The Systemic Lands

Chapter 410: 6th Floor – Aggravation Of A Donkey

Chapter 410: 6th Floor – Aggravation Of A Donkey

The Invisible Centipede Golem, appeared to be content to dodge and hide once it had recovered. I kept chasing after it, getting more reckless each attempt, but it refused to fight. If this was a game, then I would have uninstalled it out of sheer rage at this point.

Unfortunately it wasn’t a game, and I had to find some way to kill a boss monster, that didn’t want to fight. Whatever tactic it was using, was probably, wait until I sleep or relax, then ambush me. I wasn’t about to let an invisible monster ambush me no matter what.

If that thing wrapped its pointy little feet around my neck, it would be very unpleasant. With no way to heal myself, it would be the height of foolishness to allow myself to get attacked like that just to kill one boss monster.

But it just wouldn’t die! “AHHHHH!” I shouted in rage as it scurried away again. It was too quick, and too good at dodging. I would occasionally graze it, break its invisibility, but that was when I committed a lot of energy.

It didn’t go in the null floor areas or the trapped areas of the boss room. But it was the single most aggravating thing I had ever experienced. This boss had officially moved up on the list. At the top was the Divine Empress, but this boss monster was trying really hard to take that spot.

If I ever wanted to drive an enemy of mine mad with rage. I would just watch them. I wouldn’t attack. I would just dodge and constantly stay nearby, but far enough way they weren’t able to do anything. The sheer amount of pressure this tiny level 5 Invisible Centipede Golem was unlike anything I had ever imagined.

I could understand an invisible monster, and even a passive monster, but having both together combined with its speed and dodging ability, made this a nightmare. “You want a name?” The monster didn’t respond. It was content to not move if I didn’t move.

My mistake was not having a Rod of Taming on me. This was the perfect monster to tame. It was a nightmare to fight. If I had control of it, then it would have been the perfect surprise monster to use. Divine Empress racing at me, have this thing leap off my neck and wrap around hers. That one moment when she is confused, just vaporize her.

Only Abs the rock mimic was as useful. But that was more the idiocy of others than the sheer, utter, rage inducing, frustration this monster was giving me. “I am naming you Donkey. You won’t die, you won’t go away. You are just there being annoying. You like that name?” The monster didn’t react in the slightest and it turned invisible again.

“Of course, you do that Donkey. Of course.” Fine, this was clearly a boss to test one’s nerve and mettle. Well let’s do it. After regenerating my energy four times and making no progress, I was done with this monster, just done.

I made my way to the center of the boss room. Laid down and closed my eyes. I then waited and listened. I kept my breathing steady. It was clearly pointless to try and chase this thing down, since I couldn’t catch it. If I got injured or died, then so be it. But I couldn’t see another way past this boss, and I didn’t want to sleep in the boss room with the boss still running about.

At least an hour passed and still nothing. I had no way to keep track of time, but I was in a mental Zen state at the moment. My rage for this monster was like the rage the Divine Empress had felt towards me. It had passed a threshold and entered an entirely new level.

I heard a very soft tinking sound. It was moving. That was nice. Me and you are going to be friends Donkey, come give me a hug like friends should do. The sound was approaching close. Only a few feet or a couple of meters away now.

That was fine. I wasn’t going to do anything. Come closer. The sound of its little clawed legs on the floor paused. That was fine. I was content to wait. Time stretched out, but I still didn’t do anything. If this was pointless that was fine. I enjoyed lying down on like. I was more than happy to wait for a hug.

Danger! Acid Shot x10. Air Burst. Acid Shot x10. The Invisible Centipede Monster, got hit pretty badly in the first wave, mid-air and was pushed back. But I didn’t give a second. I chased after it and coated it liberally with acid. It was finally over. “Goodbye Donkey, and screw you,” I muttered.

I got my packs and then took the elevator up to the next floor, the seventh. What a waste of time. At least, I was well rested. The safe room was a lot bigger than it normally was. I looked through the one-way barrier and saw a boss door directly opposite the one-way barrier and a large room.

No spawners, no traps that I could tell. I made my way into the room through the one-way barrier. There was only the door. Looking around, I saw six statues of the bosses I had killed on the previous floors.

They were made out of the same gray material of the tower itself and had the same amount of energy. I looked around them, gave them pokes physically and with my skills, checked the floor, and the ceiling. But there was no reaction. I went along the walls and checked every single wall as well.

