Primer for the Apocalypse

I repeated my interrogation several times, approaching the young Springheart in a variety of different ways to gauge his response. He was always bound and mostly stripped, so there was little risk involved on my part aside from my mental health.

Surprisingly, the eighteen-year-old was more than happy to brag and threaten, even when he couldn’t see who was talking to him. He was particularly talkative when left in silence for extended periods.

It led to a lot of information that I felt sure the sect representatives outside would be interested in learning.

Once I felt confident that I’d extracted enough interesting dirt – without violating the Accords in any way – I Teleported us into the deepest portion of the jungle I’d managed to reach. I’d already prepared everything in advance, so I was ready to go right away.

All of my preparations had been done under [Invisibility] to minimize my connection to the missing youth, and I felt surprisingly little conflict about my upcoming actions.

Sure, the kid was only eighteen, but that was an adult as far as I was concerned, even if I did call him a kid in my mind.

I almost expected him to be younger, given the obvious cheat the kid had for gaining experience on a higher-tier floor. But alternative levels had slowed him down, as they tended to do for anyone trying to game the system.

Once everything was in place, including my frozen captive, I loudly said, “Realm Dungeon, when I remove Stasis from Andruno-Fabin Springheart, you have my permission as the construct’s owner to broadcast what happens inside the main area as if it were not protected by privacy rules. This permission lasts until Andruno-Fabin Springheart exits the construct, at which point permission to bypass the dungeon’s privacy rules will be revoked.”

I waited a few moments to see if the dungeon would do anything, but nothing happened.

Figuring it would either work or not, I activated my [Invisibility] talisman and stood in a small partition of the pod, separate from my prisoner. I’d worded my permission in a way that should protect my privacy without needing the talisman since I was technically outside the ‘main area’ of the pod, but I wanted to at least try to conceal my identity.

The pod itself had been modified to look like a plain, concrete room. I’d already tested the design to ensure the arrogant youth would assume it fell under the dungeon’s privacy rules.

In addition to [Invisibility], I wore a [Disguise] talisman that changed both my appearance and my voice, making me sound much more masculine and not at all like myself. The visible changes were less important since they were hidden by [Invisibility], but I was all about layering protections whenever possible.

Before going further, I reviewed the list of things I wanted to cover one last time, including the prompts that generally led to the arrogant guy’s outbursts. Ready to play my part, I canceled Stasis on everything except the device implanted in the youth’s chest and watched the young man’s reaction from behind a one-way partition.

“What?” the youth gasped in confusion. From the youth’s perspective, he’d been watching me fall to my death only a second before. It always took him a bit to grasp the change. “Where am I? Who’s there? Show yourself!”

I watched silently as the youth tried to escape. I could tell when he tried using magic to escape because his face twisted into a visage of pure fury. The anger on the young Springheart’s face didn’t match his predicament, but it was a familiar sight.

“Whoever you are, my family will find me, and when they do, I’ll ensure you suffer!” Andruno spat as he continued to strain against his bindings. “You have no idea who you’re messing with! I’m Andruno-Fabin Springheart! My family runs this dungeon!” the arrogant youth screamed into the seemingly empty room.

Lisa marked off the first of many bullet points we’d established.

“You can’t kill me anyway. I’m only Tier Three,” he added as if it was some great protection within the dungeon.

I remained silent, knowing it would push him to say more.

“Whatever you’re after, you’re never going to get it. Let me go, and I’ll make sure you’re the only one punished for your actions,” he said as if that would somehow change his circumstances. When silence was his only response, the youth exploded again, cursing and spewing threats like a psychopath with Tourette’s.

When he reached a point where he was mostly just repeating himself, I cut off Andruno’s tirade with a dismissive, “Yes, yes. The little Springheart boy. You’re so important,” I said snidely.

My altered voice echoed through the small space by design, making it difficult for the young man to locate me.

“I am not a little boy!” Andruno screamed, offended by my dismissive remark. “I’m eighteen! Give me back my belongings, and I’ll show you a little boy!”

Ignoring his comments, I asked, “What would your family think if they knew you were targeting sect elites while they protected the city during the beast wave? I bet they’d be ashamed of you.”

“My family would never be ashamed of me!” the sparsely-dressed youth claimed, puffing his chest. “You clearly know nothing about my family. Who cares about some so-called elites, anyway? Only the big-name sects matter, and even they have no power within the dungeon. My family rules here.”

Andruno resumed his struggle, quickly exhausting his reserves against the higher-tier mana suppression. “Let. Me. Go! How dare you restrain me! My family will kill you for this!” he screamed, repeating the same threats I’d heard many times already.

“No, I don’t think so,” I said blithely. “I’m going to do to you what you’ve done to so many sect elites. You should feel honored. They’re all immensely more talented than you could ever hope to be.”

I knew making a derogatory comparison between the youth and the elites his family had managed to lock into unfavorable contracts or outright imprison would push a number of the youth’s buttons.

“You have no proof of anything,” Andruno sneered. “Even if you did, my family has done nothing wrong. We make the rules in the dungeon. My family has the most powerful dungeoneers on every floor with a city. You’ll never escape us.”

I remained silent for a long time, knowing it would unnerve the youth. It didn’t take long for him to start posturing once again.

“What do you care anyway? So what if I killed some useless challengers? It’s not like there isn’t a line of posers waiting to take their place. That last girl, she deserved it. You didn’t see what she did to me. How she dismissed me like a commoner. She didn’t even have any personal power. She was using manatech like a beginner. Who was she to act so dismissive? She got what she deserved!”

