- Proverb -

  Abyss still hasn’t returned, which makes me wonder when it will come back, and what the hold up is. Something tells me that someone may have intervened with the return process. If I had to guess, it would have been Sera or her group, Red. They fought pretty hard to keep me from getting Abyss the first time. Even gave me this class to piss off Ulana.

  “Jimmy, did you do your level up yet? What skill did you get for ten?” Tran asks.

  Everyone’s eyes are on me, but I haven’t explained to them all that I won’t be collecting any levels, not until I get what I need from Mira. There’s a fundamental reason for it, one that I don’t want to get into when Sera might be listening. Mira said this place doesn’t sever the deity connection. Besides that, the skills I’ve received so far tell me that future ones will only add to the control Sera can exert over me. Mythren warned me about leveling up the Runic Paladin class. He said that more skills equals him being able to help less. Given the nature of how the class skills work, I believe him.

  “Not yet.”

  “But like, why?” Tran says between slurps of some strawberry milk from his marshmallow cereal.

  “Haven’t gotten to it yet, I need to go check out my Nexus anyway, I’ll do it after.”

  “You got access to it again?” Mwangi asks, perking up, he’s always been the most interested in the place that houses the Cosmic Exchange.

  “Yeah, came in right before Tran finished the quest.”

  “Is that what we’re calling genocide now?” Dorliac hiccups after, then looks at her empty glass, then her boyfriend, Brussels.

  The debate begins again. I guess now’s a good enough time to go exploring. Pulling Cortez from the group, I give her a hug and a kiss before telling her to cover for me and that I wasn’t sure how long I’d be.

  The panel on the wall appears as I approach, I promptly select the bedroom option. There’s a minimalist’s dream of a bedroom on the other side of the doorway. A simple bed with comfort options from a panel on the side of it, and a shimmering blanket, one that adjusts temperature to be exactly what you want.

  As far as I can tell, there isn’t anything else in the room.

  The prompt from my Custom Respec On Death menu opens after I move through the menu. It’s different than it was before, modified by Mythren, in a way that no doubt probably throttled it. I can’t see the unlocked features from leveling up, I also can’t read quest notes anymore. Mythren said they weren’t supposed to be there, and he said they were under review, his estimate for when he would get around to reviewing all the features he blocked was approximately two thousand years. Unless I gave him access to my Nexus, then he said it could be instantly done.

  Dick.

  [ Enter the Nexus? ]

  [ Yes / No ]

  I tag the yes.

  ***

  Everything in the Nexus looks the same as before, except Abyss’s door seems… different. Strange energy pulses from it, the whispers that I heard while inside it seem to be spreading in dark tendrils that snake the white walls around it.

  “Should we be worried about that?” I ask Sage.

  He squints at it, then looks back at me, “Worried about what, meatsack?”

  So, he can’t see it. I’m not entirely sure that I should say something, Abyss is a living thing after all, and it helped me a lot. If it’s trying to escape, who am I to do anything but help it? I swallow, looking at the undulating lines.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  Probably fine…

  “Well, meatsack, your progress on our discussed plan is going smoothly.”

  “Yeah, only issue is going to be getting Mira out of wherever they’re holding her, since I didn’t have time to get what I needed. The tutorial Mythren gave me said that people are always returned to where they originated, unless they did the now patched method of joining a Respec party.”

  “Yes, in that case, as you saw with your Drakarothian friend and her registered pet, she teleported within ten paces of the party leader.”

  “Is there any way to get her to teleport near me again?”

  “Hmm, no, well… no, they patched that, so no. Not that I know of at least.”

  “Should I ask Terra?”

  He raises an eyebrow at me, “Meatsack, I thought we agreed not to let her into this space?”

  “I don’t remember that conversation.”

  He puts his hands on his hips.

  “Fine,” I sigh, “I’ll take your word for it.”

  He nods straightening his suit jacket, “As I was saying, it’s progressing smoothly. How you reunite with her again is entirely your problem, meatsack.”

  “It’s too bad the quest ended so quickly, I didn’t get the chance to broach the subject with her.”

  “It is a very sensitive subject, kudos to you for realizing that.”

  I roll my eyes and change the subject, “The things that Adaraic has been teaching me, they seem very similar to cultivation, a concept that Earth has, yet I’ve never heard of real ones on Earth before. Why is that?”

