Benjamin – Zo’Duq’Ut – Delta Zone #2 Level 80 – 99
After leaving the clearly annoyed yet awestruck cat-people to wait patiently outside their recently renovated digs while it was still mid conveyance. We collectively shot through the honeycomb etched, purple stone pillars that rose out of the glittering green sands, completely ignoring the monsters at their base.
It wasn’t that the wholly white crab/anemone crosses didn’t look like worthy targets as they barely orientated their beady red eye stalks to register my passage.
No.
Normally I would be happy to oblige their car size body and stop sign length prickles with a just pummeling to extract their manamotes and potential trait enhancement.
Today however, on a planet far from home infested with an abundance of frankly hostile cat people, we were universally about far more important work.
Despite their hostile nature, I was about to give their species a paw up against this system that had no doubt been imposed upon them against their will.
What kind of a paw you might ask?
We were going to clear their Phase Conveyance quest free of charge and all without having to kill a single sentient kitty!
I bet they would name a city after us, or better yet construct a monument in our image!
The mind in charge of morale maintenance put my positive reinforcement on hold as we neared what looked like the end of the Delta Zone and pulled up the quest details one last time:
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, Monarch of Tides Soz’Keq. 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!
It wasn’t like any of us technically needed to review it again, more it was a force of habit borne of my once poor comprehension skills and failing multiple quests during my mmorpg misadventures.
Satiating my's mild form of obsessive compulsive disorder the me willed the quest box closed whilst the other two came to a halt, casting a half strength [Increase Gravity] on our-selves in a bid to arrest our collectively absurd momentum.
Thudding into the luminescent sand before the purple stone tunnel where Greeny silently directed us, one of me contemplated for what was probably the thousandth time in the past couple of weeks, what kind of monster a ‘Monarch of Tides’ would be?
Would it be sentient?
Could we play snap?
Would it have fillets?
But most important of all...
Would they taste any good?
Only having one way to know for sure, a me set off at a light jog into the dark and foreboding tunnel until we encountered the wholly expected message:
You have entered Epsilon Zone #1 Level 100.
Willing away the message, we could see a blue shifting light being reflected off the stalactite encrusted ceiling up ahead, as the tunnel’s width expanded. The light jog of my egregiously enhanced body being something more akin to three times the previous world record in meters per second for the hundred meters sprint. We were all too quickly met with the source of the undulating light.
When the tunnel ceased to conform to it’s previous descriptor, opening up into a massive cavern of sorts, we did a cursory sweep of the void before us. The light that played on the stalactites seemed to be from some form of bio-luminescence, emanating from beneath the expanse of water below them. On and on the cavern's uneven roof loomed and were it not for the light cast from the depths of the gently lapping waters, even with our enhanced sight, none of me were entirely sure we would be able to perceive even a thousandth of its expansive its grandeur.
Having done our inspection and after some triplicate classification grappling, the only thing any of us could use as a vague point for reference from our non magical roots was a giant underground reservoir of water skin to the Great Artesian Basin.
More frustratingly however, there was something here the triumvirate didn’t consider when we formulated our masterful, if layman’s plan, to clear the T4 quest.
About two hundred or so meters away from me's on the slick purple stone that served as a shore, were about a couple hundred or so of the aggressive cat-people and true to form, they were already charging spells and drawing bows as they tightened their defensive cordon around the caverns entrance proper.
Where coincidentally, many of me just so happened to be currently standing.
Sighing resignedly at the felines that just couldn’t take a bloody hint, a me guessed it was time to make a show of force to the natives, so pesky things like their futile resistance, would stop wasting our valuable time.
Our perception of time was slowed by one of me as the power of jolly cooperation moved me into the middle of their formation whilst wind split and stone cracked at our passage.
A couple of me felt a little sorry for the painfully slow to react and clearly outclassed beings once more, especially owing to the fact that they were just so bloomin cute. However their constant hostility, despite my generous restraint, was in need of urgent rectification.
And urgently rectify it we did.
Wooden and metal weapons were snapped alike by our enhanced muscles, which subsequently, if regrettably, led to impaled limbs aplenty. With the exception of one aggressive and unfortunate kitty suffering a tail skewering.
Once we had sufficiently wounded a majority of their ill-fated number, a me cast a half strength reduction [Lesser Field of Gravity Manipulation] causing those near me to float toward the stalactites. Then once their slow motion flailing had reached sufficiently lofty heights, and a me had resisted the urge to eliminate a few ranged attackers that still thought it was a bright idea to shoot things harmlessly, if irritatingly, at me's.
