JESSIE : LEVEL 8
DAY 58 : B-DAY, FOURTHWEEK, BOREAS, YEAR 1
INTERIOR 1 : SPIRE DUNGEON 1 : DEPTH PERCEPTION
Doo dee doo dee doo, we’re walking down the road. Also, there’s a road. We’ve crossed a few of them to get this far, but they never stretched in the same direction we were going. This one does though. So we decided to follow it for a change of pace. The most confusing part is that we’re nearly at the dungeon now. Could it really lead straight there? A road to a dungeon? I thought the whole thing with dungeons was that they don’t form in high-traffic places. Maybe the road is just old and unused? But it’s pristine…
And who’s to say the system hasn’t been automatically maintaining it for decades? Or even centuries? Millenia? Nothing better to do, I think that through while breathing a little faster than normal to speed things along. Nah, we’re not nearly that far out in the boonies. Which reminds me. “Clean.”
[ UNCOMMON TOGGLE ON: CLEANLINESS — INTENSITY: 4% ]
At the beginning of my next step, I’m watching some mud I forgot about gradually disappear from my sleeve. Like the formation of a puddle, only in reverse. But midway through that same step, I feel a sudden jerking pull forward. I’d just as suddenly assume one of my companions is fucking with me, if not for me holding my breath the instant it happens.
I can just barely make out from my periphery that none of them are anywhere near touching distance. Nor do they have a Skill among them to produce this effect from where they are. And I would know, as I also take my sweet time in this extended moment to double-check through the Closed Group Interface. Maybe Mich… But I feel like that would involve an arrow. So, rather than blaming especially Ross and also either of the others, my exclamation upon stumbling forward is far more general. “Fuck!”
Seeing this, Mich immediately wedges himself between and just in front of Ross and Rachel. Then, as though glitching into T-Pose, he whips his arms out to either side, barring their way. But those two seem far more concerned over him having interrupted their private conversation that Mich was politely ignoring and I long-since tuned out.
Just like that, the three stop dead in their tracks just in front of where I tripped.
Mich ignores the scandalized looks from Ross and Rachel fully stopped by his either arm. For his part, Mich is wearing an alarmed expression as he gapes at me after what apparently looked to him like I was attacked. “What happened?”
The next objective second, I raise my eyebrows. “Woah there, buddy… Jumpy much?”
Expression suddenly vacant, he comes back into a look of embarrassment towards me and apology towards the other two. “Sorry… Force of habit.”
Rachel is clearly as confused as the rest of us regarding what about Mich’s little maneuver could possibly be a ‘habit’. But she at least seems mollified by his admission of the slip-up. With a tisk, she pushes his arm off her chest and turns a concerned gaze towards me. “What’s the matter, girl?”
I’m just glaring at the transparent red barrier separating me from the others. It looks like it could stretch forever in either direction if not for the fact that it fades into invisibility in a gradient the further it stretches from me. I look to the barrier. Then past that to my three friend-equivalents. To the barrier again. Back to them. At a loss from their vacant expressions, I point right at the massive red wall separating us at 40% opacity. “Y’all don’t see that?”
They all do some variation of looking at each other and shaking their heads.
Rachel trepidatiously moves her own finger forward. Everyone watches with bated breath as it gets inexorably closer to the barrier. Closer. Even closer. Then her finger passes right through like it’s not even there, continuing until she touches the very finger I’m using to indignantly point at the thing.
With the minor force required for Rachel to get the hint, I push Rachel’s arm, then hand, then that same finger back through the barrier. But my own finger is stopped in its tracks the instant I touch the barrier myself.
[ ERROR: LEVEL REQUIREMENT NOT MET ]
After subjectively much longer than an instant, my eyes begin to widen.
Ross pipes in over the protracted silence. “Sooo-”
But I immediately interrupt him. “THOSE FUCKING SCAMMERS!!!”
Rachel just looks confused. “Can… Can I put my finger down? Also, what’s happening right now?”
I shake myself out of contemplating the various torturous deaths I’d like to give to a particularly deserving weapon store owner. “Is Outset level-restricted?”
All three reply at once.
“What?”
“What?”
“Yes.”
We all look at Mich.
