Aster Loka
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Chapter 42
🕑 Added 2021-12-28 17:39:00 +0000 UTC“There’s no time to waste.” Levi pushed Gordon’s hand - and the stamina restorative he held, back. “I’m not leveling fast enough, the world isn’t leveling fast enough. We have to keep moving.”
Gordon sighed. “Look, this… obsession, it’s not healthy. You’re acting erratically, and I can partly understand it, but you have to relax or you’ll get yourself killed.”
“I don’t know if I can relax even if I could afford to. This is the most important thing for anyone, ever.”
“No, it isn’t. You don’t have to save the world on your own. You know the future, great. Let’s get you a wiki set up, go open source, share all the information you have with the world. You said yourself you want people leveling dungeons for you, right? I’ll get you started then you can type it up while I sleep.”
Levi forced himself not to argue immediately, letting Gordon’s words sink in so he could consider them properly. Yes, he’d completely neglected the internet and its potential to reach people. Just because it would be destroyed in a few months didn’t mean he should underestimate its value now. In fact, its brief remaining lifespan only made Gordon’s argument more urgent.
“I don’t have a computer.”
“Mine’s in the back. You can borrow it.”
Levi nodded. “Good.” He nodded to the potion. “Drink that and start driving. I’ll type while we move, then you can help get it submitted once we arrive. Skarm, can you find the laptop?”
Skarm squeaked in uncertainty.
“Rectangle, this size or so, thin. Be careful with it.”
“No, no,” Gordon said, “I’ll get it.”
“They can be careful.”
Gordon swallowed the stamina restorative in one long gulp, then his eyes widened as the potion rushed through his system. “Wow.”
“Yeah, they can take some getting used to.”
Gordon sat stunned for a moment, then climbed out, rummaged in the trunk, and brought out the laptop. He typed in the password and brought up a blank document for Levi to start drafting his infodump to the world.
“We are so getting fired.” He started the car.
“It doesn’t matter. In another year or two, the economy will be dungeon based anyway. We’re investing in the future.”
“Assuming we survive that long. How am I supposed to find food?”
“Oh, yeah, food.” Levi laughed softly. He couldn’t even remember the last time he ate anything. “Dungeons. Health restoratives are a perfectly sufficient substitute until you get enough regen to compensate completely. Around threshold three or four food should become unnecessary, if I remember correctly. You’ll be able to sustain yourself with mana instead.”
“I’m not sure I like your liquid diet,” Gordon said, tossing Levi the empty bottle. “Are you planning to give up on eating?”
“Why would I care about food?”
“How can you not care about food? It’s one of the great pleasures in life.”
Levi snorted. “It’s been a very long time since I could afford to worry about things like that. And, speaking of time, it’s time we got back to driving.”
Gordon sighed, but started the car and backed out of the motel parking lot. “I don’t even know why I’m doing this,” he muttered. “By all rights, I should be taking you to the airport right now. Instead, we’re playing VR movie hero.”
“You know this is more important than anything else we could be doing.”
“So you’ve said.”
Levi stared down at the document waiting for his input. It had been so long since the internet had been part of his life, it was like remembering that fax machines were once a way to send documents. “Thank you. For all your help. I couldn’t do this alone.”
Then he stopped talking and started typing.
It surprised him how quickly he got used to typing again, how fast he remembered the flow of keys beneath his fingers, how naturally the words filled the document.
It started as a jumble, lists of dates and events, creatures and their strengths and weaknesses, then detours into defining terminology as he realized he had a whole vocabulary of another time.
He wasn’t more than well begun before his ping returned another dungeon. Gordon simply found the next exit and followed Levi’s directions without complaint. They had to drive around for almost a half hour before Levi could pinpoint its location, but it was well worth it.
Stone Dungeon: Level 1
Levi grinned. A specialty dungeon type! He’d been hoping for a chance to get some minions aside from gremlins to improve his team’s flexibility, and this looked like it’d be a perfect opportunity. Now he had two free minion slots to fill, he couldn’t wait to… well, ‘go shopping’ sounded a bit strange, but this feeling of anticipation could easily be compared to having a gift card for someplace exciting.
“We’re going to have to move very carefully,” Levi warned before they entered the dungeon. “Stone dungeons tend to have heavier and tankier creatures, and some of the most deadly traps of any dungeon type. At our level, a single misstep could be deadly.” He glanced at Skarm. “That means you too. Stone is a bad matchup for you with your low health total, so be careful. I can only revive one of you a day, so if you get taken out too often you’ll never catch up to Two.”
Skarm nodded, grinning.
Levi narrowed his eyes. “If I thought you had anything to do with Two being knocked out…”
Skarm shook his head hastily, spreading his arms in a gesture of innocence.
“I’m watching you.” Levi gave him one more pointed glance before continuing. “At low levels, Stone dungeons contain burrowers that like to come at you from unexpected angles, whether through the floor, out of a solid wall, or down from the ceiling. They can move freely through the stone that makes up the outer shell of the dungeon and the walls tend to be thick enough to conceal them completely. Stone centipedes are also commonplace, ranging in size from about the size of my arm to twice my height. They have a deceptively fast bite attack though they usually move slowly to lure you into a false sense of security, and can cross a room in seconds. Do not get cornered, they’re heavily armored on the head and chest, but vulnerable from behind.”
Nods of acknowledgment from Skarm and Gordon, then they all stepped forward into the dungeon.
Grey stone greeted him, set in a grid of blocks, each about a stride across. Some were raised, others depressed into the floor. The walls were similar, some jutting out, others sunk in. All the same uniform size and shape without variation.
Levi exhaled slowly. “Definitely be on the lookout for traps.”
Some of the blocks were raised or lowered only inches, others high enough to block his sight further into the room, but most were low enough that it more resembled a tumble of spilled blocks than a maze. It did make movement slow to a crawl. Each block had to be tested for traps before they could advance, and Levi refused to let them cut corners. Stone dungeons, even low level ones, could not be underestimated. At their level, a block of stone falling from the ceiling would almost certainly be enough to kill them on the spot.
He found several traps of various types, most triggers of unknown doom, as they climbed on through the not-quite maze. Three taller blocks formed an almost-wall, then another tall one nearby coincidentally caused a single-tile easy route through… which was a trap. They had to climb over the taller block, which necessitated a collective scramble as it was just over the height they could comfortably crawl onto.
“And don’t touch those ones either.” He pointed to two slightly discolored stone blocks. “I don’t know if they’re traps or not, but if something looks even the slightest bit suspicious in a dungeon, you avoid it.”
