Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 61: Let’s play

Isaac sighed in relief as he tossed the formal shirt into the empty room that would soon become an office, then put on a regular t-shirt. That place was completely clean thanks to Patrick’s efforts and was well clear of anywhere blood and other fluids were being tossed around, making it a good place to store all the borrowed outfits.

“Hey look, we got another one!” Bishop called from the summoning room. He’d ended up staying behind instead of joining everyone at the press conference and Patrick, while he had gone, had also returned rather quickly along with Chandler once it was clear that things hadn’t gone horribly wrong, nor was there much of a risk of disaster occurring during the questionnaire.

And apparently, those three had managed to take down a third Skalli, all on their own. The method was starkly apparent on the body, both through the damage inflicted and the traces of magic detectable by [Hunter’s Gaze].

Slivers of the wood retrieved from the Bonfire Golem, mystical in nature, infused with the venom of the Uraeus Serpent, the toxic liquid that burned with the fury of a star yet somehow flowed smoothly into the very flammable substance, properly stabilized by an [Alchemist’s ] [Skill].

Not much had been used, the attack kept well below the threshold where it would be considered an environmental attack, but still enough to wreak havoc on the wolf’s system, razor-sharp shards flung by telekinetic force tore through its fur and the flesh below, burning into it and leaving behind scorched muscle and skin, fully infused with necrotizing venom. And then, a pair of additional [Skills] had hit it, enhancing both the quantity and quality of the toxic liquid.

And all of that had just been the opening attack. Its lower jaw was in ruins, bent and twisted as if it had been caught up in the wolf’s own ‘black hole that isn’t a true singularity’. This would have been weird … if it hadn’t been for the crossbow bolt stuck in the back of its mouth, off to the side and a couple of centimeters behind the last molar, twisted in the manner characteristic of something that had flown through the mess of twisted gravity that was the pseudo-singularity.

Meanwhile, the numerous scrapes on its body and the painful looking bruises on its forelimbs coupled with the stone blocks that had risen from the ground showed how badly it had been tripped up by an Earth-shaping [Skill], one suspiciously similar to Karl’s, but the [Magineer] hadn’t been. A [System Researcher’s] cheat-Tier copying [Skill] at work, no doubt.

Those three had taken all the knowledge gained from just two fights against this kind of enemy, found weaknesses, and exploited them ruthlessly. A basic attack that used a not-insignificant amount of Event-materials in the form of venom and mystically charged wood to weaken it, rock walls raised barely high enough to trip it up, but still high enough that the wolf had to jump over it to avoid falling flat on its face, timed perfectly to make it hard to actually manage the jump.

Already burning, poisoned and now lying on the floor, the wolf had engaged its special ability to try and suck in some of the incoming spells, crossbow bolts and vials of nasty alchemical brews. And then some kind of spellbreaker bolt had hammered clean through the ball of darkness. It was slightly thrown of its original trajectory so it didn’t end up flying down its gullet, but the black hole must have lost containment, ripping apart its wielder’s flesh.

It was a surprising sight, but not nearly as surprising as it would have been if Isaac hadn’t known about Bishop’s [Class]. The older man had a rare Evolution of [Hunter], either [Monster Hunter] or something with similar [Skills] and purpose, but a different name. Not just a combat [Class] that lent itself to killing monsters, ‘hunting’ them, but an actual [Class] tailor made to bringing down monsters of myth and legend.

Isaac might not have had access to the man’s character sheet, but he didn’t have to in order to know what kinds of [Skills] he had access to. Tracking, analysis, projectile enhancement, tool enhancement, and the kind that had been used here. The kind that could counter a beast’s magical abilities, if the Level difference wasn’t too great and the user knew what he was up against, which Bishop had known perfectly well in this situation.

