Whole areas dissolve while others are birthed. Is it too far for me to claim the tower has a gut? A womb? --35.6 Seconds Post-Integration.
Shaking his head, Clark could only ask what Theo meant by 'lost sector.'
"The lost sector," Theo began to explain. "Is any part of the store forsaken by the company. I don't know why they forsake area. Probably something to do with profits, right? Or that's how it usual goes. I've heard of these places, though. They're lost in the shuffle of major reorganizations. They have unprofitable products, labor gets shifted around, or something, and people forget about them... I've heard rumors about places like these having unique items which are worth a lot to the right buyer."
Although Clark liked the idea of finding some long-lost treasure, where would they sell such a thing? On the black market? The one Augustford likely still had a hand in, considering it was their tower? Plus, he figured the same rules applied -- everything in this so-called 'lost sector' remained the property of Augustford. Because the sector was neglected did not mean Augustford had relinquished their rights over said property.
Clark communicated this to Theo, but he seemed undisturbed by it. "There's always a market," was all they said.
"We need to find the exit," Clark said, changing the subject. "Thoughts?"
"First, we should find something to transport the sigil stone with. You're right. We can't keep carrying it... my arms are about to give."
The boys left the sigil where it had fallen. Cracks on the floor spread out from every angle where the sigil fell. Unsurprisingly, too, Clark thought, as the sigil weighed a good sum. Looking at the damage it caused, Clark wondered how they managed to lug the sigil around for as long as they had. Then again, considering the ache in his limbs, he thought he had his answer.
"SIMP: construct a breadcrumb trail for us to follow back to the sigil, please," he asked of the dungeon spirit. A beep in his ear signaled they had.
It was an eerie place to be, the lost sector. No music played over the intercoms and no customers or fellow workers littered the aisles. Instead, dust, and loneliness, filled the void left by commerce. Clark took a glance back and could see their footprints in the dust: 'Guess I didn't need to ask SIMP for that breadcrumb trail...'
"I guess we should try and find a back room, yeah?" Theo asked. "There should be a dolly there, or something."
"A dolly?"
"Yeah. It's a tool with wheels on it that is used to transport heavy packages. I think we can use that to transport the sigil stone."
With an objective in mind, Clark became better acclimated to their new surroundings. It didn't make anything less creepy, per se, but it relieved some psychological tension to at least have a goal.
Unfortunately, their goal remained out of sight.
Their current location was an Augustford store block, but it was not designed in the modern way. It was an older design which saw the various departments spread out according to a different floorplan. The biggest change in this floorplan was that each department had its own backroom. A backroom, moreover, which did not connect to the wider set of backrooms which the modern floorplan shared with every department. This limited their searching as it meant they had to find several backrooms instead of only one.
"Looks like this is the final backroom. If we don't find what we're looking for here, then that will be it for our incredible plan of finding simple, fecking equipment where we should've logically found it," Theo said at a groan.
"We'll find it." Clark opened the door. A small sum of dust fell upon his head and shoulders as if it was snow. He cleaned himself, though he cussed all the while. "I am so done with this crap. Why is it so dusty?! Are you telling me that the company doesn't even send some cleaning machine this way once in a while?!"
"Evidently, not..."
The two pried open the final backroom door. It wasn't all dust which clogged the door, causing its opening to be a much trickier process than one might imagine. Also complicating matters was the presence of a gooey, black material which coated the door from the inside-out. The material reminded him of the black ooze he had seen in the executive lounge on Orientation.
Opening the door, he learned why the black goo seemed familiar -- drenched, that was the state of the room beyond the doors. There was no surface the black goo did not cover, even to the extent where certain areas of the room bubbled over like some primordial swamp.
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Theo retched. "I thought I wouldn't ever have to see this shet again!"
"Same... but, we don't have any choice but to tread ahead. I hope there is a reputable footwear cleaner somewhere in Augustford."
Theo laughed. "Clark! It's Augustford -- of course there is a shoe guy somewhere! Bro, you're so demure all the time, so serious. I love it."
"Would I still be so serious if I pushed you face first into the gunk?" Clark smiled back.
"No. Then, you would just be a jerk."
Tempting as it was to push Theo face-first into the gunk, he restrained his boyish antics. He settled instead for using Theo's shoulder as a steadying post as he took the first trudging steps onto the gunk-covered floor. A couple of steps into the space, he found having someone act as a weight helped him heave his feet from step-to-step. The goo wanted his feet to remain attached. Removing his foot was surprisingly hard if he was in one place for too long. As for the design of the backroom, it was hard for Clark to say. Everything being covered in goop, nothing had a distinct look outside of 'covered in black.'
