Chapter 10 – Fractured Memory

“Well, this is absurd.” I argued, slashing my hand through the air at Cinza, who had just suggested spending the entire stock of the Dungeon’s Glimmer on her levels.

“It’s not absurd if you want to overtake other Dungeons, moron.” She snapped back, her left eye twitching.

I knew that look; she was winding up for a really nasty, venomous statement. It was only a matter of time.

“So, what, you take the Glimmer, and just bail?” I turned away, crossing my arms over my chest.

I had spent a considerable amount of effort to collect that Glimmer, and I was going to use it for what I wanted to, damnit.

“I don’t just ‘bail,’ you incompetent excuse for a parlor Wizard.” She spat the words like they were on fire.

That was the nasty strike. Calling me out like I was a cut-rate, no talent showman from the Lower City, the Dregs. A Parlor Wizard.

Nothing more than a circus clown.

“You’re right.” I turned back, my face a scowl I didn’t know I could produce. “You don’t just bail, you stick it out until you can take the Dungeon from me by force.”

“Leese already told you I can’t do that.” She rolled her eyes at me.

“I don’t care. Leese is still new to this, and I worry that you’re going to go rogue.” I waved a dismissive hand in the air.

“Look, just give me one or two levels, alright? I’ll prove my worth.” Cinza said, her bargaining less bargaining and more demanding.

“Two levels? That’ll make you, what, Level Four?” I looked at Leese, who looked back at me and nodded. “What can you do at Level Four?”

“Murder some miscreants.” She said, a spark of glee in her eye for a moment, before it faded and the hatred was back in her gaze.

“You have a real problem, Cin.” I shook my head at her.

“No, you do. Give. Me. The. Glimmer.” She punctuated each word like a dagger strike.

“Leese, do Dungeon Monsters get addicted to leveling?” I raised an eyebrow at Cinza, then turned to Leese.

“I don’t see any research that says they either do or don’t, so I couldn’t tell you.” Leese answered, her little amber, blue, and green screens popping up as she typed in the air.

“You’re addicting like those Blair addicts down in the Dregs, Cin.” I said, looking away from her.

“Blair!? Why you, you enormous fuckwit!” Cinza basically screamed it at me. “I would never do something as dangerous, or as stupid as Blair.”

Blair was a common drug that was cheap, easy to come by, and fried a Wizard’s brain. But, while you were high on it, your magic was increased ten-fold. For the first time only. It had a one-hundred percent addiction rate, and was completely banned within the Guild City limits.

However, there was always the black market, and people would get their hands on it somehow. Regardless of the cost.

We had lost a solid number of Guild Wizards to Blair when I first joined, and eventually the numbers dwindled once other Wizards saw how damaging the after-effects were.

“Hey, whoa.” I shouted, putting my hands up. “I’m not a fuckwit.”

It took everything in me to not laugh at her outburst.

“I, uh.” She started, the anger fading from her face. “I’m sorry, you’re right. I feel like I have to level.”

“Okay, so now we’re getting somewhere. You leveled after killing those Heroes with me, right? So, now you’re addicted to the power. Can we fix it?” I was more thinking out loud than actually talking, but Cinza looked intrigued.

“I don’t know, but if we can, I’d like to. This feels horrible.” Cinza explained, her hands trembling in front of her.

“Is it a debuff, or like a timer, or…?” I looked at Leese, who looked at Cinza, who unfocused her eyes, then nodded.

“Yeah, it’s on a timer. Grimm, I need a level. It’s going to get worse in just a couple hours.” Cinza looked at me with fear in her eyes.

“Is it tiered?” I felt horrible for her, but I needed to know specifics. If I had to keep feeding Cinza levels like this, I was going to be out of Glimmer quickly.

“Looks like it.” Cinza’s eyes refocused and she looked at me, pleading.

“Fine, fine. I’ll give you a level.” I pulled open the interface, and looked at the Harbinger Settings information, checking the details.

Name: Cinza Shadowburn

Job Class: Fire Witch

Exp 396/900

Title: Harbinger

Level: 2

Health: 160/160

Mana: 540/540

Stamina: 100/100

Strength: 8

Job Skills:

Endurance: 12

Fire Magic: 15

Dexterity: 14

Light Armor: 12

Intelligence: 16

Long Blades: 13

Wisdom: 12

Short Blades: 3

Charisma: 11

Curses: 5

Luck: 7

Physical Armor: 7

Magical Resistance: 38

Cinza had the Curses skill!? That was the first time I had seen it on a Wizard outside of one of the Guild heads.

