Book 4: Chapter 9

“The System has taken notice?” Aaron read the notification aloud as he tensed up slightly. “Right. That doesn’t sound good. Fuck me. When do I get a break?”

But he wasn’t given much time to lament, as Zero flashed over in a spark of silver light and jumped onto his chest.

“Hey, watch it!” Aaron said playfully as a large, very wet tongue lapped at his face.

“Woof!”

“Looks like he is happy to see you alive. As am I. We are in your debt, Aaron Dober. I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” J’kayden said as he waddled over, clearly exhausted. “What you have done is nothing short of a miracle. You have aided us more than you can imagine. Now, as promised. I shall provide as much insight to the next floor as I can.”

“Oh, right,” Aaron said, fighting Zero back. “I almost forgot.”

“Now listen carefully. The following floor isn’t quite as large as this one, but it is still massive. And perhaps even easier to get lost in. For the entire floor is a sprawling megapolis.”

“A giant city? Great.”

“Yes. It is a labyrinthine city with countless floors. They call it Junk Town.”

“Junk Town?” Aaron echoed, not liking the sound of it.

“Correct. It’s an extradimensional space designed to hold things that the multiverse no longer wants. Every sector of every universe has one. This one in particular is from an ancient sector that died long ago, so its Junk Town was taken by the System and turned into a Dungeon.”

“And that’s where we have to go? Fuck me.”

J’kayden nodded. “But that’s only the beginning of it. You see, the locals have gotten particularly good at harnessing the power of the trash that pours into their endless city. Fusing with it and turning themselves into strange trash hybrids.”

“Trash people? Just keeps getting better and better.”

“Don’t underestimate them, Aaron Dober. They might seem strange at first, but these aberrations of flesh and junk gain all kinds of unexpected powers due to the corrupting elements in their world.”

“And they’re strong? Why wouldn’t they be?”

“Strength is relevant. The denizens of universal toilets can grow incredibly strong. But this sector was very weak, and as such, what you will find won’t be that powerful on a multiversal scale. But as the saying goes, one man’s refuse is another man’s infuse. There are all sorts of things in there that can turn an ordinary trash person into something quite formidable."

“Alright, gotcha. They can get strong fast.”

“Hang on. That’s not all. There’s something else more sinister going on in there. Somehow, the trash has become possessed.”

“Possessed rubbish?” Aaron raised a brow. “C’mom, what next?”

“I’m serious. I have seen it while watching your Fate. As mentioned, the massive city delves into itself. There are many, many levels of junk that delve deeper and deeper. It’s somewhere down there. That’s the real power you must be cautious of. A power that exists somewhere at the bottom of the trash heap. It corrupts people. Urging them to embrace the junk. To become one with it.”

“Ookay, but I wasn’t exactly planning on heading down to the bottom of this thing. I was actually hoping to escape this place, sooner rather than later. If there’s some loot to grab, that would be great. But I need an extraction zone.”

“I know,” J’kayden said. “I have seen that too. However, I believe that whatever is corrupting Junk Town is also related to the powerful treasure I have felt. If you want it, you’ll have to delve into the junk and face this nightmare.”

Aaron nodded, but he wasn’t too sure. He couldn’t deny that some treasures would be nice. He had a habit of getting stronger on his own terms, but the more he learned about the multiverse, the more dangerous he realized it was. Then again, they were on a tight schedule, and while they had completed this floor extraordinarily fast, it wouldn’t take long for the royal guards to cross the plains.

Aaron sighed. If they didn’t find an exit to the second floor quickly, the consequences could far outweigh any potential rewards. Even if there was a valuable reward, their first priority had to be finding an extraction zone, so that they would be able to leave at any time if acquiring the reward ended up taking too long.

“You’re not giving me confidence in this plan, Jayden, or Kayden, or whatever your name is. We need to be quick, and we need to get back to our people. Don't get bogged down fighting possessed junk monsters.”

“I understand. Your next steps will be hard to decide. However, if you do decide to go after the treasure, remember that they hate fire.”

