Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 39: A slow weekend

“This is a plot of land that can be anything you want it to be. It’s zoned for construction, so unless you’re planning on putting a factory here, you have complete and utter creative freedom.” the real estate agent announced, gesturing around him.

Both he and Isaac were in the middle of nowhere, literally. Or at least as close as you could get while in proximity of a major city. But given that there wasn’t even a road that could be reached with ten minutes of walking it probably still qualified.

There was a forestry road slightly closer, but actually driving there was only something actual rangers and hunters were allowed to do so, anyone else was liable to get fined.

But that didn’t really matter to Isaac, he didn’t mind walking, and soon, he could move faster than he could by car. Not the top speed one could reach while driving, but the speeds one could realistically use on those poor roads.

“I mean, it does look nice.” Isaac shrugged “But how is the ground, what kind of construction will it support?”

“It should work with anything you want, within the constraints of the building code.” the agent told him.

“And those are?” Isaac asked, sharply. He’d read up on those, but he fully aware of the fact that this was an arena he knew very little about.

“Generally, they’re reasonable. If you chop down any of those trees, you’ll have to plant new ones elsewhere, you can’t build a skyscraper or anything else too crazy. I think you’ll find them to be rather, like I said, reasonable.” the agent stated.

“I see. And would I be correct in assuming something this good has just recently come onto the market?” Isaac asked. His tone and the question were innocent enough, but the agent reacted nonetheless, stiffening slightly, hand twitching infinitesimally as if about to reach up and scratch his neck, but stopped through sheer force of will. As good a poker face as the salesman might have had, he was nowhere near what was required to look innocent in the face of 40 points in Perception.

“No, we’ve had it for a bit, but the market for out of the way properties isn’t the best.”

Translation: No hookups for power or running water, and no cables to facilitate an internet connection.

In other words, he’d have to produce anything on site or somehow arrange for new utility lines be laid to him, which would be unlikely to happen seeing as his new house would be the only one around. A major reason for anyone with the resources to build a new house all the way out here to instead buy a house closer to the city, but not an issue for Isaac.

After all, he knew countless tricks for generating that stuff using magic, tricks that worked with any [Class]. The only real issue would be dirtying everything up so no one would grow suspicious as to how he’d managed to obtain something like them, something no one else had the knowledge to construct yet.

“So no one was interested in privacy and seclusion?” Isaac asked, letting a note of suspicion creep into his voice. He was pretty sure he knew the reason, but if there was something else, he wanted to know about it. Besides, you never knew what people would say if you acted like they had a secret and you knew about it.

“You see, some people have other priorities.” the estate agent gave a non-committal answer.

“And those are?” Isaac followed that up with another question without missing a beat.

Eventually though, he decided to stop torturing the poor man, who’d eventually outright come out and stated that anything he build here wouldn’t come with an easy source of power and water. That he could handle, and the isolation wouldn’t be a problem for someone who could literally take the most direct route to any possible goal, literally walking through any kind of natural obstacle and move at speed comparable to a car in a city for extended periods of time. And he’d only get faster.

“I do believe I’ll take it. How much, including the fee for the notary? Also, could I get a rough estimate for how much fencing in this entire area with a basic wire mesh would cost?” Isaac asked.

The agent quoted him a price that would have made the old him of this time blanch, but still something well within his ability to afford after his little trip to Vegas and still have some money left over to start construction.

“Yeah, that sounds good. Can you set up a meeting to get a contract signed and notarized as soon as possible?” he asked.

“Of course, Mr. Thoma, that shouldn’t be a problem. When would you be available?”

“I work for most of the day, so if possible, early morning or late evening would be best. That being said, I don’t have any meetings on the agenda right now, so if I have to take time off work, I can do that anytime.” Isaac said.

“I’ll see what I can do, then contact you with the details.”

“Thank you. And also, thanks for coming out to meet me on a Saturday, Mr. Glöckner, have a nice weekend.”

Isaac shook Glöckner’s hand and while the other man walked off, he stayed and looked around. This was a nice place, all told. There was a flat area he could kill a bunch of large golems on, then bribe Karl with some beer or a barbeque to fuse them all together to form a platform to build a house on. Soon enough, he’d be able to take on a Lesser Space Elemental and keep fighting those damned blighters until he got a core and was able to generate an Extradimensional Pocket to store things in.

From there, there were many ways he could go with this place, especially with an epic rarity construction [Class] holder to ask for help in exchange for rare materials or Aspects.

Depending on how you looked at it, they’d either be two friends exchanging favors, or Isaac would be paying a professional with a unique skillset what he was worth.

Regardless, he wouldn’t be taking advantage of any of his colleagues. Maybe give them hints for getting good [Skills] and [Class] Evolutions that would also benefit him, but never to their detriment and he’d make sure he repaid any favors in kind.

Part of him was tempted to sanctify this ground with the blood of his sworn foes here and now, but he knew it stupid. Summoning was currently still very much a four letter word and if he started dropping bodies here and someone noticed, he likely wouldn’t be able to buy the place.

