CHAPTER 320 – MISALIGNED LOOT
With a thought, his Earth Manipulation flexed, and a simple bench rose from the ground as he sat down to wait for Everlyn to complete her checks.
Thor checked his system room frequently and fifteen minutes later a portal opened next to him. He produced a scrap of paper and frowned as he read the contents. “Not good, not great at all.”
The elder moved to hover in front of him. “Connected one. I assume the news pertains to us.”
“Yes, it’s not suitable for your race. The kill quest is an individual one.”
“Knowledgeable Thor, I’m assuming there is other news, as that is only a problem if they are near sapient as well.”
Thor twisted the small scrap of paper that he held. “Everlyn obviously can’t confirm either way. But she thinks they might be.”
There was a slight hum in the air as the chosen communicated with each other.
“Messenger Thor, please thank perceptive Everlyn. It is our view that if she is unsure, then we must progress on the side of caution. We will transfer to the next layer and not take an unnecessary risk on a doubtful passage.”
Harry took that as his cue and he went around to say goodbye to everyone, then he sat on the elder, which rose in the air. He mostly looked like he was sitting on invisible cushions. Having been carried for days by the Elder on the water floor Tom knew that was exactly what it was like. Harry gave a big thumbs up. “I’ll see you in a week or two.” He called out as he was flown out of the room.
As he left, there were no feelings of regret or concern on his face. He was comfortable with the decision. He was facing two weeks alone with what was barely functioning AI chat boxes. The chosen were not the best conversationists, and he didn’t care. That by itself was evidence of how terribly the tutorial had scarred them. As the ritualist left, Tom was almost envious of him. A period without anyone around felt like it would be a holiday. Even if he was fighting for his life, every moment, it would be wonderful.
Instead, Tom glanced at the surrounding humans. To be honest, he was happy with both outcomes, which surprised him no end. He was looking forward to finding out the strengths and weaknesses of Vidja’s team and he guessed the company of his friends would be nice as well.
“Well, let’s not keep Everlyn waiting.” Thor called out and marched through the open zone doors.
When they reached the safe room, she was sitting patiently right outside the tunnel they had emerged from. “Welcome to the new zone. This one is going to be fun. I’m sure you’ll all be happy to find out that the enemy is not phase capable kitchen appliances like their pictures… well, in a way they are, but in another they’re totally not.”
“Everlyn stop beating around the bush. What’s happening?” Michael interrupted her.
“We’re fighting ghosts.”
“Sapient ghosts?” Michael raised an eyebrow. “That seems unlikely.”
“I didn’t lie,” she answered. “I reckon the ghosts had a five percent chance of hitting the chosen’s threshold and if they did, then the chosen wouldn’t have escaped the floor. I was being prudent.”
“I don’t think so. Your note suggested chances were higher than that. What’s the play?”
She glanced at Thor. “It did. I thought it would be useful to have some exclusively human time.”
“Really. Do you think that was wise?”
“Yes, we need to be able to talk freely. Keeping them around was oppressive.”
“It’s just that the chosen have saved lives previously. They’re excellent backups to have around. I’m not criticising because I kind of like the idea, just curious.” Michael’s eyes shot significantly to look at Tom.
“You don’t need to worry. The ghosts will be simple to eliminate, and I agree we need to chat as a species.”
“Are you done?” Vidja interrupted them. Her eyes flickered between the two of them, challenging them to continue to talk in code. They inclined their heads to indicate that she could speak. “Back on the immediate problem I fought ghosts in the tutorial. I don’t know why you’re claiming they’ll be easy to defeat. What’s your plan to kill them? Back then I got dedicated skills high tiered skills to let me hurt them and they were still frustrating to fight.”
Everlyn smiled. “Not with physical attacks, that’s for sure. These are almost fully immune.”
Vidja grimaced at that news.
Tom remembered some of his own run-ins with various creatures with the ghost’s tag. “I’m guessing overwhelming magic. All the ones I’ve fought had some vulnerability to magic strikes.”
“You’re sort of right. These are ninety-nine point eight percent immune to physical damage and have a general magical resistance of ninety-four. They are vulnerable however to holy or faith base attacks.”
“That’s not good.” Keikain said. “I’m not sure why you didn’t finish the zone by yourself and send us elsewhere. If it’s an individual kill quest, I’m confident with your scouting abilities and your bow you could have soloed your component of it. Bringing us here would seem to put us all at risk.”
