Rune Seeker

“Status?” Seena asked into the party chat.

“One, dead, spectral party,” Yanily said. Then, just for the people around him to hear. “Were those things really B-Rank?”

“Probably what normal B-Rank would look like,” Seeyela said. “Without advanced classes or a lot of dungeon loot.”

“The tanks had an interesting ability,” Romin said, still in his Onslaught form, and stomping over to the rest of his party. “It was like an Infuriate, but just for my skills. Whenever I used one, their shields pulled me over.”

“That what happened with the Blink-Charge?” Hiral asked.

“Yes, though I guess it worked out in the end.”

“What about the rest of you?” Seena asked. “Anything worth mentioning before we go see what that orb is all about?”

“Maybe the one we fought used an ability or two?” Seeyela half-asked while she looked at Yanily. “Hard to say with how amateur the fighting style seemed to be though.”

“Wasn’t so much amateur as slow and predictable,” Yanily corrected. “Like it had a limited number of moves it could or would do, and it kept just cycling between them. Worse, we baited out which moves we wanted to see by how we attacked.”

“We did?” Seeyela asked.

“… I did,” Yanily said. “Weren’t you doing the same?”

“I just stabbed it when I saw an opening,” Seeyela said with a shrug. “Seemed to work.”

“Ours was mostly the same,” Left said. “Though I believe the fighting style was inherently a little different, as it had poisoned blades.”

“Did you get hit?” Hiral asked, and Right actually scoffed. “Sorry,” Hiral quickly corrected.

“Nivian, Ilrolik?” Seena then moved into the party chat, when it was clear her group wasn’t even out of breath. “How are you two doing?”

“Tight space of the halls is giving us some problems,” Ilrolik said, while clearly still fighting. “Miraculously, Devison still has both fee… ah damnit. I spoke too soon. There it goes. I’ll get back to you.”

With that, the channel to Ilrolik cut off – likely so the big Shaper could focus – and Nivian’s voice picked up a few seconds later.

“We’re finishing off here soon,” the Death Knight said. “A very tanky group that uses a lot of barrier abilities. They work like Left’s Shield of Peace and absorb all the damage from a hit.”

“No smash…” Bash said sadly.

“It’s true,” Wule asked. “Really annoying match up when Bash, Igwanda, and Finotol all do big, single-hit damage. It’s like the Cradle knew what to throw at us to slow us down. Is it the same for you?”

“Uh…” Seena stalled out. “Yes?”

“You… you’re already done, aren’t you?” Wule asked.

Seena looked over at the orb sitting at the far end of the otherwise empty room. “There’s still one more thing we need to deal with…” she said lamely.

“I shouldn’t be surprised,” Wule mumbled.

“We’ll be done here soon too,” Nivian said. “Only the tank and healer left. They won’t stand much longer.”

“Good,” Seena said.

“Anything down there that looks out of place?” Hiral asked. “Like, say, an orb on a pedestal?”

“No orb,” Wule said, taking over again. “There is a big, pulsing pillar though, with glowing crystal roots spreading into the floor and ceiling. That might be an orb there in the middle of it…”

“It is,” Igwanda said. “Would you like me to shoot it?”

“NO!” Wule said immediately. “No, I absolutely do not want you to shoot the mystery, pulsing orb connected to the pillar that seems to be holding the roof – and the entire tower – up above our heads.”

“It remains an option if you change your mind,” Igwanda said.

“Thank you,” Wule just said flatly, like he’d had similar conversations a dozen times before.

“Smash?”

“No!” Wule chastised. “I don’t want you to smash it either.”

“How about,” Finotol started. “Rive uses her claws to…”

“Don’t you even start,” Wule snapped.

“We’ll talk when we’re done with these two,” Nivian cut everybody off, then the channel closed.

When Hiral looked over at his party leader, Seena was smiling.

“They sound happy with their new group, don’t they?” she asked the others without using the party chat.

“They actually do,” Seeyela said. “Are you okay with that? They were your tank and healer, after all.” Then she looked over at Romin and Gran. “No offense.”

“None taken,” Gran said, and Romin shook his head.

“I’m okay with it,” Seena said, while she turned and started in the direction of the orb at the same time. “More than okay with it. They may not be in our party anymore, but they’re with us again as part of the raid group, and that’s enough. Besides, you two have been great additions to the group,” she said to Gran and Romin.

“You just saying that, girlie?”

“Not at all,” Seena said. “Having new people in the group has pushed us all to be stronger, I think. Now, enough about that, what should we do with this?” She pointed at the orb in front of the now-gathered group.

“Reminds me of the Cycling orbs we saw in the Forge of Ur’Thul,” Hiral said. He reached out his hand – but didn’t touch the glossy surface – and gently threaded power into his Rune of Energy. “Hrm. Not quite

the same, but I definitely get the feeling it’s some kind of interface.”

“Ur, before we give this a try, is this a Spectre thing?” the party leader asked the little lich on her shoulder.

