by Prax Venter
Jack -50 | HP 1/15
Pain exploded in his ribs as he flew through the air and landed outside the sparring area on his back. The moment Jack touched the ground, his Hit Points were restored, and the Sparring Yard status symbol vanished.
He sat up, shaking off the unpleasant experience. It was over quick enough though- Jack felt fine now, if only a little dazed.
“Did you see ‘em fly?” Harrak said with a sickly, horse laugh wheezing past his lungs. A few of the other guards on the wall chuckled, but most looked uncomfortable. Kron just stood watching Jack with his arms crossed over his broad chest.
So, this is what he wanted. Jack pushed up off the ground and stepped back into the Sparring Yard.
“Is that all you got, old man?” Jack said holding his shield low, ready for another high-level ability.
Harrak squinted at him and rushed forward at normal speed this time. Jack pulled his shield in tight, ready to deflect the attack when he realized that his opponent held no weapons. He was going to face Jack with his bare hands.
The large, gnarled fist of the Bygone Hero came down, and Jack felt the blow strike his shield deep in his bones, but it didn’t send him flying this time.
Jack -5 | HP 10/15
Jack peeked over his wooden shield just in time to see Harrak’s other fist come in for a follow-up attack, and it connected squarely with Jack’s jaw.
Jack -25 | HP 1/15
The pain in his face sent him to his knees, and he rolled out of the ring in agony. Lex’s father had surely shattered his jaw, but when he exited the Sparring Yard, he was instantly healed back to full.
Jack stood up laughing as he rubbed out the slight lingering soreness in his chin. Harrak had been holding his thick arms up like he had just won the world’s heavyweight championship, but spun around when he heard the laughter.
“You’re one tough old goat,” Jack said. “I still have a lot to learn.”
“Give up, Abomination, and go back to whatever demon spawn hell you come from,” the older man growled.
“Come and make me,” Jack said, stepping into the sparring area and crouching behind his shield. But it was just a ruse. He wanted Harrak to think he was going to stand there and take another attack.
His opponent squared his stance, and Jack immediately targeted him with his most powerful attack. With a throaty scream, he set Lex’s father on fire with his red beam of death.
Harrak rushed forward completely engulfed in flames, so Jack canceled his ability and danced around his enraged opponent. No one was more surprised than Jack when Harrak’s flaming fist soared over his head as Jack dive rolled out of the way.
He quickly got his head back into the fight and shot another Mining Laser into the bearded man’s back. The ability blasted away a few more HPs and reset the flame status.
The bygone Hero wasn’t anywhere near beaten though, and used his ability to physically ram Jack out of the sparring yard, closing the distance between them in a blur of motion.
Critical! Jack -78 | HP 1/15
Jack felt his spine fracture from the impact and endured a few seconds of world-ending pain before landing on the sweet, health-restoring grass outside the Sparring Yard.
“Wow, that was a bad one,” Jack said, shaking himself off.
“Give up,” Harrak said, trying not to sound winded. Jack realized that he had done some damage to the old man, yet he wasn’t seeing HP data from him.
Alt quietly whispered an answer in his mind. “Scan ineffective on Townsfolk.”
Jack nodded as he stepped back in the ring, and silently thanked his sword belt for the information. He could still Inspect the bastard himself, however.
Harrak - Bygone Hero: Knight | Level 59
[Health: 107/150 | Mana: 35/55]
A small smile grew on his lips when he realized all he had to do was bring this bygone Hero to 1 HP, and he would consider it a victory.
“I’m never giving up,” Jack said, and then rushed Lex’s father. His opponent’s bloodshot eyes opened wide before he dashed sideways to sidestep the blade coming down on his head. Jack was constantly surprised to see how fast this gray-haired old man moved.
With a battle shout, Harrak spun around and connected the back of his fist into the back of Jack’s head. It was a beautiful counter to a wild frontal attack.
Jack -11 | HP 4/15
Jack dropped to his knees- his bell good and rung, but he was still inside the sparring area. A blur of movement caught his attention from his right, and he lifted his shield by instinct, catching the kick and deflecting it upward.
