Defiance of the Fall

pod of sorts,” Kenzie said with excitement.
“It makes use the spatial energy that ’s all over this base, and it can teleport people away.
However… ”

”What’s wrong? ” Zac asked with a sinking feeling.

”The experiment is incomplete, the control feature isn ’t quite finished.
It might spit us out in the Void, inside the Core, or back where we came from.”

“Are you able to fix it? ” Zac asked.

”I can try, but it will take some time.
I need to run some calculations, and my…
computer can only work so fast.
It might take up to half a day, and even then I can ’t promise anything, ” Kenzie said.

”It ’s all we got at the moment, ” Zac said.
”Do it. ”

”So…
where do you want it to go? I think I can get it to send us in a certain direction only, but it would take too long to make a proper fix that would allow you to actually steer it, ” Kenzie asked.

”Take us back where we came from, ” Zac said without hesitation.
”Get us as close to the Lunar Forest as possible.
Overshoot into the outer rim rather than undershoot if that ’s an option. ”

Kenzie nodded and immediately started typing away, while Zac took proper stock of what else there was in the laboratory.
There were eight side-rooms altogether, two of them larger stockrooms full of unguarded materials.
These metals and minerals all seemed to be very high quality though, so Zac immediately snatched them up.

’

Three of the rooms contained more valuable metals from the looks of it, each of them no larger than a bowling ball but still protected by the same sort of setup as Ogras’ vial.
The seventh room contained something far more interesting though.

It was a fist-sized crystal that hovered on top of a pedestal and miniature spatial fractures kept erupting all around it.
It had to be crammed full of energy to look like that, likely Space-Attuned energies thanks to the Dimensional Treasure.
It was still just a piece of stone that Zac saw no immediate use for, but he soon thought of another quest of his as he looked at it.

Materials for Karunthel (Unique, Limited): Acquire 100 Kilograms of [Urgarat Flakes], 1 kilogram of [Realm Locus], 1 living [Ferric Worldeater], 1 [Daemonic Manastone] Reward: Upgrade Iliex Shipyard to Early D-Grade.
1 Custom-Designed Early D-Grade Vessel.
(0/4)

According to Calrin’s description, he could very well be looking at a ball of [Realm Locus].
It was supposed to be a gemstone full of spatial energy, and it was mainly used when making spatial treasures.
Like the weird machines outside.
The environment in this Mystic Realm should be perfect for those things to spring up as well, and looking for a few crystals if an opportunity arose was already on Zac’s agenda.

He had no pictures of how [Realm Locus] was supposed to look, but he figured that he would know if he had the right thing as soon as he held it in his hand, provided that the crystal weighed more than a kilo.
He didn’t immediately try to snatch it though, but he rather went over to inspect the last room, where he found Thea standing looking at the protected treasure.

It was another crystal hovering in the air, this one a calm blue rather than the chaotic black of the possible [Realm Locus].
It didn’t emit any spatial fluctuations like the other one either, but it rather contained a mysterious shimmer that caused Zac’s vision to double for a second before he quickly activated [Mental Fortress].

“Is there something special about this crystal?” Zac asked curiously as he walked up to Thea whose eyes were trained on the item.

“My Spirit Tool seems to want to absorb it,” Thea said.
“I think it might be one of the crystals of those natives you mentioned? It might actually awaken spirituality in my weapon, just like how you’ve done with your axe.”

“Doesn’t that sword already have Spirituality?” Zac asked curiously.
”It sounded like that was the Blade Emperor ’s thing. ”

“It’s for my other one, [Petalstorm],” Thea explained before it shook her head.
“It’s not worth it though.
We have more important things to worry about.”

Neither [Verun’s Bite] or [Love’s Bond] showed any indication of wanting the crystal inside the containment field, which probably meant that Thea was on the money with her guess.
The Gemling crystals supposedly contained a part of their soul, and feeding such an item to a treasure with a soul of its own might cause a clash rather than provide any benefits.

’

“It ’s fine, we ’re stuck here for a few hours anyway.
Let me get it out for you,” Zac said, seeing an opportunity to complete his quest in one fell swoop.

However, he stopped himself before trying something foolhardy, and instead walked out and called Ogras over first.
There was no point in getting himself maimed when the demon could weaken the field for him as they did before.

“What is it? You really need a third participant?” Ogras grinned as he entered the room.
“Fine, but no eye contact.
That goes for both of you.”

“Stop messing around.
Help me get this crystal out,” Zac sighed.

The demon snickered, but he still walked over the electricity barrier and started flooding it with shadows just like the last time.
Zac cracked his neck and made sure there were no lingering threats in his body before he got ready again.
He pushed his hand into the shield, but alarm bells suddenly went off in his head as he saw a Memorysteel spike shoot straight toward his head.

The whole room was coming alive as liquid electricity started pouring down the walls by the gallons.

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“What the-!” Zac exclaimed as he tried to back away.
”Run! ”

Both Ogras and Thea were thankfully Dexterity classes, and they turned into gusts as they sped out.
Zac was right on their heels, but a shocking pain made Zac ’s vision go white for a second as he was stabbed by another spike that shot straight out of the doorframe itself.
He pushed down the pain and tried to flash out, but the brief delay had robbed him of his opportunity to get out.

The door was already sealed shut, with another layer of electricity on top of it.
Zac ’s first instinct was to force his way out, but he hesitated, afraid that attacking the door would trigger the alarms outside and put the others in harm ’s way as well.

“What did you do?!” Zac heard a frazzled Thea shout on the other side, but he had no time to worry about that at the moment as the whole room was submerged in a chaotic storm of electricity.

Zac sighed and turned away from the door, wondering why he cursed himself by thinking that the quest would be easy.