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Chapter 41 – When a cat lays a trap
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 15:28:49 +0000 UTCJace woke up and Ollie popped into existence. He felt quite refreshed, if hungry. Snacking down on a survival meal and taking a sip from his canteen, he sat silently contemplating his situation. I’m up on the tundra, and there’s 9 other Complexes up here. I can stay here, or I can go to the glacier tile. The tundra was safer, since there were no icy crevasses he could fall into. But based on what he’d been able to piece together – the less hazardous terrain tiles had less valuable rewards for clearing Complexes.
“What are you thinking about?” Ollie asked.
“If its worth sticking around this tundra,” Jace replied. “Especially since I know there’s someone who is likely coming after me. That cat-man.”
“His species is called the Moslow, from a world known as Menaly. It is a magic-oriented world with a technology level around that of the late-middle ages. Pretty standard fare, all things considered.”
Jace got out of the tent, packed it up along with the bedroll, and began walking to another Complex on the map Ollie manifested. “Let’s just tackle the Complexes that are on the way to the glacier.”
“There’s three on the path,” Ollie replied.
Jace nodded and glanced back over the landscape behind him. No sign of that guy.
>>>---<<<
Flosho was breathing heavily when he arrived at a cleared-out space that was roughly square in shape. Did he set up camp?
“Ribbit.”
Looking up, Flosho saw the claw-feet marks going towards the glacier in the distance. “Smart for a solo act. Get up high, clear out those dungeons, and then use the height to see where your competition is.”
“Ribbit.”
Flosho wheeled around on his Wayfinder, “What? World Pillars?”
“Ribbit.”
He was familiar with the concept. They were called different things on each world that had heavy magical influence – well, as far as he could tell. They were the power source for magic on multiple worlds before The Cosmic System subjected the world to Cosmogenic Merging, and then when people began drawing on Cosmic Powers instead, the World Pillars went dormant. On his home world, they were enormous crystals. And the first Aspirants who returned to the world and touched them gained the rest of their power.
And it was a genius idea. The Archmage Ascendant who ruled this world didn’t have need of them. Why would he care about them? His power was beyond what they could enable. But he only let people into this world once every ten years for this Dungeon Run event. How long has this Dark Matter Aspirant been waiting for this chance?
He looked up at the glacier and noted that the footsteps did not lead directly to it. I could get there first. Try to find the World Pillar, absorb its power for myself…it would give me an element that his Cosmic Power is not naturally resistant to. And…he will come to me.
Flosho began heading to the imposing mountain of ice.
>>>---<<<
Jace came to a large, cleared off patch of dirt and debris. “Right. Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) [Rending], Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3).” The blade and barrier ignited with their purple and crimson glow, and he stepped towards the cleared area.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Warning! You are about to enter a Complex!]
[This location has been marked by The Cosmic System as Tier 2.]
[Number of foes to clear out: 2.]
<<<<<>>>>>
[Quest: Slay the ice wraiths.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Rare (Skill Evolution) Boon.]
[Sender: The Cosmic System.]
<<<<<>>>>>
The air grew cold. So cold that breathing it in hurt Jace’s lungs. He wrapped his cloak tighter around his face to try and stave off the effect. Ollie’s head warped and distorted for a moment, and then when his form became solid once more, he was wearing a winter cap. “Ice wraiths,” he stated. “Good thing you have a Skill enhanced weapon.”
“Why?” Jace asked as he kept looking around the area, slowly walking towards the center of the grassy patch.
“They are ghostly. Incorporeal. Only Skills can harm them. Blades, projectiles – all of that would go right through them.”
“Does that mean they can touch you?”
“Nope! Different type of ethereal. I’m sort of like a hologram extending from you as my tether. They are quite literally in a different phase of reality…partially.”
Jace’s breath came to him with more struggle and he felt his body begin to ache from the intense chill. As if by instinct, he swung his blade out to his left side.
A crimson and purple gash appeared in the air, and Jace looked at it quizzically. Did I hurt it? The colors began to travel along the creature’s form, and he could make out the general shape as the purple coated it ever faster. The form was almost spherical with just a little bit of angular-ness to it.
Jace watched it as it flew away. Well, it will bleed out. Where’s this other one? He felt cold once more – but this cold penetrated his chest and he couldn’t breathe. Swinging wildly around himself, he tried to make contact with whatever it was.
“It’s inside you!” Ollie shouted.
Fuck that. Starfire Stride. Jace’s legs erupted in the cosmic, purple flame, and he sat down. The cold feeling vanished almost instantly, and Jace swung lazily upward, feeling the sword catch on something. The crimson and purple spread along the second one of these wraiths, and Jace felt his breath return to him as the cold chill faded.
