(Norad, Colorado Springs, January 8th, 2036)
Adaline smiled at him laughing at something he had just said to her, though for the life of him, he couldn’t remember what it was. He reviewed his memories and realized he couldn’t remember anything. But he knew that he couldn’t remember anything and with that thought, he took control of his dream and willed himself to wake up as Adaline looked at him and said, “Time to wake up Adam!”
Adam came back to consciousness as he felt a stinging pain across his throat. His body was face down on his cot as his head was yanked back while whoever was on him pulled back on his head, slid a knife under his chin, and drew the knife from the left to right across his throat. Suddenly he was released and fell forward to catch himself on the cot as he heard a pop behind him. He realized the weight on his back was gone as someone cried “He Killed Him!” Adam checked his throat to find only a trickle of blood as he also checked his prompts.
Surprise attack by Harvey Coolidge strikes for 3 points of damage (Base 5 (x2) Critical Strike). Rank Disparity of two levels reduces damage by one-fourth.
Adam closed the prompt as a woman on his left cried “You Killed Harvey you monster!” and shot him point-blank in the head with a shotgun. Later he would check the combat log to find out that the reason it didn’t hurt that much was that it was a common item and damage was also reduced by a fourth because of the rank disparity between himself and the weapon. No matter the reason, he‘d only taken 2 points of damage. The shotgun blast hit him and bounced off as she also disappeared. Adam curled into himself trying to protect himself as much as possible as person after person attacked him and disappeared.
As he was curled up as he was attacked, Adam realized that the safe zone must be counting people on people attacks as well. Wasn’t that convenient? Of course, if he were a little less robust he’d have died already. As he lay, curled in a ball, he heard Admiral Ainsworth rush into the bunk area and yell, “Stand Down, Stop attacking, or you will be dealt with.” The admiral declared in a military command voice that permitted no disagreement.
“Admiral, No Violence or you’ll be teleported out of the Safe Zone,” Adam yelled, in a voice that thundered through the room which caused the attacks to stop and the room to go quiet.
Adam poked his head out as the people who were about to attack him stepped back with a look of confusion on their faces as a man next to him said, “But you killed those people, we saw, they just disappeared.”
Adam stood up slowly, allowing everyone to see that he was absolutely fine and that the wound under his neck was fully healed. As he glanced around, he noticed Mr. Billingsgate, the husband of the former President, standing off to the side with rage in his eyes. Adam turned his attention to his prompts, chose the Safe Zone tab, and picked Permissions. He looked for Mr. Billingsgate’s name. Once he found it, he focused his mind’s eye as he refocused his attention on everyone around him.
“Okay, first rule, all of you, and I do mean all of you, need to reread the rules about safe zones. Why? Safe Zone, no death, if there’s no death there isn’t any combat, and if you bring combat into the safe zone what happens?”
“I did read the rules and all they say is that monsters get teleported out of the safe zone.” A woman in the crowd said.
“And the definition of one person trying to harm another person during the proverbial end of the world in the only safe places on the planet could be defined as what?”
“A Monster,” she said resignedly.
“A Monster,” Adam said agreeing with her.
“So, everyone that attacked me, they’ve been teleported outside of the Safe Zone and they won’t be re-entering this safe zone, any time soon,” Adam said.
“They can not enter any other safe zones for 48 hours either can they?” the woman asked.
“No, they cannot,” Adam agreed.
“48 Hours? That’s a death sentence,” one of Adam’s would-be attackers cried.”
“It could be. The Admiral could try to round them up and provide protection along the border of the safe area but if someone with the debuff on them tries to step into the safe zone they will be teleported again and guess what, the timer resets. “
“Is there anything you can do for them Adam?” the Admiral asked.