Overall, those three had put their knowledge to devastating use, hitting weaknesses, countering trump cards, reacting to attacks impossibly fast because they’d predicted them. Real monsters might not have had the set attacks and movement patterns of their video game counterparts, the kind one could memorize and then dance around final bosses and tear them to shreds with nary a scratch, but there were certain patterns that one could pay attention to. The way Skalli’s jaws opened impossibly wide to project the black hole, how it lifted its legs to run, what it preferred to go after if aggroed off the summoner … all of that could be figured out and used against it.

“So, who’s getting the pelt?” Isaac asked.

“We were thinking Patrick.” Bishop replied “Figured a few more points towards physical ability wouldn’t go amiss.”

The professor was currently in full beast mode, faint wolfish features visible all over his body.

“And then we can get one for everyone else who wants one. A proper piece of soulbound gear usually doesn’t go amiss. How about it, Mr. Siegel?”

“No thank you.” Karl called back “I’ve already got one.”

“Oh, do tell.” Bishop asked, eyebrow raised, so Karl withdrew a large wrench from a pocket, which was weird. It was too large to have fit in there without its outline showing, but Isaac’s ability to see magic revealed the truth quite handily.

“It’s called [Any Tool, Anytime, Anywhere]. The name is a bit silly, but it also sums it up pretty well.” Karl said as the wrench shifted into a glob of silver somewhere between a baseball and basketball in size, then condensed into a hammer, strange looking as one made from a uniform metal was “I can turn it into anything I can picture decently well in my head, but it can’t get any bigger than this blob. Smaller is possible, but bigger isn’t. And I couldn’t wish for a better soulbond.”

“Can it turn into a weapon? Say, a gun?” Bishop asked.

“Weapons are fine as well, anything within the size limit goes as long as there aren’t too many pieces, but it has to be all metal, though parts of it can be altered to gain unusual attributes, like elasticity, not being conductive to electricity, all to a degree not possible within the bounds of non-magical science. For example, I made a voltmeter.

Guns are … tricky. Modern guns are too complicated, have too many pieces, for me to create in their entirety. I’ve been sticking to things like flintlocks and blunderbusses, but those aren’t really useful, my earth magic is better.”

“Why don’t flintlocks work?” Patrick asked.

“They work, but they’re a pain in the ass to load.” Karl explained.

“How well can you control the shifting?” Isaac asked “Can you pull outside objects into the mass and them place them in a specific place?”

“Ye …” Karl facepalmed “Just stick a bunch of bullets in my pocket and then mold a basic gun around it.”

“’From the mouths of babes’.” Chandler muttered softly, though still loud enough for everyone in the room to hear, and then raised his voice “I think we could all stand to listen to some outside advice where it comes to the [System]. We’ve all got preconceived notions based on our past experiences and fields of study, but we’re studying an entirely new phenomenon here, something we knew nothing about until less than two months ago. We all almost certainly have massive blindspots that someone else can get past in moments.”

Isaac snorted softy “Yeah, found that out the hard way.”

Then, he turned to Karl “But why limit yourself to using normal bullets? What if you stick with the flintlock model, having it place the gunpowder in the back of the barrel, and then you can put all sorts of fun stuff in front of it. There are countless mystical materials available that pack one hell of a punch even before you consider what an [Alchemist] or similar [Class] can refine them into.”

“As interesting as this is, I think we should be very careful about blowing up magical materials with gunpowder. I’m sure we can get a firing range properly set up to contain all conceivable outcomes, but until then, we won’t try that out.” Bailey interrupted, clapping his hands to draw attention “Regardless, the Event will end tonight, so we’ll need be done with all the experiments we want to do by then. So, questions, suggestions, ideas?”

“Food, maybe? Coffee too?” Karl suggested “We’ll be here a while and if we arrange to have it brought to us now, it’ll be available when we need it later.”

“Now, I don’t know about coffee, but we do have a pile of steaks in the storage room. Does anyone know where the ‘uncursed’ part of the name comes back, though?” Amy suggested.

