Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

The cost of overspending mana can vary wildly. I wasn’t privy to this information, locked in my own personal dungeon, but around the world many were learning the ins-and-outs of magic just as I was. For them, taxing themselves beyond their capabilities had varying degrees of damage. Almost every aspirant mage on Earth had burned one or two mana pathways since trying to control the strange new possibilities given by the System.

Exactly one (1) of these mages had seared their entire mana circuit multiple times. Being the forerunner of this particular achievement didn’t come with a System-wrapped buff or even a message, but it was an achievement nonetheless. More specifically, surviving a severe overtaxing, recovering and going on to scour the channels once more was unheard of almost anywhere in the entirety of the System.

You either died, were crippled or a masterful teacher saved you from yourself.

I had none of these things. I hadn’t died, as far as I knew. I was definitely close to permanent damage in my battle with the Storm Dragon, and I suspected the dragon had helped me avoid disabling myself entirely. Arguably, the dragon had been a teacher and to say he was a master would be a disservice. It didn’t quite feel like it had saved me though.

More like it had helped me stick the sun in my chest.

As I slept, my body froze. Another unknown to myself, the visualisation of my mana, my inner world, and the place in which dreams occur are layered close together. For most, this is why sleeping and dreaming in particular can soothe their troubled mind. The psyche brushes up against the soul in a profound way, creating dreams. For me, there was something in the way, stopping my mind from reaching my spirit.

I floated, disconnected, far above my inner world. I had never seen it from this perspective, though I always had the ability to do so. Existing within my mana was more natural than analysing it from a distance, but I could see the value. The planet was much more barren than I expected, only a small patch of green and blue marking the otherwise desolate world.

In the sky above that world, shining like a sun, was the Hurricane Heart.

The Hurricane Heart rumbled. Kept at bay during my waking hours, I naively thought my control over the immensely powerful pill had won a contest. I realised now I had simply taken a single round, and the Hurricane Heart had been biding its time. “Round two?” It seemed to say in delight, “this one won’t be so simple.”

There’s that bastard teacher of mine.

Within the Hurricane Heart, the will of the Storm Dragon reared its head angrily. I challenged its power and prevailed but a battle is not the war. In a combined state of lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis, I could do nothing to control my soul. All I could do was watch as my magic was assaulted by the unending storm from space.

Still, that didn’t mean my soul was helpless. The world below me fought back fiercely. Someone else might be at the mercy of the pill, but my soul had been cast in steel over the past two weeks. The will of the Storm Dragon was not facing some blank slate of mana it could simply colour with its own energy as it wished. It faced a dragon all of my own creation.

From within my soul, a world-shattering bellow roared out louder than the storm. The volcano, the representation of a dragon’s power, didn’t just erupt, it exploded. Deep beneath the volcano’s spout, my Dao pool fed into the power of mana. Dao and mana mixed into a greater whole, truly becoming the dragon I had heard whispering in my mind.

Huge arms emerged from the magma first, followed by shoulders connected to immense wings. A lithe head came next, the eyes of a furious predator visible through the smoke and glow from the lava. I could feel its movements as though they were my own, probably because they were. The dragon was me, after all. At the same time, the power itself was arrogant, and I felt it pick my pocket. Now what are you doing with that?

The dragon took something from my inventory and crawled out of the destroyed volcano it had been birthed from. The sight of it was obscured by the dust and debris in the air, only a shadow visible to me. Its silhouette soon detached from the planet and took to the skies. Rage and desire fueled its movements as the relatively small figure shot out of the atmosphere faster than I could follow.

The shadow plunged into the Hurricane Heart and disappeared. My soul retaliated against the onslaught. I felt fangs lock around an exposed neck, my mouth seemed to fill with electrified blood. I shouted and the dragon roared in sync with me, demanding subjugation from the heart. Carried into the centre of the storm, the dragon released its payload.

Within the power of the Hurricane Heart, an Aspect was released. I honestly couldn’t tell if the dragon knew what was going to happen, or if it just wanted to deal with two annoyances at once. It really hadn’t liked the idea of a common Aspect joining the ranks, after all. Either way, the result was potent.

I awoke with a start. My body felt hot, but instead of sweat, a thick substance was clamming up my skin. Quickly searching for the System prompts to explain what was happening to me, I barely had time to read the blocks of text before it was replaced by a much more succinct message. The newest prompt opened at the same time the smell hit my nose. “No,” I moaned, “I like this bedroom!”

Race Evolution

Conditions met to evolve race from Grade 0 to Grade 1.

Evolution commencing.

I wasn’t entirely clear on what part of the process going on in my soul had triggered the evolution. I would see when the abhorrent sensations rocking through my body finally stopped. Until then, the best I could do was slip and tumble my way to the next room, clambering into the bath. I gnashed my teeth in anger and swiped away the message, leaving only the first two messages.

Aspect Evolved - Water -> Tempests

Through exposure to the magic of the Hurricane Heart, the magical quality of the Aspect of Water has improved. Aspect of Water (Common) evolved to Aspect of Tempests.

Aspect - Tempest (Legendary)

Aspects are formed when ambient mana in an area becomes charged with a specific type of energy. This particular Aspect formed when an Aspect of Water was brought into contact with a much higher quality concept. If you have unbound attributes, you may permanently bind an Aspect to an unbound attribute.

