Museum Core Chapter 18: Tales of the Fall

The woman, who’d introduced herself as Bethany Miller, wound up spinning a rather terrifying tale of a cataclysmic disaster.

Thomas hadn’t been awake for any of that, but she and her daughter had lived through it.

A gigantic crack had appeared in the sky and then, a massive jungle had started to grow. Parts had just appeared, others had grown, others still seemed to even have patches of time that flowed at a different rate … she’d seen all sorts of messes from the top floor of an office building. “Bring your kid to work day” couldn’t possibly have come at a worse time.

Many people had tried to run in a desperate attempt to get out of the area of change, but been torn apart by monsters. Or turned into them.

Thomas had seen Elias wince at that. Hopefully, that meant that the fairy had put two and two together and finally believed him. An apology would be nice, but honestly, as long as this was a proper end to that particular fight, he’d be happy-ish with the outcome.

Bethany and Lea had stayed in the building for a long time, watching and waiting, desperately hoping to be rescued. But nothing had shown up, save for something that fell from the sky and exploded after hitting the ground. Based on the description, it sounded like it had been a fighter jet, which meant that there was something out there capable of taking one down. That wasn’t good.

While they’d waited, a tree had begun to break the floor, so they’d started retreating lower into the building until they’d been almost on the ground.

Bethany had planned to wait until morning before going out to look for food, but Lea had wound up running away and the rest was history. And now, they were trying to get to sleep atop mattresses made out of scavenged tablecloths.

“Is there a way to safely put a creature in there?” Thomas asked.

“Why in the celestial’s name would you want to put one of your monsters in there?” Elias responded, utterly aghast.

“Emotional support. You know, a fluffy friend into whose fur you can cry into. But the kid’s too rough for a normal animal, and I don’t have any cats or dogs.”

“You had that painted dog puppy, didn’t you?” Elias asked.

“That’s just the name,” Thomas informed him. “And painted dogs are vicious. They hunt in packs and tear open prey animals’ stomachs and wait for them to die in agony. I don’t even want to know how that puppy is going to defend itself.”

Elias didn’t answer audibly, but the look on his face said everything.

“There’s a loot variant called a ‘bond’, where you create a token version of a monster that someone can then use to create a version loyal to them, but I don’t think a Null-rank can use those … actually, I know they can’t, I wanted one as a kid and that was why I couldn’t have one.”

“What kind did you want?” Thomas asked.

“Anything cute, really,” Elias shrugged. “I just thought they were cool.”

Thomas sniggered. Elis loved to play the battle-hardened badass, and Thomas could sometimes picture him as a legendary warrior … only for him to bust out a story like that.

“You don’t get to judge, your core room is full of adorable critters,” Elias huffed.

“Yeah, but I don’t have a reputation as a badass to protect,” Thomas teased, being rewarded with an indignant splutter.

Elias stuck out his tongue and returned to his customary seat atop the duiker.

“Do you know if I can bind a creature to you? Or does that only work for people who aren’t a part of the Dungeon?” Thomas asked.

“That … that should work,” Elias said. “Why?”

“I was thinking that maybe I could give you control over your chair,” Thomas offered. “And maybe, you could use something as a bodyguard when you go out.”

Elias thoughtfully rubbed his chin. “Can I have one of the big cats? The ones you use for aerial ambushes?”

“Sure.”

It only took a couple of minutes for the duiker to be permanently unseated from its position as Elias’ nap couch, and the fairy began to use the killing machine that was the jaguar as a taxi.

“I was thinking of waiting to upgrade the jaguars until I’ve got the right venomous snake to use as a baseline, or do you have something you’d want?” Thomas asked. The big cats were within spitting distance of a rank-up, but he hadn’t settled on an upgrade yet.

Venom was the obvious pick, something to enhance the damage caused by the initial sneak attack, but the deadliest venom he had available was uniquely ill-suited for that purpose.

