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The Apocalypse Grinder - Chapter 53
🕑 Added 2025-06-19 09:24:41 +0000 UTC<< Chapter 52 | Index | Chapter 54 >>
Another keening wail split the silence after Keith’s joke. The man in question had just staggered to his feet after being smashed into a desk. The desk looked oddly familiar, but it was the least strange sight greeting Ronan as he returned to consciousness.
The source of the horrifying sounds was revealed a moment later. A colossal fox, eight feet tall even while standing on all fours, padded into the wreckage after Keith.
It barely noticed Ronan, crouching down and snarling at Keith. Ronan noticed it had two tails, both swaying gently behind it while it faced down his former boss.
There were about half a dozen system messages blinking in his vision, demanding attention, but the immediate threat was a far more pressing matter. With a grunt he hauled himself to his feet and drew Thurg’s Razorspear from his inventory.
The slight noise he made gave away his position, making the fox’s snout snap towards his position. Realising it had one more snack, it ran its tongue along the top row of its needlepoint fangs.
Whatever this creature had been before, it had been twisted beyond recognition. This was a monster. The line of text floating above its head confirmed that.
[Two-Tailed Fox Lv.23]
While it wasn’t quite the monsters that Ronan had grown used to fighting during his time in the tutorial, he knew exactly how to deal with these things. With overwhelming force.
The fox had yet to attack after realising it had one more annoyance to keep an eye on, so Ronan took advantage of its hesitation. There were just ten or so metres between them, far from the range limit of his breaking charge.
With full bars of health, mana, and stamina, he was confident in taking the beast down before it could raise a single claw. He gathered his stamina, feeling it traversing through him as he activated breaking charge and double strike at the same time.
Using both skills was probably overkill, but he didn’t want to take any chances. Who knew how a fox monster compared to goblins? They might be much stronger for their level.
He felt a lurch as a large chunk of his stamina left him. His body flashed, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
The barbed spear pierced the fox’s neck, a second ethereal spear striking the same point a millisecond later. Ronan tore his weapon out, the barbs carving out chunks of flesh.
A crimson mist sprayed in the air as the fox slumped forward, dead. That felt… too easy. Then again, it was ten levels below me.
You have killed [Two-Tailed Fox Lv.23]!
+64 Copper Credits
+1 [Spear I] Mastery
+Fox fur (Common)
The rewards were fairly lacklustre, though he suspected he might be able to make a warm coat from the beast’s fur. Not that he had the faintest idea about leatherworking or tailoring…
“You alright, mate?” he asked Keith as he made his way towards the wounded man.
“Yeah, you got here in the nick of time. It only managed to leave a few surface wounds,” Keith replied, wiping the blood from his forehead on his shirt.
It was already covered in dark red stains from their time in the tutorial, so one more wouldn’t make much difference. They really needed to find some clean clothes and ideally, have a bath.
“I’m glad. Would have been pretty tragic to get through that damned tutorial only to die in the first ten seconds back home,” Ronan chuckled with mirth.
“You’re telling me. What happened there? I woke up only to find you knocked out. Your eyes opened, glowing all purplish, before you passed out again,” Keith explained, making Ronan frown.
What was that weird white space, then? Was I here this whole time? he wondered. He might never know, now that the old man was gone.
The kill notification along with that line of thought brought his attention back to all the messages blinking in his vision. They would need to find shelter, food, and water, but he could inspect them on the way.
“Did you manage to figure out where we are?” he asked Keith, who was kicking softly at the fox’s corpse.
“Just as we predicted. You didn’t recognise the desks? We’re in the office. What remains of it, anyway,” Keith replied, pointing at the remains of the desk he’d crashed into earlier.
“Huh, I guess it was the most likely option but it still feels weird. Being back here after all… that.”
“Right. I bet dad will be pissed knowing the building is nothing but dust and rubble,” Keith snorted.
