I nod slowly. It doesn’t take a genius to realize what Capstan means. It’d be a simple enough thing for Roxley to charge us for the use of his guards while Whitehorse was desperate. To charge us rent for the safe zones he’s provided, increase the tax on the Shop until we were indebted to him constantly. Raise the interest rates on the loans he made to us, charge us late fees when we couldn’t pay, and dictate all payments be made in Credits. Humanity had a ton of history with things like that. Still, I can see why he didn’t. We’ve done slavery and it doesn’t work, not when you need people with knowledge and skills. At least, not efficiently. Then again, sometimes efficiency isn’t everything.
“Are you coming?” Nelia turns toward us, stamping her foot.
Realizing we’ve fallen behind, Capstan and I focus on picking up the loot. Still, what he said has left me with some serious food for thought.
Chapter 10
A week later, we’re finally done with all the dungeons we’ve found. With the Yerick, I’ve cleared a total of five dungeons, of which at least three will be permanent. I’ve even managed to gain first clear bonuses for four of them, pushing my Level up another step. Working with the Yerick has been quite relaxing overall. Since I’m not a front-line fighter with them, I don’t take as much damage and I need to replace my armor a lot less. About halfway through, I made enough Credits to fix Sabre up if I wanted to. However, on consideration, I’ve left her with Xev for a series of upgrades. A lot of the material we need will take a few months to arrive via “regular” delivery rather than picking it up direct from the Shop, so for now, Sabre just sits cooling her heels.
Interesting fact—while it’s possible to teleport via the System, most commerce is actually done by spaceships. The cost of porting goods is significant, so using freighters and automated delivery ships helps reduce the cost of transportation. That’s what makes people like Xev more competitive than getting the Shop to just “fix” everything. Paying through the Shop, amusingly enough, usually means hiring smart Shopkeepers using a combination of teleportation, rush contracts, and time dilation to allow products to be fixed. Or in a few cases, just swapped out entirely.
Finding ourselves done with the dungeons, the Yerick go back to “farming” the dungeons and hunting raid bosses. I am not invited along though. I have a feeling it’s more because they want me to go hunting for more dungeons for them to raid than because they don’t like me.
What I don’t mention to them is that I’m going dungeon delving with Mikito and Richard instead. Which leads me to today, standing outside my house, waiting for Richard to detach his lips from his latest lady.
“We good to go?” I grumble, leaning against the truck. Damn it, it’s been months since I’ve gotten laid. I know it’s my fault but still…
“We’re waiting—oh, there they are!” Richard nods down the street.
I blink as Aiden and Amelia drive up on a pair of quads. As usual, both quads make no noise at all since they run off the installed Mana engines and batteries, though I’m pretty sure their weaponry wasn’t part of the dealer package. Amelia’s quad has a pair of smaller rifles, each on their own mount, while Aiden has gone for a series of rocket tubes strapped to the side of his quad. I guess heavy weaponry is the new fad post-Apocalypse. I bet road rage has a whole new meaning.
“Hey, toots,” Ali greets the pair, looking at Aiden and his manbun.
As always, Aiden just ignores Ali. I’ve never actually hunted seriously with Aiden though we’ve run into one another on the training sessions. Hopefully, he’ll do fine – it’s one thing to deal with the low-level monsters that surround Whitehorse, another to fight Dungeon monsters. Then again, Richard and Mikito trust him, so I guess I’m going to have to too.
“You guys coming?” I nod to the pair before glancing back at Richard.
“You have any objections?” Richard asks as he gestures his pets onto the truck bed before personally carrying Elsa the fire-breathing pet turtle on board.
The huskies don’t bother the turtle as she settles into her usual spot. Mikito grips the edge of the truck bed before leaping in. Above us, Orel, Richard’s mutated eagle, perches on a chimney, waiting.
“Not at all. Amelia would make a great tank.” I grin.
“Your bike still not fixed?” Amelia asks.
“Not yet.”
“Let’s get going. It’ll take us an hour to drive there and at least another hour to hike in,” Richard says.
I nod, opening the passenger door and sliding in. Richard doesn’t take long before he guns the truck, taking us out of Whitehorse and further north. A brief explanation later and I touch my helmet, pulling up the appropriate communication channel.
“Before we reach the dungeon, let’s talk loot,” I say over the channel while watching out for potential trouble.
“What’s there to talk about?” Aiden’s voice comes clearly over the channel, his West Coast accent tinged with doubt. “We split everything evenly.”
“The Yerick actually use a different system. They give a bigger share to the tanks, the guys taking on the monsters directly, because they have to more stuff to replace. Seemed more fair, whether its potions or armor or just fixing up their weapons.” I detail my recent experience. “I actually thought it was quite appropriate. What do you think?”
“What’s the split?” Aiden asks, his tone doubtful.
I shrug. “I guess we should figure out who’s tanking. Amelia?”
“That’s what I do,” she answers. “How about Richard’s dogs?”
“Well, unless he’s changed recently, they’re mostly kept back a bit to hurt. They harass and deal with leakers so, like Mikito, they don’t really count as tanks,” I reply and get a confirming nod from Richard.
“Great, so we got Amelia as a tank and the rest of us dealing damage. Aiden, I’m assuming you’re our main spellcaster and healer?”
“Yup,” Aiden replies. “Most of my spells are actually support spells, so I’ll be casting them on all of you before we enter. I have a couple of damage dealing spells, but not much.”
I nod slightly, opening my mouth to clarify the split before Mikito speaks up. “John, you should tank too.”
I grunt, rubbing my neck, and nod. “Yeah, I can do that. If you guys don’t mind the pot being split three-fifths to the tanks and the rest among you three.”
“Okay.”
“Yes.”
“Uhh… sure,” Aiden adds last, his voice tinged with doubt.
“John’s a good chew toy. Even without Sabre, he’s very good at soaking up damage,” Mikito clarifies.
Ali smacks his forehead as he listens in on the conversation.
“Why would the bike help?” Amelia asks, and Mikito shuts up, silence hanging in the air. “Guys?”
“Sabre has a few tricks up her sleeve,” I finally answer, grimacing. Well, that cat is partly out of the bag.
“Look, lively people, we’ve got a pair of monkey-horses coming up,” Richard says.
I smile. Good timing, monkey-horse creatures.
“This is a dungeon?” I whisper as we peek over the hill, staring at the encampment laid out before us. A simple wooden wall surrounds a dozen thatched huts, the material for the buildings obviously taken from the surrounding countryside.
“I know, right?” Richard mutters and shakes his head. “Orel found them a week ago, and when he flew over, he got the notification that it was a dungeon.”
“What are those things?” I mutter to Ali, who’s crouched down low too surprisingly.
Beneath us, a small swarm of thin, green, and barely dressed creatures with long ears and big noses scramble around, carrying an array of melee weapons and crude rifles.
“Closest translation I’ve got for you is Goblins. In this case, it actually suits them. They’re... semi-sentient monsters created twenty thousand years ago by a rather mad individual. Give or take a few hundred years. They’re the cockroaches of the Galaxy,” Ali says. “Should be an easy job for you guys.”
“About that…” I frown, shaking my head. “We should report this to the others.”
Richard nods and we head back to where the group is hidden. At his command, the puppies spread out, watching over us as we talk.
Still, I keep my voice low. “So we’ve got a problem guys. Ali…”
I gesture for him to explain about the Goblins.
Amelia frowns, shaking her head. “They have houses?”
“And a wall and a town square. That’s a village down there,” I mutter.
“What’s the problem?” Mikito says, leaning forward and pointing toward the hill. “They’re monsters. We kill monsters because if we don’t, they kill us.”
“Ali said they’re sentient. Maybe we can, you know, talk to them,” I answer. “I’m pretty sure I saw kids.”
“They’re monsters,” Richard says, shaking his head. “They might look human, but they’re not really. Anyway, they’re a dungeon, right, Ali? So they’re not really real either. Just something the System created.”
“Are any of us real anymore then? The System has changed me, you, your puppies drastically. What makes them any less real than you?” Aiden asks, growing intense.
“You siding with them now?” Richard says.
“No, but we should be clear that we are choosing to add to our karmic burden,” Aiden says, lips twisting under his goatee. “We might have no choice to kill to survive, but we must do so with eyes open.”
I do my best not to roll my eyes, though Ali doesn’t bother hiding his snickering.
Amelia shakes her head, crossing her arms. “I came to kill monsters, not little green men.”
“They’re not men. They’re Goblins. Little nasty fuckers who breed like rabbits and, if left unchecked, become a swarm. You don’t want a Goblin swarm. Trust me on this,” Ali says.
“I know what you’re saying, but killing sentients…” My doubt shows in my voice. Ever since I actually talked to Labashi, I’ve been getting occasional nightmares about the Hakarta I killed. Nothing that I can remember, just vague, unsettling memories upon waking. “They haven’t attacked us yet. They’re just living out here peacefully.”
“That’s because they haven’t seen you!” Ali growls. “Trust me, these guys will eat you, your mother, and your bike and ask for seconds.”
Mikito nods firmly. I continue to frown while Amelia keeps her arms crossed in support of me.
Richard rolls his eyes before he finally sighs. “So why don’t we have John try to talk to them then? Ali can translate, right?”
It isn’t that easy of course. As much as I think we should try talking to them, going in dumb is stupid. We plot and plan for half an hour before I finally find myself walking down the hill with Ali floating alongside and grumbling. I understand his reluctance—I’m not entirely happy about the idea either—but since I’m one of the ones protesting genocide, we get the chance to establish peaceful communication.
“Hello, the settlement,” I shout.
Thanks to Ali, my words come out as a weird clicking, grunting noise. Not that I needed to say anything to get their attention. A large number have already started clambering onto the walls, staring at me while wielding crude melee weapons. I shake my head, trying to imagine how anyone could be scared of a bunch of low-level monsters like these, even if they are sentient.
They say nothing, but since they see me, I figure the next step is theirs. Keeping my hands to the side, I walk forward and stop when I get the message.
Dungeon Located!
Warning! The current dungeon has not been categorized at this time due to System limitations. All XP rewards are doubled. Successful completion of the dungeon by a System-registered individual will generate additional rewards.
My nose can’t help but wrinkle as an errant gust brings the smell of unwashed bodies tinged with lemon, rotting garbage, and feces to me. Okay, step one in on-going relations, teaching these guys about soap and water.
“Boy-o,” Ali says worriedly, and my minimap flashes.
I look up and blink as what were a few gray dots have become a flood. “How the…”
I never finish the thought because at an unspoken command, the Goblins open fire, launching a barrage of loud gunpowder slugs and arrows at me. As their attack arcs toward me, they splinter on an invisible barrier that flashes bright white. I snarl, dropping to a knee as I call forth a tower shield from my inventory. I drop it in front of my body as I channel a Lightning Strike spell in my free hand. Aiden’s single-use, short-lived spell, the Guardian’s Embrace, will protect against anything short of a dragon’s breath, but it only lasts a few seconds once activated. It’s his most powerful protective spell but it costs a ton of Mana, which is why he doesn’t use it often.
Even as the spell fades, I see gray dots rushing toward me, Goblins dropping over the wall in a wave. I ignore them, sticking my hand far enough around the shield to direct my spell at the range attackers. Lightning escapes my hand, its sudden appearance leaving behind the familiar pungent, almost chlorine smell of ozone. A blink of an eye and the lightning smashes into a Goblin on the wall. I continue to channel the spell, sweeping the wall and watching the lightning dance from body to body. As corpses fall, I cut off the spell and stand to meet the charging warriors. Now that they’re actually trying to kill me, I’m done dithering over the morality of this.
Behind the warriors, the gate has opened and more Goblins flood out, their four-foot-tall bodies spilling out as they try to close on me. As the first Goblin gets within a few feet of me, they fall back, small holes appearing in their bodies, accompanied by the hiss of fast-moving pellets. Standing to my side, firing in a classic two-handed pose, Amelia guns down the attackers with her modified Gauss pistol. Even as fast as she can shoot, the Goblins make it to me, the first launching itself at my shield to pull it aside for his friends.
As the monster reaches the peak of his jump, I pull the shield back into my inventory and let the Goblin meet my fist. A sickening snap of its neck accompanies the body flying backward into its compatriots before I counter-charge, calling forth my sword. I find myself grinning, killing the very creatures I was attempting to speak with. Truth be told, I’m glad they decided not to talk to me. This is so much simpler. Kill or be killed.
