Carnival - A LitRPG Apocalypse

Ryn awoke and tried to move. It took three attempts to drag herself to her feet. Thank goodness Jintak wasn’t an instructor at the Academy! She looked over her bruised limbs, noting that the cuts had healed overnight. Ryn had thought she was good. She was top of the class, unless you asked Bad, for physical combat. She’d always done her best to live up to the expectations other people had because of who her parents were.

Those expectations had often felt like a millstone around her neck. People didn’t see her, they saw Traveller and Sunstrike’s daughter. Despite the advantages, she had often wished she could just be seen for who she was. No one thought her performance was anything special given who her parents were. Anyone else would be praised as a genius but for her it was just to be expected.

Bad was sort of in the same boat. Amit was a celebrated hero and Billy Fish’s team, to which he belonged, were up there with the Rodeo Clowns and Righteous Fury from Ascension. When she and Bad had complained to each other about it she had carefully not mentioned that she felt her situation was worse. She was afraid it would cost her her friend if she tried to explain how she felt.

She moved slowly into the kitchen, pulling her dressing gown around her. It was summer and even at this time of day there was no chill but breakfast wasn’t breakfast without being wrapped up in the fluffy garment.

“Morning Sunshine! I guess you’ll earn that nickname soon enough,” called her dad from the cooker. The smell of frying puck filled the house. She started salivating involuntarily, like a Pavlovian dog. She loved the juicy steaks of bird-fish-monster. Dad must be pleased with her performance yesterday, she concluded silently as she took a seat at the table.

“OJ?”

“Yes please, Dad. Did you know Jintak was such a harsh instructor? Is he not allowed to teach at the Academy because he’s so rough?” Ryn asked as a glass of OJ appeared next to her. She sighed as she took a gulp. She’d never be able to do that. She could only blip herself about.

John chuckled and blipped over her plate that she began devouring greedily.

“He’s the best. The Dragon Fighters do as well as they do because he and Grell train all of them. Soon as the Welsh kids ess-up they get special lessons but even before then the pair are running classes back at the Anglesey Grove for the kids.”

“No wonder they always do so well in powered close fighting! The man’s a monster!” Ryn mumbled around a mouthful.

“Yep. You’ll be spending a good amount of time with him for the next few months. So will your friends.”

“What about Kev? Mum said he was on the edge of being proscribed!” In all the excitement last night she had forgotten what she overheard until just now.

“It will depend on how he levels up. He can always reroll and try again if he wants to but as it stands… Gemma is happy for him to continue as is.” John sat down opposite with a coffee and took a careful sip which made him wince. He always had to let it cool before he could drink the stuff. Ryn thought it tasted foul.

“Where’s mum?” Ryn asked.

“Gone to the Academy. She’s having a chat with Greg,” John shrugged

“Is she leaning on him?”

“He’s her boss. Kind of. She can ask for favours, we’re old friends after all I guess, but no, that’s not why she’s there. She’s there with Amit discussing how they’re going to integrate your team's training with Grell, Jintak and several other luminaries.”

“Who else?” she asked excitedly as she finished her plate.

“You hoovered that lot up! Did you even chew?” He smiled. “MB wants in on your caster training. Sas, Jim and Meatshield all want to step in for the close quarters stuff but Amit has that covered. Maybe with Bad and Sally but Jintak will be covering that for you. You can still spar with them if you want.”

Ryn loved MB, the woman was crazy and always fun to be around. Having her as a teacher would be amazing! Jim was like a big brother to her and Sas was just awesome. He gave the best hugs, it was like hugging a Koala. Meatshield was weird but she liked the shapeshifter well enough.

“MB will do the preliminary stuff but after that it will be your mum or Starfall. Evie might spend some time with you as well but it’ll depend on how you react to training with family. Your mum and I will both teach you how we fly.”

“You don’t fly Dad. You just cheat!” Ryn repeated her mum's often quoted joke.

“Maybe. But it looks like I’m flying.” John grinned. “Right, get yourself ready. You and your mates have an appointment with Professor Death in half an hour!”

Ryn jumped up, winced, then moved more carefully back into her room to get ready. As she reached the door she turned her head and looked back at John.

“What about Kev? Who’s going to be his teacher?” she asked quietly, almost afraid of the answer.

“It will depend on what he can do and how he levels, love. Maybe Gemma. Maybe Sarah.” John shrugged again. “Might be Jasmine as well. He’s not got any control powers though, telepathy and perception is what he got at first but that can change as he levels. It did for Gemma.” Ryn turned to hide her grimace and went into her room to get changed and brush her teeth.

