Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

The combat was fairly simple once the conditions had been met. The capabilities of the enemy were understood, the chaotic energy at the start of the combat had waned massively. We continued our jagged, pinball bounce around the parkland area of the Dungeon, whittling away the numbers of the crowd. The added quirk which made the battle turn from attrition to destruction was the charges I began to make through their ranks.

I allowed myself to take more damage than necessary which in turn left me inflict far more devastation than I otherwise would. Unlike the monsters, which were admittedly higher level, I was also growing in power as the fight continued. Swells of energy burst over and over as System prompts told me I was levelling up again. The prompts came with a burst of rejuvenating energies which made staying in the battle easier.

Each time I grabbed some distance, I added the free attribute points equally to Fortitude and Speed. The impact of Infusion increased by virtue of physics, rather than magic. Being able to hit harder and faster as a base meant the multiplicative function of Infusion on my attributes was all the more effective. In three levels, the two attributes more than doubled.

The enemies were being destroyed in one or two hits to begin with and by the time the slowest of them fell, I could only marvel at the speed of my growth. Jumping up a grade was no joke. Of course, I had a few additional benefits to go with the evolution in the form of potent achievements. Those points alone were worth nearly a whole level up to now, more when my hidden efficiency was factored in.

Basically, I was a problem.

The dungeon was built with me in mind, but I was outscaling it by leaps and bounds thanks to my earliest gains. The efficacy of the Yo Staff and my Dao of the Dragon were also immense and I had basically lucked into them. The concept of luck wasn’t much of a factor in my old life, but it was hard not to think about it now.

Good luck wasn’t far removed from a good destiny. Fate was a subject one could get themselves wrapped up in but I had a simple solution. To stop my mind from running in circles about my place in the universe, I made the decision to believe there was no such thing. If “destiny” really did exist, I would find a way to slip outside of its threads. Grandiose and juvenile maybe, but riding the high of battle and level ups, I felt like I could face anything. Even the forces which bind reality.

The small stuff.

Magic had proven reality wasn’t set. With enough power and understanding, the rules of the world became malleable. I crackled some lightning on my fingers before wrapping them around my staff. I used it to haul myself to my feet. The battle had taken hours, the sun was beginning to rise, and I wanted nothing more than to crawl back to bed. Instead, I tapped the closest monster corpse hopefully.

Would you like to loot Dark Young?

Well, there’s the name, at least. Pretty ominous. “Naea, what do we know about the Dark Young? Anything new now we have a name?” I confirmed the looting process while watching my inventory. “Oh wow. That was like fifty coins.” A quick calculation had this group as two and a half thousand coins. They were much more valuable than the scorepions, which were the only other enemy I had killed in bulk.

Inventory

Gold Coins (Xaverion Minted) - 5442

Gold Coins (Standard Mint) - 5,562

Yo Staff

Sorehammer

Storm Arrows

Assorted Earth foods

Aspect of the Tempest

I pointedly ignored the Aspect sitting tantalisingly in my inventory. If my current power proved lacking, I would consider putting my soul through more stress, but for now I was comfortable with the magic inside. The Hurricane Heart was more contained than ever after some of its power was stripped to create the Aspect of the Tempest. There was every chance binding to a new Aspect would make everything go crazy again. I quickly tapped the remaining corpses in the area. Some were strewn about the parkland and would need to be collected later.

“Dark Young?” Naea asked. Her tone caused me to snap my head away from the inventory. The disgust was clear and natural but it came with an exasperation which surprised me. “No wonder they stink. They’re not made of magic like other monsters, they’re also a sign of a bigger problem.”

“Yeah, the Young part got me thinking the same thing. Does that mean there’s a Dark Mother down there or something?” I joked, but Naea actually nodded at me. I frowned, not willing to engage on how those things were actually born.

“That’s exactly it. A big clump of filthy mana and Dao managed to gain something close to intelligence and is ripping these pieces off of it. They steal whatever Dao they can find and bring it back to the broodmother.”

“They eat Dao?”

“The mother does. These things being so strong means the thing spawning them is nearly at Grade 2. If it gets that strong… Well, we’ll probably be fine, but let’s not risk it.” There wasn’t much point in lying to each other, but Naea lied to herself, so I reinforced it.

“Damn right. You’re saying we shouldn’t wait on this one, so let’s go. First things first though…” I looked pointedly at the bodies. Naea was uncharacteristically calm while surrounded by a potential feast. Not only did the act give her lots of experience towards levels, it was basically a high. This time, she grimaced as I suggested she get to eating. “What’s wrong?”

