Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 108: Let’s make a plan

“Is there blood on this?” Karl asked, looking down and the doohickey in his hands with a puzzled expression. He didn’t look upset, or disgusted, just very, very confused.

“Yeah, that’s mine.” Isaac said apologetically “I guess I didn’t clean it well enough. See, there’s a branch of magic that anyone with blood running in their veins can use and it’s involved in creating that magical generator. You draw the right runes on your hands, tear out the elemental’s core and stick it in an enchanted container.”

“So wait, you use your own blood to draw magical runes on stuff, it’s that easy?” Amy asked.

“Yes, but also very much no. When using this branch of magic, any wounds you draw blood from will continue to bleed while there are active effects in play. If you heal them, the magic stops. Furthermore, the more magic is used, the more the wounds bleed. In other words, there’s a pretty hard limit as to how much you can use it and there have been quite a few incidents where overuse has killed people.”

“Where does magic like that even come from? How can you use it without a [Class] and what on Earth would even lead to someone discovering this stuff?” Patrick asked, aghast.

“To answer your questions in order: the [Raid Boss] called the Sanguine Monarch dropped a tome detailing how it works, anyone can use this magic and as for the answer to the third question, see first answer.” Isaac said.

“What the hell is a Sanguine Monarch?” Raul wondered.

“A very powerful vampire. It starts out just like you’d expect, complete with pasty white skin and robes, but from the moment it’s summoned, it begins to transform, bloody mist streaming into the environment as it mutates and transforms into a horrific monstrosity. Throughout all this, it sucks the life out of anything that isn’t extremely powerful and therefore able to resist, as well as having an insane recovery ability. Truly killing it during this phase is theoretically possible, but extraordinarily difficult.

“If it survives to fully transform though, it becomes incredibly powerful and starts to affect the blood of anyone below its level, ever so slowly making it start to boil, until someone dies, at which point all the blood is ripped out of him and further empowers the Monarch, and so things continue until either it dies, or the challengers do.”

“Jesus fuck.” Bailey said in a tone that Isaac interpreted as ‘too stunned to express shock’.

“That’s an adequate way of describing it.” Isaac nodded “The whole fight is a battle against time, and it’s gotten a lot of people killed. On the other hand, all [Raid Bosses] drop some kind of special reward.”

“A while ago, you proposed we go after a Lindwyrm because its flesh gives a random ‘power’. Is that true, or just something you found in mythology?” Bailey asked.

“Both. It’s a real phenomenon which I’ve used in the other timeline, but there are also myths about that happening.” Isaac said.

“You know, you got hired as an expert in mythology, but I’ve been wondering how much you actually know about it, and how much of what you know comes from the other timeline?” Amy wondered.

“A little of this, a little of that. A lot of the stuff I told you guys about were basically things I found out in the other timeline with a few relevant mythological sources tacked on to explain how I knew them, but I’m pretty knowledgeable about mythology in general. I already knew a little bit, but for the most part, I found out a lot of that stuff as it related to the [System]. People starter scouring the old stories for anything that might give them a leg up when dealing monsters, ranging from trying to get an advanced warning about nasty abilities to ferreting out exotic weaknesses.”

“Any particular books you can recommend?” Bailey asked.

“Not really. All the most important ones are already in your office, everything else is locked inside of exotic, extremely specialized tomes you probably don’t need to get unless you have a specific need for them.” Isaac said “But I think we’ve seriously gotten off topic here. I thought this was about gifts, not interrogations?”

A large package appeared on the table, which Isaac then pushed over to Bailey.

“Just a few cool and interesting monster and animal bits I couldn’t give you before. Now, just to head off any potential misunderstandings, yes, a lot of those materials are from endangered animals, but there’s a good reason I have those. You see, eventually, we’ll be able to unlock something called a Wildlife Sanctuary, which is exactly what it sounds like. I’ve gathered materials from a bunch of species that are either already highly endangered or about to be due to some of their materials being useful in the [System’s] games, and when we reach a high enough Level to summon that Sanctuary, we can safe those species.”

“Well, I didn’t know that Greater Hydras were animals.” Bailey commented dryly.

“Yeah, that was a new fight.” Isaac said.

