Chapter 19: 19. Standard of Excellence (I)

Casey Lindberg grew up seeking excellence.

In any endeavor she pursued obsessively, victory and total dominance were the only options.

In elementary school, she perfected her movements for her ballet recitals to seek the highest level of crowd-pleasing victory. She wowed the crowd with her advanced techniques that even certain adult professionals found troubling to achieve.

While going through middle school, her dominance developed while practicing a punch or a kick perfectly ten thousand times. Then she’d arrive at her local dojo to beat down her peers until her sensei let her face other dojos. And beat down their so-called prodigies.

She was a proud overachiever. Her business-focused mom brought home the bacon and pushed Casey to be domineering like her. Thus, Casey had the upbringing of a girl who’d step on you because she believed she was a giant. Everyone else should scurry out from her shadow. If you got in her way, it was your fault she crushed you.

This was her standard of excellence. Nothing seemed capable of bending it.

But then she met her father for the first time. The summer before she started high school, her mom introduced the man who’d been paying child support in secret. Before Casey could wrap her head around that, she met her half-sisters a week later at her father’s mansion in Central Florida.

They all shared different moms.

You’d think that meeting three unfamiliar girls with strange personalities, ballooning self-importance, and rights to the massive wealth of a rolling-stone father would set Casey on the warpath. It was in her nature to eliminate them and stand at the top of the defeated pile of losers. It would always be inside her to divide, conquer, and crush.

In a strange twist of fate, Casey embraced these odd sisters of hers instead of crushing them. Her standard of excellence slowly changed to give room to the long-lost family.

Casey ensured herself that she could handle it.

She could still be a giant stepping on anyone or anything to climb higher. And she could do so while she carried her sisters and their quirks to the summit of greatness.

Everyone else outside of family was merely meant to further Casey’s journey. She didn’t know where that journey would end, but her devotion to herself was its own guide.

No matter the price, the downfalls, or the sacrifice, she would aim to be above reproach. She would be the standard of excellence till her dying days. Her family would reap the benefits of her awe-inspiring conquests in life.

Nobody could change that. Nobody would dare.

Then YoAnna appeared during their sophomore year of high school.

***

Years after that fateful meeting with the Queen Goddess–including some time after the revelation that involved that damn boy named Jay Luckrun–Casey woke up buried under rubbish. While disappointed, she wasn’t surprised. This was her fourth time getting buried in the past two days. Twice after fighting the Rubbish Chief, the boss of the Old Dwarven Rubbish Dungeon.

Panic still made itself known, sending jolts down her limbs to fight her way out. Casey’s great willpower plus her 25 AP in Conviction wrestled those instincts into a mental pen where they could be called upon later. Discipline was a must here. Her mind was a machine listing mini objectives to grind through: get up top, reorientate, seek sisters, conquer.

Casey wriggled around gently at first. She wormed under a tarnished copper silo propped by abandoned mecha limbs and clockwork gizmos. Her fingers latched onto a giant chipped sprocket, and she slowly pulled herself out from between the jaws of a broken bear trap made for giant monsters. Although, she might be assuming wrong that the trap was broken when it could snap and rip her to shreds at any moment. Some of the rubbish here still functioned even if poorly.

Casey stayed determined on her path and crawled out from under the grave of junk.

Reaching the top, Casey breathed out in frustration. It didn’t matter that she was still alive when the worst could’ve happened. Nor did it matter that she’d only suffered a few scrapes around her arms and legs and some superficial damage to her gear. The blue and white Stalwart Cape hanging from her pauldrons was in the worst state of affairs, barely more than grimy tatters. But it still gave her +1 Resilience and +1 Poise. So, that was all good.

But the leader of the Divine failed to eliminate the dungeon boss again, which stunk. She also lost her second sword and shield set.

From her vantage point, Casey surveyed a large room dimly lit by fantasy tech lodged in the walls and ceilings. The magic lights used mana stones within glass fixtures and magic-infused metals. The light flickered like they were about to go out for good, plunging her briefly into pitch-black darkness before flickering back on.

Casey learned fast at the start of the crawl to keep her hearing sharp when things got dark.

The walls were rock with lines of sediment colored at different layers. Geology wasn’t part of Casey’s standard of excellence, so she didn’t read the layers to denote their age. The floor was covered in countless busted contraptions, unusable tools, degraded materials, and giant shells of old magitek constructs thoroughly gutted for parts and power units. Topping it all were the massive holes in the ceiling where stuff fell at a gradual rate.

The holes were far above, at least a thousand feet. Casey couldn’t get her head around how she’d survive the fall. Twice. Or why she’d blacked out each time she fell here.