Throwing one last happy glance at the site of his future home, Isaac started to jog back to the train station. Of course, what he considered to be a ‘jog’ was a speed well beyond what most people could achieve at a dead sprint, but then again, all things were relative.

The rest of the weekend flew by in a blur of, well, relaxation. Watching a few episodes of various shows, properly cooking a meal for the first time in weeks, even plopping down on the sofa and devouring an entire tub of ice cream just because he could.

Bailey’s concern might have come a little late for someone who’d spent years acclimating to death, destruction and violence, but it had been genuine. And he’d needed it. Giving one hundred percent, all the time, wasn’t something anyone could sustain for long, not even him.

Of course, that didn’t mean that he completely refrained from summoning, though, just another Hydra every time [Form of Horror] came off cooldown to maximize its gains, given that there was a pretty strict limit as to how often he could use it.

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But for him, that was taking things easy.

And now, he found himself here, walking up the freshly repaired steps to Sam’s fraternity for a party on Sunday evening. Apparently, classes had been cancelled the next day for some reason or other.

Just the last time, people were milling around, drinking, talking and playing games. But several things were different. For one, every side door was actually locked, not just closed with a ‘private’ sign in front of it. Also, all of the tablecloths had been pinned to the underside of said tables to allow people to get an easy look at anything taking place underneath them.

While there were still places to hide circles, there wasn’t really enough space for anything bigger than a Tier 1 circle without actually hiding it in the walls. Like Isaac had said often enough, the monsters that came out of those usually weren’t too big of a problem. And those that were, well, they were usually weak in some areas.

Slimes were fragile, golems were slow, and so on, and so forth.

But if something did end up happening, well, Isaac was here to deal with it and this time, he was armed.

Mind you, he judged the chance of a repeat of last time to be practically non-existent. After all, everyone would be watching out for any kind of suspicious activity, especially given that a second incident would probably spell the end of this frat.

“Hey Isaac, you came!” someone he very specifically didn’t know greeted him with far more enthusiasm than he was comfortable with from a stranger. Despite that, he somehow managed to hold himself back from outright saying ‘Do I know you?’.

“Who could turn down an invitation from you guys.” Isaac shrugged and walked into the building, but the guy walked alongside him and called out “Hey, Isaac’s here.”

When a lot of the people closest to the door heard that, quite a few raised their glasses in greeting, notably, these were the people who belonged to the frat, clearly identifiable by their outfits. Then, it clicked.

“Sam’s been spreading stories, I see.” Isaac noted, then winked at the audience “Alright, what nonsense has he said about me?”

“Only the truth.” a familiar voice called from behind him.

“Hey Sam, how have you guys been?” Isaac asked.

“Oh, you know, the usual for when a party gets out of control. A lot of ‘Why the hell would you do that’ and ‘what the hell were you thinking’, plus the usual ‘you shouldn’t be drinking that much. Most of the mess landed squarely on the idiot who caused the whole thing in the first place, even if he was the one who ended up killing it for good. Also, it certainly helped that the only person hurt was fine again within minutes.”

“… right.” Isaac said sourly, then facepalmed.

“What’s up?” Sam asked, concern evident in his voice.

“I’m an idiot.” Isaac just sighed.

“Yeah, I know that, but why do you think that?” Sam teased, having realized that there wasn’t an actual problem at hand.

“The kill notification said the XP got split three ways. I also knew that the summoner gets a share of the XP when one of its summons is killed. You, me and fire guy makes three, so where’s the summoner’s share? Therefore, one of us had to be the one who did the deed, and I know that neither of us is that stupid.” Isaac swore softly under his breath “I should have put two and two together right then and there.”

“You know better than anyone in how bad a state you were in at the end of the fight, you’re fine.” Sam patted him on the shoulder, then passed him a beer from the nearby table.

“Oh, I know, I still feel like an idiot.” Isaac said, popping off the cap with his thumb and downing the entire thing in a single go “Thanks, I needed that.”

“Doesn’t that hurt your thumb?” Sam asked. After all, unlike the beers one commonly saw in movies with their twist off caps, this one should have required a bottle opener to remove.

“Of course not.” Isaac shrugged.

“So, interested in a game of beer pong?” Sam asked.

“Let’s grab something with a bit more of a kick, shall we?” Isaac proposed.

“Stroh 80?”

Isaac heaved and overly dramatic sigh, shaking his head “I’d rather drink hot sewage than that stuff. Or absinth.”

Sam let out a bark of laughter “I wouldn’t go quite that far, but yeah, that stuff’s gross. Everclear?”

“Never had it, but if you’re suggesting it like that, I’m sure it’s strong.” Isaac shrugged.

“Oh, it’s strong. Believe me, you don’t want to drink that crap repeatedly. Let’s go to the bar and find something nice, shall we?”

“You know, you’re going to regret this.” Isaac said “I can probably drink you all under the table, one after another, all night long.”

“Oh, you’re on.” Sam laughed.

So that was how the rest of the night went, disappearing in a blur of booze and stupid yet hilarious party games.

Also, it was pretty noticeable how much more Everclear burned when drunk at under fifty points in Fortitude rather than over one hundred. In the other timeline, that strong alcohol had been often used for toast when the people involved were too powerful to be even remotely affected by anything lesser.

