Primer for the Apocalypse

The waves kept coming.

Ten minutes between waves was hardly anything, especially with my ability to expand that time being effectively countered. The dungeon had negated my ability to dilate time by automatically starting waves after ten subjective minutes had passed for at least one participant.

We learned that lesson the hard way when we tried to extend our break the first time. Thankfully, we’d tried early enough that we didn’t actually need a longer break. It just would have been nice.

The challenge had started pretty easy, with only two level forty-one creatures. The next wave had four, and the next six, then eight, and so on until there were twenty creatures. At that point, the creatures changed, and their level increased to forty-two.

The number of opponents also reset, dragging out the challenge. Without Refresh, we would have struggled to continue beyond the fiftieth wave. Even with the spell helping restore our stamina and reduce mental fatigue, the strain of near-constant fighting was starting to build.

Not getting injured was also helpful, though that was largely accomplished through the judicial use of [Barriers] and Barriers.

“How many more waves do you want to push through?” Zavira asked as we caught our breath after the seventy-ninth wave.

The dungeon had started mixing the mobs at wave fifty, making things more interesting and a bit more dangerous. The last set had been particularly difficult with the mix of quick-moving ground mobs and flyers.

“As many as we can,” I replied tiredly before casting Refresh on both of us.

I was relying heavily on core-powered enchanted weapons to get through the larger waves, and mostly fighting in melee for the smaller ones. It was done in an attempt to preserve as much mana as possible since ten minutes was not nearly enough time to recover between waves.

I couldn’t rely too heavily on mana potions since my stock was lower than normal when we entered the Trial. I hadn’t restocked after my last crafting session, which normally wouldn’t have been a big deal had we not gotten pulled into the Trial.

Non-Enchanters often didn’t realize how mana-intensive creating intricate enchantments was. I imagined it was similar for some of the other professions as well.

Alchemists certainly used a lot of mana when making potions and pills. Even making reagents and such took a fair amount of mana to create.

While I technically could craft my own potions, it wasn’t generally worth my time or the effort involved. I still made my own reagents, but mana potions and such were easier to simply buy from someone specializing in Alchemy.

I drank one of my few remaining mana potions and sighed as I felt my regeneration kick into high speed. It had been several waves since I drank the last one.

“How are you on mana?” I asked Zavira.

“I’m at toxicity,” she replied after putting away her own empty vial with a grimace. “I can’t drink anymore.”

I looked a bit more closely at my friend. She looked fine, if a bit pale. That was probably Refresh in action, though. While it would help recover stamina and generally refresh someone, it did nothing to combat alchemical toxicity.

“Do you want me to use Restore?” I asked hesitantly.

Zavira seemed to really consider the offer for a moment before shaking her head.

“No. There’s no reason to waste the spell for a superficial effect. I still won’t be able to use any more potions for the rest of the day.”

I checked my status, wondering how close I was to the next level. After killing nearly 200 creatures, I felt like I should be getting close.

***

Name: Emie deEpíkairos

Level: 42 (392842/394900)

Profession: Enchanter/Manatechnician

Affinities: Time, Space

***

Health: 290

Stamina: 460

Mana: 352/640

***

Attributes

Strength – 17

Agility – 20

Vitality – 29

Intelligence – 64

Wisdom – 52

Perception – 29

***

Spells*

Skills*

***

I smiled at the number. I’d only just reached level forty-two a couple of weeks earlier, and a decent chunk of the experience for that level had come from the previous floor since we’d been short on alternate experience.

“Will you be alright for the next wave? It’s the big one,” I said, referencing the twenty-mob wave that ended each set of waves.

While I hoped to get at least one more wave in since the experience would go a long way toward filling the remaining gap, I didn’t want my friend and companion to get injured from overextending.

“I should be fine for this one and maybe the first couple in the next series if the mobs don’t counter me too hard.”

I forced myself to my feet before offering Zavira my hand. “It’s really okay if you want to call it. You’re already experiencing potion toxicity. Another day or so of grinding will be enough to get to the next level for me. Such a small delay isn’t worth our safety.”