Hailey would probably know the answer. If Emily were here, she’d get spiritual help to find Casey’s lost armaments. But the girls were elsewhere now, just like last time. There was no finding that sword and shield set without them.

Casey sighed. She knew Macy was going to throw a fit. Despite that, Casey would need to convince her capital-savvy sister to get another set from the metal troll merchant. They should all be on their way to the Trash Town Save Zone now.

“Do you like the view, crawler?” asked a voice covered in static.

Casey pivoted around and used the dachi of an aggressive karate form. In front of her was Wall-E’s discount cousin, a construct with a squat, boxy body on wheels, and expressive metal eyes. A closer inspection revealed the eyes to be the mouthpiece. It emitted crackling noise even though it used magitek rather than a radio signal.

“Don’t get in my way,” Casey told the Level 1 monster. “This is all I have to say to you.”

Casey started down the hill.

“You have 1 hour, 59 minutes, 42 seconds before the dungeon crawl ends in your loss,” the construct said derisively. 

Casey entered a loping run for the closest exit. She held [Guiding Light] in her hand, following its longest point that would lead to the Divine rendezvous.

Another version of the speaking construct rolled out from under the shattered hall of a strange fantastique ship of massive proportions.

“Even telling you this is more than you deserve,” the speaker said, crackling horribly. “But the overlords of the System have certain stipulations for me. Such as letting you survive when I knock you unconscious and throw you out of the arena. Or give you a chance to wake up and mobilize before I can attack. Quite silly, really.”

Casey hopped into a divot on the bottom of the ship. She ran up the slope of a toppled wall, propelled by her improved Strength and Agility. Her legs felt mighty with every springy step.

She relished the feeling, knowing she’d crush the weaker, pre-dungeon crawl Casey. Some people might find it strange that Casey liked to compete with Casey from the past, near or far. Total victory over younger Casey meant current Casey was growing.

“I’m nothing more than a lord of rubbish who should use every available advantage I could create against you crawlers.” Another version of the speaker construct appeared at the zenith of Casey’s ship climb. “But certain rules must be abided by, or it’ll be too easy burying pathetic little crawlers such as you. Especially that whiny girl of yours. What a sorry excuse of a [Crafter] I’ve ever seen. I may reign supreme over trash, but there’s nothing to treasure in the crawler you call Macy.”

Casey diverted her course slightly and flying kicked the speaker bot. The heel to her +1 Agility, +1 Poise Shield Maiden Boot crumpled the speaker’s boxy torso like stepping on cardboard. Another kick demolished the mechanisms inside in totality, dislodging the power unit and providing a ‘you’ve slain’ notification.

Loot took time to float out of the slain monsters in this dungeon. Instead of waiting, Casey punched her fist through a bent opening and clawed around. She ripped out the power unit–the mana stone and its housing base–and stored it in her knapsack to hand over to Macy later. Then Casey returned to running with more speed, regulating her breathing to manage Stamina. Her dashing feet crossed over many surfaces up and down the massive hills of rubbish.

“Thank you for attacking me,” said another speaker bot on top of a stack of rusted metal sheets. “Now I can retaliate properly.”

On the last leg to the exit, a four-legged monster crawled from the eye socket of a giant mecha head. It was living junk, a facsimile of a predator cat that could be a panther of sorts. It flicked its tail of wires, showed its teeth of sharpened metal, and raised up a body taller than her if it stood on its hind legs. 

“I’ve caught you unarmed, crawler. You can’t beat this,” the speaker gloated. “With your death as leader, the rest of your party will crumble. Then I’ll pick them off one by one and bury them at the bottom of the trashiest pile of rubbish I have in my collection. Especially that poor excuse of a [Crafter].”

Casey pushed on her [Up The Tempo] Skill and entered a game of chicken with the Level 6 Rubbish Panther. A delightful, heart-pounding blaze entered her veins. The Skill pumped more speed and dexterity into her powerful legs and toned arms. When the panther lunged with metal claws extended, Casey reached a patch in the ground slick with an oily substance. She slid under the flying panther and bounded back to running without missing a beat.

More panthers crawled out of their dens and joined the first, which was stupid. Panthers were supposedly solitary creatures that dominated their territories alone outside of mating season. Casey found some of their bestial aspects respectable when she went through a middle school phase studying the strongest animals to incorporate their traits. It was certainly inconvenient to have a group of mecha panthers barreling after her.

Instead of burning energy with constant Skill use, Casey zeroed in on an advantage in the environment. She quickly vaulted over short obstacles, ducked under fallen poles at head height, and clenched her jaws when the nearest panther raked its claws over the back of her arm. She kept running, letting her decent Health Status founded on 20 Resilience and 20 Poise soak the damage.

