Arcane Apocalypse [LitRPG]

Mia's eyes ran over the lengthy list of notifications one, twice and before she could have a third, much more thorough read over to look for any hidden cues, Camie jolted her out of her reverie with a sharp elbow.

"Oof," Mia wheezed, then was about to elbow the vampiress in turn out of principle but the redhead held up a hand.

"We should get back," Camie said with a hint of an apology in her voice. "The camp is in an uproar. We'll also want to check what the hell the Rift turning into a Raid means in practice. Come on."

"Right," Mia said, nodding haltingly and then nodding again as the words actually registered in her head.

The two girls raced back, gliding over the landscape like a pair of wraiths. Mia thought of testing whether her momentum would hold if she activated Wisp Form mid-run, but thought better of it.

Priorities, Mia. Priorities.

The camp was rapidly devolving into chaos as the two girls raced back to their friends. Fighters were dressing themselves in their arms and armour across the hill in a hasty manner, while the noncombatant workers left whatever they were doing behind and just ran.

Everyone could feel the Rift, even the carpenters and labourers who were constructing small buildings around the fortifications pulled up by earth mages. Speaking of, Mia saw more than one proper Mage run for the hills too, their stat-enhanced bodies quickly overtaking them.

"STOP!" A loud roar rolled down the hillside, causing some to stumble and fall while those with a better grip of themselves just skidded to a halt.

There was no magic in the voice though, just a faint echo of command that demanded to be listened to. Mia shrugged it off, not even stumbling and the same went for Camie.

"The Rift is stable!" The same voice, the voice which Mia now recognised as belonging to Colonel Zeigler shouted from the top of the half-built walls. "Stop running and calm yourselves! There is no need for panic, if you'd stop for just a moment, you'd be able to hear the distinct lack of any rampaging monster trying to break through the fortifications I'm standing on."

The tension that'd been steadily building up in the air slowly started to drain away, though a heavy echo of it remained still, weighing on Mia's shoulders like a physical weight.

"There," Camie whispered and Mia's gaze snapped up.

The rest of the team was back where they left them, Mark having rejoined them too in the chaos and with the two girls skidding to a halt before them, they were up to number again.

"Oh, here they are!" Helene shouted as she noticed them.

Brent gave them a quick look, some tension draining out of his shoulders while Clive just motioned for them to get in behind the 'tanks'.

Mia did so, but gave him an inquisitive look as the usually carefree man was eying the other groups suspiciously.

"Did I miss something?" Mia mumbled, then leaned in to whisper to her mother. "What's up? Besides the Rift I mean?"

The Rift was stable, radiating a feeling of firm stability like a giant wall holding all the evil of the world at bay. To Mia, it felt like Satan himself could be pounding on the other side and that mighty wall wouldn't give an inch.

Maybe others don't feel it that clearly? Mia mused. If they could only feel the presence of the Rift, but not its properties, it'd quickly go from a reassuring feeling to foreboding and downright ominous.

"I don't like the look in their eyes," Clive answered first, not turning to face Mia as the large man gestured towards where Rex stood a little ways away. "Chaos is where opportunists like them thrive."

Sure enough, Rex loomed above the disorderly mob with his trunk-like scaled arms crossed over his chest as his reptilian eyes roamed the crowd. His narrowed eyes made him look like some great predator trying to pick out a prey from a helpless herd of sheep.

Mia did not like that look either. Not one bit.

Not that it seemed like Rex and his friends would get the opportunity to cause trouble with the Colonel having already calmed the crowd. An oppressive dark presence on the border of Mia's perception made that doubly sure, though she couldn't find it in herself to be happy about that one.

Glancing that way, she saw Jeff glowering at the crowd like a disappointed father staring at misbehaving children. That revolting power of his was simmering under his skin, ready to be unleashed in a blink.

The towering lizardman's eyes met the abyssal demonspawn's and sparks seemed to fly as their gazes interlocked. Rex broke first, looking away with a grimace before sitting on his haunches, huffing in disdain.

A frazzled-looking woman in a vaguely military-looking uniform ran up to the Colonel and whispered something in his ear. The man nodded thankfully, then dismissed her with a wave as he turned back to address the crowd.

"I am sure many of you are wondering what the System's notification means," Zeigler said, projecting his voice over the hillside with the ease of a master orator. "Rifts, Dungeons and Raids mean something only to our children and the few of us who've been familiar with video games and the sort. Some of you might fear the latest word exactly because of that, expecting our run of the mill Rift to transform into some horrible hellhole that only an army full of superhumans could defeat. I am glad to report to you, that is not the case. Reality does not always conform to our preconceived notions.

