Chapter 40: Glossary
Few things in this world were more soul-crushing than false hope. It was for this reason that Zach did not want to become overly confident or optimistic as he rushed through B6 in his literal quest to save Rian and Lienne. He tried to remain grounded by reminding himself of the facts, which was odd in a way, because it had only been a little more than an hour ago that he’d done everything he could to avoid ruminating over them; back then, the outlook had been so terrible that he’d feared dwelling on the odds would paralyze him or make him give up. But now? Now, Zach suffered from the total opposite problem—he was worried he might be getting a bit too hopeful. Though, he could hardly blame himself for his extreme emotional swing.
Initially, when he’d decided to go with this “last ditch” plan to make a run for it, it had been under the assumption that his friends were screwed no matter what he did. In fact, as shameful as it was to admit, this entire endeavor had almost been nothing but a formality. A way of coping—of knowing that he’d at least tried and had given his all in his attempt to save them. Sadly, the constraints that had been placed on their rescue, both from the expiration timer on the quest and the duration remaining on Unleashed Phase, had made it so that failure was all but certain.
Or at least, that was what Zach had thought. But then, he moved his feet.
Instantly, all of his assumptions had been smashed to pieces the moment he’d actually tried running: the moment he experienced with his own body the absurdly tremendous difference that +20 to every stat actually made. As a result, his sense of where things stood had shifted enormously, swinging from one absolute to the other like a pendulum. Thus, out of a desire to keep level-headed, he reminded himself that he had only ten minutes and forty-five seconds before this new ability of his wore off, and when that happened, he’d likely end up asleep for a good deal longer than Rian and Lienne still had left to live.
But I might actually have enough time, he thought to himself. As crazy as that sounds, if I can really run as fast as I think I can…I might truly be able to do this!
Using what felt to him like a mere portion of his maximum overall potential, he had already brought himself into a run that, by his estimation, was either slightly faster or equal to the best that he’d been capable of achieving on his bicycle a few days ago. Incredibly, the physical strain to his body from the effort felt similar to that of a light-to-moderate jog. It was truly astounding. He felt as though he were barely exerting himself, and yet he had to be moving at least 40 miles per hour.
The area around him whirled by as the wind beat against his face and caused his maroon-colored tunic and pants to ruffle. Unlike his previous attempt, Zach decided not to start off full bore, as he had not been able to keep his balance the first go around. Apparently, not even 26 points into dexterity was enough to keep his body oriented properly when launching himself from a stationary position into a speed that was…well, actually, he wasn’t even sure how fast he’d been going, as he’d fallen over within a half-second.
Having only just picked himself up off the floor and resumed his forward momentum, he was still relatively close to the entrance of B6. But now, as just a few more seconds of running came and went, he began to put it well behind him. Of course, he didn’t dare look over his shoulder to check, as avoiding the plethora of mobs that practically infested this massive, wide, mouth-shaped tunnel required his full concentration.
Constantly, he had to lurch his body to one side or another to avoid colliding with more of these “Skelly Captains” among a host of other mobs. There were just so damn many of them, and he caught aggro from more than three quarters of those he passed as he made his way along the indeterminately vast tunnel. Once more, he was tempted to look over his shoulder, but this time to see how many of them were still chasing him and how many had de-aggroed and given up. Probably not any of the Eeps. Those sons of bitches took forever to forgive someone. They were like Fluffles after buying the wrong brand of CatYums. They’d chase you for miles. But regardless, Zach could only imagine how much xp he was passing up right now. He was losing out on so much it was obscene.
Once again, damn you two!
He couldn’t help but wonder if he should kill some of these mobs while on the move for the easy experience gain. The problem was he’d have to do it without slowing down, which meant he wouldn’t be able to properly swing his sword. One thing was abundantly clear: anything that resulted in him reducing his pace whatsoever was simply not an option. He would not take any unnecessary action if it increased, by any amount, the time it took to reach B10. He just couldn’t afford it.
He supposed he could try extending the hand he was using to carry his sword. This way, he could try to slice open a mob by running the blade over them whenever one happened to be at his side as he ran past it. The idea had some promise, but it would cause him to run awkwardly and uncomfortably, and as things were, he still wasn’t completely on steady footing. Trying to swoop in and cut down mobs, especially once he began increasing his speed, could easily result in an unintentional collision. Right now, he had to make getting to B10 his absolute priority for which he could not compromise or trade even a tenth of a second. He needed to fight for every bit of time: down to the millisecond.
