Stars Awoken: A LitRPG Apocalypse (The System Apocalypse Book 7)

by Tao Wong

  “What he said,” I say, nodding toward Ali. “Make use of us.”

  “Why would we trust you with that information?” a thin dwarf says, stomping over and glaring at us. “You could be screwing with us to make it better for your guild. Or planet.”

  “We could. And you don’t have to. Your call. But it’s worth thinking about what we’ll get out of messing with you. It’s not as if what happens to a bunch of non-prestige Basic Classers will ever make a difference for me. Or him.” Not surprisingly, my words garner quite a bit of anger, but I continue on blithely. “On the other hand, the faster I get you and the rest up to snuff, the faster my quest gets complete. So. Do what you want.”

  They look between each other as they take in my pronouncement. In the meantime, I nod to Ali, who straightens up. I already see some of the kids peremptorily wincing.

  He bellows, “MOVE OUT!”

  “So. Uhh… about my Level up. Ups,” Sasquatch says, looking at me nervously.

  “You play tank, right? And you’re a warrior type?”

  Now that we’ve found a rather solid island and cleared out the mini-boss, it’s quite a safe area to wait. The mini-boss—who would have been classed as an alpha if it wasn’t in a dungeon—was a weird shellfish creature with long, stabby arms and a body configuration that made me wonder how it worked. I’d just finished announcing a quick rest and Level up before walking over to store the mana crystal when the Sasquatch came along.

  “I am the Defender, yes,” the Sasquatch says. I can even hear the capital letter the alien adds to the role.

  “Then you should know to build up your Constitution primarily, with Strength and Agility next. If you’re primary Defender, you’re going to be eating a lot of hits,” I say. “Any pain resistances?”

  “No. But my species is naturally resistant to high levels of pain. We also receive a small bonus to our health and Mana regeneration in colder climates.”

  “Nice. Remind me to tell you about Canada. But you’ll want to consider buying some pain resistances when you can. Chemical aids are fine, but they don’t last long with the System. The more you fight, the more it’ll hurt. Chemical aids end up being more expensive in the long term. So. Do you have a passive or active build?”

  “My Class—Snow after the Solstice—emphasizes endurance over the long term, as the winter is long,” Sasquatch replies.

  My lips twitch in amusement, gratitude flowing through me to my annoying Spirit for translating that as “Warrior Tank.”

  “The first branch of my Class provides increases in my attributes and resistances,” he says. “The second in passive regeneration. The third is damage dealing, mostly via damage reflection and a passive damage collection aura for friendlies.”

  I blink, never having heard of that. That sounds useful—an aura that collects damage from friends instead of you having to go to them. Too bad most auras conflict with one another.

  “That’s fine. Here are my thoughts. Firstly, do you have a regular group yet?” At the shake of the Sasquatch’s head, I continue. “Then you’ll want to consider forming one. It sounds like you can’t do much damage without equipment, so I’d ignore boosting any of your damage-related Skills entirely in favor of good friends and good equipment when you can afford it.

  “Secondly, consider specialization. Your Class might be racial specific, but it’s not a prestige Class, is it? So your total attributes will be mediocre at best. Which is fine, but that means you need friends. Best way to get reliable teammates is being one yourself.” I hear a mental snicker as Ali overhears that bit, but luckily, he’s too busy to laugh at me directly. “So. Specialize. Figure out which branch you want to focus on and get that up as high as possible. Personally, I’d go down the one that gives you the aura and boosts to your passive regenerations. Especially if they’re percentage-based.”

  “But they’re less powerful than an attribute increase.”

  “Right now, sure. But you weren’t born on a Dungeon World. You can afford to play the long game. And any percentage-based Skill will pay off by the time you become an Advanced Classer. Even when you get to Earth, we’ll be keeping you on routine patrols so you can afford to play it safe,” I say.

  Sasquatch looks a bit startled, and I have to remind myself that the idea that they’d be able to become an Advanced Classer is as foreign to them as the idea of surviving the first year was to us. It was just something that we couldn’t hope to believe in. Not really.

