Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Stepping back onto the immense Everbloom Evergreen, I immediately connected with the lands under my control. Before, I had felt the very passively, but absence had made the sensation much more prominent. The fact it felt like everything was on fire may have had something to do with it. I glanced at Naea, who could sense the same chaotic mana as me no doubt. “The hell is that?” I grumbled.

A few System messages arrived as I appeared back on Earth, and they told a story. First was a prompt to name the area around The Ascent guildhall. I twitched my eye at the name Ascentown, and all of my confidence in Tom plummeted. The next few messages were minutia mostly, a blacksmith had been built, as had a waterwheel and mill. Then we had grown to a large enough size to become an Outpost, which Tom had done. Aside from the name, not too bad.

“We haven’t done this in a while.” I held out the Alternating Armament towards Naea. She didn’t immediately catch my meaning, which made it all the funnier when I walked off the edge of the tree branch. She gasped and chased me over the edge, only to stop when she saw me laughing as I fell. “Please don’t let me smash into the ground!”

I had faith she wouldn’t let me die, but she made it feel close. Allowing me only a few metres before she caught me, Naea got her revenge for my prank. I tried to pretend like my heart wasn’t racing, but I had been about to activate Tempest Form and hope for the best. She winked at me and we chuckled together, heading towards Home Base. I opened my rarely used Faction menu to see if there was any hint as to the strange, itchy sensation I was feeling.

Faction Page Members: 428 Buildings: 12

Home Base

Guild Hall

Only my lavish chateau and the Guild Hall were considered my buildings, but I was able to see the rest that had been built. The blacksmith, the mill, there were two barracks, two storage warehouses, a canteen, and five taverns? Who had built five bars before proper sanitation had been installed?

“Oho, Naea,” I growled, hands wringing together, “some heads are going to roll.”

—————————————————————————

Today was the day Ewan made his move. He was positively throbbing with anticipation. Patience, delicate and agonising, had been necessary to make sure he was in the exact right place at the right time. Dancing around the investigations was child’s play for him thanks to the magic which obfuscated his every movement. The Dao of Murder was incredibly versatile when it came to subterfuge.

Life within the System was good, wondrous even. For over three decades, Ewan had been a shell of a human. Survival in the old world meant playing by rules that were never explained, and often broken by others with abandon. Guilt, regret and shame were completely foreign ideals to Ewan, but the assumption of them brought so much confusion. Avoiding the supposed triggers for them was nearly impossible in the past. Now, the world rewarded him for being himself. His true self.

It was bliss, for a while.

That had changed with the arrival of new people. When he had been the only special one, Ewan had felt safe. Knowing he was stronger than all of the imbecilic shamblers stumbling around was both a security blanket and a gift all in one. Picking a person, slicing their thread of fate and taking whatever meagre power they had garnered was like taking candy from a baby. Which Ewan had tried once. The child had cried, but no one was any the wiser as he left with the sweets.

He smiled at the memory. A simpler time, much like things had been before the new town had appeared a few miles away. Except, it wasn’t even a town, was it? It was just a tiny piece of one. Then those five awful people showed up. Each of them had a blazing sun of power which threatened to illuminate Ewan’s own. He had been forced to completely squash my perfect Dao to avoid their gaze. At least he had been able to breathe when they left.

Then that bitch Julianna had got a Dao and just living in Newtown became its own problem. The Dao problem became permanent. She had gone off into the wilderness to start forest fires or something, but she would be coming back. The mundane murders he had performed to scratch the itch barely slaked his thirst for a day before he was biting my nails to the quick again. Something needed to be done. Luckily, Ewan had the perfect plan of action.

Due to spending so much time with them, one of the other leaders of Newtown, Stephanie, had been edging closer and closer to a Dao. Ewan knew that if he could kill her right in the moment she was unlocking it, something truly special would occur. It didn’t have to be her, but none of the other knuckleheads were even close as far as he could tell.

Living in safety dampened their ability to feel the magic. Ewan didn’t have such a problem, because the same security that kept them safe, made him feel attacked. It was for this reason that he stayed in Newtown as long as he did. Except even he knew when the game was up. It was time to get a final treat and then find greener pastures. Luckily, it wasn’t even hard to find her. Outside of Newtown, her flourishing Dao was coming to life, all on her own.

How stupid could she be?

—————

Over the last month, Tom had two problems. Not that it was all bad, he had mostly had successes, if he was being fair to himself. However, Tom didn’t want to be fair, he wanted to have these issues gone. To that end, he had at least been able to figure out one of them. From high above the clearing that Stephanie sat meditating, Tom watched. His lip curled as a familiar face started heading in her direction.

Skill - Magical Flight

Air is just a collection of particles. Flying through it is simply a matter of perspective.

Skill - Arcane Eye

The mundane senses can be tricked, but the arcane eye sees more than simple shapes and colours.

The horrifying little thing could only be seen by Tom, thankfully. After experimenting with his mana and Dao for a while, and doing so while uncomfortably fixated on finding the killer in Newtown, Arcane Eye had been born. More correctly, Gazer had been born. The little eyeball fluttered on four wings and somehow managed to convey a wink every time it caught Tom’s eye. The weird little flirt would scout as he told it to, but it came to something when Tom found my own magic weird.

Flying felt surprisingly natural, and the thrill quickly wore off once Tom started to sweat because of the exertion. It cost a lot of energy, but it was worth it for the look on someone’s face when he took off into the air.