Mich directs a long-suffering look right back at us. “This is common knowledge, people. Being social isn’t actually against any rules in Heaven. Doesn’t even draw Admin attention or anything. You know that, right? You could have all the information I do-”
As he talks, my growing growl finally reaches a breaking point. “Yeah, fine. I get it. We all get it, Mich. Not everyone likes talking to random strangers as much as you do. Now shut the fuck up and fill us in.”
Mich looks like he’s about to start talking, but quickly folds his lips into a cheshire grin.
I look at the shit-eating expression for a moment before deciding that pursuit of an answer is nowhere near worth the headache this whole thing is quickly giving me. “Whatever, fuck it.” At that, I turn on my heel and silently continue the way we were going.
Belatedly, the other three follow behind, each passing through the barrier like it isn’t even there. Which, to them, it might as well not be.
Mich calls after me as we walk, his smile still obviously extant from his equally-shit-eating tone of voice. “What’s the matter?”
I don’t turn around. I don’t even alter my gait. I just take twice as long to walk exactly as fast in precisely the way I was doing before. “Nothing.”
“Don’t you want to know about the level requirements for Outset?”
“Nope.”
“But you seemed so interested a minute ago. Why-”
“Fuck you, that’s why.”
Rachel turns to Mich. “Well, I’d still like to know about the level-”
I call back over my shoulder. “Don’t you fucking dare!”
Eventually, Rachel gets back to her conversation with Ross, and our half-silent party makes it to the first dungeon I’ve been up for since the whole Mod Stone Debacle.
Rachel breaks off from Ross to put an arm around my shoulder. “Y’all ready for this?”
I just grin up at her and try to breathe. I know the instant the adrenaline hits. I can tell because it’s the same instant that I use all my superhuman leg strength along with every last modicum of a boost I can get by breathing as slowly as possible, to launch myself into the cave like a rocket. As soon as I reach the turn at the end, I slow time and gradually rotate my body to face down the new hallway before whispering. “Go.”
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 1% ]
Rocketing through five more turns like that, the narrow hallway opens up into a sprawling canyon. Down below is a massive lakebed of spikes, all resting below a fake blue sky. Despite the impossibly authentic look to it, I instantly know it’s fake thanks to now being able to freeze time whenever I’m even momentarily confused. Scanning it all in a moment, I realize that it looks nothing like the far paler, cloudier sky I’ve been walking under all day.
Before me is a spider-webbing maze of narrow bridges separating proportionally narrow, yet flat spires. The admittedly simple maze of bridges and spires all eventually comes back together in a wide arena on the other side of the canyon. It’s hard to make out any specifics beyond that, but my money’s on that being where the boss is.
Still holding my breath from the moment I entered the ‘room’, I lose no momentum whatsoever as I step onto the leftmost bridge. And Admin, schmadmin, If I’ve ever felt more like Sonic than right now as I finally take full advantage of all the Defense I’ve ever neglected in order to pump my Speed STAT as high as it could go. Quickly reaching my max velocity without boosting, I lick my lips. “Go, go, GO, GO, GO!!!”
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 69% ]
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 42% ]
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 90% ]
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 100% ]
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 110% ]
Dashing down the sloping bridge, I go even faster up the other side. A running leap off the bridge leads me right onto… The next bridge.
Fuck. I completely missed the spire’s platform and single resident enemy that spawned the moment my body entered the space above where it now stands. Or in other words, free XP. But nothing for it now. This is way too much fun to go back now that I’m already on the next bridge over.
Opting to cut my losses rather than slow down, stop, backtrack, and look like even more of a jackass, I just giggle from the pure joy of running at full speed down the other side of the bridge. That, it turns out, is a mistake. As soon as I start laughing, something weird happens. I don’t build enough speed to jump over the next spire. Not even close. Instead, I stumble all over myself.
It feels like I’m falling asleep every half-second. I’m only able to catch myself and not fall off the side thanks to my always-on-forever Radial Awareness. At least it doesn’t take too many rapidfire instances of narcolepsy for my giggling to stop. But then I just stand there at the bottom of the long bridge. “Well that just fucking sucks…” Can I not even laugh anymore? At least not while I’m fighting, for sure. “Fuck…”
Doubt over recent life decisions gradually leads me into what can only generously be called a ‘plodding trudge’ by the time I crest the ledge of the next spire. There, I just stare in disappointed scorn at the thing standing on top. A big, round, musclebound cyclops with tentacles coming out of its stomach. Except instead of a stomach, there’s just a gaping black void with a single, shining eye that somehow doesn't brighten the creature itself.
