Chapter 2

The Nutcracker

The entire time through the different levels I made sure to get the cleared cache. In each level of the trial there is always one hidden alcove where a valuable item sits. In 99 out of 100 cases it is a simple rejuvenate potion. A potion that as the name states will replenish spent energy and allow for the user to muscle not only through this floor but the next floor as well.

Also cleared cache is my term for the case, so far as I am aware I am the only person who discovered these items on every single floor. There are a few race conditions to earn the item in question. The first is that you must beat the entire floor within a certain time, generally half an hour or so. Time works differently in the Awakening portal, but my mental math calculated the time in the portal world as thirty minutes portal world time. The second thing is that the item is always hidden in the same exact spot, though one must be looking for the item within those first thirty minutes to find them.

The third interesting thing is that once every hundred or so runs the item in question changes. Sometimes it drops a never-ending phaser pistol. One time it made it so all elemental powers I wielded were 50% more effective. This would have been a great drop normally, if I wasn’t built like a support class character, with my wind and water affinities only powerful enough to allow me to sustain the basic tenants of life, if barely. Even with the 50% boost, I was only marginally better with both elements.

In case anyone was wondering, the phaser pistol was confiscated by military police and promised to be returned after my graduation. It was later lost, surprise, only to be found years later as a showcase piece in some corrupt judge’s sex dungeon. I still remember that bastard, even the thought of him now makes my blood boil. That pistol and I, we could have been legendary. The pistol itself was nothing more than an ornament from the realm of the gods, as it had been soul calibrated to only work at my touch. Still people thought I would have been too powerful with it.

Ultimately my track record with these rare drops are pretty lackluster at best. Truthfully, I’ve found that I prefer the rejuvenation potions, they are a known quantity and I generally go into every run expecting them. The times I miss them, forces me to physically rest longer as I don’t have the instant pick me up, as I do every other level. Thus, it should come as no surprise that this time of all times I get the rare jackpot, right on floor number forty-nine. It was bound to happen, statistical probability and all. Truthfully it had been about four lifetimes worth of crawls since I last received one. So, I mostly forgot about the random prizes that would sometimes spawn.

As soon as I saw the vial glowing an electric purple, I knew I was about to be sodomized. See the entire run I was going through my different plans on how I would get out, go low-key. Get a real civilian job, live a normal life. I could honestly say I gave it my best, twelve different times I had given it my best. Now, this time I was going to sluff off, give it my least. Maybe try art, or to be a musician. I had practiced in my past, sort of a form of personal therapy to help me cope with how certain people betrayed me. How at some point everyone from my first life, people who I had all considered to be friends or at least friendly all in some way shape or form betrayed me. Most were small things, letting me take the heat for a lost battle. Making me lose rank because we all spoke about bringing up our complaints to management, then when the time to stand united came, I was left being the only one who stood out. Everyone lost their spines at the last moment, making me get demoted, and then sent to the front lines to redeem myself and my career. That was the first time the scourge came; I was on the front lines the first time they contacted us. I was one of the first million to be eaten alive by the space locusts.

So now, here I am holding a bright purple potion after all these times of trying and failing. After so many runs of trying my absolute best and coming up just short. Here I have this potion that should have by all accounts been a simple rejuvenation potion a one in one hundred chance is just that, a one in one hundred chance. This potion both screws over my plans for the next level as I am already feeling fatigued by the constant runs. In fact, my whole strategy for these final few stories has always been to drink the rejuvenation potions and proceed forward as quickly as possible.

Still, I can’t help but feel that this is some divine providence. Even through the jar I can feel the power of the concoction broiling within. It is far more powerful than anything I have ever gotten on a run, which is saying something given how many of these I have received. I believe this is the fourth overall item, and the third specialty elixir I’ve received.

Breathing slowly, I calm my mind. Then I realize it is a trap. This entire jar screams set up. I don’t have to take it; I don’t need it to proceed. In fact, I could pretend that I never found the item. Unless it is a soul linked item, I will not be able to take it with me. Meaning that all I need to do is put it down and walk away. I want to do just that; I even move to do just so.

As I move, my hand trembles slightly as two different parts of my mind fight for dominance. There is the rational part of me that is screaming that this is a trap of some kind, that the Gods are not benevolent beings. That of course they would lace their traps with sweet tasting cyanide, the poison pill as it were. I take this gain powers, but then my dick falls off. Or worse, becomes so large that it dangles near my knee. No thank you. I have been fucked over enough by the Gods for a lifetime. Last thing I need is for them to try to mess with my manhood as well.

With that final thought I make a final flourish and place the vial on the floor.

Tink, clink.

The glass vial clicks off the ground as I get it to settle. As soon as it rests on the ground, I let out a long sigh, do an about face and proceed to walk away. I get all of three steps away, three steps of freedom, before I turn charge forward lunge at the floor, swooping up the vial quickly before it can dissolve into nothingness. I am not certain what happens to these special items if they are not consumed or taken. I have never not taken them. Most of the time they are just too good to pass up, one drink and you are all patched up and ready to continue your journey. Or one drink and suddenly you are exceptionally mediocre with elements, as opposed to your normal mediocre standing.

