Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

Naea flitted back and forth, around and around the prison where Grant was held. She would do as he asked and hide, but it was stressful. More problematic than the stress was the boredom. Stay in one place, doing nothing for a whole day? Through their bond, Naea could feel that Grant was playing with himself. “Boys and their dragons,” she sighed, floating aimlessly around the severe looking building.

On the street below, there was a constant bustle of energy, people coming and going from the jailhouse below. Naea didn’t have a perfect read on what would be a normal amount of activity in the city, but just from a quick aura read of the frightened, confused and worried people, it was easy enough to see they were panicked. Grant was a scary existence to face when you were weaker than him.

Not that Naea would know. She still happily sat a few levels higher than Grant, and the combination of Grant’s achievements and her own meant that she received a much larger portion of the experience gains for the two. She would scale ahead again, though she had started to doubt if she would be able to keep up with him. Not just the advantages he had now, which would compound further and further, but in drive and natural ability.

Practice was a fine thing to do, and it helped with absolutely everything, but not all training was made equal. Not all climbers had the same drive. Grant had a fire within himself that let him work harder than any other human Naea had come across, and by a sizable amount. Meeting her had saved his life a dozen times over, sure, but Grant’s efforts could not be ignored. He was a monster, driven by a fire Naea still didn’t quite understand.

As her boredom reached peak levels, she considered breaking Grant out early. It would be so easy to just rush in, hurt literally everyone she could and get Grant out… but he said not to. Grant also knew he was strong, and didn’t have to be taken, but he had let it happen anyway. Naea felt fairly sure there was a lesson in those actions, or inactions, which she could learn from. Grant was a lot of things, and a few of them were insults, but for the most part he seemed to know what he was doing. She had told Grant that if he hadn’t made a move in twenty four hours, she would stop waiting.

What Naea hadn’t planned for was how boring a whole day without Grant was. She had felt similarly when he had tackled the mountain alone - something she was still very much upset about! At least in their town, she could bully the people into becoming stronger, she wasn’t even allowed to do that here. She tried to pass the time by watching people, but how could any of these barely magical losers be interesting compared to the patron of her familiar bond.

After deciding not to immediately assault the jail, Naea aimlessly floated around the dismal city. Grant was right to think this place was worse than Ascentown. It seemed like no one here was happy except the strongest people, which seemed backwards to Naea. In Newtown and with The Ascent, Grant had of course been the most powerful, but that meant he was beleaguered, not freed like these arseholes.

Robbery was the most common crime in the city by far. Naea didn’t have the inclination to help strangers like Grant did, nor the desire to break her cover in Londimin. Still, she watched and made note of some faces in the opposite direction. Grant was a big softie at heart, not like Naea at all. For each and every slight she saw which she didn’t like, she memorised the perpetrator.

The way out of Londimin was going to be a lot louder than their way in, Naea was sure.

Still, in her wanderings of the city Naea learned some interesting things. She wasn’t actually sure what would be useful information, but she stored away a few of the choice pieces of gossip all the same.

Apparently there were multiple dungeons to the East which were being used for what most would describe as farming. Dungeons were all different, with their own rules. Some of which monsters would clamber from, some spat out mana and some only sucked things in. Naea’s dungeon type was the best, clearly. From what she gathered, there were three main dungeons for Londimin. One was a mostly water-based Dungeon, which was helpful for the food issue in the city. The second was more like Naea’s own, the natural grasslands and fields turned into something a little more dangerous, but with the same vibe.

The final dungeon Naea didn’t hear much about other than it was for the elites of the town. As most people weren’t elite, it was difficult to hear the intricacies of the dungeon they kept to themselves. More interesting was how jealous people seemed to be of these “elites”. They wouldn’t hold a candle to a single Fledgling, Naea was sure. One thing that was consistent across the populace, strong or weak, was the desire for Aspects. he value of Aspects in the town had skyrocketed to the point where no one was trading them.

The reasoning was clear. Most people wouldn’t step out of their bubble of safety without one, the skills and power an Aspect could grant was life-saving, after all. Naea smiled, knowing that wasn’t true for her Grant. It was just another reason why these stagnant losers would remain stagnant losers. Quests wouldn’t appear for the unmotivated, after all. Naea tried to remember if she had ever told Grant about how the System divied up quests, There was always just something more interesting happening to talk about boring System rules. As she thought, the fairy found that she had accidentally returned to the pretty building she now knew of as a church.

It was busier there today, and Naea had a vague recollection of there being special days for worshippers. After entertaining herself by posing in front of the stained glass depictions of winged humanoids, Naea found herself listening to the people below. There was a man in ornate wizards robes, white and gold, doing most of the speaking. Sometimes the crowd joined him and chanted his poems back at him, sometimes just a single line.

