Instead of a puff of smoke and the reveal of a randomly disappointing weapon, the selection box instead brought up a list. Rectangles of orange denoted the Legendary status of the weapons within.
“They’re still first area items, but they-“ Humphrey stood behind her, viewing the screens.
“Don’t rain on my parade.” This would be her first Legendary item, whether it was any good or not. “What do I pick though? We really should have done the options reveal first.”
“This is the… never mind.” The Death Knight deflated.
“I don’t know how you are all so calm during this - this is not a good time.” Lucius grimaced and couldn’t decide whether to stare at the blur of vampire or not.
“Either being undead removes some of their fear, or they are just too traumatized to register such things.” Archie turned to the demon with tired eyes.
“And you?” A question mark bubble appeared beside him.
“I’m the Architect,” the cat yawned.
Sally rubbed her chin. All the basic weapon types were here - and either a Crossbow or Dagger seemed like obvious upgrades to what she already had. Melee was already pretty simple for her, and the few Magic skills she had dealt pretty great damage. Maybe something ranged was the way to go. Although - she didn’t really have the Stats for it, as far as she knew.
“Wowzers, this is a difficult decision.” She rubbed the back of her arm across her forehead. “Shame Theo isn’t here to advise.”
Humphrey pouted and looked over at the vampire. To Theo’s credit, he had started to kill them quicker than they could fill the room back up, and he danced his bloody dance in the back third of the chamber. Damon was either interested to see what was about to play out or halfway to extracting himself from the situation.
Sally looked up from her window of unmade decisions to follow the Death Knight’s gaze. “What’s the range of your duel skill, Humps?”
“Not far enough, but I like the thought.”
Even with the tasty orange treat awaiting her button press - none of the weapons were situation-changing. She winced as she considered leaving the decision for later on.
“What’s this Mark thing?”
“It’s usually a badge type thing that gives some minor Stats depending on your class. More of an achievement thing than anything useful.” Humphrey scratched the side of his head. “Theo is going to be very annoyed none of this experience counts for him.
“It does… for us, though?” She wailed internally at not being able to see her experience bar. Levels up often came after the area was clear or they were no longer in danger. Theo was the danger.
“Yes.”
“How long can he keep this up? With the curse, I mean.” Despite him clearly being in charge of the situation, this was highly abnormal, and she was starting to worry about his well-being more than his well-doing.
“It is unclear,” the cat answered. “Everything about this is beyond the scope that I… that the Architect envisioned.”
Sally also didn’t envision getting torn up in Hell by her vampire companion. Not like this. The coffin was now destroyed, perhaps a shortsighted plan just for the added flair of- oh, she should have shouted ‘Theo, I choose you’ as he was thrown out. Maybe next time, if there was one.
“What do you plan, Sally?” Lucius prodded at her shoulder.
“I’m tired of plans. Why don’t we just wait - eventually, something will break, right?”
“As long as it isn’t me,” the demon shrugged, leaning nervously on his axe.
Theo was about at the Hell Portal now, the demons only making it a few steps - some of them just tumbling from the clogged opening - before he rendered them full of puncture wounds. Damon had perhaps seen enough and turned to the Outsiders.
“Well, a lot has been learned here - perhaps you will change your mind about joining us once you-“
The pink blur of the vampire [Blood Shift]ed over at the spellcaster, flares of dark energy flickering throughout the cavern as the shield activated and then failed - crimson marks shredding at him - twenty, no - thirty or more stab wounds appearing just a brief two seconds.
Theo flickered back to the Portal horde as the bloodied corpse of Damon dropped to the floor. Any zombie Sally had raised had met the same fate under the determined blades of the vampire.
There was no more room for the Hell Portal to spawn new demons. Each one killed piled up before the glowing blur of his attacks was at the entrance itself - the bodies barely making it halfway through the gateway before being cored or decapitated. Eldritch sparks began to fizzle from the runes around the stone frame.
“Do you think-“ Sally began before a burst of radiant purple light filled her vision, and deafening ring stung her ears. It began to fade as her eyes filtered the reds and crimsons of Hell properly once more.
Theo stood amongst a small mound of corpses.
He was breathing heavily - panting as his legs shook. From head to toe, he was absolutely drenched in blood and gore. Slowly, he lowered his arms as they shuddered.
“I… I did it…” he began quietly laughing to himself. “I did!… I killed all demons!”
Lucius slowly sidled behind Humphrey as Sally ran out into the cavern.
Gingerly she hopped over the piles of dead demons, slipping on some intestines and tripping on some bodies that were squishier than she had anticipated.
