[System Decay] Chapter 7: Vault, Open (Patreon)

Will had to wonder why a massive spider would have a key on it, but when he looted its body, he understood.

100 bronze credits have been added to your inventory.

Vault Key has been added to your inventory.

10 Vials of Cave Spider Venom (Corrupted) have been added to your inventory.

7 Cave Spider Eyes have been added to your inventory.

Cave Spider Carapace has been added to your inventory.

The vault keys stacked, and they had descriptions of said keys.

From the goblin chieftain, he had received an actual key that looked straight out of the suspicious, run-down antiques barn that Will passed on his way to Santa Cruz. The giant cave spider, however, had a completely different key. Seven of its eyes went into his inventory, but the eighth apparently possessed some magical quality that qualified it as a vault key.

A new vault opened up on his minimap. It wasn’t on the same floor as him, it seemed. The minimap didn’t show the details of the tunnels that far down, but the boss he’d just killed looked to have come from the second floor. Will assumed that life was only going to get harder for him down there, so he wasn’t terribly keen on heading there immediately.

Maybe the vault here would help.

The level increases healed his skin, thankfully, and once he had the acid off his body, he was basically back to the height of health.

“You see that, Helper?” he asked. “Were you watching?”

Helper: Your chain of reasoning was sound. You may truly have a chance at surviving this—and potentially even what lays beyond.

”What—wait, no, I know the answer to that one. Don’t say the line.”

Helper: I won’t.

Will took a moment to examine his new items before he headed into the vault. There were no red dots on his minimap, which made him a little more comfortable in doing so.

Then again, the spider hadn’t shown up on the minimap either, but it had been here nonetheless. Maybe it had a stealth skill of some kind? He would have to stay on the lookout.

Item: Vial of Cave Spider Venom (Corrupted)

Reliable venom. Small doses of this are great as seasoning. Large doses are great as paralytics.

This item can be used as a crafting ingredient for potions of the Poison or Corruption elements.

WARNING: This item has been corrupted.

Item: Cave Spider Eye

The eye of a fallen cave spider. This item primarily possesses the Darkness, Poison, and Sight elements.

This item can be used a crafting ingredient.

“If I ever get a crafting table, this would be nice.”

Helper: You’ll gain access to one eventually. This tutorial may not have them, but these potion ingredients will be valuable one day. The eyes, at least. Corrupted ingredients… less so.

“Sick. Can I make anything out of the last bit?”

Item: Cave Spider Carapace

At a certain stage in their maturity, Giant Cave Spiders shed their old skin and create this. Their armor is crude but effective against the goblins that plague their caves. This shell is said to be as effective at resisting nonmagical blows as plate armor.

This item can be shaped into armor.

“That actually sounds useful. How can I do that?”

Helper: Certain safe zones will sell skill books that allow you to learn non-system skills. If you can find a crafting one, you may be able to obtain armor.

Will definitely wouldn’t mind that. He had scraped by so far with stealth and judicious use of health potions, but he had already taken a few more stabbings than he was comfortable with. Something to protect his vulnerable flesh would be ideal.

Helper: You should upgrade your attributes while you’re at it.

“Good point.”

The three levels he’d just gained provided him with six points. He put the first two into Affinity, bringing it up to Unformed 20 and effectively boosting it to Bronze 10.

Achievement earned: First Barrier

You have reached the maximum unformed level in an attribute.

Reward: You have earned a Tablet of the User!

“I’m full up on Affinity now. What’s this tablet?”

Helper: They’re giving good rewards this cycle. Earth must have vastly overshot the chaos threshold. The Tablet of the User is one of the best early-stage tablets you can get. Save it until you have your elements unlocked. It picks from a limited set of skills that are optimized to work with the build you’re using. It looks like everyone is going to have one of these.

“Achievements aren’t universal?”

Helper: No. You’ve already seen that your system has custom text depending on the situation. What achievements are available vary by cycle, though they tend to be relatively consistent within that cycle.

“Cycle. I assume that Arcadia was in one of these ‘cycles,’ too?”