“Wait but don’t wait too long,” Elias said. “You can always rank up the basic pattern again, but any kills while they’re ready to rank up are going to go to waste.”

That was a good point. But it still felt like a waste to make a hemotoxic jaguar.

“Do you think you have enough control over your jaguar to keep the little girl safe while she plays with it?” Thomas asked.

“This already sounds like a bad idea,” Elias grumbled.

“You haven’t even heard it yet.”

“If I have to babysit, that means you want to use the mother for something, and I don’t see that ending well,” Elias explained.

“I just want her to look through the archives,” Thomas said.

“Let’s wait till morning,” Elias said. “Let them sleep and then, we can ask them to do stuff in the morning.”

***

Staying up all night was an interesting experience.

It was hardly the only time Thomas had stayed up all night, but it was the first where he hadn’t been drunk at a party, stuck on an overnight bus with bumpiness issues, or jetlagged.

This wasn’t a matter of his internal clock being thrown off by him being on a whole other part of the globe, of him being too hopped up on booze and adrenaline to know he needed to go to sleep, of him simply not being in a situation that allowed for sleep.

No, he simply didn’t get tired even though he’d been going at full throttle for hours on end, fully aware of how late it was getting without feeling even the slightest, faintest, remotest sensation of tiredness.

So he just hung there in limbo, part of him desperate to just shut down and rest for a bit yet unable to even try. Thomas hadn’t been able to fall asleep on command before all this, but the current situation took the cake.

And when one of the last prey animals remaining in the area had gotten eaten by a jaguar, the big cats were ready to rank-up.

Bethany and Lea were still asleep, Elias’ translation capability didn’t extend to the written word and Thomas’ own explorations were yet to find what he wanted.

But then, he had an epiphany. He needed something to herd the refugees without being overly threatening, while also being capable of safely manhandling humans if push came to shove.

He didn’t have what he needed for that plan either, but he knew where to get them.

His first impulse was to ask Bethany to get it, but she was still asleep, and at any rate, he needed Elias to play interpreter, and the fairy was currently patrolling the outside.

So he just sent in a jaguar. It didn’t matter if it failed, there were dozens, if not hundreds, of useable items in the gift store alone, and it didn’t matter how many broke as long as one survived to reach Thomas’ domain.

Thankfully, things went well. The jaguar didn’t see the dinosaur plushy as prey or anything else work going after, so he just picked it up in his mouth and ambled back into the Dungeon.

Thomas absorbed the item and immediately respawned it outside the cafe, figuring that Bethany could use it.

The real trick, though, was applying the concept to the jaguar. Much like the “swamp adaptation” ability once held by the Dire Lizardman, powers could be rather broad as long as they fit a given theme.

Thomas still couldn’t get the System to display any information on his new creature and its power, but in his head, he’d simply named it “Inoffensive”. Basically, it made the creature holding it cute and adorable while reducing its capacity to do damage. Blows would still contain significant power, but the raw damage dealt would simply be reduced, even indirect ones, such as someone getting slammed into a wall by a hit.

It also gained an increased ability to stay calm when dealing with things and people Thomas didn’t want damaged even outside his domain.

He had to admit, the new jaguar looked utterly adorable, with big eyes, a fluffy coat that was to die for, and the ability to pur which only one big cat, the cheetah, could do in nature.

After thinking about it for a long moment, he decided against sending one into the cafe until the pair were still asleep.

***

It was around two in the morning when the next bit of excitement occurred, a man running from another creature, desperately trying to escape. He wouldn’t make it.

One of Thomas’ wyverns was launched into action with the mildest of mental nudges … and immediately went for the bigger, meatier target. The human.

The recall order was given a mere millisecond after Thomas realized the issue, and was promptly ignored.  As was the second one. And the third one. And the order to prioritize the smaller target, since the human would be easy enough to find after the small target had been taken down, was also ignored.

It was only his argument that the human would go into the Dungeon, theoretically unable to escape, that convinced the wyvern to veer off, splattering the monkey-thing across the overgrown road with a bone-crushing impact.