"Raids are simply Rifts that the System loosens its limitations on, or so the egg-heads going through our stash of System-lore have just reported to me," Zeigler continued. "Meaning, for the next 48 hours, the Rift will allow a grand total of fifty people to enter it and defeat the monsters inside instead of the usual five or ten. Our chances of success have just shot through the roof, and we have the System's guarantee that the Rift will not disgorge a single monster during that 48 hour timeframe. You have no reason to panic, so please take a minute to calm down and then, continue your work. We will need all of you if we want to emerge victorious and overcome this final challenge, this last hurdle before our city will be our own again. A hurdle we will overcome. Together."

Someone started clapping, interrupting the moment of tense silence that followed Zeigler's words. Some cheered while others just heaved sighs of relief, their comparatively subdued reactions getting buried under the enthusiastic cheers and claps.

"Think that's true?" Mia asked, lips pressed in a thin line as she eyed the Colonel giving the cheering crowd a thin smile. "Or did he just say that to keep them calm?"

"It had to be," Brent said gruffly. "Zeigler's no idiot, he wouldn't betray the citizen's trust just to calm this crowd. His lie would be found out the moment a monster ambled out of the Rift."

"So we are safe," Mia said. "For now."

"For two days," Lina said. "Supposedly. And only if we stay outside the Rift."

"Right," Mia muttered. With fifty people now able to challenge the Rift- err, Raid, she was pretty sure the six of them would be asked to add their numbers to the lot. "Do we want that though? I'm sure fifty people at level 10 could handle whatever's inside without us?"

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Despite throwing that question out there, and feeling a shiver of dread at the mere thought of heading into that Rift, Mia knew she would still be going. Despite images of Lina's guts hanging out of her stomach as Clive and Brent hastily stuffed them back in while showering her in potions, despite seeing that vicious goblin's maniacal grin before her eyes as it swung his dagger at her every time she closed her eyes, despite all the other horrid memories of her last Rift delve … something in Mia couldn't accept not challenging all those fears head on.

Even if she did little inside the Rift, just the act of going would be in defiance of her fears, loosening their power over her in the process. That was her hope anyways.

Not that any of that would matter if the others didn't want to go. Mia wanted to beat her fears, but that didn't mean she'd go into the Rift alone and with strangers. She wasn't suicidal.

"We spoke of this," Brent said. "At length. Did we not agree to do our very best to destroy this Rift?"

"I mean, I'm in if everyone else is," Mia said defensively. "But I thought I'd ask anyway."

Camie shrugged, but everyone knew her answer already.

"That Reward looks mighty tempting," Lina said with a wistful smile, "as does the one we'll get for our other quest. A dimensional bag and a skill shard as guaranteed rewards? Hell yeah we should go, even if you want to stay on the sidelines, it'll be worth it."

"Agreed," Clive said, then lightly punched Mark on the shoulder. "The wolves will be a great trial run for the thing we've been practising too."

" … true enough," Mark said with tangible reluctance. "We shouldn't run away from a fight either. We've put too much effort into saving this damned city to back out now."

When everyone turned to Helene for her answer, the woman simply gave a weary smile and said, "I just hope we all come back alive enough to enjoy those rewards."

That was a 'yes' for sure, but also a warning, one Mia took to heart. She was no hero, she didn't have to be the one to save the day and beat the Raid Guardian with some masterful spellwork. She just had to put in what she could into the fight and hope it'd be enough. Her Wards, applied on everyone, would go a long way for one, as would her Phalanx in case they needed some quick and dependable fortifications conjured up.

"We'll be careful," Mia said, trying to put on a reassuring smile. She probably failed, since her mother's wry smile didn't change. "Right?"

Mark elbowed Lina at the question, who hissed like a scalded cat and glared at the dwarf.

"I think she means you," Mark said helpfully, suddenly finding his nails fascinating and in need of a thorough inspection.

"I'm not the one putting my face in the way of monsters heavier than a semi truck," Lina said, kicking at Mark's shin, which unsurprisingly failed to even faze the dwarf. He put his stats primarily into Body attributes after all.

"I'm tough," Mark said. "You are danger prone."

"And suicidally ambitious," Camie whispered so silently only Mia caught it. When she glanced over, the vampiress had a mildly troubled look painted across her pretty features.

"I'm not," Lina said, crossing her arms. "I'm just … "

"Let's shelve that argument please," Helene said, slipping behind the two and putting a calming hand on each of their shoulders. "We will learn from our previous delves, and we will have to teach the others who will step into one for the first time with us. They might not be so lucky as to learn from their mistakes."

We might also end up as monster food if they mess up. Mia thought cynically. One person messing up in a Rift so far above their level might bring consequences down on not only their own heads but on the whole delving party. Consequences of the most lethal variety at that.

Yep, teaching them some of the stuff they'd learned to look out for and what to expect inside would be best. They wouldn't want an idiot to call down an entire forest's worth of metal wolves on them with an obnoxiously loud fireball the moment they stepped inside, for example.

Nope, that would not do at all.

