Name: Johnathan Time
Age: 19
Strength: 5
Dexterity: 6
Constitution:20
Perception:10
Energy:50
Skills: ["Lvl3 Iron Finger", "Lvl1 Body Tempering", "Lvl4 Fitness", "Lv3 Meditation", "Lv1 Cultivator"]
{Name: "Body Tempering", Level: 1, Data: {
Lv1: {Name: "Skin Refinement", Stage: [leather, mud, iron, diamond]},
Lvl2: {Name: "Skeletal Refinement": Stage: [copper, jade, iron, fairy]},
Lv3: {Name: "Organ Tempering", Stage: [blood_shielding, membrane, calcification, fusion]},
},
Stage: Skin_Refinement,
Progress: 77%
}
They surprisingly didn't encounter any mutants on the way back to the shelter. John checked the status of his body tempering skill.
"It seems taking damage improves the progress."
He also checked the white circle in his mind's eye. It was currently at 11 vortex's of aura.
But these were phantom structures. Only one was full. As he had used most of his internal energy in the fight against the god.
His control over aura at the moment was at the level of when he first started. He could resolve this by refining aura back into the illusory dantian.
Or respawning.
But he had a body camera on him. So dying was off the table. He would need to fill up his dantian the natural way.
Once back in the shelter. He had his fingers fixed through stitches.
Animus was quite happy there was no casualties. He stored the monster flesh in a large freezer and took the crystals.
"We can now began experimenting on this flesh."
They tried feeding a small amount to rats. But they exploded. There was no reaction to feeding them the crystals.
It was just the flesh that was explosive.
John had suffered damage to his organs. He couldn't just walk this off. So he retired from the scouting team.
Although, he was able to remain a teacher and keep his benefits since he had been seen saving two other members.
While John was surfing the internet. He found something a bit weird.
There was videos of Destinatus saving people. In the videos he showed superhuman strength that surpassed what John was currently capable of.
"Who are these guys?"
Many videos had appeared online of 'Destinatus' saving people.
A few months went by and John had recovered from his injuries. He hadn't been idle this time and had built up proficiency in healing himself using aura. It wasn't as fast as his past immortality. But it was better then nothing.
His steady improvement was noticed by others as they watched him train.
Name: Johnathan Time
Age: 20
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 10
Constitution:40
Perception:10
Energy:250
Skills: ["Lvl3 Iron Finger", "Lvl2 Body Tempering", "Lvl4 Fitness", "Lv3 Meditation", "Lv2 Cultivator"]
{Name: "Body Tempering", Level: 2, Data: {
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Lv1: {Name: "Skin Refinement", Stage: [leather, mud, iron, diamond]},
Lvl2: {Name: "Skeletal Refinement": Stage: [copper, jade, iron, fairy]},
Lv3: {Name: "Organ Tempering", Stage: [blood_shielding, membrane, calcification, fusion]},
},
Stage: Skeletal_Refinement,
Progress: 2%
}
His skin was now diamond grade. His bones were currently in the process of being reinforced.
That wasn't all. When he focused on the white circle in his mind. There was 13 vortex's in a single dao pillar.
He had progressed to the next stage of cultivation.
His physique itself allowed him to heal many times faster then others. He was back to his peak! He didn't even need to do any special missions as he had retired.
But after Animus saw him doing intense training. He brought him out of retirement.
The sun had been blocked for months now. It was extremely cold outside. If he weren't comfortable in a shelter. It perhaps could've been a problem.
John made quite a bit of progress with runes. Keeping himself warm through runes would be no problem. John also watched the scouting team evolve and become far stronger over time.
Their use of aura had reached an advanced level. They weren't too far from John's control level. Except they had no knowledge of runes. So they weren't able to do exactly everything John was able to do.
It wasn't that John hadn't tried to teach them. It was just too advanced of a subject for their minds to comprehend. They felt as if he was talking nonsense.
How can someone inscribe runes on a microscopic level? That's insane.
The scientist also had results from these past few months. They were able to treat the monster meat and turn it into a food source.
This improved fitness and didn't seem to be dangerous. They were always looking for supplements to their food as they had a lot of mouths to feed.
People were not happy about having to eat nutrient paste with ingredients from unknown origin.
The snow had started to make using cargo trucks struggle to go to mission spots. During these months. Hidden existences had begun to walk outside of the bases.
Everyone not in the shelter had evolved and became mutants. There were a few that evolved and kept their sanity.
But they had to deal with extreme cold. As well as a lack of sunlight and food.
These mutants didn't die from lack of energy. But entered a state of hibernation. They collapsed to the ground and appeared dead. Soon they were buried by the snow.
The crisis wasn't deemed to be over.
So the shelter remained in lockdown. The secret exit had been covered in meters of snow. They were having trouble digging through it, as it had frozen.
So they invited John to blast it open.
And so he did. But what greeted them surprised everyone.
The sun!
The scouting team had grown in number since John had retired. They soon climbed through the hole made by John.
"Is the apocalypse over?"
"We survived!"
Everyone's moods was high. Except for John.
"Did I call off the invasion?"
A few days went by and no monsters were seen outside. The scouts checked everywhere. The flesh bases also seemed to be gone.
A week goes by and the shelter opens up.
The temperature returned to safe levels. Everyone was told they could go back home.
John was quite confused...
What humanity didn't know was that the creatures had satellites in orbit around the earth and that they were planning something for the future.
After the snow melted... There were corpses seen of mutants.
These weren't corpses however. They were mutants that were hibernating. Upon being exposed to sunlight. Their energy reserves were filled.
But for some reason, they were started to fly into space leaving behind humanity.
Soon, various news outlets went back online.
John was walking the streets alone, confused.
Did it really end?
Then a virus seemed to infect all technology. He saw a weird symbol appear on the screen. It looked like an infinity symbol.
Then a message played for the entire world to hear.
"Humans... You have survived the first stage of the end. Those of you that have survived are either lucky or skilled. What you didn't know however. While humanity worked together. So has the hidden existences which you fear."
"That's right! We have unanimously agreed to give you a moment of respite."
"Did you really think that the calamity was over?"
"At the beginning, we were restricted to the calamity realm. That is no longer the case. Soon, all manners of mythological creatures will invade and destroy your pathetic planet."
"You have one chance. Evolve or die."
"You aren't the only planets that have been invaded. The amount of worlds with civilizations is millions. We could leave your world alone. But we revel in the entertainment of those lesser then ourselves. We look forward to your struggle."
"So you might be wondering, what is the purpose of me telling you all this? We have created various sanctuaries for humanity. You might wonder what exactly that is. All of your questions will be answered soon."
"All of us have died multiple times to invade your reality. It rejects our existence. Did you think we are idiots? Jumping into the pool to drown repeatedly forever? No. We have been slowly adjusting the rules of reality. With every death a bit of progress has been made."
"Now... It is time for you to all dance."
The screen went black.
John then lost his senses as he was teleported into a trial for humanity.