FB: Chapter 23 – Descent Into The Bottomless Pit

It was the last day of grinding zombie monsters for coins and skill experience. I would come back here after my trip down the Bottomless Pit to speed level to 30, but that would take at most two days. It had been 300 real world days since I had first logged into Exponential.

I had earned a total of 724,042,440 skill experience so far. I had spent most of it, since if I died, I would lose it all. It was a shame to invest all that experience right now, but the risk of dying and losing it all was just too great. I had upgraded a wide range of 353 skill shards to the epic rank.

I had only soul bound 72 of them for the skills I had planned. The rest were not soul bound, but I wanted on hand to get information on advancing them and could trade to NPCs for said information. For a skill like Poison Resistance, I might have to sacrifice 3 sets of 8 epic skill shards with that skill for an NPC to conduct research and figure out the ingredient they would need to make a special legendary skill. That would be 24 epic skill shards used up just like that.

Research into higher ranked skills was a black hole of money, time, and frustration. But since I had far more experience than I initially could ever hope for, I had gotten a lot of duplicate skills. The grinding had changed from the initial plan of experience, to the fastest way to earn money.

This was one of the ways that QAI slowed down the leaders in Exponential with knowledge barriers. Skill shards were a key part of combat and anything beyond the Epic rank was quite difficult to get.

I had considered other options to earn money quickly, but the way I was grinding was by far the fastest as an individual currently. I also needed my own money to work with. While the guild account was building up quite rapidly with all the guild members contributing. If it had been necessary, I would have dipped into it but preferred to avoid that option to prevent drama.

While I had considered making moves sooner rather than later, the Tournament of Champions was key for my plans. Making moves earlier would risk people developing effective counters to my combat styles. I had confidence in myself, but there were always more skilled individuals out there than me. Also, some of the investments I would make would not be appropriate to do with guild funds like betting. A guild should operate based on its income, not off of crazy schemes. That was the difference between a serious guild and a vanity project. Learning how to control risk, even if I was confident, accidents and mistakes could happen.

At the moment I only had 1,804,440 skill experience remaining. It was a lot, but nothing I was going to lose sleep over if I lost with how many skill shards I had already upgraded and safely stored away.

I had earned around 2.5 platinum coins from all the grinding as well. Half a platinum coin had been exchanged for real world money and placed into my personal bank account. Just in case I needed a cash reserve of 100 million dollars after I had paid fees and taxes. That had shifted the exchange rate from around 6 dollars per copper down to 2 dollars per copper impacting the global economy of Exponential. It was better to do this sooner rather than later before the exchange rate dropped even more.

One platinum coin had been spent buying up sanctified salt to kill the Mega Oozes with. I was going to cheese them like I had with the previous Murk Oozes. Using an item based attack with a guaranteed super critical hit. Since the absolute level difference was over 100, that was the only way to damage and kill them.

The last platinum coin had been partially spent already. I had ordered the materials I needed for the descent sphere over a period of a couple of months so as to not inflate the prices of the items I needed, which kept it in line with the initial 40 gold pieces. Right now all the materials were being held by the Traders Union in Hole City for a very small fee along with a Pendant of Divine Intervention and a City Teleportation Crystal.

I paid two gold coins to order a private airship to pick me up from Murk Town and take me to Hole City. I had no time to waste. While I could have stopped sooner, the timing of everything was in line with my plan. Rushing blindly wouldn’t help me. I needed to build up momentum quickly and not give people too much time to think once I made a move publicly.

The nice thing about airship travel was that I could log out while it occurred. If I wasn’t online when the airship arrived, my avatar in game would just go to a resting room inside the airship port or inn if there wasn’t an airship port. I let myself travel overnight for this reason.

When I logged in the following day, I left the airship port and made my way to an information broker I knew about in the city. One silver coin later, I had the name of the best blacksmith in the city. I made my way there and after paying a silver coin consultation fee, the NPC blacksmith came out.

“What do you want girl?” he asked gruffly.

“To build this. I have the materials, I just need willing hands,” I said and handed over the design book for my descent sphere. He spent a minute rapidly flipping through it.

“Hmm, materials would cost about 45 gold, which is what I reckon it would take to make. But it will take a month, got other orders.”

“How much to get it done right away if I have the materials ready?” I asked.

“Three days and 55 gold.”

“Call it 50 gold and you have a deal,” I countered. The NPC considered it for a moment.

