Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 6 (Patreon)

Regina had several more accidents on the way to the bunker. It seemed that though she had tremendous strength, she lacked the auxiliary abilities to properly control that strength. To some extent, I expected her awkwardness to get better with time. She'd eventually learn to gauge her new powers better and have a feel for how far she could travel with each jump.

But until then, her new powers would be a hindrance instead of an aid except for straightforward motions, which hopefully included smashing things with a stick.

"This is terrible. Stupid gamers. Why did you give me the idea to dump everything into a single stat?" Regina grumbled as she pulled herself up off the ground, glaring at me the whole time as though I'd been the one to curse her so.

"What, do you mean you weren't the one to come up with the awesome and incredibly original idea of dumping all of your points into strength?" I raised an eyebrow as I teased her.

"Hey, I might not be able to reprimand you as your employer anymore, but I can knock that smile clean off your face!"

I laughed, and after a moment, Regina joined me. Unlike every time before this, she actually let me help her to her feet.

The trip got smoother as we traveled, and I spotted no more monsters. Perhaps they would only come out at night for now?

Whatever the explanation, I had mixed feelings about it. More level one monster would have helped me accumulate more attribute points, which would increase both of our survivability chances. But, on the other hand, monsters of greater power might kill us, ending our chances of survival right then and there.

"Here's the bunker. I stuck a shovel around here somewhere..."

I found a single shovel hanging from the tree I left it in, and I pulled it down and got to work.

"You know," I grunted as I heaved a load of dirt out of the way. "With your high strength stat, you could probably dig this thing out faster than me."

"This is the sort of thing you have employees for." Regina stood over the hole with her arms crossed.

"Oh, my back! I think I need to sue for medical compensation!"

"Fine, I'll take a turn."

Our digging quickly revealed a hatch in the ground. The seal was unbroken from when I last buried the entrance a few months ago, which I expected considering the dirt and grass growing over it.

"Home sweet home..." I muttered as I popped the lid.

Just as I did so, I had a hair-raising sensation of danger. The moment I cracked the lid, a dark, dense, black fog rolled out of the bunker, spilling into the fading evening light.

"I don't like the look of that," Regina muttered. "You do keep this place clean, right?"

"That's no mess of mine. That's a monster!"

Underworld Specter (Level 5)

The cloud emanating from the sealed hatch accumulated into the figure of a cloaked humanoid man. It hovered leglessly over the ground, and two ghostly withered arms poked out from black sleeves. Its entire figure was transparent in the evening light, and I could see through it to the forest beyond. Only what I saw through the specter wasn't the real forest but a ghastly, dark, and withered version of the same wood. All the leaves had fallen from their branches, and every shrubbery was a withered skeleton.

"Crap, that thing is a higher level than I am!" I shouted to Regina. "Grab your stick!"

Regina had carried her stick all the way up from camp for just this purpose. While I'd slept, she'd reshaped the length of it with my knife to resemble a baseball bat. Meanwhile, I'd used some paracord and my knife to make myself a little spear, which I trusted myself with more in a fight than using the blade as a tiny dagger.

Regina swung her club only for her weapon to pass right through the specter without harming it in the least. My spear thrust didn't do anything either, and that was when I knew we were in trouble.

"Physical attacks can't harm it!" I shouted in realization.

The specter reached out and swept its hand through Regina's forearm. She dropped her club and howled like she'd been burned.

"But apparently, it can hurt us!" I added.

"I scrambled for anything. Maybe I could grab a lighter from my pack and try to burn it?

I threw my backpack off, pulling my canteen filled with Regina's stat-boosting potion out of the way to find a lighter. In doing so, the potion roled out of the pack and tumbled across the ground. As it rolled, the specter flinched from it.

"Oh, you don't like that?" I asked as my eyes lit up. I dove for the canteen on the ground, opened it, and heaved the contents at the specter.

The specter let out an inhuman hiss, like the sound of water boiling away. It evaporated under the touch of Regina's sludge, drifting up into the sky like a cloud of smoke.

Underworld Specter defeated!

You have been awarded a large amount of XP!

You are the first person to slay a magical entity!

You have been awarded the title: Natural Magus. Spells you cast will deal additional damage to incorporeal entities.

"Sorry about your soup." I held up the empty canteen.

Regina shrugged. "There will be more moss men. And if not, I will just have to uphold my reputation as an alchemical genius and find something else disgusting to make you drink. Too bad that specter didn't drop anything."

***

We entered my bunker, which I was rather proud of. The structure itself was actually a pair of defunct yacht hulls. Both of them had been on the small side and powered by sales. I'd buried both of them underground and filled them with tools and supplies.

"Doesn't the president have a bunker in a missile silo or something?" Regina asked.

"I'm sorry, I'm not the president. These were good boats, I assume. They were a couple grand each as broken hulls. Just be happy they don't leak. Fortunately, it was easier to get up here with a truck before the integration, or we wouldn't even have this much."

"There's so much stuff in here," Regina said as she waded through the sunken boat's narrow confines. To do so, she had to weave her way past stacks of five-gallon buckets stretching floor to ceiling, each containing a week's rations for a pair of people.

"Well, there is a lot of food in here," Regina admitted. "You prepared well. We could do nothing but hide in your bunker, and we'd eat well for years, or at least until the world settles down a little."

"We could, but we're not going to." I headed to the back of the boat, where I kept all the valuable stuff. I swept aside the curtain to reveal the yacht's bed, which was covered in guns. Most of them were antiques of one type or another.

Blunderbusses, muskets, matchlocks, and flintlocks. I had a few more modern weapons, but I'd never placed much hope on them still working past the integration. The military was probably learning that lesson the hard way right now. Fortunately for me, I had a variety of weapons. I'd use the best firearm that the system would let me wield.

My top notch sniper rifle was definitely out of commission. I'd expected it to be missing or something. Instead, it had been replaced a hunk of metal that looked exactly like the gun. I imagine anyone in combat when the integration was happening ran into quite a bit of trouble. But many of the smooth bore hunting guns I'd bought over the years seemed like they were still functional.

No moss man would hold up to one of these. Heck, having a few of them loaded at my side would give me confidence taking on level two and three monsters, so long as I didn't run into anything like that specter.

More importantly, having weapons that worked would help me and Regina defend ourselves, set ourselves up in this valley, and grind levels faster than anyone else.

There was so much to do. The only question was where to start?

Author's Note!

This is the end of the chunk of this story that I've written ahead of time to get you guys into the story. Now we're entering the fun game part!

You guys get to help shape the story. This will happen through polls, comments, and occasionally reader input.

A lot of fun stories on Amazon were written as quests, such as Forge of Divinity. I think it will be a fun change of pace.

Note that because this is a quest and not a draft of a novel, the editing won't be as good. I just don't have the time to do the extra editing passes I do for novels on a quest that will likely see significant changes that will require re-editing.

But on the positive note, you guys will have much more input on what happens next than you will on something like Paladin of the Sigil or the Spellheart series.

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