by Prax Venter
Jack shot a glance up and over his shoulder to see two more pairs rushing down the stairs behind them. Both he and Haylee got one more round of damage off on their target zombies ahead before Jack called out new orders.
Restless Walker -250 | HP 290/790
Restless Walker -152 | HP 486/790
“Move! Now! This corner!”
They had been fighting together for countless hours, and Haylee, Alt, Farah, and Lex all moved with Jack as he pulled them into the elbow of one of the raised corner platforms. As they took up the new defensive position, Haylee used two of her abilities at once.
Her gray eyes flashed and one of the closer monsters reaching the bottom of the stairs shifted into slow-motion. Next, her eyes flashed again before she calmly called out their weak point.
“Their heads.”
She pulled back as Jack fired his Mining Laser into the face of an untouched monster coming down the far set of stairs.
Restless Walker Critical! -278 | HP 512/790
With eight of these things closing in on them, they needed to use every trick they had, and Jack held his Double Omni Strike as long as he could.
Alt let out his sonic bark attack upward and hit two that were closing in on him.
Restless Walker Critical! -209 | HP 581/790
Restless Walker Critical! -211 | HP 579/790
Jack angled his death ray on one of the two almost on Alt while Haylee launched a Blue Shifted attack on another coming down the stairs.
Restless Walker Critical! -290 | HP 388/790
Restless Walker Critical! -989 | Defeated
One down and seven to go, Jack thought. Lex took one step out from the group and readied herself for some heavy hits as Farah dashed out after her.
The lithe Shadow Blade took two long strides and stood in front of one of the only untouched monsters. As it reared back to strike her, she vanished from its sight and the Restless Walker’s bony claws swiped through thin air. It paused, confused for a moment before she reappeared behind it and sunk both of her daggers into the sides of its exposed skull.
Restless Walker Critical! -905 | Defeated
Then a damage notification from Alt pulled Jack’s attention.
Alt -239 | HP 347/586
With a snarl, Jack moved to cover his canine friend as three of the monsters attempted to destroy him. With an upward swing, Jack caught the rotting wrist of a zombie in mid-attack then activated his Double Strike ability once he felt solid contact.
Restless Walker -112 | HP 467/790
Restless Walker -112 | HP 355/790
His new Off-Hand gem added a searing hiss as his blade dug into the monster’s arm and parried its attack.
Farah was starting to take damage as she engaged two away from the group, and Lex used her shout ability in an attempt to pull everything onto her.
Alt took one more swipe to the side of his muzzle before the Bastion’s magically enhanced voice taunted the monsters into a clump, and she failed to block two of the many savage claw strikes aimed at ripping her apart.
Lex -189 | HP 528/717
Lex -189 | HP 339/717
He clenched his jaw and tried to hold the heads of the six monsters in his eye before flashing his sword downward between Haylee and Alt. Omni Strike created six copies of his blade above their rotting skulls and then he activated Double Strike.
Restless Walker -112 | HP 469/790
Restless Walker -112 | HP 357/790
… x5
Only three of the monsters remained standing after the twelve simultaneous attacks. Haylee dispatched one with another Light Ray to the face and Farah quickly ended another with her dancing blades, but Lex took one more hit before they all focused down that last one.
Lex -189 | HP 150/717
Immediately after the final zombie fell, the stone stairs connected to the hammer’s platform rose out of the floor once again while the bars blocking their exit retracted into the ceiling.
“Well that sucked,” Jack said, taking up a position close to the love of his life just in case something else came to try and finish her off. He wished his Omni Strike would allow him to land critical hits but was still grateful he could cheat the system as much as he could. Perhaps when they hit Hero Level 50 and upgraded their abilities…
Lex’s magical wordless melody echoed back to them as she spent a large portion of her remaining Mana on healing everyone back to full.
She let out an exhausted sigh after it was over. “If we weren’t Exiting after this Floor before, we certainly are now. I’m down to 70 out of 458 Mana.”