[ MONSTER TARGETED: CYCLON ]
Eyeing me right back, the bewilderment of however-that’s-pronounced quickly turns to rage as its upper and lower eye simultaneously flare red. At the same time, it pulls a huge purple-pulsing black spiked club out of its stomach. It raises that above its head while stampeding straight for me.
Careful not to laugh again, I crack a smile as I take my sweet subjective time, holding up my sheathed katana in front of me. I can admit I’m being needlessly meticulous in the way I orient it exactly perpendicular to the incoming overhead smash. Careful… Say it… Riiight, abooout, now. “Draw.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
[ COMMON ACTION: IAI QUICKDRAW — INTENSITY: 12% ]
“Counter.”
[ UNCOMMON ACTION: COUNTER SHEATHE — INTENSITY: 21% ]
“Grow.”
[ RARE TOGGLE ON: EXTEND-O-SWORD — INTENSITY: 9% ]
Maneuvering carefully into the attack, my breath catches when I realize my blade is extending way faster than I’m ready for. I panic for part of an objective instant before I think of something. With my sword unsheathing over my head like it’s a bomb ready to go off in my hands at any moment, I say one final word. “Go!”
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 57% ]
But the Cthuclops seems to see what I’m doing and waits for me to finish unsheathing. Then, it caves in my noggin with its seething purple-black club.
[ HP: 313/512 ]
[ COUNTER SHEATHE: CANCELED ]
[ IAI QUICKDRAW: CANCELED ]
Ok, now I’m pissed. Also concussed. Could I really not even land the first strike? Gonna need more practice with that… But first, I don’t resheathe my massive katana. Instead, I just go to fucking town on it. I make sure to test my new capabilities as much as possible. For science. Not even a little to take out the frustration from getting ripped off by that shitty store.
Which is why it’s out of a purely scientific desire to administer the monster with a taste of its own medicine that I let go of all control and exhale into a long, hard, fast, downward strike of my own. It does nothing. Not even register as an attack. Suddenly very thankful that no one is here to watch, I realize what that must’ve looked like. To the outside world, I just dramatically, albeit gently, placed my katana’s edge atop the thing’s uppermost eye over the course of a few seconds. It didn’t even pierce the eye.
After an extended moment to mentally slap myself around a bit, I instantly respond to how badly I just whiffed that by shrinking my massive katana, resheathing it, only to unsheathe and resize it again. At the same time, I jump to the side, circling around a quarter of the way around the monster, even as I swing my newly unsheathing sword horizontally in the opposite direction. Slowing my breath to a trickle, I use every last degree of the spin to build more and more centrifugal force. So much so that even I’m surprised by the time my massive blade comes around to smash the monster in the face.
It’s sent rolling. That fact is helped along by the general roundness of its body. But not enough.
Gritting my teeth, I jump in the same direction I just smashed the monster. “Go.” My dash accelerates me even faster as I take my slowed time to carefully rotate the blade’s edge into the path of another swing. The moment path and blade align, I can almost feel it slide along the arc of its own volition. The sudden change would normally throw me off and send me sprawling. But with all the time in the world to adjust myself, it only boosts my speed further as I come around again to slice cleanly through the thing.
Okay, that’s… New. I apparently never got good enough with a katana to figure this out naturally. But the difference between a 99% perfect swing and a 100% one is almost as big as the difference between 99 and 0. Immediately thinking it through over the course of several minutes, I get an idea. “Shrink!”
[ RARE TOGGLE OFF : EXTEND-O-SWORD ]
When my katana returns to normal, my rotation speed more than doubles. That alone nearly sends me helicoptering off the cliff edge, slowed time or no. I just barely maintain my balance as I spin around, and around, and keep my blade tilted ever-so-slightly downwards until… “GROW!!!”
[ RARE TOGGLE ON: EXTEND-O-SWORD — INTENSITY: 102% ]
Right before the normal-sized sword fails to reach the monster, it triples in length just in time to slice the thing fully in half.
“Shrink.” Around. “Grow!” I slice the top half in half. “Shrink.” Around. “Grow!” Then the top quarter. Still spinning, I resheathe.
The three gaps between the four monster segments, along with an uneven line connecting them all, explode with red light. The overall effect looks like nothing so much as over-exuberant markings in some kind of tick-based numbering system that worked on groups of four instead of five.