“Payment up front?” he asked.

“That is fine, and a contract.” There was one included in the back of the design book for the time needed and the amount for situations like this. He quickly wrote in another line detailing that I would pay up front and deliver the materials. I signed the contract. After that I gave him his money and arranged to have the materials brought over from the Traders Union right away so he could build the descent sphere.

After that I purchased a lot of basic salt and practiced throwing it. I couldn’t afford to miss. I had 104 pouches of sanctified salt, but even with the bit of leeway, I wasn’t about to take risks and make a stupid mistake since I needed to make 100 kills. That was the requirement that was in line with the lower versions of the title, it didn’t make sense to break that pattern. With pouches of salt being cheap, it was a good way to pass the time to make sure my accuracy was on point.

After three in-game days, the blacksmith finished the descent sphere, and I arranged for it to be brought over to the Bottomless Pit. Anyone could go into the pit, but once you went in, no one would come after you. There was a small one silver fee to enter the secure area to have the descent sphere carted in, but there was no issue with the local guards since I had paid the entrance fee.

I had the two NPCs who carted the descent sphere over prepare to push me in. I gave them five minutes after I got in the descent sphere before rolling it off the cart into the Bottomless Pit. I paid them each a silver for bringing it over and a silver for pushing me off the cart after five minutes. I had tested securing the door at the blacksmith’s shop before confirming the contract was complete. I got in and the door was lifted into place.

I quickly began to place and engage the door clamps into place and tightening them down one by one with a custom built lever. That took two minutes. I put the lever away in my inventory and then strapped myself in. The air inside was quite cold, but not quite freezing. I then chugged a feather fall potion for myself. It only cost a silver, but it would help cancel impact damage was my hope. I wasn’t exactly sure how it would work with the descent sphere, but every bit that could help, I would use it. If I didn’t use up the Pendant of Divine Intervention, I would have no complaints. I had 12 potions of feather fall and each one would last an hour. I confirmed my life saving pendant was secure as well for a second time and it was active while I waited for the final seconds to pass by.

After five minutes passed since I had entered, I felt the descent sphere being rolled. I closed my eyes, so I didn’t get dizzy and focused on my breathing. The descent sphere began to descend very rapidly down into the Bottomless Pit.

I had logged in right before picking up the sphere. I had spent half an hour having it brought over. It should take eight hours to fall the entire distance. That gave me three and a half hours to work with after reaching the bottom. Normally a person would set up tents and campsites on the way down, but either this would work, or it wouldn’t work. Camping in the Bottomless Pit would not help me at all and came with its own risks. Better to just get it all done in one session.

The descent sphere shook slightly, and I had earned 250 experience. My first kill on the way down. I had no doubt it was a Howler Bat. The bottom of the interior of the descent sphere that my chair was resting on, was a flat platform, filling in the bottom of the sphere slightly. That made the bottom slightly heavier.

So, while the sphere rocked and spun a bit, I was sitting vertically for the most part, since the heaviest part reoriented to face the direction of travel. QAI was quite good at simulating physics in Exponential. It was still incredibly nauseating. Even with all the gymnastics I had done I wanted to puke. There was the occasional impact which sent the descent sphere wobbling and spinning about.

I just kept my eyes closed and focused on my breathing. I didn’t even open my eyes to check on the clock upgrade I had purchased. There was no way to speed things up either. An alarm would sound every hour and I would take another feather fall potion.

It was in the hands of QAI when it finally calculated the fall damage and impact damage. The Chained Darkness boss monster at the bottom was also a concern. If it wasn’t killed by the impact, then it would be near impossible trying to get into the Twilight Depths.

I felt the descent sphere bounce off one of the sides of the Bottomless Pit. Thankfully I wasn’t pin balling around that much. The Howler Bats, were sturdy enough to send me off at an angle when they were hit, but my downwards speed kept me heading mostly downwards. While the doors were tight, they weren’t considered airtight, which allowed me to breathe without issue. Since technically air could move through them.

Another quirk of QAI managing the environment. Unless an area was completely closed off or there were environmental effects, the air would remain breathable even if there wasn’t the chance for much air flow.

Twice, my descent sphere grazed the narrow platform that circled around the edge of the Bottomless Pit. It was a spiral downwards with the walls above the platform angled up and out to form the base of the platform above it, without decreasing the size of the Bottomless Pit. An edge of the sphere would hit the platform and then spin away back towards the center of the Bottomless Pit. This walkway was only the width of one very skinny person, which made the normal method of descent a massive pain.

