Irrelevant Jack 2

by Prax Venter

  Alt continued to bark at everything they could find, but nothing was responding. They were out of ideas when Jack noticed the well near the field of wheat. The ring of fitted stones and mortar looked ancient, and the logs that held the rope and bucket were mostly rotted away, but the bucket itself was still there, lying on its side with a hole rusted through the bottom.

  It was the only thing they hadn’t checked, but when Alt lowered his snout and sent out a low bark, Jack was still surprised by what he saw.

  Mimic Well -66 | HP 279/345

  Jack was much more surprised when the buried portion of the well abruptly shot upward out of the ground before stopping at its full height of about thirty feet. The column of dirty stone and mortar began to spin, slowly at first, but it gained speed quickly, sending dirt and torn-up grass everywhere.

  Alt didn’t hesitate to scamper away from the violent emergence of the buried well and was already on the move when various-sized boulders began to hurl outward from the whirling Mimic. The first stone chunk was enormous, and the chrome canine was barely able to dodge the initial volley, but a second, smaller stone whistled through the air and hit Jack’s dog in the side.

  Alt -42 | HP 282/324

  The damage to his friend finally spurred Jack to action, and the familiar red blast of vibrant energy poured out of his blade and into the spinning column of stone.

  Mimic Well -92 | HP 187/345

  While he kept the blast going, he watched Lex rush up to the towering monster and hack downward, but the moment her sword hit the Well Mimic, the weapon vanished from her hand.

  It only took Jack three seconds of a sustained Mining Laser to bring down the bizarre creature singlehandedly, but Alt took one more hit from the hail of its hurled rocks.

  Mimic Well -92 | HP 95/345

  Alt -57 | HP 225/324

  Mimic Well -92 | HP 3/345

  Mimic Well -92 | Defeated

  The stone well faded away in a buzz of static, and Jack ran up to Lex, who was just standing helplessly.

  “What happened?” he asked, noticing that her sword was still gone.

  Lex gave him a slanted smile. “Apparently, hitting this Mimic with a melee weapon applies a Disarm status effect. I’ll be able to use it again in 23 seconds.”

  Jack shook his head. “This certainly has been an interesting-”

  He snapped his mouth shut when the ground began to shake as if Floor 28 was hit by a major earthquake. When the farmhouse lurched forward, Jack was sure it was going down, but a much worse realization came to him when the building’s front windows took on the appearance of slanted, angry eyes.

  Alt was much closer to the charging structure and barked out a deep sound wave at the sliding farmhouse.

  Floor 28 Boss -66 | HP 867/933

  The two-story monster dug its foundation into the freshly mowed lawn and angled its trajectory toward the chrome canine.

  They were not prepared for this, but a strategy began to form in Jack’s mind as he watched the absurdly sliding structure snap a few of the branches off the massive oak to chase Alt toward the fields of wheat. The Boss was tossing piles of dirt and grass out of its path as it gouged a rut through the land, and it was going to outrun the dog sooner rather than later.

  “Get to the tree!” Jack yelled at Lex, as he aimed his sword at the passing house. He was able to kick off a two-second Mining Laser before it moved out of range.

  Floor 28 Boss -92 | HP 775/933

  Floor 28 Boss -92 | HP 683/933

  As he thought, the Boss continued to only have eyes- or windows- for the first thing it targeted. Jack joined Lex over by the tire swing and sent a mental message to Alt.

  “Understood,” he responded mentally, and the angular, metallic dog turned to jump the wooden fence that lined the wheat field, dragging the house behind him. Then, with a wide arc, the AI jumped back over another part of the fence and attempted to lead the fixated structure back toward where the two Heroes stood. The destruction was spectacular as the farmhouse obliterated the fence and field, shredding everything in its path.

  Jack cleared his mind and focused on hitting the Floor 28 Boss with a Double Omni Strike. With an intense burst of battle-hardened will, Jack flashed his sword through the thin air in front of him while activating both abilities on his Dimensional Blade path.