“Actually, I do. It’s from the Odyssey. Odysseus and his men landed at an island covered in cows, Helios' sacred cattle, which you couldn’t eat without being cursed. Of course, the hungry sailor’s ignored the warnings and ate one. It’s been forever since I’ve read the Odyssey so I don’t remember what exactly happened, but it was either something involving the wrath of the sea, the uneaten remains moving and scaring the hell out of people, or both.” Isaac explained.

“The real question is if this is something along the lines of ‘this stuff isn’t bad for you, wink, wink’ or a genuine attempt to show that it is, in fact, safe, and simply translated poorly.” Patrick commented.

The latter was actually a very possible scenario. The [System] always showed up in your mother tongue, though you could easily switch it to any language you knew. Isaac’s, for example, was in English. After all, it was the language of science, and the [System] might translate something a little differently than he would. By having it show up for him in the language he’d be communicating with people in, he kept the number of possible miscommunications to an absolute minimum.

“Honestly, I think it’s just very badly phrased. How else would you put it? ‘Apollo’s definitely not cursed Cattle’? ‘The Cattle that isn’t cursed the way it is in the stories’?” Isaac asked “Besides, even with all the nastiness that has come from the [System], it hasn’t lied yet. And even if it does turn out to be a trap, if it even lies once, people will stop believing it. Also, my [Alchemy] [Skill] isn’t showing it to be as anything other than food.”

“[Alchemy] [Skill]?” Chandler asked.

“It showed up as a [General Skill] when I tried combining some monster materials. It gives me some basic information and help, but claiming to be an [Alchemist] because of it would be like someone who fix a rip in their shirt claiming to be a tailor.” Isaac explained “But do your [Skills] show something else?”

“Nah, it just looks tasty. I don’t suppose there’s a kitchen in here?” Chandler asked.

“No, but I’d love to demonstrate to everyone why I threw out my microwave.” Amy announced, striding forward while everyone else was still trying to parse out what she’d just said. The stark red cow had turned into a pile of thick cut steaks upon death and she levitated one of them over to her, cast a quick spell to clean off the surface. A prudent measure, given that she’d gotten it from one of the specimen boxes.

Finally, a heat haze appeared between her hands, penetrating the steak that hung in between them.

“What exactly are you doing?” Patrick asked, frowning hard “Fifty degrees is nowhere near hot enough to cook a steak.”

Chandler chuckled softly “That’s because she isn’t cooking it, she’s Sous-Videing it. Bringing its temperature up to 54 degrees Celsius and holding it there, creating what amounts to the center of a perfectly made steak throughout it in its entirety. Then all you have to do is sear the outside for a brief moment. It’s the lazy way for an unskilled chef to create a perfect steak that wouldn’t look out of place in a Michelin Star restaurant. Now normally, this would take hours, but magic can yank the core temperature up to what’s required and hold it there, instead of the heat simply propagating throughout. Or am I completely wrong about this, Ms. Shaw?”

“You’re absolutely correct.” Amy flashed him a grin “A fellow lazy cook, then? Anyway, time for the grand finale.”

Twin disks of fire manifested, one on either side of the steak, and slammed into it with a loud sizzle. They vanished a few seconds later, the mouthwatering smell of cooked steak filling the air. Another gesture, and the steak fell apart into cubes, which were then sent flying throughout the room. Isaac snatched one flying towards him out of the air and popped it into his mouth. It was delicious, utterly perfect, beyond any mundane steak he’d ever eaten. If you knew which monsters to kill, you could create foods beyond what could be achieved by mundane means, though most of those were only available in the higher Tiers.

The others echoed the sentiment, making appreciative comments.

“Alright, this stuff is excellent, but I think I’d rather eat off a plate.” Bailey commented “Karl, could you come with me to go grab some cutlery? Amy, if you would be so kind as to teach that trick to the others who can pull it off?”

They both nodded, and the group split apart. Chandler and Bishop started talking in one corner, Amy was instructing Raul and Patrick while standing over the pile of steaks in another one, leaving Isaac on his own, listening in on everything going on around him.

