Virginwood, Erramir’s greatsword, his shield, and his bag were all piled on his chest as the block robot, reconfigured into a stretcher, raced him down the canyon. It’s treads churned so quickly they made a burr-ing noise.
His bag contained the added weight of the smallest piece of orb scrap Val could find, a gear, and a large clear crystal. It was an awkward load, but he resisted the urge to shift his grip for fear of dropping something.
The experience was odd and unexpected, and the bed of bricks wasn’t very comfortable, but he was alive, so he could only be grateful. His enhanced healing was still working on his legs, and he could at least feel them again.
The strange robot was friendly; Erramir was sure of that much now. It had saved them all and kept him from the experience of being turned into hamburger. And that was worth a nod of respect and a measure of trust at the very least.
Erramir might have been able to stab his sword into the inner guts of the death orb, possibly saving himself, but he was perfectly happy not knowing for sure.
The little bot’s incredibly speed was good thing, because the side of the canyon was collapsing.
Just as he'd worried, the lower sections destroyed by the possessed sphere had weakened the structure. It had stabilized and may have been ok, but then there'd been Carson’s multi-ton flaming spikes.
The tremors they caused must have deteriorated the tenuous strength remaining in those damaged areas. So when the orb exploded, destroying more structural bottom buildings, the whole side had slowly tipped into this massive cascade of collapse.
It was a miracle Erramir survived, and he suspected the bot may have had a hand, or a block, as it was, in that too.
In a mad scramble after the orb detonation, Val had dragged him through the gap, shoved all this into his arms, and communicated to the bot, via Virg as he now understood it, to haul his temporarily paralyzed ass to safety.
The wild manipulation of flying blocks that managed to lift him into this position had been slightly concerning. But it had allowed Val to immediately take off to retrieve Carson.
The bot slowed just inside the tunnel entrance, rotated, and backed up to the wall, where it slid him off into a sitting position looking back down the canyon.
His bag tumbled to the stone floor as he fumbled with the rest of his awkward cargo. Little bugger has courteous intention, but it’s not too bright, he thought. Settled everything, he looked up just in time to see Val, with a lanky green burden slung over one shoulder, disappear down a hallway on the third level walkway.
Just as she did, the lowest of the long stone bridges broke free.
As if in slow motion, it listed, cracked loudly, then split in two places. The chunks fell silently before colliding with the canyon bottom in a roar and eruption of dust.
He sighed in resignation. The considerable pile of materials left as loot by the sphere was buried. And, judging by the continuing crumble of the canyon side, Erramir doubted it was done accumulating. It may very well be a small hill in the end.
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Val adjusted Carson’s limp body on her shoulder as she ran down the passage to the rear hallway and ramp. The sound of stone collapsing harried her, lending urgency to her flight.
A great crack reverberated, followed by silence and a crash of what could only be one of the bridges hitting the ground. She barreled down two stories of ramps, cut through the passage at the bottom, and shot out into the leading edge of an expanding dust cloud. She angled left toward the tunnel they'd found while running from the orb.
Upon approaching, she saw Erramir sitting against the wall with VirginWood and his gear on the ground beside the stoic little blockbot. “Got him.” She entered the tunnel then turned to watch how far the collapsing cascade would travel.
It had already claimed the area where Carson had passed out and spread up to the tenth floor. From here, her vision couldn’t pierce beyond that. But judging by the widening gap at the tenth level and the stone debris that continued to fall from above it, the last two stories weren’t going to survive.
The sound of another of the bridges cracking came from further down the canyon; long seconds later, it too hit the canyon floor. Within moments, the wall of dust that Val had outrun reached them, making it hard to breathe. Covering her mouth with an arm, she backed up a few paces into the tunnel. “Can you stand yet?”
Erramir lifted one knee a few inches with a grimace of pain before it collapsed back to the ground. “No.” He coughed. “My body is still healing.” He coughed again. “That thing really screwed me up.”