"Clearly, this is the biggest backroom space," Theo said after they had traversed several rooms. "No other place had more than a couple of rooms. This has a whole series. So, we best be on the lookout for the dolly. I figure a maintenance closet will have what we need. If we can find one in this crap."
It sounded easy but wasn't. The plague rot was so thick, distinction between surfaces was almost impossible. They were looking for the vague outline of doors and passages, anything which resembled a passageway. They found the passages, but only after far more investigative work than they imagined would go into wading through an abandoned back area. When they arrived in what looked to be a shipping and receiving zone, was when their situation changed.
"What on earth is that?" Theo asked, pointing to a section of the wall which had collapsed in on itself. "It looks like it leads deeper into the tower."
The each of them went to investigate. The sound of their steps echoing a plop, plop, plop.
"This... couldn't be, could it? SIMP: does this collapsed wall lead to the dungeon interior?" he asked.
"Correct: my sensors can pick up that much. The dungeon interior lies beyond."
"How is that possible? Don't crevices open and close and random? This looks like it's been open for a long time," he said, starring at the collapsed wall which had no signs of closing, black muck and dust heavy in layers.
"My guess would be that the plague rot is keeping the crevice open. Why it would do so is a mystery. Except, perhaps, as a means of simple infection."
Clark told Theo about the passage leading to the dungeon interior. "I don't think we should venture into the dungeon interior again so soon. We need to find that dolly, then find a way out of here."
"I agree!" Theo shot out before Clark could lecture. "There'll be time to explore the interior later. Besides, I'm getting pretty hungry..."
Hearing his stomach growl, Clark could only agree with Theo.
Taking a final look at the collapsed wall before turning away, there was nothing except the plague rot beyond. He doubted traversal would even be possible.
They continued their search. "Oh, look. A corner office," Clark said, pointing to a small room in the back of the shipping and receiving space. "If there's a dolly anywhere, there would be one in there."
After prying their way into the corner office, which was hardly larger than a closet itself, they found an actual closet within said office. In that closet, they found the dolly they were looking for packed away under a moldy pile of carboard boxes.
"Back the way we came?" Theo asked, dislodging the dolly.
"Yup! Let's watch our step. We don't want--"
Theo looked distracted. Clark turned around and looked through the corner office window. Out in the shipping and receiving floor, were now ink blob monsters patrolling.
"Noir slimes!" Theo uttered. "Do you think you can call upon that light power?"
"Huh? What do you mean? Like, that weird stuff that happened during Orientation?" he asked, uncertain what Theo was getting at.
"Yeah, bro! What else would I be talking about! That huge burst of light during the executive lounge kerfuffle. The blast that killed all those black slimes in one go... judging on your uncertainty, I'm guessing that'll be a 'no.' Crap-on-a-shat... fine. Stay behind me."
Clark took the dolly from Theo. "What do you plan on doing?"
"I have a couple of magic items. Don't look surprised! I have more than just stink and smoke bombs in my bag! I'll use a vial basic purifying water. I need something to dose it over, though. What would work?"
The two looked around in the office for an item which could be used as a weapon. They settled on a baseball bat.
"Couldn't we just use the bat to pummel the creature to death?" Clark asked. "I know my way around a weapon. I have to defend myself plenty from wild beasts while coming to the Tower."
"I doubt Noir Slimes will be effected by a normal bludgeon. Or if they are affected, it would require too much effort on our part to kill one. Their magical creatures, and slimes to boot, so their resistance to bludgeoning weapons is going to be high. Magically imbued weapons will be the best for our situation," Theo reasoned.
Theo prepared the bat by dripping the holy water magic tincture over the bat and rubbing the mixture into it. He still had over half of the little bottle left by the time he finished. "Stay close but not so close you're getting the whiplash when I swing!"
"Will do. Me getting knocked unconscious wouldn't help matters."
Leaving the corner office, Theo charged the enemy headfirst. Due to the ground soaked through with the black goo, its sticky surface slowed his charge, which gave the slime time to orient toward them. The slime scrunched itself up in a defensive posture.
Theo swung the bat high over his head and smashed it down on the slime. A speckle of light emanated from the bat once it made contact with the slime; that piercing light seemed to inflict additional damage as the slime shrieked upon its emanation. Like a wounded spider, the slime slunk back, hurt, and moving erratically. Theo gave it no pause and brought his bat in for the killing blow. "Heck yeah!" Theo boasted. "A level up!"
iffy.
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