Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 75: A new era

It was a beautiful morning as he headed over to the aquatic biology area of campus. It was a beautiful place, with the main building being an old mill standing across a quietly babbling brook. Starkly contrasting the old-fashioned center of logistics was a massive area under a large metal roof on the other side of the brook, covering several small ponds and plastic tubs. Even further were massive concrete pool-looking things shielded from birds of prey with large nets.

… yeah, that part wasn’t so pretty. But its surroundings certainly were. The biology sub-campus of the university was out in the middle of nowhere to give it space to expand, as well as access to things that couldn’t really be set up in the city, like forests for the rangers, fields for the agricultural students, and this place.

Isaac’s [Aura of the Desperate Seeker] billowed out, leaving large gaps around any locations in which he heard or saw people in. Pretty soon, it swept through mill, and he sent it zeroing in on interesting things. There was a little bit of a bandwidth issue when trying to take in large amounts of data, for example, he couldn’t just read every book in a library just by walking in because the sheer flood of information would be utterly overwhelming, and he wouldn’t remember everything he casually glanced at with his [Aura], but in the end, he learned just as much about fish in those few moments as he had in his entire life.

Clownfish changed sexes when there were no females available, there was a perch that protected its young by hiding them in its mouth and no one knew how heavy a whale shark was because no one had ever managed to weigh one. A bunch of interesting factoids which he could throw out at family dinners when someone asked about his work and he didn’t feel like talking [System], but nothing lifechanging.

He also managed to find a picture of Professor Sturm in some faculty directory, so he now knew what the man looked like nowadays. He’d looked him up online, but the photos from the university website weren’t always the most up to date, as he’d had to find out the hard way a couple of weeks back.

But when he got his first look at the pond the summoned fish was in, it turned out that that precaution hadn’t been necessary, because A. Patrick was already there, his presence clearly showing which one was the one he’d be heading to, and B. there was a sign.

Really though, he should have expected that there would be a sign, though. This was a university, an institution of science, they labeled everything to the point of absurdity. Thankfully, the team had finally gotten a secretary, which took a lot of the logistical burden from them.

“Hey Isaac. How have you been?” Patrick muttered as he heard Isaac approach. At this point, everyone on the team had figured out how to identify everyone they met on a regular basis via their footsteps.

“Eh, so-so. Third Evolution is cool, but I’ve barely gotten a chance to look at it with how much time I spent practicing with my [Aura].”

“That’s what that field around you is, then?” Patrick shrugged. Isaac hadn’t brought the [Aura] anywhere near him, but a [System Researcher] could sense something like that pretty damn well even without being affected directly. “Is it harmful for people, or why do you keep it away from them?”

“Nah, it’s just a little intrusive. Not something you want to blast around if you’re at all interested in keeping your nose intact for longer than a few minutes at a time.” Isaac replied with a wink.

“That bad?”

“The animals around my home certainly seem to thing so. If I don’t keep my touch extremely light, they run like all the hounds of hell are chasing them.”

“Yikes. What does it do?”

“Sense things. I basically know everything that happens in it.”

“That sounds useful, I think I might pick up something like that myself.”

The two of them fell silent a moment later, peering into the depths of the water. It wasn’t anywhere near as cluttered as one might expect, but there were still a few things down there that a monster could hide behind, which was probably what was happening here. Otherwise, that would mean that someone either killed it, or stole it, which would be a truly ridiculous thing to do, given that literally anyone could summon one of these with two minutes of effort.

Then again, this was a university campus. The less said about what drunk students got up, the better.

Isaac cast his [Aura] out, focusing it downwards and forwards, leaving the 25 meter limit behind, though pushing it out that far increased the overall volume it could by quite a bit. Sacrificing volume for range was a pretty basic trick, though.

“Found it.” he announced, pointing. It was a Venomspine Catfish, a large catfish with the added danger of it having barbs that were quite toxic. According to one of the book’s he’d read just now, there were a few species of catfish in South Africa that were similarly armed, but they weren’t anywhere near this bad.

“I still can’t see it.” Patrick grumbled “I think it might have figured out what’s waiting for it.”

“Probably.” Isaac replied. And then, they went back to staring into the pond for another minute or so, until Professor Sturm arrived.

“Good morning Mr. Lerch, it’s good to see you again. And I’m guessing you’re the elusive Mr. Thoma?” he asked, addressing Isaac. The professor was a middle aged white guy, with blond hair so sparse that it looked like he was actually bald unless the light caught it in just the right way.

“That’s correct.” Isaac nodded, shaking hands with the professor “I’m guessing you’re Professor Sturm, then?”

