Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Thanks to Healing Bond, Naea was able to rouse me fairly quickly. Physically, I was doing okay, but I strained every mana channel I had keeping the infinite arrows from above away from my soft delicate organs. Instead of heading inside the tower, the pair of us were resting against the door. There were various wrappers and cans strewn about after we gorged our stamina back.

Even if the insides were a complete bust, and I doubted that would be the case, I had received an incredibly valuable reward already. As soon as I saw the words Guidance Stone on the Dungeon Quest, I knew it was either victory or death for me.

The allure of magic, and increased capabilities, was simply too great.

“Let’s find out if all that danger was worth it, shall we?” I removed the Guidance Stone from my inventory. An orb of grey crystal crackled with energy in my hand, yellow and blue sparks flashing within. Before immediately using the stone, I admired the beautiful sphere. It really did seem to house a thunderstorm within.

“Let’s,” Naea agreed. From her own inventory, which existed somewhere within my own, connected to mine, she produced a nearly identical stone. The only difference was the size, which Naea assured me was unimportant. I resisted the obvious joke, another sign of my heightened Will attribute.

Experience told me Guidance Stones were not painful, as I didn’t remember even a twinge upon using the stone of Mastery. I was proven mostly correct, though the stone of Thunder gave me a small electric shock as I accepted the prompt. My veins felt charged with lightning for a moment, which was unpleasant. Naea shrieked at my side, and I chuckled. “At least it wasn’t just me.”

Skill Unlocked - Kirin Strikes

Often guarding the hoards of Storm Dragons, Kirins are both beast and storm at once.

As I hoped, the use of the Guidance Stone healed my charred mana pathways. If it were not for the flash of lightning currently zipping around my head, I would have focused on the luxurious feeling. Naea hollered with delight as she moved faster than I could hope to follow, then poked me on the thigh. My whole jolted like I’d been tased, which of course Naea found even more hilarious.

I flicked her out of the air. “You’re fast, but predictable.” The pair of us glared at each other, me rubbing my leg and Naea rubbing her forehead. Then we burst out laughing.

“Go on,” she said, “what’s yours?” Not for the first time, I thanked my good fortune to have met Naea. If the dungeon had been a little more brutal or I had been a little less hopeful, we might never have teamed up and I would have definitely gone insane or died.

“Something probably best saved until we’re in a fight.” I rolled my eyes as Naea flopped over my shoulder. We were in no real rush, beyond the ever-looming competition outside my Dungeon. My own mana was still recovering and now Naea needed to rest again. Her new technique was expensive in both mana and stamina costs, and her maximum was lower than mine.

I stood and started collecting arrows. I also picked up the litter Naea and I had made, which conveniently went into a catch-all category in my inventory called Trash. The arrows however, were special.

Item - Storm Arrows

Arrows forged under special conditions, they are perfectly capable of absorbing certain types of mana.

On most, the arrowheads were damaged or the shafts had broken, leaving them useless. Like the food wrappers, these broken arrows went straight into the Trash. Given the colossal amount which had rained down, however, there were still hundreds of the interesting projectiles. I twirled one around my finger, holding my other hand out like a vacuum for the rest of the debris.

I was unsurprised when my first attempt at injecting mana into the arrow was a failure. The sensation was similar to pushing air through a straw, only to find too much pressure on the other side. Even if something seems obvious, it’s best to be sure. With a shove of my energy, I forced the mana within and the arrow burst. After picking a few splinters out of my hand, I retrieved another one. Naea didn’t even offer to heal me, which was probably fair.

My second attempt was a little more fruitful. I focused on the volcano within my mental world. While everything there was a representation of my mana, the volcano was specialised. I drew dragon-flavoured mana from the font and aimed it at the arrow in my hand. “Watch out!” I shouted, flinging the arrow away as quickly as I could. This time, it exploded violently and I was thrown back due to the proximity with the blast.

“Are you desperate to maim yourself?” Naea asked rhetorically. I turned around sheepishly and held out my hand. The skin had been taken clean off most of it. With a groan, Naea used Healing Bond before returning to rest by the door. As she saw me pick up another arrow, she squawked in protest. “Seriously?”

“I think I know what I’m doing this time,” I replied with a distinct lack of confidence in my voice.

“Sure you did last time, too.” Naea commented dryly, but said no more. I ignored her and began to gather more mana from the volcano. Instead of sending it towards the arrow, I moved the power slowly upwards. A stream of lava rose out of the fiery mountain and touched the smoky clouds above. A crackling rumble echoed throughout my soul and I memorised the feeling with a smile.

Using abilities from Guidance Stones had at least two phases which I had discovered. The first was a surge of information entering the memory banks, waiting to be remembered. When using Staff Mastery, I had gained decent skill immediately and then used that to springboard me into higher levels of technique. These arrows had helped me do the same with Kirin Strikes.

“Got it!” With delight, I channelled the lightning in my soul straight into the Storm Arrow. The mana jumped into the expertly crafted projectile without resistance. The steel head began to glow blue and the wood vibrated. I whooped and heaved the arrow into the distance. The whole world went white for a moment.

