Humphrey looked out at toward the beach and shoreline as he leaned back against the stone wall of the promenade. After a few moments of clenching his jaw as he read through his messages, he turned his head to the waiting demon.
“Our kidnapper is from off-world.”
Edward nodded slowly. “So… they’ve taken Lucius to a different System?”
“Unlikely.” The Death Knight shook his head and looked back out to the horizon. “More likely they have some manner of satellite vessel just outside our bubble.”
“Can’t Chuck just swat it like a fly?”
“No. While other Systems have been easy enough to locate, that is because they are fixed points - landmarks in the abstract sea analogy. An entity that just floats around us is currently like trying to find a shadow amongst the pitch black void.”
Edward pulled a face and sighed. “Clearly, if the great Architect is blind, then what he needs is a Lantern.”
“Why did you say that as if it was a proper noun?”
“Hmm? What I’m saying is we need bait, right? If they are coming for the Outsiders, they might know we’ll be on guard… but if one of us is a little loose and vulnerable, then we can catch them in the act and find their little base.”
Humphrey sighed. It wasn’t even the worst idea, certainly coming from the demon, of all people. The possibility of it going wrong, or them not taking the bait… “I assume you are offering up yourself?”
Bright light bloomed in Edward’s eyes as he grinned widely. “Of course.”
“So you can join them and go against us?”
“Naturally. I’m glad you came up with that idea, so we can blame you when it all goes wrong.” The demon clicked his fingers. “Let’s go tell Chuck about our plan.”
----------------------------------------
Sally wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. “Not the worst brains I’ve eaten. I am reasonably contented.”
She stepped to the side as another bandit lashed forward at her, their spear scraping across her breastplate. Her sword went up into their arm, causing them to release the weapon. With a growl, the zombie grabbed at them, pulling and twisting the wounded arm so that the leather-clad System-created dropped to their knees. Her plated boot lashed out into the side of their head, and she kept it there.
“Here you go, Cross! Mama’s got you breakfast ready.”
The goblin stumbled forward from the back where he had been hiding, a dagger held limp in his slack arms. Increasing in speed, he bumped into the held bandit, before crunching through the skull using his own [Eat Brains] skill.
“Heck yeah.” She dropped the body to the floor and crouched down by the zombie. “Follow my finger now.” While Sally jabbed at the air, Cross tried to focus his glare to wherever she was indicating.
[Cross has joined the Party]
“Yesssss!” She grabbed the goblin up and held him in the air by his armpits, ignoring the globs of bloodied bandit that fell down from his open mouth. “Such a smart boy!”
Claude sighed loudly, and for as long as his lungs would allow. “I feel as though I am on a runaway stagecoach. Morally, I should have no issue with the summary execution and consumption of these… no, I can’t even finish the sentence. I just want to move on.”
“Enough complaining for once.” She turned and held the goblin out towards the healer. “You can Analyze him, right? See what he had going on now that he’s in the Party?”
“I… suppose I can, yes.” Claude furrowed his brow and held a hand out, first putting a heal into the small zombie before using his information ability.
[Poppy: You seemed to deal with these bandits no problem!]
“Oh, yeah.” Sally grinned and turned her head to the knight, who was currently wiping the blood from her sword. “Can’t beat a classic bandit outpost for a fight. They’re human, too - so easy on the stomach.”
[Poppy: About that… do you have a limit on how many…]
[Poppy: Friends (?) you can make?]
“I don’t think so.” A quick glance around and she had made four… no, five, more zombies. The one Cross had eaten stood up and looked to her for guidance. “Mom is still in charge, it seems.” She grinned at the goblin, before placing him back down on the grass. “It used to be that I'd get more powerful with more, but I'm only limited by how many brains I can get in my stomach.”
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Archie flicked his tailed from side to side, observing off at the side of the pair. "And you have no issue venting out that space to make more room."
"Nope!"
Claude exhaled through his nose. "Seems the little goblin is now a Level 2 Rogue. He hasn't allocated stats... But it seems like using the book has confused the System into thinking he is a Player - or at least adjacent to it."
Sally nodded sagely. "Just as planned. I'm not sure where we're going with this yet - but we are breaking things and that is the start."
She hummed to herself and looked over at the bandit outpost. This one apparently spawned several waves of enemies instead of being more of a traditional Dungeon. Two more waves to go, if Claude was to be believed.
Poppy kneeled down beside Cross and held out a plated hand to be shaken.
[Poppy: Only proper we get acquainted now.]
[Poppy: Since you might be able to see my messages?]
Cross leaned forward and pressed his face against the outstretched hand.