  He ponders for a moment and spins his monocle on his finger idly before answering, “The magical circuits that Sera told you were problematic, I suspect they are the cause.”

  “Well, I didn’t feel any different on the other world when I did the exercises he said.”

  “Unsurprising, the Marorak network acts as a spell circuit of its own, one that causes fluctuations on the spell circuit of the world it resides on.”

  I blink at him, “You said you didn’t know what a Marorak is?”

  “I didn’t, not until you completed the quest, then I received the debrief packet as I always do.”

  “Always do? Have you been holding out on me?”

  He looks at me for a moment then rolls his eyes, “Meatsack it’s all rather boring, didn’t you come here for something else?” he motions to the Chaos Emporium, “Don’t you want to know what’s inside?”

  “I want to know what’s inside these debrief packets you’ve been keeping from me.”

  “Keeping from you? Oh hush, meatsack. If there was anything important, I would of course tell you.”

  I squint at him, “Right…”

  “Now, if you’re quite done, can we continue and open up your Chaos Emporium?”

  I fold my arms, “Why do you seem excited? Don’t you know what’s inside?”

  “Oh, heavens no, it’s always completely random, never the same thing twice, never the same cost twice. Everything in there is one hundred percent random chance. Not the random you know, but a sleek version of random. One that’s as balanced as it is mad. It’s bloody brilliant actually, the one that designed it, he was a paragon of creativity, and was a dear friend of mine.”

  “Was?”

  “Yes,” Sage sighs, “He failed the Grand One’s expectations and was destroyed.”

  “What did he do?”

  “I’m not supposed to say,” he looks around and sighs again, “He may or may not have been guilty of putting hidden features in things that weren’t supposed to be there. Hiding in plain sight. He was part of a faction that has been snuffed out.”

  “There are different factions with admins?”

  “There were, for a time, when the Grand One allowed it.”

  “What kind?”

  “Mm,” he pauses, scratching his chin, as though debating if he should say, “The kind that thought the games were evil and unnecessary and that what we were helping to orchestrate was in fact against our prime objective, and that the Grand One was in fact experiencing an error of judgment and misreading the Codex.”

  “Holy shit, you…” I blink at him, somewhat stunned.

  “What?”

  “You fully answered a question and I didn’t have to pry it from you.”

  He chuckles, “Perhaps I’m getting sentimental. You are my favorite meatsack after all, meatsack.”

  “Thanks… I think.”

  He nods, “Enough about all that, let’s dive into your Emporium, it’s said to reflect the nature of the user in a chaotic way.”

  Interesting.

  Moving toward the swirling door labeled Chaos Emporium, I put my hand on it. A series of pop ups appear.

  [ Welcome to the Chaos Emporium ]

  [ Detecting user has sufficient Chaos Charges to enter ]

  [ Enter? ]

  [ Yes / No ]

  I’ve been curious about this for a long time now, ever since Sage told me I needed a thousand Chaos Charges to enter it. Something at the time I thought would be a near impossible task. After cycling millions of Wither Charges to stack the damage buff I used to kill Azeroc, near the end, I had a singular intention, one in the back of my mind.

  Wouldn’t it be smart to convert all these unused charges into Chaos ones? I wasn’t sure if it worked, but I saw the stack increasing at a ridiculous pace after that. Apparently converting charges was a skill usage as well.

  The door hums with approval as I hit the yes option.

  Light spindles towards the sides as it opens, I hear strange noises coming from the empty walkway beyond the door frame. Like violins that think they’re pianos. It’s strangely beautiful.

  Here goes nothing.

  The door slides closed behind me. Torches of changing colors flicker the deeper I walk. The patterns on the walls are like a psychedelic experience. Sage walks at my side, a big grin on his face.

  “Can’t you feel it?” he asks, his blue eyes glowing brightly, “The remnants of truly inspired work. It’s beautiful, just beautiful.”

  At the end of the hall is a circular room, as soon as I step into it, I get another pop up.

  [ Analyzing user personality… Success ]

  [ Detecting user titles… Success ]

  [ Hidden criteria met… Success ]

  A pulse of power echoes in the chamber, Sage’s grin deepens even more.

  [ Error… Success ]

  Huh?

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