Chapter 282: Day 624 (2) – A Joint Investigation

It was getting dark as we entered the zone in question. What had been really disturbing was the lack of monsters. There were no monsters at all. It made travel quick from Truth, but it was disturbing.

“Urg,” the Astrologer let out a groan and landed on the ground. Parts of his illusion were hazy or deformed. Like he was becoming a piece of modern art.

“You alright?” I asked.

“No. No. Dammit. Stand back, I need to reform myself.” I took a leap backwards. “That should do it. A tweak there and a realignment. Shatter Astral Projection!” the Astrologer cried out. His robe and everything else about him glowed for a second and then there was glowing outline of a body around the deformed husk that was this thing’s real form.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I adjusted my shell to a different energy type. The energy impacting me is bouncing off, and isn’t fraying my shell. There are problems of course,” the voice coming from the thing just sounded out of thin air from the figure.

“You can manipulate sound?” I asked. I didn’t see the thing speak or moving a mouth.

“A minor trick. The real issue is that I won’t be able to use other skills while doing this and will suffer from a physical attack. Anything energy based, I can handle and deal with. But my ability to intervene will be limited.”

“How limited? What are we talking if there is a fight?” I asked.

“I can run away or be a distraction. If I tried to reform my Astral Projection in worse conditions, I would be killed very quickly. I am made of energy. So, this energy bubbling up from a lower layer, rips into me.”

“But you can still sense stuff?” I asked.

“Yes. My range is slightly diminished and obscured since I am reflecting the energy away from me, but I can manage.” It was creepy to look at the glowing shell around his deformed body. There was no genitalia just gangly limbs of sinew and muscle. No nipples or belly button either. It was like someone created the most terrifying thing they could in the form of a human.

“And how exactly did you alter your skill. Adding the word shatter?” I asked.

“A meta-point,” the Astrologer replied, and I stiffened. This was the proof?! “I like to think of it as a word of power. It is a fitting name for what it does. Shatter is the closest description, to break apart a skill and reforge its interpretation. Yes, they are real, and I haven’t been lying to you.”

“I see. Surprised you would share that,” I replied, trying to wrap my head around the idea of altering skills like that. Also, the fact that he wasn’t lying about meta-points.

“Michael, you keep thinking I am going to betray you. That is why you do your own thing, putting stat points into stuff other that Spirit and Absorption. I can’t and won’t stop you. But this right here, this is not a game. If I am freed, there is no need for any unpleasantness.” It was hard to trust someone who had been spying on me and reading my notes, even if he said all the right things.

“Alright, let’s keep moving,” I said, and the Astrologer easily kept pace with me as I raced across the landscape. The thing that was really him, appeared to be floating in a clear plastic human shaped container. It easily kept pace with me.

I felt the ground become more and more squishy and was finally forced to slow down, since I couldn’t keep kicking off it as hard as I wanted to. “Anything new?” I asked the Astrologer.

“Just be ready to move if the ground fails or you start sinking. If you need to use me as leverage, go ahead. The energy coming up from a lower layer is about a tenth of what comes out of the void if I had to guess. It is just weird. I still don’t understand what it is trying to do. Some sort of meta-effect possibly?” the Astrologer guessed.

I kept going forward at a slower rate. I paused as I saw the ground sloping into a pit and deforming. I leapt up into the air and saw a small void space. The ground was liquifying into the blackness. I told the Astrologer what I saw.

“A weak spot or something punched through the bottom layer of the Systemic Lands. There is a layer of super rock, that touches the void and is at the bottom. I guess you could call it bedrock, like from Minecraft. The fact that it has failed is really concerning,” the Astrologer explained.

“Why? Super material?” I asked.

“Yes. Completely impervious to anything I tried. It would just negate all other energy and physical attacks didn’t even leave a scratch. Tried to meld things with it and extract it that way. Imbue Reform, just didn’t work. I considered it one of the absolutes, like the zone layout.”

Well, that was just great, we were going to break all the rules today. The Astrologer continued speaking. “The void energy is still the same, but it is pushing and twisting against the other type of energy that has permeated the area. I suggest we go around and continue.” That sounded like a terrible idea.

“What would be the effects on a regular person?” I asked.

“Hard to say. But if I had to guess, they would suffer spirit corrosion. Energy makes you, you. That is why energy coming from the void or whatever this is, would wear down a person’s energy. Leaving them as a hollow shell, spirit corrosion.” One thing was for sure, the Astrologer was an expert at the very least. Or the closest thing to one and I didn’t have any better options.

“I ask, since the people disappeared. The ground is melting away into pockets of void. And it is probably going to get worse? What are we trying to accomplish exactly?” I asked. I didn’t like any of this and it appeared things were just going to get worse.

“To find out what is causing this,” the Astrologer replied. That sounded like a bad idea.

“And do you think it is worthwhile, or we just declare the entire area lost?” I asked.

“The fact the effect is persisting and growing means it needs to be dealt with. There is no one else Michael. If it spreads too far, I suspect there could be a wide area reset, or a calamity. If that happens, we will all die.” Fair point, but we could die just investigating. The land itself was turning to goo.

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“But you aren’t sure about the calamity thing?” I asked.