“Cin, why didn’t you tell me you had Curses?” I had to know how she learned it.

“How do you know that?” She eyed me suspiciously.

“I have access to your character sheet now. Your Fire Magic is on par with my Dark Magic.” I lied. She didn’t need to know she out-ranked me in any kind of magical class.

“Yeah, it’s kind of my specialty?” She sighed, then looked at me with irritation. “My level?”

I looked at the details, and according to the leveling option, it took four times the amount of Glimmer per EXP for Harbingers, and eight times for Dungeon Lords. That was an insane amount of Glimmer to spend to level.

So, in order to level Cinza, I would have to spend two-thousand and sixteen glimmer. Just to get her to Level Three.

“Shit, that’s expensive.” I said, before biting the bullet and accepting the purchase price. I had Glimmer to spare, but not a lot.

A bright yellow aura erupted around Cinza when I hit accept, and her face lit up with something I could only describe as euphoria.

“Hoo, man. Nothing feels that good, anywhere.” She said, an incredibly contented smile on her face.

“So, how do you feel?” I asked, looking at her.

Her scorched and dessicated skin had healed completely, leaving her body looking like it had before I had Siphoned her. Her face was back to normal as well, smooth and clean, and gorgeous as a Siren.

I hated that I had a crush on her. Even after all of the horrible things she had done to me, and my fellow Wizards.

But she was beautiful. Undead Gods, was she beautiful.

“Hey, stop staring.” She said, a drawn smirk across her face.

“Sorry, just witnessing the magic of Harbinger leveling.” I turned away, busying myself with something else as quickly as possible.

“It’s fine, Grimm. Thanks for the level. Now, lemme distribute my points, and we’ll see what kind of chaos we can start.” Cinza’s eyes unfocused again before a little amber window popped up in front of her.

“Leese, what level is that nearby Dungeon, the Tower of Betrothed Stalls, or whatever?” I sat down in my throne and stared out into the darkness.

“It’s level three, so Cinza should expect monsters ranging from levels three to five, and a lot of them.” Leese answered, sitting down on the arm of my throne.

“Can you handle that?” I asked, watching Cinza’s eyes flit back and forth in front of the amber screen.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Cinza said, clearly not listening.

“Cin.” I said, firmly yet in a friendly way.

“Yeah?” She closed the window and looked at me.

“Don’t die, okay?” I nodded to her, and she nodded back.

“Got it. I’ll be back in a couple days. You want anything while I’m out? Fried marsh chicken, some mushroom soup maybe?” She smiled at me with a genuine, heartfelt smile.

I hadn’t seen that on her face since we had dated after I graduated the Academy of the Wizard’s Guild.

For a brief while, Cinza and I had been inseparable, even though we were horribly toxic for one another. We had even lived together, before things went terribly downhill during a mission.

I caught her perma-killing a fellow Wizard, in order to claim the mission reward for us, which was something I couldn’t abide.

She tried to explain, she tried to talk her way out of it, but I had to end the relationship there. After that mission, I moved out, got my shitty apartments, and Cinza and I barely spoke since then.

Sometimes, though, when I saw her smile, I would catch the girl she once was in the way that she smiled, or the way she did things, and I longed for those times again. Simpler times. Easier times. Times when we weren’t both murder hobos.

“Hey, Earth to Grimm.” Cinza was standing in front of me, her chest right at my eye level.

“Eh, what?” I shook my head and looked up at her face.

“I’m going. Wish me luck, yeah?” She said, that glimmer of girlhood back in her eye.

“Yeah, good luck Cin.” I stood, unthinking, and hugged her.

My brain fired on all cylinders, screaming at me.

Why would you hug her!? What in the Underneath is wrong with you!? Let her go, let her die! Everyone would be better off if she were dead and burned to ash! Stop! STOP!

But I ignored it. I worried about her, even though I had perma-killed her before. I wanted her to be better, I wanted her to be a good person. Now she had a chance.

So I held on, and she struggled for a moment, before embracing me as well.

“I’m so sorry, Grimm.” She whispered, and I wasn’t entirely sure she had actually said it.

“I know, Cin. Me too.” I answered.

For a moment, everything was right. The Dungeon disappeared around me, and it was just Cinza and I, holding one another like we had years ago.

Then I let go, and the Dungeon came rushing back.

The cold, hard stone of the floor and walls. The smoky haze of the braziers that smelled faintly of blueberry.

