Benjamin – Gamma Zone #21 Level 51 – 79
A line of tattered and battered black armor clad teens sport weary but satisfied expressions as they file into my infinitely accepting [Lesser Dimensional Portal] to bring a close to their eight day bender. At the sight of the procession all of me feel a swelling of accomplishment mixed with pride, bubble up with in us. To that end one of me was afforded the unprecedented luxury of macerating in the unfamiliar feeling while the other me’s who lost the internal game of rock paper scissors endeavored to maintain situational awareness.
The feeling lasted until a me saw who was dawdling near the rear of the procession and the wholesome feeling fled just like all of us wanted to.
The cause of its abrupt vacation was the outline of a diminutive blonde Canadian named Olivia, whom I’ve collectively and diligently avoiding…and who also has recently come of age…
A universal groan is released within us as the person in question practically skips into view from around one of the low lying red foliage’s domes, which closely resembling a European hedging plant and seems to be ubiquitous throughout the Gamma Zone #21.
While one of me grapples with the urge to follow my positive feelings and take flight, another me is preoccupied with a riveting internal recital of ‘My Milkshakes bring all the boys to the yard’ to match the lasciviously grinning Gemini’s approach.
Another me just barely stays impassive as it continues to scan the area for threats to my charges and pretends an uncomfortable conversation is not about to take place about fragile pelvis’ and their blunt force thresholds.
Far too quickly the dreaded conversation begins as the procession is all but through my still humming portal, by way of Olivia beginning in her ear friendly Canadian accent.
“Before you say anything, I just wanted to say sorry about what I said before, I don’t handle rejection well…So…anyway…now that I’m eighteen a-“
As a couple of me’s are busy cementing her astrologically Gemini nature her attempt to update her profile is cut off by distinctly Toni tinged Bellow of.
“I TOLD YA NO!”
Followed up by a slow motion charge, to put her shield into the Canadian’s side, leading a fore mentioned Canadian to yelp in conjunction to the sounds of a couple of her bones breaking. All before tumbling into the waiting tear in reality.
Huffing in annoyance, Toni turns to the two shocked mail wearing stragglers of her gaggle and she adds while jabbing the hand that isn’t holding a Canadian punting shield.
“IN! NOW!”
The armed yet fearful girl and boy, scuttle obediently toward the portal and vanish without even a glance at me or their irate leader.
Relaxing slightly the young woman in question faces me and continues.
“Sorry Benji…Tha girl’s a good healer an all, but when it comes ta stuff like this she’s a bit well…Ya know…”
Not trusting any of me’s to speak of which must never be spoken of with employee’s, a me nods sagely.
Thankfully taking this as all that needs to be said on the subject she segues.
“Not that I’m ungrateful, but when da ya think yu’ll be ready ta take us out fer another one of these thins? Me an some o tha others are so close ta eighty we can almost taste it!”
Collectively not wanting to commit to a definitive time a me hedges.
“Well I have a few things to do for about three to four months. After that though, I’ll take you guys out for ten days straight and introduce you to a Delta Zone or two.”
Face turning serious she adds.
“That’s a fair while your talkin bout there fella…Ya sure ya can afford ta not hav anyone watchin tha Citadel fer so long?...I get that ya wanted ta make it up ta us an all, but it can’t be safe ta keep doin it…”
Waving her off a me counters.
“Nah its fine, the place can run itself for the most part, and now it’s been made clear no unsavories are welcome I doubt I’ll have to do any banishment's for at least a few months….Don’t get me wrong, I still expect you guys to do your job when your there, but I recon it will be fine for now at least…So, we good?”
Shrugging she adds as she heads toward the portal.
“No worries brudda!…Jus don’t leave us in tha lurch again if ya can help it, yea?”
Smiling at the strangely competent leader of all things minion a me supplies.
“Thanks for everything Toni, couldn’t do it without you mate…”
She gives me a complex look before she nods and vanishes into the portal’s terminus.
Canceling the skill a me mentally wills Greeny to appear and direct me to the Epsilon zone, to which it magically does without complaint.
