Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 95: Seoul

“You know, any other city with that many monsters in it would already be a smoking pile of rubble.” Isaac commented as the plane was about to begin its final descent “Their system of handling them must be incredibly intricate, I can’t wait to see how it works in person.”

It was a nice looking city, with a far larger number of skyscrapers than Isaac was used to seeing. Then again, German cities tended to have few truly tall buildings, whereas Seoul had several areas with very large houses, not to mention several towering skyscrapers that made the rest look positively tiny.

Nestled within those buildings was a horde of monsters, and given that most monsters only existed in this world for a few minutes at most, that horde represented the single largest concentration of supernatural monsters in the world at any given time.

Yet. It. Was. Safe. There were several warning signs of a Dungeon being about to spew monsters out into the world, some obvious, some not, and while a few were yet to be discovered, most were known to the world.

Of course, relying on Dungeons instead of summoned monsters came with its own set of problems. First of all, they started out very weak, so in order for people at higher Levels to be able to get any use out of them, they needed to be left alone to grow.

Then, there was the whole issue surrounding how if a Dungeon was created, it needed to be dealt with. You could draw a summoning circle on the ground and, as long as it wasn’t powered, forget about it until you needed it again. A Dungeon, on the other hand, needed to be paid attention to from the moment it was created, which severely limited how many different ones one could have at any given time.

Except you needed those many different Dungeons due to the XP limits on any given kind of creature. You had the normal number of free kills for each Tier for Dungeon creatures which would fill up first, but then, you started taking up the regular slots that accounted for creatures summoned normally, so just creating a single Dungeon and farming that ad infinitum was not a viable strategy.

“Yeah, sounds like they created something straight out of a story down there.” Amy murmured, then threw Bailey a suggestive look “Maybe we could do the same, create a portal another world, even stick it in the back of a wardrobe or something?”

“Eh, I’m more of a fan of generic Isekai, you know, truck hits you and you end up in another world with an overpowered as hell ability and all that. Maybe Karl could enchant us a Truck-kun?” Isaac replied, drawing a guffaw from both her and Bailey.

“Oh, is the super secret bunker full of toys not enough for you kids?” the professor deadpanned.

“Well … it does have a distinct lack of a waterfall as a main entrance.” Amy said, managing to keep a surprisingly straight face while she did so.

“Honestly though, what really surprised me is how young most of the people directly involved in the Dungeon creation are.” Bailey said, changing the subject as the seatbelt light flashed on.

“Meh, it’s not that surprising.” Isaac said “What is it young people want? Excitement, another life, one filled with adventure and superpowers, anything but the mundane drudgery of the life they are afraid awaits them. They go to parties, mow down monsters in video games, read books that are filled with action and dream of being whisked away to worlds where they can be a hero.

“Now, people in their thirties, they’re mature, thinking about how to take care of their families and mortgages, and they’re fully aware of how dangerous all those bright and shiny adventures are, how dangerous a world with any superpowers would be.

“All of that is a very long-winded way of saying: Young people are the ones who want a world straight out of their danger and adventure filled stories, so they’re the ones who made that happen by creating Dungeons and largely ended up in charge of them.”

“You know, you’re actually the second youngest person in the group. How come you’re the one talking about maturity and what old people worry about?” Amy observed, prompting a shrug from him.

“Old on the inside, I suppose.”

“I’m sure they’re capable. It doesn’t really matter who created the network, if they weren’t able to properly maintain it, they wouldn’t still be in charge of it.” Bailey said.

“In any case, there’s nothing to do but wait to meet them. We have that meeting at Seoul University first, followed by a visit to the show Dungeon, Dungeon Guild and lastly our hotel, then we’ll see what we want to do afterwards, right?” Isaac asked.

“Yep.” Bailey confirmed and turned to look out of the window the observe the city coming ever closer.

The plane hit the tarmac soon afterwards and the three of them headed towards the customs area. Once again, they got some intense looks the instant someone realized they were at a high Level. Each of them had a very powerful anti-[Inspect] [Skills], but their presence automatically put them at over Level 10, never mind the implications of them having [Auras]. Thankfully though, they’d called ahead and their soon-to-be local contacts had also confirmed that they were there for a reason and had a good reputation.

It wasn’t exactly that high Level people were forbidden from travelling, per se, it was just that everyone got really fucking nervous when just one of them showed up, never mind three at once.

“Thank you, and once again, I’d like to apologize for the scare we gave you, I hope you have a nice day.” Isaac bade goodbye to the guy at passport control … in fluent Korean.

“How many languages do you speak?” Bailey asked.

“If knowing enough insults and swearwords to pick a fight with counts, then forty-two.”

… Bailey just gave him a flat look while Amy elbowed him in the side.

