Primer for the Apocalypse

Zavira and I stood in front of the entry to the Trial twelve days later. We’d both prepared for the challenge with the understanding that the Trial could take weeks to complete, and our storage rings reflected that.

“I’ll message you when I’m done,” I said as I glanced at my companion.

“Same,” she replied with an excited smile. “Good luck.”

“You, too.”

With nothing left to say, we stepped forward together. Space twisted, and I could feel the currents of the dungeon pulling us to different locations.

It was expected. We already knew the sixth floor’s Trial was not something we could challenge together.

I appeared in an empty room. There were no doors or windows, nor was there any light. I was only able to tell I was surrounded by four walls because of Spatial Sense.

[Welcome, Challenger!

Complete the Trial and be rewarded.

You may practice this Trial 0 times.

You may challenge this Trial 1 time.

Would you like to:

Practice, Challenge, or Exit the Trial?

*NOTE: You may reenter if you exit without challenging the Trial*]

It was basically the same generic notification I’d gotten for the previous Trials. There was nothing that indicated the Trial only ended when the challenger failed – and in this case, that meant death. That was something we’d learned through research.

Thankfully, death inside of Trials was not permanent.

After selecting ‘Challenge,’ a new notification appeared.

[Complete as many paths as possible.]

Before I could consider the notification further, the room brightened, and two doors manifested in front of me.

The first door was decorated with the runic symbol for ‘Fire’ and was surrounded by a faint red aura. The second was marked with the rune for ‘Water’ and was outlined in blue.

Having expected such options, I equipped my [Fire Resistance] and [Temperature Control] talismans before choosing the door marked with ‘Fire.’

Of the two, Fire seemed like the least annoying, though I knew there was a good chance I’d find myself facing the Water door again eventually.

Having indicated my decision, the door marked with the symbol for ‘Water’ disappeared, and I found myself standing at the end of a long, dimly lit hallway. The walls and ceiling of the space were covered in thick cracks separating the hallway from the dimly burning fires on the other side.

The flickering light cast deep shadows in the hallway, making it difficult to see potential threats. I was not overly concerned with the lack of visibility since I still had access to Spatial Sense, though I imagined not having such a skill would make the challenge significantly more stressful.

After taking a few steps into the hallway, I noticed a soot-covered lizard emerging from one of the cracks. It saw me immediately and let out a hiss before spitting a stream of flames in my direction.

I dodged the attack and shot the fire-breathing lizard with an [Ice Spike], hoping the attack would be enough to defeat the creature. Though I expected some level of reduced effectiveness, I was surprised that my manatech weapon had almost no effect on the lizard, even with its counter affinity.

None of the other Ice-based spells contained within the scepter seemed to affect the creature, either. I would have found the situation particularly strange had I not been forewarned that enchanted weapons didn’t work properly in the Trial.

But ‘properly’ implied the weapons would still work with some effectiveness, and that clearly wasn’t the case.

Further, the limitation was only supposed to apply to items not crafted by the trial-taker. Or, at least, that was the conclusion Zavira and I had come to since only those who hadn’t crafted their weapons had complained of such a limitation.

Clearly, we were wrong.

To make sure, I tried a variety of other manatech weapons and noted the same lackluster performance. In fact, the only weapons that seemed to work properly were those that used my mana instead of the mana stored within a core or artificial battery.

I wasn’t sure what the purpose of such a limitation was, but it ultimately didn’t matter. Whatever its purpose, the effect was the same.

Most of the arsenal I’d brought was now useless for the Trial challenge, and it looked like I’d only be able to use Space and Time magic for the immediate future.

Thankfully, the limitation didn’t seem to apply to utility or defensive items. I would have been very upset if my MealMaker suddenly stopped working because it used mana cores to power the transmutation.

Limited to only my affinities and the enchanted weapons I’d crafted that did not rely on additional power sources – of which there were remarkably few – I slowly made my way through the Fire path.

The layout reminded me of a stereotypical dungeon floor from fantasy stories back on Earth. Aside from the occasional random attacks in the hallways from creatures hiding in the flickering shadows, most of the mobs I encountered were located within the challenge rooms spread intermittently throughout the path.

The first room I entered had a handful of Combustion Slimes that left burning trails marking their paths before exploding on contact. The second held Flaming Rats that burst into flames randomly. The third room had more than a dozen Inferno Dogs, which looked a lot less like canines than some kind of weasel.

All were level sixty.

Being limited to my inherent magics meant I had little reason to vary my attacks.

Instead of trying a variety of different weapons to see what worked the best, I simply Paused everything in the first room and dispatched each slime one at a time using a spear enchanted with basic [Durability], [Sharpness], and [Self-Repair] enchantments.

In the next room, I used Slow against the Flaming Rats instead of Pause, but otherwise, the fight was basically the same.

The third room I filled with a Spatial Distortion Field and watched as the aggressive weasel creatures tore themselves apart as they tried to attack.

