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

It was a ship. But it didn’t look like the rusted, industrial smuggler skiffs of the Juncture, nor the sleek white dreadnoughts of the Holy Crusade.

It looked like an ancient, majestic wooden galleon. Its hull was carved from pale, glowing white timber, intricately laced with delicate gold filigree. Sprouting from the deck were three massive masts, though the sails weren’t made of canvas. They were forged from huge, razor-thin sheets of shimmering, translucent pink crystal.

Right now, however, half of those crystal sails were completely shattered, and the glowing wooden hull was heavily splintered and on fire.

”Incoming!” Sebastian yelled.

*SPLAAAAASH!*

The massive, burning galleon violently crashed directly into the deep, freshwater lake situated just a half-mile outside the heavy iron gates of Sanctuary.

The impact kicked up a colossal, fifty-foot geyser of lake water that rained down across the surrounding forest. The majestic ship bobbed aggressively in the water, hissing loudly as the cold lake immediately began putting out the green arcane fires burning on its deck.

The swirling violet and emerald rift in the sky above them pulsed one final time before smoothly snapping shut, leaving the sunset sky perfectly clear once again.

”Grab your boots, Princess,” Sebastian sighed heavily, rubbing his face with his hands. ”Looks like we have company.”

They sprinted out of the cabin, hauling ass down the grassy hill toward the main gates of Sanctuary. By the time they reached the heavily reinforced iron doors, the entire town was in an uproar. Panicked citizens were grabbing pitchforks and iron swords, staring fearfully at the smoking wreckage floating in their lake.

Wraith and Galleon were already at the gate, barking orders to a handful of guards to hold the perimeter.

”Boss!” Galleon yelled as Sebastian and Valerie ran up. The dwarf was holding a massive, heavy iron wrench, his eyes wide. ”Did you see that thing?! The aerodynamics on that hull are a complete joke! Flying a wooden boat with crystal sails? It’s a structural nightmare! No wonder it crashed!”

”I’m less concerned about their engineering choices and more concerned about how they got here, Galleon,” Sebastian deadpanned, pushing past the guards and stepping out beyond the safety of the town walls.

The four of them jogged down the dirt path toward the shoreline of the lake.

The smoking, half-sunk galleon was slowly drifting toward the muddy bank. The beautiful white timber was scorched black, and the shattered pink crystal sails clinked together in the gentle evening breeze like broken wind chimes.

*Splash. Cough. Splash.*

Figures were desperately dragging themselves out of the freezing lake water onto the muddy shore.

They weren’t heavily armored warlords or faceless angels.

They were Elves.

They were incredibly tall, possessing sharp, aristocratic features and long, pointed ears. They wore what used to be lavish, flowing robes of spun gold and pristine white silk, but right now, the fabric was soaked with mud, algae, and lake water.

There were about twenty of them. They collapsed onto the muddy bank, violently coughing up water and shivering in the cool evening air.

Sebastian stopped ten feet away, crossing his arms over his chest. He recognized the aesthetic instantly.

”Server 889,” Sebastian muttered to Valerie. ”The Gilded Cage. That’s the high-fantasy server where the Elven elites hoarded all the clean mana and let the peasants burn.”

Valerie gripped her rusted iron pipe, her blue eyes narrowing. ”Are they here for revenge? Because you literally ripped their World Core out of a fountain and deleted their planet.”

”I restored their planet in the final compile, remember?” Sebastian said quietly. ”I pulled all 4,000 dead servers out of the recycle bin and put them back on the grid. But I deleted the System that managed them.”

The lead Elf, a tall man with long, wet silver hair, pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He coughed up a mouthful of lake water and slowly looked up.

His eyes locked onto Sebastian.

The Elf didn’t reach for a weapon. He didn’t scream an insult. He stared at Sebastian’s face, specifically at the faint, pulsing silver runic scars that still wrapped around Sebastian’s forearms.

The Elf’s eyes went wide with absolute, religious awe.

”It is him,” the Elf gasped, his voice trembling with sheer, unadulterated reverence.

The Elf scrambled forward in the mud. He didn’t stand up. He threw himself flat onto his stomach right at Sebastian’s combat boots, pressing his forehead directly into the wet dirt.

