by Dakota Krout
Jaxon pondered her words for a few moments. “Are you opposed to being a party planner? An agent of sorts, someone who plans that stuff out for groups?”
“If it pays better than what I’ve been trying to do, I’d go for it.” Jess eyed Jaxon, a spark of hope lighting her gaze up. “Please tell me there is an offer or something at the end of this questioning.”
“Sort of.” Jaxon nodded and stood up. “My party is the squad called in by the guild when standard tactics won’t work out, and we are pretty good at being reactionary. We don’t really have any direction, though, and only reacting isn’t enough. If you wanted, I’m pretty sure I could get you a position as our Operations Expert. Set up things for us to do, manage our schedules, tell us what we will need to get through an already explored area, and other stuff like that.”
“What does it pay? Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested, but I have debts,” Jess hedged.
“I’m sure we can work something out.” Jaxon offered her a hand up. She took it and stood with him while the temple door opened once more. “Now, this will likely be harder, especially since you are weaponless, but let’s get in there and win amazing rewards!”
They stepped into the temple together, and the floor fell out from under them. Jess screamed in surprise, but Jaxon simply laughed and enjoyed the ride. It didn’t occur to him till they landed and slid across the floor that she had been able to walk into the place normally before. Maybe he was the reason the floor kept dropping out? Jaxon shot to his feet and looked around excitedly, hoping that there would be a swarm of skeletons he could play with again. Once again, he saw a flaming eyeball appear right before a screen covered his vision.
Welcome Challengers! You have entered the Temple of Tempering! By reaching this location, you have passed the first test. From this point forward, the longer you survive, the greater your rewards will be. When you both die, you will be placed in front of the temple and barred from reentering the duo halls. If one of you manages to survive after the other falls, you will be returned to the room with your maximum health halved if the area is completed. Do your best, for you will not have another chance. The countdown to your death begins… now!
No skeletons were rushing him, no humanoid enemies were around at all. There were ferns filling the room, but otherwise, there was nothing standing between them and the exit. Jess piped up, “Do you think there are monsters hiding in the shrubs?”
“We’ll find out, I guess.” Jaxon strode toward the door, parting the bushes with his confident walk. Jess followed close behind, but they reached the door without incident. “Just… leave, I guess? At least we should get the pacifist award.”
“The what?”
Jaxon opened the door without answering, instantly confused at the message that popped up.
Congratulations, Challenger! Rarity of final reward increased by 1% for completing the first duo survival room without a record.
“Why didn’t we get an award for not taking or giving any hits?” Jaxon muttered aloud while pulling open his combat log.
Awakened Shrub attacks with special ability ‘Terrain Damage’. Hp -0.
…
Awakened Shrub attacks with special ability ‘Terrain Damage’. Hp -0.
Jaxon looked over the list containing hundreds of attacks against them and looked back at the room in a new light. The shrubs hadn’t damaged them, but what were those things going to grow into? He took a step back and reached for one of the plants, only stopping himself from harvesting it at the last second. That… that would be an attempt at using a Herbalism skill, wouldn’t it? That could mess with his potential rewards…
“What are you doing, Jaxon?” Jess impatiently was trying to peer into the next room, but there was a thin layer of darkness that clung to the opening and didn’t allow for planning.
“Nothing… I suppose.” He returned to her, and they stepped through to the next room together.
Caw! Caw! Caw!
A murder of crows was flying around this room and began dive-bombing the duo as they walked into the room. The first one swiped at Jaxon, getting a fist to the chest for its trouble. It exploded in a spray of blood, notably not even leaving feathers behind. Jaxon had a bad feeling and tried to tell Jess to stay back. “Stand behind me, small and frail person!”
Whoops, that came out weird. Jaxon decided it was close enough to what he wanted to say, so he began punching the crows as they came near.
