Universe's End

“Ah, what the fuck?” Rory hissed, slamming his eyes shut as he vigorously rubbed them.

What was that?

The moment he opened his eyes, it was as if a billion visual stimuli had bombarded him, his eyes instantly agonizing from the excessive surge of ocular information.

“Let’s try this again.” Rory groaned as he slowly peaked his eyes open, wincing as he did.

With his eyes only partially open, the surge of visual stimulation was far less agonizing, but it still hurt.

What is this?

Everywhere he looked, it was as if nearly everything was overlaid by phantasmal copies, each with varying degrees of difference in appearance.

Wait… Is this Eye for Potential?

Doing his best to funnel his focus, Rory turned all his attention onto a stick nearby, wincing again. Looking at the stick, it was as if it was constantly morphing between various items related to sticks: first an arrow, then a blunt baton, and so forth.

What if I…

Focusing on the idea of an arrow, the flickering imagery smoothed. It no longer flickered between what felt like infinite variations of different items but only between two or three varying types of arrows.

“That’s more manageable.”

The arrows themselves weren’t all that different. One was a standard arrow, another was an arrow where the tip had been altered to a more broadhead variation, and the final variation was an arrowhead that looked almost like a bullet.

Right. So, when it says it grants the ability to see the ‘potential’ of things, it was a bit more literal than I presumed.

Looking away from the stick, Rory focused on a nearby stone instead. Much like the stick, it at first seemed to flicker through infinite variations of things it could be turned into until, with a surprising amount of effort, Rory forced himself to lock the image onto the familiar knife heads he’d made since he’d arrived on the planet. What surprised him was that the stone didn’t flick through several different appearances, locked instead onto a singular standard knife head.

Is that because there isn’t much variation you can do with a stone knife? You can’t exactly forge any unique shapes out of stone. Or is it because I don’t have the resources needed to do anything more elaborate than that, so it’s all it can show?

Curious, Rory spent the next two hours slowly observing things within his campsite, mentally flicking through the potential things he could do with them. The longer he spent practicing his new ability, the more it seemed to settle within his eyes, no longer sending bursts of static-like pain through his mind. Confident that he’d gotten the hang of it at last, Rory opened his eyes fully while at the same time mentally flicking an imagined switch that controlled Eye for Potential off.

“Oh, sweet heavens, that’s nice.” Rory rubbed at his eyes as the phantasmal sights faded entirely, his vision returning to normal. With only the barest of efforts, he turned the vision on and off in rapid succession before, with a grunt of satisfaction, he shut it off for good.

“Interesting, and probably supremely useful when I get a better grasp of its usability, but for now, I’ll keep it in the back pocket,” Rory announced to no one in particular, stretching his arms overhead.

Right. So, that’s the settlement ‘upgraded’ my ascension handled, and even my vocational skills expanded. Anything else?

There was one thing, in fact, something he’d been mulling over since the completion of his last wave.

Settlement Growth Pathways.

Rory had been offered several predefined options, branching trees of potential evolutions, but they’d seemed too basic.

“If it’s going to call me some Architect or whatever, might as well live up to the title.”

Rather than accept whatever option was given, Rory would pave his own route forward. The only issue was Rory wasn’t sure where to even begin.

“System,” Rory said, opening his interface. “Pull up settlement pathways, would you?”

Rory knew he could have done it himself simply by thinking it; the intent was more important than any specific command. However, there was something viscerally satisfying about watching his interface react to his verbal command like he had some personal AI butler.

Within a moment of speaking, his interface shifted, redirecting to the three branching trees of options he’d been presented with before. Still, none of the three pathways appealed to him.

Which is where this comes in.

Fixing his gaze on the interface, he felt his vision shift, phantasmal visions flickering about the corners of his eyes.

“Clear pre-generated options.”

The three pathways cleared, leaving only a blank interface.

Let’s see if this works.

