Chapter 23: The Methane Zone

*Kirari POV*

===

Character: Fischl

Name: Kirari Kaminari

Age: 9

Level: 28/30

Health: 280/280 – Regen: 1 per 10 minutes

Energy: 280/280 – Regen: 4 per minute

Physical: 15 (Max)

Mental: 20 (Max)

State: Healthy

Mods (8/8):

-Aura: Gamer's Mind (20 Fixed): Always maintain a peaceful state of mind. Can calmly and logically think things through. Immunity to all mental debuffs and disorders. Applies to whole party.

-Full Rest (5): One hour of sleep is equivalent to 10 hours of sleep and returns the character to perfect state.

-Sonic (3/10): Movement speed increased by 30%.

===

Skill: Electromaster (Max): Can generate, shape, manipulate, and convert electricity. Can apply electricity to yourself or anything within a specified range.

-Power (10/10): 30,000V + (30,000*300%) = 120,000V

-Range (10/10): 30m + (30m * 300%) = 120 meters

-Efficiency (0/10): Maintaining Max Power output costs 1 energy per second.

-Special (10): Electro control is over 9000! (by Kirari)

Moves:

-Electroreception

-Thundershock

-Electro-charge

-Electro-therapy

-Electro-ball

-Electro-forge

-Electromagnet

-???

-???

-???

===

Vision: Familiar

Familiar (21/30): Summon a familiar that takes on properties of the equipped skill when summoning.

Stats (Mods):

-Power (10/10): 110% Skill power

-Durability (10/10): 110% Character Health

-Cost (1/10): 95 Energy to summon. Using moves only cost 95% of the original energy cost.

-Special (10 Not Equipped): Able to transform into various forms

Forms:

-Little Crow

-Zapdos

-???

-???

===

Including the arm stretching villain I killed earlier, I have killed a total of eight villains.

The last one leveled me passed 28 and Oz to 21 which put me in a good mood.

Earlier, I put the mod point in movement speed bonus because it would make the exploration faster.

The last time I tried exploring the methane zone, I had gotten lost. The place was basically an underground labyrinth. GPS didn't work since it's underground and there was no signal. I almost didn't make it home in time before my parents got up.

Even with my eyesight, the almost zero visibility didn't help.

This time, I did my research and came prepared.

I cracked one of the glow sticks I brought and lit up the passage.

"And let there be light. Oz, you know the plan right?"

"I shall stick to the left wall, and my Lady shall stick to the right. If we encounter any Nomus, only use physical attacks. No electric attacks or transforming." Oz replied while I equipped him with a bag of glow sticks so that he can mark places he has been.

There is always a burst of electricity whenever he is summoned or transforms, so he will be staying in his normal form for now.

I temporarily reallocated his points from his normal configuration to a physical build.

Unlike the mod change cooldown for characters, which take 24 hours, I found that the cooldown for Skills and Visions is much shorter. It only takes 10 minutes before the mod changes take effect.

The only exception to the mod change cooldown is the first mod change after a level up, which takes effect immediately.

I didn't change my mod setup for my skill since Electromaster is kind of banned here so it would be pointless to change it. I would have used Electroreception to map out the methane zone a long time ago if I could have done it without blowing the place up…

Lastly, I took out a special set of shoe soles with wheels and attached them to the bottom of my black shoes.

They fit perfectly, like they had always belonged there.

These were the Air Trecks, or A-Ts, that Mei and I had invented. The idea for these came from another old anime that I watched in my past life with my dad called "Air Gear".

Air Trecks are simply 'self-propelled shoes equipped with powerful suspension, air cushion systems, and ultra-small motors in the wheels'.

It was a pain to create and even now, there's still an issue with the power supply. No battery small enough exists to power these shoes without making them bulky or compromising the complex system of Air Trecks. The best one we came up with only lasted one minute before the high consumption of the skates emptied them out.

We're still researching, and now with Momo's help, I think we will reach a breakthrough soon.