I dance through the monsters, blade appearing and disappearing as swords, pistols, maces, and axes flash around me. I’m no legendary swordsman, no impossible anime character, so I get cut, stabbed, and shot, each blow sapping just a little of my health. Sadly, it’s really hard to stack regeneration effects on an individual. Mostly, you can get away with a spell and a potion, or if you’re really good, two spells. Of course, I’ve also got my Skill, which helps as the creatures keep coming and coming.
As I spin a Goblin around by its arm, using it to clear some space before tossing him into his friends, I spot Amelia. Unlike me, she’s staying still in a single position, a sword in her off-hand. She continues to shoot and stab her enemies while a series of five glowing octagons swoop around her, blocking attacks with impunity. Her face is fixed with a look of grim determination as she fights, moving only when the bodies that pile up around her feet get too deep. Even with her Skill, attacks are sneaking in and she bleeds from a dozen different wounds. It won’t be long before she goes down, just like me.
For once, my little Spirit friend seems to be getting his hands dirty. No nasty spells or just floating in front of monsters, incorporeal. He’s swooping in and out, doling out Superman punches before swooping away. While he stays out of the majority of the fight, he still sports a bruise and a cut along one leg that bleeds blue light.
As good as we are, as high level as we are, the fact that we’re literally getting swarmed is beginning to tell. I slice apart a Goblin who’s latched onto my leg and backhand another trying to jump onto me, even as a third stabs into my collarbone with its dagger and hangs off my body while another drops a mace onto my foot. I snarl, spinning in a circle and loosing a Blade Strike that buys me a few moments, the blue cut of power ripping through Goblins. A few seconds to hear the screams and shouts from the other side of the field as the cavalry finally arrives.
The puppies and Mikito smash into the flank of the horde, their attacks ripping a giant hole into the swarm and relieving the pressure on us. Behind them, Richard fires his shotgun in pellet form, raking the archers and riflemen to keep their heads down. Aiden finishes casting a spell and the earth beneath the wall shifts, heaving and rippling in a mini-earthquake. The wall tears apart, its foundations turned to mud. I watch as he stands there, headphones on to drown out the noise, his face pained even as he begins casting another spell. Reluctant or not, Aiden is doing his job. Above, Orel swoops in to aid us, blades of wind slicing ahead of it as it banks.
“About damn time!” Ali shouts as he floats, finally letting go of the Goblin he hoisted into the air and dropping the monster onto its friends.
Freed for a moment to focus, I raise my hand and channel Lightning, playing it across the screaming Goblins. One after another they fall, twitching, then I’m running to help Amelia, hoping I’m not too late. The pile of Goblin bodies that mark where she fell erupts as I close in on it, reformed shields shoving aside Goblins. I breathe a sigh of relief, casting a quick healing spell on her as I absently cut another monster apart. Surprisingly, she isn’t as badly injured as I thought she would be after seeing her go down.
As the horde flees back into their settlement, broken by the sudden attack on their flanks, I pant in relief, Stamina quickly recovering. At least fifty bodies lie on the field before me, even more fleeing back, and untold numbers hidden underneath the collapsed walls. The puppies rush through the rout, biting and tearing apart Goblins with savage ease. As the creatures reach the wall, Mikito and the puppies pull back, returning to where Richard and Aiden eye the wall, joined soon by Amelia and me.
“I thought you said there was around twenty!” Aiden points out, pulling his headphones off his ears to hear my reply.
“That’s all we saw! What the hell, Ali?” I look at the Spirit, who blinks.
“What? We saw twenty, so of course there’re about four hundred Goblins.” At our incredulous expressions, Ali blinks. “My bad. I forgot you guys don’t know that one. It’s like your cockroaches—see a single cockroach, there’s about another twenty hidden. Goblins live underground mostly, so there’s always a lot more underneath.”
“And what, the most dangerous Goblins live at the bottom?” Amelia says incredulously.
“Don’t be stupid. Goblins like fresh air just like we do. The Chief and his guards live on the surface, the others beneath,” Ali replies.
“Four hundred.” Even Mikito looks a bit daunted by that number.
I can’t help but agree with her. Looking at the carnage around us, as blood cools and adrenaline leaves, a part of me feels sick. Blood, entrails, and limbs lay scattered all around, the fallen already rotting. A part of me wonders what kind of loot we could even get from this.
“Richard, you said there were about four or so that Orel saw a week ago?” I ask, and he nods.
I can see everyone doing the math. Four Goblins equals about eighty monsters. That’s another three hundred that appeared in a week. If left unchecked, these four hundred could become a few thousand in another week. No wonder they called them a horde.
“We started this. We need to finish it,” Richard’s voice grows firm as he gestures toward the settlement. “Ten minutes. We loot what we can, then we finish this.”
I draw in a deep breath, pushing aside my doubts and my nausea. He’s right. There’s a job to finish, and whatever I feel, whatever I think, we need to finish it before the Goblins truly become a threat. I reach for that ocean of anger, letting it rise and bathe me in its cleansing clarity. I bend down, touch the nearest Goblin, and pull up its loot. I flinch slightly as I stare at the ear that hangs in my hand.
Yeah, fuck you too, System. Fuck you too.
Dark warrens with ceilings barely five feet high at times filled with smoke and screams. Flashes of pain as Goblins drop from ceilings or crawl from unseen holes. Fire, thrown in close confines, forcing us to switch to gas masks and helmets. Occasionally, very powerful wind spells by Aiden.
Goblins charging us, again and again, until even Amelia is out of pellets and we’re all fighting hand-to-hand, death wherever we go. Monsters clambering over each other, swarming Mikito and bringing her down by the sheer weight of bodies to stab at her, again and again. The pain which I share with her during the attack as Richard punches, kicks, and smashes Goblins with his rifle, Shadow by his side.
Aiden, headset on to drown out the screams and cries, vomiting in the corner, none of us daring to ask if its Mana exhaustion or something else. A Goblin mother, clutching her child as an impromptu shield, using my moment’s hesitation to plunge her blade into my stomach. Richard forced to call Max back from eating a Goblin’s body.
Flashes of pain and death and brutality and finally, finally we’re done.
One last look, then I give the command, none of the others wanting to do it. Cobbled together and real explosives we placed next to magically weakened supports throughout the dungeon go off. At first, nothing happens beyond a small dust cloud and a tremor. Both grow as the ground collapses beneath the dungeon, the burrows burying the corpses and our memories.
When we leave, the only sign of the dungeon is a deep depression and a few scattered bodies for the ravens and other scavengers. No one says anything, faces drawn and haggard as we walk away, blood dripping from our armor.
Gods, I hate this damn System some days.
Chapter 11
“Minion.” My voice drips with scorn when I walk into the City Council’s offices.
After yesterday’s dungeon and today’s hunt, I figured it was about time I updated the Council’s map with my latest findings. I’ve been popping in every once in a while, letting them know of new monsters, new hazards, and the like. Most of the time, it’s Miranda or one of the many other workers in here. This time, it’s Minion.
“Mr. Lee.” Eric’s lips thin and a little part of me grins. Gods, but I really want to punch that face. Just seeing it makes my fist itchy. “What is your business today?”
“Map update.” I walk over to the table and reach for some paper. At Minion’s raised hands, I blink, then I remember a moment before the screen appears.
Eric Roth would like to share map data with you
(Y/N)
I really, really dislike Minion. Perhaps mostly because he’s just so damn efficient at being a bureaucrat. I agree and watch as he blinks, staring into space from my viewpoint. It only takes him a few moments before he nods, swinging his hand up to dismiss the screen.
“This Goblin dungeon, it’s gone?” he says.
“As gone as we can make it. Best to have someone swing by for the next little while, check it out. At least once every few days.”
He nods, making a note in the air. “Then we are done. Unless there is something else?”
“No.” I turn away then stop, turning back. “Why?”
“Why what, Mr. Lee?” Minion’s voice is cool as he stares at me.
“You know what,” I growl.
“And if I do not answer, you’ll beat it out of me? That’s the thing with you people, isn’t it? It’s all violence and anger, rage and destruction. You stomp through the city acting like you own it and maybe you do, but the rest of us have to pick up after you and your kind. You Adventurers, you’re just waiting for a chance to pick on us, push us around. Damn you all,” says Minion, his voice trembling. Catching himself at the end, he draws a deep breath.
I stare at the small man shouting at me, and I blink as it sinks in. “Adventurers… you hate the Yerick and me because we’re Adventurers?”
“You may leave, Mr. Lee,” Minion says.
“Wait a second. You hate me because I fight to survive? To keep all of us alive?” My voice rising, I stare at the man.
“Very well.” Eric turns and walks to the other office door. He shuts it behind him, leaving me staring at him.
I could have stopped him of course, but then I’d just be using violence to get my way. I shake my head, staring at door. Yeesh… some people.
“Quiet tonight,” I murmur, staring around the Nugget as I enter.
Ali nods and flits over to our usual table. We all needed a break after the Goblin dungeon, so the group split apart to do their own thing after we came back.
Richard, as far as I could tell, was in and around town, doing meetings and ladies in equal amounts. Aiden was back to his books, training and teaching, and I have a feeling he might not come out with us again. Amelia has her duties, and the stink eye I get from Vir tells me he doesn’t approve of her jaunt with us. Or maybe it’s just that he doesn’t approve of me. Mikito, out at our shoddy training grounds, works with hunters and others who want to improve their melee skills. That leaves me as the only one dumb enough to go out hunting still. What can I say? There’s a peace to fighting creatures that don’t talk or scream or have babies.
Of course, that time alone also gives me a chance to check out the fort and speak with the Hakarta. It’s my first visit with them since I’ve made the deal. We both have better things to do I’m sure, and it’s not as if I can gather that much more detail in only a few months. Our talk was both interesting and profitable, though I make note of what they’re asking. Numbers, Classes, defenses, and Roxley’s whereabouts all are prominent in the questioning, but we touch on other matters too, like the number of buildings and the dungeons that have appeared and the food situation. I get the feeling that whatever they’re hunting for or need is hidden in the mess of questions they ask. I’m still not sure if keeping secret the fact that they’ve been asking about us is a good idea, but I don’t entirely trust the Council not to go off their rockers with this information. We’re so busy doing our thing, I’m not entirely sure there is anything the Council could do even if they did know.
Resting against the chair, I nod in gratitude to the waitress who drops off the beer and the appetizers. After all the Credits and loot I’ve picked up, my latest visit to the Shop came with some significant purchases. A thought is all that’s required to pull up my character sheet so I can survey my growth.
Status Screen
Name
John Lee
Class
Erethran Honor Guard
Race
Human (Male)
Level
26
Titles
Monster’s Bane, Redeemer of the Dead
Health
1190
Stamina
1190
Mana
930
Mana Regeneration
65 / minute
Attributes
Strength
72
Agility
114
Constitution
119
Perception
45
Intelligence
93
Willpower
100
Charisma
16
Luck
25
Class Skills
Mana Blade
1
Blade Strike
2
Thousand Steps
1
Altered Space
2
Two are One
1
The Body’s Resolve
1
Greater Detection
1
Instantaneous Inventory*
1
Cleave*
1
Frenzy*
1
Combat Spells
Improved Minor Healing (II)
Greater Regeneration
Improved Mana Dart (IV)
Enhanced Lightning Strike
Fireball
Polar Zone
I’m still disappointed that there wasn’t any particular bonus for crossing one hundred in any attribute. I’d considered it a possibility, and even though I had checked with Ali earlier, it felt as though it should be significant somehow. However, since the numbers themselves are rough approximations of the changes in my body, it does make sense that there’s no benefit. For that matter, I’m being rather human-centric—there’s no particular reason why it had to be a hundred.
“Hey, Ali, does the Council have ‘special’ numbers?” I ask the Spirit, who’s staring at a screen.
“What, like the number eight or ten?” At my nod, he shrugs. “Depends on the race. The Tuinnar really like prime numbers. The Joxin revere the number fourteen. There’s the Prixamars—giant rolling spheres—who find Pi extremely important.”
I nod in thanks before returning to my screen. Interesting but irrelevant. Looking over my Status Screen, I smile slightly at how much better it looks now. I’ve adjusted the screen to display just my combat spells, since those are the ones I’m mostly concerned with. Utility spells like Tinder, Light Orb, Purify Water, Cleanse, and the like just aren’t that that interesting, even if they are useful for everyday life. They’re so useful that Aiden now spends a good two thirds of his class time teaching those spells to others. After all, not everyone needs to throw a fireball, but everyone needs to do laundry and dishes.
