Chapter 8: Picking Oneself Up Pt5

  “Fucking…” Normann rubbed a hand down his face and turned away from the Rift. He stared the text, Lyn looking at him through the translucent box. He had been ready, willing to enter the dungeon on his own, but the SYSTEM had declared how the world would be. It wasn’t his first experience of it altering what he wanted, but that it happened again. It had forced him into a situation, making it far more deadly and dangerous than he wanted.

  Lyn started, stepping back, as she stared blankly ahead. Probably looking at her own HUD. Her eyes flashed back and forth, scanning the menu that appeared before her.

  His own HUD updated, a little icon of a black orb rising up with yellow rays behind hit appeared under his HP and AE. A party menu. The SYSTEM had added her to his party. He tried to remove her quickly, but his HUD refused to dismiss her. Didn’t even give him the option. He was stuck with her.

  Or rather, she was stuck with him.

  “How did you...what did you...what’s this?” Lyn asked.

  “Pause, take a breath,” Normann said and leaned slightly forward, trying to show she had his attention without being aggressive or invading her space. “Just take a moment to think of your question. Give your mind a chance to catch up.” He ignored the timer counting down in the upper right hand side of his HUD, now at under 20 minutes. Probably not enough time to deal with what had happened in a reasonable way, but he’d have to make do.

  “What did you do?” Lyn asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “It said you added me to your squad.”

  “The SYSTEM said it. I did nothing.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “I agree.”

  “Then why’d you do it?”

  “I didn’t.” Normann held up a hand and she snapped her mouth shut. “We can go back and forth like this for a while. Nothing will change, you’ll still be in a squad with me, so let’s move on, kay?”

  She nodded but didn’t reply, just glared up at him.

  “Good, the SYSTEM message, what did it say? Specifically I mean.”

  “That you added me to your party,” Lyn said.

  “Nothing about my core?”

  “No,” she wrinkled her face, “Why would it?”

  Because his core was an anomaly within the SYSTEM. Oliver’s never appeared as [Core of the Embodiment of Discovery], but as the [Core of the Orphan in the Storm]. Normann could only hope that the same was true for him. Lyn continued talking, and focused on her confused expression. “The prompt just said you added me to your squad. I didn’t even get a chance to decline. You shouldn’t be able to do that. You can’t do that. How did you do it?”

  Normann agreed with her, but it wasn’t the time to go over it. She spoke rapidly, looking back and forth between various screens in her HUD and him. “Focus, Lyn. Focus on my voice.”

  She glared at him. “I’m not an idiot.”

  “Never said you were. You’re spiraling though, and I don’t have time for a healthy means of grounding you.” Without knowing more about the dungeon, he couldn’t say how easy it’d be for him, but between the rapid regeneration and massively tough skin, he could survive just about anything the System threw at him. Having a team ember with him and having to watch her back was an additional challenge he wasn’t certain he was up for. “Share your core,” he said.

  “What?”

  “Share your core,” Normann repeated. “Let me see what components you have.” Depending on her abilities, he could make it work. Otherwise he’d have her simply stay at the entrance. Dungeon’s didn’t scale based on the number of people who enter them, so she should be safe there.

  “You can do that?” Lyn asked.

  Oh, right, that wasn’t widely known yet. The information would be released in the next year or so, but the early days people could lie about their components and core. He could drop it, but he needed information. Couldn’t get any more about the dungeon, his own entry was sparse and lacked any specifics other than the Rift’s existence. Had not member of Lyn Hills as an operator, though that meant more she wasn’t a famous or long-lived one. Lack of information killed. His first time through pounded that into his head.

  “Yeah,” he said, “go to the party menu, focus on core’s energy and drag that feeling onto my name.” There was also a hand movement that did the same thing but better. It’d take too long to teach her it though. The dirty method he learned when he was conscripted would have to be enough.

  She raised her eyebrows at him, “you first.”

  Suspicious, good. Better to question everything, especially a strange man with magic powers. Even if she was also a stranger, but that wasn’t the point. She had at least some wariness of the situation. Awareness and wariness are needed for survival, and it’s better that as many operators survive as possible.

  He twisted his right hand into an awkward shape for a breath, releasing it just as Lyn’s eyes widened. The same screen appeared on his HUD:

  “You only have your core?”

