Primer for the Apocalypse: Book One, page 19
The second spell I obtained with Lisa’s assistance was Haste. It created a bubble of dilated time that allowed the target to think and move quicker than my surroundings for a short period.
Both spells were immensely useful for both fighters and support mages.
Since I couldn’t be sure I’d have the ability to gain the spells before upgrading my interface, I decided not to attempt to manually add any more spells to my status. I’d still study and record everything, but there would be no more experimentation – at least for a while.
After offloading our unwanted loot to the nearby merchants who’d set up stalls right outside the circle, we explored the streets for hours in search of something new and exciting. Most of the shops were everyday things found in any city – clothing stores, jewelry merchants, restaurants, food shops, movie theaters, entertainment establishments, and even things geared toward adventuring and magic, like enchanting repair shops and armor dealers.
There were a few oddities – like the themed cafes we’d gone to earlier, levitating platforms, floating islands, and magical dueling arenas, but many of the things I loved most about the Junction were missing. Perhaps that was what this testing phase was about – finding more things to draw people’s interest.
I could easily list several things I remembered from the past, but that felt a little bit like cheating. Besides, those ideas were already going to be brought up by others. Maybe I could develop something new to help regular players and those who would flock to the Junction to take advantage of the time dilation.
“Oh, let’s see what’s going on over there,” Bell said as she grasped my arm and started pulling me toward the center of a park where a group of teens was cheering for a street performer. A young girl who appeared barely old enough to awaken her interface was the performer drawing their attention. Her face was pinched in concentration as two small, illusory fighters duked it out in front of her.
It was an impressive creation, one that was impossible for players to do within the game. It was good that Atlas showed some of what was possible with magic outside of the system-generated spells. It was just too bad nobody would be able to use such abilities until after the reintegration.
“That was amazing,” Bell gushed when the crowd broke apart after the performance. “How did you manage something so complicated? I have a Light affinity, but I’ve never seen a spell that can do something like that.”
The young NPC beamed at my friend. “I practiced. I’ve always been good with Light mana, but I got even better when I awakened.”
“What spell were you using?” Bell asked.
The girl shook her head as she responded, “I wasn’t using a spell. It was Mana Manipulation. It’s a skill that lets me directly manipulate mana. It’s really hard to get, though. My mom taught me when I was little. She’s a Light Mage, too.”
“I wonder if it’s something we can learn,” Bell mused. Not wanting to disappoint my friend, I remained silent. She’d be able to learn such skills after the reintegration happened, but probably not before. I wasn’t sure why Atlas Online only worked for some mana-based skills and not others, but that was well above my pay grade.
After a few more minutes of chatting with the young performer, I finally pulled Bell away from the performer and continued exploring the city.
Chapter 23
“How was your first day?” Mom asked when she returned from her shift at the hospital. Since I’d finished work early, I decided to make dinner for the family. “Oh, that smells good,” she said as she entered the kitchen.
“It was fine. I can’t really describe it because of the NDA, but Dad would have really liked it,” I said with a smirk. It was a small hint, but nothing that could remotely be considered sharing sensitive information.
I’d texted Justin as soon as I logged out, admonishing him for not informing me about range day. He’d sent back a laughing emoji. It was no surprise he’d think I spent the morning miserable, given my childhood views on gun control.
Justin: Did anyone figure out a solution?
Me: Yeah, some used Enchanting, and a couple used Alchemy to make the weapons fire. Alchemy was probably the better option.
It was tough to admit as an Enchanter, but after considering the results, it was pretty clear. While Enchanting the rounds or even the weapons worked fine, it seemed like a lot less effort to modify the gunpowder to make everything work again.
The air gun intrigued me, though, especially when paired with enchanted marbles or beads. Throwing the consumable talismans would probably work fine – that’s what I did for most items that had a localized effect. However, I felt shooting them like paintballs at a target would be much more effective than lobbing each one by hand or using something like a slingshot.
Justin: Nice. It’s good your group found solutions. I’ve heard some are lucky to have one working option after the time is up.
I texted Justin intermittently throughout the evening, hoping the regular contact would keep him from thinking too much about how empty his apartment was without Melony. I think Mom had the same idea because she also regularly sent texts and chats to my brother. Dad mostly shook his head at our behavior, but I suspected he also occasionally reached out to his eldest child.
He was a big softie, even if he tried to hide it from anyone outside the family.
∆∆∆
The rest of the week passed quickly. The first few hours of every beta testing session during that first week included some kind of post-reintegration training scenario, which confused me until I realized that Atlas was working with various world governments. The addition was probably at the behest of whatever government official was in charge of the partnership within the states.
