Exultation
Chapter One: A Happy Adventure!
October 1st, 2026
Central Texas
William was pumping gas into his beat up old truck when he jerked in surprise as a loud rushing sound echoed all around him from high up in the air.
He quickly darted out from under the overhang of the pumps and stared in slack jawed amazement and shock as massive black pillar like obelisks fell from the sky. They dropped like asteroids, only lacking the fire of reentry. They parted clouds easily before slamming into the ground around him in the distant horizon. They had seemed close but apparently they were actually farther away then he'd first suspected.
"What in the fuck?!" He said in more shock as he realized words were appearing within his mind, not like a hologram within his vision, but more like a HUD within his mind.
*Ding!*
— Earth-
88754623 has been assimilated into Nix-Truemeana-25!
— Welcome to the Greater Multiverse!
— Dungeons are now online!
— Seeding mana across the atmosphere!
— Prepare for exultation meatbags!
He felt a great and terrible foreboding at the words, suspecting in his heart of hearts terrible things were ahead.
*Ding!*
— One hundred percent mana saturation achieved!
— The Empyrean System is now online!
—
Rolling 1d1000000 to determine class rarity!
— 1d1000000 = [1000000]
— Congratulations! You got first place!
— Congratulations! You got the highest roll possible!
— Generating a random legendary class as winning bonus!
"Nice...?" William uttered in a daze.
— Class: [Void Battlemage ] has been obtained!
— Creation: [Void Glaive] has been learned!
"Edgy." William muttered a bit sarcastically, yet with a deep interest.
— Evolving to a greater form as a high roll bonus!
"What the fuck..." William muttered in a disgruntled tone as pulsing black light erupted beneath his skin, right where his heart should be, suffusing him with pure power. "Hnnrrggg, goddammit, that fucking, gah, fugin hurts!"
— Race: [Human Trash ] → [Dark Elf ]
— Perk: [Death Empowerment] has been learned!
"Human trash?" William mutters to himself as he stares at the screen. "Kinda fucking rude, but whatever."
He feels...different.
Looking down at his hands shows them to instead of being a pale white, they are instead a dusky attractive brown. He quickly sprints back to his truck, yanking the side mirror to reveal his face. He isn't Human anymore.
Dark Elf the prompt had said.
The word strikes him as he stares at his face. Long pointed delicate ears, high aristocratic cheekbones, smooth dusky skin, full lips, larger angular bright purple eyes, full and thick eye lashes, lustrous and silky ebony locks of hair. He's ridiculously attractive, the kind of face that makes women do triple takes and moistens panties in moments.
It's also alien from his old face.
He'd been attractive before. Long, thick brown hair, hazel eyes, thick eyelashes, nice lips, strong face. No real blemishes or defects really. Not exactly handsome really but resting within that grey space between attractive and handsome. It had finally occurred to him when he took a long look at himself that he realized he was an attractive man. His past girlfriends had all be very pretty, and his wife had been no exception. He'd really just felt like he had lucked out his whole life until his wife had finally gotten tired of it and smacked him in the head and point blank told him he was, with a direct quote, "fuck good looking you obtuse man!"
Low-self esteem, the bane of his existence until his 30's.
That wasn't an issue now though, for he so far beyond the fucking curve for a good looking person it was ridiculous. Still, he had other things to worry about then how he was now a top tier attractive Dark Elf. Like the huge black obelisks that had dropped from the sky that were ominous as fuck, or the new powers he had, or the world being saturated in magic by some extradimensional assholes. Or the mention of dungeons coming online and the Empyrean System, he had a lot of shit the think about.
Though he kinda hoped the dungeon thing wasn't as ominous as it sounded.
— To view one's status simply think or say the word status!
'Status.' William mentally uttered, manfully trying to ignoring the growing chaos around him.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
William Dustin Blackwood
Level: 1 (0/100)
Race: [Dark Elf ]
Class: [Void Battlemage ]
Power: 1
Vigor: 1
Speed: 1
Magic: 1
Charisma: 1
Essence: 0
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
— Perks —
Dark Elf: [Death Empowerment]
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
— Skills —
[N.A]
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
— Spells —
Creation: [Void Glaive]
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
William nodded his head even as he tilted it in thought as he contemplated 'Death Empowerment.'
[Death Empowerment: Gain a chance to be empowered by your kills.]
He hummed, that was quite the nice little perk, kinda vague, but what about 'Void Glaive' now?
[Void Glaive: A spell that creates a Void Glaive.]
