With a long groan, Sally righted herself. She rubbed her eyes and glared at the sparse amount of light filtering in down the stairs from outside. Sleeping on the floor had been pretty horrible since she had been out of the adventuring game for so long. After running her dry tongue across her teeth, she looked around the chamber.
Poppy seemed to be asleep still. She had no idea how the knight managed to do it with the helmet on - that must be tortuous. Claude was awake on the opposite side, and reading through a book. Over to her side, Cross was out of his little bed and standing idly watching her, as if waiting patiently for her to awaken.
“Momma’s up,” she said quietly, but rolled her eyes. Despite the occasional spates of brooding previously, having to lug a tiny zombie about wasn’t her sort of thing. She could be a cool aunt, maybe.
As soon as she had made herself known, the goblin twisted a clumsy one-eighty and stumbled straight into the corner of the room.
She sighed and shook her head. Maybe dragging him along would be more effort than it was worth. Relenting to carpe-ing the diem, she got out of her bedroll and tried to arrange all her items back into their proper place.
The scrape of metal against stone caused her to wince as she looked over to see the knight rise up into a sitting position.
[Poppy: Wow, best sleep in ages ^^]
[Poppy: Bright new day ready to save the world!]
Claude murmured his complaints from the other side of the room, but kept them to himself.
With a stretch, Sally smiled over at Poppy. “Kinda awkward because I’d love some breakfast, but my options are pretty slim.”
[Poppy: Ah~]
[Poppy: Perhaps the next Dungeon would be palatable?]
She shrugged in response. Might be gross-tasting brains - there wasn’t much chance of something really worthwhile like a Player brain. Although if Claude didn’t stop… oh, that wasn’t him making the noise. She turned her head to see Cross still in the corner, crouched down now and pawing at the walls.
From her Inventory she pulled out the leather cap and stepped over to him. “Promoting you to Corporal Sillybutt now. It also covers up the large hole in your head where I gobbled up your brains.”
Cross paused for a second as she placed it on him with a little struggle, but then continued pawing at the lower edge of the wall.
“What are you doing, goober?” She eased him away from the wall with her arm, and he looked up at her with his yellow eyes as if she was doing him a disservice. Pausing to adjust his hat briefly, she then glared at the stone brickwork before prodding around with her fingers.
Just before she was about to chastise the little goblin further, her finger hit something that made a click. Her eyebrows raised, expecting some manner of trap to be sprung - but all she heard was the gasp of the healer, and the knight hopping back up to her feet.
Sally turned her head, expecting some malady to have befallen them - only to pause in surprise at seeing the treasure chest.
[Poppy: Cross solved the puzzle!!]
“Impossible,” Claude snapped his book shut and scurried to his feet, glaring at the chest as if he was imagining it. “How could he…?”
With the click of her fingers, Sally stood, lifting Cross up in her arms. “Sometimes you don’t need a brain to use your brain!” She gave the goblin a hug and whispered in his pointed ear. “Thank you for solving the puzzles. I hate puzzles. I will die for you.”
After placing the confused zombie on the floor, she went over to the treasure chest and tapped it on the top with her knuckles. “May I?”
[Poppy: Be our guest~]
Sally never looked horses in their mouths - they were dangerous… but a locked box full of treasure had never bitten her, so she flipped the lid with impatient flair.
[198 Gold]
[Unidentified Armor]
[Health Potion (2)]
[Skill Tome]
“Ooh, what’s this?” She withdrew the book into her hand. “Skill Tome?”
“Gives you three skill points to distribute as you see fit. Relatively rare, but as you are playing catch-up, I have no issue with you using it.” Claude crossed his arms before gesturing to the stairs for them to leave.
[Poppy: Would definitely help you more than us ^^]
Sally hummed to herself as they ascended the stairs and out into the open once more. A pleasant-looking day currently, but clouds off in the distance threatening an overcast afternoon. She waved the book back and forth in her hand as she thought.
Some more stats would be nice. But not necessary. She had made the decision that playing this world straight would be a drag and pretty boring. System needed to be broken and exploited… but how? Most of her previous strength was due to her flawed rebirth as a zombie and the undue power she had just stumbled into along the way.
And then - there was the answer.
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She turned on the spot and held the book out to Cross. “You found the treasure, little fella. Only right that you have the rewards.”
Claude pulled a face. “I’m not sure a Monster could… or even should use a…” his voice trailed off as they watched the goblin.
At first, Cross held the book and put the corner of it in his mouth. Saliva ran down the leather cover as he cradled it in his arms, rocking back and forth slightly.
Then it vanished.
The small zombie stood there, briefly shocked and confused, before he settled into a more neutral and absent gaze.
Sally kneeled down in front of him. “Can you see any blue screens or have any messages popped up?”
He returned a blank stare before stumbling forward into her for a clumsy hug.
“It’s okay, you’ll get it soon - I promise.” She gave him a pat on the back and moved away.
“Well, other than wasting rare consumables, what would you like to do this morning?” Claude scratched at his chin and started looking through his menus.
She pressed her earring to summon Archie as her eyes narrowed at the healer. “Well, I think it’d be a disservice to start the day with an empty stomach, Claude.”
----------------------------------------
Theo sighed and placed the two warhammers down on the stairs, before sitting beside them himself. “It’s probably late evening now, right? There’s no clock or timestamps i can see anywhere.”
