Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

good from those other zombies, but I’d recommend checking the boss. Sometimes they have a little somethin’ somethin’.”

Gus looked at the remains and wrinkled his nose. He remembered mucking about in the fat zombie for Razorback.

“It’ll be worth it, trust me. Just use Wreck-ognize if you don’t believe me.”

He focused on the corpse of The One and thought about what he wanted. After three seconds, a message dropped:

Loot available

Gus used an ether leash to pull the ten-foot creature on its side. The force of the impact dislodged a silvery, metallic, crystalline ball out of the overstretched mouth. The outside was jagged and rough like the inside of a geode.

Gus picked up the ball and found that checking The One, there were no other items to be had. Gus reviewed his logs as he walked home.

Chapter Forty-Five

Runnin’ From the Devil

Gus checked his logs as he tossed the crystalline ball back and forth.

You have leveled up the skill: Wreck-tums! to Level 3!

+5% chance to trigger (15% total)

500 XP awarded

300 FP awarded

You have leveled up the skill: T-Wrecks to Level 2!

500 XP awarded

200 FP awarded

LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 12 reached!

500 FP awarded

LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 13 reached!

500 FP awarded

LEVEL UP! Congratulations, Level 14 reached!

500 FP awarded

You have (15) additional stat points to assign.

You have obtained a Mandrite shard. Mandrite shards are precipitates of pure intelligence and can confer new abilities when absorbed and integrated by your Nth.

Gus focused on the crystal and Wreck-ognize triggered, showing him some more information:

This Mandrite shard contains:

Psi-link (skill): Once integrated, allows the user’s interface to display other Nth within the vicinity, even if not visible by line of sight.

Leech (skill): Once integrated, allows the user to extract data from the target’s Nth, and copy the information and abilities to their own Nth. Users can disable temporarily or erase this information once extracted.

Gus stopped walking as he read the shard’s properties. This could be HUGE!

“Gus!!!” Nick yelled, startling him. “You need to get back to the manor control room, now! You have to reset the flows there too; the magma channels are backing up even faster now that they’re reset.”

Gus began to Dash, and made it back in record time. Sirens blared and red lights were flashing all along the halls. A female voice kept warning, “Please evacuate, situation critical. Destruction imminent.” The message kept repeating as Gus ran through the entry and entered the elevator. The doors slid shut painfully slow, as elevators always do. It crawled up floor by floor, leisurely taking its relaxed trip to the command center. As the doors slowly opened, Gus burst forth from the elevator and ran to the command center. Throwing the door open he pulled up the access to the main command console. Red alert windows flashed along multiple screens. Gus frantically looked around, the flashing lights making it harder to navigate.

He tried to access the menu that controlled the flows, but was denied because he didn’t have access to the Alpha Protocols. Gus rushed to the scanner and almost slipped in his haste. He placed the severed hand on the scanner. The green line scanned up and down, obviously having difficulty reading the corrupted sample.

“Hurry up, dammit!” Gus said through gritted teeth, as the line slowly repeated scanning, Gus looked over at one screen, which showed that there was already lava spilling down multiple sides of the volcano. Gus pushed the back of the hand into the screen to see if it would elicit a better imprint. A nearby pressure gauge showed that the volcano was already past predictions for eruption. His countdown said he had a couple hours left. The inaccuracy made him even more irritated.

Finally, there were enough data points to trigger the system to recognize Methiochos’ hand.

Recognized: Methiochos, DNA and handprint recognized. Alpha Protocols unlocked.

Gus quickly opened the menu and finally found the appropriate window to give him admin privileges.

Reset root access? (Y/N)

A prompt directed him to use the scanner to finalize the process. Placing his hand on the scanner, he felt the characteristic green scan line pass up and down his hand, then a sharp prick as the machine collected a DNA sample from a drop of blood. A pop-up on the display showed the anticlimactic change.

Confirmed. New Master of the Manor: Gus Vannett

Gus saw that all references to Methiochos were being erased line by line from command options in the directories as the change was made.

The computer displayed the prompt: Alpha commands transferred.

“What now, Nick! Hurry, what do I do?”

“Open tunnels 1A and 1B, then 2B, after that you should be fine,” Nick advised.

Gus opened the tab with Alpha commands. Where was it? Under the ‘Diagnostics’ tab there was a warning that showed there were blockage errors on tunnels 1A and 1B, and 2B. Entering the command to open the channels, Gus let out a long sigh, slumping in his chair now that he had finally dealt with the crisis at hand. The sirens continued their grating cadence and the lights did not shut off, but Gus assumed it would take time for the pressure to equalize.

After a minute, Gus reexamined the screens, and all the alerts were still in effect. In fact, the pressure continued to rise.

“Uh, Nick? Why are the pressure levels not leveling out!?”

“Let me check… That should not be happening.

“Oh boy. It appears that the door seals are not responding to the signal to open. I can’t tell if it’s because the wires are just too old, or that the heat has melted them, but I’ve got some bad news for you, boss. You’re going to have to go down there and open those channels manually.”

“Wait, what?! Opening a barrier sealing off molten magma, by hand? What kind of idiot design is that?”

“Actually, there are three channels you need to open. Two are to divert the flow to energy converters. Then, you’ll have to open the main conduit. Finally, you’ll have to dash like you did around the island. Except without the help of your playlist, sorry. Cooldown