Jack -2 | HP 2/15
Jack tried a counter of his own and used the moment his opponent was off-balance to swipe his sword into Harrak’s leg. And at the last instant, Jack activated his Double Strike. With two nasty slices in a row, Jack took off another 14 points of damage.
Jack rolled to his feet and blasted the recovering old man with his red Mining Laser again.
Harrak grunted and bashed Jack out of the ring again with his ability.
Jack felt his arm bones shatter all the way up to his shoulder and ground his teeth for the one second it took for him to be restored to full as he passed outside the border of the ring.
His opponent was still on fire standing within the Sparring Yard, gritting his own yellowed teeth, waiting for him. It went out by the time Jack got back in, but he was making progress.
Harrak - Bygone Hero: Knight | Level 59
[Health: 83/150 | Mana: 25/55]
They continued to pound on each other for another thirty minutes, and Jack was thrown out of the ring many more times, but in the process, he had whittled Harrak down to a few remaining Hit Points.
The other man was swaying as Jack pushed himself off the grass yet again. Finally, he was going to force Harrak out of the ring. He checked the time, just to be sure. Being late for breakfast because he was trying to beat down Lex’s father would… The ground fell out from under Jack for a moment when he realized what he was just about to do.
The old and tired man before him looked terrified. He had expected Jack to just quit and walk away, but now it looked like Harrak would finally have to admit that he was the one that needed to stop. Something that Jack knew would do severe damage to Lex’s father’s already fragile mental state. He decided to do a complete 180 to what Old Jack would have done.
Before he stepped back into the ring, he sheathed his sword and bowed his head to Harrak.
“Thank you for showing me what a true warrior can be, sir. The pounding you gave me was valuable.”
He wasn’t lying either. There were some counters and other tricks that Jack hoped he could hold onto and put to use in the Tower. Lex’s father seemed to deflate a little, but he said nothing. Jack could tell by the steady look in his normally wild eyes that there had been a slight change. The unusual silence from the man expressed a new respect- or maybe it was just what Jack wanted to believe.
“Thanks, Kron,” he said, turning to the horned-helmed giant of a man walking up. He held out his hand to Jack, giving him a curt nod of approval.
Jack took the other man’s hand and also took the opportunity to Inspect him for the first time.
Kron - Hero: Guardian| Level 39
Captain of the Guard (Makeshift) | 73% Proficiency
[Health: 925/925 | Mana: 500/500]
Relationship -
[Disposition: Approving]
He wanted a peek at his gear, but Jack really didn’t want to get caught looking. Inspecting still felt like an invasion of privacy to him.
With nothing more to say, Jack waved to the rest of the guards and walked the long dirt road back to the inn to acquire his rest bonus, with ten minutes to spare.
- 17 -
“Have a restful sleep?” Demi asked, her sharp eyes on his as he sat down at the bar next to Lex.
“Sure,” Jack said, an honest smile on his face. When the leather-clad woman with the pointed ears turned to face him, Jack couldn’t hel
p but let that smile grow brighter.
“What?” Lex asked, her own, yet slightly suspicious smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.
“Feels like it’s going to be a good day’s all.”
Demi came back and placed the same seaweed-wrapped fish jerky rolls in front of him. He took the food in his hand and bit off a large bite. It didn’t take as long as he thought it would to feel the beginnings of ‘too much fish’. The smell was starting to get to him, and seaweed had a particularly salty flavor. The sudden craving for a hot cup of coffee struck Jack’s stomach almost harder than Harrak had.
They finished their meals and headed for the day’s climb in the Tower.
“You’re leveling fast, Jack,” Lex began just before she reached for the entrance. “Be careful, stay alive.”
He looked her right in the eye. “I will.”
Lex nodded and entered the Tower. Jack was right behind her. The world flashed white, and Jack found himself standing in near darkness.
