Chapter Fifteen: The Perfect Quest Realm

Since resolving our little dispute and exploring the hallway mysteriously connected to the fiery hellscape, we made a few interesting discoveries. Although the hallway was long and mostly unadorned, it did sometimes connect to other rooms. Unfortunately, most of the futuristic doors were closed, and even a combined assault from Gayhn and Abra only dented one. We would need a lot of time to break through and since it didn’t seem worth it to spend potentially half an hour per door, we didn’t bother and just searched for ones that were already open.

“Bingo”, I said as my eyes landed on an open doorway someways down the hall in the direction I’d gone. “I FOUND ONE!” I shouted behind me, knowing that Abra should be checking out nearby doors. I didn’t know what was prowling around and wouldn’t mind another’s presence—

A roar sounded from the open room, and with pursed lips I finally noted how along the floor was a trail of black loam scattered as though it’d been tracked in, and the track of loam ended at the door.

‘This beast must have escaped recently if it’s only come this far out. Maybe only upon my Race’s integration? Five days ago at most, then. Or maybe less. Don’t know.’

My fist clenched the handle of my sword harder as a beast stronger than any I’d faced before prowled out of the open door. It was some kind of feline-inspired insect with hard, chitinous plates in place of skin, thin legs, a long tail, and a head resembling that of a Smilodon—the extinct saber-toothed tiger from Earth…that wasn’t actually a tiger and probably wasn’t extinct everywhere in the universe, now that I thought of it.

Besides the impressive aura of the cat-bug in front of me I also sensed Abra approaching from behind. I slightly turned my head to yell back at her that I wanted to solo the beast, but before I had the chance she powered up a blast of light and launched it.

“LEFT!” she shouted barely before she shot the beam. I understood that she intended for me to dodge to the left, but I disregarded her warning, pivoted to face her attack, and punched it with my left hand. My fist hurt more than the last time when I had a whirlpool of flames to absorb some of the damage, and even more of her light-related Speck sunk into my hand, which I had no time to cleanse, because as soon as I turned my back to the Smilodon bug it jumped me.

Fully powered up, I whirled around to the side so the spirit beast didn’t land on me, then proceeded to sink my blade into the beast’s shoulder with a downward slash.

To my surprise, instead of swiping at me again now that it was closer, it skittered backwards, taking my sword with it.

‘Oops. Well, I’m more of a mage type anyway.’

Taking advantage of the beast’s tactical retreat I flashed back down the hall toward Abra and met her halfway, saying, “I don’t have much practice with a sword. Any practice, really.”

“Why did you intercept my attack?!” she asked angrily. “I told you to dodge left!”

I shook my head. “If I’m in a fight and don’t ask for help, don’t join in as though we’d trained together for years. Also, I want to solo it.” I turned to see the beast sizing us up. “I don’t have the forty Level difference Title yet.”

I didn’t wait for Abra to respond as I flashed back toward the spirit beast, whose left front leg seemed to work fine even with a sword poking out of its shoulder. It must not have cut deep. When I got within a certain range to test the beast’s response, its throat lit up with bright red light before it released a wave of fire at me, reminding me where it escaped from.

Again, I just dodged to the side, but after watching the beast’s flame breath for a moment—analyzing it with my pitiful Chi senses and impressive Dao senses—I realized something. Just outside of the flame’s range I stretched a hand out toward it and released a wave of neutral Chi, willpower, and Dao energy.

The cat-bug yelped and pawed at its head as it stumbled backward with what was probably the soul equivalent of a headache, no longer in control of the flame attack it had launched, since I had wrested it away.

“Damn, that’s pretty fucking awesome!”

From the beast’s Level and aura as it pounced on me I knew its points were set mostly in Strength, and given that it hadn’t been really fast it didn’t have much Agility. That left its specialization possibilities in Endurance, Vitality, and the external control stats, but since I could so easily take control of its fire attack, that meant it had barely any Intelligence or Wisdom, leaving only Endurance and Vitality.

I empowered its own breath attack with my Kindling Speck and sent it back to the beast, hoping to see it burn even a little bit.

“Oh yeah, it came outta Hell…”

The spirit beast charged at me through the flames that didn’t seem to harm it at all, seemingly enraged that I’d dared to take something away from it. I retreated just far enough away to erase the pseudo-meridians for Fireball and draw those for Water Whip before charging back into the fray and dodging its swipes while landing strikes from my water technique.

The damage was minimal, confirming that it had about 100 Endurance, but I was relentless, even punching and kicking the wolf-sized cat bug when I had the opportunity.

Then the sword was dislodged from the beast’s shoulder at some point and clanged against the floor, distracting me just enough for the beast to land a claw on my left arm.

‘FUCK!’

