[System Decay] Chapter 54: A Dysfunctional Team

The transition between spaces was nearly seamless this time. There was no extended wait time or sudden break in reality like there had been during the failed teleportation into challenge zero.

Will waved the system window away, taking stock of his surroundings once more.

More proof that whatever arcane transportation device they were using was working properly this time was the way Will’s feet crunched on pebbly sand immediately rather than after a five foot drop.

True to the system’s word, he spawned in next to one annoyingly familiar face and one that he didn’t recognize at all.

“Didn’t think I was going to see you again so soon,” he said. “Or at all, really.”

“Couldn’t spare me a sigil?” Lily Teneli said, dark eyes flashing mischievously. “For shame. Do you know what I had to go through to get a ticket?”

“Not much, I’d imagine,” Will said. “They were handing those loot boxes out like candy.”

“You’re trying to provoke me,” Lily said.

“Is it working?”

“Maybe a little.”

Lily Teneli. Silver 0 Hunter.

This User is currently using a stealth skill. You cannot intentionally harm this User during Main Challenge #1.

A deep, resonant sigh that seemed to shake Will’s bones interrupted them. “Moments into the challenge, and already my allies begin to fracture. Small wonder that our forefathers failed to thrive in this event.”

Apart from the ethnically ambiguous Lily (was she Japanese? Korean? There was definitely a bit of Indian in there, but… Will decided that guessing would be a bit of a faux pas, even know), Will had one more teammate.

His name had been simply listed as Fortress, which had piqued his interest, and seeing him in the flesh only furthered that.

Fortress. Silver 6 Dragon Sorcerer.

This User is a fire elemental. Further information has been locked due to your power disparity. You cannot intentionally harm this User during Main Challenge #1.

“Damn, Silver 6,” Will whistled. “Who the hell are you?”

Caiyeri had mentioned elementals offhandedly at some point, but hearing about them and witnessing Fortress’ presence in real time were two entirely different stories. The man was humanoid, and he was recognizably male from the shape of his body, but instead of flesh, his body was composed of a black charcoal-like substance, embers glowing just beneath the surface. His eyes were pits of molten lava, providing an additional light source alongside the setting sun.

Which was in the wrong place. It wasn’t setting, either—no, there was just a massive celestial body moving in view to block it.

With a start, Will realized that said celestial body was Earth. They were far higher than the low Earth orbit he’d been in when the tutorial had hit, evidenced by the fact that the planet didn’t take up the entirety of his vision. Instead, the swirling clouds, deep blue sea, and magical field of the planet that humans called home loomed deep in the distance, a few times larger than the sun in the sky.

The purplish-red of the sky wasn’t because the sun was setting. They were experiencing a… partial terran eclipse? Will wasn’t sure what the right term was for it, but that was essentially what was happening.

“I am Fortress,” Fortress said.

“I gathered that,” Will said.

“You’re not on the leaderboard,” Lily said curiously. “Shame. A quest to hunt you would’ve been pretty damn awesome.”

“We’re supposed to be together here,” Will reminded her. “Do you seriously think threatening to kill a teammate is going to help? You want to rank up too, don’t you?”

He hadn’t forgotten that Teneli had been one of the ones who’d tried to hunt him for his sigil, but there was a challenge at hand.

“Yeah, yeah,” Lily said, throwing her hands up in surrender. “A changeling, huh? That’ll be a neat new species to hunt.”

“You do not hunt changelings,” Fortress said. “This is not a feasible challenge.”

“Such a boring attitude,” Lily said. She peered closer at him. “Wait, okay, I thought you just selected a race change during class selection, but no, you’re the real deal, aren’t you? An alien?”

“I don’t know if I’d call them aliens,” Will said. “His planet is part of our planet now, after all. Also, people have been changing races? I’ve only seen humans in the leaderboards.”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Lily grinned. “Poor you. You didn’t even look at the other options, did you?”

In actuality, Will hadn’t been given the option to select another race. Thanks to the amount of time he’d spent in a high-corruption zone, the very fabric of his being had been warped enough that the system had not enabled him to select another race.

That said, Will could guess as to the reason. “Monster cores, right? None of the non-human races are using them, and they’ve barely even mentioned them. Meanwhile, it looks like every human’s been abusing them for ages. Fortress is presumably a lot older than us, since Arcadia’s been under the effects of the system for a longer time, but he’s not even gold. Humans are on their way there pretty quick, though. Does that sound right?”

“Huh, wow,” Lily said, raising her eyebrows. “I thought you were dumb and weak, but I guess you’re just weak.”

“This coming from you? You didn’t even land a single hit on me the last time we saw each other.”

“Silence,” Fortress demanded, his voice pulsing through both of them. “Humans though you may be, I am yet stronger than you are. If you wish to survive, then work with me instead of fighting between each other like petty children. We will succeed together or fail alone. That is the nature of this trial.”

“Wow, very nice,” Will said, golf-clapping for the fire elemental. “You should be a motivational speaker.”

