Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 184: I’m not trapped in here with you, you’re trapped in here with me

The Lindwyrm’s scales parted like paper as Balmung struck home, carving another impossibly clean cut into the monster’s side. The flesh underneath the wound rippled like water as the seventh stack of [Compounded Impact] applied.

It wasn’t a [Skill] Isaac used often as he could often end his foe without it and most enemies that were too tough to finish quickly would have been too expensive to finish off with it.

This foe, on the other hand, was in the perfect sweet spot for its use.

Isaac dove under another attack from the beast’s head and sliced along the bottom of its skull. The force of the strike caused the flesh around the wound to be flung away with such force that the flesh at both ends of the cut tore open while the bottom jaw cracked and broke in multiple places.

He teleported above the monster with [Phantom Step], then flung himself back down with [Wave Charge] and the Lindwyrm’s head just … tore off. The head, well half of one, given the damage [I Am The Sword] had inflicted, turned to face Isaac, only able to move in a rocking motion as it didn’t have enough of a body to properly move. Unfortunately, the “tail” was still moving, still twitching, still lashing out. It would die in time and was functionally blind, only able to sense the world around it due to the [Raid Boss] ability to compensate for people attacking its sensory organs, but now, he still had two enemies to fight.

Having to dodge acid bolts while the tail could attack from an entirely different direction that hadn’t been possible before was … annoying, but doable. Perfectly doable.

Three more strikes utterly pulped the head and then, Isaac proceeded to filet the tail, severing tendons and cutting the connection between muscles and the bones they attached to. [Compounded Impact] had now grown too expensive, but he didn’t really need it anymore either.

Lindwyrm (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been slain. 34,000 XP gained (50,000 XP distributed across 981 people as per their contribution)

The [Grave of Swords] dissolved around him as the beast’s body turned crystalline and was compressed into a singular point where it was formed into a blade. The sword hovered there for a moment, then, it plunged down faster than gravity should have caused and was planted there. Looking around, Isaac saw that the body part outside the [Skill] had also vanished into the weapon.

“Good news, monster’s dead. Bad news, no loot.” Isaac said once he’d looked around and seen that all injuries had already been cleared up.

If there’d still been a risk of something going wrong if there’d still been people lying on the ground, screaming in pain and clutching at their wounds.

“Now that you killed the monster in your separate space, you can summon a version to train against, right?” The [General] asked and Isaac replied in the affirmative.

***

… the dozenth group reappeared on the island, looking around wide-eyed and hyperventilating. They’d likely taken lethal amounts of damage and while injuries inflicted in the [Grave of Swords] while it was in training mode weren’t real, they sure as shit felt like it. So if some or all of those people had “died” testing a strategy … yeah, counseling would probably become mandatory for everyone who used that part of Isaac’s [Skill] pretty soon.

They were getting close to having a perfect strategy, though. Their enemies were real “animals” and as such there were variations between the attacks they used, but there were still a whole lot of commonalities. Exploitable patterns. Cheap tricks that were only waiting to be discovered.

The sun had fallen beyond the horizon and was just starting to peak up on the opposite side of the planet when the training was declared completed, which was then followed by an hour of rest and relaxation. For most people, a catnap was enough sleep for the whole day, but there were more kinds of tiredness than the physical one.

***

“Summoning Monster!”

The second Lindwyrm to see the light of day in this world roared in fury as it emerged from the summoning circle as the first one had, hanging straight up in the air for a moment before falling over, aiming to come down on the group that just so happened to have been standing a little too close … and it hammered into the concrete, moving straight through the people as if they weren’t even there.

Because they weren’t. Just a group of illusions it had fallen for because that group had been the only available target, so even if it had looked slightly suspicious, the Lindwyrm had taken the bait.

The ground disintegrated into dust and left the beast’s head stuck there, impaled on the spikes in the pit. Vicious barbs jabbed into its flesh, toughening it up to the point where it couldn’t tear itself free even if it had been willing to inflict horrendous damage to remove itself from the pit.

