Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 29: Why the hell didn’t I think of that before?

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Undying Wraith

Species: Human

Level: 10

XP: 323/2200

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 250/250

Stats

Fortitude

30

Perception

30

Strength

30

Agility

30

Magic Power

25

Magic Regeneration

30

Free Points: 0 Stat, 1 Skill

Central Skills

Form of Horror I

The Chosen Weapon I

Skills

Hundred Faces VII

Stealth VIII

Power Strike XII

Piercing Strike XIII

Sundering Strike XI

Blades XI

Sneak XI

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike VII

Manifold Strike V

Hunter’s Gaze I

Phantom Step I

General Skills

Gralloch I

Alchemy I

Privacy I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra

Hydra’s Regeneration

[Empty Slot]

Isaac grinned as he looked at his new Status, complete with all of his new [Skills] and the empty Aspect Slot he’d gained as a result of his Evolution. He couldn’t wait to fill it.

Unfortunately, it had gotten really late last night, and he’d wanted to get his two hours of sleep before going into work the next morning.

He’d also decided to try out one of his new abilities and left Old Reliable back in his apartment. A mere thought was all that was required to warp the blade into his right hand. appearing as if it had always been there, with the slight weight of the associated sheath appearing at his belt, though Isaac could also tell he could have commanded it to stay behind. As he sheathed the blade, a grin began to creep onto his face. This was amazing!

As he crossed the university campus, it was noticeably more crowded than it had been last week. Things really were returning to normal, well, new normal.

Isaac swept [Gaze of the Hunter] across the crowd, the extremely subtle Inspection-[Skill] going completely unnoticed.

These people were all quite weak, their stats well below his, and no [Classes] that significantly shifted their affinities from normal.

Affinities were a funny thing, and probably a very misleading way to name what they were. In essence, they described what any given [Class] or Aspect was good at. For a [Pyromancer], that would obviously be fire, while a [Student] or [Researcher] would give off a certain feeling of boundless possibility to those with the [Skills] to sense Affinities.

But someone with no real power in their [Class] wouldn’t have been greatly changed by it yet and gave of a feeling of simply being … human. And that was most of the people here.

Yet there were a handful of people who did stand out, whose stats were closer to his than everyone else’s, who had slight but perceivable and identifiable affinities. People were beginning to take advantage of the [System], ordinary people. That was both intriguing in where it could lead, but also dangerous. Anyone who was summoning monsters might also release them into the world without meaning to. And that made them a potential threat.

For a brief moment, the peaceful and hopeful image was overlayed with another one, a picture of a future that may or may not come to pass, a future of darkness and bloodshed, a future of extinction.

Isaac shook his head and blinked, trying to brush off the horrific mental images. That wouldn’t happen. That would never happen. Not if he had anything to say about it. He took a few deep breaths and continued onwards.

As he entered the building that held his research group, sunlight streaming in from the glass wall behind him, a crowd of staggering size greeted him. Well, not exactly, but one far larger than any he’d seen in here before. And a lot of them seemed to be streaming towards the stairway leading down into where he worked.

He started to push his way forward through the crowd for a few seconds, but then he decided to just go f-it and activated [Spectral Shift], running straight through everyone until he came to a stop beyond the throng of humanity.

Isaac turned around to see Bailey arguing with the people at the front, though his immaterial dash through the crowd had caught everyone by surprise, causing a small lull in the conversation.

“Good morning Professor Bailey, what’s going on, and can I help?” he asked innocently, backpack casually slung over one shoulder, though he did have the handle of the Kriegsmesser poking out at the top, somewhat ruining the image.

“It’s the study regarding the effects of stats we were talking about. The Dean and the Ethics Board okayed it, but through some bureaucratical mix-up, we ended being the ones in charge of accepting the volunteers. And with the lure being basically free Levels …” Bailey demonstratively gestured at the crowd.

“Gotcha.” Isaac replied.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think you can really help beyond joining the others in the meeting room to make calls and yell at whichever pencil pusher might be able to fix this mess. Or, well, you could run up top and tell everyone that there’s been a mix-up and that nothing will happen here. Talking to just a few people at a time down here is not working.” Bailey said, then tossed Isaac his keyring “Lock the doors once you’ve cleared out everyone, I’ll apologize to anyone we lock out who’s meant to be here, later.”

