Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 91: Of all the things to be scared of …

Wednesday came and went, and nothing important or even remotely interesting happened. Their building was scanned from top to bottom to check for structural flaws or undermined areas, but there were none, simply because the summoning system was specifically designed to not tear apart things mankind found useful. After all, few things would have reduced people’s willingness to use it like their homes being torn apart with every summoning.

Isaac couldn’t really help with that, so he’d ended up relegated to busywork, getting a few extra samples where they were needed and helping clarify some things in various reports.

At least they’d managed to determine that summoning even a Hunting Ground didn’t endanger the building and they’d also gotten permission to summon them on university property so long as proper precautions were taken, so it wasn’t a complete waste of time, just boring and monotonous.

Today, though, today stood to potentially be a far worse experience, albeit in a very different way.

Isaac sighed as he walked into the [System]-research building, walked down the stairs and into his office. He’d put a Tier 3 summoning circle under his rug, so when he dropped a Lesser Space Elemental core onto it, he could immediately call his storage space here and anchor it at his place of work for the rest of the day. It had become a daily ritual for everyone a while back due to how easy they made both the retrieval of stored goods and cleanup, and he always did it, even though he probably wouldn’t be using it today.

Over in the nearest summoning room, someone was messing around with another Dark Forest hunting ground. Well, there had to be two of them, the new protocol Bailey had drawn up decreed that there had to always be an appropriately levelled person keeping watch on the outside, no matter how strong the person inside was.

Normally, he might have dropped by and joined them, but right now, he had to prepare for later.

Isaac quickly stripped out of the clothes he’d run here in, and switched them out for his ‘public appearance’ outfit.

An obvious option would have been a suit, but that would have looked overly formal in one of today’s lecture halls, nevermind while worn by a student.

A hundred years ago, sure, every professor had worn a suit, even Chemistry professors in the middle of doing experiments, something that Professor Chandler often made fun of.

Besides, this was his first ‘proper’ public appearance, not a blurry cellphone video of him fighting a Swamp Knight, not a two minute interview with a blogger in between fights during an Event, not a handful of statements to a reporter after he’d jumped out of a lake, but an extended period of him interacting with the public and being the main focus of attention. Therefore, it would not only set the tone for how he presented himself, it would also be somewhat off putting if he ended up wearing something totally different in the future and this outfit needed to be ‘him’.

A navy blue polo shirt and dark grey formal set of pants gave him a solid, nice to look at, semi-formal appearance. He could move in it, it wasn’t a major departure from his normal outfits and it didn’t make him look like a peacock.

He slipped a pair of leather bracers onto his wrists, far shorter than traditional ones meant to be used as armor but longer than typical fashion accessories, perfectly splitting the difference by looking nice while still being functional.

All in all, he was both prepared to fight but not aggressive, his outfit looking nice without lacking functionality.

He was currently getting a few similar outfits made from magical materials, but they weren’t ready yet, sadly.

Isaac sighed again as he sat down at his desk, summoned his laptop from storage and went over his presentation for the millionth time. Sure, he could be pretty good with individual people, but those were individuals, people he could get to know and adjust his approach to. Crowds, on the other hand? Blech.

The one upside was that his sensory [Aura] let him check his notes without anyone being the wiser.

Later, he wasn’t entirely by how much except that it wasn’t time for the presentation yet because his alarm hadn’t gone off, his focus was interrupted by a knock on the door.

“Come in.” Isaac called, spinning around in his swivel chair to face the newcomer.

“Hey Isaac, how are things? Would you like a little help going over your presentation?” Bailey asked.

“That obvious, huh?”

“Very.” Bailey nodded “You’re normally a boundless font of energy, practically bouncing off the walls when there’s nothing challenging to be done. But you haven’t so much as snuck a peak at the experiment next door all day. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s on your mind.”

“Damn, figured I was harder to read than that.” Isaac sighed for the third time “But yeah, someone to actually give me advice rather than doing the same thing over and over would be great.”

***

Two hours later, Isaac walked into the university’s Auditorium Maximum, a rather grandiose name that was usually shortened to ‘Audimax’ and referred to the largest lecture hall a university possessed. And mind you, it wasn’t the Audimax of the agricultural section well outside the city, but the one that belonged to the inner city, main campus, and it was huge. Two tiered seating, enough space for well over a thousand people and a sound system that would have put any cinema to shame.

