[https://i.imgur.com/cJVLrwY.png]
The notifications from killing the giant Excavator filled my vision.
Level up! You are now a level 20 Free Solo Prodigy!
Level up! You are now a level 21 Free Solo Prodigy!
Level up! You are now a level 22 Free Solo Prodigy!
Your map has been updated.
Item added to Inventory — [Tunnel Key]
Your Nascent Affinity: [Friction], has upgraded from Mid to High Tier — +5 Agility, +2 Mastery
Your Nascent Affinity: [Fate] has upgraded from Low to Mid Tier — +5 Perception, +5 Enlightenment
I didn’t know where to start! Pulling up my Status Sheet, I examined my increased stats and Affinities first.
Name: Dirk Damascus
Class: Free Solo Prodigy
Level: 22
Race: Human (F-Grade - Low)
Age: 32
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 223 lbs
Body: Mind: Spirit (Locked): Affinity:
Strength: 17 (+2 traits) (105%) = 20
Agility: 23 (+8 traits) (115%) = 36
Endurance: 21 (+2 traits) (115%) = 26
Intelligence: 11 (+20 allocated) (+2 traits) = 33
Perception: 15 (+5 allocated) (+7 traits) = 27
Mastery: 19 (+20 allocated) (+4 traits) (150%) = 49
Charisma: 7 (50% with same race) = 7 or 3
Willpower: 31 (+5 traits) = 36
Enlightenment: 12 (+5 traits) (200%) = 34
Slot 1: Friction — Nascent (High) — +6 Agility, +2 Mastery
Slot 2: Fate — Nascent (Mid) — +5 Perception, +5 Enlightenment
Unallocated Stat Points: 35
Traits:
(Unchanged)
Both my Affinities had upgraded, giving me free stat points—and in good stats too! I really wanted to get back to Kurian and figure out exactly what increasing my Affinities would do for me, but there had been no time. And with the urgency of Fate’s Quest resting on my shoulders, I had bigger concerns.
The next notification had indicated my map had updated. When I zoomed it out, my eyes went wide. It was filled with over a hundred markers for golden tunnelers and the entire region had the fog of war removed! It was a map hack for the tunnels! And if previous redos were any indication, this info would not only persist in future redos, but would also populate for my party.
Looking at the map, I was tempted to go hunt some of the nearby golden tunnelers. But there was a pins and needles feeling on the back of my neck every time I considered it and I was beginning to associate that with a warning from Fate. I’d just have to keep moving forward for now.
The final thing I noticed was a new item, [Tunnel Key]. I opened my Inventory and examined it.
[Tunnel Key] [Set Item] [1 of 3 Acquired]
This unique Set item can be used in conjunction with the other Set pieces to access a secret boon. The nature and utility of this boon will be revealed once all three Set pieces are in the bearer’s hands.
Oh, man! That sounded like something I wanted to get my hands on!
I had to assume there were two other imposing creatures in the jungle and water regions that carried the other two Set items. Filing that away for later if I had time, I returned to the tunnel exit where the Excavator had been sleeping. Even though the Excavator’s passage had triggered all the traps, I didn’t want to play with fire. Climbing back along the ceiling, I carefully examined the room the tunnel led into.
It was a circular room with no other tunnel entrances that I could spot. Daylight filtered into the room and as I craned my head up to see the sky, I couldn’t help but marvel at how deep I was—the sky was a distant speck, perhaps miles away.
In the center of the room was a lever and I wondered if it could really be that simple. It was a simple lever in the floor and it almost seemed anti-climactic after what had guarded it. But I wasn’t getting any feelings of danger from my Affinity like I had a few times previous, so I figured it was safe enough to switch on. The real issue at hand was timing. According to Umndirop, as soon as I triggered this lever, the tunnel creatures would go into a frenzy, and we would have exactly one hour to flip the other two mechanisms to unlock the passage to the center island.
I reached out to Lex and immediately received an exhausted honk. Through his eyes I could see him circling the center tree of the jungle region. The monkeys continued to range about the branches and I had to wonder why Kneer wasn’t making a move to secure the jungle mechanism.
Knowing that Lex was in position, I carefully dropped from the ceiling into the circular room. I scanned the floor, the walls, everything, for any sign of traps. But my enhanced Perception didn’t pick up on any signs, and my Affinity with Fate wasn’t sending that feeling of foreboding, so I slowly stepped into the room.
Approaching the lever, I looked around as my hand gripped the handle. I half expected a Indiana Jones type trap to spring just as my fingers locked around it. I held my breath for half a beat, then said fuck it.
Click—
The lever pulled smooth and a deep rumbling began to echo through the stone walls. Vibration at my feet made me start, when suddenly, the floor moved. I almost jumped off, thinking to lash myself to the wall with my Mantle, but the entire floor was rising, like a room-sized elevator.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
And that’s exactly what it was, I realized. The entire floor had become a platform, rising up to that distant sky above. It started as a slow, grinding rumble as the floor scraped against the walls. But as it accelerated, I found the sky approaching at a worrying rate.
