Apocalypse conquest a du.., p.9
Apocalypse Conquest: A Dungeon Crawler LitRPG Adventure (Gravity And Divinity System 4), page 9
Black purple eldritch energy gathered around the green light of the blade. Abyssal gravitons swarmed around the weapon as well, numbering in the quadrillions.
Jay swung down with a mighty cut.
He split the cabin in half and killed the mobile lair before it realized its own death. It tried to keep walking forward but fell apart in two bloody halves. The spatial and temporal domain inside of it winked away, lost to the aether.
With the mobile lair’s destruction, all the trapped child spirits became free instantly. Jay’s first attack hadn’t even ended and Baba Yaga was screeching with some of the greatest rage and sorrow Jay had heard from an enemy yet.
Meanwhile, Jay’s single cut sent forth a flying abyssal graviton crescent. Why should he commit to one thing when multiple actions were possible?
The flying crescent lopped off the left head and side of the dragon, crippling the monster as blood gushed out from its side. It crashed down with a rocky landing. Its remaining heads thrashed around, blasting out air and flames uselessly.
The abyssal attack snuffed itself out per Jay’s wishes.
Unable to slow his descent, Jay hit the ground with a thump. He rose from his knee and started running toward the giant.
The bright green light of his sword contracted and turned into a subtle dark green aura. The sword hardened Jay, anticipating the difficulties he would face while at x1 CM. That was perfectly fine.
“Do you see how your attempts to outwit me are in vain?” Jay asked, dodging around a bone club strike.
The giant panicked and slammed down again and again, breaking apart the ground with impacts that could destroy city blocks. Jay darted out from each slam, circling around the giant’s feet as it stumbled away in fear.
Eventually, because of Chance, the giant landed a direct hit, smashing its club hard on Jay. The ground cratered from the impact, burying Jay. All the heads roared in glee, their elemental breaths flaring out from their mouths. They thought it was their victory.
“I’m playing with you. Setting you up for the slaughter. But not quickly. It wouldn’t make for a good show if it’s too quick.”
Jay’s bright purple gravitons rushed up the club and washed over the giant’s body and three heads. A countless whirlwind of the mythical gravity particles engulfed the creature.
It stepped back too late. There was no escape.
Jay grabbed the giant with a magic field from [Harness-G]. He swung the monster up and over, hammering the giant down on the dragon.
The nice part about making everything heavier with gravitons was the inverse effect Jay felt. Everything felt lighter when Jay’s targets got ladened with gravitons. If he pumped gravitons into an object, multiplying its weight by a factor of ten, Jay would feel like he was lifting something with a weight divided by ten. This was a simplification of the Miraculous Magic Science behind this one Skill, not accounting for Poise, resistances, and other powers at play.
The results spoke for themselves when Jay pulped the injured dragon under the giant like squishing a tomato under a heavy sledge hammer. The giant formed a huge crater from the impact, burying the flattened corpse of the dragon underneath its graviton-laden body. To its misfortune, Jay still had a need for the hurt giant.
Jay swung the giant out of the hole and into the path of Baba Yaga’s fierce volley of magical attacks. The giant exploded. It fell apart in tons of giblets and gore, having blocked most of the fiery bombs, gray lasers, and wicked curses Baba Yaga had channeled to destroy Jay.
“You’re not even aware I’m letting you do things you think are helpful.” Jay turned his attention to the hundred black steel trees the monsters launched as heavy tridents at his ships.
He grabbed each one with [Harness-G] since they were flying in a predictable path through his domain. With fine-tine control like that of a gravity maestro, Jay circled the deadly projectiles around in three different orbits that changed angles and speeds as they circled around his domain. He forced Baba Yaga to dodge under the black steel trees and their bare pointy ends that threatened to skewer the hag. Baba Yaga had no choice but to fly low to the ground as Jay hailed the hag from above.
“But the greatest fun for me is sharing your defeat with another,” Jay said with a smile. “The greatest fun is setting the stage for a Champion to join in, especially the one who is due her Chance to be a star.”
