Death might be natural but how can you leave? Purpose or not, can I not find a way to save you? There must be a way -- I will find a way! --56.9 Seconds Post-Integration.
"Clark. If you're done antagonizing co-workers, can you please check out that terminal? There is something about it I need to understand," SIMP asked.
"Firstly, I'm not 'antagonizing' anyone. I am just setting the tone for my life here moving forward. Secondly, yes, I can," Clark replied.
In the aftermath of the Dark Knight's defeat, and his setting the story straight with the man from the Containment Department, he and Theo and Hera were left alone, the detachment of store security having left the Interior after he maintained his ground.
The terminal had been hidden underneath the slime node. Upon the Dark Knight's defeat, the node began a gradually vaporization. Ten minutes later, the terminal came into sight. He approached and pushed off some flesh-like webbing left by the disintegrating slime node.
Clark inserted his toggle into the machine. "Thank you!" SIMP exclaimed. A blue color shone from within the terminal, marking SIMP's successful implementation into the terminal. A couple of minutes later and the remainder of the black ichor vaporized all at once, leaving behind a terrible odor.
"What did you find?" he asked SIMP.
"I found something... highly unexpected," they told him. SIMP slowed their speech, as if what they were describing wasn't something they thought possible. "It's a command terminal of Dwarven make."
He relayed the information to his friends. Theo said, "Dwarves? Like, the Master Craftsmen, Dwarves? Those?!"
SIMP hijacked their way into Theo's earpiece. "Bloody right I said 'dwarves.' Stop repeating everything, you little bugger!" SIMP's intrusion into his System Link took the boy by surprise. Theo jumped like a grasshopper and had an excited look on his face.
"What does this mean?" Hera asked.
Less violent than they were with Theo, SIMP replied directly to Hera via her headset. "It means that Augustford's lies run deeper than even I understood." Shifting their attention, SIMP said to Clark, "I need your help. You and the team need to clear away the plague webbing I cannot clear on my own."
Clark surveyed the chamber. He saw blue streaks from SIMP's entry into the chamber's systems, how they were like cleansing rivulets of rainwater on a Spring Day. Though her presence leaked into ever deeper channels, much of the chamber remained coated in a dark, skin-like veneer.
"Okay, team. You heard the man. Let's get working. Theo, I need you to--"
Theo gagged. "How about we get some rest, first?"
"I'm mighty tired myself, Clark," Hera then chimed in.
"I hear ya! I'm exhausted. But this is important. How about we split the issue's middle? You guys can go and get some sleep for a couple of hours. Only a couple of hours. But when you come back, you bring some more dandies with you?" Clark thought such an arrangement was fair.
His party, however, groaned.
"Fiiiiine!" Theo particularly hated the notion, but there was nothing he nor they could do about it.
It wasn't every day that a Dwarven pod was unearthed. He saw the excitement, the intrigue, on Hera's face. She would be back, and soon, too.
With his party gone away for a bit, Clark worked as well as he could tearing down the black cobwebs when he felt like a sack full of smelly crap. His arms moved robotically, one motion after another. "Looks like the store is taking notice of me," he said.
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A bing: "I expected them to notice you sooner," SIMP told him. "Regardless, you have their attention now, that is assuming the demands you already made hadn't been doing the trick. Which I doubt."
"Any advice on how to navigate between my duties as a worker and your champion?"
"Balance the minimum. Our search for the dungeon core does not have to dominate our lives, although it is important. Likewise, do let them demand more from you because you are my Champion. Your services to me do not involve them, whatever they might try to claim. Learn to peer through their language games. You signed a contract promising them so many hours of your life per week. Not your total lapdog loyalty." SIMP spoke in no uncertain terms.
"I will take that to heart. Sounds like you're coming to terms with my actions, at the Guild, I mean, then with the schedule." Clark continued to clear away plague rot from the chamber walls. The chamber filled with bad smelling, but clear smoke.
