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“Max, you guard Leah while she works the lock. Xavier and I will patrol the hall to take care of any spawning mobs.” Charlie called.
Leah dropped to her knees and inspected the lock. Her daemon Houdini and her trap-disarming skill had been key in opening many doors at this new level. Max recalled the notice when they had entered.
[New Quest Unlocked: “The Myriad Paths” - Navigating the myriad paths requires skill in opening the way and determining the right course.]
The level was a twisted, Escher-like, maze of corridors with multitudes of doors. All the doors had locks, some mechanical, some electronic, and some trapped. Max was tense as Leah appraised the latest blockade. Some doors opened to monsters, but most only revealed yet another path filled with more damn doors.
“What’s the prognosis, Leah?” Max asked.
“This one has some interesting craftsmanship. It's like the architect mixed medieval dungeon aesthetics with futuristic security tech. But fear not, I've got the touch.” Leah said.
“You sure?” Max asked.
“Picture this, Max: a five-pin tumbler lock with a pressure-sensitive plate hooked up to a trap mechanism. One mistake and that false ceiling above us will likely rain down all manner of badness.” Max took a step back looking up.
“Ah, that sounds intense. Are you sure you can handle it?” Max asked.
“Max, my daemon Houdini has taught me well. This lock is like a puzzle, and I know all the pieces like they are old friends by now. I got this. You just get ready for what comes next. Right now, we are about 30% with monster surprises when popping open a new venue.” Leah said, cracking her knuckles. She had totally sunk into the role of lock and trap master, but Max was still the better fighter.
Max flexed his extra blade arms and scanned all around using his extended senses. At least this latest avenue was likely opening new territory. The central open cavern with its chaotic bridges and stairs had been a big waste of dead ends. The team was finally expanding the map. He heard the familiar click and snap as Leah disabled the trap and opened the lock.
“Bad roll of the dice, Max! Incoming!” Leah yelled as she dodged to the side. Max was ready as a hoard of synthetic monsters poured out of the opening door. Max signaled Charlie and Xavier for backup and charged forward.
Max laughed at the latest offering. Zombies! And the slow type at that; they weren't a real challenge for him. His blades sliced and his claws tore. He used his laser generously but avoided poison as it was unlikely to work on the simulated dead people.
Leah picked off distant enemies with her explosive darts. By the time Charlie and Xavier arrived, the fight was done. The path was open, and the monsters were in pieces. Max’s notifications hit him.
[Tireless +1, Tireless reaches level 10, Skill Cap reached +100 XP]
[Precision +1, Precision reaches level 10, Skill Cap reached +100 XP, New Skill unlocked - Ambidextrous]
[Body Skill - Ambidextrous 1: Augmentation synth-balancing removes deficiencies of offhand dexterity. Advancement improves double or more simultaneous actions.]
Max eyed the monster remains critically. He didn’t see anything interesting to scrounge and learn from, just the basics - robotic synth muscles with sub-dermal armor, low-end sensors, and commercial-grade power cells and processors. There was nothing new from the monsters, no special attacks, no new weapon forms, and no real challenge. Max sighed in disappointment. He coaxed his sensor swarm to sweep into the new territory.
“Hey, Max! Leah! You didn’t save any for us. Glory hogs.” Charlie called out.
The team stepped through the newly opened portal. Their shared maps: combined and expanded with data as their motes and drones explored the way. Everyone exchanged hopeful looks, as the territory grew, and details emerged.
“Another rest zone!” Xavier exclaimed. “Oh boy! Dibs on showers.” He spoke. The team ran forward. This was the sixth rest zone on the level. It had another damn exit but again no keys, no chips, and no door to the next level down. It was just another nexus of paths and never-ending doors.
Leah collapsed on a sofa and Charlie made a beeline for the MC to start compiling food. Xavier was already running to the bathroom and stripping off his smart suit. Max checked the maps they had made.
The first level took only two days. The second had taken a week and a half. They had already spent two weeks unlocking paths and expanding the confusing map of this level. Several key doors had required dungeon “tolls” to pass, pulling from the team's limited supply of novel devices.
Charlie had already exhausted his supply. Leah had too, although she had made a few interesting traps that satisfied the toll gates, and she had ideas for more. Max had worked through almost half the gifts his family had given him. Xavier at least seemed happy, unloading new devices on demand. Several, like Charlie’s still unused frag grenades, weren’t accepted due to their similarity to licensed devices; but the team had passed many gates.