  “Like said earlier, I just got it,” Normann said. A person became an operator when they integrated a core into their body, allowing them to construct a frame from four additional components: Chassis, Neuroptics, Plating, and Systems. Each component provided different abilities or spells depending on the eidolon whom that component was named after, with Chassis focusing on movement abilities, Neuroptics giving perception-based abilities, Plating primarily dealt with defensive ones, and Systems granted a wide range that it was often hard to predict. Every ability or spell granted by a component was somehow related to combat. Made sense, though, given how an operator’s job was to fight against monsters.

  “See? Nothing dangerous,” Normann said. “just an exchange of info. The SYSTEM doesn’t lie.”

  Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

  Lyn frowned at him. “You shouldn’t be able to do that.”

  “What not? Who said?” He shrugged and exited from the screen. “The SYSTEM provides additional information of the world, including ourselves. The fact that we can perceive it also implies that we can interact with it. Its a matter of figuring out the language.” Oliver told him something similar when they first met, when Normann’s conscription had been bought out and he’d been freed. “The SYSTEM,” Normann continued, “isn’t closed. It can’t be, otherwise we would see nothing.”

  “You can’t-”

  “Ms. Hills,” he said in his best teacher voice, “it isn’t about can or can’t. We live in a world of monsters and magic, where humans are altered on a fundamental level to a point where they might not be human any more. Why would something as arbitrary as not being able to communicate with the SYSTEM be the limit?” The truth was the SYSTEM was far more complicated, and it took decades of study and the end of the world before anyone was able to make use beyond the information they were able to see. Normann had no intention of waiting that long to make use of it; he had come back with the intention of not repeating the same events, and if things changed so drastically that he lacked prior knowledge, screw it. He’ll make do. He always did.

  “How do you do it again?” Lyn asked. He explained again, though kept his eyes on the countdown. With only fifteen minutes left, she had accessed and sent her information:

  Normann read them quickly, with most of his attention on the Rift. Common enough core, but solid for a reason, certainly one of the most dependable. Her Neuroptics were interesting, Stalking Prey was mostly used as Systems or Chassis, rarely anything else. The Home in Others was also different; he’d seen it used as everything except Plating, so probably a unique ability there. He paused and straightened when he re-read her Chassis. “First Victim,” he said out loud, the alarm escaping before he could hold it back.

  Lyn tense and turned to face the Rift, hands in fists at her side. “Why, whats wrong with it?”

  A lot, but nothing that mattered at the moment. “It’s a legendary rarity,” he said. “That is a very auspicious find, Ms. Hills. Strong, too. Not always the case with legendary components, but you lucked out.”

  “Thanks,” she said, though without any enthusiasm a normal person would expect that came with having such good luck. “I got it before my first Rift.”

  Normann nodded but didn’t press. He gave the best gentle smile he could, and let his voice sound as if he were interested. They didn’t have time to waist, but getting her to trust him and join him right now mattered more than the countdown. “So is this your third one?”

  “Second,” she replied. “The first was a disaster, though my squad got out alive at least. The Rift turned out to be a delve, you know? The Guild showed up after and immediately took over, offered me training and some gear. It’s been a few weeks, but mostly nice. Even gave me the component for my Plating.”

  Gave was a strong word, components were bound to specific operators and were loot from the end of the dungeon or delve. Whomever was in charge of the squad must have presented it as a gift or prize rather than a rightfully owned item. “Really?” Normann said. “That’s generous of them.”

  The HoH didn’t simply give anything away; they took and used like they did with him and so many others. Saying it was a gift was nothing more than them trying to make her obligated to work for the guild. “Anything good?”

  “Kinda, I mean, for me it is, but I don’t think Instructor Hardy was happy with it.” The Home in Others focused mainly on healing and protective abilities, so being integrated to Plating wasn’t an ideal situation. Usually, an operator would have it in their Systems, allowing them to support other operators. Figured that HoH would try to use her.

  “What you get?”

  “It’s a long cooldown regeneration, super powerful and fast, lasts a bit too which is nice,” Lyn said looking back at him with a big smile on her face. “Like, it can take me from nearly dead to full health in seconds. Gives some extra health too so I can take a few hits while its active.”