All of me took turns in playing a wholly as yet undiscovered variety of subterranean beach volley ball.
Well to be universally candid, the only thing it had in common with the more germane version of the game was that it was near water and I had to jump and slap something in the direction of which I was facing.
Still, when all was said and done we were multitudinous-ly proud of our achievements as there was not a single feline fatality! But more importantly, the me's set the new intergalactic record of 240 kitty’s to no punctured eyes!
With cat-people adequately sent down the tunnel from whence we'd came, we turned our selves’ attention to the main event.
Collectively unsure exactly how to summon the boss monster, a me experimentally dipped a plated toe into the body of water to hopefully trigger the spawning sequence.
After nothing more than the drip drip drip of condensed water falling from the uneven ceiling, and the far off yowls of cat-people continued to echo about our surrounds. The triumvirate elected that in light of my's still undissolved metal boot, it was high time we stopped pussyfooting about and got balls deep into the matter at hand.
Being unashamed man children at heart, one of me tensed our legs and cracked purple bedrock as he launched our selves to sail in a low arc over the pristine glowing sapphire pool beneath. Pleasantly surprised at our hang time, we were far less impressed when, owing to the sheer velocity of a certain flying Benjamin, we began to skip a few times as platemail clanked in protest, before generating sufficient drag to allow us to succumb to the watery embrace of the dank depths bellow.
One of me began to fight the urge to cast a skill or swim to get back to the surface as we made our rapid descent to the glowing and unknown depths. Meanwhile one of me on danger watch found nothing of note and the one with sweet fuck all to do aside from lament our loss for the need to actually breathe. Instead took to drinking in the splendor of all the little floaty sapphire lights that were interspersed in the water as far as our impressive vision would permit.
After five or so minutes of soundless descent, the me on danger watch reported a ripple of movement from below.
unfortunately, It took more than a good few moments to discover its origin in the phosphorescent soaked water. Being the outline of the motion was slight enough that if we still had standard human eyes, they wouldn’t have even been able to make it out at a fifth of the distance that it turned out to be.
Even with such enhancement, we were unable to make out the exact size of the thing, only that it was translucent...and extremely fucking huge.
Rather than wait for it to make the first move, the power of jolly cooperation cleaved the water whilst we swam torpedo like toward its dome of an outline.
The closer our impression of a faster than sonar fish human brought us to it, the more we could make out faintly shimmering, yet intricate patterns or red and blue marring its gelatin like surface.
Then without any movement, light or sound we were rudely struck by an invisible wave of force from bellow and cannoned toward the surface. Even worse, as a result, our once formidable armor disintegrated near instantly from the blow to leave our body to weather the crushing counter force the water alone exerted.
Breaking the surface in mere seconds we collectively crashed into the ceiling, demolishing several meters long stalactite’s in the processes.
Once one of me's regained our bearings and checked that the constituent bits that were supposed to make up our body still in fact did so. Another me took it upon themselves to hold onto the sides of the vaguely human sized, meters deep hole in the ceiling, so we didn’t accidentally join the falling bits of mauve stalactites prematurely.
The third me however, was afforded the luxury of sharing the rough summation of our thoughts, loudly, with the underworld at large on what the hell had just happened.
“THAT WAS A PERFECTLY GOOD SET OF ARMOR AND JEWELRY YOU…YOU…WHATEVER THE FUCK YOU ARE!”
Seeing no noticeable response to the me's venting, it furthered.
“COME UP HERE AND FIGHT LIKE A…err…W-WHATEVER THE FUCK PASSES FOR A MALE OF YOUR SPECIES!”
In response to my ire, the surface of the water beneath me began to roil for what looked to be at least a couple of kilometers as the cat-people likely still recovering at the safe remove of the entrance tunnel, let their continued protestation at their treatment be known by way of renewed caterwauling.
Ignoring the grouchy feline humanoids out of key chorus, we prepped our newly birthday-suited self for retaliatory action.
One of me began to parse the nanosecond by nanosecond change in the waters voluminous and shifting face for any sign of what the fuck had just punted me like a pro golfer at a driving range. All the while, the me not actively managing my entrenchment in our new home come cavern ceiling, was figuring out the best way to get to the heart of something that likely had a several kilometer large body.
