Awakening a 10,000x Skill Proficiency Multiplier in the Apocalypse

The first morning of the apocalypse did not have a beautiful sunrise. The sky above the industrial district of 2077 remained a dark crimson.

Dark clouds churned angrily in the sky. They cast a bloody tint over the massive five-kilometer radius of the Sanctuary.

Sebastian stood on the high basalt ramparts of his newly manifested Citadel. The cold wind whipped his black leather coat around his ankles.

Beside him, Valerie leaned heavily on her carved oak staff. Her eyes were locked on the horizon.

The golden translucent dome of the Sanctuary defense grid hummed with a low vibration.

At the base of that dome lay a gruesome smoking ring of cooked meat and blackened bone. Thousands of Tier 0 Infected had thrown themselves at the barrier during the night.

The magical barrier had done its job flawlessly. The smell was absolutely horrendous. It was a thick stench of human fat and charred hair that made their throats burn.

”I think the breakfast rush is finally over,” Sebastian muttered dryly. He casually flicked a piece of soot off the polished stone parapet.

”You have a really messed up sense of humor, you know that?” Valerie sighed. She rubbed her temples. She looked exhausted but her posture was straight.

Before Sebastian could reply, a deep rhythmic vibration shook the concrete ruins outside their perimeter.

It was not the erratic stomps of the Infected or the scuttling of Phase Spiders. This was mechanical. Organized. Heavy.

RUMBLE... RUMBLE...

Through the thick smog, two massive shapes emerged.

They were M1 Abrams main battle tanks. Their heavy treads crushed the rusted shells of abandoned civilian cars like tin cans.

Behind them marched a column of roughly two hundred heavily armed soldiers in full tactical gear.

Above the marching infantry, the loud chop of rotor blades cut through the wind.

THWUP-THWUP-THWUP.

Two military Apache helicopters banked through the red clouds. Their spotlights pierced the gloom and locked directly onto the towering black walls of the Sanctuary.

”Well, shit.” Valerie breathed. Her grip tightened on her staff. ”The National Guard.”

”They took their time,” Sebastian noted casually as he rested his elbows on the wall. ”I was starting to think the rats ate them all.”

The military convoy came to a halt exactly one hundred yards from the glowing golden barrier.

The soldiers fanned out and took defensive positions behind the crushed concrete pillars of the old factories. They aimed their assault rifles at the ramparts.

The two tanks slowly rotated their massive turrets. They aimed their 120mm smoothbore cannons directly at the titanium front gates of the Citadel.

A tall man in a pristine officer uniform stepped out from behind the lead tank. He held a heavy-duty megaphone.

This was Colonel Vance. Even from this distance, Sebastian could easily make out the deep lines of stress and sheer panic on the commander’s face with his enhanced vision.

”ATTENTION!” Colonel Vance blared through the megaphone. His voice echoed off the gothic architecture of the fortress. ”THIS IS THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES! YOU ARE IN POSSESSION OF AN UNIDENTIFIED ALIEN STRUCTURE!”

Sebastian snorted.

”Alien structure. That is a new one. Give the system some credit, Vance. It is high-gothic fantasy.”

”WE HAVE THE PERIMETER SURROUNDED!” Vance continued to yell. His voice cracked slightly with adrenaline.

”LOWER YOUR SHIELDS! COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR! WE BELIEVE YOU ARE THE EPICENTER OF A BIOCHEMICAL TERRORIST HAZARD! COMPLY IMMEDIATELY OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!”

Valerie looked at Sebastian.

”They think you caused the mutations. They think you are a bioterrorist.”

”People always look for a logical excuse when the world breaks,” Sebastian replied. He was completely unbothered. ”They see monsters and they think biochemical weapon. They see a magic castle and they think aliens. They are playing by the old rules.”

”So what do we do?” Valerie asked as her dark blue eyes darted toward the massive tank barrels. ”Those are 120mm armor-piercing rounds, Sebastian. Even if this is a Tier 5 wall, they are going to continuously shell us until something breaks.”

”No, they aren’t,” Sebastian said. His voice dropped into a cold deadpan tone.

He didn’t yell back. He didn’t wave a white flag. He didn’t even draw his weapon.

Sebastian simply opened his digital interface. He pulled out a basic pathetic skill book he had looted off a dead goblin weeks ago in his past life.

