Destiny Among the Stars - Scifi - LitRPG - Adventure

Chapter 55 - The Power Curve



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They moved through the passage Emily had carved, stepping over the tattered remains of the organic membrane. The tunnel beyond was hot.

Then they stepped into the chamber, and the heat was the least of their problems.

The walls pulsed with organic life, and the air reeked of decay. Eggs. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them, lined the walls and floor, clustered in writhing nests of sticky resin. And the drones were here, moving between the eggs like grotesque alien nurses. More than they'd seen yet.

"Jesus Christ," Chris muttered. "I'm gonna have nightmares about this shit for weeks."

Emily let out a slow, steady breath beside Luca. "Let's move. Fast, quiet, and clean."

They stuck to cover, slipping between the disgusting, mucus-covered eggs.

"Stay in formation," Ryan's voice crackled over the comms as he set up his turret. "No overextending. And Luca, no stupid hero moves."

From his position on a high ridge, Luca scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, Mom. Maybe focus on hitting your shots instead of lecturing me."

Zoe snickered beside him, sighting down her sniper rifle. "Seriously, Ryan. You gonna try aiming with your eyes open this time?"

Ryan flipped her off. "How about you snipe something before talking shit, Woods?"

"Don't have to," she purred. "I let my work speak for itself."

Below, the hive pulsed. The first wave of drones skittered forward, antennae twitching.

Luca lined up a shot. His TL8 rifle hummed and fired. The bolt slammed into the nearest drone, scorching its carapace, but the thing barely stumbled.

The moment the first bug hit the ground, the rest shrieked and charged. The hive was awake.

Chris let out a low curse and shouldered his new plasma rifle. "Time to see what this baby can do." A bolt of raw, superheated energy howled from the barrel, slamming into an incoming drone. Unlike the sizzle of the TL8 weapons, this shot was a definitive, explosive bang. The drone's carapace detonated, sending molten chunks of chitin flying.

"Holy shit," Chris breathed, a wide grin spreading across his face. "Now that's what I'm talking about." He fired again, another bug vaporizing under the impact.

Luca watched Emily duck between cover, her dual blasters firing in a rapid staccato. One bug's leg shattered under the barrage, but it still dragged itself forward, screeching.

"Okay, fuck this," Emily growled.

Holstering her blasters in one smooth, efficient motion, she ignited her plasma sword. Blue light flickered across the angular plates of her armor, outlining every sharp movement as she darted forward into the fray.

Awe and something fiercely protective coiled in Luca's gut. She was incredible.

One second, a drone was lunging for her, mandibles snapping. The next, she'd sidestepped, the plasma blade flashing in a perfect, clean arc. The thing dropped in two pieces, its upper half sliding off in a spray of alien gore. He made a mental note to talk to her about taking risks like that. Later. When they weren't surrounded by monsters.

"Showoff," he muttered into his comm, mostly to cover the fact that he was staring.

Ryan shouldered his plasma rifle. His first shot punched clean through a drone's head. "You see that, Zoe?" he grinned. "Perfect shot."

Zoe rolled her eyes. "Oh wow, you actually hit something. Mark the calendar."

[+35,601 XP]

[+13,500 credits]

[Skill level up! Precision Shot Proficiency Level 7 -> Level 8]

[Skill level up! Light Armor Proficiency Level 7 -> Level 8]

Just as she spoke, another wave of drones barreled around the corner.

Chris and Ryan, now working in tandem, laid down a blistering crossfire of plasma bolts, their shots punching clean through the new wave. The front ranks of the charge disintegrated into smoking ruin.

Chris groaned. "Shit, we pulled too many."

"Ryan!" Emily snapped, already pivoting to face the new threat. "You had one job!"

Ryan didn't bother defending himself, just fired again. But they were already getting swamped.

"Danny!" Luca barked, his voice pure command.

"On it!" Danny's Aggro Beacon flared to life, a pulse of bright red that drew the swarm toward him. The moment they clustered, he slammed his warhammer down. A kinetic boom rippled through the ground, sending bugs flying. It bought them a second.

"Ryan, Arcwave!" Luca yelled.

Ryan slid the trap forward. A shockwave blasted outward, and the drones seized up, their limbs spasming.

That was all Emily needed. She wove between their twitching forms, her plasma sword a blur of motion, carving them apart with brutal efficiency.

Joey, still holding his position in the back, sighed over the comms. "I really hope none of you need medical after this."

