“How is he doing?”
“He’s doing just fine, Suad. He’s progressing through the layers at a rapid pace.”
“Good call on you for not activating his emotions, at least for now, Theta. You’ve done a great job. I’m honestly surprised you even managed to materialize a dungeon with most of your permissions stripped away from you.”
The two flew above a golden table, the air around them was tense yet friendly.
“Does he know what will happen when he reaches the 69th floor though?”, Suad said, looking at his empty cup.
“I think it’s better if we…”
“What’s better? A late admin like yourself, Theta, should know how important it is for us to win the next battle, right?”
The air, which once held a few droplets of kindness, rapidly turned into a sea of tension.
That accursed battle, Theta had to win it if she ever hopes to get her previous status of administrator back.
“You’ve been punished by ‘him’, haven’t you? How was your stay in the void?”, Suad smirked as he saw the disgust in Theta’s eyes.
“You know what they do once you get there well enough Suad, you’ve been in my position last time we met. You should be grateful that I had the power to save your memories back then. Is the sole purpose of this conversation making fun of me and my situation? You know I have a powerful one in my pocket, we can win this battle for sure if we use him wisely…”
“You’re right… Yet, you were reckless this time Theta, you should’ve known better. You and your sick games; why do you select your candidates like that anyway? Do you want them to get killed? I’d gladly take them over if you can’t handle the selection process…”
“I prepare them for the inevitable… This war we’re fighting, it’s not something you can escape that easily from, you know that all too well…”
“Alright then, I’ll leave it to you, dear sister… I’ll see the fruits of your labour soon enough. I’m closing this dimensional pocket now. Good luck, heh…”
—
“Answer me, why is my level capped at 50?”
[Sigh… Zane, there are things even I can’t change. Listen, my powers aren’t what they used to be. I’m a moderator now, remember?]“Sure but why would you be able to materialize a massive dungeon but not be able to raise my cap to 50?”
[You’ll see why once you reach the top.]The system had indeed changed ever since she lost her powers. She stopped mocking Zane a while ago but she’s degraded to an empty shell. Emoticons, flashy sound-effects or garbage rewards, it was all gone. Her process of selecting candidates may have been harsh but she knew that it was the only way to win her ‘battle’ and regain her power. In fact, her behaviour is random. She sometimes goes back to her old self – it’s as if she kept a backup of her memories somewhere. Is it even possible for a system to get depressed?
Zane had now progressed to the 50th floor, near the final 69th floor.
“19 floors to go… I’ve been at this for weeks, yet, you’ve still not given me any details about what I’ll get once I reach the last floor.”
[That’s… Correct…]“Why are you hiding it from me? Is it some kind of silly reward?”
[It’s something that will… Evolve both of us into something anew]“Evolve? Damn, you really like setting a stage for yourself.”
Zane deflected an arrow with his newly acquired black knight sword and charged at the mob firing it. A lesser goblin was firing arrows, it’s aim was way off but Zane had enough of it, he wanted this dungeon to end. In this virtual world, he doesn’t need to rest and eat. He can mindlessly continue to strive for conquest. A mob slaying machine, that’s what Zane had become. All he wanted was to get out of this mediocre dungeon. Levels? XP? He didn’t care about that. He doesn’t spend the gold in the shop, nor does he upgrade any of his equipment. He has loads of mob items stored away in his inventory but never uses them to infuse or upgrade his gear. He doesn’t want to give the system the pleasure of him using her programs. He doesn’t want to spend a single coin, even if it’s virtual money, in her shop.
This black knight sword isn’t as durable as I expected it to be… I’ve been using it ever since killing off that skeleton knight boss. The mob must’ve had some external effects applied on it, maybe it had an effect that increased a weapon’s durability.
Zane looked at the archer goblin and charged at it empty-handed. He grasped the goblin by the head and crushed his skull. He then proceeded by stealing the bow and shooting a barrage of arrows at nearby warrior class goblins. After he’d successfully shot down a few warriors, he continued his fight by stealing as much bronze swords as he could from the warrior’s corpses and charged at one of the commanding goblins, killing them off one at a time.
“Looks like I’ll need new armour as well… Chainmail is great but for real, sys, couldn’t you make the mobs in the higher floors drop better armour?”
[You’ve got a point there… But wouldn’t that make it easier for you?]“YEAH… A whole lot easier…”
[You know that you can always buy and repair your gear in the shop… Why don’t you use it?]“I don’t see the point of using a shop when all I need is right in front of me. Looks like I have enough bronze swords.”
‘It’s actually because I don’t trust that you’ll upgrade them without any ulterior motives. Every time I ask you what’s on the 69th floor, you keep the answer vague.’
Zane proceeded by placing the bronze swords near each other, laying them side by side. He also collected all of the ‘harvested’ leather armour he got from the commanding goblins and piled them up next to the array of swords.
“Merge equipment”
[So you’re willing to use my system after all, heh!]“Don’t get your hopes up, I’m merely using command spells… I’m not touching your displays…”
[Since when is using the shop a chore to you? You said that you want to get out of the dungeon as quickly as possible and yet you waste time by merging trash equipment… You could’ve easily repaired those black knight swords…]“Merging them is better… And cheaper…”
The swords started fusing together, as did the leather armour.
[New items acquired: iron longsword, leather chest plate.]
