#119 – Maybe I screwed around a bit too much

Jeofffff:but just imagine if she could keep it Jeofffff:that thing was op SunOfABeach:I do wonder what would have happened if she fused it with something before opening the lock Even as I sat with my eyes closed and focused on slowly breathing in and out, while meditatively cleaning myself with my hydrokinesis, chat kept going on and on about all the things I could have done better, theorizing about what would come next, and of course reminding me that I’d just gained and quickly lost an absurdly overpowered weapon. I hadn’t even thought about trying to preserve the Trial Key in the heat of the moment. I had been way too frantic and too out of Intra to think straight back there. I did have to agree though. If I could have kept that thing somehow, it would make me exponentially more powerful than I’d been before. Still, how did that thing even work? I hadn’t put any Ether into it – hadn’t even tried, in fact – and it had still released all that crazy amount of energy. Well, whatever. It was probably just some cheat tool the Fate Weaver had made exactly for trials like these. Heck, now that I calmly thought back on it, hadn’t it said that it was an imaginary object...? What the heck was that even supposed to mean? What was an imaginary object? Was it not real? How come something that wasn’t real could have this very real effect of tearing a giant centipede monster a new one? Actually... hadn’t the Limit Break’s description say that it took place ‘outside of time and space’ or something like that? That almost sounded like some kind of... I don’t know, virtual reality? Was that it? Was my real body still standing back in the forest while my mind was under some kind of time dilated illusion that made it feel like I was in a horrible cave full of bugs? That would also explain why the tiny bugs that had covered the trial key had suddenly disappeared when I’d pulled it out. They had never been real, just an illusion. I let out a sigh. I was really good at distracting myself, huh? I still didn’t want to go down there, whether any of this was real or not. If the Limit Break was anything like the dungeons, every ‘floor’ would only get harder than the previous. And if this was meant to test my courage... “Hey, Ebi...” I suddenly muttered as I tossed the dirty water into my pocket – eww – to dispose of it later. “What do you think is gonna be on the second floor?” KaiEbikoOfficial:ummmm KaiEbikoOfficial:do you have any more phobias? KaiEbikoOfficial:I feel like the first one was all about bugs I narrowed my eyes. “Ugh, you’re probably right. Phobias... I guess I’m afraid of heights...? But I have Featherfall now, so it’s not as bad... I also don’t like needles, I guess?” I grimaced, remembering being made into a pin cushion by that dragon boss at the crater dungeon. Other than those...? I couldn’t actually think of much. The fear of being stuck in the dead world forever, maybe. KaiEbikoOfficial:nana KaiEbikoOfficial:are you sure you want to keep going? I paused for a moment. “...I don’t want to keep going,” I muttered with a brittle tone, before taking a deep breath, and steeling myself. “But I will.” KaiEbikoOfficial:;_; KaiEbikoOfficial:I hope you know what you’re doing I really didn’t. But hey. Being able to improvise was an essential skill for a Vcuber, right? In fact, that was all I had been doing from the moment I’d hatched from that egg. And anyway, I’d faced a dozen life or death situations already. What was a couple more? Or rather, there was a good chance that this was all fake, wasn’t there? So really, there was no reason for me to give up. ...That was the logical decision. But feelings didn’t always care about logic. And right now, I didn’t want to go down those stairs. Instead, I mentally went through some messages from chat and decided to test out more things about this mysterious staircase that changed when I wasn’t looking. First, I took out one of the many duplicate items I’d gotten from the city dungeon during my training montage – a meat tenderizer made out of black stone – and put it at the highest stair right next to the wall that kept moving with me whenever I descended. Then I looked away, took a single step down, turned back and– I blinked. The wall moved again, consuming the stair I’d put the meat tenderizer on... but the object itself was now on the stair below it. It hadn’t even made any sound. How the heck had it happened then? I narrowed my eyes, summoned John, and positioned him in such a way that only the stair directly below the one where the tenderizer was would be in view, but not the tool itself, nor the moving wall. Then I looked away and took another step down– What the fuck? The meat tenderizer just... phased through the side of the stair and quietly deposited itself to the lower stair where John’s view was focused at. I slowly turned around and then eyed the thing with sheer incredulity warring inside me. “What,” I said, very eloquently. I hesitantly crouched down and reached toward the thing to touch it. It still felt exactly the same. “What just happened?” Jeofffff:noclip JamieWasTaken3:ban malet for hacking KaiEbikoOfficial:wtf that’s so weird I quickly banned MeatTenderizer, clearly showing I did so to chat, just as a side joke. Then I crouched down, pulled out a small crate full of fruits I’d gotten from the ogre merchant guy in the city dungeon, and put it on the stair below the tenderizer, trying to block it from nocliping its way to the stair. Once again, I turned around while keeping John’s view trained on the– The tenderizer deposited itself to the right of the crate. I turned around and glared at it. “You little...” I murmured. I proceeded to move the box one stair down and then bring out more random junk to block off the entire length of the stair. Then I turned my eyes away and– “Wha– Hey, what?!” I was suddenly at the bottom of the staircase, even though I hadn’t moved yet. The staircase led to an empty cube-shaped room with tall walls and a rectangular door-shaped hole in two of the walls. There was an ominous mist – or fog? – seeping in from the doors and quickly dissipating. “No no no no no! I’m not ready! Hold