Moving through the zones on the way to my destination, the wind screams as I part rock, tree and water on our passage and the scenery whilst zone notifications flick by.
Surprisingly at about what feels to be a third of my maximum speed, It does not take long to reach our imposing destination:
You have entered Epsilon Zone #1 Level 100.
The place itself is a barren plateau with naught but sand situated on its lofty surface, towering above the surrounding zones, with a steep rocky incline as the only way to reach it by more…pedestrian…means.
Coming to a halt at the edge of the place, all of me note nothing to signify the presence of the Titan specified in the quest’s description. Just observing the place for a while one of my pull’s up the Quest’s blue box again, to see if there is any small tid-bit that has impossibly escaped my now picture perfect memory:
Phase Conveyance (T4) – Reward = 50,000 Manamotes + based on contribution
Level Recommendation: 95
Recommended Group: 100,000 – 300,000
Restrictions: Only one tier four quest acceptable at any one time.
Time Till Expiry: N/A
Description: Travel to Epsilon Zone #1 and dispatch the Phasic Boss, Sand Titan Al’Ish’Tul. Quest is shareable.
Caution: Once the Phasic Boss is defeated this will initiate the planets shift to Phase 2, prepare accordingly!
Warning: Engaging the Phasic Zone Boss will break its containment field and cause it to traverse Zones randomly should it not be defeated!
Grumbling to my selves at having so many unknown factors. If my previous foray into a system instituted scenario is anything to go by, there are likely many things that will be pretty fucking pertinent to know beforehand that are not even mentioned.
Still, having already brainstormed on this while the delinquents where in the thick of it, a me smiles to ourselves as we just so happen to have perfectly fine testing grounds just the press of a button away. And having learned my lesson by way of giving up on roping someone else into my intergalactic tomfoolery, we've instead collectively elected to put into effect ‘Operation Beachhead’.
Casting [Lesser Dimensional Portal] with the destination of the egregiously expensive basement of my home in mind, I shrug off the warping sensation as a me exits the portal into the curve walled room with the lone console next to a depression in the middle:
You have entered Citadel #1 ‘Keep Out’.
Willing away the notification a me cancels the skill and as much as all of me want to have octopus for lunch, the randomly generated economy route is selected.
Going for double or nothing, a me activates the consoles and selects ‘Siphon Insertion to random Phase 1 World’ option. Not wanting to waste any more precious grinding time, we unilaterally launch ourselves eagerly into the sensation of contorted warping that the portal diligently provides our highly resistant body.
The sensation eventually passes after however long could not be counted, and a flash of light and accompanying notification herald my's arrival:
You have entered Dimensional Siphon #2,843,964
To collapse the Dimensional Siphon and gain access to the adjacent Phase 1 World ‘Zo’Duq’Ut’, you must survive 30 days.
Quest: Perseverance
Description: Survive 30 days within Dimensional Siphon #2,843,964
Rewards: Manamotes (quantities will vary based on your party’s size).
Unilaterally attempting to relax, a me posits that my plate armor won’t be disintegrating any time soon, this budding belief is owed in no small part to the false blue sky I stand beneath in open, what all of me presumes to be, air. The metal from my plate boots rasps on a flat quartz like stone plinth as we scan my surrounds and in the process find the plinth to be shaped in a hexagon.
The plinth in question isn’t alone however. Its surrounded by replicas butting up against each other, almost jostling for pole position they rise side by side all taking a differing elevation which as a whole, makes for extremely odd yet geometrically pleasing effect.
Meanwhile a facsimile of two sun’s is busy possessing slightly different lumen values which refract in rainbow colors off the pseudo quartz while the salty breeze whips ineffectually against our exposed position.
Settling down to wait, my universal patience is promptly rewarded when a me witnesses the moment six heavily armed and armored figures that look like they have escaped from a furry convention, pop into existence from a tear in our not so little bubble of reality.
Sizing up the six, their armor looks strange when balanced against their varied fur coats and judging by varying chest protuberances, two of their number likely identify as female.