“Sure thing.” Isaac said, giving a mock salute, jumped, and shifted. A moment later, he manifested on the ground floor of the building and noted the spot so he knew where he could jump directly into the lower floor in the future. Then, he inhaled deeply and bellowed.

His voice was far louder than any normal person without a megaphone or equivalent piece of technology could reach, for one simple reason. Stats. Strength to inhale more forcefully, Fortitude to keep his delicate lung tissue intact despite that, then once again Strength to force the air back out with incredible pressure while Fortitude prevented him from shredding his vocal cords.

“HEY!”

Hardly the most articulate of statements, but it caught the attention of everyone. Isaac continued talking, still louder than normal but at a far more reasonable volume.

“Thank you. I have an announcement regarding the study most of you are likely here to sign up for. Unfortunately, there has been a mix-up and you’re not going to be able to do that here. Now, I’m afraid we need this space, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

“So, where are we doing that then?” someone called out.

“Not here.” Isaac said, unfortunately not having that information either.

“Oh come on, this is bullshit.”

“Yeah, screw you!”

And so, the crowd replied with a range of statements and exclamations, some polite, some very much not. Isaac just shrugged internally and decided it was time for a show of force beyond merely jumping up through the floor.

Triggering [Phantom Step], he suddenly stood next to the entrance door and was holding it open, half his mana pool gone. But that wasn’t visible from the outside and he’d made it look effortless.

“Everyone, you’re in the wrong place. You can’t sign up here and I’m sorry that someone gave you the wrong information, but those are the facts. Please leave.”

Suddenly vanishing had caused the crowd to stir as people startled, staring uncomprehending at the spot he’d just vacated. When his loud voice suddenly rang out from the opposite direction, the effect was even more dramatic. People whirled around, jumped or yelped in fright.

“That being said, this department is helping with the study, so if you want it to happen anytime soon, then please let us do our work.”

And with that, he nudged the door open a little wider, pushing it to the maximum limit the construction allowed. A clear and effective message.

The first people began to filter out, a trickle that rapidly became a flood … for all of a moment. But people began to talk to him, instead of at him.

“How did you do that?”

“What do you do down there?”

“Can you teach me to do that?”

Isaac answered the first couple of questions, but that kicked off a whole other issue of people stopping in the doorway to talk to him. Once again, he raised his voice and said “Hey, everyone, we can have this conversation once everyone is out here. I’ll gladly answer your questions, outside.”

The sheer volume his voice could reach without him actually yelling made people jump, but it also got the point across very well.

Once the last person visible had filtered out, Isaac pulled out his phone and called Bailey.

“Hey Professor, is everything clear downstairs?”

“Yes.”

“Ok, see you in a bit.” Isaac said and locked the door. Then, he phased his hand through it and stuck the key into the lock, on the inside.

“I’ve locked the door and left your keys on the inside.”

Then, he hung up and turned around to the crowd, putting on a warm smile.

“Alright, you guys had questions?”

“How did you do that?” someone near the front asked.

“Which part?”

“… er, all of it?”

“The shouting was raw Stats, the phasing was an Aspect and the teleport was a [Skill] from a powerful [Class].” Isaac said “If you’re careful and level up properly, then anyone can learn to do that. As a part of this study, you’ll gain plenty of XP to either give you a head start on levelling or just give you a basic level of superhuman stats you can keep without ever having to fight again.”

“Can you tell us what exactly happened there?” someone else called, quickly being echoed by a whole babble of voices.

“Bureaucratic mix-up. The study is actually being conducted by the hospital linked to the university, Professor Bailey’s team and I are mainly going to be working in a support role, power levelling the participants. Not to an extremely high degree, but high enough that you can increase your stats to the point where it noticeably changes your physical or mental capabilities. We’re also borrowing spaces for summoning from the cops because we only have the one room, which a lot of monsters don’t even fit inside. We’re not the ones who’re going to be doing most of the work, nor the ones responsible for signing up people to the study. I’ll make sure someone posts the proper contact information ASAP.”