“Did you manage to look around? Is the city the same as before? The system mentioned something about terraforming and gave the planet a weird name,” Ronan asked.
“Only briefly. There were a lot of familiar sights, but the general terrain has completely shifted. And everything beyond the city is… scary. I mean just have a look over there.” Keith raised a finger, pointing to a point in the distance.
Ronan followed it, eyes widening to the size of saucers as he saw what Keith was trying to point out. It was a mountain, rising from the ground where the Shard had once stood.
What shocked Ronan wasn’t the fact that a mountain had appeared in the middle of London. No, that was almost anticlimactic given that he’d known about the terraforming beforehand.
What shocked him was the fact it had to have been at least fifteen thousand metres tall, disappearing into the clouds above as though piercing heaven.
“That’s nuts,” he muttered.
“And that’s only the most prominent change. There’s way more. Despite the similarities I don’t think we can treat this like the same city. Let’s try to find a building that isn’t wrecked and set up a temporary base. We can figure out our next steps after that,” Keith suggested.
It was a good plan. Perhaps being back in somewhat familiar surroundings had given Keith a dose of confidence. It was what he’d planned to do anyway, so he simply nodded and the two men made their way onto the streets of London.
They made it about twenty metres before Keith froze. His mouth was hanging open and his eyes stared emptily into the space head.
“You alright, mate?” Ronan asked with worry.
“Yeah… I mean, not really. Holy crap. You should probably read the system messages, if you’ve been ignoring them until now,” Keith replied.
Ronan had been planning to do that anyway, so he allowed the first blinking message to expand into his vision. Reading through it, he couldn’t help gritting his teeth in frustration.
Congratulations on successfully clearing the tutorial, citizens of Planet 2.48e11E! In order to integrate the populations of the four planets which were merged to form this integrated world, there will be a series of trials to help you develop and grow.
Welcome to Phase 1 of the 103rd Grand Integration!
The world has been split into sectors. Each sector contains an equal number of challengers and either a native boss-tier monster or a settler incursion force.
Within each sector there is a settlement pillar to be claimed. There are many ways to claim the pillar as your own and they are for you to discover.
Once all pillars have been claimed, the boundaries between sectors will disappear, marking the end of Phase 1.
Good luck, citizens of Planet 2.48e11E!
“Looks like our problems are only just beginning, Keith,” Ronan said, realising the tutorial was only a taste of the shitstorm that was to come.
“Speak for yourself, I want no part in that nonsense,” Keith replied, earning a sharp laugh from Ronan, who almost wanted to agree. “Food and shelter first.”
On that matter they were of the same mind. Before addressing the rest of the blinking messages and figuring out what his old ancestor had done to him, they needed to find a place to camp out.
Ronan chewed on a protein bar. It wasn’t quite stale, but there was a distinct off-ness to it. Maybe the terraforming had affected the food, too?
Even so it filled him up and gave him the energy he needed. A gulp of water washed it down, after which he burped and leaned back against the cold concrete.
It had only taken him and Keith fifteen minutes to find a building that hadn’t been wrecked beyond habitability. Oddly, the place they’d found was still under construction, which had apparently worked in its favour during the terraforming.
It was a lifeless concrete box, but it gave them a great view of their surroundings. No monsters would be able to sneak up on them.
Or other humans.
Ronan was well aware of the danger his own species posed now. That wasn’t to say he would openly distrust everyone he met, but a healthy dose of caution would go a long way.
And if what the system had said was true, then humanity was no longer alone as the sole sentient species on their planet. Three other planets had been merged into theirs, presumably each with their own dominant species that had been ready for integration.
Fed and watered, he was finally able to take a moment to read through all the system messages that had been demanding his attention since he returned home. Clearly it had a lot to say about what Azathere had done.
After reading through just the first one, so did Ronan.
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Comments
IdolTrust
Time to learn about the world. And where points of interest lies. The. Die to claim them for yourself.
Julia Niles
Fuck you, you didn’t kill yourself