Clearly indifferent to potential communicable opportunities, a low growl emanates from a robe clad female to evidence this fact. Coincidentally the female in question appears to be a humanoid leopard of sorts. One and all waste no time as they break from their insertion point about a kilometer from us.
Their method of attack is sluggish and predictable as they bound lithely from hexagon flat to hexagon flat, the two handed axe wielder panther-human and the shield bearer tiger-human taking up a frontal position along their transit. Bringing up the rear are the two archer cheetah-humans, priest bobcat-human and the leopard-human, all settling to take a different roughly two meter hexagonal plinth to themselves.
They growl menacingly as they take their clearly well-rehearsed battle stances, and I smile and wave while the me not in charge of interspecies relations or danger watch resist’s the urge to retrieve something fluffy from Mr Pocket and tie it to a string for anthropological shits and giggles.
we're collectively taken aback however, when the robe clad leopard looking one and staff wielder, growls out in an English accented voice.
“Which faction do you represent…Fur-less interloper?”
After some quick internal debate a me candidly offers.
“My own.”
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Her eyes narrow to slits while her ears flick in what is probably agitation before she queries.
“So you are without faction and you seek to invade our world…Alone!?”
Scratching the back of my head as all of me barely considered the chance at not instantly engaging in interspecies combat at this point, which in turn naturally leads to a me hedging.
“I mean well not exactly invade...Mainly cos I haven’t seen your species try to do that to my world…I kinda just hit the random button, you know?”
She blinks while her tail tip sways from side to side out the back of her robe, and I don’t need a course in feline-human body language to know she is suffering from a bout of inquisitive confusion. Her Party mates are no different and also seem perplexed, by way of exhibiting similar reactions while flicking questioning glances to each other.
The silence continues and a me ends it by adding weakly.
“I..er…I come in peace?”
This only seems to add to the pregnancy of the next silence and we decide to shut up in the vain hope that I don’t have to kill a creature capable of reason for once. All of me tense as low growls start to pass between them, and I would have thought they were trying to threaten me, if not for the fact they are looking sidelong at one another whilst they do it.
Figuring it’s a form of communication the system can’t or wont translate, I relax slightly and elect to let them growl it out.
It doesn’t take too long for the robed female, who is almost certainly the leader, to announce.
“Given you are a coward and will not fight, I will offer you a quick and honorable death…Do you have any last words?”
None of me bother to internalize our groan before a me laments.
“Look can we just, I don’t know…Exchange gifts? Or establish diplomatic relations between our species or…Or..Something?...I didn’t come here explicitly to fight, I just wanted to experiment to find out happens when I clear the T4 phase conveyance quest...”
The tension in the air hangs thick and just when I think violence is about to erupt, the axe wielding panther guy barks out a laugh which carries on before he eventual has to use his axe to steady himself, due to his tail thumping the ground behind him.
Wiping his eyes with a velvet black and clawed opposable paw he wheezes out.
“I-It…It thinks it can clear the Conveyance quest by itself…Kel’Una my heart…Do you think the Primus will let us keep it?”
The leader half growled, half hissed at his request before chiding.
“Stop being obtuse, rock brain! The only way that will happen is if we wait the full thirty days…I will not loose out to Gaf’Vil’s Party in Siphon clears this cycle for a mere pet!...I’m sorry my hear i truly am...But we will have to dispose of it…No matter how adorable it may be….”
Scowling at being talked about like an accessory while standing right in front of them I try to upgrade my worth from potential play thing to equal as a me offers.
“You guys are like a warrior culture, as in the strongest gets the most respect right?”
All eyes swivel to me as if I’ve just said some sort of threat and the leader replies in a tone dripping with equal parts menace, pointy teeth and derision.
“What…would a furless know of strength?”
Grinning a me furthers.
“So how about this…If I disable you, then I get to have a temporary truce with you guys till the siphon expires?”
The leader is about to reply with the tiger-human lets out a low menacing chuckle before it replies.
“We have a bargain fur-less!”
To which the leader roars.
“QHUIN’DA DON-“
But it’s too late.
