It was sometime around midnight as we arrived to the industrial area west of the Mayor’s mansion. In my haste to save the Mascot from being eaten by whatever kind of Skinstealer Noah Sullivan had turned into, I hadn’t yet checked out the last two items we’d looted from the Regional Director.
Around us were warehouses in various states of repair, as well as the remains of dead construction worker zombies. Normally, corpses didn’t stay around for long, as someone always came along to devour them, but it seemed this area was less populated by such scavengers. At least for now. The Humanbus and Man-Eater Metro also seemed to avoid the area. I wondered if it was because the Mayor was here or due to some other territorial World Boss.
I rolled up the side of a lumber yard’s main building on my board, watching the abandoned trucks nearby for any sign of movement. As I landed atop the building after my gravity defying trick, I dismissed the longboard.
Bee alighted next to me, bringing Panda with her.
“Which way from here?” she asked.
I pulled out the Soul Compass. It was indicating north, but the pointer was moving a lot.
Panda looked down at it from atop Bee’s shoulder. “He must be close.”
To the north of us lay the depot of some delivery company which had turned into a dungeon, a salvage yard full of cars, and a large truck stop with a gas station and grill. It seemed that one of these three places was our next destination.
“Current Condition,” I said and a pop-up appeared.
Gambit’s Condition
Health: Non-Goodn’t / Isn’t it Great
Mana: keyhole
image [https://i.imgur.com/kOAmCMv.png]
“How long will it take for me to heal to full?” I asked Panda. It seemed that I’d lost a lot more health from the Fiendblood Sickness than I realized, if, after all this time, I still hadn’t returned to full through natural recovery.
“You’re at about 91.293% health right now, so it should only be 2 more hours.”
“I can’t wait that long.”
“You could always use your Undermine ability,” he suggested. “It’s no longer on cooldown.”
‘Under.mine(Virtue)’ x
Plugin Ability
Virtue is a castle of sand, and all it takes is a strong enough wave to undermine it from below.
Ram your index finger into another Player’s body to increase their Insanity Gauge by 30%, while you gain 15% in return.
If the Player reaches 100% as a result, they immediately explode and heal you by 30% of your max Health. All nearby Players, upon witnessing this, incur a 15% increase to their Insanity Gauges as well.
Cooldown: 10 hours
image [https://i.imgur.com/He1k5bP.png]
“Good point. I can use it on one of the people tagging along with Noah.”
“I thought you were against Gambit killing other Players,” Bee remarked.
“At this point, what does it matter?” the plushie replied ambivalently. “They’re going to die either way, so might as well give some meaning to their deaths.”
“Let’s check the Tarantula Wig and Observer’s Eyeball,” I decided. “Then we’re going to kill the Mayor.”
Bee brought out the Eyeball first and I inspected it. It was made of pitted dark-grey stone, but emanated a faint tingle when I held it in my hands.
‘Observer’s Eyeball’ x
This isn’t an actual eyeball of the Great Observer, as that would be classified as a weapon of mass destruction. It’s not even the eyeball of one of its countless spawn and offspring. It is however the eyeball of a Spider Director, who was once in charge of a Regional Branch of the Broadcast Department.
This particular Spider was known to be cunning and always a step ahead. He owed much of his power to his magical eyeballs, gifted to him by the Master of his Department.
Target a living creature in your line-of-sight and become able to view the world through their eyes.
Lasts until the target dies or a new target is tagged.
Does not work on targets that have no eyes.
Weight: 2 Pandas
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
image [https://i.imgur.com/lAGlYw6.png]
“It’s basically like my Rootkit,” I replied. It was still locked onto Bee, along with the Manhunter Badge.
‘Manhunter Badge’ x
“I’ve killed before and I’ll do it again!”
- you, probably
While this Badge is pinned to your clothes, you can mark another Player in your line-of-sight and always know which direction they are in, no matter the distance between you.
The effect lasts until your target dies or you switch to another.
Weight: 0.3 Pandas
image [https://i.imgur.com/ArrFSEI.png]
“You should keep it,” I told her.
“Okay,” she replied, before clearly marking me with it. After shaking it, half of the orb turned into a projection of the world as seen through my eyes, but distorted with a fisheye lens.
“That’s weird,” I muttered, looking at it only to see my own viewpoint but smaller. The effect was recursive until the depiction became so tiny that it was impossible to distinguish.
After stowing away the Eyeball, Bee brought out a toupée made from the bristly black hairs of the Regional Director.