"His intellect is still an issue." Sally rubbed her chin. "Having him talk might be weird, but having him elevate to being a proper Unique is important."
[Poppy: Unique?]
"Yeah, like all my Monster pals from Santuary. No different from you or I, just a Monster instead of a human." Although, she couldn't really lump herself in with either of the groups, to be fair.
Before she had the chance to explain further, or convince them that Cross was anything more than an undead goofball, the next set of bandits were spawning. Eight of them, two with crossbows and the rest armed with a variety of melee weapons.
[Chain] went out and struck one of the ranged combatants, drawing them off a ledge and towards her waiting sword. The bandit swung their crossbow around and managed to parry her blow, right before they received a dagger to the thigh from Cross. As their opponent tried to stumble back in surprise, the goblin then bit into the wound to get at the tasty parts.
It was enough of a distraction for Sally to slash them in the throat. She stepped past the struggling System-created, leaving the zombie to finish them up.
The rest of her horde were creating a shield wall with their bodies to ensure Claude didn't draw the attention of the bandits, while Poppy carved through them with little issue. Sally took a moment to admire how brutally effective the knight was, moving between each opponent and cutting them down in a way that reminded her of Humphrey.
She'd have to get him here soon - the three of them would be unstoppable together.
Narrowing her eyes, she realized something else - Poppy hadn't been entirely finishing off the bandits. Instead, just leaving them mortally wounded. Enabling her and her pals to get a bite to each and grow the throng of undead.
There was a good reason that the knight was her favorite.
Between the three of them, they made light work of the remaining bandits - and gained another four zombies for her group. Each one added further discomfort to their healer, now far too outnumbered for his own liking.
Sally spun her sword around and then turned back to the cat near the back. “How’s things at home, Arch? You tell pops I want him here?”
“Things are fine. As expected, really. I certainly did, and he was very receptive.”
“Uh-huh.” She rolled her eyes. It was clear there was something up, although with Chuck in charge, it was difficult to imagine it was anything terrible. “If there was a problem with my mission here, you’d tell me, right?”
“You have my word.”
Good enough. As long as there wasn’t anything directly troubling about her return to Sanctuary or the job here in Thrimble, she could let everything else slide. She might have been the savior of the System, but she couldn’t do everything for them.
[Poppy: Next wave has a boss, but he shouldn’t be an issue ^^]
[Poppy: And that should level you!]
“Can’t wait.” She grinned and got herself ready for the next wave. Although part of her still wished she had completed a few more easy worlds to get a handful of skills, she was at least glad that she met and got to try to save Poppy and… the rest of them, she supposed. If this world saving thing became a long-term career, she would eventually not even care about the leveling part of Systems at all.
Make permanent some abilities that gave passive stats, along with a few more zombie-based or offensive skills… hmm.
She wondered if there would be a point where she could be powerful enough to just drop on a world and immediately claim it because it was so small compared to her.
----------------------------------------
“That’s not a terrible plan.” Dent shifted in his seat as he looked between the Architect and Edward.
Chuck had his fingers together in front of his face, his eyes remaining closed as they had finished up their pitch. “You understand the risks, of course? You could die?”
The demon shrugged. “I thought you said that Lucius wasn’t dead? If the kidnapper is just like one of these other worlds, then perhaps dying just brings me back here?”
“It might, or you might be lost forever. We don’t know the why or how this is happening.” Chuck opened his eyes and deflated into the chair. “Scout from a hostile world? Someone who has something against the Outsiders? There’s just too many unknowns.”
“Not really something that bothers me.”
“You’re impossible. I’ll get Dent to load you up with what we can, but they seem to have a way of disabling our normal connection and tracking.” The Architect pulled a face. “Having so many of you out of action is going to age me dramatically.”
While the demon just grinned widely, Humphrey leaned forward. “How are the pair doing?”
“Sally is fine,” Dent offered. “Power gain has been slow, but that’s expected with the type of world she is on. We’re due to catch up this afternoon, and I’ll keep you posted.”
“And Theo?” Edward asked eagerly.
The swordsman shrugged. “His usual self. Not sure what he is doing, but the rate of power has been steadily increasing. It wouldn’t surprise me if we got to take that small world ahead of even our most optimistic schedule.”
Chuck groaned. “Just what we’d need - him coming back to what’s going on currently. Even with them both home, I’d have no better solution.”
“Same residue was found in your bedroom, Humphrey.” Dent stood and stretched his back out. “Whoever it is has some manner of teleport that is unlike ours. Even when you’re with other people, you’ll all need to stay vigilant and-”
“Ah, shit.” Chuck stood up, his blue robes glowing. “Fran has been reported missing.”