“You have no idea what a relief it is to know that you’re only picking fights you can win and that you’re perfectly aware of which fights qualify.” Bailey flashed him a grin.

“You’re welcome.” Isaac said.

“In that case, can I ask how strong Tier 7 monsters are in comparison to the Tier 6s?” Patrick threw in his own question.

“Incomparably stronger.” Isaac said “They’re the very edge of what can be fought with conventional armament without some seriously powerful [Skills] behind it. That Greater Hydra whose skin Professor Bailey is playing around with? A full Carrier Strike Group would be hard pressed to beat.”

Beyond that, Isaac didn’t really have many more truly interesting, personalized gifts to hand out. Lists of useful Spells to grab as well as the monsters that had them, which he handed out to the three [System Researchers], though Raul also got several recipes for good, magical pet food.

“And that just brings me to one final set of gifts for all of you: potions. I released a series of basic recipes so people could build on that, but I actually know a bunch of better ones,, so I made those for you. They’ll be very, very useful, but please be careful when using them, because you should not have these. If you’re caught with one, there’ll be some hard questions to answer. But I still want you all to have these because if you have to use them, that means there’s a lot of trouble and in all likelihood, people will have more important things to pay attention to.”

As he said that, Isaac began to pluck glowing vials out of his pocket space and place them on the table.

“This is a proper health potion meant specifically for first aid. It’s primary goal is to stop things that are still actively hurting you, like arterial bleeds and other stuff like that. It won’t regrow limbs or set broken bones, but it’ll ensure that any fatal wounds are fixed. It’s an emergency measure, a quick and dirty fix, not something you want to use after the fighting is over and done with.

“If you’re looking to properly recover from injuries, then you can use this potion instead. It works a good deal slower and won’t prioritize dangerous injuries, but it will heal things far more cleanly. Someone to set broken bones will still be a good idea, but making sure the limb is roughly pointing in the right direction will help for the most part will help a good deal. Still, if a proper, magical [Healer] is available, that’ll be even better.

“Then, we’ve got the mana potions. This one gives you an immediate lump sum of 200 points of mana, but will reduce your regeneration so you’ll gain 150 less points of mana over the next ten minutes.

“Meanwhile, this other potion increases your Magic Regeneration by twenty-five percent for five minutes but cuts it in half for five minutes after the beneficial effect ends. Both of them need to be used judiciously, otherwise the downsides could bite you in the ass.

“Finally, I’ve got you a booster potion. It’ll increase your Strength and Agility by a significant degree for ninety seconds, after which you’ll feel like utter crap and be barely able to move at speeds beyond what a normal human will be able to achieve. Take this and run, using it in combat will almost certainly get you killed. Furthermore, it grows less and less effective the higher your Stats are while the backlash will still be pretty nasty, so you shouldn’t use it if both stats are above ninety or so.”

He was greeted with stunned silence for a couple of seconds, at which point Patrick cautiously said “Can I ask why you didn’t release those recipes along with the others?”

“Because giving out high level information would only provide an immediate boost while hamstringing future developments in the alchemical field. An advanced recipe might allow for the immediate use of powerful potions, but the basic recipes will allow for the development of new potions well beyond what I have the recipes for. Think about it like this: what would you give Otto Lilienthal to further his experiments into sailplanes, a paraglider … or a fighter jet?”

“Wait, there’s really that big of a gulf between these and what you posted on the internet?” Amy asked.

“I might have been exaggerating for effect, but not by much. But it shouldn’t take more than a three or so years for people to reach this level of potion sophistication with [System] assisted research.” Isaac said.

“I suppose that makes sense, and I can confirm the research part, though that might have worked a little toowell. Last time I visited Professor Chandler’s lab, I interrupted him mid-experiment and he threw a beaker at my head.” Patrick added.

Bailey sighed “I’m just glad he’s only started throwing things after knowing that his visitors were too tough to be hurt by the impact.”

Once the round of chuckles had abated, the professor spoke up again.

“I’ve gotta ask, though: do these potions also require highly illegal ingredients?” he asked.

