Calculating… as each of these were rapidly introduced and have not had any time to set in, Neutrality Aura has resolved each issue. Please note: you are in a toxic environment. Neutrality Aura, subcomponent ‘gas exchange’, is lowering the damage you are taking over time.
Debuff added: Toxic… everything. All air, ground, and liquids in the area are toxic. -10 health per second. Neutrality Aura is regenerating Health at 30 health per second. Damage is cancelled out, but please note that you are currently in a downdraft of fresh air.
Joe stared at all of the information that had appeared in the last few seconds, his hands literally shaking with rage at being tossed down here by the ‘mentor’ he had been assigned. Joe was at least starting to understand why being assigned to him was considered a punishment. He had thought it was because Havoc didn’t like people, but it turns out it was because the madman was just ready to abuse anyone in his command under the guise of an ‘experiment’. The fortress that had been empty, except for the two of them, should have tipped him off; but there was nothing Joe could do at this point except try to power on.
“I would already be dead without this skill… at least I won't have to drink anything down here. Hooray for passive hydration… that’s… pulling water from the area around me. Ew.” Joe closed his eyes and powered up his Exquisite Shell, absolutely ready to not take any more damage from stepping or falling on something. He peered around the absolutely dark area, as happy as ever with his passive Darkvision. He was standing in a… the mountain the Capital was built on must have been hollowed out; that was the only reason he could come up with to explain the immense cavern.
He glanced up and could see the ceiling of the space. Joe had fallen maybe fifty feet total after exiting that tube, and he wondered how high—full?—the landfill actually was. After walking over to the wall and sitting next to it, he allowed his aura to begin dissolving the thick, crusty slime that was coating the stone walls. He wasn't overly concerned about getting dirty; his shell kept new things from sticking to him, and his aura was constantly cleaning him. It took about four minutes to finish, but a large section of the wall was now clean. He easily found the markings that Havoc had mentioned, and tried to make sense of them.
+4189, -22.
Joe eyeballed the distance between his position and the ‘door’ he had fallen through, which was roughly one foot above the marking. No, it was likely exactly one foot above. “There's over four thousand feet of filth in here?”
He tried to look across the room but could not see the other side. Whether it was because it was too dark, or just too far away, Joe couldn't tell. He did know that it was an utter behemoth of a space, and there were probably literally hundreds of square miles of space in the cavern. Joe knew that he had been at the extreme outer edge when he had dropped down here… did that mean this space went under the entire city?
“How… how in celestials’ sake am I supposed to find anything in here?” Joe closed his eyes and flopped backward onto the soggy floor. He laid there for a moment, contemplating making a trash angel, when his ears started to ring with very soft sounds. “Great, now I have tinnitus?”
…Seventy-six Rare…
…Eight thousand Trash…
“I’m hearing numbers? Am I going crazy? My debuff list was empty when I last…?” Joe abruptly sat upright, and the sound stopped. He closed his eyes and leaned his head toward the floor again, and the sound started up very faintly. “All sensory abilities give information on aspect count! That means I’m either getting the info from Hidden Sense or Magical Synesthesia. Either way…”
“Sounds like…” Joe’s eyes popped open, all of the angst and desperation gone in an instant as a plan started to take form. “I have a way to find whatever is waiting for me.”
Chapter Fifteen
Joe started toward the sound, which vanished as soon as he opened his eyes. “Huh… seems like there’s just too much sensory overload. Can’t focus on it.”
Eyes tightly closed, he tried to pinpoint the sound, then opened his eyes and followed the direction it had come from as he picked his way through the garbage. He repeated this process until the sound of ‘something Rare’ was coming from directly below him, then waited for the gunk beneath his feet to be atomized by his Neutrality Aura. Once the film of filth had been removed, he reached down and let his mana pulse out.
Item: Bag of Trash
Reduction value: 86 Trash aspects.
Reduction cost: .2 mana per second.
“Oh. Neat. So, each rarity level down also drops the cost by a fifth?” The bag vanished in a flash, as did all the garbage it contained. That was a stroke of good fortune; he had been worried that only the bag would be absorbed. Food scraps, cans, broken glass; he went through all of them. Listening for the sound again, Joe found that it was closer than ever before, but still a good distance down. This process continued for several layers, and he kept needing to restart whenever the pile became unstable and collapsed in around him.
Eventually, he needed to allow himself to get buried. As Joe continued to struggle downward at an incline, he trusted his shields to keep him safe from any sharp objects, as well as getting crushed. Surrounded by the refuse, he was able to keep his eyes constantly closed as well; following his