Glug. Glug.

The drink feels icy cold for a second as it enters my body. At first, I am mildly annoyed that it doesn’t taste like grape. I don’t quite know how to describe the taste of the fluid, maybe like ice cold spring water with a hint of frozen sunshine. There is clearly a taste of power to the drink, but one that doesn’t immediately take hold. Instead, there is a slow trickle through my body as I feel the liquid first roll down my throat, then I almost imagine it exploding out as it hits my stomach, before pulsing through my veins that suddenly feel like they are near to bursting.

There is a burning in my body that goes up my chest, to my neck, where I feel like I am going to die. Here I am day one into my new life and already going to die. Killed by the Gods’ purple death potion that didn’t taste like grape. The pain doesn’t stop at my neck, even though my entire neck is now pulsing as most of the energy from the potion is now moving upwards. Then finally the pulsing enters my head, and I am left with an intense itching sensation in my eyes.

I instinctively rub my eyes, but it is no use. Trying to see out of the eyes causes everything to go blurry, so I close my eyes drop to the ground and wait for death. I wait for the moment that will never come.

Finally, after a few minutes pass, the burning sensation in my eyes subsides. Then after long last I feel comfortable enough to open my eyes and see the world around me. I half expect the monsters to have reappeared around me, that would be just like the Gods. Offer a poisoned drink that sedates the user long enough for the monsters on the floor they just cleared to reappear. To my understanding this has never happened, but I wouldn’t put it past the gods.

Still, I wait, trying to figure out if anything happened. That is when I go over my Status page and see the new entry.

[Energy Sight]

That’s it, two words. That is always how these so-called blessings from the gods appear. Two words, then it is up to the wielder to try to understand what is different. The only reason why I knew that my previous bonus went to increasing my elemental potency was because that was the name of it. [Increased Elemental Potency]. From there it was a matter of seeing my base stats in the elements, which have always been absurdly low. Then comparing my efficiency in manipulating the elements compared to others. In all there was a noted 50% increase from what I should be able to have done, to what I was able to do.

Thus, I am certain that this [Energy Sight] will likely be more of the same. Something incredibly lame that likely will only cause more problems for me later. That said, power is power, and absolute power should absolutely be taken when offered. Famous words, I believe someone spiritual must have said them somewhere, at some time or other.

Nevertheless, I was officially done with floor forty-nine. Which meant I went to exit and received one free Attribute point that I had to assign before moving on. So, I added it to my Power attribute, giving me lucky number thirty-two. One away from my ultimate lucky number thirty-three.

Why is that my lucky number? Simple that was the longest I was able to live while in one of my previous lives. Well at least from the point of restart on, which meant that I died at fifty-one years old. You probably guessed it, I died on the front lines against the scourge in that life too.

Glimpsing the massive robotic empire at the other end of portal fifty lets me realize that this final floor will be a modern world. See there are three main themes that these floors draw upon. The first was the natural one, where you fight pack animals in some type of wilderness setting. Then after a few floors you get a slightly older style floor that resembles turn of the millennium life. Convenience stores selling alcohol and cigarettes at all times of the day. Urban cities that could still see an open blue skyline, even if large buildings clouded some of the cities that you had to fight in. Still in this setting most of the people you fought were just that, people. Even if the entire enemy force was composed of space elves, called Endar. Or the blue-ish skinned dwarves known as Dwenvar. They were all sentient creatures and were meant to represent some of our earliest encounters with the hostile alien forces.

Then there was the final one, the present world. One where we had to fight the industrial machines we created as humans to help fight off the Endars and the Dwenvars. I think there was supposed to be a cosmic moral to the story, but ultimately it got lost somewhere around floor forty for me. Then by the time I would finish, I was mainly more relieved than anything. For me these were often the worst floors. I could still clear them within the thirty minutes, but they were tougher as the machines were not sentient. At least not possessing the same type of sentience that the monsters, humans, Endars, or Dwenvars have. This of course means that my ace attack power, Mind Rend is ineffective. Fortunately for me, I am a man of many talents. Even more fortunately for me is that my Psychic class is Psionic. This means that I don’t have any of the mind reading, or control abilities that one would often associate with a Psychic. As a note, Psychics are generally considered the support class and often assigned non-combat roles. This is like my classification as a support class for a wizard, where I could either be a mage breaker, or a field medic. Anything more and I would be well outside my depth for my magical capabilities. Fortunately for me, my Psionic classification means that my mental powers that I have are offensive in nature. The most prominent of these mental powers is of course Mind Rend. But I do have three other powers that are all on the combat end of the mind magic spectrum. Two of these powers I have even mastered using. The first and most versatile remaining power is Telekinesis, or my ability to move things with my mind. This is particularly effective against robots, as once you know where an internal item is within the robot, you can move it causing all types of internal problems for the device. This is like the Mind Rend concept, where I am effectively stirring up the mind of a target. In this case, my use of Telekinesis is the equivalent of being able to grab a vital organ within the robotic device and crush or remove the piece. Most of the systems within these robots are redundant, meaning removing some wires will not do a thing. Even removing one power core is often not enough for the larger ones. That is why moving the pieces that will cause a cascading explosion within the device is the way to go.