The reply had been rather verbose, but it had been intended to entice as many of these people to sign up. Countless people summoning monsters for him to kill so their levels would increase ever so slightly, making them viable candidates for the study the hospital was conducting. Meanwhile, he’d rake in a hell of a lot more and his Level would shoot through the roof.

As more questions were asked and answered, Isaac saw Professor Bailey walk up to the door and tape up a note sternly stating not to come in for the study and retrieve his key.

Isaac took this as his cue to reenter the building, simply walking through the door.

“What a mess, huh?” he asked.

“’fraid so. You get used to it, sadly.” Bailey shrugged.

“I do have a question, though. Aren’t we locking out a whole lot of people?”

“Eh, anyone who needs to get in has a key and there are side entrances, I’ll unlock the doors soon, but leaving it locked for a bit should clear up the crowd a bit.” Bailey said

“At least it looks like we aren’t going to have any problems finding volunteers for the study. I can’t wait to participate.” Isaac grinned “And check this out!”

Level: 10

“Congratulations.” Bailey flashed him a grin “Did you evolve your [Class] yet?”

“Yep. That’s actually something I wanted to talk to everyone about. Can I have a moment of everyone’s time in the meeting room? Actually, is everyone here yet?” Isaac asked.

“Of course. Did you find out anything interesting?”

“You could say that. There’s a couple of important facts I feel you all should know with regards to what kind of [Classes] can be unlocked.” Isaac grinned “Also, I have little gift for everyone.”

As he said that, he jiggled his backpack a little.

“Can’t wait. Will you need any time to set up?” Bailey asked.

“Nah, all I need is a couple of seconds to plug in a USB stick and open up power point.”

Bailey nodded and they walked onwards, discussing little details about their current projects.

While Isaac stepped into the conference room, his high Perception allowed him to keep track of Bailey gathering the others. Patrick and Karl where in the storage room, grunting and swearing as they lugged around something heavy, or tried to, at least. Amy was in the summoning room magically keeping a hold of something that caterwauled like the most demonic housecat imaginable, but fell silent a moment later after a sudden snapping sound, the abrupt end having a certain sense of … finality about it.

Isaac grimaced. On one hand, it was a good thing she was willing to do what she needed to level up, on the other … he was leading people down the path of blood and death. Things that were necessary were, by definition, necessary, but that did not make them something good, something that people would applaud you for. Personally, he didn’t much care what the world thought of him, so long as there was a world to disapprove, but he didn’t want to put that on anyone else.

As far as he was concerned, there wasn’t anything wrong with summoning these creatures to kill as the [System] intended, but that was something a whole metric fuckton of people disagreed with. The sheer amount of holy havoc various animal rights groups had been creating in just the last few days was mindboggling.

Lastly, there was Raul, already in the meeting room and deeply engrossed in a thick book lying on the table. He looked up for a moment and greeted Isaac, who returned it, then returned his attention to his work of literature.

Actually setting everything up was stupidly difficult, still perfectly handleable, but a hell of a lot less easy than one could expect from a technical university. Then again, that might explain all those interesting grumbles that came over the loudspeakers in the lecture halls whenever a lecturer unfamiliar with the room showed up. New issues with an unfamiliar setup … there really was no reason for it to be a problem, but for some unfathomable reason, it was.

In that time, the others had filtered in and the screen showed a black, blank image.

“Morning guys.” Isaac gave a rather simple greeting “Turns out, I have something to talk to you all about. I hit Level 10 last night and evolved my [Class], and I found out something very interesting. Plenty of people have already done the same, but they either didn’t bother talking to anyone about the specifics, or they simply rushed the Evolution and didn’t realize how to properly get more options.

“In essence, you get the option of keeping your old [Class], but you also get offered a bunch of other ones. To start with, you get three possible Evolutions that are straight up upgrades to your existing [Class], but take it in a slightly different direction and focus it in some ways. Then, you get versions of each of those upgraded based on what [Skills] you have and what Level they are, as well as your Aspects. Therefore, I believe that if there is anything you want to do, any Aspects you want to get, you should do it before your Evolution.

“And beyond those simple enhancements, there are the [Classes] offered for great achievements. For example, I got offered [System Researcher], which is basically a research [Class] that analyses [Skills] and natural abilities, then copies them. I think you’re all going to be offered the same one, though.”