Until then, only someone like me, with a highly controllable electric quirk can use these bad boys.

*Brrrr*

Carefully controlling electricity to power the Air Trecks without causing a spark, I skated around Oz a few times to get used to them.

Soon, I started playing around like a kid with a brand new toy.

"Damn. I wish I could use these while hunting villains."

Coupled with my Sonic mod, I reckon that these Air Trecks would allow me to move as fast as the pro hero Ingenium.

"My Lady, I believe that I suffice for villain hunting." Said Oz who seemed slightly off put by my statement.

"Of course you are Oz. Nothing beats flying in the sky while riding on your back. But, imagine how much more efficient our hunting would be if we can split up and hunt separately at high speeds." I proposed.

Although I can move pretty fast while enhancing my legs with Electro-therapy, I can't compare to Oz's flight speed.

But, it was a different story if I were to use these Air Trecks.

"Now Oz, what do you say to a little bet? First one to find some baddies wins." I proposed full of confidence.

"Hm. What are the stakes?"

"Loser has to do what the winner says for a day."

"An enticing offer, my Lady. I would enjoy being the one in charge for once."

"Ha! Don't get ahead of yourself, my oh so loyal familiar."

Seeing Oz nod in agreement, I started revving up my Air Trecks.

"Ready… GO!"

*Fwish*

*Vrroom*

We each stuck to our designated side of the passage and moved after my signal.

Surprisingly, Oz was still slightly faster then me with all my gear and mods. The perks of being a flying type.

I crouched down to make myself more aerodynamic and posed like a ninja to keep up with him.

We soon hit a fork and had to split up.

I spent more energy, more than my regen can recover while keeping my energy topped up, and put more power into the Air Trecks. It gave me a speed boost and I passed Oz, surprising him.

I can't do this often as it puts a burden on the Air Trecks and causes them to heat up. I have to wait five minutes to let them cooldown before using it again, otherwise the Air Trecks could break or worse, catch on fire...

"I'll see you on the other side!" I yelled to Oz before going down my path.

(Scene Break)

*vrrr*

I zoomed through the passage, occasionally kicking off the ground to maintain my speed.

It has been around one hour since we started, and Oz and I have yet to find anything of interest which was disappointing but expected.

As I dropped another glow stick and cracked on a new one, I noticed a figure on the ground in the distance in front of me.

I excitedly skated towards it.

Before I could reach, a smell entered my nose.

"Urgh. What's that smell?"

My pierrot mask had an air filtering feature which I prepared for this methane zone. Despite that, I could still get a whiff of a disgusting smell. I can only imagine how horrible the smell would actually be without my mask on.

When I arrived at the figure, I found out why there was a nasty smell in the air.

"A rotting Nomu corpse… damn. If you were going to die anyway, you should have waited for me to kill you, just like the goblin Nomu." I shook my head in disappointment at the wasted exp.

I examined the corpse and determined that it had been dead for several months.

Thinking back, if these Nomus were alive and kicking over a year ago, how would they have survived until now in this labyrinth? What did they eat? I haven't seen any rats in this part of the sewers. Do Nomus even need to eat in the first place?

"… Wait. If this Nomu is already dead, wouldn't that mean that all the Nomus in this place have also perished?"

At this thought, I dashed forward once again to search for more corpses and it wasn't long before I found another one and my hypothesis was proven correct.

"Noooooo! My Exp farm… Haaa. Looks like I'll have to settle for the villains. Oh well. I should make the most out of this."

Before the feeling of regret settled in, I thought of sending a telepathic message to Oz.

'Oz! I am now looking at a dead Nomu in front of me. Wouldn't this mean that I win the bet?'

'As expected of my Lady. Coincidentally, I am just about to finish my fight with a Nomu. I was going to report after.'

After receiving Oz's reply, I noticed that I received a bit of exp. A happy surprise.

Looks like there were still a few Nomus alive and kicking.

'Target eliminated. It took some time to get used to attacking using my beak and talons. How did your fight go, my Lady?' Oz questioned.

