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With more defined search zones, the next day’s drone reconnaissance filled in the team’s map significantly. The scout drones were able to find all the target pedestals in the different challenge territories, except for two.
Starting at the first territory they had already explored, the Fire Domain; the territories had been named based upon the team’s drone observations. Clockwise after the Fire Domain, was the Poison Swamp, the Glacier, a Caustic Lake, Lightning Trees, Thunder Canyon, a City Ruin, a Dark Cavern, a Palace constructed entirely of circuit boards they dubbed the Circuit Palace, and a foggy region they were calling the Fractal Haze.
The drones took all day but had found and identified the pedestals and spheres except for the last two regions, the Circuit Palace, and Fractal Haze. Those zones had environments that kept disabling or destroying the drones. They couldn’t confirm the exact spheres for either zone, but the process of elimination gave them both the potential to have either the acid or poison sphere.
There were also a couple of unknowns regarding the skills that might be represented by the spheres. The carvings that were on the pedestal within the City Ruins looked like an atom. The spheres in that zone had something like a circuit and the sphere in the Thunder Canyon had everted parentheses symbol. With good intel and a more detailed plan to rearrange the spheres, the team went to bed early. They were ready to go at the crack of dawn the next day.
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The first day with a new plan had gone great. Everyone had capped their Fire resistances during the planning phase and Max teamed up with Xavier to deliver that sphere back to its home. Using the Speeder bike, they easily avoided the Magma beasts and hightailed it when activating the sphere began an eruption of lava from the Fire Pyramid.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial.
Objective: Heat sphere returned. (2 of 10) complete. +100XP awarded.]
They crossed over to the Poison swamp and pulled the Electricity Sphere from the pedestal seat there. Max drove fast as Xavier held tight to the bike and the sphere wedged between them. Again, the denizens of the swamp couldn’t catch them as they rocketed past on the Speeder bike. They arrived at the rest zone finding Leah and Charlie already there.
“Hey. You guys were even faster than us. How was the Caustic Lake?” Max asked. He looked at the sphere Leah was holding. It flashed bright, momentarily blinding him. Max’s capped resistance to light quickly and seamlessly restores his vision.
“Easy peasy, Max. My copy of your brother’s bike handled like a dream. All the creatures were slow enough that we were able to fly rings around them. They were just standard dungeon oozes and…. I’m guessing rust monsters; judging by the damage to the bike. One managed to get a hold of the steering vane briefly.”
Max looked over to where the bike was parked. The steering vane was almost completely shot. Its left strut was hanging by a thin section. If it weren’t connected with several cross pieces, it would likely have snapped off.
“Do you think you could get that fixed? We made it back, but if there wasn’t a wide-open salt plain for the trip back; we might’ve had to run back.” Charlie said.
“I’ll see what we can do. Repairs should be easier than a brand-new fabrication.” Max guessed. He opened the portal and hauled the bike in. After a brief conversation with Tesla, the daemon promised it would be fully functional in less than an hour. Max returned to the group as meals from the MC were being set up.
“Hey, that was a lot quicker than we thought. The damage to the bike should be fixed in an hour or so. These spheres are for skills we all have already. What say we put these things back to where they belong, and we go after the next set?” Max asked.
“No fair. I’m the only one without capped resistances to Light. I need training time.” Xavier complained with a mouthful of food. Charlie got an evil look in his eye.
“Hey, I’m sure we can all take turns shooting you with Strobe attacks until you cap. What do you think Max?” Charlie asked.
“Nailed it, Charlie. I do still need to level up my Strobe attack.” Max said. Xavier wilted under the tag team response and went back to wolfing down his food.
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Charlie and Xavier worked their way into the dark cavern carefully. The AI were up to their games again. None of the pair's extra senses seemed to be able to visualize in the darkness. They both had linked their swarms into the WorldMap OverLayer they were sharing. The limited picture they had was of the motes “feeling” the surfaces in the dark space. Both were trying to stay quiet and talked using a wireless signal.
“[Fuck, Blackout Cavern indeed.]” Xavier said.
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“[Yeah, I hope the bike will be okay. There weren’t any monsters for miles, but-]” Charlie responded, and hesitated as the Light Sphere he was carrying chose that moment to pop with its timed [Strobe].
Unlike their scanners, the walls of the cavern did reflect the sphere’s light. It multiplied the light tenfold as the strobe revealed the cavern was lined with crystals that put the famous Pulpi Geode in Spain to shame. The strobe effect bounced and split in the crystals, turning the space into a blinding kaleidoscope until the lights faded, leaving the pair in darkness again.
“[Shit, my eyes. My light resistance is almost capped now.]” Xavier spoke.
“[Lemme try something…damn it. No good. I tried to mimic the wavelength of the Light Sphere’s strobe with my own. How the hell does that make any sense?]” Charlie said.