He watched the two purple and crimson covered forms flying into the sky – trying to escape the effect that would never end unless Jace willed it. “How come that one got through my Shield?” Jace asked.
“It blocks damage. Not environmental effects. And these…things…distort and change the environment around them. Seems like big, area of effect Skills are the ticket to dealing with them.”
The two motes of light vanished up in the sky, and the golden pillar appeared. Jace stood up and snagged the dungeon core, depositing it into his bag.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Quest Completed: Slay the ice wraiths.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Rare (Skill Evolution) Boon.]
[Sender: The Cosmic System.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“Not too difficult.” Jace gestured to Ollie, and the Wayfinder pulled up the map. Another two on the way to the glacier. “Wait a second. There are no bodies to get Stardust from.”
“Yeah, they are incorporeal. It is kind of a rip-off.”
That sucks, Jace thought as he continued his trudge.
>>>---<<<
Flosho had just reached the base of the glacier and was taking deep breaths, back to the cool surface, when he saw a faint, purple light off in the distance. If he’s clearing dungeons on the way here that fast…I need to pick up the pace. He turned around and began scrabbling up the side of the glacier; his claws more than enough to find easy purchase in the surface.
“Ribbit.”
“Why?”
“Ribbit.”
“I suppose,” Flosho looked up at the glacier-face and grimaced. Lightning Leap (Rank 2). He turned into a bolt of electricity and flashed up to the top of the glacier, zipping across and to the center-top of the area. Conveniently, the large, grey World Pillar stood as a beacon amongst the white and blue expanse.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Warning! You are about to enter a Complex!]
[This location has been marked by The Cosmic System as Tier 2.]
[Number of foes to clear out: 1.]
<<<<<>>>>>
I can handle that, he thought as a Quest popped up accompanying the dungeon notification. But the reward rarity gave him pause. An Epic Boon? Holding his wand, he cautiously stepped forward. The World Pillar stood there, untouched. The world was quiet save for the whipping, biting, cold wind.
Flosho crept up towards it…20 feet away…10 feet away.
He froze in place as the snow in a circle around the whole pillar began to shuffle and move. A single, enormous, light-blue eye glared at him from the snowdrift. There was a deep growth, and a gust of frozen mist surged towards him.
Lightning Leap (Rank 2)! He got out of the dungeon’s area and took deep breaths once he was out of the danger zone. “Why didn’t you tell me that it would have a guardian?”
“Ribbit.”
“You’re right. This gives us an opportunity.” The pillar stood out. This Dark Matter Aspirant would be heading to it. Thinking back, he recalled the pillar in the cave tile. It was like this one, but inert. Son of a whore! He claimed that one already?
It lent more credibility to the theory that this Aspirant was here for the pillars and The Dungeon Run was just a bonus to him. It’s fine. I’ll set up camp, make a little hiding hole…and wait for this creature to either kill him, or weaken him enough for me to finish him off.
>>>---<<<
Jace had paused for a quick snack of gooey, delicious survival meal, and to fill up his canteen at one of the many streams that crisscrossed the landscape. This place is gorgeous, he thought. The mix of nature pushing through in small spaces among the snowy expanse was soothing and helped to calm his thoughts.
Jace had always loved the wintertime. It made for rough living on the streets, but it was also the time of year when snow would fall, and the other street kids would play in the snow – the only free entertainment left unmonopolized. He vividly recalled taking Chroma out for her first snow day and using the slightly green tinged, toxic-smog imbued snow to make a fort.
This snow was clean, pristine, and white. Jace could smell the crispness of the air. I wish I could bring you here, Chroma, he thought. You’d love this. He sighed and continued his trek to the next Complex, pausing for just a moment as the information scrolled across his vision.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Warning! You are about to enter a Complex!]
[This location has been marked by The Cosmic System as Tier 2.]
[Number of foes to clear out: 10.]
<<<<<>>>>>
[Quest: Slay the Razor Clan Kobolds.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Rare (Equipment Augmentation) Boon.]
[Sender: The Cosmic System.]
<<<<<>>>>>
As soon as Jace stepped past some invisible barrier, huts appeared. They were made of mud that had been piled high, and the rushes and plants that he had seen across the tundra had been ripped up and used as a roof of sorts.
There was a bonfire fueled by some foul-smelling substance that made Jace’s nose wrinkle. The creatures dancing around the fire were squat – maybe three feet at the tallest – with bulging heads, tufts of white fur around their body, and dressed in tribal leathers. They were chanting and shouting – but the words overlapped and Jace could not hear them.