In addition, his Fortitude was so high by now that by the time he needed to use [Hydra’s Regeneration] to burn off some of the booze, there were already multiple empty bottles who’d had an alcohol content around 40%. Sure, there wasn’t a particularly good use for being able to put away a lot of drinks in battle, but it was always fun to see the power of his Stats in action.

He stayed at the party until it truly wrapped up at around four in the morning, then headed into the forest to use [Form of Horror], which had just come off cooldown and finally hit Level 10 in that [Skill]. The rest of his [Skills] had also advanced a little, but none of them had improved quite as much.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Undying Wraith

Species: Human

Level: 11

XP: 3897/2400

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 250/250

Stats

Fortitude

45

Perception

40

Strength

30

Agility

30

Magic Power

25

Magic Regeneration

30

Free Points: 0 Stat, 0 Skill

Central Skills

Form of Horror X

The Chosen Weapon IX

Skills

Hundred Faces VII

Stealth XI

Power Strike XV

Piercing Strike XVI

Sundering Strike XIV

Blades XV

Sneak XII

Sweeping Strike VI

Far Strike XI

Manifold Strike IX

Hunter’s Gaze VI

Phantom Step VI

Unknown Fear III

General Skills

Gralloch V

Alchemy IV

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

Hydra (2 stack)

Hydra’s Regeneration

Redundant Organs

Dunkleosteus

Gills

And what an upgrade it was.

Form of Horror (epic, Level X)

There are many sides to the Undying Phantom. The impression they broadcast out into the world and show others, the hole in the world no one will ever perceive before it devours them, and lastly, the face someone only sees in the moment of their death.

The form granted by this Skill. A monstrous alternate body based on the user’s Aspects.

Current Aspects: Aspect of the Specter, Aspect of the Lesser Hydra, Aspect of the Hydra, Aspect of the Dunkleosteus

If the user also has the Skill The Chosen Weapon, this weapon will be incorporated into the user’s new form.

Furthermore, while in this form the user’s Strength and Fortitude are increased by 35 % while Agility and Perception are increased by 60 %. Magic Power and Magic Regeneration will remain unchanged.

This Skill can only be activated every 2 hours and lasts for 300 seconds. It also requires 1,000 mana to use, which it siphons off from the user’s mana regeneration so long as the mana pool is full.

In addition, the user can now create a second form while drawing only on the Aspects they wish to use, customizing it for specific purposes. Once set, this form can only be changed after removing the previous form, which takes 24 hours. Additional Slots are unlocked at Skill Levels fifteen and twenty.

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like the cooldown would go down beyond two hours or the duration above five minutes, but then again, this was an incredibly powerful [Skill], not one meant to be spammed constantly.

Isaac ended up sleeping an hour in his bed and then it was already time to head back into work.

He walked across campus, earbuds in with music blasting, practically skipping. Last weekend had been nice. A hell of a lot calmer than it normally would have been, but nice. And honestly, he’d needed that, even if he hadn’t been the one to actually realize it.

That mood lasted all the way until he caught sight of the building in which he worked.

… and the crowd that surrounded it. Signs, placards, megaphones and shouted slogans. He also knew the door was locked and could see the sign Bailey had taped to the inside, clearly legible through the glass.

‘The only reason you know the true danger of summoning is our research’

Patrick had also suggested a sign that said ‘if you think summoned creatures aren’t rabid monsters, why don’t you see for yourself?’, but then himself said that it would be a bad idea because someone would end up inevitably end up actually taking them up on it. Good choice.

Now, Isaac could just come around the side and enter through the employee entrance, but then decided against it.

Bailey had told him that he shouldn’t make a spectacle of himself, so he wouldn’t, but that didn’t mean he’d do this like a normal person.

First, he triggered the active form of [Sneak], suddenly becoming the single least interesting thing in existence, something that people’s eyes would just slide over without ever truly seeing him.

Now that people weren’t really registering his presence anymore, he slipped into actual [Stealth], going completely invisible. He took a running start, making sure not to bump into anyone and jumped, then triggered [Phantom Step] in midair to teleport all the way up to the roof.

He became briefly visible during this time, a blur of movement, but people didn’t really look up all that much and the second he landed, he went right back to being invisible. If anyone had noticed him, they’d dismiss him as a figment of their imagination.

Once up there, he walked around a bit until he was right above the corridor in front of the summoning room and activated [Spectral Shift], then dropped five stories through solid matter and landed in his workspace, rolling to absorb the impact.

“What did I say about making a spectacle, Isaac?” Bailey sighed, having heard his antics through his office door.

“Not to, which is why I did it while invisible.” Isaac said, shrugging despite knowing Bailey couldn’t see it. Force of habit, he supposed.

“Right, I’ll be out in sec, please wait for me in the meeting room with the others.” Bailey replied and Isaac obeyed, chuckling softly. People had gotten used to preternatural senses and being able to have conversations through walls without yelling pretty darn quickly.

Then again, getting used to magic, monsters and superpowers was part of the job description and anyone who couldn’t wouldn’t be here.