As members of the board, you all enjoy the privilege of sitting in nice and comfortable chairs. Those chairs come with certain perks - money, mostly, let’s be honest - which I can see each of you are concerned about losing should Ad Astra go under. Believe me when I say that I understand that concern, but now is not the time to panic.
So the reports scream dire warnings about entropic build-up before we’re even finished building the train. So what? We already have our research division on task to mitigate or even repurpose this relatively minor issue.
The initial analysis of our proprietary and never-before-seen artificial entropy sinks show great promise. All I need from your very comfortable chairs is the vote to install them whilst bypassing certain lengthy testing periods that would, obviously, make your comfortable chairs slightly less so. A show of hands, please…?
-Chairwoman Nina Ellory, Ad Astra Space Shipping, Passenger, Mining, Acquisitions, Exploration and Exploitation Corporation.
Alex couldn’t see where he was going. Not only was the access shaft completely dark, but he had to fumble his way backward feet-first. Apparently neither Patina nor Step had any sort of issues seeing in the dark, a thing that Alex might have thought incredibly unfair if he decided to wallow in self pity.
What that did mean though that they were able to guide Alex through the uncomfortably tight metal shaft. He could only move in small increments, and the shaft seemed to go on forever on a slight downward slope. Until he heard a pair of yelps and bangs, a hand grabbed his ankle, and Alex found himself momentarily in freefall as the gentle slope became a six foot drop.
“Owwww.” Patina complained as Alex handed feet-first on top of her. Beneath the goblin Step let out some sort of wheezing grumble.
“Sorry!” Alex exclaimed, “I didn’t know we were going to-”
“FALL!” he cried out, as their combined weight on the vent they had all piled up on was enough to make it give way. The second plummet lasted longer, ten feet between the ceiling and the floor and Alex found himself landing on Patina for a second time.
“B-bilgelicking b-” she gasped as Alex fell off her and landed a few feet away on his ass. For her part, Step had rolled the moment she hit the floor and wasn’t part of the second pile-up.
“That wasn’t fun, “ Alex groaned as he took the mousekin’s offered hand and was hauled to his feet easily. Is everyone packing strength? “Let’s not do that again.”
“Seconded, boss.” Patina managed to say, ignoring Step’s offered paw as she pushed herself back to a standing position.
Step looked around and picked up the broken vent from the floor. She shook her head and handed it to Alex. “I think it had been weakened too much, “ Step said, “Whoever Overseer Vod got to do this for him was too enthusiastic. Can you do anything with it?”
Alex examined the vent, and then looked up at the hole in the ceiling. He could reach up to put it in place, but when Alex attempted to use [Jury Rig] the skill didn’t fire up with anything more than a vague feeling that whatever he did would be ineffectual at best.
“Sorry, “ he apologized, “It feels like putting a sheet of paper over the shaft would have the same result.” Step nodded, and turned away to look around the room.
Unlike the access shaft the room was dim but not pitch dark. Instead of Ad Astra’s unnatural illumination the space was lit with a strange phosphorescent flower that reminded Alex of a dahlia - if dahlias hung from thin, dark vines that seemed to very slowly shift and move.
The door was also covered in thick vegetation, blocking the way out, and it had been partly cracked open allowing the scent of hardy compost to fill the room. Across a third of the floor spread a thin layer of moss and more dark tendrils of plantlife.
“Can I assume that that shouldn’t be here?” Alex murmured. Patina, who had never seen an actual living plant in her life, simply shook her head.
“It’s dungeon creep, “ Step said. Seeing the look the others gave her, the mousekin continued. “Entropic energies that have spread from the broken entropy sink - they change the environment in an attempt to match the inside of the dungeon.”
“Though it’s a little different than I thought it would be, “ she added, “I know that the vegetation isn’t dangerous or poisonous, but the pollen from the flowers continues to glow for a few hours after being removed so don’t get any on you if you’re wanting to hide.”
Alex nodded, but Patina didn’t seem too happy with the information. “And you just know this?”
“Of course.” Step looked at Patina with some pity, “I was one of the chosen few permitted entry to the dungeon. I’m level nineteen now. [Rogue], in case you were wondering.” The mousekin smiled awkwardly at Alex as Patina’s scowl deepened.
“I know this upsets your assistant, Alex, but I have no control over what Overseer Vod does and does not allow. I hope you understand that.”
“This is some first class shit-mixed bilgewater!” Patina snarled, “He should be letting everyone access it if it’s increasing levels that much! Even as a [Cleaner] it would help! We could all be benefiting from a dungeon!”