  “I… yes.”

  “You know of Skill evolutions, right?”

  When Sasquatch shakes his head, I sigh. Sometimes, I wonder about the public education system among the Galactics. Other times, I know. Then again, why should I be that surprised? Even with all the world’s knowledge at our fingertips before the System, so many people never bothered to look up details about voting, or finances, or something as simple as a rental agreement. Why should it be any different for another species? Another world?

  “Fine. Let’s talk about that…”

  “Kermit crab?”

  “Hermit,” I correct Ali as I stare at the giant conical creature breaching the water. Most of its body is hidden in the water as it paddles back and forth in front of us. The cream-colored spiral of its body is covered by a flowing, emerald liquid armor.

  Hus Crab (Level 38 Boss)

  HP: 947/947

  MP: 478/478

  Conditions: Water Armor, Reflexive Hydrospouts

  “Are we supposed to fight that?” the thin dwarf says, fear threading through his voice.

  I don’t blame him. Even if the entire group has gained a Level or two throughout this dungeon, they’re still miles away from winning against a Level 38 boss. I’m a little proud of the group, really. They’ve managed to handle the growing monsters better and better, with only three of their members ever getting dragged underwater. After babying them for a little, I started sending Ali down to keep a close eye on the submerged fool as an object lesson. Unsurprisingly, they got a lot better at avoiding the tentacles then. Even with all their improvement, expecting them to beat the Boss was a bit much.

  “Nah, I got this.” I raise my hand and call down a Beacon from Angels directly onto the bastard.

  One disadvantage for a creature that large—it eats a larger percentage of the energy output, meaning that it takes a higher amount of damage than normal. Normally, its armor would decrease the amount of damage it took, but my Pierce attacks solve that problem handily.

  When the beam finally fades, the group takes their hands away from their eyes to the sight of the hermit crab bobbing along the water on its side, armor shattered and flesh smoking. It drifts in the boiling water, dead as dead can be.

  “Damn it. I barely got any experience from that,” the skinny dwarf grumbles.

  I snort. “Be glad the System gave you anything.”

  Ali flies forward to loot the monster, grimacing as he eyes the big corpse. “What’d you want to do with it, boy-o? Can’t really fit this in the Altered Storage.”

  “Leave it,” I say. A Level 38 Boss isn’t worth the hassle of hauling its corpse.

  That’s when the group protests, shouting their objections. I wince, finally managing to shush them by detailing the problem to them.

  Which is how we end up walking out of the dungeon, dragging a giant hermit crab corpse behind us to the awe-struck gazes of the next group.

  Ali flits over to the new group, arching his back. “All right, you Gremlin-loving recruits. Time to gear up and buff out. We’re moving out in two minutes!”

  “You sure you don’t want Credits for this?” Sasquatch says, his eyes wide. “There’s at least three or four thousand Credits of meat alone…”

  “Nope. And Ali will disburse your share of the kills later,” I say, waving away his protests. It’s not much to me, but the difference it’ll make in their gear will be significant.

  “Thank you. Redeemer.”

  Sasquatch runs back to his part of the rope and heav
es on the line, answering questions at the same time. I can see the dwarf snorting and a few others looking at me skeptically, but I ignore them. Not as if I care whether they think I’m an easy mark or not. I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

  “Let’s go.”

  Hours later, we’ve run our groups through the allotment. Thankfully, enough people have heard about our offers and are still willing to brave the ire of the corporations and Sects to fill the groups. After we send them off to get their corpses processed, Mikito and I regroup, with Harry making an appearance.

  “Any trouble at the butchers’?” I ask Harry. Just in case, I had the reporter poke around the butchering yards. Since the Combat Classers we’re working with are all provisional NAGA members, they don’t exactly have preferred suppliers. That means they can work with anyone, but they also run the risk of being locked out.

  “A bit,” Harry says. “Luckily they were willing to listen.”