I resorted to simply running in circles around the beast faster than it could turn while I checked the damage. Its claw had passed right through my skin and muscles while seemingly skidding off the bone underneath, so I wouldn’t be at risk of losing my arm, but it sure hurt like hell, reminding me of when the anteater had disabled the same arm back in the Tutorial.

‘Enough of this.’

The arm would need time to heal, so I decided to stop taking things slowly. I picked the sword up off the ground and went straight for the beast’s eyes. To my surprise it knew what I was trying to do and blocked a few stabs with its paws and turned its head so that the blade only sliced along its chitinous plates. Plus, I wasn’t very good at using the sword… I was very bad at using the sword.

But given the difference in literal intelligence it was only a matter of time until I managed to sink the blade into the insectoid Smilodon’s eye, this time remembering to hold on tight so the weapon wasn’t pulled out of my grip. Then while the beast panicked and squirmed I stabbed the sword between the plates on its flank, slicing up its insides.

Eventually the beast stilled, unable to muster the strength to defend itself after having lost so much blood and organ functions. With one last stab into the creature’s skull, the fight was over. I consumed a healing pill from Rahesh’s bag.

[Titles]

Reaching High: Slay a wild spirit beast at least 40 Levels above your own without assistance. +5 to two different Attributes of your choice and +10 to all Attributes.

‘That was more time-consuming than I expected. I was hoping to look cool by ending the fight in seconds. Also, no “first to accomplish it” Title?’ I mentally complained with a sigh. ‘But at least there was a reward at all.’

I distributed the two +5s to Agility and Wisdom, then took a good look at my Status Menu with both adrenaline-fueled excitement and trepidation.

Niko Tess

Strength: (66+110%) = 138.6

Endurance: (66+110%) = 138.6

Chi Condensation (Level 1)

Agility: (90+112%) = 190.8

Vitality: (66+110%) = 138.6

Race: Human (Tier 1)

Intelligence: (66+110%) = 138.6

Wisdom: (71+110%) = 149.1

Attribute Points: 30

[Titles] Reaching High

[Quests]

(2/5) Taste the Rainbow

(v3-2/3) New Neighbors

(1/?) Mysteries of the Lab

[Daos]

Kindling Speck (Early): +10 Wisdom

Sharpness Speck (Early): +5 Strength, +5 Wisdom

‘I love seeing my numbers go up, but goddamn, these add up to over 890 points. I might be one or two Titles away from the Attribute limit of Tier 1 while still at Level 1. This shit’s insane. How many other Humans have stats like these? I can’t wait to find out, but probably more than I expect, considering I don’t seem to have been the first to get [Reaching High].’

Then I remembered how there were an unknown number of other Races on Yorgefan, all who also had leaders who likely dominated their respective Tutorials. If they had all of my same advantages but also a BUNCH of Levels, the points that came from training their stats, and stronger Dao Specks… I gulped, feeling like I was at the edge of a yawning canyon, and I could not see the other side through a foggy veil of mystery.

I shook my head as Abra’s footsteps neared.

“I got [Reaching High],” I announced with a broad smile. “I think it’ll take just one more Title with about the same bonuses to reach the Tier 1 limit. Hopefully I can find Race-advancing medicines somewhere in here before that happens.”

Abra simply stared at me unblinkingly for an awkward minute before shaking her head and walking past me and the insectoid Smilodon corpse toward the room it had come out of, muttering to herself, “Not even the Matriarch is at the limit…”

Chuckling, I followed her into the room while thinking about how if I got a Title that increased my Agility to 200, I’d probably get another Title for having so many points in one Attribute before reaching Level whatever. I desperately needed Race-advancement medicines so that those points didn’t get wasted. Sahndo Bedri had told me with certainty that the points I didn’t have room for would just disappear.

The room was larger than I expected, full of desks with what looked like futuristic work stations and cabinets against all the walls, with the back portion clearly disturbed by the Smilodon that had apparently set up a den there, even having dragged in a mound of black loam. Surprisingly, the desks were covered in all sorts of knickknacks just like an office from Earth. I walked past Abra, who was opening cabinets, to pick up what looked like a metal picture frame that had fallen off its stand. I turned it over, hoping to find a picture of the family of whoever had used this desk. Unfortunately, the picture frame was not a frame at all, but some kind of electronic device with a black screen. I found what seemed like a power button but it did nothing at all.

‘Well, calling this an electronic device is probably wrong. KarriSah mentioned her Hamlet running on neutral Chi. Maybe it’s the same with this laboratory.’

Looking closer at the back of the tablet-like device in my hand I realized there was a symbol carved into it that matched a symbol on the desk surface. I placed the tablet on top of the matching surface and was overjoyed to find the device light up. Its screen now had an animated sphere cut into sections, with only the leftmost section blinking.