"No promises," Luca muttered, lining up another shot as the last drone fell.

He vaulted down from the ridge, his boots splashing in a warm, slimy puddle. He strode directly to Emily, his eyes scanning her armor for any damage.

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She deactivated her sword, the sudden silence unnerving. A smirk played on her lips, a stark contrast to the alien goo splattered across her faceplate. "Just trying to keep up with the great Captain Noodle Boy," she teased, her voice a low over their comms.

He reached out, his glove touching the side of her helmet. He could feel the heat radiating off it. "Stay close," he murmured, his voice dropping just as low.

Emily leaned into his touch for a fraction of a second, a silent agreement that spoke volumes more than words ever could. Then she straightened up, all business again. "Don't worry, Captain. I'm not going anywhere."

The second wave hit hard, but they managed.

Chris anchored their line with his new plasma rifle. Each shot was a detonation, blowing chunks of carapace off the charging drones.

Danny took a claw to the shoulder; a glancing blow that his heavy armor mostly absorbed before slamming his warhammer into the drone's head like he was teeing off at a driving range.

Ryan's Arcwave went off twice, the second pulse frying what was left of the remaining swarm. And Emily? She carved through them like a demon, her plasma sword practically singing with every precise strike.

Meanwhile, Luca was up on a ridge, pretending his TL8 sniper rifle was worth a damn. At least Zoe was actually getting kills. Him? He was a glorified alarm system. Ding! Target's mad now, someone please finish it off. His shots weren't doing much more than pissing the bugs off before the rest of the team had to finish them. And his Energy Tomahawk? Absolutely useless from up here. What was he supposed to do, chuck it from this distance?

His fancy Dione Vanguard Scout Suit? It might as well have been paper. Ryan was tanking hits in his Medium Armor, Danny was shrugging off blows in his Heavy set, and him? If he got looked at too hard, he'd be reduced to a smear on the ground.

When the last drone twitched and collapsed, they took the breather they desperately needed.

[+41,535 XP]

[+15,575 credits]

Joey's voice cut through the panting. "Everyone still in one piece?"

Danny, shaking out the arm that had taken the hit, let out a low chuckle. "Define 'one piece.'"

Emily was already kneeling by a smoking corpse. "Let's see what prizes we've won."

Looting wasn't exactly glamorous, but at least the System made it easy. Shimmering loot boxes materialized within the drones' remains. Luca reached into one himself, the interface flickering as he claimed the contents: a compact TL9 power cell.

Great, he thought, the bitterness a sharp taste in his mouth. More ammo for my glorified flashlight.

Ryan snorted, tossing another cell to him from his own haul. "Better hope we keep finding these, or your sniper rifle's gonna be a fancy club soon."

Luca caught it, his jaw tight. "Already is," he muttered.

Zoe made a disgusted sound, wiping her hands on her thighs. "Ugh, these energy bars are warm. And squishy."

"You've eaten worse," Luca pointed out, the familiar banter a hollow motion.

"Yeah, but at least those weren't actively gross. What the hell do they make these out of, anyway?"

Chris let out a low whistle, turning a sleek, deep-red grenade over in his palm. A TL9 Thermal Incendiary Grenade. "Now this is something I can work with."

Joey pulled a Neural Boost Capsule from another corpse, raising an eyebrow. "Anyone want their brain to move at hyperspeed for four hours?"

Ryan's hand shot out, but Joey smacked it away with the efficiency of a disappointed parent. "You? No. You need fewer distractions, not more."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "You're all so mean to me."

Luca scoffed. "We should be. You nearly got us swamped." The words were out before he could stop them, sharp and angry.

Ryan grumbled something under his breath but didn't argue.

With what loot they could salvage in their packs, they moved deeper into the chamber.

Luca frowned at the numbers flashing on his HUD. "This isn't just a ramp-up," he said, his voice tight. "This is a straight-up power curve shift."

"Feels like a power fantasy," Zoe muttered beside him, flicking her own interface open to scroll through the logs. "I'm not complaining, but yeah… this much XP this fast? Feels off."

Danny, ever the scientist, was already doing the math. "If we keep this pace, we'll be level 63 in a few hours."

Ryan's eyes went distant, that familiar look he got when he was deep-diving his interface. "Look at the XP delta for 62. It jumped to 570k. That's way more than the jump from 60 to 61. The system is scaling exponentially."

"Scaling for what?" Luca asked, already regretting the answer.

