Even with all the skill and combat experience that Zach had quickly accumulated since becoming an adventurer, he knew he was still going to be in for a rough ti of things as he, along with Jimmy, began backpedaling away to the rear of this circularly shaped room-turned-arena while an entire train of mobs pressed towards them. Yet, for every inch of ground gained by the mobs, Zach ceded an inch of his own, and this, of course, was not a good thing.
Rather than simply pull away, they were supposed to be performing sothing of a "fighting retreat" until reaching the room's back wall, at which point Jimmy had claid it would be critical to have reduced the number of mobs by at least a third; this, he'd explained, would make it possible for them to kite the remainder of the mobs safely around the water pit while they were dealt with. For this reason, Zach was supposed to be attacking in addition to backing away—but at the mont, he wasn't. His instincts, which were as much a part of him as his own skin, were screaming at him not to get any closer to the large cluster of foes, all of which still had about 70% or more of their HP as Jimmy's poisons caused a chorus of hissing-laughter to resound with each tick.
We'll get pushed back to the wall way before any of them die from the poisons, Zach realized as he repeatedly took one backwards step after the next.
Multiple tis, Zach had inched forward towards the mass of imp creatures—only to jerk abruptly away in the opposite direction. On each attempt, eight or so of the winged imps would lash out with a fast, dizzying strike of their golden spear while the wingless "Troublemakers" would fling one of their dual-wielded daggers at him before another would magically appear in their hand as though they had access to an infinite supply of the weapons. Despite the mobs being slowed and poisoned, Zach was sohow failing to find an opening as the forty-or-so horned, fork-tailed, and oftentis winged creatures continued to sloth their way towards him and Jimmy.
"Zach, man, the hell are you doing?" Jimmy asked him angrily. "Start dropping these bitches."
Zach clenched his teeth for a few seconds, becoming vexed. "I can't get close to them, Jimmy."
"Try!"
"Easier said than done!"
At the mont, Zach was standing a few feet before Jimmy, who was naturally keeping a bit of extra distance behind Zach being that he was a caster. Straight ahead of them, the legion of imps continued to either fly on buzzing wings or trudge forward on tiny feet in their direction. Sensing Jimmy's patience beginning to dwindle, Zach tried once more to attack one of the creatures despite knowing he'd only end up eting the sa result he had with all of his previous attempts.
Studying their rhythm as he backed away a few more steps, he halted, bent his knees slightly, and then launched himself forward. And just like in his earlier endeavors, the exact mont that he entered the mobs' attack range, ten of the imp creatures reacted concurrently, creating an unavoidable ss of swinging spears. An unbearable bout of frustration erupted within Zach, which caused him to again clench his teeth while tightening his grip on his sword.
Put simply, the number of these mobs combined with their thods of attack made it impossible for Zach to get close enough to them to do any damage. And really, it all had to do with the way in which the winged "Sneering Imp Warriors" moved and struck. The Troublemakers were not the issue; though annoying, he could evade or knock aside their thrown daggers. But the Warriors were a whole different story. Each and every ti Zach entered within their range, they perford a series of movents that had a level of unpredictability he'd never before seen from a mob.
First, anywhere between seven to ten of them would fan out and enter into a crescent-shaped formation, and from there, they would dash forward towards him at full speed, as they were not affected by the slow debuff during an attack. After that, they would fly directly upwards so that the bottom of their feet beca level with Zach's forehead, and then finally, each one would scatter in a different direction before unleashing a strike from what seed to be a randomly selected angle.
It was impossible for Zach to anticipate how they would choose to attack. So would fly off to the left, so would fly off to the right, and others would hover a bit higher or drop a bit lower. Sotis, they'd fly off one way, stop suddenly, and then veer off in the complete opposite direction. The result was always the sa, however; following this scattering of buzzing, flying imps, they would converge upon Zach with an equally dazing mixture of attacks.
So would swing their spear, and others would thrust, but whichever they chose, the imps lashed out at angles that were just as random as their movent patterns, such as the one moving towards Zach right now that was nad "Sneering Imp Warrior R."
The creature barreled forward through the air, stopped in an instant, then flew off towards the left before snapping back to the right almost as though it'd bounced off an invisible wall; then, with its body moving from Zach's left to Zach's right, it whipped its spear from Zach's right to Zach's left—and this was just one of the ten that all struck out at him in unison.
Combined, the imps created a visually confusing, hard-to-follow, and overwhelming pattern of attack that would've been too much for Zach to handle even without the half-dozen daggers that made a slight hissing sound as they ripped across the air as they headed towards him.
And so, once more, Zach's only option was to retreat; jumping backwards, he leapt away from the approaching hail of spears while simultaneously whipping his sword several tis in the air before him in order to deflect the daggers flying his way.
