Page 69 of Code Bound
“Are we certain we’re going the right way?” Vesper asks, interrupting my thoughts.
“What?” I answer, jerking my mind away from thoughts of her sandwiched between us. “Oh. Let me check.”
I flick open my map, the movement so fluid now it’s like an afterthought. I don’t know how long we’ve been here really. A week? Less than that? More? The sun rises and falls, which should make it easy to count the days, but I can’t seem to remember how many times it’s set since we arrived.
“Six days, ten hours, thirty-one minutes, and twelve seconds,” Cipher supplies helpfully while I study the map. He’ll pop in every now and then when he feels like it, but mostly, my mind stays blissfully silent and free from his voice. From what I understand, it’s not the same for Vesper.
“Looks like we’re about to leave the Whispering Canopies?—”
NEW ZONE UNLOCKED: Welcome to the Leaf Cutter Empire
Cipher’s overly sensual purr fills my head as the notification pops up in front of my face. We’d stepped over the line abruptly, and I’d almost been unprepared for the announcement. I grimace at the way Cipher’s voice fades away, as if some tantalizing tease. These fucking notifications are getting ridiculous. Even if it turns me on a little . . .
“What an interesting piece of information,” Cipher says to me alone. I know he only says it to me because Vesper doesn’t ask what he means. She always asks.
“Fuck off,” I grunt under my breath. Which only makes the system laugh. See? Bastards. Every bit of this place.
“The Leaf Cutter Empire,” Vesper repeats out loud, her voice significantly less provocative than the announcement, and yet still overly appealing. Every day, I look forward to hearing her speak more and more. “So, we’re still in the Verdant Nexus region then.”
“Seems like it,” I comment, rolling my shoulders. They’re still sore after the tangle with the vines, but not as sore as my neck. The bruises there probably stand out in stark contrast against my skin. At least my ink likely hides most of it. That way, when Vesper asks me if I’m okay for the hundredth time, I can lie and say I’m fine. “There’s a safehouse in this zone,” I announce while I study the map. “And a Minor Boss.”
The regions of our map are revealed as we explore them. They remain grey until we enter the section, then it populates, but the only markers on the map are safehouses until we encounter something else. The Minor Bosses don’t just show up for us to hunt them down either. There’s just a notation next to the zone name that there’s a Minor Boss within it, just as there’s a notation if there’s a Major Boss. From what I can see, there is only one Major Boss in the Verdant Nexus and it’s in the Whispering Canopies, which is why we’re trying to give it a wide berth. Neither one of us is prepared to fight a Major Boss. Even with all my cockiness, I don’t think I’m strong enough for that as a Tier One. It’s best to wait until we’re both stronger to start collecting the keys.
There are three Minor Bosses here, two of which we’ve already killed. The tiny icons appear on the map once we’ve completed them, marking where we’d received the achievement. If I hover my hand over the icons on the map, tiny description menus pop up describing the Minor Boss. We only have one more to go before we can move onto the next region and find more Minor Bosses to kill. We’re gonna have to grind hard if we want to level up fast. Something tells me that we’re going to need our stats in our favor more than they are.
I tap the character menu on my interface and watch as my stats pop up in front of me.
TIER 1 - KNUCKLE DREG
Wastrel, entry-level
STRENGTH: 12
AGILITY: 10
VITALITY: 11
WILLPOWER: 10
CHARISMA: 9
LUCK: 10
FRACTURE POINTS: 0
CORRUPTION: 5%
I currently have three skills that I can use as a Tier One.
Brawler’s Instinct. A passive skill that gives me bonus damage when I use my fists, improvised weapons, or fight in close-quarter combat. Splinter Strike. This one says it’s an active skill with a thirty second cool down every time I use it. That one is just a focused kick or punch that increases my chances of breaking bones. The last skill is another passive one called Pain Ignition. Each injury I suffer boosts my strength by one for thirty seconds. That’s the one that most intrigues me. Does that mean if I keep hitting, I’ll continue to get little boosts to my strength throughout a fight?
I don’t exactly know how the skills work. There isn’t much description and I assume I either missed it before or its purposely vague. It could be both. Regardless, I’ll have to figure it out as I go.
“What monsters do you think we’ll be facing in this one?” Vesper asks, her tone casual as if we’re not discussing some creature that’s going to try to kill us. I don’t think we’ve run into too many of them that haven’t immediately tried to kill us.
I close my menu and focus on the path Vesper cuts in front of us. “Don’t know,” I quip.
I can’t even guess what we might find here. This place is full of creatures and things that don’t exist in Dross, let alone in the entire Cradle. I’ve seen a few books in my time in Mother Remainder’s rooms, but none of them spoke of animals. They were mainly about ancient history and those were so boring, I’d given up reading them after a few pages. Even if they had been about animals, I wouldn’t have been interested enough to read them all the way through. I have a hard time focusing on the words for long and times past don’t really matter anymore. Only here and now matters. The future barely matters unless you’re thinking about survival until the next rotation. The Ascendants make sure we don’t look any deeper, and I’ve played right into their hands.