“Are you sane again, Theo? Don’t stab me.” Perhaps she should have exercised a bit more caution before going over to meet him. If the others didn’t stop her, then… they had stayed at the back still. She didn’t fail to notice their pensive stares, however.
“Not sane, no. I’m…” he turned to watch her arrive, “…I’m tired as shit, though.”
“Uh, we kind of broke your bed.” Her eye twitched at the implication. He had saved them by saving himself, or something, but without a proper bed to sleep in.
“I literally can’t move my legs or arms. Even if I go more crazy, I couldn’t hurt you.”
Sally ran her tongue across her sharp teeth. “Promise?”
His mouth opened and closed, and tears began to clear thin trails down his face. “I didn’t… I didn’t get any of that… experience, did I?”
“No, pup.” She gave him a glum smile. “But we have a lot of loot to dig through. You killed so many demons, you broke hell. Really did Redd proud.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Theo wailed, head hanging forward as tears and blood dripped from his face to the cavern floor - or at least atop the corpses blocking the ground.
“Alright,” she spun on her feet. “Humphrey, come carry Theo. Archie, help me to find any good loot amongst all these corpses. Lucius, fix that damn portal.”
They all nodded and said their agreement. Sally even folded her arms to look a little more commanding before the Death Knight rolled his lack of eyes.
“Hey, Sally.” Archie came up and brushed against her legs as she tried to decide how best to start looting these… potentially hundreds of bodies. “Is it okay if I take a nap after we loot all these bodies?”
“Of course, Arch.” She knelt down to give him a pet. The ginger cat didn’t get enough limelight on the best of days; the least she could do was give him some rubs and a well-earned nap.
“Okay, put your hand on my back then. This might work.” He waited for her to do so and then closed his emerald eyes and opened his mouth.
He felt warm beneath her dead hand, but that perhaps wasn’t unusual. Then, there was a vibration of energy, some kind of power, as he opened his mouth.
“I hope you like Inventory management,” he growled as a pulse of white light briefly flooded the room.
[7534 Gold]
[Basic Shortsword (23)]
[Basic Axe (44)
[Basic Crossbow (53)]
[Basic Spear (23)]
[Basic Greataxe (26)]
[Basic Club (36)]
[Basic Dagger (76)]
[Basic Leather Armour (42)]
[Basic Leather Leggings (67)]
[Basic Leather Boots (71)]
[Basic Leather Helm (44)]
[Demon Horns (231)]
[Skull (127)]
[Cooked Meat (85)]
[Demon Coin (12)]
[Crimson Key (17)]
[Crimson Treasure Box (6)]
[Mount Feed (45)]
[Lower Demon Card (14)]
[Uncommon Weapon Chance Box (24)]
[Rare Weapon Chance Box (6)]
[Uncommon Armour Chance Box (38)]
[Rare Armour Chance Box (8)]
[Demonkiller Blade (1)]
[Health Potion (31)]
[Greater Health Potion (21)]
[Mana Potion (34)]
[Campfire (16)]
“Ahhh,” Sally said, her eyes wide and unblinking as the stream of text messages passed through the side of the System. “That’s a lot of… everything.”
Archie burped. “Sucks that I can only use my abilities once, huh?”
“Yeah,” she nodded slowly, her voice distant as the messages started to give her a headache. “I think that would be somewhat overwhelming most of the time.”
“Anything for meeeee?” Theo wailed from atop the Death Knight.
She continued to slowly nod. This would take a while to parse through and understand. Probably in a moment of downtime when they weren’t sitting in a huge pit of corpses and oppressive heat.
“Portal is done!” Lucius beamed as a little firework emoji popped beside his head.
“Let’s get out of this Hell and back into the other.” Sally got to her feet and scrunched up her eyes. Overwhelming. She now had hundreds and hundreds of useless weapons inside her Inventory - alongside some things that actually sounded useful. Perhaps it was time for that crafting tutorial.
She picked up Archie and cradled the cat as he began to drift off to sleep. Walking up to the Death Knight, she gave Theo - who was now hanging limply over the shoulder plate of Humphrey - a little boop with her nose. “Come on, dumb ass. Let’s get you a new coffin.”
They trudged through the damp floor and up into the alcove, not even giving the place a second look before they passed through the portal and back into the normal Wasteland drudgery - still in the ruined basement. At least the sun seemed to be getting lower in the sky now.
Just as she was about to ask how they were going to get up through the doorway, she almost dropped the sleeping cat as her STAR bloiped.
Arranging Archie so that she could reach it, her eyes lit up, and all the exhaustion from the day washed away from her tired body.
They had leveled up twice.