Would you like to use the Aspect of Tempests to bind an unbound attribute?

I can’t even sleep without the System doing some crazy stuff, I lamented. I was conscious enough to recognise this was my fault for biting off more than I could chew at once with the Hurricane Heart. Ultimately, the actions of my Dao were my choices. Knowing this didn’t help my mood much as electricity started lighting up my skin. Oh lovely, I noticed, the oil on my skin is conductive. That’s just wonderful.

There was nothing to do but bear the discomfort and pain. Over and over my body heaved uncontrollably. I could only move to twitch as my nerves fired with agony. I tried to bind the Aspect of Tempests but was unable. Not willing to do nothing, I threw all reason aside and dove into the feeling instead. There was magic going on inside my body, and even for the System, I was pretty sure it wasn’t the standard fare.

If I had to endure it, I would also learn.

Focusing on what the evolution was doing to my body was eye-opening. I had cracked my soul once, releasing a level’s worth of experience. It felt like rubbing sandpaper through the inside of my veins. The mashed up repair job I had done on my soul was a single bandage over a gaping wound since. I wasn’t happy to say I was experiencing a similar feeling.

Similar, but foundationally opposite. I gasped when I realised what was happening and any fight I was fielding against the evolution vanished. The process was pouring gold onto the cracks covering my soul, filling them in and making them glow with purity. It was almost identical to the feeling of levelling up, except far more potent. The reason it hurt was down to my lackadaisical care of my own soul.

The hours passed as my pathways were rewritten, the language of my magic growing from the level of a child’s first handwriting to masterful cursive. I followed the feelings, using the uncomfortable to firmly memorise the more intricate map of my mana channels. The definition within the patterns was much clearer. I could now actually feel the spaces in my soul waiting for Aspects. A smaller version of this occurred around the complicated jumble which expressed the dragon.

At some point, Naea found me but she made the sensible decision to send positivity through our link from as far away as she could. Her moral support was appreciated, dealing with doubts before they could fully form. I had no idea what an evolution was supposed to feel or look like but as she wasn’t worried, neither was I. Her soothing aura came through our connection like a lullaby.

With Naea’s help, I bore the procedure to its end, culminating in a simple System message for my troubles. It was a prompt I had seen many times, possibly the most of any. Only one thing had changed, but it was enough to make my eyes bulge. The maths behind the numbers started bouncing around in my brain but there was no simple equation for it. I decided I didn’t care one bit.

Level up! +20 attribute points

I had broken through the bottleneck! My achievements gave me an extra four attribute points, so I didn’t have an adequate explanation for receiving twenty points, but I was over the moon either way. The best guess was some additional points per level for being a Stormborn, which then doubled as I rose a grade. My stagnant character sheet was looking much more interesting now.

Name - Grant Kaeron Race - Stormborn (Grade 1) Level - 30

Title - Dragon Slayer

Fortitude - 20 Speed - 20 Mental - 123 Will - 60

Free attribute points: 20

It may not have been efficient or perfectly placed, but I dropped five points into each attribute and wriggled as the increase took hold. Muscles tightened, joints became more flexible. I cracked my neck theatrically. Initially hesitant to begin manipulating my mana, the level up gave me the confidence of a conqueror.

Speaking of achievements, I had gained another ridiculous boost in power from the System.

Achievement Unlocked - Planetary Forerunner

The barrier between grades is the true watershed for potential. You are blazing your path faster than any others of your generation. Congratulations.

Effect: Attributes +10%

This one wasn’t a world first, but maybe it was a given in the name of the achievement. The extra burst of power settled along with the rest of my gains. My body felt magma hot and frozen cold at the same time, but the opposing sensations slowly mixed together into a pleasant warmth all over my skin. “Incredible,” I whispered at the power running through my veins. I smiled.

Unleashing the sea of mana waiting within my core, I almost purring as the floodgates opened. More power than I had been able to wield before was now slamming through my mana channels with ease. I revelled in the magical feeling for around three seconds before I could handle the stink of evolution goop any longer.

I stomped back through the mess I had made on my way to the bathroom and covered myself in bed clothes as I quickly ran to the evolution room. I would burn the blanket and covers. While the waterfall drained onto my head, I considered the pros and cons of just ripping the room away from the house and paying for the repairs instead of cleaning.

Once I was clean, I found a bedroom on the opposite side of the house. I dared the System to give me another nightmare, vowing to bring absolute and unstoppable ruin to whatever power governed the damned thing if it didn’t let me get a decent sleep. I had been exhausted before my evolution, now I was a dead man walking. Even if the System upgraded my race again, I doubt I would have woken up.

I dreamed fantastic visions without any control, a passenger to the nonsensical happenings. I slept well, barely moving an inch throughout the night. When the morning came, I met it with excitement. I would let Naea rest like I had originally planned, but how could I sit still? My fingers tingled with power as I started revving my mana through my body.

My body had changed on me, holding immense power. More importantly than any of that, though, was the most material of last night’s gains. I removed the Aspect of Tempests from my inventory. It was absolutely beautiful, and exactly what I had wanted from the trial tower. The dragon within approved of its own creation as I admired it, a growing smile on my face. I immediately left Home Base in search of something to fight. “No time to waste,” I told myself.

There was magic to learn.