Chapter 27: Right of Refuse-al

“Thump!” Sean vocalized, just before the Trash Compactor made the same sort of noise on the chest of a garbage man. He frankly loved the thing. It did damage. Sometimes that damage came in the form of its spikes digging into a target. Sometimes, the sheer weight and momentum of the weapon dragged those spikes into their victim’s body. And sometimes, it just meant a solid, devastating hit with the flat parts of the compactor’s business end.

Sean could hardly aim the thing. It barely mattered. Whatever this thing hit, it broke. If he ever missed, the runaway momentum would probably drag him around in circles. He didn’t care because when it did hit, there was no blocking it. Every single time he had bashed it into a garbage man, it had sent them so badly off balance that he was able to get a second hit without much effort, which usually took them off their feet entirely. At some point, he’d just be pounding on a grounded opponent like a worker driving railroad spikes until the garbage man exploded.

The best thing about it was that the Apocalypse System was not the least bit stingy about the situation. It had said it would penalize him for the fire, and pushed him in another direction. Even though that direction ended up being an even harder counter for the trash men, he had killed so many of them that he was now respawn camping and the system still hadn’t said a word about it.

That was the kind of good-faith management he could operate under. And by midday, management came through with a few more bonuses that made it even better.

Sean Lawrence
Level 8 Human (Prisoner of Time)
EXP: 242/1000

STR: 6
DEX: 23
VIT: 7 (8)
SAV: 25 (26)
MAG: 5 (7)

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Abilities: Shankmaster LV2, Adhesives Mastery LV2, Stitch Up LV2, Hard Time LV1
Achievements: E-Raticator

Shankmaster had finally leveled up, as had Adhesives Mastery. Sean had an idea of why. The Trash Compactor was hard as hell to use, and he spent the better part of the morning getting used to it. The moment he finally got the sense that he was starting to get the hang of redneck flails as a weapons class was when the upgrade to his weapons skill came in, condensing what he had learned until it was as solid as a brick.

He wasn’t sure, but it seemed that the levels weren’t just about using the weapons a certain amount. Rather, the skill likely had something to do with the whole experience of making a weapon, using it, and becoming familiar with his creation. Probably. It was also possible he was imagining everything. Even so, he was going to experiment with building and refining his shank skill as much as possible in the future, glue supplies permitting.

And then, like all good things, it came to a stop. As he was starting to consider dumping all his trash-based weight pellets in a safe spot just so he could keep his mobility intact, the system informed him that enough was enough, gave him a Right of Refuse-al Achievement that increased his effectiveness against enemies that were formed of “diverse amalgams of thematically appropriate environmental materials”, and cut his experience gain from the garbage men down to nearly nothing.

It was fine, though. He had finally got his SAV higher than his DEX, taking advantage of his new SAV-heavy class. All his movements felt better and tighter. He had more situationally appropriate weaponry to bring to bear, and his armor had passed its launch test with flying colors. When a garbage man crested the hill above him, he went after it just to feel that superiority one more time, experience gains be damned. He scrambled up the hill, exulting as his DEX and SAV ensured his footfalls were steady, agile, and stable, then slammed the Trash Compactor into the thing so hard it literally ripped in half.

Full to the brim of victorious feelings, Sean let loose a restrained whoop and pumped his fist in the air, just as the ground below him started to rumble. Like melting gelatin, the trash heap started to deform and flow outwards, as if it was trying to flatten itself out. Off to his side, Sean watched as the shifting garbage revealed a closed refrigerator and leapt on top of it, riding it downwards like a surfboard as the trash rearranged itself. Soon, when the heap was flat enough that Sean didn’t think the chances of getting literally buried in garbage were high, he leapt off the refrigerator towards the borders of the trash sea.

By the time he landed, It was clear that the heap was not just flattening, but was also beginning to move in a defined direction. The same was true of all the other trash heaps, except the one that contained the rat dungeon. Sean backed up towards the border of the dump, as the various streams of trash began to converge on a central point, and hoped that his suspicions wouldn’t come true. The relevant part of the guide had been very clear that this was not something he wanted yet.

System spaces are contained, but the system is everywhere, influencing everything. Sometimes, a normal-looking place can have extraordinary qualities. A forest might go on much further than it should or contain a grove of giant trees not visible from the outside.