“… but the big limitation to what I can create is my equipment. Some of the things I deal with now are dangerous due to being somewhat explosive, but others simply leak mystical energies that need to be contained using similarly mystical means. I’ve got the [Skills] to compensate for that somehow, but they really need properly made glass with inherent resistances of its own to work with. I don’t suppose you know any high-Level glassblowers?” Chandler asked.

“I’m afraid I’m in the same boat. Crossbow arms break, strings snap, arrows shatter midflight. I don’t have the mana to infuse my weapons for every shot, but if I don’t, they break pretty quickly. People actively using magical materials or summoning simply need tougher equipment, but they’ve levelled far faster than the various craftsmen whose [Skills] could make said equipment.” Bishop sighed.

“In hindsight, I should have aimed for a [Class] with a soulbound weapon that automatically repairs itself, or maybe something with magic, because [Mages] don’t need weapons.”

Isaac waited for that conversation to continue for a short while, then slowly ambled over.

“I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation, but I believe I have a solution.”

That hadn’t even been a lie. They all had excellent senses, and while they could be limited to the level of a normal human, as Isaac often did with his sense of smell, for obvious reasons, doing so felt like giving up a piece of yourself, like physically removing part of the relevant sensory organ. Only semi-permanent reductions that were used for a long time felt alright.

It was simply more comfortable and expedient to keep the senses where they were, and try to not listen in on every conversation happening nearby. You’d still catch the occasional snippet, but it was far less intrusive than one could be with this level of Perception.

“Oh, do tell.” Chandler said skeptically.

“It’s simple. Powerlevel craftsmen. Give them rare materials from powerful monsters that they can’t handle yet and have them try anyway. You’ll lose a lot of valuable materials, but the gain in [Skill] Levels is incredible. Throw in a few of the right Aspects and you’ll have someone who can make anything you could possibly need in no time. That’s what I’ve been doing and already seen.” Isaac explained.

“Sounds expensive.” Chandler commented “Expensive and risky. I’m guessing you’ve got some kind of contract to keep your craftsman from running off with everything you helped him gain?”

“Of course I did.” Isaac nodded “But it isn’t that expensive when you get the materials yourself.”

“I don’t suppose I could see some examples?” Bishop asked.

“I’ve got a titanium Zweihänder, forged from the bones of The Crusher, but that’s still back at my place. There are some throwing knives made by my blacksmith here, but they’re locked away in the dimensional storage and Bailey is the only one who can access it, so we’ll have to wait a bit.” Isaac explained.

“I see. That’s useful, but what I really need is laboratory glassware, you wouldn’t happen to know a glassblower?” Chandler asked.

“No, but I think Mr. Stagmer should be able to manage glassware with few issues. I got him an Aspect of the Forge Golem, and one of the [Skills] it grants allows the user to control molten materials. Not all liquids, mind you, but things that are solid at room temperature and need a level of heat that would burn humans to ash to liquefy. He mostly uses it for metal, but I don’t see a reason it shouldn’t work on glass. His material reinforcement [Skills] are intended to work with rigid materials, like metal, but I’m sure it’ll work with glass. And even if they don’t, he’s constantly recruiting new people to join him in building the world’s first crafter’s guild.” Isaac proudly explained.

“Huh. That certainly sounds like impressive work, Mr. Thoma. I’d like to see his ‘crafter’s guild’, though.” Chandler said.

“Oh, that can certainly be arranged, but it will have to wait until tomorrow, I’d like to get as much work out of today as possible.” Isaac said.

“That’s certainly something I can appreciate. That Uraeus venom is one of the most useful liquids I’ve encountered to date and I’ll try to arrange for the collection of as much as possible until the end of the Event, I’d just like to see the rest of what Professor Bailey’s team can come up with.”