Though my self’s parsing of reality obviously slowed the emergence of the thing from the cavernous depths to my perception, it did not take long at all for a more discernible form to present itself.
Thus far my opponents had been somewhat relatable.
Mainly owing to the fact that they all had ocular instruments with which to meet…Well…Eye to eye as it were...
Unfortunately, my current opponent deemed such evolutionary considerations to be beneath or even above itself.
Given the lack of such things for a miniscule of a moment, our plan of attack floundered as we grappled with just how we were going to gauge the mental state of the thing, undulating on the waters surface below us.
But like all thing’s fleeting, the infinitesimal moment passed as all of us realized that we didn’t need to get in the head of the absurdly sized jellyfish, which had unceremoniously bitch slapped us.
No.
All we had to do was fucking kill it!
Will to commit homicide on an egregiously invertebrate scale rekindled within us, the power of jolly cooperation shot us like a bullet from a purple stone barreled cavern roof's gun.
The world cleaved to our collective will as we closed the gap between me's and it...At which point it continued to play dirty.
Well to be fair, none of me had never been very sportsman like in our interactions with the system generated nasty’s, and its attack of a jet of water to our whole being probably left us cleaner then when we'd began this thus far one sided fight.
But still, the son of a gelatinous super soaker didn’t even give me's the courtesy of telegraphing his second installment of Benjamin paddling…
Once more all of me were relentlessly driven far deeper in, to a roughly ex-person sided hole in the ceiling as it gave way to water pressure and our near unbreakable new body.
As we were buffeted in a shiatsu style frontal water massage, the wise words of George W Bush came to our mind's.
‘Fool me once, shame on – shame on you. Fool me – you can’t get fooled again.’
He also might have said.
‘I know human being and fish can co-exist peacefully.’
But we're gonna mark that one as more of an aspiration, especially on account of the metric fuck ton of water pressure our body was currently laboring against at this very moment.
Vowing to not missunderestimate our foe again. As soon as the veritable deluge water relented, a me cast a [Lesser Dimensional Portal] with its exit right above the beastie and fell into the rip in reality, to come face to dome, with the rudest magical jellyfish we'd eve had the displeasure of encountering.
Cancelling our portal the me cast a maximum [lesser dimensional size decrease] on the oversize invertebrate and while its volume warped and shrank to the skills will, the me followed it with a maximum [Lesser Attract] before another me added a max [Increase Gravity] on our self in short order.
With barely a squelch, we literally embedded myselves deep within the heart enemy territory. At which point a me belatedly realized that the little any of me knew of our current foes earthly relations anatomical layout, was that they had a mouth that doubled as an anus on their undercarriage.
Settling for a tried a true method of monsterly destruction and endeavoring to stay well away from its butt. A me focused on what seemed to be a fleshy point of giant jellyfish, some twenty or so meters away from us that was slightly below its decorated crown. In turn it cast a max increase [Lesser Gravidic Focal Point] then when we felt a sufficient amount of invertebrate had slicked past us to contract to its maximum, the me cast [Lesser Dimensional Absence] at the same point.
Up until this juncture, while the fight hadn’t exactly been going all of my’s way, we had felt that at least in part, that combat related matters were still well within our grasps.
After it?
It took me's a few moments to have any minds opinion on it at all.
At least that is until we stopped convulsing.
So...It turns out that when you start to rip apart the insides of a giant jellyfish with magical powers, it does not take to your efforts kindly.
Who knew?
And in hindsight, all of me found it hard to hold it against the thing for sending trillions of volts of magical electricity through itself and by virtue of our location, me's, while in its desperate bid to make us stop whatever it is we were doing.
But like with most things retrospective, it is easier to accept when you do not actively have to deal with the immediacy of the situation in question.
As a result, none of me were sure how long we’d had been out.
It might have been a nanosecond to a month for all we could figure out in this particularly damp and dank situ.
But what we did know was that when we came to, the thing we were still inside of had descended to the watery depths, whilst the hole a me had created within it undulated with us in its very center, all while under an intense full body vice grip of its water juju skills.
Beginning to mildly panic a me confirmed our health bar was full before it joined the triumvirate in its convened emergency session and near immediately relaxed as it unanimously concluded that although on the sub surface of it, it might look like we were entombed in a gelatinous and watery grave. We instead might actually be right where we wanted to be for maximum jellyfish carnage.