Status change: Toxic Blood. Your blood is rotting in your body. -2% maximum health per ten seconds. If you die while under this ailment, your body will be used to generate Blood Borne Crows. Time remaining: 12:00… 11:59…
Thank goodness! At first, he had thought he had a twelve-hour ailment. The crows were swooping at Jess, obviously trying to either infect her with an attack or get her to touch them. Either of these would get them the results they were hoping for. Jaxon charged over and took a beak that would have speared her from behind, eliminating the crow by grabbing it and crushing it against the wall. A puddle of blood formed on the wall and dripped down, but Jaxon had already turned his attention to the others. They were incredibly fragile, but he found that their infection stacked.
Status change: Toxic Blood. Your blood is rotting in your body. -6% maximum health per ten seconds. If you die while under this ailment, your body will be used to generate Blood Borne Crows. Time remaining: 12:00… 11:59…
Drat, it also reset the timer. He was going to die from this for sure. He needed to clean up the remainder before he went down, or Jess would die as well. As the birds swooped down, he recklessly took every hit and doled out a single fist to each of them. The final one exploded into a bloody mist, and Jaxon looked at the counter. 28% health per second. “Good-bye, Jess. See you in a moment.”
Exp: 68 (4 * Blood Borne Crow x17).
Congratulations, Challenger! You have set the record for highest amount of status-impairing effects in room number two! Rarity of final reward increased by 5% for completing the second duo survival room with a record.
You have leveled up! You have reached character level 12! You currently have three free Characteristic points to spend and twelve skill points!
Jaxon was lifted off the floor, and a blast of golden light washed out from him, cleaning the area and removing his illness. He settled back down on the floor and sat down. “Way… too… close…”
Not wanting to wait, he opened up his status screen and added in the characteristic points he had just gained. All three went to Constitution, since he had been taking far too many hits recently. Also, he had been noticing that his intense movements had been causing him pain as his body hit its limit. His hope was that balancing his Con would help fix that issue.
Name: Jaxon ‘Legend’ Class: Monk
Profession: Chiropractor
Level: 12 Exp: 78,001 Exp to next level: 12,999
Hit Points: 126/430 (50+(380)) (Base 50 plus 10 points for each point in Constitution, once it has increased above 10.)
Mana: Locked
Mana regen: Locked
Stamina: 200/555 (50+(315)+(190)) (Base 50 plus 5 points for each point in strength and constitution, once each of the stats has increased above 10.)
Characteristic: Raw score (Modifier)
Strength: 73 (2.21)
Dexterity: 100 (3.0)
Constitution: 48 (1.48)
Intelligence: 26 (1.26)
Wisdom: 35 (1.35)
Charisma: 5 (0.05)
Perception: 21 (1.21)
Luck: 44 (1.44)
Karmic Luck: 0
Exhausted and near death, Jaxon laid on the floor and chatted with Jess for a bit as they waited for his health to refill. Since he didn’t have any wounds, Jaxon’s health returned to its maximum. He stood, nodded, and they stepped into the third room.
Chapter Twenty
When Jaxon stepped through the door and saw what was waiting for them, he instantly tried to turn around and go back. That didn’t work; the dark film over t
he door preventing retreating. Jess stepped through and grimaced at their foes, nodding at his reaction. “Oh, ew. Good call. Let’s try not to let them touch us if possible.”
Jaxon blinked at her and looked back at the fluffy kittens slowly and cautiously coming toward them. “Your reaction confuses me.”
“Well, I mean… I’m not a huge fan of touching those things, but I feel like I could take most of them out even if I were alone, so this should be pretty easy with the two of us.”
“Jess, I can’t kill those! I would never be able to forgive myself! They are far too cute,” Jaxon sputtered as she rolled her eyes at him.
“Sheesh, I knew you were into weird stuff, why am I not surprised that this is what would get you squeamish? Fine, I’ll take care of it,” she muttered to herself as she moved towards the cats, only stopping after she had crushed the first under her boot. “They are hostile, Jaxon! We can’t get to the door without doing this!”
