Irrelevant Jack 3

by Prax Venter

  “Yep,” Jack said. “Alt is able to update this display as I physically explore System Sana.”

  “You’d need to travel far…” Sol began, then trailed off and turned his large owlish eyes on his daughter.

  “Yes,” Lex agreed, her voice distant. “There is a lot of world to take back.”

  “It’s our destiny,” Haylee said with a shrug.

  The Bastion turned her golden eyes on the young Hero and nodded slowly.

  “We need to take it,” Harrak said, “and then we need to hold it. That being said, I believe it might be a good idea to send a few of Blackmoor’s guards down to bolster Emberstone. If Pinefall has fallen, the biggest threat to all of us is from the south.”

  “I will escort them in the morning,” Kron said, crossing his ridiculously ripped arms. “I will leave with enough time to reach Emberstone before its Heroes enter the Tower. Then, I will return here and arrive just before Exit.”

  Harrak nodded thoughtfully as Farah leaned into his side. She was a few inches over six feet tall and still only came to the middle of Kron’s shoulder. Were there giants and dwarves in this world before? Jack looked at Lex’s ears and remembered to add elves into the mix. Harrak and Natch were certainly dwarf-like to varying degrees. Demi was tall and had elfish traits herself in every way but her ears. Was this blending gradient of traits what would naturally happen if all the fantasy races intermingled for thousands and thousands of years? Jack shook off the mass genealogy musings and focused on what Farah was saying.

  “…here for a while. At least until we hit 50.”

  “And daily patrol is not a bad idea,” Harrak said.

  Sol held out one of his palms. “It would be ideal to load the patrol with trade goods.”

  Farah held up a finger. “Items from the Tower are my priority.”

  “Good,” Jack said. “Fight for your Town. Trade is important but leveling up Emberstone quickly will be better in the long run.”

  Sol lowered his hand with a grunt. “I suppose you have a point. It’s unfortunate that the rest of us are limited to 16 item slots.”

  At that, his daughter opened her blank book then summoned an ink pot from her inventory and placed it down on the empty page. Jack watched as someone born using a videogame Inventory space summoned a quill to her hand, recharged it, then willed the ink back into her intangible, sixteen-slot pocket. After she scribbled some writing on the page, she banished her quill and closed the book. It was all done in the span of a few seconds.

  “I’m headed to see Thymus,” she said quietly. “I’ll meet everyone at breakfast before our climb.”

  The hooded Dark Prism got some nods and farewells as she turned to leave. Shortly after, Harrak stretched his hairy arms over his head.

  “I better see Kev about finding volunteers to fortify the south… Perhaps we could rotate…”

  The old Combat Master was already lost in his own plans before he stalked off toward the exit after Haylee. Sol and Demi began discussing trade good priorities as Lex turned to Farah, suggesting with a beaming smile that she should be Inspected by her friend.

  The lithe Shadow Rogue dropped her default, half-amused look and her jaw almost hit the ground.

  “Queen!”

  Lex grabbed Farah’s shoulders. “Want to see our castle?”

  The other woman’s eyes narrowed in disbelief. “No… you must be jesting.”

  Jack and Kron followed behind the two women as they strolled more slowly toward the other end of the Arcade.

  “Congratulations,” the big man said with a huge toothy grin. “Taking back a Dark Tower and becoming a King in one day wasn’t enough for you? Whatever else they say about you, the madman part is accurate.”

  Jack shrugged. “Asking Lex to be my wife was easy. I know what you mean though. It sounds corny, but maybe it truly is different when you find the right one.” He nodded toward the sashaying Shadow Blade with that last part.

  Kron took in a deep breath and waited until Farah and Lex were further ahead of them before he spoke again.

  “Jack, I want to thank you. When the duty I’d held for years of my life was unceremoniously stripped… For a very long time, it felt as if the Wall were resting on my shoulders. Now that I am merely a Hero again, I feel a freedom I thought was long extinguished. I enjoy Farah’s company, but when we are ready to move forward, I wish to use my freedom to help spread our Kingdom as far as I can.” Kron turned to look him in the eye with a certainty that could not be disputed.

  “I am meant to capture Dark Towers.”