Baba Yaga hurled another explosive fireball.
Jay took it on the chest, tanking it. He walked through the flames and destruction with a big grin. Bright lights shone from his eyes of gravity, divinity, and calamity.
His grip on the sword was flipped around, his hands on the point of the blade. The handle glowed with a menacing neon purple light lining around the dark green aura.
“So let’s give her a round of applause as she finally gets the spotlight,” Jay cheered, his audience doing the same. “The one! The only! The Magnificent Hailey Allen!”
[Cosmic Showrunner]: Designated Hero– Hailey.
Hailey returned to full visibility high above Jay and Baba Yaga. She’d been chanting an incantation since the moment Jay had used Call of the Freak. The timing was spot on as required by their Title [Young Virtuoso of Violent Ballads].
Before she unleashed her incantation, Hailey pirouetted like a ballerina, leaning fully into the guiding hand and voice of her commander, adding to the performance with her physical and spiritual wings flared out at their widest. With each twirl, the cosmic transformation flourished with more grandiosity and an array of colors: black, blue, orange, purple, and brown.
By the time she stopped spinning, she had a crow-like hood underneath a giant, fluffy, feathery witch hat. Behind her extended an extra long cape made of thousands of cosmic feathers that flapped together like a single wing. She even had little wings on the sides of her cosmic-heels. And her clothing became a sparkly gown of the same colors with more feathery designs.
The pitch-black shadow covering her face tilted down to look upon Baba Yaga and Jay while they were far beneath her. It was as if their fates were in the dark taloned hands of a girl who was both an accursed creature of unseelie devilry and a part-time goddess of Halloween mischief.
“You are nothing compared to me!” screeched Baba Yaga, pointing up with a gnarled finger.
Hailey’s answer: “[Murdersome Storm of Wicked Witches and Hungry Crows].”
The Skill lived up to its name while getting boosted to the zenith. A great big storm of shadowy witches riding on brooms and countless flesh-seeking crows appeared from around Hailey. The monstrous storm descended upon Baba Yaga and Jay.
With no regard for aim. With no care whatsoever. The storm rained down black lightning, brimstone hellfire, and metal-beaked crows. It was a cacophony of wicked magic and malevolent destruction that whooped through the air and pounded the ground below. It seemed detrimental for Jay at first glance, but the [Exceptional Freak] paid it no mind.
He used the spiraling black steel trees to rain down a barrage from above and behind Baba Yaga. He applied a little of [Headhunter] on Baba Yaga to make the hag fear the loss of its head from being too high in the air.
These juxtaposed powers of Hailey and Jay forced Baba Yaga into the one situation the hag should avoid at all cost, getting into Jay’s melee range. Regardless of the Health burning hellfire, the vicious armor-shearing crows, and the black lightning strikes– which paralyzed magic abilities rather than paralyze the body– Jay hurled himself at Baba Yaga like a proper madlad. He bashed the hag’s mortar mount to pieces and dropped the boss creature to the ground.
With him.
The hag screeched and cussed and hurled out magic after magic. Jay didn’t care, even while the attacks drew him closer to death– the nearness of the end only emboldened him. He swung the handle of The Sword of Comedy into the hag’s torso and limbs and kept doing that.
Murder stroke!
Murder stroke!
Murder stroke!
Jay bashed Baba Yaga’s body around. He broke the hag’s arms; he bludgeoned the knees, and he fractured the monster’s ribcage. He gave the fabled child-eating monster a medieval beat down. Simple, effective, and brutal.
This kept on while amid Hailey’s murdersome storm. Laughing shadow witches hurled down forks of dark lightning and balls of hellfire upon both Jay and Baba Yaga. Vicious crows hungering for flesh ripped into them with every gale-like passing. Hailey’s biggest and showy Skill hurt allies and enemies alike.
The damage hurt Baba Yaga way more. Every murder stroke from Jay applied Poise reduction because of [Martial Gravity Superiority]. That heightened the effectiveness of the murdersome storm on the hag, torturing the monster greatly.