“Two points on that. Firstly, you assume that everyone would want to face the dangers of a dungeon, Patina. Not everyone has your desperate need to be more than they are. And secondly, “ Step quickly added as the goblin started to draw in a breath to argue back, “The dungeon is - or was - very limited. It allowed entry to three people per week before it required time to regain its energy.”
“Still, there could have been a random lottery, or a rotation, or…fuck, I don’t know, something.” Patina said, “At least tell me that Vod has been distributing any resources found inside. The stories say that dungeons have loot, right?”
There was a pause as Step shook her head, and Patina threw her arms in the air. “Oh, come on!”
“Patina, “ Alex said gently, “Later. Please.” He held up a hand at the goblin’s protesting look. “I know. I know. But arguing with Step isn’t going to change it, fix it, or make it better in any way.”
“You’ve been in the dungeon before, you know what to expect. Correct?” Alex turned his gaze back to Step, who nodded.
“Yes.” she confirmed, “Though with a dungeon break there are things that are likely to have been changed in some way. A dungeon has its own aspects that it builds with, but after being influenced by the outside environment we might have some additional things to be concerned with. Especially, I believe, outside the dungeon proper, where its control is more…fluid.”
“You’ll lead, please.” Alex suggested.
“Of course, sir.”
“Sir?”
Step smiled, without warmth or humor. “You’re the person with the highest authority here. Sir.”
Patina muttered something insulting under her breath, and pulled back out her mop. Step’s smile turned pitying, and then Alex was sure he saw a touch of calculation behind it. The mouse reached into a small satchel carried at her waist and pulled out a short knife before handing it to Alex.
“Use this with your assistant’s tool, “ she suggested, “My [Identify] says you have a skill that would help.”
Alex saw her idea immediately. “Patina, I know you’re really attached to your mop, but how about we turn it into a makeshift spear?”
The goblin’s eyes lit up at that, and though she seemed reluctant to let go of her cleaning tool she handed it over to Alex with some small measure of excitement.
The mop head was a twist-off thing which didn’t take much effort to remove. Handing that back to Patina who stored it in her pouch, Alex took a few moments with [Repurpose], duct tape, and the knife.
>Mop handle has been repurposed into Shoddy Spear.
“Well that’s a little insulting, “ Alex muttered as he handed the weapon to Patina, who promptly tried to stab one of the vines with it. Her aim was off and the tip of the knife hit metal with a clang and a scrape. She blushed.
“I just need to practice.” Patina muttered. Step’s eyes danced with amusement, but the mousekin wisely said nothing. Instead she handed Alex a weapon of his own.
“I know you have tools as well, but you might as well have a blade of your own.” she said, holding out a weapon Alex found he recognized as a farming implement. Or at least, that’s how he’d used it several years back when he was helping some friends out at a small vineyard in the Napa Valley. A short wooden handle was attached to an almost hook-like blade.
“I’m not a fighter, “ he began. The mousekin disagreed.
“In a dungeon, everyone is a fighter.”
Alex eyed the little sickle but hesitated to take it. “I’d rather stick with things I know how to use.” he confessed, pulling out his hammer. Step shrugged. “I’m sure you do, but apart from a distressingly blunt chisel you have no edged weapon, and yes I checked because I’m awesome that way. Take it and don’t use it for all I care, but have it on hand. Please.”
She checked? When? Was it her [Identify]? Or did she somehow search me without even getting close? Or DID she get close without me realizing?
Alex had to force his thoughts away from growing more curious about the mousekin’s abilities, and took the little sickle. As far as weapons went, it was less than a knife and required a different set of skills to wield effectively, but Alex acknowledged that the mousekin was right that having the blade and not using it was better than needing it and not having it.
For her part, Step drew out a couple more sickles. Hers were slightly larger, with dark metal blades that gleamed in the pollen-glow. She saw Patina looking at them curiously.
“Loot.” was all she said, before turning back to the vine-covered door and started slicing away at the covering vegetation. Once she was done, seeing that the door wasn’t opening on its own, Step enlisted Alex to help her drag the door open whilst Patina stood ready with her makeshift spear just in case.
What greeted the trio beyond the door made Alex let out a low whistle. Patina’s jaw dropped. Step made a little sound that Alex couldn’t translate, but the mousekin was then heard to murmur quietly “Um, yeah. Okay. This is a little different.”
Beyond the doorway was a dark, lush, and ominous-feeling jungle.
