by Prax Venter
“Maybe someday I will tell you, but it would take years of boring lessons for you to even begin to understand the complexities involved.”
In Jack’s mind, he could feel Alt’s intention to dissuade Haylee from digging too deeply, but from the look in her old-soul eyes, he just ignited the fire of insatiable curiosity under the most determined young girl they had ever met.
“That’s all I got, Haylee,” Jack said, moving things along. “You know all my tricks. We’ve got a second Boss to hunt, so let’s get to it.”
With a nod, Jack turned and led them deeper into the forest of blades. They fought a few more birds and deer before they came upon a Blade Grizzly sitting in the path, waiting for them.
Jack didn’t hesitate before blasting it in the face with his Mining Laser. By the time Haylee and Alt had joined him, the creature was erased. Lex sheathed her blade behind her back and turned to Jack.
“I wonder what manner of monster we would be fighting if we had helped the sun before.”
“Probably something hot and dusty,” he guessed, his eyes turning up to the shrouded disk of the sun high above. The question made him wonder if there had been other choices on other Floors that changed based on their path through it.
They wound through the sword trees and made good progress sweeping the Floor of its normal monsters. Jack took a moment to appreciate how much smoother the infamous Floor 24 went when most of the team were at Hero Level 29. Eventually, the narrow path ended, and the party came to an open clearing of grass.
They all quickly identified it as the Boss chamber and gave the area a scan before jumping in. Besides the Exit Orb pulsing softly near the far side, there was a man made of blades standing in the center of the clearing. Unlike the aggressive metallic wildlife they’d seen in the razor-sharp forest, this new monster’s head was made of perpetually shifting purple clouds.
Jack looked to each of his team and got nods signifying they were all ready to move forward. Lex and Alt took the lead while Jack and Haylee intended to blast him from cover. The moment the Bastion’s boot came down within its range, the metal man turned to face them.
“You may pass no further,” the man said before lifting both of its sword-like arms.
Jack never knew if they were going to get hit by energy weapons, burst area attacks, or visceral physical aggression, but it always seemed best to get behind Lex.
This time, it was all of the above. Glowing blades shot from both its arms and impacted the Bastion’s shield an instant later. The moment the magical attack made contact, both projectiles faded as they flashed out webs of electricity through the entire party.
Lex -78 | 446/524
Jack -78 | 316/394
Haylee -78 | 132/210
Alt -78 | 430/508
Without being told, Haylee pushed through the pain of losing over one-third of her life and sprinted straight away from Lex. Jack dove to his right, and after an evasive roll, he activated his Mining Laser.
Floor 24 Boss B -96 | HP 611/707
A step behind, one-eyed Alt followed up with a yellow burst of energy, its glow reflecting wildly off the mirror-like blades that made up this creature.
Floor 24 Boss B -144 | HP 467/707
Alt’s damage was greater, so the cloud-headed Boss sprinted for the slower-moving robot. It only made it halfway across the clearing before its steps slowed down by half. As was her preferred synergy, Haylee followed up her 30-second slowing ability with a carefully aimed Light Ray.
Jack’s Mining Laser caught up with the moving target just as Haylee pierced the center of its hazy brain with a bright filament of light.
Floor 24 Boss B -96 | HP 371/707
Floor 24 Boss B Critical! -249 | HP 122/707
The devastating amount of damage caused the man of blades to stumble into Lex’s waiting sword.
Floor 24 Boss B -56 | HP 66/707
Jack’s channeled beam of death finished it off, and their final foe burst into an explosive shower of glittering fireworks, sending Haylee to Hero Level 25.
“That’s how we take out a Boss!” Jack said, pumping his fist toward the cloudy sky.
Movement above caught their eyes as the racing clouds thickened and began to flicker with lightning. Cool drops of rain began to fall around them, and it looked like they were all going to get drenched again.
Without any discussion, everyone waved goodbye to Alt as Jack looted the chest. The two girls moved to tap the Exit Orb as the drops started to fall, and Jack transferred the mediocre drops to his Inventory to be fed to the Town.