'Oh, uh…'

I felt slightly guilty. Oz had a proper fight while I just found a corpse.

Well, the bet was to find a Nomu. There was nothing about whether it had to be alive or not.

After thinking for a bit, I replied shamelessly.

'It was easy. Almost effortless. Didn't even need to lift a finger.'

Technically, I wasn't lying.

'Anyways, I'll look into forging some armaments for you to use in situations like this.'

I offered to make up for cheating and winning bet.

Oz usually fights by sending out electro attacks to easily take care of enemies.

It actually costs less energy if I use moves through Oz than casting them normally, since his usual mod configuration has max Cost, reducing the energy spent to only 50% of the original cost.

Situations where he wasn't allowed to attack using Electromaster were rare.

I discussed with Oz about what equipment he would like to have while we continued exploring.

I found a couple more Nomu corpses along the way. Some of them had bite marks all over them.

I guess that they started cannibalizing each other due to starvation.

I also encountered a Nomu that was still alive but it was starved and weak.

It looked quite pitiful, but exp is exp.

I put it out of its misery by throwing a knife into its exposed brain. Still such a bad design.

Another hour of exploring, hunting, and chatting with Oz passed.

I found and killed around four Nomus and Oz killed three.

He had leveled up to 22 and I was close to level 29.

Ah, such delicious exp.

"I would have probably reached max level if I had come here earlier before the Nomus died…"

Feeling slight regret, I stood in front of another fork while taking a break.

With Oz's input, I was mentally visualizing and mapping the places we have explored.

"I wish my system had a mini-map function. Warframe had one, why couldn't I? Ah whatever. Who am I to question Dio-sama's decisions?"

A few minutes passed when I noticed something with my mental map.

"Hmm? According to this, if I take the left path, wouldn't I meet up with Oz?"

Oz and I had encountered many dead ends throughout our exploration, but now it seems that our path was about to coincide for the first time since the first fork.

This should mean that we would have explored the entire place except for the unexplored path to my right.

I mentally informed Oz of this and started going down the right path.

Another couple of minutes passed and so far, this passage has just been one straight path.

'My Lady. I have reached the fork with your glowstick.' Oz told me.

'Alright. Come over here. I'm straight ahead.'

I could have just re-summoned him to my side if there wasn't a burst of electricity the accompanies his summon.

"Wait. Doesn't that mean that Oz is made of electricity? Why hasn't this place blown up yet? Hmmm… Note to self, do a thorough inspection of Oz's physiology later."

'My Lady, I just felt a bad feeling. This place might have some traps. Please heed caution.'

'Un. I'll stay vigilant, Oz.'

Soon, I reached the end of the passage. What greeted me there was a collapsed wall, similar to the one that the goblin Nomu had created when I first encountered it.

"Suspicious…" I muttered while stepping over the rubble.

Looking around, I noticed that I had entered some sort of chamber or basement.

Some kind of broken equipment, shattered glass, and more Nomu corpses were scattered around.

On the other side of the room, there was a staircase going up, so I headed towards it.

A broken and twisted metal door was at the top. I slipped passed it and found myself in a place that looked like a mad scientist's laboratory.

Human-sized capsules and test tubes connected to unpowered equipment were lined up along the wall. Majority of them were broken.

"So, I guess this is where all those Nomus came from…"

I started to feel a chill creep up my spine. I always hated haunted houses. They were always either super trash or super scary for me.

The green light coming from my glow stick only made this place look creepier

"Why do I feel like a jump scare is about to-"

Suddenly…

*Brrr*

I felt a vibration.

"Kyaa- *ehem* I mean, Ahhh!" I manly screamed with my girly voice.

Chapter End.

A/N:

I'm sorry for the late update. It's almost semester end at work, and I've been busy preparing for the new semester kick-off. I'm on forced leave tomorrow so I can probably post another chapter when I finish it to make up for the delay.

P.S.: My Dao of Cliffhanger is still going strong. Huehuehue