Draconic Ascension - System Apocalypse Isekai LitRPG

Michael came across multiple opponents as he weaved through the columns and mushrooms, all of which had attacked him on sight, but he dealt with them easily. He honestly questioned if there was anything in this stone forest capable of posing a serious threat to him. He activated his Dragonheart, feeling it strengthen his body as his blood rushed through its vessels. He ran faster. Once he got to the snakes, however, he came across something he hadn’t at all expected.

The animals lay butchered on the ground, vertically split in half, their mutilated organs strewn across the floor. Both snakes’ heads were missing. Their long and muscular halves had so many cuts on them that Michael was forced to wonder how the entire carcass hadn’t fallen apart. Near the corpses, standing while covered in blood, was a young, brown-haired woman. She couldn’t have been older than Michael himself, maybe twenty-one or twenty-two years old, and was storing the snakes’ heads in a bag.

For the first time since he had been transported to this fucked up scenario, Michael truly, honestly smiled. He felt relief from the bottom of his heart. He followed his first instinct. He tried talking to her.

“Hey! What’s-”

He never got to finish his sentence. In a split second, the young woman turned around and threw what seemed to be a dagger at him. Even though she wasn’t too fast – certainly not fast to the point that he couldn’t react – he had been caught completely off-guard. The dagger dug into his left shoulder with a sickening sound, making blood squirt out of the wound and a wave of pain wash over his entire being. He cursed out loud and waved his wand in an X-shape.

“Mana Shield! Wait! I don’t want to fi-”

Another dagger bounced off the Shield he had just activated. He gritted his teeth, not out of anger, but because of his inability to defuse the current situation. He pulled the dagger out of his body, feeling his Constitution already working towards repairing the injury. At this distance, even though she was moving quickly, Michael could see the emotions in her eyes. It wasn’t anger, surprise, or even hostility. It was fear. Pure, unfettered terror.

He felt no desire to use an offensive Skill against her. He didn’t wish to harm her, not even in retaliation for the attacks, but it might prove to be necessary. What was the minimum show of force that could deal with this situation? his patience was rapidly decreasing, overcoming his inherent aversion to harming another human. He wanted to talk and was suddenly attacked? What the hell was this woman doing? A frown made its way to his face. He just needed her to calm down. She yelled at him.

“You’re not going to take me!”

Michael shook his head, baffled. The last embers of his willingness to talk were disappearing.

“I’m not going to take you anywhere! Calm down!”

She ignored his words, pulling two daggers out of her belt, wielding one in each hand. She dashed at him, stabbing forward. Suddenly, her image shimmered and disappeared. Michael blinked in surprise. The abrupt feeling of something trying to cut past his Shield coming from his nape nearly made him yelp. He turned around, but the woman was gone again. The next hit aimed at his heart from behind. Once more, the Mana Shield protected him. He couldn’t underestimate the sheer usefulness of the Skill. It had already saved his life several times over. He spoke in a firm tone. His patience had finally run out.

“Stop!”

The young woman’s voice seemed to be coming from all around him. Before, she didn’t seem too fast, but now he couldn’t even keep track of her. It was clearly the work of some Skill, but none of the ones he had seen allowed such movement.

“You’re not going to trick me, scum!”

Even though her voice was laden with fighting intent, it also shook with fear. She was afraid but hopeful enough to reply to him. He activated his Dragonheart. He needed her to be able to talk, even if he had to subdue her. Michael kept pouring mana into the Shield, his mind racing. Her attacks kept coming from all directions.

“Calm down!”

This time, the woman didn’t reply. If she was done talking to him, it made things even more complicated. Even though the Mana Shield covered every inch of his skin, the repeated attacks were beginning to take their toll on him. Even with his Dragonheart, he could feel his mana start being drained. It wasn’t at a rapid rate, but it was noticeable enough to worry him. If he couldn’t get through to her, either his mana would eventually run out or she would get tired and stop attacking.