Of course, being stuck didn’t mean the Lindwyrm was helpless, no matter how it looked with all the attacks impacting its back. The acid cloud was deployed in a heartbeat and the tail whipped around, creating a gust of wind that flung the caustic fog at those it wanted dead.

Smoke rose from the pit as acid ran from the mouth of the best, liquefying the trap. Soon, it would be free, and as it erupted from the ground, sending droplets of the world’s most caustic liquid flying.

That might be problematic … except they’d already planned for that. It had been an obvious end result of a successful trapping, after all.

As for the next step, when it had been created, Isaac had solidly facepalmed because it had been so damn obvious.

[Compounded Impact] applied to Isaac’s strikes. But Old Reliable was a part of him, so he could cast the [Skill] through it. Now, where did it say he needed to be the one holding the weapon?

Balmung had been replicated five times over, passed out to the strongest melee fighters, and now, the Lindwyrm’s head had just fallen off. They’d figured out the best place to do that so that the tail wasn’t long enough to be a serious threat on its own but kept the part attached to the head too short to allow the more dangerous end of the snake to easily move around on its own. Sure, the “arms” helped somewhat, but they were still mostly useless.

The head flopped out of the pit and spat a geyser of acid at the closest target, completely throwing caution into the wind, while the tail cracked like a bullwhip, sending the nearest tank flying.

Hit after hit, blow after blow, man and beast clashed. A constant back and forth, give and take, damage taken and damage dealt.

But where injured humans could retreat, pulled back under cover while spells and tracer round flickered past overhead to hammer into the immensely powerful monster, said monster was left with just one body, one chance at life, and that chance was rapidly slipping away.

[I Am The Sword] brought Isaac down on the monster’s head like the fist of an angry god, pulping the last intact bit of skull, and that was the end of the fight right there.

Lindwyrm (Lv. 45 Raid Boss) has been slain. 4,337 XP gained (50,000 XP distributed across 1,119 people as per their contribution)

Isaac phased to get all the filth to drop straight through him as he carefully made his way out of the zone of immediate danger, acid pools, and spell mines posing a serious threat to anyone who stepped without looking. In theory, at least. For Isaac, it would cost him a shoe at most, but he just so happened to like his shoes. They were nice, decently durable, and most importantly, worn in.

It took a few minutes but eventually, the decision was made to just have the professionals, meaning Isaac, Raul, and Bailey, dismantle the monster’s corpse. While they worked, they discussed the next steps via the party.

“Dr. Thoma, in the stories, how is the Lindwyrm prepared before it grants ‘powers’?”

“Cooked in some manner. Grilling is common, but we can try a stew as well.” Isaac said.

“How quickly can one of the ships’ mess halls be cleared? We probably shouldn’t be cooking dragon meat around regular provisions.” The [General] asked, directing the question at someone in the fleet, but Isaac answered instead.

“We brought a cook among our support personnel. She normally runs a small restaurant that sells dishes cooked from monster materials near our workplace, but she agreed to come along for the chance to cook with [Raid Boss] meat.”

“And you didn’t mention that, why?”

“I did. It probably ended up buried somewhere in the paperwork.” Isaac pointed out.

There was a long moment of grumbling, followed by a chagrined “I have it now.”

As for the cook herself, she’d been waiting just outside the danger zone, practically salivating at the thought of getting her hands on the ingredients laid bare before her.

Caroline Ulrich was one of the advantages this timeline had over the other one that Isaac had had precisely nothing to do with creating.

She ran the team’s favorite restaurant, which used a lot of monster materials they sent her way in exchange for free food. Between her intense dedication to perfecting her craft and the exotic materials she experimented with, she’d reached Level 57, an extremely high Level for someone who’d never killed a monster in their life. In fact, ignoring the other elites standing on the island of Etzel, she was one of the highest Level individuals here. This was very at odds with her expression of extreme nervousness, but then again, the chances of her having experienced something like this before were basically nil.

And then, they were finally done.