That was also likely why they had us delve rifts in the Junction with modified firearms twice, regardless of our specialty. It was… loud, and wearing hearing protection was counterproductive since it muffled the sounds of approaching threats. Not wearing the protection made our ears ring, which also caused us to struggle with hearing hostiles drawn by the excessive noise.
The best way we found to resolve the issue was to have a healer – Mesmer, in my party’s case – cast AOE healing over time spells, something he struggled to do consistently due to the mana cost, especially with everyone being temporarily suppressed to level one.
Thankfully, enchanted weapons didn’t make much noise as long as they used something other than explosions to project the rounds. However, keeping up with the demand when enchanting the rounds was challenging. Engraving the firearm itself reduced costs significantly, but we still had to keep the enchantments powered. Still, we got through it with only a few injuries.
The rest of the time, we were free to explore the Junction. At the beginning of the following week, we submitted our thoughts and recommendations for the growing city, and Jaxson informed us that World Junction would be our primary testing location for the next few months. He also let us know that we were free to complete our contracted hours anytime during the week as long as we didn’t miss the mandatory meeting every other Firstday at dawn in the lobby of the Beta Promenade.
Since it was too difficult to keep up with the variations between time zones for all of the testers while also considering time dilation, Jaxson had shifted the meetings to orient completely on ‘Atlas Time.’
I spent part of my time with Bell and the others and part of it in lone exploration. I had settled into a routine. My day was effectively split into four parts – early morning exercise and training, beta testing, family time, and in-game training/party delving.
I was disappointed that neither the Mages’ Academy nor the Enchanters’ Academy had opened for business yet within World Junction. However, I did manage to find a library with a considerable section on magic – including three books on Time magic! I eventually started spending part of my beta testing time researching magical theory. The rest was usually filled by exploration of the expanding city – including the rifts located within.
I also copied other magic-related books into my interface for future guide articles, having Lisa separate everything into easy-to-digest segments. I couldn’t publish anything I found there until after World Junction was released and the library was made public, but that didn’t stop me from preparing everything. I certainly had no intention of violating the NDA I’d signed, especially not to share information that would be available in a matter of months.
After a few real-world weeks, I’d gotten comfortable with my routine and looked forward to starting school within the Junction in a week. I’d reached Tier Two in the game, and my Enchanting skill had seen a noticeable increase with my improved mana concentration. Things were going well overall.
I finally felt like I’d reached a good balance and was on the right path to becoming stronger and better rounded. I had a tentative plan for the reintegration and felt confident I could keep my family alive through the transition.
Life was good.
∆∆∆
“You don’t have to go with me,” I reminded my mother again as we walked to my car. Since it was just the two of us, we’d decided to take mine since it was the only one in the family with a self-driving feature. It was also significantly cheaper to operate than my mom’s gas-guzzling crossover.
“It’s nearly four hours away! Of course, I’m coming with you!” she exclaimed, almost affronted that I would have suggested she let me go alone.
Though it was my car, my mom got in the driver’s seat and started programming the route to the Atlas facility in Kansas City. While I’d only been actively working as a beta tester for four weeks, it had been over a month since my last ‘physical assessment.’ With school starting the following week, I wanted to get it out of the way now instead of waiting until the weekend.
Besides, testing day counted as a full workday, so it wasn’t like I would miss out on anything.
“I’m a big girl,” I replied as I buckled the safety harness. Though it was more restrictive than safety belts on older model vehicles, I liked the feeling of security the four-point harness provided much better. “Besides, I thought you couldn’t take any more time off.”
“That was a month ago. I’ve earned enough to take the day off, at least for the first check-in. Hopefully, they get the St. Louis office open soon.”
I nodded. St. Louis was much closer than Kansas City, and she’d probably be fine with me going there for work physicals. I pulled the satchel I’d brought onto my lap and began digging out crafting supplies once we started moving.
“What are you working on this time?” Mom asked as she eyed the items in my hands. I’d shown her some of my prior creations, even occasionally getting her involved in the process since she liked crafting so much.
She had the tendency of finding hobbies or new interests and obsessing over them for a month or two before completely losing interest and moving on to the next thing. It was why the game room I’d shared with Justin had transformed into a mixed-up crafting area after he moved out. It was convenient for me now, but it had been annoying in the timeline before.
“I’m working on making runic jewelry and art pieces,” I answered, showing her the templates I’d made using the family’s 3D printer that was, coincidentally, stored in the craft room I had largely taken over since I returned. “I usually use a combination of engraving and burning for these, but I don’t want to pull out a soldering iron in a moving vehicle.”
I went through my process, showing her how I carved the small tiles from prepared pieces before adding the runes. Working over a small cloth tray to catch any loose particles, I deftly carved out a design that was actually a small mana regeneration formation. I added several small flairs without the help of the small template I’d made. They did nothing for the enchantment but made the design look more appealing and artistic without harming anything.
