Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 22: The reward for a job well done …

“First of all, Polizeirätin Eisenberg sends her regards.” Bailey announced into the meeting room, sporting a wide grin on his face “Tonight, our research into the tracking capabilities of summoned monsters saved lives. Also, we’ve been asked to be available to support the police where monsters are concerned. Mind you, no one expects you to fight unless you want to, they’re just looking for a little academic help. If anyone doesn’t want that, just tell me and I’ll make sure to exclude you from the list.”

“What exactly happened?” Amy asked.

“Some drunk idiot summoned a Swamp Knight and it nearly killed me, then someone lit it on fire, and it dropped dead.” Isaac said, succinctly.

“Wait, you know it was a Swamp Knight? How?” Bailey exclaimed.

“Kill notification.” Isaac shrugged “Why?”

“Because It took me finding a very amphibian specific part of its heart combined with the fact that it came out of a Tier 4 circle to identify it. Knowing what it was would have been great.” Bailey told him, giving Isaac a sharp look.

“But you did find out it was a Swamp Knight, right?” Isaac asked “Identifying a monster based on just a crispy corpse should have been difficult, but you managed. I think that’s pretty impressive.”

“Thank you.” Bailey grinned proudly “But the fact that a kill notice reveals the name makes that kinda useless, don’t you think?”

“Monsters get free and or their bodies get left lying around and rotting. Being able to identify them without being the summoner or killer will be an incredibly useful [Skill].” Raul told him.

“… if I grab a bunch of knowledgeable people and ask them to identify bodies, golems for geologists, animals for the zoologists, and so on, and so forth, that could be useful.” Bailey grinned widely, then continued rambling.

Isaac would have grinned just as widely, if he hadn’t been deliberately suppressing the expression.

The simple idea of learning to identify creatures based on just their looks and summoning tier would eventually lead to learning to rapidly identify a monster’s traits and weaknesses, an invaluable skill.

And best of all, Isaac hadn’t even been trying to lead Bailey down that path of research, it had just happened that way. It was reassuring to see that research would rapidly continue even without his prompting. He’d known that Bailey was incredibly smart and talented, but seeing it was a whole other thing.

He just hoped the man wouldn’t burn out. After all, he was loading himself down with a whole lot of projects at the moment. And as it turned out, he wasn’t the only one who thought like that.

“Are you sure you can handle all that?” Patrick asked “Not to be rude, but it seems you’ve got a lot planned.”

“I do, but I’m going to do this just as I normally would, one task at a time.” Bailey grinned “We’ll finish the test on how the [System] defines things like toxin or acid, next we check out how easy it is to identify a monster based on its physical appearance and then we’re going to go ahead and check out something else. Maybe we’ll check what happens if a creature gets summoned into an area that instantly kills it.”

And that was what they did. Karl had taken the time to build some kind of sledgehammer crossed with a guillotine style contraption that would pulverize a Slate Golem the instant it got summoned onto the trigger. At least in theory.

Would you like to activate the summoning circle and summon [Slate Golem]?

“Yep.” Karl grinned, clearly eager to see his invention in action.

The Golem manifested in the usual cloud of slate dust … and promptly burst apart in a shower of rock shards that Isaac could already tell would be a bitch to clean up.

“Well, that happened.” Karl said, staring off into nothingness.

“You have got to realize we can’t see your [System] prompts unless you share them with us, right?” Patrick groaned.

[Slate Golem] has been killed by Environmental Hazard [Sledgehammer Trap]. All XP has been lost, all possible Aspects removed.

“And there goes that idea.” Patrick grumbled, then proceeded to swear under his breath.

“Not necessarily, there might be a way around that.” Bailey cautioned, then proceeded to furiously scribble on his sketchpad for a few seconds.

Once again, the list of things to do increased in size by an obscene amount. The answer was pretty simple, yet also incredibly complicated. The monsters needed to be able to move at least a little before dying, appearing on top of a landmine or, as just proven, a trap, would cost you almost all of the benefits its death might bestow. No XP and no chance at getting an Aspect, just a handful of materials.

If you wanted to actually get XP and all that, the monster needed to end up in the trap normally, the way it might if it were a free monster, roaming through the world. There would be a bit of leeway given to [Classes] built around trapmaking, but not much. Things were pretty simple like that, but this was where it got complicated.

Simply vaporizing the area a monster was summoned into using artillery or something like that still counted as an environmental hazard, at least most of the time. That depended on how strong the blast was in comparison to the power of the creature.

During the last days of organized resistance in the other timeline, that had been proven rather spectacularly by the American Military. Said information had then been sent to everyone else who would listen in the hope that someone else would be able to make use of it.

