Primer for the Apocalypse

The conversation with Ava had the opposite effect that I thought she was hoping for. Instead of potentially soothing the loneliness of two adrift Earthborns, her obvious attempts at matchmaking only served to push me further away from the idea.

After everything I’d experienced, I knew myself well enough to know that I would struggle to continue on my chosen path if I fell in love. Love had no business in my immediate future anyway, especially not with the promises I’d made.

System-enforced promises that I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, get out of.

Just because Sir Eri’Non had ascended didn’t mean the contract I’d made with him and Master Kairos was voided. If anything, it was the exact opposite since he wasn’t present in the realm to agree to any modifications.

Most Earthborn still likely had little concept of what system-enforced really meant. Thankfully, I knew enough not to put myself into a position where I might knowingly violate the terms of such an agreement.

That included allowing myself to get involved in a potentially compromising relationship.

As far as I was concerned, letting myself get romantically involved with Riley – or anyone else, for that matter – was just asking for future pain and suffering. The only exception would be if my chosen partner was willing to join me on my journey to Tier Ten, and that wasn’t something you could ask of someone early in a relationship.

Either way, I didn’t see Riley fitting that criteria. I’d still spend time with the trio, but they were all very firmly ‘friend-zoned,’ as far as I was concerned.

Zavira was right. Until I reached Tier Ten, meaningless flings were about the best I could hope for.

Zavira and I fought against several groups of creatures as we zigzagged our way across the mid and high-tier portions of the Winter zone a couple of days later.

As we bounced from one fight to the next, I practiced some of the newer techniques I’d learned since reaching Tier Six, prompting Zavira to jokingly call me a cheater.

“Just because my affinities are awesome doesn’t make me a cheater,” I said with a grin after releasing the spell I’d used to defeat the last set of mobs.

“No, but what you do with them does,” she replied as she eyed the bloody mess left behind. “Really, having two affinities is unfair enough, but Time and Space?” She shook her head. “Some people have all the luck.”

“You do remember I grew up on a mundane colony world, right?”

Zavira scoffed, “That obviously didn’t hurt you.”

She wasn’t wrong – in this timeline. But I was an anomaly in more ways than one.

Before teleporting to the next set of mobs, I said, “I want to show you a new technique I learned. I’d like to get your feedback on it, if possible.”

“Another technique?” Zavira said with surprise. “I thought the compressing prison sphere was the only new thing you’d figured out with Space mana lately. Is it a Time-based technique?”

Her comment referred to my last attack, which had surrounded the creatures with a Space Barrier that gradually shrank until the creatures inside were crushed. We were actively working together as a party, so even if she didn’t really contribute to the fight, she still got some experience from it.

“Kinda,” I hedged. “This one… Have you ever heard of Space Mages being able to remove part of a creature’s body while it was alive?”

Zavira nodded. “Sure. There are several Smiths in my sect with a Space affinity, so I’m pretty familiar with what they can do at high tiers.”

“Do you know of any who can remove a creature’s brain while they are still alive?” I asked curiously.

“Sure, hypothetically,” she said. “But it usually takes too much mana to do something like that. It would be like trying to freeze the creature’s brain or set it on fire. It’s possible, but the mana cost would be really high. If you’re fighting a smart enough opponent, they can more actively resist, which would make it almost impossible unless you were a higher tier.”

I nodded in understanding. Even trying to Teleport someone against their will could be very difficult if the person was actively resisting.

“So… wrapping the Space mana in Time mana bypasses a lot of that since Time is generally perceived as non-threatening. At least, it is until you use it against someone offensively the first few times.”

“Oh, that’s an awesome combined application of your magic!” Zavira said enthusiastically.

“It doesn’t make you nervous?” I asked curiously, surprised by her response.

“No,” my companion said while giving me an odd look. “Why would it?”

“I thought people might be nervous by the potential applications.”

Zavira shrugged. “Maybe some might, but if they are intentionally fighting you, they should already expect Space and Time magic to be used against them. It’s just like any other internal attack. Mind, Life, and even Soul magic are just a few examples.”

“And like I said earlier,” Zavira continued, “every affinity could be used that way with enough effort. It’s just that we’re naturally resistant to such attacks so it takes a lot more mana than you’d normally expend in a single attack.”

“I hadn’t thought about it that way,” I said thoughtfully before heading toward our next set of targets. The mobs were close enough that teleporting would be a waste of mana. Besides, a little walking was good for us anyway.

I was glad that my technique wouldn’t cause any significant issues once I left the dungeon. It was something I’d worried about since I realized any watchers would have seen the ability.

“Oh, before I forget again,” I said, pausing before we got too close to the small group of beasts. “I meant to give this to you before we left.”

I handed her the newly enchanted [Stasis Storage] ring I’d tucked into the small pouch in my robes. She’d crafted the ring itself, but I did all of the enchanting since Zavira could still do little more than copy or transfer existing enchantments.

“I was able to really empower the spatial aspect, so it’s quite a bit larger than the last one,” I told her proudly.

“Awesome. Thanks,” Zavira said, slipping the ring onto her finger. “I’ll get the rest of the rings to you later. I made a few different styles.”

After learning how much space the rings I crafted contained, Zavira had offered to make a few dozen plain rings in exchange for a single enhanced [Stasis Storage] ring. She had an inventory like the rest of the challengers, but those did not come with any kind of [Stasis] effects, meaning materials could easily rot while inside.

I’d given her one on a previous floor, but its capacity was laughable compared to the items I could make now.

Though there were a few other crafters capable of making such items on the sixth floor, there was always a demand for more. With how large I was able to make the storage space inside my items, I knew they would be in even higher demand once I added them to the kiosk marketplace.

