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

SPLOOSH!

The severed bottom half of the hound erupted like a colossal, open-topped volcano.

Millions of gallons of boiling blue liquid, thick black oil, and raw, sparking red code violently exploded straight up into the air. The pressure was so intense that the geyser shot hundreds of feet toward the dark ceiling of the cavern.

And then, gravity took over.

”Fuck me!” Sebastian yelled.

A literal tsunami of boiling gore and hydraulic fluid crashed back down onto the platform, expanding outward in a massive, unstoppable tidal wave. The wave was easily thirty feet high, a churning, disgusting wall of dark liquid rushing straight for him.

He didn’t have time to run. He didn’t have time to use [Heavenly Steps].

Sebastian instantly widened his stance and slammed his hands down toward the floor. He tapped into his [Concept of Mass] and [Gravity Domain], throwing up a highly localized, hyper-dense kinetic shield shaped like a wedge directly in front of him.

CRASH!

The tidal wave of gore hit his invisible shield with the force of a falling skyscraper.

The sheer kinetic impact made Sebastian’s boots slide backward on the obsidian, leaving deep, sparking gouges in the indestructible glass floor. The roaring flood of liquid parted around his wedge-shaped barrier, crashing violently against the sides and washing past him.

The heat radiating off the fluid was insane. It smelled like a mixture of raw sewage, burning copper, and melting plastic. Even with his [Thermal Immunity] active, the air inside his tiny, safe bubble grew so hot and thick that he was instantly drenched in sweat.

SQUELCH! SPLASH! HSSSSS!

For what felt like an eternity, the ocean of dead dog juice roared past him, flooding the entire continent-sized platform. The liquid washed all the way to the base of the massive Tartarus Gate in the distance, violently splashing against the dark titanium.

Slowly, the pressure of the geyser died down. The tidal wave receded, spreading out into a knee-deep, violently bubbling swamp of dark, oily blood and blue plasma across the floor.

Sebastian let out a ragged, heavy breath. He slowly released his gravity shield.

The liquid immediately rushed in to fill the empty space, splashing heavily against his black combat boots and rising halfway up his calves.

”Disgusting,” Sebastian grumbled, looking down in pure, unadulterated disgust. ”I literally just manifested these boots. This entire server owes me dry-cleaning money.”

He kicked his foot, sending a splash of thick, black oil flying. It didn’t help. The foul-smelling liquid clung to the black leather of his tactical suit, dripping steadily onto the floor.

BING!

A massive, glowing golden system prompt violently popped up in the center of his vision, casting a bright light over the dark, flooded cavern.

[Target Eliminated: Cerberus-00X (Tartarus Warden)] [Boss Defeated.] [Experience Gain Negated by Level Cap.] [Loot Dropped: Warden’s Passkey (Mythic), 1,000,000 Gold Coins.]

”About damn time,” Sebastian muttered, swiping the massive notification away with a flick of his eyes.

He didn’t feel a rush of triumphant joy. He didn’t feel like a heroic god. He just felt incredibly tired, incredibly dirty, and entirely annoyed that he had to wade through a mile of mechanical dog guts to find a key.

He turned his gaze toward the massive, severed top half of the beast resting about a hundred yards away. The three huge heads were lying sideways in the flooded muck, their red visors completely dead and dark.

The fight was over. The apex defense program of the Core OS was officially deleted. The unbeatable, mathematically infinite armor rating had been casually bypassed by a simple geometry lesson.

Sebastian cracked his neck, the satisfying pop echoing loudly over the bubbling, hissing sound of the cooling plasma fluids around him.

”Alright,” Sebastian sighed, pulling his black leather coat tighter around himself. He started trudging forward, his boots squelching heavily in the thick, oily mess. ”Time to go digging for gold. Literally.”

The walk toward the severed head was absolutely miserable. Every step was a fight against the thick, syrupy resistance of the mixed fluids. The air was so heavy with vaporized coolant and burnt code that it looked like a dense, purple fog had settled over the bottom of the abyss.

He kept his silver-tinged eyes focused on the center head of the dead beast. According to the standard tropes of this stupid, gamified universe, the primary loot drop was always lodged somewhere ridiculously inconvenient.

”If I have to climb inside that thing’s nose, I am going to delete the entire concept of dogs,” Sebastian threatened the empty cavern.

He waded closer, the sheer scale of the severed top half becoming more apparent. Even lying on its side, the central head was the size of a five-story office building.

He was getting close to the backdoor of the universe. He could feel it. The oppressive, heavy weight of the Tartarus Gate loomed in the distance, the millions of weeping faces watching him silently.

He had broken the unbeatable boss. Now, he just had to find the keys to the kingdom.

—-

Wading through knee-deep, boiling mechanical gore was not how Sebastian had planned to spend his afternoon.

The thick mixture of black motor oil, glowing blue hydraulic fluid, and raw, pixelated digital blood clung to his black tactical suit like tar. Every step was a heavy, squelching nightmare.

SQUELCH. SPLASH.

”This is officially the worst level design in the entire game,” Sebastian complained, kicking a floating, jagged piece of the Cerberus’s armor out of his way. It clattered against the submerged obsidian floor. ”Who builds a boss arena that doesn’t have a drain? Absolutely zero foresight.”

He finally reached the massive, severed top half of Cerberus-00X. Lying on its side in the muck, the central head of the biomechanical hound was a terrifying monument to his own destructive power. The smooth, gunmetal-grey armor plates were scarred and smoking, and the giant red visor that served as its eyes was completely dark and lifeless.

The sheer scale of the thing was absurd. The severed neck cavity alone was wide enough to drive a commercial airliner through.