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

The sound of five hundred heavily armored soldiers marching through the snow was deeply intimidating. It was a rhythmic, pounding drumbeat that commanded absolute respect from anyone who heard it.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

General Iron stood behind his massive front line, his weathered face set in a mask of pure tactical certainty. He had just offered the olive branch. He had given this arrogant, ragged Drifter a chance to walk away with a fraction of the loot. But the idiot had refused his goodwill!

”Shield Wall! Advance!” General Iron’s voice boomed across the icy canyon.

CLANG!

Five hundred heavy steel shields locked together in perfect, terrifying unison. The Iron Covenant moved as a single, unstoppable organism. The jagged spikes protruding from their vanguard formed a moving barricade of death. They didn’t break into a chaotic sprint like the frat boys in the Golden Lions. They marched. Slow, steady, and inevitable.

Sebastian stood in the open, knee-deep in the powdery white snow. The freezing wind whipped his black leather coat around his legs. He didn’t draw his Earth Sword. He didn’t even shift into a combat stance. He just let out a long, highly exaggerated sigh.

”You see, this is the problem with military guys,” Sebastian muttered, glancing over his shoulder at Valerie, Wraith, and Galleon. ”They think entirely in two dimensions. They see a guy in front of them, they march at the guy in front of them. They completely forget to look up.”

”Boss, they have five hundred swords pointing at our dicks,” Galleon pointed out, his dwarven teeth chattering from the cold. ”Maybe less talking, more exploding?”

”Patience, stubby,” Sebastian said.

He dug his right hand deep into the bottomless void of his inventory. He mentally bypassed his god-tier weapons and his ridiculously overpowered combat passives. He was looking for something specific. Something incredibly cheap.

His fingers brushed against a thin, moldy pamphlet he had looted off a dead farmer NPC way back in the tutorial fields. It was practically falling apart.

[Item: Basic Earth Move]

[Tier: 0 Utility Spell]

[Effect: Shifts up to 10 pounds of loose dirt or soil. Useful for planting carrots.]

It was a spell designed for digital gardening!

”Perfect,” Sebastian whispered.

He pulled his hand out of his pocket and crushed the fragile book in his fist. The grey motes of light sank into his skin, instantly integrating with his digital avatar.

The system recognized the new skill. And then, the 10,000x Nexus Glitch violently woke up!

[Action Registered: Learn Basic Earth Move.]

[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000.]

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

[Evolution Requirement Met. Basic Earth Move evolves to Tier 1: Trench Digger!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Trench Digger leveled up to 10/10!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Trench Digger evolves to Tier 3: Seismic Shift!]

[Proficiency Overflow Detected! Seismic Shift leveled up to 10/10!]

[WARNING: Concept Threshold Breached. Geological Law Unlocked.]

[Seismic Shift evolves to Conceptual Law: Terramancy: Reshape.]

A massive, throbbing headache spiked right behind Sebastian’s eyes as the server forcibly downloaded the absolute, fundamental understanding of planetary crusts into his brain. He didn’t just know how to move dirt anymore. He understood the exact structural integrity of tectonic plates. He knew the precise mathematical weak points of every rock, cliff, and mountain within a ten-mile radius!

He looked past the advancing wall of grey steel. He looked past General Iron.

His silver-tinged eyes locked onto the towering, million-ton glacier hanging precariously off the canyon cliff directly above the Iron Covenant’s formation.

”Hey, General!” Sebastian yelled, his voice cutting through the howling wind. ”You guys have great flank coverage! But your anti-air defense is complete dog shit!”

General Iron frowned. His eyes darted upward.

Sebastian didn’t cast a massive, glowing fireball. He didn’t summon a portal. He simply placed his right hand flat against the frozen ground beneath his boots. He tapped into the newly acquired conceptual law and sent a localized, high-frequency kinetic pulse straight into the bedrock.

”Reshape,” Sebastian commanded.

RUMBLE...

The entire canyon shook. It wasn’t a standard earthquake. It was a targeted, surgical strike to the foundation of the mountain!

