Ascension: Online

My right arm was still not completely healed. As for my stomach, it had already gotten nastily kicked by Furuwa. My whole body hurt, and I was feeling quite tired.

Luckily, I had something to look forward to - and it was happening right now.

"What do you think we'll be getting?" Ichigo asked as we walked down a set of wide black, polished stairs that seemed to be made out of marble or glass. "We beat this place, right? There's got to be some sort of reward."

"Heh. Considerin' how difficult the bloody trials were, the prize better be somethin' real good," Jim said with a chuckle, the loud clattering of our footsteps the lone thing accompanying us as we walked on the cold, hard floor.

"Personally, I'd like some better shoes above anything else," Furuwa muttered in frustration. "These things suck."

"Oh yeah, come to think of it, you nearly died because of those shoes of yours, didn't you?" I laughed slightly. "Had it not been for me..."

"I thought we were already even for that..." Furuwa cut me off, sending me a glare as if threatening to kill me if I ever brought the topic up again.

"Right," I snickered. "Still... I never thought you would slip."

"Well... to be fair, these poor-quality things are pretty bloody slippery," Jim replied.

Furuwa quickly nodded in agreement. "I know, right? And those pillars too... ugh. It was bad enough slipping one time and almost failing a jump, but after that, I slipped after landing on a pillar too, and I nearly fell into the acid..."

"Just be grateful you aren't dead," Ichigo said with a wry smile. "At least, that's what I'm happy about. I just feel bad for Horiya."

Jim patted Ichigo on the shoulder. "If that kid's a real friend o' yers, he won't blame ya for anythin'. Rather, he'll be happy ya managed to beat what he couldn't, mate."

"Yeah... I hope so," Ichigo said in response, flashing Jim a thumbs-up.

Soon, we arrived at the bottom of the stairs. In front of us were four closed chests of some kind. The room was lit up by white lights on either side of us and on the ceiling as well. Then, the male AI spoke once again.

[Congratulations on beating the Vault of Corruption.]

After a brief pause, he continued.

[The chests in front of you contain your rewards for the completion of this Vault. However, in addition to these rewards, you all have also unlocked a new skill - Corruption.]

This came as a shock to all four of us, and we listened intently to the AI's following explanation.

[This skill will enable you to corrupt Magic Beasts' minds, allowing you to make them do your bidding. The strength of the Magic Beasts you are able to control, how many you can control simultaneously, and the amount of time you can control a Magic Beast for will all depend on your proficiency in the skill. The more you use this skill, the higher your proficiency will be.]

So... a new skill, huh? It seemed like a pretty powerful one too. If I could get my hands on a really strong Magic Beast, I could just have it do all the fighting for me without ever needing to worry. I knew that some skills' power scaled with your stats, but this one probably didn't... unless MAG could affect it? I would have to confirm with A.R.X.A. later.

"Huh... wait, if this is the Vault of 'Corruption', are there other Vaults out there as well?" I asked, but the AI did not respond. I sighed. Not all AIs were like A.R.X.A.

The other three looked at me as if I were a foreign object, but that was understandable. I just tried to ask a pre-coded AI a question. They wouldn't get it...

"Well, what are we bloody waitin' for?" Jim laughed and took a step forward, opening a chest up.

The rest of us followed, each opening a chest up. Inside my chest were various pieces of equipment, including a full set of armor, a ring, and most importantly, a brand new dagger. This one had a black blade and handle, and glowed a bright green. It seemed that green was the general color of this Vault since the armor set also had a general green hue to it. Furthermore, the center stone of the ring was also a bright green.

And then, a prompt appeared in front of me.

[Would you like to store the items?]

[Yes/No]

I clicked on 'Yes', and the hologram changed as the rewards all turned into beams of light and entered my body:

[Obtained Corrupter Helm x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Chest x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Leggings x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Socks x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Boots x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Cape x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Ring x1.]

[Obtained Corrupter Gloves x1.]

[Obtained Dokujin x1.]

Dokujin...? Poison... blade. That must be referring to the dagger.

I looked over at the others and saw that they had just finished storing everything in their inventories as well. Then, the chests suddenly disappeared, and in their place were four devices that looked like teleportation pads.

"Looks like these are our way out," Ichigo said, stepping onto his device.

"Yeah... let's get out of here already. Can't wait to breathe fresh air again," Furuwa muttered in complaint before stepping onto her own.

