Rot. Plague. Early analysis indicates a shocking revelation: the Plague is not attempting to 'eat away' at the tower. It is attempting to change it. --74.5 Seconds Post-Integration.

  Before Clark dropped by the cafe, he dropped by a Green Guild stall to pick up some dandies. He bought five dandies of each of the three main varieties. Stamina, Blessing, and Defensive. On a whim, he also bought five manipulation dandies. It cost a hundred Standard Credits for all twenty dandies. Though he had thirty-six Standard Credits in his bank and another forty-four credits in store coupons, he remained twenty credits short of what he needed to buy them all -- until his League and Guild discount kicked in, lowering the amount to zero. "Phew! Was worried there for a moment!" Clark said to the cashier at the Green Guild stall. the cashier only smiled in return, like they had heard the same thing from a thousand different people.

  After leaving the stall, Clark said to SIMP "how it's crazy the price of dandies."

  "They used to be much cheaper, yes. Supposedly, the plague is driving up production costs. I do not believe them, however. Not fully. Dandies are not as expensive to produce as many people think. I think Store Leadership is simply being greedy," SIMP asserted, firm in their belief.

  "I will take your word for it. I feel their greed burning a hole in my accounts!"

  Their visit to the cafe was short. Clark stayed only long enough to order his beverage and wolf it down. He needed all the extra edge he could get. Sure, he could also down a dandy to pick him up, but with the price of Dandies, he couldn't justify it. Dandies were meant for life and death struggle, not windfall explorations.

  An hour of traversal went by before he found himself back in the severely rot-clogged passages of the fiftieth-floor crevice. SIMP and he spent the better part of two months scouting this area out once SIMP uncovered it as the source of why they weren't able to map it with the rest of the store. In that time, they found only more winding passages with more plague rot crusting the narrow channels. On and on the corridors went, leading to evermore groups of gyrating engine blocks and increasingly dangerous magical 'puddles' resulting from leyline leakage. On a couple instances, Clark was nearly flung headlong into the ceiling when he nearly stepped into a gravitational anomaly. The deeper he scouted in this place, the more such anomalies materialized. When he asked SIMP why that was, they said it was because plague rot 'ran interference' with the magics of the leylines, causing, essentially, 'spillage' which took the forms of the anomalies. "Be on the lookout for additional anomalies," SIMP warned. "Gravitational disturbances could, potentially, be the least of our concerns."

  By the second hour, Clark had come to an open space lined with tall engine blocks pumping in unison. Like every part of the dungeon's interior he had yet seen, this open space was covered with the rot. "Clark. In the center of that space is a node."

  "A node?" he asked with a yawn.

  "Yes. Similar to the dwarven pod but distinct in its spiritual and data frequency. It's paramount you cleanse that node of rot. Would you like me to summon Hera and Theo for back up?"

  Clark considered whether backup would be necessary. "No... not unless I am forced to retreat. I have only thus far encountered Noir Slimes. If this next encounter is any indication, I doubt there is much on this floor we haven't already smooshed to death."

  "You say that, but..."

  Clark checked his satchel. His dandies were nestled safely inside his bag's dividers. On his back, in a carrying knot, was a baseball bat. He had bought both the bat and the leather belt he used to tie the knot from the store. He uncapped one of the blessing dandies and thoroughly coated the bat with the unobtrusive liquid. He downed a defensive dandy for good measure while making sure the restorative dandy was within sight. Finally, he drank the manipulation dandy, giving him the edge he knew he would need to make it out alive.

  Unafraid, Clark jumped from the height of an engine block and cleanly landed on the black, sticky ground. He advanced toward the node in the center of the open space on high alert. Every few steps, he made an observational three-hundred-and-sixty-degree twirl to ensure no enemies snuck up on him. SIMP usually kept good track of what did and did not materialize, but he couldn't rely on them completely. He had to be proactive regarding his saftey.

  "So far, so good..." Clark's progress continued, his voice echoing throughout the ill-defined space; with the plague rot, it was hard to say how large or small a space truly was, especially if the space was covered over with rot.

  It wasn't until he was halfway to the node when he felt the atmosphere shift. "Clark!" SIMP urged. "Multiple monster formations!"

  Clark knew better than to think that rushing toward the monster growths would be of help. The monsters would keep coming and coming until the local corruptions were purged. He pushed ahead to the node knowing he was on a time limit.

  He arrived before the node caked over in rot and got to work unscrewing a Blessing dandy. He gingerly poured the dandy over the node, careful to get every angle. He was about to unscrew another Blessing dandy when SIMP told him something useful. "Instead of relying purely on the dandies, Clark, use your blessed weapon to whack away at the rot on the node. You've already blessed the bat so hitting the node with the bat should produce the same effect as over-coating it with that blessing dandy."

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  Admittedly, he hadn't thought of hitting the node with his makeshift weapon. He was so focused on dandy usage, he hadn't thought of using his bat for anything other than self-defense. He took his bat in hand and gave the node several powerful smashes.

  Each whack of his bat sent up a flurry of dried plague flak. Again, he whacked his bat against the node, then once more for good measure. Each of his attacks dislodged a sloven chunk of rot which was both dry and somewhat wet, the strange composition of rot mixing with the humid and choking air of the interior.

  "Clark! Slimes are almost within striking distance!" SIMP warned.