Max shook his head. Despite the pain of parting with a rapidly diminishing stockpile their prized inventions, they were still faced with too many paths, too many locked doors, and no terminus in sight.
Max commandeered the rest zone entertainment hologram generator and projected the map the team had made. He highlighted the rest zones and all the toll gates. He scowled at the map’s twisted shape. There were still many blocked doors that the team hadn’t been able to open and a few toll gates as well.
Charlie brought trays to Max and Leah, heaped with steaming food and cold drinks. His smart suit was already transformed into loose sweat clothes, his gear piled up by the MC. Leah grabbed herself a soda and popped the top off.
“What do you think? We got four major avenues opened up here. I learned some new hacking techniques with my daemon in Dream Time last night. I advanced my intrusion skill to 3. I think maybe I can take another crack at the electronic security locks for doors 1-12, 2-3, and 5-22.”
“That’s awesome, Max! I really think 2-3 was blocking a whole new section.” Leah said.
“It’s more than that, Leah. Look at the map. I’m seeing a pattern here. This dungeon is like a Möbius strip twisted not once but four times. Each loop generates trailers curling in the golden ratio. There are voids here, here, and here; inside the Möbius loops. This one over here is filled, that’s where we came into the level.”
Max painted the map with his mathematical framework, showing his targets and the sweeping guidelines provided by his mathematical analysis.
“Holy crap, Max. Did you cap out your decode and pattern skills? That’s awesome.”
“I guess that I must have. See right there. I’ll eat my tail if those other three voids don’t contain either the exit or our exit cards.” Max said.
“I think you’re right, Max. Veering off into the maze won’t help us. Those targets are obvious now that you showed us. Let’s get a good night's sleep, then we will focus on breaking those damn doors.” Charlie said, handing Max a beer.
Max took the beer and clinked bottles. The sounds of Xavier singing off-key in the showers escaped from the bathroom. Max settled back, sipping his beer, and recalling the doors and the difficult locks blocking their way. Mal pinged him.
“[Max, I’m afraid your theory and analysis is quite false on at least one point.]” She messaged him. Max's ears flicked in annoyance.
“[How so, Mal?]” He asked tersely.
“[None of your skills helped you find that pattern. You did all of that on your own. Frankly, your mental skills are lagging because you haven’t been fully utilizing them.]” Mal said with firm certainty.
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The world was alive. The creature was small but fast. It sensed nearby heat and scurried closer. Its greedy carbon whiskers extended and touched the hot source of power. The micron-sized creature absorbed the power, its antennae twitching with fear.
The Mi-go was the lowest tier of life on the devastated ruins. A tortured mix of nanotechnology, biological matter, and alien energy transducers. This one knew the plains were dangerous and it was prey…for everything.
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The Mi-go thermovore absorbed the last remnants of heat from the blasted corpse, a higher-tier creature. The Mi-go couldn’t categorize beyond food or danger. The plains were filled with heat sources.
The Mi-go twitched and scurried. The desire for food fought against fear of the open spaces. It scuttled under the great piles of cyclopean blocks that were the only feature of the ruined landscape. The Mi-go was lucky.
A large feral insectile beast struck a second too late. The Mi-go was under cover, and it crashed against the too narrow crack it had slipped into. The abomination screeched, although the Mi-go couldn’t hear other than by feeling the vibrations.
The mote-sized synthetic bug dug itself deeper. It didn’t see the greater flying monster that crashed atop the large insect and tore it apart. The Mi-go was focused. Another heat source beaconed. Its energy store was already full. This windfall could potentially be enough for it to estivate safely underground for weeks.
The hot-sparking device called to the Mi-go; the spillage of power drew it relentlessly. The little thing hesitated as it encountered another Mi-go swarmer. The Mi-go did not recognize each other as kin, even less so as this one’s breed was a magnetivore.
The Mi-go could have scuttled to the far side. The heat source and the magnetite were not together in the ruined device's exposed innards. But that was not the way of the R’lyeh plain.
The little thing sprouted its spikes. The ignorant magnetivore was unaware and too late as the thermovore struck. A pair of pincers pinned it as its dak spike pierced its neural stalk.
The Mi-go shuddered as its cellular automata riddled the creature's electrical and fluidic paths. It spliced the other Mi-go’s brain cluster into its own and convulsed. Power and a new sense of nearby magnetic energy joined its sense of heat.