“This is really pretty,” she complimented when I handed her the finished piece. I hadn’t bothered sealing it with oil yet since no reagents or mana had been added to make the item anything more than a pretty trinket. Without those additions, that was all the talisman would ever be since carvings in wood were not enough to move and direct mana.
After giving it some thought, I’d decided to pass off my early preparations as an artistic interest, even going as far as adding bails to several pieces to make them easy to attach to a necklace or other jewelry. I planned to slowly create these skeletons of enchantments until the reintegration, which would allow me to quickly finish each piece once I had the needed materials.
When we finally pulled up to the Atlas branch office, looking over the distantly familiar location felt odd. It wasn’t quite déjà vu since the surroundings looked very different from what I remembered, but it was similar enough.
Outside the small building that housed the branch office was a large clearing with one of those large, white event tents often seen outside mega stores when they started selling fireworks before the Fourth of July. The last time I’d been at this location, there was a large, swirling purple portal in that exact location, surrounded by a large, multi-story building.
Were they laying the groundwork for the portal already? It seemed a bit early, though I’d, admittingly, never been involved in creating an interplanetary spatial portal before. The process might have taken multiple years to accomplish.
Dismissing my curiosity since I could do nothing to satisfy it, I entered the Atlas building with my mom following directly behind me.
A few people were already waiting, most chatting or playing on their phones while wearing comfortable outfits designed for exercise. I signed in on the Atlas tablet and sat down to wait, noting the sign declaring that new testing groups would start every even-numbered hour.
I checked my phone and saw it was only a quarter shy of noon. We were lucky in our timing, it seemed.
A few more beta testers arrived before the top of the hour, and we were all taken back as a group when the Atlas representative appeared from a room near the back of the foyer. Mom and the others who were left waiting were allowed to borrow a headset to play while we did our assessments, though she declined since she was in an unsecured location.
She was a bit weird like that.
Chapter 24
“Alright, this is the same battery of tests you should have taken last month, so there should be no surprises. We’ll do a round in real life, then transfer to World Junction and finish the assessment there. Any questions?”
When nobody said anything, the representative immediately started giving individual instructions, guiding us to whatever equipment he wanted us to use for that rotation. We’d all been forewarned, so nobody needed to change clothes before the assessment. By the time the first part was done, I was panting, and my limbs felt like Jello.
“Man, I hate running so much,” I groaned from the heap in which I’d collapsed upon finishing.
“Walk it off,” a nearby tester said as he offered me a hand. “You need to cool down, or you’ll be worse off tomorrow.”
As much as I wanted to ignore the Good Samaritan, I couldn’t bring myself to, so I allowed him to pull me to my feet before forcing myself to walk at a moderate pace around the indoor track. The worst part was that my suffering wasn’t even over. We had to do it all again virtually for some odd reason. Maybe they were comparing our performance with that of our baseline avatar.
I was pretty sure making us push ourselves like this should violate the torture clause in the Accords.
After the physical portion, we were given a chance to clean up and have some refreshments before being administered several mental tests. Some were like the IQ tests I’d taken before, while others appeared to gauge how quickly we processed information. It wasn’t the same series of tests as before, which was good if for no other reason than providing variety.
Not all the assessments were completed electronically; about half were given on physical paper or verbally. It had to make compiling the results much more difficult, but who was I to say anything about their methods? They probably had reasons for everything.
Perhaps there was some old monster dictating everything from the background, demanding all sorts of odd data that nobody else understood the purpose of. I’d met researchers like that in the other timeline. They were a strange bunch – reminiscent of the stereotypical mad scientists who only cared about the data and not how they got it.
The Accords were probably the only thing keeping those weirdos from torture and mass murder in the name of enlightenment.
The physical portion in-game was just as bad as the one in real life. My muscles tightened and heated the same way, breathing was similarly challenging, and the dizziness from over-exertion was indistinguishable from what I’d experienced a short while before.
Having done both back-to-back for the second time, I could confidently say there was no identifiable difference between the two scenarios. It was a testament to how well the DIVE gear connected our minds to our simulated avatar.
After a completely different series of mental assessments, we were finally at the last test for the session. Before logging in, they’d had us test our haptic suits to make sure no electricity was bleeding through since it would mess with the last test’s data. I hadn’t felt electricity, though my mind had started playing tricks on me there at the end.
I could have sworn I felt a twinge of mana, but it was so weak I’d dismissed the sensation. Now that I was considering the last test – an energy sensitivity test – I was starting to wonder if maybe the sensation had been real. I already knew Atlas somehow used mana instead of electricity to power the equipment.
