Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 27: Equipment

“So, I have no idea why you want this, but I managed to build it exactly to your specifications.” the goldsmith said, placing a ring on the table in front of Isaac.

It looked to all the world like a filigreed steel ring containing a few sharp bits in the shape of a flower deep inside it. Not something that could ever cut anyone because there were always other metal bands to keep anything that might get damaged well clear, but it was still sharp. And therefore, he could project a [Far Strike] from it. To any conventional scan or search, it would look like a perfectly ordinary ring, but it’d allow him to unleash a devastating long range attack without any warning.

He wasn’t planning on going anywhere without a knife ever again, but that didn’t change the fact that there’d be places he couldn’t take it in the future.

Of course, this was a rather distinctive piece, which was why Isaac had also gotten a soldering iron to close up the outside, leaving him with a hollow spot in the center that held the sharp bits.

“And the rest?” Isaac asked.

“That too.” the goldsmith told him “Wasn’t nearly as complicated, though.”

A series of lockets and bracelets were laid out before Isaac, each far more durable than a goldsmith’s normal work. They were pretty, but also quite functional, capable of securely holding one of his gemstones once he’d enchanted them.

Isaac had also started strategizing on how to take down the Crystalline Sage, the [Raid Boss] that would drop the book containing most crystal based enchanting methods. He’d memorized some, but not nearly as many as he would have if he’d known he’d end up in the situation he was in now.

But that damn thing was Tier 7 and therefore worlds beyond anything that this timeline had seen.

All in all, these little gadgets cost almost five-thousand Euros between them, but he could afford it and they’d be really, really useful in the future.

But he was hardly done. He’d ordered a few things on Saturday while he’d been waiting on his mana to fully recharge and promised to pay a premium for speedy completion of his orders.

His next stop was a blacksmith’s shop. It was one that used modern tools and materials, though it was also perfectly capable of creating things the old fashioned, traditional way.

“Back already?” the man asked with a large grin on his face “If you hadn’t paid so well, this stuff wouldn’t have been ready by now.”

“I know, that’s why I did it. Asking someone to work on a Sunday … that’d better be followed by a damn good reason.” Isaac told the man.

“It was an unusual one, though. I think I’ve only been asked to make one of these … twice before?”

A large item wrapped in cloth was placed on the counter between them and carefully unfolded to reveal a slightly curved blade, around three quarters of a meter in length, with a handle reminiscent of one belonging to a kitchen knife. It only had a single sharp edge and surprisingly wide blade, giving it a little heft.

This blade was a Kriegsmesser, a medieval weapon which Isaac had chosen to use as his future main hand weapon.

While his knife was great for carrying without his being armed being all that obvious, it was too short to get at the vital organs on some of the bigger creatures, especially ones that only had one, like Rock Golems.

Of course, for the truly big creatures, not even this weapon would suffice, but those would simply have the supreme misfortune of being subjected to a death by a thousand cuts.

“May I?” Isaac asked as he reached for the blade and got a nod in return.

The familiar weight of the larger blade felt good in his hands as he took a few steps backwards to get some room and began to slowly, carefully, move into a variety of combat stances.

“You do good work, Mr. Stagmer.” Isaac grinned at the man.

“Thank you.”

“So, how much do I owe you?” Isaac asked. They’d agreed on the price beforehand, of course, but it seemed like the polite way to ask to pay.

“1,200 €, please. And if you have any other interesting weapons you’d like to get made, I’d love to do that for you.” Stagmer said.

“I do, actually. Could you forge me a proper Zweihänder? A bit shorter than I’m tall, with a shorter than normal crossguard, and a pronounced point at the tip?” Isaac said as he paid, in cash, of course.

“You’re planning on going to fight some of those monsters, aren’t you?” Stagmer asked.

“I already am. It’s my job, actually. Been using a combat knife, so far, but it’s a little short when measured up against the larger monsters. I got the Kriegsmesser because I know a little about using it, but I think something really big might be needed sooner, rather than later.” Isaac said.

A Zweihänder, also known as a great sword, was a medieval weapon that could reach lengths of over two meters and were wielded with one hand on the actual grip and the other on the uppermost section of the blade, which wasn’t actually sharpened. They were heavy weapons, but with the advent of the [System], weight wouldn’t really play too much of a factor any more. Only comically oversized weapons might be problematic due to how swinging one could mess with the wielder’s balance, but a Zweihänder would have been fine regardless.

That kind of huge weapon would be useful in a fight and Isaac knew how to wield it … sort of.

In the other timeline, he’d used a standard arming sword for most of the time, relying on allies and [Skills] to make up for its pathetically short length.