"We would have to confront the store about this issue regardless. Before you do something so flippant, simply consult me beforehand, alright?"
"Yeah, yeah. Will do. Seriously." Feeling that the issue had reached its conclusion, he asked about the terminal console they found.
"I am now one hundred percent sure this console is of Dwarven make. Wait for my purifying cleanse to work through the machinery, then activate the console. I sense a submerged structure underground."
"What kind of submerged structure? Aren't we already inside the dungeon? Why would something be hidden?" he asked, already forming connections to connections, theories outlandish in the extreme.
"Who said it is hidden? Before I, the then ruling dungeon consciousness might have regulated this structure to storage for reasons that made sense back then. It could be an obsolete command center as I am sensing many electrical and magi-threading throughout its body."
Clark waited for SIMP's holy energy to finish imbuing into the chamber's many grooves and etchings. His friends came back from their brief rest with a bevy of stamina dandies. He had never been so happy to see a tincture bottle.
"Down the hatch!" he cried, downing a stamina dandy in one go. "Mmmm, there's a slight strawberry taste to it, if you care to notice."
"I've noticed it too!" Hera yelled, happily. "I didn't say anything because I didn't want you to think I didn't know my stuff after I lectured you on potion taste. There is a berry flavor, though, huh? Bizarre. I've never before noticed dandy flavor. Think it is because we are tired?"
For a few minutes, the group had a lively, fun, conversation about potion flavor. It wasn't a conversation Clark thought he would ever have. Oh well! Sometimes, that's how life rolls -- with asides aplenty.
Not long after his friends returned, SIMP finished cleansing the whole of the chamber. "Clark. Now you can press the button. I've highlighted on your HUD the correct key sequence to press to raise the submerged structure."
"Okay. I'm on it." He approached the terminal and followed the sequence SIMP highlighted for him. Once the final key was stroked, a rumble emanated from down below.
Following the rumble, something happened Clark hadn't expected. The floor opened up.
From the depths of the tower came a structure. It was shaped like a pod but large enough to accommodate a few people. Clark reckoned it was several times larger than his dormitory. Compared to the size of the chamber it rose into, however, it seemed small, quaint, even. "What on the gods golden globe is that?"
"It's a dwarf pod!" SIMP said, their voice full of awe.
"A dwarf pod? Care to explain?" Now Clark was intensely curious.
SIMP sputtered incoherently, the first time he had seen them do as much. It was Hera who got the first word in: "A dwarf pod," she said, "is like a vault. For dwarves, obviously. Though anyone can come along and open the vault if they have the access keys. Riches are said to be within. That or old technology."
"Correct!" SIMP joined in, now finding their voice. "I have dwelt in this tower for many years, Clark. I haven't before encountered any such pod before or even heard of its existence. Please approach the pod, now! We can't waste any more time!"
Obeying, Clark approached the pod, though it looked more like a small hut. Its door remained in place, red lines around the door fading in and out.
About to ask, 'Now what?' Clark instead took the initiative and placed his hand on the door. A robotic voice, not unlike the system's A.I., replied, "Password Required."
"Password? Where are we to get one of those?" he asked.
Clark looked to his team. Both Hera and Theo shrugged.
"Open!" he yelled.
The red lines continued to fade in and out from around the door.
"Clark... it's a long shot, but place both of your hands on the door. Then channel any amount of mana you can, even if it's just a little," SIMP said.
"What do I have to lose?" he asked no one but himself.
With both hands on the door, he attempted to channel his mana. It was difficult for him to do. He understood the basics, sure, as it wasn't exactly obtuse. It was difficult for him, because he had so little mana to draw upon. Using the dandies helped a little, as did unlocking Accomplishments, as the System rewarded his growth by somehow encouraging his mana's development, but it was far from easy. More effort than he thought it entailed later, and he had successfully channeled mana.
To his, and probably everyone else's surprise, the door turned green.
The same robotic voice from a moment ago spoke. "Welcome, Dungeon Champion."
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