CHAPTER 30 GLITCHED! Wasteland_Glitched! Uplift Arc

POV - TAD

I finally felt like I was in an apocalyptic post earth System.

The dunes of trash stretched on endlessly. Most of it was unrecognisable. Crushed and ground into fragments embedded in each other. The one big difference that I couldn’t help but remark on was the complete absence of smell. Every other dump I had ever visited had been an unholy conglomeration of putridity. The sort of smells you could taste. Even see. This was more like a desert. With a dry and barren breeze that carried the faintest hints of ozone. I was exceedingly pleased I did not have to fight through a vile smell while I carefully stepped my way leftward.

I had no way of orienting myself really. There was no sun. I wondered if there was going to be a night. The cavern was roofed so I supposed that ruled out Stars as well. I was totally relying on my [Skill] to navigate. I was following a wish. A desire. Safety, or at least safer lay to my left.

As I walked my eyes were on stalks. Trying to see further than I could. I had [Observe] running full time and at full speed. And I strained my ears, listening for anything. I was vulnerable. I was weak and probably tasty. An ambush would probably one shot me. To say I was on tenterhooks was an understatement.

I struggled between completely freezing up and trying to stop dashing off madly. This was nerve wracking. I decided that the safest way was to follow along a ridgeline but just below the top. I didn’t want to silhouette myself more than I had to but I also couldn’t bear to walk down in the valley where monsters could rush down at me from both sides. I kept my head down, my eyes out and my heart in my mouth. [Prospect] led me steadily leftish. After eight nerve racking hours of tramping I started to get a firmer idea of my destination as I got closer and the gentle curve of the ridge started to seriously diverge from where I intuited I should be going. Strangely I didn't even feel the slightest bit tired. Hopefully that was the result of my fantastic STA. I popped another Energy Drink, the empty flask evaporating in my hand. Neat. I didn't need to worry about littering in the dump. Haha. Why there even was a dump when the System obviously could reabsorb waste was beyond me.

I carefully scrambled across the top of the ridge keeping as low a profile as possible. I would need to cross this next valley and up the following hill. I settled down to observe. To [Observe]. I refreshed the Skill. There was no movement in the valley. It seemed the [Trashbugs] were far and few between with the massive scale of this wasteland. But still, I kept watch. There was no rush. As well as not being tired I had noticed that I neither felt hungry or thirsty. This was bizarre. Maybe this zone was like the Orientation Tutorial I slept through. No, I would be careful and cautious and try to mitigate my fragility by flying beneath the radar so to speak.

As I watched, I experimented with [Prospect]. It was a Skill to search out things. I had already proved it could even search out concepts, like safety. What would happen if I set it to searching out treasure such as [Gold]. It spun aimlessly before settling weakly off ahead to the right back down the valley. However, there was no great pull or any definite feeling of confidence that I felt. I figured that either the [Gold] was extremely far away or it was very small. Maybe a coin or two that had been missed.

[Prospect] seemed to be all about searching out. Discovery of the new. Of the unknown. This was different to how I intuited [Delve] to be. [Delve] was about going deeper. Going in. Uncovering the hidden. It was for where you knew there was something to be found but you didn’t know exactly where. It dovetailed in with [Prospect] nicely. I really wanted to activate [Delve] as well. I would have to give up another Skill. Perhaps [Rage]. I didn’t understand [Rage] yet and it felt dangerous. Yes, I would swap it out. A Skill which inhibited my reason was not one I wanted, especially while I was so weak. There would be a stand down time Nige had said so the sooner the better. I swapped out the Skills.

All the while I was scanning for danger. For movement. For anything. And I was careful to watch the sky as well. Something swooping down from above would be disastrous. Thankfully the air seemed to be totally clear. There weren’t even bugs. Well apart from the [Trashbugs] I mean. None of the normal swarms of flies and gnats you would normally expect at a refuse station.

I was just about to set out when my [Prospect] Skill twinged hard. I hadn’t reset it to be lodestone towards safety and I had abandoned the search for [Gold]. What was it pointing me to? I moved carefully along, just under the ridge for a few hundred metres. There, perched up on top was… I squinted… a bucket. What on earth? My [Prospect] skill was going mad. Yes, it was the bucket all right. I carefully crawled up to the top and snaffled the bucket. It was plastic? And it was broken with a big crack across the bottom. Oh there was a plastic spade there too. I grabbed that as well and slid back down to my possie. I triggered [Inspect].

> Object:

Plastic Kiddie Bucket

> Status:

Broken

Unclaimed

> Description:

[Expand?]

Ohhh…ho! A unique. No wonder [Prospect] was going off. It certainly wasn’t anything to look at. It looked like trash. A broken kid’s bucket. I wondered how long it had lain there. I checked out the spade as well. Both were as grubby as anything with the accretion of prolonged exposure to the grime of the dump.

> Object:

Plastic Kiddie Spade

> Status:

Unclaimed

> Description:

[Expand?]

Yep, looked like they were a pair. The spade wasn’t broken though. It still looked pretty useless. I could see why someone would take a cursory look at it, mistake it for [Trash] grade and discard it. I expanded the description.

CHAPTER 30 GLITCHED! Wasteland

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