No reaction, no illusioned wall. Then what was the point of this room. It was clearly a puzzle room. The lighting hadn’t turned red. Which implied there were no monsters. Why are you giving me puzzles now tower? Almighty System, I expected death traps and monsters, not puzzles.

Well it was a change of pace at the very least, but figuring out this floor, became even harder. “Alright, six life sized boss statues from the previous floor. Unmovable and made out of tower material. Then there is a door that requires a golden key rod to get to the next part of the floor.”

“Where would a golden key rod be hiding? What is the point of the puzzle. The statues are not lined up in any order. Could it be under them?” I speculated. I went over and began to push each statue one at a time. They didn’t move.

“I can’t Sense anything,” I talked to myself to help me work through this. I would cover each and every possibility methodically. “They are lined up on the East side of the room, but they aren’t on pedestals, but they are all facing one direction. That intersection, lines up on the West wall, which should be the tower’s West edge.”

I went over then there, and finally found the golden key rod hidden in a small nook through an invisible portion of the wall at knee level. It was a pit trap level of illusion as well, which meant it was quite good. I then opened up the next room, but the statue monsters didn’t come alive. I had been expecting them to. I shrugged and made my way into the second puzzle room on this floor.

This time there were hundreds of smaller statues of the previous boss monsters all scattered about. Some were even floating in the air. It made the room feel incredibly cramped. I wasn’t about to try and work out Almighty System logic. Its logic, tower making, floor planning, and puzzle abilities were exhausting to figure out.

Acid Shot. I began to methodically splash my skill on every inch of the room trying to find the golden key rod. I didn’t have the mental energy to try and figure out this puzzle. It was probably clever, unique, and interesting, but I didn’t care. I would find the golden key rod and then reverse engineer what the solution actually was to use in later rooms and as a guideline.

I eventually found the golden key rod tucked away in a hidden corner. Oh, it was the direction the centipede statues were angled at. Well that was a bit obvious in hindsight, but there was a reason, I had given up on the puzzles after the first room.

The third room was larger and I quickly realized what the puzzle was. There was a water source in the upper left and an empty pool in the bottom right of the room. There were levers all along the left hand wall, in four rows of twenty five. That meant over a 100 levers. Pulling one, several small blocks rose up in the middle of the room. Each lever had five settings from the initial position to the right.

It was an insane number of levers. Why have that many? The water source was just a pool of water bubbling up. I checked the water and then hesitated when I felt something was off about it. I carefully pulled out an old apple core I was keeping on me, for situations like this, where I wanted something physical, but not a skill to test something.

I tossed the apple core into the water. It melted nearly instantly. It was super acid. Of course, it was super acid. I made my way back to the depression. Acid Shot x5. I filled up the pool with my skill. One of the walls began to slowly crumble. I refilled the pool four more times and eventually the golden key rod was revealed.

Once my acid was gone, I picked it up and opened the next room. It appeared there were going to be 9 puzzle rooms on this floor. How annoying. I would have preferred monsters. Well, after the last boss, not really.

The fourth room was an even bigger version of the previous room, with double the number of levers on the West and East walls of the room. Yeah, that isn’t happening. Someone else can fiddle with hundreds of levers to figure out the combination. No one had time for that nonsense. If I could cheese, the puzzles, then I would cheese the puzzles.

The next room contained a large mural on the floor, but with interlocking slabs and the mural was messed up. Looking at the various images on the mural, it was a picture of the first room. I mentally thought it over rearranging the pieces in my head.

The one blank spot without a piece to slide was there and the centipede was over there looking at it. The slabs slid easily, but they couldn’t be lifted. I felt around and nothing. Really Almighty System? You want me to solve this? Fine.

I began moving slabs about and eventually the mural was solved showing the first room. The portion of the floor without a mural, slid out of the way revealing the golden key rod. “Making me solve this nonsense,” I said with a sigh.

The next room was a larger mural, showing the second room and all the statues. As I moved the various slabs about, doing one corner at a time, I couldn’t help think about the floating statues. While I had never seen something like that before, it was no surprise that the Almighty System could just make things float where it wanted them to float.

Even if the puzzles were tedious, it was a nice change of face from the constant monster attacks. The main thing was to not get stuck and finished as quickly as possible. While it seemed unlikely, I had a hunch that the statues would come to life, most likely when I was stuck in the last room, putting me in a huge time crunch, do or die situation.

Facing all those monsters and the bosses at the same time would be a death sentence. One I didn’t wish to experience.