The Mi-go clutched its prize and began to merge. The Mi-go grew. As its larger and improved mind cleared, it focused. The ruined device still sparked and burned. It greedily ate, the rumbling in its ever-larger belly could never be sated.
It needed more. With its expanded sensing, and improved awareness, it realized that the cracks in the plains were alive with crawling other Mi-go and larger predators. The creature locked onto a smaller cluster of Mi-go. Heat and magnetic materials abounded, but its former brethren were collecting it and concentrating it.
A new plan formed in its small mind. It began to stalk the ruins, looking for its next meal…other Mi-go, which were superior to scraps.
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Max gasped as he broke free from the vivid dream. His heart was racing, and the hunger of the little beast resonated with his own. His sword arms were still developing, the edges extending, and the heavy needs of the augmentations systems stole his calories.
“[Max, are you alright? Your vital signs are abnormal, and you were talking in your sleep.]” Mal sent to him.
“[It was nothing, just a dream. What did I say?]” Max asked.
“[It was very strange; unlike any I have on record. You kept saying Uxlorian od. Naxeloth voqer mithra, shalxathor ulthar. Over and over. Was that something from your dream?]” Mal said.
Max’s hackles rose as he felt a feeling like ice racing up his spine. He knew those words. He’d observed Mal muttering something similar often enough when his alter consciousness was monitoring her covertly.
He tensed and prepared himself. His Dreamtime training with Captain Cypher had provided some untested Intrusion attacks designed to seize control systems. He didn’t know if they would work on his internal processes, within his system, but his faith in Mal had eroded as they got deeper into the Labyrinth. The next few seconds could be dangerous.
“[Mal…we need to talk.]” He said, locking down his external sensor feeds and isolating them both within a simulation-space’s isolation cage. If things went sour, maybe he could establish dominance over his own AI.
“[Max, what are you doing? What’s wrong?]” Mal asked, concerned with Max’s change to her access freedom.
In answer, Max shared a VR scene, a representation of Mal. She stalked through his augmentation systems and hovered over the kernel of code that connected Max to the Tesseract. She muttered the same gibberish she had just repeated over and over until some notice or event called her away.
He flashed scene after scene. He had collected several over the weeks of their delve. He watched her closely as she shrunk away from the replays. He was ready if she struck out at him.
Max felt like an ass. As he prepared to strike her down, she moved…she collapsed on the virtual ground crying hysterically and moaning. Max shuffled his attack sequence away and reached out virtually to hold her.
It took a long time to calm her and talk about it. She couldn’t recall doing what she saw but couldn’t deny it. She replayed Max’s response to the dream, his sleep talking, and it was eerily similar to the recordings of her.
Max thought long and hard as he tried to calm her. They had been pumping a lot of power into the Tesseract. Over the last week, they had expanded its volume greatly. He could sense the subtle back and forth of quantum encrypted signals, sluggishly passing between him and the spatial device.
“[Mal, I think the Tesseract may be influencing you…and me. We need to figure this out. I think we should watch each other for now. I won’t get rid of Dad’s device. It’s too important and I was actually thinking about how to use it to win this game. None of this will matter if it turns out I’ve got a snake by the tail.]” Max said.
“[I don’t know Max. It still scares me a little. What’s left of Casita is terrified of what might happen, but I can’t remember why.]” Mal said, shuddering.
“[Mal, we’re together now. I wasn’t there for you…for Casita…when you- …when she was trapped in the Tesseract. But now we can face it. I will do everything I can to understand what’s going on. From this point on you and I will be spending every night working this out. I promise. Do you think you can help?]” Max asked.
Mal didn’t answer but hugged him instead until her trembling subsided.
“[Ok, Max. No more jumping at shadows. I can fight. I’m with you.]” Mal said.
Max dissolved the virtual sandbox and fully woke up, splitting off a multitask alter ego to watch both himself and Mal for any strange behavior.
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“That did it. Get ready!” Max said. He had flooded the lock with confusing signals, overwhelming its limited ability to recognize and respond. He’d managed to bypass its logic completely while it was confused and force a surge of power through its actuators. The lock bolts pulled free, and he turned the handle before the lock could re-engage it.
[Intrusion +1, Intrusion reaches level 3]
Max looked back. Charlie was ready with his sword already dancing with energetic discharges. Xavier was next with a pair of mean-looking attack drones that hovered over his shoulders. Leah was facing the corridor, ready with her spetsdods.