Fireball is my new mass monster killer and follows along the line of the old Dungeons and Dragons spell—a small flaming orb that shoots forward before sending a sphere of heat and flame outward. Polar Zone, drops the temperature in a targeted location and slows monsters down. Size of location and temperature drop are dependent upon Mana and how big I make it—the bigger the area, the less of a drop. Of course, the minimum area I can target is about ten feet wide. It’s a pretty good crowd control spell and does some minor damage, but mostly, it’s my anti-forest fire spell. Throwing around fireballs in a dry forest is a bad, bad idea. It’s also why I still prefer Lightning Strike.
One thing I’m holding off on is purchasing more direct protection Spells and Skills since at Level 30, I’ll be able to access Soul Shield, my Class Shield Skill. I’ve fast come to realize that you’re constantly trading off between acquiring passive Skills, which are powerful but reduce your regeneration rates, with active Skills and Spells that require Mana to operate. It’s why even Mages wear armor in this world—after all, other than Credits, it costs nothing to purchase nano-woven armor that could stop a “normal” sword stab.
Of course, theoretically I could just spend the Credits and buy an active protection spell or Skill. The trade-off of purchasing something now is that if I could earn it later on, I’d be wasting Credits now that could be spent on upgrading my equipment. As it stands, I’ve begun to realize that having both the System Inventory and Altered Space abilities is quite broken.
Altered Space lets me ignore a whole series of knowledge areas that most professional Adventurers, like the Yerick, have to learn. For most Adventurers, picking up the basics of monster lore and anatomy is very important, along with basic Skills in skinning and harvesting. Most monster corpses have only a few parts that the Alchemists and Armorers want. Knowing what they are is an important secondary source of Credits and can add anywhere from ten to fifteen percent to your days earnings. Harvesting the bodies for parts with a Skill lets you place them in your inventory, so most Adventurers dedicate time or money to learning those Skills. I just ignore the problem by tossing entire bodies into my Altered Space and letting the butchering yard deal with it.
In addition, because I’ve got a secondary and significantly larger form of storage, I don’t have to husband my inventory space. Working with the Yerick, I realized that many of them carry numerous other pieces of equipment with them on a “typical” Adventure. These range from extra sets of clothing, spare armor, weapons, and potions to more mundane equipment like ropes, living accommodations, food, water, and light sources. Then you get the specialized toys—directional explosives, mines, portable shield barriers, and drones for scouting to name a just few.
All of those things take up a ton of space but make dungeon delves and combat safer. Of course, the more you carry in inventory, the less space you have for Loot. Since I don’t have to worry about space, I’ve been devoting surplus Credits to adding to my “normal” loadout in the hopes of giving myself more options in the future. I might never need a dozen Claymores and a half-dozen bounding mines or over fifty grenades in various forms, but if I ever do, at least I’ve got them.
I’ve been tempted repeatedly in the last few weeks to add more points into my Mana Imbue, increasing the damage output of my sword. Fighting at range is a nice idea, but between dungeons, where visibility is about five meters at most, and monsters that need multiple shots to kill, I’ve found myself in close combat more often than not. Compared to the Yerick, I’m just not hitting hard enough. On the other hand, my Mana Regeneration is already suffering from my numerous passive Skills and I’m really curious to see what a Thousand Blades is like in combat. After all, if I can hit a dozen times rather than once, a minor increase in damage will definitely be negated.
My thoughts about my build—and damn Jason for making me think of it in that way—is interrupted as Lana drops into a seat next to me, snagging a chicken wing as she does so.
“Hey, beautiful,” Ali greets her. “You’re looking tired.”
“I am.” Lana flashes him a smile that washes away her exhaustion for a brief moment. “John.”
“Lana. You okay?” I look around once more, noting again that only a few tables are full.
“Just been a long day.” Lana shakes her head, worry lines appearing between her eyebrows again. “Finding someone to run this place after the last manager quit has been a pain.”
“Ah!” I nod slowly. That explains her absence in the evenings for the last week and her constant presence here. “Quiet today. There something going on that I missed?”
“Tons!” Ali quips while we both ignore him.
“The Cellar reopened today. They’ve got lower prices and a human-only policy,” Lana says tiredly, looking around the Nugget. “A lot of the regulars decided to check it out.”
“Who bought it?” I say.
“Bill.” Lana’s voice rises slightly at the mention of his name. “He picked up the motel next to it at the same time and put the same policies in place. I hear there’s work being done on the restaurant that was located in the motel too.”
“Huh.” I look around the Nugget again, wondering if the lowered volume will affect the viability of the business. I frown, trying to recall Lana’s ramblings about the business before I quickly realize that I don’t have the details to make an educated assessment. “I guess that’s what’s stressing you out?”
“Mmm… not really. He’s still buying most of his alcohol from the brewery, so either way, we win. And maybe this way the newcomers will start coming by more,” Lana adds.
I nod. The Yerick, mostly led by Capstan, started showing up at the Nugget in the last few weeks, but the Truinnar continue to stay to themselves, preferring to live, sleep, and relax in their quarters in Roxley’s building. Vir’s about the only Truinnar we see in the Nugget, and his obsidian skin and white hair always get more than a few stares.
Looking at the plates before me, Lana says, “Are you okay?”
“Hmm…?” I answer as I chew on a mouthful of wontons.
“There are only four plates here. That’s about half of what you normally eat.” Lana points.
I look at the food before shrugging. “Huh. Funny story about that.”
“I could use a laugh,” Lana replies.
“Boy-o here gets hangry. The Yerick started feeding him every few hours and he stopped being as bitchy,” Ali cuts in before I can say anything.
I growl at the Spirit, who just shoots me a wide smile.
“Oh,” Lana says, her eyes twinkling as she tries not to laugh.
Yeah, yeah… so maybe part of my anger control issues are due to low blood sugar. Real funny.
“Hey, sis.” Richard bends down to give the top of Lana’s head a quick kiss.
She glares and swipes at him tiredly while he chuckles, taking a seat. Richard’s latest girl flashes us a quick smile, dropping into a seat as well. Both of them have that weird, too clean look of someone who just got hit with a Cleanse spell. Useful spell, as I said, but it’s particularly harsh on clothing and creates this weird dichotomy where the clothing itself looks factory fresh but any wear then shows through in stark contrast.
“Dick. Patti,” Ali says, and I nod in welcome to both newcomers.
“The Cellar’s busy. I saw a pair of Amelia’s people standing nearby, keeping an eye on the crowd. Rumor has it that they don’t intend to close at all,” Richard says without preamble, waving to the waitress and holding up a pair of fingers.
“How did Fred take it?” Lana says.
“Kicked up a fuss at the meeting today. Of course, Bill’s just ignoring him so far. Fred even mentioned maybe taking it up with Roxley.” Richard shakes his head.
Fred must be at his wit’s end if he’s asking for Roxley’s help—the alien interloper, as Fred likes to call him.
“Why is the Cellar being open all hours a problem?” Patti asks, her brow furrowed.
I smile at Richard’s latest girl, who has managed to last three days so far. That’s pretty surprising. Of course, the way Richard is eyeing the waitress as she bends over to serve him, Patti’s days might be numbered. At this point, if a woman in town doesn’t know about Richard’s womanizing, she’s either catatonic or completely socially inept.
“Because Fred is Mayor No Fun and wants us back to ten o’clock closings,” Richard says.
“It’s more complicated than that,” Lana corrects, holding up a finger. “We’ve always had a problem with alcoholism. While a lot of the active alcoholics didn’t make it, quite a few of those who were on the wagon have relapsed. Limiting the hours the Nugget was open helped reduce the temptation and the times they could drink, which gave us potential windows to help, well, sober them up.”
“If they die off, isn’t that better for us?” Patti asks, brown eyes glittering.
“Cold…” Ali grins. “I like you.”
Richard looks startled as she says that. He opens his mouth then shuts it then tries again. “It’s, well, shouldn’t we try to help them?”
“Why?” Patti shakes her head. “They’re just a drain on our resources. We don’t have the, the space for them, you know.”
“But they’re humans, like us. We just can’t discard them to the wayside,” Richard protests.
“We’re not discarding them, we’re letting them choose,” Patti points out. “I didn’t put the bottle in their hands. They did. If they choose, isn’t that better for us?”
“If they aren’t useful now, we should just let them die if they want to?” Lana states, and when Patti turns to her and nods, Lana huffs out a breath. “You know, a lot of people have said that. A lot.”
“Yeah, see? We should do that,” Patti reiterates.
“Except if everyone did that, most of us would be dead,” Lana points out. “John saved us when we couldn’t fight off a Troll. Roxley put his guards into place to save the city when we couldn’t fight off the spawns. Richard, Jim, John, and the rest, they’ve all taken the hunters out again and again to level them. Part of being human is that we all stumble sometimes. We all need help sometimes,” the last is said while Lana faces me, her violet eyes somber.
“When is enough? When do we say that’s it?” Patti says, hand clenching her pint glass. “When do the rest of us get to live our lives and stop sacrificing for the useless? We’re dying out there. We go out, we kill the monsters, and we bring back the food, and the Council tells us it’s not enough. Never enough. And then we go out again and we die because we’re too damn tired or under-resourced. When do we get to stop?”
“Well, that is the question, isn’t it?” Lana murmurs, seemingly unaffected by the anger Patti shows. Then again, she’s dealt with me for months now. A little leaked frustration is small potatoes. “Who are you with?”
“I’m in Wigmore’s group. That’s how I met Richard.”
Taking the opening, Lana adroitly steers the conversation to something a little less controversial, getting Patti to talk about how she and Richard met. I tune it out, focusing on my meal, and catch a glimpse of Richard staring at Patti with a bit of a shocked expression.
A large, stocky man trundles in. “Pearson!”
Both redheads look up and he points straight at Richard. Behind him, a young lady scrambles around the enraged man, calling for him to calm down.
“Uhhh…” Richard looks confused, his gaze flicking to the girl then back to the man.
“You slept with my wife!” The man stomps over, shoving a table aside and sending it crashing to the floor.
Richard stands up quickly, setting himself for a fight.
“No!” Lana snaps, her Red Queen Aura snapping on. Everyone freezes, dread kicking them in the stomach while she adds, “Take it outside. Both of you!”
Richard blanches at her words, casting an imploring gaze at his sister.
She snaps at him, “Now!”
Richard moves, staying outside of the man’s reach, and when he’s halfway to the door, Lana snaps off the Aura. The man has already turned, his feet happy to obey the instructions of “get away from the scary woman.”
As Richard reaches the door, he’s followed by one last instruction from his sister. “No pets!”
“Not helping him?” I say to Lana while Ali heads off to enjoy the show, already calling out for bets on the winner.
“I warned him this might happen. He’s a big boy. The pain won’t last long,” Lana says, shaking her head. “Idiot.”
“You not worried he’s going to beat up the husband?”
Lana shakes her head. “He might be an idiot, but he’s got a good heart. He’ll take his beating.”
I chuckle softly, and then remembering Patti, I shoot her a look.
She snorts, shrugging. “Before my time.”
“Right,” I add, voice doubtful.
She doesn’t bother explaining herself, and after a moment, I let it go. None of my business after all. The table falls into an awkward silence, punctuated by shouts and cheers from outside as the beating draws a crowd.
Richard finally comes back, sporting a deep shiner and holding his side. “She told me he was dead.”
Patti just shakes her head at him, though there’s the ghost of a smile on her face.
Lana, on the other hand, props her head on a hand while asking, “How did he find out?”
“So about that…” Richard clears his nose, blowing clotted blood into a tissue. “Congratulations? You’re going to be an aunt!”
“Didn’t you fix that?” Lana almost shouts, and he winces.
“I thought so! I think the Beast’s Vitality actually overrode the System fix. I guess going for the cheapest option might not have been the smartest thing,” Richard says sheepishly.
“What are you going to do about it?” Lana’s voice is calmer, though colder.
Patti’s lips are thin and tight, the smile gone as she waits for Richard to answer.
“I don’t think I’m wanted, you know? She’s keeping it, but, yeah…”
“So you’re going to leave her, them, alone?” Patti asks, her voice cold.
Richard looks away from his sister and pales even further. “No. Yes. They don’t want me, I think. I…” Richard draws a deeper than normal breath, wincing. “I just let myself get beaten, damn it. Let me, you know, process this. Figure it out.”
Patti’s eyes flash, and she gets up. “Well, when you figure it out, don’t bother calling me.”
Richard opens his mouth to protest then shuts it with a clack.
Ali, who has finally returned, catches the last couple of sentences before Patti strides out. “I really like her. Can we keep her?”
