Chris Huisjen

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C33: All the Sinners, Saints

My stomach dropped. I’d been hoping to clear the second floor tomorrow, just before I confronted The Captain. Now, I couldn’t count on that boost. Worse, he’d almost certainly been involved; so far, the Field Museum and The Void were the only two dungeons in Chicago that anyone had pushed to the second floor.

He’d taken The Void because he had total control of the Field Museum, and if we didn’t get back to Museumtown and deal with him, he’d finish the second dungeon and gain...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C32: Some Restraint

I flew through the air as the giant train-car golem slammed its fist down. The track buckled below it; my Charge Blade barely even dented the monstrosity. A second before I hit the rough gravel trainyard, something yanked me in the other direction, and I zipped right back toward the boss.

The Track’s Custodian: Level 29 Dungeon Boss

Tori let her Pull spell go and dropped a Gravity Well below the golem’s feet. It pulled both it and me down toward the ground, an...

Apoclaypse Engineering B1 C31: Doubt and Pain

Tori’s eyes were glued to the Orerry the whole time we walked through the streets of Chicago. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t have cared. People used to walk around with their heads in their phones all the time, and nothing too bad happened to them.

But these weren’t normal circumstances, and Tori not paying attention was a problem for both of us. The only reason I didn’t say anything was because she did need the time to figure out what she wanted to do with...

Halcyon System 3 Chapter Seventeen

Hello, Patrons. I recently launched a new story, Apocalypse Engineering, on Royal Road. If you're currently reading it and want to read it on Patreon/get email updates, changing your current Patreon level to Dungeon Delver will get you full access to Apocalypse Engineering here, as well as full Halcyon System access.

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The augment system is supposed to be primarily for education and employment purposes.

For adults, there’s a...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C30: Puzzling You

Tommy Wright told me everything.

I already knew some of it. I knew that The Captain ran the show, and that he was ridiculously strong. He’d been in the high Thirties before the Tier Two Dungeons even opened, and according to Tommy, he and his team were going to full-clear the Field Museum and then move on to Soldier Field.

Some of it, I suspected, but the confirmation made me want to kill him right here. Eddie had definitely killed Brian. Tommy hadn’t seen it happen; he’d be...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C29: The Gods They Made

Tori raged.

Quietly.

Jessica was working her healing magic down below on some poor bastard who’d had a run-in with a monster and hadn’t leveled—or who just didn’t know about the Body trick. It had interrupted another screaming match, and she was pissed.

She’d played enough DPS classes to know how this worked; if you were behind when the raids opened, you didn’t make the team, and if you didn’t make the team, you only got further behind. She hadn’t been on the...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C28: After All, It Was You and Me

The blood-red experience orb hung in the air a few feet away, but I didn’t move to touch it right away. It had been one thing to kill Eddie—he’d threatened Tori, and I knew he’d follow through on it. That was like threatening my sister. I couldn’t let him leave the dungeon, and I knew I’d solved that problem the only way I could.

But taking his experience and gear? The thought made me sick.

Everyone would drop experience orbs, and it was only a matter of time before so...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C27: The Nature of My Game

“You’re stuck in here with me,” I said, dragging the second door guard’s unconscious body into the safe spot nearby.

I didn’t like playing this role. It didn’t feel natural, and I shivered, but I didn’t have a choice. At least my friends couldn’t hear me, though, and one against four, I’d needed every trick in the book.

Eddie’s ‘charge forward and push through’ strategy had given me the edge I needed. He’d charged straight into the maze, just like I had. ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C26: Before They Reach Bombay

I looked for them for close to an hour, but even though their trail went due north, I lost them after the third set of explosive scorch marks. That had to be a good sign. They had to have gotten away.

The timer was ticking down until the Tier Two dungeons opened, though, and twins or not, Tori and Jessica were expecting me back. It hurt, but I had no choice but to hope Zane and Carol were okay somewhere.

By the time I got back to Museumtown and climbed the ladder, I’d just about...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C25: Guess My Name

As I closed in, The Bean spun toward me, slamming its weight into the concrete. Huge stone missiles rocketed toward me, crashing into the grass beside me. I threw myself out of the way as a head-sized chunk scraped a rut a foot deep into the lawn, hit the sidewalk behind me, and cartwheeled through the air. The Bean crashed down again, and I rolled. This time, concrete peppered my back. It gouged into my battered leather armor and pinged off my gauntlet’s plates.

I winced as I rolled ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C24: A Man of Wealth and Taste

It was good to be king.

It was also a metric shit-ton of work, more than he’d ever had back at the precinct.

On the other hand, he deserved this. In the sixty seconds between the end of the announcement and the tutorial starting, he’d gotten himself, his partner, the leader of the Raging Bulls, and two other cops he trusted to pick Hardcore. Then, he’d abandoned his partner and, with the others, clawed his way through the tutorial in just two days.

He’d spent the res...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C23: Pleased to Meet You

After a minute, Tori pulled away, and I got a good look at Jessica. Right away, I could see a glaring problem.

Jessica Silvers: Level 8
Class: Healer

On some level, I understood why so many people from the Casual Tutorials were underleveled. Other than the guards and a few clusters of people in the Level 17 to 19 range, almost nobody with the common and uncommon classes was over Level 15. Conversely, most of the folks with weird-sounding classes were in the low...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C22: The Nature of My Game

It took us an hour to fight through the streets, killing a few stray monsters and trying to stay away from Eddie’s group. I hit Level 28, while Calvin made it to 10. Tori did not level up—a fact she was downright pissed off about. Both my points went into Charge; I needed a bigger pool to make this class work and a dozen fresh ideas I wanted to try.