“He only dropped one of these, so only one of us can unlock its power,” she said.
‘Tarantula Wig’ x
There’s nothing more devastating than a Tarantula with Male Pattern Baldness. To them, anyway. Everyone else just finds it hilarious, especially when they discover the shoddy attempts to cover it up.
You know what you have to do.
Weight: 1 Panda
image [https://i.imgur.com/ozo72Sg.png]
“Didn’t even realize the Director was balding,” Panda muttered.
“Meow.”
“What’d he say?”
“It’s genuinely too horrific to translate,” I replied.
I was fairly confident that I wouldn’t gain anything amazing from it and I still felt that Bee could use some extra firepower, which it’d hopefully grant her, given that it came from a level 40 boss.
“You should use it,” I told her.
“Are you sure?”
“Definitely. Besides, it’s probably some magic bullshit that I wouldn’t be able to use.”
Bee put the toupée on her head and immediately shared the results.
Choose your reward! x
Hah! You look stupid!
Pick one of the options:
‘Moth Master’ | ‘Crafty Spinner’ | ‘Killing Thread’
‘Moth Master’ x
Passive
If you’re wondering whether this skill is worth it, then we’re right there with you.
Enables you to control all non-intelligent Moths in your vicinity using rudimentary commands.
‘Crafty Spinner’ x
Ability
Where is all that web coming from?
Trust me, you don’t want to know.
You can create flimsy objects in your hands out of spiderwebs, with the maximum complexity being half your own body mass.
Mana Cost: 1
‘Killing Thread’ x
Ability
It’s a shame that all spiders in your world weren’t already equipped with this ability. A walk through a cobweb would suddenly become a much different experience and our attempts to eradicate your pathetic species would’ve been expedited significantly.
You can create an extremely thin but highly durable thread capable of cutting through steel and carrying up to ten times your own weight, but which drains your Mana every second it is active.
Mana Drain: 2
image [https://i.imgur.com/gOmwWYs.png]
image [https://i.imgur.com/T0Ji9Nl.png]
image [https://i.imgur.com/6lNDYsd.png]
image [https://i.imgur.com/QBIKyDB.png]
“Depending on what qualifies as a non-intelligent moth, the first option could be quite useful,” Panda remarked. “It also could work with Moth Malady that calls moths to your location.”
“You have to pick ‘Killing Thread’,” I pleaded.
Bee grinned, then swung her right hand in a pinching gesture. Immediately, a truck nearby was cleaved in half.
“Holy shit!” I exclaimed.
“Me-ow...”
“Lordie thinks you’re scary. But don’t take it personal, he’s just afraid of spiders.”
“It feels really good, but I need to get more Mana. Even with the 25% from Moth Mania, I’m only able to sustain this thread for 19 seconds.”
She shared her Status screen with me, just to emphasize:
Level 14
‘Bee’
Moth Magician x
---This bar is red, because it represents the sins of mankind---
STATS
Health: 6
Stamina: 9
Armor: 8
Carry Weight: 60
Top Speed: 13,5 km/h
Mana: 38
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 3
Dexterity: 4
Intelligence: 15
Vitality: 3
Athleticism: 3
Perception: 3
Wisdom: 10
Defense: 4
ABILITIES
CORE
PASSIVES
‘Beetle Breeze’
‘Beetle Barrier’
‘Beetle Blastoff’
‘Furniture Fortification’
‘Puzzle Lock’
‘Mind Trap’
‘Beetle Brawler Bomber’
‘Killing Thread’
‘Moth Mania’
‘Moth Malady’
‘Moth Mnemonic’
‘Beetle-Moth Missile’
‘Wayward Minor’
‘Inanimate Voices’
‘Insanity’
‘Outcast’
‘Beetle Brawn’
‘Beetle Battlemage’
image [https://i.imgur.com/XFRlykn.png]
“I think you should put more points into Defense and Vitality,” Panda advised.
“She won’t need to if she can just kill anything before it’s able to harm her,” I said. “Alright, with that out of the way, let’s go find Noah before he eats our new friend.”
“New friend?” Bee asked.
“He’s talking about the Otter Mascot. For some reason he’s obsessed about befriending a mascot character…”
“Let’s go!” I exclaimed eagerly, hopping down off the roof.
I landed firmly on the squishy soles of my Schmonic Boots, cratering the compacted earth thanks to my quintupled body weight. My Skater Boy ability was back on cooldown, but it wasn’t far to wherever the Mayor was hiding.