Irrelevant Jack 2

by Prax Venter

  Hologram Alt paused to let these concepts sink in before continuing, and Jack thought back to the chaos of last night. What were these supposed fantasies the AI mentioned? Then it hit him.

  “We’d be able to build our own Lightning Turrets?”

  “Better,” Alt said. “Defensive Lightning Towers. They’re an augmentation ritual to the Wall only Thymus can perform. These autonomously firing structures would be four stories tall and spaced out every fifty yards around the entire Town, up to the cliffs.”

  Lex’s small mouth hung open, and Haylee pressed her tongue through her tight lips as she processed everything. Jack just started grinning from ear to ear.

  The blue hologram held up his hand, encouraging caution.

  “All this being said, there are a few parts of this plan that are out of my control. Thymus needs to have a natural proficiency for the role, and even if he does, he still needs to use his mind to put everything together. This is no novice-level augmentation. It would likely have taken our Arcane Mage decades of research to know such a thing was even possible. With specific knowledge of a guaranteed end result, a major part of the hard work will be done. Even if he succeeds in unlocking the steps to magically apply his Lightning Turret to the Wall, the ritual requirements may be impossible to fulfill or too costly. Also, I will need to use a lot of the Town’s power to spawn this unique building. If we can push to at least Floor 32 today, I should have enough to do it- with enough of a buffer to keep our current Town Level.”

  The gentle breeze of Floor 1 picked up again as everyone tried to keep up.

  Jack crossed his arms. “Harrak said the next attack will be coming in six days. Are you saying Thymus will have enough time to do whatever this is before the next attack?”

  “That’s the plan,” Alt said. “The more time he has, the better.”

  “Why do we need to go through all that?” Haylee asked. “If you can spawn the rare research building, why can’t you simply spawn these Defensive Lightning Towers?”

  “There are rules I must follow, or the Corruption will notice my interference. I don’t need to tell you that such a situation would be catastrophic for everyone.”

  She followed up quickly as if she expected this answer.

  “What are the rules, and how do you know them?”

  The hologram tilted his head at the serious, young girl.

  “I would love to sit down with you and explain everything, Haylee. And the more I come to know you, the more I believe you would understand. All I can tell you that right at this moment, the Corruption is dictating all the rules.”

  “We need to clear Floors 29, 30, 31, 32 today?” Lex asked as she counted them off on her fingers. “That’s four Hero Levels for both me and Jack and eight more for Haylee.”

  “I can obviously do this tomorrow or the next day,” Alt said quickly. “I just wanted you to know all the options.”

  The Dark Prism held up her new bow, a black beauty with glowing blue stars carved into its surface.

  “I am ready.”

  Jack shook his head. “It will really depend on the layouts, the drops, how much Mana we burn through… But it’s not like we must decide anything right this second. Let’s set our sights on clearing Floor 32 and see how it goes.”

  Lex was staring blankly at the ground, but she looked up when she realized everyone was waiting for her to agree.

  “No one takes any unnecessary hits to their HPs. Remember, I can heal for free once per Floor with my Knit ability.”

  “Good,” Jack said, “we’ll do our best to let you soak up the damage. Also, I think Haylee’s new talents are going to help dramatically with some of those high-level Boss fights.”

  Everyone turned to the Dark Prism who raised one of her lightly colored eyebrows.

  “Shall I sweep Floor 1?”

  Jack smiled and drew his sword. “Let me pop one of these first.”

  The closest white balloon was about forty yards away, so Jack had to take a short walk before his Mining Laser was in range. He held out his weapon and activated his ability.

  Vicious Balloon -96 | Defeated

  An instant later, a beam of pure-white light struck one of the white orbs off to his left. He couldn’t help but notice that the Light Ray continued past her target and into the hazy distance beyond.

  Vicious Balloon -191 | Defeated

  He turned to look at the Dark Prism with an uncontrollable giddiness filling his mind, and all weariness from his disturbed sleep was pushed aside. She could fire about once every two seconds, putting her damage output on par with his, but if Haylee used all her abilities at once…

  Alt answered telepathically. “Right now, she might be able to deal 800 points of damage with one shot. She really was the strongest potential Townsfolk in Blackmoor, Jack.”