“Unfortunately, no. I have an idea what started this…hold on,” Adam said and then paused for a second as he walked over to a wall and used his ability Spellweaver to create an effect that allowed everyone near him to watch his sleeping body 5 minutes before he was attacked until now. Adam spent 2,500 of his 18,000 mana and the images cast onto the wall showed how Mr. Billingsgate walked in with a group of soldiers and pointed at Adam as he slept on the bed, “That’s the man that killed the President and started this apocalypse. If you kill him we’ll be able to split all of his power and loot.” Then they all watched as the Navy Seal walked over, and quickly attacked Adam as he placed his knee on Adam’s back, pulled his head back with his left hand, and tried to slit his throat with a knife in his right hand just before he disappeared. Everyone watched Mr. Billingsgate pointed at Adam as he flopped forward and cried, “He killed him!”
Adam stopped the playback. As the spell ended he noticed Mr. Billingsgate leaving the room. It wouldn’t matter, he couldn’t get outside the safe zone in the next 5 minutes, let alone an hour.
Adam looked at the crowd and raised his voice so everyone could hear, “I’m done monologuing or explaining. Each and every one of you is safe here. I’m going to head out into the world and try to find more people to save. If you try to harm someone while you’re here whatever is running the Cultivation will put you out in the real world which is where they want you fighting and dying. As for anyone who instigates violence. This is my Safe Zone,” With a thought Adam pulled up and revoked Duncan Billingsgate’s right to be in his safe zone.
“Permission of Duncan Billingsgate to use this safe zone has been revoked.
There was a scream from the hallway that Mr. Billingsgate had been trying to escape down.
“What did you do Adam?” The Admiral asked.
“I stopped protecting someone who tried to kill me in ‘my’ safe zone. Make sure that the President and everyone else that thinks they’re in charge knows that. I’ll leave the government to run things but none of you run me. As you’ve seen me die once already you know that I’ll be back if it happens again and the idiots that ordered it will be locked out of this safe zone. Though Mr. Billingsgate should consider himself lucky. He didn’t violate the Safe Zone so he’s probably on the outskirts of this safe area and has the ability to find another and rest there if he can. Funny thing, every one of those soldiers that attacked me was navy. I just saved thousands of Navy personnel today, no good deed, and all that. Now I’m going to head out and save whomever I can save around the country. So, less talk, more action,” Adam said as he teleported to the entrance of the tunnel that leads to Norad. Adam drew the sword Ender from his inventory and floated up into the sky. The nearest city not in the safe zone was Pueblo so he started flying southeast.
At 30 miles per hour, it took him less than an hour to get to the border of his safe zone. Adam thought about the things he’d seen over the last seven days and considered his level. He was currently Division 1, Grade 0, Level 7. He thought he knew how levels worked so he accessed his Personal Interface and looked up leveling. He was surprised to find the following prompt.
You possess the skill Lore Leveling: 100. Would you like to,
Review lore at your own pace
Download information for instantaneous access, Warning may cause side effects including drowsiness, dizziness, and unconsciousness.
That’s interesting. Adam thought for a moment then teleported to the Safe Zone in Las Vegas where he found the safe zone packed with people as screams and yells for help came from others outside of the safe zone. Adam teleported again directly above the hospital and looked down. A hoard of minotaurs wielding giant battle axes was attacking and killing anyone and everything outside the safe zone. Adam cast Fly, sheathed his sword ‘Ender’, and he pulled his harness with his M134 Minigun of Unlimited Ammo out of his personal storage. Truthfully he’d been wanting to try this thing out. While he hovered, he pulled a P90 of unlimited ammo out of storage and started shooting the minotaurs directly below him with controlled bursts. They didn’t stand a chance as the two to three bursts tore each of them apart.
Once he’d cleared a place to land, he dropped down in front of five survivors, placed the p90 back in his inventory, and went to work with the Minigun. The minigun put out 50 rounds per second. Each round was doing only 3 points of damage, but the bullets were coming out like a laser. Additionally, they were armor-piercing rounds and damage to the first minotaur, the one behind it, and the one behind that one. Adam wondered how many minotaurs one round could go through. All anyone could hear was a loud burr as he turned Minotaurs into hamburger meat.