“And we still need to fight a manor full of bandits,” Farah added.
“And the Boss,” Haylee added on top of that.
Jack shook his head and glanced up to the radiant Hammer of Yog gently floating up and down on its dais.
“Or there could be a million other things that happen. This rare Floor layout is definitely extra unpredictable.”
Jack opened his inventory on a whim to check the items that dropped from the fight and his heart skipped a beat when he saw the painted image of a leather cowl. With a flick of his intention, he accessed its stats.
Druid’s Lingering Light - [Head | Value 215]
| Def: 32 |
| Max HP +50 |
| Max MP +60 |
| Magic Power +12 |
| 50% chance to recover 2 MP on kill |
~ Become a beast in battle
There was no question this was for Lex, and that meant he’d get her hand-me-down Shoddy Leather Helm.
“This should help out a bit,” Jack said as he opened a trade interface with Lex and deposited the new Head-Slot item. He watched her golden eyes grow wide as she read what it could do for her.
“Perfect, Jack! Combined with the Rest Bonus, this should make a substantial difference in the future, and the instant 60 extra Mana will go a long way right now.”
She hit accept, yet Jack paused, his side still gray and unconfirmed. He waited until he had her attention and then cleared his throat as he tapped his head.
Lex gave him a smirk before she unequipped her current helm and placed it into the interface across from his offer. Satisfied, Jack accepted the trade.
With little delay, the Bastion equipped her new cowl and let everyone else inspect her.
“Mmm, that is good,” Farah purred as if she derived physical pleasure from seeing the upgrade.
“It appears as if we are getting rarer drops from this rarer layout,” Alt mused.
“Indeed,” Haylee agreed. “It’s also longer and more difficult.”
Jack ignored them all as he popped on his first Head-slot item and gave it a quick inspection.
Shoddy Leather Helm - [Head | Value 161]
| Def: 10 |
| Max HP +29 |
It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. He looked up and his jaw dropped when he saw the silver-edged hide hood that layered over Lex’s head and half of her chest. The razor-straight tips of her golden hair poked out by her chin, and her pointed ears poked out through small holes in the side. He couldn’t help from grinning as his heart melted. The corny phrase more beautiful every day popped into his head, and he finally understood the sentiment.
“Let’s get what we came for,” Jack said as he wrenched his eyes away from the upgraded Bastion.
Jack led the group up the polished stone stairs and stood before the gleaming bright long-handled tool. With a thought, he inspected the object before he tried to grab it.
Hammer of Yog - [Artifact | Value 3,800]
“Oh damn,” Jack mumbled, wondering if they would be able to keep it.
After everyone had a look at the most valuable item they’d ever seen, Jack moved it into his Inventory, and the party turned to leave. He asked again when they passed over the enormous brass disk imbedded in the floor if anyone could read the words inscribed on its surface. No one could, and they simply left the mystery behind. As the group walked back through the empty catacomb
tunnels, he mused about the intricacy of this Floor. There were people who had feelings and desires, living forests, roaming bandits, and an implied history- including an ancient lost language. As he dwelled on these rich elements, he mused that each Floor was really another dimension they were visiting. If Lex and everyone in System Sana (including himself) were beings of pure digital energy, wouldn’t that make this micro universe “real” in its own way?
“Fascinating and astute line of thought,” Alt said in his mind. “I can see much of the coding that serves as the underpinning framework to these micro-universes, and while the Tower’s Floors are drastically less complex than System Sana, you are right to think of them this way. No doubt, they were intended to entice the Corruption into becoming even more invested with the game. Its primary drive is to consume universes after all.”
“Bite-sized universes,” Jack mumbled to himself.
The walk back to the ladder and then along the river to the carpenter by the bridge took only minutes and the mustached man turned away from his pointless tapping as they approached.
“Did you succeed?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.
