Primer for the Apocalypse

I targeted the largest of the creatures from my hidden perch. My capabilities with Space magic had truly soared since obtaining Space Magic Mastery a few years earlier, and my understanding continued to grow the more I Meditated and practiced.

The creature – an Opisthonyx, according to Assess – looked remarkably similar to a kangaroo, if said kangaroo was six feet tall, had knife-like claws, and the head of a boar.

Applying my newest insights, I directed my magic toward the opisthonyx. The Space mana was wrapped in a thin coating of Time mana, which allowed it to bypass the creature’s inherent resistance to outside mana and settle easily around the targeted organ.

I could do the same thing with only Space mana and brute force – I’d done so hours earlier against another creature, so I knew it was possible. It just took too much mana to be a viable attack technique.

But with Time mana added to the mix…

The creature’s brain appeared in the container I’d prepared in advance. My research had shown that the organ was of particular value to many Alchemists, so I’d ensured I pursued at least one of the creatures during my outing.

The opisthonyx I’d targeted fell a second or two after the brain was removed. It wasn’t quite as immediate as I expected it to be, but the tiny delay was of no consequence.

I was elated by my success. There’d been hardly any resistance at all with Time magic smoothing the way.

I’d gotten the idea from my latest inheritance lesson, which targeted specific body parts or organs instead of an entire creature. Using Pause or Stasis on a creature’s brain would instantly cause most of them to collapse, leaving them vulnerable to more permanent attacks.

Even those whose muscles locked up would be unable to react to attacks… what with their brain being disconnected from their body and all.

Some creatures could easily recover – even after a few hours – once the connection to their brain was restored. Most creatures couldn’t, though. At least, that’s what the inheritance said.

I continued watching as the creatures nearby regarded the newly fallen opisthonyx curiously. After a few careful sniffs, the grazing mobs turned their teeth toward their fallen brethren.

I swiped the mana core and a few choice materials before the creatures could get to them.

While my excursion was more of a testing and training exercise than a true hunt, there was no reason to give up valuable resources.

The cost of living on the sixth floor was much higher than it had been on previous floors. The only exception was the central village, which was still a good bit more expensive than expected. It was nowhere near as exorbitant as the nearby cities, though.

The relative reasonableness of the prices in the central village somewhat explained why so many challengers had decided to stay there. It also made sense why the dungeon would restrict the area to ‘official challengers.’

I’d found a few explanations about what qualified as such in the library, but I wasn’t sure how accurate any of them were. Presumably, the dungeon would warn someone if they were at risk of losing their status as a challenger, anyway.

Even if it didn’t, I had no plans to delay inside the dungeon, so the potential loss of my status as a challenger wasn’t something that I was worried about.

After locating my next potential target, I Teleported toward the Summer Zone. My goal was to test the effectiveness of the technique against several different types of creatures.

It was considered a technique instead of a spell since it was an effect purely created through Direct Casting. It required finesse instead of a semi-rigid set of magical instructions.

As I experimented with the technique against several creatures, my confidence in its application grew.

It was only after I’d spent hours practicing that I realized I probably shouldn’t have used such a skill so openly. Who knew how many watchers had observed my experiments?

I glanced at the faux sky and frowned.

I hoped showing such an ability wouldn’t cause problems later on. Any strong Time Mage could completely incapacitate someone, and any strong Space Mage could potentially remove someone’s brain. I just happened to be both.

And it wasn’t like I planned to use the ability against people. Not unless they forced me to.

I shook my head. There was nothing I could do about it now.

A glance at my interface showed I was only minutes away from needing to leave. I had an appointment with a martial trainer I’d been working with during our extended break.

Master Kairos had included several advanced fighting techniques in my inheritance, but they almost exclusively dealt with Time magic or fighting without using powers at all. The trainer I’d hired during the break had a Space affinity and had trained in using spatial techniques offensively.

Though I still preferred fighting at a distance, I wasn’t willing to completely forgo melee training. It helped that the man was willing to exchange lessons for fairly basic enchantments.

