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They had reached those marks before they even left the first sub-level. Part of that was the circuitous route they had taken, along with the two challenge rooms they had completed with nearly max rewards both times. Together, that pushed them far enough ahead that they actually had a choice. The first challenge rooms they had done well in, but not so well that they had tripled their Genesis Energy once again.
There was no reason for them to not take the floor theme reward, but all of them hesitated.
As the bosses vanished and dropped a handful of essence stones and Tier 8 skill shards, Matt scooped them up with his Concept and pulled them into his bag without looking.
Liz wiggled her hand back and forth and said, “I think we should try it. We have enough Genesis Energy. Taking the reward isn’t so bad.”
Aster paced around the distortion and asked, “It’s not like we can get a bad thing, right? We know the reward…right?”
Matt pushed agreement to his bond through their connection, but kept his mouth shut.
Wanting to make a decision, he pulled out a thin disk of metal and flipped it. Blank side, they’d take the theme reward, the side marked with a line they’d go to the next floor now.
It landed on the side with a line.
He really didn’t like that option, which was an answer in and of itself, so he said. “Let’s just take it. It’s our delve, and we will earn more Genesis Energy on lower floors anyway. I want to take it all. Every reward, every prize.”
Aster silently yipped her agreement, and Susanne nodded, but Liz rubbed her face through her mask. “Ugh. I can’t help but feel like we will want this Genesis Energy later, more than the spiritual perception boost… f**k it. I want all the rewards as well.”
Susanne dispelled the reward distortion, and a half dozen items tumbled out, but they didn’t stay to inspect them, and instead just threw them into their spatial rings to be sorted out later.
Matt stepped forward with all of his friends, and as they were pulled into the distortion as they had been on the first and second sub-levels, he felt them vanish.
Instead of appearing on the next floor after a second of nothingness, his Genesis Energy whispered a question to him.
Did he want to claim the theme reward, or bypass it and go straight to the safe area?
Matt mentally projected that he wanted to face the final challenge and take this floor’s increase in power for himself.
As he thought that, nearly a third of his Genesis Energy drained out of him. Once that happened, he found himself standing in the ever-present darkness. But this time, there was nothing. It was like he was standing in empty space.
After a little testing, he found that it wasn’t exactly true. Unlike on the floors they had traversed before, his spiritual perception was locked down to just a dozen feet or so around him, which contributed to the feeling of emptiness.
Honestly it felt like being a Tier 3 again, and Matt didn’t like it. He also didn’t like that all his items and armor were gone, and his skills were all restricted.
Out of the darkness, a butterfly of light appeared shining so brightly, he had to shut and then cover his eyes to ensure that he was truly seeing it with his spiritual perception.
It felt like normal vision. Each color and detail were excruciatingly clear to his spiritual perception as if it were his eyesight.
The butterfly flapped its wings, and energy scattered off them as it flew out of his range. Matt wanted to immediately give chase, but was still unable to move, his body was locked in place.
An almost teasing thought of ‘catch me if you can’ appeared to whisper at him through his Genesis Energy.
After a count of ten, he was finally let go, and Matt flew forward in the same direction that the butterfly went.
Instead of a sphere, he sent his spiritual perception out in a line, which extended his range to thirty feet, but he still didn’t see anything.
Turning in place, he scanned every detail of the forest that was in line with his perception.
Above him, in the trees, he found a lingering energy that hovered in the air like dust, and threw himself at the trace of the butterfly.
Once he had locked onto it, he found that it was a faint trail where the butterfly had flapped its wings during its escape.
From the trees, he took to the air and followed the fading trail, traveling further and further until he found himself standing on a street. How the transition was so fast and seamless, he had no idea, and he honestly didn’t care. The butterfly was now so close, he was almost able to reach out and touch it.
But once again, his body was locked down, and he was unable to move even a finger.
The butterfly fluttered over and landed on his nose for a second, before it fluttered off around a building’s corner and exited his spiritual perception.
When he was released again, Matt rushed forward and more quickly found the trace of the butterfly.
He almost stumbled as he realized that his range pushed further out, and the detail of his spatial perception had increased. It wasn’t much, but after nearly a month of needing to rely on just that one sense, he had gotten quite adept at interpreting its sensory data.
It felt like he wasn’t just noticing more, but he was actually seeing more. The walls around him didn’t appear as just concrete, like he expected. They were colored concrete, and he could even make out a swirling pattern on their surface.
He hadn’t noticed before, as there was no paint on the wall to show a layer of change, but this was more.
Matt could see it.
Understanding the game of tag that he was being forced to play, Matt locked onto the butterfly’s trail and ran, arms and legs pumping with every scrap of energy he had.
His flight was restricted this time, so he was forced to run on foot through two dozen blocks of the city before the trail climbed the side of what he suspected was an apartment building.
- Writer