The bulky tiger human hybrid was already beginning to take his first slow motion step of a skill a me guesses is a charge ability, judging by the reddish glow his plate armored body sports behind his spikey shield.
Obliging him, the power of jolly cooperation splits the air and quartz pillar alike upon our departure, to arrive to the side of the sluggishly reacting shield bearer.
Keeping to our word one of me moves my leg to intercept his bent kneecap with apparently brutal velocity. Evidenced by the fact that my plated boot bisects his leg as the connected platemail’d shin and paw spin away.
Red blood sprays from it in a wild sedate arc while its owner smashes into the side of a higher leveled quartz hexagon, cracking it slightly as several of his bones break. This in gruesome turn leaves his leg stump to leak his vital fluid while his shield clatters to the ground.
Wincing at their unprecedented lack of durability, we put it to the back of our minds while the power of jolly cooperation is reinstated, trying to be a bit more gentle in the following maiming’s of the now severely injured tiger guys allies.
Although the pained moans and groans that surround me were somewhat expected, I was not collectively prepared for the yowling howls that the female members of the recently subdued Party release.
Moving to the still conscious but thoroughly pissed off tiger human, I lazily dodge his feeble slow motion swipe before a me asks.
“Do you need a health potion or mana potion so your cleric friend can heal that or…”
He literally roars at me whilst clutching his tourniquet’ed stump of a leg, only to break off mid tiger impression to whimper in a no doubt unintentionally sympathy generating manner.
Dodging a syrup slow, throwing knife from one of the feisty cheetah-human-archers, a me plucks it from the air to return it to the senders paw.
all of me share in a preemptive wince when we realize the me's excessive mistake.
The knife makes a reasonable hole in said paw and shoots straight though the cat-persons leather bound forearm completely failing to simply stick in it like the me had planned. Hand to mouth all of me watch it continue to travel until it hits the edge of the siphons boundary, plinking harmlessly off it and killing its formidable momentum.
A fresh round of caterwauling begins and I grit my teeth against the near unbearable cacophony, really wishing I had put my helmet on to cancel out at least a few decibels of it.
For our next action we try and take it a little slower as a me jumps from my current plinth next to the still mule-ing tiger guy to travel to where the mage-leopard-lady is breathing heavily as she desperately tries to flee with her broken legs upon noticing my now track-able approach.
Propping herself up against a slightly higher quarts hexa-platform she shoots a bolt of lightning that none of me bother to dodge, leading to it arcing harmlessly off us.
Squatting, so that I can match her wide eyed, terror stricken stare, she blurts just loudly enough to be heard over the agony of her Party mates.
“M-m-monster…”
Scowling slightly a me rebukes.
“Where I come from, that is an extremely hurtful and derogatory term I’ll have you know…”
Her yellow and black speckled furry face hardens as she snaps back.
“It was not meant as a compliment, you fur-less fiend!”
Shaking my head the me rejoins.
“Look, I didn’t kill anyone despite all your talk of disposing of me or making me a pet…so can you lot just surrender so w-“
Her growl cuts me off before adding.
“I would rather die than surrender to a FUR-LESS!”
Quirking an eyebrow a me queries.
“Wait a second…you, not your pack or whatever, but just you. Would seriously rather die. As in lose your life, rather than admit you lost?”
She took a moment to regain her composure through labored breaths before replying proudly.
“To die in battle is the only way on may gain entry to Pes’tuh.”
Genuinely unilaterally intrigued, a me asks.
“Is that like your species version of an afterlife?”
Collectively pretending not to hear the sound of scraping metal on stone behind us, another growl precedes her annoyed reply.
“That is an extreme oversimplification that neglects it’s temporal nature and cosmic importance…but… that term is probably all your unenlightened fur-less mind is capable of comprehending...”
The rasp of metal grows closer as a me industriously wiggles our brows at the talkative yet judge-y feline humanoid, before a me adds.
“I really have no intention of killing you guys, so if you’re happy to just keep to your furry selves for the next 30 days, we can all come out of the siphon alive and free to judge other species as much as we want, that sound good?”