  Strong ability, but not necessarily for a Striker; it would allow one to fight longer, but a long cooldown mean it wasn’t really reliable. Timing and judgment would matter in using it. The ability might get better as she ranked up, but she’d need to live long enough. He’d have to make sure she’d get the chance. Required to now with his new quest.

  “Good,” Normann said, “I’m gonna trust you to keep yourself alive then, since at most I’ll be able to to hold their attention.” Lyn should be able to supply a needed source of damage. His passive taunted his enemies after he dealt damage or at least increased his threat against the monsters, forcing their attention on him, then she’d be free to damage them all.

  “So you’re okay with me joining you?”

  “Not much choice, but yes. I am trusting you and relying on you.” The countdown had turned to under ten minutes.

  “I won’t let you down. Let’s go.” Her energy had transformed into a vicious readiness; a predator waiting to pounce. She leaned forward to run in, but that wasn’t how a person entered a Rift. Not really. It didn’t matter the speed either, since the SYSTEM spawned you in the dungeon on your feet. Running in did nothing. Not to mention there were other details to think about now.

  Normann lightly touched her shoulder, just enough to remind her he was standing next to her. “Hold on, no point in rushing in now.”

  “I’ll activate it. Its as simple as a click.” Most viewed the countdown as a deadline, something to avoid it reaching zero. But through accident and subsequent experiment, sentinels in the future determined that the countdown actually affected the dungeon in the Rift. There as a high correlation shown, as no one could definitively prove that the numbers of the countdown mattered. Going in soon, just as it starts, had a connection to an easier dungeon, less or weaker monsters. He had hoped to enter immediately, but the book and the bag were too valuable to pass up. There was some variance, but a smart operator could game the SYSTEM. Just a little, as trying to force an outcome resulted in catastrophic outcomes more often than not. There were some things that could be known.

  Entering in the last ten minutes tended to produce strong monsters but average bosses. Entering in the last minute gave nearly impossible task. Entering when there was forty three percent of time life showed weak monsters, but spawned additional bosses. All correlations, as repetition of the trails were damn near impossible to achieve. And those were the simple ones. When a person like Oliver got involved, the correlations grew insane. None of it was proof that a specific entry time resulted in a specific type of dungeon, but he had to take the chance if it meant an easier time for him.

  Normann remembered the complex equation, as though it were inscribed into his mind. He never had a perfect memory, but a long life lead to some moments that inevitably repeat themselves. Or perhaps it was his [Augury Log] that helped with it. “Whats 30 times 60?” he asked.

  “1800,” Lyn replied immediately. She’d been bouncing back and forth, eyes glued ahead to a screen on her HUD, probably the timer like his.

  “Whats 7.43% of that?”

  “One hundred thirty three and seventy four hundredths.” He glanced at her and she shrugged. “I’m good at maths. Is that when we’re going?”

  Normann shrugged. The countdown had reached five minutes. “Can you do roots of rational numbers?”

  “You want the root of a hundred thirty three and seventy fourths?”

  “Yes. Then double it.”

  “Want it rounded to the hundredth again?”

  “The SYSTEM doesn’t display that low, but yes,” Normann said with a smile.

  Lyn rolled her eyes and spoke after a few breaths, “twenty three and thirteen hundredths. Why does that matter? Is that when we’re entering?” He nodded. “Why? That seems like risking a breach.”

  “I want lower, but we aren’t powerful enough for that.”

  “Wait, what?” Normann watched as seconds dropped off the timer. At 24 seconds left, he grabbed Lyn’s should and held tight as he reached out and clicked ‘Yes’.

  There was no sense of being pulled or dragged into the Rift; the media liked to describe it that way because it was the easiest to relate to. Crossing a Rift wasn’t that simple. The sensory experience was overwhelming enough that the mind struggled to make sense of everything it went through. It was different every time, often described differently for each operator, even if they entered the same Rift together. This time, everything around Normann and Lyn blurred forward, as though space were stretching to connect two points that can’t touch. Everything but them were long lines of color, details disappearing into each other as they crossed the Rift and entered the dungeon.

  Normann smiled as the heat of the cavern blasted them in the face. Before him, massive cavern walls stretched up with gaps in them exposing rolling magma. “Welcome, Lyn Hills, Striker” Normann said, “to the Smoldering Hollow.”