Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Though the immediate area around Clive’s was unchanged, the truth of the System’s words became more evident as I crossed through the treeline. A couple hundred feet of normal terrain suddenly slipped away. In a clean cut, a step dropped down after the first set of trees. The geography was completely unnatural, even ignoring the instant biome shift.

The step was too perfect a cut. It was as though everything for a few miles was pressed with a giant stamp before being replaced. I frowned as I considered that might actually be what happened. There were still way too many unknowns, something my upgrade to the Mental attribute hadn’t been able to alleviate. On one hand, having more information would be amazing, so it was a shame not to get more packets of knowledge from the System.

The other hand said I had no reason to trust alien enlightenment. There was no doubt in my mind the System had been true in the education it had given me so far, but that wouldn’t always be true. My Mana Control technique hadn’t been completed by the System, but had grown more potent in battle, for example…

Ultimately, there was no right answer or hopes to latch on to. The Earth I had known was gone. Was it better if people had survived the change like I had or were the poor snuffed souls in the café the lucky ones? That would be convenient, my logical mind taunted the hopeful heart, then it would actually be me that’s being punished.

“Fuck it.” I’d let the universe decide if I deserved to be taught a lesson. The System said Mrs Naebol was a dragon, and it really did seem like she used some form of mind control on me. How could I blame myself for being in an uncontrollable situation?

I dropped down the step, four feet maximum. I could easily return to Clive’s if I ran into too much danger, though that would just mean bringing it with me. I shrugged. “No right answers,” I reminded myself. Pushing forward was better than being wracked with indecision.

The green grass and european trees of the park on the layer above was jarringly displaced for a sandy area more like what I’d expect in the Sahara. There were dunes of golden sand standing as high as trees slightly further in. I looked at the partition, where the world as I knew it broke. What would happen here? Would the dreary English weather overpower the magical desert or would it spread?

As I stepped away from the park, the temperature of the air quickly rose. Perhaps the desert was here to stay, then. Each time the System reared its world-altering power in my face, I felt a little less connected to reality. An equatorial desert slapbang in the middle of the English countryside? Why not!

It didn’t take long before my next encounter, though it wasn’t another Amphibious Attack Animal. Given the noticeable lack of liquids in the area, running into one of the mutated turtles would have been strange. I didn’t put it past the System, so I was on guard all the same when the attack came.

Even as I activated my mana, feeling my attributes rise, I recognised the issue. Without any kind of scouting skill, I was stuck wandering into fights that the creatures I found myself up against were ready for in a way I wasn’t. It took time for my mana to reinforce my body fully. By the time I was ready, it might be too late.

My eyes flickered to movement like a shimmer on the sand. I had been warily eyeing up a dune as I approached it. This was the right choice as some of the sand slipped. The fractional movement wouldn’t have been on my radar a day ago, but I was getting used to the changes in my physicality. The vision was much sharper, and the small spout did not go unmissed.

The world slowed down and I slipped intentionally to the ground to dodge the incoming projectile. I was lucky this time, a sigh escaping my lips. A flicker of mana to my eyes had given me a name and a level, which brought on my relief. My slow walk into the blistering heat was fraught with a specific worry up to now - would the monsters in the desert be stronger than the amphibian?

It was apparently buried in the sand, but how could simple sand stop my magical gaze? A sheen covered the world and I got a sense of the creature’s size along with its dumb name. A less prescient worry had been that the monsters would continue to be distractingly referential. It looked like that foible was going to stick.

Monster - Scorepion (Level 4)

I’d have assumed the System made a mistake with the name if I hadn’t got a half-decent look at the sizzling ball the creature had shot at me. A black and white ball, which looked to actually be made of leather, had whipped through the air like a cannonball. The air hissed from displacement along with an antiseptic smell. Did this thing just fire a poisonous football at me?

The scorepion was the size of a golden retriever. It shifted backwards into the sand as its surprise attack failed and the marker for its name vanished into the dune as well. I had no idea whether simply touching the football was enough to get poisoned, but the speed of the initial shot was the real danger. The sneaky thing had let me get close enough that retreat was a difficult option.

I sent a steadier stream of mana to my eyes as I waited for the next shot. My mana was working in three states around my body. First, the bulk of my mana, my core, was cycling the strange energy like a heart or centrifuge. As the mana increased in tempo and pressure, the effect of its presence in my limbs increased.