This is relatively easy, as often it is something as small as changing the polarity of the charging crystal. Or to put it more simply, spinning about one of the power cores in a robot until it is misaligned with the others. Think of it as turning a heart around by one hundred and eighty degrees. Suddenly valves that were taking blood in are now sending them out. Arteries that should be taking blood away would now need to reverse their purpose and take blood to the heart, it would cause complete chaos to the body. Same basic concept for a robot, but with their electrical signatures and wiring.

So again, I reiterate the fact that even in this realm I cheat. Even without the last rejuvenation potion I am still able to walk through the entire floor quickly and efficiently. Also given that this is my six hundredth advanced floor, I feel a little nostalgic. Then I remember, no wait, last floor was number six hundred. Perhaps that is why I received the stupid purple potion?

I proceed towards the main floor. Through all the levels, my Power has increased not only how powerful my different Psionic abilities are, but how far of a range I have with them. I’m not exactly sure of the exact range I have at this moment but suffice it to say I can feel every android on the floor from the starting area. There is something odd as I feel like I can almost see the monsters even if only with my advanced range. There is something to this, I know, perhaps it has something to do with my new [Energy Sight]? I wonder to myself, but then quickly dismiss the thought. I want to try out new ways of using this supposed sight and wonder if it is like the name states. A new form of sight that allows me to see with the energy around me. But I don’t want to take any chances. Instead, I just stick to the game plan that has always worked for six hundred and counting floors.

I first find the main boss machine. It is a network device that is the size of a large office warehouse, complete with monstrous cable appendages that it can use to assemble multiple minions in quick succession. My mind is moving, reacting on near exhausted auto pilot. First, I ignite the crystals that are about to be used to assemble some of the missing drones. With but a thought I summon my Pyrokinesis ability, or Psionic version of creating flames.

Pop, pop, pop.

The crystals begin popping off one by one. As soon as I get one, the ones next to them also go off, until the entire conveyor belt that was grabbing the energy stones is destroyed. While that is happening on one end of the room, my mind is in a fierce battle constantly flipping the energy sources within the final boss machine. This machine is adaptive, able to quickly change the way energy flows through its mainframe, at least at first it is. But then I switch two crystals to alternating patters, then two more at different locations. I feel like a pianist, playing with both hands. Each hand reaching out and touching the perfect key at the exact right time with perfect resonance. Soon it is an orchestra of the mind, one where my mental fingers are playing the machines opus, then finally BOOM!

The machine dies and I have cleared the last and final boss of this life’s awakening trial. With my entry level task complete I take a deep mental sigh. It is always rough, this first day. Going through this trial repeatedly, each time striving for a perfect run is a daunting challenge. Especially when many of my first few moments are spent on me trying to figure out how I died and then how I can improve upon my mistakes in this life. In this one I am resolute in my path forward. My path being to renounce my officer candidacy and to become a civilian who constantly complains about the military, one who gets to enjoy the freedoms that the soldiers fight for. Out of habit I check the main room’s cleared cache. I want the final rejuvenation potion now more than ever. Especially as I spent the last two rooms on fumes.

That is when I am hit with the second surprise to my cleared cache findings. Namely I find my second alternate vial, this one glows with a deep silvery color. Fuck. I think to myself, as exhaustion creeps into my body and mind. I am so tired and all I wanted was a rejuvenation potion. I had gone for over two hundred floors before this without a single blemish to my mark. I had gone through the first forty-eight floors of this run experiencing much the same. I ran through the math and realized that this was my fifth overall non-standard reward in six hundred and one runs. Statistically speaking I was due for one hit, but two back-to-back? That seemed sketchy. This time I swore I would not give in, that I would not fall victim to the Gods dark tidings.

I lasted all of thirty seconds, before I realized I had already messed up this lifetime by taking the first purple potion, the second potion couldn’t be much worse. I was wrong. SO WRONG! I don’t know if it was the fact that I had two powerful potions back-to-back, or if a human body was only meant to take one of these potions a lifetime, thus the extremely low probability rate of seeing an alternate cache item. Regardless, this time it felt like my mind was on fire. Not a headache, not painful, on fire. Literally I felt like my neurons in my brain were being bitten by tiny crawling fire ants that shot their poison directly into my cerebral cortex. Then finally after what felt like an hour of me spasming on the floor I was greeted by three words. Three words that made me regret this life already.

[Increased Psionic Potency]