The whole time we walked, we planned how to sneak into the town. Calvin wouldn’t stop talking, planning, and doing his drill sergeant...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C21: You Gonna Die

I whirled toward the screaming man as a crossbow bolt passed my head, but he’d already thrown the weapon down and was running back toward the dungeon’s fog gate. The big guy—Eddie—slammed his arm into the air in front of him, and a triangle-shaped piece of steel materialized out of nowhere. Tori started casting a spell, and so did one of the other bikers. The third biker went for his axe.

Calvin stepped out from where he’d hidden. “Calm your asses down!” he snapped, his vo...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C20: Worse Here Every Day

We’d just hit Ohio Beach, and Union Pier’s Ferris Wheel spun slowly overhead, when the crab attacked.

This one looked a lot like the Knife Crabs we’d fought on Montrose Beach, but it was a lot bigger, and instead of knives, it had a massive vise on its claw.

Crush-tacean: Level 21 Monster

I tried not to laugh as the single monster rushed me—it was hopelessly out-leveled. “Let me take care of this,” I said.

Tori nodded slowly, stepping back ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C19: The Price You Pay

Congratulations! For completing one hundred percent of a Tier One Dungeon, you have received the following reward:

One [Voltsmith’s] Supply Box (Rank One)

Completely clearing a dungeon will result in rewards equivalent to the level of dungeon cleared.

“That’s it?” Tori half-shouted as she picked herself up from under the dissolving Greatest Blue Heron, which had collapsed on her when it died. She seemed furious. “A...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C18: Taste the Bright Lights

My Trip-Hammer howled, wind ripping behind it as it flew toward the Eyes of Perfection’s tiny, bird-brained head. It ricocheted off something inches away, jarring my wrist even through the Lock-Grip Gloves, then triggered, snapping back through the air. “Oh shit!” I yelled.

I stared at the intact bird; I’d accomplished nothing. That blow should have squashed its head—or at least hurt it. Instead, it strutted away from me, looking over its shoulder…smugly? Was this damn bird ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C17: A Hunger for What You See

“Are they gonna be okay?” Tori asked, looking over her shoulder for the eighth time.

The fog had faded rapidly as we pushed into the ‘Birds’ wing; I figured the waterfalls were making most of it, and they didn’t have the power to churn up a mist that could cover the whole place. More and more sunbeams broke through the sparse canopy, too, and the path, which had been narrow, widened as it passed dozens of enclosures—all of which had large, conspicuous openings. It seemed the...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C16: Bring You to Your Knees

The Beast Glastisant’s roar echoed in my ears as I spun in place, head spinning. This close, the sheer volume of it was disorienting. I stumbled toward the behemoth’s leg, revving up the Trip-Hammer, but my swing only caught air. A second later, a hoof punched into the brick near me. Red dust filled the air as it ground the paver into rubble.

I looked around as the dozen hounds’ barking stopped, getting my bearings.

The lake blocked us from one side, while the dungeon’s to...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C15: Welcome to the Jungle

According to the kiosk, we should have been heading toward the North Gate and a loop with African and Arctic animals—polar bears, penguins, and elephants. But as I led the way into the Twilight Menagerie’s ‘Beast’ wing, we realized pretty quickly that things were going to be a little different.

Or a lot.

The sounds of hundreds of different animals echoed off the dungeon’s tall walls and overhanging trees, trapping Tori, Calvin, and me in a hot, humid maze that reeked of ...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C14: Won't Get There For Free

Last night, when Brian’s party hit the Twilight Menagerie, there were eight of them. They’d been confident in clearing it—they’d survived the Tutorial, were all in the double digits, and three were over Level Twelve. They’d had a balanced team, including a Healer.

The Beast Glastisant hadn’t cared.

The Level Twenty-Eight boss had torn through their front-liners, gone straight for their Healer, and ignored everything else. They’d lost three people, including their hea...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C13: We've Got Fun and Games

Over [five million] [Homo Sapiens] attempted the Hardcore Tutorial. Of those, [One hundred seventy-three thousand, eight hundred twenty-two] successfully defeated their Dungeon Bosses. The remainder of [Earth’s] surviving population, [4.2 billion], chose the Casual Tutorial. [3.29 billion] of those were successful. The remainder were unable to clear their Tutorials within the allotted time.

My stomach rolled, threatening to throw up the baked beans and canned corn we�...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C12: Everything You Want

Phase Zero Complete.

Time Until Phase One: One Hour, Fifteen Minutes

Please Wait.

The staircase led us through what might’ve been a manhole cover once. Now, it lay on its side like an overturned bank vault. As I opened it, I saw the Chicago skyline in the distance, with the gigantic black skyscraper that everyone still called the Sears Tower, even though it hadn’t been called that in a couple of decades, dominating its c...

Apocalypse Engineering B1 C11: Crazy Train

Time Limit: Two Hours, Seven Minutes

I sprinted away from the contraption we’d laid across the gravel and between the wooden ties. The tunnel wall that was once a platform loomed over me—the Redline Wyrm had been carving it bigger and bigger over the last three days. One garden hose bundle hung over my left shoulder, and one over my right. Tori grabbed them both, and I nodded at her as she started fastening them to the pile of metal and plastic tanks in the pit.