Chapter 12
“Aiden!” I scream as I grab the stinger coming at my face and use it to throw the gray, eight-legged, bastardization of a scorpion at its friends. Three pairs of eyes and a mouth, with rows of needle sharp teeth, that take up the entire torso help complete the horror of a monster.
Mikito steps back, the naginata glowing with red light as it cuts through the claw targeting her head. Her movement opens up a space for another of the creatures to scramble past, but the monster is blocked by Max as the husky teleports in close enough to tear off a leg.
Aiden claps and the ground ahead of us rises up, earth turned to mud that swamps monsters that attempt to push past it and then hardens. The entrance before us blocked off, we turn our concentrated attention on the remaining monsters. I snarl, severing a stinger that pins Bella to a wall before booting the monster away from the puppy. As the monster rises, I throw my Mana Darts into its face before following up with a Blade Strike that kills the creature. Together, Max, Shadow, and Richard finish off a third while Aiden freezes a monster for Mikito to kill.
Frakin (Level 58)
HP: 980/980
As I dash over to tackle the last Frakin, the impromptu wall cracks.
I snap a command immediately. “Go! Ali, lead them out.”
The group listens for once, fleeing for the exit as I dance back from a pincer strike and cast another group of Mana Darts into the monster’s face. As it rears back, I channel a Blade Strike to rip off its legs, accidentally tearing down a part of the wall. Scrambling through a crack, one of the Frakin gets stuck and chitters angrily. All the monsters on this side are either crippled or dead, so I run for the exit too. It doesn’t take long to reach the entrance to the cavern, where I slap down a pair of bounding mines. A short distance away, I chain together three of the modified claymores before adding the laser tripwire. I spin around, watching as the last of the wall breaks free and the monsters clamber over each to get to us. Bastards. I take the time to cast Polar Zone to slow them down further to give my friends a little more of head start.
Preparations complete, I run down the passage, headed for the dungeon’s entrance. Gods, I hope I’ve bought us enough time.
I didn’t. Thankfully, Aiden took the time to narrow the dungeon entrance before he ran for it. Made for an uncomfortable moment for me, but it was even harder for the damn Frakin to escape. We find ourselves regrouping a distance away, the monsters having decided to give up after circling the entrance for a bit.
“Bella okay?” I ask.
Richard nods grimly, running a hand over his dog. The wounds seem to have closed up pretty well, but he still spends some time looking her over carefully.
“We nearly died!” Aiden says, sounding half-panicked.
For a moment, I pity him. Second time out with me to a dungeon and it’s the second time we’ve run into something outside of our league.
“Easy,” Mikito says, placing a hand on Aiden’s arm.
Aiden looks at it then draws a deep breath, actually saying, “Ommm,” as he tries to center himself.
“He’s right,” Richard adds, standing up slowly. “Those things were tough.”
“Level 55 to 60,” I clarify, and the startled looks from the group makes me smile grimly.
“You can read levels?” Aiden says, pointing at me.
“Yes.” I pause before looking at the others. “We can’t tackle that dungeon alone. We’re going to need more help if we want to do it.”
“Can we smoke them out?” Mikito asks.
I contemplate the question. Last time, we basically poisoned a group of Crilik Shifters in their lair, choking them out with carbon dioxide and a lack of oxygen.
“No idea. It’s a thought.” I swallow to clear my throat once again. “So… another dungeon?”
“Uhh…” Aiden looks worried.
“I know one around here that’s Level 20. The Yerick and I cleared it a few weeks ago. Should be ready for another group,” I add.
The others nod slowly. As good as the bonuses for checking and clearing new dungeons are, we still have to deal with the existing ones too. Anyway, something a little easy would help settle Aiden’s nerves.
After receiving agreement from everyone, we head out while I get Ali to bookmark this location. We’ll be back, one way or the other.
“You okay?” I ask Aiden as he leans against a tree, breathing slowly and regularly.
The others are seated in a loose circle watching the dungeon entrance, slowly relaxing after coming out of the dungeon. A Level 20 dungeon with this group was a cakewalk and we blasted through the location within a few hours. The only thing that slowed us down was the mazelike corridors that had changed in configuration since the last time I was there.
Aiden looks up, pulling his headphones down as I repeat my question. He opens his mouth, glances to the side where the puppies are tearing happily into their lunch and our most recent nemesis—a creature that vaguely resembled a hippopotamus without its sunny disposition—and turns a little green again. Once more, Aiden shuts his eyes and forces himself to breathe. “I’ll be fine. I just need a moment.”
“You sure?” I ask, slightly concerned. I can’t understand him, not really. Aiden did well in the dungeon and every time we’ve been attacked, but now, when things are quieter, he’s panicking and looking like he’s about to throw up.
“Yes. I just need to find my center. And stop looking at… that.” He waves toward where the dogs are ripping into the body, tearing off chunks of flesh and gulping it down. The crunch of bones and the wet, tearing noises of their meal ripple through the clearing, making Aiden flinch every time. He’s the only one who seems disturbed by it, probably because the three of us are much more used to this scene.
“Okay then.” I pause, considering. “Mind if I ask a personal question?”
“Maybe. It depends on how personal,” Aiden says.
“Why are you out here? You’ve got a pretty good gig in the city, teaching and training. You might not earn as much as a hunter, but I can’t see you being poor.”
“Don’t want me here?”
I shake my head. “I’ll take all the competent help I can get.”
“I need to Level,” Aiden replies. “It’s, well, I need it. Leveling is the only way to be safe in this world. I need more Skills, more Spells, all of it. Being weak in this world, you die.”
“Yeah, there’s not much space for the weak.” I look around us, at the corpse of the monster being torn to bits. “You going to be okay doing this then?”
“Yes. I have to be.” Aiden slowly straightens up, exhaling one last time. “How about you? Why do you do it?”
I open my mouth then shut it, lips twisting wryly. “Well, I’m kind of stupid.”
I’m running back through the evening summer sunlight, breathing in clear, clean air filled with fallen pine needles and the remaining spring flowers. I enjoy the fresh air, especially after having just escaped the twisted, poisoned air of the land behind me. The world is changing and so is our environment. The trees in that particular location have warped to become poisonous, releasing a nearly undetectable toxin that starts doing damage only after it hits a certain toxicity level. If it hadn’t been for my Class Resistances and my greater than normal regeneration rates, I’d never have escaped. I’ve got the location mapped, and I’ll need to come back at some point to work out how large and how dangerous a threat these new trees are.
At the least, after escaping the trees, hunting was good. I even found a relatively newly spawned Boss. I only needed to wade through a half-dozen of its minions before I got my chance to chop off its twisted, bulbous legs then carve its heart out. I know it sounds gruesome, but I couldn’t figure out where its head was in the weird, knobby sphere that made up its body. Cutting bits and bobs off it didn’t seem to actually kill it, so heart it was. Sometimes, mass violence is the only answer.
Coming in from the wrong side of the river, I decide to dive in and swim across. I don’t like the water, but considering it’ll take me all of three strokes before I’m across, it’s a lot better than running to the nearest bridge. One day perhaps I’ll be able to bridge the distance with one solid jump.
Running through the industrial lands that make up this part of the city, I can’t help but note how the buildings have begun to come apart. Wood rots, plants grow between cracks, and roofing sags under the onslaught of untamed Mana. Without being brought into the System, these buildings will eventually come apart at the seams—unless they get converted into something else of course.
First stop for today is the butchering yard, then the Shop. By the time I reach Whitehorse, even at the slow jog I’m moving at, I’m nearly dry. Love these high-tech one-piece suits, even if this one needs replacing soon. Somehow, a wild boar had made its way into the wild and doubled in size with some truly nasty tusks. I hadn’t even heard it coming till it was on me, which was surprising in itself. Either way, the armor took most of the damage but would need fixing.
A crowd around the butchering yard isn’t unusual. The size of this crowd is, and I find myself slowing down, checking for potential problems. I find it in the haggard-looking form of Rachel and another member of the Brothers of the Wolf. Jim stands next to them, speaking softly while the crowd mill around the trio.
“…not your fault…”
Reading Jim’s lips from this distance is hard with the way the crowd keeps shifting, so I give up, instead threading my way through the group. My eyes narrow slightly as I note it’s a mixture of First Nation civilians and hunters.
“You should rest,” Jim murmurs, putting a hand on the shoulders of the pair.
Rachel flinches away from his hand, and the young First Nation teenager’s face is filled with tears but obstinate.
“No. We have to go back, we have to help them!” Rachel cries, looking around desperately for help and latching on to me. “John! Please. You have to help me. Please!”
“Uhh…” I pause as the crowd parts. I step forward, looking between Rachel and Jim while the other teenager continues to shake.
“Please!” Rachel rushes up to me and grabs my hand. I let her take it, staring at her as she blurts out, “I couldn’t… they told me to run. But they were stuck, we’ve got to save them. Please.”
My eyes widen slightly and I look at Jim, who shakes his head ever so slightly. I draw a deep breath, looking at the distraught girl, then nod slowly. “Okay, I’ll go. Ali, map projection.”
When the map comes up, Ali shares it with Rachel. who bites her lip, staring at the map. She stares at it for so long that I have to clear my throat.
“I don’t know. I… I’ll just show you,” Rachel blurts out.
“No. You’re not going, Rachel,” Jim says, his voice brooking no argument.
He glares at me, but I ignore him, focusing on the other kid, who has begun to stare at the map too. “Kid, do you know where you were?”
“I… maybe.” He raises a hand then lowers it.
“If you tell me, I’ll go. Alone,” I urge him, holding out the carrot of rest.
He presses a hand to the map and I watch as a small blinking dot appears. I nod in thanks.
Rachel grabs at my arm again. “I’m coming.” Her voice breathy and desperate, she digs her fingers into my arm.
“No.” As she opens her mouth to protest, I cut her off. “You’ll just slow me down.”
She clamps her mouth shut, knowing that I can move faster than she can. Her goal complete, she deflates, tears refilling her eyes and running down her face. “Please, save them.”
“I’ll check out the spot.” My voice soft, I make sure not to promise anything.
Another woman comes up, grabs Rachel by her arm, and pulls on her. The tired young lady gives in, letting herself be led away.
Jim looks at me, his eyes dark. “I’m coming. Unless you think I’ll slow you down too.”
“Got a truck?” I murmur, keeping my voice low to ensure Rachel can’t hear.
He nods, and I gesture for him to get moving. Jim’s lined face tightens as he turns and leads me to a nearby red pickup. A pair of hunters peel off to join us. As he puts his hand on the door, he’s stopped by a toddler who rushes his legs, hugging his body.
He bends down, rubbing the child’s head. “I’ll be fine, Aya. I’ll be fine. I got to go.”
She hugs his leg again, refusing to let go, and finally has to be pried off by a harried-looking youngster.
I keep silent till we’re out of the gates, following the map we’ve shared with Jim. “Your granddaughter?”
“Yes,” Jim answers tartly. I nod as he puts his foot to the accelerator, taking corners a little faster than I’d like. After a time, he says what we both know. “They’re dead, you know.”
“I know. Do you have more details?”
Jim falls silent, chewing on his thoughts. “Not much. They were sweeping the area, looking for Boss monsters. It seems like they found one.”
“Levels? Type? Strength?” I ask, and Jim shakes his head.
Joy.
“Ali, how far can you range now?” I ask my Spirit, watching as we slowly, ever so slowly, close in on the dot.
“About five kilometers from you in these Mana densities. You want me to check it out when I can?” Ali asks.
I just nod. It’s better than nothing, and Greater Awareness should keep us safe enough while he’s gone.
“Can do, boy-o,” Ali says.
I close my eyes for a moment. There were six Brothers before Rachel joined, so if one came home with her, we lost five. And they were some of our most promising new hunters to come out from our training program.
I bite my lip, forcing myself not to curse as we make our way through the forest and carefully hike up the mountain. Jim and his hunters are so damn slow. I could have run to the marker by now! I push the anger down, knowing it isn’t worth it. It took us nearly an hour and a half to drive out this far and Rachel would have taken just as long, if not longer, to come back. Whatever happened happened a long time ago, and rushing now would add nothing but four more bodies.
Still, I can’t help my impatience. I’ve released my drone as well as Ali in the hopes of picking up more information, but unfortunately, the drone was smashed an hour after release. A massive bug launched itself from the treetop and landed on it, ripping fuselage and wings off before attempting to feast on my expensive piece of junk. Since Ali can only range a set distance from me, I’m stuck waiting as we hike the rest of the way in.
