On metaregions part two.

Metaregions present several issues and benefits.

For while metafauna and metahumans can be captured or killed and metamaterials can be processed into useful equipment or otherwise disposed of metaregions are locations and times which have manifested and are much harder to deal with. Simply destroying the location has unreliable results. For example in northern France a region of forest manifested becoming home to a pack of unkillable giant wolves. These wolves would menace the surrounding towns and cities. After several failed attempts to track and exterminate the wolves the decision was made to raze the forest with a tactical napalm bombing. The theory being that if the region underwent a significant change the metaregion would be destroyed along with the pack's lair. This did not have the desired result. Instead the wolf pack not only survived but their manifestation now included perpetually burning fur. The French government's final solution was to build a moat and wall around the entire forest. The wolves can still be seen roaming the burnt out forest from observation towers.

With great relief Big Al managed to pull himself from between two of the bars spanning the last section of the obstacle course. After getting to his feet he addressed the rest of the team.

“What’s next?”

The others who had much less trouble squeezing through the third obstacle pointed wordlessly at the glowing reward pillar.

“Fuck yeah! Let’s get some skills! Who goes first.” asked Alphonse.

Benji told Big Al

“You’re going last because we all got ours already. Hurry up next time, yeah?”

“Oh.”

Big Al hustled over to touch the reward pillar and received a prompt.

[Hello There! For overcoming an obstacle trial you have been awarded the skill

{Strength is your strength! Get more out of your muscles when doing strength based activities.}

Congratulations!]

“Sweet! I got What did you guys get?”

“Me and Dozza got and Benji got .” Replied Cassowary.

“Now let’s go and squash some rats. There’s a tunnel over there which looks like a way out.” She said pointing towards an alove of to the side.

They gathered around the exit slide.

Benji spoke up skeptically.

“Well this looks like an obvious death trap. A long dark slide to a pit of doom. We should go back the way we came.”

“That would take a while. And it’d be more dangerous because we’re all tired and more likely to make mistakes. I vote for the mystery slide.” Cassowary said.

“I vote f-” Alphonse managed to get out before Dolphin preempted him by wordlessly hopping into the slide. “Fuck! After him!”

Big Al dived into the slide after Dozza, followed by the other two.

Partway down the slide Alphonse discovered the hinged gates were intended to be opened with your feet, by ramming into them with his face.

Back in the control room Mickey winced in sympathy.

“Should’a gone feet first mate.”

As Benji exited the slide in the corner of the stepping stone pit, he noticed the others looking after Alphonse who was bleeding from a long cut across his forehead.

“Oh fuck! Hold on, I have some bandages.”

Benji rushes over to Al and quickly wraps his head in gauze.

“This is why you don’t fucking dive into holes headfirst idiot. Do you have a concussion? Can you focus on my finger? Are you nauseous?”

“I’m fucking fine! It looked way fucking worse than it actually was. Can we just go already?”

Alphonse grumbled in response to Benji’s fussing.

Benjamin sighed.

“Fine. Where’s the way out then?”

“Over here.” Said Dolphin, standing next to a ladder out of the pit.

After climbing out of the pit and making their way back to the entrance, there was a brief discussion of leaving without attempting the combat challenge. But Alphonse was adamant about at least trying it.

“Cassie and Donga could handle it themselves. I want to see what we get for completing both rooms.” Was his winning argument.

True to his word with the minimum of preparation the combat challenge was no real threat.

Alphonse led the way, giving the others time to join him rather than running into the middle of the room as he did previously. This meant when the group reached the center and the small doors on either side of the room opened, the teens were ready.

What occured next was more slaughter than a true fight. Without the advantage of surprise and numbers the rats stood no chance against the long pants and shoes. The delvers had some trouble hitting the small, agile creatures but they only had to get lucky once.

The only real injury to the delvers was psychological. When one of the rodents jumped at him Benji managed to cut it open with his kitchen knife. The sight and feeling of spilled viscera as it sprayed on his legs caused him to vomit. Seeing this, Dozza vomited in sympathy.

Being acutely aware of what was going on in his dungeon Mikey felt a momentary surge of nausea inspired by the filth now coating the ground.

Well this is unpleasantly familiar. Mickey thought.

Meanwhile Benjamin was hurriedly trying to wipe himself clean with a pocket pack of tissues and a bottle of water.

“Gross gross gross. Fucking rats man. Eurgh.”

“Don’t forget to clean your knife.” Cassie said amusedly, pointing at the dropped weapon.

Benji looked at the blood stained kitchen implement.

“Aw fuck. I can’t take that outside. What if a cop sees me? They’ll think I murdered somebody.”

“We’ll put it in my sports bag with the cricket bats. But right now there’s loot to be had. The orb thing is glowing. C’mon.” Said Big Al as he started moving towards the end of the room with the glowing pillar.

Upon touching the glowing orb in the pillar a message appeared in front of him saying:

[Hello There! For overcoming a trivial Combat Challenge you have been awarded

Due to your bonus and your bonus you have instead been awarded

{Crush! Smash! Every opponent becomes a nail to hammer with this skill. Bonus to using blunt and bludgeoning weapons in combat.}

Congratulations!]

As each teen took their turn they got near identical messages with only the skill changed.

Dolphin got like Alphonse.

Cassowary got

{You made the empty fist into a weapon and became impossible to disarm. Bonus to unarmed combat.}

And finally Benjamin got

{A tool to create, a dagger to harm and a scalpel to save. Bonus to using knives in and out of combat.}

After sharing and comparing their respective skills they made to leave the dungeon. To their surprise the simple wooden box Mickey had made to store their physical loot had been placed by the Entrance Pillar.

“Fuck YES TREASURE CHEST!” Crowed Alphonse before he rushed over to it.

Benji was about to urge caution but gave up before saying anything, resigned to his friend's impetuous nature.

After briefly examining the box Big Al lifted the top to reveal the contents.

“Oooh. Dibs on the bracers.” Said Cassie.

"Okay. But I get the flail. I have the flailing skill after all." Groused Alphonse.

"Benji obviously gets the knife so that leaves the… Stick? To Donga. Sorry Donga, looks like you got the short end of the stick."

When Donga, last to get his loot, touched the rod a pale grey screen popped up in front of him.

[

(9/10)

{Holding this rod and tapping an object with it will identify the object at the cost of one (1) charge. Only works in the Dungeon.}]

Donga looked at the screen in front of him for a second and then said

"Holy shit"