“[Hmm, the crystals must be smart matter…super stealthy smart matter at that. Gives me some ideas, Vantablack with fractal dimples to absorb light and even radar. Hey, this is stupid. Let me update our WorldMap the same way the drones operate.” Xavier said.
The WorldMap bloomed with detail, as the crystal cavern became visible. The sparkly surfaces quickly dulled into greyscale colors.
“[What’d you do?"]” Charlie asked.
“[I’m tying my memory skill of the cave’s image during the flash and geo-locking it. I grey-scaled it, so you know it's not a live image. Hey…. there’s the pedestal, two o’clock! Way down into that wedge!]” Xavier exclaimed. Xavier was startled as Charlie yelled out loud instead of transmitting.
“Look sharp, kid! The swarm’s tactile picture’s got hidden movement!” Charlie’s voice echoed with the ringing of his sword impacting…something. Xavier repainted the map to color in the swarm’s contact points as a bright priority on the OverLayer.
“FUCK!” Xavier screamed and dove to the side as a crystalline insectoid loomed over him. He scrambled sideways, fumbling to ignite his lightsabers. The room seemed to come alive as far too many of the crystal surfaces began to move.
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Max swerved as quickly as he could between the metallic trees. Leah clung tightly to the back of the Speeder bike. The storm clouds above flashed with lightning. Far too often one would drop from the heavens and strike a tree.
This wouldn’t be hard to avoid as long as Max stayed low, but the damn trees would bounce the lightning into a complex pattern of arcing chains. Max had avoided most of the arcs, but the bike had already taken several hits.
“Count your blessings, Max. If we were walking and grounded, those bolts would hit more often and harder!” Leah yelled over the crashing of electrical discharges.
“I don’t know how much the bike can handle. That last grazing bolt fried the gyro stabilizers. I’m trying to fly it without it but be ready to bail if I lose it.” Max said through gritted teeth. The smell of ozone was overpowering to his sensitive nose and his hair was rising as the static charge was building again. A system notice popped up, blocking his view.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial.
Objective: Light sphere returned. (3 of 10) complete. +100XP awarded.]
Max waved it away and focused on driving the damaged bike.
“Max! There’s the pedestal. Get close and drop me! I’ll swap the spheres and activate the pedestal. Keep moving and I’ll jump on back when I’m done!” Leah screamed over the crashing lightning. Max swooped in a curve, lining up on the pedestal. There was a ring of metallic hedges surrounding the thing that glowed with a static charge.
“Hey. I’m going to try something. I hope this isn’t a mistake!” Max yelled over his shoulder as Leah was preparing to bail.
“Hey, wait-” Leah started to ask, but Max had already reached out a paw and discharged his second-tier skill that evolved from [Shocking Touch]. His [Arc] skill sent a stream of charged particles guided by a coherent beam into the lighting hedge. He pushed as much power as he could and then shut it down.
The hedge ignited in a storm of chained lightning which peeled outward in three different directions. Max grinned. He had hoped to discharge the building eruption and had succeeded. His models weren’t certain, but it seemed that chaining usually didn’t rebound, making them both safer…for the moment.
“Fuck. Bad dog!” Leah yelled and leaped from the bike down to the pedestal. Max did a double take, but Leah was smiling as she landed atop the pedestal. He grinned back as he struggled to control the bike.
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Max and Leah trudged back to the rest zone building on foot. Leah had succeeded in trading spheres and activating the pedestal, but as the forest of lightning trees erupted their escaping bike took one strike too many.
[Quest: Elemental Alignment - the elemental spheres need to be arranged in their correct locations. Fix the misalignment. Carrying the spheres is a burden but must be done by hand. Iron will and fortitude are required to complete this trial.
Objective: Shock sphere returned. (4 of 10) complete.]
They had landed roughly beyond the electrical storm, but the bike was out of commission. Max had consigned it into his tesseract. At Tesla’s urging he also gathered some broken lightning tree branches and bushes for their captive compile to serve as rare material stock.
The dungeon had severely limited its menu for the rest zone matter compiler. Raw materials needed to be scavenged. Tesla promised repairs as soon as possible. The pair made it back just before the dark cycle.
Leah was looking haggard as they entered the door. The new sphere was not a resistance any of the team had yet…radiation. Her face was sallow, and she looked sick. The inside of the rest building was a cacophony of noise. Charlie and Xavier were both there already and looking as miserable as Leah. Xavier held a sphere that emitted a constant stream of annoying sounds with occasional blasts of high-decibel punishment.
“Take this quick!” Leah said, pushing her sphere to Max. She quickly ran to the bathroom. Max felt the heat coming off the sphere immediately as it penetrated deeply rather than simply burning.
[New skill unlocked: Resist Radiation 1 - Augmented subdermal radiation reflectors can be trained for improved resistance. Augmentation Healing skill must assist to eliminate accumulation of radiation damage. Be aware - elimination can be…messy. Be sure to replenish your system with electrolytes and a hearty meal.]
“Oh my god. Tonight’s training is going to be nasty.” Max groaned.
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