Grinning as a me confirmed all our skills were off cooldown, it opened Mr Pocket and willed out the largest boulder of the strongest rock that we'd been able to procure to date, which would fit within the hollow I now inhabited, whilst leaving the me’s about 5 meters or so of wiggle room.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Opening [Lesser Dimensional Portal] with an exit point that we gauged was a couple of kilometers off the side, a me cast a max increase [Lesser Gravidic Focal Point] on the boulder, then followed it up with a max [Increase Gravity] for good measure.
As a me stepped out of the portal to safety to float amongst the phosphorescent and minuscule blue lights, all of me settled in to watch the far larger scale light show several kilometers away, with entirely appropriate vengeful glee.
Whilst we were trapped within the bluebottle from hell, none of us had realized how close the gelatinous oversized, water spouting, self tasering dickwad was from the reservoirs floor.
So when it made landfall, thanks to the overwhelmingly increased dead weight of the super stronk stone lodged within it. It also effectively pancaked its curtain like frilly undercarriage along with its regalia of short, ribbon like tentacles in barely a nanosecond.
Thus we were universally, more than a little overjoyed as it continued to taser the poor, though ridiculously heavy-duty rock entombed within it and a large swath of surrounding water and bedrock, like its life did in fact depended on it.
However, the resulting titanic shock wave from its impact was also an unexpected complication.
Yet seeing as none of me really had anywhere else to be and my portal skill was still on cooldown, we kind of just accepted it like the by standing bit of seaweed at an atom bomb detonation in French Polynesia that we were.
After the world stopped being an ample approximation of a washing machine on spin cycle, one of me only then managed to figure out which way was up, and conversely down. Whilst another me also noted that while the voltaic blue and white arcing light show was still in full swing casting a wide coronal glow for miles around, the substantiate makeup of its instigator, was starting to shift from translucent to a decidedly cloudy opacity.
However given we had yet to receive a kill notification for the currently immobile malfunctioning plus sized organic light bulb. We elected to give things a little bit of a nudge in our favor lest it not perish before my's skills duration’s ran out.
Two of me worked in tandem to close on a point roughly a couple of kilometers directly above our target, and as a me was opening Mr Pocket once more to set us up the bomb, we deflated as one, as a string of notifications told us our scheduled game of underwater conkers had just been cancelled:
You have slain the Phasic Boss, Monarch of Tides Soz’Keq LvL 100, unable to gain further experience due to Phase 1 level limitation.
You have completed the quest – Phase Conveyance (T4) – 10,000,000 Manamotes awarded.
You have acquired the title of Elevation Abnormality (Unique) for defeating a Phasic Boss whilst being alone.
You have acquired the title of Incomprehensible Crafter (Epic) for creating an epic item without the aid or knowledge generated from a crafting based profession
Planetary Phase 2 Elevation Shift initiated.
Please return to your habitations within 59 Days 23 Hours 59 Minutes 59 Seconds to ensure a comfortable transition to Phase 2 of the Elevation process.
Collectively perking up as the recognizable warmth of a large stat increase washed through us, one of me reread the notifications and another me closed Mr Pocket after it grudgingly willed Stronk boulder Mark 2 back into its spacious recesses.
Meanwhile a third me pulled up my ‘status’ screen while the other two made like a turbocharged Aquaman to the still twitching corpse and whatever in the depths I had apparently just accidentally crafted:
STATUS
Name: Benjamin
Age: 33
Titles: Forerunner IX, Dimensional Assailant I, Dimensional Diplomat I, Dimensional Forerunner, Dimensional Insurgent I, Lone Adventurer, Racial Pinnacle I, Survivor I, One Elevant Army I, Founder, Exemplar, Phasic Bastion I, Manamote Magnate II, Elevation Abnormality, Incomprehensible Crafter
Class 1: Initiate Gravity Mage Level: 99 +1 Intelligence per level +1 Wisdom per level
Class 2: Initiate Dimensional Mage Level: 99 +1 Intelligence per level +1 Wisdom per level
Profession: Basic Gathering
HP:3463/3463 MP:3373/3373
Status Effects: Abyss Scarred (All non-core attribute effects negated)
Vitality: 1103 x 1.30 (1434)
Strength: 951 x 1.25 (1189) Dexterity: 948 x 1.25 (1185)
Intelligence: 1096 x 1.25 (1370) Wisdom: 1012 x 1.25 (1265)
Charisma: 330 x 1.30 (429) Luck: 328 x 1.30 (426)
Undistributed Attribute points: 0
Passives –
Human: + 5 attribute points per level
Lingua System: Able to communicate verbally with any system integrated entity and be understood
Parasitic Mutator: Ability to absorb a prevalent trait of a recently killed entity by the host. Must be within 1 meter of target, maximum 3 traits at any one time. Current traits.