*
Not exactly a jungle, Alex said to himself after the trio had stepped onto a strange mat of spongy moss and leaf mold. His eyes darted all around, taking in the strangeness. The ceiling was invisible, a dark void above them strung with a multitude of thick and rope-like vines that connected strange black trees which had somehow erupted from the remains of the ramshackle buildings that had made up the bulk of the cargo hold. But close.
A vine-choked overgrown ruin, much like one would see in a movie, was all around the group. They had exited the small room and found themselves standing on what had once been the main ‘street’ of the community here. Where there had been metal floor plating was now the detritus of centuries of accumulation from a deep and undisturbed jungle. Buildings still stood, overtaken with plantlife. Mostly vines and smaller versions of the trees that stretched up into the void above.
The rustle of vegetation being shifted by the wind was only made more creepy when Alex realized that there was no wind. The vegetation shifted slightly all on its own. He got the attention of Step, who was also looking around cautiously. Everything was dimly illuminated by the soft glow of many glowing flowers.
“A little different?” he asked quietly, not wanting to raise his voice above a murmur for some reason. The mousekin nodded.
“The original dungeon was a cave system. It had vegetation, mostly the thin vines with the lit up flowers. Lots of cave fungus. When it broke and was expanding it was more of the same. I was running, so I didn’t have a lot of time to take it all in but this is a lot more…expansive. Like the dungeon got hold of a different concept.”
Her hands are shaking, Alex’s mind pointed out. It was a very slight tremble, but it was there. A glance at Patina saw the goblin girl with her jaw hanging loose, eyes wide and startled as she tried to take in what she was seeing.
“The caves were cooler.” Step continued, her whiskers twitching nervously. This was worrisome to Alex because the [Rogue] had obviously seen combat before and was a much higher level than either he or Patina, and she was nervous. “More cramped. Attacking myconids. Jeweled cave crabs. Stalagmites that exploded if you got too close. Not…whatever this is.”
Then Alex had another thought, one that he blinked at the strangeness of. He was on a spaceship. Train. Whatever. This was probably more actual plantlife than either of the others had ever seen in their entire lives.
All of them flinched when they heard a strange cry in the distance, almost like a howl. When Alex looked questioningly at Step she shook her head. “No idea. But we can’t just stand here. Come, but tread carefully. Be on the lookout for dangerous creatures.”
“And people.”
“Yes, I suppose so. Overseer Vod doesn’t believe we’ll find any.” Step said as they started to very cautiously walk down the jungle-choked street. “Not alive anyway.”
“Yet he sent you in with us.”
“Image. He had to do something - he was already concealing the state of things here, and that wasn’t going to last much longer. Another day or so and he would have had to say something anyway.” the mousekin explained. She paused and looked at a half-demolished shack suspiciously, but shook her head and kept moving. “Plus, I’m here to keep an eye on you.”
“A spy.” Alex nodded. It was reasonable. Vod was very likely going to get a report on any skills or talents Alex may have been hiding, as well as a general assessment of the type of person he seemed to be. The orc could use that when the time came to let go of the agreement he’d so easily accepted.
Patina, surprisingly, didn’t kick up a fuss at the admission. Alex supposed the goblin was used to thinking of Vod in that way regardless. Still, her expression was growing more concerned as she continually looked around as if everything was going to attack her.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
“You okay?” Alex asked gently. The goblin nodded sharply.
“Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Just making sure the greenery doesn’t attack us.” she said, looking at the vines both above their heads and choking the sad buildings all around.
“I did say that none of the plants in the dungeon were hostile.” Step muttered, but her eyes swiveled just as much as Patina’s did.
Of course it was with that wildly waving red flag of a comment that Alex felt something wrap around his ankle. Before he could cry out he was yanked off his feet and dragged away. Alex flailed wildly as he was scraped rapidly along the mossy floor.
“Alex!”
“OOOF!” Alex felt all the breath get forcefully pushed out of him as Patina leapt upon the man. She was surprisingly heavy for such a little thing, but the vine around Alex’s ankle didn’t slow down despite the extra weight.
Almost a blur, Step darted past them both with her sickles flashing through the air. She cut once, twice, and Alex felt his momentum cease. He lay there on the ground with Patina’s stocky little body weighing him down as he gasped for breath.
Step watched as the remainder of the vine dragged itself away into the darkness of a side street. She sniffed the air, frowned, and backed up to the prone pair.