‘It’s probably some kind of ideogram with the same meaning as a charging battery like those on our phones.’

I pressed what I hoped to be the power button again, and voila, the screen changed from the battery charging image to one indicating it was booting up. Soon enough, I was met with a passcode screen. However I was not too disappointed, because my original objective had been completed. The lock screen’s background was an image of three people with arm’s over each other’s shoulders, two men and a woman, standing in front of a dense crowd gathered in the courtyard of a large building. The rightmost man was some kind of harpy, humanoid but covered in feathers in much the same way as Rahesh was a cat person. In the middle was the second man who seemed to have scales instead of skin, and on the left was a female bird person, with much the same feather colorations as the man on the right. All three people were looking at the camera, but the woman and the scaly man in the middle leaned their heads against each other, leading me to believe that while the two bird people were siblings, the scaly man in the middle was dating the woman. The crowd in the background sported a mix of bird people, lizard people, and mammalian people. Some were larger than Humans, others smaller than Goblins.

For some reason, the image made my heart ache. I almost tossed the tablet into my bag of holding on a whim before remembering that it was still probably on 1% battery power, so I let it charge for now. Actually, it ticked up in just the few seconds I was looking at the picture. Its charger was hella good.

“Niko!” Abra said sharply from where she stood. I looked up to find that she was still rummaging through cabinets, speaking without turning to face me. “The time may be dilated many times in our favor, but it is still in our best interest to search for treasure instead of doing nothing. This laboratory might be of a scale too large for us to fully investigate even with the time dilation.”

I blinked.

“Umm, I would have joined you in your search, but I don’t know what you’re searching for, so instead I did some anthropological digging and found that the civilization this place belonged to was multi-Racial with people who didn’t look too different from us. I don’t know how that’s useful to us, but I think it’s interesting. So, what exactly are you searching for?”

Abra’s hands stopped rummaging, and she finally turned toward me. “My apologies, Niko. Your discovery is not without its merit. Of what I’ve heard from the Elders and some powerful figures I met back in the City when I visited, that piece of information might have use. From my knowledge, there are no multi-Racial civilizations on Yorgefan. Everyone is on their own given that the System placed down our Races in pairs and incentivized us to fight each other. So if the civilization this laboratory was built by was multi-Racial, they may have survived long enough to integrate many different peoples. That would make them stronger than I first suspected, and the facilities here more dangerous.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Couldn’t they just be peaceful people? And obviously they were stronger, but does it matter how much? Sounds like you pulled a lot of stuff out of thin air.”

Abra sighed, returning to opening and rummaging through cabinets, checking every item within them. “Are you aware of what Tier our planet is, Niko?”

I shrugged even though she couldn’t see it, then turned to open cabinets on a different wall. It was annoying with just one hand. “I am not aware.”

“Tier 2,” she said. “But the planet is still young—only a few hundred years old from when the first Races were integrated—so although it is possible to find many spots with Chi so dense that sometimes spirit beasts near the peak of Tier 2 spawn, most of the planet is still inhabitable by Tier 1s. Give our planet time and the average density will eventually settle somewhere in the Tier 2 range. At that point, it will be easier to cultivate to the peak of and beyond the Chi Condensation realm, and with a higher percentage of the population being stronger, travel and trade become easier. Stronger civilizations find it easier to get along, and the farther they can reach, the more kinds of people they absorb. That is why stronger civilizations also tend to have more Racial diversity.”

I tilted my head in confusion as I searched the cabinets. “But there’s still a lot of conjecture there. Do you have evidence that stronger civilizations are really like that?”

“I do not personally, but the Goblin leadership does. Through City cores they can perform trade not only between other communities on Yorgefan but also other planets, which is why they are so valuable. This information was obtained through missives about them. That is how I know this.”

“Oh…that clears things up. So, what does the new information mean about this place?”

“At first I suspected that this Quest Realm was taken from the remnants of a Tier 2 civilization—which implies that the bulk of their military force was Tier 2, in the realm beyond Chi Condensation—but after seeing how your personal Quest wants you to find an ‘earth-aligned biodome’, I suspect that fiery place we arrived in was artificially constructed instead of a natural environment. Since I don’t think even a Tier 2 civilization could construct something like that, and there seems to be more of them, this place may have belonged to a Tier 3 civilization, making the threats within this Quest Realm infinitely more dangerous. Even a beast with a cultivation base at the very bottom of Tier 3 could erase all traces of our existences without much effort, and I suspect they reared many beasts of different elemental alignments in here.”

I had also figured out that the hellscape was artificial if there were really more biodomes of different types, but it hadn’t struck me as anything out of the ordinary. I had grown up reading fantasy and watching sci-fi, so this was exactly the kind of place I was looking forward to having an adventure in. I was excited, but not surprised, unlike Abra.

