Primer for the Apocalypse

“You should watch out for the Springheart family,” Zavira said without prompting as we made our way through the crystalline garden.

As the dungeon entered the last stage of its reset, the desert zone had changed into a strange garden made out of living Crystal. The entire concept was completely new to me. During the decade I spent as an adventurer before my return, I’d never encountered such a thing.

At least, not like this.

I’d seen a couple of crystalline plants here and there, but never an entire miniature ecosystem. There were still a few clumps of sand intermixed with the crystal grains, but the zone had almost completely transformed by this point.

“Why is that?” I asked while scanning the semi-translucent plants around me, looking for anything that identified as having alchemical properties.

Zavira stepped closer. “They’re struggling to recover the funds lost from losing the Hot Springs,” she replied conspiratorially.

“Is it really that much?”

Zavira shrugged. “They make it seem that way,” she answered. “I just wanted to warn you since you’re a known Enchanter. There have been a lot of independent crafters who have mysteriously gone missing or suddenly decided to become contracted crafters for the family. People are talking, but everyone is too scared to do much about it.”

Niall and I paused and turned to our more social party member.

“Does the dungeon allow such tactics?” Niall asked.

Zavira raised her hands slightly in a gesture of uncertainty. “It’s not supposed to. At least, not for active challengers. The whole dungeon is supposed to be a study of some sort, and I’m not sure the people in charge will allow too much interference. Then again, I don’t really know how they can stop it.”

I tried to think back to some of the books I’d read in the library. I thought I saw something about dungeon interference, but it had been months since I did general research, so I couldn’t be sure. I immediately decided to head to the library on our next rest day. Since we only took one day off every two five-day weeks, that was still a few days away.

“Have any challengers been affected, or is it just dungeoneers who’ve stopped actively climbing?” I asked.

If it was the former, Zavira and I were both likely to be targets. Her creations were in high demand – high enough that she was regularly gaining alternate experience between our daily excursions.

It was much the same for me; though, unlike Zavira, I only sold items through the kiosk instead of paying a local shop to sell the items I made for me. I was also still getting a dribble of income from the dungeon guidebook I’d published through the kiosk shortly after my arrival.

It wasn’t much, but it let me know that the information was still spreading among the people of Earth.

“I’m not sure. Nobody’s been bothered in the central village, but the dungeon exerts a lot more control there,” Zavira said. “It may just be dungeoneers since there aren’t very many crafters who are active challengers. Nobody has approached me yet. Still, it’s something I wanted to warn you about since your items are popular.”

I nodded my head in her direction, but a flash on my interface drew my attention. Lisa was monitoring Spatial Sense and looking for obvious gaps since it was easier for the Mana Intelligence to notice such small discrepancies. It seemed our new approach was finally paying off.

“Potential Space or Void-attuned mob,” I announced, though the others had access to the mini-map and had likely already seen what was there. None of us thought the appearance of a Void creature was likely, but I included it anyway since a gap could imply Void mana.

Niall immediately headed in the direction of the creature. Both Space and Void materials would be welcome, especially since having properly attuned materials would save a ton of mana when I crafted E3 talismans.

It took several minutes to get to the orange dot, and we had to fight past several clusters of creatures on the way. Aside from tamed creatures, there was no such thing as a non-aggressive mob. Rabbits, bees, birds, worms… everything was aggressive toward people in the dungeon.

When I’d stealthily watched various creatures when they were not aware of my presence, I was surprised to find most creatures acted remarkably similar to those that might be found in the wild outside the dungeon. It was only when they sensed a non-dungeon creature nearby that they became unreasonably aggressive.

The orange dot, obviously, had some kind of spatial awareness because it rushed in our direction well before it should have otherwise sensed our presence. It must have sounded some kind of alarm because the red dots around it followed.

I used Time magic to slow the creatures’ approach, giving us time to Assess our opponents. Most of the creatures were new, though a few of the flying mobs were holdovers from the last dungeon cycle.

The dots on my mini-map suddenly started shifting, with several rushing toward the city for no apparent reason. I noticed several of the older cycle’s mobs running or flying past, and some that we were engaged with even broke away to follow the stream of mobs heading away from us.

My [Barrier] took a few hits due to my distraction, but I quickly refocused as best I could. The encounter was strange, especially when I noticed some high and peak-Tier Four creatures joining in the pilgrimage.

“What was that?” Zavira asked when the last of our actively engaged opponents finally fell.

Having read several books on resets already, I had a suspicion. “I think the beast wave started. The dungeon must be finalizing the new floor.”