I’d wanted to spend some time soaking in the regeneration-boosting waters of the floor’s Hot Spring, too, but the cost of one of the packages was out of reach until we spent some time hunting.

I wasn’t sure if our finder’s discount had been that significant on the fourth floor, or if the inflation that seemingly ran rampant on the sixth floor was reflected by the dungeon-controlled resource. Maybe it was a bit of both.

Regardless, I’d have to wait to enjoy the magical waters.

“I think we should pay to have our kills processed instead of doing it ourselves,” I recommended when I met Zavira for dinner later that evening.

We ate dinner together most evenings since using the MealMakers allowed us to save a lot of money, which was important, given how expensive everything was on the sixth floor.

“Won’t that be really expensive?” Zavira asked, pointing out the obvious issue with my suggestion.

“Not if we’re able to spend that time hunting more,” I replied. “I don’t mind killing beasts nearly as much as I dislike harvesting them. Since neither of us has a profession related to processing our kills, it makes sense to pay someone who does.”

She seemed to consider my suggestion more deeply than she had before. It was not the first time we’d had this conversation, after all.

Ultimately, we’d always agreed to handle everything ourselves since we could work under a Time Dilation Field. But now that it was expected to take almost a decade to get through this one tier, I felt like it was worth reassessing one of our major time-sinks.

Killing creatures was always faster than harvesting them, even under time dilation. We might break even if we only gave it a half-hearted effort – which we didn’t. We almost always butchered and processed everything properly, and that took time.

If we outsourced the task to someone who specialized in harvesting Tier Six beasts, we’d have a lot more time to hunt, craft, or perform any number of other tasks instead of processing our kills. I might even be able to set up a [Time Dilation Field] enchantment for the person working with us to offset some of the costs.

“We can try it for a while,” she said after a few minutes. “You know that I hate dealing with the blood and viscera, too, but I don’t want my harvesting-related skills to atrophy. I’ll never live down the shame if I return to my great-grandfather and struggle to properly process my kills.”

It was the same argument she’d given the last few times I’d made the suggestion. At least this time she was willing to try my suggestion.

“So save a couple of kills every week and use them to maintain your familiarity,” I suggested. “That’s what I plan to do.”

If I knew for certain that beast harvesting services would be available on every floor, I probably wouldn’t bother with maintaining my proficiency in the skills. But since I had no idea what to expect on higher floors, it made sense to keep the relevant skills fresh.

We ate some mutton curry I’d made using actual mutton as the base ingredient. I found it a little odd that the dungeon had sheep on the sixth floor. They weren’t mutated or changed, as far as I could tell – aside from the handful that had metallic wool.

Even those seemed like normal sheep as long as they didn’t see you. Once they did, they became rabid, aggressive mobs, just like everything else in the dungeon.

“Are you ready to get back to the grind?” I asked a few minutes later.

Zavira leaned back in her chair. “I think so. The break was good, and I really appreciate the [Time Dilation] enchantment you added to my workspace. It helped.”

“Good,” I said with a smile. “I’m glad to hear that.”

“You’ve already been hunting in the grasslands, right?”

I nodded. “A little. I’ve mostly been testing out some new insights I gained from my inheritance,” I said, not mentioning the skill that started Zavira’s near-frenzy. “I’ve been focusing a lot of my time on the inheritance training during our break. I even went back to the old lessons from Tiers Four and Five to do them again, now that I have a greater understanding of some of the topics.”

“I did something similar while I waited for my smithy to tier up,” Zavira said.

Her mobile smithy was not a true growth item like I originally thought. It was actually a Tier Seven item that had been intentionally downgraded so it could enter the dungeon with Zavira.

The method used allowed the item to grow back to its original tier much more quickly than a normal item would, though it would functionally cap at Tier Seven unless it was left in a higher-tier area for a very long time.

Apparently, her sect had several similar items available for potential dungeon challengers. When she returned, her smithy would be forcibly downgraded again and given to the next person who needed it.

“How do you feel about the new techniques you learned?” I asked.

She made a ‘so-so’ motion with her hands.

