Primer for the Apocalypse

I sat back in relief as I finished the last of the talismans I planned to get done for the night. I stuck with the design I’d already proven worked against Spatial Locks, though I planned to try again against Null Fields before too long.

After Niall left, I had talked to Zavira about potentially inviting him to join our party. Since I’d already basically agreed to a long-term partnership with the Force Mage, I figured it couldn’t hurt to add one more, provided the two of them got along.

It made sense since Niall was actively looking for a party, and adding a third member to ours wouldn’t slow us down at all. If anything, it might speed up how quickly we were able to engage with groups of mobs.

“You wanted me to remind you about the inheritance,” Lisa said, pulling my attention to one of the many tasks I’d put off until I completed my new talisman.

Shortly after I threw myself into crafting a working defense against Spatial Locks, I’d received a message from Master Kairos asking why I hadn’t accessed the inheritance yet. I’d flushed in embarrassment at forgetting something so important, but ultimately decided to wait until I finished my project before attempting to access the training.

I was sure he’d understand.

“Alright. How am I supposed to do this?” I asked my Interface Assistant as I withdrew my DIVE gear. I still used the headset to force sleep most nights, but this would be the first time I’d put on the haptic suit since entering the dungeon. “Do I just log in like normal?”

“Correct. You can access the training from your VPS.”

“Why didn’t you mention it before?” I asked curiously as I put on the new adjustable suit. Master Kairos had given me a new set of gear before I left, though the old set still worked fine. He claimed the newer model would work better for the inheritance training, so I’d left it unpacked until now.

“You didn’t ask,” Lisa replied, causing me to sigh.

Sometimes, I forgot that the Mana Intelligence that made up my Interface Assistant was still developing. It was hard to train an IA since they often took requests literally. For example, telling her to inform me when she felt training would be appropriate would result in near-constant reminders, which was not what I wanted.

Laying on my bed, I activated the new set of equipment and patiently went through the start-up process. Lisa handled syncing the new equipment with my older gear, and within minutes, I was within my avatar, standing in my VPS.

I’d expanded my Virtual Personal Space several times since the first time I logged into the system years earlier. Now, instead of being a small, empty, 10’ X 10’ room, my VPS was a well-appointed multi-purpose room that was split between a bedroom and bathroom (literally just a large bath, walled off from the rest of the room) on one side, and a workshop for testing new enchantments on the other.

Everything was in shades of gray and purple, with the occasional splash of shimmer thrown in just because… well, it represented me. While I wasn’t necessarily connected to gray, I really liked the color as a semi-neutral base. I certainly didn’t want the space to look like a fairy princess designed it, which was what a room full of only purple and shimmer reminded me of.

“What now?” I asked. In response, an unfamiliar female avatar manifested beside me. “Lisa?”

The woman smiled. She was clearly designed to appear human, though her skin was purple instead of one of the more… normal colors. It wasn’t too different from some of the darker-skinned people I’d known on Earth, and probably looked a lot better than many of the alternatives might.

Her shimmer-colored hair sharply contrasted with the deep violet of her skin, reminding me of Storm from X-Men a little bit. While shimmer definitely wasn’t white, it probably would fall somewhere close on the extended color scale.

“Hello, Emie,” Lisa replied with a smile. “I’m so glad you’ve granted me a virtuophysical form.”

“Uh,” I said blankly as I struggled to process Lisa’s new form. “You’re welcome? I’m not sure what I did. Is it the inheritance?”

“No. The upgraded DIVE headgear was designed to work with enhanced Interface Assistants such as myself. That is likely why your Master recommended you use it to access the inheritance.”

“Why didn’t you mention that before?” I asked with a frown. “I would have switched if I knew it would provide you with some kind of benefit.”

“I was unaware of the advantages until you accessed the upgraded headgear for the first time,” she replied. “Regardless, we have a task to accomplish. Would you like to access the inheritance now?”

Suppressing a grumble, I nodded, and my surroundings shifted to one of Master Kairos’s training rooms.

“One of the other advantages of the upgraded DIVE equipment,” Lisa began as she took up a position on the other side of the training room, “is the inclusion of mana training. It only functions when coupled with an enhanced interface, and the training is still vastly inferior to the real thing.”

“I’m guessing nobles and most of the elites have something like this to train with as soon as they can get the upgrade,” I said knowingly. It seemed like something that the rich and privileged would keep from the common folk.

“I cannot speak to that since I have not been provided such data, but it is a logical conclusion,” Lisa conceded with a slight nod. I suddenly noticed we were both wearing matching sets of sect robes, and I grinned.

Ignoring my expression, Lisa continued, “Now that you’ve reached Tier Four, your first lesson is on Time distortion fields. While this technique requires a domain, it does not require you to Anchor said domain before using it. Until you become familiar with the technique, the mana cost will largely be based on the number and size of distortion rifts you create. What you need to do is…”

I listened as Lisa channeled Master Kairos and described the area of effect technique. Most Direct Casting spell effects were considered techniques since they didn’t use spellforms. Master Kairos was quite adamant that I not rely on spellforms for casting affinity spells, even though the system would provide them once a technique was sufficiently mastered.

Lisa was correct in calling the upgraded DIVE equipment’s mana training vastly inferior to reality. However, I still found the effort worthwhile. I’d definitely have to practice the techniques I learned in the physical world when I had the chance, but at least I wouldn’t be starting from scratch.

