Nightmare Realm Summoner

Alex’s chest clenched. What felt like a black hole formed in the center of his core. It almost felt like he was going to fold in on himself. For a brief moment, the very air seemed to shift its course, flowing in toward him.

Then came a bristling tearing crunch. It was the sound of something ripping through a piece of thick, invisible fabric that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. A mote of pale pink sputtered to life before the fallen Corrupted Scuttler and flew toward Alex. The mote was weak and distant, more a reflection of a fading candle than the real thing.

But the it didn’t resemble a Soul Flame. It felt more… physical. Like a patch of oil, or psychedelic mold growing within a tiny petri dish. The object certainly couldn’t have been called solid. Alex could nearly see through it. But it was more there than any Soul Flame he had seen. This was something more than mere energy.

That didn’t stop Alex from snagging it out of the air before it could fade away. He was surprised to find a somewhat solid form meet his palm. It felt like he’d grabbed onto a bubble, fragile enough to pop at any moment, but somehow holding strong. He didn’t dare waste a second trying to figure out what it was.

He shoved it into his Soul Mirror.

Or, at least, he tried to. The odd object bounced right off. A flash of surprise washed over him, but joined with the freezing power still pouring into his body from the dead Scuttler, he barely even noticed it. Alex immediately activated his Spatial Ring. There would be time to figure out exactly what it was he’d stolen from the System later. They were still in the closing maw of a very, very big beast.

He was actually slightly surprised to find that the strange little mote of solid light vanished easily into his Spatial Ring.

Oi. Where’s my soul flame? I swear to god, if I got scammed out of—

A flicker of pink energy lit before Alex. Almost as if it had been reminded by his internal complaints, a Soul Flame sparked into being. Alex didn’t count his blessings. It wasn’t a small one, either. He grabbed the flame and shoved it into his mirror without a moment of hesitation. Two rewards were definitely better than one.

Alex glanced back toward the Scuttler as a shriek came form within it. Several more followed after it. A few moments later, a small chunk of the monster’s carapace popped out as Glint dragged himself out from within it. He was completely covered with Benadryl-pink… something. Alex wasn’t quite sure what the powdery, clumpy substance was. It definitely wasn’t blood. He got the feeling he didn’t want to know.

“Now that is what I’m talking about,” Glint said in delight, an arc of Riftwarped Qi dancing across his claws. “Why don’t you always summon me like this? That was incredible! This form is even more versatile than I initially thought.”

Because it uses like half of my energy.

It might have used more than that. Alex could feel his reserves were dangerously low. Pumping up Glint to the absolute max, in addition to calling on his Partial Soul Manifestation, hadn’t left him much at all to work with. Things were going to go really bad if they got into another fight anytime soon.

And something was odd. It prodded at the back of Alex’s mind incessantly, screaming that something had changed since the Corrupted Scuttler had fallen. He just couldn’t place it. There weren’t any baby crystal crabs racing toward him. The sky wasn’t closing up with crystal.

So what is it? What—

“It’s quiet,” Claire said. She’d walked up beside him at some point, and the others weren’t far behind her.

“The stadium stopped breaking apart,” Orchid breathed. She gripped her staff in a tight grip. “It worked. We killed the bait fast enough.”

“It was pretty fast, wasn’t it?” Alex asked, a grin pulling across his lips. “That was awesome.”

“That’s a word. Not one I’d use for this situation, but it’s a word,” Orchid muttered.

“It was pretty cool. And I saw you swinging around beneath it,” Claire said, her lips twitching in amusement. “Were you playing or fighting?”

“Those were tactical swings.”

“It looked fun,” Derek said. He harrumphed. “I want a chain weapon too.”

“We’ll see what we can do,” Alex said. He wiped the sweat from his forehead. His heart still pounded in his chest, pushing adrenaline through his entire body. Every part of him was still convinced it was in a fight. There was a good chance that he was.

We need to get out of here.

“I think we need to move.,” Alex said. “Now. While the stadium is still sitting around and trying to figure out if we’re worth the trouble of trying to kill. Something tells me it won’t be wondering forever.”

“That might be a smart call,” Glint said. “Though I wouldn’t mind another fight right now. I finally feel alive. This is exactly what I’ve been waiting for.”

“Let’s hope you don’t get your wish,” Alex said, his gaze flicking over to the exit they’d left through to escape the Scuttler a short while earlier. It was still almost entirely full of pink crystals. There was another exit on the far side of the arena. It was looking like they’d have to use that one. “Believe it or not, I think I’ve had my fill for the day.”

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***

Alex would have been lying if he said that he’d expected their departure from the stadium to be easy. But, to literally all of their relief — and disbelief — it actually was. They took extra care to avoid bumping into any of the crystals as they made their way back through the huge arena. No more crystals or tiny gem creatures accosted them on their way. None of them dared breathe so much as a single word.

And, in that manner, they just walked right out.

Their silence continued well out of the stadium. Nobody said anything until the’d completely left the small city behind them and were well into the sprawling purple-red lit hills of the Mirrorlands.

“That was… close,” Orchid finally said, releasing a breath that she’d clearly been holding for quite some time. “Shit. I can’t believe there was a bait boss. I don’t think I’ve ever even heard of something like that.”

“The Mirrorlands are seriously messed up,” Derek agreed. “But it wasn’t really all that strong. It was just kinda tough. It didn’t have any strong attacks. I kinda felt like we were putting down a half-dead remnant of what used to be a boss, ya know? I would have liked a better fight. It only killed me once. Did break a bunch of my weapons, though. That sucked.”

