Another Heart Breaks

John’s heart jumped up into his throat. Surely she couldn’t be serious. Things were going so well. She was half the reason why he didn’t accept that quest. “Why?”

She sat down on a chair and he did the same, she explained, “There’s a lot of **** in the Abyss John. Some people handle it a lot better than others.” Jenny looked ready to cry, and John could tell that she didn’t really want to do this.

“Your life isn’t sucked into the Abyss yet John. You can still get out! I think you’re a good person John, and people like you don’t last long in the Abyss.” Jenny explained, not looking him in the eye.

“Seeing you get hurt like that… you’re better off without me John. Without the Abyss. You should just forget any of this ever happened.” She finally met his gaze, and John realized she was crying. “I’ve had a lot of fun with you John, but please…” The sad smile she had as her hand brushed past his ear and stroked his hair was heart wrenching.

John opened his mouth to reply. To explain that he couldn’t just do that. To tell her that despite dying, the past few days had been the best of his life. Before he could, she was gone. Uncaring to whatever trouble she could get in for using her magic in school, she sped herself up faster than John could hope to follow and so he sat in the abandoned music room, alone.

Despite the heartache he felt, or perhaps because of it, a logical solution presented itself in John’s mind. All he needed to do was get strong enough to protect them. The alternative, to forget the Abyss, was unthinkable. He wouldn’t, couldn’t forget the Abyss. He would save his heartache for when he could afford to feel it. With that logic, he slipped out of the school, and created a level ten barrier on the edge of town not far from the forest.

You have entered a hostile barrier!

Barrier Quest: Abandoned Cityscape
Defeat all enemies: 75/75 remaining
Rewards: 400 experience, $500
Defeat the bosses: 2/2 remaining
Rewards: First Kill bonuses (Triple Experience, Double Cash, Guaranteed Epic)
Find the diamond cipher
Rewards: Cryptology 101
Defeat all enemies without using any outside weapons
Rewards: 2 skill points, 2 stat points, unique armor piece
Conquer the barrier in 30 minutes or less (29:59 remaining)
Rewards: 600 experience, $700
[Accept]/[Deny]

A shell of a city popped up in front of John as he hit accept. Skyscrapers that stretched farther than he could see, dominated by neon signs and multicolored lights on every level. A strip of asphalt that stretched into the horizon. Dozens of street lights, signs, and abandoned vehicles ranging from normal cars to sci-fi wet dreams, all in different states of disrepair. Despite that, it was empty. Eerily so. The bombardment of visual stimuli combined with the total silence set his already bad nerves on edge. He tried to listen for something, anything, and vaguely heard the approaching sound of footsteps.

A gunshot rang out, and Gun-Kata activated automatically as John flipped backwards behind a car, narrowly dodging the bullet fired from the end of the block.

Right, can’t use my weapons. Unarmed it is then. John sprinted out from behind the cover and leapt toward what was apparently a robot shooting at him. The Ring of Perspective distorting its aim combined with his Agility made the robot’s attacks easy to dodge. He gave himself gauntlets using Mana Construct and bashed the robot’s head in, though it remained standing. It had a cylindrical head with a single light on it that shone red, otherwise its head was featureless. Its body was blocky and bulky, and as it struggled to keep up with him, John was glad to have at least that advantage.

The robot was wielding two pistols that looked remarkably similar to his, and John snatched one from its hands and fired, silencing it for good. He used Spy on it as it powered down.

Deathbot Pistol Model 1.0
HP: 0/300
MP: 0/0
Level 10
One of many robots unleashed by the Wily Corporation to silence the people of the city. The Pistol model is the second most agile of the ranged models but the least sturdy.

Well, at least that means I’ll have the Agility advantage over most if not all of them John thought, clinging to reason to avoid the heartache that still plagued him. Another approached him from behind, and the whir of its motors was the only warning John had. He sidestepped as glass shattered in front of where he once was. Despite that, he noted that none of the buildings seemed to have entrances. Even the windows that had just shattered were merely decorative, and led to nowhere.

John twisted around and fired at the robot holding an **** rifle, spraying bullets at him. He slid between the robots legs and fired five shots to the back of its head from behind. To his dismay, the robot struck him from behind and sent him flying into the air. John recovered mid-air and formed a small platform against his feet to kick off of with Mana Construct, sending him into his foe as he used Fist with ten mana, silencing the bot.

He dusted his hands off as he continued down the path, discarding empty weapons for new ones as he went, none took the bullets he had. Strangely, none of the buildings he came across had entrances. They were all welded shut or lacked an entrance altogether. Why would you make a building without entrances John thought as he was blindsided and nearly knocked out by the miniboss.

The metal fist slammed into the side of his head, and the only thing that saved him from unconsciousness was the Ring of Perspective, which caused the robot to merely graze his flesh.

His hand immediately went to the side of his head as he winced in pain and cast Spy on the startlingly inhuman robot that had hurt him.

Twenty-Handed Punisher
HP: 750/750
MP: 0/0
Level: 18
A war-bot created by the Wily Corporation with no personality or thought process aside from killing any biological being it sees. Despite its bulky stature, it can harness blazing bursts of speed to take down its opponents

The robot began rotating, blades extending out of its hands and arms as it moved toward John. He put all of his mana into a single cast of Fist and entered Reflex Mode dodging under the spinning blades and utterly obliterating the metal creature in front of him.