As for the room itself, It. Was. Packed. The room had 1,200 seats available, but in most situations, not all of them were filled, with gaps between the various friendship groups and the like, but not today. Today, there was a butt in each and every available seat and people were sitting on the stairs or standing in doorways. In a sane world, this would have made for one hell of a fire hazard, but that was what magic was for. A lot of the people here were at a point where very few accidents or anything short of a deliberate attack would be able to threaten them.

And what an eclectic crowd it was. There were quite a few students from the university here, after all, completely closing off a university event from the students it was meant to teaching wasn’t a good idea from a PR-angle. But aside from them, the people in the audience were from every walk of life. ‘Professional summoners’, military personnel, law enforcement, but also politicians and journalists and a metric fuckton of academics from what seemed like all over the world.

These people had been here for a while, waiting for him, but Isaac had timed it so he arrived on stage two minutes before his lecture was meant to start to avoid having to stand there awkwardly, doing nothing but wait for the clock to keep ticking onwards.

If he’d had to set up his presentation himself, he’d have come sooner as he’d heard far too many horror stories from the professors about university tech acting up, but one of the IT staff had thankfully dealt with that. Few things made for a worse first impression than struggling with tech in front of over a thousand people while reassuring everyone that ‘it’ll be ready soon’.

A murmur passed through the audience as he stepped out onto the stage, people pointing him out to their neighbors despite them being just as able to see him.

There was a laptop on the lectern, already open and connected with both the lecture hall’s projector and a remote control that let him control the power point presentation without needing to be hunched over the laptop.

One click on the remote later, and the opening slide was projected onto the wall behind him. It simply read ‘[Aura]’.

“The [Aura]. In the past, people considered it to be the energetic emanations of a person, something one could read and then make deductions about them. At first glance, the real thing is nothing like that, but only at first glance.

“Which [Aura] a person chooses and how they wield it can, in fact, tell you a great deal about them. One’s emotions can even be sensed through one’s [Aura], confidence turning it into a solid wall while uncertainty can see it wavering, elation turning it into a exultation of happiness that thrums with power while fear sees it relent far more easily than it should.

“But at the end of the day, the choice of one’s [Aura] is where all of this beings. Each and every [Aura] offered, save the ones linked to Aspects, represents a part of you. Your goals, your personality, your greatest achievements and your [Classes].

“One option is to choose the [Aura] that appears to be the strongest, and while that is a viable way to go about this, going with your heart is what can truly show you the path to proper auric power.

“Most [Skills] are very much plug and play, you can buy them and then use them as advertised, but not [Auras]. They are a representation of the self and one’s willpower, and it is largely about feelings and emotions. An [Aura] you feel drawn to is an [Aura] that you can do great things with.

“Now, this brings me to the most important part of this lecture, and it is this: the [Aura] is the single most flexible and versatile power the [System] has bestowed to date. The attached description gives a decent starting point, but creativity and willpower can take it so much further.

“An [Aura] that’s about connection and more specifically, sticking together spells can be used to combine spells, but it can do so much more, ranging from acting as a chemical catalyst to gluing objects together.

“A combat [Aura] can be used to project weapons, yes, but it can also be used for mobility by using the weapons as platforms, or create a thin lattice of small objects at the edge of one’s [Aura] to detect anything that tries to sneak up on you.

“Another thing that should be noted about [Auras] is how their properties vary based on their range.

“To start with, the flexibility of an [Aura] increases with its range, where close-range combat [Auras] are locked into their basic shapes and long-range sensory [Auras] can be compressed to a single beam less than a millimeter across that reaches for kilometers …”

He continued on like that for close to an hour, going into details in occasion, but sticking to a general overview for the most part. The main point was ‘love your [Aura] and get creative with it’.

“And now, are there any questions?”

… Isaac really wished he could have avoided this part, because for a brief moment, it felt like each and every person in the room wanted to know something more. Many of the questions were just about asking for clarification, but some of them were things such as thinly veiled job offers or bribes, others were either the academic equivalent of ‘gotcha journalism’ or actual ‘gotcha journalism’, and so on, and so forth. He had answer for basically all of them, but that didn’t make it much better.

