Shards crunched under Seth’s feet as he trudged along the border between biomes. He decided it was best to walk along the border in case he needed to escape another monster like the Fouler. He could only hope every being that lived here followed the same rules it did. Seth tilted his head back to gaze at the halo in the sky. He now had some goals in mind after he read the back of the paper that was in the lunchbox. It turns out that there was three quests listed on it.
-Locate all stabilizer poles, and destroy them. (0/3) (Reward: Manufactured Identify Tablet(Class C))
-Kill one monster (0/1) (Reoccurring) (Reward: Random Home planet Sustenance)
-Find the Tier Three monster in your area. (0/1) (Reward: Assigned Class B Armor Piece)
He should have done it earlier, but with all the shit that was going on, he had totally forgotten about it. Seth also had noticed a couple hours earlier that the seven grey smooth moons had seemingly vanished after his trip to The Other Side. He realized they were actually satellites from the things behind the experiment, but he was worried about why they left.
They either had all the information they wanted from him, or they simply didn’t find him interesting. He couldn’t pretend to understand their motives, so it was all just speculation. He desperately hoped they hadn’t left permanently, because he didn’t know where he would get a ride home if not from them.
As Seth contemplated, his eyes passed over a structure in the distance. He did a double take, and with wide eyes, stared at what looked to be a tower in the distance. It was located in the crimson and grey sand biome. It also looked to be a windowless structure that resembled a guard tower like on a wall. Seth reluctantly left the border behind to observe the tower closer.
He guessed it to be around a kilometer or two away from the border, so if need be, he thought he should be able to get back to it if a monster started coming for him.
As Seth got closer, he noted the color of the tower. It was grey like the sand, but without any trace of the crimson that it was mixed with. He couldn’t imagine how long it took to take the crimson out in order to create that tower, it seemed like a waste of time.
Seth finally reached the tower and appreciated its full size. If he had to guess, it was about six floors high, and had the width of a standard water tower. He paced around the side of the tower looking for an entrance. After he made two full rounds around it. He was positive that there was no entrance, and no secret button that he could see.
“How does that make sense?” He questioned allowed.
That’s when it dawned on him: the Fouler had wings. He craned his head up as far as he could and backed up to get the top of the tower in view.
“The pole better be in there...” he muttered as he looked at the task ahead of him.
Luckily, the tower was made of what appeared to be sandstone bricks, so he should be able to find or make some handholds and footholds.
He took a deep breath and then started climbing. It was incredibly harder than it looked. There was little to no holds for him, and in order to create a hole to use, he had to bash the lunchbox at the spot for a good three minutes. It was slow and grueling work, he had to stop and get down multiple times to rest as well.
After around four hours of tiresome work Seth sat his back up against the tower in exhaustion. He had only accomplished about sixty percent of the climb, and he was dreading starting up again. His stomach growled and his eyes were drooping, so he reluctantly closed his eyes and fell asleep.
————
Seth opened his eyes slowly and half expected a Fouler to be chewing on his leg. Fortunately there wasn’t, and he was still alone. He got up and winced at the ache in his muscles. Seth stretched out and rubbed his back as he left the lunchbox and rounded the tower one more time to see if there was any shadows in the distance.
After he was sure there was nothing, he returned to his lunchbox and got ready to finish his climb. He unconsciously reached for the handhold he always used to begin his climb, only to find it was not there. His eyes widened and he desperately scrambled along the area on the tower where he believed it to be, but it was gone.
“No no no no no no no NO!” He yelled as he inspected the whole perimeter of the tower for any of his manmade holds.
Seth fell to his knees in hopelessness as he realized all his work had been for naught. Tears threatened to fall from his eyes as he sat there, but he refused to let them. He drew upon all the resolve he could muster and went to work climbing the tower once again, but without making the deep holds with the lunchbox. It was ten times as dangerous and also took twice the time to make the holds with his hands. He had to be incredibly careful as to not slip, although a lot of the time he couldn’t help it and fell anyway.