Once he’d cleared out a small area, Adam threw down the portal 5 feet outside the safe zone, activated it, and opened a portal to Norad.
“Everyone through, this leads to Norad. It’s a permanent safe zone that will allow all of you to stay in it 24 hours a day. Go, I’ll take care of the minotaurs.
For the next hour, he alternated between the Minigun,2 P90, and Beretta’s of Unlimited Ammo laying waste to any monsters that came close to the portal. He didn’t have the Analyze or Identity skills anymore so he had no idea what levels he was fighting but it looks like whatever the Rank Disparity trait was, it worked in his favor while he protected the portal and the people fleeing through it.
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When the last person stepped through the portal to the safe zone in Colorado he deactivated the magic item, picked it up, and placed it in his storage. He stepped into the safe zone and reviewed his Combat log. Adam noted that he’d killed 313 minotaurs. He also found a message for the death of a 50th-level minotaur and noted that he’d only earned 250 XP for its death. Additionally, he found that after the first bullet each bullet that followed it into the target counted as a critical strike and his modifier was x10 at skill level 100. Each bullet after the first was doing 30 points of damage. After he reviewed the combat logs, the lowest-level minotaur he’d killed was level 50 while the highest level one had been level 75.
Adam walked over and found one of the chairs in a quiet corner of the safe zone and sat down to review his gains. He was now Division 1. Rank 4, level 6 after killing the Minotaurs which meant that his equivalent level to the monsters was now level 146. Adam had a rank disparity of 146. He still didn’t know exactly what that meant. It was a system the Syndicate had adopted to keep things simple for worlds being cultivated. For non-monsters, it looked like they would earn 10 levels and then go up 1 grade which cost 55,000 XP total. Then they would start at level 1 again and work their way up to level 10, get grade 2, and head back down to level 0 to work their way back up again. This would go on until he reached Grade 10 then they’d go up a division and start the process at level 0 again.
This system seemed overly complicated although it looked like each major change, Level, Grade, and Division increased hit points stamina, and mana. It also looked like each power level someone went up doubled XP and damage against those one classification lower than them. Also, they were 0worth less XP. If he was the individual one classification lower, he did half as much damage but received double the XP. For him, if he attacked anything under level 100 he was only earning ½ the XP he could if he was fighting something level 100 or higher. If he attacked something that was only levels 1-10 then he’d only receive 1/4th the XP. This system was complicated but interesting. It looked like it was designed to reward those who stayed within their classification while allowing them to possibly affect others who had a higher classification than them, as long as it wasn’t too high.
Adam thought about what he’d learned for a few more minutes then pulled up his leveling Lores on his Personal Interface and asked for the download. Before he started reviewing that information he decided he needed to know as much as he could. While he had a level 100 effectively in every skill, he didn’t feel like he’d learned anything new. Most likely the information would only become available as he used this or that skill and he wouldn’t notice the changes until then because he hadn’t seen them yet. It was completely weird knowing he had the knowledge but not having the knowledge at his fingertips. Until the “Change” that had never happened before. As new experiences went, it sucked. He had 10 hours in this safe zone before the coward debuff was activated. Adam pulled up Lore skills, categorized them, and started with areas like Space, Time, and Chaos lore then moved to any magical lore he had. It didn’t take long to go through everything that he could think of. He was sure he was missing some subjects, but he was also sure if he needed to know something he’d be fine.
Nine and a half hours later he stood, dusted himself off, and looked around. Another couple of survivors had made it to the safe zone. He introduced himself and then sent them to Norad. Adam didn’t know what the total population in his safe zone was, but he was sure he’d saved quite a few. Once everyone here was through to Norad he stored his portal device and stepped out of the safe zone. Staying in the safe zone would have caused him problems. That’s why when an energy field surrounded him and he was teleported, transported, or zapped into space next to the sun, he was a bit surprised.