  He pivoted on his feet and turned his bat toward the enemy. As SIMP had said, a group of no less than six slimes, with more likely incoming, closed in on him. He felt the thrill of combat enter his body but had enough sense, still, to hold himself back; he saw pieces of engine blocks littered throughout the space. He had drunk the manipulation dandy, so he ought to use it. As he had done during his League tutorial, he pointed his arm at the bit of the world he wanted to manipulate and willed a connection.

  Quicker than he imagined, the connection formed. He flung the piece at a slime and killed the slime instantly. It dissolved into wisping mist before vanishing completely.

  Clark couldn't believe it. During the League tutorial, moving a piece of the masonry strewn throughout the stadium required all his concentration. Moreover, it drained him faster than popping a balloon of air. Here, though, the effort it took to move debris was a fraction what it demanded in the stadium; could it be because there was more magic permeating the atmosphere or because he had grown in his usage of the dandy through his aura?

  Pushing aside the thought for another time, Clark made connections with several more pieces of engine blocks long destroyed and flung them at the slimes. One, two, four slimes were killed in quick succession.

  The final slime of the six he closed the gap on before unleashing one good slam against it.

  "More slimes are materializing. I estimate twelve."

  Twelve?! He couldn't believe it. Not able to do anything about it, though, he ensured the time he did have before the next wave reached him was spent well. He used his bat to beat the node silly.

  Slam! Slam! Each hit sent reverberations through his bones. Gradually, the covered node's rotted coating fell away, leaving gaps where he could see the machine underneath.

  Unfortunately, his progress in freeing the device of its gunky armor was slow. Too slow to completely free it before the next group of slimes arrived, forcing him to re-enter combat.

  Not in the mood to fight, Clark's anger spiked. He turned sharply from the node and bolted at the slimes; the grip he had on his bat tightened as he slammed its blessed but blunted edge into the monsters. Heave -- slam! He focused only on offense. "One down, another, three!" He counted to himself as his enemies fell. He still had nine left to destroy.

  Focusing only on offense, however, resulted in Clark leaving himself open.

  The first slime which shot its gooey, gross body into him forced him to the ground, feeling like a brick had been lobbed at him. He scrambled to a kneeling position. Before the next slime shot into him, he managed to cross his arms over his chest in an x-formation. The slime crashed into his arms; his stance held, and he repulsed the slime by throwing his weight against it just before impact. It still hurt but at not as bad as it might have hurt.

  On his feet, Clark had the perfect chance to slam his bat into two more slimes. "Seven remain..." he panted and lunged after a third slime. He missed but not before feeling the world give out from under him as a slime lunged and tripped him; his back slammed to the blackened floor. He hadn't the time to get angry at the monster -- he simply rolled himself away from the festering foes and calm but belabored breathes brought himself back on his feet.

  Clark had put some distance between he and the slimes thanks to his body-rolling. He knew the slimes would soon close that gap. He had to end the encounter before it dragged enough for more slimes to materialize. Seeing a couple pieces of old engine block, and his Manipulation dandy still active, he willed a connection using both of his hands. Two pieces of engine block flew toward him and slammed into two of the slimes, removing them from existence.

  But he didn't stop there.

  The idea came to him suddenly -- "I can use Manipulation like a cattle whip!"

  Instead of letting the connection sever he kept the connection after the pieces of engine block impacted the slimes. Clark tightened his hold on the pieces by balling his fists. He willed the pieces to mimic his motions and swung his fists in a wide aerial circle. Once he built momentum, careful as he did so, so as to prevent the slowly moving slimes from striking at him, Clark unleashed the engine blocks upon the remaining slimes. His movement was graceful, clear; the pieces cut through the slimes horizontally, ending one, two, then the rest in one fluid movement.

  By the fifth slime's doom, he lost the connection with the debris. It slammed with a fury into the wall, pieces of it scattering to every corner of the arena.

  Normally, he would have been more than glad to revel in his triumph. And after that on-the-fly innovation? He wanted to revel.

  Alas, the node called to him. Not literally, perhaps, but its corruption was important to cleanse. He picked up his bat and stumbled toward the node.

  "Take a hit -- they're free, don'tcha know!" He whacked his bat no more than a couple of times before SIMP warned him of more monster materializations. "Seriously?!" he couldn't believe more slimes were already inbound.

  SIMP clarified. "Another dozen by my estimate."

  If he played it defensively, he could work his way through another group of slimes. But he would need to use more dandies. Because he didn't want to use more dandies, he had to make a decision.

  He decided to finger another Blessing dandy from his pouch. He uncapped it and poured it over the bit of the node with the heaviest plague layer. Then he let into the node with everything he had left -- each whack chipped away at the rotted encasing. With his force, it wasn't long until larger skins fell away, revealing the bulk of the machine underneath. "Now -- jack me into the node, Clark!"

  That final swing had removed enough of the rot around the node to ensure stable working conditions for SIMP. SIMP had told him they could not work properly within the virtual space of the nodes if plague rot encased too much of the node. Something about the node's 'virtuality' being 'compromised.'

  Seconds after he plugged in his System Device Link into the node, an explosion of silver light burst from within, incinerating all vestiges of plague from not only it, but part of the surroundings as well.

  The explosion flung him back halfway across the open space. "Shet. Good thing I drank that Defense dandy..."

  It was a good thing indeed. For even after drinking it, he felt the combat pain acutely.

  "Slimes dematerialized," SIMP announced. "This section will no longer be able to produce monsters. You did it, Clark."