Rule 20

Adapt & Overcome

Statement: Many times, as I write out these adventures, I wonder what the point is. Is it a lesson I want others to learn? Perhaps. With my first journal, I believed I might die at any moment. I still do and have come close more times than I’d expected. Yet, it’s less of a chance to share my journeys with others, and more to take note of the changes in myself. A study on who I was and who I’m becoming.

In a way, that’s more frightening thansxaz the idea I might die—that is, the knowledge that I’m turning into a monster. That I’m becoming one, or perhaps had been one all along, simply waiting for the chance to break free.

His body didn’t dissolve right away. It took time. I knelt and studied his nearly featureless face. This man could have been human before the event, like the dryad and her giant husband. They could have been a monster born of the magical energy which made creatures like mini-orcs pop up out of nowhere.

I didn’t know. Its clothes provided me little in the way of hints. They were thick and shredded. My earlier tantrum had been ill advised, but at least the monster wasn’t going to get up again. I continued studying. These clothes might have been a uniform but had faded under the white blood oozing everywhere. None of it mattered.

Suddenly it occurred to me there might be more of these creatures. Maybe there had been dozens and they’d witnessed me savagely goring their companion. I stood and poked my head out the door. Dull moss-covered metal lined the walls in both directions. No hint of any other slim humanoid shapes. No missing mates or brothers from another mother. Not even my sort of estranged party members tromping through the halls.

I tilted back slightly and looked at the vents. They might serve as an escape now. The remaining seven rooms should be safe enough to travel in. I’d give it a few minutes and hope no new creatures filled the void I’d recently made by killing that quick bastard.

Then there was my own status. My clothes were a wreck. I pulled my shirt out slightly and frowned at the mess of glowing white remains. Some of the thicker bits were internal organs. I could taste the pasty foulness that burned like vodka and smelled faintly of oranges.

Post Note: In hindsight, this whole affair was rather twisted. I’d killed to regain freedom. But it’s worse than that. I brutalized due to annoyance. There was a fine line that simply hadn’t needed to be crossed. Worse still, I felt better after the additional savagery. It was uncivilized—and simply recalling it showed me how far I’d fallen.

“You hear that?” Callisto asked. “Allie? Something’s changed. What happened?”

“My quest updated,” Leon said. “It says kill the King Slime.”

“The walls are gone,” Allegra added. “See the map? They’re transforming. It’s like we’re collapsing. Or there’s another map.”

“Might be a phased instance. Maybe ghost is on one of the layers? It would explain why he can affect our layer. But then this quest might happen on another one.”

“Layers?” Allegra said. Papers shuffled.

I rolled my eyes and took note as the world around me dissolved too. It was as though the walls simply ceased to be one piece at a time. It could be that I existed on a third, or even fourth version of this place. Either way, I’d see the results soon enough.

For now, I needed to know if this creature would provide me a new spell or not. After what felt like forever, the monster faded into a single white orb bigger than my head. It hovered there, seemingly with a mind of its own compared to the normal results of killing monsters. A chill crept up and down my spine and I pushed it aside.

There were too many possibilities to that resistant flying ball of light. It could have been special like the necklace. It could be waiting for something like the black sword. I still didn’t have a firm grasp on the logic of how spells formed or what linked them together.

Post Note: While we’re on the topic, here are questions for later. Some I’ll get to by the end of this journal, others, are still outstanding problems to be solved:

Why did the dead man’s sword turn into black orbs and let me store objects in a pocket space? Form and function seem unrelated. Why did the first lantern give me an explosive spell that functioned differently on my ogre form? Function seems influenced by body. Why did the dryad dying give me a special ability but not the giant? Likely, not all magical shapes are compatible. What were the sharp teeth mixed in with the ogre’s flat teeth? The demon on the bus had similar teeth, in shape and color. Could Little Shade or Midge have used the necklace? Why didn’t they try? This argues to them being trustworthy, despite being stabbed and magically electrocuted upon parting. Where the fuck is a manual for this weird world? I’m inclined to believe the stewardesses may have given anyone who asked a guidebook but it would have been misleading.