Three Aspect orbs lay separate on one low table, proving rather definitively that the highest number of Aspects harvested didn’t happen on the first monster killed, but on the first monster that could be harvested. They’d already agreed that one of those would go to the team, meaning Isaac, one to the police, and one to the military. In addition, they’d get a third of the Demon Lord Aspects while the rest would go to the military and police.

Bones and scales were next to them, properly boxed up for transport to the university. They were getting almost everything, as they were far better placed to use it than military R&D.

Guts and internal organs were likewise mostly going to them,

Huge cuts of meat were the last thing they’d gathered, piled high in such a ludicrous quantity that it resembled a cartoon meat-lovers’ larder. Though instead of a werewolf or Neanderthal, it was a petite woman in an apron stalking around it, lovingly examining every single piece.

“The meat itself is edible, but the acid contained under the scales can easily run into the flesh and ruin it. The monster is mostly immune to its own acid, but it’ll be dangerous for anyone who eats it.”

A kitchen knife appeared in her hand with a suddenness that made quite a few people tense up and flashed through the air before disappearing.

For a long moment, it had seemed like nothing had happened, but then, bits and pieces of flesh seemed to peel off and fall apart into dust which blew away on the wind. While it wasn’t visible to the naked eye, Isaac could tell that all the meat in the pile was considerably cleaner, the contaminants having traveled into the cut-away portions as they were separated.

“These aren’t just normal ingredients, though. Dr. Thoma was definitely on to something when he said that eating this stuff might give new abilities, but I have no idea how that’s going to work, or how strong they’re going to be.”

A few knowing looks were exchanged, and several people high-fived as the news spread.

“Did you see how much meat there is? We’re all getting some!”

“Dragon steak! Hell yeah!”

The jubilant exclamations got pretty loud, pretty fast, until the [General] shut all that down.

“Well, Ms. Ulrich, what do you need to cook?”

“I brought everything with me.” She stated confidently and began pulling some basic cutlery out of her storage space while the large-scale contraptions like the spit large enough to roast an elephant and the pot large enough to serve as a bathtub had been shipped here in crates.

Then, the torture, sorry, the wait began. It just smelled so damn good, but after the first person who’d tried to sneak a piece had caught a wooden spoon to the back of the head, no one dared to try and get a premature meal.

Sure, there were powerful people here who could get past a Level 57 [Arcane Gourmet], but they knew to restrain themselves … once they’d run off with a couple of things each.

While that was going on, Isaac checked out his gains from the various fights. [Compounded Impact] had advanced several Levels, as had many other [Skills], but the biggest gain had been [Blades] advancing one single Level. The thirtieth.

Blades (common, Level XXX)

Grants user basic knowledge of using knives, including throwing and non-combat applications.

In addition, the user may repair any bladed weapons in their possession through the application of mana. Any such weapons are also more durable in the user’s hands and if they are not a traditional knife, they will slowly adjust their form to suit such a tool.

After countless battles where the user has obliterated his foes using a soulbound Blade able to gain new abilities from power foes while making extensive use of Aspects, it has gained the ability to infuse the weapon, Old Reliable, with the power of said Aspects to give it new forms.

And now, it has reached the pinnacle of its power. The bearer of this Skill also turned out to be the bearer of truly legendary weapons. Some already had their own mythology while others are busy building one as their wielder does great deeds, but one and all, they belong in the annals of history.

As such, the user’s weapons grow in power as they’re used, though in the case of soulbound weapons that grow with the user already, this Skill merely acts as a significant growth booster.

It was an incredible improvement, though it wouldn’t become useful for a very long time. Balmung was already very, very powerful, able to cut a Lindwyrm’s scales like tissue paper.

Another twenty or thirty Levels from now, he might run into something that could have resisted his basic blade, but by that point, it would no longer be a basic blade.

They were also making a very different set of preparations on the other end of the island. A summoning circle for one final Least Demon Lord. This one was all for Isaac. After seeing how useful having a Lindwyrm to experiment with had been, Isaac had been given permission to seal the other [Raid Boss] in the [Grave of Swords] as well. Once that happened, he’d have to be careful to make sure he didn’t let himself get talked into playing training aid for too large a chunk of his time.