Again, not very informative he huffed even as he turned and took a glance around him.
Utter chaos.
People were screaming and running around like a bunch of howling monkeys, in short; panic was king. He had been at a local HEB filling up his truck with gas. Said HEB was now in the process of...being looted. Oh, and a car was on fire at the station he was at...at a gas pump!
He turned and ran back to his truck, pulling the gas pump out and slotting it back into it's slot. Cap twisted back and protective cover in place he hopped into his truck and got the fuck out of there. The radio was blaring about how everyone needed to stay inside until the emergency was over.
William snorted, this didn't seem like the type of emergency that would just become 'over,' this was going to be the norm.
"Motherfucker." William grunted as he twisted his truck out of the way of some dipshit who was swerving all over the road.
He was glad he had his bolt hole he'd bought a year ago. His wife had died to a terrible car accident involving a very large 18 wheeler 2 years ago. Turns out the driver had been very very high at the time. Very very high. Long story short he came into a large amount of money. A cool 1 million would have been the norm from the insurance, but it was doubled due to accidental death to 2 million.
His wife had signed up for the highest amount she could, as she'd been in poor health all over adult life for a variety of reasons and had taken precautions in a type of fatalistic attitude. He'd never thought it was a very healthy mindset but he'd respected her enough to not gainsay her decisions; she was an adult after all. In the end it was lucky he supposed, even if she did end up dying from an accident and not the enumerable illnesses she suffered from.
The separate trucking company, Walmart, and the truck driver were all found to be liable. It turned out the trucking company and someone in Walmart had all known about his drug use. That they had never said anything or reported it meant they were legally fucked. That proof of it had been found meant they were fucked so bad a cheap Thai hooker would have laughed at them.
He hadn't been interested in a long drawn out legal battle though, despite knowing he'd win; so they'd settled out of court for a cool 30 million.
In his eyes it was tainted blood money though.
The love of his life was dead, his personal life in ruins, himself aimless. He'd used the blood money on a whim to buy up the land around his home. Mostly just to waste it on some bullshit really. Some lots were easier to get then others. But as they said, money talked and bullshit walked, and he had a lot of money. He'd ended up with around 100 acres, not a massive amount but enough for his whimsical needs.
Then he'd had one of the weird ass bunker companies come in and dig up a bunch of land and install a fallout style bunker.
He wasn't really a crazy survivalist, well he wasn't crazy now, he'd been a little fucked in the head at the time. Back then he had just wanted to blow some of the awful blood money on something his wife would have rolled her eyes over. So he got a bunch of land along their creek and built a large bomb shelter that could hold 22 people. Despite it being an impulse buy of a, at the time shattered man, it was pretty bitching all said and done.
Still, he may have a bunker but he needed to get to it first!
"What the fuck?!" William screamed as a giant wolf, easily 9 foot at the shoulder, bounded across the road.
His eyes were wide in fear as he saw the monster rip into a screaming woman. The thing viciously tore into the pedestrian, ripping limps off until the lady died screaming. Then it started feasting on her corpse with gusto.
He jerked his eyes to the road and screamed, "MOTHERFUCKER!"
His truck plowed into another giant wolf, the creature staring at him in comical wide eyed disbelief. He grit his teeth as his truck engine gave a godawful whine, the creature bouncing up and over his windshield in a skittering of claws and shrieking metal. His truck fishtailed, his windshield was cracked to fuck and gone, aaaaaaand he lost control.
His last sight was of the truck tilting over and the scenery blurring together.
-Exultation-
William blinked his eyes as he absently wiped the blood from across his face, lovely, he was upside down.
He glanced about, his mind unusually clear for having just been in an accident. He reached down with one hand, bracing himself as his other depressed his seat belt. A click sounded and he slowly lowered himself to the roof of his truck. He glanced about the cab before he shook his head. The clock showed he'd been out for less then a minute, which was good he supposed. He glanced out the broken windshield and frowned, damn safety glass wasn't broken. He tried the doors but they were jammed.
Time for some magic!
Using the spell [Void Glaive] was easy, like an extra limb that had existed all your life. It was fast too, not instant or anything but 3 seconds was a quick enough casting time in his mind. Not short enough to be used if something was breathing down your neck but good enough for most situations. Black motes of light glittered along his fingers as the spell wove itself, before a black glittering glaive was resting within his hands.
