Apocalypse Redux

Chapter 293: The Work Never Ends

As it turned out, the world could behave, to a certain degree. And it had, for almost ten months. No big blowups, and only three errant [Raid Bosses], but they had been taken down by people, not nukes.

Working on generally creating ways for people to support themselves without regular jobs being available. Figuring out a simple plan for basic gear and Aspect [Skills] for killing basic monsters for food and ubiquitously needed parts for basic income had been the easy part. Everything else … not so much.

But they’d had plenty of time to do other things, now that they hadn’t been running from crisis to crisis. Time enough for a renewed focus on research on Isaac’s part, as well as grinding XP and helping others with the [Blessing of Innovation].

That [Skill] really was the basis for a whole lot of cool new toys.

The ability to, at will, look at your work from an entirely new perspective was incredible, but the ability to borrow [Skills] from other science [Classes] was not to be underestimated either. What would normally require cooperation with other specialists, finding someone with the right knowledge who you also clicked with sufficiently. And even then, optimal cooperation was hard to do, with both sides likely having some unconscious expectations about what the other person already knew/needed to know, making a perfect transference of knowledge a little tricky.

With the Blessing, however, you had a vast breadth of knowledge at your fingertips, and could easily also learn the contextual information you might not have otherwise gotten.

And with Han borrowing it via the [Round Table], he could empower himself and Kim once a week.

After a full quarter-year, Isaac had gotten a long-awaited message. Two of them, in fact.

Congratulations, Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit, for helping the world gain a new miracle!

You have helped and sped along the invention of technology that can, albeit temporarily, block summoning.

For supporting the development of such an impactful technology, you have been granted 1,000,000 XP.

When that had popped up in his field of view, he’d almost started celebrating as he’d correctly assumed this meant that the technology had become “mature” in some way.

And then, the second message had shown up.

Congratulations, Challenger of the Apocalypse, for making the world a safer place!

You have helped and sped along the invention of technology that can, albeit temporarily, block summoning, allowing you much more time to respond to troubles

For supporting the development of such an impactful technology, you have been granted 500,000 XP. (1,000,000 due to double-dipping)

So apparently, making significant strides forward when it came to long-term survival also earned him XP for [Challenger of the Apocalypse] even when he got XP from other sources, but he did get a slight haircut for double-dipping.

And after those things, a substantial boost to the [Skill] that had greased the wheels of progress had been entirely expected.

Blessing of Innovation (legendary, Level XX)

A lion has teeth that can shatter bones, claws that rend flesh like tissue paper, and the strength to bring down all but the largest of animals in its habitat.

A human has … what exactly? Sweating that allows for long pursuits and bipedal locomotion that allows them to carry stuff in their hands?

Yet it’s man who hunts lions, not the other way around. In fact, Africa’s lions are so badly traumatized that they are terrified of humans and will run from any they see if they can. So why is that the way of the world? Well, as a kindergartener would put it: “lions are stupid”.

The Blessing of Innovation boosts the recipient’s ability to figure out new things, to create new inventions to benefit the world as a whole, to make their mark on civilization itself, for one hour.

(the recipient can be any willing sapient being within 10 meters of the user at the moment of activation or the user themselves)

While active, the recipient may temporarily selectively “forget” certain parts of their knowledge base or randomly remove certain preconceived notions to see their work from different eyes. (All memories and the old mental state will be restored at the end of the Skill’s effect. This can also be done at will and the possibility of restoration cannot be forgotten.)

Furthermore, the recipient may choose to divorce their knowledge from its respective sources, leaving them with nothing but objective facts for the duration of the effect.

Lastly, the user may draw on the knowledge of lesser science and research Classes, borrowing up to three Skills at a time, up to a rarity of rare, and up to the second Evolution.

The Blessing of Innovation can be used once per day to start with and gains an additional maximum charge every five Levels in this Skill. Charges refresh at midnight and do carry over for up to a month.

And now, this Skill has gained the capacity to understand truths that man is not meant to know, and as long as Undying Focus is supporting the user during the learning process, this information cannot hurt them.

After countless occasions where the user has granted others the power of infinite possibilities and indirectly given rise to incredible achievements, this Skill has evolved to vastly increase the chance of world-shaking advancements being made.

The user of this Skill will be able to judge the likelihood of the recipient being able to make significant advancements upon receiving the blessing, and any recipient (including the user) will be shown the best Skills to borrow to achieve the intended goal.

The upgrade was a simple one, straightforward, and still held nigh-infinite potential, just like the [Skill] as a whole did.