She wasn’t optimistic about leaving the same way they’d entered, but they’d still want to check before pushing further into the unknown underground. But that was no reason to suffer this dust for a moment longer than necessary. “Let’s move further back, get away from this dust until it’s settled,” said Val, while silently communicating via Virg for blockbot to pick Erramir back up.
“Sounds good–Woah!” Erramir scrambled to secure his collection of burdens as thin blocks spun around to begin sliding beneath him from both sides. He snatched his bag off the ground just as he was lifted high enough for the thicker blocks to form the stretcher bed, thus allowing the slender ones to reform blockbot's long, low treads. “Geeze Val, did you tell it to treat me like a piece of luggage?”
She laughed. “No, but the translator has the mind of a three-year-old, so it’s not exactly nuanced communication.” They headed further down the passage, and Erramir shifted his shield into a more comfortable position for the short ride.
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Val glanced at him. “We had no business winning that fight. Even with my improved link with Virg, your activation of that badass magic sword, and Carson hurling flaming mini-buses at it, that metal ball still had us beat.” She tipped her chin toward his ride. “That little bot saved our asses.”
Erramir lifted his head to look at Val's back. Carson's head lolled and bounced about, and he became less sure that Val hadn't intended for him to be treated like a suitcase. He filed the thought away and responded, “I know it. When that meat grinder opened up... well, I figured we were done. I still had a plan, though.” Erramir lent false bravado into his final words.
“Yeah?” She coughed through a laugh. “Like what? You were gonna kill it with your guts while it turned you into sausage?”
Val judged they’d gone far enough and stopped. After some silent communication, the blockbot set Erramir against the wall again. This time he managed the transition with more grace, settling his gear to the side after he was down.
“No. I was going to kill it from the inside with my sword. Opened up like it was, I could have scrambled that thing like a bowl of eggs.” It was a cocky and possibly totally false statement.
“Maybe...” Val's drawn-out reply nearly accused him of lying, but not quite. She propped Carson against the wall on the other side of the tunnel and tried to steady him, but the mage’s head kept flopping over, pulling his body with it, so she just laid him out flat.
Erramir took note that one's head was both troublesome and vulnerable when unconscious. If unconsciousness was going to be a regular thing, he wondered about looking into a neck brace.
Refocusing on Val, Erramir smiled. “Yeah, maybe not. I’m just glad I didn’t have to try.” He observed the magical robot. “You said its name is Blockbot?”
She shrugged. “That’s what Virg calls it. Seems to fit.”
“It does. Although it’s not a very cool name. When Carson wakes up, I’ll bet he comes up with something better within ten minutes.”
“Um-hum, you’re probably right. But, Blockbot is good enough for now. Hey, did you go through your notifications yet?”
“No. You?” Erramir’s anticipation rose, remembering the small light glowing in the corner of his vision. It’d been on for a while now.
“Nope. Let’s see what we got.” Val’s gaze focused on her dialog screen.
The first message notification was already open in Erramir’s vision.
Unlocked Advanced Attribute: Insight – You have demonstrated an intuitive capacity to perceive your environment and companions at a fundamental level, unaffected by personal preference or fear, and unlocked Insight, second of the advanced attributes.
Insight – You are clear that truth is of greater importance in life than preference. This clarity has fundamentally attuned you to truth on a base level, heightening curiosity and making deception, in its many guises, obvious. As this attribute levels, your resonance with truth will become more closely aligned and unlock new abilities.
Level 1 Effects: You will experience a greater level of curiosity around things not understood. Deception will cause you discomfort, and self-deception will cause amplified discomfort.
Advanced Attributes Note – It is impossible to light the way for those unwilling to open their eyes. For this reason, any discussion of Advanced Attributes with players who have not unlocked them will be met with confusion or disbelief.
Erramir finished reading the first notification and looked at Val. “I unlocked the second...” He trailed off as Val lowered herself down to lay flat on the ground. “Val?” He didn’t know what to make of this. Val didn’t answer. “Val? You ok?” Still no answer.
The Elven staff yielder started smiling and inspecting her hands as if they held some incredible mystery. It took Erramir another moment before he connected the dots. “Ahh... You leveled up your Presence attribute.”
