The group had to spend half a day after the battle with the trees recovering. Brines wouldn't be able to use his hand for a while, but hadn't lost it thanks to mend, and nobody died even if there were some bruises and likely second thoughts ever doing more Tower runs after seeing a hard fight.
Corvayne relented and put on the Jam Jammies, but only after finding a pair of rubber tights at a store that let him wear the artifact without it leaking all over him. Once he put them on in a minute he felt better, his aches fading and his energy returning. If it made him last longer in a fight they were worth the need to possibly find a bathrobe to wear over them.
The ID scroll gave them a better picture.
Strawberry Preserver (AKA “Jam Jammies”)
Artifact Class
Upgrades with: Rare or better fruits. (Stronger ID needed.)
Can be Modified with: Rare or better fruits. (Stronger ID needed.)
Bio-Armor – Self recovers from damage. Accepts healing as repairs.
+ 10 Physical Damage reduction
+ .5/sec Regeneration
+7 Constitution
+3 Agility
+.5/sec Stamina Recovery
(Stronger ID needed)
Special abilities:
[Dish Best Served Wiggly] – When the wearer of the “Jam Jammies” is attacked, a bit of it's jelly aura will form a [Strawberry Meteorite]. The user of the Jammies can squeeze the artifact to launch collected meteors at a target designated by their willpower. Maximum of 100 stacks.
[Slime Strider]: Gives free movement through slimes, jelly, mud, honey, and any other amorphous solids that the user chooses to move through. Greatly enhances resistance against corrosive oozes. Enables user to breath any amorphous solid for a period of five minutes per day.
[Mold-Proof]: A beacon of hope for strawberries everywhere, this item confers immunity to mold based attacks and hazards.
They rested in the previous mall they had cleared of goblin guards until the moon had halfway set, then rode a train past the jam mall to a titanic horizontal mall with a run down exterior. The insides were a shamble as well, littered with broken tiles, fallen light fixtures, and every surface had plant life encroaching on it. The narrow gap between the walkways had vines hanging in the gloom, moss exploded out of pools of water on the floor and beside lakes formed by broken floors and tangles of roots. The otherwise empty stores were choked with vines and ferns blotting out most of the light. When they stopped Corvayne would use the break to venture into the overgrown stores, sometimes finding mundane products jutting from roots and dirt as if offered by the plants. He didn't find treasure, but the stores had exterior windows that let him see the mall grid below and spot that another layer above them. He stopped at a few stores as they climbed and watched as the layer they had been on faded.
They climbed, moved around obstacles, and rested for a good five or six hours. The thing that shocked Corvayne was a lack of monsters, but perhaps this mall was considered a town, or it was part of the infrastructure of the Tower floor, just like how there were not monsters on the trains.
Corvayne was worried they would reach the next grid before they found a stairway, but they were only halfway up before they found a passage near the bathrooms that took them to the next floor of the Tower, coming out in a place made of pink stones shaped in long blocks.
Those blocks were arranged in arrays that combined to form what looked like a blocky half mile wide sinkhole. Bright sun light and streams of water poured in from above, with the light turning the stone white and the water staining it a deep maroon as well as filling the bottom with a turquoise pool full of coral and colorful fish. Bright green trees with pears, apples, and less recognizable fruit grew along the outside. As an experiment he picked one and tried offering it to his pants, but the weird fruit he selected just fell on the ground.
He thought that Mister I would probably love the spot, as Reaper begged the group to stop for an hour. After all the stairs everyone else was tired, so Corvayne and Lady Blood Claw scouted the sinkhole while Reaper-of-Fish got to fishing.
The monsters on this version of the fourth floor were floating rhino-horned fish that tried to ram them but died to a single strike, and thing that was like a living coral knight, formed of colorful shards and wielding a curled shell spear and a shield made of what looked like fish scales held together with barnacles. The aquatic monster fought with basic ideas of defense and actually tried to block then strike, but didn't respond to anything Corvayne said, relentlessly stomping with it's thick legs forward even after Corvayne had chipped it's shield arm off.
He claimed the shell-spear but it was already chipped, so he used it as a javelin on the next fish as they made their way around the fishbowl shaped depressing. The sink hole had two large passages that bridged the pond and walkways to what looked like other sinkholes, and he could see without venturing to far into those gaps that this floor probably was another rock maze of connected chambers. He saw that there were large fish swimming in languid strokes between pools, so perhaps the fishing was part of the treasure of the floor.
Three fourths of the way back around he found a natural stairway to a higher ledge, nearly up to the surface. With only a few feet between him and the top, he climbed a little to peek up at the cliff top.
The moment his head started to clear the top his danger sense screamed at him and he let himself drop. Moments later something slammed into the cliff where his head would have been, crashing into the opposite wall. It looked like a cactus with thick white thorns embedded in a crater.