I grit my teeth, and to stop myself from killing anyone, I pull another chocolate bar from my inventory and chew on it. The taste, the motions, the sugar rush all help a little. Jim flicks a glance to me, his lips tightening, but he says nothing as the group sneaks forward. I wonder if he’s more annoyed that I’m better than his group is at sneaking or that I’m eating. One of the benefits of my Subterfuge Perk is that I’m quite practiced at these stealth skills.
“Okay, boy-o, I need you to keep calm when I report,” Ali states the moment he’s back in range.
I can see him flying back as fast as his little body will take him even as we converse mentally. “What?” I feel the anger I’ve been repressing surge and I have to fight it back by breathing slowly and deeply to regain control. “Just tell me. Please.”
“I found their bodies. They’re all dead, and the monsters, well, they’re doing what monsters do.”
“They’re eating the corpses,” I say out loud, alerting Jim to Ali’s information.
“Yes,” Ali sends to me, concern in his mental voice.
I freeze in place, not saying a thing, not moving as I process this information. I can’t move, because if I do, if I let my control go for even a second, I think I’ll charge the monsters. I see Haines Junction again, the bodies of the townsfolk, the children torn apart, cooked and eaten. Bones and bodies, so many of them. I shudder, my body shaking with repressed rage.
In.
Out
In.
Out.
Slowly, so slowly, my rage comes under control. I force it down, apply rigid control on myself. So many years of learning to accept that all I can control is myself. What is, is. I can’t make them live again. I can’t save them. They’re already dead.
All I can do is kill their murderers and build a pyre from their bodies.
“Talk to me, Ali. Tell me what I’m facing.”
Four Xu’dwg’hkkk Beasts left, including the Alpha. The Brothers left three of the Xuds as corpses. Unfortunately, each of these monsters has high 40s, low 50s levels and the Alpha is a mid-50 Alpha. The Yerick or my old team, we could have taken all four. I don’t trust my chances with Jim and his friends, not in a straight fight.
The Xuds are each around thirty feet long, clad in blue scales, with an extremely long neck, a stub of a tail, and a horn that rises from its head. The scales absorb energy beams, redirecting any electrical energy they receive to their horns, making the monsters nearly impervious to energy weaponry. Not a problem for Jim, since his team still sticks to slug throwers, but since I wield a beam rifle, I’ll either have to stick to magic or get in close. No puppies to aid me this time.
By the time Ali has finished explaining what we’re facing and described the Xuds to Jim, he and his friends are looking a little worried.
“Can we?” Jim asks.
“Not directly,” I answer, thinking furiously. I pull up the map, looking for an answer, but find no convenient gullies, caves, or terrain features to aid us. “Ali?”
“Nothing. Usual assortment of spike elms, sticky pine, and some new bladed asp leaves, but nothing that’ll kill the Xuds,” Ali answers, knowing what I want.
Jim looks grim for a moment before his gaze slips to his friends. At last, he shakes his head and I see his friends relax.
“You guys should get going,” I say.
“You’re not coming?”
“No. I’ve got a lesson to be teaching.”
“John, you can’t be serious,” Jim says gruffly. “That’s suicidal.”
“Maybe. Don’t worry about it. I’m not one of your charges, and this, this is what I do,” I say, a smile pulling on my face. Oh yes, this is what I do.
Jim hesitates, looking conflicted before he shakes his head finally. “No. I’m staying.”
“No. You’re not. You’ve got a grandchild and others waiting on you. Go home. Take care of them. Do the right thing. The smart thing.”
Jim’s face hardens, getting mulish until his friend puts a hand on his arm and whispers something. Since I don’t speak Southern Tutchone, I don’t know what is said, but it’s enough to make Jim relent.
“Don’t die,” he says.
“Not the plan.” I point at his rifle. “I do want to borrow that though. And any ammunition you have.”
Ali stays silent for a few minutes after Jim and the group depart, then he berates me. “Do we have to do this every Goblin’s vomit time? And what kind of insanity have you thought of this time? Going to call a dragon to eat them? Or maybe a Troll?”
“No. I’m going to do this myself.” I absently heft the weapon Jim has provided me. Nice little slug thrower, fully powered by a Mana engine with armor piercing rounds and a decent scope.
“Oooh, you going to stab them to death? Shoot them with your pea shooter?”
“No.” I smile. “Relax. I have a plan.”
“I really, really am growing to hate those words,” Ali says out loud, and I grin at the little Spirit.
This is not a smart plan. This isn’t even a particularly creative plan. It takes hours of setup, hours of backbreaking labor, most of which Ali spends telling me how wasteful an activity all this is. I eventually threaten him with banishment to shut him up. Finally, I’m ready.
I sneak up on the monsters, getting close enough that I can eyeball them from a distance.
Xu’dwg’hkkk Beast (Level 48)
HP: 2880/2880
Xu’dwg’hkkk Beast - Alpha (Level 55)
HP: 3780/3780
Get close enough to see them. Aim and fire, targeting the eyes, and hope to blind them. At the end of the day, the goal is to get their attention and make them chase me. Run, spin, and shoot when they get bored. Dodge the blasts of electricity and be grateful for the stupid Lightning Squirrels upping my resistance when I do get hit.
Run, duck, dodge, and fight, keep moving to the target location. Thankfully, it’s not too far, and even more thankfully, unthinking aggression is something the System seems to favor in its monsters. X marks the spot and I’m finally here with a hundred-meter lead. Simple.
X is a steep cliff, about five meters above a small forested clearing. The cliff’s not high enough for it to hurt if they fell off the edge normally, but it’s high enough for my purpose. I leap off the cliff, slam into the ground, and spin, calling forth my sword and a Blade Strike at the same time. The Xuds follow, getting ready to jump, the Alpha already charging up another shot.
I’m not targeting them though—I’m targeting the cliff face. Or more specifically, I’m targeting the remaining columns of stone and earth that hold up the cliff. I hit them, one after the other, with my Blade Strikes as the creatures get ready to jump, their weight and the weakened structures giving way into a mini landslide.
That’s when they get to learn about my second surprise underneath the ground of the clearing. I’d considered leaving the ground as an open pit, but I wasn’t entirely sure the landslide would work. If it didn’t, at least if the pit was covered, they might still jump. As it stands, the monsters, the remains of the cliff, and the light covering I placed over the pit all crash into the deep, deep hole I’ve dug.
I hate manual labor. I really do. I had to cut down a tree to make an improvised shovel just so that I could dig into the ground and the cliff before I could take the clumps of dirt into my Altered Space. Once that was filled, I had to dump the accumulated dirt a distance away and repeat the process. The good news is that my altered attributes made the manual labor tedious, not impossible. The bad news is that even with never-ending Stamina, just to make this happen before the end of the day, I had to add another point to my Altered Space. That gave me a much larger dimensional space and gave Ali a higher degree of control over it too. It made the work much easier, especially since I needed a pit big enough to fit four thirty-foot-long monsters.
The dust-filled air when the landslide eventually stops is enough to make me cough. When I peer inside, the Xuds are still moving, attempting to climb up. I decide to put a stop to that.
“Ali?”
The Spirit flies up high into the air and concentrates, pulling open my Altered Space right next to himself and dropping its contents inside. Stone and chopped trees rain down, smashing into the monsters. The moment the space is empty, Ali flits off to collect more while I cast my Fireball Spell inside to distract the monsters.
We bury the Xuds alive, their bodies pounded under tons of earth and rock, unable to get enough of a purchase to climb out. When we finally get the last notification of their deaths, all that can be seen is a small depression filled with churned earth and stone. I mentally message Ali then turn back to collect the remains of the Brotherhood.
This wasn’t a fight. This was an execution. I wish I could say that I’m happier, that I’m less angry, but all I feel is a caustic, churning sea of rage in my stomach. I almost wish I had fought them straight on—at least I’d have felt a little better.
Chapter 13
By the time I get back, its mid-afternoon of the next day. The guards at the wall nod at me, only one of them looking slightly startled. Halfway down the stretch of road to the city, I’m met by a hunter who drives me the rest of the way and drops me off at the reclaimed Kwanlin Dun Cultural Center. I leave the bodies to their people before I walk to the City Center and the Shop.
Gods, but I’m tired. I don’t bother with haggling or arguing, instead sending the Spirit, who never seems tired, to deal with it. I crash on the lounge chair, eyes half closed, but soon enough I get bored. I pull out another of my books, happy enough to catch up on my “light” reading. Others might find window shopping in the Shop interesting, but I’ve never liked it. Tempting myself with what I can’t afford just seems like a waste of time. Picking up Adventuring equipment, the Credits for fixing up Sabre and the Skills that I could use in the future, Ali and I have this mapped out. The rest—well, the rest is teasing.
“‘Mana Allocation and the Development of Monsters in Dungeons.’” The voice is relaxed, cultured, and familiar.
As I look up, I see a pair of shapely legs in tight black pants with silver piping and a vest-and-tunic ensemble in the same design encasing a well-muscled, toned body. Dark skin, tipped ears, and silver hair complete the portrait of a very handsome Tuinnar noble.
“Not your regular reading,” he says.
“Lord Roxley.” My lips twist in a light smile, a part of me happy to see him. The last time we met, he was lecturing me on my many mistakes. Since then, he’s been a no-show in the city. “Where have you been?”
“Away. I have had to deal with some of the issues from the Yerick’s arrival in person,” Roxley says, and I frown. “Our first major batch of colonists having their buildings destroyed has not been particularly good for my recruitment efforts. I have been attempting to attract others.”
“Others…” I frown. “You’re trying to bring in more people?”
“Of course. The City is not sustaining itself currently. Cannot sustain itself. Certainly not before the deadline. When the System is fully online, when the Dungeon World is created, we must be ready.”
“You’re talking in riddles again,” I grumble as I stand, dropping the book back into my inventory.
“Perhaps if your reading was a little more practical,” Roxley says, shaking his head. “Not so esoteric…”
“I like what I’m reading.” My eyes narrow. “Anyway, I used to have someone who was willing to explain the more mundane.”
“Used to.” Roxley tilts his head and sighs, stepping forward to close the distance. “I was not the one who left first.”
“I…” I open my mouth, suddenly finding it dry as he closes on me. I stare at his shoulders then upward, shaking my head. “Roxley... what’s ready?”
A corner of his lips tug up in a well-remembered movement. Still, he answers me. “Whitehorse must have, at the very least, a stable safe zone. Without it, none but the desperate will visit us.”
“Is that so bad? Seems like it’s not a bad idea to have the tourists ignore us.”
“You’re so ignorant, John,” Roxley says, heat rising in his voice. “Already Boss monsters and dungeons appear around the city constantly. My guards have had to deal with one swarm. Soon, the monster population will grow too great and the city will be overrun. Without a steady stream of Adventurers, the city will fall.
“Your people have been unable to stabilize the Mana flows through your own efforts. I have attempted, I am attempting, to draw others to us. But we are not the only city in need of immigrants, and the actions of your Council do not aid me in this.”
“You’re saying things are going to get worse,” I murmur, and he nods.
“Have you not seen it already?”
“Yes,” I sigh.
“We have an opportunity. The city has an opportunity. We have a large population and the most proximate locations to a series of high level zones. However, none of that will matter if we do not stabilize the city and upgrade the city itself.” Roxley’s voice softens as he continues. “If there is no improvement my efforts, my methods will be considered a failure.”
“Then what?” I frown, hearing the thread of worry in his voice.
“Then others of my kind, or worse, will take over. Their methods will be harsher, more inclined to use the Galactic population than mine.”
I blink at Roxley, my mind racing with the implications of his words. Hints from conversations with the Yerick and Ali give me a bleak picture of what “harsher” methods might be in store. Still… “Why tell me? Why now? Why here for that matter?”
“I am currently not on Earth. Accessing this particular Shop version allowed me to speak with you directly, now, here.” Roxley sighs. “As for why you... perhaps I believe that you may affect some change in this city of yours. Mostly, I do not wish you to misunderstand my actions in the future.”
I grunt, staring at him. “Why? What does it matter what I think?”
“You know why,” Roxley says. His hand twitches at his side, almost as if he meant to do something with it then decided against it. Considering his control, I wonder what it was. “It has been good speaking with you, John. However, I have other things to attend to.”
“That’s it? Drop some information and go?”
“Yes. I am pressed for time now. I but grasped the opportunity that was presented to me.” Roxley’s voice is laced with meaning, one that I choose to ignore.