“Yeah. If you don’t mind me asking, what were you trying to figure out while the rest of the team was doing this?”

“Oh, I don’t. I was advancing to the next Evolution and then practicing with the [Aura] that comes with it.” Isaac replied.

“Aura … isn’t that some kind of new age crap?” Sturm asked.

“Eh, same term, different effect.” Isaac said, holding up his hand and wreathing it in crimson light as he switched [Auras] “So far, it seems like it’s a highly versatile energy field that costs a decent chunk of mana to maintain, but can be manipulated in far more ways than any other [Skill] I’ve seen to date.”

“Sounds like that’s something I should get as soon as possible, then.” Sturm commented.

Isaac threw him a look, analyzing him. He felt like … water, slimy scales, with a hint of something sharp hidden underneath. A [Fisherman] or something similar, though he was clearly also above Level 10, based on his Stats.

“Can I ask how you’ve been levelling so far?” Isaac asked, hoping the answer wasn’t something too dangerous.

“Fishing, basically. Normal fishing for the Tier 1 and 2s, spearfishing for the rest. Sometimes, the [System] complains about how the fishing rod is considered an environmental hazard, and sometimes, it isn’t. It’s weird as all get out.” Sturm shook his head “The world is now a video game, and that video game doesn’t have a wiki.”

Isaac snorted.

“It’s great you had this pond available, though. Something so thoroughly isolated and already officially approved, we got damn lucky.”

“Eh, it’s the standard pool qualified for the gmos we work with.” Sturm shrugged.

“Gmo, as in, genetically modified organism? This thing is designed to withstand monster fish or something?” Isaac asked, and this time, it was Sturm who laughed, though the professor looked contrite immediately afterwards.

“Nah, just normal fish that are even sterile in most cases, but if some fisherman catches one, fish and wildlife will string the closest person dealing with them up by their own entrails.” Sturm shrugged again “But now I’m definitely going to get a ‘qualified to house mutant monsters’ placard for this thing.”

They kept going like this for a while, with the others arriving one at a time, greeting Isaac and asking about how his training had gone, until Sturm asked a question that was rather interesting. Or rather, one that lead somewhere interesting.

“So, how long does it take for this automatic summoning to kick in?”

“We’ve only run a couple of experiments, and therefore, this data is hardly conclusive, but both times, it’s taken roughly six days, twenty-three hours and thirty-two minutes for the situation to go to hell in a handbasket.” Bailey explained.

“You know, it’s nice to see something in the [System] doesn’t match up perfectly with human units of measurement. That was starting to get a little creepy.” Sturm commented, but then Patrick snapped his fingers excitedly.

“Actually, it does, I just figured it out. It’s twenty-eight minutes less than a full week, or seven times four minutes, which is the exact amount of time the sidereal day is shorter than the solar day.”

“… and there it is.” Sturm sighed “Je-sus this fucking creepy. It’s almost like someone created this thing for us.”

“Uh, quick question, solar and sidereal?” Isaac asked.

“A solar day is how long it takes for the Earth to spin and the sun to be back in the same place, the sidereal day is how long it takes for the stars to be back in the same position.” Patrick explained, suddenly even deeper in thought.

The conversation likely would have spiraled from there, if it hadn’t been for the [System] window that popped up in front of each and every single one of them.

Warning! Automatic Summoning has been activated on [Venomspine Catfish]! Slay the original monster to stop this effect.

… that was … sorta … kinda … very much categorically incorrect. Normally, all monsters could summon more of their kind, though with each new one that was summoned, their countdown started anew and the summoning speed would be half as quickly as their progenitor’s. There was also some kind of mechanic where the original monster dying would result in everyone else’s ‘generation number’ being reduced by one, speeding up their summoning, though that also slowed down given enough time.

Isaac had declined trying to truly understand the complex mechanical formulae that governed this because otherwise, he’d only end up gaining true understanding alongside his PhD in mathematics, it was that messy.

The basic summary was good enough, anyway. Kill the monster, make sure it doesn’t get into the wilds, otherwise you’ll be playing whack-a-mole for the better part of the year until the spawn rate of the latter generations finally slowed down to something manageable, and even that only worked if you could get the original and its first few descendants.

This though, giving the infestation a single point of failure, this … it. Was. Everything.

Also, he supposed it was the response to the utter bullshit that was the Event, well, Events. There was no way in hell that new mechanic was going to be limited to just one, really.

He now had a real chance to save everyone, he … he’d be doing nothing but messing around with basic monsters, trying to figure out why such a basic mechanic had fucking changed, for the next few weeks, wouldn’t he? Ah, hell.