“It is not,” Li’l Ur said. “I sense – as my would-be-apprentice suggested – this orb is a control interface. Likely for the tower itself, by the flow of energy.”

“Think it’s trapped?” Yanily asked.

“Excellent question to ask before we touch it,” Seena said. “Anybody… I don’t know… feel anything?”

Hiral carefully ran the powers of his runes around the orb, but nothing jumped out at him – figuratively or literally. The flow of energy seemed smooth and expected, with nothing standing out.

“I don’t sense anything I wouldn’t expect,” Hiral said.

“Nor do I,” Li’l Ur said.

“Left, give Hiral a Shield of Peace, just in case,” Seena said.

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A second later, a notification popped up in front of Hiral’s eyes.

You have been buffed by Shield of Peace.

All damage is negated for 6 seconds.

Six seconds wasn’t a terribly long time, so he immediately put his hands on the orb, and his senses spread out around him in an instant. Similar to when he used his sensory domain, he got the impression of a much larger space – namely everything within the outer wall of the tower’s property.

“It’s the control orb, alright,” Hiral said, menus and options like notification windows in his Party Interface popping up. “All of the options are locked to me at the moment, though. There’s a kind of lock on it to prevent just anybody from accessing the tower’s systems.”

“Can you use your key?” Yanily asked.

“Not on this lock,” Hiral said, already seeing how the barrier worked. It was a lot like Cycling, with different channels acting like a maze into the heart of the orb. If he moved his solar energy through those channels and reached the central core, it should unlock the orb’s functions to him. “I think can open it, but, do I want to?”

“Let’s wait to see what Nivian’s group finds with that pillar,” Seena said. “I want to know all the options before we make a choice, so we can share it with the Trust for the other towers.”

“No problem,” Hiral said, taking a few more seconds to feel out the solar maze – it really wouldn’t be difficult after all the practice he’d had guiding energy – then took his hands from it. As soon as he did, the sensation of seeing everything in the tower, though muted and blurred, faded away as well. “The orb has a function that lets whoever’s using it see what’s going on in the tower. Since I was locked out, I didn’t get a lot of details, but I bet if I had full access, I could keep track of everything going on inside the outer walls.”

“Does that make sneaking in out of the question?” Seena asked.

“Hrm, once we know about the pillar near Nivian’s group, we can check something,” Hiral said. “Left has the Touch of Shadow tattoo combination that makes him hard to spot, and something about Seeyela’s armor does the same thing. If they can hide from the tower’s senses, then people with even more of a stealth-focus should have some options.”

“Let’s definitely do that,” Seena said. “There are at least a couple groups that’ve built heavily around it. Would be nice if they could make these towers a bit easier when the fog lifts.”

“On the other hand,” Seeyela said. “One more thing our own people need to worry about if we’re defending these.”

“I wonder if each of the towers will have those Spectre-parties,” Romin said. “Or if we need to put our own groups here.”

“Boring line of work for the unlucky groups,” Gran said. “Don’t think many will be looking to sign up, unless the contribution points are real good.”

“Which makes me think there will be Spectres – or something else – by default at each of the towers,” Hiral said. “Though, we probably have the option of staffing our own groups here as well. Another variable we’ll have to consider when we start assaulting towers, if that’s what we choose to do.”

“Hrm, not just Spectres at all of the towers?” Seena asked. “I guess that would make sense, in a way, to keep us guessing a bit more. We can…”

“Pillar is secured,” Nivian reported over the party chat. “Wule is looking into what it can do right now.”

“Didn’t trust Bash, Igwanda, or Finotol to play with the potentially explosive interface?” Seena joked.

“No comment,” Nivian said.

“Ilrolik, how’s your group doing?” Hiral asked.

“Just one Spectre left,” Ilrolik said. “We’re in some kind of dormitory floor. Lots of connected rooms, and wooden wall-door-things this Spectre keeps fleeing through before we can finish it off.”

“I think you’d like this guy, Hiral,” Loan added. “Dexterity build, hit-and-run-type class. Surprisingly high-damage when it hits, but uh… let’s just say it doesn’t do so well when we catch up. There were four in the group.”

“Plus a healer of some kind,” Ilrolik added. “And a debuffer. Sera countered that one quickly.”

“It had some dangerous debuffs,” Sera said. “Luckily, not much resistance to other’s debuffs.”

“Which gave Devison a chance to finally use his foot the right away,” Yully said.

“Sounds like you’ve got it under control,” Hiral said. “Let us know when you’re done there. Nivian, when Wule has an idea…”

“He’s figured it out,” Nivian said. “This is definitely the power source for the tower’s functions. He says he can control which systems the energy flows to, and can probably send some of that energy to places it shouldn’t go. The warnings that pop up mean this is probably our means to destroy the tower if we want to. Or, at least permanently disable it.”

“Odd they’d build that kind of weakness into the tower,” Seena said.

“Simple answer? Probably because it’s a war game,” Hiral said. “These towers were built for the Cradle of Tomorrow to challenge her creations, not actually defend the land.”

“Makes sense,” Seeyela said. “So, what’s the plan now?”

