[System Decay] Chapter 11: Great, Now There's Two Of Them (Patreon)

Thankfully, Will didn’t pass out this time. Maybe the repeated beatings had gotten to him, but even though his entire status diagram was flashing various shades of yellow and orange, he didn’t feel quite so bad as he had the last time he’d wandered into a safe zone, bleeding and broken.

Helper: I see you’ve picked up a party member. I was not expecting that.

“I’m not sure if I should be insulted or not,” Will said. “Is this good or bad?”

“Have you finally gone fully mad?” Caiyeri asked. “Who are you talking to?”

The elf woman was poking at the shop, clearly already used to the interface. She flipped a couple of credits in and withdrew a bronze health potion.

Helper: Would you like to share your tutorial helper with the party?

“Sure.”

“Oh, fantastic,” Caiyeri said. “My savior is a moron. Lucky me.”

Helper: Your savior has a tutorial helper, actually.

“The shit?” Caiyeri recoiled as if she’d just bit into something disgusting. “Is it already another cycle?”

Helper: That is correct. It has been 100 standard years since Arcadia’s integration.

“Seriously? Time gets weird down here. Sorry, got. Time got weird down here. If it’s a tutorial zone, I imagine this place isn’t sticking around much longer.”

Now that Will was no longer laser-focused on surviving the next few moments, he could actually take a proper look at the party member he’d picked up.

Caiyeri wasn’t far from what he’d come to expect from elves. She was tall, nearly as tall as him. Tapered ears poked out from silver gossamer hair that stretched down to the small of her back—at least, he assumed it was silver. It had been carefully braided at some point, but it was matted with blood and gore now, masking the true color.

She turned towards Will, tossing the potion bottle aside. It vanished before it hit the ground.

The elf was unfairly attractive. Apart from the blood that had splattered across most of her now unrecognizable clothes, she was entirely unmarred.

“How do you even do a skincare routine inside a cave? That’s just unreasonable.”

“These rags need to be burned, and I need a wash,” Caiyeri said. “If this is a safe zone, I’m assuming there’s a shower.”

Helper: That is correct.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” the elf said, nodding to acknowledge Helper. “Whatever you do, don’t leave. Your continued existence is nothing short of a miracle.”

Caiyeri left. Her gait was odd. At first, Will had assumed that she’d been injured, but after consuming the bronze-rank health potion, he doubted that was still the case.

She reminded him of a nature documentary, he realized. One of the National Geographic ones about the life of an ambush predator. A leopard, maybe. It set him on edge, like at any time she was going to snap and try to tear his throat out.

“What’s her problem?” Will muttered. He passively healed within the safe zone, but he purchased and drank a bronze-rank health potion anyway. “I wasn’t planning on leaving anyway.”

Helper: She’s an Arcadian native. Judging from her age, she’s never known a world without the system.

“You can tell her age?”

Helper: I can guess. Elves are longer-lived than humans, but they reach maturity at similar rates. Unless this one has been avoiding conflict for a century, it’s highly unlikely that she would both be an original User and only be at the beginning of bronze.

“Wait, so you’re saying she was born into this?”

Helper: Quite possibly. I would not trust her. The system claims not to be cruel, but—

“Hmm? You there? Shitty connection or something?”

Helper: Pardon me. As I was saying, the world that results after the fall is not a kind one. Those raised in these times are prone to violence as a first response, not a final one. Watch your back around her.

“Interesting. I’ll have to ask her about that. Hold on, can she see you speaking right now?”

Helper: She cannot. My capabilities as a helper are limited, but choosing who I speak to is amongst them.

“Understood. You don’t like her?”

Helper: No. Your decisions are yours to make. I will point out that while the safe zone allows prevents direct damage, your party members can still commit friendly fire.

“What benefits do I even get from a party, then?”

Helper: You gain part of the essence that your party members acquire from killing enemies. If your party members allow it, you can gain a closer insight into their profile. They will also show up on your minimap even if they’re far enough that details don’t render around them. There’s an entire list of benefits like item sharing and slight boosts to certain beneficial magical effects, but those aren’t as relevant right now.

“Those seem pretty relevant to me.”

Helper: Not unless you plan on baring everything you have to your new companion, who I’ll note has not yet opened her status sheet to you.

Another part of the HUD that had been greyed out was visible now, labeled [Party]. Will selected it.

Members:

1. William Li-Brown. Unformed 12. Human.

Underneath this was a full list of his stats.

2. Caiyeri Seven. Bronze 3 Gambler. This user is using a stealth skill.

Hers was greyed out and empty.

“Still?”

Helper: She’s a system native. They tend to be less trusting, and in turn, less trustworthy.

“I think you might be a little quick to judge.”

Helper: Suit yourself.

