Plink.

My Class Card notifies me that I have a new message. But that's a sound I haven't heard before. I summon it and swipe over to my messenger as Pearl and Jumble lean in close to take a look.

'The subquest glitched. An entire chunk of it was completely ripped out of the operating parameters, and since that chunk is gone, it's reading as complete but not handing out the rewards. I'm going to need your help from there to make space for something that'll let it complete.'

And that's it. The message flickers and warps as I stare at it, then drips down my Class Card in a river of grey magic. I wave my Card from side to side to get the rest of the message off, then try to find anything that shows who sent the message. There's absolutely nothing there. Not even a hint that a message existed.

"That's weird." Pearl says in the understatement of the day. "I've never seen the messenger do that before. Who the heck would make it melt like that?"

Jumble hums in thought. "I haven't met anyone who could mess with anything the system made like this. They must be working with the system to get a reaction like this."

"If that's true, then we can't trust this for shit." I say and dismiss my Class Card. "Anyone on the system's side isn't on ours. Hell, they probably screwed up this subquest on purpose for exactly this to happen."

Pearl nods in agreement. "Maybe it's worth cutting our losses and leaving."

"What? No! We can't just give up now!" Jumble interjects. "What'll happen to this place? All the people that I'm looking for?! We can't–"

I chuckle and shake my head. "Jumble, we're just talking about the subquest. Not everything."

Instead of embarrassment, Jumble grits her teeth and doubles down. "I know that. But if this one subquest is messed up, and it only happened after Click got freed, then who's to say every single important subquest after this isn't going to be messed up too?"

A wedge of very uncomfortable realization inserts itself between my heart and my lungs, stealing my breath away in a long frustrated hiss. Because she's perfectly right. Even if the system didn't bother messing with all the less important subquests, we gave it the perfect excuse to alter all the progress-blocking subquests. Rescuing Click might've seemed like a win in the moment, but if it leads to a complete lockout of main quest progress… then we're beyond screwed.

"That's the worst-case scenario." Pearl says before I get a chance to speak up. "And even if it sounds dangerously plausible, we can't confirm or refute it without further evidence. But if you're right, Jumble, then what do you think we should do about it? Heck, what can we do about it?"

Jumble balls her fists in frustration. "I don't know. I'm… I'm sorry for making it sound like you two were going to abandon this. That wasn't fair to you, and I should've just explained myself first."

I shrug. "No worries here."

"None from me either." Pearl assures her with a smile. "I know what it's like to feel desperate for your people–dead or alive. So how about this; we do everything we can to find out where that message came from, and once we have a little more information, we'll decide if it's safe to keep going with this subquest."

I nod in agreement. "Hell, maybe we'll find something that tells us what the full quest was before a chunk got taken out of it. Following whatever that says to do might still force a clear."

"...Yeah. Thanks." Jumble smiles shakily and grips my arm even tighter. Her body shakes just as much as her expression. "Um… so what do we do until then? The construct said it wasn't safe to search, but if the construct is in on this somehow–or even if it isn't–is anywhere else really any more dangerous than right here?"

That's a roundabout way of saying it, but I get the gist. Nowhere in here is any safer than any other place. Because if the system really had free reign of the quest, it would've just killed us the moment the construct pulled us into wherever this is. The only way it'll get any control of the subquest is if we do anything to let it in.

At least that's the only slightly logical answer I can come up with to explain why we're sitting here–still alive–and waiting.

I smile with more confidence than I feel and motion off into the distance. "We might as well start looking until the others check in. Nothing'll happen as long as we stay here."

"For better or worse." Pearl chimes in helpfully.

Jumble nods, her eyes filled with a mixture of relief and anxiety. If the mere thought of us leaving without finishing things, even just in her own mind, is enough to get her riled up, then I'll have to make sure she doesn't think we're going to abandon her. Even still… this is fairly new for her. Something about this place must've triggered something–a memory of her own uplifting trials, most likely.

I gently lead her away from the filled pool, through the ground littered with teeth, and put some distance between us and the construct. Jumble's shivering dies down with every step we take, and after a few minutes of walking, she seems perfectly fine. Almost too fine.

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"Jumble, did you…" I trail off with a nod at the construct. "Was that all an act?"

She laughs sheepishly. "It was supposed to be. But I kind of worked myself up in my head and convinced myself that the thing I'd made up was true. So… it started as an act and got a little too real. That's why I apologized."

"Really? What was the point of it?" Pearl asks.

Jumble points at the orb of construct fluid hanging in the air. "Because the system could've been watching us through the construct. I don't know why I didn't think of that before, but the message was a harsh reminder. Even if the construct isn't working with the system it doesn't mean the system isn't watching us through its eyes."