  Floor 28 Boss -66 | HP 617/933

  Floor 28 Boss -66 | HP 551/933

  His loyal chrome dog didn’t make it much farther before the house overtook him and began shoving him forward along with the rest of the torn-up yard, fence, and stalks of wheat.

  Alt -135 | HP 90/324

  There was nothing anyone could do. Alt’s summon was finished off shortly after and Jack mentally patted him on the back for accomplishing his mission before going down for the day.

  “This is going to make a loud crunch!” Jack yelled to Lex, bracing himself for the madness coming straight toward them. As soon as it was in range, Jack reactivated his Mining Laser and out of the corner of his eye saw the Bastion ready herself for the oncoming pissed-off farmhouse.

  Floor 28 Boss -92 | HP 459/933

  Moments later, they were both showered with broken glass and wooden bits as the animated structure slammed into the tree. The tall oak creaked from the impact, but its deeply buried roots held, and the living farmhouse struggled to free itself from the bad choice of action.

  Jack dashed forward alongside Lex to melee the Boss, their boots crunching through the small bits of house. They both hacked downward with their weapons, and Jack activated Double Strike the instant he felt his blade touch the painted wooden siding.

  Floor 28 Boss -66 | HP 393/933

  Floor 28 Boss -66 | HP 327/933

  Floor 28 Boss -56 | HP 271/933

  The house shuddered with rage then tried to dislodge itself from the trunk of sturdy oak, and was eventually able to break free, but by then it was too late. The two-story farmhouse attempted to come at them from a different angle, but Jack’s Mining Laser dealt the final blow, and the Floor 28 Boss exploded into a brilliant shower of multi-hued sparks.

  Jack had been waiting for this moment for the last few days. As soon as he felt that first tingle of next-level euphoria enter his body, he quickly grabbed Lex around her waist and pressed his lips to hers.

  She lazily nibbled back as they both hit Hero Level 29.

  - 12 -

  The freshly mowed front yard that had once been a peaceful reminder of home was now an image of shredded chaos. Stone boulders of various sizes hurled from the Mimic Well were strewn everywhere, and house-sized ruts obliterated most everything else.

  Both Heroes hopped down into one such gouge in the dirt, walked right past the Door to Floor 29, and climbed up the other side to reach the Boss Chest and Exit Orb.

  “It’s a good thing we cleared the house first,” Lex said while Jack looted the chest. He found a few high-value items including a sword that wasn’t an upgrade for the Bastion, so he fed it to Alt.

  “Yeah, I wonder what would have happened if we were in that thing when it came alive,” Jack said as he pulled up his weapon to see if there were any changes.

  ARV Alternis - [Sword | Value: 11,115/250,000]

  | Dmg: 67 |

  | Def: 16 |

  | Hit Chance +0.12 |

  | Crit Chance +0.20 |

  | HP + 28 |

  | MP + 65 |

  | Dodge + 20 |

  | Magic Power + 7 |

  | 25% chance to heal 1 HP on kill |

  | +5 Mana on Floor Transition |

  | +1 Sneak |

  Lex began to laugh, and he looked up from his stats to see her gazing out over the shredded wheat field.

  “What is it?” he asked, unable to keep his own lips from curling into a smile.

  She turned to face him and tucked an errant shock of straight blonde hair behind her pointed ear.

  “Oh, at first I was just thinking of the new cows and how Ryea was going to react to them. It reminded me of how she r
eacted to the blue Orb Pheasant monsters you brought from the Tower to feed us. Then, I imagined instead of cows, you got Alt to force the pasture to be filled with edible house monsters like the Boss we just fought.”

  Jack shook his head and let out a chuckle himself.

  “Yeah, I don’t think the Townsfolk would be as accepting if Demi started feeding us house meat.” Was it his imagination, or was she becoming more creative?

  Lex let out a quick snort of a laugh. “…house meat.” Then her smile faded, but a hint of it remained. “Did you find anything good?”

  “An upgrade for my sword, but everything else is for the Town.”

  She nodded. “Then let’s go home.”

  They both touched the Exit Orb and found themselves standing outside the Tower in the cool, salty sea air.