  He had to agree. Although she was a bit more fragile than he would like, she could do insane burst damage.

  The young Hero spun in place as she cleared every inflated enemy across the sanguine landscape, each with a single strike. After the seventh balloon was popped, a high-pitched cry hit their ears from above.

  Jack looked up to see a hot air balloon that certainly was not there before. The large white fabric holding it aloft seemed to wrinkle as it descended toward Haylee. He sprinted forward to get into Mining Laser range and noticed a red-rimmed eye bulging out from the bottom of its empty wicker basket. The glistening orb was currently locked on the Dark Prism, and before the creature could kick off whatever interesting attack it intended, Jack blasted it out of the sky with his death ray.

  The Boss exploded, and after looting the chest, the party proceeded with their plan to climb the Tower higher than they ever had. All three of them acquired a ‘Gain 2 MP/ kill’ effect as part of their Rest Bonus, so conserving Mana was not really an issue on the lower Floors. Jack could one-shot everything up to 12, and Haylee could still snipe monsters up to about 20 before a follow-up Mining Laser was needed to finish them off.

  All of Jack’s assumptions about the Dark Prism and her ability to melt Bosses proved absolutely accurate as they blew past one after another without anyone taking a single Hit Point of damage.

  The Floor Boss for Level 28 was apparently a monstrously large plant with a Venus flytrap mouth the size of a school bus, and it was currently crawling into the Boss chamber from the rocky crevasse above.

  “Turn it away from me!” Haylee cried out as she sprinted behind the massive cluster of vegetation. Because of her ability, the Dark Prism’s words instantly gave Jack insight as to the monster’s weak point. It was still a mystery as to whether her ability created the weakness or if all monsters inherently had one, but there was no mistaking the glowing four-leaf clover bouncing from the back of this carnivorous plant’s head.

  Lex reacted quickly and let out a Shout while sprinting in the other direction. Jack and Angry Sun Alt held their ground, hiding in the shadow of the creature until they were sure it was focused on the Bastion. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver in the deep, earthy canyon that was this Floor’s layout, and Lex came to a stop near the rough stone wall. The creature tracked her movements and took this opportunity to lash out with several of its vine-like appendages. Lex sang the harmonizing notes of her Aether ability a moment before the thick vines whiffed through her to slam into the rock at her feet with a thunderous impact.

  Haylee inflicted her Withering Stare and took aim on the Boss’s small weak spot. After a single heartbeat, she let a Blue-Shifted Light Ray fly.

  Jack followed the strand of bright ultramarine-colored light as it continued through the bulbous head of the creature and into the wall about five feet over Lex’s non-corporeal head.

  Floor 28 Boss Critical! -746 | HP 179/925

  Jack opened up his Mining Laser right into the plant creature’s gourd-like underside, and Alt finished it shortly after with a blast of his black-and-white eyebeams.

  Floor 28 Boss -96 | HP 83/925

  Floor 28 Boss -192 | Defeat
ed

  With its death, their newest team member moved to Hero Level 29 and finally pushed the Dark Prism in line with the rest of the party.

  “Woo!” Lex called out, thrusting her sword into the air. “We are going to do this! Alt, your plan has a hope of working!”

  Jack had never seen her so excited. He knew the attack on Blackmoor had affected Lex deeply, and this new hope of a super-powered defense system grew brighter the higher they climbed. Only four more Floors lay between them and accomplishing their goal.

  “New gloves,” Haylee said from the Boss chest in the middle of the rocky chamber. Light from the sky far above streamed down from the hole previously stuffed with an enormous plant and now bathed the chest and the next Floor’s wooden door in a yellow cascade of light.

  Lex hopped down from the rocky ledge to take a look at Haylee’s new upgrade, and Jack’s eye was involuntarily pulled to the Bastion’s luxuriant strands of golden hair as they reflected the sunlight. After she inspected the new gear, Lex turned to face Jack with a big smile.

