Corvayne looked around, a faint circle of black crystal forming a halo around him and the chest. Dropping the now colorless orb back into the chest, he pulled out a red sphere that did not take him on a wild ride through his past.
Honestly, at this point he really wanted to head back and just curl up in one of the trees like the others had done for their breakthroughs and just process what he had dredged out of his brain. She had asked him to find her, and way back when they had found a place she had used as a base.
"Top of the tower." Corvayne said and added that to the list. The red sphere in his hand slipped into his palm. "Oh yeah, they did that last time."
A moment later, he felt the Jam Jammies quiver then absorb some of the rubber fabric over them. A moment later it turned a black color, then returned to it's normal and slightly embarrassing strawberry texture. All the damage from acid and regrowing had vanished. Perhaps that finally triggered the growth aspect of the gear. He replaced the rubber fabric over them.
He dug into the chest. A pouch of what looked like hexagonal metal plates. Currency? Bars of greenish metal that faintly whispered of death and madness. A tan cube that looked to be a low-space storage item with a button on the top. Finally, a knife that looked sort of like the vista before him.
"Stargift." He dubbed it, afraid of having the same problem as his pants and someone calling it Twinkle Twinkle Shank.
[Starshank registered]
Better than nothing, and it was very likely something Glywin could put to good use even if he couldn't.
As he stepped away from the chest, he felt hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Something far out there was observing him. It was an overwhelming feeling, and he nearly stumbled as he moved for the door, feeling suddenly exposed at the edge of forever. A green point had formed behind him, and he closed the doors and kept moving, using his compass to start moving through doors and through halls that gradually lessened the pressure until he turned and was once more in the rib-like ruins of the tower, standing in what looked like a meeting room with high backed spiked metal chairs, a table that looked out to the ruined spires below, and the council itself: Acid drenched skeletons on the floor, violence told in all the poses, save one sitting in a throne, their skull resting on their arms and all calcified together.
"Guide me back to the bridge."
Corvayne then moved quickly. The feeling of being watched subsided but he still felt hairs on the back of his neck standing up, the air heavy with danger. Whatever the thing's interest was, it was overwhelming, focused, and unwavering. Only distance seemed to dilute it.
He stepped into the next room, forgoing stealth as he moved through a large oval courtyard, covered with a roof that formed an arch over the main walkway. On both sides of the dusty path there was splashing as rain fell into basins that looked like wishing wells, if those wells had started melting, distorting the grid of tiles around cancerous looking holes.
Corvayne heard creaking and a slam as the door behind him, and looking ahead he saw a portcullis slam down and glow orange. At the same time, he heard rusted gears clacking as part of the floor opened, grit falling as a platform rose where had just been. A throne topped with a huge lizard man rose, and he was holding chains attached to two beasts with many mouths but no faces. He'd call them hounds if only because they sat like dogs. Thick runic metal with glowing runes collared their necks.
Corvayne didn't have options. Aside from those doors, the area the roof covered had no exits, and he was not going to go into the rain. He drew his spear and watched as the Lizard man sneered and pointed at him, crying out in a guttural tongue "Sic him!"
Corvayne switched to [[Agility]] and used [Flows-Like-Water] as soon as he saw the dogs crouch, and with good reason: they were as fast or faster than the hardest foes he had fought, crashing into the door, no rebounding at him. He touched one boot to the ground then used [Flows-Like-Water] again to the side of the lizard man's throne, to which he had to dodge an axe swung lazily at his head. The dogs skittered to a stop just before the throne and took each side, jaws open and trailing drool. Corvane turned to liquid for a moment and landed as many spear strikes as he could, but the monsters just absorbed the attacks and countered with swipes. Even in water form, he was hurt just from how much force they were throwing into his wave-form, and when he exited he was bruised and saw two dark strawberry meteors form.
The Lizard called them to heel and pulled out a chaingun, hooked up to a huge pouch of liquid. A moment later a stream of death came screaming at Corvayne. There was something about the monster that made him delay a moment before jumping up and latching to the ceiling, gravity and shadow limbs moving to protect him as he used call shadows where the lizard was.