"Zach!" Jimmy called to him, sounding even more irritated.
"I'm trying!" he shouted back to him. "I'll get skewered or cut to pieces if I get anywhere near them!"
Unsure of what he should do, he briefly called forward his list of abilities, scanning it with his eyes for just a second before again dismissing it. Was there anything on here he could use to make his life a little easier? Thanks to Jimmy's buff, he could now be far more generous with regards to ability usage, but even then, there was still an upper limit to how much and how frequently he could call upon his various abilities before having to wait for more ti to be added to his current duration of Unleashed Phase, which as of right now, had just shy of twelve minutes remaining on it.
Unleashed Phase Duration
11:47 Remaining
Wave Slash
1:15
Boundless
0:10
Phase Cannon (No Target)
1:30/2:00 (if used with Boundless)
Phase Cannon (Targeted)
2:30/3:00 (if used with Boundless)
Phase Blink
0:20
Phase Shield (READY) (25 seconds)
0:45
Phase Rescue
0:35 / 2:15 (if used with Boundless)
Phase Slash
1:10 / 6:10 (if used with ??)
Halting Strike
0:20
Card Capture
0:00
Card Summon
0:00
Card Dismiss
0:00-X:XX
Gacha Get'cha
0:00
Even as he thought over his options, he could hear Jimmy impatiently shouting at him in the background. For the mont, Zach tuned him out and continued to backpedal towards the rear wall as he tried to think up so way of navigating around the imps' seemingly insurmountable offense. Yet as the wall ca nearer and nearer, and their available space grew smaller and smaller, he knew he would have to co up with an idea very quickly. By his best estimation, they were only around fifty feet away from reaching the wall, and once there, there'd be nowhere to go except through the throng of mobs.
"Zach, at least do sothing," Jimmy pleaded, his tone urgent yet not quite panicked. "There's gotta be sothing you can do."
Maybe there is, actually, Zach thought as a particular ability ca to mind. It'll at least get Jimmy off my case for a mont.
"Okay, let try sothing," he said. In the corner of his vision, he could just make out a change in Jimmy's expression as he glanced at Zach hopefully.
I need to ti this perfectly.
Zach once more planted his feet, coming to a stop. Then, as he'd only just done, he again bent his knees and raised his sword, the point of his blade facing ahead of him with his elbows pointed away. With that, he bolted forward towards the slowly moving horde of mobs, crossing the distance in an instant. The imps reacted just as quickly, and this ti, what looked like nine of the Sneering Imp Warriors and five of the Sneering Imp Troublemakers beca "activated" as soon as he entered within their attack range.
At once, the buzzing of wings grew louder and more frenzied as nine winged imps rushed forward through the air, coming to an imdiate halt just before Zach—only to then fly upwards and scatter in nine separate directions before again lunging at him, their weapons thrusting and slicing with enough variation so that no two imps attacked in quite the sa way or at quite the sa angle. Along with this, a collective whooshing sound from ahead indicated that five more daggers had been thrown and were heading straight for him.
Now, with five daggers and nine spears all closing in on him, Zach knew that, if he did not dodge imdiately, he would not be able to dodge at all. This was the point where he'd typically have just a fraction of a second to choose between either getting out of the way or attempting to try guarding against the incoming storm of attacks. This ti, however, he went with a third option.
Rather than retreat or lift his blade in a futile attempt to block the chaotic barrage of spear strikes, Zach instead dropped down to his knees. Once there, he forced himself to remain calm, as acting too soon could get him killed just as easily as acting too late. And so, he held his breath a mont, focused his senses, and waited until the last possible instant before he was slashed and skewered to death. Then, just before the gilded, glittering spears pierced his flesh, Zach activated Phase Shield.
Imdiately, a beautiful, brilliant, and golden light chased away even the most shadowy corners of this fairly dark room, bathing all of it in its glow and causing the clear water in the water-pit to take on an amber color and reflect the shine onto the ceiling. Following the activation of his ability, a large shield made of this sa pure golden light manifested into existence above and slightly in front of Zach. Appearing just in ti, all five daggers collided with this shield, and all five bounced off without making so much as a sound. The sa was true for the nine spears, which either thrust into or slashed against it. No matter what struck out at him, the shield deflected each and every attack used against it; then, as quickly as it had co, the shield vanished, once more allowing the room to darken.
As soon as it faded out of existence, Zach leapt into action. Hurriedly, he sprang back up to his feet. Ti was short, and he would need to attack now. The window that existed between one round of the mobs' attacks and the next was incredibly brief; if he was going to be able to get anything done, he would have to attack imdiately—and he understood this, which was why Zach acted with such swiftness that he barely even paused to consider how much damage he would suffer as "paynt" for the shield, which always returned a small portion of the damage it absorbed to him, the user. All things considered, he couldn't imagine it'd be all that much.
