26 – Always more problems

Julian knew very well that there was a way for him to gain a spectacular amount of runes with virtually no effort. It was quick, dirty, and effective. All he needed to do was to find the door to the next floor and, once on the threshold, use his radio signal device one last time to have the speculorefractor destroy the Habitat. With one single action he destroy all life on said asteroid, gaining a ridiculous amount of runes in the process, a number that could very well be in the realm of millions.

There was a catch. Two of them actually. Firstly there was the matter of telling Cal. His friend would never be on board with this, no matter how much character development he had done, and he knew this. Then, of course, was the problem of: what was he going to do if he died and needed to cross the third floor again? Because, he feared, without the asteroid he would be catapulted in space as soon as he took the elevator from the second to the third floor, and the was nothing short of suboptimal.

On top of these two major things, there was also the matter of the Renegade Core to retrieve. And so, he decided to postpone his decision about the fate of the habitat to after he got his hands on the core, even though this probably meant no more levels for a very long time. 47k runes for his next level up was outrageous, especially after all the calculations he did on how levels were much less valuable for him than they were for other people, and this made him quite mad. He only hoped that whatever agent was helping him, quietly from one remote corner of the AI systems that surely made up the System, knew what was going on and had a plan for this. Because otherwise he was on his own, not that it would stop him, but it would surely make him waste a lot of time.

Time was ticking after all. The multiverse waited for no man.

Leaving the hollow interior of the asteroid called Space Habitato Alpha 3 Phoebi took a long time.

Cal and Julian were stuck in a cave that, no matter how big, was doomed to fill up with water sooner or later. They decided to search the entire perimeter, with the assumption that like the entrance they came in, there were other entrances and exits scattered all around. They were not visible due to the fog, the stone formations and the darkness.

They eventually found one such exit. It was a simple steel door built in the wall, a stark contrast with the brown stone that surrounded it, which made it visible from quite far away. Julian once again observed crucial differences between the door, and the subsequent tunnel system, and the rest of the places he had been to on the asteroid. Cal too agreed, but they decided to continue without asking too many questions, because the water behind them was still rising and had begun to swirl and foam ominously. They felt safer after closing the blast door behind them, but not completely out of danger yet.

“I wonder where all that water even came from.” Julian said. By his earlier calculation, aided by his Eye of the Beholder skill he knew that the asteroid was roughly 20km in diameter, while the cave was no more than 6. This meant that no simple river could fill it up all the way to half full, not even the big Noctilucent River they crossed. Especially in such a short amount of time. Water was without a doubt coming in from multiple places as well, because the tunnel they walked through to reach the cave was simply too small to allow for that much water to flow through it so quickly.

“Magic.” Cal suggested.

Julian agreed in the measure that it was possible, but still thought it unlikely. The System liked to use tech where it could save up on magic. They must have emptied a sea on the far side of the asteroid or something, and the river was only a part of the water that flowed in. It set off a chain reaction that led to a cascading flood.

“It was definitely us, but the system no doubt helped.”

They began to explore the underground tunnels. While before they were made of just concrete and steel functional to moving around and storing stuff, these were different. They looked like they were made with habitation and comfort in mind. The lights were on, and the party explored the tidy and comfortable public spaces, miniature parks and gardens that were now long dead and decayed, and luxurious rooms. They felt modern, with their sleek design and hidden technology.

Scattered here and there were a few glowing orbs, items placed by the system that swiftly went into the now semi-empty storage rings. It had been a long while since the last time Julian saw an Item in this form, and he was excited to retrieve as many of them as he could.

Eventually, after having searched for items but without losing too much time, they reached the surface. A quick test on the dials of the portable radio device confirmed that this far away from the machine the signal couldn’t reach it, for no changes happened in the way the light reached the asteroid.

“Or you could be wrong.” Cal said.

“It’s probably because the radio signal can’t reach. There’s too much rock between us and the machine.” Julian frowned. Maybe he was wrong, and he wished that there was a way to confirm that once and for all.

Then he smacked his head. “Oh, I am so, so dumb. I have a skill for this, don’t I?”

“Huh?”

He looked at Cal, who was thinking about what he just said with a confused expression plastered on his face, and laughed. It was the self-deprecating laugh of somebody who just realized how dumb they were, as indeed Julian had only now remembered that he had an Appraisal skill he could have used on the radio as soon as he found it.