Valerie slowly rolled her head toward him. “Yeah... It's soooo... glittery.” Her eyes were wide and moving slowly.
Erramir returned the smile, remembering his own experience gaining level two in Presence. “Heh. Yeah, it’s pretty neat. Kind of like tripping while having x-ray body vision.”
Val’s eyes got even bigger. She giggled and lazily extended a finger to point at him. “Yeahh. It isss.” Then she closed her eyes and settled back on the ground. “I’ll... be back, later.”
He shook his head, slightly envious that his opportunity to savor gaining Presence 2 had been truncated. Curiously, unlocking Insight wasn’t the same at all; he felt totally normal. As he considered that, Erramir suddenly realized he knew why: Insight was a much headier experience.
Presence was a full-body awakening, especially the second level, and the flood of new sensory input was akin to an extraordinary psychedelic trip.
Erramir raised an imaginary cup to his father for that. Bendik’s financial support had been primarily responsible for the legalization of lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD, for therapeutic purposes. Since then, millions of people had benefited in their recovery from depression, alcohol abuse, childhood trauma, PTSD, and many social disorders because of its inclusion in the therapeutic setting.
Huh, this feels a bit like that. Erramir definitely felt less tense since achieving level 2 in Presence.
Suddenly the connection was all too clear. Of course, it does. Elle had that data; she included this on purpose. He chuckled and pondered the correlation. How had the QI accounted for the critical elements of set and setting needed for a nurturing experience?
Set, or mindset, seemed to be handled intrinsically. Anyone who reached level 2 in Presence would have an open-minded personality and be engaged in expanding their self-knowledge.
The setting, or the surrounding environment, however, was definitely not handled. He’d been in the middle of a fight, for goodness sake–that was undeniably less than ideal.
“Humm.” Erramir mulled some more. It hadn’t lasted that long, nothing like the twelve-hour spiritual journey he’d taken several years ago at the HAP Center. Perhaps this experience was intense, visceral, and deep enough to make the setting or the surrounding environment less critical. Val also didn’t gain the point in battle as he did; she only got it upon reading her notification. That would help regulate the setting somewhat.
“Ahhh.” He figured it out and absently noted that his thoughts felt particularly clear. It’s about need and desire. Erramir nodded to himself; much of Kuoran mechanics seemed to revolve around those two.
He concluded that the awakening of Presence level 2 had to have some kind of variable trigger that accounted for both. He had so badly wanted to get up and help his friends that it triggered the desire variable to heal his concussion. Wait, wouldn’t that be need? No, they didn’t actually end up needing me. My desire just felt like a need.
Erramir smiled as the realizations hit him one after the other. He looked around the tunnel and ran a hand over the stone floor with a sense of pride. He was proud of Kuora, and he was proud of Elle, and that felt really good.
Closing his eyes, he took a moment to use his own increased body awareness to check on the healing in his legs. Happily, he found them close to fully recovered and pulled his knees up as a test. They felt a little tight but otherwise good.
Opening his eyes, Erramir started. “Woah.” Valerie was up on one elbow and staring at him. “Hey, Val.”
“How?” she asked.
For some reason, Erramir thought he got her meaning. He looked away, considering if he had a good answer, before meeting her gaze. “Honestly, I don’t know.” He spread his arms wide. “Elle created this. I just made sure she was an earnest and caring Being.” He shrugged and grinned at having downplayed his own role. “No big deal.”
“Well, I think it’s the most amazing thing ever. We have to make this available to more people, Err. It’s just too good.”
He nodded. “That’s the plan.”
She smiled again. He waited for a moment, but she just kept grinning like a goof and looking at him. “What?” Erramir said around a laugh. “What the hell are you smiling at?”
She wiggled fingers at him, giggled, and started singing. “Spider-woman, spider woman...does whatever a spider can...” It was a poor rendition of the classic, but Val couldn’t care one iota. “Now I have Spidey Sense too.” She rolled back flat and punched a fist into the air. “Yessss!”