Primer for the Apocalypse

“Do you think it will work this time?” Zavira asked as I stepped out of my apartment a couple of weeks after my near-death experience.

I’d told her what happened with the locusmander, and after hearing how the creature had completely negated my ability to Teleport away, Zavira had whole-heartedly supported my desire to design and create an emergency talisman that could bypass spatial locks.

I really should have considered the problem earlier, given my experience with the cultists in the other timeline. But it had been the collar that was the real issue then, not another Space Mage’s ability to lock down an area.

Still, I should have recognized the weakness and tried to address it before entering the dungeon. Not doing so was a huge oversight that left me vulnerable to any Space Mage who might want to do me harm.

“Maybe,” I said cautiously, though I was very optimistic about my newest design. “I still need to test it, but I think it will work this time. If it does, then I should be able to apply the same principles to get around null zones – at least, in theory.”

My new friend shook her head with a touch of exasperation. “Those are so rare. I’m not sure it’s worth the effort to bother crafting something to counter them. Besides,” she said as she kept pace with me down the hallway, “isn’t that why you’ve trained in melee combat?”

“Partially,” I replied, stepping through the sliding door of our fancy apartment building.

I was still often amazed at what the people living on the floor had accomplished with limited resources. I was almost certain the dungeon had some way of providing outside resources to those within, though I’d never had a reason to dig into the logistics of the dungeon too deeply.

We headed to the park a few blocks away. It was one of the few ‘green spaces’ that was not dedicated to food production within the fourth-floor city. We could have gone almost anywhere in the dungeon to test the talisman, but I liked the small park.

Seeing children play without care was comforting in a way I couldn’t quite describe.

“Alright,” I said, handing the talisman to Zavira when we came to a stop. “It works the same way the other E3 talismans work.” E3 was the shorthand I’d developed for my [Enhanced Emergency Escape] talismans. “I’ll let you know when to manually trigger it.”

Zavira nodded and slipped the necklace over her head before tucking it under her sect robes. I withdrew my unanchored domain until it extended just a few feet around us, being careful not to include anyone else in the zone of influence before Anchoring it in place.

“Here we go,” I said as I used Spatial Lock to lock down everything within my domain. After a couple of breaths, I nodded at Zavira, and she abruptly disappeared. I couldn’t even sense the shift in mana, which made me both happy and annoyed.

Releasing the effect, I Teleported to my apartment to verify she’d been sent to the correct location. Zavira was all smiles when I arrived.

“It worked!” she exclaimed. “That means we can get back to exploring, right?”

“I want to run a couple more tests,” I said, dissipating some of the other woman’s excitement. “I can do them on my own if you’d rather spend the time crafting. I already reached out to Niall and Ela’Quarton. If everything goes well, I’ll just need one more day, and I’ll be done.”

Zavira huffed at the delay but said nothing as she removed the necklace. I’d already explained my logic in testing the talisman against someone else’s spatial effects if the device worked against mine. I didn’t want to find myself in another sticky situation and realize that the talisman only worked when I tested it because it used the same mana as the limiting field.

In reality, I could have skipped testing it personally and gone straight to having another Space Mage try to lock an area down.

But I didn’t.

If I could have projected the Spatial Lock field imprinted into the core I retrieved from the locusmander, I would have done that. But unfortunately, cores with imprinted spells didn’t work like that.

The only real use for such impressions was academic. Studying the cores of creatures at Tier Four and higher was how many sapient creatures (such as humans) learned the language of magic in the first place.

“I’ll message you with the results when I’m finished,” I said as I put on the necklace. There was no reason to charge it just yet. Testing it under less-than-pristine conditions was probably better anyway.

I hurried back to the park to meet with Ela’Quarton, the elf with a Space affinity I’d coordinated with. As her name implied, she was a fourth-floor native. However, she was already Tier Four and was actively ‘climbing’ the dungeon.

I’d found her and Niall through the Dungeoneers’ Guild after posting a request for assistance.

Niall had an upper-Strong Void affinity, which I’d needed to get the E3 talisman to work with a Spatial Lock in place. I had no other source of Tier Four Void mana available, so I’d been forced to resort to hiring a Void Mage to use his mana.

Instead of accepting credits or cores in exchange for ‘donating’ his mana, Niall had asked for a [Restore] talisman once he realized I was capable of making such. I felt it was a good deal, considering the scarcity of Void mana on the fourth floor.

If things went well with Ela, I’d get Niall to throw up a null zone to see if the talisman worked against one of those as well. There was a small chance my design was already sufficient, but I suspected I’d need to tweak the design to strengthen the Void Barrier before it would be capable of blocking the null effects.

It wasn’t part of our initial agreement, but Niall needed his new talisman recharged and agreed to cast the spell as payment.

I could have easily Teleported back to the park to meet with Ela, but the people within the city did not appreciate such uses of magic within city limits, especially outside of private areas. It wasn’t illegal, and leaving a public area was much more acceptable than entering one with Spatial magic.

It was more of a social expectation that I didn’t see the point in flaunting when it took so little effort and time to simply walk to my destination. I had to wait a couple of minutes for the other Space Mage to show up, and when she arrived, it was with a bit of an entourage.

“I thought you said she was a Space Mage, too?” one of Ela’s elven companions asked quietly as she eyed my attire without bothering to use an identification spell.

Since I had no plans to leave the city for the day, I was only wearing the comfortable sleeveless top and loose pants that served as under-armor for my robes. Unlike Zavira, I did not accept the necessity of wearing the full sect ensemble every time I left the privacy of my apartment.

Both articles of clothing were white with shimmer stitching along the trim. Because of the similarity in colors, one had to look closely to make out the sect’s crest in a repeating pattern decorating the edges of both garments.