1) Lesser Primordial Blood: Increase all core attributes by 15%
2) Heart of a Lesser Dragon: 250% increase in health and mana regeneration rate.
3) Lesser Insectile Musculature: Your muscles have increased strength of 150% at the cost of increased metabolic energy.
Loner: +15% all damage dealt when fighting alone, -10% all damage taken when fighting alone, -10% all damage dealt when fighting beside others, +15% all damage taken when fighting in a group.
Forerunner IX: + 9 to all core attributes per level
Dimensional Forerunner: +1 to non-core attributes per level
Dimensional Assailant I: +5 to Luck
Dimensional Insurgent I: + 5 to non-core attributes
Dimensional Diplomat I: + 5 to non-core attributes
Elevation Abnormality: All attributes increased by 10%
Incomprehensible Crafter: +10 to non-core attributes
Lone Adventurer: Non-core attributes increased by 20%
Racial Pinnacle I: +1 to non-core attributes per level
One Elevant Army I: +5 to all core attributes
Founder: +5 Charisma
Exemplar: +1 to non-core attributes per level
Phasic Bastion I: + 5 to non-core attributes
Manamote Magnate II: +15% increase in manamotes received from system quests
Survivor I: Vitality increased by 5%
Improved Instant Renewal: Regenerate 25% of maximum life when below 5% of life once every twelve hours.
Perpetual Regeneration: Regenerate 1% of maximum life per second on top of existing life regeneration rate.
Improved Metabolic Overdrive: Double all physical damage and physical size for 1 minute after which you will suffer a 25% strength penalty for 5 minutes, useable once every twelve hours.
Solid Foundation: Physical resistance and bone density are directly increased by the strength attribute.
Improved Quick As A Flash: Move at double your maximum speed for 1 minute after which you will suffer 25% dexterity penalty for 5 minutes, usable once every twelve hours.
Off The Clock: Dodge a lethal attack if the attacker has less than 750 Dexterity, passively available once per day.
Thrice Minded: You possess three independent cognitive centers.
Predictive Pondering: Able to predict what an opponent within 20 Meters will do for 5 seconds, if the opponent has less than 750 Intelligence. Useable once per day.
Mind Vault: Once a memory has entered your mind, it may only leave it should you allow it to do so.
Mana Fount: Increases your own mana regeneration by 75% and those within 20 meters of you by 25%
Speak For All: Convince anyone within 10 meters of you of a single idea for 5 minutes, once every twenty four hours.
Golden Gift: Transfer your Luck attribute to an ally for 1 minute, however upon activating the skill you will have your Luck attribute reduced by 50% for 5 minutes, only useable once per day.
Gravidic Sense: Sense gravity around you within a 20 meter radius
Dimensional Sense: Sense the dimensional fabric around you within a 20 meter radius.