“Stay buried, crawler!” cried the speaker.

Casey lunged over a small ravine in the ground. She tackled a thin column of metal propping a corner of stacked rubbish a hundred feet tall. Her full-body slam nudged it just enough. The pile fell over, slamming down in a roaring crash of debris large and small.

Casey ended up in the thick of it, pushing [Up The Tempo] and [Aura of Devotion] to drive her legs faster while coated in a protective white aura. A handful of slay notifications flitted in the background as a massive magitek engine plummeted down at her.

Casey jumped for safety.

***

“You have 1 hour, 4 minutes, and 11 seconds before this ends with your defeat, crawler,” said the speaker, using a spider-like unit now. It walked down the wall of a rock tunnel that exited out to the Trash Town Safe Zone. “Do you not have anything to say about your impossible predicament?”

Reaching the Safe Zone, Casey stopped near the wall. She used her good hand to lift her pauldron. Then she used the wall to pop her shoulder back in place. One basic crystal helped her heal up afterward.

She noted she was running out of those. She should better mitigate damage instead of soaking it like a common [Fighter].

Even if she was weaponless, her mind, body, and spirit were the greatest weapons she could utilize. Losing the sword and shield set was no excuse for enabling weakness to grow unchallenged.

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“I tracked how long it took you to revisit me the first time I’ve thrown you away like rubbish,” the speaker said. “It took seven hours to reach me again while recrossing Safe Zones and Conflicted Zones. Perhaps you’ll move a little faster now, but you’ll have to retry all the zones on your third climb. They’ve reverted to being hostile.”

The speaker laughed through its mouthpiece, a horrendous crackling noise. The laughter followed her as she walked down a ramp following the gradual slope of a far-reaching bowl inside a ginormous cavern.

Trash Town was at the bottom of the bowl, a sprawling mess housing supposedly neutral dungeon denizens. They couldn’t outright attack the Divine, but they antagonized Casey and her sisters in lots of little ways.

After twists and turns through their ghetto, patchwork structures, Casey was unsurprised to find Macy in a heated haggling skirmish at the central market. It was a clustered bazaar of activity filled with vendors and buyers bickering and bartering like it was a sport. For the residents, at least, this was their set livelihood.

But when it came to Macy facing these creatures as the barterer of their party, it was hell for the shopaholic. Casey drew closer to one such occasion of a vendor making Macy cry. A rubbish gnome looked up from its three-foot frame with an evil glint in its glass apertures for eyes. Casey could tell it relished every burst of outrage and sorrow it pulled out of Macy.

Casey let out a slow breath.

“Hey, Macy, can you break off for a bit,” she said in greeting.

“Casey!” the [Crafter] squealed, throwing her arms around her [Fighter] sister for a hug. “Oh, my Goddess! Casey, this little cretin is a crabby criminal. He upped the price on the Good Stamina Resuscitators. And he’s telling me he’s going to spread the word to the other merchants that I’m a bad customer and make things harder for me than it is already. I hate this so much!”

Macy wiped at the corner of her wet eyes.

“I understand,” Casey said. “Is it possible you can prioritize another sword and shield set for me while you’re at it? I’m ashamed that I’m asking, but–”

“I already did!” Macy said with cackling glee, her mood switching at the drop of a hat. She reached over to her huge craft pack lying nearby. It offered a limited dimensional storage capacity while serving as the home to her myriad of basic [Crafter] tools. “Our budget is straining more than when daddy took away ten of my credit cards. But I’m managing the coin enough for our least favorite moments. Always have emergency funds prepared, right?”

Macy dipped her head down, hiding her eyes behind oversized goggles strapped over her forehead. Casey’s materialistic sister knew how much Casey hated insecurities, which made their relationship a sometimes contentious one. Macy was a girl filled with so many insecurities she couldn’t go a day without crying a fit. 

Casey was her opposite.

Casey let out another slow breath.

She hated to admit it, but she had a terrible weakness for losing things. It was an everyday battle, and it rubbed Casey something awful to know Macy had to account for it, especially since Macy was fighting bitter economic battles against the unfair Trash Town denizens.

“We will overcome this,” Casey said.

“But we’re running out of time!” Macy threw her hands up. “That stupid speaker bot kept hounding me about it. And, and, and….”

Macy burst into tears again.

“I’m a terrible [Crafter]!” She wiped at her eyes again. “I’m all over the place doing lowly pleb work like a handyman. I have no idea what I’m doing and making it up as I go, and I don’t know where to fit.”

“Don’t fit,” Casey said. “Be above the fit. Make what you are the best option there is. You told me about the French fashion designer you admire who goes against the rules, right?”

