Primer for the Apocalypse

“Does it feel easier, somehow?” I asked after the giant venomous centipede collapsed. It was the third one we’d encountered since we entered the mid-tier area of the Wonderland zone.

Zavira winced slightly. “It does.”

“Is it because we aren’t allowing fights to enter melee unnecessarily?”

Zavira approached the carcass and carefully stored it inside her ring. The amount of space Zavira had in her potion-granted inventory at Tier Five was not enough to hold such a creature, but the ring she’d commissioned from me held plenty of room.

It also was enchanted with [Stasis].

“That’s my theory,” Zavira said a moment later. “It’s a hard balance, trying to advance quickly without damaging one’s foundation.”

“It’s not like we aren’t getting any experience fighting close-range,” I said, thinking back on one of our fights the day before.

We’d been fighting several large flying creatures that looked like a mix between wasps and mosquitos when a teleporting lynx surprised us. Spatial Sense hadn’t picked it up at all, nor had Zavira’s nascent Motion Sense.

I suspected it had Teleported from outside our detection range somehow.

I’d been using the encounter to train myself by excluding Zavira from area-effect spells like Slow or Pause, so my mana was already significantly lower than it would have otherwise been.

Such manipulations were mana-intensive and thus limited, especially when adding a teleporting lynx into the Time-slowed domain. Anything added to the domain after the spell was cast increased the mana cost associated with maintaining the effect.

Because my spell was directly competing with the lynx’s teleportation, those costs were exponentially increased.

Ultimately, I’d had to drop the spell to conserve what little mana I had remaining and shift to fighting the creature in melee.

It was a challenge, especially with flying mobs still attacking. But we’d managed fine.

“That’s true,” Zavira said. I imagined she was recalling the same recent encounter. “We should probably make an effort to ensure we get regular practice to maintain our skills.”

“Right. Just like I don’t use Time magic to make everything easy for us,” I said with a grin.

I used it occasionally since ignoring and not training with such a valuable advantage would be foolish. But it would be similarly foolish to become reliant on such spells, especially for Zavira, who didn’t have access to such magic without formations.

“Exactly,” Zavira replied. “Shall we continue, or do you want to call it a day? We have a couple of commissions still pending, and I wanted to have my part complete before the end of the week.”

Though Niall was no longer our party member, he still contributed to the occasional joint creation and facilitated their sale. Since he was basically our point of contact with the more active elites on the floor, it was an acceptable enough arrangement.

That would likely change once we reached level fifty and unlocked our tertiary professions. I was considering taking Merchant so I could earn experience by selling directly through the kiosks, while Zavira was leaning toward Trader to handle in-person and material trades.

There was a lot of overlap between the two professions, but there were also several subtle differences.

“Let’s do a few more encounters. I wouldn’t mind more materials to work with,” I said after a bit of thought.

We really were ahead of schedule for the floor, so I didn’t feel like we needed to rush. But I also loved seeing the numbers go up in my status. It gave me a sense of accomplishment that was hard to match elsewhere.

We’d finished the fourth floor faster than expected, and now that it was just Zavira and me, I felt like we’d finish the fifth floor ahead of schedule as well.

If we continued to progress at this new, increased pace, meeting Master Kairos’s goal seemed quite possible. I might even manage it with some extra time left over.

I doubted I’d accompany him on his ascension, even though I knew he really wanted a companion for the journey. There was just too much I wanted to do in this realm to leave.

I wanted to spend time with my family and watch my niece and nephew grow up. I wanted to maybe start my own family in this realm. I didn’t want to wait until I moved on to do something like that. I wanted my kids to have cousins to play with and grandparents to spoil them.

The alternative was taking his place in the sect. The idea of doing something like that felt so distant, so unrealistic. It was like imagining myself as royalty or something. I could imagine it, but only within the bounds of fantasy, not as something I actually felt was possible.

Regardless of all that, growing faster would let me see my family sooner. That was my real motivation.

A whole decade outside the dungeon.

It felt almost like a dream.

I’d already spent almost four years in the dungeon. It felt like such a long time, but I knew it was just a drop in the bucket compared to how much longer I needed to spend there.

Not even a year had passed for the rest of my family. I sometimes wondered if they’d recognize me when I saw them next. Would the me of before recognize the me I was becoming?

The sudden silence pulled the half of my mind that was contemplating life and existence into the present.

We’d been walking the short distance to the next set of mobs on our shared mini-map just a second earlier, but now… we were somewhere else.

“What is this place?” I asked quietly as my twin streams of thought categorized what my senses were telling them.

We were no longer surrounded by massive plants and creatures. Instead, we stood atop a low hill. A pillar of crystal stood behind us, with a floating globe hovering above the pedestal.