  “High HP attribute for a hand slot item.”

  On instinct, Jack cast his eyes to his heads-up display.

  JACK HP 349/349 MP 178/192

  LEX HP 544/544

  HAYLEE HP 271/271

  ALT HP 209/209

  Coins: 6269

  Inventory Value: 13,718

  Alt Value: 24,519/250,000

  The Dark Prism was still far too fragile for his liking.

  “I approve of your continued focus on building your HPs,” he said with a nod.

  The young Hero pulled the floral-patterned gloves tight against her fingers, adjusting them and making sure they felt right. They looked like gardening gloves.

  “I realize my weakness among this group of well-rounded Heroes,” Haylee said quietly, then turned her gray eyes to Jack. “And my strength is currently strong enough.”

  Jack grinned. “Right you are, little one. We ready to hit Floor 29?”

  They were, so Jack moved to the door and took hold of the iron ring. The white nothing engulfed his mind before pulling away to reveal what looked like a Wild West ghost town. An orange desert stretched outward all around a small, rundown settlement constructed of weathered wood while a yellow sun baked everything from above. Shimmering heat mirages rose from almost every surface, but Jack saw no enemies.

  He pressed his boots into the dry, trampled-down road that led into town and took note of the solid ground under his feet. Wooden signs hung outward from a few of the buildings, and he spotted a doctor’s office, the Sheriff’s office, and the big swinging double doors made it easy to locate the saloon, but the white letters painted into its front was the real giveaway.

  “This place is a part of my world’s history,” Jack said absentmindedly. “Did your universe have a Wild West, Alt?”

  “We both had an America,” the AI said. “It stands to reason we’d share the same American frontier periods.”

  Haylee’s eyes narrowed. “Your worlds are a lot more barren than I expected.”

  “And hotter,” Lex added.

  Jack shook his head and started walking forward toward the saloon.

  “This layout is a bit of an exaggeration, and it’s what we would call a ghost town. It seems abandoned.”

  “Probably because the Town is missing its Tower,” Lex said, gesturing around the unobstructed, blue sky around them.

  “Probably.” Jack shot her a sidewise grin, then focused on peeking into the dark interior of the biggest building in town. From where he stood, it appeared empty in there too. He spun back around to face his team as they kept an eye out behind them for the Floor’s inevitable monsters.

  “We could walk around the outside of everything first, but I think that’s wasting time. Let’s check inside, carefully. Lex, you’re with me while we poke in and look. We’ll let you know when it’s clear.”

  Everyone understood their role in the plan. Haylee and Alt pulled in close to watch the road, while Lex pushed open the doors with her shield as they stepped into the dusty shade of the place simply called saloon.

  There were tables, chairs, a bar with many bottles, a spittoon, and even a player piano near one of the walls. Everything he’d expected to find… except perhaps the cloudy jar of pickled eggs sitting on the bench as if it were intended to be playing the piano.

  Nothing seemed to be an immediate threat, so he called for Haylee and Alt to join them inside.

  “I guess we look upstairs,” Jack said, pointing up to the second-level balcony.

  “I hate when they are like this,” Lex whispered. “I much prefer when our enemy is clearly defined.”

  “Yeah…” he mumbled as he slowly approached the jar sitting by the piano. It was some sort of gray sponge suspended in liquid and noticed more tucked in along the length of the wooden bar amongst the plethora of glass bottles. A chill ran down his spine when Jack realized the thing he was looking at was a brain in a jar- complete with two milky eyeballs. He was far too close to this incredibly out-of-place object, so he stopped and held up his hand, palm outward. Behind him, he heard both Lex’s and Haylee’s boots grow quiet in response.

  But it was too late. The moment Jack showed a sign that he was suspicious, a glowing red pistol phased into existence above the disembodied brain in front of him.

  “Get down!” he yelled as he turned and dove onto the floor. His frantic maneuver overturned a table, and Jack attempted to use it for cover.

  Gunfire exploded in the saloon as countless other brains in jars also summoned their own pistols to create a firing squad situation, but the decaying dry wood in front of Jack was not stopping any of the phantom bullets currently riddling it with holes.