“There is nothing of value against this wall,” Abra declared, closing the last cabinet before walking over to the one I was searching through.

“So, what exactly are we looking for?” I asked again, since she hadn’t answered last time.

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“Anything useful. If you sense a treasure aura, then it is a treasure. I know you have a few on you, as weak as they are, so you should know what to look out for. They can be—“

Abra paused suddenly, so I turned to find her examining a small wooden box in her hands.

“They can be anything,” she continued, “but I’ve heard from the Matriarch that they are typically within small chests like these. If one is found outside of a chest it tends to be stronger, but at least the presence of the chest makes it easy to identify as a treasure.”

She opened the box and pulled out an unadorned ring carved out of a green crystal—jade.

“It has a strong earth aura and does not react to either of my neutral or light Chis. Unless you also have an earth Speck, this is only useful to Nagorn right now.”

I nodded, having figured out Nagorn’s chosen Cycling Technique after learning from KarriSah’s husbands about the different available paths the Gilliam Clan possessed, and then feeling Nagorn’s aura. The Gilliam Clan had three complete Tier 1 Heritages: a light-aspect path that prioritized Wisdom and Agility, an earth-aspect path that prioritized Strength and Endurance, and a sharpness-aspect path that prioritized Strength and Agility.

By now I knew that Abra, Moz, and at least the two Elders who fought KarriSah used light, Prropo and Gayhn used sharpness, and Nagorn and the two grandpas used earth. KarriSah wielded her own unique Cycling Technique to suit her particular talents that she got in the Tutorial.

“Here.”

Abra tossed me the ring, reminding me that I’d extorted basically all the treasures we would find from them.

“It is most certainly not worth asking for when we only get to pick two treasures,” she said with displeasure clear in her voice.

I shrugged. “I’ll still give this to Nagorn. No use keeping it locked away in a bag collecting dust.” Although I said that, I suspected I might be able to use it in the near future.

Before she turned back to searching through the cabinets I could swear she smiled a little bit.

……

When Moz, Gayhn, and I returned from our trip down the hallway at the scheduled time for a team meeting, we found Abra and Niko chatting idly as though they hadn’t been threatening each other not too long ago. When they turned to regard us, Niko’s eyes in particular were vibrant, telling us that he had a story to tell even before he opened his mouth to speak a single word.

It was likely a story related to his left arm, which was bloody and limp at his side.

“Abra put you in your place?” Gayhn asked with a smirk, nodding toward the injury.

Frowning, I smacked his shoulder. He had always been rough, but toward Niko he was especially so. Could it really all be an act?

Niko shook his head, saying, “Even one arm down I am still fully capable of defeating all of you. Especially now that I have [Reaching High].”

Gayhn made an expression as if choking, while Moz whistled appreciatively and asked, “You did not possess it before? Most impressive. The Tutorial must be more lucrative than the Matriarch let on. Flare your aura for a bit, if you would.”

Niko obliged and cycled his Chi hard, bathing us in the full force of his aura, which was even more flavorful than before. I had only felt auras similar to his in Yayger, where cultivators even more powerful than Grandmother resided. He had so many points, although they were scattered all about. Impressive as it was, he could not suppress us with his aura, given his Chi’s density, which was basically that of a cloud compared to ours.

“You near the Attribute limit,” I said solemnly.

“Yeah,” he nodded.

“In order to avoid losing points from the other Titles you will undoubtedly obtain in here, Niko Tess, we need to prioritize finding you Race-advancing medicines,” Moz said.

“We?” Niko asked a bit incredulously. “I figured you guys would say it’s my responsibility alone—especially since I’m going to take such a huge share of the treasures.”

While Gayhn grumbled that Niko had a point, I stepped in.

“We have said it before and I will say it again, Niko; so long as you keep your word—and Grandmother believes you will—your growth is our growth. You may very well have the most potential of any single person on Yorgefan; being allied with you when you conquer your fellow Humans will benefit us greatly. It would be spectacular to see our two Races officially allied first of all peoples on this planet.”

I stared fiercely into the Human’s dark eyes that were just like ours, until he confirmed with a nod that he understood.

“Then what do yall reckon is our best strategy for finding spirit herbs for Race advancing? Go back into the fiery place, search for more biodomes, or explore the halls until we find enough spirit herbs in treasure chests? Because at least one of those options is viable,” he said, using one hand to open and pull out a small wooden box from his spatial storage bag. “In an open room down that hall where the fire beast that gave me [Reaching High] was settled in we found an earth-aligned jewelry ring treasure and this bundle of spirit herbs.”

Niko opened the small treasure chest long enough for us to identify the yellow spirit herbs within.

“Cavern Spirit Grass, some of the most common earth-aligned Race-advancing herbs found in mountain caves,” Gayhn chimed in.

