Chương 35: Let’s just say I’ve got a bad feeling about it.

Nod plotted another course through the lattice of interconnected roads, and George set off at a jog. >>If these hunting rounds are 60 minutes long, we have 39 minutes left. >>And guess what? You have a perfectly timed upgrade coming. George kept jogging as the notification flickered into view. Skill Upgrade Unlocked: Expand 2 Choose your upgrade path: • Increase rate of expansion • Decrease cooldown of expand • Enable expansion of selected portion of target only He didn't slow down as he made his selection.

Skill Selected: Expand 2—Decrease cooldown of Expand >>Sheesh. Can we discuss these things before you just haul off and choose one?

"Seemed like a no-brainer," George said.

"If we decrease the cooldown sooner rather than later, we increase the rate at which we upgrade this skill, making all the other upgrades happen sooner." >>Well, yes, in this case, I happen to agree with your choice, but I'm just saying, let's talk it over first. >>Not everyone has a savvy, debonair supercomputer in their pocket, so use what advantages you got, you know? >>Anyway, we're about to get a bunch of those upgrades.

This is what the skill progress looks like right now: Skills: • Draw 2: 22% • Bind 2: 81% • Expand 2: 0% • Reduce: 96% • Bore: 77% >>We're also due for a level-up in five minutes. George made better time on the way down than he did on the way up. The course Nod had charted took him across the center of the room on the high roads toward a spiral ramp in the corner. At one point, he had to jump down onto a lower road as it passed beneath the road he was on. George lowered himself over the edge and dropped.

He tumbled backward and then his helmet banged noisily on the ground. George ran over to the spiral ramp and hurried down it in a tight circle. It opened into a large walled courtyard inside the bunker. Nod's path led into a dark doorway at the base of the bunker. >>The prestige token is somewhere in there. It looks to be toward the top. >>This whole room has seemed pretty empty, but you know what they say about assumptions… >>Do me a favor. Would you point your finger at that doorway? We need a light.

George extended the index finger of his left hand at the doorway. >>Lumos! A thin black filament extended from George's fingertip and lit up with bright, white magnesium light.

"It seems like that should hurt, but for some reason, it doesn't," George said. George held the tiny flare on the tip of his finger above his head and walked into the bunker. The helmet didn't impede his hearing any more than it did his vision, but even so, he couldn't hear anything as he crept through the winding corridors of the bunker. >>If any creepy crawlies jump out at you, just poke them with your torch and run the other way. He seemed to be the only one in the bunker.

They occasionally saw larger rooms, some with windows to the outside. All the rooms were lit up, while the hallways were dark. When he approached a fork in the corridor, George took the one that seemed to lead upward since Identify was still showing them that the prestige token was almost directly above them. >>Wait. What was that? George doubled back to the room he had just passed. >>Bingo. Another portal. The small room was empty except for a rough wooden doorway standing upright in the middle.

He could see the same faint green force field inside the doorway as the other portal. Through the force field, he could see sand and the long, high wall of what looked like a gladiatorial arena. Rows of stone seats rose in tiered stacks encircling the sand pit. Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Some of the sand had blown into the room where George stood. George felt warm air coming dry air blowing steadily in through the portal. >>Uh oh. Not good.

"What?" George said. >>Environmental factors in one room can bleed through the portals. Look at the sand. It blew through on its own.

"That's a bad thing?" George said. >>Let's just say I've got a bad feeling about it. >>I still don't think it is a good idea to be near these things… there's no telling what might come out of them. But it is good to know the location of another portal is in this room. George continued jogging in the direction of the prestige token. He could tell he was getting nearer because the line was shifting back and forth more as he made his way through the hallways.

Eventually, he turned a corner and walked into a larger room near the top of the bunker. The brazing talon winked out and withdrew back into George's finger. It felt weird, but it didn't hurt. The room had a low, grey ceiling and a wide window stretching across the outside wall. There was a pedestal in the center of the room with a palm-sized orange diamond floating a few inches above it. The line leading to the prestige token ran straight into the center of the orange gem.

George was walking toward it when a notification appeared. Ability Notification! Threat Level 2 Knickknack Savant - Level 3 >>Something just changed. What was it? Suddenly, the echo of a screech ran through the room outside the bunker. George rushed to the window and looked out. It took him a minute to locate the source of the sound, but he saw the remnants of green sparks fading out on the ground in front of a portal in a pillar in the middle of the room.

