Beta Testing the Apocalypse 018 (Patreon)

While scouring the room and exterminating the monsters who called it home, Leon and Mordred came across a total of three stone platforms. They were all inactive when first discovered, but once the room was clear of monsters, their magic circles glowed pale blue and shimmered like the surface of a rippling lake.

"Looks like we'll need to kill everything in our path if I want to advance or retreat," speculated Mordred.

'That's a fair assumption, but we shouldn't jump to conclusions,' advised Leon. 'If one of the rooms happens to have the opposite clear condition, we'd be fucking ourselves over pretty royally.'

"Then, what do you suggest...?" asked Mordred.

'Well, all of the platforms ended up being on the room's periphery,' noted Leon. 'There's no guarantee that will be the case for each room, but until we receive evidence to the contrary, we should check the perimeter first. I noticed there were three types of monsters in this room, matching the number of stone platforms. We should experiment to see if killing off all of a single type of monster activates one or even all of them.'

"Fine. I normally wouldn't waste time with things like that, but we'll try it your way," said Mordred, punctuating her words by stepping onto the first stone platform they discovered.

Throwing a wrench into Leon's suggestion almost immediately, a large wolf with a cobalt blue coat and white underbelly lunged at Mordred's neck the moment they teleported. She managed to react by grabbing the wolf's throat and pushing it up and away from her with her left hand, but the claws of its right paw managed to graze her left breast and catch the fabric of her top, tearing it off.

"Change of plans!" Mordred shouted, crushing the wolf's neck with her grip and stepping forward as she bellowed, "This fucker dies...!" before slamming the back of its head into the rocky ground, shattering its skull and splattering its brains.

[Congratulations on defeating your first Vagabond Wolf! As a reward, your Agility has increased by 5!]

As he could adjust his perspective like a video game, rotating or zooming in and out with Mordred as the focal point, Leon ignored the wolf's fate to check her condition. Fortunately, while there were some faint red scratch marks, the wolf's claws failed to penetrate the pale white flesh of her left breast.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Leon joked, 'What a clever wolf. Now I won't be able to focus...'

Exhaling a groan, Mordred reached down to pick up her tattered red top, grumbling, "Just hurry and toss this in your Storage. With any luck, Wilfred will be able to repair it."

Though he did as he was told, Leon asked, 'You good...?' with a tone full of concern.

"I'm furious, but you can see for yourself that I'm uninjured," said Mordred, surprising Leon by slapping her boob for emphasis.

*ssss*

Interrupting Leon's and Mordred's exchange, a roughly 5m-long snake covered in bright-green scales slithered toward them with a third of its body raised like a cobra. It had a total of six fangs, the largest reaching six centimeters in length and dripping with venom, but its slow speed and posturing allowed Mordred to dart over and smack it in the head with her club, killing it instantly.

[Congratulations on defeating your first Boa! As a reward, your Agility has increased by 2!]

"Point me to the rest of the enemies," said Mordred, her expression and tone leaving little room for discussion. It was also much too late to search for the stone platforms first, so Leon did as she asked, directing her to six more Boas, half a dozen Fabres, and a metallic-green fly the size of a fist.

[Congratulations on defeating your first Steel Chonchon! As a reward, your Agility has increased by 2!]

'We need to bring Presea here in the future,' said Leon. 'It's only been a few minutes, but our Agility has increased by eleven. Twenty-two if you count our combined bonuses.'

Feeling a little better after smashing several monsters, Mordred rested her bloodied club on her shoulder and replied, "The only issue is that the monsters are weak. If what you said is true, that the Baphomet is much stronger than the King Poring, then this place could become a death trap. I've learned my lesson now, but I wouldn't have ended up in this state if I hadn't relaxed my guard and become complacent..."

'I could have been more alert as well, so we're both at fault,' said Leon. 'But that isn't important right now. Before we move on, I'd like to test and see if we can teleport to the previous room. For all we know, one of those stone platforms connected to the outside. We should check each of them and map the borders of each room to get an overall feel for the dungeon's structure.'

Nodding in approval, Mordred regained her smile and said, "Good idea. Let's do it."

As he already had the Assign menu open, Leon teleported Mordred the moment she gave her approval. On his map, the room they originated from was hundreds of meters from the one they were teleported to, but thanks to his console, they could double back whenever they pleased. The only caveat was...

'There are enemies nearby...' said Leon, drawing Mordred's attention to a pair of Fabres inching toward them.

"So the rooms reset after we leave them...?" asked Mordred.

'We'll have to check the stone platforms to be sure,' replied Leon, taking the initiative to move them to the easternmost platform. Fortunately, while the monsters seemed to have respawned, the portals remained active.

'If we're lucky, this means that once we clear a room the first time, we can pass through it freely,' said Leon. 'The more probable scenario is that they remain active for a short while after being triggered.'

"Then we should hurry and check each one," said Mordred, stepping onto the shimmering magic circle, alert and prepared to take action or defend herself. Likewise, as an extra precaution, Leon left the Assign menu open in case he needed to teleport them to safety.