“I already informed him of how we were educated enough in the local spirit herbs to identify treasures we came across during our training expeditions away from the Clan,” Abra said. “With hope, the System will be generous by continuing to provide us with herbs we can identify, such as this grass.”

“But she didn’t tell me how to use them,” Niko complained, placing the chest back into his bag.

“Because you might grow impatient. Just as Gayhn said, that bundle of grass is among the most common of herbs, yet you are far from the most common of cultivators. To consume the grass as it normally would be is a waste I will not tolerate, as it will do virtually nothing for your Race advancement on its own.”

“Yeah yeah, I know,” Niko sighed, then yawned. “It’s just nice to be informed.”

“Back to the subject of importance,” I said, bringing us back on topic, “it may be best to search the fire domain for spirit herbs because you have a fire Speck of some kind, correct? If you recklessly consume Race-advancing herbs of all kinds, it may negatively impact your affinity for flames without any benefit. However, if you include fire-aspect herbs into the recipes for your medicines, you may counteract all the side effects.”

“I second this idea,” Moz said. “That fire domain may be quite inhospitable to us, but for the sake of your cultivation progress I agree that we should explore it for as long as we can afford. It is quite fortunate that upon entering this Quest Realm we quickly found an environment suited toward your Dao.”

To our suggestion, Niko scratched the back of his head awkwardly and avoided eye contact.

“What is it?” Gayhn asked impatiently. “You disagree with them? Their logic is sound.”

“I concur,” Abra asserted. “We understand that your schedule is packed full and we all wish to be done with as much of this Quest Realm as possible, Niko Tess. You only have so long to locate Sahndo Bedri, and waiting around for you to find your words is a waste of valuable time.”

At that, Niko sighed again.

“I’m not just talented with fire, it seems.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, curious.

“Elaborate,” Abra badgered him.

“Well…”

The Human retrieved his sword from his spatial storage bag and turned away from us, imbuing the weapon in Chi and something else before performing a simple downward cut.

“Sharpness,” Gayhn grumbled, having recognized what was probably the most common of Specks that he also wielded. “You have so much Intelligence and Wisdom and yet you also have the Sharpness Speck? It is best used in tandem with melee combat, so why do you seem to favor external techniques?”

Niko sighed yet again.

“Remember how my Quest says to find Sludge Celery? And how it has five parts?”

We all nodded, though Gayhn said, “Get to the point. Time, and all that, as Abra said.”

Niko made an…apologetic expression?

“Well, I have basic techniques of fire, cold, water, earth, and air, while the first part of the Quest rewarded me with a fire-aligned Dao fruit.” He paused, watching our own expressions. “I think each part of the Quest will grant me a new Speck via Dao fruits.”

Nobody spoke.

I blinked.

Abra blinked.

Moz blinked.

Gayhn laughed. He fell over, clutching his belly, howling with amusement of such intensity that I felt embarrassed for his display.

“FIVE SPECKS!” he bellowed, attempting and failing to gather himself. “HE THINKS…THE QUEST…WILL GIVE…FIVE SPECKS…”

We all patiently waited for Gayhn to recover, at which point he stood up and dusted himself off.

“You’re more a fool than I thought,” he stated plainly without emotion, having gotten it all out of his system. “Dao fruit alone cannot give anyone any Speck. From the sound of it you have talent for the blade and some for fire, because it was ultimately the Dao fruit that allowed you to comprehend a fire Speck, but it is incredibly unlikely that you’re both so lucky as to achieve all your Titles and be a one in a hundred million genius. Do not delude yourself. It is much more likely that the rest of your Quest will involve fighting powerful spirit beasts for the Race-advancement herbs they guard. Now, let us search for such herbs in the fire domain.”

Gayhn stared defiantly at Niko, challenging him to say otherwise. To our collective surprise, Niko obliged.

“No, there’s a decent chance I am talented in them all. Enough for Specks, I mean,” he said, turning to face the hole in space that connected this hallway to the fiery domain. “When I ate the Dao fruit I didn’t know what it was and it only poisoned me. It was the meditation Sahndo Bedri inspired me to do that ultimately awarded me the Speck, long after the Dao fruit’s mysterious energies had depleted. It only took me a handful of minutes to comprehend the Kindling Speck by just staring at a campfire. However, even with guided meditation from the swordsman Sedokeit I defeated, it took me an entire thirty minutes to comprehend the Sharpness Speck. I suspect that I am, in fact, a one in a hundred million genius. I didn’t always think so, but after understanding the nature of this Quest Realm, I changed my mind. It’s probably not a coincidence that we’re in this particular realm.”

Interrupting Gayhn, who seemed ready to start insulting the Human, Moz asked, “The nature of this Quest Realm? Could you explain further?”

