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

MmSebastian stumbled out of the transit portal and landed heavily on a grating of dark iron. Beside him, Valerie materialized, her azure silk robes looking significantly more battered than when they had first entered the tower.

”Where’s Wraith?” Valerie coughed, looking around the massive chamber.

”Separated,” Sebastian grunted, his silver eyes scanning their surroundings. ”The System probably threw him into a stealth check room. He’ll be fine. We need to worry about us.”

They were standing in the Elemental Forge.

It was a massive spherical room entirely enclosed in thick glowing walls of reinforced bedrock. There were no enemies. There were no bosses to fight. The room itself was the boss.

[Trial Commencing: The Elemental Forge.]

[Objective: Survive the Cycle.]

Before Valerie could ask what the cycle was, the air in the room was forcefully sucked out.

FWOOSH!

The system didn’t just lower the oxygen. It completely deleted the atmosphere. The room was plunged into an absolute vacuum.

”Guh!” Valerie clutched her throat, her eyes widening in panic. Her health bar instantly began to drop as the lack of pressure caused her blood to boil in her veins.

Sebastian’s twenty percent physical synchronization fought back against the sudden pressure drop, but his lungs still burned in agony. He tapped into his inventory, bypassed the combat spells, and visualized a basic wind manipulation skill.

[Action Registered: Cast Basic Aeromancy.]

[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000.]

[Evolution: Conceptual Law - Life Breath.]

He grabbed Valerie’s shoulder. A shimmering bubble of condensed, oxygen-rich air enveloped their heads.

Valerie gasped violently, sucking in huge mouthfuls of the manufactured air. ”Fvck! It just took the air! Who codes a room with no air?!”

”Don’t get comfortable,” Sebastian warned, his voice echoing weirdly inside the air bubble. ”The room is shifting.”

The rusted iron grating beneath their feet suddenly flashed a blinding white. The vacuum was gone, replaced instantly by a terrifying drop in temperature.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK!

The walls of the forge instantly coated in a thick layer of ice. The temperature hit absolute zero. It was a cold so profound that the system struggled to keep their bodies from shattering like glass.

Valerie screamed, her lips turning blue. Her high-tier robes offered zero thermal protection. ”Aegis!” she yelled, slamming her staff into the iron grate.

The kinetic shield erupted around them, forming a blue dome that forcefully repelled the cold.

”Good catch,” Sebastian shivered, his black leather coat turning brittle and stiff. ”Keep the shield up. The cycle isn’t over.”

The freezing temperature held for exactly ten seconds. Then, the true horror of the Forge activated.

The ice on the walls didn’t just melt, it instantly vaporized. The reinforced bedrock began to glow a furious red. The temperature skyrocketed from absolute zero to the surface temperature of the sun.

RUMBLE...

The iron grating beneath their feet began to melt, turning into a sticky orange sludge. From massive open vents in the ceiling, literal waterfalls of liquid magma began to pour into the room.

”Magma!” Valerie shrieked. ”Sebastian, the room is flooding!”

She poured every ounce of her stamina into her Aegis shield. The shield strained, groaning violently as tons of molten rock rained down upon it from above.

The heat radiating through the magic barrier was oppressive, turning the air inside their bubble into a hot sauna.

”Hold the line, Princess,” Sebastian said, his eyes rapidly scanning his corrupted interface.

SPLAT! HSSSSS!

A massive wave of magma crashed directly onto the top of Valerie’s shield. The sheer heat began to rapidly degrade the construct.

”I can’t!” Valerie cried out.

The heat inside the dome reached a critical threshold. Valerie’s cosmetic armor, the elegant silver plating on her shoulders and chest, began to superheat.

”AHHH!” Valerie screamed in pure agony.

The metal plating on her shoulders literally melted, fusing with her skin. The game’s pain receptors fired at maximum capacity, flooding her brain with the sensation of being cooked alive.

But she didn’t drop the staff or the shield. She dropped to one knee, tears of pain streaming down her face. Her teeth locked in a desperate grimace as she forced her mana to keep the barrier intact.

Sebastian dropped to his knees beside her. He grabbed her unburned arm, forcefully injecting his own limitless mana pool directly into her avatar to keep her heart beating through the shock.

”You’re doing great,” Sebastian yelled over the roaring of the magma. ”Just hold on!”

He needed a counter. He couldn’t delete the room, they needed the exit portal to spawn. He needed to survive the heat.

He reached into the bottom of his inventory, pulling out a trash-tier buff book he had bought for two copper coins.

[Basic Heat Resistance]

He crushed it in his fist.

[Action Registered: Cast Basic Heat Resistance.]

[Nexus Glitch Activated: Proficiency x10,000.]

The blue cascading prompts flooded his vision, overriding the red warning alarms of the burning room.

[Basic Heat Resistance leveled up to 10/10!]

[Evolution Requirement Met. Evolves to Tier 1: Fire Ward!]

[Proficiency Overflow! Evolves to Tier 3: Magma Carapace!]

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

[Magma Carapace evolves to Conceptual Law: Thermal Immunity.]

A wave of incredibly soothing coolness washed over Sebastian’s body. The terrifying heat of the Forge simply ceased to exist for him.

The conceptual law didn’t just give him armor, it mathematically stated that his physical form could not be altered by heat.

He stood up.

”Drop the shield,” Sebastian commanded.

”Are you crazy?!” Valerie sobbed, her flesh smoking. ”We’ll burn!”

”Trust me,” Sebastian said softly.

He stepped directly through the boundary of the shield and out into the roaring flood of molten magma.

His black leather coat didn’t catch fire. His boots didn’t melt. He stood in the liquid rock as if he were standing in a warm bath.

He turned back to Valerie, who was staring at him in disbelief. He reached through the barrier, scooped her up in his arms, and pulled her out of the failing shield.

The moment she crossed the threshold, Sebastian wrapped his coat around her and projected a fraction of his Thermal Immunity over her weeping body.

The pain instantly stopped. The heat vanished.

Valerie buried her face in his chest, sobbing violently from the adrenaline crash.

”I got you,” Sebastian murmured, holding her tightly.

He turned and casually waded through the river of magma, carrying Valerie toward the heavy iron doors of the exit portal that had just spawned on the far side of the room.

The Forge roared, but the Drifter just walked through the fire.