If I did all that work just to trigger another redo, Imma be pissed…
Lex felt my concern through the bond, but I sent him back a reassuring thought as I waited for the elevator to stop. As it climbed, I noticed a passage cut out into the wall, approaching quickly on the left. I realized belatedly as it flashed by that it was a hidden passage—probably leading to some loot or boon. Then, above, another passage appeared on the right wall. I considered taking a leap—no risk, no reward—but I really didn’t want to be trapped in some dead-end tunnel hundreds of feet in the air.
Plus, the lever obviously wasn’t the mechanism I needed, so it seemed I needed to follow this ride to the top.
As the elevator rose, I passed five more hidden tunnels, and was pleased that I hadn’t done something rash when there were obviously quite a few of these things. With nothing else to do as the elevator continued, I pulled up my map of the tunnel region to see if there was anything of note now that the fog of war was cleared.
Right away, I noticed these side tunnels in the elevator shaft were not marked on the map, indicating to me a couple of things. One, they probably had interesting loot if they weren’t on the map. And two, despite receiving what I had termed a map hack, it wasn’t comprehensive. It only confirmed that I couldn’t entirely trust this map—not that I really trusted anything orchestrated by this System or the new Integration Guide.
As the open sky approached, I bent my knees and pulled my katana. If that Vuvi Excavator had been a mini-boss, I really wasn’t excited about the prospect of what lay above.
The elevator slowed as it reached the top, heightening my anticipation as I was forced to wait. With a grinding halt, the platform slid into its position at the top of a plateau, open sky surrounding it. The plateau was large, nearly a football field long and wide, a sheer drop extending around every edge—
Holy fuck!
Standing a hundred feet in the distance was what I could only describe as a stone giant. He was 25 feet tall, with a granite texture to his skin. Two hands the size of taxis dipped into the mountain plateau like ice-cream scoopers, pulling the rock straight from the ground and manipulating it like grey magma. After the giant had formed a perfectly circular ball of the stone, it held it over a hole in the ground that I hadn’t noticed before. It perched there for a few moments, as if waiting for some sort of signal or timing. Then, it let the stone go, dropping it like laundry down a chute.
Somewhere through the panic of my animal brain, my enhanced Intelligence realized that this was the motherfucker dropping those boulders in five minute intervals that I had been evading for the past hour. A part of me wanted to evaluate ways to end the giant—the gains would surely be even better than killing the Excavator—but my rational side poked me in the brain and reminded me that this fucking guy had just magically scooped rock out of the Goddamned mountain.
My next thought was to use my [Analysis] ability on it, like I had the Excavator, but I remembered back to Kurian’s first rule of the Integrated Universe: mind your own damn business. There was no way this guy didn’t react if I cast the ability on him, and if the backlash knocked me out like it had against Kurian, then that was the end of this redo.
Then my eye caught on a button embedded in the stone ground in between me and the stone creature. That must be the mechanism for this region.
I examined the edge of the plateau, game planning the best way to hit the mechanism and nope the fuck outta here—get onto the other things I needed to do—
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of grinding stone and I whipped around, my katana uselessly held in a guard position. Staring at me from across the way were yellow eyes set deep into a stony brow. Rocky lips parted in a perversion of a scowl…or maybe it was a smile?
Slowly, the giant’s hand raised, and I inched back, readying to throw myself over the side of the mountain and go down the hard way. But then—inexplicably—the massive hand moved right, then left, then right again, in a repeating pattern.
Are you fucking kidding me?
The gargantuan stone monster was…waving at me!?
Haltingly, I raised my own hand in greeting, putting the katana back in my Inventory.
“Hello there,” I called across the plateau. I was near enough to the edge where I could still leap off if things got dicey. But if the stone monster at the top of the tunnel region was friendly…well, I didn’t want to be rude.
The giant’s lips parted further, its smile widening, and my heart began to settle.
“’Loooo!” the creature called back, its voice grating like a blade on a whetstone, the sound dozens of decibels too loud for comfort. He stood there, his hand continuing to wave back and forth, and I began to get the distinct impression that this giant was not only harmless, but a bit simple.
I waffled back and forth at the edge of the plateau for a moment. On one hand, I could just hit the mechanism and then climb down the mountain using my abilities. There was no time to waste and I still needed to kill some Jree to gain an equal number of Order and Chaos Points before heading to the central island.
But on the other hand, if this stone creature was friendly, maybe I could get some information out of it. And if he smushed me like an empty beer can—well, lesson learned.
So I approached the creature—slowly. I bypassed the mechanism, wanting to hit it at the last possible moment to buy me as much time as possible. When it saw me nearing, it lowered its waving hand and watched me with that wide, rocky smile. Though it seemed friendly enough, I stopped well outside of its grabbing range.
Redos or not, I wasn’t serving as an appetizer for no rock monster—nuh-uh, not today.
“Yoo wan rok?” The massive voice was loud enough to make me jump, but I kept my face impassive as I strained to understand the creature.
“Rock? Do I want rock?”
A notification appeared in my vision.