“Yes.” Isaac said bluntly “That is an unfortunate reality of the [System’s] kind of alchemy. However, I’ve chosen my source very carefully. Still someone who dabbles in things very much illegal, but he’s at least he’s likely to deal with [System] related problems when they crop up. Sometimes helpful is about as good as you can hope to get from a black market dealer, isn’t it?”

“How do you know he’s that kind of guy?” Patrick asked.

“I know him from the other timeline, where he was famously willing to go to great lengths to deal with monster problems. The methods were often questionable, but he did more than 90 % of the world, and he’s very protective of his reputation for playing things straight, so I’m fairly certain he won’t pull one over on me.” Isaac said.

“Uh, quick question, aren’t you running a big risk by doing anything illegal, aren’t you afraid of getting recognized. It’s not like there aren’t a bunch of pictures of you online, or am I missing something?” Amy asked.

“Yes.” Isaac said “I can shapeshift and I’m practically immune to identification [Skills].”

“Huh. How well can you change? Can you walk around as someone else?” she asked.

“Completely, but it’s a surface-only change and I need to sculpt my features, which is pretty tricky. I’m fairly good at it, but nowhere near the point where I can become a human chameleon. Also, there’s a lot more to imitating someone than their outwards appearance. Body language, movement, knowledge, little quirks, hell, even smell matters. It’s a really basic [Skill] that’s really limited and rather difficult to use.”

“Well, there’s nothing to do but trust your judgement on which contacts are safe.” Bailey said “That just leaves one more thing we need to talk about: the future. You mentioned that there are things you wanted to talk to us about in case you, well, are unable to do anything about them yourself. So, what are they, what do you want to tell us?”

“I gave you the broad strokes about the future last night, and I’ve written down all the important stuff and hidden it in my extradimensional apartment. In the event that I can’t give it to you, you’ll be able to break into it using dimensional magic.” Isaac said “Also, a most of the things we can deal with now have been deal with by others because I exposed them to the world.

“There are a few incidents that might happen in the near future, ones that we might have to deal with directly. The first is the summoning of a Demon Lord in or near Seoul, which I plan to be there for.”

“Wait, how can you know that’ll still happen when everything’s changed? Even if it happens, isn’t it likely that, at the very least, the date will have changed.” Patrick asked.

“I’m certain because it’s linked to a symbolic date, the founding of North Korea.” Isaac said “After that, I’ll visit Great Brittain and see if a rather nasty Dungeon called ‘Sanity’s End’ in the other timeline has been created yet and if so, destroy it.”

“Couldn’t you have just added that information to the infodump?” Patrick wondered “It’s not like a Dungeon would move.”

“For a couple of reasons, that would have been a really bad idea.” Isaac said “First of all, I only included things in that infodump that I was certain existed in this timeline as any mistakes would have damaged its credibility and I don’t know when that Dungeon was or will be constructed. It was bad enough that it still contained information about the Children of the [System], no need to add in potentially fictional Dungeon Cores on top of it.

“Also, that Dungeon is one of the most dangerous kinds of Dungeons, an Eldritch Dungeon. There’s a reason for its name, after all. People might come out, fully confident in the fact that they destroyed the core, except they were tricked by a series of illusions and also had a few nasty emotional issues inserted in their minds. From there, those people could go on to become thralls to the dungeon, go on a killing spree or turn into terrorists. Anyone I send in there could end up suffering a fate worse than death.

“I am the only one in the world who has any experience with that crap, and I’ve got a mental resistance [Skill] to boost. I can clear it, should it have already been built. If it hasn’t been, well, I’ll turn right back around and pick up some nice bottles of Scotch for you guys on the way.” Isaac promised.

“Ok.” Bailey nodded, followed by Amy asking “Is there any extra nightmare fuel you’d like to share?”

“Nah, but there’s something even more terrifying we’ll need to plan for: meetings.” Isaac hissed with mock horror, drawing a few laughs.

He’d been joking for the most part, but it would still be tedious and unpleasant. He could deal with people on a one on one basis pretty well, but getting tossed into a crowd, then trying to make as many connections as he could, getting rid of people he didn’t want to talk to and also just dealing with large crowds … nope. It would be like the lectures on [Aura] use he’d given in the past, just a million times worse.

Personal feelings aside though, Singapore should be very beneficial.