Chương 9: [b1] 009 - Fell Into The Pit

Okay so that didn't play out like I had hoped it would. I stared at the Loot Table window trying to decide how to reward the group for just utterly obliterating my monsters. First Encounter Loot Options ► This encounter has been ranked: Green. The following rewards are the stated minimum suggested values. ▹100 Experience to each delver. ▹1 System Coin total. ▹1 crafting material of Green quality or higher.

The only good news was I was up to 600 Anima from them demonstrating their skills and figuring out how to bait out the Rammer's redirect. Despite that, the System only ranked the encounter as Green. The last one I did was Blue, which I assumed was a higher level. It once again didn't explain anything which was getting exhausting. Since the values were suggested minimums, I went with two System Coins for twenty Anima, and then a crafting material.

This was more for my own experimentation, since I felt I had a minute to spend figuring it out—this group seemed like the kind that was going to sit around and debrief over the fight for a while. When I selected the crafting material option, a new window appeared. It contained a long, long list of materials. It took me a second to figure out where it came up with the list—they were all things inside the dungeon.

Bits of my hull, the metal floor, the rope I used for the pulley in the Spike Trap, even the materials used for the monsters counted. I filtered the list to anything it considered Green, I had no idea how to rank my own materials, and the list shrunk dramatically. I ended up selecting a section of mirror that was 15 x 15 centimeters. The previous group had been mesmerized by the mirror, and it was that or plastic.

I'd already done enough harm to the environment, I didn't need to introduce non-biodegradable plastic to it too. The coins fell from the sky, which was honestly a little amusing to watch. Then the mirror appeared, in a cloth drawstring bag. Their tank knelt down and picked up all the loot, paying special attention to the bag. He opened it and pulled out the section of mirror. That spawned a five minute debate over what it could possibly be used for.

Apparently, the System helpfully identified it for them as a crafting material, but didn't tell them much else. The group finally decided to just deal with the mirror later and made their way down the corridor. This time Houdini, which was what I was calling their member with the dual daggers since he could disappear into thin air and reappear somewhere else, missed the Spike Trap. I had felt pretty awful the first time he fell into it; the sound he made was clearly a cry of fear and pain. The second time though…

it was a little funny. The moment the group was through the other end of the corridor they were met by an Ankle Biter. Why I thought a single Ankle Biter would do anything, I don't know. The tank stunned it with his shield and the ice wielder that I refused to call a mage because they were not using magic because magic didn't exist, shot several frost bolts at the little dog robot, killing it before it even got out of the stun.

"Alright, this time Frost, what are we going to do?"

"Wait for you to go over the plan," the ice wielder said. I updated her name to Frost. Houdini reappeared a moment later next to the group.

"Ash, what do we have waiting for us?" the tank said.

"Bunch more spike traps. Seriously, what is—sorry." He cut himself off as the tank gave him a tired look, which I appreciated. I'd worked hard on my Spike Traps.

"There's another Ankle biter, and three more Rammers. But there's also two of a new type of monster called a Rock 'Em. Not sure what it does but it's upright, not the four legged variety like the others."

"Alright then. Frost, I want you to focus on slows for the Rammers. We need to keep Angela protected. Ash, you're up front with me." From their reactions to the tank's words, I assigned the appropriate names to people, then prepared for battle. [PANIC> WATCH FOR THE STUNS. BAIT THEM INTO THE SPIKES.] [Colin> That's the plan.] The tank ran in, charging toward Rock 'Em 1. I fanned Rammer 1 and 2 out and had them circle around to hit him from behind. We weren't going to play into their plan and focus on the healer.

Ash appeared behind Rock 'Em 1, daggers sinking into its back. I sent Ankle Biter after him from the left and Rammer 3 from his right. He got two more stabs in before the mobs got close. He jumped back, teetering on the edge of a Spike Trap. Then I redirected Rammer 3 and angled it toward him. He side stepped and managed to avoid both Rammer 3 and the trap. Unfortunately, Rammer 3 went directly into it. [MAM> How are you going to get Rammer 3 out?] I didn't bother answering, we both knew I had no idea.

