Collide Gamer

Chapter 149 – Probing for exploits (Thursday 4/7)

John entered the tenth floor of the demon dungeon.

After sleeping thoroughly and then enjoying some healthy breakfast, Aclysia had proved that a maid was a necessary part of the harem lifestyle. Not only because the breakfast was delicious, but because the chores following orgies were manifold. Beyond that, the day had started fairly regularly.

Before they arrived here, they had gone chasing dogs. Even with a 95% reduction John always got at least one point in a Skill as the system always rounded up, never down. After adding the point Aclysia was now at a skill level of 94. John could try what he had done with Undine and just roll the slot machine for the chance of 2-3 Skillpoint rewards, but that might as well give him none. Just because it had worked one time, did not mean it would a second.

Anyhow, they were on this floor to do one thing and one thing only: exploit the hell out of the Secret Room. John’s bee was already buzzing around to find the gold decorated prison tower. The Fear Eater had proven to be a very easy enemy once they had ripped Thana’s form from it, so the goal here was to stab it with a water-infused Mana Blade and then hack the creature to pieces again, then clear the entire floor with the reward, repeat and then go back to grinding the floor 9 Vessel for more keys. John thought this was the best way to quickly gain Experience, which was his main goal. One level for him actually meant 5 levels for the group instantly and 1 more Aclysia could reach. They still had plenty of food for her lying around too.

John found the tower in question and they went on their way. Even though the Satantyr were strong, they were not exactly versatile and that proved their downfall once again as all John had to do is send in the people that countered the weaponry found. No Ranged fighters? Storm the tower. Ranged Fighters? Use Sylph, Salamander and Mana Ray. A mixture? Take care of the rangers, storm the tower afterwards. The level difference wasn’t that huge a threat as long as John had superior numbers and strategies. Not that there was a strong level difference anymore, after last time.

“So, after we beat the Fear Eater, how about we actually check for a Secret Room in the Street Elemental I.D.?” John asked as they walked over the final bridge, ending at their destination.

“For what purpose, Master?” Aclysia asked.

John was halfway sure that she asked just so he could explain it, because he liked doing that. Because he liked doing that, he didn’t care why she asked and did explain. “I want to see what is in there, after all, I want to get you to Skill Level 100, Aclysia,” he said.

“Wouldn’t visiting the Horned Rat be most efficient then?” Aclysia asked, her head slightly tilted in genuine curiosity.

“Well, we would have to power through the unknown Skaven stuff first, so not really.” John let out a deep sigh. “Also, that creature creeps me out, and I would rather not engage with it again, when there’s other options.” He would do it if he was left with no other choices but as it stood he still had a few days.

“Any reason we don’t just try Floor 5 Secret Rooms instead?” Salamander asked.

“Knowing Gaia, she has nerfed everything below current content just so we don’t get to exploit it, rather not waste a key to get that reassured.” The elementals all nodded, looking at how most of his powers turned out that made sense. “Anyhow, so we kill this Fear Eater and then we change settings, sound good?”

“Noooooo,” Sylph whined, “that means we go back to killing Anti-Depressants, fighting that makes me depressed.”

“Tough luck Sylphie, now I vote for it just because it torments you,” Salamander grinned. Everyone else voted for checking out the tenth floor of the Anti-Depressants as well, although for better reasons than the blaze elemental. They arrived at the tower and John quickly accepted the sacrifice of one of his keys.

The door opened and John was met with the same scene as yesterday. He was gripped by a wave of terror and despair. This time he had the strength of mind to resist falling to it. The being, wearing the skin of Thana, noticed that its psychic attack was swept aside and stood back.

John reached the state of serenity. Calm determination, focused on the monster that dared to show him this scene, filled his being. The being hissed and kept its distance, ten metres were between them. In this form it had been able to fend off four of the six party members, whatever mana he needed to invest to get rid of it was worth it. At least that was his logic as he dumped over a thousand mana into a water infused Mana Blade that penetrated the being from a distance, like a lance.

It was effective. This Fear Eater had nothing to feast on before its true form was revealed. Consequently, the amorphous blob that spilled out of the shattering skin was much smaller. ‘I will leave it to you girls,’ John thought as the Mana Blade evaporated. An onslaught of elements ensued. A rain of fire and thunder, as spikes of earth ripped the being apart and amidst it all Aclysia hacked at it with Ashkandi.

“We don’t have much to do, do we?” John asked Undine who responded only with a very mild happiness. John supposed that made sense, when Undine had nothing to do that meant nobody was injured. He was a bit interested in how she would heal people though. Would she need to put her hands on the injured party member or how did this work? As the Fear Eater finally bit the dust John’s curiosity had grown big enough to do something stupid.

“Aclysia, stab me,” he ordered as he pushed the ‘kill everything’ button on the window that popped up. He expected a level-up, but got nothing. Close to one, that’s what he was now. ‘A whole floor with +25% EXP and still no level up, huh?’ John asked himself and sighed, things really had hit a crawl. Oh well, he would have time to grind more…no, he wouldn’t, he realized. He had 3 more days outside of this one. Four days, then it was all or nothing.

“Pardon me, Master, but did I correctly hear that you wish for me to stab you? If the answer is yes, I would ask you to retract that order,” Aclysia pulled his thoughts back into the now.