She smiled her secret smile. “I considered it, but I did a test.” She produced an ugly piece of metal that looked like it was a star picket that have been warped by immense heat at one point, which left it unwieldy and presumably brittle. “This was able to take a ghost out in a couple of swings.”
Thor clicked his fingers in excitement. “Of course. You’re thinking we buy an easy victory. Purchase hard counters and then steam roll the ghosts. Use the war chest I’ve been building to reap quick experience?”
Everlyn nodded. “Yep, exactly.”
The big man looked thoughtful. “I guess you’ve confirmed that there’s sufficient equipment?”
“Of course. We have to raid the auction house for stuff that resonates with spectral curses or has the property of absolute tangibility.”
“Anything else I need to know before I source it?”
“Nope, just buy an even mix of what comes up under those search terms.”
Thor did not look fully convinced. “We’re facing ghosts, which means they’re going to be mobile. Do we need some form of defensive treasures to protect ourselves?”
Everlyn looked thoughtful. “It’s a good question. They’re fast, but I don’t think they’ll get many hits in. If we all have a dedicated weapon, we’re talking about a hard counter similar to Tom’s and keikain’s effectiveness against the burrowers. They’re not gonna one shot us and Michael’s healing will guarantee post if not during battle recovery. Conversely, a single blow, if it doesn’t kill it outright will stop and stun it.” She paused, weighing up everything she had just said. “No. I don’t think we need treasures to win. I think we’ll be safe against them. They’re all melee based.”
Thor didn’t ask further questions. Instead, he just shut his eyes and life drained away from his face to leave him looking like a wax doll. Almost two minutes passed before life came flooding back to reanimate him and a large loot portal appeared. “I got a good mix.” Without saying anything else, he reached into the portal and unloaded a variety of equipment.
As the weapons built up, Tom raised his eyebrows, and he wasn’t the only one.
The common theme was that they were bulky. Mostly they were metal, but one of the items produced was a burned and charred branch that still had flecks of bark on it and looked like it had fallen off a tree. It had a thirty degree bend in the centre spoiling it for most uses. If you were going to craft with it absent the ability to directly manipulate wood, this would only be good for a handful of arrows. The rest were various misshaped pieces of metal like what Everlyn had demonstrated. There was even a coil of wire, which he suspected was a version of a whip, and a couple jumbled up balls of the stuff that were a tangled mess. They, Tom suspected would have to be used as is.
If he didn’t trust Thor, he would have thought he was some sort of crazy hoarder who had purchased junk because it was cheap. There were only two exceptions to the crap he produced, which was a rough-looking spear and an ugly axe.
Michael and Rahmat got the two physical weapons and then the rest of their objects were handed out. Tom was given a jumble of wire that was around his size, but with annoying dimensions with stray wires poking out that could scratch him. It had no flexibility in its makeup what so ever. It was the kind of object that if you’re engaging anything tangible, it would be completely useless. Because if you smacked it against a creature with mass it would deform severely and do no damage.
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He waved it around. “You know, if we’re fighting something other than ghosts, this is going to be worthless.”
“If we’re battling a physical entity, we switch to our primary weapons.” Thor stated. “I’m not paying a premium of almost two million extra credits to get us all usable traditional weapons. When these will do just fine against what we’re fighting.”
“That’s the marginal cost?” Vidja asked in surprise. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Yeah, it has like a five-times markup.”
“So our group owes you two hundred thousand?”
Thor’s head whip lashed toward her. “Wait! No, that’s not my intention. We decided to come here. You guys weren’t given a choice, so I wasn’t going to charge you.” He hesitated. “This time at least I was going to give you a freebie, but…” the big man shrugged. “If it’s an issue, you can repay me, but there’s no expectation.”
Vidja accepted the offer. Probably because she lacked the credits. They had spent everything they had to keep everyone alive in the last zone.
With each of them gripping their new weapons, they left the safe room and emerged into an open-air landscape. There was no maze of tunnels, massive ocean, or oppressive heat to deal with. Instead, the temperature was mild and there was earth like grass and long views broken by the occasional copse of trees. The only downside was that it was dark, and Tom suspected it was a semi-permanent darkness versus them emerging at night. There was just the feel to the place that made him think that.
A ghost attacked him. Time slowed, but he was already swinging his deformed mutant wire. A teleport changed all the relativities and guaranteed a hit.
Time flow returned to normal.