The white orb bobbed along slowly, without care or concern. This bothered me. It should have been absorbed by someone in the first few seconds of existing. Normally every energy orb I’d seen functioned in a similar manner.

“Anything else?” Callisto’s voice broke the silence.

The orb stopped. I’d swear it spun but the energy had no face or eyes of note.

“No,” Allegra responded.

“We need to get ready. I think there’s a boss next.” Leon’s armor rustled.

“But this isn’t a dungeon,” Callisto said.

“I think,” Leon paused then his voice trembled as he continued, “I think it was going to be, but we caught it as it was forming.”

The white orb shrank from the disembodied voices and pulled into a corner. The air blurred and the orb started to fade like the walls had. I couldn’t let it get away or be scared off by their sudden conversation or vanish into another phase, whatever a phase meant. Leon’s terms often threw me off.

The lantern had taken physical contact. Maybe this was the same. I drove my book into the orb. There was no reason to be picky at this stage, especially when each possible unique power might give me new tools. Only a few spell slots were left, and once I filled them I could worry about learning how to expand my options.

The white orb was swallowed by my book’s exposed pages. I turned it back around, flipped to the back, and noticed something I’d never seen before. Two business cards were imprinted on the book’s back binding. Both mostly illegible, one said Hephaestus, and the other Atropos. I frowned and filed it away for later.

Post Note: Since later is relevant, here are more questions to ponder.

How is it I’m able to get to the spells so quickly? Some of it is practice, but the rest seems instinctual—to the point of it happening while I’m unaware. How are the business cards being stored? I don’t remember putting them into the book’s pages at all. What is the lore behind Hephaestus and Atropos? They remind me of history class, but I can’t remember the details. This worries me, because there’s hints in everything. How exactly is the spell book constantly in my presence? Prior to this world, I could hardly keep a jacket more than a few months without leaving it behind somewhere.

“Ready?” Callisto asked.

“Ready,” Leon answered.

“No,” Allegra said then sighed. “But I never am.”

I refocused my attention on the new spell. White energy fluttered under the page’s mirror-like surface. I watched to see if this ability would somehow crack the strange material the book was made of. It wouldn’t surprise me if one of the pages swallowed more than it could handle. Magic’s rules seemed to cater to fuzzy logic over hard numbers.

After a minute, the spell settled and rolled around like every other set of bobbing lights from the other pages. I pondered what white might represent. Maybe this one would turn me into a frog. I had hopes this latest ability wouldn’t be some stupid alternate body with screwed up side effects. It was awkward enough becoming an ogre with the green spell, or a male dryad with the brown one. If I turned into a blind spindly man I might simply break the page, no matter how fast he could move.

Time was always limited. I pooled white energy onto my fingertips. It took even less effort than normal to find the correct gesture. Fingers locked into position where everything nearly touched and the milky glow illuminated my tips. I stared at the pasty lights. Like my explosive rune on Mister Underwood, the energy hung for a moment then flowed down.

The energy continued. I felt sick but rode out the effect. My body showed no sign of shifting into some new creature. My arm moved and a slight hallucinogenic after effect lingered. I stuck an arm toward a wall and pushed slowly. My palm sank in slowly. It wasn’t strength. My hand could actually push through the remaining outer thick metal wall. I pulled back and stared at my hand. No sign of being harmed or any flesh missing.

That glow suffused everything. My foot moved and for a moment I felt sleepy, or sick. Delirious perhaps. Enough that my leg felt like an alien creature I’d seen out of the corner of my eye. I stared. The sight reminded me I still needed new pants. I needed new everything. The trashcan full of spider webs would hopefully be useful. I still had the golden thread in my other pocket. It stuck out slightly and I made sure to bundle it tightly in the loose pocket.

