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Chaper 23 - Unwelcome Guests
🕑 Added 2023-09-10 21:46:32 +0000 UTCBalmer demanded them to go over the pros and cons of each of the class options in excruciating detail. Logan tuned out quickly, but Kat indulged the goon for some reason.
Logan was engrossed in something else entirely. The glowing insect was doing something with the Numa crystal in Logan’s hand. It was feeding off of it. The crystal’s blue light faded ever so slightly, and the insect’s butt became a brighter glow.
Well, aren’t you an interesting little thing.
Logan tried to bring up a text window or something by looking at the bug, but nothing happened. Well something happened.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 44% Completion]
“Holy shit, Tumor,” Logan whispered. “What happened?”
[This one received a data-transfer of substantial volume. The data is encrypted. This one will attempt to decipher.]
“You do that…”
Logan looked at the [E-grade Numa Crystal, 97%]. Logan wondered if that ‘transaction’ was worth it. He could afford it, especially if they’d just find a few more crystals. Logan listened to two of his companions argue with his left ear. Kat was slowly turning Balmer around. That was good. While they weren’t exactly in a rush, Logan felt they were exposed.
Sure, they had some Numa now, but what Logan really wanted to find was another proper deposit of those D-grade constructs. That way he could really deck himself and Kat out to deal with those beetle-fiends and any other Levespawn that might come. Logan was worried. He still remembered that elephant-sized creature that split in two. If they came across one of those, they’d be dead meat.
“Fine!” Balmer exclaimed. “I picked it. Happy?”
“For now,” Kat said. From the sound of it, she really enjoyed winning arguments. Logan could respect that.
“You’re going to need a weapon Mr. Valedictorian,” Logan said as he got up and dusted himself off. “What does your class do, exactly?”
“You weren’t listening?” Balmer asked.
“Something about shadows and being stealthy?” Logan guessed.
“Huh,” Balmer said. “Good guess.”
Logan gave him a lazy wink.
“So you’ll be in the backline with pretty boy,” Kat said. “It’s good that you guys know your place. It’s behind me.”
Logan snorted.
Balmer blushed. “That sounded—”
Kat punched Balmer on the shoulder. “I SAID IT WRONG, OKAY!”
*
Since Balmer’s class apparently had something to do with quick movement and stealth, Logan and Kat coaxed him into scouting for them. Balmer walked softly ahead twenty yards and peeked inside the rooms. He apparently quickly started getting levels in his attributes, Stealth and Agility namely. Balmer was anxious about not having weapons or offensive skills if something were to happen, but Logan and Kat couldn’t do much more than offer a shrug.
“Find something you want to use as a weapon, and we’ll look into it,” Logan had said. Then he had looked to the side, picked up something, and handed it to the young goon. “Here. Use this for now.”
Logan had plopped a rock on Balmer’s extended hand. “Gee thanks…”
Despite the tension and Balmer’s anxiety, they didn’t run into further beetle-fiends. That was too bad, as far as Logan was concerned. He had exhausted an almost full [E-grade Numa Crystal] to recharge his shield-watch, the scythe-rang and replace the enchantments on his socks and pants with stronger ones. Both of his comrades held a crystal, so that left Logan with one fully charged E-grader after all was said and done. Good enough for an emergency situation, like sealing a door from a giant beetle-fiend mother.
That was unnervingly close to what happened next.
Balmer came back to them with urgent steps, his face white and sweating in the soft blue light of the snaking LED-ropes.
“There’s something ahead,” Balmer whispered in clipped tones. “Something big.”
“A monster?” Logan asked.
“Yes,” Balmer hissed as he actually started pushing Logan and Kat back to where they’d come from.
Logan looked over his shoulder. He couldn’t see anything ahead, except that it was a tall room with a giant floating Numa-crystal in the middle of it. “There’s a crystal in there.”
“I don’t care. We’re not going there.”
“Uh, guys?” Kat asked. “You hearing that?”
A loud gurgling started from the room Balmer had just come from. It wasn’t followed by skittering as they had grown accustomed to. It was followed by lumbering. Something heavy was approaching in ponderous steps that sent tremors through the floor.
Logan reached for his endless bag of tricks and plucked the light-stick and turned on the enchantment on it. He raised the light further to see what was coming. He really wished he hadn’t done that.
A giant, bulbous mass of chitin came upon the doorway. The atrium the creature was in had a much higher ceiling. The head wasn’t visible, but the pale and hairy abdomen was along with many chitinous legs protruding in many a direction.