Taking a deep breath, he began to scan his surroundings, letting the flickering phantasmal sights digest without ever locking onto a singular idea. His head hurt; it was a lot of information being slammed into his brain, but he’d acclimated enough to the information deluge that it wasn’t searing pain anymore. After several minutes of just looking around, Rory finally turned his attention back to his blank interface.

“Populate with a forging-focused pathway.”

The interface shifted momentarily, a circle spinning for several seconds before a singular pathway appeared.

“Huh. That worked.” Rory muttered, scratching at his chin. “Cool.”

With a swipe of his hand, Rory dismissed the generated pathway. It had been nothing more than a test that had proved his theory correct. The pathways offered depended on your own information, and in the absence of such information, the system seemed to fill in the blanks. Yet, with his newly gained Eye for Potential, he could parse information that would have otherwise required hours of work to know.

In layman's terms, he could ‘cheat’ using his Eye for Potential to learn what could be, not just for a singular thing but everything. The most essential prerequisite for creating pathways was awareness of potential possibilities.

That’s probably a vast oversimplification, but it works for now.

“Alright, rather than showing me an entire branching pathway, show potential pathway beginnings that prioritize long-term benefits.”

Again, the spinning circle appeared before six singular nodes appeared in a single row, each a promise of something different.

“There we go.” Rory nodded to himself, pleased.

Let’s see… Oh, now that’s more to my speed.

The first node was relatively simple, an easy-to-understand improvement.

Node Path Alpha:

Walls regenerate integrity 10% faster but have a lower overall integrity maximum.’

Interesting. Perhaps that could one day form the basis of some ‘smart material ’-style wall that heals itself instantly if not destroyed in a singular hit.

The next node was likewise straightforward.

Node Path Beta:

All flames burn 10% hotter but incur a proportional fuel intake increase.

Essentially, he could reach the point where he could begin working with materials that might typically have unreachable melting points with ordinary fuel, such as basic wood. In return, the upkeep for his flames and furnaces would also increase.

It would be useful if I found some metal, but I also have no idea what metals even exist anymore…. I think I’ll pass.

The third node was another relatively simple option.

Note Path Gamma:

Sleeping in local shelters reduces sleep needs by 10%.

“How does that even work?” Rory questioned, turning an eyebrow upward. He could understand walls that were self-repaired; those had been a thing back on Earth even without magic, and fires that burnt hotter and faster could also be explained as simply being magically hotter. But how exactly would the system ‘reduce’ the amount of sleep you needed if you slept in a shelter within the settlement grounds?

When in doubt, blame it on system weirdness.

Moving on, the fourth node was another 10% focused starting point, a repeating trend that was undoubtedly some pattern.

Note Path Delta:

Crops grown within settlement bounds require 10% less upkeep.

Okay, so farms need less sunlight or something? Technically, it’s not bad. Perhaps one day, they could transform into pre-collapse imitations of vertical farms or even Energy-Matter nutritional plants like those other galactic races had to feed their people.

His nutritional needs were being met for the moment, perhaps not all the leafy greens he should have been eating, but even back on Earth, Rory hadn’t exactly been great about that, even when he advised athletes to ensure they were eating a well-balanced and healthy diet to sustain their training.

Do as I say, not as I do. Moving on!

The fifth node… was a strange one.

Node Path Epsilon:

Essence Spires now siphon small amounts of essence into the vicinity, reducing Pneuma generation by -

“S-seventy percent!?” Rory stuttered, eyes bulging. Everything else had been a simple plus or minus of ten percent. The Epsilon node was the first that reduced something by a massive seventy percent. “I guess that also answers whether essence and Pneuma are the same. Turns out, no.”

Rory shook off the shock, returning to reading the option.

-by seventy percent. Warning: Potentially dangerous ramifications.

“Hmm. Foreboding.”

Turning his attention to the final node, he half expected something even more outlandish, but apparently, the Essence Spire was a special case.

Node Path Zeta:

Fertility of all settlement inhabitants increased by 10%. Warning: Unwanted pregnancies may occur more frequently.