Blood streaked across a side of the tower as evidence of Seth’s presence. It was now eight hours after he had woken up, and he was finally nearing the top. A couple hours into the climb, he had discovered a method that better secured his grip. Using one of the obsidian-like shards from the black biome as a pick had been working surprisingly well.
The only downside was the fact it was razor sharp in some places, hence the copious amounts of blood on the wall.
Seth bit his lip in effort as he had done hundreds of times in the last eight hours. His lip was now purple and swollen around the indention of Seth’s right canine. Blood spilled from it along with immense pain, but Seth didn’t care. The feeling from his mouth was drawing away the pain in his shredded hands, but not by much. Minutes crawled by as Seth continued on with his exhausting work.
Finally, he reached the ledge at the top of the tower. His fingers ravenously clawed at the hard surface on the top to pull himself up. As Seth anticlimactically threw his body onto the hard surface at the top, he could do nothing but breath for a half hour. His chest rose and fell in a steady beat as his head buzzed and his muscles ached.
This is when he realized just how much he had changed. Never before would he even dream of being able to climb this tower with the proper gear. Not only did he do it, but with no gear as well.
Seth lie in mute amazement, marveling at his new capabilities. How was it even possible to have changed this much in such a short amount of time? That gem was no joke. he thought to himself. After finally gaining his composure, Seth shakily got up to his feet and inspected the roof.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish I had another Pizza Lunchable.”
————
Finishing off his drink, Seth put away the dropper and moved to the center of the sandstone roof. During his inspection earlier, he had discovered what appeared to be a shiny copper pole. Upon closer observation, he found that there was actually a field of vibrating air around the pole. When he entered the field, Seth felt a heavy weight press on him. It felt like the gravity had tripled, and it was difficult for Seth to even take a step.
Regardless of the added weight, continuing forward was Seth’s only option. He took three small shuffle steps until he was finally within reaching distance of the pole. Veins of blue light crept on the copper pole as Seth’s hand sluggishly rose to meet it.
He was within inches of the copper surface when he collapsed to his knees. The pressure was immense, even more so the closer he got to the pole. Seth fought to keep his hand aloft as his body started to give up on him. With the last of his energy, Seth threw himself forward to the ground in order to forcibly get his body closer, while at the same time conforming to the power.
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His effort ended up throwing him further than he really needed, to which his forearm ended up hitting the pole instead of his finger. As soon as his skin made contact with the pole, it shattered as if made of ice. A heavy static shock hit his forearm and Seth turned over in place, spasming uncontrollably.
Shortly after the destruction of the pole, the tower started to shake. As Seth struggled to breath, he deftly realized the tower under him was crumbling. Still stiff from the shock, he couldn’t make his muscles move enough to get up. Seth was helpless as he started to free fall with the stone turned sand around him. He did his best to brace for impact when surprisingly, a bed a sand met his body softly.
Seth was back in control after a couple minutes, to where he slowly got up. It turns out when he though the tower collapsed, in reality, it just turned back to sand and created a very sharp sand hill only about two and a half stories tall. He carefully slid down the hill and finally reached the even ground.
Huffing in relief after his day long stint, Seth observed the familiar blinking that signaled a menu change. He opened the menu and went to Quests first to confirm that was indeed a stabilizer pole.
- Locate all stabilizer poles, and destroy them. (1/3) (Reward: Manufactured Identify Tablet(Class C))
“So it was a stabilizer pole, thank christ,” Seth sighed aloud. After closing out of Quests, he moved on to the Status tab that was also blinking. Scrolling down, it took him a second to find what exactly had changed.
Level: Tier One
Intellect: Class F
Constitution: Class D
Might: Class D
Intuition: Class F
Resolve: Class D
“Cool I guess?”