“Well, that was awkward.” Cinza said, stepping away from me and turning her back.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” I said, still not entirely sure why I had done it.

“So, I’ll be back, one way or another.” She smiled over her shoulder and crossed the room, pushing through the Boss Chamber door and disappearing into the darkness beyond.

“You still love her.” Leese said, a tone of realization in her voice.

“What? That Witch? Fuck that.” I waved a dismissive hand at Leese, which phased through her digital body.

She giggled at me, then took flight.

“Cinza and Grimm, sitting in a tree.” She started, flitting about the room.

“Damnit, Leese, don’t make me uninstall you.” I shouted, flailing at her with my hands, but never actually making contact.

“You can’t catch me!” She joked as she flew about the room, me chasing after her trying to swat her from the air.

This continued for several minutes until I was completely out of Stamina, heaving deep breaths into my lungs, leaning against the side of my throne.

“We need to focus on the next Raid.” I said, out of breath.

“Yep, let’s do that.” Leese said, sitting down next to me, crossing her legs.

She took up my entire throne this time, her body growing to fit the chair.

“You realize that’s my seat.” I said, slightly annoyed.

“Who actually runs this Dungeon, Grimm?” She looked at me with a raised eyebrow, then nodded. “Uh-huh, got it in one.”

“Fine, fine, I’ll sit on the floor.” I sighed heavily and dropped, cross-legged, onto the stone floor.

“You mentioned to Cinza that you wanted to move more units to the first floor, but that leaves the second floor completely undefended in the event of a breach. Are you sure you want to do that?” Leese asked, showing me a screen that gave me real-time visualization of both floors next to one another.

“Show me what it would look like if we moved everyone to the first floor.” I said.

“So.” Leese typed in the air, and all of the green dots on the map moved to the first floor. “In the case of a breach, you would be the only one down here, with no backup. That is, assuming you didn’t go into the fray like last time.”

“I do prefer to be part of the action, though that one woman nearly ended me.” I shook my head.

“It would likely be a better choice, while Cinza is away on a mission, to stay in the Boss Chamber and await your prey, so to speak.” Leese explained, moving the green dots around the first floor map, providing a tactical and efficient layout.

“How much time do we have left?” I needed to know if I still had time to use my Ability Point, or if I needed to wait.

“You have about an hour.” Leese said, closing all of her screens at once.

“Okay, that’s fine. That’s plenty of time, I think. Let’s move some traps.” I chose to be more tactical than selfish this time around, just for shits and giggles.

“Last time, nobody even made it to your traps. I would suggest move the Fire Explosion trap to the first, main door. While you move the Crystal Shatter trap to the place where Fire Explosion was previously.” Leese spun in the air, leaving my chair free.

I stood up and planted myself firmly in my throne, smirking at her.

“Yes, congratulations, you have your throne back. Now, tactics?” Leese shook her head at me.

“Hey, it’s an accomplishment. I figured you were going to sit here all night.” I said, thinking about how tired I was.

Speaking of night, when was the last time I had slept? How many days had it been since I left the Guild City? Oh, that’s right. One. I’d been gone one day, and already I wanted my bed back.

“You don’t really think now is a good time to sleep, do you?” Leese watched me yawn.

A notification popped up in front of my eyes, unbidden.

>>>

Debuff Added

Tired – Tier I

Your body is exhausted, and you could really use some sleep. You’ve been up longer than 24 hours and you will begin to feel the effects of it on your body.

Fatigue: Reduced Stamina Regeneration by 5%. Duration: Until rested

Exhaustion: Reduced Health and Mana Regeneration by 7.5%. Duration: Until rested

It’s true, you can sleep when you’re dead. But you’re more likely to die early if you don’t sleep now. ~General Okemos, Deceased

>>>

I had to fight to stifle a second yawn, as though the damnable debuff had cursed me to keep yawning.

“I mean, I guess we have some time until the Raid if you want a short nap?” Leese said, pulling a face.

“Honestly, I should probably get a little bit of sleep, right? How long until the units regenerate, and the gates are open for another Raid?” I got comfortable in my throne and leaned my head back, closing my eyes.

“About forty-five minutes or so.” Leese answered.

“Awesome, wake me up when it’s time for the fight.” I said, my mind going dark like the room around me.

“Oh, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about that.” Leese said.

“Move the units, too.” I mumbled, already half asleep.

“Righto.” Leese chirped, before my brain faded into the abyss of sleep.