But as things stood, he could think of a dozen different scenarios where simply having a long weapon could be a gamechanger.

“Do you mean a two handed sword, or an actual Zweihänder?” Stagmer asked, clearly trying to ensure that Isaac knew exactly what he was asking for.

“An actual Zweihänder, with a shorter crossguard, pointier tip and the length a little less than my height.” Isaac confirmed.

“… so you’re actually going to use that in combat? Any other modifications you want? And are you sure about the ones you already mentioned?” Stagmer asked, clearly surprised and slightly skeptical.

“Nothing I can think of right now and yes, I’m sure. If I happen to have been wrong about either of those things, I know who to ask.” Isaac flashed the man a grin.

“That’ll take a while, though.” Stagmer said.

“Of course. Quality takes time.”

“Or a hefty payment for overtime.” Stagmer suggested, mirroring Isaac’s smile.

“I don’t need it just yet.” Isaac replied “Thank you for offering though.”

Once the sword had been re-wrapped, Isaac departed the store. He bought a few more odds and ends on the way home and dropped them off once there, but then he headed out into the woods with some summoning materials, cloth covered sword slung over his shoulder.

A glance at his Status revealed that he had 2,801 XP at the moment, almost six hundred short of what he needed to hit Level 10 in one fell swoop. That was actually something he could get tonight, especially given what he was planning on fighting.

His goal was to hit Level 10 by the end of the week, so he probably had the time to squeeze in another new Aspect before then. But did he actually need one?

The main purpose of using Aspects was to get [Skills] outside of one’s [Class], rounding out or even completing one’s build.

Isaac had a bunch of [Strike] type [Skills] for offense and [Spectral Shift] for defense and to open up new mobility options. Then he’d gotten [Hydra’s Regeneration] to compensate for the internal injuries [Spectral Shift] was prone to inflicting, but it also ensured he could always fully recover after any fight he lived through, without help.

He had people who would help him in his life, one of them was even a [Healer], but that didn’t mean they’d be there right when he needed them.

Sadly, neither of his [Aspect] [Skills] could come from [Rogue] or one of its standard Evolutions.

Regeneration [Skills] were the domain of [Warriors], [Brutes] and [Pugilists], or [Healers] who worked on themselves.

Meanwhile, phasing [Skills] could be gained from some advanced [Rogue] Evolutions, but those were either really advanced Evolutions, or they required some type of Ephemeral Aspect to get. And at that point, he really could just directly grab a [Skill] that let him go Ephemeral directly, instead of devoting his entire [Class] to towards getting one.

That just left him needing a kind of speed based mobility [Skill] for repositioning and something to make sure he always had a weapon on hand.

Sure, the ring that now adorned his right middle finger was a step towards that end, but he really wanted a proper weapon he couldn’t lose, like the kind a soulbinding [Skill] provided, or maybe something that let him conjure weapons.

In fact, the latter was something the Wraiths he was heading out to fight could provide, albeit at one hell of a mana cost with the resulting constructs being a little fragile for his taste.

Lastly, some long-range mobility options or spatial storage [Skills] would be fantastic.

At the end of the day though, those two weren’t absolutely vital.

Of course, having more Aspects meant getting a chance at a better [Class] Evolution, but Isaac didn’t know how many he needed for a Legendary [Class].

Two Aspects before Level 10 would almost certainly give him an Epic one, but he wasn’t sure how many more he needed for a Legendary one, the next one up the rarity ladder and the highest tier there was.

Getting a Legendary [Class] usually required shit like ‘kill a [Raid Boss] no more than twenty Levels below you on your own’, ‘defeat 10 people of a higher Level with a same rarity [Class] on your own’ or even something truly insane like ‘hit Level 50 in all [Class] [Skills]’.

All doable, especially the first one, but not something he could compare to just grinding out Aspects in terms of difficulty.

Just having two Aspects this early guaranteed him a good Evolution, now he had no idea how much further he’d need to go to get an even better one.

And that just left him with another possible issue. Yes, he could always replace an Aspect if he decided another one would be better, burning it and 1000 XP to free up the slot, but that wasn’t all he needed to consider.

Aspect based Evolutions were based on Aspects, specifically, the ones he used when advancing. Removing one of the Aspects your [Class] was based on … bad idea. Just … really bad idea.

The Aspect of the Lesser Hydra and the Aspect of the Specter were ones he’d keep all the way to the peak, he knew that. An Aspect that might become obsolete by the next Evolution … not so much.

Maybe he could waste a slot later, but right now, he wanted to be economical about this sort of thing.

Soon he’d left the lights of the city behind and was entering the deep, dark forest.