Of course, the energy field that suddenly placed him next to the sun caused him some problems as well. It was incredibly bright for a little bit then his vision cleared, and he was floating in the vacuum of space, not that far above the surface of the Sun. He was lucky he hadn’t had any of his weapons or items out of his Personal Storage, the only item that was destroyed was his Belt of Wardrobes. He was going to have to get another one, maybe a couple if this kept happening.
Well, he had expected a response from the Syndicate, but this wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. Also, he was pretty sure he didn’t have the mana he’d need to get back to Earth, and the portal he had wouldn’t have the range either. The other thing he noticed was that he was falling toward the Sun.
Adam wasn’t in orbit and the Sun was huge. Gravity, yeah it sucks. He’d be at the surface in seconds. He’d probably survive that too because gravity wasn’t supposed to have…As he thought that his velocity toward the sun slowed, and he started to hover. So Adaptable, as in the ability to survive and move in the environment in question did work. Well, he’d wanted to move between this sun and planet Earth, though he had no idea which way it was. Adam cast a simple direction spell with the location of the Earth as his target. An arrow appeared in front of him and pointed up and away from the Sun. He willed himself to move towards Earth and he started to fall away from the Sun quickly. he wasn’t traveling at the speed of light but within 15 minutes the Earth was growing quickly. Light took about 8 minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth, So about half the speed of light. That was pretty fast. As he thought that, a prompt filled his vision,
Fundamental Ability “Willed Movement” Unlocked. As a being of Chaos, constantly connected to it so long as you are not in a region of ERROR, you can move through Chaos as you desire at any rate you desire. As Chaos is present in all aspects of reality your will allows you to move as you desire. This is a sub-ability of the Fundamental Ability “Adaptable.”
Oh really? No mana cost, nothing? Now all he needed was a navigation system and he’d be able to travel between the stars at will. He really missed his nanites. Adam willed himself back into orbit over North America and was enveloped by the energy field again. He didn’t have the ability to analyze it, so he didn’t know how to counter it. Although, this energy field felt different yet familiar. As he dropped through the atmosphere of Earth he felt himself vibrating into a place where he could see Earth and the ground below him, but the Earth was not there. Adam was moving toward the Earth but felt like he was getting farther and farther away.
One of the RPGs he played described such a place as a parallel dimension that touched all points of the Universe beside it. That place had been called the Ethereal Plane in that game. Except that he was surrounded by an energy field as he dropped through it into another realm of shifting gasses of all colors. Adam felt like he was falling forever, which was weird because it only felt like moments had passed when he noticed that the gasses he’d been dragged through lightened to a roiling dull white, a color he was quite familiar with, chaos.
The energy field deposited him into the center of an octagonal bipyramid that was slowly spinning on its axis all around him while he floated in the middle of it.
“So, this is the mortal that has caused us so many issues?” a male voice asked.
“Yes, should he survive the year on his planet’s cultivation the bet he’s made will require the liquidation of approximately 75% of our assets among the cosmos” a feminine voice answered.
Adam looked around for the speakers and realized they were behind and above him. He was but a microbe compared to the scale of those beings. If he were to guess, they aren’t bigger than The Ancient Enemy which was larger than some Universes when he could gauge its scale. As he looked around he noted the humanoid shadows near him yet far away and through the colored gases. The shadows and he were all smaller than the female’s dainty pinky toe, which was covered in a brilliant red polish. As he gazed at her foot he was overwhelmed by some sort of ability that made it hard to think. His body was locked into rigidity as he retreated behind his mental defenses.
Adam’s core identity fell back through his memories, which spanned multiple infinities. His body might not be able to move, and his attributes might be far too low to compete with whatever these beings were, but they would find it difficult to reach him through the layers of defense he had created within his mind. How long would it take for a being to access and absorb the knowledge that has spanned Universes?
Adam pulled up his Personal Interface to check his attributes and levels and realized that something was wrong. He had only been in this place for maybe 30 seconds and his Level was now Division 1, Grade 4, and Level 9. He’d earned 30,000 XP. Was he back to earning 1,000 XP per second because he was this close to Chaos? As he wondered about the XP he could still feel the pressure from the entities standing above him and he could still hear their voices as if they were speaking from very far away. very long tunnel.