The shaft was a matte black and beautifully crafted. The grips a black molded leather, soft but firm when gripped. The blade at the end was long, almost two foot at a guess. It curved in a smooth slopping manner and had a spiked shaft of steel erupting from the base of the blade. The blade was a cutting tool while the spike an impaling implement. The metal of the blade drank in the light around it, darkening the air with it's presence.
All in all a deadly looking melee weapon.
He shifted his grip minutely, before thrusting the edge of the blade into the door frame. He almost fell as the blade cut through the door as if it wasn't there. Literally, it literally cut through like it was air, like the door was nothing; not a speck of resistance. He traced the edges of the door until it gave way with a push of his hand, falling to the pavement with clatter.
William quickly pulled himself from the wreckage of the truck, kicking the door away so he didn't step on it and fall while glancing about the street.
An apartment across the road was on fire, smoke pouring from the building's windows and yellow flames starting to flicker from said windows as well. People were screaming, the lights from an abandoned firetruck were flashing, bodies littered the road. He grimaced as he wiped some drying blood from his face.
"So this is what the apocalypse looks like." William muttered to himself as he glanced about in paranoia.
A glance behind him showed the wolf he'd struck was crawling away from the road on shattered back legs. He frowned but quick peak around showed few monsters at the moment so he darted forward. He licked his lips, the iron taste of blood entering his mouth as he did. He hefted the [Void Glaive] in an awkward grip, fuckin hell he'd never used a polearm before in his life!
Still, the creature was crippled and likely dying, it wasn't even looking in his direction; it ended up being easy.
He sank the curved blade into the middle of it's back. The creatures flesh gave as much resistance as his door did, which was to say none at all. He was starting to suspect a 5 star class was something special if a level 1 spell like [Void Glaive] was so powerful. He sliced through the creatures spine, the blade sinking up to the shaft as it so easily carved through flesh and organ. The creature barely gave a muted cry before it died with a shudder, it's body falling limp.
— [Dire Wolf Lv.3] has been slain! (+300 Essence) (+10% Movement Speed For 15 Minutes)
William blinked at the message, a Dire Wolf he thought to himself and level three at that, and [Death Empowerment] at work too.
*Ding!*
— [
Void Battlemage Lv.1] → [Void Battlemage Lv.2]
— Combat: [Weapon Savant] has been learned!
— Attributes: [POW +1] | [VIG +1] | [SPD +3] | [MAG +3] | [CHR +2]
A thought saw the new skill description pop up.
[Weapon Savant: A skill that allows you to rapidly learn weapon skills.]
William blinked, that would come in very useful.
*Ding!*
— [
Void Battlemage Lv.2] → [Void Battlemage Lv.3]
— Creation: [Void Windmill Shuriken] has been learned!
— Attributes: [POW +1] | [VIG +1] | [SPD +3] | [MAG +3] | [CHR +2]
Another mental commands saw the spell pop up for him to read.
[Void Windmill Shuriken: A spell that creates a Void Windmill Shuriken.]
He smiled, now he had a ranged attack weapon, even if it was a ridiculous one.
He frowned at the carnage around him as he turned and ran back to his truck. He only needed to go a mile before he'd be back at his property. Still, a mile in monster infested streets before it opened up to fields was going to be unpleasant.
He ducked into his truck grabbing a bottle of water from the flipped vehicle. He slipped inside the truck for a moment as well, twisting the cap off and chugging the bottle of water. He tossed it aside and grabbed another, his last one as well.
'Status.' William mentally intoned.
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
William Dustin Blackwood
Level: 3 (0/300)
Race: [Dark Elf ]
Class: [Void Battlemage ]
Power: 3
Vigor: 3
Speed: 7
Magic: 7
Charisma: 5
Essence: 0
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
— Perks —
Dark Elf: [Death Empowerment]
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
— Skills —
Combat: [Weapon Savant]
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
— Spells —
Creation: [Void Glaive]
Creation: [Void Windmill Shuriken]
—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
William smiled grimly as he downed the last of the water. He wasn't really sure what the stats actually meant but he hoped he was doing well from them. He popped his neck for a moment, took a quick look around before he darted out of his truck and ran for it.
He blinked in shock as he moved!
He'd been in decent shape before, but nothing should have allowed him to move like this! He was moving faster then an Olympic athlete in their prime, he couldn't even tell how fast. Still, he didn't need to get distracted by his new prowess. Monsters could be anywhere and dying at the starting gate would just be embarrassing.
A high pitched male scream from a nearby building made him flinch and run faster.
-Exultation-
William breathed deeply as he inhaled precious air.