Demonstrating that surprise attacks weren't all that uncommon within the Hidden Temple, a nearly three-and-a-half-meter-tall monster resembling a bear covered in pale brown fur and a multitude of scars came charging at them like a rogue sasquatch. Leon's nonexistent eyes widened, and he briefly tensed, but Mordred wasn't daunted, charging forward to meet the beast head-on as she shouted, "Show me what you can do...!'

Though it was considerably slower than the Vagabond Wolf, the bear-like creature, called a Bigfoot, generated a slight gust as it swung its powerful arms and claws at Mordred's head. She managed to evade by angling her body and slipping past it without issue, but when she struck its side with her mace, there was a loud thud but no noticeable sign of a wound being inflicted. Rather, her attack only seemed to piss the Bigfoot off.

Unleashing an ear-piercing roar, the Bigfoot leaped toward Mordred like a wrestler aiming for a mount. What happened after that reminded Leon of her quarrel with Presea as Mordred deftly evaded the tackle by stepping back, simultaneously bringing her club down atop the Bigfoot's head with a loud thump.

"What the hell are you waiting for!?" exclaimed Mordred. "Do I seriously need to tell you to swap out this damnable twig for my sword...!?"

'Greatsword, coming up...' responded Leon, feeling equal parts salty and flustered. Fortunately, while the Bigfoot had the advantage in raw power, it may as well have been a snail against Mordred's Agility. It tried running at her on all fours, but she simply leaped over it, a faint, somewhat crazed smile developing across her face as she landed behind it and swung her greatsword in a wide arc, slicing the Bigfoot's chest as it struggled against its size and weight to turn and face her.

"You're pretty tough! But let's see how you handle this! Ora, ora, ora...!" bellowed Mordred, her smile becoming more prominent as she pursued the backstepping Bigfoot, linking together a series of swift but effective slashes that left bloody gashes across its arms and chest. The end result was fairly gruesome, but even while she was grinning like a demon and covered in blood, Leon found the sight of Mordred's topless form, largely due to the world's high-quality anime aesthetic, captivating.

[Congratulations on defeating your first Bigfoot! As a reward, your Endurance has increased by 5!]

"Phew...that was refreshing..." said Mordred, wiping her brow with the back of her left forearm. Then, wearing a clearly satisfied smile, she looked around, scanning the area as she asked, "So? Where's the next monster...?"

'Seven o'clock, sixteen meters,' replied Leon, placing the Bigfoot's drop items, consisting of a rug-sized pelt, what looked like one of its feet, and the usual Thousand-Grain Crystal Fragment into his Storage.

Without hesitation, Mordred charged in the indicated direction, bursting through the large shrub blocking her path to find what looked like a two-meter-tall green grasshopper carrying a large leaf like an umbrella. It also had a rudimentary violin, but when Mordred bifurcated it at the waist with a single sweep of her sword, it vanished along with the startled creature, leaving behind a giant grasshopper leg as its only unique item.

[Congratulations on defeating your first Rocker! As a reward, your Luck has increased by 1!]

[Congratulations on defeating ten unique enemies! As a reward, all of your stats have increased by 10!]

"Hoooo? That second reward is quite nice..." remarked Mordred, feeling a pleasant warmth and a sensation similar to her pores opening to exfoliate.

'I sense several additional presences, but one stands out more than the others,' said Leon.

"How so...?" asked Mordred.

'The outline looks like a plant,' explained Leon, guiding Mordred to the location of a two-leafed plant that alternated between red, blue, green, and yellow.

'Oh, hell yes,' said Leon. 'If I'm not mistaken, this is a plant-type monster known as a Shining Plant. Back in the game, you could only attack them to receive their reward, but since this is real, we should try pulling it from the ground first.'

"I'll give it a shot," Mordred, bending down and grabbing the stem of the Shining Plant and giving it a forceful tug. To her and Leon's surprise, the stem stretched like an elastic band, extending several tens of centimeters without issue. She then tried digging around it with her hands, but while she was able to remove some of the dirt surrounding it, its roots were just as elastic and appeared to extend at least several meters, if not the entire room.

"Yeah...I don't think this thing wants to be picked..." said Mordred, feeling a little annoyed that she had gotten her hands dirty for nothing.

'Then I guess all we can do is destroy it. But if it works like in the game, you'll have to attack it several times...' warned Leon.

"We'll see," said Mordred, stabbing the tip of her greatsword into the Shining Plant's root system. To her surprise and annoyance, the roots actually managed to endure contact with the blade's edge while also slipping out of the way due to their elasticity.

"This thing better drop something good..." muttered Modred, squatting down and using the edge of her greatsword to slowly but surely slice the base of the Shining Plant's stem. It took much longer than she expected, but while the drop item, a Yellow Leaf, wasn't particularly impressive, she felt it was worth it after reading the notification that had appeared before her and Leon.

[Congratulations on finding and harvesting your first Shining Plant! As a reward, all of your stats have increased by 1!]

[You have triggered the Secret Quest: Rainbow Road. For each Shining Plant you locate and harvest, your stats will increase by 1! Your current harvest count is (1/100).]

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