Lair by Carl Stubblefield (recommended reading TXT) 📕

Gus began to feel supercharged with the excess energy that the Nth directed into his entire being. His lungs stopped burning, and he could actually feel them recovering from the damage of the scalding air.

All his senses seemed amplified, as if his whole life had been in black and white and low volume, then suddenly burst into full IMAX glory of sound and color. Currents of energy became visible to him, and he could see them bleeding some of the excess energy off into the ether. His muscles thrummed with energy with each step forward.

Gus approached the end of the hallway and saw a shimmering bubble surrounding the access panel. It crackled and sparkled with purplish energy; apparently it was some kind of force field that protected the interface. Gus tentatively reached toward it and it enveloped his hand as he accessed the scanning panel beneath. Placing his hand on the surprisingly cool panel, he waited for the scanner to do its thing. A message popped up on the display:

Authorize tunnel 1A opening?

Gus readied himself to run and pushed the button. He exploded away, activating Dash as a loud creak occurred. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the wall at the end of the hallway began to slide into the roof. Bright magma began shooting into the rift below the door and Gus turned and focused on his escape. Seeing the first turn up ahead, Gus improvised attaching an ether tether along the corner of the hallway to slingshot him into the next hall without losing too much momentum.

It worked! He kept dashing, keeping an eye on his MP gauge, but the extra energy absorbed from the heat must have been supplementing his skill expenditures as it was not nearly as depleted as it should have been from all his skill usage. Gus was approaching the next turn, and then it would be straight on until the end. Gus could hear a rushing noise behind him, but refused to look as he progressed closer to the end of the tunnel.

He took the fact that he didn’t feel any heat behind him as a good sign and continued to the end of the hallway. Instead of climbing, Gus slingshot himself to the top of the ladder using two ether leashes.

Gus grasped the rungs of the ladder and encountered another hand wheel. Opening these wheels one handed was difficult. Unsure if it was the energy boost or just adrenaline, Gus managed to loosen the wheel, open the door, and slide out. Slamming the door shut he twisted the handwheel on the other side and tightened it until it was securely shut.

Woof to the woof! Gus sat there for a bit, mentally exhausted.

“We’re golden,” Nick said. “Power levels are stabilizing and pressure levels dropping. Good work!”

The longer he stayed sitting down, the more his body was powering down and yearning for sleep. Gus stood, stretched, and shuffled to the elevator. Even though it was only mid-afternoon, it was time for some shut-eye. Gus looked at the crystalline sphere and got the prompt to absorb the skills and consume the Mandrite.

“Gus, I’d recommend you wait until you are in bed before doing that; it can take a while to assimilate a new skill, especially a powerful one.”

Gus nodded, then numbly made it to his suite. He took a long enough shower to get clean. Grabbed a robe and crashed into bed. He activated the crystal and accepted the prompt to absorb both skills. He was asleep in less than a minute. He didn’t hear the crash of chimes and notices that filled his log.

Epilogue

Gus had a lazy day, enjoying the chance to just do nothing for a change. Eventually he made his way to the control room to see what he would plan next to develop the manor. For once, he ignored his logs and just existed. Nick repeatedly reassured him everything was normalizing and Gus ate, napped, and took a relaxing swim.

With the magma rerouted, his available energy bar was significantly larger. He would run out of FP long before he exhausted the energy capacity of the manor now. The bio-stasis field, unfortunately, was non-functional. Diagnostics showed that the capacitors to initiate the field’s creation had been essentially fried due to maintaining the field for so long.

He took a well-deserved break, and occasionally he worked on improving skills. Eventually he checked his logs and experience gains. For the first time in a while, Gus got to relax and enjoy himself.

Unbeknownst to him, a red light began to flash, indicating a message had been received.

The control panel was dusty, because he had not used them at all during his stay at the manor. The display read:

One (1) message received.

Play now? (Y/N)

The unanswered message carried a warning. On it, a sinister voice that would have sounded vaguely familiar whispered, “Thank you, whoever you are. We have been looking for the manor for sooo long. Now that we know where you are, we will be seeing you soon to reclaim what is ours!”

Afterword

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About Carl Stubblefield

The author began his plans for world domination by first becoming a dentist. It is a well-known fact that dentists have unearthed the ancient secrets of how to crush the hearts of men and to hear the lamentations of women and children. When this was insufficient, he created worlds where he could torment the good guys before moving to the next phase of his plans. Known for nefarious accomplishments that involve crippling dad-jokes and debilitating