He was definitely better at everything then he had been before, but apparently his endurance had limits. He was still leaps and bounds better then before though. He just had another few hundred feet before he was home.
He dismissed the pop ups within his mindscape with a thought.
— [Goblin Scrub Lv.1] has been slain! (+25 Essence)
— [Goblin Scrub Lv.1] has been slain! (+25 Essence)
The windmill shuriken was as sharp as his glaive was and made of the same type of metal and he'd used it expertly to cut down the pair of Goblins that had been mulling about on the road home. The creatures were stereotypical fantasy Goblins too. Short, ugly, green skinned, long nosed, warty creatures in loincloths with a spear and axe respectively. A quick peek after the fact in morbid curiosity showed him they were male and anatomically correct.
On the smaller side though.
A nice little bit of Essence but nothing like the level three Dire Wolf he'd killed. He was willing to bet he'd leveled twice because he was only a level one at the time and the Dire Wolf had been level three. Still, he'd gotten lucky, a powerful class and race plus plowing into that wolf at 45 miles an hour with his truck. The fact that it hadn't died on impact really put it into perspective on how tough it was.
And it was only a level three at that, the far higher leveled creatures...hoo boy.
Still, his [Void Windmill Shuriken] was damn near almost too effective. After it had cut through that pair of Goblins it just kept going! He'd retrieved it over a 150 feet away, the thing seemed to not give one shits worth of care about silly things like air resistance. It also showcased how sharp the blades were on it when he saw it had bounced across the road and dug terrible gouges into the asphalt.
Still, he jogged the last stretch of road until he found his house, the sun just starting to set.
He quickly jogged up, his eyes peeled in every direction for monsters. He seemed to have lucked out as he got to his door, only to frown as he realized he'd left his keys in the ignition of his truck. With a minor scowl he slipped the blade of his glaive through the deadbolt before entering his house quickly. He slid a sturdy scrap piece of 2x4 under the nob, propping it up against a hastily moved shelf.
He sighed as he leaned against a wall, his adrenaline bleeding off for the moment.
"Fucking apocalypse, what the fuck." William muttered as he ran a hand over his face.
For a solid minute he leaned against the wall, until he shook his head. He couldn't stay in this house, it wasn't defensible, too many windows and thin walls. He wouldn't feel safe until he was within his bunker. Still, he'd came here for a reason, and that was to get his cats. He quickly made his way to the kitchen where his fuzzies were waiting for him.
"Hey babies." William said softly to his cats, his furry little kitties all staring at him with fuzzed up fur and wide eyes. "Damn, that's right, I'm different now."
C'mon guys, it's me, daddy, don't freak out on me." William said softly as he slowly slid to the floor.
He snatched a couple cans of cat food on his way down, using his [Void Glaive] to cut them open. He poured the cat food a foot away from him directly onto the floor. He watched his kitties as they all warily watched him from a dozen feet away.
"C'mon guys, I'm still me, I'm still the person who scoops up your cat poop and cleans up your barf. Come and get your food so I can stuff you in your carriers before a fucking monster comes through the walls." William said soothingly as he snapped his fingers at them.
Soon enough Cupcake sauntered up, now unconcerned with his inhuman appearance. She was a typical tabby cat, brown and black fur in stripes going down her body, with a bobbed tail. She'd gotten an unknown injury years ago and it had to be cut off due to infection, not that it slowed her down any. She started to eagerly eat the canned cat food, swallowing it down quickly before the others got there. She was always greedy. He reached out and stroked her, her purrs instantly starting up at his touch. He smiled, she always was the one he figured someone would scoop up and walk off with, her purring all the way.
Too friendly by half.
The others soon joined in, some slower then others. His orange and white short hair Romper coming up next. He'd found Rompers as a kitten under a pool chemical pallet at Lowes, back when he'd worked as a stocker there. He'd quickly stuffed the cute little orange and white kitten into an empty plant box and took the loudly protesting kitten home with him.
He started purring from his strokes as well, his little nose sniffing his hand before giving him a normal affectionate headbutt. He wondered if his scent was the same maybe? Or similar perhaps? Still, he stroked his cat happily.
The next was Sprinkles, the grumpiest cat that had ever grumped and he'd owned dozens of cats over his lifetime. She was a short hair, mostly black with a few large splotches of white, and a sprinkling of black hairs with white on the tips of them. Hence her name, Sprinkles.
