Marathon - Part 1

"Three minutes to midnight," John announced, the proclamation sounding a bit more ominous than he'd intended. "Last chance for any preparations you need to make."

"I think the Nekos are making all the preparations they care about," Vallya remarked dryly, hovering nearby, her tails flicking with impatience. Beside them, Maera and Mithra remained curled together, their sleeping forms undisturbed by the conversation.

"Let them rest. I'm fine with them getting as much sleep in as they can. I'm impressed they can nod off like that in full battle gear," John said, voice heavy with amusement and an impressed disbelief.

"We could just start now. I'm tired of waiting around... not that I have anything better to do." Vallya made a soft noise of distaste, but her annoyance remained directed at the delay.

"We're already aiming to go a full eight hours without stopping. I'm not sure we're going to make it the whole way yet—there's no point in even starting a few minutes early," John cautioned.

"I will do my best to endure whatever challenges lie ahead, Creator John." Aclysia nodded, already poised with her sword and shield, as if expecting John to warp them into a Dungeon Barrier the very second that the clock struck midnight.

"If we can't make it, we can't make it. I'm not going to push for more if it puts us at risk." John shifted to face toward the others, putting his back against a tree as he opened up his menus. "But that's also why it's a great time to get you some combat experience, Aclysia. At your level…"

"Yeah, even as a novice, you should easily be able to solo low-level dungeons if you wanted to," John continued, confidence growing as his eyes scanned the sheet. "When I did my first dungeon, all I had was a shitty baseball bat, and I was way below your level. Besides, it's been over a week since I Reincarnated, so the low-level dungeons have refreshed their completion bonuses. We'll start with low-level dungeons and let you practice blocking and striking. You don’t really get any experience from clearing monsters out anyway. At least, I assume not.”

“You mean I won’t get any stronger?”

“Well, you will, but not from killing things,” John elaborated. “You’ll get stronger from eating the materials we farm, but not through experience. Maybe you’ll be able to earn that like everyone else after your leveling system update. That should let you finally use all those free points too.”

"Leveling system update?" Aclysia murmured uncertainly, her shield dipping fractionally. "And... free points?"

"Ah, you don't need to worry about those," John explained quickly, forgetting himself for a moment as he pondered her unique mechanics. "We can get to all of that later. I’ll sit you down and explain how everyone else’s systems work sometime. For now, all that matters is yours is different, but we can still work with it by running dungeons."

"I see." Her tone conveyed that she very much did not see, but her trust in John was implicit, and midnight was fast approaching.

"Right now, just focus on getting some experience fighting. We'll let you take point, but I'll back you up if they come out in groups. I don't want you trying to take on more than one enemy at a time while you're learning."

"Understood. Thank you, Creator John."

"Nyaa, if she's gonna be fighting, can we keep napping, Myaster?" Maera mewled from the side, barely lifting her head to scratch at one eye drowsily.

"Sure thing, Maera." John knelt down to give Maera an affectionate scratch behind the ears. The Neko relaxed instantly, a satisfied smile gracing her face as she drifted off again. John adjusted the party settings on his menu to exclude the sleeping Nekos, preventing them from being pulled into the dungeon, then finalized everything else. "Aclysia, ready?"

"I am prepared."

"Vallya, r-"

"Always," Vallya cut in, landing lightly on the forest floor. Her tails fanned out behind her in what almost seemed like a mating display. "Let's go!"

"Starting with level one, so don't expect too much," John warned. "Here we go."

The simple press of a button shattered reality. The peaceful forest warped, replaced by a landscape both familiar and unnervingly wrong. Grass and trees remained, but bizarre streaks marred their surfaces – not paint, but patches where bark texture, leaf shape, even the apparent season shifted abruptly. Spring buds bloomed inches from autumn leaves on the same branch.

The ground defied geometry, resembling an Escher print or Minecraft's Farlands brought to life. Hills ended sharply, the earth dropped into sudden pits, and platforms of dirt floated inexplicably in the air. Streams crisscrossed the uneven terrain in a chaotic web, somehow flowing through each other instead of merging. Water flowed downhill, uphill, and in the distance, John spotted a waterfall surging upwards into the night sky, untethered to any cliff face.

"What in creation lives here?" Vallya breathed, pupils dilated as she absorbed the impossible scenery. "This whole place thrums with magic. Not potent, but it's everywhere – every blade of grass is a tiny mana conduit."