Thanks for the warning. Rory sighed, chuckling for a moment. Ignoring that this is useless when it’s just me here, sometimes I swear this effect permeated my high school back in the day.

The question of whether ‘back in the day’ was ten years or tens of billions of years ago to the side, Rory examined his six options once more before tossing out the final option instantly. He had already covered that he was the only ‘citizen’ of his settlement; increased fertility did him all of nothing. He could appreciate how it would allow for a rather quick expansion down the line; more births equated to more workforce, but that was far from his current concern.

The first node he tossed out a moment later. It was quite interesting, and the idea of walls that behaved like smart-healing materials of the pre-collapse universe could be handy. Still, even when he extrapolated what could be based on that starting node, it was hard to see it doing much more than making the settlement into nothing more than a bastion, which, while helpful, wouldn’t help him advance any faster outside of martial considerations.

The sleep choice was tossed next. Again, the extrapolations were interesting. Perhaps one day, those who lived within his settlement -assuming he got to the point where it wasn’t just him- would be able to go without the necessities, the magic of the settlement sustaining them entirely, but there was something about the idea of giving up sleep that turned him off, at least for the time being.

“My options are hotter fires, better farms, or looming danger that I was explicitly warned about?”

Rory could see the appeal. Suppose you normally needed a blast furnace to produce steel but could now make it possible using only a basic campfire. In that case, you’d gain access to powerful materials well before it would otherwise be possible.

The issue was that Rory doubted he would be gaining the skills to work with such materials anytime soon, and thus, in the short term, it would provide little benefit.

It is a long-term focused option, but as much as I want to focus on the long term, there needs to be some practical benefit in the short term that isn’t just the ability to make stuff ordinarily might be beyond my technological capabilities.

The farming node was tossed out a heartbeat later for the same reasons. Perhaps it would expand into the direction where his settlement could produce vast amounts of raw resources, which could solidify it as an economic powerhouse. If Earth taught him anything, it was the importance of wealth and resources, but while wealth and resources were astoundingly useful, they weren’t valuable in the direction he needed.

Commerce is beneficial, but only when there are others with whom to trade actively.

“And thus, I’m left with the option I probably shouldn’t select.”

Logically, the warning should have been enough of a reason to avoid the change to his Essence Spire. Still, the temptation of freely available essence that was needed to ascend was too much to pass, especially with how he’d fallen behind with so much growth investment.

Problems for future Rory to deal with.

With a shrug, he tapped on the small node. Instantly, he was presented with a simple confirmation box of Yes/No. Tapping on the yes, Rory could feel the world shifting slightly, his skin crawling momentarily.

“Ick. Not a fan of that.”

Looking away from his interface, Rory then examined the budding Essence Spire. Using Eye for Potential, Rory saw entire branching lines of future possibilities for the Spire erased from existence, as the Spire was locked into a singular pathway.

When he finished his pathway business, Rory closed the menu before it could begin populating new pre-generated options branching from the epsilon node.

Eye for Potential turned off, Rory instead examined the Spire with analyze.

Embryonic Crystalized Essence Spire

Rarity: Mythic

A natural treasure, this Essence Spire had been changed, no longer generating simple Pneuma; it now tears into reality itself, passively pulling essence into existence.

“So, its rarity went up and- wait, pause, how many rarities are there?” Rory shook his head, getting distracted. “That aside… It tears into reality?”

Rory could better understand the earlier warning now. The idea of tearing into reality wasn’t precisely a comforting notion, not when their prior universe had collapsed onto itself because some aliens thought it a good idea to rip apart reality for their own personal benefit.

Which Rory was doing as well.

“At the very least, it’s probably not too dangerous for the time being. I doubt the system would even offer it the potential to be so dangerous at such an early point in the universe.”

Well, I'm ignoring that my vocation allows me to sidestep the system's offered possibilities a bit.