“You know,” Alex said. “While I feel for your weapons… didn’t you just get a whole new Legacy? Did you use it?”

“What?” Derek sent Alex a baffled look. “No.”

He said it in such a manner as if to imply that the answer was obvious.

“What, are you waiting for a stronger monster or something?” Alex asked.

“Stronger would be good,” Derek agreed. “But I also just can’t use it correctly yet. Better to stick to the good stuff when you’re fighting a powerful enemy. You only whip out the fancy things against something way weaker or way stronger. Easy or desperate. That’s when you really go crazy.”

Claire snorted. “I think we might have all been dead if it was any stronger. I don’t know how powerful the real monster lurking in that stadium was, but it would have been considerably more dangerous than the crab to be able to use it like that.”

“Probably not by too much, though, right?” Alex guessed. “If you were five times stronger than the Corrupted Scuttler, you probably wouldn’t need to be scared of anything that could kill it. I bet the actual boss was something around the peak of Expert. Still, though. If we’d had to fight it…”

“You’d all be paste,” Glint said cheerfully. Then his amusement evaporated. “Which would have been deeply displeasing.”

He meant that. Alex knew that much. He also knew that Ein’Zahl wouldn’t have been sad because they’d died. He’d just be pissed that he lost out on his best and only in-jail entertainment.

“Good catch on the whole thing being a trap,” Orchid said, glancing over to him. She blew out a small breath. “Not that it really worked. But good catch. If we’d taken a slower approach to fighting the crab like we were planning to, that could have been really bad.”

“Now we know that’s something we have to watch for,” Alex said. “Live and learn, yeah? You know, it gives me a few ideas. I wonder if we could do something like this with Mirrorwane. That’s a really damn effective trap. I bet a ton of people would fall for it.”

“That’s your takeaway?” Orchid asked, sending him a sidelong glance. Then her lips curled. “I suppose it’s the right one, though. I’m sure Mite will be able to replicate it. But it’s too bad we didn’t get to loot the crab or actually kill a real Region Boss. This whole thing was a waste aside from the magical energy we got from killing it. It was certainly a lot of energy. But what now? Do we just rest up and go look for a fight we can actually take?”

“I’m not so sure I’d jump to saying this was a waste,” Alex replied. “And we certainly didn’t walk away with nothing.”

“We didn’t?” Derek asked. “Did you grab a crystal on the way out?”

“Hell no,” Alex said. “Haven’t you watched any horror movies, man? Those things were clearly evil. There’s no way I’d grab a crystal that belongs to a still-living crystal monster and bring it on my merry way with me. It would probably infect whatever we used it for.”

“What?” Claire’s brow furrowed. “How do you know? I didn’t see anything to imply those could spread on their own… but I suppose that could definitely be a potential ability such a monster could have. I didn’t even think of that. Is this knowledge from Earth? I thought you said you didn’t have any battle training before the System’s arrival.”

“Horror movies are not battle training. They’re common sense training,” Alex replied. He paused for a moment. “Well, some of them are. I’m just saying, I’m not taking the giant evil crystal and plopping it down in my house. That’ just asking for shit to go wrong. You never take the stuff someone wants to you to take. Which is why I took the bit that it didn’t.”

“What does that mean?” Derek asked. “I don’t get it.”

“It means I took this,” Alex replied. He activated his Spatial Ring, holding his hand out and coming to a stop. The faint, semi-translucent bubble of pink magical energy materialized within his palm. Everyone gathered around him. They peered down at his hand in curiosity as the System’s words shimmered to life above his spoils of war.

Corruption Core(Legendary) — Consumable Class Shard

Upon Consumption: Establish a soul-link with the Corruption and permanently transform the class of this item’s user into a Corrupted version, changing and empowering their body and all of their abilities. This change is permanent.

“Gods,” Orchid breathed. “It’s a class improvement item. A legendary one. But…”

“Whoa,” Derek said. “That’s…”

“Evil,” Alex muttered. “Holy shit. This thing is fucking evil.”

Claire’s eyes went wide. “The Corrupted Scuttler. You’re right. Anyone who uses this is totally going to turn into a shambling crystal golem under the control of the stadium monster. But the item doesn’t even mention that. How cruel is the System? Maybe that’s a stupid question, but I thought it would have at least said if an item has such an obvious downside.”

“The name might be a small giveaway,” Glint drawled. “But never mistake the System to be cruel or kind. It simply is. Never beholden yourself to another. Not unconditionally.”

Orchid sent Glint a look. “That’s… wise. Especially coming from a summoned monster.”

Glint glanced at her. Then he looked to Alex.

“Let’s drop that line of conversation,” Alex said, clearing his throat.

Orchid shrugged. Then she nodded at the small bubble in his hand. “Fine. But what do we do with… this? It’s useless. You can’t force someone to use an item.”

They all fell silent for a few moments.

Then a grin crept across Alex’s face.

“You can’t. But there’s something else you an do with an item like this.” Alex read back over the Corruption Core’s description just to double check his thoughts. There wasn’t a single word within it to imply that the item was actually horrible. The only way to know that for certain would be to witness the results of what becoming Corrupted did firsthand. To anyone else… it just sounded like a badass, edgy title.

“What is it?” Orchid asked.

Alex’s grin grew wider.

“Bring it to an auction and scam some rich Outworlder asshole we hate for an exorbitant amount of money.”