Ollie flew alongside him, “Ah, kobolds. They are the fodder of the magic worlds. Seriously, on most magic worlds they are routinely hunted. Ignore their tribal nature, they aren’t a species on the same level as people are. More like…monkeys.”
“What’s a monkey?” Jace asked.
His speech drew the attention of the mob, and they shrieked before charging him. All save two at the back, who pulled out wooden sticks which began to crackle with orange energy. “Crap,” Ollie muttered as the first two reached him.
Jace ducked the first blow from the one on the left who was missing an eye. Their claws looked to be razor-sharp, as were their large fangs that extended past their lower jaw. He sliced it with the sword and cut into its torso. The viscous, grey blood splashed into the air and emitted steam from the temperature difference.
He stepped back and parried the next one’s claw strike, riposting as he stabbed it through the neck and kicked it away. This is easy, he thought.
The bright, orange glow continued to build in the back, behind the ones that Jace was occupied with. That’s a problem, he thought. Planting his hand on the ground, he thought, Dark Energy Mine (Rank 3). Detonate.
The black sphere appeared under his hand an exploded with the slight, clear shockwave. The kobolds that were rushing to Jace began tumbling by him in the air. He slashed left and right, carving through them as they went flying past. Extending his Wirecannon Arm, he shot the grapnel out. It impaled the one with the stick on the right, and the creature went limp before Jace’s line retracted.
The last kobolds staff began to glow even brighter, and the creature leveled it at Jace. “Ollie! What’s the activation phrase for the anti-magi-”
“Arbiter’s Anathema!”
Arbiter’s Anathema, Jace thought as he leveled his left arm, holding the sword, at the creature. The gold, arcane scrollwork along the arm’s length illuminated with a soft glow before a stream of black and gold cascaded in multitudinous ribbons of the two colors that wrapped around the orange glow.
The glow ceased instantly, and the creature made a yipping nose as it shook the staff. Jace used the moment to fire his grapnel again, piercing that one’s skull.
The bodies vanished as Jace’s Wirecannon Arm retracted.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Quest Completed: Slay the Razor Clan Kobolds.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Rare (Equipment Augmentation) Boon.]
[Sender: The Cosmic System.]
<<<<<>>>>>
“Let’s use that to give my armor, I don’t know, cold resistance? And dust the corpses. And I’ve still got a Skill Evolution. Let’s use that on Dark Energy Mine.”
<<<<<>>>>>
[Stardust Acquired: 250]
<<<<<>>>>>
[Using Boon: Rare (Equipment Augmentation).]
[Target Equipment: (Medium) Devastation Armor.]
[Augmenting.]
[Result: (Medium / Snowguard) Devastation Armor.]
[Description: The Snowguard (Equipment Augmentation) provides resistance to cold, ice, and other effects of a similar nature. Additionally, ensures comfort in any cold environment.]
<<<<<>>>>>
[Using Boon: Rare (Skill Evolution).]
[Applying to Skill.]
[Skill Name: Dark Energy Mine.]
[Evolution Name: Distant.]
[Effect: The mine can be placed anywhere within line of sight, up to 50 ft. away.]
<<<<<>>>>>
Jace grinned, “Excellent,” he stated as the armor he was wearing surged with glittering starlight before fading. The armored clothing he was wearing had a slight, white hue. Already he felt the temperature difference, as he was a little cool earlier, but now felt like he was back in bed in the apartment.
Ollie flew around him and gave him a thumbs up, “Looking spiffy!”
Jace walked up to the golden podium and snagged the dungeon core, tossing it into his backpack. “One more before we hit the glacier terrain.”
>>>---<<<
Flosho had finished setting up his little snow-cave. He had not been in such an environment before, but his fur and his gear kept him plenty warm. He was surprised at how toasty the small cave got.
“Ribbit.”
“Oh, right. A hole to let the bad air out.” He dug up with his paws and made a hole in the roof. The room chilled very slightly.
His new hideout had a perfect vantage point of the World Pillar. Based on his knowledge of dungeons, he knew that he would have to enter the area as well to see what was happening. Game plan. Wait until he gets here and enters the area. Wait a minute. Then, go in. If he’s injured or tired, try to kill him. If he’s still fighting, rush to the World Pillar and then get out.
His Lightning Bolt Skill was one that was uncapped – he could dump Ranks into it endlessly. And he had spent every single Skill Evolution on the ability. Waving his wand, he pointed it at the pillar and used his Lightning Bolt (Rank 47) [Sparkmine] until all his energy was spent.
He shifted in the snow and got comfy as he curled himself up. Trap set. All I need to do is wait. Even if he is resistant to lightning, he’s not immune. Enough damage stocked up in a [Sparkmine] should kill him. He smiled as he purred himself to sleep.