In essence, two extremely powerful [Raid Bosses] with extraordinary defensive powers called Fortress Tarasques had been summoned on United States soil. Their defensive power was so great, in fact, that no one had been able to really defeat it without gathering every elite on the continent to face just one of them.

The first had been decently well placed so that a team of special forces had been able to sneak a tactical nuclear warhead with a yield of around ten kilotons into its path and blow it sky high, getting the XP for the kill in the process.

The second had been called into the now desolate wastelands of Nevada, which was populated by a rather alarming number of Royal Wyverns at the time, making traveling there quite dangerous. Therefore, the decision had been made to launch a trident nuclear missile with W88 warhead attached, hoping that its sheer power would kill the monster before it summoned more of its kind even in the event of a miss. But when the missile killed the monster, the [System] reported it had died at the hands of the Environmental Hazard [Nuclear Explosion].

But if things went well, no one would ever have to figure any of that out because Isaac managed to avert the course of history and no one felt sufficiently pressured to lob around nuclear warheads.

“That could be interesting. Do you already have a plan?” Raul asked.

“Not yet, I’m going to write one up while you guys handle the rest of the summoning material definition.”

“I actually have a suggestion about that. I’ve been playing hatchet man for a while now and it’s been working, but I don’t know if that will keep working forever. I think it might be a good thing if everyone else gained a few levels as well. And even if we learned nothing else yesterday , we know that Acid Slimes are pretty handleable. What I’m suggesting is that we all start killing monsters, working our way up through the levels. If nothing else, getting a few more points in Fortitude will let you get away with a hell of a lot less sleep.” Isaac said.

“We know I can take these things pretty well, and that they are very vulnerable to any kind of hit to their central nucleus. You guys can take them, I know that. And if there is ever a problem, I’ll be right there. Now, what are everyone’s [Classes]?” he continued, giving them a winning smile.

“Well, I’m a [Healer], though I haven’t actively used any of my [Skills] so far. They’re mostly focused on fixing up injuries, but the medical consensus is to not rely on those until they’re determined to be safe.” Bailey said “I think levelling could be useful, but I’ll still wait to use magical healing until it’s determined to be safe. At least barring an emergency.”

“I’m a [Researcher]. Seemed like the natural choice when the [System] suggested it.” Patrick said, shrugging.

“Well, I’m a [Mage]. Got called a [Researcher] as well, but I wanted magic.” Amy added, shooting a look in Patrick’s direction.

“You already know I’m a [Ranger].” Raul commented succinctly “Basically supernatural wilderness survival, tracking and hunting.”

“Like you all know, I’m a [Geomancer], but I focus on structural analysis and repair, I don’t have anything offensive.” Karl said. It made sense, after all, his [Class] had access to plenty of attack [Skills], but he had indicated precisely zero capability to kill monsters on his own.

“Sounds like those could be incredibly useful with a few more [Skills].” Isaac commented, then turned to stare directly at Bailey “I don’t suppose we’re free to try and get some?”

So that was what they did for the rest of the day. Summon slimes and killing them, with Isaac keeping a watchful eye over everything.

The Acid Slimes were actually rather easy to kill, dying to just a single hit, but they still gave plenty of XP. Why? Well, they were wicked dangerous and them merely popping would result in the caustic liquid that they were made up from to slop over their slayer’s feet. The only reason that wasn’t an issue here were the boxes lined with acidproof material that covered the floor.

Patrick was actually not participating all that much, spending most of his time in the storage room, doing necropsies. He only occasionally showed up to ask for another specimen in cases where a certain organ of interest had ended up mangled.

Bailey, meanwhile, split his time between writing up experiments, interpreting data and writing the result into the beginnings of another paper, only occasionally dropping by the summoning and storage rooms.

Things were progressing well … until Isaac hit the limit with Slimes where XP gains were concerned.

At that point, the very concept of only being able to gain a limited amount of experience from a certain creature had only just been introduced and now Bailey wanted to check out that on top of everything else.

Experiments were altered slightly, everyone was asked to keep a log of all their kills and the Level they had at the time, and so on, and so forth.

To Isaac, it seemed like Bailey had heard the saying about killing two birds with one stone and decided to interpret it as having to try to take out an entire flock with a pebble.

But they were still doing what they’d been doing all day, only occasionally straying from summoning slimes to get a specific something that Patrick needed.

By the time evening rolled around, everyone else had at least hit Level 1, and in Amy’s case, Level 2. Bailey had suggested they sleep on what [Skills] to select and they’d agreed to put off grabbing new ones until Monday. By then, everyone could think about where they wanted to go, build wise.

“Ok, so see everyone Monday.” Isaac waved “And if you need me in the lab, don’t be afraid to call, I’d love to help out. Worst I can say is that I have no time or am too drunk to be allowed near monsters.”