And so, shoving aside his personal ambitions, he made saving his friends the only and sole priority, which meant avoiding everything in his path as he sped farther into and across the tunnel. Up ahead, he was forced to put his dexterity to the test as he leapt into the air and over the single-largest turtle he’d ever seen. Its shell had spikes that looked sharper than his blade, and as Zach breezed past it, the creature spun around, made a terrifying hiss, and extended its long, wrinkly neck in his direction, snapping at the area where he’d just been, though a good deal too late.
HP
600/600
Name
Snapping Turtox
Level
10
Zach didn’t bother to look back and see if it gave chase. No, he was far too preoccupied with trying to maneuver behind what could only be described as five shiny, silver, literal dinner forks the size of a broom that for some reason had a mouth, two eyes, a nose, and little strands of yellow, spaghetti-like hair rolling off the back of each one of its four sharp prongs.
“Bruru-bruhbruh!” all five shouted as he came near to them.
They were floating in the air, and the way their mouths turned to frowns upon seeing him was both creepy and unsettling, as was the fact that Zach had to duck as the one in front of the other four began spitting out mucus-colored balls of energy that seemed to explode upon impact. What in the fuck kind of creature was this?
HP
390/390
Name
Haunted Spork
Level
8
Not wanting to waste even a second of his time engaged in combat with silverware, Zach decided that now was the moment to try pushing things a little further. He was still moving roughly around his previous top speed on his bike—though Gods only knew how fast that could go if he tried riding it the way he was now—and as the seconds continued to tick down, he knew this wouldn’t be nearly fast enough if he wanted to do the impossible and make it to B10 in what now stood at just 10:09.
Putting some more effort in, his speed increased dramatically, and Zach now had to actively fight not to fall over as his body struggled to adapt to such a fantastically unbelievable running speed. In fact, it wasn’t even really true to call this “running” anymore. This wasn’t running. This was driving on foot. He was now entering “car” levels of speed. He had no idea if he was running at fifty or sixty miles per hour, but it was somewhere in that area, and it was as exciting as it was frightening. The sheer force of the wind punching at his face made him struggle to breathe. The rocks on the floor whirled by so fast they almost seemed to coalesce together and form lines in his vision, much of it making the terrain in this dimly lit tunnel appear a blur.
Moving this fast, it became increasingly harder to swerve out of the way of mobs along his path. Though the tunnel was dimly lit anywhere inside it that Zach happened to be at any given time, it seemed like anywhere too far into the distance was pitch black, which made it enormously difficult to spot and react in time to everything coming his way. And now, up ahead, he spotted something far too late for him to avoid it. It was yet another one of those Gods-damned Skelly Defenders. There would be no way he could lurch out of its path. Not at this speed.
I have to run through it!
Gripping his blade tightly in both hands, he extended his arms in front of him and leaned forward somewhat as he ran. Then he braced himself as he slammed directly into the oblivious mob. The result was a high-pitched, but softer-than-expected ping along with a much lower but also more unpleasant crunch as Zach impaled the entire creature on his sword. The Skelly Defender, as well as its shield, were now traveling along with Zach as though using his body to hitch a ride; it was attached to him through his blade, and it slid down on top of his chest as though it were trying to hug him. The damn thing was heavy, too, and it somewhat slowed him down. But most significantly, it completely blocked out his view. He could not see anything in front of him with this Gods-cursed Skelly Defender right in front of his face. Even worse, with the creature now close enough to kiss, Zach found himself intimidated by staring at its empty eye sockets. Due to the natural movement and rhythm of a human’s running body, the shaking caused its head to rattle for just a moment, which spooked the shit out of him. Thankfully, it disappeared shortly after. This time around, rather than crumple into bones, it just sort of went poof and disappeared. Though he saw neither the damage number nor the experience gain, Zach was content to take it on faith that he’d just banked another one-fifty.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Unfortunately, he had been running blind for two or three seconds by this point. Even slowed somewhat by the Skelly Defender, he had still been moving at what was definitely more than forty miles per hour, and thus, he completely lost his situational awareness. Now, it looked like he was about to run directly into another Gods-damned Snapping Turtox. And it was close: really, really close.