Seth didn’t really know how to feel about that one. An upgrade in resolve was a welcome surprise, but he was still fuzzy on what its parameters were for improvement. He was also unsure if “Might” was a permanent change to his actual power or if it was only temporary unless he kept up with exercise. He definitely felt like he had a pretty hefty workout though, so he hoped he wouldn’t have to keep climbing four story towers in order to keep his level. He ended up letting the idea go and turned back to the border he had been journeying on.
“The next one better be right next to a hot tub with a floating tray of sandwiches and Mtn Dew.”
————
It had not even been an hour yet when Seth found the second pole.
This time, it was literally hanging in the air. No tower, and sadly no ladder. The pole was hovering about ten meters in the air, just a couple steps into the sand biome from the border. It struck Seth as odd that these poles were all within eyeshot of the border, but in reality, he was kind of relieved that he wouldn’t have to circumnavigate the whole planet to find them.
The only problem though, was how he was going to reach this pole. He thought about it for a second and then emptied out his lunchbox neatly on the sand. This was a super cheap idea, but he desperately hoped it would work, because if it didn’t... well, he didn’t want to think about that.
Seth closed up the lunchbox and leaned back to aim at the pole. He reared back as far as possible and threw the lunchbox at the pole with all he had. The lunchbox somersaulted through the air and missed the pole by a couple feet. Seth was about to curse when he watched the lunchbox go at least twenty more meters up before falling. As the lunchbox fell back into his hands with a painful clang, Seth’s thoughts were in awe.
“The gravity here doesn’t seem any different than Earth, so does that mean I’m just that strong now?” He pondered.
He decided to test the limits of his strength later and readied to throw the lunchbox again. As the lunchbox left his hand this time, he knew it was right on target. His excitement grew and then abruptly extinguished as the box appeared to stop mid air right next to the pole. Seth waited for it to drop, but it did not.
He realized that the pole must be holding the air around it together just like the last pole with the tower. A new idea struck Seth. He crouched down in a squatting position, then shot up with all his might. Although an impressive try, Seth only reached about two meters up before gravity took hold and he fell to the ground face first. He spat up sand and wiped his face off before beginning to think of an actual plan on how to reach the pole.
Seth was only lost in thought for a couple minutes before a small continuous sound broke his concentration. It was like an annoying fly at first, just barely brushing against his attention. As his temper was finally pushed over the edge, he turned to the direction in which the sound was occurring from.
Seth’s stomach dropped as he caught sight of the last thing he wanted to see right now. A Fouler was about fifty meters away and making its way in Seth’s direction.
Repeating his first interaction with a Fouler, Seth dropped to the ground and continued to observe the Fouler. This time there was something different about the creature. He desperately tried to slow his breathing while he stared at the monster. Seth realized with relief that the creature actually hadn’t spotted him yet. He silently thanked his new ability Specter State.
But there was something wrong.
Seth still couldn’t breath steadily and he found that his body would not move. Panic set in and he began to sweat profusely. Seth was lost in his own nightmare as images flashed in his mind. Memories of his mangled body and bloody stump raked across his brain as he lie in the sand. He continued to spiral in his desperate fear. Seth felt like he was back in Perdition as his mind was consumed.
FOCUS!
A voice rang through his mind like a physical slap in the face. Seth was flung back into reality where he was breathing hard and sweat was pouring off his face. He quickly closed his eyes and used all of his will to rein in his feelings. Finally he was able to control himself again and opened his eyes. Seth thought back to the voice, confused. He found that he couldn’t remember what the voice sounded like at all. He couldn’t even guess where it might have came from. The sight of the Fouler had brought out something that Seth wasn’t prepared to deal with.
A sense of powerlessness had overcame him to the point where his fear controlled him.
It was a fear he knew.
The same fear that he felt his whole life.
It was the fear that his life would amount to nothing.
Seth watched the Fouler get closer and made a promise that he would never allow himself to feel that powerless again. Seth hardened his resolve and realized with exact determination that his promise would ring true. He slowly stood up to meet the Fouler’s gaze. As soon as Seth stood, the Fouler paused for a moment, then shot forward at an inhuman speed. Seth was unmoving as the Fouler closed in, mouth agape.