Helper: Yes. That was a rough cycle. Ostensibly low difficulty, but low loot to match. When the threats started increasing in intensity, the bodies started dropping.

“That’s encouraging, given the difficulty here.”

Helper: I wouldn’t make a definitive statement either way. What I would do in your position is enter the vault. You have one element. Even if it’s a strong one, and even if you’ve made good use of your items for a human, you can’t survive a tutorial with only one of those.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m on it. Chill.”

Helper: Sure. It’s not my life on the line.

The key was rusty and so worn that Will thought it would fall apart when he held it, but it slotted into the door perfectly.

“Vault” was a generous word for the place. Will should have figured that by the way a spider apparently owned one of them, but he’d still been imagining something like a bank vault, featuring cold steel, electric security measures, and maybe some stacks of cash lying around conveniently.

The last of those was somewhat true, at least. Set on a table were a few stacks of iron and bronze colored bars, which Will assumed were credits.

Apart from that, though, “vault” appeared to just be a catch-all designation for the treasure room of a boss. This one in particular was little more than a dingy shed with a bunch of goblin weapons—none of which seemed magical, but all of which were corrupted—and armor, which seemed nice in theory but became much less attractive when Will remembered that the largest goblin was still a solid foot and a half shorter than him.

He did loot all of it, though. Will had the room in the crates, after all. He had always been an item hoarder in the games he’d played.

“Potentially unlimited cosmic power came to Earth just to give me a personal closet. I’ll take it.”

All told, the stash amounted to five hundred base credits, a hundred bronze, and ten silver. Will didn’t yet have a solid frame of reference for the value of his money beyond the shop at the one safe zone he’d been to, but seeing the numbers tick up in the corner of his eye made his dopamine-addicted brain feel good.

Helper: This is a relatively low-rank vault. The Giant Cave Spider’s will likely have a larger haul for you.

“If it’s just all stuff that they’ve looted over the years, I don’t think I want to see what the spider has.” The thought of unwrapping a webbed-up treasure chest only to find an exasanguinated corpse… yikes.

Helper: You need its elemental gem. Speaking of which, you have yet to loot this one.

“I got a gem from an achievement, too. I can accept it anytime I want. Should I?”

Helper: No, for the same reason that you shouldn’t use the Tablet of the User yet. Having a free element to pick from when you’ve affixed your others will give you many more options than you do now.

“You seem confident that I’m going to survive.”

Helper: As do you. I would advise you start making plans for what happens next, because the tutorial is only the beginning.

“Just the beginning, huh?”

Will considered that for a moment. If he remembered what Helper had said before correctly, he was going to be able to select any point on Earth to return to afterwards.

At one point in time, he might have considered that a blessing. A vacation from the dreary Midwest to Japan or Hawaii or even his hometown? That had sounded like heaven.

Now, though, Will didn’t even know if those places existed. He didn’t even know if anyone from his old life was alive, let alone whether or not they had chosen to become Users like him.

He did want to get in touch with humanity again. It had only been a day or two, but only having a literal voice in his head to talk to was getting old fast. Though he wasn’t exactly a social butterfly, Will wanted to see how the world had adapted.

And he wanted to be ready for what came next—and he was sure that whatever that was, it wasn’t going to be pleasant.

He returned his attention to the room. “I need to get stronger.”

The vault was now largely empty thanks to Will’s thorough ransacking of everything of note within it, which made what little remained stand out more.

The gem was a sickly, radioactive green. Will had torn the torches from the walls to stick into his loot crate, which left this as the only light source. Its eerie light cast the room into distorted shadow.

“Same shade as the vents. They should get an interior designer or two in this place. It’d do wonders.”

The jewel could’ve come straight from the Queen of England’s crown (or was it King? Will only remembered Elizabeth kicking the bucket, and he hadn’t paid attention to who had taken the throne after) if not for the ominous glow.