Ryan shrugged, his gaze returning to the cavern around them. "Best guess? TL9 combat skills and class evolutions."

The words hit Luca like a physical blow. TL9 skills. Class evolutions. That was going to hurt. His skill XP was already spread too thin, a mile wide and an inch deep. Higher-tier abilities would demand even more. And with his peashooter rifle, he wasn't exactly raking in the kill-shot bonuses needed to catch up.

He scrolled back through the log, frowning. The numbers now felt less like a reward and more like a taunt.

[System Log]

2026-10-28 – Defeated Vexillary Drone (Level 64) 3,750 XP gained, 1125 credits

3,750 XP after XP share allocation = 535.714 XP

Ranged Weapons Proficiency [+107.14 XP (1+(66 PER 5%) + (50 INT * 3%))] +621.428 XP

Precise Shots Proficiency [+107.14 XP (1+(66 PER 5%) + (50 MEM * 3%))] +621.428 XP

Adaptive Cover Proficiency [+107.14 XP (1+(66 PER 5%) + (50 INT * 3%))] +621.428 XP

Critical Strikes Proficiency [+107.14 XP (1+(50 INT 5%) + (50 MEM * 3%))] +535.71 XP

Light Armor Proficiency [+107.14 XP (1+(66 PER 5%) + (50 WIP * 3%))] +566.78 XP

2026-10-28 – Defeated Vexillary Drone (Level 64) – 2,966 XP, 1,125 credits

2026-10-28 – Defeated Vexillary Drone (Level 64) – 2,966 XP, 1,125 credits

2026-10-28 – Defeated Vexillary Drone (Level 64) – 2,966 XP, 1,125 credits

Danny leaned against a large boulder, shaking out his arm. "It's the same reason we're seeing TL9 drops. The system's preparing us for the next tier. Back in Sol, all the drops were Tech Level 8, near-future stuff, 20 to 50 years ahead of what we had pre-System. But here? This is all TL9. The next step up."

Luca furrowed his brow. The argument felt hollow. "Right, but TL8 already gave us overpowered crap. Med Pods that can regrow limbs, working fusion plants, nanotechnology…"

"And spaceships, orbitals," Ryan added, ticking them off with his fingers. "Spacecraft capable of traveling around the solar system, near-c lightspeed drives, and early inertia dampeners."

Danny nodded. "Yeah, and even that felt too advanced. Med Pods? We went from barely understanding stem cell regrowth to 'Oh yeah, just hop in, we'll print you a new liver' overnight. That was TL8. Now we're skipping to TL9? What's next, immortality?"

Ryan smirked, a familiar, cocky glint in his eye. "Oh, absolutely. The System's been force-feeding us progress, but the TL9 jump? This is different. I wonder what sort of tech we're going to find. The Graphene Wafer schematic is barely the first, I'd bet."

Zoe let out a low whistle. "So, what? The system's just… speedrunning us to whatever's next?"

Luca stared at the logs again. 535 XP per drone. 570,000 XP just to reach Level 62. They were plowing through it like it was nothing, and all he could feel was a knot of anxiety tightening in his stomach.

Chris, turning the incendiary grenade over in his hand, finally spoke. "We're in a tutorial portal."

That made everyone pause.

Ryan's brow furrowed. "Well… yeah. Maybe. I mean, it makes sense. This is the first and only portal we've found in Alpha Centauri. The system probably expects us to be feeling things out. Getting used to the combat scaling."

"And it's throwing XP at us like candy," Joey added, his calm tone making the statement sound even more ominous.

Luca rubbed his temples. "So we're just supposed to accept this is normal now? That the system is fast-tracking us for some higher-tier version of reality?"

"Basically," Ryan said. "We've all seen the theories. Some people think the system is prepping humanity for some universal war. Others think it's just an AI that wants to push civilization to the next phase." He waved a hand. "Either way, TL9 is the next step. And we're getting shoved into it."

Emily crossed her arms. "I mean, what else would it be? The system doesn't do things randomly. There's a reason we're getting this much XP."

Luca snorted, the frustration finally boiling over. He didn't give a shit about grand universal theories. He cared about what this meant for him. "I'll tell you what it means," he snapped, jabbing a finger at his own interface. "It means I'm already overspread with too many skills, and now we've got a whole new tier of stronger abilities that are going to need even more goddamn XP."

Ryan smirked. "Sucks to be you, huh?"

Luca flipped him off.


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