Max and Jamie both needed some time to vent their frustration at the unexpected situation. They accepted that they were both at fault for hyping the spire up to be something it wasn’t. Neither was happy, but they could accept that they had to do something more than just talking, ranting, and venting about their misfortune.
Over the course of the discussion, they briefly contemplated what a normal dungeon could be like, instead of the black emptiness they were standing in. There was no way for either of them to know anything for certain yet they agreed that it was likely for them to have teams - given that this one was clearly themed with the great expanse of space. answer
The conversation eventually led to the other two quests the system had awarded them upon entry.
> Hidden Floor-Quest activated.
>
> Affinity Aspirant – Gain an Affinity on the first Floor
>
> Progress – Complete an Affinity Dungeon, consume a pure elemental shard, or a myriad of other progession paths.
>
> Reward – Gain a singular attribute point or a spell based on performance.
The reward seemed lackluster at first. Thought Jamie did share her opinions quickly after the topic came up.
"It feels like gaining an affinity is not something special - given the rewards are pretty similar to the Eradication one," Jamie mused. "And in all honesty - I could have probably done that one on my own if I'd carefully picked the... Wait hold up. It says pure elemental shard. What are the odds, that the monster cores we are carrying with us and used on the equipment are such elemental shards?"
"That's..." Max considered. "Not a bad idea. But I don't feel like ingesting one of them anyway. Don't feel much like gaining an acid affinity - though Dung Sweeper might actually work better with that. You are probably right though. Affinities might not be something special - especially if you can get one of them by just ingesting monster cores. And Dungeons aren't that rare either."
"The other quest sort of answers that question nicely if you think about it."
> Dungeon Quest activated.
>
> The Spire to the Stars completion
>
> Progress - Defeat the dungeon boss and the objectives on your way towards the dungeon core.
>
> Reward - Affinity stabilization and affixiation.
Max read over it twice quietly before sharing his thoughts.
"Yeah, seems like it does. I know the words but have no clue what affinity stabilization or affixation means, but it likely won't be easy or quick if it's a reward just like we don't yet know how to get attribute points. It feels like the second reward is a lot more impressive compared to the first."
This might have motivated them to try to compete for the dungeon had they known beforehand but was now only a small recompense for the stress they’d experienced thus far - from standing on nothingness to name just one of the many distressing facts they were experiencing. And the fact that the exit was not to be seen anywhere.
Together they stared out into the empty expanse all around them. Blackness, only seldomly pierced by stars in the distance, stretched all around them. There was no ground, no floor, no sky, no geometry. Directions such as up and down had lost much of their meaning, but Max couldn’t quite help himself not play around with the foreign concept.
His feet impacted something hard whenever he thought he should impact something – leading to him being able to ascend stairs that weren’t there. The second-best thing to flying, he found. Jamie just watched while he experimented with childish glee.
He could reach past his shoes with his fingers, not finding an obstacle hindering his motion, but as soon as his foot scooted over it’s own width it would once again plummet. So long as something was there clearly giving showing that there was no ground. More experimentation rewarded Max with even more confusing facts and outcomes. The ground could literally be there whenever he expected it to be. A single step at an angle upwards had him suddenly stand angled compared to Jamie – with gravity seemingly redirected.
That of course resulted in endless fascination.
“Stop it,” Jamie chided when Max began walking around her hips in tight loops. “You look ridiculous.”
“No ooh. you do,” he grinned. “I’m literally walking on you.”
“Whatever, I can see your nosehair from here, it's gross. I think you have a bugger.
"No you can't," Max said as he scratched his nose when he was behind here, dwelling just a little longer to fix that.
"Could we please focus on what’s important here?”
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
“I am! We should know how this place works before we try to accomplish anything.”
Jamie, still visibly annoyed and distraught, just huffed. Before imitating his earlier movements a few minutes later. Max had moved on to doing various variations of summersaults, landing on his feet whenever he felt like it.
“This is awesome,” Max exclaimed. “720 degrees without even trying. Though I could probably do this much now without this weird anomaly. Attributes are no joke.”
Jamie for some reason didn't seem to quite enjoy their situation as much as Max was - and he fully understood it. But thinking about their current situation was also no fun at all.
“We should actually do something, you know?" Jamie said a bit later. "Like, at least come up with a plan while we are playing around here.”
“We should just go to one of the stars,” Max recommended. “I don’t think there are any other landmarks here, and maybe this dungeon is just about chilling here for a certain amount of time. Might as well figure out what else is going on here.”
Jamie's face contorted at the mention of walking to a star but Max spoke up before she could.
"I know you'd love this moment to mansplain to me that we can't walk to stars - but what else are we supposed to do?"
The idea was the only real option they had. Neither Max nor Jamie were willing to sit about for hours on end, waiting for something to potentially occur.
