Party Chat

[Arcs S'tar]: Aster, what have you done?

[P-System]: Shut up and stay alive.

[Aster K'lon]: I'm winning.

[Cosmic Gaze] cast! [Nullify] cast! Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: Hm. That skill consumes entirely too much mana.

[P-System]: I'd say sorry, but it's not like I chose for you to have that.

[Aster K'lon]: This will be sufficient. I still have multiple uses of every skill. I gained a skill called [Mana Regeneration: Variant A] as well, which assists me.

[Arcs S'tar]: ...how?

[Aster K'lon]: A very complicated process that is certainly not replicable while on the battlefield.

[Cosmic Disintegration: Variant A] cast! Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: What was that? I missed something? I feel like shit.

[Jerome Smith]: The monster's dead already? How?

[P-System]: The Origin System told me you were too stupid to dodge the skill.

[Jerome Smith]: ...oh.

[P-System]: So naturally, I carried your ass again by boosting Aster instead. Took some ingenuity and Aster's ridiculous affinity for magic, but we got it going.

[Jerome Smith]: Well, that's good. Glad to know there's another powerful person on our team now.

[Aster K'lon]: We should get moving. The portal is still active.

[K]: Agreed.

P-System Log

All in all, success. I would generally be against using my own resources to empower someone that I can't control, but I think I can trust Aster. She's been friendly to me, not just Jerome, and she's got a solid head on her shoulders.

Oh, oops. I should've paid more attention to the portal. It's spawning another thing.

Weird that it's not using a skill to spawn it. Is it a passive skill or something? Or is there just no System message about it?

There's been a lot of these little inconsistencies--not to mention this False Hydra shit that the System has been pulling with my thoughts--that are really making me question the benevolence of the thing that put me here. I mean, look at that thought I just had! If I dig through the logs, I can find explicit times when I had a similar train of thought and I just got redirected. Was that me, thinking about something else? Or was it the Origin System, manipulating me to keep me friendly?

I don't like this.

[Nullify] + [Sands of Time] = [Undo] cast! Party Chat

[Aster K'lon]: Woo. That worked. It certainly is an experience, trying to understand skill combos when I've never used any of these skills before.

[Jerome Smith]: What the fuck, Aster? I don't think I've figured a single one of these out on my own.

[P-System]: You're welcome, Jerome.

[Jerome Smith]: Right, thanks for that.

[Aster K'lon]: I have experience. There are some things the System cannot gift to you.

[Aster K'lon]: Could you remove the portal from play?

[Jerome Smith]: Sure thing.

[Ethereal Stride] activating! P-System Log

I think Aster's intuition is something that I'm kinda familiar with. With access to all the minutiae of the mana and W Inertia, I know generally how two skills will combo off. Maybe with her years of experience and study, Aster also gained some understanding of W Inertia, even if she doesn't truly know what it is. I mean, I don't actually know what it is either, so I suppose that almost puts us on a level playing field.

Anyway. Jerome's activating his skill now. Somehow, I don't think slashing at a portal is going to break it, so I'm going to help him out a bit.

[Edgelord] + [Explosive Teleport] + [Cloud Zenith] = [Swordstorm Bomb] activating! [Swordstorm Bomb] destroyed the construct! P-System Log Well, that's a name and a half. Skill ain't half bad, either. Jerome dissolved into a cloud and then the cloud exploded. I'm pretty sure said cloud also was actually comprised of swords or some other System bullshit, but whatever the case, it was a powerful effect. Powerful enough to consume nearly 1000 mana, at least, and powerful enough that it didn't even have a damage readout. It just destroyed the thing. Party Chat

[Jerome Smith]: Clear. That, uh. That wasn't me, I don't think.

[P-System]: You're welcome.

[Jerome Smith]: Ah. Thank you.

[Arcs S'tar]: What do I need to do to power up like this?

[Aster K'lon]: Much more studying.

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: What'd I miss?

[P-System]: Don't worry about it. Please get moving.

P-System Log

I can still feel the green System at the end of the line. It's in the boss room, accompanying that asshole Dungeon Core that runs this place. Well, I say that, but I haven't heard from either of them since. Maybe they killed each other? That's probably too much to ask for.

Either way, we need to get going, and thank the gods, the party is listening to me. I used to worry about them not giving me the respect I needed, but I guess superpowering Jerome and Aster has made me a big enough asset for them to actually listen to what I'm saying.

I think the boss room is soon. There's just one last room before we get there, and this time, there's no other doors. Just a single, unmarked door, the same as all the other ones in this shitty-ass dungeon.

Seriously, who let this dungeon come here? I thought S'ker was supposed to be a place with the best dungeons, not whatever third-rate hack this one is. And if you can hear me, Dungeon Core, I hope you take these words to heart! This place looks like a 6 year old designed it! Hell, I'm pretty sure even Jerome can think of something better!

Anyway. Room. This one's actually a bit different. It's not even a proper room--instead, it's a staircase. I can detect mana flooding the place, so there's probably some element of trap to it.

Here we go. They're walking up now.

...they're still walking up.

Ah. I think I see it.

Party Chat

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: How long is this thing?

[Aster K'lon]: Ah. I see. It is infinite. There is a skill cast on it that is looping its end to its beginning. In essence, we cannot move.

[Thron of the Fallen Skies]: And can we do anything about that?

[Arcs S'tar]: There may be a hidden method to escape it. Some concealed entrance in the wall, perhaps, or a monster we must defeat to find a key.

[Aster K'lon]: Worry not.

[Nullify] cast! P-System Log

Damn, that's such a bullshit skill. I wonder if there's a way to override it? It seems like a Counterspell combined with a Dispel Magic except better in every way. I know that Aster had an antimagic method before, but this skill is so much more powerful.

Hm. I wonder if I can steal it.

New skill unlocked: [Nullify] You can end effects and prevent them from beginning. P-System Log

Huh. Only a few hundred W Inertia to unlock that. Maybe helping Aster out and getting her to unlock it means that it was easier for me to unlock it for Jerome or something? That's my best guess.

Eh. Fuck it. I'll toss another thousand in. Let's see if we can't get it to [Unique].

Nope. Okay, that's unfortunate. It didn't even level, which probably means that it's got insanely high requirements. Maybe I'll try again when Jerome gets my W Inertia max increased again.

Alright, that's it for the staircase. Time for the final room. The boss battle. What I've been waiting for.

Party Chat

[K]: Uh, that's not a boss.

[Aster K'lon]: You are correct. That is an exposed Dungeon Core.

[Arcs S'tar]: Is there something wrong with it?

[Aster K'lon]: I certainly believe so. We saw enough deviations earlier for me to believe that.

[Arcs S'tar]: Yeah. Should we kill it?

[Jerome Smith]: Not yet.

[P-System]: Huh. You're actually getting better at understanding my intentions.

[P-System]: I'm going to talk to it.

??? Message

Alex?

Wait, fuck, where's the dialogue box? That's not right.

Why am I not getting chat tags? I reached out exactly the same way as I did last time.

what do you want

Oh. Oh dear.