The feral gnacker stood in front of the portal on its two back legs and screeched again. George ducked down and moved to the edge of the window but continued to watch it. It dropped to all fours. Its tongue slithered out of its mouth, and lapped at the patch of floor beneath its feet. >>Uh… George. Isn't that about where we arrived in this room? The gnacker screeched again and set off on a trot toward the ramp that George had jogged up on his way to the high road.

When it reached the incline, it sped up into a gallop, only slowing every now and then to extend its tongue again and check the trail.

"It has our scent," George said. >>Looks that way.

"Then it will be here soon," George said. >>Time to boogey. Grab that token and high-tail it down to that coliseum portal. George crossed to the pedestal and grabbed the prestige token. Collected: 1 prestige token Other than the notification, nothing else happened. With a thought, he sent it into the dedicated dimensional storage, and it disappeared. Nod had already marked a line that led to the portal in his vision. Another screech echoed around the room outside.

George followed the line through the twisting corridors at a trot until he was back in the room with the portal to the sandy arena. He walked close to the portal and tried to see as much of the room beyond as he could without stepping through. As he bent close to the portal, he could feel a warm breeze gently blowing through. Beyond the shimmering green barrier, he could see a large empty arena. Nothing moved in the wide sandy pit, and he could not see anyone in the stands.

"Here goes nothing," George said and stepped through. Entering Hunting Room: Step Lively He emerged with a shower of green sparks cascading around him onto the sand. At the same time George came through the portal, he saw an identical shower of green sparks bursting out of a doorway on the opposite side of the arena. A figure stepped through and looked around himself just like George was doing. >>I see four portals at regular intervals around the wall of the pit. That wall twenty feet high. You are not climbing it.

>>I recommend we skedaddle over to one of those portals and go to the next room before that gnacker comes through behind us. >>I couldn't help but notice that the threat level didn't go down when we went through the portal. The figure across the arena raised its hand and waved at George. >>And I recommend we stay away from that guy, whoever he is. >>The round is almost over. 11: 42 left.

Even though the person was distant enough that George could not make out the features of his face, Identify supplied his profile information. <Name: Nagle Race: Human Level: 61, E-Grade Profession: Clockwork Machinist Abilities: Arcane Geometry; Garrulous Gadfly House: N/A Guild: N/A Metadata—Encyclopedia Esoterica: N/A. >"Hey! George!" Nagle cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted.

"Can we talk? You are low-level, and so am I. White flag, you know? Meet and greet. Parley." Nagle set out across the sand in George's direction at a walk with his hands slightly raised at his sides to show they were empty. George didn't respond but began to walk steadily toward the leftmost portal. Nagle started to jog toward him and altered his course to intercept George near the portal.

"George! Wait up," the man said.

"I just want to talk. Hey! Wait." Ability Notification! Threat Level 3 Knickknack Savant - Level 5 George also felt the effects of Knickknack Savant for the first time, or rather, at level five he became aware of a more pronounced effect that had been subtly at work since the ability turned on. He still felt afraid, but on top of the fear there was a new sense of clarity, as though a cooler, more rational part of his mind had awakened and it could sort through the situation while his body continued to act.

>>Nod, that gnacker will come through the portal any second. Maybe we should team up against it. >>Or… here's another idea. We just feed him to the gnacker and then bail through the portal. Then Nod noticed something. >>George, WAIT! >>STOP MOVING NOW! George froze. His eyes bounced back and forth between Nagle and the surroundings, looking for whatever had made Nod tell him to stop. Nagle continued to jog in his direction.

"Oh, thank goodness! I think we can help each other." >>Look at his feet. >>I saw something. >>There! Look! >>Don't say anything. Don't make a sound. Maybe they are drawn to noise, too. >>Maybe WHAT is drawn to noise? George looked at the jogging man but saw nothing in the sand. >>What are you seeing, Nod? >>If I say run, run your ass off toward that portal. Keep your eyes on the sand in front of you. >>I don't see anything. But then he did.

Nagle was kicking up dust as he jogged, but there was more dust around his feet and along his trail than his steps could account for. George looked at the sand behind him and saw a small, sinuous creature raise its head above the sand and then plunge downward back into it. >>What was that? >>Bad news for Nagle.