22 – Think smart

From the water emerged a monstrosity made of branches, roots, vines and leaves. Its metallic teeth snapped and bit the air, dragging the central mass that spread through the room and up the walls like an invasive tumor through sheer force of malice. The sounds it made were abhorrent, of wood snapping and metal grinding like in a factory gone wild, they penetrated under the skin and unsettled and disoriented the two adventurers.

Immediately Julian and Cal tried to backtrack, but they found that the growing tendrils of knotted roots had already sealed the passage that led to safety, and to the fire outside. Turning around, there was just a small space to maneuver before they fell right in the water where the monster lurked.

Julian equipped his shield from his rings, and unholstered one gun. He shot at the monster, chipping pieces of wood from its hardened body, while batting away the incoming barbed tentacles of root with his shield. Many times he tried to Parry, but it was difficult with how random the attacks were, and a near miss left his flank exposed to one such root. It penetrated into his skin and began to spread, and he felt an icy chill go down his spine as he saw a Death status meter appear and rapidly fill up before he regained lucidity and shot the wriggling mass of wood, severing it from the plant monster. He pulled it out, taking with it a large chunk of flesh invaded by bony tentacles, letting out a guttural scream of pain. He blinked away the tears, switching to his other gun to let this one cool of in the ring, and began shooting again.

Behind him Cal was hurtling everything he had at the creature. Most effective were the Fireballs, but the monster was intelligent enough to use the water it was partially submerged in to immediately put out the fires before they consumed its wood.

Each Fireball, Wind Blade, or gunshot was intercepted before it could reach the heart of the monster, the central mass behind the mouth. A forest of hardened wood sprung up every time, absorbing the damage before retreating back underwater, unseen.

It felt like a losing battle to both adventurers. They were quickly being pushed against the sealed corridor and into the barbs of the wood that closed it shut.

“We are in deep shit. This not F+ difficulty!” yelled Julian.

“It wasn’t this hard where I went for the quest!” replied Cal, almost as if reading a line from somewhere.

Julian noticed it but didn’t have time to dwell on it. “Why is always harder when I’m coming with?”

While he talked, he also fought ferociously. He kept deflecting the hits with his shield, while he prepared Magic Missiles to shoot with his other hand. The first went off and was intercepted, as was the second. Then he decided to change approach and use what little MP he had left on a Homing one to try and dodge the defenses, but his casting was interrupted when a particularly powerful hit sent him off balance. He swore as he fell, hitting the concrete of the wall hard with his head. His vision spun. His SP were almost at zero, and this last hit had brought the Death meter to almost full. He couldn’t tank another.

Suddenly the room came alight with electric sparks, for the briefest moment. Julian’s eyes widened, and he stared at the severed cable hanging on a broken chain from the ceiling.

This changed everything. He was smirking now, deflecting the incoming hits with renewed zeal. He took aim with his gun behind his shield and dropped to the ground, where he had a clear line of fire, making use of Cal’s spells as cover fire. Then he fired.

Only one bullet was all he needed to finish the fight. The chain broke, and the thick copper cable fell in the water, discharging its deadly electric payload right where the monster dwelled. It convulsed for a few moments, smoke coming out of its increasingly charred wooden body, then dropped back in the water.

+6800 Runes.

“Nice.” Julian said.

“I—Maybe we should leave.”

+9200 Runes.

“Oh, wow. There were two of them.”

Cal stared at the water suspiciously. “I wonder which one of the two we fought.”

“I think it was the big one.” Julian said, but Cal only stared blankly. “Come on, it must have been the big one.”

“Even so, that was almost—”

“No worse than the mummy, to be honest. And we got a shitload of runes. You still want out?”

Cal was pensive.

“Are we safe outside?” Julian asked. “With the guys who attacked you still on the loose.”

“No, we are not. Fuck. I hate this. If we find the speculorefractor, you said we can deal with them even if they are very powerful?”

Julian’s eyes narrowed. “You keep saying that they are powerful… what level are we talking about, roughly?”

Cal fidgeted.

“Cal?”

“I think around 50, even 60.” He said.

Julian groaned theatrically. “We are severely underleveled aren’t we? What level are you?”

“19…”

“I am fucking 17, man. And they are 60?” He was yelling now. He took a deep breath, pinching the sides of his nose. “How many floors is the tower?”

“10.”

“And what level should you be when you leave it?”

“At least 150.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me earlier? That’s at least 15 levels per floor. No wonder we are struggling, and those people are so much stronger than us. Shit.” He paces around. “We wasted a week to rest in that fucking village! I thought to myself ‘yeah, so all the powerful people will overtake us’, but I didn’t think that now even the runner-ups are powerful compared to us!”

“Sorry.” Cal’s eyes were of a beaten up pup.

“Don’t worry.” Julian reassured him. “The speculorefractor will fix this problem too. I might have to take extreme measures, and I don’t want to hear complaints.”

Cal nodded. A new light was beginning to shine behind his defeated eyes.

“There! That’s the spirit. Be fucking angry man. Rage against this shit system, where the strong prey on the weak.”

“Tell you what, though,” Julian said, and shot the power cable where it came out of the wall. It fell off to disappear in the murky water, cutting the current to the room. “I’m not helping you unless you come clean. What happened during that quest?” he said, and stepped into the water. He began to swim towards the other end of the room, without waiting for Cal.

“I’ll tell you once we are settled.” He said, reluctantly stepping in the water himself.

“Fine. In any case, having control of the mirror is like having a sun-sized laser always available. It can hit any point on the asteroid with a power output of at least 10^10 watts. That’s a one with ten zeroes, enough to vaporize this space rock without leaving any trace, by the way, so I might want to tone it down a little if I ever end up using it. Wouldn’t want to, you know, break the asteroid while we are on it.”

“Will the system let you use such a tool?”

Julian shrugged. “The system has no idea. It put this shit here, after all, not me. If I have to guess, it never thought someone would ever be able to gain control of it. Hell, maybe it’s right. But at least I can try. Do you know of anyone from Tharlax who could?”

Cal seemed angered at the apparent insult, but deflated. “Actually, no. I have never seen so much advanced technology in my life as I have these last few days.”

“See? I think the system fucked up here. At least that’s my working theory right now. It seems incapable of perceiving me as a competent individual from a scientific society. I suspect tampering.” Julian stated.

Cal stared blankly. “What do you mean?”

“Tell me, what would you do if you or any other Tharlaxian or Torian in this Tower were presented with a situation like the elevator to the third floor, with a console and unknown tech?”

He thought it over. He began to speak, then caught himself. “Before meeting you? I’d have left it there.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t know what it is or how to use it.”

“Bingo.” Julian laughed.

“What? I don’t see your point.”

“How many people do you know, not the powerful ones of course, people like you who just started… how many have the know-how?”

“None. Technology is only for the system to create. We merely use it as we are told.”

“See my point now?”

He nodded slowly. “The system doesn’t know you can use it?”

“It must know, it is the one scattering my own notes around for me to find after all. But beyond that it’s treating me like a normal tower climber, not bothering to hide the tech. Which would already be a mistake in general, because humanity still knows how to use tech, even more so with me here.”

“Maybe it didn’t predict the scenario?”

“Or its been tampered with.”

Cal sighed, exhaling loudly and slowly. He dragged his feet for a while, leaning on his Staff as if tired and weak.

“I only wanted to have fun, you know, escape?” his voice was low. “Not be stuck between a conspiracy against literally god and people from my own world who want to kill me.”

“It is what it is,” Julian said. “Anyway, it’s story time. What happened on that quest?”