Hopefully, it wouldn't have to be her to actually give some lecture about their sparse experiences with Rifts before dozens of people. Just thinking of standing out before that many strangers and attempting to teach them about something she only experienced two times so far made her hands quiver with a familiar wave of nervousness.

I'd much rather go fight one of those Iron Wolves one on one. Mia thought, the idea of testing out her new Trait and having the monster pass through her ephemeral form without harming her, even managing to spur some excitement in her. She might not be able to hold the form long, but if timed right, that second of uptime would be enough.

Damn, that's messed up. Mia thought, reviewing her line of thoughts. When did fighting monsters become something exciting and even … 'fun'?

Still, she couldn't help but imagine the gobsmacked look that wretched little Goblin would have had on its face when it tried to gut her, only for her to turn into a Wisp and dart away to safety.

No, not safety. Just far enough to Blast its ugly mug into a hundred gorey bits. That painted a much more pleasing mental picture. One that with enough practice, Mia was confident she could bring to life with any nasty greenskin she met in the future.

*****

"Hey, what is it that Clive was talking about?" Mia asked, the question having gone from an errant curiosity to an itch she couldn't help but want to scratch.

"What?" Mark asked, brow raised in confusion as he turned his gaze from surveying the gathered fighters to Mia.

"The thing he said the two of you were practising in secret?" Mia said, nudging him with an elbow as she herself focused on not looking at either Jeff or that strange High Elf Tristan.

"Ah," Mark said, then shrugged. "Clive had been helping me cycle my Darkness mana through my Earthen Armaments. It already gave me a new secondary skill."

"Which does … ?" Mia asked, leaning in closer with eyes twinkling in interest.

"Minor Magic Resistance," Mark said with a frown, though Mia could tell it wasn't aimed at her. "Supposedly, turning that into Magic Absorption or partial Nullification should be 'practically effortless'. It's being … difficult though."

"Clive has to have a higher affinity for Darkness than you," Mia said, patting his shoulder. "It'll just take some time, I'm sure."

"Yeah," Mark said, not quite smiling but not shrugging off Mia's hand either. "It will."

"Did your Class Skill absorb it?" Mia asked, suddenly wondering why her own hadn't touched any of her Arcane-adjacent secondary skills.

"No," Mark said, looking at her dubiously. "I supposed that too would also need me to prostrate myself before an Obelisk. Didn't you ask how these things work from your pocket wikipedia?"

He then — quite rudely — gestured towards Nikki who stood to the side. Mia grimaced, seeing the poor woman trying to make sense of the conversations around her with her rudimentary understanding of German.

"I don't want to be too much of a bother," Mia said, feeling uncomfortable already. She'd practically grilled the woman about whatever came to mind before while she had her vocal cords ruptured. Only once her curiosity waned did she have the time to feel bad about doing so.

"You should ask," Mark said. "Who knows? We might even upgrade our Class if we managed to fill in all our empty subskill slots."

"You're right," Mia agreed, though still felt awkward about it. "I will ask … after we're done with whatever this is."

Mia took in the gathered crowd, a collection of disparate groups as varied as they were dangerous. Mia recognised many of their faces as people she'd fought together with on the wall, or as members of groups her team swapped with since. Most groups kept to themselves, tension holding them back from overt chattering, but still, the cliques that have formed over the weeks were showing. The ones most loyal to Zeigler and his military, the unionists and the beastkin, the last of which group had a healthy few metres between themselves and anyone else.

Even a few squads of Jeff's fighters were here, acting all dignified and aloof as they too, kept their distance from the rest of the gathered people. Mia searched for some of the people she wanted to see: Avery, Amelia, or even Christine, but she found none of the three. Avery had disappeared after the fight on the wall, almost without a trace and neither Amelia, nor Christine seemed enthused about risking their lives again like they had in the goblin Rift. Though Christine probably just wanted to get away from Mia because of the strange aversion all elves seemed to have for her kind.

She found herself examining the beastkin after giving up on finding any of her closer acquaintances. They were always so … interesting. There was a man, for example, who looked like a humanoid lion and stood at a respectable two-twenty centimetres at least. There was a woman with pretty pearl white scales on her cheeks and flipper-like ears, another man with tusks like those of a boar extending from his square-like jaws, and many more.

"Greetings, everyone. Thank you for coming," Zeigler's voice resounded through the air, cutting through the small chatter and silencing it near instantly. "The time's ticking, so I'll not beat around the bush. We have 47 hours and 44 minutes until the Rift behind me on that hill evolves into something beyond our ability to handle. Even with the System's help and loosening of restrictions, it will be a challenge unlike any you have faced before. Not only will those of you selected go in and fight monsters stronger than any outside, but you'll have to do so while coordinating with not just your own small team, but with another forty. We need to select fifty people out of the gathered two hundred and twenty-three before me, who will be able to work together and overcome this challenge."