Primer for the Apocalypse

Justin smiled softly as he watched his twin toddlers playing in the enchanted park near their home. Amie was due to pass by on her way home from school any minute, and he was keeping an eye out for her.

She usually checked the park as she passed since he often brought the twins there after their afternoon nap. More often than not, Amie would show up accompanied by a few friends. None of their parents seemed to mind the small delay on their walk home.

As he often did, Justin found himself contemplating how much his life had changed since his awakening. To be fair, he supposed it was like that for most people, regardless of where they grew up.

Those from Earth were particularly impacted by the changes that came with gaining access to the system, especially since the vast majority were completely unprepared. However, he was sure that many youths who’d grown up within the Alliance often felt like their life completely changed once they awakened, too.

At least, the ones he’d spoken to had.

Justin still felt guilty sometimes for functionally abandoning his world during such a tumultuous time, but it only took one glance at his children to smother such feelings.

His family meant everything to him. If leaving Earth was what it took to keep his children safe, he wouldn’t allow himself to feel bad about it.

His mind shifted to his sister.

Imagining himself in Emie’s place always brought a deep sense of gratitude to the forefront of his mind. Without her sacrifice, his children would have grown up without a father.

She’d given up all of her plans for him – for them. Not only that, she basically supported them, even now.

He really had no way to repay her.

Justin was many things, but delusional was not one of them.

He might not have been killed outright if he’d been sent to the dungeon, but he certainly wouldn’t have progressed as swiftly as Emie had. He was genuinely amazed by the fact that she had already reached Tier Seven, especially after talking to people and learning how long it usually took Alliance members to reach that level.

At least, he was fairly certain Emie had reached Tier Seven by now. If not, she was probably only hours away if he read her last message correctly.

While it had only been a little less than three and a half years on the outside since Emie entered the dungeon, the time dilation meant that close to seventeen years had passed for his younger sister.

Or was she his older sister now?

Time dilation was such a strange thing to consider.

Regardless of how old she might subjectively be, Emie would always be his little sister in his eyes.

“Hi, Daddy!” his eight-year-old daughter said with a brilliant smile as she entered the grassy area accompanied by two friends who lived nearby.

The three girls looked happy in their matching uniforms. Anyone who didn’t know better would never guess Amie was from Earth, which was a good thing as far as he was concerned.

Justin wasn’t ashamed of his background by any means, but it was always easier to fit in when you weren’t considered an outsider by default.

“Hey, sweetheart. How was school?”

“It was fine,” Amie answered distractedly before using the [Equip] function on her necklace to swap from her school uniform into something more appropriate for playing.

Justin sighed at the sight. He didn’t like that Amie made it so obvious that she possessed such an item, but at least she wasn’t the only one with such an artifact.

The other two little girls had done the same thing and were now dressed in casual clothing suited for outdoor play. With an excited wave goodbye, Amie ran toward the enchanted playground with her friends, heading straight toward one of the rising platforms several of the older kids had already started jumping from.

Justin shook his head at the kids’ antics.

As he watched all of his children play, his mind returned to his sister. She had changed so much after she started playing Atlas Online. To think that she’d been the first one on Earth to naturally awaken…

He’d promised not to talk about his suspicions with anyone, but he couldn’t help but think about them.

She’d changed before she awakened. Justin remembered how Emie had acted with Melony when they visited that last time. It was completely different from how she’d interacted with his now-ex before that.

Emie had gone from looking up to the older woman to practically loathing her. It had been strange at the time, but in hindsight… maybe she knew?

Justin shook his head, banishing the thought from his mind.

Then again, Emie had also started the online game guide by that point. That was also before she reportedly awakened, which was after she started working as a beta tester.

When he’d mentioned it, Emie had asked him not to dig, but told him to think about her affinities – Time and Space.

Could she really have traveled through time?

Justin silently laughed at the absurdity of the question. Everything he’d been able to find on the topic assured him that such things were impossible. At least, they were beyond a few hours.

Regardless of how or why, Justin felt grateful for the opportunity that Emie gave him by taking his place in the dungeon. Had she not made a deal with the old elf, Justin would have been in the dungeon right now instead of watching his children play.

Hadier really was like pre-apocalypse Earth in many ways.

There were schools, shops, factories, and almost anything else you would have expected to find in populated places on Earth before the reintegration. The basics of life were basically identical, with only a few details being different.

Instead of technology that ran on electricity, the rest of the universe had technology that ran on mana. Magic was real, which was the biggest difference aside from the inherent sociological implications that came with levels and tiers being a thing.

The obvious biases that higher-tier people held for lower-tier people kinda sucked, especially when he fell into the latter category.

Bell had it a little better since she was an Academy student, but she still saw a fair bit of discrimination as well since she was still Tier Three and they lived on a low-Tier Six planet. Still, the way people regarded her was nothing like the way they’d reacted to him for the first year as a twenty-something who’d barely earned a profession.

Thankfully, he’d earned enough for the interface upgrade and reached Tier Two shortly after that. Emie’s sect had helped him continue leveling every Fifthday when Bell was free to watch the kids, which had helped him steadily progress, even if it was slower than he would have liked.

There were always low-level sect hopefuls who wanted to grow stronger and were in need of an additional damage dealer. Most of the individuals referred to him by the sect had Fate or Time affinities, which made them less offensively capable as a general rule – especially at low tiers.