Though I kept a moderate pace to regenerate what mana I could in between fights, by the time I reached the boss room, I was a lot lower on mana than I hoped to be.

I was glad to see there was only a single opponent in the final room since it took much less mana to Pause a single creature as opposed to multiple.

However, I was less excited to see the creature was level sixty-one and, thus, a tier higher. Though it was only a single-level difference, the jump in tier meant the creature would be significantly tougher and require even more mana to impact with my spells.

While I wasn’t necessarily surprised to see the boss was Tier Seven, having been warned it was a possibility, the sight delayed me just enough that the boss managed to release a blast of super-heated flames in my direction before I could freeze it in place.

The spell was enough to break through my [Barrier] talisman, but not enough to do significant damage aside from that.

With the boss temporarily neutralized by my delayed spell, I took a moment to consider the best method of attack.

Everything would take a lot more mana to accomplish, but if the reports of the Trial were accurate, there would be a short period of relative safety between paths. With my enhanced regeneration, I should be able to fully regenerate my mana during the break.

Hopefully, I’d be able to make use of the time to craft a bit as well.

Though I didn’t think it was likely, I hoped that weapons crafted within the Trial wouldn’t be subject to the same limitations, especially if they were crafted using the materials collected in the Trial itself.

After giving myself a few minutes to recover what mana I could, I focused on my brain-stealing technique. Since the creature was already being affected by my Time mana, using the technique was made a touch easier than it otherwise might have been.

It still took a lot more mana than it would against something within or below my tier. Still, I was pleased to see the technique worked against a stronger opponent.

[Congratulations on completing the first path!

You have three hours to choose the next path or the selection will be made randomly.]

I collected the fallen boss creature and walked toward the doors that had materialized in the back wall. I had no desire to jump right into the next path, but I still took a moment to examine the doors. This time, the doors were yellow and brown, representing Air and Earth, respectively.

I sighed and set up a basic [Time Dilation Field] to extend my crafting time. Once that was complete, I pulled out a mobile workstation before directing Lisa to notify me ten minutes before the deadline.

Now that I had a better idea of what to expect with regard to what weapons I’d be able to use, I wanted to make the most of my available downtime. I also wasn’t going to count on the [Time Dilation Field] working since it hadn’t in the previous Trial.

I started by modifying one of my existing weapons to incorporate manually added Space mana. I didn’t think such an addition would circumvent the restriction, but I wouldn’t know for sure without checking. It was only a small modification, anyway.

Next, I extracted a bone from the recently defeated boss creature and used a variety of quick processing spells to prepare it as an enchantment base. Using a few other materials from the recently-defeated creature, I created a manatech wand powered by the core of the previous boss.

My hope was that weapons crafted during the Trial from the remains of the creatures within wouldn’t have the same restrictions as those prepared in advance.

Even simplifying the design, I still barely managed to finish the weapon before Lisa notified me the deadline to choose my next path was approaching.

Though I expected it, I was still a little disappointed that my Time dilation hack was nerfed once again.

Because I didn’t want to deal with flying creatures later in the Trial when things would presumably become more difficult, I chose Air as the next path.

Just like before, the other option disappeared when I made my choice. As soon as I stepped through the doorway, my surroundings shifted, and I found myself standing on a swaying bridge that stretched between two massive trees.

I was facing one of the ropes connecting the bridge to its anchors, and I had the option of going either left or right. There was nothing remarkable about either direction as far as I could tell, so I wasn’t quite sure which direction to choose.

Looking behind me, it was clear there was no going back to the previous room. Additionally, everything below the bridge was hidden by a thick fog that my senses could not penetrate.

With nothing making either direction stand out, I turned to the left and headed toward the tree.

I only managed to take two steps before the first flying creature attacked.

This time, instead of using Time magic to get an advantage, I ensured my Barrier was active and my secondary [Barrier] was working before testing the baton I’d modified.

It was obvious that whatever restrictions the dungeon had put in place originally still applied to the enchantments on the weapon. While the additional Space mana was decently strong, the [Lightning Bolts] were still much weaker than they should have been.

With a disgruntled grumble, I stored the weapon and retrieved the Fire wand.

While I wasn’t putting much hope into the weapon, I was pleasantly surprised to find the wand worked fine. In fact, it was quite effective against the peak-tier creatures I found myself facing.

Taking my time and trying to save my limited charges, I crossed various bridges as I made my way through the maze-like path.

It took quite a while before I realized the path was not merely ‘maze-like,’ but was actually a maze that needed to be figured out before I could find the end of the path.

Once I realized that, it didn’t take long to find the correct route to the boss.

I didn’t bother trying anything new when it came to defeating the bus-sized bird. With a few targeted (and mana-intensive) spells coupled with the Tier Seven power of the Fire wand, the boss fell, and the second path in the Trial was complete.