This place couldn’t be a video game as Leon thought. It felt far too annoying to be anything but reality. I had to deal with clothes and holding items. Worse still, these spells had time limits and side effects. A game world would simply give me magic without any sort of problems.

“Ghost? Are you there?”

“I found those phases. There’s three left. Ours, and one with a dot I can’t identify,” Allegra said. “Hold on. The third is merging in. That has your Slime King.” Metal armor rustled.

I mostly tuned out the others while experimenting. This new effect might fade in a few minutes, or it might be a long-term enchantment like the alternate bodies. Even if it only lasted ten minutes, that was still a long time to take advantage of.

Now that we supposedly no longer trapped, it might be best if the mystery companion “G-H-S-T” faded away. They had a treasure to nab, and while I’d certainly gained an intangible something, literally, if we were collapsing together it might be awkward.

“Ghost?” Callisto asked again. “Anyone. Did he die? Allie?”

She almost sounded concerned. Probably because she’d lost a potential tool in her great chess game.

“The dot’s still there. I think it’ll merge after us, but the new map we’re going to is mostly blocked out. We have maybe fifteen seconds before battle,” Allegra said. I heard a rustle of armor that might be Leon shaking his head.

“Yep. Countdown timer just popped,” Leon added. “A second one right after, two minutes.”

I’d never intended to become entangled with them anyway. My goal had simply been to sneak in, take anything of value to help me survive, and rush back to town and take care of the damn ogre infestation. Showing up and going, “Hey guys, I’m still alive, tee-hee” sounded like a useless gesture. Especially considering their views on Hawthorn. That gave me two minutes and change to find a way to escape or conceal my identity. Glowing white might help.

Still, Allegra would quickly see through the false identity. Around us, or me and their faint voices, the walls continued to melt away. I sniffed and readied my blade and bomb. The glowing white energy still suffused my skin and gave my explosive rune and dagger a strange hue. I waved the blade and wondered why it’d become different, like a moon, instead of the thick sea of stars that normally formed the material.

“Is that our boss? A giant slime?” Callisto asked.

“Marker says so,” Leon responded.

“Then that…” Allegra’s voice trailed off.

Callisto groaned. The thought brought with it a flashback of better times. She groaned like that when I—as Lance, before the accident—said something she didn’t like.

My mind shifted. I wondered how many layers of Allegra’s robes had been plastered with green gunk. Callisto might also have her clothing attractively destroyed but I’d decided to hate her for a while. Plus, while not Hawthorn, I could entertain such thoughts and not be consumed by them.

My eyes tightened. As the walls faded I got a better view of our surroundings. We were in a flattened out room. It reminded me of a hangar for huge airplanes, only there were no airplanes at all. Only a green slab of opaque goo hanging from the far wall.

I groaned too, understanding the earlier reason for their annoyance. It was a huge mass of dried goo that extended into this layer. Based on the tubs from earlier, there was certainly a “Slime King” sitting there.

Prizes might be in a fourth phase. By now, those three should be fighting a boss, which meant I’d be joining them soon unless I found a way to escape. I heard metal scraping sounds that reminded me of Leon’s armor and Callisto’s sword swinging. Their invisible battled carried on.

I scanned the walls while keeping myself low to the ground. There were bits of moss like before. That hadn’t changed, but they were farther away.

The pile of goo didn’t move. I ran for the wall opposite the slime coating and pressed my face against the curved surface. There were no obvious grooves or handles. My white spell let me sink slowly through the material but it was like moving through syrup. Air resistance hadn’t changed so traveling through walls might have to do with particle density or some other unknown factor.

I stared at the milky white dagger again and frowned. One hand waved as an experiment. It still lit with tracer effects chasing after the blade. This was only vaguely like the slender man I’d murdered to get it. Once again magic didn’t seem to have a direct link between where I’d gained it and the results.

“Bunching up!” Callisto said. “Leap attack.”