“No. But whatever this is, is destroying the Systemic Land itself. Eventually the System will take action and I would bet that it won’t be subtle. Better to die trying to learn, than running away.” There was the mindset that let the Astrologer get however many meta-points he had. He was the type to run headlong into danger. I wasn’t. I looked at the melting landscape and the super under layer of the Systemic Lands breaking apart and thought hell no. But I also wanted a meta-point.

I reached down and poked the ground. It was like a jelly. It didn’t stick to me and was repelled from my clothing, but it was soft and squishy while still retaining its form. “Why is the ground like this?”

“No clue. But my guess it is trying to shift into a new zone, or something else entirely. The amount of energy in the air is massive. Even you should be able to feel it?” the Astrologer asked me.

“I feel something. A lot of unease and a bad feeling in my gut. Let’s keep going,” I said, and we went around the slowly widening hole in the landscape.

We encountered another hole in the landscape, but still no people. Admin of the Almighty System, time to do something, you have a glitch in your reality. I came to a halt as I saw something in the distance. I had to occasionally lift my feet to stop myself from sinking.

“What is that?” I asked the Astrologer. There were black bubbles floating in the air above even more void in the center of the zone. It was hard to make out the black bubbles, but their edge had a sheen to them, reflecting the nearby light slightly. I saw chunks of the ground floating up and away and drifting around as amorphous blobs. This went from a seven out of ten bad, to nuclear fallout bad.

“That is a very good question. Look there,” the Astrologer pointed in the distance. There were floating people I could barely make out.

“Yeah, no. I am not going over there,” I replied instantly. This entire area was clearly beyond me. It was like a level 1 character running into the final boss dungeon. There was zero chance to keep pressing forward.

“Null Refraction Shatter Shatter Shatter!” I looked over at the Astrologer as he slammed a hand onto the mushy ground. A chunk of ground solidified, separating from the rest of the jellied ground, and floated above where it had been as a platform only a few feet or a meter across in diameter. The Astrologer turned to look at me.

“Are you trapped here? And are you some kind of eldritch abomination?” I asked. A pit of void with bubbles and floating people, was not an invitation to investigate, but an invitation to run away, far, far away.

“No and no. My main body is nowhere near here. And I am human, well my main body is,” the Astrologer said, and I looked at the platform. “I pushed away the other energy that was existing in this portion of the world to create this platform and subsumed it under my control. I can control it a bit, but it is exhausting. If we are going to press forward, we need to keep going.”

“And you don’t think dark bubbles, floating matter, floating people, and all of this is a bad idea? A very, very bad idea?” I asked, seriously questioning this thing’s survival instinct. How had the original Astrologer survived for so long?

“I have said before, that we can’t take the risk of a calamity. I can’t take that risk. It is part of the instructions imparted to me by my original. My core programming so to speak,” the Astrologer said. Almighty System, here my prayer. Fix your own issues.

There was no divine intervention. I mentally cursed myself and got on the platform. I wanted a meta-point and I knew the Astrologer wasn’t going to betray me, if he wanted me to free him. “This feels like you are trapping me,” I replied.

“Trust is a hard thing. But when I trap you, I will say so. This is not a trap by me in any way and the risk isn’t that high,” the Astrologer said. Low risk? He needed to look around some more.

“So you are planning a trap?” I asked as the platform slowly began to float forward. I didn’t want to focus on the certain death we were headed towards.

“Of course. You know it and are just using me for information. I don’t take you for an idiot, and you know I am not an idiot. Of course there are plans and contingencies. But here and now, we need to work together,” the Astrologer said.

“The energy must be melting my brain, since I am going to go along with this insanity,” I said as we drifted out over the void. I didn’t look down and kept very still. I had no idea if moving would disrupt the Astrologer’s control and I didn’t want to find out.

“There is a slight current to the North. I am going to go with it a bit while making our way for the center. Keep your eyes open for anything, I have a hard time seeing very far,” the Astrologer said as he navigated around the floating bubbles of darkness.

They weren’t perfect spheres either. They shifted and wobbled occasionally. I couldn’t see any below. Looking up the light source was incredibly dim. “Could we be adrift forever?” I asked.

“No. There is terrain in every direction. I have scouted to the West and North. We might have to cross a full void zone and that is something I would prefer not to do, since you would be unable to breathe. Also, the strain on me will be immense,” the Astrologer answered. Breathing was important. I liked breathing.

“More strain than it is right now?” I asked.

“Yes. The amount of raw energy is still about a tenth, compared to a full void zone. Something is drawing in the ambient energy from the lower layers,” the Astrologer said. That did not sound good. Best outcome, there is a void chaos dragon egg or something, and it becomes my pet. I wasn’t going to bet on this outcome, but I was hoping. Also, a bucket of meta-points for taking this risk. I needed that hope not to scream in terror.

“Ahead to the right, the land isn’t oozing, into the void,” I pointed out. Careful not to make any quick movements, in case the tiny platform was upset. We slowly got closer.

“That appears to be flesh of an unknown type. And it is bleeding. You can see the rivulets of blood. But its flow makes no sense. It is just flowing with no clear purpose in and out of the flesh below.” The Astrologer brought us closer to look at the flesh terrain. It looked like muscle and sinew, with tiny streams of blood running all over the place.

“What an interesting material. And the energy density. Perhaps…” the Astrologer trailed off.

“No. You are not eating it or trying any other experiments, right now. Is this flesh the disturbance, or something else?” I asked.

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