It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the flickering white candles sitting inside reassessed holes in the walls. Closer inspection showed the walls were wholly made from bones- thousands of human skulls, all mortared together with a solid black, unknown substance. The tiny, square room ended just above Jack’s head, and he could almost touch both walls if he held his fingertips out. Every surface was made from the bones of the dead.
“Pleasant,” Jack said to himself.
Behind him he found the Exit Orb, and in front of him was the only exit from the claustrophobic skull room. Jack took a step forward and tried to ignore that he was walking on people’s faces.
The opening led directly to a downward flight of dusty wooden stairs that seemed to make a sharp right turn at the bottom. Another candle sat flickering within a cubby hole recessed into the skulls halfway up the stairs.
With a shrug, Jack began to tread lightly down the steps. His boots reached the landing of wooden boards, and the dim descending stairway appeared to continue downward in a spiral. By the fifth flight down he began to count the steps. There were exactly twenty every time and then they came to a landing with a right turn.
“Alt, what the hell is this?” Jack asked his imaginary friend, growing bored. “Can a Floor be nothing but stairs?”
“They can be anything.”
“Well, hopefully, there is something interesting soon.”
Jack spiraled down two more flights before he came to a landing with an arch cut into the skull and mortar wall to the left, in addition to more stairs down to the right.
The room was as small as the one he started in and dimly lit by recessed candles, but the massive rat-like creature was what caught his attention.
It had huge ears, no eyes and a mouth full of yellowed, dagger-like teeth. The monster came low at him, and Jack adjusted his wooden buckler to take the lunging hit.
The large animal hissed and scurried back into the room. Jack took the opportunity to draw his sword and noticed that he hadn’t lost any HPs from the blocked hit.
Putting that information to the back of his mind, Jack focused on dispatching the greasy-furred monster before him. The urge to just blast it with his Mining Laser was strong, but he didn’t want to blow all his mana on the first floor. Even if he could zap it into toast with a one-second beam and a net of 1 MP spent- it would still be mana he couldn’t use on Floor 2 (or 3…)
Jack carefully maneuvered it into a corner, and the animal turned sideways to try and make itself look bigger. The desperate act only gave Jack a bigger target, and he jabbed his sword downward into its matted fur.
Blind Blight Rat -7 | Defeated
No items dropped, and there was nothing of interest in the tiny room, so Jack left and continued down this dark world of wooden stairs and skulls. He came to another room after a few flights and right turns and spotted two of the Blind Blight Rats, and in one of the shadowed corners sat a small box.
Jack confidently strode into the room and drew his cheating sword. One of the rats lunged at him while the other tried to circle around and flank him. Practicing one of the techniques that Harrak had unintentionally taught him in the Sparring Yard, Jack sidestepped the lunge and made a quarter turn. This placed the attacking creature between him and the one circling around, and Jack continued his motion with a downward slice from his blade.
He cut the creature in half, and a small dagger clattered to the ground. Excitement blossomed in Jack because he knew his sword was about to get another upgrade already.
“Ha!” he yelled at the one remaining monster, and its oversized ears flattened backward. The thing’s muzzle pulled back in a hateful snarl as it backed itself into another corner.
Jack advanced quickly and stabbed it in the face as it tried to lunge again. The room was clear.
“These are easy,” Jack said to himself, but Alt answered.
“Only Floor 1.”
“Yeah, but… I’m doing much better compared to the first time I entered.”
He bent down to inspect the dagger that dropped from the disgusting rat creature.
Blunt Knife - [Dagger | Value: 1]
| Dmg: 1 |
“Oh,” Jack said, disappointment taking over. He shrugged and merged it with his own blade. After the resulting flash faded, he inspected his weapon.
ARV Alternis - [Sword | Value: 16/25]
| Dmg: 7 |
| Hit Chance +0.03 |
| Crit Chance +0.06 |
The stats looked identical to what he remembered.
A small frown pulled down Jack’s lips. “Well, that didn’t do much.”
“Increased Value by 1.”
“Progress is progress, I suppose,” he said as he searched the simple wooden box in the corner of the room.