Beyond the hill, my senses were hampered by a thick fog of multi-colored mana. I couldn’t see or sense anything inside the swirling motes. I wasn’t sure anything existed there.

“I’m not sure—”

Zavira’s words abruptly cut off when a notification appeared before my eyes.

[Welcome, Challenger!

Complete the Trial and be rewarded.

You may practice this Trial 0 times.

You may challenge this Trial 1 time.

Would you like to:

Practice, Challenge, or Exit the Trial?

*NOTE: You may not reenter this trial*]

“I’ve only read about one trial on the fifth floor. It’s supposed to be a wave trial,” I said after reading the prompt. “Nobody ever gets a second try if they exit… so… are we doing it?”

I looked at my companion to gauge her reaction.

She’d just mentioned wanting to head back soon, but from what I understood, this trial could take a long time. It was a huge opportunity – one we hadn’t gotten on the previous floor.

We’d played around a bit in the sunken ship, but it wasn’t a real trial with dungeon rewards based on performance. In our haste to progress and distraction with the war, we’d somehow missed out on the fourth floor’s trial.

It was a bit of a shame. The crystal node I’d received from the third floor was still useful, even two tiers later.

“We have to,” Zavira replied. “Can we sleep before we start it, or is there a time limit?”

I didn’t know the answer to that question, but it seemed Zavira got one.

“Oh. The dungeon says we have ten minutes to decide. If we haven’t selected an option by then, the trial will automatically start.”

My thoughts spun with possibilities, but the first thing I needed to do was establish a Time domain and extend our grace period.

Since my mana reserves were still low, I didn’t have enough mana to cast the spell myself, so I started pulling out a pre-made formation. It was something I used when I was crafting or training to get the most benefit from the time I had without draining my resources in the process.

“I’ll set up the dilation zone. You figure out how we’re going to spend the hour that I can stretch that to.”

Five-times time dilation on a formation wasn’t bad. I was close to reaching six, but I needed more practice with the runes involved. I could cast at seven-times dilation for short stints, but that was only because Master Kairos had given me a ton of insight into how the spell worked.

It wasn’t a direct comparison.

“I’m so glad you had that with you,” Zavira said. “Maybe it’s lucky Niall joined the other elites.”

Though it sounded a bit strange, I understood what she meant.

The formation I was setting up was the one I’d loaned to Niall to help him extend his crafting and rest time while we were partying together. It wasn’t something he’d purchased or a gift, so when he left the party, he’d returned it.

Niall didn’t really like using it anyway since the effects of quickened time still impacted his body as if they were natural. I’d undone the minor aging he’d experienced as a gift, which had the interesting side effect of me realizing just how young the Kastet really was.

Though he was physically and mentally a fully mature adult, upon entering the dungeon, he’d only been fifteen years old. I already knew that Kastets naturally awakened at ten years old since that was when they reached adulthood, but I’d somehow never made the connections.

To awaken at ten and reach tier four by fifteen? While attending an academy… it was just mind-blowing. He had to have some kind of training rift setup like I’d done for Sumi, Bell, and Natalie back home.

Not that Niall’s age mattered, but it did explain his perception that he was progressing too slowly.

I finished setting up the formation and activated it. The effect only covered a small area since it was only designed to cover a workspace. I managed to expand it to encompass the size of a small bedroom, which should be more than enough room for both of us to Meditate and do a bit of crafting – if necessary.

“What kind of creatures will we be fighting?” Zavira asked. “Do you know?”

“The few accounts I read described waves that changed composition each time. One might be wolves, and the next snakes or bats or dinosaurs. Eventually, the dungeon will send more than one type of creature at the same time, but there wasn’t much information available beyond that.”

I thought for a second and realized that wasn’t actually true.

“We are supposed to get a ten-minute break between waves, and we can opt to leave during the break as well. Once the wave starts, though, we’re forced to finish it.”

“And loot?”

I shook my head. “Only at the end. The bodies disappear as soon as the wave ends, or maybe as soon as they die?” I raised my hands uncertainly. “It wasn’t very clear. One of the challengers just mentioned not being able to collect any materials and being upset by it.”

“That’s disappointing. What about the rewards?”

“They’re supposed to be good, but nobody shared what they got.”

“That’s telling,” Zavira said.

I nodded. It was very telling.

“Okay, we should probably prepare several easy-to-eat meals and snacks, then. Hopefully, we can set up something like this between waves so we have more time to recover,” Zavira said, motioning toward the formation markers.

“If I had more mana, I’d just cast the spell. It would’ve saved some time,” I said with a frown.

“You should focus on meditating, then. I’ll take care of the food,” Zavira offered as she removed her MealMaker from her ring.

Seeing it made me smile, but I quickly settled down and focused on recovering as much mana as possible in the time we had remaining.