Although Zach had no doubt that these mobs were deadly enough—and high level enough—to pierce his flesh with their weapons, in the grand sche of things, he didn't think they had the kind of power required to seriously injure or even slightly wound him via the returned portion of damage from using Phase Shield. And indeed, even as Zach lifted his blade and threw himself forward at his enemies, the only physical sensation of pain he felt was a slight irritation in his lower lip as well as sothing akin to a minor tightening of the muscles in his right shoulder blade. Neither sensation was long-lasting, either, and both were gone almost as soon as he'd realized they were there.
At any rate, having finally earned the chance to attack, Zach seized the opportunity with a vengeance. Having caused the mobs to be put sowhat off balance as a result of their spears bouncing off the shield, Zach held nothing back. He practically threw himself at the nearest Sneering Imp Warrior, this one called "Sneering Imp Warrior J."
HP
55,510/72,500
Na
Sneering Imp Warrior J
Level
45
Pressed to make every second count, Zach slashed his Sword of Light Amidst Darkness directly upwards, cutting the flying creature from its groin to its chest; then, rather than pull his blade back and go in for a second, follow-up strike, he instead pushed his sword forward, etching it deeper into the imp's flesh while pivoting his hips and swinging his arms to the left, carving it across and over the creature's chest; this resulted in an aerosol-like spray of blood that felt hot as it splattered across his mouth and forehead.
Despite having never pulled his sword back, the damage Zach inflicted seed to register as two separate strikes, with the first hitting for 18,222, and the second dealing 16,010. The imp, oblivious to its condition, seed to find this incredibly funny, as the sound of its laughter filled the rounded room, reverberated off the walls, and created an echo.
"He-he-he-he-he!"
HP
21,278/72,500
Na
Sneering Imp Warrior J
Level
45
Ordering his limbs to move as fast as they could, Zach whipped his arms around twice more, striking the creature across the stomach for 17,209 and then for the second ti in its chest, overkilling it with a slash that hit for 16,998. Following this second strike, the Sneering Imp Warrior's wings stopped buzzing, its devilish pupils went blank, and with another, weaker laugh it fell to the floor like a dead bird, where it then disintegrated into a powdery residue like the others that'd died before it.
18000xp
Despite killing Imp Warrior J as fast as he possibly could, Zach noticed that the other eight mobs had already reoriented themselves from where they were hovering midair and would launch into another of their crazy, unpredictable attacks any mont. Thus, he called upon all the speed he could muster and threw himself at another, this one called "Sneering Imp Warrior K."
With a touch of desperation, Zach fully extended his arms and raised his blade so that the point was above his head, and then he crashed it down in an attempt at delivering a powerful, thundering blow and splitting open the creature's skull. But to his surprise and dismay, the imp managed to shift its spear so that it wielded the weapon horizontally, raising it upwards to guard. Grunting, Zach was unable to strike fast enough to break apart the spear-wielding imp's head, as the creature managed to block in ti. Instead, Zach's blade made a high-pitched, tallic-sounding clang that was loud enough to fill the entire room as his weapon collided with the spear. And though he did not manage to deal any direct damage with his strike, he at least hit with enough force that the spear was knocked cleanly out of the imp's hands; more so, the intensity of the impact was enough to violently throw the imp downwards until its back slamd into the floor, causing the tile beneath it to crack and dealing 9,051 secondary damage.
Zach lowered his head and looked upon the downed imp, sensing an opportunity for an easy kill. He spun his sword around so that his blade faced downwards, and then he bent backwards slightly before throwing himself forwards in the opposite direction for montum while also bending his knees. With incredible force, he tore his blade through the imp's chest using all his might, actually putting out 26,500 damage as a combination of a rip and a crunch caused him to wince at the sound of his sword piercing the creature's body. But his blade did not stop there; no, Zach ended up plunging his weapon with such power that his blade continued through the imp, exited the creature's back, and then sank several inches into the tiled flooring beneath it with another crunch. A half-second later, a dark-green aura surrounded his own body—his stamina buff! Having proc'd it, the ti remaining on his Unleashed Phase rose to 14:05, only to imdiately rise up even further to 16:05 thanks to another tick coming in from Jimmy's Breath of Invigoration.
Quickly, Zach ripped his blade free then stabbed it back down two more consecutive tis, causing two geyser-like spurts of blood to shoot up and dealing 20,477 and 20,462 damage respectively, ending the imp warrior in the process and earning Zach another 18000xp. As this one, like those before it, turned from an imp into a sand-like powder, Zach lifted his blade, held it at the ready, and searched for another to kill.
