Forged By The Apocalypse - A LitRPG With Draconic Potential

“So you don’t know what a motorbike looks like, but you know what it means to be a third wheel?”

“Don’t tease me, Grant!” Naea stamped her foot, an action that had less impact when you were flying as the fairy currently was. Without proper footwear, it wasn’t safe for her to touch the floor. Even I was hovering, using Air Manipulation to keep myself aloft rather than melt into the floor. Oh, I had my Thunder Steppers on, and something as silly as mostly hardened magma wasn’t enough to damage them, but I did sink into the rock if I stood still. If it went over the boots, I wasn’t sure I’d enjoy the feeling.

It was like walking on the most dangerous brownie ever. “I don’t see how you’re the third wheel anyway, I’m over here with you while the fire dancer does her thing over there.”

“Yeah but we’re here for her.” Crossing her arms, Naea looked up and waited, unblinking. An elemental slime, the main enemy of the dungeon, began to drip from the ceiling. Without having to say or do anything, Julianna swept it away from us. Able to easily control the very makeup of the creature, she cupped her hands together and squeezed. The slime squealed as the pressure turned it from lava into coal.

Naea turned away from me, so I moved in front of her face with a smirk. “Are you jealous?” I was teasing, but only a little. I wasn’t in the business of making Naea upset. Luckily, she seemed to be mostly joking herself.

And the best humour is based in truth. Suddenly bashful, Naea put her cheek on her shoulder and swayed back and forth. “... Little bit.”

“You’ll always be my number one, little bug.” I nuzzled her with my head. She was stubborn for a moment but relented, leaning into me. “It’s not like we’re just here for fun, anyway.” Naea whined that she knew that we had a quest and told me to shut up so she could focus. I held my hands up, while checking on the quest progress.

Dungeon Quest - Snuff The Flame

The local populace around Yarionus enjoy the bounty of its fertile ash year round, never knowing the danger they are in. Within the belly of the volcano, pressure is building, a new king rising. Bring the rising monarch to heel and protect the people of Yaria for another generation.

Reward: Ownership of nearby Springs Of Triagus

Triagus was a new name, given to me by the quest reward. I filed it away, as it meant nothing at the moment. I hadn’t seen any single point which I could analyse like with the orb or the spire on the mountain, so I hadn’t been able to analyse them at all.

Despite assuaging Naea, I did find it hard to look away from Julianna once my gaze returned. Her utilisation of the Aspect Of Fire was beautiful to behold, and completely perfect for this dungeon. The only light inside the mountain were pockets of visible magma and Julianna’s flames. Honestly, if Julianna wasn’t such a natural here, we would have had a much worse time. Naea and I together would have struggled.

Well, we would have sweat, at the very least.

Right now, she battled against a small wave of salamanders. The creatures weren’t too smart, and it looked like they could absorb fire and then spit it back out stronger. I was betting that almost any magical attacks would just turn into fire mana for the creatures, but that didn’t matter for Julianna. In what became a twisted form of practice, the woman just lobbed fire at one, caught the increasingly powerful flame and then repeated it until-

Pop.

Each of the Lavabather Salamanders, one by one, bloated like balloons, but with no recourse but to keep trying to absorb and fight, it was a gnarly losing battle. Julianna didn’t seem to mind, in a trance like state as she manipulated the dense fire magic in the air to her will. Once the group was depleted, Naea and I moved to join her. The salamanders were just running away from the real danger, after all.

I groaned as I saw this was, once again, not the enemy we were looking for. Pulling itself slowly from a pool of magma was a large slime. “That’s what happens when you put too much mana into a sprite, by the way,” Naea whispered into my ear. She had made the joke twice already and I was pretty sure she was lying. While the slimes were definitely made of mana in a similar way, there was an underlying Dao to each creature that was completely different. “Never mind then, all yours.” I hopped back from the battle.

We had agreed that I would fight the boss monster to ensure I claimed the quest reward, but Julianna was enjoying the chance to fling herself at enemies. Apparently there wasn’t much room to do so when running Newtown. I didn’t tell her that sometimes I just wandered off to do exactly that. She was definitely learning how cathartic it was, though. Along with gaining a few levels, which was always nice, no matter who you are.

