Chapter 13: Change

<Congratulations, received 1x [Uranium Deposit, 50 tons]!>

<Congratulations, received 4x [ICBM, 10pcs]!>

<Congratulations, received 2x [Spear][Unknown]! Please use the identification function of the system inventory.>

<Congratulations, received 1x [Holy Grail]! You may deposit it in the artifacts section of the inventory or use it for crafting purposes.>

<Congratulations, received 1x [Distilled Water]!>

.... Why the hell is distilled water part of this gacha? Am I truly that unlucky?

Ugh. Whatever, I need to fix my inventory first; it's quite messy. I asked the system if I could form item groups in the inventory to simplify the process of browsing the inventory.

<Host, that requires a system update, which you can only begin once you complete the mission.>

Ah, oh well, clutter for now then. Now, I should check the spear and the Holy Grail since these two items intrigue me. I identified the two spears that I gained before checking their attributes.

[Spear of Lucifer, Legendary Artifact

Requirements: Lvl 60 or above

Space, Time, Death elemental affinity must reach at least 20 points each.

The person equipping the item must be of neutral affinity.

Damage: 1-200,000,000,000,000, depending on one's Negative morality. The more good the person is, the more damage inflicted.

Passive: When equipped, one is given the [Abyssal Aura] Bonus, making all Poison, Dark, Corrosive, Chaos-type attacks ineffective and have a 10% chance to be healed instead. All elemental attacks received are reduced by 15% while all elemental attacks sent are increased by 10% in damage.

All Attributes + 100%

Note: This is an ancient spear used by the extinct Ancient species, Archangels, specifically one of the strongest of their species, Lucifer Morningstar. The spear was granted by their forefather and received divine blessing, before being corrupted by the Abyss when Lucifer was tasked to guard the Abyssal Rifts, making sure nothing passes through to this world. This spear was corrupted the same time Lucifer fell into the temptation of the Abyss, turning the once [Divine Aura] that the spear radiated into the [Abyssal Aura]. Lucifer had to fight with the strongest of their tribe, Raphael, to allow the entrance of the abyssal creatures into this world but failed and died in the process.]

[Cú Chulainn's Spear of Misery, Epic Artifact

Damage: 2000-4500*Strength points/10, per hit.

Passive: Cú Chulainn Sorrow: Anyone hit with this weapon will suffer [Depression and Misery] that causes a 2% reduction to all stats, and 0.5% chance of committing suicide when their HP is below 50%. This stacks 10 times.

Note: After Cú Chulainn's defeat and sorrow over his countrymen's deaths, with the help of Mórrígan, his sorrow and misery manifested itself into the weapon that he had used over and over in his life: His spear.]

[Holy Grail, ??? Artifact

Damage: 1 (Note from System: I don't really know how you will use this. Probably as a club and hammer it to your enemies?)

Indestructible.

Cannot be traded.

Cannot be dropped.

When equipped, 100,000% regeneration speed, invulnerable status for 2 seconds.

Ability 1 - Purified: Any water added into the grail can turn into [Divine Water], which allows 1000% increased speed of growth, 1000% regeneration speed when used on injuries, 1000% more harvest when used on plants, and 10% chance of making plants gain their spirituality. Can be used without limit, as long as water is supplied.

Ability 2 - Sacrificial Wish: One can sacrifice something personal to attain a specific wish. A wish's value is determined first before putting the requirements for the wish to be fulfilled. It can range from a basic sacrifice of equipments, attributes to one's life. Can only be activated once every 3 months.

Note: Existed since time Immemorial in this world, the Holy Grail contained Divine Might and power. It brought order in the Chaotic Waters of this Universe, and Life began to bloom.]

All three items brought surprise to me. Currently, only the Spear of Lucifer was not useable for me. The Holy Grail was quite overpowered, if I may just comment, system.

<Host, the Mystery Box is truly a random item. Whenever an artifact appears, it will not appear again in the Mystery Box or in this universe.>

What happens if I decided to just put this items into the artifact section of the inventory? I won't be able to use them?

<Host, once the artifacts are placed in the artifact section of the inventory, you will gain a corresponding bonus in attributes or skills. Once the artifact has been removed for use, so will the bonuses.>

Eh, let me see then what I'll get for bonuses.

[Spear of Lucifer: 50% increased damage against good and evil factions, +150 Strength, Dexterity.]