Behind me I hear a grunt mixed with the sound of metal scraping against itself and none of me are in any way surprised when we feel a light impact on to top of my head and the sound of quartz cracking beneath my feet.
I mean, any of me could have dodged the blow…but where would be the psychological warfare in that?
Besides, they were like clawless kittens as far as any of me were concerned at this point.
Sighing as I met the wide-eyed gaze of the feline in front of me, we ignored the large and dented axe still resting against our head and got up slowly to round upon my equally wide eyed assailant. The poor Panther dudes black fur stood on end as I plucked the sizeable axe from his one handed grip with a gauntleted fist *tsk*ing at him like a misbehaving child, before asking.
“Just curious from a logical standpoint here you understand, but where is there honor in attacking an opponent from behind?”
The poor cat dude spluttered a bit before letting go of his own tongue enough to spit out.
“B-battle has already been met! There is no s-shame in using any means to achieve victory!”
Shaking my head in bewilderment, the triumvirate has already decided that the kitty kat’s as a sapient species were a non-threat with their current power level. Furthermore, given that I had no people or things on their planet I needed to protect, we could overlook their repeated, if futile attempts on our life and proceed with ‘Operation Beachhead’ as planned.
Attempting to convince them of this in a roundabout way a me counters.
“Well look at it like this, we can be in battle for the next 30 days until we get out of here so you can try and achieve victory with more numbers outside?”
He gulped nervously while cradling his limp arm as his eyes flick nervously to their leader.
Collectively trying to make it even easier for them to save face a me adds whilst pointing at the farthest end on the quartz island.
“Tell you what…I’ll go over there and you guys can have some time to collect your thoughts and talk amongst yourselves.”
He opened his mouth to speak but I had had more than enough pointless back and forth for the time being. The power of jolly cooperation moved me's to the edge of the fabricated island while two of me dutifully ignored the suggestion one of us made to see what traits their clearly homicidal species possessed.
And although the cat people regrouped and hashed out their opinions on my offer, like I had suggested, it got a little...weird after that…
The weirdness itselft began when their freshly healed leader came over, with the sparkly half of her staff that I neglected to pulverize and stated imperiously while the others looked on with rapt attention.
“I Kel’Una claim half this dimensional siphon on behalf of clan Tan’uk! Any attempt to trespass upon it shall be met with an aggressive response!”
Trying to keep from laughing and also not wanting to re-infect myself with foot in mouth disease, we nodded somberly, whilst the other me’s inwardly howled with laughter.
Having apparently achieved her territory grabbing goal she *Hmphed* cutely and turned to bound gracefully from podium to podium, only stopping to look back at me with a distrustful scowl when she was back safely with her allies.
And so the days passed without incident.
I mean, I tried a couple of times to go over and talk to them…But as soon as any of me neared some imaginary line they would collectively hiss at me like a was a true Richard, at least up until we reversed our course.
After making no headway with that first tact, we took to yelling our questions about anything from what their favorite food was, to what would happen if I cleared the T4 quest at them.
Sadly their response to this course of action was to yowl incoherently at me.
So we contented our selves with attempting to elicit more positive forms of response from them with a little more…unconventional…methods of communication.
We began by singing some well-known songs from our home planet.
Unfortunately my rendition of Don’t Stop Believing rewarded me with them trying to yowl along, completely out of key.
Persevering a me segued into Down Under being a more tone deaf friendly song. However once again, my Siphon companions saw fit to assault our enhanced ears with their discordant yodeling.
My recitations delved such depths as Ninety Nine luft Balloon’s, Love Shack and even Bohemian Rhapsody, going so far as to apply air guitar where we felt was appropriate.
But alas, these creatures, despite possessing larger ears then us, seemed intent on butchering any tune any of me deemed fit to share.
Angling for what I universally hoped would maybe evoke some kind of primal resonance, I activated my trump card unilaterally erupting into Who Let The Dogs Out.
Fur standing on end the cat-people hissed and screeched the longer my inept lip-service continued, forcing the me on sing-a-long duty to relent for a moment, to allow us to collectively regroup and re-strategize.