Having played Atlas Online, Justin knew very well how effective both affinities could become, but it took time and training to get there.

It made him worry about Emie, especially in the beginning.

“Daddy! Look at me!” Lucas, the slightly larger of the dark-haired twins, called out from the top of one of the playground towers.

If they’d been on Earth, he would have been terrified at the possibility the preschooler might fall and hurt himself.

But here?

“You’re so high!” Justin said with a grin as he rose to his feet to get a better look. “Are you going to jump this time?”

The last time his sons had climbed the short tower, they’d both refused to jump from the top. Instead, they’d jumped from the platform Daniel was standing on.

“Yep!” the little boy said as he puffed out his chest. “I’m going first!” he added before glancing at his fraternal twin on the lower platform.

Daniel stuck out his lower lip in an adorable pout.

Before the other twin could comment, Lucas leapt into the air and began freefalling much slower than gravity would have normally allowed. The entire playground was enchanted to make gravity much weaker, allowing the children to play almost as if they were in a swimming pool.

It wasn’t quite the same since they couldn’t easily gain or maintain elevation, but it was pretty close.

As Lucas passed the platform his brother was perched on, Daniel launched himself into the air and roughly collided with his sibling. With a shout, the twins careened toward the outer border of the playground and last contact with each other as they bounced off the visible [Barrier] around the perimeter.

Both boys were crying from the force of the initial impact when they landed several feet apart. Justin shook his head ruefully as he moved towards the closest twin.

“He hit me!” Lucas wailed through thick tears when he saw his dad approach.

“Here, let me fix it with some of Mommy’s magic,” Justin said softly as he picked up Lucas before heading to his weeping sibling. With both children latched to his torso, Justin left the [Barrier] and headed toward the nearby bench.

While it would have probably been fine to use the healing talisman he carried within the [Barrier], Justin didn’t want to risk any potential interference with the playground’s enchantments.

“What happened?” Amie asked as she ran over after noticing the ruckus the boys were making.

“It’s just a little bump,” Justin assured her before activating the talisman for Lucas first. He’d been the victim of his brother’s antics, so it was only fair that he got healed first.

With an exasperated sigh far more dramatic than the situation called for, Amie eyed her younger brothers.

“You have to be more careful. Mom will get mad if you make your healing charms go off,” she chided them.

Hearing Amie call Bell ‘Mom’ still warmed his heart.

He had no idea what happened to Melony, and quite frankly, he didn’t really care. Aside from the one birthday present she’d sent to Amie directly from Amazon after their divorce, his ex-wife hadn’t made the slightest attempt to maintain a relationship with her daughter.

Even after everything that had happened, Melony hadn’t reached out to him or his family to check on Amie. For all he knew, she was dead.

He wasn’t sure Amie even remembered her, so it wasn’t much of a loss.

Not that he was still bitter or anything.

The kids returned to playing after the initial shock of the injury wore off. As Justin watched them play, he let his thoughts shift in a new direction and focused on planning the next arc of his most popular series.

Most of his writing had main characters from Earth who suddenly found themselves being exposed to magic during the reintegration. It was what would have qualified as fantasy fiction on Earth before, but now it was just considered regular fiction.

Readers seemed to like the new perspective, especially with Earthborn being a relatively hot topic (for good and ill) now that enough of them had traveled beyond the planet.

A mundane world with only humans was about as close to fantasy as many of the citizens of the Atlantis Alliance could imagine.

He’d even written one story about a young Alliance member who found themselves portaled to an alternate Earth that hadn’t been reintegrated yet.

It was his most popular story so far.

Aside from writing, which earned him a moderate amount of experience through his profession as a Scribe, Justin filled the role of homemaker during the day while also delving weekly to continue his slow progression.

Bell was attending the local secondary academy that focused on Light (among other affinities), since it was the stronger of her two affinities. She was also able to gain some general training pertaining to her Force affinity there, but they didn’t have any professors who specialized in the affinity.

Bell had initially planned to skip the secondary academy altogether and go straight to the Enchanters’ Academy, but Rhona had convinced her not to go that route before they’d left Earth.

While it was possible to go directly to a specialized academy, according to Rhona, those who did often performed poorly. It wasn’t clear whether that was due to missing some critical aspect of their education or a consequence of discrimination or some other social process.

Since they had the funds to afford the additional schooling, it made sense for her to do it ‘the right way.’

Justin would have attended an academy as well, but his single weak affinity was more limiting than he initially realized.

Further, he had to wait until he reached Tier Two before he was even eligible to apply to most academies. By the time Justin achieved that milestone, he had settled into a routine with the kids and writing, and he was disinclined to disrupt things.

He knew that the sect would have approved the expenditure if he had submitted a request for it, but he didn’t like taking money from what was essentially Emie’s savings account held in trust by the sect. Accepting enough funds to cover his family’s basic living expenses and Bell’s education already made him feel like a freeloader.

Eventually, they’d earn enough credits that they wouldn’t have to rely on the generosity of his little sister. Hopefully, he and Bell would reach that point before Emie left the dungeon for her decade-long break.

It was unlikely, though, considering Bell would probably still be in school.

Then again, he’d have a lot more time to delve once the twins started school. It would probably be another four or five years before Emie was even capable of leaving the dungeon. By that point, maybe he’d be earning enough money to cover their expenses on his own.