Jay endured the murdersome storm. He kept the murder strokes going. Baba Yaga’s Rank 5 toughness broke under the strain of so many assaulting factors.
“Mercy!” it shrilled, falling to its knees while on the eve of death.
“But this is the best part. The monster dies in the end. And a happy ending is found for all.” Jay flipped his sword around and swung.
He beheaded the hag.
The skull of Baba Yaga would make for a nice Rare Quality trophy. He was excited to see Hailey wear it so she could become a better witch than the old hag.
You’ve slain Baba Yaga, Rank 5, Level 101!
***
[Relativity Sovereignty, Level 94]: This Skill has three notable perks. The Mana costs will vary depending on physical properties, magical defenses, resistances, successes, and complexities. Raising this Skill level will improve Perception scaling greatly, overall magic power, depth of control, and additional range.
[1] You can passively or actively lower and reorientate gravity’s effect on you and/or your allies.
[2] You can actively extend magic fields to catch and manipulate the gravity of multiple neutral parties, enemies, and items. Touching your targets will enhance your power over them.
[3] You can set domains that fuse with reality and magic, establishing simple gravity-based rules, benefits, and consequences within the boundaries of your domains. These rules will affect allies, enemies, and neutral parties the same. The person who establishes a domain cannot use this Skill while their domain is active. And once the domain becomes inactive, the one who sets it cannot use this Skill for a long duration.
***
[Graviton Monster, Level 91]: Turn Mana into Gravitons– mythical gravity particles– and use them for multiple perks. Mana costs vary from high to highly extreme depending on uses. Leveling up improves control and Perception scaling for all the listed effects:
[1] Absorb gravitons into your body to expand your physical properties, increasing your Resilience, Poise, and Strength based on your magic power. Consequently, your Agility will decrease drastically.
[2] Implant gravitons on targets or your abilities by direct touch and increase their weight, making gravity magic stronger and more effective on the affected.
[2] Conjure and manipulate voluminous and fast moving clusters of gravitons. Upon emission, these gravitons will increase the weight of those affected. It will also make gravity magic stronger and more effective on the affected.
***
[Cosmic Showrunner (Familiar), Level 63]: You and Kleo are more than the main actors, you’re also directors, producers, and writers. You’re the guiding hands working behind the scenes. Leveling up gradually improves all the listed perks of this Skill:
[1] The sound of your voices can improve the magic power, Mana recovery, and the choreography of your favored story leads.
[2] Your voices can also manipulate enemies with penetrable Poise/magic defenses/mental resistances, especially if you see them as simple mooks with low Chance and narrative importance. At the very least, you can make enemies pay up more Mana for being on your stage and feed you a small percentage from each.
[3] And if you ever need to up the ante, designate a hero with a climactic power up. They will be empowered to judge and hurt divine foes or lesser, especially if it’s someone outside of you and Kleo. The designated hero gets a snazzy cosmic cape and a big change in style. Their power up will boost their Attributes depending on the difference between their power and yours plus the situation. The designated hero will have most attacks made against them bend and distort. And Chance will be forced to favor the designated hero if there isn’t a greater hero or something hugely obstructive in the scene. Only one hero can be designated, and doing so will put this entire Skill on a long cool down for both you and Kleo.
5. Growth And Worries
Jay was lying in the snow while his body felt like one big pulsating sore. The battle with the Siberian Monster Horde had ended with Company Graven Divinity’s victory. But just like how Jay was feeling sore, everyone was reeling from one of the most exhausting and heavily magical battles they had in a while.
Unlike Jay and his Champions, the Soldiers, Agents, nonhumans, and guests had to push past their weariness. They had to pop a few cheap potions and get to work hauling loot out of the temporary domain before it disappeared. They were also in charge of hauling around the mutilated and captured Titan King. They needed the creature alive to find its original lair and plunder it for all it had.