Sadly, even having only killed two of the creatures, he saw that his ti had run out. Seven of the original imps that had attacked him were now soaring through the air at him. Zach, taken by surprise, montarily forgot their pattern of attack and nervously raised his blade to guard against them as each of their forms approached him at a daunting speed; this, of course, turned out to be unnecessary, as all seven of the "Sneering Imp Warriors" then ca to a sudden, unnatural halt midair imdiately upon reaching Zach—but only so that all of them could then scatter away in a random direction. Zach chided himself for becoming startled. He knew that it would only be after they scattered that they would attack him. Yet these damn creatures moved so fast and in such a disorienting way that it was easy to flinch at the sight of them rushing towards him.
Calm down! he warned himself. Don't get too excited!
Zach exhaled, trying to regain his composure. But he lost it a second ti as his eyes detected motion across from where he stood. Now, he took a breath so quickly he nearly choked on the oxygen as a sense of alarm and warning crept down his spine. It seed that, ahead of him, an additional two Sneering Imp Warriors had already scattered and were coming after him—neither of which he realized were even attacking him until right now. Zach wasn't sure how he'd missed them. Most likely, they must've pulled into range and begun their attack while he was still finishing off the imp warrior that he'd blasted onto the floor.
To both his imdiate left and right, the two creatures were lashing out at him. The one to his left was causing a dull hiss to trail on the air as its spear made a rounded, circular slash that was heading straight for Zach's neck. The one to his right was thrusting its spear directly forward, the pointed end of the weapon making for Zach's heart.
With another sharp inhalation, Zach ducked beneath the circular slash from the spear to his left; he could feel the air shifting above his hair as he narrowly avoided decapitation. Then, urgently, Zach straightened his back, brought himself upright, and forcibly swung his sword to knock away the thrusting spear to his right. Imdiately afterwards, he followed up with another three swings of his weapon, causing three pangs to fill the room as he blasted away three daggers he'd only just realized had been thrown and had also barely managed to ward off. Finally, feeling overwheld, he dashed backwards and away just as the seven other imps reconverged on his position, each striking out in an entirely different way and all thankfully missing. Then they pressed forward—only much more slowly thanks to the debuff from Jimmy. Their "attack" having been concluded, they resud at a much more sedate pace.
"Damn, Zach, that was only two of them you got," Jimmy said. Though the alarm in his voice had certainly amped up a bit, he still ca across as cool, confident, and self-assured. "That's not gonna cut it." Zach watched as Jimmy glanced over his shoulder and frowned. "No pressure, but like, we gotta make sothing happen here. Our backs are about to hit the wall."
Zach's lips curled in frustration all on their own as he realized how close they were to being sandwiched between the wall and the approaching mobs. Less than twenty feet of space existed between them and the point at which they could retreat no farther. "Gods damn it all," Zach swore with a growl.
"How much ti you got on your ability?"
"Uh…like, just a bit less than sixteen minutes now."
"Well, shit, what the hell are you waiting for, then? Go wild on them."
"It's not enough," Zach said. "I need to build up a bit more ti, Jimmy."
"We don't have any left for you to build up more of it!"
Looking again behind him at the wall, Zach could see that Jimmy was correct. Ti was nearly up, and Zach needed to make at least so dent in their number. Not only that, but with each mont, Zach was also beginning to understand why Jimmy had chosen to do things this way. Only by luring these mobs and having them more-or-less bunched up would they be able to keep them under control and safely kite them around once their numbers were diminished. If Zach ended up having to Phase Blink and Phase Rescue to get him and Jimmy to the other end of the room, it could cause the mobs to spread out and end up all over the place. That would make for a totally chaotic, unmanageable ss, which in addition to heightening the level of danger, would also make it greatly more difficult for Jimmy to re-apply his poisons and his slow.
Hesitating for just a split second, Zach quickly regained control over his nerves, filling instead with determination. He nodded at Jimmy. "Yeah, you're right. We don't."
Unable to stall any longer, Zach knew he'd have to make the most of the ti he'd already accumulated. And so, upon speaking those words, he eyed the approaching imps, both the flying, winged warriors, and the dagger-wielding troublemakers. He raised his blade, licked his chops, and set his focus on a particular "Sneering Imp Warrior" that was up front and leading the pack. With that, he swung it diagonally downwards.
"Phase Slash!" he cried out, causing a loud, high-pitched sound like that of a zipper being opened to fill the world around them, crowding out all other noises as a visible disturbance appeared in the air in the form of a ripple, which then tore across the space between him and his target: "Sneering Imp Warrior 2A."
