Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

“I don’t like your smirk,” I muttered quietly. Scorepions were able to sense vibrations through sand, even down to a raised voice apparently. Naea was a font of useful information which I would have no way of finding out myself. She was also literally salivating.

“Ah ye’re just being a baby. Go get us some levels.” I rolled my eyes at her words but bit back my reply. She wasn’t exactly the ray of sunshine my psyche could have used, but a source of actionable information was exactly what I really needed. Feeding her the corpses of my enemies was an easy trade.

Dungeon Fairies, as it happened, were the caretakers of such places. In every dungeon, a fairy would be spawned who flitted around and dealt with the bodies. I had been more than a little disturbed to return to Clive’s and find it magically cleaned. Without the scene of the destruction, the event felt even more dreamlike. Had it even really happened? My levels proved it had, and I didn’t entertain the thought.

I didn’t deserve that grace.

After grabbing all the food and drink from the still-active fridges and freezers and stuffing it into my inventory, I draped myself in a booth somewhat comfortably while Naea explained a few important things. Once she realised I was the one who “triggered” the dungeon in her words, she was very talkative.

“Most initial dungeons spawn at levels one to five, based on the first entrant to said dungeon. You, ya cheeky thing, started us off strong. That is amazing news. A Dungeon Fairy like myself gets stronger based on the bodies we clean up. That one,” she had pointed to the spot where Mrs Naebol had lain, “jumped me to seven, the one outside pushed me to eight.” She had shaken her head and smiled at that, like we were discussing a happy shared nostalgia.

Apparently, Naea had started off life completely starving. Normally, a fair amount of people would assault a dungeon together, with the number growing as more people met the conditions to enter. As I was the only non-monster here, it had taken her a while to find the bodies. “Dungeon Fairies usually give out some hints here and there, so you lot don’t kill us. Also helps you lot from getting killed, too, I guess.” She seemed much less bothered by the second option.

“Would the dungeon break if you died?” I asked.

“No, so don’t get any ideas,” Naea wiggled a long, thin finger at me. “It would just start to stink pretty quickly.” She was unwilling to continue sitting around and talk when we could be “out killing,” so we had set out for the desert. Naea didn’t eat food, but was sustained by the death of dungeon monsters. Finding the tortoises was just going to happen by accident if they really were ninja, so better to go for the sustenance I could guarantee. The scorepions had a good setup in the dunes, so they’d probably still be there.

On one hand, I wasn’t a hunter or soldier - killing wasn’t something I knew how to do. It wasn’t something I was comfortable seeking the opportunity to perform. Yet, with Naea egging me on, making the decision to attack the scorepions, or anything for that matter, seemed more natural. If clearing out the dungeon’s monsters was part of the ecosystem, who was I to question it?

There was always the chance Naea was playing me for a fool, but I didn’t see much benefit in it for her. Ultimately, I was going to get the lion share of experience and loot, so she wouldn’t become stronger than me and therefore a danger. Without any reason to doubt her, I wouldn’t let paranoia rob me of my only companion in this godforsaken place.

Which brought us back to the dunes. I couldn’t see any text boxes from the System to tell me where they were, but I would once they made their move.

Now that Manasight was running passively, I didn’t need to focus any attention on directing a flow of mana to my eyes. The result of that meant I could react quicker to incoming danger. While I may have come away injured in our last meeting, the scorepions were still weak and should be simple to defeat. Trudging through the sand towards the closest dune, I twirled my staff and prepared to defend myself.

Right on cue, two names appeared on either side of the dune. A level four and a level six. You got this, I told myself to spur my confidence. The tension I had felt last time they locked onto me returned. If I had a soundtrack behind my actions, it would be rising in tempo with each passing moment. The rubber bands were aimed at me again.

My mana was active and I was as prepared as I could reasonably be. I took a deep breath. My most recent gains weren’t shown on an attributes page. Instead, they were felt in my movements and my pride. Even with danger bearing down on me, I puffed my chest out and continued forward.

“A dragon shouldn’t back down to insects.” I could feel my mana resonate with the confidence I spoke into existence. The crystals within my mana flow all buzzed in agreement. The scorepions reacted to vibrations, Naea had said. They didn’t stir at my words but I could give them something to react to.

I roared, releasing a wave of pent-up anger. Frustration, fear and primal fucking rage combined into an almost physical force which kicked up sand around me. The scorepions weren’t calmly watching any longer. I became a little light-headed from the force of my own voice, the volume amplified by my wired senses and the strength increased by my attributes.

There was no time to get dizzy though, as the scorepions retaliated, just like I expected them to. A screaming orb of poisonous football merchandise flashed past my head but I didn’t react, waiting for the next. I had already judged the trajectory of the first and knew it wouldn’t touch me. With a slight pause, the second projectile was fired and this one, deflected.

I nodded in satisfaction as the ball spun its momentum away into the sand. One of my worries had been the durability of the Yo Staff but I now didn’t believe anything I could put it through would break it. The force of the incoming footballs was fierce, but well within my estimations. I can do this. Even with all my power, the primaeval section of my mind was still recovering from the pain I had felt last time I was here. My yell and subsequent review of the scorepion’s capabilities swept away the final cobwebs of doubt.

“Batter up,” I jeered, getting into a stance. Wrong ball, wrong shape stick but with the weight I could channel through the Yo Staff, it was the simplest choice. I still hadn’t seen the full body of a scorepion and I wasn’t desperate to get up close with them. Scorpions meant claws and poison, no need to tempt fate. My pride also demanded that I beat them at their own game. They wanted to hit me with ranged attacks? I’d just hit them right back.