My companion shook her head as she stumbled to her feet. “No. Let’s get through at least one more wave. The reward should be better if we finish the round.”

Unwilling to challenge Zavira’s assessment of her own capability, I said nothing.

Instead, I handed her a scepter capable of toggling between two elements. It was the upgrade to my original cluster-caster design, which I realized wasted far too much mana to be viable.

“Ice and Earth,” I said, showing her how to switch between the two elements. I pointed at the runes. “[Lance], [Shard], and [Spike]. The last one will manifest below the target, just like the other scepter you tried.”

The Smith gave me a tired smile. “Thanks. I’d probably be fine without it, but this will make things easier. I really should commission a couple of variants from you for situations like this.”

“You can keep that one if you make me a dozen—”

My offer was cut off by the arrival of the next wave. This time, it was a combination of wolf-like creatures and screaming eagles. Without our [Barriers], the Sonic Screams would have likely caused significant damage.

As it was, the sound was still a bit disorienting.

Zavira didn’t bother trying to fight with her usual style. Instead, she peppered half of the wave with a non-stop barrage of spells from the scepter. I was a little worried that she might drain the mana cores before the wave was finished at the rate she was firing.

The design allowed the spells to be cast without spending more than a pinch of mana, though doing so diminished the mana cores embedded in the weapon. The cores could be recharged with the proper manatech device so long as they weren’t wholly depleted.

Empty cores couldn’t be recharged, but they were still valuable, especially for Alchemists and Smiths.

Swapping empty or near-empty cores for new ones was also a valid option. It was also the option used by most of the people who favored such weapons.

I focused more of my attention on my own fight after verifying my friend was doing alright. I’d Slowed all of the mobs after they emerged from the fog, so the fight wasn’t quite as dangerous as it might have otherwise been.

Since it was clear Zavira was on her last leg, I wasn’t as worried about saving mana. I still kept enough for an emergency Teleport or Restore, not that the former would do much inside a Trial.

When the last of the creatures fell, I tried to store the body as I’d done with each of the previous waves. I succeeded, bringing me to a total of eighteen bodies collected out of eighty waves.

“Do you have extra cores for this?” Zavira asked, holding out the scepter.

“A few,” I said before taking a bite of the skewer I’d retrieved from my ring. It was one of the ones Zavira had made in preparation for the Trial.

“I can probably go a few more waves if I change the cores.”

I handed her two pairs of Ice and Earth cores. It was more than she should need for a full round of waves, but I didn’t see the point in being stingy. We could always pick up more the next time we went hunting.

“It still feels a bit like cheating,” Zavira said with a frown as she exchanged the depleted cores for fresh ones.

“It’s the same as using a sword or a mace,” I said half-heartedly, echoing a previous discussion we’d had.

I’d argued that using weapons enchanted with castable spells was the same thing as using any other enchanted weapon. Zavira didn’t see using enchanted swords, knives, or other smithed weapons as cheating, so logically, the same should apply to casting implements.

Zavira had argued that melee weapons still required skill to use, unlike the point-and-shoot capabilities of many manatech weapons. She wasn’t necessarily wrong, but even point-and-shoot weapons still had a skill element involved.

And also, sometimes, just pointing and shooting was preferable.

We made it through eighty-seven waves, which I felt was a pretty decent showing. If we’d been better prepared and fresh, we might have gone even further.

When we touched the orb and expressed our intent to end the Trial, our surroundings melted away, leaving me surrounded by a sea of white.

I could no longer see or hear Zavira, but I felt confident we were both safe.

[Congratulations on your performance!]

[You have earned a boon.]

The words appeared floating in front of me, much like the other messages from the dungeon had. I found it a little odd that the dungeon had separated me and Zavira. It made me wonder if there was something more to the reward portion than disclosed.

Actually, nothing had been disclosed about the rewards, now that I thought about it. Zavira and I had both thought that exclusion was noteworthy.