The triumvirate concluded that they may be a more physically inclined species and that by taking far more drastic action, a pathway to mutual respect and understanding might very well still be constructed.
Thus we attempted to communicate through interpretative dance.
Cycling through some semblance of different styles I only had a vague inkling of, largely derived from popular culture due to our lack of any proper socialization.
A me began with line dancing then the sashayed into chicken dance only to continue to two left foot my way through more conventional styles. Though sadly for my collectively prodigious efforts, all I received was mesmerized stares and the occasional tail twitch which ceased when I had finished my homage to the Cha-cha.
Refusing to surrender, a me delved into more piecemeal offerings and began with the sprinkler, lawnmower, gangnam style and even reduced myself to the depravity of the backpack dance.
Yet still, no meaningful communication escaped the enraptured felines.
And so it was with a heavy heart, after having finished enacting The Robot with our platemail’s scraping and clanking only adding to its efficacy. We collectively, if grudgingly, gave up on such lofty ambitions as being friends with the murderous, mute, and unappreciative cat-people.
Lapsing into morose inactivity, we elected to enact my tried and true anti hallucinatory practice. Universally pretending they did not exist as we busied our selves with the business of doing sweet fuck all to make the passage of time easier to tolerate.
Finally after what seemed like an eternity of not murdering irrational cat people, all of me were rewarded for our mental fortitude:
Dimensional Siphon stability limit reached, you will be deposited onto the adjacent Phase 1 World Zo’Duq’Ut in 4 minutes 59 seconds.
Congratulations on completing the quest ‘Perseverance’, you have been awarded 300,000 Manamotes for successful completion.
You have acquired the title of Dimensional Diplomat I (Rare) for surviving in a Phase 1 Dimensional Siphon for the 30 days of its existence whilst co habituating it without fatality, with a system initiated party.
Feeling the warmth of a new title rush through me's, we didn’t even bother to pull up our status because we could already tell from its name that it was there to taunt us.
Instead we halted the near pointless parkour one of me had been amusing our selves with and waited for the dimensional pocket full of illogical and uncultured fur ball’s, to cease its existence.
After the excruciating last minutes had passed, the blessed white and blue light’s salvation came:
You have entered Delta Zone #3 level 80 – 99.
Blinking the light from our eyes a me noted the blue sky with twin suns, hanging overhead as a gentle summer like breeze washed over our face. Unfortunately we were not alone in the moment of luxuriant freedom as one of me scanned around us whilst another began to speed up our perception.
Surrounding me's and the six feline people where a plethora of similarly furred and distinct humanoids. Yet where the six I had met mingled freely, the multitude of the surrounding cat-people had organized themselves by pattern and color.
Groaning inwardly at having to try and explain my-selves to their equally hostile kin, the couple of thousand warriors that had their weapons leveled and spells primed that glowed with thrumming power, dimmed the little light of hope that remained of my collective dreams of diplomacy.
The diplomatic dreams however, were shorter lived then even any of our lowest expectations had predicted, as one of my ex-cohabitants from the Siphon, I’d unanimously identified as the uppity leader, screamed.
“KILL THE FUR-LESS!”
Instantly following her demand, the gathered cat-people shot spells, arrows and in a couple of cases spears at me, but with the power of jolly cooperation on our side, their efforts were all for naught.
Although it felt like an insult to Bruce’s memory, we displaced the hard ground beneath my's feet taking to sailing over their heads while streaking in a low arc over the savannah like zone.
Collectively pushing down the urge to sample their trait’s, all of me had more pressing matters to attend and as we shot away from the comparatively slow spells that tried to seek us out. This in turn led a grin to creep onto our sonically inclined face.
As with the near instantaneous advent of a certain guiding arrow, It seemed that my friend Greeny was intergalactic as well.
So as the translucent arrow helpfully appeared to guide us to the nearest Siphon, we set our minds and body to the unified purposes of gathering the multitude of magical funds that were apparently a prerequisite for our next interplanetary venture.