“You know,” Alt said in his mind, causing Jack to pause before leaving. “I still have one piece of equipment saved for Haylee that we haven’t fed to the Town. You could tell her you found it in the chest and give her at least one upgrade.”
Jack nodded. She’d experienced the joy of random upgrade drops, and it made sense to have her as powerful as they could at this point.
“Here’s what I think,” Jack said. “We don’t lie to her. Tomorrow, you should just say, ‘here I saved this for a Floor 25 gift’ and hand over whatever you have.”
“I can’t open an interface window.”
Jack wiped the rain from his brow. It didn’t really matter all that much- he’d be dry as soon as he hit the orb… that is, if it wasn’t also raining back on the cliffs of Blackmoor.
“We are in a videogame, and you’re a cheater. Why can’t one of my summons have an inventory?”
The AI linked to his brain seemed to spin very fast for a moment, and Jack swayed on his feet.
“Woah there, buddy,” he stammered as the water dripped from his nose. “What’cha doing?”
“There is a way, Jack, but you have to shoot yourself with the Mining Laser. What you felt was me using the complexity I have at my disposal to work out the fascinating problem you laid at my feet. It was a challenging exercise in creative resource management, and I believe my efforts exposed methodologies that may lead to future exploits, even if you are unwilling to take the damage.”
Jack’s mouth hung open.
“Shoot myself? What, like my foot?”
“That’ll work.”
Jack’s brain finally caught up to what this revelation ultimately meant.
“Now be crystal-clear with me here, bud,” he began, the rain long forgotten, “are you saying I’ll be able to summon an exact copy of myself, only with you… animating it?”
“No, not an exact copy. I will need to allocate much of the summon’s resources to Player-Interface type functions. I will not be able to attack and will likely have very few hit points. Additionally, anyone will be able to tell it’s not you because of the aforementioned limited resources; the copy will appear as a transparent hologram.”
Jack felt a twinge of apprehension at the potential misuse of any type of clone.
“I understand,” Alt said, and Jack turned to face the one-eyed robot. Rain bounced off the flat cylinder that was his head. “This isn’t something to take lightly.”
“Yeah,” Jack said, drawing his blade. “But you knew I was going to say yes.”
He pointed the tip of his blade at the tip of his big toe and activated Mining Laser with himself as the target. The vibrant energy seared off several of his toes in painful fire before he was able to cancel the attack.
Jack -96 | HP 298/394
Jack clenched his fists and his jaw as the pain slowly faded.
“It’s kind of interesting to finally know how that feels,” he said after the pain was gone.
“Well,” Alt began slowly, “I hate to tell you that you surprised me, and I wasn’t really watching. You need to do it again.”
“Are you serious!” Jack threw his hands up into the rain. But the moment the shock was over, he could clearly feel Alt’s version of laughing tickling his brain.
“Very funny,” Jack said. “But now what? Did it work?”
“You haven’t changed my form on this Floor yet, so…”
Jack wille
d his Alter Alt summon list to appear, and below all the newly added Blade monsters near the bottom was ‘Altered Jack’.
“Will my life ever not be insane?” Jack asked the junk bot next to him.
Alt mentally shrugged. “Perhaps your measuring stick for sanity will change as you grow into an old man within System Sana.”
“Unlikely,” Jack said, tapping the last option in the hovering interface.
The junk-bot phased into a glowing blue humanoid with a visible wireframe. If you knew what to look for, anyone could see that this was a shadow of Jack. Same height, build, haircut. Even how he stood.
“The girls are going to lose their shit tomorrow.”
Altered Jack closed the distance to him with a few steps and held out his hand. A moment later, a trade window phased into existence.
All the pieces were there, but the font for Alt’s name was different. Instead of the perfectly carved, intricate letters of a typical interface, Alt’s name appeared as though an animal gouged it out in a fit of rage. The accept button also had a bit of exposed code.
