18. I Call Hacks

Thwain mumbled and grumbled, passing his arm to Sunder. “Fine. Here… Sunder…” He said, rolling his eyes at me. “First test, go slow. Just a bit.”

My demon nodded, grabbing his pasty arm with both hands. She absorbed a tiny amount of life force, then let go.

“Anything?” She asked.

Thwain shook out his arm and walked around a little. “Not really. Maybe a little tired, like I want a nap. Not enough to force me to sleep, but it’s like it’s getting later in the day than it was, is all. Go again.”

With that, he gave her back his arm, letting her take more of his health. I monitored the situation, keeping the slimes back and looking for any changes in Sunder’s soul strength.

“Still at 23 percent,” I said.

She siphoned out a little more health this time, until Thwain’s face pinched. “Argh, queasy,” he moaned, clutching at his stomach.

“Alright,” I called out. “23.1%. Thwain, shoot into the horde once,” I said, gesturing to the ever growing pile of slimes clamoring to reach us.

Thwain hobbled off towards Pyro, gripping the stone railing. The Geomancer, for his part, made sure to slap any feisty slimes back down onto the ginormous swarm of slimes that was amassing. We knew that they didn’t like the stone pillar barriers, but it turns out that they really hated perches on top of pillars even more.

Thwain stuck an arm out over the railing and shot a single, unenchanted bullet downwards. He perked up after tiny red wisps ran from the dying slimes and flowed into him. He walked around again, feeling it out.

“Again,” he said.

Eventually, our testing led Thwain to just stay hanging onto the railing, pistol in hand.

“Try absorbing health while he shoots,” I told my summon. “Thwain, infuse this time,” I called out.

Thwain could infuse his gun with mana, though his mana pool wasn’t nearly as large as Pyro’s or mine was, or so we gathered. He mainly used his mana for conjuring pistols and using his demon wings, but hadn’t really been using it other than that. He also hadn’t seen the need to empower his shots, seeing as the slimes were so weak. With the amassing slimes beneath us, though, it would be worth it. It was probably also necessary, considering the amount of slimes we had to deal with. If they all decided to attack the pillar instead of fighting each other to climb it, we’d be in for a tumble.

Thwain channeled mana into his weapon, making the gun glow the same purple-red color that his eyes turned when he conjured his wings. Sunder siphoned health from him at what I considered an alarming rate, hoping she knew what she was doing. He pointed his gun, angling to hit the most slimes possible, then pulled the trigger.

The bullet absolutely tore through the growing mountain of slimes, making the entire pile shudder and fold in on itself slightly as a line of slimes was obliterated from its peak to its base. The monsters were whipped into a frenzy at the death of their brethren. Thick ropes of red flowed into Thwain, but not all of the energy entered the Gunner’s body. Some of the life force raced along his skin, zipping straight into Sunder’s hands and flowing into her. Within moments, Thwain was completely reinvigorated and Sunder was leeching his health yet again. He waited a few moments for her to do her thing. While she did, I checked my Bestiary.

[https://i.imgur.com/TyeTp8L.png]

Bestiary entry: Demon selected.

Soul strength: 24.8%. Collect more essence to increase soul strength.

Stats: Speed prioritized.

Health: F+

Phys Power: E+

Magic power: D-

Magic resistance: E-

Physical resistance: E

Speed: E

“It’s working!” I yelled, ballooning with excitement.

“It better,” Thwain grunted, firing another empowered shot into the slimes.

“Another percent,” I called out. “Maybe slow a bit. Thwain, you look like shit, and that’s after you’ve healed.”

It was true. He looked unharmed, technically, but it was clearly taking some sort of toll on his body. He looked like he hadn’t slept in a week, bags forming under his eyes.

“I’ll empty this clip, then you can unsummon Sunder and I’ll go sleep for a few days,” he wheezed.

Thwain did as he said, channeling mana into his gun and firing until it poofed into smoke. Thick, red streams of energy flowed into him and were wrestled out by my demon’s power. She let go before the last shot, letting Thwain fully top off his health. She beamed, looking pleased.

“That was fun,” she said, her grin exposing her pointed teeth.

“Go kill a few slimes as repayment, ya freeloading mosquito,” Pyro yelled over, beating back a vastly decreased amount of slimes. That last salvo of bullets had really made a dent in the swarm, but it was still a swarm.

She looked at me for confirmation. I shrugged. “You gained a few percent,” I said. “That means you’re stronger. I’ll unsummon you when it looks like you’ll take too much damage. Deal?”