Skills – Initiate Gravity Mage
1) Decrease Gravity (LvL 10): Decrease a single targets gravity by up to 1000% for a duration of 100 seconds. Target must be within 25 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, duration and gravity multiplier scales with skill level). Cost: Variable, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 45 seconds
2) Increase Gravity (LvL 10): Increase a single targets gravity by up to 1000% for a duration of 100 seconds. Target must be within 25 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, duration and gravity multiplier scales with skill level). Cost: Variable, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 45 seconds
3) Lesser Repulse (LvL 10): With you as a fixed center of gravity, repulse a single target with a force of 1500% of your current mass weighted against 75% of the targets current mass. Target must be within 40 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, mass multiplier and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 40 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 1 seconds
4) Lesser Attract (LvL 10): With you as a fixed center of gravity, attract a single target with a force of 1500% of your current mass weighted against 75% of the targets current mass. Target must be within 40 meters for the skill to take effect (Range, mass multiplier and cooldown scales with skill level). Cost: 40 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 1 seconds
5) Lesser Field of Gravity Manipulation (LvL 10): Manipulate gravity within a radius of 20 meters around you with an increase or decrease of up to 1250%, for a duration of 1 minute. You being the locus of the field are excluded from its effects (Range, gravity multiplier and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 100 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 2 minutes
6) Lesser Gravidic Focal Point (LvL 10): Create a lesser gravidic focal point within 50 meters of yourself for a duration of 1 minute with an alterable gravidic value increase or decrease of 1000% and a radius of effect of 20 meters. Given that you are the point’s creator you will be immune to its effects (Range, gravity multiplier and mana cost scales with skill level). Cost: 100 Mana , Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 10 minutes
Skills – Initiate Dimensional Mage
1) Lesser Dimensional Pocket (LvL 10): You have the ability to create and maintain a minor dimensional pocket adjacent to your current dimension, the proportions of which are linked to your wisdom attribute’s total value. The aperture radius to the pocket is 10 meters and you may only access this pocket 2 times in a 30 minute period for a duration of 2 minutes (Aperture radius, frequency of access and mana cost scale with skill level).Cost: 2 Mana per second, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 30 minutes
2) Lesser Dimensional Instability (LvL 1): Create a minor dimensional instability within 15 meters of you that has a radius of 1.5 meter, the targeted area experiences the very fabric of your dimension shift in unpredictable ways for 15 seconds (Range, radius and duration scale with skill level). Cost: 20 Mana per second, Cast time: Channeled, Cooldown: 5 minutes
3) Lesser Dimensional Size Increase (Lvl 10): Increase the total size of an inanimate object that is within 100 meters of you by up to 250% for a duration of 2 minutes (Range, percentage increase and cooldown scale with skill level). Cost: 50 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 30 seconds
4) Lesser Dimensional Size Decrease (Lvl 10): Decrease the total size of an inanimate object that is within 100 meters of you by up to 250% for a duration of 2 minutes (Range, percentage Decrease and cooldown scale with skill level). Cost: 50 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 30 seconds
5) Lesser Dimensional Portal (LvL 10): Create a lesser dimensional tunnel which origin is within 2 meters of you, that connects with two known points. The tunnel bypasses physical space and has a 5 meter radius for its termini for a duration of up to 5 minutes. The distance between to termini is dictated by your Wisdom attribute 1186 AU’s (Termini radius, duration and cooldown scale with skill level). Cost: 300 Mana, Cast time: 5 seconds, Cooldown: 30 seconds
6) Lesser Dimensional Absence (LvL 10): Create a lesser dimensional absence within 50 meters of you that has a radius of 50 centimeters, which nullifies all matter within the target location for a duration 50 seconds (Range, radius and duration scale with skill level). Cost: 250 Mana, Cast time: 1 second, Cooldown: 1 minute
Willing away the systemically manifested evidence of our gains as we neared the now drifting oversized and sodden corpse that looked like a waterlogged plastic bag. We proceeded to penetrate fists first through its surprisingly now firm dermis in a bid to find out what treasures lay ensconced beneath.
After a couple of seconds of tunneling through flesh with the consistency of a lychee's, all of me broke on through to the other side to find a impressive depression, the now ascending corpse that our erstwhile foe had left in its wake.
Halting to do a scan of the area the me almost didn’t notice the small glinting object in the center of the oddly smooth, yet bumpy crater.
Even with my greatly enhanced sight, it was hard to compensate for a giant plastic bag like thing blocking all the phosphorescent little glowing things that it hadn’t managed to obliterate with its electric death throws. That was before taking into account the fact that I was tens of kilometers deep in what was effectively a giant cavern filled almost to the brim with what was hopefully water and not an excessive reservoir of magical jellyfish pee.
Using the small glimmering object as a point of reference in the near impenetrable gloom, the power of jolly cooperation moved us to our new shiny.
And as a result, when we got to within a few meters of it a blue box diligently instructed me's of its providence:
Off-Hand Zirconium Focus of Conductive Tides
Level Requirement: 99
Attributes: Increase magical defense by 30%, +10 Vitality, +30 Wisdom, +30 Intelligence, + 250 Maximum Mana, +100% increase to rate of Mana Regeneration, +100% Increase to Elemental Damage
Durability: 500/500
Description: An off-handed zirconium focus of conductive tides, inscribed with Master defensive and offensive enhancement runes. An epic magical item created by Benjamin The Forerunner. Forged at great depths by unwittingly harnessing elemental forces beyond his ken with no aid garnered by a crafting profession.