"I set the destination to 'Elemental Planes' without specifying an enemy type," John explained, his own awe evident. "At this level, loot's generic anyway. I assumed we'd wind up in something with more of a unified theme. This is pure chaos. It's like every elemental was crammed together and they designed the place by committee."

"Well, if this really is a 'level one' dungeon, I'd say the biggest risk for us is going to be tripping over a cliff. Or riding a waterfall into the void," Vallya mused, her eyes wandering to the same stream that had caught John's attention. "Any idea which way we should go?"

"Not a clue. This dungeon seems pretty open-ended, but I'm sure they'll come to us if we move around enough. Aclysia, lead the way."

"As you wish, Creator John."

Aclysia advanced, sword and shield raised, carefully navigating the rippling, uneven ground. They traversed perhaps a hundred yards – involving at least seven jarring shifts in elevation – before a glimmer appeared on the distorted horizon: a floating ball of swirling blue energy, its form constantly shifting.

"That'll be it. Anything living or moving in these dungeons is almost always an enemy, Aclysia." John stood a few yards back, well out of range of any errant swings, not that he expected Aclysia to be flailing about. "I think it spotted us as well. You ready?"

"I am prepared. I am used to the patterns of these dungeons and their inhabitants from my forays with Yvara."

"If you think this is as weird as it gets, well..." John let his words drift away from him. He didn't really need to finish the sentence to let Aclysia's mind run with it.

Besides, Aclysia was laser-focused now, preparing herself for the strange orb's approach. The swirling energy picked up speed as it neared Aclysia, emitting a strange, echoing hum that warbled unpredictably. Then the ball zoomed forward and a thick stream of water began to spray forth from it.

Aclysia adjusted her feet slightly in the moments before impact, putting her shield at a slight angle and diverting the torrent off to the side as much as blocking it outright. The majority of the water flooded off a steep decline a few yards to the left, while the rest of it cascaded into the air, creating a sparkling mist that hung in the air until the elemental spirit finally ceased its output.

"Not bad. Now, can you reach it to cut it down?" John hardly had to voice the question before Aclysia was in motion, shield still raised, barreling toward the elemental with lethal intent.

The spirit rotated for a few seconds, making a flustered sound reminiscent of a field of wind chimes. Its varying shades of blue deepened and transformed, swirling around into a bright crimson that called forth another deluge—but this time of flames, not flood. Aclysia braced her shield, but the defense was less effective this time. The shield held, yet its surface began to glow a dull red. Aclysia made a soft, discomforted noise that immediately worried John.

Aclysia
190 / 190 HP
82 / 82 MP

"Not taking damage. But..." John grimaced as he saw the cause of Aclysia's distress. The shield wasn't enchanted, but it was still made of steel; a level one enemy might give it a bit of a glow, but it would never be able to melt it, certainly not in a few seconds. The various kinds of plastic and silicone that she had integrated into her body to mimic the texture and density of a human's body, though, were much less firm in the face of open flames. Her arm, positioned as it was against the metal of the shield, was in the process of... well, it was melting.

"Aclysia, are you alright?" John called out, already stepping forward to intervene. "I'm going to destroy that thing!"

"That will be unnecessary." Aclysia shouted out the statement with confidence, stepping forward and pressing herself into the flames without hesitation. Her confidence gave John a crucial moment's pause, impressed by the fearless advance. In that instant, she lowered her shield a few degrees, exposing herself slightly as she swung her sword. The blade sheared through the elemental spirit, disrupting the fiery spray.

Party Member: -9 HP!
Party Member: 12 DMG!

Aclysia took a half-step back, but didn't take her eyes off the little sprite. The elemental, likely resilient to physical damage, hadn't dispersed. Two more strikes as the creature was trying to rejoin its severed halves finished it off, and left Aclysia alone on the field of battle.

Party Member: 14 DMG!
Party Member: 11 DMG!

"Impressive form," John muttered, almost startled by how practiced her swings were after just a scant few hours of training, before raising his voice once more. "Aclysia, are you sure you're alright?"

"I am fine, Creator John," Aclysia assured, scanning the immediate area once before turning to face him. She still sounded resolute, though there was a certain unease layered under her words, a displeasure uncovered once the clamor of battle was behind her. "It causes no pain, merely discomfort. When my structure loses consistency like this, I lose fine control and sensation in the affected area. I admit, I do feel rather... uneasy, as though my insides are shifting and clenching, but I detect no abnormalities. The rest is only cosmetic damage."