Before they could even go do that, they had to chop up, break apart, or downright haul away all the monster parts, monster weapons, and everything else they could get their hands on as spoils of the battle. The meat was going to be delicious. But all the work needed to prepare it would be hell. In-world monsters required elbow grease to dice and extract unlike dungeon monsters that would drop their loot for easy pickup.
Oh well.
The Protectorates with the right Skills for the job were going to see their Skill levels climb. If they didn’t have the right Skills, then they were paying their dues.
It was times like these that Jay was glad he was the commander. He could let his subordinates do the grunt work while he lay in the snow and enjoyed the fruits of his labor as a leader and hardcore crawler.
And look at the new levels!
…
Relativity Sovereignty leveled up from 94 to 100! Please rank up to continue leveling this Skill.
Graviton Monster leveled up from 91 to 95!
Martial Gravity Superiority leveled up from 81 to 89!
Situational Gravity leveled up from 81 to 85!
Gravital Supremacy leveled up from 95 to 100! Please rank up to continue leveling this Skill.
Cosmic Showrunner leveled up from 63 to 76!
Harness-G leveled up from 79 to 90!
…
Jay smiled. Getting two of his major powers to Skill Level 100 was huge. That number was special. At Skill Level 100, the powers got a hidden boost that widened the gap considerably from anything below 100. He really wanted [Graviton Monster] to reach Level 100 to lower the cost on heavy graviton use. Then again, [Gravital Supremacy] helped a lot with gravity power efficiency, already. Having that at Level 100 was going to reduce Jay’s constant issues with gassing himself out.
[Gravital Supremacy, Level 100]: You and Kleo naturally improve the efficiency, power, range, cost, and scaling of your gravity powers separately. These improvements are heightened further when together. Gravity powers used against you can be weakened. Gravity powers used by your allies can be improved. You can also establish an orbit on someone or something you gravitate towards, reducing or increasing their Mana costs moderately either with yourself or with Kleo in orbit. Leveling up this Skill improves orbital control, overall gravity mastery, and adds tiny bonuses to the Mana reductions or increases to whoever or whatever you and Kleo can orbit.
Even with [Gravital Supremacy], it seemed like the more power Jay acquired, the more he wanted to push his powers to the limits. That was the nature of being a [Freak]. As a Gravity [Exceptional Freak], the more creative and chaotic the fights, the more Jay could involve himself in doing the most outlandish maneuvers anyone had ever seen. Catching magic cannonballs fired by the gunners on all three ships and slinging them out was just one example of the range of power and maneuvers Jay could show off. Countering a domain with his domain was something Mike and Hailey had helped him workshop the past half year.
“Getting stronger,” Jay said. “With every Skill level.”
He might not even get new Skills. After Rank 4, the System would usual focus more on quality than quantity. Some Skills might upgrade directly. There might still be a few mergers, too. Talents and Titles might upgrade or change or merge as well. This was more likely to happen with each rank up now.
Skill books or other means of gaining power were harder to use at the higher ranks. It was as if their profiles were solidifying from everything a crawler had done in the early ranks.
That was okay with Jay. If he could, he would rather mix and match some of his Talents and Titles to clean his profile up. His and Kleo’s Skills felt complete as a solid set that covered a lot of area. The only thing he would prefer done with his Skills were to upgrade them depending on how Jay and Kleo trained and fought.
…
You’ve redistributed Experience to your crew per prior agreements, leaving the rest for yourself.
…
Exceptional Freak leveled up from 82 to 88! +6 Per, +60 Free AP.
…
Dennis leveled up from 64 to 70!
Casey leveled up from 67 to 73!
Emily leveled up from 68 to 74!
Hailey leveled up from 67 to 75!
…
The numbers looked about right. Leveling was getting harder. Even killing his first Rank 5 enemy would not garner a huge waterfall of Experience. It was still a nice lump sum amount, though. And it was good to see all the Champions in Graven Divinity reaching the 70s in level.
Hailey came out as a big winner– she leveled up eight times.
…
Dennis has a new placement as [Mightiest of Earth: #17].
…