“Ok, I’m actually fluent in three languages. English, German and the International Phonetic Alphabet.” Isaac said, this time earning a raised eyebrow from Bailey, while Amy just elbowed him again.

Then, realization dawned.

“There’s a dictionary in your pocket, isn’t there?” Bailey asked.

“Yep.” Isaac said. That was … most of the truth. Isaac did have a dictionary in his backpack, but it wasn’t made from something as primitive as a paper book. No, this was a small block of glass, with a German to Korean dictionary laser engraved within in a truly infinitesimal font, twice, once alphabetically arranged according to the German words, and once for the Korean ones. He also had ones like it for Japanese and Mandarin on him at the moment, but he'd ordered one for most of the languages in the world.

Normally, one did not use a sensory [Aura] to scan down to that level of detail to avoid sensory overload, but it was fine as long as the user restricted themselves to a small area.

Also, he did speak passable Korean, he’d spent enough time here in the other timeline for training and a lot of that had remained with him even though his mental Stats, and therefore his memory, were a lot worse than they had been. He was also decent in Japanese, but that was about it with languages he could actually hold a conversation in. Still, having the dictionaries available was both helpful and served as a useful explanation as to how he could speak a language he hadn’t ever learned in a way that could be verified.

Everything else he had as far as foreign languages were concerned was an extensive knowledge of swearwords, insults, toasts and simple sendoffs to be used when time didn’t permit a proper eulogy.

From passport control, they skipped right past the baggage claim area and on to the office where one could claim items that were either bulky or illegal to keep in one’s normal luggage, let alone take into the cabin. All they’d brought were some inscribed Lesser Space Elemental cores and had carted along everything else in their storage spaces. That would become a massive pain in the ass soon given how abusable that little trick was for smuggling and the like, prompting them to become some of the most illegal things to take across borders once the governments got around to banning them. It was a little silly, though, given that people could easily store something in one country, then travel to another and get a core there to retrieve their stuff, but bans like that weren’t always properly thought out.

And then, finally, they left the terminal and headed out into the main area of the airport. There was the usual gaggle of people waiting for family members, cab and shuttle drivers holding placards with peoples’ names, as well as a handful people wearing what seemed to be the lovechild of modern high fashion, tactical armor and medieval cosplay outfits. They also had unusually high Levels, with most being near the high end of the first or low end of the second Evolution.

In other words, these were the Hunters, likely here to pick up people looking to become ones themselves. If you wanted XP and were willing to follow the sometimes grueling schedule required to keep all the Dungeons under control, there was no better place to go than here.

Their own ride, though, was a smartly dressed young man holding up a placard that read ‘Professor Bailey’, so they headed over there.

“Good afternoon Professor Bailey, Ms. Shaw, Dr Thoma. It’s nice to finally meet you face to face. I’m Hak Jae-Hwan, Professor Kim’s assistant. The schedule I have says we’re going to go straight to the university? And is there any luggage we need to get?” he asked.

“Yes, that’s correct. We’ve got our luggage in our extradimensional storage spaces, it won’t be a problem.” Bailey said.

“That makes things easier. Should we get going, then?” Hak asked and Bailey nodded.

Once in the car, Hak was happy to talk about points of interest and share some interesting gossip about work, the university and the Dungeon Guild, the organization that oversaw the creation, running and eventual destruction of Dungeon Cores.

Normally, scientists protected any unpublished data like a dragon guarding its hoard, but this was a rather different situation, given that Bailey and Professor Kim Ye-rin focused on very different fields of study, meaning there was very little overlap that could, in theory, get stolen. Not that that was something they were truly worried about in the first place, the two professors were highly intelligent people and fully aware of the gravity of the situation. As great as being the pioneers of an entirely new field of study was, they were also aware of the massive, looming danger and handling it with all the seriousness it demanded.

Bailey’s focus on the meta aspect of the [System], how [Skills] and [Class]-Evolutions worked, how it granted access to new materials and the like was incredibly useful in a general sense while Kim was an expert on Dungeons and the interaction of various Spells and martial [Class] features, which would be invaluable once it became necessary to create large Raid-Groups to tackle large collections of monsters.

The city itself, though, was a little … off. There was a sense of adventure in the air, of frontier spirit and eagerness to discover new things, both from people whom he could identify as Hunters from their Levels or outfits and others, who were merely emulating the style.

But an undercurrent of tension and fear was also present. A mere fifty kilometers to the north of the city lay the North Korean border, and these people were fully aware of how dangerous they could become with the [System]. Sure, the ‘Level 100 [Supreme Leader]’ picture had a thousand percent chance of being fake, but other than that, there was very little known about the actual state of things up there.

And. That. Was. Fucking. Terrifying.