“Now, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a bit to find out what other crazy shit we decide to try, but I think I can help on the ‘get as much venom as possible’ front. I can take care of a dozen snakes at the same time, all I’d need is them to actually be summoned. If we carve the circles into the ground of one of the other summoning rooms, then have people come in and charge them, lock the door with me inside and summon them. I’ll cut apart the snakes with a single [Far Strike], collect the vials of venom, rinse and repeat.” Isaac suggested.

“That can certainly be arranged.” Chandler nodded.

“Actually, I had another idea with regards to the crafters.” Isaac added “This place was built by countless people with their [Skills] focused on creating durable buildings, something that would be incredibly useful to have as a crafter. So my suggestion is pretty simple: try to bind the construction company to us, making it so we have first crack at hiring them, and in exchange, we could powerlevel them, and give them Aspects. I’ve certainly got quite a few Golem ones lying around.”

Chandler chuckled softly “You’ve got objects worth several hundred thousand and possibly millions of euros just … lying around?”

“They aren’t scattered all over the floor, if that’s what you’re asking about.” Isaac replied dryly “They’re safely stored in a pocket dimension. But yes, I do have them on hand.”

He might have been running out of most normal Aspects, like the various Elementals, but the ones belonging to his favorite punching bags he still had in abundance.

In essence, there were two ways of getting Aspects in a reasonable amount of time. The first was the more risky one, given that it involved fighting monsters well above your own Level. But up until Level 30, every Level a monster had one you increased the Aspect drop chance by a whopping 5%. So if you killed a bunch of Level 6+ Specters at Level one …

Point was, Isaac had killed a fuckton of Specters after returning from the other timeline, massacred Wraiths after getting the Kriegsmesser and slaughtered the various Rock Golems using the Zweihänder after receiving it, all while having a 4+ Level difference, so he’d ended up with a metric crapton of them.

Some had gone to the team, others sold both to Calise and on legitimate markets, and even others he’d fed to various familars like Raul’s microraptor and the Erica Heisterkamp’s eldritch monstrosity, Princess.

But even so, he’d hit the max with each of those monsters while well below their Level and plenty of them were still left.

“You keep mentioning pocket dimensions, where did you get them?” Chandler asked.

“The Realms section of the summoning system.” Isaac said “You’ll need a Lesser Space Elemental Core, though, and those monsters are nearly impossible to defeat without a very specialized skillset. I had some, but I gave almost all of them to Professor Bailey, and the ones I kept, I need to remotely access my space in case of emergency. You’ll either have to ask Bailey if he can spare some, or I can give you some in a few days when I’ve had the chance to get some more.”

“I think a few days wait won’t be an issue.” Chandler replied “Professor Bailey needs them as much as I do. But if it’ll help speed things along, I can pay above market rates for those cores.”

“Thank you, that’s very generous.” Isaac nodded “But there isn’t really a market price for those, given that no-one is selling them yet. Regardless, I’d prefer something a little more quid-pro-quo. We’re all here to discover the intricacies of the [System] and all the threats it hides. I’d much rather gain a steadfast ally than some cold, hard cash.”

Chandler chuckled softly “That’s a very enlightened attitude you have there. We can certainly do that. Mind you, I haven’t been able to create proper potions yet, which my students tell me are a staple of alchemy in the games this [System] seems to be based on.”

“You were able to create magical weapons from Event materials mere hours after gaining access to them. I don’t doubt that you’ll find something useful.” Isaac replied.

They continued to talk like that for a bit, with Bishop occasionally asking questions, until Bailey returned. The professor set down a box of various dishes and walked over to Isaac.

“When is the last time you talked to your mother?”

Welp, that had come out of nowhere.

“What makes you ask that?” Isaac asked, his own heartbeat pounding in his ear.

“I was approached by a very irate woman on the way back. Well, she didn’t actually yell at me, she was perfectly polite, but she was also very, very pissed off. She said that her son dropped off the face of the Earth, left his apartment, she couldn’t get him on the phone and then he showed up in the news as a member of my team. Sound familiar? I didn’t tell her where you were, you deserve your privacy, but if that is your mother, you should probably go talk to her.

“… Isaac?”