Rok [Level 75 Stone Golem] has offered you a choice:
Yes for Rok to continue his favorite pastime—chucking rocks down a big hole.
No to ruin Rok’s fun and have him stop chucking rocks down a big hole.
Y/N
My eyes went wide as I read the System message. If these were the boulders passing through the main tunnel, then stopping Rok from throwing them down would unlock access to the dozens of golden creatures currently marked on my map! I could send my party to go collect as many of the creatures as possible, gain a shitload of levels! But would I piss off Rok?
“I’m sorry, Rok, but I think I need you to stop throwing rocks. Is that okay?”
His smile faltered, his lips grinding back in tight.
“No wan rok?” he asked pitifully.
“No—uh, no thanks.”
I crouched, ready to jump back if the rock baby decided to throw a tantrum.
Rok’s head slowly went up, then down—a glacially-paced nod, I realized.
“Rok take break.”
And with that, the giant tipped back, falling ramrod straight as his head cracked against the stone. Or, that’s what should have happened. Instead, his body melded straight into the mountain, like he was being swallowed by granite quicksand. In a blink of an eye, he was completely encased in the ground, and a shiver went through me.
I could walk right over him without even realizing…
Even with my enhanced Perception, I couldn’t pick out any signs that a multi-ton Stone Golem lay buried in the mountain just a few feet away. With a shiver, I turned back and went to the mechanism sitting at the center of the plateau.
It was a simple button sticking up out of the rock, almost too simple, like it was a trap. But there was no way to test it without just activating it. Closing my eyes, I reached out to my Fate Affinity, feeling for any hint of danger or warning. But there was nothing, and I wasn’t even sure if I was touching that connection at all. It seemed to be a fleeting feeling and was giving me nothing right now.
Shrugging, I reached out with my foot and pressed the button.
Region-Wide Quest
The mechanism for this region has been activated. You will have one hour to activate the remaining two mechanisms in the other regions in order to access the island at the center of the Floor. Passage to the center island will be placed in whichever region is last activated. In the meantime, all the native inhabitants of this region have entered a frenzy.
Time Remaining: [59:47.741]
When no trap activated, I let out the breath I had been holding and stepped back. The next step was to figure out the best path down—the clock was ticking.
I moved over to the edge of the plateau where the elevator had deposited me. I considered sliding down the tunnel Rok was throwing down…well, rocks. But on second thought, who knew how long a break was for Rok. If he started chucking down boulders while I was making my way down, then that was it for this redo.
So I peered over the edge of the plateau, the wind threatening to whip me over the edge without my consent. I anchored my feet to the ground as I scanned below.
The mountain side was less sheer than the cliffs abutting the jungle region, but it was still pretty damn steep. And the plateau was above the cloudline, making it impossible to see all the way to the bottom. Judging by the map, I was facing the jungle now. I weighed my options. Slide down the mountainside using my new skiing technique—fast but risky. Then there was Rok’s tunnel—just as fast, but even more risky, not to mention idiotic. And the last option, take the elevator back down, trudge my ass back up the main tunnel uphill, and back into the large cavern leading to the bluffs where my party were currently watching for a Jree assault. That was the slowest option, but if Rok decided to end his break early, I still had a chance of hitting the side tunnels before I got smushed.
There was a fourth option, but that was batshit crazy. I’d proven that I could use my Mantle to create a para glider effect. But there was no bailout option in that scenario. If shit went sideways—or more accurately down-ways and at speed—then I was fucked. My Mantle must have sensed my thoughts, because it sent me an image of us cruising through the air like fucking Superman, a feeling of exhilaration as we banked and swooped like we owned the sky.
“Fuck that,” I said to the cape. “That shit was cool when we were jumping off a vendor’s stall. I aint ready to jump off Everest yet.”
A feeling came from the cape—if I had to guess at the flavor of that feeling, I would say something eerily similar to ‘pussy’.
Shaking my head with a rueful smile, I patted the cloth at my hip.
“I’m not being baited by my sentient cape.”
So, elevator it was. Walking over to the platform, I flipped the lever. With a click, a rumbling began to form as the platform jerked from its resting position.
I made it back to the main cavern without incident—though I was sweating through my clothes by the time I reached up over the lip of the tunnel and pulled myself into the cavern. Right away, I realized something was off. A familiar sound echoed throughout the cavern and I had to resist the urge to throw myself back into the vertical tunnel I had just crawled out of.
The light of the green moss I’d sprinkled around the cavern was beginning to dim, but with my enhanced sight, I could see the suggestion of movement weaving through the stalagmites dotting the cave floor. I clambered up one of them, scanning the cavern to get a better idea of what I was seeing.
From my new vantage, I could see thousands of the tunnelers rolling around, crashing into each other, the walls, and the stalagmites. I hadn’t actually seen the tunnelers spawn in the cave, though Umndirop had described the chaos and sheer numbers of the event in a past redo. But right away I could tell this was different.
The thousands of tunnelers weren’t heading north towards the water region, but south, towards the bluffs where my motley crew of humanity were watching for the Jree.
And all their defensive structures were facing in the wrong direction!