John winced despite her words. Her left arm showed obvious degradation of the synthetic skin, though no actual burns. Her right, briefly exposed, showed early signs of the same effect. He suspected that if she were to remove the shield, he'd be able to see all the way down to the marble along the top of her forearm.

"You're probably feeling disgust, fear, or just general discomfort. None of which are something I want you to have to deal with at all, much less as you're learning to fight," John noted, frowning as he continued to stare at her arms.

"Injury is a risk of combat," Aclysia stated, her voice steadying. "I felt similar sensations when my arm was cracked previously. Is it not beneficial to acclimate to such things in a controlled environment, where the harm is superficial? Until I lowered my shield to strike, I suffered nothing more than a slight change in consistency."

"Describing her own flesh melting as a 'change in consistency'," John thought grimly, his jaw tightening. Whether it was the visceral nature of the wound or how little concern Aclysia often showed for herself that made him unable to let it go, he wasn't entirely sure.

"True," John allowed, cradling his admission in cautionary notes, "but that doesn't mean I like to see it happen, and it doesn't mean we don't take it seriously. Besides, I do want you to be able to power through and survive when you're injured, if it comes to that, but that doesn't mean it should be the default plan."

"If you require something of me, I wish to know I can accomplish the task, no matter the difficulty," Aclysia murmured.

"If I give you a task that's putting you through this much strain, I'd really rather you not try to push through it. I don't want you getting hurt, Aclysia. Even if this doesn't actually 'hurt' you, it's not something I want to see you endure."

"You feel responsible for me," Aclysia said quietly. "I have been too much of a burden to you. You feel as if you must look after me. I apolo-"

"That's not it at all," John interrupted, stepping a little closer to Aclysia. His fingers hesitated over her arms a moment, then switched toward her face, tracing over the lines of her unchanged features there instead. "If I give you a 'task', I want you to always remember this."

John half-whispered the next words, his other hand coming up to rest on Aclysia's shoulder, trying to impart the feeling behind his words.

"Plans change. Setbacks happen. We can usually try again. But you? All of you? There's only one of each of you. If I had to pick between the mission and any of you, I'd pick each and every one of you, every single time."

"Creator John, I do not feel as if I am being a valuable asset to you," Aclysia confessed, her usual lack of expressive body language replaced by a subtle dimming in her eyes, a slight drag in her words – the hallmarks of sorrow that nagged at even a construct capable of such feelings.

"You're more than an asset. And you're far more valuable to me than you realize. That's why I don't want to lose you." John forewent his hesitation and threw his arms around Aclysia, cradling her body against his fiercely. "I thought we went over this when I found you reading those worship books, Aclysia. I don't want you serving me out of obligation."

"It is not obligation, Creator John."

"But you just said-"

"I am doing them because I want to. Because it makes me happy to be of service to you," Aclysia countered, her voice quiet but unshakable. "I am doing them because seeing you smile makes me happy."

"Well, then protect yourself," John whispered into her ear, running his fingers along Aclysia's spine. "Because that would make me smile most right now—knowing that you're looking after yourself."

"I will attempt to balance my well-being with my battlefield performance," Aclysia promised solemnly.

"That's good enough for me. Now let's-"

John flinched as blue flames erupted nearby. Too far to harm them, but startlingly close. A wispy spirit dissipated along with the fading blue flames, leaving a particularly smug-looking Kitsune casually floating in the air.

"Finished with your little heart-to-heart, cuties? This is still a dungeon, you know. Level one or not."

"Thanks for the backup, Vallya," John said, adding a pointed emphasis that left Vallya giggling behind a raised hand.

"I am ready to continue if you will allow it, Creator John. I am already beginning to mend." Aclysia raised up her shield arm to reinforce the claim. Her pale faux-skin was indeed shifting along her forearm, slowly returning to its original shape. The burn had melted the amalgamated material, but this was different—it flowed and oozed like a slime or other living creature, rippling and changing shape as it returned to its desired form and consistency.

"I'll allow it. But under one condition—I'm using my Elemental Infusion to stop any fire attacks," John insisted, raising a finger when Aclysia looked ready to interject something. "I'll enchant your shield so that the interior is insulated once we're back. Something that simple won't take much. We'll get more than enough materials by the time we finish this shift, with plenty left to feed you too."

"Very well, Creator John," Aclysia acknowledged, inclining her head slightly.

"Alright, then it's settled. It'll be a good chance to practice our teamwork!" John encouraged, patting Aclysia on the shoulder. “Now, I think that spirit came from over there, so let's start heading this way."