We stared at the thing like the loot craven creature we'd always been, for longer than was psychologically beneficial before our paranoia about amphibious cat people nabbing it won out. And a me secreted it swiftly in Mr Pocket, lest some other ridiculously sized monster destroy our fresh bling on a whim.
Electing to inform the aggressive natives of our success and have an official handing over ceremony of ‘The Scratching Post’, a me opened [Lesser Dimensional Portal] with just outside of the freshly manifested citadel in mind.
As the water rushed past me and a me cast a maximum [Increase Gravity] on my-selves to buy us a moments hesitation, the triumvirate took the brief respite to hone our upcoming speech to the feline humanoids to hopefully avoid a diplomatic fail on our part.
After narrowing it down to a short but witty regaling of our most recently heroic triumph, all of me wasted no more time as a mind cancelled [Increase Gravity] and went with the egregious flow.
Fun fact.
If you open a hole in the bottom of what is effectively a miniature sea, with the sea in question being a fair few kilometers deep. Then the pressure that is present, due to gravity and a bunch of other boring sciency stuff plus add in some magical juju for good measure. The water and most certainly not giant jellyfish pee, will gladly take the path of least resistance you happen to so kindly made available to it.
So when we shot through our portal in the midst of what was effectively a water cannon on magical steroids.
What all of us found when a me canceled [Lesser Dimensional Portal] was not an edifying sight.
Not at all.
Using our bare feet to plow furrows in the black stone, we killed my's momentum, heedless of the residual waters efforts to impede my traction on the slick stone surface.
Sufficiently stationary three of me looked on slack jawed, at the devastation in front of us.
In a direct line where from where my's portal skill’s terminus had faced, there was a bored hole in the canyon wall, that we could vaguely see a point of light deep deep deep within, once and for all putting the flat earth…well world myth…to bed for all of us.
However, the more worrying side effect of our misapplied water drilling technique was the bits and pieces of fury bodies that littered the surrounding hollow around the ‘The Scratching Post’.
One of my minds began to theorize that the bits of stone and residual H two woe that our accidentally super effective water drill had abraded with such vigor had to go somewhere. And given that the hollow behind it was the only available space for it to go.
Go it did.
The other me’s numbly agreed that that guestimation checked out, given the cone like absence of anything near the newly carved high-speed rail tunnel.
The bits and pieces of feline people that were scattered about the place numbered in the thousands and all of me felt nausea wash over us at what we'd inadvertently just visited on the poor helpless cat peoples.
That was, at least until the anguished bellow of one of them cut through our collective selfish revulsion.
“DEATH TO THE FURLESS ABOMINATION!”
Empathetic grief and horror at what we'd wrought momentarily subverted by not wanting to accidentally any more of them, many me’s fled the scene of the great cat hoseacaust, splitting the air as we went.
Breathing hard like we'd just run a marathon despite still not actually needing to breathe. We stood for a moment at the base of the citadels spire and began to try to collect and console our selves before summoning the ovoid lift capsule.
Descending in shell-shocked silence to the recently constructed Dimensional Siphon Insertion & Recall Platform. One of me only halfheartedly hedged that we might not wholly be responsible for the feline genocide because of the lack of system generated kill notifications.
But given that even the me that proposed such a notion wasn’t buying that amateur level of self-delusion, it certainly wasn’t looked upon as a valid form of mental absolution by the rest of us.
Once we were greeted with the sight of the chamber a me moved us to the console and was about to access it when a blue box superimposed itself on my vision:
Your Citadel ‘The Scratching Post’ is under attack! Defensive Shield integrity: 99.99%
Quest: Defend Citadel #1 ‘The Scratching Post’ from attackers
Duration: 29 minutes 59 seconds
Rewards: Varies based on contribution.
Resisting the instinctual urge to defend what is ours, all of me stay true to our word and instead set the administrative permissions on the place to open and hope that this act of surrender, in some small way eases the alien feline suffering we’ve just caused.
Sighing superfluously, a me selects ‘Establish Siphon Insertion to specific Phase 1 World’ on the now un-obscured console and inputs ‘Earth’ into the provided field.
So with a point of T4 completion quest data in our hands, yet lacking any qualitative or quantitative evidence for the trait the boss might posses. We step through the terminus with minds full of apprehension at what mess we will no doubt create next in our further forays into such matters.
One thing remains certain however, palpable sorrow and fear seem intent on remaining our only willing companions on our intergalactic spelunkings.