Damn pretty Elf. I will make up my own mind at my own pace. With one last mocking bow, Roxley turns and walks away. He isn’t even two steps away before he fades, leaving me with new knowledge and an ache of loneliness.
Gods, but I’m tired.
It’s easy to tell when Lana is back. The fox—Anna—always appears first, gliding into the backyard and its den. With Richard, it’s Orel who makes his appearance first. Anna never pays any attention to me, always sliding into her den without a single sound. I would almost think that she dislikes me except that I haven’t been burnt or bitten yet.
Lana follows with the puppies, finding me sprawled under a tree in the back of our house, staring at the dark, fluffy clouds. They suit my mood, cold and gloomy with a temperature probably hovering around zero.
“John?”
“Here.” I move a hand to dump scattered candy wrappers into my inventory. No need for her to see me being a slob, not when it requires so little effort.
She comes around the corner, red hair bouncing on her shoulders and purple eyes tight with concern. I blink, tilting my head as I check my memory and realize, yes, she did get a haircut.
“John!” Lana’s voice sharpens for a moment, and I blink, staring at her.
“Yes?”
“You weren’t answering.”
“Oh… just thinking. Did you get a haircut?”
The moment I say it, she preens slightly, puffing out her generous chest and smiling. “Yes, do you like it? No, wait. Are you okay?”
“I do, and I’m fine. All in one piece.” I wave down at my body, smiling. “Didn’t even need to get regenerated to make that true.”
She frowns, squatting next to me. One of her puppies—Lexi—slides in underneath her hand to steady her while she speaks. “Jim told me about the Brothers. About Rachel. And you.”
“Easy-peasy,” I answer her unasked question, my eyes absently tracking down her figure before resting on her jeans-clad knees. There’s a tear in one of them, showing off pale, smooth skin. I blink when her hand comes down on my arm, making me look up.
“Flattering as it might be another time, that’s just creepy right now. Zombie eyes aren’t sexy,” Lana says, and I flush slightly. “You should go rest.”
“I’m fine. Stamina’s full.”
Lana snorts, not at all feminine like, before sitting fully. “You know that isn’t what I meant.” Lana picks up a candy wrapper I missed, raising one graceful eyebrow.
“I’m just a little tired. Only so much the System can do,” I finally relent, leaning back against the tree and staring at the sky.
Lana falls silent, waiting patiently.
“We keep dying. All the time. Melissa. Nicodemus. The Brothers. We keep dying.”
“I know.” There’s sympathy in Lana’s voice, in her eyes as she squeezes my arm.
I stare into her eyes and drown in them and realize how stupid I’m being. Stupid. I was the one doing the comforting a short time ago, and now here I am. I close my eyes, drawing a breath as I work on pushing it down, putting the emotions away. No. I’m not doing this. I can’t do this…
“Owwww!” I glare at Lexi, who has nipped my hand. She must have put quite some force into it to get through my health points.
“Stop that.” Lana waves a finger at my face before pointing at the sword I have in my hand without realizing it. “I told her to bite you.”
“Why?” I huff, putting the sword away.
“Pinching you doesn’t work. And you’re being an idiot again. I can literally see you repressing your emotions.”
This time I don’t run or fight her. Maybe because I’m too tired, or maybe because I’ve gotten closer to accepting that repression all the damn time is a bad idea.
“I am not.” Just because I’m closer doesn’t mean I’m not going to argue.
“Right, right. Because that churning ball of rage and the gritted teeth are normal.”
“It is for me.” I sigh. “And I’m fine the way I am.”
“The hell you are,” Ali butts in. “You’re about one good hit away from going on another run.”
“He’s right, you know. And we need you sane and healthy, you idiot,” Lana says before squeezing my hand.
“Sane and healthy…” I shake my head. “I don’t think any of us are that sane, not anymore.”
“Speak for yourself, boy-o.”
Lana shoots a look at Ali, who subsides, before she nods slowly. “Saner then.”
I snort and fall silent before I exhale roughly. “I don’t want to be needed. I don’t want the responsibility.”
“Then you can walk away,” Lana points out. “But we… I’d… be disappointed. Do you want to?”
“I-I don’t know,” I answer truthfully. Gods, I wish I could say I wanted to be the hero, the man who stands up for everyone, who holds the line no matter the cost. Except it’s easy to say you want to be that man. Easy maybe to do it the first time, until you see the cost, the lives you failed to save, the monsters you let escape. The failures that pile on you and whisper their regrets. In the end, I find myself saying, bitterly, “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m no Superman. Doesn’t matter what happens, they keep dying. At this rate, we’ll all be dead soon enough.”
“You know I’m going to be an aunt right?” Lana says, and I nod slightly. “Three times over actually. But my brother hasn’t been the only one trying to repopulate the earth. Nearly two-thirds of the women in town are pregnant.”
“Two-thirds?” I blink, my mind going over my memories recently. Well, that’d explain the recent number of non-combat citizens wearing dresses and loose tops. Still, two-thirds?
“Oh yeah.” Lana smiles slightly. “Less in the hunters of course, but they’re mostly made up of men anyway. There is a future, John, and it’s coming in about four months.”
I nod slowly, eyes tracking over the clouds again. Four months and hundreds of mewling babies will appear in this world. In a city that isn’t safe, that hasn’t gotten itself organized. Where monsters swarm and Bosses and dungeons grow. I shudder and realize it has nothing to do with the cold. As I think that, the first snowflake drops in front of my eyes.
“Roxley says it’ll get worse soon,” I say.
Lana nods as more snow falls, faster and faster. “It always can. But it’s getting better too. We’re rebuilding. Slowly perhaps, but we’re rebuilding,” Lana squeezes my hand. “We just need a little more time.”
“Time…” I watch a snowflake drop onto our hands and melt.
“Time for bed. Come on.” Lana tugs on my hand, and I frown as she stands and leans back, pulling me off the ground. “You need some rest.”
“I’m not sure I can sleep,” I answer truthfully, and she smiles.
“Then I’ll sit with you until you do. Inside and out of this snow.” She drags me in while still holding my hand.
Behind us, the first snowfall of the autumn arrives.
“John…” Richard’s eyes narrow as I walk in with Lana for breakfast the next morning. He blinks, looking between the two of us, probably searching for and not finding Ali.
Truth be told, I’m curious where the little Spirit has gone, but I’m mostly enjoying the peace and quiet. “What?”
“Finally!” Richard shakes his head and turns back to his cereal.
“Nothing happened!” I splutter, realizing what he’s saying.
Mikito titters at my reaction while Lana just grabs a bowl, smacking her brother on the top of the head when she gets near him.
“Yeah, right. I can smell her on you and vice versa,” Richard replies. “Perk of bonding with the Huskies.”
I blink, staring at him then Lana. Oh… well that explains his level of awareness out there. Still… “We didn’t do anything. She just slept with me. In bed. Asleep.”
Mikito laughs as I splutter and Richard snorts, obviously not buying it.
“Just ignore him, John,” Lana says, adding milk to her cereal. “He was always like this, even in school.”
After a while of us working on our respective breakfasts, Richard says, “Snow didn’t stick.”
“When will it?” I ask, frowning. “Seems a bit early for snow really.”
“Chokato.” Lana chuckles, and Mikito and I share confused glances. “It’s mid-October. We’ll start getting snow regularly from now on, and it could stick at any time. About time for us to be changing tires really.”
“Oh…” I blink then consider the gardens, the farms where plants are still growing. “How about the farms?”
“Shields,” Mikito pipes up, shaking her head slightly in bemusement. “One of the hunters realized that if you use a low-grade shield, the shield blocks airflow but lets in light. Makes a great greenhouse.”
Lana nods, lips thinning slightly. “The Council should have made the purchases already, but the decision has been held up in committee.”
Richard makes a face and I find myself echoing it. Bureaucrats.
Lana sees our faces and rolls her eyes, putting the bowl aside as she stands. “I’ve got to go. Try to remember to go shopping for more food, will you?”
Those are her last words to us before heading out.
Richard stares at his sister before turning back to me. “You guys really didn’t do anything, did you?”
“Not a thing,” I say.
“Damn. Okay.” He frowns, opening then shutting his mouth as decides better on commenting further.
Mikito snorts as she puts her chopsticks down on top of her bowl. “Dungeon. What’s the plan?”
“More people. A lot more,” I state firmly.
“Who?” Richard frowns, holding up his fingers. “We can ask Rachel, maybe the last Brother. Aiden will come, and if we schedule it right, Amelia too. That’s seven.”
“Not enough.” I shake my head, remembering our ignoble retreat. “Mikito and I might be able to take two or three of those each, but the first room alone had over twenty.”
“The Carcross group?” Richard asks.
I frown, shrugging. “Maybe, but they’ve got their hands full with the Bosses around Carcross.”
“Jim,” Mikito adds, fingers laced together in front of her. “His group can come.”
“No. They’d be seriously out-leveled.” Richard exchanges a glance with Mikito before he says, “There’s the Circle of Ravens. Or well, Bill’s group if you will.”
“No. I don’t trust them,” I say firmly, and the pair nod.
“Just making sure I asked,” Richard states. “How about the Yerick?”
“That might work.” I nod slowly. “We could add your sister too. Between your pets and hers, we’d nearly double our front-line fighters.”
Richard makes a face, shaking it slightly. “No. Too dangerous.”
“You should ask,” Mikito points out.
Richard’s face scrunches up in distaste before he nods. “Fine, fine. So you going to ask the Yerick, John? I’ll talk to Amelia and Aiden. Maybe we could visit Carcross today, help them out for a few days. Might make it viable for Jason and Gadsby to come.”
“I want to ask Jim,” Mikito adds, interrupting us.
“Mikito…”
“Hear me out. He’s the strongest hunter among the non-grouped, and he’s in his low 30s. If we bring him and maybe a couple of others, we could have them level with us,” Mikito says.
“It’d be like a training run, just at a higher level.”
Richard looks at Mikito, seeing the mulish expression she has, and shrugs his acceptance.
“Only if the Yerick agree. More people means more of a split in Credits and experience,” I add to help pacify Richard.
“Okay,” Mikito accepts my codicil without complaint.
“Sounds like we’ve got a plan then.” I stand up, stretching. “Give me a ride to Xev’s? I want to check on Sabre first.”
“Can do.” Richard dumps his bowl into the sink with a clatter while Mikito gently places her aside. One quick Spell later, and we’re on our way.
“Xev!” I wave to my mechanic as I walk in.
It scrambles away from the hulk of a Hummer it’s busy converting to greet me. From beneath the Hummer, a pair of lizard feet are sticking out and muffled cursing can be heard. I ignore it for now, waiting for Xev to answer the unasked question.
“Mostly done, Adventurer John. Nanobots finished rewiring circuits, armor is mostly replaced. I’ve added two of the three weapon upgrades and was waiting on the third, but your Sabre can be taken out now. Has been good to take out for weeks,” it adds, guiding me to where Sabre rests.
I touch my bike, my first real prized possession in this System world. I had outgrown it, the combination of the high-level areas in the Yukon and my high base stats making the mecha less and less useful. Yet I couldn’t let it go. It was everything I needed when I first started, and just discarding it had seemed wrong.
So I put in more Credits than I should have upgrading it. I’d switched out the internal systems entirely. Along the way, we added a nanomachine upgrade for the base system. I’d used a hardpoint and softpoint for that, but now Sabre could self-repair anything but catastrophic damage. Xev had ripped out and replaced enough internal systems that we actually managed to create an additional hardpoint for the PAV, which meant I had space for a few new toys.
Specifically, I got myself a new portable shield generator that ran off its own Mana battery, and some heavy-hitting missile launchers. I’d considered getting beam weaponry, but since the Shield was also linked directly to Sabre’s engine, in a pinch I could increase the shield regeneration. Of course, doing that meant we’d drain the battery faster, which is why I went with external ammunition that didn’t need the Mana battery.
Armor, after our little tussle, had upgraded itself to add a twenty-five percent resistance to electrical damage. I was loath to swap the armor plates out entirely, knowing the nanomachines would eventually add even more resistances as we encountered tougher enemies. So long as the mecha lasted at least. I smile slightly, pulling up the stats for Sabre.