Right when it seemed the Fouler would bite down and end it all, Seth crouched down and shot himself into the air. The Fouler was shocked as its prey escaped out from under it and tried to wheel around to pursue Seth. Little did the Fouler know, there was something going on above it that could only be described as divine punishment.
Seth felt nothing as he reached higher and higher into the air. He didn’t notice the fact he had just jumped significantly higher than his last attempt, nor did he notice his lunchbox and the pole floating lazily behind him. The only thing on Seth’s mind was the flying abomination in front of him. As he watched the enemy in front of him with unfeeling eyes, Seth went with a gut feeling.
He reached his hand out above him and a miniature void formed.
The void then elongated into a five foot weapon that promised death.
On instinct, Seth clenched his fist on the weapon and winded back his arm in a throwing motion. Right when the Fouler finally turned in place, Seth released the demonic creation on a straight path for the Fouler. The Fouler could barely react as the projectile tore through the base of its right wing without mercy. The monster crashed to the ground in a wave of sand, dark blood spraying from its wound.
As Seth fell to the ground from his mighty leap, he absently summoned the armament back into his hand. His fall was cushioned by the large body of the fallen Fouler, although its head was quite hard so Seth’s impact had delivered a sickening crack to its already injured self.
Seth hopped down from the creature's head and moved to its black beady eyes. The Fouler was viscously flapping its lone wing and its dainty legs kicked at the sand uselessly. Without fear, Seth got very close to the thing’s eyes and stared at them with his own emotionless gaze.
“Now you understand how it feels, don’t you?” He questioned aloud at the Fouler.
“The only difference is, I survived, and you won’t.”
His words were ended with a vicious downward strike that pierced through the skull and scrambled the Fouler’s brain. As Seth slowly pulled his new weapon from the corpse, he thought of nothing. He watched as a fog of pure darkness wafted from the corpse as it started to crumble to nothing. Figures emerged in its murky depths trying to pull themselves free from the black prison.
The Fouler’s bloodcurdling scream sounded from the mass as the fog began to stream quickly into the object in Seth’s hand. A vibration shook up his hand as he looked down at the thing, finally noticing it.
Emotion finally breached the icy wall that had been Seth’s mind only moments before. Realization hit him... as well as a strange sensation of euphoria as his mind claimed what he had just done. He finally really looked at the thing clenched in his fist.
“Beautiful...” Seth muttered without even realizing.
His hand was currently around the onyx shaft of the cruel armament. The shaft itself was a terrifying thing to behold. It was covered in what looked like veins of pulsing black oil. The fog from the Fouler was currently adding itself to the contents of the oil, turning it into a roiling stream of tiny figures clawing at its surface.
The vibrations coming off of the weapon were a result of the liquid seeming to drain back into the veins. As the vibrations settled down, Seth turned his gaze to the truly horrifying blade at one of the object’s ends.
The look of the blade was enough to make a grown man cry just by seeing it. The shape of it unmistakably identified it as some sort of glaive. It had one edge and resembled a curved sword. He also noted the wicked point that curved from the dull edge of the weapon. The point reminded him of a devil’s horn due to its cruel shape. It was the same pearly white as his new fingernails, but there was something wrong with it.
The main body of the blade was white, but as it moved to the edge, a mist of black disease spread through it. Seth struggled to take his eyes off the head of the weapon, but he was finally able to drag his eyes away from it long enough to look at the other side of the glaive.
A view rivaling the blade met Seth’s eyes and he could only goggle at the sight in front of him. The shaft ended to what appeared to be a skull with its mouth agape in a corrupt grin. The eyes were covered in a black blindfold that pulsed like the rest of the veins adorning the shaft. A memory of Perdition struck Seth. His head buzzed as an imagine of the insane being named Folly flashed before his eyes. The skull reminded him heavily of the hellish figure.
The thing was, it didn’t scare Seth.
One fact was certain, the weapon was undeniably Seth’s.