[System Decay] Chapter 15: Turtled Up (Patreon)

Not every ambush was as successful as the first few. For one thing, the goblins were still bronze rank. Will and Caiyeri weren’t always able to get the jump on them, and any time they had the ability to mount an actual defense, the two of them were forced to flee.

They were still able to land a few shots each time. Even if they had to leave confrontations when it turned out their information had understated the number of goblins by a solid dozen, Will was almost always able to pick off at least one or two, Caiyeri doubling that number. First Blood and Mark for Death proved to be fantastic for the hit-and-run engagements they often found themselves fighting. Combined with the stealth bow, Will was very happy with the makeshift assassination style he’d developed.

The goblins weren’t the only blockade in their way, though. Besides the inconsistency of the information they extracted from torture, there was also the fact that the goblins they interrogated only ever blabbed about other goblins.

They weren’t the only predators in the cave system.

Will soon discovered that the information the system had provided him about the scorpiders earlier was accurate. It had said that they were favorite foods of the goblins, and there were plenty of them scattered about the tunnels as they continued.

They were all unformed rank, though, and even if Will was technically at the same level, his training and items put him a step above. They were nimble little creatures, so they often got the first hit in, negating his First Blood title, but Mark for Death worked on them just fine, and combined with Escape Artist increasing his speed, none of them escaped him.

Killing the little guys barely netted him any experience towards the next rank. Will wondered if the same was true for Caiyeri. It would explain why she hadn’t made it to Bronze 4 in the same time that he’d leveled up twice.

It wasn’t the scorpiders he was worried about most, though. The flora and fauna of the cave system were a much bigger concern. The giant cave spider had taken nearly all the resources he’d had plus a healthy dose of luck to defeat.

While Caiyeri might be happy to rely on the latter, Will didn’t have a class yet, and he was much happier using power that wouldn’t randomly screw him over three out of seven times. He made a mental note to give her the revolver if he ever found a way to fully remove the corruption from it.

The next local megafauna they ran into turned out not to be another one of the giant spiders, but something with a lot more mass.

“How the hell does that fit through the tunnels?” Will asked in disbelief, staring at the shell of a massive, glowing turtle. It was a bit smaller than the giant spider he’d fought on his own, but it was denser, entirely covered by a shell that emitted the same eerie bluish-green light that the frequent vents did.

“The vents here are a path to a lot of spatial distortion powers for the larger creatures,” Caiyeri explained. “I don’t have the space element myself, but most monsters here do.”

The turtle didn’t seem to have noticed them yet. Will wasn’t even sure if it was awake.

Helper: You could just ignore it.

“Is this a boss?” he wondered, looking closer.

Elder Rune Turtle. Level: Bronze 5.

This is a solo boss.

Rune turtles are a common sight to see everywhere across Arcadia. Despite their slow speed, their shells drastically increase their survivability. For the most part, rune turtles are harmless. They gather power from ambient magic, and will enter a “burst” state when attacked, unleashing their pent-up mana.

As they age, however, they begin to ingrain magic effects into themselves passively. At a certain stage, they grow large and strong enough that they can crush small settlements just by walking through them.

“We’re killing it,” Caiyeri said, conjuring her daggers again. “If that gets to an outpost, the place is doomed.”

“If a whole group of elves can’t kill it, why do you think we can?” Will asked, readying his weapons. “I’m not opposed to it. I’d love to get more tablets or elemental gems. A boss vault sounds great right about now.”

“Do you have hearing damage? I said the place is doomed. That aside, the other outpost got here at least five years after us. Odds are good that no, they can’t handle it.”

“Alright,” Will said. “I’m down.”

A solo boss was supposed to still be a challenge to a group, but this one wasn’t fighting back yet. Will marked it for death, then used Chaos Transfer to give the axe of despair the extra buff.

The turtle still hadn’t noticed them, so he crept up further. As he got closer, he realized that the shell wasn’t one full carapace, but instead an interlocking weave of hexagons with different, equally unintelligible runes carved into them.

Will searched for a weak point, but each hex was so tightly woven into the next that it may as well have been welded together.

Helper: You’re not going to find a weak point.

“The hell? I thought you weren’t supposed to be able to talk to me when I was next to a monster.”

Helper: Next to hostile monsters. The elder rune turtle isn’t hostile yet, though it will be when it wakes up. I estimate you have a few minutes or one clean hit before it does so.

“Will the turtle have anything worth looting?”

Helper: Likely. In addition to vault keys, many bosses will have consumed enough mana that you can get enough awakening shards to craft a tablet from their bodies.

Will relayed this to Caiyeri, who, of course, already knew most of this.

“How do you think we got our gems and tablets?” she said. “You have your attacks ready?”

“Yeah,” Will said. “You?”

Rather than a pair of daggers, she conjured a massive hammer that looked to be made of the same pale purple energy that she’d been using earlier.