Level Up!

Warning! Your body couldn’t handle the strain put on it by a fully charged Fist! You have taken fifteen points of recoil damage! Additionally, it is now on a two minute cooldown.

John took that as a signal to rest, noting that if he hadn’t levelled up from that kill he would probably be **** from the recoil of his own attack. He raised his Endurance to twenty-two and used Meditate to calm his nerves and restore some of the health he had lost after levelling up. He pulled up the quest, and learned that he had taken out thirty-two of the enemies, and had a little over eighteen minutes left.

No time to rest. John thought as he pressed on. The buildings were getting closer and closer together, and the overabundance on neon made his eyes hurt. He pushed forward nonetheless, gunning down dozens of robots until only twenty remained.

Wait is that… yes! A building with an entrance! John sprinted over to the open door, and walked inside, immediately assaulted by five robots swinging different shaped blades all around him. They were much tinier than the previous robots, which were about six feet tall just like him. These were at most three feet tall, which gave him an idea.

John thrust himself into the air with his arms and kicked down into one of the bots, activating Magic Rope and pulling another towards him, slamming the two bots together. A blade nicked his leg, and he retorted with the last three shots of his pistol. He discarded it as he shot a Mana Bolt at one of the last two robots. It kept moving toward him on spider legs, hardly even registering the hit. John’s fingers itched to unleash his guns, but if he had made it this far without them, he could go further. His mind reeled as another blade buried itself in his arm, and he yelped in pain as it withdrew.

He kicked out, covering his shoes in the same protection his hands had been covered with Mana Construct. He used Magic Rope again, wrapping both bots in it and slamming them against the wall, finishing them off with the blade of one of their fallen brothers.

John stopped, out of breath and patience. He downed the last Health Potion he had and winced as his wounds slowly closed with a nauseating squelch, though the pain wasn’t that bad. He took the stairs two at a time, resolved to not waste the time he had left. The stairs spiraled upward at least two hundred feet, and at the top he was met with another miniboss and a room made entirely of glass panels with a corridor at the end leading to another room.

Smasher Guardian Bot
HP: 850/850
MP: 0/0
Level 17
A robot specifically designed for this room and rooted in place by three anchors along the metal frames of the glass panels. Destroys everything in the room indiscriminately when activated (including the walls and floor) in an attempt to kill its target. That would be you.

The robot was a box with a multitude of limbs extending from it, each ending in a wrecking ball, hammer, or other blunt tool. It hung in the center of the room menacingly and whirred to life as John approached. He noticed the anchors, one on each wall aside from the one behind him, each with a multitude of wires running to it. The machine immediately went to work, smashing the majority of the floor in seconds. John stood in the entrance for a minute, well out of its range. Interestingly enough, he noted that after thirty seconds, the destroyed glass flowed back into place perfectly. Through technology or magic, John couldn’t know. He sprinted through on the frames of the panels, narrowly avoiding the limbs of the robot until one slammed into him.

He was nearly knocked out of the room and to his ****, but gripped one of the frames at the last moment. The glass on the edge cut his hand as he pulled himself up. He retreated back to the entrance, searching for any sort of path that he could time to avoid getting hit, but there seemed to be none. He shot a Mana Bolt at an anchor, but a shield shot out of the robot and blocked it. My bullets would probably be fast enough but I can’t use them…

He ran through the gauntlet again to a similar result, though this time he was **** into a corner of the room that the bot seemed to miss when it hit things. Its pattern was random and seemed indecipherable, the only constant John could see being that the bot never hit the panel he was standing on. I wonder how many shields it has John thought, sending mini blasts with Mana Bolt at each anchor. To his dismay, three shields shot out of the machine to protect its anchors.

I don’t have time for this! If I can’t shoot anything at it… John used Move on an anchor, and it surprisingly came loose. Like a plug from a socket it came detached from the wall. It can’t be that simple John thought as he used Move on the other two anchors, and they came free with similar ease. Guess they didn’t plan for telepaths John thought as the bot sailed to its ****, though since he didn’t do any damage to it he received no experience or loot.

John walked carefully over the thin metal, the glass had followed the robot to the ground below. The room beyond it had a crystal cylinder sitting on a pedestal, and Spy revealed it was exactly what he was looking for.

The Diamond Cipher
Unique item. One of eight ciphers of untold power, scattered through different dimensions, kingdoms, and barriers. Ancient mysteries and primal powers lie inside.

This is typical. The second I remove that from the pedestal some trap is going to activate. John thought as he walked carefully into the room, making sure not to step on any floor traps. But if I replace it with something of equal weight… John looked through his inventory for anything that fit that bill, but it seemed unlikely. What am I thinking! I could just use a construct. A quick google search told him the density of diamond, and he carefully created a cylinder exactly like the one in front of him down to the exact detail. He carefully but quickly switched the two, and sighed in relief when an achievement noted his success.

Achievement Unlocked: Not Your Ordinary Archaeologist
Swap a booby-trapped artifact with a decoy

• 1 Charisma
• 1 Wisdom

He was about to walk out when the pedestal started to sink into the ground behind him, and staticy voice announced, “Five, four, three, two