Dark clouds formed over the monster whom hadn't gotten out of his chair, but the monster kicked the ground and slid back, adjusting his aim and blowing holes in the roof as the acid chewed into it. Corvayne used [Cross Skill: Shadow Step] to get over him then used [Leap Strike] to try to skewer the lizard. He connected, but just like the dogs the monster must have had some ungodly vitality. A wound opend and closed in a moment, and with a swing of it's meaty fist, the monster knocked Corvayne into the locked door that had closed behind him.
He could taste blood and was sure he lost a tooth, but he didn't dare switch to [[Vitality]], both hounds moving in to try ripping him apart. Corvayne used Juxtapose but it didn't matter if one mauled the other for a few seconds, they were hale and hearty a moment later, only the thinest of wounds remaining.
He wasn't going to win this with brute force. He jumped and kicked off the roof, landing on the throne and using [[Cross Skill: Backbite]] to blow part of the throne up and take a chunk out of the monster's arm. Of course, it grew back, nearly closing up save a small gash, but it also transfered some of the monster's life to Corvayne.
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He aimed his spear at the minigun's ammo, but had to roll away as the monster turned the weapon into a flyswatter and smashed it into its own shoulder. The beast stood, kicking the throne at Corvayne. He rode it for a moment then had to once again jump up as it flew under some of the holes in the roof and was turned to wooden slime in moments. The whir of the gun let Corvayne know he was going to run out of space. The monster laughed as he jumped back down on the ground, then commanded the dogs to attack again.
Corvayne crouched to jump then just dashed forward, using [Flows-Like-Water] and this time going under the dogs, who guessed high. Corvayne managed to get right in front of the gun as it started to spin up again, but was fast enough to step into the monster's guard and use [Cross Skill: Sundering Strike].
He was prepping the follow up to try to blow the gun apart, but the lizard-man sneered at him, and slammed the gun barrel into his face, sending him tumbling off to the very edge of the covering and the pond. Just next to his head, rain was pouring from the awning into the pool.
He started to get back up to see the Lizard sock him in the jaw with the chain gun, sending him flying out into the water.
He started flailing, trying to use gravity to prevent him from landing, but he wasn't fast enough and with a splash he hit the bottom of the pond, flailing to try to get his footing and launch himself out before...
The rubber pants he had been wearing over his jammies fell apart, as did his Pancho. The Jammies were turning weird colors from the rain but seemed to resist the effect. The life saving oven door didn't break, his cowboy hat was fine, and most importantly, he was just wet.
The Lizard looked at him incredulously, then aimed his chain gun.
The rounds hurt, yes, but that's because it was shooting essentially tiny paintballs full of water. It barked something, and both hounds started struggling, one putting a claw out, having it melt in the rain, then pulling back and getting shocked. [[Understanding]] told him it was for disobeying.
Corvayne smiled, and leap onto the roof. He was shirtless and barefoot, but the rain was fine. It didn't touch his spear or the knife, though it had eaten his gun.
He took a moment to swap to [[Vitality]], and considered. He could just sunder the roof until the whole arena was open, but he could hear the whirl of an elevator. He threw [[Unity]] at one of the dogs, the monsters unable to do much more then act as a shield for their boss whom was standing next to where his platform had been. The beasts felt a mix of rage and humiliation. Corvayne started using his spear to punch holes in the roof then kicked rain through the hole at them, causing the lizard to bark "Protect me! Be my shields!"
The dogs stood their ground as the lizard used his huge gun as a shield, and Corvayne smirked then used [Flows-Like-Water] to land on one of the dogs, grab it's collar with one hand and his spear in the other, then plant his foot at the base of it's splitting neck. Before the Lizard could command anything else, he used [Cross Skill: Sundering Strike] and [Cross Skill: Sundering Blade] on the collar of the beast he was on.
Instead of a small cloud of red, rust flew out in every direction, eating away at the chaingun and removing the covering from the collars.
"Tear him apart!"
Corvayne pushed essence through the collar he held as the other beast turned and moved to snap at him, and the collar snapped as the other dog stuck it's head in the rust cloud.