on! Wait!” I began frantically looking around and inadvertently moved John’s view off the staircase as well. The moment I looked back though, the staircase had completely disappeared, leaving behind all the junk I’d brought out earlier. I froze for a moment before falling to my knees. “Nooooo! Pleeeease! I don’t wanna yet!” Jeofffff: anti stalling measures I guess JamieWasTaken3:you ban mallet staircase ban you SunOfABeach:don’t panic SunOfABeach:something could jump out at any moment I groaned and grit my teeth but forced myself to stand again and quickly check my surroundings again for anything suspicious. There was nothing. No bugs, no gross liquids, no giant monsters waiting to eat me. Just a big empty room made out of smooth white stone – marble? – and the two doorways. Actually, it was also pretty well lit, but I couldn’t see any light source. Weird. “Damn you, Fate Weaver,” I murmured as I eyed the mist just outside of this room. “What is this supposed to be...?” Fear of the unknown, maybe? Would that mist poison me if I got too close to it? Was I trapped in this room? SunOfABeach:I can see something in the distance SunOfABeach:use John “Where...? Oh, right...” I sent John out of one of the holes and my eyes went wide. This place was massive. There were tall rectangular towers in every direction. Each had holes in them and the holes randomly connected to each other via narrow pathways. The pathways also seemed to have countless needles on their underside for some reason. I neither see the bottoms nor the tops of the towers though, because it all disappeared into the mist. But the truly weird part was just how far I could see in this place despite the mist. Everything was just... blurry and hard to make out. I wasn’t an expert in physics, but this obviously wasn’t normal mist. Then I pointed John back at the place where I was and as expected, I was inside another one of those tall towers connected to others via narrow bridges extending from the two holes in the walls. I groaned. “Oh, great. Another maze, chat.” Jeofffff: oh damn Jeofffff: that actually looks epic KaiEbikoOfficial: it’s pretty creepy KaiEbikoOfficial: better than bugs, though? SunOfABeach: that’s gonna hard to find the exit “Well... Yeah, sure. Better than bugs, but...” I sighed. “Heights , man. I had just said how I’m afraid of them... And there are the needles too...” Yes, the needles were on the underside of the pathways, but my instincts told me that they would still be an issue somehow. After all, this was the second ‘floor’ of the Limit Break and the first floor had already been a living nightmare. Although, the saving grace in this case was that there was nothing that was forcing me to move immediately, like the bugs in the previous trail were. So in theory, I could just... chill out and think about my next move in peace. Unless something would appear to push me along if I took too long. Like the damn stairs had. “...Okay. Okay, chat. This is... not horrible yet. It will probably become horrible, but it’s not yet, so I can relax. Maybe. Kinda. Sorta.” I made sure to double check for any immediate threats as I recalled John, but all I noticed was a red door in a spot I somehow hadn’t looked in before. “...Right, yeah. Sure. Whatever, Fate Weaver.” I ignored the door. Oh, sure. I was probably gonna reach the end of my rope again and wish for a red door at some point in the near future. But for now... fuck off, Fate Weaver. So with a surprising amount of confidence, I got to work. First off, I stored back all the junk I’d taken out at the stairway because I didn’t want to waste anything. Next up, I pulled out some food and ate, because I hadn’t actually eaten anything while camping on the stairs. After the small snack, I warily walked up to one of the holes, thought about what to do for a bit, and then brought out Mr. Gargles and had him turn to me. Feeling the relative levity – compared to just an hour ago – my mind immediately conjured up a skit and I didn’t hesitate to play it out. I positioned John to look at me and Mr. Gargles from the side. “Alright, soldier! Listen up!” I suddenly shouted as I crossed my arms and put on a deep frown. I made Mr. gargles stand up on its back legs and then raised one of its front legs to its forehead in a swift motion, before putting it back down and straightening fully. “We’re in enemy territory! Right in the middle of fog of war!” JamieWasTaken3: lmao fog of war Jeofffff: she literally is tho “Our enemy has deployed a mist-like substance with unknown effects! It could be immensely dangerous!” Mr. Gargles nodded. “That’s where you come in, soldier!” I pointed at him dramatically. Mr. Gargles stood up taller, as if proud to be entrusted this mission. “Your unique biology is key in this situation as it will let you survive whatever poison the mist might contain! You need to go scout for us and relay any vital info you might uncover. We are all relying on you! Do you accept this mission, soldier?!” Mr. Gargles whipped up his front leg to his forehead again before putting it back down, and then gave a firm nod. “Good!” I returned the nod. “Off you go then, soldier!” Another nod from the turtle before he fell to all fours and began marching his way out of one of the holes. I teleported John closer to my face as I put on my best worried expression and whispered, “Good luck, soldier... You’ll need it.” Jeofffff: 10/10 Jeofffff: applause please KaiEbikoOfficial: clap clap I unsummoned John and couldn’t help but quirk a small smile at chat’s praise. I didn’t say anything out loud though, obviously. Didn’t want to ruin the performance now. Ignoring that, Mr. Gargles finall made it close enough to touch the fog and... I frowned. He suddenly felt a bit harder to control. I tried looking through him using my Intra, but the view was even blurrier than through John, for some reason. My eyes narrowed as I hesitated just before the narrow passageway outside of this room. I... I didn’t want to actually lose Mr. Gargles. Yes, he was a convenient way to check out the outside, but... “I don’t like this, chat...” I withdrew Mr. Gargles. Dammit. I ended up ruining my performance anyway in the end.