Also, very, very real, Isaac well knew. He was working on it, having added quite a few tidbits of relevant information in the ‘potions and threats’ information dump that would be released in a few days.

“So, Dr. Thoma, are you using your [Aura] right now?” Hak asked him “I thought I sensed something but it’s gone now, can you really hide it that well?”

“Yeah, I can teach you, if you like.” Isaac offered “Maybe after I’ve given a general lecture on [Aura] use?”

“I’d appreciate that, Dr. Thoma.” Hak replied, once again using Isaac’s title. Damn, he’d have to get used to that at some point.

His honorary doctorate was in a bit of a weird place though. It was legally distinct from a traditional academic doctorate, and in written correspondence, it even had a distinct addition that made it quite clear that it was, in fact, an honorary degree.

He also really shouldn’t run around referring to and introducing himself as ‘Dr. Thoma’, so he didn’t.

That being said, sometimes, others did, on occasion, use this title when appropriate, so he usually took his cue from others.

Besides, he wasn’t a person from outside of academia who’d gained an acknowledgement, he was a member of a university’s academic staff working towards his regular doctorate, he’d just skipped ahead a little.

After half an hour or so of driving, the car pulled up just outside of the university and they got out. Isaac had to admit the place was rather stunning, though. He liked his current place of work and felt a certain amount of pride at everything they’d achieved and all their new buildings, but he had to admit that Seoul National University was miles ahead of it. Still, it was also the university of this country, right in the middle of the of the capital, so it made a hell of sense lot of sense.

Hak lead them across campus, which had several areas of recent construction, which Isaac noted with interest. These additions were all complete and wouldn’t normally have stood out, but there was something that set them apart from pre-[System] construction rather clearly, if you could see it. And that was that they were reinforced and improved with [Skills].

For the most part, though, these were small additions to existing buildings.

Their final destination, though, was completely new and unfinished. The outside was complete, making it seem like the entire building was done, but a quick check with his [Aura] revealed that large chunks were just a skeleton. Much like the building he worked in back home, there were enough areas finished for the building to be useable, though there were only a few of them.

As they entered he lobby, a woman in her late thirties, perhaps early forties entered the room from the other end. Her hair was tied up in a bun at the top of her head, safely out of the way and hard to get tangled up if she got in a fight. She was wearing a pantsuit, though it likewise had design elements to make it useable in combat, with a cut that made it easy to move in and a level of reinforcement that made it tougher than the finest modern tactical armor.

When he looked her over with [Hunter’s Gaze], he got an incredibly weird sense from her, as if he were staring right into a mass of raw mana, but Isaac had actually met her in the other timeline and knew what her [Class] was.

Professor Kim Ye-rin was a [Manaweaver], able to directly manifest and shape mana to create shields, projectiles, fly and the like, at least for now. Later, in a year or so, she’d even gain the ability to directly turn the mana into various elements, further increasing her already unparalleled flexibility. Sure, she might have lacked the shortcut that were individual spells, that could be activated with a single casting, but practice meant that she could use defensive moves practically instantaneously, buying her the time needed to create offensive construct specifically adapted to the enemy at hand and clobber them.

This ability was further boosted by her [Aura of Arcane Shaping]. It could reshape any non-living objects within it, albeit at an atrocious mana cost, but that was only the start of what it could achieve.

Her assistant, on the other hand, was merely a second Evolution [System Researcher] and a sensory [Aura] which he wielded with a level of control that was second only to Isaac’s and that of the people he’d personally taught.

“Good afternoon, Professor Bailey,” Kim greeted him “It’s nice to meet you all in person. Now, I’m afraid we won’t have quite as much time to talk here as I’d hoped, as the Dungeon we’re meant to be looking over later is starting to spit out monsters earlier than expected.”

“A Dungeon Break is happening, right now?” Isaac frowned “Isn’t that extremely dangerous?”

“No, it’s one of the very weak Dungeon we use to test hypotheses about what the warning signs of a Dungeon Break are. The monster’s aren’t an issue, we’ve taken adequate precautions, but you might miss it.” Kim said with a reassuring smile “Now, are you able to fly, or will you need a car?”

Isaac glanced over at Bailey and Amy, questioningly. He could fly and knew Amy could at least hover, but he wasn’t so sure about the professor.

“We’re good.” Bailey nodded.

“In that case, follow me.” Kim nodded and strode out of the building. The moment she was outside, she began to hover a meter or so off the ground, waiting for them.

Amy teleported after her and was outside a moment later, also flying.

Everyone else followed at a more measured pace, though.

The moment there was space available, Bailey began to shift and grow, a pair of massive, feathered wings erupting from his back while the rest of his body seemed to shimmer and then shrank in a flash, replaced with swirling eddies of wind. Wings for flight and Air Elemental bits for control, a very useful combination.