Gemma was nice enough, she supposed. Ryn knew she and dad didn’t get on very well though. Sarah was a different issue altogether. The former head of the Rump Faction, who now styled themselves as the Inheritors, was known by a number of names. The most common was Mindscar due to what happened when she used her power aggressively. Mindscar hated Traveller, Bad’s father as well and the other Gurkhas who had prevented the Rumps' use of a nuclear weapon in London all those years ago.

She changed quickly and rushed out to find her dad sitting on the settee with his feet up on the coffee table and a Bpad in his hand. He looked up and met her eyes.

“You’ll get used to being able to move faster than should be possible. It’s a bad habit, thinking you have to cross the distance I mean. You don’t have to anymore but it’s going to take you a while to get used to it.”

“What was it like for you? Getting used to it?” Ryn asked. Her dad didn’t talk much about the early days of the system. She’d picked up a lot of what happened from Evie and the Headmaster's book. Greg’s version was too dry and Evie’s version seemed to involve her always saving the day for some reason. Ryn figured the truth was probably somewhere in the middle but her mum and dad rarely spoke about that time.

“Rough. Started out almost fun then it got very ugly, very quickly. Did Evie tell you about my first teleport?” he asked.

She sat down on a comfy chair opposite him before replying after a moment to organise her thoughts. “Only that it didn’t go well.”

“I blipped up the garden and fell on my arse. First time I ever moved without moving and I cocked it up.” That’s two more Essence for the swear jar. Hey, now he can actually pay me directly and I can use it to level! Oh… Ryn thought.

“You just realised something?” John asked, putting the Bpad to the side.

“I’ve got another Essence! I can go straight to level two!” she said excitedly.

“Hah, your mum owes me twenty Essence. She figured you wouldn’t twig that until you saw your mates were all level two at school. Go on Kiddo. Say the magic words!”

“Please and thank you?” she smirked at John who chuckled in response. “Level up!” she finished proudly, barely able to believe the time had finally come. No more baseline Ryn. She had a legacy to live up to. When your big sister is the Stormwitch, that sets a high bar for younger siblings.

You have chosen to spend one Essence and advance to level two.

Please select from Ability, Efficiency or Utility…

“Um, Dad? What should I pick?” she asked, all her long laid plans and schemes for this moment disappearing when the time came.

“Efficiency is a good start. More reserves are always handy, especially as a lowbie. To be honest for the first few levels you probably want to split the mods between efficiency and ability. Then if you're short on reserves, focus on efficiency with the odd level of utility just to see what you get. You grew up with this stuff in textbooks. We had to figure it out on the fly with monsters breathing down our necks. What do the faculty at the Academy say is best?”

“More or less what you said.”

“So do the opposite? Or don’t. Your power is going to define who you are and how you fit into the world, Sweetie. While I’m happy enough to vet your boyfriends this is not something I’m going to take a hard stance on. What’s your gut telling you?”

She sat back and put her feet up on the coffee table as well. She thought long and hard about the question.

“You look like you need a crap when you get that face on!” John sniggered.

“That’s three Essence for the swear jar! Now you can just pay me directly and I can use them for levels! I could get to four! No five with your language last night and today!”

“I’ve got a little over 3 million free Essence at the moment.”

“How much do you need for level forty one?” she asked. That much Essence would let her jump to level… thirty four or something? She scrunched up her face as she tried to crunch the numbers.

“Over 165 million to get to forty one, love. No, you can’t have a few hundred thousand and just jump to being strong enough to sign the Accords. You need to earn that Essence.” John’s face had become stern as he spoke. She’d heard him talk about how bad an idea it was for the nobles to power level their kids. “Spoiled brats with bloody superpowers and no idea what to do with them except be bullies!” was one of his most common descriptions of the situation. He should know, he was the one who usually had to put the crazy ones down, she remembered with a shudder the first time he came back from killing some crazy kid who’d decided to try and destroy the world.

“I won’t ask for Essence dad. But the swear jar is now dedicated to BME gear for me.” He nodded to her and winked.

“Very sensible but I’m sure we can help you out when it comes to equipment. We’re part owners of the company and it’s the least Uncle Bob can do! So what are you picking?”

“Efficiency!” Ryn said with sudden certainty.

You have selected Efficiency…

Calculating…

New status:

Name: Kathryn Borrows

Level: 2

Ability: Suntouched Teleporter

Constitution: 100%

Reserves: 100

Suntouched Teleporter: You were destined to inherit your mothers powers but due to feeling the power of the sun while in the womb your body has been changed, incorporating some of your fathers power. You can both teleport yourself and summon jets of solar fire. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled.

Guidelines:

Teleportation distance: 1km

Maximum Temperature: 5000 degrees

Line of sight required.

