055 System Error

[System] boxes hovered atop a pyramid, fading in and out of existence in rapid sequence—faster than a human eye could blink.

A multitude of screens exploded into being in one second, only to vanish the next and be replaced by an even greater number.

Many of the blue boxes glitched in place, creating visual phenomena that threatened to damage the eyes. A section of the boxes, suppressed by the others, glowed an ominous red. Caution signs dotted their surface. 

I hated this place.

A quick turn of my formless body revealed that I had been transported to the Pyramid, with its red skies and blackened earth, ringed by Flame Guardians.

The last time I’d been here, I was trapped in the body of a mouthless homunculus.

The last time . . .

That wasn’t the last, was it?

“Damien!”

The [System] boxes changed. The section with the red caution signs encroached like spilled liquid on the rest of the display, until the blue screens—over a billion of them—glowed red with error messages.

[System Error].

What did that even mean?

[Multiple deviations detected].

[Access to Source disrupted].

[Preparing Termination . . .].

“Damien!”

I recognized that voice.

An electrical surge rose from the center of the [System] boxes, cleansing them of their contamination. The red screens glitched out and minimized, receding to a section of the display.

Blue boxes once again surrounded my vision, but the red had gained ground. Despite receding, they now occupied a larger portion than they had at the start.

“Damien!”

This time, the electrical surge ran through my chest. Water filled my lungs and nostrils, leaving me gasping for breath.

The pyramid collapsed around me. Red-tinged skies faded away, replaced with a pink-colored darkness equally as oppressive.

I rolled over on my side, heaving blood—not water as I’d thought—onto the floor.

Paz squatted beside me. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”

My health meter blinked—so low, that a prick from a needle would suffice to empty it. The Blackreach Dagger pressed painfully against my pelvis. I’d fallen atop it during the fight with the boss.

My eyes sprang open at the memory. “The boss—!”

“Easy,” Paz said. “Nicola and I took care of it.”

“Damien!” Nicola bawled in her usual manner, wrapping her arms around me.

“Stay away,” I groaned. Between my lightheadedness and her total nudity, I risked dying a second time.

Nicola simply hugged me closer. “I thought you were done for. I was beside myself with worry. If we hadn’t found the chest in time, you wouldn’t have made it.”

“What chest?”

Paz held up an empty vial. “Elixir of Cleansing. One of the items contained in the boss’ chest over there. A single vial can cleanse debilitating status effects and improve health regen.”

I mumbled my thanks. Something niggled at the back of my head, relating to the dream I’d just witnessed. But, try as hard as I could, I didn’t remember what.

What was the dream about anyway? The details were too vague to recall . . .

“Last I checked,” I mused, forcing my tongue to work, “you both were poisoned too.”

“Nothing a Cure Ailments Potion couldn’t handle,” Nicola said. “Besides, the status condition stopped refreshing the instant the mist dispersed. You were the only one in need of urgent intervention.”

That sucked to hear. Then again, I had been Dreadfully Poisoned. A white vial occupied one slot in my potion counter. Seeing as green was also taken, I could drink two more potions of a different type before succumbing to Potion Sickness.

It had to be health and mana. VP could wait.

I signaled my teammates of my intent to rise, then cleared my throat at Nicola who looked at me in confusion.

“Clothes!” I stammered, doing everything I could to look her in the face. “Can you put on some clothes?”

Nicola eeped and scrambled for her robes.

Paz thankfully filled the silence. “We got some nice loot from murder horse over there. A monster core, a bundle of Pure Horse Flax, and this!” He held up a piece of bone. “It’s a whistle that can make a single Horse Snake subservient.”

“If you like it that much,” I said, “keep it and give Nicola the monster core.”

“Already did! The flax is yours by the way.” He spirited the whistle into his inventory. “You should come look at the boss’ chest. The real treasures lie in there.”

The chest in question stood with its back to the wall in the middle of the corridor—a wooden fabrication without lock or key. A fully dressed Nicola joined us as Paz emptied its contents, revealing items that shouldn’t have been able to fit.

“Oh, wow,” I said, staring at the loot.

Paz reached for the pick of the lot—a long spear with two points, akin to a jägerstock. “I’ll be taking this. You both can’t use it anyway.” He spun it through the air, testing its weight. “Ugh. It’s almost equally balanced. For polearms, you want one end heavier than the other in order to maximize the swing.”

I Identified the spear.

Equine Half-pike [Common]

A polearm that deals increased damage against marauding beasts.

Requirement: [2].

Ugh. Was there a reason behind the incomplete listing of data? Maybe, I needed to upgrade [Identify]?

The notification icon had been blinking forever in my vision, so I opened it with a mental command.

“Oh, hey,” I said, reading the text. “I’m level 18 now.”

“Level 17,” Paz said with pride in his voice. “I jumped by two!”

Nicola had also gained a level, which boosted my confidence in our odds a little more. The fight with the Way-keeping Boss had done us a lot of good, minus my near miss with death.

The leftover items in the chest included five health potions, a lightly armored armored vest, and three curious ball-like items, wrapped in bindings. I studied the latter.

Sticky Bomb [Common].

A fitting item for guerilla fighters. This hand grenade contains an adhesive and features a timed release.

Requirement: None.

Morbid, but useful. I kept the grenades for myself and left the vest for Nicola. We shared the potions among ourselves. The only matter that remained was the distribution of stats, but I already knew what I needed to focus on.

I’d increased my Strength from 7 to 9 on my last level up, so I put one more point in it to bring it to the Common tier. It left me with a free stat point to invest, and I placed it in Perception if only to increase my speed.

[DEX] couldn’t be increased any further until I cracked level 25. I would need to save at least ten points before then, so I could improve my damage the first chance I got. Or, I could leave that for later and focus on leveling something else in the meantime . . .

Stat points currently rose at a rate of two per level, leaving me with fourteen points by the time I reached the next rank. Enough to raise another stat by a little bit and save the rest for Dexterity.

Nevertheless, my choices left my attributes looking like this:

STR 10, PER 11, END 10, DEX 20

INT 5, WIL 10, V.F 2, MGK 3

Two of those attributes needed to be completely abandoned, but I would decide after I’d gained more knowledge. Vital Force and Magicka meant more opportunities to activate [Decoy] and [Dark Stalker] respectively. But, the sheer number of stat points needed to get them to a good enough level induced a migraine. 

“We better move,” Paz said through a mouthful of chicken. “The whole point of fighting the boss was to seek a faster way out of the area.”

True that.

We continued onto the next corridor. All the while, I checked my quests to ensure that the timer remained the same.

This dungeon run wasn’t so bad, after all. Here’s to hoping things stay the same.