  - 17 -

  With the rare weapons and armor from the previous day and a massive boost to their confidence, Jack, Lex, Haylee and Farah had no major issues clearing Floor 41. The team of Heroes defeated the Boss, a teleporting mechanical spider, and everyone moved up to Level 42. It was here they decided to go back to their old practice of pushing one Floor a day. It was safe, everyone’s gear slots received steady upgrades (especially since three of them wore leather), and a constant flow of items could pour into Jack’s inventory once again.

  Haylee desired to spend time talking with Alt before exiting the Tower on that first day, yet for the AI to be present, Jack had to also stay. Lex stayed with him, but Farah said she’d see them at Blackmoor and slapped the Exit Orb quickly. Floor 41’s layout wasn’t horrible- a maze of wooden bridges suspended among a void of blackness and spiderwebs, so they each paired off and sat in the stillness of this particular pocket universe. It was easy to sit and talk with Lex for hours, and together they discussed how they thought the universe worked.

  After several hours, Alt sent the signal to Jack that they were ready to go, and that Haylee knew as much as Lex did now. He’d also begun teaching the inquisitive Dark Prism about the scientific method.

  Over the next several days, the four Heroes climbed one Floor higher, and every night, they loaded up Kron and the contingent of guards traveling to Emberstone with high-value items and trade goods such as fish, and every Exit he was back waiting for them in Blackmoor. Multiple new Townsfolk and Heroes joined their cause either from sea travel or bizarrely spawning out of nowhere at a Town’s entrance, and travel between the two Towns grew with every passing day.

  Of the people that spawned at Blackmoor Cove, two of them were Level 1 Heroes. They were both in their late teens, a male shield-type warrior and a female Nature Mage. Jack and Lex found the cheerful pair in the Arcade, sitting on a bench. They had popped into existence as strangers, yet they were already hitting it off. Jack traded them some starting gear and encouraged them to seek out Harrak for group training. With the Rest Bonus they’d receive, they’d have to try to lose all their Hit Points on the first Floor, but he didn’t want them to bake in bad habits.

  Demi started copying fliers, and Harnal dispensed them to the ship captains with a handful of coins to leave them on the counter at some other Town’s Inn. The more she worked on the project, the more the Bygone Siren found that she enjoyed putting ink to paper and started experimenting with her own original works of art. They were mostly abstract, and she didn’t show many people, but Jack was fascinated by these NPCs learning what freedoms they had without being assigned some requisite role by the “System”.

  Jack and Lex worked on helping the Town where they could when not collecting items from the Tower. The first thing Jack did was fill up all the claw games in the Arcade with items from the store. Sol and Natch got along well and as they settled into their roles, the pair had worked out a complicated trade agreement to keep the prizes filled based on a percentage of Arcade profits, and Jack was glad it was being handled.

  When he had some time, Jack ran some experiments of his own by trying to bring a fish from the sea directly to the kitchen instead of selling to the Wharf Master, Garl, beforehand. It was one of the first things that bothered him about the rules of System Sana when he’d arrived. However, when he tried to use the item in Demi’s kitchen, he received a new system message.

  This
item is not a valid ingredient.

  Apparently, some of the odd rules still mattered, and Haylee was determined to catalogue that boundary line. With several blank books crafted by her father, the young Dark Prism started her Heroes’ Guide. It already contained a list of known Hero classes and their abilities along with several tips for how to handle certain situations in the Tower.

  Jack didn’t expect things to ever settle down again for Blackmoor Cove, and it seemed as if new faces appeared every day, but this was exactly what they were fighting for. Lex and the other Town Leaders were helping immensely with all the minor questions and details involved with a flourishing Kingdom over the last several days, and Jack started looking forward to the long climbs and piles of loot waiting for him and his friends every day.

  Today specifically was the eighth day after defeating the Dark Tower, and Jack crouched behind a pile of bug shells ready to defeat the Floor 47 Boss who was patiently waiting for them to approach and initiate combat. If the party continued with the one-Floor-a-day plan, they’d clear the next Floor too. That would place them all at Hero Level 49 before Exit.

  The old Jack would have ripped his hair out if they stopped one Floor before unlocking their Tier 3 abilities. There would have been no thought process at all. New Jack smiled as he shelved the decision for now. There was still this enormous glass bottle filled with sand and bugs to defeat, then all of Floor 48 and its Boss.