  “Happy Exit, you two!” Ryea said, and Jack saw that in addition to the doughy Farmer, Lex’s father was there to greet them as well, leaning against the fountain.

  They were both in for a treat.

  He locked eyes with Lex and wiggled his eyebrows before moving to the Input Chest.

  “You two ready for another big change?” the Bastion asked, her tone playfully melodic.

  “What does that mean?” Harrak asked.

  Jack looked up. “Patience, my friend.”

  “Do you want to keep the Soap on a Rope Artifact?” Alt said in his mind. “The Town will Level either way.”

  Jack thought about it for a second and then sent Alt an affirmative. Saving a bunch of high-value Artifacts didn’t sound like a bad idea- if only to put them in a museum or something.

  “A museum…” Alt mused in his mind. “That’s a novel idea, Jack. I should be able to make one at some point.”

  As soon as the AI in his mind finished talking, the same white flash that filled his senses while transitioning to a new Floor in the Tower washed over Blackmoor Cove. When it was over, everything around him had been upgraded once again.

  The fountain that Harrak was leaning on was now polished silver, and the ground around it was no longer smooth pebbles but a slick type of solid marble surface with glittering gold flecks embedded within.

  He caught the old man’s wide-eyed stare and gave him a wink before looking around for more changes. Behind him, the infinitely high Tower now had huge, cut sapphires embedded among intricately detailed molding and decorations, but the door was exactly the same- old, weather-beaten wood with a pitted iron handle.

  Jack turned to search near the Farm for the delicious cows he was promised, but his vision was suddenly blocked by a new interface panel.

  ‘Please vote for the new Mayor of Blackmoor Cove’

  Thymus

  Garl

  Harrak

  Demi

  Sol

  …

  The list of options continued down with a scroll bar on the side similar to his Summon menu, naming Townsfolk and Heroes, each with an emerald checkmark next to their name. It took a moment for Jack to find his own name near the bottom, and it seemed like the list was ordered by age.

  “Uh, what is this all about,” Jack asked.

  “I voted for you, Jack,” Ryea said quickly.

  “Thanks, but-”

  The panel vanished before he actually picked anyone and was quickly replaced with another interface menu.

  ‘Congratulations! The majority of Townsfolk residents have voted for you to become the Makeshift Mayor of Blackmoor Cove.’

  There were no other options or selections other than dismissing the menu.

  “I figured this would happen,” Alt said in his mind. “I wanted it to be a surprise. Nothing really changes because you can already reassign people. It’s mostly an honorary title. You’ve already got everyone set in their roles for now, but eventually, you’ll probably want to reassign someone you trust to the position.”

  “Seems like many Townsfolk voted for our Irrelevant Hero,” Harrak said, slowly spinning to take in all the changes to his home. “I really can’t think of someone better to lead Blackmoor through these changes than him.” Lex’s father stopped and locked his eyes on Jack before continuing. “No matter how impossibly fast those changes keep coming.”

  “Is that… a boat?!” Ryea said, standing on her toes as she looked over Jack’s shoulder. The four of them hurried to the cliffs behind the Tower to find a new wooden fence running along its edge. But the new fence only kept Jack’s attention for a moment before he confirmed that the Farmer had been correct. Not only was there a boat with a single sail maneuvering around the large stones that cradled the cove, but a whole new structure had come into existence next to the Wharf.

  “Demons take us all…” Harrak muttered under his breath. “The Docks have returned.”

  Alt spoke in Jack’s mind again as he watched the wooden vessel and the people moving on its surface.

  “In addition to the Townhall and the Docks returning, the Lumbermill, the Wall, the Inn, and Townsfolk Homes have all had upgrades. You are already aware of the Farm, and I was able to force cows to spawn, although I was tempted to replace them with Mimic Farmhouses. That would have been interesting.”

  Jack thanked him and pulled in a deep breath, trying to process all these changes himself.

  “This means we should be seeing more Townsfolk arrive,” Lex said, then turned to Jack, putting her hand over his as he gripped the new railing. When she had his attention, she added, “And now Townsfolk can leave if they wish, as well.”

  “I should get to the Wall,” the Town’s new Combat Master said. “There is going to be a lot of chaos with all this, and I want to get on top of it.”