“I… I can’t even begin to…” Jaxon watched in horror as body after body was crushed or smacked away by Jess. He didn’t lift a finger to help her, simply gaping until she had finished them all off.
“Jaxon! What the heck, man?” Jess snarled as she stalked over to him. “I had to kill, like… three dozen rats by myself!”
“Rats? You were stomping on kittens!” Jaxon almost gagged as he spoke. Jess smacked him lightly across the face to snap him out of it.
“I did not! My combat log says I just killed thirty-six ‘tiny beasts’. There must be some mind-altering stuff going on here.”
Congratulations, Challengers! You have set the speed record for the third duo survival room! Rarity of final reward increased by 5% for completing the third duo survival room with a record.
“I bet there is something that made those rats super cute to everyone who came through here. I’m glad my perception is high enough to ignore it, or we would’ve never set that record.” Jess smugly strutted toward the door, Jaxon trailing behind with an uncomfortable expression on his face.
They entered the fourth room with a grimace, knowing that it would be much harder to win than the previous room was. At least, that was the assumption. Jaxon had to reevaluate his thoughts toward this dungeon when he saw several large sharks thrashing around on the floor. They were already starting to suffocate, but the fact that they weren’t already dead told Jaxon that their opponent was added to the room right as the challenger entered. While this was an interesting development, it didn’t stop him from charging forward and landing a hefty punch on each of the sharks.
“Jaxon! What are you doing?”
“Getting experience!” Jaxon looked back at her with a bloodthirsty grin. “These things are huge and, I’m betting, high level. Not my fault that they can’t breathe, but I see no need to be wasteful.”
Jess didn’t even wait for the explanation to be complete before she was attacking the sharks as well. Their rubbery hide didn’t sustain much damage, and frankly, the blunt attacks they were able to make with their bare hands wouldn’t allow for any lasting damage to any part of the predators. None of that mattered though, because in a few minutes all of the sharks had suffocated.
Congratulations Challengers! You have attained a ‘David and Goliath’ record for defeating enemies more than double your level in the fourth duo survival room! Rarity of final reward increased by 85% for completing the fourth duo survival room with a record. Minimum reward rarity set to Rare.
Exp: 360 (1,800 * Giant Shark x4 * .05 Kill Contribution).
“Good lord, those things were worth nearly two thousand experience each?” Jaxon smiled happily as he reached for the sharks, ready to tear them open and learn about them but stopped just before he touched the rough surface.
Jess had been watching him the whole time, and she had seen him do something similar with the plants in the first room. “Alright, I need to know what the heck is going on here. You keep wanting to do something, then holding back. Are you wanting to eat them or something? Are you worried that I will lose respect for you or something? I don’t think it’s possible, so don’t worry about that.”
“Oh, that’s very sweet of you! I didn’t realize that I rated so highly in your mind.” Jaxon kept speaking even as Jess tried to interrupt him for some reason, “No, I was told that completing the temple using only skills for your class or ones you want to enhance was the best way to go. Anything else could make the rewards offered vary wildly, so I am being careful not to accidentally use some kind of harvesting skill.”
Jess looked thoughtful, nodding slowly in realization. “That at least explains my last run through. One of my reward options was an occupation change… alright. Let’s get through the rest of this place as fast as possible.”
As they walked toward the next room, Jaxon blinked a few times. “Why the rush? There isn’t a time limit as far as I could tell.”
“Yeah, actually, why did it take so long for you to get out of there the first time? I was on the ground for two hours as we waited for you.”
“I took a nap between most of the battles. I was trying to get a meditative skill or something that would be useful for my personal recovery.” Jaxon tossed his hands into the air in frustration. “It seems I cannot make it work for me, no matter what I try.”