And with that done, they could just keep working, keep improving, keep grinding.

Those words meant something different for everyone.

For Amy, it involved setting off the occasional seismograph, while Patrick often vanished into his office for days at a time and left every available surface utterly covered in scribbles by the time his study sprint was over.

And where Isaac was concerned, it basically translated as “slaughtering as many monsters as possible while going for ones with needed materials.

In time, he’d hit Level 169, gaining enough [Skill] points for [Book of Seven Seals].

Book with Seven Seals (legendary)

First, came the white horse, carrying the horseman of Conquest.

Second, there was the horseman of War, astride a red horse, followed by the black horse of Famine and the pale horse of death.

Then, the souls of the slain righteous cry out, the earth shakes, the sun grows dim, the moon becomes drenched in blood, and the very stars fall to the Earth until finally, the very heavens grow silent.

That is when the final battle shall begin.

This is how the Book of Revelations describes the end of the world, giving those who would stand against calamity a way to prepare, to read the signs that foretell the coming apocalypse.

Those who hold this Skill will receive warnings of future calamity, as long as said calamity is apocalyptic in scale. These warnings may come in the form of dreams, short visions, or outright prophecy.

These warnings can begin as early as five years before the true beginning of calamity, or grant as little as one month’s warning (this depends on when said calamity becomes nigh-inevitable), and will become increasingly precise and useful with each successive warning.

Receiving warnings does not mean that the world is certain to end without the intervention of this Skill’s bearer, merely that Armageddon is a possible outcome. Nor does a lack of warning indicate that a given situation is guaranteed to not eventually develop into an apocalyptic issue, just that it is unlikely.

However, there are certain constant dangers, which exist permanently and may become very immediate and present threats depending on the situation. As such, you may receive an initial warning without subsequent additions which persist on the “active prophecy” tab.

This is a powerful ability, but also a heavy burden. It will always be active, cannot be deactivated, and will encompass any world that the bearer cares for.

Those who hold this ability will never be able to rest, never be able to retire, for there will always be danger so long as the universe exists.

Synergy effect: Incarnation of the Promethean Spirit

When the user of this Skill is forewarned of a coming calamity, every science and research Skill they possess will be fed the specific kind of information they need.

Lessons of History will highlight all information from past apocalyptic scenarios that apply to this one.

The Meaning of the Name will continuously gather the information needed to make on-the-spot predictions.

And Blessing of Innovation will highlight where further development is needed.

Active Prophecies

Prophecy 1: Selfishness of the Pessimists

Already given up,

A promised salvation dark,

Pact of destruction

Prophecy 2: Humanity’s Greed

Greed,

Ambition, Growth,

Ascension or Downfall

Fools decide for all

Beware

Prophecy 3: The Wider Existence

A blue orb, lonely,

In a universe old, vast

Beings unknown live

Prophecy 4: Predatory Humanity

Apex

Lonely Peak

New World Order

Social Ossification Begets Revolution

Beware

Ok, first things first, the [System’s] prophecies were awful.

And secondly, this [Skill] was … kinda useless?

Part of that was almost certainly down to the fact that the future wasn’t exactly fixed, free will existed, and when people changed their minds, so did the future.

But the overall limits felt like they were at least somewhat artificial. Time travel was within the capability of the gods, so a [Skill] that literally let him peer into the actual future, rather than spouting predictions, should theoretically be in the cards. But Isaac didn’t seriously expect to be given something like that right off the bat.

The real sticking point was that the [Skill] didn’t give him an actual report on the problems it saw, instead hiding behind vagaries and poorly written poetry.

Predatory Humanity was obviously about the powerful creating a new world order based on raw strength, Humanity’s Greed was referencing the fact that greedy fools might still drown them all in monster hordes, and the Selfishness of the Pessimists was, well, proof that there was some sliver of a chance the cult would be able to still cause trouble.

But what about The Wider Existence? What did that mean? An optimal [Skill] would read something like “there is x-shit out in the universe, it might be a problem for y-reasons, and would do so on z-timeline”.

Instead, he got a badly written … thing that might have been a haiku, and implied everything from unknown gods being a threat to possibly confirming that aliens were, in fact, real.

He had confirmation that certain things were enough of a danger to qualify as a constant, low-level, threat, which was valuable all on its own, but still … he’d hoped for more.

After spending a couple of seconds to drop a note in the Round Table, he made his way back towards the summoning room to see how many Aspects he could gather for the team’s support staff.

And once everyone had time for a meeting, they’d be making plans to deal with each of those prophecies.