“We should go back,” Niall said with an excited gleam in his eyes. I couldn’t blame him. The beast waves were known to provide a ton of experience for those who participated and survived.

I nodded, and my companions stepped closer to allow my mana to wrap around them. A moment later, we were in my apartment. Before we even made it to the door, a notification appeared.

[Quest: Defend the city from the beast wave!]

“Huh,” I said thoughtfully. “I didn’t realize the dungeon gave out quests like that.”

“Yeah, it’s strange.”

“Let’s go!” Niall said impatiently over his shoulder as he rushed down the hallway.

It took a few minutes to get to the nearest gate without Teleporting. When we got there, I was surprised to see so few residents joining the fight. Everyone had access to some form of magic, so part of me expected they’d be compelled to join in the city’s defense.

It seemed I was wrong.

Looking around, I noticed the majority of the residents had locked themselves inside and were watching warily from windows. Most of those hiding looked to be lower tiers who’d probably never done much fighting, likely having been escorted through their alternate levels as they slowly progressed.

It sharply contrasted with the eager, barely awakened teens lining up to fight atop the wall. The youths practically vibrated in excitement as they stood near the closed gate and waited for their assignments. Some of the more prepared individuals wore new or lightly used armor, though others wore little more than casual clothing.

Since nobody was rejected, the inexperienced youths were mixed in with the veterans and ushered to the more heavily enchanted portions of the wall.

It was huge, towering at least fifty feet; it reminded me of the Great Wall of China with its dedicated walkways and crenellations. However, instead of being constructed of individual stones or bricks, the city walls appeared to be one monolithic construction.

“Void Mage?” the uniformed man organizing volunteers said when Niall reached the front of the line.

“Void melee fighter. I have a few ranged spells and an AOE I can use,” Niall replied. After he’d seen my Time Distortion Field, we’d gotten into several discussions about how such an effect could be created. It had taken him a while to figure it out, but Niall had eventually acquired the spell without spending his hard-earned experience points to get it.

He didn’t have a lot of mana, but he’d manage a casting or two of the powerful spell. His was even more effective than my Time or Space versions, even with his significantly weaker affinity scores.

The man gave Niall his assignment and turned to Zavira. She gave him a quick summary of her capabilities and was promptly told where to go.

“Time and Space?” the man asked with raised brows after the tell-tale signs of an identification spell washed over me. “I might need you to pull double duty as a Healer if you can manage it. I won’t limit you to that for now, but I ask that you prioritize saving lives over killing beasts. You have full authority to teleport as necessary to reach anyone injured as long as you’re careful about it.”

“Here,” the man said when I nodded my assent. He handed me a strip of cloth marked with red and white chevrons. “Tie this to your arm so officials don’t bother you. For now, head to section Desert-Six.” He pointed toward the wall. “Talk to Corporal Faravel. He’s the one in charge of the section.”

I nodded and rushed in the direction he’d indicated, tying the cloth to my arm as I went. It didn’t take long to find the Corporal since he was the only one wearing the city guard uniform.

Noting the band on my arm, the man asked, “What’s your specialty?”

“I’m doubling as a Healer, but I have a lot of offensive options as well. I’m an Enchanter by profession—”

“Excellent,” Corporal Faravel said, cutting me off. “Our younglings could use some tools to help them fight more effectively if you’d be willing to equip them with whatever you have available. I’d be willing to grant you half of the recovered beast parts killed with your tools in exchange.”

Beast waves were an odd exception to the dungeon absorption rule. Instead of only allowing a short window for challengers to collect the bodies of their fallen prey, the dungeon waited until the last attacking creature died before it started whatever internal timer it used.

It was one of the things dungeoneers got most excited about when floor resets came along. Since resets were quite rare to begin with, and I was unlikely to have access to the same creatures again, the offer wasn’t bad.

It helped that the dungeon somehow tracked who killed what and wouldn’t allow bodies to be stored by anyone but the person who got credit for the kill. The only exception was when the person who killed the creature had also died. In that case, whoever got to the body first could claim it.

“I’m fine with that,” I said with a nod. “I have some extra elemental wands back at my workshop. If you keep this space clear, I’ll Teleport back with the weapons in a few moments.”

Once I had the man’s agreement, I retrieved the extra wands I’d made in anticipation of something like this. There was a pretty steady demand for elemental wands and other weapons on the floor already, but I’d been making a few extras just in case something like this happened.

I was glad to see my preparation was not in vain.