Once everyone else had also said their goodbyes, he practically fled from the building, glad to finally have an uninterrupted 48 hours of time to himself.

He also knew that some of his colleagues, Bailey and Patrick especially, would likely be working over the weekend. But that work would mostly consist of consolidating what they’d learned and clearing up the backlog of monster bodies awaiting study and properly cataloging every scrap of data, neither of which were things he was needed for.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Rogue

Species: Human

Level: 2

XP: 411/300

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 22 /120

Stats

Fortitude

17

Perception

16

Strength

12

Agility

16

Magic Power

12

Magic Regeneration

17

Free Points: 0 Stat, 3 Skill

Skills

Hundred Faces III

Stealth III

Power Strike IX

Piercing Strike X

Sundering Strike VI

Knives XI

Sneak VIII

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra

Hydra’s Regeneration

A thought flicked open his Status Screen. He’d gained enough XP to increase his Level once again, as well as a Level in [Knives] and [Piercing Strike].

The former was useful, but the latter was invaluable.

Piercing Strike (common, Level X)

Users weapon is covered with energy, increasing its ability to penetrate armor. This effect lasts for a single strike. Should the weapon in question be stuck within an opponent, the effect will last for .5 sec, allowing for removal of weapon or further cutting.

In addition, it may now be used in ways beyond the original description, lingering on weapons after use, refining them, and being able to be combined with other Skills.

Cost: 10 mana per strike

First of all, any use of that particular [Skill] would refine the weapon it was used with, sharpening it and repairing any small damage to the edge. The second new power however …

Manifold Strike (common)

The user may combine any number of [-Strike] type Skills into a single attack, so long as there is one Skill with a minimum Level of X available for each Skill used below that Level.

Cost: Combined cost of individual Skills * 1.25^used Skills

[Manifold Strike] had been a large part of his future build, allowing him to combine all the various [Skills] that directly empowered his blade into a single, massive hit.

Or just combine [Piercing Strike] and [Sundering Strike] into a single hit in situations where his tactic of ‘stick ‘em with the knife and pulse [Sundering Strike] until they fall apart’ just wasn’t viable.

Lastly, his often neglected [Skills] that increased the reach of his blade could now be infused with others that massively increased their offensive power, making them truly useful.

The only issue with that [Skill] was that the mana costs increased exponentially with every extra [Skill], not additively, and therefore reached exorbitant heights rather quickly.

Then again, a combination of every [-Strike] type [Skill] he had was more of a finishing move than something he’d use regularly and those were never cheap.

As far as the combat log Bailey wanted everyone to keep went, he’d just fudge the numbers. After all, Isaacalready knew the formula and could adjust it to keep any fights he didn’t want to become public record out of it.

Basically, you could kill a maximum of 100 creatures of each Tier, from each category. Once you hit that number in one category, the threshold in the others would be slightly lowered for the others. And when you hit it elsewhere, it would drop even further for all remaining categories. That would then continue all the way until you ran out of things to kill.

At least that was what the initial experiments would show, the ones conducted with only Tier 1 and 2 creatures, possibly a smattering of Tier 3.

But when you reached Tiers 4 to 6, that number cut in half, then again for 7 to 9.

Finally, once you hit Tier 10, you’d only be able to kill 10 of each species before they stopped giving you anything, but that limit stayed in place and didn’t lower.

Then there was a whole other method of calculation needed to figure out how things worked surrounding [Raid Bosses] and even the [World Bosses] that the Summoning System contained. But Isaac only knew they existed, he’d never actually seen one.

All of that was something he’d deal with on Monday. Working here was important for a whole host of reasons and he liked his coworkers, but ‘discovering’ all the knowledge he was already aware of was hardly the most stimulating use of his time.

A glance at his cellphone showed that he’d gotten an email he’d been waiting for, but it wasn’t good news. He’d been trying to see if he could rent a cabin somewhere out in the woods since he’d gotten the money from Calise, so he had somewhere to store the monsters’ bodies, but he’d just gotten the final rejection.

Isaac sighed and began to type out an email to Raul, asking if he knew anyone who had a suitable property available for rent. Then, after a brief moment of thought, he sent it off to Professor Bishop as well. He might not have the same relationship with the older professor as he had with Bailey, but then again, Bishop seemed a lot more willing to let him do things that were a little more … risky.

He could still do without one, but having a place to process and store important or valuable loot until a proper market could be established would be invaluable. Sadly, a lot of that stuff wasn’t the kind of thing Calise would necessarily be interested in, and that was ignoring the difficulty of transporting anything bulky across two borders on a train.

If he could get his hands on a nice log cabin to cure hides in, make some interesting leather, that could let him show off some of the more impressive gear one could make even without having a proper Crafting [Class].