I had no qualms about selling the items at a premium, especially since the cost of gaining access to the Hot Spring was so high. There was no way I was going to skip making use of the valuable resource, so finding a way to earn a lot of credits was a necessity.

I wasn’t wrong about the reception my [Stasis Storage] rings would have. I released them slowly, increasing the cost of each one until I felt the market wouldn’t sustain another increase.

Storage rings weren’t the only products I sold since my primary profession practically mandated I continue making newer, better enchantments.

Over the next several years, I flooded the floor with a variety of weapons, tools, and utility items of increasing complexity, earning alternate experience from my professions with each item.

I sold travel pods that could be used for both transportation and as secure places to stay outside of a stronghold, devices that would allow someone to teleport directly to an anchored location, [Time Dilation] wards, [Cleanse] talismans, healing items, and a number of other useful but oddly absent enchantments.

There were a few cleaning and healing items available, but they were of far lower quality than what I was producing. I wasn’t sure if it was because the knowledge had been lost, or if there was some other reason such items were not generally available.

Since it worked out to my benefit, I didn’t care all that much.

I knew that was probably a poor mentality to have, but the progress of the dungeon city was not something I was overly concerned about. It was a temporary stopping point, not my destination.

Maybe if I wasn’t in a hurry and didn’t have a time limit, I might have taken the time to pass on some of my knowledge. But since that wasn’t an option, I didn’t let myself dwell on it.

Like relationships and romance, I pushed the thoughts aside and focused on my goals.

“You’re getting pretty close to reaching level fifty-nine, right?” Zavira asked as we roused ourselves from our Hot Spring Meditation.

I’d decided to focus wholly on mana regeneration for the sixth floor since it was the area I consistently struggled with. While I had manatech weapons I could use, I still relied on my personal mana pool for a lot of things.

Needing to wait for my mana to regenerate before I could go somewhere or do something was annoying.

“I reached it a couple of days ago,” I commented. “How far away are you?”

“A few more weeks, at least,” Zavira replied. “It must be all of those secret hunts you go on,” she added with a grin.

“I doubt that’s it,” I said. “That was just to make up for all the extra professional experience you get with all of your commissions.”

“Bah,” the Smith said with a wave. “You already have your alternate level. I don’t want to hear your lies.”

“I don’t mind letting you do the bulk of the fighting,” I offered with a languid stretch. “You said you were keeping that awesome glaive I enchanted for you recently. Why don’t you test it out? I’ll give you some [Pause] talismans and you can handle everything yourself.”

If I didn’t contribute beyond providing tools and transportation, she should get all of the experience. I doubted it would take very long for her to earn what she needed for the next level, especially if we focused our efforts on peak-tier creatures or the various bosses.

“I will absolutely take you up on that,” Zavira replied. “I’m surprised I managed to get any use out of this visit at all, honestly.”

“You’re that eager?” I asked, though I already knew the answer.

Zavira had been eager to challenge the next Trial since she learned what I received from the last one. I was a little amazed she’d managed to stick to our original schedule for this long, especially with as close as we were to meeting the requirements for the Trial.

“Absolutely!” she said. “I’ve been waiting to gain access to the Trial for so long…” She shook her head. “Now that we’re so close, it’s practically all I can think about. Do you have any idea how many weapons I’ve screwed up because my mind started wandering while I was crafting?”

“No? But I’m guessing it’s probably more than a couple if you’re mentioning it.”

Zavira chuckled darkly. “More than a couple is right. I’m glad my smithy is hidden from observation. I would have been embarrassed if the watchers saw how often I was messing things up because I’m so distracted.”

“So, let’s head out then,” I said, climbing out of our shared pool. Our time was up for the day anyway. “Since I’ve got my alternate level, and I’m pretty sure you do too, why don’t we focus on getting you to the next milestone? We can finish boosting our regeneration after we clear the Trial.”

“Are you sure?” she asked as she followed me.

“As long as you aren’t going to burn out from the effort, yes,” I replied. I didn’t like bringing up Zavira’s earlier struggle, but it was a very relevant concern. “I’d rather take a little extra time now than have to take a long break later or potentially have to go on alone.”

I looked back at the pool. Ripples from our exit were still visible along the otherwise smooth surface.

“I know I’ll have to progress alone eventually,” I continued, “but I don’t want to rush that eventuality. I’ve liked having someone to rely on, and I’m really not looking forward to the day I have to progress without you.”

“We still have decades before that’s going to happen,” Zavira said lightly. “I’m nowhere close to burning out now. Don’t worry about me. As far as later goes…” Zavira sighed and looked at her hands. “Just… don’t lose yourself. One of the Hephaistos Core Disciples pushed to Tier Ten – just low-Tier Ten, mind you – before taking a break from the dungeon. When he returned, he was… odd. Detached.”

Zavira looked up and met my eyes. “I didn’t know him before, obviously, but everyone who did said he wasn’t like that before he challenged the dungeon. The sect didn’t matter to him all that much anymore. I’m not sure anything really did.

“From what little I was told, he only came back to fulfill his obligations before he returned to the dungeon to ascend. As far as I know, he’s still here. I doubt he’ll still be around by the time you reach the tenth floor, but I suppose anything’s possible.”

I couldn’t say I wasn’t concerned about something similar happening to me. I’d already noticed a feeling of disconnectedness between me and my family, and it hadn’t even been a decade and a half, subjectively! Even the more gracious estimates I’d done gave us another two decades before we reached the eighth floor.

And after I returned from my break, I’d have another twenty-five decades or more without Zavira before I even had a chance to reach peak-Tier Ten! Who knew if I’d find someone trustworthy to challenge the dungeon with when I returned?

If I was already feeling a sense of disconnectedness, even with regular communication, how much worse was it going to be when I returned alone?