Will picked it up delicately, then realized that he was probably about to perform the magical equivalent of eating this gem and stopped treating it like it was made of glass. The goblins hadn’t exactly seemed like they’d be the most careful with gems like these, and it had been sitting out in the open, so…

“If this gives me cancer, can I sue you?” he wondered aloud.

Helper: No. Even if it was outside the bounds of the system, my corporation has better lawyers than anyone on your tiny planets can manage.

“Your corporation?”

Helper: Forgive me. I forgot the limit of your knowledge. Continue.

The situation Helper was apparently in had steadily been growing more suspicious. She was working for a corporation that they couldn’t say the name of, had enough restrictions on her speech that Will kept on running into barriers, and used to be a User?

As soon as he had the ability to worry about anything other than his own life, he was one thousand percent going to look into this.

Step by step, he reminded himself. If he was setting goals, he also wanted to reach those final tiers Helper had been talking about, but he had to look at the foot he was putting in front before he tried to climb Mount Everest.

Will examined the gem.

Item: Elemental Gem of Space

Rare.

Space is a deceptively complex element. Most think of the outer wilds of deep space when referring to it, but everything in reality exists within real space. Manipulate, destroy, violate, or become one with a fundamental aspect of the universe.

Binds the Space element to one of your attributes.

Available attributes: [Power], [Speed], [Soul], [Resistance], and [Perception].

“Space, huh? I was expecting something more like blood or poison from these guys. It’d fit their MO of just jumping any poor soul lost int heir tunnels. Then again, I guess they did have that vent teleport skill going for them.”

Helper: Space isn’t a bad element, but as the description says, it’s quite complex. I would recommend binding it to [Speed] or [Perception].

“What do the different attributes change in regards to the power received? I have a skill literally named Corruption Resistance, but that’s an Affinity skill.”

Helper: That still relates to your [Affinity]. It enables you to use corrupted weapons, after all. There is crossover, but the most important thing to know is that the attribute bound to the element will influence what skills awaken under it. Furthermore, [Affinity] skills will scale on [Affinity], [Power] on [Power], and… you get the idea.

“Hmm. I see. So you’re saying it’s less a strict rule and more like a theme for what powers I’ll get.”

Helper: That is correct.

“What do the attributes theme around, then? Any thoughts on what to bind Space to?’

Helper: You can examine a more thorough breakdown in your system, but here’s a brief overview:

[Power]: This handles your physical attributes like strength and dexterity. If you plan on committing to a heavily martial class, finding a strongly synergistic element here is critical.

[Speed]: Agility and raw speed. It’s usually used for skirmishers, but I have found that mages underestimate the need to run away.

[Affinity]: You know this one.

[Soul]: The primary magic attribute. Offensive or defensive magic—if you’re planning on going full spellcaster, bind your primary element to this.

[Resistance]: This covers defenses both physical and magical. It also corresponds with stamina recovery. A high value in this attribute can help protect against corruption as well.

[Perception]: Mental speed and perception. Useful primarily for stealth-based builds on both martials and spellcasters. Classes that focus this tend to give up raw offensive power and versatility. Your bound attribute does not play nicely with stealth and it does do very well with a wide arsenal. I would not advise building heavily towards [Perception].

For your build, Corruption is most viable as your primary. The binding is unusually strong. As such, I would not recommend putting Space in [Soul] or [Power], both of which will likely make binding skills lean towards offensive spells.

“Thanks for the information,” Will said, mulling it over. “Why not Soul or Power?”

Helper: Space is uncommon, but it’s much less rare than Corruption. I had [Soul] bound to Space when I was a User. The spells are useful, but they’re extremely complicated. Based on your fighting style, I doubt that you will want to spend hours calculating the details of your spells before following an extraordinarily precise set of instructions.

“Yeah, not my type of thing. How do you even deal when things go wrong?”

Helper: That’s where other abilities come in. That, and I was part of a party once.

“Alright. Any thoughts on where I should bind it, then?”

His first instinct had been to bind it to the Power attribute, but Helper hadn’t been wrong so far, and her line of reasoning was correct. Will did not, in fact, want to use anything that relied on calculation. His modus operandi leading up to this point had been all about adapting, looting, and figuring shit out on the fly. It was, honestly speaking, quite fun.

