Chapter Seventeen: Out Of Options
A raw, guttural scream tore from my throat, and my face flushed red. I felt like a weight pressed down on my chest, and I couldn’t breathe. How did I forget that? As the pipe made contact with my head again, pain exploded, reopening the wound that magic had stitched up. Blood poured from the top of my head, forcing me to swipe at my eyes so I could see. I felt woozy, my feet unsteady, but I was determined to stay upright.
[Slikk deals two damage. You are not stunned.]
Squinting with one eye, I took in Slikk’s towering form, which seemed to loom even larger as it cast a menacing shadow in the dim, flickering light of the room’s lone torch. The realization hit me like a bucket of sewage to the face. He’s invincible. I’m going to die again, aren’t I?
A nervous chuckle escaped my lips, starkly contrasting the fear gnawing at my insides. As my health dwindled, my bruised and battered form shook. Luck had abandoned me just when I needed it most. My health was already at half. And somehow, the monster in front of me kept rolling numbers high enough for what should’ve been a 15% chance. Or something. I didn't know I wasn't a math guy.
My voice burst forth with desperation. “Crystal, you’ve got to help me. I’m out of options. What am I even supposed to do?”
[There’s more than one way to crack an eggshell. Think about how stats work; the answer should come to you.] Her voice crackled with amusement, but mine did not. A slow-burning ember of resentment smoldered deep within me. How dare she laugh at my expense?
Her words hung in the air for a minute as I ran around the room to avoid the belligerent goblin. “But I don’t know how anything works! You still haven’t told me anything. You’re so useless!” The ember grew so hot it ignited into a blazing fury, but instead of yelling more at Crystal, I turned around and lunged at Slikk. The dice rolled.
[You deal no damage.]
However, as my daggers sliced through Slikk, through the fiery haze, I noticed they were doing something, and I banished my anger as quickly as it had come. “Yes!” My shout echoed in the room. Small pieces of fabric flaked off of Slikk’s armor. He won’t be invincible for long.
[You dodge Slikk.]
As I narrowly avoided another of Slikk’s blows, it struck me: I couldn’t do this again. I couldn’t fail against this boss. Amid the chaos, my mind was surprisingly clear, pieces of a plan clicking together like a puzzle, each move mapping out in my head.
Mechanics were made to be exploited by the penitent; they had to be. And I would exploit the Penance out of this one.
My muscles tensed, and with a swift, fluid motion, I struck again at the Goblin before retreating out of his reach. "You deal no damage." As I struck blow after blow, a thought nagged at me–had my previous attacks as the barbarian and the Torchbearer class affected the durability? I hadn’t kept track, so there was no telling when it would actually break.
A triumphant grin spread across my face as another portion of the armor flaked off. My heart raced with exhilaration as I dodged another blow, each successful dodge and strike fueling my growing confidence.
My daggers were artist’s brushes, painting a path of destruction across the frayed armor, each stroke Unraveling Slikk’s defenses. And then, as the dice rolled, the masterpiece was unveiled. My daggers moved with a deadly grace, the first shredding the fabric of Slikk’s armor as if it were mere paper. The other blade then danced along the goblin’s skin, etching a slender, deep line across the goblin’s chest, the stark red against his green skin like the final stroke of paint on canvas.
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[You have destroyed Slikk’s Armor. You deal four damage.]
Slikk staggered back, a guttural cry of pain escaping his lips as dark blood welled from his wound. He spat words in a harsh, throaty language like a rat trying to speak Common. Before Slikk had a moment to do anything, I attacked again. The dice tumbled in the air, their outcome hanging in the balance. In that brief pause, my heart raced, every sense sharpened for the next critical moment in our deadly dance. I breathed deeply and buried my daggers in Slikk’s chest.
[You deal seven damage.]
My daggers found their mark with a satisfying thud. Yet, Slikk stood his ground, his resilience chillingly apparent. A flicker of surprise crossed my face as Slikk absorbed the blow without flinching, his endurance a stark reminder of my lack of information on the boss. In an alarming behavioral shift, Slikk wasted no time in retaliating. With a grunt, he hoisted his pipe, bringing it down with a force that threatened to crush everything in its path; however, a die rolled, and time seemed to halt, the air thickening around us.
[You dodge Slikk.]
With time frozen, I leaped back out of reach. As time resumed, I moved forward. With a swift, fluid motion, I yanked my daggers free and targeted his throat with a strike as sharp and deadly as a falcon’s talons. The final strike was lightning-quick, lethal, and decisive. Blood poured from the wound like rain as the dice clattered toward the ground, a rolling, distant thunder heralding the end of the storm that was Slikk.
[Critical strike! You deal 16 damage. You have killed Slikk. You have earned one death boon.]
As I stood over Slikk, his life fading before me, a wave of conflicting emotions washed over me. I felt relief, triumph, and an unexpected twinge of pity at his disbelieving gaze–a stark reminder of the brutality of Penance. Slikk’s eyes dimmed, slowly extinguishing the fierce light that had once burned there. His face, twisted in shock and resignation, seemed to question the loss silently.
A resounding, sonorous gong rang out, its resonating boom echoing through the chamber, a solemn note that marked the end of the first floor. Crystal then said, [Congratulations! You have defeated the Sewer Goblin Trio. You have earned 5 Death Boons. You have completed this floor in 37 minutes. You are ineligible for Speed Run Death Boons.]
I sighed, the adrenaline slowly ebbing away. How fast did I have to be to get that death boon? And would it even be worth it? I wondered as my gaze drifted from side to side with a calm I hadn’t felt since waking in Penance. My eyes were drawn to the center of the raised platform where next to my one remaining corpse was an altar that looked to be made of destroyed sewer pipe, with a dias made of transparent glass held aloft in the broken pipes. There was something off from the first two times I had come through. But I couldn’t connect the dots. On that altar, in the spot where the goblins had been messing around the previous run, was a ruby. The gem pulsed with an inner light, rich and deep as a drop of blood in clear water, a vivid beacon blaring red in the muted browns and greens.
[Enchanted Blood Ruby of the Sewage Goblin Tribes. This gem is a key. This gem is part of a set. While in your possession, you can speak Goblish. While in your possession, once per run, you can equip an item during combat. You can skip the normal rooms on the first floor and choose to fight only the Necromancer and the Goblins. 1/7 floor keys.]
“Wow. What a mouthful. Could’ve just called it a blood ruby.” I said, and then I heard a strange noise from the crystal, but she didn’t say anything else, so I ignored it and pocketed the gem.
And then I saw it. An orb the size of my head and pulsing white light descended from the center of the flooded ceiling. It was just like the last one, but this time, it lowered so slowly I would likely have to jump if I wanted to grab it, so instead, I looted my remaining corpse and the three goblins.
Walking up to the corpse, I took a second to note what I looked like. And what greeted me was me… but also not me. The corpse was a warped mirror of life–showing bloated muscles, bulging and pronounced. My head hurt looking at myself, my brain not understanding my state. It was maybe a head taller. I noticed the familiar cascade of hair, matted with blood, falling just shy of a chin that was somehow the same but jutted out like a rocky cliff. I reached out, intending to close the lifeless eyes, but my fingers brushed against something unexpected–the memory core, forgotten in my shock– froze my fingers, shocking me with searing, brittle pain.
{Memory Core, 5}
{Would you like to view your memory?} {Y/N}
“Yes,” I trembled with a mix of fear and anticipation. The last memory had really thrown me for a loop. But I would get nowhere by ignoring these. The world around me warped and dissolved, colors and shapes blending as the memory flooded my mind.