“They?”

J’kayden nodded. “They. The infected ones. If somebody you meet has given in to the junk parasite, they will be terrified of flames. That’s how you will know.”

“Terrified of fire? Okay, gotcha. Anything else?”

“All I can say is thank you. My people can secure our freedom now.”

“No worries. By the way, you know if there’s an easy-to-find extraction zone on the next floor?”

Aaron still hadn’t entirely made up his mind. He was fairly certain they still had some time. If J’kayden knew of an extraction that was easy to reach, then the next floor still made a lot of sense.

“I do, yes,” J’kayden nodded. “As mentioned, the extraction is right where you’ll find the treasure.”

Aaron groaned.

“Great, so not really then.”

“Hold up. You’re strong enough that reaching the treasure shouldn’t be hard. I have seen this too. All you have to watch out for is the corruption of the trash. If you remember what I told you, and use the flames, you should be able to move quickly, take the treasure, and escape if you please.”

Aaron thought it over for a few seconds, wavering back and forth, but in the end, he shrugged. He had to admit it didn’t really sound like a bad plan. They had completed this entire dungeon in what felt like less than a day. Talia said the shields and other town defenses could last weeks. And if they could pull it off again, and quickly grab a valuable treasure, it was likely worth taking the risk. It was still only the second of seven Floors, and while fighting the assistants hadn’t been easy, it also wasn’t the intended clear method. If they had decided to just kill the natives, it would have been a walk in the park. The second Floor couldn’t be too much more difficult.

Of course, gambling with Dober weighed heavily on Aaron. But he also knew that risk was rewarded in the multiverse. If he always played it safe, it wouldn’t be long before the side effects of that showed their face, and he got stuck at a bottleneck.

“Alright,” he finally said. “We’ll do it.”

“I wish you the best of luck.”

Sighing, he looked over to the scattered assistant corpses as he tried to decide what to do.

“Don’t even think about it,” J’kayden said as he noticed Aaron’s gaze. “I believe that the System understands that these assistants stepped out of their official duties. Nonetheless, even if they were behaving inappropriately for their stations, the System will not take kindly to you looting them. The reward is very unlikely to be worth the punishment. Even if you were justified in defending yourself.”

“Okay, fine. Don’t loot the assistants.”

As they got done talking, Aaron turned as he heard the crowd of local onlookers part, and Talia came strolling through them. It was strange that she hadn’t come immediately, but he noticed that her brow was sleek with sweat. He had no idea what she might have been doing while he was fighting, but it was clear that she had been occupied.

“About time you finished,” she said. “It wasn’t too hard, was it?”

“Sorry to keep you waiting. But that wasn’t exactly an ordinary fight,” Aaron grunted as he took one last look at the corpses.

“And what do you mean by 'about time' I finished? I finished like ten minutes ago. What were you doing?”

“Training,” she said. “You were taking so long that I got bored. Anyways, are we all good here? Shall we keep moving? Find an extraction point and get the hell out of here?”

Aaron told her what he had just learned, and his own thoughts, and she stood thinking for a long moment.

“I agree,” she finally said, sounding a little reluctant. “I hate putting others at risk. But you’re right. We can’t just play everything safe. Sooner or later, that’s going to have consequences. And the settlement should be fine without us at least for a little while longer.”

“Right. Then let’s check out this so-called junk world.”

Before they got moving, though, Aaron split his free points between Dexterity and Agility. He had noticed over a few fights now that speed was one thing that had been a hampering combat ability. These stats would help it greatly. Besides, even though his style wasn’t necessarily focused on being some sort of speedster, it was painfully obvious how much harder everything became when there was an obvious speed advantage against him. Also, at his level of skill, he could easily keep up with a far quicker body than the one he currently had.

“Done?” Talia asked.

“Yeah. Let’s go see if we can steal ourselves a treasure.”

“Good luck!” J’kayden waved as they left, and the entire crowd cheered them on.

However, it was annoying that Aaron had lost his travel Skill. He was still very fast, but running on the ground, and phasing forward was undoubtedly slower than he had been.