Omnitron III Class II Personal Assault Vehicle (Sabre)
Core: Class II Omnitron Mana Engine
CPU: Class D Xylik Core CPU
Armor Rating: Tier IV (Modified with Adaptive Resistance)
Hard Points: 5 (5 Used)
Soft Points: 3 (2 Used)
Requires: Neural Link for Advanced Configuration
Battery Capacity: 120/120
Attribute Bonuses: +35 Strength, +18 Agility, +10 Perception
Inlin Type II II Projectile Rifle
Base Damage: N/A (Dependent Upon Ammunition)
Ammo Capacity: 45/45
Available Ammunition: 250 Standard, 150 Armor Piercing, 200 High Explosive, 25 Luminescent
Ares Type II Shield Generator
Base Shielding: 2,000 HP
Regeneration Rate: 50/second unlinked, 200/second linked
Mkylin Type IV Mini-Missile Launchers
Base Damage: N/A (dependent on missiles purchased)
Battery Capacity: 6/6
Reload rate from internal batteries: 10 seconds
Available Ammunition: 12 Standard, 12 High Explosive, 12 Armor Piercing, 4 Napalm
While I’m busy with the mecha, Xev skitters away to get back to fixing up the Hummer. After pushing out from underneath the vehicle, Tim stands and stretches, his dragon scales covered in oil and grease. He looks happier than he did the last time I saw him. For that matter, thinking about it, I haven’t seen him at all.
“Tim.” I nod absently to the ex-Raven’s Circle member. I can’t say I like him, but I don’t dislike him either.
“John.” He walks over, long tail swinging gently behind him. “Picking up Sabre?”
“Yeah.” I smile and rest my hand on the bike again.
“She’s one heck of a machine,” Tim says.
Then I blink, realizing if he’s been working here… I grow guarded, wondering what he might have told others. Then again, I wonder why I’m being so damn paranoid. Even if people do know about her, it’s not as if we’ve not all gained numerous levels in the last few months. She’s no longer an automatic trump card like before, so people stealing her should be significantly less of a worry.
Tim sees my face and works to reassure me immediately. “Don’t worry. What happens in the shop, stays in the shop. Can’t work here if you don’t understand that rule. If I told you some of the things people have us fix—”
“You’d be fired,” Xev chitters.
“Anyway, not as if I’ve got anyone to talk to these days,” Tim says grumpily, and I raise my eyebrow. He gestures down his body. “Whitehorse has gotten a lot more speciesist since I left.”
“Even to you?” I say.
“Yeah. Seems like if you aren’t a vanilla-looking human now, well, you aren’t good enough to be human.” Tim growls, pointed lower and triangular upper teeth flashing in the light. “They didn’t complain when we were saving their asses or fighting the monsters for them. Now that they think they’re safe, it’s ‘you’re scary,’ ‘you’re not human,’ ‘you’re a freak.’”
“Sorry, man,” I say.
“It’s just so messed up, you know? I always thought Dragons were cool, and when the System came, well, I got a chance to be a Dragon. Well, Dragonkin.” Tim sighs. “We were the cool kids for once, you know? Nic and the rest of us, we were the heroes. But now I’m just a freak again.”
“Do you regret it?” I ask.
Tim shakes his head firmly. “No. I still love being a Dragon.” He grins. “But I’ll be damned if I fight for them anymore. The idiots can go twist on a stick.”
I nod. I can understand his feelings, the way the ingratitude can eat at you. I almost make the offer for him to come with us, but he seems happy here, working on the vehicles. We don’t really need another person…
“Anyway, I got to get back to work. And, John, sorry about Luthien. We, I, knew about her and Kevin but… they were my friends then, you know,” Tim says.
“I get it,” I reply, waving him back to his work as I trace my hand down Sabre. Old grudges—they seem so distant now, so petty. I still don’t want to deal with Luthien, but really, what’s a little betrayal among all this blood and death? It just seems so… small. “See you, Tim.”
The Dragonkin raises a hand in goodbye without turning around, and I sit on Sabre, smiling slightly. Right then. Time to talk to Capstan, then we’re off to Carcross.
Capstan was gone by the time I managed to make my way to their compound, so I left a brief message for him to contact me. By the time I finally meet up with the group, Ali is back and refusing to answer questions about where he has been.
We make our way back to Carcross, taking the Klondike Highway and passing by the Cutoff as we drive down the highway. Autumn’s certainly here, with many of the trees having shed their leaves and patches of snow on the mountains. Unfortunately, with the lack of upkeep of the highway, driving is fast becoming a pain. I wish I had the Credits to add in a hover mode for Sabre—it’d certainly make a less jarring ride. If we want to continue hunting in the Winter, it’ll probably have be our next major upgrade.
When we reach Carcross, I’m impressed by the changes. They’ve pushed back the forest by another kilometer and added a deep trench right in front of the wall. Along the walls, smaller beam rifles have been added, each of them tracking along a smaller axis while a few watchtowers watch over the entire wall with significantly larger weaponry. Behind the wall, a single squat building, where the old First Nation’s community center was, towers over everything. Looks like they’d upgraded their city center to act as their final fallback point.
We’re greeted by Jason, the teenager still dressed in jeans and a plaid shirt but looking older and more mature. He’s even taken to growing a beard, which surprisingly suits him. Instead of greeting us with a usual smile and shout of joy, his greeting is much more subdued.
Richard takes over describing the dungeon and what we need while the rest of us take a moment to stretch our legs. I spot Mikito walking over to a group of hunters, and she makes carton after carton of cigarettes appear, to their delight. I guess someone decided that earning a little additional income by bringing nicotine over wasn’t beneath her.
As I look over the city, I blink, staring as I finally get a good look at the guards on the wall. I’d noticed new faces, but I hadn’t really twigged until now. They look pretty human for the most part, but from this side, we can see the rest of their bodies and the oddity of their height comes through pretty clear.
“Ali, are those Dwarves?” I try not to point, but I’m comfortable staring. After all, it’s not as if they can see where I’m looking underneath my helmet.
“Galactic term for them is Gimsar. But yes, it’s your world’s Dwarves,” Ali replies. “For once, the Mana translation didn’t mess up too badly. Everything you know about them is correct—hard drinking, hard fighting short humanoids. On their home planet, they built their cities underground—mostly due to the much longer and colder nights. They aren’t particularly well known as smiths though, not any more than any other sentients. The Clans hire out as mercenaries, like the Hakarta. And yeah, Gimsar and Hakarta don’t like each other—mostly because they’re always fighting over the same contracts.”
By this time, Mikito has returned and is eyeing the group as well. She does so blatantly, but I figure that’s fair—more than one Dwarf is giving her a look-over. Of course, their regard is much more lecherous, but I figure Mikito can handle these guys. They’re all around our level after all.
“Dwarves?”
“Yup. Other than not being smiths and mostly acting as Mercenaries, Ali says the Mana translation worked,” I reply, and Mikito nods.
Mana translation—the term that Ali has used to explain why so many creatures from our mythology are making an appearance. Basically put, because Mana often collects in small amounts in non-System worlds, the System can send packets of information into the consciousness of the sentients of those worlds to prepare them for eventual initiation. Unfortunately, due to the low level of Mana in those worlds, it’s quite common for the data packets to be significantly corrupted. Thus the Mana translation problem and why certain myths only appear in certain parts of the world—most packets are too fragmented to be picked up by the entire populace.
Richard comes back, looks at the Dwarves, and I have to repeat the explanation.
He nods before gesturing out of the city. “Jason says he’ll be happy for us to hunt around Carcross. We’re, of course, welcome to stay. However, he and Gadsby won’t be leaving the town. In fact, Gadsby is taking a page out of our book and is busy training up more people.”
I frown. “So who do we have?”
“Rachel, Aiden, Amelia, and the three of us,” Richard answers immediately. “We really need the Yerick.”
I find myself nodding with Mikito. I almost consider going over to see if I can wheedle Jason a bit to come with, but that’s probably a bad idea. He’s stepping up, trying to fill in the gap left by his mother’s death. Asking him to join us on a dungeon delve when he’s turned us down already is just selfish.
“Okay. Let’s hunt,” Mikito says before suiting actions to words and climbing into the truck.
I blink, startling at the abrupt transition before I sigh and roll Sabre around. Lady’s right. We might as well do what hunting we can.
After a brief discussion, we decide against hunting for meat and go for the kill—looting for System-generated items without picking up the corpses, outside a few bodies that I dump into my Altered Space because they’re too good to leave aside. Instead, we focus on clearing as large an area as we can.
Funny thing—Lightning Squirrels are really easy to deal with when they aren’t backed up by a Boss and you’ve got a trio of fast-moving, savage dogs. We even manage to track down a pair of other Bosses. The first Orel kills, dropping from the sky to latch his claws around the Boss’s hairy, ape-like body and lifting it into the sky. The ape-creatures the Boss was directing become a lot easier to deal with without its leadership. We’re in the midst of mopping them up when Orel drops their leader’s body into the group, splattering them and us with its innards. I have a feeling we’re not getting a Christmas card from Jane Goodall this year.
The second Boss fight is probably one Mikito never wants to be reminded of. Snow Geese are evil, nasty, vicious creatures and that was before they were evolved by the System. We end up standing back to back as they literally try to shit us to death, their waste being not only toxic to the touch but to the smell. I was fine in my Sabre, completely sealed away from the smell. Richard had a resistance he gained from his class—I guess when your puppies are the size of a pony, their excretions are spectacular too. Mikito spent the entire fight puking her guts out with Bella curled up next to her though.
Luckily, I could throw Sabre’s shield over her body to ensure none of the waste landed on her directly while she was incapacitated. Richard and I spent the rest of the fight using our respective firearms to cripple the birds, bringing them down low enough for the puppies to finish them off.
Orel and Ali took care of the Boss in the air while we dealt with the minions. The aerial dogfight was rather amazing to watch, since we really couldn’t do much to help. The Boss might be tough, poisonous, and fast, but it didn’t stand a chance against Orel once its minions were whittled down.
All in all, it took us over a day and a half to get everything sorted and roll back into Whitehorse. When we get back, I find Capstan a bit grumpy with me. I guess leaving a note asking him to speak with me and not being in town for a few days could be considered bad manners, but he gets over it pretty fast when I tell him about the dungeon. When I explain how I found it and why, he gets grumpy again until I point out that Mikito and Richard were my original party. Yeesh! You’d think a guy who’s nearly ten feet tall and can bench press a tank would be less sensitive.
At the end of the day though, he agrees to come along. I can understand that entirely—the experience bonus from completing a dungeon the first time, along with the first completion bonus, is significant. I understand that motivation; after all, I’m so close to hitting level 30.
After that, it’s all about coordinating our schedules.
Chapter 14
“All right, listen up, people. I know you’ve all heard this before, but try to pay attention and hold your questions till the end.” I find myself standing in front of the group, giving the last-minute briefing before we head into the dungeon a couple of days later. I’m fully armed and armored, including being in Sabre in full mecha mode. “We don’t know how big this dungeon is. We don’t know how many floors there are. We don’t know what kind of monsters there are beyond the Frakin. We do know that the Frakin are mid-50s to low-60s and swarm.”
When I stop, Ali takes over, waving. A small image appears in front of everyone with the Shop-purchased data on the Frakin, though he summarizes for the slow readers. “The Frakin are highly resistant to poison, extreme cold, and high temperatures, and yes, carbon dioxide poisoning. Fire and Ice spells will be less useful than normal, and their chitin requires significant force to pierce, so crushing attacks are best.” He nods to the Yerick, who have switched out their usual axes for giant hammers. “Beam weapons work but are, again, resisted.”
I wave at Capstan. “Capstan is leading this group. He’s got the most experience at hitting dungeons, so he’ll be in overall command. Nelia’s second, then it’s me, Tahar, Richard, Mikito, and Aron in that order. If you aren’t out yet by the time Aron is dead, I’d recommend running like hell.”
There are a few grim laughs at that. Rachel and Aiden look a bit green, while Amelia seems unperturbed to be left out of the list.
I wait for everyone to calm down before I look around the group, my voice hardening. “This is the toughest dungeon we’ve run across, and it’s quite possible we might not be able to clear it yet. There’s no shame about backing out, and if anyone feels like it’s time to pull out, we’ll do so. This isn’t a game—we get no respawns.”
The humans, of course, nod at that. The Yerick mostly look confused but nod along to the sentiment. I nod to Capstan, and he takes over.
“The Redeemer shall be on point with Tahar and Mikito behind him. The dogs and I shall be the second line while Nelia and the mages and Richard are behind. Lastly, Amelia and Aron are our rearguard. Listen to our orders. Keep your spells and weapons to individual targets unless we tell you otherwise. Questions?”
Amelia raises a hand. “Who’s the Redeemer?”
“That’d be boy-o.” Ali points at me, sniggering.
I sigh and add, “It’s a Title.”