The bulk of the wires struck the approaching ghost, and it disintegrated. For a couple of seconds, Tom thought that it had used some sort of evasive ability to escape. “Is it dead.” He glanced around suspiciously.
“We’ll watch,” Everlyn stated. “Check your experience logs.”
He did as suggested.
Experience awarded for the death of a rank 24 - TechnoRoldic Ghost. Allocated experience held in trust until the end of the zone.
He returned to the real world. “It’s dead.” He shifted the wire mess with more respect. The weight of the object and its lack of magical presence meant its effectiveness made no sense to him, but ultimately it didn’t have to. It worked ridiculously well, presumably because it hard countered the enemy so perfectly.
For the first half an hour they went slowly until everyone had demonstrated, that their individual improvised weapon was capable of killing the ghosts. The monsters were not stupid. They attempted to ambush from strange angles and when there were more than four, they struck with strategy. It didn’t help the overly large weapons were hellishly effective, and they stopped the ghosts sneaking through.
Rahmat got injured when he wandered too far from the group and got swarmed by five simultaneously. He returned to the safety of the team clutching a shoulder that looked like grey death when his armour was peeled off. Michael fixed him in less than a minute. Emboldened by the knowledge that a minor mistake was not lethal, they sped up.
They slaughtered any ghost that got close.
A day later, Everlyn reached the spot they had been targeting. There was a landmark a three story cylinder that was about eight metres wide. It was not the first such building that they had come across and it was about middle in terms of size and at the upper end of quality. There was nothing remarkable about it. A smooth wall up to about five metres above the ground and then there were frequent windows.
“This is it.” Everlyn told them. “The treasure portal will be inside. It’s Tom’s turn I believe.”
Tom considered the best way to proceed. The careful approach was to blow a hole in the wall. It was magically reinforced material, but Usko and Thor could cut through it eventually or he and others could scale the building and go through the large gaps near the roofline.
“It shouldn’t be defended.” Everlyn told them. “We’ll go through the windows.”
The more athletic amongst them were sorted into the offensive group and then at a run. Tom leapt his fingers closed on the window ledge and he hurled himself up and dropped to the floor below him. As he fell, he materialised the mass of wires in case it was needed. He landed right next to the portal with his weapon at the ready his senses searching for an enemy. It was hard to focus outwards as he had caught a glimpse of the portal. It was now stuck in his brain, demanding attention. There were thuds around him as the other landed.
“Deal with the loot,” Everlyn ordered. “It’s too distracting for the rest of us. We’ll guard you.”
As commanded, he bent, shoved his hand in and immediately touched a small object floating in the air. His hand closed over it and he drew it out. The portal vanished as he did so and he opened his fist to reveal a pill like a Panadol sitting on the palm of his hands.
“What is it?” Michael asked without turning to look. He was facing out ready to meet any threats.
“A pill? But I don’t know what it does. Here, let me check.”
He stepped into his system room and studied the writing on the wall that greeted him.
Alchemist Pill: Raging Vitality Body Trait – Tier 5.
Upon ingestion, this pill will grant 20% increased vitality via a body trait.
Note: this benefit is linked to the physical body and in the event that the body is materially transformed, the entire trait or part of it will be lost. Healing from significant injuries including loss of limbs, may also cause the effectiveness of the trait to decrease.
Tom returned to the real world with a perplexed look on his face.
Body Traits? What were they? He wondered. He hadn’t even known that type of concept existed. “It grants a body trait. Anyone heard of that?”
No one said anything.
“Let’s return to the others. One of them might know.” Everlyn suggested.
When they got there, Tom asked the same question.
Gerald, standing amongst a sea of blank stares raised a hand.
Tom rounded on him. “You recognise the term?”
The kid jumped like someone had yelled boo in his ear. “Um…I was awarded one as a trial reward in the tutorial. It was a five percent boost to all attributes.”
Michael whistled appreciatively.
“Then when I adopted a new bloodline, I lost it in its entirety.”
“That’s horrible,” Thor blurted out.
Gerald nodded.
“Damn,” Tom said, remembering the text from the system room. “This one suggests the same, and it also claims that extreme healing might make me lose it.”
“From my personal experience that warning is real and not just legal speak.”
“If you don’t mind me asking what’s the boost?” Michael inquired. “Is it as good as Geralds?”
“It doesn’t matter, Michael. I’m not giving up my treasure.”
“Removing emotions and greed from the equation if this is something that you lose or if it degrades every time you receive extensive healing. Well, Tom, I hate to say it, but you might not be the best person to get it.”