“Injured?” she asked quietly, not looking down at them. Patina rolled off of Alex, stood, and then helped the man to his feet. Alex quietly wheezed to himself, still trying to get his lungs back into working order. After a long series of gasping breaths he felt able to reply.
“No. Patina, thanks for the tackle. Step, just thanks. What was that thing?”
“A vine of some kind.”
“One of those non-hostile plants?” Patina asked, busy brushing herself down. She didn’t seem to want any of the moss or leaf litter on her uniform.
“I did say that things had changed. We’d best be careful.”
They went back to the main street, and Step bent over to pick something up. She handed it to Alex.
“It’s best not to drop your weapon, sir.” she said as the sickle exchanged hands. “Your assistant held onto hers even as she jumped on you.”
“I’m…not good at this stuff.” Alex apologized. The mousekin shrugged.
“Nobody is until they do it.”
Alex wasn’t sure what was worse as the trio slowly made their way toward one end of the cargo bay/habitat. On one hand he felt deeply uneasy about heading toward what was likely to be some sort of physical confrontation. Such things had never been his preferred method of dealing with things.
On the other hand the entire area felt oppressive. It was warmer than the rest of the carriage, and he could feel a thin sheen of sweat starting to build up under his uniform. The jungle-like biome was strange - he’d been in a tropical jungle just once before in his life, chasing a little ape with a yellow hat, but the feel of this area was vastly different.
The trees, the vines, the half-covered structures, all of it felt vaguely false to Alex. More like the Hollywood archetype of a jungle ruin than an actual place. The occasional rustling or sound of vegetation moving around him seemed designed to put him on edge.
When he brought it up to the mousekin, Step had thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “I’m not an expert on these things, but a dungeon isn’t a real place. It’s a construct of entropy exerting an image onto reality. The image - and I’m pulling a word from Syntropy’s messages to me from times I’ve been in the dungeon before - is made up of a concept, and the greater the entropic energies the stronger the concept is. But in the end, the entropic energy doesn’t have the uh…understanding of a real place?”
“It’s like it’s drawing a picture of an elephant using only key words.” Alex suggested. The mousekin tilted her head and then shrugged.
“I have no idea what an elephant is, but that’s the general idea.”
“Guys? Where is everyone?” Patina spoke up, interrupting the discussion. “The cargo bay is big, but three thousand people is a lot. We should have seen someone by now.”
“There’s a lot of possibilities, “ Step said, pausing as she watched a slow-moving vine slide across the roof of a poorly constructed dwelling. “Hiding, though I’m not sure where, is one. The cargo bay has been changed a lot from its simple origins as a place to store whatever it was Ad Astra once had in here, and changed again by the dungeon. Death is another possibility, and the most likely. The problem with being dead is that there are no signs of it. No blood anywhere as far as I can see.”
“Is that part of your path skills?” Alex asked, vaguely curious.
“No, part of being me. My species are particularly sensitive to the smell and sight of blood.” Step told him. “Ancestral origins of a prey species, I guess.”
“Huh. Okay. So…should we search more thoroughly for people that might be hiding?” he asked. “Maybe in the closest buildings?”
“Farther than that, “ Patina countered, “What we call Main Street in both the cargo bays are only just the surface. Side streets and back streets all the way to the bay walls have a whole bunch of little housing areas and places people can sleep. Then there’s up the walls as well, because when you start running out of space and you have shit building skills you want at least one solid wall to hold on to.”
“We shouldn’t waste time on that, “ Step disagreed, “We still have an actively broken dungeon. I don’t exactly know what your plan is for it, sir, but getting to its location to stop the entropic spread is vital.”
I don’t know what my plan is either, Alex thought to himself, feeling even more out of his depth. I’m not sure what I can actually DO to fix things. I’ll have to look at it first I guess.
Alex sighed, and tried to display a confidence he was no longer feeling. It all felt very good and right and purposeful when he’d insulted Harmony and dramatically left, but now that he was here and had no idea what he was going to do, he felt deeply stupid about the whole thing.
Heroism is a fatal disease, the thought crossed his mind. It sounded like a quote, but he couldn’t remember where it came from.
“Step, if we can somehow fix whatever went wrong that caused the dungeon to go crazy, all this will…return to normal?”
“I have no idea, but without the excess of entropic energy the creations of the dungeon should either gravitate back to the dungeon itself or die off,” replied the mousekin.
“We should check for people, “ he said, “but we need to keep moving. No, Patina, I know we’re here to save people but if we can fix whatever went wrong we can save everyone, right?”