“If I understood you correctly, you didn’t pick that one?” Bailey asked.

“Exactly, I got a different one, still focused on research, just one of monsters instead of magic.” Isaac told him, choosing not to mention the name because it simply didn’t sound like a research [Class] “But that actually brings me to my next point. This thing.”

He clicked on to the next page, using a combination laser pointer and remote control he’d found next to the computer. A decently well drawn picture, pencil on white paper, appeared, depicting his transformed form. By the standards of a proper artist, it was atrocious, but it still got the point across. Isaac was not even a remotely talented artist, but high Perception allowed him to see even tiny details while the mental enhancement provided by the magic stats helped keep all that in mind while drawing.

The end product might have been closer to a printout of an incredibly shitty black and white photograph, but that didn’t make it impossible for his fellow researchers to identify the creature being depicted.

“Basically, I got a new [Skill] that lets me temporarily transform into that thing, so if you see that around the place, please don’t freak.”

“I don’t suppose you have a good picture?” Patrick asked.

“No, ‘fraid not. In hindsight, I should have set up my phone in video mode and captured at least one image, but I didn’t figure that out in time. As for why I didn’t take a picture, well, I didn’t want that to happen to my phone.”

As he said that, Isaac showed the next slide, featuring a picture of the tree his claws had shredded last night.

“Ok, not to be a fusspot, but how do you even know what you look like? That picture was clearly taken at night with a flash, wasn’t it a little too dark?” Patrick pressed.

“I set up my phone as a mirror and I have a high enough Perception to see in the dark?”

“Does that let you spot tiny details, the kind you’d normally need a microscope to spot?”

“Mostly, depends on how good the microscope is?” Isaac answered, not sure what he was getting at, but looking forward to finding out.

“Great.” Patrick suddenly grinned wolfishly “Now, how do you feel about knocking over Casinos?”

“Do you mean knocking over as in committing robbery, or as in winning by cheating?” Isaac asked, almost simultaneously with Bailey saying “Care to let the rest of us in on what’s being discussed?”

“Basically, I’ve had a theory for a while. What can you see when your Perception gets high enough? What differences can you spot, what things can you differentiate between? And then that morphed into ‘what use could differentiating between two functionally identical things be in the real world?’. The answer should be obvious, shouldn’t it? So, how about you take card counting to whole new level?” Patrick explained, with a wild, yet infectious grin no one had ever expected from him lighting his face up.

Chuckling softly, Isaac could feel his own face twisting into a smile just as broad. That was actually a really fucking good idea. Also, not one he’d have ever thought of. Pretty soon, casinos would have all kinds of Perception and Scrying blocking enchantments set up pretty much everywhere, making those kinds of tricks useless and the casino floor a true place of random chance once again.

And Isaac wasn’t a big fan of placing everything in the hands of lady luck. Sure, he might do some risky shit, especially when he lost his temper, but deliberately planning around something wholly up to chance? Hell no!

However, one could hardly describe playing Texas Hold’em while knowing what cards everyone knew as random chance. Sure, if you were the small or big blind, meaning you had to put money into the pot right at the start as a matter of course, knowing that someone else had a full house wouldn’t help you in the slightest. At least in the beginning, then you could just hem and haw and not increase your bid until you could fold without looking suspicious.

But overall, winning at poker, and doing so with what essentially amounted to a surefire strategy, that would earn him a fuckton of money. Money that would not only be his, but came with a proper and legal explanationas to how it ended up in his possession.

“So, dearest and bestest boss of mine, would it all be possible for me to, maybe, theoretically, have Friday and Monday off so I can go to Vegas?” Isaac asked, using overly formal and patently ridiculous phrasing as a substitute for outright begging. He didn’t know just when the various Perception blocking enchantments had been invented in the other timeline, not that this one was likely to play out the exact same way.

Bailey snorted, then chuckled “Obviously you can go. Have fun.”

As Isaac was about to thank him, Bailey continued with a mischievous twinkle in his eye “But don’t play blackjack. Casinos use multiple decks, up to seven or eight, to make things harder for card counters, so you’d have to memorize a lot more cards. Also, Blackjack is a game where they watch out for any kind of irregularity very careful, and you’d get found out as a presumed Cardcounter pretty quickly.