“The increase in difficulty was a bit of a surprise,” Zavira admitted. “I still haven’t grasped some of the concepts, but I’m close.”

“The weapons you gave me looked well-made,” I said supportively.

Zavira frowned. “Then your understanding of Smithing is lacking,” she said bluntly. “There were entirely too many errors. I almost scrapped the entire batch instead of just most of it. I’m almost embarrassed to have produced such mediocre work.”

I didn’t argue with her since we both knew Smithing was one of my weakest crafting fields. Even if I was technically correct, trying to argue about Smithing with a Smith was a fool’s endeavor.

“Is that why you didn’t add your maker’s mark?” I asked.

The half-dwarf nodded. “I do not want to sully my sect’s reputation by associating my practice pieces with Hephaistos. It is only because the beast wave is expected to start any day now that I allowed the items to enter circulation. Any tier-appropriate weapon is better than none.”

As a fellow crafter, I understood her sentiment. I wouldn’t want substandard items bearing my mark, either. But I felt like Zavira was being harder on herself than she would another crafter.

Her items were well-made, regardless of what she said. I might not be a Smith, but I knew how to assess enchanting bases.

We might have been judging things based on two different sets of criteria, but I felt it was more of a personal issue with the Hephaistos disciple. I certainly doubted any consumers would find her products lacking.

“Have you thought about which city you want to defend during the next wave?” I asked.

Some challengers planned to stay in the central village during the beast wave, even though the structures themselves were basically indestructible, and most of the beasts would focus on the larger cities.

Zavira and I had already agreed to protect one of the nearby cities instead of bothering with the stragglers that might attack the village. The only question was – which one?

“I’m partial to Harbor, obviously,” I said, referencing my obvious preference for spring and summer.

“Eh, I don’t really care either way,” Zavira said, though I knew her preferences ran more toward cooler temperatures.

“Why don’t we protect Harbor during this wave and Hexaport during the next one?” I suggested.

“That’s fine with me,” my companion replied. “Most of the challengers I’ve spoken with are planning to stay close to the safe zone until the next wave starts. It should happen within the next couple of weeks.”

“It’s a good thing I can Teleport. We won’t have to bother sticking around until then.” I looked at Zavira’s expression. “Unless you’d rather wait to restart our grind until after the beast wave? Since you’ve agreed to outsource material processing, we should be able to progress a little faster than estimated, even after taking a break.”

“I wouldn’t mind waiting,” Zavira said. “I had a few people requisition new weapons over the last couple of weeks that I haven’t gotten around to making yet.”

That was always happening. Even without actively marketing herself, Zavira always had people soliciting her for work. It was a side effect of being the disciple of such a prominent Smithing sect.

“I suppose it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make some point-and-shoot wands for the newly awakened who might want to earn some experience during the wave,” I admitted.

After the incident with the little Springheart heir, I hadn’t bothered with crafting such items for beast waves. But now that some time had passed, I found myself more open to the idea.

Given the relative weakness of those residents below Tier Six, point-and-shoot weapons were about the only option they had if they wanted to contribute. The lack of tier-appropriate resources and challenges was probably why so many natives opted to become challengers themselves after a few beast waves.

If organized and handled properly, most newly awakened youths could jump all the way to Tier Two in a single beast wave. They even had sleep chambers along some of the walls to facilitate people leveling up.

I’d read all about them during one of the evenings I’d spent in the library.

I was sure some used the opportunity to upgrade their interfaces as well. It made sense, given the significant experience bonus they’d receive by killing creatures so much stronger than them.

I was sure the dungeon or the system or whatever controlled such things probably gave them some kind of penalty for using an overpowered weapon to kill creatures above their tier, but I was certain everything balanced in the youths’ favor.

There really wasn’t much chance for young dungeoneers to progress otherwise.

“That reminds me,” Zavira said with a smirk. “We should request to be stationed on a wall without newly awakened youths.”

“That’s probably a good idea,” I agreed before eyeing my companion curiously. “I thought you planned to fight on the ground, though? Isn’t range still an issue?”

The half-dwarf grinned widely. “I don’t think it’ll be as much of a problem this time.”