Will put off discussing the merits of partying up with a stranger he’d just saved for the time being. He was filthy with cave dirt and blood, so he bought a new set of clothes for a few credits and found the signs pointing him to a shower.

Helper: You know that you could’ve purchased armor, correct? You have enough credits to buy something bronze-rank.

“First of all, I’m showering.”

Helper: I can always see you during the tutorial.

“That is quite possibly the worst thing you could’ve said. Second, Escape Artist is putting in work for me, and I’d rather just not take hits than tank them better. I’m pretty sure that the Carrion Lord would’ve pasted me inside my armor if I had any on during that fight.”

Helper: A hit-and-run fighting style could work out well for you. I have less experience guiding this, but I have some familiarity with it.

“Great. Now let me finish showering in peace, will you?”

#

Caiyeri was blindingly beautiful after cleaning up, which Will found patently unfair. He considered himself fairly attractive, but even after showering and changing, nothing could change the fact that he’d been elbow deep in monster guts for so a couple of days now. The elf looked like she’d just walked onto the set of Twilight.

“You’re not going to try to bite me, are you?”

She gave him a strange look. “Are you hearing voices?”

“Yeah. Yours and that lady in the system’s.”

Helper: You’re not funny.

“Hey.”

“I hate to agree with the god in the machine, but I do,” Caiyeri said.

“Hey!”

Helper: I’m no god.

“Sure, sure.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Will, was it? I have no clue how you’ve survived this long, and even less of a clue on how you managed to not die against a Bronze 10. I thought I was lucky.”

“Being careful seems to help,” Will said. “I seem to recall you being tied up against that very same Bronze 10. Without weapons, I should add.”

“I had it under control,” Caiyeri said. She made a face, then extended a hand. “You did help me out of a sticky situation, though. I appreciate that.”

Will shook it, not quite sure what she wanted. Judging from her surprised expression, it hadn’t been that.

“Right,” she said. “Humans.”

“You say that it’s a miracle I’ve survived this long, but you’re pretty close to the bottom of bronze,” Will said. “We’re not that far from each other.”

“Of course you’d think that,” Caiyeri sighed. “The difference between an unformed and a bronze is as wide as… you’re human, yes? Arcadian?”

Helper: If there are any Arcadians left undergoing the tutorial for the first time, I am not aware of them.

“Earth, actually. You have humans on Arcadia?”

“Of course we do. Do you not have elves on your planet?”

“No. What kind of question is that?”

Helper: The generally agreed upon consensus amongst magical historians is that despite divergent evolutions, most sapient worlds carry similar species. This is, of course, not entirely the case for Earth.

“That is once again a statement with ridiculously large implications that I would much rather not think about right now.”

“As I was saying,” Caiyeri said, stressing every word, “In a fair fight, you will always lose against a bronze-rank. That isn’t meant to be an insult to your capabilities—those come later. There is simply a power gap. An unformed will damage a bronze less than another bronze performing the exact same attack thanks to the strength of their aura. The difference between an unformed and bronze is similar to that of one of your infants and you.”

“Guess I’m an infant with daddy’s gun, then,” Will said, removing his seven-shot six-shooter from his inventory.

Caiyeri recoiled. “I know you have a skill, but how can you handle that? It’s a bronze-rank weapon, and it’s corrupted. That would kill me. It nearly did.”

“I thought you were supposed to be resistant to corruption,” Will said, “The goblins are, aren’t they?”

“The cave goblins are mutants,” Caiyeri replied. She fingered the amulet on her neck. It was darker than it had been earlier, Will noticed—discolored with the distorted black of chaos. “Us elves, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of several generations of cosmic radiation induced evolution.”

She wasn’t using her stealth skill on the amulet, at least. Will took a look.

Item: Elven Chaos Anchor

Rare, bronze.

Carefully engineered for over half a century, this anchor is standard equipment for elven clones sent to delve chaos-infested regions. One of these amulets can sustain up to a month of ambient corruption before it must be purged.

Status: 92% corrupted.

“Hold on, clones?”

“What did you think the Seven in my name meant?”

“A weird last name, maybe.”

“No. The important bit at the moment is that the moment this amulet hits a hundred percent, I’m dead. I was at fifteen before you gave me the gun.”

“The report said that there were thirty of you. There were just thirty Caiyeris running around? Were the two dead people with you also Caiyeris?”

“No. They captured me, Lystri, and Rowan. We’re all Sevens. After the others died, twenty-nine Sevens are dead. And in case I still haven’t gotten through that skull of yours, that number is about to be thirty.”

“And you want me to do something about it?” Will asked. “Why do you think I, an unformed-rank, am going to be able to do anything? Weren’t you just talking about how useless I am?”

“You were able to handle your weapons without any issues, and I can see how heavily corrupted they are,” Caiyeri said. “That aside, I can see the titles of the skills on your stat sheet.”

