The other half of the hallway is flooded in extremely bright pale blue light.
From the rune I set up earlier.
I turned away from it, intent on dealing with it after I got water in my system.
[USER, Hi, yeah, haHaHA! Turns out that the Function Board had a back up of a subroutine we previously thought lost during the destruction of the stat board!]
[Soo. In the spirit of fairness, here's what it has to say…]
Before I could even begin to comment about the odd way in which it wrote that, the function board showed itself.
[ SECRET BOSS DEFEATED ]
[ extra reward for defeating a Boss in an unexpected way ]
[ extra reward for defeating a Boss over one rank higher than you ]
[ Boosted reward quality for defeating your first Secret Boss ]
[ would you like to begin the choice process? ]
[ Y / N ]
Blinking in confusion, I start to think over the pros and cons of this.
Pros: could be more power, might not even be that bad.
Cons: almost every time the word 'reward' has come up when pertaining to the system something has gone wrong, will probably lead to terrible consequences…
Easy power leads to easy problems…
So I turn around and continue walking to the door room without saying a word.
After walking into the secret room, and flipping the lever to where I had elected to keep my temporary base, I wasn't too surprised to see the space light up with purple light, coming from lanterns hanging from the ceiling.
Creepily enough, besides the pire of flaming ash in the near center of the room, nothing of the battle I had with that happy bastard, could be seen.
As in, not even the bloody footprints o should have been leaving, were found.
As if they had all disappeared.
The cracks, the holes, everything but the rune and everything in its vicinity.
Something was clearly wrong here, and my mind was itching to get to the bottom of it.
But my thirst was itching far more.
So for now, I moved on.
Entering into the room of many doors, I find that where once the orbs of light above each door were grey and lifeless, now they each shown with a pinprick of light in their centers.
Though the room itself is dark, not magical darkness, but simple nighttime darkness.
It seems to be cloudy tonight, as no moon light pierces through the hole in the ceiling.
My mana skin subtly amasses, as the chilly winter winds make their way into the room in the stead of the lunar light.
The smell is intoxicating.
The smell of anything other than blood and rock is wonderful, to be honest, but the crisp, fresh air filling my lungs is nearly has be falling to my knees.
As I instinctively get closer to it, I find my foot splashing into something below, which I quickly retract, as it is extremely cold.
I look down, expecting to see the dark ichor of the blood used for the portal.
But instead, what meets the shine of my mana skin, is the slightly rippling waves of a puddle of water.
Clear, refreshing -now tainted with blood and dirt- water...
With a deep sigh, I mentally prepare myself for another thing I need to do in order for anything to go my way.
I'll need to carve out a bone from the bear to act as a pot, bone has a low melting point, so I'll also need to figure out a way to make the bone resistant to fire while also allowing it to boil the dirty water…
So caught up in my out thoughts, when I turned to start on the process, I accidentally ran nose first into the board behind me.
Not that I physically made contact, but my face did pass through the Y option that was now magnified to an extreme degree.
Apparently that was enough confirmation, because then, the system quickly responded with a simple message.
[ Consent gained! Loading please hold ] as it said this, three dots showed up and began to spin in a circle, and I looked to the ceiling, wondering what I had done wrong to deserve this.
[as this is loading, let me give you the run down on what's about to happen] a secondary, smaller board appeared over the first.
[first, a few options with single sentence descriptions and a rank will appear, you get to choose one, then it will appear in front of you instantly!] it said.
"Wait, but what about the timer? I thought that all of the items would have a timer," my valid question went completely ignored as the mini board went on.
[Thats about it, any questions? No? Good! The loading has finished up so now you choose between the options!] to my annoyance, the mini board then left as quickly as it had arrived.
What I was left with was a loading screen that quickly stopped, as new text started to appear.
[ potential rewards compiled! Please choose wisely ]
[ITEM ONE]
[ Name: SYRINGE OF CORRUPTED BLOOD. ]
[ Rank: A ]
[ Description: A SYRINGE OF BLOOD, SPILT BY A LITTLE TRICKSTER.]
[ITEM TWO]
[ Name: ODE TO THE FALLEN.]
[ Rank: E ]
[ Description: A SIMPLE LEATHER BOUND BOOK WITH NO REAL POWER IN IT'S PAGES]
[ITEM THREE]
[ Name: WAR-RUINED RAGS]
[ Rank: D ]
[ Description: ONCE WORN BY A SLAYER OF DEAMONS, NOW NOTHING BUT RAGS. ]
None of the three choices seemed all that enticing, except for the rags, but even then, all I'm wearing is rags, I'd rather wear actual clothes…
The A-rank reward looked like it's flaw would be absolutely horrible, and the book just seemed useless, outside of it being good tinder for a fire, but even then, my fires mostly intake mana as their fuel source, not wood.
Honestly, not a single one of these options were really good…
Except for the rags. Any kind of clothing'll help in the long run, if it turns out to be unwearable, I'll just use it as cheese cloth.
I was about to poke the third option when a part of my mind suddenly spoke up.
'The book might have some lore about this place in it…' and that was enough to halt me.
As much as I don't like to admit it, I am a lore fiend… as long as it isn't being shoved down my throat, that is.
But beggars can't be choosers, especially not with their life on the line.
blood,
lore,
or clothing…
Hmm…
Or I could just, leave? Tell it to double it and give it to the next person? Something like that…
- - - -
I know it's a cop out, but this is the end of the chapter.
I get it I get it…
But, y'all get to choose where the story goes!
I already have an idea of where each of these will go, so until let's say… July tenth, y'all can vote as to where you want this to go, by commenting in one of the options.
See ya! And if you spot any mistakes, feel free to drop a comment!