I wasn’t sure if it was by design or complete coincidence, but I found myself in the same section as the majority of youths joining the fight from this side of the city. It made handing out the weapons easy enough, though a few of the young fighters balked at the thought of handing over half of their kills in exchange for a potent weapon.

I didn’t try to convince them otherwise. There wasn’t enough time for such efforts. Those who agreed were given a wand, and those who did not went without. A few approached me during the fight and asked for a wand after initially rejecting my offer, but by that point, I’d run out.

The ground was already littered with the defeated bodies of creatures from underground and the desert zones. The jungle and underwater zones were on the other side of the city, so we only had to deal with the creatures from two of the four zones.

Everything attacking was left over from the old floor layout. None of the new creatures had joined the beast wave, which was actually quite lucky, I felt.

Unfortunately, the desert had quite a few flying mobs that had survived the transition, all of which were now bombarding the city. They paid little attention to the walls, so many fighters with ranged skills and spells had to focus on removing that threat while others focused on the ground.

“But you have two scepters. Surely you can let me use one of them,” a particularly insistent youth argued, trying to convince me to part with one of the weapons I was actively using to snipe aggressive birds from the sky.

“Please go away. These are my personal weapons. They are not for sale.”

“But why do you need both of them?” the boy asked petulantly as he stepped closer. “My parents will reward you if you give me one. I assure you, it’ll be worth whatever investment you’ve put into them.”

I glanced at the well-dressed youth and took a step away. “If your family is that well-off, shouldn’t you have been armed already?” I asked before shaking my head. “Nevermind. Look, kid, you’re distracting me. Please go away before you get hurt by a stray attack. This part of the wall doesn’t have the same [Barriers] as where you were assigned.”

Clearly offended, the youth puffed his chest and exclaimed, “I am perfectly capable of—”

I released a loud sigh and Teleported away, grateful for the ability to escape without drawing the ire of the city guards.

I hadn’t simply left without a reason, though.

Casting Restore on the recently wounded fighter, I watched as the man’s wounds visibly reversed. The grateful fighter stuttered a ‘thank you,’ and I nodded in acknowledgment before taking up a position nearby.

I could have gone back to my previous post, but the annoying kid was still standing there, looking around as if confused by my disappearance.

The waves of creatures seemed to go on for a long time. The more aggressive beasts tried climbing up the bodies of their fallen counterparts to get to the people at the top of the wall but were easily repelled by those above.

Thankfully, there were not many injuries for me to deal with. I left anything minor for the Life Healers behind the wall, only responding to those who needed immediate medical attention.

Once the bulk of the horde had been killed, those who were primarily melee fighters rushed out the gates and started cutting through the remaining beasts. Those confident enough to begin collecting their kills also headed out of the relative safety of the city, though several remained watching for potential aerial threats.

I had to rescue and heal a lot more people when they entered melee, but I managed to collect a good portion of my defeated opponents in the process.

By the time the last mob attacking the wall fell, every creature that had been phased out during the reset had been culled from the floor, aside from the aquatic creatures that were limited by the environment.

However, those who couldn’t survive on land were not counted toward the beast wave, and a semi-translucent timer appeared on everyone’s interfaces, counting down the recovery period before the remains would be reclaimed by the dungeon.

Historically, the underwater zone wouldn’t take that much longer to fully clear. The aquatic creatures who couldn’t manage to attack on land had made easy targets of themselves as they thrashed in the water, trying in vain to reach the people on the shore.

Knowing this, I rushed over to the edge of the underwater zone once the remainder of my loot was collected and started firing off spell effects.

As I targeted the surface of the frothing water with [Chain Lightning], my [Barrier] was impacted by a strong attack from behind. It hit hard enough to knock me off my feet, even with the mitigation built-in. Thankfully, my training kicked in and I immediately Phased, entering the weave between planes.

It was harder to use Spatial Sense from the weave since I wasn’t technically in the same spatial layer. But Stella had taught me well, and I soon found the culprit. The thing about most stealth techniques was that they were weak to perception skills like mine.

I was actually quite lucky not to have been seriously injured during the attack. From what I could tell from the impact, anyone without a [Barrier] who hadn’t invested heavily in body stats would have likely been severely injured by the hit, especially if they’d been tossed into the jaws of higher-level predators.

Feeling the effects of having just come off more than an hour of constant fighting, getting attacked from behind snapped something in me. I didn’t think before I cast Stasis on the unsuspecting person and Teleported them to my apartment for a little conversation.