Everyone below was looking up and pointing, and there was a tense five minutes while Corvayne waited for a monster to show up. After holding ready to unleash his most powerful attacks and sweating in the direct sunlight until he was drenched, he figured he was wrong and decided to experiment. He found a loose rock and tossed it above the rim, which triggered something to hurl another cactus-ball at the rock with the force of a cannon ball and the accuracy of a world class sniper.
It didn't follow up after a few minutes, and it wouldn't stop them from going up the stairs, so they moved on and found themselves gathering in ankle high water inside of a dingy tower. Rust and grime and moss and bright green seaweed covered industrial looking walls. The whole space was squeezed around claustrophobic walkways that ran above the water they were in. Corvayne urged everyone to move slowly, and he lead while checking his steps. It would be easy even for him to miss traps or robot ambushes with so many pipes, vents, tunnels, bulges, valves, and holes lining the walls. Blazing light shining down from a gap in the ceiling of the chamber revealed that the tower extended for a long way up, opening after one climbed out of the pit by the rusted stairs leading up.
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As stated by the info packet, it was barely a two minute climb around the room to discover the stairs up. Corvayne heard clanking coming from somewhere distant, but didn't have to call a vote. Brines walked right into the stairs up, and nobody argued. It looked like after the fight in the mall and the long climb everyone was in agreement that was enough adventure.
The waiting room for the battle was a snowy mountain lodge, with glass windows looking over pine trees and dusk winter sky lit by a volcano spewing magma into the sky in the distance. It broke up the black and whites and blues of the outside with bright orange pillar of light, giving the landscape and the room they were in a red glow.
After showing off the ghostly parties to the newbies in the group (This time a group of bird people in shamanistic gear, a standard fantasy party who all had orange crystals jammed into their skulls, and what looked like swashbucklers with cyber limbs) they went through a double door and walked out into the boss chamber, a large square warehouse with two sides as open walls accessing a dock. They had entered from what looked like a side office. Across the concrete floor, Two rusted robots were waiting, outlined as dark forms by the bright light from outside. Corvayne saw what looked like six legs and two arms with hammers attached to a sort of rounded rectangular body.
Corvayne had everyone spread out against the far and the opening opposite the robot, then had Lady Blood Claw line up with one, him the other. Across the room he could see their cyclopean sensor tracking them.
She gestured with her head. “Get them to charge sideways? Hopefully they get lodged in a wall, then we can beat them down before they start ramming the rest of the group.”
Corvayne took out his two handed sword. “I'm going to try to kill mine with a combo.”
She nodded at him, and he turned to his enemy and stepped forward. As they crossed the halfway point, both robots activated for real, legs clattering and the sound of diesel engines roaring to life. In a blur, both robots charged. Corvayne leapt out of the way, getting nicked by a hammer-arm the robot held out. He readied his weapon as the robot who had charged him skittered to a halt, and Corvayne sprinted forward, using an overhead strike while activating [Cross Skill: Sundering Strike] then drawing back and slashing with [Sundering Blade] in rapid succession. The first hit bounced off the solid chunk of metal, but the second hit sent up a cloud of rusted flakes.
[Combo: Shatter Storm] covered the room in a red dust cloud, swirling for a few seconds then vanishing, leaving the robot before Corvayne a rusted pile of scrap and causing the other one to creak then fall apart as Lady Blood Claw slammed her burning sword through the monster.
A moment later the world went dark, and Corvayne dropped onto the hill surrounded by thorns that he had come to think of as some sort of projection of himself. Except that there was also the massive lightning creature in armor looking down at him.
“Hi Sparky!” Corvayne waved at the lightning wraith.
“NOT. READY.” The wraith boomed, the zipped upwards in a streak of white energy.
No point in trying to deal with it, he instead reviewed his surroundings. The red orb that had jumped into his hand was there, floating in a manner that he though of as 'happily'. There were dark gates on his hill, with further islands and gates hinted at across dark ground covered in ominously colored thorned vines.
Corvayne knew the gates were powers, so he started browsing them. Open gates for Gravity, Shadows, and Compass were there. In addition to those, there were the vine encrusted gates which included one dripping yellow and sky blue paint with a paint brush marking at the top of the arch, another covered in arrows with a bear trap, the remaining large gate with an ominous symbol that was entirely made of obsidian, one with air flowing around it with claw marks, and one he didn't want to bother with that was covered in webs. A running person was etched into the keystone on one gate, perhaps running? And another had crossed staves on top of it, which he now guessed was magic. A tempting portal.
It seemed like the Tower gave him a rotating option, as the last portal in the lineup was covered in fish scales and dripped water, the icon on top looking like a fish. No. Huh uh.