“Which, I’ll point out, you won’t show me.”

“I don’t know what your intentions are. It wouldn’t be the first time an ostensible savior tried to capture me.”

“Let’s assume that I’m actually trying to take you, for whatever reason—“

“Gambling, bait, sex, experimentation material,” Caiyeri said. “Those were the last four attempts, as far as I’m aware.”

“—Sure. Why would I help you when I can use this against you?”

“That sounds awfully like you’re about to use it against me.”

“No, I’m trying to figure out why you still seem completely calm about this even though, like you said, you don’t know what my intentions are.”

“You might have good gear, but your stats are shit,” Caiyeri said. “You could make up for that with a good fighting style, but you fight like a boy.”

“Like a boy?”

“If you fought like a woman, or even a man, or even maybe a girl, you could get by,” she said. “You fight with the form of someone who’s never been in a real battle before.”

Helper: He’s in the top 10,000 for this cycle in terms of hand to hand combat.

“This cycle’s standards must be awful, then.”

Helper: Adaptability matters more than form in the early days. You’d be surprised by how effective he is.

“You talk a lot of shit,” Will said. “Care to back it up?”

“Come outside,” Caiyeri said. “I’ll show you how a real woman fights.”

Helper: You are not assassinating my User directly outside a safe zone.

“Mother, you system types are all so damned annoying. If I wanted to kill him, I would’ve done it when he arrived. Or shot him with his own gun. Or stabbed him when he was concussed. I’m making a point.”

Helper: A point that could be made without exiting. There are mats with a degree of damage enabled.

“Very well, then,” Caiyeri said. “Shall we? No items. I’m not trying to get either of us killed here.”

“Sure,” Will said, considering the situation.

Caiyeri did not look like a fighter, but she was a rank higher and he didn’t know her stats. He wasn’t sure how it translated to combat skill. He hadn’t seen much of her during the fight against the Carrion Lord.

#

“You lose,” Caiyeri said, knocking Will to the ground for the third time.

He’d gotten the point after the first bout, but she’d insisted on doing more, and given the fact that even Helper didn’t seem to think that he was going to suffer permanent damage on the mat, he’d kept on going.

At least his Resistance stat increased a stage. Will made a silent resolution to look for a way to level that stat up without getting the living daylights beaten out of him.

Helper: This is not how it would have gone in an actual fight, and you know it.

“She’s not wrong,” Will said. “But neither are you, Caiyeri. I get the point you’re making. If I get into a straight up fight, I’m dead. If I can’t ambush someone, I’m dead. If we both run out of mana, I’m dead. Does that sound right?”

“You’re a quick learner,” Caiyeri said approvingly.

“You’re a harsh teacher. Well, teaching is a generous way to put it.”

Helper: This is still a situation you shouldn’t get yourself into.

Caiyeri rolled her eyes and looked up. She did that a lot when she was addressing Helper. It was interesting to see the differences in how they treated the system agent.

“Of course the helper talks about plans a breath after it talks about adaptability,” Caiyeri said. “The lack of self-awareness is astounding. Yes, Will’s adaptability is impressive. He did help rescue me, after all, and I saw what he did there. But the moment one of his items breaks or an enemy nullifies his Affinity, he’s dead.”

“That’s the closest you’ve gotten to a compliment,” Will said, nodding approvingly. “Good job.”

Helper: The elf is correct. If it weren’t for the imminent possibility of her killing you and looting your body the moment you fix her corruption issue, I would recommend you go along with whatever plan she has.

That must have only been addressed to Will, because Caiyeri didn’t react.

Helper: He goes with you, and he’s dead.

“Believe it or not, I have a vested interest in this man surviving if he can resist corruption. I don’t want to be here, and that goes double now that the strongest goblin clan this side of the Akkeline Breach is after us.”

“I’d like to get out of here too,” Will said. “Though I don’t exactly have tons of reasons to trust you right now.”

“The same goes for me,” Caiyeri said. “But I like my odds. I always do.”

“Trust is a two-way street,” Will said. “You might trust that I won’t be able to screw you over, but I don’t have the same from you, espceially since I know none of your magic. I don’t even know how you fired an instant death from the gun.”

Caiyeri considered this, then sighed. “Fine. You really are a newbie, huh?”

“Yeah. My whole world is. What about it?”

“Asking someone the details of their skills is like asking about the color of their underwear.”

Helper: This is only true for some system natives, including, evidently, the cloning program that created this one.

“You did show me yours, intentionally or not, so I’ll show you mine.”

Class: [Gambler]

Elements: [Luck] (primary), [Force], [HIDDEN]

“I’m noticing you’re still hiding information.”

“A girl’s gotta keep some secrets.”

Helper: You should not trust her.