“So if there’s trapped people in the buildings we’re just gonna leave them?”
“Where would they go if we freed them right now?” Alex asked. “Back to the room with the vent that’s been sealed at the other end?”
“I don’t know! Somewhere safe!”
“There is nowhere safe here.” Step murmured. She was only half listening to the conversation, her large ears twitching as she stretched to hear something in the distance. “It’s a dungeon. Where are they…?”
“We don’t know, that’s the point!” Patina poked at the mousekin, but she didn’t look back at the increasingly irate goblin.
“I mean the monsters.” Step said quietly, “Where are the monsters?”
That question quieted Patina down a little, and she squinted at the buildings around her. Foliage covered most everything, but the dark and toothless maws that had once been doorways and windows immediately developed a more threatening presence.
“I don’t get this, “ Step continued, holding her sickles ready as she started to slowly walk forward again. “A dungeon creates three things; Environment, monsters, and loot. All we have is the environment.”
“And a vine that tried to grab me, “ Alex reminded the mousekin, "That wasn't fun." Step nodded.
“Which makes me wonder what it was attached to. Look, “ she turned and looked at the others, “I’m stronger than you, faster than you, and far more skilled. And I’m worried, sir. The cave system had packs of mushroom creatures - myconids - that would attack anyone who stepped into their spore-range. The crabs were plentiful, and scurried about everywhere. There was a boss monster - a bigger, nastier thing - at the end of the dungeon that was a giant spore-infested crab. Where are they all? A dungeon break guarantees more monsters.”
Alex could only shake his head wordlessly, not knowing what to say to the mousekin who despite her confidence was visibly twitchy. The trees whispered, a soft susurrus promising nothing but dark mystery, and the slow curl of vegetation around the ruined structures was no more than a quiet background of inevitable strangulation.
“We go on, “ he said, “And as we do - carefully - do either of you know how to destroy a dungeon? Just in case we need to.”
Patina once again wanted to argue, but she at least saw some of the logic behind the plan. Save a few people, and you have to take care of extra bodies. Save everyone and you’re golden. She followed along, holding her spear far more like a mop than a weapon.
“I don’t know, “ Step said, “This is the first and only dungeon on the train.”
“That we know about, “ Alex said, thinking. If there were others - and he still wasn’t exactly clear on how these things really formed - and they had also spread it would definitely explain the lack of communication between carriages as well as the sealed off entrances to them.
“That we know about.” the mousekin echoed, sounding uneasy.
To her credit, the more experienced dungeon delver never reached a stage of distraction in her anxiety. She continued to keep an awareness of what was going on around the trio, occasionally stopping them for a moment as she peered at a vine that was moving slightly faster than the others, or a flower that flickered rather than steadily glowed. She was suspicious of everything, and Alex didn’t blame her.
There was a nervous tension in his chest unlike any that he’d felt before in any of his previous events. There was something more real about this one - not his own death, though he was worried about that as well. Based on the event entry that Syntropy had given him, there were multiple possible outcomes and none of them sounded very appealing. They all gave the impression that things he did or didn’t do in here were important.
“I am so not prepared for this, “ he muttered under his breath. This whole futuristic shanty town turned to overgrown jungle ruin vibe seemed to have nothing that would let him use his strengths on. There was nobody to talk to, to influence or guide, and nothing that he could try and repair that it made sense to-
“Movement,” the mousekin hissed, putting her arms out from her sides to stop the others in their tracks. There was indeed movement in the path ahead.
Slowly at first something emerged from the open doorway of a derelict building up ahead. It was a strange, lumpy pile of vegetation that crawled inch by inch across the street. Thicker vine-covered appendages flopped forward, dragging the thing along. To Alex it looked disturbingly humanoid, and he involuntarily shivered.
“Do we-” Alex began to whisper, but the mound of vegetation froze in place. Something within it shifted, and a smaller tuft of dark-leaved plant life slowly twisted in their direction. With scraps of bark and moss and vines twisted and shaped just right the mound formed an eerie attempt at a humanoid face.
“Oh, bilge.” Patina moaned softly. “That’s not good.”
With a burst of movement and a loud rustle of leaves, the creature hauled itself to two very unsteady legs and began to shuffle in their direction. Without being entirely conscious of it, Alex fired off an [Evaluate] at the thing.
>Evaluation of Chloromunculus: Sickly. Suffering from decaying coherency due to insufficient ambient entropic energy. Suggested repair: Return to dungeon proper.
Uh…thanks? No, I’m not looking to fix it.