The arrow hadn’t exploded again or anything, it had just sounded like a whip cracking right next to my ear. Unprepared, the sound had nearly knocked me out. I stabilised in time to see the arrow still arcing through the air. Naea was shouting at me but I couldn’t hear her until she healed me, my eardrums were both burst. I didn’t look away as the arrow buried itself in the sand. Naea returned my hearing just in time for me to hear the second immense noise.

This one was the sound of glass cracking, because that’s exactly what happened. A small but not insubstantial area of sand a hundred metres away had been flashed with the lightning contained inside the Storm Arrow. Despite her annoyance at me, Naea gawked with wide eyes while I looked smug. She slapped me, healing the last of the damage at the same time. I poked her belly, returning the favour.

“You won’t have to get so up-close and personal all the time now, will ye?” She asked. I didn’t answer immediately because I was too full of emotion. Mana cost, fine magical control and a material component? I’m sure any self-respecting wizard worth their salt would be insulted but as far as I was concerned, I had just cast my first spell.

“Damn straight,” I nodded to Naea when I realised she had spoken. The mana cost for that single arrow had been expensive enough it couldn’t become my bread-and-butter, even if I had an infinite supply of the arrows, which I didn’t. Kirin Strikes wasn’t limited to the Storm Arrows, though. Despite being slightly drained still, my energy was high. “Are you ready?”

Naea shrugged. “Can’t be worse than what we just survived.” I stifled a swear, opting for just a choking noise instead.

“Now why would you say something so obviously ominous?” I pushed the door open as I asked. If the universe, or System, wanted to punish me for Naea’s words then so be it. When no immediate smite seemed incoming, we carefully moved inside. The door slammed shut behind us the moment I was out of range to hold it open. “Of course.”

I gave Naea a disappointed look. “Nooo! Disappointed is worse than angry! Everyone knows that!” Her voice echoed around the space we found ourselves in. The barren design of the outer walls was not hiding opulence inside. Grey, dull stone stretched around from the door we entered to the far side of the single, massive room. A flat ceiling squatted above some seventy metres or so at an estimate. From the door to the opposite side could easily be a kilometre, the large distance hard to gauge.

Naea made to speak and I held up a finger while raising an eyebrow. I knew what she was going to ask and I had no doubt an answer was incoming. On cue, the System obliged.

Trial Tower Entered! - Frigid Winds

To face the trial of the Storm Dragon is to defy nature at its most destructive and deadly.

Survive the blizzard.

Even as the System threatened death, I smiled. My obsession with achievements was only going to get worse. Another System prompt was waiting behind the Tower Quest. Fate-changing rewards came from the tower itself, but I’d received two before even climbing a floor.

Achievement Unlocked - (World First) Trial Taker

For many, certain death. For you, a chance to rewrite destiny.

Effect: Attributes +10%

The System made more than a few references to fate and the like, and I couldn’t help but wonder whether that was a translation of something else. Maybe it was just a concept which existed everywhere. The now familiar feeling of incremental power flowing into my veins was welcome as always. Mana moved through my pathways easier than ever. I looked down at my belt and did some very quick arithmetic, aided by my attributes.

From my various attributes, I had accrued a thirty percent bonus to my Mental attribute, as well as Fortitude and Will. Speed was at twenty five percent, and all of these before the effect of the Orange Belt around my waist. I grunted. Whether the belt added attributes after the achievement or not, I would be just under an effective one hundred in Mental.

Hungry for some extra attribute points to see me to the centennial attribute score, I stepped into the room. Despite the quest appearing in my face, I knew nothing would start until I walked forward. I had the vague sense that if I wanted to give up, I could, even now. How that worked, I wasn’t sure. Some vague voice in the back of my head from the System I was going to ignore.

I had finally reached the tower and I had a bone to pick with the Storm Dragon that ran the place. I just had to survive, how hard could that be? I almost complained when the System started speaking. That one was in my head!

Trial Accepted - Floor One Commencing

The floor at my feet became slick and the temperature of the room dropped immediately. Naea shivered immediately and gave up any pretence of joining me for this floor. She dove into my shirt and wrapped her arms around my neck. “You heal me if I need it, try to stay warm.”

“I wish you had a hood,” she grumbled. I laughed and agreed, reaching the middle of the room with the Yo Staff in hand. I hit the long stick on the floor, channelling my new skill as I did so. The frozen ground around me was electrified and the frost in the immediate area was vaporised. Pleased with the effect, I could do nothing but wait. For just a single moment, I wondered whether the trial was more simple than I thought. Could the first wave just be the cold?

All around, figures rose from the ground like snowmen melting in reverse. Most were humanoid in shape, but not all. I spotted some large cats forming, a bulky shape which might have been a rhinoceros or a hippo, and a few others I didn’t immediately recognise. The bulk were human in shape, wielding various ice-made weaponry.

I licked my lips. They cracked almost immediately but I ignored it. This was perfect. Up to now, I had been fighting almost nothing but scorepions. There wasn’t an arachnid shape amongst the ice sculptures, I noted thankfully. They had been decent fodder for levels, but the scorepions were ultimately slow, ranged attackers. This was my chance to figure out how to really fight.

I couldn’t ask for a better army to sharpen myself upon.