“Hiral?” Seena pointed at the orb.

“Yeah, let me see about taking over the tower,” Hiral said. “Now that we know how to destroy it – or at least disable it – I think control would be the better option.”

“Why are there two?” Yanily asked.

“Because this is a war game,” Gran emphasized. “Fenil – Tomorrow – built this to have multiple win conditions. He did always love adding choices to things. And it adds some spice to the task. Think about it, if you’ve only got one win-lose option – the tower control room – and you know your enemy is going to attack, where are you putting all your people? All your defenses?”

“The control room,” Yanily said.

“Exactly,” Gran said. “At that point, how is this any different than just one of those arena battles we did? What’s the point of the whole tower scenario?”

“Strategy,” Yanily said, catching on. “Having the two win conditions means both sides have to try to guess what they other side is going to do, and do better themselves.”

“You’re catching on, knucklehead,” Gran said with a cackle.

“And I’m in,” Hiral told the group, having bypassed the defenses while they talked. It… really hadn’t been difficult for him at all. “Lots of options in here. The weapons on the roof, command options for where to deploy the lesser Spectres, layout and status of the traps and that… hrm… it’s called a drone swarm. That’s the thing that attacked Nivian’s group. All automated, apparently. And there are three more swarms in reserve, if attacks came from the other sides.

“Oh, and there’s the sensory system,” Hiral said. “Loan, door right behind you. Last Spectre is coming out… now!”

“Hah!” Loan roared into the party chat as Hiral ‘watched’ the big Shaper’s hand close around the surprised Spectre’s head as it emerged from the wooden plane. What happened after that… well, it wasn’t anything good for the Spectre. “And that looks like the last of…”

His words cut off as he got forcefully disconnected from the tower’s interface, only for a notification window to pop up in its place.

Dynamic Trial: Storming the Tower – Complete

Congratulations. Achievement unlocked – Going Up

Through completion of this trial, you have unlocked towers to defend your territory, along with a personal reward.

Please access a Raid Interface to unlock class-specific reward.

“Well,” Hiral said after a few seconds to reorient himself and read the notification. “I guess that’s that.”

“We had to finish off the last defender and capture or destroy the tower?” Seena said. “Ah, the latter option there probably would kill anybody in the tower as well.”

“Could be the ‘easier’ option if it’s well-defended,” Yanily said.

“Might just mean we see towers with two groups in the power room, and one group in the control room,” Gran said.

“Or even three groups,” Seeyela said. “We’ll have to talk to the Trust when we get back to decide on some strategies.”

“Any sign of a raid interface up in the control room?” Nivian asked over the party chat.

A quick look around the room with his sensory domain, and Hiral replied. “Nothing. Looks like The Games having a raid interface was special to that trial.”

“One achievement probably isn’t worth going back to the fortress.” Seena said. “What’s next?”

“We have two options,” Left replied over the party chat so everybody could hear. “One option would be to take a round-about path toward Mechanized. I can see three B-Rank trials we could complete along the way. The second option would be to go straight to Mechanized itself, and see about clearing it.”

“A-Rank trial is definitely going to be the tougher option,” Ilrolik said.

Before Hiral said anything, he brought up the quest he’d gotten back on their way to The Playhouse.

Dynamic Quest: Update

Hidden Trial (A-Rank): Mechanized

Tomorrow’s 0M3G4 W34P0N stirs. Defeat more Mecha-Armor to initialize its systems. Defeating it will result in a hidden schematic unlocking new defenses and advanced classes.

Tomorrow’s Mecha-Armor, Mark G14NT Defeated: 1/5

Tomorrow’s Mecha-Armor, Mark W45P Defeated: 2/30

Tomorrow’s 0M3G4 W34P0N Defeated: 0/1

The rewards for the quest looked very good, and that wasn’t even accounting for any personal achievements or rewards they would get. On the other hand, the Mecha-Armors had not been pushovers.

“Four more of those G14NTs is no laughing matter,” Loan said. “However…”

“I wouldn’t mind a bit more of a challenge,” Yanily finished off the big Shaper’s sentence. “If we’re going to do three more trials like this for experience, I’m all for it. But, if we’re trying to get some advanced classes or something, we’re going to need to push ourselves more.”

“I agree with Yanily,” Nivian said. “While there were some challenges to this trial, it wasn’t challenging. Our levels are all getting close to twenty, and the Mecha-Armors may give us what we need in terms of experience and difficulty to trigger advanced classes.”

“That’s two for going straight to Mechanized,” Seena said, after getting nods of agreement from her group. “But, we won’t go unless we all agree on it. Ilrolik?”

“Make that three,” the Shaper leader said over the party chat.

“Not even going to pretend to disagree this time?” Loan asked.

“No, I agree with Nivian,” she said. “If we take the easy route, it’s not going to push us to new heights. We need to temper ourselves against things that are actual threats.”

“Anybody have an objection to heading straight out?” Hiral asked. When none came up, he continued. “Then let’s meet outside the tower, and I’ll take us to Mechanized.”