  Then Farah’s Ambush notification easily pulled Jack’s mind back to the battle.

  Floor 47 Boss -693 | HP 2,317/3,010

  Haylee had told them that its weak point was the cork at the top, but since the 15-foot bottle-shaped Boss hovered off the ground, that target was out of reach for the melee fighters. Jack and Angry Sun Alt dashed out from cover to get into range as the strange animated bottle began to spew its contents into the air.

  Haylee got off a single Blue Shifted attack before the air in the Boss Chamber became a maelstrom of sand and tiny black insects.

  Floor 47 Boss Critical! -1,098 | HP 1,219/3,010

  Although Jack’s vision was severely impaired, he continued to push forward through the crunchy shards of dead bugs that had already covered the ground. He noticed a new icon flash in his vision, but the stinging on his skin forced his eyes downward- and he saw that he was covered in small, tick-like insects. Five damage alerts filled in his vision as everyone in the party began losing 50 health per second.

  Motivated to end this quickly, Jack continued to sprint forward with his forearm held high to shield his eyes. All he needed was a target, and he could start blasting it with his Mining Laser. Hopefully that would be enough for Alt and Haylee to focus fire and bring it down.

  Lex Shouted to his right but the ability did not pull the bugs off him- likely due to the fact that they were an effect the Boss was projecting. It occurred to Jack then that the Bastion’s Shout should have attracted the giant bottle Boss itself, so he pushed off the crispy shells under his feet and changed direction.

  A moment later, he caught a glimpse of reflective glass amongst the stinging bugs and blowing sand. Jack lifted his blade and unloaded his death ray into its transparent side.

  Floor 47 Boss -238 | HP 981/3,010

  It would have taken too long to whittle it down himself, but as he expected, Alt was the first to home in on the main target and assailed the floating object with his black-and-white eye beams.

  Floor 47 Boss -380 | HP 601/3,010

  Between the vibrant ranged attacks, they burned the Boss down and cleared the Floor. All the sand and bugs instantly vanished, including the negative status effect.

  “That was one of the more unpleasant ones,” Lex said from his side.

  “My skin is still crawling,” Farah said, sheathing her blades and rubbing phantom bugs off her arms. “Lex, why didn’t you flip to mist?”

  The shorter Bastion shrugged. “It was unpleasant, not life threatening.”

  “Speak for yourself,” Haylee said as she approached the group near the golden Boss chest. Lex immediately moved to heal their cloth wearer while Jack shifted his eyes to the condensed information that waited in the upper left of his perception.

  JACK HP 585/885 MP 201/376

  LEX HP 738/1038

  HAYLEE HP 195/495

  FARAH HP 369/669

  ALT HP 110/560

  Coins: 20,881

  Inventory Value: 37,506

  Alt Value: 90,138/250,000

  Jack sighed. “I hate cutting it so close. You might be focusing too much on Magic Power, little one. Maybe think about wearing some more HP gear?”

  “Unfortunately,” Alt said, “cloth armor is constantly light on Max Hit Points.”

  Lex finished healing Haylee and moved to Farah next.

  The Dark Prism shook her head. “I should stand further away when I can. If I don’t need to be close, then I should not be.”

  Jack turned to the gleaming chest nearby. “Maybe we’ll get some 230-plus-value cloth items from this. Either way, this is why we climb one Floor a day.”

  “It holds a place near the top of the rules,” Haylee said as she jotted down more notes in her personal journal- the first empty book she’d received. Jack suggested tying another cord of dried seaweed around her decorative belt to hold her non-item object, and it was a good short-term solution. But she was not as effective with it bouncing on her hip all day.

  With a gesture, Jack opened the chest at his feet.