Jack nodded and opened his inventory. “Here’s the super-valuable Hammer of Yog, as requested.”
The fact that his Inventory currently held 28,149 points of value lessened the sting from handing the artifact over to an NPC in the Tower. An instant later, the puny wooden hammer in the carpenter’s hand disappeared and was replaced by something much more impressive.
“Send me under…” the man mumbled, barely audible over the rampaging river. Then, he shifted his brown eyes to Jack before he swiftly spun around and slammed his new legendary tool down on the closest hunk of splintered bridge.
Violent light exploded where the bridge had been, but when Jack blinked away the damage to his retinas, he saw the arched crossing had indeed been totally repaired with one strike.
The upgraded carpenter grunted. “Mmm, that saved me a load of work. Now, good luck with them bandits.” With a nod to everyone, he turned on his heel and began walking along the riverbed with the current toward where they had stepped out from the Sundrop pine forest.
“There goes our treasure,” Farah said with a longing glance after the man in blue overalls.
“This is such an odd Floor,” Lex agreed, her golden eyes narrowed with her own case of artifact-loss.
Jack turned from the strolling carpenter toward the new, pristine bridge. It was wide and projected a solid sense of sturdiness over the brown frothing water below. A gravel path continued onward into a flooded forest on the other side.
“Let’s keep moving,” he said. “We’ve got a stonecutter to rescue, and a boulder to break, and then finally some wood to gather for our dear old grandmother.”
- 6 -
“I say we ambush them,” Farah whispered near Jack’s ear and despite her penchant for bloodletting, it was probably the right move. Lex nodded slowly, squatting close by, and Jack tried to figure out the best way to murder the two men yelling on the side of the road. They wore white shirts stained brown with blood splatters tucked into dark dress pants with rips in the knees. Black bandanas covered their mouths but did nothing to muffle their current argument about a botched kidnapping job.
“It’s why you’re out here on stupid guard duty!” one shouted before jabbing his finger into the other man’s chest so hard he pushed him backward. “Do you even know what a painter is?”
“’Course I know!” yelled the other as he violently shoved his associate’s hand away. “But that guy was wearing a painter’s hat, flies take you! Besides, you’re out here with me, ain’t ‘cha? I should gut you like that fisherman I offed last month!”
“How long you think you’ll boast about that sleeping trout-muncher?”
Jack heard enough. As the four Heroes quietly crouched around a bend in the path, he pointed at Farah first, then Haylee. After, he held up a finger to his lips. It was all that was needed to set up the attack and the two women began to act.
Haylee’s gray eyes flashed once and then made a chopping motion to her neck. The Shadow Blade acknowledged that the information was received and then pointed to the man closer to the edge of the road. Haylee nodded back, so Farah turned and began creeping toward the two arguing men along the tree line. The stealthy assassin tried to sneak halfway up the path on talent alone because she could only remain invisible for ten seconds until the ability wore off. She didn’t need to try too hard, as distracted as they were with each other.
“If we wait long enough, they might simply kill themselves,” Lex whispered as one bandit violently shoved the other.
Farah took a few swift strides with her long legs then vanished from sight, triggering Haylee to draw her bow as she kept her bandit in focus.
“I have some extra coin for your mother,” sneered one of the men as he dug into his pocket. “I paid too much for her time last-”
He was cut off abruptly as Farah reappeared behind the man being offered coin and sliced both blades across his neck in different directions.
Black Knife Bandit Critical! -890 | Defeated
The remaining bandit tried to pull his hand out of his pocket to draw his own blades hanging from his belt when a beam of pure-blue light appeared from his throat to Haylee’s bow.
Black Knife Bandit Critical! -985 | Defeated
Both men faded into buzzing static, and Jack couldn’t help but feel a twinge of unease at murdering human-like beings that behaved so… human-like.