At the same time, a golden ‘72’ appears above the uppermost eighth of the Tentaclops. The flash of gold presents a stark relief to the increasingly large red numbers that aren’t quite finished rising from the same spot.
Everything finally catches up to me all at once as I lose my breath, balance, and general equilibrium. A smile spreads across my face, only growing as my spin slides to a stop alarmingly near to the spire’s sheer edge. Laying there, one arm flopped over said edge, I throw my other arm upwards in victory. I think being stubborn about that Mod was worth the risk. I’m not used to it at all. Not even after a whole week of practice. But yeah… I can work with this.
Before long, I’m jostled to my senses by the far-off sound of fighting. It only takes a bit of looking around for a blearily paused moment before I spot the others one spire over, all ganging up on an identical Hent-eye to the one I just killed.
Looks like it’s going… Not great. Do I have enough time?
I consider the frozen half-panicked look on each of their faces before instantly resolving to dash across the bridge separating the two spires.
Running down and then up the other side, my anticipation grows the whole time I’m working to minimize the number of breaths it takes to traverse the bridge. I know I’m going far faster than when I jumped that first spire. I could practically fly over this one. But that wouldn’t accomplish anything beyond my own vanity. So instead of taking a running leap into a lakebed of spikes, I wait until my second step over the crest of the spire itself before using what was a slightly upwards momentum, to leap fully forward. “Go!”
[ POWER BLESSING: DASH — INTENSITY: 87% ]
Crashing feet-first into the one-eyed hentroll, all my momentum transfers to it as I take the slowed time to kick off it and zero out my own velocity. “Burst!”
[ COMMON ACTION : AURA BURST — INTENSITY = 65% ]
The next second, I land perfectly on my feet, standing upright like I’m in line at the bank. I just watch as the big jerk who was giving my ‘friends’ so much trouble is launched straight off the spire and into the spikes below.
Ross, still readying himself for his next attack on the big eldritch monster, just throws a scandalized stare at me after I suddenly replaced it, now standing in the same spot as it did.
They’re all looking at me like that, actually. Except Mich, who I guess resembles something closer to the long-suffering parent of an unruly child.
Unwilling to give any of them the chance to bitch about me stealing their kill, I throw them all a peace sign before issuing a single-word apology. “Back.”
[ UNCOMMON ACTION : SPACIAL ANCHOR - WEAPON ]
And just like that, I’m back on that last spire where I left my sword. Throwing the rest of the group a salute from across the long bridge separating us, I turn on my heel and rush down the next bridge in the chain I started on. Going even faster than last time, I plow into another one of these big two-eyed bitches feet-first, just like the last one. “BURST!!!”
[ COMMON ACTION: AURA BURST — INTENSITY: 114% ]
I can’t suppress another staggered giggle as I watch in bits and pieces the process of it careening off the edge, not even having seen what pushed it. That lasts exactly until a different monster’s massive club practically caves in the back of my skull.
[ HP: 258/512 ]
“FUCK!!!”
From watching Cyclon A’s impending doom, I come to myself in an objective instant as I jump away from the blow and finally register the existence of Cyclon B. I never thought to check for a second monster on a single spire. Not making that mistake again. Probably. Today, I mean. No promises about tomorrow. But then, in objectively the same instant as my admittedly flaccid self-admonishment, I have a realization.
Wait a minute… But no. I can’t go changing my equipment around in the middle of a fight. Even with it paused, I don’t have the time to explore new ideas to rework my entire setup just now. So instead, I focus on positioning my katana while slowly sucking air through my teeth. An objective second after getting smacked, I jump forward to return the favor. “Draw!”
[ COMMON ACTION : IAI QUICKDRAW — INTENSITY: 49% ]
“Grow!”
[ RARE TOGGLE ON : EXTEND-O-SWORD — INTENSITY: 72% ]
“Go!”
I cut the thing into four horizontal slices just a little better than last time. I don’t even fall over afterwards. That’s a good first step.
A few spires and half a dozen practices later, I land in the same big arena I saw from all the way across the spire-filled canyon I’ve now fully crossed. And I’m sure of it this time… There’s only a single enemy here. What looks like a man in a purple cloak, standing in the center of the platform, facing ever away from the spires leading to it.
