Apocalypse: Generic System

by Macronomicon

  Jessica was not doing so great. Without vertical trees to hop to and from as well as hide behind, she was left in something of a tight spot. All of the Momma siren’s attention was on the assassin, who was doing her best to dodge the creature’s wrist thick beams of water.

  There was a trickle of blood from a gash on her scalp, likely from falling trees. Her fancy new armor seemed to be none the worse for wear. The double jump boots were definitely helping, as the embroidered wings came to life every now and then, flapping powerfully and allowing her to reverse course in midair to dodge water beams.

  It was times like this Jeb almost wished he’d gone Nerve/Body.

  Still, nothing to it but to soldier on. He brought the mirror back to his hand, then grabbed one of his broken spearheads, splitting his Myst in two and controlling both of them.

  He guided the spearhead way off to the side, opposite Jessica, then took one of the mermaid-tentacles in the back, bringing its water-slinging to a halt.

  The mermaid began gushing crimson into the already bloody lake, as Jeb had nicked the main artery.

  He reversed direction and slammed through another lure before the third one shot the spearhead out of the air, sending it whirling off into the distance. The remaining mermaid looked cautious now, scanning the coastline with sharp eyes.

  Don’t spot me, don’t spot me…

  With a blast of water, his mirror was torn out of his grip and shattered.

  Damn. I hope she's not smart enough to calculate the angle.

  A moment later beams of water started perforating Jeb’s pile of wood. A few of them came dangerously close to tearing pieces of him off, and he tucked every limb in as close as he could.

  Water started dripping down from every branch above him, soaking his clothes uncomfortably, trickling down to his back.

  But if discomfort was the worst this thing could do, he’d be happy to…

  Wait a minute, is the water level rising!? He turned his head slightly and spotted the water slowly cresting above the grass he laid on.

  Rather than deal with the hiding creature she couldn’t see, the boss was simply flooding the entire shoreline, with the intention of literally flushing him out.

  Except…Jeb was still pinned by the humongous tree over top of him, so he was more likely to drown than get flushed out.

  That probably works for her too, he thought grimly as he tugged his cleaning wand out.

  He pulled out his pocket knife and put the blade into the seam of the magical girl wand, slightly clumsy because of the confined space.

  This is not how I wanted to do this! he thought, popping the two sides of the cleaning wand apart, holding them above the water.

  Honestly…it looked a lot like the guts of a modern spyglass. It was hollow in the center, with a lens at the base that seemed to be made of fantastically rusty iron, while at the far end was a tiny marble the size of Jeb’s pinkie. It was a little difficult to see what it was made of, because it was surrounded by an aura of pure black.

  Myst Filter: Grime – small

  A Myst filter that allows the Myst that passes through to only affect objects the user perceives as filth or grime

  And the other…

  Annihilation Myst Lens – very tiny

  Myst that passes through an annihilation lens removes the first thing it touches from existence, making these both useful for industrial and military applications, but also quite dangerous.

  These rare lenses are found in the Mines of Seeping Death before being sold to businesses and governments to be broken down into safer sizes. It is illegal for a private entity to own an Annihilation Myst Lens larger than tiny.

  That’s what I’m looking for.

  Ah crap, the water’s up to my ears.

  Rather than touch the thing, Jeb simply removed the grime filter from the casing, then pressed the two halves of the wand back together before he carefully siphoned out as much Myst as he could, splitting it into two.

  “Hope this works,” Jeb muttered, carefully seizing one half of the wand with his Myst, while hovering slightly away from the annihilation lens with the other ball of Myst.

  With a mental flick, he sent the wand and ball of Myst up, out of the snarl of trees and hurtling toward the boss siren’s last known location.

  He couldn’t see the monster, but he’d been harassing these creatures without direct line of sight for a while, so when Jeb felt like the lens was in place above the siren, he took the unspent Myst that was hovering close to the lens, and shoved it through.

  He felt the lens shatter as a kind of crackling sensation in his mind.

  Bang!

  There was the harsh crack of an implosion, followed by…

  You have gained a level!

  You have gained a level!

  You have gained a level!

  You have gained a level!

  You are now level 20!

  Congratulations! You have beaten the Siren Mother in a one-on-one duel. Your cunning is beyond reproach!

  Siren’s Cunning Accolade Granted!

  +5 Nerve

  Yes!

  Wait…

  Why isn’t the water stopping!? I killed the damn thing, it was supposed to stop! Goddamnit, I should have gotten that necklace of adaptation, Jeb thought as he took a deep breath, the water reaching up towards his lips.

  Congratulations! You have reached level 20! Please choose a Class!

  Kinda busy here! Jeb thought as the water rose above his face, sealing him in a silent tomb.

  Chapter 7: Magical Batman

  ***Jessica***

  A little projectile hummed from Jeb’s hiding place toward the monster, then the three mermaid heads, a good chunk of the water and the monster therein, simply vanished, in a ten-foot sphere.

  Crack! The implosion sounded like a gunshot as the air rushed in to fill the void. A moment later, the Siren boss floated to the surface, the oversized body missing the top of its gargantuan skull.