Though his Phase Cannon could hit multiple mobs at once, Zach decided to try leading with a Phase Slash instead because he needed to start reducing their number imdiately as opposed to simply wearing them down. For whatever reason, his Phase Cannon did a great deal less damage towards these mobs than it should have. Zach wasn't sure if this was because the imps were resistant to magic in general or if it was the specific type of damage—light in the case of Phase Cannon—that had hindered it. But whatever the underlying reason, Zach was left hoping that his Phase Slash would prove a bit more effective against these mobs. And thank the Gods, he could see right away that it was.
Three things happened close enough together that they almost appeared simultaneous. First, his Phase Slash found its target, and with a loud, balloon-like pop, the imp exploded into a steaming, smoking, superheated shower of blood, guts, skin, and organs, all of which continued to trail more smoke as these globs of gore sizzled and crackled until eventually cooling and turning into the powdered, sand-like residue, but not before leaving scorch marks in the room's fancily tiled flooring. Then, right after, there was a clink as the spear it'd been holding fell out of the air and landed while its wings—the only undamaged part of it—floated halfway down to the floor, ultimately disintegrating into the sand before touching down. Finally—and thirdly—a shocked-sounding gasp ca from Jimmy.
Turning around, Zach saw him pointing and staring at sothing. Tracing it with his eyes, Zach realized it was the damage number floating in place where the mob had been: 63,998. "Goddamn," he said, blinking as if not believing what he was seeing. "What kinda' OP, broken-ass shit is that? Talk about unbalanced."
18000xp
Zach, briefly switching to a one-handed grip on his blade, gave Jimmy a shrug. He barely understood what Jimmy's words even ant if he was being honest, but he decided now was not the best ti to ask him about it, either. Thus, not bothering to reply, Zach once more gripped his blade with both hands. Raising his weapon, he swung it a second ti, and then a third, calling out "Phase Slash!" with each. In the wake of these two attacks, another Sneering Imp Warrior as well as a Sneering Imp Troublemaker detonated, each making a pop and causing a hissing sound to fill the room as their superheated insides seemingly had to cool before they could disintegrate, which ant they sizzled and left char-colored marks on the tiling. Seconds after each death, another three clinks ca as a spear and two daggers dropped down onto the floor.
18000xp
18000xp
Unleashed Phase Duration
11:12 Remaining
With more work left to be done, Zach lifted his blade a fourth ti, ready to kill another. For this one, he eyed a "Sneering Imp Troublemaker" that stood just a bit before the others and seed to be drawing back its arm as though about to toss a dagger at him. Zach decided straight away to make this pesky little imp the next one to die. However, just before attacking, he paused; instead, he frowned as he spotted sothing else: sothing that was moving his way at a great speed. It seed one of the imps had entered within attack range, likely during the ti that Zach had been standing there throwing out Phase Slashes.
Now, with its wings buzzing furiously, this Sneering Imp Warrior flew straight towards him, then halted midair in front of where he stood. From there, it lifted upwards before dropping right back down while whirling the bladed end of its spear on top of him.
Caught off guard, Zach was forced to hastily switch from offense to defense. Thankfully, having already raised his own sword, and having been only a re mont from delivering another Phase Slash, Zach's blade was already perfectly positioned to intercept the imp's spear. Abandoning his planned attack, he shifted into a defensive stance, bending his knees and slightly turning his blade to block the incoming spear; this resulted in a loud ringing sound as well as an uncomfortable vibrating in his wrists from absorbing the shock of the imp's powerful attack. Yet before Zach could assess what to do next, he spotted even more movent as another two imps soared across the room at him, scattered, and then lashed out while the one that'd only just attacked seed to wind itself up for a second strike of its own.
Alard but still in control of himself, Zach kicked off his feet and hopped backwards while swinging his sword diagonally downwards in the sa motion, crying out "Phase Slash!" even while a foot or two midair. Then he made a gentle clicking sound as his two feet touched down on the tiled flooring while, at that very precise instant, his Phase Slash t one of the imps head on.
The imp, which flew directly into it, was simply massacred at point-blank range. Zach beca drenched in its boiling, sizzling insides, which thankfully left no stain as the imp's nauseating innards cooled on his robe and transford into more of the sand. It was a bizarre sight, too, because one mont he was covered from head to toe in guts, and the next, it was all just "gone." Even more odd was that, for the first ti ever, the loud, eerie, high-pitched, and zipper-like sound that typically accompanied a Phase Slash happened to arrive after the attack had already found its target, killed it, and disappeared from existence.
18000xp
"He-he-he-he-he!" laughed the other two Sneering Imp Warriors as they both ca at him, one ahead of the other.