Then, a steady amount of the now charged mana was taken from the core and spread all around my body. This provided a general boost to my attributes. I didn’t have much of a baseline, but I felt multiple times stronger. My attributes while using mana in this way were more than doubled but being more specific was difficult. I could probably use my energy in this way for half an hour before being completely drained.

The last state of mana was the active packages used to enhance me in specific moments. Like opening a floodgate, more of the mana from my core could infuse a smaller area and drastically increase the enhancement. All that effort to be as strong as you would have at 50 Fortitude. “Shut up, Voice of Regret,” I chastised myself.

Strength was needed, but mine wasn’t brute strength. I would need to work at it, but I had hope that more doors would be open to me in the future because of it. Surviving would have been impossible without Mana Control, and that had taken over 40 free attribute points to reach, the equivalent of ten levels worth of investment. How many would be following that path?

How many would even survive to the starting line as I had?

The System text appeared before the scorepion’s spout and I reaffirmed my path in my mind. Wouldn’t have the big floating words telling me where the thing is without Mana Control, the Voice of Hindsight replied to Regret smugly. I sent a surge of mana to my arms, already twenty percent of my maximum used even before the second shot was fired. “I’m definitely going crazy,” I accepted.

I shook my left foot, burying it in the sand slightly. I would need the leverage. Slip the shot, smack it back. I thought I was ready, but knowing the scorepion was aiming at me was forcing a primal hesitation into my bones. I was reminded of the feeling of being threatened with an elastic band. I could swear the bastard held his shot, knowing the tension was part of its attack.

Imagine my surprise when a second name popped up and wasted no time. Rigid as I was, there was no chance to reorient. I swung the Yo Staff, my infused muscles and perception at least able to keep up that much. Instead of sending the ball back into the sand dune, I was lucky to be able to deflect the high speed shot into the sand at my side.

Clever girl, I conceded as the second shot, from the initial scorepion came searing through the air. I couldn’t block this one, nor dodge it, off-balance as I was. The low level had given me a false sense of security. There was no question behind the explosive force of the scorepion’s shot. This was going to kill me, no doubt.

As if in rebellion with my defeatist thoughts, my mana boiled. The shot appeared to freeze in mid-air as mana turned my perception up to the very maximum. My mind didn’t have to race far for an answer to my predicament. I would survive, but it would suck. The momentum of the first shot had sent me wobbling, and with my leg planted, I didn’t have the range of movement to get out of the way. The angry, desperate mana within found my left ankle quickly.

I pulled. The healing and fortifying effects of my mana were fantastic, but I needed the opposite here. Due to my own strength, my ankle was too solid to break like it had to so I could dodge. A howl was already ripping through the previously silent desert before I hit the sand. The football whistled passed, ruffling my hair. I was honestly surprised I noticed.

The agony in my leg went far above a broken ankle. The nerves were screaming as they were supposed to, but there was a deeper pain currently blinding me. If there were more scorepions, I was a dead man. I needed to move.

Blinking myself back into the real world, if you could call it that, I snarled and dug myself from the sand quickly. Even glancing brushes of my ankle caused an almost world-ending pain through my whole being. Both my physical body and my magical pathways cringed from the feeling. “Should have let myself get hit,” I cursed.

The Yo Staff became a walking stick as I hurried away from the sand dune. No more shots were fired from the scorepions, and they seemed content to stay in their sand dune. I cast wary eyes around at the uniform golden floor, in case one was sneaking around, but saw nothing. Only once I reached the space where the heat of the desert mixed with the cold of the English park did I relax a little.

I hoisted myself up to the lip to look over my wound.

The skin of my ankle was pierced with jagged bones. Sharp, they had been worn away by the magical damage I inflicted upon myself and then torn through the flesh. Strips of muscle were hanging loose around, barely keeping my foot connected to my leg. The strained cartilage and tendons looked like they’d necrosed.

After avoiding the sight for my hurried escape, the reveal nearly knocked me out. The level of pain I had felt was simply what couldn’t be ignored. With the evidence of damage unavoidable, my brain screamed in terror. Frantic, I opened all my System windows to see if there was anything I could do.

An array of screens opened at once. I had no free points to put into my attributes, so upgrading my Fortitude wouldn’t help. My problems only increased as I noticed the damage to my leg was causing my mana to waver. It wasn’t recovering at any real speed, which meant my body wasn’t magically healing from that either. My character and quest pages were no help, but a glimmer of hope existed elsewhere.

I could only hope with every fibre of my being one of the mysterious items in my Inventory could save me.