High above the Iron Covenant, the massive glacier groaned.

CRACK!

The sound was like a thunderbolt going off inside a tin can! A fault line of pure, jagged black tore through the pristine blue ice of the overhanging cliff.

General Iron’s eyes went wide. His pristine, tactical calm shattered in an instant.

”BREAK FORMATION!” he screamed, his voice cracking with absolute terror. ”EVASIVE MANEUVERS! RUN!”

But you can’t outrun gravity. And you definitely can’t outrun a million tons of solid ice!

The glacier detached.

It didn’t fall gracefully. It plummeted with the apocalyptic fury of a meteor strike.

The Iron Covenant soldiers looked up. The sky was entirely blotted out by a descending ceiling of white and blue. The disciplined phalanx instantly devolved into a chaotic, screaming mob. Men shoved each other, slipping in the snow, their heavy gunmetal armor suddenly feeling like concrete shoes.

”Holy fuck,” Valerie breathed, her hands flying to her mouth as she watched the mountain fall.

BOOM!

The impact was absolutely deafening! The ground violently bucked, throwing Sebastian and his team to their knees. A massive, blinding cloud of pulverized snow and ice exploded outward, washing over the valley like a frozen tidal wave.

Underneath that ice, the slaughter was instantaneous and unthinkably brutal.

Four hundred heavily armored players were crushed in a fraction of a microsecond. The physics engine shrieked as it tried to render the catastrophic kinetic trauma.

The heavy steel plate armor of the Covenant didn’t offer a single ounce of protection. It folded like cheap tin foil!

SNAP! CRUNCH! SQUELCH!

The sickening sounds of metal collapsing and digital bones snapping echoed through the canyon. Skulls popped under the immeasurable pressure. Lungs were flattened into paper-thin sheets.

Blood didn’t spray into the air. It was violently squeezed out of the seams of their crushed armor, pooling instantly on the ground before the extreme ambient cold froze it into a gruesome, horrific red slush.

The health bars of four hundred elite players dropped from full to absolute zero before their brains could even process the pain.

Sebastian slowly stood up, brushing the powdery snow off his leather coat. He looked at the devastation with cold, calculating apathy.

The pristine, organized army was gone. In its place was a massive, jagged mountain of fallen glacier.

But not everyone was dead.

Down in the center of the impact zone, a blinding sphere of golden light pulsed through the dust.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes.

As the snow settled, General Iron was revealed. The Paladin was on his knees, panting heavily, surrounded by a glowing, translucent bubble of holy magic. He had managed to trigger his ultimate Invulnerability skill a millisecond before the ice hit!

The golden bubble had held the weight of the mountain at bay, creating a tiny, ten-foot crater of safety.

But the safety was entirely psychological.

Iron was completely trapped. He was standing in a literal bowl of mashed men! The crushed, mangled, and flattened corpses of his guildmates were piled up against the outside of his shield. The red slush of their frozen blood coated his boots.

The General looked around at the horrific meat grinder that used to be his elite unit. His jaw trembled. He looked up at the ragged Drifter standing untouched on the ridge.

”You... you monster,” Iron choked out, his voice entirely hollow.

”I told you I don’t share loot,” Sebastian replied smoothly, walking down the slope toward the trapped guild leader. ”Your invulnerability shield lasts, what? Ten seconds? Then the mountain finishes the job.”

Sebastian stopped at the edge of the crushed ice. He looked down at the General.

”This is the reality of the game now, Iron,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping all humor. ”There are no formations. There is no fair fight. There is only the math. And my math is bigger than yours.”

The golden light of the Paladin’s shield began to flicker. Nine seconds. Eight seconds.

General Iron closed his eyes, accepting his fate. He didn’t beg. He just gripped his sword tighter.

Sebastian raised his hand, fully intending to let the ice crush the man.

But before the shield could fall, the earth beneath them violently shuddered again. And this time, Sebastian hadn’t cast a spell!

RRRROOOOOOAAARRR!

A roar of pure, unadulterated draconic fury tore through the canyon, shaking the very air in Sebastian’s lungs!