Stepping between Niko and Gayhn, Abra said, “From his personal Quest’s wording and some images we found in the room down the hall, we suspect this laboratory was built by a Tier 3 civilization made up of many different Races—possibly multiple civilizations—for the purpose of researching spirit beasts of different elemental affinities in some way.”

[Quest: (2/?) Mysteries of the Lab. Discover the mysteries behind this ancient laboratory by searching for clues. You have uncovered a link between the ancient and powerful civilization that built this laboratory and the spirit beasts that inhabit it, yet there is still much to discover.]

“It is quite helpful for the System to confirm our speculations as soon as we make them,” I mused.

“Yeah,” Niko chuckled. “Maybe my next sentence will complete this part, too: I read a book with a plotline similar to this involving a laboratory that studied different bloodlines, so this might be the same.”

Nothing happened, causing Gayhn to snort and Niko to frown.

“Well, that’s disappointing. Awakening or otherwise implanting myself with an overpowered bloodline physique or whatever would have been awesome.” He put his good hand up to his chin, and I wondered why he hadn’t even bothered to bandage his other arm’s wound. Was his Vitality really that high? “The next hypothesis I want to confirm is… Since what I need most of all are Race-advancing medicines, this lab was built to research those?”

Again, no Quest update.

“Okay, well…since there seem to be multiple biodomes of different elemental alignments, and spirit beasts are only partly involved, this lab is studying the elements in some capacity via both spirit beasts and spirit herbs?”

[Quest: (3/?) Mysteries of the Lab. Discover the mysteries behind this ancient laboratory by searching for clues. You have uncovered a link between the ancient and powerful civilization that built this laboratory and the spirit beasts that inhabit it as well as the spirit herbs grown within it.]

As Gayhn’s eyes bugged out, Niko said, “I guess this means we’ll be able to find a lot of spirit herbs in those biodomes. Probably guarded by powerful beasts, but that’s better than nothing.” He paused, looking up at the ceiling while considering something. “Perhaps because my personal Quest is going to end with me having more Specks, this lab was specifically researching how to create Dao fruits? Hmm, that doesn’t seem right. I have a tree that grows Dao fruit every hundred years or something—I don’t remember. Is there such a thing as an artificially created Dao fruit? That was my only real doubt about this place’s nature.”

“I don’t think it is possible for mere mortals to create treasures that bestow Dao enlightenment,” Moz said. “Yet, the System is known to sometimes award Dao elixirs, which are typically potions with the same effects as Dao fruits but with less potency, and the benefit that they function for any Dao.”

[Quest: (4/4) Mysteries of the Lab. This ancient laboratory was built by a powerful civilization for the purpose of developing Dao elixirs. Within their eight biodomes they grew spirit herbs and reared spirit beasts of particular elemental alignments, while in the various scattered facilities the materials were amassed and experimented on. Your last task is to leave the Quest Realm only after each living member of your party has consumed at least one Dao fruit or elixir, lest you all lose your affinities for your most favored elements.]

“There you go; some of my speculations were right—it’s not a coincidence we’re in this particular Quest Realm. Now, isn’t it weird how the System keeps tasking me with getting stronger?” Niko asked disbelievingly. “Shouldn’t it be telling me to kill powerful beasts, or something? This kinda seems like the perfect Quest Realm.”

I shook my head, trying to keep up a calm front despite my racing heart—it was incredible for the Human to advance our Quest all the way to the end with just a moment of speculation. “N-not at all, Niko. By ordering you to obtain something valuable the System is putting you in direct opposition to anyone or anything that also wants or has that valuable thing. That is where the danger lays. For example, what if…we only find one Dao fruit or elixir the entire time we are in here, and then something happens to force us out, like the pursuit of a Tier 2 beast. We might be tempted to kill each other for the sole Dao treasure in our possession, because the Quest says living party members.”

Niko puckered his lips at that, looking uncomfortable. “I wouldn’t kill you guys for that… Mostly because I’m so talented in so many Daos, so I’d only lose one.”

Abra shrugged. “Perhaps, or perhaps not. What matters is that we do not allow ourselves to end up in such a position by wasting even more time. Niko, you declared yourself our leader, and it is your interests that matter most, so point the way for us and we shall follow. Do you wish to find fire-aligned herbs or not?”

Niko shook his head. “My personal Quest comes first, since it has the most damaging failure penalty. We search for the earth biodome to find Sludge Celery.” He turned toward me. “Nagorn, what did you guys find at the other end of the hall?”

“We did not reach the hall’s end. We walked for eight minutes and ran for another two before heading back at the previously agreed upon ten-minute mark. There was only a single door not completely closed, yet its frame did not budge more than a finger’s width. The room itself was too dark to determine what might be inside.”

