Zoe fell down the wide shaft. Total blinding darkness. Raindrops scattered about her, stinging cold when they struck the burns covering her body. Vitality chewed Skein to repair her flesh, but it would take time.
Though time was something she had now. Something scrambled the countdown for her quest [The Burden Of Being Interesting], but the last time she checked it had slowed to a 60th of the pace. Basic math showed she now had around 277 days before the timer ran out and the quest failed. Three-quarters of a year before everyone in her party died because of her failure.
This should have been a moment of celebration. She had more than enough time to grind to level 20, even if combat gave increasingly diminishing returns of death energy.
If only there were enemies to fight…
She turned in the darkness like a fetus in a cold womb and saw nothing. No sign of any life. Except the unknown voice in her head.
[Ding!]
[Welcome to the Black Star System!]
She knew she was in a Black Star dungeon… before the dungeon boss threw her into the pit. But what was a Black Star System?
[The Black Star System is me!]
Umm… Zoe turned again, wind scraping at her wounded face, at the clothes stuck to her burnt skin.
What?
[Ding!]
[You deserve a special reward.]
[+1 chain for curiosity!]
Something horrible wrapped around her neck. Cold, ghostly, slimy, metallic — a confusing jumble of tactile sensations as it slithered into place around her throat. She grasped at it, but touched only her skin. The sensations were inside her mind. Link after link pressed against her until it clicked like a lock. The strange chain stopped moving, but the vague, insubstantial pressure remained.
What was that?
[Ding!]
[Chains are a measure of the Black Star System’s love. The more chains, the closer we are, and the closer we remain.]
She groaned, Vitality repairing her throat as she spoke.
“What are…?”
The sentence concluded in her mind, where the alien entity listened.
[Ding!]
[I am the Black Star System. You are inside me as I am inside you. I see you remain tainted by the Crimson Armada System, but time will erase that evil presence.]
[+1 chain for curiosity!]
[Tee hee!]
The giggle started in the crown of her skull and slowly inched its way through her bones. A cool tingling along the inside of her skin like a million spiders laughing their way to her toes.
[Tee hee hee hee!]
Another chain slithered its way around her ankle, like an old banana peel come alive and constricting, and settled. She felt the weight upon her soul.
So, questions would lead to these chains, whatever they were….
[Ding!]
[Chains are love!]
She stilled her mind. This… system… was far more intrusive than the last she encountered. It boggled her that there even was a second one, but she supposed having reality peeled away a second time didn’t have quite the same effect.
Going off instinct, she checked her status.
?????
????: Zoe Chambers
??????: 8
????: Metal, Mirror
??????????
?????: 36
????????: 20
?????????: 11
?????????: 35
???????: 15
?????: 2/117
?????: Intrepid, Lodestone, Fools Rush In (Incomplete), Quest Breaker, Glutton
??????????: Our Hearts Toll As One
Chains: 2
The new system was garbling the information, like trying to open a file with the wrong program. The new stat disturbed her. Chains. There had to be more to it than the Black Star System’s words. For she certainly felt no love toward this system or any other.
But what if this was like a transplant? What if one system tried to reject the other?
Something brushed against her consciousness. She flinched, and withdrew into herself.
Falling through the cold dark. Abandon terror. Calm yourself. Empty all thoughts be… nothing.
The consciousness swooped over her like a face over dark water. She felt herself becoming its reflection, and she knew, with the instincts of prey, that if she tried to fight this transformation, it would detect her. It watched for something, but the very act of watching changed her.
An itch, inside her brain, maddening, as it scrutinized her, and at last… she caved.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Go away!
[Ding!]
[+2 chains for flinching.]
[Tee hee!]
The presence left her mind as the latest chains slithered around her waist in an unwanted embrace. She shivered. Fell. What else could she do?
Her attributes were all scrambled. The voice implied it would purge the old system. Did that mean chains would replace all her attributes? What would that even look like?
But her attributes weren’t gone. Not yet. She focused on her Willpower. That elusive mental tool gave her the focus, the drive, to do what she needed to do. It stirred in her mind like a new set of surgical tools ready in their case. Tools need to be used, and so she used them.
Could she…?
She felt her Skein moving inside, slowly unwinding, as she directed her thoughts towards her status. Careful now, as though she were inside a patient, no room for error. No room for haste. She had all the time she needed.
Steady.
If she applied her Willpower, her focus, to her status, perhaps she could…
S?a?us
Nam?: Zoe Chambers
Body: Metal, Mirror
L?v?l: 8
A??RIBU??S
Migh?: 36
D?x??ri?y: 20
Vi?ali?y: 11
Willpow?r: 35 (30)
Insigh?: 15
Sk?in: 3/117
?i?l?s: Intrepid, Lodestone, Fools Rush In (Incomplete), Quest Breaker, Glutton
??chniqu?s: Our Hearts Toll As One
Chains: 4
She cheered at the success. Spinning, laughing, as she rejoiced in the recovered progress. Whatever this new process was, she could deny its presence with her attributes. She could resist this new system, by embracing the old.
Pain spiked through her and her cheer became a scream.
