Ellisandra led Fuzzball, Krypdyr, and Zeff as they fought through the tunnel beneath Saltwatch. She breathed another cone of shredding steel in the narrow tunnel, churning that section of the corpse-vine into bloody mulch. She absorbed the blood as they continued to run. As they neared the bend in the cave, Nate flew into view, slamming into the wall, blood soaked into his armor. Zeff helped him to his feet as Krypdyr cut the grabbing vines away. Three of the guardians ran into view being chased by the ever-hungry Terry.
Nate’s face grew serious, “Terry, to me! Fuzzball, I need some healing. Zeff, Krypdyr, and Ellie, try to keep those guardians away from me while Fuzzball heals me. I have a stupid idea.”
“Your stupid ideas have always worked so far, so why not?” Fuzzball said as he sacrificed his own health to top off Nate’s using his Self Sacrifice power. Being Apprentice Rank meant that Fuzzball had much more health than Nate and refilling his health left Fuzzball with plenty left over to fight the guardians.
Terry leapt over the combat, charging right into Nate, immediately oozing out into his heavy armor. Before he pulled over his cowl, Nate motioned for Fuzzball to help the others in their increasingly difficult conflict. “May Chell watch over me for this one.”
Nate ran straight for the wider open space that held the core of the corpse-vine. The ceiling of rooty soil was around 25 feet above the ground where the core rested within thick coiled vines. The core looked like a hundred human hearts stitched together with vines. The aura coming from it was oppressive, and Nate could feel its gradually weakening Adept Rank. It was heavily injured from all the damage they had been doing along the way, but it was far from dead. He dove to the side as heavy vines lashed out at him, his luck holding as they came a hair’s breadth from striking him.
His friends were in trouble, and he could hear the cries of pain and frustration as they kept the guardians occupied. So with a steadying breath, Nate leapt high into the air over the core and opened a horizontal portal. The other he opened ten feet over the original, falling through the portal tunnel he’d created. He could only hold the portals open for ten seconds, but he figured that was all he needed.
He fell faster and faster, building momentum. Vines tried to lash at him, but could not damage the portals or sufficiently anticipate Nate’s erratically fast fall.
He closed the portal and triggered his Meteoric Landing, crushing into the corpse-vine core. A flash of white pain sent him into unconsciousness.
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An incredibly loud noise echoed through the tunnel moments before the guardians unraveled around the rest of the party. The vines shriveled around them, and they cheered before realizing that their party chat had been cut off. Zeff noticed it first and sprinted deeper into the tunnel. Nate lay in a five foot deep crater wearing his crafted leathers. Around him was a pile of human hearts dissolving into motes of astral light. Fuzzball gently picked him up and his aura got to work gently healing everyone.
“Did Terry die again?” Zeff asked as he looked around the tunnel, “And how do we get out of here?”
Fuzzball shifted the roots into a ladder and they all sat in the middle of Saltwatch several minutes later, taking a breather as they waited for Nate to awaken.
“That’s going to sting for a while,” Nate groaned as he sat up. He set aside his notifications for the moment, though he did notice the timer that had once again begun counting down, though it now showed 20 hours instead of 24.
“What did you do back there?” Krypdyr asked.
“I’ll give you the details later, but I must say this was a triumph. I’m making a note here; huge success!”
“We did okay,” Ellie said, realizing that she was the only one not covered in blood and using her power to remove as much as possible from the others.
“No no,” Nate said earnestly, “it’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.”
“I agree,” Zeff said, “and we learned a few more things to add to the strategy book.”
“Can we camp here?” Nate asked as he lay back over crunchy shriveled vines, “It’s like playing in a pile of freshly raked leaves, but across the whole town!” He noticed a steelbeak wandering into town, “And I can roast up some dinner.”
As Ellisandra dragged the steelbeak to the small area on the edge of town where they cleared the vines into piles, Nate looted the corpse-vine. He received 15 platinum pieces and a new magic item.
Grappler Whip. Type: Light Melee Weapon. Weight: 2 lbs. Value: 500 gold pieces. This 10-foot long vine can be used as a whip. You can expend magic to increase the length up to 30 feet. You can mentally command the whip to grab any non-smooth surface or to wrap around enemies to grapple them.
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“Anyone have a leather fedora?” Nate asked as he reverently retrieved the whip from his inventory. It was deep red like the corpse-vine and he could feel the thrum of magic. The end was barbed with tiny thorns.
“What's a fedora?” Zeff asked.
“It's a sort of brimmed hat worn by one of the heroes from my world.” Nate plucked a platinum piece from his inventory and looked it over. It was about twice the size of a gold piece and was a shiny silvery hue.
“I got fifteen of these from the corpse-vine,” he pulled eleven more and handed each of them 3 platinum pieces. “You’ve all more than earned your share of the loot. Anyone want the Grappler Whip?”