I’m going to need to fix this soon!

Still, they were powerful, far beyond normal human abilities. And the trio raced toward the exit. And now that they had a quest marker directing them toward it, it was easy. And within a few hours, they reached the exit and passed onto the following floor.

Within the blink of an eye, they appeared in what looked like a literal trash heap, with piles of rubbish like mountains in all directions, endlessly expanding as far as the eye could see.

There were a few signs of life, at least on the surface. There were some weird lizard rodent things poking and prodding at trash, and pulling free whatever they could and nibbling at it.

Aaron’s face scrunched up in disgust. It was more than he could have imagined.

There were also giant pipes the size of skyscrapers descending down from the murky sky, continuously pouring out trash. It was on an entirely different industrial scale. The quantities of trash pouring out of each pipe were greater than even the biggest dam flood gates. And yet, due to the absolutely ridiculous amount of trash in all directions, they barely made any difference.

Grand Dungeon, 2nd Floor Quest: Discover the Fake.

Reward: 20 auction points

“This fucking stinks!” Talia squeezed her nose. “I’m going to throw up!”

“Yep. Bloody fucking hell. The System really did us over this time, didn’t it? I mean, for fuck sake. Imagine living in this dump?”

“I don’t want to! Why didn’t we just take the extraction?”

“Hey! Don’t go blaming me! We made this decision together.”

“I know your ogre side makes this easier for you!” Talia pointed accusatorily, and Aaron had to admit, she was probably right. Because as much as he hated to admit it, he was getting an appetite.

“No, I hate this just as much as you do, I swear!”

As if on cue, Aaron’s stomach grumbled hungrily.

“Really?”

Stupid traitorous stomach!

“Let’s just find a way out,” Talia said, her face turning a little green.

“Ah, about that…”

“What is it?”

Aaron remembered what J’kayden said, and looked down toward several tunnels he spotted delving into the endless trash heap. If Talia was struggling to keep her dinner down up here, he could only imagine how she would deal with going into any one of those tunnels.

“You’re not telling me. No, no fucking way,” she shook her head. “There’s got to be another way!”

“Remember what we said?”

Talia’s expression went wide. She knew exactly what Aaron was talking about. They had explained the entire situation to her before they moved on. And she was deeply regretting not taking the thought of a trash world more seriously.

“This is so fucking gross.”

Dungeon Floor Leaderboard Activated!

“Hey, look! A Leaderboard?” Aaron brightened, opened it up, and then frowned.

Talia Rhineheart

Aaron Dober

Zero

“I don’t fucking care,” Talia wheezed.

“Wait, there’s only us on the leaderboard? What’s going on?”

“What don’t you understand about—” Talia held her mouth as her cheeks bulged, and then swallowed.

“You didn’t just–”

“Shut up!”

Aaron grimaced. This wasn’t going to be easy for her, was it?

“Let’s–move,” Talia said, choking out her words.

Aaron nodded and casually followed, looking at the leaderboard as he began to chat. “I mean, we did speed through the previous floor extraordinarily fast, didn’t we? And you said we’re only competing against people within the same region as us, right? So, I guess it’s not so hard to believe that we’re the first to arrive, right?”

“I–don’t–care.”

Another notification appeared, and Aaron blinked.

Dungeon Floor time remaining: 27 days and 21:22 hours.

“What? Why are there only twenty-seven days left? Didn’t we have a month for that first floor? Shouldn’t we have the rest of the month from the previous floor, plus fifteen days for this one?”

Talia swallowed again, wobbling on her feet. “I dunno. Time’s always weird in–” she lurched. “–Dungeons. Like in the Shadow Trials.”

“Yeah, maybe…” said Aaron, rubbing his chin. “You think there’s some kinda time dilation going on here?”

Talia nodded, hand still firmly pressed against her mouth.

“Interesting,” Aaron rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Wait, Talia!” he added, grabbing her shoulder.

“What?”

“Open the leaderboard. It just updated again. There’s someone else here.”