[As a reward for completing 87 waves of the Fifth Floor Trial, you may select one of the following:

Growth crafting material

Growth weapon

Growth armor

Set of growth tools related to your primary profession

Set of growth tools related to your secondary profession

Intermediate Skill Crystal of choice

Advancement of one existing skill of choice

Intermediate Spell Crystal of choice

Advancement or evolution of one existing spell of choice]

That… was a lot of choices. We must have performed better than I thought.

I immediately understood why Zavira and I were separated, though I wished we were still together. It would have been nice to discuss the options with someone before making such a decision.

I focused on the first option with the intention of learning more. The selection immediately expanded.

[Growth crafting material: a node creating one replenishable resource. Materials created will be at the tier of the mana imbued. The Crystal Node you received for the Third Floor Trial is an example of a growth crafting material.]

I was caught off-guard by the personalization involved in the explanation, but I tried not to let it bother me. It was obvious that the dungeon was at least semi-sapient.

I went through the rest of the options. They were basically self-explanatory.

Growth items increased in tier as the user did by siphoning a bit of mana to fuel whatever magical evolution the dungeon created. They would only ever grow with a single person since they would attune or bind to that person’s mana.

Anyone else who tried to use them would be limited to whatever tier the item was currently at since the growth aspect would only work for one person.

The intermediate skill crystal would give me a brand-new skill at the intermediate level. Only specialized and combat skills had such designations, though I was almost sure general skills had similar, hidden metrics.

The same applied to the spell crystal. It would give me a new spell, functional at whatever served as the ‘intermediate’ level. I had no idea how the system – or the dungeon – would make such a determination, but I didn’t need to understand how something worked to take advantage of it.

The two options that I was most interested in were the advancement of an existing skill or spell.

The first would push one of my skills to the next level. Something like Enchanting, which had been stuck at the peak of Advanced since I entered the dungeon, could be pushed to Expert – just one step below Master.

It was a feat I didn’t imagine accomplishing before leaving the dungeon, even with my inheritance. Master Kairos seemed to think otherwise, though. He’d felt confident I’d reach Expert in the skill before reaching the Eighth Floor.

As far as pushing an existing spell to the next level… I had no idea how that would even work. Would the dungeon provide me some kind of insight like I’d experienced during the first timeline when I first connected to my affinities?

I worried that using the boon that way might be wasted since I still had so much more of my inheritance to go.

Then again, most of what was left related to Time. Stella made no secret of the fact that there were a lot of things she couldn’t share about advanced Space-related topics. Using the boon to push one of my Space spells further might be a very good way of gaining valuable insight into the element.

I wished I could use the reward to advance my understanding of Space magic in general. It was too bad that skills like Space Magic Mastery didn’t exist. I would definitely want to push that skill to the next level if it did.

[Would you like to use your boon to learn the skill: Space Magic Mastery, at the intermediate level?]

My brain stuttered to a near halt as I stood, blinking at the prompt.

“That skill exists?” I asked once I found my voice.

Unsaid, I wondered how I hadn’t earned the skill after everything I’d learned and accomplished. Was there a similar mastery skill for Time? If there was, why had it never been mentioned before?

Mentally, I asked, “Lisa, can you access the inheritance to see if there is anything about Space or Time Magic Mastery?”

After a moment, Lisa replied, “Time Magic Mastery is the subject of the first lesson at Tier Eight. I cannot provide any further information about the topic at this time.”

I nodded to myself. It was good to know the skill would be covered at some point in the future, though I wondered why it would take so long to get there. If the dungeon was offering me the Space magic version of the skill now, that meant it shouldn’t be beyond my ability to comprehend, right?

I waited, hoping for some response from the dungeon or the system on the topic, but no answer came.

“Dungeon,” I said, looking up at nothing. “Are there any skills or spells you recommend for me based on my aptitudes and affinities?”

Again, there was no response. I sighed.

“Can I see a list of skills available for the intermediate selection?”

Nothing appeared.

It seemed I had to know what skill I wanted instead of choosing from a list of options. Space Magic Mastery really did seem like a good choice, and with Stella unable to contribute more to my inheritance, it made sense to choose it.

Hoping I wasn’t making a mistake, I made my selection.