More importantly, it was very effective in a world where he had no allies besides Helper—who disappeared whenever there were enemies nearby—and no idea what was going to come next. If he was in a structured party like Helper had suggested was a very real possibility, it might have been doable, but alone? No.

That left Resistance, Speed, and Perception. All three of those were pretty promising, but he was leaning towards Speed.

Resistance would help him against other threats, but using a Space element as resistance felt wrong. He was sure that it would have useful applications, but he doubted it synergized well with a purely defensive skill. More importantly, he was going to have it at unformed rank, which wasn’t going to hold up against monsters that were a rank higher.

His thoughts on binding it to Perception were much the same. For the time being, he was able to get by with his minimap and the items he’d found. Besides, any monster with a higher rank (so, all of them) was probably going to be able to hide from him.

Durability, speed, and power. That was where he’d lagged behind the spiders and the other goblins. Durability was out of the question because of the rank difference, and thanks to Helper’s advice, so was power.

That just left Speed. If he could mimick feats like the vent teleport into the revolver combo from the top ropes… that was badass.

“I’m affixing Speed,” he announced. “I need that more than any of the others, and Space sounds like it’d be good for moving fast.

Helper: A solid decision.

Will mentally selected the gem and activated it. The gem cracked, then dissolved into mist just like the tablets had.

Briefly, Will wondered if he should be sitting down for this. He decided it couldn’t hurt.

Then the mist sank into him, and he remembered.

#

The planet was dying. Magic, technology, and rituals as ancient as time itself had failed to put it back together. Chaos encroached, and it would not be stopped.

There was only one more possibility.

“Fly,” said the elder, and the child did.

Behind it, a world succumbed to corruption.

#

Element: Space has been bound to the [Speed] attribute!

#

Unlike the first time, no skill automatically affixed itself with the element binding. This had just been a normal gem, while the last one had been a superior gem granted by the system.

It did, however, give a passive just like Corruption had. That, at least, seemed to be a constant.

[Speed]

- Bound to [Space]: You can use teleportation items at 50% the mana cost. Cooldowns on teleportation skills and items are reduced by 50%. Difficult terrain caused by spatial distortions does not impede your movement.

“Super nice.”

Helper: You have enough Awakening Shards of the Delver to create three tablets. I recommend using at least one now.

“Gotcha.”

Will was never going to get used to the strange tingly sense of having a new dimension of power, but he was always ready to play around with his loot.

The system gave him a prompt to combine five awakening shards to create a Delver Tablet. Will selected the option twice, saving the remaining shards in case they turned out to be useful crafting ingredients for something else.

Will affixed both of them to Speed.

#

The child flew, not knowing what lay behind it but knowing it had to escape. It discarded everything unnecessary. Armor, weapons, allies.

One day, it would find the system, and it would grow. It would fly like nobody had ever flown before.

#

You have awakened a [Speed] skill at unformed rank!

Skill: [Escape Artist]

- Passive (body).

- Cost: none.

- Cooldown: none.

Unformed

Never look back.

Your movement speed is increased at a rate inversely proportional to the amount of equipment you are wearing (maximum of 50% increase).

You have awakened a [Speed] skill at unformed rank!

Skill: [Weapons Free]

- Spell (movement, teleportation).

- Cost: high mana (moderate mana).

- Cooldown: 12 seconds (6 seconds).

Unformed

“What’s yours is mine. What’s mine is mine. What’s nobody’s is mine.” - Lacrymeus, famed pirate of the Great Arcadian Ocean.

Teleport any weapon within a 30 foot radius to your hands (if you can carry it) or your inventory (if you cannot). If a target is holding the weapon, they can attempt to prevent this spell from succeeding.

“Now things are getting interesting.”

Will put his remaining 4 points into Speed, then set off. He had a floor to explore and a vault key to use.

One thing was for sure.

By the time he was done with this tutorial zone, he was going to be absolutely loaded.