Corvayne used a short [Flows-Like-Water] to reduce the damage, the monster strong enough to draw blood once he reformed as it had sliced the water away. That was fine, because a moment later it's collar fell off.
As one the dogs stopped, multiple jaws opening for a moment as they both shook the last remnants of collar off. The turned as one and jumped onto their former master before Corvayne could even offer the idea, and to the lizards credit he did get a hit with his rusted chain gun before they fell onto him. Blood flowed as the snarling dogs payed back however many years of being used as pawns.
Corvayne actually was a little worried as the snarling and screaming went on for a while before the monster died. The doors opened and the two monsters looked back and gave him twin bows of their many serrated heads before padding away.
Meanwhile, the platform the boss had tried to pull up had a chest, this one gleaming gold with ruby crafted to look like wood. It's lid was cracked a little, so Corvayne just had to give it a little push to open it.
He pulled out what looked like a pair of gloves with a bulging honeycomb guard on the back. Little things could be seen bobbing in the weapon, which for a moment triggered intense revulsion. However, his instincts were screaming this was worth a lot.
The very same instincts didn't stop when he pulled a great sword that ALSO had a honeycomb design aside from a honed edge, the interior housing a hundred little green gems that floated between the gold hexagons. There was also a ring, looking like a sort of gold object with blue glassy orbs.
He stored them in his ring, then pulled out a luscious hide that felt like rubbing his fingers through clouds, storing it. Digging deeper, he found more oddities. A potion of Quintessence, exactly the same as the object he had needed to find for Wick, a bottle marked with an eye, a coin with a die on it, a coin with a slot machine on it, and two books.
One looked to be a pretty mundane book that Gary had once shown him. Monstrous Manual. The only hint that it was more was it's glossy cover showing two dogs being held by the lizard boss he had just killed, a sinister looking woman with ornate armor that showed her chest off, and a lizard guard.
Flipping it open, he started reading.
It had an artist's rendering of the monster he just fought that wouldn't look out of place on the side of a van, starry background and tiny figures vastly over representing the actual scale of the monster.
<<<
Lv 740 Raid Boss (40 man, Enc lvl 800, rec lv 250)
Unique – Enc #683 of the House of Corrosion. (The Fallen Council Chamber Tower, Boss 2 of 3, Courtyard under The Ascent of Kings)
Est Respawn: 6 Months
Encountered with 2 <<
The left hand man to Melt-Tounge, despite being third in command has taken a sedentary posting to stop anyone trying to rouse the old council. Kothek relies on his pets to engage while he sits down, rarely showing enemies enough respect to get out of his throne. Fond of destroying his roof to slowly force invaders into the hungry jaws of his dogs or into the stream of eldritch water he fires from his minigun, he is durable to the extreme and likes to knock his enemies into the pools full of warping water.
(Common drops: Waterstorm MkIII chaingun, Corrosion-Proof Crocs, Twitching Lizard Tail, Twitching Lizard Hand, Sloven Battle Axe)
(Notable Rare drops: Melted Floating Stone XI, Dragon Stone Pouch, Jackpot Mid-Level Raid sets, Living Weapon Egg, Lizard Squadron Standard)
He flipped back a page.
The paper started to writhe.
INVADER ERROR. LIME LIME LIME LIME LIME.
The drawing was a note against a black background in pencil: 'Come back home. Come back to the rift. Come home.'
Behind the note, in the drawing, he pretty sure he saw something blink.
Lv: LIME HAS FOUND YOU (static, it hurt Corvayne's eyes). COME HOME. COME BACK TO THE RIFT. SHE MISSES YOU. WE NEED YOU.
Lime is searching for you. What luck she saw you! Come back so she can find you again. Or stay put, she is looking. Lime will find you. Lime will take you home.
He felt the attention like something hot breathing down his neck and shut the book, cutting it down to a faint sense of unease as he stuffed everything else into his ring, losing some efficiency as he took the last item and started running for the door. He was trying not to think about lime. He was going to get back to his friends, drag them if needed to whatever the closest exit was, and hopefully get far away from whatever the hell LIME was.
While making his way through a rainstorm that would kill everything else in the dungeon, he had one questions: If this was the 'safe' path, what the hell had been looking for him outside?