Alt mentally addressed this concern. “The Tower-spawned beings would not hesitate to gut you or anyone on your team, Jack. I can assure you they are relatively simple constructs that came into existence the moment this Floor was generated for us. Also, if you succeed in scouring System Sana of Corruption, no one will ever have to enter a Tower again.”
Jack looked back over his shoulder at the red glowing eyes of the metal dog sitting behind him and nodded. Just more monsters to kill and loot, whatever shape they took. Pushing off his knee, Jack led everyone up to where Farah stood in the middle of the path.
“Having a stealthy member in the party opens up so many new strategies,” Lex said, grinning as she trotted to a stop near the Shadow Blade. “I’d like to see if we take the whole camp out without them even knowing we were here-” Lex turned her eyes on Jack before she added, “make a game out of it.”
“I would enjoy that,” Haylee said.
“Sounds fun,” Farah said, deftly flipping one of her daggers before catching it and returning it to its sheath at her hip.
“Sounds like a great way to preserve HPs,” Jack said, “but no unnecessary risks.”
Lex shot him a smirk and then they both turned to look down the partially obscured trail winding between the bog-like forest around them. This would be great practice for their attempt at scouting and/or attacking the Demons currently infesting Emberstone. Jack let Farah and Lex take the lead while he crept along next to Haylee as pools of stagnant water covered with a lime-colored scum passed by on either side. His upgradeable weapon granted him one point of Sneak, but Jack wasn’t clear on what that one point did for him. The only real comparison he had was Farah’s Hide ability that granted her an additional 500 points of the stat- and that rendered her virtually invisible.
His thoughts on the videogame physics of this world came to a halt when Lex and Farah stopped and sunk to a crouch. Jack looked over their heads and saw the mold-infested, white stucco walls of a large structure. It was two stories high and from what he could see between the dense mossy trees, this had to be the abandoned manor. Despite their individual sneak values, all five were practiced adventurers and had a naturally keen sense of perception. As the group quietly crept forward in a thin line pressed against the trees, Jack wondered if Sneak was only some type of opacity control.
They came to a point where the trees were cut back from the ancient, rotting house and spotted a single bandit cooking a sausage crouched over a weak campfire in the
muddy grass. Jack scanned his eyes over the whole yard but didn’t see any other movement.
Lex was in the lead and had the best view. Coming to the same conclusion as Jack, she turned to look over her shoulder at Haylee specifically and held up one finger. The Dark Prism responded by pulling away from the trees so she could find the right angle, but the man was currently hunched over, and his shoulder blocked his critical strike point from any position she could take without moving out into the yard.
The party sat quietly for about thirty seconds, waiting for the cooking bandit to lift his head or move at all, but he seemed intent on watching the smoldering embers. Trying to move this along, Jack got Haylee’s attention with a quick wave. He then held up three fingers and began a quick countdown. When he had only a fist left, Jack pursed his lips and let out a sharp whistle.
“Huh?” the bandit muttered. Pulled from whatever virtual thoughts he was lost in, the bandit straightened his posture and searched for the source of the sound. Between the trees, Jack could see his eyebrows shoot up as he noticed Haylee, but the sharpshooter activated Blue Shift and released her bowstring before he could make another sound.
Black Knife Bandit Critical! -989 | Defeated
The man vanished into buzzing static and the small campfire sent up a swirl of ash as the stick fell to the ground. Jack heard the soft tone that indicated a new item had been collected from the kill and he was about to check when another bandit came walking out from the building.
“When’s lunch, I’m…” The man paused when he saw his lunch turning to char on the coals. He immediately drew his daggers and started to scan the area. Haylee was still crouched in the middle of the path, and he spotted her quickly.
The man let out a “Hey!” before Haylee nailed him in his bandanna-covered throat with another Light Ray, but with her Blue Shift ability on cooldown she was only able to inflict her normal damage.
Black Knife Bandit Critical! -496 | 254/750
Jack dashed forward and drew his blade upward through the air as he focused on activating both abilities under his Dimensional Blade path.