"Mjolnir?" Pete asked, smirking as he pointed to the maul Ollie was holding in his right hand. "You're gonna swing that thing around and use it to fly through the air?"
"Maybe not," Ollie admitted. "But some kind of mobility augment would be great. Or maybe I split the maul in half to make two smaller hammers?"
"As fun as it is hearing about all the wonderful things you might be able to do with that hammer," Sam said, "I think we should focus on the car park a little more. We've been walking for close to twenty minutes, and there's no elevator door in sight. No enemies either."
Pete checked his display, noting the timer hovering at the top of his HUD.
>> TIME TO CLEAR LEVEL: 2 hrs 45 mins
"I don't think we should just keep walking," Pete said, walking up to a nearby pillar and pressing his hand against its cold concrete surface. "I don't think we should run, either. For all we know, this is some kind of simulation and we're just walking on the spot."
"Or the elevator door could be miles away," Sam countered. "And we're not going to find it unless we pick up the pace."
"True," Pete said. "I just think we might need to try to force something here, instead of waiting for something to happen."
"Force how?" Ollie asked.
Pete slapped the side of the pillar. "Maybe we just start breaking some shit. Do some damage and see what happens?"
He turned to Ollie. "You wanna see how hard you can hit this pillar with your hammer?"
"I'm game," the other man said, lumbering over and twisting his shoulder around. "Blunt or piercing?"
"Dealer's choice," Pete replied.
Ollie grinned, turning the maul to the blunt side and preparing to swing.
"Hold onto your asses!" he said, swinging with all the force he could manage.
The maul slammed into the pillar with a resounding thud that echoed through the vast, empty car park. The hammer split part of the concrete and sent cracks spiderwebbing outward from the impact point, but little damage had been caused. Even so, Pete felt something shift in the air around them as the echoing impact noise began to lessen.
"Hang on," Ollie said, rolling his shoulders. "That was just a warmup."
Ollie swung again, this time shouting as the maul hit the pillar. Chips of concrete were sent flying out from the impact point, and once more the echo of that impact bounced off the floor and ceiling of the vast car park. The cracks widened a little, but failed to penetrate the hard surface of the concrete pillar.
"Fuck a duck!" Ollie shouted.
"Keep going," Pete insisted. "It's definitely doing something. No idea what, but I think we should do some more damage."
"I felt it too," Sam said, turning to Ollie. "Something shifted in the air both times when you hit the pillar."
The rangy Australian grinned. "Are you saying you just felt the earth move?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "I'm saying you need to hit it harder. Let me know if you can't manage it, and I'll step in."
"Oh, I can handle it," the paladin said, turning back to the pillar.
[Craig-Private-Pete] I may be misjudging the relationship, but am I right in suggesting that Ollie and Sam seem to be courting?
Pete blinked, turning to face the little goblin as Ollie triggered his Balance of Judgement ability, and a large golden coin appeared in the air beside the concrete pillar. He was about to reply in the negative when he thought back to the interactions between the two since Ollie had joined the party. Sam had been outright hostile to begin with and still didn't seem to trust the Australian, but there was a playful tone to her jabs and insults lately, which hadn't been there at the beginning.
[Pete-Private-Craig] I think you might be right.
[Craig-Private-Pete] Is it usual, when humans court one another, to employ so many insults?
[Pete-Private-Craig] The word 'usual' doesn't really apply in Ollie's case.
The holographic coin stopped on a cross symbol, and a wave of healing shot out and spread throughout the party in the form of luminescent strands of golden light. Ollie cursed as his maul hit the pillar at precisely the same moment the healing ability was enacted.
Sam chuckled. "Thanks so much for the gratuitous healing, but don't you think a damage ability would have been more effective?"
"I can't control the damned thing," Ollie blurted in response. "It's fifty-fifty whether it heals or deals damage."
"Perhaps," Craig said, hefting his rifle, "we should all attempt to damage the pillar?"
"Good idea," Pete said, drawing his bow and notching an arrow. "Trigger any area of effect spells you have, Ollie, and then step back, and we'll see what we can do."