BOOM!

When the impact happened, there was no warning. The bottom of the sphere was forced up slamming into my legs, while the middle section with the doors bent outwards. The stiff springs holding the chair in place shook massively and then snapped sending the chair slamming sideways along with my body into the side of the descent sphere that was now the ceiling. For one brief moment, I got to experience what it was like to have one’s head burst open like a melon.

The Pendant of Divine Intervention around my neck glowed briefly and then disappeared into glowing shards as my body was completely put back together. I took a few seconds to gather my breath and calm myself. I was alive! My plan had actually worked. There was no time to waste. I got the lever out of my inventory and unstrapped myself from the chair.

I then began to remove the clamps from the hatch in front of me. Even if it was bent and twisted, the size of each clamp was small, so the total deformation to them was limited. I popped them off one after another. After the last clamp came off, I gave the hatch a good shove and it was pushed away from the descent sphere.

I poked my head out and looked around. The outside of the sphere was very warm. There was dust in the air. I was also in a crater. The light from the light crystals inside descent sphere illuminated the area in front of the opened hatch. I pulled out five disposable glow sticks from my inventory. They would only last five minutes and cost five silver each. So, it wasn’t a problem to buy quite a few. They also didn’t draw monsters unlike a lot of other options, which was why I had picked them for this trip along with how easy they were to throw.

I tossed the glow sticks around the descent sphere and then climbed out carefully. Looking up there was nothing but blackness. I thought I saw a pin prick of light, but it was impossible to say for sure or if it was just my imagination.

There was no sign of the Chained Darkness. Hopefully it had been vaporized by the impact. I made my way from the descent sphere looking for the entrance into the Twilight Depths, tossing glow sticks all over the place.

I quickly found a tunnel with very faintly glowing purple moss behind several boulders. There were chains leading from this boulder to where the crater was. This was the right way from what I remembered, since the Chained Darkness guarded the way forward into the Twilight Depths. Since it was open and the purple moss was glowing, the Chained Darkness had died from the impact, which was a relief. I got a pouch of sanctified salt in my hand and kept tossing glow sticks in front of me. The main danger of the Mega Ooze monster was that it was invisible.

That was another reason why I had five hundred glow sticks in my inventory and was not afraid to use them. One suddenly became stuck in mid-air and seemed like there were visible ripples around the green glow stick as it was quickly melted and destroyed. I tossed the pouch of sanctified salt I was carrying at the invisible monster.

The Mega Ooze quickly melted away and I confirmed I had killed it since I got 250 experience. I let out a breath. It had worked. I kept up the glow stick throwing and began to run into more Mega Oozes, killing them easily with a pouch of sanctified salt each. The damage didn’t reach super critical to shard them, but was close enough to kill the Mega Oozes near instantly.

Their main danger was their invisibility, combined with the ability to melt anything that touched them. Once triggered then they would move very quickly to consume their target. That was why as soon as I found one, I had to throw the sanctified salt immediately or I would probably die as they raced to consume me.

I kept a spare pouch of salt between my teeth. That saved me when I had aimed too low on a Mega Ooze and quickly tossed the second pouch. I wouldn’t have had time to get another one out of my inventory. Thankfully it died before it touched me. That one had been clinging to the ceiling. Ceiling monsters were some of the most dangerous, but I had the experience to know to watch out for them. I quickly got another pouch of sanctified salt in my hand and between my teeth and continued through the Twilight Caverns.

No one ever got beyond the Mega Oozes from what I remembered. If they had they didn’t share. Getting down here was a nightmare, but then being killed by a Mega Ooze after the descent? No one would want to come back.

Since climbing took days the normal way, people had to deploy portable shelters, clear the monsters, and then beat the boss at the bottom. It wasn’t easily accessible or cost effective to use my method. The Pendant of Divine Intervention had a cool down of an in game year and my descent sphere cost about a platinum coin.  

If a group got past the Mega Oozes, then there would be something around level 140 or higher most likely beyond them. The cramped quarters, invisible monsters, and everything else about this place did not make it a popular destination for the top players in Exponential.

Done! I had killed 103 Mega Oozes with 104 bags of sanctified salt. I pulled out the city teleport crystal and activated it without any hesitation.