Alex and Lila descended the ladder in the darkness. It was slow moving since neither of them wanted to fall an unknown distance. Alex really didn’t want Lila to fall as that would likely mean his own demise since he was the first one down. Lila had fought him hard about that but he had the more physical class so he had won that argument. Alex had been willing to concede if Lila could light a fireball to help them see. Plus it could be thrown if something unfriendly started coming up towards them.

Apparently though, she couldn’t use fire. She had explained that when she learned to cast ice, there had been a sentence in her skill description that had said that she could only use ice powers now. Kind of inconvenient but it made sense for the Threxari to include that. As the awakened would be working as part of the coalitions army, they would rather provide specialists than a jack of all trades. A specialist could add a lot more value to a planned strategy.

So, Alex lead the way. Fortunately, with their awakening they apparently had increased night vision. They couldn’t see everything in the dark, just more. They both climbed for another five minutes when Alex finally hit the ground. As soon as he did everything lit up. Starting from where he landed, lights along the floor started lighting up to both sides of the ladder. The walls were high so the lights only went about two thirds of the way up before they started to fade until the top where you could barely make out that it was in fact the top of the wall. The walls were a pristine concrete-like material.

“This definitely seems like the entrance to a secret research facility. Like TOP secret,” Alex exclaimed.

A slam echoed through the hole the ladder came through. Before, they could look up the shaft and see a light coming through. Now, all they saw was darkness.

“Since up is no longer a choice, left or right?” Alex asked.

“Right I guess.”

They began their trek into the long tunnel. After a couple minutes of walking they ran into another fork. At Lila suggestion they went right again. Another couple minutes and there was another fork. This time there were three paths. They went right again. This path was the longest one yet but it didn’t end in a fork this time. Instead there was a sturdy metal door. There was what looked like a key slot in the middle of the door. Alex approached and investigated it. He prodded the slot with his finger hoping for something to trigger, and trigger something it did.

Behind them a panel, which was invisible before, slid out and a red, crystalline golem came out. It was large. About twice as wide as Alex and about a foot taller than him. It approached them slowly, its eyes glowing blue. It studied them from head to toe and back up again. After it reached their heads again, its eyes shifted from blue to orange. It suddenly charged at them. They both dodged to either side as the golem barreled past them. Lila started summoning an icicle to throw and Alex, well Alex didn’t have much he could do to prepare besides pulling out his trusty pipes from his earlier fight.

The golem seemed to judge the ice elemental the bigger threat than pipe boy and charged at her first. The icicle was fully formed so Lila quickly threw out a frosty hand. Ice began to form in front of her in a cone. Once the golem stepped onto the ice, it began to slide in the direction of its momentum, which was still in the direction of Lila. She had to dive to the side which caused her to drop the halfway formed icicle, breaking it in the process. She really needed to figure out how to form her ice quicker. Not that Alex could say anything. At the moment, his powers only showed their value after he got hit, which is normally not an ideal scenario.

The golem continued to slide until the end of the ice. The sudden change of friction caused it to topple forward, rolling a few times before crashing into the wall. It then got up. It didn’t get up the way Alex expected though. The crystal structures of the golem separated and then floated into a new arrangement. When the pieces stopped moving the golem was upright again, facing Alex and Lila. This whole transformation took less than a second. The golem barely seemed phased that it had crashed into the wall. It did stall for another second before its eyes started glowing again and it charged the duo once more.

This time Lila decided that the icicle would take too long and instead planned to freeze the golem at opportune times for Alex to attack. Hopefully without him getting hit too many times. With the Elemental taking a more supportive role, the golem shifted its attention to Alex. Again it charged forward with reckless abandon. Alex stood his ground. Quicker than something its size should move, the golem reached Alex. Each step causing small tremors through the tunnel. Alex sidestepped the charge and ducked under the golems outstretched arm. At least that’s how he envisioned it happening. It would have been so cool.

What really happened was the golem grabbed his shoulder as he tried to slip under its arm. The crystal giants grip was like a vice grip and Alex’s shoulder groaned under the intense pressure. The golem then hurled Alex toward the wall like he weighed nothing. Alex braced for impact and as he approached the wall at an insane speed, he was actually able to brace himself rather well. It only hurt him a lot instead of killing him outright. This worked to Alex’s advantage though as now he had some extra firepower to use.

When Alex got his bearing and got back on his feet, his eyes widened as he saw the golem grab Lila by the ankles. She slammed into the ground hard. The golem began swinging his arm to slam her against the wall. Alex moved without thinking. He didn’t think that he would make it in time when he remembered his skill description.

