Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 152: Incarnation of Selfishness

“You want to hunt the titular monster of this Event? The one that is ranked at the Tier we literally just broke into yesterday?” Isaac asked.

On one hand, it was understandable that they wanted to try fighting the first “main” monster of an Event that was within their capability to beat, on the other hand, that thing wouldn’t have been named in that way with no …

“Crap.” Isaac muttered.

“Right now, it’s just an idea, one I do not support.” Bailey told him “Theoretically, we can beat it, but how that will work in practice is up in the air.”

The reassurance was helpful, but Isaac hadn’t sworn just because someone here had suggested they summon a monster that might easily be able to beat most of the people here in a one on one fight.

No, the issue was that Isaac had just put together something extremely unpleasant puzzle.

The Summer Event’s main Event had been Apophis, an apocalypse-level monster from Egyptian mythology and it’s [System]-equivalent had lived up to the hype, being a Tier 10 [World Boss]. Summoning it had also been well out everyone’s price range. Even if a thousand people, the maximum amount that could contribute to its summoning, had been training since day one, levelling up as quickly as humanly possible and thrown each and every Stat point into Magic Power, it still would have been impossible.

The Autumn Equinox’s strongest monster had likewise been a Tier 10 [World Boss], known as Hrym. In Norse Mythology, he was the helmsman of the Naglfar, a ship made from the fingernails of the dead that appeared in the beginning of Ragnarök, the end of times.

Yet the named monster had been the Spirit of Famine, which was Tier 8 and just a [Field Boss].

And while the Tier 10 [World Boss] this time around was the Avatar of Fimbulwinter, another Ragnarök-related piece of nastiness, the named monster had been a mere Tier 7, non-Boss, non-anything beastie just at the time humanity started going for the first monster on that Tier.

“I … that’s not what I meant.” Isaac sighed “It just seems like the Event is trying to, for lack of a better word, goad us into going for it.”

He then proceeded to explain what he’d figured out.

“The [System] being out to get us …” Gram had stayed on his feet longer than the others, but even he’d eventually had to sit down “That is a terrifying prospect.”

He sighed deeply and pulled out a handkerchief to dab non-existent sweat from his forehead. It was clearly a purely psychological thing, but it still sufficed to fully restore his composure, or at least to let him fake it.

“That thing affects literally every part of every single person’s life. If it turned against us … we’re dead. Just … how certain are you?”

The sheer amount of hopefulness in the last sentence, especially from someone who was normally so composed was heartbreaking.

“Of the fact that the Wendigo is a trap? Pretty damn certain. But I’m even more certain of the fact that the [System] itself is not out to get us, that it won’t lie to us. Because if we ever noticed a mistake, no one would ever trust it again. This little psychological bullshi- … ahem, nonsense is just a repeat of how summoning as a whole works, of how the previous Events work. Dangle some tasty bait, anyone stupid enough to bite into it dies horribly. If we use our heads, and notice things like the power level of named monsters decreasing, we’ll be just fine. This whole thing is nothing new, it’s just the first time the people here nearly fell for it.”

“Shit. That tosser of a [System], what a …” Arthur’s tirade could have gone on for a good long while, but Gram’s [Aura] smacked into him and jerked him out of it.

“At the end of the day, we don’t know how dangerous the Wendigo is, if the [System] really was creating a trap and anyway, Dr. Thoma is right, the [System] doesn’t lie, it just lets us dig our own graves. Let’s leave the Wendigo alone.”

“That just leaves one question: do we talk to people about the theory?” Götz asked “If we do, it’ll definitely cause at least a small panic, especially after the mess with the ‘non-typo’.”

People that he hadn’t talked to about the [System] before were starting to put things together. Isaac just telling people about its dark purpose without also revealing his origins would have made him sound like a kook. On the other hand, if he made a good case for caution based on knowledge that was publicly available, using a train of logic that was easy to follow, he could to lay the groundwork to prepare the world for the big revelations that would likely come in the future.

Yet her point about the chaos was a good one. People were antsy enough already after the opening mess, this was the wrong time to release that information to the whole world. Someone else would put that together, sooner or later, and if they didn’t, Isaac would put the idea out into the world. But now was the wrong time.

