The Bugged Tower Root
1313 Words
The first step to surviving this broken mess of a game is knowing exactly what I had to work with.
“Open status window.”
[Status Window]
Name: Kaien Rook
Class: Healer (Glitched)
Title: The Misaligned
Level: 2
XP: 12 / 150
HP: 240 / 240
MP: 120 / 120
STR: 7
VIT: 10
INT: 20
WIS: 18
AGI: 10
LCK: ???
Passives
Invert Output (Bugged) - All healing skills inflict damage instead. (This cannot be unequipped.)
Active Skills
- Touch of Restoration Lv.1 – Cost: 5 MP
- Error Pulse (Locked) – Unlocks at Level 3
System Traits
Sanctioned Caster: (Tier - Null)
- Classification error detected
- System override pending
- Skills may behave unpredictably
(Letting out a long sigh and eyes glued to that stupid ‘???’ under Luck)
…Really? My luck is so bad even the system doesn’t want to calculate it?
Figures. I was cursed with bad RNG in every game I ever touched. Might as well keep the tradition alive here.
[T/N: RNG - Random Number Generator]
Anyway, the breakdown is simple: I am Level 2, have one real active skill, one passive bug that I can’t control, and a locked skill waiting for Level 3. And the problem? I am about as durable as a wet paper. If I want to live long enough to figure this world out, I have to grind.
And grinding means finding something small enough to kill without dying in the process.
(voice-over) Five minutes later
I found them - three Bonejacks. They are dragging their broken swords across the stone plains, huh?
(Tightening grip on the jagged blade picked up earlier)
(Smirk) Ahh… my first victims. You will do nicely.
I need a plan to keep moving forward without dying. First, i need to test the range of my skill - Touch of Restoration.
(Stretching out hand, keeping his distance) “Heal”.
…Nothing.
Okay, so five meters? No good.
Four meters? Still nothing.
Three meters? Not even a flicker.
Don’t tell me I have to---,
One meter.
(Green glow ignited in his palm)
[Touch of Restoration] activated.
Invert Output: ON.
Damage inflicted: 20 magic damage.
SYSTEM: Critical Hit! Bonejack Core destabilized.
[EXP Gained]
(pants) …Hah! It works!
(Bonejack collapsed, screeching in agony) ...screeeeeech...
So that was it? The range was basically point-blank. One meter. I have to get right in the enemy’s face and slap them with healing magic until they explode? Not exactly safe, but hey, it worked.
(Closing the gap on the other two and firing off back-to-back casts)
SYSTEM: Critical Hit! Bonejack Core destabilized.
[EXP Gained]
SYSTEM: Critical Hit! Bonejack Core destabilized.
[EXP Gained]
[System]
Level Up!
Level 2 → 3
Skill Unlocked: Error Pulse (Lv.1)
[System]
Touch of Restoration upgraded to Lv.2.
(Grins like an i***t) Oh, hell yes. Finally, something new!
I need to check the details.
[Error Pulse Lv.1 – Bugged]
Type: AoE
Casting Condition: You need to say "Error Pulse"
Effects:
Releases a 360° pulse within a 5m radius.
Deals damage equal to [WIS × 1.2] + [Missing HP % × INT].
Chance to inflict System Fracture (DEF down, healing received reduced).
Cooldown: 20 seconds.
Cost: 30 MP.
So basically… a broken nuke. Perfect.
I need to go somewhere safe to test it.
(inner thought) About an hour of walking later, I finally found the perfect place to test my new skill out.
SYSTEM: ‘You have entered ‘The Edge of the Beginner Forest’.’
(inner monologue) It's Mid-Afternoon. Light is filtering through the canopy, turning the moss into glowing green patches. No players around. No NPCs. Just me and the trees.
Perfect.
I conjured up five practice dummies and placed them in a circle around me, five meters apart.
(Standing in the middle, muttered under breath) Okay Kaien. Calm mind. Gentle cast. It’s just a controlled pulse.
(casts) “Error Pulse.”
The spell didn’t cast. It detonated.
His vision blanked white. A flash of inverted light tore reality apart. Trees snapped like matchsticks. Leaves burst into flames. The ground rippled outward in a wave of distortion.
For a second there, I thought the entire forest had been deleted.
When the light faded, he was on his knees, coughing, his hair standing out like he had stuck his head in a power socket.
… Just once (wheezing) I’d like a skill that doesn’t end with me setting the world on fire. Just once. (wheeze)
This test has made one thing clear and that is 'Error Pulse' is strong, but suicidal if I use it recklessly. If I ever tried to join a party, I’d probably nuke my teammates with it. Although that might not be a problem as I prefer playing solo anyway, but I still need to consider other options.
Which means there’s only one thing I can do for now.
The tower.
The “Bugged Tower Root”.
Maybe the developers left something useful hidden in there. Maybe a broken skill I could actually control. Or maybe just more proof that this game was stitched together with duct tape.
Either way, I won’t be leaving empty-handed.
(Retraced his steps back to the glitching spire and placing his hand against its cracked metallic surface. The same corrupted static rushed through him)
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Warning: Data stability error.
SYSTEM: YOU HAVE ENTERED: Cradle of Glitches
[!!!] Unmapped Zone Detected.
The environment may behave erratically.
Safe Logout: Unavailable.
…Great. No way out until the game let me.
At first, it looked like an ordinary cave. But, as I venture further in, I see stone walls, glowing fungus, which is the usual dungeon vibe.
(voice-over) But then things got… wrong. The walls flickered between textures, solid stone one second, an empty wireframe the next. Waterfalls flowed in reverse, climbing upward into nowhere. Torches froze mid-animation, their flames looping like a broken GIF.
(System text boxes floated midair) “ ERROR_412: ASSET_MISSING”
(voice-over) His HUD kept glitching out. His inventory flickered. His MP bar drained randomly, then refilled just as quickly. Skills turned into [undefined]. One tooltip literally shrugged at him: ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
(voice-over) A corrupted cave wolf spawned right in front of him. It didn’t move. Didn’t attack. It just stood there until it spontaneously exploded into gold.
Yeah. Definitely not a dungeon. This is literally a dev graveyard.
(voice-over) He pushed deeper in. The floor warped under him like gravity itself was undecided. A door appeared sideways on a wall, then politely rotated upright as if it realized it was being rude. When I reached for the handle, it pixelated and stretched into a spiral staircase leading down.
What the---! It’s like a JPEG stairwell rendered into reality.
(Hesitated)
(Inner thought) The world is pulsing with static, bending like corrupted video frames. My gut is telling me to turn back. But my curiosity is shoving me forward.
One step at a time. (muttered)
And well, I am going deeper. Might as well see what is at the root.
(voice-over) The terrain is growing more twisted the further he descends. Trees are blinking in and out of existence. Some are even appearing upside down. Others are exploding quietly into showers of leaves.
My notifications aren’t even pretend to be normal anymore.
[Status Effect Gained: “Corrupted Curiosity”]
"You feel an irrational compulsion to poke things that look dangerous."
Duration: ∞
Note: This is entirely your fault.
…Thanks, system. Really helpful.
(laughed nervously and pressed onward)
[Objective Updated]
- Enter the Tower Root Node.
- Investigate the source of the Error Pulse.
Warning: Expect reality distortion.
Suggested Level: ???
Reward: Bugged Skill (???)
Finally, another notification appeared.
(tightening grip on the jagged sword) So that’s it, huh? A glitchy dungeon. A cursed class. A quest that screamed 'death flag'. Fine then. Let’s see just how broken this game really is. (grins)
- Writer