“Nope, just stab me in the shoulder or somewhere else, I want to test Undine’s healing,” John told her.

“Uh, can you maybe, not do that?” Gnome asked, “I don’t want you to get hurt, John, cause, you know…” she stared at the floor and kneaded the edge of her skirt, quietly adding “…that would hurt me on the inside….”

“Ah, suck it up, buttercup,” Salamander told her eldest sister, “I want to see it too.”

“Just do it, I am bored, boooooooooored,” Sylph agreed, “Like, super bored, as bored as one could be, borelicious, AUDIBLE GASP! I STILL HAVEN’T GOTTEN THAT GUMMY BEAR!”

Undine’s thoughts were an enigma. She was careless, but hid more under the surface. Her elevated state had deepened the ocean of her mind. Unless John deliberately tried to dive deep or she shared, it was difficult to peer at her thoughts. He never got to look through her eyes either.

“Counting myself it is three for, two against and one undecided vote for stabbing me. Therefore Aclysia, do it!” John exclaimed and took a defenceless stance. Aclysia sighed, made an unhappy expression, and then carefully stabbed him in the shoulder. He took 88 damage. ‘To think that would have one-shot me a while back,’ John thought as the pain, slightly uncomfortable, vanished after Aclysia retracted the blade.

“There we go, Undine, heal me!”

‘Sure,’ Undine put a hand on his shoulder, a part of her stuck to him even when she pulled back. This blob of her body had a green tinge to it and it slowly simmered through his shirt and was absorbed into his body. 88 HP was restored, although the message said it healed him for 100. “How many times can you do that in quick succession?” John probed, knowing the capabilities of your healer was always important.

‘Ten,’ came the insightful answer. So, Undine could heal him for a thousand health quickly and probably a lot more if they stretched the damage out. Not bad, not bad at all. “Okay, let’s go kill that Anti-Depressant now.”

The window popped up after he they defeated that boss once more. “Oh, did you reach a level?” Sylph asked and then grinned widely, “Is it level 69, is it, is it? If it is, can we do that right here? I could!” Before John could answer he got two unexpected windows.

“The fuhcke?” John said in a bad French accent, he did not remember changing locale settings. It was also unlike Gaia to give him freebies at this point, especially without showering him in sass like she did with that Achievement.  Well, he did take that present and chose the left option as his reward. He was barely done putting the points into Artificial Spirit and Mana Ray when another quest popped up.

“What is wrong with Gaia today?” John asked out loud, nervously eyeing the next wave timer. He had like five seconds left and unless he wanted to repeat the last four Waves he had to make the decision now or have that window annoy him through the whole fight. He accepted; he would do SOMETHING with that crystal anyhow.

The tenth Wave started. John followed the city going through the usual time reversal. Buildings that had been destroyed by falling stars rebuilt themselves, streets became whole, sidewalks walkable, the whole city was remade. The sky, tinged to unnatural night by the setting, cleared up again. It was midday outside the barrier and so the sun now shined down on John. Shined down at a really high temperature, he quickly saw the heat shimmer rise from the street.

“I like this, this is nice,” Salamander said, to no one’s surprise. John and Undine were less comfortable, the heat was intense.

John saw the heat shimmering contort and rubbed his eyes, this was not helpful while spying for whatever monsters were around.

“WATCH OUT!” shouted Sylph. Too late, John felt something crash into his Mana Protection, reducing it by a sixth of the total value. Alarmed he looked around, there was no enemy. Not until Sylph revealed him anyhow by attacking the contortion in shimmering, green gusts of energized winds cutting into something nearly invisible.

He still could not see the thing, it was only thanks to Sylph’s attacks connecting to something that he had any idea where it was. Another strike hit his Mana Protection, then another one. Aside from Sylph nobody could see or sense them. The tempest elemental did her best to relay their positions but her thoughts were so incoherent it made communication hard. ‘To the double-plus-left, no the other left!’

‘SYLPH THAT IS BEHIND ME!’ Salamander complained and threw a fireball that connected to something.

Staying where they were, in the middle of a street, was ludicrous. Better to move into an alleyway, where these things could only approach from two directions. John used his bee to scout one out that was both nearby and looked promising. “Everyone, we are making a break!” he shouted and they started running. Another attack, then one more, John’s shield was almost gone now. They turned the corner and Gnome erected a wall behind them. “Good thinking!” John complimented.

Even amidst this slightly bad situation she found the time to blush, “Y-you are welcome, John,” she said, kicking a pebble that had been part of the floor, before the wall burst open.

The pebble landed in front of a door that John hadn’t noticed up until now. It was dark green and looked all around boring, except for the neon-lights that spelled out ‘OPEN’ in the upper quarter.

‘What is that na- SHIT’ John cursed as his shield dropped to zero. His mana was steadily reducing as he felt strikes from above sending ripples through the slight blue of his barrier. At least one of the Heat Strikers had climbed over Gnome’s wall and was now on top of John.

“We are going in there!” John decided. If one could do it, several more could, they were not safe here, they needed to come up with a plan and they might as well do it in a hopefully safe environment. John pressed the accept button for the Secret Room and they quickly ran inside.