He nodded. “Understood. Before anything else, let’s check that door out. If we can’t get it open within ten minutes we give up and just keep going down the hall in search for anything—more open doors, an end to the hall, anything. Maybe there are more random windows in space connecting the hall to biodomes. If we can find the earth biodome like that, it’d be great. Lead the way.”

Being the slowest of the group, we sprinted down the hall at my top speed for a few minutes until we came across the slightly open door. Then Niko gestured toward Gayhn.

“Go on; smash it. I’m pretty sure your Strength is still higher than mine.”

Gayhn crossed his arms. “What about your Wisdom? External techniques that gain their power from Wisdom are typically more powerful than Strength-based melee attacks of the same power range.”

“I’m still Level 1, in case you’ve forgotten. I can’t whale spells on this door for half an hour—that would drain me dry of energy. Your Chi density makes the task trivial for you, and you probably have some good melee techniques. All of mine are of the most basic variety.”

My cousin released an exasperated sigh but still lifted his axes, imbued them with his Speck, and began cycling a technique that caused his arms to emit danger. With a grunt accompanying every swing, Gayhn attempted to lay waste to the door, causing the air to shake violently with kinetic energy.

The door took it all in, releasing an incredibly uncomfortable high-pitch, metallic shriek as the axes met the obstruction. Gayhn stood there for a handful of minutes doing nothing but battering the door, incrementally pushing it back and very slowly widening the gap, until it finally popped open hard, loudly slamming against the wall.

When Gayhn stepped out of the way and before Niko stepped into the room, I caught sight of a room full of unrecognizable but advanced-looking machinery covering rows of work desks and tables, and a row of thin, strangely designed wooden cabinets against the back wall.

‘No, wait…those are people-shaped.’

I only barely recognized the wooden structures to be mannequins a moment before Niko shouted “FUCK!”, grabbed the door handle, stepped back into the hallway, and slammed the door closed behind him.

“Power up!” he commanded, doing so first, eyes locked onto the door.

We all followed his example, though Gayhn complained, “You’re overreacting. Those puppet constructs were clearly motionless without even any indication that they would become active. This place has likely been empty for countless—”

Without turning around, Niko growled, “Shut up and remain vigilant! Their presence alone means they’ll be an obstacle.”

“How can you be so sure?” Gayhn demanded.

“Tropes, Chekhov’s gun, or something like that. You wouldn’t understand.”

Before Gayhn could get another word in, a number of strange auras between that of treasures and cultivators within the room came to life.

“Told ya,” Niko snorted, before the room’s door swung open with a great bang, and Niko prepared a number of Fireballs in the air around him, ready to attack.

“Intruders?” the mannequin asked in an unnatural voice to everyone’s surprise as it stood within the doorway, motionless, with all the other mannequins behind it, standing at the ready, glowing from the countless Chi circuits covering them.

Niko quickly put up a closed fist, indicating we stay silent as he carefully said, “… No.”

“You are missing identification,” the mannequin replied. “Without identification you will be identified as intruders. Please present an identification token.”

I gulped as anxiety clutched my heart. Perhaps we could destroy the mannequins in this room, but how many were there scattered across the entire laboratory? Were these automated construct defenses all connected via some kind of complex system? If Niko did not manage to talk us out of this predicament, were we to be hunted by hundreds of puppets until we left the Quest Realm or destroyed them all?

“We…lost ours,” Niko said slowly. “The administrator assured me we would have our replacements within a week. I can show you the token when I receive it.”

“There is no pending ticket regarding the issuing of new tokens for staff of your descriptions,” it quickly replied in its creepy, mechanical voice that pronounced words by each syllable. “Nor are there administrators online to contact as of this moment.”

“Hmm, that is strange, indeed. Thank you for letting us know. I think that… Uhh, I know that the administrator who told me she’d put in a ticket for replacement tokens personally dislikes me, since I was given a job here by my dad who works high in the command chain, so I suspect that she purposefully didn’t put in a ticket in order to cause us trouble.”

The mannequin did not reply within two seconds of receiving a response like it had before, instead pausing for an entire ten as though considering Niko’s words.

“That is possible. I am aware that conflicting personalities creates trouble amongst coworkers.”

To our horror, Niko snorted a laugh before quickly covering his mouth.

“Sooo, are we free to go, officer?”

“Negative. Protocol requires that I observe you leave the facility. Please be on your way, and I will accompany you. Thank you for cooperating.”

The wooden mannequin stepped forward as the rest turned around to settle back into their places in the room’s back wall.

“Please be on your way,” it repeated when none of us moved.

Gayhn began raising an axe, so I rushed to his side and pushed his arm down, trusting that Niko would continue to work wonders on the mannequin.

“Yeah, of course… What do I call you? Mr. AI?” he asked.