“I think we shouldn’t. People are already in enough of a tizzy, I don’t think they’d finish reading our post about how the [System] doesn’t lie, or even mislead, it can just make things appear slightly more appealing than they are to people who keep their brain switched off.” Bailey stated, causing both Arthur and Gram to wince.

Damn, the professor was taking no prisoners. Isaac chuckled internally, but Bailey wasn’t done talking.

“We’ll just point out how the Wendigo costs more than the Krampus, and how that was already a decently large pain in the ass, right Isaac? The laws written specifically for the Event make it illegal to summon monsters that haven’t been cleared, that coupled with a properly worded warning should ensure that this Event stays the most peaceful thus far.”

“Ok, sounds good.” Isaac replied.

The little group split up soon afterwards. Götz headed over to the communications center, supervising the release of the information and Bailey joined her, but Arthur and Gram were staying behind.

They’d suggested the summoning of a powerful monster and even though nothing had happened, nothing had gone wrong, they hadn’t insisted everyone continue with the summoning and Isaac likely wouldn’t even have had to make his argument, his word would probably have been enough.

But they’d nearly fallen into what was most likely a trap, and that had affected them. Badly.

Isaac, meanwhile, had chosen to head over to the loot storage area to see if this Event had dropped anythinggood. The stuff he’d gotten hadn’t exactly been stellar, thus far. And if those two where still deep in their funk, he’d try to get them out of it.

If he focused hard, he could still hear those tow talking in low voices, alternatively cursing themselves out or trying to figure out just why they’d thought summoning a Wendigo had been an even halfway good idea.

In the end, it hadn’t been that terrible of a suggestion, given that by rights, they should have been just fine fighting a Tier 7 non-Boss. But this situation with the Wendigo stank to high heaven, and that changed the calculation.

Still, it seemed like they’d gotten a handle on it now.

“Hey Isaac, what brings you here?” Karl asked, looking up from the pile of loot he was busy picking apart.

“I wanted to look over what we got from the Event, see if there was anything good. All I have is a chunk of ice that’ll freeze world solid if left lying out, a whip with an idiotic name and some random alchemy bits.”

“Actually, the Everfreeze Ice isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds at first. There’s a maximum amount of energy that can be absorbed at once and that stuff is really finicky in general. Please tell me you have a lot of it?”

The hopeful note near the end made Isaac chuckle softly.

“How much have you guys already broken?”

“Too much. We’re currently working on arranging to get more farmed somewhere other than here, though.”

“How bad was the cold, in the end?” Isaac asked “We shut down that part of the summoning because we weren’t sure, but did you manage to figure out what would have happened if we’d kept going?”

“Lowering the temperature in such a small area so drastically would have played merry hell on the weather and killed most of the plants here, at a minimum. If we’d kept going after that, some of the people with a low Fortitude could have ended up dead.” Karl replied with a grimace “I’m just glad we caught it because it got cold, instead of by someone getting frostbite.”

“Yeah.” Isaac agreed “But can you please show me some of the more useful loot? Because so far, today has been one crappy day from start to.”

“Day’s not over yet.” Karl pointed out.

“But with how it’s gone so far, that statement will still hold true come morning.” Isaac shook his head.

“I can see that. So let me show you the new cave of wonders, filled with horribly dangerous mystical weapons, alchemical reagents, and for some incredibly strange reason, a few magical sex toys.”

Isaac blinked in surprise “You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.”

“Maybe something intended to deal with the loneliness of winter?” Isaac sighed and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Today had been a mindfuck from the onset, and he’d never looked forward to a holiday more. But he would take a break soon. Two more days that would mostly be dedicated to paperwork, and then … Christmas and the entire week that followed it, up to new year’s. It would be the longest continuous break he’d taken since all this had started, and he bloody well needed it.

***

“Hey look at this, there’s a picture of a Wendigo on the internet.” Steff Cooke, one of the knight’s Isaac had trained at Camelot, called out … only to yelp in shock as Isaac suddenly appeared behind him so quickly he might as well have teleported.

“Who?”

The question was simple, but there was no mistaking both the anger and gravity behind it.

“Seoul University, but it apparently went well.”

“Ah.” Isaac sighed. It was all too easy to forget that there were others out there who were exploring the Event, and the others were no slouches either.