Instead of a puff of smoke and the reveal of a randomly disappointing weapon, the selection box instead brought up a list. Rectangles of orange denoted the Legendary status of the weapons within.
“They’re still first area items, but they-“ Humphrey stood behind her, viewing the screens.
“Don’t rain on my parade.” This would be her first Legendary item, whether it was any good or not. “What do I pick though? We really should have done the options reveal first.”
“This is the… never mind.” The Death Knight deflated.
“I don’t know how you are all so calm during this - this is not a good time.” Lucius grimaced and couldn’t decide whether to stare at the blur of vampire or not.
“Either being undead removes some of their fear, or they are just too traumatized to register such things.” Archie turned to the demon with tired eyes.
“And you?” A question mark bubble appeared beside him.
“I’m the Architect,” the cat yawned.
Sally rubbed her chin. All the basic weapon types were here - and either a Crossbow or Dagger seemed like obvious upgrades to what she already had. Melee was already pretty simple for her, and the few Magic skills she had dealt pretty great damage. Maybe something ranged was the way to go. Although - she didn’t really have the Stats for it, as far as she knew.
“Wowzers, this is a difficult decision.” She rubbed the back of her arm across her forehead. “Shame Theo isn’t here to advise.”
Humphrey pouted and looked over at the vampire. To Theo’s credit, he had started to kill them quicker than they could fill the room back up, and he danced his bloody dance in the back third of the chamber. Damon was either interested to see what was about to play out or halfway to extracting himself from the situation.
Sally looked up from her window of unmade decisions to follow the Death Knight’s gaze. “What’s the range of your duel skill, Humps?”
“Not far enough, but I like the thought.”
Even with the tasty orange treat awaiting her button press - none of the weapons were situation-changing. She winced as she considered leaving the decision for later on.
“What’s this Mark thing?”
“It’s usually a badge type thing that gives some minor Stats depending on your class. More of an achievement thing than anything useful.” Humphrey scratched the side of his head. “Theo is going to be very annoyed none of this experience counts for him.
“It does… for us, though?” She wailed internally at not being able to see her experience bar. Levels up often came after the area was clear or they were no longer in danger. Theo was the danger.
“Yes.”
“How long can he keep this up? With the curse, I mean.” Despite him clearly being in charge of the situation, this was highly abnormal, and she was starting to worry about his well-being more than his well-doing.
“It is unclear,” the cat answered. “Everything about this is beyond the scope that I… that the Architect envisioned.”
Sally also didn’t envision getting torn up in Hell by her vampire companion. Not like this. The coffin was now destroyed, perhaps a shortsighted plan just for the added flair of- oh, she should have shouted ‘Theo, I choose you’ as he was thrown out. Maybe next time, if there was one.
“What do you plan, Sally?” Lucius prodded at her shoulder.
“I’m tired of plans. Why don’t we just wait - eventually, something will break, right?”
“As long as it isn’t me,” the demon shrugged, leaning nervously on his axe.
Theo was about at the Hell Portal now, the demons only making it a few steps - some of them just tumbling from the clogged opening - before he rendered them full of puncture wounds. Damon had perhaps seen enough and turned to the Outsiders.
“Well, a lot has been learned here - perhaps you will change your mind about joining us once you-“
The pink blur of the vampire [Blood Shift]ed over at the spellcaster, flares of dark energy flickering throughout the cavern as the shield activated and then failed - crimson marks shredding at him - twenty, no - thirty or more stab wounds appearing just a brief two seconds.
Theo flickered back to the Portal horde as the bloodied corpse of Damon dropped to the floor. Any zombie Sally had raised had met the same fate under the determined blades of the vampire.
There was no more room for the Hell Portal to spawn new demons. Each one killed piled up before the glowing blur of his attacks was at the entrance itself - the bodies barely making it halfway through the gateway before being cored or decapitated. Eldritch sparks began to fizzle from the runes around the stone frame.
“Do you think-“ Sally began before a burst of radiant purple light filled her vision, and deafening ring stung her ears. It began to fade as her eyes filtered the reds and crimsons of Hell properly once more.
Theo stood amongst a small mound of corpses.
He was breathing heavily - panting as his legs shook. From head to toe, he was absolutely drenched in blood and gore. Slowly, he lowered his arms as they shuddered.
“I… I did it…” he began quietly laughing to himself. “I did!… I killed all demons!”
Lucius slowly sidled behind Humphrey as Sally ran out into the cavern.
Gingerly she hopped over the piles of dead demons, slipping on some intestines and tripping on some bodies that were squishier than she had anticipated.