  “Good.” I turn to Mikito. “Any problems on your end?”

  “No. They’re better trained than most of the humans we used to run. The only issue was their fear.”

  “I get that,” I say, shrugging. The fact that they’re used to dealing with danger only in dungeons means that they’re also used to controlling the amount of danger they’re in. It leaves them unused to pushing their boundaries too hard. To those of us who survived the apocalypse, these guys play it too safe. “Can’t do much about it. Think we can move on to phase two?”

  “The guards should be able to handle them,” Mikito says.

  “Great.” I smile and message Katherine. One of the few things we can do to speed up the process is to add Katherine’s bodyguards to the rotation. It isn’t the best solution, but it works. The more people we have running the recruits through the dungeons, the faster they’ll level. For now at least. “So…”

  “Dungeon run?” Mikito says, eyes brimming with real excitement now. “I’ve got an invite for 3-2.”

  “Isn’t that a Master Class-only dungeon?” Ali says with a frown.

  Mikito gives the Spirit a big smile then shifts her gaze over to me.

  “Fine, fine. Let’s go.” Might as well reward the battle maniac. And I admit, I’m a little curious.

  Chapter 12

  Amusingly enough, Wiza and most of the other corporations that had sponsored the various meetings canceled all our bookings, and that turned out to be a good thing. Once word got out that we not only were serious but were coming through on our promises, attendance at our events bloomed. Katherine’s aide found herself busy booking ever-larger meeting rooms and extending the times. As for Katherine, she and Peter found themselves besieged with complaints from half a dozen corporations, all intent on working with us if we would change our mind about the dangerous and destructive behavior Earth was showcasing.

  Standing before a crowd of a couple hundred sixth-ringers, I found a sudden burst of stage fright attempting to overtake my senses. I fought most of it down with seasoned ease, mental resistances, and a constant reminder that getting eaten was infinitely worse. Slow, steady deep breathing fixed the rest.

  “You know, if someone screamed fire, this would cause a stampede,” I remarked to Ali as we stood in the wings of the stage.

  “Why?” Ali said, frowning as he eyed the crowd. The fact that two fire elementals were seated near the front, hissing at everyone who came close, showcased why my attempt at a joke died a pathetic death.

  “It’s a saying. You know, shouting fire in a public place to create a panic?” I just get more confused looks from Ali and give up, deciding against trying to explain the matter to the Spirit who didn’t have extensive experience with non-System-generated buildings and squishy humans. “Never mind. So. What do you think their next move will be?”

  “The corporations?” Ali says before smiling grimly. “Probably the usual mainstay.”

  “Of?”

  “Violence.”

  “Against them or me?” I say, concern tingeing my voice. If memories of Earth conditions are anything to go by, I’m imagining a group of union busters showing up to stop people from entering our talks. Not that this information isn’t being disseminated in other ways.

  “Probably you and Katherine,” Ali says, his tone growing grim. “And any place where you intend to take recruits in person.”

  “So, here?”

  “Unlikely,” Harry says, smiling slightly. “No point in trying to hinder the flow of information when the entire story can be bought for five Credits.”

  “Five Credits?” My jaw drops slightly.

  “Yes. Seems a farsighted reporter saw the need to head off future conflicts by releasing a detailed analysis—with video and audio recordings of previous speeches and meetings—of this unprecedented offer to the masses. It’s been picked up by quite a few news organizations,” Harry says, looking quite pleased with himself.

  “Why is it so unprecedented?” I say. “I mean, we can’t be the only ones to have seen the advantages of doing this.”

  “I might have been exaggerating a little,” Harry says, offering a slight shrug. “But not by much. There have been organizations—mostly charities and non-profits—who have made similar offers, but most of them ran into a few major problems.”

  I grunt for Harry to hurry it up, considering the crowd is getting restless as the start time gets closer.