Then, he decided to send another message to Samuel, though he doubted much would come of it. The entire frat was in very hot water at the moment and getting involved in any kind of summoning, however indirectly, would just make that worse.

He dropped the contents of his backpack into his apartment and then rushed off to get to the various shops before they closed.

His first stop was a chemical supply warehouse that sold, among other things, glass infused with bohrium, making it incredibly resistant to most acids. Hydrofluoric Acid would do one hell of a number on it regardless, but as Isaac understood it, there was a chemical reaction happening there that was entirely separate from the fact that that stuff was an acid.

Regardless of those random factoids he’d overheard at some point in his life, he knew that these things would suffice for what he had in mind.

He left that store with a series of normal beakers and six large, thick walled bottles with a glass stopper, which in turn would be held in place by a screw on plastic top.

From there, he went to a place the old him would have probably just rolled his eyes at. A typical, cliché new age shop. Before he entered, however, he changed his face using [Hundred Faces]. Isaac sincerely doubted that someone would use this place to track him down or that it even had any cameras, but he was about to buy a whole lot of things that would soon become as dangerous as military grade explosives.

“Welcome to the Sternenkreis, how can I help you?” a young man greeted Isaac the moment he was through the door.

The man’s looks were, in so many words, those of a hippy. Isaac was aware of the fact that he was probably stereotyping in all sorts of ways, but literally all he could think about when seeing him was ‘hippy’, complete with long hair, headband and colorful clothing.

“There are some things I’d like to buy. Hold on, I made a list.” Isaac said as he dug through his pocket to find it.

“Ah yes, I need several different kinds of crystals, any kind of crystal ball at least this big” he said, indicating the size with his hands “and some incense, though I want to check on the exact kinds first.”

“We should have most of that, depending on what’s on the list. Can I see that for a second?” the young man asked, looked it over and nodded “Yeah, we have this stuff. Be right back.”

As the employee bustled off into the back of the store, Isaac walked over to the wall holding the various kinds of incense and started sniffing them.

Ah, this brought back memories. All of these crystals had magical properties. Supposedly. Isaac knew that was BS. He also knew how to make it so it wasn’t BS. Healing crystals, magical single use effects, underwater breathing charms, incense based wards that could deter weaker monsters … just a whole lot of useful tricks. And then there were all the nasties he could call into this worlds with these materials …

In summation, given just a few more points towards his maximum mana and these supplies could have been used to destroy the city.

“Will that be all?” the young man asked as he placed a large pile of stuff on the counter.

“Actually, I’ll take one of those trees as well.” Isaac said, gesturing to the wall behind it. They were pretty little things, maybe the size of a football all told, a tree of brass stem and branches, atop a hill of clear crystal, leaves made up of dark onyx or obsidian completing the look of a bodhi tree formed entirely out of metal and stone. Well, there were ones with all sorts of different leaves, but Isaac wanted that one. They didn’t have any special powers or were particularly responsive to enchanting either, not that Isaac was all that good at it. He just thought they were neat.

“So that’ll be the one with the onyx leaves, then?” the employee asked, following Isaac’s gaze.

“Yes.”

“Alright, that’ll be 2307.01 €. Big renovation or style change?” the employee asked.

Isaac gulped a little at the price, but paid, putting twenty-four 100 € bills on the table. This was a far larger amount than he’d normally pay in cash, he had a lot more lying around than he usual did.

“Not really, just had a bit of a perspective change and now I’m stocking up.” Isaac gave him a slight smile “I don’t suppose you sell bags that can hold this stuff?”

After all, his backpack was already filled with glasses that were unlikely to survive having a bunch of crystals, some heavy, placed on top of them.

Isaac left that shop with a big grin on his face.

Lastly, he just dropped by a corner store and bought some basic stuff and a few cereal bars for the road.

Once he’d put all of the stuff he wouldn’t immediately need into his apartment, Isaac just took the bus out into the middle of nowhere.

Of course, this wasn’t ancient, true wilderness, given that Germany was a very populated nation, but still well clear of anyone who might randomly stumble across him.

Isaac got off at the last stop, far away from the city and even anywhere with street lighting.

It was dark here, but the stars overhead twinkled far more brightly than they did in the light pollution of the city. Of course, that also made it nigh impossible to see, but he had a solution for that.

Opening his Status, Isaac spent 300 XP to increase his Level, put three points into Magic Power to bring it up to the point where he could summon any creature up to Tier 3 and then dumped the remaining seven into Perception.

The world warped, shifted, twisted, his view of it going well beyond what any normal person could perceive, and then stabilized into a far more clear and brighter image.

As Isaac strode into the deep, dark forest with a backpack full of summoning supplies, a massive grin manifested on his face.