[Cú Chulainn's Spear of Misery: 0.5% chance of instantly killing the target for every target killed. Stacks maximum of 5 times.]

[Holy Grail: 1000% increased regeneration, +15 elemental affinity boost to all elements, +100 all attributes.]

.... damn. I'll probably fare better in the coming apocalypse with these items as an added protection.

________________________________

Another month has passed and the world has turned for the worse.

Small countries all over the world that didn't have enough money or power had to merge with the countries and centers of power that did so, causing massive, worldwide immigration to occur. Traditional travel methods were now unavailable, with the rise of sea monsters and aerial beasts that threaten the safety during travels. Even the naval warships were easily destroyed by mobs of aquatic monsters.

Concurrently, from 200+ countries, there were now 9 main superpowers that are co-existing, having their own base of operations and modicum of government control.

One of which was the American-Canadian Union, which opened up its borders and continued to develop their seaside defenses and reinforcing major cities all over the area. After all, the mutation didn't just include wild animals, but also domesticated and city animals. Thousands had to be killed when they turned feral, especially for the city animals when they caused havoc in maintaining the city structures, but thousands of families and individuals suddenly got their own line of defense when their domesticated animals gained higher-order thinking and actively decided to protect their owners.

The main problem was that their agricultural production suffered a lot. The organisms that were helpful in the maintenance of the soil arability mutated and began to devour their harvests. This was one of the problems that Paolo wanted to get rid of, especially in his private island.

Indian Union suffered the least among the unions. Due to their unique practices and beliefs, the cows they hold sacred were at least able to provide them a continuous sustenance in this period of transition.

European Union was a bit chaotic compared to the others. There were issues concerning migration, racism, as well as the unsuitable climate for agricultural development for some species of plants. However, due to the number of countries part of the union, they were able to utilize the espers involved in weather as well as agriculture to allow the polluted soil to be arable and healthy once more.

Islamic Federation of Middle East was a bit more chaotic, as many had shed blood to actually establish the ruling party. They also had to resort to trading with the UN as well as the respective countries of the espers that they needed to borrow to make the land arable and healthy enough for agriculture, as well as modify the general climate of the area. There were also issues of the domesticated wild animals eating their owners, but this was rapidly contained.

South African Coalition fared well. The countries organized to create a parliament-type of system. The SAC was quite calm compared to the other superpowers as there was little unrest or safety issues. Majority of the cities in SAC were fortified by earth espers before the apocalypse.

China Democratic Union benefitted the most out of the event with their massive population and strong hold over its people. All of the espers from the country was patriotic and only supported the country's interest, and these espers became calculative businessmen when other countries had requested for help.

Australia had one of the worse monster outbreaks. Generally, the species present in the continent were violent before the event occured, and now it was generally worse. They began to retreat to the center of the continent to avoid the attacks of aquatic beasts, and established their cities there at an elevated fashion.

South-east Asian Coalition of Pacific Countries suffered the most. Because of the variability of species in the area they were in, millions died in far-flung areas from the fortified cities. They also had to face attacks coming from aquatic monsters from all sides, causing tsunamis and storms to occur daily.

Japan suffered the least. Following their cultural heritage, as well as the help of their espers, Food did not become an issue for them. However, their country began to adopt stricter customs policy especially for those who had planned to migrate to their country following the disaster.

The changes that occurred were not limited to this alone; every esper felt a drastic change in their perception of the world. They couldn't explain it at first, but later on, they could see their own...status windows. The status windows were more basic than what Paolo had; it only had <Status>, <Skills>, and <Achievements> in it.

The change wasn't limited to espers however. 5 days after the cataclysmic event, even normal people could see their own status windows, showing the same thing, except for <Achievements>, it was greyed out.

They could also see other people's health points manifested by a bar with numbers above it, indicating their health.

Everything felt surreal for them, as if they were thrown from the real world into a MMORPG game. Everything about them and their strengths and weaknesses were quantified into values that they could understand. The only thing lacking for them is that they didn't have any spatial inventory or any other features that was similar to that of Paolo's.

After 2 more months since the apocalypse, they finally made a breakthrough in understanding the changes. They were able to level up and increase their general attributes by hunting the mutated beasts. At the same time, these beasts were now able to drop items and trinkets ranging from useless to almost god-like items. They could equip these items and significantly see a boost in their attributes as well as abilities.

There was a flurry of espers who began to hunt these monsters, as well as the superpowers behind them hoping to get one of those legendary artifacts.