“Play Texas Hold’em instead. Most Casinos should have plenty of tables for that and there aren’t really any exploits like there are with Blackjack, so someone on a hot streak is more likely going to have them checking for earpieces and people sending you information instead of taking you out of the game.”

“Wow, I didn’t know you were such a casino aficionado, Professor.” Amy commented “Maybe we should go some day? All together, all winning almost guaranteed thanks to Patrick’s trick?”

“Sounds like a plan. But maybe let’s put that off ‘til later?” Bailey suggested, then returned his attention to Isaac “I believe you had more things to talk about?”

“Yep. Basically, I’ve got a few more things to offer with regards to getting a better [Class] Evolution.”

As he said that, Isaac threw his backpack onto the table, the top already opened, which sent several Aspect marbles rolling across it.

“I got my hands on a bunch of Aspects in the last week or so and I was wondering if you could use any of them. Please do keep in mind that removing the Aspect your [Class] is based on might not go over all that well. What I have here is another couple of Aspects of the Specter, which I think Amy and Patrick could use.”

With that, Isaac sent the relevant orbs rolling over to the two of them.

“I’ve also brought a couple of options for Karl. One belongs to an Earth Elemental, the other to a Rock Golem. The latter offers [Skills] that mostly amount to ‘Karl smash!’ while the former grants earth manipulation powers, at least if the description is anything to go by.”

Finally, he looked directly at Raul.

“I’m afraid I didn’t find anything that would really fit you. I’ve got an Aspect belonging to a Shadow Cat right here, as well as an Aspect of the Shade Drake or the Water Elemental, but neither of those really scream ‘[Ranger]’ to me. You can have them if you want them, of course, or I could just keep going until I find one. But really, levelling good [Skills] and achieving everything you want to before Level 10 should earn you something good regardless.”

“This is … a lot.” Bailey was the first to speak into the silence that followed. Someone handing out magical stuff with a possible value that exceeded a million euros. Isaac decided to just shrug it off, make it appear to not be a big thing.

“Hey, I care about you guys.” Isaac shrugged “We might not know much about how the [System] works, but getting a higher rarity [Class] sounds like it should always be a good thing, right? Like I said, you’re worth it.”

And as it turned out, he truly meant that. No hidden agenda, no games, no ulterior motives. While doing this would provide some overall benefits to him, that wasn’t why he’d done this. He liked these people before him, considered them good friends, and he’d seen a way for him to do something good for them, that was literally all.

“Are you sure we can take these?” Patrick asked incredulously, snapping the whole ‘don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’ clear in half, seemingly not worried in the slightest that Isaac might take it back if he had a moment to think about things.

“I am.” Isaac nodded “I know what I’m doing, what I’m giving up, and I think it’s worth it. Take these, and get the powers sealed within.”

A couple of minutes of thanks and questions about the exact use of Aspects followed, until Raul broke in to change the subject.

“I know this might not be the best time, but I have a question about the status of the dinosaur bones Professor Bailey is getting us. I just got a [Skill] called [Hunter’s Companion] that will let me bind a monster as a pet, just like that familiar we saw a couple of days ago. Do we have a lead on any pet-sized ones?”

“Archeopteryx, maybe? Or a velociraptor? I’m literally trying to get a bone of each and every common species of dinosaur and I’m nowhere near done, but I have both of those.” Bailey suggested.

“There’s a size limit, so velociraptor’s out.” Raul said “Besides, aren’t those a little big and way too dangerous? You know, Jurrasic Park style?”

“You’re thinking of an Utharaptor.” Karl pointed out “The big ones you see in the movies are usually called velociraptors, but a raptor that size is definitely not a velociraptor. The real ones are about as tall as a Golden Retriever and two meters long, though most of that is just tail. They’re probably adorable.”

When people threw him surprised looks, he just shrugged and said “I like dinos, so what?”

“I just noticed something.” Patrick broke in “The Prehistoric summoning menu has a maximum size for every Tier, but it doesn’t say anywhere that there’s a minimum size. Do you think that you can summon a small one with, say, a Tier 5 circle and end up with some kind of megaraptor?”

“Probably, but a Megaraptor is actually its own species, so maybe a super raptor is a better name.” Karl corrected him.