The Kriegsmesser jumped from the sheath and the cloth got stuffed into a jacket pocket.

Mana flowed into the blade as Isaac began to use the active part of his Level 10 [Knives] [Skill], improving the blade. Not much, mind you, just the right amount to match his regeneration and keep his mana pool full for the summoning that would happen soon.

Occasionally, he used [Piercing Strike] instead, leaving holes in the ground, rocks and the occasional fallen tree, every use refining the edge of his weapon.

He could have done the summoning after only a few minutes of walking, but he wanted to reinforce his chosen weapon a little first.

Finally, Isaac judging that the Kriegsmesser would survive the fight without needing maintenance immediately afterwards, walked over to the closest clearing and drew a Tier 4 circle in the dirt. Rock Salt, Iron Shavings and String were dumped inside, then he finished it off by placing a single lit candle in the middle and pouring mana into it, leaving him with an empty pool.

During the quarter of an hour it would take to fully refill it, Isaac completed the rest of his preparations.

He’d just summoned a Wraith, one of the more unusual members of the Ephemeral type legions. They always wielded one of several weapons and fought with some modicum of skill.

Now that he had a proper weapon to fight one with, Isaac was eager to have a proper duel.

Trying to use a knife against an opponent wielding a sword would have been … not good, at least not in a straight up fight.

Despite how movies portrayed it, one could block a sword with a knife. After all, there wasn’t much of a difference between catching a blow with the ten-centimeter blade of a knife or taking it on the last ten centimeters of a one handed sword, but the lack of reach was a killer.

[Far Strike] alleviated this issue somewhat, but using it was expensive in terms of mana used even if he refrained from using [Manifold Strike] to make it stronger.

Of course, blocking a weapon required you to have the strength to block the blow and durability to not break your own bones from the transmitted force. With a Fortitude of 30, Isaac was good on the latter front, but not the former.

But that was easily fixed. 700 XP vanished in a flash as he levelled up.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Rogue

Species: Human

Level: 7

XP: 2101/800

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 73/150

Stats

Fortitude

30

Perception

25

Strength

20

Agility

20

Magic Power

15

Magic Regeneration

30

Free Points: 0 Stat, 18 Skill

Skills

Hundred Faces VII

Stealth VIII

Power Strike XI

Piercing Strike XII

Sundering Strike X

Knives XI

Sneak XI

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike IV

Manifold Strike II

General Skills

Gralloch I

Alchemy I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra

Hydra’s Regeneration

8 points went into Strength and 2 into Agility, bringing them both up to 20. Man, those two had been lagging behind.

He’d improved the stats he needed to grind more efficiently first, Fortitude to stay awake longer, Perception to see in the dark, Magic Power to charge stronger circles, Magic Regeneration to summon more in the same amount of time.

This had left Agility and Strength somewhat underpowered compared to his Level, a completely crooked spread of Stats compared to the build he’d intended on having.

But it had gotten him here rather quickly, so all was well. Now, he’d just bring up everything to around thirty or so, then start focusing on Agility, Perception and Magic Regeneration.

And as always, the [Skill] Points were saved for his next [Class].

A few minutes later, his mana ticked up to full and it was time. Isaac rose to his feet in a single smooth motion and activated the circle.

It turned into a flat, pale blue and glowing disk from which a dark figure rose, head looking downwards as if the humanoid being had died and just kept standing despite that.

Black armor wrapped pale white, see through, flesh. A soft light began to emanate from it, shining through the gaps in deep black plate armor, a glowing spectral broadsword manifesting in its right hand and a buckler in the left.

The Wraith’s head rose, then snapped around to glare at Isaac, pale wisps emanating from the armor’s eye sockets.

A proper warrior stood there, glaring at Isaac from across the clearing. Strong, powerful, meh tier techniques. In essence, this was a fight between a proper body builder and a black belt in any marital art you cared to name. Immensely strong, but perfectly beatable by skill alone.

The sword flashed forward, cutting the air with unnatural speed, but Isaac simply interposed his own blade.

Two swords, one made of mundane steel but then strengthened by sheer skill, the other born of a preternatural monster and strengthened by raw hatred, met. The sound of that meeting, however, was something neither of them had expected.

A combined [Piercing Strike] and [Piercing Strike ] met and attack created from pure willpower and mana, something entirely different from what either of them had been prepared for.

The sound that echoed across the clearing was beyond anything that could be found in nature, the scream of tortured metal and a mana-forged bit of metal impacting not something that could happen by anything even remotely normal.