Floor 1 - Chest
Thick Rotting Robe - [Chest | Value: 2]
| Def: 1 |
| Max MP + 2 |
Wooden Clogs - [Feet | Value: 1]
| Def: 1 |
He shoved the crappy items into his inventory and continued his downward descent into the unusual Floor 1 layout. He came to a few more rooms and dispatched a few more rats, but nothing was much of a challenge. The items he collected weren’t of much value either. There were no equipment upgrades, no other blades, and he calculated his current haul to be worth a total of 7.
“Nowhere close to Lex’s 317.”
“Only Floor 1,” Alt repeated in his mind.
Jack sighed. “You’re right. This is going to take a lot of work, isn’t it? Should I skip right to the boss?”
There was another of Alt’s long pauses. Maybe it was Jack’s imagination, but he felt a bit of frustration from deep inside him. Frustration that wasn’t his.
“Now, no. Collect everything.”
The decision was out of his hands it seemed as the stairway came to an end after the one last turn. The final downward flight ran straight into a larger room than he had seen on this Floor. Everything was still skulls and candles sunken into the walls, but there were also six Blind Blight Rats and the Boss’s Exit Orb in the room.
“Whoa, six Bosses?”
“Anything is possible,” Alt responded.
All the sightless rats turned to face Jack who stood in the archway that led into the Boss chamber. He was tempted to use his Mana to burn through them quickly, but a much better idea came to him.
Jack took one step back and onto the wooden landing outside the Boss chamber. He knew he was meant to run in there and try and fight them all at once, but now they could only come at him one- maybe two at a time.
The disgusting animals all scrambled across the skulls with small sharp claws, and their pink worm-like tails dragged behind them.
Jack met the first one with a jab to the face.
Floor 1 Boss C -7 | Defeated
But the others didn’t react at all to their nest-mate going up in a waft of buzzing particles. One lunged at Jack’s feet, and he danced backward, putting one boot up on the wooden stairs behind
him. Two more climbed over the one that had attacked, and Jack’s plan was starting to fall apart. He hadn’t considered them stacking up onto each ether.
He jabbed his sword into another, destroying it.
Floor 1 Boss D -7 | Defeated
But there were four left and all of them pushed forward to attack. He blocked one going high, but another was able to get a bite in on his virtually unprotected calf.
Jack -2 | HP 23/25
“Ahh! Get away from me!” Jack yelled as he stabbed into the writhing mass of black fur and snapping, snarling mouths.
Floor 1 Boss A -7 | Defeated
As he shouted, their ears flattened, and two of the remaining three scurried back a few steps before surging forward again. Jack blocked a bite from the remaining rat as he realized these things had a weakness. Did every monster have a weakness?
“HEY, YOU IDIOTS!” Jack yelled as loud as he could, and the one Boss rat that was harassing him recoiled from the loud noise and couldn’t scurry back into the Boss room fast enough.
“The big ears were a big clue, Jack,” he said to himself as he chased in after them. Using a combination of sharp shouts and his sharp blade, Jack destroyed the rest of the monsters. The last one exploded in a shower of glitter and coins.
In the back of the room, a larger gold chest and a wooden door faded into existence. With a satisfied nod, Jack bent down and scooped up the gold.
Coins: 26
But what really interested him was the Boss Chest. He held his hand out to inspect it.
Floor 1 Rewards - Boss Chest
Brass Rapier - [Sword | Value: 3]
| Dmg: 3 |
Crooked Axe - [Axe | Value: 2]
| Dmg: 2 |
Iron Scrap Boots [Feet | Value: 3]
| Def: 3 |
“Hey, that’s not bad. Can you absorb an axe, Alt?”
“No. Incompatible type.”
“Damn, oh well. At least we have this Sword-type item.” Jack moved it over his Main Hand slot and checked his weapon.
ARV Alternis - [Sword | Value: 19/25]
| Dmg: 7 |
| Hit Chance +0.03 |
| Crit Chance +0.06 |