Right then however, I was a bit reoccupied with Frost. She was doing an excellent and infuriating job of slowing the two remaining Rammers. Between her slows and the tank slowly kiting the Rock 'Em bots around the room, Rammer 1 wasn't even close to making contact. Plus, if it did manage to somehow, it wouldn't do much damage at that reduced speed. Rock 'Em 1 and 2 however, were proving to be excellent additions to the team.

The tank was doing his best to block their punches while moving to the side of the room, but between the two of bots he was having a hard time now that I'd found a good rhythm. Rock 'Em 2 landed a strong hit to his jaw, staggering him backwards. He tried to steady himself but Rock 'Em 1 followed it up with a hit to his mid section, his shield arm flailing for balance. Stolen novel; please report. He hadn't been paying attention to where in the room he was moving to and was now directly behind another Spike Trap.

One more hit from Rock 'Em 2 had him knocked over and falling into the pit. Just as he fell, Angela shot off a heal. It arrived too late and instead hit Rock 'Em 1 square in the chest. I watched in utter disbelief as the monster's health jumped up fifteen percent. If we could intercept their heals, their healer would be useless. My mind raced with the possibilities as I tried to capitalize on the momentum by turning both the monsters on Ash. [MAM> Oh the tank! His health is so low.] The tank's health bar flashed deep into the red from within the pit. My focus was torn away from the fight and glued to his health bar. A sudden overwhelming urge to save him overtook me. Maybe it was some deep code buried within me, but I couldn't watch someone die at my own hands. My processors strained to come up with a solution. He couldn't die. Not in the Communications Center. Not on my ship, with my humans just ten decks below.

I watched as Angela bounced back and forth on her feet, trying to decide what to do. An idea finally hit me and I moved my Rock 'Em bots away from the trap, applying pressure to Ash as he dodged their punches with surprising skill. [PANIC> WHAT ARE YOU DOING? THEY'RE GOING TO HEAL THE TANK. APPLY PRESSURE TO THE HEALER!] Angela finally took the opportunity I gave her and ran around the table, falling to her knees at the edge of the trap. Her hands glowed with golden light as she cast heal after heal on the tank.

His health bar lurched out of the red and into green, flooding relief through my circuits. I turned my focus back toward my last two monsters—correction—my last monster. A flurry of ice from Frost had taken out Rock 'Em 1. [KLUDGE> We're not gonna make it man, we need to do something.] In a last ditch effort I surged power into the displays. The delvers shielded their eyes, shouting something about it being a dirty trick. I sent Rammer 1 and 2 in on Angela.

The slow debuff from Frost finally dropped due to the blind effect stopping her from casting. Angela's vision restored in time for her to dodge Rammer 1, but not Rammer 2. She crumpled to the ground and Burke leapt, not after the Rammers but to Angela. He wiped at his eyes and blinked furiously like he still couldn't see. Rock 'Em 2 landed a vicious blow to Ash's stomach, doubling him over in pain. I watched, terror gripping me as the tide of the battle turned in my favor.

Angela threw a heal toward Ash and I moved Rock 'Em 2 in front of him, intercepting the heal yet again.

"Heal yourself damnit!" Burke yelled, pulling her to her feet. He swiveled around, shield out as the two Rammers circled them. [PANIC> SEND IN THE ANKLE BITER! DRAW FROST'S FOCUS WITH THE RAMMERS!] I did as PANIC instructed, sending the Ankle Biter in towards Angela from the back of the room while the Rammers ran towards Frost. She focused her slows on them and at the same time, Burke left Angela to help Ash—the Rock 'Em bot was laying into him and his health was dropping fast.

Angela shot another heal toward Ash right as the Ankle Biter clamped down on her leg. The heal went wide, hitting Burke.