“I’d have expected a better quality picture from them, though.”

The picture was incredibly blurry and showed an emaciated figure that was perhaps three meters tall, with unnaturally long arms and grey skin, surrounded by incandescent lights and dust clouds.

“Apparently, they set up for it as though it were a [Raid Boss], then blew it to pieces the millisecond it got summoned. Even wrecked the loot. All they wanted to do to get a good look at it, not chance the fight. That picture got published with a message about how they fully support you guys’ statement that no private summoners should go after one because apparently, while it died, it lasted longer than expected.”

“Good.” Isaac nodded.

“But I’m not sure that that’s actually a Wendigo. Where are the horns?” Steff asked.

“Where they belong, not on its head.” Isaac told him “Wendigo’s don’t have horns, that was an addition from the book ‘Wendigo’. That thing right there, that seems to be based on the original myths.”

Isaac headed out of the main gathering area after that to go look around. With the limits on what could be summoned, there were far fewer spots for stuff to be summoned, and now people were bored. If it hadn’t been for the fact that they were also on standby in case disaster struck, so ending the day early and going home wasn’t really in the cards.

But maybe there was something else they could do, a continuation of the research they’d done yesterday. For example, they could see what a [Field Boss] was like. Those were vastly weaker than a [Raid Boss], having a vastly inferior version of its insta-kill resistance and being designed for teams of around 10. The issue was that after Korea, the word “Boss” was radioactive.

That particular piece of research had been talked about before, and they’d been authorized to go for it, but it had been slated for early in the next year. With so many bored yet capable people around at the moment, it seemed like doing it a little earlier as viable.

Isaac wandered off to look for Bailey and Gram. Hopefully, things would work out.

***

“Someone summoned a bloody Wendigo!”

The cry echoed through the camp like a clap of thunder, though an actual bolt of lightning striking the ground amidst them would likely have had less of an impact.

The use of “someone” meant the person shouting didn’t know the summoner. That, in turn, implied it hadn’t been summoned by anyone here, otherwise the proclamation would have been something more akin to “that jackass summoned”, “One of the Brits summoned” or just something a bit more specific.

“Where?” Isaac, Bailey, Gram, Arthur, Elena, Götz and quite a few other other people snapped at the same time, making the Khaled, who’d told them about the issue, flinch back.

“Northern England, which is technically outside our jurisdiction.”

“Still, there are people here who are citizens of that country.” Isaac said “We can start a portal chain but we should try to make sure that no one accidentally gets pulled along for the ride, even if they stand way to close to the first portal.”

It spoke to the gravity of the situation that no one rolled their eyes at the blatant “hint”. Meanwhile, the chance of them getting into actual trouble for crossing borders to help protect the citizens of the country they’d illegally entered was functionally nil, but on the other hand, the chance of some jackass with no knowledge or understanding of the real world would kick up the fuss neared one hundred percent.

“Gather up, while Amy sets up the portal chain, I’d like to talk tactics.”

Isaac straightened up and leaped onto a nearest crate while cancelling the current Party, creating a new one with just the people who’d be going.

“Arthur, Cooke, Person, you’re on frontline duty. Wendigos are meant to be fast, staying safe and keeping it away from the people behind you is the priority, inflicting damage is a secondary concern.

“Hightower, Shaw, Barker, Dixon, you’re our [Mage] group, stay behind the frontliners, and keep a defensive shield up at all times. Use crowd control to slow that thing, when dealing damage, prioritize fire based spells, those should do more damage according to the myths.

“Marshall, Porter, you’re with me, we’ll be acting as skirmishers. Do you have enchanted or soulbound weapons?”

When they shook their heads, Isaac pulled a pair of silver short swords out of his storage space. While he was somewhat doubtful of the myths that silver would be extra effective as that myth smacked of having been added by Europeans after the fact, these were still fantastic blades as Stagmer had made them. Isaac himself had also enchanted them with [Piercing Strike].

He continued to snap out orders until in the end, they had a formation of twenty people, built around a core of magic users, three tanks on the outside and three skirmishers trying to harass the monster and drive it closer to the main formation. Three healers were also along for the ride.

“Arthur, use [Aura of the Stalwart Knight] for personal defense and wrap your [Aura of the Stalwart Leader] around everyone else.