"Ay, I haven't even taken a look at the stuff I got in detail yet, mate!" Jim cried in frustration.

"You can do that after," Furuwa said, rolling her eyes. "Come on. Let's go. This thing won't start unless all four of us are standing on our own pads."

With a sigh, Jim closed his System and stepped onto his own pad. I did the same.

[Teleporting sequence initiating in 3... 2... 1...]

A bright white light enveloped me. I closed my eyes and waited to be returned to the surface.

Moments later, my eyes snapped open. I was back in the forest, staring at the entrance of the cave. It was now locked. Ichigo, Furuwa, and Jim were all right next to me, looking down at their own hands in wonder.

Holograms - database entries, to be precise - then appeared in front of all of us. They read:

[Vaults]

[Vaults are dungeons located across the world of Ascension. Each one has three trials within them, made to test your physical and intellectual capabilities. If you are able to pass all three trials, you will have beaten the vault. Vaults offer exclusive rewards that cannot be obtained via any other method, along with a special skill based on the theme of the Vault.]

And then, several other pop-ups appeared:

[Primary Quest Complete: Corruption]

[Claim your rewards in the 'Quests' tab of your System.]

-

[Public Event Complete: Exterminating the Beasts]

[Claim your rewards in the 'Quests' tab of your System.]

-

[Vault Complete: The Vault of Corruption]

[Claim your rewards in the 'Quests' tab of your System.]

"I thought teleportation would make me dizzy or something," Ichigo muttered, scratching his head awkwardly as the holograms disappeared. "Guess not."

"That was less turbulent than I expected," Furuwa said with a sigh.

It seemed that neither of them had experienced death in this game before, so they didn't know what teleporting was like. This was the first time for them. I, on the other hand, have died twice already.

"Now then... where's that bloody little bastard Qin Yao at?" Jim laughed evilly.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot about him..." Ichigo said, lips curving up into a grin.

Furuwa glanced at the two of them, then sighed. "Whatever. At this point... I don't even care if you kill him."

"Much appreciated, kiddo," Jim chuckled. "How about ya?"

He turned to me. "Wanna join in on the fun?"

I sighed. "There's no point wasting time dealing with him. I would much rather spend that time looking over the rewards I just got, you know?"

"Oh, c'mon, Igarashi, don't be like that. We all know you hate that bastard too," Ichigo said, patting me on the back. "So? Come on. Loosen up every once in a while."

I met his friendly gaze, something I never thought I would see from him, and rolled my eyes in disdain and annoyance. I didn't want them bothering me anymore, so might as well. Besides... beating someone up could be fun. I've always been on the receiving end of violence, so this could be a nice and fresh change of pace.

"Alright, fine... let's just make this quick, yeah?"

"Ya bet!" Jim laughed heartily.

"Uh... you there. Didn't you need to call your friends or something?" Furuwa asked, pointing at Ichigo. Poor guy, she didn't even remember his name.

"Nah. I feel like beating someone up right now, and Qin Yao's my number one target!"

"... I see? Well, suit yourself," Furuwa replied. "I'll be getting off for the day. I'm tired. Both physically and mentally."

"Alrighty. Good night, or whatever time zone it is for ya," Jim said, giving Furuwa a casual wave.

"I think we're all in the time zone," Ichigo added. "I mean, the in-game time is the same as the actual time outside."

"Oh, yeah, yer right," Jim chuckled. "By the way, did I tell ya? I'm actually livin' in Japan."

Ichigo frowned. "Huh? But... you're speaking English, no?"

"Bloody right," he replied. "I can speak both languages. I just prefer to stick to my original one, y'know?"

"Ah, I got it. Yeah, we're all in Japan as well."

"Figured as much."

"Alright then, bye, Igarashi-kun," Furuwa said, waving at us. "And, uh, Fitzroy-san and... you, the other guy."

"Oi, who's 'the other guy'?!"

"See ya, sheila."

I waved back, right before she logged out.

Hm... same time zone, huh? I think I have an idea as to my question from a while back - the reason why there were only a limited amount of players around despite Ascension: Online being a huge game off launch. I would still need to confirm with A.R.X.A. later, but I was 90% certain I was correct.

After that, we headed for the city of Tianyin to claim our reward money of 75,000 gold. However, unbeknownst to us, what would be waiting for us would not be what we had originally expected...