[Basic Shield]

[Tier: 0 Utility Spell]

It was a flimsy spell used by level 1 players to block rocks thrown by slimes. It absorbed maybe ten points of physical damage before shattering like cheap glass.

Sebastian crushed the book in his fist. The grey motes of light sank into his skin.

[Action Registered: Learn Basic Shield.]

[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000.]

The beautiful blue screens flooded his vision. They overlapped each other in a frantic cascade of server logic trying to catch up to the multiplier.

[Basic Shield leveled up to 10/10! Max Level Reached!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Basic Shield evolves to Tier 1: Iron Ward!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Iron Ward leveled up to 10/10!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Iron Ward evolves to Tier 3: Fortress Barrier!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Fortress Barrier leveled up to 10/10!]

[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Absolute Defense Law Unlocked.]

[Fortress Barrier evolves to Conceptual Law: Aegis of the Sovereign.]

A wave of freezing certainty washed over Sebastian’s brain. He didn’t just understand how to deflect kinetic energy. He understood the absolute concept of sovereign territory.

He understood how to tell the physical universe that nothing was allowed to cross his borders without his explicit permission.

Down on the ground, Colonel Vance lost his patience. The screaming monsters in the city behind him were fraying his nerves. He needed a win. He needed to secure this glowing safe zone.

”LAST WARNING!” Vance barked into the megaphone. ”FIRE A WARNING SHOT DIRECTLY AT THE WALL! SHOW THESE FREAKS WE AREN’T PLAYING AROUND!”

”Yes, sir!” the tank commander yelled.

BOOM!

The M1 Abrams fired. The sound was deafening.

A massive plume of fire and smoke erupted from the barrel. A 120mm high-explosive shell tore through the smog at over three thousand feet per second.

It carried enough kinetic energy to completely vaporize a reinforced concrete bunker.

Valerie flinched. She threw her arms up to shield her face.

Sebastian didn’t even blink. He tapped his finger against the stone parapet. He pushed a tiny fraction of his mana into the newly acquired conceptual law.

”Aegis.” he whispered.

The massive artillery shell hit the invisible barrier of the golden dome.

There was no explosion. There was no shockwave. There was no fire.

FZZZT!

The moment the tip of the heavy ordnance touched the conceptual shield, the system physics violently overwrote the real-world ballistics.

The shell did not detonate. It was instantly and perfectly deconstructed.

The heavy steel casing and the explosive payload shattered into millions of tiny glowing blue pixels.

The pixels rained down softly over the cooked corpses of the Infected like digital confetti.

Down in the ruins, absolute horrified silence gripped the military convoy.

Colonel Vance lowered his megaphone. His jaw hung open.

The tank crew popped the hatch and stared at the golden barrier in pure disbelief. They had just fired the pinnacle of human engineering and it had turned into nothing.

”What... what the hell was that?” A soldier whispered. His rifle was shaking in his hands.

Sebastian stood tall on the ramparts. He looked down at the terrified army. He didn’t need a megaphone.

He tapped into his mana pool and projected his voice. He let it carry the heavy unnatural resonance of a high-tier entity.

”You are trespassing on private property.” Sebastian’s voice boomed.

It wasn’t loud but it rattled directly inside the skulls of every soldier present. It was cold and utterly devoid of human empathy.

”This is the Sanctuary. This is sovereign territory.” Sebastian stated. His silver-tinged eyes glared down at the Colonel.

”The old world is dead, Vance. Your government is dead. And your big guns are nothing but cheap toys now.”

He leaned over the edge of the dark stone.

”I am currently accepting applications for laborers and crafters. If you want to enter, you come to trade. If you point another weapon at my walls, I won’t just block it. I will selectively delete your entire convoy from existence. Do we understand each other?”

Colonel Vance swallowed hard. He looked at his tank and then back up to the man standing atop a magical fortress.

The military had lost. The rules had changed.

”Hold your fire!” Vance screamed to his men. His voice trembled. ”Nobody shoot! Stand down!”

Sebastian let out a short tired sigh. He turned his back on the military and looked at Valerie.

She was staring at him with a mix of absolute awe and sheer terror.

”See?” Sebastian said. He offered a dry smile. ”Diplomacy. Now let’s figure out how we’re going to clean up all these dead zombies on our front porch.”