Given the colors on display, I could see how Ela’s companion might be confused.

“She is,” the elven woman hissed. “But she’s also a Sect Elite for some famous Time Sect on the outside, so be polite.” After admonishing the other elf, Ela turned to me and smiled apologetically.

Unbothered and not really wanting to delay, I said, “Thanks for coming so quickly.”

The violet-haired elf nodded. “The timing was fortuitous. We were just on our way out of the city.”

Given the additional information, her entourage made a bit more sense. Had she been in one of the zones, I would have Teleported to her location and tested the talisman from there. I was glad not to have needed to go through that extra step, even if we did plan for the possibility.

“Well, I won’t keep you any longer than necessary,” I replied. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

Since I was paying attention to the mana in the area around me, I noticed when the other Space Mage locked the area down. Once she gave the signal, I triggered the E3 talisman, prompting a shell of Void mana to encase me before being pulled into Phase.

From the weave, the talisman had no problem Teleporting me to the target location. Spatial effects only influenced the outer realm, not the space between.

Entering Phase was an extra step, but a necessary one.

Zavira was no longer present when I appeared in my apartment, and although Niall wouldn’t be available for another hour, I decided to get started on my first batch of E3 talismans. Testing the design against a null field was not strictly necessary. It was more of a curiosity, really.

Niall’s actual purpose was to provide the Void mana I needed to make the talismans. However, after today, I wouldn’t need his help anymore. It was something he was fully aware of, though he probably thought it was only a matter of time before I needed to refill my mana batteries. He was probably hoping to avoid paying for regular talisman recharges by refilling them for me.

Of course, as an Enchanter, I was more than capable of creating a mana-gathering array that would slowly refill cores, crystals, and other mana-storage devices. He really should know that, given his background.

But he seemed quite a bit different from most of the elites on the floor – aside from the fact that he was Kastet. He was clearly of noble birth, given his demeanor and equipment, but I suspected there was more to the story than he let on.

Not that it mattered overmuch.

As soon as I settled in at my workstation, I received a message from Ela asking how much I planned to charge for the E3 talismans and expressing an interest in purchasing enough for her team. I smiled to myself and quickly sent a reply before shifting my focus to my next task.

Niall was still armored when he arrived at my apartment. His gear showed signs of having been repaired several times, which was a bit of a surprise considering how new the Kastet was to the dungeon. From what I understood, he’d only entered around the time the locusmander attacked me, so it hadn’t been very long at all.

A couple of weeks, maybe? Sometimes, I lost track of time when I got really focused on a project. It was why I didn’t give Zavira too hard of a time.

“Hey! Did you just get back from the zones?” I asked as I welcomed him inside.

The tall, bipedal cat-man nodded. Though his clothing and armor looked a bit disheveled, I didn’t see any injuries – not that anything short of a major injury would be easy to see with his thick, navy fur.

“I did,” Niall said, his deep voice rumbling. “Your enchantment has been quite helpful. I am almost tempted to trade for an additional one to reduce how often I need a recharge.”

“You’re getting injured that often?”

The Kastet’s claws extended and immediately retracted. It looked almost like he’d flexed both hands, but I recognized the movement as the Kastet equivalent of a shrug. “It is more common than I’d like. But I’m still adjusting to fighting alone.”

“You haven’t found a party yet?” I asked, a bit surprised by the information.

“No. Everyone seems to be content with slow progress, even among the so-called elite,” Niall growled in annoyance before pausing. “I mean no offense by my statement. I am simply not blessed with enough natural longevity to ascend slowly. If I hope to reach the peak of this realm and potentially ascend into the next, I do not have time to dither.”

“I’m not offended by honesty,” I assured him. “Now that I’ve mostly finished with my project, I’m ready to get back to the grind. However, I was hoping you’d be willing to help me test something first.”

“What?”

“Can you create a Null Field?”

The Void Mage raised a furry brow. “Of course I can! I’m an Academy graduate.”

Nodding, I asked, “Would you be willing to create one in exchange for me refilling your talisman?”

“I don’t see a problem with that,” the Kastet replied before glancing around. “Though, manifesting such things in populated areas is generally frowned upon. Did you want me to create one here?” he asked, looking a bit uncomfortable.

“No. This is my Teleport location,” I said in a way that I hoped would come off as reassuring. “We’d need to go somewhere else to see if the talisman works.”

Niall looked surprised by my comment. “You think your escape device will let you Teleport out of a Null Field?”

I grinned at the man’s reaction. It was a pretty daring claim. “As it’s currently designed, maybe not,” I admitted. “But I’m pretty confident I could manage it with a few tweaks. I can already use it to escape a Spatial Lock, and the approach should be the same.”

“Is that what you’ve been creating?” Niall asked with renewed interest. “I would be interested in something like that if the cost is not prohibitive.”

While Niall filled the hidden Void Crystal I’d created with the Crystal node using his mana, I refilled his [Restore] talisman and ensured it was working properly. Once he Meditated long enough to regain a good portion of his mana, I guided the Void Mage to the nearby park.

It was the best place I’d found for creating magical fields since there was nothing in the immediate vicinity to interfere with. As Niall had mentioned, establishing a Null Field in my apartment building would have likely had adverse effects on multiple enchantments in the area.

I doubted my neighbors would have appreciated that.

Several minutes later, I was on my way back to the apartment. I could tell that the talisman had come close to working. The Void Barrier just wasn’t quite enough to push back the Null Field in its current configuration.

The problem was almost certainly a matter of intent, which was something I’d have to change during the Imbuing portion of the enchantment’s creation process. For now, I’d leave the blueprint as it was. I’d already validated its effectiveness.

I could always tweak the design later, before we entered a zone that might have Void creatures capable of establishing null zones.