Sensing himself beginning to lose control, Zach tried to slow down, but there was no way he’d be able to stop in time, and so once again, he extended his blade in front of him, but this time, he was too slow and the creature’s body shape too awkward. Rather than pierce and run the giant turtle through, Zach ran directly into the creature, stumbling over it with such force that it caused his body to flip several times in the air. For a terrifying few seconds, he tried his hardest not to vomit as the ceiling and the ground switched places one after the next. Then he let out a deep “Oomph!” as his back smacked hard into the rocky ground and his sword pierced the rocks right next to his left ear. This time…this time it kind of hurt a bit. But worse than the pain would be any time that he lost.
Scrambling back up to his feet as fast as he could possibly manage, he spun around, raised his arms, and whirled his sword upwards, slashing at the air above his face and mercilessly lobbing the head off the vicious shelled creature a moment before it took a bite at his nose. He watched as its severed head sailed up into the air and somewhere off behind him, still snapping despite being removed from its body. Then the Snapping Turtox, its shell, and presumably its head all vanished into thin air.
+300xp
With a sigh, Zach turned around and prepared to enter into another run—but before he could take a single step, a flash of blinding light followed by a loud boom accompanied an intense force of some kind that lifted him up off his feet and pushed him with enough force to send him several yards away and directly onto his back. Now, his ears were ringing, and at least for the moment, he couldn’t see a thing as the flash had caused spots to form in front of his eyes.
Blinking away the blurriness, he rubbed his face and looked around as, after a short moment, he could see well enough to find that his sword was once again stuck in the ground. Confused but relatively unhurt, Zach shook his head and tried to make sense of what’d just happened to him. Then, as his vision fully returned to normal, he spotted something approaching him in the distance. His heart racing with alarm, he rolled over, grabbed his blade, and jumped up to his feet before dashing off to the side as another mucus-colored ball of energy detonated in the spot he’d been lying, causing gravel and rocks to spray up and in every direction, some of them even hitting him in his face.
“I can’t believe I’m being bombed by a fucking utensil!” Zach shouted, giving voice to a bout of rage that came upon him so suddenly it took him by surprise. In truth, he actually couldn’t believe his level of anger nor the sound of sheer malice in his words. This was about more than just time or his friends. It was about the humiliation of it all. The idea that he’d just been totally laid on his ass by a bunch of fucking dinner forks. There were no words to describe the dark, seething anger that arose within Zach at this realization.
Dashing forward directly at the pack of five of them, he jumped into the air, avoiding another of these bombs. Then, even as he continued to run, he bent over and twisted his hips, almost charging face-first into a second one. Finally, closing the distance between him and the forks, he furiously whipped his sword around for five fast, successive strikes. His anger fueling him, he struck with far more energy than actually required, and he dealt more than 1,200 damage to each of these things, deliberately hitting the one that had bombed him harder than the rest for 1,343. Each one, as it turned out, was worth 150xp. And to Zach’s utter indifference, as he hurriedly continued onwards, he realized that he had just leveled up. The information simply materialized in the air before him even as he once again began to pick up speed.
LEVEL UP!
11 (10)
Dexterity
+1 (27)
Current XP
285
XP Required for Level 12
3000
Zach didn’t care that he’d gotten another shit level up. Actually, he wouldn’t have cared if it had been a great one, either. Now that he had wasted even more of his time, he became nervous and agitated, and leveling was, at least for the moment, the absolute least of his concerns. All he wanted to do was get a move on, as he was becoming increasingly worried he might not make it after all. The pendulum that swung between hopeful certainty and morose pessimism began to swing ever so slightly back towards the latter.
Was there any chance—any at all—that he wouldn’t faint with E-debt after the duration of his Unleashed Phase expired? He doubted it. He seriously doubted it. A better question would be whether or not there was any chance he'd wake up before the quest expired. And this, too, he still doubted. Especially since the two of them didn’t have all that much time left. Actually, how long did they have now? Even though Zach no longer had to rely on his phone to view his quest expiration timer, it was still a great big pain in the ass to need to have this whole giant “quest” display in front of him. It was distracting, and right now was a bad time for him to lose focus. As much as he appreciated this new “Sight Level” he'd acquired, as it certainly provided a lot of very useful information, it was just too bad it didn't group important timers together. Like, it would be so much easier if it put the quest timer right below the remaining duration of Unleashed Phase, because while he was busy running, it was just too dangerous to have to keep on…huh?
Zach felt his eyes open wider as a hesitant but genuine smile popped onto his face. Was he seeing things or was this what it looked like? If so, this was too incredible to believe. It seemed that, as though responding to his desires, he now saw exactly what he’d wished to see. Directly in front and slightly above him, in an easy-to-see place that didn’t obscure his vision, he now spotted both of his critically important timers. Though certainly a welcome sight, the appearance of them together was so unexpected and surprising that he almost tripped over another Gods-damned Snapping Turtox as his attention had been diverted.