Twice more, Zach repeated his earlier action of hopping backwards while delivering a Phase Slash, and in both cases, he again exploded his attackers, the sound of his attack coming only after it was already gone. Yet it was only upon touching down in the imdiate mont following the second of his two hops that his luck turned sour. As soon as his feet found the floor, he raised his sword and scanned the incoming horde of mobs for any more signs of danger or for targets to attack. While doing so, he saw the numbers representing his experience earned floating in the air.
18000xp
18F29.
"I'm ready for whatever cos next," Zach said, breaking another brief period of silence. He was feeling confident and enthusiastic. Thanks to Jimmy's buff, which had been refreshed just before exiting the previous floor, Zach had over an hour on his current duration of Unleashed Phase, which ant his hands were still releasing impossibly black smoke along with the occasional golden ember. Although the buff had worn off, he was confident he had more than enough ti now to proceed through the dungeon without having to rush. "Just let know what we have to do, okay?"
Jimmy gave him a slight smile. "Yeah, I got you. Don't worry." As the two continued onward, he looked at Zach and said, "Just wanna let you know, by the way, that I couldn't have made it through that last floor without you. So thanks."
Zach choked out a surprised laugh, a bit stunned by his words. "Why're you thanking ?" he asked. "I'm the one who brought you here. And if I didn't, I might've died in this place."
"Oh, nah, you definitely would've died," Jimmy said, nodding his chin. "No doubt about that."
Zach took no offense to his words, as they were the plain truth. Still, he repeated his question, as he found what Jimmy had said to him a little strange. "I don't get why you're thanking , though."
Jimmy paused a mont and gave him an amused shake of the head, as if the answer should've been obvious. "A raid leader always thanks his party when they do a good job. Or at least he should. I accepted the risk when I agreed to co here, so yeah, I'm giving you props for how you did back there."
Zach wanted to ask him what "props" ant, but he decided not to badger Jimmy with too many questions, as there were a lot of things he didn't know and would have to find out gradually through conversation. Stopping to ask Jimmy every ti he used a word in an unfamiliar way or a new word entirely would only make conversations with him tedious and torturous. For this reason, Zach rely reiterated his own thanks and left it at that as they traveled side by side farther down this rocky corridor, which ran long enough that Zach could not yet spot the end of it.
Given previous dungeon experience, Zach knew that even just moving between the floors could sotis present a great challenge. Fortunately, that did not appear to be the case this ti around. Although this particular passage did stretch on a bit farther than expected, by the ti they'd walked what he estimated to be half a mile or so, a wooden door with a curved handle appeared up ahead, marking the end of this cavernous path. As they approached nearer, Zach could distinctly see that written above the door was: F28->F29.
The entrance to the next floor!
"All right," Zach said, walking a bit faster and becoming excited as he approached the door. "You ready, Jimmy?" He reached out for the curved handle, grabbed it, and then he prepared to open it. But he paused as it occurred to him that Jimmy was no longer by his side. "Uh…Jimmy?"
Receiving no answer, Zach let go of the handle, turned around, and then furrowed his brow in confusion as he spotted Jimmy standing about twenty feet away with his body turned and facing the rocky wall to their left. Had he fallen behind or sothing? Why was he staring at the wall?
"Hey, Jimmy, is everything okay?" Zach called to him, once again receiving no answer. Annoyed, he decided to call out a bit more loudly. "Hello? Galterra to Jimmy!"
This, finally, seed to catch Jimmy's attention. He turned his head to face Zach, and then he made a beckoning motion with his chin. "Zach, co here a second."
"Why?"
"Just co here!"
Zach, perplexed, jogged the tiny bit of distance between the exit door and Jimmy, and then he ca to a halt before him. "What is it?" he asked. "Why'd you stop here?"
Jimmy grinned, and then he pointed his staff at the rocky cavern wall. "That's why."
"What's why?" Zach asked, beginning to wonder if maybe Jimmy hit his head or sothing and had beco delirious.
Jimmy looked at him, and then he made a "tsk" sound before tapping his staff against the rock-solid wall. "You really don't see it, do you?"
"See what?" Zach asked, frowning.
"Look!"
Zach looked closely at this particular section of the wall, seeing nothing out of the ordinary. "Jimmy, whatever it is you think you—"
"How you gonna say you don't see that, Zach? Actually look. Like, really, just use your damn eyes and look."
Zach sighed. "I am looking. What is it I'm supposed to be seeing? Is it the fact that the rock is a slightly darker shade of brown?"
"Yes!" Jimmy snapped.
"Uh…okay, so?"
"Oh, for God's sake! You Galterran people, it's like…shit, man."
Cycling through a breathing technique that Jascaila had taught him, Zach inhaled, held the breath, and then released it slowly, doing all he could not to lose his patience with his newest friend. "Can you please just explain to why we're staring at a section of the wall?"