“Yes, I know. The fit looks bad. But I’m not going to give it away. This was tailored for me.”
“That’s not technically correct. I think it’s more guaranteed to be compatible rather than a tailoring.” Everlyn told him. “The fact you want it means that it meets that lighter requirement. But Michael’s got a point. Your fighting style seems to involve you losing limbs.”
“That’s only happened once.”
She laughed. “More than that, but usually because you’re busily saving the rest of us and being the recipient of that effort, you won’t get any judgement from me. But you see the point.”
“It’s twenty percent to vitality. It’ll help me not lose the limbs.”
Everlyn shook her head, and Tom already knew what she was thinking. “When you get hit, you’re usually converting the area to living rock and as far as I’m aware, vitality is not part of the resistance the living rock grants.”
He attempted to respond, and his throat choked, and he adapted. “Whose side are you on? Mine or Michaels.”
“Humanity’s side. Humanity and then yours. I don’t appreciate the accusation.”
“I know it just seems that if it’s that sensitive to healing then the people would actually benefit the most can’t use it. It’s only useful if you’re being injured and if you’re actually hurt, then it’ll be degraded. It’s pretty stupid.”
Some of the anger drained out of her. “There’s different levels of injuries. Bruises and gashes, I reckon won’t cause a problem. It’s the physical loss of chunks of flesh or even whole limbs that’s going to cause issues.”
Tom went to continue the argument, but his throat constricted and stopped him. There were lots of things he could say, but the problem was they were right. He knew it and his social skill wasn’t able to be tricked, either.
“Cat got your tongue?” Everlyn asked amused having picked up the reason for his sudden silence.
Tom licked his lips. “I’m only surprised that body traits are that sensitive.”
“They are,” Gerald piped up. “My evolution barely changed me. Gave me a…” he stopped talking abruptly.
Usko burst out laughing. “Gave you what Gerald?”
The young kid looked around his face bright red.
“Come on, tell your new friends.” Usko goaded.
“It wasn’t like that. It was for power.”
Usko laughed even more uproariously. “Power? You said it did hardly anything.”
“I didn’t know that at the time.”
“Nope. I don’t believe it. I reckon you just wanted the tail.”
“No, it was ears.” Vidja interjected as she also suppressed a giggle.
“It was both.” Gerald exclaimed in frustration.
“Now you’ve admitted it. I knew deep down all you desired was to be a furry.”
“No, no. you’re twisting the truth. Turning it into lies.”
Usko attempted to look innocent. “Me, you said you wanted furry ears and a tail.”
“For the power. The ears greatly improved my sense of sound and the tail helped my balance when fighting and the rest of the transformation would have strengthened me if I hadn’t lost the body trait at the same time.”
Usko went over and slapped him on the back. “You tell yourself that, but I’m a friend and I’m not judging. There’s no need to lie to me or yourself.”
“You’re a child,” Gerald proclaimed. “The point is that the bloodline barely changed me, but the body trait treated it as a full transformation. I lost it. My ears morphed. I got a tail, a few extra muscles and some fur and that was it. In terms of transformation, I reckon it might have counted as converting thirty percent of my body to a new form and that was sufficient to invalidate the trait. Never would have accepted it if I’d of known.”
Tom glanced at everyone around him and the pill that was in his hand. Michael’s observations combined with what Gerald had just told him was persuasive. He was continuously forced to throw himself into battle against fast and ridiculously strong opponents to be the primary point of all their strikes and his mutant dodge skill having a base of black dodge meant those massively powerful attacks could not be a hundred percent avoided.
His role meant he was going to continue to take damage. Was acquiring a body trait especially vitality which didn’t help him avoid enemy blows sensible? He was a dodge tank. His survivability was mainly linked to evasiveness. How soon until that twenty percent got diluted to ten and then down to zero?
“I’m sorry Tom.” Michael said. “I can see what you’re thinking in your face. That pill is great for the right recipient. If you gave it to a proper tank, it would be perfect. To someone who wore armour and had the skill to stop incoming strikes like Legen, it would be a massive positive. When they finish a battle, they’re bruised and bloody, but they rarely lose their limbs. For them, that body trait is wonderful, but it’s not for you.”
“Or anyone here.” Keikain observed.
Tom flipped it over in his hand, considering everything he had heard. “So what do I do with it?” he asked, thinking about the dragon and how to kill it.