The gurgling sound strengthened and the stomach of the bug-creature began to swell. Every instinct in Logan told him to run, but he was too hypnotized by the grotesque sight. Urgent, fitful bulges, as if from an angry unborn baby could be seen all over the swelling balloon of a stomach. Finally in a disgusting crescendo, it burst open, sending black oily substance flying everywhere.
From the creature skittered out gurgling and hissing a swarm of black beetle-fiends. They clambered over each other, acid drooling from their disgusting mouths.
“RUN!”
Balmer, despite being at the back, quickly ran up to set the pace. Was it his new class or conditioning, who knew. Logan hoped he knew the way out. They seemed to be able to outrun the beetles, but a deadend would mean death.
“Those memorization techniques better not have been bullshit!” Logan yelled.
Logan quickly fell last. The scythe-rang made for an awkward running style, but he’d be damned if he dropped his precious weapons. Kat gave a worried glance over her shoulder. The gap between her and Balmer was growing wider. Whereas the gap between Logan and the beetles was shortening.
I can’t keep this pace up for long… Tumor, give me an idea or we’re both done.
[Reconfiguring Neural Matrix… 46% Completion]
[This one recalls that you were able to use the ability [Empower] on your weapon, without it being in direct contact with a Numa crystal. Chance of being able to reproduce the event with a similar action is 98.82%.]
Logan was far from reprimanding Tumor for giving him unnecessary decimals. All he felt was gratitude. But there was one hitch. He had failed before. Had he done enough.
One way to find out.
The acidic spittle of the creatures was on his heels. He could feel it hit his socks and pants. The monstrous giant insects were maybe four feet away. They would catch him so soon. Adrenaline rushed and Logan practically yelled out the incantation.
“Give my socks a speed enchant!” Make the wearer of these socks have a magical speed enhancement, so they can run faster!”
[Sub-class Level Up!]
[Enchantment level 14]
Oh fuck. Thank Fat Buddha, that worked!
Logan could feel that immediately each step pushed him a little further. No extra muscle-power or oxygen was used. It was as if the socks generated a force that pushed him up and forward from the ground, like a little gust of wind.
The gurgling, hissing and skittering that was very urgently behind Logan’s heels, started the widen. Logan caught second wind due to his success and brought himself to an elated sprint. He ventured a glance backwards. The corridor was full of those dog-sized beetle-fiends, their black and blue horns extended, acid spittle hissing on the floor in their wake.
Logan grinned. He loved this feeling. Just for the hell of it, he went one step further.
“[Empower]!”
[Skill Level Up!]
[Empower level 3]
[Attribute Level Up!]
[Potency: 9]
He could feel something shift in his Socks of Awesomeness. All of the enchantments that those bad boys held became more potent. Mainly the speed and traction spells. Every step forward he took was a slap in the face of physics.
Logan bolted off, the blue lines at the sides of the floor becoming a blur, as he ran past Kat and then Balmer. Logan grinned at the shocked gapes of their mouths.
“Which way?” Logan quipped to Balmer.
With a blank stare Balmer answered as he pumped his arms. “Turn left in that next T and we’re out…”
Logan sped ahead and saw light. He could have slowed down to a jog or even a walk at this point. That would have been prudent. The sprint was taking up Numa charge from his Socks of Awesomeness.
But he loved the feeling so much. The air on his face, the fleeting flight in the air between every step. Logan laughed and reveled in his speed. This was freedom. This was his.
Within seconds, Logan was out of the doorway. It was evening, and the sky was cloaked in a soft orange. Immediately he sensed something was watching him. Whatever it was, had been waiting at the doorway.
There was no time to wonder about that. Whatever it was, it was curious, not hostile. Logan looked around for rocks or sticks or anything to block the entrance for when his comrades came out. There wasn’t anything.
There were bushes with blue little flowers all around them, and a few trees with low branches. But hacking the branches down would take time Logan didn’t have.
Balmer came out. He rested his hands on his knees panting and gasping. He took a few breaths and snapped. “We need to move. They’ll follow!”
“No,” Logan said, still trying to think. “I want to fight them.”
“Are you crazy?!” Balmer rasped. “There’s like twenty of them.”
“This doorway will be our Pass at Thermopylae.”
“That’s ridiculous!” Balmer said. “There’s so many, we—”
“Shut up!” Logan growled.
Balmer did. Logan thought hard. Tumor was offering him options and they all meshed and morphed inside his mind, as he tried to think how he could block the pass. There had to be a way. This was risky. But the reward was too great. Logan wouldn’t leave empty-handed.
Kat dashed out. Logan got it. He tossed the scythe-rang to Balmer. “Take this!”
Kat turned and looked at them incredulously, when she noticed Logan and Balmer weren’t running. “Come on!”
“We fight!” Logan said and crouched down on the ground before the doorway.