The man it had been chasing managed to stumble into the museum, caught sight of a tiger, and freaked the fuck out. Understandable, but decidedly not helpful.

Elias was already on the way over to mediate, but he was too slow, as the man ran deeper into the museum, veering left when he saw the lights in the cafe being off, right into the Dungeon propper.

Thomas had removed the lights in the entrance of the cafe to let the ladies sleep, but now, it looked pretty spooky.

The man ran, and Thomas ordered the Dungeon creatures to stand down and hide. Of course, seeing flashes of movement in the shadows was pretty terrifying too, which made things seriously problematic.

By the time Elias got here, the man would have already reached Ceshire’s boss room and probably wind up cracking his head open on the slick floor. Not to mention that there were several pitfall traps before that. Him winding up in either was … not an option.

So he just had one of the two “crowd control” jaguars he’d spawned run out and throw itself in front of the man’s legs while the second played the role of soft spot to land on, and then, the pair bit down on the back of his pants.

Obviously, having two big cats trip you up, grab you by the pants, and drag you off to God knows where was terrifying beyond belief.

The man alternated between screaming profanities, begging for his life, and sobbing uncontrollably.

And to cap things off, the noise woke Bethany and Lea, who ran out to see two big cats dragging around a screaming “victim” and started to panic herself.

Thankfully, by this point, Elias arrived.

“Hey, I know this looks terrible, but he just got in and almost ran into a nasty trap,” The fairy announced, then turned to the man. “Sorry about that, but this place is defended by magic, please stay in the cafe until someone shows up to get you out of the forest.”

The man scrambled to his feet once the jaguars let go and ran in the direction of the cafe while Bethany stayed outside to chat.

“How dangerous are things in there?” she asked.

“I mean … it’s designed to chew up and spit out any and all of the monsters out there. If it’s necessary, those jaguars have been empowered to be able to move people without injuring them, but that doesn’t make getting dragged around like that fun.”

Bethany winced. “Do you think I could get some paint or something so I can paint a sign?”

“Er, Thomas?” Elias asked.

“Sure, tell her to wait in the cafe, I’ll spawn something suitable.”

Elias passed the message along and a massive pool of dark liquid splattered across the ground outside the cafe as soon as it was possible, while several new lightbulbs spawned to illuminate the area.

“Is that … blood?”

The liquid was darker than that, but it still had an uncomfortable resemblance to it.

“It’s blackberry juice, I couldn’t find anything better,” Thomas said after spawning in a plastic bucket and filling it with water so Bethany could wash her hands afterwards.

“Couldn’t you have used a bucket for the juice?” Elias asked.

“Er … yes,” Thomas responded. He just hadn’t thought of it yet. He’d dumped the best “paint” he had on the floor and only later realized that after using it, Bethany might want to wash her hands. And water went along with buckets in a way that berry juice didn’t.

While the man was recovering from his panic attack in the corner of the cafe and Lea somehow slept through the whole mess, Bethany drew “Anyone caught out of bounds will be returned to the cafe!” in huge letters on several walls while surrounding the entrance to the cafe itself with signs saying “sanctuary here”.

Elias tried to have his jaguar help, but only succeded in getting the cat utterly filthy and himself soon after when he tried to clean it. Amusing, but hardly helpful.

***

After an hour, Bethany was done painting the signs and the man had calmed down, sitting on one of the many chairs scattered across the cafe, staring at the two people sitting across from him.

Bethany had also claimed a chair and was drinking coffee. Cold coffee, that was, since Thomas could only replicate inanimate materials in the form they’d been in when he’d absorbed them, so creating hot coffee was beyond him.

… While Elias was eating a pastry that was larger than he was while sitting on the table itself.

“What’s your name?” Elias opened.

“Theodore, but please, call me Teddy.” The man, no, Teddy, furtively looked around the room. “What is this place?”