My eyes widened as another pair of names appeared, meaning there were four scorepions in the single dune. Potentially more. Still, without the element of surprise they weren’t that dangerous. Before they fired, the scorepion had to aimed its spout at me and the shot couldn’t be altered afterwards.

Basically, it was nothing but a fastball.

Never much into sports as a whole, one thing I did find fascinating was the upper limits of human potential. The fastest pitch ever was supposedly around 108 miles per hour, and I doubted these balls were slower than that, if not faster by a small amount. Still, to my current senses, they might as well have been underhanded lobs. “Swing batter, batter, better SWING!”

A hop to my left moved me out of the trajectory of the first shot of the new volley and positioned me perfectly for the second. I waited, knowing my arms would move faster than they should, before swinging with all my might. The staff flew through the air but a quarter way through the movement I pushed a surge of mana into the magical item.

Immediately, the weight of the staff became cataclysmic. I hadn’t underestimated the potency of my mana but it was as though the staff were more attuned to the energy itself. A connection to my Dragon aspect? I didn’t have space to think as the staff nearly slipped from my grip. Before I could be pulled off-balance by the surprising density, I found my target.

With a sound like a boulder being hit with a steel beam, I thundered the football back toward the middle point of the dune. The scorepions were scattered around the top but I didn’t want to miss the bulk of the sandy hill.

I didn’t.

The dune exploded like a bomb had gone off in the middle. My arms creaked and my left shoulder throbbed in phantom pain from the dislocation I’d suffered the day prior. Watching the four scorepions soar upwards in variously comical fashion, the surreality of the situation threatened to hit me like a truck.

“Don’t think too hard,” I told myself, “just go finish off the magical scorpions so the fairy won’t get upset.” Shaking my head at the bizarre thought, and at the falling sand, I moved to intercept the falling arachnids.

———————————

The noises Naea was making were ones I thought reserved for the bedroom, so I moved a polite distance away and focused on consolidating my new understandings from the battle. The System’s help was like a set of training wheels, not the pinnacle of what I could do. The lessons I received from it were essentially primers for the actual experiences formed in the fires of combat.

Meditation was not something I felt connected to in the past, but if the alternative was interacting with Naea right now, I would say some ohms. Despite entering the process with a flippant attitude, the sensation of rightness which came over me when I settled was startling. Not shocking enough to shake my reverie, but enough to make me realise I had stumbled onto something important.

For just a moment, I saw myself from a different perspective. Not metaphorically, but an actual different view of myself from a higher vantage flashed through my mind. I stayed with the feeling but the sight slipped away regardless. I tried to recover the trigger but couldn’t settle my mind in the same way.

Although I was sitting cross-legged, the vision of myself had been standing. I bore a staff and strange ethereal armour. Obviously the armour was alien to me, but so was the weapon. Instead of the Yo Staff, a gnarled length of wood seemed to sit even more comfortably in my grasp. The vision ended when the alternative version of myself raised their eyes to my vantage point. Before our eyes met, I was back in my body.

“Interesting…” My trance broken, I could hear the soft wind blowing through the quiet desert. A faint buzzing to my left told me where Naea was. “You’re finished being weird, then?”

“Ah, spin ya. Yer a right good kid, though.” Naea then hiccupped and I turned just in time to see her tumble from the air gracelessly. She spat out the sand in her mouth, not losing the goofy smile plastered on her face for a second. “Ya ever try somethin’ and think you don’ like tha taste but ya can’t stop eating? Ahh, that’s the stuff.”

Great, she’s a stoner. The absorption of the scorepions had not just been sustenance for Naea, and I half-suspected it wasn’t food at all. She looked drunk and high, her stomach puffing out a little. Considering her teensy size, it was like a thimble had been hidden under her dress. “When in Rome,” I shrugged, opening my attribute page.

Name - Grant Kaeron Race - Human (Grade 0) Level - 19

Title - Dragon Slayer

Fortitude - 10 Speed - 10 Mental - 50 Will - 25

Free attribute points: 4

“What’s Rome?” Naea asked, extending the O of Rome massively.

“One of our cities, on the other side of the continent.” Thinking about the rest of the world was a recipe for disaster, so I wasn’t upset when Naea got distracted by a dust devil. While she chased it, I gave some thought to my goals and long term plans. Due to the amplifying effect of my mana, I wasn’t worried about putting more points into Fortitude or Speed for the moment. Was it even the right choice to place my points now, or should I wait for a need to arise?

My decision to place three points into Will was based on my experience binding with the Aspect of the Dragon. The Aspect itself had seemed to have a mind of its own at one point, actively debating whether I was worthy of wielding it. The deciding factor had been my high Mental attribute, but if I had been weaker, the Dragon might have rejected me.

In hopeful preparation for my next Aspect, I would try to keep my Will attribute in line with Mental. Positioning my attributes around a 10:10:50:30 was an acceptable ratio in my mind, and I would see if it was possible to keep it this way. Ideally I would also have more information by the time my second binding came around but looking at Naea right now, I didn’t have high hopes.

“How did you even get yourself stuck like that?” I asked, pulling her head from the sand. She gasped and looked at me with grateful, wide eyes that threatened tears. Her wings were slightly droopy and her wide, thin lip pushed out as much as it could in a pout. I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly what had happened. “Your high run out, did it?”

Naea nodded, pure sadness on her face. I chuckled and dropped her onto my shoulder. She barely weighed a pound. The bulge in her dress had entirely disappeared. “Come on,” I sighed, getting up and setting off for another sand dune. “there’s more scorepions around here somewhere. Don’t eat them all at once this time.”