She growled hungrily as she approached him, sounding hateful but actually being about normal for her and not really being angry. She'd been separated from her mother too early and as far as he was aware had never learned to do anything but growl. Hungry growls, angry growls, happy growls, annoyed growls, lazy growls, sleepy growls, bored growls. He and his wife had gotten her when she was really really young, bottle feeding age. Some punk ass kid had literally walked up to his wife when she was pumping gas and said "want a kitten?" and dumped the tiny thing in her surprised hands. By the time she looked up to question the kid he was already booking it in a sprint, the shit.
He'd grumbled about yet another kitten his weak willed wife had picked up for the next few days. Then the vile little bundle of cute fluff and smol squeaks had worked it's evil kitten magic upon him. Like they always did. He still had pictures of the little cute Sprinkles as a kitten sleeping in his arms on her back after getting a bottle of milk into her, little kitten snores leaving her nose and mouth.
Evil kittens.
The last was a solid black cat named Swevils, the youngest and most rambunctious of the three.
He loved to chase the other older cats and play with them, and attacking his toes by creeping under his sheets as he slept and attacking. Hence his name, Swevils, sweet+evil. Still, he allowed him to pet him too after some sniffs as well. Soon all was well within the kitty universe, pets to be had, and canned cat food snacks to eat.
He sighed as he quickly went and got the cat carriers from a closet, he wanted out of this house quickly.
He allowed his cats to finish eating before he ruthlessly stuffed them into a pair of carriers, Cupcake and Swevils in one, Rompers and Sprinkles in another. They protested loudly, which he easily ignored. He fetched a backpack, quickly tossing in essentials that he didn't have within the bunker.
Cat medication he kept on hand went first. Flea medication, worming medication, ear mite medication, cat brushes, followed by a bag of sturdy cat toys and enough nip to keep them coked out of their minds for weeks. He also tossed a generous amount of said catnip into their carriers while he continued packing.
If they were stoned out of their gourds then they might be quiet on the way to the bunker, too busy rolling over each other while high to yell.
The next was Human medication. Aspirin, Ibuprofen, caffeine pills, and a first aid kit he didn't want to leave behind. He dumped the whole supply of his late wife's old medications as well. He'd never tossed them cause...well...reasons. Still, she had some exotic stuff that might come in handy for someone else.
Next he glanced at his guns.
It hadn't escaped his notice that he had not heard a single gun shot the whole time he'd been fleeing. Central Texas+the apocalypse, and not a single gunshot. He strongly suspected something, the mana saturation most likely, was fucking with all firearms. Which made sense if this was an actual invasion, or the start of one. Despite the words from the magic prompt in his head he wasn't convinced an army wasn't going to come rolling through after the monsters got done fucking everything up. Remove guns and humanity was in some serious doodoo. Another point for eventual invasion really, guns, tanks, and jets were humanities bread and butter for combat.
Still at a guess he figured the gunpowder wasn't working. Either magic was fucking with physics or it was messing with certain chemical reactions. Not all of them obviously, vehicles still worked and the electricity was still on. But something was going funky, it should sound like Texas was entering World War 3, but aside from crashing cars, burning buildings, and screaming people it had been quiet.
Still, they had sentimental value for him, as some had belonged to his late wife or were gifts to him from her.
A pair of .22 pistols went into a bag, followed by a very illegal TEC 9 fully auto machine pistol. Last up was a pair of shotguns, a 12 gauge and a 20 gauge respectively. He had plenty of ammo in the bunker, even if it didn't work now, it might work later on once...whatever it was settled down. Magic maybe, who knew.
He snatched up another bag, before he tossed it back, he had as much as he could carry right now.
Backpack went on, gun bag went over that and around his waist, kitties in either hand. He frowned as he realized he couldn't hold his weapons like this. He sighed as he set the carriers down and stuffed all four cats into one. They were all pretty stoned at this point so the bitching was a minimum. This allowed him to hold his [Void Glaive] in his hand, while allowing his magic fade from his [Void Windmill Shuriken], he just hoped he wouldn't need it for the next 300 feet.
-Exultation-
William stared at the mass of gargantuan prickly pair patch with a grin.
His friends had thought he was insane when he actually seeded his land with cactus, making sure to put plenty of fertilizer down too. He'd brought in gown cactus and then planted the fuck out of the field around the bunker entrance with the stuff. He only held back from where the solar panels were located at, a barbwire fence keeping the stuff from growing into his solar field. He figured a mass of cactus 8-10 feet tall and hundreds of feet thick would keep all but the most dedicated out of his land.