She shudders and looks away. "So many empty eyes."

I scratch my neck and look away as well. "I get it, but couldn't the construct be listening to us right now too? We aren't that far away from it."

"We aren't, nope. But my spell should be working right now." Jumble taps the air, and a ripple of staticky physical sound pulses out from her fingertip. "It's a pretty simple censorship spell–inspired by the system's own stuff–and it just makes us look like we aren't doing anything suspicious."

Pearl perks right up. "Does that mean I can get on Shelby's shoulder?"

Jumble nods. "Anyone who already knows about you could see you, but anyone who doesn't already won't even recognize you. Think of the spell like… people looking won't be able to register any new information about us while it's up. And we don't do anything big enough that the spell can't handle it."

I reach a hand out and feel the mess of invisible staticky sensations at the edge of my personal space. My awareness hasn't felt a damn thing, and I don't think Pearl noticed it either. Either that's a property of Jumble's spell or she's really trying not to get caught. All those years must have made her at least more powerful than I am.

With a shake of my head I dismiss any suspicions that were trying to take hold. There's a reason Jumble hasn't told me how powerful she is, and that reason is purely censorship based. Though maybe with my newfound ability to hear about shellraiser stuff…

"Jumble, what clearance are you?" I ask.

She tilts her head to the side. "Didn't you see my Class Card? It's five."

I can't hold back an amused snort. "Riiight."

"No, seriously! Look!" She pulls out her Class Card, swipes to her stats, and shoves it in my face. "See! Five in everything."

Everything sure is right. Five Worth, five of each stat, five clearance. Which I still can't believe at all, especially since I've witnessed way more than five Strength worth of raw muscle from Jumble. And… now that I think of it… each of the uplifting trials gives fifteen in a stat. So she shouldn't have any single stat worth less than that.

"The uplifting trials–"

Jumble shakes her head before I can finish. "I can't tell you more right now; it has to do with the thing the system's censoring whenever I try to tell you anything about it. But right now I have five in everything. Right now. Riiiiight noooowww."

Her eyebrows shoot to her forehead as she puts obvious emphasis on those words. Even if I was as dumb as a pile of broken bricks I'd be able to tell that she's insinuating her real stats are different than right now. Hell, I'm surprised the system isn't censoring her with how obvious she's being about it.

Though it does make me wonder what's connecting her lack of visible stats to the incident that destroyed this place. Guess that'll all be revealed at pretty much the same time, though.

So, for now, we walk until something happens. Another message maybe, or constructs, or the main quest showing up to 'fix' this place with its own two hands. I take a deep breath through my nose and absentmindedly scratch Jumble between the ears.

Please, for mercy's sake, don't let this turn into another day-long ordeal.

It takes two hours for another message to show up. Two hours of walking, focusing on my awareness, and trying not to fall into a mental spiral at the possibility that we could be stuck here for a very long time. Even if we can just relocate away. I summon my Class Card without a word and focus on the message with the desperation of someone dying of thirst.

The message is a normal one. An update from Sawyer on the construct's discoveries.

'Sorry for taking so long, ma'am. All the little bug-constructs are ancient and not maintained at all, so even the strongest ones shouldn't be able to put out any real magic. The big liquid construct is really confused and wants to stay with us while we explore this place. No other updates, sorry. I'll send a message much sooner when we find anything else.'

Damn. To think I was hopeful that anything might've changed. I shake my head with a sigh that Jumble and Pearl mimic then send my Class Card away to wait for anything else.

Pearl kicks her feet against my shoulder as she grumbles to herself. "Hours of searching and absolutely nothing to show for it. It really feels like there's nothing else here, doesn't it?"

"Probably because there isn't." I say. "Whether we can do anything about it or not, this subquest is broken. And I'm willing to bet every other trial-based-subquest is going to be just like this."

"Well, if there's nothing we can do about it, then…" Jumble summons her own Class Card. "Maybe we should just wait for another weird message and do what it says. You can always relocate us out of here if the quest tries to do anything weird."

I clink my teeth together as I mull over the many ways this could go wrong. "I'm not so sure. My magic's not powerful enough to fight the system on anything close to equal–"

Plink.

A message appears on Jumble's Class Card, instantly silencing and overriding the conversation. She doesn't instantly swipe to it, and instead looks to me and Pearl for approval. After a brief moment of inner turmoil I sigh and motion for her to go ahead. Moving forward into unknown, potentially dangerous territory somehow seems far more palatable than sitting around doing absolutely nothing.

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