The giant across from him shrugged. “The passage of time here is meaningless. There is no day or night. No seasons. I seem to require no sleep. There is only fighting or solitude.”
“Bleak.”
“Do you not require sleep, vampire?”
“Eh.” He rubbed the back of his head. “The opposite, in a way. If I do not sleep in a very specific way, then… I start losing my sanity. That’s only after two or three days, though - so don’t get excited.”
Borin grinned. “Best get your rest, then?”
With a shrug, Theo went into his STAR menu to see the latest notifications he had dismissed. “Unless you have a coffin handy, there’s not much point. It’s still the first day, right? Only been five or… eight hours, surely? Somewhere between two and fifteen, I'm almost certain.”
The large figure just shrugged in return.
[Warhammer Rank 20 Reached]
[Skill Unlocked: Titan’s Grip - Warhammers weigh 50% less]
Theo hummed to himself. “Experience sure slows down in the late teens, huh? I thought using two weapons would speed up the experience, but I think with [Novice Strike] going with the single warhammer would be more beneficial - especially with my new skill.”
“Only three have made it to rank twenty before you,” Borin said, ignoring most of the vampire’s ramblings. “But do not feel that makes you any closer to my equal.”
“Is there actually any benefit to you killing me?”
“Hmm? I get to continue living.”
Theo grinned, his fangs catching the light. “If I were to remain on these stairs here, you would still live, no?”
“Some have tried just that. Boredom eventually wills them to act. What good is it that you train against me yet have no desire to kill me?”
“I can’t tell you.” He stood and lifted one of the warhammers into the air. “Just know that I will surpass you. It is inevitable… because I love the grind. Taking one step is easy.” Theo walked down the stairs. “I would walk all day and night for a week, just those easy steps, to get to my destination.”
Borin readied his weapons. “To rise above my level would take weeks or even months. You are living on borrowed time, sleepless leech.”
“Let’s just see if you can keep up now, old man.” The vampire burst forward, a blaze of pink energy behind him.
----------------------------------------
Humphrey stepped out of his house into the arid plains on the Wastelands. He then stopped and turned his head to the side. “What are you doing here?”
Edward shrugged and pushed himself away from leaning against the building. “We can still investigate together, can’t we?”
“Don’t you have Administrative duties to uphold?”
“The Council can survive a day without me.” The demon rolled his eyes and stepped up to the Death Knight. “Plus, this is surely more important than whatever I pretend to do on the Council? Being monitored constantly is a bit of a wet blanket for my usual scheming.”
A grunt was the only given response at first. “…Fine.” Humphrey waved his hand to dismiss the pestering. “We are going to the new island first as Dent sets up the nerds. No doubt there will be questions, so we need to assure people they are safe.”
“I’m really good at that,” Edward said, and nodded eagerly.
With the flash of blue light, the two vanished, then reappearing somewhere a lot more green. Fresh sea air washed over them as Humphrey turned and narrowed his eye sockets at the surroundings.
“The grass and trees don’t look too threatening,” the demon began, “but some of these flowers…”
“If you’re going to be annoying, you can go back. Sally would like me to join her world as soon as possible, so my time here is limited if we don’t want to let her know our issue.”
The demon didn’t reply, but crossed his arms and glared off toward the horizon.
Humphrey sighed. As much as he wanted to go and help her, the unknown danger in Sanctuary was weighing on his mind. If he refused, she would know something was up - not to mention he couldn’t let her down like that.
Another flash of blue to their side signaled the arrival of Dent, along with Lana and Henkk.
“Morning.” The swordsman tipped his hat. “I was just explaining to these two that Lucius had something come up, but we’d move forward and he can catch up when able.”
The Death Knight nodded. “It is great to see you all. I thought I’d pop by to check the island out before it is reformed in your vision.” He grinned, despite wanting to move on as soon as possible.
Lana shrugged. “That’s not the only reason, right? Waking up to all the notifications and odd defensive changes was concerning…”
“Ah…” Humphrey nodded slowly. “Given that you’ll be away from the mainland, we thought it best to try out some of our protective protocols. Apologies for not getting your consent, but the rest of the Outsiders are enduring the same fate.”
Henkk rubbed at his pale chin as his pitch-black eyes scoured the surroundings. “Doesn’t look like much danger could befall us here… but I’m sure you know best.”
“I have some matters to attend to with Edward, but Norah will be along shortly to fill Lucius’ shoes.” He turned his head to Dent. “Are you staying here or does Chuck require you?”
“I’ll be sticking around. At least for the first couple of days. Sally and Theo are both stable enough that he won’t need to… sorry, hang on… he’s messaging me.” Rolling his eyes, Dent stepped away from the others to look through his messages.
----------------------------------------
Chuck drummed his fingertips on the desk as he waited for the swordsman to reply. Once the confirmation came in, he continued dictating his messages.
“Visualizer is now up and running.” His eyes looked at the sphere of Sanctuary on the universe map. A bright blue circle on top of a near endless grid. “At first… it seemed normal enough.”
His finger went up to trace across the lines running from their world to a second and third floating orb. “Two connections going from here to the two worlds Sally and Theo are on. The bandwidth of their power joining us to them.”
Hand down again, he then typed away at an invisible keyboard before turning a dial that clicked as it rotated.
“But if I expand the date range as far back as it lets me…”
Chuck took a deep breath as it came into view.
“There’s another line coming and joining with us, from some time ago.”