“You were taking naps?” Jess seemed stuck on that point, and Jaxon felt that there would have been an argument or something if they didn’t walk into the next room at that exact moment. “My face was being pushed into the ground for hours and you were taking n–”
“Whoa. Those guys are big and ugly,” Jaxon spoke the words before he could stop himself and had to wonder where all of his self-control had gone. He looked at what was waiting for them once again and shrugged. At least he hadn’t lied, and it seemed that Jess was firmly distracted.
“No way. Those are straight out of mythos! Those are Lemure! They are a type of animalistic demon that rely on strength and clubs to destroy their opponents!” Jess was geeking out pretty hard, so Jaxon spoke up to remind her of the situation.
“I thought lemurs were small monkeys? Listen, I’m glad you are excited, but… we are their opponent here, right? Any weaknesses that you remember?” Jaxon’s words had the same effect a pin had on a balloon. She deflated visibly and attempted to remember anything that would help them.
“No, unless you have holy magic, we are going to have to beat them to death or try to get out of here as soon as possible.” Jess was leaning toward the second option, that much was obvious. It didn’t look like they were going to get a chance to debate and make a choice; the demonic beings were charging at them with looks of malicious glee.
Jaxon darted forward and met their headlong rush with his own, slipping around the massive beings with timely uses of his dodging skill. The solid stone floor shattered wherever their weapons hit, even with the lightest of strikes. Jaxon knew for sure that if he were to take even a glancing impact, the result would be his death, if not from the first hit, then from the next one when he was on the floor gasping in pain from all the broken bones.
*Wham*
Jaxon dodged the attack, but the shattering ground sent shards of stone into his face, and he flinched away. He tried to do a backflip to get away from whatever attack would be coming next, but he was hit by a club and sent sailing like a home run. The wall came closer, closer… then everything went black.
Momentarily.
You have died! Calculating… you lose no experience. Time remaining until respawn… Variable.
Your partner has completed the survival room! You will appear in the room with your health capped 50% lower. Arriving in 3… 2… 1…
Jaxon came back to life shouting, “Ow! That hurt, and how on earth did you win? I’m not doubting your competence, only your odds of survival.”
“You are welcome. I didn’t fight them. I ran for the exit while you kept them busy. Sorry you had to die for it, but if it makes you feel any better, we got another five percent on our reward rarity for sett
ing a speed record.”
“That actually does help me feel better, thank you.” Jaxon looked around, trying to gauge what the threat level they would face here could be. “Do we have invisible enemies?”
“No, just tiny ones.” Jess pointed at the floor, and Jaxon leaned down to get a better look. “Snakes. I’m assuming poisonous ones since there are so few and they are so small.”
“How many in total?”
“Nine. At least that I can find. So be careful where you step,” Jess pointedly ordered him.
“Jess, let’s be serious here. I only saw this one because you specifically pointed it out for me.” Jaxon stood straight again and cracked his neck. Tell me where to walk, and I’ll take care of the snakes. I freakin’ love snakes.”
He took a step toward the snake that had been pointed out, moving his arms in undulating patterns as he moved. The snake got into a tiny coil and stared at him, flicking its tongue uncertainly. Jess shoved Jaxon forward, and a nearly invisible snake arced through the air where he had just been standing. The snake Jaxon had been focusing on saw this as an attack and used its coiled position to launch into the air at the human’s face. Jaxon caught the tiny reptile gently, sending it to the other side of the room with a flick of his fingers so it couldn’t bite him.
“Let’s hurry through here. I don’t want these perfect specimens of healthy spinal columns to accidentally get hurt.” Jaxon moved to the left just as another snake passed his neck.
Luck +1.
“Can I intentionally hurt them?” Jess grumped at him. “Seriously, I don’t know what is going on with this place. It either gives us enemies we don’t want to hurt, can’t hurt, or can destroy way too easily. Why not something that is a fair fight? Ouch!”
Jaxon looked back and saw a tiny snake thrashing around, having locked onto her throat. Foam flecked her lips as she spoke the last words she could manage before dropping to her knees, “Jaxon. Run!”