Isaac, meanwhile, was stuck with the burden of choice. All of his methods of flight were based on reducing his weight to zero and then using a variety of ways to fling himself towards his destination, but each came with their own set of reasons for and against them.

For example, sword-surfing was designed to show off, but it came with a hell of a lot of connotations here.

Using the first method of propulsion he’d tried, flinging Old Reliable behind him and using that to throw himself forward was effective, but looking as if he were tossing around lethal weapons wasn’t a good thing.

That left his [Aura] method.

Isaac activated [Poltergeist’s Flight], then switched over to the [Aura of the Crimson Dawn], manifested a bar of power under his feet and knocked himself skywards.

Hak just started flying with a spell, with very little fuss needed. That was an ability Isaac would have loved to have, but it wasn’t something he was willing to use an Aspect Slot or, gods forbid, a [Class] on.

Kim lead the way, with everyone else following behind her in a graceful fashion … everyone except Isaac, that was. He was pinging through the sky above Seoul like a pinball, smacking an auric construct into himself every time he needed to make a course correction. Still, he was able to properly control his flight and didn’t run face-first or bellyflop into any of the constructs, so it wasn’t that bad.

Near the edge of the city, they finally dove back towards the ground, coming to a stop just outside a large concrete dome, protected by armed guards in military uniforms.

At the sight of Professor Kim, the gates were opened immediately and she strode in, hurrying inside to a room in the beginning stages of utter pandemonium.

Several brightly colored slimes were emerging out of a gateway on the other side, with larger swarms clearly visible within, ready to swarm them. Still, there were people there already, splatting the low Level monsters the instant they got somewhere they weren’t meant to be.

“I’m surprised you can fly so easily here.” Bailey observed “I’d have thought the local air traffic controllers would have a conniption at the thought of hundreds of small, person sized objects with no flight plan in their airspace.”

“Oh, they did.” Kim said “Now though, we have several set flight corridors which we’re allowed to use.”

She then gestured towards the glowing doorway in the distance.

“That is a basic Acid Slime Dungeon which we’ve left alone since its summoning, and we’ve recently determined a dozen different warning signs of a Dungeon Break being imminent. Also, our ability to predict when Dungeons are about to become dangerous based solely on mathematical formulae has grown to near perfection, we were off by less than an hour this time.”

“Wow.” Bailey said “That is incredible.”

“What is that brown and bubbly thing?” Amy asked, gesturing to a nearby slime “I don’t recognize it.”

“That’s a Cola Slime.” Hak explained.

“Wait, what? Where can you get those?” she asked.

“Dungeons have different rules for how they can create their creatures. They’re generally the same ones from the summoning system and that’s how they show up on the kill notifications, but they can change them slightly. For example, ‘Cola’ counts as an acid for the purposes of summoning an Acid Slime, but tossing a few cans of coke into an active dungeon with a Slime theme lets it create creatures whose form is based on, well, coke.”

Amy began to chuckle, but was cut off by a cacophony of noise emerging from the direction of the Dungeon. A literal swarm of slimes was coming out in a true flood, a terrifying wave that coudl have razed a town to its foundations, pre-[System].

Now, though, it was just a question of who got to them first.

A hail of spells tore through them as Kim attacked, while both Amy and Hak created barriers and supercooled zones that slowed the creatures’ progress to a crawl. A few seconds later, there were none left.

Above Kim’s right hand, a massive, glowing, spinning mass of mana was shrinking, condensing, until it was reduced to the size of a pea, shining like the sun. It flashed forward, flying right through the entrance. A moment later, there was a surprisingly mute explosion, and the energy that filled the doorway vanished. Goodbye Dungeon.

“Very impressive.” Bailey observed “And quite terrifying.”

“Doesn’t that describe all aspects of the [System]?” Kim asked, raising an eyebrow “Now, I believe there are about a million forms that need to be signed before we can formally start working together?”

Bailey sighed “What will humanity be able to create first, a way to bring back the dead or a world without paperwork?”

Kim just laughed and lead the way to a nearby office space, leaving Isaac, Amy and Hak behind in the room. That was how academia worked, wasn’t it? As much as the doctors and professors would have loved to do experiments themselves, they were forced to deal with a lot of paperwork and delegate most of the actual experimentation to their assistants and grad students.

“So, I hear you’ve been experimenting with Hunting Grounds?” Hak asked “What are those like?”

“Yeah, they’re pretty cool but very terrifying. Every time you dismiss one, you basically end up with a mini Dungeon Break on your hands.” Isaac said “How about you, what are some interesting things you’ve seen in Dungeons?”

They explored the dome for around an hour, sharing stories, while the professors wrestled with the indefatigable foe that was paperwork.

Once that was done, they proceeded to the Dungeon Guild for their next meeting.