“Are you sane again, Theo? Don’t stab me.” Perhaps she should have exercised a bit more caution before going over to meet him. If the others didn’t stop her, then… they had stayed at the back still. She didn’t fail to notice their pensive stares, however.
“Not sane, no. I’m…” he turned to watch her arrive, “…I’m tired as shit, though.”
“Uh, we kind of broke your bed.” Her eye twitched at the implication. He had saved them by saving himself, or something, but without a proper bed to sleep in.
“I literally can’t move my legs or arms. Even if I go more crazy, I couldn’t hurt you.”
Sally ran her tongue across her sharp teeth. “Promise?”
His mouth opened and closed, and tears began to clear thin trails down his face. “I didn’t… I didn’t get any of that… experience, did I?”
“No, pup.” She gave him a glum smile. “But we have a lot of loot to dig through. You killed so many demons, you broke hell. Really did Redd proud.”
“I don’t know who that is,” Theo wailed, head hanging forward as tears and blood dripped from his face to the cavern floor - or at least atop the corpses blocking the ground.
“Alright,” she spun on her feet. “Humphrey, come carry Theo. Archie, help me to find any good loot amongst all these corpses. Lucius, fix that damn portal.”
They all nodded and said their agreement. Sally even folded her arms to look a little more commanding before the Death Knight rolled his lack of eyes.
“Hey, Sally.” Archie came up and brushed against her legs as she tried to decide how best to start looting these… potentially hundreds of bodies. “Is it okay if I take a nap after we loot all these bodies?”
“Of course, Arch.” She knelt down to give him a pet. The ginger cat didn’t get enough limelight on the best of days; the least she could do was give him some rubs and a well-earned nap.
“Okay, put your hand on my back then. This might work.” He waited for her to do so and then closed his emerald eyes and opened his mouth.
He felt warm beneath her dead hand, but that perhaps wasn’t unusual. Then, there was a vibration of energy, some kind of power, as he opened his mouth.
“I hope you like Inventory management,” he growled as a pulse of white light briefly flooded the room.
[7534 Gold]
[Basic Shortsword (23)]
[Basic Axe (44)
[Basic Crossbow (53)]
[Basic Spear (23)]
[Basic Greataxe (26)]
[Basic Club (36)]
[Basic Dagger (76)]
[Basic Leather Armour (42)]
[Basic Leather Leggings (67)]
[Basic Leather Boots (71)]
[Basic Leather Helm (44)]
[Demon Horns (231)]
[Skull (127)]
[Cooked Meat (85)]
[Demon Coin (12)]
[Crimson Key (17)]
[Crimson Treasure Box (6)]
[Mount Feed (45)]
[Lower Demon Card (14)]
[Uncommon Weapon Chance Box (24)]
[Rare Weapon Chance Box (6)]
[Uncommon Armour Chance Box (38)]
[Rare Armour Chance Box (8)]
[Demonkiller Blade (1)]
[Health Potion (31)]
[Greater Health Potion (21)]
[Mana Potion (34)]
[Campfire (16)]
“Ahhh,” Sally said, her eyes wide and unblinking as the stream of text messages passed through the side of the System. “That’s a lot of… everything.”
Archie burped. “Sucks that I can only use my abilities once, huh?”
“Yeah,” she nodded slowly, her voice distant as the messages started to give her a headache. “I think that would be somewhat overwhelming most of the time.”
“Anything for meeeee?” Theo wailed from atop the Death Knight.
She continued to slowly nod. This would take a while to parse through and understand. Probably in a moment of downtime when they weren’t sitting in a huge pit of corpses and oppressive heat.
“Portal is done!” Lucius beamed as a little firework emoji popped beside his head.
“Let’s get out of this Hell and back into the other.” Sally got to her feet and scrunched up her eyes. Overwhelming. She now had hundreds and hundreds of useless weapons inside her Inventory - alongside some things that actually sounded useful. Perhaps it was time for that crafting tutorial.
She picked up Archie and cradled the cat as he began to drift off to sleep. Walking up to the Death Knight, she gave Theo - who was now hanging limply over the shoulder plate of Humphrey - a little boop with her nose. “Come on, dumb ass. Let’s get you a new coffin.”
They trudged through the damp floor and up into the alcove, not even giving the place a second look before they passed through the portal and back into the normal Wasteland drudgery - still in the ruined basement. At least the sun seemed to be getting lower in the sky now.
Just as she was about to ask how they were going to get up through the doorway, she almost dropped the sleeping cat as her STAR bloiped.
Arranging Archie so that she could reach it, her eyes lit up, and all the exhaustion from the day washed away from her tired body.
They had leveled up twice.