With that pleasant thought, Rory finally examined the wreckage of the wave in the more literal sense. There were bunny corpses scattered throughout the camp, those that had entered the walls, and outside the walls, there were several corpses of the deceased jackalopes. His shield was wrecked on the ground near the corpse of the Triumph Fox, as was his bow; it had been sundered during the chaos of his life-or-death battle.

Which left the Triumph Fox itself. Walking over to it, he scanned the corpse.

Whereas before, he was only met with its name, now the information text had been populated further.

Triumph Fox

The first predator born to a still-young universe, the Triumph Fox's significance alone has granted it a near immunity to low-level magic. While containing no magic of its own, the Triumph Fox proves a potent hunter through vicious claws and fangs and surprising strength for its size.

“Yeah, checks out,” Rory said in agreement. “What’s this about being ‘near immune’ to magic?”

Scratching at his chin, Rory considered the implication. Analyze rarely told him information that was still entirely unknown, so for it to mention the fact of magic having little usability on the Fox-

“Either someone else has already figured out how to use magic and tried it on the fox, or they saw the fox ignoring magic. Maybe witnessed one of the foxes hunting a jackalope and being unhurt by its magic?”

Magic. It was something Rory still had trouble believing. What he knew about it, which was somewhat limited, was that it utilized something known as Pneuma, an unknown mystical energy analogous to mana in video games he’d played as a kid.

“And Pneuma is different from essence. Essence itself doesn’t seem to be naturally occurring, or at least, it doesn’t just exist like oxygen in the air.” Rory began pacing, thinking everything over. “Essence is created through…. Through what? Doing ‘significant’ accomplishments seems to generate essence, but how? But wait, if the Spire rips essence into existence, how did simple meditation work to gather essence for my first ascension?”

Or perhaps there is an ever-present background amount of essence, but the Spire generates greater amounts of essence that can be used when the background essence normally can’t.

It was one of those oh-so-common issues he kept running into too many unknowns, with no way to figure them out other than through firsthand experience.

With a sigh, Rory threw his hands up, giving up on figuring out how essence worked and instead focusing on his earlier thoughts about Pneuma.

“Pneuma isn’t essence, sure. It’s also what powers magic to some degree, apparently, and after an ascension, you can invest some attribute density towards an attribute that’s also called Pneuma that increases your… Attunement? Understanding? Of Pneuma itself. But you don’t need the attribute to use magic, just like you don’t need to invest in strength to lift ordinary things up.”

Rory returned to pacing, trying to make sense of his half-formed clues and hunches.

“So, how does magic work? It’s obviously not just waving a wand around and saying fancy words. There must be more.”

Mulling the thoughts over, Rory snatched the corpse of the Triumph Fox by the scruff of the neck, dragging it over to his log as he likewise snagged his crafting knife.

May as well use my time efficiently.

Turning the question over in his head, Rory set about his preparations to dissect the fox. Using several oversized leaves from a nearby tree, he laid out a ‘mat,’ if you could call it that, underneath to catch any potentially useful viscera from the corpse. About to sink his knife into the tough hide of the fox, Rory paused for a moment as he examined his knife.

“Wasn’t this supposed to grow with me?”

A quick scan didn’t show anything different, and Eye for Potential didn’t seem to show any outward change potentials for the tool, so he shrugged the thought off.

Eh, maybe it requires more time. I’m only at my third ascension, barely better than when I was only tier zero.

Rory was confident that if he got in a fight to the death with himself from the past, he would easily trounce his former self. He was physically stronger, more agile, and could process information faster now.

How much faster and how much more agile, he wasn’t sure. There wasn’t exactly anything telling him in definitive terms how much each increase was worth. Furthermore, the only reason he’d been able to get a rough gauge of his strength increase when he’d gone from A1 to A2 was his familiarity with his relative strength, which he had gained from years of weightlifting. Unless he found some standardized weights sometime soon, any future strength gains would be far more nebulous by how much his gains were.

Which is neither here nor there. Focus on the arcane.