The ground vibrated seconds later. My teeth rattled from the impact and feet slipped. I should have listened when she’d given a warning, even if the monster and I weren’t together, the vibrations were intense.

“It’s withdrawing, Leon, stun!”

Muffled white light flared. I felt the edge of Leon’s stun hammer and swayed. Callisto’s line of bunched light shot through the air and I took a breath, expecting to be cut before I could get away.

The blow never landed. I resolved to listen to her battle warnings, even if we were separated. Once again I marveled at her ability to call out dangers based on only a few seconds of watching the enemy.

Post Note: How she knew what moves were happening was beyond me. They’d never explored this place to my knowledge. Either Leon, Callisto, and Allegra had murdered so many monsters over the last year fighting them was instinctual, or her abilities gave her a hint. I suspected the latter.

Studying the walls for clues took precious time. I ran to the next wall and stared down its length. No openings were visible, no changes in texture. A smooth arch continued all the way to the ceiling and came back down on the far end. Three of the walls were useless. There had to be an escape or some other key.

Here, I paused, then waved the red spell to try and get it off my fingertips. It simply faded. Not into a bomb, not into a spell. Nothing. Either I’d let it sit for too long, or the white and red spells weren’t compatible.

“What?” I pooled energy again. It burned lightly. My fingers locked quickly into the final part of the rune gesture. Fire fanned in cone that reached almost six feet away. It changed direction as the hand forming the rune moved. Five seconds later, roughly when an explosive would have armed, it clicked off and the red energy faded. I frowned.

My explosive spell had changed as well. This time it wasn’t a rune or rage empowering smash, but a flamethrower. One that had to be used quickly or it might fade away. I couldn’t prep the spell ahead of time.

This made no sense. Minutes ago, it had clearly functioned as a bomb, only now the attack style changed. It would probably do the same amount of damage. My hulking smash and explosive rune were nearly equal, but it was a matter of direction. This had energy to it as well but would burn instead of use concussive force. Also, the flame had been white, like the ghostly after image that followed my arms as they waved.

The paste colored spell might last forever or fade in ten minutes like my other abilities. It might be a onetime buff. I stopped and pulled out my spell book. Sure enough, the red energy sat waiting for me to use, while the page that had formerly been white had faded entirely. The shimmering reflective surface looked dead. The explosive rune would look the same if I pulled the spell away.

A mad sort of giggle escaped. I flipped to the next empty page to look at my reflection. My face seemed normal aside from the glow. My hair uneven and shaggy. Mud lined my features. The clothing I wore had been utterly drenched. It made me look like a homeless man who ventured into a television game show and failed to cross the moat of slimes, twice.

Alternating between exploring my powers and searching for exits helped keep me focused during the two minutes I’d been given. The fighting around me sounded worse by the second. Callisto continued to shout orders. Leon grunted softly in pain, or maybe he was too far away. This chamber had to be almost half the size of a football field in length, and similar in width.

The hammer stun hit again and this time I fell to the ground. My stomach growled in hunger. I fumbled in my pocket for the book I’d once again put away. Energy from the front-page spell pooled together but I didn’t pull my hand away. Once I did, the clock would start ticking.

“Third split!” Callisto shouted.

I didn’t know what her warning meant. Leon banged his shield and Allegra said something that was surely important.

Their words were mostly garbled as I ran for the far end, intent on unleashing fiery hell upon the green goo lined area. This decision came about because I’d noted a door on the far side that surely went somewhere or meant something. It was all related. Either there was an escape or a secret beyond its confines.

Smaller pops of goo sprayed the middle of the room. Lights shined from the trio’s special attacks. Nothing stopped me. Nothing could see me this way. The smaller oozes that Callisto’s had fought were unaware before, and thankfully oblivious now. I could have been wading through a sea of them and never noticed.

“Get ready, ghost!” Callisto said. Why she cared enough to warn me I couldn’t figure. I only knew there wasn’t enough time left before something changed.