Over the course of their fights together, she had finally at least revealed what skill was giving her the energy weapons.

Skill: [Lucky Strike]

- Spell (enchantment, conjuration).

- Cost: moderate mana.

- Cooldown: none.

Bronze.

Are you feeling lucky?

Imbue a weapon with a randomly selected pair of the following enchantments: Mighty Cleave, Lightweight, Silent, Armor Breaker, Elemental Blow, Returning Weapon, Corpse Slayer, Heal Blocker, Sharp Edge, Dancing Edge, Enhanced Critical.

[Armory Jackpot] (bronze) - Instead of imbuing a weapon, you may randomly conjure one of the following weapons with a random pair of the enchantments: twin daggers, sword, warhammer, greataxe, club, javelin, whip.

This was also how Will had learned that using a second tablet or even just ranking up a skill could open up a new world full of possibilities and skill modifications.

Caiyeri’s skill would have been nearly useless, but it was bound to her luck element, which came with Rigged Dice.

“I have armor breaker and enhanced critical,” Caiyeri informed him. “I’ll take the first hit, then you try and get one in. I can use Rigged Dice with a bit of an extra mana cost, so I can guarantee a crit.”

“Sure thing,” Will said, readying his axe alongside his dagger—just in case, of course. “Ready whenever you are.”

Caiyeri stepped up to the sleeping turtle’s shell, gripping her massive hammer construct in both hands, and took a massive swing at the line where two hexes met.

Critical hit!

[Enhanced Critical] doubled the power of the critical hit.

[Armor Breaker] increased the power of a strike against armor.

The shell shattered—and with it, so did the rune it held.

A massive wave of force exploded outwards, sending dirt, stones, vegetation, and Caiyeri flying at highway speeds. Will, who was standing to the side, didn’t get it as bad, but the wave still knocked him on his ass.

He didn’t even get the chance to shout out in surprise before Caiyeri hit a wall. A faint forcefield shone around her, and she tumbled to the ground with a grunt.

In the party menu, a new skill revealed itself on the elf’s stat sheet, probably because she was too busy recovering from the impact.

Skill: [Emergency Shield]

- Spell (conjuration).

- Cost: low mana.

- Cooldown: none.

Timing is everything.

Create a personal forcefield that absorbs damage at bronze rank. If you do not sustain heavy damage within 1 second of activating this shield, the cost of this skill increases to extreme mana. If the shield receives enough damage to break, your mana is fully restored.

This was a force-element spell, bound to her Resistance. Will noted it down, then took full use of the opening she’d made for him, sprinting in on the splintered shell and targeting a particularly fragile looking segment.

The rune turtle’s shell was so tough that the axe barely scratched it, but he found a gap in the armor and plunged his axe in as far as it would go—which wasn’t far, but it didn’t need to be.

[First Blood] doubled the power of your attack.

[Mark for Death] increased the power of your attack.

Critical hit!

[Chieftain’s Axe of Despair] inflicted a level of [Bleed]!

[Chieftain’s Axe of Despair] inflicted a level of [Corruption]!

The rune flared again, though it was slower to start up this time. Will used the dagger to teleport out of the way before it could hit him, chugging a mana potion immediately after to replenish what he’d used.

Since the cooldown on the Eerie Step skill granted by the daggers was a minute, he cycled the dagger he was holding into his inventory and grabbed a separate one out, effectively resetting the cooldown.

By the time he was ready again, the turtle was wide awake and angry. The runes on its shell started flashing different colors, all of them awakening from their idle state of eerie green. It roared.

“That’s not good!” Caiyeri shouted.

“No shit!” Will replied. “Why the hell does it sound like it came out of Jurassic Park?”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about it!”

He didn’t know how fast turtles thrice his size were supposed to move, but he had a suspicion that it wasn’t going to be that fast. With corruption slowing it down, it would be even slower.

Will backed away, watching Caiyeri to see if she’d do the same. Between the two of them, she was the one with more experience fighting the cave fauna, after all.

She did the same, though it looked like she was more keen on avoiding the pulsing runes.

A wave of frost exploded from an ice-blue rune, freezing a line of earth all the way up to the cavern wall. Will was nowhere close, but Caiyeri had to dodge out of the way.

He drew the seven-shot six-shooter. The bow wasn’t going to get the job done on something this heavily armored.

[Rebounding Shot selected.]

Shit. Will hit the ground as the bullet fired, and thank god for that. He felt the heat and force of the bullet coming back at him before he heard the second crack. It came uncomfortably close.

Another rune lit up, this one an angry red. It was directly facing him, so Will used the teleport dagger to get behind it.

Not a moment too soon. As he reappeared, a cherry red laser scoured the spot where he’d been standing.

The distraction he’d provided gave Caiyeri another opportunity to smash the broken part of its shell in.