Skinning the fox with surprising skill – a boon he hadn’t been expecting from his overall attribute increases was that his hands were far steadier- Rory let his mind return to the subject of magic.

From what he could see as he skinned the fox, there didn’t appear to be anything that stood out to him as to why the fox resisted magic. The only ‘clue’ he had was that apparently the act of being the first predator, that bit of ‘significance,’ was enough to protect it from magic.

“Wait…” Rory paused as his knife slipped through the fur and skin down the fox’s back, taking a moment to consider the implication. “Significance can cause bursts of essence, and significance can also resist magic. Does that make me immune to magic as well?”

Rory shook his head, resuming his work.

No, probably not. The interplay must be something else.

Knife still dancing around the corpse, Rory soon removed his first square of fur from the fox. It was tough, far tougher than rabbit fur, but he wasn’t planning on relying solely on his physical senses to examine the hide. First up was analyze, his interface popping up as a tiny reticule locked onto the hide.

Triumph Fox Hide

Quality: Common

A sturdy piece of hide from a now-deceased Triumph Fox, it has lost all innate magic resistance. While no longer containing any significance or special traits, the material itself is robust.

“Hmm,” Rory grunted, slightly annoyed. “Was hoping it would still protect from magic.”

After the initial scan, Rory activated Eye for Potential, overlapping phantasms appearing instantly as he mentally parsed the potential possibilities of what he could accomplish with the hide.

I wonder if there are limits to this weird vision or if it is limited in some fashion.

Banishing the thought, Rory watched silently as he made sense of the phantasmal images overlaying the hide. Most of the things he saw were rather ordinary, differing types of clothing and, at one point, the hide covering for a new shield.

Hmm... No actual tanned leather options.

It was yet another piece of evidence that while Eye for Potential was useful for seeing the possibilities available, it did appear to be limited by what he could do in the first place. Without a tannery or the slightest clue of how you even tanned hide in the first place, not a single option for such creations flickered to life.

Good to know.

Shutting off his magical vision, he continued gently skinning the monster. It was clear he wasn’t going to create any magical wonders, but after several weeks, his clothes had begun to fall apart; the hide would make do for some replacements.

Especially if it continues to get colder.

Sometime later, Rory held the now fully skinned corpse up, examining his handiwork.

“Not bad, if I do say so myself.” Rory smiled with a hint of pride. He still wouldn’t be winning any taxidermy competitions or such, but it no longer looked like a child mad with murderous glee had taken a knife to the corpse like some of his initial attempts at skinning the monster rabbits had gone. He wasn’t done, though; he was far from it.

Next, the meat itself.

Whereas skinning the fox had been an exercise in precision, separating the flesh from the hide with no overlap, removing the meat was a matter of dogged patience and elbow grease. As strong as the fox was in life, its powerfully chorded muscles were just as tough in death. While not egregiously thick, it still felt to Rory as if he were trying to hack through thick ropes. There was a surprising lack of body fat within the fox, for which he was thankful; Rory had at one point heard that fat could dull a blade faster than nearly anything else. Piece by piece, he stripped the flesh from the bones of the box, stopping only occasionally to wipe at the sweat beading his brow with his forearm. As he got deeper into the cavities of its body, not only was he forced to saw through the sturdily corded muscles, but he even had to take care to avoid slashing through organs that could spew their unsanitary contents over his prized meal. Daylight faded into the extending shadows of encroaching dusk before even dusk began to give way to the vast darkness of night.

I think that’s good for the day.

Sharpening a stick, Rory pierced it through the cuts of meat he’d carved away from the corpse. Carving several more sticks, he thrust them into the ground and across one another until he soon had a makeshift table, though it looked closer to a grill and lacked any solid tabletop. Placing his meat kebab and what remained of the fox atop the branch table, Rory nearly dragged himself into his shelter, laying down on his now oh-so-familiar cot of moss, leaves, and clovers. Closing his eyes, sleep found him within seconds.