Michael made the decision that first he needed to push her away. Increasing the amount of mana he put into the Shield, he tried to expand the area it covered, from being just above his skin to forming a sphere around him. It was similar in concept to how he had used the Mana Sphere Skill for lighting. Both were novel distortions of the basic Skill’s concept. The risk here was that it could destabilize his Shield, deactivating it or rendering it useless. If that happened, he would die a dog’s death at the blade of this woman he didn’t even know the name of.

Fuck it.

He would try it anyway, even if only to say he did everything he could. Very slowly, a blue sphere took shape, surrounding his entire body. It pushed outward, forcing the woman to back off. For the first time since she had disappeared from view, Michael saw her clear outline. By the time the Shield reached one meter in diameter, she was staring at him from a distance away, fully visible. She seemed to have overcome her initial shock and fear and was now probably wondering why he wasn’t doing anything. He felt like he could almost see the gears in her head turning.

Michael looked into the woman’s eyes. Hers revealed wariness, but also carried within them an edge of confusion, while his shone with anger. Now that he had pushed her away, he was fully willing to dismiss his Mana Shield and cast Mana Sphere. He would fight if she attacked even once more. She spoke carefully.

“…Who are you? What do you want?”

He flashed her a bitter smile. She was willing to talk! After attempting to kill him at least fifteen times, she was finally ready to talk! He sighed, still keeping his guard up.

“I’m Michael. I just reached this expanse and approached this area because I wanted to fight the snakes you killed. I didn’t even know you were here.”

She stared at his face for a few seconds.

“…I’m Rose.”

And that was it. More seconds of silence ensued. Michael knew that unless he did something drastic, this standstill wouldn’t change.

So he lowered his Mana Shield, deactivating it completely.

Her eyes were filled with surprise as the blue sphere around him disappeared. He could see her fist wrapping around the hilt of one of her daggers once more, but he resisted the impulse to create another Shield. Not taking another step, he spoke with the most soothing voice he could currently manage, which wasn’t much.

“I don’t want to hurt you. It’s the first time I’ve seen anyone after getting teleported here. It’s nice to meet you, Rose.”

Her hand let go of the dagger’s hilt, but her eyes were still sharp.

“…Sorry for the fight and for injuring you. You said I’m the first person you saw? You got that powerful without reaching a settlement?”

Michael nodded.

“I entered the underground after analyzing the state of the world above and coming to the conclusion that there must be more to this Zone. Given that the tree roots came all the way into the underground, I thought there would at least be a large source of water, which would attract other creatures. I expected there to be a settlement of some kind, even though it’s quite early in the Tutorial, but I haven’t found any yet. I’d be thankful if you could lead me to one of them.”

Rose didn’t miss a single one of his movements. Not that he was moving much, anyway. Once she replied, her voice was stronger.

“We both know that I don’t trust you a single bit. But, you didn’t try to harm me. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and believe your words for now. Walk in front of me,” she turned in a specific direction and pointed, “I’ll lead you to the settlement I belong to.”

Michael scoffed.

“Fuck no.”

She blinked in surprise. He continued to speak.

“You might be willing to give me the benefit of the doubt and trust me, but why should I trust you? As far as I know, you’re just someone who tried to kill me and could very well be leading me to a trap. I’m not walking in front of you. Lead the way.”

Rose frowned. The two of them silently stared at each other for a few seconds. She had a conflicted expression on her face before letting out a sigh.

“Alright. Follow me. As I said, I’ll lead you to my settlement.”

Then, as if to prove that he could trust her, she turned in the direction she had pointed. Her back was towards him; he could easily attack her if he wanted to. She started walking. With narrowed eyes, Michael followed her after she took a few steps. Silently, the duo started making their way through the underground. Due to the absence of enemies, he could afford to think for a bit.

The settlement she belongs to, huh?

Didn’t that mean that there were at least two settlements that she knew of? He followed her, keeping part of his focus on his surroundings while also paying attention to Rose’s movements. Just like she didn’t trust him, he also didn’t have any particular reason to trust her, as he had said before. If he detected anything out of place, he would fight or run away. He had taken the plunge and been the first to extend a friendly hand, but that didn’t make him gullible. They walked in silence through the winding labyrinth of stone pillars and glowing mushrooms.

It was time for him to finally meet other people who were also fighting for their lives.