The battlefield might be a fiendishly complex place with countless moving parts and things you needed to keep in mind, there was a certain level of simplicity to it. You win or your opponent does, the methods don’t really matter. Here, he couldn’t really know whether he’d made the right choice or not, and wouldn’t for months or years, or if there had ever been a right choice in the first place.

And even after that, he wasn’t done yet.

The university’s Dean, Peter Kass, walked up to the podium, with a piece of stiff, formal paper in his hand, the kind one used for degrees and the like. Isaac didn’t even have to check it with his [Aura], as his Perception caught a reflection in a distant lightbulb, so he began send a message to Bailey in the first row of seating using auric morse code.

‘You sneaky bastard. Not bad.’

‘Yeah, hiding this from someone with your senses was a pain, but it was definitely worth it.’ Bailey sent back with a barely hidden smirk, getting up and joining Kass.

Several other people Isaac recognized as other university higher ups, though he’d never directly interacted with them, also joined the Dean.

“Mr. Thoma, in the name of the university, I would like to thank you for holding this lecture and your fantastic work discovering the principles, functions and uses of the [System] power known as [Aura]. In recognition of this achievement, it is my great honor and privilege to hereby bestow upon you the title of Doctor honoris causa.”

As the Dean continued to prattle on about this, both about how Isaac was a credit to his generation, but also slipping in university-aggrandizing statements, Isaac felt … well, he actually wasn’t sure how he felt.

On one hand, he felt good, he felt appreciated, even if this was also largely a PR stunt. On the other, this was something that had been sprung upon him and that soured the mood quite a lot. Someone had pulled something over on him, surprised him, and that was bloody terrifying. Sure, he’d been looking out for people trying to assassinate him, or kidnap him and squeeze him for information, not someone trying to give him an academic title, but still … he felt vulnerable. He didn’t like feeling vulnerable, in a fight, vulnerable was usually followed by dead.

But none of that showed on his face. [Hundred Faces] went on, and his expression stayed as that of someone trying to not look like a drooling idiot, overwhelmed with happiness, but only partially succeeding, happiness shining through the cracks in a stoic façade.

… and then the [Skill] levelled up, hitting 20 and evolving.

Hundred Faces (common, Level XX)

Ultimately, even the greatest criminal is unable to completely avoid being seen. But what is seen doesn’t have to be the user’s true face. This Skill allows the user to adjust their entire body, within reason, to allow for some degree of anonymity. This will not, however, affect the user’s physical capabilities.

After countless situations where this Skill has been used to hide the user’s true feelings it has evolved to act as a method to hide the user’s emotions as it does their true appearance. It is now far more capable of changing facial expressions to reflect false feelings and these false feelings will also be what emotion-sensing Skills will see.

Cost: 50 mana per minute while adjusting, 15 mana per minute while cloaking emotions

Yep, weird Evolution, just like he’d predicted. But it sure was useful.

Not the time, Isaac. He scolded himself, internally shaking his head.

“Thank you, Dean Kass.” Isaac inclined his head to the older man “I’m humbled to have been deemed worthy of this title, and I will bear it with pride as I continue to work towards understanding the intricacies of the [System], working under Professor Bailey.”

He then flashed the audience a brief smile.

“And then, in a few years, I’ll try to get a Doctorate the proper way, along the academic track.”

“In that case, I wish you good luck in your endeavors.” Kass said, sticking out his right hand, and the two of them shook hands.

Things continued in that vein for another half hour or so, with people coming up to him to congratulate him or ask further questions, which he answered the best he could.

Eventually though, things did wind down, so Isaac and Bailey headed back to their building.

“That was … I’m sorry for springing that on you like that.” Bailey said “It was surprise that was meant to be, well, a surprise, but in hindsight …”

“… I can be a little jumpy? Look, I get it, it was partially a PR thing on top of all other considerations.” Isaac sighed “Just don’t surprise me for the sake of surprising me and I’ll be fine, anything more than that is my issue to deal with.”

“Have you considered talking to someone about that? Someone who isn’t me or one of your friends, that is?” Bailey suggested.

“Considered? Yes. I’ll give it a little longer, try to see if I can just get past my stupid hang-ups and be done with them, but if I can’t … a little therapy never killed anyone.” Isaac lied. He’d never be going to see one simply because he couldn’t talk honestly about his feelings without revealing what was probably the world’s biggest secret, but in a few days, he should be able to hide his feelings from even someone who knew him as well as Bailey did.