The killer’s pattern had been easy enough to find, but the actual man himself had been like a ghost. Initially Tom had assumed someone was entering the town and then leaving, but the wolf never left the sheep’s enclosure. Known only as Ewan, this freakish loner kept to themself and basically slipped under the radar. The world rewarded violence disproportionately these days, so it was impossible to avoid everyone with a hard edge, but looking at Ewan now? Tom thought that Newtown’s guards should probably have been able to tell when they let him in.

Wiry muscles and a thin frame made him fairly unassuming, but something about Ewan’s gait was so feline as he stalked towards Stephanie that Tom really felt it should have been noticeable about town. Maybe Tom was just on edge. It would be okay, he promised himself. He was ready. The man stepped into the trap he had placed two nights before and Tom finally let himself breathe again.

Skill - Arcane Trap

Intent and power are all that is needed to create wonders. With the intent to capture, the Arcane Trap is born.

A purple cage of energy shot up ten feet into the air before closing in an instant. Like a feral animal, the man started smashing into the walls. Having tested it himself first, Tom knew it wasn’t pleasant. Tom didn’t mind that it hurt, though. He looked over from his position above the treetops and saw that the noise hadn’t disturbed Stephanie. “Good,” He said quietly to himself as he landed before Ewan, “I think it’s time we had a chat-”

Sirens. Distant, but familiar. Tom frowned as the System pushed a message into his vision.

Trial Wave initiated - Level 34 - Ascentown

Tom’s heart dropped into his stomach and then out of his ass. A trial wave… based on his level. He looked between the caged murderer, still attacking the walls of the trap, and over towards the Outpost where the horns were blaring. It was an automated System warning for the trial wave. “Oh… fuck.”

They weren’t prepared for this. While Ewan was one of the main problems, in that not dealing with him was costing people their lives, Tom’s other main issue was going to be far worse now. Without anything to push them, and the power to lord over others, Aaron, Ellie and Harry had become… hard to deal with.

Aaron had spent all of his money on opening a tavern through the System, which had locked out my ability to buy defences both because of a building type limit and not having the funds. Of course, he had bought more afterwards because he seemed to be absolutely set on being not just useless, but detrimental. A bunch of drunk people were no help. Ellie and Harry were in charge of getting people into accommodations but complaints were coming in about the speed at which it was happening. There were also rent complaints, but it seemed more like poor management than greed.

The fact they were charging anything at all was a surprise to me, one Tom had been planning to fix once he dealt with Ewan. Now he was panicking, and stuck with indecision. Why was this all down to me? He lamented, How did I end up in charge of anything? To add to the chaos, Tom felt a wonderful burst of cold air as Stephanie’s Dao became fully formed. Not knowing which way to turn first, it was no surprise that Tom fucked up again.

Looking down at the knife buried in his side, Tom stumbled. His concentration had slipped on the Arcane Trap. Whatever magic Ewan possessed had been enough to get out. “Ouch…” Tom mumbled dumbly, feeling blood on his lips. The knife was pulled away and reinserted somewhere else and he fell to the floor. Everything started to go dark as the knife came away again.

Pressure seemed to expand across the whole world, as dangerous and deadly as the most powerful hurricane. Tom thought he heard some screaming, which made sense, but he wasn’t sure who was doing it. The last thing Tom knew before everything went black was that he had failed.

———————————————————

Trial Wave initiated - Level 34

I scoffed at the low level of the wave but raised my eyebrow. “Does the System think that Tom is the leader of the guild?” I asked Naea, completely affronted. We were close now, having sprinted straight back to the guild hall, passing Home Base entirely. “If it’s basing the incoming monster wave off of Tom’s level, I’m guessing, then it’s definitely saying-”

“I’m not sure it’s the time to be worried about that, Grant.” If Naea was being the voice of reason, then things really were as bad as they could get. At least it seemed most people were heading into the fortified guild hall of The Ascent. Harry was at the front door, beckoning people inside so I moved over to him.

“There’s our fearless leader,” Harry said when he saw me, “where have you been?” He quickly reigned in his attitude upon seeing my face. Naea even backed away from me as actual heat started coming off my body.

“As you can see, Haz, I’m not in the mood to explain things right now. Where’s Tom?” The edge in my voice forced Harry into giving me a stumbling answer and shutting up immediately afterwards. Tom was in Newtown right now. Annoying. “Fine. Make sure everyone’s safe. Aaron and Ellie?”

“I think Aaron is protecting his taverns and Ellie is…” Harry didn’t seem to want to answer and I really didn’t have time to care. The burning sensation I had felt was a magical warning. The sheer amount of mana being manipulated to create the impending swarm was irritating my skin.

“Do you guys not feel that?” I asked, scratching my neck. Harry and Naea both shook their heads and I growled, frustrations only growing. It was a good job there would soon be a lot of monsters to get my frustrations out on. “I’ll go find Tom, someone else can hold the door open, you go and get the other two.”

“What are we-”

“You’re supposed to protect these people, so figure out how to do it. Isn’t that your whole thing?” It was possible that no one on Earth had faced dangers at the level I had, even before the latest dungeon. Even if it wasn’t fair for me to expect others to be as serious as I felt they needed to be, I didn’t care. “Get your shit together.”

Saying nothing else, I took off to the nearby Newtown to find my lieutenant. I would deal with the more sedentary members of The Ascent once the trial wave was dealt with. I ignored Naea remaining behind for a few seconds to apologise for my energy, taking off in the direction of the town. She caught up, saying nothing. We nodded to each other, and picked up the pace.