She nodded a few times. “Fair. In that case, get ready.” With that, she ran to the edge of the platform and jumped off, diving into the slimes in a literal whirl of blades. I ran over, watching her as she spun quickly, swords outstretched to each side. She carved a gaping hole through the tower of slimes, who were unable to defend against the bladed vortex that she had become. I unsummoned her just before she hit the ground, not wanting to have her break her neck in an epic faceplant.

“Oh, come on!” Pyro cried. “You have to admit, that was pretty awesome.”

“Not really,” Thwain said breathlessly. “She just lost us two swords for those theatrics.” He hobbled over to me, still leaning against the railing. He was right, though. The swords probably wouldn’t survive the slime assault.

“You gonna be ok?” I asked worriedly. “You look like ass.”

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Thwain just nodded tiredly, giving me the one-finger salute.

Pyro used his geomancy to lower us down through the center of the thick pillar that was holding up the testing arena. Once we were down below, Thwain absolutely destroyed a pile of looted drumsticks and guzzled down a few water skins. He ate like he was, like, so hungry that it would, like, take a lot of food to make him not hungry anymore. Afterwards, he curled up in a cubby and went to bed.

Pyro grumbled about the mess and the fact that people didn’t read signs, but I couldn’t blame our Gunner. It had really taken a lot out of him, today. That, and Pyro had a habit of constantly being in creation and organization mode. He steadily expanded the base, creating new rooms, new shelves and storage areas, then would reorganize the loot and our supplies based on the newly available storage. It was exhausting to watch, but I could always find what I was looking for, since he always included labels and signs carved into the walls.

After an hour of rest, I was ready to summon Slimey, at least for a bit. I had Pyro open a hole in the ceiling again and clear it of mobs while I summoned my slime. My summon gleefully rampaged above us, squishing and squashing and overall having a grand old time clearing the accumulated slimes from above. We repeated our usual routine of opening the base as much as possible to circulate air while I ran around and collected loot. I’d say it was getting late, but we had never actually seen the sun set on Floor 1. Feeling drained, I descended back into our hideout and curled into a nook. I let Pyro know what I was doing so he could close up, then I unsummoned my monster and slept until I woke up.

Over the next day, Thwain bounced between the two portals to Floor 0. The unexplored portal wasn’t the one in use, though. When he flew back to base to report, we decided to go say hello.

I casually followed Slimey at a leisurely pace, shield in one hand and spear in the other. My slime stopped most of his smaller slime brethren from getting to us. He hadn’t gotten smarter or faster, necessarily, but he was leveraging his most valuable stat: his size. He could now stretch to encircle the three of us almost entirely while still managing to remain two feet tall. In the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t all that much, but it managed to block the vast majority of the angry slimes. Really, I had only needed to use my shield once in the twenty minutes that it took to get to the portal.

Once we arrived within shouting distance, the group at the portal had stopped aggroing new slimes and had huddled together defensively. They weren’t necessarily cowering, but they were mistrustfully on guard. It wasn’t every day that a giant slime wall escorted three strangers, after all.

“Hail!” Thwain yelled out to the group, raising an empty hand.

“Hail? Really?” I whispered.

“Well, I didn’t know how else to start,” he hissed.

Seeing the other group’s lack of movement, he tried again. “Look, we got in a little spat over some loot the last time we crossed back into the Slums. We’ve obviously figured out how to survive and just need a little info. We mean you no harm.”

“Shoulda just gone with ‘we come in peace’,” Pyro groaned.

“Why should we trust you?” One of the four men yelled back. It was hard to see from far away, but I was pretty sure he had an eye patch over one eye.

“Cause if we wanted ya dead, we wouldn’t’a said hello, dumbass!” Pyro yelled in response.

Thwain and I both flinched at the wrecking ball approach, but it kind of worked.

“So, what do you want?” A different voice asked.

“We already said it, dumbass. Info!” Pyro yelled, obviously eager for a fight.

“Pyro, Tower take you,” Thwain hissed. “They aren’t enemies yet, don’t make them mad.”

“Fuck it,” Pyro said. “Théo, bring us over or I’m walkin’.”

I looked between Thwain and Pyro, trying to decide what to do. I took too long, so Pyro wreathed himself in his earthen armor and stomped towards the portal. I made Slimey back up a bit to hopefully soften their sense of danger. It didn’t work. When Pyro stepped onto the stone circle surrounding the portal, one of the men attacked, swinging what looked like a rusty shortsword at him. The Geomancer caught it with one hand, wrenching it out of his opponent’s grip and throwing the weapon into the sea of slimes, where it landed and aggroed a group of slimes.