The Wraith withdrew its blade a moment later, but Isaac just kept up his assault. The Kriegsmesser came down in an overhead chop like a meteor, but the Wraith simply interposed its shield and blocked the attack. After all, a little skill with the blade was still some skill.

The sword flashed around in arc, moving so quickly it seemed to leave a trail in the air but Issac was already moving, letting himself fall backwards, going under the deadly conjured weapon as he brought his own around in a sweeping arc, a crimson bar of power that was a combination of both [Far Strike] and [Power Strike] extending from it to bash into the side of the Wraith’s knee with an ugly crunch. The monster’s black armor was actually rather resistant to magical attacks, but ragged, granting him a cheap shot right to the phantasmal ‘flesh’ beneath.

As his ass hit the ground, Isaac, turned his fall into a backwards roll, returning to his feet in a crouch, every muscle tensing in preparation for his next move. He lunged forward, high Agility and Strength letting him pull off the move with a power no normal person could ever wield.

He slipped under the shield, the point of his Kriegsmesser glowing a dangerous neon green, a combination of [Sundering Strike] and [Piercing Strike], with the former set to directly attack whatever nerves or nerve equivalent the monster had, thanks to its Level 10 ability.

The Wraith screamed as agony erupted up from its healthy leg, but it managed to push the sensation down as it hobbled around to face the little human who’d hurt it so.

It swung the sword again, but Isaac danced out of range … only for the sword to shift into a poleaxe at the last possible moment. It was a trick that burned a lot of mana, but the Wraith had clearly decided that saving the resources was pointless if it didn’t survive this encounter.

Isaac was still moving backwards, the very tip of the weapon carving a shallow cut into his chest, a cut that a mere moment of [Hydra’s Regeneration] fixed right up.

It followed up the attack by dismissing its armor and charging, then it threw a punch with the hand that held the buckler. As it did so, the small shield transformed into a pata, an Indian gauntlet sword that was essentially a metal mitten with one-meter-long blade protruding forward from the wrist.

Someone less familiar with how a pissed off Wraith fought might have been caught off guard and ended up skewered, not aware of such a weapon even existing. Then again, most people wouldn’t have known about the limitation of its weapon creating power, namely, the fact that they needed to be real.

Regardless, Isaac used his tried and true method for not getting hit: be somewhere else.

The Wraith continued to charge, faster without its armor but also a hell of a lot more vulnerable, burning mana on a per second basis to continuously adapt its weaponry.

A towershield that hadn’t been there before suddenly appeared to catch a devastating lunge from Isaac, the somewhat unwieldy polearm was replaced by a saber as he slipped under the long weapon to inflict a cut on its calf, and the quarrel from a handheld crossbow that appeared from nowhere nearly tore through his shoulder …

Apparently, he’d made it mad. But there was a reason Wraiths didn’t start out fighting like this, instead summoning a basic weapon or two and using those like one normally would.

And a few moments later, that became abundantly clear. The Zweihänder the Wraith now held fizzled out, vanishing into motes of energy as the Wraith’s mana ran out. It had burned all its mana in a rage fueled flurry of attacks as it switched weapons at the drop of a hat, doing everything it could to kill Isaac.

Even as it stood there before him, weaponless, it charged, fists raised and ready to break his bones. It had thrown everything it had at him and was following it up with the kitchen sink.

A credible threat to a human with somewhat weaker physical stats? Obviously, but the thing was, Isaac was still armed. The Wraith’s fist met the point of Isaac’s Kriegsmesser, covered in yellow light, and came apart as the blade punched deeper and deeper until it came out of the back of its elbow.

With a twist and a yank, Isaac removed the blade from the Wraith’s arm, whisps of the beast’s essence leaking from the mangled limb. Heedless of the injury, it swung its other arm straight at Isaac’s head, but he sidestepped the blow and brought his sword down on it, severing the limb above the elbow as red light flared around the weapon.

The Wraith stumbled, roared and tried to headbutt him, using one of the few weapons remaining in its arsenal. Before the monster’s forehead could come anywhere near him, the Kriegsmesser was buried up to the hilt in its chest.

More essence burst from the Wraith as it slowly died, the beast falling to its knees.

Finally, he withdrew his knife from its sheath in a single, lightning quick motion, and rammed a combined [Power Strike] and [Sundering Strike] into its temple.

A brown energy flowed around the blade until it impacted, blowing apart the Wraith’s head in the process.

Wraith (Lv. 11) has been slain. 144 XP gained (120 base * 1.2 due to level disparity)

It writhed for less than a second, then crumbled into sparkly dust.

“Well fought.” Isaac nodded to it, breathing heavily. Blood trickled down his cheek from a small gash on his scalp.