Jimmy, like before, tapped his staff against it. "There's a secret passage here, and there's probably loot or treasure behind this."
Two conflicting feelings struck Zach at once: the first was excitent just at the word "loot," and the second was an ardent sense of disbelief that, even after everything Jimmy had been correct about, that he could also be correct about this. Surely, he couldn't. There was no way.
"Are you telling ," Zach began, doing his best to maintain his composure, "that you believe there's a secret passage in this one tiny little spot on a wall that runs for over half a mile, just because it happens to be a slightly darker color than the wall around it?"
"That's exactly what I'm telling you," Jimmy said, firing off a confident nod on the heels of his words. "That's always what it ans."
Zach stared back and forth between Jimmy and the slightly discolored section of the wall. Jimmy was either an absolute lunatic or he was so prophetic it was becoming scary. The worst part of it all was that, as insane as all this sounded, Zach had already seen too much to truly doubt him. Even still, it was hard not to be skeptical, and Jimmy, as though understanding this, tapped his staff against the rock for the third ti and began to explain.
"In Zelda and a lot of gas like that, when you see a part of a wall that's like, you know uh, a bit different than the section around it, that's how the ga lets you know you're supposed to break it down with bombs or so shit. That's just how it is. Any gar would notice this right away."
Zach tried to reply, even going so far as to open his mouth, but all that ca out was an indecisive squeak as he tried to reckon with the sheer unbelievable magnitude of knowledge Jimmy seed to possess. He spoke with such confidence and certainty that it chased away almost all of Zach's doubt. He really believed there was sothing behind this particular section of the wall, and because of everything that'd co before, Zach was starting to believe it as well—no matter how absurd.
"And you think there'll be treasure?"
"Oh, definitely," Jimmy said. "A hundred percent. We knock this down, and there'll be a passage that runs like ten, maybe twenty feet, and at the end of it will be a gold-and-black treasure chest. It might even be giving off a sparkling orange light."
"That's…so, so specific," Zach said, caught between amazent and a spooky sense of incredulity.
"Well, that's what's gonna happen."
Zach took another deep breath, which he audibly released, making a phew sound. "Okay, well, go ahead and break it down, then."
At this, Jimmy released a playful chuckle. "I uh, I can't. I tried before and hurt my damn fist. I don't think I got the strength for it."
"Oh no? All right. Let have a try. Here goes nothing."
Zach sheathed his sword, drew back his right fist, and then he pivoted on his hips and twisted his body as he delivered an incredibly powerful right hook directly into the wall. On contact, there was a loud, explosive, and oddly crunch-like sound, and rather than simply sink his fist into the wall, a door-sized section of it crumbled before his very eyes into a cascade of smaller chunks of listone, which vanished out of existence the mont they hit the ground. Just from that alone, Zach knew that Jimmy was correct. As unbelievable as it was, Jimmy had actually discovered a secret passage based on nothing but a slight discoloration of the wall.
"I…don't fucking believe it," Zach whispered as a much narrower, alternative path now stood before them.
"Well, I told your ass," Jimmy said, a touch too arrogantly. "Feel like opening a treasure chest now?"
"You're damn right I do. I love loot!"
"You wanna go first?"
"I can?" Zach asked. "Even though you found it?"
"Go ahead. It's cool."
Zach didn't need to be told twice. His greed flaring to untold heights, he hastily entered the narrow passageway, and Jimmy followed him in. Since there wasn't enough width for them to both walk side by side, Jimmy stayed a little behind. And with that, Zach went to go find his treasure chest, beaming with excitent. He wondered what would be inside. Sothing rare? Maybe sothing Epic Rare. Maybe sothing…legendary. It could be anything. Gods, having Jimmy around was amazing.
Eager to see what they'd found, he hurried onwards, stomping one foot in front of the other, moving deeper and deeper into this little passageway Jimmy had discovered. Except, Zach was starting to think it might not be so little, as several minutes went by and he was still heading further inward.
"Jimmy?" Zach asked after they ventured what felt like another half a mile's worth of distance. "I thought you said the treasure chest would be like twenty or thirty feet inside."
"It should've been," Jimmy said, sounding concerned. "I…I don't know why they're making us walk this far."
And far they did in fact continue to walk. Spurred on by greed, Zach ended up traveling an even greater distance down this supposedly "little" passageway than they'd walked in the main one connecting F28 to F29. Yet still, he continued on, and before long, a few minutes beca five minutes, and then five minutes beca ten minutes. Eventually, the narrow passage widened so that they could stand together, and it changed in other ways, too, becoming more of a gravelly hill that they had to climb for another mile and a half before leveling off and continuing on flat ground again.
"Maybe we should turn back," Jimmy said after another few minutes had co and gone. "I hate to say it, Zach, but it looks like I was wrong."