She sniffed one of the bodies performatively before holding her nose and gagging. “They stink like pigshit, that’s the problem. Like I said, not normal monsters. They’ll disappear after a few hours without energy to animate them. Let’s just go.” Not being a huge fan of Naea’s eating habits to start with, I wasn’t going to argue even if a part of me lamented leaving experience on the ground.

We did a quick loop and collected the gains from the other fallen enemies before making our way to the hole I had smashed the day before. The claw marks from the creatures dragging themselves out from underground was obvious. Naea looked at me with a heavy coat of judgement which I took in stride. “My bad,” I conceded. Naea didn’t argue but she did roll her eyes.

The sun had risen enough to see inside now, but there wasn’t much to see to start with. I had caved in the roof of a small cavern which I could now see had a few tunnels leading away. I dropped down quietly and closed my eyes. My sight here would be based on mana anyway. Above, the grass and trees were glittering with sparks of life mana. Below, the earth had its own heartbeat.

Waves of energy slowly passed through the hard stone walls. I tapped a finger against the wall and watched the energy pass through. Repeating the process with some mana at the top of my finger caused a bright flash all over. “Cool, it’s like echolocation.” I consciously noticed how adept my use of mana had become. To overcome a new problem in the moment I found it was quite impressive. The benefits of a high Mental attribute were more subtle than just improved mana control.

I proffered my shoulder for Naea to sit. She could see mana as well as I could, my recent gains only catching up to her natural skill but the walls were tight enough to make flying a hassle. “No breeze to catch underground either,” Naea grumbled. She was grumpy from being awoken in the night, let alone attacked. I pat her on the head and chuckled slightly.

Pounding through the tunnels seemed like a terrible idea, so I focused on keeping my step light. I also restrained my Dao completely, strangling it so it wouldn’t draw any attention. It was a frustrating feeling to have power and be required to hide it. The Dao of the Dragon was at odds with the need to hide. It demanded I simply be stronger.

Would that it were so simple. The Aspect in my inventory would only make the Dao inside me more powerful. Aspects were the starting seed for a Dao, and further understanding with the Aspect would give it a Dao form, like the Dao Pool in my soul. With my recent extensive study of storms, I would no doubt evolve the Aspect quickly. Amazing for power, terrible for stealth. Soon, I calmed myself.

The monster was gaining power underground and Naea seemed confident it would be way worse if left to do as it wanted. Taking an Aspect right now could give it the time it needed to evolve. Unconsciously, my pace quickened. The halls felt tighter with each step. After a while, that was true, the path we had taken was getting too compact for me to continue.

There was no doubt the broodmother was in this direction. The rotten cloy of its Dao was getting stronger, and the remnants of its Dark Young’s passage were clear. Scratches in the rock, filled with whispers of tainted magic. The revulsion Naea had felt earlier was getting easier to understand. These things were an unnatural blight.

The rocks of the underground felt… empty. Somehow less like a stone than they should. I pressed my hand more firmly into it and felt it crumble easily. The Dao has been drained. If I could see with my eyes, I would probably see grey, mineral-dry stone. However the broodmother did it, the very earth had lost its understanding of what it was meant to be. My mind shied away from trying to grasp the concepts at play. I cracked my neck and rolled my shoulders.

“It’s just a small gap before it widens,” Naea whispered to me. She had flit ahead to scout and come back nearly instantly. Drawing the Yo Staff, I pressed the magical weapon into the rock ahead. I pushed my arm through the gap while using the sturdy staff to carve the flimsy rock away gently. With a few pushes, enough rock was removed for me to squeeze through.

The space beyond the tunnel was a much larger cavern than the first. I froze the moment I entered. No amount of hiding was keeping the eyes I felt land on me at bay. “Oh sh-” I grabbed Naea and threw myself to the side. The Yo Staff dropped, it was caught in the explosion of rock where we had just been. The tight exit was blocked as a huge slab of stone crashed into it and plugged our escape route.

We miscalculated.

Dozens of shapes appeared to my Manasense. Dark Young started surging forward in the dark. I stamped my foot hard, sending a blast of mana into the surroundings. The world lit up, dark silhouettes of nothing where the Dark Young were. The sight lasted for a few seconds and I started bounding around the room, getting a rhythm. “She’s not here, but she’s going to know we are now!”

Good, my Dao taunted. I removed the tethers from the dragon and the blank spots in the universe became even more clear. Even without my eyes, the whole cavern was within my capability to watch. “Same as before, stick behind me. Mother dearest gave us some more levels to grind before we reach her.”