  Jack turned to face him. “The Wall has upgraded, too, by the way.”

  Harrak paused, and Jack could see he had burning questions, but the battle-hardened veteran organized his priorities and only nodded before stomping away from the infinite ocean.

  “I should probably go greet these new people and check out these docks,” Jack said.

  Lex squeezed his hand. “I’ll meet you at the Inn for dinner soon.” Then she turned to Ryea. “Come on, we’ve got some new livestock to check out.”

  “New what?” the woman in overalls said, her face lighting up.

  Jack kissed Lex once before splitting away from them at the crossroads and heading down the new cobblestone path that ran through Town. He passed several Townsfolk in the residential district and stopped to shake their hands as they congratulated him on his new role as Mayor of Blackmoor. Everyone he saw wore a bright smile, and a few thanked him profusely for the sweeping changes he’d brought to their lives. He couldn’t help but notice the vanishing verdant fields of grass as many new Townsfolk homes now occupied that space.

  His boots clacked on the square stones that had replaced the dirt path he’d walked many times. The new gray pavers appeared to have been spawned in already worn down by time, and Jack even saw green moss and shoots of grass growing between the cracks. Perhaps the changes to the crumbling, seaside Town he’d come to call home were happening too fast even for him.

  “The changes may be fast,” Alt said, “but I believe it’s working. That last Town Level appears to be diverting the Corruption’s active attention from the real world into this simulation. The significance is barely above what I would consider random noise in the data, yet…”

  “Yet what?”

  “And yet it exists.”

  “Why do you sound so surprised?” Jack asked as he turned the corner and headed down the wooden stairs to the Cove. “Wasn’t that the point of all this?”

  There was a pause and Jack felt a gentle wave of frustration from the AI.

  “It’s hard to explain how I perceive time, but I can say that after hundreds of thousands of years, it feels good to finally see the darkness receding instead of growing. System Sana is pushing harder than I am for the first time in a long time.”

  “That’s really good news,” Jack said, looking down at the scabbard wrapped around his waist. Alt didn’t an
swer and the stowaway digital mind linked to his felt preoccupied with running statistical calculations, over and over. With a sigh, Jack focused on his walk Blackmoor Cove’s newest waterfront property.

  The new Docks were farther down the coast, and Jack felt bad for anyone who had to carry cargo all the way up the… His brain stalled when he remembered no one in this world needed to physically carry anything. They could probably just move stacks of items into their inventory- that is, if there was any cargo. He still didn’t fully grasp the purpose of the Docks, and perhaps it was only to ferry Townsfolk around. There was a log cabin connected to the side of the long pier that stretched out into the bay much like the Wharf, and he wondered why the Town needed both a Wharf and a Dock, but figured it was some more videogame nonsense.

  The medium-sized ship was already tethered, and its crew extended its gangplank as Jack walked along the rough wooden logs to welcome whomever was aboard.

  He could see several people moving around on the boat, and as he drew closer, four individuals disembarked to meet him halfway. Two men, a woman, and a small boy. One of the men wore a rapier at his side and what Jack considered a captain’s hat. The boy was the youngest person he’d ever seen in this strange world.

  “Welcome to Blackmoor Cove!” Jack said, mustering all the goodwill he could shove into his voice. “I’m Jack, the uh- Mayor. What brings you to our cozy Town?”

  The armed man in the hat continued to walk forward while the others waited, his hand extended in the universal gesture of greeting and a huge grin on his tanned face.

  “Name’s Denig, I’m the captain o’ the Ne’er-do-well. Saw this port open and thought we’d make landfall ahead o’ the storm rushing in our wake.”

  Jack took his offered hand and gave it a solid shake before looking up to the gray clouds over the calm sea. There didn’t seem to be a storm coming that he could tell, but he wasn’t foolish enough to think he knew better.

  “Fantastic,” Jack said. “You’ll find our Inn, The Eye o’ the Storm, is exactly what you’re looking for, and you won’t find a finer meal across all of System Sana. So, you’re all just stopping by for a visit, then?”