The MMRPG Apocalypse

The sun I had expected to see was not there high in the sky. Instead, there was a mass of swirling reds and oranges of varying depth and darkness that formed a circular mass in the sky. It constantly undulated outwards, receding and licking the air around it like ocean waves. Each time it did, the air seethed and created mirages from the extreme heat.

The ominous feeling inside me only grew as I looked at the alarming scene in the sky. It took me a second to realize what I was looking at, and before I could open my mouth…

“That looks like the portal we walked through,” Jessica said. The portal we had entered though, while red and ominous, didn’t have that feeling of heat this one did. In fact, if I closed my eyes now, I could imagine the sun was still there in the sky basking me in its warmth.

“What does it mean?” Alan asked. “What is it?”

I looked away, and then back several times, eventually confirming my prickling was because of that presence in the sky. “I got several notifications when we exited the dungeon,” I replied, “let’s all check what we’ve received and see if there are any clues.”

You have leveled up.

All skills have leveled up.

Your ability has evolved.

You are the first to conquer a D rank dungeon. You have received a title.

You are being watched.

I stopped reading at that moment and quickly opened my stats, hearing a few gasps around me.

Name: Mike Reynolds Class: Necromancer Level: 28 EXP: 50%

HP: 1580/1580 MP: 600/600

STR: 5 + 2 Fear Resistance: 5

AGI: 2 Shadow Resistance: 5

DEX: 5 + 1 Disease Resistance: 30

VIT: 29 + 39 Cold Resistance: 5

WIS: 27 + 48 Lightning Resistance: 5

Available: 21 Fire Resistance: 15

Skills: [A] Summon Skeleton LV. 11| [A] Summon Skeleton Mage LV. 5| [A] Decay LV. 4| [A] Reanimate Dead LV. 4 | [A] Bone Armor LV. 3 | [A] Vast Shadows | [A] Temporary Grave LV. 1 | [P] Sixth Sense | [P] Bravery LV. 3| [P] Mutated | [P] Pain Resistance LV. 3 | [P] Skeletal Mastery LV. 5 | [P] Intimidate Living LV. 2 | [P] Inner Calm LV. 3 | [P] Necrotic Vision | [P] Blood Thirsty LV. 2 | [P] Cold Hearted LV. 2 | [P] Poison Immunity | [P] Branded

And while I couldn’t be one-hundred percent certain, it seemed that every skill had, in fact, gained a level. Even my passives like Blood Thirsty and Cold Hearted had each leveled up. Interesting though, was that skills provided solely from items had not leveled, like Temporary Grave or Intimidate Living. While the system hadn’t provided any number, it seemed like I had received a massive amount of EXP and skill experience after exiting the dungeon?

It mentioned evolving abilities, but what had evolved wasn’t readily apparent, not without going over my skills, nor did I see the title I had received, but I did see a new passive in my skill list that glowed an ominous red.

Branded: Your existence has been noted. You are being watched.

“Does… everyone have a branded passive?” I asked the group. Somehow, only Mark didn’t have the mark, er brand, and he was the only one who hadn’t picked a class. It was an interesting distinction, but everyone who had skills and a class was branded.

“What did we miss while we were gone?” Lucas wondered aloud. I had no other information than the unusual condition, and could only go off my own deductions. The post-apocalypse world was trying to kill us though, so this couldn’t be anything good.

“Let’s return to the road and get our bearings,” Jessica suggested, and no one disagreed. The feeling of being watched only grew stronger as we fully left the forest and walked along the open field. The gnoll encampment stood miles in the distance, towering and imposing as it did before, except there was no movement of troops or banging war drums; it seemed even the fearsome gnolls had closed their doors to outsiders.

“I really don’t like this,” Anna said, and when I thought she was going to say something useful about the change in the gnoll camp, she added, “I really don’t look good bathed in this hue. Why couldn’t it be purple instead?”

“Can you keep those thoughts to yourself maybe?” Richard jabbed back, which got him a playful gesture as though she were going to blast him. The two were still the best of friends, despite Maria taking the place of a younger sister and the close bond the two girls shared. None of us knew exactly what Richard and Anna had experienced to bond them before they met us, but it couldn’t have been pleasant.

The road was waiting for us just where we left it... I think. The crimson hue coating everything made me feel lethargic. It was menacing and yet so dull as to leave me fatigued. Everything was red, so much that when I closed my eyes the shade lingered behind my eyelids.