‘[Accept (rewrite(transpose(items_interface)));]’
The emerald gemstone looked ridiculously long when compared to a normal trade menu.
“Bah,” Alt said, his voice coming from the blue hologram in front of him. “I can’t seem to shake the visual leakage when I… cheat.”
Jack shook his head and opened his Inventory alongside this hacked trade window. He was instantly faced with countless tiny painted pictures of weapons and armor.
“I’ve moved the bow to the top row,” Alt said in his mind.
“A bow, huh?” Jack said as he moved his eyes to the ranged weapon in question.
Star Chaser - [Bow | Value: 132]
| Dmg: 55 |
| Hit Chance +0.18 |
| Crit Chance +0.20 |
| Projectiles gain Piercing |
~ Stop those who’ll stop your dreams
Jack looked up to the transparent version of himself. “Alt, this is amazing. Haylee will… she’ll love this. Hell, I love this. Does this Piercing do what I think it does?”
He didn’t wait for Alt to answer and focused his attention on that particular word. A smaller panel popped up on top of the weapons information panel.
‘[Piercing ~ Attack continues through all entities and damages anything it strikes.]’
“I’ll be damned.”
Alt reminded him that they were in the middle of a trade. “Can you try passing it to me?”
Jack nodded and moved the item to the hacked interface, then pressed the absurdly long accept button.
The trade menu flashed green, but then it froze, glitching out as parts of the panel phased in and out of reality. Then it was gone.
Jack turned his eyes up to the head of the shadow copy of himself, worried the epic bow was gone forever. But the elation he felt from Alt as the benevolent AI observed the first item in his newly minted Inventory told him otherwise.
“Thank you, Jack, this means a lot.”
“I can tell that it does.” The warm feeling in his mind made it clear how Alt felt. Being able to interact with the people of this world in a more inclusive way was something Alt didn’t appear to know he wanted until Jack suggested it a few minutes ago.
“Alright,” Jack said, wiping the rain from his face. “I better get out of here before you ask me to do more weird stuff.”
- 21 -
“How did you get hurt after we left?” Lex said, her dark brows coming down hard.
“Uh…” Jack stammered. “It’s a surprise. You’ll see tomorrow.”
The Bastion narrowed her golden eyes, and Jack knew she would get it out of him later- when they were alone. But they weren’t alone now. The Exit area was filled with friendly faces waiting for them to come home, and Jack was shocked when there wasn’t a celebratory cake waiting for them.
“Wooo! Level 25!” Ryea cheered, and the few who’d gathered cheered along with her. Jack’s eyes found the owlish Sol with the bizarre expression of a smile on a face he’d come to know as a home for scowls.
“Haylee,” Jack began, “I’d be honored if you and your father would join us at our table for dinner as you reveal your new Path abilities.”
The tall man looked to his daughter, and she cast her gray eyes up to him. Jack noticed a barely perceptible nod from the young Hero, and Sol turned his attention to Jack.
“We would like that very much.”
After depositing the day’s loot and a short walk, they were all inside the Eye o’ the Storm where a warm fire kept the cold gusts from the sea locked outside. Their little table in the dark corner was becoming full, and Jack loved it. Lex sat across from him, then it was Ryea across from Harrak, then Haylee across Sol. Reno came along to take their order and inform them that the special for the day was a broccoli, pheasant, and cheese soup served with a hunk of freshly baked bread. Jack took one of those while everyone else ordered something different.
“Great work on the Farm, you two,” Jack said after Reno left.
Ryea’s face split into a huge grin. “Our ex-Wharfmaster took some getting used to, but he’s pretty good with some of the simpler tasks.”
Everyone turned to Sol, waiting for his scathing remark, but the owlish man cracked his own small smile. Jack wondered if he would ever see the man’s familiar angry scowl again.
“I’ve been a Shopkeeper, a Wharfmaster, a Wall Guard, a Waiter, and now a Farmer. I’ve filled many roles and learned many perspectives, but the simple tasks I’m doing now feel as though they have the most impact on improving the lives of everyone around me. Most of all, myself.”