Not the pain of an invasion, of an attack, but of an overexerted muscle finally tearing. Only, this muscle was her mind. Her Willpower. She released her hold on herself and let her status fade.
The presence of the Black Star System did not swoop down. Blessed peace as she fell. Deploying her Willpower in such a way helped to keep it at bay. But how long would that solution last if her access to the Crimson Armada System was eroding?
She had too many questions, and the only way of getting answers was by communicating with that eldritch voice. That was a last resort. It felt too much like being a fly in the grubby hands of a child. Ripping off wings wasn’t an accident, it was the point.
She wanted to keep her wings firmly attached.
So how could she —
A presence below her.
Buffeting wind. Overwhelming power. It made the dungeon boss feel like an ant. She glanced down, and saw nothing in the pitch black, but her lizard brain hissed. The strange power rocketed up toward her.
She pulled in her limbs. Tucked into a ball. As small as possible. Anything to avoid whatever rose toward her. But even these attempts felt futile. If the maw of some monstrous beast were about to swallow her… what could she do? She had learned all too recently just how low on the food chain she was. So, why bother?
Because it wasn’t in her to back down.
The chains around her body loosened. Her breathing relaxed. The weights on her ankle, around her weight, lessened. What once felt restrictive now felt powerful.
Something rose towards her, like a missile, like a wild animal, but she had a chance. She always had a chance. Spinning in the air, the chains unwound. Tethered to her flesh, they flailed out. Long, lashing, their tips vanishing into the surrounding darkness. Four whips of ghostly metal.
If she was to die, then she would die striking back.
The mystery approached. A fearsome aura buffeted her in waves. The very air rumbled. She continued spinning. Lashing.
Her chains clanged…
Against another chain…
Before she could react, the mysterious chain wrapped around her own. Entangled, it pulled in her like a fish on a line. She flailed, but there was no escape. More chains, countless chains, encased her body.
Something rushed past her in the dark. Her body jerked painfully. Wind screamed in the opposite direction as chains hauled her up in the wake of the rising creature.
Details cleared as it reeled her in. Humanoid. Dark green fur, sleek and shaggy as pine needles, covered bulging muscles. A bestial head turned towards her, no bigger than her own, though the physique was swollen to the size of a house. Male. A twilight aura shone from him. The glow of thousands of ghostly chains attached to every inch of his body.
“Hello,” he said. “You wouldn’t be Zoe Chambers, would you?”
Zoe blinked, stunned, as they sailed back up the dark chute. Was it more shocking that the strange creature knew her name? Or that he spoke English with a voice like a soft sea breeze?
“Umm, yes. That’s me.”
He laughed, and she saw his sharp, overlapping teeth.
“I knew it!”
She flinched, but the chains encased her. Even her Might was useless in the face of this power.
“Knew what?”
He snuffled his snout with obvious amusement.
“We may never meet again, Zoe Chambers, but can you do me a favor?”
“Yes?”
“Tell them Trinch sent you, and that he won the bet.”
“What bet? Tell who?”
Silvery termites crawled through his smile.
“Find the tavern and the rest will fall into place,” he frowned. “I’d love to talk longer, I really would, but you’re affecting my trajectory. Wish me luck, for I wish you the same!”
Before Zoe could ask any more questions, the colossal man spun. His shaggy fur was like underwater weeds as his chains whipped out. And on the end of the chains, Zoe.
He flung her down.
Faster than she fell before.
Wind pulled open her eyelids. Shrieked out all thoughts. Peeled back her lips.
She plummeted.
And pierced the dark.
Shot through the edge of the vast chute of darkness and into a strange grey sky. A desert expanded out below her as far as her Insight could see. Even the curvature of the world was more of those pale dunes. They billowed, moving like waves, marching across the surface of a strange new world.
Was this another planet?
Another dimension?
[Ding!]
[This is the last planet of the Black Star System. Welcome to your new home.]
And Zoe continued falling, only now there was a ground rushing up toward her. She didn’t have long. Minutes at the most. Before it was as though she fell through a dream, but a sickening feeling rose as the dunes below grew taller and taller. Some of them were as tall as skyscrapers. A strange papery white.
Peppered throughout the dunes were shafts of darkness. Tall pillars of impenetrable shadow, as though someone removed the land surrounding a sunken well. She spun in the air, and there was such a shaft behind her.
Below, she saw lights. The golden, red, flickering light of fire. Where there was fire, there were people.
She hoped.
Find the tavern?
She spread her arms and legs wide. Tried to slow her fall as much as possible. She wasn’t sure how strong 36 Might was, but maybe it was enough to survive smashing into the ground like a —
Better not think about it.
She spread her limbs, and she focused.
[Skein 4/117]
Could she use the chains? She wasn’t sure how, or even what they could do. Better trust in the System she knew. Maybe that little Skein boost would be enough to save her, but she would have to time it right. Instead of a parachute, she would strengthen her body, and hope it didn't —
Nope.
Bad thoughts.
The ground rushed up. She cleared her mind and gripped her Skein. There would only be one chance. No room for mistakes. She readied herself and angled towards the nearest dune.