If the Magickas came while absolutely no one was inside, I’d just take it back from them when I returned. It was perfectly possible that I’d already cleared the mission. Not everyone who got a spot next to a Blue treasure site was meant to win. Some of them were given it who would easily have it stolen from them, to make the Blue location an actual wild card in their group. And sometimes, no one in a group would gain treasure from the Blue site.

Because no one in that group was able to handle what waited for them there. No less than 50 of the snow beasts denned there, which was bad enough.

But that paled compared to what else was there.

I kept my distance and ambushed the large group as best I could. With various casts, I killed about 15 of them before the rest began to near me. I fell back on well-practiced kiting habits, taking out another five of them before a roar that made the howl of a Wolf General sound like an adorable bark pierced the air.

This beastie only respawned for a team that hadn’t killed it already. I was grateful for that. Once was friggin’ well enough to face this thing. It was 12 feet tall if it was an inch, and it came at me like a freight train. It trampled its own packmates as it approached, viciously bearing down on me with a mammoth fist. I activated Explosive Overclocking and got a Fiery Deflection in the way, which stopped much of the direct damage to my HP, but didn’t stop the blow from sending me flying. I just barely had a moment to use my helmet’s Enemy Scan on it before it happened:

BOSS Monster (I)

Health: 19,329/20,102

Stamina: 8,997/9,060

This was it. I’d had precious little opportunities to practice this, but it was time for my Power of Imagination to go to work. Even with all the Stamina I’d gained, trying to use it to hinder this thing was nothing but a fool’s errand, so I used it on myself instead. I imagined myself becoming, willed myself to become quicker, fleeter, faster, more agile than before, enough to avoid the beast. I imagined myself slipping right around its boulder sized hands and landing strike after strike of flame right between its eyes. I had to be that accurate, because that was the only way for an attack to bypass its massive resistances. Occasionally, I stopped dodging and used Fiery Deflection instead, since the damage from that had already proved effective.

After half a minute of this enhanced state, I was hardly aware of myself. I had become a killing machine, with no thought or impulse save the next dodge, the next strike, the next positioning, the next baiting into a deflection. And the boss was starting to flag. That was the key to this fight, Bruzigan had said: it started off in a berserk rage, but it didn’t take very long for that rage to wear off. In their natural state, Gorilla Frigus were docile creatures, not territorial like Earth gorillas at all. This Rex version wasn’t even a natural evolution, rather some kind of genetic experiment. It hadn’t taken well enough to militarization for the Throskarts, so it was used here instead.

I continued the dance of combat, leading instead of following, steadily wearing it away. In another 30 seconds, I’d hit the creature in the eyes enough to blind it. Then, I really went to town, not letting it recover. I used Firestorm to stack even more damage, confusing and paining the BOSS too much to realize where it needed to go to escape the effect.

By now, the remaining normal Frigus were trying to aid their alpha, but a single basic fireball was all I needed for them now. After almost two minutes, its entire pack dead around us, blood poured from the boss’ forehead after one final Flame Javelin, and with a pitiful moan, it crashed to the ground.

When I snapped out of my flow state, I gasped for breath.

Stamina: 928/4,050

Holy crap. Optimizing myself through Power of Imagination for just a few minutes had wiped out thousands of Stamina points in one go. Technically I had a good bit left, but it made sense that I’d feel winded by losing so much so fast. But I could already feel the potion injectors in my suit going to work. Even in the seconds before I closed the Tower Menu again, it was already climbing back up rapidly.

Inside the Blue chest was exactly 350,000 coins worth of points. The game gave you the maximum random amount of treasure from a Blue chest on the day you beat the Boss.

The worst was now over. The wrinkle for the “fourth period” of the Game was actually meant to help people who had gotten this far survive. Tasks could now be completed by anyone, and didn’t need to be assigned in the system by a Captain or Adjutant—except of course for the end of day report, which the Captain and/or Adjutant still needed to do themselves. Auto-Maintenance droids were also made available in the shop, for 200,000 points each—not that I’d be buying those. The luxury rations the MacIlisters had stocked up tasted like victory.

Mewi and I were sitting on a bed—the bed in the apartment I’d prepared for us on Erkolls 13. “I get what you’re saying, Mewi. But if we join a faction, I mean...there’s all kinds of stuff we could get dragged into.” I was saying the words, but really I was watching myself say them. “And besides...I don’t know how much of the Tower I really want to climb. After the 4th Floor, we’d need a team to go further, right? The missions are a lot harder from that point on if you try to go it alone—or even if we take them on with the two of us.

I mean, between my winnings from the Tutorial and yours from the Constant Competition, we can be set for life in this place! As far as I’m concerned, we don’t have any reason to get involved with the factions, okay?”

Mewi looked thoughtful. “I guess you’re right,” he said, “I’m just surprised you don’t want to climb. You were always so full of big dreams and plans back on Earth...”

“Mewi,” I said, “in large part, those big dreams and plans were for the sake of being with you.” I put my hands on his shoulders, looking deeply into his eyes. “Right now...I have everything I need.”

I woke up just before the kiss. I didn’t even realize it was a vision until I’d thought to check the Dream Visions trait after I’d gathered coins from the Blue site again. Sure enough, it was now at 2/?

The final wrinkle, for the “5th Period” of the game was called Gold Fever. For the final three days, the contents of chests were doubled. The audience finally hit us with [Misfortune Event! Major Malfunction!] which made every module in both outposts need maintaining at once, but compared to the boss, that was trivial to get through.

I had really expected the Magickas to try to attack one more time, but apparently they’d decided to fold this hand. On the evening of the 15th day, I raised a toast to the four who had joined me in Outpost #1: “To ‘our’ great victory!”

I made sure to hide the air quotes from them.

[Team Firebrand Final Game Rank: #74]