Jack looked around the table as everyone processed Sol’s heartfelt words.
“Hey now,” Ryea said, her tone softer and her doughy face turning red, “you’re doing a very fine job and are a big help. We’re even starting to build up a surplus.”
“Good,” Jack said, “Maybe we can start working out more trade deals with other towns. I’ll have Harnal stop by soon to keep tabs on our overstock.”
Ryea crossed her arms. “Oh, he’s been sniff’n around almost every day. He probably knows more about what we have than I do.”
Jack nodded, then turned to the young girl sitting at the other end of the table.
“Now, Haylee, I’m dying to know what a tier-two Dark Prism can do.”
She passed her gray eyes round the table, and everyone waited for her to speak. A small smile curled on her thin lips, and Jack knew it was something good.
“First, the new ability in my Vexer path is called Expose Weakness. It costs 10 mana to activate and then I can call out a target’s weakness for the entire party.”
Harrak let out a low whistle through his yellowed teeth.
“Striking their weakness is almost a guaranteed critical, but usually hard to spot,” he said.
“Is there a time limit?” Lex asked.
Haylee shook her head. “None is mentioned.”
Everyone was silent as they considered the possible uses. Melting Bosses was the obvious answer.
“Okay, awesome,” Jack said. “What about your Light Archer Path?”
The young Hero nodded, but her smile faltered. Haylee didn’t seem as excited about this one.
“It’s called Blue Shift. My next Light Ray deals double damage. Costs 10 mana and only can be activated once every ten minutes.”
Jack pulled in a deep breath as he added up the Dark Prism’s toolset.
“So, let me get this straight. You can slow an enemy down, boost your critical strike, and then deal double damage with an instant laser beam from a mile away?”
Haylee turned her gray eyes on Jack. “The Expose Weakness ability increases everyone else’s critical strike chance on the target as well, and a mile might be out of range, but in the spirit of your question, yes.”
Harrak grunted. “With Jack’s unnatural abilities and my daughter’s protection, you three are going to climb high indeed.”
> Reno came back with their orders, and everyone took the opportunity to mull over Haylee’s new tier-two abilities. Everyone except Sol. The tall man turned to his daughter and asked his question before forking a piece of steamed crab into his mouth.
“So, how’s your friend Pan doing these days?”
He chewed slowly as one of his thick eyebrows rose, waiting for her to answer. Perhaps there was still some bite in the old grouch because when Haylee narrowed her eyes at her father, Jack realized that she hadn’t been back to see him since she started joining their party in the Tower. Was this public payback for some of the times she called him out in front of everyone?
After she didn’t respond right away, Sol immediately let off the pressure with some fatherly advice.
“Might do you both some good to go see him between all of your rigorous training. You don’t want to lose a good friend.”
The line of comments made everyone uncomfortable for a few moments. Everyone except Harrak.
“Sometimes, life causes good friends to grow apart,” he said quietly.
The young Hero and the old Combat Master locked eyes. Lex’s dark brows came down, but whatever argument she was about to give vanished when a long droning sound caused everyone in the common room to instantly stop talking.
Someone was blowing the horn at the Watchtower.
Harrak shot to his feet. “Demon Spawn Attack! Heroes with me, everyone else stay put.”
The four of them dashed out of the Inn, and as they ran, the horn started honking out intermittent blasts.
“They’re at the gate and going around the edges of the Wall!” Harrak yelled, saying what they all knew from the pre-established signal. Jack’s mind raced as he tried to determine their best move. The sky was mostly clear, and the fading light of the sunken sun still saturated the land in twilight, but it would be truly dark soon.
“We split up,” Jack said as they ran. “I’ll head for the Lumberjacks. Lex, check the Wall by the Farm, and Haylee, follow Harrak up the middle. We meet back at the Inn.”
The Combat Master skidded to a halt and looked at his daughter.
“Retreat if there are too many.”
“I know,” she said and then turned her eyes on Jack.