Unleashed Phase Duration
9:27 Remaining
Quest Expires In
1:45:47
Zach stared in awe as he viewed both numbers together. How in the name of the Gods had this happened? He knew he could summon information simply by willing it, but did this mean he could organize and rearrange it, too? Even as he continued to run, he decided to put this to the test. In his mind, he willed the two timers to move off to the left—and to his delight and amazement, they did. Simply using his mind, he discovered he could not only choose where in his vision or peripheral vision they resided, but he could slide them across his field of view as fast or as slow as he wanted. Almost as though his brain had an invisible mouse cursor he could use to drag it around at any speed or to any location he pleased.
Looking to see how far he could push things, it only took him a relatively short amount of poking around to realize that the information located in the four corners of his vision were not set in concrete. If anything, they were more like suggestions. He could easily, if he so chose, swap his buffs with his inventory and vice versa. But Zach wondered if he could skip through things entirely. Instead of going into his inventory and having to physically reach out and touch the words labeled [EQUIPPED GEAR], he wondered if he could just—yep! He could. He could call forth anything and everything he’d always had access to, only now, he could do it instantly. Yet it was what he discovered next that came as the biggest shock of all.
As he played around with the information in the air before him, he had begun to wonder: was this all a result of his unique ability? Or could any piece of gear with a “Helm Sight Level” of “legendary” do this? And it had been at this particular point that he then wondered a very specific—and as it turned out, significant—follow-up question. What really was Helm Sight Level? What did that term actually, specifically mean?
As though the thought itself were a magical incantation, the question he’d pondered caused something new that he’d never before seen to appear in the world before him. It was something that could very well be the single-most significant discovery he had made today. To call it a breakthrough would be a dramatic understatement. Appearing before him was something that he knew could prove so important that simply contemplating the possibilities sent a chill of pure excitement down his spine.
Glossary Entry: Helm Sight Level
Displays vital information to the user regarding the world, their surroundings, and themselves. On equipment, this ability is only visible to those currently in possession of the Will of the Favored buff.
Basic
Displays the HP of known enemies to the user. At level 15, enables the user to view quests.
Advanced
Enables viewing buffs, debuffs, and curses. Enables the user to view quests at any level. At level 20, enables the user to view their experience points in the form of a progress bar.
Full
Standard feature of most mid- to high-level helms. Enables all features of basic and advanced at any level. Now enables the user to customize their interface, discern the HP of mobs before the user has defeated one in combat, view maps of completed dungeons, and many other features. For a full list of features, please search the glossary for [ALL HELM FEATURES]
Legendary
Enables all features of basic, advanced, and full sight. Also enables access to the Glossary and allows the retrieval of all information requiring a Level 1 Clearance or less.
Zach was so stunned he had to slow down for a brief instant so that he could kick off his left foot and dash out of the way of a group of forks that began immediately launching more explosive mucus at him—all while Screeching Spiders began to fall down from the ceiling at a rate that was far too slow to stand any chance at all of landing on him as he zipped right on by them.
I can’t believe something like this exists. There’s so much more I want to know. So much I have to find out when I have the time!
Right away, Zach knew that this was not merely an amazing discovery, but given his current situation, it was a dangerous one, too. He just simply did not have the luxury of sating his lust for answers. He decided to only check one brief thing before dismissing this information. And so, by will alone, he called forth an answer to his question: what does ‘boss quality’ mean? Once again as though by the doings of magic, the information appeared in an instant. Fortunately, it was short, to the point, and entirely uncomplicated.
Glossary Entry: Boss Quality
Determines the ability to view detailed boss information before one has been killed.
Non-Boss
Bosses not yet defeated by the user will display as [??/??] unless the user has obtained a [Level 2 Clearance Required] or has completed a relevant quest. Can be overwritten with [Level 5 Clearance Required]
Boss Quality
Reveals the HP of bosses the player has not defeated.
So that was what it meant. Zach smiled. This was a very, very good thing. Because if correct, it meant he would know exactly how much he had to beat up on Moldark before the thing would die. This way, he wouldn’t despair and wonder if he was close or not if the boss turned out to be stronger than anticipated. For the time being, though, Zach’s only real priority was actually getting there in the first place. Dismissing this new information, he continued on.