System Shift

System Shift Natural Laws Apocalypse #6 By: Tom Larcombe Text copyright © 2022, Thomas Larcombe All Rights Reserved This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Cover by: SelfPubBookCovers.com / Veirgacht Dedicated to my wife, Heather, who keeps me writing one way or another. Table of Contents Recap Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four About the Author Bibliography Recap Marcus Aurelius Cavanaugh was home from college for the summer when the System arrived. When the first notification of it occurred, he wondered about his sanity, but decided that even if he was crazy the preparations he was going to make wouldn't hurt anything. As a result, when the System began converting the world, he and his friends: Rob, Felicia, and Jeff had been training for a bit and had a tiny edge going into things. Equipping themselves with his father's Roman armor and weapons, which had been display pieces, they took to the streets trying to find, or create, a safe place to stay for them and others. Converting the local high school into a Safe Zone provided the safe place they were looking for. Now they started stocking up and looking for other survivors to invite into the Safe Zone where they wouldn't be in danger from creatures spawning right atop them. Marc began expanding the Safe Zone as quickly as he could, both for the benefits that the buildings would provide and so there was more room for other survivors. Between scavenging and purchases from the System shop, they got themselves into a tenable position. * * * His parents had been away when all this happened, so when they returned, along with a scad of people who mostly had classes based on the old Roman legions, he was overjoyed. He was also very glad to turn over some of the responsibilities of the Safe Zone to them. His mother was a natural to administer the Safe Zone, her prior responsibilities making her a good fit for the position. His father, who'd received the class of Roman Centurion, was just as good a fit for leading the defenses of the Safe Zone. With the discovery that land could be Captured by surrounding it through Safe Zone expansion, or surrounding it with multiple Safe Zones, Marc began to claim as much as he could. He wanted to have enough area that he could provide a safer option for as many people as they could find. With more resources coming in, Marc then tried to open discourse with the intelligent, magic-using race they discovered to the south. They looked like a wilder version of elves, and their skills and spells seemed to suggest that as well. Once in contact with the race, he waited to meet one of that settlement's elders so they could discuss things and each discover the other's intentions. * * * Negotiations with the elves led to what Marc believes will be a split in the elves, and he's supporting those who want to leave by providing them a new area to live in. The System gave Marc a quest. One of the satellites that provides the System's nanites, the ones it uses for everything from creating spawns to giving classes and powers to people, was stolen from orbit and forced into a controlled crash. Marc and his group recovered the satellite, but when the System told him that the satellite could not be reintegrated into the System's network, they brought it back to their main Safe Zone, Any Port. Marc and his group focused their efforts on researching the new Industrial age technologies, primarily the railroad and lighter than air tech chains. Now he and his group are off to find more Safe Zones and survivors. Their first trip in a zeppelin brings them back to the city that his father had been trapped in when the System arrived and they've found one large, and several small, Safe Zones there, along with a pair of dungeons. * * * With the zeppelin concept proven, Marc and his group begin to make contact with a number of Safe Zones in the area. His concept of building trade routes is coming together, although what people will trade is still to be determined. In the process of contacting the other Safe Zones they also clear a dungeon and, when starting in on a second one, discover that not all dungeons are hostile. While Marc and his friends are contacting Safe Zones, Reggie stays at Any Port, working to free up the satellite they recovered. When he discovers a little help left by the System, his endeavors speed up dramatically. With Marc's help, Reggie finally learns the Mana Manipulation skill and also discovers that the skill is the key to the most efficient programming of the System and its satellites. * * * Marc and his group had decided that, with the acclimatization year they have before others can settle Earth nearly half gone, they needed to become more powerful if possible. In their search for stronger opponents that will give them more experience, they discover another Safe Zone with hundreds of surviving inhabitants. They help the Safe Zone, sharing the things they've learned, and find one of the inhabitants of it willing to lead them into the Black Hills where there are significantly stronger spawns that they can use to level and strengthen themselves. Upon their return to their own Safe Zone, Marc finds out that some powerful off-world people have