“Also, once again, prioritize self-protection over inflicting damage. Call out offensive AOEs ahead of time and stay in formation. According to the stream that showed the summoning and following disaster, we’ll be fighting in a heavily wooded area. Individually, most of us don’t stand a chance.

“We don’t know how to kill this thing, not fully. The legends range from a simple ‘pierce its heart with a silver dagger’ to a complicated ritual that will see the Wendigo revived if a single mistake is made. We’re waiting for the kill notification, and until we have it, that thing ain’t dead.

“Lastly, Arthur is in charge of the melee fighters, Amy directs the magic users and I’m in overall command.”

If this had been a movie, this was where the portal would have irised open behind Isaac and they’d have bravely charged through. Except it didn’t. They just stood there, waiting for the portal to open.

Thirty seconds passed. Someone began to nervously tap their foot, another person got a nervous coughing fit.

One minute. Most people where now fidgeting.

And then, finally, the first portal flashed open and Amy stepped through, opening another portal, this one leading as close to the forest of nightmares as possible.

“The summoning site is a five minutes’ walk that way.” Isaac announced once he’d oriented himself “We’re heading there at the best possible speed.”

The march was grim and full of tension, people looking around nervously even before they entered the woods. Seriously, what had possessed that utter numbskull to summon a fast monster that was supposed to live in forests in a bloody forest? Was there a worse place that could have been chosen?

Still, they likely wouldn’t have to look hard. The Wendigo was eternally hungry, never satiated, it would go after anyone it sensed.

On one hand, that would help them find the monster. On the other, if they weren’t the first ones to find it …

There would be countless people heading this way, members of the military, police, civilian volunteers with combat [Classes]. Thankfully, Bailey had informed everyone that Arthur was here, otherwise, they’d have run a serious risk of a friendly fire incident.

Suddenly, something tore through the outmost layer of Isaac’s sensory [Aura], which extended a full two hundred meters away from him.

“Incoming, two o’clock!” Isaac roared, a split second before the grey blur rocketed into view.

And there it was, the Wendigo, in all its horrific glory. Three meters tall, utterly emaciated, like the body of an anorexic about to be hospitalized. Grey, pallid skin like that of a frozen corpse. Its lips were non-existent, chewed off, revealing a maw full of black, needlelike teeth. And its arms, they dangled down to hallway between its hips and knees, fingers ending in five-centimeter-long claws meant for rending flesh and ripping organs from stomachs.

Blood still dripped from them, small spatters painted its chest, and its chin was dyed red.

Cooke, who was the tank closest to its path, was its first target, and it cleary intended to tear his head off before continuing into the squishier ranks to finish them off.

It was fast, too fast, out-speeding even Isaac.

If raw speed had been what governed the speed of Cooke’s block, he’d have ended up dead. But it didn’t, he had [Skills] for that. Train one that was technically just a “you can do this mundane thing” high enough, and it let you go beyond what your body should have let you do.

The wall of metal sprang into place and the Wendigo bounced off, then kicked at it. Cooke staggered ever so slightly, but the move had clearly had a different intention.

The monster had flung itself into a tree and instead of shattering into kindling as one might have expected, the wood acted like an immovable wall, allowing the Wendigo to use it to scamper into the trees and use even the thinnest branches as though they were as solid as the ground below.

Damn, that wasn’t good. In addition to its speed, it also had a method of movement they couldn’t replicate.

Sadly, the Wendigo wasn’t retreating though. Instead, it dropped down straight at the inner group.

A yellow shield of power flared into view, protecting them, but that precaution didn’t look like it would hold for long.

The incredibly long arms of the monster blurred, hammering into the barrier so rapidly the punches sounded like a continuous roar of noise rather than individual impacts. But everyone within range lashed out, and the monster was forced to leap away just as the shield was about to break.

And away it was, scrambling out of view, circling them.

“Three o’clock, four o’clock, now two o’clock … “ Isaac was constantly updating people on its position, but so long as that thing stayed away, there wasn’t much he could do.

Also, there was the whole issue of the monster’s speed. He could not just match but exceed it if he used [Form of Horror], but once he did that, he wouldn’t be able to use it again for hours afterwards. If it took one look at him and decided to retreat until he was forced to change back, that was that.