But that was what [Evaluate] was for, wasn’t it? It didn’t show levels or paths or an analysis of the thing. The skill was to diagnose for mending purposes. [Mender] was a path that could technically, eventually, fix anything. This apparently included dungeon-spawned plant zombies.
“Both of you, hold back while I-” Step began, but Patina charged forward with a high pitched cry. The little goblin held her spear over her head with both hands and, when she reached the creature that was apparently called a chloromunculus Patina brought the spear down like, well, a mop handle. It had very little effect other than causing the creature to shift its attention entirely to her.
Step let out a short huff of frustration and muttered something about overeager death wishes before darting toward the battle. Alex stood there, unable to move as he watched his assistant and the spy attack the creature with varying degrees of success.
He’d seen fights before. Outside of bars (and on a few occasions within them) it wasn’t uncommon to have a couple of people come to blows. The fighting ring he’d worked at was another, but despite the flashiness of it all there had been an easy casualness between the fighters that showed they had no true intent to do more than a little harm and maybe get some kickass scars. Even the hand to hand brutality of Alex’s time refereeing on the border between the sasquatch and wendigo tribes was more formal than this.
This was a goblin and a mouse girl attempting to kill a shuffling plant monster that, despite its apparent solidity, hadn’t figured out that not taking damage was even a thing. With some rather put-upon sounding instructions Step reminded Patina that she held a spear not a whacking stick even as the mousekin slipped around behind the chloromunculus and sliced a strip of plant matter from its back.
For her part, Patina started to stab with her spear, the only thing allowing her to actually hit the creature with her wild and untrained jabs was its lack of speed and desire for self preservation. The stabs were less effective than Step with her sickles, but a thick, rot-scented liquid slowly oozed from its wounds.
With the creature’s slowness and even less fighting skill than the goblin, Alex almost relaxed. They’re going to beat it, he thought with relief.
So caught up in watching the mouse girl dance around the plant monster with all the grace of a little furry ballerina, and Patina’s clumsy but slowly improving movements, Alex didn’t notice more trouble until almost the last second when a scrape of leafy vegetation made him turn just in time.
Two more of the plant creatures shambled toward the group from behind. They were just as slow as the first, but had crept up on Alex and he stumbled backward just in time to not get hit by a slow downward swing from an arm made of vines and bark.
“Aaah!” he shouted, almost falling. He rapidly backed up, swinging the tiny sickle in his hands back and forth ineffectually in the air. “Guys! More of them!”
Patina didn’t register Alex’s exclamation as she was busy trying to stab the chloromunculus in front of her and move away from its heavy swings. Step did take note of the cry, and took a second to rapidly scan the area with her black eyes. In the soft light of the flower pollen, she squeaked softly to herself. Alex couldn’t see them yet, but the mousekin saw even more approaching. She redoubled her efforts on the enemy before her, cutting away large strips of plant flesh which blackened and rotted rapidly as it fell from the creature’s body.
Alex continued to back up, trying to calm himself down. He was in a fight, very likely one in which he could be killed. [Unflappable] washed over his mind, suggesting to Alex that everything was going to be just fine and not to worry. It was the first time Alex had actually noticed the soul upgrade actively working on his thoughts, and in all honesty it didn’t feel as nice as he’d expected. It felt like a parent telling lies to a child.
Everything will be fine. Go with the flow. You’ve got this, his thoughts soothed with calming lies, even as Alex raised his sickle at the slowly approaching creatures. Another two had appeared, stumbling and shambling out of nearby buildings. I should totally have chosen [Improvised Combat]...
He’d backed up as far as was safe to do so, with his companions still engaged with the first chloromunculus. Alex looked around wildly, a small part of his brain dispassionately counting all the other shambling plant creatures that had appeared. There were nine chloromunculi in total now, and Alex’s brain spun through his skills looking for something, anything that could help.
[Jury Rig]? [Evaluate]? [Repurpose]? No. [Guesstimated Engineering]? A joke. He had nothing at all to fight with except a tiny curved blade and a few tools. Alex felt absolutely useless, but knew he would soon have to lend his inexpert hand to his friends. Fighting just…
Fighting scares me.
Surrounded, outclassed, and relying on the obstinacy of Patina and Step’s skill, Alex’s brain suddenly intruded with the biggest red flag it could.
Well, it could be worse. At least there’s no giant crab.
And of course that’s when jewel-carapaced crabs the size of Alex’s clenched fist began to rain down on the fight from the thick, ropey vegetation above their heads.