Ollie grunted but did as Pete suggested, triggering his Vaulted Reserves ability and birthing a golden aura that dealt damage over time to the pillar. He then stepped back a little, moving out of range of the coming attacks but staying within range so the aura could continue to damage the pillar.
Indigo chains wrapped around the concrete, holographic skulls screaming, purple smoke pouring from their mouths and eyes as the chains bit into the stone. Wolfy appeared in front of the pillar, biting and barking at the stone as his teeth scraped against its surface.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
"One," Pete said, holding a charged arrow, while Torgo and Craig prepared to shoot. "Two...three."
Pete released the shot at the same time as a burst of fire shot from Torgo's fire staff, and Craig's rifle cracked loudly, the sound of the shot echoing through the car park. Light, fire, and percussive force hit the pillar like a sledgehammer, and stone shattered as the solid concrete column cracked and broke apart.
Once more, Pete felt a strange thickening in the air around him as the damage was done, but this time the System responded.
>> DEPRECIATION CHALLENGE!
Congratulations! You have unlocked the Depreciation Challenge, one of three possible ways to clear this floor and advance to the next level. The key to advancing in this challenge is to cause damage to as much of the floor as possible. With each portion of damage you deliver, depreciation will rise, and the elevator door will move closer to your position.
The elevator door cannot be reached by player movement alone but must be summoned by means of depreciation and the damage you do to objects and enemies within the challenge. Check the totem revealed by your first destructive act to reveal the enemies chosen for this level.
As the dust settled, Ollie stepped forward and used the end of his maul to clear away the loose rubble and chip off the last of the concrete chunks that were still clinging to the pillar. An object revealed itself through the haze, standing in the middle of the column and standing almost as tall as Ollie himself. It was jet black, fashioned from stone, and carved into a totem-like figure.
Instead of animal heads or other animalistic aspects, the totem showed an old-fashioned looking sedan at the base; something built in the eighties, perhaps. Above the car stood a figure holding a flashlight and wearing a jacket and cap with a Belch Buck logo on them. At the top of the totem stood three young men facing in different directions, their faces hard like gangsters. Each of the men held a shopping cart and wore a ball cap.
"Those are our enemies?" Ollie mused. "An old car, some dude with a jacket, and a bunch of shopping cart enthusiasts?"
"I guess so," Pete said, moving closer to the totem and examining it in more detail.
As his fingers touched one of the shopping carts, a name hovered in the air above the totem.
>> SHOPPING CART CRETINS: Mid-level Enemy
"Weird," Sam said, moving up next to Pete and putting a hand on the figure wearing the jacket.
>> PARKING ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Elite Enemy
"Any money this guy gives you a ticket as one of his attacks," Ollie offered.
As Pete leaned forward and got a clearer look at the figure, he saw that the Parking Enforcement Officer was holding a digital device of some kind, likely used to do precisely what Ollie had suggested. He bent down and touched the car at the bottom of the totem, and another name appeared.
>> STALKING SEDAN: Low-Level Enemy
"Okay," Pete said. "So, we've got three main enemies, but it doesn't look like the System is going to give us any clear details of what we're facing yet."
[Nero] I would suggest progressing with what you have been advised thus far. Challenges such as this sometimes reveal themselves the further you progress. You have destroyed one pillar, and certain preliminary details of the challenge have been revealed. Your next step should be to repeat this process with other pillars.
Pete nodded. "It sounded like we had a choice between a few different challenges, though. Any idea what the others were?"
[Nero] I cannot say. I will, however, reveal that your actions in attacking the pillar dictated the challenge you were to undertake on this level. If you had chosen a different action, another challenge would have presented itself. There are also several ways in which no challenge would have eventuated, and you would have failed to reach the elevator and expired.
"What do we do next then?" Sam asked. "Smash another pillar?"
Pete shrugged. "I mean, there's nothing else here really, so I think that's our only option."
Ollie hefted his maul and pointed to a nearby pillar. "That one."