“I am the Security Experimental Laboratory Treasure Spirit, or Selts for short. Please be on your way or I will be forced to designate you as hostile intruders in need of forceful removal.”

“Of course, of course!” Niko said agreeably, even nodding his head. “But you see, we’re kinda lost, because along with our replacement identification tokens that we never received, we were never taught the laboratory’s layout or even given a map! Can you believe the nerve?” he asked, raising his good arm into the air with exasperation.

After another long pause Selts said, “I can believe it. Are you requesting a map?”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Are you in possession of a data systems interface?”

Niko puckered his lips and donned a far-off look for a moment before nodding and retrieving a flat, metal square from his spatial storage bag.

“Please hand the data systems interface to me.”

The Human obliged, placing the metal square into the mannequin’s outstretched hand.

The mannequin looked down at the square, then back up at Niko.

“Please insert the passcode to unlock the data systems interface.”

With a strained smiled, Niko said, “Funny thing…can you believe the admin changed the passcode without telling me? I swear I’m gonna get her fired.”

The mannequin stared at Niko with its off-putting, featureless face of wood for a long moment before handing back the metal square.

“It does not sound like she deserves her job,” it agreed. “I wish you the best of luck with your report. Please take back your data systems interface and allow me to retrieve a spare data systems interface.”

As Niko placed the square back into the spatial storage bag with a relieved sigh, the mannequin walked back into the room and quickly came back out with another metal square in its hand, this one glowing with an image of a grassy field and blue sky.

“Please temporarily use this data systems interface to guide your way. Select the map icon to open the facility map. Please be on your way. Thank you for cooperating.”

I took advantage of my above-average height to peer over Niko’s shoulder as the rest of the team crowded around him from every other direction, everyone looking at the map displayed on the metal square. If I understood the image correctly, the laboratory was enormous and built in the shape of a crooked spider web connected to eight large circles, with only one entrance to the building in the center of the web and many, many long hallways connecting the entrance to countless rooms. The eight large circles sat at and between the cardinal directions of the spiderweb-shaped facility. From the top going to the right, then back up through the left, the biodomes were labeled, “Fire”, “Poison”, “Water”, “Wood”, “Earth”, “Cold”, “Air”, and “Darkness/Light”. The map displayed our position with a blinking red dot. We were close to the earth biodome.

[https://i.imgur.com/o82vqqF.png]

Looking between the map and Niko, I felt the urge to cry tears of joy and kiss the pink-skinned man. He had turned an encounter with enemy constructs into an opportunity in our favor by boldly lying when it really should not have worked!

“Okay, that’s all we needed. Bye! Thanks so much!”

Niko waved enthusiastically at the mannequin as we followed him at a jog down the hallway in a direction that certainly did not lead toward the center, but instead the earth biodome. The mannequin followed us from twenty steps behind and did not say a single word until we came across another open door and peered inside.

“Please be on your way. You are not authorized to enter that room.”

“Oh, my bad!” Niko said apologetically as he stepped away from the door. “I’m just looking for someone who can answer questions about our tokens, is all.”

“There is no one online,” the mannequin said eerily. “According to the data systems you are the only people in the entire facility. Please be on your way.”

Niko blatantly marked the open door’s position on the map before we continued jogging, and he marked every other open door we came across for over fifteen minutes until Selts spoke up again.

“Please be on your way toward the exit. You have not traveled toward the exit.”

Niko held up the metal square, looking at it from different angles.

“I’m sorry, it appears I don’t know how to read a map. I thought we were going to the exit.”

“You are holding the map upside down,” Selts corrected, causing Niko to facepalm as he suppressed a laugh. He seemed to be the only one enjoying himself. I envied him for being able to find fun in a dangerous situation.

“Ohh, my bad! Thanks so much, Selts! You’re the best!”

We continued jogging in the same direction for another five minutes until the mannequin spoke again.

“Halt! You have not traveled toward the exit! Immediately make your way toward the exit or be designated as hostile intruders!”

We stopped and looked toward Niko, and Gayhn gestured toward his axe.

“Whaaaat? Really? Are you sure, Selts? Because the administrator told me there was an exit to the facility built somewhere near the earth biodome.”

“There is no such exit recorded in the data systems.”

“I recall her saying it was built secretly. Oh, gosh, was she messing with me?”

Selts paused for another ten seconds.

“Protocol requires I follow existing data in the systems. You are not authorized to continue traveling in this direction. Redirect yourselves posthaste or be designated as hostile intruders in need of forceful removal.”

Niko sighed, then covered his eyes with the metal square and began sniffling.

“It’s been nice…knowing you, Selts. You’ve been a…great friend.” Then he cut the act and looked to Gayhn. “The jig’s up! Axe time!”