“I suppose that’s another thing to check.” Bailey said, putting an end to that discussion.

“But getting back on topic, what about a Microraptor? They’re about the size of a normal raptor, er … I mean the bird of prey kind, can fly, and should be pretty cute.” Karl suggested.

“Hm, … we do have a bone from one of those. Let’s take a good look at that, see if it qualifies as a good familiar, then see what happens if we use a fresh tooth versus a fossilized one. Also, we can check Patrick’s theory about summoning small dinosaurs with high tier circles. I’ll write up a proper experiment outline, and then we can get started. By the way, does anyone have an objective way to measure the power of those monsters, beyond just the Level you see in the kill notification?” Bailey told everyone.

“About that, I’d like to check something else, namely, how the tier of the summoning circle translates to the power of the monster that comes out of it.” Patrick said “We’ve kept detailed notes on everything the [System] gives us before, during and after the summoning, but I’d like to diversify the kinds and tiers of creatures we summon to get a representative overview about all of that.”

Ah yes, that old chestnut. Isaac could have, of course, told him everything right off the bat, though even in this new timeline, he had an excuse to know everything up to Tier 4.

In essence, every Tier could summon monsters within a certain Level range, a range that expanded exponentially with each new Tier. Tier 1 could go up to Level 2, Tier 2 up to 5, 3 to 9, making the first three Tiers summon creatures no stronger than a person who hadn’t even gotten their first Evolution yet.

Meanwhile, a Tier 10 circle covered dozens of Levels and two entire evolutionary tiers. It really got nuts once one reached highly enough.

And beyond that, there were the [Bosses], powerful monsters with superior durability and some additional area attacks to fight off crowds of human attackers.

Eh, he’d just give a general overview of where which of the creatures he’d killed fell on the Level scale. He didn’t actually remember, but then again, all he needed to do was give numbers within the range he knew they had to fall into. Helpful, yes, but it wouldn’t invalidate the need for thorough experimentation either.

“Are you sure we’re not taking on too much, all at once?” Bailey said “We’re already conducting what essentially amounts to two separate studies at the same time.”

“Well, we’re a group of six people, all of whom are constantly regenerating mana. As long as we can coordinate use of the reinforced room, constantly summoning creatures for multiple parallel experiments should be doable.” Isaac threw in “And just incidentally, I have an experiment of my own I’d like to run. Namely, what happens if a summoned creature exists in our world for too long?”

“That’s an interesting thought. Do you have a specific creature and method of containment in mind?” Bailey asked.

“Keep in mind that you need to keep it somewhere suitable. Even if we eventually discover incontrovertible proof that summoned monsters are just magical constructs, if it looks bad enough, you could still end up catching hell.” Wechsler spoke up. He’d been sitting in the corner the entire time silently doing some paperwork and completely faded into the background.

“I think a Slime should be fine. Basic Slime, no real offensive power against anything they can’t suffocate and if we lock one in an airtight room, like our summoning room, we can be pretty sure it’ll stay put.” Isaac suggested.

“You do realize we’ll still have to use that room, right?” Amy asked “I mean, stick a couple of googly eyes on it and it’ll be cute enough, but that doesn’t mean I want to be dodging it all the time while working.”

“We’ve got a bunch of airtight crates we didn’t end up using. We can just stick a slime in one of those, then lock it down tight and just leave it in the corner for a couple of weeks.” Isaac pointed out.

As a very weak creature, a Basic Slime would only start summoning more creatures after around a week of existing in the real world. There were a few ways a monster could speed up the process, for example, by killing high level people and using their XP to fuel further summonings or devouring objects that contained magic, neither of which were particularly likely to occur, given where the slime was going to be staying. Also, he’d timed the suggestion so that if he did this any time in the next few hours, he’d be here, working, when more monsters manifested.

“Type up the actual experiment, reinforce the crate so it won’t break when someone bumps it, give it to me, and then you can summon the Slime.” Bailey told him.

“Thanks Adam.” Isaac flashed him a grateful smile.

“But now …” Bailey rubbed his hands together in a gleeful way that made him appear like a little kid on Christmas morning “… it’s time for dinosaurs to walk the Earth once more.”