Energy transference

Kinetic energy applied to you by an outside source can be stored for later use. Energy that will be transferred must be released through direct contact of user’s body. Weapons do not allow the transference of energy.

It didn’t say that he needed to use it as an attack. He looked at his status screen and saw that he had 40 P.E. available. What if he used it to propel him forward. Use the P.E. as the fuel and him be the rocket. There wasn’t much time until catastrophe would strike so he worked quickly. He was running and as his foot was leaving the floor, he willed the energy down. He was flying through the air. Just in time, Lila recovered from the grab and started to freeze the golem’s arm slowing its swing considerably. It didn’t stop it all together but that was ok. It bought Alex the time he needed.

He came flying into the midsection of the golem. The collision knocked the golem off balance enough that Lila was no longer headed for the wall. The golem tumbled over and as it hit the wall, Lila was flung away. She rolled a few time before coming to a stop. She no doubt took some damage. She was bleeding on her legs and arms and she didn’t get up to her feet right away but she wasn’t dead. Alex’s shoulder made its discomfort known. Alex groaned and tried to roll away from the golem to create some distance.

The golem once again did its reshuffle and was upright quickly. This time it seemed to be slightly smaller in size. Its eyes also took a little bit longer to glow this time. But after a few seconds, they did.

Stolen story; please report.

Another charge but this time neither awakened were harmed. Instead they were able to land a hit. Lila had frozen the golem’s arms as Alex tried the same maneuver he had last time. This time it worked. At least the golem didn’t seem intelligent. They could use the same tactics and be just fine.

Alex, now behind the golem, swung both of his pipes into the back of the golem’s head. Large cracks appeared where the pipes connected. The golem continued forward into the wall. This time when it did its reshuffle, both awakened were ready. Lila began freezing as quickly as she could and Alex played the drums on it. After its eyes began to glow, both of them hustled away. The golem was now only slightly larger than Alex in both height and width. Its size related to the health of the golem somehow.

Their attacks kept coming and the golem’s attacks grew weaker after every charge eventually no golem was left. Only a single crystal shard remained. A shard that resembled the slot in the door. It seems the golem would allow an authorized person into the locked room but as neither of them were approved, they got the bouncer treatment. Luckily there was still a way to access the key even if one wasn’t authorized.

Alex licked his lips in anticipation and Lila seemed absolutely giddy. They were both excited to see what was on the other side. They inserted the key, or rather they were walking to the door and once they got close enough the key flew out of Alex’s hand into the key slot. It glowed as it spun around. After about three seconds of spinning and glowing, it actually went into the slot. The door swung open and what saw made them almost cry with joy.

It was obviously a research station. There were papers strewn across the many desks around the room. There were various liquids in a variety of different glass containers. Heck, there were even lab coats. They had four arms though which lead Alex to believe that the Morathian people also had four arms.

See? I’m not stupid. I’m a modern day Sherlock Holmes, Alex mentally reassured himself. The thought made him grin.

“Why are you smiling like that?”

Alex realized he probably looked a little strange just standing there grinning.

“Ummm I’m just happy that we found a lab. I just hope we can find something in all this mess,” Alex replied with slightly too much thinking on his part.

*I really need to invest some stat points into intelligence. Wait do we even get stat points? I’m assuming that we do when we level. Do I get to place them or does it select it for me to optimize my class?*

Lila had already started to look around while Alex was lost in thought. It didn’t take her long before she found something.

“What is this thing?” Lila asked.

It was strange. It was a metal rod that was bendable. Almost like a fishing rod but was shaped more like a small baseball bat. Skinny at the handle and thicker at the end. How it was so malleable, neither of them knew.

“No idea. Can I see it?”

“Nope. I found it so it’s mine. It already counts for my quest progress to so don’t try to steal it,” she looked at him with narrow, suspicious eyes.

Alex raised his hands unthreateningly.

“I wasn’t going to take it I just wanted to see if I could figure out what it does. Geez!”

“Still, the answer is no. I want to figure it out so just go over there and leave me alone.”

She flicked the rod toward the other side of the room behind Alex. Its body swung with her arm until it whipped into place, pointing directly at Alex. As soon as it did, a bright flash sped out of the end of the rod on a collision course for Alex’s face. He was in so much shock that he didn’t even react. The second it collided with him Alex went limp.

Alex awoke around twenty minutes later. His head was pounding and he felt like he had just taken a three day test. His vision doubled then tripled and then returned to normal. When he could see straight he could see Lila sobbing next to him. She hadn’t realized that he had woken up yet. The rod was lying on the ground next to him.