Zach, alard, asked, "About what? The treasure? Don't sell yourself short. You've got to be right. And besides, we've already co this far."
Jimmy winced. "Actually, I don't think there's even gonna be any treasure at this point. We would've found it by now. I dunno where the hell this is taking us, but I don't think it's to treasure."
Zach cupped his hands over his forehead, not sure what he should do. He peered off into the distance, attempting to see if there was any end in sight. For now, he saw only darkness ahead. "Let's just walk a bit farther. I feel like, uh, if we already ca this far, we might as well see what's at the end of this path, right?"
"Heh, all right," Jimmy said.
And that was what they did. Together, they continued along the secret passageway, and all the while, Zach prayed to the Gods that he was still going to get his treasure. But as they reached the thirty-minute mark, even Zach's greed began to take a back seat to common sense. Not only was he risking losing his Unleashed Phase and having to proceed through the next floors without it, but he had sowhere he absolutely had to be later today, and as things were, he was cutting things close enough ti-wise. Maybe it'd be better if he turned back after all?
"Jimmy," he said, his tone coming across as defeated even to his own ears. "Maybe this is a bad idea after all. It doesn't look like we're going to find the—"
"There's sothing up ahead!" Jimmy blurted out. "Look!" He pointed.
Zach squinted his eyes. Then he inhaled, spotting sothing ahead that looked like an end to the passageway, though it was difficult to see amid the overall darkness of their environnt. "There's sothing there. You're right!"
With much more liveliness in each step, Zach hurried with Jimmy to the end of this alternate path, hoping to see a glimring, shiny treasure chest awaiting him. Instead, he saw sothing totally unexpected. Having arrived at the end of a half-hour diversion in pursuit of loot, the two of them were greeted with a wooden door that was very similar to the one they were originally ant to go through.
"What the hell?" Zach asked, unable to believe or understand the sight before him. The door wasn't just similar: it was the sa. Much like the other door, this one, also, said: F28->F29. But wait…was there sothing else as well?
What's that?
On top of the wooden door, etched into the wood, there was an illustration that Zach was fairly sure did not exist on the other one he'd encountered. It was a cartoonish depiction of a hand being extended, palm facing up. And above this hand, what looked like a golden coin was falling down into its waiting clutches. Zach fired a questioning look at Jimmy, who shrugged and said, "For once, I've got no idea."
Taking a breath, Zach reached out and grabbed the handle, though he did not turn it. He hesitated. "Should I?"
"We've co this far already," Jimmy said.
Zach nodded. "Okay. But be ready for anything, all right?"
"I always am."
Jimmy unsheathed his staff, and Zach, keeping one hand on the door, used the other to draw his own weapon. With that, he turned the handle and pushed it open. Then he, along with Jimmy, stepped inside—and imdiately, Zach had to narrow his eyes as he was hit by a dramatic change of lighting as the two found themselves in a well-lit, room-temperature interior of what looked like a combination of a convenience store and a toy shop, one with holy blue carpeting, a large, spacious interior, and about seven aisles packed with any number of goods including clothing, candy, and very strange-looking gadgets and gizmos. But most of all, what really struck Zach was what he spotted directly across from him.
There was a shop counter, and behind this counter was an incredibly strange-looking man with two big, white puffs of hair that looked like giant cotton balls surrounding an otherwise bald scalp. The man was wearing a vibrant yellow-and-red suit, and he seed to be clutching a rainbow-colored umbrella despite being indoors. He also reacted imdiately the mont him and Jimmy entered into this bizarre, yet wonderous and holy shop.
"C-custors?" he whispered inquisitively. "C-custors?" he whispered again.
The man, whose head had been buried into the countertop, snapped upright to attention, and then a look of unfathomable glee crossed his features while tears began to run down his eyes. An instant later, he shot up out of the chair behind his counter, clasped a hand over his mouth, and then he seed to blow into it, making sothing that sounded like a cross between a scream and a gasp. It was also at this point that Zach realized the man was an NPC, one who was almost certainly sentient. And unless Zach's eyes were playing tricks on him, his level was 3,105, which was way higher than even Angelica's.
"C-c-c-custors!" he shrieked, slapping his right palm emotionally and excitably on his countertop. "Custors, custors, custors! People! Real, actual, living people! Visiting Mushkie's item shop! It's been so long, my friends. So, so long. Five-hundred years. Oh, please, please, co in!" More tears fell down his eyes. "I haven't spoken to anyone in centuries! Not a word to anyone! You are welco. Please, please co in!"
Zach and Jimmy exchanged another look, and then Zach gently closed the door behind him. "Well, he seems nice."
Reviews
All reviews (0)