Sadly, summoning the big monster wasn’t possible while the rest of the island was being used to host the world’s most expensive barbeque, which left them twiddling their thumbs … until it was time to dig in.

“So, what we’ve got here are simple steaks, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper but that’s all.

“This is a proper game stew, with various herbs and vegetables from forested Hunting Grounds.

“Here we have Lindwyrm Burgers, with lettuce, stewed onions, and homemade barbeque sauce.

“Also, here’s about a million side dishes for everyone who isn’t full after the rest, nothing fancy there.”

‘Nothing fancy, my ass.’ Isaac chuckled. ‘About a million’ was an overestimation of how much was there, but not nearly as far off as one might think. A dozen different kinds of salads, more soups than Isaac had known existed, croutons, and more, all in a quality that surpassed even the best of pre-[System] restaurants.

Isaac devoured the first burger in a few quick bites and suddenly, Caroline shouted “Everyone wait. The energy level in the food dropped, I don’t think too many people can eat this stuff and gain something from it.”

“How many?” Bailey asked.

“At least three, six at the most.” She said. It was a good guess, Isaac knew the real number was five people. He shrugged “We decided on which order we’d eat this in if there wasn’t enough for everyone ahead of time. Also, I was right.”

Healing (epic)

The quintessential skills of Doctors, Nurses, EMTs and Medical professionals in general, condensed into a single Skill. Healing allows the user to restore the health and physical well-being of others via touch, as well as the user’s own body.

It also helps understand injuries and gauge their severity.

Cost: 15-50 mana per second of healing depending on speed, major physical trauma doubles cost, restoring flesh requires 100 mana per kg created

People’s eyes went wide as they stared at the [System] screen. New powers gained by eating a Lindwyrm were a thing.

If it had been something more useful for Isaac, he’d have hidden it, but getting [Healing] was one of the most useless things he could have gotten. Isaac had his own regeneration that was both better and cheaper and knowing he could now fix others at the Level of a late second/early third Evolution Doctor wasn’t a big trump card he needed to hide.

It was useful, sure, letting him fill in as a Healer in a chinch, but a real [Doctor] wouldn’t just have this [Skill], but also a million different specialized diagnostic and targeted restoration abilities, [Skills] that prevented people in a large area from deteriorating even without medical intervention, and so on, and so forth.

So yes, he could get some use out of this, though he could have gotten more out of others.

Still, that was the thing about gaining new [Skills] by eating a Lindwyrm. You’d get one, once, and it was guaranteed to neither be useless nor perfectly synergize with the eater’s build.

“Is it always going to be the same [Skill]?” the [General] asked. There were a few healing Aspects, but the ones that had been discovered thus far weren’t nearly that good.

“Let’s find out,” Bailey said and ate his own burger.

***

Two hours later, the vast feast had been completely devoured. Even though not everyone was getting [Skills] from the food, it was still very good food.

As for the [Skills] gained themselves, they were … an odd bunch. Bailey could now talk to animals and was currently engaged in an animated conversation with a curious seal that had washed up on the island about halfway through.

There was also the supply officer who could see a quarter second into the future at a truly horrendous mana cost, something that would have been insanely powerful on any person with a combat [Class], the police officer who could slightly adjust the weather and member of the army who was now able to survive anywhere in the ocean, complete with water breathing, immunity to water pressure and oceanic pollutants.

All cool [Skills], all of very limited use to their respective holders.

But they’d now proven that [Raid Bosses] could be fought even without having tanks immune to the monster’s primary attacks and Isaac had another feather in his cap for predicting the special little gain from this particular monster.

And lastly, Isaac now had a Demon Lord all to himself. Since the last time he’d fought one of these things mano a mano, he’d become immune to hellfire, tripled his Stats, gained [Legendary Blow], and gotten his grubby mitts on a sword of legend. Any one of those things would have turned this battle into a one-sided curb stomp, but all of those things combined … this was going to be a bloodbath.