A cave might have lava. Not real lava, understand, but the kind that you see in caves on TV, with rocks floating in it, where it’s not a good idea to fall in, but you don’t catch on fire just because you are near it.

Every so often it’s not that obvious. The Apocalypse System loves setting up little secret events that only trigger under certain circumstances. Imagine chopping down too many trees in that too-large forest I mentioned before and then getting curb-stomped by a forest guardian made of oak, and you have the general idea.

When you can handle these events, the rewards can be huge. When you can’t, they are usually fatal. When in doubt, run.

While Sean watched, the trash started to heap up into one big pile, then flow upwards in a central column like a huge tree trunk made of garbage. Once it stood forty or fifty feet tall, the trash started to widen, then take shape. The head emerged first, then the arms. By the time its massive legs were carved out of the last of the garbage, the system finally chose to tell him what he was looking at.

Dump Goliath (LV 50 Field Boss)

You don’t think of a dump as a beautiful nature reserve, but have you ever thought about it from the perspective of the poor Garbage Men? Here was everything they needed. They had filthy air, cluttered visuals, and enough trash to sort that they could have continued uninterrupted for decades.

You chose to disturb all that, ruining their version of nature. The dump watched, despaired, and finally was roused to action.

The Dump Goliath will preferentially chase the entity who triggered its awakening forever, or until taken down. You can run. It’s not very fast, at least for its size. But somewhere in the Goliath’s dim cognition of the world lies a mechanism that, once a day, grants it a faint sense of where you are. You can’t hide forever.

Good Luck!

“Dammit.”

He couldn’t double back towards the town. Even if he could, he wasn’t sure he should. For all he knew, the townsfolk knew about this thing and left it alone on purpose, and Brett had failed to realize Sean would be punching above his pay grade so soon.

Instead, he was just running away from the location that once had been a landfill. As the system had claimed, the giant amalgam being wasn’t fast for its size. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t fast for Sean’s size, and it was gaining on him. Worse, it seemed more maneuverable than he was, despite its size. Every time Sean turned due to some obstacle, it caught up a little bit more.

He couldn’t spare the time to turn around and look, but he didn’t need to. Every step it took was a loud, Earth-shaking event. Judging by the noise that became louder with every step, he probably had minutes before the thing caught up. His only hope, as he saw it, was to find some kind of cover. He’d take a cave if he could find it, but from what the system had said, it seemed the trash golem would just camp out outside of it. He’d be just as screwed on a longer timeline.

Meanwhile, his trajectory wasn’t exactly in the opposite direction from the town. He was running at a maybe 70-degree angle from it, which meant he’d miss it by a pretty wide margin. Slowly, he began adjusting that angle to bring himself slightly closer to the town, but every turn was costing him distance between him and the Goliath. After a minute or so, he was running almost perpendicular to the town, if still not particularly close to it.

He hoped someone would see the golem and want it. Even if the town didn’t have any level fifty combat classes, at least they might have a hunting team, or something. Hell, he’d even take the offworlders at this point. But nobody showed. He kept running, and eventually saw salvation in the distance, in the form of trees.

Sean kicked up the pace as much as he could, finding he could still run out of breath in a dead sprint if he was pushing to his limits. His legs and lungs burned like he had received an acid injection, but he kept running. Eventually, the trash legs were right behind him, slamming into the ground so loud he felt like his eardrums were going to bleed. And then, just after he had to zig-zag for the first time because of the shadow of a footfall that would have otherwise crushed him, he broke the treeline.

The difference was immediate and significant. Sean could weave through the trees, but the big guy either had to crush them or crash through them. It was slowing him down, but not enough that Sean could stop running. That said, he took a chance and cut hard towards home. The wilderness stopped just behind his bunker, and if he had his mental math right, he might be able to get to the crater without the golem following him, pop into the town before it got its once-daily ping on his location, and get advice.

He ran as hard as he could, vaulting over fallen trees, crashing through brush, and just generally getting all the distance he could. After several minutes, he realized he couldn’t hear the golem anymore. He had lost it. Slowing down a bit to catch his breath, he was finally able to get a good look at the forest around him. The trees were taller than he thought they’d be, and all around him were sounds of life that probably would have seemed pleasant if it wasn’t for the fact that most of those sounds came from animals that would kill him, given the chance.

He pressed on at a brisk jog, expecting to see the treeline break at any time. This forest had to end sometime.