Which meant he needed to trap it in [Grave of Swords] first, which meant it needed to get within melee range of him, which it refused to do. Or he needed to catch it out of position some other way. Either way, that thing was far too smart for his liking

Spells were flung, [Far Strikes] and equivalent uselessly tore up the forest, but nothing hit the monster itself.

And then it was back, going for Arthur this time, bodily slamming into him and scrambling back onto its feet with a cut on one arm and its torso mangled by his [Aura].

Yet by the time it was back on its feet, the flow of black blood had been reduced to almost nothing by its regeneration. Granted, the wounds hadn’t been that bad, but this was still an awful sign.

While the attack might not have done much to injure Arthur, it had put him out of position and again it lunged, bearing down on the third tank and this time, it tore its claws across her throat.

When the two other designated skirmishers nearly chopped off one arm, though, it retreated and the injured tank had almost regenerated the wound on her own by the time the healing spells had landed.

However, that was how it continued to fight. Blitz in, avoid Isaac as if it knew he was the biggest threat, and get out, each time disrupting their formation a little bit more.

[Fire Walls] blocked some avenues of attack, and mystic shields harried it enough for some attacks to land, but it simply wasn’t enough. Flying blades that burned with fire left shallow cuts, yet the Wendigo’s hide was sturdy enough that they simply didn’t do very much damange.

“[Eruption]!”

A massive plume of molten rock exploded from the ground right in its path but it veered to the side and caught Porter, the second skirmisher just as he’d been about to attack it. Cruel claws tore through his chain mail as though it were mere tissue paper, they were then yanked right back out, clutching what appeared to be his liver.

Marshall, the third skirmisher attacked to drive it off, only to have his comrade’s dripping organ flung at his face. He managed to avoid a direct hit and being blinded by the blood, but the Wendigo went under the desperate [Sweeping Strike] he’d used to try and keep it at a distance, then tore off his right leg. As he fell, its claws dug deep into the man’s spine, and were pulled back out with an ugly cracking sound.

It took a dozen separate hits from various fast to cast but comparatively weak spells, but that didn’t really make up for the casualties they’d already suffered.

Another attack run saw the Wendigo run straight at Arthur and, to everyone’s surprise, have an arm chopped off. Yet even as the knight caused a massive shockwave to emanate from his body, causing ensuring that the Wendigo couldn’t attack him while he was blinded by its blood, the severed limb was pressed to the cut and attacked soon afterwards.

The formation moved, taking Arthur into the center while he pawed at his eyes, and the mounting number of injured were also protected there, but things were looking worse and worse.

‘Damn, I should have thought that thing alone, that way, it would have had to go for me.’

Isaac tried to intercept it yet again, but it backed away.

If they had to endure much more of this, he’d shift and use the gained speed to keep it away as long as the [Skill] lasted, then hope they came up with an alternate solution.

Debuffs, binding spells, all of that had worked to an extent and as parts of the beast were torn off wholesale of burned away, its regeneration did slow, but was it enough? NO, it bloody wasn’t!

More and more people were left with bloody chunks torn out of them, and missing flesh was harder too heal, slower, more expensive.

“Reinforcements inco- …”

So that was why it had run off five seconds ago, tearing off in a straight line towards something Isaac hadn’t been able to see yet.

Three, four, seven people died in less than ten seconds and then it was back, wounds regenerating at an even faster pace. The boost left it maybe a minute later, yet that minute cost them their first life, a head being separated from the owner’s body and crushed like a walnut being beyond and healer’s ability to fix. Another man was well and truly blinded, eyeballs cut apart alongside a good chunk of his nose and cheeks. He’d been the lucky one.

The sheer ferocity of the attacks made the formation draw tighter together, to the point where people began to interfere with each other’s movements.

“[Auric Casting], [Supreme Magic: Final Frost].”

One cooldown [Skill] to cast the spell via her [Aura], a second to boost it beyond all sanity. Amy’s attack stopped it in its tracks while also making the area around the monster too cold for anyone to walk through and snuffing out several fire attacks that were travelling through it.

Yet Isaac could also tell that the monster was nowhere near as slowed as it should have been.

A monster linked with winter was resistant to frost. Godsdamnit!