  Floor 47 Rewards - Boss Chest

  Coins: 78

  Scored Ebony Helm - [Head | Value 228]

  | Def: 97 |

  | Max HP +215 |

  | Max MP +71 |

  Trident of the Dunes - [Two-Handed Spear | Value 240]

  | Dmg: 123 |

  | Def: 50 |

  | Hit Chance +0.9 |

  | Crit Chance +0.9 |

  | Movement Speed +0.05 |

  ~ The biting whirlwind

  Gust Gloves - [Hands | Value 240]

  | Def: 72 |

  | Max HP +150 |

  | Max MP +30 |

  | Dodge +31 |

  | Movement Speed +0.05 |

  ~ Your fists become a flurry

  The only item anyone in their party could use were the leather gloves, and although they’d be good for Farah, they had decided that Jack had priority on any movement speed items while Farah got all the bonus to critical strike and sneak gear. Now that they were climbing higher, they were starting to see items with these powerful stats more often.

  The gloves Jack wore now had a higher dodge but he was probably going to take these anyway. He glanced over his current gear as he thought about it.

  Main Hand: ARV Alternis - [Sword | Value: 90,138/250,000]

  | Dmg: 155 |

  | Def: 33 |

  | Hit Chance +0.17 |

  | Crit Chance +0.28 |

  | HP +62 |

  | MP +105 |

  | Dodge +55 |

  | Magic Power +19 |

  | 25% chance to heal 5 HP on kill |

  | +8 Mana on Floor Transition |

  | +2 Sneak |

  | Movement Speed +0.07 |

  Off Hand: Mote of Sunlight - [Off-Hand | Value: 220]

  | +20 fire damage to all attacks |

  | Max MP +48 |

  | All Coins found multiplied by 22% |

  Chest: Wither Wolf Coat - [Chest | Value: 220]

  | Def: 90 |

  | Max HP +178 |

  | Max MP +35 |

  | Dodge +32 |

  Legs: Pants of the Monkey- [Legs | Value: 230]

  | Def: 92 |

  | Max HP +160 |

  | Dodge +50 |

  | Movement Speed +0.02 |

  Feet: Slate Suede Shoes - [Feet | Value: 215]

  | Def: 70 |

  | Max HP +142 |

  | Max MP +28 |

  | Dodge +46 |

  Hands: Big Brack’s Gloves - [Hands | Value: 222]

  | Def: 83 |

  | Max HP +153 |

&nbs
p; | Max MP +20 |

  | Dodge +41 |

  Head: Boiled Skullcap - [Head | Value 234]

  | Def: 33 |

  | Max HP +90 |

  | Dodge: +15 |

  Ring:

  Ring:

  Amulet:

  Decorative Chest: Gray Rokka Cotton Tunic - [Chest | Value: 190 | Def: 0]

  Decorative Belt:

  Decorative Cloak:

  Decorative Hat:

  Jack pulled the items into his inventory and although he’d also lose a few Max Hit Points as well, he moved the new Gust Gloves into his Hands-Slot and felt a tingling rush of energy rip through his arms and legs. Jack took a few swift steps and attempted to focus on how movement felt, but the last upgrade was only 5%. He still didn’t notice anything crazy.

  Angry Sun Alt spoke up behind him. “Your total Movement Speed has reached 14% above normal, Jack, and should synergize well with your above-average Dodge stat.”

  “Are you saying I manually dodge stuff first, and then my Dodge stat is checked only if I mess up?”

  “That’s fairly accurate.”

  Jack attempted a few bobs and weaves, trying to see if he was able to avoid the imaginary attacks coming at him.

  “Anything else noteworthy in the chest?” Lex asked, moving things along.

  Jack sent out a final swift punch into the air and had to admit he did feel something.

  “A rare trident with more movement speed,” he answered, “but nothing anyone can use.” Jack held out one of his newly gloved hands toward the door with a ‘48’ burned into its wooden surface, then checked to see if his party was ready to sweep the next Floor.

  After getting an affirmative from everyone, he reached out and sent them to their final Floor of the day…

  Yet the word maybe inserted itself into his mind as the next random layout came into view. It really depended on how they did here, but Jack forced himself to believe there was a chance they’d leave after this Floor.

  “More caves,” Lex said, stepping ahead of the group with her shield held out and doing what a Bastion should.

  Jack shifted his boots against the ground and found it solid enough, yet odd that there would be so much dirt when they were surrounded by bare rocks. The passage pinched off behind them in what appeared to be a cave-in and poking out of the pile of boulders was the softly pulsing Exit Orb. Lit torches sputtered on the ground at regular intervals as if someone had recently tossed them there, and their flames illuminated the stone passage ahead.