from Calise and while he sincerely doubted things always went that smoothly, it wasnt a set of rules hed break without a damn good reason either. Then, they arrived at their destination, a small dining room much like the one Isaac met Calise in. However, it wasnt empty. Instead, a man who was maybe in histe thirties was sitting at the table, a full and closed bottle of wine along with two sses sat on the table between the two chairs. Isaacs meeting partner was sporting what could only be described as the single most clich mobster look, yet it was all an illusion. A fakeout. A [Skill] that made the user appear like what someone expected to see. All Isaac had known was that he was meeting a member of Calises organization and that modern day investigators could get away with a mboyant or not nondescript appearance if they had the [Skills] topensate for it. My name is Gregorio Zambon, I was sent by our mutual friend. And Im assuming you are Mr. Holt? Correct. Isaac stated and sat down You are the investigator. Zambon nodded, then a sh of surprise crossed his face, hidden well enough that even Isaac would have missed it without [Analyze Person]. That is a very interesting picture you have of me. Im a rich foreigner with more money, than sense, cant you tell? I came to this ce without even a way to defend myself. Isaac replied. Normally, the delivery would have made it very clear this was a joke, but this time, there was steel in his voice and not a trace of humor to be found. He paused for a brief moment, then continued in the same tone Appearances are deceptive, now more than ever. I find it better to expect cliches and never read anything into them, rather than create a detailed mental image of future meeting partners that will inevitably lead me wrong. An intelligent way of doing things. Zambon said But few people are capable of self-discipline to such a degree that they have no preconceived notions. In addition, we both know youre hardly helpless, Mr. Holt. In fact, you are probably the single most dangerous person Ive ever met. Probably. Isaac replied, declining to add anything So, youre an investigator, with an [Oath] capable of guarantying your trustworthiness, and you are avable for hire? Zambon nodded. Can I ask why youre avable? It its something liable to blow back on me, Id like to know. Otherwise, feel free to keep your secrets. Isaac said. Thank you. Zambon nodded again Its messy, but will be resolved with my leaving the organization. An argument that spiraled out of control, one that might have eventually ended in my permanent dismissal. Ah yes, those kinds of internal politics. I understand. Isaac said Now, I believe there is an actual job that I wanted to offer you? Fundamentally, Im in need of information about a certain group of people, who are very good at hiding. Beyond that, there are undoubtedly many things that will need investigation in the future, ones having a man of with your [Skills] and skillset would be useful with. In exchange, Im willing to offer resources. Aspects, advanced potions whose recipes are not yet publicly known, mastercrafted pieces of gear, eventually even taughtbat [Skills]. However, I will require an [Oath] in exchange, one that states that you will keep my secrets no matter what, no matter who asks, and that you will not try to find out more about me than I choose to reveal. Even with your current set of abilities, it is inevitable that you will figure out things, however, seeking them out is not something I want. Zambon nodded, again. At this point, Isaac was starting to think of him as a bobblehead. Of course, that sounds reasonable. In addition, discretion is very important to me. Information is valuable, but its value soars when no one knows you have it. If someone needs to be negatively affected by your investigations, keep the consequences to a bare minimum. Isaac would have loved to say call me and ask for permission, but that was going to end badly. usible deniability was more vital than ever in this age of truth-telling magic, sadly. They continued to talk particrs for a good bit, including what Aspects Zambon would be receiving for a signing bonus. Isaac had not only offered a list of what he had, but also a list of excellentbinations that synergizes well. Zambon ended up choosing the more generic version of Isaacs flightbo, de-kinesis, and gravity nullification. Thatbo was still based on the gravity nullification ability of the Aspects from Ephemeral-type monsters, but instead of des, the user would kick off pockets of temporarily solidified air using the [Gaseous Step]. It was somewhat more flexible than what Isaac did, but a bit more expensive, mana-wise. However, before the still extremely costly magical orbs were handed over, it was time for Zambon to make his promise. His [Oath]. The words that could not be spoken in falsehood, could not be broken without the [System], the very world itself, doling out punishment. I, Gregorio Zambon, swear to keep your secrets, for now and for the rest of time, and to follow your orders and act as your eyes and ears in the world until the day you dismiss me, or break your end of this bargain. This is my [Oath of Vital Honor]. Gregorio Zambon has offered you his fealty using an Oath (Oath used: Oath of Vital Honor; would you like to know more about the particrs of this Oath). Would you like to review the wording? Your responsibilities: You are responsible for paying the agreed upon wages, protecting him from the direct fallout of your orders and if it is possible to do so without destroying your life, avenge him should he fall in the course of carrying out the duties you give him. Regardless, the responsibility of ensuring that his dependents (one child) are taken care of will fall to you. You are also not to give him orders that would put him in undue danger without desperate need. Lastly, as a boss, you must exercisemon courtesy and politeness, such as allowing time off to be taken for holidays unless there is a dire emergency. His responsibilities: Gregorio Zambon will serve you faithfully as your right hand and investigator. Even should your professional employer-employee rtionshipe to an end, he will not reveal any of your secrets, whether they were given to him or unwillingly uncovered by him. Ah yes, that particr [Oath] was actually decentlymon. It yed on the idea of honor among thieves, allowing for trust to be formed in situations where there normally wouldnt be any. A situation where honor was needed, or, well, vital, but could only be created by something enforceable. It wasnt like there was a contract that could be legally enforced, not among criminals and not ones that covered criminal actions. Thank you. Isaac said, then pulled a thick folder out of his storage space This is the first assignment I have for you. These are situations Id like you to look into, however, discretion is more important than results in these cases. There was silence for a brief while as Zambon looked over the assignment. This is quite the eclectic collection. I know. Isaac said But if you can figure out the answers to the questions in that folder, it will be very useful. Call me once youre done with that, then, look into the other mystery. The big one. And then, finally, he reached into his storage space once again, pulling out a generic briefcase that contained enough wealth that even a high ranking member of organized crime had probably not seen its like often, if ever. With that done, the pair soon left that quaint little restaurant, going their separate ways the moment they were out the door, one diving deep into the greatest mysteries of this time, the other going to battle the greatest foes of this era. Chapter 168: A Fresh Breeze Chapter 168: A Fresh Breeze Wee, one and all, to the Spring Equinox EVENT! As the days grow longer, flowers bloom, animals crawl out of their burrows and life returns to the world. So dance and frolic, enjoy life and be merry, for today you might die. Murder Bunnies, cute widdlembs? and all the adorable creatures of spring, new and improved, ready for cuddles and hugs. You know, the kinds you get when you wrap a python around your neck. Its great fun you should try that sometime. So enjoy all the pleasures of springtime! This Event offers countless new monsters for you to summon, and maybe grill up for a delicious spring barbecue? That was weird. Oddly chipper. More sarcastic than even the Winter Events description, with some very weirdments to boot, ones Isaac wasnt sure how to read. Putting a mundane python around his neck would not put him in danger, nor would it do the same to most adult humans. Had that been meant to suggest suicide, or as a stupid joke? You all know how this goes. Bailey said We make ns for who summons what, if someone runs into trouble just holler, and deliver your kills to the processing area. Take breaks, dont take on more than you can handle, and check if the monsters leave behind anything dangerous. Give us five minutes to decide who gets to y with what, and then we can get started. As Isaac, Bailey, the rest of the team, Arthur, Elena, Gram and a couple of BAU specialists he hadnt met before worked to dole out monsters to the people whod be summoning them, he thought about the future. Or rather, the Event after this. It would be the Summer Solstice Event, and therefore the first Event to have repeated itself. Would it be the same as thest time, which would mean that there would be a chance to get things one had missed the first time around? It would certainly reduce FOMO if that were the case. But it was entirely possible that each Event was unique and never repeated. And then having solid proof that they would never again get the chance to get at certain materials could easily end with a lot of very stupid decisions in the name of not missing out. Yet would the dark gods have created multiple different Events? Could they have? The more changes they made to the [System], the greater the response. Automatic summoning had already been nerfed into the ground. What else could have been done to increase humanitys chances, given the chance? Or maybe, something had been done, it just hadnt been discovered yet, who knew. Either way, one thing was certain, and that was that greater changes had greater costs. In addition, there was the small issue of how adding additional Events would make the whole concept of Events more dangerous and impact humanitys chances to a greater degree. And that would cause the cost to skyrocket. On some level, though, Isaac hoped that each Event was unique. Sure, that would make things more difficult for him, but it would also mean that there were equivalent boons for him out there, just waiting to be discovered. And hadnt they managed to deal with the Events thus far decently well? Still, the more divine interference there was, the less useful his information was. Deliberately changing things to fuck with him was too expensive by far, but changes made forpletely different reasons, possibly even to help him? Those could fuck him up all the same. But future problems were future problems, and not something Isaac needed to deal with here and now. He got his monster assignments and went off to do those. He reached his designated area and the first monster appeared. The Spring Patch. It was a basic sounding name, but it was Tier 7, so clearly a threat worthy of caution and wariness. The summoning circle zed brightly for a moment, only to wink out with seemingly no effect a momentter. Isaac didnt move, didnt let the odd result faze him, ready to swat down whatever had just been called into this world. It didnt take long for the monster to be apparent though. The light from the circle hadnt vanished on a whim, it had been covered by tiny nts too small for Isaac to notice without intense focus and now, those nts were growing with incredible speed, a massive patch of weeds rising to waist height in less than a second, thorny whips and vines erupting from it tosh out at him. Thankfully, the nts didnt seem to be replicating, it was just that the original ones were increasing in size at a ludicrous size. Isaacs de floated above the patch, transformed into its huge de form and hammered home like a giant guillotine, splitting the nt cleanly in half. Spring Patch (Lv. 79) has been in. Spring Patch (Lv. 79) has been split into two Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64). No XP awarded. Oh, ! An overhead sh with a [Far Strike] attached cleaved it Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64) has been in. Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64) has been in. Two times Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64) has been split into two Even Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 51), each. No XP awarded. Ok, this time, Isaac had gone for the roots, carving those apart under the mistaken assumption those were the important parts. But no, the remaining parts just became their own individual monster. It was noteworthy that the smaller root bits remained dead, so hacking that thing to small pieces would kill it. But that would be tedious and incredibly expensive, mana wise. Isaac hacked off a few weeds and stored those once it became apparent that they were small enough to remain dead. [Grand Hellme] The ck fire washed over the patch of nt matter, greedily devouring anything and everything, growing from a small me to a burgeoning wildfire in a matter of seconds. You have in 4 Even Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 51) 800 XP (200 base times four) awarded And there wasnt even a proper amount of XP, at least not one suitable for a monster of that Tier. But Isaac couldnt afford to seethe, he needed to intervene before the forest burned down. [Grand Hellme: Extinguish] Extinguishing the mes in case they spread out of control was thankfully a part of the [Skill], but it cost friggin two-hundred points of mana to do that, almost a ninth of his pool. A waste, but at least now he knew how annoying those things were. The findings were logged and that was that. Or rather, it should have been. What was that? What did you get. Professor Chandler crested the nearest hill, saw the burnt mess that remained of the monstrous nt, and looked as though hed just seen a kitten get kicked. Its called a Spring Patch, splitting into distinct parts every time its cut apart. Its the absolute wrong enemy for me, Im afraid. But everyone else on your Level is very busy at the moment. Chandler begged, demonstrating staggeringly good puppy dog eyes for a man who was nearly seventy Can you summon just one that I can use for materials, pretty please? Ok, one more. But only if I can figure out a way to kill it without blowing through my entire mana pool. If things go badly, Ill burn it again. Isaac sighed and passed over the few small samples hed saved. Once more, Chandler showed a level of delight and glee that would have been more suitable on a kindergartner on Christmas morning instead of someone who was well past retirement age. At least he could still get excited about stuff. Isaac sent him to stand a safe distance away, and proceeded with the next summoning. Another Spring Patch appeared and struck. Isaac dodged and counterattacked, but this time, he cleaved it apart horizontally, leaving the roots stuck in the dirt while removing the top of the nts. Spring Patch (Lv. 79) has been in. Spring Patch (Lv. 79) has been split into Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64) and Weed Monster (Lv. 67). No XP awarded. The bottom part remained as it had been while the top one knotted together into a mess of tentacles, thorned vines and body parts Isaac couldnt even begin to describe. Weed Monster (Lv. 67) has been in. Weed Monster (Lv. 67) has been split into two Lesser Weed Monster (Lv. 61). No XP awarded. For. Fucks. Sake. Professor, Ive invited you to a Party, pick an eight of that mass to keep, Im burning the rest. Isaac got out through gritted teeth as he teleported out of the path of a massed tentacle strike too big to normally dodge. And two secondster, a storm of flying des tore through the nt mass, separating a few bits from the rest, which the weapons then knocked clear from the rest. Two times Lesser Weed Monster (Lv. 61) and Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64) have been in. Two times Lesser Weed Monster (Lv. 61) and Lesser Spring Patch (Lv. 64) have split into twenty-three entities (see full list?). No XP awarded A few of the samples had died, but many of them kept going, kept twitching, and those were carved to pieces by a grim-faced Isaac, then pulled into his storage space. By the time the dark inferno consumed the remnants of his foe, the small nts had begun scattering to the four corners of the world, running as if the devil himself were chasing them. Good thing hed gotten them now, tracking those down would have been a nightmare. Please tell me you got everything you needed? Isaac asked, nching when he saw Chandler put on another pleading expression. Oh hell. Some cuttings might allow for the cultivation of these nts without requiring summoning now I know this is a big ask, but Fine. Isaac sighed Im getting a botanist to tell me what to get, specifically. And this is the . *** As it turned out, hed been wrong about that. Very wrong. So many of the monsters had powerful regenerative capabilities, as well as incredibly useful parts that made Isaacs methods of dealing with regenerators not be viable. Intellectually, he knew that no dark god would have created a series of Event monsters just to fuck with him, that would have been beyond expensive for absolutely no gain. But damn if it didnt feel like it. But all personal frustrations aside, the Event had gone staggeringly well. Terrifyingly so. Isaac spent the entire time waiting for the other shoe to drop. But if there was one, it stayed right where it was. There had been a few deaths here or there, somewhere in the quintuple digits or so, but that was less than the regr death rate from illness, idents and old age, without any [System] fuckery. For an Event, the number of people dying not even doubling was staggeringly good. Unbelievably so. Sure, people had died and that was sad, but in all honesty, there had been no big breakouts, no civilian casualties, no people dying who hadnt known what they were getting into. And of those, damn few hadnt survived the day. It was an end result that Isaac could be happy with, no matter how frustrating the day had been for him, personally. He bade goodbye to everyone and then got roped into ying pack mule because the nt samples had to be kept alive and therefore werent allowed into the storage spaces. Fuck. This. Day. By the time Isaac got back home, the sun was almost back up in the sky. Hed been nning to do some summoning now, but then, his phone rang. You know, that was an interesting trick. Well yed, sir. Mr. Zambon, Im afraid youre going to have to borate. Isaac said, shifting his voice over to that of Mr. Holt. The investment banker who somehow thinks that pedophilia is a better look than having an illegitimate child, so he set it up so caring about the kid would look like grooming instead of parental responsibility unless one looked extremely closely. Thepany thats keeping its newest drug and everything involved in it secret not so they could profit, but so they could release its forme to the public for anyone to replicate without the shareholders making a fuss. A dozen tasks, a dozen mysteries I only knew were there because you told me there was something. And now I gained thousands of XP and am about to evolve into the [Bane of Secrets], a legendary [ss]. Maybe, maybe not. Im d it worked out, though. Im also curious as to what youll now be able to figure out about the main case. Isaac told him, fighting to keep theugh out of his voice Theres a bonus avable at the usual drop-off ce. That little trick actually hadnt been all that hard to set up. Isaac had just checked up on several tabloid stories from the other timeline, written up enough about it to tell Zambon what to look at without granting him any actual hints and sent the man on his merry way. As far as the [System] was concerned, Zambon had figured out those secrets all on his own, merely knowing that there was a secret in y wasnt counted against him. Also, Zambon now assumed that Isaac had an information gatheringwork of stupendous power. Congrattions, Hildebrands Heir, for granting the world another legend! Under and thanks to your support and tutge, Gregorio Zambon has imed the ss of Bane of Secrets. For crafting one of your students into a person of truly exemry, world-shaking ability, you have gained 15,000 XP! and hed even gained credit for Zambons new [ss]. Excellent. Sure, Isaacs own secrets wouldntst much longer either, but Zambon was [Oath]-bound to keep those to himself. And figuring those out without help should him a nice boost as well. Chapter 169: Scouting Chapter 169: Scouting Evil could look so normal. So disgustingly mundane. Just another nk corporate fa?ade with people wearing suits and having leather briefcases slung over their shoulders, looking like any other number cruncher. But now, Evil had a face. Probably. Zambon had managed to backtrace the supply chain of the robbers whod attacked the team to arge office building in Hamburg, discovering the same obfuscation present in every known member of the hunted group under ayer of false info that would prevent detection from casual scrutiny. Or even intense scrutiny. Zambon had likened finding it to trying to identify a single sardine in one of the kilometerlong shoals without knowing what it was supposed to look like. While only being allowed to look at the fish swarm through a crappy drones camera. With a cracked lens. After dropping acid. But hed done it, his legendary [ss] carrying him to the finish line of the German part of the operation. After all, this was where all of Isaacs best leads where located. There was evidence that this group was active internationally, but nothing beyond their presence was known. And that was the most annoying part of all this. Isaac knew there was a problem, but not how big, how tough, or even what form it took. They could just be a criminal syndicate that had had the supreme misfortune to end up in his sights, or they could be an apocalyptic cult trying to bring about the end of the world. Hell, they could even be a modern day group of Robin Hood and his merry men,prised entirely of ser moms. Sure, that was unlikely, but could he be certain that wasnt the case? Either way, dealing with them was supremely unlikely to be a bad thng. To top it all off, the possible German headquarters was all hed gotten. As difficult as finding that had been, Zambon had told him that everything else would have required finding the aforementioned sardine without even knowing which shoal to look in. However, the one lead hed already gained was a good one. Isaac was walking along a street parallel to the building he was looking at, his [Aura] sweeping through the object of his frustrations, scanning it and every person within. But even with this much distance between them, he was taking precautions, [Hundred Faces] transforming him into a wholly different form. Where Mr. Holt had a sharp face that could be made to look incredibly intimidating and Mr. Lenue was aggressively nondescript, histes fa?ade was disgustingly normal. Average, brte hair, brown eyes in the most normal andmon shade possible, another twenty pounds added, a stubbly beard and a t-shirt for some random band he didnt even know. Unfortunately, even with all that, there was a small issue involving how anyone who inspected him would notice something was up. They wouldnt be able to tell he was, well, him, but theyd know something was up. Hopefully, he was far enough away to not trip any rms, or at the very least, the rest of him looked normal enough to not cause any trouble. Still, the month of waiting for results hadnt gone to waste. Isaac had gotten all the way to Level 97, his Agility had passed four hundred and hed bought [Burden of Power], a [Skill] he was absolutely in love with. Burden of Power (legendary) Heavy is the head that wears the crown, or so the saying goes. And its true, only fools see the crown as something that turns ones life into a great and wonderful paradise. If one fulfills even a fraction of the responsibilities that leading a country requires, then ones life will be filled with hard work. This is the Burden of Power. When this Skill is activated, that burden shows in your Aura, a tangible thing for all to see, experience and be impacted by. It can either be used to focus attention on yourself and demonstrate your status as a leader, or you can now temporarily offload a small amount of that burden upon your foes and watch them crumble. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 20 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 50 mana per minute Warning: Using two Auric Infusion Skills simultaneously will increase the overall cost by fifty percent In other words, the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] could now actually hit someone. If the Level difference was big enough, or there was a particr vulnerability in y, it hit like a truck. Throw [Deaths Embrace] on top of that and being on the receiving end of it was like being knocked upside the head with a tombstone, apparently. An expensive method of attack to be sure, and not one that could easily lead to victory on its own, but it was a very good addition to his arsenal. Isaac continued to walk along the sidewalk, absentmindedly munching on his chicken wrap, lookingpletely checked out of reality. However, he was giving the building the most in-depth inspection possible. There wasnt very much there in terms of actionable physical evidence, but there was some odd stuff. Chemicals that had no business being anywhere out of a war criminalsb or a hazmat waste disposal site. An odd number of weapons. Structural reinforcements that didnt make sense for a normal office building. And then there were the people. [sses] with an unusual level of subterfuge involved. More security guards than should have been necessary, and ones far more focused on dealing damage and ending lives than any sanepany would have beenfortable with. But the worst part the people who were fully sped into Magic Power. That was not a normal build. Fully focusing into some Stats didnt work. Strength let you be, well, strong, and the [System] would prevent your own bodys power from tearing you apart, but that same protection didnt apply when you actually hit something. Agility, same problem. You could move, but you wouldnt see where you were going and when you ran into something st. Perception was just useless. Fortitude wouldnt let you do anything other than surviving. And even that was in question as it would be far too easy for someone to pick you up and toss you into a volcano or something. Magic Regeneration was somewhat useable, letting you spam cheap spells ad infinitum, but the maximum amount of mana you could put into one would be severely limited. Under normal circumstances, pure Magic Power was rtively useless. You could cast a lot of spells, use a lot of [Skills], but by the time your mana regenerated, youd be dead from old age. Normally. But there was a very good reason to have that kind of Stat focus. Suicide-summon. There hadnt been a big problem with that in the other timeline, certainly not connected to a group such as this. But with the mess the world had be in the end, would anyone really have noticed? Either way, that cinched it. These guys were going down. Probably. If he could convince the cops to raid this ce. If he could find something connecting this group to some criminal activity that would hold up in public. Maybe some information passed along to Brant on the sly, then not showing his face to the investigator for a week would do the trick? Eventually though, there would be hell to pay. Chapter 170: Breach! Chapter 170: Breach! So, I looked into that information packet I got, and it all checks out. I dont know who sent you and the police that stuff, but theyve clearly got an excellent information-gatheringwork. I tried to figure out who they are, but no luck. Also, I got some more information on thatpany. Its your basic front with a generic name, owned by a dozen shell corps and covered by enough info-sec [Skills] to hold off a buildings worth of spooks. Except those dont really work too well to cover up things I can see with my own two eyes, and when I got a good look at that ce, I found some interesting things. First off, that cesyout doesnt match the floor ns submitted to the city. The outermost rooms look normal at first nce and I couldnt see the innermost bits, but everything else has been changed around as if to defend against attacks, making it a nightmare for someone trying to storm that ce. Secondly, theres a lot of stuff in there thats just in weird. Nothing Id outright call illegal, at least not to the point where Id have called in a major raid in back when I was on the force, but also stuff thats just in out of ce. It just doesnt belong in a randompany which, on paper, is mostly just an ounting firm. Or something to that tune, the description isnt very descriptive, just filled with enough legalese to look good without making any promises it might have to back up. Its not just a shell, somethings being done in there. Im afraid thats all I have for now, Ill call you when I find out something else. Isaac put down his phone as the recording of Brandts call came to an end. He hadnt been face to face with his in-house investigator for almost a week, given that if the man ever asked who do you think sent us that information, there would be trouble. Isaac wished he could give Brandt the same boost hed given Zambon, but that wasnt feasible. He couldnt order Brandt to pursue the random cases, thered be hard questions asked and while sending him enough information to make it pique the investigator''s interest might work, it might also end with Brandt looking for the person whod sent him that information instead of following up on the leads. Most likely though, theyd go straight to the file cab to be forgotten. Brandt had a permanent job, a serious case to sink his teeth into, and no reason to go haring after a random mystery that ended up on his doorstep. Ok, I just received a voicemail from the PI I hired to chase after the people who tried to rob my team. He looked into the building as well and he found the same thing I did: the ns dont match. Isaac announced to the room, getting a few tired nods in response. Not that he could me them, GSG-13 and GSG-9 had been making ns for a raid on the property for a few days now and learning that the information theyd been basing everything on was wrong not fun. But they had the warrant, so that wouldnt be a problem. A clear connection to a very worrying criminal group, the robbers, the fact that thered been a massive search underway for the owners of the building, and tons of circumstantial evidence that said building was involved in criminal activity. They had GSG-13, the most elite force avable to the police, the monster fighters that Isaac would have backed against even some [Raid Bosses]. They also had an unusuallyrge number of outright magical individuals amongst their ranks, a testament to their status as a testbed for [System] integration. GSG-9, their spiritual predecessors were still focused more on dealing with human criminals, but this was exactly what was needed here. Theyd beencking Isaacs taught [Skills] and [Aura] control, but that had been rectified as much as possible in thest few days. And they were here with three of the four strike teams they maintained, a staggering concentration for a single deployment. Two world ssw enforcement units,prised of the best of the best with advantages, training and equipment money couldnt buy, and not a single member under Level 50. And a Level 97 legendary [ss] holder to back them up if there was any trouble. They should have this in the bag. Hell, they probably did. But there was still the small issue of how they were going in blind. And getting everyone here had also not been that hard either. Isaac had had Zambon send the same information packet hed given Isaac to the cops as well, with a few additions that Isaac had figured out himself. It was not something that any police officer worth his salt could have ignored, especially after it had been verified. And Isaac had also had a copy sent to the team, then checked it out himself and showed up at the precinct that had been erected right next door to his workce. His reputation and track record had done the rest. Either way, lets go take this from the top. Habicht said Polizeihauptkomissar Wachtel will take the front entrance in in clothes, apanied by two officers likewise out of uniform, show the warrant to whoever is manning the reception desk, and see how they react. Should there be a hostile reaction, the first group of GSG-9 will go through the front door, the second will enter through the rear, GSG-13 will teleport onto the roof and breach through there. We will spread out ording to the standards pattern for clearing and securing a location with an unknownyout and meet in the middle. Anyone encountered will be arrested and cuffed to the nearest avable secure anchor point, any potentially hazardous materials will be locked away using the containment spheres the research division has provided. We dont know just what is there or how dangerous it is, but it almost certainly isnt good. On the other hand, if things go unexpectedly well, group one GSG-9 will clear the building while group two and GSG-13 remain in position, ready to intervene in case things anything happens. Everyone will be removed from the building and guarded, any materials locked down, and only once the building is cleared we will send in the investigative team. Anything to add, Polizeihauptkomissar? The man who now stepped up to the board in the front of the room was Habichts pr opposite. Where the Polizeirat was short and built like brick shithouse, looking like the could have broken a brick wall with a headbutt even before the [System], this new guy was one of the tallest people Isaac had ever seen, so much so that he probably needed to have his equipment custom made. Where Habicht looked like he should be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger, Wachtel didnt give the impression he could have been a police officer at all, let alone have passed the strenuous physical entry exams that GSG-9 required. He clearly had, else he wouldnt have been here, but his appearance was definitely out of ce. Just one thing: we dont know who these people are or what we know, but we know theyre dangerous. Many, many of them have Levels that couldnt have been reached withoutbat. There are materials on site that should not be there and can be used for destructive purposes. And weve been able to verify that theyre connected to the attempted robbery of the Demon Lords bloodtest year. Theyre experienced, know how to fight and arent afraid of dropping bodies. Stay vignt and be prepared for this to get ugly. that had been a lot more than just one thing, but Isaac agreed with everything that had just been said. This was going to go to hell in a handbasket the moment that warrant was produced. The group broke up shortly, people heading off to makest minute preparations. However, Habicht approached Isaac once the room was empty. Ill stay in the back, keep to myself, and share any information I pick up, Isaac promised, causing Habicht to chuckle. We all know how that worked outst time. Would you rather I have let you get skewered? Isaac asked with a raised eyebrow. My point is: thats your yardstick for intervening, which I know you know. Anything less can be handled by one of us and doesnt require me to fill out so much paperwork that it probably should qualify as a human rights vition. Oof, sorry about that, Isaac said. Better than getting skewered, but not by much. Habicht added But thats not my point. Theres a bit of a legal uncertainty as to what exactly [Aura] is. Is it a part of someones body, does touching someone with it technically constitute assault? Or is it merely an odd energy that you cant get in trouble over unless theres tangible damage and/or injury? Thats going to be a terrible pain in the ass to sort out, Isaac observed. It is, but thats not my point. As long as no one ends up hurt or traumatized, you can use your [Aura] without getting into legal trouble. Given your level of [Aura] power and control, I think that making sure everyone in there knows theyre being watched and that theyve got no chance should make it a lot easier to ensure no one does anything stupid. So, does that sound like something you could do? Habicht asked. Isaac took a moment to formte his response, but by the time he responded, he was forced to fight to keep a feral grin of his face. Yeah, I can do that. Ive actually got a [Skill] exactly for that. He said. *** Nervous? Wirt asked, looking at Isaac from the side. More like apprehensive. Shit is about to hit the fan and Ill probably be fine, but its not a nice feeling. Isaac replied as he observed the building through his [Aura]. They were both dressed for battle with Wirt wearing the proper GSG-13 tactical gear while Isaac had on a cross between his regr pseudo-medieval armor and modern tactical wear to not quite look as out of ce as he would have wearing chainmail while still being different enough to not seem to be fraudulently impersonating a police officer. Because yeah, someone would have eventually thrown a fit otherwise. If something goes wrong, well protect you, Wirt replied with a yful wink. Hed been assigned to Isaac as one of his bodyguards, though they were clearly intended to be babysitters instead. Well, that and to have witnesses in case something went wrong. They were also both aware of the fact that if it became necessary, Isaac was the one who would be the one doing the protecting. Right now, they were in an alleyway out of view of the building they were about to raid, under the protection of Habichts [Unseen Approach], which cold-stopped any kind of rm or detection device other than the good ol Mark One eyeball. or a vastly stronger detection [Skill], but Isaac had been able to determine there wasnt one in y. The [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] was already interwoven with every part of the building he could reach, but deeper in, there was too much interfering. Hostile [Auras], information defense [Skills] and protective enchantments that wereyered so thickly that trying to get in might have tripped an rm. Isaac was absolutely certain that he could get a good look, but there was just so much crap interfering that it wasnt guaranteed to go well. Meanwhile, slowly picking his way through, slowly but surely bypassing everyyer of security would have risked someone noticing a suspicious person hanging around outside for a damn long time. Anything he could have tried would have risked detection and this was a situation where he just couldnt have risked that as it could have spooked his only lead and caused it to vanish. He knew hed made the right call waiting for reinforcements and the ability to lock down these people with the full force of thew behind him. But not being able to easily look inside something for the first time in this new timeline was killing him. Still, listening in on the conversation happening in the lobby despite the noise-dampening enchantment was easily within his capabilities. Good morning. Wachtel politely opened the conversation as he walked up to the reception desk, casually pulling out the warrant once he was in range of the receptionist, his other hand producing his badge. The anti-ballistic field around that desk would have made using his gun a risky proposition, but it hadnt been made to prevent someone from just reaching over and grabbing the receptionist by the cor. After all, that would have made actually being a reception desk somewhat difficult. We have a warrant to search the premises, Im going to have to ask you to step out behind the desk, slowly. The receptionist got up, but in the process, his knee smacked into a button hidden under the desk, a panic button, clearly. One moment, Wachtel and the two officers apanying him had stood there in the standard government employee suits that were a clich for a reason. The next, they were fully armored up in tactical gear, urban camouge covered interlocked Ker, ceramic and metal tes covering their limbs and torso, bvas capable of deflecting at least a few bullets protecting their heads except for a small slit over the eyes. Typical military helmets rounded out the look, a forcefield being projected down from each of them to provide anotheryer of protection for their heads and necks. All in all, the armor looked like the bastard lovechild of a medieval knight, modern soldier and SWAT officer, each of them towering over the receptionist. Even though the machine pistol was still slung over his shoulder instead of being aimed at the receptionist, when Wachtel spoke next, there was steel in his tone. Step out from behind the desk, slowly, do not touch anything. The rm didnt go off anywhere in the building I can look at, Isaac called out via the Party. Check the core, Wachtel ordered. Yes, sir, Isaac said and flung his [Aura] forwards. Hed recently figured out of how to separate out both of his auric enhancement [Skill], concentrating them into a single portion of the energy field and vastly increasing their power. So when the rtively sedate sensory [Aura] hit the outeryer of protective enchantments, the forwardmost part glowed a dark, steely grey, hammering into the defenses like a battering ram. No subtility, no tricks, just raw power aimed right at the weakest points of the defenses. Enchantment after enchantment broke, allowing him to gain an excellent look at the inside. The rm isnt going off in the building, well likely havepany soon. Isaac warned, And I might have set off an rm here. Might have? Wachtel practically growled back. The enchantments set up a resonance when destroyed that would have alerted everyone in the building with an [Aura]. I was able to squash it, but it wontst. Isaac said. Can you tell if there are any other nasty surprises in there? Wachtel asked. I found some of the obvious ones, armored shutters and a couple of electrified floors, but there is almost certainly stuff I havent seen yet. Were going in, full force. Wachtel said, the God-fucking-damnit. being unspoken but clearly audible nheless. More and more nasty tricks became apparent as Isaacs [Aura] swept through, countless anti-siege measures designed to utterly trash attempts at storming the ce. There were also several things here that made it very obvious this was the correct location. The back door next to the loading dock practically disintegrated as the [Skill] [Breach] hammered into it, even the ludicrous level of reinforcement meant to dy an invader failing to hold them up for even a few milliseconds. Thoma, suppress them. Habicht snapped as he appeared above the building, the rooftop ess door vanishing in a plume of dust as it was likewise hit with a [Breach]. Three teams of some of the most elitew enforcement professionals in the world charged through the building, anyone they met being immediately cuffed. Each and every security feature, ranging from the steel shutters and the literal death traps of the patches of floor that could be electrified at the push of a button, was identified by Isaac and either avoided or disabled, usually by pointing guns at the person sitting near the trigger mechanism. Sure, the building was designed to have those inside the defenses, but Habichts rooftop attack had put him on the other wrong side and allowed him to bypass everything. And then there was the auric suppression. Powerful [Auras] boiled out of every officer in there, making it abundantly clear that everyone who saw them that they were powerful even before each [Auras] specific effect came into y, and those were as varied as the people using them. Weapons and things that could be used as weapons became practically fused with their holsters or whatever they were lying on, doors flew open ahead of the charging officers, and the few people whose first reaction to seeing the police was jumping up and charging inexplicably ended up slipping on floors that should not have been that slick, ending up on their asses and ready to be cuffed in a simple motion. However, could that have happened? Meanwhile, anyone who noticed the invaders without being near enough to be arrested ended up on the wrong end of Isaacs [Aura], the full [Burden of Power] pressing down on them. It didnt actually hold them down or truly hurt them, but it was like having Arnold Schwarzenegger standing in front of you, one hand holding onto your shoulder in an iron grip, staring straight at you, and daring you to do something dumb. You werent outright prevented from doing anything, but would you really want to try something? Most of the time, they didnt. And when they did, Isaac followed it up with [Deaths Embrace], the freezing cold touch of skeletal fingers brushing down their spines as the ck miasma wrapped them, sapping their physical Stats while the sheer menace of the attack froze them in their tracks. The raid ended with almost three hundred people in cuffs temporarily to ensure they didnt do anything stupid while the police proceeded deeper into the building, another hundred-odd truly arrested for resisting arrest or even attempting to attack the officers. All in all, that was it. The investigative teams marched in, with Isaac apanying them less than ten minutes after Wachtel had marched into the lobby. A proper disy of the elite teams training and efficiency, even though the resistance had been nil. At least if you decided to ignore those whose attempts at fighting back had achieved precisely nothing. No one was hurt, nothing damaged, and now they had a whole building full of leads and illegal crap to explore. The shielded core sheesh, that was a whole lot of very suspicious-looking files down in the basement. With Wirt and Richter, Isaacs second bodyguard, by his side, Isaac headed straight there, all the while using the Party interface to highlight everything hed spotted on the way. For example, hed found parts consistent with those hell tasers that had been used in the robbery. Those werent just a clue, but also another noose to hang these people with. In Germany, there were strictws on the power a taser could have, how quickly they could be reloaded, and in the case of tasers that usedunched prongs, confetti with a serial number that came out along with the prongs to make the device trackable. And these things had precisely none of that. Plenty of materials had been refined to the point where almost everything they could be turned into was illegal. Not outright actionable, but even circumstantial evidence could be damning if there was enough of it. Then, Isaac finally tripped over the hidden lockbox, metaphorically speaking. Sure, the archives in the cer looked very enticing, but the box that had literally been phased into the walls, enchanted with runes to show up just like the surrounding materials to even [Auras]. The only reason hed seen was that it was too perfect, too even, more like the idea of concrete and rebar rather than anything that could exist in the real world, even with [Skills]. Now that he knew it was there, Isaac could have broken the seal, but he held off. If the seals protecting the core of the building had been set up to create an alerting resonance when broken, there was no reason to expect these folks couldnt have created a way for the seals to destroy the contents. Better safe than sorry. I found something interesting upstairs, Isaac said as he turned on his heels and began marching straight back the way theyde, his babysitters following suit immediately afterward. What is it? Wirt asked. A hidden lockbox, very well disguised as a part of the building. Im pretty sure theres either highly incriminating files in there or something very valuable to these people. Isaac exined as he took the stairs two at a time. And what if theres something dangerous in there? Given what youve said youve found already, I wouldnt put it past them to stick something toxic in there. Wirt pointed out. Simple: [Fully Geared: Hazmat Suit]. Isaac announced a [Skill] as he used it for the first time in months, his armor immediately being reced by a set of weirdly steampunk-y set of hazmat gear. This thing is fully CBRN certified even in cases where the material in question was created using [Skills], at least up to a Level 75 epic [ss] holder. And after that? Wirt asked. Wed need something like that to test the suit with? Isaac replied dryly And here we are. Am I allowed to damage the wall? They were currently standing in your typical cubicle farm, examining the wall opposite the floor-to-ceiling windows, with the other side of the wall belonging to the main office which was normally meant to be used by the overseer of the cubicle farm. Sure, but we need to be able to show we had cause. Wirt said, So, are you sure that theres something in there? Either that or the material in there is a scientific impossibility, Isaac said, his Kabar manifesting in his hands. A venomous green halo wrapped around the de, the wall disintegrating as he brought the weapon closer. He waved it back and forth, slowly revealing a typical lockbox cemented into the very bones of the building. Holy crap. Wirt said Nice catch. Thanks. I Isaac started to reply but was immediately cut off as there was an odd sound from outside. A downright unnaturalbination of a thunderp, an electro-music sound effect, and the roar of arge cat. A portal, arge one, opened in a way as to be loud, obnoxious, and unmissable. Someone wanted to make an entrance. And what is this? The voice was loud, booming across the city like thunder. The Pigs decided that people being people, exercising their freedoms in a way that the fat cats dont like, was a little too much and decided to break out the jackboots. What. The. Heck. That was straight out of the clich anarchist speech ybook, who actually talked like that? But if an office building scares you enough to cause you such an overreaction, I figured Id give you a reason to be scared off. [AXIS MUNDI]! The world outside rumbled, buildings creaking, and loose objects going flying. For one, maybe two seconds, that seemed to be the only sound that existed in the world. Then, the screaming started. Isaac whirled around, Balmung already in his hand and glowing a red so bright it dyed the entire room crimson. He was about to go charging out, but then, there was another portal that shed open. Silently, subtly, and with the mess outside, Isaac would have missed it if it hadnt been inside his [Aura]. Even as he turned to face the newest arrival, he felt his connection to any Party member outside this room shatter and a [Skill] m into ce around them that would make it damn hard for outsiders to see in. Well, looks like its a good thing I got here when I did. You guys were about to find the stuff you really werent meant to see. Once again, Isaac spun around, ready to tear the neers head off, but was forced to dodge instead as a beam of vile gunk sttered past him. Ew. The person whod just arrived wasnt nearly the amateur theyd seemed to be at first nce. Sure, they made stupid quips, but they still attacked immediately upon exiting the portal. And what an appearance they struck. Tall, androgynous,pletely wrapped in dark robes with an odd, rainbow-like pattern across the top, giving them the appearance of an oil slick. The only part of the outfit that wasnt made from the odd material was the bone-white, expressionless mask that covered the assassins face. Sludge that made even sewage look appealing byparison floated around them, like some kind of infectious ooze monster straight out of a horror movie. Suddenly, Isaac was very d that hed put on his suit now because this was about to get ugly. Even as multiple sprays of the doubtlessly highly toxic and/or infectious messshed out at him, a beam as thick as Isaacs arm hammered into the lockbox hed just retrieved, punching through the outer shell as if it were tissue paper and utterly ruining whatever had been on the inside. Run! Isaac roared as he charged, hellfire welling up around him to wipe out most of the attacks meant for his babysitters. They were far less well protected against whatever weapon his foe was using than he was, and theycked his incredible recovery potential. He hadnt gotten very far trying to analyze that crap, but he could already tell that it was incredibly dangerous. Suddenly, he figured out just what was going on here. The guy outside was the distraction with the clich insults, while this fe was here to destroy all the evidence. On one hand, the man whod just cast an area of effect cooldown [Skill] in the middle of a major city was going to earn this group thebel of terrorists and see them hunted to the ends of the Earth. On the other, that likely would have happened anyway after this building had been searched from top to bottom. This way, theyd be left without any leads. But for that to even be a problem, he had to survive this. Chapter 171: Interlude Outside Chapter 171: Interlude Outside Polizeimeister Lukas Mller thought hed seen everything. Literal terrorists, nutcases who thought the Federal Republic of Germany wasnt real, that they still lived in the Third Reich and took potshots at the police, drug dealers, drug dealers who got high on their own supply and tried to go after armed and armored police officers with the weirdest weapons, and so much more. Then, the [System] had arrived, and the whole world had gone to shit, at least for most people. Mller had just shrugged and kept going as normal because his situation was the same as it had always been. Him staring at dangerous criminals through the scope of his sniper rifle. Most of the time, he didnt have to pull the trigger, just being on call in case things got violent. Hostage situations, ranged support when storming buildings withrge windows, and so on, hed done it al. And when the [System] had arrived, hed only gotten better at it. [Skills] that made his every bullet match grade. [Skills] that let him partially ignore armor. And then thered been those whod been almost insulting, like the amazing superpower of detecting where and how the wind was blowing. Hed been able to do that before by paying attention to how it was affecting the environment, and that was before hed reached levels of Perception that would let him track the movement of individual grains of dust in the air to ount for the wind to a degree that the most sensitive of scientific equipment would have been hard pressed to match. Histest deployment had seen him set up on a roof opposite a seemingly normal office building, with very loose orders that boiled down to we expect trouble, but do not engage unless ordered to. Between the precise targeting information avable via the Party menu and his [Skills], non-lethally taking down people deep inside a building and around several corners. At least so long as the targets werent absurdly durable, that was. But he hadnt had to do anything but cool his heels lying on the roof with his Heckler & Koch PSG1 sniper rifle, three more identical rifles lying on the roof next to him. [Skills] tended to be rough on weapons that were, materially speaking, no different than theyd been before the [System], far too fragile for the new world. Of course, the various suppliers had been promising newer and better guns practically since the Initialization, but they were yet to deliver. Therefore, he had to bypass the issue by convincing the beancounters to throw money at it. The day looked to go normally, like any properly nned out and executed operation should. then the fucking asshole in the superviin costume had shown up. A blood-red ceramic-looking mask only marked by two thin slits for the eyes covered the face, a darker cloak, somewhat akin to the color of spilled wine falling down his back and covering his back in a way that spoke to a massively inted ego. Rounding out the look was rather generic set of reinforced fabrics somewhat akin to the tactical armor Mller was wearing, albeit in a simrly impractical shade as the rest of the outfit. The Pigs decided that people being people, exercising their freedoms in a way that the fat cats dont like, was a little too much and decided to break out the jackboots. The deration was as much an observation as anything else, something that Mller had heard slung his way a thousand times before, usually for simrly stupid reasons as you arrested my friends/colleagues for the highly illegal shit they did. Mller was already moving before the man had finished his speech, the rifle hed been cradling slung over his shoulder, the rest scooped up in his arms as carefully as he could, and was on the other end of the building in a matter of seconds. When the order came or if that guy did anything other than posture, hed be ready to act. [AXIS MUNDI]! But when the blowhard, someone Mller had refused to call a superviin in his mind, roared the [Skill]name like some damn Anime character, the world changed forever. Looking at the area around the man, it was immediately apparent that something was wrong, but not what. Things seemed to be moving oddly, the very world flowing in a decidedly unnatural way, but in less than a second, the truth of the situation had be apparent. Gravity had shifted sideways at a ny degree angle, a massive pir of altered gravity pushing everything away from the man in the center. Anything that wasnt tied down and anyone out and about went flying immediately while buildings groaned and began to break. No matter how tough, how well designed they might have been, no one made ns for gravity to suddenly be pulling sideways. And in the middle of the apocalyptic hellscape that an area at least half a kilometer across was be, the big crimson asshole floated serenely, arms hanging by his side, gazing out across the chaos hed wrought. I should have shot him the moment he started making threats. Mller cursed himself. [Know thy Target] told him that the man was either in the high nies or low hundreds and someone like that would doubtlessly have been capable of immense destruction no matter the specifics of his [ss]. [Epic Blow: Threefold Power Shot], [Arcane Piercer], [ount for Insanity] immediately flowed into the bullet in the chamber, his standard enhancement [Skills] meant to bypass shields andpensate for preternatural interference. Normally, that should have been enough. Would have been enough. Hed save his cooldown [Skills] for when he knew they were needed, and which ones to use. But now wasnt the time to be picky. [Hammerblow Impact], [Heartrender Shot] and [Unnoticeable Ambush] mmed home, the rifle bucking against his shoulder with enough force to send him sliding backwards across the roof, a pir of me and mystic energies sting out of the barrel of the PSG1 yet hidden from anyone in sight, including the target, by his [Skill]. First, the bullet would automatically correct for the twisted gravity, then tear through the [Mages] shield through abination of raw power and inherent anti-shield properties, speed up at the moment of impact, ripping through the terrorists heart while preventing all healing and regeneration for a few seconds. It wasnt a survivable attack had it hit. Half a dozenyers of defenses shattered as the projectile tore through them before another gravetic snarl made itself known around the man, hurling the bullet skywards and past its intended target. [ount for Insanity] tried had tried topensate, to subconsciously adjust his aim so the shield flung the bullet right at its target, but the less he knew about his targets defenses, the worse the [Skill] was and the less he was aware of what it was doing. The end result saw the lead projectile, still glowing like the noonday sun, skim past the targets face, clipping the mask and causing his head to snap back while cracks spiderwebbed across it. And then, for the first time since his arrival, the [Mage] focused on a single target. Mller let the now bent, twisted and useless rifle fall to the ground, slung the second one over his shoulder threwst two into his inventory, burning one of the rather pricey cores in the process, then legged it. Behind him, the first building keeled over and the mageughed. Hey, you could have at least waited for someone to die before taking that shot, you know. Might not have looked like youd shot a peaceful protestor. The same megaphone-voice as before rang out, carrying with it an undercurrent of amusement. Down below, countless guns spat their deadly payload skywards, but not a single bullet reached its target. The sideways-pointing gravity utterly ruined regr the ingrained instincts acquired after years or decades of firearms use, shots that would have otherwise been right on target being thrown utterly off-course. The few that dide close were tossed aside by the vastly more chaotic warp of twisted gravity that protected the caster himself, uselessly falling back down to earth. You really think that could have hurt me? Pathetic, but nheless something I can let stand. [Warp st]. It had been abundantly clear where this was leading so Mller had already been moving when the scintiting sphere of energy was hurled towards him. Phasing, he dropped through the building while kicking off the very air itself using [Sky Step] to elerate his decent well past what gravity would have provided. Even so, he was very nearly too slow. When the orb hit the building, concrete simply crumbled away, being pulled into the center of the spell and seemingly vanishing, then exploding outwards once the energy had passed with staggering force, white-hot glowing shards of concrete tearing through what remained after a hole ten meters across had been ripped through the center of the unfortunate building. It began to crumble above him even as the big red asshole charged up another bolt of power, ready to demolish the still standing bottom part. Mller just continued to run, plowing into the ground and continuing to move sideways, only phasing back into open air once he was under the next building over. The lobby was utterly stuffed with panicking people, trying to decide whether to run and possibly draw the attention of the madman outside or stay and hope things didnt get any worse. Im Polizeimeister Mller. He announced in a tone that instantly drew the attention of everyone in the lobby to him Evacuate immediately and withdraw as far as you can. Ill distract that guy, buy you some time. Take the back exit. The crowd immediately grew more worried and rowdy, when Mller followed that up with Calmly. Panicking doesnt help anyone. It was a statement that many a teacher or managed had given in an emergency, often in a squeaky voice that made it rather apparent that they were the most terrified person there, usually having the opposite effect of what was intended. But most police officers, Mller included had learned how to make it effective. So while the crowd of terrified but no longer quite as panicky civilians left the building out through the back, Mller slipped out through the front, sending another couple of bullets into the mess of twisted gravity that passed for a shield. They missed, miserably. He could ount better for the shields presence now but most of his hard-hitting [Skills] were now on cooldown. This was exactly why going for a one-shot-kill was a risky proposition at best. If it worked, you ended the fight before it had even begun. And if it didnt, you were faced with a long, drawn-out battle against someone who could tell where you were by looking at where your shot hade from with your biggest shots already spent. This is Brigadegeneral Horn. I have taken operativemand of the Hamburg operation. The gruff,manding voice rang from the Partys voice chat, and its features suddenly expanded vastly. In many ways, the Seoul incident had been the first major [System]-based battle, and the whole world had learned lessons from that day. Coupled with half a year of Level growth and the tactics for arger threat appearing near or even in a major metropolitan area had been vastly improved. Immediately, Mller started to feed his own observations into the Party, the numerousyers of arcane shielding that had been broken by his first shot and hadnt been repaired when histest shot had hit, the exact adjustments needed topensate for the gravity pir and the redirecting shield he still didnt know how to counter. At the same time, others began to add their own knowledge, the results of their various [Inspect]-versions. Their foe was at Level 100 exactly, which was apparently the fourth Evolution threshold, and [Axis Mundi] was almost certainly one of the new cooldown [Skills], one clearly bought with banked points. This meant their foe had gained a little less from the previous [sses] than most people, but with [Skills] that could level half a square kilometer with a single cast, did this guy even need more ways to spend his mana? The n as it stands now is to retrieve thest few people within the affected area, then utilize the full ordinance at our disposal. Should attempts to outright kill fail, well wear him down. Out of the potentially eightcooldown [Skills], that could be in y, the two fourth Evolution ones have already been used up. So, the shield was also a cooldown [Skill], then? On one hand, that meant it wouldnt be draining his mana. On the other, it should time out soon enough. Another presence joined Horn in the mand rank of the Party. It was as though Mller had gained a second train of thought that could solely focus on what was happening there, letting him know what was happening on themand level without distracting him in his own fight.. [Instantaneous Redeployment: Typhoon Squadron], [Battlefield Adjustment: Esoteric Bulwark], [Mass Enhancement: Unnatural Compensation], [Summon Equipment: Climbing Gear] Countless [Skills] hit home, felt as much as heard, making the fight vastly more bearable. Initially, theyd been ants scrambling to avoid the light cast by a cruel childs magnifying ss. Now, theyd been upgraded to a swarm of wasps, still inordinately weaker than their foe but far more capable of fighting back. Rubble shifted and were reinforced to deflect even the highly exotic nature of their enemys attack, climbing equipment appeared for several people, properly attached so they could start to climb up the street and into [Axis Mundi] to retrieve thest survivors within. And everyone suddenly knew how topensate for the gravity pir just as well as Mller already did. However, the greatest addition was the squadron of Typhoon fighter jets that appeared out of nowhere, flying straight into the mess that downtown Hamburg had be. *** Normally, getting here would have taken eight minutes even under perfect circumstances. With [Skills] in y, that could be cut down to half that. But there were ways to top even that. Oberstleutnant Maria Schulz was thrown against her harness as her Eurofighter Typhoon suddenly shifted locations. One moment, her ne had started to rise off the tarmac at the airbase as it reached the necessary speed to remain airborne. The next, she was rocketing through the air above Hamburg, a floating figure d all in red floating in the air before her. Explosives hadnt been cleared for use yet, but her 27 mm revolver cannon had been made safe by someones [Protection from Bullets] that ensured that neither her allies, the nearby civilians or even the surroundings would get injured by stray shots. The cannon thundered to life, every bullet glowing with arcane power as they left the barrel. Sadly, there was a hard limit as to how much she could enhance those as, unlike the groundpounders, she couldnt afford to tear apart her weapons by tossing every [Skill] she had into them. A burst of power she couldnt define beyond absurdly dangerous tore towards her, but she rolled out of the way and then it exploded into a starburst that looked like it an airburst shell straight out of hell. A normal [Pilot] of her Level, even with a rare variation of the [ss] would have been dead at this point. But she wasnt a [Pilot], was she? Shed managed to convince her superiors to let her try out a different path of growth, one vastly different than anything anyone had been on before. She was the [Daughter of the Storm], closer to a [Mage] than [Pilot], epic, and vastly more useful than what shed have otherwise gotten. [Windshear] flung her clear of the attack with casual ease, [Move Like Lighting] flung her forwards in a straight line, passing close enough by her enemy to ruffle that ridiculous cape of his, while [My Own Personal Thunderstorm] dragged a coruscating line of power behind her, energy arcing off it and actually tagging the asshole, sessfully lighting his cape on fire. Another [Windshear] let her fling the jet around in an impossibly tight turn and the cannon spun up again, a few bullets somehow making it through the shield and tearing up clothing, but the cloths color prevented her from seeing if shed managed to hurt the man underneath. One of her squadron mates made an attack run of their own but was caught in a previously invisible wall of twisted space and gravity, plunging unexpectedly downwards with too little warning topensate. Shit. More and more rocks and chunks of roadway began to fly skywards, creating a floating ative shield around her target, with several being hurled outwards at any target that presented itself. Thest civilian has been retrieved, use of heavy munitions is authorized, I repeat, use of heavy munitions is authorized. An artillery unit is being but into position, fire will be coordinated using the party menu to avoid friendly fire. Schulzs air to air missiles wereunched the very instant the authorization had been given, overcharged to the point where they wouldnt survive more than a couple of kilometers of flight. But they didnt have tost even that long. [Missile Control] had been earned during herst [Pilot] Evolution, and then, she burned her strongest cooldown [Skill]. [Thunderstorms Wrath: Kugelblitz], meanwhile, turned all her air-to-air missiles into a ball of lighting and her jets every hardpoint had had one of those attached. *** As a literal swarm of lighting orbs swarmed away from one of the fighter jets, and for the very first time, that asshole was forced to actually move. His bodynguage radiating utter fury, cape aze, chest armor scorched and one arm hanging limp at his side from the one missile that had scored a direct hit. Mller grinned savagely as he observed this, rifle slowly tracking the bastard as he considered how to follow that up. High above, the gravity mage intercepted the ne that had hurt him, grasping it in some manner of arcane hold and began to crush it. What happened next he really should have thought that through better. A bright streak of energy burst from the cockpit, the pilot suddenly floating a kilometer away and trailing lightning while the ne leaped forwards, mming into the gravity shield and exploding. The shield deflected enough, but when the time the dust cleared, it revealed a wee scene. The mask was gone, shattered into a million pieces, and a twisted piece of fusge was stuck in his gut. You fuckers dare? the man roared, spittle flying, heavily bearded face so red is fit right in with the outfit Youre nothing but insects. Useless. Useless! Useless! Every piece of flying debris hammered into the ground and the Partywork shuddered as it was forced to reorganize around the loss of a dozen of the people whod been maintaining it. Then, more [Warp sts] flew out, each gutting a building. useless, pathetic fucks! The man spun once again, thrusting out a hand and bringing up another shield just in time to catch the close to fifty artillery shells that had been fired at him with pinpoint uracy. It looked like hed gotten away scot-free, but someones analytical [Skill] announced that it had taken two distinct cooldown [Skills] and over a thousand points of mana to block the attack. That bastard couldnt have much left in the tank. Then, the gravity pir finally copsed, leaving the only defenses the gravity shield and whatever was cast in the moment. Mllers [Flicker Shot] left the barrel like any other bullet, streaking right at the targets leg and a split second before getting caught by the shield vanished. Unfortunately, the teleporting bullets didnt do too well moving through anything that messed with space, time, or gravity, but even reduced to splinters, a bullet could do damage if it hit right. And now, Mller knew the dispersal pattern. He dropped the rifle, still intact but too warped for a precise shot, and burned hisst core to retrieve his final weapon. The sniper rifles stock mmed home against his shoulder, he exhaled to rx himself, the breath clearly visible in the dust that hung in the air. Wind was whipping around at speeds that would have been considered a natural disaster at any other time. Gravity was back to normal except in a small area around the target. And there were other preternatural effects in ce, utterly insane changes to the natural order, but really, those were just another thing to factor in, topensate for. [Flicker Shot], [Eternal Consequences]. This time, the rifle did break and Mller dropped it, scooped up the old weapon and ran for his life. Thetter [Skill] might not have the same all healing blocked, youre fucked power of [Heartrender Shot], but making the initial pration of the target a lingering injury that could only be fixed to the point where it stopped actively bleeding, but never fully repaired could be rather nice as well. GRAAAH! the cry of inarticte rage made the few remaining panes of ss in the area shatter and the building Mller had just stepped off of crumbled away. He risked a single look back, seeing the man downing a healing potion after pulling the metal chunk from his gut. That injury healed, but the right eye was gone, reced by a bloody mess of gore, metal fragments and goo. Using abination of his [Aura] and the Party menu, Mller ran into areas utterly free of people who were at risk of bing coteral damage and directed them out of ones that he might have to fall back to. For him, there were only two things left in the world. Himself, and the evil god hurling lighting from the sky to end his life. Then, there was a tremendous explosion, followed by blessed silence. Direct hit from artillery on the target. Does anyone have eyes on them? Did he survive that? I have a kill notification. A different voice, not one of the officers, said. Has anyone heard from anyone in the building? yet another voice, tinged with rm, asked. It took Mller a couple of seconds to recognize Polizeirat Habicht. What had they missed while fighting this gravity [Mage]? Chapter 172: Stupidity is Hurting Others Without Gain to Yourself Chapter 172: Stupidity is Hurting Others Without Gain to Yourself Stupid. Stupid! Stupid! Isaac should have cracked open the box the instant hed noticed it, removed all the internals, stored in in his inventory and only brought it back out in a stasis field, risk of digging into a nuke or bioweapon dispersal system be damned. The brief glimpse hed gotten at the stuff inside wasnt nearly enough to go on. But what had happened, happened, and couldnt be changed. What he could do, though, that was kick this guys ass, keep him away from the rest of the building and protect the rest of people who were searching the building for evidence. Hell, he was even wearing just the right armor. [Hunters Gaze] red to life, scanning the bastard. What he saw made Isaac nch. This fucker was absolutely loaded down with Aspects, a total of nine slots with either two or three in each slot, covering a wide array of powers. As for the [ss] itself it felt utterly disgusting, and what was more, it felt wrong on a truly fundamental level. Like an open sewage pipe that was currently giving birth to Cthulhu. A Level that was at the very least equal to Isaacs, probably even greater. And finally, the [Skills] on disy, something he could now also analyze, made the situation a million times bleaker. The sludge wrapping around his foe was an amalgam of a dozen kinds of dangerous diseases, more generic microorganisms like the ones that had devoured all the evidence, three kinds of toxic and right now, it was in the least dangerous configuration that bastard had ess to. But that danger was slowly but constantly ramping up as mana and intent flowed into the power. Clearly, the full-power version wasnt save to even have around under normal circumstances. The mass promised a painful and potentially slow death writhed and burst out in all directions, many sting downwards and heading towards the archives. But those were ratherckingpared to the main attack sting straight at Isaac. Five floating Kabars manifested and flew straight out of the window chasing the beams downwards, attempting to intercept and burn them. He failed. Attack iing, some kind of disease ray. Ill burn it away, steer clear of the highlighted area. Isaac warned. His des reached the basement archives a momentter, hammering into the spots of vile material, then igniting, bursting into ck mes. They then turned and began to fly skywards, passing through the holes left behind and burning away the sickness, but putting the torch to the building at the same time. If left alone, that would be a huge problem, but Isaac had no intention of letting ite to that. While paying the barest level of attention to the flying des, Isaac charged. [True Cut: Excise Sickness] pped onto Balmung allowed him to sh the main attack out of the air, multiple flying des expanded into the giant sword configuration, blocking all of the remainder. Their size caused them to pierce both the floor and ceiling, but when the attack hit home, the des were pushed backwards with immense force, concrete and rebar splintering. Isaac leaped over another attack and flicked a [Far Strike] at his enemys head. A wave of sludge rose to meet his attack, and the faintly glowing de shattered like ss. That [Skill] was far too fragile to still be viable at his current level of power. The next salvo of beams split of far more, a shotgun st of incredibly weak but numerous little sshes that his armor would hopefully be able to tank, especially when he reinforced it with mana. A [Sweeping Strike] nheless carved straight through the center of the attack, opening Isaacs path. Then, the attack hit home and tore through his armor like tissue paper. Fuck! All the hellme in the room was pulled straight onto Isaac, turning his armor into a torch, and feeding on the material rather than his mana, burning away the remains of the attack, even burrowing into his skin through the holes left by the attack while Isaacs [Aura] was flipped over in the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn], focusing on regenerating his body. Andstly, the evolved form of [Undying Focus] allowed Isaac to push out damaging effects through focus, sheer force of will, and his [Aura]. The end result was almost two hundred points of mana blown in exchange for blocking the worst of the consequences of the attack, but now, Isaac was in range for a good hit. Balmung tore towards his foe but before it could make contact, the mans form turned ck. The hit tore the form apart, sting the mess across the room while the [Grave of Swords] Isaac had cast through the de fizzled and died. His foe was gone, shifted into the mass and then moved to another part of this mess. And Isaac didnt have enough knowledge to find him withi- there! Isaac spotted a flicker of mana, spun, and thrust his de through the sludge, but the form flickered and appeared well clear of his reach. Annoying, but now, hed figured out what [Skill] was in y. [Everywhere and Nowhere] fused the user into arger mass, a probability shift that meant that at any given point in time, they could have been anywhere within so when they were attacked, they just so happened to have been elsewhere. Near impossible to ovee directly, but it was a mana hog and required mass to work with. Isaac had long since stopped feeding mana into his mes so they were now no longer under his direct control, but there were other ways to deal with this. He moved at maximum speed, the burning cloak that had already burned away several attacks bursting at the seams and setting most of the room aze. Thankfully, Wirt and Richter had already retreated and were safe. [Fully Geared] mmed his original outfit back into ce, then his hand snaped out, snatching a piece of burning fabric and stuffed it into his pocket, once again setting his clothing aze to create another burning shield. Now, it was time to go to work. Flying des plunged into the mass as parts of it were shaped into spears, separating into different toxins that could inflict damage through the mes, airborne pathogens that managed to get a couple of coughs out of him before abination of his [Aura] and regenerative power exterminated the vile hellspawn. The whole room was now on fire, parts of the ceiling already caving in, but the pool of animate sickness was ever shrinking, being pushed back. Burning out infection was a pretty bad idea on a person, but in a building, it seemed to work. [Crippling Blows] hammered into other parts of the body, which was too divorced from the enemy to be a viable target for [Grave of Swords], but it was still a mobile magic construct that could be weakened by the [Skill], vastly weakened and rendered harder to manipte, harder to dodge into. All the while, death incarnate wed at Isaacs defenses, wearing them down as they dueled at the heart of the inferno. It would have been nice if he could wait for this guy to burn to death, but it wasnt going to be that easy. Escape [Skills], magic shields, [Skills] unavable in that merged with the sickness state, there had to be something more to this guy than merely a living bioweapon that could be casually burned from existence. And then, he finally caught the bastard in a vastly shrunken patch of sludge, and [Grave of Swords] finally took. He was locking himself in a room with a living bioweapon, sure. But he could also finally unleashed his full power. As the connection to the normal world grew more and more tenuous, Isaac finally spent the two hundred mana needed to wipe out every bit of hellfire in the building, ensuring they wouldnt return to a burnt out huskter, then switched over to yet another set of armor and set that too aze. The mass of his foe went sprawling inside the separate space, rolling in on himself and coalescing back into a human form, ending up on his feet but staggering a few more steps backwards. The mask was slightly cracked, and the cloak was badly scorched, but the person underneath was physically unharmed. [We Can Talk About This]. The man announced in a conversational tone and mana sted outwards, wrapping around both of them and rapidly hardening into a gentle yet firm resistance that would make a follow up attack damn difficult. Isaac could have blocked it but decided to let it go. The [Skill] and its effects were familiar to him, a forced negotiation power that equally applied to both parties involved. When either of them moved to attack before it ended on its own, the [Skills] entire power would focus on the attacker while leaving the other one alone while providing them with a huge opening. His enemy was trying to buy time to analyze, prepare, and cultivate his weapon into a more dangerous state, possibly even recover mana. Isaac was perfectly fine with that, though. His own mana was well under half after using that much hellfire, and he could tell that both his [Inspect] and [Privacy] upgrades were superior. Hed be walking away from this information duel the winner. Also, a popup informed him of the fact that this [Skill] would only be active for five minutes at a maximum, while, at Level 17, [Grave of Swords] clocked in at a whopping seventeen minutes. He had time. And while there was another foe out there that needed dealing with, he did have faith in the people hed trained. Even if they didnt win, they should be able to hold their own. But the biggest draw was the conversation. The other guy wanted to buy some time? Hed have to talk, hold a conversation. Sure, he wouldnt be doing the usual bad guy reveals the whole n in a monolog, but even reading between the lines, spotting what this guy was willing to talk about and what he avoided, would still earn him plenty of information. The same went for lies, Isaac might know what the truth was, but it would be rather telling where those urred. Lastly, there were ways around that [Skill] that Isaac could exploit. Even with all hed revealed, there were so many things, so many useful tricks that hadnt been shared yet, the breadth and scope of his knowledge so vast that it would have taken six month straight of him doing nothing but teaching to exin them all. And now, this bastard would get schooled on precisely why information was the greatest weapon of all. So, now that were all alone and able to talk freely, I gotta ask: why do you fight for them? wow, Isaac had vastly misread that. It made sense, sure, his ability to pull dangerous foes into a separate space was well known, and this could have been predicted, but then again, this was weird. But then again That isnt your [Skill], is it? It doesnt fit your [ss], and is somewhat divorced from you. Someone figured out how I would fight when confronted with a living bioweapon, and when the rm went off, sent you here with an extra little ability so we could safely have a conversation. But do you really think you can turn me to your side with a single conversation, when everything Ive done so far is fight you? Isaac thought out loud, letting himself fall onto the ground and sitting down with crossed legs. See, heres the thing: youre already halfway there. You are aware of all the right things, have made all the right predictions, you just need a little more information. The robed man sat down in a pose identical to Isaac So, why do you fight for everyone out there? The world is doomed, and you know it. Hell, youve even said so in public. The [System] has put immense power in the hands of every individual on the. I mean, its more like every idiot, nitwit, and lunatic now has nukes at their fingertips but I guess you had to phrase it more diplomatically than that. Isaac just raised an eyebrow and kept his mouth shut, his [Aura] already flipped over to the [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] and intensely scanning every inch of his foe. If youre buying time here for your friends over in the real world to get ready to fight me, you do realize half the building is already drenched in a rotting affliction thats currently devouring all the evidence and you torched the other half. With hellfire, I might add. And his enemy really did believe that, having failed to realize that removing all the hellme was baked right into the Aspect Isaac wielded. It also let Isaac know something else, that this guys ability to sense the sludge was highly limited if he hadnt realized that his attack had been burned away. Unfortunately, it also meant that there was likely very little control in y, so if there was any sludge aroundter on, they might end up with an unstoppable bioweapon on their hands. Isaac decided right then and there that this guy was dying within the [Grave of Swords] and that Isaac himself would be washed clean with hellfire before the [Skill] vanished. Thebination of his [ss] and seeming disregard for human life made this guy just too bloody dangerous. Are you sure about that? Isaac asked. He was revealing his cards here, but really, a dead man wouldnt be able to do much with the information. The guy just shrugged, then pushed himself back onto his feet, then began pacing. Do you really think the world will just keep going with the [System]? Youre a smart man, you know how this goes. When the timees, me and my friends, we wont even have to lift a finger, humanity will already be well on the way to extinction. If we didnt have to make an honest effort and be prepared wed all be living it up until the apocalypse, then go into the next life with all the gifts our loyalty earned. But noooo, a few someones are rallying everyone in an ultimately futile effort and we have to make ns for each and every one of you fuckers. And if we were allowed to outright kill you, youd already be dead, but that would be too easy, wouldnt it? The man reached up and removed the mask, tossing it and revealing a rather in and ordinary face, not the kind that would normally have been expected on someone who was bioterrorism incarnate. So, how about you start being honest with yourself, see humanity for the hopeless mess it truly is, and enjoy your remaining days. You might even be able to join us. True paradise in the afterlife is a greater reward than anything else youd be able to earn in this lifetime. Ooh, that had been a big slip-up. Isaac had already suspected that there were limitations in ce as to what this cult, and hed grown pretty sure he was dealing with another cult could do, otherwise, the world would already have ended. Simply summoning a million Specters on day one would have likely done the trick. As would summoning several [Raid Bosses]st month have done. Either they destroyed the world, or the nukes used to fight them did. But that hadnt happened. Thebination of the rest of the world having time to prepare and the cult having time to self-destruct meant that their ultimate sess was less than guaranteed, and therefore lowered the cost for the dark gods. And the same went for not being allowed to strike down any champions of the world while they were still developing. Only preparations were allowed to be made, and apparently, self-defense was also eptable, anything else would have been too great a handicap. This just left the question of how long the grace period was. Isaac hadnt seen the cult take action in the other timeline, most likely because the stuff this guy was spouting about how it was hopeless had proven true. Humanity probably had wrecked itself all on its own, without these guys having to take action. So even if Isaac seeded in saving the it from itself, hed still have to save it from these guys afterwards. Civilization had copsed around nine to ten years after the Initialization, so whatever the grace period was, it was longer. Also, this guy was clearly powerful, and likely a part of the direct strike force while the people with the weird Stat distributions would almost certainly be acting as suicide bombers when the time came. Beyond that, who knew? He certainly couldnt rely on this guy running his mouth anymore. But had this guy really run his mouth? He might have made the same decision that Isaac had, that only one person would be leaving here alive, and what damage could a dead man do? Isaac couldnt even fault him for his confidence, as that sludge was ever evolving into a more dangerous form, one that would have ended countless lives without even being slung around, had this conversation taken ce out there. Hed still take the win and this guys head though, no matter what tricks he pulled out of his ass. Look, like I said, youre more than capable of figuring all this out on your own, its just that the end result is something you dont want to be true, I I was thinking. Isaac cut him off. Hed try to get a little more information, then end this before things got to the point where even he was likely going to die. See, I thought you were nihilists at first, doing whatever crap you wanted. But then, you opened your big fat mouth and I realized youre just pessimists. Lazy pessimists. Of course the world will go to crap if everyone just sits on their fat ass and gripes about the state of things. Plus And youre just an optimistic idiot! Someone who lives in fantasynd because he cant bear to face the real world! Ooh, temper, temper. But that was to be expected, sane and normal people didnt usually decide to actively wreck the for their own gain. Pretend they werent doing anything wrong or acting like the world-damaging secondary effects didnt exist? Sure. But people for whom the end of the world was their primary goal were thankfully few and far between. LIKE I was about to say, the only idiot here is you for believing youll be rewarded by the dark gods, Isaacmented. Youre still fighting because you think thats where salvation lies, I have the word of a god that what Im doing will earn me a spot in paradise. Thats assuming you even get to an afterlife. You said it yourself, Im a smart guy, I might even be able to figure out a way to prevent that, to tear your soul asunder! Isaac said in a creepily jovial tone. He couldnt, honestly, wouldnt mess with anyones soul, that was a step too far under all circumstances, but it made for a damn intimidating threat. And maybe, youre not as smart as you think you are. I think youre like us, the one who ys for the other side under divine mandate. Sure, you got me. Isaac leaned back with seeming nonchnce, nting his hands on the floor to avoid overbncing and falling onto his back. That sludge was approaching the danger limit hed decided on, now all he had to do was get the advantage of surprise. He grinned broadly You know, its nice to my enemy face to- And then, he exploded into hellme mid-sentence, the gentle fire on his armor turning into a roaring me. The [Skill] that had allowed this rtively genteel conversation to take ce fought him, preventing him from roasting his foe while allowing said foe to freely strike at him, but any attack had to get through the strongest hellfire he could create. When the st of enough deadly toxins and diseases to wipe out the entirety of the city outside mmed into this defense, oh so much of it was burned away for the low, low cost of almost four hundred mana, the attack several minutes in the making blunted to the point where, rather than wiping him from existence, merely tore straight through Isaacs torso. A potentially fatal hit even if hadnt been loaded up with some of the deadliest substances in existence. Then, [Moment of Immortality] activated, instantly blocking all those substances from causing further damage and ensuring that even with part of his spinal cord severed and missing about half the vital organs in his torso, he remained standing. [Grand Hellme] washed through the injury a momentter, his immunity ensuring he didnt get burned while the ck fire washed away the mess within. This final use of the fire reduced his mana pool to under three hundred, far too low for an extended battle, but that was fine. He had his next and final armor for that. [Fully Geared: Raid Suit]. Thetest suit wasnt the full berserk suit that people with instant equip [Skills] had used in the other timeline, the tech level wasnt quite that high, but the next best thing. A full suit that you had to literally be helped into and were sealed inside of, yet could move perfectly with, countless internal potion dispensers locally applying the needed potions, ranging from the right kind of healing straight onto injuries to enhancing substances injected straight into the proper muscle groups. All in all, the most precise and efficient way to use these substances. Isaac charged even as his internals were still stitching themselves together, this time not choosing to resort to [Form of Horror] as he was saving that for anyone he might have to fight after this. His opponent dodged the attack by teleporting, explosive buds rising out of the droplets of sludge spread around the battlefield. More and more bolts of devastating power, each vastly different from the things that bastard had used to date shed through the air, cleanly demonstrating that Isaac hadnt been alone in holding stuff back. Or maybe they hadnt been useable while in sludge form, just like Isaac couldnt transform Old Reliable while himself transformed into [Form of Horror]. However, one of them was continuously regenerating mana from potions and still had two cooldown [Skills] in his back pocket. The others mana was in free fall, his biggest [Skills] had already been blown and their effects were currently being erased by Isaacs potions and regenerative capabilities. A cloud of flying des flicked through the air, forcing the cultist to keep dodging and weaving until Isaac pped [Razor Trails] onto them, keeping them in existence for only a single second each to ensure that they didnt cost too much mana. End result? Covered in countless cuts and scrapes, the gue mage continued to attack, until he stumbled into a de that looked a little different. Blue, crystalline, glowing with an inner light. Isaac rarely used the [Skill]-damaging weapons when intending to kill his foe, preferring to go straight for the death blow, but it was too hard tond one of those at the moment and [True Cut] was well outside of what he could afford right now. So instead the murderous cultist was learning exactly why the phrase death by a thousand cuts had started out as the name of a particrly torturous ancient Chinese execution method. The other guy realized the eventual oue almost toote andunched himself at Isaac, many [Skills] impaired or even unusable, a kamikaze [Skill] activated and building up to full power, ready to blow Isaac to pieces at the moment of contact. Yeah, that wasnt going to happen. Isaac thrust Balmung forward, then caused his sword to explode forwards by transforming it into the giant de, skewering the man like a roast pig. [Sundering Strike] vaporized every part of the body that didnt count as armor. Finally, the de shifted into his Zweih?nder and shot forward to fling the body to the far side of the space, where it exploded, the power vastly reduced with the bodys volume. What little remained was drawn into a single point up against the side of the space and coalesced into a sickly green sword that appeared thrust into the ground. Human (Lv. 100 Aspirant for the Mantle of Conquest) has been in 8,000 XP gained Lv. 100 Aspirant for the Mantle of Conquest has been added to the Grave of Swords as a potential training target/power source Horseman of Conquest, huh. Astride the white horse, the same color as the mask thought to represent pestilence and being referred to as Pestilence in most modern stories about the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Someone certainly had a high opinion of themselves. But now, that fight was over. Two people had gone into this space, both looking to buy time, find out information about the other, and both assuming they could kill the other if things went pear-shaped. One had been wrong, and the other was leaving this ce alive. Another hundred-odd points of mana went to fueling hellfire that scoured him clean of thest potential bits of infection even as the [Grave of Swords] faded around him. Isaac was deposited in the middle of a scorched ce that looked like it could fall apart at any time. Even though hed been trying to ensure that the building wasnt damaged too badly, it was still hellfire that hed been slinging around, and it had inflicted structural damage. There were also several badly damaged channels through the building where hed burned away some more infectious gunk, but thankfully, it looked like arge part of the basement archives had survived. However, it would remain to be seen how useful those would be, whether theyd just gotten a manifest of all the secret bases theyd have to clear or a precise breakdown of how much toilet paper this organization used in a day. But what truly was striking was the noise from the outside. The sirens, the sound of heavy military machinery that had no business in the middle of a city being used around, and the screaming. Oh gods, the screaming. Human misery distilled into a song emanating from countless throats, grating on the ears, the heart, the soul. Yet there were shouts of triumph as well, of victory. Toss on the utterck of sounds ofbat, and it was clear whod won the day. Isaac slumped and sat down hard, only to feel the ground crumple beneath him. No time to rx, not even for a second. He dove into the Party menu, scanning all the messages he could find, announcing that he was still, in fact, alive, and trying to figure out what to do next. The battle was hopefully over, now, all that was left to deal with was the butchers bill. Chapter 173: Debrief Chapter 173: Debrief Are you alright, Isaac? Wirt called out from the doorway, having just returned to the door of the room and looking in, now that hed heard Isaac return. Of course, there was also a gun in his hand, not quite pointed at him, but in a position to be used at the drop of a hat. Im fine. What happened out here? Isaac called back. As useful as the Party was, directly talking to someone was still the superior method of information sharing. The guy who showed up and started monologuing cast a [Skill] that made gravity toss everything away from him, then startedunching attacks at everything he could see. The military ended up taking him down after one of our, well, GSG-9s snipers shot out one of his eyes and he grew more focused on killing him than defending himself from artillery. He still blocked most of it, but eventually, he took a direct hit backed up by an offensive cooldown [Skill]. Were searching for survivors now, securing the full area of the battlefield, and ensuring no one else shows up. Wirt said as the pair of them were already running down the stairs. There are no orders for me in the Party and Habicht is too busy to give any beyond dont do anything else. Isaac said Do you know where Im supposed to go? The Polizeirat isnt in charge anymore, a Brigadengeneral took over when the terrorist showed up. Habicht is just an advisor now. As for you, they both said you shoulde to themand area for a quick debrief and then, theyd be deciding what happens next. Oh, and what happened to the guy? Dead. Isaac said bluntly. On purpose? Wirt asked Look, not saying it wasnt justified, but you might want to phrase that a little differently when someone in charge asks. Isaac nodded When someone dies in the [Grave of Swords], their body is sealed within. That guy was a living bioweapon in the only ce on the where his body wouldnt start a pandemic. He wasnt making any attempts to not kill me beyond trying to convince me to help him destroy the world and hed already used an attack that would have been lethal if it hadnt been for a [Skill] he didnt know I had. I had to make a choice. And thats how you should put it when someone asks because someone will. Also, someone will throw a hissy fit over the burned out building and therell be an inquiry about both. Living Bioweapon is one hell of an excuse, it should work, but youll still have to deal with it. Wirt said. Isaac just sighed and checked his notifications. If he was going to do a debrief, he first needed to have all the information himself. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 97 XP: 39,998/49,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 2,000/2,000 Stats Fortitude 200 Perception 345 Strength 200 Agility 400 Magic Power 200 Magic Regeneration 360 Free Points: 0 Stat, 4 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXIV The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword X Grave of Swords XX Armory of Ancient Times XVII Legacy of a True Warrior XII Skills Hundred Faces XXVI Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXIX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXVII Manifold Strike XX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XXV Bestial Regeneration XXVII Undying Focus XXIII Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XVII Absolute de Mastery XVII Compounded Impact XVI True Cut VIII Legendary Blow XV Fully Geared X Knightly Leader XIV Analyze Person IX Continent Strider III Burden of Power III General Skills Gralloch XII Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VI Police Procedure V Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Acid Drake Drakes Heart Least Demon Lord (2 Stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme During the fight, three [Skills] had reached a threshold. The first was, unsurprisingly, [Fully Geared]. Fully Geared (legendary) The historical definition of a knight is a lesser nobleman who maintains his own set of heavy armor and a warhorse. Therefore, a knight without his armor is no knight at all. And as sturdy as armor is, it can break, get stolen or simply fall apart if it gets too old. If you want your armor to survive for more than a couple of fights, this Skill is essential. It allows the user to store four full outfits in an extradimensional storage and dress themselves with a mere thought. Armor and clothing is cleaned upon being stored and damage is repaired so long as the required materials needed to rece removed parts are provided. Equipped armor can be reinforced using mana. Cost: 10 mana to store/equip/switch outfits, 5 mana per second to repair clothing, 50 mana per minute to reinforce armor It could now store up to four outfits, one more than before, and its repair functionality had increased, though greater repairs required the needed materials. A nice boost, nothing world shaking, but still very useful. Meanwhile, [Manifold Strike] and [Grave of Swords] had hit Level twenty and evolved. Manifold Strike (legendary, Level XX) The user maybine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X avable for each Skill used below that Level. In addition, the overall potency of the Skills used increases by 10 %. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to deal devastating damage using the rightbination of lesser Strikes, especially whenbined with a second Skill that allows for multiple uses of the same strike, it has evolved to be even more powerful than the sum of its parts. Now, when staking multiple instances of this Skill using Legendary Blow, one may choose which Strike to use how often, modifying proportions as needed to create a truly optimal attack with no mana going to waste. In addition, theplimentary Skill of Legendary Blow has been enhanced to allow for an additional instance to be applied, for a total maximum of seven possible stacks. Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.20^used Skills And the first of his [Skills] hadnt just gained an evolutionary power but shot up through the ranks all the way up to legendary. That was more than a little deceptive, though. It was directly boosting and sharing power with a [Skill] of that rank, butcked the full power a legendary power should have. Thebination of [Legendary Blow] and [Manifold Strike] would allow Isaac to stack as many [Strikes] as he wanted into a single attack, up to seven of each, but not necessarily that many. Before, hed had tobine all the [Strikes] he wanted into a single [Manifold Strike], then multiply that using [Legendary Blow], and that could get real expensive, real fast. Not anymore, though. A couple of [Piercing Strikes] to bypass armor, a full seven stacks of [Power Strike] to strengthen the impact, and a single stack of [Sundering Strike] to ensure the armor was weaker against future attacks would do the trick almost as well as having seven stacks of each would have, but didnt cost two hundred mana a pop. It was something Isaac would have to y around with a little to figure out the best way to use it, but he could already tell it was invaluable. Also, the fact that he could now use seven [Strikes] in one was just insane. And then, there was the [Grave of Swords]. Grave of Swords (legendary, Level XX) A vast field, countless des thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this space This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space. Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another ne (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the users soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though. The Skill ends if onebatant dies, it hits its time limit, or is deactivated by the user, any leftover mana will be refunded and ced in the Skills pool. When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new de is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger. However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+5 mana per opponent Level over the users, +50 for each Tier barrier between the users Level and the monsters, overall cost doubled for Bosses, tripled for Raid Bosses and quintupled for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 5 hours, cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored des. After countless fights where the user has sealed powerful foes within to protect his allies, this Skill has evolved to further enhance the isting power of Grave of Swords. It can now be used to seal of a part of the battlefield, creating an incredibly durable spherical barrier around the user, with a radius of 50 meters (it increases automatically forrger, singr foes, ording to the same rules as the regr use of this Skill). The user may choose to banish any person in their Party from this zone to protect them, but enemies cannot be forcibly removed. (Note: inanimate objects ovepping the barrier will not be damaged, living beings will either be pushed into or out of the Grave of Swords if they ovep the barrier during its creation, depending on where the majority of their body is) Furthermore, this Skill has gained an additional effect due to a high degree of synergy with the ss Hildebrands Heir. When using the Grave of Swords to train against enemies trapped within, the user may choose to take along up to five other people. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost forbat purposed, cost increases with targets power, increase must be paid from stored des or the users mana pool Wow, that description had gotten long. But the [Skill] had also gotten strong. The first advanced effect, the one gained by Evolution, allowed Isaac to seal away parts of the battlefield, allowing for the creation of chokepoints by blocking a path by the massive forcefield of sealed-away space. As a side effect of this, he could now fight a trapped foe with multiple people by his side, with the small issue being that he couldnt select whod be drawn along with him, everyone in range would end up locked in together. Making that work for instead of against him would take a little effort, a little consideration, and tactics, but it shouldnt be too hard. Andstly, there was the upgrade he hadnt directly earned, merely unlocked by his current [ss]. The ability to use the [Grave of Swords] for training, to simte any enemy who had died inside this space for others to fight, with the [Skill] guaranteeing that it was without danger. Of course, it didnt specify what that meant, whether people would be invincible, the damage would be fixed once the grave vanished, or something else entirely. But that was something they could check. It would also allow him to show people just how strong this guy had been and maybe, they could get a picture of his face. Isaac had had a bodycam on him, as well two more in his spare armor sets, but those were all nothing but ash and molten metal now. Sure, he could make a sketch, or get the help of a sketch artist, but it should be far easier to go into that space, summon a copy of his foe for training and break the mask, then take a photo. Isaac and Wirt could have reached themand area in a matter of seconds, but running around the ce at speeds that exceeded that of a pre-[System] fighter jet would have caused one hell of a mess by rming people. So they were merely moving at a good clip, not outright sprinting. While they ran, Isaac sent his [Aura] out into his surroundings, searching for survivors, but there were none, at least none that hadnt been retrieved. The police, paramedics, and fire department had already swept the area and [Skills] that precisely zeroed in on casualties were leagues ahead of someone manually sweeping an area in terms of speed and efficiency. But there were still countless bodies buried in the rubble, left where theyd fallen to be retrieved when the living had been dealt with. Isaac still tagged them all in the Party menu. There were limits as to how much information could be fed through [Knightly Leader], but Isaac was currently plugged into awork that had grown well beyond that by the addition of numerous high-Level military [Skills]. So. Many. Dead. Fuck! Many people whod been outside when the gravity pir had been triggered had often survived, falling parallel to the street until they left the area of influence and getting flung along the ground, skimming over the asphalt, and ending up with the mother of all road-rashes but often surviving. Most humans liked to put enough points into Fortitude to prevent concussions, broken bones, and the like from being the result of standard idents, which had saved a lot of them. However, almost everyone who was inside a building and failed to get clear when it toppled had died. Being in a copsing structure that was almost the size of a skyscraper would have been bad enough, but the gravity would then push along the mass of broken concrete and rebar out of the area, creating what basically amounted to a giant blender that few people survived. Damnit. Damn. It. All. A single used [Skill] had killed hundreds, possibly thousands, without a care in the world. At least the bastard hadnt survived. And that was ignoring therger issues caused by this act of, well, lets call it what it is, terrorism. The [System] had granted countless opportunities, and people had taken those, growing well beyond what had been possible before. And now those same people, those that had taken full advantage, they would be looked at in askance, for fear of them pulling the same exact crap. Either this would turn into a fight of society against those who bettered themselves, governments against their people, or a free for all. This needed to be handled delicately. Finally, they reached themand area, a sectioned-off portion of a disaster relief tent, protected by a couple of privacy [Skills]. You, hold it right there. A police officer guarding the door said, gesturing towards Isaac. This is Dr. Thoma, they expect him in there. Wirt said with a sigh Check the Party to verify his identity. Then why is he dressed like that? This is myst outfit, everything else burned up in the fight. Isaac said Its also designed to be put on with magic, so unless you want me to cut myself out run around in my birthday suit The guard nched No need for that, but if you could maybe make it so Im not looking at a nk facete? Isaac cursed himself as he reached up, worked his fingers into the biggest crack in the helmet, and tore at it with the help of [Power Strike], removing arge chunk, then proceeding to pull off the rest of his head covering. He should have figured out that running around looking like a sci-fi stormtrooper whod just run through a wildfire was a bad, nay, terrible idea. Better? Yep, Wirt said. When Isaac stepped into themand area, he had to take a moment to take in everything. There was aptop set up on a rickety pic table in one corner, showing Lauterbach, with the background making it clear he was currently on a ne, but not where he was traveling to, with three moreptops showing various politicians and officials Isaac might have seen on TV once or twice but didnt really recognize. Habicht and a few officials he didnt recognize either were standing around another table, discussing options while gesturing towards the [Skill] generated map of Hamburg on the table. However, the three people who were standing apart from them were what drew the eye. Unlike the people physically present or listening in via video conference, these folks were here as literal holograms. They were noticeably not real, slightly transparent, and asionally flickered in a way that was oddly reminiscent of how some sci-fi movies portrayed holographicmunication. These three were clearly military officers, one of them the Bundeswehr Brigadengeneral who currently had operative control over the situation, the second a Luftwaffe Oberst who was likely in charge of the jets flying past overhead, and thest one was another Oberst, but a part of the Bundeswehr instead. Isaac gave a short report as to what had happened in the [Grave of Swords], then, he was sent out to go hunting for other potential cult members. The real debrief would happenter. *** And why exactly did you decide that your only choice was to kill your opponent? a new official, one who hadnt been involved in the initial cleanup, nor the follow-up efforts, asked. Once again. Living. Bio. Weapon. Lauterbach sighed How many times do we have to go over this? Weve done everything short of locking Dr. Thoma in an interrogation room and throwing every lie-detecting [Skill] in the country at him to verify his statements about the danger of the disease increasing during the fight. In fact, Im dering this entire topic off-limits for the entirety of this discussion. This will be talked over to deathter, but now is not the time. On a slightly different topic, what was that armor you were wearing earlier? one of the military officers asked, addressing Isaac Considering how well it held up in the fight, if its for sale, I believe the Bundeswehr would love to purchase it. The Raid Suits will be for sale once it gets out of the prototype stage, but I dont know how much use youd get out of them. Isaac said, Theyre designed to be put on via an equipping [Skill], anyone without one would have to be literally welded into one and theyre functionally impossible to remove without breaking them, especially when damaged. That seems excessive? This armor isnt meant to be worn into every fight but rather be an emergency trump card. Internal potion dispensers apply healing and mana potions when and wherever needed, granting an artificial second wind. Were already nning to add short-lived Stat-boosting enchantments, supercharged to provide the kind of boost you need if you have to resort to using the suit. Isaac exined. We can geek out over fancy toyster. The Brigadengeneral, whose name Isaac had learned was Horn, said Were here to discuss the future, see if anyone has any ideas for turning this around because as things stand, this is a disaster. People are scared, they dont trust any of us to protect them, and they feel like were useless. We need to restore trust in the establishment. Dr. Thoma serves perfectly fine as an example of what can be reached, but even if we paint him as an absolute perfect paragon, it wont fix theck of trust. Lauterbach added. I cant be everywhere, and I cant fix everything, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that. Isaac said Leave me out of the official statements, if someone asks, just say I was there, and dont borate. Highlight the cooperation that led to you winning, that you didnt need a civilians help against a person who reshaped a city with a single [Skill]. We could do that. Lauterbach said thoughtfully Or we could focus on creating heroes. The sniper who shot out the war gods eye, the pilot who is essentially a living thunderstorm andnded the first damaging blow. I realize this might offend some sensibilities, but we can put an unusual level of support behind them. In this new world, there are people who are vastly more capable than others, with [Skill] Evolutions and [ss] options that cannot easily be gained by others, and to get the most out of our resources, well need to focus them onto the people who can get the greatest use out of it. Our guns break when we use them and ones that dont would have to be handmade by world-ss experts, so we wont be able to get more than a few. But we can get a few, and gift them to our champions. Thats going to be expensive. Wachtel said, I looked into getting a couple of those rifles, and the cost runs into the millions. It depends on whos buying. Isaac said For me, all itll cost is a conversation and some raw materials. Also, I believe Oberleutnant Meier deserves a ne suitable for her [ss], doesnt she? I know of an entire university full of engineers whod jump at the chance to custom-build a fighter jet. Good idea. Wachtel said, then looked at Horn Assuming thatll work for the Luftwaffe, at least. Thats settled, then. Lauterbach said, shuffling through the papers on the table in front of him We create heroes to show that the police and military are capable of protecting people. Now we just need to figure out how to prevent a repeat of this disaster. Some of us might unlock [Skills] for crime prevention as we grow in Levels, Habicht suggested. More Levels, thats your solution? One of the civilian aides asked Weve seen how dangerous high-Level individuals are, do we really want to encourage people to reach higher? And do we even know there are many Levels to go? Both of our perpetrators were at Level 100, which seems odd, maybe its the maximum? Unlikely. Isaac said There are three Tiers no one has even touched yet, it wouldnt make sense for those to collectively cover only a handful of Levels. Its more likely that its the fourth Evolution, and that theyre stuck at that point, either because they havent unlocked the [ss] they want yet or because there is a huge spike in levelling difficulty at that point. Damn. Horn muttered, then hurried to exin as everyone turned to stare at him I was just thinking that, if wed just seen the apex of what was possible, we could deal with this situation. More Levels, and hope we get the right [Skills], and then, everything will be alright? another man, whod stayed silent thus far, suggested Heres the thing, the police are a fundamentally reactionary force. If we get to proactive, well turn into the jackbooted thugs that guy was yelling about. The world just doesnt work like that. So maybe we powerlevel the people who dont directly get involved in policing, focus on the policy makers instead? Maybe. Isaac said Now, I know this sounds a bit crazy, but hear me out: we powerlevel politicians. Theyre the ones who shape the way our country does things, so if anyone gets the [Skills] to reduce overall crime rates, itll be them. But well need someone who is willing to take those [Skills] and a [ss] that grants them over something that benefits them personally. A selfless politician, thats quite the oxymoron, Horn said. Emphasis on the moron, I know. Isaac said, waiting until everyone was staring at him to continue Look, we were all thinking it. A selfless politician, wed be more likely to create world peace by legalizing weed than find one of those, but there should be at least one of them in existence, right? My suggestion is, well all make lists, then cross off everyone whom someone has had a problem with. Ive not dealt with politicians beyond voting, Im out of my depth here. But youve been dealing directly with them for years or decades, learned how they are behind closed doors, and who is too opportunistic to be trusted. That list was really something Isaac need help with. He knew a few people who he wouldnt work with due to his knowledge from the other timeline, but that wasnt all that useful when it came to figuring out who he shouldwork with. Do they need to be selfless, though? Lauterbach asked, All wed need is someone whose self-interest aligns with ours, a politician who wants those [Skills] to get elected, because who wouldnt vote for someone with the power to create the perfect economic n that increases everyones wealth across the board? Assuming we cant find someone who hasnt yet been corrupted by spending too much time wheeling and dealing. Horn said But once we have our candidate, what then? Powerleveling through summoning will take a long time. Do you think we might be able to use Dungeons? Habicht asked I know our Dungeons are in their infancy, but if we feed them enough I think I might be able to swing a little something in Seoul, borrow a couple of high Level ones for a week. Isaac said Assuming we can find the right candidate. That just leaves one more problem: wed be shifting the bnce of power in our society in a major way. Before, we had powerful fighters, and the rest of society with a few standouts being shielded from the powerful by the police and military. If we have superpowered politicians, we might end up with those people attempting to take all the power for themselves, to suppress all others from leveling. Lauterbach said, This could get a hell of a lot messier than it already is. Power levelling politicians without offensive powers just with the XP they gain by being in the same Party as the person who defeats the monster will always end with them being weaker than the true fighters. Habicht pointed out The real issue is how to prevent dangerous summons and people growing way too powerful, to the point where they canpletely ignorew and order. We can adjust the rules of summoning. Wachtel suggested Forbid all summoning above, say, Tier 2 outside of designated summoning areas, then allow for people to apply for permits for private summoning but require them to exin what they want to summon and why itll be safe in the presence of someone who can determine the veracity. Someone who gets noticed summoning without a permit will make it a million times easier to spot those who are getting dangerous. I can help narrow down some almost universally applicable parameters for that. Isaac offered. Thanks. Alright, so at least we have an idea of what to do on that front. Lauterbach sighed And now, we have the elephant in the room: what do we know about our foe? How can we track them? We know theyre dangerous and that they somehow got [sses] that might evolve into [Horseman of the Apocalypse]. Habicht said So we know we need to stop them. Theyre also spread out across many businesses, and work in many nations. Unfortunately, all we have is a cer full of half-destroyed record and the brief glimpse Dr. Thoma got of the insides of the lockbox. Wait, thats it? Horn asked, sounding aghast. Its worse than that. Lauterbach sighed The only reason we were even able to organize this raid was that we got an anonymous tip. In other words, there are multiple groups we dont know anything about, with goals that might include ending the world and at least one of them is willing to do that to a major city. Horn sighed, shook his head, and looked around the room, meeting everyones eyes in turn I realize this looks bleak, but we won this round. And I know were capable of winning the next. Were all here because we believe in this cause, in keeping this nation safe. Weve shown what were capable of when working together, and that will carry us all the way to victory! It was one of the most generic speeches Isaac had ever heard, but everyone was so tired, so fried, that it somehow still worked. He wasnt sure if it was the words themselves or the tiny spark of faith they carried with them, but it had worked. All that was left to do now was get out of this tent, and get to work after sleeping for a week straight. And food. And hugging his sisters until they resorted to threats to make him let go. Chapter 174: Hindsight and all that Chapter 174: Hindsight and all that Gott verdammt, Isaac swore as his head began to pound, rubbing at his temples in annoyance. I thought headaches were psychosomatic at our Level? Amy asked cheekily. Normally. Isaac grumbled But normally, I didnt just get another lifetime of experience shoved into my head while Im realizing that I made a huge miscalction. Wait, whats going on? Amy asked, now clearly confused. In lieu of answering, Isaac showed her the description of histest [Skill], the final one needed to fill out his set of training abilities. Experts Insight (legendary) What separates a soldier who just got out of training from a veteran? A student who just got his degree from a lead engineer? A wizards apprentice from an Archmage? The answer to all those questions is, of course, experience. Some things are taught, yes, but others need to be learned from experience. Sometimes, said experience takes the form of repeating an action over and over and eventually figuring out a way to make said action more efficient. In other times, realizationes as a painful realization after a mistake reaps terrible consequences. Either way, this Skill offers up both a massive pool of experience to the user and vastly improves their experience and Skill Level gain by granting preternatural hindsight. If the user has any knowledge on a subject, they find themselves making connections far more readily and rted subjects will be far easier to research. Furthermore, Experts Insight acts as a general memory booster. As with many other Skills in the Hildebrands Heir ss, a lesser version of this Skill can be granted to the users students using Legacy of a True Warrior. However, unlike those other Skills, Experts Insight does not turn into a lesser version of itself, but rather transforms into a fundamentally different Skill called Veterans Knowledge, which allows the user of Experts Insight to directly impart their knowledge (note that this is a limited effect, this Skill will not directly put the taught individual on the same level as the user). You just got a lot of information, sure, but Im not seeing where you went wrong? Amy asked. I saw [Experts Insight] as something that would be very useful for training, but secondary to all the other [Skills] because they would help me personally as well as the people I trained, Isaac said. But now you realized it also serves perfectly fine as a headache inducer? Amymented dryly. That and I also remembered a ton of stuff from the other timeline. As far as superpowers go, super-hindsight sound superme, I know, but its really useful. I remember enchantment schemas I used but didnt take the time to memorize, the runes that made them up. I can see some of the strongest spells cast by multiple mages working together in my mind, and I can tell how they went together because I know all themon spells and most of the lessmon ones. And now, I can pass all that experience along to anyone I taught [Veterans Knowledge] to, even if it doesntpletely get passed along. Isaac said. Do you know how much other informationes along with thebat experience? Because you might end up identally revealing that youre from another timeline. Amy cautioned. We can check, here and now, Isaac said. Is that the only reason youre in the conference room, you were waiting for Guinea pig? Amy asked. Actually, I was going stir-crazy in my office and needed a change of scenery. Isaac sighed, once gain rubbing at his temples Being able to intercept people who are after the drink fridge is a nice bonus, though. Oh, I see how it is. Amy chuckled So, you wanted to see what happens when you pass along knowledge. I hereby grant you the gift of [Veterans Knowledge]. And with it, I transfer my experience on the battlefield. Isaac said, passing along an epic-Level [Skill] with a simple sentence. That was the power of a legendaryteaching [Skill]. No spending hours, days, or even years in a ssroom, no real possibility of misunderstandings, just a clear and concise transmission of knowledge. And then, there were two people sitting in the conference room who were nursing killer headaches. Sorry for making fun of you earlier. Amy said after a while But it was worth it. Magic wreathed above her palm a momentter, spells twisting together andbining into an orb of power that would have blown the room to smithereens just by existing if she hadnt kept irond control over it. If it had actually been used, most of the floor would have been destroyed despite the ungodly level of reinforcing magic present. Combining spells was something Amy had been doing for a while, and her current [ss], [Spellweaver Savant] was focused on that, but thistest spell was on another level. Not on Isaacs new level of understanding and certainly not to on the one that he had seen others reach in the other timeline, but leagues ahead of where shed been. The fact that the amount of information and knowledge gained grew less with every generation wasnt great, but a [Skill] that could turn everyone into a true-blue veteran would have been utterly broken. Amy let the ball of danger that should, by all rights, never have been summoned indoors vanish. And you got that kind of boost, too? she asked as she looked at Isaac, eyes slowly growing huge as she imagined just how strong Isaac might be now. Unfortunately, no. Im well past the point of diminishing returns when ites to training. Ive been fighting with the [System] boosting my learning for over a decade now, and while an entire lifetimes worth of experience helped a lot, most of it was stuff I already knew or could already do better. Too bad. Amy said, then sighed I actually wanted to talk to you about something important before I got sidetracked. Whats wrong? Isaac asked, rmed. I heard a couple of the cops over at the station talking about the ns you guys made after Hamburg and it sounded off. No, stupid. Forbidding people from summoning? I thought we agreed that was a stupid idea. And empowering a politician to save us all, to rule this nation with an iron fist, when has that ever gone right? We did, and it hasnt. Isaac said Because thats not what were actually going to do. There is a reason cops and soldiers arent the ones who run nations, they tend to have a bias for action. The people I talked to arent going to be putting those ns into action, theyre merely going to rmend them, and the ns are going to be changed along the way. In that situation, some kinds of ns needed to be made before everyone started to do their own thing and everything devolved into chaos. The ideas we had are good, deep down, something to base our ns on, but I know how to turn them into something workable. For example, summoning regtions? My suggestion is going to be to make registration voluntary, and that that registration would basically amount to I wont summon anything unless I can handle it, based on the monster having been properly analyzed by a trusted source like a university, government agency or equivalent entity and being judged suitable. That document would then be looked over by someone who can see lies. And Id be leading by shining example, someone who made it this far without idents or rule breaking, at least as far as anyone knows. But isnt summoning dangerous crap all you do when youre not here? Amy asked If people find out you never actually stopped summoning Im guessing you wont includenguage like researching entities have to be in this timeline? You sneaky bastard! Isaac just grinned at her for a moment before answering Exactly. Now, I know not everyone who does things by the book will automatically not cause any trouble, nor will anyone automatically be enemy number one just because they dont register, but the option of registration should make spotting bad actors easier. Theres more to the politicians as well, right? Something you know about how high-Level politicians work but cant exin where you know it from? Amy continued and Isaac nodded. Basically, there are two kinds of [sses] that [Politician] can evolve into. Ones built to get the users ass into the big chair, and ones that help them do a good job once theyre in it. Thetter tend to not do so well outside of democratic nations, but when people are able to vote for their leader, the guy who is able to show his whole character sheet during the election without fear of someone spotting an unsavory [Skill] tends to look pretty good. And then, youve got the [Skills] that improve the whole country just by having their user in charge. Roads that wont crack open every spring even if the people who built them dont have a single [Skill] to reinforce the things they build. The ability to predictbor shortages in certain industries, allowing policies to be adjusted when theres still time. They can even adjust the weather in some ways, preventing the worst of droughts, constant rain and snowfall, and so on. If we can find a few trustworthy people, power level them and have them chose the Evolutions that will let them boost the nation, that could fix a lot of problems. If they dont pick the Evolutions? Amy asked, then facepalmed Then you shout the fact that they chose to pick a selfish [ss] over one that would have benefitted the voters. Then, she grinned wolfishly But if someone else only has [Skills] to manipte the vote but nothing to actually run the damn nation, then I suppose well just have to be in the audience during debates, loudly announcing every time they use a [Skill] to manipte opinions. Her grin grew even wider its not like those tend to backfire when people know theyre in y or something. Isaac shook his head I dont want to run around fixing elections. If theres an Alt-Right candidate whos getting popr while using a ton of [Skills], Ill knock em down a peg or two. If theres a candidate who looks like theyre going to win but has only gotten as far as they have via [Skills] digging up dirt on everyone who goes up against them, Ill be sure to point that out in as public a situation as I can swing. But Im not a political animal, if I were, Id have picked [Machiavellis Heir] as my [ss] when it was offered and Id be dealing with the situation from a chair somewhere. Amy nodded And what are you going to do now? Im going to head over to the engineers bunker, pass all the runes I remembered along to Karl, evacuate the building, and finally, Ill run like hell, Isaac told her. Amy got up, waved at the fridge, and telekically pulled a pair of beer bottles out of it Wait for me, I want to watch the fireworks. Full Character Sheet and [Skill] descriptions (not a Chapter) Full Character Sheet and [Skill] descriptions (not a Chapter) Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Hildebrands Heir Species: High Human Level: 99 XP: 17,135/50,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 2,000/2,000 Stats Fortitude 210 Perception 350 Strength 210 Agility 400 Magic Power 210 Magic Regeneration 365 Free Points: 0 Stat, 1 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Central Skills Form of Horror XXIV The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword X Grave of Swords XX Armory of Ancient Times XVII Legacy of a True Warrior XII Skills Hundred Faces XXVI Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXIX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXVII Manifold Strike XX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XXV Bestial Regeneration XXVII Undying Focus XXIII Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XVII Compounded Impact XVI True Cut VIII Legendary Blow XV Fully Geared X Knightly Leader XIV Analyze Person IX Continent Strider III Burden of Power IV Experts Insight I General Skills Gralloch XII Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VI Police Procedure V Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Acid Drake Drakes Heart Least Demon Lord (2 Stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme ss Central Skills Form of Horror (legendary, Level XX) There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, andstly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the users Aspects. Current Aspects: Aspect of the Poltergeist, Aspect of the Greater Hydra, Aspect of the Megalodon, Aspect of the Fata Morgana, Aspect of the de Tempest, Aspect of the Acid Drake If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the users new form. Furthermore, while in this form the users Strength and Fortitude are increased by 45 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 70 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated once every hour andsts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. In addition, the user can now create a second form while drawing only on the Aspects they wish to use, customizing it for specific purposes. Once set, this form can only be changed after removing the previous form, which takes 24 hours. Additional Slots are unlocked at Skill Levels fifteen and twenty. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to annihte foes that should have been well beyond his capabilities, it has been increased to a level of power worthy of its own legend. The user may now transform into any non-Boss creature whose Aspect he holds and has a Level that does not exceed his by more than 10 (more powerful creatures may suffer from a shortened duration). In addition, the user may manifest body parts of the monsters for a cost dependent on the specific body part copied on their normal body. Current Forms: Aspect Amalgam King of the Sea Ruler of the Airspace Perfect Amalgam The Chosen Weapon (epic, Level XX) There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent. But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death. And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then bes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user. As this Skills Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained. In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers. The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the users, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level in this Skill. Based on the users Level in the de Skill, The Chosen Weapon (Old Reliable), gains a new ability for every Aspect the user holds. This weapon may now absorb two (one remaining) additional weapons to be used as an alternate form for The Chosen Weapon. This number will increase by one with every [ss] Evolution. I Am The Sword (legendary, Level X) In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal. And with this Skill, both is the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the users form will be indestructible, immoveable, and invible while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. In addition, the users static body acts as a de, far more likely to cut through instead of push away the target, and Skills that require a de can be used upon it. This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana Grave of Swords (legendary, Level XX) A vast field, countless des thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this space This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space. Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another ne (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the users soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though. The Skill ends if onebatant dies, it hits its time limit, or is deactivated by the user, any leftover mana will be refunded and ced in the Skills pool. When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new de is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger. However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+5 mana per opponent Level over the users, +50 for each Tier barrier between the users Level and the monsters, overall cost doubled for Bosses, tripled for Raid Bosses and quintupled for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 5 hours, cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored des. After countless fights where the user has sealed powerful foes within to protect his allies, this Skill has evolved to further enhance the isting power of Grave of Swords. It can now be used to seal of a part of the battlefield, creating an incredibly durable spherical barrier around the user, with a radius of 50 meters (it increases automatically forrger, singr foes, ording to the same rules as the regr use of this Skill). The user may choose to banish any person in their Party from this zone to protect them, but enemies cannot be forcibly removed. (Note: inanimate objects ovepping the barrier will not be damaged, living beings will either be pushed into or out of the Grave of Swords if they ovep the barrier during its creation, depending on where the majority of their body is) Furthermore, this Skill has gained an additional effect due to a high degree of synergy with the ss Hildebrands Heir. When using the Grave of Swords to train against enemies trapped within, the user may choose to take along up to five other people. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost forbat purposed, cost increases with targets power, increase must be paid from stored des or the users mana pool Armory of Ancient Times (legendary, Level X) They had some good stuff back in the time of legends, didnt they? Legendary swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings and belts that granted the strength of ten men all that good stuff. But we dont have that stuff anymore, they were either lost to history or they never existed in the first ce. But with this Skill, it doesnt really matter which of those is true, because Hildebrands Heir is able to summon anything he wants, so long as Hildebrand once held it, such as his sword Balmung, once wielded by Siegfried. You may summon multiple weapons (or objects) at a time, and doing so will reserve 100 points of your mana to maintain it unless you can find alternative ways of sustaining it for the first, with the cost doubling with every additional summon. As you learn more about Hildebrands legend, youll learn more about what you can summon. Currently avable gear: Balmung, Nagelring, Eckesachs, Mimung, assorted mundane gear, Laurins Ring, Hildegrim Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level X) Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and hispanion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that mans legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience inbat both figurative and literal. Not only that, but all of that experience has been improved by the knowledge of how to apply it to a world with the [System]. But even though Hildebrands personal achievements are hardly small, they pale inparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others. Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly elerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is rted to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, orbat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear). But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your ss Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself): -Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination) -Epic Blow (downgraded from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows) -Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space) -Veterans Knowledge (downgrade from Experts Insight, grants overall knowledge and the asional sh of insight) You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior. Skills taught this week 0/15 However, there is one more way the Heir of Master Hildebrand can teach people. After reaching Level 10 in this Skill, the Heir may teach groups of up to five people at a time. This will only grant a rare Skill, rather than an epic one, but only use up a single timeslot. Using a few hours of one-on-one training and 80% of a slot, the Skill can be upgraded to its full power. In addition, this Skill allows the Heir to seamlessly interface with training Skills used by coworkers. ss Skills Hundred Faces mon, Level XX) Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable topletely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesnt have to be the users true face. This Skill allows the user to adjust their entire body, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. This will not, however, affect the users physical capabilities. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to hide the users true feelings it has evolved to act as a method to hide the users emotions as it does their true appearance. It is now far more capable of changing facial expressions to reflect false feelings and these false feelings will also be what emotion-sensing Skills will see. Cost: 50 mana per minute while adjusting, 15 mana per minute while cloaking emotions Stealth mon, Level XX) Use magic to shield the users form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels. However, users expertise has increased the power of this Skill, allowing it to suppress the users smell and prevent the user from leaving physical traces while it is activated. After countless battles where this Skill was used to stalk and eventually take down prey, be it animal, monster or human, it has evolved to reflect this, the process of the hunt. While in stealth, the user may instill a sense of dread and foreboding in his intended victims with no clear source, ensuring they know there is something hunting them, and even create sounds and shes of something in the dark at a distance to serve as a distraction. Cost: 1 mana/sec, doubled while secondary power is in effect Piercing Strike mon, Level max) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for 2 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to bebined with other Skills. After countless battles where this Skill was used to pierce the very core of an enemy and y them in a single, swift, strike it has evolved into an even deadlier form. It may now stab through space itself, any thrusting attack empowered with itunching a beam of all-piercing energy at triple the mana cost. In addition, using this Skill will give the user insight into the location of his opponents vital organs. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. It will now linger on any de it is used upon, constantly providing it a degree of unnatural sharpness that can also cut immaterial things, which will only be further boosted if this Skill is used actively. Using this in conjunction with True Cut will reduce the cost of the other Skill. Lastly, Piercing Strikes base cost has been reduced while it has also gained the ability to be overcharged. tier Cost: 5-50 mana per strike, 40 mana per ranged attack Sundering Strike mon, Level max) Users next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. This Skill can also be toggled to be almost undetectable, destroying any nerves or creature specific equivalent upon impact, or cause maximum pain by directly irritating whatever pain receptors a being might have. After countless battles where this Skill was used to tear apart the users foes, shredding them on a fundamental level until their own movements tore them apart, it has evolved to destroy them, rather than merely weakening them. For an additional 18 mana, this Skill will now inject a weakening, magic based poison that rots an enemys flesh and corrodes their defenses until nothing but soup remains. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. What once merely weakened armor to make follow-up attacks more effective was supercharged to melt flesh wholesale, eventually being used to simply destroy the entirety of a monsters internal organs. Now, Sundering Strike is able to disintegrate matter through touch or weapon, though its cost climbs exponentially as the target bes tougher, has the properties of armor or is intended to be used for defensive purposes. Cost: 12 mana per strike, 30 mana per poisoning Strike, 100 mana minimum for disintegration (unarmored flesh belonging to a being at your Level) Power Strike mon, Level XXX) The users next blow will hit as though their strength were three times as high. This Skill may now also be safely used on fists and legs and has a reduced bacsh on the users body. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to drive a piercing de into an enemys flesh, it has evolved to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction, driving the cutting edge into the foe while pushing them with vastly reduced strength, massively improving armor pration. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, infusing each and every attack with a permanent 20 % increase in impact power, regardless of whether or not this Skill was activated. Cost: 12 mana per strike Sneak mon, Level XX) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world atrge, to the point of nearplete invisibility. This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world. After countless situations where it was used to hide in in sight to avoid public attention, this [Skill] has evolved to create a permanent (toggleable) effect that makes supernatural or attention grabbing disys by the user less obvious. (This effect is powered by ambient mana, ack of such will require the user to power it themselves) Cost: 10 mana per minute des mon, Level XX) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and nonbat applications. In addition, the user may repair any ded weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the users hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool. After countless battles where the user has obliterated his foes using a soulbound de able to gain new abilities from power foes while making extensive use of Aspects, it has gained the ability to infuse the weapon, Old Reliable, with the power of said Aspects to give it new forms. Far Strike mon, Level XX) Upon the Users next melee attack with a ded weapon, the de will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. In addition, the User may now imbued his weapons with ten mana to create a range enhancing aura for a full minute. This extra reach is 0.5 meters, gaining an additional 0.1n meters, with n being every Level in this Skill over 10. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to destroy foes that thought they were safe due to being out of range, this Skill has evolved to grant him even an greater reach. The user may now input more mana at will, with the range doubling with every additional 20 points of mana invested. Caution: Extremely long des may give way if engaged along their entire length, this may be mitigated by applying a second Skill to strengthen it (elligble Skills: Piercing Strike, Power Strike). Cost: 20 mana minimum, no maximum mana investment Sweeping Strike (umon) Upon the users next attack, 5 des of 3+.3n meters in length, where n equals skill level, will extend from the de, allowing the user to strike at arge area. Spread of des must be specified by user, maximum spread is 45. Length of des may be reduced to reduce mana cost. The user may also now choose how the des are spread, it is not necessary for them to be evenly spaced. Cost: 30 mana + 5 mana/meter Manifold Strike (legendary, Level XX) The user maybine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X avable for each Skill used below that Level. In addition, the overall potency of the Skills used increases by 10 %. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to deal devastating damage using the rightbination of lesser Strikes, especially whenbined with a second Skill that allows for multiple uses of the same strike, it has evolved to be even more powerful than the sum of its parts. Now, when staking multiple instances of this Skill using Legendary Blow, one may choose which Strike to use how often, modifying proportions as needed to create a truly optimal attack with no mana going to waste. In addition, theplimentary Skill of Legendary Blow has been enhanced to allow for an additional instance to be applied, for a total maximum of seven possible stacks. Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.20^used Skills Hunters Gaze (epic, Level XXX) There are many possible upgrades to the basic Inspect Skill. Some allow for improved examination of details, others are far better at piercing information protection Skills. This one is different. It loses any ability to gaze past defenses for raw details unless the defenses are veryweak, but gains an incredible power at getting rough information on the users foes. Barring an incredible Level disparity, the user will be able to sense whether someones Stats are higher, lower orparable to the Users, how many Aspects they have and what their overall affinities are. But by using the information gained via this Skill, an Undying Wraith will be able to deduce anything Inspect could grant, and more. In addition, this [Skill] allows the user to see mana and sense the purpose of Skills being used in front of him. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to seek out every secret an enemy held has evolved to see absolutely everything an enemy might try to hide, instantly recognizing passive Skills, all manner of active abilities and slotting them into a newly gained mental library and highlighting any past experiences with simr Skills. Lastly, it gains vastly enhanced Privacy pration abilities and further grows as the users Perception increases. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, able to read the past Skill use of those that would oppose the person wielding the Hunters Gaze. The more powerful a Skill, the greater and longersting an imprint it leaves in its users spiritual body. And the more recently it was used, the stronger and clearer said imprint was. Should a foe have used all their Skills recently, this can be read like a book, figuring out the entirety of their Skillset at a nce. And even should that not be the case, this Skill will still be useful as it provides a vastly improved ability to understand an enemys powers and abilities, eventually allowing them to be beaten or countered with contemptuous ease. Tools of Terror (epic, Level X) An Undying Wraith is never unarmed, eternally equipped with the tools of his in foes. This Skill allows the user to draw upon the natural weapons once possessed by any creature whose Aspect he holds. Cost: 10 mana per weapon minimum, up to 100 mana for extremelyrge weapons, 1 mana every second to sustain it Undying Focus (epic, Level XX) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, includingpletely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing ones sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. Furthermore, this Skill boosts the users resistance to hostile aura effects. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to ignore even horrific injuries and terrible pain, it has evolved to allow the user to remove health seeping and other negative status effects through sheer force of will. Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level XX) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the users regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will be used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the users mana pool. This pools size is Skill Level*25. In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to keep its wielder alive through horrific injuries, it has evolved to provide a speed to boost to all of the users self-healing powers, with the mana cost increasing proportionally to the boost, with a maximum increase of one hundred percent. Fleeting Presence (epic, Level X) There one moment, gone the next. Completely gone. This Skill tells the user how to erase all traces of their presence, such as footprints, avoid breaking branches and trampling shrubs. However, it also stops the user from shedding all the usual traces that all humans leave behind, such as skin and hair cell. It also prevents the oils found on human fingers from leaving behind fingerprints, though it will not prevent fingerprints from appearing if the user were to touch a material that is easily imprinted upon, such as soft wax, putty or a heavyyer of dust, instead disturbing the material until the fingerprint is no longer visible, but that by itself could be spotted. Likewise, nothing will transfer from the users clothes or shoes to any surfaces, and footprints will be removed, but the signs that something was removed might still be visible. Phantom Step (epic, Level X) A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skills Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles. You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night. With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved. This Skill may now also be used simultaneously with either [Spectral Shift] or [Stealth]. Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 2 mana per three meters of unobserved travel, 4 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 10 m +2 m per Skill Level Crippling Blow (epic, Level X) Striking down a target with a single attack is the sign of a truly excellent Assassin or other stealth basedbat ss. But sometimes, that simply isnt possible. A foe is toorge, too good at regenerating, or simply has more than one point that needs to be targeted in order to kill it. And thats where this Skilles in. Activating this Skill will cripple any mechanism, biological, mechanical or magical, that the user touches and can be projected through armor or hide at a length of up to 5 cm, increasing by 1 cm per Skill Level. This requires the user to focus on the specific thing they want to disrupt (i.e. sensory organs to impede perception, limbs to slow down movement, natural weapons to reduce offensive power, etc.). By default, this Skill is very painful, but that can be increased to near-crippling levels for a slight increase in cost. Cost: 20 mana per use minimum, can be increased up to 150 to affect powerful enemies or tough body parts Unknown Fear (epic, Level XX) There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown. With this Skill, the user bes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, be fear itself. It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility. In addition, this Skill may now be used to project a false status when Inspect style Skills are used. However, the user of Unknown Fear does not have true control over what the other person sees, they can only switch between showing them whatever they hope to see, something menacing, or merely a nk fa?ade. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to hide its users true nature from warriors and kings, knaves and stalwart defenders of justice, it has evolved to hide even its own attributes. Initially, Unknown Fear merely showed the vast, unknowable abyss to those who dared to Inspect its user, yet that, in itself, could identify them. This kind of all-epassing darkness is by no means unique to Unknown Fear, but it is hardly amon impression to receive from a failed Inspect. Now, however, whenever the user chooses to take on a different persona, the feedback likewise subtly shifts to the point where it cannot be connected to them. In addition, it will always take on the same feedback type when the same persona is taken up. Absolute de Mastery (legendary, Level X) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the de. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, other spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. Yet none of them have ever reached this stage, because they couldnt. Normally, there is always more to learn. At some point, you will solidly run into the issue of diminishing returns, but your path will never truly end. And then, theres this Skill. Might not grant absolute skill with the de, but it allows the user to truly master it in all of its forms, in two different ways. Firstly, now any and all skill and experience with any de carry over to any and all other des. Never, ever, under any circumstances, will a tiny difference in bnce, length or weight screw you up, never again. You can pick up an entirely new type of sword that youve never even conceived of, as long as you are a master of some manner of sword, you will also be a master of this one. Secondly, never again will you cut something you did not mean to cut. You have absolute control over your weapons, you could shave a furious cat actively trying to murder you with a gauntlet sword without ever even so much as inflicting a single scratch, this is the level of fine control you hold now that you have this Skill. Hell, you could wave a chainsaw around in a crowded disco and unless you want to hurt people or destroy objects, the only issue would be the noise. Lastly, this truly legendary level of skill with the de can now be shared with others. The secondary effects of this Skill will not be imparted, but proper use of the de can turn even a blunt pair of scissors into a lethal weapon, and this is what your students will learn. Compounded Impact (legendary, Level X) When striking at the same ce, over and over again, each blow will cut deeper than thest. With this Skill, a bond will be created between the users de and an opponent, every additional strike hitting harder and harder, drawing an ever increasing amount of mana until even a casual tap contains the force to shred mountains. (Combo resets after 5 seconds of no sessful hits) For an additional cost of 10 mana upfront, the first strike can be enhanced to count as the fifth hit in the series. Cost: 1 mana, doubles every use, resets after 3 seconds True Cut (legendary) What can be cut? Paper? Flesh? Bone? Rock? Metal? Air? At what point is something too hard to cut, and can you even cut liquids or gasses? What about things with no physical form to cut? Well, with this Skill, the answer is that everything can be cut, no matter how hard, no matter how immaterial, no matter how conceptual it may be. Defenses sundered with a swipe as a magical shield is destroyed in a single swipe or the very concept of armor ceases to function for the brief instant it takes for the target to lose its head. However, not all uses of this Skill are as grand as that. At its most basic, True Cut can be used directly on the effects of another Skill and cut it, disabling it for a period dependent on the amount of mana invested. IMPORTANT: Concepts cannot be destroyed, only damaged, and will return rapidly, possibly instantaneously, and can only be affected in a small area. WARNING: The cost of this Skill depends on the target and may exceed the users mana pool by a significant degree, attempting to overdraw the mana pool will lead to the users death. Cost: variable, depending on type Legendary Blow (legendary, Level X) A single blow to shatter mountains, raze city walls or split the sea, these are the things stories are written about and when someone uses this Skill, there is a good chance that too will end up being turned into a story. When Legendary Blow is activated, the user may use any of their Strike/Blow/Shot Skills up to six (seven due to Manifold Strike Evolution) times to enhance a single attack, massively increasing its power. With every Level in this Skill, the cost ofponent Skills is reduced by 5 %, up to 25%, Levels past that merely boost the already ludicrous levels of power this Skill harbors into the stratosphere. Knightly Leader (legendary, Level X) Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonyer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires,rades in arm and asionally, a mentor thats along for the ride. This Skill is an essentialponent of leading a group of your fellows intobat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each others health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, sses and Skills) Thirdly, anymands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary. In addition, the user can remotely talk to party members up to five hundred meters away, with the distance increasing another one hundred meters per Level in this Skill. And finally, the user can set up contingencies ahead of time, so orders are issued without the user needing to fully articte potentiallyplex statements in the middle of a fight for their lives. These orders can be cancelled at any time, should it be necessary, and new ones can always be added though it would be inadvisable if a distraction would endanger them. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain Experts Insight (legendary) What separates a soldier who just got out of training from a veteran? A student who just got his degree from a lead engineer? A wizards apprentice from an Archmage? The answer to all those questions is, of course, experience. Some things are taught, yes, but others need to be learned from experience. Sometimes, said experience takes the form of repeating an action over and over and eventually figuring out a way to make said action more efficient. In other times, realizationes as a painful realization after a mistake reaps terrible consequences. Either way, this Skill offers up both a massive pool of experience to the user and vastly improves their experience and Skill Level gain by granting preternatural hindsight. If the user has any knowledge on a subject, they find themselves making connections far more readily and rted subjects will be far easier to research. Furthermore, Experts Insight acts as a general memory booster. As with many other Skills in the Hildebrands Heir ss, a lesser version of this Skill can be granted to the users students using Legacy of a True Warrior. However, unlike those other Skills, Experts Insight does not turn into a lesser version of itself, but rather transforms into a fundamentally different Skill called Veterans Knowledge, which allows the user of Experts Insight to directly impart their knowledge (note that this is a limited effect, this Skill will not directly put the taught individual on the same level as the user). Fully Geared (legendary) The historical definition of a knight is a lesser nobleman who maintains his own set of heavy armor and a warhorse. Therefore, a knight without his armor is no knight at all. And as sturdy as armor is, it can break, get stolen or simply fall apart if it gets too old. If you want your armor to survive for more than a couple of fights, this Skill is essential. It allows the user to store four full outfits in an extradimensional storage and dress themselves with a mere thought. Armor and clothing is cleaned upon being stored and damage is repaired so long as the required materials needed to rece removed parts are provided. Equipped armor can be reinforced using mana. Cost: 10 mana to store/equip/switch outfits, 5 mana per second to repair clothing, 50 mana per minute to reinforce armor Burden of Power (legendary) Heavy is the head that wears the crown, or so the saying goes. And its true, only fools see the crown as something that turns ones life into a great and wonderful paradise. If one fulfills even a fraction of the responsibilities that leading a country requires, then ones life will be filled with hard work. This is the Burden of Power. When this Skill is activated, that burden shows in your Aura, a tangible thing for all to see, experience and be impacted by. It can either be used to focus attention on yourself and demonstrate your status as a leader, or you can now temporarily offload a small amount of that burden upon your foes and watch them crumble. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 20 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 50 mana per minute Warning: Using two Auric Infusion Skills simultaneously will increase the overall cost by fifty percent Analyze Person (legendary) Politicians, managers, hucksters. All kinds of people have all sorts of insights into the human condition, and the associated sses have a myriad of Skills to help them with that, each one purpose built for a specific kind of analysis, giving them the exact kind of knowledge needed to do what they do. This Skill, on the other hand, is the distition of a lifetime of experience reading people, empowered to a supernatural degree. It might not have the power of a focused Skill and therefore falls far short of thebined abilities of a social ss, but it doesnt have to match the might of an entire ss because that is not its purpose. This is a Skill that makes your current social skills useful in a world where magic can interfere with social interactions, as well as empowering said social skills with a lifetimes worth of experience. In addition, it allows for a degree of insight into what Skills are interfering with your mind/arguments. In addition, blocking hostile social Skills will be easier and will work with a smaller Level gap than normal. Continent Strider (legendary) In olden times, it could take months or years to go from city to city, from country to country. Modern technology has shrunken the world somewhat, but it still takes quite a while to move significant distances. This Skill not only removes the need for modern technology to travel vast distances in a reasonable timeframe, but further boosts the travel speed while moving on foot. Your movement speed on foot or horseback will increase exponentially with this Skill active. Continent Strider cannot be activated inbat or while fleeingbat, it is purely a utility Skill. This Skill can be applied to all party members so long as said party members are within 100 meters of the user and the user is the party leader. Cost: 500 mana per hour, plus 100 per party member General Skills Gralloch mon, Level X) This Skill is quintessential for a hunter after the hunt is done. It teaches the User how to properly skin and clean a kill, separate out the important and valuable parts and reduces the risk of identally damaging any organs. It also points out some basic uses for the harvested parts. Alchemy mon, Level X) Whenbining things with magical properties, many things may happen, some good, some bad, some just in explosive. This Skill is a catch all that supports these kinds of pursuits by granting basic knowledge and making its further acquisition easier. It will also highlight useful alchemical ingredients and give information about their mostmon uses. Deaths Embrace (epic) A hug is nice, isnt it? The warm embrace of a loved one, assuring you that you are not alone in this world, that you are loved yeah, this isnt that. This is the cold embrace of skeletal arms wrapped around you, bones poking into you as the deathly cold that radiates from them saps your life force. This terrifying effect can be created in one of two ways. The first of these is to infuse you Aura with this Skill, increasing its ability to inflict damage, temporarily reducing an opponents regenerative ability and physical Stats upon dealing damage. This has an ongoing cost of 50 mana per minute for the Aura of the Desperate Seeker and 20 mana per minute for the Aura of the Crimson Dawn. The second fills the space around the caster with a dark miasma that weakens any designated enemy to a degree proportional to the amount of mana invested. The target area is a circle with a diameter of 20 meters centered on the user and does not move with them, remaining where it was first cast. This costs 20 mana to activate, as well as thirty mana per minute as upkeep, and will reduce all Stats of affected enemies by 5. Investing an additional 20 points of mana will further reduce your opponents Stats by 10. Each set of twenty mana invested beyond that will be ten percent less effective, additively. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 20 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 50 mana per minute Area Debuff: 30 mana to activate, 20 mana per minute of use, more mana may be infused at will Warning: Using two Auric Infusion Skills simultaneously will increase the overall cost by fifty percent Advanced Bureaucracy (umon) As the saying goes, money makes the world go round. But what makes money move? Bureaucracy. And that is what this Skill is all about. It grants you a high degree of awareness into the rules that govern what you are doing at the moment (this effect can be toggled on and off), and allows you to integrate your bureaucratical tasks into the System, creating task lists, taking inventory without having to be physically present once it was taken in-person, and so on. But as you continue to hack your path through the jungles of paperwork, this [Skill] is capable of extending to cover new applications. Police Procedure mon) This Skill represents the core knowledge that any member ofw enforcement should know. When to exercise caution, in what few situations violence is eptable, and when, and more importantly, how to exercise restraint. In addition, this Skill acts as a repository for allw enforcement procedures taught to its user, ensuring they are retained and the knowledge is avable when it is needed. Bloodline of the Hellborn Survivor (legendary) The legacy of a warrior who lived through countless battles, countless injuries, countless tragedies, someone who came through it allpletely intact. And that is what this Bloodline represents. As its first holder was a High Human, all others also gain this powerful Race. In addition to this, it grants countless Skills useful to surviving attacks. Firstly, ites with extraordinary regenerative capabilities, which even extend to injuries to the brain, a separate mana storage to power said regeneration and the power for organs to take over the function of other, damaged ones. And when all of that proves insufficient, the body will temporarily gain the power to ignore nearly all injuries. Starting once they have reached the age of majority, they also gain significant resistance to pain. Secondly, the holder of this bloodline has the ability to phase through solid objects, granting them the mobility needed to escape all confinement. Thirdly, it automatically grants a preternatural level of skill with all ded weapons, as well as stealth. In addition, this Bloodline makes analyzing its holders nearly impossible. However, there is more to this Bloodline than mere survivability. Its holders may wield the very Hellfire that forged its progenitor, but only in the most dire of circumstances, with their parents permission, or if they have reached the age of majority. Lastly, anyone in possession of this Bloodline is able to use it to signal distress to anyone else who hold it once a year. Finalize Bloodline Y/N? (Hydras Regeneration, Redundant Organs, Phasing, Unknown Fear, des, Sneak, Undying Will, Moment of Immortality, des, Sneak, Bestial Regeneration) Aspect Skills Flight of the Poltergeist (epic) Once you are dead, you are free. Free from responsibilities, free from death, free from gravity. With this Skill, you gain a Poltergeists ability to nullify gravity and take to the air, nullify the effect of wind and air resistance to avoid being blown away like a leaf in a hurricane by the slightest breeze and start to elerate yourself at a constant rate of 1 m/s^2 for a maximum speed of 150 m/s. Cost: 1 mana per second per active effect (air resistance nullification, gravity nullification or telekic self-eleration) Ephemeral Form (epic) Walls, fortresses, even bunkers that sit at the heart of a mountain, none of these can stop an Ephemeral being. The only thing able to damage such a being is raw mana or Skills fueled by it. But transforming would be rather risky if an errant Spell would tear through them, wouldnt it? Thats why true powerhouses among the Ephemeral are able to spend additional mana to reinforce their bodies and mitigate said vulnerability to some degree. While shifted, the user of this Skill can choose to treat objects as physical and interact with them normally or treat them as though they didnt exist. Cost: 10 mana for activation, 5 mana per second of upkeep, upkeep can be increased up to 50 mana per second to resist foreign mana Haunting Pursuit (epic) It doesnt matter where you try to run, where you try to hide, what you try to use as a shield. Nothing will stop the Arcane Poltergeist when it has decided to kill you. This is the power of the deads unending hatred for the living, the need to tear them apart and bathe in their entrails. This Skill makes its user aware of all living beings around themselves in a radius of a hundred meters for 5 mana per minute, and can give more precise locations the more mana is invested, up to a maximum of 100 per minute. One the user has chosen a target, they can spend another 50 points of mana to mark them, gaining the ability to track them precisely so long as they remain withing 10 km, as well as knowing the most direct route to reaching them. Cost: 5-100 mana per minute for a passive scan, 50 points per mark per hour Hydras Regeneration (epic) This Skill allows the User to rapidly regenerate from injuries at the cost of mana. Regeneratingrge amounts of flesh may be ufortable. Cost: 5-25 per second of use, 50 mana per kilogram of flesh restored Redundant Organs (epic) This is a passive Skill that allows the users organs to take over each others responsibilities, within reason, increasing all their overall performance by creating a vastwork of redundancies. A liver that pumps blood, kidneys that remove alcohol, a pituitary nd that produces insulin. These effects will never be as strong as the original function, but it will massively reduce the debilitating consequences of any injuries. Ignore Injury (epic) There are Skills to mitigate the effect of certain injuries, there are Skills to fix such injuries without the services of a healer. And then, theres this Skill, which lets the user act as though theyd never even been injured in the first ce. While this Skill is active (can be toggled on and off at will), the user is able topletely ignore any and all injuries, but all actions that would be impeded by injuries grow more difficult and draining. Moving broken toe will be about as difficult as picking up ones phone while moving the same toe with a severed spinal cord might be as difficult as carrying a mountain. Sharks Body (epic) There are plenty of Skills to let one breathe underwater, but for most of them, thats all they do. This one is a little different, in addition to gaining the ability to survive theck of gaseous oxygen and the crushing weight of the ocean overhead, it gives the user an additional form, said form being a shark-human hybrid,plete with sharkskin, as well as webbed hands and feet, electromaic senses, and an improved sense of smell. Clothing worn in the human form will vanish with the human form, though some articles of clothing may be kept on. (The passive effect of the Gills Skill will continue to work even if this Skill is not active.) Cost: 7 mana to transform, 1 mana per minute to maintain transformation Wave Charge (epic) There is a charge, and then there is a charge, something that isnt merely the act of rushing forward at an enemy. Activating this Skill will fling the user forward, running at a chosen target, without needing a solid surface to jump off of. In addition, it ignores all kinds of non-solid resistance. Cost: 15 mana Lesser Illusion (epic) When first using this Skill, the user must choose a two subjects to create an illusion of (specific person, object, creature, etc.). From that point onwards, the user may create an illusionary version of them at will (the illusions will update to match the chosen subjects). In addition, the user may directly create illusions based solely on their imagination, though it will require a high degree of focus and concentration, with the cost scaling with the area of manipted space. Cost (preset illusion): 15 mana per activation, 1 mana per second of upkeep Cost (direct maniption): 50 mana per minute per cubic meter Perception Interdiction (epic) This Skill allows the user to create a five-meter diameter sphere in which enhanced senses function considerably more poorly, reducing their effective power by the equivalent of 1 point of Perception per 10 mana invested. In addition, the user may infuse a room with this energy, creating a stationary effect that willst so long as the user does not dismiss it, continues to pay the upkeep cost and remains within 100 kilometers of the room. The cost is identical to the first effect, but increases if the rooms size exceeds 125 m3. Cost: activation cost variable, upkeep cost 1/5 of activation cost per minute Warp Wave (epic) Up, down, left, right, whats it all mean? Nothing! This Skill emits a st of energy that impacts nearby enemies and disorients them by messing with their senses, even inflicting synesthesia or swapping the sensory inputs between identical sensory organs. The power of this Skill increases against weaker enemies, as well as those whose Aura has been suppressed. Cost: 50 mana Drakes Heart (umon) Within your breast now beats the heart of the most legendary of beasts. A dragon (technically, a Drake does qualify as a type dragon, but has nowhere near the same level of power). This confers a few benefits. First off, it provides a certain degree of resistance to the element wielded by the Drake that provided the Aspect. In addition, it grants a sliver of draconic vitality, increasing resistance to diseases, as well as the users longevity. Moment of Immortality (legendary) What kind of monster can have its guts hanging out, be bleeding from countless arterial wounds, and still be fighting? One with this Skill, thats what. Moment of Immortality activates automatically when it is needed, granting the user the ability to survive with massive bloodloss and without aplete set of internal organs. In fact, few things short of being pulverized will be able to kill the Skill user while it is active, but it is by no means a perfect defense. Moment of Immortalitysts for twenty seconds and can only be activated every 168 hours. Grand Hellme (epic) The flickering me of a candle. A crackling fire in the firece. The burning heat of a cksmiths forge. An welding torch. Sure, all of those things could be considered fire, but dont really seem like they deserve the monikerpared to what this Skill can produce. The holder of this Skill can wield the fires of hell, in their full all-consuming, life-force destroying glory, while gainingplete immunity to any and all fires up to and including this Skills power level. Cost: 100 per second to generate, 10-50 per second to control, 200 to extinguish all fires caused by generated me Auras Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood/renewalbat) When the System descended, it brought war with it. War, conflict, bloodshed. Some people drowned in it, their lives ending in one of a myriad of horrible ways. Others, though, they survived and rose back up, stronger than ever. A phoenix, rising from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield and taking flight among the pirs of smoke that rise from the field of corpses, reborn anew in the crucible of blood and steel to take war to take war to the very heavens themselves. This Aura allows the user to wreath themselves in an aura of blood and violence, projecting hardened bs of crimson energy around themselves, to be used as a means of attack and defense, as well as to enhance the users stats by up to 10% (this can be increased through practice). However, while this Aura is active, the user embodies the very spirit of a phoenix emerging from the ocean of blood that covers the battlefield, healing in the midst of a storm of violence, constantly increasing as conflict continues and esctes, and as more blood and more blood soaks the soil underfoot. If the user wants to, it can also show those who sense it the entirety of what the user has killed, demonstrating their power and achievements to all those who would dare to face them on the field of battle. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), cannot be overcharged with mana, projections cost vary between 5-20 mana per second or spilled blood Aura of the Desperate Seeker (very long range, sensory, mental/emotion) We all search for things in this life. Money, wealth, power, freedom, those are themon ones. But others seek knowledge instead, be that for knowledges sake, slowly and methodically uncovering all the secrets the world holds, or to achieve some goal, desperately searching for the solution, wing at the world to make it release its secrets. This Aura embodies the spirits of thetter, of grabbing reality itself by the cor and shaking it until it gives up all that delicious information. It is a sensory Aura that given the user information about anything it touches, and can be focused to further enhance the amount of information it gives. It may also be used in conjunction with Inspect and its upgrades to gain information on monsters and other people without needing direct line of site on them, so long as they are within the Auras range. Lastly, this Aura may be infused with the frantic, manic energy of desperation and can be used as a (weak) mental attack. Cost: standard (10 mana per minute), can be overcharged with up to 25 mana per minute to enhance information defense pration and secondary mental effects. Equipment Weapon: Old Reliable Once merely an ordinary Ka-Bar, this weapon has been refined and strengthened by the Skills of a Rogue, bathed in the blood of countless powerful monsters and finally imed as The Chosen Weapon of an Undying Wraith, transcending its old purpose and limitations. Ever-growing with its wielder, the Old Reliable will not only gain strength, but entirely new powers as it is used in legendary battles and bathed in the blood of the enemies that fall in them. Mana Pool: 310/310 Forms: Ka-Bar, Kriegsmesser, Zweih?nder, Balmung, Giant Sword Skills: To Me: Calls Old Reliable back into the wielders hand in a straight line, costs 10 mana, at a range of a maximum of 10 meters. Always Armed: Teleports Old Reliable into the wielders hand from anywhere in the universe. The minimum cost is 50 and scales with distance and interfering effects. Eternity: Old Reliable is as eternal as its wielder. So long as he is alive, this weapon has the opportunity to be reborn. Doing so will require all of the materials used to build it in the first ce, as well as 500 mana. This cost will have to be paid by an external source. Shapeshift: Old Reliable can now shift between Forms at will, every shift costing 1 mana. Duplicate: This Skill calls out as many of Old Reliables forms as the user wants, having them exist simultaneously until it ends. This costs 10 mana to activate and 1 mana per minute for every manifested weapon. Aspect Infusion: This gives Old Reliable a variation on each form based on the users Aspects (Greater Hydra: Venomsteel, Megalodon: Bonede, Poltergeist: Astral Dagger, Fata Morgana: Invisible de, de Tempest: Quintuple Threat, Acid Drake: Corrosive Saber, Least Demon Lord: Hellde). This costs 15 mana each time a new Aspect is infused, and 10 mana per minute of keeping it active. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. Starfang: This infuses the de with the power of the sun itself, superheating it. This heat will only damage the user, the environment or other individuals if the user wills it. This costs 5 points of mana for a single strike or 50 points of mana to sustain for thirty seconds. Grand Hellme: The de wreaths itself in the mes of hell, barely restraining their hunger for flesh and life. This costs 15 points of mana per strike or 100 to sustain for twenty seconds. The wielder of Old Reliable can extinguish all fires started by this ability by spending 100 points of either the des or his own mana. Balmung A legendary de, forged from the broken halves of a legendary weapon. Upon being reforged, it brought low the dragon Fafnir, and eventually won its wielder a kingdom. When Siegfried was eventually in by the treasonous Hagen, the traitor continued to wield the weapon until he too died in the battle at the court of king Etzel, captured by Dietrich and subsequently executed by Kriemhild. When she too died, the de passed on to Hildebrand. And from the hands of that warrior of ancient myth, this peerless de passed onto Isaac Thoma, the Auric Sage, the man who fought a monster that killed an army to a standstill for five minutes. No armor withoutparable pedigree can withstand Balmungs blows, no foe can survive its bite so long as its wielder is capable of wielding it properly. (this is a summoned weapon) Chapter 175: The League Chapter 175: The League Theyll deal with this easily, you said. Were allowed to defend ourselves when attacked directly, so lets crush Thoma and his pet tfoots, you said. Itll make a statement, it wont matter that were not allowed to go on the offensive unless directly attacked because no one will dare go after us now. A man wearing a stone mask growled And what happened? Pestilence is dead. War died, and Thoma didnt even have to lift a bloodyfinger, the coppers did it without needing help. This is why we let Fox handle the ns, not the berk with the name everyone misunderstands when they hear it. Kronos, shut it. Another figure, face covered by a serpent mask, hissed Its not Utgardlokis fault that youre ignorant of mythology. Also, calm down, a couple of [Aspirants] died. We already had one [Aspirant for the Mantle of War] die, we know that others can gain that [ss] if they hit the fourth Evolution with the right mindset, feats, and Aspects. Sure, itll be a pain to rece them, but we can rece them. Besides, youre looking at this all wrong. This time, the speaker was wearing a blue-ish rocky mask, showing a grinning face Kronos, Kronos, Kronos, youre treating this like its all about the material. Deaths, broken materials, and so on. Theyre scared, theyre scrambling, and now, theyre going to fuck up massively. Utgardloki is right. A mountain of a man sitting at the head of the table, a jet-ck mask covering his face, rumbled Powerleveling politicians to save the nation? Thats going to be a shitshow for the ages. If it goes somewhere, itll still be a problem. The right country-wide buffing [Skills] could throw a real spanner into the works. The featureless figure at the head of the table announced, the glowing skull they had for a mask shifting into a massive grin So how about we mess with him first? Call your contacts, and tell them about the top-secret leveling program, act like they wouldnt have found out about this in short order anyway. Make it sounds like theres a conspiracy afoot to some, and tell the others its an exclusive program that they can get into if they only they ask. Lets see our dear friend Dr. Thoma deal with that. Utgardloki started cackling at the thought. And its not like we dont have years yet to make ns against anyone who looks like theyre getting too strong. Theyre in the public eye, we know everything they can do, and when we finally go after them, itll be with someone purpose-built to counter their every move. A man in a fox mask said We should probably clear out of Germany until then, though. There are too many clues to our operations there out and about, and before someone starts using those to track us internationally, we should just pull out and leave it at that. Pull out? Leave? Coward! a figure wreathed in illusionary fire spat, finger usingly pointing at the clock on the wall, eternally counting down to the date when theyd be free to act as they wished We got attacked, and one man was central to it. Lets go after him, call it preemptive self-defense? Are you really willing to sit on your asses while that man goes after everything were trying to build? The real question is: how stupid are you? Utgardloki asked, Youre trying to ruleswyer a divine decree, do you really think anyone will choose oh, youre right, I didnt phrase that right over turning you into a smear on the pavement, eh Surtur? The mes burned higher, the only thing keeping the room from turning into an oven being the fact that they werent real Ah yes, lets hide behind logic and pretend you and Fox arent shitting your pants at the thought of having to fight? Behave, all of you. The figure at the head of the table cut in We will obey the decree as it was issued. But we will not sit idle. We will n, we will prepare, and the next person who has the audacity to raid us will be met with an army equipped and trained to counter them specifically. The world will burn, and we will gain life eternal! The behemoth in the ck mask was the first to raise his voice in assent, but it didnt take long for the others to join in, the cheers shaking the very room itself. Chapter 176: The Bar Chapter 176: The Bar From the outside, the bar looked like any old hole in the wall, a lit entryway with a propped-open door and a sign above the entrance, but that was about it. There wasnt even a menu outside. The only thing that set it apart from a service entrance was the freshly painted STARHAIL above the doorway. It wasnt lit up or made to stand out in any other way, but this was the kind of establishment you heard about through the grapevine if you were in the right line of work, they didnt want or need walk-ins. Or rather, they wouldnt, because the bar was brand spanking new, not having existed long enough to gain any kind of reputation. There was one customer, however, seated in one of the private booths, the [Bartenders] [Skills] ensuring that no one could look or listen in, not even the [Bartender] herself, while leaving the person within fully aware of anyone who even so much as tried to approach. A perfect setup for private meetings. As to just how Rosalie Wagner had gotten to over 80 when most of the world was still faffing around in the upper tens, Isaac wasnt sure, but between his other timeline knowledge and the background check hispanys in-house investigator had done, he was pretty damn sure there wasnt going to be a problem. When this ce eventually gained a reputation for quality service, privacy, and discretion though, then it would be overrun. Isaac sighed and leaned back in the sinfullyfortable seat, stuffed his phone back into his pants, and rubbed at his temples. Something wrong? a man whod just entered the booth asked. Short, very muscr, and a bearing that practically screamed he was either military orw enforcement. Polizeirat Franz Habicht, head of one of the strongestw enforcement teams in the world and a close ally of Isaacs. You know how we decided to see if politicians got country-wide boosting [Skills] by bringing them to their next Evolution and having them pick a suitable [ss]? Isaac asked rhetorically Someone went to all the kinds of power-hungry people we dont want to powerlevel and told them that it was an exclusive program that they just had to ask me to get in. And now, they wont take no for an answer. Sounds annoying, Habicht said dryly. Thats putting it mildly. When I find out who is responsible, well see how funny the old ming bag of dog shit on the front porch really is. Isaac growled. Please dont make threats where I can hear them. Habicht sighed. Of course, I wont do that, I wouldnt be that uncreative, Isaac told him. Habicht just shook his head in mock disappointment So, whats this about? Apparently, the bar has a [Skill] on it that lets high-level people get drunk if they allow it, so be honest with me, are you trying to create the most dangerous duo of drunkards the world has ever seen? I mean, you called me to a bar across the street from yourpany, you have got to know what this looks like. Isaacughed, but the mirth didnt reach his eyes Weve got a few more peopleing, Ill exin once everyone is here. Then, his phone dinged with another iing email. I swear, the next time someone contacts me over this crap, Ill be reading their stat sheet out loud, in public, and make sure theres a reporter present, Isaac growled. I actually did that once, it was hrious. Another, new voice cut in. It was a blonde man who looked like an action heroe to life, dressed in what looked like a fusion of a modern suit and medieval high fashion. Arthur Wells, soon to be able to change his surname to Pendragon, if Isaacs knowledge from the other timeline held true. And who had to smooth things over afterward? Arthurspanion rebuked him. Elena had changed since Isaac hadst seen her, her Asrai races features bing more pronounced as her Level increased. Her formerly ck hair had turned a blueish silver, and while her eyes had always been blue, theyd now turned a sapphire-like color that was decidedly not something people had normally. Bah, he was already on the outs with his backers. Arthur shot back Him going after me with all these crazy methods he thought hed get away with was never going to go well even before I told everyone his build was basically all maniption [Skills]. That isnt an excuse or a justification, Mr. Its the only reason the fallout wasnt an even bigger problem. Elena rebuked him. Seeing this, one might say they argued like an old married couple, though Isaac knew it was more akin to a mentor-mentee dynamic, even though the actual power structure ran the other way. It was a weird system, but it worked, strangely enough. Anyway, may I introduce to you Polizeirat Franz Habicht, head of GSG-13 and a good friend of mine? Isaac said and turned to Habicht These two are Arthur Wells and Elena Hightower of Camelot. We met briefly during the Spring Event, Elena said. But I dont believe weve been officially introduced until now. Is this everyone? Habicht asked, Im getting really curious as to what all this is about. Were still waiting on two more. Isaac said, Feel free to order something, Im paying and this ce has some very exclusive beverages. Exclusive? Arthur asked. [Skill] enhanced, high-Level crafter kind of exclusive. Isaac grinned But please, no one use the [Skill] that allows you to get drunk until were done here. Why, Id never! Arthur said, mock-offended as he stepped out of the booth and headed over to the bar. This is getting interesting. Habicht said, Though when youre around, things usually are. Isaac just shrugged. Actually interesting, or interesting? Elena asked. Chaotic clusterfuck kind of interesting. Habicht said, I just hope today doesnt turn into another asion like that. It probably will, wont it? Elena said, then looked at Isaac Are you looking for investors? I mean, that is yourpany across the road, isnt it? No, this ce is just a private meeting spot I trust. Isaac said, It was either this ce or the middle of the woods. You dont trust yourpanys information defenses? Elena frowned. Not for this. Not as much as I trust a [Bartender] close to Level 90, with a specialization in providing private meeting spots, with a [System]-based guarantee that she isnt listening in either. Isaac said. And now Im worried. Arthur grimaced Youre seriously not going to tell us anything for now? For now. Were waiting on more person. Isaac said. Told you we shouldnt havee early, Arthur told Elena. And I told you if were not early, werete. She shot back. Isaac tried to hide hisugh behind the club soda Arthur had given him, but the clear liquid didnt particrly help things. You know, thats an interesting name for a bar, Habicht said, trying to fill the Add full, and trante it into German, Isaac advised and Habicht just burst outughing. Whats so funny? Elena asked. Sternhagelvoll is a very colorful way of saying very, very drunk. Isaac exined Its a good name for a bar. Then, finally, thest two people walked through the door. One was tall, blond, and sported considerably more hair than hed during his first meeting with Isaac. Professor Bailey had eventually given in and used his biomancy to restore his full head of hair. The other was a Korean man of average height who looked like he could have bench-pressed cars pre-[System], with slightly glowing, ice-blue eyes carefully taking in every facet of his surroundings. Seon Yoo-jin, the man in charge of the organization that ran South Koreas Dungeons, was not someone who often left the capital of Seoul, much less traveled to another country entirely for a meeting in a bar. But Isaac had earned enough credibility with him that his request for a meeting had been epted as a matter of course. Isaac introduced everyone Yoo-jin to everyone, then added his own set of privacy [Skills] to the ones already in ce. Either would have likely sufficed on their own butbined, they likely surpassed even the protection of the Oval Office. He stood up and walked to the head of the table, reached out with his hand, and held it out over the table, palm down. Beneath it, a [Lesser Illusion] wavered into existence. It had taken him hours of practice to get to the point where he could keep these images in ce without requiring his constant attention. He was showing them thest few things hed seen in the other timeline, images of pain and bloodshed. The endless armies of demons and demonic beasts filling the ins at the foot of the final fortress of humanity, an immense castle built in an oddly modern style. The sheer destruction Mark and Cade had wrought on that horde, a single punch leveling a square kilometer, lighting bolts hammering out of the clear sky, and annihting foes by the thousands. The gigantic Demon Lord that had been thest monster of this world to die. The magic slideshow had taken maybe five seconds but everyone was already looking at him with countless unspoken questions on the lips of everyone save Bailey. Isaac decided to exin before anyone interrupted for rification, dropped every single information defense, and spoke. There are a million ways I came up with to say this, but none seemed sufficient, so Im just going toe out and say it: Im from another timeline, and the images I just showed you tell the story of how humanity as a whole died. Isaac paused to allow for a reaction, but everyone just waited patiently for him to continue. Well, except Bailey, who was making a get on with it motion. Eleven years from now, in 2034, monsters who killed their summoners and got loose spawned so many more of their kind that the itself was overrun. Normal monster of all Tiers, but also [Field], Tier 10 [Raid Bosses], and even a couple of [World Bosses]. Id be dead too, but there was a final emergency provision included in the [System] that allowed thest human to return through time if a few conditions were met. Which I did. One moment, I was standing on a battlefield. The next, I was back in my bed on the day the [System] initialized. And ever since then, Ive been working to try and prevent that future froming around. I sped up research into the [System], intervened where I could, headed off tragedies I was able to predict, and shared all the information I thought was helpful. But now, Im at the end of what I could do on my own. Ive also changed things a lot, and my knowledge of specific Events is useless now. Short of trying to beat humanity into behaving and not ending the world through reckless summoning, I cant do much else except wait for something to go wrong and hope Im close enough to intervene. So now, Im asking for your help. All of yourss. I realize this is surprising, and that it sounds impossible. If you want me to do anything to prove myself, I will. Ill tell you the secrets behind the [System],ter. If you need specific information, Ill provide it. I trust you all, and your helping me wont go unrewarded. After that speech, Isaac paused and looked around, already mentally readying himself for a verbal shitstorm. Yes, he did trust these people, due to either their reputation in the other timeline, or his getting to know them in this one. But the problem was that he trusted them in their current rtionship, a rtionship which would massively change if any of them felt like hed betrayed them. While that might not have been entirely rational, it was understandable. He only hoped that if someone decided to take this badly, they would at least not b his secrets to the whole world. He doubted that would happen, but he still worried. What secrets do you have? Elena was the first to speak, sounding breathless Do you know where the [System]es from? I do. Isaac nodded. Screw it. Habicht said, If you dont have anything to tell us that cant wait until after youre done telling us the secrets behind the [System], then tell us. Does everyone agree? Isaac asked, earning himself irritated or even outright dirty looks. You just offered to solve the biggest mystery in the world. Did you really think we wouldnt want to know? Yoo-jin was the only one who spoke up. For Isaac, the answer had been oh so clear, never in question, and hed had years toe to terms with it. Hed still regarded it as damn important, but that had still fallen short of how badly they wanted, no, needed to know this. So he exined. The cosmic bncing act that had seemingly existed since the beginning of time. How the [System] had initially been meant to be helpful, and what had changed it. How hed been the one publishing all those secret messages that had caused some people to seriously assume the Illuminati were real. The new modification of the Events that had happened because Isaac was taking much of the bite out of other [System] features. Even his talk with Loki was mentioned, and he showed them the description of the [Aura of Divinity Endured], which hed unlocked thanks to that meeting. When I asked, you told me that youd never met a god face to face. Arthur said once he was done, tone half confused, half usatory. Your question surprised me, I didnt have the time to think through what to say. Isaac said simply I screwed up. I get it. Habicht said What I dont get is why you havent even tried to get divine help. There is a certain amount of give and take, any help would be matched by a bane, but you havent even asked about the cost. I havent tried to get divine help because divine intervention is chaos incarnate. All the changes that have already happened didnt fix things. Were having real trouble keeping on top of the Events, and in exchange, autonomous summoning was nerfed into the ground, but that isnt going to help us if someone summons a [World Boss] out of FOMO. Isaac said, We can focus on the information Im providing and which were discovering every day instead of having the rules change on us with no warning. How strong is a [World Boss]? Yoo-jin asked If the weakest one were summoned right this instant, would humanity be able to win? Would we be forced to resort to nuclear strikes? Isaac sighed I dont know, Ive never seen one. A few people deluded themselves into thinking they could beat one and when they did, theyd have the power to fix everything. All we know is that the entire area went dark soon after, both times. A few people caught distant nces, but no one got a better look and lived to tell about it. All [World Bosses] are also Tier 10 and monsters at that Tier are functionally immune to nuclear attacks and other powerful strikes that do not require Levels to use. The only good news is that no one is going to be able to summon something that strong anytime soon. [World Bosses] require an incredible amount of mana to summon, summoning one early would require hundreds of people to reach Level 100 while putting nearly all their points into Magic Power. Well, aint that a fun bit of news. Arthur sighed The way I see it, we have two major problems, the cult, and humans being greedy bastards who are one bad decision away from literally summoning the apocalypse. Does that about sum it up? fraid so. Isaac said, taking another drink from his club soda while the illusion split apart, one side showing a horde of cloaked figures and the other a monstrous army The good news is that summoning the apocalypse will require a lot of mistakes, and that Ive managed to make things a lot better than they were at this point in the other timeline. The bad news is that weve all seen what people can do while blinded by greed. There are two ways its already being dealt with. The first is creating ways to deal with messes like this when they crop up. Like GSG-13. Habichtmented Now it makes more sense how much support youve given us. Exactly. Isaac nodded The other approach is the PR angle, which were already working on. We want people to believe that they dont have to color outside the lines to grow strong and for reckless summoning to be seen as unnecessarily dangerous and reckless. Youre seriously going to tell me that youve never summoned recklessly, at least as far as thew is concerned? Arthur asked. The neww thats being written asks people to agree to only summon monsters that they know they can beat and have been properly categorized by a trusted source. When someone signs those forms, itll get checked over by someone with a truth-telling [Skill]. Because there arent any provisions about how those categorizations have to have taken ce in this timeline, the [Skills] wont detect a falsehood when the famous Dr. Thoma decides to prove once and for all that hes always been careful and never been reckless while bing one of the strongest people in the world. Habicht chuckled Sneaky. I like it. Arent you supposed to be upholding thew? Yoo-jin frowned I realize that this is a special case, but should you really be so gleeful about someone undermining it so thoroughly? Habicht shrugged Thew isnt perfect, it takes forever to catch up to the state of the world and Isaac found a good workaround. Yoo-jin nodded, then fixed Isaac with a hard stare How much did you know about the Demon Lord before it attacked? Isaac was surprised it had taken this long for him to ask. I knew it had been summoned in the other timeline on that day and that there was symbolic significance to the date, but literally everything had changed up to that point. I couldnt just run around telling everyone about an attack that would probably not even happen with how North Korea was already being undermined at the time. He exined, hoping that exnation was epted. I understand. Yoo-jin sighed But most of my countrymen wont. This will be our little secret. Thank you, Isaac said. That just leaves one problem, the bloody cult. Habicht practically spat I dont know why they havent done more after that mess in Hamburg, but we know theyre out there. Then, he paused and looked quizzically at Isaac Theres a reason they havent and youre about to tell us, arent you? Isaac nodded Yup. The guy I fought slipped up a couple of times when we talked. Honestly, it wasnt really a slip-up per se, its just that I could read a lot more into it thanks to being from another timeline. Remember how I told you how divine intervention is limited? Basically, the dark gods imposed a time limit they couldnt do anything before, other than self-defense because that way, they were less likely to seed, and that made the intervention cheaper. We opened the door when we attacked them, but they cant attack us back. Once we find another target to hit, we can just prepare for as long as we want. Do we know how long that time limit is? Habicht asked. Sort of. Isaac grimaced I know enough to make an educated guess, but I dont know anything for certain. On May 2nd, 2032, exactly one decade after the [System] initialized, a [Skill] simr to [Axis Mundi] destroyed the defenses at Dubai and the city fell to the monsters hourster. On the same day, two more strongholds went dark and there were other attacks elsewhere that did quite a bit of damage. It would make sense for the time limit to be ten years on the dot because we know the [System] likes nice, round numbers, but you have to understand, we were already losing at that point. Extinction was all but guaranteed, it happening a little sooner because what I now suspect to be thest survivors of this cult wasnt as big of a deal as it should have been. Extinction isnt a big deal? Bailey eximed, speaking up for the first time. He was only here because Isaac had wanted another person here who could verify his story and as such, hed kept mostly to the background. Not when it was only made to happen a little sooner. Isaac sighed, sorrow tinging his voice as he recalled those dark times Communication was already shot to hell, we only heard about a lot of the incidents well after the fact. It was a tragedy, but it should tell you how bad things were when I say that I barely even remembered those incidents. The cultist told me that theyd barely have to intervene because humanity will kill itself without needing any help and they were right in the other timeline. So even if we safe us from ourselves, we still have to deal with those bastards if we want to live, Arthur growled. Isaac just nodded sadly I cant do this on my own, no one can. I think we all need some time to digest everything. Bailey interjected It might be for the best if we meet againter, in, say, a month? Lets bring all our new ideas, and see if we cane up with any new ideas. Everyone agreed with that, and the group broke up soon enough. Bailey led Yoo-jin to the university to show him around, Arthur and Habicht stayed at the bar to get properly drunk for the first time in months while Isaac and Elena headed across the street to hispany. There were certain things that needed to be discussed in private and not at a bar. Chapter 177: Interlude Reaction Chapter 177: Interlude Reaction Habicht sighed, tapped the pen against his chin, and put it back onto the table. This was the fifth time hed done so in thest hour, and there were several crumpled-up pieces of paper next to him, ready to be burned. He wasnt even sure what he wanted to write, from detailing everything he knew now to entirely new protocols for the things he knew wereing, but he needed to be doing something. Isaac Thoma was a time traveler. That exined everything, really. The confidence, the knowledge, how a regr twenty-year-old could move and fight like a seasoned veteran. The [Heir ss] hed busted out when hed stepped fully onto the public stage had been a good bit of misdirection, making everyone think hed had one before and attributed all that oddness to that fact. It was both reassuring and terrifying that that hadnt been nned, just a fortuitous convergence of circumstances. Knowing that manipting Events on such a grand scale in a way that didnte apart at the seams the instant it hit a stumbling block was impossible was reassuring. That the whole world couldnt be yed like a fiddle so easily. But things would have been so much easier if they had been. Time traveler shows up, drops a few cryptic hints in all the right ears, and the Rube-Goldberg scheme fixes all that is wrong with the world. Part of Habicht didnt even want to know any of the things hed learned, and it might have even chosen to never know if hed had a choice, but it was a small part. He had a duty, both as a police officer and as a reasonable human being to help prevent his species extinction. And to do that, he needed all the information he could get his hands on. Thing was, hed gotten the information and now, he was feeling as if hed looked a Great Old One straight in the face for days on end. Histest attempt at writing had turned into a suggestion for an emergency ordinance with regard to world bosses and ended up utterly useless. It joined the rest of the pile, which was promptly incinerated by his Aspect of the Sr Heart, a seventh Tier fire elemental Aspect. Annihted, gone, burnt to nothingness, and not even a scorch mark on the table. Evidence that had been utterly atomized couldnt be restored by anyone, even the people he worked with. And there were some people here who really shouldnt have any of this information. Habicht sighed and put the pen down. This wasnt getting anywhere. Something was bothering him here, and it just wasnt leaving him alone. Just what was the true cost of Isaac Thoma saving the world? Theyd had a conversation about the limits of thew half a year ago, strolling through the woods at the Bodensee. Back then, hed suspected Isaac had attacked the cult, but it hadnt really made sense, given how fast that would have required him to have moved. Hed just felt it was necessary given the power dynamics at y and figured that was as good a time as many. As far as the public knew, Isaac had killed one person, the living bioweapon who was one half of the duo that had nearly wrecked Hamburg. But Habicht knew there more bodies buried elsewhere. As far as vigntes went, Isaac was the most restrained one hed ever met, using lethal force as only a measure ofst resort. He had knowledge that no other vignte had, and the sheer amount of information acquisition abilities he had only added to that. One kill was official. But the real number Habicht feared that it might be high enough to make a serial killer nch. Hed been willing to forgive and ignore the incident at the Bodensee because their victims had been left alive and theyd just attacked his colleagues using means that one hundred percent qualified as terrorism. Someone running around killing people to save something if the thing Isaac was trying to save hadnt been the world, hed taken real issue with it. He wondered how high the real number was, but he really didnt want to know. What had seriously helped with the irritation was how Isaac had dropped all of those godawful infosec [Skills]. Hed been able to tell that every word out of the time travelers mouth had been the unvarnished truth, to see the great burden and how carefully Isaac acted. If Habicht hadnt been able to see those things, if hed been faced with the same nk wall hed always been talking to when dealing with Isaac he honestly wasnt sure if he could have epted matters. He had epted things, though, and agreed to put everything behind Isaacs and Baileys efforts. Habicht leaned back in his chair, sighed heavily, shook himself, and grabbed hisptop. The n was to find eptable politicians with a good spread across all parties currently in the parliament, bring them up to Level 25, and then have them choose the most country boosting-sounding [ss] they had avable. The problem was that some turd had leaked that to the exact wrong kind of politicians, ones that were in the pockets of lobbyists, ones whose closets were overflowing with skeletons, and even a few members of the neo-Nazi party, the NPD. He sent suggestions to his superiors that highlighted that the people who were involved needed to be trustworthy, and no police officer would work together with literal idiots or people who had a track record of being too self-serving. No one wanted to end up dead because the politician did something stupid, or deal with the fallout when one of the politicians ended up dead because of a stupid mistake. He kept going, having to deal with this mess over and over again as more and more requests hailed in. Whoever was responsible for that Isaac might have been on the right track with the ming bags of dog shit. *** Another of the monsters countless limbs froze and shattered like ss as Yoo-jins sword swept through it, but the destruction had merely been incidental as it continued onwards to chop off one of the monsters countless heads. The best itself was the final boss of a Level 90 Dungeon, a vering mass of crab-like limbs and heads reminiscent of a moray eels jutting from an indescribably disgusting gtinous mass that served as its main body, tendrils akin to the toxic tentacles of a jellyfish littering the ground, ready to poison and ensnare anyone who took even a single wrong step. Normally, the Oceans Bastard would have to be fought by a party of five, at least half of which had to have abat rating of A at the minimum, overridable only be the order of the Guildmaster or two S-Rankers who personally guaranteed for the oue of the situation. But he had overridden that rule so he could fight this thing on his own because he needed to get stronger. Seon Yoo-jin had been an S-Ranker ever since the ssification system had first been ratified, as it was needed for someone in charge of an organization like the Dungeon Guild. He had a [ss] mostly focused onbat with the bureaucratical [Skills] being either held by his subordinates or having been taught to him, but that was better than losing a Guildmaster because some high-Level Hunter lost their temper. Ruling through force, even in part, wasnt the ideal way to lead, but it was what the situation had called for. Hed had the [Skills] and Stats to be considered one of the strongest people in the country, but now that he knew what wasing down the line, that was nowhere near enough. So now, he was taking full advantage of what his position allowed him to do. His [Aura of Winters Child] swirled around him, parts of the air going so cold that it turned solid, which his [Telekic Domain] snatched out of the air and hurled at frozen and therefore fragile monstrous body parts. The Aspect power was the perfectbination with his ability to conjure up projectiles at the drop of a hat. [Frozen de] flowed over the sword in his hand, its size increasing vastly in size. It fell like a titanic guillotine as he swung it in an overhead chop. The instant it cut into his gtinous foe, it shattered like ss, countless shards shredding the beasts insides. The five remaining heads roared and wailed while the still intact limbs shifted upon the body, odd-looking ws moving closer. Yoo-jin leaped back a split-second before they mmed shut, creating an immense shockwave that would have hurt if hed been closer. Another [Frozen de] hit further suffused the monsters body with frost shards, nearby flesh turning solid. If hed used some of his heavier attacks like [Winters Frigid Grasp], he might even have been able to finish this already, but that wasnt the point of this exercise. He wanted to boost his [Skill]-Levels, so hed limited himself to using only a handful of them. [Frozen de] for direct attacks, all the usual passive [Skills] he used, and histest core [Skill]. [Winter Soul] was one of the few [Skills] that had both active and passive effects. It would always passively increase the strength of all cold-based abilities, which was what he was training using his [Aura]. But once every hour, he could use it to make all the ice and snow hed created even colder. Yoo-jins ears popped as parts of the atmosphere that had been too close to his ice liquefied and sshed onto the monster like the worlds coldest shower while the monster froze, both literally and figuratively. Large parts of it had literally turned to ice and what little was still flesh had stopped moving due to its death. Oceans Bastard (Lv. 85) has been in. 3,000 XP gained But by the time the kill notification shed past his vision, Yoo-jin was already leaving, looking over the [Skill] gains from the fight. Beating a monster that strong while leaning on such a basic [Skill] as [Frozen de] had boosted it by several Levels despite having already been Level 18 when hed entered the building. Now, it had evolved and granted him the ability to coat his de in a sort of icy poison that flew everywhere when he swung it, freezing upon contact with his foes or even within their bloodstream if he cut them. It was a terrifying new ability, but still nowhere near enough. As he walked out of the dungeons entrance, the guard there looked incredibly apprehensive, but Yoo-jin just raised a single questioning eyebrow and the guard did as hed been asked to every time the Guildmaster had left a Dungeon, no matter how much he disliked it. The [Geyser] erupted from underneath him, boiling water sting over him and stripping away all of the muck and grime that had umted during the Dungeon run. Are you sure you want to keep going, Guildmaster? the guard asked This is the third Dungeon youve run today. Two more should do it. Yoo-jin said, The Infernal Depths are next. After all, fighting the fire-based environment with his should push his [Winter Soul] up at least a couple more Levels. *** in the event of a [World Boss] appearance, all personnel must Elena sighed and stopped typing. What the hell were they supposed to do when one of those things showed up? y dead? Run? Die? Shed had a lot of conversations with a lot of different people, brainstorming scenarios where the [System] could lead. Isaac had always seemed so pessimistic, socking in faith in the human race and then shed found out he was speaking from experience. Yeah, that happened. In fact, it was a small wonder he wasnt perpetually curled up in a corner somewhere, overwhelmed with grief. A testament to his inner strength, perhaps, or maybe hed already grieved in the other timeline and was now slowly wing his way back to his old self, she didnt know. And it wasnt exactly her ce to go looking for answers to that either. No, what she needed to do was make full use of everything she now knew, all the tricks Isaac had shared and all the gear they now possessed. There were also about a million different things she needed to n for regarding uing training exercises. When Isaac had put the six of them in a room yesterday, it hadnt just been his closest allies hed brought together. No, theyd been a police officer, the leader of one of the strongest leveling organizations on the, the greatest researchers in the world, and two people in charge of an elite force that wasnt directly tethered by any given government. When those people were given a direct line ofmunication and a reason for cooperation that superseded everything else, a whole multiverse of opportunities opened up. And now, she was taking full advantage. Small-unit training against police turned monster hunters and their spec ops cousins, delving through the greatest expanse of Dungeons on the with South Korean S-Rankers, piles of peak-quality gear for the elites, forged by the worlds greatest cksmith, many of them being copies of literally legendary pieces of equipment drawn straight from the pages of a storybook by Isaac Thomas [Skill]. The helmet Hildegrim, one which made the head functionally immune to damage until the helmets damage threshold was surpassed. The de Eckesachs, the original had once been hardened in dragons blood, though it was posing a bit of an issue because it was a seax, a weapon style no one was trained with. Isaac had promised to drop by to teach those who wanted to use it. Then there was the insanely sharp sword Mimung, a devastating sword perfect for everyone who preferred using lighter swords and it was capable of cutting metal as if it were tissue paper. Sadly, it was too light to be useable by people who used weight-based [Skills], but there were few enough of those, so it wasnt that big of an issue. All of these pieces of gear were some of the strongest in the world despite the [System] consistently pping them with the inferior copybel. And theyd just been gifted those. Theyd have a group of absolute elites who werent going to be kept out of any given nation-state on the basis of being foreign military, which was why Germanys GSG-13 would be limited in how effective it could be outside of Germany. But none of that would be enough to ensure theyd be able to beat a bloody [World Boss]. Thing was, if a creature of that strength got loose and wasnt defeated, it would continue to kill people until either it died, or humanity did. Waiting for someone else to kill it wasnt a viable option. In the event of a [World Boss] summoning, three-quarters of all defensively-specked members will engage and slow it down alongside the appropriate number of crowd-control specialists, healers, and other supporters. All individuals not involved in dying the monster will proceed to Level at maximum sustainable speed using all avable methods, evolving as soon as possible without regard to optimizing power gain. It was a n that would cause one hell of an issue if it ever had to be implemented, but at that point, the issue would be the least of their problems. So now she had the beginnings of a n for how to deal with [World Bosses]. One issue ounted for a million more to go. Issue two: how to stop people from dropping dead from the new training regimen Arthur had just implemented? *** Again. Arthur barked, much to the displeasure of the people in front of him. Too bad, they were preparing for the apocalypse here, and Armageddon wouldnt care if they were tired. Are you sure they can handle that? Elena whispered into his ear using a spell I mean, its not like they can help with anything if theyre dead on their feet. Or just in dead. Arthur sighed. She had a point, one hand. On the other, there was an entirely different issue of how everyone still needed to be able to deal with issues even when utterly exhausted. Hed had his hands sped behind his back and used this to show her two fingers without letting the people being trained spot it. Two more attempts beating the kaiju being simted by a [Trainer] while utterly exhausted, and if they were sessful, that meant they were ready. At least as long as the monster didnt outpower them by a huge margin. That was the problem, wasnt it? Level too quickly and recklessly and be a part of the problem, level too slowly and be unable to do anything about it. Either way, Arthur hed be ready, willing to take on allers, no matter how strong they were or how weak he waspared to them. He was going to be fighting monsters, the idiots whod summoned them, or the nihilistic bastards whod wrecked Hamburg. Hed keep fighting until he no longer could, no matter what it cost, no matter what situation he ended with in the end. And while he didnt expect the people around him to go quite that far, there was also no way he was going to let them be unprepared for what would happen. Come hell or high water, Camelot would be here, ready and waiting for an enemy to beat. The drill ended with the trainees loss, and he set it up once again. One person tripped over their own feet, a second dropped their weapon only to copse when they tried to pick it up and a third simply red at him instead of moving. [Royal Boon: Invigoration]! Come on, onest time guys! Arthur roared, the [Skill] visibly impacting all of the exhausted individuals milling around and giving them the energy for one final round. If they kept going after that lets just say that Camelots [Healer] was someone whom even Arthur feared and leave it at that. The final round ended up with a human victory, and the trainees staggered off the field. Arthur stayed long enough to see them all go, then turned and headed back to his quarters, only to be met with a stormy-faced Elena. Have you gone insane? she said in that terrifyingly emotionless way that he so dreaded. That always meant a probably deserved but still very ufortable lecture wasing. Arthur just sighed and hung his head Probably. Are you going to do this all over again tomorrow? she asked. He shook his head. What was that supposed to achieve? she pressed further. He shrugged and then it was her turn to sigh. No more torturous training sessions, ok? Actually, no more training sessions until youve calmed down, period. Arthur just nodded mutely and when she stepped to the side to allow him to pass, he headed right in and copsed into his chair. She was his best friend and she understood him in ways no one did. But even she couldnt help here. No one could help, or even really understand what was weighing on him here, except maybe Isaac. Before, hed felt like there was another Arthur, the one from history, standing behind him and judging his every move. But then, Isaac had told him off the other timeline, and now, he had two specters looking over his shoulder. How could anything hold the candle to both history, and the man whod kept the British isles safe almost to the bitter end? Yet the insurmountable odds before him, the foes both out in the open and those sharpening their knives in the dark, that part didnt faze him in the slightest because win or lose, hed go down swinging. Hed do everything he could to save everyone, whether they supported him or not, whether he knew them or not, and hed never stop trying. Hed His train of thought was suddenly interrupted by a little ding from the [System], announcing that hed received another [ss] choice for his 4th Evolution. Hed been stuck at Level 100 for weeks now, unable to pick something, but now, that list had changed. New ss choice avable: Arthur Pendragons Heir Chapter 178: The Greatest Test a Man can Face Chapter 178: The Greatest Test a Man can Face Reason for Summoning? I work with monsters and I have to do other things during work time than summoning for power gain. Isaac narrated along as he filled out yet another question on the damn I voluntarily and solemnly swear to not behave like an utter imbecile when summoning form. Normally, hed have just filled the damn thing out and been done with it, but this was not a normal situation. He wasnt sitting down at a random avable ce in a government office, using a random avable surface to write on, he was in the lobby of one of Berlins Brgerbros, an agency that dealt with handling passport and personal ID applications and the like. But because the I voluntarily and solemnly swear to not behave like an utter imbecile when summoning form, or Intelligent Summoning Pledge, as it was formally known, was voluntary, the government had pulled out all the stops to make the process as easy as possible on some levels. First, the very public persona of Isaac Thoma, researcher and fighter extraordinaire would be filling out the very first form in full view of reporters to demonstrate that yes, it was possible to reach a high Level of strength without being an imbecile. Secondly, one of the biggest bureaucratical centers in the city had been cleared out to minimize the wait time by providing arge number of people waiting to only help with the ISP form. Of course, taking away a major hub of bureaucracy from most of the poption was causing no end of problems, but who cared about that? Thirdly, there was a massive propaganda effort being undertaken to get as many people to sign as possible because those who did so were incredibly unlikely to cause trouble rted to loose monsters in the future. In addition, making the whole thing a voluntary action meant that no one wasining about civil liberties being stripped away, which would have one hundred percent happened if the same sensible restrictions had been imposed directly. People were stillining about the voluntary pledge, but those were mostly the same kinds of people whoined about having to wear masks during a pandemic or being denied service at a restaurant for neither being vinated nor having a negative test. Now if only the damn thing hadnt been written in the mostplicated way possible Reason for not using public summoning spaces? Those spaces are shared and I summon at a very high level. Is your basis for judging a monsters strength provided by a trusted source such as an redited university, research institute, or other such institution? Yes. Is your basis for judging if your strength is sufficient to beat a monster a simr source as the above question? If not, write in. No. I judge my strength based on my experience as a [System] researcher and my having already seen them before. It was at this point that the police officer who had to stand watch and verify the veracity of the information filled out on the form was correct let out a bored sigh. It might even have gone unnoticed if he hadnt jolted bolt upright immediately afterward, hand flying up to cover his mouth as he stared around guiltily. Isaac nced up and drylymented, If Im filling out a form devised by the monster that is German bureaucracy, you can stand there and bear witness to my sacrifice. That earned him a few chuckles, and he waited until it was over so he could keep narrating. Has any monster you have summoned ever caused death or damage to property that is not yours? Yes. During research parts of the university, summoning rooms have taken slight damage. Have you ever summoned under circumstances other than the ones outlined above? Isaac sighed softly, causing everyone around him to stiffen Yes. I have summoned monsters as part of my job at the university, to ssify them. By punctuating each exnation with a period rather than ama, he separated the statements, so each was assessed separately. Yes, he had summoned monsters free from the ISPs parameters in the other timeline, so that rang true, and the second statement was also true. If hed only used a period there, it would have looked odd, but hed made sure to always use one when it could be. It wasnt his fault the cop would misread that as the only time him having summoned unssified monsters having been at work. Isaac wished that he could have just written no, but just as the other timeline counted for purposes of I know this is safe, it also counted for this. He continued to fill out the form until he reached the end. Optional question: why do you seek to grow in power? Before answering, he turned around and looked at the crowd behind him, the reporters ready to riddle him with questions the instant he seemed to be done. He met the gazes of those who didnt turn away when he looked at them, then stared straight into the lens of a nearby camera. I level because the world has changed because it has be a dangerous ce. I want to level so that when something happens, I can help. Nothing more, nothing less, I just want to make sure that nothing catastrophic happens. And then, he filled out the final part of the form. The moment that was done, he ramped his information defenses all the way up. Hed reduced it to make it easier for people other than those who specialized in truth-telling to detect the veracity of the form while not letting them catch onto his deeper secrets. He handed the form off to one of the office workers and turned back to the reporters once more. Dr. Thoma, how bad do you think the [System] situation is going to get? Sheesh,e right out with it, why dont you? Itll get as bad as we let it. Isaac said But it could get very bad, so we need to be prepared. How much of a difference can one man make, just based on power? Another odd question, though it could easily be construed as being an insult. When the [System] is involved, a lot. Im a trainer with a legendary [ss] whos already trained countless people in the military andw enforcement, making them considerably stronger than they were before. Guildmaster Seon in South Korea made the second-ever [Raid Boss] kill a sessst week pass without a single casualty practically single-handedly. Kill without a nuke, that is. Isaac said. What is your opinion on South Kore summoning a [Raid Boss]? the next question came. Its fine. Isaac shrugged They warned people ahead of time, as per the treaty of Seoul, had appropriate defenses in ce. [Raid Bosses] are incredibly powerful, but that doesnt make it impossible to take them down and profit from them without immense damage or massive casualties. The only reason there are different rules for them is that theyre so incredibly destructive and durable that when one gets loose, the response usually involves a nuclear warhead, which is why theres an international treaty allowing anyone and everyone to deploy a nuclear strike onto a rogue [Raid Boss]. Dont you think youre being a bit s about the danger involved? Nothing was damaged other than vehicles, gear, and fortifications, and the battleground was torn up. Id say that everyone involved was fully aware of the danger and acted ordingly. Isaac pointed out. But how does that apply to you? the reporter pressed and Isaac had to suppress a wolfish smile. I helped work out an optimal strategy, as well as figuring out what level of defense was needed. I thought that was public knowledge? And it was publicly avable knowledge, just not something that showed up on the first page of search results when someone googled his name. The reporter was now getting the stink-eye from several of his colleagues. Couldnt have happened to a nicer guy. But of course, the next few questions were all about the second [Raid Boss] to be properly killed rather than having been nuked. The US Army had been responsible for a few of those, checking if these monsters could even die to nuclear warheads, and had then proceeded to summon a few more just to get a few pictures of the monster before blowing them sky-high. However there were two creatures that had died to nukes not because it had been intended that way, but due to the fact that theyd been summoned in grant vition of the treaty of Seoul. Incidentally, by the time the missiles had hit, both [Raid Bosses] had already finished killing their summoners and were rampaging. Are there any ns to summon [Raid Bosses] by you or your team? Yes, but theyre still being worked on and when we finally do it, well have more precautions in ce than even the Hunters in Seoul did, Isaac said. Isnt that a bit premature? Isaac sighed Weve always taken safety very seriously. Thereve been more incidents with people tripping over dead monsters than them being injured in a fight when we could prepare for it, so anytime outside Events. And in Events? Two broken arms, one broken leg, seven cuts serious enough that they needed medical attention, a few scrapes, and one bloody nose from someone more attention to their cellphone than the stairs and falling. Thats all that happened across all four Events. Isaac said, Im not counting the Wendigo here because we didnt summon it, we just helped take it down for good. Several more questions involving various amounts of stupidity were asked but eventually, he was able to leave and practically ran away the instant he was out of sight. Then, he was finally free to check his phone. Any disasters would have no doubt resulted in him getting a call or even showing up on the TV in the corner of the room where hed filled out the form. But he could easily have missed a text on a lesser disaster. And that was exactly what had happened, sort of. Hed heard about Arthurs new [ss] soon after hed gotten it, but hed had to deal with the whole ISP situation first, nning to head to Camelot soon afterward. Now though, something had apparently happened, so he would head straight there. Isaac took off, [Continent Strider] warping the world around him to speed up his travel, letting him reach the ocean in mere minutes. He hopped in and kept going, easily breaking the world record for the fastest swim across the British Channel. Once he reached Dover, he burst out of the water, shifting back from [Sharks Body] in midair, then casually walked over to the passport office. The man hadnt seen him emerge from the water, so he threw Isaac an odd look. Normally, people showed up here on a ferry and drove past this office in their car. Purpose of visit? Visiting friends. And how did you get here? Wheres your car? I dont have one, I swam, Isaac said. The clearly very bored border control officer properly looked at the passport for the first time, inspecting it beyond merely making sure that the person whose picturey within was the same as the person whod given him the passport. When he put two and two together, he just nodded and thanked Isaac for being so considerate as to not enter the country illegally. The barely suppressed chuckles undercut the gesture somewhat, and when Isaac startedughing, the guard joined in as well. But with that done, he once more burst into motion. Onwards to Camelot. Chapter 179: A Great Burden Chapter 179: A Great Burden Camelot looked the same as always as it came into view, half-medieval, half-modern buildingsid out in a carefully nnedyout to maximize the use of space. Hopefully, this impression held true and the issue at hand was reasonably small-scale, rather than being a massive problem of cataclysmic proportions, simmering just under the surface. Over here. Elena called out barely louder than a whisper, but perfectly serviceable for Isaac to hear. Isaac ran over, using [Sneak] to reduce his noticeability. Having him st through this ce at top speed without that would have rmed basically everyone who saw him. He hadnt activated it at a high enough level to trigger the someones sneaking in defensive [Skills] and enchantments, but sufficient to avoid rming casual observers. So, whats wrong? he asked. Arthur got his Heir [ss] and said that he wanted to thoroughly investigate everything. That was fine for about two days and then I realized he hadnt slept or showered in all that time. Doesnt he only need to sleep a few seconds at this point? Isaac frowned. Before the [System], people had given up on sleep for a few days for important projects. It still hadnt been very smart, but not wanting to lose around eight hours every day had at least been understandable. Someone not being able to spare a few seconds a day that wasnt a good sign. Exactly, Elena said. And what do you want me to do about that? Im guessing you tried talking to him, too? I tried, and he told me he was busy. I tried again, and he locked the door. At this point, its either a mess involving the fact that hes got an Heir-[ss] and someone else with another Heir-[ss] might help talk him down or? Isaac asked. Or you can help me club him on the head, drag him out here, and then Ill wash him with the [Fire Hose]. Elena finished with a sigh. Isaac slightly chuckled but stopped when she red at him. Elena quickly lead him to the door to the same training room where Arthur had first talked to him seriously. Arthur, this is getting ridiculous. Open the door, shower, and take a few seconds to sleep. Elena ordered. One more hour, then Ill be done, Arthur called back, sounding strangely ted. One more hour, then Im breaking the door down, having Isaac drag you out into the courtyard and washing you whether you want to or not. And then were not going to let you back in there until youve slept. Elena replied. And youre going along with that, Isaac? Arthur asked. I was ready to do that right now. Isaac told him, then cast his privacy [Skill] to ask Elena Are you sure you want to wait? One hour more or less doesnt matter at this point. If he can finish his conspiracy board in that time, good. If not, we can deal with this forcefully anyway. She said. Conspiracy board? Isaac asked. He gathered up every whiteboard in Camelot and thest time he let me look, half of them were covered in unintelligible scribbles. Isaac winced This ends in an hour, either way. *** Alright, done, Arthur called and opened the door a few minutes before said door would have been history. He neither looked nor smelled very good. Isaac constantly kept his sense of smell reduced to a minimum as the modern world, well, stank, but even that was enough to tell that Arthur smelled horrible. Hed also clearly not washed or changed his clothes in a long time. First things first, wash up, then sleep, Elena ordered. I Arthur gestured at the inside of the room, but she cut him off again Thatll take literally seconds. You can either do so willingly or A soft azure glow emanated from Elenas hand, shooting up into a hovering ball of water that could alternatively st through solid steel or clean off an unsanitary individual with all the grace and care of a sandster. Arthur threw a pleading look at Isaac but wasnt getting any help on that end either. Itll take literally five minutes to take care of yourself, itll be easier on all of us if I dont have to make you. Arthur just sighed and marched into the nearby changing room, shaking his head. A few secondster, water began to run, followed by soft snores. Isaacughed And thats that. I wonder what was so important he stayed awake for several days straight? He poked his head into the training room and as it turned out, Elenas description of every whiteboard in Camelot had been vastly insufficient to describe the sheer mess that the room had been turned into. There were countless messily scrawled notes covering almost every avable surface, some written in modern English using the Latin alphabet, while others might as well have been written in hieroglyphs. Upon closer inspection, said hieroglyphs turned out to have been the medieval alphabet, which Isaac was thankfully familiar with due to Hildebrands knowledge, but even so, the old English was beyond his capacity to read. That could easily be chalked up to the fact that Arthur now had the knowledge from someone whod lived during that period, but there was an additional issue. The handwriting was from multiple people. Not just a mere two people, modern Arthur and [Heir] Arthur, but several additional people, including one that reminded him of Elenas writing, as well one that looked suspiciously like Isaacs. What. The. Fuck! Are you sure hes been alone down here? Isaac said. Absolutely, why are you asking? Elena replied, sounding puzzled. There is multiple peoples handwriting here. Isaac said, Could they have teleported in? This ce is also our emergency fallback point in case of invasion or a [Raid Boss] attack. Sneaking in here wouldnt have been worth it. Elena frowned. Can you read the old English bits? Isaac asked. Not really. I can barely recognize the letters, let alone understand English with one and a half millennias worth of changes. Lack of changes, anyway. She said as she studied a crudely-drawn picture of a dragon with where? drawn around it in several different writing styles. Lets wait for him outside the changing room. Isaac suggested, Were not going to figure out what this is supposed to mean. He really hoped there was a reason for all this because if Arthur had written all of this in the throes of a manic episode that wasnt good. Hey, guys, what do you think? Arthur called when he emerged from the changing room a few minutester, still unshaven and wearing sweatpants and a bathrobe rather than anything more outdoor-sensible. The outfit or the conspiracy board? Isaac asked. That the outfit sucks isnt something I need you to tell me, there wasnt anything else avable. Arthur replied, Now dont tell me you didnt at least take a peak? We did, and we didnt understand anything, Elena told him. How are you feeling? Isaac asked About bing [Arthur Pendragons Heir], I mean. Heir-[sses] can be rough, I know that. Arthurs happy demeanor was suddenly turned up to eleven as he beamed at Isaac Never better. He marched into the room of crazy without gesturing for them to follow as he continued to talk. Once all three were inside, Isaac pulled the door shut behind him and waited for the exnation. I know you both know how weird I felt about the historical Arthur, and hearing about the other timeline didnt help, but now . He spread his arms wide and spun in ce like a little kid in a candy store, still beaming Its like all of that doesnt matter anymore like all that weight dropped off my shoulders. Im worthy. Im worthy, and the universe itself agrees! I know what I have to do, and I know how Im going to start. And you cant even imagine all the useful things I got. I mean, the information alone, the advice of the ancients He trailed off, staring into the distance, lost in thought. Beware of handsome French knights sniffing around your significant other? Isaac dryly suggested. Elena chuckled while Arthur gave a deep bellyugh that went on for almost thirty seconds as he doubled over. He wiped at his eye as he replied Thanks, I needed that. But heres the thing, that never happened, the whole adultery mess is actually a reallyte addition, hundreds of years after the fact. So no need to worry. Then, he shrugged Besides, its 2023, divorce is a thing. Incidentally, so is polyamory. So, if youre not spiraling over your namesake or the other timeline, then whats all this? Elena asked, gesturing around. Research! Arthur proimed. Isaac was finally satisfied that there were no negative preternatural effects in y and concluded that Arthur was just riding the high of having all his burdens vanish dayster. At this point, if he didnt get to the freaking point soon, a bucket of ice water was sounding more and more tempting. You locked yourself into an underground room for days, not washing, sleeping, or talking to anyone, you threw a book at Steffs head. Not to mention that this was written by multiple people even though you were alone down here. Elena sighed Please tell me this isnt as crazy as it looks? Spoilsport. Arthur gave them a yful pout, then turned to Isaac How many memories did you get with your Heir-[ss]? shes of memories, impressions of battle, and a whole lot of instincts and life experience, and thats it? No lifetimes worth of memories? Sounds about right. Isaac said, unsure of where he was going with this Its like that with all Heir-[sses] that are based on myths, rather than history. You get the experiences, but not the memories. The going theory was that those people werent real and instead, the [ss] was based on the myth, a gestalt of all the impressions people have of the figure. So the bearer gets all the knowledge the mythological figure should have without the associated memories. But no ones proven that, right? Arthur questioned. No. Im guessing you figured something out? Isaac said, intrigued. Arthur continued to walk around the room, gesturing at various scribbles and diagrams. See, of all the impressions, of all the shes of memory, do you know whats missing? Merlin! Nimue! All the magical beings! And then I kept looking, kept thinking back to all the stories Id heard and I remember most of the knights but a few were missing. Some wereter additions, I know that theyre fake, but of the original lot, the only one who wasnt there was Galehaut! Whos that? Isaac asked, for once stumped on a question of mythology. One of the knights of the Round Table, he was part giant. Elena exined, So youre saying that all the magic is missing from the memories that are meant to be Arth- you know what, lets just going to call the historical person Pendragon, alright? Arthur and Isaac nodded. So Pendragons memories dont have any magic in them. What about Hildebrand? she asked. Isaac didnt reply directly, instead unleashed a two-minute stream of profanity strong enough to peel paint. Wow, I dont think I even recognize half thosenguages, let alone the insults, Elena observed. And he hasnt even repeated himself once, Arthur added. Isaac was nowhere near done, but thosements finally convinced him to stop. So Im guessing you hadnt figured that out? Elena asked. Nope, no one did. Isaac sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose But I dont think anyone has a concrete memory of magic, magical effects, or even artifacts. I didnt even know what any of my magical weapons looked like before I summoned them. So all the magic is missing from both your inherited memories? Why? Elena asked further. Thats what Ive been trying to figure out! Arthur eximed See, Ive been checking for whats there, and what isnt, and how that matches up to historical facts, both with Arthur and Hildebrand. And then, I figured something out: they only match where magic didnt y a big role. The more magic was involved, the more inurate things are. Arthurs, sorry, Pendragons tale is shaped by Merlin, who was a wizard, and aside from the big historical facts like the various foreign invasions, doesnt match history at all. So what if magic itself got scrubbed from history, what if thats why no magical artifacts have ever been found, no dragon bones, no unicorn horns, no nothing? What if that scrubbing affected even the magical recollections we were blessed with? The gods, Elena said. It wasnt a question. So your hypothesis is that there was magic here, on Earth, and then it was removed? Isaac asked, It makes sense, but how the fuck are we supposed to prove that? Arthur hung his head Yeah, thats the problem. We know that magic exists, that at least some of the myths involving the gods are real, but everything else, who knows? One more problem: there are Heir-[sses] for people who arepletely fictional. Sherlock Holmes, for example, has one. I also know for a fact that ites without any concrete memories. Once a character has be a part of public consciousness, their powers can be gained. Isaac exined. Doesnt that make it easy to separate out the fully fictional people? Arthur pointed out. Elena sighed and shook her head Someone might build memories out of the freshly gained experience and their imagination. Bloody Hell, Arthur swore. I think I might have an idea about how to find out more. Elena said Loki cant lie, right? And as a neutral god, his actions dont automatically tilt the bnce in a specific way? He doesnt lie, but he could, in theory. And when he acts, something needs to happen topensate. So if he helps us create order, he needs to add chaos. Do you think he might help in exchange for funny chaos? Elena asked. Maybe, but are you sure thats a good idea? Isaac asked. Dont worry, I have an idea. Elena said, then called out Oh Loki, I have a deal for you: fix this situation, give us all answers to the questions we asked during thest ten minutes and I will arrange to have a head of government pantsed. On live television. Interesting idea. Isaac sighed I hope this goes well. But nothing happened for a good long while and Arthur went right back to exining his theories until suddenly, Elena shifted position almost as if shed gained superspeed for a couple of seconds. Divine visit? Isaac asked, scaring the bejesus out of Arthur. Elena just nodded mutely, eyes wide, then mouthed Holy crap. So what is the answer? Isaac asked. He wants payment upfront, Elena said. I really hope you didnt promise more than you can deliver, Arthur said and Elena grinned viciously. I am an Asrai, a fairy, and all fairies are capable of great and dangerous mischief. I dont use that trick, ever, but I think that this is an appropriate opportunity. Given how low-Level even heads of state normally are, the magic should take hold easily, especially with the effect not being exceedingly damaging. Isaac winced. Elena was already on his do not fu- er, mess with list, but he mentally underlined that entry once more. Now we just wait for divine intervention? Arthur asked, Im hungry, if no one objects, Im heading over to the cafeteria and eating a horse. Elena grabbed him by the shoulder. Just one more thing, Mr. Who was down here with you? No one? So you were varying your handwriting, including mimicking mine and Elenas just for shits and giggles? Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow. No, that is your handwriting, Arthur said. Elena turned to Isaac and sweetly asked Would you mind fetching a mop? I predict a certain someone is about to have a few gallons of ice water dumped on his head. Spoilsport. Arthur muttered Thats one of the central [Skills] of my new [ss], [My Round Table]. I had enough points saved up to buy it. It lets me summon shades of people whove worked for or with me and use them to write things and do basic manualbor, like writing on boards. That cant be all it does, Isaac observed. Nope, its actually really cool. There are two parts to it. The first lets me add anyone whos worked for me as a shade, up to twelve people. They cant do much, but if they decide to formally join the new Round Table, then I can either ept them as is, or I can grant them an Heir-[ss] belonging to any knight of the Round Table and then ept them, which makes the associated shade way stronger. Once theyre a part of the Round Table, thats when the fun begins. The basic idea is that no knight is ever alone, so I can either deploy these shades as my personal army, with each being roughly a tenth as strong as the person its modeled after, or I can send it along one with one other member of the Table. It can then either back them up as is or add its stats to them and let them use weaker versions of a few [Skills]. Weaker how? Isaac asked. Even weakened, being able to borrow someone elses [Skills] was a huge game-changer. Only three [Skills], or one central [Skill], active [Skills] can only be used a few times a day, either three times or until their total mana cost exceeds five hundred, whichever happens first. Passive [Skills] only work for ten minutes a day, central passive [Skills] only work for one minute every day. And cooldown [Skills] can only be used once a week. Arthur rattled off. Basically, you needed to hoard those uses like they were worth their weight in gold. But really, they were that useful. Imagine Elena or some other squishy caster casting [I Am The Sword] and tearing apart a monster of titanic proportions with a single charge. Or Isaac himself borrowing one of herrge spells, something he shouldnt have ess to and no one could easily n around? The opportunities were endless. So, would you like to formally join the Round Table of Camelot? Arthur asked, megawatt smile right back on his face at full force Its a group of equals, its right there in the name. Isaac sighed and shook his head sadly I know its meant to be a circle of equals, but depending on my fourth Evolution options, there might be some kind of conflict, they might change. Ill join the instant I have it, though. Shouldnt take long, though. Arthur nodded How about you, Elena? Of course, but we should make this a more formal ceremony. She said, This is a big deal, and we need to treat it like it is. That just leaves one question: who else do you want to invite? Isaac asked. Well, everyone who was at the Starhail, for starters. Arthur said And then we check if the number of slots increases at the [Skill] levels. Then It took a while, but eventually, they managed to hammer out aplete and thorough n, though its implementation would take a while longer. But even with all theyd gained, this day had thrown up a ton of very ufortable questions as well. Chapter 180: What goes around, comes around Chapter 180: What goes around,es around Isaacs visit to Camelot had been very enlightening, and downright rxing once the issues had been cleared up as far as they could be until Loki got his payment, but unfortunately, that couldntst very forever. Which now left him sitting in his apartment, reading thetest information his off-the-books, former-mobster investigator Gregorio Zambon had gotten him. It wasnt much, or particrly useful. Basically, hed spent every waking hour since the disaster in Hamburg searching high and low for the people responsible and hed gotten nothing. Not even the conspicuous absence kind of nothing that spoke of the cults concealment [Skills], but outright nothing, zilch, nada. Neither hide nor hair anywhere in all of Germany. There were still hints of these fuckers being active in other countries, the oddly obscured actions that most investigation [Skills] could only read as nk void. Theyd up and left Germany and while that might have been a good thing with most criminal organizations, this time, all it did was make all of the leads Isaac had still had lead nowhere. Hed sneak a few of those documents to the police, but he doubted it would do much. Now though, he had a job to do. Sadly, it wasnt a big fight, an enemy to beat, a lesson to teach, or even research to help with. No, the only thing he was supposed to do was stand there and look pretty. Isaac reached into his closet and pulled out his newest suit. His go-to semi-formal wear might have been decorated armored bracers and a polo-shirt, but the dean had wanted a suit, so the dean got a suit. Specifically, a suit made entirely by the university and its advances in material sciences. Isaacs tailor had helped with the final design, which had helped avoid ending up with aplete and utter fashion disaster, but it was still noticeably not a cut made by a world-ss professional like most of Isaacs other clothing articles. But that didnt really matter as the real treasure was the materials the suit was made from, all thetest mystic silks and strings, woven together into an incredibly flexible yet durable substance that outperformed the armor Isaac had had a few months ago without having been designed to function as such. It really was a miracle material and no small wonder that Dean Kass wanted to show it off as he held his speech. Now if only the end result didnt make him look like a clown Isaac sighed and just put on the suit. It wasnt nearly as bad as he was making it out to be and appropriate for the asion, just contrary to his usual style, but he still very much disliked it. What one didnt do for ones boss on an asion as auspicious as the anniversary of the [Systems] Initiation? Today had started out with him visiting his family, then showing a few potential investors/future colleagues around their building with Bailey, then doing the same with hispany, and was now finally getting ready to attend the big speech the universitys dean was going to give, followed by a tour of all the new facilities that had been constructed in thest year. Spoiler alert, those were all [System] rted. Almost half a square kilometer of new buildings, ced in the area north of campus. The first of those had been the teams building, six stories ofboratories and administrative space, with a basement fit to summon even the most eldritch of horrors. Second had been the crafters vige, followed shortly afterward by the bunker they used for Hunting Grounds. And then, the whole thing had kinda gotten out of control. Greenhouses, different kinds ofbs, literal warehouses for when people built too much crap and the space elsewhere ran out. A few minutester, Isaac marched into the teams building, heading into one of the offices that looked out across the za outside, waiting there until Kass started talking to him. So, is there anything more I should know about before I give the speech? Anyst-second revtions that I might get asked about, ones that might bite me in the ass? Dont worry, theres nothing, Isaac said. Well actually, there was a wholeundry list of things, including such things as the truth behind the [System], Arthurstest [ss], and his own status as a time traveler, but there was no reason any of those shoulde up now of all times. And what about new tricks, is there anything I could unveil that the public doesnt already know about? Kass pressed. He already had half a dozen things to boast about, more than enough, but he was far more nervous than he had any right to be. The dean was a seasoned academic, he was used to talking to reporters and boasting about his and his universitys achievements without letting it sound as though he was showing off, but this whole situation was a bit beyond what even he was used to. Isaac shook his head We added a few new tricks to ourpany, but I dont think you want to announce those at a university speech. Probably not. Kass agreed Youre a good kid, you know? If I were one of the strongest people in the world I wouldnt go full superviin, but Id probably let it go to my head at least a little. Thanks, Isaac said as he stared out across the vast crowd gathering outside. Normally, a speech like this would have been given in the universitysrgest auditorium. During the universitys normal annual bragging day, the Dies academicus, that was exactly how it went down. Or so Isaac had heard, it had taken ce during the Kora incident and he hadnt exactly been in a position to watch at the time. However, this was no normal speech about the march of scientific progress, this was a speechmemorating the one-year anniversary of magic. Too many reporters were here to listen to the person who functionally spoke for Isaac and Bailey, so now, the whole affair had been moved to the square in front of the teams building. All day, the radio had been nothing but speeches, expert testimony on the effects the [System] had had on the world, grand promises on what this new world could be, and so on, and so forth. Also, a lot of doomsaying was spread about, stories of monsters destroying viges, monstrous humans ughtering innocents, and a metric fuckton of we cant say this in public, but it was bad. As for Isaac, he honestly had to say it had been a good year, his first three-hundred-and-sixty-five days in this timeline. Hed set up a fantastic research group, prevented several disasters from urring and hed found out about the cult, rather than being blindsided by them, nine years down the line. Of course, by most peoples standards, this year had been filled with disasters. Millions dead from the Events. The attack on Seoul by the Demon Lord that had decimated the ranks of their military and Hunters. And that wasnt even counting the series of nukes that had been deployed on rogue [Raid Bosses]. By Isaacs standards though, that was a calm stretch and all those incidents/disasters might not even have been given more than a throwaway line on the news in his old world. And yes, it was still at the start of the [Systems] reign, things could and almost certainly would get worse going forward, no matter what he did, but they were still fairly hopeful. Now he just had to survive this speech, then pick up his sisters so he could show them the new pool and adventure yground hed build on his property. Of course, that pool was soon going to be the site of aquatic summoning, and the adventure yground was actually the bones of a warehouse, but as a kid, hed have killed to be able to run around on an active construction site, even if there wasnt any construction equipment to y with. The clock in the corner of the room continued to tick onward silently as the square outside grew ever so slightly more full, it would have reached the point of overcrowded if there hadnt been a police presence. Most of the people down there had arrived hours ago, setting up camera equipment and getting into ce to shout questions once the initial speech had finished. Eventually, Bailey showed up and Isaac immediately noticed that hed had to subtly manipte his form to fit into the suit hed been given. Sure, Kass arguments about how physically disying one of the universitys achievements still held water but damn, the execution had seriously floundered. The rest of the team showed up alongside Professors Bishop and Chandler, and then, they headed out. Kass stepped up to the podium and started to give his speech and then the damn microphone died with an eardrum-shredding screech. That seemingly happened every single time someone tried to give a speech both at his university and his high school and somehow, no one had managed to create a fix after the millionth time that had happened. Seriously, how hard would it have been to have an [Engineer] set that up? Of course, both Amy and Patrick cast [Amplify Sound] before the microphones death knell had even died down. Kass kept talking, and everyone pretended that hadnt happened. In his speech, the dean pointed out all the things that the university had achieved, how much better the world could be, and so on. He sounded proud, and while he had directly done very little, his support had been invaluable. and as such, we will all be taking the world into a bright future. And that was that. The end of the speech. There was barely a split second of silence before the question began, some asking for the timeline on specific discoveries to be turned into viable technology and so on, and so forth. But not all questions were so innocent. In what universe is summoning [Raid Bosses] a good idea? I thought you guys were meant to be the smart ones, not encouraging the dumbest part of the [System]? yeah, that had been about as long as they could have avoided confronting that question. The official were summoning this thing with all the right preparations, please dont drop a nuke on us paperwork had been filed just yesterday, and now, people were going over the top. Professor Bailey, would you like to take this question? Kass offered and took a step back, letting the other professor answer. Fundamentally, if the [System] is avable to everyone. At some point, every creature would get summoned even if we didnt. This is something weve already seen go badly three times and each time, we can trace what problem back to missing preparation and backup. In preparation to summon a [Raid Boss], an artificial ind was raised from the North Sea, enchantment arrays and warding circles are holding everything on the ind in ce and arge chunk of the nationsmilitary is on standby. In addition, weve gathered ten people withbat [sses] over Level 90 to fight the monster. Finally, should something, anything, go wrong, we have several international allies ready to intervene in under a minute, should something go wrong. Bailey exined. The person whod asked the question looked ready to explode but one of the nearby reporters was furiously talking him down. Few wanted this to devolve into an argument about the ethics of summoning. What do you expect to learn from the [Raid Bosses]? came the next question. Everything about them. Wed like to know how to beat them more easily, how their abilities work, and possibly even how to replicate their ability to endure incredible damage. Bailey said. Have you ever been able to replicate a monsters abilities without using Aspects? Of course. Weve created several enchantments, basic Spells, and alchemicalpounds based on monsters and even [Skills]. Name one. Isaac sighed at the challenge but decided to not say anything as he could see Chandler step up. Other than the few potions that were introduced by the mysterious message, most alchemic substances were created to replicate some effect seen in nature. For example, the emergency healing potion that is used to prevent even catastrophic injuries from turning fatal is based on the regenerative ability of a Hydra. The older professor exined. He was still an elderly man who would have looked more at home in a retirement home than aboratory, surrounded by exceedingly dangerous tools and materials, but hed changed massively since Isaac had met him. Chandler was standing straighter than before, the back no longer bent with age and the sheer number of wrinkles on his face had been reduced down to almost nothing. And his eyes shone with the vibrancy of a young explorer, eagerly drinking in anything and everything they saw, never satisfied, ever searching. And then came the question Isaac had really been hoping wouldnte up. May I ask about the n to empower politicians? There are certain rumors floating around involving how high Level [Politician]-[Skills] will basically amount to mind control. Now, I realize that the new world order conspiracy theories are just that, conspiracy theories, but there are parts that ring painfully true. So, what is the reality of the rumors? And why was it all kept a secret? Not even a question about whether there was really a n, just someone asking for rification. Sigh. Isaac had, of course, warned Kass that someone would probably be asking about this, especially when one of the politicians who had been told they wouldnt be allowed in the program startedining to the press. So when the question was asked, the dean just said Ill let the person working on the project answer that question. Dr. Thoma, if you would?. Isaac stepped up to the ce where the sound amplification Spell was still in ce and began to exin. There is a lot of truth to those rumors, yes. In the wake of the Hamburg incident, we were looking for ways to prevent another incident like it from taking ce and figured out that [Politicians] might have ess to certain [ss] Evolutions that focus on country-wide boosting [Skills], some of which might potentially reduce coteral damage from high-Level fights. From that point on, weve been hammering out the particrs of that n, which basically boils down to this: politicians without scandals from the parties currently in the Bundestag will be chosen at random, though we will make sure no party is left out or benefits excessively. These politicians will be given the choice to be brought up to Level 25, the point where [sses] that are not explicitly magical breach the boundaries where they only allow mundane things to be done better. In exchange, theyll be agreeing to share all the information they have avable on their various possible Evolutions and choose the one that sounds the most like it would grant boosting [Skills] to give us all the information possible on that topic. We will not be leveling anyone past Level 25 as the worlds current average Level is 18 and anything beyond that would have the potential to shake up the status quo too much. Incidentally, a neww is currently being written that will count power-leveling candidates for a political office and limit it, just like any other campaign contribution. While it wont be in effect by the time our leveling program takes ce, we will beplying with thew and well also be choosing whom we level at random. If they have a clean vest and show that they are willing to obey orders in abat situation, theyre eligible. What do you have to say about the rather more extreme interpretations of your program? The talk of a new world order was caused by a big misunderstanding. No one publicly announced the program because so much about its final form was uncertain that wed just end up with a lot of maybes and despite what I saidst time-s. And then someone started inviting in politicians with the exact kind of track record that would bar them from our program. Isaac exined. So your stance on this is that nothing can happen, that theres no chance for the politicians you empower to choose a [ss] other than what you want them to? What happens then? Then youll know about two seconds after we do. Isaac grinned viciously This is a research project, and we intend to publish its results. There were a few scattered chuckles at that. Many of the reporters here were of the political variety, who could already picture the headlines. Politician power leveled for country-boosting [Skill], chose maniption based [ss] instead, career ruined The questions continued in a more standard vein, with people asking about thetest innovations and where the university was aiming to go with its research. And then came the next banger. Dr. Thoma, earlier, my colleague suggested that high-Level politicians functionally have ess to mind control and you didnt refute it. Does that its possible that one day, democracy might end up failing as a matter of course? Ah yes, the darkest take on all this. Kass immediately let Isaac take the question. Yes. Isaac said, nodding, and let the word hang in the air like a thundercloud for a moment High-Level individuals gain [sses] of immense power, capable of change on a grand scale. Ive met a couple of individuals at the beginning of the fourth Evolutions and if you pardon my French, the [Skills] at that level are utterly broken. But there is nothing in the [System] that is insurmountable, no [Skill] that is unbeatable, and high Level politicians who can change public opinion with a wink and a nod are no exception. And that counter is vignce. Actually, thats how its always been. People in positions of power will take as much of it as they can, and if no one stops them, theyll take it all. Thats why we have the separation of powers, why we have systems of holding even the people in charge of the country as a whole to ount for their actions, why we have freedom of speech to allow us all to express our opinions on our leaders and call them out for potential bad behavior. When we the people growcent, bad things happen, whether magic is involved or not. For example, in Ancient Rome, when Caesar died, his heir reinstated the Republic with himself as the princeps, the first citizen when in reality, he turned himself into the first Roman emperor. If people hadnt believed him, if the Populus had been more focused on ensuring the Republic was truly reborn, it might have. Or for a more recent example, I believe some of you might be familiar with a little incident known as the Watergate scandal? Many people nodded, while others just rolled their eyes. Richard Nixon abused the power of his office and he might well have gotten away with it if the scandal hadnt been uncovered by a pair of reporters, working tirelessly against such oppositions that no one could fault them for giving up. But they didnt. Bob Woodward and Howard Bernstein did not give up and uncovered a conspiracy that led all the way to the White House and changed the course of history. On the other hand, weve seen what happens when tant abuse of power isnt checked, right here in this country, ny years ago, when a failed art student took power bit by bit. He med the Jews for all that ailed this country, and even though it was fundamentally illogical, people believed him over using their own heads. He trampled over international treaties to take possession of Germanic nations and the other nations let him, believing that at some point, hed be satisfied. He built weapons of war that vited treaties all treaties that limited those, and the other nations allowed it while obeying the treaties themselves, preferring to preserve peace over fighting a war even though everything was pointing towards that war being inevitable. And here in Germany, every rming change was ignored by most people until that man was unstoppable. I believe we all know how that ended, but let me remind you anyway: The Second World War was the deadliest conflict in history, killing around eightymillion people directly, with another twenty or so million dying to war-rted causes like famine or disease. Isaac paused and took another deep breath. All of that was a very longwinded way of saying: democracy can work,e hell, high water, or magic. We just need to pay attention and make sure that it remains a true democracy, that no one starts to gnaw away at its foundations, starts twisting it into something that might technically still be a democratic system but had lost its spirit long ago. He shrugged and cocked his head to the side. It couldnt hurt to throw in a little ttery after all the doomsaying. Like I said, Watergate was solved by reporters. If something like it happens here, which one of you lot will get the scoop? *** Hey Isaac, look at me! Tanja squealed as she did a cartwheel across the girders that would one day be an office that overlooked the warehouse from just under the ceiling seven meters off the floor. That little gremlin was going to be the death of him, one of these days. Isaac shook his head as he turned around to watch while he flipped the burger patty on the grill. Hed finally broken out the mystical cow meat hed gained during the first Event and was making a meal for his family to celebrate ormiserate this day, he wasnt quite sure which it was. His parents were currently at the pool with Viktoria, having decided they didnt want to watch their other daughters death-defying stunts. Sure, they werent anywhere near as dangerous as they looked, but internalizing that knowledge wasnt simple. The speech and answering all those questions had been exhausting, sure, but it had gone reasonably well, as had everything else hed done today. And now, the day was ending on a pleasant note with a nice family meal. In a few weeks, though, things would go to hell in a handbasket when they summoned their first [Raid Boss]. Chapter 181: Bossy Problems, Take Two Chapter 181: Bossy Problems, Take Two The isle of Etzel had grown a great deal since thest time Isaac had been here. It was now two kilometers across, with a low-slung wall covered in enchantments wrapping around the outside. If the [Raid Boss] boss couldnt fly or tunnel, it wouldnt be able to easily leave. Sure, eventually, even these defenses could be battered down in time by the might of a monster as strong as a [Raid Boss], but the monster wouldnt have that time, or so was the n. Unfortunately, just leaving the monster trapped and shelling it to death from the outside would get them pped with an XP penalty even when they seeded, and that was very much up in the air. In addition to the team, there were quite a few other Level 90-ish individuals. These werent individuals whod been much in the public eye, but Isaac had known they had to be around. Special forces soldiers, high-Level members of the espionage corps, and others whom the government didnt want to brag about, these people had been power-leveled to serve as a hidden trump card in case a war broke out. Heck, most countries probably had a few people like this. Unfortunately, the right infrastructure to get these people into position for incidents the instant they happened just wasnt there. If Isaac had to make a guess, theyd been stuck in some basement or bunker, unable to engage in situations like the Hamburg incident before the situation resolved itself. Without properly being the chain ofmand of these powerhouses, no [General] or [Admiral] could immediately relocate them, which was a bummer as theyd havee in real handy a few times. Isaac could see that he wasnt seeing the true face of anyone here, countless disguise [Skills] cast by others wreathing them, ensuring he wouldnt recognize them even if he met the m on the streetster. Sure, he couldbreak those defenses, but doing so without anyone noticing was beyond him. There was also another issue involving how someone who powerleveled tended to not get the best [sses]. These folks had been heavily loaded up with Aspects and every other sort of support the Federal Republic of Germany could provide, but even so, Isaac could tell that the rarest [ss] among them was epic, and maybe only one or two of ten had one. The rest probably had rare [sses], though. All that being said, these people were here to engage in case of an emergency, not to fight from the start. They were meant to be this nations hidden trump cards and while confirming they existed wasnt a big risk, exposing their abilities could be problematic In addition to these extremely high-Level individuals, several members of GSG-13 were, of course, present, as were quite a few high-Level soldiers. There were also countless people and machines of war off the ind, with four warships circling it and several artillery battalions waiting on the shoreline, ready to obliterate the [Raid Boss], well, try to at least. The ungodly durability of one of those things meant that it might reach the shore before sumbing to the bombardment. But that wasnt the weirdest part of all of this, that dubious honor went to the soldiers in power armor. Thats right, the full sci-fi stormtrooper getup,plete with artificial muscles and built-in weapons. In any other world, those would have been the kings of the battlefield. But in this one, they were barely usable. [Skills] allowed for the maniption of materials on a level mere technology couldnt, at least not yet. Throw in the ability to bypass a few crucial limits of the material used at key points and you got powered armor that was several decades beyond anything that had existed a mere year ago. But thereiny the issue. All the [Skills] that went into empowering the end product were spent on making said end product viable, not enhancing it, so the end result was functionally identical to pre-[System] tech, material-wise. Titanium was just titanium, steel was just steel, and if Isaac were to wear one of those things and tried to move at even a third of his top speed, it would shatter like ss around him. Once the world reached a level of technological sophistication where powered armor could be built without any [Skills], the armor could be enhanced to work much better, to be useful beyond slightly enhancing people who were basically just baseline humans, with physical Stats below twenty or thirty. Yet even at that point, the armor would still fall shortpared to high-Level people, for that, it would have also had to be upgraded using magical materials and manipting those with the fidelity needed to create microchips and artificial muscles if most people couldnt manage that to make guns, why the hell would powered armor work? Near the end of the other timeline, guns had barely started to be relevant for top-level fights again, and powered armor would take decades if not centuries longer. The sole exception to those issues were people whod focused their entire build to make using the armor viable, but then all you had was a viable set of powered armor and no supplementary [Skills]. In other words, having anyone around in that shiny glittering mess was just a vanity project. Thankfully, the stormtrooper rejects were not going to be needed, only acting to stiffen the emergency defenses. Really, the team alone was practically overkill here, having a million extra people around took this so far that it could practically be called ludicrous. Honestly, could deploying ten percent of a nations military deployed in case this experiment goes wrong sounded so incredibly over the top Isaac could barely believe it. Hed made this happen. Sure, Bailey, Kass, Habicht, the few military officers hed met in the wake of the Hamburg officers, theyd all helped, but so many of those threads led back to him. Hed taught many of the people involved. Hed pushed for this summoning to ur. And hed damn near written the rules of engagement for this fight. If this went all ording to n, theyd be trashing the first [Raid Boss] in a matter of seconds. Of course, it would just be another Least Demon Lord with its abilities and weaknesses known, just to test their capabilities, but it was still a [Raid Boss] theyd be dealing with. Those were powerful, dangerous, and no one should be cocky while fighting one. A siren rang out across the artificial ind, informing everyone there that crap was about to go down. as if there was a single person who didnt know what was going to happen in a few short minutes. Thest few people who wouldnt be on the frontlines took this as their cue to leave, rapidly retreating onto the boats moored on the edges of the ind, then taking those to the warships waiting at a safe distance. The circle in the middle of the ind red to life a momentter every person here poured their mana into it, priming it for the summoning. And then the waiting began. Isaacs mana shot back up, reaching full in barely ten minutes, the mages recovering far faster while the rest took up to thirty minutes to top up. Behind Isaac, the rest of the preparations began. Patrick and Amy were prepping their biggest [Skills], Bailey was running around ensuring everyone was fully healthy, Karl was building fortifications and Raul was warning everyone before he made his preparations. Im going to bring my familiar back up to full size. No one freak! There were quite a few eye-rolls at that, but given how many people jumped or reflexively reached for their weapons proved that the warning had, in fact, been necessary. Aurelian the Sr Dragon was tiny, most of the time at least, small enough to cosy as a teacup pig, and spent most of his time napping in Rauls breast pocket. But he was not that small in reality, he was merely able to reduce his size and return to his true form at will. In addition, both of Rauls familiars had been heavily enhanced with Aspects. Brisa, the Microraptor sitting on Rauls shoulder like a particrly scaly parrot, had just gotten an Air Elemental Aspect to enhance flight, as well as the evermonbination of Aspects of the Specter and Hydra, leaving her powerful but barely changed on the surface. Not so the dragon. The Aspect of the Hydra was present, it was just too useful, but the other three granted Aspects were incredibly powerful and had visually changed him. The Aspect of the Thermite Avatar was the first and one of the strongest ones, the sr radiance streaked through with fire almost as bright, the space between the scales on his chest shining like the crater of an active volcano. Then, you had the Aspect of the Wyvern, which had increased the size of his wings and made him vastly more agile in the air. And finally, you had the Aspect of the Thunderstorm, abination of an Air and Lightning Elemental that granted him partial control over the things best described as terrible weather. That dragon also shared Rauls Level of 87, and could probably almost take down the Demon Lord on its own. Summoning in one minute! the [General] in charge of proceedings warned through the party chat. Everyone was already in ce, though. Surrounding the summoning circle, front liners closest to where the monster would appear, mages ready to st that thing with their strongest spells. Sure, this thing was less than half Isaacs Level and there were several others with a simr power advantage, but it was still a [Raid Boss]. And then, the monster finally appeared, roaring furiously and tossing around hellfire, aiming to fry the front liners before they could react. The attack, of course, failed miserably. No one here was dumb enough to not have their defenses up by the time the monster was truly summoned and it showed. The magically reinforced concrete before them turned to magma and the area of molten rock advanced as the heat traveled through the rock, forcing the people to slightly back up but that was all. No damage, no nothing. The first attacks had already flown toward the circle before the monster had already appeared, but now, the flight of projectiles and spells was so thick one could walk on them. Bullets that hit harder than armor-piercing artillery shells and caused wounds that could not heal. A few actual artillery shells from the maind and the main weapons on the nearby warships opened up, sending multiple 76mm rounds into the beasts body every second. And finally, the various military mages joined in with their powers, artillery spells raining down so thick that it might as well have been true rain. Of course, that initial fire spray had merely been the monsters opening strike, a probing attack to gauge the strength of their defenses because now, it knew it had to concentrate its fire to break through. Hellfire built up in both palms and its crown of horns burst into me only for it to be thrown backward as Isaac exploded through its head in the vastlyrger [Form of Horror], annihting its eyes andrge chunks of the skull. A green glow radiated from his skin as he impacted his ability to apply [Strikes] to [I Am The Sword] paying off in spades. The mes licking along the horns exploded into the sky, raining back down as a cloud of deadly embers even as the demon copsed onto one knee. It was already rising again as the ground underfoot turned shiny as Karl exerted his power, turning the rough concrete designed for people to not slip on even when it was slick with blood or water from the ocean into a mirror-smooth surface. That alone might not have done much, but the pair of spells that hammered into it finished the job handily. Patricks very precise, almost mathematical approach to spellcasting had given him the [ss] of [Arcane Polymath], and with it, a core [Skill] that allowed him to interlink many more spells and cast a perfectly bnced binding spell that locked down limbs and bound the monster to the ground once it touched down. As for making the monster fall over, that was Amys job. Her [Spellweaver Savant] was built to seamlessly interweave multiple spells. It was less intricate than what Patrick did, but far faster, and with the right kind of artistic creativity, it could be even stronger. Saying that the bowling ball-sized sphere of energy hit like a wrecking ball was the understatement of the century. The energy exploded clean through the beasts chest, leaving behind a hole the size of the spell in the front but a gaping cavern the size of a car in the back, also throwing the monster back and onto the ground. Finally, Patricks prepared spell connected to the anchor points Karl had raised from the ground as the monster had started to fall. Binding the monster like that wouldnt have been possible if it had still been healthy, but between Isaac, Amy, and the somewhat lesser contribution of the other rangedbatants, the demon was about as far from healthy as one could be without outright dying. Hellfire flooded from the Demon Lord, its hands and horns being pressed against the ground preventing it from directly attacking, but it could still st the concrete, liquefying it and spreading along the top. Aurelianunched himself into the air and doubled in size by the time he was above the demon, courtesy of one of Rauls cooldown [Skills]. Light gathered in the back of the dragons throat, shining brighter than the sun in the sky, and a ray of devastating power burst forth, a solid pir of heat, lighting, and the same sma that made up the sun. Enough to blind anyone who looked straight at it without an insanely high Perception of Fortitude Stat, but theyd warned everyone about this ahead of time. By the time Aurelians jaws snapped shut, the Demon Lord resembled a charcoal briquette, one arm nowhere to be seen, the rest of the body scorched to hell and the hellfire had been subsumed by the sr me. Unfortunately, the same level of damage had been inflicted on everything around the beast, which included the things that had held the beast. The Demon Lord rose back onto its feet, moving ponderously at first but speeding up and charging at the closest human, only to take a powerful force spell to the check, sending it stumbling back. More hellfire flew, blindly tossed in ast-ditch attempt to inflict damage, it wasnt enough. Too many people with defensive [Skills], too many able to extinguish hellfire, too many healers to fix any injuries that were inflicted. Three superficial injuries from shrapnel, seventeen first or second-degree burns, two had identally stepped into the molten ground and one guy would require significant physical reconstruction to recover. Could have gone better, but it could also have gone a hell of a lot worse and they had beaten the Korean record for the least number of injuries while fighting one of those things. Sure, theyd only done so by a couple of very light injuries, but Isaac didnt doubt someone would soon be crowing that from the rooftops. By the time the ground had cooled enough for people to start harvesting the monsters carcass, those injuries had almostpletely been removed. Sadly, this was the part where Isaac noticed another nasty trick the dark gods had yed on them. Normally, [Raid Bosses] dropped three Aspects. When the second Korean Demon Lord had dropped only two, that had been strange enough. But this one had only dropped one. Would the one after not drop any? Eliminating some of the biggest rewards of the [Raid Boss] would massively reduce the use people got out of them, but if the first one gave the greatest rewards, people would start to feel the need to go after them earlier, to be the first to summon a given monster. Theyd be summoning a couple more Least Demon Lords to help iron out thest kinks in their cooperation, which should bring some rity to the matter. And once that was done, theyd be moving on to the Lindwyrm, another [Raid Boss], which should help reveal the true drop rate. Once all of this was finished, then and only then, Isaac could evolve and gain his 4th Evolution [ss]. He already had all the required XP, but he wanted to get thest few requirements here before he followed through. Chapter 182: Interlude Tomfoolery Chapter 182: Interlude Tomfoolery Few people had ever used Elena Hightower of having a sense of humor. That wasnt quite correct, she did y the asional prank or tell a joke, but she was fairly reserved in general. Unfortunately, the few times she did feel like doing something funny, she often had to y the straight man to Arthurs stooge. She loved that man like a brother and he wasnt nearly as chaotic as he seemed at first nce, but he still often needed some professional to deal with situations. He was a good leader and had above-overage organizational skills and charisma for days. He was also loud, bombastic, and had a tendency to get swept up in the moment, leaving her to be the voice of reason. However, Elena was an Asrai, a fairy. And fairies could be nasty. A strangely beautiful man walks into a town, insults the local lord, and is executed. The executioners de falls once, twice, thrice, yet each time, its a member of the lords family that loses their head while the man remains hale and hearty, eventually revealing himself to be a fairy prince. People wandering into fairy parties, only to find out that decades or centuries had passed when they left. Woodcutters being visited by strangely ethereal women when staying in the woods, with anyone who was seduced leaving behind a part of their soul in the forest. Now, Elena herself wasnt quite that bad, but she did have quite a few nasty tricks up her sleeve. Which now left her standing in the crowd while the Prime Minister was giving a speech about how thetest advances in traffic-rted [Skills] had made the countrys roads safer than ever. What he was leaving out was how that required all the various cops to have the exact right [Skill] and be within two-hundred meters of a potential ident, as well as the fact that almost everyone had some manner of increased sensory perception and reflexes, which massively reduced the number of idents on its own. In other words, this was much ado about nothing, but given the chaos of thest year, he needed to make it look like things were looking up. [Fairys yful Curse] It was one of the few racial abilities she had, and shed used it almost a dozen times before today but it had never worked. The hrious chaos was sadly not guaranteed, so shed had to try a few times, but eventually, it should work, and then, theyd finally figure out the truth behind just what the hell had happened to the Earths magic. The curse hit home, the subtle maniptionpletely flying over the heads of the PMs bodyguards. Something nastier would have been noticed, but the subtle fairy magic was on a whole other Level. theyd point that outter, once this whole pantsing affair had blown over. If it ever actually happened. Then, she spotted one of her least-favorite politicians, walking up to the PM for one of those fake were all buddies politicians handshakes in full view of the public and the cameras. He was one of the backers of the politician whose status sheet Arthur had publicly read out loud, and just barely agreed to leave bygones be bygones. That gave her an evil idea. [Fairys yful Curse] hit home a second time and the man stumbled over thest step on his way to the podium and fell forwards almostically, arms outstretched to catch him. He didnt manage it. What he did catch was the PMs pants, and his hands reflexively clenched around the only thing that seemed to provide stability. The belt that might have saved them both the public embarrassment burst in spectacr fashion a momentter, the buckle somehow both breaking and snapping off in the same motion, and then, there the PM was, down a pair of pants. Now, the TV probably had enough of a dy built in to not show the PMs pale white bottom to the whole world, but everyone here had had that image burned into her mind. Elena stifled a chuckle as she pointedly looked anywhere but the stage and waited for the chaos to die down. The person responsible for the pantsing had even been tackled by the PMs bodyguards before theyd figured out that it had just been an ident. Eventually, the PM just sent everyone away with an awkward thank you foring while trying to avoid being obvious about the fact that he had to keep pulling his pants up due tocking an intact belt. Ok, maybe that little prank had gone a bit far. Still, as far as anyone knew, it had been an ident and most of the me fell on the arch-conservative blowhard shed already been gunning for. As soon as she could leave without drawing attention to herself, she did, heading over to the Themes and leaping in. The water might have been dirty, but it wasnt after she dropped in. [Mystic Aquatic Affinity] was mostly just used to increase the power of her water magic, but it did have quite a few other abilities. She sped through the water faster than the speed of sound, bursting free of the rivers confines a few kilometers from Camelot mere secondster. She hurried there, removing all the water from her clothes with a mere thought. Soon, she reached the inner sanctum and the world turned purple. Well, well, well, I didnt expect that. You actually followed through. Loki chuckled There are a few despots Id love to have seen knocked down a peg or two, but I suppose it would have been more obvious if youd kept visiting a foreign time only for something to go spectacrly wrong during one of those visits. And? Elena demanded. See, theres a slight problem: you said tell us everything, but not everyone is here. Quite a few of the dust mites present while we made our deal have died since then. The god said in a mock-said voice. She just raised a single eyebrow. Both parties will obey the agreement in spirit, not intentionally twist it away from what they know the other one meant. That was an excellent addition, though Im not a big fan of such agreements. Loki said, rolling his eyes You could have at least pretended to buy that Id figured out a loophole. Heres the thing, though. You were talking about you, Arthur, and Isaac when you said tell us. I dont see them, but Ill happily wait with you until you can get them. Elena sighed. Getting Arthur would have been a matter of seconds, but Isaac was very, very busy at the moment, fighting [Raid Bosses] and afterward, hed be evolving. He was ted to drop by Camelot afterward anyway, to talk to Arthur about joining the Round Table, but that was a long wait. The world returned to its regr color when the god vanished. Elena sighed and turned to leave when a heavy weight dropped onto her shoulder. She turned and spotted the tabby cat sitting there, looking at her with eyes that sparkled withughter. Onwards,-paw-dre. Seize the meow-ment and do something awesome! Elena red at the shapeshifted god. Whats up with the cattitude? Your expression is simply w-full. I promised meow would stay with you until I told you everything, didnt I? I will drown you in theke. Elena hissed at the cat. That is one paw-sibility, Loki said, giving a feline shrug. A st of water drenched him to the bone a momentter. Tell Isaac, Arthur, and me everything, when we call you. But for now, leave me alone and cut the crap. The cat pouted and Elena sighed. After half an hour of negotiation, the damnable deity was gone and had agreed to only return when she called him. She could see why Isaac really hated dealing with gods or involving them in anything. The next meeting could note soon enough. Chapter 183: Here comes the New Boss Chapter 183: Herees the New Boss Firing Hellcannon! Karl warned as he unleashed, well, hell. The blob of shapeshifting metal that was his soulbound tool had increased in size as his [ss] evolved and was now the size of a small car. Before, hed used it as the ultimate multitool but not much beyond that. Now though, hed turned it into an incrediblyplicated machine, built around a vial of Demon Lord blood that was burned up in seconds, sent flying down the barrel of the gun, which was in turn lined with countless runic tes which hed drawn from his [ss] storage space, interestingly titled [Every Tool, Everywhere, Anytime]. That space was filled with countless different versions of every rune any of them knew, with the end result being that Karl could put together any basic enchantment in mere seconds. Throw in the fact that he could freely manipte the liquid metal he used as the ground he built upon, and creating such hellish machines of war was easy as pie. A deep crimson beam of power erupted from the aptly named Hellcanon, leaping straight at thetest demons face. Theyd found their rhythm with the third one, but theyd also figured out a trick that made killing one beyond easy. Well, Karl had thought hed found one, and now, they were testing it out. This attack alone would have caused terrible damage, but not been lethal. On its own, that was. [Empowered Barrage], [Arcane Gift], [All-Piercing Shot], [Enduring Damage] All in all, over a dozen third Evolution militarymander [Skills] turned the metaphorical death ray into an actual death ray, twice as thick as the previous shot and infinitely deadlier. The demon staggered backward, a several-meter-wide hole through its chest. The beam then traveled upwards, vaporizing the entirety of the monsters head. Lacking both a head and most of its torso was lethal to even one of these things. Meanwhile, the few random fireballs it had tossed around had been easily intercepted. That was pretty easy, wasnt it? Wechsler asked as he stepped up next to Isaac. Thewyer had been there in the very beginning when the team had started, but as time had passed, hed be progressively busier and hardly ever showed his face anymore. But hed shown up to this, as this was still technically an animal experiment and someone hadined about the military gunning down a helpless animal. Its all a matter of figuring out how something works, Isaac said. Im guessing this is the end of all our energy woes, isnt it? Wechsler said, I mean, tapping what probably amounts to hell for energy seems risky, but it also seems damn viable. Isaac shook his head That would get way too expensive. Killing one of those things in one shot burned close to a hundred thousand euros worth of machineponents. If that were the only cost involved, that would be doable, but this was only possible due to the [Skills] of several people near to Level 100 and were damn expensive. If we were getting paid for this wed probably show up as a major line item in the national budget, and thats without considering how many people would be needed as backup. Good point. Wechsler shrugged And youre fighting an entirely new [Raid Boss] after this, that didnt get canceled because you took longer fighting the demons? Yep. Isaac nodded The Lindwyrm. Theres a legend about how eating it might give powers and I want to check that. Also, I have a personal hypothesis about how theres a premium resource for every [Raid Boss], like the blood of the Demon Lord. Theres one where I one hundred percent know what the resource is because those who eat the Salmon of Wisdom are said to gain magic and all the knowledge in the world, but we need a ce to summon it before we can do anything with that knowledge. Whats with you and wanting to eat everything? Wechsler asked, side-eying Isaac. Not everything, just the stuff thats almost certainly going to help, Isaac said. Youre that certain? Wechsler frowned. If all [Raid Bosses] give special loot as I suspect, then the flesh will definitely be it. Dragon scales, dragon blood, dragon fangs, all of those are the mythological dragon bits that are useful. Now, a Lindwyrm is a kind of dragon, but listed separately from the others and the eat it to gain superpowers is always linked to stories where the dragon is referred to as a Lindwyrm at least part of the time. I guess that makes sense. Well see, I suppose. Wechsler said, getting up and walking away before turning after a few steps Also, I know its stupid but I have to ask this: are you at all nning to inflict any unnecessary pain, injury, or other cruelty upon the monster youre about to summon? No, Isaac said, rolling his eyes and Wechsler nodded. Bureaucracy had its uses and its ce in the world, but there were oh so many truly ridiculous rules and regtions that sometimes, it was almost enough to drive a man insane. *** Summoning Monster! the final warning echoed, dering for all to hear that this was it. Sink or swim, live or die, walk out of here, or end up in a body bag. Thest chance to walk away had long since passed. Nothing happened for a long moment. It couldnt have been more than a single second, but that dy was still enough to set peoples nerves on end. And then, the Lindwyrm erupted from the summoning circle, shooting from the ground like a bottle rocket, all hundred meters of titanic serpentunched skywards until it seemed to stand on the tip of its tail for a moment, hanging up there like the most terrifying danger noodle a meme had ever been made of. Eyes glowing a venomous green raked over the crowd of tiny figures that stood at a safe distance, analyzing their defenses, picking out the weakest among them to be its first target. Two wed forelimbs that wereically smallpared to the rest of the body were ready to tear apart anyone who tried to attack the head from the side. Armored scales, the smallest of which were at least the size of a human hand, covered itpletely, with a dangerous energy radiating out from underneath them. Leaning almost imperceptibly to the side caused the serpent to fall over towards the lowest Level group,ing down almost fifty meters short of the frontline. Keeping a distance had its benefits. Isaac had simply written down a few dozen possible powersets for the Lindwyrm, making plenty of spections but including its actual moveset in several different possibilities. Based on that, a set of ns had been created that ounted for the various powers they might be facing, and those conveniently just so happened to cover all of the most dangerous powers the damn thing possessed. Throw in the fact that they had at least some idea of what it was capable of thanks to having fought its [Field Boss] variant and they had a good enough grasp of what it was capable of that when a titanic cloud of acid burst from the beasts gullet, they had a direct counter avable. Frost and wind magicbined to freeze the liquid, then throw it straight past the monster, not inflicting even a single scorch mark onto the tanks shield. Normally, this would have been a prime situation to pepper a [Raid Boss] with attacks, but that was where the problems started. Being a snake, the Lindwyrm was very low to the ground and damn difficult to hit without identally hitting the ground or having the projectiles fly over the monster and strike the people there. Sure, sting the concrete was just a waste of an attack, but any miss posed a real risk. So when the warships guns chattered to life, every hit taking small divots out of the monsters scales while the bow turret managed to destroy scales in their entirety, but only when they were utterly soaked in enhancing [Skills]. The [Mages] had it a little easier, being more able to direct their magic even after getting slung around, but they only had a few truly heavy hitters in their arsenal, offensive or spell-strengthening cooldown [Skills]. A few orders snapped off via the party chat caused the formation on the other side of the snake to scatter, then, Karls Hellcannon zed to life. The worlds most expensive fuel (other than antimatter) vaporized in a split second, the energy boiling through the barrel and vaporizing countless intricate and incredibly expensive foci as they lent their energy to the beam or refined it. The blood-red beam of fuck you tore through the air and gouged a huge chunk out of the target but the giant snake heaved upwards, pulling itself out of the line of fire, leaving with serious scorch marks but surviving just fine. Of course, having been raised off the ground also made it an easy target for the long-range attackers, free from the worry of friendly fire. Scales were yed off and blood sprayed in an orgy of violence, but only for a moment. Thats when the beam petered out and the snake dropped to the ground, looking somewhat worse for wear but still perfectly able to keep fighting. This was the second issue. A Lindwyrm was, for the most part, a snake. It did have two forelimbs, but those were not its most powerful weapon and utterly useless for lotion. Having huge chunks taken out of one''s body was pretty damaging for most creatures, but as a [Raid Boss], the snake wasnt that bothered by damage to its internal organs and the impact the attacks had on its mobility was non-existent. It was at this point that the snake clearly decided that enough was enough and deployed its I need my personal space move. The thing glinting underneath the scales, glimmering in the gaps between them, revealed itself as being acid when it sprayed out, erupting from every intact part of the monsters body. As the closest group made a rapid retreat, the Lindwyrm spun, head shooting straight at Karl while the tail whipped around and sent the squad it had targeted initially toppling like dominoes. Twin streams of acidic venom burst from the beast''s fangs with enough force and concentration to serve as a waterjet cutter, smashing into a magical shield and being deflected. At first. Shieldyer after shieldyer shattered and people dove to the side while Karl just dropped straight into the ground and escaped that way as the monster hammered into the ce where hed been standing a second earlier. The report of a heavy rifle echoed loudly in Isaacs ears and for the first time, one of the shots aimed at the beast''s eyes hit home with enough force to pop it like a water balloon. Isaac recognized that weapon, it was the single most expensive sniper rifle ever built. Every single part had been handcrafted by Helmut Stagmer, heir to Wand the Smith from Germanic myth. If it hadnt been created as a favor to Isaac, it would have probably drained GSG-9s budget, but it had been. And now, the man whod shot out the eye of someone whod basically been a god of war held the incredible weapon and he was putting it to good use. A half-dozen [Skills]yered onto the bullet ensured the wound was infinitely worse than it would normally have been, impossible to heal, and even partially bypassed the [Raid Boss] almost-immortality. It took a while to properly line up a shot guaranteed to not miss as the sniper wouldnt have gotten a second shot, but now that it had seeded, that was it. The monster roared in agony, twisting and writing amidst the group it had leaped into. The acid cloud might have been spent for now, but the individually targeted acid sprays were still in use, single-second bursts hammering into individual targets. Tanks were sent staggering as their shields began melting, warriors barely managed to remove limbs before the venom reached their heart and/or brain, and mages were forced to flee as their shields shattered like ss. No one had died yet. But things were starting to get dangerous. Their formations were being adjusted on the fly, pushing the Lindwyrm up against the side of the ind while a fresh line of tanks established itself to keep the monster there. With every passing second, their ns were being refined further and further, updated via the party menu with everyone moving in ordance with the new n. Theyd beat that monster in time, but thered be casualties. Having some ns prepared that matched the monsters powerset helped, sure, but it just wasnt enough. Someone had better do something fast, else Isaac would intervene. Were going to n B. The [General] in charge of the affair ordered a moment before Isaac would have acted on his own Two minutes. Fucking finally. He exploded forwards, charging straight at the monster, transforming into his [Form of Horror] a split-second before using [I Am The Sword] to split the snake straight down the middle. Sure, the Lindwyrm didnt do him the favor of lining up neatly for him, allowing him to remove half its bodypletely, but the attack did shave off a decent chunk of its body, the front third of the snake now looking like an anatomical drawing showing all of the beasts insides. And then, the whole affair was dragged into the [Grave of Swords]. The n was for Isaac to keep the [Raid Boss] busy for the specified length of time and then release it. But that wasnt what he was going to do. He had twice as many Levels as thest time hed faced one of these things, but with the additional Stat gains from each Level in the third Evolution, he had three times the raw power. This thing wouldnt survive two minutes unless he held back massively. Besides, killing a [Raid Boss] mostly on his own was a decent aplishment and it would add one of those things to the training portion of [Grave of Swords]. Isaac grinned as he ducked under a sweeping tail, slicing straight into thergest blood vessels he could reach as he did so. A st of hellfire removed most of the acid cloud, then, he leaped over the striking head and drove one of the swords integrated into his [Form of Horror] into the brain up to the hilt. This was what made his blood sing, what made him feel alive. It was a sad statement of fact, no man should feel most at home on a bloody battlefield, but it was true. This was where he could truly fight without needing to watch out to avoid taking or causing friendly fire. It was a bit mean to say, but all the others out on the ind, well, they were cramping his style. Isaac fought in a manner he jokingly referred to as the way of the demented pinball, though it was more officially called speed demon. Fast movements, quick strikes enhanced by cheap [Skills], with the primary Stat being Agility, backed up by enough Perception to avoid running into walls and overall be effective at max speed and Magic Regeneration to keep up ones assault. That wasnt a good powerset for fighting in formation, and the problem got considerably worse as the group grew. The team worked out rather nicely, especially with how well they knew each other. GSG-13 worked out fine-ish, though for the most part, that usually meant everyone fighting against their own enemy without getting in anyone elses way. An army? That left him stuck in ce, ying dodge tank while slinging the asional [Far Strike], flying de, or [Grand Hellme] at the enemy. Here, though? Here there was no one to identally shoot him in the back, no one he might trip up, just him and his foe. Showtime! Chapter 184: I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me Chapter 184: Im not trapped in here with you, youre trapped in here with me The Lindwyrms scales parted like paper as Balmung struck home, carving another impossibly clean cut into the monsters side. The flesh underneath the wound rippled like water as the seventh stack of [Compounded Impact] applied. It wasnt a [Skill] Isaac used often as he could often end his foe without it and most enemies that were too tough to finish quickly would have been too expensive to finish off with it. This foe, on the other hand, was in the perfect sweet spot for its use. Isaac dove under another attack from the beasts head and sliced along the bottom of its skull. The force of the strike caused the flesh around the wound to be flung away with such force that the flesh at both ends of the cut tore open while the bottom jaw cracked and broke in multiple ces. He teleported above the monster with [Phantom Step], then flung himself back down with [Wave Charge] and the Lindwyrms head just tore off. The head, well half of one, given the damage [I Am The Sword] had inflicted, turned to face Isaac, only able to move in a rocking motion as it didnt have enough of a body to properly move. Unfortunately, the tail was still moving, still twitching, stillshing out. It would die in time and was functionally blind, only able to sense the world around it due to the [Raid Boss] ability topensate for people attacking its sensory organs, but now, he still had two enemies to fight. Having to dodge acid bolts while the tail could attack from an entirely different direction that hadnt been possible before was annoying, but doable. Perfectly doable. Three more strikes utterly pulped the head and then, Isaac proceeded to filet the tail, severing tendons and cutting the connection between muscles and the bones they attached to. [Compounded Impact] had now grown too expensive, but he didnt really need it anymore either. Lindwyrm (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been in. 34,000 XP gained (50,000 XP distributed across 981 people as per their contribution) The [Grave of Swords] dissolved around him as the beasts body turned crystalline and waspressed into a singr point where it was formed into a de. The sword hovered there for a moment, then, it plunged down faster than gravity should have caused and was nted there. Looking around, Isaac saw that the body part outside the [Skill] had also vanished into the weapon. Good news, monsters dead. Bad news, no loot. Isaac said once hed looked around and seen that all injuries had already been cleared up. If thered still been a risk of something going wrong if thered still been people lying on the ground, screaming in pain and clutching at their wounds. Now that you killed the monster in your separate space, you can summon a version to train against, right? The [General] asked and Isaac replied in the affirmative. *** the dozenth group reappeared on the ind, looking around wide-eyed and hyperventting. Theyd likely taken lethal amounts of damage and while injuries inflicted in the [Grave of Swords] while it was in training mode werent real, they sure as shit felt like it. So if some or all of those people had died testing a strategy yeah, counseling would probably be mandatory for everyone who used that part of Isaacs [Skill] pretty soon. They were getting close to having a perfect strategy, though. Their enemies were real animals and as such there were variations between the attacks they used, but there were still a whole lot ofmonalities. Exploitable patterns. Cheap tricks that were only waiting to be discovered. The sun had fallen beyond the horizon and was just starting to peak up on the opposite side of the when the training was deredpleted, which was then followed by an hour of rest and rxation. For most people, a catnap was enough sleep for the whole day, but there were more kinds of tiredness than the physical one. *** Summoning Monster! The second Lindwyrm to see the light of day in this world roared in fury as it emerged from the summoning circle as the first one had, hanging straight up in the air for a moment before falling over, aiming toe down on the group that just so happened to have been standing a little too close and it hammered into the concrete, moving straight through the people as if they werent even there. Because they werent. Just a group of illusions it had fallen for because that group had been the only avable target, so even if it had looked slightly suspicious, the Lindwyrm had taken the bait. The ground disintegrated into dust and left the beasts head stuck there, impaled on the spikes in the pit. Vicious barbs jabbed into its flesh, toughening it up to the point where it couldnt tear itself free even if it had been willing to inflict horrendous damage to remove itself from the pit. Of course, being stuck didnt mean the Lindwyrm was helpless, no matter how it looked with all the attacks impacting its back. The acid cloud was deployed in a heartbeat and the tail whipped around, creating a gust of wind that flung the caustic fog at those it wanted dead. Smoke rose from the pit as acid ran from the mouth of the best, liquefying the trap. Soon, it would be free, and as it erupted from the ground, sending droplets of the worlds most caustic liquid flying. That might be problematic except theyd already nned for that. It had been an obvious end result of a sessful trapping, after all. As for the next step, when it had been created, Isaac had solidly facepalmed because it had been so damn obvious. [Compounded Impact] applied to Isaacs strikes. But Old Reliable was a part of him, so he could cast the [Skill] through it. Now, where did it say he needed to be the one holding the weapon? Balmung had been replicated five times over, passed out to the strongest melee fighters, and now, the Lindwyrms head had just fallen off. Theyd figured out the best ce to do that so that the tail wasnt long enough to be a serious threat on its own but kept the part attached to the head too short to allow the more dangerous end of the snake to easily move around on its own. Sure, the arms helped somewhat, but they were still mostly useless. The head flopped out of the pit and spat a geyser of acid at the closest target,pletely throwing caution into the wind, while the tail cracked like a bullwhip, sending the nearest tank flying. Hit after hit, blow after blow, man and beast shed. A constant back and forth, give and take, damage taken and damage dealt. But where injured humans could retreat, pulled back under cover while spells and tracer round flickered past overhead to hammer into the immensely powerful monster, said monster was left with just one body, one chance at life, and that chance was rapidly slipping away. [I Am The Sword] brought Isaac down on the monsters head like the fist of an angry god, pulping thest intact bit of skull, and that was the end of the fight right there. Lindwyrm (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been in. 4,337 XP gained (50,000 XP distributed across 1,119 people as per their contribution) Isaac phased to get all the filth to drop straight through him as he carefully made his way out of the zone of immediate danger, acid pools, and spell mines posing a serious threat to anyone who stepped without looking. In theory, at least. For Isaac, it would cost him a shoe at most, but he just so happened to like his shoes. They were nice, decently durable, and most importantly, worn in. It took a few minutes but eventually, the decision was made to just have the professionals, meaning Isaac, Raul, and Bailey, dismantle the monsters corpse. While they worked, they discussed the next steps via the party. Dr. Thoma, in the stories, how is the Lindwyrm prepared before it grants powers? Cooked in some manner. Grilling ismon, but we can try a stew as well. Isaac said. How quickly can one of the ships mess halls be cleared? We probably shouldnt be cooking dragon meat around regr provisions. The [General] asked, directing the question at someone in the fleet, but Isaac answered instead. We brought a cook among our support personnel. She normally runs a small restaurant that sells dishes cooked from monster materials near our workce, but she agreed toe along for the chance to cook with [Raid Boss] meat. And you didnt mention that, why? I did. It probably ended up buried somewhere in the paperwork. Isaac pointed out. There was a long moment of grumbling, followed by a chagrined I have it now. As for the cook herself, shed been waiting just outside the danger zone, practically salivating at the thought of getting her hands on the ingredientsid bare before her. Caroline Ulrich was one of the advantages this timeline had over the other one that Isaac had had precisely nothing to do with creating. She ran the teams favorite restaurant, which used a lot of monster materials they sent her way in exchange for free food. Between her intense dedication to perfecting her craft and the exotic materials she experimented with, shed reached Level 57, an extremely high Level for someone whod never killed a monster in their life. In fact, ignoring the other elites standing on the ind of Etzel, she was one of the highest Level individuals here. This was very at odds with her expression of extreme nervousness, but then again, the chances of her having experienced something like this before were basically nil. And then, they were finally done. Three Aspect orbsy separate on one low table, proving rather definitively that the highest number of Aspects harvested didnt happen on the first monster killed, but on the first monster that could be harvested. Theyd already agreed that one of those would go to the team, meaning Isaac, one to the police, and one to the military. In addition, theyd get a third of the Demon Lord Aspects while the rest would go to the military and police. Bones and scales were next to them, properly boxed up for transport to the university. They were getting almost everything, as they were far better ced to use it than military R&D. Guts and internal organs were likewise mostly going to them, Huge cuts of meat were thest thing theyd gathered, piled high in such a ludicrous quantity that it resembled a cartoon meat-loversrder. Though instead of a werewolf or Neanderthal, it was a petite woman in an apron stalking around it, lovingly examining every single piece. The meat itself is edible, but the acid contained under the scales can easily run into the flesh and ruin it. The monster is mostly immune to its own acid, but itll be dangerous for anyone who eats it. A kitchen knife appeared in her hand with a suddenness that made quite a few people tense up and shed through the air before disappearing. For a long moment, it had seemed like nothing had happened, but then, bits and pieces of flesh seemed to peel off and fall apart into dust which blew away on the wind. While it wasnt visible to the naked eye, Isaac could tell that all the meat in the pile was considerably cleaner, the contaminants having traveled into the cut-away portions as they were separated. These arent just normal ingredients, though. Dr. Thoma was definitely on to something when he said that eating this stuff might give new abilities, but I have no idea how thats going to work, or how strong theyre going to be. A few knowing looks were exchanged, and several people high-fived as the news spread. Did you see how much meat there is? Were all getting some! Dragon steak! Hell yeah! The jubnt exmations got pretty loud, pretty fast, until the [General] shut all that down. Well, Ms. Ulrich, what do you need to cook? I brought everything with me. She stated confidently and began pulling some basic cutlery out of her storage space while therge-scale contraptions like the spitrge enough to roast an elephant and the potrge enough to serve as a bathtub had been shipped here in crates. Then, the torture, sorry, the wait began. It just smelled so damn good, but after the first person whod tried to sneak a piece had caught a wooden spoon to the back of the head, no one dared to try and get a premature meal. Sure, there were powerful people here who could get past a Level 57 [Arcane Gourmet], but they knew to restrain themselves once theyd run off with a couple of things each. While that was going on, Isaac checked out his gains from the various fights. [Compounded Impact] had advanced several Levels, as had many other [Skills], but the biggest gain had been [des] advancing one single Level. The thirtieth. des mon, Level XXX) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and nonbat applications. In addition, the user may repair any ded weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the users hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool. After countless battles where the user has obliterated his foes using a soulbound de able to gain new abilities from power foes while making extensive use of Aspects, it has gained the ability to infuse the weapon, Old Reliable, with the power of said Aspects to give it new forms. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The bearer of this Skill also turned out to be the bearer of truly legendary weapons. Some already had their own mythology while others are busy building one as their wielder does great deeds, but one and all, they belong in the annals of history. As such, the users weapons grow in power as theyre used, though in the case of soulbound weapons that grow with the user already, this Skill merely acts as a significant growth booster. It was an incredible improvement, though it wouldnt be useful for a very long time. Balmung was already very, very powerful, able to cut a Lindwyrms scales like tissue paper. Another twenty or thirty Levels from now, he might run into something that could have resisted his basic de, but by that point, it would no longer be a basic de. They were also making a very different set of preparations on the other end of the ind. A summoning circle for one final Least Demon Lord. This one was all for Isaac. After seeing how useful having a Lindwyrm to experiment with had been, Isaac had been given permission to seal the other [Raid Boss] in the [Grave of Swords] as well. Once that happened, hed have to be careful to make sure he didnt let himself get talked into ying training aid for toorge a chunk of his time. Sadly, summoning the big monster wasnt possible while the rest of the ind was being used to host the worlds most expensive barbeque, which left them twiddling their thumbs until it was time to dig in. So, what weve got here are simple steaks, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper but thats all. This is a proper game stew, with various herbs and vegetables from forested Hunting Grounds. Here we have Lindwyrm Burgers, with lettuce, stewed onions, and homemade barbeque sauce. Also, heres about a million side dishes for everyone who isnt full after the rest, nothing fancy there. Nothing fancy, my ass. Isaac chuckled. About a million was an overestimation of how much was there, but not nearly as far off as one might think. A dozen different kinds of sds, more soups than Isaac had known existed, croutons, and more, all in a quality that surpassed even the best of pre-[System] restaurants. Isaac devoured the first burger in a few quick bites and suddenly, Caroline shouted Everyone wait. The energy level in the food dropped, I dont think too many people can eat this stuff and gain something from it. How many? Bailey asked. At least three, six at the most. She said. It was a good guess, Isaac knew the real number was five people. He shrugged We decided on which order wed eat this in if there wasnt enough for everyone ahead of time. Also, I was right. Healing (epic) The quintessential skills of Doctors, Nurses, EMTs and Medical professionals in general, condensed into a single Skill. Healing allows the user to restore the health and physical well-being of others via touch, as well as the users own body. It also helps understand injuries and gauge their severity. Cost: 15-50 mana per second of healing depending on speed, major physical trauma doubles cost, restoring flesh requires 100 mana per kg created Peoples eyes went wide as they stared at the [System] screen. New powers gained by eating a Lindwyrm were a thing. If it had been something more useful for Isaac, hed have hidden it, but getting [Healing] was one of the most useless things he could have gotten. Isaac had his own regeneration that was both better and cheaper and knowing he could now fix others at the Level of ate second/early third Evolution Doctor wasnt a big trump card he needed to hide. It was useful, sure, letting him fill in as a Healer in a chinch, but a real [Doctor] wouldnt just have this [Skill], but also a million different specialized diagnostic and targeted restoration abilities, [Skills] that prevented people in arge area from deteriorating even without medical intervention, and so on, and so forth. So yes, he could get some use out of this, though he could have gotten more out of others. Still, that was the thing about gaining new [Skills] by eating a Lindwyrm. Youd get one, once, and it was guaranteed to neither be useless nor perfectly synergize with the eaters build. Is it always going to be the same [Skill]? the [General] asked. There were a few healing Aspects, but the ones that had been discovered thus far werent nearly that good. Lets find out, Bailey said and ate his own burger. *** Two hourster, the vast feast had beenpletely devoured. Even though not everyone was getting [Skills] from the food, it was still very good food. As for the [Skills] gained themselves, they were an odd bunch. Bailey could now talk to animals and was currently engaged in an animated conversation with a curious seal that had washed up on the ind about halfway through. There was also the supply officer who could see a quarter second into the future at a truly horrendous mana cost, something that would have been insanely powerful on any person with abat [ss], the police officer who could slightly adjust the weather and member of the army who was now able to survive anywhere in the ocean,plete with water breathing, immunity to water pressure and oceanic pollutants. All cool [Skills], all of very limited use to their respective holders. But theyd now proven that [Raid Bosses] could be fought even without having tanks immune to the monsters primary attacks and Isaac had another feather in his cap for predicting the special little gain from this particr monster. Andstly, Isaac now had a Demon Lord all to himself. Since thest time hed fought one of these things mano a mano, hed be immune to hellfire, tripled his Stats, gained [Legendary Blow], and gotten his grubby mitts on a sword of legend. Any one of those things would have turned this battle into a one-sided curb stomp, but all of those thingsbined this was going to be a bloodbath. Chapter 185: The Last Few Points on the Checklist Chapter 185: The Last Few Points on the Checklist The Demon Lord didnt even have time to fully emerge before being yanked into Isaacs subspace. In an instant, he transformed into histest [Form of Horror]. It was thebat form hed created after Seoul, updated to incorporate all of histest gains. A four-meter tall humanoid figure with thin, oddly proportioned limbs, each nheless rippling with muscles. Snakes could be damn strong. Old Reliable had been incorporated in many different points, forming ws, teeth, spiked on knees and elbows, a crown of thorns on his head, and finally, two oversized swords that looked identical to Balmung in all respects save size floating around him. Wreathing this deadly figure was a shimmering field that was owed to the various illusion-based monsters which would make urately targeting him slightly more difficult. To top it all off, he was now armored up with Lindwyrm scales. However, all of that had just been his external powerups,pletely ignoring the internal upgrades. The venom-spitting nds of the Greater Hydra that hed had in the previous version had been upgraded by those of the Lindwyrm, for a deadly corrosive venom that was vastly more dangerous than the previous reason. Isaac had also copied the acid cloud deployment capability and integrated it into the [Form of Horror], though he could only use it once per transformation and to a far lesser degree than the original bearer of the power. Lastly, his body was now threaded through with the metal wires of the Razor Apparition. They were mostly there to reinforce his internals, but there were also a few he could deploy as whips in case of an emergency. Without [Absolute de Mastery], those weapons would have been a recipe for identally smacking himself in the unmentionables with them, but the whips of barbed wire were still de-y enough to be covered by the [Skill] and he could use it with all the finesse he had when wielding Balmung. Sadly, Isaked knowledge of any whip-specific maneuvers, so he couldnt get the most out of this weapon. In the end, though, it wouldnt matter. Not against this enemy. Isaac leaped into the sky, a simple jump taking him above the monsters head and then, the good olbo of [Wave Charge] and [I Am The Sword] carved a channel clean through the Demon Lord, top to bottom. The goal wasnt damage, it was easy ess to the beasts internals. Once he hit the ground, he leaped straight back up, the flying swords rocketing through the air and supersonic speeds to pierce the monsters eyes. Meanwhile, his ws shed, tearing tendons and thergest blood vessels he could reach, no empowering [Strikes] necessary. Hellfire flew from the demons hand, flowing over Isaac like a warm shower. Sure, his clothing went the way of the dodo in less than a second, but he had spares. The Demon Lords tree trunk arm flew through the air and mmed into Isaac to fling him backward except Isaac had dug his ws in and responded by running up the arm and leaping into the hole at the shoulder. Hellme washed the inside of the monster, a tactic that would have worked against most foes, but Isaac was immune to the attack, which meant that unless it used its arms to get at him, it was dead. Even if the Demon Lord had somehow been able to shove its arms into its own insides on a mental level, it simply couldnt bend that way. Another burst of hellfire washed over Isaac and stayed in ce, leaving him feeling as if he were standing beneath a waterfall. Ast-ditch attempt that might have worked in another situation, but not this one. Least Demon Lord (Lv. 44 Raid Boss) has been in. 50,000 XP gained Somehow, that felt very anticlimactic. It was a [Raid Boss] that had died under his ws, and his ws alone. No heroic deed has been noted, noment, just a solo kill of a [Raid Boss] and 50k XP. The monster vanished around him as it was sucked into a new sword to add to his collection, which Isaac took as his cue to summon a new outfit from [Fully Geared]. Showing up in his birthday suit after this not a good look. He emerged into the new world covered in soot and blood that had dripped onto his skin, then boiled away into nothingness to leave behind a tar-like substance that clung to him like, well, tar. In other words, it was abundantly clear that Isaac had put on new clothes after the fact. Wait, its over already? The question had been whispered, but in this new world, anyone who thought whispering let them fly under the radar was behind the times. Isaac phased the dirt off himself and marched towards themand area, gave a short report, and proceeded to help with the overall cleanup. There wasnt much for him to do, though. [Engineers] and [Geomancers] fixed the damage the ind had sustained vastly more quickly than he ever could, [Logistics Officers] and various [Mages] with telekic [Skills] took care of the heavy lifting with lightning speeds and between portals and extradimensional storage spaces, there was very little for him to carry. On one hand, no one liked feeling useless. On the other, it was heartening to see everything here work like a well-oiled machine. Isaac got himself a bottle of sparkling water and sat down where the feast had been held earlier while Patrick had a soda next to him with his phone. Suddenly, his colleague did a picture-perfect spit take, which startled Isaac enough to choke on his own drink. Of course, he could breathe liquid and was fine. Patrick, on the other hand, needed a spell for that, which he promptly cast. Whats up? Isaac asked, only for Patrick to wordlessly pass over his phone while using water magic to clean up the spilled soda. if Isaac hadnt already choked on his own drink, he would have done so now. The British Prime Minister, with his pants down, on live TV. Elena, what the hell did you do? Isaac thought. He decided to not immediately contact her, that might have looked suspicious. Hopefully, shed have gotten some answers now. It took a little longer, but soon enough, it was time to pack up and Isaac marched through a portal alongside his colleagues, bade them goodbye, and headed home. On the way, he sent a quick text to Elena, getting a reply mere minutester, telling him to take his time and onlye over during the nned meeting. Alright, that left him time to evolve his [ss] before then. Before he did anything though, he slotted his final set of Aspects. He now had the XP to spare, he hadnt really needed them up until now, and where the Aspect of the Lindwyrm was concerned, hed now actually gotten his hands on one. So he immediately slotted the Aspect of the Lesser Space Elemental followed by the Aspect of the Space Elemental. Aspect of the Space Elemental: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Space Elemental a Space Elemental. Twist space into a pretzel, make said spatial twisting vastly easier, even alter the very flow of time, or you may render yourself immune to such maniptions. Requirements for Activation: 2,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Magic Power One of the following Skills: Warp Space Spatial Affinity Fixed Point Slow-Zone [Warp Space] and [Spatial Affinity] were self-exnatory, [Slow Zone] let him slow down things near him at a mana cost that made it near useless to him, and [Fixed Point] allowed him to resist hostile teleportation effects. Incidentally, the cost was also why [Warp Space] wasnt a viable option. Fixed Point (rare) Time and space. Space-Time. Everywhere, anytime, omnipresent. A fixed point in reality, indomitable, immoveable. Or so it seems. Mages, Space Elementalists and monsters of all stripe are capable of twisting space into all kinds of contortions, making it loop in on itself and creating a world that, quite simply, no longer makes any kind of sense. While time itself is somewhat more durable, it too can be influenced, and with it, the people in the influenced area. With this Skill, none of that will be an issue. You will be a fixed point in space and time, highly resistant to spatial and temporal warps, as well as hostile teleportation/neshifting efforts. As the world grew stronger, the likelihood of him needing a [Skill] like that grew along with it. Meanwhile, [Spatial Affinity] was something hed neither need nor use for years toe, but far down the road, hed need it. Before slotting his final Aspect, Isaac took a moment to check his emails and immediately regretted it. He was not only being spammed by various military organizations, arms manufacturers, and military contractors but also he wasnt all that sure how to sum up the final category. It basically amounted to people who wanted to get, ahem, stepped on by the giant monster. Oh, for fucks sake. Isaac categorically decided against publicly announcing he wouldnt be helping with anything like that as he didnt want to Streisand-Effect himself and just ignored everything. That just left one final Aspect. Aspect of the Lindwyrm: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Lindwyrm a Lindwyrm. Physical Power, deadly acid, one of the most insane personal defense Skills in the world and an overall increase in sheer draconic badassery are all things that can be gained by slotting this ability. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 Strength +10 Agility One of the following Skills: Lindwyrms Heart Lindwyrms Raiment All-Dissolving Breath Moment of Immortality All the usual cool tricks that came with a [Raid Boss] Aspect, including the ever-ubiquitous [Moment of Immortality]. That [Skill] was a bit of a special snowke, something that you could get from multiple sources, something you could decide not to upgrade and therefore keep when you pped another Aspect on top of, and you could upgrade it by gaining it from multiple sources. Moment of Immortality (legendary, 2x slotted) What kind of monster can have its guts hanging out, be bleeding from countless arterial wounds, and still be fighting? One with this Skill, thats what. Moment of Immortality activates automatically when it is needed, granting the user the ability to survive with massive bloodloss and without aplete set of internal organs. In fact, few things short of being pulverized will be able to kill the Skill user while it is active, but it is by no means a perfect defense. Moment of Immortalitysts for twenty seconds and can only be activated two times every 168 hours. Multiple Aspects that grant Moment of Immortality can be slotted, with a maximum of three. Unfortunately, it wasnt quite as powerful as it looked at first nce. If you took damage that was bad enough to trigger the [Skill], the chances of you being able to get yourself out of it quickly enough to prevent the second charge from activating. Then again, this was a lifesaving power he was whining about. It was fine as-is. The other [Skill] he grabbed was just an upgrade of the base Aspect of the Acid Drake. Lindwyrms Heart (legendary) Your heart beats with the force of a thunderstorm, its every movement sending immense magic coursing through your body, enhancing all corrosion-based magic and Skills and dissolving foreign energies attempting to corrupt the bearers blood. In addition, foreign corrosive/venom/poison effects are vastly reduced in power. Lastly, the heart of a draconic beast grants the bearer enhanced longevity and vitality. Overall, it rendered him highly resistant to acid attacks, which were able to fuck with his regeneration. It also seriously helped against other health-sapping effects. With all of that done, Isaac threw fifty-thousand XP into leveling up his [ss] and evolved. Not a Chapter [Class] Principles Not a Chapter [ss] Principles Evolution Thresholds 1st Evolution: Level 10 2nd Evolution: Level 25 3rd Evolution: Level 50 4th Evolution: Level 100 5th Evolution: Level ??? Evolution Gains 1st Evolution: [Inspect] and [Privacy] and [ss]-specific upgrades 2nd Evolution: [Aura] 3rd Evolution: [Bloodline] creation/empowerment, possibility of strengthening rtives 4th Evolution: Interpersonal interaction improvement, quality of life enhancements, possibility for ast-ditch respec 5th Evolution: ??? Rarity Exnations (Starter ss) To start with, you unlock any [ss] that describes anything you do, from your job to your hobbies. In addition, most standard RPG sses are freely avable, though [Mage] requires some degree of scientific expertise (good highschool education/first semester university) while [Healer] requires some medical expertise (more than the first aid most people know, but not by much). Unsavory [sses] are also unlocked for everyone so anyone who wants to go down that route can quickly and easily start gaining the [Skills] to avoidw enforcement. Common: Common, Garden variety, basically just a job title. Umon: Harder to obtain job title, experts in their field Rare: World-ss capabilities, other standout qualities Epic: Best-on-the-face-of-the Legendary: Basically impossible Rarity Exnations (Evolution) The more impressive things someone has done before evolving, the better their new [ss] will be. This includes things such as Aspects, powerful monsters beaten, and being the first to reach a certain level or do a certain thing. However, taking the easy route will end badly. Only levelling by killing weak monsters will only you amon or umon [ss] even if youre the first person in the world to reach a certain Level, and buying Aspects wont get you nearly as far, quality wise, as ones you hunted yourself. Its important to note, though, that such consequences are lessened when the thing youre being zy on isnt what the new [ss] is based on. For example, you could get a rare or epic [ss] for [Skill] Levels even if you only killed the weakest of monsters for XP, or get buy Aspects if youre going for a [ss] based on your achievements. Common: Straight upgrade for the most unexceptional of people Umon: Straight upgrade for the previous [ss], nuff said Rare: Stronger than umon, based on at least some degree of effort put into levelling at least a few [Skills], slotting some Aspects, or a decent degree of focus on general self-improvement Epic: Unusuallyrge number of Aspects, extreme focus and dedication on levelling certain [Skills], extraordinary achievements Legendary: There is no one given requirement for a legendary [ss], but it can generally be summed up as not cookie-cutter, not something that can be easily replicated or formically written down (the few exceptions are very, very hard). Gaining a legendary Evolution requires all [Skills] to be levelled to a degree that can only be described as insane, Aspects personally earned and more slotted than should be possible (example: 8 Aspects before 1stEvolution, meaning 7 Aspect slots have to be unlocked for a cost that doubles with every new one, for the final one costing 1*2^6 for a grand total of 64k XP for the final one). Or maybe you can hold off a city-destroying kaiju before it can get to said city, or beat a dozen or more people with the same Stats, [Skill] Level and [ss] so the only difference betweenbatants is grit, determination and fighting spirit. There are a lot of options, but theyre hard to describe beyond deeds worthy of legend Point Gains per Level Starter [ss]: 10 Stat and 3 Skill points 1st Evolution: 10 Stat and 3 Skill points 2nd Evolution: 10 Stat and 2 Skill points 3rd Evolution: 20 Stat and 1 Skill points 4th Evolution: 20 Stat and 1 Skill points 5th Evolution: ??? Skills Exnation The cost of [Skills] changes based on their rarity, starting at one formon ones and reaching up to five for legendary ones. Every [ss] except the Starter also has two core [Skills] with double the cost but they also carry a lot of the power of a [ss]. Some of them are also known as cooldown [Skills], which have a separate mana pool that can even exceed the users own and allow the use of that [Skill] without requiring arge portion of ones mana pool to be reserved. Aspects Most Aspects give a choice of offensive, defensive and movement [Skills], but monsters that lean more heavily in one direction can have two or even three [Skills] focused in one of those things, or just have utility [Skills] instead, but it can vary heavily on the Aspect in question. An Aspect can offer between one and five [Skills], with higher Tier ones granting a higher number of them. Everyone starts out with one open Aspect slot and will gain an additional one each Evolution. Further ones can be purchased for XP, the first one will cost 1,000, with the cost doubling for each subsequent one. Up to four Aspects can be slotted into each slot, with one each from the Tier 1-3, 4-6, 7-9 and Tier 10 groupings, and they must all be slotted sequentially, from lowest to highest. When stacking Aspects, the [Skills] from the weaker Aspects are upgraded into the version the new Aspect holds, and the user can take on additional [Skill] from the stronger Aspect. As the Aspects Tier increases, this stronger version bes less about doing the exact same thing but better and more about sharing same spirit of the weaker [Skill]. XP Gains You can only gain XP from a certain maximum number of creatures per category, limited based on the Tier, and as you exhaust more categories, the number of creatures you can hunt dwindles in the remaining ones of that power grouping. Tier 1-3 lets you hunt 100 monsters per category for XP. Tier 4-6 lets you hunt 50 monsters per category for XP. Tier 7-9 lets you hunt 25 monsters per category for XP. Tier 10 lets you hunt 10 monsters per category for XP, but that number does not dwindle as categories are exhausted. Aura You can buy as many [Auras] as you want for 10 [Skill] points each. Everyone unlocks one for each Aspect and [ss] they hold, as well as one for their personality and one for their goal, and a series of them for random achievements gathered throughout ones lives. Chapter 186: Evolution, the Fourth Chapter 186: Evolution, the Fourth Level 100, the fourth Evolution, that was the big one. Well, a big one. It wasnt the final avable Evolution, only the penultimate one, but that was where the XP cost per Level ramped up sharply. Coupled with the fact that the XP penalties for fighting lower-Level enemies experienced a simr increase, and the speed of leveling hit rock bottom after it. This was the single biggest stopping point for anyone who wasnt utterly dedicated to increasing their Level. At the third Evolution, you needed 500 XP multiplied by the Level you were trying to reach to Level up. That number increased twenty-fold with the fourth, and the first Level after the Evolution cost a staggering one-million-and-ten-thousand XP. At that point, if you hadnt already slotted a ton, Aspects were a far more cost-effective way to gain Stat points and [Skills]. Isaac had grabbed a fair few but decided to hold off on utterly overloading himself until he knew what his new [ss] was and what would best synergize with it. Therefore, everyones leveling speed would slow down to a crawl from this point onwards, but that was a good thing. It gave the nonbat people time to catch up, for every street and building to be reinforced by the [Skills] of the people who built them, for forest rangers and simr professions to harden the pieces of nature they tended to against preternatural events and the like. Eventually, every part of the Earth would either hold some kind of reinforcement and in the rare cases where that wasnt the case, someone would be able to repair the damage in short order. Otherwise, the would have eventually be a burnt cinder just from the coteral damage caused by high-Level battles, no monsters required. It was also good for him personally. [Hildebrands Heir] wasnt a very powerfulbat [ss], given that it wasnt focused on fighting directly, and him having picked most of the main [Skills] for their teaching utility, rather than direct power. This had now left him with barely enough raw power to hold onto his S-Rank status, though his knowledge and experience meant that very few people had realized that. Hed keep the training capability, of course, but he didnt need to specialize fully in that direction anymore. Combined with the many, many demands on his time, if the leveling speed hadnt decreased, his foes could have easily outstripped him in Level. This way though, they would be gaining on him at a snails pace, something he couldpensate for by taking over a couple of high-Level Dungeons for a couple of weeks or something. End of the day, it had taken Isaac a little over a year to hit Level 100 in this timeline. And in the other one, it had, in fact, taken him even less time if one only started counting at the point where he truly dedicated himself to leveling. Hitting Level 200 without monster hordes to tear apart for XP gain without needing to spend mana on summoning, that would take forever. By all reasonable metrics, his rise had been meteoric, but not only that, but it had also been far faster than would have been possible if the [System] had still been in its original configuration. The one without any monsters. Then, it would have taken years, incredible dedication, and several acts of immense effort to reach this point. But it hadnt. Hed waded through an ocean of blood, belonging to not only monsters but also people, to get here, and hed done so far faster than should ever have been possible. Presumably, the dark gods didnt really care about this because for one, the [System] didnt seem to grant enough power to harm them and also, humanity had been unlikely to survive long enough to take advantage of having numerous high-Level people. It wouldnt matter how high humanity reached if it all crumbled away to ashes anyway. However, that was only part of what made this Evolution so special. The second, more obvious difference to previous Evolutions was that this time around, the [System] talked to you about it. Not the usual youve hit the required Level, here are your options, but actually asking questions. And depending on what the answers to those questions, one could unlock new [sses], [Auras], and even [Races] if they revealed something about you the [System] had not known thus far. These new unlocks were rarely anything exceptional, as the [System] usually had all the information it needed when it came to achievements, and simply saying I want to be able to do X could only ever you a [ss] of rare rarity at the most. Good for ast-ditch respec, but that was just about it. The fact that the fourth Evolution also brought with it powers meant to enable people to better cooperate across borders andnguage barriers was almost ignored in the face of the other things that were offered. Isaac headed into his apartment, used [Fully Geared] to swap into an outfit that was both clean and more casual, andid down on his bed. No reason not to befortable doing this. Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the fourth Evolution Threshold. Unlike previous ss Evolutions, the fourth Evolution involves an additional step. The System will ask you three questions which will allow you to potentially customize your next ss, should you not have one avable which is to your liking. This will also allow the System to take into ount factors it is not yet aware of. This is the only time these questions will be asked, and the only time the System grants such a wide array of possible customizations, so think about your answers carefully. When choosing to face the questions, your mind will be transported elsewhere, so ensure that you are in a safe ce before activating this process. WARNING! Lies during this process will be detected and negate all possible gains from it! (Nothing during this process will be able to harm you, though the location youll be transported to may be rming. This location is based on your past actions, mindset, and goals as the System understands them.) Begin Questions Y/N? Isaac shifted on his bed a little, getting morefortable, swept his [Aura] across his property, activated the enchanted traps hed put near the entrance to his apartment, and then, finally, clicked on Yes. One moment, he was lying on his bed, staring up at the [System] screen, the next, he was hanging in a vast void, stars speckling the distance. It was as if he was standing in outer space. This was weird. Thest time hed done this, hed been standing in an active volcano, on a ledge that hung out across the fiery crater, though rather thanva, it had been boiling blood beneath him. A representation of the conflict in his life, the bloody swath hed cut through his enemies to get to this point. Of how both his life and the world were on the brink of catastrophe. Now though, he was seeing a serene night sky, infinite possibilities, and stars so close it seemed like he might even be able to reach them, at some point. With a little more power, a few more Levels, andpleting the interster travel Aspectbo he knew about. Sadly, no one had been able to use it in the other timeline, but in this one, it would be useful beyond measure. It was an oddly serene sight, calming yet Around him, the world rippled, the void shuddered, and a voice rocked him as if he were standing atop an earthquake. Who. Are. You? It wasnt merely another [System] notification, it was apanied by a thundering voice as if it were reality itself speaking. It was a simple question, but one that could have infinitelyplex answers. And it needed a trulyplete answer. That was the trick, one hed shared with his confidants in case they reached Level 100 before him. Isaac straightened while floating in the void and raised his voice, screaming his answer right back at the world. I am Isaac Thoma, thest survivor of a fallen timeline, saved by divine providence. The man who was given the chance to save the world from disaster. I am a son, a brother, a scientist, a protector, and a warrior. I am the man who has trained the champions of this new age, and hope that I can stand proudly beside them! The world rumbled, the stars swirled closer and the void began to be filled with light. Then, the second question echoed out, each word an explosion, a statement of power that rocked reality like the impact of a cataclysmic meteor. Where. Do. You. Come. From? Ie from a world of death and chaos, one in which humanity itself died out. I was saved from that ce by the agreement of celestial beings so that someone might live to carry the lessons of a dead world into this one! Again, the void brightened as the stars came ever closer and the final question was asked, every word having weight and force behind it as if one of the stars that were now practically close enough to touch had gone supernova, buffeting him with waves of heat and force. But Isaac endured. What. Do. You. Seek? I seek salvation for humanity, for this world to keep spinning even after our sun dies, for those I love to survive the cmities the [System] has brought with itself. I want us to be able to use the [System] as it was intended to originally, to avoid the traps within. I want to save the world! Isaac screamed into the void, feeling himself grow hoarse. The stars pulsed slightly and swirled closer, but this time, they didnt stop, flying at him until all he could see was a blinding light and then, he was back on his bed, with a new [System] notification in his vision. Wee, Isaac Last Survivor Thoma, to the [System] beyond Level 100. Your Answers have been logged and found to be true. Last Survivor is an exclusive Title that cannot be seen unless you allow it. By showing it to another, you can verify the veracity of statements linking back to your experiences. The next gains will be listed in the next System window. No other things beyond it and the title have been awarded. To his utter surprise, the next thing to pop up was the racial menu. Normally, that was saved for after the [ss] selection as any new [Race] was almost always linked to ones choice of [ss]. The fact that it had shown up now meant that his answers had resulted in him unlocking something. A [Race] that was almost certainly based on his status as thest survivor of another timeline he just hoped it was as good as he expected. Being thest survivor of another timeline hadnt earned him any direct brownie points with the [System] until now, but now, he might get something based on qualifications that literally no one else had. Congrattions! Youve reached the point where you may change your race! Sticking with your old race might not give you exciting new body parts and bonuses, but it sure isfortable to stick with what you know, isnt it? High Human (preternatural, current race) Humans are primates, a name taken with no small amount of hubris, given that it refers to the fact that they are supposedly the peak of creation. And in a sense, they are correct. Others might be stronger, have greater magic, or any of a host of fancy tricks, but humans are infinitely flexible. Yet there is one more race, one with all the same advantages, butcks many of the weaknesses. The High Human has an incredibly resilient physique, being highly resistant to toxins and mutations, and has increased physical Statspared to ordinary humans. Benefits: improved healing, naturally improved bloodline, superhuman physique Base Stats: 15-20 Einherjar (preternatural, alteration of current race, unique) A warrior, collected from the battlefield as their earthly life wasing to an end, ready to return to fight for the survival of the world itself. One might have been lifted off the bloody earth by the gentle arms of a Valkyrie, or perhaps rescued from a dead and decaying about to walk to ones death in a glorious battle that would have echoed through the ages. Either way, these warriors have been snatched from the jaws of death to fight once more, and for the rest of eternity. Benefits: sense for major brewing of conflict within Level kilometers, Skills from all Ephemeral and Undead Aspects strengthened, unlocked [Aura of the Eternal Warrior], recognize fellow worthy warriors at a nce Base Stats: 20-25 Well, wasnt that cool? Einherjar wasnt a true top-tier race like Kitsune, the various true dragon rted existences, but it was good. Really good. Knowing when shit was about to go down was clearly useful beyond measure, then there was the free [Aura], a plus-five boost to all Stats, and the fact that quite a few of his Aspects were strengthened. Throw in the fact that he could now more easily spot the wolf in sheeps clothing, people who pretended to be all sweet and kind amidst other nonbatants even if they managed to avoid [Gaze of the Hunter] and there was no way he could turn down that race. this was absolutely going to suck. Evolving ones race, upgrading oneself to a higher version of ones current race, was fine. Removing such an upgrade to apply a different race, one that was markedly different from ones current Race, well, that was a whole different ballgame. An Einherjar. A damn Einherjar. Isaac could still barely believe it. The warriors who fought alongside the gods in the Ragnar?k, the end of the world in Norse Mythology. Of course, the real version of that had to be something different entirely, as Loki was still alive, which meant the Ragnar?k hadnt happed at least not yet? The whole affair was, well, screwy, but Isaac hoped hed be able to get some answers from Loki when he spilled the beans on the various other issues soon. Isaac swept his property with his [Aura] once again for good measure, then activated the racial change. His entire body seized up as if hed been electrocuted, leaving him unable to move even a single muscle. Said muscles slowly dissolved and unspooled, fiber by fiber, then came back together stronger yet burned with such heat that it felt like they were being welded. His bones cracked and were reduced to dust, then were slowly knitted back together while his neural system burned with pain. The agonysted both a mere second and all of eternity, he truly wasnt sure. All he knew was that at some point, it ended, leaving him lying in his bed in a puddle of sweat. Fuck that hurt! At least there was only one more chance to change his race, so there was no way in hell he was going to have to go for it more than twice. Isaac looked at the clock on the wall and saw that the whole affair had barely taken thirty seconds, no matter how much longer it had felt like. Yet as little fun as the change had been, he could feel the difference, the power, minute as it was. He got up and walked over to the bathroom mirror. He looked very much the same in most important respects, but he had changed. Where before, his skin tone had been that of your average central European who got a little less sun than they should, it was now that of a Northern European after the month-long pr night where the sun didnt rise at all. His eyes had always been green, sure, but regr old colored irises and a white eyeball, nothing special. Now though, theyd transformed into something strange, otherworldly. The eyeball was clear white and if he had to make aparison, hed have called them pearls while the iris now greatly resembled an emerald. Lastly, his already ck hair had somehow gotten even darker, as if it were a slice of the night sky itself, albeit without any stars. But no, that wasnt the full extent of the change, he realized upon closer examination that his skin had also changed, growing smoother and bing ever so slightly ethereal. He still looked recognizably human, he was still human for the most part, but there was a noticeable supernatural quality to him. That that would require some exnations in theing weeks, whenever he met someone new. But it was still a good look, a wee change. And now to look at his new [Aura]. Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Fighting, battle, bloodshed. For many, these are but a part of their life, a passing tragedy that nheless only takes up a surprisingly small amount of time. A few seconds at the razors edge of death, where even a single mistake can be a warriors end, and then, it will be decided, one way or another. However, there are those who live in conflict, possibly even for conflict. Those who are eternally striving to beat their foe, be it to chase the high that the risk brings with it or merely as they fight and endless foe and can never rest. These are the people who gain this Aura, to empower them in their endless battles. The Aura of the Eternal Warrior can be wielded as a shield to protect those within orpressed around the wielders limbs to act as a weapon while slowing down the consequences of any injuries suffered. When used offensively, this Aura can bypass most can only be hurt by a certain thing defenses. Cost: high (25 mana per minute), can be overcharged with mana up to 50 mana per minute for an enhanced effect. As far as [Auras] went, the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] was very good except he already covered almost all of the things it did with other things. The [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] was devastatingly powerful in melee, he was always armed due to his soulbound weapon, and bypassing can only be hurt by a certain thing defenses was a piece of cake with how many different offensive [Skills] he had, not to mention Old Reliables various Aspect-inspired forms. Still, just because he wouldnt have bought it when offered didnt mean he couldnt get any use out of it and it was, well, free. Also, showing up with a new [Aura] without mentioning that hed gotten it for free would trick people into assuming he had fewer [Skill] points than he actually had. Which just left one final thing to do, evolve. Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the fourth Evolution Threshold. Based on your current achievements, Skill Levels, and Aspects you have unlocked several new sses. If these options do not satisfy you, you may choose to leave this screen and continue to rack up more prerequisites, but you cannot increase your Level beyond 100 until you evolve your ss. Here are your possible ss Evolutions: Artifact Fabricator (epic) There exist many impressive objects in this world. Fancy technology too expensive to replicate often, ancient tools and weapons. All very impressive looking, possibly even useful, but these things are known factors. Then, there exist the lost objects of history, weapons of untold destructive power, objects capable of restoring lost youth, countless objects with capabilities that made them the stuff of myths and legends. Sadly, these things are also lost. Until now. In order to unlock this ss, one needs to be responsible for bringing some of these objects back into the modern day. The Artifact Fabricator can recreate countless magnificent artifacts from history, as well as creating new ones by turning the weight of history that rests upon existing objects into a real power for their bearer to wield. yer of Leviathans (epic) Leviathans. Titanic beasts that stand at the apex of their ecosystem, devouring all prey, crushing all foes. Except you. You stand tall, de bared, and cut down these monsters as if they were mere grass. You hunt the greatest of monsters, and fearlessly brought them low. While merely average against foes on the same Level as you, its bearer, the yer of Leviathans ss gains powers which excel at killing those who should be beyond you. Einherjar Captain (legendary) The Einherjar. Warriors of myth, those who would descend from the heavens to fight the enemies that threaten even the gods. And at the head of that celestial host is their Captain, the leader of these storied warriors, leading them, bringing the best out of them. When leading other Einherjar, the Einherjar Captain gains additional abilities based on the number of followers while likewise empowering their followers. Historical Pdin (legendary) The pdin. One of the twelve greatest warriors in the court of Charlemagne, also known as Charles the Great. Named after the Ptine Hill, one of the seven hills of Rome and home to the highest of officials. The pdin. The ultimatebination of warrior, official, and member of the judicial system. The pdin. The strong right hand to their chosen leader, gaining power from that position while granting the same to the one they chose to follow. Drill Sergeant from Hell (legendary) A Drill Sergeant. The terror of the bootcamp, the monster that haunts the recruits dreams. Thats what it looks like to them, at least. In reality, a Drill Sergeant has strict limits as to what he can do, how far he can go. His job is to break down the recruits to build them back down, to train them to the point where they dont think in emergencies, they just act based on their training. This this isnt that. The Drill Sergeant from Hell does whatever he wants, to whomever he wants. He can go as far as he wants as, no matter how much damage he inflicts, both physically and mentally, he can always put his recruits back together again. Youll be the finest trainer in the world, turning out legions of legends who will destroy all your foes, conquer all you seek to conquer. Just be careful where you sleep, and watch your back. Your trainees might not be all that fond of you once youre done with them. Father of Legends (legendary) Legends. Where do theye from? Are they born from cmity, as someone rises from the ashes of their former life to save their world? Are they made, as a mentor chooses who will go down in history? Or is it merely down to luck? All of those are true, at least in some sense, but there is only one of those which this ss can manipte. The made kind. The Father of Legends has already had a hand in creating individuals who will go down in history, and with this ss, he will be able to do so deliberately, as well as gain the strength to be one himself. Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit (legendary) Fire. It banishes the dark, cooks meals and frightens off the beasts of the night. Why do we have fire? Prometheus, the titan who stole it from the gods and gave it to humanity. In his honor, the word promethean was born. A word that describes innovation, daring innovation, the kind that shatters paradigms and changes the world itself, possibly while rebelling against the existing order. The bearer of this ss embodies this spirit in both its meanings. He was stolen fire from the gods, the power of the System, by using this sinister trap and using it to fuel humanitys ascension. He is working tirelessly to create a new world upon the ashes of the old through strength of arms, but also wit and sheer force of will. This is a ss that focusses on empowering the wielder, to let them utilize things that should be beyond them, while also raising others up to this level and pushing the boundaries of what is possible with science and innovation. And woe betide anyone who tries to stand in the way of the Titan. Odysseus Reborn (legendary) Odysseus. The man who was partially responsible for the enormity of the Trojan war (I mean, what kind of moron makes all of Greece swear to intervene in case a single person is kidnapped), then tried to dodge responsibility for the mess and stay home. However, theres far more to his story. Odysseus was a man who fought with the bow in age where only cowards were archers, fought with trickery in an age where all heroes fought their foes face to face. A man whose wits brought down one of the greatest cities of its age, survived divine trials and being flung all over the Mediterranean Sea, facing countless monsters possessing immense powers. How did he survive? Well, divine intervention, a lot of the time. But also a lot of smarts and trickery, beating both invincible foes and insurmountable odds. And when someone takes this ss, they shall be worthy of bearing his name (though they dont have to take it) and capable of beating the odds as he did. de of Humanity (legendary) A de in the dark, pushing back the monsters that live within. A de to strike down the enemies both within and without, defeating allers. A de to grant immense power to its chosen wielder, to make them nigh invincible. This is a ss of immense power, but one that has drawbacks. The bearer of this ss will transform into a literal sword with vastly reduced agency and may lose some Skills. However, they will likewise gain the power to choose their wielder, to prevent themselves from being misused, travel somewhat and cope with the likely boredom. But they will no longer be human. Fucking yowch. Thatst pick nope, absolutely not. It was a sacrifice, yes, but one that went beyond merely dying for the cause. Not only that, but it was pointless. Raw power wouldnt solve this situation, it could only fix the symptoms, not the disease. If the world could be beaten into behavior, he might have made the sacrifice, but it couldnt be, so he wouldnt. Then, there was the [Drill Sergeant from Hell]. What. The. Fuck. Was he really that bad, or was it just influenced by his demonic [Raid Boss] Aspect? Either way, he wouldnt be taking it. As for the two epic picks, they were right out. They were cool in theory, but in practice, the epic versions just werent worth it. He just hadnt hit the qualifications. All of his contributions to the artifacts had been limited to him walking up to a cksmith and going copy this for me, so the crafting [ss] was only epic, not that he ever would have taken one. Then, there was [yer of Leviathans]. It was strong, yes, but he hadnt beaten [Raid Bosses] with a high enough Level to gain the legendary version. The maximum allowed number of Levels you could have on your enemy was 20, and he was well past that point. But it was also a bit of a one-trick pony, not something he wanted to gain. Then, there was [Einherjar Captain], which was so amazingly useless he was surprised it had even been offered. He was the only one with that race, and no one would ever be able to replicate the feats which had earned him it, which meant hed only ever lead a single person. Himself. [Historical Pdin] was awesome, sure, and would synergize beautifully with Arthur. It was also far too limiting. Following a leader, being forced to only follow a leader, even a good one no. Isaac liked his freedom, and he used it to change the world for the better. Having a [ss] that tied him near-inseparably to another just wouldnt fly. perhaps he was being unfair. No, scratch that, he was definitely being unfair. All of those [sses] were great, just not god-tier. They were all good choices, but he had more after them. That just left three [sses]. [Odysseus Reborn] sounded like the ultimatebat-enhanced [Machiavellis Heir] and a perfectly viable pick. Then, there was [Father of Legends]. Strength and superior training, nuff said. The choice between it and [Odysseus Reborn] was a literal coin toss. But [Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit], that sounded intriguing, nay, fascinating. It was the first at least somewhat science-based [ss] hed been offered since [System Researcher], all the way back at the first Evolution, and it was glorious. An entire [ss] focused on taking the poison pill the gods had given humanity and using it to, in the [ss] own words fuel humanitys ascension. Training, research, and most importantly, power. Isaac chose it in a heartbeat, then opened the [Skill] list with bated breath. Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit Central Skills (double cost) Divine Fire Champion of Mankind Skills Prometheus Sacrifice Lessons of History Titanic Presence Inventors Will The Meaning of the Name Auric Offensive Fire Soul Blessing of Innovation Body of the Titan Joy of Creation General Skills Aura of Primordial me [Champion of Mankind] alone made this [ss] a winner in his mind, [Divine Fire] was just the icing on the cake and all the various other [Skills] were going to be so useful it beggared belief. There was one small problem though. Getting any of them would be a fucking nightmare. He only had two [Skill] points saved up and getting anywhere Level-wise would take for-e-ver. With onest longing look at all the [Skills] he wouldnt be able to afford for months yet, Isaac closed the list and opened another, the one that showed the various quality of life and interpersonalmunication [Skills] unlocked with the fourth Evolution. It was a little weird that those were only unlocked thiste in the game, but it was what it was. Quality of Life Abilities Omniglot (Cost: 1 Skill points) Quest Giver (automatically unlocked due to trainer ss) Fast Travel (Cost: 10 Skill points) Common Sense (Cost: 3 Skill Point) Mundane Equalizer (Cost: 3 Skill Points) Absolute Control (Cost: 5 Skill Points) Basic Contracts (Cost: 1 Skill Point) Advanced Contracts (Cost: 3 Skill Points) Expert Contracts (Cost: 5 Skill Points) Binding Contracts (Cost: 10 Skill Points) Home Magic (Cost variable, see full list?) Mystic Communion (Cost: 5 Skill Points) Ho-ley shit. What the heck was [Omniglot], and where the fuck had [Misunderstanding Insurance] gone? That [Skill] had saved him and hisrades from many a misunderstanding. In some parts of the world, the ok sign was rather rude and if that [Skill] hadnt made objectively clear that it had been an ident, things could have gone rather badly. Of course, it was obvious what [Omniglot] did, and it was going to be useful, but why had it reced the other [Skill]? And why was something like that so darn cheap? As being able to talk to anyone he met was going to be useful beyond measure, he just bought the [Skill] and took a look at the full description. Omniglot mon) What is the most important thing in the world when trying to work together with others? Whymunication, of course. As Sigmund Freud said, Civilization began the first time an angry person cast a word instead of a rock. The Omniglot Skill facilitatesmunication in all of its forms, allowing the user to rapidly learn all forms of written, spoken and gesture-basednguages (seconds to basic understanding, minutes to conversational level, hours to mastery). In addition, it allows the user tomunicate intent along with their actions to avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings. So as it turned out, it incorporated everything [Misunderstanding Insurance] did, as well as letting him learnnguages in hours. It would have been awesome to know this wasing down the line before learning three foreignnguages with nothing but a [System]-enhanced memory, but what was done was done. Lastly, he had unlocked an additional [Skill] as it synergized with his previous [ss]. Quest Giver (rare) Quests. Either a staple of role ying games, or something you send a knight on if you dont want theming back. This Skill is a little different, though. It allows the user to construct tasks for others to do in exchange for the XP assigned to it. This XP does not have to be spent by the user, it is gathered by the user as they take actions rted to leadership and the training of others, then deposited in this Skill where it can only be spent on creating Quests. (these quests cannot be granted to the user) The maximum amount of XP that can be granted is determined by the System and based on the Quests objective difficulty. (if you think youre getting away with something, youre probably failing to realize the enormity of the task youre assigning) This Skills XP pool is equal to 100 times its Level. Current XP pool: 0/100 It was an awesome [Skill], and it was going to be useful as hell. The XP gained was limited to only doubling the gains from monster hunts and that only worked when the monster was truly wild, not one that was summoned after the Quest had been issued. And where crafting [sses] were concerned, the XP boost could only be around seventy-five percent, but it was still a solid boost. Not something on the same level as a video game, where you could end up with five-hundred XP after killing a foe worth only 50, but this was the real world, sadly. No gaming the [System]. All in all, Isaac was happy with what hed gained from his Evolution, even if he had to do a whole lot of grinding to get much out of it. But that was forter. Now, he was about to get the answers to some very dire questions. Chapter 187: The Power of Friendship Chapter 187: The Power of Friendship Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit Species: Einherjar Level: 100 XP: 54,771/1,010,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 2,300/2,300 Stats Fortitude 215 Perception 355 Strength 225 Agility 415 Magic Power 230 Magic Regeneration 390 Free Points: 0 Stat, 1 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXIV The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword X Grave of Swords XX Armory of Ancient Times XVII Legacy of a True Warrior XII Skills Hundred Faces XXVII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXVII Manifold Strike XXI Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XIX Unknown Fear XXVII Bestial Regeneration XXVIII Undying Focus XXIV Tools of Terror XIX Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XVIII Compounded Impact XVII True Cut VIII Legendary Blow XVII Fully Geared XII Knightly Leader XVI Analyze Person IX Continent Strider VIII Burden of Power VI Experts Insight V General Skills Gralloch XII Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VI Police Procedure V Healing I Quest Giver I Omniglot (4nguages known) Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Lindwyrm (2 stack) Lindwyrms Heart Moment of Immortality Least Demon Lord (2 stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Isaac grinned as he looked over his new Status. It was looking fine. Sure, it wascking quite a few fourth Evolution [Skills] before it was perfect, but that would be fixed in time. And his new race was awesome, no doubt about it. Supernatural looks, the ability to predict conflicts and react ahead of time, a free [Aura], and more besides. But it wasnt all perfect. It hade with a new sense, the power to sense who was a true warrior. And now, he wanted to fight them. It wasnt a need to fight anyone he met, though. It was more like it was unfamiliar. Like a spoiled kid from a rich family whod never missed a meal feeling hunger for the first time. A new sensation, one he hadnt built up any tolerance against. Something he hadnt learned how to deal with. Now, Isaac had had plenty of practice when it came to self-control and nothing had or would go wrong, but it still wasnt fun. Especially when he was walking through an area with the densest concentration of what his race considered true warriors outside of a military base. Unfortunately, that wasnt the end of trouble. Isaacs tendency to always show up at customs when he could had bitten him in the ass, this time around. He still noticeably looked like himself, true, but there were clear differences from what hed looked like before. End result? Isaac had to go back to Germany, get his passport reissued with his new face in record time, and only then go to Camelot. Sure, he could have just snuck in the moment he was out of sight of the border, but if he got seen in Ennd after the fuss hed just caused, it was near guaranteed that someone would throw a hissy fit. But now he was here, finally, and there were no more problems to deal with. . weeeeeeeell, there was still the trickster deity hed have to wrangle straight answers out of. That wouldnt be fun. Isaac kept walking, his [Aura] whipping through the half-medieval, half-modern, all-magic town to take in all the changes and there were quite a few indeed. If he was reading this correctly, Arthurs new memories were heavily influencing this ces design. He also figured out that his ability to sense true warriors worked through his [Aura]. There were fewer even here than one might have thought, as apparently, that definition didnt apply to everyone who could fight well, but there were far more than anywhere else hed sensed. The man who looked like he should be an action movie protagonist wielding aicallyrge sword, anime-sized, in fact, wasnt a warrior. Well trained, capable, and everything else a warrior needed to be, but not one in spirit. The weedy teen punching a bag under the mans watchful gaze, on the other hand, burned with a bright, indomitable spirit. Isaac took a note of him and hed show up for a little training as well. If the kid had the [System] unlocked, he might even teach him a few [Skills]. That kind of drive, that kind of inner strength, he might go far. By the time he reached the briefing room, Isaac was grinning ear to ear and he had a list of potential candidates as long as his arm and it was growing with every passing second. When it came to training the right people, this would be invaluable, he realized. His first thought when hed gained the ability had been that hed more easily be able to read his opponents, to figure out if theyd break if things didnt go their way or if he was in for a rough slog. That was useful, sure, but the true powery elsewhere, in training. The moment Isaac entered the room, he froze. This room had been included in his sweeps and hed seen both Arthur and Elena within, which matched what he was seeing now. What he hadnt seen, somehow missed then, and couldnt even see through his [Aura] even now was the damn cat. Wee Einherjar, a little early, isnt it? the cat asked Then again, I suppose Isaac Thoma is the meow-ster of subverting the expectations of the divine. Isaac sighed Elena, about your deal with him, did you say anything about how his exnation needs to be understandable? She nodded. Puns can be misunderstood, so speak inly, Isaac said as he sat down. Loki transformed back into a human and flowed onto a chair as he did so, perching on its back in a way that should have made it topple over if the rules of physics had been in effect. Spoilsport. He grumped as the world once again took on its oddly purple sheen and time slowed to a stop. I feel like I might y some prankster. I wont promise anything because the situation might change, but I feel like there are certain people wholl push me too far soon enough. Isaac said. Thanks. Elena said, Now can we get this over with? Hes been that bad? Isaac asked. You have no idea. Arthur sighed There was a condition in their deal where he cant get too crazy with his pranks even if theyre in retaliation for something someone else did, but hes been taking revenge on people who tripped over him and Elena made the mistake of spraying him when he got on her nerves. That would exin the altitude-triggered stink bomb on your private jet, Isaac said. Dont. You. Dare. Loki hissed. Ill sneak it on the ne of someone far more deserving, Isaac told him just as Elena gave him a WTF are you talking about look. Theres a can of Surstr?mming on that ne. Its a Swedish delicacy, fish thats not been preserved in a way that prevents dposition canned, and left to rot. By the time its ripe, the can starts to bulge outwards and really shouldnt be taken on nes because when the air pressure goes down, those cans tend to go pop and afterward, you can basically toss the ne. Without high-power magic, youll never get the stench out. Isaac exined. And why exactly do you know that? Arthur asked. Its a fun prank when youre not on the receiving end. Isaac shrugged. That stuff sounds vile, Elena said. Eh, its not bad as long as you prepare it properly. Isaac shrugged again, then looked pointedly at Loki Though I think its about time for you to spill your guts. Loki immediately shifted back into a cat and started coughing. Exnations. Not. Hairballs. Elena ground out. Lokiughed and shifted back. I had to try, we all know that. When he got a trio of t stares in response, he sighed, slid down into his chair, and began the exnation. In the beginning, there was magic. Mystical, wonderful magic, and within it, the gods lived. Then, humans came along and we gave them magic, either by infusing them with it, or by teaching them to harness the natural magic. And for a time, things went beautifully. Gods above, humans below, and both sides of the divine beings were in bnce. The asional cursed species came into being, then they got their various weaknesses to prevent them from devouring all people, mystic healers were nerfed to prevent them from ushering in paradise, and so on, and so forth. Chaotic in details, but the big picture was calm. So far, so good. But humans are tricky little munchkins and started abusing the ever-loving shit out of magic. For good and ill and all that. Things got bad. Shit like murdering the followers of dark gods, poisoning wells with deadly curses in revenge, things got chaotic damn quickly and we started removing magic we didnt like. Heres the thing though, we cant directly erase things created by the other side, otherwise, wed just be stuck in an endless cycle of Create! Remove!. So everyone was messing with how everyone elses followers could use magic, making it unstable, or dangerous in other ways, and the fixes for that started to cause magic to mutate, until eventually, people started withdrawing their magic. And so, the world grew mundane. Monsters died out or were reduced to mere shells of their former selves, until eventually, we ended up with the modern world, with a few overzealous little teachers pets vacuuming up everyst bit of magic in the world, leaving behind only stories and memories. Loki shrugged It really isnt all thatplicated when properly exined, I guess. Congrattions, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for uncovering a secret of the world! You have helped in the efforts to uncover the secrets of the Earths magic. For uncovering a secret of such magnitude, you have gained 500,000 XP (20,000,000*0.025 reduction for only being a supporter in this endeavor) Holy crap. Isaac yelped as the [System] window showed up, losing hisposure for the first time in a long while. Firstly, he could now gain XP from scientific endeavors. Hed already expected that from the [ss] description, but it was an entirely different thing to see it confirmed. Secondly, that information had been worth twenty million XP. An insane amount by any measure, enough for over ten Levels even after the fourth Evolution. Thirdly yikes. Hed gotten a ny-seven-point-seven-five percent haircut on that, reduced to just half a Levels worth of XP with the rest being lost to the ether. Seeing that much wasted was painful on a visceral level. Hed have to experiment if there were other tricks to gain XP, to see if there was a way to abuse his other timeline knowledge to farm XP. But that was an issue for after all this. That doesnt exin why Isaac and Arthur didnt inherit any magical memories. Elena said, So, finish the exnation. Its really not all thatplicated. Loki shrugged The Heir [sses] are based on the memory fragments left behind by impactful people. Those got scrubbed of magic as well. That exins nothing. Isaac said I thought the deal was to give an answer we can understand. So, wheres the context? Loki rolled his eyes before answering. Too much dry academia, too little fun. Too bad, buster. You made a deal and everyone knew he kept his promises. Reincarnation isnt really a thing. Youre born, you live, you die, you go to an afterlife, end of story. But Im sure youve heard all those stories about people remembering things from other lives, things they couldnt have known any other way. What happens is people leaving behind parts of their memories for others to pick up and certain impactful or influential people are sometimes asked to do the same by gods, so somewhere down the line, their wisdom can change the world, for the better or worse. Loki exined. Or, you know, there are situations where there arent any memories, because they didnt exist in a way humans could interpret or even because the person youre inheriting from is fictitious, so the memories are created based on the public perception. Of course, those memories arent going to involve magic. Fictional people? Arthur asked. Sherlock Holmes is apparently possible, but I never met someone who holds the [ss]. Isaac said, I think the real question now is if theres any chance the [System] will just go away if we beat it, or if they change it enough. Nah, youre stuck with that thing. Its too big a change and they couldnt walk it back even if they wanted it to. They can barely make small changes like the Events, they locked themselves out of anything bigger unless everyone, and I do mean everyone agrees with the change and that aint never gonna happen. I could have told them that was going to happen, but no one listens to ol Loki. Loki cackled as he bounded onto the table Anyway, Ill be holding you to your word about moving the fish, Isaac. I also know you didnt mean to trick me into giving you all that XP so Im not mad at you over that, but this just means that the next time will be a lot more expensive. I expect chaos and destruction, riots in the streets. Or, you know, a prank video that gets millions of clicks on YouTube. Toodles! With that, he vanished in a puff of smoke that stank of rotten fish. Yeah, that tracked. Congrattions, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for uncovering a secret of the world! You have helped in the efforts to uncover the secrets of the Earths souls. For uncovering a secret of such magnitude, you have gained 500,000 XP (0.5*1,000,000 reduction for only being a supporter in this endeavor) And theres Level 101. Isaac grinned So apparently I get XP for making scientific discoveries now. There is an Aspectbination that allows for space travel which used the Cosmic Leviathan, Void Dragon, and the Lord of Time and Space. Nothing. Okay, that didnt work. The gods Janus and Hermes are the most likely to help humans directly. Nothing. Isaac then proceeded to list a dozen big secrets he hadnt spilled yet in this timeline but the only [System] message he got was a disappointing rification. No XP is gained for reiterating knowledge held before the ss Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit was gained. Seems like the [System] itself was now fed up with him. He sighed heavily and passed that knowledge along to the others. One more thing, Isaac announced in a formal voice, got to his feet, and gave an exaggerated courtly bow. I, Isaac Thoma, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, hereby formally request to join the Round Table of Camelot. Arthur rose from the table and replied in the same manner Wee to the Round Table of Camelot, Isaac Thoma. Would you like to join Arthur Wells Skill [My Round Table]? This organizations stated goal is to save the World, and its past actions and stated future ns show a strong adherence to this founding principle. Your task would be to support this cause. In addition, this Skill will create a spectral copy of you which carries with it some of your Skills. Are you are willing to ept these conditions, to strive towards this shared goal? Y/N Without hesitating, Isaac clicked on Yes. So, who else already joined? Isaac asked. Instead of answering, Arthur created a [System] window in front of him. Round Table of Camelot Member Assigned Shade Arthur Wells none Elena Hightower Arthur Wells Steff Cooke none Adam Bailey none Robin Pearson none Seon Yoo-jin none Franz Habicht none Isaac Thoma none [Empty Slot] [Empty Slot] [Empty Slot] [Empty Slot] [Empty Slot] Thirteen slots, over half of which were filled. Thirteen people to fight a nihilistic cult, to ovee human nature, and beat back Armageddon. Isaac recognized the names Robin Pearson and Steff Cooke as belonging to other members of Camelot, though he hadnt had any substantial conversations with either of them. The rest, meanwhile, were the people whod been in the Starhail with him. Even Yoo-jin had joined in. We were waiting on you to pass out most of the shades. Arthur exined, Whose power would you like to borrow once every few days? Isaac had thought about it a few times. Habichts investigative powers woulde in useful in a wide array of situations, but Isaac could cover much of what they did with [Analyze Person], his senses, andmon sense. Baileys physical modification would have been useful as well, but the borrowed [Skills] were too limited to be of true use. And so on. There were many capabilities that would help, but what he decided on was a powerset that covered hisbat weaknesses. You have gained the Shade of Seon Yoo-jin, The Shield of Seoul You gain +20 in his highest Stat (Fortitude), +15 in his second highest Stat (Strength) and +10 in his third highest Stat (Magic Power). You have chosen to borrow the following Skill(s): cial Fortress (one week cooldown) The power was rather simple, yet also absurdly powerful. [cial Fortress] conjured a mass of spikes and defensive ramparts a hundred meters across and between fifty and two hundred tall, depending on what the situation called for, the whole thing forged from almost indestructible ice which clocked in at almost negative one-hundred-and-fifty degrees centigrade. The cold wouldnt hurt the casters allies, of course. It could be shaped however the user wanted during its creation and altered for a couple of minutes afterward, though the longer the fortification had been in ce, the harder the change was. The whole thing was perfect for protecting arge group of allies in case of a sudden overwhelming AOE attack or trapping arge monster within. It was also not something anyone would ever expect Isaac to pull out, it simply didnt match his [ss], nor was it avable through any Aspects. In other words, it was the ultimate ace up his sleeve. And if anyone found out about it, well, he could always switch to another shade. Anyone who went after a member of the Round Table would not only have to n for that person but also every [Skill] held by every other member. Isaacs own shade would be passed around between the various members of the Round Table as it held his training [Skills], wherever it was the most useful. There was also Baileys powerful healing that could be summoned at the drop of a hat. Unfortunately, switching shades without being right next to Arthur was tricky, to say the least. It took an hour to switch out shades and five minutes to send out shades that werent bound to anyone to someone who didnt currently have one assigned either. And they needed constantmunication to arrange everything, which would hopefully be included in a future [Skill] upgrade. But even the basic [My Round Table] was powerful as hell. Arthur could wield the unassigned shades as his own personal army, vastly increasing his own power. And the flexibility it gave to its other members was invaluable. So thats that. Arthur said, Formalities done, answers wrung out of the prankster god, and weve formally agreed to work together. He sighed, seemed to struggle with his self-control for several long moments and exploded. CanwepleasetalkabouttheutterinsanityLokijusttoldus! Magic was real, humans messed with it until the gods had to delete it and theres an afterlife. Isaac shrugged Not something we can change, not something we can influence, all we can do is deal. End of story. How can you be so calm! Arthur eximed. Ive dealt with terrible crap and horrible revtions before. Isaac shrugged again. People can mess with magic to the point where even the gods grew nervous. Elena said, addressing no one Loki didnt outright say it, but Im not the only one who heard, right? Isaac grinned viciously as he answered I didnt hear it, but you might be right. There might be a way to pay them back for everything! What followed were a few hours of spitballing just what the gods might have been worried about, specifically, until Isaac hurriedly got up and said hed be back in a few hours. Where are you going? Arthur asked. Ive got a can of Surstr?mming I promised a god Id relocate. And my off-the-books minion just located the perfect target for that. Isaac said with a bone-chilling smile, flickered, and vanished, streaking away in the direction of Heathrow. Chapter 188: An Auspicious Meeting Chapter 188: An Auspicious Meeting The security mogul Ezra Ross had a rude awakening yesterday afternoon when his private jet was filled with a horrific stench. Despite the initial assumption of bioterrorism, the issue turned out to only be a can of a Swedish specialty, a form of fermented fish called Surstrum- Surstrom- As the newscaster struggled with the pronunciation of Surstr?mming, Isaac shook his head at the situation. Even halfway around the world, daytime television still sucked. Still, a certain blowhard getting what wasing to him being the biggest news avable said good things about how calm things were right now. Ezra Ross was an annoying prick who thought way too highly of himself and needed to have a rude awakening before his security firms blindspots got someone killed. The situation wasnt bad enough for him to end up on Isaacs shitlist directly, nor were the people he protected important enough for him to amend his ways to be a priority, but given the opportunity how could he resist? He got up and brushed off the various grains of sand that had gotten on him even while hed sat at the bar. Its time? Arthur asked. Isaac nodded Youll be ok in the meanwhile? In a bar, with no one else around for miles? Ill be fine. Arthur said, turned around to the barkeep, and ordered another drink. Isaac pulled a pair of sunsses out of his breast pocket and put them on. His overall look was the standard explorer outfit, light clothing in pale colors and a hat with fabric that draped down the back of his neck. It was normal, but also utterly superfluous for someone with Isaacs Stats. It just felt right. And wasnt that the darndest thing? Everyone just running around still pretending like they were normal, like they were human, even though it was, technically, a waste of time. Isaac could regenerate his eyes, but even staring straight into the sun from sunup to sundown wouldnt require him to do so. He had a bed even though he could literally fall asleep mid-step and be fully recovered before he hit the ground. Hell, he even put on more clothing in winter, even though he could have easily run around but-naked and been fine. Was it merely habit, or were people desperately clinging to the illusion that they were still human? Something unpleasant to think about, that was for sure. More unpleasant, though, was the wastnd Isaac was walking into. The bar hed just left was the only thing around for several kilometers, with only abandoned huts and viges forpany. The only reason the bar was still inhabited was the fact that it served as a base camp for expeditions into the wastnd and was making a lot of money based on that. Oh, and because of the enchantment that kept out the radiation, which kept the ce habitable. Isaac himself didnt need to worry about the effects of a month-old explosion, but it still felt utterly wrong to be walking toward the site of a nuclear detonation. As he got closer, more and more signs of devastation became visible. ckened trees and withered vegetation had been present practically since the moment he left the bar, but as he got closer, the area became more and more deste. Boulders tossed through the air, leaving behind long trails in the ground were eventually reced by a vast expanse of dirt and dust, where nothingrger had survived. Eventually, Isaac reached the edge of a vast crater, looking down to see the strangest site. A Korean man, in regr desert clothing, ying with his dog, arge but adorable Pitbull. Exactly the person he wanted to see. Not someone who was easy to find, and even harder to find when he wasnt in a top-secret government facility Good afternoon, Isaac called out and jumped, sliding down the side of the crater while trailing dust. Good afternoon. The man responded, looking Isaac up and down Can I ask what it is youre looking for here? Its a [Dangerous World] out there. [Darkness Reigns] and shadows gather, [Tyranny Beaks] and [Tyrants Die], [All See] the [Kingdom Come]. Isaac recited. It was a poem of sorts, one hed heard in the other timeline, based on the [Skills] of the man standing before him. In fact, it was built right into his [ss], a poem that had appeared with the first Evolution [ss], offering toplete poem, with every subsequent [ss] going up in rarity until he finally reached a legendary with the third Evolution, as long as he kept taking the follow-up [ss]. Which he had, building himself into a tyranny-breaking force for the ages. Han Junu, the man whod single-handedly destroyed the North Korean nuclear program, then yed a pivotal role in the Seoul incident by using the twin [Skills] of [Tyranny Breaks] to shatter the Demon Lords'' powerful attack and [Tyrants Die] to temporarily weaken the [Raid Boss] innate survival capabilities at a critical moment. Next to him, the Pitbull stilly on her back, happily gazing up into the sky with her tongue hanging out. No one would ever think to imagine this dog had eaten several dozen nuclear warheads and the materials to make more, nor that she was able to burn that to fuel a terrifying transformation that allowed her to stand against armies. Hans [Skill], [Dangerous World] hadbined the two most dangerous things in his life, his dog and nukes. How do you know those names? Han asked, guard instantly up, ready to fight or run. Research. Isaac responded Youre a hard man to find, Dr. Han. I suppose you must be pretty busy, given your unique skillset. And what do you want from me? Han asked, still guarded. Perhaps Isaac hadnt taken the gentlest of approaches with him, but the issue was that his conversation partner was understandably very cautious, what with having grown up in North Korea and having been forced to work on its nuclear weapons program as an adult. The slow approach would just have sparked his paranoia, on the other hand, the direct approach was something that might work, based on what hed heard on the other timeline. A lifetime of cutthroat politics, dodging secret police, and having to navigate byzantine mazes of rules and regtions that might change at the drop of a hat, where a single mistake would have cost him his life directness might just work. Id like you to help me save the world. Isaac said bluntly I understand that youve had to do more than your fair share towards that end already, but Im afraid our problems are just beginning. And what exactly is it that you understand, Dr. Thoma? Han asked. That youve spent your entire life under one of the worst dictatorships on Earth, in close proximity to the unstable dictator who leads it, forced to build his weapons. You not only destroyed those weapons when you left, you also saved a lot of lives when the [Raid Boss] attacked Seoul. Now, you work for the government of South Korea, lending your skills to supporting its military and cleaning up the asional irradiated wastnd. Isaac said. One of the worst? Han asked once again, voice dangerous Who do you think is worse? Who is worse? The madman who threatens to dere war on the whole world? The dictator who creates a working system but abuses individuals to satiate his own twisted desires? Or the man whose cruelty is absentminded, casual, who does not abuse anyone directly but plunges his whole country into despair and poverty by not creating any infrastructure? At some point, there is no worst, just bad enough to need to be taken down. Isaac said. Han cracked a slight smile Well said. Is that whom you want to save the world from, Dr. Thoma? Tyrants, dictators, and despots? So Han did know who he was, good. I wish. Isaac shook his head I wont lie, there is a lot of evil in the world, but right now, myrades and I are focusing on the immediate issues that have the potential to end the world. And those would be? Your hypothesis on how the world will be swallowed up by monsters? Han asked, Its an interesting idea, and it''s usible, but dont you think it might be a bit of a reach? If I could prove it, would you help me? Isaac answered with a question of his own. Unless you have a dead world to show me, true proof might be tricky, Han observed and Isaac chuckled dryly. Oh, youd be surprised what you can find in the depths of the [System]. So tell me, can you keep a secret? It was a stupid question, of course, someone whod grown up in an environment like Han knew the value of keeping his trap shut, even when there was no implicit threat involved. And even if he did spill the beans, at this point, the problems caused would be limited. Isaac had enough backing to keep his family safe from the fallout and he would be able to weather the issue as well. If nothing else, people knew the value of his work and someone would always be willing to hire him. Isaac cast his privacy [Skill] and revealed his hidden title. Isaac Last Survivor Thoma The bearer of this title has survived a timeline in which humanity died out, only to return through time for a second chance. See further details? Y/N Hans jaw dropped. Actually dropped, if only for a moment. The Pitbull stopped ying in the sand and wandered over to her owner, nudging him with her nose. He sighed and rubbed the top of her head. Then, he fixed Isaac with a piercing stare as the magic around him flickered. [All See] was meant to be used to reveal the darkness of a system to, well, everyone, granting them the insight to see through all the lies and deceit. However, it was entirely possible to focus all that into a single person, the [Skills] bearer, to create one of the strongest truth-telling powers in existence. Between the headache that was soon to follow and the cooldown, investigative [sses] were better overall, but as far as single [Skill] was concerned, [All See] was unbeaten. Here I was thinking my life was rough. Han sighed shaking his head So, the world is even more screwed up than I thought. But why should I work with you instead of my current employers? It didnt sound like he believed in the question either. Approaching someone sincerely, with honesty, and offering a persuasive argument for cooperation could work, or it might just raise their guard. It would most likely raise their guard, backfiring rather conclusively. That idea got flipped on its head when such things as reliable ways of truth-telling were in y. No weasel words to mess things up, noplicated sentences that were harder to untangle than the Gordian Knot of yore, just the blunt truth. How long did it take you to get permission toe out here? Isaac asked, The [Raid Boss] was blown up months ago. Thats your argument? Bureaucracys slow? Id rather deal with that than live in a country where no one can tell who owns what house, where streets dont have names and houses dont have numbers because no one bothered to catalog anything? Han asked acerbically. No. My argument is that your new employers are biased towards protecting their own nation. But no nation can survive if the rest of the world falls. Isaac said. Interesting point. Han said as he pulled a ball out of thin air, threw it for his dog to chase, and asked, almost nonchntly So, you want to save the world from itself? What makes you so sure you can? What have you improved from thest time around? Isaac grinned internally. At this point, Han was just interviewing him like a potential employer. So he exined everything. From how LA had not been reduced to ashes to the various timebombs hed defused. And after all that, the world is still in danger. Han sighed and shook his head Theres always more people wholl choose their greed over everyone else. Unfortunately. Isaac agreed and pulled an orb from his spatial storage that burned with an inner fire, then tossed it to Han Ill be in the bar for a few hours with mypanion, if you change your mind after that, you know where to find me. Han caught the orb easily enough but almost dropped it when he saw what Isaac had just given him. Like I said, I owe you for Seoul, Isaac said, waving as he walked up the side of the crater. Getting his hands on a spare Aspect of the Least Demon Lord hadnt been easy, but hed managed it. Wait, Han called after him, so Isaac teleported right back down to him. It wasnt something he did often, but it could look damn impressive in the right situation. This was a right situation. If you walk around with things this expensive all the time, why didnt you mention how much youre clearly willing to pay? Han said, sounding genuinely puzzled. Isaac chuckled dryly A man of your talent can get money from everywhere, and money can buy everything. Except for a few things, like true safety, or power. So thats what I offered. Han nodded I see. And just who is yourpanion, who did you drag all the way out here? Arthur, the legendary king of Ennd who walks the Earth once more. The man whose [Skills], whose Round Table is beyond nation or alignment, above the petty squabbles that ruin international cooperation normally. His power allows the members of the Round Table to share abilities. I figured he mighte in handy if you agreed to join us. Isaac announced. So hes your boss, then? Han was suddenly right back on the defensive. Its the round table because no one sits at its head, no one is in charge. Its a group of equals, all with the goal of saving the world. Isaac said, Any more questions before [All See] runs out? Han raised an eyebrow. I can see [Skills] when theyre activated. A few questionster, two people and a dog were walking through an irradiated wastnd. The mood might have been somber under other situations, but here and now, there was a dog yfully prancing around the pair. Whats her name? Isaac asked. Dasom, Han said. It meant love and was the perfect name for a dog that friendly. Returning from the center of the st site was a bittersweet affair. Slowly seeing nature return, the first living things other than the three of theming into view was nice, yet it was a constant reminder of the devastation that had been caused by human hands. First, the [Raid Boss], followed by the nuclear strike that had taken it down. One vigorous petting session with the dogter, Isaac was no longer setting off the Geiger counter located outside the bar. Dr. Han, its nice to meet you, Ive heard good things. Arthur greeted the neer, thrusting out his hand Arthur Wells, Im in charge of Camelot. Likewise. Han said as they shook Dr. Han Junu, currently cleaning up a radioactive crater. Isaac let the two get acquainted for a bit, and then, another warrior joined the ranks of the Round Table. Han headed back to the crater after a while, carrying with him the shade of Steff Cooke, one of Camelots strongest warriors. Hed also said hed try to see if he could work together with Baileys team some time. That would be interesting. So, that was the real world My dog ate my homework? Arthur asked. When his story came out, there was the newspaper headline Dear Leader, my dog at the nukes, Isaac said with a chuckle. Interesting fellow. Where are we going after this? Arthur asked Weve already allied with the gaggle of kooks living on the south pole, signed a dozen contracts that will apparently us invaluable materials down the road, and added two new superstars to the round table. Whats up next? Back to Camelot, and hope that Elena doesnt kill us for staying away so long, Isaac said in the most serious voice he could manage. Arthur chuckled and leaned out of the privacy field to order yet another beer. Isaac grinned. Between Arthur and himself, theyd had both the means and the star power to strike several vital deals. It had taken over a week of constant travel, and the trip had taken even longer when Isaac learned hed get a chance to talk to Han, but theyd vastly improved humanitys chances. Chapter 189: Fire Thief Chapter 189: Fire Thief Three Monthster Are you sure this is a good idea? Raul asked for the billionth time. In reality, it was more like the fifth, but Isaac was so hyped for this that any dy was driving him up the wall. It shouldnt, it really shouldnt, but telling a kid to be less excited on Christmas morning might have been easier than calming down Isaac right this second. Isaac carefully stuck his arm through the shield that Karl and Stagmer had constructed for him, prepared to yank it back and m down the shutter the second something went wrong. It hopefully wouldnt, but even though he was very excited, Isaac was still a cautious person. The massive enchanted tower shield next to him was capable of standing up to dragonfire, which was exactly what it would have to. Alright,st chance to back out. Raul called again Ready? Go ahead. Isaac called back. Ill give you a countdown. Three, two, one, now! And the world vanished in a st of light and heat as the Sr Dragon Aurelian opened his jaws and unleashed the power of a star straight at Isaac. Most of his body was shielded behind the shield but his hand was exposed, only protected by his general fire resistance and apressedyer of the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior], the protective sheath of tarnished silver seeming vastly insufficient in the face of the power bearing down on it. Isaacs hand burned, heat washing through the hole in the shield and igniting his sleeve. It was meant to have been fire-resistant, but when dealing with the heat at the heart of a star, it was insufficient. The protective [Aura] copsed a momentter and mes washed over his skin directly, but at that point, it wasnt hurting him anymore. Cut the me. Isaac called over and the me winked out, leaving Raul standing there with Aurelian on his shoulder, once again small and looking innocent, yawning to reveal a tiny pink tongue. Aw. Isaac stored the shield and just stood there, gazing at the bit of starstuff held in his hand, floating there. A lot of stories described something as burning with the fury of a star, but that wasnt what Isaac was feeling. The me hed snatched from the dragons all-consuming breath was just there. A me that existed peacefully, calmly, despite being made from the same thing as the star that sustained all life on Earth. Except, you know, it would utterly wreck anything it touched, should it escape his control. And then, it touched his hand and was absorbed. Did it work? Raul called. Yep. Isaac grinned and summoned the me back into his palm Who do you think will let me walk into their fusion reactor to steal that fire as well? Raul justughed and shook his head Good luck with that. Call me if you need another st. As he headed back to university, Isaac checked the new status of histest [Skill]. It had taken a damn long-time grinding, but hed finally unlocked [Divine Fire]. Divine Fire (legendary) Fire. What can it do? Pretty much everything, as long as youve got the right kind and are creative enough. Fire. What can it be? Pretty much anything, as long as youre not risk averse when ites to getting it. That is where the issue lies. Getting it. Of the countless mystic and mundane mes there are, one can only gain a few, if one takes the normal path, that is. Stealing them aint normal. But it is possible. It is audacious, ludicrous, but possible. And fully in line the promethean spirit. This Skill grants the user the ability to conjure and control mundane mes. Initially. The real power of the Divine Fire is its ability to absorb and assimte all other fire, both magical and not. The user bes immune to all fires they have absorbed (and can extend this protection to objects on their person) and are able to then wield it with the same power and ease as the original fire. Once conjured, mes fueled by the users mana directly can be controlled for free while secondary fires spawned by the initial me can be directed by spending a negligible amount of mana. All mes can be extinguished for free, be they conjured directly or merely ignited by conjured mes. All assimted mes can be used individually orbined to form greater forms of fire, whose patterns can be stored forter use. Cost Patters: Creation cost per second/control cost per second Standard me (10/1) Absorbed mes: Grand Hellme (75/1-10) Campfire (5/1) Burning Magnesium (20/1-3) Napalm (7/1) Ster Corona (60/2-4) Combined mes: Sticky Magnesium (20/2-5) Isaac was in love with his new [Skill]. It was simply perfect. Copy any me, be immune to it, and remove one of the biggest danger to a regenerator like him. That alone would have made it invaluable, though not quite worthy of a fourth Evolution core [Skill]. Beyond that, Isaac had now gained a vastly greater degree of control over his [Grand Hellme], making it cheaper and allowing him to extinguish it for free, so he didnt have to reserve 200 mana to ensure his fires didnt get out of hand. The ability to use any me magic though, even those that could not normally be gained by humans, that was a gamechanger. So far, Isaac had just lit on fire a few things hed found around theb and absorbed that, but there were so many more mes to copy, starting with the power of a star. mes that ate mana, mes that ate life force more effectively than even hellfire. mes that were entropy solidified, mes that burned cold by absorbing all heat and turning it into grains of iron at the core of the fire, mes that ate kic energy. All of the countless different dragon breaths, toxic, basically lightning, bog standard fire, cold, burns this specific thing fire, and so on, and so forth. Then there were the various Phoenix variants, with one that was rted to every element on the periodic table and all of the various esoteric and alchemical elements. A Titanium Phoenix with solid mes, the toxic Arsenic Phoenix, the ever-stinking Sulfuric Phoenix, and so on. Not to mention the regenerative properties of Phoenix mes And to top all of it off, there was the power tobine mes. The only experiment hed saved was [Divine Fire: Sticky Magnesium], whichbined the intense heat of burning magnesium with the stickiness of napalm, making for one hell of a mess when he used it. But once he got started with the magical mes oh the fun he could have. That just left the small issue of how mana-hungry this [Skill] was. Of the one-hundred-and-eighty Stat points hed gotten, fifty had gone into Magic Regeneration, bringing it up to 450, enough into Agility to bring it to 500 and hed brough Perception up to 390. Not quite the things a more magic-leaning fighter needed, to be sure. But after this, hed have drop a ton of points into Magic Power. maybe not a ton, he was spreading himself rather thin, but a few. Still, there were tricks around the mana limitation. Just setting stuff on fire and manipting the spreading me should cut down on the issues on its own. Hed still be limited by both the avability of elerant and his ability to get into position, but it would reduce the mana cost. He could also deliver his fire directly into the weak points of his enemies using his sword. It really was the perfect [Skill] for both him and this [ss]. Practically useless as it was, but able to be turned into something with night-infinite uses, customizable for anything he might need, if only he had the knowledge to create mes perfect for the situation. The Promethean Spirit. Pushing forward science, the boundary of what was possible and using that knowledge to break the shackles that held the world. See a monster, figure out what a monsters weakness was, fry it with fire specialized for just that purpose. To get the most out of [Divine Fire], hed have to invest a ton of time and effort, but it would be worth it. Before then, though, hed have to run through a Dungeon while babysitting a bunch of politicians. That would be tricky. Chapter 190: An Auspicious Start Chapter 190: An Auspicious Start In hindsight, walking to Korea might not have been the best idea, Isaac realized as he stood at the tenth border crossing and presented his passport. The problem with his fame was that it was perfectly possible for someone to realize that hed been in Germany one day, in South Korea the next and not taken a ne. One might correctly guess that some illegal border crossing had urred and then throw that in his face. But [Continent Strider] was at Level 9 and Isaac really wanted that Level 10 boost. And it wasnt like he hadnt endured worse superfluous bureaucracy. For example, the Summer Event had started normal enough, just a repeat ofst year''s until a few someones had gotten it in their heads that since the Event had already been explored, it had to be safe, right? except, of course, that was only true up to Tier 5 and the world was well beyond that now. There hadnt been a repeat of the original eleven million casualties, but locally, things had still gotten pretty bad. Which the various politicians hadnt hesitated to make it infinitely worse by questioning why they couldnt just stick to hunting the few highest-Tier monsters that had be beatable since thetest Event because mobilizing a decent chunk of Germanys military for this was rather expensive. Not to mention how the ces that were being borrowed could have been used for more profitable harvesting operations, something they didnt want to share with the international allies that usually helped. So in other words: Beating the new Event monsters? Took an hour, and was easy as pie. Fending off the monsters in human skin that had taken vastly longer. But in the end, Isaac had managed to preserve the ability to go after an Event with all their old vigor and resources, but it had been utterly exhausting. Sometimes, it really did feel like politicians were a fundamentally different kind of person. But eventually, the border guard put a stamp in Isaacs passport, and he was allowed to pass. Damn, that passport was getting full. Barely three months old and he was almost ready to need a recement. Still, the Event had been vastly easier than breaking into the eighth Tier. For once, Professor Baileys team hadnt been the ones to do that. Tokyo University had done it and earned apletely undeserved reputation for ipetency. Theyd summoned monsters, recorded their abilities, and killed them. In exchange, theyd had to ount for around three-hundred-thousand yen worth of damage, around two million in euros, some scrapes, bruises, and a few limbs that had probably been reattached or regrown by the time the word had gotten out. And one death. For a new Tier, especially one this high, that was very good. In the other timeline, it would have been downright fantastic. Tiers 7, 8, and 9 had gone rather badly in that one. Only one death and a bunch of repairable/heble damage was something that could only have been topped by being vastly overleveled or knowing what would happen ahead of time and preparing contingencies for everything. The former wasnt viable as that would have cost them too much time and thetter, well, they were doing this to figure out what abilities the monsters had, which made that level of preparation nigh-impossible. All of the preparations that had been in ce should have been sufficient, more than anyone had expected them to make, and certainly enough for them to not get raked over the coals for. There was just one small issue. The yardstick they were being measured by was the nigh wless record of a team that had a time traveler make contingencies for every possible issue. The death had been caused by abination of bad luck and unfamiliarity with their foe, it just wasnt the kind of thing you could prevent with one-hundred-percent uracy. Yet they were getting utterly raked over the coals for the whole affair. That mess was one of the few things Isaac did feel a little bit bad over, despite how far removed he was from the situation and howpletely idental the whole affair had been. The folks over at Tokyo University werent bad people, in fact, they were an excellent collection of researchers, falling short only whenpared to the likes of professors Bailey, Kim, or Chandler, or Dr. Han. hed try to try and make it up to them sometime. Somehow. Joint research project, maybe? Or maybe hed figure out a way to point to all the great research theyd done in a way that seemed natural? It would certainly be the easiest if someone just asked him about what he thought of the whole incident, that way, he could state that he felt that theyd done nothing wrong. Tier 8 that was a rough one. At that point, the monsters Fortitude Stat reached the point where it seriously affected the monsters durability beyond resistance, giving them survival capabilities near that of a [Field Boss]. Sure, Tier 7 and its replication of vital organs like golem or elemental cores had been rough, but number eight took that issue to a whole other level. Meanwhile, Tier 8 [Field Bosses] were as durable as Tier 7 [Raid Bosses] and Tier 8 [Raid Bosses] were just in nuts. Simply put, they had a second health bar. Kill one of the damn things, bring it down through all its ungodly durability, which went beyond what a Tier 7 [Raid Boss] had had and then have it pop right back up, fully healed. Once. Of course, Tier 9 was going to be even worse. That was when the bosses got minions. And in the distance, Tier 10 loomed like a distant thunderhead. When that dropped, there would be hell to pay. Even beyond that, at some point, there were [World Bosses] to deal with. Because there was no way in hell no one was ever going to summon one of those. Isaac sighed as thendscape blurred past. All of that was a problem for the distant future. Now, he just had to run through a dungeon while babysitting a bunch of politicians. Was it weird hed rather fight a [World Boss]? Eventually, Isaac crossed the border into South Korea and slowed to a gentle jog as he reached Seoul. He quickly switched his clothing over to Hunter-chi que, close-fitting cargo pants with a couple of subtly-hidden knife sheaths, a shirt with armored fibers woven through it, and a zer with enough metal within to qualify as brigandine, which also allowed him to hide a short-sword underneath it. Hed stuck his Kriegsmesser in there just for appearance''s sake. The outfit would have beenpleted by having Balmung in the sheath at his side, but that would have taken this from Hunter-chique to geared for war. He still had a few hours to kill, so he spent it running all over town, teaching [Skills] in the Hunter Training Academy, stealing fire from Dungeons, and devouring street food anytime he passed a ce that looked good. And in the end, he even managed to get that elusive final Level. Continent Strider (legendary, Level 10) In olden times, it could take months or years to go from city to city, from country to country. Modern technology has shrunken the world somewhat, but it still takes quite a while to move significant distances. This Skill not only removes the need for modern technology to travel vast distances in a reasonable timeframe, but further boosts the travel speed while moving on foot. Your movement speed on foot or horseback will increase exponentially with this Skill active. Continent Strider cannot be activated inbat or while fleeingbat, it is purely a utility Skill. This Skill can be applied to all party members so long as said party members are within 100 meters of the user and the user is the party leader. Every day, the user umtes a pool of movement equal to one hour of travel without using this Skill. This pool has an upper limit of 168 hours, and can be used to open a portal to an important location the user has been before. This portal can carry up to five times the users mass per activation and its cost amounts to how long it would have taken the user to make the journey normally, without using Continent Striders eleration feature. Combat utility limitations still apply. Each use of this portal a day after the first will double the cost each time. Cost: 500 mana per hour, plus 100 per party member Ah yes, perfect. Once a day, portal somewhere it would have taken an hour to travel, with any unused portal-time being saved for the next day. Or, you know, open multiple portals and burn through that pool of time he fast. As for the important location limitation, that was a fancy way of saying work, home, family members home, travel hub, or central location in a city. Geologicalndmarks also counted, if they were distinctive enough to be listed in a travel guide. But an hour of travel skipped every day, that was basically an instantaneous trip to Korea every other day. It also neatly solved the issue of having to deal with all the various border checkpoints. He could always just pretend to have teleported. Isaac swore internally and contorted his body to the side to avoid dirtying his outfit with the red bean paste that dripped out of his Hoppang. Even when deep in thought, he always paid enough attention to his surroundings to avoid sneak attacks or running into something. His food not so much. *** Dr. Thoma, do you have a moment to talk? Im currently working on a proposal to regte industrial-scale summoning to preserve fair marketpetition the fifth attempt at getting Isaac to throw his influence behind a political party droned on. He sighed. Once the speech was over, Isaac pped his hands and loudly announced Alright everyone, listen up. I realize that this is an interestingworking opportunity, but this is not a political excursion. You were all chosen because youre someone we can work with and then picked from that pool of candidates at random, not because of anyones political affiliation. As far as youre concerned, Im a card-carrying member of die Partei, and so are all your other escorts. Die Partei, or the Party, as was the English trantion of the name, was a satire of a political party that ran on such tforms as boosting beer consumption or abolishing gravity. They poked fun at other parties and the world in general by adding an over-the-top version of any issues they saw to their program. The looks he got after that were almost enough to break his heart. Grown men and women should not be able to pull off the beaten puppy look that well. [All See] the darkness, Let schemes be revealed. And tyrannies fall. Isaac jolted slightly as the voice whispered into his ear, but he recognized the phrase after the first few words. The activation phrase of [All See], heard by all those affected. He didnt look around visibly but sent his [Aura] around to look for Han. He hadnt invited the good doctor over, but now that he thought about it, it made sense he would show up. This was about powerleveling politicians and could go horribly wrong if theyd chosen wrong, but the empowering [Skill] cleared out all doubts. Theyd chosen well, though he now knew some things about the picked politicians hed rather not have. There were skeletons in their closets, but nothing bad. Sure, skipping out on an utterly superfluous but still technically mandatory meeting to bang your spouse in your office was unlikely to impress your constituents, but honestly, it wasnt that bad. Thanks to [All See], Isaac had all the information needed to make that judgment. There were a few more things of a simr level of severity visible, some made Isaac roll his eyes while others were a little funny. Either way, everything was good. Thank you. Isaac sent back through auric morse once he finally located Han. No, for the millionth time, you cannot have powered armor in the dungeon! a familiar voice sighed with Im about to toss you out the window levels of exasperation. Hows it going, Wirt? Isaac asked as he walked up beside the police officer and gave the guy he was talking to an appraising look. Powered armor was cool, that was a night-indisputable fact. But somehow, the politician before him somehow managed to make it look utterly ridiculous. He was also definitely not trained to use it. Wirt sighed again In your professional opinion as someone who is widely considered to be an expert on the [System] andbat within its rules, what will happen if he wears that armor into the dungeon? Well need to leave after the first fight because that armor will break him in half, Isaac said. Its armor, isnt it? Isaac resisted rolling his eyes, instead pointedly looking the politician up and down You dont have the training to use that armor actively, so youll need to rely on the automated systems, which you have all the wrong Stats for. Your Fortitude is in its forties, your Agility is somewhere around twenty, and your Perception at around thirty. If the armor moves in a way you dont expect, youre not tough enough to withstand it, youre not fast enough to move with it when it reacts unexpectedly and you dont have the Perception to notice stuff before the armor reacts to it. If it has to save you from something, youll end up with torn muscles at the very least, but shredded limbs are a real possibility. If you had the training to move with the armor, it wouldnt be a problem, but you dont, youll likely end up with horrific injuries in short order. The only possibility to use the armor safely would be the rescue function, which injects the wearer with muscle rxant so they cant tense against the armor, but that would cost you any chance at getting XP. If youre too out of it, the [System] wont reward you even if you are in the party. Really? We checked, Isaac said. How? Wirt asked, curious. Do you really think itd be hard to find students willing to get high or stered on every legal substance we have ess to while someone kills monsters with them in a Party? Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow, then fixed the guy currently shrinking away, looking like he wanted to fall straight into the ground. In other words, you wont be able to use the armor in the dungeon safely. If I get injured being saved, wont that mean that the armor worked? Isaac shook his head The armor will react when something jumps at you, even if Wirt or I are close enough to intercept the monster. You wont get injured being saved, youll be injured the instant something so much as breathes in your direction. I have no idea who thought it was a good idea to let you bring that armor here, but youre noting into the dungeon with us if youre bringing it. Isaac stood there for a moment, but when it looked like the guy was about to say something, he just red at the suited-up stormtrooper wannabe. The target of his ire wilted and headed off towards the changing area to strip. Weve been here for ten minutes and I already want to eat my gun, Wirt swore, speaking too softly for anyone but Isaac to overhear. I picked a good Dungeon; we should be done after one run. Isaac whispered back A swarm of Level 60s and 70s should be something you can keep of them, right? At least as long as your newest core [Skill]sts? Wirt nodded. Each of those monsters will give somewhere between 750 and 1,250 XP, and everyone in the party will get two percent even if they dont do anything. We should be able to get everyone to Level 25 in one run if we make it to the end. But if you have to trigger your [Skill], well retreat and try again once its recharged. Isaac suggested. Ill be so d to be rid of them. Wirt sighed, marched up to the front of the room, and pped his hands to draw attention Alright everyone, listen up. Im Polizeiobermeister Wirt, and together with Dr. Thoma, Ill be leading you through the Dungeon. Well be powerleveling you using the XP share feature thats a part of almost all Party [Skills], you wont have to lift a finger to do anything but stay close and stay safe. Now, this should be an entirely safe process, but there is always a possibility of something unexpected happening, so heres the number one rule for this run: whatever Dr. Thoma or I say goes! No questioning, no arguing unless we open something to discussion. Assume that when an order is given, something will go horribly wrong if you dont obey in the span of a single second. Next, should something happen to both Dr. Thoma and myself, retreat. This is not a Dungeon that you can clear by yourselves, and trying would just get you killed. In addition, your usual security detail will not be able toe, as that would increase the size of our Party too much and give us an XP penalty, which were making sure to avoid. Lastly, the Hunters guild has generously agreed to loan out armor with all the bells and whistles, including internal potion dispensers capable of saving your life in case of an emergency. Now, before I exin the precise route well be taking through the Dungeon, does anyone have any questions? when they finally got to the n itself, Wirt had a thousand-yard stare and looked like hed lost the will to live. Chapter 191: Dungeon Crawl with Complications Chapter 191: Dungeon Crawl with Complications This ce is gross. All of this is gross. Did he have to scatter them all over the ce? Someone loudlyined. Wirt just shook his head in frustration. He took a moment to note whod spoken to ensure he didnt vote for them, though. And he had to agree, the Dungeon was definitely an unpleasant ce. Thoma was running in front of them, his sword cleaving apart the various bugs and spiders with casual ease, even ensuring that a clear path for people to walk through remained. The sounds ofbat came from the next room over, though it was mostly just screeching, hisses, and the asional tter of a falling body. Your Party has in 67 Cutter Ants (Lv. 63-70). 1,357 XP (2% XP share) awarded It was a drop in the bucket for him at Level 80, but for the folks walking along behind him, some looking vaguely ill, that was over a fifth of a Level, even had they been Level 24. Which they werent, but they were quickly getting there. Iing. Thoma warned from the front I cant grab all of them! So that was the final stretch of the Dungeon crawl. Oh well, theyd gotten almost all the way through this ce and gotten a lot of XP for it. Then, the swarm of insects arrived. Cutter Ants, which should really have been more descriptively called Welding Ants or something like that, as they had a sma cutter-like structure at the tip of each mandible, which turned into something akin to an arc welder when they got close to each other, welding peoples armor onto their body before closing around the now immobilized area and burning through. Nasty little fuckers. And now there were too many for him to stop alone charging at him and his charges. Keyword being alone. [Schr?dingers Guardian]. One moment, the human known as Lukas Wirt was standing in front of a group of utterly useless politicians, hefting a ludicrously reinforced riot shield while defiantly ring at a horde of insects. The next, six ephemeral copies were automatically lined up in front of the people hed promised to protect, moving into position to defend against the insects, being ced into the perfect formation to guard those taking cover behind him. He could be anywhere one of his copies was, at any time, just not in two ces at once. Wirt slid his mace into his belt and pulled out a machine pistol. The one in his side, at least, three more were strapped into a bandolier across his chest like an old-school pirates flintlocks. It might look silly, but it was still workable. The right-most copy grew solid, the ce where both reality and probability agreed the human being with the weird [Skill] was located. [Epic Blow: Fourfold Power Shot] activated a dozen times as he fired, and he managed to fire off half the guns magazine before the damn thing exploded in his hand. Damn, now hed have to pick all those shards out of his armor before handing it into the quartermaster, else, shed do her level best to tear his head off. Of course, he was now down a gun, but that was what the spares were for. Meanwhile, the wall of charging insects stumbled as a hail of bullets tore through it from the side, at the right angle to go right through multiple foes and trip up those behind them. Another gun, another barrage of empowered shots, though this time, Wirt didnt stay in one position. Each copy had shifted into a new pose as he withdrew the weapon and when it became the real him, he appeared in that pose, weapon spitting fire and tearing straight through the monster. But by the time the recoil hit, he was already gone, allowing him to fire at full auto while still picking out individual targets and actually hitting them. Unfortunately, he didnt pick where his copies appeared, they automatically popped into existence wherever they were needed to be to protect his charges. And then, the charging wall of chitin and monsters was there, in melee range. An ants head caved in as his mace came down on top of it. A second ant was hurled back as he bashed his shield into it two meters over while his mace snapped the legs of a third. Another teleport, another series of ants crippled by the loss of limbs. Blink and you miss it, so quick was the flurry of blows that cleared out the ants that had tried toe up behind him. Another position shift and the ant hed sent earlier flying took a mace to the side before it had even hit the ground and was hurled across the room, sttering against the wall. Mandibles scraped across his shield as he braced against the swarm, preventing the beasts from swarming the fragile little pencil pusher behind him. The instant the charge was broken in that area, he flickered across the field of battle, smashing another beast into paste. By that point, the broken charge had stumbled into his copy and now, it was superimposed with the beasts. Couldnt use that, then, as some scientist had probably said matter doesnt like to ovep, else it goes boom. Regardless of the original quote though, hed had it exined to him in excruciating detail how bad identally moving into a copy ovepping with another solid object would have been. Not that it mattered, though. The ants in question were currently a ball of tangled limbs and mandibles, having real trouble moving, so he just teleported into the closest copy and jumped right on top of the pile, maceing down like a meteor as the [Legendary Blow] activated, hemolymph and pulped flesh oozing from the crushed mess that remained. Blink and smash monster, rinse, and repeat. For thirty seconds, he had mobility that exceeded even a speed demon like Thoma, even if the movement ability was location-bound. For twenty-five seconds, he was a god of war and death. For five seconds, he just stood there, breathing heavily as he looked over the carnage hed caused, leaving behind only a field of corpses. A tremendous crash echoed from the far side of the room, emanating from the corridor there. There were another dozen or so loud popping sounds, the crackling of fire, and finally, another series of thunderous impacts. Clearly, Dr. Thoma was finishing off the boss and its minions to prevent it from charging in here. And then, the man himself came striding out of the hole, dragging along a treasure chest. There were a few soot stains on the silvery metal of his fabric-like chainmail, but otherwise, he looked perfectly fine. No blood, no viscera, not even the look on his face indicated that hed just been in a serious fight. Just the slight smile of someone whod just done something they enjoyed. Alright, this is the end of this Dungeon dive. Who here has reached Level 25? Thoma asked. Sure, there was the small issue of how someone might lie about their Level to earn more XP, but everyone here had been explicitly warned against that. It would be discovered and there would be hell to pay. But theyd calcted things that a single dive through the massivebyrinth of the Scorching Hive should be enough to bring everyone except maybe one or two to the second Evolution. One dive through a high-Level Dungeon had been hellish, but still infinitely better than having to do this all day. If that had been the case, someone would have ended up dead. One of the politicians, probably. The only question was if it would have been a monster that did the deed, or him. Now they just had to deal with the bloody [ss] selection. Oh, couldnt one of those ants have just eaten him? It would have been quick, at least. *** So, how many officialints do you think well have to answer for? Isaac asked. I think thats the wrong question, what I want to know is if our mailboxes will be enough to hold all of them. Wirt said Lets see, what are we going to getints over for starters, we shouldnt have made fun of someone because he didnt know what an Oxymoron was. Then, anyone who got a little blood on them, even if it was just a drop I used [Telekic Domain] to tackle someone to the ground and therell be hell to pay for that, and once again, we really shouldnt haveughed at the oxymoron. Isaac raised an eyebrow Youughed when he lost his shit because thought the [System] was calling him a moron. So did almost everyone else, now that I think about it. Hell be too embarrassed toin. Yeah, he wont want to draw attention to that. Wirt agreed, downed the rest of his beer in a single gulp, ordered another, and shook his head [Living Oxymoron], man, what a [ss]. [Literal Politician] was a good one too. Isaacughed A [ss] description that gives a dictionary definition of what that word used to mean, how politicians used to be administrators actually serving the people and all that. Especially the look of thedy who got it. Wirt agreed Priceless. But you cantpare to the mess that [Living Oxymoron: Honest Politiciaon] is. I mean, the [ss] description was one whole rant against all politicians, living and dead. Youre a politician trying to actually serve the people. Wait, those actually exist? and so on. A [ss] to convince the world that youre real, that youre not a figment of their imagination. That says everything, doesnt it? Isaac sighed. At least [Servant of the People] sounds rtively harmless, Wirt said. I dont know, a silly name like living oxymoron could be turned into a nice self-deprecating joke. Isaac suggested Here I am, the honest politician, heres the world itself confirming that because I know no one else will believe that otherwise. That makes for a nice slogan, doesnt it? When advertising, people remembering you is the most important thing. Bit wordy, Wirtmented, downed his next beer, and this time, he ordered another ten just to have a supply on hand. Isaac shrugged As much fun as finally being able to shoot the shit with you without upsetting their highnesses is, we do have a report to finish. So, first four candidates, the [Servants of the People]. The ability to instinctively sense the needs of the Populus, within limits. Support [Skills] with immense flexibility at the cost of power. Probably going to end up with something focused on one area of government at the third Evolution. Then, [Living Oxymoron: Honest Politician]. Can prove hes real, and has another [Skill] that prevents him from lying while also making sure everyone knows he cant lie. Thatll make getting elected hell. Wirtmented, Who knows what hell spill when asked a direct question? Noment or National Secret both work as answers. Isaac pointed out And someone whos guaranteed to not lie might be regarded as trustworthy enough to get elected. Or it could look super dicey when he refuses to answer any questions, Wirt said. Unfortunately. Isaac sighed But itd still be cool to have him in charge, as long as he has all those gaps in his education filled. I mean, knowing what an oxymoron is is hardly important information, but his reaction when he got called one not good. Next, two [Literal Politicians]. Superpowered pencil pusher, desk jokey, paperwork yer. Someone whos meant to manage the country for the people busy with their day jobs. [Skills] that make all of it a million times easier, but only as long as they use them in service of the country. Wirt filled out the next form Where do you think that [ss] is going. [Paperwork Bane]? Isaac suggested and Wirtughed Now, we have the formerwyer who still had the [ss] when she entered politics and didnt get any good political [sses], so she became an [Pro-Bono Attack Librarian] instead. Shell be trying to create a just world in the [System], instead of staying with politics. ording to her, anyway. Isnt that against the rules we set? Wirt said What do we do now? I dont think exposing her selfishness will do anything. Oh, thats exactly what well do. Isaac announced We tell everyone about who and what he is, and what he chose to do instead of going into politics properly. It wasnt the point of this, but what can I say, I like the gal. Having someone like that out there instead of one so-called good politician might be for the best. They might be good as far as politicians go, but I wont vote for half those people. I mean, we were all unhappy with the mess, but loudlyining about it all the while nope, not happening. Isnt that a bit of a petty reason to not vote for someone? Isaac asked. There are a hundred politicians on the ballot every election day, and plenty of them arent neo-Nazis, religious extremists, greedy pigs, or outright bastards. Ive got enough options to whittle down my list for petty reasons. Wirt pointed out. Point taken. Isaac shrugged So, up next, [Patron of the Arts]. Helps people figure out where to go to fulfill their vision, and the right people find it so it gets enjoyed. Interesting, but I guess someone needs to take care of the circuses part of bread and circuses. And then, we have our [Believer in Science], who apparently practically worships science. She can help judge how much of a budget a given research group will need and help scientists find jobs. Eventually, shell probably allow universities to create research materials from thin air of something. You ever wonder what the world will look like in ten years when everyone has adapted to the [System]? Wirt asked. Isaac shrugged As long as the world is still intact and not looking like itll end, Ill be happy with it. Anything else is just a bonus. And in a perfect world, what will politics look like? Never ask about a perfect, world, the answer is never going to be useful. Isaac shook his head In a perfect world, we wouldnt need politics because we wouldnt need governments because we wouldnt needws. Common sense wouldnt need to be written intow, people would know not to steal without being informed by thew, and they wouldnt kill each other even without the threat of punishment and it would work even with the worst of people, and so on. I guess the fact that we need thosews is a shameful indictment of how we humans act, isnt it? Wirt sighed, downed two beers, and packed away the paperwork But were done with the forms, so whats good here? Is there something in this bar thatll let me get drunk? Isaac chuckled Oh yes, but as their highnesses would say You represent our nation. Behave,. Wirt asked at Isaacs horrible impression, then followed him to the bar to get utterly stered. Chapter 192: Progress Report Chapter 192: Progress Report Good afternoon, Boss. The man greeting Isaac looked like someone straight out of a 1920s mob film,plete with a strong but perfectly understandable Italian ent, ck suit, and a fedora. A getup that was hardly subtle, or somethingmonly worn in this time period. But it wasnt real, simply an illusion projected by one of his [Skills], something that worked based on perception and expectations. As long as no one grew suspicious of your presence, no one would stop you if you went somewhere you shouldnt be, making it the perfect disguise. It also helped hide your real identity even from people who sort of knew who you were. When people only saw the most picture-perfect clich of your [ss], they often failed to see the real you. Even Isaac didnt know what his real face was, but it wasnt like he needed it, given that this mans loyalty was assured. Or maybe this guy just liked the look, who knew? After all, Gregorio Zambon, formerly an Italian mobster, now Isaacs number one off-the-books investigator. Well, his only off-the-books investigator, but given that he had a legendary investigation [ss], that was more than enough. Good afternoon, Mr. Zambon. Isaac greeted and pulled out the second chair at the table. They were currently in a small coffee shop in Cornwall, with scones, clotted cream, jam, and tea. A terrible location for a ndestine meeting under normal circumstances, but the people holding said meeting had infosec abilities up the wazoo. [Perception Interdiction] and [Unknown Fear] for Isaac, [Perception Interdiction], several [Skills] from the Eldritch summoning category that made trying to peek a memetic hazard for Zambon, as well as several [ss] [Skills] in that vein. If anyone tried to overhear, theyd notice and there would be hell to pay. Unless they decided to have this talk across the street from a national intelligence agency, theyd be safe. Besides, those scones were looking damn good. What do you have for me? Isaac asked. Several leads, two potential high-ranking members of this cult, and one location thats currently being furnished. Zambon reported, But we need to talk. So, you figured it out? Isaac asked, raising an eyebrow. You knew I would, Zambon replied. It wasnt a question, though Isaac did catch a hint of surprise. The man sitting across the table from him wasnt wielding the full power of his infosec [Skills] against Isaac, presumably an attempt at making him feel more at ease. After all, Zambon now knew just how powerful Isaac was, and how dangerous he could be in a fight. And not just the power hed shown to the public either, but at least some of the true depth of his power and potential. Isaac nodded. You wanted me to figure it out, Zambon said. Isaac thought about responding but decided it would be superfluous. Instead, he sighed I dont think Ill need to say anything, will I? At least unless there are specific things you want to know that you havent been able to figure out yet. All of this was just an XP farming opportunity. Zambon said, half asking, half telling And youre doing this all hm you want to save the world. You wanted someone able to research your enemies, or rather, the worlds enemies. But that person couldnt be someone who could turn on you, sell you out, so you found someone with an [Oath]. He paused for a moment, tapping against his chin with his index finger, then continued with new confidence Its really that simple, isnt it? You really just want to save the world. Isaac nodded. Zambon chuckled softly Well, boss, I know I already promised to be by your side forever as long as you treat me right, but Id like to promise it again: Ill help you save the world,e what may. Isaac thought he did a good job hiding his surprise, but really, who was he kidding? No matter how good of an actor he was, no one could hide anything from the person sitting across from him. I realize how that sounds, but really, is it so strange? I live on this too. Isaac couldnt help himself, he burst outughing. A deep, bellyugh that made his sides hurt and all but had him rolling on the floor. Whats so funny? Zambon asked. So Isaac wasnt a one-hundred percent open book, good to know. It took a bit for him to be able to answer, but eventually, he managed it Ive made that joke myself, every time someone asked me what I do and why I do it. Who wouldnt want to save the world? Zambon asked Other than the fools were hunting, who would actively decide against saving the we live on? Selfish idiots do plenty of damage every day. Isaac pointed out. Ah, but is that an active decision, or is it just a fool being a fool and not paying attention to the consequences? Zambon questioned. Isaac nodded Point taken. So, is there anything more you wanted to talk about, or is there something else we need to discuss before we can get to your leads? Zambon pulled out a folder and opened it onto the table. Two potential high-ranking members who suddenly came into a lot of wealth after the [System] initialized without that gain being directly linked to the [System], followed by them gaining new contacts without a clear reason for them to be working together. One of those contacts? Your friends from Hamburg. Theres amunication [Skill] in y, isnt there? Isaac said, A [Skill] that doesnt work through any medium, not via letters, the phone or over the inte, pure [Skill]-basedmunication with absolutely nothing traceable about it, even for you. Unfortunately. Zambon sighed. Can we track some of the other out of the blue contacts? Isaac asked. Ive been trying. Thats how I found the second person. Zambon said But these two were careless in theirmunication. With everyone else they regrly contact, deal with, or meet, there seems to be some kind of reasonable exnation in ce. And since none of themunications are shielded by this groups signature cloaking abilities, there is nothing immediately suspicious about any of them. I also found one of their newpounds, its right here in Cornwall. On the outside, its a fairly isted convention center, perfect for avoiding casual observation while providing a perfect excuse to have a bunch of random people in the same ce. But in reality? Isaac asked. In reality, there are several off-the-books additions, undetectable by building inspectors or any other method than very thorough scrutiny, Zambon said. Isaac responded with a wolfish grin I dont suppose you know when the big move-in date is? I cant tell which of the nned conventions belong to our targeted group, if any, but I do know when theyre nning to ship a lot of things there. I dont know what beyond the fact that theyre highly magical and going to be guarded by high-Level people, but that alone should be a valuable target, no? Isaacs grin spread ever wider until it looked like his face was about to split in half Perfect. Do you have anything else for me? Zambon shook his head. In that case, lets see if we can break the world record for XP gained during a single hour by you uncovering some of the best-kept secrets in the world, shall we? *** New target, eh? Are you sure there isnt anything we could help with? Habicht asked in between bites of his steak. He was back in the Starhail, having dinner with Isaac. Im afraid not. There are no targets left anywhere in Germany, Im pretty sure they ran for the hills after we took out their Hamburg office. Isaac shook his head If you want to help with a mess in Ennd, you need to bug our political overlords to get going on international cooperation. Oh, thats not going to go well. Habicht sighed That would require some actual concessions. He practically spat the word, then took another swig of his beer before he kept talking. See, thats the issue, isnt it? We, humans, cant get our act together long enough to fight our way out of a paper bag, let alone achieve anything big or significant. We shouldnt have to rely on individuals to work to save the world. Heroes happen when shit hits the fan. If everything goes smoothly, there arent any heroes because they arent needed. Therefore, in any situation in which you have heroes, youve got a problem of titanic proportions. Isaac observed. Sad but true. Habicht said But I think we might be able to root our enemies out before their time limit runs out. Weve already found two of their major bases, havent we, and if we break their operations in the entire nation in one shot wed be able to tear them apart pretty quickly. Maybe. But both of those bases were in modern nations withprehensive databases and plenty of paper trails. People who hide like they do show up pretty easily. But in nations who arent as anal retentive about proper documentation as Germany is, theyd probably just disappear into a crowd. Damn, good point. Habicht swore softly So, whats next? The Brits storm the convention center at the proper time, stomp t all opposition using help from Camelot and hopefully, well get enough to chase them across borders. Isaac said, Well see where we go from here. About that, do you think I might be able to borrow your investigator once in a while? Habicht asked. That wont work, Isaac told him. Someone Id have to arrest? Habicht asked. Maybe, I dont know, all I know is that hes trustworthy. The [System]-enforced kind. Isaac said. The fewer brokenws he was concretely aware of, the better for someone always aroundw enforcement. Ah, gotcha. Habicht nodded Hypothetically speaking if you had a nigh-infallible investigator, who would you send him after? Our friends with the nihilistic streak, and the asional extraordinary problem. Isaac said, But, hypothetically speaking, if you could work in the phrase extremely dangerous, dastardly criminals into the press statement about something, that something might end up added to the schedule. I cant do that too often without people realizing what triggers the mystery informant to help. Habicht pointed out. Or you could just tell me if we have a meeting thats been nned ahead of time so it doesnt look like youre meeting with me just because youve got a problem, Isaac said. Or we could do that. Shall we make this dinner a biweekly thing? Habicht suggested. Sure, but I cant always promise my investigator will be avable, Isaac said. I know. If I ask for help, itll be very important. Habicht promised, So, what do you think is up in that base? I did check the ce out a bit. Its still empty, but there are several million euros worth of magical materials already stored in there, as well as magical storage set up in countless broom closets and the like, and so many guards. Guards, traps, and everything else a group like this might need, but disguised really well. I wish I were going too Chapter 193: Interlude The Raid Chapter 193: Interlude The Raid This is our target, the newly-established Cooperation Central conference center. We have credible reasons to believe that it is wholly owned and operated by the group that was responsible for the Hamburg incident, a nihilistic cult thats been given Ragnar?k as a ceholder name in the files. ording to anecdotal evidence, they believe that the world is doomed to end once the [System] entered existence, therefore, they might as well cash in before then. This involves making some kind of nebulous deal with some manner of satanic religion, however, their religious beliefs are neither here nor there. As far as we can tell, this conference center is intended to serve two purposes. The first is as a cover for in-person meetings, as we wouldnt be able to figure out which group isposed of members of Ragnar?k. The second is, well, its a party pad. If we hadnt known an even bigger catch wasing down the line, wed have raided the ce just for the number of illicit substances used in the inauguration party. These people believe that the world is doomed, so they dont see much of a point in true long-term nning, they just want to live long enough to fulfill their side of their bargain. This is an out-of-the-way location to get wild without potentiallynding them in hot water because we still cant be sure if the people partying are members of Ragnar?k. However, we also suspect this ce is intended to be a massive summoning center, given the prevalence of extremely well-hidden storage spaces and the highly overdesigned nature of the structure, allowing it to ignore anything that isnt inflicted by a Tier 7 and above monster, or a [Boss]. Chief Constable Caradec exined and clicked the presentation over to the next slide, which showed a shipping manifest. This is a shipment that will contain countless summoning materials, as well as several other illicit but extremely valuable materials that will no doubt be heavily guarded. We can deal a heavy blow to their operations, as well as capture some of their strongerbatants. Then, the Chief looked proud and studied the various other people in the room. Arthur graciously resisted the urge to avoid ying the sound of crickets on his phone. Theyd been at this for an hour, with the same thing having been exined almost a dozen different times, where the final, concise exnation would probably have sufficed just fine. Not only that, but this was their third meeting about all of this, and each of them had essentially been identical to this one. And they still had to n the actual breach after this. Knowing Caradec, it would take a minimum of five hours to settle on one team per entrance, send in a durable person to take down the door and absorb damage, everyone else takes down the targets. Still, there was one small bit of good news, the tiny silver lining of knowing there was a hard limit on how long this would take, as the operation would take ce in two days. The only question was if Arthur could keep his will to live that long. *** The revolving door that served as the conference centers main entrance locked up against Arthur the second he tried to walk in, the bulletproof ss even managing to hold up when he walked into it. For all of one millisecond. Then, Arthur actually put some effort into getting in and it shattered like, well, ss. The secretary reacted with immediate surprise, slowly shifting into fear, yet despite that, she stepped out from behind her desk, trying to stop him. He didnt even have to react, one of the police officers behind him waved his hand and she was picked up and deposited against the wall, with the [System] showing the warrant,municating the brevity of the situation and why picking a fight would be a bad idea. She was too low a level to be able to hide anything from their various versions of [Inspect], which meant that the snap judgment of harmless bystander was almost certainly correct. An innocent civilian they couldnt let run around in what might soon be a warzone, but nothing more than that. Both of Arthurs [Auras] sted out, stealth no longer a concern. The [Aura of the Stalwart Knight] hung around him like a shiny grey haze, immaterial yet solid, a see-through bulldozer ready to tear through any walls in his way. However, the [Aura of the Stalwart Leader] tore through the entire building, threads touching the front liners in all the other groups, ready to assist then with a subtle nudge here, a football tackle out of the path of a fatal attack there, it all depended on the situation. An explosion rocked the building as something exploded in another room. That came from the warehouse! Steff yelled from behind Arthur and made to charge in that direction, but Arthur snapped at him. Stay. back. Unless were ordered, or the Party menu says theres an emergency, we follow the n. Steff wilted in ce and stayed put. Looked like some more lessons on discipline and good order were needed. Arthur wanted to run to the fight as well, and if someone else hadnt shouted about it first, then he might not have realized that staying put was the correct choice. yeah, he needed those lessons, too. They moved through the building at a good clip, arresting civilians where they stood and taking down anyone who fought without holding back one iota more than necessary. A small, wiry man popped out of a corridor that decidedly hadnt been on the ns and tried to stab Arthur. Tried. To. The dagger glowed in a bright green, evil, light, like the cursed artifact wielded by the big bad straight out of an RPG, but it was nowhere near as impressive in real life. [Excalibur] smashed the weapon out of its wielders hand, reducing it to scrap metal in the process. At the same moment, Arthurs shield pped the attacker into the nearest wall with carefully measured strength, enough to prevent him from getting up in the next few seconds, but not inflict any serious or permanent damage. And that was enough with all the coppers around. They had a million different versions of arrest [Skills], some of which locked down someone whod been taken down, others drew on the mana of everyw enforcement professional in range to try and take down a suspect. Thetter version was insanely expensive, though, and not workable to take down an entire buildings worth of high-Level fighters. Enchanted handcuffs were put in ce even as Arthur started advancing again, knocking down anyone who attacked. Not that it got them anywhere. He was wearing thetest set of armor made by one Helmut Stagmer, the greatest cksmith in the world, durable as hell and further empowered by his knightly [Skills]. On his left arm, he carried a heavy heater shield made from the strongest metal and created by the engineers at Isaacs university, enchanted to the point of absurdity. And in his right handy Excalibur, the sword of legend, the greatest of swords, and visible proof of his status as the heir of a mythological figure. It could slow the bleeding of the wielders wounds down to almost nothing, sh spells out of the air, and could easily break any weapon that tried to stand against it, as long as said weapon did not likewise have the weight of history behind it. Isaac had tried to exin it when Arthur had shown it to him the first time. Certain branches of magic, such as Alchemy and the use of Artifacts could harness the metaphysical meaning or weight of an object, using it in different ways. In Excaliburs case, the weight of its legend was directly brought to bear against other weapons of war, be they actual weapons or merely something that could be used to attack, such as spells. A mass-produced weapon or ubiquitous attack spell would fail utterly against him while someones signature attack or a weapon used by the wielder to fight tooth and nail all the way up to their current status might be able to survive a few hits. Truly standing against Excalibur would require the likes of Mimung, Balmung, or a knockoff made by someone like Stagmer. On the spell side of things, an Archmages signature spell, or a spell that had be legendary due to having been used in a public and impressive way. The instant the building had been cleared, people began to search for evidence. Thered been a few injuries at the loading dock, but those had been swiftly healed and now, it was time to tear this ce apart. Theyd found enough things to prove that something skeevy had gone down here just on their way through, and theyd arrested several people whod be able to provide some great information in time. Enchanted amulets that could cast stasis spells had been pped on all walls where storage spaces had been suspected and now, they could tear those out at their discretion, taking along huge chunks of the wall in case there was a trap that would trigger when there was less wall detected. The stasis would slow down such a traps triggering, but it couldnt stop everything, sadly. All in all, between the material evidence and the high-Level prisoners, the whole raid had been a sess. But it still felt a little insufficient. Magic surged and suddenly, a group of five people appeared in the lobby. One immediately phased through the floor, two more turned into blurs and charged at Arthur, and thest two went after everyone else. One was some manner of lighting mage, the other was the most heavily armored person with an anime-sized greatsword that destroyed vast swaths of the building with every swing. At range. Arthur wanted to help, but he had his hands full at the moment. Completely full. Metal scraped over metal with a terrible screeching sound as the first figure attacked him, moving faster than he could see. One moment, it stood there, the next, it flickered past, leaving behind a fresh, shiny scratch on his armor. The only thing hed had time to do was to activate [Fortress] and shift his stance to the point where he the dagger failed to hit one of the weak points in his defense. The [Skill] might prevent him from moving very far, but it also made him the closest thing to invulnerable. His shield shed out as the second phantom attacked and the figure bounced with a loud metallic bang, but for someone whose build was all about speed, the being was looking to be staggeringly durable, digging itself out of the crater it had left in the wall with ease and charged again. The silvery [Aura] hanging around Arthur hardened, creating a series of des for an enemy to run into. The figure came to a stop in front of him, arm pistoning forward and being yanked back a dozen times a second, each hit ringing his entire suit of armor. All but thest. The one before had finally knocked loose a part of his pauldron so this final attack slipped into his flesh underneath but didnt prate very far. It hurt but failed to do any meaningful damage. Also, the figure had spent a little too long trying to get through his armor and caught Excalibur to the side. It had already been cut up badly by charging through his [Aura], so the massive gash had been the final straw. The first speedster slumped against the far wall and drew out what looked like a healing potion while the second buzzed around him like an angry ho. It seemed to bepletely unable to do anything even slightly effective. Most people would already have been cut to ribbons by now and even Arthur might have been in terrible shape if it hadnt been for his armor, but for the sheer number of hits hed taken, [Skill] enhanced or not, his situation should have been infinitely worse. What the hell were these guys abilities, what was their build? They were the fastest beings Arthur had ever seen, without being at a vastly higher Level than him. In fact, he was almost certain that they were lower than him. While his [Inspect] wasnt the best and these guys had decent [Privacy], he could still observe enough to understand that they could at most be Level 100, probably lower. Yet they were faster than his eyes could track, there had to be a trick to that. They started to move and it was as if he were watching a recording of someone running, with the middle part cut out, leaving only the beginning and end of the motion. Where the hell were those Statsing from? Sure, they could have just not put anything into magic, and their Strength had to be damn low too, but none of those Stats could be below 100 or so. Otherwise, the difference between them would have caused them serious trouble. Also, the first opponent hed cut down was back on his feet again, so there was an absurd investment in Fortitude involved, even with a healing potion. That shouldnt leave enough points to get Agility this high. Not in any sane universe. But in the end, that level of introspection and inbat research was something Elena and Isaac did. Arthur could do it, sure, but his talentsy elsewhere. Figuring out the trick would have worked but taken way too long. [Phantom Armor: Raid Suit]. It wasnt something he liked to use as he only had a limited supply of this armor type, but there were likely going to be more peopleing after this, so hed almost certainly be using it today. In addition, he needed to save the charges from [My Round Table] for further enemies as unlike the armor, theyd be unavable for the rest of the day once used. If he could be certain that it was just these two hed have to fight, hed have chanced burning the [Skills] for the week. But as tempting as it was to unleash a can of whoop-ass on these cucklefucks, he knew it would have been a mistake. The needles of the Raid Suit jabbed into him, the boosting potions applied to just the correct muscle groups in just the correct dosages. Cuts began to appear on the surface of the armor but they vanished in moments as the Suit repaired itself. The regenerative feature would wreck the whole thing in short order, but until then, between it and the integrated health potions, he was functionally invulnerable. When he then dropped [Fortress] and took full advantage of the suits additional speed, Excalibur caught the attackers de, reducing it to scrap metal, and continued straight through his opponents corbone. The phantom tore its way free in a spray of blood, down but not out. At this point, the second one was up again and prevented him from finishing the job. Bollocks! Still, even as the second one dodged Excalibur his [Aura] shed across them, leaving behind a dozen shallow but bleeding wounds. A massive boom shook the room as the juggernaut in the back swung his ridiculous sword and thest of the cops was bowled over, flung out of the door if they were lucky, straight through the wall if they werent. Then, the massive armored man stomped towards him, incredibly slowly yet inexorably closing the distance even as the giant sword was already shing, sending a crescent of energy straight at Arthur. That. Was. It. No more holding back. Arthur drew deeply on his new favorite [Skill] and two of the strongest people in the world suddenly had his back. Chapter 194: Stronger Together Chapter 194: Stronger Together Two shades appeared behind Arthur, one with magic sparking around its hands, the second wielding arge sword. Unfortunately, shades were very weak and slowpared to the originals, of little use against enemies as fast as the ones he was facing, but they were still going to be able to help. And it wasnt like they were going to go away if he used them like this. The real boost, on the other hand, was going toe from the borrowed abilities. [My Round Table: Copy Aura, Isaac Thoma] And suddenly, a third [Aura] bloomed around him, well beyond what he could control. As an [Auric Knight], hed gained the very rare ability to wield two [Auras] at the same time and worked damn hard to be able to make the most out of this ability. Properly controlling a third one, on the other hand, was so beyond his capability that it wasnt even funny. But it didnt need to be controlled, not for this. The room was small enough that a sphere with a radius of twenty-five meters covered everything, no focus required. 10 minutes of localized omniscience should be more than enough, shouldnt it? For one moment, confusion continued to reign, then, everything clicked into ce. Hed been about to trigger a second ability, borrowing the [Skill] [Fimbulwinter] that belonged to one Fenrir Olgeirsson. But as it turned out, he didnt need to. Fenrir was one of the people who lived on the south pole, having moved there after the advent of the [System] along with several friends and acquaintances, bing a n of incredibly powerful ice and frost mages. ording to Isaac, theyd be a force to be reckoned with on a global scale shortly, but until then, they were merely very formidable. And a powerful AOE frost attack should have stopped a pair of speedsters cold, right? But now, it had be utterly superfluous. Isaac could use his [Inspect] through his [Aura] and that power had been carried along when Arthur had borrowed it. As it turned out, as fast as these guys were, they could only use it when moving in a straight line. They werent just moving faster than his eyes could track, they were moving faster than they could follow. Theyd functionally split their Stat points between Fortitude and Agility, putting only the bare minimum in their other Stats. Their [Skills], meanwhile, were clearly meant to support their fighting style of only standing still long enough to see where they and their respective targets were, then exploding into motion once more. It was a cool trick, and it still didnt let him move fast enough to hit them, but now that he knew what the zes was going on, he could n around it. If all things went well, hed finish this before the heavily armored individual reached him. A zapping sound echoed from deeper in the building as the lighting mage fought, but that wasnt his problem right now. He needed to deal with these fuckers first. The next speedsters attack ended on Excaliburs de, blood spraying as it removed an arm. Of course, the severed limb was immediately snatched out of the air to be pressed against the stump so a healing potion could fix it. The second one attacked in a vain attempt at distracting Arthur, and it failed miserably. He might be too slow to reach his enemy, but he still knew exactly where his foe had kicked off of from, as well as the specific force and angle of the charge. Perfect targeting information, but he still couldnt move quickly enough to use it. But he could think with the necessary speed. The [Aura of the Stalwart Knight] formed a shield, the barrier formed straight in the speedsters path and angled to bounce them away. Superspeed might be cool, but seeing someone st against a shield that they quite literally couldnt seeing was one hell of a counterargument against specing into it. Especially as the speedster bounced straight against Excaliburs de. So high was their Fortitude that even running into the legendary de, edge-on, at almost the speed of sound, they werent bisected cleanly, nearly ripping the sword out of Arthurs hands. The first enemy still crashed to the ground in two pieces, still alive and probably regretting how long their Fortitude would keep them that way. The second hadnt quite realized that there was no distraction covering their retreat so when Arthur charged, they were a little too slow to react. The head hit the ground before the body did, which left just a little problem. The big guy currently closing the distance at speeds barely able to overtake a snail, but he could tell thatck of speed was due to an overabundance of endurance and sheer power. Arthur backed up as the giant sword was swung around almostzily and an arc of white energy shed off it, forcing him to dive to the ground as the wall behind him was annihted. As it turned out, keeping the range open with this bellend was not a good idea. Then again, he hadnt seen him use anything but the big, ranged attacks, and given how low this twats Agility was, this fight should be just like the one against the speedsters. Except this time, Arthur would be the fast one. He exploded forward, Excaliburing down in a shimmering arc, hammering into the side of the juggernauts neck. The armor split and the de bit a couple of centimeters into one of the most vulnerable ces on the human body, causing blood to start dribbling out before Arthur had even had a chance to withdraw his weapon. ng! Arthur looked down, dumbfounded, at the sword that was sticking out his gut and still pushing him back until his enemy stood frozen in a picture-perfect lunge, sword extended, and he flew through the hole in the wall behind him and into the wall of the room behind that. The Raid Suit had fixed itself before Arthur had risen back to his feet and was already applying healing potions to his wounds, but the injury wasnt his problem right now. The weapon hadnt prated more than a couple of centimeters. Negligible damage even without the potions. But how on Gods Green Earth had that twat hit him? He could see his opponents Agility, and it was low. So how the fuck had he moved just as the speedsters had, and seemingly with real precision, no less? The giant sword shed again, forcing Arthur to dodge as another wall was reduced to dust. At least it seemed like there was a minimum range for that attack, otherwise, that first attack would have sted him to pieces. Arthur ducked under another swing, the sword moving so slowly that hed have had to actively try to get hit to take any damage. Then, he stabbed the juggernaut in the throat and went flying again. This time, it was a powerful sweeping blow that crashed into his side and slid up into his armpit, then flinging him into the ceiling. And when he fell back down, the sword was right there once more, batting him into yet another wall like a baseball. Yet this time, the de was slow as a snail once more. Thankfully, this time around, it wasnt very hard to figure out the trick. If he hit his knobhead, the knobhead hit back a million times faster than he should have been able to. A counterattack [Skill], no doubt about it. Just what were its limitations, though? Would it work against ranged attacks? Would it work against magic? There were a lot of questions to be asked, but only one of them was truly important, which was if the counterattacks hit harder if he did. And hed already figured out they didnt from his first two attacks. And now, it just came down to a matter of who crumbled first. This guy was too much of a slowpoke to reach Arthur, so every hit he got in would be preceded by a strike from Excalibur. Arthur charged, only to have to dive to the side as another energy st hammered into the ground at the juggernauts feet. So, no minimum range, just a little trouble contorting to the point the knobhead could aim that close. Should be easy enough to avoid, given the obvious signs that trick wasing right? Arthurunched himself forward once again, the incredibly sharp de of Excalibur almost striking his opponent''s weapon, but he managed to avoid that at thest possible second. Damaging that monument to ovepensation might actually make it easier to use in tight quarters. Excalibur struck the mans armpit, causing another shower of blood to spray out but the retaliatory hit pounded him into the ground with enough force to smash Arthur down into the basement. The massively armored form dropped down after him but by then, he was already back on his feet, Excalibur striking out. However, his enemys wounds had also already healed. Fucking regenerators! But Arthur wasnt done yet. sh, eat the counterattack, go flying, get up, charge, rinse and repeat until that motherfucker stayed down. One more limitation of the retaliation ability, it obviously couldnt be aimed perfectly as it wasnt outright an eye for an eye. Excalibur sliced open an eyeball for the third time and once again, Arthur hammered into another wall, spine screaming in pain and chest te barely able to reform. Hey, want some help? Arthur grinned a bloody smile as he saw Steff walk up to the hole in the ceiling and look down. The whole party already knew about the counterattack [Skill] and that Arthur would be dealing with the big guy, so the question had clearly been rhetorical. But it was appreciated. However, Steff was a mess, covered in electrical burns and smelling like that one time Arthur had tried to cook breakfast and burnt the bacon. Clearly, the lightning mage had been a tough customer. Eh, I got this! Arthur called back with half-forced joviality as he charged for what would likely be the final time. Thest eye hed put out was still gone, the owners mana pool eitherpletely empty or too drained for anything to be avable to fix an eye. Someone like Steff, someone with a build less focused on endurance, might have been in trouble, but Arthur was tanky enough to trade blows until his opponent broke. His next attack saw him fly away with the Raid Suit crumbling around him, but his opponent was now hurriedly going for a vial at his belt. A mana potion, ording to the borrowed [Aura]. Yeah, not happening. Arthur charged, driving Excalibur into his opponents open mouth while his close-range [Aura] crushed the vial to powder. Another slow but powerful attack came for his head, but without the mana to use the AOE or counterattack, the other man was a sitting duck. With every movement, the Raid Suit around Arthur crumbled further, its energy having been exhausted in record time. With every movement, he discovered a new pain, another wound hed taken during the exchange, but even tenderized like a steak, he was still in fighting shape. Blood flew through the air as he charged, ducking under a clumsy sh of the giant de then rammed Excalibur into his opponents gut. He withdrew his weapon and attacked again, creating a cut along the side of his foes neck, dodged again, sending more crimson droplets flying from his wounds, and put out the other eye. Even without mana, this fucker was still one hell of a tough motherfucker. At some point, enough mana had been recovered for another counterattack, and a backhand hammered Arthur into a wall, but that was the end of this. There were a few drawbacks to being that durable. Firstly, if youd lost against someone who couldnt kill you quickly, youd suffer for a damn long time until they truly felt they won. After all, they had to know you wouldnt be able to get right back up. And secondly, when someone was looking for a person to imprison and interrogate, someone durable was the perfect target as they could be disabled without running the risk of identally killing them. By the time the juggernaut had lost both arms and legs, he would almost certainly have been begging for death if his tongue hadnt been sliced in half when Arthur had thrust Excalibur into his mouth. Arthur sagged, rivulets of blood running down his arms and legs, the constant drip-drip-drip of it hitting the ground a constant reminder of how tough his opponent had been. Steff grabbed the prisoner and carried him upstairs while Arthur dragged himself out of the hole. Where the hell were our reinforcements? Arthur asked, Did you see anything via the party? Nope. Steff grimaced But I havent been able to contact anyone outside the building either, Im guessing someone went after them, too. Did you get the lightning mage and the guy who headed into the cer? Arthur asked. Lightning mage yes, cer no, Steff said grimly. Arthur swore internally and shut down his [Aura of the Stalwart Knight] to throw his entire focus behind controlling the [Aura] hed borrowed. Hed never used it before, but he was good enough with [Auras] in general that it was doable. holy fuck that was arge cer. Stuff that hadnt been on the ns. Thankfully, the underground was mostly empty except for the fucking summoning circle. Arthur sent along the information to everyone in the party and while Steff tried to head off the ritualspletion with a few allies, the remaining survivors were retreating with Arthur. The bloody remnants of the so-called reinforcements met them there, finally reconnecting to the party. What happened? Arthur called. Ambush. The cop spat, blood tinging his spit If the barrier hadnt gone up, we might have had to deal with more than one of them, but one of those fuckers teleporting right in the middle of our formation was bad enough. Hold on, what barrier? Arthur snapped. Theyd nned this organization to the point of utter absurdity, and hed never heard anything about no bloody barrier. The Chief Constable put up a teleport barrier the moment enemy reinforcements started popping in so we could trap the vanguard here. That way, wed have the numerical advantage and could get some prisoners. Oh, that bastard. That barrier not only blocked Camelots reinforcements but also all of the international allies that had been ready and willing to jump in should things truly go wrong. Now, it wasnt like the n had been truly horrible but it had really fucked up plenty of fail safes. Just knowing the eventual n was to lock them down with their enemies would have been beyond helpful. Had Caradec been afraid of a leak? Or did he just not want to share credit when everything went well? Either way, he was in for the bollocking of a lifetime after this. Simply knowing there was a limit to how many enemy reinforcements could arrive would have let him fight without having to save a ton of [Skills] to eventually fight future enemies. As it turned out, the thing that had been blocking the party-basedmunication had been the guy the coppers had fought and clearly killed. So, when Steff and the others whod gone down into the basement with him hade running back out warning everyone to run, they all heard it. Some kind of energy field thats animating the corpses! We didnt even reach the circle before we had to run! Steff called. Arthur decided to save the swearing in favor of snapping off orders. Caradec had vanished from themunication loop at some point and not spoken for some time, the official second inmand wasnt answering, and neither was the one who was meant to takemand next. There was definitely an official answer to who was in charge now, but they hadnt stepped up and this was no time to be arguing about leadership. Set up a cordon around the convention center, stay in groups of at least five, and keep the anti-teleportation field up, we dont want more people dropping right on top of us. Someone contact the numbers Im putting into the party, if cellphones dont work, use andline, those are harder to block. Pass along where the edges of the anti-teleport field are, and tell them to get here ASAP. Someone else, contact the Air Force and tell them to get here with bunker-busters, were not going to be able to hold both hold the line and get down there to stop the summoning ritual. As he spoke, Arthur used the party to define just who he meant when he said someone, created properly bnced groups, and figure out what everyones status was. He was in some of the roughest shape of those who werent outright incapacitated, but very few people werepletely fine. This wasnt good. He did one final sweep with his borrowed [Aura] before it timed out and nched. Not only had all of the bodies that had resulted from the fight for the conference center started moving, but apparently, the various bigger-on-the-inside storage spaces near the ritual circle had been chock-full of more corpses. Had these fuckers started setting traps? Not only that, but the grass around the center was starting to wither. Shit! The first monstrosity that left the safety of the building was cut down in moments, but the second survived a few seconds longer, and things went downhill from there until thirty seconds in, the first beast had reached a pocket of defenders. And then, the first giant arrow arced overhead, sting apart the head of the biggest undead. And the next one. And the one after that. By the time it came to a stop, five monsters were either down or had taken horrific damage, and the next two arrows were already in the air. At least they had some reinforcements, even if he didnt yet know whode to their aid. Chapter 195: Sneaky Bastards Chapter 195: Sneaky Bastards The archer came striding over the hill behind Arthur, arms blurring faster and faster and arrows growing stronger and stronger. Even if he hadnt seen the S-Rank badge glinting at around the mans neck, Arthur still would have recognized him solely based on that [Skill]. Yushin Yi, a member of the Dungeon Guild, and wielder of an ancient bow that had once belonged to a legendary ancestor that had earned him an equally legendary [ss]. [Salvo of History] was one of those few interesting abilities that grew stronger in ways other than mere Levels. Simply put, every time it was activated, it threw out one arrow for each time it had been activated, with its power depending on the Level of the [Skill] at the time each time it had been activated. The first few arrows had basically just been [Giant Arrows], but at [Salvo of Historys] Levels had increased, each new shot had gained new powers. So when the final arrow left the bowstring, it homed in on thergest enemy, nailing the writhing mass of bone scythes and disgustingly wet flesh tentacles straight through the center and ignited, burning so hot the projectile was reduced to ash in milliseconds. And the monster, damp as it was, fared no better. It turned into a thrashing, screaming pyre of fire and disintegrating flesh. That initial salvo had torn the absolute fuck out of the line of monsters and if the swarm had been limited to just those killed during the raid, it would have ended all of this in a single decisive strike. With the stored bodies, on the other hand, it had merely bought them some breathing room. Then, the second Korean stepped over the hill. There was no badge visible on her outfit, but the wave of vicious-looking vegetation that swept along aside her was just as good as one. Yubin Kyo, another S-Ranker, an utterly terrifying [Green Mage]. This had just gone from very dangerous to merely threatening to exceedingly easy. Now how lucky had they gotten to have not one, but two Korean S-Rankers randomly be in range to help? Because while all S-Rankers had been taught Isaacs re-equip [Skill], Arthur could still recognize someone on holiday if he saw them. He sent of a party invite, added them to the generalmand and controlms channel, and altered the n once theyd agreed to follow his lead. He hadnt even had to ask, theyd offered the secondmunications had been established. And in the distance, he could hear various reinforcements whod portaled in outside of the anti-teleportation field close the distance. From that point onwards, it was simple. Have Yubin send toxic or explosive nts into the building to take out the monsters in preparation for the assault while Yushin takes out anything that dared show its ugly mug. And when there were only a few monsters left, he sent Steff in to wreck the ritual that was animating all those corpses, and that was that. Watching a living weapon go through the undead like a knife through butter was a real joy to watch, especially as both those things werent metaphors, but rather, a literal description of what was happening. Unlike nearly everyone else, Steff basically only had a single power. Sure, his starter [ss] of [Warrior] had given him some other [Skills], but he basically never used them. From his first Evolution onwards, every [ss], [Skill], and Aspect had fed only one thing, his ability to cut things in half. Not just bisect physical objects, such as enemies or walls, but spells, clouds of toxic gasses, or even the mess that sprayed out whenever an undead was cut apart. It all broke against him like the tide against a rock, rendering him all but invulnerable to attacks that he could seeing. Well, his mana had tost and some attacks were unblockable, like the counterattacks that had reduced Arthur to his current state, but otherwise, he could shrug off even city-killing attacks. Arthur watched his friend via the bodycam of the cop following him, nervous even though he knew he really shouldnt be. Steff walked straight at a monster that had been built up around the corpse of an enemy mage by wrapping it inyers of flexible bone armor with dead flesh ced in between to cushion impacts. The bony spikes that surrounded the outside of the monster should have made any attack a dangerous endeavor, as should the many, many scythes, morning-star tentacles, and massivemprey-like mouths that could swallow a man whole. But when the attacks struck Steff, they were pulled back while vastly shorter, the tip severed as if the weapon had struck Excalibur edge-on. Then, he ran right through the monster, the only difference between that and how he would have walked through open space was the fact that normally, people didnt wave their hands through the air to smack an undeads head. When the edge of Steffs hand struck the grinning skull, the bone split as if it had been struck by a giant axe and fell apart. And then he was through, not even a single spot of dirt on his skin or clothing. What followed was a string of curses from the cop who was wearing the bodycam as the mass of flesh suddenly lost cohesion and slopped onto the ground as a putrid wave, drenching thementers boots and legs. Come on, did you expect fighting monstersprised of torn-apart and crudely stitched-together body parts to be a clean endeavor? Even the freshest of bodies werent exactly clean, let alone the ones that had been stored in the basement for God only knew how long. From that point on, it was even smoother sailing. Steff charged ahead, hacking apart all the monsters just by running into them, while the people following after him tried to dodge the resulting mess amidst swearing and curses directed at both him and his ancestry all the way back to the stone age. Enough monsters had been cleared out that his manasted all the way down to the central ritual circle, which had created a massive, ck crystal the size of a person that emanated sinister energies that transformed the area around it into a horrifically twisted mockery of livingnd, with nts dying, drying out, hardening and turning into a natural barrier. Grass to caltrops, hedges to walls, trees to block ranged attacks. They verified if anyone knew anything about such crystals if theyd explode, or if there was a specific requirement to break them. No one knew anything and the darned thing was clearly a problem, so Steff got the go-ahead to punch it. As it turned out, things really were that simple to fix. The crystal turned out to be extraordinarily tough and had to be hacked into several pieces before it finally lost cohesion and shattered, but shatter it did. Thest few undead kept moving and the nt life wasnt restored, but the area stopped growing worse and the dreary atmosphere dissipated. Steff burned all his mana except his emergency reserve clearing out thest few undead, and the rest was taken care of as well. The end except for the huge mess that still needed cleaning up, the sheer number of various reinforcements that needed to be directed, and the imminent shitstorm over how off the rails the whole operation had been. As the person whod been in charge in the end, a lot of that would fall on his shoulders, especially if Caradec wasnt alive to take his share of the lumps (aka all of them), but hed be dishing out a fair amount of crap as well. Setting up the anti-teleport formation couldnt have been aplished just by the Chief Constable. Someone had to have okayed the whole affair, and that person also deserved to be hung from the ceiling by their bollocks. In a quiet moment, Arthur leaned back against a tree, closed his eyes, and activated the ability [My Round Table] had gained when it had hit Level 10. Communication. He was still aware of his surroundings and would be able to react if something happened, but right now, the thing he saw in front of and around him was a medieval hall with arge round table at which he was seated. The only thing that looked out of ce was the hologram projector in the center of the table, the sci-fi-tech gadget at extreme odds with everything else visible. But hey, this was an imaginary space that served as amunication hub, he could decorate it however he wanted, and he liked it this way. So, Im guessing things didnt go well? the only other person in the space asked. Isaac wasnt supposed to know anything about the raid and contacting him would normally have raised some serious red gs, but [My Round Table] was a pure-[System] kind ofmunication. There was nothing traceable, to weird mana threads to follow, no nothing. Arthur shook his head and used the holoprojector to show the crystal and the devastation it had wrought. Do you have any idea what that is? Elemental Lands, Undeath Subtype, from the Structures category of summoning. The ritual summons a crystal that transforms the surroundings into an elemental area that matches the element you added to the ritual. Fire ignites everything mmable and turns the mes into Fire Elementals, water desates the soil and any living beings with open wounds, then turns that liquid into Elementals as well, and so on, and so forth. Undeath animates all corpses and fuses them into more-dangerous amalgamations while killing all the nt life around it and turning it into fortifications until the entire area is basically a minefield. The elemental energies cover an area ten kilometers across in the first day, then by another kilometer every day until the areas radius has doubled, then the rate of expansion halves, the pattern continues from there. At forty kilometers, it only expands 250 meters every day, at eighty only 125 meters, and so on, and so forth. Breaking the crystal will immediately dissipate the energy, but youll still have to deal with all the monsters that were created. Isaac exined. And how much of that can I excuse knowing? Arthur asked. Basically nothing. Isaac shook his head The crystal is vulnerable to long-range bombardment, so I didnt prioritize investigating it, and the spreading energies look threatening enough that very few people feltfortable seeing what happened if you left it alone long enough to spawn more than a couple of monsters. You definitely shouldnt know what that was. Are there any aftereffects? Arthur asked. Isaac shook his head. So thats it. Arthur said, Just a prisoner to interrogate and a police officer to tear a new asshole. You have a prisoner? Isaac practically screamed with excitement, then calmed himself down with apparent effort Excellent. Make sure they dont get assassinated, and see if there are any [Skills] on them to silence them remotely. Those exi- of course there are [Skills] like that, Arthur added a few more choice swearwords, then had Isaac pass along every single technique for ferreting out and removing such [Skills]. And then, it was time to get back to work. The trio standing watch over the prisoner looked at him as if hed grown a second head when he rattled off a million different scans they had to run, but there werent any questions. Not when there was a sudden surge of mana and the prisoner started foaming at the mouth while blood ran from his eyes, nose, and ears. By the time the healer had been fetched, the effect had ended, leaving the prisoner in an even worse shape, but still alive. *** So, this bunch of berks can kill their people at range if they dont want them talking. The only reason were not trying to interrogate a corpse is that our prisoner is so incredibly tough that the [Skill] failed. Chief Constable Bell, whod reced Caradec, said when the mess was reported to her. She looked like she wanted to swear up a storm but held off in favor of snapping off more and more orders about how to guard the prisoner and transfer him to somewhere better protected than their temporary base camp in the middle of rural Cornwall. Literally anywhere else, basically. So, that was done. Now Arthur just needed to find Caradec and y him alive. *** and what possible reason could you have had for doing what you did? You got half your people killed and several of mine as well! Arthur growled, his face merely a couple of centimeters from the now-former Chief Constables. There hadnt been enough time to formally remove his rank, let alone do the due diligence that would be needed to make it stick, but even now, it was clear in just how much trouble this utter disgracewas. Mr. Wells, would you please take a step back and sit down? one of the new officials asked and Arthur shot him a withering re and eased up. Slightly. We wont know just how many strips to tear off him if you dont let him speak, and he might not get all hes goting to him. Bell pointed out Thatd be a crying shame, wouldn''t it? Arthur finally relented and sat back down, still ring at Caradec, his [Aura] pressing down on the worm. The n was to wait until the first wave of enemy reinforcements arrived, use the teleportation interdiction field to prevent them from escaping, and finally get some prisoners. I mean, the only concrete information we have on these Satanists was provided by someone who is almost immune to truth spells and gained it in a way that is literally impossible to verify. What was I supposed to do? It was with great difficulty that Arthur managed to suppress his urge to get up and snap this this maggot like a twig. And it worked right? Caradec smiled weakly, but he was met with stony stares. You had prisoners already, just not high-ranking ones. You could have gotten the high-ranking ones too without insane casualty numbers. And you know how? By using your head, you little Arthur didnt recognize the new arrival, a woman whod announced herself by tearing Caradec to pieces so thoroughly, it was a thing of beauty. It was like watching the Mona Lisa as it was painted, Michngelos David as it was being hewn out of a formless piece of marble, akin to standing in the Sistine Chapel as it was being turned into the timeless piece of history it was. The nicest part was how theparison of Caradec had to be an evolutionary freak as he clearly shared the spinelessness of a jellyfish despite clearly being a mammal, but it got so much worse. If the jellyfishparison was a firecracker, most insults were on par with a Tsar-Bomb. A piece of art. Except, you know, this was an art piece that consisted solely of swearing and cuss words. But as satisfying as watching that had been, it hadnt really gotten them all very far. The point is, you had a way to block teleports. If youd told people about that, it could have been nned around, and you could have had reinforcements vastly closer. Bell pointed out Also if people had known that there wouldnt be further hostile reinforcements, they could have used the entirety of their [Skill]set without having to save anything for the next fight. Andstly, if youd told people about the ability to block teleportation, others could have helpede up with great uses for it. For example, you could have had the field in ce to ensure that no one teleported right on top of your teams. Id call that a damn obvious n, and someone would have figured it out if youd asked for help, one hundred percent. We know from the after-action report that the enemy randomly teleported in, they didnt know where any of our people were and it was just terrible luck that they caught both themand post and one of our biggest groups of reinforcements. If youd had the field in ce over those spots, most of this mess could have been avoided. Then, there was the whole issue involving how you were not prepared in casemunications were cut off. And we havent even gotten to the part where you ran when a single enemy operative teleported into themand post. I Caradec started to say something, but the new arrival cut him off again, from a seated position this time. Arthur could now see her name badge and finally recognized her rank patches. Deputy Commissioner Derrien. He hadnt met her before today, but he was already beyond impressed with her. The only thing left for you to say is why you didnt tell people about your n. Depending on your answer, this will either be treated as a career-ending level of ipetence or you deliberately working against us. In case you missed it, that would be treason. Derrien said coldly So, either exin, or well go forward assuming the worst-case scenario. Heres a hint, you wouldnt enjoy that. I I dont its all his fault! Caradec yelled, voice quaking, pointing at Arthur. What. Did. You. Just. Say. Arthur growled. You heard me. Caradec said, voice growing steadier I wanted to avoid any leaks, and low and behold, who dropped in on us? A pair of Asians. And we all know youre friends with that Japanese ice mage. Oh, good grief. Just when hed thought that shitstain couldnt have gotten any worse, Caradec managed to top himself in the awfulness department. Tourists. Bell said Youre talking about two Korean tourists, who got free tickets from the Guildmaster because they overdid it a bit working. They heard the fighting and hurried over to help. If it helps, I can prove that I didnt have anything to do with this. Arthur said, took a deep breath, and rattled off the I didnt do nothing speech Camelots legal department had whipped up for a situation where you needed to prove to a truth-teller that you were innocent. I, Arthur Wells, did not have anything to do with the Korean S-Rankers showing up. I did not facilitate it, I did not provide the information needed for someone else to do it, I did not ask, suggest, hint, or otherwise make someone do anything of the sort in my ce. I was not, directly or indirectly, the impetus behind the situation. Of course, there was no doubt in his mind about which pair of scoundrels was behind this, but educated guesses werent evidence, or something hed made statements about. See? Bell said, ring at Caradec We got damn lucky we managed to stop whatever those people summoned, otherwise, wed have been forced to just cordon off the conference center and reduced to bombarding it with bunker busters until something gave way. Theres absolutely nothing you did that helped, and a lot that was the exact opposite of help. You Oh really? The opposite of help? Caradec threw up his hands in consternation Do you know whats the opposite of help? Getting saddled with a bunch of jumped-up civies for support, and now Im getting judged here for trying to do what was best? No, youre being judged for thinking whats best. Derrien growled And being wrong about it. Even you should have been able to realize that given how everything turned out. I will not stand here and be ins- It was obvious where that was going, and Derrien cut him off with a swift gesture of her hand. A simple shut up, dude gesture wouldnt have worked, so shed gone for the direct approach, preventing them from hearing his rant. If you have something reasonable to say, write it down. She told him more calmly than Arthur could have managed. Caradec had done a perfectly fine job of undermining himself, there was no real need to keep this going. Now, it was time to think about how to properly squeeze their prisoner for all the information he held. Book 3 Amazon Release, keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited! Book 3 Amazon Release, keep reading on Amazon/Kindle/Kindle Unlimited! Thank you all for reading Apocalypse Redux. But I''m afraid that I now have to take down book 3 (everything up to chapter 127) in ordance with Amazon''s rules as it will be released on Kindle Unlimited tomorrow. If you''d like to keep reading, you can find it here: /amazon/B0BRL5PXR6 The Audiobook will also be released shortly, I''ll put a link to that in an authors note when I release a chapter afterwards. Thank you everyone for reading this story, and enabling me to get this far. Chapter 196: Ranting and Seismographs Chapter 196: Ranting and Seismographs You know what, I think I actually hate people. Isaac mused, chin resting on the table, hand gripping the top of the beer ss. I mean, I like individuals. Or I hate them, Ive met some really vile humans, and not just cultists. You know, people who take both their shoes and socks off on public flights and shit. But all people, you know, the totality of all humanity, I think I can genuinely say I hate that. Why do I even try? No matter what I do, sorry, we do, people will always figure out a way to do something so dumb that itll cause a disaster. I mean, look at what weve aplished: all of the big disasters I know about have been stopped, all of the big bads are dead, in jail, or they had the trajectory of their life altered to the point where they will never be what they were in the other timeline. And what do people do? They figure out a new way to do something terribly stupid. I mean, just look at what we know about that Chief Constable. He made it to his current rank while stupid enough toe up with a n so idiotic it was assumed it had to have been treason, but do you know why he went through with it? He talked about it to someone else, who was apparently a cop, but he cant name that person, and that random person apparently thought the teleport-trap n was fantastic and it was a-okay to go ahead with it. Like why on earth didnt Cara-crap not immediately pick up on how wrong everything was? Seriously, why do I do this? No matter how much we fix, people alwayse up with new ways to end the world who fixes that? Them? Of course, they dont, because theyre stupid. So we have to fix that new mess and we cant even beat some sense into the idiots responsible. Tell me, Arthur, how much easier would it be if you could just beat the world into good behavior? Isaac asked, sat up straight, drained the beer in one gulp, and ordered another one. Arthur sighed and patted him on the back, probably d no one could eavesdrop in the Starhail. The [Bartender] had recently evolved her [ss] and gained the ability [Portal Franchising]. Basically, her bar now had locations all over the world, all of which led to the original bar, which was now bigger on the inside. Unfortunately, you always came out the door where you came in, so using it for fast traveling wouldnt work, but it was still useful. For example, he could meet a friend for a drink in another nation without ever having to get on a ne or using up any of the [Portal Mages] time. Although Arthur was probably wishing the meeting had gone better. Had a bit to drink, havent you? he asked. Yeah, but Im not drunk. Isaac groaned andid his head back on the table I didnt use the [Skill] that lets people get drunk here because the situation is so vtile. But that rant felt like something I should have beer for. Arthur raised an eyebrow. Sorry. Isaac apologized Thats been building for a long time and that mess did you know people are already saying that we should leave the nihilists alone because theyve only done bad things when they got attacked? Like all the preparations theyve made to end the world doesnt matter because they havent gone through with it yet? Where do they think all those bodies that got swept up in the Elemental Lands came from? You know, one could argue that youve done your job. Arthur pointed out You used your knowledge to stop all the threats you knew about, and now, you can leave the rest to everyone else. All threats except the [System]. Isaac sighed, head still lying on the table as he flicked a peanut into his mouth from a nearby bowl of snacks. And? You prevented half a dozen apocalypse triggers. And you still have more time to get the full sweep. Arthur said, then added after a long pause And you leave your head on the table for much longer, I might pour your new beer over you. Come on, dont mope, do something else. Literally anything else? like something productive? Isaac sat up straight and for the first time since the start of the conversation, he revealed his left hand, along with the cell phone he held there. I havent stopped working for more than a few seconds since you told me what happened. Messaging politicians, revamping contingency ns based on the fact that theyve been creating counter builds, and so on, and so forth. He paused, suddenly feeling very guilty Im really sorry I unloaded on you like that, youve had a worse day than me. No excuse, I just Isaac trailed off, still looking for the right thing to say, something that wasnt Im an overworked workaholic and lost all social graces when Arthur cut him off. Yeah, yeah, apology epted. Now what was that about the counter builds? Ah, yeah, those. He hadnt exined those before? A counter build is pretty self-exnatory. Its a build created to counter a specific person. A person with AOE strikes to force close-quartersbat,bined with an unblockable, unavoidable counterattack every time theyre hit is the perfect counter for me, for example. Well, it would have been 10 Levels and one Evolution ago, but thats beside the point. When were you nning to tell us about that? Arthur asked. Once Id worked out what those counter builds would be and what Aspects or other dirty tricks to hand out to prevent those from working. Isaac said, Youre basically uncounterable, but everyone else isnt. Does that mean theyre not that big of a threat? Arthur said hopefully Because if theyve created a counter build to you since Hamburg, that would have made them very dangerous. Isaac shook his head That has to have been a long-term piece of preparation. An unblockable counter isntmon or umon and probably not rare either. This was no rushed upgrade, this had to have been in the works since I became famous. He sighed and created a small hologram over the table using [Lesser Illusion]. It showed the two [Aspirants] from Hamburg, as well as two generic spandex-d individuals that just screamed speedster superhero and an image of a giant armor-d warrior. Sorry, those images are stand-ins, I havent gotten my hands on the casefiles yet. He said, then added a few more figures around it. Some were clearly him, Arthur, and several of their allies, while others were [ss]-cliches that likewise served as stand-ins. Both of the twerps at Hamburg would have been seriously bad for you without your fourth Evolution. Those speedsters would have ughtered a lot of the more power-focused warriors and any magic-user without automatic defenses. That gue mage was just death against all these [sses]. And so on, and so forth. As Isaac spoke, he made the relevant figures in the hologram light up. Basically, if theyd sent the right people to face us, wed have been screwed, Arthur observed. Yep. Isaac nodded Our infosec was good enough that they couldnt really prepare for either raid, thankfully, but this could get really dangerous. But no matter what, the n for countering counter builds there has to be a better way to say that. Arthur grumbled Countering those means either having something properly out-of-character up your sleeve or making sure someone else meets your counter. Im guessing. They probably dont do too well against people whom they dont counter. Isaac nodded Counter-builds are one trick ponies, pretty much. You and I both fall in the general category of fast melee fighters, but you beat someone who would have hard-countered me just by hitting him until he dropped. Those people cant have too many more high-Level people left. We need to strike while the iron is hot, stomp t as many bases as we can before they can replenish their fast response teams Arthur nced down at the table and realized that both Isaacs left hand and his phone had disappeared once more. Isaac, buddy, lets do something else. Anything else. You already said youre overworked, youve already spent several minutes ranting at me because youre overworked, you need to take a break. Isaac shook his head Things are getting really crazy now. Hamburg was bad enough, but this mess with the zombie gue prepared in case the ce got raided people are scared, people areshing out, and theyre calling for really crazy measures to be taken. And youre going to start making crazy mistakes if you dont stop right this second, Arthur said sternly. Isaac slumped right back onto the table. Arthur was right, he knew that, but but Arthur was right. He needed to take a damn break. *** Close but no cigar! Arthurughed as Isaacs fist whiffed past his face and he kicked out, sending Isaac tumbling away. Theyd been fighting for close to five minutes now, with the only rules being:
  1. Dont go for the head.
  2. If someones [Moment of Immortality] triggered, that was the end of things.
  3. Dont break the arena.
Isaac had had Andre teleport him straight to Camelot and was so d Arthur had convinced him to take a load off. Then try this on for size! Isaac yelled back, fully aware of how cheesy the line was, removed gravitys hold on himself, and lit his fists on fire. They werent using [Skills] to attack each other, but enhanced mobility was fine. Although enhanced was a bit of an understatement. A rocket-engine-strength plume of me bursting from his hands would have flung him forward at near-hypersonic speeds no matter what, but with Isaacs mass reduced to near zero, he could achieve the same effect with a mere fraction of the effort. Arthur only had the time to look startled before Isaac tackled him into the wall. Tried to, that was. This was one of the first times Isaac had used this trick and he messed up the timing of releasing [Flight of the Poltergeist], so when he collided with his friend, he just bounced off. The attack worked perfectly regardless, though, as Arthur immediately started dying ofughter and Isaac couldnt help but join in. They were still lying on the floor of the room, chuckling, when Elena stormed in. What the hell do you two knuckleheads think youre doing? She growled. Training? Arthur suggested. Newssh, it isnt training if I can find you with a bloody seismograph! Arthur looked at Isaac. Isaac looked at Arthur. And they both burst outughing once more. Chapter 197: Repercussions Chapter 197: Repercussions No, I am not avable forment right this moment, but Ill call you backter today, somewhere between two and five hours from now, Isaac said and hung up the phone. Was it really that important? one of the other people in the meeting room said. Isaacs meeting room. Right now, they were discussing the future of hispany, and hed just picked up an apparently unimportant call from a random number in the middle of a meeting. The people he was dealing with might have been handpicked to not piss him off with all the petty bullshit and office politics, but even they had their limits. And this happening for the fifth time was apparently one of them. Sorry, Edgar. Isaac apologized to his in-house counsel I havent had a calm moment in days and I cant afford to bepletely unreachable. Public perception is still going nuts over what the [System] could do, and Im doing all I can to try and calm things down. And what chaos the world had been thrown into. Considering that Hamburg had been iparably worse in terms of casualties, it was weird to see the current situation be treated as so much more terrible. But there was a logic underlying this weirdness, however, twisted said logic might be. To a poption raised on a steady diet of superheroics and action movies, the sight of a man in a cape-wearing the archetypical superviin costume floating above a city and tossing around bolts of energy was familiar. Not something that belonged in the real world, mind you, but familiar nheless. Especially with that enemy being taken down by people way closer to the norm, with creativity, determination, and sheer stubbornness winning the day. The viin had been incredibly strong, but at the end of the day, humanity had won the day. As horrific as the sheer number of casualties had been, it had beenrgely ignored in favor of the victory. This time, the big threat had once again been something people were familiar with, but not as something that made you go oh cool. No, zombies and other undead belonged to the domain of horror movies and the like. Zombie gue was something that was nigh-synonymous with theApocalypse most of the time. And not the superhero kind of apocalypse, where the blew up every other day, only to be restored in the next issue, but the actual end of humanity. It painted a mental image of buildings slowly wasting away, crumbling into nothingness once there were no more people around to take care of them. Of cities turning into forests and wild animals roaming the streets. Of scattered survivors dying one by one from things that wouldnt have mattered in the old world, of them slowly wasting away from hunger and thirst, of them desperately fighting tooth and nail to eke out a living amidst the ruins of their former lives. As far as Isaac was concerned, undead were disgustingly gross, but perfectly beatable opponents. But he was pretty desensitized to that issue. To everyone else people were losing their shit. Before, the danger posed by the [System] had been something people had known intellectually, some more, some less. It was much like climate change in that way. It was a danger and while a lot of people agreed that it was a problem, how seriously they took the problem varied greatly. There were also people who either dismissed the issue outright or minimized it because if they didnt have to be careful, they could profit in the short term. Whether theyd just decided it wasnt a problem or were being willfully ignorant of the fact that they were screwing themselves over in the long term wasnt quite clear, though. Now though, things had gotten considerably worse, and people were scared. And scared people were stupid people, proposing a lot of very over-the-top or unrealistic responses to the issue. For example, enforced power parity was not something that would work outside of the ivory tower of academia. The idea that you could somehow create a situation where people were only allowed to gain a Level when everyone else had caught up was theoretically something that could enforce equality. The only thing preventing it was, well, the real world. Telling people they couldnt get better at their job because someone else still hadnt caught up, stopping those striving for self-improvement because others didnt have the same drive, cutting down those who reached for the stars Isaac would have given that a week before it all blew up catastrophically. And yes, it was an undeniable fact that some people had a head start because of an ident of birth, as was the fact that that was unfair. But enforced Level parity, which would have also required someone to be of a considerably higher Level than everyone else to manage that system, that could only end in disaster. Stopping those who hoarded power for powers sake, and just power, mind you, might slow down the apocalypse. Everything else, whoof, what a mess. Yet that was exactly what the mob was calling for. Individual people were smart, but mobs were as smart as their dumbest members, and fear had pushed oh so many people into bing a part of one. High-Level people were being demonized, even those who were merely above the average Level of the Populus. Then there was the entirely different issue that had likewise boiled over now. Social stratification. Between Levels, [Skills] and [Skill] Levels, it had be remarkably easy to quickly judge people. Take one look at the part of their character sheet someone was willing to reveal and youd get a pretty good idea of who they were and what they could do. Of course, there were a million different ways the [Systems] quantifications were insufficient. They couldnt show someones drive, someones determination, or where they could eventually go, but prospective employers oh so loved taking the easy way. That was already an issue. Then, Ranks had been introduced, something that superseded the leveling system to quantify someones overall capability, taking into ount such things as [ss] rarity, Aspects slotted, and [Skill] types in a way that raw numbers failed to show. And now, people were starting to treat that as direct proof that they were better than others. Not just better at a certain thing, but overall superior. Isaac had also been trying to deal with that, poking holes in the various ideas of superiority whenever he could, but he was just one man, and there was only so much he could do. Creating a situation where social mobility once again seemed possible was important, but very much a work in process. Overall result, the world was a friggin mess and everything was boiling over. Things that had been simmering just below the surface had burst out when the overall situation had deteriorated. Which lead to Isaac in the here and now, uncharacteristically open to receiving calls from reporters, picking up all of them and even answering them immediately if it took less than a couple of minutes. Edgar sighed and nodded I know this is important, but that doesnt mean this isnt annoying. Isaac nodded along internally. Having someone constantly stop the conversation mid-meeting was annoying. But it was nice that he was surrounded by understanding people. After all, that was why hed hired them. Sure, having good employees was important, but it didnt matter how good someone was if you couldnt work with them. Thanks. Isaac said, So, whats the status of our nned schrships? Being prepared. Edgar said, pointing at the big screen on the wall opposite to the window into the warehouse One of these days, youre going to have to exin to me how you foresee these things. People are up in arms about how hard the ranking system makes social upward mobility hard and here we are, already preparing to help talented youngsters actualize their full potential. I got lucky, Isaac said, and he meant it. Mostly. Hed prepared the schrships to help talented youths he knew from the other timeline and prove to the world that it was possible to advance safely. Also, tobat the social stratification. The fact that the situation wasing to a head just as theyd started out advertising the schrship was sheer coincidence. Then youre the luckiest man in the world. Monika, who was in charge of thepanys finances,mented The fact that we can already afford to be giving out schrships after only existing for a few months is staggering. Eh, imagine we had to pay the boss an S-Rankers sry. Wed be so deep in the red Luitpoldmented dryly. He was in charge of the summoning operations in the warehouse. In most corporate structures, he wouldnt have gotten a seat at the table, but Isaac had made a point to ensure there wasmunication between the leadership and the people working on the ground floor. Aspanies grew in size, the people making the decisions stopped knowing the lower-level employees and as a result, started seeing them as numbers on a bnce sheet, rather than individuals in their own right. Sure, having thepanys owner continuously say treat employees well would help, but not to the same degree as having the people directly affected in the room as the decisions were made. Dont even joke about that. Monika shuddered. Point is, we can afford to set up a schrship, and Isaac wants to set one up. Edgar said, I already drew up all the paperwork and even wrote up the I promise not to be an asshole contract. Wait, what? Monikaughed I have to see that contract. Its literally that: I promise not to be an asshole. Edgar said That, and the sign here line. The whole contract is magically enhanced so that no one can sign it unless they mean it. And because the schrship is aimed at young people without many Levels, it should work. And the point of that is? Anne Schildhauer, thepanys CEO, asked, looking between Isaac and thewyer. The point is that I dont want to empower people who cant promise not to behave badly and mean it. Theres nothing legally binding about the contract, Ive been told you cant define the asshole enough, but this is just a way to see if someone means their promise. And I know that things might change in the future, but its important that at the start of their journey, that promise was given in earnest. Anne nodded Ok. Anything else about the schrships? I did sift through the first wave of applications, but that can wait, Edgar said. Right. Anne nodded again Weve already bought up several properties in this city and a few others around the country. With the help of those [Spatial Mages], you leveled up, logistics have been perfect and overall, the only thing limiting our rate of expansion is our finances. Were still expanding quickly, though. Isaac had trained a few of weaker [Spatial Mages] from the ranks of his employees for thepanys use. His assistants at the university were far better and would have been wasted working for mere profit, they were perfect for supporting the effort to demystify the [System]. Thankfully, it seemed like things had gone well on that front. Also, weve bought our first several facilities outside the country. One is working with the Dungeon Guild and is perfectly located in Seoul and Im certain its going to go well. The one in Texas looks to be going well too, but Isaacs phone rang and she gave him a dont you dare look for a moment, then sighed and gave him a resigned nod. The others looked Oh, he was going to have to find a way to make this up to everyone. Crap. Chapter 198: The Hunt for Aspects Chapter 198: The Hunt for Aspects Even the longest meetings ended eventually, thankfully. And now, it was time to finally do something he enjoyed. During the meeting, his phone had gone off several more times, almost a dozen, in fact. Sure, everyone else there had been an employee of his and he was well within his rights to just pause the meeting whenever, but that didnt mean it wasnt annoying. And when you were annoying people, it was a good thing to apologize, even if you technically didnt have to because you were the boss. A boss who took advantage of their status to ignore social conventions was not a good boss. Hed decided to get everyone snacks from the teams favorite restaurant, prepared by a super-high Level [Cook]. But that was something hed do tomorrow, and that was when hed deal with it. The ground in his homes summoning area was utterly covered in Tier 3 circles, already charged. His new race had given him the bonus to the power of undead Aspects and he was now going to take full advantage of that fact. The now triple-stacked Ethereal Aspects had already gained quite a bit of extra power. His phasing had grown harder to disrupt, his flight had grown greatly easier to control even at high speeds and [Haunting Pursuits] tracking ability had finally grown to the point where he could chase people beyond his [Auras] effective range. In addition, the Stat bonus from suitable Aspects had been increased by five,ting him five points in Magic Regeneration and ten in Magic Power once hed changed his race, which was pretty useful all on its own. Now, Isaac hadnt nned on getting Undead Aspects originally. There were several [Skills] he could get from them that were decidedly useful, but not to the point where hed use up his Aspect slots to get them. That had changed when hed gotten his new species. Finally, hed gotten the chance to get back to the stuff he truly loved. He hadnt gotten the chance to go on a good old summoning spree in ages. And to make things challenging, hed limited himself to just using his new [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] to get familiar with it, [Phantom Step] and [Tools of Terror] because that damn [Skills] had been stuck at Level 19 for months. He hadnt used the teleportation [Skill] much since hed gotten [Wave Charge] as thetter was a solid mobility power that added to his speed, instead of reducing it the way [Phantom Steps] teleport did. As for [Tools of Terror], the ability to copy individual body parts from his Aspect monsters was damn useful, but he wasnt a master shapeshifter like Bailey. He had mastery over his own body, and a few alternate shapes in [Form of Horror], but his skills didnt really lie in having his body constantly change. The only reason the [Skill] was so high was that hed used it to take down some damn strong enemies using his my blood is now super toxic trick. Cutting an enemy only to find the deadly toxin that was Hydras blood spraying out was one hell of a nasty surprise. Hopefully, hed get both [Skills] over the Level 20 threshold and figure out some new tricks with his newest [Aura]. On the side of the summoning area stood a table piled high with mana potions. Was nning to guzzle them to keep up a constant supply of summoned monsters, then do some paperwork while the potion sickness wore off. When he finally activated the summoning circles, it felt likeing home, weird as that was to think. No moreplicated social issues to deal with, no more trying to do social bloody engineering, just doing what he was best at. The Ghouls that manifestedunched themselves at him with immense speed, ws extended. But by the time they reached him, he was already gone, having teleported outside the circle of attackers. There, he spun around, his forearm cleaving straight through the monsters in range. Most of the [Aura] surrounded him in its sensory configuration, albeit at a very short range, but whenever he was close enough to strike out at something, the [Aura] waspressed around one of his limbs, effectively turning it into a de. The Ghouls turned as one, a snarling wave of putrid flesh charging right up until a whip of barbed wire that used to be his middle finger cleaved through it, armored with his [Aura]. Not a trick useful against most enemies, that use of [Form of Horror] would end with his finger torn off, but not against Tier 3 monsters. He waited to teleport away until he waspletely surrounded, [Aura] fullypressed around him to shield his clothing from the filthy mass surrounding him. Last-second escapes should help push up the [Skills] Level. At that point, it was pretty simple to deal with the horde. Teleport and razor-whip, rinse and repeat, then burn the bodies once everything was dead. Well, re-dead. Given how scared people were of undead at the moment, thered be trouble if someone dropped by and found the mess. It was an unnecessary fear, the only diseases undead carried were the usual ones found in dead and rotting bodies, and like all diseases, anyone with their Fortitude above twenty-thirty was immune to them. That just left searching for Aspects. Isaac had a decentlyrge stockpile belonging to many different monsters, but the specific ones he needed werent among what he had. And that was a problem given that the Ghouls were between Levels 5 and 9, and he was at Level 110. In other words, the Level difference was actively reducing his chance of getting Aspects and reducing his XP gains to almost nothing. Isaac drained his mana pool over and over again, summoning vast swarms and ughtering them with all the ease of taking out anthills with hand grenades. Hourster, a small, sickly-looking, marble became visible amidst all the ash. Aspect of the Ghoul: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Ghoul a Ghoul. The power to never tire, to always be on the hunt, to chase ones prey well past the point where it drops from sheer exhaustion. Well, that, or casually amble after them while they expire from the infection set in from a mere scratch. Or you could just gain the power to survive in hostile environments. Requirements for Activation: 1,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +10 (5 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Strength One of the following Skills: Undead Tirelessness Festering Wounds Unnatural Resilience Finally, there it was. None of the [Skills] it offered were particrly powerful, but the Aspect wouldnt remain at the level it was for very long. Besides, not being powerful wasnt the same as being useless. Unnatural Resilience (rare) Needing air, being susceptible to diseases, dying from simple toxins, dropping dead just because of a traumatic injury causing shock mortal bodies suck, dont they? Which is exactly why you need, wait for it, Unnatural Resilience! What does it do? Everything! You will now need less air, and suffer less if youck it, toxins will bother you less, pathogens will piss their pants in fright at the mere thought of trying to infect you and youll have a resistance to shock as though your Fortitude were twice as high! (Einherjar Bonus: all resistances are 50% more effective) Ok, what. The. Fuck. There were a lot of [Skills] that sounded like ads, but this one took the bloody cake. Something tough about with others, he supposed. Isaac facepalmed, sighed, and went right back to grinding. After all, he needed two of the damn things. Undead was a very broad category of summons and the Aspects and their [Skills] differed enough at the higher Tiers that he could upgrade the Aspect of the Ghoul into two different distinct [Skill]sets, immunity to concerns of the flesh and raw power. He kept going, ughtering the undead until one of the long-awaited prompts appeared. Phantom Step (epic, Level XX) A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skills Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles. You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night. With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved. This Skill may now also be used simultaneously with either [Ephemeral Form] or [Stealth]. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to sneak into an enemys blindspots and facilitate sneak attacks, it has gained the ability to fake a teleport. When teleporting, the user may choose a second location within his range and an illusionary copy of him will appear there as if via teleportation and act as the user would for a single second. Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 2 mana per three meters of unobserved travel, 4 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 20 m +5 m per Skill Level Overall, hed gotten several small bonuses, like the teleportation base range increasing from ten meters to twenty and the distance upgrade per Level increasing from two meters to five. The [Skills] Evolution, meanwhile, was awesome. Having his copy teleport in front of an enemy while the real him appeared behind them was one hell of a sucker punch. Hed probably still mostly be sticking with [Wave Charge], but it was a damn useful upgrade nheless. Now that that was done, he kept going using just his [Tools of Terror]-generated whips. It took forever By the time he unlocked the upgrade for the [Skill], the ash from incinerated Ghouls was so thick that his every step threw up huge clouds and his entire summoning area looked like some kind of Pompei reenactment. Ye- Isaacs shout of jubtion was cut short by a coughing fit. He phased to avoid inhaling even more of the mess, jumped out of the ash cloud, and took a moment to swear up a storm before he got to cleaning. Using an inscribed Lesser Space Elemental ore, he vacuumed the mess into his personal storage space and then dumped it into one of the shipping containers he kept around for just such a purpose. Then, he could finally take the time to look at the upgrade. Tools of Terror (epic, Level XX) An Undying Wraith is never unarmed, eternally equipped with the tools of his in foes. This Skill allows the user to draw upon the natural weapons once possessed by any creature whose Aspect he holds. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to create devastating counters, the user may set one body part to be created upon certain conditions being met, without requiring the users active input. The cost must still be paid. Cost: 10 mana per weapon minimum, up to 100 mana for extremelyrge weapons, 1 mana every second to sustain it It was a simple upgrade, but one he would use to its fullest extent. The certain conditions he set basically amounted to taking a wound that bleed badly and there were no allies in the ssh zone, and the action the [Skill] would take was to convert the blood that sprayed out into that of a Hydra. And old trick, but a good one. It was also counterable by someone wearing proper armor that kept out hazardous materials, but that would A. require said armor to be intact by the time it was needed and B. countering all of Isaacs abilities was simply not possible. Not all at once. Everything he could do had some kind of counter, but many of those were hard to do simultaneously, or even mutually exclusive. Now he just needed another Aspect of the Ghoul. By the time he got it, hed killed well over a thousand of the damn things, he was almostte to work and suffering from the grandmother of all potion-sicknesses. His natural mana regeneration was functionally non-existent, any future potions he took would have less than five percent of their regr effect. Not only that, but this effect wouldst for most of the day, which effectively doomed him to ten straight hours of paperwork. At least his second new [Skill] was nice. Undeads Endurance (rare) Being tired sure does suck, doesnt it? You know who doesnt get tired? Machines! and Golems, and Constructs, Elementals, Undead yeah, there are a lot of possible answers to that question. And if you pick this Skill, you can count yourself amongst that number. This Skill grants its user the ability tost longer during strenuous physical exercise, and need vastly less sleep. (Einherjar Bonus: amount of needed sleep is halved, overall stamina increase is boosted by 35%) and once again, it sounded like a bloody ad. And it was almost useless in its current form, given that the amount of sleep Isaac needed each day was measured in seconds and he could work at full-throttle for most of the day without issue. Still, it was the most basic form of this [Skill], meant for people that hadnt even reached the first Evolution. Further down the line, it would grow to the point where it was actually impactful. Actually, today might be a good time to get back to do some teaching. There were no courses officially assigned to him, but he sometimes helped with things the others did and he enjoyed doing it. Of course, it didnt provide anywhere close to the level of near-certain pay off most of his actions did, but helping random people grow, both in power and awareness, just felt damn good. But it was what would happen after his work was done which he was really looking forward to. Well, after anotherpany meeting and an intercontinental flight to the US because that ce was still outside of portal range and he didnt have the charges in [Continent Strider] to use that [Skills] fast travel feature, at least. There, hed be inspecting one of the new sites purchased by hispany and helping set it up. But then, hed get to hit another target for his n to improve the world. All predictable problems had either been dealt with directly or almost certainly been butterflied away by his actions and hed helped most of the future powerhouses he could. However, there was a category of future powerhouses he hadnt been able to help so far. Those who hadnt even unlocked the [System]. Until now. And after that, there was a certain talk show hed be appearing on. Hed handpicked it, specifically, and it should be fun. Maybe he could even sneak in some more Aspect hunting amidst everything else, though that could also wait until he was back. Chapter 199: Talking Chapter 199: Talking Two men sat in in a temporary office, set in a shipping container. At least that was how things appeared at a casual nce. Looking closer, however, revealed that there were several odd things present. For one, they were both rather young. One was perhaps in his twenties, wearing business casual attire with a fancy-looking sword leaning against the wall behind him. The other was very clearly trying to look older, despite being maybe neen on the outside. The younger of the pair was also wearing all-ck, very much not suitable for Texas weather. Sure, it was currently mid-October, so it wasnt nearly as bad as it would have been in, say, the middle of summer, but that choice of outfit was still terminally stupid. Unless your primary Stat was Fortitude or you were above the first Evolution, you still had to obey the pre-[System] rules of appropriate attire. The kid in front of Isaac was very much not at that point yet, having barely had the [System] for a month. Cameron Smith was a bit of an odd duck in most contexts. For outfits tended to be bad enough that describing them as edgelord chic was an insult to edgelords. He was also wearing over thirty knives all over his body, hidden in well-concealed pockets, behind his belt, up his sleeves, in his shoes, and so on, and so forth. A few hidden weapons were all well and good, and Isaac would have several himself if he werent able to summon his soulbound weapon at the drop of a hat. While giving an interview in the other timeline, 2028-ish, Cameron had said that when he was younger, hed always wanted to recreate that one scene in movies where someone had to give up their weapons and created a literal pile of stuff. In other words, he would grow up. Eventually. Except if Isaac waited until then to do this, he might not grow to his full potential by the time the conflict for the fate of the world came to a head. And Isaac sincerely doubted he could afford toy his preparations. As such, hed used hispany to create a schrship for promising people. The vast majority of recipients were selected by various employees of his, then approved by him, but every so often, hed skim the list of applicants and hand-select a few. And not all of them were people he recognized from the other timeline either. He had a decades worth of experience in judging peoples potential from his life in the other timeline and several more decades worth of experience in training people from the ground up from [Hildebrands Heir]. Isaacs ability to judge people just from their files was still not perfect, but it was pretty damn good. But that was what face-to-face meetings were for, though most of them were still done via videoconference. Which left him with the current situation. Just as expected, Cameron had signed up for the schrship, which was all about nurturing young talents, which should keep him on track to gain his legendary [Chimera] [ss]. There were very few legendary [sses] that could be gained in a way that could be considered formic. In fact, as far as Isaac knew, there were only two. The first was the [Reaper] line of [sses], starting at the third Evolution. You could get it by killing a [Raid Boss] that you could at most have twenty Levels on, which was an incredibly tricky proposition. Even if your entire build was a hard counter to a monster, these were [Raid Bosses]. They were kind of tough. If you could get it, though, youd be in a prime position to ughter more [Raid Bosses] with rtive ease. The second was the [Chimera] line, which could be unlocked at the first Evolution. Getting it was a massive slog, even though the calction for getting it was stupidly simple. Slot enough Aspects that thest slot cost fifty times as much as the final Level to your Evolution did. And you had to harvest all those Aspects yourself, without help beyond having someone summon monsters for you to kill. That was eight Aspects before the first Evolution. The first Slot was free, the second cost 1,000 XP and the cost doubled with every new one, for a whopping 64,000 XP for the final one and a grand total of 127,000 XP just to buy slots. The 8,000 it would cost to actually slot the Aspects were almost trivial inparison if you wanted to stick to single-stack Aspects. Except youd run short of XP sources pretty quickly and have to fight Tier 4 or even Tier 5 monsters with just starter [ss] [Skills], and those were usually pretty bad. After all, getting a good starter [ss] was a million times harder than getting a good Evolution. Youd also have only a hundred extra Stat points to spread once you hit Level ten, which was very little to up against those monsters with. Between all your Aspects, once you had all of them slotted, youd get a total of 40 Stats from eight single-stacked slots, and 120 if you double-stacked each slot. You might have the Stats of someone close to their second Evolution near the end, and several Aspect [Skills], but that didnt rece the true power of having evolved your [ss] before fighting monsters of Tiers 4 and 5. With Isaacs knowledge and [Skill] advantage, gaining that [ss] would have been perfectly possible. However, there was the issue of how long that would have taken. Staying at a low Level would have left him with a rtively small mana pool, which would have massively slowed down how quickly he could gain XP, not to mention that he needed to get an absolute metric fuckton of XP until he could gain the Evolution. He simply wouldnt have had the Level to help chase down the serial killer, help at Seoul, and potentially he even wouldnt have been in a position to fight in Hamburg. But as hard as the [Chimera] line of [sses] was to get, it was also stupidly strong. It increased the Aspect drop chances, halved the speed at which the slot cost increased and let you do oh so many things with ones Aspects. [Form of Horror] with barely a cooldown, [Tools of Terror] with no limit as to how many body parts you could copy and at basically no cost, and near-Bailey level shapeshifting, albeit limited to the monsters whose Aspects one had slotted. And once you hit the Level cap, the [Chimera] had the best possible progression with its cheaper Aspect slots. If you had the time to get it, the determination to go through with it, and thebat [Skill] to ughter all those monsters, it was a damn good choice of [ss]. And Cameron had done it, gaining a measure of power that Isaac desperately needed at his side in the final battle. If there was a final battle. It would be nice if everything could be fixed through social engineering, but there was a damn good chance that the cult wouldsh out the moment their divinely imposed waiting period was up. Now if only he could get through this meeting without strangling the surly teen So, where do you see yourself in ten years, Mr. Smith? Isaac asked. On the field of battle, Cameron told him, his [Sneak] Evolution making the shadows around him darken and loom threateningly. Of course, the [Rogue] had already evolved the sneaking [Skill], and what other Evolution could it get other than one to improve its holders scary looming potential? Abat role, then? I can see on your paperwork that youre a [Rogue], and you intend to, and I quote, take the power of my enemies and add it to my own. That means getting a ton of Aspects? Isaac asked next. Theres nothing better than using my enemys own power to take them down, Cameron announced darkly. Isaac was barely able to stop himself from facepalming. This meeting never should have happened based on Camerons application, and every answer hed given should have ended it right then and there. But Isaac knew that eventually, the young man before him would grow out of it. Eventually. If no one murdered him before then. Isaac groaned internally. He couldnt even bash his head against his desk in frustration. Hypothetically, how far would you be willing to take your effort at gaining Aspects? Would you be willing to keep slotting Aspects until you gain a legendary [ss]? It will be a bloody path, but I will walk it. Hes going to be useful, hes going to be useful, hes going to be useful. Youre just going to give him somewhere to summon and some people to take care of things if he screws up. Thats all. Youre never even going to have to see him again Isaac kept working to convince himself of the fact that this would go well. In theory, he could get some random Joe Schmoe to keep fighting until he unlocked [Chimera]. Except, you know, a rando might also use the power in ways Isaac didnt like, or even potentially work against him. Camerons picture might be in the dictionary next to the Edgelord entry, but he was a good egg, deep down. Very deep down. Under enough edge to shred just about anything, a grumpy attitude that put a wet cats hatred of the world to shame, and a cloak of darkness befitting a Saturday morning cartoon viin. Maybe Isaac had focused on this guy because he was someone he hadnt been able to properly help from the start? Hopefully, the rest of the meeting would go better. Have you summoned before? Isaac asked. No, however, I have seeded in taking down my neighbors rogue summon, Cameron said. When was this? Isaac asked. Months ago. Isaac frowned Did you even have your [ss] then? Cameron shook his head I used my fathers hunting rifle. Isaac almost facepalmed, this time, he was annoyed with himself. Texas was in a bit of a weird spot when it came to summoning. There were a ton of incidents, but they tended to get resolved by a neighbor with a shotgun or an Aspect with offensive capabilities more often than by the authorities. The spike in sales numbers for guns and ammo had rmed quite a few people, but at this point, it no longer mattered. The whole issue of gun control was a purely academic debate now. The [System] made the issue of gun ownership and the Second Amendment pretty much a moot point. Who cared about firearms when anyone could gain powers that were nearly as deadly, if not more so, and said powers were literally impossible to confiscate? What have you been doing with the [System] so far? By the time Cameron had finished exining, Isaacs mental bingo card of what will and edgelord do with superpowers do waspletely full. The teen had stalked his schools drug dealers, which was how [Sneak] was already so damn high. Hed gone snooping in old graveyards and mausoleums, even a deep well that had been rumored to be a serial killers dumping ground. And oh so many other things. But even though youd expect the exact opposite out of someone like him, Cameron hadnt summoned any monsters save the most basic ones. The safe ones, which you could always escape, and who were so slow that they wouldnt be a problem even if the cops took an hour or more to get there. And true to his earlier words, hed already started slotting Aspects. Yet there was something weird about all this. Cameron was being too clich, too over to the top, too everything. It might have even worked if Isaac had been some kind of bloodthirsty fighting mania- oh. Oh fuck. Who am I? Isaac asked. Youre one of the strongest people in the world, and eventually, youre going to be in charge of the ce. Basically, youre the MC of this story. Cameron said with a straight face. So close. So fucking close. Isaac managed to stop himself before his palm mmed into his forehead, but his hand had already started the journey toward his forehead before then. Cameron noticed Something wrong? Isaac sighed You just caught me off guard. Walk with me for a minute, would you? He got up and walked towards where the summoning area was being built. Why would someone want to be in charge of the ce? You were talking about the world, werent you? Running the world is a ton of thankless work. Isaac asked. Because because that way, no one can do anything stupid! Thats a childs answer. Isaac pointed out A singr ruler can correct what they see, and they can see very little. Then why Cameron trailed off, evidently unsure of what to say. Why do I do what I do? Because I want to make sure the world doesnt end. Isaac said Individual strength still doesnt matter all that much on therge scale of things. You might be able to punch one persons head clean off their shoulders, but you cant do that to a nation. If an individual is, well, viinous enough, people will deal with them, as long as at least some of the good guys are strong enough. Thats what Im trying to do. Find people who will do the right things when the chips are down. The real question is: what would you do if some superviin showed up tomorrow? I would fight until the Cameron paused for a moment, thinking Id help. Isaac grinned Good. It seemed like that little speech had convinced Cameron to stop hamming it up so much. Sure, he was still very much a teen in his edgy phase, frustrating as hell to deal with, but things would be fine. Hopefully. But even if this Cameron didnt turn into the man hed been in the other timeline, he almost certainly wouldnt turn into a problem. They kept talking for a bit, Isaac showed the kid a couple of tricks and watched him take apart a te Golem with an interesting mix of skill and showboating, but eventually, the meeting came to an end. And after dealing with several administrative issues, it was finally time to go to the talk show. *** Thank you for tuning into our show, wee to Nonsense Patrol! the host announced We have some very interesting guests with us tonight for our six-month anniversary. These people are real superstars in their respective fields. Up first is Professor Harrison Lamb from Harvard University. I believe you all know him since hes been on here a few times, and its always been great. Then, we have Special Agent in Charge Elliot Allen of the FBI, the man who managed to bring the catastrophe in LA to a swift end, saving most of the city in the process. Agent Allen, I believe youve worked together with our final guest during that process but never met? And here he is, Germanys own Dr. Isaac Thoma! The [Skill] cloaking each of the guests dropped as the host, Oliver Johnson, introduced them. Actually, we met once in Singapore. Allen corrected. Well, Im happy that this finally worked out, Oliver, Isaac added. This is your first time on a talk show, isnt it? Harrison asked. He looked like a pretty stereotypical professor at a nce,plete with an academics standard suit. But it wasnt what it appeared to be. Every single thing on his person save his phone and wristwatch was a nt, grown by the professors magic and shaped into an incrediblebination of armor and weaponry. Reactive armor tes that could be activated at the drop of a hat and would send devastatingly sharp slivers of wood into anyone who tried to attack him, the innermostyer was essentially powered armor that strengthened his every movement and so on. He was even more heavily defended than everyone else here, including Isaac. That would have been weird under most circumstances, but hed been in LA when shit had gone down. The caution was understandable. Yeah, it hasnt really worked out so far. Isaac said Something always went wrong. I was busy, the show was outside of my wheelhouse, etc. and he hadnt really liked any of the other shows whod contacted him. Or just n had better things to do. This one was a good one, though. It was all about busting myths about the [System] and humorously exposing scams. Were certainly happy that youre here as well. Oliver announced And weve prepared quite a few things that I think youll find interesting. For example, heres the worlds first spatial storage device that you can put inside another spatial storage device. Both Isaac and Harrison nched. I sincerely hope you tested that somewhere well clear of people, Isaac said cautiously said. Some personal spatial storage device prototypes had beenpleted back at his university, but those were prototypes with tiny amounts of space. And sticking a pocket dimension into another pocket dimension We tested its storage capacity and its tiny. Oliver said, We havent actually tested what happens if we try tobine storage devices. Good, Harrison said. What happens if youbine things? Allen chimed in. The engineers have a field day seeing how fancy of an explosion they can create, Isaac said dryly and Harrisonughed. Basically, when storage devices ovep, everything that isnt ludicrously magically reinforced is destroyed on the molecr and released into the air as the devices disintegrate. Theres often a lot of air identally stored in devices so when that happens, a dust explosion is likely. The Professor exined. That sounds like a lot. Oliver said We do have a secure room for testing. If either of you would like to demonstrate He caught Allens dark look and added: We wont show how its done, dont worry. Isaac chuckled internally. The recipe was stupidly simple. Literally, any kind of material unless it was stupidly fire-resistant, a little water, and some alkaline metal such as potassium. Everything would intermix when the storage devices broke, the potassium would almost certainly hit the water somewhere in the cloud, explode, and set off a bog-standard dust explosion. It had taken Karl and the other loons about two seconds toe up with thatbo. It was also a nasty trap one could set. Just sneak an appropriately prepared storage device into something you expected someone to ce inside their dimensional storage, be it a device or the [System]-version, and boom. Scale that up with stuff like Thermite Avatar powder or Alchemical concoctions Isaac passed a list of stuff he needed to a crew member and promised to set it up during themercial break while Harrison regaled them with a tale of how the first created monster had turned out stupidly cute. Well, that had been the intention, but it was still a funny story. The professor was a [Botanist] both in [ss] and vocation and had taken a standard slime mold, made it bigger, stronger, added the capacity for rudimentray though, given it great big googly eyes, and made it have the consistency of silicon putty. Of course, it was also considered a nasty biohazard, so hed kept it in a secure room and incinerated it within an hour of creating it. But damn it had looked adorable. Aw, so cute. When you create safe ones, where can I buy one? Oliver eximed. We probably wont be selling them personally, but theyll likely be avable at some specialty pet stores, Harrison said. They spent a few more minutes cracking jokes about the slimes and some other cute pets. Doctor, Professor, now I have a question specifically for you: what are some things that sound like we should be debunking them here, but are actually true? Oh, I got a good one. Isaac announced Catgirls, and cat beastkin in general might look cute and all, but in reality, they are incredibly lethal. Cats are natural-born killers, you know, and the human version is just as dangerous. The lethal instincts of some of the worlds most dangerous predators, inch-long extendible ws, and a bite that will go through anything short of te armor. In terms of sheer lethality, only the really powerful races a human can evolve into canpare to them. Dragonkin, Kitsune, people with the traits of exceedingly toxic serpents Really? Allen deadpanned as Harrison nearly diedughing in the background. Really. Isaac nodded Have you ever studied how big cats kill? One swift bite to drive teeth through the back of the skull and into the brain, crushing therynx between powerful jaws, or a bite to the back of the neck to sever the spine, depending on the cat in question. And cat beastkin can do all of those. Can they even get their mouths open wide enough? Unless theyre hunting something tiny, like mice Allen asked, clearly still skeptical. Most of the other races gain a series of small physiological changes to allow them to use their new bodies to abilities to their fullest effect. A human suddenly being able to open their mouth wide enough to bite through the neck of a water buffalo shouldnt be out of the question. Harrison exined. Allen winced, then came out with his own story. If you mess up enough times with a [Skill], you can literally get an Evolution that reads you wont be able to f-up with this [Skill] anymore. We had this thief in LA when this madness started who could steal things at a distance, which included things like snatching the bullets straight out of the magazines of the officers who tried to arrest him, also running off with taser cartridges and everything else he could get at. Dear God, Ive seen more requisitions for new handcuffs and belts in one month than in the entire rest of my career. Except this fellow wasnt exactly the brightest bulb and tried that trick on a can of pepper spray. Twice. When that [Skill] evolved, he was in holding and bitched about the Evolution so loudly that one of the officers outside noticed and asked what was wrong. I have photographic proof that those Evolutions exist. Then, he passed along his phone with the relevant pictures. Eh, I cant top those stories. Harrison shrugged But one of my coworkers managed to figure out how to grow nts that taste exactly like meat and reced all the cafeterias meals with it once it was FDA-approved. That sounds like something that should revolutionize the meat industry, Oliver remarked. Im afraid the process requires a lot of mana and constant managing. It was enough to pull off a prank, but not sufficient to sell. The show continued for a bit like that, with Oliver either asking questions or showing silly scams for them to mock. But Isaac knew something more wasing. Having all three guests be connected to the LA incident was unlikely to be a coincidence. And after hed spectacrly detonated a spatial storage device, the question dropped. Being three people connected to what most people consider to be the first great disaster of the [System] era, what are your thoughts on the danger posed by our new reality? Oliver asked. The [System] has be a part of nature. Isaac answered Nature is dangerous, but holds many opportunities as well. The question is how we interact with it. Its human nature to explore such things, then exploit them, and a lot of the time, that ends with something disastrous happening and everyone going Who could have seen that happen. We just need to keep our heads, act with caution, and be smart about this. The old nature was dangerous too, but we managed to navigate that as well, most of the time. There were no predators that hunted us anymore outside of very few exceptions. Then there were mosquitoes, disease-carrying insects, and various venomous animals that you really shouldnt scare or identally corner, but really, nature was mostly tamed. Under the [System], we can literally choose what wild creatures we encounter. Doing this safely is perfectly possible. And I know that a lot of people promise a utopian future, but let me say this: if were smart about this, we can gain everything from the [System]. Smart. Allen scoffed. Has any of you ever heard of Ilha da Queimada Grande and the goldenncehead? Harrison asked. Isaac had, and he was about to say something when Allen asked Is that an Indiana Jones movie? Both Isaac and Harrison nearly startedughing at the surprising reply but managed to keep their cool. Allen still noticed though and looked at them in annoyance. Oops. The goldenncehead is an incredibly venomous snake and its only found on Ilha da Queimada Grande. Harrison said The fer-dence is widely regarded to be one of the most dangerous snakes in the world and native to much of South Amerika. The goldenncehead is its significantly more dangerous cousin and found on that ind at ridiculous densities. Fishermen whonded there have disappeared, and after the local lighthouse keeper was attacked in his home by a goldenncehead, the ind was abandoned and put under quarantine. Unless you count the inside of active volcanoes and the bottom of the ocean, its one of the most dangerous ces in the world, fit to be a Bond viins execution area. But weve managed to get use out of even that ce, harvesting the snakes venom to search it for medicinal purposes. If we can turn even a ce that hostile useful, why not the [System]? Humans have the survival skills of a cockroach, the adaptability of Darwins Finches, and the killer instinct of themon housecat, Isaac added. Why Darwins Finches? Oliver asked. A single flock of birds arrived on the Gpagos inds a while ago. Now, they cover all of the various small bird ecological niches and a subspecies had even started drinking the blood ofrger birds. Isaac exined. He worked within hearing range of a lot of auditoriums that taught biology and while he didnt actively listen to them, he picked up a hell of a lot. So you think things will be fine, then? Oliver asked. This time, it was Allen who answered Ive been a member ofw enforcement in various capacities for several decades. And if Ive learned anything in that time, it is that if a stupid thing can be done, someone will do it. If humanitys survival hinges on all of us being smart, were doomed. Gloomily put, Harrisonmented. Sadly urate. Isaacmented It shouldnt be true, but it is. If we keep going like we are, we might be screwed. But heres the thing, we might not be. Under most circumstances, some of the things Im about to say would not be things to be proud of. But these are extraordinary circumstances and those require extraordinary measures. Mankind drove the Woolly Mammoth to extinction using flintstone spears. Throughout the ages, all of the extraordinary megafauna died out. Some of that doubtlessly happened without humans helping the process along, but we did exterminate a lot of them, often with very primitive tools. We fought off some of the most dangerous beings in the world with basically nothing. Did you know that tigers rarely ambush creatures that are looking at them? People started creating masks of human faces, then wearing them on the back of their heads. The biggest, toughest, most dangerous big cat of the current age, beaten by paint and flimsy wood. And weve never stopped evolving, fighting back against nature. Africas lions are still so badly traumatized that they run from people if at all possible, decades after we stopped hunting them. The only reason we can watch them from cars is that they dont see them as connected to the big dangerous two-legs. There is not a single animal we couldnt wipe from the face of this Earth if we were willing to go far enough, weve wed our way to the top of the food chain, to the top of the world. We beat the main game, now we just have to beat the DLC. Its been proven that we have the capacity to do this, now we just have to actually, you know, do it. Chapter 200: Interlude Alphabet Soup Chapter 200: Interlude Alphabet Soup The prisoner stared off into nothingness, seemingly unaware of anything and everything going on around him. Ever since hed been arrested in Cornwall for trying to murder a whole lot of government agents raiding the so-called conference center that had turned into something straight out of a horror movie when corpses had started toe to life withing The man didnt have brain damage, but they only knew that because his captors had checked. Repeatedly. [Profilers], [Medics], about a dozen different kinds of [Doctors], all had confirmed that the prisoner hadnt died, or taken debilitating brain damage. They knew at least one attempt to kill him had been made by way of a [Skill] designed to remotely remove captured assets, but it had failed because their prisoner was just that tough. And theyd managed to ensure that there wasnt a second one on his body. But the prisoner still wasnt doing anything. Not looking around, not pacing as one might expect from someone stuck in a cell. In fact, the man wasnt in a cell, but rather in the medical ward, being fed intravenously. Agent Smith looked at the man through the one-way mirror, though it would likely have been just as safe to be in the room itself. If her charge had been a soldier or an agent who could no longer deny that they were, in fact, a foreign intelligence agent, she might have at least gotten a name, rank, and serial number. But no, it was almost as if nothing existed to the prisoner. Theyd asked questions. Theyd offered deals, then asked questions. Theyd offered to move the prisoner out of the medical wing and into a better ce, though that wouldnt work without some kind of proof that he wasnt a vegetable. Their tests said he wasnt, but the man himself was doing his level best to prove said tests wrong. Theyd even gone so far as to appeal to his humanity, which had been a damn long shot. After all, this was a man whod worked to end the whole world. What kinds of better angels could he really have? Yet that had gotten a reaction. A tiny one, flinch, but that was the most theyd ever gotten. That should have been the start of getting to the bottom of the situation. Maybe there was someone whose opinion this man still cared about, someone whom they could make him confront. Or something else. Something. That was how this was meant to go, wasnt it? They figured out what made someone tick and eventually, that got turned into a way to get answers. But they didnt even know this guys name, let alone anything else save the fact that he was working with the people whod tried to end the world. Ragnar?k. Such a simple name, drawn from Norse mythology as biblicalparisons were apparently off the table. But evocative. The end of the bloody world and this living enigma was their best clue. Gic sequencing had failed miserably if the swearing from theb was any indication. The PCR amplification that preceded traditional sequencing had failed miserably. A [Gicist] had physicallychecked their samples to ensure that the DNA that should be amplified was present, but as far as the Polymerase that should have increased the number of DNA strands was concerned, it was floating in pure water. Then, nanopore sequencing had been attempted, only for the machine topletely lock up and throw out the mother of all error codes. The machine was meant to read the DNA sequence of the strands as they passed through the narrow channel, the change in current showing what had just passed through. Except as far as the machine was concerned, the current had started jumping wildly for no reason, instead of the fact that a DNA strand was currently being sequenced. Sure, the boffins had gotten the machine working again by way of a hard reset, but it still wouldnt work with their prisoner. Facial recognition hadnt worked until theyd literally scanned his face from every possible angle at which point everyputer directly linked to the machine processing the images had promptly crashed. Every investigation [Skill] belonging to a member of any allied intelligence orw enforcement agency had been thrown at the prisoner. Theyd proven pretty conclusively that this guy belonged to the same organization that was responsible for Hamburg and that there were international connections to Ragnar?k, but that was it. And so on, and so forth. Of course, her people were eventually going to be able to get past that. They were learning new tricks with everything they tried, their [Skill] Levels were steadily ticking up, and eventually, the constantly running into the wall that was this enemy organizations information security apparatus was going to give them some solid Evolutions. That was still a ways off, though. In the here and now, the situation was an exercise in constant frustration, coupled with a never-ending feeling of dread, as if every second they didnte up with results, the world was that much more likely to end. That in the shadows, Ragnar?k was winding up for the next blow, about to further destabilize societys fragile equilibrium. Smith was about to turn away and go find something more productive than ring at their prisoner when the door to the viewing room opened. Agent Smith? asked the new arrival. He was odd, to say the least. For one, he was wearing the single most stereotypical G-man outfit shed ever seen outside of the cinema. A little over the top, sure, but still within the realms of normal. The beard was a little weirder, though. It hadnt just been removed with a shaver, but it looked like the man had waxed it away. Who the hell did that? She also didnt know him. That wouldnt have been strange before the [System], after all, the SIS building was big and there were only so many faces one person could be expected to remember. Now though, she never forgot a face. So why the zes was aplete stranger wandering into one of the most secure parts of the building without an escort, a visitors badge, or having called ahead, hm? Tough day, huh? the man asked holding up a file that certainly hadnt been in his hand a second before. Or maybe she just hadnt seen it He wasnt tripping any of her [Skill]-based rms, but something was still very much rubbing her the wrong way. She triggered [Silent rm] without giving any outward signs of difort and looked at the file. Whats that? Something I think youll be happy to receive. The man handed over the file. She gave it a quick once-over to ensure there was nothing dangerous there, but it looked safe. Thats aplete breakdown of everything we know about your prisoner. Real name, age, date and location of birth, close family, potential motivations, initial point of contact with Ragnar?k, and a lot more. The man exined. This is thank you, Mr. she trailed off, letting him introduce himself. Smith. He said. That feeling of unease in her gut solidified. Smith was such a standard boring clich name for a government agent. God only knew how many jokes shed heard about her being named it. So when that was how a random person whod walked into a ce they really should have been escorted into was named that it set off some more rms. Keeping one eye on her visitor, she flipped through the file and while everything in it would have to be independently verified, it looked damn promising. The door exploded open as a half-dozen members of building security entered, surrounding her visitor, guns drawn. These werent normal guns, though. These had been hand-made by second and third Evolution craftsmen, enchanted to the nines, and now been ced in the hands of people pushing Level 70. Unless her visitor was an S-Ranker, he wasnt getting out of here unscathed. Youre every bit as good as your file indicated, Ms. Smith. Her visitor said and tipped a fedora that he certainly hadnt been wearing before. His face was the same, but everything else had gone from the standard G-man look to the appearance of the standard traitor character as seen in movies. The kind that left people yelling at the screen that guy was an obvious traitor. But he didnt look concerned in the slightest. What on Earth was going on here? Who are you? And why shouldnt I toss you in the next cell over? Smith asked. He shrugged Ive been helpful? Tell me, how far have you gotten so far? How did you get in here? she countered. Just walked in. He shrugged If I intended anyone harm, the rms against hostile intent would have triggered, those are pretty nifty, but I wanted to help. If you wanted to help, why break in? she challenged. He shrugged again, seemingly not caring about any of the guns pointed at his head I wanted to see the prisoner. And now, I can tell you a little more about him. For example, hes taken great care to hide his past, beyond the cults infosec abilities. He had his right ring finger magically altered to hide his wedding rings tan line, for example. With that, the man plucked a notepad and pen from thin air and started to write out some notes. One of the guns went off as its wielder was startled by the sudden appearance, but somehow, the visitors head had already started dodging before the trigger had been pulled. Kindly be careful with your weapon, Mr. Foster. Those things can kill, you know. Then again, someone who once got drunk and shaved record D into his pubic hair is probably a bit too immature to hold the power of life and death, dont you think? Foster spluttered denials just convinced everyone else that the story was, in fact, true. Two security guards holstered their guns and took up position on either side of the visitor, gripping his upper arms, ensuring he wouldnt be able to run. Who are you? Smith asked again. Someone whod prefer the world didnt end. The visitor said, tearing a page off the notepad and cing it on the rooms table So Im helping out. And you couldnt have done that through proper channels? Smith asked. Shed sent another message to building security and outside, people were setting up defenses that should stop this guy even if he was an S-Ranker. Do you know why so many stories about young people gaining superpowers have government agents as the viins or at least tertiary bad guys? Its because of what they do to people with strange powers or ones who could be useful. If you arent too famous to snatch up, youre gonna get snatched up. The visitor grinned And I like my freedom. I like to uncover secrets that I find interesting, solving mysteries, not being leashed like a dog. His appearance shifted again, leaving him wearing a deerstalker cap. Oh, that was what was going on. As her mental image of the visitor shifted, he shifted alongside it, always taking on the single most clich appearance attached to that mental image. Sheesh, facial recognition was going to be utterly useless, wasnt it? Now, if you ever decide you need help, just mention that youre looking for the publics help in a speech and Ill make sure the proper department gets some useful information. The man said cheekily Now, I hope you have a nice day, Ill be taking my leave now. The man flickered and suddenly, he was no longer being restrained, instead simply marching out of the door and into the hallway. And he just kept going. Restraining [Skills] were dodged or broken, people lunging at him slipped on marbles or, in one case, a banana peel, precisely none of which had been visible before someone stepped on them, and the whole thing just turned into aedy of errors. Whenever someone fired their weapon, some extremely personal info was revealed. One agent had wet the bed until he was twelve, another wore his badge and holster when he went to bed with his wife, and the way things were going, Smith wouldnt be able to look at half her coworkers withoutughing or feeling ufortable by the time this was over. Somehow, that man managed to walk right out of one of the most secure buildings in the world, leaving behind nothing but bruised egos. One would be right in calling this one of the biggest failures in the history of British intelligence. Yet with the information provided by the mysterious visitor, they finally managed to break their prisoner, and he spilled his guts. Finally, they had a lead. Chapter 201: Buying Pets and Taking Stock Chapter 201: Buying Pets and Taking Stock The guinea pigs ran around the cardboard boxes hed bought them in like beings possessed. Suddenly being snatched from ones home and stuffed in such a container to be taken to a new, entirely unfamiliar home had to be terrifying. Isaac felt bad for the pair. At least it wouldnt be much longer. In the middle of his apartment sat a regr old wire cage, filled with the normal wood shavings, kitted out with two small wooden houses, a grass half-tube that could be both used for cover and eaten. A water bottle was already filled and attached to the bars, the hay trough was full and a washed cucumbery on a te to be tossed in the moment the guinea pigs were inside. The first of the two furry potatoes was a beautiful smooth-haired juvenile small enough to fit in the palm of his hand, her coat a shimmering bluish grey. The second hed put it in the cage, it had shot off like a bottle rocket, taking cover in one of the houses. The second was just as young and small, but its blond hair was so frizzy Isaac had been tempted to ask if it had been chewing on an electric cable when hed bought it. And it likewise took cover the second it could. The pair would limate in time, but for now, it was best to leave them alone for a bit so they could calm down except he couldnt quite do that just yet. Whichever person or, well, deity was responsible for designing the ritual he was about to use was a bit of an idiot. Ensuring that pets lived as long as their owners, ensuring that no one ever would have to feel the heartbreak of having a beloved animalpanion die before you was a good cause. But couldnt a literal god have designed a method that didnt scare the shit out of anything the process was used on? Isaac picked up the cage and moved it over to the magic circle, adding the final thing needed. The other objects present were a few childrens drawings of various pets, courtesy of his sisters, a homemade dog cor, several pieces of guinea pig-suitable animal feed, and two pieces of clear quartz. Sorry about this you two. Isaac apologized as he fed mana into the circles and lights began to rise into the world. Of course, this startled the guinea pigs, and they ran around like a pair of startled rabbits, only calming down when the sparkles had touched them and all of the spooky lights had vanished. And that was that. Nothing visible happened, they just looked like regr old guinea pigs. Still, now that the process was done, his sisters future Spirit Pets were now functionally immortal. Right now, they were bound to him, but hed held that bond at a basic level so he couldter pass the bonds over to his sisters. Theyd stay alive for them for as long as the twins lived, even through idents and all the various other things that could cost you a pet, including diseases. There were only three things that could cost you a Spirit Pet. The first was deliberate cruelty. They werent punching bags, so if you used them for that, theyd run away, severing any bonds and finding someone in need of a little love. The second was someone else murdering a pet using an absurdly powerful ability that managed to destroy even a nigh-immortal being. Under thew, pets tended to not enjoy very many protections so if someone wanted to hurt another person without risking too much legal trouble, guess what they went after? Of course, if someone went after pets, they deserved absolutely everything they got, no matter how horrific. Seriously, screw those people all the way to the lowest circle of hell. And the third was the other kind of abuse, more specifically, abuse of the mechanic itself. Whoever had made this part of the [System] knew exactly how good humans were at turning even the most harmless and/or innocent things into weapons of some manner, and didnt want the pets to be used in such a manner. This was very much an if you think youre getting away with something, youve already crossed the line kind of situation. You, quite literally, couldnt use Spirit Pets for anything like espionage,bat, mine-seeking, or anything of the sort. They were meant to be pets, godsdamnit, what kind of psycho would use them in such a way? At the end of the day, Spirit Pets were a shining example of what the [System] had been intended to be in the very beginning. Something helpful, without a sting in the tail, not even a single splinter to identally hurt yourself on. Just something wonderful. Isaac reached into the cage, the bond he now had with the creatures letting him read that he had no dark intentions. The two little potatoes slowly, carefully came out from inside the cages. He petted them, alternating between the pair for maybe ten minutes before the call of duty tore him away. There was still so much work to do. Up first was, obviously, the aftermath of the chaos Zambon had caused in London. Someone had walked straight into the headquarters of the British Intelligence apparatus, smacked down some knowledge on the people within, and waltzed straight back out, despite the efforts of every single person in the damn building. That would have been bad enough even if someone hadnt posted security footage of the whole incident online. And no, Isaac hadnt been responsible for that part of it. He assumed it was either a disgruntled employee or a security officer who wanted more funding. But tweaking the nose of British intelligence hadnt been the point of that stunt, that was merely a bonus. Now, the whole world knew who had sent out those messages with information on the [System] and provided the first potion recipes. Who had provided the information that had led to the sessful raids against the group now called Ragnar?k. A person who had, until now, been cloaked in mystery. The whole world was, of course, wrong with just about every assumption that had been made. For example, people now thought that Insight was a Sherlock Holmes-like figure, someone who enjoyed mysteries and figuring out things, albeit one very much focused on saving the world, rather than a time traveler. The most popr theory right now was that he was an agent of the Illuminati or a Freemason, but that was mostly because a lot of peoples current stance was We dont know shit and dont want to pick a theory. Then there was the fact that everyone now had the wrong idea about Insights [Skill]set. People were assuming it was some kind of bad luck/jinx kind of deal when in reality, it was all a perfectly orchestrated series of traps. Zambon had a [ss]-based spatial storage, which didnt require any kind of obvious motion or catalyst to ess. He also had his fourth Evolution now, a [ss] called [Beacon of Absolute Truth]. One of its [Skills] allowed him to somewhat iste himself from the world and dangers within it as long as he didnt attack anyone. All of the people affected had been too tough to be hurt just by slipping on something and murdering someones dignity apparently wasnt regarded as an attack, so the [Skill] held, making him pretty darn slippery. Throw in his ability to tell whenever someone wasing at him, illusion [Skills] to hide the objects the attackers were meant to slip on, and being trained in sensory [Aura]-use by Isaac and he could trip up anyone who tried to grab him. That misconception meant that someoneing after Zambon would be going in with wrong assumptions, but also that anyone who traced anything to Isaac would be very much screwed on the preparation front. Speaking of Isaac, hed been very busy, getting himself an alibi by speaking at a conference in Berlin. There were plenty of body-double [Skills], but nothing with the kind of range pulling of simultaneously being in Berlin and London would have required. End result, a bunch of very reasonably seeming yet very wrong assumptions. Patrick had once told the team a Mark Twain quote that seemed to fit the situation rather nicely: What gets us into trouble is not what we dont know. Its what we know for sure that just aint so. There was a loud rattling sound from behind him as the guinea pigs chased each other around the cage. Isaac sighed. Hed give them to his sisters in a week, on Christmas, but until then, hed have the pleasure of theirpany. Right now, he still had to work, though. People really fucking sucked, sometimes. Rich people were seeing that people were amassing direct, personal power and how that was bing a form of pollical influence in and of itself. Politicians were trying to preserve their own power by attempting to shut down peoples attempts to grow in power. Rich people were trying to power-level themselves and push back against politicians attempting to suppress leveling. Individuals trying to tell both the upper ss and political leadership to buzz off so they could personally grow in power and shoot through the Levels. Personal power, the superpower that was being rich and political power. Three different kinds of power, each valid in its own way, each vying for control. In the end, at the higher ends of the Level-based power scale, personal power woulde out on top, no amount of power or influence could stop a man who could tear you apart with a casual flick of his finger. But right now, power was still spread somewhat evenly between those three factions and shit was hitting the fan, hard. Not to mention how the industry was fluctuating between stifling, utterly ludicrous levels of oversight and basically being the Wild West. That, at least, could be fixed. In exchange for a small stipend paid by the state and local summoningpanies, high Level,bat-capable people would make themselves avable to clean up messes. There were alsows being added to the books that would make it so some very painful fines would be levied at anypany that needed the help. On the political side of things, he was working on people who were reasonable, well, for politicians at least, trying to show that outright stopping people from leveling would blow up in everyones faces. And as far as the industry went, all he could really do was show how well things worked with his ownpany. Isaac slumped onto his desk with a deep sigh. He hated dealing with social issues, give him a problem he could punch any day of the week. Chapter 202: Interlude, The Mystery of Isaac Thoma Chapter 202: Interlude, The Mystery of Isaac Thoma Im telling you, hes not even a skilled fighter, just fast! thetest bearer of the crimson mask of war yelled, punctuating the statement by mming his fist on the table. Really, War? He is not a good fighter whos beaten the worlds worst serial killer, who tore apart a [Raid Boss] while at Level parity and nearly killed it, and lets not forget, he killed the first Pestilence! A tall woman with a bone-white opera mask asked as she ced her feet on the table Are you sure you dont want to rethink that theory? You dont seem too worried about facing him, eh, Second Pestilence? the man at the head of the tablemented dryly, his fox mask shifting into an unkind grin. Im not the one whos going to be fighting him, War is. We know that he can kill a wielder of gue magic at point-nk range, almost certainly getting infected in the process, but hes fine. War can just y keep-away with gravity magic, that should do the trick, shouldnt it? Pestilencemented. And War doesnt have a problem with that? Is he even as focused on gravity magic as his predecessors? Fox asked. We know that gravity magic with a focus onbat, specifically, battlefield control, and significant experience fighting other people is how you get [Aspirant for the Mantle of War]. War said Dont worry, Ill handle the twerp. And before I was so rudely interrupted, I was about to tell you why hes a terrible fighter. Pestilence scoffed and several others snickered. I mean, youre allughing, but what do we really know about how he fights? Blurry footage taken by a police bodycam, a short clip of him staggering out of his pocket space covered in burns after a fight with a [Raid Boss], a few videos of him teaching the most basic of basicbat [Skills] while moving at a fraction of his real speed? Think about it, really think about it. Hes a speedster and blitzes all his enemies while spamming cheap [Skills] to boost his attacks. Hes got one absurdly lethal offensive cooldown [Skill], and one that boosts his Stats into the stratosphere and turns him into a literal monster. All he does is overwhelm his enemies with raw speed and power, then heals up using his Aspects. Hes good inbat, yeah, but hes no master swordsman. If we can force him into a duel, a regr duel with swords where all that matters is the [Skill] with the de, we can kill him. And how do you expect to do that? Kronos, the most physically powerful member of the current group, asked, his stone mask revealing nothing about his emotions, though his tone was mocking Ask him nicely for a gentlemans duel? Yep. War nodded [Duelists Challenge], [Honorable Duel], and so on. At any rate, it should work better than your little juggernaut project did. How long did hest against the so-called new king of Ennd? Two minutes? Three? And you made him get a build that made him so tough that [Traitors Lament] failed? I mean, could that have possibly gone any worse? The juggernaut project was meant to go up against Thoma, not that silver-pated jackass! Kronos growled If someone had gotten their ducks in a row, wed have been forewarned about who was going to be on the next raid, where the raid would be, and then wed have been able to counter the ones who attacked! Doesnt change the fact that your n fucked up [Traitors Lament]. War snidely replied. How is it my fault that Isaac motherfucking Thoma waltzed straight into the headquarters of British Intelligence and told them everything they needed to break the only high-ranking prisoner theyve ever been able to get? It was Utgardloki who muttered Not this again., but several other people rolled their eyes or sighed. Seriously? Kronos yelled, getting up and pacing We know he was a [Rogue], so sneaking in is something he might have been able to do. We know hes focused on Perception and piercing obfuscation [Skills], and the whole jinx-magic shit could just as easily have been hyper-precision andbat experience. And hes been fucking with our ns all the time! For thest time, the man has an alibi!! Utgardloki snapped He was at a conference, giving a speech, and demonstrated enough of his [Skills] that we know its him. Hes the only one who can use create a sealed training space that lets people safely fight monsters and even experience death without consequences! You were the one who thought that Arthur can copy other peoples [Skills]! Kronos yelled back. Yes, ONE! Utgardloki yelled back, jumping to his feet A fourth Evolution legendary who can copy one [Skill] at a time, and only for a few minutes, not half someones build,plete with capabilities that are literally unique! Because you know about every possible [ss] and [Skill] there is, oh mighty chief of our oh-so-ipetent intelligencework? Kronos shot back. If it were possible to copy all of the different [Skills] that make up the build of an internationally famous fourth Evolution fighter at full power, Id have heard about it, Utgardloki said confidently Isaac Thoma wasnt responsible for that mess, or the fact that we lost a dozen bases because your man spilled the beans. Youd have heard about it? Just like you heard about the raid? a voice called from the back. Hes got you there. Pestilencemented dryly, her feet still up on the table I, for one, think that a leader of a warrior division being soft in the head is not nearly as bad as having an idiot for an intelligence director. This time, both of the arguing men turned as one to re at her. Cut. It. Out. This time, Foxs voice was cold as the Arctic Both of you, shut up, sit down, and lets get back on topic. Weve obviously got problems with specific people, and while we cant attack them unless they attack us first due to a certain divine decree, we can prepare for them. Thats what we were supposed to be doing, so lets get back to it. The first person we were discussing was Isaac Thoma. So, what do we know, and what can we do against him? Hes a master swordsman. Might be a master swordsman. War threw in. Fine, might be a master swordsman, but can we at least agree that hes good at fighting, or does your majestyhave a problem with that as well? War moved his head in a way that indicated he was rolling his eyes, a motion necessitated by the fact that his mask prevented anyone from seeing his face directly. Hes a speedster with enough points in Perception to have full control at even maximum speed. Hes got at least five Aspects: something to do with des, illusions that hes used during presentations as visual aids, regeneration, and phasing. No, six, hes also got something rted to underwater movement. Right, six. Hes a trainer. Hes got a million different swords that are all the same soulbound weapon. Isaac Thoma has three active cooldown [Skills]. A transformation-based ability that he always saves for a situation of greatest need that boosts his Stats and he got it from his first Evolution. Then, theres an offensive one that turns him into a living projectile, and a third one that lets him force a one-on-one duel that got evolved into a training ability, thest two originate from his second Evolution. Utgardloki reported His fourth Evolution abilities are mostly unknown. He can use a wide array of fire magic now, but that could just as easily be from an Aspect as his [ss]. What about his [sses]? War asked We know for a fact that he was a [Rogue] at the start and that his third Evolution was an [Heir]-[ss]. Based on the artifacts hes conjured, experts say the [ss] belongs to Master Hildebrand from Swiss folklore, and its primarily a training [ss]. That leaves his first, second, and fourth Evolutions. We also know very little about his specific [Skills], a lot of them are subtle passives. He has to have had an [Heir]-[ss] before, at least as the first Evolution. I can see a normal university student deciding to be an action hero by leveling and I can even see that guy surviving to the first Evolution as long as he doesnt do too badly, but reaching as high as he did? Theres nothing normal about that. Utgardloki pointed out. Alright, lets think about this logically. Fox said thoughtfully His first Evolutionpounded his sneakiness, it makes him impossible to scan or subtly observe. It also lets him turn into a giant monster. Who could be the [Heir] of? A horror movie sher? Pestilence suggested. You really think that the boy scout would pick a [ss] like that? War sniggered. Hes no boy scout. Hes well-behaved and knows what to do to stay on the right side of thew, but there are no lines he isnt willing to cross if he deems it necessary. Fox said, Whatever happened to him after the [System] dropped, it changed him. And you know that how, exactly? War asked. Intel. Fox shrugged, declining to answer properly. Some serial killer, maybe, someone whose identity isnt known? Jack the Ripper, the Zodiac Killer, some kind of living mystery that might have also been a literal monster, which would exin the transformation. Pestilence asked. I know that was meant to be a joke, but that might be it, I have to go do some research, bye. The delivery of that sentence was so t that no one entirely registered what had been said until Utgardloki vanished from the table. Well, that happened. Pestilencemented And his second Evolution? Jotun snapped his fingers and spoke for the first time, eximing, Its a gunslinger. Everyone stared at him. He can turn into a human bullet and force one-on-one duels. What if its Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday, or someone like that? Fox let loose a string of expletives before finally mming his forehead into the table. And there go just about all hypotheses we had so far. That might be it, but fuck! What do we really know? So, we know nothing, Pestilencemented. And his fourth Evolution? Fox asked, What do we know? We know jack shit about the [ss], hes known fuck all, and by specting based on that, were all beingplete idiots, Pestilence answered, slid her feet off the table, and walked off without another word. Thanks for that. Fox practically spat If you have a n for him, talk to me or the Fourth Horseman, . Weve still got a million more people to go through. Up first, Arthur Wells, thought by many to be the reincarnation, or at the very least, the [Heir] of Arthur Pendragon, legendary king of Camelot Chapter 203: Human nature sucks Chapter 203: Human nature sucks Safety regtions were written in blood. Companies didnt pay to install safety gear or create new regtions that took up their employees time unless they had to. That would have cost money, you see. But when something happened, a new regtion was written to ensure the incident wasnt repeated. And again, over and over until you ended up with a thousand-page binder of rules that was a million times moreplicated than it could have been if it had just been written right the first time. Thats when an entirely new kind of trouble started as someone realized how much money all those precautions were costing thepany and howparatively unlikely it was that those things would actually happen. Happen again, anyway. Why spend millions to hire five A or ten B-Rankers to oversee the harvesting of a seventh-Tier Hunting ground when twenty C-Rankers would do just fine? And why not harvest more than both thews and regtions allowed? Anything else was just leaving money lying on the ground, after all, and what did thewmakers really know? yeah, like things would go that well. The Equinox Event had gone over without a hitch, and now, today, the day before the Winter Solstice and four days before Christmas, thisshit happened. Today was no epic battle for the fate of the world, no grand catastrophe that would be remembered decades in the future. Chances were no one other than the people directly involved would remember it a year from now. But it was still a problem, and it needed a solution. Isaac had hopped over using [Continent Strider] and he was the first one here. The reason for that was pretty simple. As long as he wasnt in the middle of a fight, he could teleport anywhere hed been before, and hed toured the entire country for precisely this reason. If something went wrong and he heard about it, he could be there faster than almost anyone else. There were still too few people with mass-teleportation abilities for the anti-monster police and military unity to have dedicated portal mages assigned to them, which left them limited to physically traveling ovend to any incidents. They could still do so at blinding speeds, but instantaneous travel was, well, instantaneous. The monsters themselves were pretty weak as well, at least to Isaac. What he was responding to here was the aftermath of someone overdrawing a Tier 7 Hunting Ground, specifically, the Eternal Wilderness. The strongest creature would, at the most, be Level 89, the max for that Tier. A potential problem for anyone here save Isaac, but perfectly beatable by the kinds of people whod be responding to this incident. Old Reliable manifested in its Kabar form, split into five, and flew at the nearest monsters, straight into their open, roaring, mouths. Swallowing a de could inflict terrible damage, true, but swallowing a knife that transformed into a huge Zweih?nder when it reached your stomach was iparably worse. The collection of supersized badgers, deer withnces for horns, dire wolves, and other forest critters began to copse one by one as gigantic des pierced through them, only to be reced by a far smaller weapon that promptly hurled itself down the throat of the next closest monster. The strikes werent immediately lethal, but sufficiently debilitating that Isaac could ignore their recipients and continue onwards. Balmungy in his hand and shed whenever a monster got too close, removing limbs or heads with a single strike. Big and threatening as they were, these were just the small fry, the first monsters spat out by the copsing Hunting Ground. The real threats were either deeper in the facility, or they hadnt even spawned yet. People had run outside past Isaac, and even the high-Level fighters who were supposed to be keeping an eye on things had retreated to hold the line at the exits, which left him as the only human in the facility. Living human, that was. Whoever had been in charge of this mess had fucked up royally, but it seemed like theyd realized this early enough to start a timely evacuation. Three gathering personnel and what looked like four fighters had still died, torn apart by ws and fangs, and were now spread out across various rooms and corridors in a grisly carpet of blood and body parts, but that number was far lower than Isaac had expected. Outside, the ring rms were joined by a new kind of artificial noise, the howling sirens of the police vehicles that had arrived at almost the speed of sound and stopped on a dime the second they were close enough. Isaac probably wouldnt have had to help, after all, GSG-13 was perfectly capable of cleaning up this mess alone. Seeing as he was already here, though hed finish the job, hed just do so a little simpler. Now that there was someone outside guaranteed to be able to stop any monsters that made it there, he stopped attacking the monsters he met and just rushed past them, phasing through walls, teleporting throughrger rooms, and on one asion, using a bears head as a springboard to kick off of. The heart of the mess was a simple affair, a t, white sheet of energy that hung in midair which was constantly spitting out monsters. Normally, when a Hunting Ground was destroyed and a swarm of monsters proportional to the amount of material extracted appeared, the process was instantaneous. Monsters manifest, portal vanishes, and done. This thing though, it had been seriously overharvested and was continuously spitting out new critters, steadily building up to the strongest monsters the Hunting Ground could hold. And until that happened, the damn thing was nigh indestructible. [True Strike] could destroy it, but only at the cost of almost all of Isaacs mana, not something he could afford right now. So instead of stopping the problem outright, he pped on a ming hot band-aid. [Divine Fire: Barrier me] was abination of three separate mes hed stolen. Napalm for a stickiness that meant that anything which ran through his fire would have mes cling to its fur, hellfire so the fire could fuel itself on the life-force of the creatures that it burned, and the breath of a sr dragon for sheer heat. The next monster that wasunched from the portal turned into a minget the second it reached the real world, went berserk, and keeled over dead five secondster. Isaac added a set of instructions to the mes which let them spread onto things that moved through the original patch of fire, but not move from those things and to not spread naturally from the site of the original ze. The fire would still do one hell of a number on the room, but the building would still be standing when everything was said and done. Outside, the police had established a cordon to prevent monsters from getting out in the world, and now, they were moving inside at a steady pace, vanguard with a shield out front to guard against potential surprise attacks and keep monsters away from the people behind them, damage specialists following immediately after them, bullets and magic tearing apart any beastie that dared show its face. Monster after monster fell before them, bodies vanishing beneath their boots as they advanced. Four groups converged on the central area, entering as one and sealing off all entrances at the same time. How much longer until the portal vanishes? one of them asked Isaac. Maybe a couple more minutes or so? he replied from as far away from the portal as was possible without leaving the room We should be seeing the strongest monster of this wave anytime now. Itll be big and on fire, so you might want to stay back. Another minute passed fairly anticlimactically, with monsters appearing, catching fire, and usually dying before they even reached the humans in the room. And then, the portal winked out when a titanic bear manifested. It still caught fire, of course, but considering it was bigger than thergest African Elephant, that would take a while for it to die. Immediately upon seeing the humans, the bear reared onto its hind legs, skull bashing into the ceiling and smashing through it as if the building had all the structural integrity of a sandcastle. Back! Everyone without teleportation or phasing ability retreated from the room. The ceiling copsing might not be enough to kill anymore, but getting trapped under rubble with the monster right there could easily be fatal. Energy coalesced around the beasts paws as it charged, every one of its blows unleashing shockwaves that tossed around tanks like toys and shattered load-bearing walls like kindling. By the time the monsters head bounced off the floor, separated from its neck, the room was well and truly wrecked. Isaac took a couple of minutes to join the polices partywork and highlighted the few monsters that remained in the building. Do you need anything other than the standard stuff in the report? Isaac asked as he left the building. [Police Procedure] told him exactly what information he needed to provide, but the person in charge of the local situation might have wanted something on top of that. Probably not, well only know for sure once weve gained a good overview of just what happened here. If you need something from me, Im just a phone call away, Isaac replied and made to leave. Tomorrow was the second Winter Event and while the situation was so that his help would almost certainly not be needed, but he still wanted to be present and some preparations still needed to be done. got him killed, you fat fuck! Isaac barely noticed the mess in time to intervene. An overweight white guy, looking like a stereotypical corporate pencil pusher, had been loudly arguing with one of the people whod been guarding the Hunting Ground for a while, but things had unfortunately escted from there. The two people having the screaming match were close enough that getting between them when the warrior swung his fist was damn difficult. Barriers were hastily projected between the pair, but they shattered. In the end, it would have probablye down to how quickly the healers could reach the injured party. If Isaac hadnt teleported in the path of the fist. One of the funny things about the new world was that while people could grow very strong and hit very hard, they generally didnt grow any heavier. This meant when Isaac took the punch to his right shoulder, he was sent flying, taking down the pencil pusher in the process, though the impact was vastly less dangerous than the fist would have been. Isaac teleported back up to his feet, wrenched his broken shoulder back into ce with an audible crunch, and healed the injury. That hadnt been caused by the blow, though, hed manifested a thinyer of the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] under his clothes and broken the bones himself without anyone noticing. This had two effects. Firstly, it scared the hell out of the man whod thrown the punch. Because from his perspective, hed just hit someone who could kick his ass with casual ease and that person had to be pissed because, well, broken bone. Also, the person whod ended up with a broken shoulder hadnt given a flying fuck about the injury and removed it in a matter of seconds. In other words, it was a rather solid power move. And secondly, this was an incident that would inevitably be public record and serve as one of the few avable examples showcasing his durability while beingpletely incorrect. One could have referred to that level of caution as excessive, possibly even paranoid, but really, it was just good business. When one was as famous as Isaac was, most of ones build was already public knowledge. His active [Skills] had certainly been analyzed to death by various official and unofficial organizations. His passive [Skills] werent nearly as obvious, so the amount of info avable on them was limited, but people had still figured out some things just from watching him. For example, the only damage the stuff you want to damage property of [Absolute de Mastery] had been noticed. However, concrete information on his Stats was something no one had any real data on until now. Sort of. Isaacs [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] sted out, empowered by [Burden of Power]. I dont care who started this, I dont care who did what. If someone tries attacking someone else, either me or one of the officers here, will take action. Youll live, but you probably wont be pleased with the oue. He got Jason killed! the man whod thrown the punch yelled He cheaped out on security precautions and now people are dead. Why does he get to live? Germany doesnt have the death penalty, and tends to frown on vigntes. Isaac replied, [Aura] further pressing down on the man while a couple of officers cuffed him This is a situation for the courts to handle now. There was a lot more he wanted to say, but it wouldnt have been all that appropriate. Simply put, hiring vastly underpowered individuals to provide security was a dumb idea, but it should have been obvious that was what had been going on. In other words, the fact that precautions were insufficient was something that anyone with half a brain should have noticed and called off the whole affair. By letting themselves be hired despite being unqualified, these guys were at least somewhatplicit, at least as far as Isaac was concerned. At least it seemed like there was no way for the person most responsible for this mess to im innocence based on ack of knowledge. A lot of the time, when safety precautions were skipped, it was damn hard to conclusively prove that anyone in charge had known about it and decided not to do anything about it. This time around, with the man having been physically present, wriggling out of the situation should be nigh impossible. The situation here seemed to be well in hand, and would probably have gone well even without his input, but there was still more to be done. Specifically, this situation proved that there needed to be some addendums made to the current rules and regtions formercial summoning. At least this mess should provide a tform to use for that change to ur. Now if only that werent happening right around the Christmas holidays Chapter 204: Alternate “Event” Chapter 204: Alternate Event I realize that this is on very short notice, but I believe the situation necessitates haste. Isaac announced, opening up the meeting Right now, were workshopping ideas for how the regtions could be changed to prevent another incident like what happened yesterday. He was currently speaking to a group of scientists, members of various regtory bodies, industry leaders and literally anyone else who might be able to give good input on the situation. or at least the people hed been able to get ahold of on short notice. The Winter Solstice Event was currently going on, but he wasnt needed there, which annoyed him a little. On one hand, rendering your involvement superfluous because your mentees were just that good was one of the highest honors a mentor could receive. On the other, being told, however politely, We dont need your help anymore that didnt feel great. Also, hed have loved to explore the newly opened Tier 8, which they hadnt been allowed to touchst year. But he was going to be stuck in this room all day. First, we need to establish why that shit happened. One of the inspectors hed invited said I mean, yeah, they fucked up, but there is only so much we can do, legally speaking, when people just ignore regtions. Thank you, Rainer, well put, Isaac said. The group was currently onlyprised of twelve people and theyd decided to give the formality a rest until it grewrger. That guy was an idiot, its that simple. Anne Schildhauer, the CEO of Isaacspany and the person who ran the day-to-day, said We know most of what they did, which corners they cut, and what the consequences were. Everyone knows that if you cut corners, you need usible deniability to avoid being prosecuted for the resulting mess. The simple fact that the responsible person was on-site proves hes an idiot and everything else followed from that. There was a long period of silence as everyone stared at her. Well, at their webcams, but the effect was the same. You do know what that sounded like, Anne, right? Isaac finally asked dryly and she blushed furiously. Im sorry, but the power of usible deniability is legendary among higher management, no matter what industry youre in, usually because weve heard of someone whos gotten away with some extremely suspect behavior. If there isnt a smoking gun linking the big boss to an incident, they can usually im innocence and get away with it. Rainer sighed Let me tell you, it makes our job suck most of the time. Isaac grimaced at the thought. It could not be easy to prove whether someone knew something, even with the [System] helping. Right now, making the people in charge responsible for their crap is a secondary concern to preventing repeat incidents. Isaac said Yesterday wasnt nearly as devastating as it could have been and went well-ish once help arrived, but it could have been a lot worse. We can narrow down options that make it harder for managers to bypass responsibilityter, right now, weve got lives to save. Arent those two inseparably linked? Rainer asked In the industry, too many people at a high-level stop seeing their employees as people and start looking at them as numbers on a bnce sheet. And then, theyre more than willing to make those employees risk life and limb to fatten their boss wallets. We need to make sure they remember that their actions affect people, Anne suggested. They know what their actions do, they just dont care. Thats the whole problem. Isaac said We need to make them care. Somehow. Mind control? Someone called from the back, earning a few chuckles. Without mind control. Isaac sighed. This was going to be a loooooooong day. *** I still think that we need to make them responsible for all summoning and Hunting Ground harvesting onpany time. If something goes wrong, its on the person in charge of thepany, no matter how much theyre involved in the summoning. A man Isaac didnt know yet suggested. Isaac sighed internally. That had been suggested in various iterations over a dozen times. And I keep saying that wont work. Wechsler sighed. The inspector whod formerly belonged to Germanys agricultural ministry was rarely around the team anymore, but he was still a good friend and a great help when he showed up to help. And why not? Because its legally sketchy to make someone responsible for stuff they arent directly responsible for. In argepany, even the most extreme, obsessive, anal-retentive micro-manager cant hope to keep on top of one-tenth of what goes on in thepany at any given point in time. Wechsler said, Morally, ming the big boss for corruption in theirpany is probably right, and chances are they know something about such corruption even if it cant be proven, but its more than a little iffy, legally speaking. Wont making them responsible for any incidents make them pay attention to whats going on? Wechsler just shook his head. The state could just hire more inspectors, and make having someone official present for industrial summoning mandatory. A young man suggested. He belonged to a group that campaigned for industry responsibility, a cause that Isaac agreed with, though he very much felt that these specific people had some very unrealistic expectations of how things worked in the real world. And where will you get all those inspectors from? Wechsler asked Most governmental offices, no matter what they watch over, are drastically understaffed. Wed have to retrain all inspectors from the food service industry, infrastructure, all the various industries that produce materials, etc. and wed barely have enough to oversee the current volume of industrial summoning, let alone future expansions. But we can use that as a temporary fix, cant we? And then train more? the kid suggested. Isaac shook his head Its not practical to not inspect anything except industrial summoning. Completely shifting would just be a knee-jerk overreaction. Practical. The kid scoffed We can figure out a solution that works, and then we make it practical. Isaac had to suppress a chuckle Were literally here, three days before Christmas because things are winding down until the 24th, then well have two holidays after that where nothing else can legally be summoned. Thats how long we have toe up with a good solution that we can present to the relevant bodies of government so they can hopefully be implemented. Practicality is all that matters. Lets switch to a different topic. Wechsler suggested Isaac, yourpany deals with Hunting Grounds up to Tier 8 and youve never had a problem. Whats your solution for when things go wrong? What is your emergency backup? Me. Isaac said tly Nothing above Tier 6 gets summoned unless Im in the building. Or another S-Ranker is around, though its usually me whos there. Its not like that helps us any. Wechsler sighed. Isaac nodded. What we really need is to look over everything, all summoning. Too many people fuck around with monsters and its other people who suffer the consequences. One of the other inspectors suggested. So, a police state? Isaac suggested. Look, I know how that sounds, but it would work, wouldnt it? Do you mean the ends justify the means? Rainer asked. The original speaker nodded. Isaac slumped onto the table, then pushed himself back into a sitting position before replying Do you know what the problem with that justification is? The end results depend on your means. So, if you use extreme means, you might warp the situation so much that in the end, youve got a million different kinds of new problems. In other words, the the means change the end. So, what do we do now? A police state is off the table, and so is overdoing it with the inspectors and legally problematic solutions None of the people here were stupid, at least most of them, but they were tired. So tired. So many solutions were suggested, so many solutions discarded. Just a little longer Look, kids, its simple. Professor Chandler said, If managers andpany owners care more about their bank ounts than their employees lives, then we need to make sure that when theirpanies summon, either their necks are also on the line, or their wallets are. We already talked about that. Isaac pointed out Excessively. The Professor hadnt been able to make it earlier today, so he hadnt known about that, but really, had he really thought that no one would have already brought that up? There are legal issues of making managers and CEOs directly responsible for what other people do, Im aware. Chandler said, But let me ask you this: have you a Qualified Person? Isaac frowned You mean someone qualified to do a certain task? Rainer facepalmed Why the hell didnt anyone think of that before? Isaac kept looking around, waiting for someone to exin until Chandler finally did. Its a principle from medicine manufacturing. A Qualified Person is an experienced pharmacist, biologist, or chemist who has to look over all documentation avable for a specific batch of product and sign off on it as safe, or discard it. If the batch is released for sale, and it turns out to have been faulty, then its all on the Qualified Persons head. Now, my suggestion would be we create a system along those lines. The person whos ultimately in charge has to either sign off on any summoning operations because theyre the only ones who are qualified to do so. If they dont have the time, they have to designate a proxy to sign on their behalf. Meaning that when something goes wrong, itll still be on the big boss in charge. Fuck. Isaac muttered. Knowing that a process like that already existed would have been good to know this morning. Would that work, Thomas? he asked Wechsler. Thewyer nodded. There is one small issue with the Qualified Person system: if something goes wrong that isnt reflected in the paperwork, like something gettingbeled wrong, the Qualified Person isnt responsible. So if theres just an unofficial policy to gather more than is normally considered safe, that might give the people in charge a pass. Isaac shook his head When something goes wrong, the people involved can be asked about such a policy under truth-detecting spells. Creating a full cadre of gatherers and bodyguards capable of bypassing such checks would be expensive, probably eating up almost all of the profits theyd gain by ignoring safety regtions. Companies might ignore safety regtions for extra profit, but what kind of idiot would bypass necessary safety precautions for no real gains? Rainer gave him a pointed look Like you said, an idiot. Someone would just inevitably decide that it is their good right to ignore the regtions, even if they dont gain anything from it. And I thought I was pessimistic, Isaacmented. Work as a hygiene inspector for a day, youll see where Iming from, Rainer told him seriously. Isaac sighed and shook his head Anyway, moving on, weve got a basic idea of what might work. Lets flesh out this proposal and send it to our various political contacts and acquaintances. As he wasnt awyer, he stayed out of the next bit for the most part. Eventually, though, they had a proposal that might get epted, implemented in a way that was at least mostly true to the original idea. Hopefully, having upper management sign off on summoning operations, either directly or via a legal proxy, and thereby making them put their own necks on the line, legally speaking, would somewhat alleviate the current problem. At least as long as the damn lobbyists didnt have their way. Chapter 205: Undead Horde Chapter 205: Undead Horde People sucked. Well, no, that wasnt fair, there were plenty of good people around. It was selfish people who were the problem. Selfish, greedy, reckless bastards whod bitten of more than they could chew in the name of profit and left someone else holding the bag. Politics, fucking politics. Those also sucked. A lot. If Isaac had tried to put into words how much he detested this, the resulting essay would have been longer than the entirety of the Brockhaus encyclopedia by an order of magnitude. But now, that was over and done with. Today was the 23rd of December, the day before Christmas, all his preparations were done, and he had some time avable to cool off by going on a rampage and ughtering a bunch of creatures in cold blood. Yeah, he wouldnt phrase it like that in front of someone else, ever. But it was true. The beautiful simplicity ofbat was his retreat from the world, his safe space, his sanctum sanctorum. A ce to, paradoxical as it was, destress. Isaac had a couple of Aspect sets toplete, namely, the twin Aspects of the Ghoul. Undead was one of the broadest categories of summons there was, covering everything from bog-standard zombies and ghouls to disgusting abominationsprised of countless bodies, ghouls and other advanced walking corpses, as well as a wide variety of higher undead. Vampires, Liches, Draugr, and more. Isaac would be focusing on the ones needed to upgrade his Aspects, though. Oh, first, he had another thing to do though, hed just remembered hed finally gotten his hands on certain materials. Hed had ess to them through the university and hispany before, but now he had enough avable for private use. Elemental Phoenixes, here Ie! Time to feed the [Divine Fire]. Elemental Phoenixes were incredible monsters. Where the original monster could regenerate by settling on a bed of aromatic twigs and lighting it on fire, the elemental variant could needed to use their associated elements to recover. In other words, these things held mes that could break down any given physical substance, as long as there wasnt magic interfering, but that was only the start of what they could do. Of course, nowadays, there was magic infusing literally everything, which vastly reduced the offensive capability of mes that could target specific parts of the periodic table, but that didnt make them useless. These fires had an incredible destructive ability, sure, but there were other tricks he could pull with them. For starters, they were still Phoenix mes, which could convert physical substances into regenerative energies. The conversion ratio was terrible, sure, but it was still useful. Especially when one used the mes belonging to various radioactive phoenixes to burn away nuclear fallout and converting the horribly damaging mess into something that could heal thend. Coming up with that idea had taken Isaac a lot longer than he was willing to admit toe up with that idea, but now that hed had it, he needed to get his hands on that capability ASAP or rather, as soon as he could get his hands on sufficient amounts of restricted materials. And the situation wasnt urgent enough to go outside thew for that. Hed already absorbed various elemental Phoenix mes, though. Titanium Phoenix fire that had physical form, capable of directly blocking strikes, not just scaring off people from punching through it via the sheer heat. The sheer heat of the Magnesium Phoenix, mes glowing so brightly that staring at it was difficult even with Isaacs 400 points in Perception. And more besides. Now, it was time toplete the set. but first, safety precautions. It wouldnt do for anyone to pick up the radiation and call in someone. Anyone. It would be annoying, it would be messy, and Isaac didnt want to deal with it. Some simple blood runes were all Isaac needed to take care of that. These monsters were so weak that he could afford the injuries. The Tier 5 Uranium Phoenix erupted from the summoning circle, neon-green mes washing off it in waves and bathing the entire summoning area in a light that just looked utterly toxic. Unfortunately, while this fire could remove radiation, it could also emit it. An ostrich-sized ming bird stared at the human standing in front of it, perfectly fine, and cocked its head to the side in confusion. Isaac just grinned. Hed absorbed so many different kinds of phoenix mes that he was 99% immune to the fire that was currently bathing him, with the final percent being due to the fact that he was not yet familiar with this specific element. And even that issue was removed after less than a single second as [Divine Fire] assimted the Phoenixs power. A single wave of Isaacs hands took control of the mes that filled this space, before they could even get going, the Tier 5 monster barely able to stop him, and empowered them burn away all the radiation that had filled the area since the summon had appeared, then copse around the monster and burn all the radiation from its flesh. It took a couple of seconds, but soon enough, there was nothing left but a ckened, shriveled mass that turned to dust on the wind. Every single radioactive material he had was used, the rted phoenixs me stolen, rinse and repeat. And once that was gone and the area was cleaned up and the blood wards dismissed, Isaac switched over to summoning his true targets. Up first, Draugr. Those things were somewhat weird, in multiple ways. For one, they were among the few things that had identical words for singr beings and multiples, but that was just a linguistic quibble. The strangest bit was that the term Draugr described three different things under the [System]. Firstly, there was the monster he was about to fight, a human corpse with pale skin, armed and armored like an ancient Viking. Secondly, there was the species that a human could turn into, if they had enough undead Aspects, were fighters, and were willing to give up most of the benefits that came with, well, being alive. And thirdly, it was even a [ss], which basically amounted to damn hard to kill and had a constant, low-level [Moment of Immortality] in effect, but otherwise pretty crappy. Half the [Skills] synergized to grant a single powerful defensive ability, and the other half were pretty standard second Evolution [Skills] befitting a [Warrior] Evolution. He summoned them a dozen at a time and burnt them to ashes, over and over until hed gotten his hands on one of their Aspects. At Tier 5, anyone at the fourth Evolution who could be threatened by them was a sorry excuse for a fighter indeed. Isaacs current Level of 113 put him within the Level range for Tier 8, on paper, merely three Tiers above his opponents, but the Level range increase for each new Tier was truly insane. But as boring as fighting these basic undead had been, the next set of monsters were sure to provide a challenge. The Draugr Aspect got slotted for the plus 15 to Strength, but Isaac didnt pay much mind to the Skills because hed be immediately upgrading it with an Aspect from his new foe. The Tier 9 Death Knight. Minimum Level 121, heavy armor, either a two-handed melee weapon or abination of a shield and one-handed weapon, stupid hard to kill overall, and near-immunity crowd control [Skills]. In other words, a nasty piece of work. Utterly perfect for a challenge. The Death Knight appeared in the summoning circle d in heavy te armor with its hands resting on the hilt of a massive, nged mace that had been nted in the ground, head-first. It stood there for a moment, looking for all the world like a statue, a monument to an ancient warrior. Yet before Isaac could have struck it even if hed charged immediately, a cold blue glow manifested behind the monsters closed visor and it exploded into motion, the mace that had once been resting on the concrete floor suddenlying down in an overhead motion, about to punch Isaac into the ground like a tent pole. [Wave Charge], [Legendary Blow: Fivefold Power Strike] Isaac slid under the attack, thrusting the glowing red de straight at the gap in the beasts visor, only to be blocked by an armored arm that the knight had taken off its weapon. Balmung still mmed into the helmet and knocked it askew, but failed to reach the true goal. Behind his back, the mace hammered into the ground, shattering concrete and sending shards flying everywhere. Phasing meant that there was no risk from flying debris, but it also meant that Isaac could move through the armored limb restraining him until the Death Knight flexed its arm, somehow breaking the tes, which were immediately by a glowing mana construct. This was a [Skill] that Isaac would be stealing via the monsters Aspect, and right in that moment, it nearly killed him as the mana based defenses were now inside his chest as he passed over it. Another [Wave Charge] opened up the distance while Isaac regenerated. That thing was annoyingly smart. But it was still dead. Isaac had spawned every Kabar and Kriegsmesser he had straight in its face just before hed retreated, applied [Compounded Impact] and sent it straight at the beasts chest. Sure, killing undead usually meant going for the head, but good luck continuing the fight without your torso, Buckethead! The Death Knight twisted and swept an arm and its mace through the cloud before it could impact, spreading out the attack and preventing the [Skill] from reaching full charge. At the same time, the lowbo count prevented it from bing too expensive, but it was still annoying to see the attack to so easily thwarted. Still, the awkward counter had done a fair job of ruining the monsters stance. [Phantom Step] wasnt something Isaac often used, but it was damn useful, especially with the Evolution that let him manifest an illusionary copy after teleporting. One Isaac appeared in midair in front of the monsters face, Balmung poised for another thrust through the visor. The fake one. Real Isaac appeared behind the monster, pressed his free hand against its back, right at the gap between two tes, and fired a flood of mes inside, a nice mixture of Iron Phoenix mes and hellfire. A massive grin on his face, Isaac dodged the furious retaliatory strike that cratered the ground where hed been standing a split second before. He retreated several more steps as the Death Knight came after him, looking like a demon straight from hell itself, armor- and life-destroying mes burning within its defenses. Isaac threw two Kabars at it. The first was smashed out of the air by the mace, the second caught in its hand. The Death Knight tried to crush the dagger, but a split second after it had been caught, it transformed into Isaacs giant sword. The gauntlet which held it exploded into metal shards as the eight meter sword unfurled and smacked the monster upside the head. Off bnce, on fire, and multiple gaping breaches in its defenses. [Wave Charge], [Legendary Blow: Fivefold Power Strike], [Crippling Blow] It might have made sure to shield its head, but that hadnt been Isaacs goal. He slid to a stop behind it and spun, Balmung held at the ready as he looked at the results of his attack. A gigantic rent had been cut into the monsters chest, practically slicing it in half andying bare its spine, [Crippling Blow] ensuring that the struck organ was functionally impossible to use. In other words, holding a properbat stance or shifting to meet Isaacs attacks would be near impossible from now on. It took three more attacks to kill it. One to take the arm that held the mace, a second to remove the other, and then, Isaac drove Balmung through the Death Knights head, damaging its animating force beyond repair. Almost. The hellfire that raced along the de and concentrated on the portion that was currently impaling the beasts skull. Death Knight (Lv. 125) has been in. 3,000 XP gained Breathing heavily but grinning like a loon, Isaac dismissed the mes and looked around the wrecked summoning area. Puddles of molten steel, hellfire scorch marks, giant craters where the mace had struck, and streaks of burnt rubber from Isaacs shoes where hed stopped abruptly after a wave charge. Once all this was over, hed need to bribe Karl toe by and fix this mess and reinforce his summoning area. Again. But no Aspect had dropped, which meant he got to do it all over again! Isaac switched his damaged shoes out for another set. Apparently, the first set of experimentalbat footwear for people with high Agility was a failure, time to try out the second pair. Three pairs of shoes and neen Death Knightster, he finally got what he was looking for. Aspect of the Death Knight: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Death Knight a Death Knight. Heavy Armor manifested from thin air, the ability to wear said heavy armor ad infinitum, having armor constantly be reinforced when it gets damaged, even summon an ancient weapon of power should the need arise. Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +20 (15 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Strength One of the following Skills: Knights Eternal des Ghostly Armor Death Knights Endurance Armored Echo [Knights Eternal des] was a weapon-summoning [Skill], the poor mans soulbound weapon, and therefore pretty superfluous for Isaac, but the other three he could get and they were awesome! awesome-ish. Really, they were useful [Skills] that would upgrade to be absolute beasts once hepleted the Aspect stack. Death Knights Endurance (epic) Wearing armor day in, day out, is rather exhausting. Doing so when said armor is several centimeters thick and weighs hundreds of kilograms, even more so. But a Death Knight doesnt have to worry about that on ount of, well, being dead. That is the power that this Skill brings. Vastly increased stamina as if exhaustion is a concept that does not affect the user in the slightest. For the first eight hours of any activity that is not extraordinarily strenuous, such asbat, the user will not experience fatigue or a rted loss in capability. Once this time is up, exhaustion will set in as if theyd only just started to exert themselves and umtes more slowly. In addition, the weight of equipment such as armor contributes vastly less to the wearers exhaustion. This effect can be used once a day. (Einherjar Bonus: This effect can be activated every 18 hours) Isaac was at a high enough Level and so used to pulling all-nighters that he didnt really need the [Skill] and wouldnt have gotten it otherwise, but the Einherjar bonuses made going after undead Aspects a very useful path to power. Ghostly Armor (epic) Armor. Its useful, sure, but a pain in the ass to put on. Which is why its so damn useful to just be able to summon it from thin air. This Skill summons a set of spectral te armor that is perfectly suited to the wearers fighting style in terms of both weight and restrictiveness and willst until the user dismisses it. Damage will be repaired via an additional payment of mana, and the armor can be re-manifested when destroyed over and over, so long as mana is avable. Bing a heavily armored dreadnought of spectral steel doesnt have to be a one-time thing. Cost: 200 mana for the initial summoning, 100 mana per hour for upkeep (Einherjar Bonus: summoned armor is lighter and easier to move in at no cost to toughness) [Ghostly Armor], on the other hand, was pretty much useless in its current form due to its mana cost, but he hadnt gotten it for what it could do for him now, but because he knew what its Tier 10 version looked like. It would have a variable cost, including a version that ran entirely off of ambient mana, providing him a free additionalyer of protection. And then there was the [Skill] that had burned the inside of this chest with a sudden mana manifestation. Armored Echo (epic) Armor is great, isnt it? A sheet of leather, an interlocked web of metal rings, a steel te. Something to stick between you and the bad guy, to take the beating in your stead. Theres one small problem with that idea, though. Armor degrades, armor is damaged, armor breaks. And then, what do you have? A hunk of metal with a giant hole in it that still slows you down? However, with this Skill, whenever your armor is damaged, a weaker, spectral te will appear in its ce to cover the new weakness, at least until that too is destroyed. Cost: 75 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: cost reduction from 100 mana per hour to 75 mana per hour) [Ghostly Armor] and [Armored Echo] wouldbine perfectly at Tier 10 to provide him with a powerful and practically free defensive forcefield. Isaac was getting to the point where he had far too many mana-hungry [Skills], and he needed [Skills] that could strengthen him without further burdening his poor abused mana pool. However, while the [Skills] might not have made the biggest impact upon his current build, hed gotten 35 extra points of Strength and those woulde very much in handy. And he still had a second set of Aspects toplete. Aspect of the Corpse Lord for the second stack, and the Aspect of the Lich for the third one. Corpse Lords were basic constructs made up of multiple corpses, meant to direct lesser undead. When raised by a [Necromancer] and properly supported, they were a deadly threat. Summoned alone and facing a fourth Evolution fighter not so much. Isaac tore through the boring monsters as if they were tissue paper until he got an Aspect and was about to finally get to the interesting enemy, the Liches, he realized that hed gotten his hands on enough XP to increase his Level, which he promptly did. After all, hed just reached Level 114 and gained enough [Skill] points to buy something hed been chomping at the bit to get ever since hed gained his fourth Evolution [ss]. Well, after [Divine Fire], at any rate. Blessing of Innovation (legendary) A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, ws that rend flesh like tissue paper, and the strength to bring down all but thergest of animals in its habitat. A human has what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal lotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands? Yet its man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africas lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: lions are stupid. The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipients ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself. (the recipient can be any willing sapient being withing 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves) While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively forget certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skills effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.) Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective fact for the duration of the effect. Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research sses, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare and up to the second Evolution. The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a week. Oh, the fun he could have, ying with this [Skill]. The Liches could wait, there were scientific marvels to discover. Hopefully. Chapter 206: A New Perspective Chapter 206: A New Perspective Pushing the boundaries of science was 99% grunt work, beating ones head against a wall until eventually, you found the right spot and made a breakthrough. Well, that, or until your skull cracked. You had something you wanted to understand, figured out how to get some insight into that topic, and then you developed an appropriate experiment. That was when the real work began. Doing the same thing over and over again, experimenting with every single variation of your experiment, doing the nk experiment that ensured that the results you got were rted to the things youd input, rather than being something that was always going to happen. And so on, and so forth until eventually, you were just the slightest bit more knowledgeable on the topic you wanted to research. But sometimes, you just got stuck. Maybe, you couldnt figure out a new angle toe at the problem at hand from, sometimes, the results of your experiments just didnt make any sense, and more. Or maybe you just had no bloody clue where to start. The reasons for that happening could be manifold. Established dogma might be in the way, people failing to see the thing right in front of their eyes. Or the right way forward had been tried, failed, and therefore discarded as a viable option. Or any of a million different things. [Blessing of Innovation] might let the user borrow weak research [Skills] and that would be useful, but the real win here was the ability to look at, well, everything with new eyes. The scenes from movies where the unknowledgeable protagonist walked straight into a scientistsb, made a single suggestion and solved the problem the considerably smarter person had been struggling with for years in a single sentence might not be realistic, but there was an element of truth to them. As you studied your field within the hallowed halls of academia, you absorbed a lot of the preconceptions built up by those whode before you. So many people whod created incredible advancements had beenughed at initially when theyd shown up with their new theory, whichpletely went against the ideas of the time. But these people had been the only ones whod been able to advance science simply because theyd decided to throw the current truth out of the window to go look for the actual truth. What would Isaac himself discover if he decided to take his fears of an apocalyptic future out of the picture and just looked at what he knew about the [System]? Looking at the current situation, without the burden of having already seen humanity die once, where would he see all this going? And what if he decided to dissect a monster corpse while having ess to a [Biologists] [Skills]? Examine the equipment the Death Knight had left behind the way an [Engineer] or [Metallurgist] would? Sure, he wouldnt be able to keep the [Skills] themselves, but there was no way in hell [Blessing of Innovation] would erase the information hed gained while under its influence once it timed out. But he could spend the rest of the day contemting what his new [Skill] might do, and it might not even get him on the right path. Doing so would be dumb when he could just, you know, use it. He wouldnt use it here, though, not in the middle of this mess. Isaac changed into clean clothes and strolled over to the university. Given that he lived within walking distance of the ce, there was no reason not to head over there. Being surrounded by countless sources of incredible knowledge while using this [Skill] seemed like a good way to ensure it could be used to its greatest possible effect. Good afternoon Dr. Thoma, I thought you were with your family for Christmas. Andre greeted him as the pair ran into each other in the lobby. Ill head over there tonight. What about you? Isaac asked. Still had some work to finish and didnt want toe back to a pile of paperwork in January. Andre told him Do you need anything done? Im teleporting to Johannesburg in five minutes. No thank you. Isaac shook his head Merry Christmas. You too, Andre said and left the building. Isaac headed towards his office but ran into Bailey on the way. The Professor looked surprised for a split second, then looked ever so slightly guilty. Gabriel thinks youre doing something other than working, doesnt he? Isaacmented dryly. Dont tell him, Bailey whispered back as he hurried outside. On the way to his office, Isaac noticed that several more people were building. Hed expected it to be almost empty on a Saturday, never mind a Saturday that was also the day before Christmas, but it seemed like he wasnt the only workaholic in the department. Sure, some of them were capable of using teleportation magic and reach their homes in time for something even if they only left this building mere minutes before they needed to be there. But in general, hed expected to be the only one here. Still, it was none of his business what others were doing, he had his own tasks to do. Isaac sat down in his desk chair, pushed himself into afortable position, then pushed himself away from the desk to pull a few books from his shelves, only to return back to the desk. He almost activated the [Blessing of Innovation] right then and there, but decided he wasnt quite ready yet. Then, he put up his perception blocking [Skill] to prevent anyone from overhearing if he decided to talk to himself out loud or let something slip in exmations of surprise. Five minutester, he had aptop on the desk with a word document open on it, a steaming cup of tea sat besides it, every book he expected to use was within easy reach as well except there was one he might be able to use in the conference room, wasnt it? Nope, youre stalling, cut it out! Isaac snapped at himself and before he coulde up with new things to pile onto his desk. Activating [Blessing of Innovation] felt strange. Two empty slots appeared in his mind, ready to ept any of a thousand different [Skills], all he had to do was pick two. Useful, but not why hed bought it. Instead, he wanted the power to look at things from a new perspective. If hed learned anything from thest two years, it was the power of knowledge, and this new [Skill] should let himpound that advantage to the point of absurdity. So what could he know if all he had was his knowledge, but not the baggage that hade from having seen humanity die? *** There was a desk covered in a seemingly random collection of biology textbooks, old-looking treatises on mythology and what looked like novels, all of which had descriptors like Apocalypse, System and LitRPG. At that desk sat a young man, with pale skin contrasted by unnaturally dark hair and his eyes shone like emeralds. His elbows rested on the only clear spot upon his desk, one hand was clenched into a fist, the second hand wasid on top and upon his hands rested his chin as he stared off into the nothingness. And that young man was muttering to himself. Why am I here? How the hell did I get here? I mean, I walked, obviously, but how the hell did I get this job? Im I know what I did, Im one of the strongest people on the but how? Why did I decide that fighting Specters was the best thing to do when it looked like the world might end? Without [System]-empowered learning, Id be dead, I know that. Did I just get lucky? But theres an answer, something to exin how I got what I did, I know that. So, what is it? Lets see *** Isaac eyed theptop, silently trying to judge whether or not it would survive the shockwave if he decided to facepalm. In the end, he decided to err on the side of caution and leave well enough alone. He used the see things from a new perspective power of the [Blessing of Innovation], making sure to remember the feeling of frustration he was feeling. It took all of thirty seconds for him to undo the effects of his [Skill]. Isaac swore softly and tried things again, from the top. And again. Future Isaac, I swear to Loki, if you deactivate the [Skill] again he muttered, cutting himself off before he finished the deration as swearing an oath in the name of the god of mischief was probably a terrible idea. *** There was a desk covered in a seemingly random collection of books. And at that desk sat a young man. His right handid on the keyboard of aptop while he was holding his left hand in front of his eyes, reading what was carved into the back of it while making sure no blood dripped into the delicate piece of electronic equipment. Do not remove the [Blessing of Innovation] you fucking control freak! Why had he done that to himself? What had happened to drive him so far? Oh, for fucks sake! the young man yelled as his eyes cleared up. A mere thought removed the injury and the blood evaporated in a green glow that emanated from a knife that had appeared from nowhere. *** Twelve tries, twelve failures. Why the hell was this so difficult? After two minutes of cursing himself out, Isaac decided to put this topic on hold while he explored the rest of his new power. He borrowed a couple of [Biologist] [Skills] and went into one of the summoning rooms so he could get a Drake for him to dissect. He needed something from one for tomorrow anyway. The summoning circle wasid out with practiced ease and a Frost Drake appeared, immediately unleashing a flickering white cloud from its mouth, enveloping Isaac. Once it dissipated, he just stood there for a split, hoarfrost in his hair and clothing, before exploding into motion and skewering the creature through the brain with a single strike from Balmung. Calling a Frost Drakes breath weapon fire was probably enough to infuriate any physicist into a white-hot rage. In actuality, it was an energy-to-matter converter that looked like fire. It absorbed any and all free thermal energy in its path and converted into, well, matter, iron to be specific, in ordance with the good old form of energy equals matter times the speed of light squared. It wasnt a good way to generate matter, though, considering how energy-hungry the process was. To put it another way, converting a few grams of matter into energy, for example, by bringing it into contact with antimatter, was enough to level a city. End of the day, the breath of frost-dragonoids was just a way to erase all thermal energy above a certain level in the area it consumed. For a Drake, that was anything above negative 100 C while a Tier 9 Frost Wyrm could bring the targeted area down to damn near absolute zero. And while the phenomenon was very different from fire in the physical sense, metaphysically speaking, it was close enough for Isaac to steal it. He watched white mes dance across his right me for a moment before returning his focus to the specimenbefore him. Balmung was sharp enough to serve as a scalpel while floating Kabars held open his cuts. Less than a minuteter, he had the monster properly dissected, every organ carefully separated and prepared for preservation. Isaacs oft-neglected monster-harvesting [Skill], [Gralloch], shot up six Levels from this demonstration of ability alone. And seeing how capable the borrowed [Skills] could make him was heartening. So now that hed experimented with that part of the [Blessing of Innovation], it was time to try using the other ability it gave him. Trying to analyze the current situation without his baggage failed yet again, and he gave up on that for today as he had a different use for it in mind. He sat down in front of hisptop and began to write. How to defeat a Sanguine Monarch (Tier 7 [Raid Boss]) Isaac still knew everything about its capabilities, how it moved, how it fought, what its strengths and weaknesses were, but only if theyd been objectively verified. The various dogmas about how it should be dealt with, on the other hand, were wiped from his mind. The Sanguine Monarch held the secrets to the blood enchantments Isaac had often made use of and being able to officially use them should be useful. It was a nasty vampire that started out rtively normal looking, but it only stayed that way for roughly a millisecond after being summoned as it immediately began to mutate, a surge of life force causing it to grow, skin splitting and blood pouring onto the ground, and then the blood would start to replicate. The entire area around the monster would be a part of it and its domain, bleeding, growing into semi-independent monstrosities that wouldsh out at anyone who got to close. Eventually, the energy would be spent, leaving around two acres of ground covered in blood and viscera with a monstrous form the original vampire had grown into sitting in the center. Killing the damn thing while it grew without lobbing a nuke at it was practically impossible, sadly, which limited the people fighting it to destroying vital nodes within it to weaken its final ability. Essentially, fighting a Sanguine Monarch was ying a game of exceedingly disgusting whack-a-mole, exhausting yourself and your allies before the real fight even started. Well, either that, or you could wait until the monster had fully grown and then fight it at full, absolute power. Both options had their drawbacks, but they had grown to be the only ones most people acknowledged. As more about the [Raid Boss] became known, that only calcified the opinions about it. And now, Isaac was going to see if the tactical manual could be refined as long as one didnt have any preconceived notions. His fingers flew across the keyboard so quickly that he asionally had to pause for theputer to catch up. By the time [Blessing of Innovation] ended, hed written a fifty-page manuscript outlining how careful mana management and use of stamina-extending Aspects could allow for the maximum weakening of the monster while still leaving everyone fresh. In addition, he figured out which parts to target to achieve the greatest effect. Dogma had stated that the nodes that would eventually serve as regeneration needed to be prioritized because the beasts recovery ability had been what people had struggled with the most during the first few fights, but they could actually be ignored if you weakened enough of the ones that generated its AOE attacks. A dewed monster that basically needed to be killed ten times over was annoying to be sure, but it wouldnt be able to inflict any casualties while it died. And hed also written up a second manuscript that was twice as long and didnt incorporate any of his future knowledge. It was merely a set of mon sense tactics for fighting a vampiric [Raid Boss] for them to use when the first went up against the Sanguine Monarch in this timeline. Hed also gotten a [Skill] the very instant [Blessing of Innovation] had ended. And boy, was it a strange one. umtion of Knowledge (unranked) This Skill serves as a repository for the knowledge gained via the use of Blessing of Innovation. As Skills from research and science sses are borrowed, they will sometimes bring with them new knowledge. Any parts of this information that the user utilizes can be remembered even after the borrowed Skill is lost. The umtion of Knowledge serves as a general knowledge Skill, representing the amount of learning the user has done. As Blessing of Innovation is used repeatedly, this Skill may unlock new functions. Unranked rarity wasnt something hed ever seen before, though looking at the [Skill], it made sense. It was a way for the [System] to acknowledge that hed learned new things from his [Skill], without outright giving him power. Normally though, the [System] didnt hand out [Skills] he didnt want, otherwise his status would just have an encyclopedias worth of General [Skills] along the lines of [Housework], [Breathing] and [Walking]. You could make those [Skills] and train them up to the point where they became useful, but that was a lot of work forparatively little gain. Something for after when hed hit the Level cap, maybe. This though, this seemed to be something the [System] couldnt ignore, so it had given him [umtion of Knowledge]. Isaac checked the clock on his phone and realized he didnt have enough time left toplete his second undead Aspect stack, so he cleaned up his office and the summoning room hed used and headed out to make some final preparations for Christmas. Yes, he fully knew that he should have done all that long before and that all the various emergencies hadnt foreseeable, he should have expected something to go wrong, but as long as he got them done in time, no harm, no foul right? His ns for the holidays were pretty simple. Have fun with his family, experiment with [Blessing of Innovation] until he managed to finally get over his need to immediately know what hed forgotten and then save the rest of his charges so he could give them to his colleagues after the holidays. There were many other powerful [Skills] he could have gotten in [Blessing of Innovations] stead, true, but scientific advancement was the ultimate force multiplier. [Divine Fire] had practically been a mandatory purchase, sure, but the blessing was a very close second on the priority list. Chapter 207: White Christmas Chapter 207: White Christmas Isaacs childhood home had been almostpletely transformed by the time he arrived. Sure, his parents had always put up plenty of Christmas decorations, but that was a far cry from the efforts that had been made this year. Tree branches hung from every ce on the house where something could be attached, the sides of the roof were covered in ornaments and a dog-sized Santa statue proudly sat upon the chimney. Isaac grinned as he saw that. Being able to mber up the outside of your building without needing adder or being in any danger from the fall meant that decorating had just be a million times easier. Well, the people hadnt been in any danger. A handprint that clearly belonged to one of the twins marred the houses fa?ade and unless Isaac was wildly off base, that had been caused by one of the little ones slipping and failing to contain her strength when grabbing at a handhold. The only thing missing was the snow. Sure, youd get the asional snowke in December, and maybe even a couple of days where enough snowy on the streets to require a snowplow, but Isaac could count the number of white Christmases hed seen on one hand and was looking like tomorrow was going to be another holiday without snow. Actually, he realized it was after midnight, so it was already Christmas, but only technically, so he still had time. Are things ready? he asked the police officers currently barricading off the street. Sure. One of the officers called. Arranging to have the street barred to cars for the day had been easy, terrifyingly so. Normally, German bureaucracy was a byzantine maze of infinite forms and other staggeringly unhelpful office drones. Isaac though, he had connections with the police, and hed dealt with officers from the nearest precinct a few times. On one hand, seeing things go so smoothly had been nice. On the other, seeing how much personal favors could change the situation was absolutely terrifying on a deep level. This wasnt corruption in the legal sense and also probably morally in the clear, but things should be equal for all, shouldnt they? Except the thing he was doing was most definitely a universal good. Eh, the asional car driver might be mad at having to take a slight detour, but most of the people affected would also benefit. Even the officers who had to work on Christmas had volunteered for the sake of their kids. Isaac grinned and pulled the first storage ring from his jacket pocket and thrust it in the direction of the cordoned-off area. The water contained within sprayed out in a fine mist, passing through the frost me hed projected in front of the ring. At first, the fresh snowkes melted the instant they hit the ground, but by the time the first ring was empty, a couple of centimeters of snow covered the road. Do you have any more of those? the nearest officer asked. Of course I do. Isaac grinned. Hed borrowed a million from the university. They were still far from perfect, being too small, too hard to ess, or having some other w, but they wouldnt blow up in his face, which made them good enough for the task at hand. Three ringster, there was enough snow on the ground for a decent snowball fight. Nice, but still nowhere near enough. By the time 4 a.m. rolled around, Isaac used [Blessing of Innovation] to borrow a couple of structural engineering [Skills]. He used a standard me to melt small portions of the snow castle hed created, then re-froze the area to turn it into a solid chunk of ice sturdy enough to carry even a grown-ass adult. Isaac took several steps back, wiped non-existent sweat from his brow, and grinned up at the twin, two-story castles hed built with around ten meters of space between them, eachplete with a stash of snowballs and sand spread on top of all walking areas to make them less slippery. The no mansnd between them had knee-deep snow for the kids to y in before the castles were opened for battle. That looks awesome. My kids are probably going to wreck it in about two seconds t. Another of the officers said. Dont worry, Ive got a bunch more rings and Ill be around to fix the castles if they crack. Isaac assured her Im turning in for a catnap, have a nice morning. Then he headed into his bedroom and started ying around with [Blessing of Innovation]. He figured out several new Aspectbinations that should work pretty well but hadnt been popr or even tried out in either timeline, he looked over a bunch of tactical manuals from the other timeline and updated a couple, but looking at the current situation without his baggage was still beyond him. Sure, he managed to keep going without returning his memories a little longer this time around, but he still failed. When the [Skill] wore off, Isaac took a brief catnap and tried to sleep in, emphasis on tried. An attempted assassination by way of a bucketload of snow being dumped on his face thwarted that. Oh, now youre in for it! Isaac yelled, shot to his feet and grabbed Tanja around the waist, then ran out with her under his arm. A snowball fight in the house they wouldnt survive their mothers wrath if they did that. Outside, though, that was fair game. Isaac was dressed in his pajamas while the tiny blond hellion was wearing full-day clothes, but not winter clothing. Neither of them needed winter clothing, but it still had to look pretty ridiculous when he stormed out into the street and tossed her into a snowdrift. Hey, youre mean! Tanjaughed, sticking out her tongue. Hey, you started it! Isaac replied with a grin and stuck out his own tongue in turn. The police officer whod been stuck guarding what was officially ssified as a street festival ambled over and asked Having fun? Isaac sighed theatrically in response When you hit Level 50 and can decide what powers to give to your rtives, you might want to consider what six-year-olds might do with the power to walk through walls. Ah. *** Both Isaac and Tanja were back inside and, more importantly, dry, by the time breakfast was ready. And then, the very millisecond their mother allowed it, the twins ran outside and started tossing snowballs at each other, the running battle causing people passing by to reflexively duck. It was a damn good thing theyd set up barriers around the winter wondend in the night. From the moment the sun peeked above the horizon to when it fell, the street outside the Thoma family home was the very definition of chaotic. Just as Isaac had expected, plenty of drivers didntprehend why it wasnt a big deal to take a single block detour but thankfully, people willing to lean on their cars horn while cussing out a group of children were very much unwilling to do the same in the face of a police officer shing their badge. Isaac continued to add new snow as the old snowbanks were trampled t, fixed the castles whenever it was needed, and so on. Around noon, he challenged all the kids present to a snowball fight and fled in ignominious defeat after a couple of minutes. He slunk back home and returned to the street with a pot, milk, cocoa powder, and a bunch of cups. The pot floated in midair, resting on a trio of flying Kabars while he heated the liquid using a conjured me. Magic hot chocte, what more could a horde of little kids want? They also had a couple of neighbors with applicable [Skills], including an [Illusionist] that created fantasy creatures that fell apart when hit with enough snowballs and a [Horticulturist] who grew a fir tree on top of each castle. It was around 2 in the afternoon when the press showed up. Either someone wanted a cute feel-good story to air on Christmas, or someone wanted another story about Isaac himself. It didnt matter, though. He floated the pot over onto the windowsill of his room and headed towards the newly arrived group. The press team was pretty bare-bones, consisting of just the camera person, the reporter themselves, and some manner of assistant. Merry Christmas, Isaac called out as he approached them. Merry Christmas. The reporter responded, pausing for a moment as she realized his current outfit was better suited to a Caribbean beach than Germany in the middle of winter. Can I ask you a couple of questions? she asked. Of course, Isaac said. What is all this? she asked. A winter wondend for the kids. Everything I wanted to y with on Christmas when I was a kid. Well, it looks amazing. She said, only to let out a startled squeak as Isaac exploded into motion to swat a snowball out of the air in order to save the camera. Kids, mind the electronics. He called. Of course, a couple of the little monsters decided to take that as a challenge. Do you think we could continue this somewhere out of range of the castles? Isaac suggested, facing the reporter while smacking snowballs out of the air, still not even looking at the iing projectiles. *** One interview for a feel-good press storyter, Isaac went back to supervising the chaos unfolding outside his home. Eventually, night fell, and everyone headed home. Isaac demolished the castles to ensure that no one got hurt using them unsupervised. Christmas dinner was a lively affair and then, it was finally time for presents. Just as hed requested during hisst birthday, Isaac didnt get any big presents, just good food he wouldnt normally buy and some nice clothes. The present hed gotten them was a family trip to Seoul. He really wanted to show them the city hed spent so much time in since the [System] had appeared. And, of course, there were the guinea pigs he''d bought for the twins on behalf of his parents. *** And then, after a wonderful holiday, on January second, Isaac headed straight back to work. The winter holidays had been fun, sure, but there was vital work to do. Chapter 208: Another Round of Aspect Hunting Chapter 208: Another Round of Aspect Hunting Fixing his private summoning area would have taken Isaac days and the end result would have been vastly inferior if hed done it himself. To Karl, on the other hand, walking here had taken more effort than repairing the mess the Death Knights had left. Thanks. Isaac said By the way, how were your holidays? Chaotic. Karl said Someone decided to use magic to build a kids winter paradise and I had my young cousins begging me to do the same. Isaac chuckled despite himself And then what happened? I gave them a little snow to y with outside and went back to drinking Glhwein in front of the firece. Karl said Now, Im going to head back to the university unless this ce is going to need fixing again in an hour?. Probably. Isaac sighed. Call me when youre done, but youd better have some burgers ready when you do. Karl called back as he melted into the ground and swam through it like a dolphin through water, shooting off into the distance. Isaac chuckled as he watched his colleague leave. He himself might be able to walk through walls with casual ease, but Karls ability to treat solid objects like a swimming pool was still strange to him. Though apparently, it was a convenient method of transportation. He made one final check of his kitchen to make sure he could pay his colleagueter, then looked over his summoning andbat supplies and finally, he got on with the part of his day he was truly looking forward to. The magic circle was drawn, materials added, mana poured into the magical diagram and finally, it was charged. But unlike normal, Isaac didnt immediately summon the monster, instead choosing to wait to recover all his mana. This fight was going to be neither easy or quick. And then, it was time to face the monster. Finally. The Lich erupted from the circle, immediately casting [Flight] and flying skywards, opening up the distance. It looked like a someone had taken a regr old human skeleton, bleached the bones to the point where they gleamed white, reced the flesh that connected the various bits with threads of an energy so dark it seemed to swallow the light and finally dressed the whole affair in the clothing of a medieval nobleman. Isaacs cloud of des chased the monster, a rainbow of colors covering them as they were empowered by various [Strikes]. At the same time, he unleashed a [Far Strike] from Balmung, empowering the attack with as much mana as he could to reinforce the spectral de extension. [Chain Lightning] red from the skeletal casters hands, the arc of sma jumping from metal de to metal de, knocking them off target and obliterating the enhancing [Skills]. It took the Lich a split second to cast its next Spell. Sure, it could cast more spells while old ones were in effect, but spellcasters couldnt string attacks together nearly as quickly as melee fighters could. That tiny dy between attacks was most casters biggest weakness, but this time around, it wasnt enough of time for Isaacs follow up strike tond. The skeletal monster used its already cast [Flight] to avoid the initial cut and when Isaac brought around the glowing de extension of [Far Strike], it hammered a [Force Bolt] through his [Skill]. It promptly shattered. Isaac sighed. Hed expected that, but it wasnt exactly a good thing to have it confirmed. [Far Strike] was the [Skill] that scaled the worst with his Level increase and was just too fragile to stand up tobat at this point. No matter, there were other ways to deal with a flying enemy. Isaac activated [Flight of the Poltergeist], hiding his mass from the universe and making it, as far as the rules of physics were concerned, functionally zero. So when mes burst from the bottom of his feet, he shot skywards like a bottle rocket. The Lich backed up, a [Magic Missile]unching from each of its bony fingers, the bolts of arcane energy curving around toe at him from every possible angle. Isaac hurled Balmung at it, the force of the throw flinging him in the opposite direction, the bolts passing through the empty spot hed upied mere milliseconds before. The Lich flicked its fingers and the missiles glow increased as they were recharged and empowered. When Isaac had dodged, the [Magic Missiles] had been on their terminal approach and therefore, their tracking function had been disabled. Now though, theyd been stuffed with enough power to chase him to the ends of the Earth if need be. Another burst of fire sent him flying upwards, extending the amount of space he had to evade. At the same time, Balmung flew towards the Lich, its speed suddenly redoubling as he applied [Remote Wielding] to elerate it. The monster dodged by the barest of margins, only moving far enough that even applying the full power of his [Skill] wouldnt have let himnd the hit. It had failed to ount for the fact that he could change his soulbound weapon into a farrger form and ignite it with hellfire. Originally, the n had probably been to move as little as was feasible to counterattack as early as possible. Now though, it had to focus on putting out its ming robes ASAP. Using abination of [Wave Charge] and riding a pir of me, Isaac flung himself at the monster, summoning Balmung back into his hand and wreathing himself in a cloak of napalm-infused hellfire. If they connected, the Lich would be lit on fire in a way that would be a million times harder to put out. So it made sure that didnt happen. Isaac had nearly reached the skeleton when an opaque barrier blocked his path, appearing less than a centimeter from his nose. [Phantom Step] ced him behind the Lich while leaving behind the cloak of me, which had kept all of its previous momentum and sttered against the magic shield. The hellfire clung to it like superglue,pletely blocking its view. The [Magic Missiles], meanwhile , continued to track Isaac who was currently behind their master. The Lich took a split second to dismiss them, time it would have needed to prevent Isaac from smashing a [Legendary Blow: All the Strikes] right through its shield sphere from its blind spot. The initial barrier shattered like ss, but the Lich immediately threw up a second, far tougher one. It had sensed him teleport, it had just been too slow to react to properly react. One problem, though. This one was a half-sphere, exposing its back and allowing the mes that had covered the previous shield to drip onto its clothing. Being a skeleton, a Lich could easily survive all sorts of things that would kill an ordinary, living being. Extreme cold, being struck by lightning, even being lit on fire would be nowhere near lethal to it. However, they alsocked the same recovery abilities that most life forms, and almost all summoners, had, which meant that taking any damage it took would stick for a long time. Which left it to put out the fire while trusting the shield to keep Isaac at bay. The defensive Spell might only cover half its body, but it could be adjusted as needed. It was also too tough for Isaac to break in the time it would take to put out the fire with anything short of [I Am The Sword]. The Lich had seen his teleportation trick before, it had also seen all his ranged options and deemed them insufficient to threaten it. What it hadnt considered was Isaac taking the time to fling his Kabars into the ceiling of his summoning room while hiding the motion with his body. Now, if hed used [Remote Wielding] to pull them down, the Lich would have sensed the [Skill]. It wasnt ssified as a Spell, but it was still worked mana cast well outside the body and projected through the air. However, all of Isaacs weapons were a part of Old Reliable, from the humble Kabar hed gotten off Amazon to the legendary weapon of Balmung, a de that had felled knights, kings, queens and even dragons. As for Old Reliable, well, it was a part of him, [The Chosen Weapon] having fused to his very soul. And his soul yearned to have all its pieces in one ce. Distracted by having to direct its shield against Isaac, forced to look at him to keep him in view, and being unable to reasonably use its magic to do something other than put out the fire currently consuming it checkmate. Five des punched through the monsters ribcage. Being a skeleton, that didnt do much damage, even when the swords were on bloody fire. However, hed transformed the small des into their Kriegsmesser forms and their crossguards had caught on the ribs, pulling the monster towards him, straight into another fully strengthened [Legendary Blow]. Thebination of the Lichs momentum, the force of his attack and the follow up strike with the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn], the shield shattered. The close-quarters [Aura] condensed around the Lichs shoulders, holding it tight just long enough for him to grasp a hold of it. A [Force Wave] hammered into his face at point-nk range, flinging him back, a torn-off bony arm still clutched in one hand. Ordinarily, the Lich would have used that as an opportunity to open up the distance again, but it was still impaled and held in ce. Ignoring the mes licking up its body once again, the Lich waved its remaining hand in an arcane pattern, clearly preparing a far stronger spell. Isaac grinned as he charged straight at it atop a pir of fire, Balmung at the ready and glowing a deep crimson from the multiple stacks of [Power Strike] hed strengthened it with. He wouldnt make it in time, he knew that. Spellcasters might not be able to spam their attacks, but at range, they were stupidly dangerous. However, they were also rather vulnerable to distraction, by significant damage and the like. In other words, when each of the des that impaled the Lich suddenly transformed into thergest swords Isaac had and its ribcage exploded, the spell winked out like a light. And the time it had left after that wasnt long enough to do anything to avoid Balmung from going straight through one eye socket and exploding out of the back of its head. A burst of fire from Isaacs other hand obliterated the remains of its already shattered body, and all that was left of the monster was the half-broken skull impaled on his sword. Yet the damn monster was still alive which meant the phctery hadnt been in the part of the skull hed smashed. The sheer amount of damage Isaac had inflicted meant that it would take a little bit of time to recover and start moving the broken remains of its body again. And casting mending spells would take literally days. Isaac summoned a second copy of Balmung into his left and smashed straight through the skull, reducing it to fragments. Lich (Lv. 125) has been in. 3.000 XP gained Great. The phctery was normally located somewhere in the skull, but on rare asions, the damn thing was hidden inside random bones in a Lichs body. Given how hard the soul jar was to find using magic or sensory [Auras], locating it was always a pain in the ass unless it was in the skull. The phctery was also why Liches were some of the most dangerous monsters to get loose. When it was summoned, the gemstone that contained its soul was somewhere on its body and reasonably easy to find. However, once the monster killed its summoner, it had the opportunity to hide the phctery and any would-be Lich yers would have the devils time finding it to kill the monster for good. Isaac looked around his summoning area. It looked pretty alright for the battle that had just taken ce in it, but he knew it wouldnt be by the time hed gained the Aspect he wanted, not unless he got very lucky. But first, he had to wait for his mana to recover, so he did some work on his phone and looked over his notifications. Unfortunately, his professional email ount was once again overflowing. Isaac had publicized the exact abilities of [Blessing of Innovation] as it, while being the ultimate force multiplier, worked best when spread out across the entirety of the scientificmunity. And now, everyone wanted it. Simply put, scientists were a special lot. Plenty of them could work together just fine, but a lot of them couldnt, and it was thetter group that desperately needed his [Skill]. With it, they could critique their own work just fine, without, shudder, having to work together with others. Which left him with a million different requests, offers, bribes even, trying to get him toe to somewhere to help. If he thought hed been in demand when hed gotten [Hildebrands Heir], he was the belle of the ball now. Of course, Isaac had announced some ground rules alongside with the fact that hed gotten the [Skill]. First off, he wouldnt travel anywhere to grant the [Skill] unless he was already heading that way. For example, hed dropped by Seoul university during the family holiday for an hour to work together with Professor Kim for a bit. Otherwise, anyone who wanted his help would have toe to him. Secondly, there would be no multiple appeals, at least not for the same project. His [Blessing of Innovation] was an incredibly limited resource, and there were far more deserving recipients than there were charges to disseminate. In other words, you got one chance to convince him and that was that. Anybody who bugged him would never get any help. Isaac sighed. Hed given control of his professional email to the teams IT people, but even with three, four if one including him, people on the case, the number of unread emails was ever climbing. And then there were the people whod messaged his other professional email address, the one he used for hispany. Those people got an immediate this is the wrong email automated response and asked to message the right one. Theyd already have a strike against them for trying to circumvent the system, but hed still be willing to hear them out. Anyone who messaged thepany address again anyway would be cklisted. But none of those were the real problem. No, that honor went to choice paralysis. For all the people with projects that were interesting intellectually but wouldnt better the world much, if they did any good at all, there were a lot with ideas that could be genuinely world changing. Of course, there would be plenty of those impactful projects that straight up didnt work, or werent as good as they were advertised, but at least some would hopefully help. And then, his mana topped off and he was ready to once more fight a Lich. And once again, thirty minutester. And again and again and a dozen more times, until hed finally gotten what hed been looking for. Aspect of the Lich: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Lich a Lich. Curse your opponent to let you inflict injuries thatst, keep the perfection of your form for all eternity, and more. Or do you wish to fully transcend the limits of mortality, create a Phctery and a skeletal body to live for eternity? Requirements for Activation: 5,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +20 (15 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Magic Power One of the following Skills: Perfect Form Superiority of Undeath Lichs Curse Skeletal Body Manifestation Phctery Creation The [Skills] offered by this Aspect were essentially split into two sets. The first wasprised of [Skeletal Body Manifestation] and [Phctery Creation], whichbined to allow their wielder to change their race into Lich and be almost immortal. Bing a Lich was, in fact, the earliest avable method to be functionally immortal. It was also easily the worst one, given that it came with a ton of drawbacks. The other gave a lot of the same benefits that undeath gave without any of the drawbacks, and those were what he focused on. Two [Skills] to serve as upgrades to his existing Aspect [Skills], and one new one. Perfect Form (epic) The Lich is eternal. The Lich does not degrade. The Lich is perfection. However, the Lichs form can take damage, and as such small chips and cracks mount, eventually, itll lose the lofty descriptor of perfect. And if the transformation into an undying Lich were so limited, no one would choose to follow that path, which is why most people who take it include a kind of insurance policy against such a thing urring. With this Skill, bit by bit, any damage the user suffers will eventually be undone. Barring interference by curses, hostile Skills or the like, and as long as no additional damage is taken, any damage that does not kill the user of this Skill will be undone within a week. [Perfect Form] was a powerful regenerative effect, but only if given enough time. Strangely enough, it was also an ability that the Lich as a monster hadnt had, but then again, the [System] could be weird sometimes. This [Skill] meant that even without spending a ton of mana, he could recover from anything. Eventually. Superiority of Undeath (epic) Needing air, being susceptible to diseases, dying from simple toxins, dropping dead just because of a traumatic injury causing shock mortal bodies suck, dont they? Which is why its important to have a Skill such as this. You will now need barely any air, survive all but the most lethal of toxins, automatically murder any microorganism who try to infect you, your resistance to shock is vastly increased and radiation will not bother you unless you try to go swimming in a nuclear reactors wastewater. In other words, unless something or someone deliberately kills you, you do something incredibly stupid or you are subject to the greatest of natural disasters, nothing will kill you before your time. (Einherjar Bonus: all resistances are 50% more effective) And then there was the second Lich ability. It made one of the [Skills] Isaac had gotten from his fish Aspects superfluous, namely, the one that let him breathe underwater, but that was unavoidable. He hadnt expected to get these undead Aspects as he hadnt known about the Einherjar racial bonus ahead of time, but at the end of the day, it wasnt that big of a deal. He could get several other useful tricks from the fish Aspects hed get from the future and [Superiority of Undeath] let him do a ton more stuff than just cosy as an aquatic animal. It was a simple [Skill], but a damn good one. Which just left thest one. Lichs Curse (epic) Cold, bony fingers reach out from beyond the veil of death to grasp your throat, to squeeze until it feels as though you may never breathe again, until you too will join the being that exists in a ce so innately hostile to the living. This is the sensation of having the curse of a Lich fall upon your shoulders, to have the veil of death surround you while the Grim Reaper takes you by the hand to take you away from this life. Those who are cursed by this Skill lose their natural ability to heal from injuries, their blood will all but refuse to clot, leaving them bleeding profusely from even the most superficial of wounds. Furthermore, the Curse halves the effectiveness of self-healing Skills and makes healing potions almost useless. Cost: 250 mana per target, 50 mana per hour upkeep after the first hour (Einherjar Bonus: magical healing from other people is 200% more expensive upon the cursed) Isaac was a speed-based fighter, able to quickly cause a lot of injuries, but not put a lot of power behind his strikes. A powerful regenerator, or someone who was just damn powerful, would be a pain in the ass for him to deal with. With this [Skill], though, any injuries he inflicted would actually stick. He checked the time and realized it was almost time to go to work, so he briefly looked over his Status and headed over there. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit Species: Einherjar Level: 114 XP: 47,119/1,150,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 2,800/2,800 Stats Fortitude 245 (+20) Perception 400 Strength 290 (+15) Agility 500 Magic Power 270 (+10) Magic Regeneration 500 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXV The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword XIII Grave of Swords XXII Armory of Ancient Times XVII Legacy of a True Warrior XIII Divine Fire VII Skills Hundred Faces XXVII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXVII Manifold Strike XXII Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXII Unknown Fear XXVIII Bestial Regeneration XXVIII Undying Focus XXIV Tools of Terror XX Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XVIII Compounded Impact XVIII True Cut VIII Legendary Blow XVII Fully Geared XII Knightly Leader XVI Analyze Person IX Continent Strider X Burden of Power VII Experts Insight VI Blessing of Innovation III General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XII Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VI Police Procedure VII Healing V Quest Giver II Omniglot (73nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Lindwyrm (2 stack) Lindwyrms Heart Moment of Immortality Least Demon Lord (2 stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Lich (3 stack) Superiority of Undeath Perfect Form Lichs Curse Death Knight (3 stack) Death Knights Endurance Ghostly Armor Armored Echo It was looking perfect. Both Agility and Magic Regeneration had hit five hundred, making him both a literal speed demon and a nuclear power nt for mana. But what really but a grin on his face was the fact that today, theyd be preparing to summon a [Raid Boss] and then, tomorrow, it would be time to get another significant boost. The Salmon of Wisdom might not be particrly dangerous sounding, but they still couldnt take it lightly. It shouldnt be a problem, though, not with Isaacs help. He only remembered to bring lunch to bribe Karl to fix his summoning area once he was halfway to the university, so he had to double back, cook, and ended up beingte for the first time in a long while. Chapter 209: The Most Dangerous Catch Chapter 209: The Most Dangerous Catch The world did not make sense. Isaac did not make sense. He was in a position he was strangely unqualified for, on paper, yet he could do all the things he needed to, yet he had no idea just where hed learned it. However strange the situation might be, this time around, hed ignore it. Hed tried and failed to resist the urge to return his lost knowledge for ten days and thousands of attempts, and while he didnt know exactly what had happened each time, the frustration of his thousandfold failure was the foremost thing in his mind at the moment. Therefore, no matter how much every part of his body might be screaming at him to end this unnatural state right this instant, he managed to avoidpromising his current state and began to think. People were, well, people. There were a lot of good ones, like the people he surrounded himself with on a daily basis, and a lot of less-than-good ones, ranging from assholes to criminals to people whose stupidity was so great that they might as well have been malicious. But did the bad outweigh the good? Would the bad destroy the world? The clearest of Isaacs memories were the ones from the [System], and one specific example jumped out at him. His old boss Mr. Scott. A small little man whod let the tiny amount of power afforded to him as a middle manager go to his head and was the prime example of how ipetent idiots could rise to positions of power and stayed there until they fucked up so majorly that even the most absent andzy superior noticed that this incarnation of ipetence shouldnt even have been in charge of a toilet stall, let alone anything else. Then, there were the greedy people who gave up long-term happiness for themselves and others in exchange for a tiny amount of short-term gains. Greed, ipetence and superpowers. What a wonderfully dangerousbination. Isaac wasnt sure what had made him as pessimistic as he was being right now, and that was disturbing, but even the innocent neen-year-old whod thought that Mr. Scott was an anomaly was convinced that the world was screwed. Monster hordes that even the greatest [Archmages] couldnt face as theyd run out of mana well before they ever even made a dent. [Raid Bosses] that constantly summoned minions through portals. [World Bosses] who they only knew had been summoned because of the [System] messages and that could only be tracked by the devastation they left behind. Alright, that was enough, now he had to know how he knew! hedsted a full two minutes, all in all. A pathetically short amount of time by most peoples standards, but nevertheless a personal best. And something he could build on. He might have already figured out some things, but he still wanted to get more out of it. That was a situation forter, though, the next time he used the [Blessing of Innovation]. Right now, it was time to go fishing for the most dangerous catch of Tier 6. The Tiers after that were incredibly dangerous, even when the monster was basically just a jumped-up fish dinner. But despite the rather silly name andparatively low Tier, the Salmon of Wisdom was plenty nasty. It had taken a long time for them to get ready to confront an aquatic [Raid Boss]. Fighting one in a way that didnt end with the monsters death being counted as environmental damage required it to have enough space to move freely. In other words, a major body of water. Except most natural bodies of water that were big enough were already in some form of use, had nearby homes, or were connected to other bodies of water and therefore risked the damn thing getting away from them. Which meant that an artificialke needed to be constructed. Now, digging a big hole in the ground and adding water was easy enough, taking maybe a week if done by people with the appropriate [Skill]set, but creating an arena that wouldnt turn into a mud pit two seconds into the battle was a great deal harder when you were facing a hydrokic monster. Sure, they might not know if the Salmon had hydrokinesis, but it was a fair guess that a fish would be able to do at least something with water. Isaac left his perch on a hill that overlooked the artificialke and slowly walked down to the preparation area. High Level [Soldiers] were checking their gear one final time, [Mages] were pre-casting every spell they could, the Party system was being set up, a dozen separate and ovepping Parties ensuring that a single death or severe injury wouldnt leave them all up shit creek, and [Artillery Officers] were checking the firing arcs of their weapons. All in all, this shouldnt be that big of a deal. A Tier 6 [Raid Boss] had a maximum Level of 45, which meant that the highest-Level people here were almost triple its Level. Hell, there wasnt a single person within twenty kilometers who wasnt at least at the Third Evolution. Sure, with a [Raid Boss], that wasnt saying as much as it would with a normal monster or another human, but it was still a significant power difference. If it had been up to Isaac, hed have gone after this thing with just the team, but if hed tried that, thered have been hell to pay. Even with their reputation, [Raid Bosses] were nothing to fuck around with. Final check, sound off by unit. Brigadegeneral Horn ordered. Hed been in charge of the military side of the Hamburg incident and managed to use the sess in that endeavor to put himself in charge of the [Raid Boss] summoning project. Artillery, ready. Bulwark units, ready. Magic support, ready. And so on. A dozen different units, each reporting their readiness to engage inbat. One of the oddest summoning circles ever built activated, a massive assembly of pool noodles floating in the center of theke bursting apart in a shower of water droplets and stic fragments as a truly titanic salmon manifested, twenty-five meters long. The water eruption looked rather normal at first like anyke would after an objectrger than a blue whale had been dropped into it. Just disced liquid flying through the air it was only when the waters arc stretched unnaturally long that it became clear something was very wrong. When the sshes of water shaped into spears, everyone realized that something was very wrong. And then, they something that was literally impossible. Water, hell, all true liquids were functionally ipressible, it certainly should not have been able to, from one second to the next, only take up a tenth of its original space. Beneath the crown of water spears, beneath the surface of theke, mana was gathering, shaping into hundreds of mana darts, making the salmon look like a titanic, elongated, pufferfish. But the first salvo was already in the air while the fishs attacks were still being shaped. Depth charges detonated by the hundreds, having been emced before the monster had been summoned. The countless shockwaves hammered into the monster, the water transmitting them wonderfully. The pop of the swim dder being destroyed could be heard even over the sound of the artillery firing. Countless shells hit the water beside the fish or exploded as they hit the surface of theke, but the vast majority hammered home, tearing the fishs skin and dyeing the water red. Of course, the Salmon wasnt about to let itself be blown apart without fighting back. The spears wereunched like bullets, sting through the air at speeds that most people couldnt follow and hammered into the surroundingnd. Shields flicked up, many blocking projectiles, but more shattered like ss against the [Raid Boss] opening salvo. A split second the hyperpressed water impacted, the force keeping it in its unnatural state ended, causing the projectiles to explode. In ces where the original spears had missed, the result was merely an explosion of mud that drenched all those nearby. But when the spears were stuck in artillery pieces or, gods forbid, people, the result was far messier. The shards from wrecked machines werent moving quickly enough to inflict any real damage, thankfully, but the three unfortunate souls with water suddenly erupting from their wounds were in real trouble. Liquid forced into punctured blood vessels, the abdominal cavity, the lungs the only reason they lived for more than a few seconds was one of the [Brigadegenerals] [Skills]. Magic swept away the injured to the healers, shields were dropped to open up the lines of fire again, and the formation was shifted around to ount for a repeat performance of the original strike. Mana-forged needles burst from theke in a vast dome, hammering into shields and tearing into anyone and anything that wasnt properly protected. The second attack had beenprised of projectiles that were far smaller, but infinitely more numerous. The damage to the ground alone had been devastating, hard-packed dirt turning into a loose, churned-up mess that would trip up anyone. As for the side of theke itself, the heavy concrete reinforcements ensured that nothing broke away. Having an entire hillside slide into theke would have been bad, to say the least. With its opening attacksunched, the Salmon began to move, dodging attacks and sweeping its tail up and out of the water, aquatic projectiles manifesting out of the resulting spray and inflicting even more damage to the people on the outside. As it zig-zagged through the water, it continuouslyunched mana attacks, salvos of mana darts with the asionalrger spear thrown in, forcing people to either erect shields or hastily dodge. The real issue was that the water represented one hell of a barrier, slowing down projectiles, cooling down fireballs and the light refraction was wreaking holy havoc upon their targeting. Sure, the artillerymen knew to ount for that, but it was still not easy to deal with a situation so entirely different from what one had trained with. Should melee engage yet? the question came for the third time, but Isaacs answer was a resounding no. This particr [Raid Boss] was best dealt with at range, its entire moveset built for keeping enemies at a distance. And with how well shockwaves were transmitted through the water, having people engaging in meleebat would preclude them from using any artillery. But they were well on their way to getting to a point where they could engage for the coup de grace. Without an intact swim dder, the Salmon had to use its hydrokinesis topensate for the loss of buoyancy control and it was quite a bit slower than it could have been. A ray of energy too bright to look at speared the beasts tail when it breached the surface for another ssh attack, burning off the monsters primary means of lotion, when Karl finally got a good shot. That was the end of its proper movement. Hydrokinesis could substitute for its original movement mode in a pinch, but that was slower and burning through its mana at an rming rate. Coupled with the fact that various earth maniptors were shrinking the size of theke, it was rapidly being hemmed in, unable to dodge, and being torn apart. At least that was how things were supposed to work. Isaac hadnt really been able to veto the n without revealing more than he wanted to. Sure, if he said I dont think it would be a good idea, Habicht, Bailey, and the rest of the team would get the hint and drop the idea. Sadly, that n had already passed so many desks that squashing it without revealing that he already knew the [Raid Boss] moveset was impossible. The best hed been able to do was make ns topensate for what was sure to follow. As it turned out, the Salmon of Wisdom was a bit ustrophobic. The fish wanted its space and when people tried to take that away it reacted. Violently. A good fifth of the water in theke sloshed out of it in a titanic tidal way that washed across thend, straight at the nearest body of water that wasnt theke theyd summoned it in. Artillery pieces, the crews manning the equipment, all of it was in severe danger of being washed away. Except Isaac had started moving the instant he could have conceivably realized what was going on, rocketing towards the monster on a pir of fire, switching the mes out for a mixture of burning magnesium and hellfire, a nasty littlebination that had no problem with burning underwater, at thest second. When he was a hairs-breadth from pancaking against the water cocoon at hypersonic speeds, he activated [I Am The Sword], a mingnce piercing the cocoon, the fish, and the hill the water was crawling up, leaving behind a trail of unholy fire that ate away at the monsters vital organs. Being a [Raid Boss], the Salmon of Wisdom was not going to die from something as insignificant as having its brain lit on fire, but it still had topensate for the damage. Isaac took this time to shoot into the air on the other side of the hill hed flown through, thene back down like a meteor. [Wave Charge] let him move through any non-solid medium so he used that to pierce the water shell a second time, then slowed himself to a dead stop by detonating all the fire on his body right in the fishs face. And finally, his every sword manifested in its [Skill] and magic-damaging Astral Piercer form, then drove the whole lot into every opening he could find. The one-two punch of rocketing straight through the monster and then punching it in the face with an explosion might have done the trick all on its own, but the disruptive des turned the probably into a definitely. The water bubble popped as the fish was too distracted to keep a hold of it and this left the three-hundred-ton fish very much stranded, two hundred meters from the nearest artillery battery. Out of the water and with vastly restricted movement, it was an easy target. Throw in the fact that with the fish no longer being submerged, the shockwaves from artillery were no longer such an issue and, well, that was the fight. A new shell of water was beginning to crawl out of theke and mana projectiles continued to hammer into anything within line of sight, but the fish was done. Shells hammered into the Salmons wounds, its eyes, its mouth, they even slipped inside its gills and tore apart the incredibly fragile flesh there. Mages bombarded anything and everything that looked even remotely like it might hurt. Melee fighters zipped in, unleashed their strongest attacks in the gaps between artillery salvos, all coordinated by the general. Before the water could reach even halfway towards the fish, it was already dead. That was easy. Patrickmented, catching an elbow from Amy a secondter Really? Youre afraid of jinxes? Were scientists, and superstition is decidedly not scientific. My point is, wasnt this a bit too easy for a [Raid Boss]? We still dont know how [Raid Bosses] scale across the Tiers. Bailey pointed out At Tier 6, theyre just very tough monsters with area attacks. Theyre probably going to get a lot more nasty soon. Well, they did know exactly how they scaled, but it wasnt like he could say that in the here and now. Also, outlevelling them like this isnt going to be possible for long. Isaac pointed out The Level 100 wall means that well have to wait years to have a simr advantage against Tier 7s, and if there is a Level cap, well be fighting Tier 10s at level parity. Around the talking scientists, Isaac could see soldiers nch. Presumably, they were already picturing having to go up against those high-Tier monsters. He couldnt me them for being unhappy with the possibility, though. When shit hit the fan, theyd be the ones who had to clean up the mess. Sure, there would always be volunteers to help, and high-Level ones at that, but those were volunteers, there by choice. The soldiers had to be there, no matter what, unable to choose whether or not to follow orders, even if they ended up going on what amounted to a suicide mission. What the hell just happened? Horn asked using the party chat Arent monsters supposed to stick around until their summoners are dead? Seems like this one is squirrely. Someonemented. Do we have the capacity to summon a few more so we can test what triggers that flight attempt? Bailey asked. Isaac could practically hear the General grimace as he responded Yes, a couple more, though we might have to see if we can get recement artillery from somewhere. Yeah, that tracked. People were easy to fix, just add healing energy and that was the end of it. Machines were finicky. First though, lunch, Isaac said. And as if that word had been the magic word summoning a genie cook, Caroline Ulrich ran past him like a bat out of hell. She normally ran a food truck on the universitys campus and experimented with monster meat that they gave her in exchange for free food, but when they expected to eat a monster they fought away from the university, she came along. Watching a high-Level [Cook] work was interesting. A single sweep of a kitchen knife removed dirt from the carcass everywhere but the bottom of the monster. A second yed the scales. The third hacked apart the monster, countless fillets flying through the air until floated in midair, awaiting use. Five minutester, Isaac, the team, and several others were munching on Salmon sushi until eventually, the awaited message popped up. Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Nine Hazelnuts once fell into a well, the Well of Wisdom. A Salmon ate these hazelnuts, gaining all the knowledge in the world. And then, humans hunted down this Salmon for its power, devouring it like the monsters they are. The holders of this Skill gain 5% faster Mana Regeneration. Upgrading this Skill requires the user to kill and eat stronger versions of the Salmon of Wisdom. The description was incredibly bare-bones and more than a little insulting, but it got the point across. There existed a Salmon of Wisdom [Raid Boss] in every Tier from 6 onwards and each would improve mana regeneration by five percent more than the previous, stacking for a grand total of 75% faster mana regeneration. An incredible boon if could survive long enough to gain it. Right now though, he had to deal with the usual trouble that followed a sessful [Raid Boss] kill. Having to kill one in his [Grave of Swords], then enduring all the various requests to show up at a military base for some of the soldiers there to train on the safe monster. Then getting enough resources to spread them around to various people. And finally, filling out enough paperwork that by the end of it, hed be convinced that no torturer could evere up with something as twisted as the Byzantine maze that was the German bureaucracy. Chapter 210: The Round Table Convenes Chapter 210: The Round Table Convenes The [Round Table] had changed when it had hit Level 10. What had once been merely a powerful way to share ones abilities had now be the mother of all covertmunication [Skills]. Any member could mentally enter the separate space that existed solely within the [System],pletely impossible to eavesdrop. There were plenty of abilities that allowed for magicalmunication, of course. [Message] spells, magically manifested radio sets, arcane encryption, the list went on and on, but those still worked in the real world, with there being some kind of emission to track. This space existed wholly within the [System], impossible to affect from Earth, inessible to anyone not a part of this group. In other words, they couldnt be overheard no matter what. The only issue was that for there to be sessfulmunication, they needed to be in the space, which required some careful arrangements ahead of time for face to face meetings, considering how busy everyone was. And using phones or other more easily trackable means ofmunication to coordinate would give away the [Skills] existence pretty damn quickly. In the end, theyd resorted to checking the ce daily and using the provided paper to leave notes for each other. They couldnt be taken out of the space, but they did allow for secretmunication. And then, across all their busy schedules, theyd finally managed toe together in one ce, to talk securely for the first time in a long time. The meeting room itself was an immense castle hall straight out of an epic fantasy movie. Banners hung along the walls, each a [System]-generated symbol representing one of the members of the round table. Arthur had a traditional knights heraldry, Elena had an almost scarybination of white seafoam, the peaceful surface of ake and the very darkest depths of the ocean, and Isaacs was a clock, floating above a sea of blood with a pair of crossed swords behind it. As impressive as those were, though, there could be no doubt as to what was the most important thing in the room. A massive table in the center of the hall, an immense stone b that would have weighed several tons in the real world, four meters across. The granite-colored surface was sparsely iid with a simple gold andpiszuli pattern that subdivided it into thirteen areas, each bearing the name of the person meant to sit there. These nametes were randomly swapped around every day to promote the tables idea of all are equal. They were always going to be around different people, clique forming was going to be prevented, and no one could ever be stuck with the position at the door. Isaac was the first one here, and as he waited, he looked over the small parchment list hanging next to the entrance. Round Table of Camelot Member Assigned Shade Arthur Wells none Elena Hightower Arthur Wells Steff Cooke none Adam Bailey none Seon Yoo-jin none Franz Habicht none Isaac Thoma Seon Yoo-jin Fenrir Olgeirsson none Han Junu Steff Cooke Amelia Shaw none Jason North Amelia Shaw [Empty Slot] [Empty Slot] Eleven of the thirteen slots were filled, thest two still waiting receive a worthy person. The first three members were Camelots own headliners, the Returned King, the Fairy of the Deep, and the Living de. Then, of course, there was good old Professor Bailey, whod earned his ce a thousand times over. Franz Habicht, a member of an exemryw enforcement group and one of the global authorities when it came to anti-monster response. The fact that Seon Yoo-jin, the Guildmaster of the Korean Hunters Guild was only one of themost famous people at the Round Table was a testament to the sheer quality of people that had been recruited. Initially, hed been the head of the Dungeon Guild, but hed started running disaster drills after the meeting at the Starhail Bar and decided to rename his organization. Then there was Isaac himself. The next person was one Isaac and Arthur had only briefly met in this timeline, but that had been all that was required. Fenrir Olgeirsson had been one of the people whod assumed the end was nigh when the [System] had appeared, so hed gathered a solid group of people and run off to Antarctica under the assumption that ces withrge concentrations of people were the most likely to turn into hellholes. When the world hadnt ended, well, theyd just decided to stay, and train. When Arthur and Isaac had shown up on his door, telling him that hed been absolutely right, just early, hed joined in a heartbeat. Fenrir was a lot. He was the kind of person whod drive halfway across the county in the middle of the night for a friend, but so, well, loud, that youd wonder why you were ever friends with him after spending five minutes together. Even so, Isaac was beyond happy to have him as a part of all this. Han Junu was another man whod jumped at the chance to help make the world a better ce once hed understood what was at stake. Amy had joined just a few weeks ago as it had taken Arthur that long to decide whether to add her or Patrick. And then there was theirtest member, Jason North. He was an interesting person, one of the few members that Isaac hadnt known from the other timeline. However, several people working on finding the cult had encountered him, with the coincidences mounting until Isaac had finally asked Zambon to look into him. As it turned out, he was a typical victim of [Rogue] induced Edgelord syndrome, but unusually enough, he also had a good head on his shoulders. An analytical mind to rival Isaac, dogged determination to match Arthur and investigative skills that had impressed even Habicht. Of course, he also had his fair share of ws, specifically, the ck leather wearing and alleyway skulking kind, but he was still a solid addition. So, after running him through every background check avable, theyd decided to officially invite him. Norht was one of the few people whod grabbed the [Rogue] [ss] and stuck with it all the way to the fourth Evolution, never specializing into any aspect of it. Early in the game, [Rogue] was pretty much the strongestmon [ss]. [Warriors] couldnt ignore a knife to throat yet, [Mages]cked their detection spells, and Healers were not yet in a position to fix lethal injuries with a wave of their hands. [Stealth] was functionallyplete invisibility, [Hundred Faces] was enough to fool almost anyone unless you were trying to impersonate someones spouse, and the various de-rted [Skills] made normal knives capable of bypassing any armor one was likely to encounter. Later on, the functionality of that overall power-set fell off. [Skills] to heal from or straight up ignore lethal attacks meant that someone intending to be a de in the dark had to be an [Assassin]. Stealing stuff required a bunch of anti-tracking abilities to be effective. Sneaking around, especially considering the existence of sensory [Auras], required more than light footfalls and near-invisibility. In other words, making a powerset that general work was pretty difficult, but North had managed it. In Isaacs mind, that alone qualified him as an expert in the field of general sneaking around. Hey, Doc! a boisterous voice called from next to Isaac, who was still staring at the parchment. Isaac internally rolled his eyes as he turned to face the neer. Hi Fenrir. He said, craning his back to look at the mans face. The der was one of thergest non-giant people Isaac had ever seen and tended to dominate most rooms he entered even before he opened his mouth. So, I hear you had some trouble with a fish? Fenrir asked, pping Isaac on the back as he began to walk towards the center of the room Tell me everything. It wasnt trouble. Isaac shook his head The Salmon of Wisdom is squirrely as hell and we kept having to chase it down when it decided its pool wasnt big enough. Cleaning up the fish guts, on other hand Im really d someone else did that. Sounds like something that the people who pissed off theirmanding officer would have to do. Fenrirmented. Is that what you do when theres trouble? Cleaning duties? The big man shrugged Our biggest disciplinary problem is people deciding to adopt penguins. Toilet duty seems appropriate. Isaac nodded. They ended up chatting for a bit as the rest arrived. Arthur was the first to sit down, a broad and weing smile on his face, both hands resting palm down on the table. Thanks foring, everyone. Its been too long. Isaac nodded So, whats everyone been up to? Another five or so minutes were spent on exchanging pleasantries, then, they went onto the meat of the matter, starting with progress reports. and weve spent thest several months kicking around Tier 6 [Raid Bosses] like footballs. Fenrir finished It was good training in the beginning, but now, its honestly having the opposite effect, people are getting bored. He winked at Bailey Maybe someone get started on normalizing Tier 7 [Raid Bosses]? Were working on it. Bailey said. When Fenrir looked at the professor expectantly, he shrugged and gave his own report. Basically, weve been exploring the eighth Tier for normal monsters and the sixth for [Raid Bosses] and now were getting ready to see what Tier 7 boss monsters looks like. The usual. Then, he reached under the table and brought out a jar of what looked like jelly beans, taking advantage of a very useful property of this space that allowed those present to create props. Evenptops and projectors were possible, though so far, those hadnt been needed. And a couple of our researchers made these. Theyre spatially folded edible potion vials. Just pop one into your mouth and bite down. They each contain a normal potion vials worth of liquid, and for all practical intents and purposes, theyre equal to a standard dose of whatever potion you fill them with. Where can I get them? Yoo-jin asked immediately, only a split-second ahead of the others around the table. Were in the process of finalizing the announcement. The dean wants to brag about it properly. Bailey replied with a wry smile Well send each of you an entire crates worth of these as soon as the meeting is over. But I do have to warn you, theyre a bit of a chocking hazard. Were not children. Fenrir said acerbically. Amy chuckled As it turns out, theyre a problem even for some adults. If you bite down on one, and your mouth floods with liquid without being fully closed She winked at Isaac, who had to resort to [Hundred Faces] to avoid flushing in embarrassment. That particr episode was one of dumber things hed done in this lifetime. Hed checked the potion, it was safe. Hed checked the volume, it wasnt big enough to injure him. The casing wasnt toxic. The spatial warp was so weak that it literally couldnt do anything other than fail. Thered been literally nothing dangerous but hed been so focused on making sure it was safe that hed forgotten to keep his lips sealed, which had resulted in him spilling half the potion down his front. They work perfectly in abat scenario, theyre easy to ess, you can ce them inside bracers, even in false teeth. Isaac exined to try and distract from the embarrassing topic. The healing beans are the pinnacle of alchemy, just remember, always, always keep your mouth fully closed before biting down. Amy reminded the group. Isaac just rolled his eyes and tried to move the conversation onwards. Alright, what about the investigation team? he asked Where are we at finding the cult? We North began, only to stop talking when everyone turned to him Maybe someone else should take this? Habicht shrugged I mostly know about the German side of the investigation and Ive been incredibly busy in thest week, and Dr. Han is mostly helping in the background. Right this second, youve got the best overview over the situation. North cleared his throat and looked around nervously before finally giving a full and proper report. Basically, weve been hunting down every possible lead we can find and unfortunately, its been tough. Once a part of theirwork has been uncovered, they cut and run, abandoning entire nations. There isnt a single member left in Germany or the UK, and believe me, weve looked. None of the leads recovered after the raids panned out after around a week. The members uncovered were either dead, or they vanished into thin air after that. These guys are scary thorough. [All See] is helping, but were dealing with information thats too divorced from our targets for it to really help. But based on Dr. Thomas investigator and the stuff I found before joining the round table, we have been able to take several actions against the cults Canadian branch. Weve managed to avoid spooking them enough to retaliate or jump ship so far, but weve gotten a ton of information so far. Its not been very useful, I know North trailed off, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. As capable as he was when out in the field, this was a situation he wasnt veryfortable in. Every other action against these guys turned into a clusterfuck of epic proportions. Arthur pointed out Hamburg is still being fixed and I had to stop a zombie apocalypse. Less information in exchange for not causing a catastrophe is a great tradeoff. Thanks. North said awkwardly Thats it, by the way. I dont have anything important left. Does anyone have any more ideas for who should be our thirteenth member? Arthur asked. Too many to mention. Isaac said Id have known in the other timeline, but in this one, too many things have changed and all I have are a ton of candidates. Theres also the problem that I only know a fraction of the important people in this timeline. He nodded towards North We dont want to focus so much on chasing a ghost that we miss the very real situation in front of us. North looked like he wanted to melt into the shadows, but thankfully, he held off. There are several highly capable members of the Hunters Guild that would be a worthy addition, but none as impactful as the people already here, Yoo-jin said. Same here. Habicht said, I know plenty of good people, but no one who created a group with the firepower to rival some militaries from scratch or investigated a cult on his own and achieved more than mostw enforcement agencies. Fenrir just shrugged My guys are good, but they wouldnt add anything we dont already have. And so on, and so forth. What about the joint training exercises? Isaac asked, Whats the status on that front? Im damn d Germany and South Korea were already strong allies when all this started, otherwise, it would be damn near impossible to arrange things. Habicht said As it stands, our political overlords still want to keep our tricks all to ourselves. Hell, theyre already pissed about how you give away your training [Skills] internationally, but they know they cant control you and theyre too afraid of you running away to Korea to put any real pressure on you. That bad? Yoo-jin asked Its going decently well on my end. Were trying to avoid revealing our real trump cards, but overall, were waiting on your political overlords toe to their senses. Ah yes, the difference between someone in charge of a vast organization directly answerable only to the very top of their government and someone who was only a group leader, no matter how prestigious said team might be. Elena and the pair of them headed over into one area of the room to discuss by coordinating without anyone knowing might help to make the joint training exercises happen. The rest, meanwhile, were discussing personalbat tactics and other less stuff that was less big picture. Then, something disturbed Isaac. While within this space, they were essentially astral projecting, but to prevent that from being a security risk, the [Skill] gave those within the mother of all danger sense abilities. In fact, even Isaac was more likely to notice something was amiss while within this space than while out there, actively sweeping his surroundings. However, it also let the user know about things that he might want to know about, be it a news alert or a pet cat wanting scritches. This time, it was the former. Isaac pulled most of his attention out of the [Round Table] and focused on his phone. City Rising from the South Pacific Hed waiting to see if that would happen in this timeline. After all hed changed so many things. But now, it had finally risen, confirming once and for all that this city existed in this timeline. Chapter 211: The Eldritch City Chapter 211: The Eldritch City The city had gone by many names in its lifetime. Rlyeh, after a certain story from the pen of HP Lovecraft, had been its original name. Antis had been what the media dubbed it, and it had stuck as a nickname The City was another moniker it had earned, purely out of respect, as some people regarded it as being thecity, better than all others. Others referred to it in less thanplimentary terms, such as Tortuga. After all, plenty of frowned-upon services were also avable for purchase. And now, it was here. Isaac had waited almost two years for this thing to finallye to pass, and now, it had done so. Was it a good thing? Maybe, maybe not, but this was his chance to figure it out. When an incredibly strange-looking city had risen from the ocean at the South Pacifics pole of inessibility in the other timeline, people would have freaked out if it hadnt been for the public announcement that this very thing was about to happen. Thered still been quite a bit of chaos, obviously, but it had beenrgely mitigated. And then, the city had just sat there. Rlyeh, named after the city from HP Lovecrafts story, Call of Cthulhu, in all its non-Euclidian glory, though that really just meant there wasnt a straight line to be found anywhere in the ce. On the outside, at least. The insides of the buildings were properly designed for functionality, rather than being a nightmare of curvilinear architecture. People lived there, after all, and its founders werent willing to go quite that far for the sake of the reference. In the other timeline, Rlyeh had been a neutral party, a ce for peaceful exchange of goods and services, open to all save the most heinous of criminals. It being positioned as far away from anyndmass as was physically possible without leaving the certainly helped give the impression that it was above the normal squabbles of humanity. Simply raising an ind from the ocean floor in international waters and dering yourself a sovereign nation was more than a little iffy from a legal standpoint, but then again,tely,ws were being written, re-written, and discarded on a daily basis,tely. Something about how the magic that now infused everything was seriously changing things? So even though raising a huge stink about the situation would have been perfectly possible and legal, it didnt really happen. Enough people in power at least epted that the city was there to stay that it did so nearly unmolested. And those who did throw a temper tantrum were simply banned from doing business there, even through intermediaries. On the surface, the citys appearance had been a good thing. It had also been aplete and utter surprise to everyone, even though such a massive project should have involved so many people that the chance of everyone keeping their mouths shut bordered on the impossible. And wasnt there some other kind of ghostly organization that was practically impossible to detect? Simply put, the existence of Rlyeh in the other timeline was something that had been nagging at Isaac ever since hed found the cult in this one. Sure, Rlyeh hadnt caused any trouble, but it was also not something he could investigate given that he didnt know whod been behind it. Hell, as far as he knew, his existence could have butterflied the whole thing away and it was doomed to forever remain a mystery. He hadnt even known enough to put Zambon on the case. The people whod been put in charge of the ce werent the ones whod founded it, things hadnt been that easy. Someone had built it and then found the right people among the S-Rankers of the world to lead it. From a practical standpoint, it had worked, but it had also concealed the driving forces behind everything. So why would someone go through all the trouble to raise an ind in a location where the ocean had an average depth of over 4 kilometers, going as deep as 7 kilometers in some ces? What was the benefit? As it turned out, there were two. First, the city was a ce for people to leave behind the old world, to live in a ce that worked with the [System], rather than desperately trying to function in the changed situation. And secondly, Rlyeh was a ce of trade, for anything. The only thing that was banned were trades for the purpose of funding terrorists activities. A smattering of trade embargoes was also honored, but most were ignored. So, had someone decided to create a ce to make trades that werent possible elsewhere, but hadnt wanted that information bandied around? That had been one of the going theories in the other timeline. But now, Isaac had a different theory. What if the strange city had been a holdover from the time of magic? Hed checked the location where it would rise and hadnt found anything, but if this really was an ancient piece of magic, it was entirely possible hed just missed it due to not knowing what to look for. Rlyeh was a weird ce, really. Aside frommon sense rules, such as dont kill, dont steal, dont cheat, and rapists get castrated, there really werent too manyws. But thosews were efficiently and thoroughly enforced. They there was very little crime there, but if someone used you of something, there was very little privacy either. Of course, deliberately making false usations wouldnd you in a world of trouble. But until the facts of the matter sunk in, the situation was going to be messy. However, all of that applied to the other timelines Rlyeh. The one that looked normal-ish, had been announced ahead of time to avoid rming the whole bloody world when the ocean suddenly boiled and spat out a nightmarish construct. This city, on the other hand, looked like something out of a fever dream, and even more rming, it was early. It should have taken far longer for the city to be created, yet it was here already. Isaac sent his focus back into the round table and told everyone about the situation, then took off. Fetch his assistants, Raul and Patrick from the university, [Continent Striders] portal to Seoul, five minutes of negotiation to borrow several more [Portal Mages], and some extra personnel, a second [Continent Strider] had burned most of his remaining stored use time but taken them all the way to New Zend, and then, a portal chain from the [Mages] brought them across the ocean to reach the city. All in all, it had taken him less than ten minutes to cover almost twenty-thousand kilometers, and now he was standing on an ice floe Patrick had conjured, right in front of the city of legend. With him were four other S-Rankers, his two assistants, Dr. Han, and five borrowed [Portal Mages], though he sent the various spatial magic users back through the chain of portals, all the way back to New Zend. They would have been in a lot of danger if this didnt go peacefully. And if the group who stayed had to run, they didnt need to escape all the way to the nearestndmass, they just had to get away. If shit hit the fan, both Patrick and Raul knew [Portal], though theycked a [Portal Mages] full set of range-boosting [Skills]. The group wasnt quite at the level hed wanted it at, but Bailey and Amy had been away on a conference, and Karl was off with the rest of the mad scientists experimenting with something that couldnt safely be tested near people. Fetching Arthur and Elena would have taken too long and Yoo-jin had gotten caught up in the political arguments about how to respond and was unable toe himself, though hed sent two of South Koreas S-Rankers along with Isaac and promised to show up with a full raid party if the situation didnt resolve soon. So that left him, Raul, Patrick, Dr. Han and his magically empowered Pitbull, Yi Yushin, the S-Rank [Wielder of Mythos] and Hak Jae-Hwan, a [System Researcher] from Seoul university Isaac had met a while ago. All in all, unless they found themselves face to face with a Tier 8 [Raid Boss], things should be fine, emphasis on the should. Isaac lead the way, his sensory [Aura] sweeping through every inch of the ce, Balmung already summoned and ready to chop apart anything that showed its face. Patrick, meanwhile, was in the rear, using his own [Aura] to ensure nothing was sneaking up on them. Rauls two pets, Birsa the Microraptor and the Sr Dragon Aurelian, were circling overhead while Hans Pitbull had grown to the size of draft horse and was circling the group protectively. Patrick and Hak were both casting protective spell after protective spell, wrapping the group in a shell that would have stood off anything short of a nuclear st, and even that might be survivable as long as they werent at ground zero. Yi, meanwhile was just behind Isaac, arrow already on his bow as he critically examined everything in sight. He didnt have a sensory [Aura], which meant his detection was line of sight only, but he had Perception and perception-boosting [Skills] to rival Isaac. As a group, they were very heavily invested into ranged and magicalbat, but nothing would be able to sneak up on them undetected and the sheer amount of firepower at their fingertips would shred anything that attacked before it got too close. And you said that this isnt like the city you knew? Han asked, using a party chat that didnt include Hak and Yi. The pair hadnt exactly been happy about being kept out of the loop, but the Guildmaster had apparently told them that there were factors in y that needed to stay secret and that they just needed to ept that. No. Isaac said, never ceasing his scanning for even a second It looked a lot like this, but it was a ce you could live in. And it was created by people, it didnt appear from nowhere. Did you ever see proof of how it was made? Han pressed and if the situation hadnt been so serious, Isaac would have facepalmed. It was useful to have someone just as suspicious as himself around. You think they found this ce, renovated it to the point where it looked manmade, and then used that as a base? Isaac asked. Han nodded. As a hypothesis, it exined the some of the weirdness, but it threw up a million more questions. Just looking around was enough to make anyones skin crawl. Shadows were not supposed to move like that, nor should they exist without anything to, you know, throw a shadow. When the [System] had arrived, it had made it so that such a phenomenon was easily exinable by magic, except there was no magic in y here. Dead end, were turning around, Isaac said as they reached the end of an alleyway after turning a left corner. But when they headed back, the corner was, once more, a leftturn. But it should have be a right turn, now that they were passing it from the opposite side. I swear, I kept my eyes on that thing the whole time. Patrick said It didnt move. I believe you. Isaac assured him Theres one more thing were going to try, then were going to leave this ce and take a break. He very deliberately did not take note of the others sighs of relief. Dr. Han, please use your [Skills]. The man nodded and whispered [All See] the [Kingdom Come]. Two [Skills] to break tyrannical governments. One to reveal hidden things, dangerous and disruptive secrets that would trigger a revolution. A second to lead the way to a better future. Yi let loose a string of profanity a secondter and Han swiftly excluded him from both [Skills] effects. Do you have a mental fortitude [Skill]? Isaac asked and Yi shook his head miserably. I can handle the normal things, barely. If I have that much more information to deal with Isaac nodded I understand. You wont have toe back in with us. He was pretty certain that Han had some kind of mental protection [Skill], in fact, it was almost guaranteed that he had one, given his background. Isaac himself had one in [Undying Focus]. And the other three had had [System Researcher] as their first Evolution and he knew for a fact that it had a general mental shielding ability. Which left the poor archer the most vulnerable to their current circumstances. But now that the issue with the pair of mental boosting [Skills] was done, they could focus on getting the most out of them. The city still looked like a fever dream, but now, the state of things was visible. To be entirely honest, that made things even worse. The weird corner theyd did, in fact, turn both left and right at the same time. The shadows were being thrown by things, except these things hadnt existed for them until now. In fact, Isaac thought that maybe it was the shadows themselves that were making the objects creating shade exist, not the other way around. So even though the weirdness factor had now doubled, this ce was now navigable. Combine that with the fact that [Kingdom Come] was leading the way, and they were able to reach the center of the city in short order. I recognize this ce. Isaac told those in the know its Rlyehs central za. The registration office was on the left side of the street on the opposite end of the square, the central spire was the administrative center and that series of holes there had food stalls. What the heck changed? As informative as this had already been, [Kingdom Come] wasnt quite done with them. A hole that Isaac hadnt known was there was located under what would have be the stairway to the admin center, leading into the guts of the city. Isaac tool a moment to peer over the edge and extended his [Aura] into it. There wasnt anything to see there, really. Just dying nt life and tunnels. So many tunnels. Wereing back here after weve rested and recovered. He decided. Now that hed been here, he was pretty sure he could find his way back here, spatial fuckery be damned. As they left, he kept thinking about Hans idea. Why would someone want to go through all the trouble of using this ce? Sure, raising a city from the seafloor wasnt easy, but neither was turning this eldritch hellscape into something that wasnt just inhabitable, but didnt reveal to anyone that the base city was, in fact, ancient. But was this ce even ancient? Was it possible that it had been built like this initially, then made livable? Hed seen several spots that looked almost brand new amidst the algae-covered streets and buildings, but considering how screwy everything about this ce was, how much stock could he really put in that? And algae grew quickly, who could tell if the slick muck covering almost every surface had been there for months, or millennia? For that matter, did algae grow normally in this ce? And so on, and so forth. The usual mess when dealing with the Eldritch. Eventually, a different thought began to creep in, intrusively worming its way into the forefront of his thoughts. What if this ce was both the things he knew it to be? The city from the other timeline, built by human hands, and the Eldritch hellscape he was currently trudging through? What if the entire city had been a well disguised trap, a ce built upon a foundation that took the very concept of logic and broke it over its knee? The various consequences of living in such a ce would have been greatly diminished if you couldnt see the darkness lurking underneath, but it didnt have to be at full power. Not when people spent so much more time in a supposedly safe, independent city. But then what was the end goal? Slowly drive people crazy and be done with it? What was the bloody point? People came here to get away from their old homes, the suffocating rules and regtions. Often, these were legitimate grievances, but you also had your fair share of kooks who felt that rules like no building high explosives in your garage were tyrannical. Take people from thetter group, put them in a ce that slowly strips away whatever sanity they have left, and you end up with a collection of individuals primed to wreak havoc upon the very foundation of society. But that was a bit of a reach, wasnt it? Was he normally this paranoid? If yes, how the hell was he still functioning after all this time? Isaac decided that perhaps, he was being a bit crazy about the situation. Then again, thinking back his self-control slipped as he muttered several nasty curses under his breath. Paranoia was, per definition, irrational. Isaac, on the other hand, had several very real and very concerning things he needed to be wary of, which meant he was not paranoid, thankfully. A minute after that, they reached the edge of the city and straight into utter chaos. The sea outside the city had be considerably more crowded since theydst seen it. Ships of all shapes and sizes awaited them, ranging from several military vessels that Isaac recognized as belonging to one of the United States Marine Expeditionary Units. Then, there were various speedboats, a couple of yachts, and even an ancient Greek trireme. Precisely none of them could have already arrived without the help of powerful [Skills]. Either the new arrivals or their backers had to be capable. For example, the Marine Expeditionary Units had to have been propelled forwards by a strategic relocation [Skill] akin to, well, [Strategic Relocation], which had a cooldown of around a year. No one here was pulling any punches, and no one here wascking in power. Patrick waved his hand and turned a chunk of ocean into an ice floe that wasrge enough to be stable, with a rough surface to prevent it from being slippery and they all stepped on. Reaching into his storage space, Isaac pulled out a series of folding chairs and a table out of his storage ring. Hed gotten one for stuff he used often but could afford to lose and didnt want cluttering up his true storage space. Well, that happened. Raul finally broke the silence after all the various privacy abilities had been used. How long until we go back? Yi asked nervously. He was a very capable fighter and overall one of the most exemry members of the human race, but fighting to preserve ones sanity in the face of utter unreality was something entirely unlike what hed faced so far. Like I said, you dont have to. Isaac reassured him Well find someone with [Skills] better suited to the situation. And what do we do now? Han asked, That ce needs to be explored, there are just too many things that could be a threat. Were going to explore that hole once everyones had a chance to recover, Isaac said Weve swept the surface well enough to know there are no big monsters or extremely nasty traps present there, we can leave that to the neers. Then, Raul, Patrick and Hak began to discuss how long the city must have been underwater for. It certainly hadnt slowly risen through the waves, that would have altered the currents and been noticeable, which meant that any construction work would have had to happen at the bottom of the ocean, several kilometers beneath the surface. Which threw up another problem. Algae didnt grow that deep underwater, so where the heck had all the nts covering the citye from? Considering theyd just established that it couldnt possibly havee from the surface slowly enough for the growth to ur during that time. Literally nothing made sense here. Not the reason for this ce existing, everything about its physical presence was utterly illogical. Sure, its floorn was the worst offender, but everything else was hardly any better. What. A. Mess. The only ce that might hold the true secret was the hole that was currently begging to be explored. Isaac started to draw up a n for that but broke off as he saw a militarynding craft head towards their boat. Isaac stepped out of the privacy field to greet the new visitors. Gentlemen, what can I do you for? If youre looking for a map, were in the process of making one and will be making it avable. That caught the marine by surprise, though he hid it well. Actually, Colonel Fairfield was hoping to get your perspective on the city. Give me five minutes, Isaac said, turning around and finishing the conversation with the others. Once that was done, he joined the Marines on the small boat as it headed towards the aircraft carrier in the center of the formation. Behind him, countlessnding vessels drove towards the city. Patrick and Hak had used magic to print several hundred maps and passed those out, deliberately being less detailed in the center of the town. That hole seemed too dangerous to lead people there, so theyd pointed out each and every interesting thing that could be found anywhere but the center. That way, it should take a while for people to get there. It wasnt like anyone could stop them short of force. Plenty of people had pointed out how dangerous the city was, if someone was willing to ignore those warnings, that was that. Theyd live or die. The aircraft carrier was, well, an aircraft carrier. A navy vessel in a state of barely controlled chaos, with people rushing every which way, preparing tond in the strange city. Of course, there was a proper logic to everything, it was decidedly not chaotic, but damn did it look unorganized to the untrained eye. The Colonel himself had an office that was easily reachable from the deck, and surprisingly spacious for something located on a warship. Isaac had had the misfortune of traveling on one for a few days and his cabin had been so small that if it hadnt been for his enhanced Fortitude, hed have given himself a concussion on at least three different asions. Good afternoon, Dr. Thoma, thank you foring. Please, take a seat. The colonel invited him Im Colonel Fairfield,mander of the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, and Id like to ask you about your experiences in the city. Isaac took a seat and began to exin. That ce is one of the most awful ces Ive ever been. Nothing makes sense, and thats if you only look at things with your eyes. Thankfully, most of us had mental resistance [Skills], but the one member without one suffered badly. In addition, investigative [Skills] and others that allow their user to perceive more of the world make the effect worse. Fairfield winced at that. Unless I miss my guess, the [Marine] [ss] should have some options forbatting such issues, though those are more than likely geared more towardsbatting PTSD and the horrors of the battlefield, not memetic issues. Fairfield nodded That seems about right. Are you suggesting I get the people with the highest Level in those [Skills]? That would be one option. Isaac said But there is another option. Do you have a psychiatrist or chain who hold the appropriate [ss] in your force? They might be able to help mitigate the impact of being in the city. Ill take that under advisement. Fairfield told him However, would you be open to exploring the city jointly? Your team is clearly very capable, but small. Isaac hastily shook his head Im afraid that would be a recipe for a disaster. Properly integrating our groups in a way that will hold up underbat conditions would be difficult at the best of times. In a ce that messes with the senses, I wouldnt trust us to assemble Ikea furniture together. Fairfield nodded as if hed already expected this answer What kind of opposition can we expect? I dont know. Isaac shrugged We turned back after identifying multiple sites that might hold important information, but at that point, we were all getting overwhelmed by the surroundings. How bad was it, really? Fairfield asked. If it werent for the risk of destroying vital information or something in that ce reacting badly, Id be campaigning to drop a nuclear warhead on it, Isaac said bluntly There are some ces people shouldnt go, and that ce is one of them. Its just that staying away isnt possible. Once we know more, Ill make sure to share the information. And be ready to face a monster horde. There could be anything down there. They continued to trade suggestions for a bit longer until Isaac left and was escorted out onto the deck. However, he swam back to his teams base as that was faster. nning for their return to the city was tricky. Their first party had beenprised mostly of random people whod been avable, but they didnt have the right people avable to improve itsposition here. Isaac had a ton of healing beans avable and Han could heal some due to having an Aspect of the Cdrius, but they didnt have a real healer with them. Bailey would have been ideal, but the good professor had gotten ensnared in paperwork issues. He was fantastic when he was avable, but that was so rarely the case. And Isaac really did not want to grab a random person to help now that he knew what was awaiting him. Han would, sadly, have to do, with some support from the healing spells copied by the [System Researchers] and the [Healing] [Skill] that Isaac had received from eating the Lindwyrm. Overall, they had enough healing power, but not having a dedicated healer made properly applying it troublesome. They were alsocking another frontliner, but as it turned out, they didnt have to look far. Striding across the waves, the ocean freezing over wherever his boots touched, Fenrir Olgeirsson joined them. Hey, Doc. He greeted Isaac, then saw Haning out of the tent that had been erected while Isaac had been on the aircraft carrier and corrected Hello, Docs. Hi Fenrir, what are you doing here? Isaac asked. You didnt think Id let a mess like this exist in my backyard and not do anything, did you? the big man asked as if walking thousands of kilometers across the ocean was no big deal I figured you could use another axe. How are you as a tank? Isaac asked. In truth, he knew that Fenrir made for an excellent tank despite having a very offensive build, but the role didnte naturally to him, he had to be specifically asked to stand back and guard the squishier people. I can do that. Fenrir nodded, his [Aura of Primal Power] leaking slightly as he looked around the group If anything wants to reach you, itll have to do so over my dead body, I swear it! Said [Aura] was one of the nastiest closebat [Auras] that Isaac knew about, including his own. It lent its wielder immense strength, allowed them to apply said strength even when the rules of physics should have made that difficult, and turned their every limb into a deadly weapon when needed. Lastly, any equipment worn by an enemy would slowly be destroyed by the [Aura], with the rate of decay elerating the longer they fought Fenrir. In other words, he was a very dangerous opponent based on his [Aura] alone. Everyone, this is Fenrir Olgerisson, a stalwart ally of mine. Hes been an S-Ranker ever since the ranking system was introduced, and under his tutge, three of his subordinates have risen to S-Rank. Even if we searched the whole world, and wed only find people who could match him, but none would exceed him. Isaac introduced the man. He looked around the group. Raul and his pets. Patrick and Hak, mages of iparable flexibility. Dr. Han Junu, a highly capable researcher and all-round one of the most impressive people Isaac had ever met, alongside the worlds strongest yet also cutest Pitbull. With the addition of Fenrir, they should be able to weather almost any storm down in that pit. Sure, they could still enhance their party, but that would result in not-insignificant dys. Dys that could possibly result in much bigger problems. So, gentlemen, shall we? Isaac asked, gesturing towards the city. Chapter 212: The Descent Chapter 212: The Descent The city was somehow even worse now that it was upied. Before, Isaac had been able to half-delude himself into thinking that this ce was some kind of exhibition, a fanciful recreation of a city from a story, or even a poorly constructed illusion. Something that, while still decidedly strange, at least made sense. Now though, now it was something straight out of a horror movie. Screams and cries of horror echoed in the distance, but whenever one checked them out, there was nothing there. Or there were people there, but they were perfectly fine, just annoyed at being disturbed. Just a few minutes ago, the group had passed a dozen arguing people whode to rescue someone after hearing blood-curdling screams of pain and pleas for help only to run into others who thought they were in trouble. It had devolved into a shouting match pretty quickly. There were countless additional issues involving people getting lost and stumbling out of the city believing theyd been there for hours or even days, when in reality, mere minutes had passed. Reports of individualspletely disappearing were also circting, but those were very much unverifiable at the moment. With how screwymunications were in the city coupled with how easy it was to get lost, it was entirely possible that the disappeared were just wandering around a couple of streets over. The Marines, meanwhile, were both making good progress and none at all. Military discipline was carrying the day against the strangeness of the city, but their careful and methodical approach was seriously hampering them. Clearing a normal city building by building, room by room, was standard practice and perfectly possible. Doing the same to a city that had buildings that literally didnt exist until you doubled back their progress had slowed to a crawl about two seconds in. At least the section theyd cleared was hopefully going to stay that way. The hell of it was that magic could quite handily describe everything they were seeing. Sure, the mystical energy might be far from understood, and stumped researchers on a daily basis, but it was something they knew off, something they could manipte, somethey they could use. This mess, not so much. It was the old ghostly staple of things moving without any reason, or suddenly floating in midair. Except there were exnations for things like this happening, ranging from wires to maism. Except here, they knew for a fact that all those reasonable exnations were untrue. No scientific truth to discover, no stage magician to threaten. Justplete and utter bullshit. They reached the center of the city in less than ten minutes. The path was still the furthest thing from straightforward, but the knowledge gathered thest time around helped. So, after getting turned around twice, hitting dead ends three times and at least a dozen different falls due to people tripping over objects that had literally not been there until someone had stepped on them. Standing there, looking down into the abyss, Isaac felt the hair on the back of his neck rise. There was nothing there, nothing visible, nothing noticeable, nothing that should engender any kind of reaction. And he was certainly far too experienced to be jumping at shadows. And they still didnt know where this ce hade from, or why it existed. The obvious answer was that it was some kind of honeytrap created by the cult hed already been fighting, but there were a million holes in that idea. Those folks werent allowed to take action until a certain amount of time had passed, only to make preparations. Completely and utterly shielding this ce to the point where something this unnatural had no effect would have been an incredible amount of work. And what were they supposed to do with everything when they were allowed to take action? The slow erosion of the citys inhabitants sanity would take a long time, too long make the whole affair useful. They couldnt use it until their timeline was up, and at that point, there were a million more effective ways to destroy the world at that point. Summoning [World Bosses] was, for example, a fantastic way of wrecking the ce, though theyd probably only managed to that once, maybe twice, as there was basically no chance the summoners of a monster that powerful would be able to get away to summon a second one. Did that mean that the city itself was their enemy? Some kind of sinister consciousness that inhabited this ce, managing things behind the scenes akin to a Dungeon core, growing in power until it yed host to a million living weapons, high Level individuals teetering at the brink of madness until one final things pushed them over the edge and then something happened? Dungeon cores could advance some by killing people during a dungeon break, but would former human inhabitants count as monsters for that purpose? Besides, Dungeons had a certain air about them, an energy that one could sense, from the mana that infused every surface to the [Auras] of the monsters that awaited within. This ce not so much. Isaac couldnt think of any definition he could give for this ce, no category he could use. This was the world under the [System], where all monsters could be traced back to where theyd been summoned from, they came with a definition already baked in. This ce didnt. It was new, unfamiliar, and it was getting on hisst nerve. Which meant that there was just one more thing to do in the here and now. Go down into the hole of nightmares, and find something whose ass they could kick. Patrick sent a ball of light floating into the hole, revealing, well, a hole. Deep, dark, with slick walls that were covered in algae, and a darkness so absolute that seeing through it was impossible even with Perception at the four-hundred mark. Nothing to do but grit your teeth and push through. Isaac was the first to follow the light source, jumping down andnding on one of his floating des, using it to slowly descend. Fenrir just jumped in, collided with the opposite wall, adhered to it with his frost magic, and then kicked off it to do the same to the opposite wall. Again and again, he bounced off the walls of the shaft like a rubber ball until he reached the bottom of the illuminated section, where he remained upon his icy perch, waiting for the others to catch up. Everyone except the pair of melee fighters just floated down on cushions of magic, like sensible people. Then, the six of them hung there, a hundred meters deep in the shaft, and they still didnt see anything. The caves and tunnels that surrounded them, ck holes in the walls of the shaft, had relocated during their descent, but they were still in range for Isaac to sweep them with his [Aura]. They were empty. Just muck, algae, and silt. So they descended another hundred meters, deeper into the pit, the sky turning into a pinprick high overhead. Still nothing. Attempts to illuminate the bottom of the shaft failed, no matter how much mana was poured into the lighting spells. At some point, the cone of light being projected downwards just diffused and became so indistinct as to be basically non-existent. The descent was an excercise in futility until it wasnt. The section of floor peeled from the darkness like some primordial leviathan of the deep, appearing so quickly that Isaac nearly attacked it out of surprise. Fenrir also managed to avoidshing out, though it had been a close thing as he had to snatch his thrown Dane Axe back out of the air. But a dozen quickly cast attack spells sted out, sttering across the ground and obliterating the algae covering. While the spells quickly petered out, the damage was done. Everybody had been jumpy as hell already and the obviouspse in discipline hadnt helped matters. And when the smoke cleared and the floor under the algae became visible, things got a million times worse. A ck so dark it sucked in the surrounding light, a sterile white that hurt to look at, intermixing, ovepping, even upying the same space in ces. Somehow. Fenrir waved his hand and iced over the area, the inclusion of countless air bubbles making the ice opaque and stopping them from seeing the mess. Try to avoid hitting the ground if you can, Isaac warned. It was superfluous, everyone had already figured that out. He leaned back, staring towards the surface. Ho-ley shit, they were deep. Around a kilometer under the surface of the ocean. Thankfully, everyone here could either breathe underwater, or was tough enough to survive in water this deep. But now, theyd found caverns that led more than a few hundred meters into the rock. Where too first? Fenrir asked. Isaac held up a hand to shush him Still trying to figure that out. But whatever happens, were sticking together. Splitting up would have been bad enough up there, down here, it would be suicide. Before themy either four or seven paths, the number changed every time he blinked. And the paths that appeared/disappeared were different each time, but there was a single path that was always present. Gotcha maybe. Dr. Han, if you would. Isaac asked and once again, the world shifted and twisted as thebination of [All See] and [Kingdom Come] activated once more and barely helped. The of the paths forwards still only existed part time, but they were there, and they lead somewhere. But the main one, the only constant path in this chaos, that was where they needed to go. Why? Because there were signs of people. And people meant answers. Sure, said signs were just a few candy wrappers and some footprints, but they were still there, still present, and felt far more real and solid than anything else here. Slowly, they krept closer. Isaac using [Sneak] and [Stealth], the othersyering several thousand points of mana in anti-detection spells over themselves. The path was far longer than it had seemed at first, and having to be cautious meant that theyd slowed down to a crawl. Theyd been moving for maybe ten minutes when the ground lurched and began to shudder. Oooooh hell, was the city sinking? The section they were in was certainly descending, and there was a high chance that the whole ce was returning to its original location at the bottom of the ocean. Prepare for underwaterba- Isaac began to warn when he was rudely interrupted by a shout in the distance. Take that you hunk of %&$ junk! Did anyone else hear a weird noise in ce of a swear word? Isaac asked. The others nodded. Human warped to be part eldritch abomination, or eldritch abomination pretending to be human and doing a crappy job of it? More voices rang out as they crept forward. The mainnguage used was English, interspersed with several other humannguages, but several words from the othernguage were thrown in. Every word, every statement ground on Isaacs eardrums like nails on a chalkboard if the chalkboard had been situated within his ear canal. But this cant work. %&/Q saw the city. A worried voice said. Yeah, the city. The weird one, where things stop existing if you stop looking at them. Were going to, hehe, be totally invisible. Now were no longer up there, now they will think we stopped existing. A second replied, every word dripping with insanity. Isaac shivered. The god-city is truly a marvel. A third voice said in a tone that made Isaac reminded Isaac of a church preacher It has blessed us by lifting the veil from our eyes, showing us the naked horror of reality, and set us free. $&%$ will destroy our foes, be it by breaking them into submissive servants for us, or by erasing their very souls and using the remains to fuel our ascension. So there were people here, but they were definitely not normal. Eldritch was a summoning category, but those were just weird things, not this. Were they actually worshipping the city? And Isaac had never, ever, heard anything like thatnguage. The power to hurt ones enemies merely by speaking wasnt something that could have been kept secret easily. If anyone had gone out into the world and used this ability, it would have gotten out, as rumors and hearsay at the very least. All of this was new and different. The group stayed put a few turns away from where the voices were originating for close to an hour to eavesdrop. It was very uninformative, not because the people werent speaking, it was because they werent making any bloody sense. Each and every single person in that room was certifiably insane, and that was putting things mildly. Insaneughter as someone copsed after being cursed out in the iprehensiblenguage. Personalities shifting mid-sentence as people argued with themselves more than everyone else. Information being presented, then the exact opposite statements were being made with the sameplete sincerity as the original. These peoples minds had snapped like stale breadsticks. Not that Isaac could me them. He was already feeling the effects of his surroundings after just a few hours, wearing away at his mental barriers. They were holding, for now. Down here, message spells didnt work and you couldnt teleport in or out either, so Isaac strongly suspected that these folks had been down here since before the city had risen. Theyd also apparently been working furiously to get it to return to the ocean floor if their conversations were anything to go by. In fact, the city wasnt meant to rise was one of the bits of info that Isaac did believe, because it was mentioned so damn often. We know enough, lets head back and tell give a report, Isaac ordered. Sure, he could have just sent back a messenger, but that would have meant splitting the party. He could also have just gone ahead and gone on the offensive and dealt with the situation directly, but that would have been a huge risk. He didnt have anything to go on here, nothing to gauge these peoples strength by. He couldnt even risk trying to analyze them because he didnt know what kinds of detection abilities they had. In fact, he wouldnt have put it past them to have ended up with powerful sensory [Skills] after staring into the proverbial abyss for so long. No, theyd do this with the maximum amount of parano-, er, caution, ande back here fresh in a few hours and secure in the knowledge that even should something happen, there would be others with all the knowledge needed to take their ce. They didnt make it more than ten steps before the world shifted and suddenly, the path back dumped them right into the chamber with the people theyd been dropping eaves on. Wait, that didnt make sense why was he even thinking about that nonsense, there was fighting to be but that wasnt the priority, not what he wanted, they needed to be getting out of here. And why the ever-loving fuck was he this stuck inside his head in the middle of a bloody fight? Chapter 213: Hellhole Chapter 213: Hellhole 23 people turned as one, staring at the six people and three whod appeared in their midst unblinkingly for what had to have been just a split second even though it dragged on endlessly, and it felt like it have been hours before Isaac thought to even draw his sword. He was still faster than almost everyone else in the room, second only to Fenrir, who hurled his axe at one of their opponents, the one who looked like she was the closest to getting off a spell. Isaac just charged, but before he could cross half the distance, bolts of energy began to fly every which way. His allies were flinging hails of simple [Bolt]-type attack spells while preparing stronger magic. All of the casters hed brought with him had some manner of multicasting [Skills] and that advantage would, hopefully, carry the day. On the enemy side, things were looking annoyingly good. They had a spread of basic spellsparable to those of Isaacs allies, but they came out just in wrong. The magic within each spell was oddly shaped, as if ounting for something that he couldnt perceive, and to a visual inspection, they looked off. Flickering weirdly, they were colored ever so subtly differently, and they just behaved in a weird way. Some exploded in midair, others flew through solid objects and even their intended targets as if they were mere illusions and others still, the most dangerous ones, tore through their defenses like tissue paper. Wards came apart, unravelling like cheap sweaters, forcing the mages using them for cover to dive for cover. Then, a st of overwhelmingly powerful me roared overhead as Aurelian finally got his act together. Unfortunately. The sheer amount of dust and grime that had built up on the floor, walls and ceiling was disgusting, true, but it also served as a barricade between them and the sanity-wrecking substance this ce had been constructed from. Having all that revealed wasnt much help. The two closest madmen were incinerated, reduced to ash in seconds, but the rest were odly capable of tanking the impact. It either phased right through them, bounced off, or was deflected by magic. What the hell were they? The floor in front of Isaac erupted upwards, shifting into some manner of half-construct, half-biological monstrosity he didnt even want to describe, but he cut it down. Tried to, at least. Balmung cleaved the beast in twain with casual ease, but the broken parts came back together faster than he could blink. [Grand Hellme] washed over it, blinding the monster and hopefully, theyd finish it off. Isaac just put it out of his mind as disabled, considering how much damage it had taken. From behind the ming monster came the cultist whod summoned it, wielding a longsword that moved and flickered as if it were a live snake, rather than an inanimate object. Isaacs sword leaped past the mans crappy guard and was about to lop off his head, only for the swords to seemingly teleport at thest possible second, deflecting the lethal strike. Attack after attack rained down, [Far Strikes] projected past the mans guard, new des suddenly manifesting out of nowhere to chop at Isaacs enemy nothing. No matter what he did, that damn sword was always there, deflecting his every attack. Fifty-two attacks made in five seconds, fifty-two attacks deflected. And that was that. In time, hed have probably won against someone who was clearly and ipetent wielding an insanely powerful weapon, but he wasnt here to win a one-on-one duel, he was here to act as a tank. A wave of sticky mes errupted from him, forcing his opponent back and creating a wall that sent the people trying to get past him stumbling back. Behind him, the mages continued to work. Patrick continued to rain down his signature perfected spell constructs, no wasted energy or unnessicaryplexity, despite having lost an arm, Hak was using a wider array of moremon spells but adapting them to the people he was aiming at, cancelling out their attacks and having an incredible amount of sess getting past their defenses. Dr. Han was simultaneously shielding the group and working on healing Patrick while Raul was doing something. It looked big,plicated, and Isaac had no bloody clue what it was supposed to do. And on Isaacs left, Fenrir fought. He looked like a rabid animal, huge swings of his soulbound axe rending the air while his [Aura] boiled around him like a living thing. But there was a method to his madness. The first swing was easy to dodge, so was the second and the third led his opponent to nt one of his feet on a patch of ice that was the end, the powerful warrior reduced a stain on the floor. Slowly but surely, Isaacs group was being pushed back. 5 of their enemies had already fallen, but the remaining seventeen had found their footing and were giving it all they had. Seventeen B- to A-Rangers against a small group of S-Rankers was a bit of an unfair match for the former, but this wasnt a normal group of enemies. If Isaac had to put the issue into words, hed have said they were too crazy to know what didnt work and somehow, the things that hadnt worked for anyone else functioned perfectly for these madmen. This wasnt merely a matter of the issue isnt what you dont know, its what you know for certain that isnt so. Countless scientists, researchers, and fighters had checked and proved that the things Isaacs current opponents were doing were impossible. Whatever it was that they were doing, it was working. At some point, something was going to give. He or Fenrir would be too slow to dodge one of the spells they were getting peppered with. Someone would slip past them. One of the mages would take a debilitating injury. There were a million things that could go wrong, and eventually, inevitably, one of them woulde to pass. Sure, theyd always have cooldown [Skills] to burn, but so did their opponents. Both sides were somehow managing to hold back their strongest tricks for devastating counterattacks. Despite their insanity, the madmen were still managing to hold onto that basic t ofbat. And then, Raul finally finished casting his spell, shaking the very foundations of reality. There was a loud shattering sound as though the continental shelf beneath the city were breaking, the noise resonating with Isaacs very soul. Nothing seemed to change for a long time, the world remaining normal for a damn long time and then Isaac was staring at his de in surprise, and at the point where it had pierced his opponents heart, snake sword falling well short of what would have been required to save its wielder. Isaac swore. Fuck he was being slow right now. In the current situation, nothing was as abnormal as something, well, normal. But it wasnt just the worlds most frustrating de that had stopped working. The ground was nowprised of regr old ck-and-white stone, and the spells their enemies continued to be cast just as insanely as before but this time, they were working as poorly as they should have from the beginning. That damn spell had restored the naturalws temporarily. Here and there, patches of the ground were already starting to be weird. Eventually, there would be trouble. But not now. Even the mental fog had lifted somewhat. Right now, the advantagey decidedly with Isaac and his allies. So their enemies legged it. Fuck! Isaac summoned a Kabar and shifted it to one of Old Reliables least often used forms, a glowing blue crystal. The so-called Astral Piercer form of the soulbound weapon was based on the Specter line of Aspects and could damage peoples ability to use their [Skills]. In most situations, cutting down his enemies with a single strike was preferable to having to stab someone multiple times only to leave them still able to attack him physically. But this was the exact kind of situation it was perfect for. Three of their enemies went down as the group fled. Two dead, and thest one in shock from the pain from taking a shot straight to his spiritual body. That had been easier than expected, but maybe the spiritual damage from their surroundings had already done most of the work? Either that, or whatever power theyd tapped into had been draining in ways he hadnt been able to observe. Raul, can you cast that normalization ability again? Isaac asked hopefully. The MVP of the fight that had just ended shook his head. That was an Evolution of [Natures Restoration], I got it when the battle started. It costs a lot of mana and has a lengthy cooldown. And that cinched it. They wouldnt be chasing these people through their home turf, a ce that was almost certainly actively working against them. At least the next time they went down here, theyd be better prepared and far better equipped with specialized equipment, upgraded [Skills], and newly arrived allies. Being in a ce so detrimental to their psyche was truly awful, but it was doing wonders for training their mental [Skills]. [Analyze Person] had been bosted by a whole four Levels just by trying to figure out what his opponents deal was, and [Undying Focus] was currently teetering at the edge of Level 30, having already gone up a whole five Levels. Besides, they had a prisoner, for all the good it would to given said prisoners mental state. Were leaving. Isaac ordered The city is likely flooding at the moment, keep your water breathing abilities primed at all times. As they left, he noticed that Patrick was starting to ge the shakes. All of the people here had been in plenty of fights before, they had to have been to reach their current Level. But losing a limb, however temporarily, was an entirely different beast. It had taken Isaac himself years to get used to using limbs, and that was with them never remaining gone for more than a few days. Unless something had gone very wrong when he hadnt been there, this was the first time Patrick had suffered this level of injury. The best way to help him was blindingly obvious, but it still took several minutes to figure it out. [Experts Insight] was the final training [Skill] hed unlocked from [Hildebrands Heir] and it had granted him the ability to directly transfer his experience to others. Hed been passing along a lot ofbat experience to his team members, but coping strategies for injuries hadnte up yet. Dealing with generalbat stress, yes, but the current situation called for a very specific set of experiences. After five seconds of stopping, Patrick was dealing much better and then, they turned another corner to almost run into a vortex of water and twisted space. Some kind of effect is holding back the water, I doubt its safe to walk through, Hak observed, and the others agreed. Can you protect us from the water pressure if I break that? Isaac asked, getting a series of tired nods in response. When [True Cut] severed the knot of eldritch energy which held back the ocean, the water smashed into them with 500 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level pushing it onwards. Even at the 4th Evolution, getting smashed around in an underground passageway by a force like that could have be dangerous. They continued onwards, magic making the hundreds of thousands of tons above them a trivial matter. As bad as the city had been until now, it was a thousand times worse underwater. The light from the spells that granted them sight down here was distorted as the water rippled from their movements. Shadows moved in the corners of the room, but it wasnt clear whether that was due to the madness-inducing properties of the city, or just good old physics. The next ce they reached was the shaft theyd descended in and that gave them their first glimpse at the open ocean. Isaac swept his [Aura] upwards to make sure the way was clear and rocketed upwards at the highest speed that still allowed the others to keep up. Somehow, things got even worse when they left the city. The ocean down here was dark and huge. Even with Isaacs Perception, the sky above was barely visible, only individual photons reaching this deep. As he ascended, the city that was already practically impossible to see due to theck of light became even more indistinct, and the sky was still a long way away. Even with the strange emmenations of the city below long since having ceased to grate on his senses, he could feel himself grow even more unsettled. Nothing above, nothing below, the only things that existed were the people beside him, both his teammates and their singr prisoner, and the freezing cold water that surrounded them. Fuck, this was creepy. At least there were no limits withpression sickness due to their overall toughness and they could ascend at speeds that would have killed regr people in short order. And with any luck, the madmen below would drown, and then, theyd somehow find aplete exnation for the current mess amidst the corpses. Oh, and when thest cultist died, the city would return to normal to boot. If wishes were fishes and all that. But even without a proven theory, Isaac could still make a hypothesis. Basically, he had two ideas for why the city had shown up early and twisted. Option one: Rlyeh had existed in both timelines and something hed done in this one had resulted in the change. Hed inspired the [Engineer] whod raised it up thest time to take another job, or said [Engineer] had stopped leveling due to Isaac, something along those lines. Option two: the whole thing had been a long-shot trap. No god could fuck with Isaac directly, indirectly, or even through a dozen degrees of separation. However, divine actions grew cheaper the less likely they were to seed. A tiny change that caused a domino effect which eventually ended with the city rising early and bing a trap for any curious time traveler. A trap that would have worked if Isaac hadnt had a mental resistance [Skill], had been at a lower Level. Any of a dozen choices would have gotten him killed if hed made them differently. And because sess had been far from assured, it might have been cheap enough to be affordable. Or it could have been a trap set in both timelines, something for the best and brightest of humanity to explore and lose their sanity to. Expect it had been defused in the other timeline, with the people who discovered it turning it into the center ofmerce it had be in the other timeline. And why had it taken him that long toe up with those oh. Did anybody else feel stupid down there? Isaac asked. Stupid how? Fenrir asked, If youre going to ask me to exin quantum physics, I cant do that no matter where I am. Isaac groaned internally. Not the time for jokes, but the question was a good one. Slower, dumber, and youre suddenly having realizations now that youre outside the city. You came up with a bunch of things down there that are clearly nonsense, and youreing to realizations that are blindingly obvious but you only had them up here. Hak swore I didnt even realize how bad it was. Youre right. We all did things when we really should have known better. That fight should have ended in seconds. Dr. Han shook his head There has to be something behind it, some kind of underlying logic. Its on the tip of my tongue, but I Maybe dont look too deeply into the mind-melting secrets? Fenrir asked. Congrattions, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for beginning to uncover a secret of the world! Youve found the sunken city of the Eldritch ande away with your sanity intact, as well as the kernels of the truth. Ordinarily, you would only receive a reward upon uncovering a whole mystery or set of facts, but considering that this is functionally impossible with the riddle at hand, you have received a partial reward. For partially uncovering a secret of such magnitude, you have gained 100,000 XP, as well as confirmation that there is something there to discover. Isaac shook his head No, Dr. Han is right, theres something there, I just got XP for partially discovering a big secret. But we should leave well enough alone, weve already been exposed for way too bloody long. Behind him, Patrick and Hak sagged in relief. Isaac took this as an option to look at his [System] messages and get the specifics of his upgrades. Analyze Person (legendary, Level X) Politicians, managers, hucksters. All kinds of people have all sorts of insights into the human condition, and the associated sses have a myriad of Skills to help them with that, each one purpose-built for a specific kind of analysis, giving them the exact kind of knowledge needed to do what they do. This Skill, on the other hand, is the distition of a lifetime of experience reading people, empowered to a supernatural degree. It might not have the power of a focused Skill and therefore falls far short of thebined abilities of a social ss, but it doesnt have to match the might of an entire ss because that is not its purpose. This is a Skill that makes your current social skills useful in a world where magic can interfere with social interactions, as well as empowering said social skills with a lifetimes worth of experience. In addition, it allows for a degree of insight into what Skills are interfering with your mind/arguments. In addition, blocking hostile social Skills will be easier and will work with a smaller Level gap than normal. And now, the user will also gain the ability to see the person underneath whatever Skills and other effects might be changing them, hiding their true selves, or otherwise making it so that you are facing a different person than you normally would. This scanning ability may not work at full strength against effects of significant power. Undying Focus (epic, Level max) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, includingpletely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing ones sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. Furthermore, this Skill boosts the users resistance to hostile aura effects. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to ignore even horrific injuries and terrible pain, it has evolved to allow the user to remove health seeping and other negative status effects through sheer force of will. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, bing able to push out all distractions, all hostile mental attacks (that are not vastly disproportionate in terms of power), and memetic hazards, as long as the user continues to focus on it. The greater the assault on the users mind and sanity, the harder it is to maintain focus. But for so long as focus is maintained, the sanctity of the users mind remains intact. Both of the [Skills] hed used most often had hit thresholds. [Analyze Person] would be a little more useful in the future, ande very much in handy if he was allowed to participate in the prisoners interrogation. [Undying Focus], on the other hand, was bloody fantastic. If he ever had to go back down there, hed be fine until the [Skill] broke but when it did, hed be screwed. Really, hed have to try out the [Skill] before he could know how well it would work in practice. After an unbearably long amount of time, they finally reached the surface and found themselves in the middle ofplete and utter chaos. Having the city suddenly drop away underneath people had been one hell of a shock, and not everyone had handled it well. Other than [Sailors], [Marines], and other [sses] that involved being out on the open ocean, very few people gained abilities to help deal with the ocean during their natural progression. Aspects could help with that, but when you could hold your breath for several minutes, swim for hours on end, and functionally ignore the heat-sapping properties of water, who would pick them? Which meant that when the city had suddenly shot downward, the results had been catastrophic. Anyone caught inside had been in huge trouble, and if they didnt manage to get out before reaching a lethal depth, that was it. But even those whod survived werent necessarily in good shape, having bounced off walls as the city fell away underneath them and the streets flooded, or theyd had to swim upwards and out after escaping things that trapped them. In the end, it was just the Marines still stuck in the ocean. They could handle the situation just fine, even if they werent happy about it. Many others couldnt. Isaac lit his hand on fire and started waving while using his [Aura] to start poking people on ships. It had been a bit overkill, considering the sheer number of people investigating the ce the city had been, but he was desperate to get out of the water. The swarm of ships had grown while theyd been underwater, now including at least three separate military flotis and a single lonely frigate flying the German g. Germanys navy was tiny andcked even a single aircraft carrier. Isaac took a second to decide where to go. On one hand, the Americans had been here the longest, had thergest contingent, and were already making preparations to deal with the mental issues the city caused. On the other, Bailey was on the frigate, as were several others Isaac recognized, and, well, he was German. So he ended up picking the frigate and sent a message to Colonel Fairfield, asking him to join the meeting theyd soon have. *** Dry, dressed in new clothes, and feeling much better, Isaac stood in the biggest meeting room on the Baden-Wrtenberg ss frigate Sachsen-Anhalt with Bailey, Fairfield, Patrick, Dr. Han, and the vessels captain. Even with so few people within, it was still cramped and thered already been several incidents of people not used to the tight quarters on warships hitting their heads. He didnt know the captain but his teammates had apparently met her when dealing with the mess involving the Bodensee and a giant shark. Kapit?n zur See Caroline Maier didnt seem particrly happy about having Fairfield here and the good Colonel would have clearly preferred to remain in charge of the situation, but it was what it was. Isaac was more used to dealing with Germanys military, and that would probably help going forward. So basically, there are people down there who can tear through the defenses of some of the worlds strongest magic users, who either have some measure of control over the city or are being actively helped by it, you only took down a few of them and now we have to hope they all drowned. Also, none of you can go down there for hours, even days and we have no idea about why the city is there, or what the people inhabiting it want. Maier summed up. We did get a prisoner. Isaac pointed out. Weve tried talking to him. Hes always contradicting himself but hes always telling the truth because he believes hes telling the truth. Itll take a long time for him to be useful. Maier informed him and Isaac swore internally. How are you holding up? Bailey asked Any long-term effects? I used [Blessing of Innovation] to borrow a psychiatrists abilities and checked if anything changes with my mental state if I remove the effects of the city. Im fine on the magical front, but I still dont feel right. Isaac said, I think it might be for the best if I talk to a professional before going back down. Weve got an excellent psychiatrist onboard. Both Maier and Fairfield said almost simultaneously. Do they have [System]-enforced confidentiality? Isaac asked. Legal limits still apply with ours. Maier said, Dr. Mller has to report it if youre nning to kill someone or yourself, but he literally cant say anything else. Then I think it might be for the best if everyone talked to him once this meeting is over, Isaac said But for now, we need to create a n to get the rest of the people down there out of there. Or retrieve their bodies, I suppose. Heart of Madness (Tier 7) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Pole of Inacessablity, Ocean floor(4 km away, direction straight down) It was starting to look like the people left behind in the city werent going to wait calmly to be dragged out of their holes. [Raid Boss], summoned at the city. Fairfield said grimly, looking straight at Maier Kapit?n zur See Maier, under the treaty of Seoul, a nuclear strike upon a [Raid Boss] unleashed as a weapon of war is justified, but there are too many civilians in the strike range and there are sufficient forces gathered to deal with it directly. Do you concur? She nodded and Fairfield vanished, likely having teleported back to his own vessel. The treaty of Seoul states that an unleashed [Raid Boss] may be fought without the use of nuclear armaments, should sufficient forces be present. Local military leaders have concurred that this is the case and thereby invoked the treatys support functionality. Merely by deciding to support this endeavor, you will receive the following benefits: Automatic addition tomand-and-controlwork for as long as you fight to destroy the [Raid Boss] Minimum 10,000 XP gained from battle +10 to all physical Stats during the battle. While everyone scrambled to prepare, Isaac just jumped overboard and dove into the ocean until he could see the monster, able to analyze it. He suppressed his grin with supreme effort, as looking insane after having visited an Eldritch city would have not been great. But that was the thing, he was relieved. The [Raid Boss] might have been from a category called Eldritch, but it was solidly understandable and he knew everything about it. The imprecisely named Heart of Madness was the perfect target to take his anger out on, something he could deal with. Chapter 214: Unstoppable Chapter 214: Unstoppable A mass of writhing tentacles, slobbering mouths, too many eyes that stared off in every direction, something that looked like it belonged on the cover of theplete works of HP Lovecraft or in the thumbnail of a yo, the deep sea is really scary youtube video. ck and dark green sludge floated around the beast, rot-streaked energy flickering around it in a deathly-looking aura. The damn thing also had multiple abilities that would make Isaac fighting it one on one tricky, but thankfully, he didnt have to. And to top it all off, the enforcement of the treaty of Seoul was going to seriously help. Unfortunately, only a handful of treaties were that impactful. The treaty of Seoul had included countless different nations and all had had very important officials sign it. With that kind of power behind it, [System]-enforcement was possible. Getting that many different people to cooperate would be damn tricky under almost any other circumstances, sadly. It would be a long while until most treaties gained the same level of power. But while Isaac worked on scouting out the monster, aka looking at it so he could pretend hed gleaned the information he was sending up above via observation, the chain ofmand was being decided on. Not by people, thankfully, that would have been chaotic as hell, but by the [System], as per the rulesid out by the treaty. Whoever ultimately ended up in charge was someone who was at least not actively hated by the vast majority of participants, was already in a position ofmand, and had enough knowledge and experience to notpletely bungle everything. However, it wouldnt decide on who was in charge until it had gotten a good idea as to who would be participating. Isaac Thoma, you have been designated as Incident Commander. You now hold Unified Command of the battle against the [Heart of Madness]. Your responsibilities include ensuring that the monster is defeated with a minimum amount of casualties, or, should catastrophe ensue, ensure that the appropriate measures are taken. You have been granted the following boons: ess to the Skill Unified Command Network Information on your temporary subordinates (limited) ability to requisition support from foreign militaries Ah, crap. That was probably going to result in some hard questions being asked sooner orter. The [System] knew what hed gone through in the other timeline after the 4th Evolution and now, it had decided that as the person with the greatest amount of knowledge, he was the perfect person to be in charge. He also had experience leading from [Hildebrands Heir], and apparently, he wasnt disliked enough to be disqualified. Sure, Isaac had all the necessary abilities to deal with the situation, but that didnt mean he wanted to be in charge. The [System] had spoken, though, which now left him in the situation of having to somehow walk the tightrope between using enough of his knowledge to ensure victory and making sure that no one grew suspicious. Isaac threw Balmung at the monster, driving it through the water using his magic as hard as he could. But he didnt stick around long enough to get in a fight, instead shooting up through the water whileying the groundwork for the fight ahead. [Unified Command Network] was the party-forming [Skill] granted by the treaty and it was built to properly interact with basically any other enhancing,munication, information-sharing or party-forming [Skill] in existence. And as it turned out, that included Isaacs teaching ability. Now, what crazy stunts could he pull with that? When he taught [Experts Insight] to another person, it turned into [Veterans Knowledge], which, in turn, allowed people to pass knowledge and experience on to those less knowledgable, as long as both had one of the two above [Skills]. There was also a limit as to how much information could be granted at once, but Isaac wasnt nning on sharing all his knowledge, just the few tidbits he could share without arousing suspicion. Below him, the Heart of Madness roiled like the surface of the ocean in the middle of a storm. Apparently, Eldritch monstrosities didnt like getting poked with magical swords, whod have thunk? Where before, the [Raid Boss] had been content to float upwards at a leisurely pace, now, it was chasing him at full speed which wasnt that great. The Heart of Madness was at its most dangerous when it could sit in a single position while sting anything and everything in sight with its magic while smacking away anyone who tried to attack in melee. Sure, it could swim, but it wasnt truly built for rapid aquatic movement and Isaac wasnt within its range. Well, its effective range, that was. Beams of putrid energy that stank of rot and decay to his senses shed past, but they missed by a wide margin. Unfortunately, his own counterattacks werent any stronger. Fighting that thing on his own to dy it was an option that had unfortunately been taken from him by the [System], the person in charge couldnt afford to haring off on their own in the middle of an emergency. Continuing to throw down his sword would inflict the equivalent of paper cuts and be aplete and utter waste of time. His primary ranged option was, of course, his fire, but there was one small problem with that. He was currently underwater. Sure, there were some mes that could handle that, but his current surroundings would still make using the fire difficult and vastly more expensive. There was also a kind of fire that waspletely immune to the interference of water, if the being controlling it wished, it wouldnt even transfer a single joule of energy to the liquid even whenpletely submerged. but getting said me would have required him to face a Tier 9 [Field Boss], and that was too reckless even for him. So instead, he was just getting the beast to chase him so the people above could fry it. The ships had already spread out around the area the city had once upied, creating a huge open circle for him to lead the beast into. Sure, it might also decide to go after a richer target, like one of the ships, if hed been alone, but that was why the center wasnt empty. No, that was where the monster would find out just how dangerous a group of humans could be. Depth charges had been raining past Isaac for most of his ascent, but now, they were close enough to do some serious damage. The first magical attack shed through the water when Isaac hade within half a kilometer of the surface, one of Patricks strongest spells. It was officially ssified as so dangerous that casting it without a damn good and, more importantly, verifiable reason would havended him in seriously hot water. If hed cast it within the cramped confines of the city, no one would have walked out alive. Out in the open, [Titans Demise, Aquatic Adaptation] looked like a car-sized spear of darkness, as if reality itself had been carved away in that location. It ignored the water, but everything else it passed by disintegrated in brief shes of light. And then, it impacted the monster like the fist of an angry god, prating deep into its blubbery body. If that had been all it did, it might have been impressive, but not when you considered it had been created by one of the best [Mages] on the, under the tutge of the greatest monster hunter in the world. The Heart of Madness shuddered as channels created by spatial and dimensional magic directed the sma from the literal star at the core of the spell into every bit of its body that could be reached before its mana ran out. There was a dull sh of light below Isaac and a truly awful mixture of fluids spread out from the site of the impact, but the monster was still there. Leaking and torn to shreds, but still there. Even a Tier 9 monster and some Tier 10s would have died to that attack, but [Raid Boss] toughness was a pain in the ass to deal with, which was why the next attack was unleashed the instant the target became visible again. [Marines] were infantry deployed on the navys ships and their initial [Skills] reflected that. The ability to cope with the swaying of the ships, unnaturally good swimming ability, and all the standard quality of life abilities that most soldiers got from their starter [sses]. Then, the first Evolution turned them into the action heroes a lot of Marines already thought they were. With the second came [Skills] that changed the very basis of how they fought, such as the ability to walk on water, or shoot through it without the bullets being impacted much, or at all, if your [Skill] Level was high enough. But the third Evolution was where all [sses] evolved from [Marine] got a stupidly powerful Central [Skill], [Esprit de Corps], the ultimate force multiplier. Shared pain allowing people to survive injuries that would otherwise kill them. Coordinated fire growing more powerful than the sum of its parts, and more. And as for the fourth Evolution, well, Marines were deployed on ships and therefore, the sea was their battleground, wasnt it? So why not give them the ability to directly fight against warships, to take them on as an individual? So when an entire Expeditionary Force fired as one, several of its members having already obtained the stupidly powerful offensive [Skills] of the fourth Evolution, and [Esprit de Corps] acting to boost the attacks power into the stratosphere? The hail of bullets fell like a meteor shower, wreathed in giant phantasmal images of falling artillery and stars. When they finally impacted, the ckness of the sea shone with a light theyd likely never seen before or would again, every bit of the monster put into sharp relief as it was torn to pieces, three chunks the size of a destroyer floating in the ocean. This was the dangerous part. A dangerous part, anyway. The Heart of Madness had been 200 meters below sea level when it had been hit by the Marines and it, well, looked dead. If someone rxed with the very much still alive Heart that close, they could quite easily end up dead. But these were professionals he was dealing with, as were the people ying bait. No kill notification meant they hadnt won yet. An officers repositioning [Skill] janked the people ying bait out of the way, safely depositing them on the deck of a nearby aircraft carrier and then, Isaac breached the surface. The instant he hit the open air, mes burst into existence beneath him and a pir of fire flung him skywards, well clear of the monsters grasp. Three massive chunks of putrid flesh reached the surface secondster, each slowly shifting away their original look, and then, the whole ce turned into a shooting gallery. Isaac was well clear of the targeted area, the ocean wasnt in the way, and the main guns of every warship here had a clear shot at the monster. Bombs and missiles rained down as every armed aircraft they had avable unleashed its load, the main guns on destroyers and frigates chattered to life, emptying every shell they had avable at the highest possible rate. But it wasnt just the primary vessels that were in use, they hadnt had enough warning to open up the distance, so when the Heart of Madness reached the surface, even the guns meant for point defense got in on the action. It wasnt like they were good for anything else at the moment, they certainly couldnt shoot down magical beams of energy. The multiple parts of the monster writhed under the hail of fire, countless small bits being torn off on a constant basis. That went well for about five seconds until the Heart of Madness unleashed its signature ability. A wave of sickly energy erupted from the monster, swept out to cover most of the fleet and a tenth of the guns went silent as their operators suddenly lost their grip on reality. The only reason that didnt lead to an ungodly number of friendly fire incidents was that Isaac had predicted that the monster would have an ability to suit its name. If it had induced actual madness, then the chains, psychiatrists, and the like would have caught that as they were constantly checking for that. If it had just dealt psychic damage, as it were, then theyd have had to try and see if rotating the people exposed could mitigate the effects. And if it started messing with how people saw the world, then the Party would help, by some people constantly reporting a few things about their surroundings and when someone realized those things stopped matching what they were seeing, theyd know that the Heart of Madness had done something. At that point, the affected were to stop attacking and do everything they could to retreat and get better. Dark rays of energy burst from eyes and the tips of tentacles, rotting away bodies and corroding ships wherever they struck. The earliest victims were the ships that, by all rights, shouldnt be out this far on the ocean, speedboats, tiny fishing ships, and even a single lonely jetski, each only having arrived here by the grace of the gods and the empowerment of about a million [Skills]. Eminently predictable, and therefore, counterable. Creating basic magical constructs capable of both fooling the monster and controlling the boats hadnt been easy, so theyd created as many as they could and manned the rest with people whod likely be able to take the initial hits. A re-armed air fleet came around for another attack run, but this one didnt catch the monster with its pants down. Stop what youre doing until the world starts making sense again was a viable option for countering the Madness Wave while safely ensconced on a warship a fair distance away from the monster. On a fighter jet hurtling towards a [Raid Boss] at supersonic speeds not so much. The Heart of Madness had also been ready with its magic this time around. The only reason any ne managed toe away intact was that the Madness Wave only had a rtively small chance of seeding, especially against people as focused as fighter pilots. Still, they burned thest of their remote relocation [Skills] to save the pilots while their nes were taken over remotely and crashed into the writhing mass below. The monster had already been torn into three separate pieces and then yed alive by ship-based weaponry andrge-scale spells. It was looking like it was on itsst legs, and so far, theyd barely had any casualties. But the monster wasnt nearly as vulnerable as it looked and that had been thest of their tricks. From this point onwards, it was all down to their personal power and raw determination. And potentially, Isaac being able to finally intervene. He couldnt split his attention well enough to both safely fight a monster like that and coordinate the people he was temporarily in charge of. Hed need a good opening to go in. The three parts of the monster were now joining back together, much to everyones horror. The first chunk had gained a metallic sheen that was already deflecting some of the smaller caliber bullets. The second had turned ck as night, tendrils of energy leaking off into the nothingness. And the third had gained an incandescent sheen that hurt to look at. This power was the single most impactful ability the Heart of Madness had, even if it wasnt its signature move. Whenever something tore apart this monster, the torn-off chunk would adapt to whatever had removed it and rejoin the main body, superimposing its adaptations over it and all already present adaptations, even when they should have been ipatible. Now, it couldnt be immune to everything at once, once it was unable to be hurt by half the elements under the sun, new adaptations woulde at the cost of the old ones, but its ability to nullify methods of attacks was nheless a titanic pain the ass. That trick also fell short when the torn-off bits were tiny, and an already adapted piece on its way to join the rest of the monster couldnt adapt further. In other words, the fact that Isaac had already used up a lot of their trump cards meant that theyd gotten the most out of them, and he couldter chalk that up to good luck. The newly reformed monster charged at its, admittedly not particrly impressive, top speed, heavy projectiles only carving small trenches in its surface where before, theyd torn out huge chunks. Theyd removed a good third of its mass already, but now, the ships were in danger. All mages who could use frost magic now switched to using that exclusively, targeting the water near the monster, creating small ice chunks that froze around tentacles or adhered to its skin until the beast was moving along its own personal iceberg. Its every movement cracked the ice, but seawater immediately flooded the damaged areas and was frozen once more in a matter of seconds. Large chunks of its mass had to be heaved on top of the chunk just so that it could keep targetting the ships. This also gave most of the melee fighters a chance to get in on the action. Time to hack apart a monster and toss it in the air for the fleet to tear apart. Chapter 215: Giantslayer Chapter 215: Giantyer Now, having people engaging the monsters at close quarters could be as simple as just ensuring that no one was standing in the ships line of fire and that no one used an AOE while someone else was in range. But that would have been taking the easy,zy, route, wouldnt it? And while Isaac wasnt someone who made a lot more work for himself when he could get the exact same result with less effort, no one could ever use him of being . Fenrirs [Aura] could locally tear apart the Heart of Madness defenses and weaken them to the point where it might as well never have adapted in the first ce. Which was why Isaac had him move every few seconds so the fleet could take advantage of the opening. Heavy weapons, artillery spells,bination attacks incorporating multiple cooldown [Skills], all were fired straight through one of the weak points in the monsters armor, frying its internals while blowing away a minimum amount of matter to minimize the risk of parts adapting and making their current strategy non-viable. With so many people right next to the monster, they were tearing through it with great speed. Any tentacle that grew was chopped off in seconds, then shredded by the ranged attackers before it could return to the main body. The monsters body melted away like ice on a hot day, but so did the distance between it and the fleet. It didnt look like a problem until the closest destroyer suddenly lurched forward with seemingly no input from its helmsman. Oh. Hell. Either this particr Heart of Madness had learned a new trick, or it had always been a part of its toolkit and Isaac just hadnt heard about it because people normally didnt might its kind in the middle of the ocean. The instant it had been close enough, the [Raid Boss] had sent a series of tentacles at the ship underwater, grabbed it, and yanked the vessel into the iceberg that held it. The grapple had happened so quickly that even though hed seen it, Isaac hadnt managed to intervene. Lances of energy, depth charges, [Far Strikes], and the concentrated fire of every nearby vessel tried to sever the connection, but they were too slow. Isaac swore internally as the ship collided with the mountain that imprisoned the [Raid Boss] and the ice shattered. He hadnt known the damn thing could stretch that far. Thankfully, none of the people on the iceberg were still in the target area when the collision urred. The situation was already bad enough as it was. The monsters mass surged over the badly battered vessel, mouths manifesting and slurping down unfortunate sailors like spaghetti. Now that the few people left on the ship were surrounded by the monster, there was a constant bombardment upon their senses and there was no chance to escape the illusions before being swept up by the monster. Some had evactuation [Skills] that allowed them to escape the doomed vessel, but those that didnt doomed. Simultaneously, limbs began to be threaded through the vessel and infiltrated every part of it until the destroyer looked like some kind of mad bio-scientists rendition of a modern destroyer. And then, it began to open fire, point defense system tearing into the flying mages while the 5 inch main gun hammered away at the closest melee fighters. So the damn thing could integrate or control technology. Today truly was a day for unpleasant surprises. Without living sailors on board, the vessels power was much reduced, but it was still plenty bad. Mages that had to dodge or block streams of bullets had a hard time attacking and while most melee fighters could survive getting hit with a thirty kilogram shell travelling at several hundred meters per second, the sheer power of the impact still sent them flying. Several torpedoes smashed into the side of the posessed vessel, but it didnt end up doing anything as the monsters flesh closed off the damaged sections less than a second after the damage was dealt. [A Captain Goes Down With Their Ship] That was the [Skill] that changed the course of the battle. A final sacrifice, burning thest scraps of power of both the vessel and its captain. But hadnt the captain already evacuated ... hed teleported straight back onto the vessel once hed realized what was up. The controlled guns suddenly fell silent and swiveled in their mounts, stic shattering and metal tearing as they were forced to turn well past where they were designed to be able to turn and finally opened fire upon the vessel they were mounted upon. One by one, the monster destroyed them, energy beams and writhing limbsshing out, but when the ship lost all mounted weapons, itshed out with the only thing it could still use. Its engine. The Heart of Madness ballooned outwards like the surface of a gas-filled tar pit before it burst, a thunderous explosion and incredible hot ze of fire erupting from the top of the monster, cracking it open like an egg. A single long tongue of me reached into the sky, towards Isaac, and when it touched his hand, he took control of the entirety of the ze. What had once been reasonably mundane fire powered by the anger, rage, and determination of one brave captain then began to be empowered by the full fury of the [Divine Fire]. A golden light began to shine as a series of cleansing mes were infused into the vessels funeral pire, scorching away the abomination. The Heart of Madness writhed and tried to get away, letting go of the ship and looking like a leaky balloon as it pulled itself back together. In the process, it was too slow to close the vast void at its center. Isaac couldnt exactly decline such an invitation, now could he? Even if his role was leadership, rather than kicking ass directly. He ordered a brief ceasefire and dove downwards, then used a [Skill] he basically never used. The [Round Table] allowed him to borrow a single [Skill] from another member and in the case of [cial Fortress], he could use it once a week. It was meant to be a hidden trump card, but in the here and now, it would also be this things kryptonite. An iceberg twice the size of the destroyer grew inside the abomination, stretching it to its absolute limit while Isaac escaped back toward the sky. Sure, the monster immediately started withdrawing its flesh, condensing into a proper blob beneath the new ice chunk so it could use it as cover, but it was already toote. The skin stretched across the ice was rather thin and most attacks, even ones it was mosty immune to, tore straight through until the moster looked like a moth-eaten bedsheet. [Tyrants Die]. The [Skills] name echoed across the battlefield like a divine deration and the monster spasmed, its unnatural toughness havingrgely fled and it was finally forced to feel the full impact of its injuries. It tore apart, bits flying off every which way as body parts stretched well beyond where they should have been able to twanged back into a more natural form. Many of its smaller bits simply melted, having fallen beyond the minimum volume required to sustain life. It didnt die, though. No kill notification, no victory. Every piece in sight was dead, though, literally dissolving in most cases. Everyone with sensory and scrying abilities, start scanning the ocean. Everyone with cleaning or water filtration [Skills], start getting this crap out of the ocean. I need alchemists and chemical warfare specialists to analyze the remains to see if there is any risk to us or the exosystem. Pull the fleet closer together, ensure that point defense can cover all vessels in chase the remains of thing starts hurling pieces at us, and ready the depth charges in case ites from below again. Anyone not busy with the previous assignments is on S&R duty. Find and recover the survivors, get them to the medics Isaac continued to rattle off orders. Everyone here who could should start searching for thest pieces of the monster, and everyone else should start cleaning up the mess. In the end, it took them an embarrassingly long amount of time to find the small, car-sized chunk that prevented the monster from dying. It had been trapped in the original iceberg and floated away when it had been smashed by the grappled destroyer. An almost contemptuous burst of fire from a jets gun tore it to shreds and that was the end of that. Heart of Madness (Lv. 89 Raid Boss) has been in. 50,000 XP gained (500,000 XP distributed across 7,487 people as per their contribution) The ck stain upon the world that was thest of the Hearts vital fluids suddenly began to swirl around the ce where the beast had met its end, slowlypressing and growing paler until all that was left was a piece of parchment covered in spidery writing that looked like it had been torn from an old book. The loot. Isaac, having been fairly close to check out the body, grabbed it and flew over to the MEU carrier that had be the meeting point, being the vessel with the biggest meeting rooms. As he flew, he looked over his gains from the battle. Many [Skills] had gained Levels, but both his training and leadership [Skills] had grown by leaps and bounds. Knightly Leader (legendary, Level XX) After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to lead a disparate collection of people to victory and empower them with new training, it has evolved to vastly empower the users ability to turn a collection of random individuals into a solid group. Anyone who bes a member of your party can now be taught directly using Legacy of a True Warrior, without requiring physical proximity, and will gain basicbat and cooperation tactics should they not already have them. In addition, you gain an innate understanding of the dynamics of the people you lead, where the cracks in the group lie, and where your current subordinates arecking. It will also provide hints as to how these ws can bepensated for. And that was an Evolution worthy of such a fight. The power to instantly turn even a group of random people of the street into half-decent fighters, if he had to. However, the other [Skill] Evolution was so awesome that it made him forget all about the previous one. Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level XX) After countless fights where the user has turned a disparate collection of individuals into capable warriors, forging them into warriors capable of ying Demon Lords and even Dragons, this Skill has evolved to create an army of legends. Any individual who walks the same path as the Heir and works with them to achieve their end goals will passively be taught the Skills that Legacy of a True Warrior can grant and these Skills will rapidly level (up to the Heirs Level in the specific Skill) as long as they continue to support the Heir in their endeavors. Sure, the ability to make temporary allies useful no matter where they started from was great, but the ability to constantly passively empower all of the people he surrounded himself with iparably powerful. And now, he had a high he could try and ride all the way through what was sure to be an absolute nightmare of a meeting. Chapter 216: Here we go again Chapter 216: Here we go again Even the biggest room in the fleet still felt cramped when it had more than a dozen people stuffed within, and they still needed several additional individuals to be present even though there was no room for them. Those people ended up having to sit in remotely using the videoconferencing equipment avable in the vessels multiple conference rooms. The loot from the Heart of Madness. Isaac stated as he dropped the parchment on the table It says its the diagram for a spell that can unite two things that should not bepatible, though Im not a spellcaster, so I cant tell how good it is, or if its useable in the first ce. Hak grabbed the parchment and held it out in front of him so that Patrick and Raul could read it as well. That would probably take a bit, so the meeting itself started while they analyzed the spell. Wait, thats it? A lousy spell? Where are the Aspects, where are Fairfield shut theiner up with a simple re. The Marine Corps Colonel was of average height, his impressively trained physique was mirrored by every other individual in the room and the fact that the jackass was located in another room meant that Fairfield couldnt even get up in his face. But this was the re, the kind wielded by all with a great capacity for leadership, and struck like a physical blow. Mr. Sharpe, are you under the impression that we fought that battle for loot? Fairfield asked icily That the only reason we didnt let a [Raid Boss] run rampant was the possibility of personal gain? The man, who Isaac remembered as having been a pretty standard adventurer, wilted, but Fairfield wasnt done yet. We are here to ensure that this situation does not repeat itself, that we take out the problem at the root. If all you care about is your part of the loot, then your presence on this ship is no longer required. Someone will bring you your share once the actual issues are done. Sharpe wilted and vanished from the screen. We tore the hell out of that monster, and its pieces are scattered all over the ce. The pieces are still being gathered and any discussion of loot will wait until we know what there is to be shared. Isaac said And even if we had the loot, it would have to wait until the situation is resolved. Completely resolved. Right, how the hell did Lovecraft predict where Later. Fairfield shut that down Right now, our problem is that we dont know what the status of the remaining cultists in the city is. A full toon of the Marines with the highest Level of mental resistance [Skills] has been dispatched with the proper support to investigate. In the meanwhile, we need to be preparing for what they throw at us next. The [System] message caught them smack in the middle of discussing what theyd do if another [Raid Boss] arrived. Mosasaur Monarch (Tier 6) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Pole of Inessibility, Ocean floor (4 km away, direction straight down) Oh for fucks sake. Isaac Thoma, you have been designated as Incident Commander. You now hold Unified Command of the battle against Yeah, yeah, yeah, no need to deal with that. This one should be ea- Isaac began, then cut himself off when a sufficient amount of time had passed that he could have reasonably scanned the thing with the [Aura] hed projected downwards On second thought, I got this, be back in five minutes. Then, he phased through the floor and transformed the instant he hit the ocean. [Form of Horror: King of the Sea] was the single least used shape he had, but it was very very powerful in the right situation. A powerful fishy tail, borrowed from the Megalodon and with the countless small teeth that covered sharkskin reced with metal from the Razor Apparition. A pair of floating swords simr to his primary form swam alongside him, covered in sharkskin to reduce drag. Hands with amphibian-like webbing between his fingers, though the material was, in actuality, a projection of force borrowed from the Arcane Poltergeist. The primary body had been borrowed from the Hydra for flexibility and his head was mostly human. But the feature he was most proud of was something hed straight up stolen from nature. Hed added venom nds thatbined features from both the Lindwyrm and Hydra, then hybridized the result with the ectosmic body of the Poltergeist that allowed him to unleash a burst of highly acidic slime that wouldnt dissolve underwater, sticking to anything it got close to, clogging up gills, getting caught around fins and more. There was a reason few creatures ate hagfishes, and his stolen version of their defensive mechanism was a million times deadlier. This [Raid Boss] is a lot weaker and cheaper than thest one. Either they havent regained enough mana to summon another Tier 7, or the Heart killed enough of them that theirbined mana pools are insufficient? Isaac asked while he ordered the Marines currently exploring Rlyeh to bunker down while the prehistoric apex predator was around. The Mosasaur Monarch was one of the most basic [Raid Bosses] in existence, very uplicated, essentially being limited to just meleebat. What made it so dangerous was the waypensated for that weakness, its ludicrously powerful defenses, which were especially potent against anything that wasnt another meleebatant. A hundred meters away from it, a shell of water several meters across was thick like syrup, able to block depth charges, torpedoes, and even projectiles with [Skills] on them to prevent the water from slowing them. The monsters hide was highly resistant to magic, rendering most mages about as useful as tits on a bull. Furthermore, it waspletely immune to any crowd control effect that didnt have a physicalponent, such as [Sitting Duck] or [Fish in a Barrel]. It was not immune to things like being locked down in the same way theyd done to the Heart of Madness, it was only mostly immune to those. And the rest of the list of its abilities continued in the same way. In other words, methods that werent fighting it mano-a-mano would, at best, be vastly less effective, utterly futile at worst. The Mosasaur peeled out of the darkness as Isaac got close enough to see it, a lizard head big enough to chomp a submarine in half sitting upon a powerful body with four independently moveable fins that granted it unparalleled mobility. And at the end, a long, ttened tail reminiscent of an axolotls whipped from side to side, propelling it through the water at blinding speeds. In his standard form, that thing would have almost as fast as him despite being a hundred meters long and over sixty Levels below him. Thankfully, while being far more maneuverable than it had any right to be given its size, it was slow enough at turning to give people going against it a fighting chance even at Level parity. Isaac plummeted through the water as he used [Wave Charge], which could ignore water resistance, and at the very instant the [Skill] ended, [I Am The Sword] triggered. He fell like a meteor, hammering into the monsters tail from the top, tearing through the flesh like tissue paper while triggering his aciduncher, covering the wound from head to toe in sticky, incredibly corrosive, acid. With its main method of propulsion crippled, the Mosasaur slowed down, which elevated Isaacs next attack from suicidal stunt to future military academy teaching material. He swam around the monster, floating des cutting shallow wounds, until he found himself near the head. Predictably, the monster snapped at him, only to get a mouthful of acid as Isaac teleported to the side and used his second and final use of his defensive ability. Adding insult to injury, he took this as an opportunity to put out both of the Mosasaurs eyes. Against the fleet, it would have been a devastating enemy, against a singlepetent, high-Level melee fighter, it was pretty much useless. Sure, killing it through its [Raid Boss] futility was an exercise in frustration, but once it had lost its tail, both eyes, and all four of its fins, there wasnt really much it could do as he destroyed its vital organs one by one. Once the brain had been destroyed, its movements grew less coordinated. When the heart went, it weakened. Its supply of air was lost along its lungs and it began to thrash madly. The liver, spleen, and kidneys each bled profusely as he stabbed them in turn, blood loss further reducing its physical capabilities until finally, the long-awaited message shed in front of his eyes. Mosasaur Monarch (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been in. 50,000 XP gained And that was that. Isaac took a moment to make sure there were no nearby drones or scrying spells, and when hed determined there were none, he grinned. That had been fun. He swam back up to the surface, climbed up the side of the carrier, and walked straight back into the meeting room, dripping wet but unhurt. Throughout the fight, all five minutes of it, hed never once stopped participating in the discussion via the party. Why the hell didnt you do that to the Heart of Madness? another person asked over the video call. Do I need to exin that a higher Tier monster is stronger than a lower Tier one and that seven is more than six? Patrick asked, speaking up for the first time. The speaker flushed and walked out of the webcams field of view. By the way, the spell checks out, its going to be expensive as hell, mana-wise. He said. I can see applications in engineering and Alchemy, but youd need someone specialized in those things to get specific uses, Hak added. He might have said more when he was interrupted by a frantic man whose eyes were practically jumping from their sockets as he stared into the webcam. Ok, seriously, can we talk about the fact that HP Lovecraft somehow predicted the city would be here? What else is real? The mountain full of Shoggoths in the Arctic, the serum that can raise the dead, extradimensional houses with baby-sacrificing witches? Theres a reasonable exnation for why he was right about there being a city here, Isaac said. Oh, do tell. The man replied acidly. The ce were at, Point Nemo, is also known as the Pole of Inessibility, is as far in the middle of nowhere as you can get without leaving the or tunneling under its crust. Isaac pointed out If you want to build a trade city, you build it on trade routes. If you want to build an observatory, you find a ce with calm weather and minimal light pollution. And if you want to hide an eldritch city, you put it in the middle of nowhere, and avoid ces with specific extraordinary features, such as the deepest point in the ocean. Wait, you think weve been ying around in Cthulhus RV or something? Fenrir asked even as the scared whispering began. Isaac just shrugged Im just saying that HP Lovecraft is probably not a prophet. I still dont know what the city is, and its still bugging me. Why dont we explore it? We survived the Heart of Madness just fine, didnt we? It seemed like Sharpe had found his courage. Isaac rolled his eyes. Because having once eaten Indian food with a single chili pepper next to its name on the menu does not mean that youre ready to eat a Carolina Reaper raw. The city is a million times worse. Fenrir pointed out. And as it turned out, his re was almost as good as Fairfields. Sharpe, once again, slunk off. This time though, Fairfield made sure to officially ban him from the vessel. Having someone there to y Advocatus Diaboli was useful, but an uninformed contrarian was the exact opposite of that. And then, the long-awaited message finally arrived via the Party. The rest of the cultists had been either captured or killed and the city had been secured. Well, there were still various anomalies that might still be hiding nasty surprises, but for all practical intents and purposes, theyd now taken possession of the worlds creepiest city. Now what the hell were they supposed to do with it? Chapter 217: Quarantine Chapter 217: Quarantine Were going to be exploring this city for decades. Can you imagine what secrets it holds? We Isaac tuned out the scientists excited chattering from the deck of the carrier and focussed on the people in the meeting room. It had taken them all of ten minutes to agree on the fact that whatever ended up being done with the city, it would have to be a joint decision. Trying to monopolize the city wouldnt be really possible due to the multi-nationality of the group that had fought and bled to take it. If the US tried to im it, there would be a million people whod rightfully challenge it, and the same went for anyone else trying to take charge. Making no one touches the city until we figure this out the first joint decision had taken only a few seconds after that. Everything else they hadnt been able to agree on a single point in twelve bloody hours. Look, Ive said this before, Ill say it again, and Ill keep saying it until you start listening to me: drop a nuke on the ce and be done with it! Colonel Fairfield, just do it! Im not authorized to make decisions about the deployment of the US nuclear arsenal. Fairfield sighed, repeating himself for the millionth time. Nuke it? Dr. Han asked Do you know what will happen when a rampant nuclear fission reaction urs within an area of space where the standardws of physics as we know them may not exist? Are you able to provide a survey on the consequences of vaporized eldritch building material getting into the environment? Can you provide verifiable evidence that there are no materials hidden in the city that will react poorly with an explosion of that magnitude? Shut up about the nukes. Fenrir rumbled Youve had this exact same argument five times and gotten nowhere. Put a pin in it and move on. Yes, lets. Isaac sighed. The whole ignore the nukes talk had also happened multiple times, but this time, it would hopefully stick as Fenrir was currently standing behind the bomb-happy adventurer and looming over him. Ok, what about [Raid Bosses]? Weve either found the bodies of or captured all the cultists you found during your first exploration, Dr. Thoma, but can you guarantee that means we found all of them? Urgh, this again. Every piece of information we have avable states that no cultists are remaining. Fairfield pointed out The tunnels under the city are deep, but they dont branch out all that much. Anyone still hiding out is located in rooms that arent essible unless certain circumstances are met, and those normally arent very big. Weve probably got all of them, but what if we didnt? What if another Heart of Madness shows up? Then we deal with it. Isaac said, Weve received reinforcements and weve gotten better at working together. Oh, working together, like that one time the incidentmander took off on his own to kill a dinosaur? one of the destroyer captains asked snippily. Captian Smith, did you, perchance, get a chance to read up on its capabilities? The Mosasaur Monarch would have been a very dangerous enemy to the fleet, but in my professional opinion, taking it down myself would take the least amount of time and ur the least number of casualties. Isaac said. Where the hell would I read up it? Smith asked snidely You fought it a few hours ago and youve been in this meeting since then. I dictated a report to a helpful petty officer via the party, it was uploaded to all the relevant ces ten hours ago. Isaac said And if another [Raid Boss] arrives, Ill make a judgment call about how to handle it as well. Thank you for your concern, Captain Smith, but considering that the situation was resolved quickly and safely, I believe Dr. Thomas course of action was the correct one, Fairfield added. d we got that sorted, and now, can we please talk about what youre going to do with the city if youre not going to nuke it? Quarantine, Patrick suggested. Hed been furiously tapping away at his tablet for hours while using a separate Party tomunicate with Bailey, Isaac, and Dr. Han while the rest of them worked on ensuring that no one managed to get any stupid suggestions approved. Sure, in an optimal world, theyd have managed to get everyone to agree on quarantine without having to first work out a solution to every single problem that idea had, but the situation was a bit too tense for that. Weve been over this, the people enforcing the quarantine would go insane and then wed just end up with a repeat of the current situation. And if the city doesnt do them in, the people begging to be allowed to explore will. We dont even know why the city rises and falls, it might even be able to travel. And a dozen different arguments were thrown up, but Patrick didnt respond and waited until the veryst of them had been made, then projected his presentation onto the wall screen. Weve thought about all of those. Firstly, a colleague back home was able to tell us how the mechanism that let the city rise works based on pictures, and why it failed. The next slide showed a picture from the bodycam that Patrick had been wearing in the city, with a certain piece of runic circuitry circled. The mechanism wasnt a part of the city, it was added after the fact by the squatters, and thatponent there was manufactured faultily. Apparently, it should have been obvious to anyone with the right amount of training, but no one caught it and when they put it together the first time, it absorbed all environmental mana and ascended the city. When they sank it back down, they broke the mechanism for good. The city is staying down there and we can be sure that there are no additional mechanisms as they have to be located near the center of the ce theyre intended to raise, an area thats been explored thoroughly. Were going to be getting around the issue of sanity erosion by regrly swapping out the guard contingent, using [Veterans Knowledge] to transfer experience in dealing with the citys emanations. And what about the explorers? Whoever ends up stuck here will have to prevent the literal thousands of hopefuls from sneaking in. Theyre all chomping at the bit to explore the city, and if theyre locked out categorically, some might decide to throw all caution into the wind and ignore all regtions about dealing with the city. Isaac rolled his eyes. That would literally have been the next topic talked about. Limits on how often one can visit, limits on how long the visits can take, mandatory psychiatric counseling, and so on. He finally said, But please, lets save thements until Mr. Lerch has finished his proposal. The argument went on for another hour but eventually, the proposal was agreed upon, the meeting finally ended, and Isaac headed off to find the psychiatrist with the confidentiality [Skill] that Maier had told him about. This would either take a huge weight off his shoulders or it would be aplete disaster. Chapter 218: Talking it out Chapter 218: Talking it out Dr, Mllers office was just what one would expect from a psychiatrists workce upon a warship. Everything was bolted down to prevent it from spilling everywhere when the ship moved, there was a tiny cabin for the man himself to sleep in attached to the room and the whole ce was cramped as hell. Thank you for making the time to meet me, Dr. Mller. Isaac said But before we start this, Im afraid Im going to have to ask you to confirm that this conversation is covered by [System]-enforced confidentiality. In order to not soundpletely insane, I have to provide some context, but that context is He sighed Without exaggeration, its one of the biggest secrets in the world. Mller, to his credit, took that deration in his stride and a [System] window opened in front of Isaac. [Adrian Mller], [Expert Military Psychiatrist], is [System]-bound to observe confidentiality with regards to all things you discuss with him. (He is likewise bound to inform the proper authorities should you reveal yourself as a threat to the lives of yourself or others) Thank you, Isaac said, sighed, and rxed, sinking back into the armchair. So, Dr. Thoma, what would you like me to call you? Mller asked Your first name, surname, if theres a title youd like me to use, or not use, as it were, please ask. The important thing is that you feelfortable in this situation. And youre free to address me however you want. Thank you, Adrian, Isaacs fine, Isaac told him. Alright, Isaac, how are you feeling? Mller asked in a friendly tone. Honestly? Isaac said I know it sounds nuts, but I feel really good. The discussion about what to do with the city was frustrating as hell, and being down there was literal hell, but fighting those [Raid Bosses] thats something I could do, a situation I could be useful in. Especially the Mosasaur. Mller didnt look at him with judgment in his eyes, though Isaac could tell he was more than a little confused and concerned. He hung his head and chuckled. See, this is where the contextes in. Im not a madman who charges in to fight a [Raid Boss] because the meeting was getting on my nerves. I Isaac chuckled again I know this is going to sound insane, so please use whatever truth-telling [Skills] you possess, I wont block them. Im a time traveler. The [System] appeared, people started summoning, and monsters got out. One here, two there, people were climbing the Tiers, the asional [Raid Boss] went on a rampage, and as the world grew more dangerous even when you werent actively summoning, people had to level to survive, which just made the whole situation worse. Shit got worse and worse until eventually, I was the only one left, standing knee-deep in gore with the corpse of a Tier 10 Demon Lord behind me, about to dive into the portal that all Tier 10 [Raid Bosses] have to summon their own reinforcements with. But as it turns out, there was a hidden side to the [System]. If humanity ever got whittled down to one, and that person managed to conquer a portal, that portal would lead back through time, all the way to the very beginning of the [System]. And here I am. I wasnt the best fighter in the world, I wasnt an expert in any given craft, I dont have the bestiary memorized to the point where I could draw you an anatomical diagram of every single monster in existence. But I was good enough to survive and reach the top, I gathered a ton of misceneous information on crafting, and Ive fought enough monsters practically non-stop for a decade. I do know basically all their offensive powers, weaknesses, and most valuable parts. So when I jumped into the water with a prehistoric apex predator capable of snapping destroyers in half with a single chomp, I knew exactly what I was doing, I knew that Id win. Isaac sighed and leaned back in his chair until the back of his head wasying on its headrest and he was staring at the ceiling. Thats my story, boiled down to its essentials. Basically no one knows, and the few people I told can take care of themselves. In case you were worried about people trying to get information out of you about meter, you dont have to be. The confidentiality [Skill] means that you cant share the information, and potential bad actors will be able to tell. He finally sat up straight and looked at Mller. I know this is a lot, and if you need to take a minute to process this, feel free. But this session wouldnt get us anywhere without this information. Mller was not looking good. His eyes were flicking from side to side with unnatural speed and his facial expression was changing every other second. He hadnt had a stroke though, he was merely using one of his [Skills] to speedrun the process of dealing with having his world rocked. That [Skill] was meant to keep the therapy moving along smoothly, where the psychiatrist could finish absorbing the situation without having to ask for a little time. The fact that Mller was still in his state of hyper-speed coping a minuteter meant that he was struggling. Another minute passed and Isaac grew seriously concerned. Suddenly, Mller stopped his fidgeting and looked straight at Isaac, seemingly staring into his very soul. How are you dealing with it? Honestly? Im mostly ignoring it. I had a bit of a crisis earlier when I thought that everyone I knew was dead and Id erased them, even the versions of them that are in the various afterlives, by time traveling. Eventually, I managed to hit myself over the head with enough bricks that I stopped being an idiot. literally? Mller asked in a tone of voice that made it abundantly clear that he was afraid of the answer. Isaac shook his head. Im dealing with it as best I can. I do have people to talk to, they arent professionals, but theyre good friends and do what they can. Good, Mller said, freezing up for a moment, before visibly gathering himself, sitting up ramrod-straight and continuing. So, whats on your mind the most these days? The fate of the world. Isaac said Im worried about a lot of things. The cult, the people we met down in Rlyeh, when the first idiots would summon a [World Boss] Im making ns for all of those things. Every. Damn. Day. Things are getting better, but that doesnt mean that the world is safe. How much time do you normally spend working in a day? That depends on how you define work. Isaac said, I do really enjoy a lot of my work, and Id be doing it even if it werent my job, but if it counts, Id say I work something like twenty hours a day. Mller winced And what would that enjoyable part of your work be? Summoning. Isaac said I know how that sounds, that it makes me sound like I left behind half my marbles in the other timeline, but when Im fighting summoned monsters that are only there because I chose them to be there, they arent a problem, theyre a challenge, one I chose to take on. Using everything I learned I dont know how to exin it. Like everything you went through had meaning because its the basis for your knowledge? Mller suggested. The corners of Isaacs mouth twitched upwards for a brief moment I think that might be it. The other timeline made me who I am today, and when Im summoning, Im getting the most out of that hell, using that knowledge in a situation where the world isnt actively ending. He sighed and hung his head Godsdamnit. Why the hell does it take me staring into a city thats literally madness made manifest to talk to a shrink? Well, talking about yourself, revealing the things you like to keep on the inside, that can be scary even if you dont have huge se- did you just say gods? Mller stared at Isaac as one might look at a dangerous snake. No, that wasnt it. More like one might stare at a letter from the bank you hadnt opened yet, something that might be harmless, or it might be utterly devastating. Isaac nodded and Mller seemed to dete. Godsdamnit, why couldnt Isaac have thought that through better? Was that a turn of phrase from the Mller swallowed Other timeline? Or do you know something? Isaac desperately wanted to kick himself, but he decided that wouldnt help. At all. Ive met Janus, the Roman god of doorways, once. I also met Loki a few times, seen Hermes from afar and Ive got circumstantial evidence for the existence of a few more. I also know that some form of afterlife exists. Isaac said, deciding to just put it all out there. There was no way in hell that life after death wouldnt have been Mllers next question. Aaaaaannd he might have broken his psychiatrist. Mller slipped right back into the hyperprehension state but it ended after less than ten seconds and he was still looking frazzled. Another [Skill] activated and he rxed, apparently putting dealing with the situation off untilter. That couldnt be healthy, but apparently, it was what was needed right now. What do you do when you arent summoning, or working? Mller asked. Cooking, watching TV, spending time with my sisters, pub crawls with Arthur, stuff like that. Have you tried putting aside a couple of hours each day to do things for yourself, and sticking to it, barring emergencies? Mller asked, I know that it might sound tough and maybe like you could be spending your time doing something productive, but taking care of yourself is productive. Tried that, stopped doing it. But I guess Ill try again. What are your ns for now? Mller asked. Thank my lucky stars that Im not involved in the argument about loot distribution. Isaac chuckled There are clear directions about what I should get as incidentmander baked into the Treaty of Seoul, to prevent abuse of authority when ites to loot. In fact, Im banned from the discussion, which means I dont have to deal with that mess unless a disagreement is brought before me for arbitration. So thats one patience-destroying meeting I dont have to attend. Do you dislike bureaucracy in general? Mller asked. I like it in theory because its important. Its just that a lot of the things I run into read like they were written by someone actively trying to get on myst nerve. As if, when torture stopped being socially eptable, the guild of torturers swapped out their hot pokers for pens and started creating rules and regtions to torment humanity for the rest of time. Isaac said, Ill deal with it when ites up, but when I can avoid dealing with it without negative consequences, Ill be happy. And what is the incidentmanders share? Mller asked, Are you happy with it? As long as the incidentmander didnt do a terrible job, theyre entitled to an Aspect and ten percent of the body, for the first two times a given [Raid Boss] is killed. From the third time onwards, only a single Aspect is dropped, so themander either gets twenty percent of the body, or they can buy the Aspect, with the price being determined by a superplicated form that I dont understand. Id rather go for a walk in Rlyeh than sit in on university-level math sses. And speaking of Rlyeh, what was it like down there? Mller asked, finally bringing them to the originally intended topic of this meeting. Crappy, I felt like someone slowed down my ability to think. And worried. Im pretty sure it didnt have any permanent effects, but theres always that stupid little voice in the back of my head pointing out that if Id been affected, would I really be able to tell? I did borrow several psychiatrists [Skills] using [Blessing of Innovation] andpare my mental states before and after the visit to that hellhole, but Isaac hung his head I know the voice is wrong, but its still there. Mller nodded sympathetically Ive been checking for foreign mental influences throughout the meeting and Ive spent enough time with the prisoners to get an idea as to what the city does to people. As far as I can tell, youre clean. Isaac sighed in relief. That was one worry gone. Now he just had to figure out more about how the city functioned, and why it was here. Hed briefly considered asking Loki about that but realized that would almost certainly incur a cost he wouldnt be able or willing to pay. He wouldnt risk that. Thank you, Adrian. He said, This has been great, but I think I need to take some time to think about everything. Mller nodded I think that might be for the best, Isaac. When would you have time for another session, assuming youre staying here for a few more days? Ill find a way for one, Isaac promised and after exchanging a few more pleasantries, he left. Thankfully, it was looking like hadnt fully broken his psychiatrist, but Mller definitely needed a little time to fully deal with having his worldview shattered. Chapter 219: Digging up the Past Chapter 219: Digging up the Past Two months. Two bloody months of standing vigil over the city of nightmares, just waiting for shit to hit the fan, again. Things had been quiet on thebat front, but everything else had been pretty crappy. Taking the city had been easy enough with how the cultists had all been drained of mana after summoning the [Raid Bosses] and practically helpless, but that had been the only thing that had gone well. Everything that followed after, that, had been unpleasant in the extreme. First, thered been the arguing about who owned the city, being rehashed now that proper representatives from the various countries involved in the mess arrived. The US Marine Corps was the biggest military contingent, and the one whod been there the longest, but everyone wanted the city, risk of spontaneous brain melting be damned. Any nation with a citizen present during the affair used that as a basis for a im. Isaac had even heard about a couple where the citizen in question no longer had citizenship as theyd emigrated to another nation. But that was no reason to not act as though that extremely tenuous im made their former home a shoo-in as caretaker of the cursed city. Secondly, thered been incessant discussions about the citys nature, with most of the participants never even having seen the damn ce. Listening to that lot, youd either think that being on the same hemisphere as Rlyeh was going to kill you in short order, or that all ims of danger were vastly overblown and that exploring that ce wasnt going to be any issue at all. Thirdly, thered been their prisoners and all the depressing things theyd found out about these poor saps. Interrogations had gained them very little useful information. They didnt even remember why theyd started doing what they did, just that it seemed like a good idea at the time. Of course, it was entirely possible that both their goal and method had slowly fallen into darkness and the result had been a far cry from what theyd been going for initially. And fourthly, hed gotten something of a reputation. Mller had ended up talking to a different ships psychiatrist, another one with a confidentiality [Skill], whod then ended up, in turn, talking to a third one, and so on, until eventually, someone had noticed that six different psychologists had ended up badly rattled by either talking to Isaac directly or being visited by someone who hed been honest with. At least the rumors were connecting that to the city, rather than some secret centered on Isaac himself, but it still wasnt helping the matter. With the assumption of him having seen something truly insane came the assumption that hed lost at least some of his marbles. Before, him proposing something that sounded dangerous had been met with caution and his proposed ns had been carefully analyzed. But nowadays, peoples first assumption seemed to be that hed gotten reckless after visiting the worst city on Earth. The situation would hopefully calm down in time when it became apparent that hed continue his nigh-perfect streak of summoning monsters and killing them with no deaths and very little destruction of property, but right now, it was getting on hisst nerve. Or it would have, except that he was feeling a lot better. Talking to a professional was helping, though finding another psychiatrist capable ofprehending the insanity that was Isaacs past without having to bemitted would be a pain in the ass. It wasnt like he could pop down to Antarctica twice a week to talk to Mller. The Spring Event had also happened during this time, but that had gone decently well. The fact that Events repeated meant that there was a lot less pressure to fight the strongest monsters right the hell now, so while casualties and property damage still spiked during Events, it was hardly cataclysmic. However, it hadnt beenpletely bad. A free-floating summoning area had been created nearby via frost magic, a series of tied-together, never-melting, ice floes working to support anything up to Tier 7, as long as fire wasnt involved. Isaac had used that to train both himself and others, working to ensure that when a proper garrison for this ce was finally established, it would be in a position to deal with anything. Secondly, while the prisoners had been mostly useless, the sparse documentation that had been found down in the city had yielded quite a bit of information, especially whenbined with the rest of his research. What a fucking mess, Isaac muttered as he withdrew his [Aura] from the waterlogged journal in the evidence bag. It had been informative, but depressing, which was a good way to sum up thest two months in general. However, the recovered journals did contain something relevant. They didnt exin everything, but they did contain unaltered records from a time when their writers had still had all their marbles. Isaac looked down at the summary of the journal hed written. The people theyd fought down in the city had been a group of oceanic researchers whod found the city a few weeks after Initialization and decided to keep it a secret. Initially, the journals had read like a series of scientific notes, proper documentation of the citys exploration. Theyd repeatedly visited the city after that, exploring further each time. With each visit, the notes became less and less thorough, slipping into vague assertions along the lines of the city is beyond humanprehension, but I see the truth. Things kept going, devolving further and further into madness. The city speaks to me, it finally all makes sense. I can see it all. This is a gift that has to be shared with the world. Thest coherent thing written down in the journal was the n for raising the city, but even that was barely understandable. In essence, the n boiled down to making the city safe by installing shielding around it and its nastier aspects,then raising it and inviting people to use it as a neutral zone. Of course, they wouldnt be the administrators in charge of that, they felt they were above dealing with unenlightened beings, but theyd be around. Eventually, the shielding would slowly be taken down to ease the various visitors into the truth of the matter who would then ept stuff, instead of freaking out and calling for the city to be bombed to the bedrock? Isaac waved again yet another message about him having gained XP due to [Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit] partially being a research [ss]. Initially, hed been getting huge chunks of it, especially when hed observed the city using the [Blessing of Innovation], but the flow had petered off after hed gained six Levels, at which point hed bought his next [Skill] from his fourth Evolution [ss]. Lessons of History (legendary) Those who dont study history might be doomed to repeat it, but those who do study history will most likely end up watching someone else repeat it. Sucks, doesnt it? History is filled with great examples, both ones to live up to and ones to avoid living down to. This is a Skill to help turn those lessons into ns of action. It allows the user to uncover things about the past by supporting the discovery of new information based on mere context clues and will then check the veracity of this information. Once such information about the past is in your hands, the Skill will point to the core lessons to learn from the past and allow these lessons to bemunicated clearly and unmistakeably to others. Hed been buying [Skills] out of the nned order for a while now, but that particr ability had been too useful to pass up right that moment. Not only had it helped him gain enough XP for another five Levels until the flood hadpletely dried up, but it had also helped get his point across when arguing about how carefully the city should be treated. But even though he was being rewarded for uncovering information about the city, he still hadnt gained a clear picture of what it was about. Hed been able to determine it had arrived with the [System], there hadnt been an eldritch brain melter in the middle of the Pacific gods only knew how long, hed been able to determine that nothing was living within the city other than microorganisms and it wasnt about to spit out a horde of nightmares, but beyond that Rlyeh was a chunk of rock at the bottom of the ocean, carved into a bunch of funny shapes and it started to melt your brain if you looked at it too closely. And looking at it too closely was the only way it could hurt anyone, but looking was what people could not stop doing. So many scientists had imed to havee close to understanding it, the answer being on the tip of their tongue, but never been able to fully make the leap to true understanding. This phenomenon had been somon that concern over a memetic hazard had arisen and most had fled from the region to continue their research well clear of the hell-city. Even Isaac had taken a crack at it, once [Blessing of Innovation] had hit Level 10 and gained a new ability. Across several attempts, hed gained seven more Levels in the [Skill] but failed to grasp the real secret behind the city. Blessing of Innovation (legendary) A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, ws that rend flesh like tissue paper and the strength to bring down all but thergest of animals in its habitat. A human has what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal lotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands? Yet its man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africas lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: lions are stupid. The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipients ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself, for one hour. (the recipient can be any willing sapient being within 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves) While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively forget certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skills effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.) Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective fact for the duration of the effect. Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research sses, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare and up to the second Evolution. The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a week. And now, this Skill has gained the capacity to understand truths that man is not meant to know, and as long as Undying Focus is supporting the user during the learning process, this information cannot hurt them. Another thing this upgrade hadnt given him was an exnation of the nature of the secret. Was it merely about how the city had gotten there, or a single fact that cleared up every question ever asked about Rlyeh? Now though, secure in the knowledge that the danger posed by the city was limited, he was leaving. There was a whole world to keep safe and he could not afford to spend all his time on a single city. But the situation was still grating on him. The situation might have been handled, but it was by no means resolved. Chapter 220: Aniversary Chapter 220: Aniversary Two years since the beginning of the [System]. Two years with more death and chaos than any since the world wars. Two years that had restored magic to the world. And now, it was Isaacs job to hold a speech about that mess. The university higher-ups were very eager to have him in the public eye as much as possible, to hold him as a shining example of This is our university. Of course, everyone else would be making speeches too. Bailey and Kass would be giving ones simr to Isaacs, while the rest of the team would be giving more informational ones. Basically, theyd be taking this as an opportunity to share their research once again and show off. Today is a day of speeches. A million speeches, with a thousand different messages. The world isnt ending. The world is ending. Im sure everyone here has heard both of those speeches a hundred times before, which is why youll be relieved to hear Im not nning on making that number one-hundred-and-one. A few polite chuckles swept through the crowd. In the past two years, weve seen the world change in a thousand different ways. The creatures out of myth and legend have returned, and Im sure most of us here have taken this as an opportunity to look at a dinosaur. Or twenty. A few more polite chuckles. Weve seen the chaos that came with the [System], but weve also seen incredible boons as well. Im sure almost everyone here has, at some point, been stuck waiting for hours in the emergency room for one reason or another. Nowadays, its practically a ghost town, and someone not getting healed within minutes of showing up happens maybe once or twice a week. Laboratories around the world have started producing technology we could only specte on a couple of years ago. But weve also seen chaos on a scale that is unmatched outside of globe-spanning conflicts. Humanity stands at a crossroads, one path leads us into darkness, the other can take us higher than weve ever dreamed of. If we do this right, if we exercise caution, if we use our heads. In the past, Ive heard proposals for how the world could be brought onto the correct path. Ive heard suggestions that someone should conquer the world and enforce cautious summoning. Hell, Ive gotten a couple of letters asking me why I havent dered myself emperor of the world. But this is not something that we can fix by dering that the world stops summoning recklessly, or by trying to beat all of humanity into good behavior. This is a battle that each and every single one of us must fight, this is a situation where each and every single one of us must ask ourselves: what do I want the world to look like in ten years? Weve beaten the Ozone depletion and the hole torn into the Ozoneyer was closing even before a couple of [Aeromancers] flew up there and elerated the process. Events started out as disasters, but nowadays, theyre just like any other day. We, humanity, weve ovee a lot, grown beyond many of our mistakes, and if we grow beyond mishandling the [System], well, the skys the limit. Literally. Weve put more people on the moon in thest month than in the entire previous history of spaceflight. Two missions to Mars are being prepared as we speak, and theyre expected to reach it in less than a hundred days once theyunch. So, let me ask you this, do you want to see the universe? Do you want to explore all there is to find? Do you want to create a world straight out of your wildest dreams? This time, he earned cheers. All throughout his speech, Isaac had been using [Lessons of History] tomunicate exactly what he was talking about to all those listening, making it perfectly understandable what he was talking about, and which lessons should be taken away from it. Yet for all his speeches, Isaac had no ns to let the fate of humanity be solely decided based on whether or not people did the right thing. It would be amazing if it worked out that way, but he wouldnt rely on it. The world would not end, not if he had anything to say about it, if there was one single thing he could do to improve its odds. Chapter 221: Moon Shot Chapter 221: Moon Shot The spire rose from the summoning circle like a hellish spear aiming to pierce the sky, the diameter of its base widening with every passing second as more and more of the titanic structure revealed itself, sending the warriors eagerly waiting to im it stumbling back. When the immense structure finally settled, it was almost five hundred meters tall and perhaps a hundred across at the base, while its peak was concealed in the clouds. The very instant it was clear that there would be no further movement, the warriors charged and the spire trembled before them. Countless beasts barred their way, yet they fell to a one. Spells rent the air asunder, blows so powerful they could only be used once every few hours or even a day brought low the mightiest of foes until the conquerors emerged victorious, the spires core lying shattered behind them. This would have been a reason for celebration, had it not been for the message blinking in each of their visions Spire Conquest: 1/6 Current reserve monster poption: 7,798 (individual monster strength variable) Time remaining until Spire copse: 4:39:17 *** And youre seriously not going up there? Arthur asked incredulously This is the moon were talking about, theyre literally building a colony on the moon! How can you not want to go up there? Amyughed Youve never been on an airne with Isaac, have you? It takes, what, twelve hours to get to the moon? Hed drive everyone crazy before youre even halfway there. He paces and paces and he might even wear a hole in the floor. She then dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper Considering youre going to be in a spaceship, holes are a really bad thing. Isaac shot her a look that promised retaliation. Youre afraid of flying? Elena asked incredulously from the other side of the table There is literally nothing about it that could even scratch you, and are you seriously trying to tell me that you havent figured out a way to make yourself immune to the dangers of a vacuum yet? Isaac shook his head Its not the danger, its being unable to do anything productive. Getting locked in a metal can for hours on end, without even the space to walk around without bothering the other passengers nah, Im just going to fly up there myself one of these days. I could already do it now, but I need a few more Levels before I can do it quickly enough. Well have figured out a way to create a permanent portal by then. Patrick assured him Between me and Karl, how hard could it be? Very hard. Raul threw in Portals rip space in a way that the natural order of things bnces out very quickly, so they require a lot of power to stay open. Throw in the fact that the distance between a given point on the moon and a target destination on Earth is never static and good luck with that, Im d I dont have to be involved in that. He grinned as he reached up and stroked the Microraptor sitting on his shoulder Ill be setting up the biodomes keeping us all alive and fed. Isaac looked at the trio of future moon colonizers with pride in his eyes. When the proposal had started floating around in the UN a few months ago, hed started reaching out to his contacts until eventually, Bailey had gotten a highly official request if maybe, just maybe, he could spare three of his subordinates for the mission. Raul Mina, whod evolved into one of the most unique [sses] Isaac had ever seen after experiencing the horrors of Rlyeh. [Sentinel of Nature, Life, and Reality] let him sustain life and entire ecosystems no matter their surroundings, their environment, and outright no-selling almost any conceivable negative unnatural influences. If Isaac were forced to pick a recement for him, hed have to go with the twenty people behind him in terms of suitability, as that was what it would have taken to do the same work Raul was capable of. Patrick Lerch, [Sage of Arcana], S-Rank magic user, creator of more custom spells than even Isaac could urately guess, shatterer of [Raid Bosses] and someone who could wrap up a colony in enough protective wards that even a nuclear strike would have trouble inflicting serious damage. Karl Siegel, the man with more tools than many a gadget-loving superhero, ranging from simple contraptions to runic cannons fuelled by the blood of Demon Lords and Isaac was pretty sure there was a mech hidden away somewhere in the former [Engineers] personal storage [Skill]. Given the right support and resources [Arcane Technomancer] would create a futuristic metropolis to rival the most out-there sci-fi stories. Those three would be sorely missed down on good old terra firma while they were up in the sky, but theyd be building up a safe space for humanity, and the value of that couldnt be overstated. In the other timeline, that had, of course, been tried as well. It had failed. Miserably. Creating a working, long-term off-Earth colony was a lot easier with the [Systems] help, but it was hardly easy. In general, you needed someone to generate air, to fast-grow crops and livestock, someone to build the structures and possibly a separate person to handle the infrastructure, be it technology or enchantment-based, and for them to be able to do that in the very long term, they needed to be at the third Evolution. At least. This was something that needed to be kept up for decades or even centuries, after all. Gaining resources via summoning monsters was an option, of course, but the things needed to summon creatures would, eventually, run out. Personal spatial pockets, spatial rings, storage [Skills], all of that would extend the time a colony could be supported by summoned monsters. But eventually, a colony would have to support itself in other ways. Then there was the small issue of how fragile constructs in space were. Aspects for bing immune to the vacuum were high Tier and hard toe by, which meant that those precious pockets of air were rather important. And no matter how quickly humanitys power to build things grew, its ability to destroy them, even by ident, grew even faster. Hell, summoning most creatures up there was a huge no-no precisely because of how easily even small amounts of damage to the wrong piece of equipment could spell utter disaster. Theyd lost contact with the few attempted colonies a bit before humanitys poption had dipped below the one million mark, and by the time hed gone back in time, they had to have died for sure, otherwise, he wouldnt have been thest human on Earth and therefore been ineligeble for Isaacs train of thought stuttered to an abrupt halt. Last human on Earth. Isaac, are you ok? Elena asked immediately. Apparently, his face had revealed a little of what was going on in his mind. Have you even just been thinking, alone in the privacy of your head, following a single train of thought to its eventual conclusion and then realize all you want to do is scream into a pillow? Isaac asked, d theyd set up anti-eavesdropping measures when theyd sat down. That bad? That bad. He confirmed. So, what do we do? Its not that kind of problem. He shook his head Unpleasant personal realization. Time travel ... it was a terrifying concept. Removing everything between the time you started your journey and the one you ended up in, destroying the people whod have existed if it hadnt been for your actions, thoroughly erasing them in a way that not even death could. And hed just realized he might have done that to however many people had managed to escape Earth. Not just removed them, but outright erased them, without even an afterlife to receive them. Fuck! Theyd been dead anyway, eventually, the Elementals, spirits and other creatures capable of space travel would have reached the colonies and killed everyone there. But at least thered have been an afterlife for them if theyd been killed by monsters. Damnit! Hed been sessfully ignoring that little ethical rabbit hole for years. Hed gotten a handle on that issue, really, but now, it had escaped its mental prison in the depths of his mind, but now, it had gotten out. In an ideal scenario, hed have run off to fight something, summoned a monster to challenge him and lost himself in the flow of battle, until the issue returned to its prison simply by virtue of him no longer thinking about it. Not like there was anything he could do to change it. Unless something catastrophic happened, he couldnt run off yet. Not when history was being made right in front of his face. Then, he noticed that Amy was about to take a drink and decided to take a little payback for the earlierments. Anyway, like I said, Ive been to the moon before. Its a pain in the ass, moving around in lowered gravity, which is why I learned the ancient art of cracking rocks by falling into them, face first. And let me tell you, that took some doing while only weighing a sixth of what I normally do. Amy red at him amid her coughing fit as her wine went down the wrong pipe. Of course, her magic let her contain the spray and prevented her from dousing the table in fermented grape juice, but she managed to cast a spell that would allow her to breathe liquid in time to prevent doing a spit take. Jokes aside, make sure you control yourselves in low gravity. I know Ive told you guys this a million times before, but its important. When you try to handle increased stats, youve usually got a million memories about how to properly handle yourself in your daily life. So you dont have many problems unless you double a Stat in a single action. But you dont know how to handle yourself in low gravity, you dont have much experience, and we couldnt squeeze in nearly as much practice in magically reduced gravity as we should have. We know. Raul said, Ill end up restoring the atmosphere a million times before people learn, Karl is going to have to keep fixing the impressions peoples faces leave in the walls and ceiling, and Patrick has to create a billion wards to save the base from human clumsiness. So, have fun, well visit once youre done with the chaos. Amy gave them a little wave. Isaac was about to take a drink of his own wine when he realized it had mysteriously been transformed into vinegar when he hadnt been looking. Hmm, whatever could have caused that? Sure, he might not be able to find a monster to fight, but messing around a little couldnt hurt, could it? *** Theunch itself was both an asion of momentous importance and boring as hell. People had given speeches once the wining and schmoozing was done with, the tables had been cleared from the tarmac with a wave of the organizers hand and the people moved behind a magical barrier that granted full view of the spaceship and that was it. Ready forunch! The spaceship itself was reminiscent of a standard space shuttle without external fuel tanks and booster rockets, butrger. All the fuel was stored in extradimensional spaces that fit easily in the shuttles engines, while multiple additional enchantments messed with the mass of the shuttle, reducing it so the amount of thrust generated resulted in vastly greater eleration than it would have in a purely physics-ruled universe. The whole affair was also significantly bigger than a regr shuttle, about the size of arge passenger ne. It didnt need to provide space for luggage, everyone had that in their personal storage devices, it just needed to be big enough for people to spend a long while inside without getting on each others nerves. People went on board, the bottom end of the shuttle belched fire and they were off. Less spectacr the second time around, and less exciting than a big monster fight. perhaps part of the issue was that Isaac was currently in a rather foul mood, he could admit that. But couldnt the world throw him a bone here, an emergency serious enough that he could pretend he had to deal with it ASAP without it being dangerous? But no, he had to put on a brave face and chat and discuss potential ideas for how to explore and/or exploit space. Asteroid mining, tourism, perhaps even terraforming. Hed heard it all before, seen it, even done it in some cases. It wasnt interesting, and it failed to serve as a distraction from his current state of grumpiness. And then it eventually, finally, mercifully, ended, letting them leave without looking like party poopers. Once they were out of sight of the rest of the homeward-bound crowd, they let their hair down. Isaac had taught each of them his clothing and armor re-equipping [Skill], which made switching to something less formal a cinch. They said their goodbyes and were about to use various means of long-range travel to head off when their phones all rang. The desired catastrophe several hours toote. Comfortable T-shirts and pants were reced withbat attire in an instant, ranging from heavy armor to enchanted robes. Shit, this is something we have to deal with? Bailey asked, already pulling out his phone Give me a second, I have to call Gabriel and cancel our date No worries. Isaac told him, gesturing to the others We can handle this. Go have fun. While Bailey used his phone to arrange for one of the [Portal] users back at the university toe get him, Amy used hers to drop the four of them as close to the problem as possible. So, what are we dealing with? Elena asked. The Spire is an annoying structure-type summon designed to burn through cooldown [Skills] by adapting their bosses to the [Skills] used while people are fighting their way to the boss. You have to clear it several times in a row to fully beat it, but you only get loot the first time around. Every time you clear it, you reduce the monster wave thatll get spat out six hours after the first summoning. But the strength of the monsters thate out is variable, and if you only clear the Spire once, you wont have to deal with well-adapted monsters. Which means you can either take the chance to only clear it once while using all your [Skills], or you can clear it six times but you wont always have your cooldown [Skills] avable, which is very risky. In the end, a lot of people ended up taking a chance on being able to take the wave, which works out most of the time But when it fails, it fails big. Except they dont know any of that, so theyre panicking and using the app to call for help from anyone who might listen. Elena finished for him. The alert app was an evolution of the various ones that had already been avable, merged into one. It had about a bazillion features, such as Rank verification so youd only be messaged by stuff relevant to you or several versions of the emergency alert ranging from apocalypse imminent to some help sometime in the next hour would be great. In this case, the summoners in question had shared their current woes and now, people all over the world would know about the issue. Isaacs phone dinged again as he got the same alert through official channels. And another one. And a third one. He was on all sorts of messaging lists to avoid missing an issue, but when something like the Spire issue happened, it did tend to lead to an overabundance of alerts. And why the hell couldnt this have happened a few hours earlier and gotten him out of the g? As it turned out, Amy had been near the Spires summoning site before so shed dropped them off so close it had taken them just a few minutes to reach it. They were some of the first reinforcements there, only those whod already been in the area could have gotten here faster. But it was already a shitshow. The original conquerors of the Spire were spread around the entrance, slumped on the ground, dead on their feet, generally radiating utter exhaustion, fear, and resignation. Yet they were still arguing with several neers, not about the strategy going forward, but how the spoils were going to be shared. The discussion basically boiled down to we paid for the summoning materials, we get the lions share vs You fucked it up, we rushed over here, you deserve nothing. Isaac, if I stay here to handle the idiot brigade, can you three deal with the Spire? Elena asked, making sure to use the partysmunication channel to avoid insulting people where they could hear. We can definitely do one run, maybe two, but lets pretend were just scouting out the ce because were not supposed to know its doable, Isaac replied. And two minutester, Isaac had found someone who could create illusions and had [Skills] for bookkeeping and added him to the party. That way, Isaac could constantly provide information to the people outside and have it written down. But even those two minutes were too long for him. He hadnt done a Spire run in so long, and he desperately needed to be doing something productive that wasnt dealing with people hed rather forget even existed. At least he managed to suppress his grin until he was out of sight. Chapter 222: Vulture Chapter 222: Vulture Despite the arguments going on outside, the rules for calling in help were clear. If you set off an emergency alert, the loot would be evenly distributed across all parties involved, and in case of disputes, the people whod originally fucked up the situation would usually wind up with the short straw. Of course, no one ever liked losing loot, so it was always a bit of a chore to enforce the rules despite them having beenid down in several international treaties. Arguing was understandable, if annoying. Arguing while the clock was counting down to what might be armageddon that was a lot less ok. But that was why Elena had stayed outside to crack some skulls. The interior of the spire was a mess of broken masonry and twisted shards of metal, creatures rustling within the cover. Creaking, nking, the fingers-on-chalkboard sound of metal scraping against metal the hairs on Isaacs neck rose unbidden as they advanced. Normally, even with three S-Rankers involved, this first chamber was a dangerous ce, to be approached with caution. With the current setup, that meant having the scout slightly ahead of the group, the mage raining down fire and the warrior protecting the mage. Even a few months ago, this would have been dangerous to even them. But Isaac had leveled up during Rlyeh, and the others hadnt been idle either. Theyd farmed the hell out of the Summer and Autumn Events, had truly masterwork gear created, and Isaacs actions at the city of weirdness had earned him a significant amount of leeway when it came to [Raid Bosses]. Hed hit Level 130 on November 16th, and along the way, hed bought himself a nifty new [Skill]. Hed have bought it before getting [Lessons of History], but that other [Skill] had been just too useful for that specific situation. The Meaning of the Name (legendary) Two Titans. Prometheus, the forethoughtful, and his brother, Epimetheus, whose name means afterthought. One who is intelligent avoids mistakes and traps before running straight into them. One whose hindsight might let him avoid making the same mistake twice, but by that point, the damage will already have been done. It should be clear which is the better thing to have. This Skill grants its user the power held by the Titan that his ss is named after. Preternatural, nigh-absolute foresight, gained by boosting the users pattern recognition ability, mental celerity and temporarily granting them the ability to store all that information. This process can be done subconsciously for short-term predictions, such as inbat, but anything longer term will both be more expensive and require active attention. The efficacy of this Skill increases with the amount of information the user has ess to, and may produce incorrect results if working off incorrect or iplete data. While this Skill does check the veracity of the user-provided info by checking it against all other avable information, that is of limited use and may slow down the workings of this Skill if prioritized after the foresight itself or be of extremely limited usefulness if the predictions themselves are prioritized. Cost: 20 mana per second for short-term predictions bat), 50 mana per second for long-term predictions If you also have Lessons of History, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. When the first mechanical bird fell from the ceiling like the de of a guillotine, he noticed it with his [Aura], and the vast sea of information he had about this enemy was channeled through [The Meaning of the Name]. Where before, hed just have intercepted it with a regr strike, aimed by a human with their Perception Stat above 400. Now though a single Kabar manifested in his hand and he threw it skywards while taking a single step to the side when the bird crashed to the ground, knife de stuck in its internals, having flown through a gap in the armor that only existed for a split second when the construct moved in a single specific way. More and more birdsunched themselves at the human interlopers and fell from the skies, going inert before they could move more than a few meters. Several clusters remained, steel feathers gleaming and ready to beunched in a devastating shotgun st, but they were torn apart by a series of well-ced tornadoes. Powerful AOEs took a bit to prepare, but if you knew when youd need to start channeling for optimal deployment, getting the timing down was a piece of cake. Isaac didnt even deal with the bird beyond the loners of the original wave, he was more focussed on dealing with the tree-trunk-sized centipedes bursting from the ground ahead. Balmung carved through their copper-colored carapace as if it were paper, each single cut bisecting a dozen different vital systems. Hacking and shing, they advanced through the chamber. Isaac in the front, bouncing around like the pinball hed named hisbat style after, Amy following a few meters behind him, casually obliterating any enemies that dared to clump up, and Arthur was next to her, with nothing to do. Yet. The exit was easy enough to find, a door at the end of the chamber. Isaac kicked it open and dove through in an instant, avoiding a ded whip that almost took his head off. As Isaac dashed deeper inside the boss chamber, Arthur grabbed the whip and yanked, causing the monster to go flying. He hadnt done any damage in this chamber, so the monster hadnt adapted to him. Heavy armor in a single sheet kept out Amys spells, ack of openings for Isaac to exploit, whip-based armament that made dodging or blocking its attacks a pain in the ass. There were a few tricks that let you deal with the Spires adaptations. First, you could fight minions with your regr [Skills], then trash the bosses that were only prepared for your weakest attacks with your big finisher. Second, you could only attack using part of your [Skill]set, then kill the boss with the other one. This was an option for Isaac, but his mes and [Compounded Impact] were mana hogs, and going that route would have taken too long. Thirdly, you could do what theyd done here, keep part of your team back just for killing the boss. The first floor was cleared when Excalibur destroyed the monsters final core, carving through the constructs heavy armor even more easily than Isaacs de had destroyed the centipedes earlier. That was one terrifying weapon. Unlike most weapons, Excalibur did damage to other pieces of equipment based not on its physical sharpness, but the weight of history attached to the de. In other words, in order to withstand its touch, an object needed to be decently well-known outside of a niche group. Historically important, the weapon that had taken a nobody to the third or even fourth Evolution. Of course, while an object like the Rosetta stone might resist the des cut through basically anything properties, they also needed to resist the full physical might of a Level 130-ish melee fighter. The crossover between the groups of insanely durable and important was pretty small. In fact, there were only a few weapons that qualified. Isaacs Balmung, Admiral Yi Sun Shins bow, wielded by one of his descendants, apparently someone had recently found rent, the only copy of Mimung that was currently in use, and, of course, Jingu Bang. Perhaps there were a few others, somewhere out there, but there couldnt be many. Anything that found itself in Arthurs range wasnt getting away intact. Floor two went by much as the first had. It was a series of rooms instead of one big chamber, but the general idea of Isaac chops up the monster, Amy bombs areas, Arthur wrecks the boss still worked. Floor three, more of the same, for the most part at least. One big creature with two dozen whips, but with an addition of oil sprayers that almost caused Isaac to facent when he entered the chamber. Arthur did slip, but he nted Excalibur into the ground, then used his grasp on its grip to fling himself at the monster and summoned the de back into his hand at the moment of impact. By the time the monster had peeled him off, Amy had iced over the ground, creating a rough surface that allowed them to stand without slipping. Floor four was where stuff got tricky. The monsters were too tough for Isaac to casually hack apart, and there were no easy clumps for Amy to blow sky-high. Sure, their previous modus operandi still worked, but it was a little too slow for Isaacs taste. So they switched it up. Isaac charged ahead, doing whatever damage he could in passing, while Amy flung orbs ofpressed air into the newly created openings, and the monsters exploded from the inside. Anything that survived the pair of them fell to Excalibur. The fourth boss faced them with a decentralized control nexus to protect against Excalibur and heavily armored internals against Amys air orbs, but it had the exhaust pipes, gaps in the armor for improved freedom of movement, and all the various things the previous bosses had removed to deal with Isaac. Sure, this thing was faster than its predecessors, but he knew what it would do before it did. His knowledge of monsters and how they fought, and with [Lessons of History] constantly gathering more information every time the monster did move, that advantage was only going to grow. A single wave of his hand sent a wave of Kabars flying at it, and he barely even had to use [Remote Wielding] to adjust their trajectory as they flew through the gaps in the armor, then ignited with the mes of a sr dragon once they lodged somewhere important. The boss had begun to fall before theyd even entered its room. And then, they reached the top floor, which was just one gigantic boss chamber, surrounding the core that served as the Spires heart. A titanic orb, ten meters across, filled with intricate machinery and wrapped in heavy armor, connected to the floor and ceiling by a series of rune-covered cables. Ludicrously powerful cooling systems ensured that it would not overheat while a series of portals allowed the core to safely influence the outside world. That would have been bad enough on its own, but countless floating orbs that projected forcefields would be running interference, and countless more that had a series of des orbiting them would be attempting to slice them to ribbons. The whole affair wasnt ssified as anything other than a regr monster, but it was easily the equivalent of a Tier 7 [Raid Boss]. [Telekic Rending Storm] was a nasty AOE that created a pair of ovepping whirlwinds containing telekic des, one rotating clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. If something got caught in there, it was onlying out in pieces. With the storm blocking the orbs main approach, Isaac and Arthur only had to defend a pair of narrow approaches on either side of the spell. Sparks flew as floating des scraped off Arthurs armor while a dozen shield orbs flew in close, blocking his strikes at his arms. Theyd tried to block Excalibur directly, which had gone predictably poorly. But they were also utterly unable to damage the knight, which meant that side of the storm was handled. Isaked his friends defenses, but he had his own tricks. A dozen floating des danced through the air in a carefully controlled pattern, bouncing off a dozen flying enemy weapons in a single swing, knocking the attacks off target. The shield orbs were a pain, though. [True Cut] was too expensive to use on all of them, [Sundering Strike] worked best against physical armor, and burning through the shields would have gotten real expensive, real fast. The first [Telekic Rending Storm] was thrown forwards, into the crowd of reinforcements, and it was rapidly reced by a new one while a hail of [Magic Missiles] hammered most of the remaining de spheres. And then, a third one tore across the intervening space, obliterating the enemy swarm with impunity. It was then that the core began to intervene directly. Where before, it had been content to assemble its spherical minions and teleport them into the chamber, it now began to glow with power, mana flowing along the cables that held it and flooding the room. The elemental detonations numbered in the dozens at first, then the hundreds as the cores power carved runes into the walls, floor, and ceiling, then overloaded the sigils to produce short-lived yet incredibly destructive effects. Tongues of me were brushed away with casual ease, ice melted by conjured hellfire, lighting deflected by suddenly appearing two-handed swords as Isaac began to counter the onught. Hundreds of attacks were blocked, rendered useless by his fire resistance, and burned out of the air, but dozens still made it through. A glob of acid cost him most of his left boot before he used [Fully Geared] to swap it out for one not currently being eaten by the incredibly caustic fluid. His shoulder was rendered useless for the five or so seconds it took to melt the ice that had frozen it solid. mes blinded him for a crucial moment, allowing a wind de to carve a deep gash into his chest. But those small victories were to be thest the core had. Now that she wasnt spamming crowd control spells, Amy was free to unleash her full arcane might against their foe. All members of Professor Baileys team had been offered the [System Researcher] [ss] for their first Evolution. Three of them had taken it. Raul had left that path as soon as he could, realizing that while he was good with just magic, it wasnt where his path reallyy and had switched to a more druidic path, bing one of the greatest nature mages in the world. Patrick, meanwhile, had gone all in on the academic parts of his [ss], forging countless spells for any and all situations, each a masterpiece that would no doubt be taught in ssrooms for decades toe, should he choose to make them publicly avable. Amy, on the other hand, had gone the exact opposite way. No hard rules, no carefully bnced spell patterns for her, just mana, experience, and determination. Shed been a [Spellweaver Savant], connected to the very essence of magic. And then, Isaac had given her one of the Aspects dropped by the Heart of Madness, a Tier 7 [Raid Boss], which shed absorbed before her fourth Evolution. Combined with all her other achievements, it had given her the [Manaborne Spellweaver] [ss] and [Homo sapiens magia] race. [Freeform Magic], [Forcefull Spell], [Arcane Overcharge] were the first boosting [Skills] she used, taking mere milliseconds to do so. More followed, each activated so quickly that even Isaac had trouble following what she was doing. He did recognize the final piece that slid into ce, maybe a tenth of a second after shed started, one that turned the already incredibly powerful construct into something greater than the sum of its parts. [Spellwoven Gestalt]. The core of the Spire, functionally immovable, weighing hundreds of tons, was incredibly durable and very hard to move. Amys spell punched it clean from its rightful ce, mmed it into the opposite wall so hard that even the nigh-indestructible material the Spire was made from cracked, and when the core fell back to the ground with a nk, picked it right back up and did it again. And again. And a few more times for good measure. After a full seven impacts, Amy had blown through most of her mana, but the core was basically scrap metal at that point. Technically functional by the barest of margins, as in, the only reason Isaac didnt consider it fully destroyed was theck of a kill notification. But if hitting hard were all [Spellwoven Gestalt] did, it would have been a rather disappointing 4th Evolution legendary central [Skill], wouldnt it? Each rent ripped into the monsters body tore open further as weaker versions of the original spell were cast right in the biggest wounds the original attack had caused. The second wave of echoes, triggered from thergest internal damage points, was both so weak as to be practically non-existent and utterly superfluous. Shrapnel bounced off the barrier shed conjured. And that was that, no more [Raid Boss]-equivalent. No proper loot. Amy grumbled, making the nearest metal shard float into her hand Is this stuff useful? It breaks up a few minutes after the monster is killed. Isaac shook his head The Spire is a dick like that. Lets see if Elenas made any headway outside. They left through the exit portal that had appeared on the far wall,ing into a ce that was both more and less chaotic than theyd left. Sure, the original group was waiting in an orderly formation, but a lot of new arrivals were raising hell. It took a full five seconds for the first person to notice their return. Holy shit, they cleared it. Someone whispered, but for the most part, the pandemonium continued. Isaac pressed his hands together and created a sudden, incredibly hot, me between them, superheating what little air was there. It exploded out from between his palms with a sound like a gunshot, making everyone jump in surprise or fright. He jerked a thumb at the entrance We cleared the Spire, its ready for the next group. Weve collected a full profile of the creatures inside and passed it on to that guy, hell be passing out a bestiary in a few minutes. Ive still got a couple of cooldown [Skills] left and Ill be apanying the next group. So, who wants to go inside? The next group went in, and he held back for a bit, wanting to avoid gathering ire by hogging all the XP. But it rapidly became clear that the rest of the group, while enthusiastic, wasnt quite up to snuff. Theyd probably have cleared the ce, but not without taking casualties, potentially even fatalities. He still didnt kill everything, but he did a lot more than hed done before. [Compounded Impact] in particr was a wonderful anti-boss move. And as for the core, it ate an [I Am The Sword]. It was a very durable object, so tough that, instead of breaking when he impacted, it was pushed away, tearing free from its moorings. For the briefest second, it was sandwiched between him and the wall, being crushed, until it slid out, the massive ball of death ricocheting across the chamber. Then, it took two dozen cooldown [Skills] on the nose and at least a few slipped through the cracks in the armor. Now that they had an excuse to know all about the Spires inner workings, Isaac and Elena were able to create a perfect series of groups,plete with divisions as to who should engage the minions, who should engage the boss, and what set of abilities would work best against the core. The runs went well from that point onwards, but then, the argument over loot started. Urgh. Elena cleared that up with a couple of thorough dressing-downs. The fact that there was so little loot meant that most people had soured on the idea of summoning another Spire and they headed home. Amy was heading to London and Arthur had to hoof it from there to Camelot while she stayed in the city. Isaac and Elena headed to Germany, dealing with both some more logistical stuff that hadnt been appropriate for a g and exploring the city together. Chapter 223: Interlude Moon Chapter 223: Interlude Moon You know, Ive been thinking, is magic still supernatural? Patrick asked. Its magic, isnt it supernatural by its very nature? Raul asked while tossing a piece of jerky into the air for his pet dragon, currently in teacup size, to gobble up. Yea- Karl began to agree, then paused What definition of supernatural are you using? Some say that anything beyond thews of science, that cannot be properly understood, is supernatural. But I include magic in my calctions all the time. Some of it, anyway. He shrugged Ask me again in a hundred years, when weve definitively figured out whether we can scientifically define everything about it. Theres also another definition, which says the supernatural is everything not following thews of nature. Raul said, gesturing at their surroundings Theres nothing natural about this shuttle. Magic is making it work, and thews of physics are crying in the corner. Is magic unnatural, though? Patrick challenged Its a part of reality now. Or you could say it just got tacked on by whatever created the [System]. Karl shrugged. Think about it, we had the world work one way, with science exining a lot, and for the stuff no one understood, it was something to figure outter. But what about all the myths, the urban legends, the cryptids? What if magic was still there, but at a low level, the stuff that got dismissed by the scientificmunity? Youre talking about a whole lot of hypotheticals we cant prove one way or the other. Karl pointed out. But what if it always was there, at low levels, just suppressed? Patrick responded. He was, of course, referring to the fact that they knew magic used to be around and gotten removed by the gods, but he couldnt exactly say that out loud, now could he? Does it really matter, though? Karl asked, We can sort of understand and categorize magic, but do you have any idea how often Ive run into situations where thews of physics hold water with everything but the part I use magic for? Do gravity, the strong force, the weak force, and electromaism all have the same rules, or do they each have their own, with a few being shared, that togehter make up thews of physics? Karl suddenly frowned So youre saying that we should include magic as a fifth fundamental force? Electromaism, gravity, strong and weak forces, and the arcane? Why not? Its certainly fundamental enough. Patrick said Itll take a while to convince the physicists of that, but The whole argument was well thought out, but looooong. Is that what you think about when you dont have anything to do? Karl asked and Patrick nodded I just think about what cool tricks I can pull with my new powers. You know, this is another one of those is water wet kind of arguments that really has no right answer and only depends on which definition you want to quibble about. Raul pointed out and returned his attention to his pets. He wasnt going to engage, now that hed figured out where this was going to go, which was nowhere. He wanted to do something other than engage in a futile discussion all the way to the moon. *** Most people in Karls situation would have been rubbing their hands with glee. Theyd have looked like the stereotypical mad scientist and not inspired a whole lot of confidence in their work. Sure, what he was about to do was indescribably awesome, but that didnt mean he had to look like a lunatic in the process. His mech manifested around him before he phased through the wall of the shuttle and gently dropped to the surface of the moon. Isaac had given all of them Aspects that dropped their need for air down to the bare minimum, so just holding his breath was enough tost him for almost half an hour. But who wouldnt use a mech when the perfect asion presented itself? It unfolded further as the space became avable, rising up to a full four meters in height. Muscles made from fibers that could lift the weight of a cargo ship at a millimeter of thickness. Armor tes that could shrug off hell- and dragonfire. Additional maniptors with sufficient fine control that they could manually assemble the most modern microchips in the middle of a hurricane. Thrusters that could enhance the weight of the expelled propent as he fed mana into them, letting him reach hypersonic speed in short order. A scanner suite that had mostbs beat. Of course, it was more than just the worlds most advanced scientific multitool. A Demonlord Blood-powered cannon could pop out of his arm at the drop of a hat. It wasnt quite as powerful as the car-sized, single-use assembly he created against [Raid Bosses], but it still hit like a meteor. However, none of those were what really made it tick, that honor went to the part that was soulbound to him. [Any Tool, Anytime, Anywhere]. It looked like an unnaturally liquid glob of steel that could shapeshift into anything he needed, but this went beyond mere hammers, screwdrivers, and gun frames. By molding part of the mass to be non-conductive, having it line thin circuits that had be superconductive, he could essentially create a constantly changing and adapting supeputer that outright ignored most issues that came with miniaturization. Figuring out how to make it work had taken, quite frankly, forever, and hed probably taken up 90% of the universityputer engineering departments time while working on it, but it worked. It worked, and the one-cubic-meter machine was on par with most server farms. And, of course, all his various material-reinforcing and tech-controlling [Skills] flowed through every fiber of this construct, taking it well beyond what its physical properties dictated. Of course, none of that was, strictly speaking, needed here. Hed have been just fine going out in his pajamas, but who would do that? When Karl feet touched the ground, he sank into the rock up to his knees, firmly anchoring him to the moons soil. The [Aura of the Limitless Engineer] at work. He could infuse it into something to directly manipte that object, to put himself inside it and work it on as precise a level as was needed. When working on a scale asrge as, well, the moon, that mostly meant ensuring he wasnt tossed around when applying his powers. [Visualize Creation] oveid the ns that had been drawn up months ago onto the ground, then [Geokinesis] let him shape the rock as though it were just y, creating a wireframe model that would have shattered under its own weight in seconds if it hadnt been for his [Structural Reinforcement]. That took him around fifteen minutes, so he let go of his current breath and took another from the air tank clipped to his waist. Now that he had a basis to work from, the real work could begin. His personal storage space, the [ss]-based [Personal Warehouse], had been utterly stuffed with the needed materials beforeing here, and a veritable flood of stuff flooded out. Doorframes thickened and the groves to attach the pre-built airlocks to added themselves autonomously. Silicates transformed into aerogel mid-vacuum, one of the worlds best non-magical instors clicking into ce before moon-rock flowed over it. Chunks of the ground began to refine themselves into raw metals, which were thenbined with the trace materials he added from his storage, forming vastly superior alloys. Mere secondster the freshly gained metal shaped itself into the parts he needed, reinforcing the new building wherever it was needed. More rock flowed over the top of the building to create the ceiling, which was immediately transmuted into solid crystal. A window with an unmatchable view, but vastly tougher. Overhead, yet another person had to be rescued, having identallyunched themselves into the sky with their enhanced stats. With a lot of the lower-leveled people, that usually left them flying through the air in a long, shallow, arc that ended in a huge plume of dust. Embarrassing, and the spacesuit usually needed some repairs afterward, but with no consequences beyond that. But if youunched yourself away at almost escape velocity, returning to Luna firma would take forever and there was no guarantee that theyd manage to make it back without jetting off for a second time. Therefore, the poor astronauts and their superb space-maneuvering capabilities were going to be on rescue duty for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, Karl had a very good excuse for why he didnt have to deal with that. Hows it going? Raul asked as he stepped next to Karl. The ranger wasnt wearing a spacesuit, or any kind of protective equipment, just a pair of shorts with a utility belt and a short-sleeved t-shirt. Perks of having a [Skill] that made the area around him perfectly suitable for his habitation. A too-high temperature cooled, ack of gravitypensated for with magic, that sort of stuff was easy enough. But it also extended to apleteck of gravity and even eldritch beings altering the fundamentalws of reality, which allowed him to walk his dinosaur on the surface of the friggin moon as if it were a normal park. Well, Karl said as another room waspleted All the rooms with ceilings already put in are ready to be pressurized, the biodomes will take a bit longer. Ok, Raul said and ensured that the rooms were fully habitable, then came out a mere thirty secondster Im going to look at the Apollonding site, do you need me for something else? Karl shook his head. Call me if you need me, Raul told him and headed off into the distance, a dinosaur riding on his shoulder, a chihuahua-sized dragon bounding around his feet. The whole scene felt almost eerie, theck of an atmosphere to diffuse the sunlight meaning that the illumination seemed unnaturally harsh. *** A few hourster, Karl walked through the newly built and pressurized base, doing a final check. He hadnt quite figured out the trick to moving around in one-sixth gravity, but that didnt matter. [Structural Reinforcement] was set to strengthen any wall he came near, which meant he wouldnt do any damage even if he were ricocheting off the walls and ceiling at every possible chance. which he was. Relearning every movement was a bitch. He was getting better, slowly, as was everyone else, but right now, the chaos at the moon base could pass for a three-stooges skit. It would be funny if it wasnt his job to fix everything that got broken. Chapter 224: Stepping Up Your Game Chapter 224: Stepping Up Your Game There were advantages and disadvantages to having a pair of 8-year-olds around. On one hand, they certainly livened up the ce. On the other, they tended to require a lot of attention even when they werent the human reincarnation of a pair of tornadoes. And not the kind that blew through the American Midwest by the hundreds every year, mind you. No, the kind that obliterated towns and ended up on the nightly news. Tanya and Viktoria Thoma were a lot. Blond, adorable little bundles of energy that would have probably gotten themselves badly injured a dozen times over doing reckless stuff if they hadnt had a literal kindergarten teacher for a mother. Justst night, theyd begged Isaac to throw them into theke he used for aquatic summoning as hard as he could. That would havended the pair in the ER under the best of circumstances, so hed not done so. Still, when their parents had asked whether he could look after them for a week while they went on a couples trip, hed dly agreed. As useful as his home out in the boonies was, it got lonely. Come on Isaac, lets use the portal! Tanya begged as she ran alongside him Just this once? Should we really waste it on school? Viktoria asked from his other side We can go to London for dinner again. In hindsight, using [Continent Striders] portal to have dinner in far-off locations might have been a mistake. Sure, the portals cost scaled with how long it would have taken him to travel there without it, which meant that a mere thirty-kilometer hop to their school was all but free, but there was an issue with that. Namely, every time he opened another portal on the same day, the cost doubled, and he still needed his long-range jumps to get to work. In the end, they reached a goodpromise. One of his sisters sat on each shoulder, he made sure to hold them there tightly and flew to the school, bncing on Old Reliable in itsrgest form. Theyd asked him to do that before, but that had been during the early days of the [System], it would have been very attention-drawing then. Now though, it was merely out of the ordinary. Hended lightly a few meters away from the traffic jam that was the schools entrance, dropped the twins off, and was about to go to work, when he spotted their homeroom teacher. Or at least that was what she was pretending to be. In reality, she was some manner of government operative, officially tasked with protecting the twins as the close rtives of an S-Ranker. On one hand, that was a good thing as Isaac could not protect his family twenty-four-seven, no matter how many precautions he took. On the other hand, having a spy hanging around the most vulnerable members of his family could be taken as a threat, couldnt it? Which was why hed made it abundantly clear what would happen if he caught even the slightest inkling of a problem. He was a good ally, at the moment, but hed be a terrible enemy. And considering how famous he was, any issues would be loud, public, and horribly exposing for the government. The teacher flinched when he poked her with his [Aura] and gave a jaunty wave. Clearly, she hadnt forgotten how hed casually seen through her cover without even trying. But that small reminder was all he was going to do. Up until now, the whole thing had been yed straight. [Continent Strider] activated and dropped him off a fair distance to the north of his position, something that would have taken him half an hour to walk. It was a testament to how normal long-range teleportation to this ce was that the soldiers manning the teleportation port didnt even jump when he suddenly popped out of thin air. Isaac pulled out his ID and passed it to the pair. Have you read and fullyprehended the list written on the wall to the left of the booth? one of them asked. Isaac looked at it, the long, long series of statements that basically boiled down to Im not a scammer, Im not pretending to be anyone else, I dont have bad intentions, this is my real ID hadnt changed since yesterday. Yes. He said. Can you truthfully make every statement written on it? Yes. Wee, Dr. Thoma. The guard said and returned the ID Good luck today. The teleportation port was a concrete room the size of your average house with a [Skill] on it that attracted all iing teleports within ten kilometers. Anyone trying to invade Germanys [Raid Boss]-murdering arena that way would be in for a rough surprise. As he left it, he headed down an armored corridor which took the concept of killing ground to absurd heights. Even among S-Rankers, there were few who could fight their way in through this corridor. And after two hybrid [sses] that werent fully focussed onbat, that lofty designation was one Isaac had barely been holding onto. For one, the advantage of his future knowledge allowed him to still fight at a point beyond what the numbers on his status sheet would suggest. In addition, while his hybrid [sses] had fewer overallbat [Skills], but theyd still given him quite a few good ones, among them several powerful passives, which he could use freely, without paying mana. Chief among them, [The Meaning of the Name], granting him the almost cheat-tier ability ofbat-scale precognition. He might not quite have the full versatility of various powerful active attack [Skills], but most of the ones he did have were highly flexible, like [Legendary Blow] and [Divine Fire]. And when it came to applying his knowledge, flexibility was king. Besides, he was only twenty Levels away from his fifth Evolution, and he couldnt think of anything that would convince him to not pick a properbat [ss], firmly cementing himself as an S-Ranker. And until then, well, could enjoy the advantages of his current set of abilities. During the Rlyeh-clusterfuck, [Legacy of a True Warrior] had evolved to passively teach the rted [Skills] to anyone he fought beside, if they shared his goal. Which meant that hed been able to quite handily convince the Bundeswehr to set him up with a group of soldiers that all wanted to, eventually, save the world. Rlyeh had also been the single purest piece of evidence as to how well he could lead people against a [Raid Boss]. Thered been no military officers above him, no others hed had to run his ns by, just him throwing a group of random people against a Tier 7 [Raid Boss] and winning. And now, he was fighting a [Raid Boss] a day for a month straight, without needing to arrange everything for months in advance. Isaac had finally reached the end of the corridor, walked another fifty meters, and entered the main arena. What used to be a concrete ind with a slightly raised ring on the outside to avoid the gore and viscera from flowing into the ocean had turned into a full arena, a kilometer across, vast metal walls rising almost a hundred meters into the sky, with monofment covering the top. The wire was enchanted with a nasty array of cutting magic that would slice and dice anything that touched it while up there, but if it ever tore and fell, or was sted out and went off-ind, the magic would be dispelled to avoid idents. It. Was. Perfect. Whats on the docket today? Oberst Gram asked. Hed been transferred here once the facility had been finished since hed worked together with the researchers so often in the past. Of course, already knew the answer to his own question, Isaac had submitted his ns ahead of time so proper preparations could be made. Usually, Isaac had gone for monsters that wouldter be high-Level gear. He hadnt been a crafter in the other timeline and hadnt had ess to all the great recipes. But what he did have was the bills. Hed been in charge of logistics and finances, which meant that whenever a high-Level piece of equipment had been ordered, hed gotten a full breakdown of what the crafter needed. And now, it was just a matter of gathering all those materials, tossing them at Stagmer, and asking what would you like to make out of that. Today, though, the source of an entire school of enchantments was going to fall beneath his des. The Sanguine Monarch. That name could have meant a lot of different things, been interpreted in a lot of different ways, but almost everyone could agree that this monster would have something to do with blood, and was probably a vampire. Countless preparations had been made. Not having the rest of the team here meant that he had less magical firepower, but thats what technology was for. Karl wasnt here to construct a hellcannon, but a single-use, demon-blood-powered, artillery piece controlled by an artillery officer immune to any pieces he used, even when they blew up, could somewhat rece his contribution. Not having a dragon, Patrick, Amy, or Raul also hurt, but another 4 cannons sort ofpensated for their absence. These weapons were beyond expensive to maintain, and building them strong enough to work against [Raid Bosses] made them somewhat unstable. They always burned themselves out when fired, but sometimes, they outright exploded, which was why they were weapons ofst resort. Alchemical desant had been spread out across the arena as the monsters name indicated liquid-based attacks at the very least, if not an outright liquid form, which meant the powder should inflict a fair deal of damage. A dozen variations on the battlen against the Sanguine Monarch had been written and distributed, and together, they covered every point they needed to. Elite soldiers equipped with gear that perfectlyplemented their [Skills], including the ones Isaac had taught. All in all, it should go decently well. Not so great that it looked like hed known about everything ahead of time, but not so badly that it would cost him this opportunity. It took another half hour for the final checks to be done, but then, they finally got on with the summoning. A baleful red light shone from the runic circle, putting everyone on edge. Then, it shut off, leaving everyone looking at each other in confusion for a few seconds, until the vampire himself shed into view. Heavy weapons came to life, cannons that normally served as the main gun on destroyers and frigates roared to life, each capable of firing up to a hundred 12 kg shells every minute. Almost all of them had already fired by the time the first projectile tore off the vampires left arm and the whole bloody monster exploded. A bloody fog spread to cover the ground, fatal to anyone under Level 50, not that anyone was sufficiently stupid to be close enough to get caught in it. More and more body parts flew through the air, hitting the ground and sprouting, until almost a hundred times the monsters original volume was spread out across the summoning area. Wherever the fog touched the desant theyd spread ahead of time, it vanished, and several flesh globs withered and died, but plenty more survived. The guns, which had fallen silent when the first enemy had apparently self-destructed, came back to life. Toote. The monsters constituent parts began to grow. Some of the ones on the outside threw up massive folds of skin that stood up without any obvious support and blocked the artillery. Crimson apparitions leaped from other bits, blood shaped into deadly monsters sent into the surrounding crowd of monsters, only connected to their sources by a thin string of red. At least theyd absorbed most of the fog. Yet others glowed with arcane light, empowering all nearby nodes and enhancing their growth. Go after the enhancing ones first, dont use offensive cooldown [Skills], barrier-generating nodes are targets of opportunity, Isaac ordered, then charged. The moment he crossed the perimeter, the outside world vanished, leaving him alone in abyrinth of blood and death, walking across a disgustingly fleshy ground. Of course, the partywork let him know what was going on outside, but it was still creepy as fuck. Hellfire gathered around him and blew across the field, wiping out dozens of nodes, but thousands remained. More and more mes burst from him, smashing prime targets and reducing the monsters eventual strength, yet with every hit, all remaining bits grew a little more resistant to what had destroyed the rest. Flying swords shredded the empowering nodes, gunfire destroyed the weakened barrier nodes, and the naval guns reaped a bloody harvest while a few people focussed on keeping away the apparitions. They were doing good, but not great. Use the Barrage Suits! Isaac ordered. The Barrage Suit was yet another way that the instant re-equipping [Skill] he taught could be abused. It was just a set of armor, designed to have the maximum possible number of t surfaces that runes could be engraved on, forming dozens of single-use spell diagrams. The whole affair would self-destruct in short order if it had been kept in the real world, but protected in the [Skill], it couldst basically forever, until you wanted to whip it out as a titanic fuck you to everyone around him. it had taken less than five minutes for it to receive the nickname Der Mittelfinger. The suits they had here were, of course, designed to not target humans, which allowed them to be used with impunity. Every human in range looked like theyd exploded into a rainbow of color, shredding hundreds of nodules. Another thirty secondster, Isaac called for a retreat as the monster had begun pulling itself back together. Several soldiers were limping, others looked like theyd spent a week in the desert with barely anything to drink, there were even a few missing limbs, but no one was dead. Good. The Sanguine Monarchs third and final form stood ten meters tall, pale grey flesh stretching its skeleton, a pair of wings made up of bloody vapor and bone fragments floating through the air behind it. It looked scary, sure, but it had adapted to basic firearms, a billion different spells they wouldnt be able to use again anyway, des, nothing they needed badly. With a single beat of its wings, the monster flung itself skywards, stopping just underneath the deadly, and the next blew them almostpletely apart, bone fragments and drops of crystalized blood hammering sting through the arena. A shield of me obliterated anything that came near him, but countless more hit, even taking out several of the guns. The worst injuries were teleported away as the medics intervened, thankfully, but the damage was still bad. And then, the monsterunched itself at the closest people in a single incredibly quick movement, ws shing through the air, trailing crimson droplets as they were withdrawn while its wings continued to wrap it and its victim in a storm of deadly projectiles. Before it could finish the job, Isaac mmed into it, [I Am The Sword] active, a Vitruvian Man pose maximizing the contact area and reducing the impacts prative power. Instead of being cut apart, the monster was flung backward, bodily crashing into the far wall and staying there long enough that the guns finally got a bead on it again. A few hundred shells had torn holes into the Sanguine Monarchs body, but it snapped its wings to unleash another st of bone fragments as itunched itself at Isaac, once again escaping the guns sights. Normally, all the blood on the battlefield would have been swirling around as deadly des and life-sucking fog except it was currently reduced to a crusty mess on the floor, bonded with the desant theyd spread about the ce. It was met with a barrage of spells and gunfire but bulled its way through, heedless of injuries. [Phantom Step] teleported him out of the way of a w sh, a fully empowered [Legendary Blow] to the knee hobbling the monster before he was forced to retreat to avoid yet another wingstorm. Half a dozen flying daggers backed by [Compounded Impact] took out the other leg and it copsed to its knees, allowing the guns to unleash a constant stream of fire into its chest. The flying weapons snapped back into ce on its back, now that it was forced to use them for mobility. Hellcanon B and E, fire at its chest, Isaac ordered. Twin streams of fire hammered into the monsters chest from both the front and back, meeting in the middle as they tore through it. The Sanguine Monarch froze for a brief moment before it exploded into a frenzy. It was still very badly injured, but also the embodiment of every saying about not cornering a wild animal. Isaac got ready to charge in again, hoping to take advantage of his precognition to evade the barrage of strikes. Unfortunately, Gram was faster. [MOVE]! A [Skill] to clear a crowd to allow emergency personnel through, a [Skill] royally fuck over enemy formations, a [Skill] to fling singr enemies into stuff that could badly injure them. Like the of slicing and dicing that covered the arena. bad idea. Really bad idea. [Raid Boss] drops had a brief moment of invulnerability after the monster that dropped it died to avoid them getting destroyed before the finishing attack had petered out, but it really was brief. The Sanguine Monarchs badly damaged, hell, shredded, body mmed into the and flew out the top as bs of meat, then came back down as even smaller cubes as it fell back through. Small issue, the small folder that had formed amidst its remains also hit the and was reduced to scraps. Schei?e noch eins, Isaac muttered, then directed some soldiers with a logistics background to gather them up. Collecting resources, even when theyd been scattered across hundreds of square meters by, say, a ne crash, should have been right in their wheelhouse. Please get in contact with the police CSIs, maybe acquaintances in the intelligencemunity. Someone has got to have an un-shredding [Skill]. What about Isaac began to ask when Gram walked out of one of the bunkers that lined the arena. Ill handle it. You wouldnt believe what sometimes happens to the paperwork sometimes. I also dont think I want to know, Isaac responded tly. One minuteter, every scrap of paper had been gathered, cleaned of viscera, and restored to its proper form as a spell-booklet. Isaac thumbed through it, oh-ing and ah-ing at all the right ces. This is part of an enchantment system, and it says that theres a full set we can acquire if we kill more of these, Isaac said. Clean up the mess, get you one for your training arena [Skill], and then keep killing them until weve got the full set? Gram asked. I have to be home at five, Isaac reminded him If were not done until then, well have to see if we can get some on tomorrows schedule as well. Sure. *** Eight hourster, they had aplete book which Isaac was taking with him while a copy remained with Gram. Hed also gained five Aspects of the Sanguine Monarch, which would be handed out to worthy bearers. His deal with the Bundeswehr stated that these people couldnt be criminals, foreign agents, and the like, but it wasnt like he wanted to empower those kinds of people anyway. He reached the portal room and in a single step, crossed the distance to Munich. There, he bought three giant pretzels and several Wei?wrste for dinner, then marched to his sisters school the old-fashioned way. You know, superspeed and a magic power that exponentially increased his travel speed when he wasnt engaged inbat. School was five minutes from letting out when he arrived, so he settled in to wait and looked at his phone when he noticed someone approaching him. Good afternoon, Dr. Thoma, could I bother you for a moment of your time? Am I going to like the topic? Isaac asked snidely. Having someone wait for him at his sisters school, even for something non-violent, was not putting him in a charitable mood. Well, I represent the Aurum-Sack Conglomerate, and I was curious about your thoughts onpanies summoning [Raid Bosses]. It would be an immensely profitable venture, for us as well as your ownpany, Akashic Industries, yet legiture continues to be written that blocks any attempts to do so. You mean, why would the meanies in power prevent you from summoning a monster that often requires a nuclear response? Isaac asked Moral issues aside, why would you want to risk the legal repercussions? You can probably figure out what the Bundeswehr built to fight them, create equal preparations, and maybe, we can talk. But that would cost billions. The man practically whines. And most people would consider human lives to be priceless, Isaac responded and walked off, muttering under his breath once hed made sure there was only one person nearby with the Perception to hear him. Mrs. Miller, if youre half the spy you seem to be, you heard that little conversation. I think we both know that someone ambushing me here is a crossed line and the sort of thing you should be dealing with. Im not asking you or your superiors to use extralegal means, but I do think a little look-see into their closet is in order, dont you? It took a bit, but eventually, the lesson she was teaching finished, and she gave her answer Sure thing. Chapter 225: Interlude Monkey King Chapter 225: Interlude Monkey King Sun Wukong was bored, and that was never a good thing, not for him, and not for anyone sharing his zip code. He danced over the clouds, his regalia glittering in the sunlight. When hed gained his [ss], [Heir to the Intelligent Stone Monkey], hed gained so many things, this outfit among them. Hed also decided to ditch his old name, the one the stuck-up people who thought they were the boss of him knew. The kind that was only spoken fully when he was getting yelled at. Really, this was the single best thing that had ever happened to him well, at least if he counted this as a part of the [System], because that day had been when hed begun to shed his shackles, to gain freedom. And then the people who thought they were in charge had tried to assert their control, hed resisted and ended up kicked out of his home nation. No matter what his problems had been with that ce, being forced to leave had stung. Not to mention that now, there was no one who he could pick a fight with just by existing. Ugh, boredom was the wo-orst. Seriously, what was he supposed to do? Not like there were a whole lot of big bad monsters around for him to test himself against. And his mana pool was too small to summon anything worth fighting. Dragon (Tier 7) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Barren Field (17 km away, south by south-west) Ooh, that looked like fun. The treaty of Seoul states that an unleashed [Raid Boss] may be fought without the use of nuclear armaments, should sufficient forces be present. Local military leaders have concurred that this is the case and thereby invoked the treatys support functionality. Merely by deciding to support this endeavor, you will receive the following benefits: Automatic addition tomand-and-controlwork for as long as you fight to destroy the [Raid Boss] Minimum 10,000 XP gained from battle +10 to all physical Stats during the battle. And now everything was set up under the control of some treaty. Eh, not like that was going to interfere with his fight. Gatekeeping [Raid Bosses] with a man cost was so annoying! First Lieutenant Kade Benson, has been designated as Incident Commander. He has been granted temporarymand authority over all responding forces. Boo! Why was some random jackboot in charge when he was around? For crying out loud, he was the Monkey King, it was right there in the name. But a military rank did not a leader make, so he was just going to ignore the orders, what was that guy going to do, sue him? [Cloud Sommersault] flung him off the cloud he was standing on, high into the sky, until he reached something his cloud-walking boots could kick off of. Hed seen the dragon during his ascent and now that he knew where to find the monster, he couldunch himself in that direction. The humble hairpin he pulled from behind his ear as he fell first shifted into a regr quarterstaff, then transformed into its full size, a titanic iron rod seven meters long and as wide as a barrel. Ah, Ruyi Jingu Bang, the [Staff of the Monkey King], a weapon with no equal. Below, the dragon seemed to have noticed the iing meteor and looked up, mouth open, and roared. It was the typical Western dragon, a hundred and fifty meters long, with golden scales, two wings, four legs, and a long tail, a crown of backwards-facing horns at the back of the head, a row of spikes along its spine, and a series of wide scutes protecting its stomach. Oh, and the others were also down there, a bunch of people in uniforms whod decided they were in a position to fight one of the great beasts of thend, but they werent really needed here. The dragon unleashed its breath, a powerful stream of mes so hot that the air around it shimmered from the heat. Then it hit with immense physical force, as if it were a liquid shot from the worlds strongest fire hose, rather than a cloud of sma. Not that it mattered. The Monkey King alone weighed over two hundred kilograms, and the staffs almost 8 tons were even harder to shove aside. And as for the mes themselves his mythological forefather had found several ways to immortality, bing harder and harder to kill until eventually, hed obtained eightfold immortality. Sadly, the full benefits of that hadnt carried over through the [System], but he was still pretty happy with what hed gotten. [Eightfold Immortality, Sixth Immortality: Samadhi Fire Tempering]. He was almostpletely immune to all elemental damage, except fire, which couldnt harm him no matter what. What the hell are you someone yelled through the party hed automatically been added two, but he ignored them. INCOMING! Sung yelled, holding Jingu Bang over his head with one hand while waving at the little figures below to move away. The mes petered out when he came within a hundred meters of the beast, put both hands on his staff, and swung it downwards. Throw in a [Power Strike] aaaaaand BONK! One moment, the dragon had been one of the most powerful and imposing creatures on the face of the. The next, its face smacked into the hard-packed dirt with enough force to make a meter-deep crater, unleashing a shockwave that shattered several of the barriers that had been erected around it, a massive dent in its skull revealing where it had been struck. Jingu Bang shifted back into a regr ol staff, properly sized to be wielded, and he bashed the dragon, once, twice, cracking its skull at the temple with the first and popping an eyeball with the second. But the dragon managed to withdraw its head from the earth, unleashing huge plumes of dirt and dust in the process. The skull hung limply, either the neck, muscture, or both apparently damaged, but it was still very much moving. Haha, so you can keep going? Sunughed as he leaped off the dragons head. [Seventy-two Earthly Transformations] was yet another awesome ability copied from his mythological forefather. Shift into a fly, make your way into your opponents ear, transform into a boulder, and watch all your enemies go poof! at least that was how it was supposed to go. Instead, Sun wasunched out of the dragons noggin amidst a spray of gore. Ew. So, youre tough, hu- whoa! He hopped backwards as the dragons great jaws snapped shut where hed just been. Damn, that dragons head was tough. Of course, it would have been boring otherwise. The beast continued to chase him, catching continuous fire from all the people present. Boo, spoilsports. This would have been so much more fun as a one-on-one fight. Then, the dragon facented against a suddenly appearing barrier, an almostical look of shock and surprise on its face. Back off, we cant keep working around you! Fine, Ill attack the other end. Sun grumped. [Cloud Sommersault] flung him skywards, Cloud-walking boots smashed into the tiniest, wispiest thread of water vapor in the sky and sent him hurtling back to the earth with crushing force. A once-more erged Jingu Bang hammered into the beasts spine above its hindlegs, bringing the great dragon to its knees amidst the sound of breaking bones. You And the voice wasining again. Seriously, what was that guys problem? Wham! The dragons tail smashed Sun off the creatures back like a bat knocking away a baseball. He hit the ground and bounced, once, twice, thrice, each hit sting a sizeable crater out of the ground, until he smashed into the dirt for a fourth time, rolling and tumbling another fifty meters. Suny there for half a second, slightly dizzy, staring at the sky. He was surprised, and a little mad at himself for getting sucker punched, but [Eightfold Immortality, First Immortality: Teachings of Puti Zushi] had made him tough beyond all reason. This time, [Cloud Sommersault] flung him straight at his opponent. His temporary allies had taken this as a chance to unleash their big finishers, knocking the beast around like a bumper car. Jingu Bang smashed into it next, cracking one of the bones in its foreleg, then he danced backwards to avoid a retaliatory snap of its jaws and bopped it on the nose. Now this was a challenge worthy of him. Grinning ear to ear, Sun danced around the monster, his staff a blur. There were others present, and more arriving, but there were only two people truly in this fight. Him, and the angry lizard. Then, the dragons [Aura] burst out of it with renewed fury, fear smashing into all those within range like a physical thing. Some stumbled back, others bulled their way through it through sheer force of will. And as for Sun, well, he had [Eightfold Immortality, Fourth Immortality: Devourer of the Heavenly Feast] to keep out even the nastiest mental effects. He knew that there were still chinks in his armor, but as annoying as the fact that they existed at all was, he was still one of the toughest beings in existence. Jingu Bang was raised above his head, transformed to its fullest size, and dropped on its head. Oh, it hadnt expected to be hit that soon after unleashing its trump card. The poor thing even choked on its own fire, giving Sun another free shot at its skull, the sound of cracking bone ringing out. Perhaps now the earlier maneuver, vis-a-vis transformation, would work? Aaaaaand pop! This time, the monsters head broke apart as any creatures skull should when a boulder suddenly appeared inside its ear canal. Aha, just had to tenderize it a little first, next ti- hey guys, hows it hanging? Sun asked, waving at the gathering crowd, Jingu Bang lightly resting on his shoulder. The man in the front, an imposing ck man wielding arge riot shield with the logo of the United States Marine Corps emzoned on its front, red at him. Who are you, and what the fuck do you think you are doing? Hey,e on, its all in good fun, Sun responded. This was a [Raid Boss] and if there hadnt been a bunch of high-Level people present in the nearby military base, this would have ended with a nuke getting dropped on this ce. The apparent Marine snapped. But they were, no one died, and I had fun punting the dragon. Im not going to tell you to loosen up, I know you government types enjoy having a stick up your behind. But I like to enjoy my life. Jingu Bang shifted back into a needle and returned to its ce behind his ear as Sun jumped onto the dragons corpse That treaty of yours has to have some kind of provisions about loot sharing, right? So, what do I get? He could practically hear the steaming out of the marines ears. Oh, it looked like the fun hadnt stopped alongside the dragons life. How about we all calm down, figure out where the dragon came from, if theres going to be another one, and once we know shit isnt going to hit the fan, we can deal with the loot. A new voice rang out as a young man teleported between them. The speaker was wearing what looked like regr street clothes at first nce, the only unusual piece of apparel being a pair of armored bracers, but there was more to it than that. ck hair so dark it seemed to swallow the light contrasted bright emerald eyes that shed with exasperation, and something else that Sun couldnt quite ce. Guilt? Fear? Some weirdbination of the two? Chapter 226: Primate Pandemonium Chapter 226: Primate Pandemonium "We should go to the British Museum next! Viktoria cheered as she out of the Borough Market alongside Tanja and Isaac. Isaac snorted That takes the whole day to see properly, and its already 4 in the afternoon. Maybe you can go there with Mom and Dad next weekend. But what do you think of Kew Gardens? Its a beautiful park. Is there a yground? Tanja asked, lighting up. No, but there are badgers, Isaac told her, and her grin broadened to the point where it looked like her face was going to split in half. Traveling to the gardens via subway would take forever, and just like Seoul, London frowned on the airspace getting cluttered up by a bunch of flying people, which meant he had to walk the whole way. Having someone run through the streets of the city like a bat out of hell, asionally leaping over streets when the streetlights stayed red for too long,wasnt exactly less disruptive, but that was what thewmakers demanded. He was about to get moving when his phone buzzed. Hold on, I have to check about that, Isaac said and pulled out the offending hunk of circuity. A [Raid Boss], a Dragon to be more specific, summoned in Texas. Under most circumstances, it would have gotten a nuke dropped on it in a heartbeat, but thered been a group of marines nearby and theyd engaged with enough force to have a good shot at winning. A day without radiation nketing thend in a deadly miasma was a good day. He could also hardly jump over there to help at the drop of a hat. The treaty of Seoul had some exceptions for peopleing to help, but when it came to people improperly crossing the border, the United States tended to be a little testy. Not something his help was needed for, and his [Continent Strider] charges were getting low. More than enough for emergencies, but not so he could go jetting around the globe every time something mildly concerning happened. Its nothing, lets g- The damn phone buzzed again. This time, it was reporting on a new arrival, a powerful physical fighter with a giant, size-changing staff and a tail? Oh. Oh no. That shit. Godsdamnit. He could get to the battlefield in a matter of seconds, but hed have toe back the old-fashioned way. Even if the situation was resolved in a matter of seconds, hed still be leaving the twins alone in a strange city for hours. Nope, he couldnt leave just yet. Hopefully, he wouldnt have to make too many calls. Thankfully, Arthur picked up the phone before the second ring. Let me guess, the dragons a problem? I need someone to look after my little sisters. Can I get a portal to the north exit for the Borough Market in London? Isaac asked, and the hole in reality opened a few seconds after hed finished talking. The three practically jumped through it, leaving them in Camelots great hall, with a whole lot of people staring at them. Arthur slid to a halt in the hall a momentter, looking worried. Isaac epted his friends party invite immediately. How bad is it? The dragons not a problem, but the new arrival could be seriously bad, and I cant abandon my sisters alone in the middle of London. Isaac told him Do you have someone to take care of them? Ill work it out, dont worry about it, Arthur said. Thank you. Isaac turned around and crouched in front of the twins Thats my good friend, Arthur, hes going to watch after you for a bit because I have to work a little. Have fun! Tanja said and ran past him,ing to a stop in front of Arthur a brief secondter Isaac always says that parents are supposed to parent, but older siblings, grandparents, and family friends are supposed to spoil. Is that true? Isaac chuckled softly. He didnt even have to see her face to know she was wearing an expression like the butter wouldnt melt in her mouth. Viktoria hurried to catch up to her sister and he paused for another second before using [Continent Strider]. In a helpful twist of fate, the closest ce to the incident hed ever been was the airport in Houston, which meant that he could even avoid trouble for teleporting into the country improperly. He appeared just in front of passport control, pulling out both his passport and the up-to-date Travel Authorization paperwork. I have a passport, I have authorization to enter the country, and Im here to help with the [Raid Boss]. I have no intention ofmitting acts of terror against this nation, nor vite itsws. He rattled off, mming both pieces of paperwork onto the officers desk. If this took more than five seconds, hed run past the desk, consequences be damned, but if he could avoid them, that was a damn good thing. The US really got quite mad about people illegally teleporting onto their soil. But the officer took one look at him, then nced at the paperwork, the magical polygraph and just mutely nodded, waving Isaac past him. Isaac tore off through the airport at ludicrous speed, keeping just below the point where the wind generated by his movement would have gotten dangerous. As long as the fight continued, the situation was safe, because that meant the sted monkey had a target to go after. But when that dragon dropped, anything could happen. Especially as there was no way in hell that the monkey had entered the country the proper way, meaning that no one would have known about the Chinese S-Ranker being around before now. That alone could cause trouble aplenty, and the argument about the loot could easily spiral into something awful. After all, this was the spiritual sessor to the being whod picked a fight with the heavens themselves over a title. The [Heir] of the Monkey King, regardless of its precise name, was quite possibly the single most powerful [ss] in existence. In fact, Isaac suspected that there was a real Sun Wukong out there, the original, ascended to the heavens, whod directly created it. After all, the original would probably have ended up as a neutral deity, not concerned with good or evil, but whatever it was he found interesting this time around. If hed had a choice, hed have picked that particr [ss] in a heartbeat. Immense physical power, nighplete immunity to pretty much any attack, with a defense that could only be pierced by attacks specifically crafted to exploit one of its few weak points or through an ungodly amount of luck. Throw in mobility [Skills] that could both fling him around like a bouncy rubber ball inbat and help him travel the world at great speed, and it would have been pretty perfect. Sure, with that [ss], his path would have been a bit different, with less teaching and more direct action, but with the sheer amount of power it offered, it should have been fine. But there was no way to get that power, not for him. [Heir-sses] had a certain mindset requirement. The Monkey King was carefree to the point where it could almost be called idiotic, and there were no boundaries he wasnt willing to cross if he felt like it. Sure, Isaac was willing to color outside the lines as the situation demanded, eternally mindful that the means he used changed the result he ended up with. But that was a far cry from what was needed to inherit the powers of someone whod devour every invaluable peach he was supposed to look after, then wander through the heavens, running off with the entirety of a feast for the gods and finally ransacking theboratory of Laozi. There were still a few questions that needed to be asked. For example, was the Monkey King a Chinese citizen whod stormed off in a huff when being asked to do something he didnt like, or was he just someone who really liked the myths? Or had he stormed off in a huff and been rewarded the [ss] for that disy of resistance? But the fact that hed managed to stay out of the public eye so far did say quite a lot. A monkey person walking around would have ended up on social media in a matter of seconds in most nations. So why was he suddenly here? If he was a Chinese citizen, he was in possession of a ss that meant the government would bend over backwards to keep him happy. But he was in the US, stirring up trouble. Isaac would have bet hispany that he felt hed been insulted by something and run away, fully convinced that it was everyone else who was the problem. Not bad, not actively malicious, and with too low a mana pool to summon anything problematic, Sun Wukong was still a titanic pain in the ass and a walking force of chaos. That damn primate would definitely be useful when a monster of cataclysmic power showed up, but once there were enough people with the needed power, Isaac would probably do his damndest to get him banished from the. A powerful individual, even one who wasnt the biggest fan of rules, could be useful if they behaved themselves. A powerful individual who did whatever the fuck they wanted regardless of the consequences nope. Until then, however, having him around and not an international fugitive after fighting an entirepany of Marines should be good. The dragons body finally came into view, a great golden heap amidst clouds of dust. Magical barriers, many of them barely intact or even outright broken, ringed the battlefield. A surprising number of civilians were also present, but the main attraction was Kade, standing there with the shield hed lost about six months before the other timeline had ended, about to absolutely blow his top on the simian interloper. So, this wasnt going to get too chaotic then, Kade had a good head on his shoulders, the situation was unlikely to esc- Oh. Oh hell. Kade! Well, wasnt this going to be awkward? Isaac wished he could have given a good excuse for why hed stayed away, why he hadnt contacted him, but the truth honestly, he could try to rationalize the exnation at ater date. Right this minute was the wrong time for this! A single [Phantom Step] carried him the rest of the way, almost directly between the two. How about we all calm down, figure out where the dragon came from, if theres going to be another one, and once we know shit isnt going to hit the fan, we can deal with the loot, Isaac suggested, hoping to buy a little time so he could get back into a good headspace. We know where the dragon came from. Kade said, jerking his thumb towards the group of civilians This was an attempt at amercial summon. They set up a bunch of barriers to keep the Dragon contained, but mypany was nearby and arrived before they were tested. And then he showed up. Thest sentence was punctuated by a finger-point at the monkey king. Yeah, and I kicked that dragons ass. Sun proimed So, what part of the loot am I getting? Yep, now that he was paying attention to the monkey, rather than Kade, it was clear that this was the same Sun zero-attention-span Wukong Isaac knew from the other timeline. Not just someone with the same [ss], but the same person. Well, that made things easier down the line. Isaac didnt know his original, legal, name, but he was aware of the fact that this guy was still human under all that fur and stony skin. Still impulsive beyond all sanity and even the twins had him beat in terms of attention span, but at least there were tricks to dealing with him. Did you manage to figure out what the Dragons special loot is? Isaac asked It could be literally anything. Ive heard stories about gemstones in their chest or skull, blood that hardens skin into armor, and so on And off was the Monkey King, leaving behind a plume of dust as he sprinted towards the corpse. Despite all appearances, Sun wasnt stupid, but he did have quite a few big and exploitable weaknesses. Are you the real one? Kade asked, eyeing Isaac suspiciously. Real what? In the tone of someone reciting a speech for the billionth time from memory, Kade said Are you, the person standing in front of me, currently impersonating someone, using magic, [Skills] or other means to disguise your form to the point where you cannot be identified as yourself or could be mistaken for someone else? Ah, first a Dragon got dumped in hisp, then the Monkey King showed up and finally, a famous researcher jetted across continents. He probably felt like he was being punked. No. Isaac said, paused long enough to leave that standing as an individual statement, and added Im Dr. Isaac Thoma. I heard about the situation and wanted to see both the Dragon and the Monkey King and intervene in case shit hit the fan. Kade nced down at a small gemstone, which hed pulled from a belt pouch. It continued to glow a calm blue. Good enough. A middle-aged man in an outfit that just screamed pencil pusher finally made his way past the Marines and marched up to Kade Hey, are you in charge of this mess? What gives you the right to swipe our monsters loot? Did you properly register your intention to summon this monster? Did the summoning area get inspected ahead of time? If we hadnt shown up, youd have had a nuke dropped on your head, not to mention what would have happened if that thing had gotten out. Kade pointed out. Bah, we put up a hefty barrier. The jackassined We took all the proper precautions, and wed have seen how thorough our preparations were if you hadnt messed everything up. Regtions are all well and good, but at some point, they just stifle advancement. That barrier was meant to hold a [Raid Boss]? Sun asked, having returned in a sh now that he sensed the opportunity for some mischief. Jingu Bang swished through the air and the barrier shattered like ss faster than the manager could see. You youre too strong, thats not a fairparison! the man spluttered. But Im not, Im a speed-based fighter. Isaac said, Mind if I try? He stepped over to the closest intact barrier and rapped his knuckles on it, pressed his hand against the surface, and experimentally tapped on it a couple of times with his index finger. Of course I do! the man snapped. I wasnt asking you, Isaac said, pointedly looking at Kade. Go ahead. When Isaac drove his fist into the magical barrier, it shattered like ss, making it look incredibly fragile. In reality, there was a chance that the whole setup might even have worked, but he didnt want to encourage people to make preparations based on what might work, but what was guaranteed to not end in a catastrophe. The trick had been simple. Unlike [Power Strike], the various other [Strikes], and even [True Cut], [Compounded Impact] didnt have a visible indicator of it being activated. And every time hed touched the barrier, no matter how lightly, hed activated the [Skill], timing the contact so that when he wanted to destroy the barrier, he had the exact right amount of power prepared. So, all the proper precautions, huh? Kade asked acidly. The conversation continued in that vein for a while. Sun tried to figure out what was the important part of the dragon, popping back whenever he saw the opportunity for a little fun. And Kade was developing a dangerous-looking throb at his temple. Isaac had hoped the situation would remain that calm, but he hadnt truly believed that. He spent his time pretending to look over the dragon while more and more officials arrived. Now that the situation wasnt immediately going to blow up, he was feeling a little lost but wasnt yet willing to run off. Instead, he stuck around, sneaking the asional nce at Kade. What. A. Mess. But how should he have approached the situation? Hey, we used to be friends in another timeline, I know youre a very different person now and I didnt meet you at this pointst time around, but how about we be friends? His sisters might be living reincarnations of hyperactivity at the moment, very different from the women hed known near the end of the other timeline, but hed known them like this before and he knew that given enough time, their rtionship should return to what it had been With Kade not so much. What the hell should he do? Once again, he forced himself to drag his vision away from his friend, staring down at the dragons remains. Former friend? Potential friend? Ex-friend? Timey-wimey strangeness-disassociated acquaintance? What words even described this mess? Around him, the Monkey King moved, chased by an official. Every time the poor bastard got close enough to hold a conversation, Sun would move so quickly he all but vanished from view, appearing maybe a hundred meters away from where hed started. Perhaps Isaac had been wrong when hed assumed this would end in immediate disaster? Still, perhaps he should wait and see how the mess ended, and someone still had to figure out what the primary loot from the dragon was. Scales, flesh, blood leaking out from cracks in its hide, it was a mess, a fact not helped by the number of people poking and prodding at it. The secret of the special loot for this [Raid Boss]y hidden deep in a specific version of the song of the Nibelungs, where Sigfried gained his invulnerable skin by melting dragon scales and covering himself in the stuff, where they hardened once more, turning into a biological suit of armor. And that was what you could do with it in real life too, melt the scales and bathe in them, bonding them to your skin to strengthen your defenses, and once it was on, it was functionally impossible to get off again. It wouldnt melt, it would regenerate when you were injured, and so on. But that would probably take quite a while for someone to figure out. After all, who tried to use fire against a fire dragon, especially when it was already dead? Of course, as a paper-thin covering, the dragon scales didnt do much of a difference unless the person using them was very fragile. The [Raid Boss] was durable as hell, sure, but its scales were almost half a centimeter thick. That was why you had to melt them, then distill the liquid down and then use that for armor, though that carried with it its own set of issues, namely, you could only bond so much highly-magical material to your body before it started causing issues, specifically, around a fifth of a square meter could be armored in nigh-indestructible armor. There were a few hundred schools of thought as to how one should distribute the dragon scale to use it to its greatest effect. Some people used it to cover their vitals, armoring their skulls and even their eyeballs and eardrums, cutting off ess to their brains. That was one option. Others created armored gorgets to protect their necks and throats. Then there were those who felt that a pair of tes both in front of and behind their heart was a good investment. Or one could armor up a specific body part, like a forearm or shin to use as a weapon/shield. Hell, hed even heard of martial artists creating a thin line along the edge of their palm to enhance the striking power when hitting with the edge of ones hand. The correct answer really depended on your build. For example, protecting the weak points of his skull or his heart was the wrong choice for Isaac. Those kinds of attacks required precision, which was hard to achieve on someone as fast as him. Also, wasted, considering howparatively fragile he was. Protecting your brain was viable for someone like Bailey, a healer who could fix literally anything wrong in short order. Well, Bailey, specifically, didnt need that due to his [Skills], but the point still stood. Which was why he was just going the boring route and using the same pattern hed used thest time. Thin protective bands that wrapped around his body. The best way to catch someone like him out was AOE spells and sweeping strikes. The bands wouldnt do much against the former, but theyd be highly effective against thetter. If they withstood the attack, theyd prevent him from being cut in half and make it so that all the energy left in the blow would instead send him flying, opening the distance and giving him the chance to either retaliate or skedaddle. Or, perhaps Dirt crunched under Kades boots as the Marine walked straight towards Isaac. He did not look happy. Youve been throwing me the side-eye ever since you got here? Do we have a problem? he asked in a tone of voice that showed he was expecting trouble. Thinking back on it, maybe a German guy showing up out of the blue, steamrolling the person in charge, and then constantly throwing hard-to-interpret nces at the ck guy whod been leading before then? That could be interpreted as the neer being a wee bit racist. At the very least, it certainly looked off. But Isaac did have a perfect response, and one that would be confirmed by Kades truth-telling artifact. Im sorry about that, He said, awkwardly scratching at his neck Youre a dead-ring- you look just like an old friend of mine, you could literally be twins, you even have the exact same voice. Kade raised an eyebrow. He died two and a half years ago, I never really dealt with the aftermath, and now, and I didnt expect to run into his doppelg?nger here. Im sorry I made you ufortable. And that was the end of that. Dead friends, the perfect way to bring any conversation to a screeching halt. Kade looked like he was about to apologize, but Isaac held up a hand to stop him. Im really sorry for acting weird, this ispletely on me. I hope the rest of your day goes better. Thank you, Kade said and retreated back to deal with something else. That could have gone a lot better, but it was over. Now, he could think about how to properly get to know Kade at some pointter. But damn if it wasnt awkward. And thankfully, the universe provided a distraction to get his mind off the situation. His phone buzzed with a text from Arthur, which said need to talk, usual ce, soon. Innocuous enough, but in reality, it was a rtively unsophisticated code that basically boiled down to someone wants to talk to you via the [Round Table]. That particr [Skill] had recently hit Level twenty and evolved, thanks to how many high-Level people were drawing on it at any given moment, gaining two new aspects in the process. Firstly, it now contained a pocket dimension that one could physically enter from the position of any member, but so long as someone was within, their original entry portal had to stay open. That being said, there was nothing preventing another person from entering from a different location and both people leaving through the new portal, making it a highly energy-efficient, if clunky, fast travel system that only thirteen people on Earth could use. Secondly, the way meetings worked had changed. Where formerly, anyone wishing to attend had to either be asleep or in what amounted to deep meditation, now, just one person had to be projecting themselves into the [Round Table], and they could talk to anyone who devoted a little bit of their attention to listening. The voice seemed toe from far away, as though the speaker were standing at the far end of a long tunnel, or at the bottom of a deep well, but it was both perfectly understandable and familiar. Polizeirat Franz Habicht was someone Isaac had only met in this timeline, but theyd worked together well when theyd first met, and that had expanded into a very fruitful partnership. I wanted to give you a heads-up, the foreign minister is about to call you to ask you to get the Monkey King to visit Germany, possibly even broker some kind of agreement. Oh, hell, Isaac muttered, making sure to keep the statement entirely in his head and directed into the [Round Table]. Whats the problem? Habicht asked. The Monkey King is stupidly powerful, entirelybat-focussed, and has the attention span of a gnat, not to mention he can be a bit of a diva when he feels hes being treated like an idiot. He doesnt exactly have a temper, but he can still lose his cool when things are pushed too far, and when you consider how powerful he is, that could be catastrophic. Could you take him? Habicht asked. Isaac almost shrugged but kept still, not wanting to outwardly show that he was having a mental conversation Given a week to prepare and enough resources to give all the beancounters in the German government a collective heart attack, maybe. Shit. And you might have to? Habicht asked. Maybe. Im not saying that its guaranteed or even likely that the situation will go that badly, but it might. Inviting him back home could go well, just having someone create a copy of his staff could be invaluable, but it could go badly. Assuming you do manage to invite him over and he has to be dealt with, how would we do that? Habicht asked. Varied attacks. Isaac said He has multiple nigh-absolute damage immunities, but he cant simultaneously use them at full power and they change automatically. Hit him with bullets and theyll bounce off, hit him with fireballs and theyll fizzle out. Hit him with ming bullets and hell take half-damage from each. The switch is instantaneous, so you have to pack all effects into a single attack or have part of them as an ongoing attack like a stream of fire while you shoot him. The immunities I know of are physical, elemental, and magical damage, curses and other debuffs, mental maniption, and apparently, vitality-draining effects dont count as curses, his immunity to that exists separately. So, rifles with bullets made from metals that cause elemental effects, enhanced by [Skills] that add some manner of magical damage, all the while people try to make curses stick to him, and his immunity to that has to be constantly active. Maybe add some kind of vampiric effect to the weapons. Habicht mused, and Isaac could practically imagine him thoughtfully stroking his chin. In theory, that should work, but all thatll do is let the damage go through, youd still be dealing with a stupidly fast, strong, and durable enemy, Isaac said. Ill still see if we can develop weapons like that, and how far I can backdate the request so it doesnt look like were preparing to go after him. Habicht said And now My phones ringing, thanks for the warning, Isaac said and withdrew his mind from the round table. So yeah, inviting the Monkey King over to Germany could go badly, but what if he managed to talk the minister into taking responsibility for the end result? If he didnt catch the ck for the failed negotiations, he might be able to draw a huge advantage out of this. Chapter 227: A Simple Invitation Chapter 227: A Simple Invitation Isaac errected his anti-eavesdropping field and picked up the call, but instead of a voice emanating from the device as it was supposed to, it came from the air right in front of him, apanied by an image of Au?enministers Gunnar Krause, hanging in midair as though a tablet running a video conference had been teleported there. So the foreign minister had a [Skill] that turned any call with him into a face-to-face meeting. Yeah, that wouldnt go terribly. Isaac would prompt someone to ask what would happen if he used that ability on someone in the middle of a delicate operation or a fight. Isaac would have asked that himself, but that usation would not have made the best impression right now. Herr Au?enminister. Isaac greeted, going full stone face. He didnt trust his acting skills to beat a veteran politician, but an impassive mask that gave away absolutely nothing, backed by [Hundred Faces], should do the trick. Besides, officially, Isaac had no idea what this call was about, so he had a good excuse for a neutral greeting and expression. Dr. Thoma, I wanted to thank you for your continued efforts to ensure that the country we call our home makes a full transition into the world of the [System], your efforts have made an impact well beyond what most people will achieve in their lifetime. Well, it was true, but the buttering-up was a bit tant, wasnt it? Thank you. Isaac said Can I ask why you decided to have this conversation now? Im guessing it has something to do with the monkey ying negotiator-tag behind me? Negotiator tag? Krause asked, barest hints of a frown appearing on his forehead The press coverage just shows him running around. There are multiple parties trying to get him involved in some kind of deal, and he keeps running away mid-sentence, moving just far enough that it looks like catching up to him is a viable option. Hes also telling each of them different things, half of them are convinced that his surname is Sun, and the others think its Wukong. And thats just the start. Krause frowned more noticeably this time My notes say the surname is Sun, that is correct right? And now, the monkey king was confusing people on the other side of the globe, who he hadnt even met yet. Yes. Isaac said His whole name trantes as monkey awakened to emptiness, with Sun meaning monkey however, that portion of his name can also be read as the traditional Chinese surname Sun, and used the same Chinese character, it was also explicitly given to him as a surname, so if you want to address him as Mr. Last name, use that. It certainly hadnt offended him in the other timeline, so it should be fine in this one. Thank you, Krause said. On his desk, Isaac could see another sticky note appear, detailing the proper means of address. Like you already said, this has to do with the monkey king. Were hoping to enter negotiations with him, and as the man on the ground, Id like to ask you to help convince him to hear us out. Alright, but I do have a few conditions, Isaac said. Conditions? Isaac had to give the minister credit for self-control, most peoples eyebrows would have been crawling off their head at that promation. [Heir-sses] have a mindsetponent, which means that any potential inheritor needs to be somewhat simr to their forbearer. And the original Monkey King is a lot. Impulsive, seriouslycking in self-control, and while he isnt vtile, precisely, he will blow his top in situations where most people would calm down and take a breath. Hes picked a fight with all of heaven over not being given a grand enough title, and at ater asion, wandered through it, demolishing quite a chunk of it. Hes not evil or malicious, mind you, but with how much coteral damage he inflicts when hes serious, it doesnt really matter, does it? The inheritor used to be human, so he should be a bit more reasonable than a literal monkey, but the exact opposite might be true, he might decide to start breaking rules just for the hell of it. Krause nodded You want me to take responsibility for what he does so that nothing falls back on you. Isaac nodded. That hadnt been a question, but he was going to answer it anyway. Ill help, but I want you to take full responsibility for how this turns out, good or bad, with no mention of my involvement beyond the bare minimum needed for the official documentation. Krause nodded I can do that. I need to hear you say it, Isaac said. That way, he couldter state that the minister had promised to take care of the situation in depth. Krause did so and Isaac had to suppress a grin. Unless the Sun did something spectacrly stupid/destructive/lethal, it wouldnt fall back on Isaac. Of course, if the Monkey King killed someone or even multiple people, that wouldnt matter, but any havoc below that level was something that Isaac was mostly ok with, as long as he wasnt footing the bill. Also, I have two more conditions. Isaac continued First, Im not a bargaining chip. My help, my training, the [Skills] I teach please dont make promises that I have to repay. I get that a series of free epic-rarity [Skills] and training to use them to their greatest effect make for a good offer, but Im doing a lot of important work, and there are obligations I have to obey. Krause didnt look like he liked that, but he didnt say anything against it. It was a decently well-known fact amidst Germanys movers and shakers that Isaac had a standing invitation to emigrate to South Korea. Hed never threatened to use it, but most people correctly assumed that that was what would happen if someone used the youre a German citizen, Im a member of the German government, listen to what I order you to do argument. He wanted to save the world, but he didnt necessarily have to do that from Germany. And the second? the minister asked, no small amount of dread swinging along in his voice. You dont offer to let him fight in the arena at Etzel ind, or at the university summoning rooms. They wouldnt survive a single battle with him, and if they get trashed, that brings all of the research thats made the transition so manageable to a screeching halt. I can see how that would be prudent. Krause said after a long pause Ill make sure its off the table. No, dont do that, if you tell him he isnt allowed to go there, hell might try out of spite. Isaac said Just dont mention it, and offer to build him a separate arena just for him. Hell be happy with the 5-star treatment, and when it gets trashed, we have abuilt-in excuse for why we cant keep summoning Kaijus for him. Thats a good idea, Krause said So, I take full responsibility, no promises on your behalf, no letting him use the current governmental summoning rooms. Anything else? Isaac grinned and started to pace as he began to list off things on his fingers. There are some things I need you to do so this might work. First, we need bait. Good food, a whole feasts worth. Get a good-sized conference or official dining room, and cover the table in food. Really good food, not the fancy fare you feed the ambassadors. Currywurst and fries, Kn?del and Schweinshaxen, giant pretzels and Wei?wurst. Typical, hearty German food from the kinds of restaurants Berlin locals go to. And then toss in a few of the more high-priced, visually appealing dishes from the ambassadorial restaurants as decoration. For drinks, beer by the barrelful from the oldest still working brewery in Freising, some beer from Berlins Hofbr?uhaus, also by the barrelful, and a selection of good microbreweries, I dont drink much beer, but Im sure you can find an expert. Also, a selection of wine focussed on vintages that taste good over prestige. Do you still have spare charges on the [Evacation Portal]? Isaac asked. That [Skill] was one most countries had ess to and it allowed them to connect constes and embassies to the capital a few times a week. The idea behind it was that the staff could be rescued in case of an emergency, though it normally got used to ship people around the globe. Krause nodded. In that case, could you use one charge to fetch us from the Houston conste, if I can get him there? Isaac asked, and Krause agreed. Alright, we need to talk about how youre going to approach the situation. Isaac added He doesnt have the greatest attention span, dont give him a dozen pages that basically boil down to we give you what you want, you kill monsters for us. A simple,mon-sense agreement will have to do, else hell tune you out before you can finish discussing the first page. Also, if you manage to sneak a use past him because hes not awyer, then hell ignore it, break the agreement and eat the penalty. The same goes for a situation where he feels like youre trying to pull one over on him because the agreement is too long. That shouldnt be a problem, Krause said. The intelligent summoning pledge is a contract that states that the signee wont summon a monster that is likely to cause trouble, a very simple statement. Tell me, how long is that particr piece of paperwork? Krause awkwardly scratched at his neck Im not that familiar with it, I dont summon, but Id guess around five pages? Oh, sweet summer child. The German government turned a document that simple into a forty-page monstrosity, Isaac said tly Like I said, prioritize intelligibility over making it airtight. But dont treat him like a kid or an idiot, hes not stupid, he just has a short attention span. Absurdly overpay him, but dont make him feel like youre just humoring him. With every passing sentence, Krause grew more nervous. The visual clues werent significant, but they were still clearly visible to Isaac. Anything else? Yeah. Isaac nodded You need to figure out what youre going to do when shit hits the fan. This is going to go well until it isnt, and then, the damage could be everything from an entire city not having any sweets or booze because he ate it all, to said city being turned into a crater. What Ive seen so far from him is chaos and while he might improve when hes not being screamed at by a pissed-off Marine, I wouldnt rely on it. The Monkey King might be a fun-loving goober who helps us when the chips are down, but one we have clean up after sometimes. Or he might be an elemental force of nature who does whatever he wants, regardless of the damage that inflicts upon his surroundings and the people who live there. And keep in mind that overt preparations will piss him off. Krause nodded If things start looking like theyre going to develop in that direction, well be ready. Having someone who can smash any errant [Raid Bosses] t isnt worth it if he causes more damage in a single day than he prevents in a month. Isaac had the distinct feeling he was just being humored, but as long as ns were being made and preparations were in ce, he was fine with that. Isaac said his goodbyes, promised to send Sun the ministers way, and hung up. At the end of the day, he was fine with stuff being broken and politicians who tried to interact with Sun being embarrassed. As long as the Monkey Kings worst impulses didnt see the light of day, things were going to be alright. And speaking off the troublesome birdbrain, he was currently back to examining the Dragon, with the rocks stuffed in his ears making it abundantly clear that he was ignoring everyone trying to talk to him. [Hunters Gaze] activated for the second time as Isaac stared at him. Hed scanned the monkey the first time hed seen him, but now, he had the time to really take in everything his [Skill] told him. Those Stats were insane. Mountainous Strength, more than double his own. At 600, Isaacs Agility was higher, but the margin was far smaller than hed expected. Isaac also had him beat in Perception, but once again, by less than hed hoped. And Sun could definitely hear everything going on around him, rocks or no rocks. Fortitude was a wholly different story, it was Suns second-highest stat. And, of course, he had a ton of powerful physical Aspects from rock, air, fire, and monkey monsters. Meanwhile, his Magic stats were in the pits, he could barely summon Tier 7 monsters, let alone Tier 8s. Now that he thought about it, that exined a lot about how hed been in the other timeline. Hed kept sniping powerful monsters from their summoners and fighting the most powerful hordes until hed eventually died when a particrly diverse horde had had too many different attack types and overwhelmed his defenses. Sure, he could have summoned monsters on his own, but at some point, theyd stop giving him XP. And as for having others summon for him, his antics hadnt exactly made him popr with the world atrge. Isaac suspected that this whole thing had then spiraled into the legendary rampages that had made him assume the Monkey King would grow to be a problem in this timeline as well. Or, of course, he could still just be a loose canon whod inevitably be a huge problem. At least he had an idea of how he could eventually drive Sun away from his most destructive tendencies, all the while making sure to keep a n for kicking him out in his back pocket. Fully having one of the strongestbat-focused S-Rankers on his side and possibly even willing to y ball when it came to coordinatedbat that would be the dream. But at this point, Isaac was fully willing to settle for not actively being a nuisance. Time to wrap this up. Hey, Mr. Sun, youve got a im to most of the dragons body. Can I have one scale to see if Im right about what the special loot is? What do you think it does? Sun asked, holding out one of the requested objects. I think you can melt it and turn it into armor that bonds to your skin, Isaac said as he took it and summoned a weak, campfire-strength me into his palm. The carapace immediately liquefied, dropped down onto his palm, and hardened once more, practically bing impossible to see. As both the human and stone monkey stared at the patch of altered skin, it continued to grow more and more indistinct until there was no way to tell it was there. Sun immediately began to poke at the spot,pletely ignoring Isaacs personal space. Urgh. Hey, awesome! Do me next! Isaac shook his head We cant take that many without doing a proper loot distribution. Bo-oring. Sun groaned. Eh, shouldnt take too long. Isaac said, The original summoners fucked this up badly enough that they lost all rights to the body and you did most of the work. And indeed, things went by pretty quickly. Isaac told everyone hed figured out what the loot was, let a couple of people experimentally poke his armored palm, and that was that. Of course, hed remove that armor with [True Cut]ter and create attice of concentrated scalester, when hed gotten his hand on some more scales. The division of the loot went by stunningly quickly. Kade was more than happy to get the hyperactive primate out of his hair and streamlined the process. Of course, the various people trying to get Sun to do something werent happy he was about to leave, but asking the Lieutenant to dy matters while the Monkey King, having since taken the rocks out of his ears, was listening in bad idea. Very bad idea. Isaacs phone had buzzed with the needed message a while ago, and now, he could put the full n into action. Oh, and Mr. Sun, the German government has prepared a feast for you, no strings attached, if youre interested. well, a bunch of diplomats will probably be talking at you, but you can just tune them out if youre not interested and pack away the leftovers in a spatial ring. Isaac amended with a wry grin Anyway, Im getting something to bribe my sisters with so theyre not mad at me for running over here, then heading back home via a portal in the German conste in Houston. If youre interested in a mountain of food, feel free to join me. With that, Isaac began to walk off at a slow pace, more than enough for the Monkey King to catch up in a matter of seconds once hed stuffed his loot into storage. So, what kind of food did you get? Isaac shrugged I havent seen it yet, but Im told its good food, not the fancy stuff that takes hours toe out of the kitchen and is ny percent air. Also, if I understood things correctly, theres beer by the barrelful and great wine. That sounds great! Sun eximed and elerated so quickly that he unleashed a sonic boom, kicking up a huge cloud of dust in the process. Isaac chuckled under his breath and caught up easily, at which point the monkey used some kind of movement [Skill] to fling himself further in huge leaps. Isaac just poured on more speed, at which point Sun decided to go even faster. If thered been more space avable, this might have escted into a serious race, but theyd arrived at the city already and moving that quickly would have caused all sorts of problems. Isaac fished his ID out of his pocket when approaching the embassy, but as it turned out, he neednt have bothered, they were already rolling out the red carpet, with the smell of the feast wafting out of the already-established portal. Sun was through in a sh while Isaac followed at a more leisurely pace. So, I hope you enjoy, I have to go fetch my sisters from their babysitter. Have fun. Sun, turned around and waved, then all but dove into the food. Half a grilled chicken vanished in a single chomp, a baked potato wasnt even unwrapped before it vanished down his gullet, and that was only the start. The fancy trash food got a chuckle before Sun tossed it into the air and caught it with his mouth. Isaac called Arthur and got a portal that lead him straight back to Camelot, where he was enthusiastically greeted by the twins, with Viktoria glomping onto one of his legs while Tanja hopped onto one of his shoulders. Hey, can you have another emergency in Ennd soon? she asked with a cheeky grin on her face We had a lot of fun with the knights. I dont think we need an emergency for that. Isaac said, then turned to face Arthur Thank you so much for looking after them, Im really sorry about this. Nah, we had fun, though a bit more of a warning would be good, next time. Arthur said, Though I have no earthly idea how its possible for someone as measured as you to be rted to someone that hyperactive. Mystery of gics. Isaac chuckled I constantly wonder about that too. By the way, the Monkey King might be moving to Germany, if things go well. Congrattions, or condolences? Elena asked. No clue, well have to wait and see, Isaac told her. The three of them ended up going back to Berlin through the still-open portal, then he took the twins to his home so they could go to bed. Once they were sound asleep, he began to make ns, contingencies for every possible oue of the negotiations, including utter disaster. But hed barely been at that for five seconds before he received word that the Monkey King would be staying in Germany. One of the smaller mountains in the German Alps was being transformed into a tropical paradise, with enchantments warming it up while exotic nts were being speed-grown by [Horticulturists]. Soon, hed get an awesome home there as well, and the government was, for the first time in the history of the country, paying college students to party. After all, Sun getting bored would be bad. *** The next day, once the twins were at school, Isaac visited the mountain soon to be renamed The Mountain of Flowers and Fruit. They were vastly, insanely, overpaying this guy. But there were ways to get something out of this. The Monkey King was lounging around on the mountaintop, watching the goings-on when Isaac approached him. Hey Doc, hows it going? he asked, casually pulling an apple from his storage device and swallowing it in a single bite. Pretty well. Isaac said Say, I had an idea: my [Heir-ss] lets me summon all sorts of cool gear and I was wondering if that was true for you as well. Because if it is, that has to be murder on your mana. Maybe. Sun said, Why do you ask? Because I just so happen to be good friends with the worlds greatest cksmith, and he can either make you a better outfit or re-create your current one as a physical object, one you dont have to pay upkeep for. He gets almost all the monster materials I dont need, and hes got a couple of copies of powerful artifacts lying around. For example, theres this helmet thats almost indestructible Convincing Sun to visit Stagmer with Isaac wasnt all that difficult after that. Getting him to let the cksmith and a few others look at his boots and staff wasnt much more difficult. Five hourster, the Monkey King walked out of the crafting vige utterly covered in fancy-looking jewelry and expensive clothing which Isaac had paid for. But Cloud Walking Boots were already being experimented with, and Stagmer was furiously working on creating a lesser version of Ruyi Jingu Bang. Expensive in terms of money, sure, but the gains were well beyond what hed lost. And hopefully, this would only be the start of a fruitful rtionship. Chapter 228: Dragon! Chapter 228: Dragon! The cloud-walking boot bounced off the strands of whispy water vapor with a satisfying thwack as Isaac brought his foot down on mostly empty air. He grinned as heunched himself forward, speeding up in preparation to make the huge leap to the next could. That one was easily crossed, but the next was simply too big, so he briefly nullified his weight and flung himself skywards on a pir of fire,nding with another resounding thwack. From then, he just kept running, a massive grin spreading across his face and eventually, he startedughing. A deep, full, bellyugh that echoed through the sky. Isaac had run across the surface of the moon, climbed Mount Everest, walked across the deck of the Titanics wreckage, and done a whole lot of other incredible stuff. But running across the clouds as if they were solid ground was still amazing, easilyparing to the others. The isle of Etzel came into view and Isaac stopped to soak in the view. Hed had to hoof it here to ensure that his portal charges recovered, but being able to take the cloud highway had certainly made it more than bearable. Isaac nced down at the pair of ckbat boots. Compared to the originals, they were iparably less garish, which was a huge plus, but they fell short in a number of ways. Firstly, they were loud, impossible to use in a way that let the wearer stay unnoticed. And secondly, they were stupidly inefficient. Sun only had to pay an infinitesimal trickle of mana to use his while these took a full 2 points of mana for every step. It didnt sound like much, but it added up quickly. Then again, these were the first iteration of these things. Theyd get better, just like all the other copied artifacts had. Most [Heir-sses] had something they could summon, and whenever possible, Isaac had seen if he could arrange for them to be copied. Of course, not all weapons could be adequately copied. For example, copying Excalibur had been a shitshow. In terms of raw physical properties, it was actually slightly inferior to some of the legendary weapons Isaac could summon, Balmung and Mimung. Its powery in its legend, not its sharpness. Both the weapons physical properties and its ability to turn its legend into offensive power had been copied but what kind of legend did a cheap knockoff of a mythical weapon have? Only two copies had ever been made. One was decorating Isaacs office, and Stagmer was using the second one in his showroom. Isaacs ancient weapons were also being copied and were bing useful, but he still felt hed barely scratched the surface of what they could learn from the past. Leaping from cloud to cloud, getting lower with each hop, he slowly made his way down to sea level, until hended on the surface of the ocean. To be precise, the cloud walking boots should have been called the water-treading shoes, as they could use anything that contained water as a solid surface, ranging from clouds to quicksand and even the surface of bodies of water. Sure, Isaac could just havended in the arrival area and been done with it, but there was something to be said for making an entrance. After all, it wasnt like the fact that the boots were being replicated would stay secret for long. If nothing else, they were excellent proof of the benefits of having the damnable primate around. Really, it was a case of I never knew I was interested, but now that it happened, I never want it to end for him. Just having the Monkey King there and sort of behaving himself was easing Isaacs worries. If anything big went down near him, hed show up, and whether it was out of boredom or a genuine desire to help didnt matter at that point. He did the usual song and dance with the guards and entered to a scene of organized chaos. Paradoxically, knowing more about a [Raid Boss] meant they were making more preparations, not less. When facing the unknown, they tried to cover all their bases, but couldntmit to any one thing too hard. On the other hand, when they knew a lot about their foe, they could avoid going down the wrong path and instead go all-in on the promising concepts which could take forever. For example, setting up the array that prevented it from flying at all had taken a damn long time and the spell script covered most of the floor. Drawing the array itself hadnt taken that long, but working out something with enough contingencies in it to survive the dragon walking over it, let alone anything else, had been a real time-suck. As for the trick, it was rather simple. Almost all monsters were toorge to fly under thews of aerodynamics, which was why they needed a way around them. Some creatures, like ghosts and other monsters capable of moving even in a vacuum moved by directly using their magic to fly. But most winged creatures had innate magic that allowed their wings to be useful. For example, Void Dragons wings could push against the very fabric reality to produce thrust, irrespective of the medium they moved through. Others, such as the Sanguine Monarch, had organs that looked like wings but, in truth, were just ways for them to channel a flight spell. However, these were a rarity. Atmosphere-bound creatures with wings, even humans with [Skills] that altered their bodies, usually had an innate magic that seeped into the air beneath their wings, hardening it after a fashion, the altered property only interacting with the wings themselves, allowing them to work in a way that flew in the face of the establishedws of physics. But that ability still required air to be present, which was why the array would generate a vacuum directly beneath the wings of the creature, onerge enough to take flight off the board while being small enough that there wasnt a risk of a meleebatant blundering into it and getting hurt. Meanwhile, the guns had been retooled to shred its wings as effectively as possible during the initial phase of the battle, as the array keeping the dragon grounded would likely not survive very long. After all, it was located on the floor of the arena, something that the dragon had ready ess to. There were already ns in the works for building another array into the ground itself for future battles against enemies with wings, but that would take a good long while to achieve. Also, they should probably hold off until an improved version had been created. And, of course, the engineering corps had jumped at the chance to build anti-dragon weaponry. Anti-armor shells and guns were already a thing, of course, but there was an entire universes worth of possibilities for what could also be built and theyd run with it. But now, everything was done, and the damn dragon was about to die. Isaac met Oberst Gram in one of the handful of meeting rooms the battle ind had for a final check of the preparation. Those the new cloud walking boots? Gram asked and Isaac nodded. You know, the Ministry of Defense is considering buying those for all high-ranking officers to give them some extra mobility that doesnt rely on other people or machines to increase our ability to stay out of trouble. Isaac groaned As if our national debt werent high enough already. Theyd be awesome, but I think that idea will go down as one of those harebrained schemes that die the second someone runs the math. Gram reluctantly agreed Did you hear that there were suggestions of renting this ce out to people who want to fight [Raid Bosses] to recoup some of the costs of building it? Isaac made a sound like a squeaky toy being stepped on before catching himself Please tell me suggestions are all they are. Obviously. Gram said Half the advantages of this ce are the guns, and letting a civilian, even a high-Level one, operate on of those absolutely not. I dont think that kind of civilian [Raid Boss] summoning, in general, is a good idea. Isaac said, I mean, when youve got a dozen people triple its Level, maybe, but allowing the rich to do so just because they can afford to rent the militarys toys the question is when and how that will go wrong, not if. True. Gram said as he pulled up the current n on the wall screen So, those are the current preparations, and no ones had any bright ideas since thest time we talked. He sounded about as fed up with the constantly updating ns as Isaac was. They could have obliterated that dragon days ago, but the flood of new ideas had scuppered that n. The first dragon had allowed them to create ns for its specific weaknesses. But the way it had been trashed by a being whose exact power wasnt known beyond a lot meant that they didnt really have a model for its exact power. End result? Stupendous over-preparation. No, lets do this before that changes, Isaac said. *** The dragon appeared from the summoning circle in a bright sh, massive wings spread out, ready tounch it skywards. The great beast got to beat them exactly once. It swung them at full force, expecting to meet regr, magic-enhanced air resistance, but the nature of the enchantment it was subjected to meant that there was nothing there. Instead, they mmed into the ground with bone-crunching force,paratively fragile wing-bones shattering as the ground trembled. That took care of their biggest problem. Wing membranes were fragile, yes, but even the fragile parts of a [Raid Boss] were durable as hell. Having it destroy its own wings took care of things nicely. The sheer look of utter confusion on the monsters face earned a fewughs despite the seriousness of the situation. The naval guns roared to life the moment the monster appeared but paused a momentter when it broke its own wings so they could switch out their munitions. After all, the fragmentation shells meant to destroy the wing membranes werent needed now that the bones had been reduced to shards. So straight to the second stage instead, with the magazines alternating armor-piercing and explosive shells. The former to crack the scales, thetter to detonate within the newly created holes to further strip away the protective covering. If it sat still for an hour, theyd kill it with ease. As if this would be that easy. Dragons could do the most damage on the ground, where they could bring not only their breath weapons but also their ws and tail to bear. However, that was also where they were at their most vulnerable. Flying while bathing pathetic mortals in me was a way to fight fairly safely, but that wasnt exactly possible with a pair of shattered wings, was it? Now all one needed was a way to deal with the beasts breath and the rest of the fight would be eminently doable. Isaac charged at the dragons head the moment it began to open its mouth, me pouring out like a tidal wave, the sheer force of it threatening to send him flying. But it did no damage. The Americans had managed to put out most of the fires by the time hed arrived, but theyd missed a couple of embers, which hed promptly stolen. So now, it was just a matter of enduring the pressure. For thirty seconds, the mes flowed over Isaac, reducing the ground beneath his feet to g. For thirty seconds, the dragon was mostly standing still, trying to crush an annoying pest, while the humans poured fire onto it. When the fire eventually petered out, Isaac had sunk into the ground up to his knees, and the dragon reeled back, having received a st of frost fire to the back of the throat. It wasnt strong enough to do real damage, but a creature so strongly aligned with fire taking a cold spell on such a vulnerable stop was supremely ufortable. He phased his legs out of the molten rock and got out of the st zone. While the dragon did a wonderful cat with a hairball impression, ws and tail swiping madly to buy itself some personal space, not that anyone was stupid enough to be in range, fire raked its hide. [Command-Skill] enhanced gunfire, anti-armor spells, naval guns sting through its hide after focusing on one spot for long enough. [Raid Bosses] were tough, and the dragon was no exception, continuing tosh out even as it began to gain an ever-growing resemnce to a target in a shooting gallery, but it was slowly weakening. Pre-prepared spells snapped into ce around its legs as it charged towards the closest gun battery, stopping it in pace, so it opened its mouth, preparing to unleash another st of fire only to choke on a series of oversized des that suddenly appeared in its throat. Isaac had flung as many des as he could down its throat and then transformed them into both the giant des hed gotten for just such an asion and his Zweih?nder. mes dribbled out of the dragons maw as it choked on its metallic meal. It whirled around and charged at him, apparently having decided that he was the most annoying thing on the field. Isaac had been hoping to deal with this without resorting to cooldown [Skills] so they could kill it again, but, oh well, an hour wasnt that long a cooldown. Just wait for a minute, predict how it will move, when its spine will be aligned properly, all lined up as straight as was possible [Wave Charge], [I Am The Sword]. Under the temporary invulnerability and unstoppable momentum of his [Skill], Isaac burst through the monsters open mouth, teeth shattering as it tried to bite him, and his trajectory crossed the creatures spine three times, breaking it in each of those ces. It continued to stumble forward drunkenly, its innate powers allowing its nervous signals to bypass the damaged spots, but it was slower, drunkenly lurching from side to side. The gun emcements began to fully drill through its body at that point, marking the end of the road for that creature. It hadnt quite reached the point where the damage would kill it, but with so many holes in its body, it was only a matter of time. Eyes long since blown apart, tendons shredded, and the number of internal organs reduced to pulp growing every second, it died. Dragons really werent all that threatening without their wings. Once they were clipped, they were a lot more susceptible to spells that locked down their movement and they were no longer able to produce gale-force winds with a single p. Three more dragons died the same way, summoned each time all relevant [Skills] were off cooldown, one of which went into the [Grave of Swords] for training purposes. Isaacs time bumping off [Raid Bosses] by the dozens wasing to an end, soon, the catalog would be full, all Tier 6 and 7s recorded, grimoirspleted, and so on. Fighting them for [Skill] Levels, specific loot and XP was a good idea, but not something he could afford to exclusively spend his time on. Karl, Raul and Patrick were returning from the moon, Bailey had been working hard on the bureaucratic front, hammering through both the funding and construction permits for new summoning areas that would allow them to face Tier 9 and eventually even some Tier 10 monsters, and Amys sojourn into the furthest depths of what was possible to do with magic wasing to an end as well. Once the gang was all together again, there were so many things they could do together. That would take a few more days, until then, he had a few more chances to go after some [Raid Bosses], starting tomorrow. No more working their way down the list, it was time to be strategic about this. And until then, there was an alchemist he had to bug. *** Professor Chandlersb had apparently always been impressive. Isaac wouldnt know, hed never been inside until well after the [System] had appeared, and by then, it had been the standard medieval alchemists workspace. But that had been then. Now, theboratory filled most of the building, old floors, and ceilings having been knocked out to make space for titanic runic arrays, gyroscopes that had no readily apparent function but they had to be there for a reason, a dozen storage rooms, each intended to hold a kind of reagent with specific requirements. Powerful wards absolutely covered the outside of the building, of course. After all, the materials inside were worth literally billions. Every time Isaac approached a door, it scanned him, then peeled away the wards and let him in while arrows appeared on the ground to lead him right to where Chandler was waiting for him. The Professor looked well for his age, far better than he had the first time Isaac had met the man. He was old, and the grooves life had dug into his face were still visible, but his appearance was smoother, his back straighter, and he moved with an energy that belied his age. Sure, much of that was down to mere stat gain, but hed taken a big step toward regaining his youthfulness when Isaac had given him the Aspect of the Sanguine Monarch. The vampires Aspect gave not just the standard [Skill] of [Moment of Immortality], but also vitality-draining abilities. Usually, that meant draining monsters to shore up yourself against the consequences of getting older, but alchemists had other uses for it. After all, what was a health potion but a way to artificially prop up the, well, health of the person who drank it? With a slightly altered recipe, a few expensive ingredients, and the right, hard to get, [Skills], one could easily give old age the middle finger for a time. Youd still age somewhat, your life could only be propped up for so long and you wouldnt turn back the clock, but it still made a titanic difference. Chandler put down the rock hed been working on and stood in a way that made it clear that he was paying full attention to Isaac. So, what have you brought me this time? he asked, grinning in a way that was simultaneously expectant and manic. Dragon scales, Isaac said, opening his storage space to drop a literal pile of the stuff onto an empty spot on the nearest table. He held out his right hand, which had several patches of molten scales covering them. I figured out that they can be melted to pour onto skin, where it bonds with it to create biological armor. But adding more scales doesnt do anything, they just roll right off, so I was wondering if there was a way to distill down the magic of these things. Remove the material, keep the magic, that sort of thing. Isaac suggested, Also, I found a lot of [Raid Boss] parts that are clearly meant to be alchemical ingredients, and I figured you might like them. Not to mention, around ten percent of the extra materials were the things needed to enhance the dragon scales. Now all he had to do was lean back and wait ... *** I managed to break down the material fairly easily, but theres a bit of a problem, Chandler exined as he showed Isaac a crucible of liquefied scales with arcs of power sparking off it The end result is highly energized. A few small areas imbued should be fine, but a full covering, like the Bundeswehr is doing, would likely be lethal. Isaac nodded, putting on a grim face Ok, but how much stronger is it? The original is pretty useless for me. If Im going up against an opponent where I need the extra defenses, the standard boost wont be enough. How much of the boosted version can I use? I dont know. Chandler shrugged I was hoping Isaac nodded again Yeah, Ill get Bailey to help me figure that out. yes. Alright, thank you for your help. Isaac said, picking up the crucible and putting it into his inventory Ill tell you the second I know more about this stuff, have fun working with the rest of the materials. He made his way down to his office, closed the door, and began to apply the material, thin strips of nigh-indestructible biological armor crisscrossing his body. They werent outright impossible to cut through, but they didnt need to be. They just needed to be tough enough that hed get thrown clear before being bisected. Once he senses he couldnt add any more, he stopped, and put away some for the rest of the team. What he had left after that would make an excellent bribe for the military. Chapter 229: The Eternal Wait Chapter 229: The Eternal Wait The portal flickered for a second, stabilized and promptly began to fly away from them. It looked like the issue with the portal holding position at a constant direction and distance to the projection location hadnt been fixed yet. The array of manipted space smacked into a tree and came apart at the seams. Ok, seventy-third times the charm. Isaac sighed. Why oh why couldnt they have tested the damn portal ahead of time, that way, the returning lunanauts could have returned triumphantly. But no, someone had wanted a triumphant return without considering that maybe, long-range portals were tricky and that it had taken a damn long time to even build an array to project it down here. So why on Earth had the return date been chosen as the day the array was ted to finish, rather than the one after it? Isaac sighed and resigned himself to being here for a while. It wasnt like he could help here. The theory behind long-range portal magic andpensating forary drift was well beyond his sphere of knowledge. Or was that lunar drift, in this situation? Not like that distinction mattered much to anyone not read into the specific science at hand. At least there was something he could do, and that was to check out his character sheet. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit Species: Einherjar Level: 135 XP: 0/1,360,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 3,000/3,000 Stats Fortitude 255 (+20) Perception 500 Strength 330 (+15) Agility 650 Magic Power 290 (+10) Magic Regeneration 600 Free Points: 0 Stat, 1 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXVI The Chosen Weapon XXVIII I Am The Sword XXI Grave of Swords XXVII Armory of Ancient Times XVIII Legacy of a True Warrior XXVI Divine Fire X Champion of Mankind I Skills Hundred Faces XXVII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXII Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXVIII Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXI Fleeting Presence XVII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XIX Compounded Impact XVIII True Cut VIV Legendary Blow XVII Fully Geared XIII Knightly Leader XXI Analyze Person XVI Continent Strider XVI Burden of Power VII Experts Insight VIII Blessing of Innovation XVIII Lessons of History VI The Meaning of the Name VII General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XV Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VIII Police Procedure VIII Healing VI Quest Giver III Omniglot (109nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script VII Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Dragon (3 stack) Draconic Heart Moment of Immortality Dragonscale Mantle Least Demon Lord (2 stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Lich (3 stack) Superiority of Undeath Perfect Form Lichs Curse Death Knight (3 stack) Death Knights Endurance Ghostly Armor Armored Echo Hed gained several Levels worth of XP from constantly fighting [Raid Bosses] but also umted a ton of [Skill] Levels. His dragonscale weave armor had been registered on his character sheet, and his blood runes had finally been registered on his character sheet after hed gotten his hands on the Sanguine Monarchs grimoire. Crimson Runic Script (legendary) Blood. The fuel that powers all living things. The fact that it is sometimes referred to as lifeblood just emphasizes this. But your blood can fuel more than just you, The Crimson Script is one such avenue to using this great power, allowing the user to unleash devastating attacks. Tear apart elementals with your bare hands, turn your weapons into implements of doom that will tear apart your foes from the inside if you leave them sticking in their bodies, generate nigh-indestructible barriers (albeit at the cost of your vitality), and more. And, of course, hed slotted the Aspect of the Dragon. [Moment of Immortality] had remained in ce, of course, but the other two [Skills] had upgraded into stronger versions. The [Skills] hed picked were actually different than the ones hed originally intended to choose, way back when hed been nning his future progression. [Dragons Breath] was a nasty, close-range weapon that made for one hell of a sucker punch when it hit an enemy unexpectedly, but it had been made thoroughly superfluous by Isaacs new [ss]. Draconic Heart (epic) Your heart beats with the force of an erupting volcano, its every movement sending immense magic coursing through your body, burning and swiftly annihting any diseases, poisons, and other forces seeking to corrupt your body (barring exceedingly powerful opposition). At the same time, this power can be unleashed to provide fuel for your own me-based attacks, granting them overwhelming power at the cost of physical fatigue. Lastly, the heart of a draconic beast grants the bearer enhanced longevity and vitality. An even greater resistance to subtler means of attack, as well as old age, nice to have but he really hoped he wouldnt need it. Also, when he needed to, he could hit even harder, though that was limited to an emergency,st resort, get-out-of-jail strike, or a finishing move. Physcial fatigue was the understatement of the century. The idea of his heart being an erupting volcano was mostly artistic ir, but it somewhat describe the sensation. When hed gained that [Skill], it had felt like his heart had gained limitless power, as if a nuclear reactor had been imnted into his chest, energizing him. However, when he used [Draconic Heart], that same power left him, lowering his energy well below the point where it had been before gaining the [Skill], utterly exhausted and feeling like hed spent an entire week pulling all-nighters. Pre-[System]. Of course, as exhausting as that little trick was, it had the power to match. Isaac had brought the roof of his summoning area down on his head the first time hed used it and the ce was still trashed because Karl was in outer space. Those were the consequences of having the best of the best build your stuff. You needed someone of equal Level, with the same specialization, to do maintenance, and when you were at the bleeding edge of what was currently possible, that basically limited you to just the original creator. Sadly, his second [Skill] wasnt quite that good. Dragonscale Mantle (epic) The scales of a dragon, synonymous with durability for many. And now, you have in one of these great beasts, taken its power for your own, and turned its skin into yours. Draconic ceratin now armors you, ensuring that you are never without protection, yet it is no unbreakable bulwark, is it? Which is why this Skill takes the concept of wearing your in enemies and takes it one step further. All pieces of armor made from biological materials, even those integrated into your body, are significantly strengthened. His already tough defenses had gotten a bit tougher, but really, his biggest worry had always been and would continue to be stuff that could get past his dragonscale webs. But hed also bought the second core [Skill] of his new [ss]. Champion of Mankind (legendary) Humans are rather weak, arent they? Small and fragile despite how much of the theyve conquered, what great things theyve made, an individual human is still not all that powerful. Which is why they sometimes need a helping hand. Someone who might give advice, stop powerful foes, or maybe just steal fire from the gods themselves. This is the Champion of Mankind, humanitys shield, and the vanguard of their march into a brighter future. This is a Skill that grants the wielder the power to protect others, adjusted for the situation. There are three forms this boost can take: The Leader: The Leader is the true power behind an army. When the Champion takesmand, that fact bes abundantly clear. All troops (up to Skill Level times a thousand) under the Leadersmand gain a thirty percent boost to their physical Stats, are automatically empowered by [Veterans Knowledge], and gain ess to the basic Skills of all standardbat sses, such as Strikes, Blows, Shots, Healing Skills, and simple Spells. Furthermore, the Leader temporarily gains a seventy percent boost to their physical Stats, as well as the Skills [Threefold Thoughtstreams], [Simte Maneuvers], and [Battlefield Map]. The Leadersts for 1 hour and has a cooldown of ten hours. The Thinker: The Thinker is the physically weakest of the Champions, yet also the most impactful, especially in situations where physical force is not the correct answer. The Thinker gains ess to any five regr Skills from scientific/knowledge-based sses up to and including rare rarity and the third Evolution. In addition, he gains ess to the Skills [Parallel Thoughts] (each thoughtstream costs 1 mana per second from the Skills pool), [Simtion] (each simted second costs 2 mana), and [Mental Celerity]. Lastly, the Thinker can feed Spells using the Skills mana at an exchange rate of 2:1. The Thinkersts as long as the Skills manasts (natural drain of 1 mana per second) and imparts a cooldown of one day. The Vanguard: The Vanguard is the simplest form of the Champion, but by no means weak. In fact, when ites to rawbat power, it is utterly unsurpassed. When in Vanguard form, the users physical Stats double, they gain a nigh-unbreakable set of armor custom designed to match their fighting style. Furthermore, the Vanguard can, at will, draw in all ranged attacks made against nearby allies and even incite enemies to go after them instead. Lastly, the Vanguard gains temporary ess to the [Indomitable Shield], [Unstoppable Momentum] and [Unbreakable Charge] Skills. The Vanguardsts for five minutes and has a cooldown of four hours. Cost: 6,000 mana stored in a separate Pool WARNING! This is a Skill meant to protect humanity and will fail when used in the service of ushering in its downfall. More than anything, this [Skill] showed that [Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit] didnt have a specific starter [ss] attached to it. Most [sses] evolved from specific origins, like a [Warrior] turning into a [Mage], or [Mages] bing a specialized spellcaster, but Isaacs current [ss] was all about ones attitude and goals, not past [sses] and [Skills]. As such, not all of his current [Skills] were fully optimized for his build, though this one was more suitable for him than it had appeared at first nce. [Champion of Mankind: Vanguard] should have been a tank-only ability, given how it attracted attacks, but there was a little quirk to that. You see, the attacks didnt suddenly be guided missiles when they targeted him under the influence of the [Skill], they just gravitated towards him. All he had to do was stay in one ce long enough to mess with his enemies carefully calcted trajectories and dodge at top speed. If he was far enough away from his allies, the attacks would go wide. Meanwhile, the [Champion of Mankind: Leader] would make him a million times more useful the next time he got shoved into amand role. And [Champion of Mankind: Thinker] was in a ss all on its own. It would be beyond helpful when doing research, especially when coupled with [Blessing of Innovation], he could, quite literally, debate himself. Also, by splitting his mind, throwing in the foresight ability of [The Meaning of the Name] to increase his precision, and burning the Thinkers mana pool to fuel offensive magic, he could deliver a devastatingly powerful and precise strike to multiple targets. Hed also managed to push two more of his original [Rogue-Skills] to Level 30. Far Strike mon, Level max) Upon the Users next melee attack with a ded weapon, the de will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. In addition, the User may now imbued his weapons with ten mana to create a range enhancing aura for a full minute. This extra reach is 0.5 meters, gaining an additional 0.1n meters, with n being every Level in this Skill over 10. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to destroy foes that thought they were safe due to being out of range, this Skill has evolved to grant him even an greater reach. The user may now input more mana at will, with the range doubling with every additional 20 points of mana invested. Caution: Extremely long des may give way if engaged along their entire length, this may be mitigated by applying a second Skill to strengthen it (elligble Skills: Piercing Strike, Power Strike). And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be projected past solid objects, even bypassing non-magical armor, should there be sufficient space avable behind said armor. Cost: 20 mana minimum, no maximum mana investment Manifold Strike (legendary, Level XXX) The user maybine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X avable for each Skill used below that Level. In addition, the overall potency of the Skills used increases by 10 %. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to deal devastating damage using the rightbination of lesser Strikes, especially whenbined with a second Skill that allows for multiple uses of the same strike, it has evolved to be even more powerful than the sum of its parts. Now, when staking multiple instances of this Skill using Legendary Blow, one may choose which Strike to use how often, modifying proportions as needed to create a truly optimal attack with no mana going to waste. In addition, theplimentary Skill of Legendary Blow has been enhanced to allow for an additional instance to be applied, for a total maximum of seven possible stacks. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, passively infusing all Strike-type Skills with the properties of all other Strike-type Skills at no additional cost, unless this is deliberately deactivated. Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.20^used Skills [Far Strike] was fairly meh, but Isaac was just d it had finally hit the max Level. He so rarely used ittely, it was just too fragile to be useful at his current power level. [Manifold Strike], on the other hand not just a stronger [Skill], but one that was a permanent boost to his abilities, which was always something he needed. The fact that [Unknown Fear] had also hit Level 30 was both good and bad. Good, because it was a really good upgrade, and bad because the fact that it had leveled meant that someone had to have been scanning him. Trying to, at any rate. The idea was still less than pleasant. Unknown Fear (epic, Level XXX) There are many things that people are afraid of. Mostly, those things are definable, specific things. But there is another kind, the fear of the unknown. With this Skill, the user bes the embodiment of this fear. An unknowable entity, be fear itself. It will block out any same Level and rarity Inspection Skills as a matter of course and is boosted by any stealth Skill, gaining strength as if it were one Level higher for every two Levels in a stealth Skill. Further power is gained based on Agility. In addition, this Skill may now be used to project a false status when Inspect style Skills are used. However, the user of Unknown Fear does not have true control over what the other person sees, they can only switch between showing them whatever they hope to see, something menacing, or merely a nk fa?ade. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to hide its users true nature from warriors and kings, knaves and stalwart defenders of justice, it has evolved to hide even its own attributes. Initially, Unknown Fear merely showed the vast, unknowable abyss to those who dared to Inspect its user, yet that, in itself, could identify them. This kind of all-epassing darkness is by no means unique to Unknown Fear, but it is hardly amon impression to receive from a failed Inspect. Now, however, whenever the user chooses to take on a different persona, the feedback likewise subtly shifts to the point where it cannot be connected to them. In addition, it will always take on the same feedback type when the same persona is taken up. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, cloaking the user in the darkest of shadows, even under the brightest of lights. When the user is attempting to showcase another persona, pretending to be another, this Skill will actively aid this, impeding the others ability to connect both personas. The human mind picks out specific physical details to lock onto for the purpose of identifying individuals, such as unusual height, shockingly bright hair or clothing, or missing limbsst However, this Skill will make details shared across personas less visible while highlighting ones unique to a persona. Isaac still wasnt a covert operative, and with his build being focussed elsewhere, hed never be, but this would help immensely. Andstly, two of his core [Skills] had also hit bonus-granting thresholds. I Am The Sword (legendary, Level XX) In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal. And with this Skill, both are the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the users form will be indestructible, immoveable, and invible while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. In addition, the users static body acts as a de, far more likely to cut through instead of push away the target, and Skills that require a de can be used upon it. This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full. After countless fights where the user has torn through the most vulnerable points of powerful monsters, this Skill has evolved to deal devastating damage to even the gods of destruction that are the Raid and World Bosses. Upon striking an enemy, the user of this Skill may choose to either enhance prative power to go through armor even when thews of physics dictate that this shouldnt be possible, or reduce it so that even a rtively fragile enemy can be sent flying. Furthermore, the damage inflicted by this Skill will increase in different ways depending on the mode used. Maximum pration will cause the user to disrupt the flesh around themselves as they move through a foe while going for an impact-based attack will send powerful shockwaves into the enemys insides, inflicting internal damage without requiring an armor breach. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana [I Am The Sword] is one hell of a heavy-hitting ability, one that made for both an excellent emergency ability and finishing blow. A moment where nothing short of a god could hurt him, and where his body turned into an unstoppable projectile. This upgrade just took an already excellent [Skill] and boosted the most important parts of it. Both as an offensive armor-cracker, and to sendrge enemies flying. When he wanted to use it for the former, he had to make sure to make initial contact with a small surface area, such as a finger. And for thetter, he often struck a Vitruvian man pose to prevent himself from flying right through his enemy. But it had never been guaranteed that hed manage to achieve the goal he was going for. Now though, it should work far better. Divine Fire (legendary, Level X) Fire. What can it do? Pretty much everything, as long as youve got the right kind and are creative enough. Fire. What can it be? Pretty much anything, as long as youre not risk-averse when ites to getting it. That is where the issue lies. Getting it. Of the countless mystic and mundane mes there are, one can only gain a few if one takes the normal path, that is. Stealing them aint normal. But it is possible. It is audacious, ludicrous, but possible. And fully in line with the Promethean spirit. This Skill grants the user the ability to conjure and control mundane mes. Initially. The real power of the Divine Fire is its ability to absorb and assimte all other fire, both magical and not. The user bes immune to all fires they have absorbed (and can extend this protection to objects on their person) and are able to then wield it with the same power and ease as the original fire. Once conjured, mes fueled by the users mana directly can be controlled for free while secondary fires spawned by the initial me can be directed by spending a negligible amount of mana. All mes can be extinguished for free, be they conjured directly or merely ignited by conjured mes. All assimted mes can be used individually orbined to form greater forms of fire, whose patterns can be stored forter use. The user also grows partially immune to unknown fires based on their simrity to already assimted mes. Cost Patters: Creation cost per second/control cost per second Standard me (10/1) Absorbed mes: Grand Hellme (75/1-10) Campfire (5/1) Burning Magnesium (20/1-3) Napalm (7/1) Ster Corona (60/2-4) (see full list (1.998)?) Combined mes: Sticky Magnesium (20/2-5) Incinerating Gel (80/2-12) Obliteration (100/25) (see full list (214)?) And that was his final upgrade. Nothing big, yet it was still hugely impactful as it would make getting new fires infinitely safer. Unfortunately, now that he was done looking over his character sheet once more and the portal was still not working. Ah, nuts. Seriously, who the hell heard there is no way in hell well be able to guarantee well finish in time and went I have faith in you, I wont be prepared for any dys? Politicians, thats who. Another half hourter, the portal finally stayed put above the target area and several runic circles activated, catching hold of the spatial twist and pinning it in ce. Fucking finally. Chapter 230: Triumphant Return Chapter 230: Triumphant Return Raul was dusty. It was an odd thing to notice, but when Isaac looked at the returning crowd, that was what stood out. Karl was wearing a slimmed-down version of his mech suit, something he couldfortably wear for a long time. Patrick was wearing a suit and tie, with an addition of a belt strap, which held a grimoire. It was new, and obviously the creation of a [Skill]. Excellent. Grimoires were the core of a science-based magic users growth, a ce to note down spells as they were created and pre-chargeplex magical creations, and now Patrick had one. Raul, meanwhile, was also dressed in formal clothes to match the rest of the crowd, but amidst a bunch of people whod spent thest several months locked away in sealed habitats, the one guy whod gone outside without a space suit and gotten dust on himself stood out. The second thing Isaac noticed was how much stronger those three were looking. Everyone else had probably also grown significantly, but he didnt know them well enough to tell beyond noticing there was a preponderance of space-rted [sses] in the crowd that hadnt been there before. Patrick had his grimoire that brimmed with power, a simple yet infinitely valuable upgrade. As for the other two, their gains were less obvious yet just as impactful. When hed left, Rauls field of normality had just been there, something that could sustain life, remove pollutants and erase unnatural influences. Now that hed returned, it had be a physical presence, one that eclipsed his [Aura] unless he was projecting it very far from his body. An energy field that could create all normal environments as desired. It might not sound like much until you realized that the universe was mostly vacuum. And then you remembered that the core of stars was also a part of nature Judging Karls progress was rather more difficult, however. After all, the advancement of his abilities wasrgely reflected in his technology, something Isaac was ill-suited to judge. He was hardly a Luddite, but being able to use modern technology was a whole different kettle of fish from judging sci-fi technologys level of sophistication. However, the artificial muscles powering the armor were obviously denser, the processing unit was putting out vastly more energy, to the point where the surrounding metal would have started melting without the cooling system and the armor itself couldugh off anything anyone not an A- or S-Ranker could throw at it. The initial n had been to create the portal, call the lunanauts back down, then hold a bunch of speeches and take this as a chance for some of the earthbound people to visit the moon. Except the portal began to flicker and finally snapped out of existence before the d-handing was even halfway done. Oh, sure, it was a momentous asion, the world would never be the same, but this was the second time Isaac had experienced this, albeit not from this close-up. Shake this hand,pliment that idea, make a proposition to that other person, and so on. The g might have looked impressive from far away, but up close, it was just like any other high-level social event Isaac had ever been to. Then the portal disappeared, the disappointment was great, yada, yada, yada. Having the people whod managed to make it work down here meant that re-establishing it would be a matter of hours at the very least, possibly even days. Dont worry, well head up the next time a shuttle goes up there. Patrick had ended up promising The difficulty in creating portals between two different celestial objects will have to be ounted for, though. Then, one quick portalter, they were back in the meeting room in their building and Karl suddenly started talking like a waterfall. Themunication system between Earth and the moon is working properly, right? he asked, sounding incredulous We had the heir to the Monkey King move in on a mountain in the Alps, and the federal government is paying for people to party with him? Isaac nodded. The same Monkey King who stole all the stuff he needed, got invited to join the celestial bureaucracy in lieu of consequences, stormed off in a huff when he didnt get a high rank, was invited back in a show of good faith, then stole all the heavenly peaches, assaulted the servants sent to gather them, assaulted the heavenly brewers and stole most of the booze, stole a bunch of magic pills from aboratory, realized how screwed he was and ran back down to Earth, but then went back to steal some more booze, ughtered those who came to arrest him and grew indignant because there were consequences for his actions? Wow, people could speak for a long time without breath if their Stats were high enough. Also, wow, that was a pretty good summary of the Monkey Kings antics. Yep. Isaac nodded Hes been behaving himself for now, thankfully, but I am making preparations in case that changes. He then proceeded to exin how Suns various defenses worked. Just remember, hes primarily a physical fighter, with most of his Stats invested in that direction. He doesnt have many big tricks he can pull out beyond what weve already seen, but most people are spending mana like water to fight at their full potential, he doesnt. If you end up in a fight with him and cant win quickly, run because hell oust you. Are you sure your preparations wont set him off? Patrick asked I mean, if what Karl said about his predecessor is correct, we should be worried, but you could be causing the very thing youre trying to avoid. Isaac took a moment to consider how to best answer that. In theory, that could be a problem. In practice, hed have to know that I know how to beat him, and dig deep into every contact I have to view the full picture. Also, none of the stuff Im having made is specific against him. Chandler is cooking up some nasty contact toxin that can be tossed onto an enemy, where it will stick and constantly poison them. Its also got an antidote that can be taken ahead of time and protects the drinker for a long time. The military is researching life-draining weaponry, and theres no visible record of me having asked for those to be made. Stagmer is making daggers that are custom-designed for being enchanted with curses, that Ill bring to certain contacts for enchantmentter. There is a very reasonable exnation for everything I get because theyd also be useful against [Raid Bosses], specific monsters, and the cult. As long as I dont start specifically training against him, it wont look bad. Patrick looked up from his phone, where hed clearly been looking up Sun But neither the real nor mythological Monkey King is particrly known to be reasonable. He might flip out just because he realizes someone is capable of killing him. Amy shrugged Curses, poison, vampiric weapons, all of those things are pretty normal, Isaacs just getting them at a high quality. If thats enough to set him off, dealing with him was never going to end well in the first ce. Good point, Patrick conceeded. How much is this costing you? Raul wondered By my estimate, taking on Sun Wukong would cost a good chunk of this countrys military budget. If I werent getting most of this through favors, or in exchange for materials I harvest myself, this would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of a few billion euros. A collective wince ran around the table at that. Anyway, weve also got good news. Karl said, Now that weve gotten our hands on the blood runes, I can pretend to do the work needed to pretend that the homemade, electric elemental based generator Isaac showed us was discovered naturally. Good luck fending off all the people trying to hire you once you publicize that. Isaac teased Youll need to get a whole new email address. I already pity the spam filter. Karl agreed and sighed dramatically, pretending to faint Oh, how hard it is to be a famous scientist. Yeah, youre underestimating how annoying job offers can get. Bailey said, If you ever need someone to be the bad guy and tell someone to back the fuck off, all you have to do is ask. Thanks, Karl said, creating a hologram of his generator Now, guys, can you look at this design? Itll work, but does it look prototype-ey enough? Hm, doesnt have enough coffee stains, Amymented dryly. And that was generally how the rest of the conversation went. But they had generators that could convert mana into power for all standard electronic devices, just in time for these things to be desperately needed. As Levels rose and people grew more capable, fewer of them would be employed. This had been mitigated during thest few years due to the many new industries bing avable, but for many families, a time of poverty was slowly but surely approaching. The more expenses could be covered simply by having someone in the household with ess to the [System], the better. Chapter 231: Darkness Chapter 231: Darkness Someone had clearly decided to lean into the doom and gloom cliches, Isaac observed. The shop he was walking into was giving him the heebie-jeebies, and that was saying something. The enchanted bones of countless small animals were strategically ced to give the impression that they were staring at anyone entering the ce, and the light sources were several glowing crystals glued to the ceiling by way of spiderwebs. Behind the counter, a shelf made of ck obsidian stood, housing countless jars of dubious-looking reagents. Seriously, this ce couldnt have looked more sinister if it had tried. On the surface, it was just like any other ck magic store that sold a whole lot of perfectly legal, albeit creepy, stuff, enchanted weapons for summoners, and the like, but there was more to it if you were willing to ask for it. It was also not the kind of ce where he could afford to be seen, and going in disguise could easily go badly if he came in with masterwork-level daggers. It wasnt like Stagmers books were avable for public consumption, but he didnt have the capacity to block most high-Level investigators. Which meant that Isaac had had to choose between going as himself or in disguise. It would look really bad if it became obvious he was disguising himself to do shady shit, so if he got caught out, the consequences would be terrible. Or he could have disguised himself and hoped that the enchanter didnt bother to look into the priceless weapons that had crossed his table. Sending an intermediary could have worked, sure, but the real problem was the daggers, they were too unique, too trackable. The more obvious his subterfuge was, the worse the fallout would be if it came out. That was why, in the end, hed decided not toe here to enchant his masterwork weapons at all. Thest time hed been in Texas, hed dropped by an army surplus store and bought himself eightbat knives. Disguised, of course. Theyd get enchanted, then hed take them right back to Amy, whod copy the curses and apply them to the real weapons. Ah, I have a visitor. A hissing, slithering voice trickled into Isaacs ears, emanating from the back room So, what will it be? Something to see your enemies writhe in agony? Something to ensure that those who dare to steal from you will learn their lesson? Or perhaps there is someone who you feel failed to get their just deserts? Pretty sure most of those are illegal, Isaacmented off-handedly, pulling a bandolier containing the weapons. Ah, but every so often, someone does ask for one of those things. I refuse, of course, but offering does fit the image, doesnt it? The proprietor said as he appeared in front of Isaac, picking up the dagger and closely examining it, looking disgusted. The weapon was probably well below what that guy was used to dealing with. The cursemaster was something. A tall, rake-thin man with stringy ck hair, perpetually bloodshot eyes, milky-pale skin that had veins shining through, and a general air of darkness with a hint of malice that had absolutely nothing to do with his [Aura], which was politely retracted into a defensive shell as to not bother the customers. So, what is it that youre looking for, then? he asked What are you nning to do with these weapons? Curse of Bloodletting, Curse of Feebleness, Curse of Myriad Agonies, Curse of Arcane Suppression, Curse of Cumtive Insanity, Curse of Sundered Health, Curse of Lost Gravity, Curse of Injuries Eternal. Isaac rattled off, One each. You know your curses. The cursemaster said, looking Isaac in his face for the first time Which leaves me wondering, why do you disrespect the curses by cing them in such inferior vessels? Because there are many things a masterwork weapon is too conspicuous for, Isaac said, leaving it open to interpretation as to what precisely he meant. But the implication of Im going to do illegal shit with these still stood. I see. The cursemaster continued in his strange hissing tone. Was that a personality quirk, or the result of some kind of [Skill]? A changed race, maybe? The man was damned hard to read even with Isaacs identification [Skills]. Well, if you get the chance, rmend my services, would you? Isaac shrugged If youre sure thats what you want, I can do that. But believe you me, you dont want my colleagues knowing who you are. Of course, that was because he worked withw enforcement, but that wasnt how his statement would be understood. Ah, I understand. The cursemaster mirrored his shrug Now, for the matter of payment Isaacughed internally. When you regrly dealt with powerful people who likely had no trouble breaking thew, asking for payment had to be a thorny matter. After all, what was a little extortion to someone with the power to stomp cities? Of course, the cursemaster would have a ton of defenses, enough to make betraying him costly beyond anything that could potentially be gained, but the risk was still there. Isaac pulled several Aspects from his spatial storage, including one that belonged to a Lich. A risky thing to be giving to a criminal, especially one who outfitted other criminals, but Isaac was sure that past him had had a n, before hed used [Blessing of Innovation] to remove something from his memories. Some kind of sinister, backstabbing n, removed to prevent him from tripping any spy sensors, probably. The cursemasters eyes grew huge as he read the description. Tier 9, who are you? Do I really have to exin what would happen if I told you that? Isaac sighed How about you dont insult my intelligence by pretending that I havent already paid more than enough, and get on with the enchanting? Of course. Ill also spare you the exnation of how curses are a legal grey area, but youll still get in trouble for using these on people. The cursemaster nodded and began to work on the daggers, ingredients floating off the shelves as an incredibly sinister air began to fill the small shop. One by one, the knives began to glow with a baleful light, emanating energy that stank of blood, death, venom, and more. Thank you for your patronage. The cursemaster finally said, handing over thest of the freshly enchanted weapons. Isaac grinned You did a good job. If I ever need recements, Ill be sure toe back. He turned around and left the shop, undoing [Blessing of Innovation] once he was a few hundred meters away, and chuckled. He really had gotten good at not instantly undoing the [Skill] because he disliked the feeling of loss that came with using it to mess with ones memories. Ah yes, and he had had a n. Use the cursemaster, who Zambon had connected to not only half the underworld, but also the cult, to get some enchanted weapons for Amy to copy, and then call in the cavalry. To anyone scanning him, hed have just looked like another customer, which hed been at the time, but hed still scoped out the ce because of course hed scanned everything around himself, Isaac was practically incapable of existing in a space without using his [Aura] to check around every corner and under every rock. And the people who couldnt be properly scanned made sense, now that he remembered the cult. Isaac pulled a burner phone from his storage space and dialed the local police number. Good evening, dear Sir or Madam, my name doesnt matter, all that matters is that Im capable of turning this city into a crater. Isaac introduced himself, hearing a sharp intake of breath from the other end of the line. There were truth-telling abilities avable to the people operating the emergency lines, but those were so far removed from the callers that their effectiveness was limited. A simple, short, statement without double meanings, like what hed said about his power level, would solidly ring as true. A longer statement, akin to him properly exining what hed found, could easily be misread. But when someone made a credible threat, well, resources would be mobilized. He waited for a moment to make sure that someone with a higher Level truth-telling [Skill] was on the line, then rattled off everything hed noticed while in the shop, from the location of the guards to the curse under the floor that would zap anyone tried to stiff the proprietor or came byter to rob the ce. It would remember anyone whod ever entered and if they stayed home long enough, the spell would be perfectly adapted to the miscreant. This meant that Isaac couldnt go back to wrap up the cursemaster in a neat little bow without getting into some serious trouble, but hed expected something like that, and made appropriate arrangements. Locating his ally took a bit of work, considering he was the sneakiest member of the [Round Table] and actively trying to go unnoticed, but he managed it and added him to the party. In many ways, Jason North was an outsider of the [Round Table], not someone Isaac had known about from the other timeline, not someone hand-selected until theyd met for the first time. Zambon had stumbled across the young man in Canada, where hed been chasing the cult since well before the Hamburg incident, having discovered them all by himself. At first, everyone had been suspicious, but in time, theyd so thoroughly scanned his life that even the most embarrassing secrets such as a history of bedwetting as a young child had been revealed. He was dedicated, skilled, his goals aligned with theirs, and he was overall a good fit, so hed been invited in. North had started out as a [Rogue] and stuck with it through every Evolution, always making sure to get his [ss] [Skills] at least above Level 20 and focussed on the middle of the road path. He was an information gatherer, a trap master, an assassin, and a thief, highly capable in all of those areas, something that the entire table could now draw on. Right now though, it was thest [Skill]set that was important. As Levels grew, stealing stuff became more and more risky. Wards, protective enchantments, and even curses, a high-Level [Thief] needed to be able to get around all of those. Throw in a few protective amulets, and there was no one better to go hunt down a master cure wielder. And to top it all off, they were using the [Round Table] to borrow each others anti-tracking [Skills], which meant that tracking down either of them after the fact would be functionally impossible. Dealing with the guardians from the cult would fall to Isaac, however, and that would be tricky. Remaining unidentified inbat at high Levels was incredibly difficult if you had any degree of fame, simply because high Level people tended to have at least a few signature abilities. Which meant that Isaacs fire was right out, as were [I Am The Sword] and Old Reliable. Even using a sword at all was risky, there werent many high Level, speed-focussed swordmasters in the world, so he wasnt using one. Instead, he was going in with just his bare hands and the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior], which hed gotten along with his new Race at the fourth Evolution. He could either wield it as a shorter-ranged sensory [Aura], or condense it around parts of his body to turn them into weapons. When applied to his hands, they effectively became des, which was where one of his least thought-about [Skills] came in. [Absolute de Mastery] made him equally skilled with every ded weapon, tranting his ability to wield an arming sword into being a master with a ive, Zweih?nder,bat knife, punch dagger, carpet knife, and so on. Reinforced hands as des that was probably pushing it a bit, but [Absolute de Mastery] was a legendary [Skill], it should be able to handle even such a liberal interpretation of what was considered a ded weapon. And then, he pped [Deaths Embrace] onto the [Aura], the empowering [Skill] giving it a feeling of death and decay. Sharp, deadly,bative, that was what Isaac would look like to his soon-to-be opponents, a speedybattant who fought with his fists, very much different from the swordsman he normally presented himself as. So, Isaac, you ready? North asked as he crept towards the shop. Theyd both already disguised themselves using [Hundred Faces], giving themselves highly average appearances. Brown eyes, brown hair, a medium dark skin tone that could belong to anyone from a very tanned white person to a ck person whod never seen the sun, and so on. Aggressively average, an obviously fake look, but also damn hard to connect to anything. Yes. Isaac said, slowly closing on the apartment that held the cults watchers Wait two seconds, then head in. The sound of Jason kicking in the door to the curse shop echoed through the city and the guards leaped to their feet, ready toe charging in to save their charge. That, the moment when they were utterly confused and zeroing in on a specific incident, all facing in the same direction, was when Isaac struck,ing in from behind them. [True Cut]cked any kind of visible indicator it was being used, nor did it leave behind noticeable traces, so he could use it to shred the apartments wards before phasing through the walls. No one had the personnel to spare to have quality fourth Evolution agents watching every important location and person, so even the cursemaster only had a single person at that level, the other two were merely at the peak of the third Evolution. And, of course, the strongest one went down first, folding around Isaacs red-glowing fist like wetundry, then flying into the wall with enough force to smash through both it and the next two after it, which left the man lying in the middle of the street atop a pile of bricks. The second cultist at the third Evolution drew a pair of daggers and charged at Isaacs back while the guy at the fourth Evolution transformed into a living thunderstorm, a form made up of ck clouds and crackling lightning. Thankfully, the building was empty, so there was no need for Isaac to hold back. A flurry of daggers flew at his back, but he dodged each with casual ease, dying each motion so it wasnt obvious his [Skills] let him predict his opponents moves to the point where it was literal precognition, then backhanded the man through another wall. [Absolute de Masterys] other effect let him decide specifically how much damage his blows with ded weapons did. Well, he could reduce it as far as he wanted, anyway, which was needed when he wasnt trying to kill his opponents. If the local cops had a bunch of cultists to interrogate, or a whole lot of prisoners killed via a suicide [Skill], theyd focus on that. On the other hand, if they had a bunch of corpses and a seriously threatening phone call from the person responsible, guess whod get hunted to the ends of the Earth? So, the two little guys were already out cold, and that just left the living thunderhead. A massive bolt of lightning, as thick as Isaacs arm, tore towards him while the transformed humans speed suddenly doubled and a cloak of lightning wreathed him. Someone was burning every cooldown [Skill] they had, likely in the hope that theyd get to save the cursemaster. Toote, North was already done. He could have done it without raising any kind of fuss, the only reason hed kicked in the door had been to provide a distraction for Isaac. In response to his opponent, Isaac condensed his [Aura] into a shield in front of him while he threw himself out of the path of the lightning bolt. The shield shattered, and the coating on his limbs broke a momentter, but hed already been moving out of the path of the attack before it had even beenunched. That one had been so obvious that Isaac didnt have to pretend to not be prescient. If it had hit, it would have been bad. Getting caught in the attacks corona left him ever so slightly crispy, but still in decent shape. And he had his own powerup. [Champion of Manking: Vanguard] didnt have any shy effects, and without nearby allies to shield, it didnt attract ranged attacks either. It just made him stupidly fast, more than enough to match his enemys boosted speed. Isaac dove through his foes lighting field, taking no small amount of damage in the process, but it was already by the time his fistsnded. Fighting incorporeal enemies was a pain in the ass, normally. [Skills], mana, and mana-infused objects could do damage, sure, but that damage was mostly internal, burst blood vessels, cracked bones and bruised organs where the physical structure had been disrupted. Painful, but damn easy to heal. But the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] let him do damage anytime, anywhere, to anything, no matter what. The [Skills] description said so, and hed confirmed it in testing, but it had never been used against an enemy like this. When Isaacs grey-and-rust-colored knuckles hit the cloud man, he was pushed backwards as if it were still flesh and blood, shifting around the fist as if bones were breaking and flesh were tearing. Intangible, made up a material that charred the attackers flesh upon contact none of it mattered. Every strike created damage that would stick no matter what, and his enemys stormy form copsed onto the ground in a heap. A momentter, the being of water vapor and lightning reverted to a form of flesh and blood. And a lot of thetter wasnt where it was supposed to be, dripping onto the ground from wounds that would have killed any lesser person. Chump that guy might have been, but he was tough enough to survive. In the distance, sirens echoed and a sphere of force mmed down around the area. The cops had gotten here quickly, good. Less good was that getting out wasnt going to be as easy as Isaac had hoped it would be. The lets not let any criminals run away [Skill] even extended underground. This was going to suck. Isaac phased and dropped through the floor, falling until he smashed into the force field, and came out on the other side, feeling like hed been fed through a woodchipper. Ow. Still, projecting a force field through solid matter wasnt easy, which had vastly weakened the barrier, which had made jumping through it possible. Now that he was free, he could just run. With his mana pool still well above two-thirds full, he could stay phased for a very long time. And considering that Lisbon was right by the ocean, he didnt even have to surface anywhere near where hed dropped off the face of the Earth. In the end, he met North all the way in Normandy, in the middle of a nice little cafe that boasted about the best pastries in the region. That probably wasnt entirely true, but the ce did smell good and Isaac was feeling like getting some sweets. Besides, between Norths [Paragon Rogue] [Skills] and Isaacs privacy field, they could have talked about murdering the President of the United States in the middle of FBI headquarters without getting into trouble. Doing this somewherefortable wasnt costing them anything. So, what did you get? Isaac asked. Basically everything that the cops wont need to convict the guy. North said And I managed to figure out what most of the objects I had to leave behind were for. He shivered and surreptitiously nced around the cafe Those people are nuts. Did you manage to get in and out without trouble? Isaac asked. As far as hed been able to tell, there hadnt been any trouble, but you couldnt always see all damage, especially when so many curses were involved. Of course. North looked like the very idea of something going wrong was ludicrous How much trouble could a ce really give me if I know where all the traps are? Point taken. Isaac replied, So, what were the objects you had to leave behind for? North told him and Isaac swore internally. As dangerous as each of the objects were individually, and as capable as North was at sussing out the truth, he hadnt had all the knowledge needed to put the full picture together. Those things put together were a bloody magical WMD. At least that n was well and truly ruined now. *** How was your trip? Amy asked Isaac when he entered the workshop. Eh, so-so. Got some shopping done, but there were a bunch of people I didnt really get along with. Isaac responded. Oh, could someone remind me that I need to get some Christmas shopping done after this? Patrick asked. Sure. Isaac said, then added in a small voice I still need to get that done, too. With the whole Monkey King business, hed been incredibly busy. At least he still had a week left to do that. One by one, eight knives were ced on the table, causing everyone to shrink back slightly. Those things are evil. Amy whispered, So cool! She immediately grabbed a dagger and began examining it closely. Patrick did the same with a second one, while Isaac began to pull the weapons that were to be enchanted onto the table as well. Eight standardbat knives, meant for fighting, applying the curse with each strike Eight slender stilettos, perfect for plunging deep into an enemy. All sixteen held a Damascus pattern of red and ck lending them a sinister air even before being enchanted. Seems like a damn shame to use masterworks as a singe-use weapon. Patrick sighed as he nced at the stilettos Theyll be damn useful when you do use them. Single-use? Amy asked. The des can be snapped off if you twist the handle just right, that way they get stuck in the opponent, Patrick exined, casting an X-Ray spell on the handle to show what he meant. Yep. Isaac said And then, the metal will liquefy, mimicking the victims blood as it nigh-irrevocably bonds itself to their body, impossible to remove without immense magic, and constantly reapplying the curse whenever it is dispelled. Diabolical, Amymented in a dreamy tone, seemingly enraptured by the dagger These things are going to be war crimes by the time were done with them, arent we? Probably. Isaac said But if we ever have to use it against a person, well have bigger issues. Besides, if we dont tell anyone about these, we can just y dumb. Do you really think thatll fly? Patrick asked. Of course not. But using a weapon that might get ssified as a war crime is going to be a lot less trouble than using one we know is a war crime. Isaac exined. I still hope we never have to use them against a human. Patrick said. You and me both. Isaac said Anything that needs these weapons tobat if we need them, were in serious trouble. Ok, thats interesting and all, but were kinda working here. Amy grumbled as she looked over another dagger. Sorry. Isaac apologized, sat in the corner, and began to battle the bane of his existence. Paperwork. *** Eighteen hourster, the three of them stood at the table, looking over sixteen weapons that looked like theyd kill you so much as looked at them too closely. Behind them, the room looked like a warzone. Scorch marks from sparks that had started flying around for no apparent reason, empty reagent containers, candy bar wrappers, takeout boxes that had been stacked properly until Patrick had bumped into them, and more. Each of these weapons had the exact same line about how Stagmer had made it, Patrick had copied the curses Isaac had brought them and Amy had then taken the neat and tidy spell script and turned it into a work of art of world-shaking power. Meanwhile Cursed Dagger of Bloodletting An immeasurably deadly weapon, forged by a master cksmith, enchanted by the work of the Sage of Arcana, which was further refined by the Spellweaver born from the mana itself. Any wound caused by this dagger will not stop bleeding until it is fully healed, and the victim will bleed not just their lifeblood, but their physical and mental endurance, even their willpower. Cursed Dagger of Cumtive Insanity What is insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different oue? Seeing things that arent there? Something else entirely? probably thatst answer. Regardless of what the real definition is, this is a dagger that influences the victims sensory perception, altering the speed at which certain sensory inputs register with the conscious mind at random, as well as randomly forcing the victim to zero in on a random, non-important piece of information. Cursed Dagger of Feebleness Weakness by a thousand cuts, every wound inflicting mounting limitations, until they are nothing but a lump of quivering flesh on the floor. Injuring muscles will cripple them, damaging nerves will almostpletely remove the victims ability to use them, and more. Cursed Dagger of Myriad Agonies Have you ever cut yourself? You have, havent you? Felt the kiss of a de in your flesh, your nerves screaming out, or perhaps it was mere paper that inflicted pain, rending your mind with agony? What about bruises, then? Have you ever stubbed a toe, bumped a knee, walked into a ss door you thought was open? Across a persons life, they will inevitably gather countless injuries and painful memories. These now power the Cursed Dagger of Myriad Agonies. Every injury inflicted with this weapon will call up memories of any and all simr injuries suffered by the victim, as well as reducing the effect of the human bodys standard methods of coping with pain. Cursed Dagger of Sundered Health An injury to the victims health, in more than one way. That is what this dagger promises. It doesnt merely damage the victim in the present, but cripples them for the future, weakening their ability to recover from venom, poison, disease and other curse. Cursed Dagger of Arcane Suppression This is a weapon that does not only cut flesh, but the spirit, leaving the victim leaking mana, each wound leaking additional mana whenever mana is used. Cursed Dagger of Lost Gravity Every time this cursed weapon cuts the victim, it will alter the effect of gravity upon them by a random amount between five and fifty percent, both increasing and decreasing it, for up to ten seconds. The user will be informed of the change, the victim will not be. Cursed Dagger of Injuries Eternal Any injuries inflicted by this weapon will never heal except by exceedingly powerful healing magic, burdening anyone hurt by this weapon with nigh-eternal suffering. The daggers were powerful, inflicting progressively stronger debuffs with each cut, but they were still more fragile than Old Reliable and not something he could afford to use often inbat, especially as he wanted to keep these a secret, the ace up his sleeve. His ultima ratio. Cursed Livingblood Stiletto of Bloodletting An immeasurably deadly weapon, forged by a master cksmith, enchanted by the work of the Sage of Arcana, which was further refined by the Spellweaver born from the mana itself. When stabbed into an enemy, the user may twist the hilt of the weapon, leaving behind the de, which will then transform into liquid and flow through the victims bloodstream alongside their lifeblood, eternally inflicting and renewing the Curse of Bloodletting. While the Curse is active, blood will never clot and the victim will bleed not just their lifeblood, but their physical and mental endurance, even their willpower, until all wounds are cleansed. The rest of the stilettos were basically the exact same thing. Instead of the effect being added to the wound, they were added to all wounds inflicted. Well, gravity made the victim suffer from constantly alternating gravity until they got rid of both the curse and the liquid flowing through their veins. Isaac was sorely tempted to do an evilugh, just this once. They were. Just. So. Perfect. Amy, on the other hand, had no suchpunctions, cackling like a madwoman. Isaac still resisted the urge, but a huge grin still graced his face. Bloodletting was powerful,bined with Feebleness, Sundered Health, and Arcane Suppression were devastating debuffs, useful in all situations. But they were also a little boring, simple. Myriad Agonies, on the other hand oof. Isaac had had a dagger like that, identally cut himself with it, and regretted it for days afterwards. That was a weapon to be very, very careful with. Lost Gravity didnt sound powerful, but anyone whod ever been under its effects would know that continuing the fight after the first cut was all but impossible. Injuries Eternal didnt do much in the moment, but if he was unable to finish off an enemy, it woulde in clutch. And Cumtive Insanity, well, it was enough to drive a man insane. Combined with the Curse of Lost Gravity, it would render an enemy practically helpless, no longer the master of their senses or movement. The three of them grinning at the thing theyd created could havested for hours if it hadnt been for Bailey. After all, theb was a shared space, and the professor had booked it for, well, now. And the room wasnt exactly in a great state. Maybe, just maybe, theyd gotten liiiiiiittle overexcited. He wasnt mad about the mess, though, just disappointed. That was worse. Non-canon sidestory: Research Team Bailey publishing guidelines Non-canon sidestory: Research Team Bailey publishing guidelines The following are the (un)official guidelines for our research groups conduct when publishing: 1. The most important rule is proper citation. Mistakes and misinterpretations can be fixed, identally ripping someone off or making impactful statements without supporting evidence will have long term consequences. That includes any bombshells Dr. Thoma casually drops in the middle of a conversation. Make him provide a source, and if he hasnt written it down somewhere citable, either make him publish something to quote or provide an experiment that can prove his statement. Just because he said something does not mean you dont have to prove it. 2. There are no specific rules as to the formatting of publications. Choose a font and spacing that looks professional, suits the nature of the publication and does not have symbols that can be misread given the subject matter. Professor Chandler already got aint from someone who misread the chemical form for chlorine as being the empirical chemical form for hexaiodobenzene and burnt their eyebrows off because in Arial, a small L looks to arge I. Edit 1: Yes, that means that Comic sans is off the table. 3. Be reasonable when choosing whom to name as co-authors. You can name near-sapient familiars and enhanced pets as co-authors, but if you do so, make sure to make it possible for the reader to tell that theyre not avable for, say speaking at a conference. Edit 1: this came up because of F. D. C. Wird. In 1975, a physicist named Jack H. Hetherington wrote a solo paper that included the phrase we a few times and was told that wasnt eptable for a paper written by a single person. Because changing that would have been a lot of work in those times, he decided to put down his cat Chester as a co-author. To avoid anyone who knew his cat from noticing, he used the scientific name (Felis domesticus) as part of a fictitious name and used the cats fathers name (Wird) as a false surname. The whole thing got exposed when F. D. C. Wird was invited to speak at a conference. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._D._C._Wird#cite_note-Zankl-1) Edit 2: If you put down a familiar, tell me. Someone just invited Brisa M. Mina to speak at a conference about the paper on Familiar Evolutions through Raid Boss Aspects, which she co-authored. Apparently, they didnt read far enough to realize that the M. stands for Microraptor and that she signed with a wprint. I dont know the names of everyones pets, so I wont always be able to immediately reply to such a message with thats someones familiar. 4. When giving scientific names to newly discovered species, please take that seriously, scientific names are almost impossible to change, even if theyre racist or otherwise unprintable. If theres an appropriate joke to make, I wont stop you, but please keep the joke names to one in ten. Edit 1: Heres an example of a good joke name: The Mini genus of frogs, whose scientific names are Mini mum, Mini scule and Mini ature. (Schertz et al., 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_(frog)). Edit 2: Yes, that mans name is indeed the German word for prank. Chapter 232: Everything is fine … Mostly Chapter 232: Everything is fine Mostly Among the many, many, things the [System] had brought with it, food was one of thest things people would think of. And really, it didnt get that crazy for the most part. Sure, Kraken cmari was fancy, but it wasnt that much better than regr squid. However, there was a handful of extremely special dishes that could grant permanent boons. The Lindwyrm, the dragon-serpent of venom and death, could be cooked to grant the eater a single [Skill]. The Salmon of Wisdom, meanwhile, could boost ones mana regeneration. Isaac had, of course, already eaten them, he wasnt someone to give up on such an advantage. But now, hed gotten his hands on enough surplus ingredients to cook a meal for his family as well. Thank god his sisters werent a few years older, or theyd not have gotten to eat for hours, not until all the various Instagram pictures had been taken. It was a little silly to beining about todays youth as someone barely out of their teenage years, but, well, time travel. So no picture madness, just a couple of overly excited pre-teens whod just been fed dragon steaks and salmon sushi that seemed to glow with an inner light. Just feeding people magical food before they unlocked their [ss] wasnt going to result in an outstanding starter [ss] right from the outset, but inbination with proper training and support in general, it should give them the best possible start in life. As for making sure that magical food was even safe for children, and anyone else who hadnt yet gained their [System], that wasnt something Isaac had checked himself. In the other timeline, some researchers kids had eaten the food after explicitly being told not to and been totally fine, even in the long term. Of course, people had immediately cried human experiment, using the researcher of orchestrating the situation, but shed willingly submitted herself to truth-telling spells. And, well, shed ended up proving the old adage about how the fastest way to get something done was to tell your kids not to do it. Long story short, the various enhancements would lie dormant until the [System] went active, and while the benefits werent as great as one might think, there was no reason not to strengthen them as much as possible. So, dinner took a while, between the overly-excited kids and his parents examining the boons granted by the food, but it was fun. And, of course, tasty. Christmas shopping was done, there was no immediate issue to deal with, just the usual array of systemic problems. ying Whack-a-Mole with those could be done alongside the usual family activities. Tomorrows Christmas! Tanja yelled as she ran through the hallway the second she was allowed to get up from the table, all but bouncing off the walls. Yeah, and Santa can still take away gifts if you destroy the house. Viktoria said, causing her sister to stick her tongue out Santas not real, we both know that. Or are you still a baby? And that was the end of peace in the house for a good long while. Somehow, their mother was able to perfectly raise other peoples kids in her profession as a kindergarten teacher, but her twins calling them the living reincarnations of chaos was an apt way to describe them. No amount of ster parenting would make them into perfect little angels. *** Christmas was a thing. A very important thing, one that was meant to bring joy to all, and so on, and so forth, one slowly transformed into an asion to force the whole family together, into a small area, where fights would inevitably break out while rampant consumerism sucked ones wallet dry. Isaac wasnt trying to be a Grinch, he really wasnt, but the situation wasnt making it easy. The Winter Event had gone well and all, hed gotten the Christmas shopping done, and now, he was back in his childhood home, but he wasnt feeling happy. Sure, his family was great, but he could hear everything within several city blocks and the situation was overall heavily stressed. Isaac himself, well, he wasnt exactly a paragon of rxation either. Hed built the same snow castle he hadst year, but unlike then, he didnt stick around to supervise. He was busy, and there was no way around work without also risking something going horribly wrong. And the chances of an incident taking ce werent as small as one might think. Christmas was when everyone was all in one ce together, and tensions could easily boil over. Throw in the fact that, well, Christmas was bloody expensive, especially in a time of economic upheaval in Isaacs mind, it wasnt a question of if something would go wrong, but when. After all, when proving yourself was as simple as drawing a few squiggles in the snow, tossing in random household objects, and using a little mana, that seemed like an attractive option after getting yelled at for not bringing in enough cash. Most people were smart enough not to behave likeplete morons, but most people werent the issue, the minority of idiots was. The [Systems] three-year mark was rapidly approaching, the time when shit had truly hit the fan in the other timeline, economy-wise. Isaac had been working on that in the background from the very start, but if fixing the economy were easy, ny percent of politicians, as well as mostwyers, and ountants, would have been out of a job. The most important thing was to ensure that everyone had something to eat, clothing to wear, and a roof over their head. ns for living off the [System] did exist, an endless number of them, theyd existed for almost as long as the [System] itself. Isaac himself had written a couple, intended for people who lived in ces without the infrastructure to reliably provide clean water and sufficient food. What monsters were edible, which ones to eat how often for bnced nutrition, etc. In addition, it also contained quite a few dire threats that your average citizen would not be aware existed. How many people knew that drinking pure water could kill you because it drained your body of several trace elements via osmosis? Adults with a Fortitude above one hundred could easily survive drinking water elementals, their very cells mping down and preventing the essential minerals from being sucked out, but children and less durable grown-ups couldnt. That was why you needed to add certain trace elements and needed to know where to get those trace elements, as well as how much of them should be used. Meanwhile, a way for every adult to have ess to functionally free electricity had been invented by Karl, soon to be unveiled. But living off the [System] was merely surviving, without most of theforts that modern humans were used to. In an ideal world, this was where something like universal basic ie would have been used, in a situation where no one could argue that those unemployed were simplyzy because the jobs, quite literally, did not exist, but that was unlikely to happen in Germany. And even if it did, there were plenty of nations on Earth where it would never fly. Bloody politics. A snowball thudded against his window, jerking him out of his musings. Tanja had thrown that. Viktoria was starting to mellow out, a bit at least, but so far, it seemed that one of his sisters was determined to remain a little hell-raiser. And as the responsible elder brother, he couldnt let such a thing happen, now could he? Isaac flung himself through the wall of the house andnded on the street outside, making sure to hit an ice patch to send himself careening into the mass of snow in a seemingly uncontrolled manner. By the time he came to a stop, he was lying on his back, icy water already soaking into his clothes as he stared up at Tanja. She chuckled and promptly dumped an extra helping of snow into his face. Oh, that did it! Isaac surged to his feet as his sister ran, shrieking andughing as he chased after her at a speed so slow it felt like he was moving through msses. Snowball after snowball flew through the air, urate but slow enough to give her time to dodge, which she did most of the time. Of course, being the only adult in the winter wondend actively chasing a little kid made him a target, and he got pelted with snow from every direction. By the time Isaac went back inside ten minutester, he was soaking wet, but happy. He headed into the bathroom to use his fire to dry off and finally ended up back in his room. The work never stopped, especially now. Isaac had made every preparation he could when he could, but that wouldnt be enough. There were some general ns he could make, which could be made to work irrespective of the situation, but much of what he did would have to be tailored to the circumstances at hand. It wasnt like there was some kind of perfect solution he could import from the other timeline, because this was a part of what had broken that world. Of course, trying to fix everything himself was possible. The trying part, that was, to run himself ragged taking down the biggest threats while everyone else grew stronger until eventually hed fall short and hed have to just hope it had been enough. Another snowball smacked into the window and Isaac sighed, heaving himself out of his chair while he closed hisptop. This should be a time for happiness, for him to enjoy being with the family hed once lost except at the same time, he was listening to everyone else in the city, and so many of them were arguing, fighting. This was all sounding like the end of the world as he knew it was nigh. Again. He knew that wasnt the case, the issues were merely being exaggerated by everyone being cramped together in one ce, but it still sounded awful. And yes, reducing the power of his hearing down to near-original levels would have been an option, but that would just have driven even more up the wall. Hearing awful stuff was bad, being functionally deaf was a million times worse. He chased Tanja around the snow piles once again, until it was time for the gift-giving. Just like always, the adults got the kinds of basic things that people wanted to get but werent quite willing to pay the money to do so. The kids, meanwhile, got a whole bunch of toys. Isaac also handed out a few more protective amulets, on top of the ones that hed already given his family. Considering how little sleep everyone needed, the party went on untilte in the night, and it was a lot of fun. In the end, the fairy tale ended, and Isaac had to go back to work. The situation might be looking grim, but it wasnt without ways to improve, and a hell of a lot better than it should have been. Book 4 Ebook launches tomorrow! Book 4 Ebookunches tomorrow! Hey guys, sorry for the long wait. DragonCon was awesome, but I didn''t get much writing done, and then I unfortunately caught Covid. Nothing serious, I''m vinated and all, but I''m still not feeling 100%, hopefully the next chapter will be out in a couple of days. On a different note, Book 4es out on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited tomorrow /amazon/B0C43X8VNN), the Audiobook is also in the works and should be out shortly. I''ll be taking down chapters up to Chapter 175 toply with Kindle Unlimited''s policy when i wake up tomorrow morning. I hope everyone''s feeling well, and once again, sorry for the long wait. I''m currently finishing up matters at the university and should be able to get back to my regr schedule shortly. Chapter 233: Everything is fine … Mostly Chapter 233: Everything is fine Mostly Among the many, many, things the [System] had brought with it, food was one of thest things people would think of. And really, it didnt get that crazy for the most part. Sure, Kraken cmari was fancy, but it wasnt that much better than regr squid. However, there was a handful of extremely special dishes that could grant permanent boons. The Lindwyrm, the dragon-serpent of venom and death, could be cooked to grant the eater a single [Skill]. The Salmon of Wisdom, meanwhile, could boost ones mana regeneration. Isaac had, of course, already eaten them, he wasnt someone to give up on such an advantage. But now, hed gotten his hands on enough surplus ingredients to cook a meal for his family as well. Thank god his sisters werent a few years older, or theyd not have gotten to eat for hours, not until all the various Instagram pictures had been taken. It was a little silly to beining about todays youth as someone barely out of their teenage years, but, well, time travel. So no picture madness, just a couple of overly excited pre-teens whod just been fed dragon steaks and salmon sushi that seemed to glow with an inner light. Just feeding people magical food before they unlocked their [ss] wasnt going to result in an outstanding starter [ss] right from the outset, but inbination with proper training and support in general, it should give them the best possible start in life. As for making sure that magical food was even safe for children, and anyone else who hadnt yet gained their [System], that wasnt something Isaac had checked himself. In the other timeline, some researchers kids had eaten the food after explicitly being told not to and been totally fine, even in the long term. Of course, people had immediately cried human experiment, using the researcher of orchestrating the situation, but shed willingly submitted herself to truth-telling spells. And, well, shed ended up proving the old adage about how the fastest way to get something done was to tell your kids not to do it. Long story short, the various enhancements would lie dormant until the [System] went active, and while the benefits werent as great as one might think, there was no reason not to strengthen them as much as possible. So, dinner took a while, between the overly-excited kids and his parents examining the boons granted by the food, but it was fun. And, of course, tasty. Christmas shopping was done, there was no immediate issue to deal with, just the usual array of systemic problems. ying Whack-a-Mole with those could be done alongside the usual family activities. Tomorrows Christmas! Tanja yelled as she ran through the hallway the second she was allowed to get up from the table, all but bouncing off the walls. Yeah, and Santa can still take away gifts if you destroy the house. Viktoria said, causing her sister to stick her tongue out Santas not real, we both know that. Or are you still a baby? And that was the end of peace in the house for a good long while. Somehow, their mother was able to perfectly raise other peoples kids in her profession as a kindergarten teacher, but her twins calling them the living reincarnations of chaos was an apt way to describe them. No amount of ster parenting would make them into perfect little angels. *** Christmas was a thing. A very important thing, one that was meant to bring joy to all, and so on, and so forth, one slowly transformed into an asion to force the whole family together, into a small area, where fights would inevitably break out while rampant consumerism sucked ones wallet dry. Isaac wasnt trying to be a Grinch, he really wasnt, but the situation wasnt making it easy. The Winter Event had gone well and all, hed gotten the Christmas shopping done, and now, he was back in his childhood home, but he wasnt feeling happy. Sure, his family was great, but he could hear everything within several city blocks and the situation was overall heavily stressed. Isaac himself, well, he wasnt exactly a paragon of rxation either. Hed built the same snow castle he hadst year, but unlike then, he didnt stick around to supervise. He was busy, and there was no way around work without also risking something going horribly wrong. And the chances of an incident taking ce werent as small as one might think. Christmas was when everyone was all in one ce together, and tensions could easily boil over. Throw in the fact that, well, Christmas was bloody expensive, especially in a time of economic upheaval in Isaacs mind, it wasnt a question of if something would go wrong, but when. After all, when proving yourself was as simple as drawing a few squiggles in the snow, tossing in random household objects, and using a little mana, that seemed like an attractive option after getting yelled at for not bringing in enough cash. Most people were smart enough not to behave likeplete morons, but most people werent the issue, the minority of idiots was. The [Systems] three-year mark was rapidly approaching, the time when shit had truly hit the fan in the other timeline, economy-wise. Isaac had been working on that in the background from the very start, but if fixing the economy were easy, ny percent of politicians, as well as mostwyers, and ountants, would have been out of a job. The most important thing was to ensure that everyone had something to eat, clothing to wear, and a roof over their head. ns for living off the [System] did exist, an endless number of them, theyd existed for almost as long as the [System] itself. Isaac himself had written a couple, intended for people who lived in ces without the infrastructure to reliably provide clean water and sufficient food. What monsters were edible, which ones to eat how often for bnced nutrition, etc. In addition, it also contained quite a few dire threats that your average citizen would not be aware existed. How many people knew that drinking pure water could kill you because it drained your body of several trace elements via osmosis? Adults with a Fortitude above one hundred could easily survive drinking water elementals, their very cells mping down and preventing the essential minerals from being sucked out, but children and less durable grown-ups couldnt. That was why you needed to add certain trace elements and needed to know where to get those trace elements, as well as how much of them should be used. Meanwhile, a way for every adult to have ess to functionally free electricity had been invented by Karl, soon to be unveiled. But living off the [System] was merely surviving, without most of theforts that modern humans were used to. In an ideal world, this was where something like universal basic ie would have been used, in a situation where no one could argue that those unemployed were simplyzy because the jobs, quite literally, did not exist, but that was unlikely to happen in Germany. And even if it did, there were plenty of nations on Earth where it would never fly. Bloody politics. A snowball thudded against his window, jerking him out of his musings. Tanja had thrown that. Viktoria was starting to mellow out, a bit at least, but so far, it seemed that one of his sisters was determined to remain a little hell-raiser. And as the responsible elder brother, he couldnt let such a thing happen, now could he? Isaac flung himself through the wall of the house andnded on the street outside, making sure to hit an ice patch to send himself careening into the mass of snow in a seemingly uncontrolled manner. By the time he came to a stop, he was lying on his back, icy water already soaking into his clothes as he stared up at Tanja. She chuckled and promptly dumped an extra helping of snow into his face. Oh, that did it! Isaac surged to his feet as his sister ran, shrieking andughing as he chased after her at a speed so slow it felt like he was moving through msses. Snowball after snowball flew through the air, urate but slow enough to give her time to dodge, which she did most of the time. Of course, being the only adult in the winter wondend actively chasing a little kid made him a target, and he got pelted with snow from every direction. By the time Isaac went back inside ten minutester, he was soaking wet, but happy. He headed into the bathroom to use his fire to dry off and finally ended up back in his room. The work never stopped, especially now. Isaac had made every preparation he could when he could, but that wouldnt be enough. There were some general ns he could make, which could be made to work irrespective of the situation, but much of what he did would have to be tailored to the circumstances at hand. It wasnt like there was some kind of perfect solution he could import from the other timeline, because this was a part of what had broken that world. Of course, trying to fix everything himself was possible. The trying part, that was, to run himself ragged taking down the biggest threats while everyone else grew stronger until eventually hed fall short and hed have to just hope it had been enough. Another snowball smacked into the window and Isaac sighed, heaving himself out of his chair while he closed hisptop. This should be a time for happiness, for him to enjoy being with the family hed once lost except at the same time, he was listening to everyone else in the city, and so many of them were arguing, fighting. This was all sounding like the end of the world as he knew it was nigh. Again. He knew that wasnt the case, the issues were merely being exaggerated by everyone being cramped together in one ce, but it still sounded awful. And yes, reducing the power of his hearing down to near-original levels would have been an option, but that would just have driven even more up the wall. Hearing awful stuff was bad, being functionally deaf was a million times worse. He chased Tanja around the snow piles once again, until it was time for the gift-giving. Just like always, the adults got the kinds of basic things that people wanted to get but werent quite willing to pay the money to do so. The kids, meanwhile, got a whole bunch of toys. Isaac also handed out a few more protective amulets, on top of the ones that hed already given his family. Considering how little sleep everyone needed, the party went on untilte in the night, and it was a lot of fun. In the end, the fairy tale ended, and Isaac had to go back to work. The situation might be looking grim, but it wasnt without ways to improve, and a hell of a lot better than it should have been. Chapter 234: Spark of Genious Chapter 234: Spark of Genious July 14th, 1945, the first nuclear test December 3rd, 1967, the first sessful heart transnt April 30th, 1993, the public avability of the inte And now, on February 2nd, the world got ess to a functionally limitless source of electricity, avable for the entirety of humanity to draw upon Yesterday had been Isaacs birthday, a sadly depressing event. When hed visited his family, it had only served to highlight the difference between him, and who hed been thest time around, how much hed changed. And when the team had thrown a party for him, it had only served to empathize who wasnt there, who didnt know the real him. But today, today was going to be incredible. This was going to be Karls big day, sure, but Isaac was still excited, to the point where Amy had asked him if hed stuck his head into the reactor. Apparently, hed been acting more than a little hyper. Isaac was wearing his full set of formal clothing. A three-piece suit, his armored bracers subtly concealed under his sleeves, Old Reliable in Kabar form attached to his belt at his back. A notepad took its ce in his breast pocket, and the inside of his suit contained a few other bits of basic equipment, like a packet of healing pills. Nothing obvious, nothing in your face, just present for anyone who looked closely enough. Meanwhile, his boots were the newest iteration of the copycat cloud stepping boots, kept in a formal style, ck leather shoes not out of ce at any ck-tie event. From head to toe, he was every bit the warrior schr hed be. Equally at home in a ce of learning and on the battlefield. Isaac continued to pace, walking the full length of the basement in under a second, turning, and striding back at speeds that would fling loose papers around like leaves in a hurricane. But no one used paper anymore outside of a handful of documents and leaving them in a hallway with so many high-Level people storming through it, no, this ce was the perfect one to pace. One hour to go. He poked his head into the room where the generators were being prepared. One was the prototype, all rough edges and it had a dozen different ces that had been altered a thousand times before it reached its final form. The other had supposedly been built in one go using all the knowledge gained from the original creation. That was the one that would be presented to the world shortly, the other would be made avable for inspection, and then go straight into the universitys museum. Or, as Amy called it, the hall of bragging. This was one of their museums, anyway. The university had a few. The astronomy department had an entirearium,plete with two stories of exhibits. The chemistry department had an entire hallway of metals, minerals, and individual elements. But out here, in the boonies, all theyd had were the gardens belonging to the botanists and horticulture departments. Until now. With so much new construction, turning one of the buildings into a ce to teach people about the [System] and disy their aplishments. The first trophy within was a mass of te shards belonging to the very first te Golem the team had ever killed,plete with the dissected core. Several more monster materials were present, each impressive-looking but not particrly expensive, they didnt want to make the ce too tempting for thieves. The historical value was high enough, no need to add material value on top of everything else. Then there was the shattered Zweih?nder Isaac had used to kill the first Tier 5 monster in a controlled environment, repaired in a way that showed exactly where it had broken when the giant, mobile mass of titanium had gone and fallen onto the de. Some heavily censored video footage of the battle against the Demon Lord of Seoul at the booth that talked about [Raid Bosses]. In addition, small trophies from their other exploits lined the walls. For example, the harness that would turn a normal horse into a Pegasus, a trophy from the very first Event. A picture of the literal mountain of promotional gifts theyd gotten the first few times theyd appeared on the world stage, with Isaac standing next to it for scale, leaning on his Zweih?nder. And then there was a pot of literally fossilized stew, donated by Chef Caroline Ulrich. Theyd been giving her all the monster bits that looked like they might work as food since shed moved her restaurant into a food truck nearby, but sometimes, they were wrong about how fit for consumption something was. Well, no one had eaten anything and therefore no one had gotten hurt, and now, it was a funny story for them all tough about. So how are you guys? Isaac asked as he looked into the room where Patrick and Karl were preparing. Well, overpreparing. Polishing every piece, even when it already shone like new, and so on. Nervous, Karl said. He was wearing a three-piece, just like Isaac, but there was no armor in it, just technological gadgets. And his tie had a fancy circuit board pattern on it. Patrick, on the other hand, had a deep blue hybrid between a suit and a mages robe, still appropriate for a formal event. Just finishing the final, final, final checks, Patrick added Everythings set up. Working generator, empty shell for the assembly demonstration, spares for both, generators in various stages of construction to give people a good look at the guts. Ill leave you to it, then, Isaac said and left, going right back to pacing. Up and down the corridor, thinking, preparing for disaster scenarios,ing up with counters for gotcha questions, and so on. For the dozenth time. Waiting until now to prepare that would have just been in moronic. But the wait passed eventually and then, they stood in front of the crowd of reporters, scientists, politicians, industry leaders, and more. Bailey and Raul had on simple but supremely well-made suits while Amy was wearing a dress that evoked the image of a mages robe seemingly without being one. Karl stepped up to the mike and began to speak at the precise moment the press conference had been scheduled for, on the dot. Good afternoon,dies and gentlemen. Today, we will change the process of electricity generation forever. A functionally unlimited source of energy that can be harnessed by almost anyone, requiring next to no knowledge to use or even set up. All that is required is the ability to use mana. Using the party theyd set up ahead of time, Karl could easily ask for props to be delivered at just the right time, without requiring any kind of visible signal, so Amy teleported up the first generator the second he took a few steps towards the open part of the stage, manifesting the machine amidst a sh of light. This is a mana-to-electricity converter that is made up of standard, hardware store wiring, simple rubber instion, and metal tes that, once again, you can get from any hardware store. He ced his hand on the te that held a painted-on handprint, the only one connected to the elemental core. All the others were insted using rubber, but this one required quite a bit of work to create, several runes had to be added that both prevented you from getting zapped when touching it and allowed mana to flow inside. And a mere momentter, the lightbulbs on top of the generator lit up. These generators can generate up to 57 kilowatt-hours per day, at the cost of around a hundred mana per hour, and its possible to add additional mana topensate for a period where the mana flow is cut off, up to five and a half hours worth. Ifbined with a battery pack, it can easily provide a constant flow of electricity for any standard home, and multiple could be used in concert to powerrger buildings or devices. The one small issue with these things was that they were hard to scale up, using an elemental higher than Tier 3 should allow for the creation of more powerful generators in theory, but in practice, it didnt work. And trying would just result in electrical burns and an involuntary game of the floor is molten g. But these things were meant for small-scale use, there were alternatives for the bigger stuff. Generators that used the blood of a Demon Lord were recing the nuclear reactors on aircraft carriers and the like. In other words, you can get unlimited energy for ones household for less than two hundred euros, though you might need a few adaptations to keep the fridge running overnight, and something that works during the day if you dont work from home. But devices capable of storing electricity have existed for decades and a list of the most useful and cost-effective models has been gathered and is avable on the universitys website. Karl continued on for a few more minutes, going a little more in-depth on how everything worked, and then, he finally asked Isaac to do the demonstration. Isaac simply nodded and stepped to the side, where a nk area of concrete was avable. Two kabars appeared above his hands, then promptly flew through the air and began to carve an intricate pattern into the ground, the Tier 3 circle taking shape in less than a second. As the dust settled, the summoning materials for a Lightning Elemental were revealed, hed surreptitiously dropped them in during the creation process. A little showmanship never hurt anybody. The kabars demanifested, then reappeared over his hands, clean. A small cut on the tip of each index finger and the des tips were flying across his arms, drawing crimson runic patterns. Andstly, the Summoning Circle shed, spitting out a Lighting Elemental, though the monster promptly vanished, sucked into an orb hovering between Isaacs palms, when he thrust his palms into the electric maelstrom. Lightning Elemental has died to Environmental Hazard [Blood Magic Field] and has been transformed into Lighting Elemental Core All in all, the process had taken barely five seconds. While Isaac took care of procuring the elemental spark, Patrick demonstrated how to create the reactor from scratch without an [Engineers] [Skills]. Just [Telekinesis] to move around the metal tes and a magnification spell to allow everyone a better view. The crackling orb of energy was carried into an awaiting receptacle that Amy had teleported onto the stage and ced within. A brief burst of [Hydras Regeneration] fixed up the small cuts on his fingers and that was that. As you can see, the process of creating this generator is notplicated. Granted, this is their hundredth time doing this, so they might be slightly faster than most people, but the principles remain the same. Karl announced, Now, does anyone have any questions? Of course, the questions immediately began raining in, but Isaac only half-listened, paying more attention to his new prompt. Congrattions, Incarnations of the Promethean Spirit, for embodying the very essence of your ss! You have taken a weapon of a divine war, unleashed to help humanity destroy itself, and turned it into a driving force for progress. For creating such a spectacr of irony, you have been awarded 500,000 XP. Excellent. Isaac grinned. Apparently, his past gains hadnt been a big enough deal, but now, his actions had been acknowledged. Most of the questions Karl got were either technical or of the softball variety, but then, one of those highly annoying gotcha questions got tossed their way. It was also the single most predictable question there was, so theyd been able to prepare for it well ahead of time. What would you like to say to the employees of powerpanies who will lose their jobs as a result of your invention bing avable to everyone? As the vast majority of them have already been fired due to [Lead Engineers] being able to do the monitoring and maintenance via [Skills], I suspect most of them will be very happy to not have to deal with an electric bill anymore. Karl responded evenly Incidentally, said bills have not been reduced to reflect thepanies reduced costs and are no longer appropriate, given the current economic situation. This machine will take a lot of pressure off the people who, up until now, had to pay the inted bills. Ah, I see. And that was all she wrote. Seriously, that had been so bloody predictable. Isaac kept a straight face because the massive grin threatening to creep onto his face wouldnt exactly have been great optics, but he wasughing his ass off on the inside. A few more questions were asked, but there was only one more that Isaac really paid attention to. Professor Bailey, your team has produced several incredible innovations. What would you say is the secret to your sess? The very epitome of a softball question, but Isaac was interested in hearing the answer. Its simple. Priorities, Bailey said Companies look for profit, expanding the use of their current products, as well as creating new ones, but only when there is money on the table. The military is always looking for more destructive power and utility. Were chasing knowledge for knowledges sake, and quite often, we find something that no one could possibly find by actively looking for it because there was no prior indication that it existed. We do foundational research and I work with some very smart people whoe up with some very creative uses for our findings. Really, what had he expected to hear? We have a time traveler working for us might have given that reporter the scoop of the century, but it would have really set the cat amongst the pigeons. Much better for everyone if that was kept on the down low. The press conference part ended soon and the mingling portion of the event began, which went as those kinds of things usually did. That, too, ended eventually, and they fled back down into the bowels of their building once they could safely do so. *** telling you, things will stop after two, maybe three attempts, Amy said with vehemence. This is Isaac were talking about, hes terrifying when he wants to be. One and done, thats my bet. Raul responded. Guys, Im really notfortable with this bet, Karl said. Ok, what was going on here? Isaac wondered. Hed been out of earshot for barely a few minutes, what on Earth had they gotten up to in the meantime? Oh, were making a bet about how many people are going to try to kill Karl and fail before they all realize its futile, Amy said. Karl grumbled something uplimentary under his breath. Amy did have a point though, theyd just punched a whole bunch of very influential people right in the wallet. Oil and powerpanies, non-electric car manufacturers, and more besides. Someone was bound to do something stupid. I can answer that: Zero, Isaac said, I already took care of everything. The people who already have skeletons in their closets are under arrest, and those who dont, but are likely to do something drastic, are being watched. So, what do I win? Chapter 235: Interlude Whack-a-Mole Chapter 235: Interlude Whack-a-Mole There were many mysteries in this world, questions beyond counting. Why did the gods fight this proxy war? Why were human beings so inherently self-destructive? Where the actual fuck had Isaac Thoma found that terrifyingly capable investigator of his? And, of course, what trouble could a mischievously inclined [Rogue] get up to using said information? Especially when his orders were to go crazy and ham it up? This wasnt meant to look like someone working specifically to save Karl Siegel, someone who had personal skin in the game, but rather someone who decided to take care of things out of an overly-developed sense of justice, in theic book sense of the word. Jason North was fully aware of how he coulde off to others, but honestly, ying it up was fun. The warehouse looked like any of the dozen others that surrounded it, a tall ceiling, corrugated iron walls and ceiling, three stories of offices making up one of the sides, loading docks on the opposite side of those. A ce that no one really cared about, no one watched over, where no looky-loos or busybodies to call the authorities. In other words, the perfect ce to prepare for a high-profile assassination in, especially when said assassination involved innumerablerge pieces of equipment. The mercenaries within were technically official military contractors with all the required licenses and paperwork to operate legally, but they were suspected of taking on quite a few decidedly illegal tasks due to how well they paid. In addition, they apparently had an unhealthy level of self-esteem, if they were willing to take a contract on an S-Ranker. During thest few days, Jason had run all over the globe, picking fights with hitmen, mercenaries, A-Rankers of dubious morals, and a single S-Ranker, each time, hede out on top after delivering some kind of admonishment, making it abundantly clear that he disapproved of the actions taken, bing an urban myth overnight. After all, none of the people hed gone after had been in a position to call the cops, not without revealing their own crimes. But rumors still circted. And now, hed gotten the heads up about this group, already in the same city as Karl, preparing to take action. Heavily enhanced firearms that could breach an [Engineers] personal armor, MANPADs to stop an escape via air, [Tacticians], and a [Mercenary Commander] with [Skills] that could lock down an area, [Snipers] and [Heavy Weapons Specialists] to do the actual killing it was a good spread, one that might even let them seed. Maybe. Jason didnt know everything about Karl, hecked a full breakdown of the mans capabilities, but hed be an S-Ranker with a nonbat [ss]. He had to be powerful. Either way, no one would ever find out how an ambush would have gone because these jackasses were getting ambushed first. [Round Table: Borrow Skill: Unknown Fear] A simple little trick, borrowing Isaacs version of [Privacy]. Combined with his own [Face in the Crowd] that fed the information of random nearby individuals to anyone who tried to inspect him, getting any kind of information on Jason was literally impossible. No one on Earth had two separate, maxed out, anti-[Inspect] abilities, for the next ten minutes, nothing and no one could get any kind of information on him. You know, they say theres no honor among thieves, but really, Id have thought even the lowest of the low would have some standards. He announced as he walked into the warehouse. Behind them, the four pieces of the door hit the floor with a loud ng, neat cuts having separated it into evenly sized chunks. [Flickering Dodge] took him a few meters to the side without requiring him to pass through the intervening space, causing his opponents initial salvo to go wide. Twin daggers appeared in his hands, and glowed briefly as the effect of his maxed out [des] was applied. Until he picked another weapon, they were both tough and sharp enough to be used by even a Level 137 [Rogue of Myth and Legend] without fail. I mean, were talking about someone who changed the world with his inventions, wholl be mentioned alongside Te and Eddison, Newton and Einstein. But someone got butthurt about a loss in profit and now youre ready to gun him down in the streets like a dog? HAVE YOU NO SHAME? The second salvo was far less ragged than the first, with nearly every one of the twenty people in the warehouse either having drawn their guns or begun casting spells. They still missed, though, and his next [Flickering Dodge] took him right up into the face of a charging [Rogue]. Or at least that was what the man looked like based on his build, mana level, and defensive [Skills]. [Piercing Strike] sent both des plunging into his opponents body, then a re-cast tore them through his flesh, gutting him like a fish, and then, he [Snatch]ed several internal organs away. Knife fights were an ugly, ugly business, and most people who regrly engaged in them almost always grabbed regeneration Aspects to rapidly recover from injuries. But missing organs were a bitch to fix. People suck, I know, but you and everyone else whos decided to ept a contract on the man who changed the world for the better, youre special. You actually manage to suck badly enough to piss me off. And now, sow wind, reap the whirlwind and all that. This group had a grand total of four meleebatants to engage their targets while everyone else tore them to pieces. Well, one of their frontliners was currently busy trying to recover his innards behind him and the other three werent going tost long either. [Shuffle] randomly switched both his position and that of up to three enemy targets. Suddenly, the second enemy [Rogue] found himself in the path of hisrades fire while Jasons des plunged into the side of the toughest-looking guy melee fighter, [Down for the Count] ensuring that his opponent wasnt getting up anytime soon. Every injury was affecting his victim nearly as badly as they would have a standard human. Most people at this level would think nothing of running around with cut abdominal muscles, breathing deeply with broken ribs, walking on broken feet, but any normal person with those kinds of injuries would be curled up on the ground, waiting for an ambnce. Pricey in terms of mana, yes, but letting that guy get back up would have extracted a price in blood, so it was worth the cost. One guy was gutted, the second shot to hell, and the third one was currently discovering that his wounds were both far worse than they should have been and were refusing to heal. And thest one wouldntst long either. Several walls of concrete erupted from the ground to hem Jason in, at the same time, two ovepping area [Skills] hit him. The first rooted him indelibly to the ground, stuck until the effect ended, while the second would draw all ranged attacks in the area towards him, including his own. So they were already breaking out the cooldown [Skills]? That meant theyd be going into the next fight underpowered, but apparently, they were acknowledging him as a true threat. The opening salvos were simple magic spells that flew through the few openings left by the walls, as a hail of bullets sped past them. If he stayed here, he was screwed, but leaving wasnt an option while literally fused to the ground. A lesser version of that [Skill] could be beaten by simply taking off ones shoes, but that wasnt what he was dealing with here. [No Prison Can Hold Me] was one of the most variable [Skills] hed ever heard about. Depending on the situation, this third Evolution cooldown ability could manifest a lockpick into his hand, which would disappear once the lock in question was open or or it could do something a little more extreme. As he fell into the ground, phasing, thest thing he saw was his feet still standing where hed left them, and then, the concrete covered his view. But on the way down, he reached into his [Thiefs Pocket] and dumped out every single alchemical weapon he had in there that couldnt be traced back to him. The ground rocked all around him as he pulled himself through the rock and dirt until he reappeared just outside of the warehouse, pausing only long enough to down the strongest healing potion he had. It restored his feet in the amount of time it took to stand up, at the cost of almost all natural healing, including that provided by his regeneration [Skill], for several hours. So hed better make sure the next go around didnt go as badly as thest one. Entering [Stealth], Jason strode through the open door and scampered up into the ceiling rafters, staring down into the mess below. Smoke bombs, alchemic frag grenades, incendiary devices that these guys were still struggling to put out, theyd all made one hell of a mess. Looks like you enjoyed my presents. He called out, pulling out a dozen throwing knives from his storage and unleashed a [de Fan], the weapons spreading out in a perfect arc and cutting into the nearest group of enemies. Amidst the mes and smoke, the enemy formation was in chaos, uncoordinated as hell. The groups [Healer] was easily identifiable, as he was trying to fix the most badly injured member, a perfect target. A thrown dagger tore cleanly through the man, flinging him off the slowly recovering melee fighter. Neither of them was dead, but decidedly out of the fight. That explosion should have also brought down the authorities on this ce, by the time these guys were fully recovered, theyd be in handcuffs. Eat [Steelhail]! someone yelled and suddenly, an artillery shell appeared in his face. Uh-Oh. He leaped backwards, phasing through the ceiling in the split second before it detonated, tearing the metal between them to pieces. Thankfully, the shrapnel lost most of its momentum in the process. Every single person able to get a bead on him as he fell back down opened fire, unleashing enough firepower to kill him a dozen times over. Did they really think he was stupid enough to not have a mid-air mobility [Skill]? [Always on Solid Ground] let him walk on anything and everything that wasnt empty air. Fog, clouds, insects, random leaves flying in the air, and yes, smoke, all of it might as well have been a paved road. A series of ovepping explosions tore apart the ce hed been a split second before. His next target was a [Sniper] whod set himself up in the corner of the room,plete with [Skill] generated cover, an energy field meant to deflect ranged attacks and more he couldnt identify just yet. The sniper rifle barked once, twice, thrice, each sharp report wiping out all other sounds in the warehouse, spewing a trio of glowing projectiles at him. His knives cut two of them out of the air and the third grazed his arm, leaving behind a burning trail of pain. But now, he was in ra- A minefield. A minefield that had not been there a millisecond previously covered not only the round in front of and underneath him but a good third of the warehouse, too densely clustered for even a [Rogue] to move through safely. A simple leap took Jason back into the ceiling, but as it turned out, those mines werent nearly as simple to evade, detonating as he passed over them, shaped charges spitting pirs of fire at him. Slightly turning his body let Jason avoid most of the force of the nearest st, letting him catch the shockwave in a way that tossed him clear of the mess. And then the instant he was no longer in a position to threaten the [Sniper], that jackass opened fire again. Police sirens were already loud enough to let everyone here hear them, which didnt leave him with a whole lot of time. Most of the group was down with various degrees of injury, but that sniper was still looking hale and hearty. Along with three of hispatriots. If he let the cops confront four fully healthy, high Level individuals, hed never hear the end of it. Once again, he left the warehouse and phased back in. The proper counter to that trick was to move away from the wall, forcing his enemies to abandon their perch, leaving them vulnerable. The ymore someone had left behind for him still would have blown up right in his face if hed jumped in right where theyd been. Instead, he phased back in through the ceiling and dropped down in a ce that left his enemies between him and the majority of theirrades. [Retrieve des] caused every single knife hed thrown in the course of the fight to fly right back towards his [Thiefs Pocket], the people standing in the way be damned. And that was the fight. Thest three enemies were pulled along by the knives stuck in them until they managed to turn far enough that the daggers pulled themselves free, mming home into his storage while hisst opponents fell to the ground. The sound of a portal opening echoed from somewhere nearby and heavy boots began to clomp over asphalt. Oh great, someone had called the cavalry. That was either GSG-13 or the military, which meant that he was officially no longer needed here. As Jason vanished into the night, [Leave no Trace] activated, burning away any trace of his presence, from random skin cells to the severed feet hed left behind. Under the effect of the worlds strongest identity disguising effect, with [Hundred Faces] altering his features, his identity would forever remain a mystery. The mercenaries trying to kill Germanys new favorite son werent going to get any mercy from the police or the courts, and they werent in any shape to run away. *** And now to deal with the real problem, evil, annoying corporation number how many had he picked fights with so far? Eh, it wasnt like it mattered. Number one, number fifty, number sixty-nine, who cared? The proper way to deal with them varied frompany topany, depending on just who was responsible for the attempt. In this case, hiring the mercenaries had been a joint decision from most of thepany board. So he marched straight into the lobby of thepanys headquarters, still covered in blood, during one of the boards meetings. I wont be needing these back. He announced, tossing his daggers onto the security guards desk, and walked in through the metal detector. It didnt go off, hed made sure to pick an outfit that didnt contain any metal, not even in the belt bucket, just to fuck with the guards. Hey, stop! After a split second of stunned silence, the guard leaped up and charged after him. Toote, too slow. He was on the staircase a momentter and running up, leaving behind a trail of bloody footprints. Behind him, an rm began to wail. Oh, where was the records room again? [Remember the n] ah, there we go. He left the staircase, noticed that his shoes were looking a little dry, and pulled a blood packet from his storage. An expired one hed saved from the hospital trash. It sttered against the ground, and then the packet itself disintegrated under the might of his evidence-destroying [Skill] and he charged through the growing crimson puddle, tracking bloody footprints all over the ce. Finding the records the police would need to prove a link between this ce and the warehouse mess would have been a pain in the ass under normal circumstances, but he did have a n, drawn up by the living embodiment of invaded privacy that was Isaacs investigator. And, of course, he also marked files that were incriminatory in other ways, belonging to other cases. Blood was smeared across all the right drawers and files, and that was that. The cops had obviously been called about the bloody lunatic whod charged into the building, most likely before hed even left the lobby, and theyd be following the blood trail. They wouldnt find him, but they would find all the clues hed marked and there werews about how evidence discovered by sheer happenstance while, for example, chasing a criminal across private property, was admissible in court. Walking into the boardroom, on the other hand, well, that was just to fuck with people. Good afternoon, assholes and bastards. He dered loudly as he kicked open the door I wont take up too much of your time, Im sure youll have your hands full all too soon, but until then, I do have a little time. Get. Out! the guy at the head of the table yelled, finger jabbed at the door, showcasing far more bravery than Jason would have given him credit for. On second thought, it was probably stupidity. Eh, I dont think so. Jason shrugged and approached the mans chair, prompting the idiot to leap out of it in fright. He took the proffered seat and plopped his dripping-wet shoes onto the table. See, theres being an asshole, and then theres being an asshole. I know yourpanys hurting, but youre not going to fix anything by killing the guy who invented the new generator. The whole thing is already open source, killing him is just next-level petty. Super pathetic, really. I mean, Ive slept on [Raid Bosses], that damn monkey, tin-pot dictators and superpowered serial killers. But you guys you actually managed to piss me off. Thats why Im here. Ive been grinding away with the [System] ever since itunched, and it was fun. Really fun. And now, youve made me get off my ass toe yell at you guys. Fuck you. A huffing security guard burst into the room, gun drawn. Well, Id say see you around, but I dont think Ill be visiting you in jail, Jason announced as he rolled off his chair and withdrew the mother of all paint bombs from his storage. Red, sticky, functionally impossible to remove paint sttered across the boardroom as he backhanded the balloon. Two more security guards arrived and opened fire alongside the first one, but he just threw himself out through the window, phasing briefly to avoid showering the sidewalk below in broken ss. Jason cackled as he fell, activating his stealth [Skills] to be functionally invisible. Then, he switched his outfit using [Phantom Armor], recing his blood- and paint-covered clothes with simple jeans and t-shirt. A few secondster, hended lightly on the street opposite the building hed just leaped out of. The cops had arrived by now and noticed his swan-dive, charging towards him, but he just ran off, cackling silently. His ribs still smarted from the fight, hed avoided taking another potion so his normal healing coulde back into effect, but damn, that had been fun. *** Someone had run around picking fights with hitmen and mercenaries, embarrassed businessmen whod hired them, and given cringy speeches all the time, but never left behind anything revealing their identity or killing anyone. The victims were all but gift-wrapped for the authorities, with their attacker having already reached the status of an urban legend. No one was sure if it was all the same person, or if there was a group running around pulling those stunts. And then, they gave the police a reason to have to investigate the people hiring assassins. Blood trails, weird smells that indicated the presence of a corpse, and chemical spills that looked serious to even investigative [Skills] despite being harmless, all positioned in a way that brought the investigators into possession of other evidence. Habicht sighed. Those stunts had Isaac written all over it. The nning part, at any rate. The good doctor had an alibi for almost every incident. Based on the [Skills] used, the ghost was Jason North, especially when one considered the speeches hed given. But he didnt know, no one ever told him anything. They couldnt, not with how often high-level officers talked about active investigations. There was always the risk of him having to tell a lie to avoid spilling the beans about one of his [Round Table] colleagues, so it was best he didnt know any specifics. He could put together most things from context anyway, it wasnt like he needed proper confirmation on this stuff. But he still had to deal with some of the fallout, unfortunately. I need protection from that lunatic! the small little man whod somehow reached his office screamed at him. Habicht sighed No. But hesing for me next, serve and protect, isnt that your job? First, thats the American police departments motto. Ours is the police, your friend and helper, Habicht sighed And secondly, as far as I know, youre not a target. But hese after a whole bunch of energypany executives! No, this individual or group of individuals goes after people who tried to get Karl Siegel killed. The fact that many of them happen to be energypany executives is mere corrtion. So unless theres something youd like to confess, were done here. Also, if youre not out of the building by the time I figure out who you bribed to get into my office, I will be arresting you for bribing a public official. The man nched and scampered out. Habicht leaned back in his chair and sighed. Hed heard that Jason was already dealing with something else, so the people whod tried tomission Karl Siegels murder had probably been dealt with and his visitor wasnt on that list. However, the man was clearly fearing repercussions about something hed done, so a little investigating was probably in order. Chapter 236: All Around the World Chapter 236: All Around the World Why the hell does it require a twenty-page legal document to give stuff away? Amy grumbled as she pped herptop shut. Because whoever invented the concept of bureaucracy was a sadist. Isaac sighed as he read over the document shed just sent him. They might have gone a little over the top in making sure this invention would remain safe and publicly avable. They should have named the word for sadism after that guy, not that Marquis. Amy muttered under her breath. Now were Isaac paused for a moment and dramatically checked his calendar A quarter of the way done. Next up, someone needs to make sure the meeting in Brussels doesnt turn into a bloodbath. Yeah, who thought that inviting a whole bunch of S-Rankers into the same ce at the same time was a great idea? Amy asked [Systems] third anniversary, an auspicious moment, what better time to show unity and demonstrate that we have the power to deal with anything the world has to throw at us, h, h, h. And who has to make sure this doesnt turn into a big fight? Karls insanely busy, Baileys making sure he doesnt get overwhelmed, Patricks in Seoul doing research with Professor Kim thatll either change the world or set off every seismograph in the hemisphere and Raul is back on the moon because someone identally killed half the biosphere. Lazy bastards, one and all, leaving us to do all the work. Isaac listed off Someones gotta do it, though. By the way, I booked the Draconic Abyss Dungeon for once this is done. Would you like toe? God yes, Amy sighed I need to blow something up after this mess. They worked side by side for another hour or so before Amy pped herptop shut once again, leaned back in her chair, and teleported a beer into her hand straight from the fridge. Every S-Ranker in Europe. Sixty-eight S-Rankers, all in one spot, she sighed and took a deep drink of her beer before continuing At least the Monkey King isnting. Yep. Isaac agreed Id have given it five minutes until utter chaos broke out. It had been pretty easy to make him stay put. Theyd invited him as a part of the official German group, but he only lived there, he wasnt a citizen or particrly patriotic about the ce he now called home. Hed thankfully declined, fully convinced that it had been his own idea. That still might happen. Amy pointed out We should really drench the entire conference hall in wards and protective spells, but some diva would inevitably throw a hissy fit or decide the whole thing is a trap. Yeah. There wasnt really much more to say. Very few S-Rankers had their headpletely screwed on straight. The team was mostly fine, but they hadnt reached their rank through the crucible of disasters that created most people at that power level. And then there was Isaac, who was, of course, the paragon of sanity, who dealt with all his baggage the very instant it cropped up. He did not have a problem with workaholism, a tendency towards paranoia, or any other kind of issues, no siree. Sure, there were a few S-Rankers whod reached their station through hard work and diligence, fighting a thousand monsters at the same time, soloing [Raid Bosses] and more, but were they reallypletely sane? That kind of recklessness was normally a sign that someone was more than a little touched in the head. How many unknown S-Rankers are out there? Amy wondered There are what, five hundred, in the world right now, but those are just the ones we know about. And if someone as unsubtle as Sun incarnation of impulsivity Wukong can hide for years, who knows whats out there? He lived in China, the government was probably keeping things on the down low, Isaac suggested. So China is hiding some. Russia too, probably, maybe the US. Amy began to count the countries off on her fingers But there cant be that many, right? S-Rankers are usually born from chaos, and a nation somehow managing to hide an S-Ranker amidst that kind of pandemonium that would be kind of hard, wouldnt it? If your nation is in such bad shape that an S-Ranker rises tobat it, I doubt anyone would have the time, resources, or presence of mind to keep them hidden. Isaac agreed Can you imagine if Germany had tried keeping me a secret after I discovered how to use [Aura] properly? No, no, no, imagine theyd tried to deny they had an engineer of Karls caliber after we shared the magic generator. Amy straightened a nonexistent tie and continued in her best dusty politician voice Ahem, I, I we do not have any kind of genius engineer, even though we just developed something that will revolutionize electricity generation. That the machine just appeared no, actually, what machine? There is no generator at all, is there, no one ever created anything new, youre all imagining anything. What do you mean you heard about the generator? Youre all talking nonsense, people! Isaac burst outughing Sad thing is, I know at least three heads of state who would try something like that. Obviously. Amy nodded It wouldnt be politics if there werent at least one poster child for the Dunning-Krueger effect at the table. Seriously though, how many hidden S-Rankers do you think there are? Maybe another one- or two hundred? Two-fifty at most? Isaac shrugged Like you said, some governments might have a few hidden aces, but S-Rankers arent quiet. Deliberately creating one means throwing them against [Raid Bosses] or monster hordes, which is hard as fuck to keep quiet. And one rising through adversity usually ends with them in the spotlight. Jason and Fenrir managed it. Amy pointed out after casting a privacy spell. Jason is a [Rogue], you be an S-Ranker in sneaking around by being inconspicuous, and Fenrir lives in the middle of nowhere. Hes usually just mentioned as one of the weirdoes who live in Antarctica. Isaac pointed out. There were plenty of known S-Rankers in most of the world, with the exception of central Africa, the Middle East, China, Russia and India. The issue in India was obvious, it was too cramped, at least in the cities. Summoning there would inevitably lead to massacres, which was why hunting high Level monsters was right out. Sure, advancing and gaining a legendary [ss] without summoning monsters was possible, but hard. Therefore, there were only a few S-Rankers there, especially when youpared their numbers to the nations total poption. Both the Middle East and Central Africa had been in chaos before the [System], with civil unrest and several wars throughout the regions, and people gaining superpowers sure as hell hadnt helped matters. Those ces were the kinds of crucibles that either created S-Rankers, or killed them before they could reach even a fraction of their true potential. There were probably some in the mix, but there wasnt much data avable about thebatants, certainly not enough to determine whether someone could be considered an S-Ranker. The S in S-Ranker or S-Tier didnt really stand for any one thing in particr, though popr interpretations were that it meant special, super, or even sugoi, which was Japanese for awesome. However, it had picked up a new meaning in recent years, Scalebreaker. Because, well, that was what that Rank was defined as, someone so powerful that the standard means of measuring power didnt really apply anymore. The problem? In an active war zone, disying that kind of power made you a target, and if you were just starting to grow into your abilities, got you killed. The tallest de of grass is the first to be cut by the scythe and all that. Then there were Russia, China, and authoritarian governments in general, all of which had the same issue. The only S-Rankers such governments could reasonably create were the ones overthrowing said governments. Actually, I was wondering: are we missing anyone? Amy asked I mean, youve changed a lot. Are there specific, impactful people this timeline has to do without? Hm, a few, Isaac said as he scratched at his neck But they might show up eventually, theyve got a few years. The only ones I know well that were never going to get are a couple of Frances best. He thenunched into an in-depth exnation of the history of other-timeline France. Thered been a small issue in 2024, which hadpletely blown up into full-on civil unrest in 2026 The situation hade to a head when the [Heir] to the Maid of Orleans, rallying support for the government, had run straight into the [Torch of Revolution], fanning the mes on the other side. Somehow, that hadnt sparked a full-on civil war, instead slowly simmering down into an uneasy peace andpromise. In the end, things hadnt blown uppletely and the nation had gained two S-Rankers. But the original mess hadnt happened, so the situation hadnt escted to the point where the S-Rankers had developed. Instead, in this timeline, theyd gotten the worlds greatest doctor, the [Heir to Louis Pasteur]. In the other one, hed been a weirdo doctor whod decided to symbolically kill disease-rted monsters on the original Pasteurs grave to show humanitys victory over sickness. However, in this one, hed kept on working even as the [System] made his job mostly superfluous, heading out with Doctors without Borders and making it his mission to ensure that the people not protected by the [System], namely, children, were protected from disease as well. Advanced vinations, touring areas and systematically eradicating certain nasty pathogens eventually, hed hit Level 100 through just doing his job and returned to France, where he was now working as a doctor to raise money so he could affect permanent change. Isaac wasnt entirely sure what hed done to affect such drastic change, but he was really happy about it. Hell, hed even sent the man a jar of the enhanced molten dragon scales so he could protect his head. Healers at a high enough Level could, in fact, recover from decapitation, regenerating their entire body in moments. Sounds like he was an interesting man, Amy said once he was finished But I was promised a Dungeon to blow stuff up in, so unless weve somehow managed to Yeah, lets get out of here before someone decides were not looking busy enough, Isaac replied hurriedly and pulled hisptop into his storage space. Amy waved her hand and opened a portal to somewhere in the middle of Mongolia, they both stepped through and Isaac opened a second one to take them the rest of the way to Seoul, leaving them in the arrival area of the Hunters Guild. Theyd probably have to head home within 24 hours to do more work as the piles of paperwork grew into mountains with no one to do it, but for now, they were able to do something else. One of the greatest Dungeons in the world awaited them, and despite how terrifying an enemy it was, there was no paperwork to be found within. Chapter 237: Draconic Dungeon Chaos Chapter 237: Draconic Dungeon Chaos The Draconic Abyss was one of Seouls three great Dungeons. The second was The Hells, a demon-filled series of catbs that looked like something straight out of Doom, and the third was called Thssophobia because that was what you got after fighting your way through a series of caverns containing anything and everything that made the deep sea so terrifying. But most people would still agree that the home of Dragons was easily the most dangerous of the bunch. A Boss that was a [Raid Bosses] in terms of size and offensive power, onlycking the unnatural durability that let the real thing fight off armies. Traps that could explode with the fury of a draconic breath weapon, using literally any kind of element. And, well, Dragons. The entrance was pretty normal, though. A couple of D-Rankers stood guard, their only job being to hand out warnings about the monsters within and report back to the guild if something went wrong, they werent expected to do more than that. On the way over here, Isaac had tucked in his shirt, fully exposing the S-Rank badge at his belt. What are the official requirements to get one of those badges? Amy asked, By international standards, Im ssified as an S-Ranker, but they only hand out those badges here. Knock the investigators socks off. If you do that literally, make sure it looks like an ident. Isaac told her, earning a smallugh Seriously though, just cast your strongest attack spell that you can cast off the cuff on the first target, create your shield while youre doing that, and trigger the attack spell that you have to block, teleport to the other end of the room to show you can do that as well. All the while, be charging one of your big attack spells and throw that at the target to prove you can multitask. The ceiling will wouldnt they build it like that? Amy just snorted and cast her pre-battle spell array. Basic protection cantrips, an enchantment on her clothes that reduced air resistance to virtually nill, a spell that rolled her hair up in a bun to keep it out of her face, and the bun would remain intact even should it be hit by an artillery shell. A few more spells to keep mes off her, a pre-cast, short-range teleportation spell that she could trigger once to dodge an attack before she had to recast it, and so on. The guards looked at them with bored impressions, one of them briefly nced down at Isaacs badge. A [Skill] shed in the mans eyes and suddenly, he jerked into a pose that was probably meant to look professional but only served to highlight how hed been slouching before. Isaac Thoma and Amelia Shaw for the Draconic Abyss Dungeon, I booked it ahead of time, itll be just the two of us. Isaac introduced them. As an S-Ranker, its your prerogative to enter this Dungeon with fewer than the legally mandated number of individuals, do you acknowledge that you are making use of this privilege and not adhering to regr safety standards? the guard rattled off and Isaac replied with a simple Yes before getting waved in. This Dungeon was officially rated for a party of a minimum of seven A-Rankers, and ones with specializedbat builds to boot. Sure, there were people whod reached high Ranks without specializing inbat, and that was damn impressive, but in this ce, just being able to hold your own wouldnt cut it. As for S-Ranker-only Dungeons, they didnt exist, Dungeons that powerful were destroyed the instant they looked like they might reach that point. Theyd be too dangerous by then, and even a nation with seventeen S-Rankers like South Korea couldnt clear it regrly enough to prevent Dungeon breaks. Isaac dismissed his regr clothing, swapping it out with his current armor set. He kept switching it out as he got his hands on new sets, or Stagmer came up with something new, but he was hoping to eventually get something that couldst him for longer. His current outfit was mostly made from dragon scales, interwoven with heavily enchanted metal wires, all attached to a spider silk undershirt. Durable, form-fitting, reduced air resistance, flexible, everything he needed. It was a good set, but it was a little too generic. Eventually, he wanted to get a set that was built perfectly to his requirements, everything attached to the exact right ce. Everything he needed, positioned so he could grab it with a minimum of effort, extra armor in ces that did not need to be as flexible with his specific fighting style, and so on. But that was a massive effort, too much for a piece of armor that would onlyst a few months. Amy, meanwhile, had been wearing herabat outfit from the start. It looked like a wizards robe that had been designed by someone with a mind for the realities ofbat. Everything was in the right ce, armor over the torso and the hood, which could be flipped up to protect the head. There were also twin bracers on top of the cloth, each with a prepared shield spell that could be triggered in case of emergency. Ready? Isaac asked, getting a nod in return. He grinned slightly and headed in along the rocky passage. It reminded him of an old-fashioned mine shaft, though it was big enough for people to actually walk through without hitting their heads on the ceiling. After a couple hundred meters of a gentle downward slope, the path opened into a cavern filled with small, embering coals, casting a deep orange glow throughout the cavern. And standing in between those coals were the first mobs of the Dungeon. Bipedal, scaled, massive ws that could tear through modern tank armor like tissue paper tipping each finger, heavy tails resting on the ground behind the creatures. The Dragonoids would have been terrifying enough based on their natural weapons alone, but these fuckers were well-equipped. Swords, spears, shields, or heavy gauntlets protected the off-hand, and a few of the lither ones were wielding rapiers or a pair of daggers. On the way down here, theyd made a n. It basically boiled down to Isaac attacks with swords, Amy attacks at range, but nothing more was needed here. The real strategizing would happen in the moment to moment, anyway. Isaac exploded into motion, Balmung in his hand, and skewered the closest Dragonoid before it ever had the chance to react, then tore his de to the side, leaving the creature with a hole in its side, severed spine, and practically bisected. It was still intact enough to breathe fire as it fell, missing by a full meter. Isaac stuck out his hand and caught the stream, absorbing the me. Divine Fire has absorbed Dragonoid me (Dungeon altered). So nothing special. Nothing hed had before, but that was to be expected. Dungeons initially had ess to the same monsters found on the summoning tables based on their type, with new ones bing avable based on materials fed to them. But then, they could begin to alter them, creating new variations unique to that specific Dungeon. This me hadnt been a winner, but there could easily be invaluable ones out there. The nearest creature parried Isaacs de as he swung for its head, but a second copy of his sword materialized in his other hand, skewered the monster, and promptly transformed into a Zweih?nder, the extra length driving it through the Dragonoid behind his original target. Of course, this left the sword thoroughly stuck, so he dismissed it as he went after his next target. Then that one began to unleash its breath attack, so he avoided it while the attack built. Hed absorbed so many different draconic mes that he was all but immune to them. Over twenty creatures wereing from his left, but before they could do more than take a couple of threatening steps towards him, the floor between them exploded in a shower of ice, razor-sharp icicles capable of piercing even these things scales covering both the floor and ceiling, ready to tear through feet and cut open faces as the monsters ran through them. A few decided to clear the way with their breath weapons, others decided to go after Amy. Neither strategy worked particrly well. Isaac danced through the mes to absorb them, then cut them down with his de elongated into his Zweih?nder once hed copied their fire. And the ones going for Amy were cut down in seconds, well-ced [Magic Missiles] to the eyes and/or throat taking them down easily. This whole damn room was no challenge, but that was how Dungeons worked. The first few rooms, possibly even the first few floors were meant to waste the invaders energy, potentially even make them use up their cooldown [Skills]. But only an idiot was going to go into a Dungeon where theyd have to waste those kinds of resources in the opening stages. Behind Isaac, another explosion rang out as Amy bought herself some breathing room, followed by a flurry of rock shards flying past him. Their trajectory had been highlighted in the party ahead of time, ensuring he could easily avoid them. [Switch]! Amy warned via the party chat and suddenly, the Dragonoids closing in on her were facing a grinning Isaac, face illuminated by the mes that of their breath weapons as they flowed over him. On the far side of the cavern, several more magical sts made the ground shake, leaving the monsters facing Isaac as the only living ones left in the chamber. They didntst long. The floor began to glow cherry-red around the coals, and the air suddenly heated up to the point where it felt like they were sitting in an industrial furnace. There would be no resting here. The path to the main area was short, barely fifty meters long, and they couldnt rest there either, the heat chased them. Well, Isaac could have ignored it, but Amy would have had to waste mana to keep it off her, so they headed out rather than staying put. Holy shit! Amy blurted out as they left the corridor, emerging onto a ten square meter tform situated over an empty, ck, void. Yep. Isaac nodded. Hed told her everything he knew about this Dungeon before theyd gone in, of course, but actually seeing this bottomless abyss that gave the Dungeon its name was a whole other thing. In reality, the void was just a particrly deep pit, around two kilometers from top to bottom, but there were several annoying magical effects in ce. The first of these caused light diffusionparable to being deep underwater, with an additional effect further muddying things at around five hundred meters distance, to the point where it was literally impossible to see any further, no matter where your [Perception] was. Furthermore, it muffled sound to the point where narrowing down the specific location of anything within the murk was downright impossible. A sensory [Aura] could pierce the veil, but youd still have to hit an enemy with it to see said creature, and this ce was sorge that the chance ofnding a hit was nigh impossible. And then there was the wonky gravity. A vastly increased draw for anything that wasnt a dragon, making most methods of flight insanely expensive, while the dragons themselves might as well have been on the moon, capable of incredible feats of aerial acrobatics. Which meant that the delvers were stuck taking the admittedly wide set of stairs that wrapped around the central column, all the while fully exposed to the flying, fire-breathing, lizards that coulde from anywhere, anytime, in any number. Only on the ground would the fog lift and the monsters be properlybattable. Isnt a big void like this a huge sinkhole risk? Amy asked. It would be if they hadnt reinforced the walls to a ludicrous degree, Isaac said There are also [Geomancers] and highly capable [Structural Engineers] on standby in case they have to destroy this Dungeon. They want to hold on because this ce is the perfect farming ground for several valuable materials, but the guild learned its lesson about where they put Dungeons for aerial creatures. Amy winced I pity the person behind this ce. Isaac nodded. And then, the descent began. Isaac kept several thin shells of [Aura] projected out into the void, not thick enough to get a whole lot of detail on anything that passed through it, but when something did head towards them, hed know well before he saw it. Amy, meanwhile, had several pre-cast [Magic Missiles] hovering over her hand, each infused with several powerful additional spells. Venom, something that caused temporary blindness if it struck anywhere near the face, and more. Much more. The first hundred meters down were quiet. Too quiet. Do you think the Dungeon knows that holding back the monsters makes people more scared than just sending monsters after them? Amy asked via the party, not wanting to give this ce ideas. Probably, Isaac admitted. Ore, he pointed out a momentter, gesturing at the column. While Amy watched his back, he used Balmung and gratuitous use of [Sundering Strike] to weaken the surrounding rock to extract it. The Dungeon provided several incredibly useful materials, just randomly attached to the column, but extracting them wasnt easy, and you were very vulnerable during that process. So of course that was the moment the first monster showed its face. It was a regr old dragon, two wings, four tails, and a maw that could unleash a powerful elemental st. This particr version spat acid. It was also barely ten meters long, a baby by most standards. A single enhanced [Magic Missile] mmed into its face and it began to lurch drunkenly through the air. It had contained a variation on the curse that Isaac had bought from the cursemonger, specifically, the one that randomly changed the gravity of the affected. Coupled with its blindness, the beasts flight becamepletely erratic and it mmed into the column below them. Then, the dragons entire extended family made an appearance. Chapter 238: A Wave of Fangs and Claws Chapter 238: A Wave of Fangs and ws A massive creature the size and shape of a fighter jet led the way, sting past them at well over the speed of sound, a dozen bolts of acid unleashed from its mouth. Amy was forced to anchor herself to the ground with magic to avoid being flung away by the wind whipped up by the dragons passage, while Isaac just phased briefly to not get tossed around like a leaf on the wind. Then, a second creature of the exact same type dropped past from above, forcing them to defend themselves again, from both the wind and another shotgun st of acid breath. That was new. That had been a deliberate choice by the Dungeon. Shit. Acid was just as good, if not better, than fire and fucking with regeneration, but this ce knew Isaac was immune to mes. So it was sending creatures that breathed acid after them. At the same time, the dragons whipping past were tempting them to take pot shots, wasting their limited mana. And all around them, any acid shots that werent blocked by Amys shield sttered across the ground, just waiting for one of them to step into the flesh-melting puddles. Were leaving! Isaac snapped as two more of the speedy dragons whipped by. Staying in ce too long would leave them hemmed in by a sea of corrosive liquid while more of the flying pests bombarded them. They rounded thest bend, almost at the exit, only toe face-to-face with a giant, mottled green, dragon that had just finished unleashing its breath weapon down their path of egress, a nastybination of acid and venom, truly sealing the ce. As if the solid plug of ice that filled the original entry room hadnt been enough. So leaving was out of the question. Theyd be sitting ducks trying to get through there, forced to stave off the acid and toxins while being bombarded by the lizards. And hacking their way through the ice would be even more dangerous, with the corridor being perfectly shaped to funnel the breath weapons towards them. That settled it. For some reason, the Dungeon had it out for them. These ces werent allowed to block the way out, and any Core that decided to alter its defenders to better beat delvers was one step away from bing a serious threat. Isaac pulled one of the emergency beacons the Guild gave away freely and triggered it in the somethings seriously wrong, someone with decision-making authority better get their ass down here configuration. They would probably be able to beat this ce, but chances were, it would have to be destroyed and who knew what crap the Dungeon coulde up with if they had to dive in a second time. Best case scenario, the rescue party contained someone with enough authority to dere the Dungeon a bust, and order its destruction. Because if he decided to pull that trigger on his own and turned out to be wrong it would be very, very bad. Unlike most of the dragons, which had stayed out of Isaacs melee range, this big toxin factory had its head resting on the entry tform. Big mistake. [Phantom Step], Balmung glowing like a noonday sun from countless [Piercing Strikes] went through the beasts eye, and then, the sword ignited, flooding the inside of the dragons skull with hellfire. Without making a single sound, the monster copsed, dropping away into the chasm, trailing mes from an empty eye socket. One big dragon down, but judging from the roars that echoed through the room, there were several more of therge beasts out there. Back down the stairs, it was, staying in any one ce meant death. An agile, small-ish beast buzzed past, freezing over the stairs in front of them with a st of its breath. Isaac leaped over the patch with ease, but Amy didnt react in time and slipped. A hastily-cast levitation spell caught and carried her over the trap, but this mess was nothing more than a preview of messes toe. With flying being all but impossible off the stairs, Isaac was pretty much useless. Throwing des was possible, as were me spells, but he was still primarily a close-range fighter. Flying kabars to carve through wings, knives tossed into gaping maws only to be transformed into his giant des to tear the monsters apart from the inside. Effective, but not nearly as much as his normal attacks and it was quite a bit more expensive than normal. Also, while his mana regeneration might be high, his build was still focused on finishing fights quickly, rather than a running battle. Amy was doing a whole lot more, war spells lighting up the sky with titanic chain reactions that obliterated entire swarms of weaker beasts, and once, she even shoved a dragons mes back down its gullet and held them there until the creature popped. She was incredibly effective while her manasted. Once it ran out, theyd be in real trouble. Scratching sounds reached Isaacs ears from above, and after a moment, he realized that several drakes were scampering around up there. Well, going back would be even harder than before. Should there be this many dragons around? I feel like weve already killed this ces regrplement twice over! Amy asked, sounding irritated. Youre right. Isaac said grimly Im pretty sure this ce has been holding back for a long time. Their running battle had taken them halfway down the spire by now, and the area in front of them was covered in pools of acid, small areas of ice ready to ruin their footing if they werent careful where they put their feet, and toxic gasses hung in the air, just waiting for them to forget to hold their breath or blow it away. Trapsid well ahead of time. And then, the first drake came scampering up towards them, teeth gleaming as it opened its jaws to unleash a stream of acid. It choked on cold steel before it could do anything and Isaac promptly kicked it over the edge, but it was bad. In time, any position they stayed in for more than half a minute would be uninhabitable from the constant bombardment, and now, these non-flying enemies were killing their forward momentum. Sure, there were fewer and fewer flybys as the dragons switched over to long-range bombardment, which might have indicated the horde was thinning, but that might just have been a mind game. How are you on mana? Isaac asked. Just about to take a potion. Amy spat. Potions might instantly restore mana, but they not only reduced the efficacy of the next one you took but also killed your natural regeneration for the near future. If they started falling back on potions and didnt win soon, they were dead. Hold off on that for a second, Isaac warned and activated [Grave of Swords]. Not its regr turn this battle into a one-on-one fight ability, but the evolved effect gained at level 20, which let him seal off a fifty-meter diameter section of the battlefield alongside everything inside it. Only a single flying dragon was in here with them, poor beast. Several well-aimed thrown knives tore through its wings and sent it plummeting to the ground. Well, the bottom of the spherical [Skill], anyway. Leave it there, this ce will copse once all enemies are dead, Isaac said, then asked With ten minutes to prepare, do you think you can get us to the bottom safely? Not just alive, butpletely unhurt. Even a twisted ankle could be fatal. With ten minutes, probably. Amy nodded But those dragons are going to be preparing something as well. Isaac nodded Well have to prepare for that. But if we can get to the bottom afterwards, we should be able to either finish this or at least hold out for reinforcements. He absolutely hated how this had turned out. It was supposed to be a great source of XP and resources, with the small caveat of no flying or otherwise leaving the staircase until you were at the bottom. Getting hurt by a fall was normally a foreign concept to Isaac, even without mana he could simply maximize his surface resistance to slow his descent, then rx his body as much as humanly possible and trust his Fortitude to handle the rest. On Earth, it didnt matter how how far he fell, hed never get hurt. Instead, it had turned into a battle against a massive horde, one that was actually risking their lives. While Amy worked behind him, Isaac began to remove some of his emergency fallback items from his storage. This was actually the first time hed really had to fall back upon them. Hed been in dire straits before, sure, but in those times, his gear hadnt been strong enough to be worth taking the time to mess around with his storage. Fighters outlevelling crafters was a bitch. But now, he had time, and with how slow leveling past the fourth Evolution was, the crafters had been able to catch up. Once Amy had cast the most ludicrously overpowered feather-fall spell in history upon both of them, Isaac skewered the hapless dragons throat with a telekically controlled dagger and the world vanished in a wave of light and fire. Temporary shields appeared and were sted down in milliseconds, alchemical grenades exploded into mountains of sticky, fire-retardant foam that blocked paths of attack, and he briefly switched out his outfit for Der Mittelfinger. The armor known as the ultimate fuck you on the battlefield unleashed every defensive spell carved onto its surface, tearing the closest dragon to pieces. And standing in the middle of all this pandemonium was a single man, not moving at all for a long moment. [Champion of Mankind: The Thinker], [Blessing of Innovation], [The Meaning of the Name], [Aura of the Desperate Seeker]. Every single thing around him was registered, multiple trains of thought from [The Thinker] letting him keep track of it all. [Blessing of Innovation] let him borrow [Skills] that allowed him to better model the physics of the altered gravity and finally, [The Meaning of the Name] brought it all together and showed him the path forwards. Amy had already glomped onto his back and now that he knew where to go, he ran. A cloud of conjured des appeared and swatted the various alchemical explosives hed scattered around his feet, each falling into position to inflict the maximum amount of inconvenience on the dragon they struck. And then, he finally leaped out into the open air. An unfortunate lizard served as his stepping stone,bat boot squishing an eyeball and sending the creature spinning into one of itsrades. He ducked before the wing he was dodging was even in motion. A stream of acid sshed past his backside a split second after hed marched across the dragons maw. After half a second of half-running, half-falling through the press of bodies, they left the swarm behind them and just plummeted. This Dungeon Core was a bloody sadist. Isaac was hardly scared of heights, but elerating that quickly without actively doing anything to increase his speedwas disconcerting as fuck. Two seconds after leaping off the staircase, Isaded lightly on the ground, Amys spell thankfully saving him from a fall that would otherwise have left him badly injured. Amy let go of him and prepared another half-dozen infused [Magic Missiles]. Isaac just grinned, summoning Balmung into his right hand while wreathing his left in hellfire. Using thest bit of runtime he had on [The Thinker], he unleashed a devastating barrage of fire, splitting up his attention to guide each and every bolt personally, aiming straight for the eyes of the closest dragons. Suddenly blinded seconds before they reached him, they were vulnerable, defenseless, likembs to the ughter. The increased gravity that kicked in the second both feet left the floor meant that jumping was still a bit odd, but nothing Isaac couldntpensate for. All of the pent-up annoyance at being nigh-helpless out on the staircase was unleashed upon his foes and those unfortunate enough to be in range died, half a dozen hacked apart by his brutally sharp de in barely five seconds. Behind him, Amy mostly spent her time dodging and using weaker spells to hobble her enemies rather than outright kill. A mana-saving strategy. In time, merely kiting the lizards would have let her recover enough to eventually finish this, and until then, they just had to find other ways to ughter some lizards. Isaac made sure to stay around so they could help each other in case of emergency but otherwise, they each had their own way of striking out at the monsters buzzing overhead, unleashing their breath attacks during swift flybys. Thatsted for maybe another minute before a massive explosion from somewhere overhead announced the arrival of the long-awaited reinforcements. Chapter 239: Interlude Yoo-jin Chapter 239: Interlude Yoo-jin As such, we propose all Korean citizens who reach A-Ranker status with significant government or Guild support have to be members of the military reserves. The bureaucrat finished her lengthy proposal. Yoo-jin sighed Define significant help. Its a good idea in theory, but this is ultimately a government project and I can guarantee that if we see differently on a number of points. Youre free to let us do everything we can on our end without guidance, but I can guarantee the end result wont be what you envisioned. The government wanted something like that, they could have it, but there was no way hed do everything twice just because a certain format was required to make things work. Hed fallen into that trap before. Once. Never again. If they wanted something from him, theyd have to give him precise instructions on what they wanted, and if someone changed their mindter, then they could deal with it. Alright, in that case Dont tell me, send it to me by email. Yoo-jin interrupted. That way, the whole thing was on the record, no I thought I told you or you just misunderstood what I meant chicanery. Whatever the functionary was going to say next was drowned out by a thundering rm. Could you kindly shut that off, and in general, keep it shut off during meetings? Anything that I can shut off, is shut off. This is an emergency. Yoo-jin replied calmly. The emergency beacons and the receivers, such as the one in his pocket, were functionally impossible to disrupt, they could send alerts even from the depths of Dungeons or through military-grade jamming, both of the mechanical and [Skill]-based variety. Therefore, theyd be the first thing triggered in case of an emergency, and as the Guildmaster, he could never afford to leave his behind or store it in his storage. But what the hell had gone wrong this time? Most of the messes that would warrant an emergency message to him were pretty hard to miss. No volcano had erupted, he hadnt received any [Raid Boss] summoning messages if a magical gue had been released, some screams would have probably been audible, and so on. Which meant that the mess was either far away, or it involved an S-Ranker, those messes always ended up on his te. When he got his receiver out of his pocket and looked at it, he sighed in relief. That should probably be over in a sh, although the paperwork would be significant. Isaac was asking for a higher-up for help with something in the Draconic Abyss. There was only one possible reason for that kind of request. He thought the Dungeon needed to be destroyed, and chances were, he was correct in that. Well have to table this forter, Yoo-jin announced as he stood up and ran from the room, pulling out his cell phone as he did so. He sent a few texts as he ran towards the Dungeon like a bat out of hell. The guards at the Dungeon were already on the verge of panic, having also received the alert but being in no position to do anything about it. Guildmaster, I one began, but was cut off in an instant. Im going inside, tell that to any S-Ranker whoeter. Make sure that anyone who isnt a primarily physical fighter doesnt go in alone. Yoo-jin ordered, adding them both to the party before he charged in. Hed briefly considered waiting for others but decided against it. Isaac could take care of himself, and hed asked for authority, not a rescue. Yoo-jin was under no delusions about being stronger than Isaac, but he was a tank, with a far higher chance of surviving unexpected messes than a speed-based fighter. Everything was fine in the entrance corridor, so a vition of the no traps in the entrance rule wasnt the issue. Then again, that could probably have been discussed in the guildhall. And then he almost ran into a wall of ice where the first room should have been. Ah, there was the problem. The solid wall of liquid water was wiped away in a split second as he activated [Springtime], leaving him standing in knee-deep water. It was a simple [Skill] that could undo the effects of cold-type spells for fairly little mana. As long as theyd either been cast a damn long time ago, were already well on their way to failing on their own, or he had the tacit consent of the caster. Hed been presented with the [Skill] tome as a gift after thetest Spring Event, so he could now clean up after his battles. Yoo-jin had graciously epted and promptly spent his next several free days figuring out how to use this new ability of his in a way that made it utterly broken. And hed even found one. The room, now clear of ice, looked like hed expected it to look after someone had fought their way through, with the bodies of the dragonoids whod guarded this ce lying where theyd been cut down. He hurried deeper inside, seeing that the exit corridor had been mined with countless acid pools and other inconveniences. Someone had thoroughly blocked the exit, and if that someone was the Dungeon, then they had a serious problem. And when he reached the main room, that worry that he might have to order the destruction of a very lucrative Dungeon morphed into resignation. This ce was breaking all the rules, and bing way too dangerous. He briefly used the party to contact the guards up top, telling them to trigger the emergency protocols. When the Core was destroyed, the massive cavern it had carved out under Seoul would copse in time, and that needed to be prevented. The sentry the Dungeon had ced at the entrance of the main room was a gigantic dragon, the size of amercial airne, that spat a plume of fire straight at him. Yoo-jin [Skate]ed to the side, ice forming under his feet as he flung himself sideways. As he lurched away, he flung a sword made entirely of ice at the creature. It shattered on its scales and a simple application [Stormwielder] summoned a miniature blizzard to hammer the shards into several ces on its hide and hold them there. He paused briefly to activate the anchoring enchantment on his boots, tying himself to the floor and triggered [Heart of Winter]. The chunks of the frozen de currently pressed up against the pitiful monsters scales suddenly grew vastly colder, freezing solid against the dragons flesh in under a millisecond, and the cold began to sap the vital heat from its flesh a momentter. But the process didnt stop there. After maybe two milliseconds, the air around the de chunks began to liquefy. First oxygen, then nitrogen, then everything else. By the time a full second had passed, the dragon was already falling through the air, dead, cells shredded from the ice shards that had formed as all its vital fluids froze. Liquid, and in ces, frozen solid, air hung around it like a funeral shroud. Suddenly having that much air condense into a liquid created a vacuum, and the air rushing in to rece it would have flung him into the void if it hadnt been for his boots. Hed learned his lesson on using cold magic in enclosed spaces a long while ago. But that little trick had a second stage to it. Several smaller dragons were making their way towards him, ready to attack. And then, he activated [Springtime]. An explosion was nothing more than gasses getting hot and rapidly expanding, creating a shockwave. Air that used to fill several million cubic meters of space had been condensed to a few hundred liters when it had be liquid and when he used his [Skill], it expanded back to its original volume in a matter of nanoseconds, pping the iing creatures like the palm of an angry god, sending their broken bodies tumbling off into the void. With that done, he hurried further down the stairs. For the first fifty meters or so, he made sure to avoid stepping into acid puddles and other hazards on the floor but when he realized that there was dangerous stuff everywhere and that it was slowing him down too much. He kicked off his boots and continued heedless of the light burns umting on his bare feet. Yoo-jin had been fighting practically since the [System] had initialized, usually in fights hed picked, be they in Dungeons or the summoning circle, but all too often, they hadnt been ones he was responsible for. In other words, hed seen a lot of carnage in his life. But this hed only seen the like a handful of times before, if ever. Dragon corpses littered the ground liketex fragments after a water balloon fight, except the rocky floor was slippery with blood and guts, rather than anything more benign. The further away from the central pir, the less fall-damaged the bodies were. Initially, the fighting had clearly urred near the stairs, but as Isaac had made his way down, the creatures had apparently stayed away and attempted to win with long-range bombardment, only to get taken out regardless. And then, there were bodies that only bore injuries from the blows that had killed them, not a fall. So Isaac had definitely managed to make it down here. Actually, most of these bodies were neither burned nor cut, so Isaac probably wasnt responsible for those. Who was down here with him? Only one beacon had been triggered, so it probably wasnt someone local but it wasnt like it really mattered who specifically was in here as well. End of the day, they were clearly an ally, and the problem here was the Dungeon. Hed briefly check on Isaac and his mysterypanion, then go straight for the core. The sense-warping field of the Dungeon meant that Yoo-jin could only see a dome of darkness, 500 meters away from him in every direction, and the sounds of battle wereing from everywhere, impossible to locate. And the trail of blood and carnage was wildly scattered all over the ce, not exactly easy to follow. So he just picked the densest patch of corpses and marched towards it. A few scattered dragons decided that now was the best time to go after them, but they didnt life to regret it. Up on the staircase, theyd been staying out of the range of his [Aura], but down here, he could easily close the distance without risking a fatal fall, freezing the blood in their veins and shattering them secondster. After a few seconds, a veritableke of blood came into view, but no Isaac. Once again, he picked thergest concentration of carnage and ran in that direction, taking out another pair of dragons along the way. And this time, he found both Isaac and Amy, looking rather awful. Well, for their standards, anyway. Isaac usually either came out of fights with a few drops of blood on him at most, or he returned looking like he was going to die if anyone looked at him wrong, such as the state hed been in after fighting the Demon Lord. His current state was something in between the two, not heavily injured, but his armor was slowly falling apart from scratches, w strikes, and acid strikes, and several spots of exposed skin were raw and covered in chemical burns. Amy wasnt injured, but both her robes and the corner of her mouth had the characteristic blue stain of someone having bitten down on a mana potion capsule without having their mouth properly mped shut. He added the two of them to the party the instant he saw him and joined in the fight. [Legion of Winter] generated a freshyer of ice armor for everyone in his party, constantly regenerating and extremely durable while any damage they inflicted would be enhanced by the power of cold. Even the merest touch would cause significant frost burn, and a cut would fill the targets bloodstream with razor-sharp chunks of ice. And with magic, it strongly depended on the exact type of spells used, but it was almost always going to be useful. Of course, that effect was more than a littleckluster for a fourth Evolution cooldown [Skill], but then again, it was meant to be cast upon an army, affecting thousands, not a group of just three. Well, five, if you counted the guards up above, but those two werent really in any position to help. Isaacs face shifted from an expression of extreme concentration to a savage grin as he caught sight of Yoo-jin, a grin that grew outright even wider when [Legion of Winter] hit. His transformation [Skill] activated next, the already unsettling expression on his face growing outright terrifying when stretched across de-like teeth, set in the middle of a serpentine face. Were breaking the Dungeon, Yoo-jin announced via the party I know where the Core should be, but with everything thats gone wrong so far, it might have moved. Lets go clear out the boss first. And then, the three of them settled into a familiar formation. Amy at the center, castingrge-scale or otherwise powerful spells that would have left her vulnerable if shed been alone, Yoo-jin keeping the dragons off her while using his ice to supplement her crowd control. And Isaac was just running all over the ce, taking great care to not run into one of their attacks. They were all used to utilizing the party system to its greatest possible extent and using Isaacs teaching abilities, theyd essentially had the exact same core training, the taught [Veterans Wisdom] meaning that there was a shared understanding. Three more S-Rankers entered a minuteter, all three from the University of Seoul. Professor Kim, her assistant, and Patrick Lerch, one of Isaacs colleagues. Yoo-jin had only briefly met thetter, but his impression had been that he was apetent mage with a stick up his behind, with enough power that he might qualify as a walking WMD. Professor Kim had clearly agreed, considering that the meeting where hed met Patrick had been about how to best ensure that any idents in their experiments didnt trigger major rms. The guards up above might have warned Yoo-jin of the imminent reinforcements, but he still needed to add the three to the party. Yoo-jin, Amy, and Isaac returned to the base of the stairs to wait for the neers, and once they arrived, the newly expanded group resumed the search for the Dungeon Boss. The Draconic Abyss perception-altering field meant that finding it was very difficult and right now, the going theory was that the biggest dragon was in hiding. Simply because they knew it had to be out there, they had to stay together and be careful. Once it was dead, they could break up into smaller groups and hunt down that bloody core. Their current formation was rtively simple, the four spellcasters together, Yoo-jin ying tank, Isaac running off wherever. It was simple, but it worked. The remaining dragons fell like scythe before the reaper all ten of them. Regardless of how endless the hordes of the Dungeons might have seemed when you could only see five hundred meters in every direction, there was an end to the enemy forces. So, time to find the Core? Amy asked. Yoo-jin nodded Yes, but were staying together until the Boss is found and killed. And then everyone goes off on their own? Have you never seen a horror movie? she responded. We can split up into groups of three, two magic users and one melee fighter each, he corrected. They didnt find the dragon, it found them, two minutester. Jumbo-jet-sized, a prismatic spraying from its mouth that seemed to contain all the various breath weapons this Dungeon had handed out to its creatures. It looked like the creature was vomiting up a rainbow, except instead of making a huge mess, it caused nothing but destruction when it struck the ground where Isaac had been a split-second before. Every splotch of color in the stream detonated into a different elemental burst, fire, acid, lighting, sound, noxious gasses, crystalline shrapnel, and things Yoo-jin didnt even have a name for exploded from the point of impact, then mixed and usually exploded again. The dragon swept its head around, the beam of elemental annihtion creating a wall of chaotic forces between itself and the main group, briefly shut its mouth as it retargeted, and finally resumed its attack on Isaac. Both Yoo-jin and Isaac had begun coordinating their response in the same millisecond theyd first caught sight of the creature, only for Professor Kim to ask them to keep it busy for five seconds. Two seconds after that announcement, Amy told him not to move and warned Isaac to hit the deck. Apparently, theyd worked together long enough that Isaac knew that meant run like all the demons of hell are chasing you. What followed was something that would go down in the tactical and strategic manuals as a prime example of why you ask cooperating mages what theyre nning before you let them do anything. It was a bolt of magic the size of a beer keg, gleaming a bright blue, with a scintiting rainbow simr to the monsters breath attack contained within. The projectile passed through the wall of energy without wavering even slightly, hit the dragon, and utterly obliterated it. First, it punched through the monsters hide as if it were armored in tissue paper, and fractured. Second, the dark energy contained within tore through the dragons body, shredding organs and shattering bone, light shining through the gaps in its scales, as though the creature had swallowed a shlight. And finally, it exploded, energy spilling out and consuming everything within almost two hundred meters. Impressive, Yoo-jin noted. Wait a second before judging, it gets better, Amy told him. When the explosion of light and exotic energies finally faded, thest few scales andrge bone fragments slid into ce, leaving a huge mound of valuable materials in the middle of the fresh crater. A little more warning next time, maybe? Isaacmented, And someone please make sure we know how to replicate that. Give us a few hours, after were finished with the Dungeon, Professor Kims assistant promised. They found the core a few minutester, Yoo-jin crushed it in his hand and they headed out while a swarm of [Miners], [Structural Engineers], and [Geomancers] filed into the Dungeon alongside several bodyguards. The Dungeon would be stabilized, cleared of the remaining loot and minerals, and eventually repurposed. And on the subject of loot, to add insult to injury, there was none. The remains of the dragons, the scales and bone fragments of the Dungeon boss, and the ore that could be pried out of the ground and walls were valuable, sure, but nothing like proper Dungeon-generated equipment or potions. What do you think happened? Yoo-jin asked Isaac in private, via the party This is not normal. I have a lot of ideas, each worse than the next, Isaac responded. Yoo-jin winced Well use the [Round Table] to borrow Polizeirat Habichts investigative [Skills], maybe Mister North has something, and I think we might be able to find something in the records now that we know the Dungeon is unusual Chapter 240: Cleaning the Mess Chapter 240: Cleaning the Mess The conference room had once been pristine. Well, it was a conference room in a highrise in Seoul, one of dozens in the building, but it had been a nice one. Up until a few hours ago. Now, it was filled with random clutter, including a pair of file boxes, more tablets, andptops than even a hundred people could ever need, empty tes, coffee cups, and crumbs strewn everywhere. Yoo-jin was off dealing with the political end of things, which mostly meant ensuring that the fallout from the Dungeons destruction didnt cause literal riots. Professor Kim had grabbed her assistant and Patrick to try and break down the dragon-obliteration spell theyd cast earlier so they could use it without Amys [Skills] tying itself together. Isaac, Amy, several scientists researching Dungeons, the Guilds analysts and half a dozen randos Yoo-jin had assigned as gophers before running off, well, they got the decidedly short end of the stick. Figuring out what the actual hell had happened. Going back through historical data on the Dungeon, they didnt find any major screwups with oversight, no weird gaps in surveince where someone could have snuck in and started sacrificing people to power the ce up. And even if someone had snuck in, there werent nearly enough missing persons to ount for a significant increase in the Dungeons power gain. The real issue was that there were serious limits in their understanding of Dungeon advancement, as it was obviously very difficult to research how many dead people equated to a certain amount of advancement. People mostly focussed on observing how strong the Dungeon was via its creatures and traps. Usually, that worked just fine, as they didnt hold stuff back like that. Not normally, anyway. This situation was the first problem like this Dungeon Isaac knew about, in either timeline. Hell, no one even knew how Dungeons could invest their gains, how expensive it was to unlock new creature types vs strengthening existing ones, and so on. Theyd have to ask one which would probably require a fourth or fifth Evolution [Mind Mage]. The Draconic Abyss Dungeon had gotten quite a few kills in its life, but only advanced very, very slowly, and the general assumption had been that draconic Dungeons grew stronger at a lower rate due to the power of their creature type. The growth curve could certainly vary wildly between Dungeon types. Two hours. Two bloody hours of going through random files and trying to spot something. Isaac and Amy had both dipped out briefly to find a ce where they were unobserved, texted Arthur, and finally talked to him in the [Round Table] so he could switch out whose [Skills] they could borrow. Amy got Jasons bag of tricks, allowing her great insight into the criminal mind once she decided to draw on the [Round Table], while Isaac would use Habichts [Skills] once he needed to. Found something! Park, Yoo-jins assistant, yelled suddenly. Immediately, everyone stared at him, but to his credit, he didnt shrink back or falter. Instead, he ced his tablet on the table and spun it around so they could all see it right side up. I found a pattern with the deaths in the Dungeon, he announced. What hed found was obvious, clearly illustrated in a graph. There had been several full-party wipes in that ce, those happened in every Dungeon that wasnt pathetically weak, with more happening at the lower end of the power spectrum, the weaker a party was the greater the risk of none of them returning. In this one, however, a curious pattern emerged. The weakest and strongest parties were dying in normal numbers, but when it came to the parties that were a cut above the bottom of the barrel, as it were, they died in unusual numbers. Of course, this was an A-ranked Dungeon, even the weakest people who went in were powerhouses, but they were still weaker than most who went in. The Dungeon hadnt been picking off the weakest, that was something people had been on the lookout for, instead focussing on the stronger groups that it could still take down. Probably with the same ice-wall trick it had used on Isaac and Amy. This has been going on for a long time, Isaac noted. Why didnt anyone notice this? Park wondered. Shouldnt you guys have noticed that? one of the scientists asked. Not my department, I only get the high-level summaries, Park replied, tossing a pointed look at one of the gophers. We assumed that the less-qualified people were just being sufficiently cautious and retreating instead of risking death, the woman mumbled, clearly wishing the building didnt have any safeguards against just phasing through walls. So you thought that the people who were willing to risk going into a Dungeon they were barely qualified for in the name of mary gain were more cautious than the ones who went into one appropriate for their power level? Park asked dryly. Considering how high our requirements for entering high-Level Dungeons are, anyone allowed inside is almost certainly not ipetent. Youd be surprised what Level ipetents can reach, Isaac pointed out And even if the weakest people allowed into a Dungeon are pretty strong, theyre still weaker than everyone else who goes in. Statistically speaking, they should be the ones dying in the greatest numbers. So, how do we make sure this doesnt happen again? Park asked The statistics look rming now that we know the Dungeon likes to set traps. But until now, they just looked a little weird. Do we break all statical outliers? What we really need is a way to see whats happening inside, so we know if the Dungeon is trapping a group inside. The onlymunication methods that work are either partys and emergency beacons. Phones and radios wont work, and ck boxes or bodycams will get eaten by the Dungeon before they can be retrieved. So we teach as many sentries a party [Skill] as possible, and then make sure that one of them is there whenever none of the Dungeon delvers has one. Then, either the party adds the guards to a party or vice versa. Isaac suggested. And by we teach, you mean that youre going to be doing the teaching? Amy asked. Yeah, Ill work out the particrs with Guildmaster Seon, , Isaac said Now, we need to keep working on this. Do we know why you were targeted by the Dungeon? someone asked. Honestly? Isaac shrugged We looked weak. ording to the records, groups of S-Rankers almost never show up, and theyre usually apanied by A-Rankers. The Dungeon wont have had any experience with how powerful groups of two can be, so it might have thought we were a good target. Wouldnt it be able to somehow sense how strong you were? Park asked. Isaac paused before answering We dont know how Dungeons can sense a delvers strength, or if they can even sense anything except what Evolution someones at. The Dungeon adapted its tactics to the abilities I and Amy demonstrated, not our full [Skill]set. However historical data tells us that many Dungeons know better than to attack extremely powerful individuals. Theres clearly some kind of sensory effect in y, but we dont know how good it is beyond that it doesnt give itplete ess to our status sheets. But even if it can see what kind of [ss] someone has, all it saw was a magic user and a scientist walk into a Dungeon, that hardly looks threatening. The entire room just gaped at him for a moment, until Park finally asked the question on everyones mind, sounding as though he expected Isaac to incinerate him on the spot. Youre a you have a scientist [ss]? But youre you fight Demon Lords, eat [Raid Bosses] for breakf- just how? Isaac let out a long breath before answering By always preparing, never taking a fair fight, and bending the rules until they scream and beg for mercy. In reality, [Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit] was primarily a capstone [ss] that worked with the bearers previous [sses], granting [Skills] that were only strong if they synergized with existing [Skills], but there were enough possible options that anyone with a decent [Skill]set could create a downright nasty build for themselves. But in the end, if forced to sum it up in a single word, yes, it was a scientist [ss]. Besides, he had previousbat [sses]. Amy reminded everyone. So we know why you were targeted, now how did the Dungeon know how to strategize like that in the first ce? Maybe someone fed it a copy of The Art of War? Isaac suggested, earning a fewughs. No, Im serious. Remember when someone decided to feed a collection of Dungeon Core books to that little cavern just outside the city? Isaac asked. This time, he got a collective wince. That mess had been a shitshow for the ages. One of the stories involved had been about a fantasy wizard whod stolen a magical amulet from the dark lord, escaped through a botched portal, and identally zapped himself into a video game, which had transformed into a real world due to the influence of the magical amulet. And the icing on the shit cake was that he could only return home by reaching a high enough Level to use a portal ability. In order to do that, hed taken over a dungeon and used proper gueri tactics. The yers of said game had thought he was an annoying troll. The problem was that, in the real world, brutally murdering people via diseases, curses, acid baths, excruciating toxins, and more it was kinda awful. In the end, the only thing worse that someone could have fed that Dungeon would have been a tablet containing the entirety of the Saw franchise. The Dungeon ended up destroyed and the no feeding Dungeons books policy had been more strongly empathized. So maybe someone decided to be funny and identally taught a Dungeon how to strategize? Or they had the book on them when they died in the Dungeon. Or it was sabotage. Sabotage. Yeah, that was looking to be the most likely option. But were they dealing with a purely earthly culprit? Sabotage that urred a long time ago, inflicted upon a Dungeon that might grow to be a ce where everyone and their dog went to level and gather resources, a ce that Isaac might go into, and then have ayout that might counter him, as long as his build didnt change massively that sounded right up the dark gods alley. A cheap trick in more than one way. Then again, the same logic could be applied to human saboteurs. Sabotage a Dungeon with a decent chance at growing popr, rather than trying to fuck with an already well-visited cavern of murder, which would be under heavy guard. If it was the gods, then humanity would also get a tiny boon somewhere down the line. And if it was a human, then theyd get caught by someone who was actually good at tracking down criminals, someone other than Isaac. Until then paperwork, grinding, and powering up humanity. *** Twelve hourster, the conference room looked even worse. Comparing it to a battlefield would have been an insult to the battlefield. Dirty tes, cutlery, takeout containers, street food wrappers, empty sses, spilled coffee and other beverages it was a mess. One that would soon be cleaned up, once Isaac and Amy vacated the ce. Are you alright? she asked after a moment It got pretty rough in there. Youre asking me if Im alright after a fight? Shouldnt I be asking you that? Isaac replied, pausing for a moment to make sure that the anti-eavesdropping protocols were still in y Ive been in a lot worse situations than that. You havent. Amy shrugged I could actually fight back, you were stuck on the ledge. I could probably have sted my way out if Id just bunkered down near the entrance, melting the ice while I kept the dragons off me with a few nasty spells. That might be the most vulnerable youve ever been in this timeline. Look, that sucked, but honestly, bad fights always do, and I always bounce back. Isaac shrugged. Thats why youre sitting in an almost empty conference room, preventing the cleaning crew froming in? Amy asked. Isaac shrugged again. He just needed a little time to think, really. Its that easy for you? Almost died, oh well, I didnt, so now lets go pick the next fight? she was still calm, but Isaac could tell she was rattled. He once again checked the anti-eavesdropping precautions before responding. Did I ever tell you what I did before I woke up back in my bed, on the day the [System] arrived? he asked. You fought a [Raid Boss]? She responded, sounding very unsure. Yeah, thats what I told you, isnt it? Isaac sighed. Yes, thats what you said. Amy shot him a concerned look What happened? I fought a [Raid Boss], that parts true, but I didnt tell you the whole story. I was with a couple of others. One was a really good friend, we were stuck together for weeks thinking we were the only survivors in the world, and then Mark showed up. We were friends too, but I wasnt quite as close with him. He told us about a Demon Lord nearby, a Tier 10 version. At that point, [Raid Bosses] dont just have minions, they also have portals that close a few hours after their deaths, and those portals constantly spew out more monsters, eventually growing big enough to summon weaker [Raid Bosses]. Honestly, we could have probably survived for a bit longer, in that fortress, but we were done. Mark told us about the monster, and we decided that we could at least kill one Big Bad Evil Guy before we died. So out we went, not expecting to evere back. And we tore through them like they were nothing. Less than nothing. And we killed the damn boss, we tore it to pieces, but in the end, I was the only left one on that field, just me, that things corpse, and the portal. Id already decided I wasnting back from that fight, so why stop now that the enemy was dead? Why not jump through that portal and kill as many of them as I can find, because maybe, just maybe, that damage might stick? Because that ce might be where the monsters came from, or maybe it was the realm of some dark god whose face I could spit in before I died. And then, moments before jumping through that portal, I was told I could try again, so I did. All of this, everything thats happened since then, its bonus time. I love that I have it, and I want to make sure Im never back in that situation, but Isaac sighed deeply I made my peace with dying a long time ago. I dont want to die, I dont want anyone else to die, but Im not scared of it anymore. Just upset that I might have screwed up and lost everything. There was silence in the room for a long while before Amy spoke up. Did you see them again in this timeline? she asked gently. I randomly ran into Kade one time. It was awkward as hell, and I stared at him for so long that Im pretty sure he thought I had a problem with him. And Mark I know hes fine, they both are, but I dont think I can ever meet them again. If you ever need to talk, you know Im here, right? Amy offered. Isaac nodded slowly Thanks. But Im going to keep talking with Bailey or Elena? Amy finished his sentence for him. Well, Bailey is my actually age, so wait, how do you know about me and Elena? Isaac asked. He thought hed kept that on the down low fairly well, but maybe hed been careless, more focused on keeping his secrets or his rtionship? Arthur. Amy point-nk told him You go to Camelot a lot, or meet her somewhere else, but you never let anyone elsee and Arthur didnt know about it because it isnt official business when I asked. Also, you just confirmed it. Then she stuck her tongue out Master of a million secrets, lets slip that he has a girlfriend the first time someone asks, I gotta tell the others! And with that, she opened the window and flew out, cell phone already in hand, Isaac right on her heels, earlier funk forgotten. Chapter 241: Heart to Heart Chapter 241: Heart to Heart The soft touch was where Isaac was seriouslycking. Anything that required a measured response left him crippled. Chasing an enemy through the air would have been a piece of cake. Reduce his mass to functionally zero, use pyromancy to elerate, done. Problem was, he could hardly start spewing mes in the middle of downtown Seoul just to prevent Amy from from telling the rest of the team about his rtionship status. For obvious reasons, the vast majority of his very lethal arsenal was also out. So he went back to the oldest trick in his book, removing his weight and using flying swords to elerate. Of course, the citys administration had also thoroughly had it with people flying all over the ce, risking collisions with helicopters, nes, and other people, so there were countlessws regarding proper flight paths. In other words, there was no way in hell he could catch a [Mage] whod cribbed spells from every magic-based [ss] shede across, including countless flight spells which shed then mashed together to create something greater than the sum of its parts. But Amy wasnt moving at anything close to her top speed either, eventually slowing near the outskirts of Seoul, and cutting her flight spell entirely once she reached her final destination. She dropped like a stone in the same second that Isaac made a grab for the phone, making him miss and mutter a swear word. A split-second before she hit the ground, she cast a momentum-canceling spell and came to a dead stop. She stared up at him and gave him a jaunty little wave, but made no move to run further. Isaac hit the pavement a split secondter and looked at her quizzically. What exactly was the point of all that? he asked, surprised that she wasnt running further or making any attempt to spread the word otherwise. In lieu of anyprehensible answer, she just startedughing so hard that she couldnt even stand up straight You should have seen your face! You were never going to tell anyone, were you? Isaac asked. Amy was hard to read, even at the best of times. Mischievous, always thinking of something funny to say, though she also knew when to keep her jokes to herself. Underneath it all, though, he was rarely sure about what she was truly thinking. But right now, he was fairly certain shed had her fun by making him chase her all over town while highly limited in what he could do. No, that would have been pretty mean. But seriously, why is this such a big secret? Why all the sneaking around? Isaac sighed You know, this doesnt seem like a conversation for the middle of the street. Lets go to eat somewhere. Ten minutester, they were sitting on a random bench in a public park, a massive spread of street food piled high between them. All of it a million times better than the random stuff theyd been fed while researching. Whoa, hot! Amy yelped as she ate the first piece of a particrly spicy batch of tteokbokki, then proceeded to stick her tongue out and scrub it with a cleaning spell. Its all in your head. Isaac told her, earning himself a death re No, Im serious. Youre still tasting the spice, but your Fortitude is high enough that the capsaicin cant burn you anymore. But your brain doesnt know that tasting something spicy no longer means that the inside of your mouth is basically getting chemical burns. Its how people still swear and hop around a bit when they bump their toes, even though they should be too tough to feel anything. Amy gave him a skeptical look, staring straight into his eyes as she lifted her fork to her mouth with trepidation You know what Im going to do to you if you lied to me, right? Well, he didnt know exactly what shed do, but he could imagine. Horrible, awful, unspeakable things that would make even demons quail in fear. But hed told her the truth, so it should be fine right? Ah, this is so much better, Amy sighed and leaned back, grinning for a moment, before going right back to staring straight back into Isaacs soul. Are there any other things you might have forgotten to tell me? she asked, voice dangerously low. This time, Isaac began to sweat a little. Was there something he hadnt told her? He had told her about how you could reduce your senses back to the human baseline, and how you should do that for smell because the modern world stunk right? If he hadnt, shed probably burn off his eyebrows at the very least. I dont think so? Isaac cautiously announced. Anyway, enough stalling, you were going to tell me about your girlfriend, Amy teased Why do you sneak around like that? Situations like this, for one, Isaac pointed out. Would it have really be such a big deal if youd just been upfront about everything? What, just announce it? Is this high school? Isaac replied with a raised eyebrow. Theres a difference between announcing it and hiding it like its a secret on par with nuclearunch codes. Amy pointed out Lets start at the beginning, when did this start? First time we met, actually, Isaac said We got all the paperwork done, put down the foundation for all future cooperation between us and Camelot, we decided to get drinks afterwards, one thing led to another, and so on. Ok, so at the time, it would look weird, I get that, Amy said, before continuing in a surprisingly good imitation of Isaacs voice Well, the two of us just worked together for a whole night, in and out of the bedroom, heres an agreement that I assure you we paid full attention to. Isaac had never been more d to have an anti-eavesdropping [Skill] active in his life. Sure, lets go with that, Isaac told her. But why keep it up? I mean, youre sneaking off to meet her asionally, but by dating standards, you two basically never see each other. Amy asked. Because keeping it on the down low works. Were taking it slow, and we dont want to deal with the usual oh, when are you getting married nonsense, especially not from my parents. Amy winced Arent your parents nice, though? And slow, why? The worlds ending, isnt it? Nice and annoying arent mutually exclusive. Isaac shrugged And as for why were taking it so slow you said it, it might be the end of the bloody world, if we dont do enough. If we live in the moment, we might lose the rest of eternity. Amy winced. I know rtionship advice shouldnte from someone who routinely goes to bars just to show up and scare the shit out of the braggarts who try to pick up girls with grand lies about hunting monsters, but dont wait too long. We wont. Ten yea- Isaac began, then did a double take as everything shed said registered You do what? Oh, its good fun. Some guy talks about how hes kicked a [Raid Boss] around like a football, then sidles up to me, drops some stupid line and then I let him feel a tiny fraction of my [Aura] as I take a [Portal] to the next bar. That oh shit, I fucked up look is absolutely priceless. Im guessing thats part of why you want an S-Ranker badge? Isaac guessed and Amy nodded Can you imagine having that in my wallet, identally shing that thing to someone who thinks hes hot shit? Seriously though, how are you and Elena going to go? Ten years thats a long time to wait. Even with how aging slows with Levels and Fortitude. I know. Isaac said But neither of us is human anymore either. Im an Einherjar, I dont even know how long Ill live beyond that my lifespan is probably a bit longer than a High Humans. And Elena is literally one of the Fae, her lifespan might as well be infinite. We dont have the time to spend together now, but we will in the future. So were waiting. Hm. Was Amys only response. How about we forget about this, and in ten years, you can brag about how you figured everything out before everyone else? Isaac suggested. Sure thing, Amy shrugged, Now, we dont have to do anything for a few more hours, what are the chances you could arrange an S-Rank promotion exam between then and now? *** Magic red in the training room, obliterating every target with extreme prejudice in a split second. All around Amy, rubble from her demonstrating an AOE spell piled high, a homage to the rooms made to break design. Professor Kim stood next to Isaac in the examination room. This was just a formality, shes one of the most terrifying magic wielders in the world. Shemented. Youre on that list too, Isaac pointed out. I know, Kim said But the examination isnt why Im here, I heard youd be here and figured this was a simple way for us to talk in private. About? Isaac asked. The room had several powerful anti-eavesdropping measures and the professor had just cast another anti-scrying spell on top of everything else. What do you know about the [Systems] architects? Why are you talking to me about this? Isaac asked. He and Professor Kim asionally worked together, but hed expected to be at the very bottom of the list of people shed talk to about something this sensitive. Guildmaster Seon said I should talk to you when I asked him, she replied. Ah, that made more sense. And what did he say, exactly? That I should share my hypothesis with you, and nothing more. It sounded very cryptic, Kim said. I think I know where this is going, Isaac replied So, what did you find? I think the [System] was created by multiple parties, at least two. Kim stated I know that sounds out there, but theres evidence. Two different design philosophies, two different levels of transparency, two entirely different purposes. A removal of the limits on how far training can take a person is benevolent, giving the entire world the option to summon highly destructive monsters seems sinister? Isaac asked. Exactly, Kim said But theres more to it. Have you read the entirety of the [Systems] instruction manual? Isaac nodded. It only describes the beneficial parts of the [System], not the dangerous ones, Kim said. It could be part of a challenge from the [Systems] creators, a little how most video games donte with an inbuilt wiki that reveals all the secrets from the start, Isaac suggested. Do you really believe that? Kim asked. Isaac shook his head No, just trying to keep other options in mind, ying advocatus diaboli. Alright. Then we have the designs of the summoning rituals. Looking at them on the surface, there are two kinds of summons. First, we have opponents, meaning monsters, as well as ces that create them like Hunting Grounds, Dungeons, and other ces in the Realms section. And then we have boons, like spatial pockets for both storage and living in, spirit pets, realms that preserve endangered species. Isaac nodded, not sure where she was going with this. But in reality, there is an additional divide, creating two categories of rewards type summons. Some are incredibly valuable but require materials that can only be gained from powerful monsters, encouraging reckless behavior. Yet some are valuable while only requiring cheap materials. Turning ones animalpanion into an immortal spirit pet costs a couple of chunks of cheap stone, a hand-made cor, food, and a drawing, which is basically nothing, a few hours worth of effort at most. How much would people be willing to spend, how far would they be willing to go to save their pets? How high could the [Systems] architects have raised the price if they wanted to? But they didnt, and one of the kindest gifts of the [System] is all but free. Its the same with various animal sanctuaries that can be summoned. You need samples from the animals you want to inhabit it, but no materials that require you to fight a powerful enemy to get. Its a simple way to enrich the we live on, and its basically free. On the other hand, something as simple as spatial storage requires you to fight one of the most annoying and dangerous monsters in the first five Tiers. Theres a clear divide there. Isaac nodded once again Its interesting, but theres still a chance that its just another trap, a sample to get people hooked on the [Systems] rewards and more willing to risk themselves. Youre onto something, but I want to make sure we keep all possibilities in mind. I understand, Kim said But Ive found something even more interesting. Are you aware of the difference between sr and sidereal days? Oh, now Isaac knew what she was building up to, something he hadnt put two and two together before now. A sr day is how long it takes for the Earth to spin into the same location rtive to the sun, a sidereal day is the time required for the Earth to return to the same positioning rtive to the surrounding stars. Sidereal days are around four minutes shorter, he summarized. Exactly. I noticed that what were calling the beneficial part of the System uses the twenty-four-hour sr day as the cooldown time for [Skills] that have a one-day cooldown. Meanwhile, once a day [Skills] reset at precisely midnight in the timezone where they were used. On the other hand, anything to do with the malicious side of the [System] operates on the sidereal day. For example, automatic summoning doesnt ur a full week after a monster is first summoned, but a little under twenty-eight minutes earlier. Seven sidereal days after the summoning, on the dot. With every Tier above 1, the automatic summoning cooldown is reduced by half a day, thatsmon knowledge. But once again, its not a twelve-hour time difference, its eleven hours and fifty-eight minutes. The two halves of the [System] use different methods of measurement, Isaac stated How the hell did I miss that? We found out about the sidereal measurement of the automatic summoning I think it was years ago. You believe me already? Kim asked, This is the part where most people start arguing and calling me crazy in spite of all evidence to the contrary. I know youre right, though I didnt make half the connections you did. Now, can you keep a secret? Because at this point, theres something you really should know about this world of ours Science is about sharing information so the whole world can benefit, Kim responded It really depends on the nature of the secret. Its something that confirms your hypothesis, but its not something we can act on, Isaac exined. If thats true, Ill keep your secret. But we both know how dangerous the world has gotten, we need any edge we can get, It took another five minutes but eventually, Isaac managed to convince her that his secret wasnt going to advance their preparations for the potential apocalypse beyond reaffirming the need for them to prepare. He exined and once he was done, Kim grimaced, taking a long time to gather herself before responding. That its worse than I ever could have expected. A divine war by proxy shit. If you need anything, Ill make sure you get it. And Ill keep your secret unless it besmon knowledge. Thank you, Isaac said. The pair of them left the room another minuteter, only to be greeted by Amy, whod been waiting at the door for an apparently long time. The evaluator whod been in the examination room with her was tapping her foot in annoyance. Whatcha doing? Amy asked chipperly, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. Having a confidential conversation that went long, Kim replied cooly, then looked at the examiner We fully support official recognition of Miss Shaws S-Rank. Isaac nodded too, so the examiner pulled the red and gold medal from empty air and handed it to Amy. Miss Shaw, the Republic of Korea officially recognizes you as a person of S-Rank caliber. This badge is a demonstration of this recognition, and grants you certain privileges within the borders of this nation. In addition, as with all S-Rankers, a generous benefits package is avable, should you decide to relocate to this nation The whole spiel basically boiled down to immediate citizenship with a bare minimum of red tape, arge, gifted apartment, and a ludicrously high stipend, but Amy declined it immediately once it was over. Eventually, Isaac, Amy, and Kim headed over to Seoul University to discuss further action. Chapter 242: Vacation from a Vacation Chapter 242: Vacation from a Vacation Ugh, that sucked. Isaac copsed into a couch in the Hunters Guilds lobby If I ever decide to train a thousand people at the same time, please throw me into the sun. Was it really that bad? Amy asked. If I fight alongside people with a simr ideology, theyll slowly gain weaker versions of my teacheable [Skills], which can eventually upgrade to the full epic version that I can teach directly. Normally, its a nice passive boon for when I fight [Raid Bosses] with the Bundeswehr. But this time, I was trying to teach a few thousand people at the same time, so they could form parties with Dungeon divers and learn about trouble as it develops. Never again. Ever. Gods, I need a vacation! he groaned. Wasnt going to Korea and going into a few Dungeons supposed to be the vacation? Amy asked. Yeah, and now I need a vacation from my vacation, Isaac sighed, Lets get out of here. The trip hadnt even earned them much. Some loot from the Dungeon, including some rare materials from the draconic boss, XP aplenty, and a few [Skill] Levels, but it didnt really feel worth it, considering how stressful everything had been. On a slightly happier note, [Absolute de Mastery] had finally passed Level twenty during the day spent training. Freelyshing out even in a crowd of allies, taking full advantage of the fact that he could control what got damaged had done wonders for the [Skill]. Absolute de Mastery (legendary, Level XX) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the de. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, others spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. Yet none of them have ever reached this stage, because they couldnt. Normally, there is always more to learn. At some point, you will solidly run into the issue of diminishing returns, but your path will never truly end. And then, theres this Skill. Might not grant absolute skill with the de, but it allows the user to truly master it in all of its forms, in two different ways. Firstly, now any and all skill and experience with any de carry over to any and all other des. Never, ever, under any circumstances, will a tiny difference in bnce, length or weight screw you up, never again. You can pick up an entirely new type of sword that youve never even conceived of, as long as you are a master of some manner of sword, you will also be a master of this one. Secondly, never again will you cut something you did not mean to cut. You have absolute control over your weapons, you could shave a furious cat actively trying to murder you with a gauntlet sword without ever even so much as inflicting a single scratch, this is the level of fine control you hold now that you have this Skill. Hell, you could wave a chainsaw around in a crowded disco and unless you want to hurt people or destroy objects, the only issue would be the noise. Lastly, this truly legendary level of skill with the de can now be shared with others. The secondary effects of this Skill will not be imparted, but proper use of the de can turn even a blunt pair of scissors into a lethal weapon, and this is what your students will learn. After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to utilize their skill with the de on such exotic things as even their hands, it has evolved to gain a new effect. The edge of their hands, their elbows, knees, heels, and any other striking surface be sheathed in energy when used to attack, protected, gaining a cutting edge/piercing point, Furthermore, the user bes permanently able to use their skill with des while fighting hand-to-hand as well. In addition, the users des and aforementioned body parts are capable of bypassing any resistance to physical attacks an enemy might have. Finally, now that the user has been forged into a de, the damage of any of their physical attacks can be controlled or negated entirely, allowing them to perfectly control what is damaged or destroyed. The new effect wasnt rted to his regr usage, however. Not surprising considering his regr usage wasnt particrly imaginative. He used the [Skill] that let him avoid damaging stuff or people he wanted intact to keep stuff or people intact. Instead, it had expanded on just what he could use the [Skill], and it meant that the effect of his third, oft-neglected, [Aura] was perpetually on. Where intangible or transformed enemies were concerned, he was probably the single biggest threat to them in the world. All in all, a solid upgrade. How about I portal us to a tiny town where they barely ever read the news, where no one will look at us twice, well eat a literal ton of feel-good food and dont leave until they have to roll us out through the return portal, Amy suggested. Have you ever been to Scotnd? Specifically, Cairngorm National Park? Isaac asked, Gorgeous wilderness, close enough to Irnd to have decent Guinness, a million different local, good, whiskies, and Im sure we can find good pubs too, Isaac replied. Hm, never been, but that sounds good, Amy said. She opened a portal that took her as far as she could reach and Isaac transported them the rest of the way. You know, Im not sure why youre so deadset on keeping the gods under wraps, Amy thought out loud. Isaac turned to look at her and raised an eyebrow. Last question, then Ill leave you alone, Amy promised I was just thinking, if people are starting to figure things out on their own, maybe its time to start spreading the word? Because the absolutest thing we need is them mucking around. Im pretty sure that confirming the existence of the divine to the world as a whole would probably be an impactful action, which is why theyre holding back. The more people we tell the whole story to, the easier itll probably be for them to start mucking things up again. Also, god is one hell of a trigger word. People hear that and theyll drop to their knees in worship, automatically assuming were all screwed. No one is going to look at them and see beings that, for all their powers, are so wrapped up in their own rules, their checks and bnces, that they basically cant do anything at all. If we dont define an enemy, and make it look like all we have to do is keep our heads, well win the psychological battle. And finally, I might not know exactly how divine worship works, but I can make an educated guess based on what I learned in the other timeline and a divine [ss] I was offered for my second Evolution. Best I can tell, if people worship gods, the gods can take at least some actions for free in exchange. But that makes worship transactional, where people just stop if they arent seeing the miracles theyre praying for. I have no idea what the conversion rate is, how it all works, but is it really so unlikely that gods might grant wishes before theyd been paid back just to keep the faith flowing? By the time the gods started interfering in earnest in the other timeline, the world was already screwed, so I couldnt tell you if they made it any better or worse overall. But chances are, things would get worse. Hell, theyre the whole reason were in this damn mess! So no, I dont want to risk it, I dont want to take the chance. This is humanitys fight, and by the go- you know what, by our ancestors, were going to finish this! Were going to beat them without any more help from the people who are responsible for this clusterfuck, were going to reach the peak of the [System] without destroying ourselves in the process and eventually, we might even be able to hurt the gods themselves! Shit, I didnt even think about that, Amy winced. Yep, gods messing around with the mortal world never ends well, Isaac added. But maybe thats why even the ostensibly good gods are such pricks? Amy suggested, I mean, think about it: nothing youve seen so far hints that non-neutral gods can just do stuff that opposes their nature so they can do stuff that does align with their, uh, alignment. But if they arent paragon examples of their alignment, their actions might not impact the bnce as much. What are you talking about? Isaac frowned, hard. The old myths, Zeus constantly sleeping around, and mortals were getting turned into stuff for challenging gods, viges destroyed for not offering proper worship. Even the good guys do a whole lot of bad, but its never seen as something antithetical to their nature, its a part of it, pulling them closer to the grey zone of morality, Amy exined Imagine superheroes as gods, who do you think would disturb the bnce more, Captain America or The Punisher? Excuse me while I go bash my head through a tree, Isaac growled. Any doubts about keeping the gods out of the situation hed still been harboring vanished like he was too pissed to think of a proper metaphor right now. In the end, they were in a national park, and therefore, destroying the nts would be seriously frowned upon, so he instead found a nearby boulder to headbutt a couple of times. Youve got gravel stuck in your hair, Amy pointed out when he turned around to her. I dont care, Isaac grumbled, Thats it, no more talking shop, were going to eat, drink, and drink some more until the damn pub is dry. Amy just nodded and walked the final hundred meters into Aviemore. A tiny town of three thousand souls, in the middle of a national park, no big cities around for miles. The Winking Owl, cute, Amy observed as Isaac led the way towards their destination, Whend you find this ce? I ate here with a few friends, once, Isaac said, It was a lot less peaceful then. There wasnt much more to be said. When you started talking about a ce in the middle of nowhere to eat, it was the first ce I thought of. Due to the time difference between here and Seoul, the pub had barely opened even though theyd leftte in the evening, so the bartender looked at them in astonishment when they ordered half the menu. But he was obviously happy about the business. Steak with every possible kind of sauce, fish and chips with several different kinds of fresh-caught fish, a couple of different burgers, every craft beer this ce had on tap, multiple bottles of whisky, and more besides. Under the [System], the only people who needed to eat more than normal were ones with specific [sses] or [Races]. But just because they didnt have to didnt mean they couldnt. No one at the fourth Evolution needed to worry about their stomach bursting, losing brain cells to alcohol, let alone water intoxication. They could just keep enjoying themselves. An interesting fact about the Cairngorm National Park was that they had a herd of reindeer, so the pair of them ran off to see them after a couple of hours, did a few hiking trails in record time. And then they were back for an equally sizeable meal after just a few hours, causing the bartender to sh them a brief look of surprise but he didntment. By the time the bar closed, their bill had grown to truly insane heights, but of course, they had the money to pay. Akashic Industries, thepany Isaac had set up, might not need much direct managing due to how well it had been set up, but it was earning him a ludicrous amount of money. As long as he wasnt nning on buying a small country, hed basically never need to worry about money again. As they left the small town of Aviemore, Isaac restored his anti-eavesdropping [Skill] and brought up work once again, breaking the moratorium on serious topics. If I die, you know where to find my notes, right? Isaac asked. He knew hed told her that, hed told them all where to find the information hed stashed in case the worst happened, but suddenly, hed felt the need to make absolutely sure. He hadnt lied to her earlier, he truly had made his peace with dying long ago, but right now, the thing he was afraid of was losing the chance to make a difference. Of course, notes was an utterly inadequate term to describe what hed left behind. Every piece of information he hadnt spread far and wide yet. Personal testimonials about what had happened in the other timeline that apetent [Archeologist], [Librarian], or other [ss] that dealt with the written word would be able to authenticate. And anything else that might have been useful. Initially, theyd been literal USB sticks and printed-out notes, well hidden but in ces that could be found using his will. But once hed told the others about everything, hed been able to create something a lot more sophisticated and hide it vastly better. Karl had synthesized him several sizeable chunks of crystal that were almost as though as diamond and Isaac had inscribed everything on those. In those, to be more precise. Hed phased his de inside, returned only the very tip to normal existence while activating [Sundering Strike] on it. And with that, hed scratched his message onto the inside of the crystals in an infinitesimally tiny script. The only way to read that would be with a sensory [Aura] or a few rather expensive scanners, but it was apact and extremely durable way to record information. And then, hed put those crystals in the bedrock under a few buildings. His home, one of the new university summoning rooms, and the like. He wasnt worried about anyone finding them prematurely. They looked just like rocks to most scans, and they were buried deeply enough that they wouldnt be in regr sensory [Aura] range. Most people with decent control over their [Aura] had it projected out considerably further than its standard range of twenty-five meters, but in order to do so, it lost a lot of resolution. Isaac, for example, had his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] projected out as a series of incredibly thin strands, each barely more than a millimeter apart, with a further pair ofplete shells one hundred and one hundred fifty meters out to detect any long-range attacks that passed through them. Even he couldnt spot the inscribed rocks unless he knew where to look. Yeah, I know where to find them. Ones under the north corner of your summoning area, fifty-three meters down, anothers under summoning room number seven, under the door, fifty-six meters down, and then theres one under Stagmers smithery, right under the forge, sixty meters down, and under the library, dead center, fifty-one meters down. All distances calcted from where the concrete ends, Amy told him. Thanks, Isaac said Youre incredible, you know that, right? In the end, she was the very essence of what hed hoped to aplish. Powerful, armed to the teeth with knowledge and magic firepower, ready to go to fight to the bitter end for this world. No single person could fight a monster of biblical proportion such as the high-end [Raid Bosses] or even [World Bosses], nor could he alone go up against the collective ignorance and greed of humanity without help. That was why hed taken the approach he had. And while he was doubtlessly powerful, in the grand scheme of things, if he died tomorrow, hed already achieved most of what hed set out to do. Information gathering was out of his hands now, and someone else could kick down the doors and beat the shit out of the bad guys, he wasnt needed for that personally. Hell, hed even passed on the duty of protecting the world to others whod taken to the task with almost the same devotion as him. Why are you looking at me like that? Amy asked after a long moment. Im just happy that youre helping me, Isaac told her. Hey, name one better use of my time than literally saving the world, Amy challenged with augh. Isaac kept a straight face for all of two seconds before he burst outughing Touche. Tou-fucking-che. Before he could say anything else, his phone rang. He pulled it out with a roll of his eyes, but when he saw the text, his face lit up like the sun. What is it? Amy asked. The stuff finally came, Isaac told her. Stu- wait, are you talking about the materials for it? Yep, Isaac nodded Give me a sec to call everyone else, well catch hell if we dont invite them. Chapter 243: Mobius Castle Chapter 243: Mobius Castle You cant just teleport straight onto campus covered in moon dust, that stuff causes silicosis, Bailey told Raul as the ranger marched off the teleportation pad. The issue of creating a proper portal when the distance between endpoints was constantly shifting hadnt been solved yet, so theyd sidestepped it entirely. Instead, they created a stable portal back on terra firma, in the middle of a huge runic array, and let the moon-side counterpart crash into the person or persons that were being transported. It required plenty of preparation and couldnt be used often due to a ludicrous mana and material cost, but they couldnt exactly expect someone to fly back from the literal moon. Its not an issue back on Luna Base, Raul responded while his magic cleaned up the mess, then his face lit up with sudden realization No kids or low-Level people around, right. Ill clean up next time. So, we finally got thest few materials? Patrick called out from where hed just portaled in. Unlike Raul, hed been close enough to return home under his own power. Yep, Isaac said, Come on, follow me. He led them to a small bunker that had sat vacant for months, utterly out of ce amidst shiny edifices of steel, ss, and concrete, greenhouses, and artisan shops. It looked like it belonged on Omaha Beach, not a university campus. But here they were. A single, massive door that looked like steel but was made of something vastly tougher stood open, letting them enter a room that really did look like the inside of a pillbox, with one significant difference. All the firing ports were aimed inwards, into yet another room that could only be essed by a second metal door. And in that room was a Tier 8 circle, piled high with materials that were enough to buy most of the campus. Mind you, with the sheer amount of wealth poured into this university since the dawn of the [System], both in terms of money and materials retrieved from monsters, their campus was most likely the biggest concentration of value in the world outside of bank vaults or Fort Knox. [Raid Boss] hearts, most of the elements on the periodic table in significant amounts, countless other monster materials, and more besides. How many people areing here in the hopes theyll be able to steal this? Isaac wondered. None, Id wager, Bailey told him Pretty sure everyone knows better than to steal from this ce afterst time. Especially now that everyone is here. The first time someone had genuinely tried to rob the university theyd almost killed one of Isaacs assistants, run into Bailey, and gotten their asses thoroughly kicked. And there hadnt been a second time. Good, Amy shuddered I wouldnt want to get into a fight in the middle of campus, not at the fourth Evolution. Anyway, this is everything, right? Karl asked as he circled the pile of materials, Everyone, check out the pile, see if were missing anything. They all nodded and looked everything up and down. Messing up here would not be good. Summoning rituals were intentionally designed to be incredibly hard to fuck up, but if you did mess up, it was usually pretty messy, a barely held-together mass of mana and elemental energies tearing through anything and everything in its path until someone killed it or its natural instability tore it apart. And if that happened here, this would be a Tier 8 monster with half a million points of mana behind it. Very, very bad, any way you sliced it. But that was why they were being so damn careful. Once everything had been checked over for the billionth time, everyone else was invited in. Most of them worked somewhere under Bailey in the [System] sciences department, but several had been borrowed from other departments. The Void Ind required half a million points of mana, and only a hundred people could participate. But thered been more than enough time to make sure they had the mana donators at the ready. As the others filtered in, Isaac heard severalmenting on the odd construction. It would be exinedter. They stayed clear of the inner chamber as the area immediately around the summoning circle would get really wonky in a few minutes, but thankfully, feeding mana into the circle worked through even these walls. The whole affair was pretty simple, in a way that belied the historical nature of the event. The press hadnt been allowed inside due to ack of space, but cameras had been set up to record matters. *** In a small room, barely three meters across, a magic circle zed ever brighter, the literal treasure trove of materials piled high atop it taking on a pearlescent sheen until it melted into the runes below. Space warped above the magic, twisting and folding in ways invisible to the naked eye and utterly iprehensible to the mind. Suddenly, there was a howl of wind as air rushed into a room suddenly a hundred timesrger than it had been, sucked in by the sudden drop in pressure. For a long moment, the unnaturally expanded space hung there, the warping now barely perceptible, a strange fuzziness in view caused by the fact that there was an unnatural amount of air between the camera and the far wall. And then it copsed back in on itself, the rooms regr dimensions snapping back into ce as a shining bright spot above the very center of the circle shed in existence. From that spot, a portal unfurled like a flower made from white light, expanding to the size of a garage door. Void Ind had been generated. Current registered Owner: Adam Bailey *** The first person to start putting in mana would be the owner and capable of opening and closing the entrance to the ind, but Bailey immediately added the rest of the team to the control group as well, granting them the same full, irrevocable, ess permissions that he had. And the instant the spatial storm in the inner chamber had died down, the door was opened and they went inside, right through the shining white doorway. Officially, this was so they could make sure everything was safe, that they hadnt identally resurrected the [Raid Bosses] whose hearts had gone into this ces creation or anything equally dangerous. And to be honest, theyd have gotten this directive from the deans office if Bailey hadnt suggested it first. The real reason was that they wanted to look at the thing theyd created by themselves, without anyone watching them, asking questions, just them enjoying the fruits of theirbor. The other side of the portal was arge, white void, empty, cloud-like, swirls as far as the eye could see. But as far as their distance from the portal was that was aplete mindfuck. They might be so close that they could reach out and touch them, or they might be impossibly huge and so far away that the distance could be measured in light seconds. However, there was one thing that was solid, unmoving, and that was the ind the portal stood upon. Perfectly circr, two kilometers across, hard-packed dirt and sand. In fact, the whole ce was a perfect sphere, half-dirt and half-air. Oh, this ce is awesome! Amy and Karl eximed almost simultaneously. Im just d the oxygen automatically replenishes, Raulmented. That had basically been the first thing hed asked as hed have been the one stuck creating the biosphere if the Void Ind hadnt done that on its own. This is going to make summoning the higher Tiers so much easier, Bailey added. Yep, you guys can fix this ce yourselves if you break it, Karl rified. He was usually a good sport about being the only one with the [Skills] to properly fix the summoning rooms in case of substantial damage, but he had to be d that the dirt could be repacted far more easily. And cleaning out the usual mess of bodily fluids and toxins that umted in summoning areas didnt require a high Level [Engineer] either. So, what happens if someone falls off the edge? Amy asked, cautiously peering over Are you just in screwed unless you can fly? Oh, thats simple, let me show you, Isaac said and flung a water balloon, which hed pulled from his spatial storage, off into the nothingness. It vanished and immediately popped out on the opposite side of the air half of the ind. But before it could nail Amy in the back of the head, it exploded in a shower of water andtex shreds as she hit it with a magic missile without turning around. Then, she shed Isaac a shit-eating grin. The water balloon was a bit of a giveaway, dont you think? You obviously werent going to throw it at anyone else, but you chucked it at the wall its not exactly rocket science. I see the prank war is still alive and well, Baileymented, then gave Isaac a mock-rebuking smile Did you ask us in here without cameras just so you could pull that? Isaac shrugged. He hadnt, of course, but everyone already knew that anyway. How long until we have the materials to summon the animal sanctuary version? Raul asked. A few months, but we probably wont have the spares for years, Isaac told him But Ive been gathering samples of the endangered species we need since the start, well have what we need when were ready. Can we summon anything we need in here? Amy asked. [World Bosses] dont work, the summoning circles explode, Isaac said And [Raid Bosses] that cant fit through the portal will count as trapped and dont give any loot if attacked from the outside. Putting a couple of guns out there would work, but anything else wont fly. Perfect, Amy grinned. Oh, that wont fly. [Raid Bosses] on campus anyone who so much as mentions that around the dean is going to be out on their ass a few secondster because he will tear my head off. Bailey interjected. The Void dampens the [Raid Boss] notification, doesnt it? Patrick asked rhetorically, then added, Is there a way to detect these spaces from outside without seeing the portal? Should be possible, Amy told him, Its in a separate dimension, that kind of stable connection should be obvious if we use The conversation had gone well over Isaacs head about five seconds in. Hed known there was a way to detect these ces from afar, but not the exact method, leaving it up to the magic experts to reverse engineer it. As much as hed like to help, it was well out of his wheelhouse. So, anything else you want to do in here before we head back out? Bailey asked. There was an almost universal chorus of nos. The only one who didnt immediately answer was Amy. She tried to drench Isaac with a low-power water spell, he dodged, and she clearly decided against trying again. With that out of the way, they headed back outside, announced that the ce was clear, and the dean bustled in with the press. Fifteen minutes after that, the helpers were let in and the whole thing devolved into a bit of a party. Initially, everyone was very careful around the edge, but then Isaac demonstrated that the instant you left contact with the floor and went outside the sphere, youd reappear on the opposite side of the air dome. In hindsight, that might have been a mistake, as it led to an epidemic of people shoving each other over the edge. Eventually, hed have to get one of these ces for himself, but that would take a while. No matter his material resources, there were things that couldnt be bought for love of money. In time, hed be able to get the hearts from [Raid Bosses] he killed with the Bundeswehr, or maybe from ones the Guild or even Camelot fought, but they all had their own needs for these materials. Or maybe he could throw more support behind Fenrirs attempt at getting the official go-ahead to summon [Raid Bosses] on his own. The group in Antarctica was certainly one of the least constrained organizations in the world, but even so, the treaty of Seoul mandated that wild [Raid Bosses] were to be nuked ASAP, regardless of national borders. Eh, that was something he had to figure outter, once hed seen how everything shook out once news of the first Void Ind got out. Once he had that information, he could make a better n. Chapter 244: Modern Education Chapter 244: Modern Education Wee to Combat [Skills] 101, Isaac announced, standing in front of a lecture halls ckboard for the first time ever. Behind him, a kabar with a crayon duct-taped to its end drew on the ckboard under his telekic control. In theory, any and all university faculties had to put in a certain number of teaching hours, as had staff of a certain academic rank. Yet here he was, teaching. And not because someone had had a family emergency, not because there had been any other kind of suddenck of personnel. His reason for being here was simple, basic, raw. Spite. Sheer, unadulterated, spite. Quite a few people had gotten on his case about wanting him to teach them, their subordinates, their children, or in one particrly memorable case, a tinpot dictator had actually thought thered been a chance hed be able to convince Isaac to train the mans private security force. That guys dirtyundry would be out on the web in a few months when the data leak would be less likely to be linked to him pissing off Isaac. But eventually, the sheer number of calls, emails, and other requests had reached a tipping point and Isaac had decided to demonstrate that he could, in fact, teach people quite effectively, but only if he chose to. Besides, this ss was normally taught by a Bundeswehr Drill Sergeant whod been voluntold for the position by a General looking to curry favor and was therefore quite happy to not be dealing with colleague kids for a little bit. So, up until now, this ss has been all about gaining knowledge about weaponry throughout history, and how many ancient weapons have be relevant again due to how the [System] has changed things. Now, I dont know what you are nning on doing with your degree, what fields youre nning on going into, but if it is even remotely rted to the [System], such as apany involved in monster material harvesting, youre going to need that knowledge. However, in this lesson, Im going to focus on something else. How do weapon [Skills] work? How is generalbat, without active [Skills], reflected on your character sheet? Isaac paused a few seconds, gaze raking across the rows upon rows of students up above. He didnt have to look at anyone to see them, but that didnt stop the students from talking with each other as they couldnt tell he was looking at them. Wherever he looked, conversation died in an instant. While many of them had doubtlessly seen him about campus, he wasnt exactly the most approachable of people, especially with how many lobbyists hed verbally torn to shreds once they got on his nerves. As far as the students were concerned, he was the lecturer they least wanted to mess with. He then went in-depth on how the weapons [Skills] covered more than just weapon usage, also improving generalbat when ones weapon of choice was in y and automaticallypensated for all the craziness that came from people with superhuman capabilities fighting. Now, for this next part, I wont be taking questions until the very end. A second kabar appeared over his hand, hovering there, tip down. This is a kabar, first used by the United States Marine Corps during World War 2. Its a simple design, useable for a wide variety of fighting styles, and it wont break when used as a tool, be it woodworking, cutting wire, or opening cans of food. Its widely acknowledged to be an incredibly useful and versatile piece of gear and continues to be so to this day. The knife flew up to hover above his head as his Kriegsmesser manifested in front of him. And what we have here is a far older weapon, known as a Kriegsmesser, often used by soldiers of lower station. For them, it was the thing that stood between them and a grisly death, bleeding out on a blood-stained battlefield or dying in agony from an untreatable infection. Once again, the weapon began to float above his head, while his Zweih?nder appeared in front of him. Centuriester, this was the weapon used by knights and other heavily armored fighters who needed to focus less on defense. It has reach, but several creative anti-armor techniques can be performed with it. For example, the Mordhau involves flipping the weapon over, holding it by the de while using the weapon like a warhammer. But these are just the swords that I personally use, there are countless more. Dozens of weapons spilled from his spatial storage and floated into the air, slowly orbiting above his head. Hed borrowed most of Stagmers stock for this disy, but it had been so worth it. Each of these des has a purpose, one which its design follows. For example, this is an executioners sword, which doesnt grow slimmer as it gets further from the pommel, making it extremely top-heavy. Counter-productive in a fight, but extremely useful when youre trying to put as much power as possible into a single, downward-oriented, decapitating strike. On the other hand, this is a dius, the typical weapon of a Roman legionary. A short stabbing weapon, designed to be used alongside the giant shields wielded by the legions, while being fairly easy to produce. The next thing to float down to hover in front of his face was a strange, club-like, weapon, that looked like a ttened baseball bat with obsidian shards, running around the circumference. And what we have here is called a Macuahuitl, an Aztec war club. Despite the name, however, it is yet another de. Those ck objects around the circumference are shards of obsidian, creating the edge. Incidentally, broken obsidian created some of the sharpest des in existence, pre-[System], and despite how old this technology is, some surgeons would use obsidian scalpels during surgery. Then, the war club flew up to join the orbiting cloud of weapons. I could tell you about all of these weapons, exin their function, their history, the idea behind each specific design choice, but fundamentally, they are all the same. All throughout human history, countless people have lived and died based on these well-honed pieces of metal, stone, and countless other materials. It doesnt matter what a des shape is, how big it is, or even what its made of. If its a de and its in the right hands, it can be the difference between victory and defeat, life and death, bing a legend or fading into obscurity. Thats what the de is to me, what it represents to me, and what it can be for everyone who spends time learning to get the most out of the [Skill] you should have acquired during my little speech. It had given Isaac no small amount of amusement to see how hard the students were struggling to keep quiet, to not start cheering as they realized theyd just gotten very useful, very foundationalbat [Skill]. But for each and every one of us, that [Skill] is going to mean something different. The official designation for my fighting style is Speed Demon, in my head, I call it The Way of the Demented Pinball, but my [Skill] is still called [des] because they are the weapons I hold in my hands while fighting. And as long as you dont start branching out into all sorts of other weapons, yours will too, no matter how you fight. This [Skill] I have just taught you teaches you to fight with a de, regardless of the specifics of yourbat style. Now, we still have one hour left in todays lesson, how about we head outside and see if we can find some of your styles? He stored all the weapons, led the group out to the training field, and ran them through some basic drills. Nothing crazy, nothing that would turn these kids into future powerhouses, but enough to make this the most productive single lesson theyd had this year. In the back of his mind, though, hed been preparing for something entirely different. And thankfully, he got a chance to pull the trigger on that. Simply put, the information about how hed been teaching a lesson had, of course, been put on social media within minutes. So the vultures had started showing up and hed sent them packing with an expression like the butter wouldnt melt in his mouth and the line Im sorry, dear Sir or Madam, but for insurance purposes, only registered students of this university may take part in lessons with any risk of bodily harm, no matter how minute said risk may be. And yes, he did actually say Sir or Madam, as though he were a customer service drone who didnt give a flying fuck about treating the other person like, well, a person. The lesson itself was plenty of fun to teach, and would hopefully make a difference in the students lives. Simply put, the modern education system was a mess. It hadnt been particrly well-run pre-[System], but with the addition of [sses], things had really gone off the rails. Ideally, youd have curriculums based around evolutionary paths, with teachers that could impart all the right knowledge-based [Skills] at the very minimum to maximize the students chance of getting the [ss] and Evolutions they wanted. [System]-Sciences were better than most as that degree had been built from the ground up after the [System] had appeared, with the [System] in mind, but even that course was far from perfect. Once the lesson was done, he headed back to his office while examining his gains from the lesson. They were quite a bit higher than expected, but he could see what had happened here. Hed done a lot of teaching in the past, but it had always been either with his team or very brief instances of him just showing up, tossing a few [Skills] at his students and leaving. This was the first proper ss hed taught like this, and it showed how much of an impact hed made. [Lessons of History] had gone up by a single Level, as had [Absolute de Mastery], [Armory of Ancient Times] and [The Chosen Weapon]. Moreover, that Level in [The Chosen Weapon] had been enough to max out the [Skill]. The Chosen Weapon (epic, Level max) There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent. But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death. And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then bes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user. As this Skills Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained. In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers. The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the users, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level the user has. Based on the users Level in the de Skill, The Chosen Weapon (Old Reliable), gains a new ability for every Aspect the user holds. This weapon may now absorb nine (four remaining) additional weapons to be used as an alternate form for The Chosen Weapon. Weapons may also be removed at a cost of 1,000 mana, once per year. The Chosen Weapon will never cease being useful to its wielder, never stop growing despite the Skill being maxed out, sharpness and durability endlessly increasing as the user levels. This was perhaps the single most boringly phrased reward for maxing out a [Skill] hed ever gotten. But damn, was it significant. The total number of weapons he could slot into Old Reliable had grown to a total of nine, and if he found a better fit. In addition, he could now not only summon each of Old Reliablesposite weapons separately but also every single other version it had gained due to Aspects. The de-type line of Aspects had already let him call upon duplicates of each weapon, but even that number had been highly limited. Now though, he could summon fifty copies of every weapon. The original version of the de plus nine versions created by Aspects made for a grand total of ten des, a number that was then multiplied by 5 by his de Aspect. More than he knew what to do with, really. In fact, those were enough weapons that the real limitations were how many des he could keep track of at once, as well as how much mana levitating so many des would cost. And then, of course, there was the fact that he could now remove a weapon from Old Reliable, freeing up new slots as needed. Isaac removed the Kriegsmesser from Old Reliable, causing the sword to manifest, permanently. It had started out as a well-made, pre-[System] weapon, and grown to surpass anything short of a de of legend during the time that hed wielded it, but its role had been filled by Balmung ever since hed gotten the legendary weapon. Eventually, hed find someone to wield this weapon, though. It had served him well, and just because hed found something better didnt mean hed toss his old sword out like a piece of trash. Maybe one of his sisters would pick up the sword. Hopefully, it would only be one, because if both of them became swordswomen and wanted the sword, then things would be awkward. And, of course, hed have to prepare something to give to the twin who didnt get the sword, for the sake of making things even. In fact, his sword had gained a [System]-screen of its own, something reserved for only objects of high significance. Legacy (soul-bindable Kriegsmesser) A weapon baptized in the crucible ofbat over months and years, wielded against Wraiths and Hydras, monsters in human skin, and it has even brought low a Demon Lord, the first of its kind to walk the Earth in countless millennia. Despite being separated from the soulbound weapon that grew alongside its wielder, Isaac Thoma, it has retained the enhanced properties it had during its time as a soulbound de, and may even create a new soul bond with the next person to use it. It is one of the strongest weapons in the world, inferior only to the weapons originating in ancient myths and legends. And now, it is awaiting its next wielder, someone to carry on the proud tradition established by the first person to bear this de into battle. As such, where its name once might have been a simple descriptor of its design, this sword has imed the name Legacy. Ok, that was something. The des name had changed in ordance with the intention hed had when removing it from Old Reliable, which was surprising, but what really threw him for a loop was that this de could even be bound to a new person. Would all the weapons he removed be this powerful? Them retaining this kind of strength might even make it worth it to remove all his weapons and hand them out, though he didnt want to give up the swords that had been by his side for so long. But why had the Kriegsmesser, no, Legacy retained this much power, including the soul-binding ability? There hadnt been anything about that in the [Skill] descrip- Isaac facepalmed, carefully moderating his strength to avoid sting the papers on his desk all over the office. His maxed-out [des] [Skill] allowed all his ded weapons to grow as he used them, an effect which stacked with how Old Reliable increased in strength, proportional to Isaacs leveling. In all likelihood, empowering a given weapon across over a hundred Levels worth ofbat would, in time, have given it the soul binding power. Either way, hed keep all of his other weapons where they were, as a part of Old Reliable, and find a good home for Legacy. Now, he summoned another ancient weapon and merged it with Old Reliable. Mimung, the thrice-forged de, finest work of Wand the Smith. It looked more like a rapier than a sword, slender and deadly sharp. Sharper than Balmung even, but light enough that Isaac generally preferred the other de. But now that he could use both and rece either if something better came along why not do it? Overall Old Reliable had grown quite a bit. Weapon: Old Reliable Once merely an ordinary Ka-Bar, this weapon has been refined and strengthened by the Skills of a Rogue, bathed in the blood of countless powerful monsters, and finally imed as The Chosen Weapon of an Undying Wraith, transcending its old purpose and limitations. Ever-growing with its wielder, the Old Reliable will not only gain strength but entirely new powers as it is used in legendary battles and bathed in the blood of the enemies that fall in them. Mana Pool: 1,176/1,480 Forms: Ka-Bar, Zweih?nder, Balmung, Mimung, Giant Sword Skills: To Me: Calls Old Reliable back into the wielders hand in a straight line, costs 10 mana, at a range of a maximum of 10 meters. Always Armed: Teleports Old Reliable into the wielders hand from anywhere in the universe. The minimum cost is 50 and scales with distance and interfering effects. Eternity: Old Reliable is as eternal as its wielder. So long as he is alive, this weapon has the opportunity to be reborn. Doing so will require all of the materials used to build it in the first ce, as well as 500 mana. This cost will have to be paid by an external source. Shapeshift: Old Reliable can now shift between Forms at will, every shift costing 1 mana. Duplicate: This Skill calls out as many of Old Reliables forms, Aspect-Infused versions, or otherwise different types, as the user wants, having them exist simultaneously until it ends. This costs 10 mana to activate and 1 mana per minute for every manifested weapon. Aspect Infusion: This gives Old Reliable a variation on each form based on the users Aspects (Greater Hydra: Venomsteel, Megalodon: Bonede, Poltergeist: Astral Dagger, Fata Morgana: Invisible de, de Tempest: Quintuple Threat, Lindwyrm: Corrosive Saber, Least Demon Lord: Hellde, Space Elemental: Space Cutter, Lich: Cursed de, Death Knight: Giant Cleaver). This costs 15 mana each time a new Aspect is infused, and 10 mana per minute of keeping it active. Only one Aspect can be active at a time. Lindwyrms Bite: The de begins to drip vile liquid, melting anything and everything it touches, save the user and the users equipment. This costs 100 points of mana to activate, cost 1 point of mana per second to sustain, and will continue until deactivated. Water Cutter: This de is no longer slowed by liquids, nor is its wielders sword arm slowed by being underwater. de of Crimson Cmity: This de will fully regenerate damage (including restoring broken des) whenever bathed in the blood of a suitably powerful enemy (Current requirement: min. Level: 135, min. Power: Rare ss Human or Field Boss). Sacrificial Crystal: Choose any form of this de, manifest it, transform it into crystal, and detonate it in a burst of force and infinitely sharp shrapnel (cost: 100 mana, 1 Old Reliable form). This renders you unable to summon the sacrificed weapon until it is restored using Eternity or de of Crimson Cmity, but inflicts devastating damage upon the wielders enemies, especially if the de is piercing their bodies at the time of detonation. Every new [Raid Boss] hed taken down had added a new ability to the sword, either active or passive, but most of them werent all that useful in the overall scheme of things. Small damage boosts, elemental damage that could be added, several different mes that were utterly superfluous now that Isaac had [Divine Fire], and the like. The only things he continued to disy were the functions he was nning on using. The ability to use the sword underwater,pletely freely, gained from the Salmon of Wisdom, a powerful self-repair function,pliments of the Sanguine Monarch, Lindwyrms Bite from the monster of the same name. And, of course, the power to detonate any given weapon into a burst of razor-sharp crystal, gained from the Crystalline Sage. The magic-wielding [Raid Boss] had been destroyed during the [Raid Boss] ughter month on Etzel, but it had been shockingly easy thanks to an exploit discovered by the Bundeswehrs [Combat Engineers]. Theyd modified the ground in a way that let it be moved and shifted at the drop of a hat, shattering any runes the monster tried to draw within moments. Theyd gained ess to another runguage, and Isaacs sword had grown a little bit more useful, but all in all, that had been one hell of a boring day. And, of course, the weapons mana pool had grown to ridiculous heights. Compared to Old Reliable, the soulbound weapon hed had in his other lifetime had been a piece of junk, even though it had been scaled to someone one Evolution and sixty Levels above where he currently was. It had been another Kriegsmesser, one granted not by a [Skill] but simply a supremely well-made weapon that could be soulbound. Soulbound items had been rarer then, without the Events monsters to drop them and fewer master craftsmen, most of whom hadrgely lived in hiding. The weapon hadnt even had a name, merely being a soulbound Kriegsmesser that couldnt be permanently destroyed, would always be sharp and durable enough to be of use to its wielder, and could be summoned back into its wielders hand in a process that took 3 seconds toplete. Perfectly serviceable, all in all, but it was only a fraction as useful as Old Reliable. The final upgrade was just decent. Armory of Ancient Times (legendary, Level XX) They had some good stuff back in the time of legends, didnt they? Legendary swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings, and belts that granted the strength of ten men all that good stuff. But we dont have that stuff anymore, they were either lost to history or they never existed in the first ce. But with this Skill, it doesnt really matter which of those is true, because Hildebrands Heir is able to summon anything he wants, so long as Hildebrand once held it, such as his sword Balmung, once wielded by Siegfried. You may summon multiple weapons (or objects) at a time, and doing so will reserve 100 points of your mana to maintain it unless you can find alternative ways of sustaining it for the first, with the cost doubling with every additional summon. As you learn more about Hildebrands legend, youll learn more about what you can summon. After having one of this Skills ancient weapons summoned nigh-permanently, it has evolved so that the user may also permanently summon a single object by paying 2,000 mana upfront. This object will remain without requiring upkeep until it is either broken or dismissed. Currently avable gear: Balmung, Nagelring, Eckesachs, Mimung, assorted mundane gear, Laurins Ring, Hildegrim Permanently summoning one weapon or object was decidedly average, as Isaac had any weapons he needed already added to Old Reliable. But it would make dropping over a weapon at Stagmers shop for the man to copy a hell of a lot easier. Isaac put Legacy into his personal storage, checked the clock on the wall, and realized that he had enough time to pick up some food before the imminent meeting. Chapter 245: Final Preparations Chapter 245: Final Preparations Exotische Gensse was one of Isaacs favorite ces to be, and not just for the food. It was perhaps the one ce on Earth where he didnt have to suppress his sense of smell. The teams favorite restaurant was located right on campus with them, and the cook absolutely loved using the monster materials they brought her. She was also an artist, who used her senses to their fullest potential to create the best dishes she possibly could. As such, shed created a workspace that waspletely clear of olfactory impairments, whether they came from outside or the trash. A ce that was not only free of anything that could possibly be construed as stink, it was also filled with the smell of some of the worlds most delicious cooking. Oh, hey Isaac. The cook herself greeted him as she came out of the kitchen Dont you usually send one of your assistants for food? Eh, I had some time and you know I always enjoy visiting this ce. It smells like the Scraffend. Isaac said, referring to a fairy talend where everything was of food. It also held a fountain of youth, but the part of the story that had always amused him was the wall that surrounded the ce. It was made of rice pudding and anyone who desired entry had to breach it by way of eating it. Oh really? she asked They have Hydra stew in the Scraffend? Here I was thinking that serpents didnt exist in there, silly me. I dont know, Caroline, Isaac shrugged But if thats Hydra stew Im smelling, Id like two servings of that, as well as some bread, I also heard something about boar pie made from the Twrch Tryth, so Id like a couple of those, and do you have any apple pies left? I can definitely do that, but Ive also got some lesser Kraken cmari rings if you want some, Ill toss a couple in for you guys to try, Caroline offered. Wait, how big are those rings? Isaac frowned. If they were made from even a lesser Kraken, they had to be huge. And here I was hoping to shock you by dumping a cmari ring the size of a tractor tire on the table, guess I should have known better than to try that on you, Caroline shrugged Worth a try, I guess. Ill make sure to take a photo for you when I pull that trick on the others, Isaac promised. So, how would you like to pay? she asked. I know better than toe here without proper tribute, Isaac told her with a wry grin as he pulled severalrge crates from his storage ring. The storage device was far less secure than the [System]-granted storage space which he could ess by sacrificing a Lesser Space Elemental Core, but it was far cheaper and he wasnt exactly going to be bothered by food being stolen. And while these ingredients were valuable, no one who stood any chance against him inbat would pick a fight over them. Oh, these are nice, Caroline practically crooned over the bounty. Could I get my food first? Isaac requested. He knew how world-ss crafters were, and if he didnt get his order now, hed be stuck waiting for hours. Sure, she said and retrieved the relevant food items from her spatial storage. She spent a lot of her time experimenting with new ingredients and dishes, and much of the rest for pre-making meals, then storing them in her time-locked [Vault of Delicacies] until someone showed up with the means to pay for the food. Isaac pulled his new purchases into his now-empty storage ring, thanked Caroline, took one more deep breath of the cleanest air on Earth, reduced his sense of smell back down to a bare minimum, and left the restaurant. He marched into the meeting room, began to pull tters and cutlery out of the cab, and ted up most of the foodall except for the gigantic cmari rings. The others slowly trickled in as he worked and sat down in their chairs with drinks theyd retrieved from the fridge. Just as Amy took her first drink from her beer, Isaac withdrew the first cmari chunk from his storage ring, depositing it not directly on the massive metal tter but a few centimeters above it. The food item mmed into the metal with a loud tter, startling the others, including Amy. Unexpectedly, she just shed him a shit-eating grin and kept drinking. Okay, normally she was very easy to startle or surprise into her drink going down the wrong pipe, but not now. Wh- oh, water breathing spell, cast ahead of time. That tricks a little yed out, dont you think? Amy asked via a [Throw Voice] spell, still drinking her beer. I dont put nearly as much nning into pranks as I do into saving the world, Isaac responded, grumbling. And this huge thing is what exactly? Bailey asked. Kraken cmari, Isaac told him. Jep, I am very d I cant get fat anymore, Raulmented as he carved a keg-sized chunk out of the deep-fried kraken meat. So, did you guys hear about the time Isaac lost a fight to a cat while you were gone? Amy said in a conversational tone as they ate. For thest time, Im a schr and a fighter, not a hostage negotiator or psychological warfare specialist, Isaac sighed. Now I really want to hear that storage, Karl said. Well, see, there was this cat that somehow got in. And when Isaac opened his office, it ran in. So he tried to get it out and failed miserably. Then Amy regaled everyone with a grand tale about how the damn cat had yed Isaac for a fool. The real issue had been that hed been incredibly limited in what he could do. He was so much more powerful than the irritating feline that turning it into a stain on the ground would barely have required any effort at all, but it was a cat, he didnt want to hurt it. And because it was so damn fragilepared to him, basically all his abilities were unusable. Speed? Whish. Teleportation? [Phantom Step] didnt allow for passengers, and using [Continent Strider] just to get out of the building was one hell of a waste. Phasing? Well, the cat couldnt phase, could it? Fire? Obviously useless. The cat hadnt been anyones familiar, it hadnt had any listening devices or bioweapons on Hed grabbed the cat faster than it could blink, held it securely, and carried it out of his office, intending to deposit it outside the building. Yet the moment hed stepped into the corridor, the cat had begun to wail, howling so heart wrenchingly that, had Isaac not been looking at it, hed have assumed someone was feeding the poor creature into a woodchipper, or doing something simrly horrible to it. Immediately, peoples heads started popping out of their offices to re at him or look piteously at the damnable feline in his arms. Psychological warfare at its finest. Hed put down the cat right then and there, then rushed back into his office and locked the door before it could follow him inside. That had worked for all of five seconds. Then, the cat had resumed its wailing while scratching at the door like mad. Hed resolved to ignore the cat until it got bored and went away, but then someone knocked on the door and asked him to take care of his cat. When Isaac had opened the door, the cat had run right back inside. The next time Isaac tried to grab it, resolving to take it out via [Continent Strider] despite the waste, but it had scratched him. Of course, the damn feline would have had better luck wing its way into a bank vault than damaging him, but it still counted as initiatingbat, and [Continent Strider] could only be used outside ofbat. In the end, hed grabbed a cardboard box, stuffed the cat inside, cast his perception-blocking [Skill] on said box, and carried it outside while praying that the box would hold long enough for him to get outside. He managed it, and hed won on paper, but after spending this much effort on dealing with a single, utterly mundane, Felix catus Domesticus, it didnt feel like hede out ahead. Once theughter had died down and the food had been devoured, the real work began. So, as well know, our political overlords have, in their infinite wisdom, decided to host the first-ever gathering of the European Unions S-Rankers. Last time we talked about this, Sun wasnting, please tell me that hasnt changed, Isaac opened the conversation. Thankfully, no one told him otherwise, which meant that at least the walking disaster zone that was the Monkey King wouldnt be around and then Bailey started to talk and Isaac just about had a heart attack. Actually, d got a courtesy invite to the whole conference as a trade partner and since Fenrir is still technically a citizen, hesing. Isaac sighed audibly in relief. So no Monkey King, good. Fenrir was hardly a master negotiator, nor did he have any [Skills] for social situations, but he had a good head on his shoulders. It would be nice to have another friend around. So were back up to sixty-nine S-Rankers, the powder keg grows, Patrickmented dryly. This is mostly a political conference, for the various regtory bodies of the EU to see if they can work out how to deal with the [System] properly. Because this time, theyll manage in a week what they havent managed for the past three years, Amymented. At least putting all of us into the one ce might lead to some more cooperation between S-Rankers, Bailey pointed out, ever the optimist, Patrick, Karl, youve put up all wards and reinforced the building, right? Yep, the buildings superstructure is going to survive up against anyone that isnt directly aimed at it for at least a few minutes, barring battlefield-sweeper attacks, Karl reported. And any wide-scale attack will be restricted to the building itself, anyone outside will be safe for at least a bit if things go pear-shaped, and the staff inside is going to be kept to a bare minimum, Patrick added. I dont know if its a good or bad sign that theyre that prepared for failure, Raul wondered, Actually, I have something I need to tell you guys about. You know how there are several other conferences by industry leaders and lobbyists going to take ce in and around Brussels during the anniversary? My father just told me that hell be attending several. Hes prettyposed usually, but when ites to his kids if he decides to talk your ear off, feel free to make up excuses to leave, hell understand. Parents, eh? Amy nudged him with her elbow. Parents, Patrick gave a long-suffering sigh, turning to Bailey If you ever run into my mother and she starts yelling at you about how youre not treating me right, feel free to punch her. He sounded dead serious. Wait, why would she think that? Bailey asked, sounding more puzzled than anything else. Because as far as shes concerned, anything short of putting me in charge of the whole department within five minutes of me being hired is mistreatment, Patrick exined, Like I said, feel free to punch her because logic and reason wont get you anywhere. Duly noted, Bailey nodded, Ill probably just walk away and leave it at that, though. Anyway, where were we? Isaac asked, Right, building protections. We made sure there are no [Skills] in y that allow for intoxication, and as long as no one brings in any alchemical drugs, everyone should be sober. We have people outside scanning for anything like that, so well get an advanced warning and hopefully, well be able to stop messes before things get out of hand, Patrick added They talked for a bit more, but most of this had been talked about before, and they were just repeating themselves. All the precautions that had to be taken had been, not just by them but by everyone else. The members of Research Team Bailey were hardly the only S-Rankers who worked closely together with their government, and all of them had been doing their damnedest to make sure things went well. And soon enough, the day of the event was here. Chapter 246: A Bad Idea? Chapter 246: A Bad Idea? The conference center was a huge building, imposing, the very epitome of post-[System] construction, a style whose name hadnt yet been officially chosen, but all current contenders were variations on Sentinel, Guardian, Keep, or Bulwark architectural style. Into the lions den we go, Amy muttered via the party chat theyd established before heading over here. Isaac couldnt help but agree, this could end oh so badly. Getting inside was both easier than Isaac had expected and worse than hed feared. The only requirement to enter was to prove ones identity, yet Isaac feared there might be a couple of primadonnas who took askance to even that. It was a perfectly reasonable precaution, of course, but S-Rankers were rarely normal. No one threw oneself into the crucible that created the strongest people in the world while being perfectly sane. There was always some goal, some obsession, to pull one forward, or something one was running away from. Isaac, for one, threw himself into unimaginable danger whenever it seemed necessary because he was working to save the world, and hed reaped the corresponding benefits. Philibert Loup, [Louis Pasteurs True Heir], was a doctor obsessed with ridding the world of all manner of serious diseases and preventing future epidemics, growing to absurd heights by following his obsession. And then there was Sun Wukong. Something was clearly driving him to strive for absurd heights. The few S-Rankers who were perfectly sane were the other members of Isaacs team, theyd been less driven by their own desires and ambitions and more by Isaac standing behind them, cracking the whip of the world is about to end. They kept going, kept working, delving ever deeper into the secrets of the world, [System] and magic, eventually managing to reach high-rarity [sses] through abination of dedication and being on the bleeding edge of research. An elevator took them upstairs, into the conference center on the top floor. Every surface except the floor and buttons was enchanted to show the world outside the building, providing an unparalleled view of their surroundings. It shot skywards at a rate that should have thrown the passengers to the floor, except no expenses had been spared to build this ce and an inertia dampening enchantment was in y. If it hadnt been for their view of their surroundings, it would have seemed like they werent moving at all. Isaac thought back to the first grand meeting of legends in the other timeline. He hadnt been a part of that one, or the few after that. After all, hed started out as an [Office Drone] and only slowly grown into his power. Hed realized he hadnt wanted to stay with that [ss] for the rest of his life, so hed started training with knives and eventually evolved into [Knife Fighter]. His fighting style back then had also been aiming for weak spots, severing sinews, gouging out eyes, throwing chemical irritants or poisons into mouths and noses, picking his enemies apart piece by bloody piece. His next [ss] had been all about those kinds of tactics and then hed discovered hexes, curses, and blood runes. By incorporating those capabilities into his fighting style, hed finally be a legendary [Battle Ritualist of Cmity and Blood] at the fourth Evolution. It was all about bringing enemies to the edge of death and using them to power devastating attacks. That was the point where hed be truly part of the Earths strongest inhabitants. His fifth Evolution had been much of the same, just stronger. [Ruinous Psychopomp] was all about bringing his enemies into the next life, but instead of making their path an easy one, hed kicked them straight into kingdome, drawing upon the power of their deaths to murder their entire extended family. They were both [sses] that required a lot of setup and precision and were severelycking without it. But when the requirements were met, he could and had punched so far above his weightss that it wasnt even funny. [Raid Bosses], especially above the ninth Tier, when they gained minions, fell before him like wheat before the reaper. His current fighting style was still all about precision, but instead of nting curse marks or carving runes into the hides of his enemies, he just went straight for the jugr. And when that wasnt possible, when his first strike only wounded instead of killed, he still had plenty of tricks up his sleeve to carve them apart like a Christmas turkey. Joints, sensory organs, major blood vessels, nerve clusters, all of them were fair game. But despite how different he was from hisst go around, one thing was still the same. He didnt stand with these people based on raw power, but intelligence and trickery. His third Evolution was a mixture between a martial and training [ss], costing him some raw power. And his fourth was a mixture between knowledge and pyromancy abilities, with [Champion of Mankind] serving as its big hitter. Despite that, it was a hell of a lot stronger than it appeared at first nce. Primarily mental-based or not, it still provided Stat points and information was Isaacs weapon, it had been throughout this entire timeline and towards the end of thest one. We look damn fine, dont we? Amy asked, interrupting his train of thought. She, of course, had on another robe-dress hybrid, made from a deep blue fabric that seemed to glow with an inner light, showing stars and nebs in its depths if you stared into them for long enough. Isaac didnt know much about it as it wasnt particrly useful outside of looking pretty, but he was aware of the fact that it was ludicrously expensive. Or rather, it would have been, if she hadnt made it herself. Bailey, Raul, and Karl all wore finely made three-piece suits, with Rauls amodating for his familiars. Patrick had on a suit and vestbo, with the vest made from a fabric so dark it seemed to swallow the light, covered in pale blue decorative runes. And Isaac was right back in his good ol polo shirt, formal pants, and bracers. Old Reliable wasnt on him at the moment, but he wanted to project that he wasnt armed. It wasnt like it would matter if, gods forbid, shit hit the fan. The doors dinged and opened as the illusion of the outside faded away, revealing the room beyond. Theyd intended to be the first here without being early enough to act like the organizers. But half the French delegation was already here, led by one Gnral de Division Jean Ardouin, [Arcane Warsage]. Ah yes, the if youre not early, yourete military mindset. Germany did have two S-Rankers in the military and one in the police force, but theyd arranged for them toe after the team had had time to settle in. Isaac and hisrades had a far greater international reputation and the idea had been to have them make a strong early showing if theyd shown up as early as Isaac would have liked to. But they hadnt. Politics, PR, the projected image valued over the reality of the situation. And Germanys contingent couldnt go as one because they shouldnt look to click-ey. Why oh why were people like this? Ardouin was dressed in a full dress uniform, medals included, demonstrating to all and sundry who and what he was. His [ss] was a strange blend of [Mage] and a militarymander [ss], wielding spells that split the difference between standard magic and the usual [Skills] wielded by [General] and its Evolutions. Instead of magic bolts, he had countless portals he could open around himself. As for the other end of that portal? It would be in front of the muzzle of one of his subordinates guns, be they sidearms, assault rifles, or even heavy artillery. He also hadrger portals in ce of most of the tactical repositioning [Skills] he should have gotten, a nasty series of AOE debuffs instead of abilities like [Smokescreen]. Ardouin was the rare sort of militarymander who had power of his own, as most people of his rank and [ss]-type were all support, no action. Hed also not been Isaacs biggest fan in the other timeline, for some reason, Isaac had never been able to determine. Hopefully, things would go better, this time around, but there wasnt much Isaac could do without knowing the original issue. Next to him stood Philibert Loup, the heir of one of the most influential medical researchers of history, waiting with a ss of whiskey in his hand. David Soyer was the third member of the group, a green mage of unparalleled power. Deep within his soul, he had a garden, filled with all manner of exotic nts, both magical and not, whose power he could draw out. He was yet another person whod be an S-Ranker in both timelines, and he was bloody terrifying in a fight. Once, hed drawn upon the power of the Manchineel tree while fighting a monster in the middle of a rainstorm, water running across his body and bing infused with poison before it dripped onto his opponent below. The magically augmented toxins had burned the poor thing from the inside out. Alexandre Chevalier, on the other hand, was another neer, a living 3D printer capable of unleashing a nigh-infinite number of fairly advanced runic tes, railguns, powered armor, and more. His approach was mostly focused on quantity over quality,pared to Karls bespoke creations, but still utterly devastating. As far as Isaac knew, the two [Engineers] asionally talked, but were too different to be able to help each other much. Good afternoon, Loup called out from the bar, How about you join us? We figured we should leave the buffet until more people are here. Drinking on an empty stomach? Ardouin asked, eyebrows raised. I doubt theres a single person in this room who could get drunk even if they drank every drop of alcohol avable, Bailey responded. They set up at the bar and ordered drinks before they just stood there for a long moment. Once the whole meet and greet properly got going, there shouldnt be much trouble, but right now, it was a little awkward. It was Loup who broke the ice. By the way, Dr. Thoma, I never did thank you for that vat of molten dragon scale you sent me. I didnt know you were even aware of my exploits. Im aware of a lot of things, but I dont have nearly enough time to interact with even a fraction of them, Isaac shrugged as he took the seat to the doctor, You were pretty impressive, and I figured you were more than worth protecting. He scanned Dr. Loup intently, but even he couldnt tell where the magical reinforcement substance had been applied. If the doctor had followed his advice, hed protected his head since he could restore the rest of his body in short order, but Isaac didnt know for sure. But it was a damn good thing that spotting the reinforced areas was so damn difficult. Isaac then took his first sip of his whisky Whoa, this is good stuff. It is, Loup agreed, Seems almost like a waste to drink it while immune to its effects, though. Depends on how you look at it, Isaac replied Way I see it, you can enjoy it a lot more when youre not getting drunk in the process, and its not burning out your tastebuds with every sip. Thats one way to look at it, I suppose, Loup shrugged, But it still feels like were cutting out one of the majorponents of enjoying booze. Have you ever had alcohol-free spirits? As in, spirits that have had all the alcohol removed? Now that is a waste of a drink that should be against the Geneva Convention, Isaac raised his tumbler in front of his face and studied it for a long moment, But drinking booze like this? Its a damn good thing we cant get drunk on regr booze anymore, because otherwise, Id never be able to touch the stuff with a clear conscience. I get that, Loup nodded, God, people can be so irresponsible. Do you know how empty the emergency departments are these days? I dont work there myself, Im usually overseas, but I hear some spine-chilling stuff. Basically, the only ones who end up there are kids. Theyre so much more fragile than adults that perspectives on what they can take have gotten pretty skewed. Half the parents treat their children like theyre made of ss, and the instant theyre no longer under anyones direct supervision, they hurt themselves. And the other half think that kids are just miniature adults,plete with superpowers, and dont take any precautions. Its not just parents who think theyre invincible. My little sisters went on a field trip and found a grass snake. Tanja heard non-venomous, only eats frogs and went right up to the poor thing. Do you know how grass snakes defend themselves? Did she get hurt? Loup asked. No, grass snakes are harmless to humans. The problem is that they take a page from the skunks ybook when ites to self-defense. Oh no Loup sighed. Yep, thats exactly what happened. People make assumptions about what is and isnt safe, and get themselves hurt fully thinking theyre being perfectly responsible. They dont know enough to be able to judge how much research they need to do. And yet they still think theyre experts, Loup sighed Ive heard all sorts of reasons for people to not let themselves be vinated. We could have been rid of polio by now, you know. One time, I had someone yell at me that I was selfish for trying to eradicate that horrible disease, that I was only in it for the glory. Shouldnt Jonas Salk get credit for that, since he invented the vine? Isaac asked. Exactly. But no, one of the hundreds of volunteers risking their lives to eradicate that horrific disease, he has to be the one whos selfish for trying to make the world a better ce, Loup sighed. If trying to improve the world is selfish, then Im the most selfish man in the world. After all, Im trying to save the world just to have a ce to live, Isaac added sarcastically. Loup broke into a coughing fit as his drink went down the wrong pipe, then croaked out Wouldnt that make you self-centered instead? I guess, Isaac shrugged, Man, I hate people sometimes. Dont ruin the shouldnt be controversial, should it? Theyre doing stuff that benefits them because it benefits them. The world might suffer as a side effect, but as long as its not the reason for an action, they think it doesnt count, Loup exined. Yeah, yeah, I know. Isaac shook his head in annoyance, Theres a rational exnation for the behavior, but that doesnt mean it doesnt suck. People can be terrible, but we still do our best to save them, Loup said. Isaac just hung his head, then threw back his drink and had it refilled immediately afterwards. You were the one who fought the heir of the horseman of pestilence in Hamburg, werent you? Loup asked suddenly, after having activated a fairly high-powered anti-eavesdropping [Skill]. Yes, why? Isaac responded. As that was likely an [Heir-ss], my government fears another will take his ce. And when a living bioweapon shows up, Im probably one of the very few people who can prevent him from killing millions. So if someone like that returns, Im going to be the one to fight that battle. Sorry if Im overstepping, but doesnt the Hippocratic Oath have some very strong things to say about using medical knowledge to fight people? Isaac asked. I certainly didnt learn to box in medical school, so I dont think anyone will mind if I beat the living daylights out of him, Loup replied with a rakish grin, But Im not nning on actually doing battle with the guy, just counter his attacks. Healing and disease should cancel each other out, and someone else can kick his ass. Ah, that makes more sense, Isaac nodded, So, fighting tips. Hmm, if it is an [Heir-ss], then there have to be requirements, right? Im guessing a will to destroy the world is needed, and a previous [ss] rted to disease has to be a requirement, right? Assuming thats correct, and the next Conquest is at the fourth Evolution, this means that his third Evolution was some kind of [gue Mage], and the three [sses] before that are likely going to be something in that vein as well. You might have to deal with basic attack spells from his beginner [ss], maybe a couple of cooldown [Skills] from the first two Evolutions. But you should be able to counter anything from the third and fourth with your healing. The real issue is probably going toe from Aspects, those are the wild cards. Do you have any that can give you more options? Of course, a Water Elemental to provide drinking water, and an Earth Elemental for the construction of temporary shelters, Loup exined, And a few more, of course, but I havent used those in public just yet and would like to keep them close to the vest. Of course, Isaac said Basically, my advice is simple. Keep destroying any gues he unleashes, you should have a much easier time than I did, and watch out for any nasty Aspect-rted tricks. How did you keep his diseases off you? Loup asked. With great difficulty, Isaac responded. He liked the man, but not enough to reveal that information. After all, if it got out that hed just lit himself on fire and that information reached the next user of that terrible power, it was entirely possible that a countermeasure could be created. And that would really suck. Alright, keep your secrets, Loup said, Lets just hope the next time we talk is just as peaceful as this one. Have a nice day, and perhaps well talk once all the politics areid to rest. He paused for a moment, then added Well,id to rest, or relegated to the dueling grounds. Isaac emptied his ss again It was very nice to meet you, Dr. Loup, and I really hope this doesnt go that badly. You never know, Ive seen far lower-stakes meetings end in brawls, Loupmented as he dropped the privacy [Skill] and went on his merry way. During their conversation, the room had filled up quite a bit, and uncertainty was still thick in the air. Some of the people present had met each other in the past, but they were in the minority by a long shot. These were some of the most driven people on the continent, they simply didnt have the time for a whole lot of meetings, or the temperament to take a lot of time off. Isaac had had his head beaten with the proverbial brick often enough to acquire an infinitesimally better work-life bnce, but even he spent the vast majority of his time working. And with how much effort went into his research, his leveling had fallen behind quite a bit. However, gaining the ability to get XP from training others, as well as through research, had allowed him to catch up. In time, he might even get back to leading the pack. And then, there was the whole issue of how people this driven, nay, obsessive, often had very strong personalities. Isaac noticed that both Loup and Bailey had suddenly turned to look towards the elevator doors in an eerily synchronized manner. They didnt look rmed or frightened though, just concerned. Whats wrong? Isaac asked via the party. Someonesing up and theyre injured. Not in any danger, but in a lot worse shape than anyoneing up here should be, Bailey replied with a frown. Isaac rxed a little and began to head in the direction of the elevator, but there wasnt much time to do anything else. With a happy little ding, the doors slid open to reveal a tall Hispanic man in a pristine suit who looked like hed gone three rounds with an ornery housecat. The fight had clearly happened a few hours in the past as the wounds had scabbed over and there wasnt any blood on the suit, but he still looked awful. Especially as hed lost both eyes at some point during the fight, something that didnt seem to be bothering him much. Whoa. There was a [Skill] slowly regenerating his horrific injuries, but it was simr to Isaacs own [Perfect Form]. It would undo all damage, all injuries, all physical alterations, but it would take its sweet time doing so. Without any way of speeding the process up to boot. Are you alright, man? a guy near the elevator asked. Isaac recognized him as Stergios Marides from Greece. He had some kind of [ss] that rted to Hercules, but not his [Heir-ss]. Stupidly high strength, immense resistance to knockback, and other forms of involuntary lotion just a warrior with good training, solid weapons, and a full progression of extraordinary [sses], capable of kicking the ass of 99.99% of the Earths inhabitants Yeah, yeah, Im fine, the neer grinned, My sister decided she needed some protection and got a potion to power up her cat. Guess who gets to train the little devil? No, I mean, can you still see like that? Marides asked. Oh yeah, I can see just fine. I got undisputed mastery over my sensory [Aura], after all. Isaac stifled a snort. The man could be forgiven for not recognizing the person whod literally written the book on [Aura] usage, but if hed been anywhere near as good as he thought he was, he should have noticed either Isaacs or Patricks [Auras] suffusing the space in a vastly more intricate pattern. Mind you, he was still damn good, but not ovee a ten-year head start good. And then Isaac finally recognized the man underneath all the scratches. Jose Maria Sandoval, nicknamed El Bombardeo, which roughly tranted to bombardment or barrage. He knew something like 90 percent of all standard offensive spells, had a few earth-shaping Aspects to build defensive positions and his attacks grew more powerful the longer he stayed in one ce. Between those abilities and his sensory [Aura] mastery to ferret out targets, he was a one-man artillery battery. Well, to be honest, artillery batteries wished they could put out even a fraction of his firepower. So you can see just fine like that? Loup asked rhetorically as he stepped up to Sandoval Would you like me to fix that? Youre a [Healer]? Sandoval asked. [Doctor], actually. ssical training and all, Loup lowered his voice theatrically, though everyone here could hear him just fine, But between you and me, that training doesnt make a lick of difference anymore. Isaac turned away after that, shaking his head, ignoring the goings-on. Someone marching into an important meeting with their eyes literally wed out. That was something. But to be entirely honest, Isaac was quite surprised that this was the first entrance like this theyd seen. Chapter 247: Gathering of the Strongest Chapter 247: Gathering of the Strongest Well, thats why we use guard dogs, not guard cats. Isaac heard someone say in the distance. He agreed. Cats were cute, cats were adorable, cats were good pets. But cats also had a bottomless capacity for assholery, virtually unmatched by anything else in the animal kingdom. Boosting one up to the point where it could be used as a guard bad idea. Really bad idea. The general vibe of the room was thankfully good, with a few good-natured arguments about the most useful weapons, and my [ss] is better than yours style disagreements being the worst of it. Certainly nothing worth throwing hands over. A conversation with the Greek [One Man Phnx] here, a spirited discussion about the best way to knock a dragon out of the sky with Luxemburgs sole S-Ranker, the [Sky Lord]. Normal conversations between people who could level a city block in the blink of a sky, and the entire city soon after. The elevator spat out the next group, amidst a cloud of beer stench. Whoa. Isaac knew both of the people who entered. One was Fenrir, wearing a nicely tailored suit, not looking out of ce in the slightest despite how physically imposing he was. But Isaac knew that could change in an instant, Fenrir was an expert in projecting the image he wanted to show. Right now, he wanted to look respectable, but he could just as easily make himself appear threatening, like a caged beast barely contained by the chains of civilization, as though a single wrong move on his part would send the buttons of his suit pop off with enough force to turn a modern tank into swiss cheese. That would be one hell of a party trick, wouldnt it? Flex your muscles, pop shirt open, destroy whatever target you had set up. And Fenrir was definitely someone whod do that if he could. But hed gotten that outfit from Isaacs tailor, and it was built to provide a full range of motion. No matter how he moved, no matter what contortions he performed, the suit would stay intact. Well, if it snagged on something, that would be a different story, but the point still stood. Isaac was also damn certain that the man wasnt actually drunk, hed just been somewhere around a lot of beer, hed had beer spilled on him, or something simr. But turning something as innocuous as a popped-off button into a lethal projectile was well within the capacity of the second neer. He was an Irish man, tall enough to look down on anyone who wasnt a true giant like Fenrir and had shockingly bright red hair. It wasnt the typical Irish red, not ginger, not strawberry blond, not auburn, but the color of freshly spilled blood. Deep, rich, and utterly unnatural. It was also not dyed, rather, the result of a race change. Tiarnan Mac Liam, sole Irish S-Ranker, and only the second Fae that Isaac had met in this timeline. And he was a true trickster fae from the stories, with magic that was nasty beyond all reason. True wild power, the kind that had made the ancient faeries a threat that scared humanity more than even demons did. Elenas power was mostly locked up in the maniption of water, while she was capable of sinking entire cities with a wave of her hand, her esoteric magic was fairlyrgely limited. Of course, even that limited magic had allowed her to arrange for the British Prime Ministers bare bottom to be seen on live television. This guy his powers would let him mess with probability and the world in general. If there was a chance for something to negatively affect Mac Liams opponent, that chance would be greatly increased. People would slip on random stuff, roof tiles would fall at just the wrong time, worn-out equipment would break just when it would benefit him the most, and that was just the start of it. Throw in the ability to duck into a mystical otherworld, all the usual [Skills] afforded to high-qualitybat [sses] and it was easy to see just how hed gotten his rank. People like that, people who could make random chance work for them, were some of Isaacs most hated opponents. One always had to ount for something going wrong, and he did, but there was very little nning you could do to get around literally everything going wrong. Mac Liam was also likely sober, but Isaac didnt know him well enough to be sure either way. How are you? Isaac greeted the pair. Honestly? I wish someone had told me about the open bar before we went predrinking, Fenrir mock grumbled with a huge grin on his face How are things here? Well, Jose Sandoval got in a fight with a cat and came in here with both eyes wed out, Isaac said. Wait, howd an S-Ranker lose to a cat? Fenrir asked eyebrows just about climbing off his head. Apparently, it was an alchemically enhanced cat he was trying to train. If you have a magic [ss] and cant actually hurt your opponent thats no fun. I see, Fenrir nodded, looking around Wait, hes fine? He got healed, Isaacughed. Right. Isaac made the rounds once again, eventually getting stopped by Stergio Marides. So, I hear that youve got a space absolutely stuffed with [Raid Bosses] that you cant die in Marides trailed off suggestively, though considering that he was thergest person in the room other than Fenrir, his attempt at being subtle was moreical than anything else. I do, Isaac said, not bothering to correct the fact that the no dying protection only applied when it was used in its training version, Would you like to try it out, maybe once all this is over? Do you have a Demon Lord like the one from Seoul in there? Marides pressed further, looking like a kid on Christmas morning. Ive got aplete set of all non-Event [Raid Bosses] for Tier 6 and 7, Isaac said, and Marides grin widened to the point where it looked like his face was about to crack in half. Id have thought youd have had ess to one before, Isaac mused. Ive fought a few, but no one ever lets me try myself against one by myself, Marides said and Isaac nodded sympathetically. No one had the mana pool to summon [Raid Bosses] all by themselves, so even S-Rankers were forced to negotiate with others if they wanted to fight some of the [Systems] most powerful monsters. How so? Isaac asked. Greece has a very interesting way of treating its S-Rankers. Sometimes, were superstars, sometimes, they act like were unruly children. Anytime I walk away from a conversation with a government or military official, I feel like an uninsured rental car. Isaac sessfully stifled augh before responding. Uninsured rental car, what a way to phrase that. I think I can arrange for a good fight. But why do you want that specific [Raid Boss]? It was the first one ever summoned, and a well-documented battle. The news might not have shown the gorier videos, but theyre easy enough to find. Marides said, A real fight, without preparation or pre-ced traps. Id like topare myself to that. I wasnt even at the third Evolution at that point, Isaac pointed out. I know, but that was the fight that really got me to push my limits, Marides You know Areti, right? We met briefly in Singapore, Isaac said. Areti Tassa was another of Greeces four S-Rankers, her current [ss] was something along the lines of [Antian Sentinel]. Solid fighting melee skills, extreme aquatic mobility and the ability to summon a spectral citadel that was as durable as anything a fourth Evolution builder could create. In other words, for half an hour every day, she could summon the most durable fortification in the world. And if an enemy happened to be close enough to stand inside the fortification when it was created, well, there were only so many synonyms for screwed, werent there? Marides sighed Then you know what shes like. I dont, actually, Isaac frowned. I mean, shes awesome. She jumps straight into stuff, never lets anything stop her, and shes been one of the strongest people from the start. I always wanted that kind of bravery, but never managed it. And then, I saw the news from Seoul. I saw ahem, I saw people holding the Demon Lord back on their own, nullifying its defenses, encasing it in ice. Isaac was pretty sure Marides had been about to talk about how hed seen a video of the Demon Lord vanishing into the [Grave of Swords], then get spat out looking like it had been tossed in a blender. And then hed apparently decided not to talk about that in front of Isaac. Aw, you got a fan, Amymented over the party. That gave me a real kick in the ass and I finally decided to go be like her, pick fights with strong enemies, and surpass my limits. But Ive always wanted the chance to fight one of those Demon Lords all by myself, without anyone else to interfere. Yeah, I think I can make that possible, Isaac nodded, And if youre interested in challenging yourself, I do have some really cool monsters stashed in my training area. Have you ever heard of a Sanguine Monarch? Marides nodded so quickly Isaac was half-afraid his head would fall off Its a vampire that transforms into a biological minefield, then reintegrates with different powers depending on what you destroy in the minefield. Ive wanted to fight that thing for a while, but since the blood magic runes it drops are public knowledge, it was deemed to be an unnecessary risk. As if fighting powerful enemies could be a waste when the world itself rewards risk-taking. Like I said, Ive got the entire catalog, feel free to take a little time to pick which ones you want to fight. Just remember, dying in the simtion sucks even though its not permanent and any resources spent in the simtion are gone. Oh, I will, Marides grinned. See youter. Isaac bade him goodbye and went right back to doing his rounds. By now, basically everyone was here, including the rest of Germanys S-Rankers. Lukas Mller, the GSG-9 sniper whod shot out the eye of the man whod destroyed arge chunk of Hamburg. And after that, Stagmer had hand-built him a new rifle. Between his skill, achievements, and supreme quality weapon, hed gotten one hell of a fourth Evolution and qualified for S-Rank. He was a little on the weaker side,pared to most here, but as far as anyone below S-Rank was concerned, he was a god of death, able to take out anyone before they even knew he was there. But he wasnt the only one here whode out of the crucible that had been the battle against the [Aspirant for the Mantle of War] with some significant upgrades. [Bearer of Lighting, Rider of the Storm] had perhaps the single longest [ss] name known to man, but it was incredibly powerful. Oberstleutnant Maria Schultz could turn both herself and her jet into wind or lighting, call up entire storms ex nihilo, and overall absolutely kick ass. The biggest advantage of her new [ss] was a little different, however. Her ne, which had initially been a physical object, master-crafted by a team of experts, including Stagmer, had be a part of her, condensed into a lightning-shaped tattoo that ran down her left lower arm. And then there was the [Spirit of Industry], Eckhart Stein, industrial magnate and the person who held the world record for the most sessful [System]-based startup. Hed continued to grow hispany and somehow managed to not lose sight of the fact that employees were people. Despite how much business he did with Isaacspany, theyd never actually met. As for his [ss], it was a very interesting one. It allowed him to embody hispanies, enhancing his body in various