“How many skills do you have?” Cal asked.

“Let me see… 15, why do you ask?”

“Because I know what you’re thinking.” Cal said. “You are blaming yourself for not remembering to use Appraisal.”

“Yeah, I am. I definitely am.” He laughed.

“It’s not normal to have so many skills so early. And even then, there’s a reason why these Towers exist: to help us learn to use all the tools we have before getting thrown in the wide multiverse. Even people trained from a young age forget sometimes. You? You have more skills than anyone in this tower, I think, it’s understandable that you don’t always remember to use the best one in the right situation.”

Julian’s face twitched. “But I am a fucking genius. I was among the top five minds on the whole planet! Do you understand?”

Cal was calm. “Did you ever find yourself in a stressful situation, for days on end, where you always needed to be aware of the environment, under physical duress, in pain, disoriented, surrounded by strange people, thrown in a chaotic place you don’t understand?”

“Maybe.”

“How was your mind in that situation?”

Julian took a long and deep breath to calm down. He felt the blood rush to his face and fought it, rationality against emotional rage, until the two forces exhausted each other.

“Alright. I need to be less harsh on myself. This doesn’t get me anywhere.”

“Exactly.”

“Let’s use Appraisal on the radio, see what it says.”

>Spectrophotonic Oscillator. One-of-a-kind Rarity. A small portable radio, made of minuscule copper mechanical pieces of exquisite complexity, encased in a vacuum glass container. Used to communicate with the Controller of the Alpha 3 Phoebi Habitat. In its current condition, it is unable to reach the Controller.

“See? That confirms it!” Cal exclaimed.

Julian felt relieved. “Yeah, it does.” He said. Now he only needed to figure out a way to boost the signal, perhaps by using what he learned when he studied the Magic Bullet the system supplied him with.

“Let’s start walking back towards the village.” He said.

“Why the village?” Cal asked.

“Got a better idea?”

Cal shook his head. “Hopefully we won’t run into the other team.”

“They’re on their quest. Even if they went back to the village, they must have realized you aren’t nowhere to be found and left again.” He said, then looked around. “Do we have any idea where we are?”

He looked up. The mirror in the sky was in a fixed position, he knew, so by looking at its apparent height on the horizon, he could take a guess at how far he was from the village. He couldn’t figure out which way to go, however.

“It’s that way.” Cal said after a while.

He recognized some of the landmarks. According to him, they were the same ones had seen them while on his failed Quest a few days ago, and with his guidance they set off on the right path. Gradually as they walked the forest changed, the wet atmosphere leaving way to a dry stale air, sandy soil devoid of any moisture and yellowing vegetation. Seeing the dried riverbed with the rope bridge they originally crossed suspended on nothing but sun baked rocks confirmed their suspicion. This whole section of the asteroid was completely dry. The river was empty, the moisture vents didn’t have any water to pump in the atmosphere and the whole forest was dying as a result.

Cal felt a pang of guilt, and had to be pulled by force for a while.

When finally the tall trees of the elven village appeared above the dead canopy, Julian had already stopped enough times to make sure he was close to figuring out how to use the Oscillator radio. He only needed some last few tweaks, but he was confident he could pull it off in a few hours while they rested before the final stretch to the village.

Cal was visibly nervous. His early protests about going back to the village had met the incredibly logical argument from Julian that the team that assaulted him was on a quest and therefore not at the village, but that didn’t do anything to calm down his nerves. Even if the Oscillator radio was working, it would take an actual demonstration of what Julian could do with it to calm him down.

“It’s ready!” Julian said, after having spent more time than he predicted cursing and mumbling as he fiddled with his tools and the Oscillator at the fire.

It had taken a few wasted (F)-crystals to figure it out, but eventually he had realized that he needed to use (F+)-rank ones. After that it was only a matter of putting the thing back together – he had already carefully taken it apart as the first step of the process – adding the crystals to the mix as both a powder and specifically cut shards that replaced the vacuum valves.

He was ready for a test. He slowly put his fingers around a dial, and was about to begin turning it, when a message invaded his vision and made his back flood with cold sweat almost immediately.

WARNING: DIGITALIZED MIND BACKUPS DETERIORATION HAS REACHED 50%