  “The fuck was that?” Jessica demanded, scanning the ruined coast.

  No answer.

  She scanned the shoreline where she expected Jeb to be, and noticed the water level was two feet above the level of the shore and rising, peeking out from the toppled trees and destroyed brush.

  Shit, what if he’s trapped under a tree?

  Light step

  She dropped her mass to next-to-nothing with a thought, skipped forward with a flick of her foot, then brought her mass back to full, generating inertia from nothing.

  She crossed the lake with a single step, then, when her foot hit the ground again –

  Light step

  The wind resistance, and her foot landing on the tree, brought her speed gently down to zero, then she relaxed and allowed her mass to return.

  The Class ability drained her stamina pretty quick, but it was just too useful for her to pass up.

  “Jeb, are you in there?” Jess asked, peering into the muddy water. “If you’re not stuck under a tree, say something.”

  Shit. He’s probably under there.

  Jessica braced herself on another log and heaved up on the topmost tree in the pile, using every ounce of her strength to haul the tree up and throw it into the lake.

  She felt superhuman, but that didn’t mean her strength was limitless, nor did it mean she could throw around huge objects as she liked. She was still only a hundred and thirty pounds.

  She had to carefully brace herself, and haul the tree up on her shoulders, balancing it on top of herself as perfectly as possible, because any little shift in weight could send her stumbling forward or backward.

  One….

  She threw it into the lake.

  Two…

  The water level kept going up, now four feet above the shore. Her ankles were getting cold and wet.

  What the hell happened? Some kind of underground artesian well? Damnit, I hope I’m not crushing him by moving these trees. But between that and drowning… I’ll take my chances.


  It took entirely too long to move each one of these trees…and Jessica wasn’t entirely sure she was looking in the right places.

  Jeb, if you die after I let you have those boss solo kills, I will drag your ass back out of hell myself and take those accolades back.

  Eight short, and yet horrifyingly long minutes later, the water was beginning to go down again, and Jessica had the last tree exposed.

  If this isn’t where he was hiding… he’s probably dead.

  A man with ten Body might be able to hold his breath this long, or recover from passing out underwater if he couldn’t hold his breath.

  The last tree was the biggest though, as he’d been sheltering behind the biggest one he could find. It was toppled over, partially sticking out of the bloody lakewater, edge resting on its stump.

  There’s gotta be room under there, she thought, plopping her feet down into the water, setting her feet on the stump.

  She squatted down and grabbed the base of the tree, straining mightily as she lifted the massive hunk of wood.

  “FFFFUCK!” Jessica grunted as she tossed the tree off to one side before peering down into the murky water beneath the tree.

  She flinched back when a hand erupted out of the drink and Jeb drew himself out of the water, resting his elbow on the stump like someone at a swimming pool.

  “Bartender, can I get another mai-tai?” He didn’t even sound out of breath.

  Jeb’s face had an insufferable grin as he pulled himself out of the water.

  “How are you fine!?”

  “Oh, I made a breathing tube out of air held in place with telekinesis.” He plunged his hand underwater, then pulled back up what appeared to be a perfect cylinder of water, held in place by his thumb. He let go of the water, and it slid back out, rendering the tube invisible again.

  “…Of course you did.”

  “What was the alternative? Not breathing? That would be dumb.”

  ***Jeb***

  Jessica gave him an exasperated head-shake and hopped back up onto ‘dry land’.

  “And thanks for the help. I would have had to lie there for an hour or longer waiting for the water to go back down, and let me tell you, Nerve sickness is not a good time to be stuck in a claustrophobic spot.”

  Jessica glanced over at him.

  “…You’re welcome.”

  Ding!

  Your party has cleared the southern lakes dungeon! Please take your rewards.

  As before, sphincters coalesced out of the ever-present myst, and…released…chests into the lake, where they started bobbing in the water. Jeb couldn’t get the image of a big-ass toilet bowl out of his head.

  “In the lake? Really?” I’ll handle this.” Jessica said, walking on water over to the chests.

  Cool ability.

  Jeb could’ve just pulled the chests over with his Myst, but something else was holding his attention.

  You may now choose a class! You have met the prerequisites for three classes. Your class grants Abilities and stat bonuses. At higher levels, Classes grant extra abilities (50, 100, 250, 500, 1000)

  Soldier (D)

  Mystic Trapsmith (B)

  Telekinetic Combatant (A)

  Oooooh! Jeb’s eyebrows raised at the last two, which were the two most likely to not be foot-dependent. Telekinetic combatant sounded cool, like…exploding people’s heads while riding a whirlwind of telekinetic power. Or wielding a thousand swords with his mind at once.

  But I should check them all, see which one I like the best.

  He eyed Soldier, and it unfolded for him.

  Soldier (D)

  +5 Body

  You were a soldier in a previous life. Why not this one too?

  Passive boost to weapon handling skills.

  Ability: It’s worth More Than You Are

  User may transfer damage from any magical or nonmagical gear to themselves, repairing the item in the process. Works with some Consumables!

  Try not to kill yourself.

  Hey, that’s not as bad as I thought. I mean, I dunno if anybody would want to take damage to pinch pennies like that, but fixing extremely valuable consumables like the Vivicant Cane might be worth the pain. Next.