ways, depending on which of his various dealings he focussed on. Right now, he was clearly drawing on his technological R&D dealings, which made him a cyborg. His pupils irised open and closed, focusing in like the shutters of a camera, putting them squarely into the uncanny valley. On the pack of his right hand was a grid of lines, dots, and things Isaac didnt have the right words to adequately describe. But he recognized it from an article written about the man. That was, in essence, his cellphone, which he interacted with mentally. Thest two were fairly mysterious. For the first, Isaac wouldnt even have known his name if it hadnt been included on the invitation list. Bernhard Winter was a recluse who held the [Heir-ss] of a specific mountain spirit, though Isaac didnt know which one. Shapeshifting, near total territorial awareness, gnomes as summoned minions, and more besides. There were rumors that imed that hed only been given the rank because people were scared of the unknown, but Isaac had seen what had happened when a [Raid Boss] had been summoned in his area of influence. It had only lived for such a short time that initially, the cut-off warning about the summoning had been assumed to be a glitch in the [System]. And then,stly, there was the man whom Isaac knew hed been kept away from. Alexander Braun, he worked for the military in some capacity, had a rank that Isaac hadnt been able to ascertain, and theyd talked exactly once. And that had been so Isaac could give teach him his teachable [Skills]. But that had been the end of it. The man was very, very striking, not someone youd ever forget. After all, how many military men ran around with a pair of cat ears on top of their head? But him choosing the [Catkin] race when offered made a lot of sense if one thought about it. After all, itbined the attributes of two of thes most dangerous predators, humans and felines. One had been a terrifying endurance predator whod chased downrge animals until they literally dropped dead from heatstroke. The other was a natural-born killer often referred to as a living ecological disaster when allowed to roam free. And the abilities of a [Catkin] synergized perfectly with his [ss], whatever that may be. It was quite possibly the most terrifying Evolution of [Rogue] Isaac had ever seen. Whenever Braun fought, his surroundings would slowly be warped as a spectral forest superimposed itself onto reality, trapping both him and his opponents in a strange otherworld that he could navigate with incredible efficiency. Isaac was pretty sure that Braun was Germanys insurance policy against him, an S-Ranker who wasnt allowed to have too much contact with the very influential individual whod shaped so many of the policies surrounding leveling and high-Levelw enforcement. No split loyalties, no chance to have been thoroughly examined, and so on. But Isaac couldnt me anyone for being concerned, not as long as it stayed limited to this. If things went beyond it, escting to people directly undermining him, potentially evenying the groundwork for a future betrayal there would be hell to pay. However, that was an issue for another day. Isaac greeted Stein, briefly talking about their business dealings, and arranged for them to talkter in private, then Marides came back with his list of bosses to fight. This time, the conversation was overheard, and suddenly, half the room wanted the opportunity to fight a [Raid Boss] unsupervised. Then Stein chimed in about how hed be able to stream a video out of the training area and that settled it. They were all going to pick fights with simcrums of incredibly powerful monsters and risk experiencing death and all the mental issues that potentially came with that. Isaac was extremely d that that was the crazy thing that this group hade up with and not, you know, who can create the biggest crater by jumping out of the window, face first. Unfortunately, hed been to several meetings that had gotten to that point. But this one would stop before it got to that point right? Chapter 248: Arena Chapter 248: Arena Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, were doing this just for fun, Mr. Stein is not saving the video hes streaming to the TV over there anywhere, were doing it like that so we can watch without being inside my training space, Isaac exined while Stein worked was putting together a drone that could transmit out of the pocket space. Suddenly, Mac Liam had an old-fashioned scroll in his hand, which he thrust in Steins face, This here is a contract to that effect. You will not save that video anywhere, you will only disy that video here, you will not recreate the video files based on your own memories In theory, it was a good idea. In practice Isaac might not have known enough aboutputers to understand everything about the ensuing argument, but it was clear that there were several issues with how the data had to be temporarily saved somewhere so the video could be transmitted/disyed and so on. What had initially been a fairly simple contract quickly became absurdlyplicated and eventually scuppered entirely as it had be utterly unfeasible. No one wanted to sign a Fae contract soplicated, especially when it devolved into technobabble that the person writing the contract clearly didnt understand. Most of us are fairly public figures anyway, Marides finally stepped in, One fight outside and most of our standard abilities will bemon knowledge. This is a battle for bragging rights, if anyone reveals their secret techniques for that, any trouble is their own stupid fault. Then, he turned to Isaac, clearly struggling to keep his eagerness off his face Can we get started now? *** First up to the te was, of course, Stergio Marides. He dipped into the bathroom briefly to change into his armor and returned to the main room in barely thirty seconds. Hisbat outfit was clearly inspired by Ancient Greek armor, but still decidedly modern, with a lion motif and several bronze highlights. And over his shoulder, hedin a club that looked like hed just uprooted a small tree and roughly chopped off branches and roots. But despite its basic appearance, it was a powerful weapon that practically hummed with potential. Are you ready? Isaac asked, handing him the drone. Marides nodded, and promptly vanished, only a purple glowing crack in reality showing where hed been. At the same time, the gigantic screen on the wall flickered to life to show the little machines video feed. Isaac gave the pair a few seconds to get into position and unleashed the weakest of his in [Raid Bosses]. Fifty meters tall, fifty-three if you counted its bull-like horns, a crown of spikes ringing its head that was one ugly motherfucker. Its ugly yellow eyes focussed on the little man standing in front of it, only to explode as arrows sted through them near-simultaneously. Not only that, but the green-ck shafts dissolved into a liquid that burned its skin, and judging by the look of the surrounding flesh, that stuff was toxic to boot. Good, go for the eyes first, then dodge the counterattack, hamper its mobility, find a blindspot, then go for the vital organs. That was how you fought this thing, and Marides was doing just that. His bow, which had been an intricate creation made from serpent scales, with the string formed of dangerous-looking liquid that dripped from the bows top end before solidifying while the arrows grew out of even more liquid as Marides had gotten ready to shoot. But by the time he was within striking range of the Demon Lord, the weapon had transformed right back into the tree-trunk club and broke the monsters ankle with a single [Powerful Blow]. As it fell, the [Raid Boss] unleashed another wave of hellfire, which was promptly dodged with ease. Aaaaaannnd there went the other ankle. The Demon copsed forward onto its arms, and that was the end of it. Marides was right on top of it, his weapon having once again changed shape. This time, it had transformed into a pair of brass knuckles, each with a trio of lion ws covering the front. Every punch tore through the monsters flesh with ease,rger, spectral copies of the weapons causing horrific wounds. To all outside appearances, Isaac was observing the interaction with interest, but on the inside, he was kicking himself for miss-estimating the man. He had raw power, tons of it, but he was a lot faster and more flexible than Isaac had given him credit for. The real kicker was that Isaac had known about how Hercules being all about raw strength was the modern version. The original versions had had plenty of power, true, but hed also been a skilled archer, creative problem solver, and overall, far more than a brute. It was just that, until now, Marides never really showed much more than raw power. At least not somewhere Isaac had seen. How had he missed tha- oh, hell. The whole rted to Hercules thing was very, very public, stemming from Marides himself. And anyone who looked at him tried to analyze him, would see the obvious abilities rted to their preconceived notions of him, not his real status. In other words, theyd see another brute, albeit one who stood head and shoulders above the rest. Or maybe Isaac was massively misreading things, and the weapon had just been made by an incredibly talented craftsman and wasnt rted to Marides [ss] at all. Hed have to analyze the man again once he left the pocket dimension. The Demon Lord expired soon after and Marides returned, grinning from ear to ear. Isaac immediately analyzed him and this time, he could see several aspects to his build that hadnt been visible before. Oh, that sneaky little honestly, Isaac respected him all the more now. A for effort, but seeing him with the bow had reminded Isaac about the original myths and that had been the end of that. Hey, can you put me in there all the way from over there? Sandoval asked. He was currently upside-down on an armchair, feet up on the headrest while his head hung off the other end. Sneaky, sneaky. Just how long had he been sitting there? Thinking back on it, had he moved at all? Hed telekically called over some food and eaten it, but that had been it. How strong would his attacks be after hed stayed still for so long? Enough to wipe a Tier 6 [Raid Boss] from existence, probably. Sure, Isaac said, tossed him the camera drone, and sent him off into the dimension of murder and pain. I bet he obliterates it in a few hits, maybe even a single one, Isaacmented as another Demon Lord appeared. His words soon proved prophetic as the monster was hurled off its feet in a st of light. A second blew off its left arm alongside most of its torso, and the third obliterated its chest so thoroughly that even a [Raid Boss] couldnt recover. Good prediction, Braun grunted, then walked back towards the buffet table. Id love to see what Germanys hidden ace can do, Mac Liam called after him. Braun ignored him. Hey,e on, dont be like that! Braun just kept on walking. The first few people were telling Mac Liam to knock it off, but he ignored them. What, are you a pussy? Come on! This time, Braun choked on the drink hed just taken, and the tension in the room ratcheted skywards. Isaacs hand instinctively twitched, closing around where he normally summon his sword. But by the time hed cleared the liquid from where it didnt belong, it was very clear that he wasughing as he reached back and ran his hand over the twin ck cat ears standing up from his hair. Why yes, I am a cat, thank you for noticing. Took you long enough to notice, he shed Mac Liam a brief Cheshire cat grin. Then, he turned back towards the food and ignored any furthermunication attempts while Mac Liam silently fumed. It had looked funny, but Isaacs hackles were up. Yes, Braun was one of the most secretive S-Rankers who wasnt aplete unknown. However, Mac Liam was being pretty pushy. Unnaturally pushy. Was he gathering the information for himself, his government, or someone else? You guys know what? Isaac asked, We should probably stop now. This was meant to be fun, not something to challenge other people over. That put a serious damper on things, but the whole matter blew over eventually. People arranged to fight in Isaacs arena on their own, without an audience, and almost everyone threw Mac Liam the stink eye. Seriously, what the actual fuck had that man been thinking? Had he really disliked Braun for some reason, or was this a case of temporary insanity? Or maybe, hm, he was one of the Fae, with the ability to craft contracts. Had he signed a contract to the effect of Ill give my best effort to figure out what Alexander Brauns deal is? It would certainly exin why hed pushed things so far in the end. No real Fae would make the mistake of talking in absolutes in contracts, theyd be too careful for that. But trying, failing, and then making a further attempt that precluded simr attempts in the future was a possible theory. Isaac certainly couldnt me anyone for being curious. As Mac Liam had said, Braun was Germanys hidden ace, an S-Ranker whod managed to keep their powerset almostpletely secret. Of course, Isaac had hidden almost as much about himself and his capabilities, but the difference was that people thought they knew most of his build. Brauns entire public-facing persona was enigma. Hed inspected the man just like he did to everyone he met, and hed gotten basically nothing. His [Hunters Gaze] went through functionally all upgrades of [Privacy] like a hot knife through butter, at the cost of uracy. But Braun gave him the smallest amount of information hed ever gotten. A vague sensation of being in a forest, a sharp edge, and that was all. Even less than hed known before hed met the man. On a trip to the bathroom, Isaac briefly meditated to ess the [Round Table] and left a note on the table that someone should look into Mac Liam. That could have been harmless, but it also very much could not have been, and letting that crap go could end oh so badly. Eventually, Isaac found himself back at the bar, where Ardouin joined him. Hed been standing ramrod straight all evening, and that didnt change as he sat down next to Isaac. A powerful anti-eavesdropping [Skill] mmed into ce around them before the general began to speak. Isaac internally flinched at that. Hed seen all manner of tricks to ensure privacy, from magic items to the ones taken from various Illusion-type Aspects. Those effects ranged from being barely noticeable to making it seem as though the rest of the world were underwater. However, this one felt downright mean. As though merely trying to look past it would burn out your corneas, trying to eavesdrop would end with your eardrums being torn to shreds inside your skull, and actually walking through it would be the equivalent of fighting your way through a bramble thicket without any defensive abilities and ones physical abilities set to the baseline. In fact, Isaac would not have been surprised to learn that that was exactly what would happen to anyone who genuinely pushed it. A high-ranking military officer would have [Skills] that didnt just work to prevent espionage, but actively penalized it. Throw in the magic bent of Ardouins [Skills] and this particr [Skill] could easily be just as menacing as it felt. Have you thought about how things will go in the future with S-ranked intervention? Ardouin asked, pointedly looking around the room, Take a look at everyone. Whenever disaster strikes, true disaster, theyll be the ones who have to fix it. You want to know if I see the same problem you do, Isaac responded, If you mean the fact that theyre not exactly going to y together, I agree. The Braun-Mac Liam argument was still fresh in both their minds, after all. Thats a part of it, Ardouin agreed, But my real worry is them working together with the local authorities. How exactly do you want to help with that? Isaac asked, I have an excellent working rtionship with both Germanw enforcement and military based on mutual respect and cooperation, but that took time to build. Ardouin raised an eyebrow, So youre suggesting that we dont do anything, that we let the chips fall as they may and if something goes wrong, thats the way it was supposed to be? Isaac shook his head, Of course not, Im just saying that there are plenty of ways to write regtions the wrong way. We Germans have a reputation for extreme regtion and I have to admit that its absolutely deserved. You throw an encyclopedias worth of rules at these people, and theyre either either going topletely ignore it, or decide that helping is not worth it anymore. Overregtion will hurt us here. Rules arent there to stifle the maybe one percent of people whod do better withplete freedom, they exist to make sure the other ny-nine percent of humanity dont do something cataclysmically stupid, Ardouin told him. Someone I respect a lot once told me a good police officer must be as yielding as steel. Normally, almost always, the rules hold weight and should be obeyed. But not always. On some rare asions, you run into something that isnt covered by the rules or an instance where theyre just in wrong. Thats when you have to use your head. Its an interesting point, but if you tell that to people, theyll automatically assume that every situation that gets on their nerves is one of those times and put themselves above the rules, Ardouin countered, Im not seeing what youre getting at. My point is the yielding as steel bit. As tough as steel is, its got a tiny bit of give to it, otherwise, it would shatter like ss the moment something hit it. If you try to chain S-Rankers, shatter like ss is a good way to describe whats going to happen to any semnce of control you might have once had. And your n is to do what, let them y superhero, give in to their every demand, and hope they dont ask for something you cant provide, just like what your government does with the Monkey King? I hear that was your suggestion, Ardouin pointed out, clearly forcing himself to stay calm. Aaaaannd there went any chance of them working well together in this timeline either. First of all, I didnt tell anyone to do that with the Monkey King. I was asked how to get him to agree to a sit down and what they should offer him and I made my suggestions, but I also told them that I thought it was a bad idea. And secondly, he isnt really all that troublesome. Hes got a mountain that wasnt in use before, he eats a lot of food, drinks a lot of booze, and hes generally pretty happy with that. Its certainly cheaper than your nuclear weapons program, Isaac pointed out, But you cant just make ns about an entire group based on its most problematic member. You constantly go haring off all over the to do what needs to be done and its gone fairly well for you so far, hasnt it? Ardouin asked. Ive had my hand cut off, been burned by hellfire, and seen things that forced my therapist to seek help, only for his therapist to then also go seeking professional support, and that kept going until a grand total of six of them were helping each other deal with everything. Isaac pointed out, Like you said, these are things that need to be done, and I do it,plying with both international and localws as best I can. As best you can? Ardouin asked. The Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea is not a ce a random foreigner should be charging into with a drawn sword, ready to throw down. I dont know the exact number ofws and treaties that broke, but it was probably a lot. In my defense, however, there was a Demon Lord about to go rampaging through a city of millions, an attack against a peaceful nation was currently underway, and there was already military present in the DMZ. Legally, I should have stayed out of the matter and waited for a whole lot ofplicated legal nonsense to be resolved. But like I said, sometimes thew is just in wrong. So I charged in and held that thing off for as long as I could, even though I broke so manyws, rules, regtions and what have you. So youre the gold standard for how an S-Ranker should behave when dealing with international issues? Oh, how the general had tried to keep the sarcasm out of his voice, the scorn. A valiant effort, one worthy of praise and song, truly, but he still failed. Isaac shrugged Im saying how I do things works. Respect, honesty and helpfulness get you far, and desperation is one hell of a motivator for cooperation. And if people really do keep me from a situation and cant handle it themselves, thats not on me anymore. Ill have done my part. But I hope that if my help is needed in the future, it gets epted. Isaac paused for a long moment, staring off into the distance, Wouldnt it be nice if were never needed again? If we could just sit at home, twiddling our thumbs, and the world keeps spinning no matter what? Any smart soldier hopes that theyll never need their training, Ardouin agreed. Whatever he was going to say next was cut off by Isaacs phone dinging. The Monkey King has decided to head over here, I dont think were going to get much done here. Not that much trouble, eh? Ardouin asked. Well pick this upter, Isaac sighed. *** Hey everyone! Sun called out from the ledge outside the window, Can someone let me in? Isaac sighed, looked around, and when he realized that everyone else was just staring, resigned himself to open the window before it got broken. You see that building on the other side of the street? Isaac asked, The one with your bootprint in its facade? Im pretty sure its gotndmark status. Oh, oops. Cant that be fixed? he asked, then frowned as he looked around, Where is everyone? It sort of naturally ended when the food ran out, everyone is heading off into their own little meetings, Isaac exined. Theres some food right there, Sun pointed towards a solitary slice of pizza that people had been too polite to take as it was thest one. Thats thest bit of food in the building, Isaac said. Theyd actually arranged it like that, where the kitchen only brought up enough food for there to be a little of everything on the buffet, and they only had enough ingredients for that amount. Whenever it was time for another batch to be made, they had to fetch it from elsewhere. That way, when a certain bottomless stomach showed up, the avable food would quickly dry up, or even already be gone in its entirety. Aw, shit, Sun grumbled. You were invited, Isaac pointed out, You snooze, you lose. Eh, do you know where the best restaurants are here? Sun asked. Sorry, Ive never eaten here before, maybe ask around? Isaac suggested. Ill do that, Sun said happily and went off to do that. In the meanwhile, Isaac made sure to make appointments for all necessary meetings and then headed off to continue his conversation with Ardouin. Chapter 249: Summit Chapter 249: Summit And then he asked me if Id really never made a mistake, Isaac grumbled. What did you tell him? Amy asked. I told him that everyone makes mistakes, and anyone who ims otherwise is lying, delusional, or stupid. So yes, Id made mistakes, but Id never made the same one twice. And, in fact, one mistake I wasnt going to repeat was giving him another chance to argue at me. And then I left, Isaac said. Wow, I did not think you had that in you, Amy observed, You normally only insult people who youll never have to interact with again, when ites to important people, you normally save the swearwords until afterward. Politeness is important and will get a lot further than youd think, but being a doormat will get you absolutely nowhere, Isaac shrugged, And Ill call him out for being a militaristic hardliner as many times as I have to before he either smartens up or sends someone more reasonable to deal with me. I mean, he did have a point. Youre pretty agreeable for a person with the firepower of an entire army, but not every S-Ranker is. A proper framework for high-Level intervention would be really useful. Hell, its probably vital, Karl cautiously suggested. Oh, I know, Isaac said, But hes the wrong person to create that framework. Hes a stubborn bonehead who hates how the world has changed. He might have adapted his abilities to the new reality, but his mindset is still stuck in the past. Seriously, is there anyone worse at their job than a general who cant adapt to modern warfare? A doctor who disrespects or ignores nurses, Amy suggested. Yeah, I dont care how rude my doctor is to me as long as hes a good one. If I see a doctor being rude to a nurse, I know its time to run, Schultz agreed, I mean, it might just be like that in the military, but in my experience, the more experienced a doctor is, the gruffer they get. Eh, its the same with the police. Any doctor who regrly deals with the police and doesnt look like theyre preparing to tear your head off if they learn youve been acting like an idiot while injured you know theyve got to be new, Mller added. Honestly, I think thats all doctors who deal with people who are injury-prone, Bailey added, Gabriels a big guy working in a historic building from a time when people were smaller, and it took him an embarrassingly long time to learn to duck. Our doctor wasnt polite for very long. To be fair, when GSG-9 bothers its doctors or medics outside of actual deployments, it usually over something dumb, Mller admitted, You know, walking into doors, falling down stairs, twisted ankles, that sort of thing. We all like to pretend like members of one of the most elite police units in the world dont have those little idents, but really, we just hide it better. Isaac usually uses the fact that people tripping over dead monsters causes more injuries than the actual monsters as a punchline, but when you think about it, its kind of pathetic how often that happens, Bailey agreed. You know, I still cant believe this is what were talking about, Stein said, Nine out of Germanys twelve S-Rankers in one ce, for the second time ever. The first time its just us. And thats the topic of conversation. The conference room they were eating takeout in wasnt particrly morous, but it was secure and the seating wasfortable. The ones absent were Sun, whod gone on a bar crawl, Winter, who really didnt like being outside his mountain range and had gone back to Germany, and Braun, whod also left, though his destination was shrouded in mystery. Almost as bad as Jason North, except with Braun, the world at least knew he existed. Jason, on the other hand, was something of an urban myth. So then what should we talk about? Mller asked, Because some stuff is ssified, were such a diverse group that shop talk is going to bore most of us half to death and honestly, we could all use some humor in our lives. I was thinking we could talk about the future, Stein suggested, Dr. Thoma made a good point about regtions for S-Rankers. We need them, but the people currently pushing for them are going to make aplete mess of things. So why dont we take a crack at it? Why us, specifically? Patrick asked. Variety of perspective, Stein offered, Weve got representatives of bothw enforcement and the military here, leading members of industry and the scientificmunity. And everyone evolved would be an S-Ranker, the people directly affected by the decision. So why not see if we can set reasonable rules for ourselves? We should keep this hypothetical for now, but I dont see a problem with figuring out some basic rules of engagement, Mller said, Im currently operating under the directive of use your head when ites to the really high-end abilities, and there are a million things that could go wrong there even without maliciousness. What about you, Oberst Schultz? Bailey asked. Calling the current state of the regtions a mess would be the understatement of the century, Schultz said, Basically, things make sense for a few months, then another new facet of the [System] crops up on the radar of the higher-ups and the whole thing is rewritten. Ive been taken aside by several separate generals and reminded that, no matter how the rules or orders happen to be phrased, Im to avoidmitting any war crimes. Does that really need to be said? Patrick asked. Soldiers are trained until they dont need to think, they just fall back on training. Theres no time for long consideration when youre being shot at, that needs to be instinct by the time youre deployed. And one of the things youre trained to do is follow orders, Schultz exined. Doesnt the Bundeswehr have some very strong words to say about using your head while obeying orders, and ignoring illegal ones? Mller asked, I might be misremembering, but I heard that several times during a joint training session. In theory, yes, but in practice, the full consequences of obeying an order arent always clear. Despite my rank, I dont have the right [ss] to properly keep a top-level overview in the middle ofbat, Schultz exined, Im supposed to keep that in mind permanently. Dontmit any war crimes, like that ever needed to be said. The real problem is that no one is entirely sure just what constitutes a war crime with my power. Is summoning a storm anywhere near an inhabited area a warcrime? What if a crop field gets drowned? Do I have to keep track of every nearby body of water and where they empty out? What if a random bolt of lighting starts a forest fire? Id guess itll take another century to settle all of the legal issues caused by the [System], Isaac said, pausing briefly for effect, A century after weve discovered the maximum Level, I mean. Speaking of [System] issues, have you been to the Oktoberfest since the initialization? Mller asked, Its aplete and total zoo. The owners of the big tents all have [Skills] to allow people to get drunk, which causes no end of trouble. Thankfully, those [Skills] deactivate when people are in danger or about to fight, but that doesnt seem to help much. People are drunk for the first time in ages, having fun, then someone bumps into them, fight or flight activates, and boom, theyre sober again. Youd think theyd be smarter sober, but ording to a colleague who worked therest year, people just get mad about the wasted booze and things go downhill from there. Oh gods, Isaac muttered, My sisters have been begging me to take them this year, thats not happening, Im not putting myself through that. Ill take them to Disnend or something instead. Anyway, as far as the regtions for S-Rankers go, Ive actually been thinking about that for a while, Isaac announced, pulling a folder from his storage, If we ever gain the ability to beat any and all summonable monsters, people will go right back to killing each other. Every person will do that, why are we only talking about S-Rankers? Patrick asked. Because making sure that everyone doesnt act like an idiot is impossible, peoplemit crimes all the time. And most people cant level cities with a wave of their hand, Amy pointed out By making sure the single most destructive individuals behave, we can massively decrease the potential for carnage. Basically, my idea was to make it so that S-Rankers arent allowed to pick fights in cities. Self-defense or defense of others is fine, but no S-Rankers are allowed to act as aggressors. And if a fight does break out, they have to take it outside of city limits if they can do so without endangering themselves. If we can enforce that, well have gotten a hell of a lot closer, Isaac exined. What about police actions? Mller asked, It seems like something that would cause serious trouble when ites tow enforcement. There would obviously have to be some allowances made, Isaac said, The real issue is that we need to somehow put that into a workable treaty and then actually have people sign it. Making people sign is easy, cities could passws about how no walking WMD is allowed in without promising to not pick fights, Mller pointed out. The real problem is going to be finding the right wording, Stein said, Im nowyer, but Ive worked with a lot of them over the years. The basic idea seems to be dont start any fights, directly or by provoking others into throwing the first punch. But thats just easy to say, were going to have the devils time writing that intow. For example, what if someone doesnt like you and tells you theyre going to punch you the next time you walk by their house, does walking on a certain sidewalk count as provocation? Lets just do a brainstorming session first, Bailey suggested, None of us are involved in legiture or have any experience in legal matters. If we can figure out workable rules that can stand the test of time, then someone else can turn them into something workable. Well definitely need some allowance for pre-emptive attacks. If someone is charging up a big spell or evidently preparing to unleash a cooldown [Skill], you shouldnt have to wait until they use it to be able to defend yourself, Schultz said. That opens up a whole new can of worms. I thought he was about to attack me would be the number one excuse for murder. Bailey pointed out. Truth spells, Amy suggested. When ites to something as subjective as feeling threatened, those can be pretty unreliable, Isaac pointed out. And things only went downhill from there. By the time the discussion ended, several hourster, hed gained countless ideas but anything even semi-concrete hed had up until now had been obliterated. Chapter 250: Armory of Myth and Legend Chapter 250: Armory of Myth and Legend Going to Brussels to meet people had been interesting and helpful, but also frustrating in ces. Hed made plenty of new and useful contacts, but possibly even more importantly, hed discovered several potential sources of friction. Specifically, Ardouin was going to be a problem. He was powerful, influential, and had massive blinders on when it came to certain things. In essence, Isaac wouldnt count on him when making ns any more than he did on Sun. Both of them had the power and capabilities to be incredibly useful, to the point where theyd normally be the cornerstones of any ns, but were simply too unreliable. If a n was built around them and their [Skills], then king would be beyond devastating. What Isaac needed were things he could lean on. And right now, he was on his way to pick up some of those things. Stagmer had called him just before hed gotten back to announce that the ring Isaac had left behind had finally been replicated. But when he reached the cksmiths shop, he was greeted by a mess of police tape and a slowly breaking-up crowd of officers and looky-loos. He wasnt stopped as he made his way into the cksmith shop, however, and he decided to wait to ask questions until he was inside. After all, it didnt look like there was anything urgently wrong, and Stagmer seemed to be just fine. The interior of the most famous cksmiths shop in the world was a bit of a mess when he entered, with a massive crack running down one wall, and weapons worth hundreds of thousands if not millions of euros each scattered about like trash. What the hell happened here? Isaac asked when he caught sight of the man himself. Oh, you know, someone thought Id be easy to rob. They forgot that the ability to beat nigh-indestructible metals into new shapes and control the fires of the forge can be used in a fight, Stagmer shrugged, I punched the first guy into the wall there, shouted about me being robbed, and then your assistants showed up. Every time someone made a threatening move, one of them teleported them a hundred meters up and let them fall, head first. At some point, everyone realized theyd just keep earning themselves more lumps. What we think happened is that they thought that just because you and your colleagues were gone, this ce was vulnerable. If the cats away, the mice party, that sort of thing. But theres more than one cat here, isnt there? Ah yes, his assistants. The people hed raised basically from Level 1, ensured theyd get teleportation-based [sses], and then his [Continent Strider] had granted him his own portal power, making themrgely superfluous. As a result, theyd be more or less everyones taxi service. It was a position that was invaluable to overall operations but had a significantly lower status than being his left and right hands would have been. And you didnt call me why exactly? Isaac asked, trying very hard not to sound usatory, I could have been here in literal seconds. Because this was handled. Even if me and your folks hadnt been able to handle it ourselves, weve got a GSG-13 office literally five hundred meters away. These were a few punks under Level 50 who felt strong. Youre busy, I know that and dont need you running yourself ragged on my behalf, Stagmer exined. Yes, but Isaac blew out a long breath as he deted, both metaphorically and literally, Thank you. But getting bothered for no reason is still better than someone getting hurt because I didnt help. You dont have to worry about that, Stagmer reassured him, Ive got no intention of tangling with an S- or even A-Rank threat, but like I said, this was nothing. At least by this universitys standards. Alright, but if something goes seriously wrong, call me, Isaac insisted. I know, I know, I know, Stagmer said as he walked into the back,ing out with a small box and a ring a few momentster, Ive got your sample right here, its so much easier to copy things when you can leave them with me for days. I have a new ability that makes that a lot easier, Isaac said as he took back the permanent manifestation from [Armory of Ancient Times] and slipped it onto his finger. Laurins Ring The ring of the dwarven King Laurin of the Rose Garden, able to pierce the invisibility of his fellow dwarves invisibility cloaks while granting him the strength of ten men, until eventually being removed by the efforts of the King Dietrich von Bern during a fierce battle. It will automatically resize to be wearable by any humanoid being, grants the wearer the ability to pierce standard methods of invisibility, so long as the person hiding is not of a higher Level, has a higher rarity [ss], and the wearers Perception is at least equal to their Level. Higher power invisibility Skills or spells, or ones used by individuals who exceed the parametersid out above in some major way will require additional effort to pierce, such as a significant investment into Perception. The wearer also gains plus ten Strength. The ring was fairly powerful in general, aaaaaannndrgely useless to him as he was already functionally impossible to sneak up on. But plus ten Strength was plus ten Strength and considering this thing didnt have an upkeep cost anymore, there was no reason not to wear it. And here we have twenty copies, as requested, Stagmer opened the box to reveal the neatly lined-up bands of metal, intricately worked gold, silver, tinum, and starsteel, with a magic-infused rock crystal sitting in the center like a small, unblinking eye. Copy of Laurins Ring A copy of the ring worn by the dwarven King Laurin of the Rose Garden, allowing the wearers gaze to pierce various methods of invisibility. It will automatically resize to be wearable by any adult humanoid being and grants the wearer the power to see through standard methods of invisibility, so long as the person hiding is not of a higher Level, has a higher rarity [ss], and the wearers Perception is at least equal to their Level. Higher power invisibility Skills or spells, or ones used by individuals who exceed the parametersid out above in some major way will require additional effort to pierce, such as a significant investment into Perception. The wearer also gains plus five Strength. The Strength boost had been halved and the resizing property had been reduced, but the most important part here was the anti-stealth measure. A few of these in the right hands would vastly reduce the risk of important figures getting assassinated. Keep one, make sure to keep it on hand, Isaac said as he handed back one of the enchanted rings, The next thieves might be using sneak attacks. Oh, I already made one for myself, Stagmer said, pulling off one of his heavy leather gloves to reveal the object in question, And I know we agreed not to hand these out willy-nilly, but I figured personal use would be fine. Obviously, Isaac assured him, Im mostly worried about these rings trickling down into the ck market and suddenly, eavesdropping and police surveince bes almost impossible. Also, he wanted to make sure that both Zambon and North could keep running around unnoticed, these rings bingmon could easily ruin Isaacs informationwork. So instead, hed arm his allies, especially the magic users and others vulnerable to sneak attacks, and give a handful to the protective details of various political figures he needed to keep in y. Hed make sure there were so few of the rings that spiriting too many of them away for other uses would weaken the protection to an uneptable degree. I also finished your armor, Stagmer announced, pulling arge box from beneath the counter, reverently pulling off the lid. Abyssal Scale Mail of the Warrior-Schr A set of armor forged from the scales and bones of the prismatic dragon, the final boss of the Draconic Abyss Dungeon, retrieved during its final minutes. Built upon a base of Hydra Leather and metals sourced from the Draconic Abyss, its topyer consists of pure-white dragon scales that provide excellent protection from elemental attacks. While worn, this armor enhances all me-based attacks originating from the wearers hands or mouth, as well as any and all based on draconic Aspects. Furthermore, this armors draconic nature resonates with the wearers dragon scale-enhanced skin, bonding with it and staying in ce through magic alone, should the armor be damaged to the point where certain parts would normally fall off (severed armor pieces can be removed with sufficient force). In addition, this armor has been built specifically to interface with Isaac Thomas [Fully Geared] to allow for extremely rapid and efficient regeneration. Due to the uniqueness of the materials that make up this armor, it was given the capability to convert lesser materials of draconic origin into the material that makes up this masterpiece. To do so, the materials in question need to be ced into the pockets of this armor before it is stored. Finally, detached armor pieces can be stored in [Fully Geared] at a range of five meters. While worn, the wearers Strength, Fortitude, and Agility are increased by twenty percent. It was absolutely perfect. Durable as all get out, he didnt have to switch out his armor after a few cuts, and it was one of the few man-made Stat-boosting pieces of equipment hed ever seen. He could also repair it with extreme ease, making it far simpler to keep around. The less said about the usual lifespan of his armor, the better. Sure, if they ever killed a Tier 10 [Raid Boss] or even a [World Boss], hed get a better suit, and once Stagmer hit the fifth Evolution, hed obviously be able to make something far superior. But until then, this would be his permanent set. Thank you so much, Isaac said with a wide and warm smile, Name your price, any kind of material, any kind of monster part, whatever you need. Just keep bringing me the usual amount of stuff, youve probably paid me for that piece ten times over by now, Stagmer said, Just make sure that set doesnte back shed to ribbons in a few days, ok? Ill make sure to keep it intact, and to keep sending you materials, Isaac promised. After a few minutes of chatting, he left and headed off towards Camelot to hand over a few pieces of gear. Chapter 251: Lunch Date Chapter 251: Lunch Date Arthur was waiting for Isaac on the roof of the great hall, legs dangling over the side. Surrounding him were multiple devices projecting an anti-eavesdropping field. So, Ive heard that Brussels got a bit crazy, Arthur called out, I heard it got crashed by that Monkey King of yours. Hes not mine, Isaac shook his head, Inviting him wasnt my idea, and one of these days, Im going to kick the ass off the German Foreign Minister until he publicly takes full credit for that. Didnt he already do that? Im going to make him shout it off the rooftops until everyst hillbilly has heard it, Isaac grumbled. Do you need any help with that? Arthur asked, and unfortunately, Isaac wasnt entirely sure if he was joking. No thank you, Isaac told him as he passed over one of the rings. Wait, arent you supposed to get on your knees before you do that? Arthur asked with a stupidly wide grin, And you do know that Elena is going to murder us both if she finds out, right? Isaac groaned as he sat down next to his friend, Seriously? Oh yes, Arthurs grin somehow grew even wider at that, All that sneaking around, one would almost think you had something to hide. A torrid affair, maybe my best friend is even the other wo- Arthur promptly shut up when Isaac pushed him off the rooftop. He might be able to survive a fall even at terminal velocity, but getting pushed off a four-story building was still a shock to the senses, especially when it came as aplete surprise. Once hed made his way back up, he was greeted by a smug-looking Isaac. Let me guess, Elena found out you know and before you could say anything, she threatened to do unspeakable things to you if you teased her. And now youre trying to get off all the jokes on me before I follow her lead? Eh, pretty much, Arthur shrugged, By the way, next time you push me off the roof, please aim for the street. If those bushes get broken one more time, the gardener I dont know exactly what hell do, but it wont be pleasant. Let me guess, those rose bushes have to be regrown every other week? Isaac asked, knowing it was probably a lot more frequent. People with superpowers in a space where the buildings and even potential bystanders could survive anything short of an artillery shell to the face at the bare minimum tended to get a little reckless. Arthur confirmed that assumption immediately afterwards. You know, there are some more durable rose strains in our greenhouses at the university, Isaac offered. No changing the subject, now, Arthur chided gently, You and Elena, whats going on there? I like her, she likes me, we date, and we dont have the time to go any further because of the whole global situation, Isaac told him. So its serious? Arthur asked. I wouldnt be spending this much time with her if it wasnt. Do I need to give you the shovel speech? Arthur followed up on his earlier question. Are you sure you could win? If you ever hurt Elena, youre only walking away from her in pieces. Yes, I could win, Arthur said confidently. Fair point, Isaac shrugged, So, intrusive questions and potential rtionship troubles aside, how are things? The troops, the politics, everything? Troops are great, politics are a pain in the ass, Arthur sighed, Camelot has three of Ends seven S-Rankers. The people in power knew we were strong, but when official power designations became a thing, that kind of distribution started to worry them. If it ever gets too bad, you might want to move, Isaac suggested Anyone on the Round Table will be able to get you a good deal in their home country. It hasnt gotten that bad just yet, Arthur sighed again, then suddenly sat up straight again and stared right at Isaac, Actually, I had an idea. About? Isaac asked. You know how, a while ago, you wereining about how most people didnt really fear [Raid Bosses] as much as they should because they didnt have a good impression of what they could do? Yeah? Isaac said, not sure where this was going. Part of the problem with [Raid Bosses] was that there was very little footage of them being a threat. The Demon Lord of Seoul had been very much in the focus of the situation, caught on video and everything, but it was the only one. Any [Raid Boss] that was vaporized in a nuclear fireball tended to be something of a footnote, paradoxically. All the damage would have been caused by the nuke, with anything caused by the monster having been erased. And the monsters that were sessfully summoned in arenas and the like tended to get thoroughly trashed in a way that made them seem weak. In fact, releasing those videos would probably have been a problem because that would make them seem weak. In many ways, the human brain was a highly intelligent organ, holding a pattern-recognition power that beat out the most advanced post-[System] AIs, capable of decipheringnguages from nothing but context clues, inventing every technological advancement since the dawn of man, and more besides. But in many ways, it was also a particrly stupid organ, more malleable to external influences than one might think. Something that showed, for example, in how people internalized bigotry even when said bigotry was aimed at themselves. And as the old proverb went, a picture spoke a thousand words. You could tell people a million times how powerful [Raid Bosses] were, but in the end, if you showed people videos of the monsters getting absolutely trashed, people would believe the videos. See, theres this crew of reality show pricks whove been bugging me for a while about wanting me to fight monsters on camera, and I was wondering, why not use your pocket space for that? Arthur suggested, No one can die inside, so its mostly safe, and as long as the group you send in to fight isntprised of S-Rankers, it should be a bloodbath. Hm, itd get canceled in seconds, but that might be enough, Isaac thought, pulling out his phone, What was the name of thatpany? Spectacr Productions, Arthur told him. Ah, here they are, Isaac said, They were actually asking me about exactly that. You dont check your emails? Arthur asked. I do, but I get too many to look too deeply at any single one, Isaac said, So, Ill take a look at that productionpany, that was an excellent suggestion, but I do have other engagements. Oh so Make a stupid joke and your gardener will be the least of your worries, Isaac responded in a faux chipper tone as he jumped off the rooftop, nudging Arthur off the ledge on the way down. From there, he made his way to Camelots huge, perfectly circr,ke. It belonged to Elena, in more ways than one. As an Asrai, a water fairy, her water magic was massively boosted, but part of that boost stemmed from the fact that she was bonded to a body of water. Specifically, this ce. Of course, this ce was important and no one was allowed to use it for bathing and the like, so he couldnt just hop in and expect people to not take notice. Instead, he phased into the ground nearby and walked in from the side. Theke was deep, over two hundred meters at the deepest point, but far darker than it should have been even this far down. In the regr world, water this dark would only be found a few thousand meters below the surface. In fact, light was so sparse that even Isaac had a little trouble seeing. But he didnt bring any light into this ce, it was meant to be far from anything resembling normal lighting. Especially fire and sunlight. This was a cepletely divorced from the rest of the world,pletely cut off on a conceptual level. It should have merely been water that separated him from the world above, but as far as the universe atrge was considered, this might as well have been a separate dimension. And while he could survive the pressure of being thousands of meters below the waves, if he hadnt been invited here, even his current depth would have killed him. Setting up the dinner table was a weird experience, as it was his first time doing this underwater, but he managed it eventually. A weighted table and chairs that wouldnt float away, enchanted cups that prevented the liquid inside from mixing with anything else while allowing people to drink from them, and cutlery that repelled water enough to be properly used. Andstly, hed had to find food that wouldnt fall apart underwater and taste good even when wet. That had been tricky, and in the end, hed settled for a charcuterie board to go with the wine, and some Jell-O for dessert. It wasnt exactly the on par with what they usually ate, but hopefully, setting things up underwater would make up for it. For a long few minutes, he waited, half assuming that hed misread the time, or that shed gotten held up somewhere. He was even tempted to head out of the water for a moment to check his phone. But then, light began to shine in the darkest depths, rapidly descending through the water. As it drew closer, the source of the illumination became clear, a pair of wings that resembled those of a Monarch Butterfly, though it was silver and turquoise rather than orange and ck, shining with the light of a full moon. This was only the second time Isaac had ever seen Elenas wings, she usually kept them hidden as they were somewhat vulnerable and insanely attention-drawing. Shed told him that she preferred to shine throughpetence instead of, you know, literally shining. As she saw what hed set up, her face lit up, metaphorically this time. Aw, thats beautiful, thank you, she said before giving him a brief kiss, But you didnt have to go through all that trouble. You invited me into your home, something romantic was the least I could do, Isaac replied, hoping his grin wasnt as dopey as it felt. Speaking through water made his voice sound weird, though long practice had made it possible for him to at least be understood. I meant the table, Elena chuckled, That looked like it was tough to get down there. I think a pic nket might have been difficult to properly weigh down, Isaac suggested as passed her the first goblet of wine. A pic at the bottom of ake would be nice, wouldnt it? she asked, grinning as she went in for another kiss. Around them, theke floor came to life, her own personal illumination being transferred to thekebed as a whole, revealing a beautiful garden of underwater nts that had only existed as indistinct shadows before. Sand and silt shifted underfoot, rapidly transforming into arge nket/mattress which was soon covered infortable-looking moss. Well, they were underwater, it couldnt be moss, but Isaac couldnt really tell the difference. I I didnt know you could do that, Isaac said after a long moment. Elena grinned as she gently bopped him on the nose, Youre cute when youre surprised. And that was thest thing anyone saw or heard of either of them for a few hours. Chapter 252: The Public Eye Chapter 252: The Public Eye A few dayster Isaac found himself in thest ce hed ever expected to bethe lobby of a reality television producer. He didnt watch reality TV, he didnt enjoy it, he generally wasnt a fan of it. The email hed gotten had gone straight into the ignore folder and that would have been the end of it. But Arthur had had a great idea, and now he was here, at the offices of Spectacr Productions. My name is Isaac Thoma, I have an appointment, he introduced himself at the front desk and was instantly waved in without so much as having his ID checked. Sure, there were people whod throw an absolute fit at being asked to prove their identity, but basic precautions did save a lot of time and money. The building itself was a fairly standard office building, containing the administrative arm of several differentpanies, alongside basic eating arrangements such as a coffee shop on the ground floor. Isaac had made his way to the elevator and took it all the way up to the top floor, which was apparently entirely rented by thispany, and introduced himself there, as the buildings lobby waspletely open andcked a reception desk. The receptionist led him to the head office, which was open to reveal something that could best be described as the bastard lovechild of a corporate office and a geeks mancave, covered in little tchotchkes, action figures, monster bits, and weapon models. It reminded Isaac slightly of his own office, except that was stuffed with functional pieces of equipment and hunting trophies, rather than a random assortment of stuff. But just taking one look at the ce told Isaac that its owner was someone who truly loved this job of his. Good afternoon, Mr. Thoma, Im Daniel Herbert, Im in charge around here, but you can call me whatever you want, Daniel, Dan, Im not picky about that, Herbert introduced himself as he stepped around the desk to shake Isaacs hand. I really cant put into words how happy I was to read your response, weve been trying to set up a meeting with an S-Ranker for months. Really, I think I almost dropped dead of a heart attack when I saw tha- you dont want to hear about any of that, do you? While hed been talking at the speed of light, Herbert had gone back around his desk and sat down. He didnt make any obvious movements to activate his magic, but an illusionary spell manifested a light show in the center of his desk. He was pretty good at that, Isaac had to admit. A huge demon, fighting against a group of warriors d in various outfits, wielding a wide variety of weapons, could be seen. Countless small figures fell, but eventually, the demon finally sumbed to the barrage of attacks. This is what I want to bring to the world. Man vs. the new nature, but I think we both know how dangerous this is. Having a [Raid Boss] around without an S-Ranker is a terrible idea for one thing, and in general, blood sports that end with people dead isnt going to fly with any channel. So you figured that an arena that doesnt let anyone die and can summon the most spectacr monsters in existence at the drop of a hat would make all of that a hell of a lot easier, Isaac summarized, Let me be blunt with you, Im not here because Im chomping at the bit to produce reality television. Im here because I think its very important to share knowledge far and wide and a friend of mine recently reminded me that I dont non-educational programs still help inform the public. I mean, it might be a bit different than what I had in mind, but we can work around that, Herbert admitted. Right now, my main concern is this show would give people the wrong impression about the danger posed by [Raid Bosses]. If they get moved down by the dozens because you pit them against a hundred S-Rankers at a time, wed see a spike in bad summonings, Isaac exined as he withdrew a folder from his spatial pocket, Ive thought about this a fair bit, and had mywyer write up a basic contract. In essence, it states that you cant call on Sun Wukong within the first five episodes, even if he asks, you cant have more than one-third of contestant teams contain S-Rankers, and even a live show needs either an automatic censorship [Skill] or a significant streaming dy because this is going to get bloody. That sounds reasonable, Herbert said after hed tapped the folder with his finger and activated a [Skill]. Apparently, he had a [Skill] to speedread. Isaac just used his [Aura] for that, taking in entire pages simultaneously. The director then spent a few more minutes exining the nitty-gritty of his vision. Fundamentally, one thing has to be clear, Isaac said, Im an extremely busy man, itll be you and your people who do the actual heavy lifting here. I wont be around to micro-manage anything. My conditions are hard boundaries, and no kind of oh, he was avable just on this one day will fly. My contract reflects that. I can be plenty flexible on most subjects, but not those. Do you really think thats necessary? Herbert asked, I know television can be influential, but can it really be that bad? Most people are convinced that cars will explode as seen in movies or on TV shows after a crash. Every single first aid course Ive ever been to has corrected that misconception, but even I still somewhat believe it. Chloroform is an anesthetic that is guaranteed to either kill the victim or cause severe brain damage if used the way it is in movies and TV shows. When used in surgery, you need an anesthesiologist constantly making sure the affected person doesnt drop dead, and modern anesthesia methods are a billion times safer. But most people who hear the word chloroform wont know any of that. Or how about the way that people falling into water is depicted? Everyone has at least heard of the fact that the surface is going to be as hard as concrete if you fall from more than I believe the distance is forty meters? But when you think about it, really think, how do you imagine someone diving off a high ce into water ending? Your rational mind knows that should be fatal, but youll imagine that person surviving. A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth a thousand pictures, Mr. Herbert. I want to show the world how [Raid Boss] battles go. I dont want to mislead people into thinking its safe. Considering the severity of the situation, I think my irond contract is appropriate. Herbert began to mop at his forehead, removing the sweat that had umted during Isaacs speech. Your contract basically gives you a veto power for when any of your conditions are even slightly affected. He said. Im not asking for a general veto, Isaac pointed out, Merely an elerated path of resolution in case of conflict. Thats the only way this will work for me. Youll have to find someone else if it doesnt work for you. Herbert signed, though he didnt seem particrly happy about it. And with that done, Isaac left soon after, grinning internally. That show would be an absolute, unmitigated, disaster. And then the world would get a front-row seat to the devastation a [Raid Boss] could unleash under most circumstances. Sure, idiots who grossly overestimated themselves would continue to exist, but at least now anyone of reasonable intelligence would have a better idea of what they might be getting into. He was on his way back to the university when his phone dinged with a news alert, one hed been waiting on for a while. A ghostly ship had sighted in the middle of the Antic, briefly pulling into the port of Jamestown, Saint Helena to resupply before vanishing beneath the waves. Chapter 253: The Deep Blue Sea Chapter 253: The Deep Blue Sea Getting to Saint Helena was an absolute nightmare. It was one of the most isted ces on the, excluding the likes of Rlyeh or central Antarctica. Andre managed to teleport him a few thousand kilometers in the right direction, and Li-Mei teleported him further, as close to the ind as possible, but neither of them had ever been there. Crossing the several thousand kilometers of ocean that separated him from his destination was no mean feat for even him. Well, he could do it, but hardly in a short enough time that his target would still be there. And if that ship had been easy to track, it wouldnt have taken this long to get a sighting. In the other timeline, a sighting like this would have indicated the presence of one specific vessel. The Flying Dutchman, the famous ghost ship risen from the grave, captained by one Davy Jones. Or rather, his [Heir]. One of the most elusive S-Rankers in existence, and one in possession of far more power than one would expect from a hermit on a sailboat. Not that Isaac would ever call him that to his face, that would probably get him murdered. Now there were only two things left to do. Reach the boat and pray he was dealing with the same person once again. So, finding the target. He was fast, but not fast enough to get there in time. So he had to get ahead of them, somehow. That was where [The Meaning of the Name] came in. He knew all about Jones from the other timeline, the [Blessing of Innovation] allowed him to draw upon [Skills] that let him understand how currents flowed in the region and how theyd affect an underwater ship with the Dutchmans specifications. Even with a decent read on the captain and knowledge of likely directions, he didnt know the vessels target and had to y on the probabilities. So the n was as simple as it wasplex. Swim as quickly as he could, [Continent Strider] enhancing his travel speed exponentially over time, and make sure to cover the best points to teleport back to if he found out that the initial route had been the wrong one. He cut through the water like a shark, speed ever-growing, and reached the first possible location, an underwater current that would have carried the ship all the way to Australia. Nothing there. While underwater, Isaac had canceled his normal [Aura] cloak, instead throwing out a thin wedge that he projected as far away from her as possible and swept around himself like an old-school sonar. Plenty of fish, the odd shipwreck, and even a treasure chest whose location Isaac mentally took note of, but no Flying Dutchman. In all likelihood, hed missed his chance. The further the ship got from Saint Helena, the worse his predictions would get, and catching up a bloody ship while swimming was going to be a pain in the ass. The next ocean current was on the other end of the ind, and he reached it after hours of swimming. Once again, nothing. Hed check out one final spot so he could teleport to itter, then head up to the ind, and then head back to his assistants. And then, theyd get sent all over the world, visiting random isted ces so they could teleport him thereter. Next time, hed be able to get there faster. Suddenly, Isaacs [Aura] brushed over something. Arge mass of old wood, floating in the middle of the water. His [Aura] was too thin to give him high-resolution feedback, but that was the first possible contact hed made since entering the water. His [Aura] ceased its endless sweep through the ocean and coalesced on that specific point. An old ship, cutting through the ocean at speeds that would have been high for an airne, let alone something traveling through a medium as dense as water. His [Aura] began to flicker as he made it more noticeable, using the usual method of auric Morse. Hopefully, this would work. And it did. The ship slowed slightly, allowing him to catch up. Permission toe aboard? Isaac called out once he was close enough, the sounding out garbled to hell and back due to him being underwater and the distances involved. The [First Officer of Legends, Conqueror of the Depths] would like to teach you the Skill [Unrestricted Speech]. Would you like to learn this Skill? Y/N Obviously, Isaac epted. Unrestricted Speech (epic) Communication is the very core of not only modern civilization, but any kind ofmunity in general. Coordination is what allows any number of species to transcend the limitations of any one member, and part of the thing that has made humanity so dominant. After all, no matter how clever any single human may be, true innovation can only happen by building upon the work of previous generations. But even the more mundane uses of speech can make an immeasurable difference, facilitating trade and solving conflicts without violence. This is a Skill that allows its users to manifest the greatest possible form ofmunication, irrespective of their surroundings or noise pollution. As long as the user can survive in a given medium, it will carry their voice as far as air would under standard conditions (Earth, Sea Level, air temperature around twenty degrees centigrade), even in the hard vacuum of space. In addition, when the user raises their voice in situations with significant amounts of environmental noise, their voice will still be clearly understandable, and the most prominent sound to anyone who cares to listen. This Skill is always active unless deactivated. That [Skill] might seem like a party trick to most people, but it was almost impossible to overstate the usefulness of propermunication. Being able to talk even in outer space, at least once hepleted one of his undead Aspect stacks and gained the ability to survive out there, would be impossible without this ability. Sure, most of the time, he could justmunicate via the party, but his party [Skill] required him to be within a few meters of someone to add them. Great when he had the time to prepare, useless otherwise. Hed have to see if he could bribe the man to teach that particr trick to his allies. Arthur had something simr, most people in the military or police force also had a weaker version, but most people Isaac relied on didnt. Permission toe aboard? Isaac asked again, his voice ringing crystal clear through the oceans depths. All around him, fish exploded into motion, the sudden introduction of sound to the otherwise silent depths scaring the hell out of them. Dere your name, came back a response, deep and authoritative. My name is Isaac Thoma, Im here to talk to your captain, Isaac responded, I hold no ill will, ande bearing gifts. Permission granted. Isaac swam over to the ship, struggling with the current until he was above the deck. The current suddenly stopped pulling at him, leaving him hanging in a bubble of serenity. And when he swam lower, the effects of being underwater were almost entirely removed, the weightlessness being reced by a reassuring attachment to the nks underfoot, and the resistance of the liquid he was submerged in was almostpletely removed. Good afternoon, Dr. Thoma, a middle-aged man in an old-timey naval uniform greeted Isaac, The Captain will see you in the Wardroom in a few minutes. Follow me, please. Youre the one who taught me [Unrestricted Speech], arent you? Isaac asked. Yes, Dr. Thoma, the man nodded. If your captain is alright with it, would you be willing to teach it to some associates of mine? Isaac asked, Withpensation, of course. If the captain agrees, the man nodded. The ships wardroom was tiny, made of old yet surprisingly solid wood, as one would expect of a 17th-century sailing ship. There were plenty of ships on which a meeting like this would have taken ce in the captains cabin for ack of space. Isaacs guide, the ships first officer ording to his [ss], slipped back outside while a young man entered in his stead, taking position next to the door. Clearly, leaving a stranger alone on the ship wasnt in the cards. It took a while for the captain to arrive, but Isaac didnt begrudge him that. Captains tended to be stupidly busy, chances were that this wasnt a power y. After maybe half an hour, Davy Jones himself stepped through the door. He looked like a man in the prime of his life, long brown hair artfully woven and fell down the back of his hair, and a beard decorated with pearls and coral reached all the way down to his chest. The mans skin, meanwhile, was pale, milky, almost see-through, reminiscent of a body that had been underwater for days, butcking the usual grossness of such a sight. Somehow, it fit him. Good afternoon, captain, Isaac began, What should I call you? Im Captain Jones, the captain of the depths announced, drawing a clear line between himself and his original identity, And Im curious what made you seek me out, Dr. Thoma. I figured that getting to know the [Heir] of a mythical being was a good idea, Isaac said. So you knew what the Dutchman was beforeing here? Jones asked. It was a scientific wild-ass guess, Isaac said. And that is? The kind of thing that would get youughed out of the room if presented as a hypothesis, but is more grounded than a regr wild-ass guess, Isaac shrugged, then pulled arge crate from his storage space, I had this made in case for a potential expedition to the base of Rlyeh, but I think it could be useful to you. What I have here is a waterproof mana-to-electricity converter, alongside a full set ofptops, tablets, and phones rated for a pressure of up to two kilobars, as well as an antenna capable of transmitting cell signals through even eight kilometers of water. The kind of pressure that would damage those phones doesnt even exist at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, Jones observed, Just where were you expecting to take those? Like I said, the bottom of Rlyeh, Isaac said, The engineering department loves building crazy stuff, but they need an excuse to spend the money. So when they get one, they tend to go a little crazy. Ah yes, the engineers, Jonesughed, turning to the young man by the door, What was it that Greene wanted to rig up? Demon-blood-based depth charges with directional force projection via magic that we can safely detonate right next to the hull? I believe the intention was to make it safe to blow them even on deck, as an anti-boarder weapon, Captain. Ah yes, that, Jones nodded, then turned back to Isaac, This is an extremely generous gift, thank you. But you dont expect me to believe that this is just a random meeting, do you? Finding this vessel was no mean feat, you were quite thorough in your search. So Jones had been aware of him for a long time, Isaac noted. That localized omniscience was probably limited to the water, but when you spent all your time at the bottom of the ocean, those limitations were just fine. How aware are you of the current world situation? Isaac asked in lieu of answering. Its constantly changing, chaotic in general, and theres a bunch of lunatics trying to end the world, Jones summarized. And youve be an extremely powerful person, capable of affecting change on a global scale if you decided to involve yourself in politics, Isaac added. So thats what youre looking for? Jones asked, voice growing cold. I wouldnt me anyone for wanting to avoid that nest of vipers. Id be somewhere in the middle of nowhere, fighting whatever monster I wanted to fight, if I could. Isaac said, What Im looking for is general support to keep the spinning. Your first officer is capable of teaching a usefulmunication [Skill], Id be willing to pay quite a lot if hed teach a few of my associates. Also, while it hasnt been a serious problem so far, aquatic monsters spreading freely in the ocean could be very dangerous, very quickly. Id ask you to keep an eye out. The reason that issue hadnt reached apocalyptic levels of danger was simple. Monsters were stupidly aggressive and went right after any nearby humans and when ships went down in the modern world, that tended to raise rms. When the rescue crew ran into a monster swarm, the cavalry would get called in and that would be the end of it. We already do that, Jones said, No one benefits from a overrun by monsters. Thank you, Isaac said, But considering how quickly a situation like that could spiral, I was wondering if it were possible for you to perhaps plot your routes to maximize the area scanned by your sensory [Skill]? It would obviously not be the ideal course for searching for wrecks, but Id make sure you wouldnt lose out. What do you know about our searches? Jones asked. Your previous [sses] were some rtion of [Historian], Isaac announced, Youre capable of turning the weight of history that rests upon an object into real, actual, power. This vessel were traveling on, for example? It was created from the wrecks of countless other ships, built in the shape of the mythical Flying Dutchman to draw upon its legend. Cannons from the Spanish Armada, representing the mightiest fleet of its time, armor from a pre-dreadnought from Battle of Jund, a ship of the line that dominated naval war far for the prior century, who else knows what kind of treasures can be found on the ocean floor? Not to mention there are countless historical artifacts of, well, historical value lying around, just waiting to be found. When did you figure that out? Jones asked. I suspected a while ago when I first heard rumors of a ghost ship traveling the ocean. But seeing the ship confirmed it. Unless Im severely mistaken, your sails were woven around the few strips of the Armadas sails that survived all these centuries, Isaac supposed. You have a good eye, Jones said. Good guess, Isaac shrugged. In reality, hed known that from the other timeline, and taken a cursory look over the sails to confirm that it was also the case here. I see, Jones said, Well have to work out a proper agreement, but an oceanic patrol of areas without shipping or naval patrols is definitely something we can do. And onest thing, Isaac said, Could you please be on the lookout for underwater settlements? As you know, weve got a bit of a cult problem topside, and there is a lot of space down here thats barely observed. Wait, cough, youre looking for an underwater base? Jones asked, doing a spectacr job of suppressing augh, Are these people Bond viins? Hardly, Isaac said, Living a few hundred or even a thousand meters underwater takes just a single Aspect. Sure, adapting technology for underwater use is a pain, but the privacy offered should more than make up for it. If we find something, well make sure to call in help or take care of the problem ourselves, Jones responded. Thank you. After another hour of hammering out the particrs, Isaac withdrew another object from his storage space. This is a cuss that used to be wielded by one Edward Teach, better known as ckbeard. I believe it could do great things in the right hands. Yours, Isaac offered. Where on Earth did you get this? Jones asked. I mostly use my teaching abilities to help my allies, but asionally, I trade them for material support from people who dont have any particrly bad skeletons in their closet, Isaac responded, I figured that sword mighte in useful some time. For the first time since the conversation had started, Jones was struck dumb, he merely reverently picked up the sword and stared at it. Also, weve recently figured out how to ce healing potions into what basically amounts to jelly beans that arerger on the inside. Theyd be perfect for underwater use, dont you think? Isaac offered and when Jones nodded, added, Ill make sure to add a few jars to the next supply drop. Now, Im afraid I have to take my leave, captain. Good day to you, sir. Jones bade him goodbye as well, told Isaac where theyd pick up supplies next and promised that his first officer would be avable for teaching. Once back at the university, Isaac arranged for the supply drop and then went back to nning the first Tier 8 [Raid Boss] kill. This time, South Korea had beaten Germany to the punch in upgrading their arena more quickly and Isaac had decided that stressing out over who got the first kill was a waste of energy in this case. He was working with Yoo-jin on the nning, things would go just as smoothly in Korea as they would in Germany and Isaac was no patriot. Working in the nation of his birth had been a matter of convenience, nothing more. Chapter 254: Interlude Yoo-jin Chapter 254: Interlude Yoo-jin Preparing to fight the Tier 8 [Raid Boss] had been one of the most painful experiences in Yoo-jins life. The issue was that, well, he knew so much about how this thing operated, and what would and wouldnt work against it, but implementing his knowledge had been difficult. The issue was that many ns could only be proven wrong by revealing the knowledge that he was not supposed to have. Sometimes, he suspected that Isaac had let Korea take the lead on this Tier of [Raid Bosses] just so he didnt have to personally deal with this stuff. After all, Tier 8 was where it got . Of course, he knew that there was nothing malicious about any of it, the extra abilities of a Tier 8 Demon Lord were infinitely lessplicated than the powerset of a Crystalline Sage or Sanguine Monarch. But then all he had to do was take one look at the standardplexity of nning for a [Raid Boss], thenpare it to how the situation worked when he had to incorporate future knowledge without anyone noticing. The person he really wanted to strangle wasnt Isaac, though. No, that dubious honor went to the people whod submitted a fully fleshed-out n for summoning and killing the monster in question. Of course, they didnt deserve his ire either, in any reasonable world, theyd have been his heroes for saving him a metric ton of work. At least the current n had allowed for international help, If he managed to convince anyone to show up. A single note left in the [Round Table] had earned him a preliminary ok from everyone, and the email chains that followed had been staged to the point of absurdity. Hed made countless proper ns, only to have them all crumble around his ears when Amy had unlocked her second Central [Skill]. It allowed her to take any cast spells that people let her have, as well as any that they didnt hold on to well enough,bine them into a single powerful spell bomb, and then lob the whole affair at an enemy to create an explosion that dwarfed even the st that had obliterated the boss of the Draconic Abyss. Incorporating that power had required him to reshuffle everything. And then, hed gotten more reinforcements that he hadnt expected to receive, and hed had to re-shuffle the ns once again. In the end, hed given up on trying to create a single unified n and just created a dozen that could be changed out, depending on what they had avable on the day of the battle. And now, here they were, in the fire-sted wastnd of the former demilitarized zone. It had be decidedly not empty of military action when that [Raid Boss] had been hurled at Seoul, and its importance as a buffer zone had copsed alongside the North Korean state. The situation up north was an absolute mess of various jurisdictional arguments and conflicting policies, but one thing was clear: they were not in a position to threaten South Korea anymore, leaving the site of this historic battle a perfect spot for a battle against a more powerful version of the same monster. Walls had been set up to contain the monster as much as possible without triggering the dreaded no traps use of summoning, and a second ring of walls removed line of sight to Seoul and other potential targets. Outside this wall sat a series of artillery batteries, ready to go to work at the right time. But inside the walls waited over two hundred people, no one under the fourth Evolution, and anyone who wasnt S-Rank tended to be at the upper edge of A-Rank. And just outside the artillery ring was another group of two hundred, in case anything went wrong. General Park had been beyond annoyed at being relegated to ying taxi, but he had a rapid redeployment [Skill] that let him swap out two formations, and that had made for an excellent club to bludgeon his protests with. The foreigners had to be spread evenly between the primary and backup formations to ensure that there was no perception of the foreigners doing the bulk of the work, or having them be the ones who saved the local elites. Yoo-jin had epted the role of guild master as it put someone involved in summoning and Dungeons in charge of the situation, rather than a random political appointee. It had worked and kept things working smoothly and from a perspective of looking at the overall result, his tenure had been an overwhelming sess. But hed be damned if the political aspect of his job werent beyond frustrating. Fenrir, Arthur, and Patrick were in the first wave, and Isaac, Elena, and Amy were in the second. As were a few members of GSG-13 that Habicht had sent along. The Demon Lords entrance into this ne was far more spectacr than that of its lower-Tierpatriots. ck mes that somehow managed to be even darker than those of the previous monsters of the same name licked towards the sky, a shadow that was inexplicitly visible growing within. The lower the me was, the more of the monster was visible. 60 meters tall, deep burgundy skin, teeth, horns, and ws as ck and sharp as obsidian. Burning coals for eyes, a crown of thorns atop its head, and a loincloth of ck silk covering potentially non-existent privates. As the me died down, the monster threw its head back and roared, the noise making the air quake. Windows shattered on cars that had been parked a little too close, and if this hadnt been a fairly obvious trick, it might have hammered into unprotected fighters. As it stood, the sound-dampening enchantment cast over the entire group reduced the volume from damaging to merely irritating. The very instant the demon was fully visible, chains flew through the air and wrapped it tight, flowing through the low walls that surrounded it to tie it down only for the Demon Lord to briefly transform back into fire. The chains fell straight through and melted on the way, sttering onto the ground below as molten, glowing, liquid. Those had cost almost seven hundred billion won. Wasted. What hadnt been a waste had been training up the [Warden of Magic, Chainer of Legends] by having him try and restrain people with high physical Stats like Fenrir. That time, they hadnt told the warden that it was a training exercise to make her work as hard as possible. It had boosted her [Chained Lockdown] by a whopping 9 Levels, but she might carry this grudge even by the time hell froze over. But Yoo-jin had known that the ability to evade restraining effects only worked for a brief time after summoning, and managed to arrange for a second, different, attempt to be madeter, citing that he wanted to make sure they had their bases covered. In the few seconds between the first restraining attempt failing and the second activating, the demon had already flooded the area around it with hellfire. Arrows, magically propelled rocks, even weaker spells burned up in the unnatural fire, wiping away a decent chunk of the opening salvo, number-wise. But in terms of power, the stronger attacks went through mostly fine, slightly weakened but still coherent. The monster roared in agony, having lost its eyes, eardrums, and if thered ever been something under the loincloth, it was nothing but bloody ribbons now. It was at this point that the second anti-movement trick activated, spectral chains briefly halting the monsters movement while the ground underfoot reshaped itself to contain the monster. Then, a hail of titanic arrows began to hammer into the monsters chest. [Salvo of History] grew every time it was unleashed, and while it wasprised of just very powerful arrows, it did have one of the highest potentials for growth of any [Skill]. Ance of fire forced Yi to dive for cover, but when the demon had thrust out its palm to unleash the attack, Yoo-jin had trapped the limb in ice. A dozen additional cold spells cast upon the ice cube reduced its temperature ever more while the flesh underneath grew brittle. If theyd left the limb alone at that point, that would already have left the monster greatly restricted. But of course, they didnt. Kyo Yubin was one of the most terrifying area-control specialists whose [ss] wasnt based on nuclear weaponry, the S-Ranked [Verdant Spellweaver] of South Korea. For a brief moment, it looked like a small patch of grass was growing underneath the demons armpit, but it only took a single second for that patch to explode into a jungle of vicious greenery. Thorn-covered vines snaked up the demons torso pushing it one way while others pushed the ice cube in the opposite direction. And then, a tree grew to a height of seventy meters in a split second, its crown a simple fist-shaped hunk of wood. It hammered into the spot where the ice ended and the rest of the demons body began, shattering the limb like ss. Where before, the demon had been fairly good at keeping its bnce, now, it had lost the counterweight of the ice and the vines were still pushing at it. The ground shook as the monster hit the ground, followed by every cooldown [Skill] not used so far unleashed upon it. Burnt, frozen, electrocuted, cursed, poisoned, and more besides, the monster looked to be on deaths door. Huh, I thought this would have been tougher, Yoo-jin heard someone murmur. Poor bastard. What was about to happen wouldnt be caused by Murphys wrath, tempted fate, or have anything at all to do with a jinx, but it would happen all the same. The Demon Lord expired under the barrage of some of the strongest attacks humanity could produce, but they didnt receive a kill notification. Instead, a sphere of light appeared around the monster, gently pushing back anyone within a hundred meters and growing opaque. Thest thing that they could see of the monster was being lifted back into a standing position, then the sphere turned a pearly white andpletely imprable to even sensory [Auras]. Switch! Yoo-jin roared both out loud while setting exceptions via the party, and in an instant, the rest of the group was swept away in a wave of magic. Everyone else found themselves on the outside of the arena a split-secondter, standing amidst as-of-yet-unused artillery pieces and concerned-looking Artillerymen. But he stayed where he was, along with any S-Ranker that could still contribute significantly. He and Isaac took a second to make sure everyone knew Yoo-jin was still in charge despite the fact that the second group, which was under Isaacsmand, had been called in. And then they waited. The time the monster spent in that cocoon could vary from one second to five, it could re-appear anywhere in the sphere and had the same immunity to movement-restricting effects it had when summoned. Thankfully, given the situation, that was something they could pretend to have figured out on the spot. When the pearlescent dome cracked, theyd already prepared every attack that could be held for a few seconds before being unleashed. A sphere of scintiting light hovered above Amys hand, abination of every spell that the magic users with the second group had been able to cast in a couple of seconds. Elena was wreathed in her own personal hurricane, ready to hurl it at the monster. The handful of gun users in the group stood ready to unleash hell upon the monster, their firearms glowing with so much power theyd almost certainly explode once fired. And then, the monster reappeared amidst another area-sweeping st of hellfire. Isaac stepped out to meet it, absorbing enough to shield everyone behind him while various tanks or projected shields took care of the rest. The very instant the monster was no longer hidden amidst its mes, the counterattack began. Once again, the eyes were the first things to go, exploding under the hammer blow impacts of bullets. At the same time, Amys attack hurled it off its feet with the balls initial impact, and then the ball came apart into its constituent spells that detonated once more. As the monster was flung off its feet, Elenas hurricane swooped in to throw it skywards. A st of fire managed to disperse most of the water st, but by that point, it had already been flung a dozen or so meters into the air. Isaac mmed into the monster at that point, transformed into his monstrous shape, using his unstoppable force attack. The demon was hurled higher into the air amidst a spray of blood as Isaac tore through it. The second group emptied their metaphorical clips into the falling monster, artillery spells, projected sword shes, and more hammering into it. But by the time the ground trembled under the demons impact, it was still more than capable of fighting back. Any normal creature, in any rational world, would have been dead by now. Eyes shot out, the projectiles that had destroyed them having continued onwards into the brain. Fifth and sixth-degree burns cover most of its body. A hole in the chest where a giant lizard monster-thing had cored the monster like an apple. And countless more injuries all across its body. [Raid Bosses] were just built differently, and the ostensible reinforcement group could not be too designed to fight apletely fresh monster without giving away the game. They were meant to intervene once something went wrong, for Gods sake. Fire erupted from the palm of the hand the monster used to push itself back to its feet, flowing across the ground like water, forcing people to go scrambling back, oftentimes with burned feet. Isaac came back down like a meteor, wreathed in a white fire that somehow managed to hurt the Demon. Meanwhile, Yoo-jin charged in, using his [Aura of Winters Child] to keep the mes off him while his ice flowed off him in a constant stream to form a barrier to the left and right of him. The Demon Lord might have been a fearsome enemy, but now, it was caught between Isaacs hammer and Yoo-jins anvil. Gravity magic enhanced Isaacs blows while barrier and earth-shaping [Skills] enforced Yoo-jins defenses. A massive explosion of fire and fury tossed Isaac clear, momentum alone carrying him over a hundred meters away even if it didnt damage him in the slightest. Two incredibly swift punches got Yoo-jin out of the way, the first nting him into the ground like a tentpole, the second forcing him to generate a massive shield of ice to hide under. Both of them required mere seconds to fight their way back to the monster, but in that brief moment, the monster managed to inflict devastating damage on their allies. No deaths, the tanks in front managed to protect people and the teleporters were spot-on with their rescues, but some of the injuries would take weeks to heal even with modern medicine. Demon Lord (Lv. 107 Raid Boss) has been in. 65,000 XP gained (500,000 XP distributed across 739 people as per their distribution) If it hadnt been for the kill notification, they might have continued beating on the monsters corpse for quite a while. As things stood, they werent entirely certain whod felled the beast, they just knew that at some point during its rampage, the amount of damage it had umted had surpassed even that monsters ludicrous capacity to soak up harm. Once all the injured were seen, fires put out and everyone had gathered around Yoo-jin, he began his speech. Thank you all foring on this historic day. I know this fight was tougher than we might have expected, and the monster literally resurrecting was a particrly nasty surprise, but while were all still here, the monster isnt. And that wasnt just luck or random chance. That was the cumtion of immense amounts of nning, strategizing, and caution to the point where some consider it to spill over into paranoia. Today showed us that no matter how much weve understood about the [System], itll always have new tricks up its sleeve as we climb the Tiers. But weve also seen as long as we prepare for the unexpected, we can beat it. Get your injuries treated, collect your share of the loot, fix your gear, and then head over to the Hunters Guild, weve prepared a little something. There are [Portal Mages] avable for anyone who needs to get somewhere quickly. And once youre ready to join us at the hall, I have just one thing to say, he announced, switching to English for the final sentence, Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow were having a very exhaustive debriefing session. Nearly everyone around him winced at that. *** The party was in full swing by the time Yoo-jin was done with all the paperwork and headed out of his office. On the way, he noticed Isaac had snuck off into a corner to have a phone call. Oh, I should have told you about the ns the moment I heard about them, should I? Keeping secrets is no longer needed? Isaac asked, In that case, why dont I share the ns for Etzel far and wide? Or, how about the ns being drawn up for the Demon blood electric station? Should I share that? I heard about the ns for the Tier 8 Demon Lord before they became public, but I didnt spread that around because I was told about them in confidence. Yoo-jin just kept walking, not overhearing, but even his hearing was good enough to overhear Isaacs next response, though he didnt catch the other end of the conversation. That would have required him to strain his hearing and actively eavesdrop. Matter of national security? Are you sure you dont mean matter of national bragging rights? Yoo-jin sniggered as he heard Isaac hang up and jog to catch up. The more often I can rub a government officials nose in the fact that them dragging their feet on following my suggestions had negative consequences, the faster theyll move next time, Isaac exined without prompting. How long do you think well have to pretend to work before we can present the updated n? Yoo-jin asked. I think tonight will work, Isaac said, Ive got a prank to y on Amy, and then Ill head off to work on something else. Prank? She filled a really expensive bottle of scotch with rotgut and shes trying to see how long she can get me to expound on its vor profile. Ill see if I can turn it around on her, Isaac exined. Arent pranks a little beneath you? Yoo-jin asked. Eh, as long as everyone involved isughing, its fine, Isaac shrugged. Not what I asked, Yoo-jin said. Most pranks are just bullying, and thats beneath me. Good-spirited pranks are just another form of humor, and how boring would life be without humor? Isaac asked. Yoo-jin shrugged, You might want to make sure no one films that. Your dignity is kind of important, especially considering your position. Dont worry, Ill be careful, Isaac responded. And that was how the rest of the evening went. Parties, nning, pranks. Chapter 255: The Predicable Bloodbath, or “The Reason Raid Bosses Get Nuked” Chapter 255: The Predicable Bloodbath, or The Reason Raid Bosses Get Nuked The show ended up being simply titled [Raid Boss],plete with brackets. And its premise was just as simple as its name. People get ughtered by the monster while othersmented. Unsurprisingly, Herbert hadnt managed to find any S-Rankers willing to fight in full view of the public. Most of them werent the kind of people who liked to y circus monkey, not to mention the issues that came with fighting with all you had on live television. Keeping at least some trump cards hidden was all the more important for public figures. Even so, there were a grand total of three S-Rankers involved in nonbat roles. Steins camera drone would be used to live-stream the fight, as without it, the show would basically have just been thementators talking about recordings taken within the [Grave of Swords]. Isaac was, of course, needed to power the whole thing. And Arthur had decided to take a role as a guestmentator at thest minute. Apparently, one of the participants had been relentlessly bugging him about not being allowed to fight any [Raid Bosses], calling him every name under the sun in the process. And now, he couldment on that mans utter failure to beat the enemy hed wanted a crack at for so many months. Isaac had retreated to the far corner of the production room with hisptop, working while Arthur and Herbert did the pre-fight overview of the situation. So they cant hear this, right? Arthur asked. Are you worried you might identally give them tips? Herbert asked. Nah, thats no problem. As far as I know, there is no secret trick to killing a Crystaline Monarch and I couldnt give them any tips they couldnt have found online. But Im going to talk really badly about Mr. Johnson, his group and their chances. If they listen in and then lose the fight, Im going to be hearing about how I got in their heads and threw them off their game for the rest of eternity. So, are they listening in? No, Herbert said, So, what do you think their chances are? Theyre going to be facing a Crystalline Sage as a group of one hundred people, with Levels ranging from 75 to 110. The monster should be somewhere between Level 80 and 90. In theory, working together, they should be able to win. In practice, theyre fucked. Camelot could win at those odds. SAS could win at those odds, though theyd probably struggle a little more than most people would expect because theyre specialized in fighting people, not monsters. And GSG-13 could also win at those odds, considering that theyre specialized monster hunters. Mr. Johnson gathered a group of friends, coworkers, and adrenaline junkies, and worked together with them to summon monsters, growing through Levels. Its a workable strategy for fighting regr enemies, but the amount of nning and coordination [Raid Bosses] require if you dont have a third again their Levels is absolutely bloody insane. I mean, youd have a better chance of living if you went into a Manchester Pub wearing an Arsenal shirt than going up against a [Raid Boss] with what Johnson has prepared. And youre just here to gloat, then? Herbert asked innocently. Of course not, Arthur shook his head, Im here to point out exactly why you cantpare regr groups of people who get together to get Levels with raid groups. Johnson spent more than a year begging, threatening, and insulting me, all for the chance to get himself killed. Hopefully, hell learn his lesson after this. Arthur could be a good liar, Isaac noted. He was absolutely doing this just to gloat, he just knew better than to say that out loud. The conversation continued for a bit, typical reality television nonsense. Isaac just waited until he got the go-ahead on creating the [Grave of Swords]. It came after an excruciating amount of time, but he did get it. At that point, he did turn and pay attention to what was happening. The Crystalline Sage was a monster unlike any other, a [Raid Boss] unlike any other. It was a mere ten meters tall, tinypared to other [Raid Bosses], andprised entirely of a pale blue crystal, though its physique made it look a little chubby. Of course, that phrase couldnt be applied to a being made entirely of rock, but still, it looked slightly silly. What was decidedly not silly was the monsters staff, a spire of ss-clear crystal with metal threading through it, just as tall as the monster. And even as the humans scrambled to get into a proper formation, the wires within had rearranged themselves to form a line of script, flowing from the top of the staff to the bottom. Said script was nothing like anything that had existed prior to the [System], and somehow couldnt be subsumed into the [Omniglot] [Skill]. But once it had been written out, anyone, even children who didnt even have ess to the [System] yet, could grasp its meaning. A [Lance of Annihtion] was definitely not something that anyone wanted to have pointed them. Johnson, whose build was basically a typical pdin, tanked the attack, his shield interposed and enhanced by a cooldown [Skill]. Behind him, his allies spread out, mages to the back, groups forming for spells that required cooperation, others throwing up barriers to supplement the tanks. A grand total of fifteen people made up thetter group, with te armor, tower shieldsbined with either spears or short swords marking this particr kind of fighter. Archers, skirmishers, traditional warriors, and healers filled the space between the groups. Ranged attacks were fired back at the monster, spells pinging off the crystalline shell with a sound like hail as it charged. Oh, phnx formation, bad choice, Arthurmented, With most [Raid Bosses], when they charge, you need a damn good tank to block them, and even then itll probably cost you a cooldown [Skill]. The problem is that when a monster charges and you have to dodge, being in a phnx means that almost everyone has to dodge and theyre standing close enough to each other that getting enough space is going to be a stone-cold bitch. Three people died to that charge, simply smushed into the ground like a frog that had found its way onto a highway. Once in the center of the formation, the Sage spun, staff flying through the air in wide arcs, sending three more people out of the [Grave of Swords] with a new trauma. The [Thousand Ton Weight] hammered into anything in range with nigh-unblockable force. Tanks scrambled through the crowd, throwing up new barriers to buy time for their squishier allies. Swords broke under the impact of the staff, but oftentimes, they did manage to slow down the staff enough for someone to dive out of the way. In the center of the new circr formation, a chubby crystal golem literally danced, feet sliding across the ground in a strange pattern. Watch out! Its drawing a ru- You know, if they were better coordinated, someone would have been watching out for a stunt like that, and the warning could have been bettermunicated than by yelling, Arthurmented, heroically resisting the urge to make the deration in azy drawl while hanging over the side of the chair. Thankfully, only people who knew him well would be able to tell, otherwise, that would have looked really bad. Half the tanks were wiped out in a sh, the other half flung backwards by the [Resonant Shockwave]. The Sage dove into the biggest gap in the formation and spun like a top, its staff now in a configuration called [Font of the Inferno], mes spewing from the tip. Changing formation by people running away from the monster does not work terribly well, Arthurmented. As mes swept out from the weapon clutched in the monsters right hand, its left was tracing patterns across its chest, scratching runes into the crystal. Sitting amidst a burgeoning wildfire, the monster boosted itself with yet another rune every fifteen or so seconds. Johnson took that as a golden opportunity to heal the injured and get into a proper formation. They might have lost a third of their number and blown through half their big attacks, but they were getting into the groove. They knew the tricks, theyd managed to work out the kinks in their formation, and theyd had the time to set up bigbined attacks. Those thoughts and more were clear to read in their faces. Yet the instant they attacked, the inferno swept towards them while transforming into a wave of electricity. Some people managed to block the attack, but too many tanks had died and the wave was far stronger than the fire had ever been. As half the group fell down in twitching heaps, the intricate sequence of runes the Sages feet had carved into the ground under the cover of the mes was revealed. The end of the fight would probably have beenrgely skipped over if this wasnt a live show. Too many people were down, all but one of the tanks gone, and a good chunk of the ground was covered in electrified metal. Throw on the fact that the runes carved into the monsters body had made it quite a bit faster and tougher and the humans stood no chance. None at all. In the end, the Sage had quite a few cracks on its body, but it looked fine. In fact, the damage was so small that it could have been exined away as a naturally urring pattern. In fact, without knowing what it was supposed to look like, most people probably would have dismissed the damage as having been there the whole time. HEY, I want another shot! Johnson roared from therge room that served as a staging area. Im afraid we have other contestants waiting, Herbert announced, But were always open to having returning contestants. Johnson stomped off in a huff, seemingly unbothered by his death, but many of his people were looking more than a little shell-shocked. The subsequent fighters werent any more sessful. A dragon that wasnt grounded swiftly enough charbroiled the support contingent before snacking on the armored warriors, crunching down on them as though they were nuts. A Sanguine Monarch that had killed half the group while in its disassociated form, then torn through the rest so thoroughly it looked like theyd fallen into a woodchipper before they were healed and tossed out. Thankfully, not everyone made obvious mistakes, losing despite doing basically everything right. Arthur made it very clear where the fault for those lossesy, and it basically boiled down to not SAS/Seal Team 6 level training and coordination. *** Once everything was said and done, Herbert received several messages from various channels. Some were dropping the show due to how bloody it was, others were looking to pick it up. And there were also various people who hadnt quite put together that it was Isaac who decided what would be done with the [Grave of Swords] and proposed other fun ideas that could be done with a deathless ce. Incidentally, the [Skill] had ranked up to the max Level. It had jumped up by a Level when Isaac had arranged for a Tier 8 [Raid Boss] to be locked inside and the creative use on the show had pushed it all the way to the top. Grave of Swords (legendary, Level max) A vast field, countless des thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this space This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space. Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another ne (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the users soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though. The Skill ends if onebatant dies, it hits its time limit, or is deactivated by the user, any leftover mana will be refunded and ced in the Skills pool. When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new de is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger. However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+5 mana per opponent Level over the users, +50 for each Tier barrier between the users Level and the monsters, overall cost doubled for Bosses, tripled for Raid Bosses and quintupled for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 5 hours inbat, cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored des. After countless fights where the user has sealed powerful foes within to protect his allies, this Skill has evolved to further enhance the isting power of Grave of Swords. It can now be used to seal off a part of the battlefield, creating an incredibly durable spherical barrier around the user, with a radius of 50 meters (it increases automatically forrger, singr foes, ording to the same rules as the regr use of this Skill). The user may choose to banish any person in their Party from this zone to protect them, but enemies cannot be forcibly removed. (Note: inanimate objects ovepping the barrier will not be damaged, living beings will either be pushed into or out of the Grave of Swords if they ovep the barrier during its creation, depending on where the majority of their body is) Furthermore, this Skill has gained an additional effect due to a high degree of synergy with the ss Hildebrands Heir. When using the Grave of Swords to train against enemies trapped within, the user may choose to take along up to five other people. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, bing a tool to control the battlefield itself. Firstly, the user may now control the opacity of the Grave, allowing people to see inside, allowing those within to see outside, or both. In addition, they may control whether anyone can take advantage of this sight, or if it is limited to just their party members or even just them alone. Secondly, the Graves location is no longer visible from the outside. Thirdly, when the Grave is closed by the users victory, the user may decide to exit into any safe spot within a kilometer of where it was opened. And fourthly, the Grave can now be recharged or sustained with mana donated by others. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost forbat purposes, cost increases with targets power, increase must be paid from stored des or the users mana pool The utility of the Grave had taken a dramatic spike upwards, allowing him to use it in a way that wouldnt leave him in a potentially hazardous position when it ended. And while the controble opacity would be beyond useful not just when it came to making filming more convenient. Knowing what was going on outside or letting allies see inside would be useful as hell, especially when he could ensure that his enemies didnt get any of the information. Now all there was to do was wait until Etzel was properly upgraded to the point where he could farm Tier 8 [Raid Bosses]. *** As it turned out, Isaac hadnt been quite correct when predicting how people would react to the show. There was the expected horror and pearl-clutching, but also a ludicrous about of daredevils who wanted to throw themselves against powerful enemies just because they knew death wasnt permanent. And people started offering ludicrous rewards for anyone willing to leak his phone number. Thankfully, hed made it abundantly clear that ahead of time that anyone whose organization leaked his number would not get his new one, no matter how vital it might be that they be able to contact him in an emergency. That, in turn, was passed along to anyone within these organizations who had ess to his number. Sure, they might be able to make a quick buck, but theyd get subsequently sued into the ground. After a couple of leaks and subsequent retaliation, the message finallynded. Chapter 256: Death Incarnate Chapter 256: Death Incarnate Are you sure this is a good idea? Patrick asked. Define good idea, Isaac responded. You know what I mean. I know youve put some thought into this, but it just feels it goes against every rule of scientific conduct and good sense ever written, Patrick replied after a long pause, Just I know better than to think youre being stupid, but that little voice wont shut up about how this is going to go horribly wrong. Lets get one thing clear: Im not infallible, Isaac dered, If I were, Id be going at this alone. All of this, he said, gesturing around himself, Fighting the [System], the cult, everything. If you want to know something, if you feel like Im being an idiot, just ask. As for that this, Im certain. The Ankou is a very dangerous Tier 10 monster, but its one I can definitely beat, especially with my new [Skill]. And I really need its Aspect. The [Skill] in question was [Titanic Presence], an [Aura]-based ability that let him use two at the same time. Titanic Presence (legendary) There are certain people who have a certain, well, presence around them. Raw charisma, sexual maism, a repulsive stench, it depends on the person, really. Draw the eyes, or make people hurriedly avert their gazes, both are a kind of impact. When a person holding the power of a Titan enters a room, everyone knows it, as they are capable of wielding not just a single Aura, but two at the same time. There are obviously significant difficulties attached to using not one, but two incrediblyplicated abilities at the same time, which is why the second Aura can be ved to the first, mimicking its movements. However, that will vastly reduce the power gained by this Skill. Cost for second Aura is equal to that Auras basic cost. Isaac couldnt use the [Skill] to its fullest effect, using two [Auras]pletely independently was damn difficult, but it was still an extremely powerful trick. Lets clear out the rubble, and then, Id like you to summon the Ankou, Isaac said. They were currently in the universitys Void Ind, which they were officially using to fight some Seismic Golems. They tended to wreak holy havoc upon the foundation of any building they were summoned in, so they were usually fought there. Isaac had killed a couple to support the cover story, but now, it was time to summon the monster. The reason Isaac didnt summon the monster himself was simple. He didnt have a big enough mana pool. They tossed the monster corpses into their storage spaces, and then Isaac drew out the mostplicated summoning circle in existence in chalk. A scythe made from solid steel, arge ck sheet, and a few human fingerbones from a body that had been donated to science. Patrick paused for a second before he turned to Isaac, What happens if you lose? I know thats probably not going to happen, but what if does? Thats what the deadman switch is for, Isaac said, Enough alchemical explosives to level the campus if we werent in a separate space, infused with reagents specifically chosen to damage a creature like an Ankou. How does it work, Patrick asked curiously. A spatial ring liked to the life of the wearer. When the wearer dies, the storage copses and atomizes everything inside as it is expelled into the real world. There are substances in there that are perfectly fine when separated and in solid form, but when mixed together boom. Patrick winced as he charged the summoning circle, Can I leave before you fight the monster? Itll get summoned the instant you cross the threshold, Isaac warned, Let me get ready, then get out. While his colleague headed towards the exit, Isaac suited up. His armor covered his body in white dragon scales and Mimung manifested in his right hand. It was sharper than Balmung and when fighting an enemy that was basically a ghost, a weapons sharpness was more important than its heft. And then he dismissed his [Aura of the Desperate Seeker]. The monster he was about to fight was fairly simple and not going to manifest behind him without warning. As long as he had eyes on it, he didnt need his localized omniscience. It was still weird as all get out to suddenly be all but blind now. His [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] flowed across his skin, dyeing it a mixture of rusty reds and steely greys, like ancient armor that should have been retired long ago, yet it had been dragged intobat time and time again, endlessly. Despite the fact that it was one continuous piece, the energy field appeared pitted, broken, as if it had been pushed well past the breaking point. And yet there was still some strength remaining, an unshakeable, unstoppable core beneath the scars and the rust. Not a single iota of power was projected outwards, every single bit of it was kept close to the skin as a protectiveyer. Then, his [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] exploded from his heart in a pulse of red light, bursting from his skin in a wave of light the color of freshly spilled blood until it stopped at a distance of two meters from him. To anyone looking at it with spiritual senses, it would show a deep contradiction, of light and rebirth interwoven with blood and death on a fundamental level. And finally, a kabar dropped into his left hand, held in an icepick grip. Ready, Isaac announced and Patrick left the void space. In an instant, the atmosphere in this little pocket of reality shifted, growing cold not in the sense of a physical drop in temperature but on a metaphysical level, making Isaac shiver despite the fact that he could walk around in Antarctica in his underwear. His shadow grew longer behind him, a ck silhouette outlined in the ghostly light that emanated from the summoning circle. An invisible, intangible wind began to softly whisper, the sound rising into a crescendo of howling gales, yet they were still only audible, imperceptible to all his other senses. And then, the Ankou manifested. A pale, ethereal body barely visible under a hat and full body wraps of ck cloth, a scythe clutched in the beings right hand, staff parallel to the ground while the de hung down. All in all, a scythe was a truly terrible weapon in most circumstances. Only the side pointed towards the wielders body was sharp, cutting someone required a strange sweeping motion during which the edge was dragged through the grass to the side. Good for moving down nts, and maybe clearing out enemies who were significantly smaller than yourself, but not when fighting against an enemy of simr stature. But unfortunately, this scythe belonged to a supernatural entity that ended lives and reaped souls. The tip of the weapon was the most dangerous part of the implement, and if that thing left even the slightest scratch, that wound would remain forever, bleeding. Or at the very least, keep bleeding until the Ankou was in. In addition, without sufficient protection, the cold would seep into the wound to further damage the victim. Furthermore, it did the same kind of damage that Isaacs des did while in their astral form, where they damaged the very thing that housed the [Skills] and most of your mana pool, your astral body. But the kind of devastation that scythe could inflict was so much worse. It was still a crappy choice of weapon, no two ways about it, but it was a billion times more dangerous than any standard scythe, even one forged by the likes of Stagmer, could be. Throw in the danger posed by the cold that seeped into the very core of his being and the Ankou was definitely one of the Apex predators of the post-[System] world. But the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] shielded Isaac from the worst of the cold, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawns] regenerative effect would counteract the rest. The Ankou blurred forwards, the arm holding the scythe sweeping aroundzily. [The Meaning of the Name] activated and Isaac charged. The precognitive effects cost of 20 mana per second was too high to use constantly, but Isaacs strategy was simple. Use his regrbat experience to predict when mundane predictions would fail and then fall back on magic in those specific circumstances. If hed stayed where he was or even retreated, the Ankous trick would have caught him. It had rxed the grip on its weapon, causing centrifugal force to pull it outwards until it was holding onto the very end of its weapon, and in the process, it had almost tripled the range of its attack. But Isaac had sidled right up to the monster, plunging the kabar into its chest as he bodychecked it, then spun and shed a massive gap across its back as he passed with Mimung. The Ankou fell to the ground for a bare microsecond before it all but teleported back to its feet, looking absolutely furious. Dagger stuck in its chest, pale blue fog rising around the injury, the shoulder Isaac had hit crushed by his [Aura], and more fog streamed up from the massive gash hed carved into its back. Not to mention the dozens of ces where Isaac had torn small cuts into it with the bloody light that surrounded him. Another charge, followed by an overhead chop, nearly ended Isaac, but he managed to dy the shaft of the scythe with his kabar while he slid to the side, once again shing into the monsters side. As the tip of the scythe struck the ground, the Ankou kicked the shaft of the weapon, causing it to shin around the spot where the point had stuck into the dirt. The metal shaft smacked into Isaacs shins with enough force to cause him to fly over it, feet knocked out from underneath him. Isaac managed to turn an undignified bellyflop into a roll, then [Phantom Stepped] out of the way as the scythe teleported back into its owners hands, then shed towards his neck. Another [Phantom Step] took him behind the monster, but the false image of himself that the [Skill] generated appeared in front of it and promptly got shed in half. Isaac drove Mimung through the Ankous back, spearing the spot where a humans heart would have been, and was rewarded with a huge burst of fog. But of course, that wasnt enough to stop the fucker. It began to spin to face him, but then the kabar hed nted in its chest detonated, throwing off its bnce while Isaac carved into it with several more shes. Of course, hed activated both [Razor Trails], [Crippling Blow], and [Compounded Impact] on his sword, ensuring it would be vastly less capable of moving, every strike would inflict exponentially more damage, and the de left behind cutting trails in the air. It burned through mana like nothing else, but it also left the monsters cloak in ribbons and its true body streaming mist to the point where it looked like a fog machine. Hopefully, hed be able to do a little more damage before that happened. With a howl that tore at his very soul, the rags were sted off the monster, revealing its true form. A pale blue figure with a farmers hat, an indistinct face that seemed to change every other millisecond, a deathly cold scythe, and blue fog streaming from every surface of its body. It wasnt as much as it was leaking from its injuries, but still enough to weaken or even kill it, given enough time. Isaac estimated hed cost it around a fifth of its essence, and it was losing enough every second that it would die in, oh, five-ish minutes? The Ankou shed past him, a single shallow leap at almost hypersonic speeds with the scythes edge protruding to the side, parallel to the ground. [Phantom Step] to dodge, a second [Phantom Step] to teleport behind its back and distract it with the illusion, then use his oft-neglected illusion Aspect to create another duplicate, carving through its body several more times and nting two crystalline kabars in its body. A giant sword manifested in the path of the scythe, slowing and redirecting it barely long enough for him to stab the monster once more. The but of the scythe came back around in an attempt to crush Isaacs chest but he dropped his weight to almost nothing, letting the weapon push him away. [Champion of Mankind: The Thinker] activated, a dozen trains of thought eating through the allocated mana at an insane speed, but he could channel the rest of the mana into his spells, each controlled separately and with the full force of his well behind them. mes, sticky as tar and hot as the heart of a star, sttered across the monsters boots, partially gluing it in ce. A different tongue of me covered its eyes, others still flowed into the wounds, wrapped the scythe, and all in all inflicted enough damage to obliterate some [Raid Bosses]. The Ankou just red at him, mes that had gotten into its body making it look like avamp. Using the final dregs of mana from [Champion], Isaac directed more fire behind himself to reverse his trajectory as he shot towards the monster, triggered [Form of Horror] the second the first cooldown [Skill] ran out, pushed [The Meaning of the Name] to its absolute limits and finally, activated [I Am The Sword]. Both of the kabars hed imnted in the monster detonated a second before impact, throwing off its counterattack while being a perfect part of Isaacs calctions. An outstretched hand, all ws touching to form a spearpoint, went right into the newly-opened hole in its chest and the rest of his transformed body followed. Isaac mmed into the far side of the Void Ind and came out right where hed started the charge, watching the two halves of the Ankou fly in two different directions. He ducked under a thrown scythe, but the weapon teleported right back into its owners hands, and then the Ankous whole bloody torso teleported. Of course, the attack caused the monster to leak even more fog, but Isaac only evaded it by the skin of his teeth. And then, barely a secondter, it repeated the process. The monster was tearing itself to pieces, spending its own life force like water just for a chance to get at Isaac. In the end, it got its piece of flesh. Twice. The cuts burned with pain as though someone were actively washing them out with liquid nitrogen while whipping at them with a cat o nine tails, but neither of them was even a single millimeter deep. And then, on one of its teleports, it simply arrived as a puff of rapidly dissipating mist. Gone, just like that. Ankou (Lv. 175) has been in. 20,000 XP gained (16,000 base * 1.25 due to level disparity) A shallow cut on his forearm stubbornly refused to close despite the fact that ny-percent of its depth was literally just dead skin, but it stayed that way and throbbed in pain. The feeling of torturous cold had lessened when the monsters [Aura] had gone away, but not actively being tortured was not the same as feeling good. The second cut had somehow found its way onto the bottom of his right foot, and that part was bleeding slightly, so Isaac ended up hopping around on one leg while checking if hed earned an Aspect. Unfortunately, the monsters scythe could not be looted, even though it would have made for a fantastic weapon, given that it had gone through his armor as though it werent even there. And now that Isaac wasing down from his adrenaline high, his shins were really starting to hurt. They might not have been cut by the scythe, but getting smacked by its shaft still did some serious damage. Hed be able to heal it in a few seconds but even those few seconds sucked beyond measure. At least he found an Aspect, after half a minute. It really wasnt all that surprising, though. Tier 10 monsters had the highest Aspect drop rate of all non-boss monsters and hed been fighting one thirty-four Levels above his own, which had massively boosted its drop chance. Aspect of Ankou: This is the distilled essence of what makes an Ankou an Ankou. A being capable of both dealing death and resisting it when ites for it. Shut down all hostile efforts at recovery, be free from the limitations of a mortal shell, and vanish into nothingness after bringing death to those who deserve it. Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +25 (20 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Magic Regeneration One of the following Skills: Eternal Restoration Freedom from Mortal Limits Implements of True Death Reapers Cloak Endure Eternity All of these were incredibly useful [Skills] and Isaac wanted all of them. But he had to choose and in the end, it was very easy to kick. [Endure Eternity] was designed to help its bearer cope with the consequences of a very long life, keep their memories organized, and so on. Useful, and hed have to pick up something like that at some point if he lived through the current crisis, but if was the operative word here. Save humanity, then worry about whates next. Eternal Restoration (legendary) Death and taxes, the only certainties in life. And one of those is a human construct. Deathes for everyone, eventually. Enemies can be fought, as can disease and even old age itself. But whether ites in the form of an insurmountable foe, random chance, or simple carelessness, everyone dies. And when it does, the Ankou (or some other being that fulfills the same role in another culture) will be there to escort the lost soul across the threshold. But it wouldnt do for that embodiment of death to carry the damage umted across the eons and look like a piece of roadkill, wouldnt it? This Skill slowly wears down all effects that reduce the users capacity to recover and will remove all injuries exactly twenty-four hours after they urred (anti-recovery effects may still dy this effect). (Einherjar Bonus: Injuries will slowly heal, until the 24h mark, at which point the regeneration will beplete) One day to recover from anything, anything was a damn short time. Of course, by the same token, all injuries would take that long to recover unless he drew on the Hydra for regeneration, whether he was talking about a lost limb or a paper cut. Well, not that he would get a papercut with his Fortitdue, and even if he did, it would heal damn quickly on its own, but the point still stood. Better [Skills] for passively regenerating lesser injuries existed, but as far as recovery from serious damage was concerned, [Eternal Restoration] was the non plus ultra. And the Einherjar bonus was nothing to sneeze at either. Freedom from Mortal Limits (legendary) What can mortals do? Jump into ake thats even slightly toxic? Nope. Survive even a measly couple of days without breath? Also nope. Get close to the sun without getting fried by radiation? Not even that? Lets face it, mortals are exceedingly fragile, dying to all manner of stupid things, such as ack of air, toxins, diseases, radiation, even from their own bodies growing in the wrong way. This Skill grants freedom from all this. Radiation will not affect its user unless it is intense enough to physically burn them, any toxins that have not been created with malicious intent might as well be water and those that were intended as an attack are functionally useless, only diseases specifically built to bypass this Skill will have any effect. The user will never again have to breathe, have issues with an ipatible environment or the like. In short, the only thing that can kill the user of this Skill is an enemy attack, or an extreme ident along the lines of falling into a star. Most normal causes of death have absolutely no chance of befalling them. (Einherjar Bonus: Aging is slowed by 50%) [Freedom from Mortal Limits] was yet another grand example of the kind of power a full Aspect stack could grant the bearer. As the [Skill] description said, it made him almost immune to standard causes of death, but Isaac was obviously someone who constantly ran into dangerous situations and fought monsters, which could still put him six feet under. And the next time he had the free time, hed be heading for the stars, well, the moon. In theory, surviving in a vacuum by holding his breath and periodically using an air bottle had been a possibility, but was just too risky. Now though, he could easily fly through the vast nothingness with casual ease. And the increased lifespan didnt hurt either. Implements of True Death (legendary) What is Death? Is the nothingness thates after one dies? Is it the headless horseman that rides across the fields in the dark and takes the souls of the dead? Or a scythe? Or perhaps some other manner of physical manifestation of the phenomenon? In the end, the true nature of Death does not matter, as it is not a mystery for mortals to solve. What does affect mortals is the many forms ites in, the devastating weapons that dish it out whenever they are used. At first, rocks and clubs. Then, spears, bows and other worked but still primitive weapons. Swords, crossbows, catapults, muskets, automatic guns, chemical weapons, bombs, nuclear warheads, biological weapons, magic, artifacts and finally, the weapons wielded by this Skills users. Any weapon wielded by a user of this Skill bes an implement of Death and strikes devastating wounds. For the first ten seconds, all healing is futile, no matter how powerful. Only a god may save the life of one struck down by this Skill during that time. Once the first ten seconds have passed, self-healing abilities grow useable at vastly reduced power. After thirty seconds, foreign healing effects be useable, likewise at vastly reduced power. And finally, after ten minutes, potions and all other methods of recovery will be able to be used to some small degree. It will take a full twelve hours for the consequences of being struck by this Skill to wear off. Should someone die while under the influence of this Skill, no manner of non-divine resurrection will be able to affect them. Cost: 500 mana per attack (Einherjar Bonus: 1% of this Skill is always active at no cost unless supressed) Yet another ability that was nasty beyond measure, taken even further by the Einherjar Bonus. Expensive, sure, but its impact could be immesurable if it was used right. Many of the most powerful physical fighters had some kind of rapid or even instant recovery ability, something that could stop even a fatal blow from killing them as long as it was used in a timely manner. Being dyed by ten seconds could hardly be counted as timely under those circumstances, and might even cause an otherwise survivable injury to be fatal if he aimed the strike well. With Isaacs current mana pool of three thousand six hundred, he could only cast it seven times, though, so hed have to be judicious in its use. Also, reading between the lines told him that it needed to be applied to a weapon, which meant that pping the power onto a congration or his [Aura] wouldnt fly. Also, it said nothing about affecting [Skills] that could dy the effect of injuries, or temporarily allow someone to act as though they werepletely healthy. So an enemy with [Moment of Immortality] would be able to survive most hits for twenty seconds,pletely bypassing the initial period of no healing at all. But it was still an incredibly powerful ace up his sleeve, and it was the reason why enemies with the Aspect of the Ankou were what he feared most. And that brought him to hisst [Skill]. Reapers Cloak (legendary) No one has ever seen the Grim Reaper (at least as far as can be proven). People die every day, though, tens of thousands of them. And each of those deaths should be an opportunity to catch a glimpse of him, yet he remains an enigma. How? This Skill is how. When its user kills an enemy that would provide at least some degree of challenge, they may, once per hour, vanish from sight as if they were held a stealth-specialized ss equivalent to their current Level and rarity. This cloak cannot be used to attack under, it will immediately fail, it is meant solely for retreating. Itsts for three minutes upon activation. (Einherjar Bonus: this Skill may be used every thirty minutes) In essence, he would be a ghost after winning a fight. Hed have all the stealth abilities of a Level 141 legendary [ss]-holder, fully focussed on hiding from others. That was a level of stealth beyond even Jason North or Alexander Braun. And, of course, hed overall gained quite a few [Skill] Levels overall. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit Species: Einherjar Level: 141 XP: 733,194/1,420,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 715/3,600 Stats Fortitude 255 (+20) Perception 560 Strength 330 (+15) Agility 650 Magic Power 350 (+10) Magic Regeneration 625 Free Points: 0 Stat, 2 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXVII The Chosen Weapon XXX I Am The Sword XXIII Grave of Swords XXX Armory of Ancient Times XXII Legacy of a True Warrior XXVII Divine Fire XI Champion of Mankind II Skills Hundred Faces XXVIII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXIV Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXVIII Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXI Fleeting Presence XVIII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XXV Compounded Impact XVIII True Cut IX Legendary Blow XVII Fully Geared XVIII Knightly Leader XXI Analyze Person XVII Continent Strider XVIII Burden of Power VIII Experts Insight VIII Blessing of Innovation XVIII Lessons of History VIII The Meaning of the Name X Titanic Presence VII General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XV Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VIII Police Procedure VIII Healing VI Quest Giver III Omniglot (109nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script VII Unrestricted Speech II Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Dragon (3 stack) Draconic Heart Moment of Immortality Dragonscale Mantle Least Demon Lord (2 stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Ankou (full stack) Freedom from Mortal Limits Eternal Restoration Implements of True Death Reapers Cloak Death Knight (3 stack) Death Knights Endurance Ghostly Armor Armored Echo In fact, [The Meaning of the Name] had hit Level 10, and blocking the Ankous [Aura] had boosted [Titanic Presence] all the way up to Level 7 over the course of a single battle. The Meaning of the Name (legendary, Level X) Two Titans. Prometheus, the forethoughtful, and his brother, Epimetheus, whose name means afterthought. One who is intelligent avoids mistakes and traps before running straight into them. One whose hindsight might let him avoid making the same mistake twice, but by that point, the damage will already have been done. It should be clear which is the better thing to have. This Skill grants its user the power held by the Titan that his ss is named after. Preternatural, nigh-absolute foresight, gained by boosting the users pattern recognition ability, mental celerity and temporarily granting them the ability to store all that information. This process can be done subconsciously for short-term predictions, such as inbat, but anything longer term will both be more expensive and require active attention. The efficacy of this Skill increases with the amount of information the user has ess to, and may produce incorrect results if working off incorrect or iplete data. While this Skill does check the veracity of the user-provided info by checking it against all other avable information, that is of limited use and may slow down the workings of this Skill if prioritized after the foresight itself or be of extremely limited usefulness if the predictions themselves are prioritized. In addition, this Skill also provides the user with enhanced cognition, predicition, and pattern recognition even when not being powered by mana. Cost: 20 mana per second for short-term predictions bat), 50 mana per second for long-term predictions If you also have Lessons of History, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. A simple upgrade, but one that woulde in oh-so handy. The ability to use a vastly weakened version of this [Skill] without having to pay the steep mana cost. Looking over the various Aspects, seeing the water Aspects only stacked two high made him cringe. But the issue was that the main reason hed gone after them was to be able to function underwater, something that his new Tier 10 Aspect madepletely superfluous. He had a few ideas about what to go after, but those ns took more than a little to be fully fleshed out. Which left him with several more almostplete stacks, just begging to have one more added to them. But Isaac banished that idea from his mind with vehemence. The Ankou had been a very dangerous monster, but it had been the easiest for him. He specialized in speed, could read its movements, and could counter its [Aura], which had let him outfight it. There were several other monsters whose Aspects he wanted he could also outfight but they were too tough to beat. For example, he wanted a Lernean Hydra [Field Boss] toplete that stack, but while he could dodge and weave around it for up to ten minutes without taking a single hit, doing enough damage to take it down was well beyond him. Ah, that would just have to wait untilter. Isaac scooped up the ectosmic remains of the Ankou to give to Chandler once he could reasonably have it, and left the Void Ind only to physically run into Amy the instant he was outside. Are you done in there? Amy asked breathlessly, and when he nodded, she shoved him towards a suddenly conjured portal and via a hastily established party, warned him, You need to attend that meeting, I think it might be your fault. Something about world leaders being warned about a skipped Tier? Well. Fuck. Godsdamnit. What the actual hell? Chapter 257: Chaos Incarnate Chapter 257: Chaos Incarnate What the hell had warned people? Some kind of [System]-based warning he hadnt known about because even in the other timeline, no one had been stupid enough to summon a Tier 10 monster before the first Tier 9 had graced the light of day? That certainly couldnt be it as Isaac had killed a few Tier 9s to get their Aspects So what hat exactly defined a skipped Tier? Maybe the skipped Tier referred to the world atrge? Humanity was barely dealing with Tier 8, and hadnt even touched Tier 9, hed skipped damn far ahead of the curve. So perhaps that was what the [System] was counting, a person getting two Tiers ahead of the curve? Or maybe the problem was that hed gone straight to Tier 10 before clearing a good portion of Tier 9? After all, of hundreds of monsters at that Tier, hed killed a grand total of 2. Or maybe it was a prank from Loki? Making an announcement to potentiallynd Isaac in hot water? It would certainly exin why the [System] was referring to a skipped Tier when the definition for that was so shaky. No, that wasnt it. If it had been Loki, hed have been around to gloat. What about some kind of [Skill] belonging to a world leader? In theory, that might be it, but Isaac doubted it. Amy had referred to multiple world leaders being warned. Assuming all the information had been correctly passed down the line, that meant that they were probably dealing with something inherent to the [System] that contacted them, rather than them gathering information. Also, why would they all be getting the exact same information that clearly gave them a supremely basic overview of the situation? They knew the monster had been summoned, but even if each of them had gotten an infinitesimal additional piece of the puzzle, that should have been enough to collectively figure out more about the current mess. And in that case, hed be getting called onto the carpet for the ass-reaming of the millennia right now. Not to mention that hed been in a separate space, the likes of which were mostly divorced from the normal means of detection. Global detection, let alone local detection, should have been impossible. If he really thought about it, this was almost certainly him being asked for his expert opinion, not something aimed at punishing him. Isaac froze the moment he was on the other side of the portal, half believing he was imagining his surroundings. The corridor was bog standard concrete-and-steel utilitarian construction,mon amongst government buildings in ces that werent usually visible to the public. So far, so basic. But when his sensory [Aura] drifted off him, revealing all that surrounded him as it pierced through some of the worlds best shielding as though it werent even there, he instantly recognized where he was. Not because hed ever been here, in either timeline. No, hed seen it on TV countless times. He was under the Bundestag, the German seat of government. All of this was fresh construction, stuffed to the gills with magic and [Skill]-based reinforcements. Interesting. More interesting was why on Earth Amy had been able to open a portal here. But as much as he might have wanted to investigate that, it would really have to wait untilter. Two guards d in the seemingly ubiquitous discrete government bodyguard suit looked him up and down, asked him a couple of quick are you you and are you nning on murdering anyone questions, and then one of them hurried him deeper into the building. The other was already busy with the next arrival, who had likewise appeared through a portal and looked damn important, though Isaac didnt recognize her. The situation room was exactly what Isaac would have expected. Reinforced to the nines, shielded from most forms of surveince, chemical or biological warfare, and heavy shielding that would stand up to most intruders for at least a few minutes. Even Isaac might have a little trouble getting through there, it would stop him for maybe twenty seconds. There was a wall of screens with enchantments that allowed the people in the room to pick out every detail on any of them without bing blind to any of the other images. The table in the center of the room had an utterly superfluous enchantment that allowed for the creation of holograms, though a woman in the uniform of a Brigadengeneral was using an Aspect to create the same effect. Apparently, the designer hadnt considered how hard it was to use an enchantment like that without some serious skill at mana maniption. As for the people inside, Isaac recognized most of them from TV as well. Ministers, specifically, and, of course, the Bundeskanzlerin. Heidi Goldschmidt had the in my day, we worked twenty-five hours a day, walked barefoot through the snow to work, and the path was uphill both ways energy that was normally found on grouchy old farts who couldnt do much anymore yet still thought they were hot shit. Except in her case, that energy manifested in actual strength of both mind and body, even at almost seventy years of age. Looking at her, Isaac would have believed her if shed told him a story like that. Who do I talk to about getting a proper overview of the situation? Isaac whispered to the aide closest to the door, I got hurried over here without any information beyond something about a skipped Tier? Of course, this being the world after the [System], there really was no such thing as speaking quietly to avoid being overheard. Whispering was just a way of signaling to others that youd prefer they didnt listen in. Dr. Thoma, thank you foring, Goldschmidt announced as she turned in his direction, I called you here because youre the eminent authority on predicting monster strength, and abilities, and nning for those strengths. I, and every person on those screens over there, have received a notification about how someone skipped ahead and summoned a Tier 10 monster. I need a general prediction of its strength and a n. Dont bother going into your supporting evidence unless asked, we dont have much time. Just a quick and concise summation of what we need to watch out for. Isaac had switched out his damaged armor for a casual outfit when hed left the Void Ind, which left him standing in front of, well, not only the Bundeskanzlerin but also the President of the United States, the British Prime Minister, and every other Nato head of state wearing jeans and boring t-shirt. And boy was he regretting his choice to not pack a spare suit into [Fully Geared] in case something like this happened. He could have, but noooo, hed wanted morebat power. He took a deep breath and began his speech. Basically, we can expect Tier 10 to continue the same trend weve seen in Tiers 7 and 8. Theyll either get big, I cant imagine a Tier 10 Walking Mountain being anything small, magically powerful, or just have a lot of great power in a small package, with thetter category functioning a lot like humans with power that doesnt fit their small frames. The good news is that it should currently be impossible to contain a monster at that Tier for any length of time. How is that good news? someone interrupted Isaac Isaac decided to swallow a rude reply in favor of responding calmly. One did not snap back at the president. It means that this monster will be roaming around, not locked up in a cer somewhere until it multiplies. If its still alive, its either free or about to free itself, and once it attacks somewhere, well know about it. And before then, if its not on the surface, itll probably be bashing its way out of an underground structure, which should be visible to seismographs. If the pattern holds, the monster will start spawning in more of its kind after two and a half days. You can probably hold off on putting your respective military forces on high alert until then, a single, non-boss monster shouldnt require that level of response. And all of that only applies if its still around. You think someone killed it? Goldschmidt asked. Its possible, Isaac said, Now, I only summon monsters I either know everything about and know I can beat or a monster where Ive killed every single weaker monster, and in thetter case, I only do so with a lot of backup, but Get to the point, Goldschmidt shot him a re. Isaac winced, but hed managed to exin how he couldnt be the one responsible for the mess without lying. Probably worth it. Given the right matchup and time to prepare, I could probably take a Tier 10 right now. With how much mana Tier 10s cost, were dealing with someone at a high Level, and its not inconceivable that theyre S-Rank. And an S-Ranker might be able to beat a Tier 10 if the matchups right. What about artificially-leveled individuals who put all their points in Magic Power? the British PM asked. That method grows exponentially less effective the higher someones Level grows, Isaac said, We might have a problem with people like that in five years, but not yet. And your n for taking the monster down if it isnt? Goldschmidt asked. Id take a look at it, analyze it, figure out what cooldown [Skills] would be the most effective against it, and then, we can cycle in S-Rankers to unleash their biggest attacks on it. Tier 10 standard monsters arent [Raid Bosses], designed to offer a challenge to a group of fifty, who each hold half a dozen city-block-leveling aces up their sleeves. Standard monsters are meant to mostly be fought one-on-one, and even if this monster is at the upper end of the predictions, throwing cooldown [Skills] at it until it dies should be enough. Thank you, Dr. Thoma, Goldschmidt dismissed him as she went back to talking with the other people on the screens. Being dismissed so casually was a very sobering experience, Isaac reflected. Normally, even when he wasnt talking, he was somewhere near the center of attention. Sure, he also tried to avoid taking over situations, but that wasnt the same as being relegated to being a wallflower. Still, hed said his piece, and exined how he wouldnt summon a monster like that unless he knew he could beat it. Which he did, but considering that no one knew about the other timeline, it would be misunderstood in the way he wanted it to. After fifteen minutes, Isaac closed his eyes for a brief moment, the standard three-second nap of a high-Level human, and slipped into the [Round Table]. All he had time for was scribbling a quick note and then woke up. Another fifteen minutes or so after that, Isaac felt the shift as Arthur swapped out whose [Skills] he could draw on. [Smugglers Bolthole] was one of Jasons [Skills] that let him move stuff from his inventory into a given, pre-selected location that he had some degree of ownership over or affiliation with. He had to have had the items in his storage for a while and couldnt be directly contested, meaning he couldnt be actively chased by the police or something like that, but this counted for the bottle of Ankou ectosm. He dumped it on the [Round Table], which had thankfully be a real location as the [Skill] leveled, and waited. During that time, he managed to get his hands on a copy of the notification. It had been extremely simple and basic. Warning! A Tier 10 monster has been summoned by someone skipping ahead. Due to the potential danger, you and other leaders around the globe have been notified. Isaac was now certain this was an inbuilt, [System]-based warning system, tacked on at some point. It barely gave any information, therefore, its impact was minimal. In the end, it took around two hours of waiting, but then, something happened. Specifically, the screen showing the feed from the White House situation room suddenly became engulfed in chaos. For a brief moment, Isaac hoped that this wasnt Jasons doing, that he hadnt interpreted deposit proof of the monsters death somewhere it will be found quickly and wont go amiss alongside some information on the cult we havent shared as cause as big of a fuss as possible. There were so many questions Isaac wanted to ask, but he held his tongue. Hed already caused enough trouble for today and probably burned all his luck for the year by not getting caught yet. It took only one minute for the information about an intruder in the White House to be shared. Apparently, said intruder had ced a vial of mystery goop and a letter on the desk in the Oval Office, and then lit a match under a smoke detector to set it off. That had drawn in the Secret Service, whod found a mystery package that hadnt been supposed to be there, and that had triggered a whole series of rms. Any remaining hope that the timing of this had just randomly happened to coincide with, well, today died when someone examined the vial. Ankou ectosm. Godsdamnit, Jason! But at least it had gotten the message across. Then some poor sap, whod ended up stuck in the Oval Office when quarantine procedures had been enacted, had read the letter. It had basically apologized for the mess caused, and exined that its writer had been able to tell how fighting an Ankou would be safe but not known about the [System] warning. And then, to prove its bonafides, it had provided some intel about the cult that the Round Table hadnt shared yet. That was when the arguing started. So, this is a threat, we all know that, right? Maybe. But that might just have been a quick and dirty method for getting us all to stop worrying and prove that the monster is dead. And the solution to that is to stick it in a ce no one should ever be able to break into? If it had been in the bedroom, I agree, that would be a threat. After all, the bedroom is a private ce. No one should be able to break into the Oval Office, yes, but its still a public space and one that got the information across very quickly. Someone still walked straight into the White House without getting seen once. Who the hell can do that? The same person who can kill a Tier 10 monster, apparently. Dr. Thoma, how sure are you that you could kill a Tier 10? The question getting thrown his way was so sudden that it caught Isaacpletely off guard. Given all the information I have, I can confidently say that most S-Rankers could beat a Tier 10 monster as long as it was a good matchup, Isaac exined. For example? Goldschmidt asked. Im a surgical striker, not a wrecking ball, so I wouldnt trust myself against a Walking Mountain, but if I had to, I would go after a Galeborne Wyvern or Primordial Phoenix. Monsters with weakpoints, which are almost certainly vulnerable to pinpoint attacks. Not a single lie had passed his lips yet and hed been right here the entire time, especially when Jason had broken into the White House. So were dealing with an extremely powerful individual with great sources of intelligence, and who can be extremely stealthy. Am I the only one assuming this is the Ghost? The Ghost was the nickname Jason had earned himself after kicking the ass of anyone whod gone after Karl What about Insight? Theyve been handing out intel like this since the beginning. Maybe theyre the same person? And so on, and so forth. Isaac kept his trap shut unless he was asked a question, and in time, he got sent home. *** So, howe you knew how to teleport down there? Isaac asked. They want loyal teleporters to know where that ce is so they can be made to y taxi in an emergency, Amy told him. No one ever told me, Isaac pointed out. I asked them if they knew what the limitations of your portals are and they decided to leave you alone, she exined. Thanks, Isaac said, Being thought of as a taxi first whenever shit went down would suck. So, how did it go? There was something about a disturbance in the White House Oh, dont even get me started Isaac sighed, then exined. Chapter 258: Construction Chaos Chapter 258: Construction Chaos Sometimes, there wasnt much of a difference between a warzone and an area under construction. And Etzel looked like a bomb had torn it to pieces. The bones remained, but everything else was, once again, being rebuilt from the ground up. Isaac could see several [Combat Engineers] tear apart the walls and store them out of the way as the entire ind was being altered. The first and biggest problem was, of course, that the ind was too small for a Tier 8 [Raid Boss] so it had to be erged. A difficult proposition when the whole ce was surrounded by walls built to stand up to, well, [Raid Bosses]. And on top of everything else, the wall really was too valuable to just break. Which meant that first, [Skills] designed for moving impromptu fortifications in the field were used to tear huge chunks out of the walls, then, a new wall had to be errected in the water around the ind to create a moat, then that moat had to be drained, filled with concrete, reinforced, the walls reced and then, finally, the gaps where there hadnt been enough of the original wall would be filled in. Considering the quality the building would need to have in the end, this would take a few months to finish even for someone of Karls caliber. Isaac hadnt expected to be back here until then, but then hed gotten a request for a meeting and decided to go. But why the hell would someone still be here? If his [Aura] werent prating everything here, if he hadnt been expected by the various engineers here, he might have suspected a hit. Construction sites were generally fantastic ces to kill someone, between the convenient disposal methods and countless nooks and crannies someone could hide in. Hed been invited here by Brigadengeneral Horn, whod been in charge of upgrading the Bundeswehrs training and regtions to bepatible with the [System] and had taken operativemand of the mess at Hamburg. Someone who really shouldnt be on a construction site. But in the end, Isaac had decided that the invitation had been legit and that there had to be some reason for the meeting location, no matter how strange said reason might be. Locating the general was simple enough, he just asked the nearest construction worker for directions. Though, now that he paid attention, he noticed that the sheer number of actual military personnel was unusually high. Sure, this was a military base, but construction was usually done by licensed civilian contractors. Combat engineers were trained for, well, . Moving fortifications, generating minefields and trenches, demolitions, building roads, bunkers, and bridges, all in hostile conditions, that was what they were good at, and what their [Skills] did. Not this. In the end, he found the general in a warehouse-sized cavern buried deep in the guts of the construct, not just in the concrete base but tunneled into the ocean floor which the whole affair sat upon. And he wasnt in a proper office either, just arge dark hole inhabited by the general, as well as a pair of aides and ten soldiers who he was ordering about. Judging by the varying division insignia, thetter had likely been a random group of individuals whod been unfortunate enough to be in the area when the general had asked for volunteers. Office supplies were strewn everywhere, the fittings for doors, wallpaper, an actual door covered in enough enchantments to block several artillery shells, and so on. The mess practically screamed first-ever DIY project, but considering that Isaac knew Horn to bepetent, there was probably a reason behind it. Dr. Thoma, thank you foring, Horn greeted him as he carefully stalked through the debris field that was the center of the area, Im sorry about calling you down here, but Im afraid all this was a littlest-minute. This is about yesterday, then? Isaac asked rhetorically. Im afraid so. Tier 10 monster possibly on the loose, no one knew what to do, really, and everything was based on just spection. It made crystal clear where werecking. I know you were in the Bundestag, did you get a chance to see the military side of things while you were there? No, I was mostly in the background in the situation room, answering questions when I was asked, Isaac said. Well, it was a bit of a mess, Horn sighed after hed cast an anti-eavesdropping [Skill], Weve got exactly one S-Ranked militarymander in all of the NATO and European Union, which would be bad enough on its own He trailed off, so Isaac finished for him, But General Ardouin has problems. I get why hes got problems with civilians who can level cities, and he might even have a reason to be the way he is, but his attitude could easily cause serious trouble. We need more militarymanders at a high Level, preferably ones with more esotheric, spell-like [Skills]. And we especially need some that are less likely to cause trouble. Who better to teach them than someone whos trained a legendary king? In memory, at least, Horn summarized as he went looking for somewhere to sit. Can I ask whats up with this ce? Isaac asked as he pulled a pair of pic chairs from his storage rings. That was a very nice way of saying gigantic mess, Horn replied, I have a [Skill] that turns my office into a fortress and grants all sorts of other boons, but I have to basically set it up myself. Isaac raised an eyebrow as he nced around at the legion of helpers. It is a [Generals] [Skill], I can have help, I just need to be there and involved, Horn exined as he sat down. I know a few [Skills] like that, Isaac responded, Heres the thing: Ardouin is an S-Ranker, with [ss] that has to be legendary, and based on everything I know, legendary [sses] are functionally impossible to get in a ssroom setting. I wasnt going to ask you to be just a teacher, Horn responded. Or via training, no matter how rigorous, Isaac added, And theyd have to start out at low Levels if I you want them to have a full series of good Evolutions. Considering the [System] has been around for a while, that means Id be teaching people who just unlocked it, and theyd be young. Freshly minted officers cant be that highly ranked. While Id love to have legendary [Generals of Guaranteed Victory] running around, Ill settle for a series of epic officers who can act as force multipliers under experienced generals, Horn said, passing a folder across to Isaac, Those are some of the finest graduates, or soon to be graduates, of our officer training programs. Theyve kept their Level at 10 throughout their studies, and while they have several advancement options along the lines of [Elite Officer], [Well-Trained Officer], or some other variation of someone whos been training a long time before advancing. But youre hoping I can get something more out of them? Isaac asked as he flipped through the folder. The people within might be within a couple of years of him in terms of biological age, but they looked so incredibly young to his eyes. Babyfaced, even, despite the fact that theyd been through some fairly rigorous training. Ive seen the [Skills] you can teach just by fighting alongside someone for a few days. Your two assistants became portal mages after a month of working for you, but youve surrounded yourself with so many powerful individuals that they barely even register byparison. I think my superiors will be happy with anything you can do, Horn said. In theory, I dont have a problem with training military officers, Isaac announced, In practice weve got a bit of an issue. I dont want to focus on just the Bundeswehr, I dont want to be the driving force behind Germanys military might, I dont want to choose sides like that. You want to deal with the [System], but the [System] is neither a purely German problem nor one we can solve by ourselves, Horn surmised and thenughed at Isaacs expression, It was worth asking, though. How about we expand it to the NATO, and select major non-NATO allies? Isaac suggested, Offer them a chance to send some promising, low-Level candidates to train under me for a while in between everything else I do. Horn made a wheezing sound that could barely be identified as a suppressedugh as he presented Isaac with a second folder, I managed to get some candidates sent over by proposing a joint training program without mentioning you. I feel like we should have been working together more, Isaac observed, I think we could achieve quite a bit with a little coordination. He tossed the folder onto a nearby desk that had just been finished, Id need to see them in person, though. I can see a fighters drive for greater heights, not just their current achievements. And Im not too hot on the idea of some of these nations. They might have gotten the status of major ally due to natural resources or maybe a favorable location, human rights issues are a problem now more than ever. I can make sure that youll get your candidates, Horn promised, How about we have some kind of initial meeting of the standard candidates, then you can pick your candidates, give me the list and Ill find a way to make it out like the candidates were chosen by amittee or something. That would be great, Isaac nodded. Ardouin wasnt the only military officer rubbed the wrong way by the existence of and interference by incredibly powerful civilians. Well also need somewhere to hold training because Etzel is currently not in a position to be used. How long are the renovations supposed to take, anyway? A while. Were nning on expanding the ind as much as possible before finishing renovations so we have less work at Tier 9 and maybe even Tier 10. And as you can see, were establishing this ce as a tertiarymand center. Isaac raised an eyebrow and sent a questioning look skywards, Is that safe? From the sound of things, you arent nning on stopping the [Raid Boss] fights. Safer than youd think, Horn said in a tone that clearly conveyed that he believed it, Everything is reinforced to the nines, there is almost a kilometer of solid rock between this ce and the surface, and once we get around to it, every pound of it is going to be enchanted. Isaac nodded. Hed suggested something like that in his designs for the ind, to prevent potential issues with geokic, telekic, hydrokic, or vibration-based monsters from damaging the point where the artificial ind connected to the vastly weaker seafloor. From the sounds of it, the suggested enchantments would be vastly increased in power, to the point where theyd provide a sufficient degree of protection. Yes, having an important military base located right under the [Raid Boss] summoning ground was still a big risk, but they were being as safe as possible when summoning. Not to mention the fact that were continuing to expand the ind. Eventually, the arena will be quite a bit further away than it is now. And if all precautions fail, well, thats what the [Generals Sanctum] is for. Ah, now things really made more sense. Isaac hadnt had enough information about the [Skill] to recognize it from context clues, but now that he had the name, everything was clear. It allowed the bearer to set up a sanctuary, and in case of emergency, that sanctuary could be pulled into a pocket dimension where it would be functionally untouchable for up to an hour, once a year. If something bad enough to trigger the sanctum showed up, well, then it would be bad enough to threaten not only this bunker but also the maind. At that point, shit would have truly hit the fan whether the sanctum was here or not. So, until the renovations are done, where would I be training my trainees? Isaac asked, Im guessing the other participating nations are going to have something? Id suggest Korea or Singapore, Ive got a few contacts in both ces, but they arent exactly central. The Americans probably have a few great ces too, but once again, logistics would be a bloody nightmare. Wed need a European arena. Which one would you suggest? You dont know the other European arenas? Horn asked, surprised. I do, the French have a trio of bunkers, Italy has a hollow mountain in the Alps, Luxemburgs [Sky Lord] formed one out of clouds and if a fight goes badly, it dissolves and dumps the offending monster into the magical minefield below. And so on, Isaac stated, I know the various arenas, but I havent used any of them yet. I thought you might have. Passing familiarity, Horn shrugged, The people who are in charge of the summoning programs are so busy they barely have time to inspect their own arenas, let alone look at anything else. Even when this ce is finished, Oberst Gram will still be doing all the work here. But arranging for workspaces is my job. The question now is how much time you can offer to spend teaching. Depends. On? How much leeway I get, how many trainees I have, and where said trainees will be deployed. Ive said it countless times, but Ill say it again: the [System] has the potential to royally fuck over all of humanity. I can see a potentially huge benefit in training officers to be capable of fixing [System]-based issues. If You want me to make it worth your while, Horn interrupted, You want enough leeway that the time you spend training is worth more than your other projects. Itd have to be very worth it, Isaac said, Im extremely busy already. I create tactics against monsters, coordinate with contacts overseas, theres a cksmith and an alchemist I work together with toe up with new weapons, tools, and uses for both. Not to mention my own advancement, the monsters I hunt to hand over the materials, and so on. And Im running my ownpany. It might mostly work on its own, but I still have to spend time dealing with certain things. Throw in that Im training with the fes over at the Federal Agency for the Supernatural twice a week, the time I spend teaching [Skills] to select military officers, and the fact that I cant work every single hour of every single day and I really dont have that much time to spare. Then there was the stuff he did for the Round Table and quite a few other things he didnt want to talk about to Horn. Fundamentally, Id needplete freedom designing the training regimen, real authority over the trainees, and a metric ton of resources. And eight months. Give me that, and youll have half my time. Twelve hours a day, eighty-four hours a week. And by the end of those eight months, youll have people on the path to reaching the top, with epic [sses] at the bare minimum, and as much experience in [System]-basedbat as any Dungeon delver. Thats my offer. I understand if thats more than you can guarantee, but Im willing to wait as long as is necessary. On the inside, Isaac was cheering at the possibility of getting to properly train officers, he hadnt expected to get to do this until muchter. The sheer amount of pull hed need was ridiculous. But now was the perfect time to do this. Most of his other projects were going smoothly and running without his direct management. The research was going perfectly, and so many powerhouses had been raised in the process that his watching over everything was no longer needed. Hispany was working just as well as it had on day one. The [Round Table] wasnt even his project, but it was also going smoothly, with each of its members doing their part. And now, hopefully, this military project would be his next challenge. Chapter 259: Boiling Frog Chapter 259: Boiling Frog The military was a ce that embodied the very concept of regtion, at least in theory. Discipline, a strict hierarchy, rules for absolutely everything. Which just meant that when things werent going well, it was all the more obvious, blindingly so. And the reactions to the mimunication that had caused chaos at the highest levels of government most certainly fell under the umbre of not going well. The true nature of the incident was still somewhat shrouded in mystery to most people as no one had officially announced anything, but the mess had been impossible to hide as every head of state had been informed of the Ankou. Sure, there might be a few tinpot dictators and warlordspletelycking in legitimacy who hadnt gotten the memo, but most of the world had received the warning. However, the real issue was that not everyone had gotten the all-clear quickly as the Americans had been understandably reluctant to widely announce the fact that the White House had been infiltrated. The information about the situation having been resolved had eventually trickled through, but not before noticeable military preparations had been made by quite a few nations. This, in turn, had been noticed by various journalists, as had been the chaos at the White House, sparking countless spection which had then be the sources for several conspiracy theories. At the same time, it hadnt taken long for soldiers to be suspicious of the sudden drills caused by their leaders being rmed. Thankfully, the full truth had stayed hidden. [System] messages might not be possible to fake, but pictures of them certainly could be. The various absolute rulers on Earth had been the only ones in their respective governments whod gotten the warning and had apparently decided against widely announcing the whole mess. Presumably, the fear had been that theyd be called liars and lose some integrity in the eyes of their subordinates. But where the mess hadrgely be a mystery in the eyes of the public, it had merely be a source of too-rapid development for the crowd in front of Isaac. In the end, theyd settled on meeting in Grafenw?hr, an airne hanger. It was fairly centrally located and had plenty of space avable not only for this but to set up whatever was needed for training. In addition, well, it was a training ground and used to the sheer chaos of [Systen]-based training. That didnt mean that it was ready for the sheer chaos of having such a disparate group all but dumped into it. Isaac, though, he didnt have to deal with any of that. He was just staying nearby, observing, checking out the kids. In hindsight, scouting out potential students was the real use for the power to recognize worthy warriors hed gained alongside his Einherjar race. Sure, it was useful for picking out powerful enemies from crowds who might have otherwise hidden from sight, but finding students was where it truly shone. It was initially shocking how many people didnt meet those criteria, but it did make sense when he really thought about it. For one, the standards of his ability were incredibly high. Someone who would strive to reach the point where they would be worthy of being chosen to fight in the final battle for the survival of the world, fighting monsters capable of cataclysmic acts of destruction. Also, there were plenty of reasons one would join the military that didnt involve getting better at fighting. Patriotism, getting a paid-for education, wanting a path out of a bad situation, a desire for structure, and more things could have ced people in the group in front of him. General Ardouin was a member of that illustrious group, but only a few othermanding officers were. Horn wasnt, being just an extremely well-trained professional capable with decades of experience on the job. As for the actual prospective trainees, there were perhaps twenty people who had what it took, another thirty or so who might be worth looking at, and four hundred and fifty whod quit before the end of the month. He gave those names to Horn and made a slow retreat until hed left Grafenw?hr, then teleported right back to the university to make some arrangements. Not to mention that he had several requisitions to make of the Bundeswehrs stocks. Horn had apparently rushed to give Isaac everything hed asked for, even before the whole international angle had been arranged. Isaac suspected that the general had hoped that hed just train the German contingent in case it didnt work out with their allies. Of course, once Isaac had selected the group, thered been a whole lot of people whod wanted to get their protegees into his ss. Hed hemmed, hawed, and let in a few more people. The ones whod get themselves kicked out the fastest, naturally. *** Day 1 Second Lieutenant An Smith had had one hell of a week. First, thered been apletely unscheduled drill that had involved putting the entirety of the United States military on high alert. Then, the drill had ended with sudden and unexined suddenness while at the same time, something had gone down in Washington. He hadnt been there to see that part, but it hadnt been hard to put two and two together after reading the newspaper. After that, hed been packed up and shipped off to Germany along with several for God only knows what reason. Only to then find out that all of NATO and several allies outside of it had sent people just like him, around five hundred altogether. And now, hed been taken from even that group for special training. Special training was one of the most terrifying phrases that an officer could say, just as bad as opportunity or youve all volunteered. Yet it didnt seem all that bad so far. He, and around sixty others were in a bog-standard lecture hall, decorated in the sparse style of a military building, waiting for the teacher. Mind you, said teacher wasntte, it was just that everyone here was at least half an hour early. 12 pm. Thats by when they were supposed to be here. Ten more seconds before the teacher was officiallyte. Not a good start. Nine. Eight. Seven. One. Zer- in the very instant the clock hit twelve, a portal shed open behind the lecturers desk, revealing a young man wearing dark grey outdoor clothing that was simr to military fatigues, but could not be mistaken for them even at a distance. Shockingly ck hair, and green eyes that seemed to glow with an inner light were somehow clearly visible even all the way across the room. Wait, that couldnt be Good afternoon. My name is Isaac Thoma and Ill be your instructor for the next eight months. During that period, from 12 pm to 12 am, You. Are. Mine. No, I do not hold a formal rank in any military, but I have been given authority over you and if anyone has a problem with that, theres the door. Feel free to argue your case to your superiors, not to me. What you do with your time when Im not here is up to your superiors, but if I were you, Id prepare for eight months of non-stop effort. Thoma stepped around the desk while he grabbed a sheet of paper off it. A softly glowing blue orb manifested above his free hand, around the size of a marble. Some of you might have realized that all of this is veryst minute, and youve probably realized that this has something to do with what happenedst week. If you the full truth of the matter, youve likely received orders to not spread that information. If you dont, suffice it to say, there was a mimunication that caused most militaries to go on alert, exposing some gaps in overall preparedness. Specifically, officerspletely integrated with the [System]. He held up the hand with the glowing marble. And thats where youe in. Im going to throw you into the crucible over and over again, all the while teaching you tricks that maybe a hundred of your superiors can pull off. First of all, we have mana maniption. Before your imagination runs away with you, let me show you what two thousand points of mana do to a sheet of paper. He flicked the marble into the sheet of paper, causing everyone to flinch, and quite a few people even ducked under their tables. Not that it would do much. Hed have taken precautions, and if he hadnt, they were all dead anyway. Two thousand mana was enough to power an artillery spell capable of leveling a city block. The sheet of paper twitched but did nothing else. Mana can act as realitys cheat code in the right hands, but it requires proper instruction to do so. On its own, generally, its invisible and intangible, even when significant amounts of it arepressed all youll see is a little heat and light. Anything beyond that is the result of mana filtered through the lens of spells or [Skills]. Even [Manaweaver] needs a [Skill] to facilitate the manifestation of solid shapes and energy sts. So no, you wont functionally be wizards along with your [ss] abilities. However, youll be able to use almost all magical objects, even badly made ones that do not automatically interface with the users mana. Its also possible to refine the use of certain [Skills] via mana maniption. For example, one can interface ones manawork with someone elses training field [Skill] to make use of it even when one is too powerful for the [Skill] to contain. Also, skill at mana maniption transfers almost directly to skill with the elemental abilities youll get from the Aspects youll getter. Holy shit! Ho-ley fucking shit! Right at that moment, An didnt care what he had to do, what hell Thoma would put him through if he got those Aspects. In theory, anyone could get them by killing monsters. In practice, they were so rare that one might only see one or two a year, and even then, there was no guarantee the specific one that dropped would be useful for you. Many officers had one or two, usually one for regeneration and one to grant them an elemental attack ability in case the enemy did somehow reach them. Special forces were usually loaded with Aspects, easily doubling the number of [Skills] at their disposal. And then there were the most powerful people in the world, S-Rankers, who were wielding levels of power that should have remained in the realm ofic books, who had more Aspects than Levels! If someone like Thoma promised to give them Aspects, then An would be able to grow to incredible heights. Which brings me to the final part of this introductory speech. The bad news. Because this was all sost minute, parts arent ready yet. That means that you all get to do the easy part up front, instead of having it spaced out across the months. With that, he pulled a small sack from beneath the lectern and emptied it on the tabletop. With a metallic tter, countless small objects scattered across the surface. Where those rings? These are second-generation storage rings. They are absolute garbage, with barely enough space to store a standard moving box and theyre literally impossible to use by anyone who doesnt wield near caster-level mana control. Your lunch is in there. Thoma grinned evilly as the trainees around An shifted nervously, Dont worry, if you cant get into your rings, Ive got some bread and water over there. Now, everyonee grab a ring and then Ill teach you how to get started. Oh, and youd best learn quickly becausee Monday, the key to the bathroom will be in one of these. But the first three people to open their rings will get one of these, He announced as he pulled three more rings out of his pocket andid them on the lectern in front of him, Fourth-generation storage rings. They each hold to cubic meters of material and can be freely used by anyone, no matter their skill at mana maniption. They can also only be used by their designated owner. *** Day 7 Thest week had been the weirdest of Ans life, hands down. Dr. Thoma had sat at the front, working on preparing the future training exercises. Hed answered questions when they were asked, given hints, and made suggestions. But hed also asked some very weird questions. Favorite video game and ystyle in it. Chess knowledge. Sports preferences. Also, true to his word, Thoma had stuck the key to the bathroom in one of the rings and the few people who hadnt mastered mana maniption by then had been in serious trouble. Today, though, things had gone to a head. What the hell is wrong with you? Are you insane? Thoma hadid out adult diapers at the start of this particr lesson, in case anyone couldnt hold it for another twelve or so hours and some of the people who were still struggling had lost it. Lieutenant Hampton, there are three kinds of people in this room. Those who have gone above and beyond in training and their studies, those who have a certain je ne sais quoi that didnt make it into their file, and those with patrons who were going to be easier to fend off after their darling already med out. So, lieutenant, which category do you think you fall into? And who will I get to tell all about how their rmendation was bullshit? Thoma hadnt even been looking at Hampton for most of the speech, only locking eyes with him during the final sentence. It was surprising just how much contempt had been packed into that lieutenant. Ive got top marks at Hampton began. Smith knew him from training, he was from an old army family. And hed been an exemr soldier on paper but with a certain air of annoying, smug, superiority about him. An had been very surprised to see him here, but now, things made a little more sense. Does this look like your old environment? Thoma asked acidly, I dont care about what your file says youre capable of, I care about what you can actually do. And from what Ive seen so far, what you can do isnt enough. So either put in the effort to catch up, or get out. With that, Thoma rose to his feet and strode towards Hampton, with what had to be an [Aura] boiling off him, Make your decision. It wont get any easier from here on out. Hampton stalked out through the door with what little dignity he could muster and that was that. Thoma turned around at the door and shed them a grin. A grin they all knew to interpret as he just had an evil idea. He led them to what looked to be a standard assault course. Isaac Thoma would like to teach you the Skill [Medieval Leader]. Would you like to learn this Skill? Y/N The message suddenly appeared in Ans face and he nearly tripped, but he caught himself and epted. Medieval Leader (rare) This Skill is an essentialponent of leading a group of your fellows intobat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System-acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each others health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, the user can remotely talk to party members up to five hundred meters away, as well as create location markers and share information, with the distance increasing another one hundred meters per Level in this Skill. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain Party-basedmunication is an essential ability on the modern battlefield. Since youre all still using your starter [ss], you wont have a [Skill] to create one yet. Until you get your own, use this one to practice. This is where youll practice. That is an assault course absolutely stuffed with traps, including alchemical irritants, tear gas, and so on. You fine folks will take turns guiding the others through the course with the intel I provide. Good luck, and youd better hope that the people you steer into a trap arent petty enough to retaliate. *** The evil grin dropped off Isaacs face the instant he was out of sight of the trainees. He wasnt a big fan of ying the tough guy, most of the time. That stuff was reserved for nepo-babies and others he wanted to unleash his wrath upon, not people doing their best. Of which there were none left. Graciously epting them had short-stopped a lot of arguments, and the spectacr self-destruction that followed had both spurred on everyone else on and proven his judgment was sound. But all in all, this was going fairly well. No one had reached his level of mana control by this point, never mind caster-level skill, but all remaining people were proficient enough to be able to reliably use even the beyond-terrible first-generation storage rings. And he really was a big fan of the assault course. It was absolutely stuffed with all sorts of fun things. Hed probably be able to use the video footage of his training to start a prank YouTube channel and get a million followers in a couple of weeks. He wouldnt, but it was that sort of problem. If hed hadpletely free reign, hed have gone with painful traps that would be healed once the course had been finished, but he was limited by military regtions. Instead, hed gone in the direction of causing another kind of pain. Ego damage. Get stuck upside-down in solidified foam that still allowed one to breathe for half an hour and youll do your damndest to make sure it doesnt happen again. Of course, the task was massivelyplicated by the fact that they had practically nomand or coordinating [Skills], but that was actually a good thing. Because under those circumstances, they need to get creative, they couldnt just rely on [Skills] to get the objective meaning of their orders across. *** Month 2 After three weeks of alternating mana control exercises and being chased down exceedingly insane assault courses, Thoma led the group out into arge chamber with a summoning circle in the far corner. This,dies and gentlemen, is where youll be earning your Aspects. A thin, razor-sharp de manifested in his right hand as he spun around and offered it to them, hilt first. This is a True Copy of Mimung. Obviously, there can only be one Mimung, but this thing is every bit as good as the original. I know youve spected a lot about why I was asking all those questions earlier. I was working out which Aspects would go best with your personality, and the build you had in mind. So, who wants to go first? Almost half the hands went up at that, but An was slightly faster and was called over. But the moment his right hand grasped the hilt of the legendary sword, Thoma revealed what he had in his other hand. A ck bag, the kind that would go over a prisoners head in a spy movie. Oh, I almost forgot, youll have to wear this. Ill intervene if youre in danger, but beyond that, youll have to rely on yourrades to guide your de. Figure out who youll be listening to, how many people should be involved, and so on. Good luck. And with that, he teleported to the far corner of the room, where hed set up aptop and a literal pile of paperwork. *** Ans breath was loud in his ears, the fabric of the bag rough on his face. Sweat slicked the handle of the de he held, conjuring up horror scenarios of what might happen if he dropped it in his mind. It was so sharp that he could chop someone of his power level in half and not even notice. If he dropped it on his foot or stepped on it it didnt bear thinking about. Duck, horizontal sh! Yu ordered via the party. In the end, it had been decided that only one person would be passing along information to the person fighting to streamline the process and An had gotten along with the man from Korea the best so far. He did his best to obey the orders, a [Skill] meant to facilitate better information sharing between [Students] of all things helping guide him, but he didnt manage to execute it properly. A palm to the chest threw him clear while the bag was plucked from his head. He saw the dead body of the Echoing Wailer, a massive frog-like monster, lie there, split clean in half by Thomas de. And the Aspect that glimmered in the corpse. Thoma grabbed it and pulled it into his storage, This will go to the base stores for the higher-ups to fight about. I killed that monster, and Aspects work best when you harvest them yourself. Figure out where you went wrong and try again. An just barely managed to strangle his cry of protest, letting out a low wheeze. His Aspect *** Duck! An ducked, feeling a shockwave st past overhead. Stand up, two steps forward, stab. He didnt feel it as the de hit the monster, cleaving flesh as though it werent even there. But he did feel the resulting spray of blood. Turn and run! Yu yelled. He didnt need to tell An twice. He just took off. That had been the n, fatally wound the monster, then leg it. WALL! The warning came a little toote. Strong hands stole the sword out of his hand a split second before Ans forehead met the straw-padded wall. A [System] message appeared in his vision. Echoing Wailer (Lv. 9) has been in. 35 XP gained (50 XP base distributed across 11 people as per their contributions) Not bad, Thomas voice came from right next to him, Now do it again until you have the Aspect. But I have to ask: DID YOU NOT REALIZE THAT IF YOU SHOULDNT RUN WITH SCISSORS, RUNNING WITH SWORDS IS AN EVEN WORSE IDEA? DID YOU SOMEHOW MANAGE TO FAIL KINDERGARTEN, SMITH? Honestly, that particr roasting was one hundred percent deserved. An was just happy that Thoma had taken the sword from him before hed run into the wall. Legs could be regrown nowadays, but he doubted hed live down dismembering himself with his own sword by running face-first into a wall. *** Alright, folks, youve all managed to earn two Aspects and talked everyone else through the process as well. And now, youve earned the right to advance, to evolve. Once. Im sure some of you have gathered enough XP to hit Level 25 and beyond. Dont. Advance as high as you can within the bounds of the First Evolution, then stop. If you want feedback on potential Evolutions,e see me. Ill be in the next room over for privacy, Isaac announced, then promptly left his victim- er, trainees, alone. [ss] choice was an extremely personal and delicate decision, after all. He wouldnt force them to spread their options far and wide by discussing this in public. By making everyone get two self-harvested Aspects, hed ensured theyd get at least an epic [ss] based on them. In addition, they should all get some bonus to [ss] quality based on the thoroughness of the training hed put them through. And, of course, thered be hybrid [sses] based on training, held Aspects and [Skill] Levels. Throughout the evening, three-quarters of his trainees dropped by his room for a consult, to the point where he waste for his midnight appointment. But it was worth it. He ended up with two particrly impressive [ss] holders. One of them was a Lieutenant Second ss An Smith from the US Army, whod gained the [Apprentice Conductor of the Battlesong] [ss] based on his sound Aspect, strategic thinking, and willingness to push far. Hed been one of the first to unlock his storage ring, but he hadnt stopped at that, instead working tirelessly to keep improving and hed even asked if Isaac could break one of the rings in a way that made them harder to use without fully destroying it. Of course, hed almost run into a wall while holding the impossibly sharp Mimung and there were several other rough edges that needed to go, but overall, he had potential. The other was a Sowi, a Korean rank equivalent to a Second Lieutenant, called Yu Gwanik, whod be a [Master of Unconventionanlity]. He coulde up with impressive tricks, working around Isaacs orders, but he was also the one whod sent Smith at the wall. Hed also need some serious seasoning. Now, hed give everyone a month to get used to their new [Skills], and then, hed give them a serious challenge. *** Month 3 Isaac Thoma was insane. Definitely. Living proof of that was standing right in front of them. An did his best to present a confident front, but deep down, he was desperately wishing hed had the presence of mind to grab one of the adult diapers just in case. That would have been embarrassing, sure, but more embarrassing than wetting himself in front of his peers? Thoma stood in the center of the arena, a Demon Lord chained to the ground behind him. Fanning out to either side stood twenty figures armored in police tactical armor, wielding a variety of weapons. This group looked weirdly familiar, but An couldnt quite ce them. They did look impressively capable, though. I can see the question marks in your eyes, and Id like to remind everyone that being aware of the most elite units on the is going to be your job, Thoma dered, But Im going to let that go just this once and exin. Standing in front of you are twenty members of GSG-13, Germanys most elite monster-hunting team. Left to their own devices, they could tear that [Raid Boss] apart in less than five seconds. It is just Tier 6, after all. But theyre not going to be free to act as they want, itll be up to you to direct them. Any member of GSG-13 who has to dodge or activate a [Skill] on their own volition is eliminated. If theyre all eliminated before the monster is dead, you guys lose and get to try again. If you screw up badly enough that I have to intervene, whoever is responsible for the cock-up is out of the program. Were moving into serious territory here, and the consequences of failure cant be healed away with a simple potion anymore. He paused for a second, apparently to let that sink in, before he pulled an officers saber out from somewhere, then unsheathed it slightly to grant them all a brief look at a resplendent de. An could already tell where this was going. That sword would be the prize for whichever of them managed to do something. He practically drooled at the thought of getting his hands on that thing. He was technically allowed to carry one as an officer of the United States Army, but prior to the [System], theyd been entirely ceremonial. Now though, they could be incredibly powerful and there was no doubt in his mind that the sword Thoma was holding aloft was of the highest quality. There are two ways for you to beat this challenge, and each will have a different reward. The easy path is blindingly obvious, but I still think itll take a while for you guys to figure out. Whoeveres up with it first gets this sword, an officers saber forged by one Helmut Stagmer, which can also cosmetically alter itself to fit the uniform regtions of your respective organizations. The hard path is the straightforward one. Create and execute a n to take down the [Raid Boss], and youll get to advance to the second Evolution. Fail, and youll be running drills until everyones mana pool has recharged and cooldowns [Skills] have been recovered. Then youll get to try again. So, establish a party, figure out your roles in the roster, make a n, and then Ill have the chains released. You have ten minutes. And with that, Thoma vanished off to somewhere. The first time hed done that, An had been utterly terrified, horror scenarios of what might happen with their safety gone running through his mind. But as it turned out, he was always around, and paying the needed level of attention. Ten minutes passed in a sh. A month spent figuring out how to best guide each other throughbat had let An and his peers figure out how to best split up the work, who was best at nning, and who could convey orders most sinctly. An himself was tasked with most of the nning as his [ss] was all about directing a battle in a way that made it alle together in the end. A little like an orchestra, which was likely where its name came from. Of course, the name also almost certainly borrowed from his twin Aspects of wind and sound. They let him create illusions of distant battle in ces that were out of an enemys direct line of sight, had granted him several debuffing [Skill], and let him hit hard at point-nk range. Not that it would do him much against a [Raid Boss] at almost twice his Level. Hed be limited to guiding and advising, his direct actions would be beyond useless. But hed try nheless. And hopefully, theyd win this quickly. *** Thank you for letting me borrow your unit, Isaac said to Habicht, who was sitting next to him in the observation room. Thank you for remembering to go through the proper channels, Habicht responded, You would not believe the number of times Ive had people talk to me about potential deployments, then assume that theyll have my time without ever making sure to file the paperwork. I think theyve decided they dont need me, and they expect me to somehow magically have arranged to be avable. That sounds like a nightmare, Isaacmented. So, what exactly are they going to be learning, anyway? Habicht asked, My people know how to take that thing down in seconds, and all your trainees would have to do is tell them to use that train- thats the easy way, isnt it? Why wouldnt they figure that out? Because they just spent six weeks micromanaging each other to fight monsters blindfolded. They learned how to use the knowledge of the big picture to guide those who dont have that knowledge, and now they need to learn that generally, micromanaging is bad leadership. They need to learn to trust their subordinates. They wont learn that during the two days you have us, Habicht pointed out, What are you going to do afterwards? Oh, Im going to borrow some folks from the Bundeswehr and dress them up in spare GSG-13 uniforms. Im also going to use my training area as a new arena under the excuse of wanting to use more varied opponents, but theyre too dangerous to have here in full. And, of course, the trainees will be in the arena too, so they can experience the consequences of fucking up on their own skin. They might not stick around once the arena drops, but I doubt theyll forget them. Ha, bet thats thest time theyll forget to check the abilities of their subordinates, Habichtughed, You are an evil, evil, man, Isaac. I dont need them to like me, I need them to survive, Isaac shrugged. And thats exactly the attitude thats needed in a trainer, Habicht replied, then looked back to the arena, Oh look, there goes Wirt. Thest man standing had been Wirt with his tower shield, but then hed had to resort to activating his big area shielding [Skill] on his own to tank one of the demons fire waves, thereby eliminating him as per the rules of the game. He clearly realized that a momentter and activated another [Skill], creating eight spectral copies of his and flickering between each image. Each time he manifested in one of the shapes, he bashed his tower shield into a joint, eye, or other vulnerable spot, knocking the monster down where several others took it down with well-ced bullets and des. Isaac jumped back into the arena through the wall and announced, Well, that didnt go too well, didnt it? Thankfully, youll have more than enough time toe up with new tactics while everyones [Skills]e off their cooldown and you run drills. *** An mentally cursed everyone and everything as he ran the damn assault course for the dozenth time. At the moment, things were arranged so that one person had to guide the other thirty-eight through the course at the same time, a task made all the more difficult by the fact that the people in the course were broken up into squads of four or five. That also meant that instead of getting to sit out a quarter of the runs as part of a ten-manmand team, they had to go on thirty-eight out of thirty-nine runs through the devils own bloody backyard. There was an easy solution and a hard one. The easy one was supposedly obvious, but the only obvious one he could see was the hard one, which was making this work as intended. Coming up with and then executing a n, against an incredibly fast monster, using people who could run back and forth the arena twice over in the time it took him to get out a single syble. Micromanaging wouldnt work, exceedingly detailed orders given ahead of time for every single possible scenario would require his temporary subordinates to memorize them all. And you also couldnt program people like robots. Maybe something looser would work, guiding the flow ofbat in general, working on abbreviated orders, and so on? But he really needed to find the easy path. What could be easier than ordering others to do the fighting on your behalf? Just saying make it happen and then grabbing popcor- An went sprawling as he tripped over a root, too distracted to notice it. The solutions had been too fucking obvious, just like Thoma had said. For the rest of this particr run, he could barely contain his excitement, and the moment they reached the end, he staggered up to Thoma and announced, Is the easy way just telling them to use their standard tactics against this particr monster? In lieu of a proper answer, Thoma pulled out the officers sword, handed it over, and then asked, Everyone, we just saw how the fine folks of GSG-13 deal with a [Raid Boss] without being micromanaged once they were all eliminated. Now, you have to show me you can get anywhere near that level on your own. Obviously, you cant use the easy way to win now. *** Month 4 The massive Demon Lord loomed over An and his fellow trainees. This was the seventy-third time theyd been in this position, and theyd failed seventy-two times. But no more! In an instant, they all retreated, running off like bats out of hell to the far side of the arena while the soldiers under theirmand spread out to avoid being wiped out in a handful of attacks. Theyd had everything from the most elite of units to grass-green battalions straight out of boot camp under theirmand. Thetter had probably only been there to make sure the trainees knew to check the quality of their subordinates. Right now, they had two toons of third Evolution soldiersplete with a trio of tanks at their disposal and that should be enough to win. In theory. An initial st of fire wiped out three of their people before they could even get started. But the monster paid for that as it lost both eyes to tank shells a split secondter. Gunfire and shoulderunched rockets hammered into steel-tough skin, tearing it open and causing rivulets of blood to run down its body, but didnt inflict fatal damage. Yet. The demon tried to go after the tanks, the greatest source of damage, but theyd targeted its eyes for a reason. Ans [Discordant Battlecry] echoed across the battlefield, hammering into the monsters eardrums and all but deafening it. Even at Level 27, the [Skill] couldnt truly harm the monster, but while it rang out, it prevented the monster from hearing much of anything else. And lets be honest, bringing a [Skill] to almost the maximum Level in a handful of months had to be some sort of record. One of the tanks drivers gunned the engine when it saw a chance and ran into the monsters foot while using an eleration [Skill]. The impact dented the front of the vehicle but jerked the monsters leg to the side at precisely the wrong moment. The foot came down at a terrible angle, its ankle gave way with a sickening pop and the monster fell to the floor. And then it was over. Every trainee unleashed every [Skill] at their disposal and collectively, that boostbined with the monster being on the ground, was enough. The arena faded around them, and injuries vanished alongside any and all loot. Good job everyone, Thoma called out from the sidelines, Now, feel free to advance to the peak of the Second Evolution, and once youre done with that, were going to have some fun. That deration had them all shivering. Fun for their trainer usually meant horror for them. *** Month 6 On Ans left hand, an intricate ring glittered, a spatial storage device normally reserved for high-ranking officers or rich people. Below that hung an officers saber better than what even generals carried. His uniform, along with everyone elses, was made from the most durable fabrics in the world, made by a master tailor. Potion orbs were strategically hidden all over his body, ready to be swallowed in a split second if needed. He should have looked like an exemr And yet here he was, knee-deep in mud in the pouring rain, trying to guide his toon through weather that hed believed to be a sign of the world ending under other circumstances. Under these circumstances he knew it was just Thoma amping up the difficulty. But hed made it this far, was currently Level 60, holding an epic [ss] since the First Evolution, and had seven maxed out [Skills]. The ludicrous training was working, and the way he saw it, things were worth it. Mostly. He still couldnt wait for this to end. *** Eight months of this. Eight bloody months of paperwork and babysitting. Theyd be over in two weeks. Two weeks and then hed be free. Hed kept working constantly, without breaks or holidays, just brief fun excursions between training. He hadnt participated in Events, only taken part in a few [Raid Boss] fights, and barely done anything else. Once this was done, hed run off to the boonies, somewhere without cell service, and sleep for a week. Isaac sighed as he let himself copse into his chair. The trainees were out treasure hunting, trying to figure out how to get a storage ring of provisions while navigating a minefield of magical traps and patrolling sentries that had been provided by the Bundeswehr. Two more bloody weeks. But his trainees had grown to incredible heights, and so had his training [Skills]. Hed also bought a new [Skill]. Fire Soul (legendary) You are fire, all the way down the very core of your being, embodying not just the physical mes themselves, but also the idea of it all. Burning heat, raw destruction, sheer power, creation, alteration, transformation, light, warmth. This Skill empowers your mes and increases their impact on the world. Pre-existing heat, mana in the environment, and all other avable energies bend themselves to enhance your mes, lowering the cost of all fire-rted abilities by 35%. When you use fire, you arent wielding magic, youre manipting the world itself, truly altering reality. Your mes grow nigh-immune to standard methods of dispelling and will destroy opposing elements and energies when backed by your will. Not only that, but all your abilities may be infused with mes for a substantial boost, either in terms of raw power or bringing their nature more in line with that of fire (this depends on the ability in question, not all Skills will gain the full, or any, boost from Fire Soul). It seemed underwhelming at first nce, but it was useful beyond measure. All fire-based [Skills] became cheaper and easier to use, and he could inject fire into all his attacks. He could also ignite his [Auras], transform his soulbound weapon into literal mes, and so on. When he whipped that out in public for the first time, his opponent might just die of fright. And, of course, his overall Level had risen to one hundred and forty-seven. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit Species: Einherjar Level: 147 XP: 900,129/1,480,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 4,000/4,000 Stats Fortitude 260 (+20) Perception 600 Strength 330 (+15) Agility 650 Magic Power 400 (+10) Magic Regeneration 650 Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXVII The Chosen Weapon XXX I Am The Sword XXV Grave of Swords XXX Armory of Ancient Times XXVI Legacy of a True Warrior XXX Divine Fire XI Champion of Mankind VII Skills Hundred Faces XXVIII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXVII Sweeping Strike XVII Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXIV Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXVIII Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXI Fleeting Presence XVIII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XXV Compounded Impact XVIII True Cut IX Legendary Blow XVII Fully Geared XVIII Knightly Leader XXX Analyze Person XVII Continent Strider XVIII Burden of Power VIII Experts Insight VIII Blessing of Innovation XVIII Lessons of History VIII The Meaning of the Name XV Titanic Presence VIII Fire Soul V General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XV Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VIII Police Procedure VIII Healing VI Quest Giver III Omniglot (109nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script VII Unrestricted Speech II Aspects Aspect Skills Arcane Poltergeist (3 stack) Flight of the Poltergeist Ephemeral Form Haunting Pursuit Greater Hydra (3 stack) Hydras Regeneration Redundant Organs Ignore Injury Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Twilight Weaver (3 stack) Lesser Illusion Perception Interdiction Warp Wave Razor Apparition (3 stack) Remote Wielding Immortal des Razor Trails Dragon (3 stack) Draconic Heart Moment of Immortality Dragonscale Mantle Least Demon Lord (2 stack) Moment of Immortality Grand Hellme Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Ankou (full stack) Freedom from Mortal Limits Eternal Restoration Implements of True Death Reapers Cloak Death Knight (3 stack) Death Knights Endurance Ghostly Armor Armored Echo As for [Knightly Leader] and [Legacy of a True Warrior], theyd likewise grown substantially stronger. Knightly Leader (legendary, Level max) Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonyer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires,rades in arms and asionally, a mentor thats along for the ride. This Skill is an essentialponent of leading a group of your fellows intobat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each others health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, sses, and Skills) Thirdly, anymands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary. In addition, the user can remotely talk to party members up to ten kilometers away. And finally, the user can set up contingencies ahead of time, so orders are issued without the user needing to fully articte potentiallyplex statements in the middle of a fight for their lives. These orders can be canceled at any time, should it be necessary, and new ones can always be added though it would be inadvisable if a distraction would endanger them. After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to lead a disparate collection of people to victory and empower them with new training, it has evolved to vastly empower the users ability to turn a collection of random individuals into a solid group. Anyone who bes a member of your party can be taught directly using Legacy of a True Warrior and will gain basicbat and cooperation tactics should they not already have them. In addition, you gain an innate understanding of the dynamics of the people you lead, where the cracks in the group lie, and where your current subordinates arecking. It will also provide hints as to how these ws can bepensated for. And now, Knightly Leader has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user a presence unlike any other, one representative of not only you, the leader but also of the people you lead. If you are inmand of a group, you may borrow your subordinates Auras, melding them into your own and creating a titanic presence that emanates from the entirety of your formation. The Auras costs are doubled for their holders and may be withdrawn from the collective at will. Each individual Aura may be projected away from its user up to a distance of ten times its original range, but a member of the formation must still be within the standard distance of allponent Auras. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain Thebined [Aura] would be a stone-cold bitch to control, but it would also be beyond powerful once he learned to control it. An entire formation having abined [Aura] that would be the stuff of Legends. Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level max) Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and hispanion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that mans legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience inbat both figurative and literal. Not only that, but all of that experience has been improved by the knowledge of how to apply it to a world with the [System]. But even though Hildebrands personal achievements are hardly small, they pale inparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others. Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly elerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is rted to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, orbat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear). But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your ss Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself): -Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination) -Epic Blow (downgrade from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows) -Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space) -Veterans Knowledge (downgrade from Experts Insight, grants overall knowledge and the asional sh of insight) You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior. Skills taught this week /17155 However, there is one more way the Heir of Master Hildebrand can teach people. After reaching Level 10 in this Skill, the Heir may teach groups of up to five people at a time. This will only grant a rare Skill, rather than an epic one, but only use up a single timeslot. Using a few hours of one-on-one training and 80% of a slot, the Skill can be upgraded to its full power. In addition, this Skill allows the Heir to seamlessly interface with training Skills used by coworkers. After countless fights where the user has turned a disparate collection of individuals into capable warriors, forging them into warriors capable of ying Demon Lords and even Dragons, this Skill has evolved to create an army of legends. Any individual who walks the same path as the Heir and works with them to achieve their end goals will passively be taught the Skills that Legacy of a True Warrior can grant and these Skills will rapidly level (up to the Heirs Level in the specific Skill) as long as they continue to support the Heir in their endeavors. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user the ability to teach all basic Strike, Blow, Shot, Armor, and military discipline Skills to their trainees. The cost of teaching these [Skills] is one-fifth of the normal cost. In addition, the user will have ess to these Skills at Level thirty butck threshold bonuses. In addition, once per week, the user may temporarily enhance all of their subordinates Skills of the above types to the next threshold. This boost willst for six hours. Another incredible boon. He could teach all of the very basics now, including active [Skills], and having ess to a lot of knowledge-based [Skills] would be useful beyond measure. Not to mention that he now had ess to the basic [Warrior] and [Archer] active [Skills]. His [Strikes] were better because they did have their threshold bonuses, but hed still gotten a solid boost to his versatility. Isaac leaned back in his chair, ced his feet on his desk, and was about to take this chance to just daydream, but then his phone rang with an alert. The if youre S-Ranked, please help, if you arent, run kind of alert. Oh, fuck! Chapter 260: Interlude Pestilence Chapter 260: Interlude Pestilence Youre seriously stealing eels? Thats got to be a new low point, Jim groaned as he leaned back in his chair, resting his feet on a nearby crate. Because ss eels are valuable in the Asian Markets, and without new ss eels to develop into adults, Europes eel poption will rapidly decrease until the buggers go extinct. Should be funny to see everyones faces. Utgardloki looked far different in the real world than he did in the bossmunication space. He looked average there, IRL, he was a true giant who had to clock in at around 150kg. However, he wasnt fat, exactly, he had a sumo wrestlers physique that belied his [ss] that was some kind of Evolution of [Illusionist]. And Jim firmly believed that his body was no illusion, theyd bumped into each other a few times and the appearance had matched what Jim had felt. He was also a far cry from the analytical chief intel officer of their group he normally presented himself as. Less scheming, more deciding what to do based on what would garner the most entertaining response. And Im here why exactly? Jim asked. As the person currently holding the title of Aspirant, specifically, the [Aspirant for the Mantle of Conquest], he was one of the heaviest hitters of their group. And now, he was here babysitting a geeks money-making operation, stealing fucking eels. Because this is seriously illegal, there are literal task forces to stop illegal ss eel fishing. And if the cops show up, I figured you can go to work. Were above the limit the boss set as a minimum for high-Level intervention. Those damn minimums, Jim grumbled. When those had been introduced, hed bepletely convinced that the big guy had well and truly lost his marbles. Sure, he also thought that the divinely imposed limit of only self-defense until ten years after the [Systems] arrival was the dumbest invention since feminism. But he wasnt willing to argue that point with a literal deity. However, the boss was an entirely different story, especially when he was taking things to an insane level. Hed already been careful, trying to parse out where the limits were supposed to lie based on a direction a couple of sentences long. And then Rlyeh had happened. No, no one knew whod been responsible for that mess, or even if it had been one of their lot who was responsible for the whole thing in the first ce, but it had still shaken up the boss real good. Hed tried to set up rules following the incident to prevent any of their preparations in case of a raid from turning from precautions into ambushes. Mostly limits on how many monsters could be summoned and some guidelines as to how high a Level the guards could be rtive to the value of the asset or assets being guarded. It wasnt a bad idea overall, it would help with making sure their resources were properly allocated and no area was overlooked, Jim had to admit that, but at this point, hed be morefortable with a crack addict as a superior than that guy. He could only imagine what Deaths apartment must look like. Chances were, it was either a rubber cell, or contained a dozen different conspiracy boards that were connected by so many strings that it looked like a spiders web. Still, in a few more Levels hed almost certainly be the [Horseman of Death] and that would definitely cement his role as their leader, but right now, the man in the pale mask was just looking like a loon. Sure, he was desperately trying to avoid damaging his ticket into paradise, but his methods were literally insane. I know you think theyre stupid, but he does have a point, Utgard pointed out, Were dealing with literally divine rules here, who knows what they are? Lets just be careful, let humanity self-destruct, and then be done with it. And until then, you can explore whatever area you got assigned to, it isnt like we dont have the money to enjoy ourselves. Half our profits go into the war chest, the other half is freely useable. Hell, we could buy half the town with the profits from just this project. So what Im hearing is that youre so sick of mypany that youre literally paying me to get the fuck out? Jim growled, rising to his feet and striding out of the cramped office, snatching the wad of euros that Utgard had held out on the way. For money from a low point, it sure spends well, doesnt it? Utgard muttered as Jim left. I heard that, Jim shot back, trailing his hand along the wall on his way out. The trail he left behind might be invisible to the naked eye, but it would give even that twerp the runs when he left the office. Fuck that guy! His physique didnt matter in the slightest nowadays, and he was a useless little schemer, not someone who should be mouthing off to a Horseman! But Jim did have to admit that once he got outside, this was a nice ce. Where the hell was he, anyway? A quick check of his phone revealed that he was in France, west coast, in a little town called Lorient. French cuisine was good and all, but the portions were always so tiny that even a flea would still be hungry after eating one. The waitstaff better not give him any lip about ordering multiple portions. But hed barely started eating his way through waterfront cafes when the sounds of battle reached his ears. Aw,e on. He rose to his feet, but before he ran towards the site of themotion, he tossed a few bills on the table. The food here smelled divine and he wanted to be able toe back hereter. When he arrived back at the warehouse, things were exactly what he expected them to be. The cops were here because of fucking eels. And Utgard was only holding them off by messing with their senses, making it too dangerous for them to start shooting for fear of hitting each other, not taking them down. Smug,zy, useless little shit. Jim rolled his eyes and began to stride forwards while he pulled his cloak from his storage ring. From the instant it appeared, its enchantments distorted his appearance and made it harder for others to connect him to the cloaked form. It also sent out a pulse that fried any nearby security cameras at the moment he put it on. The cops were caught, wait for it, t-footed as they whirled around only when he touched the one furthest back. A simple tap on the neck, a cast of [Generate Pestilence], and her flesh began to instantly necrotize. She dropped in a heartbeat, but shed live for a few more seconds, and spend every single one of them in agony. Too bad, so sad, shouldnt have picked this fight. [gue Burst] detonated the body at the instant of death, instantly infecting all others present. Seriously, what on Earth did they think was going to happen? Jim wondered as they scattered like startled rabbits. He brushed his hands against the shoulder, removing the corroded remains the of slugs that had been caught up in his [Conquering Shield], which had torn the bullets apart as they closed in. And done. This location was burned now, obviously, but that was for Utgard to worry about. Jim had had his fun. He strode forward, ignoring the dead and dying around him, only to whirl around when he heard a portal opening behind him. You will not drag me off to God knows where, I dont care what the emergency is, there is always time formon court- ah, I see. The iciness of thosest three words was almost enough to make Jim shiver. Go get whoever you can reach, call the general alert, make sure everyone knows were dealing with another disease wielder. The speaker was an average-looking man, wearing ab coat that looked expensive as hell, and he was currently rolling up his sleeves as if to prepare for a fistfight. What a pompous prick! Jim chuckled at the sight, only to choke on hisughter as he realized that his gue had been wiped out in its entirety. A [Pestillent Ray] shot from his palm, aimed straight for the mans face, only for it to be wiped from reality before it even managed to get halfway there. And the pigs whod been milliseconds from death were suddenly fine again, albeit running as though all the demons of hell were after them. Run, little piggies, run. Ah, what the hell, if they were going to throw some super-healer at him, then he could retaliate with his strongest abilities. The [Winds of Damnation] rose from around his feet, ck-tinged gales tearing through the air and carrying death with them while he pointed his palm towards each tfoot in turn, [Pestilence Rays] flying towards the ones whod escaped his initial assault. But once again, the attacks vanished. The winds were cleansed, ruffling hair and blowing away leaf litter, rays dissolved into nothingness, and even the low-level coating of sickening microorganisms that covered Jims skin began to die. Oh, right, youre that doctor, the one who thinks he can eliminate all of the worlds diseases. You can go ahead and Jim didnt get to finish his threat because right at that moment, the asphalt underneath shifted into a spike that mmed straight into his balls. you bastard. He wheezed. Says the walking war crime, The doctor responded, voice colder than anyone Jim had ever heard, and he spent most of his time around some of the worst people in the world. So if the healer could erase all disease-based magic, then this would be a fight fought with fists and Aspects. Jim charged, drawing upon his spread of stolen monster abilities. Phasing for mobility, water, and wind to enhance the spread of his diseases, a couple of strengthening Aspects from the undead. That should be enough to crush this asshole. The wind at his back increased his speed, he phased through the next few Earth spikes and water began to umte on his knuckles to form solid spikes. One good punch and that doctors brains would be sttered across the asphalt. OW! Jim stumbled backwards, clutching a bleeding nose while his mask hung in shards, slicing into his face, condensing the air between them into a shield in case there was a follow-up attack. Blinking tears out of his eyes, he red at the doctor. He was sure hed hit the man in the face, but there wasnt even a single scratch on his face. And that rock covering his knuckles, that was probably to me for Jims bloody nose. What kind of doctor are you? Jim growled. The doctor just stayed where he was, ring at him. Waiting for reinforcements, no doubt. Around them, the cops were settling at a safe distance, watching the proceedings. Fucking cowards,e on, you were already dumb enough to pick a fight with someone of his caliber, juste a little bit closer and fucking die! But they werent the problem, the healer erasing all his attacks was. Jim charged, wind at his back to speed him up, while sts of wind and water peppered the man. The wounds healed in moments, though. Right, healer. This time around, Jim managed to grab the doctors arm, then began to pummel his face, spike-shod fist hammering into his head over and over again. And doing functionally nothing. His opponents head rocked back with every hit, but not a single scratch appeared. What was his head made of? Jim tried to grab the doctors head, but before he managed to get a good grip, a knee mmed into his privates. And again. He fell backwards and the ground surged up to his knees, trapping him. And then the doctor was on top of him, earth-armored fists crashing into his nose, eyes, ears, his temple. Not to mention that that little shit was taking any chance possible to step on his balls. What the fuck was wrong with that guy? Really, what was wrong with this fight? They were two of the strongest people on the, the incarnation of gue and pestilence against a doctor capable of sweeping cities clear of sickness in seconds, yet here they were, brawling in the dirt like children. Their Aspects were good, but not good enough. The problem, though, was that the doctor was healing so much more quickly. Jim finally decided to change into another form, using a cooldown [Skill] called [gueborn Avatar]. A puddle of the highest-density ge-vectors in existence. Rats, fleas, raw sewage, and just in bacterial sludge surged up to meet the fucker, but before he could do more than pull his feet out of the ground, his body began to burn as though hed been bathed in acid. Was the healing aura tearing him apart in this form? He dropped the transformation less than two seconds after triggering it. A huge waste by any measure, but it might just have gotten him far enough. If that assholes head was somehow invulnerable, then hed need another target. One hand grasped the doctors chin, the other locked the top of his skull in an iron grip, and then he twisted. Whatever insane toughness his opponents head might have possessed, it didnt extend to his internals. The doctors neck snapped with a sound like dry wood breaking. And just to make sure, a de of wind and water tore into his neck below where the invulnerability began, decapitating the corpse with ease now that he wasnt moving. Fucking finally, Jim growled as he rose back to his feet, dropping the severed head as he conjured another gue to unleash upon these fools. And then promptly copsed back onto his knees, mouth open in a soundless cry of agony, his most sensitive body part in agony. He nced down to see the headless corpse still there, but head was gone. Incidentally, so was theb coat. A fist hammered into the side of his face, flinging him to the ground. Jim barely managed to turn his head to see the doctor standing there, with an entirely new body. Had that fucker literally regrown everything from the head down? He was also only wearing hisb coat, for some reason. What the he- Another wist encased in a wrecking ball of solid rock hammered into his temple, fully throwing him into the ground. And then, the ground flowed over his face, trapping him. He tried phasing, but his skin began to instantly burn where it was dipping into the rock. Mana. Just how much had seeped into his prison? This really wasnt good. Jim focussed on the distant part of his mind eternally stuck in their meeting ce, and used it to yell for help. No one had a particrly good sense of what was going on in there unless they were focussing on it, but surely, a cry for help would at least get their attention. Urgh, this was humiliating! But it was either that, or suffocate here, face trapped in rock by a fucking doctor of all people. Or, you know, try phasing his head through mana-filled rock and frying his brain in the process. Ill deal with this. The response was almost bored, but the person speaking was the big boss himself. The fourth horseman, rider of death, bringer of oblivion. Oh, these people were fucked. Chapter 261: Interlude Death and the General Chapter 261: Interlude Death and the General Illusionists were officially on the top of his shitlist, no two ways about it. His [Banish the Fog of War] removed that mess from everywhere within a hundred meters of him, but Ardouin could only deploy it at a distance five times a day and he had to save at least one of those charges to drop on the illusionists head when they actually found the fucker. And a second held back in case he misidentified the location would be practically a necessity. No one could do anything in this absolute putain situation because any enemy they identified might just be an illusion tossed over a civilian. Seven innocents had died before hed even arrived on the battlefield. It wasnt this bad before, honest. Ardouin ignored the policeman whod told him about the situation. He did believe the man, but that information wasnt particrly helpful at the moment. The illusions either grew stronger over time, worked better when their target wasnt familiar with the area in question, maybe both, or something else entirely. Vital information for the next encounter, but it wouldnt help much in this one. His [Integrated Radio] crackled to life, the [Skill] feeding information straight into his mind, This is Thrud, Im overhead with aplete loadout of air-to-ground munitions. At least the foreign reinforcements were all military so far. The Germans storm-wielding fighter pilot, and Greeces [One Woman Phnx]. And two more of Frances S-Rankers were in the mess with him. Five of the strongest people in the world in one ce, six if you counted Dr. Loup, and the nonbattant was the only one whod actually managed to get anywhere. Someone burst out of the illusionary fog behind him, shing across the intervening distance at superhuman speed, only to suddenly trip. The figure looked confused for a second, but before they could do anything, coils of razor wire surged from the ground, wrapped them up, and then sank back into the ground, tearing the attack to shreds in the process. [Instant Fortification] was meant to generate a single defensible structure, but [Spell Conversion] allowed Ardouin to treat many of his [Skills] as spells, letting him pull off such tricks as only using a tiny portion of their power in several small increments. That moment of his dealing with an enemy directly cost him, though. While he was distracted, a dozen attacks in the illusionary mess went unpunished without him to drop a [Pinpoint Barrage] on the heads of the attackers. Someone find me that [Illusionist], he growled as he slowly walked towards Dr. Loupsst known position. If he could at least confirm the death of the living bioweapon by dispelling all illusions with his very presence, they could remove some redundant precautions. *** Gods fucking damnit, Jim. What the hell did you do? Joseph had seen a whole lot of bad situations since the start of the [System]. But that was to be expected, considering they were all human. Humans could be incredibly stupid, and that problem only grew worse the more of them were in one spot. Even his people died to powerful monsters asionally. Hell, Jim was the third Aspirant for Conquest, and there was a reason there were so many people waiting at the peak of the third Evolution, ready to evolve the instant the Aspirant of their chosen horseman died. Even he, [Aspirant for the Mantle of Death], had half a dozen elites waiting in the wings, ready to step up to the te if the unthinkable happened. During the process, theyd also gone pretty far in figuring out what the requirements for those [sses] were. They were fairly certain that wanting to destroy the world was a requirement, but that wasnt exactly easy to check. It wasnt like they could put out an ad in the papers asking whod been offered the power to destroy the world. That aside, theyd discovered that the Mantle of War would go to candidates capable of great feats of battlefield control, Famine preferred those capable of inflicting significant debuffs and Pestilence seemed to only want gue mages, though there had to be more to that. All of the others had some kind of concept behind them, even Death seemed to only need a generic bat power and leadership powerset. Why was that one so hyper-focused on that kind of powerset? But the real problem was that Jim had somehow managed to get his ass kicked by a medic of all people. The man was a meathead, dumb as a brick, but he was capable of obliterating an army by sneezing. Literally. One achoo and the bodies would hit the floor. In hindsight, he should have been deployed outside of Europe, away from not just the worlds best doctor, but also Isaac fucking Thoma, whod somehow skewered Jims predecessor. And now they had to rescue both Pestilence and Utgardloki. Seriously, how the hell had things gotten this screwed up? The trick was simple, take fishermen from developing countries, power level them, and just require them to fish up all of a specific species to repay their benefactors. Store the eels in a warehouse for a bit until they could be portaled to their destination because the buggers couldnt be put in a storage space, and done. What had those two morons been doing? It certainly wasnt helping that Jim was screaming for help from everyone who would listen. Joseph wasing to save him, that should be enough. But no, War, Fox, Surtr, and Kronos were alling. Absolute overkill. Running out of the coffee shop he normally did his work in had been the work of seconds, getting an avable portal user to get him to one of their portal hubs had barely taken longer, and now, they were just waiting on the guy whod actually been to Lorient to show his face. Joseph didnt want to risk getting stuck outside of a perimeter or be engaged while he closed the distance on foot if he was dropped off a hundred kilometers away. Looking breathless and panicked, the mage in question finally arrived, and looking into their [Room of Conspiracies], he could tell that Jim was still alive. Just in time. *** Merde, Ardouin swore as he barely managed to use his [Gates of Hell] to prevent a particrly nasty case of friendly fire by summoning the projectiles to his location and firing them at the ground. The situation was rapidly bing untenable. Things were getting to the point where even he nearly unleashed an artillery barrage onto a residential building. He couldnt work through this absolute clusterfuck of smoke and mirrors. This, this right here, this was the putain de problme. One man was responsible for this entire mess, and no one could touch him. It wasnt a matter of legality, the issue wasnt his foes distance or anonymity. Just raw power. Power no one should have. The world had gone insane and now, it seemed like it was determined to drive him just as mad. Suddenly, several portals shed open nearby. Those couldnt be his reinforcements, could they? Those would arrive at the staging area. And the [Skill] he had to counter this did have friendly fire protections. He spread his arms wide, arms facing forward, as magic runes shed into existence around him. And then he dered [Sunder Supply Lines] He hate, hate, hated the pageantry of it all, acting like some show pony or wannabe superhero weeb idiot. But some of his truly magical [Skills] had a ritualponent and he hoped anyone who decided toment on his actions liked diggingtrines with their teeth. The portals snapped shut, all except for the one he sensed the target of his [Head of the Snake] behind. A single snapped order, a simple application of [Blurring March]ter, and he and his headquarters toon stood in front of the enemy leader. Trapped on the other side of the portal jammed open by another of his [Skills]. One by one, the [Gates of Hell] irised open around Ardouin, ready to unleash damnation. *** One moment, everything had been fine. The portal was open, Jim was just a couple of hundred meters away and they could kick the ass of that damn sawbones together. It didnt matter how powerful the people out there were, they couldnt possibly be ready for him. And then, a single phrase seemed to reverberate in the very fabric of reality itself. [Sunder Supply Lines] Next to Joseph, the portal mage copsed, eyes bloodshot, fluid running from his ears and nose, very, very dead. But the portal was still there. It should have copsed when its user died, so why hadnt it? He reached out, trying to pass through, but it was as if hed touched a solid wall. And then, an entire group of soldiers appeared out of nowhere, taking up position in front of the gash in space, leveling their guns at him. But the biggest threat seemed to be the guy in charge. Dozens of small portals, the size of dinner tes at most, shed open around him, each having some kind of soldier or heavy weapon on the other side, though Joseph couldnt see much beyond their muzzles. Oh, fu- He activated [Haunt of the Reaper] almost instinctively, transforming into a spectral form that was far harder to damage than standard phasing abilities while simultaneously emanating necrotic energies that would kill anyone who got too close in short order. It wasnt enough. The projectiles flew through the portal that had apparently be one-way when that asshole had done what he did and tore through his phased form. It wasnt enough to kill, but by the time Joseph managed to get out of the portals line of sight, he knew he was going to be bleeding like a stuck pig the instant he transformed back. And then a pair of air-to-air missiles were tossed through the opening, triggering their engines the instant they were through and shooting right for him. One died to his war scythe, which became solid only for the nanosecond of the impact, the detonation mechanism destroyed so thoroughly that it didnt go off, but the second blew as it passed through his intangible leg. The sheer shock of the situation nearly caused him to drop the [Skill], but he managed to sustain it until he was well clear of the portal. But when he did cut off the flow of mana, he realized he was in worse shape than he ever could have imagined. Internal bleeding in most of his organs, his left leg was basically a skin sack of blood and bone fragments, and if it hadnt been for [A Mind that Surpasses Death], hed probably have taken brain damage too. Just how much mana had been stuffed into that attack? *** Zut, Ardouin swore mildly as he didnt get a kill notification. That man might have been powerful, and him still being on the board overall was a problem, but for now, he was out of the fight. Now that that was out of the way, they had to go back to wandering the battlefield, trying to find that damn illusionist. He shouldnt even be on the damn battlefield, that wasnt a generals job. He should be on the back lines, taking care of the big picture. But no, this fucking world didnt support logic, sanity, ormon sense. Or foster any of those things in its inhabitants. Hey guys, do you need some help? Oh God no, please let that be an illusion! Ardouin sent a silent prayer toward the heavens as a horrifyingly familiar voice reached his ears. Of the caste of lunatics who felt themselves beyond normalws and rules ofmon courtesy, the Monkey King was the worst. But no, reality refused to budge. Eyes glowing a deep red, the monkey man fell from the sky. Yo, gramps, youre having a problem with the illusions, right? Gramps, seriously? That that wasnt the point here. Yes, Ardouin said and added the Monkey King to the armys party. But before the connection had even stabilized, he was off. The fog of illusion vanished a momentter. Perfe- oh no. The Monkey King had stood amidst the rubble of a warehouse, one foot nted on the corpse of a truly massive man, but then hed gotten sted hard enough to be flung into the ocean. Not good. Not to mention that things had gotten a lot worse while hed been unable to get clear information on what was going on. The illusions hadnt fucked with the information feeds he got from his troops directly, but the information they got could be manipted, and not all reinforcements had been added to his party yet. Party. That ridiculous name alone was enough to make his blood boil. But he could deal with it for the power it provided. At least four enemies with Levels in the mid-130s if not 140s had arrived and were shing with his reinforcements. He quickly took control of the situation, using the soldiers already in his party to add those they came into contact with, but his ns werent going anywhere. Sure, hed started applying tactics, but then the Monkey King had emerged from the ocean with all the fury of a cat that had identally been hit with the garden hose. The first enemy hed shed with had been a sound mage, whod swiftly retreated until hed managed to disintegrate the ground into quicksand and dump the monkey in. It didnt stick, obviously, but no hurricane or tornado could match the havoc wreaked by an enraged primate with a size- and weight-shifting staff. If a primordial force of nature had been unleashed in the middle of Lorient, it could hardly have been more destructive. Buildings shattered under almighty swings, formations scattered, and while there were no friendly-fire incidents, that almost made it worse. That foutou monkey was aware of his actions, he was just choosing to ignore everyone else. He was everywhere, almost always in the way, both physically blocking shots and preventing them from attacking for fear of a friendly fire incidents. Well, that, or Ardouins soldiers were afraid of drawing his ire by identally shooting him. Putain, il vas tout foutre en lair! Ardouin swore. No real tactics could be implemented with that fucker on the battlefield. If hed just pick a target and stick to it, maybe that could be worked around, but with how he was moving, no, that wasnt going to fly. In the distance, a st of sound shook the world, dust plumes rising into the world. Five secondster, the initial attack was followed with a massive detonation, ck mes rising into the sky like volcanic eruptions. Even with [Sunder Supply Lines] having killed any enemy portal mages trying to portal in and preventing new portals from forming, it was still possible for enemies to close in on foot. And even just the people currently here were reducing Lorient to a scene straight out of hell. Chapter 262: Flames of Destruction Chapter 262: mes of Destruction Seven and a half months of things finally going smoothly, of problems that were solved using local resources even when [Raid Bosses] were involved. A TV show that raked in huge rakings while still managing to scare people off [Raid Bosses], having built its poprity on Schadenfreude alone. A research department that was capable of ughtering even Tier 8s with impunity. And a group of students whod had a full epic run from the first Evolution to the third, in less than eight months, and gained that rarity of [ss] in an entirely artificial environment. Hed have loved to imagine that this would be the new normal, a slow, gentle, calm growth to the peak, and then he could rx on a beach for the rest of eternity. But something had kicked off, and now hed try to help deal with it. The alert had a location for the incident, the French city of Lorient. Unfortunately, hed never been anywhere near there, so hed had to teleport to Paris first, then run the rest of the way. As he ran, he sent a message about what should be done with his trainees to the basework. They needed to be added to the situation carefully. Isaac was, despite all his power, a grunt, someone who could be easily slotted into any given group ofbatants. Trying to do the same with a whole bunch of shot callers would cause more chaos than a direct intervention from Loki. [Continent Strider] went to work, rapidly increasing the speed of his run, but it wouldnt help much over this short distance. Traveling almost five hundred kilometers in barely ten minutes would have been an insane feat even a year ago, but ten minutes were a lifetime inbat. To his surprise, he wasnt the only one who was traveling by using his feet. He was closing in on an eclectic collection of ten people running towards the site of the action, and judging by their Stats, they had to be at least twenty Levels into the fourth Evolution. Far too powerful to be mere civilians, and all but the dumbest civilians wouldnt be running towards a literal warzone. Well, reporters might, but these people hadbat [sses]. And the alert/reinforcement request had been pretty explicit about how even powerful people should stay away to let the absolute peak of strength, as well as the professionals, deal with the situation. What really cinched the issue with whether or not these guys were cult members was the fact that they attacked him as he passed. If theyd done a better job of concealing their allegiance, they might have even been able to hurt him. Ance of stone the size of a pir flew towards his head at hypersonic speeds while the air seemed to turn into sirup as a time-slowing effect tried to turn him into a sitting duck. It might have worked if hed still been in ce when the field activated, but hed already been dodging, [The Meaning of the Name] revealing not only the current state of the world but several potential futures. Two long strides took him out of the temporal field, even at one-quarter speed no one couldnd a clean hit on him. Any attacks that got close were also affected by the field, something that theoretically should have left him with too little time to dodge. Theoretically. A stream of water that could have blown down several houses tried to push him back inside the field, but missed. A titanic fireball broke apart on Balmung, the mes harmlessly washing off his armor. And then, he was in range of the nearest enemy. The woman was mid-transformation, clearly burning one of her cooldown [Skills] in an attempt to counter him, but it wasnt going to be enough. [Form of Horror] activated while he was in the middle of a sh, doubling his reach without warning. With five stacks each of [Piercing Strike] and [Power Strike]bined into a single [Legendary Blow], even transforming into a living tree wasnt going to block his strike. The second closest man had turned into some kind of knight, smoke rising from the gaps in the armor while coals glowed in the eyesockets. But Isaac could tell there was a secondary level of armor beneath every chink, gap, and weak spot, perfectly guarding against his normal anti-armor tactics. He flipped over Balmung in his hand, grabbed it by the de, and hammered it into the side of the mans head in a full-power Mordhau. The moves name tranted into murder strike, which was rather appropriate given its lethality even against armored foes. [Legendary Blow] glowed like a star, the red energy wreathing the hilt and pommel of Isaacs sword promising nothing but death. Upon initially getting ess to a whole lot of standardbat [Skills] at Level 30 without threshold bonuses as a reward for getting [Legacy of a True Warrior], hed been a little skeptical. Being able to teach them would be great, but it had seemedcking for personal use as a lot of power dide from those threshold bonuses. But then hed remembered that the big limitation of [Legendary Blow] was the number of times he could stack a specific [Skill], not the overall number he could add to it. So hed thrown not just five [Power Strikes] behind that attack, but also [Powerful Blow], [Piercing Strike], [Armorbreaker] and even managed to make [Power Shot] a workable addition despite the fact that his weapon was of a melee persuasion. It cost a stupidly high amount of mana, but it worked just fine. The knight copsed, helmet dented in far enough that it had to be pushed into the skull, and Isaac charged past, a hurled de with [Power Shot] elerating the attack while the tip glowed with five stacks of [Piercing Strike]. It tore through the crowd control mage who was still trying to get up another temporal bubble and failing miserably. His second sword likewise impaled another mage mid-cast and then he was among the squishiest of his opponents, ws shing through the air and sending blood spraying across the ground. An attempted backstab was cut off when he unleashed the acid cloud hed cribbed from the Lindwyrm after slotting its Aspect. Trying to be sneaky against the user of a sensory [Aura] was hard enough, but doing so with acid melting every exposed bit of skin was downright impossible. Both swords had finally returned to his hands, levitated there by his weapon telekinesis and that was the end of it. des rose and fell, every hit hacking off a limb or splitting a skull. Less than thirty seconds into his cooldown [Skill], Isaac was the only survivor, standing amidst the corpses of his foes. Another four and a half minutes left on the clock for his transformation. Should he risk running into someone with an itchy trigger finger, or should he waste the remaining duration on his transformation ability? Hed risk it. Long legs ate up the ground like nobodys business and the boosted physical stats certainly didnt hurt either, almost making up for the loss of the umted [Continent Strider] boost. Lorient came into view with thirty seconds left. Soldiers were dueling a trio of [Warriors] in the outskirts of the city, bullets pinging off solid steel while causing minimal damage but were sessfully preventing the cultists from closing the distance. Armor that had rendered the men invulnerable against attacks from Level 70-ish soldiers whod already burned through their cooldown [Skills] proved insufficient against Isaacs des as he tore past, only pausing briefly to ept a party invitation by the closest soldier. The current mess was, well, a mess. The person in charge of the party was nominally Jean Ardouin, but the General wascking the power to keep abreast of everything on his own. He was still managing to coordinate the battle across a dozen fronts and had apparently all but killed the boss of the entire organization, it wasnt enough to control everything. Isaac had expected to get orders the moment he became a part of themandwork, but he seemed to have flown under the radar. Ardouins party [Skill] was simply called [Army Coordination] and was meant to do exactly that. Control an army. People could be added via his existing subordinates, multiple people couldmunicate through multiple channels, and new arrivals could slide into existingmand positions under the big cheese himself while a history tab allowed people to inform themselves about things on the battlefield that they hadnt noticed or been informed about as they happened. It was a Generals power, one meant to work with everything an officer normally had at their disposal, such as their staff. With most of those people absent, Ardouin had to do more than even he could handle. Especially since half his focus seemed to be on trying to corral the Monkey King. Emphasis on trying. So Isaac took one look at the situation, used [Lessons of History] to vacuum up every stray scrap of information he had avable, used [The Meaning of the Name] to see whod be the biggest problem in the next few minutes, and finally announced his target after five seconds of thinking. Mind you, it wasnt a big, pompous deration of how hed be rescuing a group of lowly mortals, merely a warning that hed being in like a bat out of hell and asking the nearby people to pretty, pretty please not panic. His target was the pyrokic. There were three other enemy S-Rankers present, a warrior wielding twin sickles who was transforming both the ground and anyone unlucky enough to be in range into a wheatfield, an eight-tailed Kitsune that was currently shing with Sun, and a sound mage. Sure, the pyrokic was just an equally big of a problem as hisrades, but he would be the easiest to take down. Isaac dodged left, then right, his path taking him through several patches of me that burned on the ground. His senses had warned him that the mes would be painful in the few moments they took to assimte, but in the end, it was worth it. Samadhi Fire. Mythological mes that, in the stories, had even damaged the Monkey King. The kind that was wielded by the subordinates of the Jade Emperor when theyd tried to execute the meddlesome primate. Concentrated, raw energy that made up the very essence of fire. That was the kind of power hed just stolen. It also came with a hefty price tag of over two thousand mana per second even after the discount from [Fire Soul], enough to drain his pool dry in little over two seconds of use. Barely useable in any kind of extended conflict. The original user of this weapon had to have most of his build dedicated to just being able to use that stuff. But for right now, the biggest gain here was the fact that these incredibly destructive mes could now no longer touch him, no matter what. This pyrokic might be a god on the battlefield, a shadowy figure illuminated in mes as the people around him burned to death. But to Isaac, he might as well have been a puppy. Physical stats in the toilet, physicalbat [Skills] practically nonexistent, that fucker was so screwed it wasnt even funny. weeeeell, it was a little funny. This guy wasughing as he burned people trying to make their lives a better ce to death, and now, he was about to suddenlye face to face with someone who outssed him to an even greater degree than he did the soldiers. A massive gout of me erased a dozen buildings behind Isaac as the pyrokic finally realized he wasing. Isaac was just fine. The ground detonated in front of him, the kic force of the shockwave almost seeding in throwing him off his feet, but Isaac had seen iting with his [Aura] and jumped before hed have taken the full force of the st. That particr futile attempt was followed up by a wall of fire,pressed enough that even sma was sufficiently dense that Isaac couldnt just run through it. So he jumped into it, canceled out his mass, and let the updraft of the mes carry him skywards. A single burst of me behind him once he was above the barrier, flinging him across it, and then his full weight returned to send him plummeting towards his enemy. One of the massive swords that manifested with [Form of Horror] plunged clean through the top of the mans chest, cleaving through most of the vital organs, the bottom of the spine, and finally a full meter of the ground beneath. A solid hit to pin his foe in ce so he could bring the second sword around to decapitate him. But before he could follow through a massive st of fire flung him away. No real heat behind it, just a thick stream of condensed me unleashed more for the force behind it than its other properties. It was enough to dy him for several vital seconds, during which [Form of Horror] ran out. Suddenly a few hundred kilograms lighter, Isaac was flung off, skidding over the ground until he managed to drive a sword into the ground and hold onto its hilt. Through the mes, he could see his foe standing there, a burning mask of volcanic rock looking dispassionate even as his lifeblood drenched the surrounding area. Around him spread out a puddle of blood and whatever innards had fallen out through the terrible wound clean through his torso, the only thing keeping him standing being [Moment of Immortality]. It wouldnt have saved him if Isaac had managed to decapitate him, but that hadnt happened. Problem. An even bigger issue was the fact that the de keeping him pinned had been conjured by [Form of Horror] and dissipated when the [Skill] had ended, freeing the pyrokic. No longer a sitting duck. But the man didnt retreat, didnt try to get away, he just kept unleashing the me. Isaac swore internally. Phasing was out of the question, the mana in the mes could still be dangerous, [Phantom Step] and [Wave Charge] wouldnt let him close the full distance and hed be blown away again once they ended. Using [I Am The Sword] here would be a huge waste of a once-an-hour [Skill], but he couldnt even properly utilize it as its effect was based on his momentum, which was nonexistent. With his sensory [Aura] he could tell that thend behind him was being devastated for over a kilometer, buildings vaporized, all vegetation within a few hundred meters of the gout of fire ignited, and the ground turning intova. The ground under his sword grew progressively softer until the de slid through what was basically jello at this point and Isaac went flying. Thankfully, this new state didntst long. A full twenty seconds after the mes started, they shut off as their wielder copsed onto one knee, coughing blood. He straightened again after a split second, a second activation of [Moment of Immortality] propping him back up. But that brief second between activations had been long enough to cross the distance. Balmung shed through the air as Isaac sped past, [Implements of True Death] ensuring that no matter what, the man in the volcano mask would not be getting back up. Having your skull and brain cleaved in half would have been lethal in ny-nine point nine nine percent of people, but not being able to heal for ten seconds afterwards ensured that even the most insanely survivability builds wouldnt be able to keep going. The kill notification blinked in the corner of his eye, telling him that hed definitely finished this fight. Sighs of relief abounded from the soldiers around him, several even letting themselves fall to the ground, finally able to give in to their exhaustion. Others still began to express their gratitude to Isaac. But he ignored them and started running. The sickle wielder was probably not going tost much longer against Schultz, one of Greeces S-Rankers, Lena Zeneli, and Frances nt mage. Meanwhile, the Kitsune was being chased around by Sun, throwing up illusion after illusion while constantly retreating. The sound mage, meanwhile, hadnt used a single cooldown [Skill] where anyone could see and was dueling some of Frances best and looking perfect unbothered by the whole situation. Time for a fight on equal terms. Chapter 263: Song of Annihilation Chapter 263: Song of Annihtion If the [Master of Primordial me] had been a hammer, the sound mage was a scalpel. Tightly controlled fields of vibrations fouling up bullet projectiles, patches of ground being reduced to quicksand underfoot, perfectly tuned sound waves impacting buildings to vibrate the rebar to the point where the structures all but detonated into a field of shrapnel around them after barely half a second. And all of that wasnt even mentioning what happened to people who got too close or didnt move around enough. A couple of seconds to determine their bones resonant frequencies, maybe two hundred milliseconds of perfectly tuned, well-targeted, sound, and then the victims bones would literally be reduced to powder. Bad enough to have something like that happening to the bones in the legs or arms, but when it was done to the skull as far as fast ways to die went, that had to be one of the worst ones. And even those who were managing to avoid direct hits or entering the danger zone were suffering, blood running from more than one soldiers ears or nose, a few even coughing bloody mist from just being in the general area. Scanning the man didnt earn him much information. Sound magic, a metric ton of physically reinforcing Aspects, and a dark stain that spoke of a deeper danger, a darkness that should not be present in a human being. This was an evil [ss], not something that could be gained with good intentions, and its holder was not someone Isaac wanted to share a with. As though the figures actions hadnt already made that clear. Really, it was all eerily familiar, but he couldnt quite put his finger on what was bothering him. Isaac charged, Balmung manifested in his right hand and a kabar clutched in his off-hand. On the surface, rushing an enemy like this wasnt exactly the brightest of ideas. If the blitz attack seded, things were all well and good, but if it didnt, and he remained near this enemy for an extended period of time, hed be in trouble. Surviving having his bones quaked apart wasnt something he was built to do. That being said, Isaac did have his mental finger hovering over the metaphysical button that would trigger [Tools of Terror]. It was a [Skill] that let him borrow one body part from one of his Aspect monsters. Normally, he had it standing by, ready to transform his blood to that of a Hydra at the drop of a hat whenever an enemy got themselves sprayed in his blood. Now, he was preparing to swap out his bones with those of the Hyrda. They were different enough from his own that any attempt to quake apart his human bones would fail against those of a Hydra. Sure, sheer force would still be more than enough to hurt him, but the precisely modted, bone-pulverizing trick would take a little longer to seed. The very instant he got within a hundred meters of his target, the world was drowned out in a surge of noise. shing swords, screams of pain, and thest dying breaths of those who were not long for this world. The sky turned red as though the very air were tainted with blood, and the ground became a bog of bloody mud and bodies. A warzone straight out of hell. And as if that hadnt been bad enough, some of the sounds were very specific cries for help, people crying out for Isaacs help, or desperately begging him to stop what he was doing. Familiar voices, belonging to his friends, allies, and even family. He knew it was all bullshit, as it was obvious, but that didnt make it any less painful to listen to. Even though the hellishndscape extended as far as the eye could see, Isaacs [Aura] told him that was an optical illusion, the transformation only affected things within a hundred meters of his foe, everything beyond that wasnt actually there. The Horseman of War. Probably still an Aspirant, but still, a very different ability set than the first one. Sound instead of gravity. Was it possible that the Horsemen had various possible powers that all still allowed one to take up their mantle? Gravity and sound were perfect for controlling a battlefield, and their wielders had been attached to the Horseman of War. What could the others powers potentially go for? That could turn into a nasty, nasty surprise down the line. But right now, he had one specific foe whose ass he needed to kick. War seemed to grin under his crimson mask, his entire posture radiating smug satisfaction as Isaac closed in. His every sense suddenly screamed danger as power surged around him. [I Am The Sword] triggered, not only rendering Isaac invulnerable but also allowing him to keep up his forward momentum. Even as a pir of raw power rose around him, vibrations reducing everything caught within two hundred and fifty meters of the figure to dust. Of course, Isaac kept going, kept moving, his momentum unalterable for the moment. A more concentrated st hammered into his face, once more doing nothing. Only when a barrier that could haveughed off anything short of a nuke shattered before him did War finally dive for cover. Not bad, The armored figureughed as Isaac exited the other side of the pir of annihtion, the sounding from everywhere, Got me to waste a few good strikes. But what are you going to do now? Youre out there, Im in here, and I dont have any reason to hold back anymore now that I have a worthy opponent. The confident smirk was clearly audible in that little speech as the man spread his arms and began to cast. The very air began to vibrate, and then he punched the ground, causing the asphalt under Isaacs feet to buck, forcing him to leap a few more meters back. Where that mans powers vibrations, sound, or both? He couldnt tell, so hed have to prepare for both. But he still had a n. One could be forgiven for calling Isaac a swordsman, fire elementalist, or spellsword. And it was true, in a way. But his real weapon was something different, more conceptual in nature. Something best summed up as It aint stupid if it works. And in this case, what worked was an eighth-grade science experiment. He threw Balmung straight at War, [Power Strike] providing the initial eleration while [Remote Wielding] only added to its speed. However, the trajectory began to be fouled the instant the sword entered the storm of destructive vibrations until it eventually ttered to the ground a few meters from its intended target, where it was pinned down by a series of constant, powerful, shockwaves. Really? Warughed. And then the sword ignited. It didnt matter whether or not a substance was traditionally considered mmable, when it was reduced to powder and surroundedpletely by air, and by extension, oxygen, it still burned like tinder. Of course, a standard dust explosion using regr fire could never have hurt War at his Level, but then it was a good thing Isaac hadnt used normal fire in months. Hellfire, for that fuck you and all life energy that damaged more than just the physical. Napalm, because it clung to absolutely everything. Ster sma, because why not? The starvenom me of an Uraeus serpent, just to add insult to injury. And who could forget the Samadhi fire hed only just stolen? Isaac dubbed the most lethalbination of fire that had existed Prometheus Wrath. The world vanished in a multicolored st of fire, ck, yellow, orange, and deep crimson tongues of me licking towards the sky as Isaac fought to contain the st, keeping it concentrated on its intended target. After a long several seconds, it finally cleared up, leaving behind a deep crater filled with ss and glowing g. Around him, the world returned to normal, the warscape fading away like a bad dream. If Isaac just ignited the dust cloud, War might have had a chance to remove the dust around himself. If War had been smarter, hed have done that the instant his pir of annihtion had been unleashed. And if hed been just a little more paranoid, he might have run from the sword out of general principle. But hed not done any of that and now, he was dea- no kill notification. Isaac kept his guard up as his gaze raked over the fire-stedndscape. And then, he saw his enemy falling through the air, still very much on fire but with every passing millisecond, the mes were dying down as Isaac had to do a do a double take when he saw that War was disintegrating his own burning flesh, then sting the remains off himself. The left leg was gonepletely, the other was still there up to the knee but basically just a bone sheathed in charcoal, the right arm was surprisingly intact but the left had been obliterated along with most of the attached shoulder. And several other spots had been disintegrated down to the bone to prevent the hellish ze from burning more deeply. It should have been a fight-if not life-ending level of injury, but War was looking surprisingly fine. Missing a few bits, but his condition didnt seem to be deteriorating, and [Moment of Immortality] hadnt even engaged. Another [Skill] had, though. Shit. Isaac knew [Moment of Immortality], where its limits were, and how to deal with someone using it. This crap, though And then the fucker activated another [Skill]. His magic Stats plummeted as his physical Stats shot through the roof, putting him barely below Isaac in terms of Agility, and his Strength, Fortitude, and even Perception were around that benchmark as well. But that wasnt the most extreme change. No, that honor went to the pair of wings that sprouted from his back, a pair of strange amalgams made up of sticks, stones, spears, and primitive iron swords, a bizarre collection of mankinds earliest weaponry. Odd, and they would probably allow him to fly even if wings made of those kinds of materials really shouldnt allow for it, but that couldnt be all, right? The hellscape returned, smothering Isaacs surroundings once War got within range. And then, the wings beat. Once. A hail of countless projectiles hammered down in a deadly rain of supersonic projectiles. Isaac was actually faster than them, but the sheer volume of attacks was the problem. That, and the fact that there were other people in the area without his defenses. Heunched himself skywards atop a pir of me in an attempt to get above the man, barely managing to evade the next projectile storm. This time, it was abination of bronze and iron swords. The wings had changed as well, bing more metallic. Were they advancing through the ages of warfare? How long until Isaac would be dodging bullets, nuclear sts, or even [System]-age attacks? Chances were, outright nukes would be beyond the scope of whatever this [Skill] was, but even without them, this would be bad. At least the sound magic had cut off. Isaac rocketed past as the third wingbeat turned the ground below into a field of des and corpses, then abruptly reversed course the instant he was above War. Another wingbeat, though this time, the hail of projectiles was unleashed upon the upwards movement of the wing, as opposed to the moment they went down. Shit! Isaac pushed himself away, thebination of massively reducing his mass and his mes granting him insane maneuverability in mid-air. Almost as insane as the mana cost for keeping this up. Hed been fighting for far more time than most of his battles required, and even the brief burst of Samadhi Fire had been expensive. Can anyone see his mana levels? Isaac asked over the general party chat. Hed have hoped that someone would have volunteered that information, but it was always possible someone did have that capability and hadnt spoken up. He dove out of the way of yet another salvo, this one containing mostly arrows but also catapult projectiles and ballista bolts. Isaacsst trump card was [Champion of Mankind], which he didnt want to use yet as he might be screwed if he was unable to finish the fight. Technically, there was also [Grave of Swords], but locking himself in a small room with that fucker would be a truly terrible idea. He let himself fall back down to Earth to conserve mana while continuously evading the subsequent salvos. Hed using mana every time he fires a salvo, but not nearly as much as he should. Maybe ten more salvos? Thank you, Isaac replied a split second after the information reached him. That would exin why some wingbeats didnt unleash salvos. But even with that, he didnt know how long those wings would remain, or what the hell was keeping that man alive. It wasnt [Moment of Immortality], even if Isaac hadnt been able to recognize it, it would have run out over a minute ago. He needed to get that fucker out of the city. Isaacunched himself past the enemy, throwing another sword in passing, but all in all, presenting a fairly tempting target. Not just because he was briefly exposing his back, but also because his enemy couldnt afford to give him the space to elerate when he returned. But War stayed put. Once he was five kilometers out, Isaac chugged a mana potion, turned, and came back with a vengeance, forced to phase to avoid being impacted by air resistance. War let himself fall to the ground to dodge, disrupting Isaacs fire st with another salvo of projectiles, and this one had cannonballs mixed in. He did not want to move maybe he couldnt? He might just be stubborn, but he might also be limited by either his transformation or immortality [Skill]. The power to transform into the incarnation of warfare throughout history and not die while on the battlefield did seem like the kind of powers the avatar of wars destructive nature would have, right? Either way, ending the other fights here might help free up some others to help. [Champion of Manking: The Thinker] activated, granting Isaac the cognitive ability to slide right into the intel officer slot of Ardoins party. And then, he split his mind into a thousand strands of thought. In five seconds, [The Thinker] would end. But for those five seconds, he was aware of everything around him, information arriving from every member of the party, letting him ess all their variations of [Inspect], see through their eyes and all in all, made him the spider at the center of the web. And then, he activated both [Lessons of History] and the [The Meaning of the Name], and all wasid bare. He spoke to almost every member of the group at once, and their enemies fell like wheat before the reaper. And five secondster, the tide of battle had turned and Isaac was out of trump cards. War somehow managed to go white despite basically being a charcoal briquette at this point and thats when Isaacunched himself straight at the man. He dodged the majority of the first salvo and almost managed the same trick against the second, but that one had been filled with airburst shells meant to take down enemy aircraft during the first half of the twentieth century. Isaacs armor took most of the hits, but several projectiles punched through regardless, tearing ragged wounds into his body. And then he was within range, and both his [Auras] zed to life. One rust-red and steely grey, half of it wrapped around his limbs and swords, the other half projected outwards to serve as an impromptu detection sphere. The other a bloody crimson, a two-meter-in-diameter sphere around his body, both shielding and healing him, but also standing at the ready to tear his foe to shreds. He was upon his enemy in a sh, the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] empowered to the point where it was practically solid, holding back the wings while Isaacs left hand crushed Wars shoulder. And in his right hand, a kabar sat, which shed out over and over again, punching through vital organ after vital organ. Wars pitiful sonic [Aura] had been crushed the instant Isaac hade within range, and now his body was slowly disintegrating under the force of the twin energy field that bore down on him. It was taking far longer than it should have, and his body was absurdly tough, even stronger than it should be given his Fortitude, but the degree of reinforcement was dropping alongside the surrounding level of conflict. A final st of sound flung Isaac clear as War made a desperate dash for freedom, pulling out a healing potion as he fled and unleashing three more wing salvos, but the injuries umted had been too much without the reinforcement provided by his [Skill]. A [Skill] that had died when his allies did. Human (Lv. 146 Aspirant for the Mantle of War) has been in 50,000 XP gained (7,.000 XP base distributed across 23 people as per their contributions) Unfortunately, thest three salvos had been the most devastating, containing heavy explosives, guided missiles, and a hail of spells, respectively. Isaac didnt even bother trying to gently return to terra firma, he just let himself fall until hended on his feet, the shock sending a wave of pain through his body. Cracked ribs and countlesscerations throbbed, but he was alive. War wasnt. The sickle-wielder had also been taken down, Schultz had trapped him in a corner by a constant bombardment of thunderbolts and electrically charged air-to-ground munitions, and then Zeneli had just rolled over him with her projected Phnx. It might be a slow formation, but it was one made for being unstoppable, its inexorable advance crushing anyone who wasnt in a proper formation. An aspect that was increased to absurd heights by her [ss ]. And that was the end of that particr fight. The Kitsune had gotten away, though. Sun had gotten a little distracted when Isaac had started speaking and the entire battle had shifted as one, and the Kitsune had used that to skeddadle. That would doubtlessly be the cause for a fun conversation in the future, Isaac just knew that. He looked around the city, or what remained of it. All of this had started out as a fight over eels of all things. And the cult had escted to the point where a city with a poption of fifty thousand was mostly been leveled. To make things worse, Isaac doubted too many of them had been evacuated with the constant bombardment of illusions making it impossible to identify civilians as such. He hadnt thought it would be possible to make him hate the cult even more, but somehow, theyd managed it. Things would not continue like this! Chapter 264: Bitter Gains Chapter 264: Bitter Gains On paper, this had probably been a win. The current Aspirants for War and Pestilence were dead, killed by Isaac and Dr. Loup respectively, and Ardouin had absolutely kicked the ass of who had to have been the Aspirant of Death before Isaac had arrived. After all, the figure had been wearing a ghostly blue mask, and the Horseman of Death was described as riding a pale horse. What had really cinched things was his weapon, though, a war scythe. Aside from the name, it only had superficialmonalities with the agricultural implement, being a polearm with a curved, single-edged, de at the end, though this de was an extension of the pole, rather than being mounted perpendicr to it. In addition, initial interrogations of the prisoners had gotten them the codenames of the other high-powered members of the cult. The sickle-wielder whod ended up on the wrong end of Zenelis spear had been called Kronos, the pyrokic had been Surtr, and the illusionist whod been such a huge problem initially had been Utgardloki. That codename, specifically, had been very appropriate. The original, mythological Utgardloki had made Loki do an eatingpetition against a wildfire, one of Thors humanpanions race a thought, and pitted Thor himself against old age in a wrestling match. Forestalling most of France on his own had certainly let him live up to the legend until Sun had shown up with his incredibly perceptive eyes. Five people whod have easily earned S-Rank from any official evaluator, almost a hundred prisoners, and one of the cults major teleportation hubs, which had been discovered when Ardouin had flung several missiles through a portal. The resulting explosion had been noticed and had made finding the ce damn easy. All in all, theyd cost the cult more in a single battle than in every previous fight put together, and gained more than enough strings to pull on to uncover the rest of the hive of scum. Hopefully. But it was hard to celebrate when one was faced with a death toll of almost twenty-five thousand civilians and an additional three thousand-odd military personnel. Isaac had also gotten several [Skills] to the next threshold, but hed been close to deciding to not look at them until Lorient was cleaned up and the dead put to rest. But after a few minutes, hed decided it was a pointless gesture that no one would ever know about and that could really bite him in the ass if something happened before then. Divine Fire (legendary, Level XX) Fire. What can it do? Pretty much everything, as long as youve got the right kind and are creative enough. Fire. What can it be? Pretty much anything, as long as youre not risk-averse when ites to getting it. That is where the issue lies. Getting it. Of the countless mystic and mundane mes there are, one can only gain a few if one takes the normal path, that is. Stealing them aint normal. But it is possible. It is audacious, ludicrous, but possible. And fully in line with the Promethean spirit. This Skill grants the user the ability to conjure and control mundane mes. Initially. The real power of the Divine Fire is its ability to absorb and assimte all other fire, both magical and not. The user bes immune to all fires they have absorbed (and can extend this protection to objects on their person) and are able to then wield it with the same power and ease as the original fire. Once conjured, mes fueled by the users mana directly can be controlled for free while secondary fires spawned by the initial me can be directed by spending a negligible amount of mana. All mes can be extinguished for free, be they conjured directly or merely ignited by conjured mes. All assimted mes can be used individually orbined to form greater forms of fire, whose patterns can be stored forter use. The user also grows partially immune to unknown fires based on their simrity to already assimted mes. After countless fights where the user has assimted an enemys fires and promptly tore their user to shreds, this Skill has evolved to subsume hostile mes once the user has absorbed a sample not just of the correct type, but the very same mes theyre currently being attacked with. These mes can then be manipted freely, drawing mana from the controlled fire and progressively extinguishing it in the process. Cost Patters: Creation cost per second/control cost per second Standard me (7/1) Absorbed mes: Samadhi Fire (2,000/500) Dragons Breath (50/1-10) Grand Hellme (50/1-10) Campfire (3/1) Burning Magnesium (14/1-3) Napalm (5/1) Ster Corona (40/2-4) (see full list (1.998)?) Combined mes: Prometheus Wrath (2,500/200-1,000) Drachenbrodem (250/100-150) True Starme (200/25-50) Combined Elemental Phoenix Disintegration (100/10-15) (see full list (336)?) The sheer cost of Prometheus Wrath made it hard to use, but damn it hit hard. And the power to subsume hostile mes would make future me-based enemies a cinch. Meanwhile, [Form of Horrors] utility had jumped by an order of magnitude. Form of Horror (legendary, Level max) There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, andstly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the users Aspects. Current Aspects: Aspect of the Poltergeist, Aspect of the Greater Hydra, Aspect of the Megalodon, Aspect of the Fata Morgana, Aspect of the de Tempest, Aspect of the Acid Drake If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the users new form. Furthermore, while in this form the users Strength and Fortitude are increased by 65 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 100 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated once every hour andsts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to annihte foes that should have been well beyond his capabilities, it has been increased to a level of power worthy of its own legend. The user may now transform into any non-Boss creature whose Aspect he holds and has a Level that does not exceed his by more than 10 (more powerful creatures may suffer from a shortened duration). In addition, the user may manifest body parts of the monsters for a cost dependent on the specific body part copied on their normal body. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The number of customizable forms is increased to 7, which can be freely created/altered while this Skill is inactive. These Forms can draw upon the forms of any monster whose Aspect the user has slotted. The Stat boosts provided by this Skill are increased. Furthermore, the user may freely switch between any of his one standard and seven custom forms while this [Skill] is active. Injuries will transfer between forms, but use of unique biological resources (quills, venoms, acid spray, etc.) will remain limited to the form that utilizes said resources. Current Forms: Aspect Amalgam King of the Sea Ruler of the Airspace Perfect Amalgam Empty Empty Empty The Stat boosts for Strength and Fortitude had jumped from 45 to 65, while the ones for Agility and Perception had increased by thirty percent to the point where this [Skill] now fully doubled them. And the ability to freely switch between various forms could be abused to an absurd degree. Create multiple forms that basically amounted to biological suicide vests, spraying acid, toxins, razor-sharp quills, and more besides when it was needed. A form that went all in on mobility, another that bristled with biological weaponry hed defer figuring out how to best use that new trickter, though. More [Skills] to work through and all that. Lessons of History (legendary, Level X) Those who dont study history might be doomed to repeat it, but those who do study history will most likely end up watching someone else repeat it. Sucks, doesnt it? History is filled with great examples, both ones to live up to and ones to avoid living down to. This is a Skill to help turn those lessons into ns of action. It allows the user to uncover things about the past by supporting the discovery of new information based on mere context clues and will then check the veracity of this information. Once such information about the past is in your hands, the Skill will point to the core lessons to learn from the past and allow these lessons to bemunicated clearly and unmistakeably to others. If you also have The Meaning of the Name, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. In addition, the user gains a mental archive of all information gathered by this Skill. This information takes a few seconds to ess if it has been forgotten by the users main memory, however. [Lessons of History] had gotten a nice little boost,cking in the short term but overwhelmingly powerful in the long term. Experts Insight (legendary, Level X) What separates a soldier who just got out of training from a veteran? A student who just got his degree from a lead engineer? A wizards apprentice from an Archmage? The answer to all those questions is, of course, experience. Some things are taught, yes, but others need to be learned from experience. Sometimes, said experience takes the form of repeating an action over and over and eventually figuring out a way to make said action more efficient. In other times, realizationes as a painful realization after a mistake reaps terrible consequences. Either way, this Skill offers up both a massive pool of experience to the user and vastly improves their experience and Skill Level gain by granting preternatural hindsight. If the user has any knowledge on a subject, they find themselves making connections far more readily and rted subjects will be far easier to research. Furthermore, Experts Insight acts as a general memory booster. As with many other Skills in the Hildebrands Heir ss, a lesser version of this Skill can be granted to the users students using Legacy of a True Warrior. However, unlike those other Skills, Experts Insight does not turn into a lesser version of itself, but rather transforms into a fundamentally different Skill called Veterans Knowledge, which allows the user of Experts Insight to directly impart their knowledge (note that this is a limited effect, this Skill will not directly put the taught individual on the same level as the user). In addition, this Skill synergizes with Lessons of History, allowing the user to draw not just upon their own experience, but that of those they witness fighting, albeit at a vastly reduced efficacy. Oh, that woulde in real handy. Isaac grinned. Just one more upgrade to look through, [Champion of Mankind]. Champion of Mankind (legendary, Level X) Humans are rather weak, arent they? Small and fragile despite how much of the theyve conquered, what great things theyve made, an individual human is still not all that powerful. Which is why they sometimes need a helping hand. Someone who might give advice, stop powerful foes, or maybe just steal fire from the gods themselves. This is the Champion of Mankind, humanitys shield, and the vanguard of their march into a brighter future. This is a Skill that grants the wielder the power to protect others, adjusted for the situation. There are three forms this boost can take: The Leader: The Leader is the true power behind an army. When the Champion takesmand, that fact bes abundantly clear. All troops (up to Skill Level times a thousand) under the Leadersmand gain a thirty percent boost to their physical Stats, are automatically empowered by [Veterans Knowledge], and gain ess to the basic Skills of all standardbat sses, such as Strikes, Blows, Shots, Healing Skills, and simple Spells. Furthermore, the Leader temporarily gains a seventy percent boost to their physical Stats, as well as the Skills [Threefold Thoughtstreams], [Simte Maneuvers], and [Battlefield Map]. The Leadersts for 1 hour and has a cooldown of ten hours. The Thinker: The Thinker is the physically weakest of the Champions, yet also the most impactful, especially in situations where physical force is not the correct answer. The Thinker gains ess to any five regr Skills from scientific/knowledge-based sses up to and including rare rarity and the third Evolution. In addition, he gains ess to the Skills [Parallel Thoughts] (each thoughtstream costs 1 mana per second from the Skills pool), [Simtion] (each simted second costs 2 mana), and [Mental Celerity]. Lastly, the Thinker can feed Spells using the Skills mana at an exchange rate of 2:1. The Thinkersts as long as the Skills manasts (natural drain of 1 mana per second) and imparts a cooldown of one day. The Vanguard: The Vanguard is the simplest form of the Champion, but by no means weak. In fact, when ites to rawbat power, it is utterly unsurpassed. When in Vanguard form, the users physical Stats double, they gain a nigh-unbreakable set of armor custom-designed to match their fighting style. Furthermore, the Vanguard can, at will, draw in all ranged attacks made against nearby allies and even incite enemies to go after them instead. Lastly, the Vanguard gains temporary ess to the [Indomitable Shield], [Unstoppable Momentum] and [Unbreakable Charge] Skills. The Vanguardsts for five minutes and has a cooldown of four hours. The Cleansing me: The Cleansing me is exactly what the name implies. The user is wreathed in armor made from the me they themselves created, known as Prometheus Wrath. Anything up to fifty meters away can be affected by the fire and heat, though the power decreases as the distance increased, and the user can freely exclude the environment and living beings from this damage. The user also gains a seventy-five percent boost to all physical Stats. Finally, the user may add the healing aspect of Phoenix fire to their armor, healing select living beings. The Cleansing mests for five minutes and has a cooldown of six hours. *** In addition, the user may switch between forms once after activating this Skill. The cooldown of Champion of Mankind will be increased to three days regardless of which forms are used, and the remaining usage time is dependent on the amount of mana remaining, halved. Cost: 6,000 mana stored in a separate Pool WARNING! This is a Skill meant to protect humanity and will fail when used in the service of ushering in its downfall. Another solid boost and a second switching power, albeit a vastly weaker one. Something to be used in case of emergency, and rather harder to exploit. The real gain here was the additional form. [Champion of Mankind: The Cleansing me] would be utterly devastating when used in the middle of an enemy formation, and it had a solid utility/support aspect as well. All in all, he was extremely happy with the gains yet it still felt like hed bought them with the blood of the dead civilians and service members. Still, that same blood should let him push through some serious political changes with how it came to hunting down the fuckers whod actually killed them. They wanted the end of the fucking world? Hed give them the end of their world! And now, off to Ardouins temporary office because the man wanted to talk. Should be fun. Chapter 265: Aftermath Chapter 265: Aftermath In the real world, when someone walks through a wall, they generally tend to not leave a perfect outline of themselves behind. Generally. But if the wall had sufficient structural integrity and was made from a material not prone to crumbling, you could get close. Also, the person walking through the wall needed to have a very hard head. So when Sun had stormed out of Ardouins heavily reinforced office in a shipping crate just outside the ruins of Lorient through one of the metal walls, hed left behind a humanoid outline, which was now being covered by a magical forcefield. That damn Monkey will be the death of me, Ardouin sighed when he noticed Isaac looking. Isaac decided not toment as he still had some things he needed to discuss before opening that particr can of worms. You wanted to see me? Isaac asked. Hed have shown up here in due time without it, but if the big cheese wanted to talk to him here, there might be something big in the works here. Yes, Ardouin responded, a chair sliding in front of his desk for his guest to sit on. Isaac took this as an invitation and sat down. Do you know whats going on politically right now? Ardouin asked. Ive mostly been busy making sure the prisoners are properly secured and searching for survivors, but what I saw was exactly what youd expect it to be, Isaac said. In other words, the usualbination of political nonsense. Yep, Ardouin nodded unhappily, Weve already got absolute idiots talking about how we should stop going after the cult as every time weve attacked them, they hit back hard. Do those people know that we didnt even go after the cult this time, and that wed have to stop allw enforcement actions everywhere to avoid risking another fight? Isaac asked. They know, obviously. Thats what makes them idiots. But avoiding another tragedy makes for an attractive dog whistle. Theyre being overridden by reasonable voices, but its still a pain in the ass. And on the EU and NATO level, things are moving along at a good clip. Alliances being forged, task forces being set, and so on. The information we got from that anonymous source was quite helpful. Ah yes, the mysterious mystery source that was both loved and hated. Loved because, well theyd saved the investigators a lot of time at the bare minimum, and gotten information theyd never have been able to get at the maximum. Hated because when Jason and Zambon had snuck into the various holding areas, the guards had been made to look utterly ipetent. Once in, the procedure had been simple. Jason would loom threateningly while ying with a knife, thumbscrew, or magically heated iron poker while Zambon asked questions. Theyd actually almost managed to get away clean until theyd run Schultz of all people. Zambon had tried to pull his usual trick of predicting an enemys movements and then royally fucking them over via telekinesis. It had worked perfectly on the guards whod shown up after the first dozen or so lightning bolts had hammered into the ground like the wrath of Thor, but not the pilot whose callsign named her the daughter of that very deity. The two sneaks had run like hell, obviously, getting away slightly scorched but overall fine and absolutelyden down with information. It had been a sessful raid, but it had been by no means quiet. Ardouin seemed to take a moment to gather himself before adding, But as much as I hate to admit it, theres only so much regr military force can achieve here. Can we table that for a bit? Isaac asked. He did want to discuss that with the general, but he needed to say some very harsh things and there were things that they needed to talk about before he got himself kicked out. Fine, Ardouin grumbled, What do you want to talk about? General administrative stuff that needs to be dealt with, I have some interesting contacts overseas that might be of some use to you, and so on. It wasnt fun, but it had to be done. So after half an hour of refining the protocols for the next time, S-Rankers converged on a specific battlefield, as well as came up with a simple set of directions that would allow them to work together more smoothly and actually coordinate. But all too soon, the safe part of the conversation ended. Id like to ask you to help me in hunting down the rest of the cult. Youre clearly capable and have more than proven yourself on the battlefield. The actual orders havent been given yet, the task forces are still being assembled, but soon, I No, thank you, Id rather work with someone else. Isaac finally said, bringing the general up short. That speech might have been considered the bare minimum of politeness from most people, but from Ardouin, it was a gushing praise and it might have led to something that, for him, might be considered groveling and that would have been ufortable for everyone. And it was great that Ardouin had learned to appreciate some of the civilian S-Rankers, but he still had one major other problem. Moving on from a position of I hate you all to I hate you all, but some of you are one of the good ones and therefore I like you and everyone else is going to be treated even worse was technically progress, but also still problematic. Why? Ardouin asked bluntly, with what almost seemed like a sigh of relief at not having to be overly polite anymore. Isaac threw a nce at the hole in the wall. Thats your problem? Ardouin asked incredulously, Are you going to tell me that I should have been nicer to that ingrate, that I owe him for what he did to that illusionist, and that that should make up for everything else? He made any attempt at proper strategy impossible, and he made a massive change to the flow of battle when he took down the Illusionist. Its possible that he even saved your life in the process. Both of those things are true, he helped and he messed up. But the real issue is the reason behind that hole. Isaac jerked his head towards the rather obvious mess that had been made of the wall. That could have been your head. Are you threatening me? Ardouin asked, incredulously. No. Just pointing out that this could have ended much worse. He messed up. And in response, you used more profanity in ten seconds than I did in almost eight months of training soldiers who pulled off such acts of supreme brilliance as almost bisecting themselves by running into walls holding swords equivalent to mine, or blowing themselves sky-high by using fire magic to erge atrine that had already been in use. That was over the top, especially considering the fact that he did help before. If youd talked to me that way, itd take a long time for me to be willing to work with you again and Id have serious doubts about whether or not wed ever be cordial again. In reality, Isaac would only have worked with the general if he was thest person on Earth who could help. And thats not mentioning how you made sure that the S-Rankers, and only the S-Rankers, could overhear this mess, Isaac finished. Oh really, what did I do? You only used this containers soundproofing, which is enough to keep most people from overhearing but not the likes of me or Schultz. You wanted us to know that you arent above yelling at us but not want to lose your cool where your subordinates could overhear. Your point? I think it was a petty move, and that you lost yourposure, Isaac stated bluntly People in the military know what theyre signing up for, blowing your top at someone who came to help. I work not just with the military, but also with anyone who can help, and while none of them are as chaotic as Sun, most of them arent going to put with you talking to them like you did to Sun. So you think that you can talk to me about how to do my job? Would you like to take my ce? Ardouin red at Isaac as he shot to his feet. No, mymanding abilities top out at the toon level, at that point, I cant bothmand and fight. But there are plenty of generals in NATO, and one of them is going to be able to takemand of future operations, Isaac pointed out, Im more than willing to work with you, but not for you. Get. Out! Ardouin growled, steam practicallying off him in waves. Isaac rose to his feet, and calmly walked out of the door without furtherment. It had been tempting to light himself on fire and walk out through the door to leave behind an even more perfect outline in the container, but right now, it was important to show maturity here. Ardouin could be an important ally if he learned how to work with S-Rankers without blowing a gasket every time someone screwed up. Maybe, Isaacs words could enact some change, but he doubted it. He still had to try, though. As Winston Churchill had said, the only thing worse than fighting with your allies was fighting without them. *** Oi, Thoma! Isaac flinched at the call even though hed been expecting it. Hey, Sun, he sighed, turning around to see the Monkey King fall from the sky like a meteor andnd in his path. They were in the middle of a field, which Isaac had been walking through on his way back home. Man, that general was an ass, wasnt he? Sun asked as he fell into step next to Isaac. He had a point that he took way too far, Isaac sighed. He could have gone a lifetime without having this fucking conversation. Come on, I saved his ass from the illusionist, and then fought off that damn fox for him. You cost me that fight, by the way, you shouldnt distract people in the middle of a fight. Sun told him. Aaaannd that was the other conversation he didnt want to have. Jean Ardouin and Sun Wukong, what had he done to deserve having to deal with those two back to back? They were each extremely powerful, with the potential to have a huge impact on the fate of humanity going forward. They were also both theplete opposites of each other and by the gods, were they equally stubborn andplete opposites in terms of ideology. What a shittybination. Everyone else took that advice and used it to win, Isaac said, I was just trying to help, I didnt expect you to be that jumpy. Hey, Sun eximed in a mock-offended tone, Those are finely tuned instincts, when someone sneaks up to me and starts whispering in my ear, they get smacked. Which in this case meant that Isaac had startled the Monkey King into swinging at shadows, allowing the Kitsune to slip away. Using the party to warn each other of threats and sharing tips is pretty standard, Isaac pointed out, And you had no problem ignoring the general when he was yelling at you. I could ignore that jackass because he was just constantly yelling nonsense, Sun grumbled, And I didnt need your help, I was doing just fine. Gotcha. You were in a stalemate, Isaac corrected, A little help could have gotten you the victory. Ive never needed help before. Im immortal, you know that, right? And my title is literally Great Sage Equalling Heaven. Ah yes, that. There were three kinds of Titles under the [System]. The one you chose, which you could do when you first unlocked the option via gaining one of the second kind of titles. The kind you got when enough people thought of you with that phrase. Isaac had a few, ranging from Auric Sage, which hed been awarded for publishing the information on [Aura], to a whole slew of insults and cusswords, a list which only got longer every time he pissed someone off. And then there were those which were essentially [System]-enforced bragging rights, which let anyone who beheld them know that their bearer had earned them. Isaac had one of these as well in his Last Survivor title, which represented his status as thest survivor of a dead world and had been gained when hed answered the [Systems] questions during the fourth Evolution. And Suns title effectively called him the greatest person in the world, at least in his mind. In reality, it came close, as it dered him the heir to the original Sun Wukong whod shed against the very heavens themselves and made a damn good showing of himself. But it didnt make him a god. Immortal, eh? Isaac asked, And youre officially acknowledged as the heir of a legend. What does that make you? A wandering warrior capable of beating any foe, growing ever stronger, and fixing all problems whenever they dare show up on your radar? Yes? Sun answered with slight hesitation, clearly realizing that Isaac was going somewhere with this but not willing to back down just yet. Prove it, Isaac suggested. Whose ass do you want me to kick? Yours? Actually, I was wondering if you could take a hit to prove youre really indestructible, Isaac said, One punch, no cooldown [Skills], no weapons, no absurd amounts of mana spent, no potions that would bankrupt nations. Just me, my fist, stuff that anyone could get their hands on with ease, and [Skills] that I could spam constantly in battle. Sun opened his mouth to respond before Isaac added, If I dont manage to get through your defenses, Ill never bother you about this again, Ill run interference for you in all things politics and Ill throw my political influence behind you being able to summon more [Raid Bosses] at your mountain. If I do manage tond a solid hit, you have to consider working with others. Just promise to seriously consider it, you dont have to do anything else. Deal? Isaac held out a hand for Sun to shake, only for the Monkey King to shake it with enough force to crack bones. Oh, this was going to be fun. He pulled it back under his shoulder, fist rotating until it was upside down, a standard martial artist stance before punching. Then, heunched into an explosive punch, fist flying forwards but only tensing up a split second before impact, allowing him to move fluidly while throwing the punch while hitting with maximum force when the blow didnd. Being able to throw a punch with the full power of his body behind it was the full extent of his martial arts skills, but it came in handy on asion. And then, he used his actual tricks. A bottle of rat poison, bought for summoning purposes, pulled from his storage space and ced between his fist and Suns chest at thest possible second. A burst of me, with a little mana behind it. The minuscule 1% of [Implements of True Death] that was always active. And finally, a [Legendary Blow] empowered to the point where he felt like anything more would have edged the attack into absurd amounts of mana spent. Normally, the enhancement [Skill] would have been all that did anything. But against Sun, an attack containing a single type of damage would lose something like 99.9% of its power against his immortality. But a bottle of poison that either of them could chug and not get so much as a stomach ache was still poison, a weakened [Skill] that would only cause someones healing to stutter for the tiniest of amounts, a me that would barely singe the Monkey Kings hair, each of those would add a new damage type. Protections against kic impacts, toxins, elemental effects, and curses activated simultaneously, reducing each of their power to a quarter of their usual strength. A twenty-five percent haircut was still painful, but it had nothing on Suns regr protections. With an uncharacteristic eep of surprise, Sun went flying with an angry red mark on his chest, shirt obliterated, while Isaac slid backwards from the force of the impact, heels digging furrows into the dirt. Would you say that was a solid hit? Isaac asked as the shattered bones in his hand and right arm realigned with a nauseating series of cracks and pops. Then, Sun rose back to his feet, Jingu Bang clutched in one hand. Well, fuck. Hed really thought that Sun wouldnt take it that badly, considering it was a bet instead of a fight. But then the gold banded staff shrunk back to the size of a needle and disappeared behind Suns ear. Oh yeah, that was a good hit. Show me what you got! Come on! It appeared Isaac had just gotten upgraded from boring guy of some importance to potentially entertaining. that was almost worse than being seen as an enemy. I dont think a full-powered brawl between S-Rankers in the middle of a random field is a good idea, Isaac cautioned. Who said anything about full power? Sun asked, only for Isaac to wave around his almost fully healed arm. Im not exactly one for fistfights, Id need my weapons for a proper fight, and that would be more than a little dangerous for everyone involved. Come on, lets just go into your deathless training area, Ill clobber the [Raid Boss] and then, we can fight on top of its unconscious body! Sun eximed, practically vibrating with excitement. Right, that little trick. It was a fairly obvious exploit, but Isaac hadnt wanted to deal with the sheer flood of requests that would wind up on his doorstep if it got out that he could also somewhat allow for deathless duels between people. While there might have been a benefit to further experimentation in that vein, he felt that training people to fight powerful monsters was the worthier cause. Ok, one fight, and regardless of who wins, were going to lunchter and then were talking about how you can help us the next time we fight the cult, and youre going to at least try to listen, deal? Deal! Once again, the handshake cracked bone. But the rest of the preparation was simple, Isaac summoned the [Grave of Swords] and while he fixed his arm, Sun clobbered the Demon Lord that had appeared in the space. Isaac had chosen this particr monster as its space was prettyrge. And then, the actual fight began. Sununched himself at Isaac with a massive grin on his face, Jingu Bang grown almost to the size of a pir as he swung it in an overhead smash. Isaac dodged and drew both Mimung and his Kabar across the Monkey Kings chest, both ame and covered in a weak toxin that had been made to work on fire monsters and didnt evaporate or burn. Sun suddenly reversed course in an instant as he kicked off the air, forcing Isaac to dodge using [Phantom Step]. Another sh towards Suns chest came up short as the Monkey King suddenly transformed into a snake and bent out of the way in a move that would have shattered the spine of even a Cirque du Soleil performer, then shot his head forward to try chomping on Isaacs nose. Isaac leaned backwards to avoid the bite, only to be forced to roll desperately to the side when Sun shifted back and suddenly, he was above Isaac with the golden-hooped staff already in motion. A bottle of fireproof poison shattered against Suns back a split second before a roiling fireball ignited his clothing and finally, a half-dozen hurled des managed to carve small nicks into his back, but that was all. Isaac knew he couldnt win this. He wouldnt waste the really expensive preparations hed made in case Sun did truly go on a rampage in the future, and he couldnt blow through all his cooldown [Skills] for the sake of sparring. Everything else would just slow down his loss. Sun might not have any offensive cooldown [Skills], but his big attacks generally amounted to him deigning to spend any mana to reinforce it. And yes, with his focus on physical Stats, Sun had an abysmal mana pool, so he couldnt use as many [Powerful Blows] or whatever his air-stepping [Skill] was called as, say, Arthur, but his fight-finishing attacks could be spammed. Isaacs couldnt. In addition, there was the small issue of how much mana Isaac was spending on a second-to-second basis to heal small injuries, and keeping the mes on his sword going and that was without him having to spend even more of the precious resource to dodge. Sun, on the other hand, could keep this up for hours if need be. Another five minutes of constant shingter, Isaac was down two-thirds of his mana pool and Sun was covered in nicks, scratches, and his right biceps had a huge cut taken out of it. Once his mana pool hit zero, that was it. But despite what Sun had said, Isaac knew that an outright loss would lower him in the Monkey Kings eyes. So he sidestepped the issue. Or backstepped, as it was. He dropped a series of small alchemical bombs and stepped over them, then detonated them with a hurled kabar when Sun got too close, resulting in a barrage of mild swearing. So when it looked like he was about to try that again, Sun began an even greater offensive, Jingu Bang grown everrger until Isaac spent thest of his mana to teleport to the other end of the pocket space while the staff obliterated the stunned Demon Lords skull. Monster dead, pocket space closed, fight over. Nice going, Isaacmented, I dont have the mana to reactivate that [Skill]. So, lunch? Lunch, Sun agreed. A portal irised open before Isaac and the pair stepped through onto Scottish soil. A random pub in the middle of a National Park should be the safest to have a conversation like this, mostly because A. there were fewer people to potentially call journalists and B. the likelihood of someone who might want to bother them having a portal mage whod been there before was pretty slim. As for why a pub, it was simple. Isaac did not want to deal with the waiters at a more upscale restaurantmenting on their table manners, or the fact that Sun was something of a Gourmand. Good afternoon, Isaac greeted the man behind the bar, Do you have a table for two? When the barkeeper nodded, he went on, Wed like one of everything to start with, and please, keep bringing tes of fries and the like if it looks like my friend is getting low. And Id like to pay upfront. The bartenders eyes grew wide as Isaac handed over three thousand pounds. Sun and Isaac talked about generalbat while they waited on the food, safe under the aegis of Isaacs anti-eavesdropping [Skill]. Then the food did arrive and Sun all but vacuumed up half the food in ten seconds t. Ish good, he mumbled, mouth still full. Great, Isaac replied after taking a bite of his burger, So, the reason I wanted to meet with you was because were going to be hitting the cult once we have a target, and I was wondering if you would be willing toe along. Obvishously, Sun told him around a mouthful of burger. Heres the thing, it wont work if you just run off on your own likest time. Wed be giving you targets and try to coordinate who fights who and breaks what. Sho? I think it might work best if youre our secret weapon. Kept outside enemy detection range, ready to be dropped right where they dont want you to be via a portal at the most inconvenient possible time. It would also ensure he couldnt blow up the n by attacking prematurely. Sun swallowed and finally fixed Isaac with a hard stare, Im not an idiot, youre just trying to make sure I dont do anything stupid. Can you me me for wanting to guarantee you follow the n? Isaac asked. Its a stupid n if it breaks just because I show up, Sun shrugged, Thered better be food while Im waiting, and dont you dare keep me on the bench for the entire fight. I think we can arrange that, Isaac said as he went back to the bar to order again. Two hourster, there was not a scrap of food left in the Winking Owl, Sun looked like a beach ball, and the pair returned to their respective homes. Isaac just hoped that the gentlemans agreement theyd hammered out would stick. Chapter 266: Interlude Cult Chapter 266: Interlude Cult Josef had nothing to say now. Nothing to do but slump against the back of his seat, both his body in the real world and his representation in their groups chamber. His insides still throbbed from where shrapnel had torn through him, nothing to say for the fact that the bones in his left leg were still in multiple pieces. And he had more than a few other wounds that were still healing. Not to mention that hed bled all over that teleportation room. Nowadays, the cops could literally reconstruct your face based on nothing but your DNA, though knowing about such things as your current Cholesterol, hormones in the blood, and the like did help them figure out in which direction your DNA had helped you grow. Once they had his face, theyd get his name and then hed be stuck running from safe house to safe house for the rest of thiss lifespan. Not only that, but their numbers had taken a serious hit. Two horsemen aspirants, Kronos, Surtr, and Utgardloki. The aspirants had been reced already, but each neercked battle experience with their new potential and their [Skills] were at Level 1, without the big power boosts from hitting thresholds. The council had lost several members whod been on it since the very beginning. And then there was the issue of their overall numbers. Theyd gained most of their members from the initial divine message, as were ending the world, join us, but only the initial members will reap any benefits made for a pretty shit recruiting message. Theyd still gained some new blood, but all in all, there were around 700 true believers left, very few of them being what the outside world called S-Rank, and another 20,000 who were just in it for the money. Not even 21,000 against the world. So, we got some information on our enemies, Fox announced as he stood up, still sounding rattled. Hede face-to-face with the Monkey King and barely gotten out of there alive. In fact, the only reason he was still here was that the same wave of information that had gotten their colleagues killed had distracted the damnable primate long enough for him to get away. A hologram-esque image manifested above the table, showing a face they all knew and hated. Isaac Thoma has been confirmed to be immune to all kinds of mes, and capable of utilizing any me hees into contact with. Hes already stolen Surtrs mes so this is probably a case of closing the barn after the horses have already escaped, but we still shouldnt give him any more munitions. Hyperion, stay the hell away from him. Im a light mage, The warned man rumbled, a mask like the surface of the sun practically radiating displeasure. I dont care, Fox snapped, Sun magic, fire magic, same difference. If you give him another power-up, Ill kill you myself. As if you could. I can, and I will if you keep interrupting, Josef snapped, Fox has the floor, and he has useful information. Next time I see your tongue in this meeting, Im going to chase you down in the real world and hack it off! That particr deration was met with shock, and thankfully, silence. Did they not realize how bad the situation was? They didnt, he supposed, considering how many new faces had entered the inner circle. Hes also capable of temporarily increasing his cognition to absurd levels, to the point where he can both analyze situations to the point where hes basically seeing the future, and do that to an entire battlefield at once. We dont know where the limits are, we dont know how often he can do that and weve got no idea about much of anything beyond the fact that there have to be some kind of limits right? Wow, Fox was really off his game at the moment. Yet he had managed to get the necessary information, somehow. But how would they use that information? Isaac Thomas superpower was his mind, and what were they supposed to do now? How the ever-loving fuck were they supposed to counter that? What beat intelligence? Misinformation? No, he was too perceptive for that. Complexity? No, theyd be liable to confuse themselves as well as their foe. Simplicity and honesty, along the lines of the saying you cant cheat an honest man? And that was the biggest no of them all because it was just in idiotic. So we hit them first, theyre a threat, call it pre-emptive self-defense? another neer suggested. Halycon. Shut. Up, Josef growled, Our response in Lorient was already over the top, but at least there we only started throwing multiple S-Rankers at them after theirs arrived. We might not know where the divine line is, but if pre-emptive self-defense doesnt cross it, hell has frozen over. Calm down, oh fearless leader. Theyreing for us, we know that, but we can prepare, we can make sure that whenever they dare show their faces, theyll run into a meat grinder the likes of which the world has never seen. We can ughter their best and when the countdown on that there wall hits zero, well end it all just like we nned, Jormungandr spoke up. He usually kept his trap shut in meetings like this, but when he did speak up, there was usually a reason to listen. Or maybe they do win, only toter destroy themselves all the same, Jotun interjected, From the very beginning, weve been able to trust in the fact that people are self-destructive idiots. If the deal with our gods didnt also require us to make actual preparations, wed all be sitting on a beach somewhere, sipping Mai Tais, secure in the knowledge that everything was going to go to shit all on its own. Chill out, guys, things will work out just fine. Chapter 267: Graduation Chapter 267: Graduation Kids were so incredibly adorable. Of course, the kids in question were in the middle of the third Evolution, on par with anyone not considered monstrously strong by most standards, hardened veterans of every torture Isaac had been able to sneak past his military overseers, but still in his eyes, they were still kids, and so incredibly cute. One and all, they were wearing their dress uniforms, magical artifacts gleaming. Some, theyd won by excelling at Isaacs challenges, others had been provided by their home nations to make them not look like ugly ducklings whenpared to those whod gotten artifacts worthy of getting their own legend. They looked good, they had the stoic look down pat, but they hadnt seen real war yet. Theycked the gravitas of Arthur, Ardouin, or even Bailey. And no amount of training would give them that. Isaac stepped up to the front of therge hall where the graduation was taking ce. Military brass was there, as was the press. Isaac was happy with the former and hadnt been able to keep out thetter without calling in favors that would be wasted on something this insignificant. In German, the phrase for knighting someone roughly trantes as hitting someone into knighthood. This refers to the fact that the ceremonial taps with the sword onto the new knights shoulders were, in fact, the final blows that the knight would have to ept without being able to retaliate. In the same vein, today is thest time you have to listen to me. In fact, the next time we meet on the battlefield, Ill probably have to listen to you. Isaac waited for the polite chuckles to die down before continuing. I know thest eight months havent been easy even when there were no cult-rted disasters, but youve persevered ande out the other side with epic [sses] and skills that no one else gained so far. You represent the first group of officers to ever have their training fully integrated with the [System] and everything it offers to you. He pulled arge object from his storage space. A metal suitcase, reinforced to a ludicrous degree. This suitcase is a gift from your respective nations, and it contains a series of [Raid Boss] Aspects, as well as a suitable base Aspect to build upon so you can get two [Skills]. One of your choices will be [Moment of Immortality], and the second will depend on you, based on which Aspect you choose. Ive prepared Aspects suitable for you based on your builds and personalities, but if you want something else, there are more than enough spares here. Thankfully, we dont have to figure out which country gets what Aspects back if you pick one they didnt provide. Another round of stifled chuckles. Its been a great honor to be given the responsibility of training you all, and I hope that you do as much good as so many people think youre capable of. Then, the reporters got chased out of the room when it became time to hand out Aspects. The fact that these things were being gifted was a publicity stunt that hed been asked to publicize, but that didnt cover revealing details of anyones builds. The [Raid Boss] Aspects being passed out were just at Tier 6, and primarily being granted to make the recipients a little less squishy, rather than for the other powers they could give. Despite this, there was an inevitable argument about who would take back which spare Aspects because, of course, some of his students had decided to slot Aspects other than the ones hed intended for them. But Isaac didnt have to deal with that, and if hed thought hed be able to get away with it, hed have broken out the popcorn. *** An Smith, now a First Lieutenant, could still hardly believe that it was really over. Where were the traps, the insane challenges, the puzzles? Perhaps all this was some kind of insane trap? No, that was ludicrous. Eight months, that was how long this was meant to take, and eight months had ended. And it was right there on his status sheet, Aspect of the Tornado Golem. What could that possibly be other than a graduation present? Man, that was insane, right? Yu sighed, Isaac fucking Thoma. Who the hell could ever have expected him to teach us? Shh! Brassad hissed, He can probably hear you. Weve called him worse names in training where he definitely heard us, An reassured the French Lieutenant, If he was going to retaliate, he already would have. Seriously though, what on Earth? I mean, seriously, were done? Yu continued, We survived that? I mean, hes always said that true poweres from challenge, of course he threw all that stuff at us, An pointed out, But he was weirdly calm for a trainer. I think he only yelled a few times. German drill instructors dont yell, generally, its more Im not mad, Im disappointed, thats worse energy. One of the German former trainees exined. He did yell, though, An pointed out. Well, hes not actually military, is he? Yu asked, And when he yelled, it was because you almost chopped yourself in half with your sword. And when Brentz blew up thetrine. Pretty sure the profanity was warranted. Hey, Brentzined, much to the amusement of everyone else. Seriously guys, its been real, An announced, This has been an insane journey, Ill remember you all, but right now, I really need to get out of here as soon as humanly possible for some me time. Seriously, I love you guys. See you around. And with that, he headed over to where the American group was waiting. Four of the regr trainees, another of Thomas trainees, a portal mage, and four escorts of the two-star General whod shown up for his graduation. So, Lieutenant Smith, have you considered which direction you want your career to go? General Burke asked, Are you considering fieldmand, or are you aiming higher? Maybe strategicmand? At first, An only got out an iprehensible squeak in response, before he began to talk about how hed like to eventually end up inmand of [Raid Boss] response, leading a mid-sized team to hunt down some of the [Systems] strongest. And, of course, he was hoping to not have embarrassed himself too much. Chapter 268: War Council Chapter 268: War Council So, we got War with some kind of fallen angel transformation [Skill], durability that makes them functionally immortal on the battlefield, and the ability to affect the perceptions of those who get too close. Is that everything? Habicht asked. Im pretty sure that [Axis Mundi] is also a shared [Skill], Isaac added. The gravity pir? Jason frowned on the other side of the round table, Your battlefield didnt look like it got deployed. Or that name means something like center of the world, right? Gravity pir, cylinder of disintegrating vibrations those are all big announcements along the lines of here I am, face me, if you dare. I see, Habicht nodded, So, big cylinder of whatever the current iteration of War has for an element. And that element seems to tie into either destruction or battlefield control. Element is determined by their previous [sses], mainbat abilities too, and they have a bunch of nasty bonus powers just for being Aspirants. But that doesnt exactly help us if we dont know what their elements are. So we n around what we do know, dont group up in case that elemental pir gets thrown at us, and when War does show up, throw me or Isaac at them, Fenrir suggested. And if that doesnt work, call Sun, Arthur suggested. I dont like raw force as the primary n. Its a good backup, but we need a better initial approach, Yoo-jin pointed out, And if War does show up, I should be a better counter because my ice is a good battlefield control method. I can tie them down while you guys figure out how to win the fight. Pestilence should be easy, though, Arthur said, The professor is immune to diseases and if he isnt around, Dr. Loup is a solid second option. Dr. Loup is a better option, Bailey corrected, I can keep myself safe no matter what, but Im not able to scrub the area around the fight like he can. What if that Kitsune shows up again? Elena asked, They were able to keep Sun at bay, and hes supposedly able to see through most illusions. Thats because Kitsune illusions have a physicalponent to them, they literally block line of sight even if you should be able to see through them, though anyone with anti-illusion sight will be able to identify them on sight, Isaac exined, Anyone with good senses and sufficient power will be able to tie the fox up. That means me, Sun, or Patrick. Raul might be able to erase the illusions as unnatural, but that depends on the exact matchup. I wouldnt risk it. I should be able to tear them apart with my [Aura] if they get too close, Fenrir added. Where are we on getting a target? Han asked, only to suddenly flicker out of the [Round Table] for a brief moment. Everyone knew that meant his dog was demanding pets. After a few seconds, he returned and Habicht answered the question. We have a few leads, most of their European and North African teleportation hubs, and the bodies of their portal mages, but no real target locations. Oh, and we know who death is, he announced, using the tables ability to manifest illusionary props to summon a wanted poster. The typical in white sheet with a couple of pictures and a description of the wanted individuals crimes. This guy is Josef Goodman, wanted for aundry list of crimes, some predating the [System]. He vanished right around initialization and when people finally caught on to the fact that hed fallen off the face of the world, his dorm room was emptied and it was discovered that he was nning an act of bioterrorism. He was already on plenty of lists, but given that he fell off the face of the Earth, he was rather low on the priority list. Nowadays, hes got one hell of aundry list of crimes. Terrorism, bioterrorism, basically every single conspiracy charge on the books, more financial crimes than most of the people who actually get prosecuted for them. You know, its very tempting to just put a bounty on his head, Isaac mused, Too bad thats illegal. Dead or Alive style bounties are illegal, Habicht said, But as long as you stay within legal limits, feel free. Basically, you can offer rewards for information. I wouldnt, though, youll just end up with fifty-percent crazies, fifty-percent scammers. What if I send them your way? Isaac asked, If you have people with truth-telling [Skills] Dont, Habicht didnt raise his voice, but his tone brooked no argument. So what are we dealing with here, overall? Elena asked, Scope, average Level, and [ss] rarity? Based on our interrogations, were looking at something like fifty teleportation hubs all around the world, with between seven and nine portal mages in each. Ardouin fried thirteen of them, but the ces themselves can be reced easily. All you need is a room, a reinforced door, and walls, and thats it, Jason said, As for actual bases, we dont actually know much for certain. I dont even think they were working hard topartmentalize things, they just got lucky. How so? Habicht frowned, Compartmentalization isnt the sort of thing that happens by ident. Way I heard it, theyre all connected through some kind ofmunication [Skill] that works just like the [Round Table], just better. Better? Arthur asked, incredulous. Well, its utterly useless when ites to anything other thanmunication, but they can talk to each other without having to focus on it. Unless theyre building microchips by hand or performing brain surgery, they can work and talk, Jason exined, They got that ability around a year after the [System] dropped and weve got no fucking idea who even holds the [Skill]. Some think it might be Death, but we dont even have a strong suspicion, let alone proof. Crap, Arthur muttered. Unless we manage to identify the person who connects them all and make sure they cant use it anymore, we cant break that organization, Elena summarized, But we can go after the members, I doubt the people looking to kill everyone are having much luck recruiting. But how the hell did they get together in the first ce? Fenrir wondered, Were they all recruited by the dark gods? Even if they werent able to act initially, that doesnt seem right. Right, did you manage to get the exact phrasing on the prohibition on direct action? Elena asked. Suddenly, the room darkened, and Jasons head snapped up to lock eyes with her as he proimed in a dark, echoing voice You will destroy the world in our name, and in exchange, you will want for nothing in your next life, your every whim and even unconscious desire fulfilled. You will be givenrades, and together, you must grow in power until you are able to affect global change. As he spoke, Amy got up from her seat and left the Round Table, though Isaac wasnt sure why. However Jason flickered and disappeared, returning the room to normal. He returned a momentter, rubbing the back of his head. Amy came back as well. It didnt take Sherlock Holmes to figure out what had happened there. However, there is a limitation that has to be imposed to enforce bnce in the celestial realm. Until the [Systems] ten-year anniversary, you may only make preparations, taking no overt actions to destroy the world. However, you may defend yourselves if attacked. Jason finished exining in his normal voice, And then there were all sorts of individual extra promises, and most of them were reassured about how the world would probably end anyway. So thats how it worked, Han mused, Overwhelming power, promises of immense rewards, and a whole lot of talking down what theyd have to do. No wonder it worked, especially if they picked people receptive to that kind of talk. But that doesnt help us much, Elena said, We already figured out there was a time limit, and were nning around it. What about their total numbers? Isaac asked. Jason shrugged, I dunno. The meeting [Skill] is basically a big amphitheater with a table in the middle, but the people in the stands cant see much beyond the table and their immediate surroundings. There could be as few as a hundred true believers, or maybe there are tens of thousands. We managed to confirm that some of the people involved were mercenaries, Habicht stated, We only got a rough guestimate for their number, some imed therere hundreds of thousands. Jason snorted, There cant be more than fifty thousand, and even that is at the extreme end. So we go for the money, Elena suggested, We find banking info, we find their money, we freeze their ounts. Even in the worst-case scenario, wed still cost them a good eighty percent of their forces. Why dont we just wear them down, fight a battle of attrition? We have a little over six years left, Fenrir suggested, Once we have enough bases dialed in, we hit them in concert, and use the information uncovered to get the names and faces of individual members. And then we hunt them. If the people sitting around this table cant go after them directly for some reason, we throw resources at the problem. We hire mercenaries, put out bounties, frame them if necessary. We have the resources, so we use them. Even if we cant outright beat them like that, not letting them get a single second of rest is going to make them easy targets. Not a single moment of peace until we find and end them. And once thats done, we send in investigators to rip apart everything about them until we find more targets and then we go after those folks. And again, and again and again until there isnt a single member of those fuckers still breathing. Thats how we win. Habicht fake-coughed. Fenrir raised an eyebrow. Habicht repeated the action. Ah, sorry, Fenrir added, Hypothetically, thats how we win. Having to work around what Habicht might be asked about by his superiors was a pain in the ass, but having him here and avable to help was useful beyond measure, so they put up with the limitations. Sounds like a n, hypothetically, Isaac said, But we still need the initial targets because this wont work unless we actually have people to track down. Your guys working on it, Jason said, Last time I saw him, he was sitting in a motel room and I swear to God, there isnt a single square centimeter not covered in notes or string. Were working on it too, Habicht added, Together, we should have enough targets for a proper decapitation strike in a few months. Isaac sighed in relief. Even if it was a little grating that there wasnt much he could do right now to help, things had been set in motion and in due time, that would be the end of their enemy. Until then, well, it was time to train. We still need to get on the same page about how we know each other, Fenrir interrupted his train of thought, Me and Isaac met at Rlyeh, he introduced me to Arthur and Habicht at some point. Does that work for everyone? So they spent another five minutesying out a detailed backstory with enough leeway that it didnt sound rehearsed, and made ns for actual in-person meetings so that at least some truthful statements could be made about their interactions. But then, they went off to prepare. Chapter 270: Interlude Istanbul Chapter 270: Interlude Istanbul There were certain things that always elicited certain reactions. Otters holding hands? Aw, so cute. Someone kicking a puppy? That guys gonna be limping in a few seconds. And when a hardened veteran of the most elite military units on Earth sported cat ears, jokes were made. And some people even tried to pet him, though they tended to only try that once. The only people allowed to touch Alexander Brauns head were his wife and four-year-old daughter. But as silly as he might look, both cats and humans were, in their own way, apex predators. Being a fusion of a race of deadly ambush predators wielding powerful ws and a devastating bitebined with endurance predators that could run after prey for hours until said prey literally dropped dead from exhaustion made him a member of the most dangerous species in the world. albeit one that more than a few jokes had been made about. However, that didnt matter. His job was to deal with criminals, terrorists, and if, God forbid, Germany was invaded, hed be fighting on those lines as well. Everything else was secondary. If everything had gone well, he could have remained hidden, only seeing the light of day when he was really needed, but some politician had fucked up and as a result, people knew he existed and that he was an S-Ranker, but everything else about him was hidden. And he waited, only going out on asion to act in the shadows. And then, today hade around, with this mess. His [Skill]set was uniquely suitable for dealing with this encampment in the middle of Istanbul, where there were too many people around for most other approaches. All with the blessing of the local government, of course, he was too noticeable to do this under the table and anything else would have been liable to cause an international incident. Launch operation Clean Swe- Alexander tuned out the orders as they were literally just go do what we already discussed to death. A single kick hit the door of the apartment that contained thergest concentration of hostiles, reducing it to splinters as he charged inside, [Forest of Phantoms] already active, affecting every single one of the people he was here for. The longer these people remained within five hundred meters of him and the less they fought against the ability, the swifter they would be drawn into his domain. And anyone who tried to getpletely outside of his range would die before they managed to attack. [Instant Draw] pulled both of his long daggers straight into his hands without needing to cross the intervening space and he carved through the closest cultist with ease, fireball winking out like a tealight tossed out into a blizzard as its caster took a knife through both the heart and brain. He briefly released one of his weapons, called a throwing knife into his hand and used [Flicker Throw] to nail a second mage through the eye. The [Skill] might not increase the actual kic energy of the hurled object, but its temporal maniption meant that the target had vastly less time to react. And then his main weapon was right back in his hand. The throwing knife was too far away for that to work, but he had hundreds of its kind hidden on his body, more than he could ever reasonably use. The [System]-strength shbangs hed hurled through the walls into the neighboring units finally detonated, providing him the chance to [Blur] up to the final mage in the room and kill him. Through his [Aura], he could see a couple of people running away, but these werent civilians as those wouldnt have been highlighted in his rather aggressively named [Hitlist] that held information on all people he was ordered to go after, and allowed him to identify them at when he actually did sense them. He leaped forward, kicked off the wall, and sted out through the window,nding on a fleeing woman and driving a knife into the base of her skull, then cut down her malepanion in a sh. Others might try to run as well, but they didnt have long. The first trees were already starting to manifest. Another jump took him back inside the building and the ughter continued as he only went after the softest of targets, the mages. They were the ones he couldnt allow to start sting in the middle of a popted city. Thankfully, genocidal fucks they might be, they had the good sense to not randomly attack without knowing where he was. Even so, it didnt take long for the building to be on the verge of copse and for seven mages to be flying above the building, ready to reduce him to a red smear on the ground the second he showed himself. They really should have run when they had the chance. But they hadnt. All those trees appearing around them as the sky darkened and mist flowed up from the ground really should have given them a hint, but no one who was quite right in the head signed up for a suicide mission. And then, the second [Skill] that was an essential part of his toolkit was finally ready. [Endless Ambush] activated, locking everyone whod been affected by [Forest of Phantoms] into the other dimension, no more able to leave than he was. Being locked in a room with a wild animal was a problem. Being locked in a room with him was considerably worse. Alexander dropped his perpetually active [Civilized Alternate Form] for the first time in months. He hunched over slightly, face growing longer, teeth bing sharper and more pointed, his ws grew to the size of steak knives despite the fact that they could still be sheathed without issue, and the tail finally returned. Keeping his bnce was perfectly possible without it, but whenever he took full advantage of the boost it could provide, he could barely imagine how he ever managed to stay upright without it. It was time to hunt. Guns went off and spells were hurled at nothing in the distance, brief images of an ancient battle ying tricks on their senses. He waited for a brief moment, then exploded into motion, snatching up a single, heavily armored, individual who no one was looking at. He bowled the man over, his momentum carrying the pair of them away from the bulk of his enemies. Around him, the forest warped and shifted, cing both Alexander and his chosen victim a good mile from the others. He rose from the body of the knight, ws, and daggers dripping with blood, getting in several more stabs before dodging backwards ahead of a wave of force that would have hurt had it connected. The knight hadnt expected to be attacked right on the heels of his [Skill] and he didnt react in time when a de punched through his visor into his brain. And then, he tried to stab Alexander. [Moment of Immortality] very existence might be offensive to Alexander on a deeply personal level, what was dead should stay dead, but it didnt pose too much trouble for him as a second dagger through the other eye reduced the knights overall senses significantly. Avoid the clumsy attempt for a grab, sever the Achilles tendon, another dagger into the elbow, ah, theres a good ce to sever the spinal cord and abdominal aorta at the same time, and steal those two storage rings and inscribed spatial cores. No healing potions, and once that [Skill] ran out, hed be dead. Without their only tank, thest remaining enemies were done. They wouldnt survive against him. In this world, there existed incredibly dangerous people. The heir of an ancient king now walked the Earth, magic users could influence the very fabric of reality, beings of fiction like that gluttonous Monkey King came to life and people became the heirs of countless ancient heroes. But there were other kinds of powers that drew upon the past. Such as his own [ss]. He hadnt inherited the abilities and memories of a given soldier or myth, but rather the spirit of a battle, one that had brutally annihted the seventeenth, eighteenth, and neenth Roman Legions, to the point where those names were never again used and Romes Germanic conquests ended for good. That was his power, the ability to put his foes into the same kind of untenable position that Quinctilius Varus had found himself in and ughter them. One by one, his enemies fell beneath des and ws, more or less mutted depending on which and how many Aspects they held. Until [Absolute, Enforced Surrender], one of thest three survivors called out, hispanions echoing a momentter. Alexander sighed as he sheathed his des, then detached the sheathss from his belt and dropped them onto the ground behind him. That [Skill]. That damn [Skill]. They always felt so smug when they whipped it out like a kid on the yground doing the time-out sign or pulling out a UNO reverse card forughs. It was less of a get out of jail free card and more of a guaranteed to get into jail alive card, but it worked. On one hand, it put all [Skills] on cooldown, emptied the mana pool to the point where only vital [Skills] such as healing could still be powered, made it impossible to hold weapons, and weakened attacks for several hours. On the other hand, it let the person you were surrendering to know that you were serious, and should they still attack, both their superiors and every journalist, blogger, and general nuisance within a hundred kilometers would learn of it. It really was a p in the face that that [Skill] even existed. Someone could have been shooting at you mere milliseconds before but once it was triggered, they expected to be treated with kid gloves. Too bad for them that this space was beyond the reach of all those pansies who thought that literal terrorists whod been working to murder them all should be treated like thest members of an endangered species just because they had a [Skill] that let them convincingly surrender. Theyd even done him the courtesy of seriously rxing when hed put away his weapons. As if he didnt have a de just as lethal, just a little shorter, at each fingertip. And they were lined up so nicely by the time the first body hit the floor, hed already torn the head off thest one. A simple flick of the wrist sent all the blood flying off his fingers and sleeves, [Feline Cleanliness] making the post-fight cleanup a breeze. Contrary to its name, it did not require him to use his tongue to remove dirt. The spectral recreation of the ancient Forest of Teutoburg faded around him along with all signs of battle, and the party interface returned. This Oberf?hnrich Braun, the Istanbul group has been eliminated, you can call in the local LEOs and investigative teams. I need another target and transportation, He reported. And five minutester, he was halfway around the world, ready for another battle. Chapter 271: Interlude Himalayas Chapter 271: Interlude Himyas The Himyas were an awesome ce to be. Mighty mountains filled with myths and legends of old, slopes that would be perfect to run, ski, or roll down the only problem was the neighbors. Genocidal assholes whod sold out all humanity. Not quite what one Fenrir Olgeirsson had had in mind as an enemy while hed trained his ass off, but still something he felt fell to him to handle. Overpowered monsters summoned identally by idiots, or idiots deliberately summoning overpowered monsters, it was all the same to him. Hed been fairly passive for most of the battle, however, sitting the fortress of ice while waiting for the other shoe to drop. And then a light mage had actually be a problem for their overwatch, and then, he actually had something to do beyond throwing people trying to get into his allies defenses back out. A simple [Empowered Leap] ced him right in front of the spellcaster and with the [Aura of Primal Power] enhancing the attack, kicked the man squarely in the torso. Enhanced with the highest degree of [Epic Blow], naturally, the entirety of the force focussed on punting the jackass over the nearest mountain. Mages might have ess to shields and this ones had shattered under Fenrirs boot but saved him from the worst of the damage, yet knockback resistance or even outright immunity to being thrown around like a ragdoll was the domain of warriors like Fenrir himself. With an undignified yelp of surprise, the light mage went flying and Fenrir bounded after him, his axe expanding into a massive halberd that he used to sh at anyone who didnt run get out of the way quickly enough. His [Auras] configuration shifted, alternatively reinforcing the ground underfoot and allowing him to kick off even powdered snow as though it were solid steel and letting him push off the very air itself, albeit with vastly less power. He half-ran, half-jumped up the mountain, and crested its peak moments after starting his run, leaping up and over the light mage, whod barely managed to re-establish a shield, only for a hurled axe to punt him earthwards, into the next valley over. Even as the axe had barely begun its journey back towards his hand, Fenrir was already moving again, flinging him towards the valley. Going down the mountain was fast, easy, and batshit insane. The same method used to go up the mountain applied to elerate his travel down the slopes increased his speed to a ludicrous degree, but also kicked off an avnche almost every time his foot hammered into the ground. In fact, he was moving so quickly that he caught up to the light mage, passed him, and hurled his axe at the mans chest. And the shield was up again. Sigh. But at least it was gone again now and whatever semnce of stabilized flight was also thoroughly ruined. Fenrir hit the bottom of the valley and kicked off it, a feral grin on his face and fist cocked back, ready to deliver a powerful haymaker. tes of solid light manifested between them, more traditional light-themed magic being used to defend against an attack that might otherwise be fatal. Except it wasnt his fist that hit first, it was the axe once again returning to his hand. [Unified Arnaments] recall function didnt impart too much power, but the impact alone was enough to cause the mage to once again lose control of his flight ability and in a wild spin, keeping the shield between them was a hell of a lot more difficult. This time, Fenrirs attack cracked the weakened shield on the side and hammered into his foes ribs with bone-crunching force, sending both of them flying apart. He sshed into a snowdrift and erupted from it in a spray of powder a split secondter, [Unified Arnament] shifting back into his favorite form of an oversized Dane Axe. The light mage, on the other hand, hadnded in a ce where, one after another, all the avnches Fenrir had triggered rolled over him. Thank the gods for [Environmental Prediction], figuring out how to punt that lightbulb there without it would have been ever so slightly difficult. Being buried like that might not be fatal anymore, but it made spotting an approaching warrior a damn sight more difficult. End of the road, assho- why on Earth would that guy have saved his big attacks until now? The snow sublimated straight into sma as the mage activated a powerful [Skill], heat and power rolling off him in waves. Aw, frick. [Unified Arnament] transformed into its heaviest form, a massive anchor on a chain that looked like it could hold a cargo ship. He hadnt used it after a weapon after it had ended up hitting him somewhere extremely sensitive, but its mass made it perfect for mid-air maneuvering, as long as hended before it returned to him. He couldnt transform it unless he was holding it, and having it return to him in force while he wasnt on solid ground was not a good thing while it was that damn heavy. It was a lesson hed thoroughly learned after having to dig himself out of a cier crevasse a couple of times. When he hurled the massive weapon with all his might, his forward momentum was almostpletely halted, and kicking off the air with his [Aura] a couple of times further opened up the range. As for the other guy, he hadnt been looking too good before, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, the former decidedly bent and thetter missing several teeth, scrapes from rocks, and ragged cuts covering his body. The mage red daggers at Fenrir and then his eyes went wide when he saw a motherfucking anchor flying towards his head. A st of light, heat, and sma hammered into the weapon. Oh, wrong choice buddy, that weapon aint gonna break even if you tossed it into a volcano. But it did get diverted enough to miss, hammering into the ground with enough force to shatter rock. Fenrirnded on the ground and began to circle around as a massive hole was carved into the face of the mountain behind him. The field of heat died down soon enough, but the instant it ended, the mage transformed, shifting into a being made from pure sma, a humanoid silhouette with the full power of the sun. Judging by the fact that nosers were flying, regr light magic was no longer within his foes ability to use, but the constant salvos of sma bolts flying overhead were still plenty dangerous. Fenrir drew back his weapon, causing the anchor to slide against the ankles of the living sun and sweeping his feet off the ground. That brief moment of surprise, where the man suddenly found himself airborne, was hisst. [Finisher] was a finishing ability that allowed its user to draw their full physical potential out for a single blow, albeit at the cost of suffering not insignificant damage. But when that healed, it could be used again, and again, and again until its user was truly exhausted. Fenrir leaped towards the falling enemy, anchor returning to his hand and transforming into the heaviest axe in his arsenal even as he was already throwing his arms back to provide the greatest possible momentum for a devastating downward blow. [Finisher] hurled the axe downwards with power that was well beyond even his own immense strength, [Aura] ensuring that the force of the impact wouldnt throw him backwards and the impact urred a split-second before his enemy hit the ground, pushing the lightbulb thest few centimeters towards the ground and finally smashing through his shield, ribcage, spine and a good chunk of the rock below. Muscles screaming out in pain, Fenrir pulled the axe back, then half-swung, half-dropped it at the stunned magus head and this time, instead of a barrier, a kill notification appeared. Finally. [Unified Arnament] transformed into a hand axe that was easier to carry and he began to head over the mountain, speeding up with every step as his sore muscles stitched themselves back together. Above, the sky was rent by a series of powerful winds and explosions as two elementalists shed. Chapter 272: Interlude Iceland Chapter 272: Interlude d d was surprisingly warm for something near the Arctic Circle in the middle of winter. It was also in the middle of bloody nowhere, with a tiny poption that should have made hiding a base here fairly obvious. But based on the intel they had, it was more of a stopover location than anything else. Which apparently had the CSIs, or whatever they were called, drooling at the thought of finding travel documents. So time it was to capture it. Of course, despite being warmer than expected, it was still bloody freezing, wearing mostly metal was in no way helping the issue, and it was the middle of a bloody blizzard to boot. And sure, people kept telling him that he was too tough to feel the cold, but Arthur still shivered as he trudged through the snow towards the target location. If all things went well, there wouldnt be any powerful foes in there, but there was a reason he was here. But the person he really felt sorry for was their local guide, who didnt wasnt anywhere near his Level and yet was out in a friggin blizzard regardless. Not to mention that he might be in the line of fire if shit really hit the fan. The go signal came a few moments after they settled down to wait and Captain Dent, the military officer in charge of the whole operation started snapping orders. Spread out, activate anti-teleportation [Skills], hair-trigger on the backport [Skills] to yank anyone about to die out of danger, the usual stuff. Nothing that particrly involved Arthur, his order had and would always be to cool his heels unless something went wrong. Something always went wrong. This time though, they hadnt even done anything by the time someone walked out to greet them, straight through the wall, smoke billowing from what had to have been a sauna. At first nce, Arthur thought the man waspletely naked, but thankfully, d wasnt one of those ces where people saunaed in their birthday suits. But the guy didnt seem bothered in the slightest by the cold,ck of proper clothing, or the dozens of guns pointed right at his face. You know, Id be really interested to know if youre actually here for little ol me, or if you just think that all of us qualify for that kind of response, He smirked, I mean, youre attacking us all over the world, right? He took a couple of steps closer, but stopped dead with a slightugh when expressions hardened and more powerful spells were prepared, You know, heres the thing: you really should have brought more guys. After that, he gnashed his teeth in their general direction in a manner that could almost be seen as yful. Mouth opens slightly, head jerks a couple of centimeters forward, mouth shuts with a loud click, lips form into a shit-eating grin. And then, a massive chunk of snow and dirt, almost the size of a car, vanished into nothingness and when the swimsuit-d man charged, his feet hammered into the ground with more force than before. Had he eaten that much matter and added it to his own mass? Oh, this was not going to be fun. Gunshots rang out, each tearing the previous tranquility apart. Spells rent the air, digging trenches in the earth around the target as he ran. Another chomp at nothing dug a huge hole in the ground which he dove into a split second before mes washed past above him. This time, though, his jaws opened as wide as was humanly possible, and a spectral copy of his teeth and gumline appeared to tear through solid rock as though it were cotton candy. And when he jumped, the ground underfoot shattered under the mans newly enhanced weight. Arthur tried to head him off, but a massive chunk of rock was somehow ejected from the glutton, pushing him above Excalibur and thennding amidst the soldiers like a damn meteor. It was a disaster before his fists had evennded. Isaac had once gone on about how strength didnt always mean much unless there was mass behind a blow or the strength was being brought to bear using a sharp edge. Arthur had nodded along, and gotten himself some heavier armor made afterwards. But what he was seeing here was the most extreme possible version of the advantage of mass. The bodies of the weakest here popped like blood-and-viscera-filled balloons, but even the strongest hit werent able to get away unscathed. Thats when Arthur spotted the viscous green liquid running down the mans knuckles. Venomous, on top of everything else. Bloody effing hell! Another chomp at the air swallowed up multiple bodies, and the fucker began to bulk up. But only the dead vanished, the living just lost some equipment. A limitation great. Something that might be exploitable. Arthur charged up behind the devouring fighter, and the instant he was between him and the survivors, he activated [Champion of Albion], the other central [Skill] of his fourth Evolution. It was a bit of an odd duck, as it didnt apply to the long-lost kingdom of Albion, but whatever he wanted to protect right at that moment if he was between that thing and the threat. Which he was. A massive fist, already ballooned up to the size of a watermelon, mmed into his chest te and with a loud crack, bones broke. Finger bones, that was. Coming in with that much mass makes pulling punches a bit difficult, doesnt it? Arthur taunted as he shed at the arm as it was drawn back,nding a deep cut. Trying to punch him head-on now that he was functionally an immovable object had been a mistake. The roundhouse kick aimed straight at the side of Arthurs head, on the other hand nearly did him in. Only ast-second dodgebined with canceling the immovable object effect prevented him from ending up with a broken neck. It might not have been enough to kill him on its own, being helpless certainly would have. And then, the other guy dodged to the side, kicked off the ground hard enough to detonate a snowdrift, blinding Arthur for the crucial second needed to charge back at the soldiers. Only for [Champion of Albion] to give him the chance to teleport between both his charges and the monster threatening them. It was enough of a surprise that Arthur managed tond a deep cut on his opponents chest. And then the man gnashed his teeth again and the world went silent for the briefest of seconds while all the breath exploded from Arthurs lungs without warning, only for a wave of force and noise to hammer into him as had that fucker just eaten the air? That disorientation was enough that he didnt manage to reapply the immovability buff before getting kicked in the chest and flung through the air. A split-secondter, the bastard appeared above him andnded another kick, only to bounce off as this time, the resistance to hostile eleration was back up. Despite the fact that Arthur was under the other guy, he somehow fell past him and got even faster. Gravity magic, on top of everything else? Oh, bollocks. [Frozen Fortress] exploded around the pair, the [Skill] Isaac normally hogged up for grabs for once. Arthurnded perfectly in a well-ced hollow while his opponent hit a properly-designed slope, slid off,pletely lost his bnce and before he could regain anything even remotely resembling bnce, Excalibur had already sheared his arm off. And then with a click of teeth Arthur only heard, not saw, most of the fortress vanished and they were both back in freefall, hitting the snow below a secondter. Thankfully, his armor and weapons werent touched by the current devour, but that was an infinitesimal silver lining. Youre a tricky one, the now one-armed man grinned down at him while Arthur got to his feet, seemingly unconcerned with the injury, You know, its kinda sad that you dont know what were called. Weve gone through all this effort of crafting the nastiest builds in the world anding up with proper names, and then we end up in the history books with names like fire guy or horseman aspirant number sixty-nine when you guys dont just get your names but also titles like sage or promised ki- ohe on! Arthur had lunged mid-speech, using [Extend de] tond another nasty hit but the manifested de tip was so fragile that just being exposed to his foes [Aura] shattered it like ss. Oh, range extension [Skills] were so bloody useless at theirLevels. He dropped the immovability and let himself be flung away by the next kick after a couple of bones in the other guys foot had cracked, electing to not try and absorb the entirety of the force of the attack. Anyway, Im Jormungandr, Devourer of pretty much whatever I damn well please, the fucker announced and stomped into therge rock he was standing on, then tore his foot sideways to shatter the topyer and hurled the shrapnel at the retreating soldiers. And then, his jaw twitched a few times, he didnt even open his mouth, only the unnaturally loud clicking of tooth on tooth making it obvious what he was doing. Each time, a chunk of bloody snow vanished and with the final chomp, even the severed arm vanished. The lost limb didnt regrow, but the stump instantly stopped bleeding. And today, Im going to be a kingyer as well. Jormungandr charged, and Arthur began to retreat, using Excalibur to keep the distance open as his unarmed opponent couldnt block it, but it wasnt quite enough. The punches fell like meteors, gravity warped at the most inopportune times, and chunks of ground vanished an instant before he could put his foot on it. And even his armor was beginning to dent inwards, his opponent apparently thinking nothing of sacrificing bones to break metal, especially once [Champion of Albion] ran out. Another gunshot rang out, and for a brief moment, as if it were the only sound in the world. Then Jormungandr copsed onto one knee, briefly surprised and stunned, havingpletely forgotten about the soldiers since they shouldnt have been able to hurt him. Sure, they mostly kept Habicht around for his smarts and connections, not his [Skills], but he was not only a member of an elite, quasi-military, police unit, he led the damn group and had some nasty tricks of his own. [Dial In] allowed one person to feed targeting information to everyone they were in a party with, highlight weak points, grant supernatural uracy to the recipient of said information, and by spending mana, continuously increase the amount of damage done until someone took the shot. It didnt matter how tough Jormungandr was, how much dirt and rock hed eaten, a bullet hammering into his temple with not just [Dial In] backing it, but every [Skill] belonging to the sniper whod fired the shot. Fuck, Jormungandr groaned. Arthur tried to decapitate him, only for the world to warp and gravity pull him towards the snake-man. Somehow, he strongly suspected that this time around, he would be less resistant to getting eaten. Borrowing one of Amys spells almostpletely drained his mana pool and left him with just a single [Skill] to copy, but [Enforced Personal Space] was a million times stronger than its name would suggest. Jormungandr was hurled away as though shot from a cannon, plowing not only through the snow and dirt but absorbing whatever he touched until he climbed out of a furrow that looked like a bad movies UFO crash site, looking furious. Arthur wavered, leaning on Excaliburs hilt to remain standing, the tip of the sword nted atop a rock he was actively preventing the de from cutting. His armor was dented inwards to the point where every breath caused sharp edges to cut into his skin, a few trickles of venom pouring into his bloodstream. [Assassins Bane] took care of most of it, but it certainly wasnt good for his health even with it active. And if all his ribs were still intact, he was the actual king of Ennd. Yet his opponent didnt seem to be doing much better, covered in blood and mud,missing an arm, bones poking from the skin on his remaining fist. Breathing heavily, career as a human ck hole over, trump cards hopefully spent. And even if he still had some remaining, Arthur couldnt run here. The soldiers would be the first to go, and then, he wouldnt put it past this cunt to go after the nearest town for shits and giggles. [March] activated first, as he began to trudge forward, then he got the speed required for run and finally, when he was in range, [Charge] activated, taking with it almost all of his newly regenerated mana. Jormungandr charged as well, the ground detonating away from his feet as his mass had to now be somewhere around that of a God damn train car. A split-second before impact, he threw his sword and Jormungandr ducked out of the way and kept falling, first his head and arge chunk of his armless shoulder, and then, the rest of his torso copsed to the ground. The freshly re-manifested Excalibur slid from Arthurs fingers tripped over a rock and went sprawling, too beat to even see straight. With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself back to his feet and drunkenly staggered over to where his foey. Another tooth-gnashing tore apart the ground in front of him, even the basically severed head somehow still alive, but as disorienting as the two-meter fall might have been, it was nowhere near what was needed to hurt him. He got back up, again, and pushed on, the grotesque sight of the head snapping its head at nothing sending shivers down his spine. Ground shifted, air vanishing and subsequently returning with a thunderp wasnt doing anything for his health, but his opponent was weakening all the while and by the time Excalibur cleaved through the top of his skull and bisected the brain, he had to be seconds from death. Human (Lv. 149 Pugilist of Endless Hunger) has been in 75,000 XP gained Oh, so thats what his [ss] had been when his legs buckled this time, Arthur didnt bother trying to stay standing, he just dismissed Excalibur to make sure he didntnd on it and let himself fall. Chapter 273: Onwards! Chapter 273: Onwards! Normally, Isaac borrowed Yoo-jins ability to generate frozen fortifications via the [Round Table], but that was a known trick. So for this fight, hed switched out that [Skill] for Arthurs [Heavy te Armor], which allowed him to freely move wearing heavy armor andpensate for all the limitations. Including when badly formed armor locked up in ces. In those cases, it would be more like rubber and both pieces would mold past each other, which meant that the massive series of metal bs that currently wrapped around Isaac would not limit his movement in the slightest, and he was strong enough to mostlypensate for its weight as well. Well, material fatigue would rapidly be a problem as the armor kept being reshaped by a fairly low-rarity [Skill], but it didnt have tost for more than the next few minutes. It would also only work once before his enemies prepared for it, but as long as it worked that one time, hed be fine with it. [Wave Charge] sped up his fall, his momentum growing to insane heights. The [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] wrapped his sword and both fists in power, the remainder manifesting as a series of razor-sharp projections around him. And then, the two of them collided in an explosion of fire and storm. A pir of tearing wind capable of reducing a mountain to mere gravel appeared around them a split second before the impact as War triggered his [Axis Mundi], enough to let the man dodge Isaacs sword, but not avoid his other hand, which closed around his leg, locking there with an iron grasp. It was easy to forget how strong Isaac was, considering how much higher his other Stats were. But while he might not be able to crush someones skull in his hands or punt people over mountains the way Fenrir or Arthur could, he was still perfectly capable of holding himself up by a single hand even wrapped in multiple tons of metal. With a startled yelp, War began to fall, activating the Wings of Ruin ability in an attempt to stay airborne. But while they might be devastating weapons, they werent meant to carry as much weight as was currently put upon them. They kept falling as projectiles bounced off Isaacs armor, but he dismissed his sword to allow him to haul himself upwards and grab onto the Horsemans shoulder, and suddenly, Isaac was almost on top. His normal mobility might be reduced by his armor, and he couldnt pull off half the stunts he normally did, but he was also insted against attacks that would normally tear him to shreds. And the armor was so incredibly thick that even the centimeter-thick gouges that were being torn out of them didnt reach his flesh. War tried to get out of the death grip, not wanting to end up pancaked between Isaac and the ground, throwing the two of them into a spin. Until, for one lone millisecond, his head was right between Isaacs hand and the ground. Sure, they were still a full kilometer up, so it would normally be an utterly inconsequential mistake. But Isaac had [Grave of Swords] and activated it at its smallest size. They hit the suddenly appearing ground with an ugly series of crunches and cracks, Isaacs shoulder exploding in pain as his arm was dislocated, but War was decidedly worse off and locked in a small room with a person he could barely move. And that was the end of the fucking road. The Juggernaught Suit had been utterly ruined after being worn for less than a minute, but it had done its job and the instant Wars headless body hit the ground, Isaac switched over to his standard armor. Human (Lv. 132 Aspirant for the Mantle of War) has been in 20,000 XP gained Lv. 132 Aspirant for the Mantle of War has been added to the Grave of Swords as a potential training target/power source Another one for the collection. The [Grave of Swords] let him out at ground level thanks to its 3rd threshold ability to let him alter the exits location. If that was your big trump card, feel free to just surrender now, Isaac announced, pointing a still blood-stained Balmung at thergest concentration of foes, A trial in a court, or a trial by fire. Your choice. mes began to lick up from his empty hand until his entire left arm was aze and half his face was illuminated by fire while the other was cast in shadow under the night sky. Through serendipity or proper preparation, Isaac wasnt sure, Fenrir chose that moment to crest the nearest mountain, spattered with blood that clearly wasnt his. Several immediately surrendered, throwing down their weapons before diving for cover, proiming their surrender in the hopes that someone on Isaacs side had a [Skill] that could determine said surrenders were genuine. The others decided to turn their focus on Isaac. A st of Prometheus Wrath flew in the direction of the biggest concentration of enemies, and then he triggered [Dragons Heart]. It was a [Skill] that had all the power of a cooldown [Skill], but drew upon his actual resources, not a separate mana pool connected only to that [Skill]. But even with his mana potion-induced regen-reduction, his pool would fill more quickly than his cooldowns would recharge. A titanic st of me wiped the attackers from existence and then, most of the people who remained saw the wisdom in putting down their weapons as well. At that moment, Isaac was really d he didnt have to work out the logistics of taking care of that many high Level prisoners. Time to call in the investigators, make himself scarce so he could rightfully say he hadnt seen Jason when he snuck in, and then check if he could help somewhere else. Unfortunately, things hadnt gone anywhere near as smoothly elsewhere. Chapter 274: Interlude Ozarks Chapter 274: Interlude Ozarks There were many kinds of democracy in the world, ranging from people just trying to get on the same page to thinly veiled insults. It all depended on the nature of the situation and the temperaments of the people involved. Elena preferred it when things were cordial, but sometimes, Churchill-style democracy was needed, aka the art of telling someone to go to hell in such a way that they ask for directions. And then there were situations where the only diplomacy left was the kind that came out of a gun barrel, but for that to happen, there needed to be some seriously contentious issues at hand, with no chance of peaceful resolution. For example, when one side wanted to destroy the world, and the other really, really wanted to keep it intact. There wasnt exactly muchmon ground to find there. How much further? she asked their local guide. They had to be in ce in a quarter of an hour and they were in the middle of bumfuck nowhere. Perfect for getting away from it all, and she might just drag Isaac here if this ce survived the uing fight, but if they didnt reach their destination soon, thered be trouble. Not too much further, the sheriff assured her, Ive been here more often than Id like, there used to be a pot farm here before the whole thing got legalized. Then he spat on the ground. Elena rolled her eyes. As if that was the problem right now. The entire racist history of marijuana being banned to give the police an excuse to go after ck and Latinomunities, and how the drug was pretty much harmless to anyone over twenty-five wasnt even what she was talking about. But rather, the only people who could even be affected by such a benign narcotic had to have an extremely low Level. Currently, drugs were a million times more dangerous than theyd ever been, being toxins that had to work through the resistance of people who could drink entire swimming pools of Everclear without getting even the slightest bit tipsy. Alchemical crap that would kill anyone even remotely normal who imbibed even a single drop, and do one hell of a number on anyone outside of the precise intended Fortitude range. Throw in the various [Skills] that modified how people interacted with toxins and the sheer power of the people actively working on removing their self-control and it was easy to see how problematic things got when alchemists decided to spend their valuable time cooking up that crap and why she didnt much care about weed. But the information shed just gotten might be useful. A pot farm? Why isnt it there anymore? Its here because its in the middle of nowhere and if we hadnt been searching for a missing hiker, wed never have found it. Now that growing it is legal, no one would ever work up here. Who would have known about the farm? Elena asked. That little tidbit had not been in the briefing materials, just the fact that there was a smallpound up there. Anyone who worked there, I suppose, the Sherrif shrugged. In other words, it seemed likely that at least some of their enemies would be exceedingly familiar with the terrain. She quickly shared her worries with herpanions, and then they kept walking in silence, mentally preparing. There shouldnt be too many people here, or too strong ones, but relying on that would be a terrible idea. Better to be over- than underprepared. Were here, the sheriff pointed towards a small cabin in the distance. Thank you, Sir. Now, please, for your own safety, retreat to a safe distance, a burly Marine with a tower shield warned. Captain Benson, I the sheriff spoke up, likely about to say something along the lines of This is my jurisdiction, I have a right to be here, but the Benson cut him off. Unless you can bench press a tank of survive getting run over by an aircraft carrier, you have no business in this fight. The sheriff backed up. The go signal came and the cabin exploded. Not because of anything theyd done, mind you, but because the person inside of it had apparently decided they werent getting enough light. A woman with a seemingly ageless appearance marched out, carrying a walking staff as tall as she was. Her clothing looked as if it had once had a different color, but then been changed into being a deep, dark ck and the highlights an even darker ck, somehow, going beyond the point where the normal descriptor of seems to swallow up the light no longer seemed appropriate. Splinters and entire roof timbers rained down around them and the Marines opened fire. So this is how you choose to end things? Fight the people who represent the threat, when the real danger stems from the fools youre protecting. Every single one of them has the potential to destroy the world and so many of them have almost seeded, yet were the ones you attack? the woman pronounced in a voice that reminded Elena simultaneously of a wildfire and the stench of rotten nt matter, seemingly unbothered by the bullets that flew past or bounced off her clothes. Even the Mariness famed [Esprit de Corps] failed against those defenses, though admittedly, it could only go so far when there were just twenty on the field. Between Captain Benson and Elena, that should have been enough to conquer a cache of goods, but this person she was dangerous. A single step let her cross a hundred meters in an instant, and two more brought her into range of the Marines, her staff hammering into Bensons shield. A massive, ephemeral, cone-shaped shockwave passed through the barrier and swept over the people who should have been protected. A split secondter, the ground underfoot exploded to unleash a geyser of water that flung the woman clear. Elena could tell the attack hadnt been decisive, but at least shed bought them some breathing room. And then, her stomach growled amidst a chorus of simr sounds from everyone around her. That couldnt be normal. Absurd power, a ck color pte, weird voice, an unnatural appearance that was still oddly human, a hunger curse oh, for the love of all that was holy! The warning about the fact that they might be facing Famine, an aspirant whod never died, went out even as Elenas wings snapped open, blue-and-silver patterns shimmering in the sun, carrying her above the chaos, more and more geysers pulled from the aquifer below sent towards her foe. As Famine charged once more, the Marines spread out to provide open lines of fire while Benson took to the front, ying bulwark. The ck cloth began to fray under the sustained gun-and-spellfire and Benson loudly proimed [Nexus of Conflict], voice booming across the empty field. Famine switched targets at thest second, for no good reason choosing to hammer away at his shield. Ok, that was one hell of a nasty tank ability. But the problem was she only realized far toote. Her mana pool was already at two-thirds full and still falling, even when she wasnt actively casting anything. Throw in the fact that her stomach was now constantly growling and it was very obvious what the problem was here. Every resource they had was being drained just by being near this woman. And then, Famine rammed the but of her staff into the ground. Every nt within a kilometer withered away to practically nothing, her attacks began to push Benson back and it felt as though Elenas stomach was trying to digest itself. A wave of the ck-d womans wand caused several Marines to outright copse, seemingly reaching the end of their rope. [Wave of Rage] sent her flying once again, [Crushing Depths] smushing her into the ground, but it didnt seem to hurt her much. A pounding headache rudely announced its presence, and Elena finally took the chance to look at her Status, because she really couldnt imagine what was happening now. [Health Status: Starving, Suffocating] Oh that was not good. Starving was obvious, but whatever her foes [Skills] were, they were draining everything that could support life, even the very oxygen from the air. This was really not good. Anyone without an insane Fortitude Stat would die just from being in the general area. Major General Gibbs was already working somewhere deep in the background of the party, arranging for reinforcements that would actually be able to do something, but it would take too long. Most of their reinforcements were already in y elsewhere, and everyone else was either not in range or ill-suited for this enemy. Some asshat already gave them all his condolences, promising that Famine would not live more than a few seconds beyond the moment thest of them died due to the nuke that was already prepared forunch. No! Hell! NO! Her water ceased exploding from the ground as the entirety of her focus was turned inwards, to the n. And then, the edges of her vision turning ck, she let herself fall, water rushing up to meet her and wrap her in a massive wrecking ball of waterpressed despite the fact that the liquid couldnt naturally bepressed. She barely felt the moment of impact, but shed treasure the sheer look of shock on Famines face as the two of them flew through the barely stable portal she hadnt noticed for the rest of her days. The pair of them came out in mid-air, falling rapidly. Unfortunately, Famine would probably have survived the impact, so they didnt stop there. The ckhawk holding a pair of portal mages that theyd been teleported near began to splutter and almost outright fell out of the sky just from being around Famine for a few seconds. But another portal, this one farrger, opened with what seemed to be extreme difficulty under them, and both Famine and Elena fell through, hitting the asphalt. Around them, the world began to crumble apart, birds falling out of the air, nts withering away into nothingness and even the energy charging the array underfoot began to deteriorate, but then, it activated, sending both of them several hundred kilometers, straight up. Huge clouds of silica dust exploded skywards as they mmed into rocky soil, floating for an unnaturally long amount of time. The ckness from the edges of her vision vanished even as the final breath of air left her lungs, moisture turning into clouds of sparkling ice crystals before her eyes. But that was alright. Everyone knew her as the water fairy, but she was an Asrai, a fae rted to not just herke, but the moon, whose light energized her. There were two ces where she was at her strongest. Herke in Camelot and the surface of the celestial body that had orbited the Earth for eons. The moonlight wrapped around her, granting her strength, healing her injuries, and most importantly, making up for the fact that she was currently trying to breathe vacuum. On her back, the wings shifted, shining brightly as the colors ran into each other, bing covered in silver mes atop a blue background and white light streamed off her hands. Famines field redoubled in strength as she did something, even draining the moonlight keeping Elena standing. A ray of light punched her off her feet and flung her into the distance, the lower gravity making the force vastly more difficult to resist. Wings beating slowly and steadily, Elena rose from the ground, ray after ray of light punching Famine further and further back. The attacks were still costing her mana, but being vastly empowered by the moonlight. And whatever mobility options Famine had, they were clearly not suitable for low gravity or use in a vacuum. After a disturbingly long amount of time, the battle finally ended, Famines body a bloody ruin. Human (Lv. 151 Horseman of Famine) has been in 500,000 XP gained Now, she just had to get back down to Earth, and somehow make it up to NASA that shed broken their moon portal. Chapter 275: End of an Era Chapter 275: End of an Era Seven separate battles in a single night, zapping all over the globe, at first under his own power,ter being transported by portal mages and the relocation [Skills] belonging to military officers. Never bloody again. If he could avoid it. But Isaac knew that he would go if the opportunity presented itself. The cult had been shattered, that was something theyd managed to confirm for certain. Any given member only knew a few fellow members, and by interrogating every captured cultist, theyd managed to get a far better estimate of their overall number and narrow down how many people were left, a number that hovered somewhere between one and one hundred. Famine, Pestilence, War, and several dozen more of the so-called heroes of the cult had been taken out, including the Kitsune whod gotten away in Lorient. Some kind of insane devourer had met his end at Arthurs hand in d, and Elena had thankfully survived her match with an actual, fully actualized, fifth Evolution Horseman. But they were missing Death, and that was what had Isaac worried. Seriously worried. But theyd almost won, which would just leave him with the original problem, summoned monsters. Everything would be fine as long as no one did anything stupid, but people were people, and across a group of seven billion, someone was guaranteed to do something utterly idiotic. The worst part, though, was that there was very little he could still do prophctically, hed bergely relegated to cleanup duty. Not only that, but he seriously worried about the feeling of relief stemming from the fact the cult was gone would spur people to take more risks when it seemed like the world was a brighter ce. Yet that was quite literally a problem for future Isaac because he couldnt deal with these issues until he learned about them. However, as good at doom-saying as Isaac was, this had been an unmistakable victory. Theyd won, and even with global casualties in the tens of thousands, including civilians, the number of lives saved in the future could not possibly be understated. And he hadnte out of this without anything for himself. Along with a not-insignificant amount of XP, enough to hit the fifth Evolution, five of his [Skills] had hit various thresholds. Fully Geared (legendary, Level XX) The historical definition of a knight is a lesser nobleman who maintains his own set of heavy armor and a warhorse. Therefore, a knight without his armor is no knight at all. And as sturdy as armor is, it can break, get stolen, or simply fall apart if it gets too old. If you want your armor to survive for more than a couple of fights, this Skill is essential. It allows the user to store six full outfits in an extradimensional storage and dress themselves with a mere thought. Armor and clothing is cleaned upon being stored and damage is repaired so long as the required materials needed to rece removed parts are provided. Equipped armor can be reinforced using mana. In addition, armor equipped with this Skill bes slightly tougher than it usually would be. After countless fights where the user has thrown this armor into the path of devastating attacks,st-second switches ruining both a foes ns and the armor itself, this Skill has evolved to allow the user to constantly swap out not just his armor, but individual armor pieces, continuously altering their equipped armor as is needed, restoring damaged equipment by cannibalizing other sets. All pieces can be returned to their original armor at will, albeit while retaining damage taken. Cost: 10 mana to store/equip/switch outfits, 5 mana per second to repair clothing, 50 mana per minute to reinforce armor Oh, nasty shot across the bow there. But also an urate one. The only reason Isaacs track record for ruining his gear so thoroughly that not even this [Skill] could put it back together hadnt be a running joke was that Stagmer was no gossip. And the boost was amazing. Not only had the number of storable armor sets grown from four to six, but hed gained the ability to freely mix and match his gear whenever he wanted. Legendary Blow (legendary, Level XX) A single blow to shatter mountains, raze city walls, or split the sea, these are the things stories are written about and when someone uses this Skill, there is a good chance that too will end up being turned into a story. When Legendary Blow is activated, the user may use any of their Strike/Blow/Shot Skills up to eight (nine due to Manifold Strike Evolution) times to enhance a single attack, massively increasing its power. With every Level in this Skill, the cost ofponent Skills is reduced by 5 %, up to 25%, Levels past that merely boost the already ludicrous levels of power this Skill harbors into the stratosphere. After countless fights where the user has crushed their enemies using devastating attacks at the cost of most of their mana, this Skill has evolved to allow them to remainbat-ready afterwards. When Legendary Blow is used to deal the finishing blow and the user still considers themselves to be inbat, the sword is sheathed in another energy field that provides half the enhancement of the death blow that will remain until it is used or dismissed. [Legendary Blow] had gained a simr increase in stackability, and the threshold bonus was solid. Kill bad guy, gain a weakened echo of the attack that had killed them, powered by their death. It made sense that the death-mana would never go directly into his mana pool, Isaac knew from his other-timeline [sses] that that never ended well for anyone who tried it. Sneak mon, Level max) This Skil grants its user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world atrge, to the point of nearplete invisibility. This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world. After countless situations where it was used to hide in in sight to avoid public attention, this [Skill] has evolved to create a permanent (toggleable) effect that makes supernatural or attention-grabbing disys by the user less obvious. (This effect is powered by ambient mana, ack of such will require the user to power it themselves) And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing the user to grow progressively harder to see the longer they go without rapid movements, to the point where it will take several seconds to spot them even when using obvious and highly visible long-range attacks. [Sneak]s bonus would basically be perfect for repeatingst nights performance, nuff said. A good, solid, increase without a particrly outstanding boost that required him toe up with new strategies for its implementation. [True Cut], on the other hand, had gained a vastly less useful power. True Cut (legendary, Level X) What can be cut? Paper? Flesh? Bone? Rock? Metal? Air? At what point is something too hard to cut, and can you even cut liquids or gasses? What about things with no physical form to cut? Well, with this Skill, the answer is that everything can be cut, no matter how hard, no matter how immaterial, no matter how conceptual it may be. Defenses sundered with a swipe as a magical shield is destroyed in a single swipe or the very concept of armor ceases to function for the brief instant it takes for the target to lose its head. However, not all uses of this Skill are as grand as that. At its most basic, True Cut can be used directly on the effects of another Skill and cut it, disabling it for a period dependent on the amount of mana invested. In addition, the Skill Implements of True Death can be applied to reinforce True Cut, doubling its mana cost. This will increase the duration of the damage caused by True Cut and make it harder to re-establish destroyed effects. IMPORTANT: Concepts cannot be destroyed, only damaged, and will return rapidly, possibly instantaneously, and can only be affected in a small area. WARNING: The cost of this Skill depends on the target and may exceed the users mana pool by a significant degree, attempting to overdraw the mana pool will lead to the users death. Cost: variable, depending on type The biggest problem with that ability was its cost, and using the new power on anything worth cutting would likely either empty or even exceed his mana pool. Cool, but even more situational than the original [Skill]. And finally, one of his earliest [Skills] had finally maxed out. Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level max) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the users regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will be used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the users mana pool. This pools size is Skill Level*50. In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to keep its wielder alive through horrific injuries, it has evolved to provide a speed to boost to all of the users self-healing powers, with the mana cost increasing proportionally to the boost, with a maximum increase of one hundred percent. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, empowering the users recovery to insane heights. Whenever a certain body part of the user hasnt been injured for a significant amount of time, regeneration of that body part can be increased by up to 1,000% (after a week), with this boost halving every time it is used. The mana cost for empowered regeneration is increased by half as much as the regeneration itself. The fact that he could use his healing without having to draw on his main mana pool unless he was badly injured had been beyond useful before, but now, it had grown vastly better. The pools size had doubled, from the [Skills] Level multiplied by 25 to the [Skills] Level multiplied by 50, for a grand total of 1,500 points of mana. A massive gain even without considering the threshold bonus. The longer he could go without damage, the faster he would heal if shit did hit the fan. There might be certain body parts that tended to take repeated punishment, but his legs, for example, he focussed on keeping safe to maintain his mobility. And his heart hadnt taken a lick of damage in years. Well, unless you counted Amy giving him the fright of his lifest Halloween with her Magical Girl Nightmare Fuel costume. Using this ability to its fullest would require him to pay attention to where hed been hurt and vary which body parts he sacrificed to let get hit to allow him tond strikes of his own, but that was perfectly doable. Isaac nced longingly at the Level Up button, but decided to defer that until tomorrow, when hed hopefully be less exhausted. Chapter 276: Evolution, the Fifth Chapter 276: Evolution, the Fifth The fifth Evolution, the final step on the path to power. From now on, every Level would grant 30 Stat points, and the [Skills] gained would build upon your past choices wherever possible, gaining new effects based on your build up to this point. And what a build that had been. [Rogue], his starter [ss] during this second go at things. A means to an end, granting him ess to all manner of [Strike-type Skills], with stealth and disguise [Skills] that formed the basis of his less-than-public efforts. [Undying Wraith], the power to recover from anything, given enough time, the ability to melt into the shadows to buy said time, one hell of a power-up in the form of [Form of Horror], and, of course, it had granted him his de. [dewraith], granting devastating attacks, incredible burst-damage with [I Am The Sword], and the ability to turn all fights into a one-on-one match and force engagements in general via [Grave of Swords]. [Hildebrands Heir] had brought him legendary weapons, and allowed him to grant his allies incredible power. All his allies. [Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit], for the advancement of science, advanced cognition, and, of course, it let Isaac y with fire. Now, how would he finish off this [ss] line? Isaac could feel his palms grow sweaty, even though he should be beyond that by now. Ok, moment of truth. Isaac threw the needed XP into the process of leveling up and it crossed the threshold for Level 150. Congrattions! Youve managed to reach the fifth and final Evolutionary Threshold! You may now choose the ss you will have for the rest of your existence, so deliberate about this carefully, as the consequences of this decision willst for a long time. Fifth Evolution sses grant Skills that have capabilities well beyond any youve had before. Skills that can shatter mountains, if youre offensively focussed. Skills able to protect you from nuclear strikes. And Skills that can affect change on a global scale (within reason). In other words, the sheer power wielded by a fifth Evolution ss holder cannot possibly be overstated, and you must carefully choose which form that power takes. Will you be a terrible tyrant, a warrior who ughters millions in the name of protecting those he cares about, a teacher, who shapes the world through his students, a scientist who unravels the mysteries of the universe, or something else entirely? You may, of course, dy your Evolution in order to gain more Skills, Skill Levels, Aspects and des, but you will not be able to advance past Level 150 without evolving. Here are the best of your possible ss Evolutions: Judgement of the Inferno (legendary) Stone the heretic! Lynch the (presumed) criminal! Burn the witch! why are people such assholes? Why do people burn women who disyed random traits that some asshole decided meant they were in league with the devil? Or even ones whod just been used at random by local leadership of clergy (why would those even want to get rid of specific women, hm?)? Seriously, burning so-called witches alive isnt even half of the nasty punishments that the fire has been used for in the past. Thats why its a good thing that this ss isnt at all about how fire was misused in the past, though it does grant you the power to burn evildoers. The Judgement of the Inferno is the cleansing fire that burns away those who would harm the world as a whole just to eke out a tiny profit to themselves, and others who make the world a worse ce merely by existing. Cleanse this world in sea of me as this ssys bare the sins of the world and allows to you to wield your fire with impunity at absolutely no risk of harming innocents. Einherjar Champion (legendary) You are an Einherjar, inhabitant of Valha and one of the people who will fight against foes able to threaten gods. And not only that, as the first Einherjar of this age, you stand head and shoulders above your future peers, one of the strongest non-gods on this Earth. As an Einherjar Champion, you be the greatest of Warriors. Wait, that isnt enough? The greatest of Warriors. Chop mountains in half, make your enemies piss themselves by ring at them, and smash apart spells even though you shouldnt even be able to touch them. Ok, what the hell was the [System] smoking? No, seriously, what was up with it? When Isaac had gone through the fifth Evolution in the other timeline, it had been slightly different than the Evolutions that had preceded it in the sense that the initial Congrattions! message was longer and far more detailed and that the [ss] descriptions addressed him, the user, directly. But this was a lot more than that. Skim-reading the rest of the descriptions let him spot several more examples of the [System] being a lot more flippant than he was used to. However, at the end of the day, the levity of the description wasnt what defined a [ss], but rather, the content. And some of those [sses] were truly incredible. Assassin of the Logos de (legendary) Logos. Ancient Greek for a whole lot of stuff, actually. It can be tranted as reason, exnation, rhetoric, discourse, and about a million other things. However, despite being a part of an ancient and very much deadnguage, we use words derived from it a whole lot. Logic, for one. But it is also a part of many a science, such as biology. Bios(life)-logos. The logic/study of life. Psychology. Psyche(principle of life)-logos. And countless more. The Logos de is an implement that turns your knowledge of a target into a weapon. Well, a metaphysical weapon, at any rate, one which only exists within the mind and soul of its wielder. The actual killing can be done with any object its wielder decides to pick up, which is empowered to the point where, with enough information, a world-serpent can be killed with a paper clip (although that manner of feat would require intimate knowledge of your foe, all the way down to its gic code, mating habits, scale patterning, digestion method and more). This ss will grant you countless Skills for information gathering, preventing others from doing the same to you in turn, as well as several of the greatest stealth and assassination Skills in existence. And, of course, the ability to make anything you hold The Logos de. Challenger of the Apocalypse (legendary) The Apocalypse. The End of Days. Judgement Day. Many words, many phrases, all describing one singr phenomenon. Complete and utter devastation. The end of everything. But no matter the particrs of the situation described, there are very few people whod be happy to have it ur. However, no matter how many people might hate and/or fear the Apocalypse, there are few who truly fight to stop it. After all, it seems futile, doesnt it? But no matter how hopeless the situation might have seemed, no matter how slim your chances were, you fought. Youve kept fighting from the very instant you knew what wasing. And youll never stop. Even if a chaos god were to descend upon the to swallow it whole, you would still spit in its eye, wouldnt you? As long as there is a single thing you are able to do, no matter how futile it might be, you will do it. You are someone who would challenge the very will of the universe, that be what it takes to end the Apocalypse. This ss will give you the power to fight against the end of the world by giving you an advanced warning when shit is about to hit the fan, as well as one hell of a powerup that is only avable when the world is truly in danger. Should you then survive beyond what should have been the end, youll gain all the tools required to rebuild. There are only a handful of abilities this ss grants that do not require the world ending to be activated. But even those are incredibly powerful, though not world-shaking. Simply put, you are able to borrow the powers of certain beasts of apocalyptic strength, to unleash the full power of the end upon your enemies. Teacher of the World (legendary) Your job is the foundation of society, at the end of the day, it is you who makes the world go round. Without you, modern civilization would probably not exist, even if people dont often think about it. Thats right, youre a plumber! Eh, not really, but seriously, people dont consider how helpful plumbers are nearly often enough, do they? No, youre a teacher. You teach children vital skills for the rest of their lives, and when theyre adults, remind them that you taught them better than how theyre behaving right at that moment. As the Teacher of the World, youre able to teach anyone anything you know, including lesser versions of almost all your Skills (central Skills and Auras are excluded, as are certain others, click here to see the full list). And when you die, you may transform into a library, schoolhouse or other ce of learning and continue living as a Genius Loci, helping people better themselves until the end of time. Ever-burning me of Scientific Ambition (legendary) I. Want. To. Know. Everything. This is drives those who choose this ss. Should you choose to count yourself amongst this number, you will gain vastly increased intelligence, able to strategize rings around even the most capable leaders,prehension of all natural sciences and more! You might not be able to wave your hand and reshape the world, but you know what you will be able to do? Permanently alter the reality people live in as you make a world-changing invention each and every single day. Fearless Challenger of Leviathans (legendary) You might not have ever fought a Raid Boss at a small enough Level difference to formally qualify for the Reaper ss that is the standard legendary ss for those who punch above their weight ss, but youve spent your entire life under the System beating enemies you had no business fighting. As such, youve earned this alternative ss, one which is far harder to gain as you need to consistently beat the odds, rather than merely having to beat a single powerful enemy. As the Fearless Challenger of Leviathans youre able to partially ignore damage taken from extremely powerful enemies, gain additional insight into how to kill them and overall be a far greater threat than your Level would indicate as long as youre fighting people stronger than you. Germanic Legend (legendary) This world of ours is filled with legends, from ones known all around the world to local tales that are at risk of being forgotten with every new generation. However, not all legends belong to ages past, sometimes, new ones are born. Not people with the potential to reach great heights drawing their first breath, but those people achieving deeds that will be written down in history books and talked about for centuries or millennia toe. Youve be a legend in a twofold manner. Youve drawn upon the strength of the past, bing the inheritor of the powers that belong to several ancient legends, and spread out that power to others. And youve be a legend in your own right by changing the course of history not once, but multiple times. While you might have travelled the world to do your deeds, your legend is concentrated in your homnd, making you a true Germanic Legend. While on the soil of a nation with a majority ethnic German poption, you will gain a significant boost to your power, ess to new abilities, and the capability to draw upon other legends of thend. In addition, while fighting in those areas, your surroundings will be incredibly hard to damage by your enemies and you will not cause idental coteral damage. This protection applies to both thends and the people. You have a total of 4,269 ss choices avable, would you like to see the rest? (Note that merely unlocking a ss does not mean that is suitable for you, just that you can choose it. Bing a Baker just because you once managed to make a cake that didnt inflict food poisoning upon those who ate it is not necessarily the best of ideas) Well, those were a lot of choices, werent they? That would take a while to figure out, and hed make sure to look at even the ridiculously long list of possible Evolutions that the [System] did not regard as worth listing outright. It took him several hours, but in the end, he agreed with the [Systems] judgment, the eight [sses] listed immediately were the best possible choice. But which one to choose? Chapter 277: The Choice Chapter 277: The Choice First of all, [Judgement of the Inferno]. Hell no. It might im to not be all about witch hunts, but the description made it pretty damn clear on what side of due process this [ss] fell and it was decidedly the wrong one. Sure, it might have helped with rooting out cultists, but everything else about it just in rubbed Isaac the wrong way. Then, there was [Einherjar Champion]. On one hand, there was nothing bad to say about this [ss]. On the other, there was nothing outstandingly good about it either. It would turn him into a peerless warrior, but not all situations could be solved with violence alone, especially not ones involving systemic problems. [Fearless Challenger of Leviathans], same problem. Powerfulbat [ss], but to hyperspecialized. Admittedly, Isaac was looking to make the switch to something more fighting-focused, but those two were still wrong. And then there was the [ss] that had the opposite issue. [Teacher of the World] was the ultimate force multiplier, but it would also leave him very much vulnerable. If he were able to grant other people his [sses] central [Skills], perhaps it would have been a different choice, but it didnt. Cool option, but it wasnt for him. [Ever-burning me of Scientific Ambition] was another [ss] that was less powerful in its own right but could serve as one hell of a force multiplier. It was also wrong for him. At the end of the day, no matter what Isaac did, he wasnt a scientist, he was something else. A strange fusion of teacher, fraud, and fighter who asionally did tiny bits of original research but overall, despite how things might look on the outside, he wasnt a scientist. Not in the same way Bailey, Amy, Patrick, Raul or Karl were. While Isaac might have dismissed all of these [sses] out of hand, that didnt mean they werent good, though. They just werent utterly top-tier, like the two he had remaining. [Assassin of the Logos de] was probably the most easily misunderstood [ss] name Isaac had ever encountered. It was also one of the most awesome [sses] hed had the pleasure of observing. Ever since hede to this timeline, knowledge had been his weapon, metaphorically speaking. With this [ss], on the other hand, it would be a literal implement of destruction, one able of ying anything possibly including gods? He doubted it was that powerful, and if it was, that he could gather enough knowledge to put use this power to full effect, but not being able to kill literal gods hardly made a [ss] bad. It was a [ss] that let him use his greatest advantage to its fullest, most bnce-breaking effect. It was perfect. And then there was the [Challenger of the Apocalypse]. Hyperspecialized, only truly useful in situations where the situation had already gone to hell in a handbasket, and truly, absolutely, invibly perfect, even more so than [Assassin of the Logos de]. It would be utterly useless unless the situation was truly dire, but if he picked that [ss] and ended up bing obsolete, hed be the first to celebrate. If he, as a person whose sole focus in life was preventing the end of the world, was no longer needed, that meant that the world was safe. Both [Teacher of the World] and [Ever-burning me of Scientific Curiosity] held a far greater potential for long-term gains as long as the world didnt end, but were going to be far less useful in a pinch. [Germanic Legend] was an incredibly ttering [ss] to be offered, but it had one simple problem: it was a German [ss] that would do zilch tobat a global problem. [Assassin of the Logos de] was thebat [ss] for him, but when things truly went from bad to worse, [Challenger of the Apocalypses] would be far stronger. Which left Isaac with a simple choice: did he think hed done enough to save the world? That he could get by just by fighting the normal way, with no singr battle or series of battles deciding the fate of the human race? Optimism, or pessimism? Was it actually a choice between those two, or were the two options naivety and realism? The hell of it was that he could see himself choosing any of these, even [Judgement of the Inferno]. All of them were parts of his path, but not all of them were ones hed like to walk for the rest of eternity. [Teacher of the World] would be almost like a retirement, doing whatever he wanted while teaching the rivals of whoever had gotten on his nerves the most that week on the side. Well, at least if those rivals werent terrible people. [Everburning me of Scientific Ambition] was the same sort of deal. Poking whatever caught his interest, teaching whoever caught his eye, and then watching their antics unfold throughout history. [Judgement of the Inferno] represented the darkest parts of his past, the path he might have chosen to step upon if things had unfolded slightly differently when hed first arrived in this timeline. Annihting his enemies, and everyone else who looked like theyd be a problem. As a path, it was awful, destructive, and something that would turn him into the viin of this story regardless of how things unfolded in the end. But it might have worked. Yet there were only two real options here for the person he was. [Challenger of the Apocalypse], the cautious path that would be at its strongest when things were at its worst. And [Assassin of the Logos de], the path that fit him like a glove, but would be vastly less powerful if he needed strength the most. Isaac sighed. Hed have loved to go the path of optimism, but at the end of the day, he was the kind of person who could see the darkest oues of all issues. And of the two mistakes he might make, one would affect the whole world, the second would only affect himself. Better a wasted [ss] than one whichcked the power to beat back the end of the world. Hoping he wasnt about to make a huge mistake, he picked [Challenger of the Apocalypse] as his [ss]. Challenger of the Apocalypse Central Skills Aspects of the End Power of the Behemoth Wisdom of the Simurgh Venom of Apothis Wrath of the Dragon Sails of the Naglfar Speed of Hati The Leviathans Sea Sekhmets Fire Jaws of Cipactli Presence of an Outer God Final Defiance Skills Book with Seven Seals Defy Un-Nature Call of Gjarhorn Twelve Gemstone Walls of the new Haven Cmitys Crimson Seal Dawn of the Sixth Sun General Skills Aura of Oblivions Touch Ok, wow. Just wow. The [ss] had a pair of powerful central [Skills], one of which was highly unusual. [Aspects of the End] gave a small amount of immediate power but unlocked a multitude of supporting [Skills] that could be unlocked separately to add functionality. Where it would initially just grant the user a stat boost, the upgrades were, well, stupidly strong. The mother of all [Aura] boosts, several different kinds of specialized boosts that allowed for ludicrous stunts to be done, such as the ability to hunt down the moon or shatter mountains. The other central [Skill] would slowly umte mana once it had been bought, only releasing it when its user was facing the end of the world. It would be utterly useless under all other circumstances, but when worst came to worst, it would be the utter MVP. As in, spit into a gods eye and stand more than a snowballs chance in hell at living through it. And that just left the regr [Skills]. There were two basic kinds there. The left column held ones that would serve to prevent the end of the world, while the right was meant to help humanity recover for when the Apocalypse was only halted halfway through and a ton of damage had already urred. Sure, the right column mighte in useful, but Isaac wasnt quite that pessimistic. He might have picked a [ss] only useful under the most awful of situations, but he believed in himself enough to focus on the set of [Skills] that would prevent catastrophes, rather than clean up after them. At least that was the n. First, Isaac had to gain a metric fuckton of Levels, which would get expensive, XP-wise. After all, during the fifth Evolution, every Level cost 20,000 XP multiplied by the Level that you were trying to get to. In other words, even Level 151 would cost three million and twenty thousand points of experience. But Isaac had time, people to train, cultists to hunt, and legions of monsters to ughter. Hed get there in due time. So, it was time to pick up his sword, walk out of that door, and get to work. Chapter 278: Interlude The Last Horseman Chapter 278: Interlude The Last Horseman The space that had once been filled with people striving to end this diseased world. Hundreds of true believers, and thousands of hangers-on who were, at the very least, loyal to the money they were paid. But now, they numbered less than twenty, and every single one of them was visible from the central table, which now only had a single upant. Josefs torsoy sprawled onto the countertop, mirroring his real-world position of having let himself copse onto a rock on some tiny ind in the Pacific, utterly spent. Not that any of the others looked much better, deep lines of exhaustion carved into their faces, the mud and dirt streaking their clothes mirroring the state of their real worlds. He barely recognized them, these werent the heroes of their group, the ones whod obliterated cities even as theyd been worn down by the weight of sheer numbers. His power had taken an absolute nosedive, but it wasnt entirely gone. And with so few of them left, the risk of getting tracked down was far smaller than it had been before. Finding a thread to pull when going after a global organization of thousands was easy. But good luck managing that when trying to find seventeen people among 7 Billion, hiding somewhere on the half a billion square kilometers of the Earths surface area. They might have lost the battle, but he and hisrades didnt need to survive to win the war or reap the rewards. Little over five years to go, and then, the world would learn of the power of [World Bosses]. Chapter 279: New Area of Responsibility Chapter 279: New Area of Responsibility For ying a part in preventing the World from ending another day, you are awarded 7,538 XP (partial reduction). Every single day, at twelve pm on the dot, he got a message like that. Based on how well things had gone in this world, he could probably get up to a maximum of 10,000, but hed never actually reached that point before, his record had been 9,998 with the tagline of (infinitesimal reduction). That had been the day after a particrly disastrous [Raid Boss] summoning in Arizona and basically every form of authority on the had been ready to drop an anvil on anyone who so much as put a single toe out of line. As for what exactly caused these reductions, well, it seemed like anything bad that was also newsworthy counted, be it civil unrest that made the world situation ever so slightly less stable to, well, summonings that went badly enough to be more than a passing remark on the yearly report. The more people were affected, or the greater potential an issue had for spiraling out of control, the more of his daily ie stream was confiscated. Yet even without ever reaching the theoretical maximum, hed get enough XP for an entire fifth Evolution Level in a little less than a year, which was huge in its own right. But the most important bit was that, in fact, the calction was made on a day-to-day basis, so in a very real sense, his ie report also served as a half-decent method of checking the current vibe of the situation, including such things as the number and strength of free monsters running around. Which had made it all the more rming when there were massive reductions without an apparent cause, since something with such a huge impact shouldnt have been able to be subtle. Today hadnt been the first day like that, and it hopefully wouldnt be thest, but at least this time around, it hadnt taken days or weeks to find the bugger responsible for the mess. Unfortunately, this was also the biggest reduction hed seen to date, which meant that the information hed gotten had to only be a part of a bigger issue. For over two years, through Event after Event, including apletely new and unexpected, demon themed, one on June 6th, 2026, regime changes all over the globe, another city-wrecking battle that had cost the cult another five members, albeit bottom-of-the-barrel ones, humanity had somehow not been this close to the edge. But now, there was a real problem facing them. What the fuck am I looking at? Id say its a golem, Isaac answered the United States Space Force Admiral, then turned to the poor NASA techie whod discovered the monster and was now forced to preside the meeting between high-ranking officers, influential S-Rankers, and famous scientists, Can you get me the location data for that picture? Name, location and direction of the satellite recording the image, lens and zoom configuration, Isaac rified. It took a mere two seconds for the picture of a dark brown humanoid figure in front of a starfield to be ringed by a series of cryptic numbers and letters that an astronomer would be able to turn into a workable set of coordinates. Isaac was no astronomer, but he did have the ability to temporarily copy their abilities with [Blessing of Innovation], working out the exact location of the monster in a matter of seconds. He withdrew an earpiece from his storage, put it in, and walked out of the university conference room while saying, Im going to analyze it, Ill be right back. A chorus of confusion met him in response, with several people asking if he was really nning on going out into space. It was a little irritating how many people still held on to their pre-[System] preconceptions. At Isaacs Level and with his focus on Perception, he could see pretty damn far as long as there was nothing in the way, and there was very little in outer space that could block his sight. Worst case scenario, there would be some cloud cover preventing him from looking up from the ground, but getting above those wasnt exactly a challenge. No, the real issue with analyzing stuff in space was actually finding it because space was fucking ginormous. But that was what hed gotten the location information for. [Continent Strider] spat him out in the middle of absolutely nowhere, a practically forgotten corner of Australia, and stared up into a cloudless night, a vast nket of stars covering the infinite expanse of the night sky. It was a pretty sight, but the sight from Earth, even in isted areas, had nothing on the majestic image that could be observed when one was out of the atmosphere. Aaaaaannnnd then there was the monster marring the beauty of the universe, which he found with his eyes after a split second. He had, of course, known what the monster was the instant hed seen the image, but he still needed an exnation for his knowledge. That things definitely Tier 10, going by the Stats. Id guess its The Golem, its too small to be the Walking Mountain and has the wrong shape and material to be the Marsnd Avatar. Fortitude is through the roof, Strength and Agility are concerning, Perception is better than expected, but not high, Magic Stats are in the pits. Its also got some kind of ability that will likely make it hard to restrain using traditional crowd-control methods and I strongly suspect it can absorb earth to regenerate. In other words, that thing was immensely strong, fast, literally impossible to restrain, and damn hard to kill when it was on the ground. There was also the small issue of the fact that this thing did not have a core, or any other kind of weak point. You needed to tear it into tiny little pieces or it would keep putting itself back together indefinitely sort of. The way it worked was that there was one atom of the monster, utterly identical to every other atom in its body, that served as the core, and the way to kill it was to either remove it from its body, or at the very least, to remove matter from around it until it didnt have enough left to animate and this somehow destroyed the thing. In other words, keep hacking off bits, identify which of the pieces keeps moving, attack that one, and keep doing that until you got a kill notification. Maddening endurance aside, the Golem was a pretty standard monster, all things considered. Three meters tall and hard to kill, but it was the very epitome of the concept big thingse in small packages that seemed all toomon in the tenth Tier. Nine Tiers of constantly escting size and strength, and suddenly, you had a powerful monster capable of obliterating cities in short order and it was smaller than a car. The worst offender was probably the Primordial Phoenix, which was only the size of an eagle yet had a jumbo-jet-sized me avatar around it at all times and wielded fire magic capable of melting mountains in short order. In the case of the monster at hand, its Strength and Agility were somewhere above 800, and its Fortitude at 1,200. Isaacs current highest Stat was Agility, and it was only at 900, and his second-highest Stat, Magic Regeneration, was only at 850. Between the, well, monstrous, physical abilities and the fact that it was immune to the standard methods of dealing with creatures like that, it could be a serious problem. Is there a reason I shouldnt go up there and kill it? Isaac asked. Its Tier 10, someone interjected, Isaac couldnt tell who via the earpiece. And its in a ce where it cant maneuver well or ess one of its key abilities, Isaac pointed out, Im not going to go full YOLO, if it looks like itll be too much for me to handle, Ill retreat. But if that thing passes through the atmosphere, the impact alone will be a pain, never mind actually fighting it. I know what I can and cant handle. Does anyone have other objections? Make sure to get some samples. That voice, he did know. Sure thing, Professor Chandler, Isaac said andunched himself skywards. At first, with a jump, then, he reduced his mass to almost nothing, phased to remove air resistance entirely, and unleashed a st of me downwards, causing him to rocket skywards. The real reason he wasnt too worried was that A. space was damn empty and you could be fairly certain that there was nothing nasty hiding, B. he knew that he could beat a standard The Golem under these circumstances, and C. Isaacs first real [Skill] from [Challenger of the Apocalypse] hadnt made so much as a peep. It had been an incredibly difficult choice between [Final Defiance] and [Aspects of the End]. The former would continuously umte mana, to be point of only being full after a hundred thousand years and containing one billion points, which would be at his disposal if, and only if the world was threatened. Outside of that scenario, it did absolutely nothing. Thetter, and its various subskills, was the only personal enhancer in the entire [ss], yet the sheer amount of power it would hold when properly employed and/or upgraded practically eclipsed all of his previous cooldown [Skills] put together. Not to mention that it was insanely flexible. But it didnt have the sheer sneeze and obliterate a [Raid Boss] energy of [Final Defiance]. And these werent the kind of [Skills] where the order in which he bought them would cease to matter once hed bought them both. In this specific set of circumstances, it would, quite literally, matter for the next one hundred thousand years. If he lived that long, at least. But hed had plenty of time to think about it, considering hed had to get another four Levels to unlock the first [Skill]. In the end, hed gone with [Final Defiance] because, well, non-apocalyptic threats could be dealt with by others if worst came to worst. The sheer amount of power he could put into the attack when needed could simply not be undervalued. Final Defiance (legendary) What can one man do against the Apocalypse, one single fragile human against the fury of the very world? Fighting, and subsequently dying well is probably the only thing that most people would be able to do. However, the thing is, there are options to bridge even that gap in power. Cooperation, vast spells on a continental, or even global scale, perhaps even the power of friendship? Eh, maybe those work, but this Skill is a surefire option. It continuously umtes mana while inactive, growing in power, until it discharges in a single explosive burst when it is needed most, the moment when the fate of the very world hangs in the bnce. It cannot be activated for any lesser threats, and automatically triggers in the appropriate situation, discharging all umted mana as it runs its course. The rate at which the mana is used can be slowed, possibly even stopped, by the users will and determination, but twenty-four hours after this Skill triggers, all remaining mana will be lost. The fuller the pool is, the more slowly it umtes (halved with every ten percent progress), and the maximum amount of mana in the pool (one billion) would require around a hundred thousand years to reach. When this Skill is active, it significantly boosts the users Stats, regeneration, mana pool, as well as decreases their foes defenses and recovery ability (even if you dont survive, leave them with a few scars to remember you by, why dont ya?). Current charge: 206,185/1.000.000.000 Synergy effect: dewraith While under the effect of this Skill, the users attacks will gain a devastating additional effect, bing able to sever limbs in ways that cannot be regenerated until Final Defiance ends, even damage Skills, and hack out Aspects (at a high mana cost). The simple fact that that [Skill] hadnt reacted at all meant that the current situation couldnt be too dire. Still, it held immense strength even before the synergy effect was applied. It was unfortunate that the mana charge didnt carry over once the threat was gone, but Isaac was pretty sure that was a visible hand of the creator, a modification made by one of the celestial sides. An obvious nerf meant to ensure the bearer of this [Skill] didnt be too powerful. And he honestly couldnt me them all that much considering that he was pretty sure that injuring a god was within the bounds of his [ss], albeit barely. He was also certain that capability could be found at a fully charged [Final Defiance]. Hed gone ahead and ground out as much XP as possible until, two days ago, hed managed to unlock the second [Skill] as well, which contained a clue to what [Challenger of the Apocalypse] could do at max. Aspects of the End (legendary) The End Times. Armageddon. The Rapture. Judgement Day. Ragnar?k. The End of Days and everything else. Be it the impact of a gigantic meteor, divine judgment or celestial wars, there are things out there with the ability to destroy worlds. Nothing is safe from such power. Yet it is power that can be used to prevent such cmity froming about. Blow up the asteroid, broker peace between divine factions (if your sword isnt at someones throat, they wont listen), or maybe just poke out the eye of the chaos god about to devour the (something that is within the abilities of your ss as long as you y your cards right), if you dare. And such power is what this Skill can give you. In its base form, it will merely boost you, doubling your physical Stats and quadrupling your Mana Regeneration while active, stacking (additively) with other boosting Skills. However, this is merely the beginning of what this Skill can achieve. It can be upgraded to achieve specific things, to harness the power of certain world-ending beings. The ancient bird who is so old its seen the universe end three times over, the snake that swallows the sun to bring about eternal darkness, the biblical sea beast, or maybe even the dragon that is unleashed upon the world on the heels of the Four Horsemen. By drawing upon the power of these mighty beings, even telling a dark god where to shove it is not necessarily off the table. Upon purchase of this Skill, one such aspect will be gained for free (chosen aspect: Speed of Hati), each subsequent aspect must be purchased separately (five Skill points). This Skill can only be activated for a certain span of time every day, but that time can be distributed across the day however the user wants. This time pool refreshes fully exactly twenty-four hours after the time pool was first used. Your time pool is calcted as ten seconds per Level in this Skill. If multiple Aspects of the End are used concurrently, time use is doubled for each one used beyond the original one. By ying a monster of the end times, you may gain a lesser version of its power, weaker than one of the various upgrades that can be purchased for Aspects of the End, but still significant. Should the associated ability have already been purchased, the weaker power is not gained. Furthermore, each unique monster of apocalyptic power killed by the user will increase the time pool by 10 seconds. Time Pool 10/10 Synergy effect: Undying Wraith The time pool of Aspects of the End can be used to also supercharge Aspects, taking their Skills to new heights. Regeneration that fixes limbs in milliseconds, phasing that allows even mana to pass through without causing damage (within reason), and more can be achieved. He would be able to poke out the eye of a chaos god, whatever that was. And considering the wording of [Final Defiance], that had to be what it was referring to, right? Leave scars even if you cant win? Ominous warnings aside, Isaac loved this [Skill]. Hed been so obviously infatuated that Amy had made a version of the Ive only had X thing for twelve hours but if anything happened to it Id kill everyone here and then myself meme of him hugging a [System] box. First of all, it stacked with [Chapion of Mankind] and [Form of Horror]. Even for just ten seconds, hed hold ludicrous power. And then there was the fact that it wasnt a one-and-done ability, he could spread out its uses across the entire day, using up only a couple of milliseconds of its time to make a few incredibly quick steps to circle behind an opponent, then drop the [Skill] and still have most of it avable. Really, though, no single facet of this ability would be more valuable than its capacity for growth. Each time he killed a monster of the end times, which likely referred to [World Bosses], hed get a boost to his time pool equal to the gains from a Level-up, and hed gain a lesser version of the standard [Sub-Skills]. The growth ceiling for this ability was absurd. In addition, the ability to use multiple [Sub-Skills] concurrently would allow him to go full god mode, albeit at a massive increase in cost. There was so much potential packed up into a single ability and its [Sub-Skills], he would be able to spend so much time figuring out new tricks. But a much bigger headscratcher than proper use of this [Skill] had been which upgrade to pick. Aspects of the End Power of the Behemoth Wisdom of the Simurgh Venom of Apothis Wrath of the Dragon Sails of the Naglfar Speed of Hati The Leviathans Sea Primordial Hell of Ymir Jaws of Cipactli Presence of an Outer God All of them were good, but only some properly synergized with his build. Most of them came directly from a creature that caused the apocalypse, but one of his favorites was rted to it in a different way, being an observer. The Simurgh was, ording to some myths at least, an ancient being that had been around for such a long time that it had seen the universe end. Three times over. A manifold existence, made up of thirty birds that, together, became the bird of legend, a mighty beast of splendorrge enough to carry off elephants or whales, wise beyond measure, and the ambassador between the Heavens and the Earth. Isaacs main knowledge was, and had always been, knowledge, and [Wisdom of the Simurgh] was perfect for doubling down on that. On the other hand, Isaac already had a ton of knowledge, and hed had two entire [sses] dedicated to soft power, and [Speed of Hati] was beyond suitable for doubling down on that. And he couldnt forget about the fact that he could also shore up his weaknesses. [Venom of Apothis] was a nasty as-hell poison capable of injuring even the most powerful enemies. [Power of the Behemoth] would give him immense strength for as long as the [Skill] was active, the sheer power it could provide capable of crushing buildings with a snap of his fingers and making the ground tremble with a stomp. [The Leviathans Sea], meanwhile summoned a kind of selectively tangible ocean while giving him insane, preternatural, swimming and underwaterbat skills, which sounded weird but would be so, so useful in the right situations. Either hed get the full, omni-dimensional mobility of being underwater with the swimming boost while everyone else was stuck on the ground, or everyone else could be bogged down by the weight of the ocean while he was fully unburdened. Granted, this one was a bit more niche in its application, but still solid. In the end, he could pick up the other [Sub-Skills]ter, and right now, [Speed of Hati] just felt right. Speed of Hati (Subskill of Aspects of the End) The moon. It has moved across the sky since time immemorial, eternally chased by a wolf seeking to devour it, never tiring, never slowing, always catching up until the beast devours the celestial body during the end of times. This is the power of a being that can walk on anything, be it solid ground or the empty void of space, move at speeds that exceed the orbital velocity of celestial bodies, and devour them whole. While Speed of Hati is active, the bearer of this Skill can walk on anything, gravitys hold on him is greatly reduced and he has his speed vastly increased. In addition, merely by unlocking this Skill, he bes immune to all manner of motion sickness, the negative consequences of moving at high speeds do not affect him and the resistance of the medium he is moving through bes less of a factor (while this Skill is in its active form, medium resistance ispletely nullified). In essence, it more than tripled his speed and allowed him to treat anything and everything as solid ground Thered also been a third [Skill] that hed really wanted to get, known as the [Book of Seven Seals]. A biblical allusion, the scroll that unleashed armageddon as its seals were opened. It was a prophecy [Skill], one that could forewarn him of potential trouble ahead of time, but hed seen in its description that it was limited in how much it could tell him, and how far ahead of time it would give him that information. Too limited. The guaranteed power of [Final Defiance] and [Aspects of the End] had been preferable. As Isaac rocketed through the air, the pale dusk sky became ever more dark, yet at the same time, bit by bit, it gained more and more stars, which became visible as the light pollution from Earth fell away. [Continent Strider] activated a few seconds after lift-off, but it wouldnt do much since he was only traveling 50,000 kilometers. An insane distance on aary surface, but out here, where he could just keep elerating for basically as long as he had mana, there was no air resistance to slow him down and the pull of Earths gravity was already starting to lessen, he could get pretty damn fast. Isaac was just d that his earpiece was one of the new ones, which, ording to Karl, could withstand just about any idiotic stunts you might get up to with it. That particrment had been directed at Amy, but still, Isaacs track record with non-soulbound equipment wasnt exactly great. It also worked by directly manipting the eardrum via telekinesis, rather than relying on air for transmission, and instead of picking up sound, it scanned the wearers mouth and throat and calcted what they would have sounded like if their surroundings had been able to carry sound. In other words, it worked in space just fine, allowing Isaac to overhear several arguments in the background of the video call. The whole affair was shockingly polite, but stripped of all formality and military decorum, it boiled down to bossman, weve got all these toys, including spaceships, we want to use them against the monster vs spaceships are freaking expensive, this is a Tier 1? monster, that crazy German guy says hes handling it, let him. Not that Isaac could me either party in the argument. Spaceships were awesome, but they werent particrly good just yet. They might be armed with abination of half-decentsers and particle beams, but they were fragile as hell, didnt hit particrly hard, and while humanity could make some damn fine railguns, they were banned from being mounted on space-based tforms for fear of being turned on the. Light-based weaponry refracted when fired through the atmosphere, railgun darts, on the other hand, just got faster. As for the ships themselves, there were basically two kinds. The civilian ones that basically amounted to sealed containers that can be moved with the owners [Skills], of which around a thousand flitted around the sr system, and the military ones, which heavily relied on tech that was nowhere close to matching the arcane in terms of power or useability, but didnt need specific powers to use either. And neither was suitable for fighting the Golem. Itd just tear off a part of its body and throw it with enough power to tear straight through a starship, lengthwise. It wasnt a tactic the creature liked to use, considering the cost, but it was one they all knew to use. After almost an hour of travel, Isaac got ready to strike. He projected his [Aura] forward, sweeping the area behind and around the monster. Once he knew there was nothing nasty waiting in the wings, he attacked. Countless replicas of Old Reliable appeared, gathering around him, and braced against various parts of his body. Without an atmosphere to create drag and now that he was no longer elerating, they werent moving at all rtive to him, so he might as well not have been moving at all, allowing him to carefully arrange everything. The end result was guaranteed to wind up on some website as the dumbest finishing move of all time, considering that he was doing this in full view of several satellites, some of which were actively paying attention to him, but he didnt care. It aint stupid if it works also applied to things that looked stupid. A split-second before impact, Isaac activated [I Am The Sword], transforming from a rough assembly of des that would fall apart at the slightest sneeze to an indestructible, uneleratable, ball of des moving at speeds that outspeed sound by an order of magnitude. He hammered into the Golem, which was moving far more slowly than he was, and mmed into it like a godsdamned meteor. The consequences were twofold. Firstly, the monsters earthbound momentum was entirely negated and it was even pushed slowly in the other direction, though in due time, Earths gravity would pull it back. And secondly, the monster had been hacked into over twenty different pieces, only one of which was still moving. Now came the long, long process of turning back around to finish it off for good. For this, he used [Speed of Hati] in incredibly brief bursts, the ground under his feet turning solid for brief seconds so he could kick off them to bleed off a little momentum, then waited for his bruised legs to regenerate, and repeated the method until he was moving back towards the Earth, albeit slowly. This time around, he swept past the monster at only a few meters per second, giving him plenty of time to torch the apple-sized animated lump of mud with Prometheus Wrath. The Golem (Lv. 160) has been in. 10,000 XP gained No Aspect, though. Ah well, it wasnt like he was here for those. He gathered up thergest pieces of the monster for Chandler and began his return to Earth. The monster had been decently easy to beat due to how it wasnt at home in space. But where the fuck had ite from? The good news was that someone spotted the source. The bad news was that he was all the way back at the university when that happened. Sigh. Chapter 280: There are Laws even in Outer Space Chapter 280: There are Laws even in Outer Space What am I looking at? Isaac asked, staring at a mess of rocks, a shattered civilian starship, and several the Golems floating in space. Earth-Moon Lagrange Point Three. Its under a cloaking spell, but we managed to pierce it when we focussed our observation satellite on it. Why did it take this long? Isaac asked, Shouldnt we have been able to backtrace the monsters trajectory pretty easily, considering that it cant maneuver in a vacuum? L-3 is nowhere near the trajectory, the tech reported and Isaac could feel a cold shudder running down his spine. Are you sure it came from there? Isaac asked. Orbital mechanics might be wonky and often counterintuitive, but he trusted the NASA engineers to know how to backtrace something like that. Yes, it ejected several globs of its mass to redirect itself during its flight. Well, that wasnt good, and it might be even worse. On one hand, the monster with a literal rock for a brain figuring out orbital mechanics was scary. On the other hand, if that thing had not figured out that it should hide its origins but also devised a method of doing so from scratch, it said some ufortable things about that monsters intelligence. Or maybe Can you scan the space around L-3, and check if any other monsters have been thrown towards the Earth? And see if you can find any other redirection globs? Clearly, Isaac hadnt been the only one with that thought. Do you have any idea how hard something that small is to The techs protests were shut down by a withering re from the Space Force General. Why do you think that monster went flying through space? I think the bigger question is why the others stayed put. Can the spaceship be identified? The constant barrage of questions didnt get them very far for a long while, until some of the gaps got filled in. *** How many golems are floating out there? Bailey asked, utterly aghast. A good thirty, all over the ce, General Sciuto, the Space Force officer whose name Isaac had finally learned, summarized, How long have they been throwing each other at the, until thisst one was finally on target? So the monsters werent smart, theyd just been at this for a while. And sure, the re-directing by tearing off and throwing body parts wasnt exactly a normal thing for creatures to do, but it all boiled down to a very simple principle, that of any action will have an equal and opposite reaction. Or to put it even more simply, recoil. A single creature, that had already been mostly on target, had figured out how to use this trick. As the saying went, even a blind squirrel would find the asional nut. Around two days, if the pattern holds at Tier 10, Isaac said, Would I be correct to assume that you have some kind of space-based redeployment [Skill], General Scuito? I was hoping you might be able to take care of things? Scuito sounded almost sheepish. L-3 is currently over a light second away, and considering that Id have toe to a dead stop to fight them, it would take me the best part of two days to do that. Id be willing to do it in an emergency, though, Isaac said, leaving the you cheap,zy, bastard an unspoken implication. It was bad enough that the Space Force had missed the vanishing of a civilian spaceship even though they were the biggest monitoring agency up there. Once the hunk of metal, which had been crushed like a tin can, had been identified, it hadnt taken long to figure out what had happened. Locate the starting point, check various security tapes around the time of departure, see who you can reach of the people who could have taken the ship out, etc. It would have been easier if spaceships had been required to file manifests the same way ships or airnes did, but the regtions there were fairlycking. The fact that they needed to beunched from the moon was well reinforced, as were the dire threats leveled against anyone who got close enough to the that there was a risk of a crash, but that was all. Still, theyd figured out whod gone missing and worked onwards from there. Arge collection of various heirs of industry leaders, old-world aristocrats, and more of the barely an adult, yet possessing more money than sense crowd had decided theyd figured out a way to easily farm Tier 10 monsters despite the strongest of them barely having reached the fourth Evolution. The hell of it was that that kind of Level gap would have been surmountable if they hadnt been dumb enough to go after a Tier 10 foe. And where is the original monster? another Space Force officer asked. Isaac almost rolled his eyes. A new monster had appeared since theyd started observing, the answer should be obvious. Is there a reason a nuclear strike isnt viable? Scuito asked, addressing the scientific part of the conference. Wed send them flying all over the ce and tracking down individual monsters would take a long time, Isaac pointed out, Explosions are weaker in less-dense mediums, and these monsters are strong enough that they could survive a hundred-kiloton, point-nk, explosion even in the atmosphere. A hundred kilotons was the standard yield of the nuclear warhead used by the Space Force. And something stronger? one of the [System]-scientists asked. This time, it was one of the NASA engineers who answered, though his reply took the form of a facepalm. The area on the monitor is mostly vacuum, and a lot bigger than it appears due to how [Skills] affect the feed to fit more on the monitor, Isaac exined before things could get tenser, Creating an explosion big enough to take one of those monsters would require the strongest nukes we have. Taking out all of them would require a sizeable chunk of the US nuclear arsenal. There are simple solutions here, weve got people who can kill those things, especially with how vulnerable those things are up there. We just need to get those people up there as well. Uh, I can go, Patrick volunteered from his position at the door, I should have a week without any important events. He might havee in just a second ago, but hed figured out how to pick up sound through his [Aura] a while ago and been eavesdropping for hours. Mr it was almost painful to see Scuito trying to recall Patricks name, but Isaacs colleague wasnt on the world stage particrly often, so it was somewhat understandable. Mr. Lerch, thank you for offering. Isaac was pretty sure an aide had told him that. How certain are you that youll be able to defeat a Tier 10 monster? Scuito asked. As certain as I can be without trying it out. I work best if I have time to prepare and know my opponent. Patrick exined, with Isaac nodding along sagely. Patrick was extremely capable but rarely had the time to shine as new monsters tended to fall to people with more immediate, in your face, kinds of [Skill]sets. But give him prep time well, there was a reason Batman with prep time beats everyone was amon argument that cropped up when it came to power scaling. A person with versatile capabilities and the mind to adjust their methods to deal with the problem at hand could be terrifyingly dangerous. After another five minutes, the team to deal with their foes up there had been assembled, and Isaac switched his focus over to analyzing the overall situation. He needed to start figuring out how to prevent a repeat of this situation, who to bug about setting up a proper monitoring system for people leaving monsters behind in random spots, be it deliberate or idental. He also needed to take an in-depth look at how his daily XP was influenced by off problems. The Golems had clearly been spawning for a while, but he hadnt gotten a reduction until one of them had over three-quarters of the way here. That little trick was clearly not one he could rely on, not until hed fully figured out its intricacies. But he had the time, given that Patrick would be taking care of the problem. *** Outer space was huge in a way that was impossible to grasp without having witnessed it. So big, in fact, that sensory [Auras] in the standard configuration that Isaac had taught him was useless once you got out of low orbit. But between the pair of them, Isaac and Patrick had figured out how to adapt a while ago. Instead of creating a widely dispersed field of thing auric threads, youpressed your [Aura] into a single sheet, infinitely narrow, and rotated it around you like an old-school radar. And once you found something, it wouldnt be identifiable through your [Aura], the resolution would be too bad, but there was a simple solution for that as well. Turn your head around and look at it. With, you know, your good ol Mark 1 eyeball not that the eyes of anyone with the [System] could really be considered basic. On Earth, that trick wouldnt work, you needed to see behind walls, through buildings, and underground, not to mention that information overload was functionally guaranteed if you extended your [Aura] out that far. The point was that, out here, stealth was damn hard, and there were only really two kinds. Not being noticed in the vast endlessness of outer space, or hiding behind something, but barriers were few and far between. Active stealth did work as well, as proven by the hidden mess at the Lagrange point, but generally, speed was the antithesis of stealth. Anything magically hidden would not be moving particrly quickly, and at that point, your [Aura] would sweep over it before it could get within striking range. All in all, it worked just fine, except for one small issue one did not have line of sight from the inside of a starship. Would you stop doing that? one of the independent mages snapped for the dozenth when he saw Patrick stick his head through the wall for the nth time. What is your problem? Patrick responded, also for the dozenth time. Because you cant just why cant you just fucking sit still? Yes, its space, yes its cool, but can you stop acting like a toddler who some moron decided to give an energy drink to? Patrick pulled a blob of the Golem dirt from his inventory, Ive been gathering these, the monsters eject them to try and redirect. What have you been doing? Wait, how did you those shouldnt have been in ra- what on Earth? the mercenarys eyes bugged out. Tier 10 monster parts were at a premium, only a small handful had been summoned so far, and when that happened, they were ganged up on by high Level people who razed the entire area down to bedrock. These things were known to be powerful, but overkill still worked, so overkill was the go-to method. Mr. Lerch, pleasee to the port casting room, Mr. Lerch Patrick was already halfway to the room in question by the time the message began repeating. At fifty meters in length, the Oregon was on the small side for a space-based warship, but its design was meant for rapid upgrading. Compact mana-to-electricity converters powered the ships standard tech, while demon blood reactors were currently the power source for the four guns, but they could easily be swapped out in the course of a couple of days, should something more suitablee along. The internalyout and magical gravity were likewise not fixed, the metal tes that made up the walls and floor could be rearranged, and gravity would then be provided by rune-covered stic carpets that took mere seconds toy. And the guns were interchangeable as well. Two particle beam turrets, oneser, one missile battery holding four bomb-pumpedsers, and two casting capsules, which were basically force-field domes that would let spells go out, but held in the atmosphere and provided protection that was actually slightly greater than that of the hull. Yet a week ago, the Oregon had had six of these, and two weeks ago, it had been armed with foursers and two missile batteries. People might be able to go out into space now, and many did for the sheer novelty of it, but that wasnt the same as knowing how to properly act out there, and the official guidelines changed every other day. In the end, despite having the whole universe open, a lot of people were still staying down on Earth. Patrick entered the casting bubble and manifested his grimoire. His newly designed [The Golems Bane] was an effective spell, but it was incrediblyplicated, and this situation was a little too dangerous to use as training. The monster had been picked up by his [Aura] a while ago, so finding it with his eyes had been easy. It looked like the very embodiment of power and menace despite the fact that it was floating freely in empty space, where it should be unable to hurt them. Brief bursts of energy flew through his [Aura], being imperceptible to the human eye. The Oregons guns. Each shot tore through space at the speed of light, hammering into the monster and sending it spinning, sh-frying its surface, and removing small chunks while turning the flesh below into ss. If they kept firing at that rate Patrick stroked his non-existent beard as he made a mental calction just seventeen hours of this until they won, if the main molecule was somewhere close to the center, not hidden on some random body part that wasnt being targetted. He really hoped things wouldnt take that long. And unless he was severely mistaken, they might not even have enough fuel to keep that up for that long. The mana converters could power all standard systems as long as a single person was still alive onboard. Meanwhile, the propulsion was provided by a VASIMIR drive, which converted neutral gas to sma, then ejected said sma via electromaism. As long as they still had gas, the convertors could power the engines. But their supply of munitions was vanishingly small byparison. They were going to ask him if he could summon and kill a Demon Lord for more fuel, werent they? One of the Oregons four missiles was fired, causing the entire ship to tremble slightly. Unlike the light- and particle-based weapons, Patrick could track it until it detonated and the Golem went spinning, missing a chunk the size of a medicine ball. They didnt have enough missiles to guarantee a kill either. Patrick tapped the inte, Id like to try something, can you keep the ship steady for the next five seconds? Stable for five seconds, starting now, the reply confirmed. [The Golems Bane] shed from his hands, but before it could connect, the next salvo ofsers and particle beams impacted, sending his intended target flying away once more. Magic, while it could be pretty fast, was not a light-speed weapon. After a minute of terse conversation, Patrick managed to convince the bridge to stand down long enough for one of his spells tond. Alright, from the top, [The Golems Bane], he whispered and a light-grey bolt shed from his hands, striking the monster that was now almost twenty kilometers away. It didnt appear to do much, visually speaking, but ording to the [System] message, it had still done quite a bit. The Golem (Lv. 160) has been in. 9,998 XP gained (10,000 XP base distributed across 3 people as per their contributions) His spell was one he was inordinately proud of, perhaps to an unhealthy degree. In essence, it was a modified barrier spell. Charged with 5,000 points of mana, it would hit the monster and, from the point of impact, project forcefields between the dirt particles, then scan how the bodypensated for the intrusion, and then copse whatever energy was left around the master molecule, cutting it off from the rest of the body. And if the initial mana wasnt enough, it would mark the master molecule so that subsequent attacks would be able to avoid spending so much mana on locating their target. Unfortunately, two casts of this spell were the maximum his mana pool allowed, but apparently, that was enough. The inte crackled to life. Can you do that again? Give me a bit to recover, Patrick responded, And next time, please dont shoot the target while my spell is in transit. Or move the ship while Im casting. Barring the need to dodge or preempt enemy attack, once weve been informed of your intention to attack, we will not fire or maneuver. And that was how they spent the next week. They got into a position where he could hit the Golems but they couldnt strike back, kill the monster, and move to the next one. And again, and again, each maneuver taking seemingly forever. The novelty of outer space wore off after two days. Chapter 281: Interlude Habicht Chapter 281: Interlude Habicht So, Isaacs now called the Sage, right? I was thinking we need epithets as well. How about you go by Duck, Amy? After all, that, that tends to be everyones first reaction when you show up on the battlefield. Or maybe Duckie? While Arthur was being a bit hyperbolic here, he did have a point. While Amy was a master of artillery and would never hit an ally, it hardly felt like she had things under control to the guy on the ground when the ce one had been less than a second prior had been obliterated. The jokes continued until all the members were there. It was a good thing that the members of the Round Table both feltfortable making jokes and were capable of packing in those jokes once they were no longer appropriate. So, space, Jason stated ndly, What are we doing about it? The Ankou Aspects are no longer optional, if it at all fits your build, youre taking it, Isaac stated, I think Im meeting all of you during the next month? Handoff should be easy. Thanks, Arthur said. I have a meeting about potentially setting up defenses against potential space-based enemies in an hour, Habicht informed the group, Im for it, obviously. The reasons are that we cant control summoning out there nearly as well as we canside and in case someone decides to start chucking rocks, it would be for the best to have defenses in ce. Do you have other arguments for the blockheads? How about aliens? Isaac suggested. Ill need to prove that, Habicht dryly pointed out, Conspiracy theories are going to get me nowhere. Ask them whatnguage the [System] was originally written in, Isaac suggested, There are a lot of linguistic quirks that appear not just when you switch the disynguage, but persist in allnguages spoken today. Might be an aliennguage. There are also people who unlocked [Heir-sses] with no historical or mythological base we know about, with names that dont linguistically match any knownnguages today. We also dont have any reason to expect we are alone in the universe. Do you believe in aliens? Jason asked. Yeah, I Isaac trailed off, likely having realized that the topic hadnt been talked about since before Jason, Fenrir and Dr. Han had joined the [Round Table] the same time Habicht did. It just wasnt something that came up often. Oh, by the way, we might have trouble with little green men a few centuries down the line, had been a throwaway conversation years ago, soon forgotten with all the other trouble theyd been having. When the first Event happened, I swore at the sky, and Loki appeared in front of me, Isaac began to exin, He might be a troll, but he doesnt lie, Im pretty sure thats because seeing people try to outsmart his limitations is funny to him. And he was very specific about how he might have been the being from the myths, but not our god. So what if he was talking about other species, somewhere out in the universe? Or he could have been referring to the fact that hes a Norse god, not a German one, Dr. Han threw in, Everything we know about that being is that it likes to mess with people. I wouldnt rely on anything it said even if it really didnt lie. Jason was less delicate in his response, Please tell me this is the part where you tell me youve written up a whole n for dealing with an alien invasion and you just forgot to make sure we knew where to find it? For the first time in a long while, Habicht got to see Isaac look abashed. Its one page, and basically ready try the diplomatic route, if that doesnt work, punch them in whatever their crotch-equivalent is, Isaac exined. Inter-species nut-punching, Jason murmured, Kinky. Amy, whod been sitting next to him, hung her head and sighed theatrically. Weve got plenty of time before anything like that bes necessary, Elena pointed out, Thanks to Isaac, we have the broad timeline without his intervention up to 2034, and there were no alien invasions then. The paradigm might have shifted down here, but that shouldnt affect outer space too much, so we can n for potential aliens when the is no longer in danger of imploding. The Events are a [System]-wide change, so if our hypothetical aliens have ess to it as well, things could change, Isaac pointed out. Elena shrugged, We do need to keep it in mind. Honestly, it doesnt matter any more now than it did five years ago, Habicht interrupted, We can hypothesize ourselves all the way to the insane asylum, but we have a set of real, present problems we need to deal with. Lets table the ET discussion and focus on the problems in the here and now. So, we know that aliens are an argument for proper orbital defenses. Anything else *** As strange as it might have been to deal with the Round Table and its general levity for a career government employee, it was infinitely more enjoyable than Habichts day job. Director Habicht, youve proposed that not only do we champion the creation of an orbital defensework with NATO, but if necessary, Germany foots the bill? Not to mention, he had a shiny new job, with a shiny new office, and apleteck of fieldwork. Being put in charge of the entirety of the Bundesargentur fr das bernatrliche after the previous director had been promoted to Minister of Defense was an honor, a way for him to do a whole lot of good, and a pain in the ass. At least it hadnt locked him into a logistics [ss]. Hed gained his fifth Evolution after a series of training exercises with both Professor Baileys team and the Hunters Guild, bing the [Commander of the Paranormal Front]. It had [Skills] for direct action, spells, several boosting abilities, knowledge-granting, etc., but overall, it was great at fighting anything that shifted the overall paradigm in a supernatural way. Outside context problems, or rather, things that would have been outside context problems six years ago. It granted enough personal capabilities to satisfy his innermando, but was nheless extremely useful for his current position. Im proposing we do something about a problem, within the bounds of what politics allow, Habicht pointed out, So, how to phrase it, who do we bring the request to, and how long will we have to wait for something to be done about it? As he said this, he threw a dark look at Lauterbach, the previous holder of his position and current Minister of Defense for the Federal Republic of Germany. Thats going to be expensive, which one of you is going to give up a part of your budget? Cant we stick to monitoring and dealing with issues by sending people up there? How many people are able to fight in space without fragile life-support devices? General Horn asked. He was Habichts military equivalent, in charge of military adaptation to the [System]. Germany is lucky that we have some S-Rankers wholl look at a problem, ask how they can deal with it without stepping on any toes, and then fix it, all without the need for begging or bribes. He continued, But shouldnt rely on them, thats just polite. Not to mention that they could just stop helping if we treat them like its their job to clean up our messes. I wouldnt even me them. Also, weve got more issues than just space summoning, Habicht threw in, Have any of you considered how were going to deal with space-based threats of a more sapient nature? Humans or Aliens? Horn asked, bemused, Ive been bugging the bosses about some basic precautions for years, theyre not going to go for that. Both, Habicht said, We know that space-based summoning is a problem, it wont be long until therell be enough ships out there that we can no longer identify which ships are supposed to have guns at a nce, and we dont know if were alone in the universe. For arguments sake, if there are aliens out there, why havent we heard about them? Horn asked. Space is big, and takes forever to traverse. Weve advanced more in the past three years than we have in the fifty years before that, Habicht pointed out, Portals even allow us to move faster than light, so we know there are ways around that limitation. The current portal range record is two-point-seven-three light seconds and that experiment blew the array apart during shutdown, Horn replied. And that is several orders of magnitude greater than the first portal use, and that progress took only a few years, Habicht rebuffed. He and Horn had a good thing going ever since theyd gotten on one level sort of. Military and civilian power structures didnt line up perfectly. Yes, youre both on the same page about this, Lauterbach sighed, But Im not the only one that needs to sign off on this. Do you have any actual arguments about aliens existing? Habicht tossed a folder onto the table. What you have there are thetest findings of bleeding-edge biological research into alternative bases for life. As I understand it, this details the fundamentals of silicate-based life, lifeforms using an entirely different set of amino acids, as well as an alternative metabolism utilizing fluorine in ce of oxygen to generate energy, the potential utilization of sugars other than the ones used by practically all Earth-based life, and more besides. Everyone stared at the file as though hed just tossed a venomous snake on the table. He took mercy on them, though. The relevant section is just thest ten pages, he exined, It points out how many nearbys might not only contain human-like life forms, but also ones based on alternative chemicalpositions, then proceeds to extrapte how the long it will likely take for a human-like civilization to reach us here, and vice versa. That sounds like a lot of hypotheticals, Lauterbachmented. Lab-grown life forms exist for each of those alternative metabolisms and base building blocks. And need I point out that in the past, predictions where post-[System] technology will go have been scarily urate? Ive talked to Professor Bailey and Dr. Thoma. If we need either of them as expert witnesses or anything else, theyll be there. And theres ten times more data they can give us if we ask for it. Habicht trusted both of the scientists with his life, and right now, hed discovered one more reason why that was such a good thing. Unlike his various peers and superiors, he didnt have to go over it with a fine-toothedb. So you already talked this over with them before you ever brought this up with me? Lauterbach asked, Why? Because we both know how these things always go, Habichtmented dryly, The obvious, necessary, thing isnt being done for some reason or other, and we either spend a year locked up inmittees, or we figure out a deal. So you figured out a deal before anyone could ever even bring up the idea of a meeting, Lauterbach sighed, How sure are you that hell follow through. Horn snorted at that, Weve both met the man, you should know how he is. If its necessary, getting it done is more important than money, power, or recognition. Like I said, Isaac Thoma wont be a roadblock here, hell be the biggest asset we could possibly have. Its everyone else we have to worry about. So, we need a way to make sure that any defenses cant be turned on the, and weapons that will have an actual effect on the kinds of opponents theyll be up against. Remember, one of the US newest warships would have needed almost seventeen hours of constant bombardment to take out a stationary target. That kind of time wont work in abat scenario, Habicht added. And once we have a n, we need a cost-effective n to implement it. Somehow, the two hours that followed were more productive than thest ten meetingsbined. But even that didnt guarantee theyd get anywhere with all the people that needed to be convinced. Still, he was confident, and on the off chance that things wouldnt work out there, the situation would still resolve itself. Somehow, magically, without anything he should know about happening, it would resolve itself. Chapter 282: World of Aspects, The Hydra Chapter 282: World of Aspects, The Hydra Two years to get the necessary [Skill], three days to fully incorporate it into his fighting style, one week to wait for a certain [Archsage of Magic] toe back from outer friggin space because Isaac didnt have enough mana to summon the needed monsters and Patrick had the biggest mana pool of the entire team. Not that Isaac begrudged him the chance to show off a little, he so rarely had the opportunity. It still left him in an irritating situation, for now. Normally, this would have been the time to prepare even more nasty surprises but hed had years for that. So for once, hed wield his greatest foe as a weapon against the grandest power in the universe. With paperwork as his weapon, hed kill time itself. Requests for [Skill] training. Requests for actual training. Requests for monster materials Oh, request for the [Blessing of Innovation] so someone could read their favorite book for the first time again. Sure, that was an interesting way of using it and Isaac would be lying if he imed hed never done so, but really, he was being very judicious when handing those out to others. Yet there were several other interesting requests for that [Skill], including a few from Seoul. Hed pop over there in a few hours, maybe. He did have to deal with all this paperwork at some point, if Patrick wasnt back once he was done, that should be a worthwhile use of his time. And if he didnt, then hed send back a message along the lines of [Skill] use granted, but youll have toe to me. But still, pa-per-work. Why had he thought this was a good idea? *** Ready? Isaac asked. If something goes wrong, use the Spell prepared for that specific monster and fry it, if it survives, call Amy and try together with her, if that doesnt work either, retreat ande back with the whole team, but that shouldnt happen because no monster is going to be in a state to fight me after youre through with it, Patrick rattled off. Unprompted. But then again, Isaac now one-hundred percent knew that Patrick was aware of the n. Better to go over things a hundred times as often as necessary than to have someone not know how the n when things came down to the wire. The others had alreadye and gone, charging up the circle, leaving Patrick here as a precaution in case shit really hit the fan. After all, these were Tier 10s, so precautions were necessary. Unlike the Ankou hed fought two years earlier, he wasnt a good counter to these things. And up until now, he hadnt had any new [Skills] to bring to bear, only slightly higher Stats. Up first, the Hydra. Hydras were interesting monsters, starting out at the third Tier with three heads and toxic blood. Then you had the five-headed version at Tier 5, which also had an extremely dangerous bite, the even nastier seven-headed version which could spit its venom and then, there was the Lernean Hydra. Not just the standard Tier 10 Hydra, that one was called the Primordial Hydra, but the [Field Boss] version that had far more useful Aspect [Skills]. All around it, the very air itself would be toxic from its emanations, its blood so incredibly dangerous that its deadly power leaked out through its skin. And, of course, the standard powers of the Hydra were amplified beyond sanity, with it having fifty heads, one of which was an immortal prime head that was almost impossible to destroy until the monster was already most of the way dead. Patrick activated the circle and quickly stepped out of the pocket dimension while Isaac stepped up to the te in his regr dragon-scale armor, Balmung held at the ready as the monster manifested. The first thing that appeared was the stench, acrid and biting, like burning chilis mixed with paint-thinner fumes, but it was rapidly followed by the manifestation of its heads until the entirety of the monsters fifty necks were present, each belching green gas. Isaacs [Freedom from Mortal Limits] might make him functionally immune to toxins, but this crap was corrosive enough to cause trouble if this battle went on for long enough. Not that he was nning to drag this out. The monsters first head shot through the space where hed been a split second before, less than a single milliseconds worth of [Aspects of the End: Speed of Hati] allowing him to dodge while Balmung shed up from its position at his side, glowing abination of neon-yellow and ruby-red. Finally, a brief burst of hellme seared shut the stump. One down, fifty to go. Isaac ducked under a spray of venom, not because it would have damaged him on its own, but because it had enough force to push him back, and in this pocket dimension, that would be dangerous. The hydra already barely fit in here, if hit, hed get tossed through the boundary ande flying out the other end, which was far closer to the beast. Springing forwards, ducking under venom spray, sidestepping snapping jaws, running along necks that had been extended too far, cutting all the way. Twenty necks were down after less than twenty seconds, but Isaac could already tell that this wasnt going to work. By the time he won this, hed have run [Aspects of the End] dry and he kinda needed that for the subsequent fights. Hed allow himself to burn two trump cards, and leave the rest in case something went wrong. [Champion of Mankind: The Cleansing me] erupted around him, ck, red, and orange fire condensing around him to form armor that covered him from head to toe, the only gaps being the eyeholes of the Corinthian Helmet that protected his head, an emerald glow shimmering in their depths. Heat washed off him in waves, searing, scorching, mes crisping the Hydras skin even at the [Skills] maximum range. But where the monsters body parts were right next to him, they literally fell apart the instant the wind generated by his movements hit them. There was a counter to this [Skill], sure, but that counter was distance, and distance wasnt something that could be achieved in the pocket dimension. If the monster backed far enough off the edge, it would pop out on the other side of the dome. No retreating, no getting away, no nothing. The mes were so powerful that Isaac couldnt even get close enough to any of the Hydras body parts to cut them before they were destroyed without wasting a considerable amount of mana and [Speed of Hati]. After thirty seconds, only one head was left, looming in the ash-filled air like an angry dragon, ring down at the puny human whod injured the rest of its body. The main head waspletely undamaged, unfortunately. In the original myth, that thing had been literally immortal, so Hercules had hacked it off with a divine sword and left it buried under a rock. Isaac, meanwhile, was covered in ash, monster blood, and there were several scratches on his armor where hed cut a dodge just a little too close. They made quite a pair, didnt they? A human, dirty and dusty. A snake, head raised proudly as it stared down at its prey it might have looked intimidating if it hadnt been for the forty-nine seared-off stumps in the ce where the necks used to diverge, and how the body was looking more and more scorched the further it was from the head. A burst of venom, a brief tap into [Speed of Hati]. A pair of snapping jaws, [Phantom Step] to the side. A body m, and the monster was aligned juuuuust right, where Isaacs de could meet the descending body with every sharpness and power [Skill] he had reinforcing an all-powerful [Legendary Blow]. As useless as the me field around him might have been against the final head when used directly, once the monstersst lifeline had been removed, the wounds were seared shut in an instant. The head continued to flop around for a bit, going into contortions normally only managed by a cat chasing aser pointer, trying to chomp down on him. That didnt work any more than the venom spray did, all that achieved was flinging the body further away. After around twenty or so seconds, the kill notification finally shed up in Isaacs vision, and thest bit of the monster burned to ash in the field of me. At this point, if it had dropped an Aspect, itd be real easy to find if there had been one present. Lernan Hydra (Lv. 160) has been in. 50,000 XP gained Oh well, if at first you dont seed, and all that, after hed figured out what to alter the next time. So, [The Cleansing me] had been a lot more powerful than expected. He hadnt needed the Lernean Hydras Aspect, but he might have, yet his knowledge of highest Tier monsters was more spotty than that of the lower ones. He knew about those hed fought personally, the ones hed watched others fight, but when theyd been summoned, globalmunications hadnt been up to the task of sharing every single bit of information of every monster ever summoned. General strengths, weaknesses, powers, nasty surprises, but nothing beyond that. Isaac had been Level 180 when hed whopped the ass of seven Lernean Hydras in an hour while working with Cade, gotten two Aspects, and left it at that as thered been literal hordes at the gate that needed dealing with. Hed had no idea that the water monster was that vulnerable to fire. Beyond the fact that cauterization blocked regeneration, it shouldnt have burned that easily or maybe [The Cleansing me] was just that powerfulpared to the monster. Hed known enough about it that he knew he could take it, but apparently not enough to avoid overestimating it. It was just that it had been so incredibly weakpared to him when hed fought it the first time around. Bloody hell. After canceling [Champion of Manking] and making some basic efforts to clean his armor off, he headed out to meet Patrick. A bit of conversation, some light verbal sparring on a topic that wasnt particrly important but still somehow worthy of discussion, the others dropped by to reset the summoning circle, and then he could face the damn monster again. This time, he wouldnt be wasting his time ying around with just [Speed of Hati] and instead going all in with [Form of Horror] from the start. With his revised opinion of the monsters strength, he was sure that should be enough. Once again, the monster appeared, the stench somehow managing to be far worse than before, now that it wasbined with the ash of its predecessor. [Form of Horror] might not have gained a big boost in raw power when it had maxed out at Level 30, but its utility had gone through the roof. He could now freely switch between the various forms hed set up based on his Aspects and any non-mana expenditures wouldnt carry over between them. So hed set up the [Skill] around that trick. His opening form was one he called Perfected Amalgan, his standard long-limbed, de-wielding,bo, subtly guarded by illusions and spatial distortions on his skin that would mess with attacks. The boost gained merely by activating [Form of Horror] was enough to carve through several necks, but then, a wave of venom bore down on him. [Form of Horror: Speed Demon] was specialized in speed, obviously. Sleek, wiry, flexible beyond all sanity. Every muscle was off the highly energetic, quickly tiring kind, allowing him to eke out everyst bit of his Agility for a few seconds at most, but he didnt want to keep it up for that long. Dodge, shift back, decapitate, switch to Speed Demon to dodge again, rinse and repeat until that particr form was a panting mess on the ground, but hed already switched out of it and he was at the point where the necks met. [Form of Horror: Acid Horror] was one hed never be in for more than a split second, but in that second, it would inflict horrific damage. A skeleton-thin main body, covered in Lindwyrm acid barely held in by spatial magic and an Ankous spectral robes. A tiny spark of dragon me from the rings of dragon fire organs that covered him caused a small amount of venom to boil, expand, and stter the outer shell all over his surroundings. Right now, what surrounded him was the central nexus of the monster. He was rewarded with not just an ear-splitting screech of pain, but also a whole bunch of weak spots for him to drive his des through. The monster finally managed to at least coil around him enough to restrain his movement, which might have led somewhere if he hadnt had yet another form to draw upon. [Form of Horror: Death Titan] was all about his undead Aspects, abination of Death Knight armor, Draugr flesh, and the spikes of the armor made from the Ankous scythe. That particr weapon was strangely limited in how much he could add to his forms, he couldnt even use enough for a proper weapon.Hed even tried adding just a thinyer of the material over the top of standard spikes, but apparently, that wouldnt fly either. Godsdamnit. But even as things stood, it was enough to make the Hydra howl in pain and it couldnt uncoil quickly enough, inflicting further damage upon itself in its haste. Every single one of those wounds wouldnt heal, would constantly bleed, and leave wonderful gaps he could stick daggers in without them being expelled,ter. By the time [Form of Horror] ran out, the Hydra was down to twenty heads, and hed identified the prime head. And he was currently ankle-deep in blood. Reaching into his storage space, he pulled out a brace of his cursed daggers, and tapping into his ability to remotely wield his swords, plunged each into a wound caused by the Ankou spikes. The Curse of Bloodletting, which would increase blood loss which would require mana to rece, mana which, incidentally, would also begin to bleed from the pool. The Curse of Sundered Health, which would reduce recovery overall. And finally, the Curse of Arcane Suppression, which increased the mana cost of all actions, including regeneration. Throw in the fact that a Hydras capacity for mana recovery was linked to the number of its heads and that thing was screwed. He kept attacking, asionally tapping into [Speed of Hati] to walk on air where the bloodke was too deep, and when the forty-first head was removed, all regeneration just stopped. No more new blood, no more fixing overly stressed muscles from a too-quick movement, no nothing. With how many shallow cuts the monster had sustained from just the spikes alone, it would have been dead in half a minute. Given that it had just lost a head and he hadnt cauterized the wound yet, the monsters remaining lifespan was much, much shorter. Lernan Hydra (Lv. 160) has been in. 50,000 XP gained And the fucker had dropped an Aspect. Aspect of the Lernean Hydra: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Hydra a Hydra. Not just any Hydra, though, but the fundamental essence of this many-headed serpent beast, the monster who fought Hercules himself. A monster able to regenerate from even the most gruesome of injuries as its blood kills those who dare strike it, its breath bringing pestilence and death, and whenever it loses a head, two more grow back, ready to tear apart its attacker piece by bloody piece,pletely ignoring its own injuries in the process, and even its very breath brings death. Nothing can end this beast! Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +20 Fortitude One of the following Skills: Hydras Restoration Vengeful Blood Disposable Organs Myriad Heads Dismiss Injury Adaptive Regeneration Breath of Virulent Toxins His second maxed-out Aspect slot, fi-na-ly. There were a lot of useful [Skills] he could have picked up, from the ability to grow multiple serpent heads to a breath weapon of supreme nastiness, but in the end, he could pick up only one new trick, the rest were going to be upgrades on his previous [Skills]. [Adaptive Regeneration] wouldnt be quite as impactful as it would have been before hed be all but immune to fire, but it was still a vital [Skill]. Adaptive Regeneration (legendary) Getting damaged is a pain. Getting set on fire and being progressively more injured is a significantly worse pain. This Skill ensures that the user will not be washed away in a river of fire or acid, progressively enhancing their resistance to constant sources of damage. For every 1% of the users body that is destroyed, the user grows 1% more resistant to that source of damage for 5 seconds, every time additional damage is taken from the original or a simr source (same monster, elerant of the same type/brand, or spell-type), the resistance is increased and the timer is reset. The resistance is gained at a one-second dy. It was mostly useless against cutting weapons, the injuries those caused were too fine to destroy much of his body, but shockwaves that messed up his internal organs, acid, poisons and acids, frostbite, etc. would grow progressively less useful if he got hit with them in rapid session. Big attacks would be bad for him, as well as slow and methodical foes, but all in all, this [Skill] would help quite a bit. The final upgrade of his regeneration, on the other hand, was simple, boring, straightforward. Also incredibly powerful. Hydras Restoration (legendary) Wanna see a magic trick? Heres a part of my body, now you see it, now you dont. Where did it go? Why, I chopped it off, of course. And now its back! Awesome, right? The Skill allows the user to rapidly regenerate from injuries at the cost of mana. Stab-wounds and cuts are easier to repair than anything that destroys orpletely removes flesh. Regeneratingrge amounts of flesh can be ufortable. Cost: 50-1,250 per second of use, 50 mana per kilogram of flesh restored He could add more mana to speed up regeneration, nuff said. Dismiss Injury (legendary) Getting injured isnt just painful, its also limiting. Even something as simple as damaged abdominal muscles can make standing straight difficult, not to mention the trouble that doing anything with a broken spine causes. While this Skill is active in its normal mode (can be toggled on and off at will), the user is able topletely ignore any and all injuries, but all actions that would be impeded by injuries grow more difficult and draining. Moving a broken toe will be about as difficult as picking up ones phone while moving the same toe with a severed spinal cord might be as difficult as carrying a mountain. However, by paying mana, the user may fashion temporary, phantasmal, flesh that fills in injuries to allow the user to fight at full power. Missing limbs cannot be reced like that, however, it can be used to bridge missing parts, such as acting as an arm as long as the users hand is still present and intact. Up to a quarter of the users body can be reced at once. Cost: 5-50 mana per second This little trick had grown significantly stronger, not just allowing him to work while injured, but also mostlypensating for lost limbs or other forms of support. The cost would be painful, but it would make for a fantastic stopgap measure while he was regenerating. And then there was the final piece of his immortal masterpiece. Well, sort of. He was by no means immortal, hed never be, but still, his foes would need to be increasingly precise and exacting when trying to kill him if they didnt want to fail by default. Disposable Organs (legendary) Organs are annoyingly important and frustratingly fragile. Sad, but true. This Skill enables its user to ensure that the loss of any single organ would note with the usual negative consequences by ensuring that all of these organs can take over the function of multiple others in case of damage. Furthermore, this degree of interconnectivity and redundancy enhances the users overall metabolism. A heart that filtered blood, a liver that pumped blood, skin that breathed for you well, he didnt exactly need thatst one anymore but the boost was still significant. Now, on to killing as many Hydras as needed until every one of his friends who needed one got one, and if he didnt get them by the time he hit the XP cap, someone else would take over. And someone else after that, and so on, and so forth while he went after other Aspects he wanted/needed. Chapter 283: World of Aspects, The Rest Chapter 283: World of Aspects, The Rest It had taken most of the week to get the required Hydra Aspects, mostly due to how theyd had to wait for cooldown [Skills] to be avable again, but theyd done it and now, Isaac wanted to go for the very first Aspect hed ever gotten. There were a few very nasty Tier 10 ephemeral monsters avable, but in the end, simplicity was where it was at. Raw power, a flexible form, aplete and utter disregard for physical objects, all of this made the Archspecter a terrifying threat, but there was very little risk of it getting out if he fought it in a pocket dimension. Nheless, there was a reason this thing hade second. With each new Aspect, he got a t power boost from the Stats, which meant that theyd be rather helpful collectively, but also new [Skills]. And Isaac had set the order in which theyd be acquired so he could take full advantage of his new capabilities. It wouldnt quite be as easy as knocking down a row of dominoes, obviously, but it would still be quite a bit easier. In the case of the Archspecter appearing in front of him, his new advantage was how his freshly improved regeneration would allow him to recover his blood. A simple sh across both wrists sent blood fountaining into the air, where his [Aura of the Crimson Dawn] caught it and gently tossed it back on him, covering his armor, dagger, and sword in intricate patterns of blood runes. It wasnt an expenditure he could keep up for long unless he continuously activated his regeneration to stave off blood loss, but it had just been upgraded, innit? Throw in the fact that [Adaptive Regeneration] constantly reduced the impact blood loss had upon his body and he could keep this up for a damn long time, longer than his foes remaining lifespan. The Archspecter towered above him, seven arms of seemingly infinite lengths shing towards him, continuously reaching for the fragile mortal who was encroaching upon its territory. And then they began to burn. Not with me, but the spiritual power that emanated from the sigils covering him. Theyd push through in time if he was stupid enough to sit still, yet of all the things Isaac could be used of being, stupid wasnt one of them. Crimson-glowing des carved through the limbs, ducking and weaving. With a lesser foe, even an ephemeral being, being literally dis-armed would end the fight. But this thing it could keep regrowing limbs from its central, ectosmic, body until it was dead, all he was doing was slightly disrupting its internal energy. The Archspecter eventually managed to get its crap together, trapping him with its arms, but he threw both Balmung and his kabar skywards, taking huge chunks out of the arms above him, and then leaped, the runes on his armor ring and subsequently dimming as they fried the only thing blocking his upwards movement. One activation of [Speed of Hati] to let him kick off the air to gain more height, during which he called his des back into his hands, and then a second activation let him kick off without solid ground underfoot. But this time, hed been upside down and he was flung downwards like a meteor, armor runes ring back to life a split second before impact. He threw both des into different parts of the ephemeral mess he was falling towards and then he was in, armor crackling as the runes discharged, recharged, and discharged once more. His body burned with cold, the monsters draining touch freezing through his armor. But the Archspecters insides were far less dangerous than its hands, and the runes that had been so capable of repelling grasping limbs were doing one hell of a number on the monsters most vulnerable area. The monster tried to move, tried to get him out of there, but he matched its movements until, twenty secondster, it burst apart with a sound like the tearing of cloth. That had been easy at the low, low cost of a third of his blood volume every other second. Phew, hed barely used any offensive abilities and yet burned almost a thousand points of mana just to keep himself together. He went on to kill nine more of the things, and then Patrick took out ten to hit the XP threshold as well, but between the two of them, they didnt manage to get enough Aspects for everyone, so Amy got in on the action. Aspect of the Archspecter: This is the distilled essence of what makes an Archspecter an Archspecter. Free yourself from the shackles of mortality in oh so many ways, bring death with a mere touch, hunt down your living prey with impunity no matter how far they might run and where they might hide. Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +25 (20 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Magic Regeneration One of the following Skills: Ephemeral Phase Ghostly Freedom Endless Haunting Spectral Touch Spectral Armament Once again, he got upgrades for his three previous Aspect [Skills], and grabbed [Spectral Touch] to round out the build. [Spectral Arnament] was also useful in theory, but it had nothing on his soulbound weapon, making it utterly superfluous for him. Spectral Touch (legendary) In many cultures, touching the dead is either forbidden or only allowed for certain individuals. While there are many reasons one might want to avoid handling dead bodies, this Skill certainly ranks among the best. When touching a target, the wielder of this Skill will cause the cold of the grave to seep into their very bones, reducing their stamina, capability to resist poisons and diseases, debilitating them after 5-60 seconds, depending on their power rtive to the user. At the same time, drained stamina and recovery ability are fed to the user of this Skill. Cost: 100 mana per second (Einherjar Bonus: draining can be projected through weapons) As a fantastic way to stave off exhaustion, it wouldbine wonderfully with his newly upgraded [Form of Horror], extending the amount of time he could use his Speed Demon form. And it was an incredibly useful yet nasty way to take prisoners. Ephemeral Phase (legendary) Once you are dead, nothing can hold you down, no weight, no mortal shackle, no nothing. There is nothing that can stand in the way of this Skills users, who are capable of walking through walls, floors, ceilings, warded buildings, and more besides. Only direct, heavily mana-empowered attacks can hurt them, and even then, it needs to be a very powerful attack, and the user is able to spend mana to reinforce their form. Furthermore, fighting while fully phased will be perfectly feasible, weapons and other implements ofbat automatically bing tangible when in a position to hurt a foe that the user wants to attack (in that moment, general animosity will not cause trouble). Cost: 15 mana for activation, 10 mana per second of upkeep, upkeep can be increased up to 250 mana per second to resist foreign mana (Einherjar Bonus: massively increased disruption resistance) [Ephemeral Phase], meanwhile, was simple and powerful. He could still phase, but hed be even harder to hit and be far more capable of inflicting injuries in turn, and he wouldnt have to dodge anything short of a cooldown [Skill] or legendary weapon anymore. He still would, even small injuries should be avoided if possible, but it was nice to have yet another option. Ghostly Freedom (legendary) Once you are dead, nothing can hold you down, no weight, no mortal shackle, no nothing. Even gravity will be nothing but a suggestion. By activating Ghostly Freedom, the user will gain the freedom of an ephemeral being, capable of either reducing their mass, or just removing gravitys effect upon them, as well as the ability to reduce the drag created by the medium they are moving through. Furthermore, the user may telekically elerate themselves, at a constant rate of 5 m/s^2 for a maximum speed of 500 m/s. Cost: 1 mana per second per active effect (environmental resistance nullification, gravity nullification, or telekic self-eleration) (Einherjar Bonus: Increased control, maximum speed increased to 1,000 m/s) Yet another [Skill] that had grown subtly yet powerfully. The ability to utterly ignore gravity without bing a leaf on the wind woulde in oh-so handy if he set things up right. Endless Haunting (legendary) Once one is cursed, one is already dead. No barrier will provide relief, no bunker provide sor. The holder of this Skill will be an unstoppable pursuer of their foe, unshakeable, ever-present. This Skill makes its user aware of all living beings around themselves in a radius of a hundred meters for 5 mana per minute and can give more precise locations the more mana is invested, up to a maximum of 100 per minute. Once the user has chosen a target, they can spend another 50 points of mana to mark them (while perceived by the user), gaining the ability to track them precisely so long as they remain within 250 km, as well as knowing the most direct route to reaching them. Cost: 10-200 mana per minute for a passive scan, 100 points per mark per hour (Einherjar Bonus: max range increased to 2 kilometers, max tracking range increased to 500 kilometers) [Endless Haunting] had mostly just gotten a massive range boost, but it wasnt why hed gotten this Aspect, in fact, he couldnt recall a single time hed used its previous form. But that was the thing about Aspects, youd get one or two [Skills] you really wanted, and then wind up grabbing the ones that looked like they might be useful in certain circumstances because you had choices avable. However, this one woulde in real handy for the next monster. The Reality Filter was a peak Illusion monster that, as its name implied,yered a series of filters over your view of reality butcked real power once you saw through them. Yet it was strong enough that he wouldnt be able to see through it with his [Aura] for a few more Levels if he dispersed it as he usually did except that if he tagged it with [Endless Haunting] in the brief instant it would be visible during summoning, he could copse his [Aura] into the area he knew it to be in and that would be that. So that was what he did. The reality filter looked like the glitchy output of a broken monitor in a humanoid shape, but he only saw it for a brief instant, not enough time tosh out at it despite the fact that he was literally one meter away from it, but more than enough to smack it with a metaphysical tracker. A split second after his world dissolved into a mess of colors, sounds, and smells, his sword whiffed through the space where the monster had been. Ah well, hed had to try. No matter that hed lost it and that his surroundings had disappeared so thoroughly that he couldnt tell up from down. He had his tracker. This close to it, he was only able to narrow its location down to a six-meter radius sphere, but even fullypressed, his sensory [Auras] radius was twenty-five meters. The overall battlested barely five seconds and didnt reward him with any Aspects, but by the gods, it was fun to hack apart the monster that had transformed his surroundings into a psychedelic fever dream with a single cut. Less satisfying was repeating the process two dozen more times. The others couldnt really take over here, this thing was Level 180 the only reason things were this easy was the fact that his current [Skill]set countered it perfectly. Aspect of the Reality Filter: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Reality Filter a Reality Filter. Create grand illusions both static and infinitely versatile, act unseen and unheard, or shift anothers sense of reality so thoroughly that they may never recover. Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +20 Perception One of the following Skills: Perception End Reality Shift Set Illusions Free Illusions Alter Reality Once again, this was about a couple of [Skills], everything else was just a bonus. Perception End (legendary) A world of superhumans is a world of eavesdroppers and voyeurists. This Skill exists to make sure its user can live in this world while retaining their sanity. It allows the user to create a twenty-five-meter diameter sphere in which enhanced senses function considerably more poorly, reducing their effective power by the equivalent of 5 points of Perception per 25 mana invested. In addition, the user may infuse a room with this energy, creating a stationary effect that willst so long as the user does not dismiss it, continues to pay the upkeep cost, and remains within 500 kilometers of the room. The cost is identical to the first effect but increases if the rooms size exceeds 125 m3. Cost: activation cost variable, upkeep cost 1/5 of activation cost per minute [Perception End] was as simple a [Skill] as its name implied. Where it was applied, your foes ability to see you just in ended. Perfect, nay, vital, for conversations he didnt want public, which was why hed gone for the Aspect in the first ce. Set Illusions (legendary) There are few ideas more terrifying than the notion that what you see might not be things as they are. This Skill might not be capable of causing such an effect on its own, but it is perfectly able to cause serious disorientation. Its user may choose up to three objects or beings and subsequently be able to freely summon illusionary copies of them. These illusions can be altered with such things as equipment, makeup, or paint, but this requires significant focus. Cost (preset illusion): 25 mana per activation, 2 mana per second of upkeep The first of the nice to have choices. The ability to freely summon illusionary copies of himself, his standard [Form of Horror], and Arthur to scare the shit out of his foes was useful, but he doubted hed use this [Skill] any more than he had its predecessor. Reality Shift (legendary) There are few things more disorienting than having your world suddenly shift around you, be it via teleportation, rapid movement, and the like. By emitting a st of energy that impacts nearby enemies and disorients them by messing with their senses, the user of this Skill can create this effect with ease. It can even inflict synesthesia or swap the sensory inputs between identical sensory organs. The power of this Skill increases against weaker enemies, as well as those whose Aura has been suppressed. Cost: 250 mana The same applied to this one. Useful, but it didnt quite fit his fighting style. It was a hell of a lot harder to predict his enemies when they suddenly reacted to things he could neither see nor control. Free Illusions (legendary) There are few ideas more terrifying than the notion that what you see might not be things as they are. And this Skill allows its user to make that fear a reality, freely creating illusions of anything they can imagine (illusion quality increases with the users ability to picture what they want to disy). However, creating illusions bothrge and intricate will require a significant degree of focus. Anyone thoroughly overwhelmed by this Skill may forever question their reality for so long as they live, if this attack is properly executed. Cost (direct maniption): 75 mana per minute per cubic meter This bugger, on the other hand, was pretty damn nice. Sure, hed mostly use it as a visual aid when giving presentations, but it was perfect for that. And now, on to the next foe, the Living Sword. In many ways, the monster was supremely simr to him and his soulbound sword, but where he summoned his weapon, the Living Sword summoned its wielder. The weapon itself was a functionally indestructible bastard sword, in and unadorned save for the gemstone cylinder that sat at the point where the de and crossguard met, essible from both sides. That gem was the only point on his foe that actually mattered, only by utterly shattering it would he be able to win this. But it would be a pain in the ass to strike, considering that their des would meet edge-on, trying to stab at a specific point on the side of your opponents sword was going to be a pain in the ass. Isaac blocked an overhead sh from the indistinct phantom, trying to hold against it with Balmung while he went straight for the gem with the kabar he held in his off-hand. And then the phantom vanished, reappearing right in his face, grasping the Living Sword by the de and swinging the pommel at Isaacs head in a perfectly executed Mordhau. Biting back a curse, he hopped backwards, only for the monster to once again relocate the phantom so that it was grasping its swords hilt, back to Isaac, and spinning around in an incredibly powerful sh. Isaac dodged again, mentally marking the areas where the de had passed, leaving behind gashes in space that wouldnt be visible until he blundered into them. The next reversed attack tried to drive the sharpened end of the crossguard into his temple. In ye olden days, taking advantage of the small surface area of the crossguards end and the weight near the hilt to use a reverse-grip sword as an impromptu warhammer was a useful trick against a te-wearing foe. With this bugger, it was just another move it could pull out when stringing together a nigh-endlessbo of attacks. Really, this monster would have been better served with a weapon like a quarterstaff, or maybe a ive with a spike on the bottom, something with more range and two equally dangerous ends, but thankfully, the [System] had decided that thing had to have just a sword. After all, just the sword was bad enough, constantly driving him backwards. And he couldnt even fully draw on his past experience as each Living Sword had a sufficiently different fighting style to mess with his ability to read this thing until hed gathered enough information. [The Meaning of the Name] activated, ring to life and outlining the Living Swords future movements and even its reactions to his next moves. [Speed of Hati] to slip sideways to avoid a sh, a little [Free Illusion] dodging the other way in a more aggressive move, make both his real body and the fake attack simultaneously. The Living Sword blocked where the real him would attack, manifesting its wielder in the path of the illusion ... and then his kabar punched through the crystal. Blocking two simultaneous attacks was perfectly within the power of the monster. Doing so while realizing that hed cloaked one of his arms in an illusion that showed nothing and reced it with a fake was a little beyond it. He held that pose for a split second, letting out a long sigh of relief before straightening. Around the de of his Kabar, the remains of the Living Sword crumbled away into nothingness while its wielder vanished like a lightbulb that had been switched out, leaving behind only a single orb that looked like it would cut his palm to shreds if he picked it up. He still did, fully aware of the fact that an invisible sphere surrounded it, protecting those who touched it from the mess of de fragments within. Finally, another Aspect on his first kill. And no one else wanted one of these either, so he waspletely done with this thing already. Aspect of the Living Sword: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Living Sword a Living Sword. Make your weapons able to outlive the heat death of the universe, make them so deadly that merely standing in ces where theyve been can cause injuries, wield as many des as you want simultaneously, cause wounds that are nigh-impossible to heal, or ensure that your weapons will never be lost. Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +20 Strength One of the following Skills: Invible des All-de Style Annihting Trails Devastating Wounds Unhindered dework Very, very nice. For his new [Skill], he picked [Unhindered dework] as [Devastating Wounds] was just a bargain-bin [Implements of True Death]. Unhindered dework (epic) ded weapons are a fantastic force multiplier, however, they might be lost, stuck, or stolen. As such, this Skill can be considered as being essential to any true swordmaster at the top of their game. With it, the users des can be easily removed from anything theyre driven into, even solid rock or metal, and can neither be entangled nor gooped up. A simple ability, yet anyone who cannot see the value in it does not deserve to call themselves a swordsman, let alone anything more. Even with the ability to freely re-manifest his des, he should be able to get some use out of this [Skill], mostly to wiggle his weapon to inflict further damage upon an enemys insides before removing his weapon from a heavily armored foe. Invible des (legendary) Legendary weapons litter all of history, des that belonged to kings, and des that slew said kings. The daggers of assassins that reaped the lives of hundreds. And the works of the greatest cksmiths, weapons without peer. But unlike those weapons, the des wielded by the bearer of this Skill will live so long that they outlive even their own legend, bing rediscovered again and again, bing enshrined in myth again and again. Holding this Skil all but ensures that the users des will live long enough to remain even as theyre being enshrined in myth and legend by making them vastly more durable and ensuring that they will always be found by a worthy wielder, even past the original wielders demise, all the while gaining more and more power as their legend grows. And should against all odds, one of the users swords still be destroyed, they will be vastly easier to repair, to the point whereplete repair wont even require either all the original pieces or materials of the required quality, as though the de wants to be whole again. Meanwhile, [Invible des] was almost superfluous as the only weapons Isaac had managed to break had either been turned to crystal and detonated by him or not been soulbound in the first ce. Annihting Trails (legendary) ded weapons might vastly increase their users capacity for murder and mayhem, yet even the greatest of theme with limitations, especially when ites to fighting multiple foes, or even a single exceptionally fast enemy. These weapons can only be in so many ces at once. But this Skill allows you to get around these limitations by granting the user the ability to create traps. Annihting Trails allows you to leave behind a barely visible trail behind any attack you make, following the movement of the des tip. Anything that brushes against them will be sliced to ribbons. WARNING: These trails are ephemeral energy and will break if struck with too much force. Cost: 5 points of mana per centimeter of trail per second, cost doubles every second of an individual trail remaining And then you had this thing. He likely wouldnt use it any more than he had its predecessor, but it was nice to have. The next [Skill] was what hed really been after. All-de Style (legendary) There are so many possible weapons to pick up, so many styles to wield them in. So many tricks to try, so many stunts to pull. Yet in the end, there are hard limits as to how much can be done at once, how many des can be wielded simultaneously. This Skill allows the user to not only know where all wielded swords are at all times, it also allows them to telekically wield these weapons at range. However, it does not grant a multitasking power, so caution is advised. In addition, proper and safe use of this Skill requires alertness and a lot of practice. Furthermore, the user may pre-infuse their chosen weapons with mana, allowing them to use their weapons without draining their own mana pool. Alternatively, should the weapons in question have their own mana pool (such as soulbound items), that pool may be drawn upon to provide levitation. Cost: 5 mana per second of use per kilogram levitated Better awareness of his des, the ability to prepare his weapons ahead of time to have more mana avable inbat, and being able to draw on his weapons pool woulde in handy in all sorts of situations. Just onest monster to kill, and then hed have to back to the real world and do some regr work. Maxing out his second undead Aspect with the Royal Draugr. Despite being just another regr monster, this bugger would actually be more of a problem than the Lernean Hydra had been. Isaac wasnt immune to the necrotic energy field that surrounded it, even if he was now more able to heal through it. Heavy armor that would be less of an issue with the de Aspect, but still a pain to attack through. A full set of equipped weapons that could be switched out at will, messing with his ability to read it. And so on. The Royal Draugr rose from the summoning circle with frightening speed, appearing in an instant, fully armed, d in te armor, and already in a fighting stance. Every inch of the beast was covered in metal. Every inch save a pair of small slots above the eyes, allowing its icy blue re to seemingly bore into Isaacs soul. A massive tower shield protected the left half of its form, and a humongous nged mace made going at the other an incredibly dangerous proposition. Isaac charged, ducked under the swing of the mace, drove Balmung into the monsters side, and ignited the sword. Even with a piercing-powerful [Legendary Blow], the de barely prated and the monster swapped out its cumbersome mace for a fast rapier that came back far more quickly and almost took his head off. At the same time, the shield was reced by a bracer designed to trap Isaacs de, akin to a swordbreaker. Apparently, the bugger had decided that speed was what was needed here. For ten seconds, their des shed, throwing up sparks and, at most, inflicting tiny scratches upon each other, and then Balmung hit the bracer. A tiny twist of the Draugrs wrist, and it would have been trapped without [Unhindered dework]. But Isaac let the monster have his first sword and transformed Old Reliable into its Mimung form. Just as sharp, but slimmer and vastly more pointy, Layering every anti-armor [Skill] he had into a singe [Legendary Blow] and increasing the power of his lunge with [Speed of Hati], he drove it through the Draugrs armors breastte up to the hilt but missed the spine. Never mind that, with [Unhindered dework] making sure the weapon didnt get stuck letting him push the hilt sideways and sweep the sword through the monsters internals, severing the spinal cord with [Implements of True Death] activated. As it copsed onto him, the Draugr re-equipped its tower shield and wrapped him in a crushing hug, both the armor and shield so heavily infused with mana that he couldnt just phase out. Summoning every de he had around him in a pile, Isaac wound out of its grasp with nothing more than a couple of cracked ribs. Thebination of being unable to be damaged by his weapon and the weapons new-found slipperiness had plenty of uses, apparently. Mimung ignited with Promethus Wrath and in a matter of seconds, the monster was ash. Good, that was over because good gods, that had been unpleasant. Even with his sense of smell dialed down as far as it would go, he reeked. The necrotic energy had rotted his skin off. It had healed back, sure, but the incredibly disgusting film that covered his skin was grosser than he could put into words. But once again, hed managed to get the Aspect on the first try, likely owing to the Level difference. Aspect of the Royal Draugr: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Death Knight a Death Knight. Wrap yourself in heavy armor that can be resummoned at will, reinforce existing armor to be nearly impossible to permanently destroy, ensure your allies are not stopped by something as simple as dying, and more besides. Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +25 (20 base +5 bonus from Einherjar race) Fortitude One of the following Skills: Spectral te Endurance of the Eternal Warrior Ancient Arms Loyalty Past Death Miasmic Field Always Armored The Dead Feel No Pain A nice set of [Skills], a sizeable boost to his Stats, and [Loyalty Past Death] was stupidly strong. Always Armored (legendary) Armor. Nice to have, useful because it can take damage in its wearers ce. Until said damage wears it down to the point where it is unsuitable to be worn by royalty, or anyone, really. While the aesthetic aspect cannot be helped by this Skill, the loss of efficiency certainly can be mitigated. Whenever a piece of the users armor is destroyed, a lesser spectral version of the missing equipment manifests to cover the gap. If the user of this Skill is also in possession of the Skill Spectral te, then both Skills will synergize to provide optimal protection, with the recement armor bing instantly integrated with the original spectral te. Always Armored has a variable cost and can be run purely on ambient mana, which will vastly reduce the regeneration rate, or at an extremely high cost for rapid armor repair. Cost: 0-500 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: free armor recovery is considerably faster) The power to back up his armor was more important than it had been before hed gained his current, extremely strong, armor as now, he couldnt just switch to an intact set without losing bonuses. Spectral te (legendary) Armor. Cant live without it, literally, but living with it can be a bit of a pain, cant it? All that maintenance, the effort of putting it on, how it slows you down, and so on, and so forth. Even most manifested armor is not without its share of issues, namely, the manifestation cost. This is a Skill meant to alleviate all that. It uses mana to create armor perfectly suited to the wearer, at a variable cost. At the lowest setting, the armor wont be particrly durable, but it will be entirely free (maintained by ambient mana). At the highest setting, it can stop a blow that could crack a mountain in half. The user may freely choose how much mana to direct into this Skill for the result most useful for their fighting style. In addition, this armor can be used in conjunction with a physical set for improved protection. Cost: 0-1,000 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: free armor is considerably more durable) And [Spectral te]yered on top of that would make him just that much tougher. Hed never be a juggernaut with [Skills] alone, but anything that made him even harder to kill was something that hed dly ept, especially when he could do so without costing mana. Endurance of the Eternal Warrior (legendary) War. War and bloodshed without a break, without slowing down, without end. No need for rest, no need for food, no need for sleep. No need for anything other thanbat. A user of this Skill has no limits on their physical stamina and while inbat is able to ignore all other bodily needs. (Einherjar Bonus: Mental fatigue is reduced) A simple trick, but a great one, especially in light of the fact that certain new [Skills] drew on his physical stamina to attack. The whole no limits thing probably wouldnt quite work with those [Skills], but outside of them, hed be able to keep going ad infinitum. Combine with [Draining Touchs] ability to restore his stamina and hed be able to throw [Dragons Heart] behind his me attacks several times without winding up on knocked out on the floor. Loyalty Past Death (legendary) Few good leaders lead from the front. Why? Because that would increase the risk of them dying and themand-and-controlwork from falling apart. Yet this often leaves leaders watching helplessly from the back as their subordinates are ughtered. Hardly a pleasant prospect. And that is where this Skilles in. It can be activated and for the duration of an entire fight, no subordinate who is killed will truly die unless their physical form is annihted. Once the fight ends, the effect of all wounds wille back in full force, however, as far as the universe is concerned, they will only have died the instant the Skill ends. Cost: 1 month cooldown or 5,000 mana per subordinate (mana cost can be paid over time and by subordinates) (Einherjar Bonus: anyone who falls while under the effects of this Skill and subsequently resurrected may choose to be an Einherjar) And then there was this [Skill], one that had almost made him tear his hair out when hed seen the final line. There was a way to get more Einherjar, which meant that all those Einherjar-themed [sses] could have been oh so strong. But there was literally no reason to cry about it now because he couldnt bloody change a thing. Not now. As for raising the dead, well, that wouldnt be easy to pull off either. To start with, Resurrection was a misnomer, despite the fact that even the [System] called it that. In reality, they were just really, really,te healing that came after the point where someone would be pronounced legally dead but before the soul left the body for the afterlife. That would happen between fifteen and twenty minutes after brain death, but Isaac didnt know the exact number due to how hard it would be to research. Repeatedly killing and resurrecting someone to check would obviously be possible, but the issue was that youd only know you were at the limit when the test subject stayed dead. And there were very few people who could use healing magic of sufficient caliber to resurrect after more than a handful of minutes. Loup did, Bailey might, and that was already the end of the list. But the fact that his subordinates would only die at the end of the battle would make resurrections so much easier. And that was that. In thest of years, hed only gotten a single Aspect, a Tier 8 Demon Lord that had just sort of been there. Hed mostly gone for the demon series for the hellfire, but that had been rendered utterly superfluous by his [Divine Fire]. Yet paying a little XP for +15 Strength had been worth it, and there were interesting elemental variants that he could go after at Tier 10. Ice powers from Cocytus, maybe some non-elemental powers from the Seven Princes, each of which represented one of the seven deadly sins, or maybe one of the kings of four cardinal directions that was a matter forter. Each of the monsters he was thinking about getting was a [Raid Boss], so hed have to wait until he got them anyway. As for the new [Skill], hed picked one that let him summon bone armor, useless on its own, but capable of being upgraded into interesting elemental shields. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Challenger of the Apocalypse Species: Einherjar Level: 164 XP: 70,719/3,300,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 2,398/4,150 Stats Fortitude 280 (+20) Perception 650 Strength 390 (+15) Agility 900 Magic Power 405 (+10) Magic Regeneration 900 Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXX The Chosen Weapon XXX I Am The Sword XXV Grave of Swords XXX Armory of Ancient Times XXVI Legacy of a True Warrior XXX Divine Fire XIV Champion of Mankind IX Final Defiance I Aspects of the End (Speed of Hati) I Skills Hundred Faces XXVIII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXX Sweeping Strike XVIII Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXIV Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXX Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXI Fleeting Presence XVIII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XXV Compounded Impact XVIII True Cut XVII Legendary Blow XXV Fully Geared XXVI Knightly Leader XXX Analyze Person XVIII Continent Strider XVIII Burden of Power VIII Experts Insight VIII Blessing of Innovation XVIII Lessons of History VIII The Meaning of the Name XVIII Titanic Presence IX Fire Soul VII General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XVI Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VIII Police Procedure VIII Healing VII Quest Giver III Omniglot (213nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script VIII Unrestricted Speech VI Aspects Aspect Skills Archspecter (full stack) Ephemeral Phase Ghostly Freedom Endless Hunting Spectral Touch Lernean Hydra (full stack) Hydras Restoration Adaptive Regeneration Disposable Organs Dismiss Injuries Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Reality Filter (full stack) Reality Shift Perception End Set Illusions Free Illusions Living Sword (full stack) All de Style Invble des Annihting Trails Unhindered dework Dragon (3 stack) Draconic Heart Moment of Immortality Dragonscale Mantle Demon Lord (3 stack) Moment of Immortality Supreme Hellme Hell-Bone Armor Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Ankou (full stack) Freedom from Mortal Limits Eternal Restoration Implements of True Death Reapers Cloak Royal Draugr (full stack) Endurance of the Eternal Warrior Always Armored Spectral te Loyalty Past Death His Status was looking good, Isaac admitted as he looked it over, grinning. Then he walked out of the pocket dimension and was promptly ambushed by Amy with a fire hose. Yes, hed gotten filthy, but seriously? Chapter 284: Once More Into the Deep Chapter 284: Once More Into the Deep All around Isaac, there was nothing. Just an endless sea of ckness and, well, seawater. Oh, and there was the usual array of microscopic life suspended in the water, silt, sand particles, and the like, but that wasnt really something solid. Several kilometers underwater, in the Marianna Trench, in the middle of the night, on a new moon. Isaac wasnt entirely certain if the effect had been intended or if it was just a happy little ident that things had gotten this hard to see through, but it was certainly creepy. Either way, it wasnt like Isaac was going to be hindered in the least by ack of light, he could still see a little even without his [Aura], so if this was an ambush, it was a damn crappy one. But where the hell was the ship? Sure, hed been early, but hed now also been here long enough that his contact was nowte. With a sigh that echoed strangely in the water, Isaac pulled his thankfully waterproof phone from his storage and did some paperwork for about two seconds. The Flying Dutchman had changed significantly since hedst seen it. It was still a Frankensteinishbination of countless lesser vessels from every era. A ram that might have once belonged to a Roman Trireme, armor ting behind it that looked to have been forged at some point in the 20th century, Isaac suspected that stuff hade from the battle of Jund, tattered and partially rotten sails that were nheless fully functional, age-of-sale era cannons, more modern turreted guns, even a pair of missileunchers, allbined a manner that didnt seem pdash in the slightest. Small amounts of glowing lichen, or maybe algae, strategically decorated the vessel both as a source of illumination and to add an intimidation factor that was hard to understate. Permission toe aboard? Isaac called out, the reply of Granted,ing in less than a second. His phone disappeared as he swam the rest of the way, and the Dutchmans allows for normal movement field activated as he set his feet on the deck. The pseudo-gravity of the deck canceling out the weightlessness that normally apanied being underwater, and both the pull of the current and drag of the water the ship was moving through ceased affecting him. The first officer joined him after ten seconds and asked him to wait in the bow of the ship, where he wouldnt get in anyones way. Typical for being aboard a ship. The sailors did what they did, and anyone else was expected to stay the hell out of the way. Only once the Flying Dutchman hade to a dead stop, hanging in the middle of the dark ocean, waiting, did Davy Jones approach him. The man had changed since Isaac hadst seen him. Once upon a name, hed been an Englishman by the name of Johnathan Frye, a regr human, and then hed begun probing the depths of both history and the ocean, taking the mantle of Davy Jones once hed gotten the [ss]. Two years ago, when theyd first met in this timeline, Jones had looked like a corpse that had been underwater for days but less disgusting, hair and beard artfully woven. But today, he looked far better, with pale yet healthy skin, eyes an unnaturally dark blue, and a short-cropped beard that still contained pearls and corals for decoration. Dr. Thoma, its been a while, Jones greeted. Things have been somewhat crazy for a while, Isaac shrugged, I hope you received my gifts? They were appreciated, Jones nodded, Wed have helped for nothing, though. Those people they were a threat to the world as a whole. Taking selfless actions for granted is a quick way for people to stop being selfless, Isaac pointed out. Yes, but plenty of people dont feel like giving gifts or rewards they can hold onto, Jones said, Theyre idiots, but theyre in the majority. Then, he turned his head to the side and pointed off into the distance, Our meeting partner ising. Hell be here in a few minutes. I was wondering, do you always meet like this, in the darkest part of the ocean, under a new moon? Isaac thought out loud. Always under a new moon, never in the same ce, Jones replied. The submarine slowly peeled itself out of the darkness like some monster of the deep emerging from its hiding ce with the casualness of a predator that already knew it had won, its sleek, white, almost ceramic-looking hull glinting in the light of the Dutchmans lights. That was more than just armor, though. It managed to resist Isaacs sensory [Aura] to a degree, making it more difficult to peer inside. There were many materials that were supposed to have that effect, but most of them were only effective to a small degree. The bunker under the Bundestag was made of such a material, but it had been so crappy that Isaac had straight-up failed to realize that theyd been trying to keep people like him out and just pulled his usual stunt of spreading his [Aura] absolutely everywhere while (officially) avoiding reading anything or eavesdropping. He was just d hed had the good sense to notment on stuff he hadnt directlyid eyes on. But this ship, it was a masterwork. A bow that tapered into a razor-sharp point at the tip of a squashed cigar shape, a trio of ded struts that were just as sharp emerging from it and running the length of the vessel, likely only ending when they reached the currently not visible stern, ced in an equal-sided triangle pattern. A pair ofrge, bulbous, viewing domes sat being and above the point, looking like the eyes of some kind of deep-sea fish, practically glowing with enchantments to reduce their drag down to nothing. Beneath the point and between the bottom two strutsy a hole that would likely unleash hell and damnation if this vessel ever engaged inbat. It was eight meters high and wide, and while Isaac couldnt see its entire length, hed bet an unreasonable amount of money that it was exactly seventy meters long, just like the literary original. The Nautilus is quite the sight, isnt it? Jones asked. Shes no Flying Dutchman, but I wouldnt mind living aboard it, Isaac replied. Jones began tough at that, and after a few seconds, Isaac heard the frightened shes of startled sea life that were fleeing from the boomingughter. The Nautilus pulled up to the Dutchmans side, revealing that, yes, it was seventy meters long, a good twenty meters longer than the sailing ship, though Isaac would still have bet on the Frankenship in a fight. A section of hull previously indistinguishable from the rest halfway down the submarine fell open, the far ending to rest gently on the Dutchmans railing, a pair of guardrails popping up on either side to make the walk inside safer. At the same time as an air bubble manifested atop the carpeted walkway, a staircase extended onto the sailing ships deck. Is that the permission toe aboard, or do we wait? Isaac asked. We wait, Jones told him. The wait wasnt long. An Indian man in a deep blue, pseudo-military uniform stepped out, grinning. David, its been a while. How are things? Oh, the usual. I found a few nice wrecks, found some ancient Greek artifacts that might be a lead to Antis. If its real, at any rate. Heres to hoping. Jones said, How about you? This and that. Met some people, fought some monsters, got in a fight with a whaler, and learned that there are some fish that just dont belong in a Bouibaisse. Isaac winced. Experimenting with weird ingredients was a standard part of exploration, and sometimes, that didnt exactly go well. Im d to see you didnte out of that for the worse, Jones said, Can I introduce you to Dr. Isaac Thoma? Captain Parvan Nemo, Nemo introduced himself while sticking out his hand, which Isaac shook. Obviously, that was a pseudonym, or rather, thest name was. The originals first name had been Dakkar, with Nemo being an assumed name. If Isaac had left standard society, he might have used Hildebrand as ast name to differentiate himself from his previous self. The original had been a man driven by vengeance, leaving behind the terrestrial world. But hed also been an explorer, someone whose ship contained a library with twelve thousand books, paintings, and other works of art, collections of oceanic samples, and hed even had an organ on the sub, which the captain himself yed. Based on this meeting, it seemed like this Nemo was more about exploring the ocean and leaving behind the surface than, well, bloody revenge. Isaac Thoma, Isaac said as he shook the Captains hand, Very d to finally meet you. Why dont you two join me for dinner? Nemo asked, and when Isaac and Jones nodded, he led them deeper into the Nautilus. This was how this usually went, apparently. The two ships would rendezvous, the captains would take turns hosting each other while the crews traded gossip and goods, and in the end, theyd both leave richer than before. The inside of the Nautilus was gorgeous beyond belief, every surface either made from or imitating some kind of incredibly precious material, yet despite that, it wasnt gaudy, but a tasteful motive of leaf gold, a stone that might have been marble, woven carpets covered in an absurd amount of cleaning enchantments and more besides. So, Doctor, what brings you to the bottom of the ocean? Nemo asked. Curiosity, mostly, Isaac shrugged, Who wouldnt want to see the legendary Nautilus? But I also wanted to see the man who brought all this about. Cu-ri-o-si-ty, Nemo said slowly, as though speaking the word for the very first time, This is an incredible world we have here, isnt it? We know more about the surface of the moon than the deep sea, and thats a crying shame. So Im changing that. But what is it that youre interested in? Everything, Isaac proimed. Ambitious, Nemo noted. I have the resources, I have the time, and I like to think I have the will, Isaac replied. Considering what youve achieved, Id say you definitely have the will, Nemo said. There was a brief lull in the conversation as a door irised open in front of them, revealing what had to be the dining room. Arge table sat there, covered in a kingly feast of seafood. Lobsters thered in butter, a dozen different kinds of sashimi, more kinds of fish stew than Isaac even knew existed, a dozen different breads that were likely made from seaweed but he honestly couldnt tell anything about them beyond the fact that they smelled delicious I hope you dont mind seafood, Dr. Thoma, Nemo remarked, We try to live off the ocean, and are somewhat limited in our selection down here. Oh, this all smells divine, Isaac assured him. The conversation during the food was pretty standard, small talk, current events, and the like. Though the political talk was strongly colored by their perspective as S-Rankers. But when the tes were cleared away, things got serious. I brought gifts, Isaac proimed, cing a pair of storage rings on the table, I know that giving simr or even identical gifts tends to make one look unimaginative, but I believe this should qualify as an exception. These are upgrade kits for your vessels that should allow them to function in outer space. For Captain Jones and the Dutchman, hull fragments and engine parts from various famous vessels from countless space programs, so you may gain the ability to sail the sr winds as well. And for Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, antigravity tes to remove the impact of gravity,pact VASIMIR engines for zero-g maneuvering, central control panels designed to be able to interface with any kind of standard, or simr to standard, control. However, considering that this vessel is the product of a [Skill], there is a good chance that it will gain the ability to fly in space on its own. Very generous, thank you, Nemo said, eyes flicking to the ring, and then locking onto Isaac withser focus, Though Im not sure a single meal deserves a gift this generous. Last time, you were looking for allies in the fight of and for your life, Jones observed, Whats happening this time? Those two certainly werent idiots. Nothing, and everything, Isaac said, knowing how utterly useless that promation was. That bad? Jones sighed, This is a fundamental issue with the world, isnt it? Youre both S-Rankers at the fifth Evolution, strong enough to affect the world, if you so choose. You also exist outside the normal bounds of society. Id like your perspective on how people with power interact with societies that, for the most part, dont. The same way weve dealt with it for thest ten years, Jones suggested. Things areing to a head, arent they? Nemo said as he got up and marched over to the bar to pour himself a ss of whisky. There was an enchantment on that part of the room that allowed for intoxication with the usual restrictions, aka instantly sobering the drunkard up the instant something went even remotely wrong. He sat down heavily at the table with a pair of extra sses and the bottle. The drunkard field extended from the bar to them. Apparently, it was some kind of innate property of the ship itself. Nemo gave a brief exnation of the sses powers, and then grumbled, I thought Id be free of that shit down here. So, whats the problem, and why is it a problem now? The fifth Evolution is the final one, Isaac said, Sooner orter, this insane growth in power during the battle against increasingly powerful monsters will end and the people who slew them will stand at the apex of this world. And while we hurtle towards that problem, all the standard issues like unemployment grow and grow. And when we no longer have the problem of potentially insurmountable monsters being summoned hanging over our heads, everything wille to a head. If we dont figure out how to make sure this world keeps spinning and society remains stable before then, well have a problem. We ran away to the bottom of the ocean, were not exactly in a position to give grand advice, Jones mused as he studied his reflection in the whisky ss he held in front of his face, Or did you bring us the ability to flee the because you think we wont fit the new world order? Isaac vigorously shook his head, Your ships somewhat bind you to this. I wanted to help you explore space, thats why I chose those gifts. But as for why I want to talk to you about this is that yourergely free of the trappings of society. Youve got the closest thing to an outsiders perspective as I can ess. Ive heard suggestions of make S-Rankers kings to make S-Rankers sign ve contracts and everything in between. And as for the people without that level of power, some of the suggestions were truly dystopian. First time something goes wrong and I cant avoid it on Earth, Im leaving and noting back for a decade, Nemo proimed, downing his whisky in a single gulp, The way to deal with this is the same way societies have always dealt with changing circumstances. Keep fixing stuff until something goes catastrophically wrong, then rebuild from the ashes into something that works for the changed circumstances. Grim, but that might be how this shakes down, Isaac agreed. As a historian, I have to agree, Jones sighed, As someone living on this, I hope you figure out a way around to prevent that. Fundamentally, youll need a way to ensure that S-Rankers arent dominating everything but also that they arent treated with apleteck of respect that might cause them to run off or even revolt. Youll need a way to avoid social stratification, and ensure people are neither locked into their parents social ss nor kept at low Levels because no one is helping them summon safely. Good point, Isaac said, Thank you. It was also something hed realized himself. It was the how that was the issue. Nemo, whod been looking ever so slightly tipsy, sobered up faster than Isaac could blink as he removed himself from the effects of the drunkard field. Remember that things dont have to be simple, logical, or elegant, they just have to work. Its the same with mostws of nature, especially in biology. My professor always used to say it aint a rule unless theres an exception. Once again, helpful but also not. In his minds eye, Isaac could already see things bing infinitely moreplex, utterly escaping his grasp. After another hour of conversation, Isaac got a way to contact Nemo directly and returned to shore, only to find that [Continent Strider] had passed the second threshold. Continent Strider (legendary, Level XX) In olden times, it could take months or years to go from city to city, from country to country. Modern technology has shrunken the world somewhat, but it still takes quite a while to move significant distances. This Skill not only removes the need for modern technology to travel vast distances in a reasonable timeframe but further boosts the travel speed while moving on foot. Your movement speed on foot or horseback will increase exponentially with this Skill active. Continent Strider cannot be activated inbat or while fleeingbat, it is purely a utility Skill. This Skill can be applied to all party members so long as said party members are within 100 meters of the user and the user is the party leader. Every day, the user umtes a pool of movement equal to one hour of travel without using this Skill. This pool has an upper limit of 336 hours, and can be used to open a portal to an important location the user has been before. This portal can carry up to five times the users mass per activation and its cost amounts to how long it would have taken the user to make the journey normally, without using Continent Striders eleration feature. Combat utility limitations still apply. Each use of this portal a day after the first will double the cost each time. After countless asions where the user has used this Skill to sneak in travel even amidst hectic emergencies, it has evolved to let them do their travel in segments. Once per month, the user may choose a single journey that they couldplete in a month or less, and they may (outside ofbat, twice a day) teleport to theirst position in that journey, maintaining their movement bonus from Continent Strider. Once a journey is selected, it cannot be changed for a year, which will remove the ability to teleport to the journey (the user mustnt be on the journey while doing this) and while on the journey, it cannot be deviated from (including intentionally dying/moving overly slowly). Cost: 500 mana per hour, plus 100 per party member Nice. Very nice. The power to take a long journey in pieces, bit by bit, even keeping the exponential speed boost even though he wasnt traveling continuously. There were limits to it, and all the limitations on what he could do while on his chosen journey made it abundantly clear that he wasnt meant to do anything but travel, but there was a very simple way around that. Make long journeys that he could never afford to spend the time to take, able to return at any time if needed, and expand the range of ces he could teleport with his portals. And when there was an actual need for him to go there, he could just teleport. But there wasnt a ce on Earth he couldnt reach in under a day even without zapping to the nearest ce hed already been before starting his journey. Using his once-a-month journey for that would be a waste. There was just one ce to go, the ce he hadnt been able to explore due to not wanting to be away from Earth for so long. So he pulled out his phone and called Bailey, Hey Adam, I was wondering if theres anything in the next week that I have to be there for. This isnt an emergency, its a holiday that would be somewhat useful, so dont blow off semi-important stuff, but can I go? Chapter 285: Ceres Chapter 285: Ceres Orbital Mechanics were an absolute nightmare. Finding golems falling through the atmosphere was easy. Aim for your target and fly straight at it. And finding one that was a little outside the atmosphere wasnt that much harder. Flying to the moon tough, but doable. Traveling halfway across the sr system, meanwhile, was a nightmare. But by abusing [Blessing of Innovation], ahem, by using it for a lessplex thing than it might have been intended for, it let him bypass that issue neatly. The best part about the whole thing was that Bailey had figured out a way to make this a work trip, with an actual exnation for his actions that wasnt holiday, and a function beyond just I wanted to see the sr system. This was about cingmunications beacons on ces he visited, or rather, the things that might one day bemunications beacons, and exploring the limits of light speed. About a year ago, magic had been officially recognized as the fifth fundamental force in the universe, alongside the strong force, weak force, gravity, and electromaism, ending the furious debate over how it should officially be ssified. But in that group, magic was decidedly the ck sheep, capable of taking the rules of the other four and utterly shattering them. One of the most visible ways this phenomenon could be observed was magics interaction with the light-speed limit. Most magic was, in fact, a lot slower than the roughly three hundred thousand kilometers per second, outspeeding bullets handily but noting anywhere close to the universes former fastest thing. However, certain things were faster. Portals, for example, always opened instantly, without needing to travel through the intervening space, making them a method of FTL travel in theory, but not practice, as one still needed to walk through them and their range was limited. Partymunications were another such instantaneous phenomenon, but due to their range limits, their FTL characteristics werent immediately obvious. The [Round Table] did have both FTL characteristics and no range limit, but they couldnt exactly write papers about it, now could they? And then there was [Aura], specifically, the sensory kind. It transferred data instantaneously, but once again, the range was too small for that to have any real effect. Sure,pressing his [Aura] to the utmost, where it was a mere attometer across, he could touch the moon. But at that point, he could literally not get any information from a thread that small. Which was where themunications beacons came in. Their magic would make them a lot easier to connect to at range and send magic their way, so that they might, just might figure out a way to send signals at FTL speeds. Isaac couldnt even help there as he knew fuck all about the process, it hadnt been a big thing in the other timeline, but he hoped they cracked the code. Right now, Isaac was at almost half an hour message dy from Earth. He could return in a heartbeat if something went wrong, but it would take him twenty-eight minutes for him to learn about any issues that cropped up. Hed also see if it was possible to expand Akashik Industries, hispany, out here. It basically ran itself at this point, providing money and resources without him having to do anything, which was how he liked it. But expanding it out here could vastly increase his potential resources. Also, with the space boom and a somewhat stable world, they had a perfect window to start building up a sizeable poption off. Getting in on (mostly) the ground floor would open up all sorts of possibilities. Still, he was almost at his destination. Ceres was another dwarf, just like what Pluto was now ssified as, with a radius of less than 500 kilometers situated squarely in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, a prime location for rest and resupply. Not only that, but it also had a ton of space avable for expansion. Currently, there were only five buildings present. The spaceport, a squat, square, hollow pir without a ceiling that could dock ships both on the outside and inside, half a kilometer tall and each side was around four hundred meters long. The supply depot, a small dome that sat above an immense underground cavern full of stuff. The living quarters, a set of what basically amounted to a whole lot of shipping containers stacked on top of and next to each other, connected by ss tunnels. The processing nt that processed mined minerals, and summoned monsters when certain resources ran low. And finally there was the tree. At least that was what it looked like. Some entrepreneur [ss Mage] had decided to relocate here and now that there were zero building codes to stop her, gone absolutely over the top in designing and building her home. Aplex array of seven hollow ss tubes extended from the ground, interweaving and ending in a hollow, one-way mirror, sphere that housed the, well, house. From there, several more branch-like tubes extended, each ending in an observation deck of some kind. Supposedly, one held the mother of all infinity pools, another held a bar, and there were also meant to be an observatory, a library, and a bedroom to sleep under the stars in. But that ce was fairly well shielded from observation. All in all, it looked like someones base in a space exploration game, built-in creative mode. Who wouldnt build something like that, given half the chance? Despite being made from what was functionally ss though, that ce was tough enough to survive the usual array of micrometeorite strikes and even the asional errant shuttle crash. As Isaac went on final approach, the spaceport exploded into activity, shifting from a state of organizationparable to an ant hive to a panicked mess. Isaac sighed. He had called ahead, he had memorized all the relevant protocols, but his handheld transmitter had poor range, and slowing down in space meant elerating in the other direction, which involved projecting his mes in the direction hed been going. And who the hell paid attention to the radio when there was a giant methrower heading their way? Ceres control, this is Isaac Thoma, requesting permission tond. That was the fifth time hed done that, and no one had ans- This is er, this is Ceres control. Please tell me youre the fireball. And there was his answer. Finally. Ceres control, confirmed, youll likely see me as a fireball, over. Oh thank go- ahem, do you require any kind of special considerations or aodations? Just a ce to enter the spaceport proper, Ill shut off the mes ten kilometers before arrival, and some directions for a ce to sleep, over, Isac replied. Do you have the capacity to receive a standard data stream? I have my phone on me, Isaac said, pulling the item in question from his storage. It dinged a secondter, showing him what he needed. The final step of his journey was simple. He coasted thest ten kilometers at a leisurely pace, then activated [Speed of Hati] for just three steps that not only brought him to aplete stop but also carried him to the airlock hed been guided to. It was one of the fancier magical ones, which extended an air bubble from the actual door to cover the tform, at which point the door could be opened and spacesuits could be shed, at least assuming one was in use. There was arge room beyond that was also sealed off from the rest of the station to ensure that a failure to establish a proper magical bubble wouldnt vent most of the port. Isaac stepped inside, patted some dust and ice crystals off himself, and headed into the station proper. The security check was a throwback to the earlier days of the [System], with the guard almost dying of fright when he approached, though this time, it was likely an issue of what might have demanded his presence, rather than Isaac himself. Reason for visit? the guard asked. Exploration, potential expansion of mypany, Isaac said. Anything to dere? the guard asked. What needs to be dered? Isaac asked. That particr piece of information hadnt been found online. Er Oh, for fucks sake. I have potions for personal use, scientific equipment, also for personal use, summoning resources I couldnt be bothered to clean out of my personal storage space but dont n on using or selling, and some construction equipment. I dont have any drugs, other intoxicants, or anything in that vein. Would that be enough? The guard didnt say anything. Do you have any other things that you need to ask me about? Do you want me to rattle off literally everything else that might possibly be of concern, or do you have any kind of proper list to work off of? After taking a frustratingly long time to think, the guard just waved him in. This ce was awless hellhole, truly. Not the everyone is free to be an asshole kind, mind you, but rather, the kind that mostly ran on shared understanding. Shared understanding that outsiders didnt have, which would result in serious confusion when a concrete rule or list was needed. Sure, the spaceport was well dealt with, anything else would be super dangerous, but any lesser topics werent covered. As easy as it was to make fun of the absurd thoroughness of modernws, but there was something to be said about being able to easily get a concrete answer to disputes without any trouble. Hell, German civilw even had two entirews about who owned an escaped colony of bees, who could gather it up to be the new owner, and what kind of property damage and trespass was eptable to retrieve it on the part of the original owner. And yes, that was rather silly, but when you needed an answer about a colony of bees, the answer was right there, no confusion or arguing needed. Obviously, such utter thoroughness wasnt needed everywhere, not even close, but some proper rules and regtions were needed. Isaac headed over to the nearest hotel, though said hotel was really just a set of rooms to lounge in privately, without any beds. Still, having somewhere private to retreat to was kinda important for ones mental health. It was interesting that everywhere in the building had Earth gravity, Isaac reflected. Ceres was tiny, with an infinitesimal gravitational pull thaty at a mere 3% of Earths. There was a lot of fun that could be had in ces like this, and without any children or low-Level individuals around, it wasnt like there were people at risk of muscr or skeletal dystrophy here. People wanted what they knew, he supposed. After rxing in the room for a few hours, recovering from the boredom of spaceflight, Isaac headed out into the wastnd. Hed filed the rights to several square kilometers of the surface with most people who cared. No doubt someone wouldin, but considering that the paperwork had been approved by both the United Nations Space Coordination Office and NASA, that should be fine. Neither of those organizations had much authority, but that was still a hell of a lot more than anyone else had. And once hed built on this space, it would be his properly. The beacon was nted, and then, he emptied his storage rings. Karl had managed to create an entire space colony that somehow managed to be lessplicated to put together than IKEA furniture despite being, well, a frigginspace colony. Still, his 5th Evolution was called [True Arcane Technomaster], master of not just technology, but also several kinds of enchantment and thebination of the two. The first thing Isaac did was ram oil-drum-sized barrels into the rocky soil and watch the anchors deploy, hundred-meter-long chains phasing into the ground, pushing away the soil where it ovepped with the metal and then rematerializing, properly linking the foundation to the dwarf. Once six anchors had been ced to form a giant hexagram, each side two hundred meters long, he connected them with more chains that turned rigid the instant they were set up. Starsteel foil that could tank micrometeorite strikes then covered the ground, forming a thin yet durable floor. The rest was very easy to set up. nt a series of pirs, the bottom end fusing into the floor in a way that wouldnt be undone without serious force. And then just start connecting them with more foil. Having walls that were just half a millimeter thick protecting you from vacuum didnt exactly sound like a good idea, but it was just the basis for everything else. Thermal instion, air supplies, and filters could be added in with ease. Building airlocks into the walls would be a little more involved, but still perfectly doable. With the basic structure finished, Isaac began to add his own area, which fell a little on the silly side. A dome of one-way mirrored ss that would be his personal space was added on top of the only finished tower, a few random scribbles were scratched into the dust of the dwarfs surface only to be erased by a st of me before anyone could see it, and so on. Isaac spent a few more hours rxing in the dome, staring out into the universe, before finishing the internals of the tower, making it safe to inhabit for people who still had such weaknesses as needing to breathe. A message from Professor Kims assistant pinged on his phone, telling him to get to Seoul as soon as possible. That was literally the whole message. It was possible that hed be getting more texts soon, but this message had been sent almost half an hour ago. He needed to know if this was a rampaging [Raid Boss] warning that he needed to respond to immediately, without waiting for rification, or something that didnt warrant himing in like a meteor. So he dipped into the [Round Table]. Hopefully, even if this was a five-rm fire and no one could wait for him, theyd left him a note. Dr. Han was waiting for him, head resting on the back of his chair while he stared at the ceiling in clear exasperation. So, no emergency? Isaac asked. As far as he knew, Dr. Han was currently in Seoul, so if he could afford to wait here, things couldnt be that dire. Nope, Han sighed, We might have had a breakthrough, and Yerin thought that there was an interesting trick she could pull with your [Blessing of Innovation]. So her assistant messaged you. You should be receiving the all-clear message in a few minutes, but I wanted to make sure you dont rush back here. Oh, so it was Yerin now, was it? Good for those two. Thank you, its much appreciated, Isaac said, What was the breakthrough? Well, we think we might have found a way to slow down, or even prevent, autonomous summoning. Isaac shot to his feet and was about to leave, only to turn around for onest statement. Iming back, see you in twelve hours, call Bailey and tell him to gather the crew for the Ceres base. Isaac filled out the initial tower in record time, making it habitable, and opened a portal back to the university, burning most of his time pool in the process. Alright, everyone. You know how everything works, youve been trained on all the tools and equipment, and youve got all the relevant resources. You guys are ready for this, and I hope you enjoy exploring outer space as much as I did. Id give a bigger speech, but I know that Dean Kass already did that I wouldnt inflict you with two epic speeches in a single hour. Thatted him a couple of chuckles. A guy from the university astrophysics department, Isaacs assistant Andre, and two of the people from Akashik Industries walked through the portal and past him, while he returned to good ol terra firma. Four people was a small number for a space station, but unfortunately, only five people could use the portal at one time and he did need to get back to Earth. He couldnt give a tour as the portal wouldnt stay open that long, but hed recorded enough videos to make sure theyd know where everything was if it hadnt been for the extensive preparations already undertaken. And, quite frankly, he could barely wait to get to Seoul. Chapter 286: Excitement Emergency Chapter 286: Excitement Emergency Unfortunately, having an almost empty time pool to fuel [Continent Strider] meant that he had to walk. Li Mei got him close with a [Portal], but none of the other [Portal] users had been around to teleport him the rest of the way. On the way there, Han had sent him some alibi messages rifying why his presence would be useful, which Isaac had responded to with thats super cryptic, but if you say this is important, it is, see you soon. Isaac did his usual dance through the city of Seoul, flying where it wouldnt get him yelled at, leaping across roads where it would, and using an app to order food and then pick it up as he zipped past. He might have one of the worlds finest chefs working on campus with him, but variety was the spice of life. And the food stalls here were so good. Besides, this wasnt an emergency, and he didnt officially know what had been discovered. So by the time hed reached the campus of Seoul University, hed gathered enough food for everyone. Though really, hed probably show up with gifts of food from Germany, not the stuff the people he wasing to visit could have every day. But he was sure that some good food would be appreciated. Based on what hed seen, things had gotten a little crazy. He was familiar with how that went because it had happened many times before at his own work. Someone came up with something awesome, and everyone got carried away. It had even happened to the team once or twice. The first few steps onto campus were pretty standard, carrying him through crowds of students mostly unnoticed. He did draw a few eyes, but not many. However, as he drew closer to the [System] research wing, things changed. The architecture went from sleek and modern to starkly utilitarian, with small windows and heavily reinforced walls, buildings set in a way that would make it harder for potential issues to get away from the central building, which was used for summoning. And there were the guards. Not just a smattering of security guards, but also Hunters on what was the crappiest duty they had, sitting here to protect against cmities that were almost certainly not going toe. Sure, Baileys team might be the highest concentration of S-Rankers in the word, but between Professor Kim, Dr. Han, Hak, and Dasom, any monster would get its ass kicked before it became a problem. If a problematic monster got summoned in the first ce, that was. Isaac drew more eyes here, hed probably taught most of the people here on one asion or other. It was only at the entrance to Professor Kims department that he was stopped. Apparently, people wandering in was enough of a problem that something had to be done about it. Dr. Thoma, thank you foring, Kim greeted him, I hope the message wasnt too disruptive? Not this time, Isaac said. Good to hear. Believe me, he wont be making that mistake again, Kim replied, then raised an eyebrow, However, I was under the impression that you didnt travel to grant the [Blessing of Innovation]? There are few people who Id travel for, Isaac said, Its easier to start out with a hard line that I eventually start to ignore for people I deem worthy than trying to exin to anyone why they dont warrant meing to them. So, do you just want to get the [Blessing of Innovation] once, or do you think you might need it a few more times? It depends on how much time you have, Kim shrugged, If it were up to me, Id keep you for a full month and keep trying every possiblebination of borrowed [Skill], but I know youre busy. I have a few more days I was supposed to spend in space, but depending on what the project is, I could easily stay longer, Isaac assured her. They spent the path to theb itself talking about various general research topics, but keeping things general. And then they got to herb itself, and it was in a state of absolute chaos. Chaos for a scientist, at any rate. More equipment than should ever be out of storage at once was unpacked, almost every possible surface had something standing on it, and while the coffee cups and takeout food containers were stacked neatly in one corner of the room, it wasnt normal for a pile that high to umte before someone took out the trash. We think weve managed to figure out how to block summoning, Kim said, gesturing to a mess of not only metal tes, mana-conducting wires, and runic sigils, but also feathers and scales. It looked like a cyberpunk dream catcher. In essence, that thing disrupts the formation of the summoned monster from the mana rising from an activated summoning circle. However, it breaks after a few seconds, Han exined. In other words, it was useless in its current form. But then again, what invention was ever perfect from the get-go? They had something to start building on. So, who wants the [Blessing of Innovation], are there any resources that mighte in handy that you dont have yet he trailed off suggestively. Were good on most materials, thank you, Kim said, Anything we could use is extremely valuable and I couldnt ask you for them. Han had lived most of his time in dictatorship, and had a poker face to match. But Isaac was damn sure he was quietly sniggering under that stony exterior. As far as Professor Kim was concerned, Isaac was a famous and wealthy researcher, but not someone able to throw around immense resources for foreign universities, certainly not in an amount that would be a noticeable improvement over her budget. He might have told her the truth about the divine proxy war, but she wasnt quite aware of everything he was doing. If you could give me a list, Ill look it over, Isaac promised. Kim didnt take any obvious action, but behind her, her assistant began scribbling down a list. Would you like to know how we figured it out? Han asked. Will I understand it? Isaac asked. This was highest-order magitech, so far beyond his knowledge it might as well have been ma- it might as well have been divine intervention. I think youll find the principle behind it useful, Han said, Remember when I told you we were looking into Rlyeh? Vaguely, Isaac said, I knew you were doing that, but not what exactly you were looking into. Weve seen something interesting in that city, about how it shifts around. Its as if there are multiple cities at once, shifting and ovepping, but only one city is real at the same time, right? Oh dear. Did you keep all of the precautions in ce, and fully understood everything before implementing it? Isaac asked. He sincerely hoped they had, and doubted theyd do something that stupid, but still that fucking city. Of course we did, Kim said, We even added a few precautions of our own. Im fully aware of the danger that city poses. We didnt copy any of theplex messes beyond mortal ken, Han added, That device is meant to mimic the way the mana in the environment shifts in the city, stabilizing it in a way that blocks the conversion of the summoning circles mana and materials into a monster. The problem is that the mana from the circle pushes directly against the effect until it breaks, it never dissapates, and weve tried pitting several thousand points of mana against a simple, Tier 1 spider. It still barely did anything. If the mana from the summoning didnt dissipate, it might just keep pushing until something gave, like a bubble trapped in an upside-down ss underwater. It would keep pushing no matter what. But even if all they could do was dy the summoning, it would change the world. So theres a lot to improve, Isaac said, stroking his chin, Have you gotten a chance to look at how a stabilizing influence affects the city? Han grinned, If you can get Raul there, that should be incredibly useful. They talked a bit more, Isaac gave out [Blessings of Innovation] like candy and finally retreated to the corner of the room with the list of materials that might be useful. It was quite the collection of materials. Some he could simply draw from hispany and take a pay cut for this month, others would originate in his own private stash, and one particr set of stuff could be found in one of Seouls Dungeons in infinitesimal quantities. He called Raul about when he could join them in Rlyeh, then arranged for him to head there via Seoul so he might bring the needed materials from Germany, and finally bade goodbye to everyone in theb. At this point, he was in the way even hunched into the furthest corner of the room. Everyone was busy looking at the problem from entirely new perspectives, drawing on scientific [Skills] that they were now able to borrow, and so on. Besides, there was something he could do to help. He left a stack of food hed brought from Exotische Gensse on the desk closest to the door and slipped out. Five minutester, he stood in the entrance of the high-Level training area of the Seoul Hunters Guild. Good afternoon, everyone, he announced, slightly raising his voice to indicate that he wanted everyone to hear and listen in, but not shouting, Im here because the University of Seoul needs some materials for a project, and Im looking for someone to run the Twisted Pce with me. Minimum A-Rank, well-bnced party, experience with the Dungeon in question preferred, Ill be paying for and providing consumables, Ill anyone who joins me a [Skill] of their choice. Well, hed umted a whole lot of charges for teaching, so he could definitely afford to spend them on this. Now if only hed not underestimated the response to his offer Chapter 287: Temporary Team Chapter 287: Temporary Team In hindsight, Isaac really should have expected this many people to want to join him despite the fact that he was going to the Twisted Pce. That Dungeon was almost universally thought of as being supremely annoying, messy, and tended to ruin your gear. But having an embarrassment of choices when it came to teammates was a good thing. He ended up going with a party of four, one other S-Ranker, Level 160, and two people who didnt have the power to be considered beyond the normal ranking system but were nheless at the peak of the fourth Evolution. Given a little more effort, he might have been able to get an all S-Rank party, but as things stood, most local S-Rankers had already been taught his [Skills] as part of his deal with Yoo-jin. But his group was merely not the best in the world, and that was just fine with him. Nan Min-soo, The Warden. S-ranked former prison warden, wielder of chain-based crowd control magic, and current cornerstone of the South Korean strategy to take down [Raid Bosses]. Her debut on the national stage had gone more than a little badly due to how no one had known that Tier 8 and above [Raid Bosses] were resistant to crowd control effects, but both Isaac and Yoo-jin had taken every chance to point out that that little SNAFU hadnt been anyones fault. Sang Han-soo, holder of a rather unusual healing [ss] called [Spectral Restorer]. Equal parts healing and ephemeral-based abilities, he didnt have the strongest raw healing for his Level, but he could y poltergeist to a sufficient degree to defend himself, and his healings quirks could make it a game-changer if properly used. Instead of simply fixing injuries by regenerating flesh and reattaching limbs, it reced any missing body pieces of spectral flesh. Instantly sealing cuts was just the start of what he could do. Even chopped-off limbs would be fixed up, with a phantasmal prosthetic taking the ce of the lost body part. And after a few minutes, the phantasmal recements would transform back into regr flesh. The recements might not be perfect, but theyd get you back into fighting shape a hell of a lot faster than anything else. Andst but not least, Elizabeth Riley, [Elemental Swordheart], currently visiting from the US. It was an interesting [ss], belonging to the mystic swordsmanship school of fighting. It was a broad category of abilities that roughly boiled down to make magic stuff happen via swordsmanship instead of spells. Projected sword shes, sure, but that was only the start of it. With the right [ss], Aspects, and other powers to back it, this kind of swordsmanship allowed for the short-lived summoning of all sorts of elemental attacks, phantom beasts that chomped down on ones foes, and the like. The advantages of this kind of fighting were obvious. It gave people ess to easily and swiftly cast quasi-spells. But at the same time, that was limiting. Those sword arts required specific movements that caused the magic to take effect, movements that didnt necessarily fit into the natural flow ofbat. Riley had demonstrated one of her abilities for him when hed been gathering his party. In essence, it was a single swift motion in which her de was unsheathed, continuing to bring it forward until it was pointed straight ahead, firing a deadlynce of energy that anyone other than a 5th Evolution tank would have to dodge. Powerful, yes, but using it required her to first sheathe her sword. Great for an opening shot, but tricky to pull off midbat. By contrast, Isaacs style of sword fighting allowed him to whip out his special abilities at literally any point in time, in any pose, with any weapon that could even remotely be called a de. A category that now included his hands and feet. There were advantages to both methods. The final party should be able to do this quite well. Isaac would scout, with him and Riley acting as damage dealers while Sang fixed them up, his particr vor of restoration being perfect for putting swift fighters right back into the field. And Nan was one of the finest crowd-control specialists in the world. Even foes resistant to her abilities wouldnt be able to get out before Isaac and Riley were on them. After spending an hour getting familiar with each other, they headed out to the Twisted Pce dungeon. The entrance was just a hole in the ground in an empty lot on the outskirts of town, leading into a dark hallway. So standard it couldnt even be considered ominous. But deeper in, the real shit waited. After a hundred meters or so, the tunnel began to grow lighter, the walls bing less and less distinct until they entered a seemingly infinite cavern. In fact, someone with weaker senses than Isaac might have thought theyd somehow ended up high in the sky. But no, they were just in the middle of a cavern with blue walls and a strangely fluffy floor, spatial magic stretching its size to the point where it was incredibly difficult to tell the walls were actually there. Fucking Twisted Pce. To start with, the disorientation of suddenly walking out into a seemingly open sky was weird. Then there was the floor underfoot, strangelypressible with spots that were either soft as quicksand or hard as rock, almost impossible to differentiate until you put your foot on them. The potential for twisted ankles alone made this ce hell, to say nothing of its inhabitants. Between Isaacs [Aura] and the fact that he could just magic up support underfoot with [Speed of Hait] where it failed, he could navigate fairly well, but the others werent having much fun. With an annoyed grunt, Riley pushed herself out of where shed fallen into the cloud, white mist clinging to her face for a few seconds before falling back down into the ground. She had movement [Skills] and could walk on air, among other things, but without monsters to fight, using them would be a waste of mana. Nan had an easier time with it, ephemerally shimmering chains forming tforms under her feet. And Sang was treating the whole affair like a minefield, carefully putting one foot in front of the other. As the healer, he shouldnt be forced to run when shit hit the fan, but if he did, that wouldnt be good. Isaac wished thered been some kind of magical item to borrow at the guild, but as things stood, theyd just have to be very, very to ensure nothing got close to him. Wait a second Isaac sighed, facepalmed, and switched out his dragon scale armor for his spare set, untied the boots, and handed them over. What are those? Sang asked, eyeing them with a mix of distaste and curiosity. Those are Cloud Walking Boots, built to mimic Sun Wukongs footwear, Isaac exined. He didnt need them anymore due to how they needed a certain amount of fog or cloud vapor underfoot to work and [Speed of Hati] was better in every respect, but hed still incorporated them into his backup armor as they were rather sturdy. Do you have any spares? Riley asked. Sorry, Isaac said, Youre going to have to rely on your own movement [Skills]. In a perfect world, the swordswoman would have been given the movement shoes so she could walk normally without spending mana on her movement abilities, but that would leave their healer a sitting duck. Not worth the risk. The first monster showed up five minutes after theyd walked onto the cloud, trying to get limated. That grace period for first-time delvers was the only thing that made it even remotely fair, and the only reason this ce hadnt been destroyed long ago. A humanoid cloud rose from the ground, darkening and gaining a core of flickering lightning. And then, space fractured. Chapter 288: A Foe Most Annoying Chapter 288: A Foe Most Annoying The oddly named Neb Avatar wielded abination of cloud, lightning, and space-based magic. Its name was either a weird pun on part of the Dungeon, or the [System] had been smoking something particrly strong at some point in thest few months. Either way, that thing was the very definition of a pain in the ass. Lighting constantly arcing all over the ce, space making approaching the thing a nightmare as it involved walking through what amounted to an invisible maze of twisted space where one could neither see the path nor the walls. The cloud floor was suddenly also around them, above, below, and sideways, aplete mess in all ways. And they were moving. Riley got smacked in the back by a floor tile and went flying, the warped space giving the whole affair a strange likeness to a pinball being sted through the machine. But she had been still mostly fine even before Sang healed her. Nans chains locked down the beast within seconds, and further chains whipping through the air to intercept lighting bolts that escaped the confined monster. At the same time, she was working on suppressing the spatial maniption that made it unapproachable. In the area around the beast was the first to stabilize, but due to how space had split, Isaac was the furthest from the monster, so Riley took the shot. One hand held her swords scabbard stock-still, the other rested on its hilt for a brief moment before she whipped it out, its tip drawing a glittering arc in the air until it came to a stop, pointed straight at the monster. [Silver Bullet]! she yelled as a glowing trail left the de, a tiny diamond-shaped silver projectile racing through the air. Oh great, someone who shouted their [Skills] out loud. Once upon a time, before parties had bemonce, a verbal warning to your teammates about when to hit the deck had been vital. A simple duck or fire wave iing had eventually shifted into simply using the name of the used [Skill]. After all, the names were usually somewhat self-exnatory, between that and people learning what specific attacks did after the first few times. And then, as things so often did, the action was detached from the reason behind it, and there were certain people who started acting like they were in some damn anime. Not that there was anything wrong with anime, it was just that this was not an anime world they were living in. Then again, it wasnt particrly harmful, it just deeply offended Isaacs sensibilities as a warrior on a fundamental level. But as long as they were just fighting monsters, it should be fine. Hed talk to her after this. And being a little silly didnt make the move any less dangerous. The projectile tore through the air, wavering a little here or there where it flew through an area that hadnt quite stabilized, but it stayed on target, mostly. But at thest possible second, it was jerked to the side by a fresh spatial warp, failing to hit center mass, instead tearing off one of the monsters left arm. The world shuddered again and stabilized a little more, to the point where Nan could exert more force through her chains. With a loud pop mixed with the sound of distant thunder, the Neb Avatar crumbled into nothingness. And the loot, well, it disappeared between the clouds, so now, they could all y at being archeologists. This fucking Dungeon. After another minute of randomly groping into the selectively tangible ground, Isaac pulled out a chunk of ore whose name proved that some people just should not be allowed to name stuff. The [System] named some ores, but some new metals, and especially the alloys that could be made from them, didnt have any names and were named once the first person worked them into an object important enough to receive a description. If the maker of that named the metal, all future crafts from it would be known as X-metal so-and-so. But until someone named it, objects made from such a material were just called Mystery metal so-and-so. And this material was one of those situations where a pre-selected name would have been preferable to the one humanity had logged into the [System]. Phlebotinum was the name of a material that was useful in various mana-manipting devices due to its high conductivity, but was severelycking in the mechanical department. What drove Isaac up the wall about the name was that it was actually a synonym for kontrivium and handwavium, aka the mystery metals in stories that had the exact purposes the plot demanded. And someone had given that name to a very real, decidedly non-miraculous, material. Still, they needed it, so theyd gather the bloody stuff. Heading deeper into the Dungeon, it felt like they were walking in ce. Because they were. Until theyd futilely walked a certain distance, there would be no advancing. For. Fucks. Sake. And outside ofbat, wasting mana on movement or stabilizing [Skills] was, well, a waste, so there was a lot of stumbling and cursing going on. The next Neb Avatar had the misfortune of popping out right in front of Isaac and died in a matter of seconds as he roasted it. Sure, they advanced more quickly, but the break in the monotony had been basically non-existent. The third monster was once again taken care of by Riley, whose sword tip dipped into the ground in a 270-degree vertical sh, tearing back out amidst a wash of water. [Rising Tsunami]! That wash turned into a powerful wave thatnded despite being somewhat refracted by the spatial twist crushing the monster into the ground. Space between the pair tore, and close to five kilometers might separate those two, but not even a Greater Space Elemental could keep up something like that and maintain its usual escheriaE defenses. And the Neb Avatar was certainly no Greater Space Elemental. The monster fell to Isaacs de, and they continued into the next phase. The maze. A mess of spatial warps, nigh-undetectable portals that sent you back to the start, and the like. They took a break and ate some food before going on, but it wasnt fun considering how lumpy the ground was. Sang even managed to find a spot where he could sink in up to his neck. Sure, you could safely breathe through the clouds, but that didnt exactly make an experience like that enjoyable. Even Isaac was reluctant to get up and get to work afterwards, but he still did it. The poorly-named mineral was needed, the poorly-named mineral would be retrieved. So they picked themselves back up, with annoyed grumbles being the politestments made, and marched onwards. They found almost a dozen Neb Avatars in the maze, but they were torn apart in moments. With local space already twisted into a pretzel, their spatial maniption didnt function, and their lighting wasnt enough to make them a serious threat on its own. Yet they were still a pain as they coulde from literally any direction. But they fell, burned, crushed by chains, cut in twain, or torn apart by Sangs telekinesis. Twelve more chunks of, urgh, phle-bo-ti-num, gained over the course of almost four hours. Found the exit, Isaac sighed via the party, pointing at a seemingly ordinary patch of space, ording to the strategy guide, the boss chamber is right outside the maze, so lets rest for a few minutes. And then the exit began to disappear while they were pushed away from the far side of the portal, and back towards the entrance. Fuuuuuuuuck! Lets go, Isaac announced, and they hurried through the exit, all making it out in time. The rate at which the exit vanished was probably designed to just allow people to escape by scrambling through,ing out the other end out of ce and formation. But they did have a formation meant topensate for this mess. Nan had Sang tied to her with a couple of short chains to ensure that mere spatial fuckery wouldnt separate the two while Isaac and Riley would be mostly fine on their own. For a single second, the chamber beyond the maze was normal. Another cloud chamber, that was all. And then, things went to hell. Isaac was suddenly on the far left of the room, at the outer edge of the cloud, Riley found herself on the opposite end of the entrance, and their support squad was all the way back at the maze, while a trio of monsters rose from the center. Two standard Neb Avatars, and one Living Thunderhead. The big bad of the worst Dungeon in Seoul didnt actually have the spatial maniption that made this ce so frustrating to fight through, that was what the minions were for, but rather, it possessed a ludicrous amount of firepower. Isaac ducked under a bolt of lightning as thick as his torso, even the near miss causing every hair on his body to stand up. With a shout of [Thunderbirds Wingbeat] Riley intercepted the attack flying her way. And Nan manifested a massive forest of chains around her and Sang, spatial maniption shattering as a greater power began altering the local area. So the monsters shrugged and adapted. Well, they didnt exactly shrug, but they still didnt miss a beat when dismissing both the crowd control specialist and healer as viable targets and isting them by putting a few kilometers of distance between them and the battlefield. Space kept shifting to deny Isaac and Riley the chance to get closer, fire and projected sword strikes taking small gouges out of the monsters without inflicting serious damage. Now! Isaac yelled across the party when things were just right and Riley moved. Sword held out at her side, parallel to the ground, she kicked off, seemingly sliding through space while her de left behind a ck crack in the world across the full breadth of the cloud. [Dimensional Sunder]! Anything that got into that mess would be torn to shreds by the shearing forces of the spatial turbulence which spread out around the sh, concepts like distance, gravity, and the connection between objects being thrown around like a leaf in a tornado. After barely a second, space snapped back into ce like a bungee cord returning to its original configuration, restoring the sundered area. And temporarily removing the Neb Avatars spatial maniption. Riley might currently be leaning on the hilt of her sword breathing heavily, but Isaac had managed to position himself to tear apart one of the Avatars. And as for the second one, well, he might not have been able to kill it before space got twisted again, but hed managed to move around so that it was between him and the entrance. And, of course, the des hed dropped there. Pulling soulbound weaponry towards him to impale enemies blocking the way was an old trick, and his preferred way of dealing with these nightmare foes. The Neb Avatar burst apart as a dozen swords and knives tore through it, and that was that for the monsters keeping the big one alive. And at that point, the Thunderhead was screwed. Its lighting was dodgeable, Nan tied it down to make it an easy target, and the grand total of two hits it managed tond was healed in seconds. They were granted a big chunk of phlebotinum for that, and an exit. Fucking finally. And there was no way in hell he was going back there. A different group would likely take longer, but Isaac was perfectly willing to trade time for his sanity. So, bribe some more people to go into the dungeon again, drop off the phlebotinum at Kimsb, get some food, and then, go bang his head into a wall a few dozen times. Chapter 289: Return to the Nightmare City Chapter 289: Return to the Nightmare City As per usual, Isaac relegated himself to the corner of the room when magical items were being experimented on. He couldnt meaningfully contribute, so he made sure to stay out of everyones way. The phlebotinum hade in very handy in the next few iterations of the summoning disruptor, allowing it to stay up for minutes at a time, but even when pitted against the weakest monsters possible, it still failed after a bit. While Isaac worked on some random paperwork, made ns, and schemed, he also kept one ear on the goings on in theb. It was very informative. His grasp on Korean profanity had almost doubled in just a handful of hours. But all jokes aside, this coulde in incredibly handy even in its current state. All one had to do was install a few of these tes everywhere you didnt want a monster appearing and thered be an advanced warning of nearby summoning when the te started breaking. Sure, the current tes cost as much as a couple of houses in the suburbs, each, and would only be useable in a handful of ces. Just protecting the aboveground portion of the university would have cost the equivalent of Baileys yearly budget if they actually had to pay for materials. But it should still be helpful. Eventually, Raul showed up, looking like he usually did. Comfortable clothes, prehistoric raptor on his shoulder, tiny dragon in his breast pocket. Back home, people had eventually stopped staring and/or trying to pet his familiars. But, for obvious reasons, the locals didnt have the same degree of familiarity. Isaac watched the whole thing through his [Aura]. The only thing funnier than peoples reactions to the tiny dragon was the faces they made when thezy lizard got off his ass, grew to the size of a house and tore a Tier 9 monster to shreds. Hak headed out to make sure Raul got in without issue. Good afternoon. Dr. Han, Professor Kim, Raul greeted the pair in charge and then went to try and empty his storage, only to realize that there wasnt anything close to enough space avable. After flinging almost half a dozen ruined tes into storage forter autopsy/material remation, Kim happily epted the materials Raul brought. The bounty wasnt anything she couldnt have gotten her hands on without help, but not something she could have afforded to use freely any more than Bailey could have. At the end of the day, be it in Germany or South Korea, publicly funded researchers could not afford to throw money at problems in the same way thatpanies could, and Isaac had the full resources of one of the most sessful [System]-based startups at his fingertips. But more important than the materials was Rauls presence. It didnt just mean that Isaac now felt a lot morefortable with going back to Rlyeh, it also meant they could get a hell of a lot more in-depth studying the ce. His [Natures True Guardian] [ss] allowed him to do a lot more than merely telling an ancient city of horrors to fuck off. If the anti-summoning project was based on how that city affected its surroundings, his ability to manipte that woulde in very handy. Kim had also spent some time arranging for proper precautions to be made so the city could be safely explored. A series of people with mental health-monitoring and mind-control detecting [Skills], at a staggered distance from both the city and the people inside it. Even if the monitors in or near the city werepromised, unable to detect it if the research team was negatively affected, that would be noticed by the people monitoring them. And if the eventual corruption reached them, then the next group would notice. And so on, and so forth, to the point where a good third of the monitors were outside even the worst-case estimate of the citys range. Unlike before, they didnt have to swim several kilometers straight down or rely on fancy spells to create air bubbles. A floating tform had been anchored above the city one and a half years ago, acting as a base for all expeditions downwards. It was basically a more modern oil rig-lookalike. Arge tform of ss and chrome rose out of the water, six pirs disappearing into the arctic water below. And almost one year earlier on the dot, an elevator had been added in. Teleportation might have been possible, but no one wanted to risk that kind of spatial maniption around something as disruptive as Rlyeh. And even sessful teleports would have always have left the teleported with the nagging feeling that maybe, just maybe, was there a possibility theyd been affected by the nightmarish powers of the city. So instead, they were treated to a wonderful sight of the deep ocean abyss as the ss bubble sank along the anchor chain. Whoever had decided that this thing had to have clear walls obviously didnt suffer from thssophobia. Or had had to use this thing more than once or twice. Thankfully, no one seemed to have any problem with the descent. Every few hundred meters, the elevator came to a stop to let one of the monitors off at the stations ced there for just this purpose, and after ten minutes, they were let off at the edge of the city, the air envelope having been extended to cover the entirety of the outside. So this is Rlyeh, Kim shivered, Creepy. It was worse before, Raul said. Hed wrapped himself in a nket of normal that managed to not onlypletely shove away the corrupting energy but also avoid disturbing the area outside the effect in the slightest, ensuring it wouldnt mess with the research. Even with the ck ocean hanging overhead, sparse lighting throwing shadows that would have been creepy in any ce, let alone Rlyeh and literally only five people in view, it was still an improvement over the original state of the ce. Isaac spent most of his time pacing, while Hak, Kim, and Han took their readings, did minor experiments, and finally, asked Raul to start normalizing the field of strangeness. Then they moved ten meters in any direction and tried again. If this had happened literally anywhere else, Isaac would have wandered off at this point, exploring the surroundings and made sure there was nothing dangerous in the area. But he couldnt do that here. The path he left on might not take him back to where hed started out from, he might somehow find himself in the bowels of the city, and quite frankly, the idea of ending up in the city alone was one of the most terrifying thoughts hed had this month. They kept experimenting, walked a few steps, and experimented again. Over and over until suddenly, they came to a realization that no one had expected. I think I know whats going on with the city, Kim suddenly eximed, Its not She stopped when she saw Isaacs look, Whats wrong? Can we please do the debrief on the surface? Isaac asked. He wasnt a big fan of staying down here any longer than strictly necessary, and that wasnt even getting into the worry that the city might be feeding the answers to her. Sure, the risk was remote, but he really wanted to ensure that he was getting objective information. Sure, the monitoring system was as good as it could possibly be, but it was still pants-shittingly terrifying down here. If Kim had asked, hed have told her all this, but once hed started looking ufortable, shed immediately agreed and they all went back up to the surface. Even if six hours might have been an eptable exposure time from an info hazard point of view, it was still too long for Isaacs taste. When you were surprised the floor hadnt changed in the two seconds youd spent looking at something different, you knew youd spent too long in the ever-changing city. Or maybe being on guard all the time had led him to go all-in on guarding against the citys weirdness and now he was still on guard against that mess even though it was currently two kilometers below the capsule. The dumbest part was that the city was safe from that point of view, the only monsters whod ever ended up in it had been summoned by human hands. But some distant part of his mind insisted that a ce that freaky had to contain more threats than just strangeness. And then that realization left him questioning his own sanity for a while, at least until hed managed to satisfactorily convince himself that the assumption of freaky ces having monsters was a standard human thing. Isaac shivered. The instant they were at the surface, Kim would hopefully be able to exin everything. They headed straight into the conference room from the elevator, but even then, Kim looked like she might explode from excitement, appearing like a woman half her age. Her power flowed over the table the instant the door was shut, forming a small copy of the city that shifted as she talked, while Isaac mmed an anti-eavesdropping [Skill] into ce. Its all about probabilities, she grinned, There isnt one city, there are dozens, maybe even hundreds. Or maybe theyre configurations of the same city, well have to figure that outter. But the point is, at any given point in time, there is a given probability for each configuration to be in ce, leading to the city to constantly shift and change. If, however, there is something foreign and sapient in the location, the city doesnt shift in their line of sight, that might be a safety mechanism, that might be a natural function of how the alteration works, wed need to check that. But the point is that the city is in some sort of natural flux that keeps shifting and shifting it around in ways thats rough to look at and avoid the attentions of sensory [Auras]. It isnt an innately hostile force manipting the city to mess with people, its just changing in a way thats incredibly annoying. What about the effect it has on the human mind? Han asked, It only shifts behind your back and that is irritating, but that doesnt ount for the full deleterious impact it has on the psyche. The fluctuating mana field is likely the cause. Magic as we understand it might not be behind the alterations, but we know that the local mana is affected, Raul said, I keep the world around me natural and I didnt feel anything weird at all. How about the weird nts, the colors, and all the other fluctuating messes? Isaac asked. We know the world keeps shifting and those phenomena might be extensions of the constant architectural restructuring, Kim suggested. So its not a trap meant to ensnare the minds of all those who enter? Isaac asked. It made sense, in some twisted way, for the whole affair to just be a cosmic ident, but he found it hard to imagine. What about the cultists who worshipped the cityst time? Hak asked. Hed mostly stayed quiet, but chose that moment to speak up, If this was just an ident, how do you exin them? Han chuckled sadly at that, People worship all sorts of things if theyre just given the faintest whiff of a reason. The slightest bit of good fortune might be seen as a divine gift, bad fortune as divine punishment, and anything out of the ordinary as a divine message. Someone already driven insane by the city deciding that anything that happens within was caused by divine providence is perfectly normal, as is the idea that the citys corruption is actually a gift. Isaac winced. That was absolutely true, though. People could zero in on the weirdest shit and turn it into a religion. The members of the nihilistic cult might have been given very specific divine instructions, but there were several groups whod decided that the mere existence of the [System] was some kind of message. So, were not dealing with a corrupting artifact at the bottom of the ocean, were dealing with a constantly shifting city that people cant look at because its not good for them, Raul said, Now, I have just one question: where the fuck did ite from? Well have to figure out how long its been down there first, we might be able to get further from there, Kim suggested, After we figure out how it works and how we can interact with it without going insane. Just because its intended function wasnt to be an object of obsession doesnt mean it bing essible to humans wasnt an attack, Han said darkly. And the fact that its bad for people doesnt mean that it was an attack, Isaac sighed. The citys weirdness might have been at least somewhat exinable now, but the questions behind its existence only grew with each new discovery. After a couple of minutes, Kim sent her assistant out of the room for some coffee and food and revealed her second theory. I think it might have been some kind of weird gift. Something to read mana patterns and spatial maniption out of, all wrapped up in a mind-destroying field that made it cheaper to hand out, Kim suggested. A divine gift? Isaac asked rhetorically. It would have exined the magic-less, well, magic. Something to pick apart and reverse engineer for spatial magic and the like. But then again on one hand, a gift with a sting in the tail to reduce the overall benefit was a possibility, on the other, it might also be a curse that provided some small benefits so it had been cheaper to add. Or maybe the whole mess was actually natural, forck of a better word, and the human mind just interpreted a b of continuously changing rock as being a city. When Hak came back with food and coffee a minuteter, the conversation had already turned back towards the standard we know more, what do we do with that information topic. Isaac granted each of the other four another [Blessing of Innovation] and then made some time for himself. What that really meant was that he went for a flight that took him well out of the tforms observation range. Eventually, he found a small iceberg tond on, and from there, it wasnt exactly much trouble to melt a small cave into it. And in case someone was somehow close enough to overhear, Isaacs fully upgraded anti-eavesdropping capabilities would ensure they didnt catch anything. Hey Loki, I promise that, if you give us a satisfactory exnation about the origin of the city we were just exploring, as per the current,mon sense, definition of the words satisfactory and exnation, Ill pull a public prank on someone who I feel deserves it and that I genuinely believe youll find funny based on my current picture of your personality, Isaac said into the empty air, If you are unable to grant a satisfactory exnation due to external limitations, we may renegotiate, but the fee cannot be increased after youve already answered. He wasnt a particrly big fan of relying on divine help on anything, but as aggravating as this particr deity was, he could be useful. Being ostensibly neutral, he couldnt strongly work against either faction, but even just an indication as to which side was responsible for creating the worlds biggest shithole could be immeasurably useful. For a long moment, nothing happened. That made sense, it would make sense that Loki wouldnt be in a position to drop everything to visit him, or willing toe running like an eager puppy. But after an hour, Isaac was still sitting in the freezing cavern, all by himself. Hed pulled out his phone by minute ten, and hed finished literally everything productive he could do from here by minute forty. Oh, so you finally gave in and asked me for help? Loki asked, appearing right behind Isaac and well inside his personal space. Typical. Isaac decided not toment on how long it had taken for him to arrive either, as it really wouldnt have been worth the fight. And considering how long it had taken, the dy might have just been a tactic to see if Isaac would offer more. So, I can answer, this isnt a particrly difficult or politically dicey question, but youre being a bit cheap, dont you think? Loki grinned, leaning back into the wall, ice reforming to give him afortable seat. Two pranks, Isaac said. When Loki didnt answer, Isaac just raised an eyebrow and met his eyes. For a full minute. Are you seriously only going to just leave it at that? Loki asked. I want answers, but there are limits as to how far Im willing to debase myself, Isaac shrugged. And all of a sudden, there are limits on what youre willing to do for the sake of the world? Loki asked. That city has been down there for gods only know how long and hasnt caused any trouble for people who didnt bother it. If the city is guaranteed to end the world within, say, the next century, you can tell me that for free and we can make negotiations based on that, Isaac said, Hell, if there is information that will makes this information more valuable, then tell me that, and we can talk about adjusting the price. Well, there is a chance Small words only, short sentences, Isaac interrupted, stone-faced. That would make any messing around and double meanings far easier to spot. Youre not fun, Loki grumbled, then stayed quiet. So, no big danger emanated from the city. Or at the very least, no danger that the god was willing to talk about. I can be fun, Isaac shrugged, Just give me a reason. Okay, heres the deal: you do two pranks as outlined in your original offer, and I give you an exnation about the city you call Rlyeh right now, Loki offered. Im willing to ept that offer under the stiption that the city you talk about is the real city at Earths pole of inessibility, not the fictional city from H.P. Lovecrafts works, Isaac countered. Three pranks, Loki countered. Isaac sighed and hung his head. Close one. They kept talking, and after a full thirty minutes, they basically settled right back on the original deal of two pranks, made by Isaac personally, in the near future in exchange for satisfactory answers given right now. What you call Rlyeh is a big mess identally created by a neutral deity who doesnt really care for sapient life all that much, and no one could be arsed cleaning it up afterwards. Not malicious, just an ident. Itll negatively affect those who spend more than a few days within 1.87 kilometers of it, but fixing the damage is within humanitys current capabilities as long as the total exposure time isnt greater than a month. There is not a single person negatively affected by the city who has not been identified as such. You can learn a lot from the city, including tricks with spatial maniption, Loki said. And then, he vanished. How was that a satisfactory ans- Isaac swore softly under his breath. It would have been satisfactory under standard circumstances, knowing where the hard limitsy, and that there werent any walking time bombs running around was beyond helpful. All of the important facts he needed to know had been hit by that exnation. Buuuuut Isaac had been hoping for something more, considering hed been getting information from a god. Just a little bit extra. Still, he had the answer he needed, he just could never really share it. For one, he didnt want to exin to the world about how hed been dealing with deities, and he also didnt want to encourage others to try their luck. Loki could be dealt with reasonably well, and his requests werent all that destructive. Now Isaac just had to find a public figure to prank in a way that he thought Loki would find funny, without getting caught. After spending a few more minutes gathering himself and making ns, then returned to the tform, told Raul, Kim, and Han about the safe exposure limits, and then readied himself for a few more days of boredom. Chapter 290: This Could Be Used for Evil Chapter 290: This Could Be Used for Evil Isaac stared at the magical device at the center of the table like it was a delicate piece of artwork, or maybe a terrified small animal that might die of fright if he so much as gave it a stern look. It was also a mess of wires, rune tes delicately bnced on said wires, fragile ss connectors, and things Isaac barely had a name for, let alone understood. But it worked, sort of. There was a summoning circle on the floor next to the blocker, flickering and throwing ephemeral sparks. It had been like that for almost an hour. How much longer do you think itll keep wor- Rauls question was cut off by the blocker outright shattering as a Death Knight erupted from the summoning circle. In most ces in the world, the appearance of this monster would have been the opening second of a bloodbath. In this room, it barely lived long enough to be recorded on the camera filming the experiment before it was torn to shreds by spells and des. Unfortunately, we cant seem to be able to make the effect permanent, Han noted. The question is if its a fundamental issue with the process, where summoning, once initiated, cannot be reversed, only paused, or if were going to keep pursuing perfection, Kim stated. Have we seen any indication that summoning pressure will let up? Isaac asked rhetorically. They all knew it hadnt. Just constant, inexorable pressure until whatever barriers theyd mmed in ce inevitably shattered. An hours worth of dy is plenty of time to mount a response, Yo-jin said from the door, where hed just entered, At what point can you detect the fact that its actively blocking something? Basically immediately, Kim said. Then it would be for the best to focus on material efficiency, Yoo-jin said, Its good enough to prevent attacks on major poption centers, it needs to be cheap enough to produce to be manufactured en masse. And now that the conversation had turned to real-world issues, Isaac felt he could start raining on everyones parade too. Can you make this technology trackable, or develop a technique that can track it from a distance? Isaac asked, This is incredible, dont get me wrong, but this could be very counterproductive. Someone could activate a whole lot of summoning circles when one of those tes is active and be on the other side of the until by the time any monsters appear. That should be possible, Kim said after tapping her chin thoughtfully a few times. Its almost more important than figuring out how to improve the blockers themselves, Isaac said, Otherwise, any improvements to them will also increase their danger. That killed the mood even more effectively than the previous statement. But for all the potential negatives that could stem from this, the entire concept of blocking summoned monsters was incredible. Once the tes got cheap enough, the only ces monsters could be summoned would be in the wilderness or designated summoning areas. Well, instantly summoned. The monsters could be called into poption centers but by the time they emerged, countermeasures would already have been prepared. Hell, more advanced tes might be able to relocate summoned monsters, pushing them out of their radius to not just dy but prevent attacks on poption centers. And they were absolutely perfect for interrupting hostile attempts at summoning [Boss] monsters even when the preparations were almostplete. The advantages this timeline had over the other one were countless, but somehow, this one felt a hell of a lot more impactful than all of the rest. After a longer and more in-depth conversation, Isaac made his way back home via ne. Sure, under almost all circumstances, he hated the idea of getting stuck in a metal tube with absolutely nothing productive to do, but honestly, he needed the enforced break. Time to think without the constant background discussions about the science of messing with summoning. Professor Kim was an impressive scientist, Isaac had always known that, but this and her previous work had gone above and beyond any expectations hed had for any researcher, let alone one he wasnt constantly feeding info. The [Round Table] still had two slots open, ones theyd been saving for people with a bit more political influence. Habicht was great, Arthur was also influential, both Isaac and Bailey had a lot more influence than mere scientists really should, but overall, their organizationcked some political oomph. But finding political animals that were also trustworthy to the degree they required? That was kinda hard. Perhaps, just maybe, it was time to axe that n, and instead of constantly pursuing a politician when there were others who would bring quite a lot to the table. And wielded political influence without actually belonging to that nest of vipers. Dr. Han, while a very sweet person, was not in a position to exert much influence in South Korea as he was, at the end of the day, North Korean. Yes, he was a defector whod thoroughly trashed the entire North Korean nuclear program and yed a vital part in defeating the Demon Lord that had been sed on Seoul during the early days of the [System], but unfortunately, his origins were still held against him. But Professor Kim did not only boast scientific achievements equal to any other member of the [Round Table], shed figured out the dual nature of the [System] all on her own. Isaac left a quick note to talk about that on the table, then pulled back out and simply tried to melt into his business-ss seat, push away all the worries, just put his feet up and make sure most of his [Aura] was outside the ne, the only things that could be sensed being air and clouds. And for almost an hour, he managed to rx. But in time, he slipped into the round table and began to tear into the folders of other potential members. What was needed? Enough power to have an impact, be it personal or political. The right temperament to work with the Round Table, including a willingness to work in the shadows. Preferably someone with apletely new viewpoint, one that wasnt scientist, police chief or basically a mercenary. And, perhaps, it might be a good idea to spread out their members a bit in terms of geography. Right now, they were very much concentrated in Germany, Ennd, and South Korea. There was Jason, who was from Canada, but he was very much a free spirit, with seemingly no real power in or connection to his homnd. And Fenrir, obviously, but hed moved to the Antarctic basically the day the [System] had arrived and exerted power more on a global scale, rather than focussing on his homnd in a noticeable way. There were quite a few possibilities. Either Davy Jones or Captain Nemo were options, obviously, but Isaac wasnt quite sure if either of them would carry the day like, say, he or Elena could. Hell, if he werent practically guaranteed to blow a gasket at learning of the existence of the [Round Table], Ardouin would have been perfect. And then there were another twenty or so people that the members of the table had crossed paths with, gotten interested in, and looked into for potential membership. That might not have gone anywhere, but the files still existed. Areti Tassa, the Greek S-Ranker who loved to box the ears of powerful idiots, usually metaphorically, sometimes literally. Powerful, willing to stand up for what was right, though possibly a bit too unsubtle for their needs. Carmelo Basile, whod be the [Heir of Marcus Agrippa], was incredibly capable and would have been a fantastic addition, though hed mostly been limited to supporting the Italian military, so Isaac wasnt sure how well hed y in an international group that ignored the concerns of nations as individuals. Isaac kept looking through the lists until he hit a name he fondly remembered from the other timeline. He might have been dismissed from consideration when they were looking for raw political power at the highest echelons, but once that got dismissed as being unrealistic then Typo would be his first choice. Of course, Typo was a nickname, his real name was Owen Price, but apparently, it was a nickname present in both timelines. The Australian S-Ranker used abination of his soulbound gun and sound magic to devastating effect. Sound was the best way to sense people when you didnt have line of sight, but it was one he could entirely suppress, to say nothing of the offensive application of the element. As for the nickname, it was simple. Whatever his current [ss] might have been, his 3rd Evolution had been called [Gunsinger], something that had ended up on quite a few official forms in the past. However, most people whod seen those forms had thought it was just a typo, and assumed he was a [Guns-l-inger], with it looking as though he were categorically incapable of properly spelling his [ss] name. The misunderstanding had been cleared up, but the nickname stuck. He was one of the worlds most dangerous snipers, an expert at sneaking around, and devastating when he shifted his gun into something easier to handle and unleashed the true depths of his sound magic. He wasnt the best person in the world with a gun, for example, Mller, being a pure sniper, was obviously stronger from the gun-wielder angle, but Price was deadlier overall. Isaac set another memo on the table about how he might be a good candidate. That done, Isaac withdrew from the table and tried to getfortable in his seat. Tried being the operative word. In hindsight, trying to force himself to rx by locking himself in a metal tube had been a truly terrible idea. So he kept working, this time, focusing on how to figure out a prank that Loki would enjoy. Book 5 Release! Book 5 Release! I wanted to thank you guys for always reading the series, and I promise I''ll keep writing and posting on here once this series is finished, I''ve already got some fun stories waiting in the wings. I''d really appreciate it if you were to leave a review on Amazon or Audible, that would really help. Chapter 291: Paying the Piper Chapter 291: Paying the Piper What would the god of mischief find funny? A whoopie cushion would probably get him to crack a smile or something, but Isaac had promised to do something that would be genuinely funny. In his mind, as per his personal definition of the word, that required something more. And drawing on someone elses definition of the concept might work, but it also might not. So why not go a little over the top, encouraging Loki to potentially make future deals? Besides, it was an excuse to do something dumb without it being a waste of time. His targets were twofold, as he owed the god two pranks. The first one was your standard money-grubbing money is everything, and can be used to ster over any issues caused by getting it CEO. Bad for the workers, bad for the environment, indirectly responsible for enough summoning rted problems to get on Isaacs radar but not enough for official or non-official retaliation. Isaac wasnt made of time, he needed to pick his battles and this was not one he normally deemed worth it. But he had the excuse now, and quite frankly, this should be satisfying. Maximilian Kaiser was about to have a very, very bad day, and this product-showing would likely go down in history as a prime example of what not to do. Or maybe, just maybe, it would be figured out that someone was mucking about behind the scenes. Actually, people would probably catch on to the sabotage, but what could they possibly do? Tracking him down would be nigh impossible. In theory, he could be found out at any point in time just by someone with a truth-telling [Skill]. In practice, hedid the groundwork for being able to tell them to buzz offst year. Oh, it had been a half-joking question of did you do it about some random crap that he hadnt been responsible for made by some poor schmuck whod had the misfortune of doing so in front of cameras. Isaac had pretended to almost explode, only to then calm himseof, stating that he would answer this specific question to make it quite clear that he was taking this stand not because answering would be incriminating, but rather out of general principle. After all, there were a fuckton of crimesmitted every day and he really didnt want to live in a world where everyw enforcement officer feltfortable asking him about each and every one of them. If there was reasonable suspicion that he might havemitted the crime, then go get a warrant and hed be more than happy to clear his name. And under most circumstances, he wasnt opposed to talking tow enforcement. But if people felt this bloodyfortable with questioning him about literally everything that he might theoretically have done, he had to draw a line in the sand. And then hed had to ask Habicht to make sure the guy wasnt fired. He hadnt really been malicious, just extraordinarily unlucky. Kaiser was marching onto the stage at the press conference, ready to show the world what hispany had done. Isaac had considered just messing with the presentation, recing it with pornography or something, but while that would have been embarrassing, it didnt quite have the oomph he wanted. Instead, hed had Jason steal the sh drive with the prototype presentation, then created an alternative version with a sting in the tail. Using that as a basis, he could keep adjusting it for any changes made, and it all led up to this. This is our newest project, the Kaiser trailed off when he caught sight of the faces of the people watching his presentation. The document hed meant to show had been a basic n of the summoning rooms for the project. What had actually ended up on the monitor was, well, apany-internal memo about potential weaknesses. Things werent bad enough for official sanctions right off the bat, but both Isaac and the writer of that memo still expected trouble. The corrections were written in small red annotations that were clearly apparent when the document was open, but would be hard to see in previews. Kaiser made an awkward joke, then tried to keep going. Tried being the operative word. Music that was meant to be yed to apany the presentation was turned all the way down, but the second he touched the volume dial, the sound got dialed up to ear-splitting levels. And so on. The water in his ss had a metallic taste, which would have been annoying under most situations, but a mere two days ago, thepany had been fined for still having lead pipes, so that little trick had scared Kaiser more than a weird taste should have. And so on. Slowly, painfully so, Kaiser managed to finish this absolute train wreck of a presentation, and then, he finally copsed onto his chair. And the sound of a fart ripped through the room like a gunshot. Whoopie cushion. ssic for a reason. Might not have been enough on its own, scratch that, it wouldnt have been enough on its own, but as a grand finale perfect. What the fuck is that smell? Oh, right, hed gotten some military-grade fart spray to fill the cushion with and forgotten about it. And in this case, military-grade meant that it stunk so badly that the merest whiff of it was enough to be instantly considered a public nuisance. Nopany would ever be willing to sell this crap as stink bombs as theyd be sued into the ground on day one. Thioacetone was the smelliest chemical in the world, to the point where in the year 1889, a single dropped vial of the crap had caused the evacuation of an entire city. Isaac hadnt used nearly as much this time, of course, but people still evacuated the room as though it had just spontaneously caught fire. He swiftly made his escape before the cloud of silent but deadly reached him. One down, one to go. *** Target number two. The Nazi. Usually, as involved as Isaac was in politics, he didnt much care which party he dealt with. While there were all sorts of parties in the Bundestag, ranging from very liberal to very conservative, they were mostly reasonable. Despite having different values and priorities, most of them, especially those with power, were close to the center and far from the extremes, and he could pick who to approach from amon sense perspective. Unfortunately, however, people did exist at the extremes of the spectrum, ranging from unrealistic images of trying to end all taxation and have the government still somehow work to, well, Neo-Nazis. And under most circumstances, Isaac detested using Nazi as an insult, an overused and progressively more meaningless phrase that boiled down to person I dont like. As a child, Isaac had gone to a concentration camp. Well, the school had taken the whole ss on a trip there. Hed seen the gate, the railyard, the recreations of the barracks, and the incinerators. To be entirely honest, it hadnt made him feel much he hadnt felt before, hed learned all the things theyd been told about on the tour in lessons and books. And then, theyd gone to the visitors center. Seen the pictures, watched the videos, realized that those piles of naked corpses, staring sightlessly into nowhere, were exactly where hed just been standing. That was a Nazi, someone whomitted that kind of evil. And the people who felt that that kind of evil was alright, minimized it, or tried to encourage that whole regrettable chapter to be forgotten, as if that wouldnt increase the risk of the whole situation repeating itself down the line. A politician you didnt like who wanted to limit you in some small way, especially when it was something stupid like from now on, unasked-forpliments legally count as sexual harassment, was not a Nazi. However, there was a miscreant who was an ultra-conservative and liked slipping lesser-known Hitler quotes into his speeches. And while some of them might be exinable as idents, such as saying everything for Germany, the man had been a history teacher. Between that and the frequency of the idents, a true coincidence was unlikely. But thankfully, he wasnt that influential, so while that crap hadnded him solidly on Isaacs not worth having a conversation with list, it wasnt enough to make him a viable target. Hed also started making some noise about stopping state interference and ensuring freedom prevailed when it came to summoning, yet even that wasnt enough to put him on Isaacs radar. He wasnt in a position to make true any of those things. Isaac grinned viciously as he stared at his unfortunate victim across the hall. Time to see if he could get Bastian Hagen mad enough to make his head explode. *** And now, well be calling some of our supporters who unfortunately couldnt make it here, to show what can be achieved when the sensitive parties arent mucking about. Isaac hadnt messed much with the rally so far. Just the asional heckling, by thinking out loud next to someone who would then ask the question and cause a fuss. Because Isaac knew exactly which questions Hagen would not want to answer. Yo, came the reply after a few rings, Who are you? Whos this? Hagen asked back, puzzled. You called me, the voice replied, Youre bothering me, so either hang up, or stop pussyfooting around. Hagen rechecked the number hed dialed, it looked right, and answered the question. This is Hagen, we Oh, so youre that asshole. Excuse me!? Well, you called me quite a few names, and proudly proimed that anything I could do, you could do better. And then you did nothing. You pathetic bbermouth. WHO ARE YOU? Who are you to yell at the Great Sage Equalling Heaven? Sun hung up. He wasnt normally someone who cared about what people said behind his back, but if someone had identally slipped him a transcript of Hagens boasting-sh-shit-talking yeah, it wouldnt be pretty if Hagens call waster redirected to him. Mopping the sweat from his brow, Hagen mumbled an apology about how his phone must have been hacked and borrowed his aides phone. Wouldnt help him, though. Isaac was continuously borrowing [Skills] via the [Round Table], with Arthur sitting in the [Skill], cackling like a hyena on crack and constantly making sure he had ess to what he needed. First, hed borrowed one of Elenas racial abilities, a fae curse that sapped luck, which hed pped Hagen with right at the start. Second, he was copying Jasons abilities to mess with distress calls, though the [Skill] could also be used in other ways. Like redirecting a distress call to a pizza delivery ce for extra cruelty, or making an annoying politician deal with people he really didnt want to. The next call went decently well, and reached the intended target, thoubutgh the guy who picked up had been harrassed by Jason all day, and was incredibly short-tempered. All in all, it was less disastrous than the conversation with Sun, but not by much. And the final call would be even worse if Isaac had judged the people involved correctly. Who are you and how did you get this number? The voice that answered was so icy, that it caused even Isaac to shiver. This time, Hagen recognized the voice. Frau Bundeskanzlerin? Who. Is. This. Bastian Hagen, I This is my personal cell phone number, you should not have it, and you certainly should not be using it. Where are you calling me from? Obviously, Isaac shouldnt have that number either, but considering who was working for/with him, most secrets were only secrets because he hadnt asked anyone to look into them yet. Um Hagen stammered. Where are you right now? Who are you trying to impress? Im not doing anything? Hagen said, apparently having decided that trying to talk his way out was better than outright hanging up. Or maybe, the curse was messing with him. If I look on your partys website, will I see where you are on the campaign schedule? Goldschmidt growled. Someone hacked my phone, Hagen finally insisted. The cough from the other end of the line was almost certainly a masterfully disguisedugh or scoff. In that case, why didnt you hang up the instant you realized something was wrong? Goldschmidt asked, Im in the middle of an important meeting, get your house in order. And lose this number. After a few more attempts at ying down the mess, the whole rally came to an awkward end, and Hagen practically ran off the stage. But the moment he was out of sight, he slipped on a wet patch of floor. Isaac sniggered. He hadnt even nned that. But when Hagen slipped down the stairs a minuteter, that was one hundred percent on him, as Isaac had been lying in wait, phased into the stairs, pouring just a tiny amount of water onto the marble stairs where the older mans foot was about tond. Before, throwing an elderly politician down the stairs would have likely resulted in an attempted murder charge. Nowadays, few people would high-five him for doing his best to maximize Hagens airtime, but hed be damned if watching that wasnt satisfying. Having a grown-ass man sprawl in the middle of the posh lobby of a hotel/conference center, throwing a temper tantrum, was hrious. But still not quite enough. Getting above the man while stayingpletely in the walls was difficult, but Isaac managed it in barely ten seconds. And once there, he stole the ss ampule that plugged the nearest sprinkler shut. Normally, during a fire, the ss would shatter from the temperature and water would flow down. The look of utter defeat on the mans face as water cascaded down all around him was one that Isaac would treasure for the rest of his days. Chapter 292: Recruitment Chapter 292: Recruitment Finding people who would take part in a global conspiracy, willing to work to alter the entire world, was hard. Finding people who should take part was a hell of a lot harder. Suitable personality. Sufficient usefulness. And the ability to look at the world as a whole, and help it over supporting ones country of origin. Thest one especially was a sticking point. That worked just fine with the current roster, even Habicht, who was literally the head of a federalw enforcement agency,rgely focussed on the big picture. Initially, the n had been to give Professor Kim the second tost slot as shed already figured out a lot and been told the rest, had the right mindset, and was both politically and personally powerful. And being able to borrow [Skills] meant she could use [Blessing of Innovation] on either herself or Han, without Isaac having to make the trip. But shed turned down the slot, citing that Han could just be given the once-a-week copy whenever the Isaac-copy in the [Round Table] came off cooldown. It would be a bit more work for Arthur, but it would let Han keep his usual trump card and allow for ess to the research ability. Which left them with two slots to fill. Of course, there was no reason they absolutely had to be filled right that instant, but still, getting the maximum amount of help at some point would be helpful. Ideally, theyd pick members in the worlds current most troubled spots, but there was a distinctiveck of viable candidates. Central Africa was, sadly, still in the grips of political turmoil after all these years. Throwing superpowers at an already unstable situation certainly hadnt improved matters. Close to a hundred potential S-Rankers had risen over thest six years, but out of them, only three remained. The power to obliterate any given single foe with ease tended to be insufficient when faced with a hundred opponents. Of those three, two were brutal warlords, and thest, while actingrgely to shield the civilian poption striving for a better future, was too focused on local problems. Not that there was anything wrong with that, Isaac certainly wouldnt be able to impassively look at the big picture while everything around him was on fire. But it did mean she was ill-suited for the [Round Table]. There were other candidates suffering from simr issues. Right temperament, too focused on local issues. Or focussed on the big picture but not bringing the right degree of, well, capacity to be useful. In the end, one of the choices was made far easier for Isaac when one of the candidates contacted him. After a brief sh of suspicion, and some admittedly overly thorough checkingter, he agreed to the meeting. Checking out every single person on Earth was impossible, creepily invasive, and unproductive. You wouldnt check any given person to a sufficient degree to divine real problems, and anyone with actual skeletons in the closet would be hiding them. But with the resources Isaac had at his fingertips when a specific person was vetted, there was no way on the gods green Earth that theyd be able to hide a deep, dark, devastating secret. So yes, this invitation was on the up and up. In many ways, Japinder Singh Anuja was Indias equivalent of Isaac, a powerful individual who spent a significant amount of time ensuring that the people around him rose alongside him. He made his money in a simr method to how Isaacspany worked, altering which monsters he went after based on what materials were needed, and then trading those materials for the things he needed, be that gear, summoning help, or money. He led by example to try and ensure that people, well, didnt act like total idiots when monsters were involved. He even had the [ss] for it, being an [Exemr]. Normally, that word was an addition in [ss]-names like True, meaning a [ss] that transcended certain limits, or Paragon, which meant its bearer was the finest holder of this [ss] or [ss]-type, with Exemr being ranked just below Paragon. But [Exemr] on its own was one of the finest ability sets Isaac had encountered, and it did exactly what it said on the tin. It was a [ss] that belonged to someone who was a shining example of, well, something. In this case, how to grow in a smart and sustainable way. Isaac hadnt been offered any [Exemr]-type [sses] despite doing his best to show people how to improve safely, but then again, that was more of a do as I say, not as I do situation. Most S-Rankers reached their power via a series of risky and asionally outright reckless fights towards the top. Anuja hadnt. Hed advanced slowly, cautiously, and been rewarded for helping others stay on the safe path. And hed contacted Isaac to see if they could bounce ideas off each other. Well, it had been phrased more politely than that, but the gist of it had been the same. Anuja saw the problem about how society was changing through Levels, and while he didnt go into excruciating detail on it, Isaac could tell it was the same problem he was already seeing. For the most part, Anuja had been focused on local issues, but if Isaac was reading the message correctly, he was looking towards global solutions. But even if it was just about two people trading information and bouncing ideas off each other, it would still be perfectly useful. As for deciding where to meet, Isaac decided to juste to him. They both had ess to portals and were in single-portal range of each other. One person would zap over to the other using their own mage, then be sent back by the hosts portal mage and where they met would make no practical difference. And Isaac had never been to Amritsar before. *** After spending a couple of hours wandering around the city, exploring, Isaac headed towards the meeting spot. It was a cafe, likely not one Isaac would have found by looking for good spots on the inte, but the kind that would only be known to locals. Taking a deep breath to savor the smells of the cafe, Isaac entered. He couldnt fully unleash his senses here as he was still on the street, but even just his standard sense of smell was enough. German cafes werent bad per se, but they just smelled of coffee and couldnt possiblypete with the intoxicatingbination of countless teas, spices, baking, and more. Anuja arrived almost simultaneously. He was a tall, Indian man with a full beard, wearing a turban, as well as a simple kurta and pants, clearly designed to be wearable to physical activities like, well, fighting monsters. However, much like Isaacs own basic polo shirt and jeans, they were masterfully made from materials that cost as much as the cafe they were going to be meeting in. Sat Sri Akal, Isaac used the traditional Sikh greeting, bringing his palms together in front of his chest, and bowing his head slightly. At the same time, Anuja stuck out his hand and, in perfect German, said Good afternoon, Dr. Thoma, thank you foring. They looked at each other for a brief second, each having tried to greet the other the way they expected in their homes, then Isaac shook Anujas proffered hand. Thank you for learning the traditional greeting, Anjua added. Thank you for learning mynguage, Isaac replied, only realizing after the fact that hed said that in Punjabi. Hed spent thest several hours using thenguage and had been preparing himself to conduct the entire meeting in thatnguage, if Anuja so wished. So did you, Anuja noted. Of course, they were both fully aware that nowadays, learning a newnguage was an effort of hours, not years, but it was still a nice gesture. In fact, Isaac learned anynguage for which he could get his hands on sufficient teaching materials, and knew several thousand, though hed actually used only a hundred or so. In the end, Isaac asked to just stick to Punjabi as that was thenguage for the discussion. The conversation drifted here or there as they discussed general ideas about safe summoning not just when high-Level people were involved to what degree of supporting others was appropriate to ensure safety but avoid stifling growth. The usual shop-talk between professionals trying to learn from each other. It was useful, but not the meat of the matter. Do you know what ngar is? Anuja asked. Isaac nodded. It was the traditional meal offered for free in Sikh ces of worship, made by volunteers, for people to eat together regardless of religious belief or social circumstances. I try to volunteer to help at least once a week, and over thest few years, Ive seen a worrying trend. The longer this [System] had been affecting things, the more people showed up utterly destitute. At first, it was the odd jobs that were drying up, where shop owners might offer a random person a thousand Rupees to clean up the shop floor or the like. Those stopped after a couple of months, as people got [Skills] to make them superfluous. Then, the unskilled but permanent positions dried up because they could either be done by a single person once a weak by vaguely waving their hand at the problem. But things keep getting worse. Langar has be literally the only meal many people eat and that is not a sustainable situation. We can make sure theyre fed, but people need more than just food. Isaac nodded slowly. It was the same problem that Isaac had seen slowly develop over the years, though hed known about it in a more abstract sense. Anuja, meanwhile, had seen the problem develop week to week, getting worse with every passing moment. Weve been working on trying to figure out a way topensate for so many jobs suddenly falling away, Isaac nodded, Trying to create something that works with the real worlds limitations has been difficult. I know, Anuja nodded, Im guessing youve noticed the same problem? People can get very uncharitable if they feel like other people are allowed to be zy whilepletely ignoring the fact that there are literally no jobs they could be taking, Isaac said. Unfortunately, Anjua agreed, But even if either of us manages to fix the problem where we are, this isnt limited to Germany and India. As youre so fond of saying, global problems require global solutions. But not one-size-fits-all solutions, Isaac added. Obviously. Do you have anyone we should bring in on this discussion? Isaac asked. It was a question of if hed be bringing one person into the [Round Table], a wholework, or even someone who Anuja was working for. As far as he knew, Anuja was the one in charge of his efforts, but it didnt hurt to check. I have people who work with me, but no one who needs to be in on the conversation right now, Anuja shook his head. I see, Isaac said, Actually, theres someone Id like you to meet *** One quick call and a five-minute waitter, Arthur showed up and the conversation headed towards the [Round Table] after a few minutes while both Isaac and Japinder cast their respective privacy [Skills]. Theyd switched to first names less than a minute after Arthur had joined them. My question is this: where do you draw the line? Japinder asked, You work in the shadows, but that can mean anything from simply not being public to outright forming a shadow government. We coordinate without others seeing, and are allied without people immediately assuming the only reason were agreeing is because were coworkers, Isaac said, No false-g attacks, no letting tragedies strike to get our point across, no random murders for the sake of expediency. Thats a relief. In essence, what were offering is the chance to help prevent the world from sliding down a slippery slope into dystopia or extinction, Arthur said, But even if you decide not to join, that doesnt mean well refuse to work with you, wed love to support someone whos already achieved, well, what you have. What are your current priorities? Japinder asked. Getting other S-Rankers on board with not, at some point, deciding theyre above the rules, chipping away at the current social stigmas against charity so that eventual solutions wont run into an iron wall of stubbornness, finding the remnants of the cult, Arthur said. Japinder grinned, That sounds like a worthy cause. Where do I sign? *** One more slot open. One final person to pick. The thing that decided it was the question of where they needed influence the most. And the Flying Dutchman just so happened to have be spaceworthy. Things went fairly well with the recruitment, though there was a small hup with traveling to the ship. The Flying Dutchman had a survivability envelope around the ship, inside which people could freely survive even if the vessel was underwater or in outer space. Opening a portal into this envelope was simple, and one could step right into the ce where only magic allowed you to breathe from the regr atmosphere with zero issues. Small problem, though, air could do that trick too. So even though Arthur and Isaac could walk onto the deck easily, they brought a fair amount of atmosphere and a not-insignificant amount of paper with them. Beyond that, though things went well, and Davy Jones became the thirteenth and final member of the [Round Table], though much to his displeasure, the table listed him under his legal name, Johnathan Frye. But together, they could keep working to help the transition stay stable. Chapter 293: The Work Never Ends Chapter 293: The Work Never Ends As it turned out, the world could behave, to a certain degree. And it had, for almost ten months. No big blowups, and only three errant [Raid Bosses], but they had been taken down by people, not nukes. Working on generally creating ways for people to support themselves without regr jobs being avable. Figuring out a simple n for basic gear and Aspect [Skills] for killing basic monsters for food and ubiquitously needed parts for basic ie had been the easy part. Everything else not so much. But theyd had plenty of time to do other things, now that they hadnt been running from crisis to crisis. Time enough for a renewed focus on research on Isaacs part, as well as grinding XP and helping others with the [Blessing of Innovation]. That [Skill] really was the basis for a whole lot of cool new toys. The ability to, at will, look at your work from an entirely new perspective was incredible, but the ability to borrow [Skills] from other science [sses] was not to be underestimated either. What would normally require cooperation with other specialists, finding someone with the right knowledge who you also clicked with sufficiently. And even then, optimal cooperation was hard to do, with both sides likely having some unconscious expectations about what the other person already knew/needed to know, making a perfect transference of knowledge a little tricky. With the Blessing, however, you had a vast breadth of knowledge at your fingertips, and could easily also learn the contextual information you might not have otherwise gotten. And with Han borrowing it via the [Round Table], he could empower himself and Kim once a week. After a full quarter-year, Isaac had gotten a long-awaited message. Two of them, in fact. Congrattions, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for helping the world gain a new miracle! You have helped and sped along the invention of technology that can, albeit temporarily, block summoning. For supporting the development of such an impactful technology, you have been granted 1,000,000 XP. When that had popped up in his field of view, hed almost started celebrating as hed correctly assumed this meant that the technology had be mature in some way. And then, the second message had shown up. Congrattions, Challenger of the Apocalypse, for making the world a safer ce! You have helped and sped along the invention of technology that can, albeit temporarily, block summoning, allowing you much more time to respond to troubles For supporting the development of such an impactful technology, you have been granted 500,000 XP. (1,000,000 due to double-dipping) So apparently, making significant strides forward when it came to long-term survival also earned him XP for [Challenger of the Apocalypse] even when he got XP from other sources, but he did get a slight haircut for double-dipping. And after those things, a substantial boost to the [Skill] that had greased the wheels of progress had been entirely expected. Blessing of Innovation (legendary, Level XX) A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, ws that rend flesh like tissue paper, and the strength to bring down all but thergest of animals in its habitat. A human has what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal lotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands? Yet its man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africas lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: lions are stupid. The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipients ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself, for one hour. (the recipient can be any willing sapient being within 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves) While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively forget certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skills effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.) Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective facts for the duration of the effect. Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research sses, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare, and up to the second Evolution. The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a month. And now, this Skill has gained the capacity to understand truths that man is not meant to know, and as long as Undying Focus is supporting the user during the learning process, this information cannot hurt them. After countless asions where the user has granted others the power of infinite possibilities and indirectly given rise to incredible achievements, this Skill has evolved to vastly increase the chance of world-shaking advancements being made. The user of this Skill will be able to judge the likelihood of the recipient being able to make significant advancements upon receiving the blessing, and any recipient (including the user) will be shown the best Skills to borrow to achieve the intended goal. The upgrade was a simple one, straightforward, and still held nigh-infinite potential, just like the [Skill] as a whole did. And with that done, they could just keep working, keep improving, keep grinding. Those words meant something different for everyone. For Amy, it involved setting off the asional seismograph, while Patrick often vanished into his office for days at a time and left every avable surface utterly covered in scribbles by the time his study sprint was over. And where Isaac was concerned, it basically tranted as ughtering as many monsters as possible while going for ones with needed materials. In time, hed hit Level 169, gaining enough [Skill] points for [Book of Seven Seals]. Book with Seven Seals (legendary) First, came the white horse, carrying the horseman of Conquest. Second, there was the horseman of War, astride a red horse, followed by the ck horse of Famine and the pale horse of death. Then, the souls of the in righteous cry out, the earth shakes, the sun grows dim, the moon bes drenched in blood, and the very stars fall to the Earth until finally, the very heavens grow silent. That is when the final battle shall begin. This is how the Book of Revtions describes the end of the world, giving those who would stand against cmity a way to prepare, to read the signs that foretell theing apocalypse. Those who hold this Skill will receive warnings of future cmity, as long as said cmity is apocalyptic in scale. These warnings maye in the form of dreams, short visions, or outright prophecy. These warnings can begin as early as five years before the true beginning of cmity, or grant as little as one months warning (this depends on when said cmity bes nigh-inevitable), and will be increasingly precise and useful with each sessive warning. Receiving warnings does not mean that the world is certain to end without the intervention of this Skills bearer, merely that Armageddon is a possible oue. Nor does ack of warning indicate that a given situation is guaranteed to not eventually develop into an apocalyptic issue, just that it is unlikely. However, there are certain constant dangers, which exist permanently and may be very immediate and present threats depending on the situation. As such, you may receive an initial warning without subsequent additions which persist on the active prophecy tab. This is a powerful ability, but also a heavy burden. It will always be active, cannot be deactivated, and will epass any world that the bearer cares for. Those who hold this ability will never be able to rest, never be able to retire, for there will always be danger so long as the universe exists. Synergy effect: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit When the user of this Skill is forewarned of aing cmity, every science and research Skill they possess will be fed the specific kind of information they need. Lessons of History will highlight all information from past apocalyptic scenarios that apply to this one. The Meaning of the Name will continuously gather the information needed to make on-the-spot predictions. And Blessing of Innovation will highlight where further development is needed. Active Prophecies Prophecy 1: Selfishness of the Pessimists Already given up, A promised salvation dark, Pact of destruction Prophecy 2: Humanitys Greed Greed, Ambition, Growth, Ascension or Downfall Fools decide for all Beware Prophecy 3: The Wider Existence A blue orb, lonely, In a universe old, vast Beings unknown live Prophecy 4: Predatory Humanity Apex Lonely Peak New World Order Social Ossification Begets Revolution Beware Ok, first things first, the [Systems] prophecies were awful. And secondly, this [Skill] was kinda useless? Part of that was almost certainly down to the fact that the future wasnt exactly fixed, free will existed, and when people changed their minds, so did the future. But the overall limits felt like they were at least somewhat artificial. Time travel was within the capability of the gods, so a [Skill] that literally let him peer into the actual future, rather than spouting predictions, should theoretically be in the cards. But Isaac didnt seriously expect to be given something like that right off the bat. The real sticking point was that the [Skill] didnt give him an actual report on the problems it saw, instead hiding behind vagaries and poorly written poetry. Predatory Humanity was obviously about the powerful creating a new world order based on raw strength, Humanitys Greed was referencing the fact that greedy fools might still drown them all in monster hordes, and the Selfishness of the Pessimists was, well, proof that there was some sliver of a chance the cult would be able to still cause trouble. But what about The Wider Existence? What did that mean? An optimal [Skill] would read something like there is x-shit out in the universe, it might be a problem for y-reasons, and would do so on z-timeline. Instead, he got a badly written thing that might have been a haiku, and implied everything from unknown gods being a threat to possibly confirming that aliens were, in fact, real. He had confirmation that certain things were enough of a danger to qualify as a constant, low-level, threat, which was valuable all on its own, but still hed hoped for more. After spending a couple of seconds to drop a note in the Round Table, he made his way back towards the summoning room to see how many Aspects he could gather for the teams support staff. And once everyone had time for a meeting, theyd be making ns to deal with each of those prophecies. Chapter 294: The only remaining “Secret Cabal” Chapter 294: The only remaining Secret Cabal You know things are bad that when the Bundeskanzlerin responds to a proposal by saying if my grandson were here, hed run over to the bookshelf, show me one of his dystopian novels, and talk about how this n is its plot, Habicht grumbled. What was the proposed n? Japinder asked. Way I was told, it was all about requiring people to do a certain minimum of summoning and giving the results of that as taxes in exchange for a set amount of space, utilities, food, and medical care. So basically, the bare minimum with little chance of advancement once the XP dries up from the weak, required, monsters, people are stuck, Arthur nodded. Japinder thoughtfully stroked his beard, The importance of this is to give people at least the possibility of advancing. It is up to the individuals if they want to walk that path, but the option needs to be truly avable. How longs it been, anyway? Jason asked, Its July 27th, 2029, so He stared at the ceiling for a couple of seconds while he did a little mental math, Seven years, two months, and twenty-five days. Weve killed the demons of hell, seen the dead rise and put them back in the ground, literally reshaped mountains, and we cant even hammer out a single working social contract? Isaac was pretty sure that Jason was imagining this would be easier than it was in reality, but that wasnt exactly a problem. Political acumen wasnt what hed been invited to share. Why dont we just open up space? Jones suggested, Its not like we dont have the, uh, space. Eat what you kill, grab random rocks, and turn them into your home, and the nearest neighbor is hundreds or thousands of kilometers away. Jones looked more than a little silly at the moment. One of the previously unknown properties of the [Round Table] was that it fully reflected the physical state of those projecting in. Usually, this worked exactly as it sounded, showing clothing, injuries, dirtiness, etc. But given that theyd caught him sitting on an asteroid, catch some sun, he had real trouble staying in their seat. The hardened captain of the ghost ship of legend was currently resembling nothing if not a balloon bouncing around in his seat, hair, and beard wildly flying about the ce whenever he moved. Its also incredibly easy to get oneself killed in outer space, Elena pointed out, When people need to get up there under their own power, theres a minimum requirement of either funds or personal ability. Tossing people up there is only slightly more humane than just feeding them into a woodchipper. Isaac winced. It was an urate description, but that phrasing sheesh. By the way, did we finally manage to get enough degrees of separation between the summoning resources for the animal sanctuaries that we can use them? Bailey asked. Sure, I stole that stuff right out of the stash, Jason said, Do you know where would be the best ce to drop it off? This entire game of smoke, mirrors, and mental gymnastics was frustrating beyond measure. But by telling Jason where the stuff was without outright instructing him to remove it, hed technically stolen the whole lot. And by not directly telling him where to put it, just giving good drop-off spots, he hadnt been given any orders either. So even though the amount of mental gymnastics required to make that sense bordered on the absurd, as far as the usual methods of investigation went, things were on the up and up. Im guessing I dont want to know where we got that stuff? Bailey asked. Isaac nodded, while Arthur helpfully exined, We only work with the most reputable ck market dealers. Isaac facepalmed when he noticed Japinder frown. I made sure the people sourcing those materials were either people without any other options, and when that wasnt possible, at least focus on people whod spend the money on a new gold chain for their pet alligator, as opposed to funding terrorism. How many of those sanctuaries are actually necessary? Fenrir asked, I know youve gathered a lot of stuff, are you going to use all of it? A lot of rare species have already gone extinct, Bailey reminded him, sighing, Anything limited to a small geographic area is fucked if theres a fight nearby, and we dont have nearly enough stuff to protect every species in existence. But honestly, why would we wait until rhinos are extinct to create a sanctuary? Rauls going to be making sure everything works, Isaac said, Weve got other stuff to do. The conversation shifted again, covering a few other topics, like an update on the hunt for thest remaining members of the cult, of which there were only seven left, atst count. And then things came to the meat of the matter. We need to figure out a basic framework for a constitution in the [System] world and how society can deal with individuals having the power to overthrow the government in an hour, Isaac began, Ive got a few ideas, drawn from the German constitution. Mind you, that has nothing to do with national pride, but history. The current German constitution was created by the Allies post World War 2, making it fairly recent as far as constitutions go, with things like equality and freedom of speech baked in from the start. In fact, is literally called basicw because it was never meant to be a permanent legal code, just temporary until Germany could create its own constitution. It was written as a direct response to Adolf Hitler, and has several paragraphs specifically aimed at preventing the rise of another tyrant like him. Paragraph one, which states that a humans rights and dignity cannot be touched, and covers everything from ensuring that all people are equal to stating that it is the job of the government to ensure that everyone can live a dignified life, meaning providing at least a basic measure of social security. There is also a paragraph that exins how the German state must be both democratic and a federal republic. Those paragraphs fall under something called the eternity use which states both those paragraphs and itself cannot be changed, by anyone. The gods could descend to Earth and those pieces of legiture would remain as they were, so long as the Federal Republic of Germany continues to exist, it will be a federal republic that guarantees human rights and dignity to its citizens. We dont need to make a perfect solution right now, if we can figure out an immutable core, tweaking thingster would be a lot safer. Thats it? Habicht asked, I thought you were going to mention the Wiederstandsrecht. Whats that? Elena asked at the same time that Amy asked, Is that the thing that lets people legally revolt? Can I take this one? Habicht asked, and Isaac nodded. Basically, Article 20, Paragraph 4 of the German constitution states that all Germans have the right to resist people trying to end German democracy or the rule ofw, as long as the legal route does not work. Giving people a legal fig leaf to revolt seems like a terrible idea, Bailey said. Oh, I know exactly how badly that could go, Habicht nodded, Ive arrested quite a few conspiracy theorists who convinced themselves that the government had be a dictatorship, tried the legal route, gotughed out of court, and the rest is history. But if we ever saw the rise of another Adolf Hitler, stopping them would be a hell of a lot easier. No legal risks if the situation is properly assessed, a clear line for when the government has gone too far. And we can make that part a magical contract, something along the lines of I will never use this right to revolt unless I truly believe this is necessary and thest resort. It wouldnt restrict freedom at all, but would hopefully cut down on the instances of abuse. There was silence for a long moment, then Arthur spoke. Basically, youre both saying we need an immutable core of rights in any future constitution that we can build around, and we need a way for people to legally deal with any cases of the rule ofw being usurped from the top. Therere also the usual core rights like freedom of speech that need to be ced in any future legal frameworks, Isaac said. So basically were copying those straight from the German constitution? Elena asked, That should make it easy. Theres an issue that needs to be fixed with that. In Germany, freedom is a human right, and as such, striving for it is legal, even if that means breaking out of jail. Mind you, any injuries caused, property damaged, bribes paid, all of those are still going to be crimes, but if you can get out withoutmitting additional crimes, youre legally in the clear. Youd still have to serve the rest of your sentence if you get caught, but its still a problem because legally escaping is going to be unfortunately easy to do under the [System], Isaac said. Amy flushed crimson at that. Huh. Then Isaac caught Habicht stifling a chuckle. Whats wrong? Arthur asked, suddenly. In the early days of the [System], the walls of jails could not prevent phasing and there was an incident, lets leave it at that. Amy sighed, apparently having decided that the incident was likely toe out, Basically, two months after initialization, I was at a party, a whole bunch of people got drunk, some shit happened, and I ended up in the drunk tank. I wasnt that drunk, mind you, but apparently, that didnt matter. Patrick mentioned that legal trivia about escaping and I decided I wasnt a big fan of jail. So I walked out, got re-arrested, and the instant I was in a cell and therefore no longer resisting arrest, I walked out again. Im not sure how often. Seventy-two times, Habicht said, That video is now being used for training purposes, as a prime example of when someones got you by the legal balls and you should just surrender because you cant do anything other than look like an idiot. The meeting had been thoroughly sidetracked by this point, so they decided to take the three minutes to watch the admittedly very funny video. Amys face had been pixted, but it was clearly her. At first, she just walked out through the bars, let herself get cuffed, brought back in, and left it at that. After the fifth time, the asshole started yelling at her, so she tore off a part of the paper covering the mattress, stuffed it in her ears, demonstratively shoved her fingers in, and finally walked backwards through the other wall, holding eye contact the entire time. And then, shed waited outside to be arrested again. The whole affair had been reduced to a three-minute instructional video apanied by the Benny Hill theme, but in reality, shed apparently kept it up for two hours until the officer had practically thrown her out of the precinct, well and truly fed up. So, the point is that we need to ensure that any created system of government isnt usurped, Japinder said, That still doesnt fix the problem ofcking jobs, but I have a few ideas for that. The general n was fairly simple on the surface, but it got very detailed, veryplicated, very quickly. In essence, employers would have to hire a certain percentage of lower-Level people who wanted to gain or advance a [ss] rted to that job to ensure that the path to advancement was always open. Beyond that, anyone above a certain Level would need to spend at least some small amount of time supervising summoning, or teaching beginners, as another form of taxation. Around an hour a month at the most. That was another idea that went straight onto the should help to create a stable society pile. Beyond that, there were a few other ideas that may or may not work. For example, Fenrir had suggested that maybe there should be tax breaks for people above a certain level, where acts of service would reduce the amount of tax that should be paid. Considering what kinds of sries people at the fourth Evolution and above couldmand, a couple of days of menial government work would wipe out the entire tax burden for all but the highest earners. A way to encourage people to strive for great heights beyond just power. And so on. Idea after idea, ways to ensure that society didnt ossify and ways to prevent super powerful S-Rankers from taking over that didnt basically amount to the [Round Table] kicking the ass of any would-be tyrants. Granted, that would likely work a few times, but there was no guarantee. And quite frankly, this was meant to be all about a society that worked on its own, not about how the thirteen people in this room could y shadow government. Chapter 295: War in the Sanctuary Chapter 295: War in the Sanctuary We got a big delivery, Isaac announced as a literal metric ton of materials was dropped onto the square outside the [System], No one touches it until its been checked over. Jason wasnt being subtle, having literally just dumped out all the stuff in padded boxes, making sure to remove it from his storage devices a meter above the floor to ensure there was a loud tter. But being obvious was kinda the point. The louder he was, the more quickly Isaac could notice without seeming suspicious or revealing the full capabilities of his senses. Isaac strode out of the building, once again proiming that everyone should back the hell away from the boxes until theyd been checked over. Theyd gotten a few anonymous donations over the years, most of theming from him, but never something as massive, or as suited for their current ns. So Isaac was going to y the surly advocatus diaboli, thoroughly checking over every inch of the stuff, the suspicion of them getting the exact stuff they needed being directed towards the sender of the crates instead of him. Up first was a thorough scan of the crates with his [Aura], then he poked certain spots with a remotely wielded Kabar, and then, the bomb squad hed sent for arrived. All in all, he wasted a good hour of everyones time, but that was fine. Every crate had been checked, and enough snippets of conversation had been overheard that the possible uses for this stuff had be public knowledge, so the already massive crowd that had gathered to watch the bomb squad had swelled to absurd proportions. Were not doing this here, Isaac announced, There wont be enough space for everyone to watch, but well broadcast it. And with that, he strode off northwards, stepping on the air a few times to get past the crowd, using his [Aura] to poke the rest of the team. The area with all the greenhouses and crafting workshops had grown vastly in thest few years, to the point where it wasrger than the original campus, but with a far more nnedyout. After all, it had been built up over seven years, rather than seventy. Most spots either held buildings and paths or were designated for greenery. But there was a street that had one side that was just empty lots, waiting for stuff to be ced within. Part of the reason it had taken so long to get anything done here was that it really wasnt a priority to create animal sanctuaries, as long as Isaac had the stuff for it, they could make them at any point. But the other problem was that when they did something that required the body parts of several severely endangered animals, someone was bound to throw a hissy fit. They needed a proper exnation for where theyd gotten that stuff from, and arranging for them to be stolen by Jason had also been very low on the priority list. But things were in ce, and now, they had to work their way through the summoning list. Summoning List (Wildlife Sanctuary) Name Material Cost (Note: All parts must be wild-caught) Mana Cost Savanah Safari Tier 8 Circle, 1 Lion Pelt, 5 Lion Skulls, 5 African Elephant Tusks, Imp Pelt, 12 Cheeta ws, 4 Rhino Horns, 250,000 mana (max. 125 people) Savanah Sanctuary Tier 9 Circle, 10 Rhino Horns, 200 Lion Teeth, 30 Painted Dog Skulls, 500,000 mana (max. 200 people) Rainforest Restored Tier 8 Circle, 3 Silverback Pelts, Cobra Venom Fang, 10 Flora Samples from the Desired Rainforest, 250,000 mana (max. 125 people) Rainforest Sanctuary Tier 9 Circle, 15 Jaguar Pelts, 10 Anaconda Skins, 10 Indian Elephant Tusks, Complete Set of Chimpanzee Teeth, 20 Flora Samples from the Desired Rainforest, 500,000 mana (max. 200 people) Arctic Ocean Floes Tier 8 Circle, 15 Pr Bear Pelts, 1 Arctic Fox Skull, 5 Barrels of Crude Oil 250,000 mana (max. 125 people) Arctic Sanctuary Tier 9 Circle, Fossil Walrus Ivory, 5 Narwhal Horn, 30 Pr Bear Pelts, 5 Baby Seal Pelts, 50 kg Whale Blubber, 500,000 mana (max. 200 people) Just looking at the list made Isaac wince. Even just the first six entries required an absurd amount of poaching to achieve. It was almost as if the list had been carefully curated to require the maximum amount of evil shit to fulfill. And then there was that note Not to mention that it wasnt mentioned anywhere that this was a rewards-type summon, just sorta implied by the names. In reality, the first variant of every environment was just your standard 100 square kilometer pocket dimension that replicated the titr environment and filled it with animals. Animals that had never learned to fear humans and were exceedingly aggressive, but still, just animals. And, perversely, the Sanctuaries were actually the more dangerous of the two. That was because they werent actually all about showing cute animals but earning the right to be surrounded by cute animals. They started out as what basically amounted to Dungeons, with the end result being dependent on how well you did in them. One could retreat at any time, but thered never be another chance at the prize, andpletely beating the whole thing was damn hard. In the end, it was decided that theyd just work their way through the list from the top. The people with the highest mana pools on campus had been identified long ago and asked if theyd be willing to help with projects like this, and gathering them only took slightly more time than Karl spent hooking up the broadcast. Five minutes instead of five seconds. The portal shed open inside a steel cage after the ritual had concluded, shining brightly and steadily, revealing a gorgeous vista on the other side. Well, nothing to do but go in, Isaac said, and marched in with Raul and Amy following right behind him, while the others waited outside. They knew there was nothing dangerous in there, now they just had to verify that in a way that could make its way into scientific publications. *** The Savannah smelled interesting. It was nice, natural, and free of most of the standard nasty smells like decay or, well, animal shit. Though thetter was currently in the process of changing, so Isaac hastily dialed his sense of smell back. And then, a lion attacked. Amy dodged so quickly that the cat probably hadnt even seen her move. In fact, Isaac had never seen a big cat look so absolutely stupefied. It was easy to forget, sometimes, how far most of the natural world had been left behind humanity in terms of power. The lioness, though, hadnt quite realized what she was dealing with, attacking again and again until eventually, Amy just gave up on dodging or pushing the cat away with magic, which left her standing there, arm outstretched, with a big cat literally gnawing on it. It achieved absolutely nothing except to get her sleeve wet, but it looked silly. Isaac snapped a quick picture while Raul gently pried off the animal and it scampered off, chastised without him ever having to say a word. This would probably repeat itself quite a few times. Hungry animals that had never seen a human before, unable toprehend the sheer danger magic posed to them until it was used to truly hurt them. Even a shbang could cause damage if they were unlucky. Could they have figured out a way to chase off the animals with a spell in a way that would have absolutely no negative consequences whatsoever? Probably, but that might have been difficult. Much easier to have a Ranger exin just what would happen to any critter that decided to push their luck. Less bloody too. After dodging rhinos, hyenas, and one particrly ballsy cheetah for half an hour, theyd gathered enough information to confidently state this whole affair was a near-perfect replica of the savannah in South Africa, simr to the Kruger National Park, and that walking in without a stupendous level of protections would result in damages to the visitors, the animals, or most likely, both. And then, they summoned the Savannah Sanctuary in the next lot over. Instead of a simple portal into natural, unspoiled, wilderness, a crimson wall manifested that just barely revealed a hellish, twisted, variant of the wilderness. Wee to the Savannah Sanctuary Creator! As you make your way through these chambers, you will have the chance to determine just what ends up in what might be thest refuge for some of the worlds most magnificent species! Every foe you defeat and challenge you ovee will enhance your final reward, securing another piece that can be added onto the Sanctuary youll receive when you cease your delve. WARNING: You will only receive one shot at delving into this Dungeon, and after one hour without any challengers entering, the challenges will begin to spill out (rewards will still be doled out for out-of-Dungeon kills). So yeah, this would have been a problem for most people. People who didnt have a group of six S-Ranks to run that ce. Lets go, Isaac announced, and led the way inside, stepping through the portal. The red veil covering everything vanished as he put his head inside, but other than things bing easier to see, you wouldnt know. The skies overhead were red, asionally broken up by coal-ck clouds, while the ground underfoot was dry and dusty, the only vegetation present sparse, dry, and looking intentionally ced to present a problem. Brambles with thorns sharp enough to cut through most non-masterwork armor, thick patches of grass that blunted sensory [Auras] to a degree, clearly designed to allow for stealthy approaches. But the most obvious and rming flora were the trees, towering hundreds of meters into the sky, as they rose like skeletal fingers, spindly and dead. There were probably all sorts of nasties waiting up there. Lion, Isaac warned via the party, highlighting its location in a patch of grass in front of them. It could have attacked right then and there, but lions were ambush predators. If possible, they wouldnt charge straight into the teeth of prepared prey, instead waiting until it passed so it could go at its back. At this point, it was pretty simple. He threw a fireball that, upon touching the grass, instantly ignited the entire patch. For a long moment, nothing happened, and then a very furious lion jumped out with a furious roar. It was a full-grown male, majestic mane now aze. But even if the damn thing hadnt literally been on fire, it would have still looked downright demonic. Eyes reminiscent of burning coals, a deep burgundy coat reminiscent of an old bloodstain, ws that gleamed like obsidian, jagged and cracked like someone had started hacking away at a chunk of the stuff, knocking off shards until something vaguely resembling a w or tooth hade out. All that being said, there was a massive difference between looking scary and being scary. Amys forcebolt hit it between the eyes in midair, punching a marble-sized hole through the skull and expanding inside until it hadpletely crushed the lions skull until it finally impacted the back side of the bone, bringing the creature to a dead halt. After a split second, the spell vanished, the corpse thumped to the ground, and finally transformed into a token the size of a bottle cap. It depicted an admittedly adorable lion cub on one side and read 1 km^2 of space, 1 lion pride (4 males, 8 females, 1 male, and 2 female cubs). The next set of monsters arrived after less than thirty seconds, a group of African Painted Dogs. ording to Raul, theyd initially been called Wild Dogs by farmers who wanted to hunt them all down because few would feel bad for something with a name like that, but conservationists had recently renamed them to give them a more approachable name. As Isaac saw it, they should have just shown people pictures of their young. Puppies. Everyone liked puppies, right? And yes, Painted Dog puppies were adorable, but the new arrivals were neither young nor even remotely cute. Pony-sized abominations with spots so dark they sucked in the light on a sulfur-colored pelt that stank to high heaven, foaming at the mouth, charging in a group of 37. Shield spells shed out, forming ovepping bulwarks while Isaac waved his hand and sent out a diffuse cloud of me. Nowhere near enough to significantly drain his mana, but sufficient to ignite fur and blind eyes. At the same time, the ground reshaped into a pitfall moat filled with razor-sharp spikes by Karl and Rauls dragon flew high into the air, expanding into its regr size. Blinded, confused, and distracted by the dragon, the dogs either outright fell into the pit, or mmed into the wall and then fell in. A rapid flurry of spells and des took out most of those that remained outside of it while Karl and Raul obliterated everything caught in the pit. No cooldown [Skills] needed, or [Skills] with a cost more than a couple of thousand points of mana for that matter. The sanctuary was absolutely stuffed with crap, ranging from a rather irritating herd of unnaturally aggressive imp to, well the big five. Lions, both as individuals and hunting parties. Leopards plunging out of the trees from hundreds of meters up. Water Buffalos proving why they were some of the most dangerous creatures in the world. Immense Rhinos the size of trucks, with razor-sharp obsidian horns as long as Isaac was tall, who created massive shockwaves whenever they charged. And worst of all, house-sized elephants that caused earthquakes by stomping, unleashed literal storms with their trumpeting, and had tusks that a mammoth would have been jealous of. Sure, there was also the asional wildfire, but the danger they posed was less than nothing with Isaac around, he just took control of them and hurled them at the monsters. It took several hours, but by the end, theyd gathered so many tokens that they wouldnt have fit in all their pocketsbined, for a grand total of over two thousand. Considering that each of them would also add an entire square kilometer to the final pocket dimension, theyd end up with a huge area by the end of this. Of course, they needed to deal with the final boss first. It was meant to be some kind of incarnation of the savannah at forty meters tall, madergely of the dried and cracked soil of the wastnd, four elephantine tusks wrapping a leonine face, four arms tipped with obsidian ws ready to start tearing into the beasts unfortunate victims. The monster charged, great strides tearing up the ground, boosting its speed above that of sound in seconds. But no matter how powerful the beast was, it was still just a Tier 9 [Field Boss]. Amys ability tobine spells had been dangerous in a group of regr mages. When it was her, Patrick, and Raul casting the individualponents, the destructiveness was off the charts. An actual nuke could have more raw power, sure, but the spell outssed even a Tsar Bomb in prative capacity and power concentration by a couple of orders of magnitude. Most spells did, for the most part. The sheer power of the atom, harnessed for destruction, was not to be underestimated, butpared to even the crudest spell, it was a stone-age era sledgehammer. In addition, the [System] did not like nukes. It didnt prohibit them, it didnt weaken them, but it did not particrly empower them either. Doubling the output was, as far as Isaac knew, the limit. Well, that, and a few other boons like creating some approximation of a shaped st, reducing radiation output, and a few tricks that basically amounted to very limited friendly fire protection. So no, the monster did not get erased from existence along with arge chunk of its surroundings. Instead, the basketball-sized sphere tore through its chest as if it were butter and detonated, spraying slowly disintegrating gore all over the ce. In the ce where thergest amount of viscera hadnded, a token rose to hover at chest height. It wasrger, around the size of an adults palm, and depicted an idyllic ranch perfectly suited to the African Savannah. Really, it looked like a childs yset. The opposite side spelled out how this token added another five square kilometers to the sanctuary, as well as a base camp that would be safe even if the final design was as dangerous as the basic Savannah Safari had been. Unless anyone has a problem with it, can I take care of this? Raul said, but of course, no one had anything to say about it. He was more than qualified, and everyone else decidedly wasnt. *** After six hours, Raul decided he was ready for the big show and tell, so everyone else joined him in the pocket dimension once more. The ranch had been dropped onto the portal, with the entrance to the dimension sitting snugly in the central courtyard, the building rising three stories tall on every side. Arge gate led outside on one wall, revealing a healthy-looking savannah. And within that gate stood Raul, grinning ear to ear, some of the worlds most adorable creatures all around him. Whats up with all the baby animals? Isaac asked as he hastily jerked his foot out of the way of an exuberant baby rhino. Hed have been fine, of course, an entire herd of adults could tap dance over his shoes without him feeling a thing, but he doubted the baby would enjoy stepping on an armoredbat boot. Figured you guys would enjoy being around them, Raul said, The animals here are only as wild as I want them to be, and until I send them out, theyll essentially act like theyve been around people their entire lives. In fact, I could make it so that theyve basically been tamed, like normal pets. So I could keep her? Amy asked, picking up a lion cub and scratching it under the chin. Absolutely not, Raul said, only to grin after a long second, Lions are extremely social animals, you cant just have one. But what about a leopard? He pointed to another adorable creature padding across the floor near Patrick. Wait, seriously? Amy eximed. Clearly, shed never realized that there was a chance shed actually get a pet big cat. Like I said, theyre only as wild as I want them to be. If I wanted to, itd be just as domesticated as any regr cat, Raul shrugged. Amy put down the baby lion and started petting the leopard. Isaac, meanwhile, had sat down and pulled a baby cheetah onto hisp and was feeding it ground beef from his storage space. It had meant to be for dinner, but oh well, kitten-eyes could be described as a higher power. It was a peaceful time, peaceful and rxing. Adorable animals, most of the troubles of the world locked outside. And then Amy nted herself right in front of Bailey, offering him the leopard cub and asking if maybe, just maybe, the team needed a mascot? It didnt even take much convincing. The cub was cute, a mascot would be nice, and thered be plenty of people to take care of it. And lets be honest, a cute mascot could help with visibility even for an already famous research team. Raul released the rest of the animals into the wild, and giving them the same starting position as the rest of the creatures. Comfortable with humans, and not aggressive with them, but still decidedly wild animals, and aged up a few years to the point where they were considered adults for their species. In the end, there was just one problem. A leopard was a big cat. And a big cat was a cat. So when the leopard decided that Isaacs armchair in the conference room was now her seat, and absolutely refused to be moved. Isaac gave up after three tries. Chapter 296: A Fundamental Shift Chapter 296: A Fundamental Shift Isaac, we finally got approval,e to my office when you have the time. Oh, fucking finally. Isaac grabbed the note from his desk, crumpled it up, and threw it in the trashcan before heading over to Baileys office. Permanent biomantic alteration had finally been officially approved. Bailey had been extremely reluctant to change others for one simple reason. Any changes he made needed to stand like that potentially forever, without adverse interactions even decades down the line. Hed been treating his own body like a Lego set for half a decade, constantly changing and rebuilding it, but there, he was in a position to instantly fix any issues. When altering others, he didnt have that luxury. While hed been in a position to optimize a baseline human body from the third Evolution onwards, the problem was that there werent many people that baseline still applied to. And from then on, thered been an endless parade of now I can do biomancy on you being responded to with Im sorry, but now I got stronger again in x way, well have to do thister. Until now. Baileys fifth Evolution of [Pinnacle Biomaniptor] was beyond those maniptions, being one of the strongest kinds of [sses] there was. [Paragons] variations were also quite impressive, being granted to those who stayed truthful to their initial [ss] choice and taking it far beyond its original limitations with each Evolution. Jason, for example, had be a [Paragon Rogue]. [Pinnacle sses] were different, though. Instead of focussing on a [ss], they were about focussing on a single kind of [Skill], continuously expanding its function with new [Skills]. Which was exactly how Bailey had used the basic biomaniption hed gained all the way back at the first Evolution. Pre-set forms for every asion, rapid, on-the-spot transformation for big attacks that could be reversed instantly, extradimensional storage for extra mass that also protected his brain every new ability neatly expanded the singr ability he focussed his efforts into using and improving. Now, hed a [ss] that confirmed that hed reached the pinnacle of what biomancy could do, including safely improving human bodies. And then, at the very instant when he could work on the team, the dean had swooped in and startedying down rules. Hed been totally cool with Bailey being able to do what he could and not taking action out of caution. But the instant thered been a risk of the universitys gship, well, everything being messed with ho boy, things had gotten crazy. Bailey wasnt even supposed to do clinical trials on the team, he was meant to start with animals (which hed already done ad absurdum), and then deal with volunteers who werent helping the university so much. Even though Isaac would have been the perfect guinea pig due to how [Eternal Restoration] could always restore his body to its prime form. But now, the whole issue had beenid to rest, Bailey was feelingfortable with making potentially permanent changes, and the official side wasnt going to cause trouble either. And sure, they could have just ignored the dean and hoped that he wouldnt find out, but honestly, getting this done half a year earlier would not have been worth the potential repercussions. Plus, Bailey had only gotten better in that time. On the way to the office, Isaac almost tripped over Artemis, as the leopard had been named. She was currently slightly smaller than a standard housecat, perfectly sized to get underfoot while still being small enough to pass under most peoples sightlines. Of course, Artemis was the adopted pet of two of the worlds greatest mages and a pretty much a druid but better on the same level, it was debatable whether even a nuke could harm her, but that didnt mean that it would be ok for people to trip over her. Isaac scooped her up with one hand, earning himself a brief noise ofint, but hed gotten into the habit of carrying around leopard-safe cat treats with him, so brightening up her mood was pretty easy. A quick scan with his [Aura] revealed that Amy was working from the conference room, so thats where he put Artemis. She, of course, went straight for his chair. Not the original one, the one hed given up to her when shed imed it, mind you, but the one hed bought to rece it. She was lucky she was so adorable. Isaac reached Baileys office, knocked, and entered. You ready? Bailey asked. Yep, Isaac nodded. An armchair rose from the floor in the corner of the room, a perfected design designed to make sitting still for hours easier. Isaac immediately sat down while Bailey returned to his office chair. Should we go over the nned changes one more time? Bailey asked. Yes, Isaac said, Considering the extent of the changes, it wouldnt do to make mistakes here. It would take a bit of time to do, but in the end, the amount of time spent going over the n had nothing on the difficulty ofing up with the changes in the first ce. The rtion between Stats and the physical body of their bearer was somewhat squirrely, varying greatly between each and every one of them. Fortitude was perhaps the simplest, but even it had some problems. Fundamentally, your physical toughness was abination of the durability of your tissues and the Fortitude reinforcing it. Your skin, muscles, and bones all had the same durability, yet bones, and teeth enamel, for that matter, were the toughest parts of your body. And the same went for any foreign materials that were incorporated via biomancy. They were all reinforced by your Fortitude Stat, and while dragon scales were obviously tougher than human bones, dragon scales added to a human with 500 points in the stat would be far weaker than those of a dragon with twice that. Yet it was also the most easy to upgrade, as the others Isaac was just d he didnt have Baileys job. Strength, meanwhile, was almost entirely dependent on your Stat, with your physical muscle definition dependent on what you wanted to look like, within reason. Biomancy could furtherpress them to allow you to retain your strength on a smaller frame, but recing muscle tissue with something stronger would just result in the Stats reinforcement being redistributed across the new tissue. Increasing it through biomancy was technically possible, by ballooning ones muscles to the point where they were unnatural and would get in the way of regr movement, so it wasnt advisable. Some people had races or [Skills] that allowed them to temporarily increase both their muscles and actual strength, by absorbing corpses, generation powered armor, internal biomancy, etc., but those were A. rare, B. limited to their bearer, and C. often hard to use. That being said, shifting around ones muscles to increase flexibility could be done to a limited degree. Agility was much the same. It was an enhancement that increased the bearers ability to make controlled and minute motions, assuming they had sufficient Perception to be aware of the scale in question, as well as move quickly. Like strength, increasing it could and did affect ones muscles cosmetically, but the power of this Stat wasrgely locked up in the users astral body, the magic of the [System]. Meanwhile, Magic Power and Magic Regeneration were both entirely [System]-based, allowing their bearer to use more mana and recover it more quickly, as well as increasing their brain in ways such as reaction speed, memory capacity, mental celerity, and so on, but could not be affected by physical alterations at all. And finally, you had Perception which, while somewhat normal, was stillplicated in how it affected your senses. In essence, it affected ones primary sense, aka the sense whose input required thergest amount of brainpower to use, to its fullest extent, and all other senses to a lesser degree, based on how much brainpower they required rtive to the most important sense. In humans, that sense was their sight. Other sensory organs could be enhanced, up to the point of bringing them in line with the primary sense in terms of both actual capacity and Stat support, but, well, it also ran the risk of sensory overload. Normally, youd need a Perception twice your mental Statsbined before there was a problem, but that was with various senses being dialed down. If you started enhancing them, youd hit that wall much sooner. The same thing went for various other sensory alterations, such as expanding the auditory or visual spectrum one could perceive, or adding in new senses, such as electroperception, wholesale. As you sent more information to the brain to process, the boost from Perception grew as well, as did the risk of sensory overload. They wouldnt be touching most of his sensory organs. His eyes visible spectrum would be widened slightly, but that was it. Hearing in particr was being left alonepletely as it would bepletely and utterly useless due to how unbearably slow sound was. Anything that happened at the edge of his current area of hearing would already be mostly over by the time the sounds reached his ears. In addition, theyd be doing a whole lot of small alterations. Isaacs current build, physical build, that was, was one he was perfectly fine with. But they should still help. The first upgrade was a simple and obvious trick, subdermal armor made from dragon scales. It was less powerful than the dragon scale weave that ran across his skin, but that was the boon of a [Raid Boss], concentrated beyond its natural limits. Theyd shift around his weak points a little, a few centimeters in every direction if at all possible. Heart and abdominal aorta disced enough to not get hit by pinpoint attacks, brain stem fully slid into the brain to limit the amount of damage a broken neck would cause, limiting the pain response from getting kicked in the unmentionables, and the like. Thered also be a few more bones connecting the ribs together in a way that would interfere with the mostmon methods of going for the heart or lungs without affecting his breathing. Then there was the aforementioned improvement of his eyes, an increase to his flexibility, especially that of his skeleton, a system of connective tissues that took full advantage of his [Disposable Organs] [Skill] to function as both an alternative nervous and circtory system. Bailey would also give Isaac a few concealed bone des that would protrude from his elbows and knees if he were to be somehow separated from his soulbound de, fully seal the seams in his bones that were a result of how the skeleton grew, and finally, substitute what materials of his body with materials that were equivalent in all respects safe durability when one was avable. Add in stronger bones, rece muscles with ones that might not add any Strength, all in all, make him just that little bit tougher than he might naturally be, and decrease his weight if it were also possible to do so. You ready? Bailey asked. Isaac nodded and leaned back in his chair. If you dont answer me verbally, the dean will have my head, Bailey gently chided. Of course the dean had a stick up his ass about this. I fully acknowledge what youre about to do and allow you to do it, Isaac said, rolling up his sleeve. What followed was both incredibly weird and incredibly boring. Bailey touched his arm, Isaac focused inwards to keep his mana still and suppress the bodys natural reaction to what was really quite an invasive procedure, and just let it happen. There wasnt anything more for him to do, anything that could help, save, well, doing absolutely nothing. And almost two hourster, it was over. Your body has been altered by a Biomancer (Pinnacle Biomaniptor). You possess a regenerative Skill (Eternal Restoration) capable of restoring your body to its pre-alteration state. Would you like it to do so, or will you ept this state as the new default? Y/N Note: Your current body represents a significant upgrade over your previous form and does not possess any new critical weaknesses, such as a propensity for developing tumors, generating self-destroying toxins, or ack of fertility (these alterations will not affect your descendants). Other than the fact that this represents a fundamental change of your body, there is no drawback to epting this. So that was what happened when someone with a [Skill] that could reverse biomancy was altered. Obviously, Isaac epted. Biomantic Alteration (legendary, unranked) The human body is the product of countless eons of evolution, transforming the earliest vertebrate into an apex predator, wielding both nigh-infinite endurance and an advanced intellect to conquer the world. But nature can only go so far, change so quickly, incorporate only so many disparate ideas. This is where biomancyes in to do what nature could not. Your body has been enhanced by a master Biomancer at the peak of their power, the Pinnacle Biomaniptor. As such, you have gained the following adaptations: 1. Subdermal Dragonscale-Weave 2. Weak-Point Transference 3. Sight-Spektrum Expansion 4. Hyper-mobile Skeletal Frame 5. Alternate Nerve-Circtory System 6. Natural Weaponry 7. Sealed Growth Seams 8. Material Substitution And there it was. The way this change would be reflected on his Status sheet. Now all he had to do was make sure he wouldnt run into any breakable walls until hed fully limated to the changes. Isaac rose to his feet, only to wobble slightly the moment he stood straight, hand shooting out to grab the back of the chair hed just been sitting in. Are you ok? Bailey asked, sounding very concerned. Nah, Im fine, Isaac waved him off. He was used to moving with extreme precision, fully aware of every part of his body. Even when injured, he couldpensate for it immediately. But this time, hed been sitting stock-still for two hours, not moving a muscle, stood up way too fast, and, oh yeah, both his weight and center of gravity had just shifted by enough topletely throw off his muscle memory. For the first time in half a decade, Isaac let go of the [Systems] physical gifts, dropping his ability to vacuum up all information in his range, leaving behind the speed that allowed him to snatch bullets out of the sky as though they were nothing but flies, and blocking himself off from the strength allowed him to throw cars like frisbees if he so desired. And then he began to pace up and down the room. At first, he was moving like he was tipsy, slightly stumbling with every step. But then, he began to stand straight, adjusting his movement for the fact that he was now not only lighter, but sufficiently more top-heavy to throw him off. After ten minutes, hed adjusted himself fully and began to fully draw upon his stats, running up and down the room to the point where all a normal human would have seen was a blur covering the entirety of the wall. What do you think would happen if I tripped him? Amy wondered from the door, where shed just arrived. Hed probably use your leg like a hurdle and just jump over it, Bailey said dryly, But I dont want to have to exin to maintenance why theres a forehead-shaped hole in the wall if he does trip. It took him most of the day to feelfortable going intobat again, but then, he was feeling better than ever. Chapter 297: The Big House Chapter 297: The Big House There were many, many depressing ces in the world. For example, mental wards, and hospitals, especially nowadays when the only people who had to stay at those ces were the truly dire cases who were beyond immediate magical intervention. But prisons were also up there. Even in Germany, which tried to ensure that people who only had short prison sentences had a good shot at reentering society, they sucked. Countless hours in a small cell were awful, even for people who had the run of the yard for most of the day. And then there was the prison that had been built with the advent of the [System], with its location near Leipzig chosen specifically so that one specific prisoner did not need to be transported too far. The prisoners in that prison werent necessarily the worst of the worst, just the most powerful dangerous criminals in Germany. As such, being allowed to just leave ones cell was a rarity. Intra-prisonmunication was freely avable to avoid the various issues that stemmed from extended istion, even via illusions that simted being in the same room together, but the needs of the prisoners needed to be bnced with the fact that most of those people could ughter the poption of a city in an afternoon. Nowadays, most countries, as well as the Hague, had begun to once again use the death penalty. The requirements for when it could be imposed were incredibly arduous in the ces where it had previously been illegal. But between how much easier it was to get to the truth nowadays and the fact that the kinds of criminals whod be subject to it could potentially even get out of jail cells that sucked up half the national budget, each, practical considerations existed even in matters of life and death. So even though there was a case to be made that legal murder was still murder, executions were back on the table. All that being said, there was a hard line where already sentenced criminals were concerned. Laws did not work retroactively, so no people would get executed for crimes that would have earned them a death sentence if theyd beenmitted five yearster. And then there was Arianne Krebs. Quite possibly, the serial killer with the biggest body count in human history. Direct kills, at least. Most dictators exceeded hers by a couple of orders of magnitude, but they rarely got their hands dirty. Isaac had been there when shed been arrested, only toter learn that her ability set was far greater than what shed demonstrated thus far. Her ability to dive through other peoples subconsciousness while they slept had made her a dangerous information gatherer, information which shed gleefully shared with him when he dropped by once a month. Her first reaction to people putting the future of the world might have been murder first, mutte corpse second, but she did want to make sure the Earth kept spinning. Isaac sat down in a forest near the prison well clear of any sensory perimeter, set down a few rms around himself, and went to sleep. At his Level, he only needed to sleep for barely a second and could fall asleep just as quickly. All he had to do to contact Krebs was keep himself from waking up. Royal Road''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. He appeared in a white void, with a barely perceptible ground underfoot. A few meters across from him, Krebs was sitting on a pure white armchair that blended into the background almost perfectly, wearing a formal pantsuit that she would decidedly not have been allowed to wear in jail. Im afraid I dont have anything this month, she said, sounding more upset than the situation would normally have justified. But Isaac could understand her, perhaps more than he was entirelyfortable with. Not being able to do anything while the world was teetering on the edge of sliding into chaos sucked. It was her own fault, her own methods, that had put her in this position, but he could still understand her far too much to be entirelyfortable with the situation. I know, Isaac said. Why? she looked a little frustrated. Youve helped a lot, and Im grateful for that part, but Im afraid, your fellow prisoners barely need to sleep anymore and youve fallen too far behind in terms of Levels to do too much more, Isaac said bluntly, Im afraid thisll be thest time we meet for at least thirty years. If you get out, Ill be making sure you dont get back up to old habits. Old habits, she said tly, If the world is still here, I wont have to. Youve got two full Evolutions dedicated to killing people you see as being damaging. The temptation would be there, Isaac said. This would have been the point where hed have gotten up if hed sat down in the first ce. Im trying to make sure that once the world is stabilized, that people can live their lives without spilling blood. I hope youll be able to live a life of peace after all of this. And with that, he woke himself up. She had an oath ability, one meant to ensure that people could trust her, and shed promised not to spill the beans about him. It would have been easy to call him an asshole for his coldness towards her. But honestly, theyd been using each other from the start. Shed been using him to feel useful, and hed been using her for information. She could no longer keep up her side of the deal, so hed decided to stop using her and wasting time. Hed meant everything hed said. When shed eventually served her sentence, hed make sure she either stayed on the straight and narrow or went straight back into the mmer. No way in hell was he going to let her go right back to killing people. Yet despite all the justifications, it still felt a little bad. *** Isaac copsed into his armchair, back in the conference room. The spare sitting in the corner, that was, as Artemis had imed the one at the table. But after a few moments, he felt a hefty weightnd in hisp, where Artemis curled up. She was a good deal bigger than a standard cat, but it wasnt like Isaac would have had a problem even if shed been full-grown. Chapter 298: The Kids Chapter 298: The Kids Isaac grinned as he sat on the bench, gazing out across the seemingly endless ocean of the Arctic sanctuary. Every single sanctuary gained a central building from the boss, which, in this case, amounted to an artificial iceberg that was mostly made of ss and ceramics. This ce was the least visited dimension, it was just too cold. It had also been a pain in the ass to explore, as only Isaac, Raul, and Bailey had been able to properly function in the freezing waters without an ass-ton ton of protective spells. But theyd gone down most of the list, focussing on the sanctuaries for their sheer versatility. And with this one, no one would particrly bother him, so he could rx and work. Having Artemis around had been great, but the leopard hadnt quite figured out that she was getting a little too big to yp cat. Work first, then pet the cat, that was the way to go. Sadly, typing while sitting down with a massive ball of floof stretched across yourp required some downright inhuman contortions. In the distance, a pr bear and her cub strode across the ice floes. ying around with a collection of baby animals had be something of a tradition, but thankfully, Bailey stayed stern whenever another adorable animal captured someones heart. Yes, the pr bear cub was sinfully cute, but it wouldnt have fit in half the rooms and corridors in their building once grown. So the question of adopting one had been a hard no. Eventually, his phone rang. He picked up, and Tanja almost blew out his eardrums as she yelled It happened over and over again. Normally, that might have been rming, but between the fact that she sounded excited and that this was something hed been looking forward to and dreading in equal measure, it was pretty obvious what had happened. Today was the day the twins had, apparently, gotten their new superpowers. Sure, when hed created his bloodline and bought the option that passed it along to all direct blood rtives, theyd be the strongest 7-year-olds in the world, but considering how much power could be found in this world, that wasnt really saying much. Now though, now theyd have ess to the full power of the [System], the immense growth potential it offered. This could get very nutty, very quickly. He packed up and strode out of the room while telling her to wait, not select anything, until he showed up to help. Under most circumstances, the [System] offered the best possible starting [ss] of all those avable, it would be utterly foolish not to consult the worlds undisputed most knowledgeable person where the [System] was concerned. Once outside the sanctuary, he opened a portal straight back to his childhood bedroom, and walked down into the living room. It was just like he remembered it, except with a fresh dent in the ceiling. Why the dent? Well, between the handful of blond hairs in the dent and the asional speck of ster in Tanjas hair, it was pretty obvious what had happened. Those asion bursts of exuberance had be lessmon and more controlled with time, but they clearly still happened. That really needed to stop now that shed soon gain a hell of a lot of power. And it wasnt like Viktoria was much better. She might be sitting on the sofa without ster in her hair, but she wasnt sitting still either, her foot bouncing rapidly enough to make the couch shake. So, your [Systems] finally activated? Isaac asked. Yep, Tanja said, jumping back onto her feet, barely avoiding another encounter with the ceiling, Im going to be a Valkyrie! Ok, wait, what? Isaac frowned. An advanced [ss], already? What are your suggested [sses]? Can you show me the windows? Greetings Tanja Thoma. Wee to the System. Would you like to select [Valkyrie Squire] as your ss? Okay. Oh-kay. What on Earth? Obviously, the connection between Isaacs Einherjar race and the Valkyries was, well, obvious, but still, unexpected. Tanja had been all in on practicing with the sword, so the [ss] made semi-sense when focussing on the Squire part of everything, but it was still a bit of a surprise. Being a squire was a precursor to knight, historically speaking, so there was a case to be made that the whole thing was based on the fact that she had an incredible degree of skill with the de but was too low-Level for [Knight]. But Valkyrie? Was it an automatic [ss] for anyone connected to an Einherjar? Was it about the training? Or just generally being close to one before activating ones [System]? Honestly, there was no real way to determine the truth until another kid connected to him in some way got their starter [ss]. And Viktoria was in the exact same boat. Greetings Viktoria Thoma. Wee to the System. Would you like to select [Valkyrie Apprentice Caster] as your ss? Shed been focussing on ying around with mana, though with her tiny mana pool, she could barely manage ephemeral light shows. But it had clearly been enough to unlock a caster [ss] and have it be the first suggestion. So, those look like good [sses], but were going to look at all other options first, ok? And because we cant look at [ss] descriptions the first time around, I dont know if youre going to get the Valkyrie race, and changing your race when youre already not human can be very ... Ufortable. In fact, changing races when it was a sidegrade rather than an Evolution was one of the most painful experiences in his life. While they were looking through the list of [sses], Isaac began to run down his options. It should be possible to mitigate the problem with a potion, or maybe the help of Baileyd biomancy and the like, but this was still a fundamental shift in ones body he was talking about. There were Im picking [Valkyrie Squire], Tanja announced, and that was somehow fine? Had she actually picked the [ss]? But the [System] window had disappeared after the ok button had shed in the way the chosen button did. So, what on Earth? Was Valkyrie not a race? And Im a Valkyrie now! Viktoria was almost knocked off the couch as a pair of wings like those of a tawny owl spread from Tanjas back. While he was very d that his little sister was not in incredible pain right now, it made zero sense. And stuff that didnt make sense was never a good thing. Or had the whole situation randomly worked out fine in general? And how on Earth had she already unlocked her [System], when she was still this impulsive? It wasnt fully transparent what unlocked it, other than the fact that it always unlocked at the 18th birthday at thetest, but it had some link to maturity as well. Sure, the exact link wasnt clear, but there was still a connection of some kind. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. Can you show me your racial and [ss] descriptions? Isaac finally asked, hoping nothing else would go wrong. Young Valkyrie (preternatural, alteration of current race, currently unique) The winged warriors who scour the battlefields for the worthy do not spring into existence fully formed, and are rather trained in Valha by the Einherjar themselves. As such, they gain ess to basic yet epassing weapons proficiency, wings to travel far and wide, and the ability to restore the worthy. Benefits: guaranteed racial upgrade at the next Evolution, flight-capable wings, ess to healing spells [Healing Touch] and [Sanctifying Field], guaranteed ess to advanced healing spells upon Evolution, generalist [des] [Skill] Base Stats: 20-25 So, in summation, weapons [Skills], racial-based healing [Skills], and most likely, resurrection in the next couple of Evolutions. But the most important part was that she could bloody fly. And if Viktoria picked the other Valkyrie-[ss], both of them would be able to fly. The. Twins. Would. Fly. Shit. Maybe the [ss] wouldnt throw any moreplications at them? Valkyrie Squire (epic) Trained by an Einherjar from early childhood, the Valkyrie Squire is the first step onto the path of bing a warrior of Valha. Capable of using an incrediblebination of flight-based movement abilities and weapons skills, a Valkyrie Squire is a terrifying threat on the battlefield, almost impossible to corner or restrain while dishing out immense amounts of damage. Note: Choosing this ss will automatically transform its bearer into a Young Valkyrie So yeah, a standard starter [ss] of a rarity higher thanmon. Nothing bad there, just raw power that he wasnt entirely sure she was ready for. At that point, there really was no more problem with Viktoria picking her [ss], [Valkyrie Apprentice Caster]. Valkyrie Apprentice Caster (epic) Trained by an Einherjar from early childhood, the Valkyrie Apprentice Caster is the first step onto the path of bing one of Valhas magical corps. Capable of using an incrediblebination of flight-based movement abilities and basic battlefield magic, when a bearer of this ss appears, the battlefield will shift or be forced to. Note: Choosing this ss will automatically transform its bearer into a Young Valkyrie Once again, an advanced starter [ss], but that was all. But the real mystery was why the race change had been so uplicated. Still, the mystery didnt seem to be an immediate problem, so he decided to put it off untilter. A quick conversation and a portalter, they were back at the university so the twins could practice with their abilities in a safe environment. Why are we here again? Tanjained as her mother helped her into an enchanted harness. Because flying is tricky, and youre either going to practice with that harness, or youre going to only fly in a three-meter-tall room with a padded floor, Isaac told her. Mom! Viktoriained, but their mother shook her head. Listen to your brother, she said, earning both herself and Isaac a death re. Come on, this is going to be fun, Isaac said as he led the way up the stairs. On the third floor, Artemis padded towards them. Oh no. Aw, is that your cat? Viktoria asked as she crouched and began to reach out to pet the cat. Yep, thats our pet leopard, her name is Artemis, Isaac said, retrieving a snack from his storage ring. Artemis promptly ignored him and happily hopped into Viktorias arms. Traitor. Thankfully, the leopards modes were beg for pets or chase off, not beg for pets or maul, or worse beg for pets then maul, but would a little loyalty have been too much to ask for? Then again, it was a baby leopard that could be petted. His sisters would have to be sociopaths to not take advantage of the opportunity. So, after half an hour, theyd finally managed to walk five stories and found themselves on the roof. There was a standard-height railing around the outside, though the real safety device was the magic that could catch people or leopards who fell over the outside. Only a small strip around the outside of the rooftop was clear of stuff, to prevent people from climbing onto something to get over the railing, the rest was a ypen for Artemis,plete with small trees and waterproof pillows. So, do you guys want to fly? Isaac asked, turning around to address the twins, Those harnesses can catch you even if were to fall from an airne, so feel free to experiment. With that, he stepped onto empty air, then took another step onto the railing and hurled himself skywards, where he came to a dead stop atop a pir of fire. So, do you want to join me? he called out, and the twins manifested their wings. Tanja had her tawny owls wings while Viktorias looked like theyde from a stone eagle. Unlike most races that gave new body parts, Valkyries could apparently manifest theirs through clothing, so there was no trouble with having to alter their shirts or harnesses. And then, the chaos began. For the first time in years, the twins encountered windows and walls that didnt give way at all when flown into, and the harnesses kicked in dozens of times before they finally managed to fly straight. In fact, Isaac had to let himself drop back onto the roof as his mana was beginning to drop too low to keep hovering. Are you sure its safe? their mother asked him. Dont worry, Mom, he chuckled, We built those specifically so people could practice flying without any danger. While the twins were finally managing to stabilize their flight and swooping around overhead, Isaac began toy out two fancy sets of gear onto the rooftop. The Kriegsmesser that had once been his, Legacy. One of a dozen different sets of armors, this one designed for low weight and flexibility, perfect for flight. And a mid-length magic staff and some spellbooks for Viktoria. Staffs and other casting assistance devices were rarely used at the higher Levels due to how difficult they were to construct in the first ce, never mind that there were hard limits as to how much mana they could channel, and how at some point, spells were tooplicated to be cast through them. Amy and Patrick had both yed around with staves a while ago and theyd usually ended up breaking them. Amy still had one, though, topped with a human skull carved from dragon bone, for costume purposes. Meanwhile, generic spellbooks were likewise tough to use for low-Level casters, learning spells just from books was incredibly difficult until at least the third Evolution, sadly. But since he was giving Tanja an incredible sword, he needed to make a significant degree of effort to provide something simr to his other sister. The twinsnded once Viktoria caught a glimpse of the gear. Wait, is that for us? she asked, and Isaac nodded. I got you each a full set of armor perfect for flying in, and some starter gear. He levitated Legacy over to himself and, going down on one knee, presented Tanja with the de. This was one of my earliest weapons. Its name is Legacy, and it will never leave you unless you want it to. She gently picked up the sword, tried to figure out how to strap it to her side for a couple of seconds, then gave up and hugged him while still holding it. After a long moment, she let go of him, thanked him, and went straight back to messing with the sheaths sp. Viktoria, Ive gotten you a staff worthy of a mage of your caliber, and a collection of the finest battlefield spells I know. Itll take a while for you to learn them, but when you do, youll be able to do incredible things. Another hugter, he gave each twin a spatial ring and once everything, including the harnesses, had been stored, they made their way back. Tried to, at any rate. Artemis showed up, and that put an end to their exit for another ten minutes. And then, they finally let Isaac open a portal back to the family home, where some construction was just being ended. Whats that? Tanja asked. Just some precautions, their mother said while Isaac sniggered at the twins expressions. Was the giant aviary over the backyard overkill? Yes. Had Isaac overpaid the workers by an insane degree? Probably. And was it necessary? Absolutely. The twins being able to fly would be enough trouble overall, but at least this way, there was a ce for them to do that without them escaping halfway across the city. Isaac left theints to his parents to handle while he mentally created a training n. Monsters to kill, [Skills] to practice, other training exercises. Something to let them advance and grow without risking them or turning them into powerhouses before theyd even graduated high school. Chapter 299: Hidden Aspects Chapter 299: Hidden Aspects As per usual, Isaac had pitted the twins against the most basic monster possible. The te Golems were almost perfect punching bags, especially for people who could fly. Of course, Isaac also made sure to throw in plenty of impossible foes at them, the kind that theyd asked to face and then had to be rescued from to ensure they didnt get any dumb ideas about punching too far above their weight ss. And looking deeply into the [Systems] instructions, hed finally found the bloody line about how changing ones race wasnt a problem if it happened during the starter [ss] selection. But it hadnt been there before, he knew that for 100% certain. In fact, hed been fairly sure that the part about racial sidegrades being painful hadnt been in there at first, in the other timeline, but he hadnt been quite sure. Plenty of people remembered it having been there the whole time. As it turned out, that whole mess was a perfect example of the Mand effect, and it hadnt been there before. And once Isaac had be fully certain that that line was new, that there was no way hed missed it, another tab appeared in the instruction manual. One describing the function of the freaking instruction manual. More specifically, it exined how the situation went overall. If you found a hidden mechanic, a full exnation would appear in your manual. And if you caught the [System], well, the damn machine apparently came clean, exining how all that worked. So yeah, switching races via a starter [ss] would be fine, anything else would probably be just as painful as his ascension to Einherjar. Still, that was one big worry with regards to potential future children out of the way. Watching the twins was giving him a strangebination of emotions. On one hand, he was very proud of what theyd achieved. It was damn impressive what they were capable of. Healing spells at Level 0, Resurrection Spells potentially as early as the first Evolution, and more besides. On the other, it was worrying. And sure, part of it was that the breadth of mischief they could get up to had just vastly increased, but to be honest, that was only a tiny part of the puzzle. But honestly, he was worried about what the whole thing represented. Firstly, Isaac really didnt want his sisters to fight this fight. It was his fight, not something for the next generation. Obviously, being siblings, they were technically in the same generation, but with a fourteen-year age gap, that definition got a little fuzzy. And he was feeling a little protective of them, especially once they started dating properly. A few years ago, Tanja had met the first boy she didnt want to absolutely murder after five seconds of being in the same room together, so it haaaad to be true love. But on the first ydate, Isaac had been home, and the poor kid had only then realized just whose sister he was standing next to. Hopefully, he could achieve the same effect with real boyfriends. Provided they deserved it, of course. And secondly, them having epic [sses] right out of the gate was, well, everything wrong with society today. Thebination of the family bloodline and his training had given them an advantage that would be damn hard to match. Almost as much of a cheat as future knowledge. Hell, Isaac hadnt been able to get an epic starter [ss], and wouldnt be able to change that now. The advantage of his generation was that not only did they have first crack at Heir-[sses], but theyd also been in a position to leverage their power to change the world before that power becamemonce. The constantly changing world of thest seven years had been chaotic as hell, powers rising from nowhere and on more than one asion, falling back into obscurity in the same day as they were erased from the face of the Earth. But as the next generation showed up, individuals starting out with bloodlines, and so on, that rapid shift would slow down and potentially, in time, even stop. Social ossification had been a thing before, obviously, but there were some advantages that were almost impossible to ovee. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Trainers, gifted Aspects that could be mastered, safe summoning spaces, and more could rocket someone up through both Levels and rarity tiers and unless some idiot decided to raise greenhouse flowers, those people would create the next generation of powerhouses. And at that point, the title of strongest of ones generation might no longer fall on the most talented individual. Of course, it was still possible to fail due to ack of hard work or having too much of an easy path forward, but still Isaac sighed. He was mentally writing a draft of how one could help ones children get good starter [sses] while creating a n for fighting social ossification. Lets keep going, Isaac called out as he summoned another Golem for the twins to fight, Tier 3 this time. A Lesser Rock Golem erupted from the ground, only to catch a force bolt from Viktoria, toppling it onto its back. And then, Tanja let herself fall out of the sky, her full weight resting on Legacys pommel, sword poised to pierce the monsters core. For fucks sake It was a maneuver that could work, under the right circumstances, but required a hell of a lot more Stats and practice to pull off. The des tip nced off the monsters chest, which left its wielder sprawled on top of a very angry pile of rock. Wonderful. Which left him rescuing her, lecturing everyone about not trying dumb stunts even with him being around and watching over them. The mess was somewhat understandable overall, they were a tad on the young side for their [System] to be unlocked. But it was still a mess he had to correct. He didnt even have to draw his sword, [Far Strike] worked against a monster this weak, and with [Absolute de Masterys] Level 20 bonus, he could project them from his hands and even fingers. So all it took to tear the golem apart was the merest twitch of his fingers. *** After almost an hour of training, Isaac was sitting with Tanja on top of the [System] research facultys building, their legs dangling over the side. Viktoria had unfortunately had a prior engagement and flown back home. Technically, sitting like that was a vition of every safety regtion in existence. Practically, who the hell cared? You know, school has been crazytely. Michelle saw our wings and decided that she absolutely had to be able to fly too and tried to make her [System] activate by jumping out of the window, Tanja said. It doesnt work like that, Isaac winced, How high up were you? Oh, it was one of those in case of an emergency, evacuate through the window deals, Tanja said, Unfortunately, she didnt realize that there was a half-rotten pile of leaves no one bothered to remove right underneath and fell in face-first. Isaac chuckled, I bet she looked pretty silly. Not as silly as she did when trying to convince the teacher that she wasnt a danger to herself while still looking like she made out with a garbage dump, Tanja sniggered. Funny as the image of a girl diving face-first into a pile of mulch was, if teenagers were putting themselves in dangerous situations to trigger their superpowers that was a problem. Hed put together a set of PSAs about the subject, but these were teenagers. Telling them not to do something was likely to make them want to do it all the more, and providing an exnation just gave them something to disprove. Oh, and did I tell you about what happened on thest field trip? There were these drunk frat assholes and Mrs. Feldmann kicked the loudest one so hard he flew! Wait, what? Isaac asked, utterly perplexed. Feldmann was the government agent currently assigned to make sure the twins were safe at school, why would she do something so shy? Well, he grabbed her ass, Tanja said, He was drunk, and she defended herself. Ok, that made more sense. Someone who could still get drunk was likely low Level, and field trips almost exclusively happened in the morning. A guy who ran around drunk as a skunk that early, hitting on a female teacher currently watching over young students and getting physical with said teacher definitely deserved the kick, legally and morally. And quite frankly, Feldmann was not only Level 89 in actuality, but also under her cover identity. She had an excuse for her Strength, as having the asional point squirreled away into physical stats was normal, as was knowing how to do a simple karate kick, which could havee from self-defense training. Simple as can be. You know what to do if someone tries that with you, right? Isaac growled. Not tell you, Tanja smirked. He glowered at her. I dont want you to get arrested for murder, she added, still smirking. Okay, fair point, Isaac sighed, then darkly added, But youll still tell me, Ill handle it. Ill be fine. You can be pretty scary when you want to be, Tanja noted. Ill be whatever I need to be, Isaac said, forcing a grin onto his face as he ruffled his sisters hair,pletely messing up her hairdo. Hey, stop that! Tanja yelped. Catch me, if you want to do something about that, Isaac grinned as he kicked himself off the rooftop, mes igniting under his feet to send himself rocketing off, with Tanja in hot pursuit, wings beating furiously. Oh, this was fun. No impactful things, no threats, just siblings horsing around in their spare time. And in a few days, it was time to break into the tenth Tier of monsters, properly. Something to look forward to as well. Chapter 300: Let’s Bloody GO! Chapter 300: Lets Bloody GO! For most of human history, thered been two kinds of scientific discoveries. The first was when people kept chipping away at a problem, envisioning the final result and continuing to work to get closer to it. The airne, for example. The Wright brothers had wanted to fly, so theyd built prototype after prototype until something worked. The second, meanwhile, was all about idents. Alexander Flemings idental mixing of microorganisms had given the world Pennicilin, and Louis Pasteur had discovered the foundation of vination by leaving a cholera culture out while on vacation and then had chickens exposed to the weakened strain survive a supposedly lethal strain of the same disease. But nowadays, there was a third. The I already know everything but need to find a way to share that information game was somewhat annoying, sure, but could be incredibly gratifying if pulled off sessfully. And today was going to be a fantastic day if everything went well. Well want to be really careful with this one, Isaac warned, If the Walking Mountain tears its way out of the ground during its appearance, well want to make sure nothing structural gets broken. Of course, that was exactly how the creatures appearance would go, it was very rough on the environment, and having a huge chunk taken out of Etzels summoning area would not go over well. No one would me Isaac or Bailey for the mess, finding out what happened during the summoning was the whole point of this exercise, but it would still not be great if the whole area got trashed. Expenses, expense reports, the time required to actually fix the mess much easier to just take a whole bunch of unnecessary precautions to cover the necessary one and then go from there. Theyd already piled a massive mountain of rock and gravel onto the summoning tform to fuel the creatures growth, as well as added shock absorbers into the concrete underfoot, and loosened some of the connectors to the main ind. That way, if something broke, this part of Etzel would smoothly tear away and be easy to rece, instead of leaving behind ragged chunks and other crap that would make reconstruction a pain. The honor of fighting this first beast would go to the Bundeswehr, not the team, as several of them already fought Tier 10s during the TheGolem incident. And a little behind-the-scenes dhanding had turned this part of the process into a chance for the German military to show off a little. Overall, the assumption was that there were no supremely nasty, Tier-specific surprises contained in regr monsters the same way there were in [Raid Bosses], which would hopefully make this whole affair somewhat safe. And then, things went like clockwork. The circle precariously bnced atop the rubble was charged by Patrick, who then flew up high to remove himself from the monsters likely reach, and finally, when signaled, triggered the summoning. A massive crystal manifested above the circle and fell into the ground, narrowly avoiding a stream of fire as someone tried to spawn-kill the bugger. Too bad. The massive mountain rumbled, arms and legs forming as the titanic beast rose, almost a kilometer tall. A kilometer-tall monster with a single weak spot within, barely a meter across. Assimting new materials, ones not caught in the first body formation, was a slower process than the initial manifestation, but it was possible. If you didnt kill this fucker outright, itd be just fine after an hour. Do you want a firing solution for the core? Isaac leaned over to the artillery officer he was standing next to. Can you pass it along via the party? Yep, Isaac said and did so. With over half of Germanys S-Rankers nearby, it wasnt like anyone was going to imagine there hadnt been any help going on. The Walking Mountain charged towards the nearest lines of battle, only to take an armor-piercing shell to the knee, where it detonated and caused the monster to fall with an earth-shaking crash. Grenades and heavily enhanced bullets began to chip away at the beasts body, taking chunks out of joints and cracking the exterior shell. At the same time, the core zipped around like a panicked pinball, evading heavy artillery shells that prated deeply into the torso. Massive boulders began to fall as the holes mmed shut with loud crunches, leaving behind a whole but slimmer monster. The artillery officer next to Isaac began barking orders, altering the firing solution in an attempt to box in the Mountains Heart. Didnt work, sadly. And then, half a dozen bunker-buster missiles speared the monsters back, rock ballooning outwards for a brief second before the force of the detonation overwhelming the Mountains ability to keep itself together. Isaac watched the Heart slide through the cloud of dust and debris until it was hiding down in the titanic golems knee at which point another artillery salvo blew apart the leg below it, leaving the most important body part trapped in a stone chunk in mid-air, unable to move very far. In the end, it was a shoulder-mounted rocketuncher that cracked thest line of defense as the artillery was still reloading, but after that, blowing apart the crystal was achieved with a simple assault rifle. The monster was dead, and cleanup was someone elses job. A few minutester, the recently promoted Brigadegeneral Gram came marching onto the artillery deck, rubbing his ear, I just got new orders, were not repeating this with the Walking Mountain, I just got off with the What followed was an annoyingly long-winded exnation that hed been ordered to pass along about how theyd just set off a whole bunch of seismographs, which in turn passed on a whole lot of earthquake warnings, and triggered an ass-ton of automated emergency alert systems which no one had thought to turn off. Every civilian within several hundred kilometers getting spammed with earthquake announcements wasnt exactly a good thing. Isaac was perfectly fine with stopping things there, theyd gotten decent readings on the monsters Stats, figured out the overall power tendency for Tier 10 based on their samples, and so on, but a lot of the people around him were pretty annoyed. This was supposed to have been the Bundeswehrs hour of glory, after all. Lets repair the area, and move on to the [Raid Bosses] while they get the alerts fixed, Isaac suggested, We can go ahead with the regr monsters once were no longer spamming anyone with alerts. It took an hour or so to set things up for the first proper Tier 9 [Raid Boss]. This summoning had been dyed for a while due to a little snafu on the other side of the Antic. The US had a habit of summoning [Raid Bosses], photographing them, and then nuking them to kingdome. That worked perfectly fine until it didnt. With regr monsters, there were some limits. For example, the Walking Mountain might have been able to survive a single surface-detonated nuke, if said bomb was on the small side. But when it came to the [Raid Bosses], once you hit Tier 9, no single nuke would suffice. Eh, a Tsar Bomb might do the trick. But the point was that what used to work had failed spectacrly this time around, with the entire base being evacuated and nuked down to the bedrock. After that little disaster, the Bundeswehr had been understandably leery of letting Isaac and co. y with that Tier of bosses. Still, the one good thing that hade out of the whole thing was that now, Isaac didnt need to worry about warning people about the fact that these fuckers came with minions. *** The standard Demon Lord at Tier 9 was just thirty meters tall, barely half the size of its predecessors, but a hell of a lot stronger and due to its lesser size, agile as fuck. Throw in the ludicrous amount of magical firepower and its infernal legions and the Greater Demon Lord was a big step up from its Tier 8 predecessor. Two bulls horns rose into the sky while those of a ram curled down either side of its head, ivory-white just like its ws and fangs, starkly silhouetted on almost ck skin. White-outlined ck fire curled around the Demon as it charged towards the nearest collection of soldiers while over a dozen imps popped into existence from short-lived portals. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Those little shits were taken care of in seconds, precise gunshots blowing them to bits, but the big guy stayed up, obviously. A gunshot rent the air as Mller fired, recoil sending him sliding across the floor of his snipers nest with enough speed to create skid marks. But his 5th Evolution [Right Hand of the Reaper] could dish out a ludicrous amount of damage, all condensed into a single bullet that would have torn apart almost any rifle it came out of. All save the soulbound, masterwork, weapon thaty in his hands. The Demons right eye detonated as the bullet hit it like a sledgehammer, tore clean through the beasts brain, and blew through the back of its skull. Being a [Raid Boss], that wound obviously didnt stop it, but it was more than enough to give Isaac an opening. Stumbling, moving predictably, it was the perfect target for Isaac to st straight through the second eye with [I Am The Sword]. And thats when things went a little off-track. Unexpectedly, this damage was enough to kill the monster for the first time, which meant that by the time Isaac hit the floor on its other side amidst a spray of blood and gore, the Demon Lord had fully regenerated. And when a Tier 9 [Raid Boss] hit its second health bar, it didnt just get ess to stronger minions, but it went right ahead and summoned a massive swarm of them right off the bat. At fifteen meters tall and utterly packed with muscle, the new supporting monsters were a threat to be reckoned with. But what made them a hell of a lot worse was the fact now, Isaac was standing right in the middle of a dozen of them while the others tried to hold back the once-more charging Demon Lord, which was going straight at the biggest concentration of enemies while ignoring him. The eye Mller had shot out remained gone, one of his [Skills] ensuring the injury persisted, but it was making sure to keep the other safe by covering it in a shield of hellfire. Patrick blew out one knee with his custom-built [Titans Bane] spell, while Amybined the magic of every caster around her into a singr attack to obliterate its other leg. The Demons response was to just cut loose with its mes, the ground underfoot beginning to first melt, then boil, whips of meshing out and tearing huge gaps out of the surrounding wall, huge gouts of fire sweeping across formations and forcing soldiers to scatter where there were no mages to throw up shields. At the end of the day, Tier 9 monsters could be between Level 121 and Level 150, and it was facing eight S-Rankers well into the 5th Evolution, each with at least twenty, likely thirty, Levels on it. 5th Evolution people fought Tier 10 monsters, everything else was just a joke to them. And that wasnt even mentioning that the best of the Bundeswehr, both in terms of men and material, was also hammering away at the boss. But Isaac was currently sitting in the middle of a dozen minions, all of which had decided that he was looking particrly punchable while generating a shield that would have protected the boss if it had stayed put. Isaac grinned. Someone had just volunteered for a beatdown. [Aspects of the End] activated, powered not just by [Speed of Hati], but his freshly purchased [Power of the Behemoth]. The power draw would double for every additional [Sub-Skill] he activated, but he could afford it at the moment. Of course, if hed had another month to Level, hed have gotten the third and final sub-[Skill] he wanted, but would that really have made too big a difference against this thing? With just one boost burning through his avable power, there was nothing obvious going on, but with two, visible signs appeared. A soft white glow outlined him, something Isaac assumed was from [Speed of Hati], but he knew that underneath his armor, his muscles burned red, baleful light radiating from inside, making him appear as though he were on the precipice of exploding. A stomp onto the air itselfunched him skywards, and a kick pushed him straight at a monsters chest. And then, he swung his sword. No [Strikes] to support it, no mes to enhance its damage potential, just raw power. Balmung carved through the demons chest and as it parted flesh, the force of the attack radiated outwards, cleaving the massive monster in half. Another kick, against the falling skull, this time, and he was in front of the second monster. This time, Isaac summoned his Giant Sword, the one he used to never wield since it was too heavy for him to bnce with. Not this time. Power of the Behemoth (Subskill of Aspects of the End) The mightiest beast of thend, the Behemoth. Eternal, immortal, unstoppable (at least to those whose power does not match those of the gods). This is the power that this Skill grants. While it is active, the bearers every footstep can make the very Earth shake and shatter the ground with a single stomp, his every punch creates storms and a single sweep of a sword creates a shockwave to cleave mountains in twain. But there is more to this Skill than merely brute force. While it is active, it fundamentally alters the way the bearer can apply his physical force. As long as there is a physical medium to transmit them, the shockwaves caused by the users movements can be directed and precisely carry along the attack. A fist of air that hits an enemy a hundred meters away from a punch thrown into empty space, a de ofpressed air unleashed by a simple sword-swipe that can bisect mountains, and a simple stomp can shatter underground structures without having to cause an entire earthquake. In addition, when grasping an object, this Skill will helppensate for such things as bnce, center of gravity, or structural integrity. When Isaac swung the de almost three times his weight, he didnt go flying, he didnt start spinning madly through the air, he just swung as he fell past the beast and split its skull. Three more steps into the air put him above the monsters, half a dozen Giant Swords manifesting underneath him. He kicked each of them at the back of the hilt, [Power of the Behemoth] ensuring nothing went spinning off into nowhere, tearing through the demons. Seven down, five left. Isaac flipped over, letting himself fall face-forward, repeatedly kicking out skywards to elerate. And just the test out his new limits, he decided to forego his weapons and just punched the demon as he crashed into its face. Instead of breaking his hand, wrist, or even his entire arm, the attack transferred the force of his attack without transmitting any back, messily decapitating the eights demon. Another kick, and he was in front of number nine. pping his hands, he unleashed a shockwave that made the monster flinch, but that was basically all. Ok, there was blood leaking into one of its eyeballs, but for the most part, the monster was fine. So, that particr trick wasnt quite what Isaac had hoped itd be. Isaac kicked himself away from the monster whilezily projecting another sh into the beasts face, cutting open both eyes. Numbers ten, eleven and twelve didnt take much longer. While hed been busy with the ads, the others had finished off the boss. Nice. Dripping blood and utterly filthy, Isaac made his way towards where everyone was standing for debrief. It should be fine, but where he saw a problem was that this had all been a little too easy. Theyd been too powerful for the monster, and he really, really hoped no one would think that Tier 10 [Raid Bosses] would be as easy to beat. Then again, the regr Tier 10 had caused earthquake warnings just by dropping dead, youd have to be especially stupid to think that the boss-variants would be easy. All in all, today had been a good day. And during the fight, Isaac had managed to get [Aspects of the End] to Level 10. Aspects of the End (legendary) The End Times. Armageddon. The Rapture. Judgement Day. Ragnark. The End of Days and everything else. Be it the impact of a gigantic meteor, divine judgment, or celestial wars, there are things out there with the ability to destroy worlds. Nothing is safe from such power. Yet it is power that can be used to prevent such cmity froming about. Blow up the asteroid, broker peace between divine factions (if your sword isnt at someones throat, they wont listen), or maybe just poke out the eye of the chaos god about to devour the (something that is within the abilities of your ss as long as you y your cards right), if you dare. And such power is what this Skill can give you. In its base form, it will merely boost you, doubling your physical Stats and quadrupling your Mana Regeneration while active, stacking (additively) with other boosting Skills. However, this is merely the beginning of what this Skill can achieve. It can be upgraded to achieve specific things, to harness the power of certain world-ending beings. The ancient bird who is so old its seen the universe end three times over, the snake that swallows the sun to bring about eternal darkness, the biblical sea beast, or maybe even the dragon that is unleashed upon the world on the heels of the four Horsemen. By drawing upon the power of these mighty beings, even telling a dark god where to shove it is not necessarily off the table. Upon purchase of this Skill, one such aspect will be gained for free (chosen aspect: Speed of Hati), each subsequent aspect must be purchased separately (five Skill points). This Skill can only be activated for a certain span of time every day, but that time can be distributed across the day however the user wants. This time pool refreshes fully exactly twenty-four hours after the time pool was first used. Your time pool is calcted as ten seconds per Level in this Skill. If multiple Aspects of the End are used concurrently, time use is doubled for each one used beyond the original one. By ying a monster of the end times, you may gain a lesser version of its power, weaker than one of the various upgrades that can be purchased for Aspects of the End, but still significant. Should the associated ability have already been purchased, the weaker power is not gained. Furthermore, each unique monster of apocalyptic power killed by the user will increase the time pool by 10 seconds. In addition, at the cost of five seconds, the user may supercharge a single blow to inflict devastating damage. Time Pool 43/100 Synergy effect: Undying Wraith The time pool of Aspects of the End can be used to also supercharge Aspects, taking their Skills to new heights. Regeneration that fixes limbs in milliseconds, phasing that allows even mana to pass through without causing damage (within reason), and more can be achieved. Its power increase was small, but potent. When facing an actual boss instead of just one of its supporting monsters, the ability to temporarily but massively increase his attack power would be incredibly useful. And hed definitely get the chance to try it out. After all, they could keep fighting [Raid Bosses] here until someone told them to stop or they ran out of cooldown [Skills]. Or something went horribly wrong elsewhere. Chapter 301: Interlude Jason Chapter 301: Interlude Jason The others were having fun at the moment, beating down [Raid Bosses]. First, it had just been Isaac and his team, butter, theyd started inviting other allies to help whenever there was an official exnation for the connection, so a good chunk of the Round Table was busy with that. But poor ol Jason, the man in the shadows, there was no apparent reason for anyone to know him, and the Ghost was still a fairly wanted man. Still, it also gave him a ready-made excuse to avoid any pretentious social asions, a trade-off he was more than happy to make. Jason nced up, noticed the light at the pedestrian crossing was green, and began to cross the road, only for a sports car toe tearing down the road,pletely ignoring the red light it had to be facing. Hey, watch it! he snapped as it almost ran him over. For fucks sake, it actually would have, if he hadnt used a significant portion of his actual speed. Cars were supposed to watch out for pedestrians, he was supposed to be able to walk normally as long as he only crossed the road on crosswalks. He nced down at the drivers license hed [Snatch]ed when dodging. Mr. Gordon Smith, nice to meet you. Jason considered doling out some punishment, but in the end, a simple [Destroy Evidence] would have to suffice. The drivers license had been somewhere in the deep recesses of the wallet, and only aplete kook checked the entirety of the contents of their wallets before leaving the house. Way that jackass was driving, hed get pulled over, and then, well, his license was currently getting sucked down the storm drain as unidentifiable kes of carbon. Good deed for the day done, he made his way to a nearby diner. Chicken and waffles sounded good, though he doubted hed be finding those in the south of Spain. Ah well, no matter where he was, hed always found something he liked. And if there really was nothing hed enjoy eating, he did have stuff in his storage. His philosophy on food was that when possible, you should enjoy it. Dont just shovel in random crap for sustenance, if possible, get sustenance you enjoyed. Ideally, one would live ones life the same way, but, well, the world was kinda a sucky ce. Sometimes, you had to do things that, well, sucked. Like chasing down the cult, fighting monsters that some absolute moron had thought theyd take, and so on. Not fun and often boring, but unfortunately needed. Speaking of unfortunate, [Pursuit Alert] lit off as he was entering the restaurant. Oh, . He sighed, turned on his heels, and began to march in the opposite direction. That particr [Skill] alerted him when someone searched through his home base, as well as warning him when someone was chasing down one of his other homes, meaning bases belonging to any associates that could eventually lead to him being found. Of course could eventually lead was a very wide definition, Isaac had checked and confirmed that it could be something as simple as a room he might eventually return to. So, what was it this time? Which safe house had someone decided to look into, which friend was being hassled by a moronic cop whod definitely be finding alchemy-strength itching powder in his underpants for the next few months wait, what the hell was in Mn? That was where the alert wasing from, but hed never even been there, so what the hell was the problem? His contemtion was cut short by his cell phone, which buzzed with a news alert. Might be rted, might not be, but it was likely important. The alert in question spoke about how a battle had begun in the streets of Mn, in front of a restaurant called Salutation. Now that sparked recognition. He often yed Legbreaker using information provided by one Gregorio Zambon, an Italian ex-mobster Isaac had gotten from right around there. A quick moment to reorient himself and then, he began to run in that direction. Contrary to what the name suggested, [Hell out of Dodge] wasnt about running away, just moving very, very quickly, with your speed picking up with every step you took until you were at your destination. Hell, most [Paragon Rogue] [Skills] had weird names. [Scoundres Promise], [Roguish Avatar], [Last Word], and so on. Whimsical. It suited him, but hed been stunned to see the names. Sure, it made a perverse sort of sense, anyone serious wouldnt have stayed a pure [Rogue], someone who wanted to stab shit became an [Assassin], someone who wanted to steal shit became a [Thief], someone who wanted to fight picked [Duellist], and the dude who wanted to do drugs grabbed some variant of [Alchemist], only the people who wanted to stay rogueish, a loveable rascal who just wanted to stay out of the light would stick to the core of the original [ss]. Still, hed never tell anyone the names of his [Skills] if he could avoid it. He sprinted across the Spanish countryside at speeds that should have created a mile-long dust cloud, suppressing both the mess and any tracks he might leave behind with [Traceless]. And then, when he hit the ocean, he jumped in and kept run- er, swimming, powering through the waves as though they werent even there. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the vition. All in all, it took him an hour to get to Mn, as his [Pursuit Alert] began to flicker on and off in the back of his mind. By the time he arrived at his destination, things had already wrapped up for the most part. There were cops everywhere, both regr and Italys SWAT equivalent, firefighters, and a ton of other personnel. It seemed like someone had taken this as an excuse to ransack the known mob front, which exined why his [Skill] was still going off even with only cops around. And in the center of the whole messy abination of blood spatters, bodies under sheets, and chalk outlines. Shit. Jason let himself meld into the crowd, all but vanishing from both [Skills] and mundane senses, as he pulled out his phone and called Zambon. In theory, things should still be fine, [Pursuit Alert] went off when a ce that could, in time, connect to him, was searched, irrespective of the searchers capacity to pull it off. If he was interpreting this mess correctly, someone was asionally ncing into stuff that was rted to him via Zambon, lighting off the alert, so nothing to really worry about. Hopefully. But in practice, it was grating to have that information scratching at the back of his mind. Hey, Gregorio, Im at your old boss restaurant, someone attacked it. Can I borrow your eyes? Zambons [Through Other Eyes] let him look through the eyes of someone with the right [ss] and [Skills], like, for example, Jason. It took a bit of looking, but between them, they were able to not only determine that there was no real danger of the cops finding anything but also figure out where the big boss had gone. However, where the attackers were concerned, their origins were somewhat more of a mystery. What theyd done was obvious, a baby could have told you what theyd attempted. Quiet entry through the side door over there, knock out that guard, break the ward behind him, then avoid the camera in the corridor by going through the wall, and from there, one team grabs the big man in charge while the other runs of with all files andputers. Simple as can be if youd overlooked half a dozen other precautions that had blown up in their faces, both metaphorically and literally. Now he just needed to find a certain Francesco Calise and hope that guy had the information necessary to find the people whod actually been looking for him. *** Jason stood outside what had to be a safe house for a long moment, considering what to do, before he just shrugged and pounded on the door. Good afternoon, Im an associate of Mister Holt, here to help with your recent troubles. No response. He knocked again, harder this time, Ive been to the restaurant, and I found you just based on that information. This ce probably isnt safe. Im only here because I want to kick the ass of the people who picked a fight, theyve been trouble for me too, [Scoundrels Promise]. This was another one of those weird [Skills], one that really shouldnt have worked since, well, what kind of dumbass trusted a self-proimed scoundrel? But it did work, the person on the other end automatically knew that he meant what hed said, even if the whole thing did make him sound like an idiot. He could sense some shuffling around through his [Aura], ufortable and uncertain, until someone finally found the balls to open the friggin door, though it was only opened slightly before the chain pulled taught. Do you promise to behave yourself in here? asked a gruff, gravely, voice. Yeah, Ill behave myself, not pick fights, and so on. [Scoundrels Promise], Jason sighed, Like I said, Im just after some information, Im an associate of Mister Holts, and I work together with someone who worked with your boss in the past, Gregorio Zambon. Fine, the voice grunted, Come in. Jason entered into a room that was both exactly what hed expected, and the absolute opposite. No haze of cigar smoke, no tumblers of whiskey or other booze, but there were a whole lot of sharply dressed Italian men clustering around a guy at the head of the table, hanging onto his every word as he passed judgment. Whats your name? Ah, introductions. Notice that the man hadnt introduced himself, hed just started barking demands. Eh, Jason obviously knew who he was, so why be courteous, right? My name is Rieper, Tobias Rieper, Jason introduced himself. Had he stolen that from a video game? Sure, but Isaacs Mister Holt alias had been borrowed from a TV show, so what the hell, why not make a dumb reference? Except that this time, someone had apparently made the connection. At least that was the only reason Jason could imagine why someone would start sniggering in this situation. Ah, what the hell, it was an obvious alias; and a throwaway at that. But Francesco Calise, the man in charge, just shifted slightly, raised an eyebrow, and nodded. So, youre Holts right hand, then. The guy who acts on Gregorios intel. Interesting. How is he, by the way? Calise asked. Hes very well, but a threat to the very concept of privacy, Jason said, Hes the one who helped me find this ce. He doesnt know about it, Calise stated. Like I said, hes antithetical to the very concept of privacy and information security, Jason said, Im looking for the people who went after you, because apparently, they were trying to get to me, maybe even by finding information through him. Or maybe by finding my boss first. Point is, those folks did not get what they were looking for, and they will try again, until I deal with the matter. How does one spell your name, Mister Rieper? Calise asked. R-I-E-P-E-R, Jason spelled out. He wasnt on the nose enough to call himself Reaper. And what is it that you do for Mister Holt? When something is keeping Mr. Holt from going to meetings himself, I stand in for him. Outside of that hm, corporate liquidation, asset procurement, the asional cleaning effort when the mess in question required a delicate touch, whatever is needed at the time, Jason exined while supressing a smile. This was getting fun. I see. And why do you think youre being hunted by these people? Calise asked. Ah, asking the hard questions here. Jason didnt have and big, clever answers to that, just his usual quips. Oh, and the truth obviously, but just because he was wearing a false face didnt mean he should spill the beans on the fact that most of the world knew him as the ghost. My work isnt necessarily public, but Ive still run over a few peoples feet with my car, so to speak. Im subtle, but I cant imagine that Mister Holts ck market purchases or you asking around for him were easy to hidepletely, Jason said. Someone had made the connection, obviously, so why spare the gangsters feelings by not calling him unsubtle? I see, Calise didnt seem to mind, Ill trust that youll inform me if you find the people responsible? If I cant handle the job, Mister Holt will inform you of what Ive found out, Jason said. As it turned out, Calise didnt have too much useful info, but the location of the prisoners, the police evidence lockup, and a copy of the security tapes turned out to be enough. With Zambons help, at least. Hed managed to physically make it to Mn by now, but hed barely exchanged five words with any of his former colleagues. Until eventually, the truth of the matter was found and they left, Jason to hunt, and Zambon to go to dinner. Chapter 302: Interlude Jason Chapter 302: Interlude Jason It was a nondescript warehouse on the outskirts of the city, simple from the outside, heavily fortified from the inside, with almost fifty armed mercenaries waiting for another chance to get at Calise. Apparently, their first attempt had been on the small side, to avoid drawing attention by having half a military convoy traipse through downtown Mn. They were currently in the wait phase of hurry up and wait, cleaning weapons, ying cards, or even getting high on alchemical crap that worked even through their Fortitude. And then, a man marched straight through the wall, phasing, taking damage from the mana in the wall, and finally healing as he proimed, Hey, I heard you guys were looking for me? The whole room froze, staring at the man whose eye was currently returning to white as a burst blood vessel was being repaired and the blood removed. So, like I said, you guys were looking for me. The Ghost. Going right after my most distant acquaintance, top-notch strategy, you guys! He shed them a thumbs up even as the wards around him red up into full power. Laughter was his only response. Come on man, its fifty against one, just surrender, the mercenarymander said, clearly struggling, Ill give it to you, that was a badass entrance, bute on, the boss wants you alive and healing you up after the fight is going to be a pain. Do you have any idea how expensive limb-regrowing potions are? Then, he suddenly stiffened, and slumped over, blood pumping from three holes, one in the back of his head, his neck, and the spine in a spot where the d had likely also gone through the heart. Yeah, fifty to one, could you have made this any easier for me? Jasonmented. In his head, of course. One-liners were fun, but so was not getting killed due to stupid mistakes or giving away the element of surprise. [Perfected Strike] really was perfect, abination of all previous [Strikes], even including a certain degree of auto-targeting and information about how often it needed to be used to do the deed. And [Rogueish Avatar] wasnt so bad either. A semi-tangible copy that couldnt really do much, and quite specifically couldnt attack, but it was oh so useful. Springing traps, both the mechanical and ambush-based ones, dropping one-liners in situations where he should already be long gone, acting as a distraction, and, you know, walking into an ambush with eyes wide open while the real him came in from behind. And these pussies didnt even go all out against him, either afraid to harm their prize, or their boss, except he was already dead. Not that it would have done them any good. This was 5th Evolution legendary against mid-4th mercenaries with delusions of grandeur. No real contest. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the vition. [Flickering Dodge] to move so quickly he might as well have teleported, [de Fan] to carve through that group, [Retrieve de] to jank his des through that other group, [Piercing Strike] through that guys spine the hard part was ensuring that the people were alive enough to answer questions. And things were simple as pie from there. *** Gregorio Zambon opened the door to the warehouse and mmed it shut the instant he was inside, it would not do to have anyone see the mess inside. A little telekinesis pushed away the nearest pool of blood so he could avoid stepping into it and tracking it everywhere, and then, he was standing in front of Jasons prisoners. So, let me exin the situation here: Im going to ask questions, and youre going to tell me what I want to know, or youre going to find out just how badly I dont like hearing the word no. Youre all fully aware of what my boss is capable of when you piss him off, and we can track down your loved ones as easily as we did you. Gregorio forced a twisted grin onto his face as he watched the slowly mounting horror on the captives faces as he listed off the people they loved in decreasing order of importance,plete with names, addresses, and the point of greatest vulnerability. Like I said, this isnt a question of whether Ill learn what I want to, but how high of a pile your loved ones skulls will have made by the time I do. So, question one: who hired you. We dont know, it was all done over the first captive was already shouting, likely about to jump into begging for his daughters life. Not like theyd be going after anyones kid, Jason had an excellent illusion [Skill] so theyd be able to fake it as long as they had a name, a face, and a good story about the murder. I believe you, Gregorio grinned, the expression perfectly authentic despite being utterly fake, And youre lucky I do. Buuuuut you still went after the boss, so youd better have something you do know, or Look, we had some kind of stupid deal with some shadowy client who wanted to get his hands on the Ghost. Contact info would work, but if possible, we should capture them and take them to a location, wed get more information from there. Address, message history, timeline Zambon prompted. But when the response wasnt instant, he turned to Jason and stated that this guys daughter should be getting out of school just about now. That sped things up real quickly. Was the whole affair cruel beyond measure? Sure. Then again, a mere nce at his surroundings gave him proof of half a dozen war crimes, one supported genocide, and enough standard criminal activity to earn these guys several life sentences, each. And these fine examples of humanity were the only ones affected, they hadnt so much as visited the family members whose lives were being threatened. It took a frustratingly long time to put everything together, the client had covered their ass incredibly well, but he was up against a [Truthspeaker], a legendary [ss] capable of obliterating any attempts at information security, even if he asionally had to be a bit patient. Ian Menton, holder of a whole lot of doctorates, with quite a few nasty notes in his various files about rather unusual misdemeanors, including but not limited to getting handsy with female students, skipping steps during research, and ignoring various safety-based SOPs. An asshole to be sure, but just looking at his regr record would never have made Gregorio expect something like that out of him. Jason looked over the information gathered and nodded. Thanks for your help, Ill deal with it for now, but I might need youter. Ill be in the area, Gregorio nodded, I think were done here. Do you have anything else you need? Once we call the Carabinieri, were not going to be able toe back to this town for a looooong time. Yeah, were done, Jason nodded and marched out of the door while dialing the police. Just one more thing to do, and this whole affair would be settled. Chapter 303: Interlude Jason Chapter 303: Interlude Jason Why was it always warehouses? Why not a mansion, with some nice booze in the wine cab he could pilfer and drink while walking in on the bad guy, whod obviously be in some kind ofpromising situation that he couldment on while rattling off all the various crimes that would be fucking him over. Hed had an excuse to break into a mansion, once. This had been early on, before hed ever met Isaac or the Round Table, back when hed been just a [Rogue] whod grown aware of the cult and decided to muck things up a little. One of the people hed found had been a businessman whod done all the usual scummy crap, polluting the environment, being terrible to his workers, all that crap. It had gotten a hell of a lot worse when the [System] had arrived and hed joined the cult, believing that the world would end in ten years at the outside. And Jason had done all the usual stuff. Broke in, drank half a tumbler of the most expensive whisky he could find while rifling through files, and finally gone to confront the man himself to tease him a little and distract him while the cops showed up to arrest him for all the really nasty crap the files had revealed. Except hed run into the guy while he was suspended from the roof of his bedroom in what had likely supposed to be some form of shibari, except the person responsible had been an amateur, leaving the scumbag hopelessly tangled while theyd run off. Jason hadughed so hard hed almost failed to run before the cops got out. Now that had been fun. But no, dingy warehouse it was. A whole bunch of defenses didnt do fuck all to level up the wow factor. [Entry n] to scan and n, [Pefected Strike] to punch a hole in the wall, a nice trickshot with [Ricochet de] to break the lock on the inside while his [Skills] suppressed the noise, and finally pull open the door and slip in, all under the effect of both [Man of a Thousand Faces] and [Ghost in the Night], utterly unidentifiable and almost impossible to spot. The first room of the warehouse was just a little entry hall with a narrow metal staircase that led into what had to be the office. But that wall shouldnt be there, right? Warehouses were normally wide open spaces? But there was an unrmed door in that wall, so he opened it and when he saw what was on the other side, his jaw dropped. It was a huge cavern, at least four times the size of the building hed observed from the outside, with countless gantries and walkways running through the open air, experiments ced on tforms next to them, but despite the fact that it should have been a mess, it was perfectly ordered, well organized, not looking jury-rigged in the slightest even though that could not have been built officially. Hell, the mere sight of this stuff would have been enough to make a safety inspectors head explode. But was he here to inspect the mess here andin about potential dangers? Nope. In the distance, something was moving, shoes ttering across the floor, metal scraping over metal. Liquid dripped onto a different metal surface, and something gently tore, like cloth being pulled apart by a metal edge pressing into it. This was the only significant source of noise, though. The asional creak of metal, rumbling of flowing liquids in pipes, some bubbling in one of the cryo tanks, but nothing that originated from a person. A gentle leap ced Jason on the gantry above him, a second one via a tank with a monster carcass suspended within took him to the next one and one final jump left him right underneath the roof. He began to creep across that gantry, ncing left and right at the various experiments stored there. Some were actually prepared in a way that museum-suitable, specimens carved open, preserved, andbeled. Then there were shrunken scenes, various setups from operating rooms to sacrificial altars shrunken down to the size of a backpack and ced upon in plinths, seemingly waiting for him to return and tear into. But others were just in weird. Odd metal spirals covered in runes that were functionally unidentifiable, what appeared to be ice cream of all things, and random blood spatters that reminded Jason of all those stories of modern art identally being cleaned up by unsuspecting janitors. No, seriously, what the fuck was up with this asshole? There was freaky shit everywhere he turned, but there was a difference between this weirdness, and, well, hiring mercenaries to hunt someone down. Thats when he reached the human experimentation part of the warehouse. Some might have even been normal research on donated cadavers. Others others made Jason contemte the most painful way to castrate someone. Pained expressions, no, agonized expressions on the deads faces, people whod obviously died in incredible pain, even children. There was an entire section of people whod bled out over various diamonds, with thebel making it rather apparent what theyd been all about. Diamonds drenched in the blood of innocents were blood diamonds, Isaac had mentioned that a while ago, but this guy clearly didnt know that. So hed gone after the elderly, young women who, judging by the promise rings on their fingers, had been virgins, even children. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. A seriously weird part was a group of children whod had their throats shed open but utterly stank of beer, with the surroundings of the shrunken scene soaked in a mixture of booze and blood. What a sicko. Hold on Jason remembered something when he identified traces of white powder scattered around the ce. As a kid, hed once been to a museum about the Incan civilization, and one of the exhibits had exined how their child sacrifices worked. Get the children high on maize beer and coca, then, you know Yeah, someone was going to suffer for this. Suffer. Just as Jason had expected, the person responsible was one Doctor Ian Menton, who was currently the only person in the warehouse, other than him. Oh, sure, the bastard had to have taken some precautions, but no matter they were, what effort had been put into keep him safe, it wouldnt do shit against Jason. Not now, not ever. Reaching into his storage space, he pulled out several cursed knives drawn from the Round Tables armory, various poisons, enchanted restraints not even Houdini would be able to escape any one of his devices, let alone all of them. [Flickering Dodge] to close the distance, a dagger cursed with Arcane Suppression and covered in a nasty, painful, poison that made it hard to concentrate, straight through the spine below the ribcage and Mentons legs copsed out from under him before he could even blink. The man managed to roll around, pushing himself onto his back with his arms while Jasons dagger shed again and again, not just carving flesh but also puncturing the mans mana pool, a soft glow emanating from the wounds. Coupled with the disorientation from the poison and the pain, that should be the end of any potential spellcasting. Ah, I did think that the Mn operation was handled badly, but I didnt think that youde to see me so quickly, Menton grinned,pletely ignoring his injuries, Mr. Rieper. Its certainly better than just calling you The Ghost, though Im guessing thats an alias? Or are you young enough that your parents chose to name you after a video game character? Anyway, I was very impressed with how you managed to share your potion recipes, though I have to say, your branding hasnt been on point since then. Insight was impressive, the guy who always knows shit the plebs dont. The Ghost is awesome. But you should have just stuck to either, not switched. You know, they still havent found the bodies from the potion experiments, I What the hell was that guy on about? No, scratch that, what was he on, period. He was currently paralyzed from the waist down, bleeding both lifeblood and mana from a dozen injuries, with a terrifying enigma standing over him with murder in his eyes, and this chucklefuck was chatting? I never did human experiments, Jason stated. And even if human experimentation had been involved in their creation, the consequences had been erased alongside the timeline Isaac was from. Yeah, yeah, sure, Mentonughed, still seemingly ignorant of his current state, You managed toe up with a series of fully mature, world-changing, potion recipes and didnt test them before releasing them? I mean they obviously works, do you seriously expect me to believe they got that way without tests? Or that you released them without knowing how effective they were? What the fuck is wrong with you? Jason said, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU? Another dagger manifested in his hand, which he hurled into the ground with enough force to have it slide into the metal up to the hilt. Right in front of the child sacrifice experiment. What the hell is this about? Why? What could you possibly have achieved? Somehow, getting yelled at seemed to hurt Menton more than getting stabbed had, I want to leave behind a legacy. Science should be done without limits, without hesitation, because it will change the fucking world. You know those researchers in Germany? Theyve gotten a lot done, but even they have topics they havent even touched because theyre cowards! Ive been researching things for years, and when I release my research, Ill be immortal, living as long as humanity lives. Menton grinned. You know the Hague executes people nowadays, right? Jason asked. Have you ever heard of Dr. Joseph Mengele? Jason shook his head, ncing around to make sure there was no trap imminent. There wasnt, but why the fuck where they were still arguing about this? He was a Nazi war criminal who conducted inhuman research on prisoners in concentration camps. And if theyd caught him, theyd have executed him. cept he got away, you know. But they still use his research because it was useful. And thats what Ill be, the guy who got all the answers everyone else was too scared to do. Even if you throw a moralistic little fit and kill me here and now, youre a man who wants to keep the world spinning. This research is incredible. It could save lives. It will save lives. Youll release this research. And then, every time this stuff gets used, theyll quote my research, theyll mention my name. Like I said, Ill never die, no matter what you do to me. Jesus fucking Christ on a pogo stick, what was wrong with this asshole! Was he ever going to stop bloody talking? Was this some borate suicide by cop thing? What the actual fuck? There were plenty of things he could do here, plenty of ideas, ces to stab, things to chop off, poisons that could cause incredible pain but not kill Menton after the antidotes were applied. Hack and sh, unleash every dark thought hed ever had upon who was likely one of the most deserving people in the world. Make him suffer until he died. But at the end of the day, Jason didnt want to carve this guy up like a Christmas turkey. Not if it didnt happen naturally in the middle of a fight. He had a full set of healing potions, from the green ones meant for scrapes to the ones used for absolute emergencies, the ck kind. As the tagline for them went, if you were intact enough to drink one, you were intact enough to be kept alive. But if you had to resort to this, you were guaranteed to not enjoy the experience as it glued together whatever still remained in any way conducive to survival, notfort. Whatever I have no mouth but I must scream mess that remained afterwards would definitely need the help of someone like Bailey to have any quality of life in the long term. So, that was an option. One that turned his stomach. There had to be a better way to do this, but he couldnt think of something truly suitable. Was the research even worth using? Could he just destroy it, knowing that God only knew how many people had suffered and died to create that knowledge, thereby throwing away the tiniest sliver of good their fate might have brought? Or was it his job, his duty to ensure that such horrible deed never had any positive results, that anyone who ever contemted stepping into Mentons footsteps knew what they were doing would never end with anything good, that all theyd be doing was being awful people? And would any pain he inflicted upon Menton ever matter, one way or the other? What the fuck was he supposed to do? It would have been a shitty choice even if the world hadnt been ending. So he took the easy way out, he kicked the matter upstairs. Let the others figure out what to do with the research, ande up with something suitably nasty end for Menton. Also, when it came to punishment and just deserts, Arthur, Amy, and Isaac could be pretty creative when they wanted to be, downright evil when necessary. There would be a fitting and suitably creative solution out there, there just had to. After making sure that the asshole was still tied up, he pulled out his phone. Chapter 304: Ultima Ratio Chapter 304: Ultima Ratio Mmh, Salmon of Wisdom sushi. Isaac smiled as he took another piece of sashimi, with chopsticks, of course, dragged it through the soy sauce, and chomped down on it, the already massive grin widening to the point where his face looked like it was about to crack in half. With Salmon from Tiers 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 already devoured, Isaac was currently sitting at a cool +50% Mana Regeneration. Oh, things were looking why was his phone ringing with Amok as the ringtone? That was Jasons ringtone because when Jason needed to contact him urgently enough that the [Rount Table] was too slow, that meant things had seriously hit the fan. The connection was secure, of course, and when he picked up, an anti-eavesdropping field would kick in, but it was still a risk. Isaac swiftly headed towards an isted spot and picked up. Whats wrong? I Jason sounded uncharacteristically upset when he answered, I have a problem. Theres how I identally caught a serial killer whos been conducting research on people. Is there a reason you cant arrest or kill him? Isaac asked. Heres the problem Jason exined. *** Ah fuck, Isaac muttered once the story was over, Youve got the situation in hand, though, nothing is going to go wrong if I take a bit to do anything? Should be fine for another hour at the very least, Jason said, But please dont wait too long. And this guys main deal is that he wants to be famous, right? Isaac said, Immortality through infamy? Uh-hu? Isaac already had a good idea that should work, but honestly, hed recently gotten to the point of buying thest sub-[Skill] he wanted for [Aspects of the End]. Wisdom of the Simurgh (Subskill of Aspects of the End) An ancient being in possession of impossible wisdom, so old it has seen the destruction of the universe three times over. When using this Skill, that wisdom passes onto its bearer, granting them an amount of knowledge no human could ever hope to amass, even given a million lifetimes. The pen is mightier than the sword, and knowledge is what is needed to get the most from ones pen. Therefore, while this Skill is active, its bearer is the most powerful person in the universe. At least in theory. It was a fantastic [Skill], allowing him to see the beginnings of all new paths of research that Mentons work would open up while also showing all the potential pitfalls of using information of such horrific providence. In essence, the problem was that they didnt want to encourage anyone to follow in that assholes footsteps, but there were uses to be found for it and lives to be saved. When and how to share this information was a difficult question, but not one that had to be answered right the hell now. But as for Mentons eventual fate, it turned out that Isaac was plenty good ating up with ns on his own. His previous idea would work just fine. Ive got an idea. One he really wont enjoy, he grinned evilly, Wait a bit, Ill send Arthur your way. *** Arthur marched through the portal in full battle rattle, taking full advantage of the fact that the [Royal Wanderer] [Skill] hed gotten at the 5th Evolution didnt just allow him to remotely keep his kingdom running, but also synergized with the [Round Table] to let him drop on any of the members. And, of course, he was borrowing Isaacs physical trace destroying [Skill]. What a mess. He shivered as he gazed around the room, feeling his gorge rise as he took in more and more of the horrors that surrounded them. Isaac had exined part of it, but only a fraction of the truly terrible things that had happened here. Everything else it just melded together into a tapestry of awful, blood, dead bodies, and other things whose sight alone would normally result in lost sleep and nightmares for years toe yet somehow were mere background noise in this ce. If hed had to go searching for Jason in this mess, he might not havee out the other side with his sanity intact, but thankfully, the portal had dropped him off right in front of hisrade. Unfortunately, Jason had decided to nt himself right next to the biggest mess in the ce, the one still ongoing. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. If you ignored the creepily cheery scientist trussed up like a Christmas turkey and covered in stab wounds lying at Jasons feet. So, youre the guy behind the ghost, then? Menton asked, twisting his neck to stare at Arthur, then turned back to Jason, You could have told me you were waiting for your boss to make your decision. Arthurs jaw hit the floor at that. What was up with that knob? He decided to ignore Menton for the moment, established a party with Jason, and used that tomunicate while he made a show of looking around while trying to actually see as little as he possibly could. Did you hit him in the head? Nope, Jason replied Ok, what did he take, what was on your des? Nothing, Jason said innocently, Id be able to tell if he were on something, and the poison I used wouldnt affect him like that. It distracts with jolts of pain when he tries to concentrate enough to cast a spell, it shouldnt, you know, make him do that. It wasnt the regr, kid with hand still in cookie jar kind of innocence in his voice, but an actual, sincere, statement of non-action. Arthur briefly drew on another [Round Table] [Skill], Dr. Hans ability to see the truth of people, ranging from their job to how they rted to their fellow man. It was a [Skill] that could be shared, meant to draw back the curtain on a tyrannical ruler and expose them to the populous. Here, the scope of the [Skill] was far smaller, only focussed on him and Jason, but it didnt need to do any more. It was the final nail in the coffin for one Ian Menton. He was rotten to the core. What hed told Jason had been the full,plete, unadulterated, truth. Menton was utterly convinced of his mission to be immortal by researching topics that hadnt been touched for ethical reasons, be it that it could not be ethically researched, or that the reasonable research path really hadnt been worth it. Self-obsessed to the point where he quite literally could notprehend that neither Jason nor Arthur were here to cooperate with him, to look into his research and spread it far and wide. They didnt even speak to each other, they just looked at each other, nodded, and went on with the exceedingly fitting n Isaac hade up with. It was truly terrifying what that man coulde up with given the smallest bit of information. Jason grabbed Menton and dragged him onto his feet while Arthur just dispassionately observed the scientists face. Have you ever heard of something called Damnatio Memoriae? he asked, Youre a scientist, you probably know a bit of Latin, but on the off chance you havent, let me trante: it means condemnation of memory. It was a punishment the Romans came up with, it involved destroying everything about the sentenced criminal, the removal of their name from records, the destruction of their pictures, the annihtion of any writing proving they ever existed. And I can make that happen. First, all of this research will be sanitized, your name stricken, all relevant identifying information removed in its entirety. Second, youll begin to vanish from your regr records. University graduation records, honor rolls, papers youve written whenever people are no longer paying attention to your existence, itll be erased. Even perfect memory [Skills] will eventually fail with regards to you. And finally, all that will remain is the research from an anonymous source that might be picked up once or twice, but will never have much of an impact. You might think that bing a mystery will elevate you above the masses, but youd be wrong. Because this is going to be released by Insight, all properly sanitized. But even if we were to release your information as-is, you arent the first person who came up with the idea to gain immortality through infamy, and you sure as shit wont be thest. Give it a few decades, and youll just be a tiny part of a sea of idiots, everything about them stricken from history save for the fact that they did exist, and the crimes theymitted. With every sentence, Menton grew paler and paler, but other than the asional splutter of no, and you cant, nothing happened. Until the end of the speech, that was, when Menton managed to stand as straight as his injuries allowed and red at Arthur, Youre mentally unstable, you know. What the fuck gives you the right to do any of that? You The fact that I can do it gives me the right, Arthur stated Jason immediately added, The worlds lost its mind, but it doesnt have to lose its soul, too. My job is to find people like you, our friend figures out what to do, and then, he does that thing. You got the power to evade thew, we got the power to make sure consequences catch up anyway. They were running out of time very, very quickly. Once Arthurs borrowed evidence erasure ran out, that would be a huge problem. And they didnt want to drag this out any more than necessary. Arthurs fifth Evolution [ss] was [Myths Sovereign], which mixed administration with raw power in a way that allowed him to galivant about the ce like a king out of the old stories without things going to shit the instant he wasnt paying attention to his kingdom. One central [Skill] was [Royal Wanderer], which was your bog standard traveling and making sure things worked out in the meantime ability. And the other was [Mythical Action], a powerful [Skill] with a variable cooldown depending on which subskill was used. In this case, it was [Royal Decree], which, in turn, could have a wide variety of effects. [Mythical Action: Royal Decree: Damnatio Memoriae], Arthur intoned as Excalibur manifested in his right hand, already taking effect even before hed started to attack. All around them, documentation began to change, the letters that spelled out the author physically peeling themselves off the pages before disintegrating into nothingness. Oh, and one more thing, Arthur said as he raised his sword, All the things you came up, all that research you gave up your humanity for, we know all that already. Weve known for years, and we didnt even have topromise our morals to do so. Youve wasted your life, potential, and everything else. Menton began to say something, it started out as some kind ofint, bled into an attempt to bargain, and finally devolved into a cry of inarticte rage, but Arthur cleaved him in half before he could do anything else. Even as he fell, Mentons body began to disintegrate, one of Jasons [Skills] erasing the evidence on top of everything else. It barelyy on the ground for a few seconds before there was nothing left except a slight stain, but even that was rapidly vanishing until finally, it was just Arthur and Jason standing alone in the middle of the warehouse of horrors. So, what now? Jason asked. I go back before I start shedding DNA everywhere, and then, we get someone else to figure out what to do, Arthur decided. This wasnt a decision he wanted to make on his own. Chapter 305: The World Keeps on Turning Chapter 305: The World Keeps on Turning So, we just discovered one of the most heinous criminals of the decade, and it somehow took eight years, Elenahmented, letting the statement hang in the middle of the room, How on Earth did we miss this? We werent looking for him, Isaac responded, He was hiding way too well, and we really werent looking into disappearances. We couldnt, not with everything else thats going on. Still sticks in the craw, doesnt it? Arthurmented, summing up what they were all thinking. No one had looked into this stuff at all because it hadnt affected their general mission in the slightest, and something massive had slippedpletely past them. Yeah, but what could we have done? Isaac asked, People are going to be people, some are going to be good, most are going to bergely neutral, and some are going to be assholes. We cant police everyone. Feels like we should, sometimes, Jason mumbled, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room. Hey, Im not saying were actually going to do that, just he began but trailed off when there werent any scathingments. Sometimes, it feels all people do is evil crap, but its just that we never hear from the people who are just, you know, normal, Isaac sighed. Can you imagine if we did, though? Amy asked, switching into a reporters voice, Mr. Joe Schmoe had a sloppy joe for dinner tonight, three beers, and spent the rest of the evening watching TV without noticing the huge stain on his shirt. I dont know, might be nice to see some feel-normal stories on the news once in a while, instead of a constant flood of the worst stuff happening in the world, Isaac suggested. People would blow their top after two stories like that, Bailey sighed, Humans are funny like that. Besides theyin about the world but when they no longer have anything specific toin about, theyre just going to make generalints. There are no perfect solutions, and nothing we can do to make anything close to it happen either, so lets get this back on topic, yeah? Jones asked. He was still in space, but this time around, hed managed to tie down his hair in a way that didnt make him look like a helium balloon. And are you sure that releasing Mentons research was a good idea? Japinder asked, looking at Isaac and Arthur in particr. Likely an attempt at getting this back on track. It was Bailey who answered, Some of that information could only have ever been found through human experimentation. If we hadnt released it, down the line, someone else would have had to suffer just to rediscover it. We just have to hope that the idea of being stricken from the history books is enough of a threat that no one tries this again. I suppose that depends on their beliefs, Japinder sighed, Someone who truly believes their actions to be altruistic might be fine with that, but I doubt too many altruists are going to go to such extremes. Maybe to discover solutions to specific problems, but never for the sake of knowledge as a whole. The biggest question had been how to deal with the bodies of Mentons victims. Did they want to share the full horrific truth, potentially making it appear as though Insight themselves had gone ahead and done that? Or keep it to themselves and escape all issues? Yet they wanted to make sure the families of the victims would have some closure. So theyd split the difference and disguised the whole matter. Isaac had sent Zambon on a serial killer hunt, and then, theyd begun to send out condolence letters as the Ghost, informing the loved ones of missing persons of their passing, providing someforting truths where possible and the location of the bodies when applicable, but sometimes, the bodies were just gone, properly disposed of. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Plenty of that information could then be verified, lending credence to even those letters that didnt provide all that much information. It was barely enough, but it was what theyd chosen to do. Speaking of specific problems for problems and solutions, how are the ns for a perfect world going? Jason asked. He was looking a lot more chipper than hed been even a week ago, which was nice. Seeing him so beaten down felt like it vited the fundamental rules of nature. Its going, Isaac sighed, nonmitally. Meaning? Elena asked, the barest hint of an edge creeping into her voice. Normally, such a non-answer would have earned him a harsh rebuke, but she knew better than anyone how messy the situation was at the moment. Universal basic ie is cheaper to implement than ever, the [System] provides an easy path out of poverty through essible training. And through abination of local regtions and international treaties, Tier 10 [Raid Bosses] and [World Bosses] may not be summoned on Earth, and nowhere else in the sr system unless the whole thing is sanctioned by a government with the capability to put down the monster on its own if shit got out of hand. So weve got the perfect carrot for S-Rankers to be ok with not being the gods of the new world. If people could just be reasonable even in the slightest Isaac broke off with another sigh, Weve got a proper basis for everything, a thorough one, now we just have to make some adjustments because people can be fucking idiots. Stupidity, selfishness, greed, jealousy, all things holding humanity back, Japinder joined in, And theyre not things we can fix, so we have to work around them. Hm, Isaac nodded along. Why dont you just disguise it? Amy asked, If someone is against Universal Basic Ie on general principle, at least in the current situation, theyre probably a bit stubborn and might even have blinders on. Just call it something else, like summoning stipend or basicbat support. Or literally anything else thats harder to twist into looking like free money forzy people. Isaacs forehead hit the table. That was actually a great idea. Theydrgely gone in the sustainability direction, barely focusing on rebranding. Branding, sure, but not proper rebranding like how Amy had suggested. She was right, though. People could be weird about stuff, and branding could be effective to the point where one could call it brainwashing and not be too far off. Theyd been entirely focused on the practical side of things, writing a set of legal guidelines that could be adjusted as needed, not marketing the damn things. But yeah, kicking the problem further down the road and fixing it via the branding was a viable option. He quickly ryed those thoughts and from there, the conversation crossed across a dozen different topics until eventually, it reached the actual, official, joint ventures they were nning. Between Camelot, Yoo-jins ability to direct the funds of the Hunters guild, Isaacspany, and various government subsidies that Habicht and Han could send their way if things were framed in the right light, they could pull on huge amounts of cash and resources. Between that and the fact that Isaac could start distributing Ankou Aspects now that theyd officially broken into the 10th Tier for standard monsters, a space-based arena for Tier 10 [Raid Bosses] was bing viable. Theyd already imed several spots in the sr system, from ab on Ceres to arge area on Mars that was currently being prepared in anticipation of eventual terraforming. And with some preparation, ok, a lot of preparation, theyd be able to fight some of the [Systems] strongest monsters with barely any risk to civilians and other uninvolved people. Still, there were a ton of things to hammer out first, regtions that would likely be in ce by then that needed to be ounted for, traps to be emced, pillboxes to be designed. Of course, this sparked a huge argument about where exactly the arena should be. Mars gravity was 38% of Earths, more than enough to drag people back down to the after long jumps or being flung around the ce. Good for avoiding spinning off into space and having to struggle to get back to the fight, but it also ensured that it would be a fair sight harder to escape if it was needed. Ceres, meanwhile, had a negligible amount of gravity, which would mean that any significant amount of velocity would send one flying off into the ck, and add an entirely new problem thatbatants would need toe to grips with. Yet at the same time, staying at a distance and sting apart the [Raid Boss] would be so much easier around the tiny celestial body. The argument turned in circles for hours, and they didnt manage to settle the argument beyond agree to disagree. One of the more productive sessions on this topic theyd had. Still, it was a discussion that had to be had, especially now, since Isaac has some rather interesting ns to conduct. Chapter 306: The Final Army Chapter 306: The Final Army Isaac sat on an asteroid, gazing out at the inner system. There were countless other asteroids around him, plenty of them, but they were so far away that a normal person would barely have been able to see even a bare handful, and even to Isaac, they were just specks. Ceres was currently on the other side of the sun from his current position, and the nearest asteroid miner was several light hours away. No one was going to get hurt if he picked a fight here. The Void Dragon wasnt an actual boss, but it could only be summoned in a vacuum and was far more at home out here than virtually any human could be, agile and flexible as hell. Isaac knew he could win easily, but that monster would tear open a miner like a tuna can and devour the people inside in two seconds t. Distance was needed. And so was a solid surface to draw the summoning circle on. Isaac had once seen someone try and roll out a sheet of paper and draw on in zero-g. It had been in the other timeline, and if the inte had still been around, that video would have gone viral as the funniest video of the year. Hm, was there a researcher out here he might be able to trick into making the attempt? It would have to be someone he seriously didnt get along with, obviously, but beyond that to be entirely honest, it likely wasnt worth the effort, funny as it would have been to see that again. Drawing out the circle was a matter of seconds, but cing down the various materials was a pain in the behind. He couldnt just ce them down, if he moved them with just a little too much force, theyd just go flying off again, he needed them to stay down on the rock, in contact with it. Straps would have been the obvious solution, or maybe superglue, however, it was as though microgravity had been forgotten about when the [System] had been designed because neither of those solutions would fly. Summoning worked by drawing out the circle, and then, youd add in whatever items the summoning list wrote out. Anything you threw in after the circle was drawn counted as summoning materials, but such things as air or dust were ignored. As such, adding glue or straps would result in a misfire, and hed wind up facing a weird amalgamation of mana instead of an actual monster, with no proper reward. And adding them in ahead of time wouldnt work either, since that would result in them being counted as part of the ground, the same way that the odd rock sticking up from the ground inside the circle would also be ignored. So, after ying operation for a good ten minutes, Isaac was finally able to pour mana into the magic circle, dissolving the materials and ensuring that even if he bumped the asteroid, nothing more would happen until he activated the darn thing. His mana pool began to rise up at massive speeds, his Magic Regeneration Stat currently being 990, and after one more Level up, hed bump it up to a t thousand. Right now, though, he regenerated 495 mana per minute, enough to unleash dozens of his customary spammed [Strikes] and not even see his pool dip, or wield most of his sensibly priced mes for a damn long time. Of course, drawing out Prometheus Wrath or other overpowered fires would drain his mana pool real quick, but if he broke them out, the fight was highly unlikely to take very long. Isaac kicked against the surface of the asteroid to throw himself off into space, and once at a sufficient distance, stopped himself cold with [Speed of Hati]. This would be tricky. That particr sub-[Skill] was the best method of maneuvering out here he had, but it only regenerated once a day, and fighting out here without it would be almost impossible. If he spent too much of it on a given fight, hed be out here for a while. Balmung manifested in his right hand, armor formed around him, and a cursed dagger of Cumtive Insanity was drawn into his left from one of his storage rings. That particr wasnt particrly dangerous directly, but hits would mess with sensory perceptions, dying the input from any sensory organs near the point of impact. This fight would be fast as hell, and even the slightest dy in perceptions would leave the monster chasing its proverbial tail. And after eight minutes of sitting on his proverbial ass, the monster finally made an appearance. The asteroid shattered like ss as the Void Dragon hatched, a monster the size of amercial airliner tearing its way free of the rock, deep purple scales glittering in spots, others reflecting practically no light at all,rge chunks and razor-sharp fragments of stone being flung straight at Isaac. He dodged, kicking himself sideways and stopping himself again the instant he was out of the line of fire, then flung back ance of fire that mmed into one of the monsters eyes. The dragon roared and a single beat of its massive wings elerated it well past what would have been the speed of sound had they been fighting in an atmosphere, forcing Isaac to fling himself out of the way again, eyes glimmering slightly from [Wisdom of the Simurgh]. All of the knowledge in the world was theoretically at his fingertips, though it restricted itself to only talking to him about the topic at hand. Namely, orbital mechanics, proper maneuvering, and information about how to read the beasts wing movements. Sadly, that information didnt stick with him when he deactivated the [Skill], just the end result of his deliberations, but then again, he didnt have the memory capacity for a fraction of the information that he got when he activated this ability. As the dragon whipped past, Isaac flung the dagger and managed to inflict a small scratch just behind the dragons ear. Not that there was any sound out here, however, this particr species ears somehow picked up the impact of two objects without a medium to carry sound, so damaging its ears would still be useful. Once past him, the dragon twisted unnaturally in space, body whipping around though the head managed to stay lined up on Isaac throughout the process, purple energy pouring up from the bottom of its gullet. Cosmic radiation, entropy eleration, enhancing the consequences of vacuum exposure, all fused into a single burst of purple energy that tore through space, the odd rock struck being practically erased, first reduced to dust, then eventually converted to iron. The monsters head swept up and around, chasing Isaac as he jumped from spot to spot, shing past the monster, Balmung carving straight through scales and muscle, but being too short to cause serious damage. But in time, he managed to not only properly put out the eye hed hit with the me, but sufficiently curse the monster that all its senses save touch were acting on a few milliseconds worth of dy. So Isaac decided to switch his method of flight, using his mes as impromptu rockets. Expensive, mana-wise, but mana regenerated far more quickly. Even so, suddenly switching was one of the most disorienting things Isaac had ever done. When he could step on empty vacuum for lotion, he had perfect control over his movement and coulde to a dead stop rtive to any celestial body he chose. But using thebination of fire and mass nullification, he needed to first nullify his momentum before reversing,ing to a stop was damn difficult, and turning was really just adding extra momentum along a different vector and going spinning off into the void while the dragon chased him, purple sts and gleaming ws seeking to end his life. Isaac threw his cursed dagger again, watched it bounce off the bony ridge just above the intact eye, and instantly burned fire at full power and came to an almostplete stop, something the monster would only be able to perceive by the time it had already flown past. Hed mistimed the burst a little, but another kick-off empty space positioned him perfectly, and then, his metaphorical muscles bulged as he drew upon the [Power of the Behemoth]. Normally, the force transferred by executing a melee strike against an enemy in microgravity sent one flying backwards, forcing one to correct the altered momentum before doing anything else. A sharper sword could mitigate that somewhat, parting flesh with a reduced transfer of momentum, but not eliminate the issue entirely, far from it. But the admittedly smallest aspect of his currently active [Aspect of the End] meant that he could put himself above, well, fundamental physics. The dragons momentum pushed it into his sword as it shed towards its neck, and in an explosion of blood, the monsters head and a good chunk of its spine were separated from the rest of its body while Isaac got clipped by a wing and got flung ass over teakettle. Void Dragon (Lv. 180) has been in. 45,000 XP gained Ow. Isaac turned and red at the body, which was rapidly vanishing off into the distance. How long would he be chasing that thing for? Also, there was the small, small issue of the monsters blood not freezing just because it was in a vacuum and that the way it was spreading out, hed have to take a massive detour to avoid getting utterly filthy. if thered been a rock in headbutting range, hed have smacked it with his forehead. Welp, time to go salvage some materials. As he worked on the body, having it slip a little bit away every time he touched it, he went over the battle in his head. Hed spent 2,317 points of mana during the fight, but regenerated over one and a half thousand in the same time span. That had worked well. However, Isaac had burned [Aspects of the End] for a little over 23 seconds. That was too much. If he replicated this fight exactly, hed be able to kill three more dragons, and then have to wait for another eighteen hours before he could go again. And that would leave him with barely any margin of error. Of course, he could do another couple of fights on top of that by using his cooldown [Skills], but even that wouldnt necessarily give him his Aspect. If youe across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. *** The next fight started twenty minutes after he was done harvesting. One minute to find an asteroid, eleven minutes to get the summoning circle set up, eight minutes to regenerate his mana. This time, he wouldnt do anything fancy, not go into strategizing, no nothing. Just raw power applied straight to the monsters skull. Isaac ran away from the charged circle, constantly retreating until it triggered automatically due to the scaredy cat summoner function. The dragon appeared and began chasing after him immediately, exactly like he wanted to. He just brought himself to a dead stop, rtive to where the circle had been, turned around, and began elerating again, going straight for the monsters head. In a game of chicken, Isaac would normally lose automatically, he either dodged or got crushed, even against other humans on his Level. He was all about speed, not raw power. Except when he became a literal unstoppable force. Well, technically, not so much unstoppable as being unable to have his momentum altered, making him an uneleratable object rather than an unstoppable force, but did semantics really matter here? Isaac activated [I am the Sword] a split-second before the dragons breath hit him, the deadly attack harmlessly washing over him for a single moment before the two of them collided. He emerged on the other side of the dragon, frantically wiping at his eyes even as he turned to chase the dead body. Next time, he was aiming a little higher and going to take off the top of its head, trying to avoid going straight down its gullet and through the entirety of its torso. But how often would he have to repeat this to get his Aspect? *** Five hours, eight more dragons, eight more corpses to harvest, and not a single Aspect in sight. But despite the frustration of not getting an Aspect, Isaac was perfectly happy with the results of the fight. The materials would be useful, and hed gotten enough XP to Level up. Level 189. This one had been a long timeing. At first nce, it wasnt very obvious why that was significant, it wasnt an Evolution point or a nice round number, but it just so happened to be the Level which gave him the final point needed to buy [Call of the Gjarhorn] and the Stat points hed gotten allowed him to bump all three of his primary Stats up to a t 1,000. And the [Skill], it made him feel like he could say Apocalypse, Im ready, bring it. He wouldnt, obviously, but still, it would be very useful. And there was just one more [Skill] he wanted to buy, but that one was more of a helpful after the fact kind of deal. [Cmitys Crimson Seal] was thest thing he really needed toplete his end-of-the-world [Skill]set. In essence, it cast awide energy field after an apocalypse was beaten, which would p anyone who tried to end the world with one hell of a debuff and highlight their location for everyone who wanted to stop them. Of course, that [Skill] would only be useful once they started kicking the ass of apocalypses, but it was a fine example of the concept of better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. However, today wasnt about that [Skill], because he hadnt bought it yet. Call of the Gjarhorn (legendary) When gods and giants sh, when the dead sail forth from the underworld upon a ship made from the fingernails of corpses, when the Midgard serpent rises from the depths of the ocean and the sun and moon are devoured by a pair of wolves, Heimdall will blow the Gjarhorn to signal the start of the final battle. The Einherjar will descend from Valha and the very gods will go to war for the final battle of Ragnark until, at the very end, the Earth lies devastated and thest survivors of gods and humans are able to rebuild while upon the bones of their enemies. Yet being able to rebuild requires one to have won first. Thats where this Skilles in. Every person willing to honestly fight against an oing cmity is boosted by it, gaining Stats equal to the peak of their current Evolution (up to the third), grants them their choice of up to five Skills from any purebat ss up to the rare rank and the third Evolution, which they will keep for the full of duration of the conflict. These Skills will then be boosted up to Level 15 and their users will gain the knowledge of how to use them to their greatest effect. People in the fourth Evolution will gain five Levels immediately, but have to pay back the XP debt incurred before being able to continue leveling or being able to receive the benefits from this Skill again. This Skill can be activated once a year, on up to 50,000 individuals per Level of this Skill, but only against threats of apocalyptical nature. In addition, this Skill may sh with Skills that have simr effects, if so, the stronger boosting Skill will activate and the weaker will not function, refunding the cooldown to the user of the weaker Skill. Synergy effect: Hildebrands Heir Any person affected by the Call of the Gjarhorn may choose two of the users teachable [Skills] and gain them at the epic rarity and Level 10 Affecting 50,000 people sounded powerful as hell at first, but sadly, that came with some pretty harsh caveats. Namely, the fact that the boosted would be thrown at an apocalypse, and individuals would not be strengthened if they were already at the fifth Evolution, which was the exact group that was going to do the bulk of the heavy lifting when it came to fighting an apocalypse. Still, 50,000 people whod either gain enough Levels to gain a central [Skill] even with a legendary [ss], or a basic [Skill] at the very least. Isaac grinned. Oh, it would be a sad day if he ever had to use it, but he imagined it would still be satisfying as hell to whip out this kind of trump card. However, all that being said, he wasnt in the asteroid belt for shits and giggles. There were Aspects to be gotten. And after another seventeen battles, he finally got that done. Aspect of the Void Dragon: This is the distilled essence of what makes a Void Dragon a Void Dragon. Gain a mind capable of grasping the enormity of the universe, handily survive in the vast empty vacuum of outer space, travel the stars or project the power of the void into a devastating breath attack. Requirements for Activation: 10,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +20 Agility One of the following Skills: Wings of the Void Stars Heart Scales of the Void Void Dragons Breath Infinite Mind Void Lungs There was a small issue here, though. The Aspect he was stacking this on belonged to a [Raid Boss], and held [Moment of Immortality], which he could not upgrade with this one. Thankfully, that [Skill] was a bit of a special snowke, one he could keep irrespective of what Aspects he got after the fact, or override with any [Skill] from his new Aspect he needed. First, there were the obvious upgrades. [Draconic Heart] became [Stars Heart]. Stars Heart (legendary) Within your chest, a star blooms, your every heartbeat an explosion of power that sends fire coursing through your body. Where you tread, the ground turns tova (toggleable), and if you want something gone, you may enhance the firepower of your me magic to great heights. And if you wish, you may channel your inner strength into a fire or breath-based attack, overcharging it with mana and even your physical stamina to unleash devastating power. Furthermore, the power of a star empowers your heart, and through it, your very life, extending your lifespan by millennia at a minimum and possibly more, depending on other Skills that may empower/synergize with this one. Once again, a powerful fire attack and longevity booster. [Dragonscale Mantle] became [Scales of the Void]. Scales of the Void (legendary) Cosmic radiation, micrometeorites, various gasses, the odd supernova or pulsar. Space is kinda dangerous when you think about it, even if you somehow figure out a way to breathe in a ce devoid of air. This Skill might not help with thatst one, but it does with all the others. The Scales of the Void render their bearer immune to all the natural dangers of the void, and grant enhanced heat, radiation and kic damage resistance while in outer space. Furthermore, the user may choose to resist external sources of eleration to avoid being flung about, although doing so can easily cause damage if too much force is nullified. This [Skill] had changed somewhat, instead of boosting his armor, it would massively increase hisbat power out here in space. And now, for the new [Skills]. The obvious pick was [Wings of the Void], the single best space maneuvering ability that wasnt from a [ss], both in the long and short term. Wings of the Void (legendary) The world is a vast ce. The universe is iparably vaster, and far harder to move through. After all, there is nothing to push against, nothing to walk on, no proper medium to travel through. And, you know, its kinda big. The Void Dragon is one of the few creatures capable of traversing this ce, its great wings hurling it through the vast emptiness. With this Skill, its user will be able to manifest these wings on their back and use them to move and maneuver through space, while also allowing the user to engage travel mode, which allows them to constantly elerate without being affected by rtivistic effects or the light speed limit, however, this renders you unable to affect the normal world, and you cannot move through solid objects, though gasses and small rocks are pushed out of your path. When travel mode is deactivated, the user will revert to their velocity and direction at the moment of activation. In addition, this effect can be disrupted from the outside. Cost: 100 points of mana per hour of manifestation, 5,000 points per hour of travel mode The simple fact that these wings worked out here made them useful as hell. But travel mode offered a path to go FTL, one that could be massively enhanced whenbined with a couple of other abilities. Of course, having no limit as to how quickly one could move sounded insanely powerful, but getting even to the nearest star system would take a long time, as it was a little over four light-years away. And the Milky Way as a whole was 100,000 light-years across. On its own, Travel Mode was mostly an intra-system movement option, but still incredible. Now Isaac just had to check if [Continent Strider] stacked with this, or if he could use his other methods of eleration while in Travel Mode. And for his final [Skill], it had been a hard choice whether or not to keep [Moment of Immortality], but in the end, that [Skill] had multiple sources and he still had another from his Demon Lord Aspect. If he needed it twice, something would have gone seriously wrong. In the meanwhile, [Infinite Mind] could theoretically be reced by [Blessing of Innovation] or [Wisdom of the Simurgh], but both of those were temporary. And finding out that hed wasted minutes or hours going the wrong way would really suck. Being able to properly navigate out there, permanently and without using up any of his most powerful boosting [Skill] would be invaluable. Infinite Mind (legendary) Space is huge. Big enough that trying to wrap ones mind around the concept is practically enough to give a man an existential crisis. And there are people who want to navigate that ce on their own? Are you sure youre not talking about the incarnation of the Dunning-Krueger effect there? Anyway, thats what this Skill is about. Firstly, it enables its user to perceive the vastness of space without risk. Secondly, it helps them to navigate space by allowing them to identify individual stars, granting a solid grasp on orbital mechanics, and everything else needed to navigate between the stars. Oh, this would be so much fun to y around with. Isaac grinned a pair of leathery wings manifested on his back, both a purple so dark they were practically ck, and then, he flexed them, sending him flying through space. The effect reminded him of how [Speed of Hati] functioned, actually, it was exactly the same effect, but Isaac had plenty of experience walking, hed done so for most of his life. Walking by flexing his back not so much. After two or so minutes of experimenting, Isaac decided to flee behind arge nearby asteroid. Thest thing he needed was someone filming this and putting it on the inte. It was nice out here, but there was a seriousck of privacy if someone cared to pay attention to you. But once hed managed to get his new wings under control, he was very happy with everything. His mes didnt work in Travel Mode, unfortunately, but [Speed of Hati] and [Continent Strider] did, and getting back to Earth was a cinch. Chapter 307: Doomsday Clock Chapter 307: Doomsday Clock What is that stench? Arthur asked as he walked alongside Isaac across campus. Weed, Isaac said. I know its weed, why does your campus stink like it? Arthur raised an eyebrow. Our mages are off in Grafenwhr, learning to blow stuff up, and no one is left with an air-purifying spell, Isaac shrugged. Are you messing with me?Arthur raised an eyebrow, This cant be normal, right? Were doing a study right now, about if those [Bartender] [Skills] that let people with a high Fortitude get drunk also work with other legal intoxicants, and if there are any differences with how they interact, and so on, Isaac exined. Sounds like thatd be a pain to get started, Arthur observed, only for Isaac to shake his head. Amy grabbed a megaphone, walked outside, and yelled: who wants to get high for science. He exined Are you are you high right now? Arthur frowned. Little bit, Isaac shrugged, I wont be when we arrive. He really was barely affected, only enough to slightly feel it but not be negatively affected in a fight, and to a degree he could erase in a matter of milliseconds. But it was fun to be able to cut loose to even such a small degree, since he so rarely did. Hed let absolutely nothing affect him, never gone under the effect of any [Skill] that allowed him to get intoxicated, never ever touching anything. Normally, things were just too risky. That being said, even with Amy and Patrick away, campus wasrgely safe, and until Arthur had arrived, hed been sitting in his office. Could someone get to him regardless? Yes, obviously. But the chance of someone getting to him before he could sober up was negligible to the point of being practically nonexistent. So, I was wondering, is the devils lettuce a way for an elf to be a high elf? Arthur asked, dramatically rubbing his chin. Isaac sniggered, then transitioned into full-blownughter once he realized that devils lettuce was another word for marijuana, albeit one hed never heard before. And it had just been so incredibly funny though that was probably just the weed talking. As they approached Stagmers workshop, Isaac sobered up in an instant, having passed beyond the range of the drunkenness [Skill]. Theres no such thing as elves, Isaac pointed out, Not really. Alfar are basically elves, but they dont have a distinction of one of them being high. What about high humans? Isaac just hung his head. Yeah, that wasnt funny anymore. A bell tinkled as the door to the workshop opened, managing to alert Stagmer despite the sound-suppressing field around the workshop. He came out while still brushing molten droplets of metal off his hands, which rapidly solidified when they hit the ground and cleaned themselves up on their own, rapidly skittering towards a barrelbeled for smelting. Well, if it isnt my favorite customer, he grinned as he saw Isaac, Your old suit was pretty much perfect as is, Id need Tier 10 [Raid Boss] parts to make any significant improvements, but its still quite a bit tougher than before. As the cksmith spoke, a new armor stand appeared next to him, wearing the new set. It was a lot like the old one but with Void Dragon scale highlights. They were the darkest parts, the ones that practically looked ck, giving it an interesting pattern. However, the description and stats had barely changed, the Stat boost had increased by two percentage points, and the new material being mentioned. A worthy upgrade, but one that might not necessarily make that much of a difference. He grabbed the armor, thanked Stagmer, handed over some interesting materials, and put it back in its rightful slot in [Fully Geared], filling the final slot. There were six sets in there in total, containing his main armor, his backup, his backpack which was absolutely covered in pockets and pouches containing emergency materials, and the Space Elemental core he needed to ess his regr inventory. There was also a spare set of formal clothing so he did not end up in the Bundestag in jeans and a T-shirt again, der Mittelfinger, the magical explosive vest that could obliterate everything around him, and a newly made Juggernaut suit to use in conjunction with Arthurs armor [Skill] the next time he borrowed it. And its very nice to meet you in person, Mr. Wells, Stagmer addressed Arthur, I was wondering, what on Earth did you fight to do that to yourst set? Gravity-based pugilist, Arthur said, Absorbed a few tons of dirt to increase his mass and used me as his punching bag. Oof, Stagmer winced, Do you want me to take your new set back and upgrade it to give it some more padding? Arthur shook his head, Hes dead now, unless you can do the upgrade without affecting other stats, itll be fine. In that case, Ill leave it as is, Stagmer nodded and manifested a second armor stand. Heavy te armor made from Sagittarius Steel, which was an alloy withrgely simr mechanical properties to the other metals that reced steel in high-Level constructions, but was far heavier. Backing it was mithril chainmail, especially in the joints and other vulnerable spots. Mithril was another alloy, specifically thetest in a long series that had been given the name, in fact, it was the first one that had kept the title for more than a few weeks. People had been iming to have found/invented the stuff since a week after initialization, only for a superior material to be found in short order. Well, either that or the material had spectacrly failed to live up to the hype. That had happened a few times as well. A closed visor that was almost impossible to see or stab through would protect the wearers face while allowing them to see out perfectly, a long helmet plume of a Stormravens ck feathers trailing down to the neck. This isrgely a traditional medieval armor, with the design having been slightly improved in ces, though I decided to leave out the huge crotch bulge, Stagmer exined, prompting a mixture of confusion and disgust to cover Arthurs face. Back then, a whole lot of knights had syphilis and needed the space to keep their junk as painless as possible, Stagmer immediately exined, But it would be too easy to target, obscene, andrgely pointless. I hope that wont be a problem. Isaac sniggered. Hed known about that, but despite not being high anymore, having itid out like that was funny. What are the inneryers made out of? Arthur asked and Stagmer began to exin, but Isaac didnt pay attention after that. He couldnt, something entirely more pressing hade up. [Book with Seven Seals] had asked before recing the view of his surroundings with a vision without warning, but a potential apocalypse imminent warning could hardly be ignored. Interestingly, he could still keep an eye on his surroundings with his [Aura] even as a map shed in his eyes, showing the various inds north of Australia without focussing on any one in particr, a sandy beach, a jungle, a sh of several concrete chambers, summoning circles, a calendar with the date May 2nd, 2032 circled, and a face that graced most countries most wanted lists. ording to its descriptions, the [Skill] only ever provided concrete, confirmed, information, which meant that if it talked about a facet of the world, then that facet was already locked in and real, and would not chain if the subject ever reached the point of apocalypse. So while the [Skill] hadnt given him a proper set of data needed to immediately find the cult, if they ever found the cult, it would be somewhere in Oceania. Unfortunately, itd never hand out aplete dossier until the end of days was absolutely imminent, but it would progressively hand out more and more hints. Maybe, just maybe, the information about the enemy base, namely that it was somewhere in Oceania, on an ind with a jungle on it, underground, and someone would summon something. Using [Wisdom of the Simurgh] didnt help much, just forest and beach without any noticeable background features was just way too bloody generic. Of course, with just two of seven seals informing him about the truth of the matter, he knew he had plenty of time to investigate. Isaac left Arthur to look his armor over again, before thanking Stagmer again and dragging his friend out of the door. I just got another piece of information from my apocalypse predicting [Skill], the cult is nning to summon something on the [Systems] tenth anniversary, but we might be able to catch them ahead of time, he said after putting up a privacy [Skill], Can you see what you can do about getting some military support for a potential raid on your end, once we have a target? Sure, Arthur said, Anything else? And what are you going to do? Just prepare, maybe see if you can get some extra training on storming a fortified position, Isaac told him, Ill keep looking for a target, and talk to my contacts. Storming a fortified bunker on foreign soil was highly unlikely to be easy, quiet, or free of negative consequences on the diplomatic front. Not to mention that they needed to avoid having the preparations leak. It would be a fine line to walk, theyd mostly be limited to having their contacts talk and make preparations in case we ever get a target, but they did need to prepare. Getting diplomatic permission to act on foreign soil might actually be very easy, even with regard to avoiding giving a warning. All that was needed was an ambassador from a suitably influential nation, potentially even multiple nations, browbeating whichever state the cult had shacked up in. It was far from his favorite way of conducting diplomacy, but the brute-force approach could be very quick. Another thing theyd likely need was military support for locking down the surrounding area and preventing runners. The Round Table had power in spades, even if one only counted those whose connection to Isaac and Arthur was known. What they didnt have were the raw numbers necessary for an operation like this. Just the German military would also be far from sufficient. The Bundeswehr was built for home defense, with a tiny navy that patrolled the North Sea, and that was the long and short of it. Arthurs rtionship with the British government was a little odd at times, with them being somewhat wary of him due to his status as the confirmed heir to the historical forefather of the nation, but it was good overall. Cutting loose a carrier group to support the operation might not be entirely in the cards, though. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The biggest navy in the world was the US, and Isaac had an overall decent rtionship with the Americans, decent was a far cry from hey, can I borrow a carrier or two being met with anything other than shockedughter. Still, having a location for the worlds greatest danger that could actually be subdued by physical force was one hell of a bargaining chip. Theyd have to see what the future brought. *** More forest, a brief picture of a vige, and more besides, shing in his inner eye. Isaac blinked several times as his normal surroundings came back into view. A few street and restaurant signs that gave him information on the localnguage, some more flora samples that narrowed down matters, more info to throw to Zambon, whod been exploring Oceania for a damn long time. He checked the info tab of [Book with Seven Seals] once again. Prophecy 1: Selfishness of the Pessimists Seal 1: Already given up, A promised salvation dark, Pact of destruction Seal 2: Vision (click to rewatch) Seal 3: Defense Information Seal 4: Vision 2 (click to rewatch) Seal 5: unknown Thistest piece of information had the halfway point to the end of the bloody world. Hed also gotten an exact number for his foes from the third Seal, aka five individuals who were true believers, and a mercenarypany that Arthur would trash the instant the fight started. [Royal Action] had a sub-[Skill] that would inform everyw enforcement agency on the about who those people were working for, freezing their ounts, putting them on every list in existence, and so on, while also informing the victims of what hed done. Not to mention that unless he undid the [Skill], theyd be automatically trackable by anyone with aw enforcement [ss], leaving them to either run or be royally fucked. *** Another week after that, Zambon rang up Isaac, Isaac rang up Arthur, and Arthur rang up British Navalmand. They had a target. They had allies. And all it had cost was a little time, political capital, and sharing the fact that Isaac had a prophecy [Skill]. They didnt share the specifics, though, just the fact that he had one, and quite frankly, keeping that secret while trying to cash in on the information it provided would have been tough anyway. The list of stuff to do was now very short. Wipe out the remains of the cult, hit Level 200, convince various nations to try and adjust to the [System] rather than clinging to old social structures until they broke catastrophically, and then, once the world was safe, take a long nap. But before he charged headlong into battle, he checked his status sheet one final time. Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Challenger of the Apocalypse Species: Einherjar Level: 187 XP: 70,719/3,760,000 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 4,150/4,150 Stats Fortitude 350 (+20) Perception 1,000Strength 450 (+15) Agility 1,000Magic Power 405 (+10) Magic Regeneration 1,000Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXX The Chosen Weapon XXX I Am The Sword XXV Grave of Swords XXX Armory of Ancient Times XXVII Legacy of a True Warrior XXX Divine Fire XVI Champion of Mankind XV Final Defiance I Aspects of the End (Speed of Hati, Power of the Behemoth, Wisdom of the Simurgh) X Skills Hundred Faces XXVIII Stealth XXIX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXX Sweeping Strike XVIII Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXIV Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXX Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXI Fleeting Presence XVIII Crippling Blow XVIII Absolute de Mastery XXV Compounded Impact XVIII True Cut XVII Legendary Blow XXV Fully Geared XXVI Knightly Leader XXX Analyze Person XVIII Continent Strider XXI Burden of Power VIII Experts Insight XII Blessing of Innovation XXVI Lessons of History XVI The Meaning of the Name XVIII Titanic Presence IX Fire Soul VII Book With Seven Seals I Call of the Gjarhorn I General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XVI Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy VIII Police Procedure VIII Healing VII Quest Giver III Omniglot (5.998nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script VIII Unrestricted Speech VI Biomantic Alteration (unranked) Aspects Aspect Skills Archspecter (full stack) Ephemeral Phase Ghostly Freedom Endless Hunting Spectral Touch Lernean Hydra (full stack) Hydras Restoration Adaptive Regeneration Disposable Organs Dismiss Injuries Megalodon (2 stack) Sharks Body Wave Charge Reality Filter (full stack) Reality Shift Perception End Set Illusions Free Illusions Living Sword (full stack) All de Style Invble des Annihting Trails Unhindered dework Void Dragon (4 stack) Stars Heart Infinite Mind Scales of the Void Wings of the Void Demon Lord (3 stack) Moment of Immortality Supreme Hellme Hell-Bone Armor Space Elemental (2 stack) Fixed Point Space Affinity Ankou (full stack) Freedom from Mortal Limits Eternal Restoration Implements of True Death Reapers Cloak Royal Draugr (full stack) Endurance of the Eternal Warrior Always Armored Spectral te Loyalty Past Death [Empty Slot] Chapter 308: Storming the Beaches Chapter 308: Storming the Beaches Twenty S-Rankers stood ready to finish off the cult for good. Davy Jones and Captain Nemo, nominally just independents with concerns about what might happen if the cult were allowed to remain. The entire team, obviously. All three of Camelots S-Rankers, and several lower-Level people. Theyd brought in Fenrir, of course, as the ever-reliable independent actor. Dr. Han, and Yi Yushin had shown up from Korea, very much on the down low, traveling most of the way aboard the Nautilus. Oberst Maria Schultz and Polizeioberwachtmeister Lukas Mller were also along for the ride, with a full three-quarters of Germanys S-Rankers, including both military ones, but thetter ones had been easy to get. Isaac was good friends with one Franz Habicht, who was currently holding the post the German Minister of Defense had been promoted out of. In addition, one Kade Benson was in charge of the Marine contingent aboard, and hed recently gained S-Rank designation, as had one Mark Alter, [Archmage of the Tempest]. Being around those two had still been weird as hell, and Isaac hadrgely stayed out of their way to avoid making a fool of himself. Jose Maria Sandoval, the mage with likely the highest offensive power in the world, had been brought on board on the sly as well, and would be arriving alongside Raul in a few hours. And finally, there was one Captain Gabriel Stone of the Royal Navy, inmand of their newest and shiniest warship, the HMS Dreadnought. Battleships had been obsolete since the Second World War, and none had seen active service for over thirty years by the [System] had arrived. When the world had changed, so had the warship design philosophies. Aircraft were a perfectly serviceable way of projecting force at range, well beyond where a battleships guns could reach, when physics and chemistry had been all that mattered. But nowadays, an aircraft squadron going up against a battleship would be only backed up by the pilots [Skills] with maybe a slight boost from the CAG or carriermanding officer, while running into thebined abilities of the captain, gunnery crews, engineers and every other sailor even remotely contributing to the defense of the ship. As such, battleships could serve as ways for countless individuals to pool their power andsh out with incredible power. They were also capable of utilizing a wide variety of alchemical and enchanted shells in a way that would require a lot of rearming when that ordinance needed to be delivered via an airne. The Dreadnought was brand-spankin new, with a full mithril hull, magitech that enabled it to literally fly for a few seconds before the capacitors were dry, as well as briefly dip under the waves when necessary. Not to mention the fact that it could throw up a magical shield, though that wouldntst long. Sixrge gun turrets, each holding four separate 20-inch guns, every barrel capable of firing a round every four or five seconds. Gun turrets covered every single avable surface, ready to tear apart even a fly if it looked at the ship funny. A radar system that made liberal use of various [Skills] and enchantments, capable of simultaneously tracking close to a million grains of sand simultaneously, should that be necessary. Of course, the vessel wasrgely designed ording to the most modern design principles, taking into ount how many people and even monsters could unleash serious havoc at long-range or powerful area attacks, burying as manyponents as possible inside the hulls superstructure. And so on, and so forth. Throw in the fact that the ships captain was so capable he was deemed S-ranked, and the Dreadnought was a force that could solo bosses and conquer nations. Of course, they werent doing this just with a few S-Rankers, a Frankenship, a legendary submarine, and a battleship. Several elite units that could be deployed without it being obvious, including Seal Team Six and GSG-13 were present as well, and an entire carrier group the Americans had ponied up. Thankfully, it had been in the area already, as it changing course would likely have been super suspicious. The USS Bunker Hill was a five-year-old carrier, making it practically outdated by [System] standards, but it had a fully modern air wing. It was also the first carrier group in decades that had included a battleship as well, the USS Arizona being a mere year old, empowered with all the [Skills] engineers had gained across the years. And there were a couple of submarines attached to the carrier group, which he strongly suspected held at least some nuclear weaponry. The Dreadnought would be joining the group under the cover of certain while Isaac arrived on the Dutchman, making some more preparations. Everyone else from Europe would be portal-chaining here in a bit. If so many prominent people vanished at once, it might arouse some suspicion. Right now, the real issue was discussing the chain ofmand. The highest officer overall was Read Admiral Johnathan Hayes, who flew his g from the Bunker Hill. Except he hadnt drawn up the n for the operation, didnt have the greatest amount of information out of everyone there, and overall, the only thing that put him ahead of everyone else was his rank. Captain Stone would have caused a million different issues if hed been in charge. Isaac had the information needed, but not the skills tomand the operation as a whole, not to mention that even trying would take him out of the line of battle. And Arthur, capable as he was overall, he didnt belong in charge of a military operation. After a lot of internal arguing and external discussion, the chain ofmand ended up somewhat convoluted, with Hayes being in overallmand but Isaac being able to exert a degree of control as well,rgely setting the overall tone of operations, as well as directing thending contingent. Sharing authority like that made things messy as fuck, but honestly, just putting Hayes in charge wouldnt necessarily be any better. Zambon had looked into him, the Admiral had earned his rank, waspetent, and had adjusted to the weirdness of the [System], but Isaac could be practically omniscient in the local area and had a hell of a lot more experience in actualbat. Hed phrased thatst part a lot nicer during the discussion, though. In theory, there was a massive pool of power they could draw upon to find the ideal candidate. In practice, they needed someone who would be eptable to the military portion of the operation, which significantly narrowed the avable pool all on its own, and considering they needed to pick someone whose absence or reassignment wouldnt be apparent before the operationmenced, there werent many candidates left. And of those remaining, several had, ahem, personality issues that made them ill-suited to the whole affair. Isaac paced next to the Bunker Hills flight deck for almost half an hour, staying out of the way of flight operations while still being on the surface, instead of the cramped confines of the vessels innards. The entire carrier group was under the aegis of Hayes anit-scrying [Skill], which might make it possible to locate it, but not get a peek at individual vessels. The Dreadnought appeared in the distance, passing through his [Aura] but being practically invisible to the naked eye. What a difference a couple of years of development made. Previously, a single technical breakthrough might be made in that timespan, requiring significant redesign of future vessels, but nowadays, those years represented another ten to fifteen Levels being gained by [Engineers] and [Shipbuilders], ever stronger [Skills] flowing into the creation of the vessel at the various stages of construction. And with that ships arrival, the group was finallyplete. The Rear Admiral established his party, which, like Ardouins, was set up to ount for military realities, with a whole lot of separate channels and slots with various permissions depending on the position one held inside the organization. Most of the discussions, most of the nning, had been made ahead of time, with only a fewst-minute questions needing to be rified. The entire fleet turned away from its original course, instead of traveling in the waters between Australia and Papua New Guinea, it diverted north towards a small ind known as Bacan. If youe across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. At the same time, a series of ambassadors to Indonesia would be receiving instructions to, as one, go contact the Indonesian government and inform them of the fact that a certain doomsday cult had set up shop on one of their less-popted inds, and that the matter was being taken care of, so dont throw a fit and everything will work out just fine. It was absurdly heavy-handed, but gave the smallest possible amount of warning outside of just going ahead and not getting any permission at all. However, if the remaining cultists were even remotelypetent, theyd have already been tipped off by the carrier group diverting. And if they werent being alert, theyd likely also have missed the diplomatic part of the process. *** After a mere hour of travel, the ind came into view. The strike team had already transferred to the Dutchman, which would ynding craft, while the carrier group was already splitting up into three groups, two frigates apanying each battleship, while the destroyers guarded with the carrier and support ships. There were people on Bacan, but they were on the opposite side of the ind and the people inmand of the warships were capable of reliably not missing by over twenty kilometers. Isaac had taken part in plenty of operations with innocents far closer to the target than that. The Bunker Hill and Arizona had already split off to circle around the ind along the eastern and western sides of the ind, and the Dreadnought was getting just a little bit closer before it would turn parallel to the shore so all six gun turrets could be brought to bear. Also, a newly applied Anti-[Portal] [Skill] covered the whole area, ensuring that any attempt at fleeing would have to happen the old-fashioned way. Movement on the shore, Jones warned from his position on the quarterdeck, beside the steering wheel, causing Arthur to go for the weapon that would decide the first phase of the battle. A megaphone. Is it them? he asked. Four group members located, Isaac confirmed after a long second, having thoroughly scanned the closest people. The mercenary outfit the cult had hired was simple, basic, not even having a proper name. Just thoroughly muddy ownership, sufficient reputation to get jobs, and enough decently leveled people to do jobs. Of course, there was no guarantee that everyone on the beach was a mercenary, it was highly likely that most were. Good afternoon, folks, Arthur shouted, sadlycking the volume-enhancing [Skills] a lot ofmanders had. But between a heavily enchanted megaphone and the fact that the people over there likely had at least a few points in Perception, someone would still hear him. I realize that youre here for the money, not conviction, so Im going to give you a chance to get out of this without bloodshed. Youre working for an organization that seeks to end the world, either because the money was too much, or because no one did their due diligence, but youre still working for them, actively helping to end the world. Therefore, I dere you ouws. Isaac could see the effect it had, [Mythical Action: Royal Decree: Ouw] hitting like a meteor. People began to drop their guns, to madly swipe at the air as though dismissing or punching the notification would make the whole thing go away. There was even one unfortunate soul who fell out of a tree while pulling out their phone, likely to check if their assets were still frozen. Instead of jumping right back into cover, they stayed out in the open to check their phone until eventually casting a startled look at the advancing fleet and scrambling back behind a tree. While that little byy was going on, another person charged out into the open, without a gun and all other weaponry clearly hastily having been removed and dropped somewhere. He clearly had a voice amplification ability, as they could clearly hear him from several kilometers across the water. Hey, can you undo that? he called out. Surrender, get the hell out of dodge, and if any single member of your group so much as leaves a banana peel for us to trip over, youll be hunted to the ends of the Earth, Arthur shouted back, [Skill]-enforced surrender, that is, you cant seriously believe Im stupid enough you cant do that. Fine, [Absolute Surrender, Full Company], themander just shrugged, and the jungle began to clear. Mercenaries were just in it for money, and while there would still be hell to pay for their minor involvement in this mess, not to mention that thered be eyes on their funds for a long while, theyd be getting out of this as cleanly as humanly possible. But even though rolling over them would have been possible, that would have cost time and potentially even lives. And then, Isaac noticed the mana field around the ind. Specifically, four spots around thending area. A summoning blocker. Oh, shit. He immediately sent a message to Read Admiral Hayes while ordering Jones to stop getting closer to the shore, There are multiple summoning blockers active, and while Im too far away to get thorough scans of the particrs, there are active circles underneath, keep the capital ships together until we know what theyll summon. The frigates would still be sent out, they were the fastest ships in the fleet, and someone needed to watch the various escape routes, but they needed their firepower in one ce in case the monsters that showed up were anything close to as dangerous as he feared. And now, it made sense why they were so far in the middle of nowhere. Most big cities and anywhere even remotely important scanned for unregistered summoning blockers as there could have been the gods only knew what was buried underneath, just waiting to pop out the instant the blockers failed. A location that was too isted, like the Cook Inds, perhaps, might have seen them tracked down via material shipments. And one that was too popted, well, the apparent trap would have been a dead giveaway. What Isaac would have done, given the chance, was try using the Dreadnoughts guns to break the suppressors to make the monsters appear, and then, they could make ns based on that. But whoever controlled the array beat him to the punch. The natural energy of the world came out of its unnatural state of stillness, rousing slowly as if it were a hibernating bear, then roared to life as the buried summoning circles disgorged their payload after who knew how long of waiting. And then, the messages began to appear. General of Cocytus (Tier 10) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Ind of Bacan (4.1 km away, direction N) Rath (Tier 9) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Ind of Bacan (4.2 km away, direction N) Furfur (Tier 9) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Ind of Bacan (4.2 km away, direction N) Iammax (Tier 10) has been summoned near your location. Summon Location: Ind of Bacan (4 km away, direction N) Four [Raid Bosses] would take a while to chew through, time they could not afford to waste. But they couldnt allow these things to run amuck out here either. A well-constructed and crewed battleship might be able to fight a single [Raid Boss], and the Dreadnought was the battleship, but the other two capital ships were older and overall, there were four bosses to three ships. Not to mention the fact that two of those things were Tier 10, which was yet another step up in terms of power. And those four in particr would be dangerous as hell. Unless Isaac was far off the mark, the only reason there werent four of those was that that would have broken the summoning blockers. Normally, you only got named demons in Tier 10 only, but the demon Event a few years ago had provided objects called upgrade charges that could turn standard Demon Lord into a named version at the same Tier. The Tier 9 Demon Lord alone might have been annoying, sure, but the two they were facing now were really bad news. Rath was an orange-furred lion the size of a truck, though Isaac knew that fucker could spread a weakening disease, and it would likely be a hell of a lot strongering from a Tier 9 monster. It would make extendedbat dangerous. The General of Cocytus was a cryomancer of incredible power, and Isaac knew it would freeze the ocean so the others could get at the ships. A sixty-meter-tall armored warrior wielding a ive, wrapped in crystalline te armor, with various tes alternating between ck, yellow, and red, a hundred simrly armored minions scuttling around it. But Iammax was the real problem. Iammax, a forty-meter-high knight in heavy red te armor. Iammax, supreme ruler of all the spirits of Mars, the demonic king of warfare. An entire legion was manifesting around him, with more pouring out of the portal behind him. Hed be able to direct those with not insignificant skill,bined with his personal power, this made him dangerous as all get out. In fact, as far as Isaac knew, hed never been killed in the other timeline despite several of him having been summoned. And Furfur was just the cherry atop this shit pie. He was another truck-sized beast, a mutated deer, almostpletely covered in ck fur, but his skin beneath burned a deep orange, making him appear like an embering campfire. A massive pair of jet-ck bats wings sprouted from his back, and his forelimbs were grotesquely elongated, ending in human-like hands with obsidian chips for ws. His face was somewhat fur-free, making the glow more prominent, bone-white antlers sprouted from his head and shining orbs topped each end, and from his other end, sprouted a long tail of pure me. All that would make him bad enough, but the real issue was the fact that his mere presence would summon a storm, one potentially even strong enough to keep some of the carriers nes out of the air. Weakness and a hostile environment, a general with an army and one that would enable said army to march across the ocean. The only good thing here was that apparently, the uplifted Tier nines hadnt brought any minions to the party. Alright, new n. Rear Admiral Hayes, the Tier 10s can resurrect twice ande with a portal that constantly supplies demons, and will only close a few minutes after the boss is dead. Iammax is Isaac rapidly ryed the information he had about the various monsters, very d that his prophetic abilities were known to Hayes. It made things easier, and he could say I saw it in a potential future and bepletely truthful, though everyone would clearly misunderstand what he meant. Then, he reshuffled the group. Jones was needed out here, he should probably leave Patrick and Yi on the Arizona with Sandoval to provide more firepower. Elena, meanwhile, was supposed to be out here but the General of Cocytus hard-countered all kinds of water mages, shed be useless where shed been intended to be, so shed be added to the group going for the base. Mark was meant to be on the Arizona and that was where he would best be located even now, and Dr. Hans ability to fight against [Raid Bosses] was so great that he was put to better use here as well. But even with those adjustments, four [Raid Bosses] were still too much. When the world learned of the bosses on the loose, reinforcements would likely arrive, however, even surviving until then would be tough. Four was just too much, especially with how they boosted each other. The instant Isaac and Hayes were done adjusting the n, [Rapid Reasigment] grabbed a hold of the people in the wrong ce and dragged them into ce. New n, Isaac announced to the people who remained on the Dutchman, and the newly-arrived Elena, Were rushing past them, the navy will deal with the bosses, but we need to take down Furfur on the way. Use as few cooldown [Skills] as possible. He took to the air first, drawing a full suite of cursed daggers from his inventory and the instant he approached his unfortunate target, unleashed absolute hell on the fucker. Within reason. Hed decided to limit himself to just one cooldown [Skill], so hed decided to go with [Form of Horror]. It was powerful, but not the only Stat-boosting cooldown [Skill] he had. He was going to find thest remnants of the idiots whod decided to end the world for their own gain, and Fufur, he was just in the way. Chapter 309: Interlude Naval Battle Chapter 309: Interlude Naval Battle Gabriel Stone had been in the Royal Navy since his eighteenth birthday. Literally to the day, hed slept outside the recruiting office and been the first one in the door. And hed seem some shit, both weird and horrifying. But today definitely took the cake in both categories. Hed seen a few demon-type summons before now, but those things were on a whole other level. Normally, they were all basically the same, humanoid, with skin that could be anything from red to ck to everything in between, they wielded hellfire with various degrees of proficiency, and they usually had somebination of ws, fangs, and horns. But these things were on an entirely different level. And Level. A massive winged monster was calling up a storm, but had been torn out of the sky by Isaac Thoma and carved apart by the strike group as they unleashed one or two big attacks in passing. It should be dead, soon. The ice, on the other hand, had been spreading for thest thirty seconds and was showing no sign of stopping, and an entire army of red-armored demons was marching across it, surrounding the being that, ording to the doctor, was the demon king of all things war. If the ice reached the ship, it would be a problem in and of itself. But if that ice was covered in a literal swarm of monsters, that would be the end. Turn to port, bring us parallel to the shore, and bring focus all fire on Iammax, he ordered, the deck under his feet shiting as the helmsman hurried to obey. Behind them, the two other capital ships hurried to open the range, to avoid being trapped, while the destroyers advanced, forming a barrier between the big ships. Of course, they could get out of the ice rather easily, as could the Dreadnought, if necessary. Neither the Arizona nor Bunker Hill could. Fire. Hayes gave the order a split-second after the Dreadnought was in position, and every gun on both battleships roared, unleashing a time-on-target salvo, meaning it had been coordinated so that every single shell hit nigh-simultaneously. Twelve rounds from the Arizona, and twenty-four from the Dreadnought, a mixture of fragmentation, armor-piercing, and high explosive shells that should damage the Demon King, crack the ice underfoot to dunk him in, and take out a good chunk of the army, leaving him a sitting duck for the follow-up fighter strike. Iammax let his right hand drop to his side, the tip of his sword almost scraping the ice,zily raised his left, and the sky was rent by countless explosions. It wasnt even readily apparent what had caused it, Stone only realized that a series of small motes of fire had been unleashed in an area-covering attack that had intercepted most of the salvo, mes diving into the shells and igniting the explosives within. Simple fire should not have caused such an effect, modern munitions were functionally immune to being detonated even by hellfire, but that thing was clearly beyond that. High explosive and armor-piercing shells became outright useless while the fragmentation shells still caused some damage, but their normally devastating spread was obviously ruined. One shell hit the intended target, the armor-piercing projectile neatly hitting the demons visor, getting wedged in the slit, and detonating after hanging there for a long moment. It hadnt seemed to bother the monster much. Split your fire between Iammax and the General, and stagger your shots, Hayes ordered, and Stone immediately ryed the information to the bridge crew. The goal was to take out the main target, themander, but if all the shells were going at him straight on, he was going to fire his countermeasures straight down the shells trajectories. By splitting their fire, theyd make intercepting it much harder, and in the distance, the Arizona was swinging out to the outer edge of the formation to ensure that its shells came along a significantly different trajectory. Staggering their shots didnt do much against Iammax, he just kept his hand up, wave after wave of small fireballs mming into the iing projectiles and knocking them out of the sky. That was when the air strike hit, abination of high-yield bombs that had been intended to clear the beach if Arthur Wells hadnt managed to get rid of the mercenaries, and bunker busters meant for the enemypound, hammering into the icy floor and causing a wide variety of devastation. Bunker busters smashed through the topyer of ice and detonated a good fifty or so meters into the new floor, shattering it into huge chunks and even causing Iammax to slip into one of the cracks. In the meanwhile, the more standard explosives wiped out dozens of minions, clearing out some of the chaff. But it didntst. The General of Cocytus stopped moving forward, went down on one knee, and ced a palm against the ground, icing over the entirety of the devastated area. The water that had flooded the cracks froze, sealing them. Of course, this also partially orpletely trapped countless minions, and even the demonic king was stuck up to his chest for a brief moment until he vaporized just the ice holding him and climbed out of the hole. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. [Instant Rearming], [Pinpoint Barrage], [Remote Enchantment: Armorbreaker], Hayes announced, using the first active [Skills] in the fight, at least on themand level. Militarymanders had more cooldown [Skills] than just their central ones, but they were expensive as hell, mana-wise, to the point where they took a days worth or more mana regeneration just to charge, and actual cooldowns that could number in the years. From one moment to the next, all weaponry was suddenly restored to a useable state, something that might only spare a single second or so when it came to the battleships guns but was incredibly effective when it replenished the Bunker Hills air wing mid-flight. Then, that armament was enchanted to badly damage any armor it hit, and finally, all dumped straight onto the head of the biggest threat on the board. [Impact Echo], [Crushing Force]. The massive yet focused explosion of the previous second repeated itself as a ghostly echo, then all energy not directed at the monster seemingly dissipated, only Iammaxs torso to suddenly be crushed like a tin can, sending blood spraying across the battlefield. But it didnt seem to bother the monster much. It just climbed out of the newly melted hole and flicked a fireball skywards, detonating it in the densest grouping of nes. Of course, densely packed nes still had hundreds of meters between them, but when the fireball detonated, it still obliterated three of them and damaged half a dozen more. And then, Iammax continued his slow and steady march, asionally sending a ming projected sword sh towards whatever caught his attention, while the few ice knights that were the Generals minions joined the main army. The ice was advancing ever so slightly faster than the two capital ships were retreating, but they had a little time to take down the boss. Until the ice demon began to run. Stone felt as though he were watching a timpse of ake freezing over as the ocean turned to a t ne of frost. Then was a deration from Davy Jones, that hed take care of the General of Cocytus now that it was no longer being covered by Iammax, but even as the Dutchman rose from the water, living up to its name as it took to the air, the monster got far too close. The Dreadnought shuddered as it got stuck, ice trapping its keel, but that was alright, the armor held and there werent any demons there to board them. Yet. And until then, well, Iammax was the one with the anti-projectile spell, and he was a full kilometer behind the Dreadnoughts now sole target. A modern battleships main guns could be fired every four-ish seconds based purely on their mechanical and technological properties, but that wasnt taking into ount the [Skills] of the [Captain] and crew. [Skills] that helped coordination, [Skills] that let people pre-load shells even when there were already munitions in the chamber, [Skills] that made reloading just in faster without providing even the slightest fig leaf of a logical exnation. What had once been a steady metronome of full barrages, every single one of the Dreadnoughts twenty-four guns firing as one, had swiftly devolved into raged salvos where every gun fired whenever it was ready, the skill and [Skills] of the respective crews determining the rate of fire. And they were managing to inflict some serious damage. Coordinated salvos were enough to knock that thing back a step or two, while the individual shots might make the best stumble, clean hits to the knees or feet a brief moment before a footnded being the most effective. Theyd done one hell of a number on the thing, armor cracked, ck ichor pouring from the holes, several fingers blown off, and the ive was nowhere to be seen, but it was about to be on them and the ship certainly wasnt built with fisticuffs in mind. And then, they had to cease firing as the Flying Dutchman slid into the line of fire. *** There were few people whod transformed as thoroughly as Davy Jones had after the [System] had arrived. Hed abandoned his job, his life, his name, all to free himself from the normal trapping of society. For a few years, that had been awesome. But as free as he was from all of societys normal issues, he still lived on the same as everyone else. Of course, Isaac had given him the stuff needed to escape the potential cataclysm, but that would have been the wrong thing to do. As much as he didnt enjoy being a part of what most people considered to be normal, he also preferred not abandoning most of the human race to die. And quite frankly, he would have felt terrible just running off after plundering Earth for its historical artifacts so he could build his ship. The Flying Dutchmans various weapons had been firing continuously ever since the demons hade into range, but theydrgely stuck to alchemically-filled cannonballs and shells, not the special and irreceable rounds. The ice floor came closer and closer as the ship drove towards the demon and the demon sprinted towards the Dreadnought, constantly being bombarded by its guns, clearly intending to take out the stuck battleship first. Yeah, yeah, good luck with that. Jones grinned, and lifted the Dutchman off the oceans surface a split-second before it would have been trapped by the advancing ice. Flying this deep in a gravity well cost a ton of mana, but they only needed to do so for barely a second. His outfit was old-fashioned captains clothing, assembled from materials bought from antique collectors and museums and then ced in his [Legends Regalia] [Skill], bing able to regenerate from near total destruction and incredibly durable, based on its historical significance. Stepping up onto the bowsprit dressed like that, he knew he had to look like some idiotic reenactor who was two seconds away from kissing pavement, but who gave a hoot. His saber, the one that had once belonged to the one and only Edward ckbeard Teach and been given to him by Isaac, slid from its sheath with a soft whisper once hed stepped onto the very tip of the bowsprit. He raised it above his head and brought it down through the air in a swift sh despite the fact that almost five hundred meters still separated him and the General of Cocytus. [Davy Jones Locker]. The world between them seemed to copse into a single point, yanking both the Dutchman and the demon towards the mid-point, and the world melted away. After a long moment of ckness, the Dutchman found itself lying on a sea of sand, rock, and dead coral, the bottom of the ocean without any water covering it. Yet the ship could maneuver on there perfectly well, as though they were aboard a calm ocean where the wind perpetually blew exactly how they needed it. Any vessel he sucked in here with them, on the other hand, would be stuck. The effect wasnt nearly as devastating to a foe with legs, but an ice monster should still be at a disadvantage in a world without water. And without the ice monster out there, Iammax should be screwed. After all, without the General to let his army march on water, theyd be fish in a barrel. Chapter 310: Interlude Naval Battle Chapter 310: Interlude Naval Battle Stone grinned briefly as he saw the General of Cocytus vanish along with the Flying Dutchman. If Jones managed to survive that duel and the [Skill]sted for a quarter of an hour, they might even be able to finish this swiftly. The first few monsters arrived at the Dreadnought and the destroyers that nked it, but those were just minions that fell to the ships various Close in Weapons Systems, the CWIS also asionally referred to as Sea Wiz. Those were designed to deal with missiles and nes, not monsters, but the rapidly firing guns chewed through them with ease. Almost ten thousand rounds a minute were nothing to sneeze at. Also, now that the damage to the ice wasnt being near-instantaneously repaired, theyd take another shot at breaking the ground the army was marching on. Thered been two submarines attached to the carrier group, as well as the Nautilus, but theyd been cooling their jets under the ice until now, without a good way to contribute against foes atop ayer of ice that was over a hundred meters thick. And the destroyers only had a handful of missiles, which theyd been saving for just such an opportunity. Even as the firing solutions were being prepared, things coordinated to inflict maximum damage and iste as many foes as possible, the Dreadnoughts guns kept firing. Theyd never been silent for more than a handful of seconds for over five minutes, unleashing countless shells and tearing apart anything that had the misfortune to wind up in front of the guns barrels. The General of Coycytus had beenrgely torn to shreds already, but that target was now beyond their reach. And the Arizona was focusing on Iammax, firing the barrel of its gun by barrel to get at least some hits in, but the Dreadnoughts current priority was Rath. The lion-demon had been sticking with the army, hiding behind Iammaxs defenses, being the only Tier 9 still on the battlefield, but now, he was going straight for them. He was fairly agile, a great deal more mobile than something that big had any right to be, and if Dr. Thomas predictions were correct, his presence brought disease. Shields up, Stone ordered, and countless magical sigils on the outside of the ship red to life, manifesting a titanic mages shield all around. That should help against that. The shields wouldntst, though. The spell array for it did have capacitors, but those were more akin to a separate part of the enchantment that mana could be poured into and not used until it was needed than something analogous to the electricalponent by the same name. Pure mana could not be stored in its raw form, it would simply dissipate, the only option they had was to put it into an enchantment in some form, be it by directly powering it or adding it to a secondary part that could hold mana in stasis, but mana stored in thetter would never be useable for anything else. Which meant that the battleship had countless capacitors for dozens of different [Systems], and they were utterly un-interchangeable. Another report shed throughout the fleets party, the captain of the destroyer closest to the action, the Anrtrim, warning that his crew had had all physical Stats reduced by five percent. And fifteen secondster, that was upgraded to seven-point-five percent. Ten percent. Fifteen percent. Oh, that was not good. Use of recovery potions to fight off the debuff is authorized twice per individual, beyond that, remain at your posts as long as you are able, Stone ordered. Potions would stave off the symptoms for a time, but if someone reduced the efficacy of future potions too much, dangerous injuries could easily be fatal due to the potions no longer being effective. The Antrim vanished, teleported away with one of its captains [Skills], reappearing beside the Bunker Hill, beyond the grasp of the ice. In front of the Dreadnought, the ice was dyed red by now, covered in demon blood and bodies, chewed apart by its smaller guns, but the few destroyers stuck in the ice on their side of it didnt have anything close to the amount of defenses, even with support from the airnes overhead. So they zapped themselves away, the smaller ships being easier to move and therefore giving their [Captains] a [Skill] like that even at the lower evolutions. And, of course, theyd left behind a little present for the hordes of hell. Depth charges and torpedoes would be entirely useless in this battle, so theyd been left behind and detonated as the monsters swarmed. But the Dreadnought was too big to be moved like that, and without any other targets to focus on, even its defenses would eventually be overwhelmed even with support from the others. Eventually was not the same thing as now. The destroyers each held several missiles in VLS canisters to take out powerful or far-away targets, but the munitions for that were highly limited, and the battleships and aircraft provided more than enough firepower. At the same time as those wereunched, the submarines under the iceunched their torpedoes, the spread of projectiles calcted perfectly to crack the ground ju-u-ust right. Iammax was isted with just a handful of minions,rge concentrations of the army were perched together in one ce, and Rath suddenly found himself on the wrong side of a two-hundred-meter gap in the ice, barely managing to stop. The gigantic lions legs flew out from under him as he tried to brake, leaving him flipped onto his side and digging his ws into the ground until all momentum was gone. Perfect. [Bullet Hell], Stone announced. People might have started shouting the names of their abilities in public for no reason other than appearances, but the military had a far longer tradition of making sure the people who needed to work together were aware of what each other was doing. For example, stating [Bullet Hell] was short for I just activated one of my cooldown [Skills], do what you were taught to do to support it, The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. In this situation, it meant focusing all guns on the ship that werent absolutely vital to their defenses onto the lion. Every time one of the projectiles entered an unseen boundary, they triplicated, the first projectile continuing as normal but the other two manifesting on other points on the invisible sphere and firing towards the center from there. The center, and the demon within, which fully restored itself a couple of seconds before the [Skill] ended. All they had to do was kill it one more time, at it would be done. But Stone wasnt the only one who cut loose, drawing deeply from their well of single-use, or long-preparation, attacks. A few more cooldown [Skills] that there hadnt been a good opportunity to use, and magic that had taken seemingly forever to prepare. ording to scuttlebutt, the Mage Jose Maria Sandoval had been sitting on an out-of-the-way corner of the Bunker Hills deck with awn chair and a cooler of beers, and hadnt moved from that position by more than a single foot in hours. Some theorized that that must have been a part of his process, potentially linked to his [Skills], but it hadnt be clear until now. Semi-translucent spears of powers, thousands of them, shed across the intervening space, tearing apart a good third of the army, but most of the projectiles were aimed squarely at Iammax. Most only pierced the skin and then vanished to make space for the next in line, but there were a lot of them, until several fully pierced through the demons body, to the point where he looked like hed been used as a pincushion by the worlds angriest sower. And then, a hail of real arrows, ranging in size from regr arrows to small trees flew from another spot on the carrier, sliding neatly into the existing holes and sticking there until Iammax graduated from pincushion and became a porcupine. As powerful as the Demon King was, that still made it damn hard to keep moving after that. While that was going on, the sky had been covered by the fastest-manifesting storm in history, blotting out the sky as far as the eye could see, lighting arcing into the sky from both a specific ne and another spot on the Bunker Hills flight deck. That ne was the only one of its kind in the sky right now, that had to be the German S-Ranker whod berthed on the American carrier. The ne then flew straight up, vanishing into the storm. And then, mere momentster, it shed back down, wreathed in lighting to the point where it practically seemed to be made of lightning, until it crashed into Iammax. Once the light from the titanic eruption of power had vanished, Stone could see the ne retreating back into the sky while Iammax pulled himself from the hole in the ground hed wound up in, fully regenerated. So hed died and been restored. ording to Dr. Thoma, that meant that they had to kill him just two more times. A good chunk of the army wiped out, Iammax killed once, that was an achievement. But for using up so many trump cards, hed really hoped for better results. The third [Raid Boss] could be returning at any moment, and there was still the lion to contend with. Arcane Symbols wreathed the flight deck of the Bunker Hill, countless small orbs beginning to manifest above the circles, ballooning up to ever-greater sizes, until they began toe unmoored and drifted towards the demons. They werent moving very quickly by modern standards, but still crossed the distance in a few seconds. It wasnt a very impressive-looking attack to be sure, but considering its scale and the amount of time it had taken to prepare, it had to be strong right? That supposition proved itself true when the orbs dropped onto the the densest patch of foes, burst, and a wave of white energy shed out, a waist-high, ever-expanding, ring of energy that carved the demons apart. Now, they had a clear shot at Iammax, the minions were also isted, and stuck on the ice, and taking down Rath would be pretty easy. Wait what was that demon doing? The King of Warfare had dropped onto his knees once hed dragged himself out of the hole the lightning had left him in, nted his sword in the ice, and had both hands on the hilt. Captain, look at the ice! the Navigator warned, but Stone had already noticed the issue. Red-ck metal was manifesting out of thin air, bridges being built at lightning speed, grappling hooks flying from the furthest-forward ice-floes to grapple any ships that could be reached, and suddenly, the armies were in a position to reach even the carrier. And the Dreadnought was still stuck. Before, freeing it from the ice hadnt been a priority as the missile bombardment would have isted it from the demons. And now, it wasnt just bound by ice but also countless chains that grappled onto whatever they were able to attack. Flying would have been an option before, the ship could take to the sky for a time that was brief but nevertheless would suffice to reach the ocean. Now though, theyd have to either get rid of the chains or carry tens of thousands of tons of ice with them. That wouldnt fly, literally. Permission to use the Eschaton armament? The XO asked. Granted, one salvo, Stone nodded, Target Iammax. Hopefully, disrupting his concentration would get rid of the chains. And if it didnt, well, he was in no position to defend himself, and the Dreadnought would have to free itself another way. Eschaton was a very old word, referring to the end of the world, the doomsday. But when it came to weaponry, it meant something slightly different. They were weapons designed with incredible power, power that well-surpassed the mere mechanical endurance of the vessel firing those weapons, with the ship only managing to (hopefully) remain intact due to the [Captains] [Skills]. The first weaponry had been designed for an American Captain whose ship had almost sunk but been saved through his actions, rewarding him with an epic [ss] with a focus on durability. As the story went, that was when the engineers had gotten ahold of him, taking full advantage of the ships new properties and designing stupidly powerful weapons whose recoil would have blown normal ships to flinders. And based on that, most Navies had built some kind of powerful but damaging weaponry just in case someone gained the ability to use them. Stone and the Dreadnought were capable of using the British Eschaton weapons, barely. Certainly not the point of being able to fire multiple salvos without repairs in between. An entire salvo of Eschaton shells was worth around a tenth as much as the entire ship, and could obliterate a city. A prator cap made of an experimental metal whose name Stone wasnt even allowed to learn, alchemical explosives that would have likely sunk the ship if even just half a dozen had cooked off in the munitions storage, countless runes and enchantments to increase movement speed, reduce air resistance, and push against the barrels of the guns. It was thatst part that took these projectiles from power and expensive to self-destructively overpowered. The entire ship yerked to port from the recoil, ice crunching under the keel, as every gun avable spat its deadly payload at the Demon King. Turret A, barrels 1 and 3 damaged, turret C, barrel 2 damaged, turret Y, barrel 4 rendered inoperable for the foreseeable future. And that was why they didnt often use Eschaton weaponry. One salvo, and they were down a sixth of their guns, but three of the guns could be repaired in minutes at a minimum. Firing again would cost them between a third and a half, and the damage would take hours to fix. And a third salvo would knock out most weapons for potentially days. Well, all of that, and the fact that with every salvo they fired, a beancounter dropped dead of a heart attack, but that could be considered as a bonus, not a reason against. It didnt seem like Iammax had enjoyed their little gift, though, as hed been blown clear of his sword and half a dozen holes had been blown into his armor. Good. But then, the demon raised a hand, a sword flipping through the air until it returned to his hand, and was once again nted in the de in the ice. Not only did the battlefield keep bing more and more advantageous for the demons, but several more chains began to appear to tie down the Dreadnought. And Rath had a path straight towards them, which was especially bad as they couldnt currently get away. Not using the traditional means, anyway. Ah, what the hell. [Instant Evacuation], Stone ordered, then, once the rest of the ships crew had been swept away, whispered, [Union]. Chapter 311: Naval Battle 3 Chapter 311: Naval Battle 3 The shield that had already been teetering on the edge of copse was the first to go, rapidly followed by the hull copsing inwards, metal and ss being pulled towards a single point. The bridge. Rath had already been leaping forward, immense paw swiping to tear open the Dreadnoughts side, only to miss with a hrious look of surprise on its face. And the various grapples that had been tying it down dropped away as the parts theyd grabbed onto vanished. After barely a second, the processpleted, leaving just the Captain floating there in midair, seemingly unprotected. A paw the size of his torso tried to p him out of the air. And he caught it on his arms, crossed before his chest, metaling into existence to wrap him in armor as shields red to life. Most of his [Skills] focussed on passive buffs, empowering every aspect of his ship and crew, with a handful of situational cooldown [Skills] like [Bullet Hell]. Together with his powerful ship, they made him a force to be reckoned with. But this singr [Skill], [Union], was what made him an S-Ranker. Using it discharged all mana capacitors, robbed him of his crewmembers supplementary [Skills] and he only had twenty shots for each main gun and ten thousand for each CWIS before the reloading process got real long, but it also gave him unparalleled mobility and flexibility. The force of the paw strike shattered the mana shield and sent him flying, softly glowing powder covering his arms, but the ws just left scratches and Raths gue didnt bother him anymore. Behind him, the first destroyer exploded as it was overwhelmed. The Arizona had excellent point defense and the Bunker Hill was serving as the base for several S-Rankers, but the smaller ships were too exposed. He could go help with that, but that would leave Rath free to engage, and that would just make things worse. Captain Stone, keep Rath upied as long as possible without risking losing your ship. And the Rear Admiral agreed, apparently. Stone brought his spin to a halt by engaging the ships flight ability. Normally, even someone with as big a mana pool as a military officer usually had would not be able to lift a twenty thousand ton battleship, but right now, he was just lifting his own body and the lightweightyer of mithril armor hed called onto his body. He thrust both palms towards the leonine [Raid Boss], causing the barrels of his ships main guns to manifest there, while the outside of his arms and legs were covered in light guns, and he unleashed everything the ship had at the vessel. Each manifested main gun fired, and was reced by another, identical, barrel in short order, the full roster of twenty guns left intact being rotated through every five seconds. Four shells a second could cause one hell of a lot of damage, not to mention the devastation the smaller guns could cause at point-nk range. He slightly shifted the aim of his right hand to blow apart the ground before Rath while he used his left to detonate a napalm round straight into the demons eyes, blinding it and causing it to slip into the newly dug hole. Two more rounds of the alchemical incendiary,monly referred to as Napalm despite this being highly inurate, fell into the hole and began melting the supernaturally durable ice to keep that fucker trapped. And then, he unleashed everything else at his disposal at point-nk range, every round punching him deeper and deeper into the hole. A round shed into Raths mouth, detonating deep within his guts, and that was the beginning of the end. He cut off the CWIS at a thousand rounds left per gun and still had either two or three shells for each big gun by the time Rath died. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. One [Raid Boss] down, two if you counted Furfur, the General of Cocytus had been so badly beaten down that the Dutchman would likely kill him at least once, and Iammax was on his second of three lives as well. What next? Iammax needed to go, once he went down, they could open up the range again. The other ships in the fleet had already taken not insignificant damage by now, with three destroyers destroyed, the Arizona having lost one of its main turrets and several smaller guns and the side of the Bunker Hill was just one huge scorch mark. He tried asking for permission to do something stupid, but Hayes was too busy, which really wasnt good. Admirals were there for the big picture stuff, if one was literally unable to acknowledge themanding officer of a full third of his capital ship strength, that meant that stuff was really fucking bad. Which he took as tacit permission to try something. Stupid stunt was a more urate name than hed have liked, but if it worked, he would likely just get a few reprimands and an ataboy under the table. He lifted his body skywards until he was over five kilometers above the battlefield, and cancelled [Union]. The HMS Dreadnought, twenty-thousand tons of steel and exotic metals, manifested around him, with all flight arrayspletely out of power. In other words, it dropped like a stone. Right on the head of the Demon King of War. There werent nearly as many [Skills] enhancing the ship being used as a projectile as there were the guns, but still, twenty thousand tons, five kilometers up. [Crew of One] let him operate various systems at a vastly reduced efficacy, which included discharging theunchers for the depth charges, whose decent he could elerate. They struck first, cracking the ground and ensuring that the Dreadnought would not stter against fully solid ground, and a split-second after it, the ship came down with a resounding crunch. The ground shattered, and both a badly mangled Iammax, countless ice shards, and one HMS Dreadnought plowed into the ocean. It. Was. Perfect. The ship was, after all, capable of being briefly submerged and traveling underwater, it had gone straight under the ice and was now free to travel to where the others were. And Iammax was so badly mangled that he couldnt retaliate, but wouldnt die just yet, giving the Dreadnought a little time to get away. Of course, underwater travel required mana, for which he needed the crew. The crew hed just evacuated onto the other two capital ships. But the only reason hed feltfortable doing that was because the XO could get everyone back onto the ship in a sh. The crew reappeared at their duty stations and mana began to flow, the ship mere seconds from being able to retreat. And then, Iammax did the utterly unexpected. He called his sword into his hand, reversed his grip, and thrust it into his heart through one of the holes in his armor. And then, he was just fine, fully regenerated. He kicked against the icy surface and hurled himself at the Dreadnought, bringing his sword around in a devastating sh that opened the vessel up from bow to stern, a massive gash in its size. The XO began to report on the damage, but Stone was alreadyrgely aware of it. They needed to get the hell out of there. A torpedo from the nearest sub knocked Iammax clear of the ship, granting them that window of opportunity. Being able to travel underwater was not the same as being able to fight effectively while submerged, sadly, but Iammax should have the same trouble countering the submarines until he escaped the ocean. Either way, the Dreadnought needed to retreat. Stone shook his head as he observed Iammaxs attempts to run. [Union] and the subsequent usage of his ship as a kic projectile had been some of theirst trump cards. And they still needed to kill that asshole one final time. After a minute of nervous travel, the Dreadnought resurfaced beside the Arizona and began to fire all guns that still worked, picking off thest grapples. That should reset the battle, with the demons out on the ice and the fleet out on the ocean. But thats when their missing [Raid Boss] made an appearance, also fully regenerated, while the Dutchman fled to the rest of the fleet. A hasty report from Jones confirmed that, yes, theyd killed the General of Cocytus once, but still meant that they needed to, essentially, get three more kills. One with the king, and two with the General. With a badly battered Dreadnought that would have likely sunk without its crews [Skills], most cooldown [Skills] spent, and overall, them not being particrly fresh while their foes had been fully restored by their deaths. Dreadnought, pull back. The order from the Admiral almost made Stone jump, startling him nearly as badly as the arrival of reinforcements. Carrier groups were slow to move, sure, but a carriers main method of force projection was its air wing. And there were airbases in range as well. One by one, the airstrikes began to hit, primarily focusing on wiping out the minion army, then keeping the General hemmed in, and finally, taking down Iammax. nes went down to ice spears and me bolts, sure, and the reloading cycle was atrociously long, but Iammax and the General of Cocytus were facing a decent chunk of the world, with more and more nations dispatching their air forces to tear the demonic invaders apart. Theyd win in time. But any feelings of celebration or jubtion were smothered when the Doctor reported the strike teams findings. Chapter 312: Do not go gently into that good night Chapter 312: Do not go gently into that good night Furfur fell back to Earth behind Isaac, down a wing, burned, and covered in smoking acid. He was still alive, and would be even after he hit the ground, but that wouldntst once everyone else passed. Concentrated bursts of fire from whoever had proper coordination and synergy [Skills], powerful cooldown skills, and so on. Furfur rose once more maybe thirty seconds after Isaac had passed, but that wasnt anywhere near enough to keep him safe. The demon lost another wing before he could even return to the air, then Elena tied it down with tendrils of water and Arthur decapitated it. One monster down, done and dusted. Isaac switched his [Auras] around, extending the [Aura of the Eternal Warrior] out as far as it would go to rece his standard sensory [Aura], which hed cast around the ind while no longer keeping it anywhere near his own body. Mostly, he checked out the spots where the demons had been summoned while sending several more tendrils of perception towards where he suspected the main base to be. He only found a single living soul, one Josef Goodman sitting in the center of a surprisinglyrge underground base, but a whole lot of weirdness near the summoning circles. Neither of those was good. A few quick orders dispatched people to check out the circles, something he probably should have done anyway, but the bulk of the group advanced towards the bunker. There was something seriously off here. Not only were most of the people hed expected to see here gone, there was no sign of them having run off. Teleportation to and from this ce had been shut down, sure, but was this really all there was to it? One guy? Isaac couldnt quite tell what the man was doing just yet, it might have been a summoning circle, or it might have been an enchantment, but if he was choosing to do that instead of fleeing, it had to be bad news. The kind of crap they needed to stop. He highlighted the best path forward, with an optimal ce to breach, a person with the right [Skill] to swiftly crack open the base, and the order in which theyd be going in. [Breach] shattered a heavy starsteel doors hinges like ss, blowing it outwards and sending it flying to the side, well clear of their path of entry. Thats when things started to go wrong. The figure deep inside the underground structure stopped moving and turned to re in their direction. You guys are fast, arent you? The voice came seemingly from every direction, echoing up from was he speaking through the shadows? Sure, it seemed to be limited to talking, but it was creepy. Or maybe, youre just callous assholes, abandoning your ships like that. Now, Im not someone whod shed a tear for the jackboots, but still, leaving them to fight against Tier 9 and 10 [Raid Bosses], thats ice cold. Still, I need a little more time, and Ive always wanted to use this, so have fun. Isaac could practically hear the grin in Goodmans voice and sped up. [Last March]. And the world drowned in white mist. Hundreds, no thousands, of ghostly images appeared all around the strike force, ranging from insubstantial beings with power equivalent to a Starter [ss] to a woman wielding a long staff that looked practically alive. The [Horseman of Death] summoned the dead. Of course he had. Goodman was ignoring them once more, though, going right back to messing with the diagram. Deep inside Isaacs chest, power bloomed. It stayed there, it didnt do anything, it merely existed. Instinctively, he knew that was [Final Defiance] preparing to unleash. Now he really needed to stop the man. Dr. Thoma, what do you make of this? One of the teams hed dispatched to check out the summoning circles finally contacted him, using a [Skill] to transmit images. Bloody smears covered the circle, and in the center,id something that was barely recognizable as a human corpse, bluish smoke leaking from countless wounds while crimson runes twisted and slowly tore themselves apart, but on top of everything else, they werent really there anymore. Isaac knew exactly what had happened there. Hell, hed caused the likes of it himself, in the other timeline. That was what happened when one used magic to tear out someones life force to power something. When hed done it, using his [Ruinous Psychopomp] [ss], hed created short-lived effects, powerful attacks or curses, to be specific, but this was something else. Theyd somehow used the blood runes to power the summoning circles. It wasnt something that would be obvious to anyone else, thankfully, Isaac was more familiar with them than most, but the people whod figured this out were the exact worst individuals to have this kind of capability. And now, it was obvious why Josef Goodman was alone in the bunker. The others had sacrificed themselves to power the circles while under the effect of summoning blockers to give Goodman control over when the monsters appeared. Also, the power of that ritual had to be linked to personal power, and Goodman was nearing Level 190. Who knew what hed be able to summon? Was it a [World Boss]? He shouldnt be able to do that yet ording to the cults orders, but they could decide to ignore those. The gods could give orders they expected to be obeyed, sure, but human beings still had free will. And the world part was that if hed really decided to pull that stuntpletely on his own, this wouldnt even fall back on his patrons. Well, that worst part assumed Isaac managed to stop Goodman from doing what he was going to do. What he was making wasnt a standard summoning circle, but [World Boss] circles were extra, extraplicated. Arthur, you take charge of the group out here, deal with the ghosts, Isaac ordered, Im going straight for the big boss. He turned on his heels and exploded into motion, running from the bunker and taking to the sky the instant he was outside, then activated [Wisdom of the Simurgh] while scanning the bunker. Use this angle, with that speed, hold a sword like that, and then [I AM THE SWORD]. *** Arthur cursed out the entire world as he was suddenly put in charge of the entire operation. He could deal with this shit, he had the necessary skill and [Skill], but it was a little sudden and hed just been dropped into the hottest of hot seats. [Royal Order: Hold Fast!], he snapped, power flooding into every person in the formation, stiffening their proverbial and literal backbones, allowing them to stand their ground. Focus on the highest-Level individuals first, anything below the Third Evolution is a target of opportunity, he said, giving specific targeting orders to the strongest individuals in his group while taking off himself. [Royal Wanderer] was there to make sure Camelot didnt go to shit while he was off somewhere else, but it could do so much more, like letting him keep an eye on everyone else while he charged at what he was ny percent certain was a group of every bearer of the [Aspirant for the Mantle of War] in history. Power wreathed them as three ovepping casts of [Axis Mundi] began to spread out, the pir of annihtion about to obliterate most of both armies. Arthur grinned. [Catastrophes Bane]. And the whole mess was wiped from existence. Borrowing [Skills] from all members of the [Round Table] was broken as fuck, especially when it was crewed by experts. The Wars began to rise into the sky, their strongest [Skills] blown. And then, he borrowed Isaacs signature ability, [Aspects of the End]. They normally tried to avoid using each others signature [Skills] to keep the whole [Skill] sharing ability under wraps, but that one had no visual tells if one stuck to one sub-[Skill] at once. There was one big limit to the [Skill], he needed to use up all 100 seconds within the 10 minutes he could copy any given [Skill] for, but that just meant he didnt have to bother being judicious in its application, didnt it? His speed suddenly quadrupled and he was able to run over empty air, reaching his targets far faster than they ever could have expected. A st of wind almost seeded in throwing him back, but he just nted his feet behind him, treating the situation as though he were being pressed into the ground and just staring at the source of the attack, instead of hanging in midair. The instant the wind died down, he began to slide down to Earth, but he was able to get his feet back under him and reached Air War before another st of air that made a hurricane look like a fart inparison could be unleashed. Of course, there were two other incarnations of destruction around, but an attempt to force him tond by decupling the effect of gravity on him failed miserably, running straight into the iron wall of his physical strength, and while the vibrations rattling his armor and cracking his ribcage hurt, they were nowhere near enough to stop him. Given a little more time, thered likely be an attempt tobine their powers, which might work, but they didnt have that time, now did they? Excalibur shed three times, carving apart the specters, which died as easily as a regr person would have. Theyd been tied for the title of biggest threat on the battlefield with the other being the only Fifth Evolution person there. The [Horseman of Famine], whod looked practically alive. At least until Elena had trashed her in five seconds t. The final issue had been the other horsemen, the people wielding the power of disease. But hed put the entirety of Isaacs team on that. Amy had done most of the work using fire, lots of it, supported by Rauls familiars and Karl, who was also using various methrowers and energy projectors, while Bailey cured those afflicted. With a Level difference in the fifties, even the sheer lethality of disease magic wasnt enough to cross the gap. So the big guys were down, now they just had to deal with the rest. All several thousand of them. Each with two, three, or even four cooldown [Skills] to throw at Arthurs forces. Monsters constantly fought at the same level of strength, with the asional burst of power being nowhere near a standard cooldown [Skill]. Fire breath, energy wave to buy a little breathing room, that sort of thing. But people were different. They could throw up a Ha, Im invincible forcefield, drag themselves and others into separate dimensions, manifest nigh-unpassable firestorms, and whole lot of other shit that were incredibly difficult to get around with any method other than just waiting it out. The strike team and Arthur would win, of course, and doing so with minimal or even no casualties was well within the realm of possibility, but it would take time. Sure, the person whod be fighting on their own until they won was Isaac, and he could handle himself, but the situation still wasnt exactly great. *** Isaacs [Skill] punched him through the heavily reinforced walls of the bunker as if he were moving through paper, shredding metal and concrete with casual ease, de reads to cleave Goodman in half. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. The cultist had noticed him, judging by the fact that hed turned to face him, but it seemed someone was going to try and impale Isaac. Oh, big mistake. Goodmans scythe cut through the air with incredible speed, and would pass in front of his body in the precise instant Isaac did. Too bad he was still going to be invulnerable at that point. Balmungs tip dug into Goodmans shoulder at the same time as the warscythes de mmed into Isaacs side. And then, the world seemed to explode. Isaac went flying to the side, hammering into the wall with enough force to crack concrete, while Goodman was flung the other way, hitting the wall there, though causing less damage since hed had further to travel. That sh had been an unstoppable attack, hadnt it? Two of those shing never really ended well. Isaacs side crackled and popped as his bones realigned, but the shallow cut in his side, where the scythe had cut him, just kept bleeding. Fucking wonderful, now hed have to keep regenerating blood for gods only knew how long. This fight was going to be a real pain in the ass, wasnt it? At least the chance of Goodman being able to whip out a literally unblockable attack more than once was somewhat minimal, but if this was any sign of how the rest of this fight would go, it would be tough going. Isaac activated [Grave of Swords], pulling both of them into the strange otherworld, and removing Goodman from his work. All he had to do now was win. [Champion of Mankind: The Cleansing me] activated a split-secondter, mes washing across Isaacs body to form armor reminiscent of an ancient Greek Hoplite, a deep crimson breastte, bracers, greaves, and a Corinthian helmet atop his head, with his eyes glowing like coals in its depths. And the area around Isaac shimmered in a heat haze, a promise of pain toe for anyone in range. A range that covered most of [Grave of Swords] even before Isaac charged at Goodman. Goodman grinned, and waved his hand, causing the world to rumble, the nd soil filled with swords being reced with something even more dead, like the soil found at ground zero of a nuclear st, the boundaries of the space cracking and seemingly about to burst. And that was when Isaac was about to attack, thinking things had stopped changing, a whole series of chairs rose from the ground, surrounding arge conference table made from a single b of ck stone. The arena had more than tripled in size as a result, leaving them ready to battle amidst the debris of a conference room and an ancient battlefield. Do you like it? Goodman roared, his normal outfit melting and rearranging itself into a ck toga that wrapped around him. It didnt look durable but Isaac strongly suspected that would be enough to block any mes weaker than [Prometheus Wrath] and maybe [Samadhi Fire], as well as casual strikes with Balmung. This is the ce you destroyed, all for the sake of eeking out a few more years of existence. And. It. Will. Be. Your. GRAVE! Clearly, their idea about how the cult had to be coordinating had been right on the money. Also, it was somewhat interesting to see what happened when two [Skills] that created pocket dimensions were cast on top of each other. Goodmans [Aura] had initially been a weak, ephemeral, thing of cold and stillness, but it roared to life with fury Isaac hadnt expected. [Burden of Power] and [Deaths Embrace] flooded Isaacs secondary [Aura] to reinforce it while he dispersed his sensory [Aura] to make it much harder to destroy. And then, they charged at each other. White mist flooded off the [Horseman of Death], skull-shaped phantoms coalescing to the left and right of him, the area where the effect ovepped with Isaacs me ring and flickering until it vanished, taking the fire with it. The warscythe shed out, dipping into a phantom and absorbing it, which Goodman then flicked straight at Isaac, unleashing ance of what could only be described as pure death. Isaac flung himself to the side using [Speed of Hati] and returned fire with a ball of [Prometheus Wrath]. Goodman just pulled a second whisp into the path of the attack, detonating it prematurely, then sent the rest hunting. Isaac didnt get the same sense of danger from them as he had from thence and charged, manifesting a series of kabars, igniting them, and hurling them into the whips. But when the des reached the Horseman, he twirled his scythe and knocked them away, all the way into the walls of their little pocket of the world. Balmung was deflected to the side by the warscythes de, but Isaac just spun along the axis of his des new momentum and manifested another copy of his weapon in his other hand, and fully turned,nding a shallow cut across Goodmans chest with a heftybination of [Strikes] infused into a single [Legendary Blow]. Isaac leaped away, opening the range again as he let the copy of his sword vanish, just in case this prompted Goodman to whip out yet another cooldown [Skill]. Something to make him stronger as he got closer to death would fit an incarnation of, well, death just fine. But Goodman merely dragged his fingers through the red lifeblood running down his front and stared at them, then raised his head to meet Isaacs eyes. Of course it wasnt healing, [Implements of True Death] had been active on that one. Tsk, now what did you do? It isnt healing, you grabbed the Aspect of the Ankou, didnt you? Thats what you were using to go space too, you little hyp- Isaac was well aware of the fact that he looked like a massive hypocrite to anyone without full awareness of his circumstances, but he sure as shit wasnt going to listen to this asshole lecture him, especially as it didnt seem like there was anything nastying. So he charged again, manifesting several more swords to simultaneously sh at Goodman, this time spending the mana to make them leave behind [Annihliating Trails]. The man didnt notice the little present the des left behind once hed deflected them, and the look on his face when he blocked Isaacs overhead chop, one infused with [Power of the Behemoth], no less, and was flung backwards, was priceless. The trails left behind annoyingly shallow cuts, but they served to cause injuries nheless, and he really didnt enjoy Isaac shoulder checking him after that, the burning armor leaving behind painful burns. GO TO HELL! Goodman roared, a burst of mist erupting in every direction, briefly overwhelming Isaacs heat and disrupting his armor, forcing him to retreat once more, all the while throwing des and shes at the man, all of which were either deflected or only left behind shallow scratches. And he didnt even have the mana to make all those unheble. The cut across Isaacs side was still bleeding, too shallow to cripple his muscles or cause any other serious damage, it just kept weeping blood he needed to regenerate and the overhealing pool in [Bestial Regeneration] wouldntst forever. Under other circumstances, this whole affair might have been considered fun, though. Someone approximately on his Level, with simr [ss] rarities, and some Evolutions had been clearly spent on administrative and support [sses], just like Isaacs, which put them on even more of an even footing. There werent even any moral issues to trip him up, he could just cut loose, and lose himself to the rush of battle. Yes, it could have been fun, and having [Final Defiance] trigger and cut it short would have ruined that. But this was nonormal fight. This was a fight for the sake of the world! Having a [Skill] activate and end this for good would have been his best-case scenario. But it wasnt bloody triggering. It felt as though [Final Defiance] had taken up residence in his heart, generating a portal there that would flood him with power the instant it became necessary. And it was preparing to give him that boost, and this was the big fight which would decide whether or not an insanely powerful monster would emerge from that summoning circle, but as for it actually doing anything but exist nothing. Crickets. Bupkis. Jack squat. What. The. Hell. They shed back and forth amidst the ruins of the conference room and swords nted in the ground, des shing, phantoms flying, gouts of me obliterating vast areas of the battlefield, and with every passing second, Isaac was getting more and more frustrated. If [Final Defiance] clearly wanted to do something, so it should just do that, or leave him alone, not this constant hey, this fight is important, but I wont help you in any way, shape, or form bullshit. He leaped at Goodman, Balmung scything at his foes neck, only to have to twist out of the way when the warscythe was thrust at his chest. Isaac grabbed the weapon just below the hilt, feeling his palm instantly go numb from the cold. Thebination of his grasp and the weapons motion pushed him back, opening up the range but he was bringing his foot around to try and kick his foe in the temple. Goodmans response was to lean backwards while pushing harder against the warscythe, ensuring that Isaacs boot would whiff past his nose. Isaac grinned. Hed had a traction enchantment on his boots for literal years, but a few months ago, hed upgraded to one that would allow him to walk up walls or glue a de to the sole of his shoe with enough strength to use it as a weapon. Which he promptly did at thest possible second, the de of the kabar mming into the thinnest part of Goodmans skull with more than enough force to prate. Human beings could be ridiculously durable at times, even pre-[System], thered been people whod gone on to live long lives after having objects literally be rammed through parts of their brain, but a hit like that should slow him down at the very least right? But it didnt even get that far, with the tip of the dagger hitting Goodmans temple with a light ping before rebounding as though Isaac had tried to kick Neutronium. Or Sun Wukongs skull. WHAT?!? Isaac released the warscythe and scrambled back, desperately trying to figure out what the actual fuck had just happened. All around him, the weird otherworld their [Skills] had created shattered, dumping them back in the real world. Well, you beat me, Im a big enough man to admit that. Too bad youre still going to lose. Moving almost robotically, Goodman dropped his scythe and turned back to the summoning circle, one hand drawing a dagger from a storage ring to begin carving runes into his chest while the other grabbed a piece of chalk to draw with. Isaac exploded back into motion andshed out, driving Balmung at Goodmans neck, where it bounced right back off. The de blurred, with him alternating between using [Speed of Hati], [Power of the Behemoth], and both. mes rolled off both the asshole and the circle he was drawing, and trying to fire them into his nose just caused them toe right back out of his mouth. Invulnerabilitybined with an inability to keep fighting, that was quite thebination. Not to mention that his work shared the same protections. A [Skill] that allowed its bearer to take one final action after a situation that should have killed them. Presumably, that action needed to involve trying to end the world, considering who its user was. [True Cut] should have worked, but it just drained all of Isaacs mana the instant Balmungs de touched his foes skin and did bugger all. Down a mana potion and get straight back to it. Would you please stop that? Goodman finally asked, sounding half-asleep, It wont do anything, but at this point, its getting weird. Seriously, who the hell shoves their fingers up someone elses nose? You know I cant do that, Isaac answered while taking a brief respite while he tried toe up with a new approach, I cant do that anymore than you can stop drawing that circle. Its a [Skill], isnt it? One final action after being beaten, and then you die? Goodman didnt bother to dignify that with a response. Isaac swore internally as he kept trying something, all the while calling out to the rest of the strike team so they could get their asses down here and try something. It was futile, but he really could not stop trying. [Final Defiance] was still the same as itd been during the fight, but this time, Isaac knew why it was acting like that. It was preparing to fight whatever was going toe out of that circle, it hadnt triggered because whatever was keeping Goodman going wasnt going to be breached even by several million points of mana. Now wasnt that a fun thought? Why are you doing all this? Isaac asked, Not the summoning right here and now, I mean all of this? What makes someone want to destroy the world and murder all of humanity? Goodman gave him the finger in a moment his hand wasnt needed to work on the circle. Why the hell should I tell you? Either you win and I die in five minutes, and it wont matter, but if I win, what do you want the history books to say about you? Josef Goodman was an asshole and an idiot who tried to destroy the world over pessimism? Goodman sighed. We decided the world was doomed and decided to sell you out, isnt that what you all say about us? Youve got it all figured out, right? We pieced that together from context clues, Isaac shrugged as he surreptitiously put his n into action. Fine, you know what? FUCK YOU! Goodman yelled, twisting his head to re at Isaac while bending down toplete another part of the circle. But then he sagged, and continued to work while mumbling, How about you stop attacking me and Ill satiate your curiosity? You know I cant do that. Oh, fine, Goodman sighed again, Have you ever really looked at the world? Really looked? The world has been on a trajectory towards annihtion for decades due to developments that happened centuries ago. Humanity rose above the muck of nature, thought itself better than everyone else. Hell, primates literally refers to the first, highest, order of animal. That shit is unnatural. The universe was created by beings beyond ourprehension, divided into what simple-minded idiots like you consider to be good, evil, and neutral. Goodman paused as Isaacs sword bounced off his eyeball, but then shrugged and ignored the next flurry of attacks, seemingly resigned to the situation. Nature, karmic bnce, whatever, forced them topromise, with both sides providing an equal degree of effort and nning. And it was abination of both their visions, a constant cycle of creation and destruction until we showed up. Intelligent life. As he spoke, the man began to grin, as though being able to finally share this universal truth made him the happiest man alive. It was at this point that Arthur, Elena, and Amy stormed in, unleashing every big attack they had left at the cultist. It. Did. Nothing. Intelligence is a curse, you know. We built stuff, kept carrying more than just genes across generations, breaking the normal flow of evolution. Less destruction, infinite creation, it broke the bnce. He stopped drawing the circle as he said this, it beingplete, and walked into its center. All that seemed to be left was to finish the mana from sacrifice runes, which he did. Until eventually, we created a world that was doomed to break using the knowledge wed umted, until wed leave behind argely empty universe, where the only thing left were a few survivors huddling out in sterile constructions that are the very opposite of what my patrons want. They gave us the tools that wed use to break this world, and once it was broken, existence would have to be reforged, remade with all the knowledge of what went wrong the first time around. Goodmanid his head back and stared towards the ceiling, grinning broadly. Can you imagine? A world without the burdens of the past, where everyone is free to live their lives as they want from birth to death, unbound by decisions and choices made centuries ago? Somehow, his grin grew even wider, impossibly so, even as he continued to carve into his chest. Isaac took this as an opportunity to try and ram Balung into his mouth and down the inside of his neck. Once more, it did nothing. It would have been glo- The final symbolpleted, Goodmans skin went white as though all the blood in his body had vanished from one moment to the next, and he copsed like a puppet with its strings cut. The circle red to life, summoning materials vanished, and the chalk lines burned with power. Several of the summoning blockers Isaac had hidden while Goodman had been distracted shattered instantly, but enough held that the summoning of what [Book with Seven Seals] told him was the biblical Leviathan was dyed. Everyone else withdrew whatever blockers they had on them, and Arthur was already requisitioning more from Camelot, to be brought through the [Round Table] by Steff, whod stayed behind for this operation. It would have been nice to imagine keeping this thing on ice for decades, until humanity could curb-stomp it with casual ease, but the [Book with Seven Seals] provided a prophecy that theyd have to fight it in a week or so. And unfortunately, both [Blessing of Innovation] and [Wisdom of the Simurgh] gave him a simr estimate for how often theyd be able to keep this up. Seven days to plot the death of a [World Boss], and they hadnt even cleaned up the [Raid Bosses] currently doing battle out on the frozen ocean. Ok, universe, challenge epted. Chapter 313: Rage, rage against the dying of the light Chapter 313: Rage, rage against the dying of the light But first, someone needed to clean up here. Isaac kicked himself skywards, mes gathering around his hands as he red at the General of Cocytus. It looked like absolute shit, cracked and battered, but it was still perfectly capable of moving and chasing after a badly damaged Dreadnought. A massive burst of [Prometheus Wrath] wiped out the entirety of Isaacs remaining mana pool but mmed into the Generals back, slipping through a crack in its armor and knocking it down. And that was it, the entirety of his contribution to the fight. Everyone else did the same, discharging what powers they still had at their disposal at the monster, inflicting a hell of a lot more damage. It was still alive after that barrage, but down a leg, leaving it a sitting duck for the bombers and battleships. Iammax was still around, of course, but without the General to provide ice, he was reduced to generating ground for his soldiers. And while the monarch of warfares strongest weapon was his army, only wielding his army left him a far smaller threat. Small enough that Isaac could outright ignore it and focus fully on making preparations. Steff had rallied the [Round Table] after delivering the summoning blockers to the circle, and Isaac had kept one hand in his pocket throughout everything that had happened after Goodman had finished, writing emails with enough speed to almost break his phone, cashing in every favor hed ever gathered. Goodman. That had been a mess. Hed just stood there and spewed his nonsense while Isaac had taken precautions. Hopefully, hed burn in hell for what hed done, trying to destroy the world as well as failing to hold up his part of the bargain with the dark gods, but hed likely never know. And that whole part about how intelligence was a mistake, something that had slipped past the dark gods that had all sorts of terrifying, existential, even, implications. But that crap was a problem forter. Right now, he needed to keep working. Hed already gotten assurances that hed have a stage to talk on from the German Bundeskanzlerin, and every contact hed ever made was going to try and drag anyone they even remotely had a connection with to listen to that speech, but it needed to be a good one. But he had a ton of favors to cash in, ranging from various Vegas casino owners hed shown how to not get driven into bankruptcy by highly perceptive people a couple of weeks after the [Systems] initialization to most of NATOs military, whose officers hed spent several months teaching. Sure, thetter were a hell of a lot more useful than the former, but the former had enough money to exert influence. On general principle, Isaac really wasnt a big fan about how money could allow individuals to exert a greater than normal amount of influence over a nations policies, but right now, it was working in his favor. Did that make him a hypocrite? Yeah, kinda, but something would have to be truly horrific for him to not do it if it could help save the world. Favors werent contracts, of course, butbined with Isaacs own wealth, teachable [Skills], and the urgency of the situation, he was likely going to be able to get a lot of people with the program. And hed be getting a whole lot of stuff done in this next week. In fact, the only person whod be busier than him was Jason, whod be visiting the bosses of every major crime syndicate in the world to warn them to not pull anything. With more reasonable/pragmatic individuals, like Calise, this would likely involve a simple envelope, shoved somewhere no messenger ever should have been able to reach, but it would escte oh so much more with the idiots. Warnings drawn on mirrors to be revealed when the mist from the shower covered it, or scratched into the wood of the head honchos bedroom. Hell, Jason had mentioned buying a tattoo gun, and Isaac was pretty sure he knew what that was going to be used for. But that was just Jason. Of course, the effectiveness of that whole stunt was limited by human nature. Some would blow their top at having someone vite their privacy like that, others would ignore the warning, and others still might even be reced by underlings who perceived their boss hesitation as cowardice shutting downrge-scale crime on a global scale for even a week would be impossible. If things had been as simple as demonstrating the capacity to harm the people in charge of things and issuing a sternly worded warning, the Round Table would have already done so in the past. In the meantime, Zambon had been sent off to pull some other stuff. Specifically, he was going to bebing through the most secret files on the globe, finding ndestine programs to create superweapons, both of the living and technological kind, which could be used against Leviathan. Some nations would likely want to keep their aces hidden, not blow them on everyones problem, but that would be a hell of a lot harder to pull off when the ghost told everyone about those programs. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Oh, sorry, were those meant to stay secret? Yeah, Jason would absolutely drop that line at some point. However, all of those were guns had already been fired, and not something he needed to bother with further. Or could, really, time was in too short a supply. After all, he had a speech to prepare for. *** Isaac had stood where he now was once before, but this time around, he was actually dressed for the asion. The Bundestag conference room, the secret, secure one, talking to everyone who was even remotely allied to Germany. Bundeskanzlerin Heidi Goldschmidt had given a brief introduction, but then stepped back to give Isaac the position of speaker. His first action was to mute all speakers on his end, ensuring that no one would interrupt him directly. There were people here who listened to those muted channels and would tell him if he needed to listen to someone. Ladies and gentlemen, I will not mince words today. The world as a whole is in danger. In six days and eleven hours, a [World Boss] will be summoned, and it has the capacity to kill us all. Its no secret that Ive been wary of where the [System] could lead in time, and my fifth Evolution [ss] reflects that. It is all about being warned of apocalyptic events before they happen. Thats how we found the base we raided, why Ill be able to use multiple powerful [Skills] to support our fight, and how I know what boss will appear. The biblical Leviathan will appear in the Pacific Ocean and it will be an apocalyptic event. Itll be three hundred miles long, though considering the age of our sources, it might be slightly shorter than a modern three hundred miles. However, thats still long enough to snap satellites out of low orbit with its jaws, and its fire breath will be able to destroy those further out. Simply by moving, it will shake the ground and unleash tsunamis, destroying costal cities without even noticing. However, there is even more to the story of the Leviathan. ording to some sources, it doesnt describe a single being, but a race of monsters, of which God created two, one male and one female. But he killed the female as he saw that if they were ever allowed to breed, humanity would go extinct. And thus, the male Leviathan is consumed with hate, envious of those who arent alone in the world. And we never dared find out where the automatic summoning limit is for Tier 10 bosses. Im aware of the fact that there are certain issues between nations, and an entire herd of elephants is standing in the room, and that we as a species dont have the greatest track record of cooperating for the greater good. But Im not asking for world peace, treaties, or any other kind of long-termmitment. Im asking for two weeks. One to prepare, and a second to kill the monster in a series of hit-and-run attacks. Two weeks, and your full su- Isaac trailed off when the conference suddenly erupted into chaos. He didnt hear anything since hed muted everyone, but he could still see the chaos unfold via the video feeds. Goldschmidt tapped him on the arm and showed him her phone, which had a text message open on it, written in perfect German. Frau Bundeskanzlerin, as you may know, a monster of apocalyptic strength will be summoned in a little under a week, and unless stopped, it will destroy the world. Your government has multiple programs that could make a difference, and as such, I must entreaty you to deploy them. The following programs would be needed: Professor Chandlers alchemical weaponry, Oberfhnrich Alexander Braun, GSG-13 Division S, Sun Wukong. In addition, your allies have simr programs of their own, ask them about the following to find out more: Nemesis (USA), Portus Julius (Italy), Armageddon Gate (France), That would exin the chaos, Isaac said sinctly, In your experience, how long should we wait for things to calm down before continuing? Goldschmidt muttered something extremely uplimentary under her breath before telling him to try again in ten minutes. Things were a little chaotic even then, but in the end, they still managed to get things back on track. *** Two days. That was how long it had taken for things to really get going. Fleets had already begun being deployed towards Oceania, but now, it was a full-on mobilization. ns were being drawn up about how to handle the fallout from the nukes that would be used, simtions being made to see how many could be cleaned up,and at what point the risked being damaged beyond repair. This would be a mess, but if they had to clean it up, that meant that they were alive to clean. But what made the biggest difference was the treaty. A deal between most of the NATO and several allies that promised that anyone who didnt help now was dead to them. The wouldnt piss on you if you were on fire kind of dead. No trade, no alliances, no nothing. Russia was being more than a little stroppy, but that was just Russia being Russia. A big military riddled with corruption and ipetence wasnt what they needed right now. And they only had two S-Rankers. In fact, Isaac was secretly d that they werent going to be mucking about. Meanwhile, China was very much on board, to a degree that would have absolutely terrifying if there hadnt been a very obvious reason for it. They were right in the line of fire. Of all the global superpowers, they were the closest to the ce the monster was going to appear, and the only thing preventing the waves the monster would inevitably unleash from wrecking Hong Kong was that the Philipines were in the way, but Isaac was damn sure that those inds wouldnt survive very long. The main thing they were doing right now was evacuating, trying to get as many people as possible out of the line of fire. Forty-five million in Oceania was just the start. Mysia, Vietnam, Thand, Australia, China, all of them had significant poptions on the coast that would be impacted by the waves and needed to be moved. Not to mention the risk of the waves reaching India, or even the western coasts of North and South America. Isaac didnt know how far the monsters power would reach, sadly, only that it would eventually trash the entire, in due time. *** Isaac also spent a little bit of time getting his family to Ceres using his portal. Everyone got a full stack of Undead Aspects to live out there, but all in all, he only spent perhaps half an hour with them. On some level, he felt he should have spent more time on them, but at the same time, spending any time on preparing for the worst when he should have been trying to stop anything bad from happening in the first ce made him feel guilty. The world was currently in absolute chaos, with people moring to be allowed to flee to space or hide in bunkers that they just assumed the government had to have built and they werent getting anything like what they wanted. Thankfully, the human poption in space was viable for long-term survival, but it was still a messy, messy, mnge of messes that infinitely bled together into a tapestry of awful. And threatening crime syndicates had worked in some ces, but in others, it had just fanned the mes. Even if the Leviathan dropped dead of a heart attack the instant it was summoned, the world would never be the same. Chapter 314: Devil Snake Chapter 314: Devil Snake For an entire week, [Final Defiance] had been pulsing away in the back of his mind, to the point where hed feared it was having a deleterious effect on his sanity, and as it turned out, it partially did. But it was simply not a supernatural effect altering his mood, just stress. Stress over the situation that wasnt being helped by a constant reminder of how bad things were. The [Skill] had been a pain until just a few hours ago, when it had calmed down and synchronized with his heartbeat, spreading gentle warmth throughout his body. It seemed he wasnt the only one eager to finish this. As long and difficult as the road here had been, theyd reached this point. Of the forty-four aircraft carriers currently in existence, thirty-seven were here, the remaining seven being pre-[System] relicts that had no ce in this fight. Their air wings were here, though, based on any ground-bases that had space for them Of the seventeen battleships that had been built since design ideologies had shifted, the only one missing was the Pornd, which had had a nasty reactor ident three weeks ago and was currently stuck in the dry dock. There were more small vessels here than Isaac could count, from Germanys floti of frigates to Singapores entire fleet of torpedo boats. The ratio for S-Rankers was quite a bit crappier, with only three hundred and fifty of the five-hundred official ones, and presumed seven-hundred-and-fifty having shown up, but S-Rankers were an individualistic lot, some didnt want to take part in a military operation, others wanted to stand out in a way that wasnt possible in such a big group, and then, of course, you had the people who were so used to punching miles above their own weight ss that they felt the monster was only a threat to the normies. Plus, you know, some S-Rankers were bound to their regions in some manner or had fabrication [sses] that had helped during preparation but would be supporting the war effort without being physically present. Lieutenant General Gibbs was in charge overall, mostly because hed worked out fine during thest big international operation, the one that had practically wiped out the cult. He was fairly capable, inoffensive in a way that ensured no one hated him on general principle, and listened to experts. He didnt have the highest Level, sure, but those people tended to have issues. Cough, Ardouin, cough. But there were a lot of people here with weird or unexpected origins. A warlord based in the Congo basin had offered to bring his full force to bear, as long as someone was willing to guarantee that people left his holdings alone for the duration. The next morning, hed received a very nicely worded eptance letter, and all his rivals had found a whole lot of decapitated rats in every ce of safety imaginable, along with notes detailing just what would happen if they picked a fight while their opponent was off saving the world. As tough as this fight was going to be, Isaac had to wonder if Jasons and Zambons task wasnt a million times harder. It was their job to stabilize the world, stomping any idiot who tried to make a profit. However, all of that shit had been dealt with as far as he was concerned, there was nothing else to be done here. Thest week had been utterly insane. The half-hour it had taken to save his family had been his longest break all week, his and Elenas stuff that should be said talk hadsted a mere five minutes and ended with a simple kiss, neither of them had had the time for anything else. At least they seemed to be on the same wavelength about their rtionship. Lets go all the way, just not when the world is about to end summed it up pretty nicely. No break until now. Isaac was pretty sure that everyone who would be here was here, that now was the optimal time to do this, and activated his incredibly powerful boosting [Skill]. [Call of the Gjarhorn] was an interesting [Skill], but also one hed never used before, making him practically jump when a massive horn appeared in his hand, made of something akin to ivory, iid with gold and silver. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Well, the name did have horn in it, didnt it? About to use the boosting [Skill], Isaac warned throughout the party, waited five seconds, and blew the horn. The thrum that the horn produced sent the water below him dancing, vibrated his chest, and echoed across the ocean. Even with the warning, hed still startled a whole lot of people, with individuals slipping, tripping, letting go ofdders in surprise, and more like it. And that was just the stuff that happened where he could see. Now everyone else had a new task to do, namely, take advantage of the boost. Not him, though, he could just rest here, try to calm down until the world-ending threat appeared. It was just him, sitting on the bowsprit of the Flying Dutchman, legs dangling above the ck water below, awaiting a cataclysm. The battleships, and most destroyers and frigates surrounded the ind of Bacan at a distance of 50 kilometers, far enough away to hopefully endure the initial attack. The carriers were further back, almost a hundred kilometers, to ensure they werent swiftly smashed. The Dutchman was, of course, in the front row as well, ready to dish out devastating damage with its belly full of nasty ordinance. On the aft deck, Jones paced, unable to sit still. Isaac, meanwhile, just sat down, trying to meditate, waiting for shit to go down. [Book with Seven Seals] had updated the prophecy to include that the monster was tough beyond measure in some way, but despite that, it would die if in but a single time. Only needing to kill it once was a relief, but between that warning and the fact that Isaac already knew a [World Boss] durability would be a massive step up from what a [Raid Boss] had, he dreaded what unearthly power would be required to hurt that thing. He pulled an old-fashioned pocket watch from the breast pocket of his polo shirt. It had been a gift from his father during the evacuation. An old, outdated, watch that had nheless been kept around and intact since it had once belonged to his great-grandfather. Two minutes to go. That estimate would likely be not one hundred percent urate, but it was a clear indication that it was time to get ready. His jeans and polo shirt vanished, instantly reced by his draconic armor. And then, he went right back to waiting, absentmindedly pawing through the party menu. Gibbs [Skill] was insanely epassing, granting all sorts of options, including direct satellite feds and separate channels for expert advisors, of which Isaac was one. He could now Isaac froze as a [System] message filled the entirety of his vision. Humanity beware, a World Boss has been summoned! Bear witness to his name and tremble: Leviathan, Primordial Sea Beast, Demon Prince of Envy, The Living Hellgate This is a monster meant to be an opponent for your entire species, and in your own words, hang together or hang separately. Good luck! Current location: Former Ind Bacan (Southeast of Papua-Newginea) Well, had to happen sometimes, didnt it? Hol up, former ind? Isaacs eyes bulged as he saw the monster erupt from the ind in the distance, a draconic head rising towards the heavens, perched up on a long, serpentine, neck. The ind was over the horizon, but the monster had raised itself high enough to be more than visible. The Leviathan was just as long as Isaac had predicted, the coil of scaled flesh that had erupted from the summoning circle having been enough to sweep away the entire ind, but it wasparatively thin, a mere two hundred meters across. That was still enough to stare into the window of a skyscraper while its chin still rested on the ground, butpared to its length, that was nothing. In fact, the satellite image made it look like an angry shoce, but it was an angry shoce that could be seen from space. This was noughing matter. Normal snakes like the King Cobra or ck Mamba could rear up to a third of their body, which meant that if that thing was capable of anything even remotely like it, that things jaws could reach up to a hundred and fifty kilometers into the sky. It was big on a scale that Isaac could barely conceive, but then again, that just meant there was more to attack. The head was the primary target, obviously, with its four eyes being the biggest targets of them all. It didnt look like a snake, more like a dragon, with its height being greater than its width. Behind it, the neck barely narrowed, the two hundred meter diameter that continued down the entirety of its body. Every inch of its body was covered in heavy, metallic-looking, scales, whose color was something between azure and ck, deeply reminiscent of the ocean, somehow. It held there for a moment, staring down at the ships even as they opened fire, unleashing an absolute storm of steel and fury. The snake seemed to grin before it lunged forward, fire beginning to glow at the back of its throat. Isaac grinned back. His heart felt like it had caught fire, flooding energy through his body. Challenger of the Apocalypse, the worst hase to pass! A monster of the end times has appeared, and if it is not stopped, your world will end. As such, yourst resort Skill, Final Defiance, has triggered! Avable mana: 5,154,639/1.000.000.000 Bring it, asshole! Chapter 315: Round 1 Chapter 315: Round 1 The snake surged forward, jaws wide open, its head having been raised so high out of the air allowing it to reach incredible speeds as it lunged, crossing the fifty kilometers that separated it from the battleships in seconds. As it passed, the ocean beneath it began to boil, bing a roiling maelstrom that would literally shred anyone who fell in. And the effect was only spreading. Going overboard had just be a death sentence for most of the fighters. The snake continued toe closer, ever closer and then its head was smacked into the water with such force that it was pushed almost a hundred meters under as the first nuclear missile struck. Isaac had told everyone that he might have an ace up his sleeve, but they couldnt dy long enough to find out, as it would take a while for nuclear missiles to reach their target. And there was a damn good reason the ships were this far out. They were all enchanted to protect their crew from radiation, and to a degree, the explosion, but that was hardly enough for a point-nk duel while the most destructive weapons in the world fell like hail. This was the n, always had been. An opening salvo of nuclear weaponry to get in a few solid strikes and to get some information on the monsters durability, then have people start unleashing their big attacks, and finally transition into a fighting degree for however long it took to kill that thing. So hed have to wait out that initial barrage, all the while vacuuming up every scrap of information. The first strike had hit the top of the monsters head, sh-boiling every drop of water on it and knocking the incredibly long snake for a loop, but most of the energy practically sshed off its scales. Missile after missile impacted, every strike forcing the monster to shift and contort, locally pushing it around, but barely scratching its scales. And if the shockwaves were affecting its insides, it wasnt showing it. In ten seconds, the number of nuclear weapons deployed in anger throughout all of history quintupled, and it barely did much. Except for one. One missile did, through luck or operator skill, smack the monster squarely in one of its house-sized eyes, and that did pop the organ like a muck-filled balloon once it detonated, having already created a meter-thick divot in the membrane, but it repaired itself in under ten seconds. Isaac stared at the monster for a long moment as it drew its head back, [Wisdom of the Simurgh] and [Hunters Gaze] active at full st. There was something different about the new eye, though. It seemed duller, somehow, but he got the feeling that the monster would be a lot harder to hurt there. So, the eyes got less effective but more durable when destroyed. How would that work with other body parts? Would scales just regrow tougher and tougher until the monster could no longer move? Were there any limits to that? Hed been warned that this thing was tough, but it couldnt be invulnerable, right? There had to be a limit and hed find it. The very instant the final missile had gone off, Isaac had spent the briefest of instants checking to make sure that there wasnt another warhead still in flight, and then, he charged. His Stats had all increased massively, the altered numbers disyed on his status sheet unlike normal, but Magic Regeneration wasbeled as n/a, since it didnt really exist for him anymore. Any mana he spent would be reced almost instantly from [Final Defiances] pool. And the same went for [Aspects of the End], anything he spent would be reced before the pool could dip even in the slightest. His movements left behind white trails, his muscles burned with red light beneath his armor and behind the visor, his eyes glowed with rainbow light. Opposite him, the Leviathan had risen to almost its old height, but upon seeing him charge, somehow, it selected him as a target, surging forward with mes building up at the back of its throat once again. As he closed in, a titanic burning [Aura] pushed against him, attempting to keep him back, but Isaacs [Aura] had been boosted just like everything else had been. A tidal wave of fire flooded towards him, but between his astronomical Agility and [Speed of Hati], he dodged the main wave easily but briefly dipped into the corona to assimte this particr variation. Hed absorbed enough hellfire variants to be almostpletely immune to it, but that had been upgraded to absolute immunity now. And then, he began to assimte the attack, taking over the hostile attack with [Divine Fires] Level 20 effect. The Leviathan fought it, of course, and under normal circumstances, Isaac never would have been to try anything, but he had almost five million points of mana to y with. He couldnt freely use it for anything he wanted, but it nheless made him ludicrously powerful in many ways, including breaking past certain limits. It was a strange me, really, one that acted just like regr fire in every respect save one. It could literally not interact with water, which meant it could not only be freely used underwater, but it would also ignore the water in living beings, making it capable of causing utterly devastating damage. Enough fire to wipe out a good-sized ind was sucked into his hand,pressing into a sphere the size of a basketball, leaving hundreds of imps colored the same as the Leviathans scales suddenly exposed as they flew through the air. Suddenly visible, they were sted apart in seconds. Huh. He hadnt even been able to spot those before, but still, it did make sense that a [World Boss] had minions, and it had had The Living Hellgate among its titles. And what to do with this fireball? The polite thing would be to return it to sender, but the monster would likely be immune to its own fire. On the other hand, the fire was already struggling to dpress, and he was forced to cannibalize some of it to keep the rest stable. The mes might not do anything, but the shockwave sure as shit would. Isaac grinned as the monsters jaws snapped shut next to him, its head so huge he could barely perceive it as a living being, it seeming more like an angry asteroid of falling rock than anything else. He sprinted across the air straight to the previously damaged eye, and with all his might, pushed the fireball past it and into the ocr cavity. Where it exploded. Gorily. Messily. In a way hed never unsee. Unnameable fluids gushed down the side of the monsters face as it roared in pain and fury, unleashing another breath attack, this one just consisting of the same imps it had previously used. Once again, the eye began to regenerate, but more slowly than thest time, and Isaac could tell it was even worse than the first recement. So they would be able to blind this thing, but it would take a long time. Probably better to destroy all eyes one by one, instead of focusing on a single one until it was gone for good. Hed shot past the monster and was now above it, the sky already darkening as the atmosphere thinned, then flipped around and began running earthward, abination of gravity and kicking at the empty space above him to elerate pushing him well past normal terminal velocity. Four massive swords manifested, one held in each hand and glued to the bottom of each shoe with the traction enchantment, and then, activated [I Am The Sword Activated] in its optimal pration setting, making him fall like a meteor, just in the right moment when the Leviathan was lined up ju-u-ust right, its spine crossing the trajectory of his unstoppable movement not once, not twice, but seven times. Isaac crashed through the top of the Leviathans skull, into its brain, out the bottom of its jaw, into the front of its throat, through the spine, and out the back, falling back in the empty air for a bit longer, and finally, right back into the massive coil in the ocean. With two eight-meter des and both arms fully extended, he left behind a cut almost eighteen meters long that fully severed the spinal cord in seven ces, with the des on his feet having beenrgely superfluous. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. Being a boss, the monster had ways around that, nerve signals jumping across the gap or simply being redirected through the surrounding muscture being only the start of it, but every gap would slow down its movement a little bit, all the way until the very end of its body, beyond the seventh cut, which should be severely hampered. And the best part was that his cooldowns had been reduced by 99%, which meant that that [Skill] would be avable again in just 36 seconds. Of course, hed overshot a little and was now buried a couple of kilometers underground, but hed already phased the very second his [Skill] had ended and erupted straight back out of the ground, holding a freshly manifested fireball. It sshed across the monsters scales, burning into it and the skin beneath. It should have, considering hed thrown the entirety of his mana pool at it, and itd been enhanced to 20,000 points. The nukes might have had more raw power, but Isaacs mes were magical, bent for destruction, focused in ways that nukes could not be. They were chaos incarnate, natural forces unleashed by conventional explosives kicking some enriched uranium or plutonium in the ass until it blew a gasket. Good fucking luck structuring that into anything. Apparently, the pain had made Leviathan forget what had happened thest time it had breathed fire on Isaac, and tried roasting him again. He met its aggression head-on, flying up through the stream, gathering it and pulling it behind him, then mmed it right behind the twice broken eye, almost obliterating it. Compressed fire could cause some serious damage, couldnt it? Why hadnt he done that before? Right, becausepressing mes like that was normally a pain in the ass. But then, something had just urred to him. He could register any mes he wanted, including Isaac manifested [Prometheus Wrath],pressed it, registered thepressed version, and thrust it behind the next eye. [Prometheus Nova] detonated the organ, and the monster focussed its full attention on him, its head chasing after him while its body sped through the water. Only its front fifty or so kilometers were directly moved towards whatever target it had chosen to delete from existence, but every movement rippled down the entire length of its body, a two-hundred-meter wide mass of scales and muscles unleashing record-breaking tsunamis with even the tiniest shift. It wasnt that bad yet, with it stillrgely being coiled up in one spot, but every time it moved, shifted, stretched, it spread out more and more. Still, hedrgely gotten its number now. The outeryer of scales was tough as fuck, the skin underneath, a little less so. It had anger issues and had trouble learning lessons, something that would hopefullyst for the entirety of the fight. Destroying sensory organs would make its senses worse, and while theyd grow tougher and regenerate, the recovery also slowed. Just keep hitting those. And it had all the usual boss-durability bullshit. Isaac drew on the [Round Table] before going in for his next attack run. Japinders [Exemr Action] could teach everyone who watched it a little something something about what he did, but it could also perfectly bring across the meaning behind his actions. Such as warning his allies where he was going to be even more effective than merely coordinating via the party. In fact, Isaacs connection to the table had deepened as well, allowing him to reshuffle [Skills] on his own, and use multiple, just like Arthur. Of course, Arthur could still override him, but hed never do that. The first air strike was about to strike, able to work around him perfectly, but before they hit, he cleared the way for them. He could repeatedly discharge the entirety of his mana pool with barely any pause in between, and that was exactly what he did. [Prometheus Nova] spam was not something even someone entirely focused on their mana pool could pull off, but normal was abel that applied to Isaac even less than it did most of the time. Small fireballs slipped under scales, [Champion of Mankind: The Thinker] allowing him to direct every single one. Once emced, the mes burned into the skin a little and went as deeply as possible until holding them together was prohibitively expensive, then promptly detonated, shredding flesh and ejecting the scales above. It was then that [I Am The Sword] came off cooldown and he burst through the monster again, unleashing an immense st of [Prometheus Wrath] in the very instant he passed through the spinal cord, [Stars Heart] draining his physical stamina but leaving behind a massive hole. And his physical exhaustion was wiped from existence as well. Of course, the monster wasnt happy with any of that, but the thing was that it really couldnt do much to hurt him, specifically. He was too fast, but unlike the normal all speed, all the time builds, Isaac could inflict damage. Serious damage. By the time the fighter jets came into missile range, the Leviathans raised body portion was practically naked. And a split-second before impact, one Jean Ardouin finally acted. His fifth Evolution [Sage-General of Magic and Warfare] was exactly the same as his [Arcane Warsage], just stronger and with a less snappy name. His [Gates of Hell] had be a hell of a lot stronger, able to redirect fire from a lot further away, and thered been a simr boost to his other capabilities, but the real gain had been the two central [Skills]. Isaac could picture the man shrink in on himself as he named them. [Cry Havoc], [Let Slip the Dogs of War]. [Cry Havoc] was a formation killer, metaphorically speaking. It utterly trashed any attempt at making a proper formation and holding to a strategy when used against a group of enemies, but apparently, it could be used against individuals as well. Like a yo-yo being reeled back in, the giant snake was pulled back together into a single spot, and tied into a knot. Yes, it literally turned the world boss into a knot. In the meanwhile, [Let Slip the Dogs of War] was just the mother of all boosting [Skills]. As an extra fuck you, Isaac threw both [Deaths Embrace] and [Titanic Presence] into his own [Aura] and pushed away the Leviathans ming [Aura] away from the missiles, ensuring that the monsters first reaction to the attack failed utterly. And, then he threw in another salvo of novae for good measure something was off. That impact had looked weird. Before he could zero in on what had happened, the missiles hit, supported by countless more heavy projectiles fired through portals manifested by Ardouin, hitting the monster in the split second Dr. Han had struck the tied-down monster with [Tyrants Die], which weakened its stupendous defenses. For a brief instant, the monster was cloaked in mes, screaming in pain and fury. But once the damage became clear, so did the problem. Its body grows tougher the more its damaged, Isaac stated almost in a daze, before quickly hurrying to exin the entirety of the issue. The more a body part became damaged/destroyed, the tougher the remaining bits would be. At least the boost wasnt as overpowered as the ocr regeneration, and the spine also seemed to just be more durable, as opposed to recovering. The monsters skin had already grown tougher by thirty or so percent, which meant theyd have to focus on carving big holes into its defenses and shooting through those, else, they might be stuck firing through countless pinpricks. So, time to kick ass. Isaac dumped the entirety of the power remaining in [The Thinker] into novae, blew apart two eyes, and finally triggered [Form of Horror]. Hed shifted things around a bit, creating new forms specifically for this asion. [Form of Horror: Blender] was literally just every de Aspect hed ever slotted,bined into a single package that he ran at the monster with until he started sliding down its body and triggered [I Am The Sword] for the third time, tearing along it like the worldsrgest cheese grater, tearing a massive gash in its defenses. He supposed he could have used [Form of Horror] more, but there was one small issue with it: he might have had enough mana at his fingertips that it was seemingly infinite, but it did have its limits. And the cooldown reductions were expensive. Attack after attacknded, with Isaac switching to dual-wielding his giant swords, digging them under scales to flick them off, shallow cuts effectively ying off the monsters skin in a way that didnt make it significantly tougher. Anything and everything he could do to ruin this fuckers day. On asion, he opened up the distance, granting the others the chance to slip in a nuke or cooldown [Skill], but all in all, for half an hour, he led the [World Boss] on a merry chase across Oceania, and carved it apart to the point where it looked more like a modern art exhibit than a living being. During that time, the waves alone had wiped out most of Papua New Guinea, Swesi, Timor, and most of Borneo had been utterly trashed. The inds were still there, mostly, but between the waves and the asional earthquake, massive chunks had been washed away. Australia and the Philipines had been badly hit as well, but still existed. And his mana was bottoming out. So he ran. Straight up. The Leviathan surged after him, going straight up as quickly as possible. Then, a form blurred past Isaac, and he knew he was safe. Convincing Sun Wukong to sit out the first phase had been an achievement worthy of legend and Isaac did not want to know how much the food had cost, but somehow, hed stayed put in orbit until now. Until someone needed to tag Isaac out and tank a [World Boss]. For his 5th Evolution, hed be the [Great Sage Equalling Heaven], with two of the most absurd cooldown [Skills] ever at his disposal. One that granted him the legends ability to transform his hairs into clones of himself, and a second that gave him the form that had kicked the ass of celestial generals. One hundred and fifty meters tall, three faces, six arms, in full regalia, with three identical staves that looked like they should have been bridges. Crimson eyes burned as the Monkey King, fivefold, dropped into the face of the biblical beast, the immense weight knocking it straight back down. Oh, and the Kaiju Form was a hell of a lot denser than Suns regr stone form. The Leviathans head fell, even its muscles unable to resist what effectively amounted to stone statues dropping from orbit, and right where it would impact, a massive ice spike was growing and being enchanted, perfectly situated to run the monster through. That should do a nice bit of damage, but right now, it was Isaacs job to recover. Unfortunately, the monster would still be there when he was all better again. Chapter 316: Round 2 Chapter 316: Round 2 A titanic spike of earth and ice rose from the ocean, but it was far deeper than what was visible, extending all the way to the bottom and two kilometers into the bedrock beneath that, with reinforcement [Skills] covering not only the entirety of the weapon, but all surrounding rock for several more kilometers. All in all, the entirety effort of twenty cryo- and geokic S-Rankers, 3 S-Ranked [Engineers], and everybat engineer of thebined forces of humanity had gone into that singr construction. The Leviathan fell backwards under the force of Suns impact, but not quite right on target, and on top of that, it was trying to contort to avoid the impact. So Patrick fixed that. This spike thing had been nned for days and in the works for half an hour, during which hed pre-cast multiple spells, preparing a truly legendary work of magic that could tie down even this [World Boss]. Several arcane circles wrapped around the monsters neck and forced it into ce, and two secondster, it impacted the spike, which plunged into the hole Isaac had left earlier and broke the hole open further, to the point where it damn near came out of the bottom of its jaw. All of Suns clones transformed into literal mountains, holding down the beast while the main body raised all three copies of Jingu Bang, the staves mass dialed up as far as they would go. And then, he brought them down on the bottom of the Leviathans head, driving it deeper into the spike, again and again. This should have been the end of it. In a sane world, it would have been. The monster of the biblical apocalypse was pinned down like a butterfly in a disy case, with the pin going through its brain. But it wasnt. The monsters body trashed back and forth, sttering shipspletely by ident. Some of them were capable of enduring ncing blows or identally getting dunked hundreds of meters underwater, but far from all of them. For about twenty seconds, things were looking golden. Every time Suns staves hit, bones crunched and the Leviathan screamed, and countless strikesnded in that time when it was easier to target. Amy used this as a chance tounch her own trump cards, [Arcane Union]bining all spells in range, which were the strongest abilities anyone in range had. The result of that would normally be a glowing sphere of power, sure, but this one glowed like the sun and expanded to the size of a car the instant it was no longer contained between her hands. And then, it struck. The initial impact burned through one of the few scales left on the Leviathans neck, blew through the skin underneath, and detonated after piercing almost twenty meters into the flesh beneath. That alone would have been an incredible feat, but that was when the second cooldown [Skill] in y triggered. [Spellwoven Gestalt] split apart the spell bomb into itsponents, empowering some at the cost of others, and finally, detonated them in sequence to cause the maximum amount of carnage. Water filled the hole in a flood, created from a spell that did its damage via immense pressure. Which was then frozen solid, brought down to a mere ten degrees Kelvin, expanding and thrusting razor-sharp spikes through the flesh beyond. That alone would have been an effective attack, but the spell Gestalt was only halfway done. A shockwave spell used pure kic force to punch those spikes deeper into the flesh, spikes that were still spreading cold through the surroundings. Purple light shed, transmuting the ice deeply embedded in the monsters flesh into an acid of ungodly power, smoke flooding out of the hole the initial spell bomb had left. mmable smoke. Half a dozen overwhelmingly powerful fire spells detonated, the power of the explosion being further enhanced by the burnable matter, spraying blood and fleshy chunks across the ocean. Sadly, it looked like that had been the final straw for the Leviathan. Even with its mouthrgely pinned shut, the monster breathed fire, partially choking on its own mes, butpletely erasing the ice spike. The monster tore itself free with a furious roar and tried to go after the battleship Amy had fired from. But Sun Wukong had a very different tanking style than Isaac. He didnt zip all over the ce, drawing the snake after him, he just, well, tanked it, smacking staves at wherever seemed like it would be the most painful. Three of the four eyes had burst under the impact, but thest one had been destroyed one too many times to be taken out that easily. And so began the second great phase of the battle. The Leviathans me was a variant of hellfire, thus had elements of both elemental and curse magic, and as a result, it triggered two of Suns immunities. But he wasnt going to stand right in its line of fire and was still ignoring half the damage the attack should normally cause. And being made of stone, the ability to ignore the water in the human body wasnting into effect against him. For the five minutes that Suns transformationsted, they had a good shot at the monster. Hell, they likely had a better shot than theyd had with Isaac since the monster wasnt moving around so much. While that went on, Isaac looked at his notifications. Hed gotten multiple Evolutions, but didnt want to get too distracted focussing on them, so he just got the highlights, the new effects. [Divine Fire] had jumped up a whopping nine levels by deflecting a [World Boss] attack, twice, and maxed out. Divine Fire (legendary, Level max) *** And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The user gains the ability to exert power over all mes, manipting all mes around themselves whether theyve been generated by them, subsumed, or arepletely independent. The control cost for user-generated mes is entirely negated, and the creation cost is reduced by 25%. For hostile mes, a mana cost will need to be paid. However, it is possible to erase enemy mes by forcing them to cannibalize their own mana after paying a small initial deposit. So hed still be able to block me breath, but it would likely be expensive as fuck. And his mes had just be a hell of a lot cheaper. However, in his mind, the I Am The Sword (legendary, Level max) *** And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be cast freely and with far fewer restrictions. For 2,000 points of mana, I Am The Sword may be cast even while it is on cooldown. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana/2,000 mana Hed regenerate that much mana in less than five minutes, and be able to all but spam his power during this fight. The fact that the cost increased whenever he didnt use the [Skill] as a cooldown ability was weird, and implied some odd things about how the [System] functioned, but that just meant they still had stuff to investigate after this current affair was over. [Fire Soul] had also grown, but its upgrade had only been a single line long. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Fire Soul (legendary, Level XV) *** In addition, you gain inspiration on how to creatively use your mes. Cool, but minimally useful. Suns transformation ran out mid-attack, and he was headbutted by the giant snake. It barely did any damage, but he didnd in the ocean, where hed likely be stuck for the foreseeable future. Could someone please fish Sun out of the water, Isaac asked, using the channel that led to the support part of the group. Sun Wukong was a member of a species that existed outside the normal groups of beings, its only member, a singr existence, one of the four spiritual primates. The Intelligent Stone Monkey. And as a literal rock, he was unable to swim, far too dense to ever float even with the help of his transformations. Normally, his counter to being stuck at the bottom of a body of water was to either jump or, if he was too deep, climb, but the water was currently far too turbulent for either of those strategies to work. The waters too messy to risk it." And apparently, no one was willing to help. What were friends/allies for? Isaac shot from the sky, mana pool full, and unleashed [I Am The Sword], sting through Leviathans neck, and continued his flight towards where Sun had been dunked. He plunged into the ocean and shot down so quickly he was almost a kilometer deep in a matter of seconds. The conflict was distant enough that [Continent Striker] worked, so he just used that to dump the Monkey King on the nearest intact ind. Based on what hed seen, Suns mood at being stuck at the bottom of the ocean made a wet cat look like a saint inparison. And then, he flew back onto the nearest carrier to wait until his mana topped back up, so he could go straight back to using [I Am The Sword]. As he was in the air, he saw a bright sh in the distance as another nuke went off. But this time, it hadnt beenunched at long range, instead having been teleported straight into the monsters phase by Ardouin. Nations had been staggeringly willing to contribute to this fight, but something that had been starkly off-limit had been direct ess to their nuclear arsenal a stance that hadsted for only ten minutes once theyd seen the monster. The next sh was blue, the Leviathans fire being unleashed in a thick stream that annihted a battleship and turned the ind behind it to g. With an earth-shaking roar, the beast rose further out of the water and then stared down into the ocean for a long moment. What was it doing no- Another breath attack went straight down, seemingly aimed at the ocean floor, but this time, it wasnt fire, not exactly. More like a heat haze, maybe? Certainly, it was more akin to a heat ray, one that shared the mes inability to interact with water. Its the Ring of Fire. Isaac wasnt sure whod spoken, the statement had been delivered in a strangled gasp, or what it was about, but it seemed to be serious. Triggering [Blessing of Innovation] let him borrow a generic scientific terminology [Skill], that then let him zero in on a geological knowledge [Skill] which then further told him to grab one that specialized in volcanic activity. And thatst one it gave him information hed really rather not have learned. The Ring of Fire was a ring of volcanoes all around the Pacific Ocean, a ce where the Pacific te met others. And ity right below where they were fighting. Retreat to the designated positions, Gibbs ordered, pulling back everyone to various positions highlighted in the party. The tactical retreat was closer to aplete rout, but due to the fact that the monster wasnt going after them, it wasnt that bad. Yet. At the bottom of the ocean, rock liquefied and was kept liquid by the heat constantly being poured into it and piercing deeper, all the way down to magma. Admittedly, the magma was barely five kilometers below the surface, but burning that deeply was still an incredible feat. And then, the magma began to flow, turning intova. A brief moment after the heat hit theva, it began to be transferred into the water, instantly vaporizing it into steam, creating a pocket that theva then flowed into. Again and again, until after a mere two minutes, a new volcano breached the surface, spewing ash into the sky. Oh, that was not good. It would obviously have less of a negative effect upon the nes of today, but it would still, in time, make flying a little more tricky. Also, breathing that crap would eventually cause serious trouble. Above the monster, the sky turned orange from all the portals that Ardouin was opening in rapid session. The other end? Arge portion of nuclear bases of the Peoples Republic of China, countless missiles or even just warheads simply dropping through a momentter. However bright the previous explosions had been, this took the cake. Dr. Han might have used his [Tyrants Die] already, but Arthur still had a copy, which he now used. By the time the light faded, themunications channel that led beyond the immediate military grouping had already exploded withints, though it was usually ignored. Isaac had just been curious about what was being said. It wasrgely just furious whining about the extensive use of nuclear weapons, but there was more constructive criticism as well. The sea around there would glow soon enough, and if they threw around enough nukes, they might literally wind up unleashing so much energy that the Earth literally got warmer. Not to mention the titanic wave the detonation had unleashed. But the radiation would have been the main issue, if it hadnt been part of the n from the start. Ance of green fire burst from one of the Arizonas gun barrels. A shell containing the fire of one of the radioactive phoenix varieties, which would ignite anything with a high degree of radioactivity. That matter would then decay as far as it physically could before reaching the point where science no longerbeled it as radioactive, and do so in a matter of seconds. And what do you know, the vast majority of the radiation had been directed into the Leviathan by anyone with [Skills] that could even remotely help the situation. Venomous green mes spread across the already badly burned skin of the monster, incinerating the outermost meter or three, visibly shrinking the thing. While that had gone on, Isaac had made his way to the Flying Dutchman, from where theyd be trying yet another stunt. Davy Jones had never been allowed to carry any nukes on his ship, being an independent a rule that had survived for only minutes after the pencil pushers had caught sight of the monster and crapped their collective pants. But now that they had them, theyd try something. The ship sailed straight at the monster, aiming straight down its throat, which was already beginning to glow with the light of another me breath. Isaac stood at the tip of the bowsprit, ready to counter, but the fact that the monster was looking pleased with itself was making him a little nervous. Perhaps it hadnt forgotten that he was able to counter its mes earlier, it had just believed he wouldnt be able to pull this off more than once. In theory, it would have been right. In practice well, [Skills] that had evolved through insane deeds tended to be able to make those deeds even easier to repeat. The instant the plume of fire entered his range, which extended almost a kilometer from him, he took control of it and made it vanish, though his mana was continuously ticking down. Hot winds sted across the Dutchman, hot enough to ignite a normal ship that had any woodponents, but it wasnt the devastating me of a [World Boss]. Sure, that left the imps contained in the fire to deal with, but those werent exactly an issue, just like the previous times. They always fell to CWIS, nes, or soldiers. The Dutchman did have guns, but theyd already been unleashing everything they had at the monster itself. Modern alchemical weaponry filled into cannonballs were most of what was used, but there were also ancient cannonballs fired from literal antiques, that were somehow more damaging, not less, the literal weight of history, the importance of the munitions being turned to raw destructive capacity by Jones [Skills]. They were literally burning up their past to safeguard their future. At least these things were just old balls of lead, not actual artifacts, but it was still an irreceable loss every time a cannon roared. All around the ship, a cloud of blue fire washed past, the only thing keeping it intact being Isaac. After thirty seconds, the mes cut off to reveal the maw of the Leviathan bearing down on them, ready to swallow them whole. Oh, this could not have been more perfect Davy Jones reced Isaac on the bowsprit, drew his sword, and shed the empty air to tear open space, both the wall of flesh that was the inside of the Leviathans throat and the ship itself getting yanked towards a point between them. But the snake was too big to be drawn into [Davy Jones Locker], instead, arge chunk of the lining of its throat was torn free as the ship vanished into the vast expanse of sand, escaping the explosion of the hydrogen bomb theyd kicked overboard. They exited the locker after waiting a couple of minutes,ing out to a scene of utter devastation. The bottom of the Leviathans jaw was practically torn off, its mouth permanently hanging open in a grotesque sight that likely had the peanut gallery seriously regret being voyeurs. Of course, the snake knew exactly who to me for this and turned to chase the Dutchman while Isaac triggered [I Am The Sword] with his mana pool to blow another hole through the monster. That was how things continued for the next two or so hours. He spent mana and cooldown [Skills] like water whenever he could, while the task of holding the snake back rotated between S-Rankers. Arthur managed tobine one of [Mythical Actions] sub-[Skills] with one borrowed from Yoo-jin to summon a massive frost sword, ram it through the hole that already existed in the monsters head, pinning it briefly, but that was all he was able to do. Good damage, butcking in the restraining department. Two of the Greek S-Rankers were up after him, and utterly ruined the things day. Areti Tassa, the [Champion of Antis] summoned [Antian Bastion], dumping a spectral Antean building on the monsters head. Well, sort of. The massive castle actually manifested around its head, and was sufficiently well anchored to the sea floor that it held the beast fast. In the meanwhile, Lena Zeneli, manned the castle and tore into the Leviathans head. Her [ss] was named [Phnx Pneuma], though in this context, the word meant soul rather than breath. Countless spectral copies of her, armed with round shields and spears, tore into anything they could reach, hacking and shing and utterly ruining the monsters day even more. Extraordinary power after extraordinary power was unleashed by anyone who thought themselves capable of holding the beast. Some some were overestimating themselves. But massive algae blooms appeared and turned toxic as the bleeding beast swam through them, immense kelp forests tied it down, volcanoes rose, by mankinds hand, this time, runic circles red to life it usually did something, but it neversted. Chapter 317: Final Round Chapter 317: Final Round Four days. Four bloody days. That was how long theyd been at this. Isaac stumbled, nting Balmungs tip in the ships deck and leaning on its hilt to keep standing. He was dead on his feet, the short bursts of sleep that should theoretically have sufficed being nowhere near enough. And there were very few people here who were in any better shape. Most big trump cards had been spent in the opening hours, long cooldown [Skills], expensive expendable weapons, and more besides. Alchemical weapons stockpiles that had taken years to build up, created by Professor Chandler, GSG-13s Division S, which had been loaded up with all the finest Aspects and carefully managed builds utterly stuffed with high-power, long-cooldown [Skills], all in a scant few minutes. But theyd blown open all four of the beasts eyes and filled the resulting holes with all manner of chemical weaponry. Sadly, all members of that group had to sit out the entirety of the remaining fight. Of all the S-Rankers present, only around a hundred were in a position to do anything to tank, slow, or otherwise lock down the Leviathan, and of those, there were quite a few that relied on a singr ability that couldnt be rapidly used. Theyd lost eleven of the seventeen theyd started with, three carriers, and half their initial aircraft, but they were getting new fighters all the time. And almost a hundred S-Rankers had died. Thered be hell to pay for that,ter, their home nations would be out for blood, and some of those people had been the only thing keeping their region stable. The whole thing had really been a weird game of chicken, where theyd had to have someone close enough to draw the snakes attention, lest it target a poption center or an auxiliary force, but not so close to be identally sttered. It was a game they lost. Too often. But the monster wasnt looking much better. Countless holes covered its body, gashes cut into skin that had now be almost indestructible, and beneath those, the muscles had been shredded. It might have taken a while, longer than anyone had expected, but theyd finally reached the point where they were regenerating so slowly that theyd been regrowing but still non-functional for over a day, now. It had just taken a grand total of nine kills on each eye to achieve that. All around it, the sea was stained crimson, with the monsters blood not just creating dark clouds, but actually transforming the water for kilometers around a deep, dark, red. A normal monster or human would have already bled out by now, but the Leviathan was continuously regenerating new blood, for some reason, it sure as shit could have survivedpletely exsanguinated. Thered been an attempt to cut it in half, but that hadnt worked either, as to their horror, theyd realized that the toughening field also worked on individual body segments. The closer they were to bisecting it, the tougher the area around the cut would be. Working together, Amy, Patrick, and Karl had managed to expose the spinal cord in one ce, burned out the nerve bundle there, and then worked together to shove multiple nukes into the channel in the vertebra where it had been. The damage had been horrendous, and thest three-quarters of the Leviathans body was almost immobile whenpared to its previous fluidity, but the monster was not paralyzed, the way one might have hoped. Theyd chased and been chased all around the Pacific, trying to kill that damn thing, especially once it decided that something other than their ships needed to die. Some people had been stubborn about evacuating and apparently, a not-insignificant number of people being concentrated in one spot was enough to draw the monsters ire. Once all this was done, maps would have to be redrawn on a global scale. The worst part was that this thing wasnt even all that well-endowed? in terms of powers. Most [Raid Bosses] had massive amounts of magic and general reality fuckery at their disposal, capable of unleashing various arcane abilities on arge scale. This thing, on the other hand, just made the water actively hate living beings, breathed fire, and, oh yeah, it was huge. It had killed a few people directly, but everything else, from the countless ships it had literally rolled over to those killed by tidal waves, had been mostly idental. A regr Demon Lord with its standard powerset blown up to anything close to the size of Leviathan, or even just four or five kilometers in height with the same physical proportions as the standard one, could have scorched an area the size of Australia clean by now. And if, gods forbid, it had been one like Iammax? Leviathan was a demon, of course, specifically, the Prince of Envy, but thankfully limited in magical ability. The other Deadly Sins were also around, but only the Princes of Pride, Wrath, and Greed were [World Bosses], those of Gluttony, Sloth and Lust were merely Tier 10 [Raid Bosses],parable to Iammax in power. Of course, the power of different [World Bosses] was likely more concentrated, while the Leviathan had the mother of all wide-range powers. Oceania, as in, the entirety of the inds referred to by that name, was gone, just in gone. Australias shape had been altered,rge chunks of its northern coast washed away, but evacuations there had been thankfully easy, its poption had simply headed a hundred kilometers ind. China had also been hit hard from day 3 onwards, when the Philipines had been effectively reduced to nothing. Japan, Korea, Mysia, and Vietnam hade under fire at the same time, and even India, Russia, the US, and Canada, as well as the South American and African coastlines, had caught some ck. The only ce that had survived rtively unscathed had been Singapore, which hadid the groundwork for a citywide shield a while ago, and had thankfully agreed to serve as a safe staging ground/dry dock for the duration of the conflict. A more power that functioned in the more immediate area might have been a bigger threat to the people attempting to kill the [World Boss], but it sure as hell wouldnt have caused that kind of widespread destruction. Not to mention that another nine new volcanoes had grown out of the sea floor. Knocking those down was easy, shearing off enough of its top for water to flood theva channels and plugging them, but there was one small extra issue with this. The damn things grew back. The pressure of the magma would crack the solid rock in the channels, push up, solidify once more, a little higher this time, over and over again until the volcano erupted. Again. And they still hadnt seen how hard it would be to finish off the current bastard. A loud, metallic, tearing noise followed by a loud crunch drew Isaacs attention, causing him to turn to look at the Ting Juan, one of the two Chinese battleships. It had fired what, for some reason, was almost a one-to-one copy of the English Eschaton shells, straight into the Leviathans mouth. It had done decent damage, but the recoil had torn the entire turret off its mounting and since the Ting Yuan had been facing the monster bow-on, the thing behind it, the thing it smashed into, was the bridge. Oof, that had been a mistake. The ship had also drawn the blinded beasts ire. Turning hard to starboard allowed all guns to draw a bead on the titan as it bore down on theparatively small vessel, and an entire salvo of Eschaton shells destroyed every heavy weapon that remained the Ting Yuan, but tore the fuck out of their foe. And then, the ship was gone, crushed under the monsters bulk. Are we ready for the orbital bombardment? Isaac pressed again. There was a hard rule against putting weapons able to target the in orbit, but just like all the other regtions, theyd gone out the window once the true danger of the Leviathan had be clear. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. Setting that up properly wasnt a quick process, though. In theory, it should have been done by simply flying stuff up to orbit and dropping it, but it wasnt quite that simple. Proper targeting, something to prevent the projectiles from burning up in the atmosphere, a way to make the damn snake sit still long enough for the attack to hit, and overall, it was a hell of a lot moreplicated than Isaac had ever imagined. Not yet, one of the engineers responsible for the creation of that weapons system replied, his tone making it clear that he was doing so through gritted teeth. Isaac sighed and hauled himself back onto his feet, standing straight while Balmung left behind a massive gash in the deck of the ship in the process. Oops me the snake, somehow, maybe? He jumped over the side of the ship, took one, two, three stumbling steps across the air, and finally withdrew the massive, somewhat sharp, b of steel hed been given from a storage ring. It was about asrge as it could have been without snapping like a twig from him elerating, around twenty meters in total. He charged at the monster, triggered [I Am The Sword], blew clean through the monster, and then let himself drop onto the nearest ship to rest for another five minutes. Five minutes of rest, five minutes of not having to run straight at a-wrecking beast, five bloody min- Isaac awoke with a start as his head bounced off the deck. Falling asleep on his feet that wasnt exactly great. One more attack run, that would take him in the direction of Singapore, and then hed find a bed to copse into. For a brief moment, he considered waiting until his mana had filled up entirely, but then again, he was utterly shattered at the moment. So he turned, blew back through the monster, and then limp-flew through the skies, stumbling through Singapores shield half an hourter. The space immediately behind the shield was a scene straight out of a horror movie, covered in hastily errected shelters, medical tents, and all sorts of other constructions, but also, well, everyone who was no longer able to stand in the line of fire. Some were simply exhausted, just like him, while others, others had been all but torn to shreds. Modern medicine was a wonderous thing, with most standard injuries being heble with a mere potion, and anything that would have previouslynded a person in the hospital could be fixed by a wave of a doctors hand. But the [System] had also brought with it countless ways to be injured in ways that would never have been possible before, not to mention that it let people remain alive with damage that would have killed a standard person a hundred times over, in agony that no one should endure. And hellfire, well, it excelled in doing both those things. Isaac barely managed to find himself a cot that wasnt needed before he copsed, for good this time. *** After sleeping for longer than he had in years, Isaac didnt even wake up on his own, he got prodded awake via the party. Apparently, things were ready on multiple fronts. Stagmer had moved to Singapore for the duration of this fight, and hed finished preparing some stuff, and the preparations for the orbital bombardment had apparently also been finalized. He dipped into the cksmith shop, thanked the master, and headed up into orbit atop a pir of me, carrying a handful of what seemed like chopsticks in his hands, whatever guilt hed been feeling at not using [I Am The Sword] at every opportunity washing away. All of his tiredness had melted away during his rest, andpared to just a few hours ago, it felt almost as though [Final Defiance] were flowing through his body once more. Up above, several massive metal gantries had been pped together with a whole bunch of vacuum-resistant tech, blinking lights, andputer screens, with several metal rods suspended in their centers by a maic field. Were ready, one of the engineers reported to General Gibbs, a piece of information that was automatically disseminated to everyone else who needed to know. Isaac gazed down at the mess below, the immense snake writhing in the ocean, visible from literal outer space. Time to finish that thing off. Hopefully. Tying down the monster fell to an entire battalion of mages, plus Arthur and Yoo-jin who provided the window of opportunity. Massive ice pce dropped on the beasts head, giant sword summoned to pin it down, again, and that was when the binding magic was applied. Theyd burned enough mana, [Skills], and materials to hold the snake back for close to half a day, this would have to work or theyd be up shit creek without a paddle. Fire. The order came while Isaac was still contemting the situation, and the first gantry came apart as it unleashed its payload. Then the next one, and the next, with thetter ones using a wider pattern to catch the snake even if it should dodge. He also joined in, throwing the entire handful of needles hed collected from Stagmer. They werent needles, obviously, but no one would ever have expected them to be what they actually were. Copies of Jingu Bang. Vastly inferior copies, obviously, unstable, less durable, unable to ever shrink back down if they ever increased in size, and so on. But theyd hold long enough to p that overgrown reptile around a little. The first salvo impacted with the force of a meteor, which the kic projectiles, also known as rods from god, technically were. Boom, you fucker! Hit after hit shook the Leviathan, flesh tearing and bone crunching, but the monster was still alive. The same went for the second one, the inferior staves, and the third one. But by the time the fourth was on its final descent, the Leviathan had already broken free, twisted its head to face the sky, and unleashed a massive plume of fire that melted the projectiles right out of the sky. Obviously, the molten metal still hit, but it was vastly less damaging than it would have been in solid form. Fuck. That. Thing. However, the Leviathan wasnt done, surging upwards, head going straight for the origin of the rods from god. Regr snakes could rear up to a full third of their body off the ground, and with the Leviathans length, that would have allowed them to reach up to 150 kilometers into the sky. Or so Isaacs estimate had been. As it turned out, if the Leviathan managed to wind its body around an underwater volcano or wedge itself in a canyon, down there, it could get considerably further. It still didnt get anywhere close to the full 300 kilometers it would have taken to physically snap up theunch tforms, but the plume of fire did. Blue mes washed across the entire group, with only those lucky enough to be near Isaac being safe within a bubble the mes seemed to be bending around. Oh verdammt! Isaac realized what was about to happen almost toote. If the snake let itself fall back down from that height, goodbye a good third of humanity, probably. Leviathan is about to crash into the, I can stop it, but I need full cooperation! And then, he began barking orders, hoping, praying that hed bought himself enough trust and goodwill to get the support he needed. A portal shed open high below him, showing the snake from below. He sped towards it and blew through it, phasing to avoid hitting the atmosphere and being slowed down by the air resistance, and momentster, hed once again left the atmosphere, flew into another portal. For a second time, he appeared near the surface of the ocean, giving him even more space to elerate. Then, the supporting [Skills] began to startnding. Seven uses of [Instant eleration] granted an instantaneous boost to his speed, [Pinpoint Strike] helped him with his targeting, [Skillful Adhesion] would help him stick to the monsters hide, and dozens more were stacked onto him. Isaac aimed straight for the hole the crazy mages had carved into the Leviathans neck, around twenty kilometers below the head, and triggered [I Am The Sword] in its pushing configuration. The flesh around the hole was already practically indestructible, but between the durability, adhesion, and the [Skill] reducing his prative capacity, he knew he wouldnt st straight through. This never would have worked if the monster had stayed on Earth, he wouldnt have been able to get the right angle, and even if he had, he wouldnt have tried flinging the monster into the void because it would have been too tricky and risky. But with how far the monster had already extended itself, it had been the only option. Note to self, never lure the Leviathan towards the sky. For 0.13 seconds, Isaac was immobile and immovable, even with the entire weight of the massive monster trying to pull him back down, and during that time, he managed to move almost a thousand kilometers skywards, tearing itpletely out of the atmosphere and utterly shattering the underwater structures the monster had used to anchor itself. He slowed down ever so slightly to separate from the monster, and yet another portal zapped him back to thes surface, so he could elerate again. The Leviathan twisted to try and avoid a repeat performance, but it was too slow, with Isaac mming into ce like a meteor, far faster, this time. Another one and a half thousand kilometers into the air, and Isaac had enough mana for one more use of his [Skill], and he was given yet another portal. After the final impact, the Leviathan was left tumbling through space, but already slowing down as gravity began to exert its exorable pull. If they failed now they were fucked. But massive weavings of magic below began to counter the motion, reducing gravity and pushing at the snake, and hundreds of exhaust trails began to draw lines in the atmosphere. Have you ever heard of the Orion Drive? Karl suddenly asked out of the blue, I bet its designers never expected the first proper use of the concept to be used to throw a snake around. Blow after blow, they kept going, kept pushing the monster higher and higher, but Isaac had stopped really paying attention to the thing after barely a minute. It was no longer a problem, at least not one he could really help with. Or wanted to think about. Karl talking about the history of spaceflight and the concept of detonating nuclear weaponry at an appropriate distance behind a spacecraft to provide eleration was far more pleasant. Eventually, they managed to push the thing to escape velocity whether they wanted to or not, but they kept thest few missiles in flight and took the time to steer them into existing holes in the beasts hide. Isaac had been so enraptured by watching the disy that hed practically missed the kill notification. Chapter 318: Rewards for a Job Well Done Chapter 318: Rewards for a Job Well Done Congrattions, Earth! The World Boss The Leviathan has been in by the hand of countless people. The matter of the final blow was therefore random and immaterial. All those who participated will be rewarded based on their contribution, with XP, Aspects, and monster materials. So, the damn thing was dead, but werent there billions of tons of materials floating out there? And that was when the swearing started. Understandable, after all, the body of the monster theyd just been fighting, the literal treasure trove that, if things hadnt been devalued by the sheer amount of stuff present, would likely have surpassed the GDP of most of the. But good grief, thenguage being used Isaac had literally never heard the like, his crass vocabry had tripled in mere seconds. And then, the next message mmed home. The Rewards Levels are listed below, however, there are some 1. Body Pieces may be either a tooth, scale, tooth-sized piece of bone, 50 Leviathan steaks, 1 liter of any bodily fluid, or 50 m^2 of leather 2. World Boss Aspects must be stacked atop apatible Aspect, but can override previous Skills if so desired, allowing their recipients to customize how they use their rewards. 3. Regardless of how many people hold each rank of reward, only a maximum of 15 Aspects will be handed out. 4. Level Boosts are not immediate, their recipients will receive them and trigger them whenever they choose to (they will trigger automatically if doing so would push their recipient to the maximum Level of 200). Infinitesimal: Those who participated but failed to reach any reward higher tiers will receive 100,000 XP Minor: Those who participated in the battle and contributed will receive 200,000 XP Small: Those who participated in a way that would be noted as being above average in reports will receive 500,000 XP, half a body piece (own choice), and have a 0.1% chance at receiving an Aspect Sufficient: Those who have done enough that a million like them together would have been able to beat the World Boss will receive 1,000,000 XP, 1 body piece, and have a 1% chance of receiving an Aspect Significant: This tier requires one to single-handedly affect the battle in some way, be it by briefly restraining the foe so others maynd a solid hit, ornding a significant hit on their own. As such, they will be boosted by 1 Level or 2,000,000 XP, whichever is more, gain 5 body pieces, and have a 10% chance of getting an Aspect Massive: Those who will go down in the history books as having helped y the Leviathan are going to be boosted by a full five Levels, receive an Aspect of the Leviathan Decisive: This is a rank that can only be held by a single person per battle. In this battle, this person was one Isaac Thoma, who both used one of the strongest cooldown Skills in existence to keep the Leviathan pinned for half an hour and eventually flung the beast into space. As such, he will receive a boost of 10 Levels, an Aspect of the Leviathan, 25 body pieces (24 by his choice, 1 Leviathan Fire nd), and the World Item [Soul of the Ocean]. This is an item that can affect the world as a whole, altering the entirety of the Earths waterways, in ways that may be humanitys boon or bane. The [System] was being helpful. That was never a good thing. Almost as though it were trying to incite people to be stupid during the next [World Boss] battle, and make them fight in the here and now which was exactly what it was doing, of course. The damn thing had told everyone what he now held, and while he generally didnt expect anyone specific to try and steal the World Item, considering how many people there were in the world, chances were someone would. Not to mention that it had just specifically told him that he had a stupidly powerful capability in his hands. It was only then that he received his personal message. Congrattions, Isaac Thoma! You have been the thing to make or break the battle against the Leviathan, and, well, you made it! Due to your aplishments, you gain the ability to increase your Level by 10 at a point in time of your choosing, however, it will automatically trigger upon hitting Level 190. One Aspect of the Leviathan has been deposited in your Personal Storage. One Leviathan Fire nd has been deposited in your Personal Storage. Twenty-four Leviathan parts will be deposited in your Personal Storage once you decide on which you wish to receive, your Personal Storage will temporarily expand to hold them should the space not suffice. You have received one [Soul of the Ocean]. Isaac only had a brief second to frown at the final message before a smooth, blue and green marble around the size of a baseball appeared in front of him, serenely floating in space. Why oh why could that thing not have gone into his storage too? Did it have to sh itself to the whole world? He grabbed it and tried to put it into his Personal Storage, which should still have some space left as he hadnt yet selected any body parts. The enruned Lesser Space Elemental Core crumbled to dust, he felt the storage open, he extended the hand clutching the World Item and the storage snapped shut. Okay, lets see what the rings do oh, for fucks deep breaths Isaac, deep breaths. What was most likely the single most valuable item in existence had slipped from his hands like a greased egg the instant hed tried putting it into his storage ring, but hed thankfully caught it, and then [Continent Strode] to the far side of the Moon so hed have a little privacy with his new item. The next thing he tried was putting it into his pocket and then used [Fully Geared] to swap armor, but doing so caused the World Item to not only pop out, but also go flying. Ok, that was uneptable. This item could not be stored, could not be hidden, everyone knew he had it and knew it was valuable. He needed to use it, now, everything else could wait. Soul of the Ocean (World Item) The Boon given to the yer of the Leviathan is the gratitude of the sea itself, allowing its holder to reshape the water of an entire, restoring it from its damaged shape. The holder may choose what the ocean is restored to, how quickly this change urs, what parts of the world are restored (up to and including all of them), and what, if any, is excluded from the effect. This is a single-use item, the user will need to set all parameters prior to activation, at which point the item will be destroyed. As a World Item, the Soul of the Ocean cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Aaaaand there it was, that was why things were fucky with the rings. But yeah, he really needed to get rid of this thing, by using it in a way that did the most good and pissed off the least amount of people. Restoring the ocean sounded nice and all, but there were quite a few messes one could make. It might obliterate any newly creatednd that humanity had made, by restoring the ocean to where it had been even a few decades ago, sink cities by returning it to a different era in the geological sense, obliterate every harbor, ship, and other structure man had built in the water by sheer ident, and so on. He had a pretty good idea of what to do with it, but he couldnt risk making a mistake here. So he asked around. Amy made a joke about how hed have to pay Rauls sry if he identally trashed the ecosystem and it had to be restored, Karl pointed out that there was a clear demarcation between useful manmade structures and the likes of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Patrick provided a list of what should and shouldnt be touched and which era had had the most abundant wildlife, and what should be excluded from reversion, and Bailey pointed out that there were some games that could be yed with the whole thing. Isaac also triggered [Blessing of Innovation] and [Wisdom of the Simurgh] to boost his knowledge, trying to get as much information as possible in what little time he had. People were already bugging him about what the damn World Item did, and what he was going to do with it. All sorts of offers, threats, bribes including some that were decidedly illegal. Providing women was almost certainly a metaphor for sex very or at the very least, decidedly disgusting coercion, so Isaac took note of who made those offers and moved on. The longer he spent considering what to do, the more insistent the voices became, almost tempting him to cut himself out of themunicationswork, but after maybe a minute of work, Lieutenant General Gibbs overrode the whole mess. This is not an auction house, this is an importantmunicationswork currently coordinating live-saving operations all over the Pacific. Every person to start shouting about World Items is getting removed, no exceptions. Then, he sent another message directly to Isaac. Dr. Thoma, I dont know where you ran off to, it was probably a good idea to take yourself out of the line of fire, but you need to do something soon. Destroy that thing, throw it into the sun, use it to clean out the pollution in the ocean or sink Russia into the sea, or hand it over to whichever government you want, just do something. Merely having you somewhere out there with that kind of capability is causing all sorts of messes down here. Isaac winced, but replied, Its a single-use item, Im nning on using it to clean the ocean of pollution, I need five minutes. Ill try to buy you that, Gibbs replied. Huh, didnt know he had that in him, Isaac thought. Gibbs was supposed to be the safe option, the mediator who listened to outside input. But it seemed like even his patience had limits. But it only took him two minutes to finish his deliberations and teleport back into orbit above what had once been Oceania. And then, he triggered the Soul of the Ocean. The blue and green marble in his hand slowly became malleable, his fingers sinking into the surface for a few seconds even as he rxed his grip until it was basically non-existent, before finally dissolving into water, which soon vaporized in the vacuum of space and finally vanishedpletely. Ive activated the World Item to Isaac began to exin, only to be cut off by yet another [System] message. Attention, Earth! The World Item [Soul of the Ocean] has been triggered, altering the Earths water in ways its holder has decided. Currently, it will: 1. Restore the inds and coastlines destroyed by the Leviathan (only thendmass, flora, fauna, and human poption will not be included) 2. Remove all pollutants from the ocean and store them in appropriate natural resources (ex: Great Pacific Garbage Patch > undersea oil reserves), deliberate human construction (ex: harbors, Venice, artificial reefs, artificial inds) will be excluded from this effect. 3. Reset oceanic flora and fauna to Year 1 BC, including species diversity and poption levels. 4. Scrub the radiation released during the battle from the ocean 5. Erge the pr ice caps topensate for the energy released by nuclear weaponry during the battle against the Leviathan. 6. Removal of monster-created volcanoes All changes will happen over the course of a single day, to give ships and personnel the chance to clear the area where inds will rise. So yeah, just like the item says, I fixed everything about the environment I could and tried to restore the world to the pre-Leviathan state as best as possible, Isaac finishedmely as once hed read the whole thing over. The message had pretty much said everything, including his thoughts behind everything where the idea hadnt been obvious. Slowly, the crimson stain on ocean began to abate and he saw the beginnings of old-new inds rising from the oceans, the rubble at the bottom shifting to reform oldnds. The survivors would have the devils time surviving there once they returned from wherever theyd evacuated from, but that was something that could be helped. Bringing in nts and animals to restart the ecosystem with was going to be expensive, however, Isaac was sure it was going to be worth it. Just a few more things left to take care of, during which time hed stay up here and just watch. Firstly, he wanted to grab his Aspect and slot it. Aspect of Leviathan, the Demonic Prince of Envy This is the distilled essence of what made Leviathan a monster worthy of being struck down by divine might in the final battle for the fate of the world. Gain the indestructibility of a World Boss, mes that surpass all previous hell fires, turn any water around you into a lethal trap, or cloak yourself in the nigh-indestructible scales of the primordial serpent. Requirements for Activation: 100,000 XP Open Aspect Slot Grants: +100 Agility +50 Strength Progressive Invulnerability Moment of Immortality Sea of Damnation Mantle of Indomitable Scales Transcendent Hellme As a World Boss Aspect, it may be slotted onto anypatible Aspect stack, and override previous Skills to slot its own. Hed also already had all the needed XP, so hed slotted it the instant hed pulled it from his storage. The obvious pick was [Progressive Invulnerability], as it was pretty powerful and more durability could never hurt. Progressive Invulnerability (legendary) The true power of a World Boss, that makes them functionally invulnerable to many kinds of attacks capable of taking down titanic enemies. Every time you lose a body part (with skin/muscles/bones, ten percent of total volume), all remaining instances of that body part will take half as much damage for the next five minutes, this effectpounds. This Skill can be activated once every month and will remain in effect for half an hour once triggered. This increased survivability would be incredibly useful, especiallybined with the next [Skill]. Mantle of Indomitable Scales (legendary) The scales of the Leviathan offer some of the greatest degrees of protection of any natural armor, practically requiring divine intervention to break. This Skill allows the user to cloak themselves in those very same scales, summoning armor thatsts for 24 hours or until dismissed. Cost: 1,000 points of mana Isaac was pretty sure that that [Skill] was slightly overselling itself, and hed have to check if it messed with his flexibility any, but it should be really useful. His favorite [Skill], though, was the one hed dropped the Aspect-based Hellfire one, which had be utterly superfluous when hed gotten [Divine Fire]. Sea of Damnation (legendary) Thssophobia is the fear of deep orrge bodies of water, such as the ocean, particrly deepkes, or other vast and unexplorable nastiness. But the definition of phobia is an extreme and irrational fear. When someone wielding this Skill is angry, that fear suddenly bes very, very, rational. Up to 50,000,000,000 (50 billion) liters of water around the user can be made to be incredibly dangerous, making falling in a near-death sentence. It can be activated once a week and will be active for one hour after a five-minute ramp-up period. It was the Aspect version of the Leviathans ability to turn the sea itself against anyone who fell in. In any area with water, this would make him a deadly threat. Congrattions, Challenger of the Apocalypse, for defeating a monster of the end times! As such, you will receive 3,000,000 XP, and due to your Skill Aspects of the End, you have received the sub-Skill Sea of the Leviathan, and your time pool has been increased by 10 seconds. Ah, that old chestnut. Apparently, [World Bosses] were the Monsters of the End Times the [Skill] had talked about. Sea of the Leviathan (Subskill of Aspects of the End, gained by killing a Monster of the End Times) The ocean. Deep, unknowable, and a ce that makes it almost impossible to fight without highly specific adaptations. As such, dumping someone at the bottom of the sea tends to be somewhat problematic for ones foes. This Skill summons a 500-meter diameter sphere during which all enemies suffer the negative consequences of being underwater (no breathing without water breathing abilities, weight/resistance of the water, pressure equivalent to a depth of Aspects of the End Level * 50 meters) while granting the user all benefits of underwaterbat (swimming in any direction with a body temporarily optimized for underwater existence, ignore all negatives). It was slightly weaker than the version he could have bought with [Skill] points, but it had been free. And it would be nasty as hell when he applied [Sea of Damnation] on it. And it was one hell of a noob-stomper, capable of alternatively crushing them with water pressure or drowning them in conjured water. Also, summoning a ball of water in the path of someone moving quickly would lead to an ufortable collision. Almost as ufortable as the countless conversations hed have to have after this. Chapter 319: Interlude Unsung Heroes Chapter 319: Interlude Unsung Heroes Day 1 Good afternoon,dies and gentlemen, how about we calm down, Jason called out to the angry mob. It didnt work, obviously, but keeping his [Aura] going at full st was thankfully sufficiently intimidating that no one tried charging at him. Yet. The problem with mobs was that they were only as smart as their dumbest members, and if they charged, hed have to run, but that was a risk hed have to take. His interference could hardly have made things worse. But it might help calm them back down. I know things are rough at the moment, but youre on the opposite side of the globe from the fighting. Its not a matter of if theyll kill the Leviathan, but when, and all thisll achieve isnd you in hot wa- Someone threw a Molotov cocktail at him. He caught it, plucked out the burning rag, and gave the mob a disappointed look. Then another twenty or so flew his way and he decided to not even fight it anymore. He had a whole lot of glue bombs infused with potions that helped those caught in it heal small injuries and removed their need to breathe for as long as they were submerged. It hadnt been approved for general use due to concern about the optics of essentially trapping people in honey for up to an hour, but thered been enough manufactured that stealing them had been worth it. And he used them to trap a good half of the thousand-plus people trying to trash a local IRS office before the rest ran. It had required most of his supply, almost all of it, in fact, but honestly, trying to stop another mob was thest thing he ever wanted to do. Maybe, just maybe, someone would see this on TV and think twice before sacrificing their brain on the altar of mob idiocy, because once they were outside and a part of one, that was it. He took a few seconds to pose for the camera, threw a mock salute, and made to leave. Thats when he noticed a few police officers were getting batton-happy, so he gooped them too, before leaving. There were riots everywhere right now, people getting genuinely upset about real problems or just deciding the potential apocalypse was the time to cut loose, and he wasnt built to deal with any of it. This had been his attempt at a warning shot, hed tried, and now he was done with that specifically. For several days at the very least, hed be running all over the world, making as many examples as possible, fixing as many situations as he could, with Zambon working in the background to either locate targets or, when necessary, y merry havoc with themand structures with anyone trying to attack their neighbors. Itd be a busy few days, but he was Level 185, and only needed a few seconds of sleep per day. Things should be fine. *** Day 2 Time to check in on what the Russians were doing. Again. Theyd stayed out of a global crisis for some reason, and while that might just be down to selfishness, they might also be nning something. Checking this out was decidedly important, and their information security was good enough that either Jason or Zambon needed to get in range to get some information. He ran into a full two-thirds of Russias S-Rankers a few steps into the building. So two in total. One was a hulking brute who looked like hed just stepped out of a recruiting poster, though Jason knew that was just cosmetic surgery, the other a wiry woman who looked practically mummified, arcane symbols stitched into her clothing. This entire ce was likely drowning in wards, that was how theyd noticed him. On one hand, someone was clearly worried about S-ranked snoops. On the other hand, if they were here, they couldnt be fucking around anywhere else. Who are you? CIA, MI6, Mossad? the woman asked, threads already manifesting around her hands as she got ready to go after him. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. You do realize that name recognition is not a good thing for an intelligence agency? Jason asked with a cocky grin while activating a couple of [Skills] to get the hell out there. Thankfully, [French Exit] worked together perfectly with [Rougish Avatar], allowing him to get the hell out of dodge without leaving a gap between him vanishing and the avatar appearing. So while Jason strode off into the sunset, he made the avatar do the Im watching you gesture of pointing at his eyes with two fingers, and then pointing the same fingers at the people standing across from him. And then, he dissolved the avatar and moved on. *** Do you think theres a record for the most governments toppled in a day? Jason wondered. Id say youve certainly got the one for most heads of state stink-bombed in one day, Zambon said. Hey, theres a reason for that, Jason shot back, I could tell them theyre vulnerable, I could injure them, I could even cut off fingers, but the worse the stuff I do is, the more I look like a monster. And in time, theyll start feeling like maybe Im not all that much of a threat. But an alchemical stink bomb thats incredibly difficult to clean will be a constant reminder for weeks, every time they take a breath in their offices, theyll know I can get to them. And while I might not be able to get to them all, I sure as shit can go for any given asshole who decides to use a global crisis to enrich himself. Im not arguing that point, Zambon replied, Its just that youre getting a bit of a reputation Ah, who cares, Jason shrugged, Ive already got a weird one, being a little erratic cant hurt. Makes it harder to predict what Im going to do next. Anyway, do you have another target for me? Unless youve got something else you desperately need to get to, one of those Congo warlords decided to ignore your warning and try to absorb his rivals territory. Oh, frick, Jason sighed, picked himself up, and headed off in search of the nearest person with [Portal] while reaching into one of his storage rings for some suitable Aspects to bribe them with once he found them. A while ago, Zambond collected a pretty thorough list of all people with that [Skill], the locations they liked to hang out, and what to bribe them with. Was it intrusive as hell? Yeah, but it was the only thing that made zapping around the globe possible. And he sincerely doubted anyone regretted the trade, considering what he paid them. *** Day 3 Okay, okay, okay, I know that this seems like a good idea in your mind, that theres historical support and maybe even some divine right in y that makes you think you can pull this shit, but you can either cut the crap, or I can cut apart your entire militarymand structure, Jason rattled off even amidst fisticuffs with the so-called security detail. Hed run out of alchemical stink bombs hours ago, so he was sticking to random chemicals hed been able to steal in passing. And on one asion, a skunk hed kidnapped from the local zoo and let loose in his targets office. *** Day 4 We should act now, the Americans have blown a good chunk of their nuclear arsenal, and all the idiots who decided to fight the boss will have blown all their cooldown [Skills]. We should be able to keep everything we secure within the next few days, but parts of the world are unusually unified at the moment. If they recover from the battle and were still fighting, we The General wearing an embarrassing number of exceedingly gaudy medals broke off as Jason stumbled into the office, looking like death warmed over. Not due to injuries, he was just tired. Though his clothing was quite badly torn at the moment. Okay, so, Ive had a really shitty few days, so Im going to make this real short. There are people who dont feel like having the world explode into chaos, I am one of those people, and if you make mee back here, you wont like what happens. Jasonzily swayed to the side to avoid his outfit from being ruined by any of the bullets fired at him, and snapped his fingers. Every water cooler, sink, and toilet in the building exploded. Especially the toilets. Elena might have been perfectly capable of fighting against the Leviathan, but that was with abination of all her [Skills], copying any single one would not have helped matters. So hed been left with the ability to copy her as a trump card. This time, several elemental spells were mixed in amidst the gunfire, courtesy of the small little balding man who styled himself president of this ce, despite having decidedly not been democratically elected. Mr. President, if I may use that word despite it fitting you as well as it would a dog turd, Im an S-Ranker. An actual one, unlike you, who might im to be one but its just that no one in your immediate circle dares tell you otherwise. And the international media are done running this story a hundred times over. He dodged another barrage and grinned. Im an S-Ranker, and Im not at the big fight because they could spare me. Thats how far you are from the kind of power needed to do any of your ns. And with that, he jumped out of the window while using Elenas hydrokinesis to direct all the sewage that had sted out of various toilets into the main office. Sure, flooding a historic building that had been constructed all the way back in 1849, along with its attached museum, with all sorts of unmentionable crap would probablynd him in historical infamy for decades or centuries, but holy shit, that had been fun. *** The snake was done, and so was he. Time to fall into a bed and sleep like the dead. Chapter 320: What Now? Chapter 320: What Now? And the recipient of the World Item should have been decided viamittee, taking and immediately wasting it was irresponsible in the extreme, and disrespectful to those who died, I This particr speech had been going on for close to ten minutes already, and Isaacs patience was running thin. How about someone just exins to me what I should have done with that item, instead of making vague suggestions? he suggested, making sure to keep it out of the general conversation loop, where the speech was currently being held. The respectful variant of an interruption, only possible in party-basedmunications. Which they were doing because the various armchair generals that hade out of the woodwork were terrified of being in the same room as the high-Level individuals they were criticizing. For one, you didnt clean up the atmosphere. Do you have any idea about how much dust and pollutants have been released into the atmosphere by all those nuclear detonations? Of course, his littlement had been immediately passed along, if the speaker hadnt been listening in on the other speech channels with one ear anyway. Isaac paused for a long moment, letting the whole thing hang awkwardly in the air until he eventually asked, What was the name of that World Item? I believe it was Soul of the Ocean. Why? Because it is the Soul of the Ocean, capable of affecting the ocean, not the air, not the ground, not anything else, Isaac pointed out, Can we please either move on from this, or start with concrete criticisms? Because this is getting us nowhere. Well, I Oh, put a sock in it, youre in no position to criticize the use of the World Item, youd have done a billion times worse! The voice was generic, without a clearly defined ent or other identifying characteristics. If Isaac hadnt known Jason was still zonked out in a safe house somewhere, hed have thought hed snuck in here. But he did know it likely wasnt him, so most likely, someone here had grabbed a [Skill] for anonymous heckling. Excuse me? Let me put it this way, if stupidity were a weapon, youd be considered a WMD. Oh, for the love of Isaac sighed and put his head down as the arguing somehow managed to be even less productive than it had been before. At least then, thered been some distant attempts at an actual discussion, right now though, it was just abination of insults and witch-hunting. In general, politicians could be petty, dumb, rude, crude, and a whole host of other negative things, but ultimately, when in public, anyone even remotely sessful would attempt to be polite. The various high-Level people dragged in here, or were attending just to make sure they werent screwed in the after-action report, they were more than happy to stir the pot given half a chance. Well, most were mature enough to not do so immediately, but some werent, and after two hours of this, even a saints patience would have snapped. And there were so many topics to cover Ultimately, we have an issue of rewards being automatically given by the [System], which does not grant anypensation for those who died in battle. And those who received rewards that can be passed on to others, meaning materials or even Aspects, are generally unwilling to give up what they earned. Someone would need topensate the families of the dead, and I would suggest that Once again, what could have been summed up in a couple of sentences was dragged out to over ten minutes, though it basically boiled down to we normally distribute loot after the battle and include the dead, that doesnt work this time. The situationrgely got reduced to nations pay for members of their military, and into a fund for everyone else, lets hammer out the particrster. Good fucking luck with that. Isaac had already resolved toter auction off one of each Leviathan material type donate the proceeds to various funds dedicated to fixing up the mess. And then hed try to make it a tradition from now on. If the rewards for future [World Bosses] were anything like theyd been for Leviathan, the person with the Decisive reward rank had more than enough materials avable for a great weapon, full set of armor, potentially potions too, and barely even scratch the surface of the twenty-five monster pieces rewarded. The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. So giving up five would not be too great a sacrifice, especially since there was no guarantee the next Decisive ranker would have made as much of a difference as Isaac did. They were able to give up a part of their material reward to help cleanup without actually giving up much at all. Theyd be out the materials mary worth, obviously, and maybe the social cred they might be able to get by using the materials as gifts, but overall, thered still be more than enough left for anything and everything one might want to make from [World Boss] materials. But if he opened the door for giving up materials amidst this pack of hyenas no one knew where this would end. Overall though, hed have to be a bit more careful of how he wielded his influence, moving forward. The fight with the Leviathan hadnt been live-streamed, exactly, but it had been really freakin public. Basically everyone who cared to look knew what had happened, what Isaac had done, and could then imagine what else he might be able to do. No one knew what [Skill] hed whipped out to kick the Leviathan around like a football, no one knew its limitations, and very few people really knew him at all. That was abination that made him dangerous. In the short term, that would let him push around anyone who didnt feel like they were in a position to stand up to him, and doing something like using the wrong tone of voice might make hime across as threatening regardless. And in the long term, preparations would be made, specifically to counter him in case he went off the rails. He wouldnt me anyone for taking precautions, but h also knew how easily taking precautions could turn into taking pre-emptive action. Keeping his proper working rtionship with as many people as possible, that was the key. That, and continuing to keep backing any of his suggestions with evidence and rational arguments, to make them look less arbitrary. And this was something he need to keep doing, for the rest of his life. I hate to drag everyone away from this rivetting discussion, but we do have to make some ns about handling the refugee crisis. Even discounting those who were only disced within their own nation, weve got close to four hundred and fifty million people stuck in camps, mostly in China, and Australia. The conditions are borderline inhumane already, and theyre only getting worse. At least someone was aware of the real issues. Their inds are back, lets just send em there with building supplies. Isaac took note of whod spoken and decided to put him on his list of people not worth listening to. You do realize those are barren rocks, right? An S-Ranker who isnt a builder or green mage would struggle there, let alone refugees. And once again, a discussion on an actually important topic spiraledpletely out of control. First, it was a question of whod pay for the relocation of so many people, even though the same methods that had allowed for the evacuation of so many people in the first ce werergely still avable. Then, it became a problem of whod pay for the materials needed to build houses and prepare the rocky ground for agriculture once again. It was a genuinely important topic, sure, but it got derailed so thoroughly that it didnt get anywhere for close to half an hour. The end result was once again deferred judgment, but wellrgely be focussing on the usual disaster relief funds. Isaac had some ns, but once again, those were there to be employedter. And finally, things got really crazy when the environmental impact topic came up. Normally, that would have been important. In fact, one might even go so far as to say that in general, the environment was the most important topic of them all as if Earth ever became a lifeless husk, no other issue would really matter. But sometimes, even people fighting the important fights suffered from extreme tone deafness. Specifically, it was an issue of the flora and fauna on the inds, which had been obliterated by the battle, and some people wanted grab whatever nts wouldbine into a proper ecosystem in the local climate. Effective, reasonable, and doable. The problem was that there was a faction who felt that everything should have been a perfect replica of the previous ecosystem. From a preservation aspect, that would have been the optimal route, but from a real-world one half a billion people were waiting to return to those inds. And even if it were possible to get their hands on all the orignal nts and animals, it would likely take years. Isaac had already reached out to every German university and botanical garden to see what samples they had of the various needed flora, and Bailey had begun creating ns for recreating the fauna out of DNA harvested from stuffed museum pieces, but creating an entirely new species with all the necessary gic diversity and everything else would be difficult. But the idiot of the decade award went to an Australian minister who had the bright idea of restoring variousnd-based natural resources by killing the Behemoth. After all, if the biblical sea beast could fix the sea, then the biblicalnd beast should be able to fix thend, right? So, like I said, weve already proven that killing a [World Boss] is within our capability, and we can fix the damage caused by the fighting using the World Item. Isaac facepalmed, other people yelled, death threats were hurled about. After about five seconds, Gibbs fixed the shouting and yelling by just muting the entire party. Then Isaac asked to speak and was given the mike. I have a question, which [World Boss] holds the item which will fix thend? The Behemoth, I just said that But there are multiple options in the summoning list, including two whose bodies were literally became the Earth in their respective home mythologies. Also, I hereby propose a neww: whosoever proposes the summoning of a [World Boss] has to fight on the front lines. All in favor? Other than a fewughs, and more insults directed at the minister, things were quiet. How much more of this shit would Isaac have to shovel before he could head back to the university? Because there, an actual celebration was happening, not the stuffy receptions Isaac and the others had been invited to by the hundreds. Chapter 321: Premature Yet Deserved Party Chapter 321: Premature Yet Deserved Party There were a lot of people who could not be here today. Thankfully, Isaacs most immediate circle hadrgely escaped damage, though it had been a close thing in Karls case. He, along with the teams spellcasters, had done one hell of a number on the Leviathan, and it hadnt taken that well. But unlike the others, Karl, however,cked the teleportation capability of his colleagues and barely managed to escape retaliation. But there were others who hadnt gotten away with injuring the Leviathan. Lukas Mller of GSG-13 had inflicted horrific damage to the monster, his [Right Hand of the Reaper] [ss] granting him insane offensive capabilities but short-changing him in the mobility department. It worked well against enemies he could actually take down, but against a monster of titanic vitality that retaliated against anyone who demonstrated the power to hurt it. And the Round Table had lost a member. Steff Cooke had been one of the first people to join, Camelots third S-Ranker, though in hindsight, he likely would have been better as an associate without a seat at the table. He was helpful when it came to action, but contributed very little to the nning and strategizing. Once again, his ability to carve a path through everything as long as he had mana had wreaked havoc upon their foe, opening several of the gaps that the others had fired through until eventually, hed been a little too slow. That was the story of most losses. Some unfortunatebination of drawing attention and being unable to dodge or block, or being in the wrong ce at the wrong time whilecking the durability to survive the attack. Practically random, at times. It didnt feel right to be going to a party now, yet somehow, it felt like not going would have been a betrayal of himself. The entire campus had gotten a makeover for this party. Bailey had talked to the dean and Isaac had written a massive check to prematurely cover all potential damages, and then, theyd run all over the world for good booze. The campus wasnt entirely unfamiliar with massive parties, they did have an entire brewing faculty and an annual party with free beer donated by local breweries, but this was going to get truly insane. Mostly because far more than just students had been invited. Mostly, this was a party for their allies, from Camelot to the Hunters Guild, Fenrirs organization, and every other person where they could exin why they wanted them there. Jason was also there, but in disguise. And since this was happening on campus, well, they werent exactly in the position to keep the students out even if theyd been inclined to do so. But before everything else, Bailey had gathered every member of his faculty, and some vital affiliates like Stagmer, in thergest summoning room avable and was currently standing on a desk hed dragged in here while trying to somehow stand up straight while also petting Artemis, who was currently rubbing against his legs until Isaac distracted her with some snacks. I wanted to thank everyone for their work on understanding the thing that turned the world upside down. Youve put in a lot of work here, dare I say, more than most of the people who work on this campus. Youve spent arge chunk of your youth on this, and I want to say: Thank you. I know we still have some ways to go, being able to beat a single [World Boss] does not mean weve conquered the [System], but as Winston Churchill said, the future is unknowable but the past should give us hope. We know weve not only got the capacity to beat a monster of apocalyptical power, but that we as humans cane together if a threat of sufficient power appears. So I think that thats worth celebrating, you are worth celebrating. Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow, Im giving you the day off. He waited for theughter to die down before warning everyone that, since there were bartenders around with [Skills] to enable drunkenness, they did need to watch their drinking and bnce the alcohol with regeneration. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the vition. So they streamed out onto the za outside, where the finest stalls were. Some people had decided to start demonstrating how their [Skills] could be used to do other stuff, like Amy, who immediately jumped to mixing drinks with telekinesis and object teleportation, or Stagmer, who was cooking some burger patties by levitating a spat above a cauldron of molten metal. But Isaac ignored all that and headed over to greet Elena. Mdy, may I have this dance? he asked as the music started, doing a formal bow. She chuckled and grabbed him by the hand, leading him into the area currently developing into the dancing floor, making sure to pick up a couple of drinks on the way. The music got louder and louder, the bass thumping with enough force that he could feel it in his chest, the alcohol flowed, and Isaac knew the smile on his face had to be looking real goofy. Despite his age, despite the age of a lot of people here, they were finally cutting loose. They danced, drank, and eventually, he and Elena decided to zap up to the roof of the [System] research faculty. Is the trantion [Skill] malfunctioning, or was that song really called Ive got an onion on my head, Im a kebab? Elena asked with a truly perplexed expression, sounding as though shed been dying to ask that question for a while. Isaac burst outughing, Yeah, Ich hab ne Zwiebel auf dem Kopf, ich bin ein Dner is a real song and among the most ridiculous songs in existence. Something of a party ssic, though. Did you see the sign above Amys bar? Elena asked. Reality is the illusion created by insufficient alcohol consumption, soe and fix that? Isaac asked, Yeah, thats written in the bathroom of the bar in Student Housing 1. Yeah, that tracks, Elena nodded, I She was interrupted by Amy shouting Heads up!, followed by two sses filled with an orange liquid being teleported up to them. They both grabbed one each and clinked them together. Cheers, Elena grinned as they drank, So, are you excited to go on holiday? I cant wait, Isaac said, An entire month for ourselves? Weve never even had half that up until now. Elena began to say something, only to pause, pull out her phone, and google something. You know what? On second thought, it might have been a mistake to let Amy take care of the drinks, she said, Do you know what this cocktail is called? Isaac shook his head. He hadnt looked at her phone to respect her privacy, and he hadnt paid attention to Amys recipe book either. What he had done was make sure there was nothing dangerous in what she mixed, but that wasnt because he didnt trust her, but because it was an automatic action that would have been more bother than it was worth to stop doing. Its called the Slow Comfortable Screw, and she just gave a pair to all the couples, Elena informed him. Oh, that sounds like her, Isaacughed, Good cocktail, though. Not as good as the real thing, though, Elena winked at him. Oh, that was something he certainly couldnt pass up, now could he? Hand in hand, they walked off. You know, I just realized that the cocktails shes been giving Arthur are called Flirtinis, Isaac said. Do you think shes actually flirting? Elena asked. I think its probably the setup to a prank, its too subtle to be actual flirting. You know, go full Yandere on him at the end of the night? Ive been flirting with you all night, how could you ignore me, you monster?, that sort of thing, Isaac suggested. Oh my God, hes going to have a heart attack, Elena chuckled. Pretty sure thats the idea, Isaac told her, which prompted her to step in front of him, ce both arms on his shoulders and grasp her hands behind his head. Isaac, dear? Yes? Were not leaving until weve seen that happen, she stated before giving him a brief kiss on the lips. Good point, Isaac said and returned the kiss, which led to a far longer make-out session, after which they headed downstairs because someone needed to stop one of the local fraternities from trying to get Artemis drunk. The party kept going, and things got more and more ridiculous. Someone eximed Stop frenching the toucan, which Isaac eventually figured out referred to a toucan-shaped watering can filled with a strong beer called Vitus, obtained from the worlds oldest brewery, that people were sharing with each other. University parties. University freakin parties. Isaacughed a lot harder than the joke really warranted. *** The party kept going for far longer than anyone had expected, though they really should have expected it. After all, theyd procured enough booze to drown the entire town, and people were literally sleeping it off in a matter of minutes on one of the many mattresses ced in an unused space. Isaac and Elena ended up spending some more time at the party, before retreating back to the roof with food, drinks, and a pic nket, watching the night sky. But eventually, things died down, crowds dispersed, and Isaac and Elena got to watch Arthur run from Amy as though all the hounds of hell were chasing him. In fact, Isaacughed so hard he fell off the side of the roof. So, just two more hours to wake the drunks sleeping in the bushes and to do some general cleanup, and then, holiday time. Explore the, explore the sr system, and finally spend some proper time together. Chapter 322: Gear Revolution Chapter 322: Gear Revolution Handing over several billion euros worth of materials to Stagmer had almost resulted in him fainting. Being in a position to hand over such wealth had been gratifying. And getting the armor that could be made from such materials that would be infinitely better than handing over the materials had been. Though the holiday hed taken with Elena while those materials had been forged had been far better than any gain or show of wealth could ever be. Yet the thought of the new armor had been incredible. Isaac was a grown-ass man, someone whod matured twice over, with a biological age of 31 and a chronological of 43 years of overall life experience, with most of that having urred under the worst pressure possible, of war and potential armageddon. He was an adult in every sense of the word, mature, capable of behaving himself in every way necessary. But hed have been the first topare some of his behavior in thest few weeks to that of a kid on Christmas morning, with the addition of being the mother of all sugar highs. Bouncing off the walls, practically vibrating from excitement, and overall making Artemis with the zoomies look like a paragon of patience. Until eventually, hed gotten a text from Stagmer and almost identally flung Artemis into the ceiling since shed been on hisp at the time. Almost. Hed realized that he should phase out through the chair at thest possible second and slipped out of the room after giving Artemis onest scratch behind the ear. He quickly made his way out of the building, grinning ear to ear. It was still weird how different people reacted differently to him. The old hands treated him with the same general courtesy they treated anyone else, having known him all the way back before the Ranking system had even been introduced. The people whod joined or been hired after Isaac had officially be one of Germanys strongest treated him with a degree of reverence and, asionally, trepidation. And very few of those who hadnt gotten to know him pre-Leviathan had dared try to get to know him as anything other than the guy whod torn a [World Boss] to shreds. They were easily recognizable by how they either stared, or very pointedly didnt, or did their damndest to avoid standing in his way even if their stepping to the side would take ten times as long as it would have taken him to walk around. Once outside, Isaac exploded into motion, [Perfect Timing] enhancing his parkour capabilities to the nines as he leaped across rooftops and reached Stagmers workshop in less than a second. Campus really had changed. The university had expanded massively, and though most of the additions hade from the [System] research branch, everything had been upgraded with the massively erged, especially the Venture Lab. It had been built almost fifteen years ago to encourage students, graduates, and even faculty to turn business ideas theyd had into actual businesses. And after what a few notable staff members had achieved, someone had decided to make a massive number of additions to that part of campus in the hopes of repeating that feat. After all, it wasnt entirely obvious what had made it possible thest time. Isaac walked into Stagmers office with a huge grin on his face, only to find the cksmith arguing with a customer. Ive asked you several times to leave because Ive already got a customering in. And due to your refusal, youve been cklisted at my business. Now kindly get out before I call the police and have you removed, Stagmer said, briefly ncing over at Isaac before continuing to re at the customer. Whos the customer? Do you have any idea how much my father can pay you? Who could you possibly be more important? Id like love to see that guy in the dueling circle, I A duel? That sounds boring, Isaac said in a conversational tone as he passed behind the customer, causing the young man to jump. Jump all the way into the ceiling, head bumping into it. And the idiot didnt even have proper control of his [System]-enhanced strength. Helmut, you said you had some gear for me? Isaac asked while the idiot spluttered. Um, Dr. Thoma, my father wanted to the idiot began, but shut up when both Stagmer and Isaac red at him and then, finally, slunk out. Duelling circle, Isaac sighed and hung his head after Stagmer had locked the door, Kids these days can be so ridiculous. Youre only like ten years older, Stagmer pointed out. Ten years and the entirety of [System]-based development, Isaac said, Thats probably the biggest generational difference in human history. This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. Fair point, Stagmer replied, So, are you excited to see your new stuff? About to explore from it, Isaacughed. Youll still have to bear with me for the presentation, though, Stagmer said as he showed the way inside. The smithy had grown once again, gaining more enchantments, more tools, more cool stuff in general. And here we are! Stagmer announced as he gestured to three covered objects. A long one resting against the far wall, crossing the entirety of the room, a small one on the anvil, and what looked like an armor stand. Id just like to say that working with you has been the greatest pleasure of my life. I dont know what brought you to my door that day, but Im grateful every day for what it has allowed me to do. I know we always y that game where I tell you something is on the house and wake up to a ton of new materials the next morning, but please, let me give this as a gift. Isaac had to blink a couple of times to clear a few tears from his eyes. Of course, he said, inclining his head slightly, Just this once. But believe me, there is no grand n or cosmic coincidence thats brought us together, you were just the best. Its that simple. This time, it was Stagmers turn to struggle to keep a straight face. So, this is easily the finest piece Ive ever created, and I hope it keeps you safe for decades toe. And with that, he whipped off the first cloth, revealing a beautiful scale mail shining metallic blue, small ws tipping each finger, and spikes on his elbows and knees that could do devastating damage. Sea-Scale Mail of Primordial Power A set of armor forged entirely from the scales and bones of the primordial Sea Monster, the Leviathan, made for the man who made its defeat possible. While worn, the wearers Strength, Fortitude, and Agility are increased by thirty percent, this boost rises to forty-five percent while the user is submerged in water. In addition, all attacks pyrokic or demonic in nature are massively increased. Once per day, the user may generate a fifty-meter diameter sphere of the Leviathans variant of Transcendant Hellfire, with perfect control over what is and is not affected. Once per week, the user may unleash a shockwave from their position that will keep going for ten kilometers and push any bodies of water in that area away as a tidal wave that will keep going until it runs out of energy. The closer the body of water is to the wearer, the stronger it is, reaching tsunami levels of power and threat should the wearer be in the ocean. This armor can repair itself using any organic material provided, so long as it is from a Tier 10 Raid Boss or above. Not only was this thing tough as hell, but it would also boost his mes and it was the first piece of gear that had inherent once-a-day abilities. Sure, there were enchantments that could copy the effect, but those needed to be independently charged with mana, this was something that just existed. You really could make some awesome stuff with [World Boss] parts. Just another possible thing that the world as a whole might earn a Darvin Award. But this was an armor set that made him incredibly powerful and literally turned him into a living natural disaster. Now, this is the biggest sword Ive ever worked on, but its turned out incredible, if I may say so myself, Stagmer introduced his second piece, having to walk down the entirety of the wall to pull off all the cloth. Greatsword of Aquamarine me A titanic de, fifteen meters in length, carved from a single tooth belonging to the primordial beast known as the Leviathan, a handle wrapped in the beasts leather, and formed around the beasts fire nd. It is a weapon possessed of incredible sharpness, with adjustable mass that can be dialed up to a hundred times what it normally is, or reduced to a minimum of half a percent. Each strike will unleash a st of Transcendant Hellme and inflict damage as though the wearers strength were 200 points higher (free and toggleable). Furthermore, thrice per day, the wielder may project a ming sword-sh formed from either Transcendent Hellme or the strongest pyrokic ability the wielder possesses. Bigger than his old Giant Sword, durable enough to be wildly swung about without snapping, and perfect to be used in conjunction with [I Am The Sword]. Not to mention that with Isaacs Strenth Stat being only at 615, a two-hundred-point increase when striking with this weapon was a third-again boost. Which was pretty nutty. And throw in the various abilities he could use for free and this single weapon would make a basic human capable of trashing a Tier 5 monster with rtive ease. Well, if they could lift the weapon, at any rate. The weapon was instantly absorbed into Old Reliable. But there was still one object left, one that Isaac hadnt asked for. What could that be? Now, I know you gave me materials for two objects, but there were enough scraps to make an extra piece for you, Stagmer finally announced before whipping the cloth off the anvil, revealing a ne. A thin chain of blue braided leather, with a blue and white inverted teardrop hanging at its end. Ne for Humanitys Savior Abor of love, created from the materials left over during the creation of a magnificent sword and set of armor. It is imbued with the admiration its creator holds and the acknowledgment of the world itself of the difference that Humanitys Savior made. Should the wearer wish it, this item can be analyzed by anyone who sees it, proving what the wearer has achieved for the Earth, even including information on what the is like, should that be necessary. All effects only function if it is worn by Isaac Thoma. Once again, tears stung Isaacs eyes. Hed been told about his own achievements by others, back-pped by various movers and shakers with various levels of sincerity, and received more medals than he could wear even in hisrgest [Form of Horror] form. But this, this meant more to him than he could ever put into words. So he just hugged the burly cksmith. Words really werent needed here. *** Once hed put on everything, Isaac left the cksmiths shop in his regr clothing, with the armor stored in [Fully Geared], Old Reliable de-manifested and the Ne under his shirt, resting slightly above his heart. That had been awesome, now it was just time to start fighting some monsters to test out his new gear. Chapter 323: New Heights Chapter 323: New Heights Level 200. The big one. Well, technically, Isaac had just reached Level 190 after six months of ying around with his new gear, and then, the Level boost for having made a decisive difference in the Leviathan battle had automatically activated, booting him upstairs. Hed never reached this point in the other timeline, having stalled out at Level 198. Well, not so much stalled out, as not having had any time to summon monsters he could still gain XP from. But in this timeline, hed managed it. Wow. This felt weird. Gratifying yet oddly empty. It had barely been ten years since the appearance of the [System], and yet, hed basically beaten it. Reached the top. And his life would be far longer than the mere eighty years people had gotten before. There was a literal universe to explore out there, but the thing that had consumed his life for thest ten years, twenty-two years if one counted the other timeline, was no longer there. Not really. Just one more thing the dark gods had screwed up, he supposed. Instead of earning XP for using your [ss], you got to summon a ton of monsters to mercilessly ughter and st through the Levels, and with a little luck, maybe someone would use their newfound power to, literally, blow up the established order. Still, sighing and moping just because hed reached the pinnacle was a little pathetic, wasnt it? This was a reason for celebration, and what was that [System] message? Congrattions on reaching Level 200, the pinnacle of what the System allows! As such, youll receive the option to pick a capstone boost. There are four rewards unlocked by default, but depending on your actions and choices, you may have several additional options avable. Name Unlock Conditions Description Physical Limit Breaker Unlocked by default Grants +450 Stat points Metaphysical Limit Breaker Unlocked by default Grants +15 Skill Points Aspect Cost Reset Unlocked by default The Cost for new Aspect Slots is reset back to 1,000, Cost will start increasing from there as normal Racial Evolution Unlocked by default Evolve your Race, choose any Race that is currently in your reach and would have been offered, were there an Evolution after the 5th. Signature Enhancement: Indomitable Defiance Unlocked by having an impactful Skill that can be construed as being your Signature This option will upgrade the Skill Final Defiance into Indomitable Defiance, which can retain up to ny percent of the mana held at the point of activation if the foe is defeated prematurely. Signature Enhancement: Promethean me Unlocked by having an impactful Skill that can be construed as being your Signature This option will upgrade the Skill Divine Fire into Promethean me, which is capable of damaging more than just the physical, controlling all mes, even those neither self-generated nor fully subsumed, and capable of acting in ways no me normally could. Signature Enhancement: Legendary demastery Unlocked by having an impactful Skill that can be construed as being your Signature This option will fuse Absolute de Mastery, Legendary Blow, and all Strike-type Skills into a single Skill, Legendary demaster, retaining all effects and gaining powerful synergistic abilities. 5th Evolution Dual-ss Unlocked by having a 5th Evolution ss based on helping others and fulfilling its purpose Grants you a second 5th Evolution ss, for which you gain 50 Skill points, that can only be spent on that ss. Only one ss can be active at a time, and when a cooldown Skill is on cooldown, it deactivates a random cooldown Skill belonging to the other ss. (Final Defiance in its charging cycle does not count as being on cooldown, Aspects of the End is effectively on cooldown whenever it is not fully charged) 5th Evolution Reset Unlocked by having a 5th Evolution ss based on helping others and fulfilling its purpose Resets back to Level 150, and all XP limits back to where they were before you Evolved. Youll gain a new pinnacle Reward once you hit Level 200 the second time. ss Reset Earned by having 4 disparate legendary sses Resets back to Level 0 while retaining all Aspects, resets XP Limits and Aspect Slot cost ss Re-Roll Earned by having 4 disparate legendary sses Resets XP limits, but locks Aspect slot purchasing until enough XP has been invested to level you to 200. As you gain new sses, starting with your starter ss and moving through the Evolutions, theyll rece your previous sses and their Skills, as well as allowing you to redistribute your Stats. You may artificially limit your power to ensure that your fights do not count as too easy. Warform Unlocked by badly injuring a World Boss on your own, thereby changing the course of a battle Once a year, you may transform into a powerful alternate shape incarnating your path to power. The power of this shape increases as you begin to properly integrate your sses. So, that was a thing. Huh. No, actually, this was a big deal. Holy. Shit! Big decisions to be made, quite possibly, thest one hed ever make. Each of these abilities would be useful in some way, but both Mental and Physical Limit Breaker were absolute nonsensepared to the rest. Aspect Cost Reset could be utterly broken, depending on when you picked it, and would likely overtake Physical Limit Breaker in terms of utility quite quickly, but there were limits even to what that could achieve, and at some point, new Aspects would just be superfluous. Racial Evolution could be cool, sure, but on the other hand, how far could it really take him? It could be a boon, but even the strongest race was barely worth 450 Stat points, let alone anything more, like literally any of the rewards that hadnt been unlocked by default. The three Signature Enhancements were incredible, upgrading [Final Defiance] would be a massive boon the next time some idiot decided to summon a [World Boss], fundamentally transforming his swordsmanship would be great, and his mes had be a more essential part of his fighting style than he ever could have expected. [Final Defiance] in particr would experience an insane boost, retaining most of its mana should he win the fight against an apocalypse quickly. Sure, hed gotten a [Skill] boost after the Leviathan fight, and was now able to retain a full ten percent of the remaining charge, but that was basically nothing in the grand scheme of things. Meanwhile, the two options for altering his 5th Evolution [ss] were far more tempting than they reasonably should be. [Challenger of the Apocalypse] was awesome, but hed picked it to save the world, the [ss] hed really wanted had been [Asssassin of the Logos de]. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He loved the raw power of [Aspects of the End], and even rawer dominating force of [Final Defiance], but it was still just extra power and speed his experience allowed him to use to deadly effect. But it was still just the regr power of higher stats on steroids, rather than a [ss] that perfectly synergized with his fighting style. The reset would grant him another set of Pinnacle Rewards, but it wouldpletely cut him off from [Final Defiance], and he sadly might still need that. The Dual-[ss], on the other hand, would allow him to use both powers, let him have the best of both worlds. Not simultaneously, obviously, but it would still give him both. The [ss] that was perfect for him for regr life and the [ss] that would let him kick ass when that was necessary. The [ss] reset would be cool in theory, maybe, but Isaac had already gotten one do-over and he was perfectly happy with the current spread. Especially since his training and research abilities would give him something to do now that monster murder was less rewarding. The Re-Roll was another cool thing and a recipe for awesome, borderline overpowered, [sses] to rece his old ones with. Yet there was no guarantee hed keep various cool capabilities hed unlocked. And he really did like his current build despite how it was all over the map. And Warform, well, it looked to be a boss buster, but Isaac already had three of those. His left fist, his right fist, and Old Reliable. Okay, not really, but the point still stood. He doubted Warform would be enough to save the day if [Final Defiance] didnt, and if [Final Defiance] didnt trigger, well, then the situation couldnt be that bad, now could it? There was an obvious pick here, a choice that could help save the world, and that was to upgrade [Final Defiance]. But honestly, once again, he already had the basic version of the [Skill]. If he needed more than that, things were already really fucking bad. And hed already done so much, prepared so much, had so many arrows in his metaphorical quiver. He could make this choice for himself. It was alright to be selfish once in a while, especially given the current situation. [Indomitable Defiance] would shine the greatest in the face of back-to-back apocalypses, and things really shouldnt get that bad. Hopefully. But if they did, would even the upgraded [Skill] help? No, nope, nein, shut up Isaac. He first pped and then shook himself. 5th Evolution Dual [ss] was the right choice. Congrattions, Isaac Thoma, for choosing your Pinnacle Reward! Please select the ss you wish to add (you will gain 50 Skill points that you may only spend on that ss Skills): Judgment of the Inferno (legendary) Einherjar Champion (legendary) Assassin of the Logos de (legendary) Teacher of the World (legendary) Ever-burning me of Scientific Ambition (legendary) Fearless Challenger of Leviathans (legendary) Germanic Legend (legendary) For a brief moment, he considered grabbing [Teacher of the World], but honestly, he was doing this for himself, and mastering a [ss] that should fit him like a glove was a nice way to spend eternity. And lets take a look at those [Skills] Assassin of the Logos de Central Skills (double cost) Logos de Knowledge Seeker Skills Leaf in the Breeze Logos Arsenal Weakness Exploit Defensive Adaptation Hunting Log Contractual Obligation Perfect Timing Controlled Menace Presence Concealment Impossibly Deep Wounds General Skills Aura of Ephemeral Threat Oh, perfect. [Logos de] was all about charging weapons with energy specialized against specifically chosen foes, or creating them ex-nihilo, exponentially increasing damage based on information provided, while [Knowledge Seeker] was all about picking up more information he could then use to produce even deadlier des. Both were obvious must-picks. Both synergized with [Undying Wraith], gaining additional boosts based on his observations, as well as whatever energies his Aspects emitted. And [Weakness Exploit] exponentially increased damage based on how vulnerable a spot he struck, starting with any blow that didnt bounce off bone and would only grow from there. Combined with [Logos de], he could do some ludicrous damage [Leaf in the Breeze] was a practically automatic dodging [Skill] that worked based on his understanding of his foes, with [Defensive Adaptation] working simrly, but granting him a general boost in toughness. Once again, thetter was a must-pick, since he was all about knowing things, and when that ability directly tranted to defensive capability, it should be insane. However, Isaac decided to put aside [Leaf in the Breeze] for [Perfect Timing], which would massively enhance his reflexes and grant him preternaturally perfect timing, as well as uracy when it came to making those rapid movements. It was greater than [Leaf in the Breeze] in that sense, butcked the automatic response the other [Skill] had, so it would require him to notice a threat on his own. Still, [Perfect Timing] applied to a standard human would allow them to pull off the catch a fly with chopsticks trick, and Isaacs [Aura] and general perceptiveness meant that ack of automatic response wasnt a deal breaker. Meanwhile, [Hunting Log] was another ability to gather knowledge after the fact, acting as a repository of all kills hed ever achieved, retroactively. It also synergized with his [Hildebrands Heir] and [Grave of Swords], allowing him to summon any monster he wanted to train against. And the second tost [Skill] he wanted was [Controlled Menace]. In essence, it was the standard killing intent [Skill] taken to absurd heights, both allowing its holder to evade the threat detecting [Skills] of [Bodyguards] and the like by cloaking their intentions, and using their desire to kill someone to empower their [Aura]. [Contractual Obligation] was [Skill] meant for actual assassins, who got paid for their work, helping its holder find clients and ensuring that the clients kept their word, but he didnt need it. The same went for [Presence Concealment], that, while awesome, had too great an ovep with [Controlled Menace], specializing in stealth at the cost of offensive capabilities. And [Impossibly Deep Wounds] was useless to Isaac. It would ensure that the empowered attacks from this [ss] [Skills] would basically never heal, but it would only work if an enemy was still alive to heal. Which, if theyd faced him, they wouldnt be. But, quite possibly, the single greatest [Skill], the must-pick that surpassed even [Logos de], was [Logos Arsenal]. It let him pre-apply his boosting [Skills], from his [Strikes] to, well, [Logos de], and store the weapons in question untilter. He couldnt overcharge any of his weapons, the normal limitation of one [Legendary Blow] or just [Manifold Strike] per de would remain, but it allowed him to continuously keep preparing weapons until he either needed them or ran out of des to enchant. But the thing that really made the [Skill] insane was the fact that the created des didnt have to be used by him, the [Assassin of the Logos de]. He could pass them out to others or use them in his capacity as a [Challenger of the Apocalypse]. So, both central [Skills], [Perfect Timing], [Hunting Log], [Logos Arsenal], [Weakness Exploit], [Defensive Adaptation] and [Controlled Menace], how quickly fifty [Skill] points were spent. Isaac was pretty sure hed just broken the world records for most 5th Evolution [Skills] bought in an hour, and the fastest time for buying all 5th Evolution [Skills] one wanted. He also decided to save the sixteen remaining [Challenger of the Apocalypse] [Skill] points so he couldter alter his loadout as needed. He had his secondary [ss] for everyday use, he could wait toplete his other loadout when he knew what precisely he needed. Normally, the thing he would do here and now was run off to Bailey and tell him about the pinnacle rewards. But right now, there was nothing he wanted to do so much as test out his new abilities. Dropping [Challenger of the Apocalypse] felt strange, losing a [ss] was something hed never experienced before. Well, technically, time-traveling had reset everything, but hed cked out during that. This though, this was the potential of [Aspects of the End] melting away, the power that could turn him into either one of the strongest, fastest, or most knowledgeable people in the world at the drop of a hat. It. Was. Weird. But what poured into him in exchange was knowledge, possibility, potential, and death-dealing capacity. Something that needed to be used right that instant. Around Isaac, the [Grave of Swords] manifested, containing a copy of the General of Cocytus that he was only able to get because he had [Hunting Log]. It was also the only Tier 10 boss that he had ess to since theyd been illegal to summon Earth even before two of them, with a little help, had almost beaten the prides of both the American and British navies. Thered been no way in hell the regtions would change after that clusterfuck. So really, it was extremely lucky that hed collected this thing when hed had the chance. The titanic monster rose before him, vast, powerful, seemingly overwhelming, glossy ice armor glittering dangerously, a ive held ready to carve him apart. Isaac grinned, drawing Balmung, red light sliding down the shining de as he activated [Logos de] for the first time. It cost 500 points of mana to adapt to a [Raid Boss], but it would be worth it. What did he know about this thing, hm? His [Aura] gave him aplete picture of its circtory system and internal organs, its armor, weapons, and everything else that could be visually perceived. General knowledge of its fighting style, specific knowledge of its strategies, the specifics of how its magics fucked with hydromancy every iota of information he had wasbined into a single weapon of incredible power. But that was just his right hand. He decided to try out ex-nihilo manifestation in his left hand, the cost for the creation doubling for ack of base weaponry, but that hardly mattered since this was a stakes-less training exercise. He didnt select the shape of his weapon, it just naturally became something akin to Mimung, thin and sharp but decidedly not a rapier, just a little shorter than the regr weapon. Oh, this would be fun. The ive came down, and Isaac didnt move. At all. For a long moment, until the veryst second, at which point he jerked to the side, kicked off the ground, and struck the but end of the des ive to hurl himself straight at the monsters face, faster than it could react. Frost built up around him and the very air grew heavy with cold magic, but just beneath his armor, out of sight, ayer of red energy just like his sword had manifested, directly repelling the foreign energies. And then, he was at the beasts head, thrusting a de at each eye. There was a helmet in the way, obviously, and the manifested de bounced off, but Balmung left a deep gouge. Right, those des had been adapted to the monster, rather than the armor, specifically. The monsters palm smashed down where Isaac had been standing a brief second before, the coating on Balmung shifted to a cold blue hue, and a single swipe carved off a massive chunk of the front of the helmet, allowing Isaac to leap inside and shove the manifested weapon into the monsters eye. Done. Mostly. The delicate organ popped instantly, erupting into putrid goop, and the de went deeper and deeper, finding the hole the ocr nerve led into and shoving his de in there and just kept going. Isaac realized he wouldnt be able to go much deeper, so he let go of the de briefly and smacked his palm against the pommel with a [Legendary Blow] optimized for strength, sending it flying all the way through the brain. Fully optimized [Logos de] and [Weakness Exploit] straight to the brain, was there anything more damaging than that? The [Raid Boss] stumbled, its ability to coordinate having almost entirely fled as its nervous system was annihted through much of its body. So that was what exponential damage increase meant. Extra damage in areas that Isaac hadnt even touched, more effective adaptation and targeting, more damage. Isaac dropped [Grave of Swords] with a massive grin on his face. Oh, this felt good to pull off. Now he just needed to go look for a ce to summon actual Tier 10s. Being able toter use them for training purposes without automatically stealing the corpse should be a sufficient carrot. Chapter 324: Ten Years Later Chapter 324: Ten Years Later Ok, why the fuck do I have to walk up that stupid staircase every day? Tanja loudlyined as she stomped out of the space colloquially known as the walk of shame. It really wasnt fun to use that particr staircase due to its enchantments. Gravity magic to make going up it harder to move, constant twists and turns to reduce the maximum achievable speed, and spatial magic to increase its length by a factor of ten. Because you keep jumping from the roof andnding in the courtyard, Isaac said, We had a problem with students deciding that the wards meant to catch people who fall off mean that this is a perfect ce to go skydiving, so we built the Walk of Shame and tweaked the wards so that anyone who jumps has to take it to get back up. But I can fly, she whined, Im not going skydiving. Yeah, the point still stands. Having a massive Valkyriend in the crowds down there isnt fun for anyone. Justnd outside the wards, Isaac suggested, Thats what I do. You know, Artemis, your human can be really mean sometimes, Tanja whispered to the leopard who was currently resting with her head in hisp. Then, she pulled out a box of treats, shook it, and the cat was on her feet in a sh. Traitors, both of you, Isaac mock grumbled, doing a terrible job of hiding his smile. This ce really was wonderful, having constantly evolved as the [System] threw up more and more issues. Initially, Isaac had just built a small training hall on thend near the university hed purchased so long ago and officially lived on, even though he was almost never there. A ce where he could train those he wanted to, and somewhere for people to visit him so he could teach them his [Skills]. And then, things had gotten slightly out of hand. Somebor was granted in exchange for teaching, an expansion here, an addition there, and suddenly, the whole affair had blown up immensely. Until eventually, Karl had told him it would be easier to just build a godsdamned skyscraper and leave half of it empty until he needed it. So Isaac had built it, well, Karl had built it while Isaac helped however he could andter repaid him with several favors. And things had kept escting from there, with the whole affair eventually bing an academy where Isaac was essentially the head cat herder. Hed named it Akashic Academy, obviously. The entire affair was all about the various little tricks that high-Level people could teachbined with general education and safe summoning, which wasrgely run by the people Isaac had hired. And Isaac himself, well, he asionally showed up, havingrgely moved to Camelot with Elena, but he made sure to spend every fourth year teaching. The curriculum took four years, so that way, everyone would have a chance to take his courses Know Thy Enemy, Creative Combat and Making the Most of your Abilities, gaining his teachable [Skills] in the process. During that time, Isaac had also gotten an actual Doctorate in [System] studies by writing a thesis that further explored the capabilities of [Aura]. Most people had deferred to his honorary doctorate when addressing him, but hed still been aware of the fact that it was not a requirement. And the twins were currently in their third year. Thankfully, they had the good sense to not abuse their connection to him directly, but unfortunately, not treating him as the principal extended to bitching to him about the school as if he were just an uninvolved older brother, not, you know, the guy in charge. Oh well, cest vie. Ah, but what an awesome time thest ten years had been. Everyone had hit Level 200, and Arthur had been offered a signature enhancement for [Round Table], which reset its Level while retaining threshold bonuses and would triple the number of its slots every ten Levels. So the number of avable seats had rapidly exploded, though they were most empty as they were being damn careful about who they filled them with. And as for the world itself, well, it was still there, still limping along, still inhabited by people. It was working overall, though. A whole bunch of treaties on reasonable summoning had stabilized things, but it was still more based on raw power than Isaac felt entirelyfortable with, something based on reason would have been better. But it was likely the best he could hope for. The UN general secretary had managed to create a [World Law] using his [Skills], that allowed them to set a single rule, within reason, that affected the world, and would only be changeable by the next person in his position with a simr [Skill]. And what theyd chosen had been to dy the activation of World Items for a minimum of one hour, but with that length increasing if the World Item wasnt too powerful. Assuming there was such a thing as a weaker World Item. The important thing was that the warning message about its activation would not only still go out, but also inform everyone of the users name and exact, up-to-date, location. If it was something nefarious, well, there were a whole lot of S-Rankers on the to kick the ass of any would-be apocalypse-bringers. It would still be a total mess, but it should be at least possible to solve it. As for the [World Bosses] themselves, sadly, theydrgely gone in the direction of surveince state. Sort of. Enough people with surveince [Skills] checking specifically for [World Boss] circles, pattern-recognition abilities investigating purchases of required materials in sufficient quantities, and other investigative strategies almost eliminated the risk of having one of those apocalyptic beasts summoned on Earth. It wasnt a great situation, but it also wasnt anywhere near as bad as the images the term surveince state conjured up. Isaac used his [Aura] to check the nearest clock. Almost time to go to ss. And then, his phone exploded. Metaphorically speaking, of course. Some moron of titanic proportions had apparently summoned the [World Boss] Ymir. Not on Earth, hed have gotten a message if that had been the case, but on Pluto. Someone had wanted to find out what that thing looked like, or something like that. Either way, no one felt like leaving that thing out there to wreak all kinds of havoc. It took him only an hour to reach the dwarf, which was already surrounded by several spaceships. Three belonged to the Sr Patrol, which fulfilled a simr purpose as the various Cost Guards back on Earth. Except they were under themand of the UN, which tried to administrate the sr system. It was a bureaucratic mess, but it was one that at least functioned. Four were mining vessels retrofitted for long-range bombardment, which were currently being evacuated to the Sr Guard vessels, except any space suits that didnt belong to Sr Guard officers were handcuffed. Andstly, there were the three warships, one cruiser, one battle cruiser, and a single battleship, trading metaphorical punches with the [World Boss] at range. It didnt take a genius to figure out what had happened here. Someone had figured that summoning a [World Boss] on an empty and isted rock in the sr system would make it easy pickings for long-range kic bombardment and promptly gotten themselves arrested, while the military tried to clean up the whole mess. Emphasis on tried. Modern warships were equipped with a mixture of railguns,sers, particle beams, missiles, elemental focus cannons, and casting tforms, absolutely none of which was doing much to help matters. Ymir wasnt anywhere near asrge as the Leviathan had been, but he was still huge. Four kilometers tall, and a little under one wide. Big enough to lie down in Central Park and still crush some buildings in the process. He had long hair that was a mixture of frosty blue and ember orange, and bone-white skin, with only a dirty-looking loincloth covering his unmentionables, though Isaacs [Aura] told him there was nothing down there to cover. An issue of appearances, he supposed. But it was the giants eyes that were the most distinctive, the left trailing icy mist even though he was in a vacuum, and the right burning like the sun, while its palms were the opposite, with the right hand wielding ice and the left holding me. The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. Using [Knowledge Seeker], he scanned every inch of the monster. [Challenger of the Apocalypse] was likely the better [ss] for this, but the moment he switched, [Final Defiance] would likely activate, and he didnt know what would happen if he switched back while it was active. Would it just discharge all mana in the [Skill], thereby wasting it? Or would the boostst even when [Challenger of the Apocalypse] went inactive? He certainly didnt know. So, he just kept pulling uncharged weapons from his storage, empowered them with increasingly intricate and well-adapted versions of [Logos de]. Once properly enhanced, the weapons went into his arsenal bracelet. It was a starsteel-and-tinum bracer on his left wrist with a massive blue gem, the core of a Lord of Time and Space, sitting in its middle. If he hadnt had [World Boss] armor, it would have been the single most expensive piece of gear he owned. First came simple throwing daggers, then des, then spears, and finally, one of his ten Leviathan toothnces, adapted to Ymir as best he could. While he did this, the ships continued to duel the giant on their own. Kic rounds were less urate than they should be, somehow wobbling? in flight,sers and particle beams were attenuated by clouds of ice crystals and spells were met with elemental beams and dispersed. Sure, they were doing some damage, as little as it was. But that result was to be expected, they were facing a freakin [World Boss]. What was really irritating Isaac was what was happening to the kic projectiles. Even on the rare asions they struck, Ymir only swayed before straightening unnaturally. Something that big should be easy to unbnce, yet it was as if Isaac facepalmed. Big monsters didnt ignore the square-cubew, they just worked around it, be it with ludicrous physical abilities or magical effects, something had to be allowing therge monsters to stand. Ymirs weight should be cratering the ground underneath, but he wasnt. There were also invisible effects keeping him standing and redirecting kics. Ymir is able to use gravity magic in some capacity, Isaac announced once someone had finally spotted him and invited him to the naval party. There was no swearing in the actualms channels, but he was sure it was happening. Now, he needed to do just one more thing: copy that fire. A quick conversation with the Commodore in charge of the battleshipter, and Ymir was parrying a devastating barrage focussed on his left, burning, hand. ming projectile hit Plutos surface and stayed there, continuing to burn. Perfect. Ymir really wasnt very concerned with a gnatnding at his feet, and grabbing the me was easy as pie mostly. Reaching it was simple, but for the first time in a long time, Isaac burned himself when he touched fire. With an annoyed hiss, he drew back his hand while swearing. Well, mouthing them, considering that there wasnt any air to carry them. That shit was apparently called Muspelheim mes and was a primordial energy on par with the Samadhi Fire that formed the basis of his [Prometheus Wrath]. But he had it, he was immune to it, and that was that. Half of the [World Boss] arsenal, countered. Isaac returned to space and got ready for a proper attack. He reached into his Arsenal Bracelet and messed around with the de enhancements a little, enhancing them based on his knowledge of the monsters me. With all preparations done, Isaac switched [sses]. His ability to pick up new information dwindled away into basically nothing, to the point where he briefly felt like hed gone blind, dumb, and deaf, while power surged, [Aspects of the End] getting ready to cause devastating damage the instant he began to draw on it. But, in Isaacs chest, [Final Defiance] flickered uncertainly. As though it werent sure whether or not to activate. He didnt care about Pluto, yet this could escte, couldnt it? Also, he didnt know if he wanted to blow his current stockpile of mana. What did he want to do here? The [Skill] was giving him a choice, and it was making this clear. Honestly, he loved that [Skill], it was actually smart. Or seemed to be, at any rate. He kept it inactive and charged using just [Speed of Hati], first zipping down to thes surface and then running through the air parallel to the ground. Ance of Leviathan tooth, sheathed in ck energy, was retrieved from the Arsenal Bracelet, and charged. Ymir turned to observe and then unleashed a stream of me straight at him while using the ice to keep the ships at bay. [I Am The Sword] triggered and flung him right at the monster, sting clean through the joints behind the kneecap and then, the kneecap itself. Ymirs physiology wasrgely human, so any of the anti-human moves should work simrly against him, though theyd require vastly more damage to be effective. He took a brief moment to scoop up a little blood with a vial and then shot skywards, most of the remaining liquid being sted off him by the motion. And once he was outside the monsters range, he switched [sses], analyzed it, and switched back to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] once hed created an improved [Logos de]. This cycle continued several times until hed managed to obliterate the giants right kneecap, but by then, what felt like half the S-Rankers and warships in the sr system had gathered. From that point on, it was a slog. Ymir was trapped at the bottom of a gravity well, even with his powerful jumps and gravity maniption, he wasnt able to really reach them. But they were also being really careful, humanity having learned the consequences of being too good at injuring [World Bosses] during the battle against the Leviathan. Isaac knew that, at the very least, [World Boss] automatic summoning didnt happen for at least six months after theyd been summoned, so he didnt feel like prodding things into high gear either. Which left everyone duking it out at long range, with only people like Isaac asionally darting in to do damage, first taking out his other knee, and then, his eyes. Ymirs greatest attacks had been fully drawing upon the power of the Norse primordial realms, unleashing alternatively the burning storms of Muspelheim or the freezing winds of Niflheim, which were then directed in the general direction of the fleet and often caught up at least a few vessels in the process. But they just. Kept. Fighting. So, after five fucking months, the [World Boss] was dead, and so were close to two million people, the Sr Guard had lost a quarter of its ships, having been responsible for Search & Rescue, and over half the space-warships of humanity. And the [System] was throwing a bloody fit over their cowardly tactics. The Rewards Levels are listed below, however, there are some specifics that need to be shared ahead of time: 1. Body Pieces may be either a tooth, tooth-sized bone, 50 m^2 of leather, 5 cubic meters of organs/fluids (or muscles) 2. World Boss Aspects must be stacked atop apatible Aspect, but can override previous Skills if so desired, allowing their recipients to customize how they use their rewards. 3. Regardless of how many people hold each rank of reward, only a maximum of 15 Aspects will be handed out. 4. Level Boosts are not immediate, their recipients will receive them and trigger them whenever they choose to (they will trigger automatically if doing so would push their recipient to the maximum Level of 200). However, due to a severeck of people who did anything but sit at a distance and (ineffectively) use their weapons, very few of those rewards will be distributed Infinitesimal: Those who participated but failed to reach any reward higher tiers will receive 100,000 XP (Basically everyone) Minor: Those who participated in the battle and contributed will receive 200,000 XP (Shipmanding officers) Small: Those who participated in a way that would be noted as being above average in reports will receive 500,000 XP, half a body piece (own choice), and have a 0.1% chance at receiving an Aspect (Fleetmanders) Massive: Those who will go down in the history books as having helped y the Primordial Giant Ymir are going to be boosted by a full five Levels, receive an Aspect of Ymir and 5 body pieces. Or at least, that is how it would normally go, in this battle, basically anyone with half a pair of balls reached this rank due to everyone elses overwhelming cowardice. Decisive: This is a rank that can only be held by a single person per battle. In this case, it was Isaac Thoma, who bravely fought the Giant directly and actually achieved something. As such, he will receive a boost of 10 Levels, an Aspect of Ymir, 25 body pieces (23 by his choice, Ymirs ming Eye, Ymirs Freezing), and the World Item [Essence of Ymir]. So, the [System] apparently had a snarky side, or at the very least, the subsection that doled out [World Boss] rewards did. Won-der-ful. In addition to general rudeness, it had also outright skipped several ranks. But this whole fight had been a clusterfuck, almost as bad as the Leviathan fight. Theyd lost fewer S-Rankers, but in terms of men and material, this had been both painful and expensive. And most of the people whod tried to directly strike at the monster had died,rgely due to ack of other people to draw attention. The issue was simple. Real simple. Long-range bombardment didnt work, their attacks werergely burned out of the air/vacuum, and while their deaths per day were low, the fight was dragged out so long that the overall number of deaths was still very high. Next time, they needed to just go for it. Well, make a n, then go for it, but go for it all the same. The cautious, safe, approach just in didnt work, and it wasnt even safe. And something that Isaac had initially found weird about the rewards was that this time, the effects of the [World Item] werent announced to the whole, well, world, but that was a question that was cleared up when he read its description. Essence of Ymir (World Item) The Boon given to the yer of Ymir is the essence that made up the primordial giant, allowing its holder to do what the Asgardians did, and create the world. Depending on what its user wishes, this world item can either create a tiny celestial body with of own (Ceres-sized), instantly terraform a small one (ex: Earths Moon), slowly terraform a medium-sized one (ex: Mars), or aid the transformation of anythingrger, though the power of this item rapidly drops off with increasing size. This item cannot be used to terraform already optimal worlds (like Earth). As a World Item, the Essence of Ymir cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device. Yep. This was going to happen again. And again. Over and over because this was solid gold. No, more. A freaking terraforming package. One that even had a safety feature. This little vial was what would let humanity im the stars. And even if humanity was alone in the universe, which Isaac sincerely doubted, there were plenty of things that could go wrong out there. Then again, hed saved the, and once humanity was sufficiently spread out, there was very little that could threaten the human race in general. And while hed help in those inevitable smaller-scale catastrophes when possible, he sure as shit wouldnt dedicate his entire life to preventing threats that would, at most, only affect a tenth of humanity. Still a humanitarian catastrophe, but not one hed run himself ragged to prevent even the smallest of iting to pass. Hed use this thing on Mars, give humanity a second home, and then, mostly retire. Epilog: Infinite Possibilities Epilog: Infinite Possibilities Terraformed Mars, Olympus Mons, 2072 Youre bored, arent you? Elena asked, stepping up next to Isaac on the balcony. No? he asked, confused. He was still wearing the bedsheet, and she was d in a bathrobe. That had most certainly not been boring. And quite frankly, even if he had been bored, saying so would have doubtlesslynded him in the doghouse until the heat death of the universe. Elenaughed,id an arm around his shoulder, and kissed him on the cheek. I didnt mean that, I meant in general. You teach the next generation, you asionally help out with problems, but I can feel it. You want to be out there, she gestured vaguely in the direction of the sky. I like my life, he said. Hed already put his arm around her as well, and now, pulled them closer together. Im not going to just run off, Isaac protested. She wasnt exactly wrong, there was very little to do that waspletely new, hed fought every kind of monster there was, including most [World Bosses]. There were things to look forward to, like when the Deathless Arena finally got out of the prototype phase and he could safely throw down with Sun, or the usual annual big knighthoodpetition Arthur held in Camelot, and he could still seek knowledge to boost [Assassin of the Logos de], but there were limits. Regr existence with the asional high point was nothing to sneeze at, nothing to bitch about, and yet Never said you were, she grinned, But youre not the only one whod love to go streaking through the universe? Isaac sniggered. What? Streaking? Elenaughed, Of course thats where your mind would go. Isaac just shrugged. So, Arthur can call back members of the [Round Table] from almost anywhere in the gxy, once per year, or a lot further, but only once a decade. Why dont we ask him to earmark that for us, go exploring, and if we ever find ourselves in trouble, out of position, or something goes wrong, well, well be back in a sh. What do you say? Elena asked. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. I love you, Isaac responded with a dopey grin. I love you too, she said, So, how long do you think itll take prepare? Oh, maybe a month at the most? Isaac suggested. *** Saying goodbye to everyone had taken a bit, as had grabbing supplies, setting contingencies and ensuring his projects were taken care of actually took one and a half months, but at the end of that, he was ready. Most of the [Round Table] and their families stood beside them in the hangar bay of the spaceship known as the Scientia Quaesitor, Latin for Knowledge Seeker. If you start an interster war, please tell us before you fire the first shot, alright? Habicht asked with a grin. He was currently Germanys defense minister, and himing out here with zero bodyguards had been a massive fight on his part, but hed apparently wanted to see Isaac without a whole bunch of them hanging around. Sure thing, Isaac nodded to him. That broke the damn and almost everyone else felt the need to crack jokes of their own, but eventually, things came to an end. Isaac and Elena let themselves float out through the forcefield that kept the air in and unfurled their wings. His were just the in wings of the Void Dragon, but Elena had integrated them into her fairy wings. Shall we? he asked. Elena took his hand and grinned right back at him, What are we waiting for? First, the [Wings of the Void] began to elerate them. Secondly, [True Spatial Warp], which hed gotten from the Aspect of the Lord of Time and Space, began to warp space around him, shortening distances ahead of him, the effect boosted by [True Spatial Affinity] from the same Aspect. And thirdly, the [Skills] from the Aspect of the Cosmic Leviathan kicked in. [Ster Travel] would make him a hell of a lot faster when moving through space, and finally, [Charging to Infinity] elerated them through the warp. Ahead, the universe began to glow blue, while behind them, the world became red. It was abination that Isaac never would have figured out if Hermes hadnt told everyone about it in the other timeline. Alcubierre Bubble (legendary) The speed of light. In theory, an absolute rule. In practice, well, magic exists. But even when magic is not directly involved, there are ways to sidestep the issue. Wormholes, for one. And while no one has built one without the aid of magic, the Alcubierre Drive is also a path to getting around that pesky speed limit. This is the Skill equivalent of that, the ultimatebination of several Aspect Skills (True Spatial Affinity, True Spatial Warp, Wings of the Void, Ster Travel, Charging to Infinity) allowing the user to warp space-time around themselves to move at speeds that might technically not surpass light speed, but still allows them to win a race against photons. There had to be so many otherbination [Skills] out there, but in the end, he hadnt found any. Yet. However, he had millennia or even longer to experiment. To explore the universe. At some point, actually get married to Elena. Maybe have kids. Go back to the university and find people to try and walk down exotic paths to power in exchange for support so he could see what happened. Perhaps even find aliens, if they existed? Finis Final Character Sheet Final Character Sheet Final Stats Name: Isaac Thoma ss: Challenger of the Apocalypse/Assassin of the Logos de (inactive) Species: Einherjar Level: 200 (max) XP: 2,001,781,899 Health Status: Healthy Mana: 6,850/6,850 Stats (0 Stat points, 16 Skill points/0 Logos Assassin Skill points avable) Fortitude 600 (+20) Perception 1,050 Strength 700 (+15) Agility 1,295 Magic Power 685 (+10) Magic Regeneration 1,050 *** Aura Aura of the Crimson Dawn (short range,bat, blood, regeneration) Aura of the Desperate Seeker (long range, sensory, mental, projection) Aura of the Eternal Warrior (mid-range,bat/mental/sensory, armament) Central Skills Form of Horror XXX The Chosen Weapon XXX I Am The Sword XXX Grave of Swords XXX Armory of Ancient Times XXX Legacy of a True Warrior XXX Divine Fire XXX Champion of Mankind XXX Final Defiance XI Aspects of the End (Speed of Hati, Power of the Behemoth, Wisdom of the Simurgh, Sea of the Leviathan, Primordial Cycle, ) XXX Skills Hundred Faces XXX Stealth XXX Power Strike XXX Piercing Strike XXX Sundering Strike XXX des XXX Sneak XXX Sweeping Strike XIX Far Strike XXX Manifold Strike XXX Hunters Gaze XXX Phantom Step XXX Unknown Fear XXX Bestial Regeneration XXX Undying Focus XXX Tools of Terror XXIX Fleeting Presence XVIII Crippling Blow XXIX Absolute de Mastery XXV Compounded Impact XXV True Cut XXI Legendary Blow XXX Fully Geared XXVI Knightly Leader XXX Analyze Person XXX Continent Strider XXX Burden of Power XIII Experts Insight XXX Blessing of Innovation XXVI Lessons of History XXX The Meaning of the Name XXIV Titanic Presence XXI Fire Soul XX Book With Seven Seals IX Call of the Gjarhorn XVIII General Skills Gralloch XVIII Alchemy XVI Deaths Embrace VIII Bloodline of the Hellborne Survivor (Empower Rtives) Advanced Bureaucracy XV Police Procedure VIII Healing VIII Quest Giver III Omniglot (5.998nguages known) Member of the Round Table (Shade: Seon Yoo-jin) umtion of Knowledge (unranked) Well of Wisdoms Blessing (unranked) Enhanced Dragon-Scale Web (unranked) Crimson Runic Script XII Unrestricted Speech X Biomantic Alteration (unranked) Aspects Aspect Skills Archspecter (full stack) Ephemeral Phase Ghostly Freedom Endless Hunting Spectral Touch Lernean Hydra (full stack) Hydras Restoration Adaptive Regeneration Disposable Organs Dismiss Injuries Cosmic Leviathan (full stack) Ster Travel Charging to Infinity True Environmental Adaptation Omnidimensional Maneuvering Reality Filter (full stack) Reality Shift Perception End Set Illusions Free Illusions Living Sword (full stack) All de Style Invble des Annihting Trails Unhindered dework Void Dragon (full stack) Stars Heart Infinite Mind Scales of the Void Wings of the Void Leviathan, Prince of Envy (full stack) Moment of Immortality Progressive Invulnerability Mantle of Indomitable Scales Sea of Damnation Lord of Time and Space (full stack) True Spatial Warp And I Shall Not Be Moved Cosmos Soul True Spatial Affinity Ankou (full stack) Freedom from Mortal Limits Eternal Restoration Implements of True Death Reapers Cloak Royal Draugr (full stack) Endurance of the Eternal Warrior Always Armored Spectral te Loyalty Past Death Ymir (full stack) Burning Storms of Muspelheim Freezing Winds of Niflheim Titanic Strength Progressive Invulnerability Ziz (full stack) Wings of the Tempest Sr Radiance Moment of Immortality Progressive Invulnerability Balor (full stack) Field of Annihtion re of Obliteration Moment of Immortality Progressive Invulnerability Hundred Faces mon, Level XX) Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable topletely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesnt have to be the users true face. This Skill allows the user to adjust their entire body, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. This will not, however, affect the users physical capabilities. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to hide the users true feelings it has evolved to act as a method to hide the users emotions as it does their true appearance. It is now far more capable of changing facial expressions to reflect false feelings and these false feelings will also be what emotion-sensing Skills will see. Cost: 50 mana per minute while adjusting, 15 mana per minute while cloaking emotions Stealth mon, Level max) Use magic to shield the users form from visual inspection, as well as muffling noise created by the user. Quality of shielding will increase at higher levels. However, users expertise has increased the power of this Skill, allowing it to suppress the users smell and prevent the user from leaving physical traces while it is activated. After countless battles where this Skill was used to stalk and eventually take down prey, be it animal, monster or human, it has evolved to reflect this, the process of the hunt. While in stealth, the user may instill a sense of dread and foreboding in his intended victims with no clear source, ensuring they know there is something hunting them, and even create sounds and shes of something in the dark at a distance to serve as a distraction. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing its user to cloak itself from specific search methods to massively increase its power, to the point of hiding even from the most advanced sensors at anything other than point-nk range. Cost: 1 mana/sec, doubled while secondary power is in effect Power Strike mon, Level max) The users next blow will hit as though their strength were three times as high. This Skill may now also be safely used on fists and legs and has a reduced bacsh on the users body. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to drive a piercing de into an enemys flesh, it has evolved to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction, driving the cutting edge into the foe while pushing them with vastly reduced strength, massively improving armor pration. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, infusing each and every attack with a permanent 20 % increase in impact power, regardless of whether or not this Skill was activated. Cost: 12 mana per strike Piercing Strike mon, Level max) Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to prate armor. This effectsts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect willst for 2 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting. In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to bebined with other Skills. After countless battles where this Skill was used to pierce the very core of an enemy and y them in a single, swift, strike it has evolved into an even deadlier form. It may now stab through space itself, any thrusting attack empowered with itunching a beam of all-piercing energy at triple the mana cost. In addition, using this Skill will give the user insight into the location of his opponents vital organs. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. It will now linger on any de it is used upon, constantly providing it a degree of unnatural sharpness that can also cut immaterial things, which will only be further boosted if this Skill is used actively. Using this in conjunction with True Cut will reduce the cost of the other Skill. Lastly, Piercing Strikes base cost has been reduced while it has also gained the ability to be overcharged. tier Cost: 5-50 mana per strike, 40 mana per ranged attack Sundering Strike mon, Level max) Users next strike will weaken the targets armor around the point of impact. This damage is permanent until it is fixed/healed. This effect can be stacked until the armor is destroyed. This Skill can also be toggled to be almost undetectable, destroying any nerves or creature specific equivalent upon impact, or cause maximum pain by directly irritating whatever pain receptors a being might have. After countless battles where this Skill was used to tear apart the users foes, shredding them on a fundamental level until their own movements tore them apart, it has evolved to destroy them, rather than merely weakening them. For an additional 18 mana, this Skill will now inject a weakening, magic based poison that rots an enemys flesh and corrodes their defenses until nothing but soup remains. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. What once merely weakened armor to make follow-up attacks more effective was supercharged to melt flesh wholesale, eventually being used to simply destroy the entirety of a monsters internal organs. Now, Sundering Strike is able to disintegrate matter through touch or weapon, though its cost climbs exponentially as the target bes tougher, has the properties of armor or is intended to be used for defensive purposes. Cost: 12 mana per strike, 30 mana per poisoning Strike, 100 mana minimum for disintegration (unarmored flesh belonging to a being at your Level) des mon, Level max) Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and nonbat applications. In addition, the user may repair any ded weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the users hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool. After countless battles where the user has obliterated his foes using a soulbound de able to gain new abilities from power foes while making extensive use of Aspects, it has gained the ability to infuse the weapon, Old Reliable, with the power of said Aspects to give it new forms. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The bearer of this Skill also turned out to be the bearer of truly legendary weapons. Some already had their own mythology while others are busy building one as their wielder does great deeds, but one and all, they belong in the annals of history. As such, the users weapons grow in power as theyre used, though in the case of soulbound weapons that grow with the user already, this Skill merely acts as a significant growth booster. Sneak mon, Level max) Grants user basic knowledge of how to move stealthily, from avoiding making noise to reducing visibility. Higher levels of this Skill will allow the user to have an overall lessened impact on the world atrge, to the point of nearplete invisibility. This Skill also has an active mode in which the User actively spends mana to reduce their impact on the world. After countless situations where it was used to hide in in sight to avoid public attention, this [Skill] has evolved to create a permanent (toggleable) effect that makes supernatural or attention-grabbing disys by the user less obvious. (This effect is powered by ambient mana, ack of such will require the user to power it themselves) And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing the user to grow progressively harder to see the longer they do not move, to the point where it will take several seconds to spot them even when using obvious and highly-visible long-range attacks. Sweeping Strike (umon, Level 17) Upon the users next attack, 5 des of 3+.3n meters in length, where n equals skill level, will extend from the de, allowing the user to strike at arge area. Spread of des must be specified by user, maximum spread is 45. Length of des may be reduced to reduce mana cost. The user may also now choose how the des are spread, it is not necessary for them to be evenly spaced. Cost: 30 mana + 5 mana/meter Far Strike mon, Level max) Upon the Users next melee attack with a ded weapon, the de will extend by 2+0.5n meters where n equals skill level. In addition, the User may now imbued his weapons with ten mana to create a range enhancing aura for a full minute. This extra reach is 0.5 meters, gaining an additional 0.1n meters, with n being every Level in this Skill over 10. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to destroy foes that thought they were safe due to being out of range, this Skill has evolved to grant him even an greater reach. The user may now input more mana at will, with the range doubling with every additional 20 points of mana invested. Caution: Extremely long des may give way if engaged along their entire length, this may be mitigated by applying a second Skill to strengthen it (elligble Skills: Piercing Strike, Power Strike). And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be projected past solid objects, even bypassing non-magical armor, should there be sufficient space avable behind said armor. Cost: 20 mana minimum, no maximum mana investment Manifold Strike (legendary, Level max) The user maybine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X avable for each Skill used below that Level. In addition, the overall potency of the Skills used increases by 10 %. After countless situations where this Skill has been used to deal devastating damage using the rightbination of lesser Strikes, especially whenbined with a second Skill that allows for multiple uses of the same strike, it has evolved to be even more powerful than the sum of its parts. Now, when staking multiple instances of this Skill using Legendary Blow, one may choose which Strike to use how often, modifying proportions as needed to create a truly optimal attack with no mana going to waste. In addition, theplimentary Skill of Legendary Blow has been enhanced to allow for an additional instance to be applied, for a total maximum of seven possible stacks. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, passively infusing all Strike-type Skills with the properties of all other Strike-type Skills at no additional cost, unless this is deliberately deactivated. Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.20^used Skills Form of Horror (legendary, Level max) There are many sides to the Undying Wraith. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, andstly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death. The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the users Aspects. Current Aspects: Aspect of the Arcane Poltergeist, Aspect of the Greater Hydra, Aspect of the Megalodon, Aspect of the Twilight Weaver, Aspect of the Razor Apparition, Aspect of the Dragon, Aspect of the Least Demon Lord, Aspect of the Space Elemental, Aspect of the Ankou, Aspect of the Death Knight. If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the users new form. Furthermore, while in this form the users Strength and Fortitude are increased by 65 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 100 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged. This Skill can only be activated once every hour andsts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full. After countless battles where the user has used this Skill to annihte foes that should have been well beyond his capabilities, it has been increased to a level of power worthy of its own legend. The user may now transform into any non-Boss creature whose Aspect he holds and has a Level that does not exceed his by more than 10 (more powerful creatures may suffer from a shortened duration). In addition, the user may manifest body parts of the monsters for a cost dependent on the specific body part copied on their normal body. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The number of customizable forms is increased to 7, which can be freely created/altered while this Skill is inactive. These Forms can draw upon the forms of any monster whose Aspect the user has slotted. The Stat boosts provided by this Skill are increased. Furthermore, the user may freely switch between any of his one standard and seven custom forms while this [Skill] is active. Injuries will transfer between forms, but use of unique biological resources (quills, venoms, acid spray, etc.) will remain limited to the form that utilizes said resources. Current Forms: Aspect Amalgam King of the Sea Ruler of the Airspace Perfect Amalgam Speed Demon Acid Horror Death Titan The Chosen Weapon (epic, Level max) There are many things that determine the power of a warrior. Training. Physical Prowess. Skill. Raw Talent. But there is one more thing. A weapon. Having the right one to carry into battle can be the difference between life and death. And that is what this Skill is all about. The user may choose a single weapon and make it soulbound. This weapon then bes a part of them, inextricably and eternally bound together, able to be summoned at will, and will never harm its user. As this Skills Level grows, new forms and abilities will be gained. In addition, consecrating this weapon in the blood of legendary foes will grant it new strength and powers. The chosen Weapon has its own mana pool to use its own Skills, separate from the users, drawing power from the environment. However, the user may also choose to divert their mana regeneration to refill this pool once their own is full. It starts out with a pool of 100, then increases by 10 with every Level the user has. Based on the users Level in the de Skill, The Chosen Weapon (Old Reliable), gains a new ability for every Aspect the user holds. This weapon may now absorb nine (four remaining) additional weapons to be used as an alternate form for The Chosen Weapon. Weapons may also be removed at a cost of 1,000 mana, once per year. The Chosen Weapon will never cease being useful to its wielder, never stop growing despite the Skill being maxed out, sharpness and durability endlessly increasing as the user levels. In addition, every form of this weapon can be summoned separately (not only weapon types, but elemental and Aspect-based versions). Phantom Step (epic, Level max) A single step is the beginning of a journey of a thousand miles. And if this Skills Level is high enough, then a single step can be a journey of a thousand miles. You are a phantom in the dark, an unseen shadow that streaks past in the night. With this Skill, the user can make a single step take them far greater distances than it would normally ever be able to. As a stealth Skill, it is vastly more efficient when used unobserved. This Skill may now also be used simultaneously with either [Ephemeral Form] or [Stealth]. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to sneak into enemys blindspots and facilitate sneak attacks, it has gained the ability to fake a teleport. When teleporting, the user may chose a second location within his range and an illusionary copy of him will appear there as if via teleportation and act as the user would for a single second. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, gaining the ability to create countless illusions around the user after teleporting, including rendering them invisible or making them look like their foes worst nightmare. Cost: 15 mana to initiate, 2 mana per three meters of unobserved travel, 4 mana per meter of observed travel, with a maximum range of 20 m +5 m per Skill Level Bestial Regeneration (epic, Level max) No matter how good a fighter is, injuries are inevitable, given enough time. Therefore, this Skill is as invaluable as it is indisputable that it will find a use. It allows the user to store excess mana generated by Magic Regeneration for the sole purpose of fueling the users regeneration Skills. This pool will be used to automatically heal any injuries sustained unless this Skill is explicitly suppressed and will be used up before any regeneration Skills draw on the users mana pool. This pools size is Skill Level*50. In addition, it may be set to prioritize specific organs and body parts over others. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to keep its wielder alive through horrific injuries, it has evolved to provide a speed to boost to all of the users self-healing powers, with the mana cost increasing proportionally to the boost, with a maximum increase of one hundred percent. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, empowering the users recovery to insane heights. Whenever a certain body part of the user hasnt been injured for a significant amount of time, regeneration of that body part can be increased by up to 1,000%, with this boost halving every time it is used. The mana cost for empowered regeneration is increased by half as much as the regeneration itself. Undying Focus (epic, Level max) No matter what kinds of damage an Undying Wraith suffers, no matter how badly they are injured, one thing will always remain. Their undying willpower. This Skill grants the user the ability to directly alter their perception of pain, includingpletely shutting it off. WARNING! Completely removing ones sense of pain may lead to injuries going unnoticed! In addition, it prevents tunnel vision, therefore allowing the user to keep track of their goal without overlooking anything in the process and even block out mental attacks. Lastly, Undying Focus allows healing and regeneration Skills to heal brain damage and even restore damaged memories without requiring specialized Skills on the part of the healing individual. Furthermore, this Skill boosts the users resistance to hostile aura effects. After countless battles where this Skill has been used to ignore even horrific injuries and terrible pain, it has evolved to allow the user to remove health seeping and other negative status effects through sheer force of will. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, bing able to push out all distractions, all hostile mental attacks (that are not vastly disproportionate in terms of power) and memetic hazards, as long as the user continues to focus on it. The greater the assault on the users mind and sanity, the harder it is to maintain focus. But for so long as focus is maintained, the sanctity of the users mind remains intact. Tools of Terror (epic, Level XX) An Undying Wraith is never unarmed, eternally equipped with the tools of his in foes. This Skill allows the user to draw upon the natural weapons once possessed by any creature whose Aspect he holds. After countless fights where this Skill has been used to create devastating counters, the user may set one body part to be created upon certain conditions being met, without requiring the users active input. The cost must still be paid. Cost: 10 mana per weapon minimum, up to 100 mana for extremelyrge weapons, 1 mana every second to sustain it Fleeting Presence (epic, Level XX) There one moment, gone the next. Completely gone. This Skill tells the user how to erase all traces of their presence, such as footprints, avoid breaking branches and trampling shrubs. However, it also stops the user from shedding all the usual traces that all humans leave behind, such as skin and hair cell. It also prevents the oils found on human fingers from leaving behind fingerprints, though it will not prevent fingerprints from appearing if the user were to touch a material that is easily imprinted upon, such as soft wax, putty or a heavyyer of dust, instead disturbing the material until the fingerprint is no longer visible, but that by itself could be spotted. Likewise, nothing will transfer from the users clothes or shoes to any surfaces, and footprints will be removed, but the signs that something was removed might still be visible. After countless times when the user has used this Skill to get away with acts of vigntism, it has evolved to be particrly effective at countering the Skills ofw enforcement officers. Crippling Blow (epic, Level XX) Striking down a target with a single attack is the sign of a truly excellent Assassin or other stealth basedbat ss. But sometimes, that simply isnt possible. A foe is toorge, too good at regenerating, or simply has more than one point that needs to be targeted in order to kill it. And thats where this Skilles in. Activating this Skill will cripple any mechanism, biological, mechanical or magical, that the user touches and can be projected through armor or hide at a length of up to 5 cm, increasing by 1 cm per Skill Level. This requires the user to focus on the specific thing they want to disrupt (i.e. sensory organs to impede perception, limbs to slow down movement, natural weapons to reduce offensive power, etc.). By default, this Skill is very painful, but that can be increased to near-crippling levels for a slight increase in cost. After countless times when the user has cut powerful foes down to size, this Skill has evolved to highlight the restrictions it has caused to allies while hindering all foes abilities to perceive the damage. Cost: 20 mana per use minimum, can be increased up to 150 to affect powerful enemies or tough body parts I Am The Sword (legendary, Level max) In the right hands, a sword can be a devastating weapon. But sometimes, the hands themselves can be a weapon far more dangerous than any mere hunk of metal. And with this Skill, both is the case. For 0.1 seconds, increasing by 0.01 seconds per Level, the users form will be indestructible, immoveable, and invible while their momentum will be maintained for that period, tearing through or pushing aside anything in their path while this Skill is active. In addition, the users static body acts as a de, far more likely to cut through instead of push away the target, and Skills that require a de can be used upon it. This Skill can only be activated every 60 min and cost requires 750 mana to use, which it siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full. After countless fights where the user has torn through the most vulnerable points of powerful monsters, this Skill has evolved to deal devastating damage to even the gods of destruction that are the Raid and World Bosses. Upon striking an enemy, the user of this Skill may choose to either enhance prative power to go through armor even when thews of physics dictate that this shouldnt be possible, or reduce it so that even a rtively fragile enemy can be sent flying. Furthermore, the damage inflicted by this Skill will increase in different ways depending on the mode used. Maximum pration will cause the user to disrupt the flesh around themselves as they move through a foe, while going for an impact-based attack will send powerful shockwaves into the enemys insides, inflicting internal damage without requiring an armor breach. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, being able to be cast freely and with far fewer restrictions. For 2,000 points of mana, I Am The Sword may be cast even while it is on cooldown. Cost: Major Stamina Drain, 1,000 banked mana/2,000 mana Grave of Swords (legendary, Level max) A vast field, countless des thrust into the dirt, each one representing a warrior who fell in battle within this space This is the Grave of Swords, each one containing the power and knowledge of a specific foe, so the user may fight them over and over again, or be used as fuel to enhance this space. Upon activation of this ability, both the user and one target will be transported to another ne (current size: circle with a 50 meter diameter) for a one minute per Level in this Skill. The target must be either in contact with user or the users soulbound weapon when this Skill is activated for it to take effect, though. The Skill ends if onebatant dies, it hits its time limit, or is deactivated by the user, any leftover mana will be refunded and ced in the Skills pool. When an enemy dies within this Skill, a new de is thrust into these hallowed grounds, containing a record of the fight, the fallen, and a measure of its power. With it, the user may choose to fight against the old foe once more for training purposes, experimenting with new tactics and moves without danger. However, the weapons store the remnant life force of the monster, which can be used as additional fuel for this Skill as its cost increases with the strength of the other participant (+5 mana per opponent Level over the users, +50 for each Tier barrier between the users Level and the monsters, overall cost doubled for Bosses, tripled for Raid Bosses and quintupled for World Bosses) This Skill can only be activated every 5 hours inbat, cost requires 1,500 mana to use, which it either siphons off from the users mana regeneration so long as the users mana pool is full or draws from the swords themselves. Cooldown can be bypassed by paying double the normal activation cost from the stored des. After countless fights where the user has sealed powerful foes within to protect his allies, this Skill has evolved to further enhance the isting power of Grave of Swords. It can now be used to seal of a part of the battlefield, creating an incredibly durable spherical barrier around the user, with a radius of 50 meters (it increases automatically forrger, singr foes, ording to the same rules as the regr use of this Skill). The user may choose to banish any person in their Party from this zone to protect them, but enemies cannot be forcibly removed. (Note: inanimate objects ovepping the barrier will not be damaged, living beings will either be pushed into or out of the Grave of Swords if they ovep the barrier during its creation, depending on where the majority of their body is) Furthermore, this Skill has gained an additional effect due to a high degree of synergy with the ss Hildebrands Heir. When using the Grave of Swords to train against enemies trapped within, the user may choose to take along other people. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, bing a tool to control the battlefield itself. Firstly, the user may now control the opacity of the Grave, allowing people to see inside, allowing those within to see outside, or both. In addition, they may control whether anyone can take advantage of this sight, or if it is limited to just their party members or even just them alone. Secondly, the Graves location is no longer visible from the outside. Thirdly, when the Grave is closed by the users victory, the user may decide to exit into any safe spot within a kilometer of where it was opened. And fourthly, the Grave can now be recharged or sustained with mana donated by others. Cost: 1,500 banked mana base cost forbat purposes, cost increases with targets power, increase must be paid from stored des or the users mana pool Absolute de Mastery (legendary, Level XX) All throughout history, countless people have staked their lives onto these pieces of metal, living and dying by the de. Some may have wielded it in anger without any training at all, other spent their entire lives honing their craft without ever having to raise their weapons in a real fight even once. Yet none of them have ever reached this stage, because they couldnt. Normally, there is always more to learn. At some point, you will solidly run into the issue of diminishing returns, but your path will never truly end. And then, theres this Skill. Might not grant absolute skill with the de, but it allows the user to truly master it in all of its forms, in two different ways. Firstly, now any and all skill and experience with any de carry over to any and all other des. Never, ever, under any circumstances, will a tiny difference in bnce, length or weight screw you up, never again. You can pick up an entirely new type of sword that youve never even conceived of, as long as you are a master of some manner of sword, you will also be a master of this one. Secondly, never again will you cut something you did not mean to cut. You have absolute control over your weapons, you could shave a furious cat actively trying to murder you with a gauntlet sword without ever even so much as inflicting a single scratch, this is the level of fine control you hold now that you have this Skill. Hell, you could wave a chainsaw around in a crowded disco and unless you want to hurt people or destroy objects, the only issue would be the noise. Lastly, this truly legendary level of skill with the de can now be shared with others. The secondary effects of this Skill will not be imparted, but proper use of the de can turn even a blunt pair of scissors into a lethal weapon, and this is what your students will learn. After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to utilize their skill with the de on such exotic things as even their hands, it has evolved to gain a new effect. The edge of their hands, their elbows, knees, heels, and any other striking surface be sheathed in energy when used to attack, being protected, gaining a cutting edge/piercing point, Furthermore, the user bes permanently able to use their skill with des while fighting hand-to-hand as well. In addition, the users des and aforementioned body parts are capable of bypassing any resistance to physical attacks an enemy might have. Finally, now that the user has been forged into a de, the damage of any of their physical attacks can be controlled or negated entirely, allowing them to perfectly control what is damaged or destroyed. Compounded Impact (legendary, Level X) When striking at the same ce, over and over again, each blow will cut deeper than thest. With this Skill, a bond will be created between the users de and an opponent, every additional strike hitting harder and harder, drawing an ever increasing amount of mana until even a casual tap contains the force to shred mountains. (Combo resets after 5 seconds of no sessful hits) For an additional cost of 10 mana upfront, the first strike can be enhanced to count as the fifth hit in the series. Cost: 1 mana, doubles every use, resets after 3 seconds True Cut (legendary, Level XX) What can be cut? Paper? Flesh? Bone? Rock? Metal? Air? At what point is something too hard to cut, and can you even cut liquids or gasses? What about things with no physical form to cut? Well, with this Skill, the answer is that everything can be cut, no matter how hard, no matter how immaterial, no matter how conceptual it may be. Defenses sundered with a swipe as a magical shield is destroyed in a single swipe or the very concept of armor ceases to function for the brief instant it takes for the target to lose its head. However, not all uses of this Skill are as grand as that. At its most basic, True Cut can be used directly on the effects of another Skill and cut it, disabling it for a period dependent on the amount of mana invested. In addition, the Skill Implements of True Death can be applied to reinforce True Cut, doubling its mana cost. This will increase the duration of the damage caused by True Cut and make it harder to re-establish destroyed effects. After countless times when this Skill has been used to carve out the heart of an organization, causing an enemy or their organization toe apart at the seams, it has evolved to highlight the easiest targets, the cheapest to destroy, as well the most important ones to go after. IMPORTANT: Concepts cannot be destroyed, only damaged, and will return rapidly, possibly instantaneously, and can only be affected in a small area. WARNING: The cost of this Skill depends on the target and may exceed the users mana pool by a significant degree, attempting to overdraw the mana pool will lead to the users death. Cost: variable, depending on type Armory of Ancient Times (legendary, Level max) They had some good stuff back in the time of legends, didnt they? Legendary swords, cloaks of invisibility, rings and belts that granted the strength of ten men all that good stuff. But we dont have that stuff anymore, they were either lost to history or they never existed in the first ce. But with this Skill, it doesnt really matter which of those is true, because Hildebrands Heir is able to summon anything he wants, so long as Hildebrand once held it, such as his sword Balmung, once wielded by Siegfried. You may summon multiple weapons (or objects) at a time, and doing so will reserve 100 points of your mana to maintain it unless you can find alternative ways of sustaining it for the first, with the cost doubling with every additional summon. As you learn more about Hildebrands legend, youll learn more about what you can summon. After having one of this Skills ancient weapons summoned nigh-permanently, it has evolved so that the user may also permanently summon a single object by paying 2,000 mana upfront. This object will remain without requiring upkeep until it is either broken or dismissed. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing the user to, once a century, elevate one of their pieces of gear to the status of a legend, taking them beyond the limits of their material properties. Currently avable gear: Balmung, Nagelring, Eckesachs, Mimung, assorted mundane gear, Laurins Ring, Hildegrim Legacy of a True Warrior (legendary, Level max) Once upon a time, there was a man. A warrior, teacher to a legendary king, and hispanion in all his adventures. And now, you hold that mans legacy. His knowledge, his skills, his experience inbat both figurative and literal. Not only that, but all of that experience has been improved by the knowledge of how to apply it to a world with the [System]. But even though Hildebrands personal achievements are hardly small, they pale inparison to what his student achieved. As such, the core of this inheritance is all about training others. Anyone you train will pick up all lessons at a vastly elerated pace, a pace that will increase even further if the training is rted to knightly endeavors, such as horse riding, medieval politics, orbat with traditional weapons (sword/axe/bow/spear). But that is only the beginning of what you are now capable of. You may now impart the following Skills onto your students (these are weaker versions of your ss Skills, they can only be taught if you have the Skill yourself): -Knightly Discipline (downgrade from Knightly Leader, enhances group coordination) -Epic Blow (downgrade from Legendary Blow, allows the stacking of multiple identical Strike/Shot/Blows) -Phantom Armor (downgrade from Fully Geared, allows for the storage of a single set of armor in an extradimensional space) -Veterans Knowledge (downgrade from Experts Insight, grants overall knowledge and the asional sh of insight) You may only teach 5 Skills per week, the number increases by one per Level in Legacy of a True Warrior. Skills taught this week 1/35 However, there is one more way the Heir of Master Hildebrand can teach people. After reaching Level 10 in this Skill, the Heir may teach groups of up to five people at a time. This will only grant a rare Skill, rather than an epic one, but only use up a single timeslot. Using a few hours of one-on-one training and 80% of a slot, the Skill can be upgraded to its full power. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. In addition, this Skill allows the Heir to seamlessly interface with training Skills used by coworkers. After countless fights where the user has turned a disparate collection of individuals into capable warriors, forging them into warriors capable of ying Demon Lords and even Dragons, this Skill has evolved to create an army of legends. Any individual who walks the same path as the Heir and works with them to achieve their end goals will passively be taught the Skills that Legacy of a True Warrior can grant and these Skills will rapidly level (up to the Heirs Level in the specific Skill) as long as they continue to support the Heir in their endeavors. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user the ability to teach all basic Strike, Blow, Shot, Armor, and military discipline Skills to their trainees. The cost for teaching these [Skills] is one-fifth of the normal cost. In addition, the user will effectively have ess to these Skills at Level thirty, butck threshold bonuses. In addition, once per week, the user may temporarily enhance all of their subordinates Skills of the above types to the next threshold. This boost willst for six hours. Legendary Blow (legendary, Level max) A single blow to shatter mountains, raze city walls or split the sea, these are the things stories are written about and when someone uses this Skill, there is a good chance that too will end up being turned into a story. When Legendary Blow is activated, the user may use any of their Strike/Blow/Shot Skills up to eight (nine due to Manifold Strike Evolution) times to enhance a single attack, massively increasing its power. With every Level in this Skill, the cost ofponent Skills is reduced by 5 %, up to 25%, Levels past that merely boost the already ludicrous levels of power this Skill harbors into the stratosphere. After countless fights where the user has crushed their enemies using devastating attacks at the cost of most of their mana, this Skill has evolved to allow them to remainbat-ready afterwards. When Legendary Blow is used to deal the finishing blow and the user still considers themselves to be inbat, the sword is sheathed in another energy field that provides half the enhancement of the death blow that will remain until it is used or dismissed. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, gaining the ability to double up the number of potential advancements, at triple the mana cost. Fully Geared (legendary, Level XX) The historical definition of a knight is a lesser nobleman who maintains his own set of heavy armor and a warhorse. Therefore, a knight without his armor is no knight at all. And as sturdy as armor is, it can break, get stolen or simply fall apart if it gets too old. If you want your armor to survive for more than a couple of fights, this Skill is essential. It allows the user to store six full outfits in an extradimensional storage and dress themselves with a mere thought. Armor and clothing is cleaned upon being stored and damage is repaired so long as the required materials needed to rece removed parts are provided. Equipped armor can be reinforced using mana. In addition, armor equipped with this Skill bes slightly tougher than it usually would be. After countless fights where the user has thrown this armor into the path of devastating attacks,st-second switches ruining both a foes ns and the armor itself, this Skill has evolved allow the user to constantly swap out not just his armor, but individual armor pieces, continuously altering their equipped armor as is needed, restoring damaged equipment by cannibalizing other sets. All pieces can be returned to their original armor at will, albeit while retaining damage taken. Cost: 10 mana to store/equip/switch outfits, 5 mana per second to repair clothing, 50 mana per minute to reinforce armor Knightly Leader (legendary, Level max) Many a tale has been told of a heroic knight, of the dragonyer, the rightful king who returns from exile to bring peace and prosperity to his home. All of these tales focus on a single individual, the knight, yet that knight is never alone. He has pages, squires,rades in arm and asionally, a mentor thats along for the ride. This Skill is an essentialponent of leading a group of your fellows intobat. Firstly, it allows for the creation of an official, System acknowledged party with all the advantages that entails (knowledge of each others health states, locating allies, XP sharing). Secondly, it allows the user to draw upon all the experience about leading men that Master Hildebrand gathered over the course of his life, and apply it to the situation at hand. (this information has been updated to include the System, sses and Skills) Thirdly, anymands given by the user will be able to override irrational panic if necessary. In addition, the user can remotely talk to party members up to ten kilometers away. And finally, the user can set up contingencies ahead of time, so orders are issued without the user needing to fully articte potentiallyplex statements in the middle of a fight for their lives. These orders can be canceled at any time, should it be necessary, and new ones can always be added though it would be inadvisable if a distraction would endanger them. After countless fights where the user has used this Skill to lead a disparate collection of people to victory and empower them with new training, it has evolved to vastly empower the users ability to turn a collection of random individuals into a solid group. Anyone who bes a member of your party can be taught directly using Legacy of a True Warrior, and will gain basicbat and cooperation tactics should they not already have them. In addition, you gain an innate understanding of the dynamics of the people you lead, where the cracks in the group lie and where your current subordinates arecking. It will also provide hints as to how these ws can bepensated for. And now, Knightly Leader has reached the pinnacle of its power, granting its user a presence unlike any other, one representative of not only you, the leader but also of the people you lead. If you are inmand of a group, you may borrow your subordinates Auras, melding them into your own and creating a titanic presence that emanates from the entirety of your formation. The Auras costs are doubled for their holders and may be withdrawn from the collective at will. Each individual Aura may be projected away from its user up to a distance of ten times its original range, but a member of the formation must still be within the standard distance of allponent Auras. Cost: 100 mana to establish, 300 mana per day to sustain Analyze Person (legendary, Level max) Politicians, managers, hucksters. All kinds of people have all sorts of insights into the human condition, and the associated sses have a myriad of Skills to help them with that, each one purpose built for a specific kind of analysis, giving them the exact kind of knowledge needed to do what they do. This Skill, on the other hand, is the distition of a lifetime of experience reading people, empowered to a supernatural degree. It might not have the power of a focused Skill and therefore falls far short of thebined abilities of a social ss, but it doesnt have to match the might of an entire ss because that is not its purpose. This is a Skill that makes your current social skills useful in a world where magic can interfere with social interactions, as well as empowering said social skills with a lifetimes worth of experience. In addition, it allows for a degree of insight into what Skills are interfering with your mind/arguments. In addition, blocking hostile social Skills will be easier and will work with a smaller Level gap than normal. And now, the user will also gain the ability to see the person underneath whatever Skills and other effects might be changing them, hiding their true selves or otherwise making it so that you are facing a different person than you normally would. This scanning ability may not work at full strength against effects of significant power. After countless times where the user has used this Skill to navigateplex political situations, it has gained the ability to automatically highlight all social and political Skills whose effects can be perceived by the user by any means. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of power, allowing the user to see the reasoning behind almost all official actions, figuring out how even the strangest or most idiotic decisions came about. Continent Strider (legendary, Level max) In olden times, it could take months or years to go from city to city, from country to country. Modern technology has shrunken the world somewhat, but it still takes quite a while to move significant distances. This Skill not only removes the need for modern technology to travel vast distances in a reasonable timeframe, but further boosts the travel speed while moving on foot. Your movement speed on foot or horseback will increase exponentially with this Skill active. Continent Strider cannot be activated inbat or while fleeingbat, it is purely a utility Skill. This Skill can be applied to all party members so long as said party members are within 100 meters of the user and the user is the party leader. Every day, the user umtes a pool of movement equal to one hour of travel without using this Skill. This pool has an upper limit of 336 hours, and can be used to open a portal to an important location the user has been before. This portal can carry up to five times the users mass per activation and its cost amounts to how long it would have taken the user to make the journey normally, without using Continent Striders eleration feature. Combat utility limitations still apply. Each use of this portal a day after the first will double the cost each time. After countless asions where the user has used this Skill to sneak in travel even amidst hectic emergencies, it has evolved to let them do their travel in segments. Once per month, the user may choose a single journey that they couldplete in a month or less, and they may (outside ofbat, twice a day) teleport to theirst position in that journey, maintaining their movement bonus from Continent Strider. Once a journey is selected, it cannot be changed for a year, which will remove the ability to teleport to the journey (the user mustnt be on the journey while doing this) and while on the journey, it cannot be deviated from (including intentionally dying/moving overly slowly). And now, it has reached the pinnacle of power, allowing the user to return home once per decade, so long as home is no more than one years travel away. Alternatively, the user may skip up to ten years of travel, but this increases the cooldown to a century. Cost: 500 mana per hour, plus 100 per party member Burden of Power (legendary XIII) Heavy is the head that wears the crown, or so the saying goes. And its true, only fools see the crown as something that turns ones life into a great and wonderful paradise. If one fulfills even a fraction of the responsibilities that leading a country requires, then ones life will be filled with hard work. This is the Burden of Power. When this Skill is activated, that burden shows in your Aura, a tangible thing for all to see, experience and be impacted by. It can either be used to focus attention on yourself and demonstrate your status as a leader, or you can now temporarily offload a small amount of that burden upon your foes and watch them crumble. In addition, the user may mark his foes with their Aura, allowing future auric attacks to have a greater effect. Cost: Auric Infusion, Aura of the Crimson Dawn: 20 mana per minute Auric Infusion, Aura of the Desperate Seeker: 50 mana per minute Foe Marking 50 points of mana Warning: Using two Auric Infusion Skills simultaneously will increase the overall cost by fifty percent Experts Insight (legendary, Level X) What separates a soldier who just got out of training from a veteran? A student who just got his degree from a lead engineer? A wizards apprentice from an Archmage? The answer to all those questions is, of course, experience. Some things are taught, yes, but others need to be learned from experience. Sometimes, said experience takes the form of repeating an action over and over and eventually figuring out a way to make said action more efficient. In other times, realizationes as a painful realization after a mistake reaps terrible consequences. Either way, this Skill offers up both a massive pool of experience to the user and vastly improves their experience and Skill Level gain by granting preternatural hindsight. If the user has any knowledge on a subject, they find themselves making connections far more readily and rted subjects will be far easier to research. Furthermore, Experts Insight acts as a general memory booster. As with many other Skills in the Hildebrands Heir ss, a lesser version of this Skill can be granted to the users students using Legacy of a True Warrior. However, unlike those other Skills, Experts Insight does not turn into a lesser version of itself, but rather transforms into a fundamentally different Skill called Veterans Knowledge, which allows the user of Experts Insight to directly impart their knowledge (note that this is a limited effect, this Skill will not directly put the taught individual on the same level as the user). In addition, this Skill synergizes with Lessons of History, allowing the user to draw not just upon their own experience, but that of those they witness fighting, albeit at a vastly reduced efficacy. Divine Fire (legendary, Level max) Fire. What can it do? Pretty much everything, as long as youve got the right kind and are creative enough. Fire. What can it be? Pretty much anything, as long as youre not risk-averse when ites to getting it. That is where the issue lies. Getting it. Of the countless mystic and mundane mes there are, one can only gain a few if one takes the normal path, that is. Stealing them aint normal. But it is possible. It is audacious, ludicrous, but possible. And fully in line with the Promethean spirit. This Skill grants the user the ability to conjure and control mundane mes. Initially. The real power of the Divine Fire is its ability to absorb and assimte all other fire, both magical and not. The user bes immune to all fires they have absorbed (and can extend this protection to objects on their person) and are able to then wield it with the same power and ease as the original fire. Once conjured, mes fueled by the users mana directly can be controlled for free while secondary fires spawned by the initial me can be directed by spending a negligible amount of mana. All mes can be extinguished for free, be they conjured directly or merely ignited by conjured mes. All assimted mes can be used individually orbined to form greater forms of fire, whose patterns can be stored forter use. The user also grows partially immune to unknown fires based on their simrity to already assimted mes. After countless fights where the user has assimted an enemys fires and promptly tore their user to shreds, this Skill has evolved to subsume hostile mes once the user has absorbed a sample not just of the correct type, but the very same mes theyre currently being attacked with. These mes can then be manipted freely, drawing mana from the controlled fire and progressively extinguishing it in the process. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The user gains the ability to exert power over all mes, manipting all mes around themselves whether theyve been generated by them, subsumed, or arepletely independent. The control cost for user-generated mes is entirely negated, and the creation cost is reduced by 25%. For hostile mes, a mana cost will need to be paid. However, it is possible to erase enemy mes by forcing them to cannibalize their own mana after paying a small initial deposit. Cost Patters: Creation cost per second Standard me (6) Absorbed mes: Samadhi Fire (1,600) Dragons Breath (40) Grand Hellme (40) Campfire (2) Burning Magnesium (11) Napalm (4) Ster Corona (36) (see full list (2,223)?) Combined mes: Prometheus Wrath (2,000) Drachenbrodem (200) True Starme (260) Combined Elemental Phoenix Disintegration (80) (see full list (448)?) Champion of Mankind (legendary, Level max) Humans are rather weak, arent they? Small and fragile despite how much of the theyve conquered, what great things theyve made, an individual human is still not all that powerful. Which is why they sometimes need a helping hand. Someone who might give advice, stop powerful foes, or maybe just steal fire from the gods themselves. This is the Champion of Mankind, humanitys shield, and the vanguard of their march into a brighter future. This is a Skill that grants the wielder the power to protect others, adjusted for the situation. There are four forms this boost can take: The Leader: The Leader is the true power behind an army. When the Champion takesmand, that fact bes abundantly clear. All troops (up to Skill Level times a thousand) under the Leadersmand gain a thirty percent boost to their physical Stats, are automatically empowered by [Veterans Knowledge], and gain ess to the basic Skills of all standardbat sses, such as Strikes, Blows, Shots, Healing Skills, and simple Spells. Furthermore, the Leader temporarily gains a seventy percent boost to their physical Stats, as well as the Skills [Threefold Thoughtstreams], [Simte Maneuvers], and [Battlefield Map]. The Leadersts for 1 hour and has a cooldown of ten hours. The Thinker: The Thinker is the physically weakest of the Champions, yet also the most impactful, especially in situations where physical force is not the correct answer. The Thinker gains ess to any five regr Skills from scientific/knowledge-based sses up to and including rare rarity and the third Evolution. In addition, he gains ess to the Skills [Parallel Thoughts] (each thoughtstream costs 1 mana per second from the Skills pool), [Simtion] (each simted second costs 2 mana), and [Mental Celerity]. Lastly, the Thinker can feed Spells using the Skills mana at an exchange rate of 2:1. The Thinkersts as long as the Skills manasts (natural drain of 1 mana per second) and imparts a cooldown of one day. The Vanguard: The Vanguard is the simplest form of the Champion, but by no means weak. In fact, when ites to rawbat power, it is utterly unsurpassed. When in Vanguard form, the users physical Stats double, they gain a nigh-unbreakable set of armor custom-designed to match their fighting style. Furthermore, the Vanguard can, at will, draw in all ranged attacks made against nearby allies and even incite enemies to go after them instead. Lastly, the Vanguard gains temporary ess to the [Indomitable Shield], [Unstoppable Momentum] and [Unbreakable Charge] Skills. The Vanguardsts for five minutes and has a cooldown of four hours. The Cleansing me: The Cleansing me is exactly what the name implies. The user is wreathed in armor made from the me they themselves created, known as Prometheus Wrath. Anything up to fifty meters away can be affected by the fire and heat, though the power decreases as the distance increased, and the user can freely exclude the environment and living beings from this damage. The user also gains a seventy-five percent boost to all physical Stats. Finally, the user may add the healing aspect of Phoenix fire to their armor, healing select living beings. The Cleansing mests for five minutes and has a cooldown of six hours. *** In addition, the user may switch between forms once after activating this Skill. The cooldown of Champion of Mankind will be increased to three days regardless of which forms are used, and the remaining usage time is dependent on the amount of mana remaining, halved. After countless fights where the user has fought foes threatening the world as a whole, this Skill has evolved vastly to improve the power of both the user and their allies. The mana pool of this Skill is doubled and upon being triggered at full power, the user may either double the duration of their chosen effect, or grant up to two allies one of this Skills effects. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, allowing its user to activate two forms simultaneously, at tripple the standard cost. Cost: 6,000 mana stored in a separate Pool/ 12,000 for boosting allies/ 18,000 mana for dual activation WARNING! This is a Skill meant to protect humanity and will fail when used in the service of ushering in its downfall. Titanic Presence (legendary XI) There are certain people who have a certain, well, presence around them. Raw charisma, sexual maism, a repulsive stench, it depends on the person, really. Draw the eyes, or make people hurriedly avert their gazes, both are a kind of impact. When a person holding the power of a Titan enters a room, everyone knows it, as they are capable of wielding not just a single Aura, but two at the same time. There are obviously significant difficulties attached to using not one, but two incrediblyplicated abilities at the same time, which is why the second Aura can be ved to the first, mimicking its movements. However, that will vastly reduce the power gained by this Skill. In addition, it allows the user to meld two Auras into a singr, powerful, effect. Cost for second Aura is equal to that Auras basic cost. Blessing of Innovation (legendary, Level XX) A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, ws that rend flesh like tissue paper, and the strength to bring down all but thergest of animals in its habitat. A human has what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal lotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands? Yet its man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africas lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: lions are stupid. The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipients ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself, for one hour. (the recipient can be any willing sapient being within 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves) While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively forget certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skills effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.) Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective fact for the duration of the effect. Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research sses, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare, and up to the second Evolution. The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a month. And now, this Skill has gained the capacity to understand truths that man is not meant to know, and as long as Undying Focus is supporting the user during the learning process, this information cannot hurt them. After countless asions where the user has granted others the power of infinite possibilities and indirectly given rise to incredible achievements, this Skill has evolved to vastly increase the chance of world-shaking advancements being made. The user of this Skill will be able to judge the likelihood of the recipient being able to make significant advancements upon receiving the blessing, and any recipient (including the user) will be shown the best Skills to borrow to achieve the intended goal. umtion of Knowledge (unranked) This Skill serves as a repository for the knowledge gained via the use of Blessing of Innovation. As Skills from research and science sses are borrowed, they will sometimes bring with them new knowledge. Any parts of this information that the user utilizes can be remembered even after the borrowed Skill is lost. The umtion of Knowledge serves as a general knowledge Skill, representing the amount of learning the user has done. As Blessing of Innovation is used repeatedly, this Skill may unlock new functions. Lessons of History (legendary, Level max) Those who dont study history might be doomed to repeat it, but those who do study history will most likely end up watching someone else repeat it. Sucks, doesnt it? History is filled with great examples, both ones to live up to and ones to avoid living down to. This is a Skill to help turn those lessons into ns of action. It allows the user to uncover things about the past by supporting the discovery of new information based on mere context clues and will then check the veracity of this information. Once such information about the past is in your hands, the Skill will point to the core lessons to learn from the past and allow these lessons to bemunicated clearly and unmistakeably to others. If you also have The Meaning of the Name, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. In addition, the user gains a mental archive of all information gathered by this Skill. This information takes a few seconds to ess if it has been forgotten by the users main memory, however. After countless asions where the user has used this ability to avoid the mistakes of the past from being repeated, this Skill has gained the ability to cause acts of random chance to begin to show people about to repeat mistakes where their actions may lead. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, bing practically precognitive in its own right when ites to the lessons of history being ignored. The Meaning of the Name (legendary, Level XXIV) Two Titans. Prometheus, the forethoughtful, and his brother, Epimetheus, whose name means afterthought. One who is intelligent avoids mistakes and traps before running straight into them. One whose hindsight might let him avoid making the same mistake twice, but by that point, the damage will already have been done. It should be clear which is the better thing to have. This Skill grants its user the power held by the Titan that his ss is named after. Preternatural, nigh-absolute foresight, gained by boosting the users pattern recognition ability, mental celerity and temporarily granting them the ability to store all that information. This process can be done subconsciously for short-term predictions, such as inbat, but anything longer term will both be more expensive and require active attention. The efficacy of this Skill increases with the amount of information the user has ess to, and may produce incorrect results if working off incorrect or iplete data. While this Skill does check the veracity of the user-provided info by checking it against all other avable information, that is of limited use and may slow down the workings of this Skill if prioritized after the foresight itself or be of extremely limited usefulness if the predictions themselves are prioritized. In addition, this Skill also provides the user with enhanced cognition, predicition, and pattern recognition even when not being powered by mana. After countless times when the user has used short-term predictions to overpower their foes inbat, this Skill has evolved to grant its user a weaker yet free version of its short-term effect. And now, this Skill has reached the pinnacle of its power, enhancing the power of free precognition to half its paid-for power. Cost: 20 mana per second for short-term predictions bat), 50 mana per second for long-term predictions If you also have Lessons of History, these Skills will work in concert to provide superior results for both and it will run subconsciously beside its sibling Skill. Fire Soul (legendary, Level XX) You are fire, all the way down the very core of your being, embodying not just the physical mes themselves, but also the idea of it all. Burning heat, raw destruction, sheer power, creation, alteration, transformation, light, warmth. This Skill empowers your mes and increases their impact on the world. Pre-existing heat, mana in the environment, and all other avable energies bend themselves to enhance your mes, lowering the cost of all fire-rted abilities by 35%. When you use fire, you arent wielding magic, youre manipting the world itself, truly altering reality. Your mes grow nigh-immune to standard methods of dispelling and will destroy opposing elements and energies when backed by your will. Not only that, but all your abilities may be infused with mes for a substantial boost, either in terms of raw power or bringing their nature more in line with that of fire (this depends on the ability in question, not all Skills will gain a full boost from Fire Soul). In addition, you gain inspiration on how to creatively use your mes. After countless times when the user has used this power to select the exact correct me to cause the maximum possible damage to his foes, it has gained the ability to slightly adjust mes to optimize damage for specific foes. Aspects of the End (legendary, max) The End Times. Armageddon. The Rapture. Judgement Day. Ragnark. The End of Days and everything else. Be it the impact of a gigantic meteor, divine judgement or celestial wars, there are things out there with the ability to destroy worlds. Nothing is safe from such power. Yet it is power that can be used to prevent such cmity froming about. Blow up the asteroid, broker peace between divine factions (if your sword isnt at someones throat, they wont listen), or maybe just poke out the eye of the chaos god about to devour the (something that is within the abilities of your ss as long as you y your cards right), if you dare. And such power is what this Skill can give you. In its base form, it will merely boost you, doubling your physical Stats and quadrupling your Mana Regeneration while active, stacking (additively) with other boosting Skills. However, this is merely the beginning of what this Skill can achieve. It can be upgraded to achieve specific things, to harness the power of certain world-ending beings. The ancient bird who is so old its seen the universe end three times over, the snake that swallows the sun to bring about eternal darkness, the biblical sea beast, or maybe even the dragon that is unleashed upon the world on the heels of the four Horsemen. By drawing upon the power of these mighty beings, even telling a dark god where to shove it is not necessarily off the table. Upon purchase of this Skill, one such aspect will be gained for free (chosen aspect: Speed of Hati), each subsequent aspect must be purchased separately (five Skill points). This Skill can only be activated for a certain span of time every day, but that time can be distributed across the day however the user wants. This time pool refreshes fully exactly twenty-four hours after the time pool was first used. Your time pool is calcted as ten seconds per Level in this Skill. If multiple Aspects of the End are used concurrently, time use is doubled for each one used beyond the original one. By ying a monster of the end times, you may gain a lesser version of its power, weaker than one the various upgrades that can be purchased for Aspects of the End, but still significant. Should the associated ability have already been purchased, the weaker power is not gained. Furthermore, each unique monster of apocalyptic power killed by the user will increase the time pool by 10 seconds. In addition, at the cost of five seconds, the user may supercharge a single blow to inflict devastating damage. After countless times when the user has used these powers to beat down a Monster of the End Times, when active, this Skill will inflict additional damage to World Bosses, weakening their defenses. And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power, (retroactively) doubling the gains via World Boss kills. Time Pool 720/720 (+420 second bonus for Monster of the End Times kills) Synergy effect: Undying Wraith The time pool of Aspects of the End can be used to also supercharge Aspects, taking their Skills to new heights. Regeneration that fixes limbs in milliseconds, phasing that allows even mana to pass through without causing damage (within reason), and more can be achieved. Power of the Behemoth (Subskill of Aspects of the End) The mightiest beast of thend, the Behemoth. Eternal, immortal, unstoppable (at least to those whose power does not match those of the gods). This is the power that this Skill grants. While it is active, the bearers every footstep can make the very Earth shake and shatter the ground with a single stomp, his every punch create storms and a single sweep of a sword create a shockwave to cleave mountains in twain. But there is more to this Skill than merely brute force. While it is active, it fundamentally alters the way the bearer can apply his physical force. As long as there is a physical medium to transmit them, the shockwaves caused by the users movements can be directed and precisely carry along the attack. A fist of air that hits an enemy a hundred meters away from a punch thrown into empty space, a de ofpressed air unleashed by a simple sword-swipe that can bisect mountains, and a simple stomp can shatter underground structures without having to cause an entire earthquake. In addition, when grasping an object, this Skill will helppensate for such things as bnce, center of gravity, or structural integrity. Wisdom of the Simurgh (Subskill of Aspects of the End) An ancient being in possession of impossible wisdom, so old it has seen the destruction of the universe three times over. When using this Skill, that wisdom passes onto its bearer, granting them an amount of knowledge no human could ever hope to amass, even given a million lifetimes. The pen is mightier than the sword, and knowledge is what is needed to get the most from ones pen. Therefore, while this Skill is active, its bearer is the most powerful person in the universe. At least in theory. Speed of Hati (Subskill of Aspects of the End) The moon. It has moved across the sky since time immemorial, eternally chased by a wolf seeking to devour it, never tiring, never slowing, always catching up until the beast devours the celestial body during the end of times. This is the power of a being that can walk on anything, be it solid ground or the empty void of space, move at speeds that exceed the orbital velocity of celestial bodies and devour them whole. While Speed of Hati is active, the bearer of this Skill can walk on anything, gravitys hold on him is greatly reduced and he has his speed vastly increased. In addition, merely by unlocking this Skill, he bes is immune to all manner of motion sickness, the negative consequences of moving at high speeds do not affect him and the resistance of medium he is moving through bes less of a factor (while this Skill is in its active form, medium resistance ispletely nullified). Sea of the Leviathan (Subskill of Aspects of the End, gained by killing a Monster of the End Times) The ocean. Deep, unknowable, and a ce that makes it almost impossible to fight without highly specific adaptations. As such, dumping someone at the bottom of the sea tends to be somewhat problematic for ones foes. This Skill summons a 500-meter diameter sphere during which all enemies suffer the negative consequences of being underwater (no breathing without water breathing abilities, weight/resistance of the water, pressure equivalent to a depth of Aspects of the End Level * 50 meters) while granting the user all benefits of underwaterbat (swimming in any direction with a body temporarily optimized for underwater existence, ignore all negatives). Primordial Cycle (Subskill of Aspects of the End, gained by killing a Monster of the End Times) Realms of ice and fire, and where they met, a giant was born. And from that giant, a world was born. This is the power of that primordial world. The user may either manifest an icy cold or ming hot wind, empowering ice or fire-based Skills. Book with Seven Seals (legendary) First, came the white horse, carrying the horseman of Conquest. Second, there was the horseman of War, astride a red horse, followed by the ck horse of Famine and the pale horse of death. Then, the souls of the in righteous cry out, the earth shakes, the sun grows dim, the moon bes drenched in blood, and the very stars fall to the Earth until finally, the very heavens grow silent. That is when the final battle shall begin. This is how the Book of Revtions describes the end of the world, giving those who would stand against cmity a way to prepare, to read the signs that foretell theing apocalypse. Those who hold this Skill will receive warnings of future cmity, as long as said cmity is apocalyptic in scale. These warnings maye in the form of dreams, short visions or outright prophecy. These warnings can begin as early as five years before the true beginning of cmity, or grant as little as one months warning (this depends on when said cmity bes nigh-inevitable), and will be increasingly precise and useful with each sessive warning. Receiving warnings does not mean that the world is certain to end without the intervention of this Skills bearer, merely that Armageddon is a possible oue. Nor does ack of warning indicate that a given situation is guaranteed to not eventually develop into an apocalyptic issue, just that it is unlikely. However, there are certain constant dangers, which exist permanently and may be very immediate and present threats depending on the situation. As such, you may receive an initial warnings without subsequent additions which persist on the active prophecy tab. This is a powerful ability, but also a heavy burden. It will always be active, cannot be deactivated, and will epass any world that the bearer cares for. Those who hold this ability will never be able to rest, never be able to retire, for there will always be danger so long as the universe exists. Synergy effect: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit When the user of this Skill is forewarned of aing cmity, every science and research Skill they possess will be fed the specific kind of information they need. Lessons of History will highlight all information from past apocalyptic scenarios that apply to this one. The Meaning of the Name will continuously gather the information needed to make on-the-spot predictions. And Blessing of Innovation will highlight where further development is needed. Prophecy 1: The Wider Existence A blue orb, lonely, In a universe old, vast Beings unknown live Prophecy 2: Predatory Humanity Apex Lonely Peak New World Order Social Ossification Begets Revolution Beware Call of the Gjarhorn (legendary) When gods and giants sh, when the dead sail forth from the underworld upon a ship made from the fingernails of corpses, when the Midgard serpent rises from the depths of the ocean and the sun and moon are devoured by a pair of wolves, Heimdall will blow the Gjarhorn to signal the start of the final battle. The Einherjar will descend from Valha and the very gods will go to war for the final battle of Ragnark until, at the very end, the Earth lies devastated and thest survivors of gods and humans are able to rebuild while upon the bones of their enemies. Yet being able to rebuild requires one to have won first. Thats where this Skilles in. Every person willing to honestly fight against an oing cmity is boosted by it, gaining Stats equal to the peak of their current Evolution (up to the third), grants them their choice of up to five Skills from any purebat ss up to the rare rank and the third Evolution, which they will keep for the full of duration of the conflict. These Skills will then be boosted up to Level 15 and their users will gain the knowledge of how to use them to their greatest effect. People in the fourth Evolution will gain five Levels immediately, but have to pay back the XP debt incurred before being able to continue leveling or being able to receive the benefits from this Skill again. This Skill can be activated once a year, on up to 50,000 individuals per Level of this Skill, but only against threats of apocalyptical nature. In addition, this Skill may sh with Skills that have simr effects, if so, the stronger boosting Skill will activate and the weaker will not function, refunding the cooldown to the user of the weaker Skill. Synergy effect: Hildebrands Heir Any person affected by the Call of the Gjarhorn may choose two of the users teachable [Skills] and gain them at the epic rarity and Level 10 Final Defiance (legendary, Level XI) What can one man do against the Apocalypse, one single fragile human against the fury of the very world? Fighting, and subsequently dying well is probably the only thing that most people would be able to do. However, the thing is, there are options to bridge even that gap in power. Cooperation, vast spells on a continental, or even global scale, perhaps even the power of friendship? Eh, maybe those work, but this Skill is a surefire option. It continuously umtes mana while inactive, growing in power, until it discharges in a single explosive burst when it is needed most, the moment when the fate of the very world hangs in the bnce. It cannot be activated for any lesser threats, and automatically triggers in the appropriate situation, discharging all umted mana as it runs its course. The rate at which the mana is used can be slowed, possibly even stopped, by the users will and determination, but twenty-four hours after this Skill triggers, ny percent of the remaining mana will be lost. The fuller the pool is, the more slowly it umtes (halved with every ten percent progress), and the maximum amount of mana in the pool (one billion) would require around a hundred thousand years to reach. When this Skill is active, it significantly boosts the users Stats, regeneration, mana pool, as well as decreasing their foes defenses and recovery ability (even if you dont survive, leave them with a few scars to remember you by, why dont ya?). Current charge: 77,312,889/1.000.000.000 Synergy effect: dewraith While under the effect of this Skill, the users attacks will gain a devastating additional effect, bing able to sever limbs in ways that cannot be regenerated until Final Defiance ends, even damage Skills and hack out Aspects (at a high mana cost). Specter Aspect Ephemeral Phase (legendary) Once you are dead, nothing can hold you down, no weight, no mortal shackle, no nothing. There is nothing that can stand in the way of this Skills users, who are capable of walking through walls, floors, ceilings, warded buildings, and more besides. Only direct, heavily mana-empowered attacks can hurt them, and even then, it needs to be a very powerful attack, and the user is able to spend mana to reinforce their form. Furthermore, fighting while fully phased will be perfectly feasible, weapons and other implements ofbat automatically bing tangible when in a position to hurt a foe that the user wants to attack (in that moment, general animosity will not cause trouble). Cost: 15 mana for activation, 10 mana per second of upkeep, upkeep can be increased up to 250 mana per second to resist foreign mana (Einherjar Bonus: massively increased disruption resistance) Ghostly Freedom (legendary) Once you are dead, nothing can hold you down, no weight, no mortal shackle, no nothing. Even gravity will be nothing but a suggestion. By activating Ghostly Freedom, the user will gain the freedom of an ephemeral being, capable of either reducing their mass, or just removing gravitys effect upon them, as well as the ability to reduce the drag created by the medium they are moving through. Furthermore, the user may telekically elerate themselves, at a constant rate of 5 m/s^2 for a maximum speed of 500 m/s. Cost: 1 mana per second per active effect (environmental resistance nullification, gravity nullification or telekic self-eleration) (Einherjar Bonus: Einherjar Bonus: Increased control, maximum speed increased to 1,000 m/s) Endless Haunting (legendary) Once one is cursed, one is already dead. No barrier will provide relief, no bunker provide sor. The holder of this Skill will be an unstoppable pursuer of their foe, unshakeable, ever-present. This Skill makes its user aware of all living beings around themselves in a radius of a hundred meters for 5 mana per minute, and can give more precise locations the more mana is invested, up to a maximum of 100 per minute. Once the user has chosen a target, they can spend another 50 points of mana to mark them (while perceived by the user), gaining the ability to track them precisely so long as they remain within 250 km, as well as knowing the most direct route to reaching them. Cost: 10-200 mana per minute for a passive scan, 100 points per mark per hour (Einherjar Bonus: max range increased to 2 kilometers, max tracking range increased to 500 kilometers) Spectral Touch (legendary) In many cultures, touching the dead is either forbidden or only allowed for certain individuals. While there are many reasons one might want to avoid handling dead bodies, this Skill certainly ranks among the best. When touching a target, the wielder of this Skill will cause the cold of the grave to seep into their very bones, reducing their stamina, capability to resist poisons and diseases, debilitating them after 5-60 seconds, depending on their power rtive to the user. At the same time, drained stamina and recovery ability is fed to the user of this Skill. Cost: 100 mana per second (Einherjar Bonus: draining can be projected through weapons) Hydra Aspect Hydras Restoration (legendary) Wanna see a magic trick? Heres a part of my body, now you see it, now you dont. Where did it go? Why, I chopped it off, of course. And now its back! Awesome, right? The Skill allows the user to rapidly regenerate from injuries at the cost of mana. Stab-wounds and cuts are easier to repair than anything that destroys orpletely removes flesh. Regeneratingrge amounts of flesh can be ufortable . Cost: 50-1,250 per second of use, 50 mana per kilogram of flesh restored Dismiss Injury (legendary) Getting injured isnt just painful, its also limiting. Even something as simple as damaged abdominal muscles can make standing straight difficult, not to mention the trouble that doing anything with a broken spine causes. While this Skill is active in its normal mode (can be toggled on and off at will), the user is able topletely ignore any and all injuries, but all actions that would be impeded by injuries grow more difficult and draining. Moving broken toe will be about as difficult as picking up ones phone while moving the same toe with a severed spinal cord might be as difficult as carrying a mountain. However, by paying mana, the user may fashion temporary, phantasmal, flesh that fills in injuries to allow the user to fight at full power. Missing limbs cannot be reced like that, however, it can be used to bridge missing parts, such as acting as an arm as long as the users hand is still present and intact. Up to a quarter of the users body can be reced at once. Cost: 5-50 mana per second Disposable Organs (legendary) Organs are annoyingly important and frustratingly fragile. Sad, but true. This Skill enables its user to ensure that the loss of any single organ would note with the usual negative consequences by ensuring that all of these organs can take over the function of multiple others in case of damage. Furthermore, this degree of interconnectivity and redundancy enhances the users overall metabolism. Adaptive Regeneration (legendary) Getting damaged is a pain. Getting set on fire and being progressively more injured is a significantly worse pain. This Skill ensures that the user will not be washed away in a river of fire or acid, progressively enhancing their resistance to constant sources of damage. For every 1% of the users body that is destroyed, the user grows 1% more resistant to that source of damage for 5 seconds, every time additional damage is taken from the original or a simr source (same monster, elerant of the same type/brand, or spell-type), the resistance is increased and the timer is reset. The resistance is gained at a one-second dy. Cosmic Leviathan Aspect True Environmental Adaptation (legendary) In this universe, there is an almost infinite variety of environments and circumstances, and most of them are exceedingly hostile to human survival. Immense heat, ack of oxygen, and a whole lot of other issues. This Skill prevents all these issues from affecting the user, including weakening the resistance caused by having to move through mediums of significant density. However, this Skill is ineffective when such issues are caused by hostile action. Charging to Infinity (legendary) The universe is infinitely vast, and light speed is finite. And even then, reaching light speed is physically impossible. However, you can get close. Damn close. This Skill allows one to continuously elerate while gaining significant resistance to rtivistic effects until one reaches 99% of light speed. Cost: 100 mana per second Ster Travel (legendary) The universe is infinitely vast, and light speed is finite. As such, travelling at any significant speed requires breaching it. Once beyond a suns heliosphere, this Skill may be activated to continuously elerate until one is moving at 100 times the speed of light, after one hour of eleration. While this Skill is active, one may not affect their surroundings, but it can be disrupted by external action. Cost: 5000 mana per hour Omnidimensional Maneuvering (legendary) Zero gravity, microgravity, underwater, ten-times Earth gravity, and more besides. There are all sorts of environments that one may have to fight in, andbat can vary greatly depending on ones surroundings. As such, it is vital to have a Skill which, like this one, allows the user to rapidly andpletely adapt to environmental conditions. Reality Filter Aspect Perception End (legendary) A world of superhumans is a world of eavesdroppers and voyeurists. This Skill exists to make sure its user can live in this world while retaining their sanity. It allows the user to create a twenty-five-meter diameter sphere in which enhanced senses function considerably more poorly, reducing their effective power by the equivalent of 5 points of Perception per 25 mana invested. In addition, the user may infuse a room with this energy, creating a stationary effect that willst so long as the user does not dismiss it, continues to pay the upkeep cost, and remains within 500 kilometers of the room. The cost is identical to the first effect but increases if the rooms size exceeds 125 m3. Cost: activation cost variable, upkeep cost 1/5 of activation cost per minute Reality Shift (legendary) There are few things more disorienting than having your world suddenly shift around you, be it via teleportation, rapid movement, and the like. By emitting a st of energy that impacts nearby enemies and disorients them by messing with their senses, the user of this Skill can create this effect with ease. It can even inflict synesthesia or swap the sensory inputs between identical sensory organs. The power of this Skill increases against weaker enemies, as well as those whose Aura has been suppressed. Cost: 250 mana Set Illusions (legendary) There are few ideas more terrifying than the notion that what you see might not be things as they are. This Skill might not be capable of causing such an effect on its own, but it is perfectly able to cause serious disorientation. Its user may choose up to three objects or beings and subsequently be able to freely summon illusionary copies of them. These illusions can be altered with such things as equipment, makeup, or paint, but this requires significant focus. Cost (preset illusion): 25 mana per activation, 2 mana per second of upkeep Free Illusions (legendary) There are few ideas more terrifying than the notion that what you see might not be things as they are. And this Skill allows its user to make that fear a reality, freely creating illusions of anything they can imagine (illusion quality increases with users ability to picture what they want to disy). However, creating illusions bothrge and intricate will require a significant degree of focus. Anyone thoroughly overwhelmed by this Skill may forever question their reality for so long as they live, if this attack is properly executed. Cost (direct maniption): 75 mana per minute per cubic meter Living Sword Aspect Invible des (legendary) Legendary weapons litter all of history, des that belonged to kings, and des that slew said kings. The daggers of assassins that reaped the lives of hundreds. And the works of the greatest cksmiths, weapons without peer. But unlike those weapons, the des wielded by the bearer of this Skill will live so long that they outlive even their own legend, bing rediscovered again and again, bing enshrined in myht again and again. Holding this Skil all but ensures that the users des will live long enough to remain even as theyre being enshrined in myth and legend by making them vastly more durable and ensuring that they will always be found by a worthy wielder, even past the original wielders demise, all the while gaining more and more power as their legend grows. And should against all odds, one of the users swords still be destroyed, they will be vastly easier to repair, to the point whereplete repair wont even require either all the original pieces or materials of the required quality, as though the de wants to be whole again. All-de Style (legendary) There are so many possible weapons to pick up, so many styles to wield them in. So many tricks to try, so many stunts to pull. Yet in the end, there are hard limits as to how much can be done at once, how many des can be wielded simultaneously. This Skill allows the user to not only know where all wielded swords are at all time, it also allows them to telekically wield these weapons at range. However, it does not grant a multitasking power, so caution is advised. In addition, proper and safe use of this Skill requires alertness and a lot of practice. Furthermore, the user may pre-infuse their chosen weapons with mana, allowing them to use their weapons without draining their own mana pool. Alternatively, should the weapons in question have their own mana pool (such as soulbound items), that pool may be drawn upon to provide levitation. Cost: 5 mana per second of use per kilogram levitated Annihting Trails (legendary) ded weapons might vastly increase their users capacity for murder and mayhem, yet even the greatest of theme with limitations, especially when ites to fighting multiple foes, or even a single exceptionally fast enemy. These weapons can only be in so many ces at once. But this Skill allows you to get around these limitations by granting the user the ability to create traps. Annihting Trails allows you to leave behind a barely visible trail behind any attack you made, following the movement of the des tip. Anything that brushes against them will be sliced to ribbons. WARNING: These trails are ephemeral energy and will break if struck with too much force. Cost: 5 point of mana per centimeter of trail per second, cost doubles every second of an individual trail remaining Unhindered dework (epic) ded weapons are a fantastic force multiplier, however, they might be lost, stuck, or stolen. As such, this Skill can be considered as being essential to any true swordmaster at the top of their game. With it, the users des can be easily removed from anything theyre driven into, even solid rock or metal, and can neither be entangled nor gooped up. A simple ability, yet anyone who cannot see the value in it does not deserve to call themselves a swordsman, let alone anything more. Void Dragon Aspect Wings of the Void (legendary) The world is a vast ce. The universe is iparably vaster, and far harder to move through. After all, there is nothing to push against, nothing to walk on, no proper medium to travel through. And, you know, its kinda big. The Void Dragon is one of the few creatures capable of traversing this ce, its great wings hurling it through the vast emptiness. With this Skill, its user will be able to manifest these wings on their back and use them to move and maneuver through space, while also allowing the user to engage travel mode, which allows them to constantly elerate without being affected by rtivistic effects or the light speed limit, however, this renders you unable to affect the normal world, and you cannot move through solid objects, though gasses and small rocks are pushed out of your path. When travel mode is deactivated, the user will revert to their velocity and direction at the moment of activation. In addition, this effect can be disrupted from the outside. Cost: 100 points of mana per hour of manifestation, 5,000 points per hour of travel mode Stars Heart (legendary) Within your chest, a star blooms, your every heartbeat an explosion of power that sends fire coursing through your body. Where you tread, the ground turns tova (toggleable), and if you want something gone, you may enhance the firepower of your me magic to great heights. And if you wish, you may channel your inner strength into a fire or breath-based attack, overcharging it with mana and even your physical stamina to unleash devastating power. Furthermore, the power of a star empowers your heart, and through it, your very life, extending your lifespan by millennia at a minimum and possibly more, depending on other Skills that may empower/synergize with this one. Scales of the Void (legendary) Cosmic radiation, micrometeorites, various gasses, the odd supernova or pulsar. Space is kinda dangerous when you think about it, even if you somehow figure out a way to breathe in a ce devoid of air. This Skill might not help with thatst one, but it does with all the others. The Scales of the Void render their bearer immune to all the natural dangers of the void, and grant enhanced heat, radiation and kic damage resistance while in outer space. Furthermore, the user may choose to resist external sources of eleration to avoid being flung about, although doing so can easily cause damage if too much force is nullified. Infinite Mind (legendary) Space is huge. Big enough that trying to wrap ones mind around the concept is practically enough to give a man an existential crisis. And there are people who want to navigate that ce on their own? Are you sure youre not talking about the incarnation of the Dunning-Krueger effect there? Anyway, thats what this Skill is about. Firstly, it enables its user to perceive the vastness of space without risk. Secondly, it helps them to navigate space by allowing them to identify individual stars, granting a solid grasp on orbital mechanics, and everything else needed to navigate between the stars. Leviathan Aspect Sea of Damnation (legendary) Thssophobia is the fear of deep orrge bodies of water, such as the ocean, particrly deepkes, or other vast and unexplorable nastiness. But the definition of phobia is an extreme and irrational fear. When someone wielding this Skill is angry, that fear suddenly bes very, very, rational. Up to 50,000,000,000 (50 billion) liters of water around the user can be made to be incredibly dangerous, making falling in a near-death sentence. It can be activated once a week, and will be active for one hour after a five-minute ramp-up period. Aquatic Natural Disaster (legendary) Transcendent Hellme (legendary) Fire. Fundamental to human civilization, yet at the same time, the thing that has destroyed so much of it, burning down buildings and obliterating knowledge as books and manuscripts are reduced to ash and memories. What this Skill provides isnt fire. It is beyond fire. Transcendent Hellme is the strongest variant of hellfire that anyone can wield, capable of being selectively targetted at anything the user wants gone, ignoring such petty issues as the target being surrounded by allies/hostages, or even being underwater. As this me was drawn from the primordial beast known as the Leviathan, it can also be made topletely ignore all forms of water. No lesser me will be able to injure the user, and none shall survive being struck down with this weapon normally only used by hells greatest. Cost: 1,000 per second to generate, 50-500 per second to control, 1,250 to extinguish all fires caused by generated me Progressive Invulnerability (legendary, four-fold) The true power of a World Boss, that makes them functionally invulnerable to many kinds of attacks capable of taking down titanic enemies. Every time you loose a body part (with skin/muscles/bones, ten percent of total volume), all remaining instances of that body part will take a sixteenth (damage is halved four times) as much damage for the next five minutes, this effectpounds. This Skill can be activated once every month, and will remain in effect for half an hour once triggered. Mantle of Indomitable Scales (legendary) The scales of the Leviathan offer some of the greatest degrees of protection of any natural armor, practically requiring divine intervention to break. This Skill allows the user to cloak themselves in those very same scales, summoning armor thatsts for 24 h or until dismissed. Cost: 1,000 points of mana Space Elemental Aspect True Spatial Warp (legendary) Space. Vast. Infinite. Beyond humanitys ability to control. Until now. This Skill allows one to wield the power of the universe itself, manipting the fabric of space and time, warping, twisting, and reshaping it. Cost: variable, 50-1,000 mana per second Cosmos Soul (legendary) All of existence, mirrored in a single point. Your soul. This Skill ces you on a wavelength with the universe as a whole, allowing you to sense your surroundings, the flow of energy and gravity as you travel all that there is to see. True Spatial Affinity (legendary) There are countless kinds of magic in the world, somemon, the ones that jump to mind when someone says magic, others less so. Some are veritable mana hogs while others barely take more effort than lifting a finger. But all of them have a way to be easier to use, namely, affinity Skills. Spatial Affinity will grant the user an enhanced awareness of when spatial magic is in y, how to use it better and how to use it better. Better versions of this Skill exist and will grant such abilities as a discount on rted Skills (45% discount). Only one Aspect-based True Affinity Skill can be held at a time. And I Shall Not Be Moved (legendary) Spatial magic allows one to do many things that would otherwise be impossible, such as teleportation, spatially expanded containers, and more besides. But none of those things are anything you want turned against you. Yet even should the very foundation of existence be altered, there are those who stand firm in the face of such turmoil, with you being amidst these ranks. This Skill vastly increases your resistance to hostile teleportation and space-warping effects. Ankou Aspect Eternal Restoration (legendary) Death and taxes, the only certainties in life. And one of those is a human construct. Deathes for everyone, eventually. Enemies can be fought, as can disease and even old age itself. But whether ites in the form of an insurmountable foe, random chance or simple carelessness, everyone dies. And when it does, the Ankou (or some other being that fulfills the same role in another culture) will be there to escort the lost soul across the threshold. But it wouldnt do for that embodiment of death to carry the damage umted across the eons and look like a piece of roadkill, wouldnt it? This Skill slowly wears down all effects that reduce the users capacity to recover and will remove all injuries exactly twenty-four hours after they urred (anti-recovery effects may still dy this effect). (Einherjar Bonus: Injuries will slowly heal, until the 24h mark, at which point the regeneration will beplete) Freedom from Mortal Limits (legendary) What can mortals do? Jump into ake thats even slightly toxic? Nope. Survive even a measly couple of days without breath? Also nope. Get close to the sun without getting fried by radiation? Not even that? Lets face it, mortals are exceedingly fragile, dying to all manner of stupid things, such as ack of air, toxins, diseases, radiation, even from their own bodies growing in the wrong way. This Skill grants freedom from all this. Radiation will not affect its user unless it is intense enough to physically burn them, any toxins that have not been created with malicious intent might as well be water and those that were intended as an attack are functionally useless, only diseases specifically built to bypass this Skill will have any affect. The user will never again have to breathe, have issues with an ipatible environment or the like. In short, the only thing that can kill the user of this Skill is an enemy attack, or an extreme ident along the lines of falling into a star. Most normal causes of death have absolutely no chance of befalling them. (Einherjar Bonus: Aging is slowed by 50%) Implements of True Death (legendary) What is Death? Is the nothingness thates after one dies? Is it the headless horseman that rides across the fields in the dark and takes the souls of the dead? Or a scythe? Or perhaps some other manner of physical manifestation of the phenomenon? In the end, the true nature of Death does not matter, as it is not a mystery for mortals to solve. What does affect mortals is the many forms ites in, the devastating weapons that dish it out whenever they are used. At first, rocks and clubs. Then, spears, bows and other worked but still primitive weapons. Swords, crossbows, catapults, muskets, automatic guns, chemical weapons, bombs, nuclear warheads, biological weapons, magic, artifacts and finally, the weapons wielded by this Skills users. Any weapon wielded by a user of this Skill bes an implement of Death and strikes devastating wounds. For the first ten seconds, all healing is futile, no matter how powerful. Only a god may save the life of one struck down by this Skill during that time. Once the first ten seconds have passed, self-healing abilities grow useable at vastly reduced power. After thirty seconds, foreign healing effects be useable, likewise at vastly reduced power. And finally, after ten minutes, potions and all other methods of recovery will be able to be used to some small degree. It will take a full twelve hours for the consequences of being struck by this Skill to wear off. Should someone die while under the influence of this Skill, no manner of non-divine resurrection will be able to affect them. Cost: 500 mana per attack (Einherjar Bonus: 1% of this Skill is always active at no cost unless supressed) Reapers Cloak (legendary) No one has ever seen the Grim Reaper (at least as far as can be proven). People die every day, though, tens of thousands of them. And each of those deaths should be an opportunity to catch a glimpse of him, yet he remains an enigma. How? This Skill is how. When its user kills an enemy that would provide at least some degree of challenge, they may, once per hour, vanish from sight as if they were held a stealth specialized ss equivalent to their current Level and rarity. This cloak cannot be used to attack under, it will immediately fail, it is meant solely for retreating. Itsts for three minutes upon activation. (Einherjar Bonus: this Skill may be used every thirty minutes) Royal Draugr Aspect Spectral te (legendary) Armor. Cant live without it, literally, but living with it can be a bit of a pain, cant it? All that maintenance, the effort of putting it on, how it slows you down, and so on, and so forth. Even most manifested armor is not without its share of issues, namely, the manifestation cost. This is a Skill meant to alleviate all that. It uses mana to create armor perfectly suited to the wearer, at a variable cost. At the lowest setting, the armor wont be particrly durable, but it will be entirely free (maintained by ambient mana). At the highest setting, it can stop a blow that could crack a mountain in half. The user may freely choose how much mana to direct into this Skill for the result most useful for their fighting style. In addition, this armor can be used in conjunction with a physical set for improved protection. Cost: 0-1,000 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: free armor is considerably more durable) Endurance of the Eternal Warrior (legendary) War. War and bloodshed without a break, without slowing down, without end. No need for rest, no need for food, no need for sleep. No need for anything other thanbat. A user of this Skill has no limits on their physical stamina and while inbat is able to ignore all other bodily needs. (Einherjar Bonus: Mental fatigue is reduced) Loyalty Past Death (legendary) Few good leaders lead from the front. Why? Because that would increase the risk of them dying and themand-and-controlwork from falling apart. Yet this often leaves leaders watching helplessly from the back as their subordinates are ughtered. Hardly a pleasant prospect. And that is where this Skilles in. It can be activated and for the duration of an entire fight, no subordinate who is killed will truly die unless their physical form is annihted. Once the fight ends, the effect of all wounds wille back in full force, however, as far as the universe is concerned, they will only have died the instant the Skill ends. Cost: 1 month cooldown (max 100 people) or 5,000 mana per subordinate (mana cost can be paid over time and by subordinates) (Einherjar Bonus: anyone who falls while under the effects of this Skill and subsequently resurected may choose to be an Einherjar) Always Armored (legendary) Armor. Nice to have, useful because it can take damage in its wearers ce. Until said damage wears it down to the point where it is unsuitable to be worn by royalty, or anyone, really. While the aesthetic aspect cannot be helped by this Skill, the loss of efficiency certainly can be mitigated. Whenever a piece of the users armor is destroyed, a lesser spectral version of the missing equipment manifest to cover the gap. If the user of this Skill is also in possession of the Skill Spectral te, then both Skills will synergize to provide optimal protection, with the recement armor bing instantly integrated with the original spectral te. Always Armored has a variable cost and can be run purely on ambient mana, which will vastly reduce the regeneration rate, or at an extremely high cost for rapid armor repair. Cost: 0-500 mana per hour (Einherjar Bonus: free armor recovery is considerably faster) Aspect of Ymir Burning Storms of Muspelheim (legendary) The power of the primordial realm of me flows through the user of this Skill, allowing them to manifest a 100-meter sphere of Muspelheim me around themselves, creating a field of death in which they control all me. This Skill can either wield Muspelheim mes, or any other me the user is able to use. Cost: 1,000 mana per second/ double the cost of alternate mes used Freezing Winds of Niflheim (legendary) The icy grasp of the primordial realm of frost flows through the user of this Skill, chilling anything the within a hundred meters the user wishes to damage, all they way down to 5 degrees Kelvin. Cost: 1,000 mana per second Titanic Strength (legendary) Power. Raw, unfiltered power. This is what this Skill offers, sacrificing mana for additional strength, increasing the power of its user based on the amount of mana invested, up to the limits of their mana pool, and stackable with all other boosting Skills, for the duration of a single attack. Cost: 10 mana per 1% boost up to 50%, 20 points of mana per additional 1% boost up to 100%, 30 points of mana beyond that. Aspect of Balor Field of Annihtion (legendary) When the final piece of cloth covering the cursed eye of Balor is removed, thend is reduced to ash. Once per month, the holder of this Skill may unleash the same amount of power for 3,000 points of mana, burning all ntlife and destroying most structures within 1-5 kilometers, depending on the number and durability of avable targets. re of Obliteration (legendary) When the final piece of cloth covering the cursed eye of Balor is removed, thend is reduced to ash, and any specific target Once per month, the holder of this Skill may unleash the same amount of power for 2,500 points of mana, unleashing a devastating beam of power that can obliterate almost anyone struck. Aspect of Ziz Wings of the Tempest (legendary) When the wings of the legendary beast of the skies beat, even the greatest of humanitys creations cannot stand their power. This Skill grants the same power to its user, allowing them to either manifest the wings of Ziz, or boost any other manifested wings. In addition, the user may p their wings to unleash a devastatingly destructive gale. Cost: 15 mana per minute for wing manifestation, 500 mana per wing attack Sr Radiance (epic) Ziz basks in the glow of the sun, soaking in its heat. Anyone near a user of this Skill can experience the same, ranging from the gentle warmth of a spring day to the scorching heat of a desert at noon. This effect spreads through the users Aura and can encourage rest, rxation, healing and nt growth. Cost: 5-25 mana per second Apocryphal: What counts? Apocryphal: What counts? The [System] was finished. Finally. Odin slumped back onto his throne, head resting on the cold stone behind him. For centuries, no, millennia, the universe had been a boring ce, with countlesss slowly breaking down as sophonts exploited the natural world at an unsustainable pace until things went past the point of no return. Even his favorite world, Earth, was well on the way to self-destruction. But humans were a clever bunch, eventually, someone would figure out how to convert mana to electricity. Or maybe someone would stumble across his runes. Hed hung from the branches of Yggdrasil for nine days and nights to get them, but hed made sure that they were findable within the grand creation. It would be fascinating what humanity came up with using them, and sadly, they were hardly in a position to find them themselves. Finally done, Thor grunted. He was currently lying down on one of the long benches that lined the feast tables of Asgard, looking like death warmed over. The only time Odin had ever seen his son so miserable had been the ocean mead incident, in which hed drunk from a mead horn connected to the ocean and downed so much salt water to create the tides. Optimally, he wouldnt even have been involved, but this was a joint endeavor, which required everyones powers. Divine skill and power downgraded into something a mortal could wield, then made essible to those who proved themselves worthy. Two more days, then the [System] would arrive and the worlds would be forever changed. And their foes had not made a peep so far. The longer they waited to make their countermove, the better prepared the sophonts would be. Hey, Uncle Odin! Oh purgatory. This was thest thing he needed right now. This tale has been uwfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. What do you want, Loki? Odin sighed as he lifted his head to stare at the irreverent deity. Oh, I just thought you might want to see the future champion of Earth. The [System] hasnt even arrived yet, Odin pointed out. One could try to predict who was going to wind up with the best [sses] and so on, but that wasnt what was going to be overly urate. A little smarts, a little effort, some more time, and I managed to find the single most capable individual in the universe. Hes closed the gates of hell multiple times, colonized multiple archipgos and built thriving civilizations in the span of an afternoon, and conquered most of the known world at the head of multiple different armies. Hes going to get legendary [sses] from the starter [ss] all the way to the fifth Evolution just based on those achievements alone. Is this one of your jokes? Odin sighed as he returned to his previous rxed position. Hell hadnt been open for almost nine thousand years, and there werent any immortals on Earth anymore. Of course, he knew Loki didnt lie, but that was mostly because he felt that being an annoying little shit was too easy if he were able to outright state untruths, so hed sworn off lying to make it a challenge. But this sounded too fantastical to be true. Nope, Loki said, blowing and popping a bubble of gum on the p. Then show me this supreme warrior, Odin ordered, not even bothering to stand up straight. Lokis nonsense wasnt really worth it. Sure, Loki said, creating a holographic image of a young man sitting on a beanbag with a video game controller. He was only slightly overweight, but he still didnt look anything like an unparalleled warrior. And then Odin caught sight of the game on the screen. It wasnt one he was overly familiar with, but it looked to be about using heavy weaponry to tear apart the hordes of hell, though most of the demons had a strange array of cybeic enhancements. Loki, he sighed. Video game achievements are not going to count for the [System]. Loki raised an eyebrow. We made sure they dont count. Lokis eyebrow crawled off his head to the point where it hovered a couple of centimeters above his head. Are you sure about that? Odin stared at Loki. Loki stared right back. And after five seconds, Odin bolted for the door. He needed to fix this! Once the big guy was safely out of range, Loki started sniggering. The [System] would indeed count those things, but to such a minor degree that it wouldnt really make any difference. That being said, Loki had sufficiently muddled the [Systems] waters to a sufficient degree that dear old Odin would be untangling that mess all the way until initialization. Apocrypha 1: Ziz Apocrypha 1: Ziz There were a lot of [World Bosses] that could be summoned in the [System]. A lot of resources that could be harvested. But ultimately, the cost to get those resources was astronomical, so humanity hadnt really farmed them actively. Three times these things had been summoned, three times they had been killed at horrendous cost, three times thered been furious debate over if the next battle would be on purpose. The Leviathan had cleaned the oceans. Ymirs essence was terraforming Mars. And when the Earlking had been killed, hed granted them inner-system fast travel capability via the fae realm. Thatst one had been especially annoying to fight, summoning the legions of the fae, phasing in and out of reality until they were eventually killed. At least that particr mess had taken ce in Alpha Centauri, at a nice long distance from anything they needed to protect, and for the first time, the sentence for summoning a [World Boss] without permission had been carried out by someone other than the boss itself. It didnt matter if someone had had a secret technique or a surefire way to win, if someone else had to step in and clean up and there had been any possibility of innocents getting caught in the crossfire, summoning a [World Boss] was a capital crime. Anyway, when humanity had tried to expand the fast travel system to the asteroid belt, theyd realized that [World Bosses] could only be summoned once a decade. But humanity had still whipped itself up into a frenzy and that energy had to go somewhere. Getting World Items always cost lives, but the mentality towards them had begun to shift during the nning phase for the Earlking battle. It was no longer about how the world would desperately fight a powerful beast, but about a potential sacrifice for the good of humanity. Anyone who dared step up was guaranteed a massive payday, support for their loved ones in case of disaster and whatever honored status their home nation provided, be that knighthood, a medal, or something else. Germany in particr didnt have anything like that, it was a very young country and most of the historical knightly orders and other organizations had been tarred by association with the Nazis. Those fuckers had pulled on every even remotely interesting historical achievement for propaganda purposes, and anything involving them was dicey, to say the least. Some people had even pushed for Isaac to found a new knightly order of some kind, using his knowledge and position as [Hildebrands Heir], but hed declined. That was not only extremely self-congrattory, it also sounded like a fuckton of paperwork. All in all, the I love me wall in Isaacs office currently looked like a glitter nuke had gone off in front of it. And, of course truth-telling [Skills] would make sure that all those who fought the [World Boss] were volunteers, without being pressured or even just capitting to general peer pressure. Another thing that had been utterly vital to properly hammer out had been a proper chain ofmand, which would begin with the military but have people like Isaac on hand and able to throw in their own opinions. Not override the person in charge, that would cause all sorts of issues, but give strong advice, leaving it up to the boss which advice was to be followed. Of course, the leader would be picked on two important traits: not being Ardouin and actually being the opposite of the man. In other words, willing to listen to advice andpromise. Obviously, this still left the issue of certain people being listened to despite not being in charge, their advice being taken as orders, but the situation was messy, no two ways about it. Steps were being taken to make it less messy, but theyd never have apletely smooth run. It just wasnt in the cards. These battles would almost certainly not end humanity as a whole, and the spoils of war were incredible, however, they could be expensive. Ruinously so. But twenty-five years after the [System] had arrived, humanity summoned the first [World Boss] with the specific intention of killing it for its World Item. Ziz, the Primordial Beast of the Air, King of the Skies, He who blocks the Sun with his Wings. Should be fun. *** This battle once again took ce on Pluto, so that even should something go really wrong, theyd have plenty of time to figure out a solution. Most of the people present without ships were S-Rankers, with the vast majority of those being Generation Zero like Isaac. Not Gen One, Gen Zero, because someone in the UN had gone very much overboard with the ssifications. Gen Zero was anyone whod been an S-Ranker during the Leviathan incident. Gen One was anyone whod gained the [System] upon Initialization, but became an S-Ranker after the Leviathan had reared its ugly head. People who hadnt rushed towards the peak at quite such an insane pace as Isaac had, and those whod taken a longer path to power. For example, one Cameron Smith, nowadays known as Cameron the Cmity, the [Chimera] of Austin. That investment hadnt paid off in time for the Leviathan battle, but he had reached the heights Isaac had expected him to. In fact, he was currently floating in space a few kilometers from him, Void Dragon wings pping gently as softly glowing blue eyes raked the surface of the. And Isaac knew that beneath his normal-looking skin, monstrous muscles coiled like starsteel cables, and the skin itself was almost as tough as Isaacs armor. Another example was Wyatt Reyes, whom Isaac hadnt personally encountered since Singapore. Instead of purely focusing on information gathering as he had in the first timeline, hed headed down to Rlyeh and poked a whole lot of stuff that really shouldnt be poked and gained some kind of truly insane eldritch [ss]. Two Grimoires floated before him while some kind of beast floated in and out of reality around him, a constantly varying number of beaks, tentacles, and vering mouths barely perceptible, only really bing real when Isaac wasnt really paying attention to them. But there were many, many people here with interesting and terrifying powers here. After Gen One, you obviously had Gen Two, which wasprised of people whod been alive during Initialization but not unlocked the [System], which was what the twins would hopefully be, in time. Gen Three was anyone born after the initization and in a sane world, that would have been the end of it, but there was more. The fourth Generation wasprised of people whod been born with bloodlines and gained boosts from their parents, while the fifth was basically the same as the fourth, except it was descended from other S-Rankers. Really, calling the S-ranked descendants of S-Rankers the second Generation would have made more sense, but in the end bureaucracy. Speaking of bureaucracy, Isaac had gotten a fuckton of requests, orders, bribes, and more besides, from people asking him to keep specific people safe or, as it were, not safe. For example, both of New Zends S-Rankers would be here, and some people in its government were very concerned about the situation. With a poption of five million, they were well ahead of the standard curve of one S-Ranker per 10 million inhabitants, something they were, understandably, very proud of. But with the nature of [World Boss] battles, that sort of thing could change in a single moment of tragedy. But that particr nation didnt really have to worry. Especially about the Undying me, the first of the pair to reach S-Rank. Rashid Boateng had started out as some type of spell de based on the phoenix, before shifting his path into something involving celestial bodies and eventually, space itself. Even if Isaac hadnt known the man to be smart enough to not put himself in an unescapable situation, his build prevented him from falling victim to the trap of drawing aggro you couldnt survive. Isaac continued to look around the area, taking note of some of the interesting new faces, until things finally kicked off. Seriously, this wasnt going to be as bloodless as the usual resource-gathering battles. But it was going to happen, and Isaac was damn certain that things were going to be less bloody with him there. *** Humanity beware, a World Boss has been summoned! Bear witness to his name and tremble: Ziz, Primordial Beast of the Air, King of the Skies, He who blocks the Sun with his Wings This is a monster meant to be an opponent for your entire species, and in your own words, hang together or hang separately. Good luck! The warning was the exact same as thest three times, just with a different set of titles. At least this time around, they were a little less dicey than Living Hellgate. Beneath the summoning circle, the ground shattered and for a brief moment that was all that happened. Scary message, broken ice, and nada on the monster appearing. But then, the ice was vaporized into steam and something began happening to the surrounding space, but it took Isaac an embarrassing amount of time to figure it out. In fact, he wasnt even the one to first get what was happening. Its pulling in every stray bits of gas it can find to form an atmosphere, one of the ship captains warned. Ah, that made a disturbing amount of sense. [World Bosses] could normally only be summoned in areas with apatible environment, yet they hadnt had one lick of trouble summoning an air beast in an airless void. The process took around five minutes, during which everyone was forced to tensely wait and take the asional potshot at the active summoning circle that wasnt actually, you know, summoning. And when it actuallypleted, it was so sudden that even Isaac jumped a little. Ziz surged out of the circle like water spewing from a Geysir, manifesting within the bounds of the runic drawing and expanding to its true size as he got further from the circle In hindsight, the first line of defenders had been way too close, and that damn bird was way too fast, wrapped in a bubble of gathered atmosphere almost ten kilometers across, barely able to contain the titanic eagle-thing with its eight-kilometer wingspan. Not to mention that the air bubble was a whirl of power and fury, making it almost as deadly as the ocean around Leviathan had been. A wall ofsers, railguns, particle beams and artillery spells washed out from the line of battleships and S-Rankers that had been sitting pretty at a mere hundred kilometers above the surface. Isaac scanned the monster, mentally revising his n. As expected, Ziz was a massive bird, but hed thought it would fly in a simr way to the Void Dragon, where it could p its wings and just go. Instead, it was moving through space by riding on its personal bubble of rending wind, tearing into anything and everything that got just a little too close. The real issue was that having a purely magical means of conveyance meant that the only way to immobilize that fucker was to kill it, there were no real weak points like the joints of the wings that could be targetted to slow it. Regardless, Isaac tried, elerating using his mes while scanning the monster with [Knowledge Seeker], imbuing his massive Leviathan-tooth sword with [Logos de], and finally switched to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] for the final approach. [Speed of Hati] was the non plus ultra for speed, after all. [I Am The Sword] sted him clean through the beasts wing joint just in case it had some small effect, making sure to position his actual weapon so that it carved straight through several important tendons. And as he passed through, he triggered his Leviathan armors once a day abiltiy to wreath himself in the Leviathans fire, scorching the inside of the birds body with the wrath of one of itspatriots. It did damage, but not enough. Sure, damage was damage, but the monster was still going to smash straight through the frontlines and reach the artillery tforms and the ships carrying mages behind the frontlines. They didnt have anything close to the defenses of the ships of the line, or the people capable of easily standing besides these vessels. Hed even used [I Am The Sword] in its shoving mode, which prioritized imparting momentum over pration, but the monster was so massive that it hardly do anything. However, what Isaac had failed to ount for was that not only was this his fourth [World Boss] battle, it was humanitys fourth battle. There were people here whod grown up, or at the very least, grown in Levels, watching those fights and creating ns about what theyd do if theyd been present. For most of them, these were just daydreams, aspirations that would never be reached, but there were those who knuckled down and fought to reach the heights they aspired towards. And a trick whose story had grown to legendary proportions had been the various Colony Drops. Isaac wasnt entirely sure where the name hade from, but the idea was solid. Summon a fortress or otherrge manifestation, and drop in on the bad guys head. Not to mention that out in space, you could reach insane speeds before manifesting your shining citadel of light around yourself and bodymming the [World Boss] back into the ground. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. Lau Kant was an S-Ranker from Argentinia and his regr, human, form was one of the inhuman Isaac had encountered thus far, being some sort of celestial race that t out doubled his size, with ashen white skin and deep ck hair that shimmered with celestial light. However, none of that was visible at the moment, as he was currently transformed into an immense automaton that strongly resembled an angel, a power core burning in his chest, energy flowing off him in waves. Yet everything paled inparison to the citadel, which hit with enough force to send the [World Boss] tumbling backwards, ass over appetite, until it hammered into the surface of pluto with enough force to send cracks radiating outwards for dozens of kilometers. And then, Kant began to burn, sr sma erupting outwards and first scorching Zizs feathers, then the flesh below as the area around Ziz took on properties akin to those of a stars heart. It was inflicting not insignificant amounts of damage, and holding the beast back for now, but it wouldntst. It never did, not against a [World Boss]. Things were the same each and every time when a [World Boss] was knocked back on its ass. The first blownded, the secondary effects came into y, the monster started paying attention to whoever had managed tond the blow and finally brought the full force of its power to bear against whoever had managed tond the attack. Zizs wings beat, flexing against the surface of Pluto, ice and rock shattering for dozens of kilometers around, while Kant went flying as if hed jumped into the universes biggest trampoline. Back! Isaac snapped at anyone who wasnt already backing away. They had a window for a sessful retreat, they needed to use it. A fighting retreat, granted, but they had an entire sr systems worth of space to y with. And both Earth and Mars were currently on the other side of the sun. They could y the keep away game for a very long time. With an indignant squawk that no one outside the creatures atmosphere bubble heard, Zizunched himself back into space as he drew his atmosphere bubble back together. For a long moment, that was how the [World Boss] moved through space, wings spread out in a gliding position as an oblong bubble of gasses and water vapor pulled him along. It would be bad if it reached the ships, but they were already retreating, so it should be fine, right? It. Wasnt. Fine. The bubble shrank as parts of the bubble were siphoned off andpressed on its leading edge. They were immediately targetted,sers and particle beams tearing into them and causing the matter packed together to tightly it had be liquid, superheating it and causing parts of it to erupt outwards, but it wasnt doing much. Nuclear strikes were more effective, missiles slipping into the bubbles and sting them apart, but even so, they didnt exactly destroy anything. The projectiles were justpressed gasses that, when scattered, could just be repressed. Isaac sted through Ziz from the side, going after another set of tendons, but that was mostly because he didnt have anything truly vulnerable to go after. As he flew through, he switched over to his Ymir armor set and unleashed both its fire and froststorm daily abilities, tearing through the monsters insides. For a brief moment, the [World Boss] stumbled, but it didnt do anything for more than a few seconds. He was a lot less suited to fighting that thing than hed been tobatting Leviathan. It was independent of aary surface, it couldnt be knocked about since it was anchoring itself to a bubble under its own control, and it was too massive for him to neatly strike it in multiple spots. Soundlessly, Ziz hurled the hundred-odd air bullets into the fleet, with the projectiles furtherpressing themselves mid-flight until they tore through the armor of the targetted ships. Once inside, they dpressed explosively and blew massive chunks out of the vessels. The explosions might not be powerful enough to destroy warships outright, but that didnt change the fact that these ships were primarily armored on the outside. By the time their exterior cracked open and vented the overpressure, vast swaths of the interior had already been obliterated. Having several dozen warships damaged and falling behind would have been bad enough already, but the real issue was what happened next. The air spread out to form massive dras that swept through space during their journey back towards the [World Boss], catching small craft and individuals and pulling them into the range of the monster. Mages, aerokics and others with the ability to remotely interact with thes managed to rip open several, and many of those caught within were able to escape as well, but not everyone was able to get out. ws shed and the beak snapped, and a few secondster, theyd had another thousand-odd casualties. Nope, this wasnt going to work. Due to the limits of thepressed-air bombs, Ziz wound up switching to crescent des to carve open anything that was too close. Fucking whatever. The order to go FTL was given almost immediately. Whoever was in a position to do so jumped a full thirty light minutes towards the sun, but this still left behind a sizeable portion of the army. Currently, there was no such thing as a non-magical FTL drive, all manner of faster-than-light movement was either a shipmanders [Skill], spatial/teleportation magic channeled through some manner of amplifier built into the ship, orrge portals, all of which were specific for a single ship. Nothing that could easily be applied to an entire fleet. Isaac could have easily joined those that sessfully escaped, as could multiple others, but they could easily zip off at any point. Those stuck here couldnt. He was here, with with Boateng, Arthur, Elena, Reyes, and two more he wasnt too familiar with in his immediate vincinity. The demonic juggernaut, Lan Mercer was one of Australias S-Rankers, whod made enough of an impression for his government to arrange for him to get a full set of Leviathan armor. That being said, he wasnt currently wearing his helmet, letting his long ck hair stream down his back and drape over his ck rams horns. He was also heavily armed, with two khopeshes hanging from his belt and a greatsword strapped to his back. All in all, it didnt seem like he was going to do anything with his armament, instead, he was limbering up as though he were about to throw down with the [World Boss]. Which wasnt too unlikely, as he was the single physically strongest human in the world. Isaac didnt know which [ss] gave him the power, but he had a [Skill] that allowed to massively increase his physical strength at the cost of mounting strain on his body, to the point where he had a near constant one-third boost and he could whip out far greater blows at a moments notice. The second unknown was the Norwegian Aiden Larsen, a dryad with supernaturally perfect features, albeit with a slightly green tinge, a whip-sword loosely held in one hand as he intensely studied the monster. We need to hold that thing back, Isaac stated. Everyone already knew that, but it didnt hurt to repeat it. And then, he followed the statement up with a n as they scattered, peppering the advancing cmity with lighter attacks. Half a minute or so after the big exodus, a single ship returned, appearing with a sh of light as an [Alcubierre Drive] copsed and normal spacetime reasserted itself. Well, everyone, get on! Isaac ordered as he turned and went right back for Ziz. He and anyone who cared to help would distract the monster, and the ship would survive the asional near miss. The Scientia Quaesitor was something that in any even remotely sane world wouldnt have been in the hands of civilians, but the world had lost its mind a while ago. It was a three-hundred-meter long vessel built for what could be best described as armed exploration, built by the best very finest engineers of both the university and Camelot, and ownership was shared by both. Thick but lightweight armor ting made from the finest alloys in existence, the best propulsion methods in existence, constantly updated whenever something new was discovered, and a thoroughly enchanted internal structure that could use [Portal], [Alcubierre Bubble] and a wide variety of squad-level movement [Skills] to take the entire vessel FTL made it both fast and survivable. On the offense front, there wasnt that much, just a massive railgun built into the vessels spine, six particle beam turrets with settings for both anti-ship and point defense settings. However, thecking armament was mostly because the main source of damage output was the crew. This was a vessel belonging to organizations with thes densest concentration of S-Rankers. A casting circle was located at both the bow and stern of the ship, with another dozen spread out across the hull, running down the length of the ship in three rows of four. Even so, they held back to avoid drawing the monsters ire. For now. Telekic magic and portals yanked the stragglers into the Scientia until it was bursting at the seams before it vanished, once again tearing through space at a pseudo-velocity well beyond light speed. At the same time, theyd finally gotten everything into position to use one of the [Systems] strongest creatures as a punching bag. Mostly, theyd gotten people out of the way whod have otherwise been obliterated. Mercer was the first to make an overt move as he shifted into a massive demonic form, sixty meters tall, with deep crimson scales and a draconic tail whipping out behind him. He might not have had the multiple lives or the full nigh-immortality of a [Raid Boss], but in every other aspect, he might as well be one. He exploded forward using a sword he was telekically holding in ce as a springboard, his immense demonic power mming into the weapon to increase his forward momentum. Winddes and airbombs hammered into him one after another, but he always pushed himself back onto the proper trajectory while others began to intercept attacks. For a long moment, he was Zizs sole focus, likely only surviving due to his being outside of the air bubble. Then, he reached the monsters domain, and punched it. His muscles bulged and Isaac could feel the immense power being unshackled and poured into a singr attack, which hammered into the immense air domain and shattered it like ss. Isaacs jaw dropped, hed clearly underestimated the power of that strike, but his surprise didnt stop him from sticking to the n and doing his part. First, Mercer had shattered the air bubble, so Boateng was able to close with the monsters rear and begin to unleash his power. Deep ck armor began to beyered onto him as he drew on his [Void Armor] while dark energy wrapped his de and space itself tore behind him like the maw of a primordial beast opening. Ziz wasnt going to go in there by himself, obviously, but Reyes was already at work, space shortening between the monster and the pocket dimension, while Larsen stepped up to the te, literally. Phantasmal bark manifested briefly as he slipped into a separate world, specifically, the world tree, before he stepped back into the real world right in the monsters face, with a thick branch appearing underfoot. With a titanic burst of power, the world warped as more and more of Yggdrasil itself came into being, burning with power. Literally, in four spots. One which howled with a freezing wind, the other feeling like a grave, filled with despair and death, a third that rang like steel on steel and the impression of bloodshed, and a fourth that overflowed with life. Spectral armor rapidly flowed over Larsen as the energy began to be condensed into his body. He stood still for a long moment, before striking. Back on Earth, before the [System], ordinary humans had been able to breach the sound barrier on muscle power alone, using a whip. And Larsen was hardly ordinary. His whipsword tore through space almost faster than Isaac could follow, tearing a massive gash across Zizs chest while the energy of the world tree followed into the wound, which had already been steaming with freezing and deathly energy before the full might of the attacknded. Ziz went flying, the air-bubble that kept the monster able to maneuver not yet reassembled, through countless shes that Boateng had carved into space, which tore up the monsters back. But the real goal was getting the monster into the void space, whose entrance mmed shut behind it. Well, almost. Enough space remained for them to add insult to injury by throwing in a few more attacks. Elena grasped as much water as she could and hurled it away to ensure that Ziz couldnt gather the vapor again before unleashing [Moonbeam] after [Moonbeam] into the pocket dimension. And Arthur just hurled Excalibur into the hole, repeatedly, carving chunk after chunk out of the monster. After another two minutes, the Scientia Quaesitor came back, with every magic user on the team in the four frontmost casting circles, Karl on the bow circle next to the railguns muzzle. Isaac could see the intricate spellwork of Patricks, Rauls [Natures Wrath] empowering it, Karl fusing the energy into the weapon and Amys ability holding the whole thing together. And then, the ship fired, the entire vessel being flung backwards as a dart made from the single densest alloy currently in existence was hurled at the [World Boss]. Magic crackled across the projectiles for a long moment, until the moment of impact, where they detonated in a burst of tremendous energy. They got more three shots off before the mages were spent, and at that point, everyone was already aboard the Scientia. A damn good thing too, since that was the point when Ziz cracked open the pocket dimension, looking utterly furious. But before the [World Boss] was able to do anything, the ship warped away. *** And now weve got a fucking [World Boss] loose in the sr system! As far as we knew, our preparations should have worked, and we still have time to kill it. But That was basically how thest three hours had gone, on repeat. usation, reasonable response, whiny counterattack. They really should have done this in Alpha Centauri, but as tricky as intra-system FTL travel was, inter-system movement was a million times more difficult. After all, the whole thing was still fully [System]-dependent. There were currently three grades of technology. [System]-dependent, which was where most new developments began, things fully linked to [Skills] and the like. It worked, but was hard to improve upon and the underlying principles werent always known. Magitech, which still drew upon mana and enchantments to work, but could theoretically be worked by anyone with a mana pool and the necessary expertise. And finally, the pinnacle of technology, the Null-tech, which functioned entirely on pre-[System] physics because ironically, that was where the magicy. Because once you could achieve something entirely without magic and arcane materials, you could improve it however you wanted, recing materials with magical equivalents,yering on enchantments, pping on [Skills], and everything else one could imagine. In other words, humanitys FTL capability was currently in the technically, it works stage, making an extra-sr [World Boss] battle a logistical nightmare. The argument continued, but they did have time. The sr system was vast, Ziz was stuck well below light and if humanity had actually had the chance to n ahead, they could outmaneuver the beast. *** Attack after attack tore up the [World Boss], particle beams rippingrge furrows into its skin while nuclear missiles detonated in the air bubble, sadly inflicting not very much damage. And then, the ships jumped away once more, leaving behind the shattered wrecks of a battleship and two cruisers, which the monster had managed to take out with pre-charged air bombs. There went thest of their expendable munitions. Isaac sighed. Theyd done quite a bit of damage, but even so, theyd taken massive damage and were in desperate need of repair and resupply. Modern warships, be they ocean- or space-going, were damn powerful, capable of things well beyond what any ordinary person was capable of. In fact, they could rece anyone below the fourth Evolution when it came to fighting. But they were also expensive, ruinously so, and required fuel, munitions, and countless other supplies that individual fighters did not. Humanitys mighty spacegoing warfleets were out of this fight. Not destroyed, but still useless. While almost a decades worth of space-based development was being systematically trashed, theyd tried to lock up the [World Boss] three more times. It had worked twice, but thest time, Ziz had gone straight for Boateng. Thankfully, the man had had the good sense to not keep going with an already ruined n, instead chopping up the monster to the fullest degree his powers allowed before skedaddling. *** One light hour. That was how far Ziz had travelled, how long a trail of debris the [World Boss] had drawn through the sr system. And at the end of that trail hung the shredded beast, both eyes finally destoyed for good, looking like a plucked thanksgiving turkey that had been killed by an extraordiarily ipetent butcher. Except this turkey was very much still alive. Alive and angry. However, it was only targeting the ships, anyone able to survive in space on their own was seemingly immune to attack. Do you think it might be sensing the air pockets? Elena asked after a long moment, causing Isaac to facepalm. That should have been obvious. Leviathan hadnt been limited too much by loosing his eyesight, but hed been submerged in his element, capable of sensing disturbances within. Ziz was currently fighting in a hard vacuum and therefore, well, screwed. So they wound up venting the Scientia after securing all technicalponents and began ying submarine warfare. Shoot the monster, dodge, then shoot it again. Theyd hit the monster hard, and it had counterattacked even harder, but now, they had its number. It couldnt see and, if proper precautions were taken, sense anyone. At least anyone smart enough to stay out of the [World Boss] air envelope. The few remaining warships joined in, steel tforms were created for mages to use as a base, vacuum-breathing Aspects were handed out, and in time, Ziz would be dead. *** Isaac gazed into the smooth ss marble, its interior glowing blue and filled with clouds. It had been awarded to Amy, but shed handed it to him so he could inspect it. Breath of the Sky (World Item) The Boon given to the yer of Ziz is the gratitude of the sky itself, allowing its holder to reshape the atmosphere of an entire, restoring it from its damaged shape. The holder may choose what the atmosphere is restored to, how quickly this change urs, what parts of the world are restored (up to and including all of them), and what, if any, is excluded from the effect. This is a single-use item, the user will need to set all parameters prior to activation, at which point the item will be destroyed. As a World Item, the Breath of the Sky cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device. The moment she used this thing, all the crap humanity had managed to st into the atmosphere would be scrubbed, and the argument about how restoring the was worth any cost, even though the kinds of people who made those arguments were nowhere close the amount of power needed to meaningfully contribute to the fight. This fight had arguably been worth it, but the next one might not be. He sighed. Chances were that the political battles would be worse than the fight that had just been won. But no matter what other decisions were made, no more flying fuckwads in the sr system! Chapter 222: Moon Shot (Start of Book 6) Chapter 222: Moon Shot (Start of Book 6) The spire rose from the summoning circle like a hellish spear aiming to pierce the sky, the diameter of its base widening with every passing second as more and more of the titanic structure revealed itself, sending the warriors eagerly waiting to im it stumbling back. When the immense structure finally settled, it was almost five hundred meters tall and perhaps a hundred across at the base, while its peak was concealed in the clouds. The very instant it was clear that there would be no further movement, the warriors charged and the spire trembled before them. Countless beasts barred their way, yet they fell to a one. Spells rent the air asunder, blows so powerful they could only be used once every few hours or even a day brought low the mightiest of foes until the conquerors emerged victorious, the spires core lying shattered behind them. This would have been a reason for celebration, had it not been for the message blinking in each of their visions Spire Conquest: 1/6 Current reserve monster poption: 7,798 (individual monster strength variable) Time remaining until Spire copse: 4:39:17 *** And youre seriously not going up there? Arthur asked incredulously This is the moon were talking about, theyre literally building a colony on the moon! How can you not want to go up there? Amyughed Youve never been on an airne with Isaac, have you? It takes, what, twelve hours to get to the moon? Hed drive everyone crazy before youre even halfway there. He paces and paces and he might even wear a hole in the floor. She then dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper Considering youre going to be in a spaceship, holes are a really bad thing. Isaac shot her a look that promised retaliation. Youre afraid of flying? Elena asked incredulously from the other side of the table There is literally nothing about it that could even scratch you, and are you seriously trying to tell me that you havent figured out a way to make yourself immune to the dangers of a vacuum yet? Isaac shook his head Its not the danger, its being unable to do anything productive. Getting locked in a metal can for hours on end, without even the space to walk around without bothering the other passengers nah, Im just going to fly up there myself one of these days. I could already do it now, but I need a few more Levels before I can do it quickly enough. Well have figured out a way to create a permanent portal by then. Patrick assured him Between me and Karl, how hard could it be? Very hard. Raul threw in Portals rip space in a way that the natural order of things bnces out very quickly, so they require a lot of power to stay open. Throw in the fact that the distance between a given point on the moon and a target destination on Earth is never static and good luck with that, Im d I dont have to be involved in that. He grinned as he reached up and stroked the Microraptor sitting on his shoulder Ill be setting up the biodomes keeping us all alive and fed. Isaac looked at the trio of future moon colonizers with pride in his eyes. When the proposal had started floating around in the UN a few months ago, hed started reaching out to his contacts until eventually, Bailey had gotten a highly official request if maybe, just maybe, he could spare three of his subordinates for the mission. Raul Mina, whod evolved into one of the most unique [sses] Isaac had ever seen after experiencing the horrors of Rlyeh. [Sentinel of Nature, Life, and Reality] let him sustain life and entire ecosystems no matter their surroundings, their environment, and outright no-selling almost any conceivable negative unnatural influences. If Isaac were forced to pick a recement for him, hed have to go with the twenty people behind him in terms of suitability, as that was what it would have taken to do the same work Raul was capable of. Patrick Lerch, [Sage of Arcana], S-Rank magic user, creator of more custom spells than even Isaac could urately guess, shatterer of [Raid Bosses] and someone who could wrap up a colony in enough protective wards that even a nuclear strike would have trouble inflicting serious damage. Karl Siegel, the man with more tools than many a gadget-loving superhero, ranging from simple contraptions to runic cannons fuelled by the blood of Demon Lords and Isaac was pretty sure there was a mech hidden away somewhere in the former [Engineers] personal storage [Skill]. Given the right support and resources [Arcane Technomancer] would create a futuristic metropolis to rival the most out-there sci-fi stories. Those three would be sorely missed down on good old terra firma while they were up in the sky, but theyd be building up a safe space for humanity, and the value of that couldnt be overstated. In the other timeline, that had, of course, been tried as well. It had failed. Miserably. Creating a working, long-term off-Earth colony was a lot easier with the [Systems] help, but it was hardly easy. In general, you needed someone to generate air, to fast-grow crops and livestock, someone to build the structures and possibly a separate person to handle the infrastructure, be it technology or enchantment-based, and for them to be able to do that in the very long term, they needed to be at the third Evolution. At least. This was something that needed to be kept up for decades or even centuries, after all. Gaining resources via summoning monsters was an option, of course, but the things needed to summon creatures would, eventually, run out. Personal spatial pockets, spatial rings, storage [Skills], all of that would extend the time a colony could be supported by summoned monsters. But eventually, a colony would have to support itself in other ways. Then there was the small issue of how fragile constructs in space were. Aspects for bing immune to the vacuum were high Tier and hard toe by, which meant that those precious pockets of air were rather important. And no matter how quickly humanitys power to build things grew, its ability to destroy them, even by ident, grew even faster. Hell, summoning most creatures up there was a huge no-no precisely because of how easily even small amounts of damage to the wrong piece of equipment could spell utter disaster. Theyd lost contact with the few attempted colonies a bit before humanitys poption had dipped below the one million mark, and by the time hed gone back in time, they had to have died for sure, otherwise, he wouldnt have been thest human on Earth and therefore been ineligeble for Isaacs train of thought stuttered to an abrupt halt. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Last human on Earth. Isaac, are you ok? Elena asked immediately. Apparently, his face had revealed a little of what was going on in his mind. Have you even just been thinking, alone in the privacy of your head, following a single train of thought to its eventual conclusion and then realize all you want to do is scream into a pillow? Isaac asked, d theyd set up anti-eavesdropping measures when theyd sat down. That bad? That bad. He confirmed. So, what do we do? Its not that kind of problem. He shook his head Unpleasant personal realization. Time travel ... it was a terrifying concept. Removing everything between the time you started your journey and the one you ended up in, destroying the people whod have existed if it hadnt been for your actions, thoroughly erasing them in a way that not even death could. And hed just realized he might have done that to however many people had managed to escape Earth. Not just removed them, but outright erased them, without even an afterlife to receive them. Fuck! Theyd been dead anyway, eventually, the Elementals, spirits and other creatures capable of space travel would have reached the colonies and killed everyone there. But at least thered have been an afterlife for them if theyd been killed by monsters. Damnit! Hed been sessfully ignoring that little ethical rabbit hole for years. Hed gotten a handle on that issue, really, but now, it had escaped its mental prison in the depths of his mind, but now, it had gotten out. In an ideal scenario, hed have run off to fight something, summoned a monster to challenge him and lost himself in the flow of battle, until the issue returned to its prison simply by virtue of him no longer thinking about it. Not like there was anything he could do to change it. Unless something catastrophic happened, he couldnt run off yet. Not when history was being made right in front of his face. Then, he noticed that Amy was about to take a drink and decided to take a little payback for the earlierments. Anyway, like I said, Ive been to the moon before. Its a pain in the ass, moving around in lowered gravity, which is why I learned the ancient art of cracking rocks by falling into them, face first. And let me tell you, that took some doing while only weighing a sixth of what I normally do. Amy red at him amid her coughing fit as her wine went down the wrong pipe. Of course, her magic let her contain the spray and prevented her from dousing the table in fermented grape juice, but she managed to cast a spell that would allow her to breathe liquid in time to prevent doing a spit take. Jokes aside, make sure you control yourselves in low gravity. I know Ive told you guys this a million times before, but its important. When you try to handle increased stats, youve usually got a million memories about how to properly handle yourself in your daily life. So you dont have many problems unless you double a Stat in a single action. But you dont know how to handle yourself in low gravity, you dont have much experience, and we couldnt squeeze in nearly as much practice in magically reduced gravity as we should have. We know. Raul said, Ill end up restoring the atmosphere a million times before people learn, Karl is going to have to keep fixing the impressions peoples faces leave in the walls and ceiling, and Patrick has to create a billion wards to save the base from human clumsiness. So, have fun, well visit once youre done with the chaos. Amy gave them a little wave. Isaac was about to take a drink of his own wine when he realized it had mysteriously been transformed into vinegar when he hadnt been looking. Hmm, whatever could have caused that? Sure, he might not be able to find a monster to fight, but messing around a little couldnt hurt, could it? *** Theunch itself was both an asion of momentous importance and boring as hell. People had given speeches once the wining and schmoozing was done with, the tables had been cleared from the tarmac with a wave of the organizers hand and the people moved behind a magical barrier that granted full view of the spaceship and that was it. Ready forunch! The spaceship itself was reminiscent of a standard space shuttle without external fuel tanks and booster rockets, butrger. All the fuel was stored in extradimensional spaces that fit easily in the shuttles engines, while multiple additional enchantments messed with the mass of the shuttle, reducing it so the amount of thrust generated resulted in vastly greater eleration than it would have in a purely physics-ruled universe. The whole affair was also significantly bigger than a regr shuttle, about the size of arge passenger ne. It didnt need to provide space for luggage, everyone had that in their personal storage devices, it just needed to be big enough for people to spend a long while inside without getting on each others nerves. People went on board, the bottom end of the shuttle belched fire and they were off. Less spectacr the second time around, and less exciting than a big monster fight. perhaps part of the issue was that Isaac was currently in a rather foul mood, he could admit that. But couldnt the world throw him a bone here, an emergency serious enough that he could pretend he had to deal with it ASAP without it being dangerous? But no, he had to put on a brave face and chat and discuss potential ideas for how to explore and/or exploit space. Asteroid mining, tourism, perhaps even terraforming. Hed heard it all before, seen it, even done it in some cases. It wasnt interesting, and it failed to serve as a distraction from his current state of grumpiness. And then it eventually, finally, mercifully, ended, letting them leave without looking like party poopers. Once they were out of sight of the rest of the homeward-bound crowd, they let their hair down. Isaac had taught each of them his clothing and armor re-equipping [Skill], which made switching to something less formal a cinch. They said their goodbyes and were about to use various means of long-range travel to head off when their phones all rang. The desired catastrophe several hours toote. Comfortable T-shirts and pants were reced withbat attire in an instant, ranging from heavy armor to enchanted robes. Shit, this is something we have to deal with? Bailey asked, already pulling out his phone Give me a second, I have to call Gabriel and cancel our date No worries. Isaac told him, gesturing to the others We can handle this. Go have fun. While Bailey used his phone to arrange for one of the [Portal] users back at the university toe get him, Amy used hers to drop the four of them as close to the problem as possible. So, what are we dealing with? Elena asked. The Spire is an annoying structure-type summon designed to burn through cooldown [Skills] by adapting their bosses to the [Skills] used while people are fighting their way to the boss. You have to clear it several times in a row to fully beat it, but you only get loot the first time around. Every time you clear it, you reduce the monster wave thatll get spat out six hours after the first summoning. But the strength of the monsters thate out is variable, and if you only clear the Spire once, you wont have to deal with well-adapted monsters. Which means you can either take the chance to only clear it once while using all your [Skills], or you can clear it six times but you wont always have your cooldown [Skills] avable, which is very risky. In the end, a lot of people ended up taking a chance on being able to take the wave, which works out most of the time But when it fails, it fails big. Except they dont know any of that, so theyre panicking and using the app to call for help from anyone who might listen. Elena finished for him. The alert app was an evolution of the various ones that had already been avable, merged into one. It had about a bazillion features, such as Rank verification so youd only be messaged by stuff relevant to you or several versions of the emergency alert ranging from apocalypse imminent to some help sometime in the next hour would be great. In this case, the summoners in question had shared their current woes and now, people all over the world would know about the issue. Isaacs phone dinged again as he got the same alert through official channels. And another one. And a third one. He was on all sorts of messaging lists to avoid missing an issue, but when something like the Spire issue happened, it did tend to lead to an overabundance of alerts. And why the hell couldnt this have happened a few hours earlier and gotten him out of the g? As it turned out, Amy had been near the Spires summoning site before so shed dropped them off so close it had taken them just a few minutes to reach it. They were some of the first reinforcements there, only those whod already been in the area could have gotten here faster. But it was already a shitshow. The original conquerors of the Spire were spread around the entrance, slumped on the ground, dead on their feet, generally radiating utter exhaustion, fear, and resignation. Yet they were still arguing with several neers, not about the strategy going forward, but how the spoils were going to be shared. The discussion basically boiled down to we paid for the summoning materials, we get the lions share vs You fucked it up, we rushed over here, you deserve nothing. Isaac, if I stay here to handle the idiot brigade, can you three deal with the Spire? Elena asked, making sure to use the partysmunication channel to avoid insulting people where they could hear. We can definitely do one run, maybe two, but lets pretend were just scouting out the ce because were not supposed to know its doable, Isaac replied. And two minutester, Isaac had found someone who could create illusions and had [Skills] for bookkeeping and added him to the party. That way, Isaac could constantly provide information to the people outside and have it written down. But even those two minutes were too long for him. He hadnt done a Spire run in so long, and he desperately needed to be doing something productive that wasnt dealing with people hed rather forget even existed. At least he managed to suppress his grin until he was out of sight. Book 6 Release! Book 6 Release! Hey guys, Apocalypse Redux 6 ising out tomorrow, so all Chapters up to Chapter 278: The Last Horseman are getting taken down. The Audio Book is alsoing out tomorrow, I hope you enjoy. If anyone feels like hopping onto Amazon and giving it a good review, that would be great because it really helps out. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It''s been a real pleasure to write this story, and to see so many people enjoy it. There are also ns for a sequel series tentatively in the works, but it''ll be a bit of a different series, more based in space, with plenty of Sci-Fi elements. And I''ll start writing it in a long while from now, there are several other series in the works. Sequel Preview Sequel Preview Prolog: Once More Into the Breach 2137, unknown star System Space was a vast expanse of nothingness before him, endlessly spreading out in every direction. Nuclear furnaces burned like ever-distant campfires, stars dotting the skies. In fact, there was a star just a few thousand kilometers from him, but it was hidden from sight. Dr. Isaac Thoma had seen a lot of things in space, from the emptiness between stars to somehow even greater emptiness between gxies, watching nebs grow indistinct as he flew through them and was no longer able to properly take in the reflected glow from the stars behind it but a Dyson sphere was new. And fit in perfectly with the warning his doomsaying prophecy [Skill] had provided. Prophecy: The Distant Worlds Seal One: A blue orb, lonely,In a universe old, vast Beings unknown live Seal Two: Graveyards ancient, Distant civilization Execution rise Seal Three: Review vision Y/N? The whole mess was, well, messy. The first seal of the prophecy was shared with the warning called The Wider Existence, which hed gotten when hed first gotten his prophetic [Book of Seven Seals], but the pair had diverged since then. As hed suspected, The Wider Existence was a generic warning about alien races existing, and it hadnt really budged beyond adding a second Seal to rify. But this one, the prophecy of distant worlds was rather more rming, having not only given him three updates in less than a decade but also showing him enough to let him find the first of these dead worlds. Well, world. It was a sphere around a star that someone had somehow built, capturing every iota of power it put out to fuel the vast technology inside the sphere. It was slowly disintegrating, though, with most technology gone and the pressure inside growing and growing until stuff started breaking. Hed left Elena two star systems over, which held an almost entirely oceanic smack-dab in the Goldilocks Zone. A drinking-water ocean. At the 5th Evolution, shed gained the ability to link new bodies of water to her pool, expanding her power and, over time, creating a connection between the two. Of course, traversing that connection was a whole other kettle of fish, costing not only mana, but if the range was long enough, ludicrously expensive reagents. But it was still useful, and unless something went horribly wrong at the Dyson Sphere, theyd be having some fun at that ceter. Isaac projected a brief burst of me while reducing his own mass to bring himself to a dead stop rtive to the star and let himself be drawn in by the gravity of both the star and the metal that surrounded it. His sensory [Aura] swept out, prating the metal with casual ease andying bare everything in range. It was weird how simple the technology and the materials were. No simple was the wrong word. Mundane was perhaps more appropriate. No magic, no physics-breaking apparatuses, just a whole bunch of advanced alloys and technology that Isaac couldnt understand, but he could still see regr physics behind the whole thing. Karl would be able to reverse-engineer this stuff, kit and caboodle, in an afternoon. Admittedly, an afternoon was a tad optimistic, but the principle still stood. This had to be old technology, built over a century ago, before the [System] had arrived. Either that, or the people whod built this ce had decided against using that ability. Or theyd evacuated after the Initialization? He certainly hadnt found any bodies, or anything that might have once been bodies. Still, this ce looked fine. A quick check with [Blessing of Innovation] told him that trying to do the math about how much damage this ce could do to Earth would give him an aneurism, but it also informed him that even if every atom on that star were to spontaneously be converted into energy, Earth was still well outside the st radius. And for that matter, so were the territories of all known extraterrestrial species. Maybe the threaty in someone finding this ce and using its technology to wage war? Isaac could certainly imagine this incredible [System]-independent tech being built using magical materials and covered in enchantments to create glorious and terrifying machinery, or maybe nevermind. There was a monster. A massive, glowing, spectral beast that came up from the heart of the star, entering Isaacs [Aura]-range. Yeah, that was a problem. Isaac reengaged [Alcubierre Bubble] and zapped himself into a higher orbit. The [Skill] didnt work too well inbat, but shit hadnt fully hit the fan just yet. And then, he waited, looking at where he knew the monster would emerge. A mass of spectral flesh the size of a mountain pushed through the surface of the Dyson sphere. But as bad as that was, the real issue was the fact that inspecting the beast provided a [System] screen. Spectral Amalgam, Death Knell of Worlds, Ephemeral Gestalt, Nascent World Boss (Level 147) When a world dies, its killer doesnt go with it. When fools summoned Ephemeral monsters, they were torn apart, their vaunted technology failing to damage anything to halt the advance. By the time warriors rose through the ranks by ying other enemies, their entire world was already flooded. And over the course of decades, this swarm of beasts has fused andbined, ascending first to the rank Field, then,ter, Raid, and finally, World Boss. However, the creatures Level is not yet at the maximum, and as such, it has note into its full power, merely being a Nascent World Boss. Even so, this is still a beast of apocalyptic power, wielding cataclysmic magic that can ruin worlds if not stopped. Well. Shit. [Final Defiance] crackled in the back of Isaacs mind, practically begging to be unleashed. This thing wouldnt necessarily be a threat to Earth for centuries even if it could go FTL once it hit Level 200, but it was still a threat. And no one knew if [World Bosses] could autonomously summon. This thing needed to go, the only question was if he should try to do this himself, or wait and get reinforcements. The smart choice would have been to get reinforcements, and hope the monster hadnt moved away by the time he returned. Which would be in a year or so. He had a few ways to get back to Earth in moments, buting here again would take a long time. But he hadnt had a good fight in forever, this thing needed to be dealt with, and it wasnt an actual [World Boss]. Yet. Isaac grabbed hismunications ne and warned Elena he was about to do something stupid, though that was more of a by the way message, rather than a call for help. Burning [Final Defiance] would put him well past the point where she could help and if it ran out before the monster died, then hed call for help. The monster came closer, swimming through the cosmic ocean, slowly taking on an odd shape. At first nce resembled the regr, cliche, ghost, a spectral woman in a trailing gown, but it was decidedly not that. For one, it wasnt human, taking on a distorted form that might have revealed the true form of the Dyson Spheres builders. There were also quite bulges and extra limbs, half-merged ephemeral beasts that hadnt quite been assimted into the new form. Isaac switched his [ss] to [Assassin of the Logos de] and studied the beast. The merging spots were sadly not weak points, nor was any other spot on its body. A typical Ephemeral-type, it would need to be killed via cumtive damage, and there would be no shortcuts. It would also wield something akin to a Poltergeists telekinesis, a Wraiths weapon manifestation, the ability to project deathly cold, and what seemed like the power to split off parts of itself to create minions. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the vition. Isaac pulled a dozen des from his Arsenal Bracelet and charged them with energy entirely and fundamentally inimical to the creature before him, and sent some more of that energy into his other bracelet. And with that, he returned to [Challenger of the Apocalypse] and charged. [Final Defiance] ignited within him, flooding his body with power, and he charged. Hed killed countless [World Bosses] with the rest of humanity, and as a result, [Aspects of the End] had been massively boosted, gaining a permanent 10-second increase to his time pool, as well as a new sub-[Skill], with every new foe. Not to mention that hed slotted several of their Aspects, gaining several powerful new Aspect [Skills] and a ton of Stat points. [Speed of Hati] wreathed him in white light as he elerated, while mes were projected by [Balors Gaze] and [Primoridal Cycle], wrapping him in power and massively increasing the potential of his fire-based powers. Up first, a full battery of [World Boss] Aspect [Skills]. They gave quite a few cooldown but not really [Skills] with high power and a cooldown, but a mana cost that had to be paid outright. So it was a damn good thing that mana wasnt something he had to worry about right now. [re of Obliteration] was one of Balors [Skills], projecting a devastating beam of fire, heat, and fury from his right eye for the low, low cost of two and a half thousand mana. It thrummed with power, blinding him in one eye as it hammered into the Spectral Amalgams chest and tore straight through, going down the length of the beast. Isaac jerked his head to the side as he closed and the beam slid through the monsters body, carving huge chunks out of it before it spluttered out, only to be immediately followed by a series ofpressed fireballs from his hands, thebination of the universes deadliest mes known as Prometheus Wrath detonating against the Amalgams body. And then he was in range to trigger [Field of Annihtion], Balors other big attack [Skill]. It was less focused, meant to clear the field of battle and turn even the most mountainous terrain into a parking lot upon activation, but it was still devastating when thrown in someones face. The Amalgams face cratered under the force of the impact and countless manifested weapons shattered, but before the monster could recover, Isaac had already triggered [I Am The Sword],making himself invulnerable and immovable for a split-second. Then, he was inside the creature, switching out his armor as quickly as he could. At some point, [Fully Geared] had gained the power to equip an infinite number of armor sets, as long as they were each made out of a different [World Boss]. And each of these sets had a different daily or weekly ability. He triggered every power the second it was avable, switched, and activated the next one, the new flood of power being unleashed before the old one had even dissipated. Tearing gusts of wind, explosions, floods of fire, frost so cold it burned to touch, spatial tears, the touch of death, raw magic the monster screamed as its insides were obliterated. There might not have been any organs there to damage, but its essence was still getting shredded. He erupted out the other side of the beast and reversed course as quickly as possible, being immediately greeted with a flood of spectral weapons. Each of them trailed white energy and radiated cold, but he wasnt worried, meeting the barrage with his own salvo, summoning every form his soulbound de, Old Reliable, had. They jumped forward practically on their own and ignited, shattering the weapons while attacking the main body, using another of his cooldown [Skills]. [Champion of Mankind: The Cleansing me] wrapped him in fiery hoplites te armor, deadly power incinerating anything that got close. Isaac charged with all the eleration [Speed of Hati] provided and punched out with his right arm, bracer disintegrating to unleash the payload stored within. Hundreds upon hundreds of tiny needles, ready to be flooded with [Logos de] energy when needed, holding it until he unleashed them. Hundreds upon hundreds of instances of energy inimical to his foes very existence striking it, tearing it to pieces. BANG! His de-telekinesis added more speed to the needles as the bracer fell apart, the salvo shredding the front side of the Amalgam, its ectosmic body practically disintegrating wherever they touched. Drawing his charged des from the Arsenal Bracelet, Isaac fed mana into [I Am The Sword] and tore straight down the monsters length again, then pulled onto his various weapons still stuck on the other end of the monster while sustaining their mes. The Spectral Amalgam didnt whirl around, exactly, rather, it transformed in such a way that it was now facing him without outright turning, and suddenly, it started bringing out massive weapons, swords the size of battleships, hammers that were like skyscrapers. Attacks were met with fireballs and counterblows, [Power of the Behemoth] flooding his limbs with strength while providing him the ability to ignore the concept of an equal and opposite reaction and not be hurled halfway across the star system by the first hit. All the while, his burning soulbound weapons were drawn through the beast, shredding it bit by bit. Back and forth, hacking and shing, Isaac tore apart the monster, but its stamina and life force seemed inexhaustible, constantly regenerating. Until one particr cut caused it to simply fall apart. No apparent cause, it hadnt even been a particrly good strike, but it seemed to have finally pushed through the monsters ungodly durability. The World Boss Spectral Amalgam has been in. Heroic Deed has been noted. As you have killed this monster on your own, without outside help, you will receive all rewards: 10 Aspects of the Spectral Amalgam, 50 cubic liters of Spectral Amalgam Ectosm in a specialized container, 2 tons of spectral steel, and the Pseudo-World Item [Heart of the Android] Ah, fuck. This thing was a full [World Boss] in almost every way that mattered, and if there were other undiscovered dead civilizations out there, one of these days, its remnant would be a real one. And the World Item would be interesting to deal with. Less powerful than a true one, but nheless capable of causing widespread changes. Something needed to change. Perhaps he needed some help out here? A proper survey corps. Bored S-Rankers, desperate A-Rankers, talented low-Level people who could be given material support and would hopefully gain optimal [sses] of epic or legendary rarity. It would be a gamble, especially in thetter case, but he was rich, fuck-off money on a global scale rich. He could afford to take a few gambles. And hadnt there been that little program of having people train until they were thirty before they picked their starter [ss]? Sure, whoever was currently running the Bundeswehr would likely be hopping mad if he poached those folks, but that was nothing a little bribe of taught [Skills] couldnt smooth over. *** The sr system was a very impressive ce. It had always been, a natural wonder that had fascinated humanity since the very first homo sapiens had stared up at the night sky. But once humanity had started properly exploring it, theyd made changes. After society had stabilized from the Systems arrival, changing to handle the increased capability of every single person, thered been a lot of somewhat bored, powerful, immensely long-lived superhumans around, with full ess to the seemingly limitless resources of the Sol system. And what was someone with immense power, vast material wealth, and the time to take full advantage of the first two to do? The first fun project had been an annual illusion that made the moon look like the Death Star, for one day, on George Lucas birthday. It would have gone over a lot better if the idiots responsible for the first casting had actually told people what they were going to do. Look, there was nothing wrong with wanting to honor the work of a great man after his passing, nothing at all, but suddenly having a-destroying superweapon hanging above everyones heads had caused something of a panic and almost ended with the people responsible charbroiled by an overly enthusiastic quick reaction force. No one had ended up dead or badly injured at the end of the day, but it had been a near run thing. Isaac had been around for that one, as well as the next few endeavors. Like when someone had decided to rebuild the version of Antis seen in the Stargate series on the surface of Neptune, though that had ended in an expensive and embarrassing failure. Sure, no one had died, but having the structure that had been hailed as the Jewel of the Sr System crumble mere days after it had beenpleted oof. Just ncing around, it was very easy to tell what had been designed by an engineer told design me something made to do x, and when someone had told an engineer hes a picture, heres the wiki page, heres what it looks like in action, now make me something like that. Star Wars designs were utterly non-existent, though. Even nowadays, no one fucked with Disneys copyrightwyers. But that was hardly the only space-rted series that people with too much time on their hands wanted to rip off. The spinning drum of the Babylon 5 station was visible in the asteroid belt, though Isaac could only shake his head at the use of rotary gravity. Sure, it worked, but could cause nausea in those aboard. And then, there were the abominations that were Star Trek vessels. ording to Patrick, the engine nacelles were designed like that due to technology limitations in the series, but in the real world, having the propulsion be that far from the main body, not pushing against the center of mass directly, created immense sheer forces. Those connection points were more heavily enchanted than literally the rest of the shipbined, to avoid having them snap like toothpicks. Someone had built what looked like a 20th-century battleship, adapted the guns for use in space, sealed all external ess points, and pped rockets to the rear end. The ship with Yamato stenciled on the bow was actually a more viable design than the dozen or so Enterprises floating around the System. Or was it Enterprise ss? Either way, those things were weirdly popr. But popr culture ripoffs aside, the sr system was utterly swimming with ships of every size and design, as well as artificial satellites for any purpose one could imagine. Space stations, FTL inte rys, fabricators that could eat asteroids whole, and more besides. And thes themselves had been changed immensely as well. Most of them, at least. Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Uranus, being gas giants, werent meant to be settled directly, but there were immense buildups of industry around them. Venus, meanwhile, had been terraformed a decade after Mars had, and Mercury held abination of a luxury resort and the Sr Guards Highmand. The Sr Guard had started out as the space-equivalent of the Coast Guard, but rapidly acquired heavier and heavier ships as dealing with rogue summons not located on a had be a part of their duties. The inner system looked slightly odd, though, severelycking in the civilian passenger traffic department even though it was thousands of times more popted than the outer system. That was easily exined, however, since the Earlkings World Item had created a fast travel system there. It had a few limits on usage, like each person only being able to travel a couple of times a day, and had a somewhat limited number of points where it could be used, but overall, it was vastly superior to all other forms of travel. People whod received private points could even moderate usage! But Isaacs favorite by far was Mars. After all, he owned a sizeable chunk of it, a plot ofnd nearly as big as Germany. He was the one whod used the World Item to terraform the, and in exchange, hed received Olympus Mons. Twenty-one kilometers high on the lip of the crater, and six hundred kilometers meters across. All of it was his and Elenas, and theyd transformed it into a paradise. His and Elenas house had been built into the wall of the crater, overlooking thergeke hed created there, filled with wonderful wildlife to fish for or hunt, fruit nts like coconuts lining the side. Beyond that was vast unspoiled wilderness, with only the asional small town interrupting it, some popted with friends and allies whod wanted a ce away from it all, or the caretakers of thend. Amy, for example, had built a pce from sparkling crystal, right underneath a waterfall, while Raul had decided to go old school with a log cabin made from entirely mundane materials. It was the most valuable piece of real estate in the sr system by now, due to its size and apleteck of any building codes beyond Isaac or Elena saying no. But Isaac and Elena had no intention of selling off any parts. Ever. But the real value was the thing that no one knew about. The stuff underneath the soil, filling the entire mountain and several kilometers beneath it. Machinery, supplies, potions, armor, weapons, fabricators, even spaceships. If shit ever hit the fan again, if humanity found itself in danger despite everything hed achieved so far, this arsenal would be enough to fuel a war to conquer the entire gxy. Sorry, premature release Sorry, premature release So, I was writing the announcement for the Book 7 release, in two days, and identally hit "publish" instead of "save draft", really sorry about that. Though as you can see from the title, it''ll be apanied by the second apocryphal World Boss fight. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any urrences. Royal Road has a character minimum, so this chapter needs more random stuff Royal Road has a character minimum Royal Road has a character minimum Royal Road has a character minimum Apocrypha 2: Cipactli / Book 7 Release Apocrypha 2: Cipactli / Book 7 Release Once more into the fucking breach. Isaac had long since decided that any [World Boss] battles would have to be nned as though he werent involved, leaving him free to not attend. He would join, obviously, but he hardly felt like having to clean up after every bad decision humanity made. If it would lead to the end of the world, he would hardly sit idle, but otherwise, he liked his peace. Peace and home. In exchange for terraforming Mars using Ymirs World Item, Isaac had been granted Olympus Mons in perpetuity, along with a tax exemption and countless other exemptions. So arge chunk of the crater had be a training arena sitting underneath an academy built into the crater wall, while hed built a ptial home. But he had to admit, he was getting a bit bored by now, and he did want to see what Cipactli looked like. It was a dangerous kind of curiosity, the kind that led to children touching hot stoves and adults winning Darwin awards, but Isaac was one of the few people who could handle the consequences of sticking his nose where it didnt belong. Famousst words. At least this time around, things were happening outside the sr system altogether. In Alpha Centauri, to be exact. A trinary star system, the closest one to Earth and utterly uninhabitable, no matter what you did. Or rather, almost impossible to permanently make habitable.It was a fairly simple issue, known by the equally simple name of The Three-Body Problem. Simply put, thebination of three stars whirling around each other meant that any or other ster body in that ster system would have absurdly erratic orbits, flying way too close to stars, or going way too far for sufficient heat to reach them. Making any of thes present life-bearing would have required a World Item, the Essence of Ymir, to be exact, to create a biosphere that could easily wind up destroyed in less than a decade. Between the proximity to the sr system and theplete absence of anything humanity wanted to avoid wrecking (Pluto had never been quite the same after Ymir andter Ziz), Alpha Centauri was perfect for this kind of shenanigans. And, best of all, the logistics were runningpletely without his input. Therefore, he had zero paperwork. Or at least as close to zero as was humanly possible. *** Humanity beware, a World Boss has been summoned! Bear witness to his name and tremble: Cipactli, The First Beast, Monster of Endless Maws, The Hungering Earth This is a monster meant to be an opponent for your entire species, and in your own words, hang together or hang separately. Good luck! Current location: [name contested] (150 km straight down) Isaac bit back augh at the unexpected sight of thes name. It seemed like the incessant arguing about what to call this world had gotten so bad that even the System had gotten confused. Or at the very least, there was nothing anywhere near definitive enough for it to lock onto. Yeesh. Some poor bureaucrat would get hit by apletely pointless shitstorm after this, but thankfully, that was very much a them problem. Based on the grimaces of the others around him, several people had noticed that too and were trying to keep a straight face and not doing a particrly good job. But most were like him, ring down at the monster. Cipactli was huge, as immense as the various other [World Bosses] had been, but unique otherwise. The Leviathan had, to use his earlier description, an angry shoce. Impossibly long yet thin, giving it the appearance of something akin to a weirdly blue spaghetti when viewed from far enough away. Ymir had been a giant, full stop. A big-ass human with grey-ish skin, fire and ice swirling around him. And Ziz had just been a big bird with horrifically effective aerokinesis. But this thing Even after all these years of fighting monsters, Isaac wasnt quite sure how to describe it. Cipactli shared the size with its other [World Bosses], four kilometers long, five if one included the head, and nine if you added the tail. Overall, it resembled a massive crocodile, an enormously thick one, with skin covered in nobs that were halfway between a crocodiles humps and the warts of a toad. A fat tail that reminded Isaac of a thresher shark, made for smashing, hung from its rear, a deadly weapon for anyone attempting to attack from that side. The monster had a grand total of six weirdly long, multi-jointed legs whose ends disappeared underground, leaving Isaac unable to see how long they were. All of that, however, was ignoring the biggest, most memorable and eye-catching bodypart of the beast. The mouths. Countless mouths, elliptical, ck caverns filled with countless fangs, eachpleted with ashing tongue, covered the beast, one on each joint, and a few more dotted around its body at any point that often moved, such as the neck and several spots along the tail. Isaac grimaced. Hed read about those in the various mythological treatises, but it was an entirely different thing seeing them in person. And yet, even they were nothingpared to the beasts true maw, sitting in the normal spot of Cipactlis crocodilian head. It hung open, fangs the size of destroyers ringing a ck void that seemed to stretch into infinity, showing more space inside the beast than ever should have been possible, all the way down to a single crimson point miles and miles from the entrance, yet even that seemed to be infinite, a sea of blood sitting at the heart of the likewise endless space within the primordial crocodile. Cipactli roared up at them, countless maws sending out waves of energy in ce of sound, a red wave of force that would likely have been utterly lethal to anyone within a few dozen kilometers. At the distance the humans were hanging out at, it would likely be merely unpleasant, but the people with the relevant [Skills] nevertheless threw up multyered shields while the offensive portion of thebined armies of humanity returned fire. Miniature meteors, hurled des,plex curses and spellformations that had taken hours or even days to set up spat death itself, while an entire fleet of the most advanced starships ever built unleashed a technological arsenal never seen until this point. Lasers struck first, rays of coherent light as intense as the sun burning skin and boiling away the flesh beneath. Particle beams were the next to impact, slower by a fraction of time so short that even people with Isaacs Perception only knew they were slower by logic alone, ripping into the monster more directly, injecting energy deep into the monster. Missiles and railgun rounds were slower, but even more hard-hitting. Demon-blood catalyzed fusion warheads, enchanted Saggitarius-Steel prators that weighed almost as much as the ships thatunched them, and more exotic and experimental weaponry that was ill-suited for standardization in some way. All the while, Isaac just watched. Observed. nned. He was still using his [Assassin of the Logos de] [ss] for maximum analysis power, [Knowledge Seeker] vacuuming up every scrap of information that presented itself and folding it into the massive Leviathan-bone sword in his hands, which began glowing steadily brighter. Hed already learned everything he could about fish, crocodiles and toads, the animals thatprised the [World Boss], and now, he was drawing on his target for that final push, to create the perfect weapon. Opposing sides of the battle unleashed twin waves of annihtion washed towards each other and for the most part, both were disappointed by the oue. Cipactlis energy wave was about to crash into the wall of shields when it was brought up short, its center growing ck and being sucked into a singr point, and the rest followed shortly, the massive but now-diffuse stwavepletely vanishing into a spatial pocket. Isaac wasnt entirely sure where its creator was, but he knew whod done that. Rashid Boateng, the Undying me, one of the few space-alignedbat S-Rankers had sucked up the entirety of the initial attack but that wasnt the end of things. Then, the void began to boil, ck nothingness bing stained red before shifting into something in between, Cipactlis crimson energy first intermingling then merging with something wholly different, the power of the void itself. Utter. Nothingness. A red-ck ray of powernced back down at the, straight towards Cipactli who was already in the process of burrowing underground, merging with the, having left any attack that wasnt functionally lightspeed to detonate futility against the surface. That was when the reflected attack struck, sting apart the immense dust cloud that had beenunched upwards by the initial impact, revealing Cipactli just beneath the new surface moments before it struck, leaving the [World Boss] to retreat into the with an angry red burn on its back, vanishing from view in short order. Isaac could still tell where it was with his Aura, but trying to reach it down there with his avable weapons would do negligible damage. Their opening salvo had been fired andrgely dodged, while the monsters initial attack had been fired straight back into its face. But that was all that had happened, and they were now reduced to this weird standoff. Now what? Amy asked. Do we try cracking open the? That question prompted a few hushedments and shocked titters, but after a few minutes, the consensus was that it was a bad idea. Itd waste a ton of energy, and Cipactli could doubtlessly burrow deeper. There has to be a way to hit that thing without breaking a, Patrick finally said. Monsters can be weird and unique, but they never retreat and dig inpletely. Not like that. The down below was slowly changing as they spoke, the churned-up rock, beginning to bleed. Mr. Lerch is right, Professor Kim threw in. Monsters have their quirks, but their core purpose of providing a challenge to their summoner or summoners is always present. That a beast would retreat until its autonomous summoning triggered or the like runs contrary to the very core of the System. Therefore, there has to be an end to this process. If not a time limit, then one we can bring about. Dr. Thoma, does your mythological knowledge give you any ideas? It would seem like that statement made quite a few assumptions but she was one of the few people who knew the whole story concerning the Systems origins and restrictions, making her exnation far more urate than most people realized. A god sacrificed his foot to lure Cipactli to the surface of the primordial ocean, where the other gods killed it, Isaac exined. Hey, does that thing prevent regeneration or something? Isaac rotated himself to face the speaker, a strange proposition in zero-g. Not to my knowledge, he said. Then Ill do it. Lau Kant was an enormous celestial humanoid with ashen white skin and pitch-ck hair that looked like strands of the void itself, blending in with the surroundings so perfectly it sometimes appeared as though pieces of his head werent there. Hed been floating in space up until now, somehow giving off the impression that he was lounging in afortable chair even though he was, well, floating in the middle of nowhere with the nearest solid surface several kilometers away. But now that he was taking action, he was starting to exude a dangerous air, of razor-sharp focus and deadly intent. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Kant had already moved past Isaac when he stopped and turned around. Do you need some time to prepare, or should I do it right now? Isaac sent that up the chain, then passed along the message he got in return. We need an hour. *** In the end, it had taken a couple of hours to set things up fully, but this should be a truly wonderful one-two punch to get the damn murder-croc out of the blood ocean it was creating on the surface of the. Kant would lure the monster and try to keep it on the surface long enough for a concerted effort to catapult it into space. The man known as the Shining Guardian didnt hesitate in the slightest as he lowered himself towards the bloody ocean, moving with slow deliberateness as he came closer and closer until Cipactli exploded from beneath the waves, jaws open to swallow him whole. And bit down. It didnt get anywhere. Instead, its jaws were held open by a shining citadel that had appeared there, rings of teeth surrounding the radiant building, even unable to withdraw and let go. And then, Kant triggered his second [Skill], one that added some variety of hard-to-shift momentum to him, making the citadel yerk skywards, pulling the monster maybe a hundred meters upwards, exposing part of it. That alone was nowhere near enough to do much of anything, getting the monster to the surface was an entirely different achievement than truly exposing it to everyone else, something that had, of course, been nned for. Lan Mercer was an Australian S-Ranked Pugilist whose [ss] was based around demonic magic and power, though the things that were the most important at the moment were his fists. Where logic andmon sense went to die. In an instant, Mercer transformed from his regr, slightly demonic humanoid form into a new shape that would have made Demon Lords green with envy. Eighty meters tall, two immense rams horns crowning his head, heavy scales covering every inch of his body. Then, he punched the ground, and the ocean exploded, the force echoing into the surface of the water before bouncing back up, hammering into the [World Boss] stomach and catapulting it skywards, flinging Kant off into the void almost by ident. But even as the monster was hurled almost fifty meters upwards, Mercer copsed down onto one knee, blood running from between his scales. The flip side of his ability. Isaac didnt know the specifics, but was aware of the fact that it wasnt a standard cooldown Skill. Instead, it was something akin to hysterical strength, but well beyond it, capable of letting him massively enhance his Strength Stat to dish out immense damage while putting simrly immense strain on his body, while letting him direct the force in ways that would otherwise have been impossible. And what hed just done had to be on the absolute top end of what his [Skill] allowed. He was in no position to keep fighting right this moment, but thankfully, he wasnt required to stare down the boss. Because that was when Aiden Larsen attacked. The tall Norweigian Dryad slipped into the tiny gap between the monster and the surface, triggering his biggest cooldown [Skill]. Yggdrasil manifested around him, the world tree itself projecting itself into reality and unleashing the power of all nine realms into the guts of the beast,unching it several kilometers higher but even as that was happening, Larsens entire demeanor shifted, and so did the power washing off him. Another dual [ss] user? Larsen unsheathed his sword andunched himself at the monster, a spectral flood of water manifesting around him, wiping away the bloody ocean that Cipactli was trying to use to drag itself back down to the surface. The monstershed out with its ws, the maws on the joints attempting to gobble the dryad up but failing utterly as the man dodged with perfect uracy, betraying a Level of foresight that surpassed even Isaac in the supernatural cognition department. That was when he started cutting, ash of water following every strike and carving the monsters stomach while imparting more and more energy skywards. Not much, but enough to get the process started. And that was when the next stage hit. Thalia Pathstrider was someone without a clear and defined powerset, someone who could borrow power subsets from countless paths. And in this situation, well, shed managed to whip up some brand-new orbital weapons systems boosted with more [Skills] than any single person should have been able to tack on. Her flexible pathcked the various threshold bonuses regr [Skills] got, and her experience with any given powerset was lesser than that of someone who specialized, but very few people would have been able to pull something like that off on the spot. Though the heart of her setup was her precognition, her having fine-tuned the entire thing to the point of utter perfection, one salvo following the next, hammering right into the monster in the location the previous salvo had flung it, each and every strike carrying the monster higher and higher. Cipactli briefly became the fourth Sun in the sky as it was lit up from every side and hurled too deeply into space to easily recover. Finally. A way to go after it properly. Isaacunched himself at the monster, half a dozen fireballs appearing above his palm while [Speed of Hati] carried him through space, then flung the energy orbs at the titanic monster. These werent normal fireballs, though. This was the version of [Divine Fire] hed figured while fighting the Leviathan, thepressed fireballs hed created and registered with the [Skill] so he could whip them out at a moments notice. The Promethean Nova. Each fireball shed into an open mouth and detonated withing, banishing the darkness within and scorching its insides. As threatening as those mouths were to anyone who got too close, they were also gigantic targets. Then, Isaac triggered [I Am The Sword], finishing his charge with deadly intent, leading with the massively enchanted sword built specifically to annihte the enemy before him. Thergest weapon Old Reliable could transform into was a Leviathan-bone greatsword that carved through the hide of the monster as though it were less than even butter, flesh boiling away as energy that was fundamentally antithetical to the struck beast. But that had only been the opening salvo, hundreds of humanitys strongest followed suit, carving into the monster until it looked like it had gone three round with an alley cat and lost. Unfortunately, that was when something weird happened. Cipactli began to fall. Sure, obviously that was happening, they hadnt managed to get it anywhere close to escape velocity, but simple instinct told Isaac that it was falling too fast, not to mention all the knowledge [Skills] that confirmed it and the mor of his allies that had noticed the same thing. Falling faster, no flight ability otherwise ergo, gravity fuckery. Ymir had had the same ability, though to a greater degree. Yet neither of them had any mythological connection to that particr enemy. So did all [World Bosses] that couldnt fly have this ability to somewhat be able to navigate. Did the Leviathan? If the Devil Snake had lived more than an hour after beingunched into the sky, would it have fallen down onto the Earth as the meteor that had annihted the dinosaurs had? Isaac shivered. That was a scary thought. The world of the System was like that. It loved to let slip how close you hade to utter, apocalyptic, disaster, after the fact, just to see you squirm. Though there was one man who came in out of nowhere, having clearly seen this as an opportunity. ?rden, just ?rden, the second Argentinian S-Ranker and one of the strongest skill-based fighters in the world. Perfectedbat skills, elegant strikes, at least half a dozen absurdly powerful [Skills] boosting his de as the manunched himself off the surface of the, straight at the beast, glowing sword meeting impossibly sharp skin and parting it with casual ease. And then, it was already over, the [World Boss] continuing its descent while blood sprayed from a long diagonal gash that ran across its side while ?rden kept going until he was in space with everyone else. But hed given Isaac an idea. Getting under the monster was simple enough, as was a weird bncing act that had him brace as many swords as possible against his body, and then, havinge to aplete stop rtive to the below right in the monsters path, activated [I Am The Sword]. The [World Boss], weighing hundreds of thousands of tons,nded on a free-floating ball of des that was, for a split-second, utterly immovable. When hed been thirteen or fourteen, Isaac had once stepped on a particrly pointy piece of lego and screamed so loudly that hed woken up the entire house,pletely unable to stop himself. What Cipactli had to be feeling right now was doubtlessly a million times worse. The only question that remained was whether or not the monster would tip to the side and fall off before his [Skill] ended. And it did. The initial impact had ced Isaac almost a hundred meters deep in its body and when the monster slid off him in less than a second, he carved a bloody path of destruction and fire through it. Then, he had to leg it, because it seemed like most people had taken this as their opportunity to get in thest few blows before the monster vanished beneath the waves again. The [World Boss] body was wreathed in explosions, flesh cratering and rippling away from the sight of railgun rounds impacting, further ripping apart a badly abused body until it reached thes surface. Cipactli hit the ground like a meteor, the bloody ocean that had dripped back down into the crater by now erupting back into the air, where the droplets transformed into crimson javelins that tore through, everything. Anything that was close enough to get hit got a nice big hole torn through it, starships included. I dont think it liked that, Arthurmented. So we fish it back out again and keep wailing on it until it goes back to hiding? I think that might have been how the fight is intended to go, Dr. Han suggested. The monster attacks, retreats back into the ground to prepare the battlefield, then attacks again, over and over until it has either won or dies. I might be able to mess with its retreat somewhat, dy it, but cant stop it. What if we worked together? Raul asked. I can stabilize the surface, you weaken Cipactlis ability to meld into the, and Patrick can ward the ground. That became the core of the n, but it grew from there. Kant had returned by now, Mercer had recovered, and several mages took the ce of the rest of those that hadunched Cipactli thest time. Things went smoothly from there,unching the beast skywards while the ground below transformed in its entirety. Red waves became grey rock while the red aura that surrounded Cipactli began to die, and shining runes covered the surface of the like an arcane spiderweb. With a tremendous crash no one could hear due to an absence of air to carry the sound, the [World Boss] hammered into the ground, and the battle began in earnest. The beasts countless maws had chomped apart countless people and starships, energy waves had smashed even more, and the spears of crimson bloody water had done even more damage. But now, it was finally in a ce where they could fight it, kill it, annihte it. And annihte they did. Down below, thebination of Dr. Han weakening the monsters effect upon the environment and Rauls domain of nature was preventing it form pulling any funny business while vines and shifting earth slowed the monster. And up above, immensebination spells were being woven. Amy was, as per usual, wreathed in energy that no normal mage would be willing to touch with a ten lightyear pole, an unstructured mess turned lethal implement under the force of her will, and there were dozens just like her. Though the currentlyrgest and most eye-catching disy was courtesy of the other S-ranked New Zender. Kofi Boakye, the Luminous Archmage, had taken charge of several hundred light based casters and was fusing the entirety of their power into a massive spinning drill-head formed from hardlight, charging it to the point where it glowed like the sun. And then, it was sted at the, ripping clean through Cipactlis head, into the brain and continuing onwards into several kilometers of rock, the rotation of the projectile sending blood and brain matter flying. Cipactli roared, rearing up onto its hind legs while crimson energy swelled up from the bloody star thaty at the heart of its bottomless maw only for it to start choking on the half a dozen nuclear warheads that General Ardouin had directed there, portals opening inside its wide-open throat to deposit the devastating bombs directly. They continued to pour on the attacks until eventually, the [World Boss] finally fell, ripped into a thousand pieces. The Rewards Levels are listed below, however, there are some specifics that need to be shared ahead of time: 1. Body Pieces may be either a tooth, scale, tooth-sized piece of bone, 50 Cipactli steaks, 1 liter of any bodily fluid, or 50 m^2 of leather 2. World Boss Aspects must be stacked atop apatible Aspect, but can override previous Skills if so desired, allowing their recipients to customize how they use their rewards. 3. Regardless of how many people hold each rank of reward, only a maximum of 15 Aspects will be handed out. 4. Level Boosts are not immediate, their recipients will receive them and trigger them whenever they choose to (they will trigger automatically if doing so would push their recipient to the maximum Level of 200). Infinitesimal: Those who participated but failed to reach any reward higher tiers will receive 100,000 XP Minor: Those who participated in the battle and contributed will receive 200,000 XP Small: Those who participated in a way that would be noted as being above average in reports will receive 500,000 XP, half a body piece (own choice), and have a 0.1% chance at receiving an Aspect Sufficient: Those who have done enough that a million like them together would have been able to beat the World Boss will receive 1,000,000 XP, 1 body piece, and have a 1% chance of receiving an Aspect Significant: This tier requires one to single-handedly affect the battle in some way, be it by briefly restraining the foe so others maynd a solid hit, ornding a significant hit on their own. As such, they will be boosted by 1 Level or 2,000,000 XP, whichever is more, gain 3 body pieces, and have a 10% chance of getting an Aspect. Massive: Those who will go down in the history books as having helped y Cipactli are going to be boosted by a full five Levels, receive an Aspect of Cipactli and 5 body pieces. Decisive: This is a rank that can only be held by a single person per battle. In this battle, this person was one Raul Mina, who exposed the beast and prevented it from returning to the earth. As such, he will receive a boost of 10 Levels, an Aspect of Cipactli, 25 body pieces (24 by his choice, 1 Cipactli Heartblood), and the World Item [Cipactlis Distilled Fury]. This is an item that can affect the world as a whole, altering the entirety of the Earths waterways, in ways that may be humanitys boon or bane. Raul had gotten first ce. Good on him, hed earned it, though Isaac just hoped hed get the chance to see the World Item before it was used. *** Isaac red down at the crimson marble in his palm. Cipactlis World Item was a weird one, one that might even be enough to safeguard the from most casual attacks. But the method was concerning. Cipactlis Distilled Fury (World Item) The Boon given to the yer of Cipactli, holding the undying fury of the primordial beast, a hate that destroyed even the gods creations before the beast was bound. This anger and fighting spirit can be ced within aary body, which then gains the ability to defend itself from any external threat by warping its gravity/maic fields, hurling lighting, etc. In extreme cases, well,rge threats might find themselves punched by a. (Stasis fields will protect the inhabitants and buildings, there will be no damage beyond what is caused by the attackers directly) By default, the collective consciousness of thes inhabitants are what guides the monster, destroying the enemies that threaten the world if so desired. (This desire needs to go beyond someone wanting potential targets to go away or die, true visceral hatred and a willingness to attack given half a chance are what is needed.) This is a set-and-forget item, the user will need to set all parameters prior to activation, at which point the item will be destroyed. As a World Item, Cipcatlis Distilled Fury cannot be stored in any manner of spatial device. Well, well, well, this was uh ever so slightly nuts. Crazy, insane, batshit oh, there were about a billion ways to describe that across the roughly five-thousandnguages Isaac spoke. The risk of getting punched by a should at least deter quite a few potential alien invasions, assuming aliens existed, or if one of humanitys colonies decided to go mad with power. Though someone could still incessantly throw rocks until the was nothing but molten g, and a World Boss summoned on thes surface would not automatically get yeeted into space by the now-living. This thing would get pped onto Earth in all likelihood, to keep it safe for the rest of eternity, and if someone wanted to protect the rest of humanityss, well, they could damn well kill Cipacti again in ten years, without him. That fight had been insane. What came before ... What came before ... My name is Isaac Thoma, and unless something goes terribly wrong, this recording will never see the light of day. I dont want to cause a crisis of faith in anyone whos been fortunate enough to live in a somewhat sane world up until now. Now, if youre watching this within a few centuries of this being recorded, you might find most of this superfluous, youve learned all of this in school. However, if youd like some context for everything, well, Im providing it. But I also know that I cant guarantee that this information wont be needed, and considering that, starting two weeks from now, Ill be off exploring the gxy, I wont necessarily be around to share this knowledge myself, Ill be leaving copies of this recording with several trusted confidants. Fundamentally, there is much more to this universe than meets the eye, and not just in the sense that there will always be something to discover. Gods exist, but they arent what you imagine. Theyre powerful, but bound by their own rules, split up into three factions. The neutral gods bnce themselves, but the others, well, they are split up into a faction that is ostensibly good, and one that is ostensibly evil. And thosest two are eternally struggling for control. Anytime one of them takes an action, it disrupts the bnce of the universe, and the other is able to take an action of equal gravity. It bes an eternal chess match of taking action after action, trying to coax the sapient beings of this universe to make things happen without requiring divine action. As far as I know, things were calm for a long time, until the good side created the System. A way for anyone who wanted to to grow beyond their normal limitations, acquiring magic and supernatural skill if they just put in the effort. And the response was devastating. A simple addition to the System, that allowed its users to summon monsters to kill for experience points and grow at a ridiculous rate while also, well, risking releasing an enemy capable of exponential reproduction if left to roam. Past that, it didnt even take much. Humans being humans, some people got greedy, others overestimated themselves, and little over ten years after the System initialized, humanity was functionally extinct. But were watching this, youre probably thinking, and youre right. Humanity is still around. BecauseI traveled back in time. A hidden safeguard in the System let me, and only me, try everything again, from the point of initialization. So thats what I did. I joined a team researching the System, and helped them grow, and together, slowly, we started sharing the knowledge of how everything worked. What enemies were powerful, what enemies could be beaten with a trick, what to focus on, and so on. We provided a way to grow safely. But like I said, humans are humans. Its not a question of if something stupid will be done, its a question of who will be the one to do it. The first big incident was a Stormheart Gestalt that wrecked arge chunk of Los Angeles. We found out that to have been an act of terrorism, aimed at disrupting System research there because trying to understand this divine gift was considered sphemy, but that was muchter. As far as we knew, it was just someones mistake. So we mourned the dead and kept going. A serial killer rose to prominence afterwards, one Arianne Krebs, who lost her husband to a monster that some moron called into being and started to take that out on anyone she perceived as being reckless. Ironically, even though we at Research Team Bailey were panicking, thinking we were about to be attacked, Mrs. Krebster told me that she considered us to be one of the few sane people in the world. Oh, right, I did get my hands on that police report,bined that with my knowledge of the other timeline, and then led the cops straight to her. She almost killed us, but we managed to arrest her. A couple of weeks after that, we found out about the terrorist organization known as the Children of the System when they put a bunch of Megalodons in the Bodensee and attacked the rest of the team when they went to investigate, I was babysitting an experiment back home. Anyway, long story short, they inadvertently made themselves known to the world and got pulverized. But that incident did really catapult us to prominence, and half of us went to Seoul, South Korea, to visit the research team of one Professor Kim Yerin, someone who managed to do almost as much as we did without the benefits of future knowledge. Also, to establish a rtionship with the Hunters Guild, its Guildmaster, Seon Yoo-jin, and start trading for ess to the Dungeons they established for smooth leveling. That went well until North Korea summoned the worlds first [Raid Boss] in the hopes that it would destroy the South Korean capital. I managed to trap it within a Skill that lets me fight enemies one on one for long enough that a proper defense could be established, and it was stopped, but that was a really bad sign of what was toe. This novel''s true home is a different tform. Support the author by finding it there. Though thankfully, North Korea sorta just, uh, imploded afterwards. It was a dictatorship already made unstable by the appearance of the System, and Im pretty sure that it didnt take much for foreign intelligence services to rip it apart. And even with how insane things felt at the time, none of us knew how chaotic things would get from then on. Still, there were a couple of good things that happened around that time. I established Akashik Industries, apany that used smart summoning to provide monster materials for otherpanies, which I used to fund the teams experiments. And I established a bloodline, as anyone can at Level 50, and the Systems magic made it so that any direct blood rtives could also im it, if they wanted to. So my parents got ess to the hellfire and regeneration that I use, and my little sisters became even worse hellions than they already were. I mean, I love them, but if they were two whirlwinds reincarnated into human form, I wouldnt have been surprised. So, things stayed like that for a bit and then we saw the face of the enemy. Our true enemy. A small trick from the dark gods, contacting a few people which spiraled into a massive cult convinced that the world was going to end because humanity was going to do something stupid, so might as well just end the world themselves and be rewarded for it. Hell, the only reason they hadnt done that on day one is because they were given a waiting period of ten years before being able to attack directly or let loose big monsters. Like I said, if gods take actions, an equal and opposite response will be taken, and giving their cultists a dy lessened the karmic weight, as far as I can tell. But that dy didnt mean that they werent allowed to fight back if we came after them. So when an unrted investigation stumbled across one of their offices, well, Hamburg has never been the same, but we did find out about our true enemy and spent the next several years hunting them down. Of course, when it rains, it pours, and we also got to find a city that drives people mad at the Pole of inessibility,plete with explorers robbed of their sanity by their surroundings, fiercely attacking anyone who came near. The city is still there, and using some divine means we managed to figure out its some kind of artifact, created by some kind of iprehensible deity who just left it lying there. But eventually, we did manage to conquer the city and promptly left it alone, quarantined. All the while, me and my friends were working together to set up ways to fight and kill bosses to harvest experience and materials safely until eventually, the cult snitched on themselves. Sort of. One of their criminal enterprises got raided by the police, they reacted, the cops called for reinforcements, the cult responded by throwing even more force at the problem by the time the dust settled, a city of fifty-thousand people was annihted and there were a million different threads to pull to find the rest of the cult. Which we did. A few got away, but most were annihted. Years passed, space got colonized, and so on, but the cult and the danger posed by reckless monster summoning were never not on my mind. You know, if anyone watching this ns on making a space colony, do have at least some legal code in mind when you start. The first time I went to Ceres, I literally had to give the guard a list of everything I was carrying that might be required to be dered, and it was a long one, because not a single item was known as being required to be kept outside. And as for other regtions, well, safety regtions might be a mess, but theyre also written in blood. For most rules, there are probably a few gravestones that can be pointed to as their source. Anyway, thats just me going off on a tangent. Eventually, we found the cult again, on a single small ind in the pacific, and came after them hard. And they summoned a World Boss. The first one, ever. The biblical Leviathan, three hundred miles long, firebreathing, a living hellgate that spat lesser demons. It took us a little over a week to beat and by the time we won, maps had to be redrawn on a global scale, with all of Oceania being gone, as well as the northern coast of Australia, the southern coast of China, the eastern coast of India, even America and Africa caught a few rogue waves. Except we just got a new issue. The fact that every World Boss drops a World Item, which can reshape the world itself, in a single specific way. In this case The Soul of the Ocean could reshape the entirety of the Earths oceans. I used it to fix all the damage humanity andter the Leviathan did, but someone else could have done something a hell of a lot nastier. The cult was gone, and we were generally in a position to take down any monster that showed up. I also started an academy during that time, but then, Ymir was summoned on Pluto. The idea was that with the World Boss stuck at the bottom of a gravity well, all youd have to do is chuck rocks at it and it went about as badly as it could have. But it died, and I got my hand on his World Item, one that could terraform a. I chose Mars, in exchange for ownership of Olympus Mons in perpetuity. The nations of Earth couldnt sign fast enough. In the years since, weve summoned a few World Bosses ourselves, nned for any fully thought-out, but nothing went badly. Homeworld Command has quite a few squirreled away somewhere. Eventually, I decided to go explore the universe with my girlfriend, Ms. Elena Hightower. So, that is the true history of the System. The fact that humanity survived while making some of the dumbest choices possible isnt because were so incredible, or superior to any aliens that may or may not be out there, its because of literal divine intervention and time travel. And thats not something we can repeat or count on happened again. Ultimately, if there is one takeaway from everything that happened, its this: dont be an idiot, use your head, and things will go well. Or, you know, at least not disastrously spiral out of control. Either way, Im going off to explore the stars with my girlfriend, and if something goes wrong again, I just hope that people know what to do. They should. No matter what the System throws at people, someone should be in a position to do something about it. Nowadays, humanity is spread all over the gxy, or at least enoughs that no singr disaster can wipe us out. But that doesnt mean that we no longer need to be careful. Like I said, use your head as something other than a battering ram, and dont do anything stupid. The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!