Pete notched an arrow and waited for his charged shot ability to trigger. "Sam, are you okay if I send you my remaining money? I get a Critical Strike Change boost if I'm in stealth when I fire."
"Yeah, sure," she said, twisting the fingers of both hands and sending indigo chains snaking out toward the pillar.
Pete transferred his remaining money, and his Insolvency debuff kicked in. Once more, the group concentrated their firepower on the concrete pillar, with Ollie using area-of-effect damage. The car park echoed with the shattering of stone as the second pillar burst apart, spraying shards of broken concrete in all directions.
Another black stone statue was revealed within the remains of the pillar. Instead of a totem pole, however, it was a simple depiction of an eyeball on a pedestal with what looked like blinkers on either side of the eye.
>> DIMINISHING RETURNS CHALLENGE
>> DEBUFF DISCOVERY
You've just uncovered a new debuff which will be applied to your entire party for the duration of this challenge. Each time you destroy a pillar, you will uncover either a new debuff, a boon, or an advertising logo. Boons and debuffs will automatically be applied to all members of your party. Boons and debuffs cannot be dispelled with abilities or items.
>> NEW DEBUFF: Market Opacity!
All players can see a maximum of thirty feet in front of them at all times. This applies to both vision and any mini-maps or other apparatus or abilities. Projectile fire, magical attacks, and thrown weaponry can still deal damage to enemies that are out of sight of the players.
Pete watched as the area ahead and to either side of him in the middle distance blurred and darkened as though the lights had been suddenly turned off thirty feet in front of the party in all directions.
"Well, that sucks," Sam mused.
"Could be worse, I guess," Pete replied. "Maybe if we pick up a few boons it will make up for some of the debuffs?"
She narrowed her eyes. "I seriously doubt it."
>> TOTAL DEPRECIATION: 5%
+| Each time you destroy a pillar, whether it includes a debuff or boon, the elevator will move slightly closer to your party. Once Total Depreciation reaches 100%, the elevator will be available for use.
+| Enemies will appear at the twenty, forty, sixty, and eighty percent marks.
+| If Total Depreciation doesn't reach 100% within three hours of your party entering the floor, you will be disintegrated.
"Designed by morons, more like," Ollie said. "Does anyone else get the feeling that the System is just making this shit up?"
[Nero] That is correct, Ollie. You will find that large portions of this tower arena are 'made up' as you say. This is partly so that the experience can be tailored to each player or group, but also to allow for a range of exciting new betting opportunities for Dominion citizens watching from the feeds. What is distinct about the System's method here, as opposed to the manner in which Overseer Greedwell changed the game parameters, is that the System also provides a clear path to victory.
Pete did the numbers quickly in his head. "We need to destroy forty pillars, and then the elevator should appear."
[Nero] Exactly. Though each destroyed pillar will reveal either a debuff, a boon, or a logo, and every twenty pillars you destroy will unlock a new kind of enemy. The three enemies have already been revealed with the totem you uncovered earlier.
"It all sounds perfectly logical when you say it like that," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "But Ollie's right. This whole thing feels like one big setup, like there's something big that the System isn't telling us."
[Nero] I would suggest that this feeling derives more from your unfortunate encounter with the Overseer than the realities of the current challenge, Sam. Believe me when I say that the System is not attempting to trap you. Not in the sense of changing the rules of the game unfairly, that is. There may, of course, be traps hidden in this level, but you should expect traps with every encounter and challenge as they are an integral part of the Dominion Ultrimax Contest and will become increasingly more common as you progress through the game.
>> TIME TO CLEAR LEVEL: 2 hrs 35 mins
"Let's knock out another eight pillars and check out this first enemy. Keep an eye on each other too. With this Market Opacity debuff, we could lose each other pretty quickly if we get separated."
"Pick a buddy," Sam said, walking up beside Pete, "and don't let him out of your sight."
This didn't seem to present a problem for Craig and his goblin companions, seeing as they were practically inseparable. Ollie walked over, grinning as he approached Pete and Sam, his arms outstretched.
"I think it's time, folks. Group hug."