  “Credits. Or specifically, the return of it. Wiza wasn’t exactly wrong about the fact that what we’re doing guarantees us a loss. Once you factor in losses from death and slow Level-ups, your rate of return looks dismal, especially compared to other options. In most cases, the repayment period stretches out too far to be viable,” Harry says. “Governments that have looked into these programs aren’t interested in adding more to their own population. Even border planets often struggle to feed and train everyone on planets that are being terraformed. They have better things to do than bring in low-Level individuals.”

  “We’re also a Dungeon World,” Ali chimes in. “Most planets are flooded with more Combat Classers than their dungeons can handle. Everyone gets put on a rotation, so adding more people to the list is a bad idea. But Earth? We just go for a stroll outside a city’s borders and bang! We’ve got monsters galore.”

  “Right. So, basically, because we’re the only actual planetary government with monsters galore, we can make this offer and potentially make a profit on it.” I recall that the total number of aliens we saw on Earth was relatively low at first. Costs, bureaucracy, and the ability to exploit other locations meant that many groups were slow to move in unless they had a vested interest in the planet, like the Truinnar and Movanna. But in the four years that I was gone, the number of aliens had increased. In time, as more and more trade routes connect and the cost of flying over decreases, we’ll see even more aliens arrive.

  The clock turns over in my mind’s eye.

  Time.

  I walk out to the stage, letting my aura turn on and shutting up the crowd. “Thank you all for coming. Ladies, gentlemen, those in-between, and those who laugh at us with our weird gender issues…”

  Laughs come from a small smattering of the audience, and I fall into my usual spiel. If our world is to be flooded, better for that flood to be controlled by us.

  Harry and I are sitting in the bulbous little vehicle that makes up part of the transportation network here, zipping past high-rise towers at rectum-clenching speeds when things go to hell. The first thing I notice is the minor change in velocity of an oncoming bubble. But that minor change is all that’s needed when vehicles pass by each other by centimeters.

  I reflexively throw Two for One on Harry before casting Soul Shield on him. That’s all I get to do before the two vehicles slam into one another. Metal screeches, plastic shatters, and the body of the bubble vehicle warps, jagged edges of ultra-tough metal twisting and spearing within. The inertial compensators give way, throwing us toward the metal even as my Soul Shield Skill snaps into place around Harry. My contingen
cy ring activates too, covering my body as we both are pin-cushioned by the metal and crushed.

  The vehicle directly behind us fails to stop. Again, the screeches of failing metal and plastic erupts as the abrupt cry of surprise still issuing from Harry’s lips cuts off as he bounces around. The Shields give way, shattering beneath the massive forces. Surprisingly, not a single safety mechanism activates in our vehicles, forcing us to withstand the damage directly. Already I feel pain shooting through my chest, arms, and foot as Two for One shares Harry’s damage with me. I’m not even sure where his injuries end and mine begin.

  Next to fail are the magnetic grips holding the bubble cars in place. The compressed mess that is the remains of our vehicle gets clipped again by another vehicle from behind, sending the remnants of the car breaking apart as gravity takes us.

  As we spin around and around, I manage to get up my Harden Skill, toughening my physical defenses further. Once that’s up, I layer Soul Shield on Harry again, offering him additional protection while absently noting he’s begun healing himself. Soul Shield goes on me too. All of this is accomplished in seconds with the exertion of will and Mana. Damage accumulates even through the Shield as Harry bleeds and tears from the metal embedded in his body forcing its way out. I share the pain and injury through my Skill, sucking it all in as I focus on more important matters.

  “Status?”

  “This is definitely an attack. Goblin’s arse! Brace!”

  I don’t even know why Ali bothers saying that much, crushed as I am within the damn vehicle. But the reason for his sudden declaration makes itself known a moment later as a rocket punches through the mangled mess before exploding. I get to watch it work, my mind processing the danger of the empowered weapon before the explosion tears apart the mangled vehicle. Last I see of the reporter, he goes through a nearby wall into one of the high rises, skipping along inside the melted and burning remnants of the vehicle.