”Oh, mighty Sovereign! The God of Error!” the Elf cried out, his voice cracking with emotion. ”We have crossed the chaotic void to find you! We seek the merciful savior who shattered our gilded chains!”

The other nineteen Elves on the shoreline immediately followed suit, dropping to their knees in the mud and bowing their heads so low they touched the dirt.

”Praise the Sovereign!” they echoed in a ragged, exhausted chorus.

Sebastian stood perfectly still. He stared down at the groveling, soaking wet Elves. He looked at Valerie, who was desperately biting her lower lip to suppress a massive, incredibly amused smirk.

”Please,” Sebastian groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose in sheer, overwhelming annoyance. ”Do not call me the God of Error. That sounds like an IT guy who constantly deletes the company database by accident.”

”You delivered us from the tyranny of the High Cabal!” the lead Elf continued, raising his head slightly, his eyes shining with tears. ”When you pulled our world from the dark, the magical barriers that oppressed the lower cities were gone! The System interface that locked our potentials vanished! We are free, Sovereign! We used our natural magic to build this dimensional vessel, tracking the residual ripples of your great Genesis Glitch across the cosmos just to find your holy sanctuary!”

Sebastian felt a massive, throbbing headache building right behind his eyes.

His highly optimized, incredibly pragmatic brain instantly ran the terrifying math of the new multiversal status quo.

He hadn’t just saved Earth. By deleting the Core OS and restoring the 4,000 assimilated planets without the rigid, restrictive rules of the Ethereal Plane to govern them, he had created a completely free, entirely chaotic multiverse.

And because he was the one who had hit the reset button, Earth wasn’t just a hidden, isolated safe zone anymore. The natural magic of the universe was completely unbound. Dimensional rifts were going to start forming naturally. The borders were open.

Earth was no longer a dungeon. It was the new capital of a free universe. And Sebastian was currently the most famous guy in the cosmos.

”Are you absolutely shitting me,” Sebastian whispered, staring at the sinking, smoking magical galleon in his lake.

”Looks like Sanctuary is going global, Seattle,” Valerie smirked, finally letting out a soft laugh. She gently bumped her shoulder against his. ”I think we’re going to need to set up a customs office. And an immigration department.”

”I am doubling rent,” Sebastian declared flatly, turning his back on the bowing Elves and looking up at the sky.

He had wanted a quiet retirement on an ugly orange couch. Instead, he was going to have to deal with interdimensional aliens crashing their fancy wooden boats into his front yard.

”Galleon!” Sebastian barked, rubbing his temples.

”Yeah, Boss?” the dwarf replied, leaning on his wrench.

”Go get some rope and pull that ridiculous crystal boat out of my lake before it leaks magical oil everywhere,” Sebastian sighed heavily. ”And Wraith?”

”Yes, Boss?”

”Go inside and put the rest of the steak in the fridge,” Sebastian grumbled, turning back to look at the soaking wet Elven ambassadors waiting in the mud. ”Looks like I’m going to have to eat dinner cold.”

—

Sebastian stood on the muddy bank of the lake, staring down at the twenty soaking wet Elves groveling at his boots. The cold evening wind blew across the water, carrying the smell of charred wood and wet algae from their ruined, smoking galleon.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling a massive migraine blooming right behind his eyes.

”Get up,” Sebastian grunted. ”Seriously, get up. You’re kneeling in actual mud. You’re ruining whatever is left of your fancy silk pajamas, and it is making me incredibly uncomfortable.”

The lead Elf, who had introduced himself as Aelion, slowly raised his head. His long, silver hair was plastered to his pale face with lake water and green slime. He looked at Sebastian with an expression of absolute, terrifying devotion.

”We do not care for our garments, Sovereign,” Aelion choked out, his voice shaking with religious fervor. ”To kneel before the God of Error, the one who shattered the Gilded Cage and restored the natural order of the cosmos... it is the highest honor.”

”Okay, first of all, stop calling me that,” Sebastian snapped, pointing a black-gloved finger at the Elf’s nose. ”I am not a god. I’m just a guy who got really pissed off at a keyboard. My name is Sebastian. And secondly, if you don’t stand up in the next three seconds, I am going to kick you back into the lake.”