[ BOSS MONSTER TARGETED: SARUCLOPS ]
I’m not really one for stealth. I just don’t like it. It stresses me right the fuck out. But I’m also not one to throw away the element of surprise against a dungeon boss. That’s why I breathe as slowly as my current level of Control will let me. While I do, I make sure the robed figure stays turned away, obviously unaware of my presence. Spotting its hand moving up and to the side, I freeze. First in time. Then, in space after belatedly realizing how pointless it is to wait in frozen time for anything, let alone recognition or movement from a third party.
Like molasses, what is now obviously a corpse raises its arm up at a 45º angle and the purple fabric of its hood slides back to reveal the skeleton underneath. Then it stops moving entirely, seeming to intently examine the back of its hand.
Curiously, I look back down from the grip it has on my neck. Wait. When did that happen? “What-”
The large skeleton that was just standing at least 30 away, interrupts the first word out of my mouth by screaming in my face.
But… The fuck? Did I teleport over to it? Did it teleport over to me? Something in-between? I crane my neck to look it straight in the kaleidoscopic reddish orange of its black-slitted eye. “How-”
It screams again. Louder than last time. The banshee-like shriek feels like a bull in the china-shop of my skull. My ears are ringing so hard that I can barely even hear what it says next. Which is yet another scream. Then, its jawbone turns upwards into a creepy facsimile of a smile as my head swims with disorientation. Which is when I remember that I can pause time.
Once more holding my breath, I try to think of a way out of this. I can't counter grappling. I can only do anything about strikes. If the enemy is already touching me, there's no intercepting the point of contact. Nor do I have room to swing my weapon anyway. Nor, I’m sure, would this weird lich thing let me if I could. Can’t return to my sword either… Not when I'm holding it. Nothing for it, then. I take a biiig breath, counting on it appearing to the outside world like any other. I can’t fully suppress a vindictive smile as I make my move. “BURST!!!”
[ COMMON ACTION: AURA BURST — INTENSITY: 120% ]
The skeletal cyclops twitches a finger on its other hand. At that moment, it freezes. So does the world.
Where I expected a shockwave repelling anything and everything away from my center mass, I instead feel a bubble of pressure sitting in my stomach. It… Just stays there. It clearly wants to expand outwards. But it doesn’t. Instead, there’s a different bubble expanded about to where I would expect the shockwave to cover if it were allowed to get that far. Everything looks kinda like the screenshots I’ve seen of what negatives used to look like back when people used analog photography. I think it’s safe to assume the bubble is what’s doing that.
But what is it? The sphere engulfs me entirely, but only stretches a foot or so away. It ends just about where a bicep would be if the skeletal arm holding me had any muscles to speak of. But that’s not important right now. Focusing on what is, I work my lungs as hard as I can. Or at least, I try. But there’s no movement. Not from me. Not from the skeleton. Not from the world or anything in it. I know why the bubble of pressure isn’t leaving my center now. It, and everything else, is exactly as it was the moment my Skill activated. In fact, that moment is still going.
I… Can’t breathe, can I? Oh god, I can’t breathe. Is this a vacuum? I never considered what would happen… How do I get out of this? If I can’t breathe… I can’t move, can I? Like, at all. I really wish I would’ve thought of that.
I try to activate a Skill. But nothing happens. Mentally slapping myself in the metaphorical forehead, a bit of panic dissipates as I realize all my Toggles are still set to ‘ON’. Experimentally, I try to turn one off manually through system menus. That at least is one way to circumvent the need for callouts. But all that panic rushes back with a vengeance as I realize I can’t turn it off in paused time. I can’t do anything. Including unpause time. Oh fuck… Ohfuckohfuckohfuck-
[ HP: 296/512 ]
Oh wait.
[ HP: 295/512 ]
I’m losing health…
[ HP: 294/512 ]
I’ve gone too long without breathing.
[ HP: 293/512 ]
Even if my time is subjective, I’m still subject to System mechanics.
[ HP: 292/512 ]
I really can’t hold my breath forever.
[ HP: 291/512 ]
THANK FUCKING GOD.
It’s with a light heart of someone just barely spared an infinite hell in an eternity between moments, that I watch my life trickle away. When death comes, as it must, I embrace it like an old friend.
[ YOU DIED — XP DEBT: 4,096 — RESPAWN DELAY: 8 HOURS ]