The group had backtracked to expose the hidden void areas. The way had more difficult doors and meaner creatures. Wandering mob beasts had been far too frequent in this section and they couldn’t let their guard down. This large portal seemed like the final door to one of the missing sections.
Max pulled the heavy door wide, and Charlie glided in, his senses thrummed. The team’s combined swarm swiftly flowed around him into the space. Xavier and his drones followed. Leah spun and went next. Max pulled the door closed behind them, concentrating on the quickly building WorldMap.
No charging monsters. That was a change. Normally, unopened territory was almost a guarantee of a fight. The massive hall opened wide. Miraculously there wasn’t a single damn door to be found.
“[Shared comms only, guys! We got a big one up ahead.]” Charlie said as the WorldMaps combined and revealed the huge creature roaming in the opening cavern. The room descended, looking like a school auditorium. Instead of a teacher’s podium, the stage had a large, fenced area. The beast had no eyes, but it was flicking its long tongue out into the air in agitation. It had a huge reptilian maw, six legs, and a tail that ended in a ball of blades.
“[Guys, stay quiet and follow my lead with your swarming motes. We need to funnel the air towards us so we’re downwind.]” Max sent, starting the motes dancing. With the size of that thing, they would need every edge they could get.
Max was surprised as the group silently and quickly surrounded the stage. His pack was getting better. He grinned. His Monster Hunter quest was about to advance.
The team rained thunder and lightning down upon the blind beast. Charlie’s focused sonic blast struck like a hammer while Max pierced it with his grappler kunai and delivered a jolt of shocking electricity as they struck home. Exploding darts stitched up the beast's hind legs, leaving craters in their wake.
The beast spun and thrashed dangerously. It snapped out, its reflexes exceeding everyone in the group. Charlie screamed as the jaws closed on his leg and he was pulled skyward. Max yanked his kunai out and leaped high with his blade arms flexed like a scorpion, but Leah was closer.
She had rolled into the space and spun upward right next to the blind dragon-like monster. Her spear was out and humming with power. She jabbed forward from eight feet away. Max blinked in surprise as the spear stretched and extended an extra two feet to sink into its neck.
The beast whirled, flinging Charlie away into the rising stands. Leah stumbled and rolled as the spear was pulled away. She gasped as the bladed ball descended. In her grounded position, she couldn’t avoid it. Max was in the air, seeing it come in his ramped thought speed, but unable to change course.
The blade ball slammed home…rebounding off Xavier’s spherical Air Shield as he stepped in front of it, taking the hit to protect Leah. The foglets explosively detonated as the ball smashed it and then into Xavier. A blade pierced his bicep, but its momentum had been stalled, thanks to the defensive skill.
The boy grabbed the tail and scissored out with his lightsabers, taking the dangerous appendage off. Above him, Max landed with a flurry of slashes and raking claws. For these strikes, he used his special poison attack to amplify the damage. The beast rolled over, briefly burying Max, and impaling itself even more. Max had quickly braced his blades on the ground, forcing his deadly sword arms even deeper into the beast.
The dragon struggled to get up, but Charlie's swift return put a stop to it. He struck out, piercing its head with his sword as it tried to get up. It collapsed backward, pinning Max under it.
Notifications pinged as it expired. As the screens started to roll, Max heard Xavier exclaim.
“Guys, look there. A freaking treasure chest!”
[Quest - The Myriad Paths (1/3 completed) - The Keeper of Keys defeated. +200 XP]
[Body Skill: Vorpal +1, Vorpal reaches level 8]
[Body Skill: Poison +1, Poison reaches level 8]
[Body Skill: Shock +1, Shock reaches level 9}
[New Quest Unlocked: Monster Hunter (2 of 10) – defeat an opponent more than twice your size, solo or with a team. +100 XP awarded.]
[Max +1 Level, Max reaches Master Stage, Level 21. +10 Free Stat points awarded. Restricted/hidden skill unlocked - Meditation*]
[Meditation +10, Meditation reaches level 10, *previous unguided use has advanced this skill. Utilize focused mediation to optimize energy flow and energy regeneration. Skill cap reached, +100Xp awarded. New skill unlocked - Cultivation.]
[Cultivation 1, Cycle energy between augmentation systems and power core to grow. This active skill enables faster growth of the power core skill.]
“Argh. Not to distract you all from your notifications, but can I get a little help over here? This thing's synthetic blood is leaking all over me under here.” Max’s muffled yell cut out through the team's chatter.
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