  They were all too far from the door, and with who knew how many of the things all shooting… He didn’t consciously think it through, but Jack instinctually shifted Alt to one of the monsters buried fairly deep in the list.

  The Angry Sun phased into a six-foot diamond wall.

  Jack -98 | HP 296/394

  Lex -82 | HP 462/544

  Both Lex and Jack got tagged before all three of them were able to take cover. Once they were behind the cut gemstone wall, Alt began to take the hits.

  Alt -29 | HP 641/670

  Alt -29 | HP 612/670

  Alt -29 | HP 583/670

  They just kept shooting one after another.

  “This was a good idea,” Alt said with a wide mouth right over Jack’s head. Then the Living Diamond Wall activated his self-healing ability.

  Alt +175 | HP 670/670

  Jack tapped Haylee on her shoulder. “I’ll go right, then you go left. We alternate shooting them one by one. Got it?”

  The young Hero pressed her back against Alt and waited for her turn. With their plan set, Jack popped out around Alt and blasted the jar sitting by the piano.

  Preserved Mystical Cowboy -96 | HP 215/311

  After putting some damage into it, Haylee popped out and shot one on the bar with her Light Ray.

  Preserved Mystical Cowboy -205 | HP 106/311

  It took several attacks from each of the ranged Heroes while Alt easily soaked up the bullets fired from their mystical red gunfire, but they eventually wiped them all out. Diamond Wall Alt kicked off one last self-heal after the fight was over and topped himself off.

  “We got a little careless,” Jack said. “Haylee’s been helping us slaughter everything, but these monsters are starting to hit hard, and we cannot afford to walk into any more ambushes like this.”

  “And we’ve lost Alt for the rest of this Floor,” Haylee said, her hand pressed flat on his translucent surface.

  Jack sighed. There wasn’t anything he could do about that now and hoped they would be able to take down the Boss with his summoned monster stuck in the saloon.

  He opened his inventory to check the drops for upgrades and found two items that looked promising.

  Reinforced Chaps - [Legs | Value: 159]

  | Def: 62 |

&nb
sp; | Max HP + 107 |

  | Max MP + 59 |

  Glass Shiv – [Dagger | Value 162]

  | Dmg: 60 |

  | Hit Chance +0.10 |

  | Crit Chance +0.15 |

  | MP +25 |

  | Dodge +15 |

  The chaps were an upgrade for Lex, and the dagger was a good snack for Alt. It’d been a while since he’d fed an item of any value to the AI tied to his sword belt.

  “Lex,” Jack said as he turned to the Bastion and opened a trade window, “try these on.”

  She smiled, accepted the trade, and equipped them right away. Instantly, her legs from her mid-thigh down were wrapped in loose, thick leather, but everything above her thighs appeared to be a much thinner material that stretched tight to fit her body like a second skin.

  Jack tore his eyes away and cleared his throat as he fed Alt the dagger.

  “From now on, we move in single file, Lex first, then Haylee, then me. We sweep every building slowly. If we see any more of these disturbing mystical cowboys, we take them out at a safe distance.”

  Lex healed everyone to full before the three Heroes left Alt down in the middle of the saloon and explored the second floor of the large, shadowed building. When they reached the top of the stairs, they found only an open hallway with three doors attached. One by one, they made sure there were no foes inside the small rooms before moving to the next. When Lex opened the door to the room at the end of the hall, a high-velocity bullet ricocheted off her shield and into the doorframe by her head.

  The Bastion Shouted, “Hey!” as she stepped into the room, and Jack saw the red gun on the table follow her movements. It fired once more before Jack and Haylee gained a clear shot, but Lex skillfully moved her shield to intercept the point-blank attack.

  Preserved Mystical Cowboy -97 | HP 214/311

  Preserved Mystical Cowboy Critical! -358 | Defeated

  “Nice,” Jack said, sweeping the room for any other threats. The damage indicator informed him that the higher-value dagger he’d just fed Alt had upped his damage by one. It felt good to see that growth again.