It used the area that was currently also damaging spells as a shield to scramble away, but this time, it was just a little too slow.

It had simply gotten too cocky, gotten careless and clearly not been expecting the humans to hold back so many powerful [Skills] for the perfect situation to combine them.

With the Agility boost from [Form of Horror], Isaac had outsped the Wendigo by a good margin, though it had still had the overall mobility advantage in the forest.

But now that the monster had lost a good third of its maneuverability … it was an execution.

Five claws, glittering metal instead of matte obsidian, tore into the Wendigo’s stomach and pressed upwards, a sickly green and yellow glow shining out through its ribs as its insides were turned to soup.

The massive hand of Isaac’s new form closed around the only solid thing left inside its chest cavity, a freezing cold object a little larger than a human fist. Then, he yanked his hand back.

Windigo (Lv. 85) has been slain. 5,000 XP gained (3,000 base plus 2,000 named Event monster bonus)

Due to monster-specific trait, only you, who dealt final blow, will receive any XP.

Loot Item [Heart of Ice] is held by High Human [Isaac Thoma]

… Wendigos were associated with greed and selfishness, but this was … Isaac couldn’t even bring himself to complain about the mess. And why was the loot being deliberately being mentioned in the kill notification.

“It’s dead.” He announced.

“Yeah, and it says we don’t get any XP and that the only piece of loot is held by you, as in, it mentions you by name.” Elena frowned, hard “That can’t be normal, have you ever seen something like this before?”

“No, I think it’s meant to make us fight.” Isaac grimaced as he inspected the item.

Heart of Ice

This is the heart of a Windigo, slain in combat. By pressing this item to your heart and wishing to absorb it, you too can claim its power.

It grants a flat +25 to Agility, +15 Strength and +30 Perception.

In addition, you gain a regeneration Skill if you do not possess one or your existing one is improved if you do, and it gives you the Skill Gluttonous Boost, which further improves your physical abilities after consuming a suitable meal. Finally, you gain an additional point in Agility for each Level going forward.

In exchange, your Race changes to Windigo (Transformed Human), which will look nearly identical to your old form. You will, however, have to feast on fresh human flesh to keep your powers.

It was a fantastic boost, at a terrible cost. Isaac shared the [System] screen and once he was sure the injured had been stabilized, began to speak.

“This, right here, is temptation made manifest, right in line with the legend of the Wendigo. Wendigos are people transformed for resorting to cannibalism, choosing to kill others to survive. Or they are greedy people, whose hunger for material things destroyed the lives of others.

“This … this thing is just another object to hunger after. Anyone who uses it makes the selfish choice to use this thing is literally choosing power over their humanity, making themselves the enemy of every other living human on this world, for power.

“Anyone who uses this thing cannot be allowed to walk freely. Even if they haven’t attacked anyone yet, they made the choice to become a murderer the instant they used this thing. Surveillance, house arrest, anything to keep them from hurting people until this hunger they have chosen to inflict themselves with kills them.”

Isaac paused for a moment, breathing heavily.

“Would anybody object if I destroyed this thing right now?”

“Hey.” Elena glared at him “People died fighting that monster. We can learn from the heart without destroying it, and not even trying to get something good out of it would be a waste, spitting on their memory!”

Then, she raised her voice and turned around to look at everyone in turn.

“But he’s right. Anyone who uses this thing, be they among us or someone we later meet, they’ve made their choice, and I won’t let them go free. That [Heart of Ice] does not leave your sight, Isaac. If anyone asks for it, destroy it, you hear me? If it’s a choice between letting that thing get out into the world and destroying it, fucking destroy it!”

Isaac didn’t say anything, he merely stored it in his storage space and pulled out his phone to call home. Tell them that they’d won, and for the most part, survived. That … this was going to have so many more consequences than just a few deaths, yet those alone were bad enough.

Bad. Enough.

What a fucking pathetic, insufficient way to talk about the deaths of people he’d fought besides. Scheiße.

Clamping down on the emotional roller coaster that could turn into and the flashes of dark memories, Isaac went to work with grim determination.

The original summoner’s body needed to be found, someone needed to contact the local authorities and oh so many other tasks needed to be completed.

Once again, all together. Scheiße!