During this dungeon run, I was faced with the very true fact that I was levelling at a slower rate than Julianna. My attributes were simply worth more, so the System essentially charged me more to access more. It made sense when you thought of the System as an actual transactionary process performed by an omnipotent tree.

It sort of made sense when you thought of it that way, I corrected myself.

The lava slime mini-boss fared just as badly as the salamanders had. While this thing could attack physically, it preferred not to. The same back and forth occurred and even before the slime was destroyed, Julianna was turning and walking away. Instead of the volley she had been doing, continuing until the overfilled mana of the enemy caused them to burst, her magic lodged itself into the slime. Even without any features to speak of, the slime was clearly distressed as the mana buried itself deeper into the manaflesh. With a dull thud, the slime swelled like a balloon and instantly froze. I whistled. “You badass, you.”

“I unlocked a new skill at the end there. Living Bomb.” She gestured with her head over her shoulder. “They were good practice, you bring me to the nicest places.” Naea flew up to the slime and salamanders, looting them. Then, she turned and gave me a look I had been waiting for. I very quickly guided Julianna away before she could catch a glimpse of Naea going to town on her first dungeon monsters in about a month.

Within Badaila, nothing had been edible for her. We hadn’t properly entered the Cloudslash Peak dungeon, so this was her first chance to gore. I was happy for her, but that slurping sound would haunt me for certain.

“Well, I know how to treat a lady right,” I agreed, distracting myself from the feast happening further down the tunnel.

“SEE?!” Naea shouted, her mouth clearly far too full. “Third wheel!”

—————————————————————————

That night was an interesting one. The world had been expanding around me in unexpected and frightening ways, but I found security by tightening my circle. The members of The Ascent had let me down in various ways, but Julianna hadn’t. We were currently making up for our interrupted night a few days prior, and doing so very successfully.

We were either taking a break or done for the night, I wasn’t sure, but without so much physicality going on, we could talk. “This is nice,” I said, taking a big gulp of water from my nightstand.

“This or that?” Julianna laughed and gave me a squeeze, our skin to skin contact feeling so natural. She took the drink from my hand and drained the rest before flourishing her hand. The expensive crystal goblet vanished into her inventory, a much more efficient way of getting it out of the way.

“Both,” I chuckled back. “Something that feels normal.”

“Scorch marks were normal for you before this?” Her eyebrow curled to the headboard, which had been singed. Apparently she had lost control a little at some point. The thought made me smirk.

“Maybe. A gentleman never kisses and tells. Nor does he drip wax.” I shook my head to show I was definitely joking, but went back to the point I was trying to make at the start. “No, just… Something that feels like my own personal choice, and a reward earned from being me, rather than whatever the System has turned me into.”

“What do you mean?” She stretched and pulled the covers up around herself, getting comfortable. I hoped that meant she was spending the evening. We were currently using the bedroom I had marked as my own, but I might have to rearrange some furniture if we kept breaking things. Our prodigious strength made things much more acrobatic and intense.

Smiling, I shook my head and returned to the conversation at hand. “Well, it’s nothing really, but how can I even be sure anyone actually likes me anymore and isn’t just sucking up to me? It’s a bit of a petty worry, I guess.”

“That’s what life is like for celebrities and the mega-rich, I think.” Her brown eyes found mine, and I wondered what she thought of them. I wouldn’t ask, but I was curious. I thought hers were the most beautiful I had ever seen.

I sighed and fell back onto the pillows next to her. I took her hand in my and looked at the dichotomy of our skin together. “You’re probably right. I think if you asked me, I would have said I I wanted both of those things, but the idea that it came with all this baggage? Maybe not.” I was planning to secure more wealth than actual gods eventually, and the thought became a little less appealing when the reality of it set in. Only a little though.

I would definitely get a pure gold planet one day.

Then Julianna gave me a very specific look and I focused not on what I might gain in the future, but on what I had directly to hand. The rest of the night passed in a haze of heat, passion and wild abandon. The world was dangerous. My responsibilities were real. The planet itself might very well need me, specifically, to get many things right without making a single mistake. None of that mattered right then. It was just me, a beautiful woman of magic, strength and intelligence all at once.

I happily lost myself to her flame for an evening, hoping for many more to come.