Of course he kept a winding path open for him, only occasionally trimming it back for him but it was snake-like and not always easy to get through.
Still, any Texan would take one look at this field of hell and walk the fuck away while shaking their head.
Which was exactly what he wanted.
He quickly hurried through the maze of stabbing cactus. He didn't want to try to have to navigate it in the dark, and the sun was almost fully set at this point. He'd never tried to navigate the cactus patch at night and he didn't want to try now. Although as the light left the sky he noticed his night vision was fucking amazing. Not quite to the level of full on dark vision but good enough for him to move around in a near moonless night.
It made sense in retrospect, he was a Dark Elf now, enhanced senses were the norm in every bit of fiction that had Elves in it.
He still sighed in relief as he go to the plastic cover for his low metal hatch that rested upon the ground. The solar panel field wasn't far, sitting about 30 feet away. None of it was visible from the road or anywhere nearby, the cactus field was high and wide. To see his solar panels and his hatch would require a helicopter, and even then with the plastic rock covering the metal hatch most people wouldn't know it was there.
Sure, a closer look would reveal the plastic rock for what it was but it was impossible to tell from any real distance.
Still, he leaned down and flipped the secure plastic cover for the keypad and quickly inserted the number code. A soft 'click' sounded below him and he quickly twisted the hatch open, carefully ferrying his cats and bags down the 10 foot long ladder before sealing the hatch behind him. Low energy LED lights suddenly lit up the 30 foot long tunnel as the sensors triggered, which led him to large solid metal door. Another imputed code allowed entrance to this door, which allowed him into the bunker proper.
He sighed, safety at last.
-Exultation-
William frowned as he stared at the information coming in through the internet on his computer. He had several methods of internet connection available to him. First he had a T1 internet landline buried deep in his land, it provided fuck you levels of internet connectivity and speed and he had a special deal (re: bribe money) that made damn fucking sure he never got throttled. He had a secondary back up internet source in the form of the newer Starlink satellite network.
SpaceX was quite the giant today, especially with Musk's Lunar colony kicking off as a test bed for a future Mars colony. The man's logic was that a moon habitat would be harder to survive on then a Mars one, so if they could do it on the Lunar surface for a few years then Mars would be that much easier. He said if something went wrong on the Moon then they were literally right there to help. Every mistake learned from here would be one that wouldn't be made on Mars.
Not that William particularly cared about space all that much at the moment, as apparently the fucking apocalypse was happening not just in Texas but the whole of the world.
"Wonderful." William said with sarcasm. "At least we will have internet for a good long while if nothing else."
He meant that too, a lot of internet infrastructural was up in space now, including servers too. Musk was kinda nuts sometimes but William had actually been pretty proud of the man. He was the only guy who had the means and money who actually wanted to explore space. Everyone else had given up on it as too expensive.
He was glad the net would remain up, assuming magic didn't fuck with the satellites.
He checked some of his sites, Reddit to start with followed by QQ and Discord.
Reddit was a hive of useful information mixed with bullshit. Videos of people being attacked by monsters, some video of monsters getting attacked back, with a lot of people figuring out guns didn't work anymore the hard way. But mostly of the whole world turning into chaos. He winced as a guy shot a Direwolf with a crossbow, before the Direwolf then proceeded to rip the man apart, followed by the person videoing it as well. Videos of similar things were all over the place, and other darker happenings. Apparently everyone was deciding to use this as an excuse to loot everything they could and settle old scores.
Videos of planes falling from the sky and the aftermath of fallen aircraft were also prevalent too. A lot of airports and the cities around them were on fire from aircraft plummeting into them and quickly turning into fiery hellscapes. He wondered why planes were falling out of the sky, as cars and electronics still worked. He gave up figuring that out for the moment, it was a mystery for another time.
People were also putting forth a lot of information on classes.
The vast vast majority of people had simple 1 star classes apparently. Hunters, Guards, Archers, etc. Most of those 1 star classes had a single skill or more rarely a spell. Things like Guard or Defend that helped in defending for the Guard class, or Long Shot for a distant arrow shot for the Archer class, and Tracking and Stealth for the Hunter class. Simple skills that were pretty easy for a normal person to learn before all this. Still, he pitied those 1 star class people. He could see everyone of a higher class ignoring them or even tossing them aside as useless or worse, trying to make them slaves. Human's were dickish like that.
William sighs in sadness, the world as he knew it was coming to an end; and it's death throes would be bloody and painful.