“I don’t. But I’d much rather have a teammate than go at this alone. We didn’t kill the boss, and the system tells me that cave goblins hold grudges to the grave. I would much rather not deal with a Bronze 10 squad boss on my own.”

Helper: That is true. Ultimately, it’s your call to make.

Caiyeri flicked her eyes, and another set of system boxes floated over to Will.

Skill: [Rigged Dice]

- Passive (luck).

- Cost: varies.

- Cooldown: varies.

Bronze

You only need to win one hand to come out ahead. Rig events against yourself so you can guarantee a victory.

Guarantee a magical effect that has a chance of happening, such as a critical hit or an effect trigger. This skill’s cooldown and mana cost increases the less likely the effect is. After using this effect, you will automatically fail a number of luck-based events proportionate to the unlikeliness of the event triggered.

Skill: [Manaburst]

- Spell (projectile)

- Cost: low to moderate mana

- Cooldown: 6 seconds.

Bronze

The most basic form of projectile. Shoot a manifestation of pure mana. Unresisted unless a creature has a general magic resistance. Critical hits deal extra damage.

“Those are my two big ones,” she said. “One makes my class function, and the other’s a basic magic attack that I’d like to form into something more versatile later on.”

“And the fighting?”

Caiyeri allowed herself a rare smile. It was feral, like she’d never learned or even tried to smile before.

“That’s a skill, but it’s not a skill. It’s training, attributes, and time.”

Helper: Before she inevitably turns against you, the elf could be a useful resource. Training is vital to increasing your stats, and while you may not be able to advance to bronze yet, you need any boost you can get. A bronze ally could be a great help.

“If it’s something you can get with training,” Will said, “Can you teach me?”

“I can give you training,” she said. “Can’t do anything for your attributes, though, and if I remember the rules right…”

“We don’t have a lot of time,” Will said. “I have a single elemental gem I can use and enough awakening shards of the Delver to get myself another skill. Other than that, you’ve seen all I’ve got. I can get some more weapons, too, but… I don’t have many options.”

Helper: The good news is that the easiest rank to advance in by far is unformed.

“She isn’t wrong,” Caiyeri said. “Your stats are low, but I’m sure we can get three of them up to 15 by the time we’re forced out of here.”

“And how, exactly, do we do that?”

The feral grin got wider until it was just straight up evil. “I thought you’d never ask.”

Will had a bad feeling about this.

#

“There are traces of a youth’s dagger of the sunken world here,” the wizard said, prostrating himself before Axl. “We believe he may be in a shelter nearby.”

“You are heard,” the Carrion Lord rumbled. “Avoid the shelter at all costs. Do not commit the folly of the Peris clan. Establish a perimeter and prepare to pursue the heretic, but use only the most expendable as forward scouts.”

“Of course, my lord.”

The wizard left to carry forth Axl’s orders, leaving only two officers behind.

“Yes?” the Carrion Lord asked.

“You’re getting weak, Axl,” one of them said. Ren. “We can see it in your skin, and it’s starting to bleed into your words. Startin’ to think the clans might be better led by—“

Axl struck before the cretin could finish his sentence. His hammer sang with violent glee, glowing a pure white as it smashed Ren into a bloody paste on the ground.

He turned towards the other.

“Do I,” he whispered dangerously, “seem weak to you?”

“No, my lord. N-not at all.”

“Good. You will lead the forward team, then.”

“Y-yes, my lord.”

Axl rose.

The shelters here had housed one other, who was long dead now thanks to one of the subordinate clans. From their raid, Axl knew that the shelters lasted only twenty-four standard hours.

Once that time ran out, so too would the human’s life.

But Axl had not become leader of the overclan by being rash. Even if the human escaped somehow, using the accursed magic that had descended upon their world once more, he would chase him down with his scattered armies.

There was nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide.

Their fates were both sealed.

#

Level up!

Lev had finally hit level 6. Going with a group had been a good idea. They were coming up on the exit to their tutorial, and all of them had reached around the same power level. Some of them had even obtained an elemental gem.

Lev had been one of the lucky few. His Soul-bound Electricity element had saved them a number of times.

It hadn’t been enough to keep everyone safe. The group he’d joined had numbered ten at the start. There were eight of them now.

“I wonder how Will’s doing,” he muttered.

He looked back at their shared quest as they stepped through the glowing door at the exit.

Quest complete: Phase 2

You completed the normal difficulty Basic Dungeon tutorial.

- Reach Bronze 0 [0/1]

OR

- Reach Unformed 20 [0/1]

- Kill 100 monsters [16/100]

OR

- Reach the exit [1/1]

Reward: You have earned 1000 credits and 1 random elemental gem. Selected element: [Life].

He still wasn’t sure why there were any options other than “reach the exit.”

There’s no way anyone could reach levels that high, Lev thought. They’d have to be a madman.