Modifications:

Level 2: Wreathed in Flame. Whenever you are covered in flames your reserves costs are halved.

“Anything good?” John asked, watching her face twitch as she took it in. “A named one? Not just a multiplier?”

“If I’m covered in fire it halves my reserve costs,” she said in wonder. That meant a one hundred metre teleport would now cost her five reserves. As it was only affected by one guideline the most she could get was a 50% reduction to ten without this mod. Now she had twenty teleports from a full tank instead of ten.

“Excellent. Split the difference was probably the most powerful mod I’ve received and it was my first. Good job you inherited Vic’s asbestos skin, eh? C’mon Youngling. Let’s go see the Headmaster.” He stood and offered her his hand.

She stopped next to him and took his hand. They both vanished and appeared in the Headmasters office. It had changed a lot over the years and John spent a moment taking it in.

It now resembled an ancient aristocrat's library. It had plenty of post system technology but it was all hidden away in baroque woodwork. Astrolabes and obscure trinkets occupied the shelves that weren’t filled by old fashioned books, made of actual paper! Back when he had to visit this room while Evie was in school it had felt like a middle manager's office. Sterile and dull.

The room was already full of people sitting or standing around the desk. Ryn moved over to her mum and gave her a hug before threading through the other parents to stand with her friends.

You have invited Kevin Sanderson, Bahadur Devkota and Sally Lock to your team.

Teamchat:

Kathryn: You guys ok?

Sally: Yep.

Bahadur: We need to get some more members so we can change our names!

Kathryn: if that’s all you're worried about you must be fine. Kev?

Kevin: I’m ok Ryn. I’m not proscribed.

“I would have expected better from you all. Some of our most talented students and yet it nearly all came apart,” Greg intoned in his basso voice, causing the kids to flinch. “I’m going to go over each of your shortcomings in depth with each of you but the highlights are as follows: Bad, you nearly walked into at least two Laki nests unaware. It was dumb luck you didn’t trigger the guardians and get swarmed.” Bad shrank down and hunched his shoulders. His dad had gone over this in detail last night before beginning his new physical training regimen. He probably felt worse than Ryn had first thing this morning.

“Kevin and Sally: you’re inability to mortally injure your opponent, necessitating the intervention of the other half of your team was a poor showing. You will both be receiving additional instruction from Instructor Devkota.” Amit grinned a toothy smile and despite not being able to see him, the kids somehow knew he was smiling evilly as he concocted the torturous training they would have to suffer through.

“Ryn. Your loss of focus nearly cost you your life and to force the safeguards to intervene. This is not acceptable. Situational awareness is the foundation of all our combat training at the Academy and you have let all your teachers down.”

Greg stood up and leaned over his desk. His eyes, yellow sclera with pitch black pupils narrowed slightly. Most of the kids didn’t think the skeletal man was capable of facial expressions beyond cadaverous grins but that wasn’t quite true. Ryn knew Greg out of school so had seen him display his rarer expressions a few times.

“You did passably well, if you were any other group trying to ess-up. I expected more from you, though. A schedule for remedial lessons will be sent to your Bphones and it will be punishing. You are not to discuss what you have learned about essing-up with any of the children who haven’t managed it yet. That would be considered effing-up and the dead will be watching you.” He grinned down at them.

“I see you’ve already levelled up. In two weeks you will be assessed for the opportunity to begin gathering Essence -in strictly controlled conditions- and by then I expect the flaws we will soon discuss in fulsome detail to have been rectified. You won’t be starting the grind to power until I am satisfied you are no longer a risk to yourselves. Parents, I trust this is acceptable?” he looked over at the assembled adults who nodded politely.

“Very well. John, I believe I will have to decline your invite to the weekend's festivities I am afraid. The Kashmiri situation is worsening and I am needed to provide support against the Etherics.”

“Bob mentioned it. No worries Greg, Evie will be sorry to miss you but I’ll give her your regards?”

“Please do. Now I believe you-” his undead gaze fell on the teenagers, “-need to go to class. Miranda will see the rest of you out, thank you all for coming.”

He still loves the sound of his own voice doesn’t he? Bob sent to John via his implant.

No shit mate. I think he’s gotten worse now he’s the Headmaster! Capitalising your title changes a man. What’s up? John replied.

Got a problem mate. I’ve been dying to say this for months: Get your ass to Mars!

He turned to Vic as they moved out of Greg’s office.

“Sorry, something comes up and Bob is quoting Total Recall at me. The good one with Arnie in it.”

She smiled and patted his arm. “Must be serious then. Home for tea?”

“Should be love. See you.” John vanished with a faint blip.