It all seemed quite silly to Naea from afar, so she decided to sit on one of the long benches. Maybe it would make more sense if she was in the crowd? She perched on the back of the frontmost bench, which was strangely empty. Did people not want to be close to the leader? Humans were weird, Naea reminded herself. Still invisible, she listened more closely.

“So, we venture into trying times.” The man’s voice carried a hint of a skill, which Naea brushed away. It wasn’t insidious, all the magic did was make the priest’s voice seem more interesting than it was. However, the skill which kept the people around Naea focused was distracting once you knew it was there. “However, it could be said that none are as prepared for these trials more than we, God’s children.”

Naea looked around confused, eyes wide and her heart quickening for a moment. Demi-gods? No, she reminded herself, this world didn’t even have magic before the Shift. How could there be demi-gods here? The thought actually caused her to stifle a chuckle at herself. Humans liked to be dramatic, she knew. This was just an example of that.

“For is it not told to us that tribulation is His message? I know there are those of you who fear changes to the world as something unholy but I tell you this is not true.” The holy man’s eyes were wrinkled, happiness and kindness etched onto his face in the lines around his eyes and mouth. “For nothing can happen in this life without His blessing. Jesus said to his disciples ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; Trust also in me.’ Now, Jesus was talking about a trust that following the Path would lead to heaven. Rejoice, then, for the Path is now laid out in divine script before our very eyes!”

A murmur from the churchgoers became a rumble, and finally crescendoed as a cheer. They clearly liked the message, and Naea found herself nodding along, too. There were a few misconceptions but nothing that really mattered. There was no singular all powerful god except the Tree itself, which did not act with the same level of intention as those which called themselves gods. Generally, those beings named Gods were more like symbiotes or parasites, not that Naea disliked them. She just hadn’t met one yet, and she generally chose to be standoffish when she didn’t know someone.

“What are we going to do about Grant?”

The words stole all of Naea’s attention from the boring sermon and she zipped outside to follow the voice. Oh! She remembered these two idiots. What were their names again? Dee and Dum? Naea vaguely remembered Grant using those names in his head. It was something like that. They were eating a package of potato fries, covered in salt and a strange, aromatic sauce. Naea stole one as she invisibly sat with the pair, neither of them any the wiser.

“I mean, I dunno,” shrugged the one wearing a large jacket, “just feels like we should do something.”

Looking exasperated, the smaller one put his head in his hands. “Look, Lar, we let him into the city without letting anyone know. Now he’s in jail and that’s our fault.”

“How is that our fault?” Lar asked, throwing his free hand up in confusion. Naea had to agree with the jacketed man, Grant had got himself in trouble and had no one to blame but himself.

“It’s not, but he doesn’t deserve to be in jail just because we let him into the city, right?” The man, still named Dee in Naea’s head, looked very troubled. His hands were constantly wringing against each other as he looked back and forth at the people walking by. The fairy kicked her feet, interested in what these two might do. “If we can help, we should. Didn’t we agree we were going to do brave stuff from now on? We can at least ask.”

Eyes bulging, Lar looked back to Dee with a mixture of disgust and disappointment on his face. “Ask?” Lar repeated, dubious to the point of offence. “You want to walk up to Nolan Fair and just ask him to let the dangerous criminal out of jail? You remember how strong that guy was, right?”

Dee pursed his lips but nodded. Lar continued. “It was like that feeling before a massive storm, right? Honestly, if they managed to get him into a cell then that’s for the best. Scary dude, but he’s not getting out of there.”

“Why not?” Naea asked, as though she had been a part of the conversation from the beginning. She doubted very much that any construction of brick and mortar would hold Grant at this point.

“Well, because they’re all enchanted and stuff, right?” Dee answered, looking around at his own head height for whoever had asked the question. “Whuh..?” He asked dimly, not seeing Naea, even if she had made herself visible. Maintaining the effect to everyone else but the people on the bench was a new twist to the ability, but Naea was Grant’s familiar for a reason. If it could be done with magic, the pair of them would figure it out quickly.

For example, Naea very quickly understood the issue Grant would face. From inside the cell, the bars and walls would appear mundane. Due to the System’s capabilities, they technically were mundane. Except they would also be lined with a powerful mana sensor that activated the hidden enchantments. A city like Londimin, with quest rewards fueling its growth, could have some seriously powerful wards.

Naea flew upwards, making the men shriek and drop their food. They received strange looks, right through my invisible back. “Shut up, idiots. Listen to me. You want to help and Grant needs it. That’s enough for me to help you come up with a better plan than ‘ask nicely’.” To their credit, the pair took Naea’s appearance in stride once the shock wore off. Instead of asking questions, they both nodded and stood. Naea kept a straight face but inwardly she crooned.

These two might make good Fledglings, actually.