She caved the turtle’s shell in on its own body before leapfrogging off of it, backflipping and landing on her feet.

The boss keened in pain. It was a low, hair-raising sound, and it sent a chill down Will’s spine.

That was no longer the sound of anger. That was the last, desperate plea of a dying creature in pain.

The two of them left the room by mutual agreement before another rune could trigger.

Then they waited.

“The corruption should take care of it,” Will said. “What with all the damage and all.”

“Exactly my thinking,” Caiyeri replied, nodding. “Your magic is disgusting.”

“Disgustingly powerful, or…”

“I said what I said.”

You have defeated a solo boss. Examine its body for a Vault Key.

It took about five minutes of waiting before the turtle bit it.

Will wondered if the goblin boss he’d stuck with corruption was still suffering from it. He sure hoped he was.

When they returned to the boss room, Will’s confidence in their choice to GTFO doubled. A multitude of effects had wrecked the room, from a miniature lake with electric sparks still dancing over it to a section of vegetation that appeared to be in the middle of doing its best to replicate Santa Cruz during wildfire season.

The corpse was ripe for looting.

25 bronze credits have been added to your inventory.

Fire Rune, Shadow Rune, Radiance Rune, and Chaos Rune have been added to your inventory.

Vault Key has been added to your inventory.

Miraculous Wrist Bracer has been added to your inventory.

7 Awakening Shards of Consumption have been added to your inventory.

Interestingly enough, none of the items were corrupted. Will wondered why.

The vault key pointed to a vault less than a quarter mile away, which was handy. Will wanted to get all his elements unlocked as soon as possible.

The other items were worth taking a second look at, though Will wasn’t sure where the bracer had come from.

Helper: The turtle probably ate someone with the item.

“I was wondering where our pets went,” Caiyeri said, examining the item.

Will looked at her in slight horror for a second before she chuckled. “Just a joke. We didn’t have pets, though we got to learn the concept of them. I wish I could’ve had one. A bird sounds nice.”

“You can get one when we get out of here,” Will said absent-mindedly, checking out his loot. “I’m sure they won’t have as many restrictions on you given that your entire research expedition’s dead.”

“We’ll see,” Caiyeri muttered darkly.

Item: Fire Rune

Uncommon, bronze

The essence of fire is burned into this rune.

You may use this as a crafting ingredient or as a weapon augment that provides the following:

[Fire Augment] - This weapon and its projectiles deal fire damage in addition to their base effects. This augment can be consumed to activate the [Firebolt] skill at bronze rank.

The other runes were similar, with each of them allowing consumption for a different spell—Darkness for the shadow rune, Radiant Flame for radiance, and Channel Chaos for the last.

Will decided to put one on the axe of despair as soon as possible. In combination with the poison from the giant cave spider, he could put a load of debuffs on the same weapon.

…Or maybe not. He didn’t want to put all his eggs in the same basket. The stealth bow could use the shadow buff, and poisoning the arrows would be useful too.

Item: Miraculous Wrist Bracer

Common, bronze

Perform a minor miracle. Warning: only really works when the person you’re performing a miracle to doesn’t know about magic.

Once per day while this item is equipped, you can create one of the following magical effects within 50 feet of you:

- Create a sound that lasts 3 seconds or less.

- Cause a door or window to open.

- Increase a flame’s intensity or dim it.

Will slipped them on. They didn’t seem to impede Escape Artist much, which was convenient. The bracers were simple steel with a design he didn’t recognize, so he decided to keep them. Who knew when one of those effects could come in handy.

Last but most certainly not least were the awakening shards. Caiyeri was already done picking through her loot, it seemed, and she didn’t want any of the shards, so he made a tablet out of them. It took all seven to create the new item.

Will used it immediately.

#

The cycle continued. The first tournament had commenced, and the winner—the planet’s champion—proved to be satisfactory.

Those who failed, those who died, those who fell along the path; they were nothing more than fuel for victory.

#

Skill: [Destructive Synthesis]

- Spell (consumption).

- Cost: variable.

- Cooldown: none.

Bronze

Take power from destruction.

Activate this skill to consume an item. Consuming an item grants mana restoration proportional to the power of the item.

Consuming an item grants a temporary skill reflecting and magnifying the item’s use for a variable time depending on the item’s rarity and power.

You have affixed skills to all available slots of [Affinity].

“Huh.”

“Good skill?” Caiyeri asked from behind him.

Will turned and realized that she’d caught him when he’d fallen during the vision and placed him onto something resembling a seat.

“Thanks. This looks really useful,” Will said. “I have a lot of experimenting to do.”

Due to unforeseen circumstances, Phase 3 has been accelerated. Those still in tutorials are encouraged to complete them as soon as possible.

Time until tutorial failure: 24 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds.

The sudden appearance of the message startled Will. The content startled him worse.

“Shit,” he said. “We have a problem.”