“Probably the only safe place in the city,” Elias shrugged. “As long as you stay out of the monster-mulching areas.”

Both of the humans winced at that.

“Can you tell us what happened to you out there?” Bethany asked. “We’re trying to find out what’s out there.”

Teddy grimaced, and wove a grand tale that was basically the same as Bethany’s.

Monsters abound, people deciding to either hide or flee, with most of those who fled dying immediately and those who hid often getting eaten once they went out for food.

But there was one thing that stood out.

“… And then, this guy with magical powers showed up. He just waved his hand, shouted ‘Forest’s Wrath’ and then … I don’t know how to describe it, I think a root speared the monster?” Teddy explained, spacing out.

“Wait, I thought that the System was so glitched no one could get any magic?” Thomas asked Elias.

“But shouting attacks doesn’t sound like someone with a System,” Elias replied. “He’s probably a cultivator or mage, those powers aren’t restrained by Systems.”

“I thought you said that you can only get one kind of power in a specific universe?” Thomas asked.

“Exactly,” Elias nodded. “But here we are.”

“Is something wrong?” Bethany asked as she noticed Elias looking distracted and acting as though he were listening to an invisible presence.

“I’m talking to the owner about the situation,” Elias explained.

“Can I meet him, I’d like to thank him for all of this,” Bethany asked, but before Thomas could even Elias to turn the offer down, the fairy acted.

“He’s very busy at the moment. He can listen in, he doesn’t have enough time for a meeting.”

And then, the fairy turned to Teddy.

“Why didn’t you go with that guy?” Elias asked, voicing Thomas’ question before he could pass it along.

“He was … wrong. He looked like he was enjoying the slaughter, laughing and shouting about how he was a god now.”

“Yep, cultivator,” Elias sent to Thomas while schooling his expression into something thoughtfully neutral.

“How do you know that?” Thomas wondered.

“I don’t know it for certain, but I’m pretty sure,” Elias explained. “Cultivation is … messy. Like, it’s impossible to get anywhere and really keep your hands clean.

“The oldest worlds with cultivation I know about have ridiculously stratified societies, where the people who have the chance to cultivate properly aren’t just nobles who’ve been told they’re above everyone else their entire lives, but also have the personal power to ‘prove’ it.

“And even when the societies themselves aren’t the problem, cultivation is hard. With systems, advancement is straightforward, It’s dangerous as hell if you want to reach the higher Ranks, but it’s simple. You just keep jumping into dangerous situations and if you survive, you get stronger. And you do that until you’re at the top.

“But you can’t really get stronger than people at your own Rank and Level that way. You can be smart about how you allocate your Stats and what Skills you get and if you are really good, you can get improved Skills, but there’s a limit.

“Cultivation … is insane. You can get really powerful, even fight people on a whole other rank, but advancing is tough. You need resources, natural treasures, time, artifacts, and luck. Basically no one gets above E-Rank, and it gets a lot worse after that point.”

“How bad?” Thomas asked.

“Let me put it like this: I’m an S-Ranked System user, personally know twenty others, and know of another hundred or so. I’ve met one Wizard Ascendant, that’s the wizard equivalent, and know of maybe two others. But I’ve never even heard about a Celestial cultivator beyond rumors.”

“Celestial is the S-Rank equivalent?” Thomas asked. It was obvious from context, but he preferred to avoid making assumptions.

“Yep,” Elias confirmed. “My point is, anyone who gets anywhere with cultivation is the luckiest of lucky bastards, and they usually feel like they’re some kind of ‘chosen’.”

“The Monopoly Experiment,” Thomas noted.

“What monopoly?” Elias asked.

“It’s a board game about real estate, you run around the board and buy properties and when someone lands on your properties, they have to pay you, it keeps going until someone’s broke. But that’s not the point,” Thomas told him.

“The Monopoly experiment was about people playing the game but randomly assigned some players more starter money and a higher passive income, while others got less.