“Well I think it’s my turn to use this thing.”

He picked it up and whipped it around to point it at Lila. Recognition struck as she realized that Alex was fine and that he was aiming the weapon at her now. Her face went from relief, to shock, to anger in less than two seconds. It was a funny sight and it made the splitting headache worth it.

The end of the rod whipped into place, aimed at Lila’s face this time.

“Justice!” Alex said in a gravely voice.

The tip of the rod lit up again and the light traveled towards Lila. It collided with her face. Alex’s joy almost couldn’t be contained. He watched intently as the light…disbursed?!

“What the heck? Why didn’t you get knocked out? That’s not fair at all.”

Lila responded with an ice ball to Alex’s face followed by punches to his arms, shoulders and one aimed at his head that he luckily dodged.

“What’s the matter with you? You could’ve killed me. There’s no way to know that it would’ve had the same effect on me that it did on you. I’m glad it didn’t but WOW! Just wow! Here I was worried for the last twenty minutes thinking that I had killed you or put you in a coma or something. I’m never going to worry about you again. Not worth my time.”

She was fuming. Alex didn’t really get it. She had hit him so he was going to get her back. It was only fair and it wasn’t like they were in any danger in this room. They hadn’t seen anything for hours before they entered the research lab and hadn’t seen anything besides the golem since.

“Calm down. I’m sorry ok? It didn’t really hurt me too bad just made me take a nap involuntarily, so I thought it’d be fine. But seriously why didn’t it do anything to you?”

Lila studied her status pages for a little to see if she got any new notifications.

“I just got a new skill called mental toughness for withstanding a weak mental attack. And it still did something I was just able to fight off the effects. My head feels like it was split down the middle you jerk. Mine was an accident.”

Another round of punches assaulted Alex.

Alex looked at his own status screen to see any changes.

Alex Sullivan

Race- Human

Class- Shift

Level- 1

Strength- 8

Agility- 6

Intelligence- 7

Durability- 15

Endurance- 7

Health- 85/150

Stamina- 35/70

P.E.- 0/150

“Hey I gained an intelligence point!” Alex shouted. “Did you get anything from that?”

“Besides a new enemy and a headache? No.”

“Oh come on! That’s not fair. I said I was sorry. You hit me first.”

“Whatever. Just don’t do something like that again. We both need to be more careful around these things. There’s no way of knowing which ones are lethal and which ones aren’t.”

“Yeah I promise to be more careful with that stuff. Now he hit me again with that thing. Give me those sweet mental points,” Alex said while licking his lips and rubbing his hands together.

“First of all, stop that that’s gross and creepy. Second, have you lost your mind?”

“No seriously. Think about it. We were sent here to get stronger. I got stronger when you hit me with that thing. So hit me again. I won’t even try to get you back. In fact you’re doing me a favor so I’ll owe you one.”

“Fine but when we find an armor set I want it. You are stupid durable compared to me and I need some extra protection.”

“Deal but let me lay down first. I don’t need to compound my injuries.”

Alex laid down and put some papers under his for a pillow. He spread his arms out and gave her a nod. A huge smile on his face. He was going to get some more intelligence.

Lila whipped the rod around. The light collided with Alex and knocked him out. The smile on his face slightly contorted no doubt due to the pain of the mental attack.

Forty minutes later this time, Alex awoke. The backlash from this nap was much worse than the first as the effect seemed to compound. After a few minutes his vision returned to normal. The entire time though, Alex was smiling. That is until he opened his status screen and saw no change.

“Oh come on!”

Lila started laughing at his misfortune.

“Come on. Let’s keep looking for some more stuff. I was looking while you were out. I didn’t see anything else in here. I think we need to search the other rooms for more stuff.”

Alex narrowed his eyes, “Nothing else?” He asked looking at her wrist.

She had a new bracelet added to it. It looked like it had come straight off of the golem. Its red crystalline form was a perfect fit all around her wrist. He couldn’t see a seam at all like it was custom made around her wrist. She pulled her hand away and when she did a jagged tear drop shaped shield appeared on her forearm, the point of the teardrop coming out past the edge of her hand.

“I did tell you the next armor piece we found was mine.”

Alex groaned.

I made an agreement and not only did I not get anything out of it but I actually missed out on a quest item.

Lila smiled mischievously at him.

Wait did she know that was going to happen? Was I just played? Why is my intelligence so low?

Lila left the room and Alex sulked behind her. They had more alien technology to find.