Half a dozen small cuts burned on his body, mementos from blows he’d barely dodged. But he’d come out of that fight with plenty of mana, so he spent some to fix them all.

That had really been a tough fight, mostly because the Wraith had gone so utterly berserk.

In hindsight, using [Sundering Strike] in the pain inducing mode had been a mistake. He simply hadn’t known how painful that attack would be to the creature.

Isaac himself had gotten hit with that [Skill] once, but his Fortitude had been a great deal higher at the time, complete with its power to suppress pain. And normally, Wraith’s only went berserk when utterly outmatched, not just because they’d taken bad injuries.

As it turned out, he’d been wrong about that. Then again, you never stopped learning, did you? He certainly wouldn’t be making that mistake again.

‘If you learned something new during a fight, then you went into it with insufficient information. And that means you’re a dumbass.’

The quote came to mind unbidden, making Isaac chuckle softly. It was a bit harsh and rude, but also pretty true, at least when you weren’t the very first person fighting a certain opponent.

Ah yes, Sensei Michael Staller. A highly skilled practitioner of karate, but also an overweight, older man in his fifties with man boobs that sagged halfway down to his belly button.

No one would assume he was as capable as he was from appearance alone, but skill counted for a lot. Short of actual MMA fighters, there were very few people Staller couldn’t beat in a straight up fight.

Isaac had seen the man fight. Once. That had been enough to convince him of his power.

Staller had started out as some kind of pugilism based [Class], then advanced into one related to teaching as well, something that had granted him the ability to teach some basic, active [Skills].

At his peak, a single lesson from him let people fight basic monsters on their own, solely using the active [Skills] they gained from him.

An impressive man, all told, but more importantly, a good one. A tad gruff, perhaps, but then again, no one was without flaws.

Perhaps, Isaac mused, he’d send him an Aspect or two once Staller began to walk down the path of empowering others in this timeline.

As he mused about that, he gathered the dust into a small Tupperware container. It was a moderately useful Alchemy material, but also an incredibly fine, incredibly shiny particle. In other words, the next person to really tick him off would get this crap in the form of a glitter bomb.

Next, he reset the circle, first repairing it and then putting in the ingredients.

While his mana slowly ticked up to full, Isaac pulled out a small notepad and began to write down notes on his future plans. He’d been thinking about what to do a lot, but this was the first time he’d actually written them down.

What were the problems he’d have to deal with? The Demon Lord in Korea, a few powerful monsters here and there, some dangerous dungeons, things that might not even happen anywhere.

And then, of course, there was H.P. Lovecraft’s underwear drawer, also known as Cthulhu’s Armpit, and a host of other, even less printable names. An Eldritch dungeon, known to drive people mad. In fact, the two above names had been given to it by people who’d lost their minds to that damn place, but they’d been crude, so they’d stuck.

But the official name was hardly any better or less ominous. The Sanity’s End Dungeon.

A dungeon that had sprung up near the border of England and Scotland, offering great loot and XP alongside great danger. For those brave enough to enter it, at least.

Until one day, the dungeon had sent out a flood of monsters, and consumed the British Isles in an orgy of insanity and death.

Someone had created it and it had been stable for a long time … until it hadn’t been.

Much like the Demon Lord, it was something that been summoned for a rather specific purpose, one that his actions were unlikely to change, so he’d be wary of it.

Head up there every few months, see if that place had been created, and break the core if it had been.

Then, someone had tried to create a park of dinosaurs in the middle of the Nevada desert. This had, predictably, backfired rather badly. Given the allure of the big lizards, that would likely happen again, in some form or other.

All of those were situations where he didn’t know who was at fault, so there was no one whose ass he could kick, or whose name he could pass on to the relevant authorities to have them kick the idiot’s ass for him.

Soon, the next wave of powerful creatures would get summoned as people grew more confident and were willing to see what the next Tier of summoning circles could call.

Isaac could recall several standout issues from the other timeline, but he had no way to know if they’d appear in this timeline as well.

Him helping humanity advance in a safer manner was already paying small dividends, but in doing so, he’d taken a sledgehammer to the known timeline of events.

His mana topped up and he dumped it all into the circle, then went back to pondering the future.

Realistically, there were certain events that would likely still happen, but plenty of others that wouldn’t, or at least occur in a different form.

All he had left now was years of combat experience, knowledge of countless possible problems that could crop up and effective ways of dealing with them, not to mention a clear advancement plan and knowledge of optimal improvement.

More and more notes appeared, filling page after page with his nigh illegible, spiderlike, scrawl as he worked until his mana hit full once again.

Isaac rose to his feet and retrieved the Kriegsmesser. Showtime.