Macy nodded hard. “He’s so fabulous. Not as fabulous as our Goddess, but you get what I’m saying. I’ll like to be like that, a rule breaker.”

“Then be that,” Casey said.

That felt like a powerful thing to tell Macy. It would’ve served them better if they were alone instead of in the middle of an active market square. Hawking denizens didn’t drown out their words entirely. Random passers raised their voices in mock gossip.

“They think that stupid [Crafter] can do anything special?”

“I heard she doesn’t even have [Blacksmith Aptitude]. Everyone knows the best [Crafters] have that Skill.”

“She’s made of fragile glass, too. All the best [Crafters] are tough and hardy like dwarves.”

“She’s a lost noble girl who’s too dumb to pick the right Class.”

“You get those types. Crawlers who choose wrong and can’t mesh with their Skills properly. They drag the others down. They’re burdens that should be thrown away.”

“Honestly, they’re better off if their [Crafter] dies. Who’ll want a useless crawler like that being a burden?”

Casey breathed out slowly, reigning in her anger.

There weren’t outright penalties if she attacked the locals, but that would make things harder. They could be denied essential gear or suffer something unforeseen. Emily warned them to stay civil after interviewing the ghost of a past crawler from a different dimension.

It was a bad idea to attack Safe Zone denizens while staying there.

It was also a waste of energy for Casey to lash out against the locals. She knew the dungeon was goading her to make a mistake. To create weaknesses in Casey’s game.

The dungeon was also trying to break Macy’s limited confidence simultaneously. But why?

The attacks on Macy were becoming way too specific. Even if Casey entertained the idea of losing, the dungeon didn’t benefit from slandering a single crawler of the party so much. There hadn’t even been much mention of Hailey or Emily, either. If it believed Macy was so worthless, wouldn’t it be satisfied with a simple insult? Then move on to the others?

“Bullies tend to target victims that remind them of their insecurities,” Casey said under her breath. “To cover weakness through assault. But in that assault is their vulnerability.”

Casey looked up.

The cavern didn’t contain Trash Town alone. It was right under the boss arena, Hilltop, a small village where the Rubbish Chief reigned supreme. Four massive chains hoisted the platform holding Hilltop far high into the air. The platform was only reachable via an insanely long bridge. To reach that bridge required the Divine to climb past three Zones filled with monsters and puzzle challenges. It took them about thirty hours to reach the boss the first time. The second time was drastically shorter. But they had less than an hour to get up there again.

“Where’s Hailey and Emily?” Casey asked.

“I found a spirit waiting for me when I got here,” Macy said between whimpering sobs. “It told me they’re following a lead. They think there’s a secret place hiding that flying ship that keeps getting in the way when we fight the boss.”

Good, those two worked well together. Hailey was brilliant, especially when unraveling magical mysteries and puzzles. Emily had incredible intuition and was like a bloodhound when set on a trail worth following.

Maybe they might find a shortcut to get to the boss. Or solve the problem behind getting thrown or taken off the platform and ending up in the rubbish caves far from this area.

The key was that ship that showed up every time they fought the boss, and then... Casey couldn’t remember what happened afterward. Just darkness. Then finding herself buried and having to climb out.

Unfortunately, Casey couldn’t rely on the nerdy duo alone. Too many failure points. She looked at Macy, who was recovering from her latest fit. Casey could see there was something on Macy’s mind.

“It’s okay, I’ll listen,” Casey said.

“It’s stupid, sis. I’m stupid, and we all know it.”

“Just let me hear it first before we judge ourselves.” Casey squeezed Macy’s hand. “Please.”

“I don’t want to climb up there and face that big, trashy pleb! I’m better than that, right?” Macy whined. “I’m going to be the richest girl ever, so I should be treated like one. Plebs should come to me on hands and knees.”

“How could we make the pleb come to us?” Casey asked seriously.

Macy looked up. She looked around. She glared at the sneering Trash Town denizens that mocked the crawlers openly. Then she looked up again and stared at Hilltop for an uncomfortably long while. It was probably only a few minutes, but every second counted.

Casey clenched her fists and forced herself to wait.

“I know!” Macy snapped with glee. “I know, I know!”

“What must we do?”

“I need more power units!” Macy cried out, oblivious to prying eyes and ears. “All my Skills plus the System is filling my head with nerd stuff. Especially YoAnna’s [Champion of Challenge and Change] title thingie. That’s the most important part, praise Goddess!”

Macy performed a little dance before extending her hands out to Casey. “Gimme the loot! Gimme the loot! Then I can go dunk on that fool!”

Casey smiled. She handed over a bundle of power units. She’d picked up plenty from crushing rubbish monsters that made the mistake of getting in her way.

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