Everyone shook their heads or verbally declined, suddenly very interested in looking at the platinum now in their hands. “Good, cause I kinda wanted it for me. Think of the possibilities. I could Spiderman my way through a city with tall buildings using this!”
“There are a lot of random heroes in your world, aren’t there?” Krypdyr asked as he tore into a chunk of roasted steelbeak.
“You have no idea! But honestly it’s usually the villains that make most heroes interesting. There’s a man who dresses like a bat and fights a crazy killer clown, a guy obsessed with penguins, and a large crocodile man, among others. Batman is interesting because he refuses to kill the villains. The Punisher is interesting for the opposite reason.”
“Does Spiderman dress like a spider like Batman dressing like a bat?” Zeff asked.
“Sometimes, yeah, but usually no.”
“Why do these heroes have such stupid names?” Elli asked between bites.
“Hey! Their names aren’t stupid, just a little too on-the-nose.”
“I could call myself Plantman,” Fuzzball said with a teasing smile.
“ Ha ha. I think that’s a Megaman villain.” Nate said as he stood. “I’m going to take a quick jog around the village, make sure there aren’t any stragglers. I have a ton of interface messages to go through anyway.”
Acrobatics has increased from Novice 26 to Novice 30. Total Fatigue has increased by 4. Progression to Level 27 at 44%.
Terry has chosen to sacrifice himself to save you. Your connection with your familiar has increased. Terry’s respawn time has decreased by four hours.
Quest: Corpse-Vine complete. Rewards have been added to your inventory. Your random magic item is a Transmuter Die.
Nate jogged back to the campfire and pulled a palm sized four-sided die from his inventory and rolled it in his hand. Images were carved into each of the faces: an arm curled in a bicep flex, a humanoid shape running with lines indicating speed, a suit of full plate armor, and a claw with thick, wide claws.
Transmuter Die. Type: Ranked Wondrous Item. Weight: 0.5 lbs. Value: 10,000 gp. This object is a die with a number of sides relative to your Rank, beginning with 4 sides at Novice and increasing by 2 per rank improvement to a maximum of 14 sides at Master Rank. Below are the currently available faces. Once rolled, the effect is applied to a familiar of your choice. The effect lasts for 10 minutes and has an 8 hour cooldown.
Armored: Your familiar gains heavy armor, or their existing armor improves.
Burrow: Your familiar gains the ability to burrow into the ground.
Speed: Your familiar gains a significant increase in speed.
Strength: Your familiar gains a significant increase in strength.
“Oh, this is awesome!” Nate said, “I can’t wait to show Terry. Remind me that I owe him a good sized manifestation portal for his amazing work.”
“I’m sure that he’ll appreciate that,” Ellie said. Zeff used his Pyrokinesis to start up their cook fire and Nate continued reading as he checked on the steelbeak slab sizzling on the pan that he’d spiced from a bandolier he now kept near the top of his inventory. He received a single iron coin among the items looted from the steelbeak. He was confused as to why until he continued reading his notifications.
You have defeated a foe two ranks higher than your own. This experience has improved your Interface’s abilities and unlocked your first Title. Your looting power now has a chance to drop coins when looting monsters, and can interchangeably swap coin types as they reach the threshold, such as converting 100 iron coins into 1 copper. Additionally, you have unlocked a new menu: Titles and Achievements.
Nate sat straighter as he read the last sentence. He mentally navigated to his new menu and checked his title first. His default title was Luckomancer and had no inherent benefits. He read the other option before applying it.
Rank Tyrannist. Your continuous willingness to ignore rank disparity has bled into your abilities. Your attacks and powers ignore the inherent resistances possessed by ranks higher than your own against lower ranks.
“Fantastic!” Nate said as he looked through his list of achievements. The list was fairly long, and there wasn't a part that showed any as yet unclaimed ones, so Nate would have to try new things to see how getting new ones worked. What pleased him greatly is that each achievement had a small reward of varying sorts.
Sky Diver Achievement Unlocked! You have survived your entry into Terra. Reward? 10 iron pieces.
Novice Explorer Achievement Unlocked! You have explored 5 buildings. Reward? 5 iron pieces.
Novice Adventurer Achievement Unlocked! You have completed your first quest. Reward? 5 Novice Healing Potions.
Most of the list had small rewards similar to the top listed ones. A few, however, were better and more recent.
High Jumper Achievement Unlocked. You have leapt at least 50 feet above the ground. Reward? Acrobatics Skill Book.
Plantbane Achievement Unlocked! You have slain an enormous or sentient plant creature. Reward? Vinebow.
Galad has entered your communication range.
Before he could retrieve the Vinebow, Nate sent Galad a chat request just before he burst into their camp, very out of breath. After several moments to catch his breath, he said, “Airship incoming to Gronwood! Merchant flag, but they may be pirates!”