“I hate to agree with him, but yeah,” Lily said. “Hunting is kind of my thing, so I don’t think I particularly care what you have to say about the impossibility of this challenge. Why don’t you tell us some more about changelings? I haven’t added them to my list yet.”

“This area is unsafe,” Fortress said. “We should find shelter and assess the region before attempting a capture.”

“That’s not information about changelings,” Lily said. “Hey. Are you even taking this seriously?”

“Are you?” the elemental replied. “One misstep and your life is over. Fail to identify a changeling and it will kill you. Fail to put one close enough to death and it will kill you. Capture one successfully, run into a competitor that has not found one or thirsts for death, and they will kill you.”

“Those are just the facts of life,” Lily said. “Or have you not been paying attention since the apocalypse knocked at your door?”

“I don’t disagree with getting shelter, at least,” Will said, eyeing their surroundings. “I’m not sure I like being this exposed.”

This area was so dense in magic that Will couldn’t detect any one aura, but his senses were sharp enough to tell where masses of them had gathered together.

Their thin strip of beach separated shallow ocean and an island of rolling hills with tall grass and occasional trees that stuck up high above their surroundings. It was an idyllic sight at first, but closer inspection found that the waters were teeming with silver-rank auras. There were a bunch of bronze ranks in the grass, too, though they were too scattered and undirected for Will to be a hundred percent sure where they were.

Theoretically, bronze rank monsters wouldn’t be that much of a challenge to him, but there were a lot of auras. Will was more prepared for hordes now thanks to his silver-rank Thunder Wraith’s Grasp, but he didn’t want to discover whether he was capable of handling an island full of them the hard way.

They were separated from a series of other islands by bands of open ocean as close as a hundred feet or as far as half a mile, proving the title of the location correct—Archipelago.

“Looks like I’m outvoted,” Lily said. “Do it quick, though, or I’m finding something to fight.”

“You’re a battle junkie, huh?” Will asked. “I can’t say I don’t understand the feeling, but try not to die on the first day, Teneli. I need someone who’s just bad enough at killing things to take these creatures in alive.”

She struggled to come up with a comeback, settling on a simple two words. “Fuck you.”

Rather than try to break up their unfriendly jabs, Fortress used a skill. Pages of the Past caught that it was a silver-rank Perception bound skill named Draconic Presence.

Warm air swept past Will forcefully, making him stumble back a step,and he saw the sand rustle as it passed over the entire beach.

You have gained a level of [Inspired].

[Inspired] - You tire less easily. You can expend a charge of this to automatically inflict a critical hit.

This was similar to an aura skill, Will realized, though much more fire-and-forget than the constant presence of Will’s Hunger Aura.

“What was that for?” Will asked. “I mean, I appreciate it, but…”

“Applying this skill to my aura allows me to reveal enemies in the area around us,” Fortress explained. “There are many in the sea and the fields, just as I feared, and there are hidden points in the beach with monsters buried beneath. There are some that should be easy to exploit and overtake.”

Seriously? Draconic Presence also applied a fear debuff to enemies, Will saw, but just for detecting people? He could’ve just used his senses.

Were the abyssal elves that abnormal in using their aura senses, or were elementals just a lot more free with using skills? Will wasn’t going to ask that question while Lily, who was almost certainly going to turn out to be an enemy after this, was listening.

“Then point the way,” he said instead. “If we need to get cover before you give the slightest bit of exposition, then let’s just hurry the fuck up before every other party gets there before us.”

Speaking of other parties… Will opened up his chat.

Will: What scenario did you land in? I’m in an archipelago looking for changelings.

Caiyeri: The same. Our island is all kinds of fucked, though. Looking forward to seeing what fresh horrors await you on yours.

Will: You could sound less excited about it. What’s up over there?

Caiyeri: The entire island is an active volcano right under our feet. There’s almost nowhere to shelter or prepare, and the magma is full of fire-immune monsters. Bronze-ranks, mostly, but there were a few silvers. I got separated from my group when we saw a silver horde, trying to regroup right now.

Will: Godspeed. We haven’t seen anything that weird yet. I’ll update you.

At least they were in the same challenge. That would make coordination easier if it came down to it.

“This way,” Fortress said.

Draconic Presence was a pretty solid skill at silver rank. Apart from the aura buffs, Will noticed that it also increased the heat emanating from the elemental’s body, scorching the sand with every step.

Their de facto leader made his way to a specific mound in the sand. Will detected a mess of bronze-rank auras coming from within it, so he drew his now silver-rank slayer sword, using Chaos Transfer and Thunder Wraith’s Grasp to give it buffs to obliterate whatever was within.

“It’s a swarm,” Lily said, not drawing her own. “Ants? Why don’t we just do like my mom did and pour boiling water on it?”

“Because we want the mound to be usable as cover, and humans tend not to survive very well in magma,” Fortress said. “If you wish to find other accommodation without know what you are chasing, be my guest.”

Lily grumbled, spreading her hands and allowing her spears to manifest in them.