“We’re losing HP slowly,” Jessica announced. “It took time for me to notice, but being in this red light is harming us.” We were quite resilient now, and with our passive HP regen being inhuman already, it meant that the red light was doing a considerable amount of damage over time.

I checked my own stats and confirmed I had lost 5 HP in that short walk. It didn’t sound like much, but that was just a short ten or fifteen-minute walk. That level of damage over time would kill a weaker person in just two or three hours.

While uncertain, the massive earthquakes and restructuring that left almost every manmade building we saw completely destroyed and uninhabitable… the number of places you could go to escape from this red light were… very few. This entire event was by design. They had lured the hiding rats from their dens and were now cooking them alive, watching to see how they would react. Sick and twisted…

Our current problems all seemed to come from the swirling mass of blood in the sky. The hair on the back of my neck rose and I felt familiar chills from Sixth Sense as I looked at it. The crimson flames licked the air like dancing shadows, spawning beautiful mirages with each touch. It was hypnotizing to look at, almost entrancing.

I found myself wanting to look away, but suddenly couldn’t. That ephemeral feeling of unease rushed through me with so much intensity it was unbearable. Sharp pain assaulted every sense, as if an icepick had been lodged deep in my skull and then twisted.

And yet, I couldn’t close my eyes or look away. I couldn’t open my mouth; I couldn’t do anything. Instead, a giant eye was staring back at me. Its golden pupils shaped like two crescent moons, lifeless and uncaring: inhuman, as if it was staring at an ant it could crush without effort.

“Mike?” Jessica noticed my abnormality first. “Mike, what’s wrong?” I fell to my knees and couldn’t look away from the eye. A fog shrouded my thoughts and I grasped my throat as air wouldn’t ender my lungs. An invisible pressure pushed down on me from all sides, threatening to bury me in its embrace. A sickening sweetness filled my mouth as I fought with all my might to break free from its harrowing gaze.

My HP started to decline rapidly as my vision was blurring, and yet that golden pupil remained crystal clear in my view. I feared that even passing out wouldn’t save me from its gaze. “Thomas, heal him!” The voice was close yet far, and while my HP increased, the familiar warmth I had come to know didn’t reach me.

Whether by sheer luck or quick thinking, Richard suddenly rushed in front of me and shrouded me from the red hue, blocking my vision of the demonic eye. A sudden influx of air threatened to burst my lungs as I leaned over and coughed hard.

The others had already spread around me in a battle formation, assuming an enemy attack. It was, but I doubted it was an enemy attack we could have done anything about it. “Thank you, Richard.” I forced out the words through battered breaths. I’d have vomited if there was anything left in my stomach.

“What happened?” Lucas had his back to mine, covering a blind spot behind us as he asked.

“The portal, there’s an eye in the portal.” I didn’t know how else to explain it. Either the portal itself was an eye, or something looked at me through the portal. The meaning of being watched suddenly felt much more real.

If the group hadn’t seen me clawing at my throat, red faces and eyes bulging, they may have not believed me. The spittle of blood on the asphalt was proof enough of my struggle. The force I had to exert to feel like I was not going to be crushed under that gaze was enough for me to bite a nasty gash into my tongue and for my ears to pop. Fortunately, two heals from Thomas had me back in good shape.

“Either the portal is an eye, or something looked through it… but that gaze nearly killed me.” In fact, without my companions here I was surely deader than dead. If the gaze had not depleted my HP to zero, passing out in the bloody hue would have finished me off for certain.

“Everyone is to avoid looking at the sky,” Lucas issued the instruction immediately. “We must find shelter right away. After that we should go through our abilities and see what’s changed. We need a plan.” No one disagreed as we hurried north up the road.

It became obvious very quickly though, that just being out of vision, didn’t mean the red hue didn’t affect us. Behind trees, inside an abandoned car, under the dilapidated and totaled roof of a metal shed: nothing stopped that ticking DoT, even being covered in a layer of darkness didn’t change it.

Fortunately for us we had Thomas, and potions if need be. His MP regeneration was fast enough to use an AoE heal that would top us all off regularly. We were okay for a few days at the very least.

The previous danger washed over like a passing wave, and besides the color change, the surroundings were not much different looking than when we had left. Random downed trees still blocked the road, but the leaves had withered and disappeared with the wind, looking somewhat like a tree graveyard.