“I think it’s what we are supposed to do,” she agreed. “The CRAWL seems to be fond of taking action and being assertive. The quests are just one example of that. And there is nothing else we can really do with our limited understanding.”
The Duo set off towards the largest bright spot in the distance, not in the least confident in that evaluation nor did they care. They marched through nothingness, various emotions passing through either of them until boredom eventually set in. After what felt like hours the novelty had finally worn off – though Max was still walking in a never-ending spiral around Jamie's trajectory who’d stopped caring about that a while ago.
But both had grown more comfortable in their new environment by a long shot. Jamie had tried out various different tactics of maneuvering quickly around objects, using their expectations of where the ground should be to accelerate her upwards jumps to increasing speeds. And had even been able to just drop by dozens of feet on command.
Max was not ready to try that particular experiment just yet.
No matter how many steps they made, their environment didn’t change. The respective position of the stars around them never changed, never flickered. Only stayed constant. After some time, Max wasn’t even sure if they were heading to the same celestial object, they’d initially targeted.
Slowly but surely he became thirsty, then warm, and finally, hunger started showing up as well. None of those felt pressing yet, but they would. Jamie was better off, Endurance apparently did something for her in that regard. That was enough of an invitation for her to explore moods and emotions that bolstered the attribute.
She settled on Hope. Hope of getting out of the dungeon. Finding her family, and hope for humanity as a whole. To both their surprise it afforded two points in the attribute with a lot fewer drawbacks compared to her anxiety state that offered two Agility. Implying all sorts of things.
“Are we getting closer?” Jamie asked after even more time had passed.
“I don’t think…” Max stared off toward the point of light that now had the dimensions of a pinprick at the distance of his arm.
“Obviously. That’s nothing new.”
“Haha. You might be right though. It does look closer”
Each step after that the star grew significantly closer. It felt like they were moving at several times the speed they’d moved previously.
“You know what. I think that a lot here works based on perception. Like whatever we think is ground to stand on becomes ground. Maybe it’s the same with speed.”
Jamie didn’t respond verbally, only picking up more pace. And while it seemed like she wasn’t drastically faster than she’d been before his statement, the distance between the duo increased. Max followed quickly trying to imagine his steps to grow wider and as he did the distance dwindled again.
Maybe it’s distances not speed, Max considered. Not knowing where that idea came from. But it felt more right.
Only minutes later the star had blossomed to the size of a balloon. Not long after that, they were standing closer to an object of pure fire than either could have expected possible. The car-sized sun was floating several dozen strides away from them.
Not a pleasant affair. Though not as deadly as they had expected it to be. The stellar object approached steadily and heated them quickly, when they thought it would. Thankfully they’d found a solution to that early on. Just closing their eyes did much to alleviate that. Perception was once again king here. Max was not keen on seeing how badly he would be sunburned after this entire ordeal.
“So, what are we gonna do now?” Jamie asked with squinted eyes. “There’s nothing here.”
“Maybe touch it?”
“Be my guest. But don’t come crying to mama when you burn yourself.”
Max chortled.
“You did not just say that. Mama. Haha! Anyway, I’ll think of something.”
“Wait, Max. This is seriously silly. Like… this is a sun or something like it. Don’t they get like thousands of degrees hot?”
“They do. But what else are we supposed to do? Would you rather die of thirst or hunger? You might have longer than me, but those needs will catch up to you eventually. I'm already thirsty and have been for a good while. W"
Jamie grumbled something that was impossible to understand, even with his slightly boosted perception.
“Sorry, what now?”
“Nothing. Go do your thing. But please don’t die.”
Max strode confidently towards the sun, hoping and begging that he’d not come to harm.
No, not hoping. I know I won't get burned. It's not hot around me.
But it seemed like either his conviction wasn't strong enough, or it only reached that far in this space.
A step back, away from the hot object left him confused. He'd gotten closer instead.
Gravity. Shit.
As a last resort, he extended his pitchfork up ahead of him, warding the sun off. As he was slowly dragged towards the burning plasma the sun grew ever closer.
The pitchfork endlessly sizzled, dried dung dropping down and immediately burning up. Yet there was no smell and the amount of wet dung never diminished.
A final step brought the pitchfork within the corona of the small sun. The CRAWL responded to Max’s unspoken approach.
> Do you want to challange “The First of the Light"?
>
> Yes
“Well, good news, I’m still alive. Bad it wants us to challenge the first of the light. And I can’t say no. Only yes.”
“I’m as ready as I’m ever going to be.”
Max affirmed The CRAWL’s request as he was pushed further and further inwards.
With a sudden ripple through space, the sun imploded. Leaving nothing behind.
Except for for two arm-long sizzling and streaking darts of its previous power.
> Solar Serpent – Blossoming Monster – Level 5