“How many?” Will asked. His senses were good enough to pick up the fact that there was a small horde beneath their feet, but the general magical density of the area around them made it hard to tell individual monsters apart, especially when they weren’t as strong as him.

“Let’s find out,” Lily said, stabbing downwards. Her spears lit up with red magic, energy bursting out the end and piercing through the sand.

Will heard pitiful, insectile screeching as an ant died.

Fortress struck as well, opening his mouth and breathing an radiant-fire energy combination down into the sand. The dune blew apart, forcing Will to use Wind Walker to airdash up and away from the quickly collapsing pit.

As sand fell into a widening hole that had been the top of the hive, Will’s eyes caught the dozens of man-sized ants crwaling beneath him, pincers clicking together as they identified their enemy.

He activated Mark for Death. At silver-rank, he could designate as many enemies as he could see, and he could see a lot of the ants.

You have applied 31 instances of [Mark for Death].

Not bad at all.

The number of instances rapidly decreased. Fortress and Lily were both silver-rank, and both were able to keep abreast of the ants. The former created wings with a skill somewhat obviously named Dragon Wings that allowed him to hover above them while dousing them with flame, while Lily literally danced over them, her movements too agile for the ants to catch with their bronze-rank speed.

Will didn’t even need to do anything but reap the rewards of Mark for Death increasing the damage that his teammates were inflicting, so he didn’t bother going for anything flashy. He hadn’t forgotten the description of the trials—there was a non-zero chance he would end up in a 1v1 against one of these two during the remaining challenges, and he wanted to keep his skills as close to the chest as possible until he was sure it wouldn’t cost him to reveal them.

Besides, at silver, Mark for Death enhanced the attacks coming from Fortress and Lily so heavily that they were one-shotting every ant. Will airdashed backward, landing on the sand, and watched them finish up.

“You could do something, you know,” Lily said afterwards, kicking sand onto burning ant corpses.

“I did do something,” Will said. “I got the experience to prove it.”

Not that the bronze-rank ants provided that much.

“Anyway,” he said, forestalling her next sentence. “Fortress! You had something to say about changelings, right? Get over here!”

They slid into the trenches of the cleared mini-hive.

“Hot in here,” Lily said.

“I can’t imagine why,” Will said, eyeing the smouldering flame that was Fortress. “Out with it.”

“Very well,” Fortress said, his voice warming the air to even more uncomfortable levels. “One hundred years ago, a changeling wiped out my people.”

#

Nathan was in the middle of carving his way through the Tower of Chaos when his life changed forever. Again.

Five years ago, he’d been a normal salaryman in New York, barely making rent. Then, one day, the system had sent him a message, telling him he could be so much more if he chose greatness over stability, and he’d gladly accepted.

That had sent him here, to a world called Selethnir. He’d uncovered a plot by insane cultists to use the Tower of Chaos as a vessel to irreversibly introduce this world to the corruption that plagued the universe.

As he’d fought against them, finding and losing comrades along the way, he had advanced his own power. Last month, he had finally broken the barrier between silver and gold, one that had blocked him for years.

But midway through the seventeenth floor of the tower, everything changed.

Quest complete: [Protect the Contract]

This world’s chaos defense shield remains intact, though not solely because of you.

You have failed the quest, [Eliminate the Cultists].

24 [Corruption Cultists] have escaped this planet.

A massive rift tore its way through reality, splitting the floor in two. Just one glance at it with his gold-rank senses told him exactly what that was, and a check with his Identify skill confirmed it.

That’s a wormhole. They’re going to another world.

“Activate skill: Spatial Analysis,” he declared. Strictly speaking, it was unnecessary to speak it out loud, but it satisfied the chuuni part of him that had been why he’d accepted the offer.

Spatial anomaly detected: Corrupted Wormhole.

Entering this wormhole carries a small chance to inflict you with [Corruption].

Rank: Emerald.

Destination: Planet Sol-3, alias “Earth.”

Earth is currently home to one corruption wielder. This wormhole was fine-tuned with that target in mind. It is likely that this anomaly is intended to increased the influence of corruption on your home planet.

Nathan’s eyes widened. He’d never even dreamed of being able to find his way back to Earth, even after all of the hardships he’d endured in Selethnir. And here he was, being offered a way back for free.

His eyes narrowed.

No, not for free. If Earth was a valid teleportation target, then the system must have come there. Whatever he returned to, it would not be the world he remembered.

The cultists sought a fresh world to corrupt. They wanted to bring the universe closer to ruin, and Nathan was not going to let them find the User they must have seeded the world with.

No matter what happened, he was going to ensure that his worlds new and old stayed intact, whatever the cost. Too many people depended on Nathan for him to let them down now.

And he knew the costs all too well by now. There was no way to deal with the corruptors but death.

He dove through the portal, knowing that he would be followed.

“I’m coming for you,” he whispered. 

[Bounty] initiated.

Searching for Planet Sol-3’s first and only native corruption wielder.

Target located: William Li-Brown. Silver 0. [Reaper].

Welcome home, Nathan.