“Thank you for delaying your exit on my behalf,” the Kastet Void Mage said with a slight bow as he entered my apartment several hours later.

I’d been shocked to find the upgraded DIVE equipment allowed for additional time dilation while using the new ‘training’ setting. Unfortunately, the new setting couldn’t be used to sleep. I wasn’t sure why the limitation existed, nor was Lisa able to explain it.

But it was fine. The additional time gained from a shorter training period ensured I had plenty of time to rest before the demands of the day began.

Upon seeing Zavira, Niall’s eyes widened, and he bowed again, this time slightly lower. “Greetings, Honored Disciple of the Hephaistos Sect!”

I glanced at my friend with a raised brow. With the popularity of her sect’s products, it was no surprise that a martially-oriented elite would recognize the woman’s robes.

Barely reacting to the man’s near reverence, Zavira returned his bow and said, “Well met, Void Mage Niall. Thank you for assisting my party member with her crafting project. It was fortuitous that you entered the dungeon when you did.”

“I’m glad to have been of assistance,” the Kastet replied earnestly as he straightened.

Their formality made me a bit uncomfortable, so I quickly interjected by handing Niall one of my new E3 talismans and sending him a trade request. I gave him a bit of a discount since he’d been instrumental in the item’s creation. It seemed only fair.

Once the request was accepted, I glanced at Zavira with a raised brow. She understood the implied question and nodded once in response.

With Zavira’s blessing, I turned back to the Void Mage and asked, “Would you be interested in accompanying us today? We’ll be heading into the mid-tier area of the jungle zone for the first time, aside from my lone venture. I’m a Time/Space Mage with a variety of manatech items and the ability to heal, and Zavira is a Force Smith who specializes in telekinetically controlling small, bladed weapons that she forges. We are both capable of fighting in melee and are fairly well-rounded.”

I could tell the question had caught the Kastet off guard, though he quickly schooled his expression as he listened to my offer. Niall seemed genuinely interested in the offer but still took a few moments to consider things before replying.

“As you know, I have been trained to fight in a party, so I am not opposed to potentially joining you,” he said, looking at me before shifting his gaze to Zavira. “My primary concern is advancement speed. I’m willing to provisionally join you, but only with the understanding that if we do not progress swiftly enough, there will be no hard feelings if I decide to find another party.”

I exchanged a glance with Zavira and could tell she was fine with such a provision. Our current partnership had no such specification, but it was understood that either of us could break away if things didn’t work out. While both of our Masters clearly wanted us to work together, they’d made it clear that the choice was ultimately ours.

“We’re fine with that,” Zavira said, speaking up. I nodded in agreement.

“Excellent,” Niall said with a toothy grin. “I’m quite glad I answered the request you posted through the Guild,” he added, looking my way.

“Me too,” I agreed. “I would have struggled to make my talismans work properly without the addition of Tier Four Void mana. Speaking of…” I trailed off as I handed Zavira an E3 talisman before equipping my own.

“Now we’re all protected,” I said while patting the talisman sitting beneath my under-armor shirt. I turned to Niall. “I can’t change your arrival location without redoing the talisman completely, but I’ll make you a new one once I get the null zone workaround figured out if you’d like to evacuate to my apartment instead of the fourth-floor arrival platform. I can’t afford to drop a ton of Anchors to let everyone evac to their residences, so it’s one or the other.”

“The arrival platform is fine for now. We can reassess that later, if necessary,” he said neutrally.

I nodded and glanced between my two new party members. It was crazy to think I’d gone from ascending alone just a few short weeks ago to having two newly arrived elites joining me. They each had very different backgrounds as well, which was a bonus as far as I was concerned.

“Are you both ready?” I asked, causing Niall’s whiskered eyebrows to rise. Unlike the deep navy blue of his fur, his whiskers were bright white, making them stand out against the dark background. Answering the unspoken question, I said, “I’m going to Teleport us there. It’s a lot faster than walking.”

“That seems like an efficient way to save time,” he said with approval.

“Oh, it really is!” Zavira said with a grin. “Because of that, we’re able to Teleport home every evening. It gives us a lot more time to work on crafting for our alternative levels.”

“That is convenient. I recently swapped my former Student profession for Trader, making Woodcrafter my new primary class. If we’re going to potentially create a long-term alliance, I’d appreciate the opportunity to serve as the party’s Trader,” he said before quickly adding, “It’s just a request, though I understand if you’d rather wait until we become more familiar before extending such trust.”

I shrugged, a gesture mirrored by Zavira. “I have no issues with that. I doubt you’ll cheat us. If you do, well… it’s not like I can’t find out where you live, right?” I said jokingly.

Not quite understanding the joke, Niall nodded eagerly. “I can remedy that upon our return, provided today goes well.”

Shaking my head in amusement, I didn’t bother explaining the joke. Instead, I told my new teammates to prepare for teleportation, reminding them not to resist the effect. While I could probably overpower one of them, should they resist, doing so would drain my mana beyond comfort, especially within a dangerous dungeon zone.

With a flex of effort, I surrounded us in a thin layer of Space mana and focused on the Anchor I’d left at the site of my attack. Hopefully, I’d find some more beasts with a Space affinity now that I was better prepared.