The group stared in horror at the stone-clad man, retreating towards the portal. Pyro simply turned around and fought off the aggroed slimes easily, popping them with simple punches and kicks. When he turned back to the group, they tensed back up. He didn’t move. Neither did they. Pyro turned towards us and raised his arms, asking us what to do next.

Thwain put his face in his hands. “He’s an idiot,” he grumbled.

We approached the portal slowly, trying to look inoffensive. We failed miserably. I could see their eyes bug out as they saw how easily Slimey devoured the other slimes. Once we stepped onto the stone circle, I waited until he had cleared the aggroed slimes, then unsummoned him to save on mana. My mana pool had been growing steadily, or at least I thought it was. Still, I didn’t want to tempt fate and keep Slimey up for too long and risk needing him later.

“Hi,” I said lamely, raising a hand in a feeble wave. “We come in peace?” I tried saying it with confidence, but it came out as a question.

We talked with the petrified group, getting a better picture of what had been going on in the Slums while we were on the other floor. We were being accused of stealing ‘critical strategic resources’ from the Church of the Tower, though we suspected they meant the Awakening Stones. There were posters, actual charcoal posters, of our faces (terribly drawn, of course) plastered in various locations around the city, offering a few silvers as a reward for information about us. Likewise, a few of the gangs (especially the Sons of Blades and the Blood Oats), had been asking a whole lot of questions about us, as well.

“Why are you farming?” I asked the group.

“Food, of course,” Milos, their green-haired apparent leader, said. “We've got people starving in there, despite the Church doing its best to hand out food. It’s been worse than usual. The fighting hasn’t stopped, and it’s just been power grab after power grab. People are getting desperate, to the point that a mob even tried storming Market Alley for food.”

“Went about as bad as it possibly could, eh?” Pyro asked. Milos nodded sullenly. “Figured.”

“We’ve got plenty of food,” I said. Thwain and Pyro both looked at me sharply. “Hey, it’s true!” I said, throwing my hands up. “I’m not suggesting that they make the same mistake we did by bringing back bags of loot, but we can at least let them eat their fill and then give them a few extra pieces of meat.”

“What… Why would you do that? Aren’t you criminals?” Another man, Josh, asked.

“Because we aren’t assholes?” I shot back. “Only reason we’re criminals is because the greedy bastards in the Slums can’t handle anyone else having anything.”

“I mean, we did steal the-”

“Not the time, Pyro!” I cut in.

“If… If you can walk across the floor,” Milos started before trailing off. I nodded, I figured that would come up.

“Yes, I can probably escort a small group to Floor 2 relatively safely, now,” I said. “I can’t promise nobody would get hurt, but I can almost guarantee that nobody would die.” I wished that I could give them better prospects without lying to them, but it was the truth. The more people we brought with us, too, the more dangerous it would be.

“What do you want in exchange?” Josh blurted.

I thought on that for a moment. Thwain came to my rescue.

“We can probably escort you across the floor, sure. You’ll need to bring your shields, though, at a minimum. Also, we need a favor,” Thwain said.

“What kind of favor?” Milos asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.

“If two of you go with Théo, the other two can’t go back without causing a stir. Four came in, four go out. Pyro and I will accompany you back through the portal. As long as we pull up our hoods and make it obvious that we don’t have any loot, we should at least be able to make it safely out of the square.” The group of strangers looked at each other nervously. Thwain smiled triumphantly. They couldn’t turn down such an offer and we all knew it.

With our argumentative victory in hand, we set out with the plan immediately. We gave some food and a few coppers to the half of the group that was going to Floor 0, then prepared to head out. Milos informed us that, fortunately for us, the Summer Equinox Festival of Lights in the New Year was coming up in two weeks, so it was the perfect time to act. Everyone always planned their shenanigans for the day of the festival when everyone else was on guard. After years of demonic invasions, dragon cultist sacrifices, Tower Church proclamations, heroic summonings, oracular prophecies, academy bombings, time loops, tournaments and gang wars, all during festivals, everyone was going to be on the lookout for some ne'er do wells during the festival. But before? Not even a little.

I stood on the portal circle, waiting as Pyro, Thwain and the two unnamed NPCs (Never Progressing Chumps) that I probably wouldn’t ever see again left for Floor 0. When they stepped through, I summoned Slimey and waited a few minutes. After nobody came rushing through the portal, Josh, Milos and I set off towards the portal to Floor 2. We each held our own shields, careful to deflect any slimes back onto Slimey. It almost felt like cheating. We easily made our way across the floor, walking at a steady pace, wondering what Pyro and Thwain were up to.