“And the others?”

“WHO CARES? NOBODY CARES ABOUT THEM!” he screamed as his body thrashed in renewed defiance. “I’m the one that matters! Who cares about some so-called elites? Their sects aren’t here. Those arrogant fools walk around like they have backing, but they don’t! None of them do! Do you know who does? ME! I have backing, not those losers! If they were real elites, they wouldn’t have been beaten so easily!”

I let him yell for a while. I knew from experience that this outburst would last for a while. After a while, I started to get tired of it all. It was time to wrap things up.

“How long do you think it will take your family to find you, anyway? Shouldn’t they be here already, what with them having a Space elite captive and all?” I paused. “Oh, you call them contractors, not captives, right? What sect did he belong to? Astralis?”

“How could you possibly know that?” Andruno asked, his body suddenly stilling.

“I know a lot more than just that,” I claimed. And it was the truth. The mouthy youth had given up several secrets over the time loops I’d subjected him to.

I started sharing little pieces of what I’d learned from our sessions, mentioning the various sects the youth had named and the elites his family had on ‘retainer.’ I hadn’t bothered digging into the details during this loop since that information took a completely different approach to obtain than what I’d used during this last conversation.

When it felt like enough of the skeletons in the Springheart family’s closet had been revealed to cause them plenty of trouble, I booted the youth from the pod, dumping him into the jungle after removing the mana suppression.

The pod was concealed quite well, and I doubted even those watching from outside the dungeon would be able to easily identify my work.

After dumping the rest of his belongings about a half-mile deeper into the zone, I Teleported back to my apartment and canceled the Stasis I’d maintained on the guy’s tracker up until that point.

I ensured the young Springheart had a chance to survive. It wasn’t a great chance, but given his stealth abilities, it was better than most Tier Threes would have in the same situation.

And he had tried to kill me, so I wasn’t going to lose any sleep if he didn’t make it back to the city safely.

There was just something about the young man’s abrasive attitude that made me care little for his well-being.

Maybe I was justifying my actions, but after almost two days of intermittently interrogating the arrogant jerk, I found it extremely difficult to show the would-be murderer any sympathy.

Maybe his family would find him before the beasts did. I didn’t really care all that much. He couldn’t connect me with his abduction, and I’d sporadically exited my apartment between ‘sessions’ to establish what I could of an alibi.

Of course, as a Space magic user, location really didn’t mean all that much. But still, it was something.

I was just finishing up a new weapon when Zavira contacted me.

After the effectiveness of my creations had been displayed during the beast wave, I received several commissions for new weapons. I’d kept several in reserve from before the wave, so the number of weapons I was able to ‘produce’ went a good way in serving as an alibi for my time.

I wasn’t quite sure what to think about the fact that I consciously considered such things, though. Did I feel guilty? Was I criminally minded?

I didn’t think so.

I generally considered myself very law-abiding and honest. There were just certain circumstances where I made exceptions.

And people who tried to murder me were definitely exceptions.

[Zavira: Have you heard the latest news?]

[Me: What news?]

[Zavira: One of the Springheart heirs was kidnapped and tortured.]

I snorted. The guy was not tortured. If he had been, I would have a bright red flag over my head, marking me as an offender. Restraining and taunting someone was nowhere close to torture.

But… did that mean he was alive?

It sorta sounded like the guy had made it back alive.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. A little relieved, maybe? Annoyed?

[Me: Wow! It shouldn’t be hard to find out who did it, then. That would be a clear violation of the Accords, right?]

Truth and misdirection. Making such comments made me feel like a politician.

[Zavira: That’s what most people think. The family has put out a reward for anyone with information about the attack.]

[Me: Well, I guess we should keep an eye out for offenders. The heir survived, right?]

That was my big question. While I’d probably be fine either way, if the guy survived, I might have issues if he recognized me as the person he attacked. As far as the arrogant jerk was concerned, I should be dead.

[Zavira: It looks that way…]

Great…

I released a sigh. I’d probably need to avoid going out and about in the city too much for the rest of our stay on the floor.

It wasn’t like surviving the kid’s attack made me a suspect or anything, but if someone looked too closely at my affinities, it might draw some uncomfortable questions.

I could lie a whole lot easier via message or by making casual, misleading comments. Directly lying was a whole other thing.

I sucked at lying when asked a direct question. That was all the more reason not to draw attention to myself.

[Me: Then it shouldn’t be hard for them to find the culprit. I’m sure the victim can identify whoever kidnapped them, right?]

The non-existent victim since Andruno certainly wouldn’t qualify for such a label.

I was amazed the little jerk had managed to survive. But I supposed if his family was actively looking for him, it wouldn’t have been difficult to home in on his tracking device once it was taken out of Stasis.

They really did have a Space Mage under contract, after all. It was one of the things Andruno had often bragged about when he talked about how quickly his family would find him.

[Zavira: I’m not sure. The city guard is really spun up over the incident, though. I guess he was taken during the beast wave.]

[Me: Huh. That’s weird. Was he not fighting?]

The conversation went back and forth for a while as I slowly learned what little information had been released to the public. Between messages, I pulled up the latest news on what served as the floor’s data network.

There wasn’t a lot of information available, but that was to be expected. I wondered how things would change in the coming days and weeks.

If the sect representatives outside the dungeon saw the ‘interview’ I had with the young Springheart, I imagined things were going to get a bit more interesting in the Realm Dungeon.