No to fish, no thanks to webs. He didn't think paint was a useful tool, and he wasn't sure what the slash marks were. He felt there was something about the big portal that kept drawing his attention back to it, and it helped him get why Wick worried about someone else steering: he didn't like the feeling of something in him trying to take him over there.
A running power would let him either use the boots better or give them to someone else, perhaps. Magic was tempting, though he never really imagined himself as a wizard. Arrows and bear trap probably was a trap power. Finding, or setting was the question: he honestly thought finding would be better.
He thought about it, and decided he'd try to keep powering up his current set. The compass felt very strong, but Gravity and his shadow hands were exceptionally useful and had improved his ability to fight both with multiple weapons and opening up places he could move and attack from. He wished he had a power coach... well, Seru and Ayame both played games. Ayame sometimes talked to Grunt about specials and picking spells and abilities... even if there was not an exact equivalent she might have insight as to what he should do. That's if anyone spoke to him after what a disaster this run had been, especially with the killer tree fight.
Either way, nobody was here but him, so he went to the gravity gate and strode through it. If it let him do more with less of his own stamina, it would be worth it for that alone.
He got up from the floor of the boss chamber with help from Lady Blood Claw, who had stood over him while in his trance. She pointed the way though a door over to a small ship with a crate on it that Curtis was prying open.
Stepping across a gangplank to the deck of the tugboat, the plumber had pried the crate open and was heading over to the second one as the group assessed what fell out. Some money, a box of plastic eye protectors, a bag of marbles that radiated cold mist, and leather armor. The second crate had more cash, a cooler full of fish on ice, blue metal crowbars, and some healing potions. Corvayne took a pair of potions and his share of the credits, then stood in front of a stairway to the cabin marked Floor 10 until everyone had finished splitting the rest of the loot and had left. Lady Blood Claw hung back with him.
“Did you find anything you needed?”
The tall alien woman shrugged. “It was better than herding a bunch of scared children, but I prefer running with our allies.”
Corvayne looked around. “I have a question... what made you decide to come along? You happened to get a replacement sword...”
“Friends fight together. They become closer through shared trials.” She said. Corvayne had never heard her say anything like that, AND her delivery was uncertain and her skin looking a little glossy instead of a matte gray, which he suspected was probably another tell that poor Lady Blood Claw couldn't do anything about.
“Lady.” He folded his arms.
Lady Blood Claw pursed her lips tight and brushed some of her silver hair away from her ears. “I didn't have anything better to do.”
“Odd, you could have gone with Wick, or Hari, or anyone, and you didn't seem to need anything...”
She folded her arms and sighed, looking over at the view of the harbor outside of the boss room. “Wick asked me to come. To keep an eye on you.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, didn't trust me around girls she doesn't know?”
“Other way around. That and we knew you always found a way to get into trouble.”
He nodded and relaxed a little. His theory was way off, thankfully. “Okay, was that so hard? I mean, either way I appreciated you coming. Shall we?”
She looked a little distracted but nodded. Did he do something wrong?
The exit was a slide connected to the back of the ship, and it of course hooked up to the playground slide, moving from cool sea air to a warm evening with chirping crickets. He was sure he heard Lady Blood Claw make a sound but when he turned around she was stone faced, though a little blueberry embarrassment had slipped into her gray neutral expression.
Everyone else was clumped together, with Horton being the exception as he simply walked away.
“We wanted to thank you Corvayne!” Brines said.
Ayama laughed. “And Lady Blood Claw too, you two really pulled your weight.”
Corvayne rubbed the back of his head, and of course the praise made Lady Blood Claw go full blueberry.
“Anyway, We're going out for food and drinks!” Brines smiled and showed on his phone a restaurant. “You guys are welcome to join us!”
Corvayne felt a little nervous. Drinking had gotten him an extra girlfriend, and he had decided to never get drunk again. Not to mention he was ready for alone time. Preferably with Wick. “I was just the hired help, I-”
“No no, you saved our hides in there. Cmon! The best part of a dungeon is throwing a party afterwards!”
Corvayne could see the rest of the group motioning for him to join, including Ayame who tapped her horns while winking. Corvayne turned to Brines and smiled while he shook his head. “I really miss Wick and Hari. So thank you, but I'm ready to-”
Brines smiled and tapped a few numbers in. “Heya Wick! No no, I was wondering if we could rope you into a celebration of clearing the dungeon. Of course. Le Guin's. Great!”
He tapped the phone off. “Both them will meet us there! Okay everyone, if you didn't drive it's on Dolphin Island so blue line will take you there!”
Corvayne on a hunch spun around as Lady Blood Claw started sneaking off but he caught her by the cloak. “Oh no you don't. What did you say earlier? 'Friends fight together.'”
He heard the tall alien woman say something unlady-like under her breath as they trudged over to the now mandatory party.