  Mystic Trapsmith.

  You have created a trap with Myst, disarmed a Myst trap, and created an I.E.D. out of a household magic item.

  +5 Myst

  +5 Nerve

  Passive bonus to assembling/disassembling magic items.

  Ability: Mystic Trigger

  User may bind a reserve of their Myst to an object, creature, or location, with a predefined behavior and trigger. The trigger must be an observable condition within one hundred feet. The behavior of the Myst must be pre-defined and discrete. It cannot interpret your will or the situation. It cannot be instructed to ‘fight’ an individual, but it can, for example, be instructed to seize an object in a specific location and swing it in a specific way until the Myst is consumed. It has no concept of what is going on around it. If there is no item there, it seizes nothing and fails.

  *Observable condition* No thought crimes!

  That’s…pretty cool. Jeb could already think of two great ways to use that, nope, make that three. Four.

  We’ll keep an eye on that one.

  Next.

  Telekinetic Combatant

  Telekinetic Myst Core. You have killed over ten creatures with telekinesis. You have successfully split your attention between two objects.

  +5 Myst

  +10 Nerve

  Passive boost to spatial perception.

  Ability: Telekinetic combat (passive)

  Greatly enhances the user’s ability to multitask with Telekinesis, allowing many more discrete threads of Myst to be in use simultaneously. This ability pays more dividends the more it is practiced with, as it is a percentage increase, not a flat bonus.

  “Woooow…” That’s pretty cool. So it is wielding a thousand swords with my mind and becoming a whirlwind of death.

  “I choose Mystic Trapsmith.”

  Telekinetic combatant was strong, no doubt, but it also felt like a bit of a one-trick pony. Pick things up and stab/bash people with them.

  And that was plenty effective, Jeb wasn’t debating that. It just didn’t seem like brute force was going to get him across the finish line. He’d chosen to dump his stats into Myst with that thought in mind, and he was going to continue that path as far as it took him.

  Jeb’s mind tingled from the Ability seemingly spreading its roots in his brain, making itself available to him. It was a little mentally draining, but it seemed like the biggest cost was spending Myst on it.

  So, let’s see if this works.

  Jeb siphoned a large amount of Myst out of himself, and drew it into a tightly condensed ball above the tip of his index finger.

  Mystic trigger

  When my right thumb goes from being straight to bent while my right index finger is extended and all other fingers are clasped to my palm, The Myst will grab the air opposite my finger relative to itself, in the form of a narrow spike and push it away from my finger at the highest speed it can manage, following the finger’s trajectory.

  The tightly bound Myst compressed down even further, and became invisible.

  “Or in other words,” Jeb pointed at a nearby log, index finger extended, the other three clasped to his palm.

  He crooked his thumb.

  There was a hiss of displaced wind as the hardened air shot forward and put a hole in the tree, burying itself in the ground behind it.

  “Finger gun.” Great idea number 3.

  I’d call that a successful proof of concept. If that works, the rest of my ideas are likely to work....

  It wasn’t that he couldn’t make the same effect manually. The benefit here was doing all the work in advance, so he could be focusing his attention on manually moving something, like the stiletto, for example, and if someone or something got close, he could finger-gun them without having to drop control over his stilett
o.

  And with his vivicant cane….

  Where the hell is my vivicant cane?

  He spent the next couple minutes trying to fish his ivory cane out of the water, until the water level went down far enough to reveal the damn thing had rolled further out than he’d expected, halfway stuck under a log.

  He pried it out carefully, making sure not to break it. Damn thing was probably worth more than he was.

  By the time he was done hopping through the muck of the ruined lakeshore, Jessica was on her way back with the loot in hand, still Jesus-ing over the water.

  “What’cha got Jess?” Jeb asked, sitting on a log.

  “Permanent stat boosting potions.” She said, showing him two bottles.

  “Body,” She held up the red one. “Myst.” She held up the white one. “Which one you want?”

  Jeb tapped his fingers on the cane, frowning. He needed to get more Body sooner or later to keep pace with escalating danger, but whenever he was given a choice…

  “Myst.”

  Jessica snorted. “Dunno why I asked,” She said, tossing him the white one.

  Jeb downed it before he could wallow in his poor decision making skills, and Jessica did the same.

  +3 Myst

  Then he dropped the remaining six points from fighting the sirens, straight into Myst.

  Nursing a throbbing headache, Jeb pulled out his map and checked what kind of dungeons might be nearby. They didn’t have much time left until they would be forced out of the forest. They needed to clean up around here, take a rest in the safe zone, then clear out the north.

  Jebediah Trapper

  Mystic Trapsmith, Level 20

  Body 10

  Myst 43 +2

  Nerve 18 +3

  Abilities: Mystic Trigger

  ***2 days, 10 hours remaining***

  “You take a break, I’ll keep watch,” Jeb said, writing on a piece of MRE packaging with a stick of charcoal. “I gotta do some homework anyway.”

  Jessica grunted and took off her magic boots, wincing at the smell.

  “There’s talc in the survival supplies,” Jeb said, pointing.