“And as the games went on, the ‘rich’ player would slowly become a bit of an ass and act like he’d earned everything, but, you know …”

“… He just got lucky,” Elias finished. “That sums up cultivators in my experience.”

“And what are Wizards like?” Thomas asked. Now that the topic had been raised, he felt like he should ask.

“Weird,” Elias scoffed, the visible action startling the two humans who’d been waiting quietly while the fairy talked to his “boss”.

“Mages, wizards, sorcerers, whatever you want to call them, they grow with knowledge. They’re insufferable and stick their noses everywhere, but they’re smart. But that doesn’t mean they make smart decisions, they just know a lot.”

“Wisdom and intelligence are different Stats,” Thomas commented dryly.

“In some Systems, but they’re usually combined into Mag- … wait, how do you know that?” Elias frowned. “Did you go traveling? Or have you been seeing another fairy behind my back?”

Thomas just started laughing in lieu of answering. Apparently, Elias could be funny if he let his hair down.

“I was talking about how that works in games.”

“Video games?” Elias asked.

“Nah, tabletop games.”

“How many other games do I need to understand?” Elias grumped, causing Thomas to start laughing again.

“Don’t worry, none.”

“Um, so do you need to know anything else?” Teddy interrupted after a long moment of silence, so Thomas started feeding Elias more questions.

“Was the man wearing modern clothes?” the fairy asked.

“Yeah.”

Ok, that was both good and bad, Thomas thought. On one hand, there were no superpowered off-worlders running around. On the other, the presence of multiple power systems made an already bad situation infinitely messier.

“How good are you at finding stuff in warehouses and stuff like that?”

“Not terrible?” Teddy seemed completely thrown by the sudden change of topic.

“We’re looking for a few things to help defend this place. If I and a tame monster go with you, would you be willing to look through the archives?” Elias once again passed on Thomas’ statements.

“Yeah,” Teddy nodded and got to his feet, briefly turning to the woman. “Really sorry for earlier, that was … not my finest moment.”

Bethany nodded sympathetically. “It’s been crazy.”

And while she went back to sleep, Teddy grabbed a now-warm can of coke from the nearest fridge and returned to stand in front of Elias.

“Let’s go, shall be? Before I piss my pants …”

The fairy winced and fluttered back into the Dungeon to land on his jaguar mount, which was still a regular version, and led the way towards the archives.

Thomas had to mentally reassess his initial impression of the man. When not understandably scared out his mind, he could be surprisingly reasonable, brave even. Though he still practically jumped out of his skin every time the jaguar turned in his direction.

Was that reasonable caution, or a burgeoning phobia?

Thomas mentally began writing an apology speech and trying to think of something nice to do for the man, especially after he helped dig through the archives.

For starters, cold coke might be nice. He couldn’t create cold cans or get a freezer to work, but he did have a workaround available.

Step one, summon bucket.

Step two, summon water.

Step three, summon ice.

Step four, summon coke can.

Step five, absorb now-cold coke can to summon at any ti- …

“Hey, Thomas, could you do something about the light?” Elias interrupted his musings on the “master plan”.

Right.

Most of the archives were in the guts of the building, and even if they’d had skylights and the like, it was still the middle of the night.

Thomas spawned a couple of lightbulbs where his domain ended, but that wouldn’t really help things since they didn’t work outside the dungeon.

“Do you know where the janitor’s office is?” Teddy asked.

Thomas didn’t, but after several minutes of having wolverines and tigers tear open every “staff only” door in the building, he finally located a flashlight, absorbed it, and spawned it where the others were waiting.

Teddy dipped into the Dungeon domain to grab it, and the unlikely trio headed off into the dark recesses of the practically deserted museum, in the middle of a magical natural disaster.

If Elias had been alone out there, Thomas might have considered setting up a jump scare for when he returned, but he didn’t want to traumatize the humans any more than the situation already had.

He started to sort through his patterns for what felt like the billionth time, desperately hoping that the expedition would return with something even vaguely humanoid that he could use as an avatar.