"Enough!" Burke roared, slamming his shield against the ground. The ship's asteroid impact alert siren blared in my feed. I barely even noticed it. A visible shockwave of dust and debris shot up from the ground all around his shield. It toppled over the Rock 'Em bot and Rammer 1 as it ran past him. Frost ran over to Angela and stabbed the ground with the end of her staff. Ice shot out from around it, freezing the Ankle Biter in place.

She grabbed Angela's arm and dragged her to the other side of the table in the middle of the room.

"Angela! Heal Ash now! Frost, focus down the Rock 'Em bot!" Burke barked. The group coordinated their plan with such intense focus I hesitated at my controls for a moment. Rock 'Em went down, then Rammer 1 and 2 were finished off by Ash. The group circled around the Ankle Biter, still frozen in place. Burke raised his sword over head with both hands and stabbed down through its neck, severing its head. Angela didn't stop casting heals, even when everyone was full.

Burke made two quick strides and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's okay. It's done." She looked at him, eyes wide. Her lip started to tremble and she chomped down on it. Burke turned in a slow circle observing the group.

"Is everyone okay?" A quick and quiet round of "yes's" rang out from his team. He pulled back one of the chairs from the table and collapsed into it.

"Very good. Goddess, that was tougher than I expected." Ash leaned in and bumped horns with Burke then took a seat beside him.

"You know, I'd thought I'd be glad when someone else fell into the spike trap, but damn. Let's not do that again." Burke grimaced, rubbing the bottom of his foot against the leg of the chair.

"Agreed." I wanted to sit here and watch them recover, but the Loot Tables window was blinking in my interface. Second Encounter Loot Options ► This encounter has been ranked: Blue. The following rewards are the stated minimum suggested values. ▹300 Experience to each delver. ▹2 System Coin each. ▹1 crafting material of Blue quality or higher. Even if it wasn't the end of the dungeon, I would want to reward them admirably for that fight.

The way the rallied and overcame death multiple times, it was beyond impressive. A small data point bubbled up to my attention. They share a resiliency level comparable to our humans. I held that thought for a moment, hovering over the garbage collector. I needed to get a grip. Dropping the thought in garbage collector, I refocused on the loot window. We had faired quite well from the encounter Anima wise and were at 1080.

I rewarded them each two System Coins, 300 Experience each, and then poked through the crafting materials window again. Filtering to blue, I narrowed my choices down to a larger piece of mirror, a two meter spool of copper wiring, and a resealable plastic bag. I went with the spool of copper wire. [KLUDGE> I wonder why he's not passing out the loot like Fermi's group did.] I had a similar thought as Burke picked up the loot and didn't bother passing any of it out.

I started to play around with the Loot Tables interface to see if I could reward certain delvers certain rewards, but couldn't find anything immediately and gave up. It was their loot, after all, and they clearly were well coordinated. I probably shouldn't insert myself into its distribution. I watched them slowly stand and willed them to leave. They'd gotten their loot, proven themselves, and now it was time for them to go home.

They looked around the room, faces slowly growing more and more determined and an uneasiness snaked its way through my wiring.

"So… where do you think that leads to?" Frost asked, gesturing to the corridor I specifically didn't want them to enter.

"My guess, the core room." He rolled his shoulders, grimacing as he did.

"Come on." [Colin> Why aren't they leaving? I gave them so much loot!] [MAM> Perhaps they just want to explore.] I tried to tell myself she was right, but all of Adranath's warnings flooded my processing queue. Just as I managed to squash those down, PANIC added to the drama. [PANIC> WE HAVE INCOMING! FOUR MORE DELVERS ARE APPROACHING!] I slammed the bake button to print four Rock 'Em bots before I even pulled up the feed and got an error. I couldn't make more monsters while my dungeon was occupied.

[KLUDGE> What are we going to do?] I had no idea.