Near the door was a layer of crusty ooze. It reminded me of the leftovers from those bundled up monsters the others had been popping. I couldn’t figure out why this was visible here but not the monster that surely generated this mess. Fire sprayed from my fingertips in a cone. The green goo turned into gas and peeled back. Something shook the room like an earthquake.

“What’s that?” Leon demanded.

“Enrage?” For once, Callisto didn’t sound sure.

I felt happy that this gave me a small form of revenge. Anything that made Callisto sound uncertain had value. Such small vindictive thoughts kept me company until the flame clicked off after five seconds.

I jerked the door open and went inside with my blade ready to stab anything that moved. It might have been possible to use my white bodied phasing ability to pass through rather than use the handle, but I couldn’t risk it fading away at the wrong time. Karma would likely kill me by removing intangibility halfway through a wall.

“Look out!” Callisto’s warning was muffled as I stepped into the strangely quiet room. Surely the slender creature had been in here before.

Inside was a small room with a hose attached to a nozzle, a large thick tube that went from floor to ceiling next to the nozzle, and pieces of paper with drawings pinned on a tack board slowly burned. I glanced around and wondered what the heck this all meant. I inhaled and focused on the two easier tasks.

The pieces of burning paper were almost gone. Somehow they were related to this time limit. Turning the spigot resulted in a thick stream of green pouring from the hose’s other end. The creature had been coming in here and filling up on small doses of monster. I knew because stacks of empty plastic totes were pushed against a wall.

“Dead?” Leon’s words were muffled and sounded underwater. “I’m showing zero.”

“Can’t tell. Might be a fourth split,” Callisto said in an equally distorted voice. “It was easier with Hawthorn. If nothing else we always knew monsters were dead when he stopped caring.” That was about the kindest thing she’d said about me. Too bad I was sort of dead.

I took a breath and wondered what might change if I destroyed the tube or yanked down the board. There were too many possibilities and being too clever might result in me never making a difference. I couldn’t have more than a few seconds left.

One of the two remaining pieces of paper finished its self-immolation. My head spun with sudden dizziness. The room shifted. Huge green gelatin bodies faded into view. The small control center I’d been in disappeared. I stared at the ground and found myself standing on a small discolored square that didn’t match the rest of the gray tiles.

It made no sense. The walls were in the right spots, but I had moved. A sudden impact slammed into my ribs. My body flew backward and skidded along the ground. My chest tightened and lungs gasped for air at the same time. The world kept spinning.

I fought to ready my spectral blade and white flame cone spell. Those actions stopped when I noticed a sword pointed at my neck. On the other end was an angry, slimy, and nearly naked vision of Callisto. Only her chain mail remained, and the sight made me gulp.

Post Note: I feel it necessary to pause my recount frequently with these notes. To those reading this one may seem misplaced, but for me it’s a form of record keeping. Maybe it will never matter, for I can’t read my own journal moments after putting pen to paper. Still, here are the combinations so far.

Black = Five places to “store” items and summon magically crafted versions. Storing/removing template items is done by equipping the spell on one hand. Summoning magical versions is done by equipping the spell on the other hand. All summoned versions last for roughly ten minutes (time is hard to measure without an hourglass)

Red = A rune that can be laid down like a trap, takes five seconds to arm. Highly damaging to user and enemies.

Brown + Red = Same functionality.

Green + Red = Power Fist that builds steadily and explodes on impact

White + Red = Flamethrower that has to be used before five seconds are up

Brown = Dryad Form. Higher dexterity, reaction, and libido. Low self-control. Retains stealth.

Green = Ogre Form. Higher strength, defense, and excessively twisted vocabulary. No stealth.

White = Spectral form???

White + Brown = ???

White + Green = ???

As always, further testing is needed. This says nothing of the possible personality side effects. Color basis noted. Possible other colors include blue, pink, orange, etc. This is only speculation.