“I have scanned this one. I find nothing remarkable about him. He doesn’t even have any abilities,” the male voice stated.
“Not a one?” the female asked.
The male enormous head shifted as if it was looking down at Adam as he asked, “What is happening to him?”
“He’s leveling, he’s leveling at an incredible rate. Discard him now. Whatever is going on, this one cannot be allowed to exist, he will challenge the Gods Themselves!” the female stated as the pressure from their presence faded, and he felt a sense of great velocity.
Adam came back to his normal senses and found himself still in the octagonal bipyramid which now spun within the milky white of Chaos. It lasted for but an instant after he looked out before the raw chaos ate it and Chaos flooded into him. There was a moment of adjustment after which he opened his Personal Interface and was surprised to note that he was earning 1 million XP per second.
One second later he was Division 3, Grade 3, Level 3. The next second, Division 5, Grade 1, level 2. Since it only took 550,000 XP to increase one division 10 seconds after he’d been immersed in Chaos he had reached Category 1, Division 9, Grade 6, Level 8. Adam had to admit he was starting to feel a little more like himself as his attributes reached 1,447. At this rate, he’d be through Categories and Tiers in 50 seconds.
Adam wondered about the sword he had in his Inventory “Ender.” It was magical and could level. Could he pull it out here and allow it to level too? Adam considered the pros and cons and then willed the sword into his hand which caused prompts to populate his vision.
The Unique Sword Ender has entered a realm of Chaos. Durability damage to Ender far exceeds its current durability. The Soul bound to this weapon has been freed. The Sword has been transformed into a chaos blade.
Congratulations! You have discovered a Chaos Blade.
A Chaos Blade may only be wielded by a creature of Chaos.
This weapon is drawn and sheathed at will from Chaos.
Damage is Variable
This weapon is indestructible.
This weapon is Soul-Bound to the Fundamental being Johnathan Bennard
This Note: may only be seen by creatures with “Fundamental” abilities. The Blade of Chaos ignores all barriers, spells, and armor that do not have the trait “Fundamental” as part of its makeup as if they are not there. Any creature struck by this weapon will react as if touched by raw chaos. As Chaos by its very nature is undefinable, the effects of what will happen cannot be quantified. Though the entity’s Luck may or may not determine if the exposure to chaos is beneficial, neutral, or ruinous just as your luck did since you are ‘lucky’ enough to be holding this item and reading this note…Johnathan.
Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen Adam thought as he willed the Chaos Blade to be sheathed which caused it to disappear from his hand. He checked his Personal Storage, and it wasn’t there. He willed the Chaos Blade back into his hand and it was suddenly there. He sheathed it again. While he was testing the sword another 30 seconds had gone by. He was now Category 7, Division 4, Grade 2, Level 4. Adam had to admit, that whoever came up with this way of handling leveling needed to have their head examined. It was complicated to keep track of.
Adam considered everything he’d heard and witnessed and realized that Fundamental Abilities were not recognizable by even the most powerful gods which those two must have been or they’d have known that throwing him into raw chaos was pointless. Though he hadn’t expected the XP influx. Adam thought about that for a moment then realized he should have figured that out by the descriptions of his abilities. He was now a Confluence which meant that as chaos entered him it was being converted to the Fundamental powers as well as providing him with XP which is what allowed him to use magic anywhere.
In Raw Chaos, there was nowhere for that energy to go which meant he was converting it to XP. He wondered if the beings that had granted him that ability knew that was possible. Of course, he or she did, and of course, they would have left him an avenue to regain what had been changed, the hints had all been there. Even at a million XP per second, it would be a little while before he was back to what he had been when he took on the Ancient Enemy. Now that the beings that had discarded him thought he was dead, Adam just needed to sit back, relax, and review what he’d learned about the changes, contemplate anything else he might ‘not’ have lost permanently, and then figure a way to get out of Chaos and back to Earth.