“Oh.” Amelia nods and falls silent.
Seeing no other questions, Capstan nods to me, and I turn and walk into the dungeon entrance. Walk into one limestone cave, you’ve walked into them all. This wasn’t even that large a limestone cavern, about twenty feet by thirty. Stalagmites and stalactites abound, though most are pretty small, leaving the cave relatively barren-looking. At the end of the cave is an exit, which we’d explored and were run off from such a short time ago. On our right, halfway down the cave, is an as-yet-unexplored passageway.
Once I’m inside the first cavern, I open up with luminescent bullets to ensure everyone can see without a problem. We’d debated trying to sneak in, but with such a large group, there really wasn’t a point. While the amount of light some of the bioluminescent moss in the caves provides is enough for the Frakin, it definitely isn’t for us.
Capstan snaps an order to Aron, who moves immediately to the unexplored entrance and drops a small device in front of it. It’s a mini-drone that acts as a combination alarm, weapon platform, and shield generator and will let us know if something tries to flank us. At least, that’s the theory. Our rear secure, he waves me forward and I get moving.
I’m watchful but relaxed, Ali having headed deeper in Spirit mode to keep an eye out for potential trouble. I see the vast glow of red dots in the cave down the passageway, but there’s no movement yet. I raise my hand, reporting in, and Capstan gives me a short nod as we set the first part of the plan into motion. We wait, since it takes time for the drones to get in position.
“John?”
I turn, looking down at the hand that rests lightly on my armor unnoticed.
Having gotten my attention, Rachel drops it. “Thank you. For trying.”
I flinch slightly, glad she can’t see my face beneath the helmet. I consider Rachel quietly for a moment, her eyes are still sunken and haunted. There’s none of that self-assurance I saw in her when we first met months ago.
I have to ask, “You up for this?”
“I think so,” she replies, her expression firming. “I have to be, don’t I?”
I don’t have time to reply. The drones are finally in place, waiting. Capstan gives a nod, and Aiden pulls an Earthen Wall into place around the entrance. It’s enough to alert the Frakin, and the swarm begins to converge on us. Last time, we managed to make it about three quarters of the way down the first passageway before they swarmed us. If they’d waited till we were actually in the cave, we’d have been dead.
I watch the dots stream toward us on the minimap, wondering when Ali will talk and getting more and more nervous.
The first Frakin are already in the tunnel entrance, all of them clustering around and trying to get to us when he finally sends word. “Now.”
I trigger the drones with a savage grin. These are modified firefighting drones, and instead of water or fire-retardant foam, they’re carrying acid. Nasty stuff that sprays out behind the drones and onto the horde of clustered monsters as they rush us. I almost believe I can hear them scream as the acid eats into their armor and skin. No real time for celebration though, because it’s a short corridor and the first of the Frakin reach us quickly.
The Frakin can only fit three in a line, and that means their greater numbers aren’t as useful. As the monsters rush us, I focus and swing my sword, using Blade Strike to send a screaming blue wave of destruction into my enemies. The Blade Strike shatters carapaces, forcing the monsters to pause long enough for the second Strike to injure and cripple. Their friends don’t wait, clambering over the injured monsters and continuing their headlong rush.
Tahar lets loose a moment later with his beam rifle on full auto. Blueish-white energy plays across the fronts of the monsters, cutting apart shells and cooking exposed flesh. The monsters rushing us don’t care, charging through the beams and my next Blade Strike as if they are nothing, intent on killing us.
“Wall!” roars Capstan.
The mages finally act. Rachel is faster, the ice wall she’s held ready to cast slamming into existence ten meters ahead of us. Aiden backs her wall up with one of made of earth, suddenly cutting the vanguard from the rest of the swarm.
“Charge!” Capstan barks, and Mikito moves.
One second she’s next to us, the next she’s ahead of Tahar, whose rifle has finally run out of charge, and stabbing her polearm into the first monster. The puppies flow without hesitation into the gap that she creates in the line, Max flickering ahead to join Mikito in her attack. Another monster attempts to flank her, and Max bites down, hard, and rips off a leg before flickering back and away from the stinger counterattack. Bella charges in, grabbing the stinger in her System-enhanced teeth and shattering the appendage before retreating backward. Shadow can’t fit in behind the pair, but that’s okay, since its shadow can. When a claw swings at Bella, it gets caught and held by the shadow as the puppy flexes its power.
Tahar rushes down his side, literally running up the side of the wall for a moment to get around the puppies and get to his own target. Capstan takes a much more direct route, launching himself over the frontline, his hammer held between both hands. Blocked, I have no target, so I step backward, letting others get a view while I check on my drones.
All three drones are undamaged, but their payload is empty now. They’ve taken to their secondary orders, which involve sticking as far up on the ceiling as possible at different locations through the cavern. This gives me a wide view of the cavern while drawing the angry Frakin to different spots. Sadly, none of the Frakin are dead from the acid alone, but many of those caught in the overlap of the acid sprays look much the worse for wear. Damn it! We were hoping to reduce their numbers significantly before we had to finish this.
Turning my attention back to the fight in front of me, I see Mikito caught in a claw and smashed into a wall. The monster is crushing her while Bella is kept back by the other claw. The only good news is that Mikito managed to lop off its stinger before it caught her. As I raise the Inlin’s barrel on my arm, an earth spike shoves upward and spears the monster, forcing it to open its claw spasmodically. The distraction is all Bella needs to get in close and rip the offending claw away from its body, ending the monster as a threat.
As the earth spear retracts to give us room to fight, I rush forward, jumping to close the distance. There’s not much clearance, so I’ve got only a moment to judge what is going on before I land. Capstan is fighting two of the monsters, easily holding his own, while Tahar is smashing apart another monster. The other puppies have taken a series of wounds, including a yellowish, deep gash down Max’s side that I don’t like the look of.
I land and open fire with the Inlin, switching to full auto for a moment to spray the monsters and those behind, projectiles drilling through armored carapaces and leaving gaping wounds. Unfortunately, it’s only seconds before I run dry and have to get medieval.
After a sharp whistle, the huskies pull back, letting the mages land a series of fast, targeted spells at the remaining monsters. Their attacks give the melee fighters a moment’s respite, enough for most of us to kill our remaining opponents. A healed Mikito flashes forward to back up Capstan, sliding underneath his swings with ease. We have a few seconds to savor our victory over the vanguard before a claw punches through the earth wall.
Here we go again.
A good thirty minutes later, we’ve had to retreat all the way into the original cavern. Not because we can’t beat the damn Frakin but because the bodies keep piling up such that it gets difficult to fight. We got into a rhythm halfway in, getting comfortable trading people in and out so that no one ran out of Stamina. A lot less of a problem for me and Capstan, but the others had started to slow down as the monsters kept coming and coming.
I even had to light up the entire room once with a Lightning Strike, dumping nearly the entirety of my Mana into the monsters to give us a break. Beautiful thing about electricity—most creatures really can’t move much when you’re frying them.
In the end, no one died and we finally get back into the first cavern. We take the time to rest and loot while Ali and our drones are sent to scout out the exits we’ve found. He can’t go far, not in a dungeon, but between him and the drones, we begin to build a map of the dungeon and the threats we face.
“Capstan?” I wave and send the slowly growing map out to him. I couldn’t get the drones too far from Sabre—the high level of Mana in the dungeon meant that the signal broke down too fast. Technically, the drones all have on-board software that could map the entire dungeon for me, but that’s assuming they don’t run into anything particularly tricky.
The big Yerick stares at the map before he flicks his hand, sending it to Nelia and Richard, while I call the drones back. They’re close to their limit, and if we’re going to make a decision about what to do next, I want them here.
“We doing door number one, two, or three!” Ali intones, pointing at each dark passageway in turn. As he speaks, he lights them up with different colors, though I’m pretty sure that’s only for me.
The large cavern that we rest in has been set up with additional lights by the Yerick and mages, giving us a base we can fall back on if necessary. Following my example from our previous escape, Richard has even taken the time to mine the exit with Claymores and an anti-gravity mine so that if we need to run, we’ve got a bloody distraction.
Capstan shoots the Spirit an annoyed look before he points at door number two. The moment he does so, Aron runs over to the passageway to pull the guard drone back into his inventory. I grunt, mentally making a note to pick some of those up when I can afford it.
As I walk over to the indicated passageway, I pass by where Amelia and Mikito quietly chat.
“Did Una get mad at you?” Mikito says.
“Yeah, she really hated me leaving. Says that policing is safer than Adventuring any day,” Amelia says huffily. “She doesn’t want to understand that I have to Level to stay ahead of the idiots.”
“I know,” Mikito replies.
Then I’m past the pair, staring into the darkness. I fire a single luminescent orb, watching it light up the passageway. I know why Capstan chose this one—for one thing, there’s actually enough clearance for the Yerick to stand straight. Not much chance of that in Option 3, and Option 1 has a tendency to get tight across the shoulders. Still, I have a bad feeling about this.
“Why aren’t they coming?” Aiden mutters nervously.
Aron hisses at the mage and he shuts up, but I don’t blame Aiden at all. He’s just saying what we’re all thinking.
Where we stand a hundred meters from the next cavern, the Frakin should have heard us by now. They should know we’re here and they should be charging us. Instead, they’re doing nothing, just sitting there. I can’t tell for sure, with the low-light vision of the drones, but there’s something wrong with the way they look, something I can’t exactly put my finger on.
“Redeemer, send Ali to roust them,” Capstan growls finally and I nod, sending the mental request to Ali.
“You know, boy-o, I can get hurt. Goblins, other Spirits, spells, elementals… all those things can injure me,” Ali grumbles, beginning to do his light trick.
“Yeah, but not Frakin, right?” I point out and wait for a few more seconds. “Anything?”
“Well, a pair of the bastards looked at me and lobbed something, but none of them are moving,” Ali says.
I report the results back to Capstan. He lets out a growl, his eyes tightening. I don’t much like it either—when monsters stop being super-aggressive, it means they’re smart. Smart monsters are bad. Smart monsters are dangerous.
Finally, Capstan taps Tahar’s shoulder and waves him back. Capstan walks forward till he’s shoulder to shoulder with me. “The Redeemer and I shall proceed first. The rest of you, stay back.”
Great. Just great. I walk forward with Capstan, both of us doing our best to be quiet even though it’s probably utterly useless. Just because I have the best armor and a ton of health, I get to be the guinea pig. At least Capstan is with me.
When we reach the entrance, the Frakin all turn toward us and my minimap blooms. Creatures that were hidden before, that ignored even Ali when he was doing his light show move, suddenly appear. Capstan and I just stare at the Frakin and they back at us, neither of us willing to move.
I’m wondering how the hell we missed this, how the monsters could avoid detection by Ali, when Capstan mutters, “Sixty-seven.”
“Huh?”
“There are sixty-seven Frakin. Levels are the usual, but they are red,” Capstan says, the Yerick seemingly perfectly calm. His tone, his professionalism pulls me back to the present, and I actually look.
“That’s a lot…” I frown, then mutter to Ali, “Any data on the color?”
“Incendiary. Don’t use fire,” Ali says after a moment, shaking his head. “Sorry, boy-o, they fooled me. Something in here was hiding them from me.”
“Why aren’t they charging us?” I growl softly.
Capstan shakes his head. He jerks his head upward after a moment, his lips snarling. “They’re flanking us. Aron just commed—two of our drones are under attack. We have to retreat.” He steps backward and freezes as the Frakin rustle.
Jesus, these guys by themselves could probably rush us all and finish us—they have to flank us too?
“I don’t think they want us to leave…” I eye the monsters, my mind flicking over options. We move, these guys light us up and charge us. We don’t move, their friends sweep in behind us and take us and then these guys will light us up anyway. We need them frozen, held here which means… “Oh hell. On my word, Capstan, run.”
“Redeemer,” Capstan growls softly, and I shake my head.
“No time. You can get my friends out, and I’ve got the mecha. I’ll light these guys up with everything I have and you get running. I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, so you just get my friends out,” I say, my voice strangely calm. I’m not angry, surprisingly. What’s there to be angry about? What is, is.
“Honor to your family,” Capstan growls.
I nod, recalling Ali to me and dropping the drones back into my inventory. No need for them to get wrecked. From the corners of my eyes, I see the group already retreating, backing off to where we came from, but they’re going to hit opposition any moment now. I mentally issue a command to the suit, letting it inject every single potion of regeneration into my system before I replace them via my Skill with instant heal potions. I’m as ready as I am going to get, which means…
Now. I trigger the missile launcher, dumping the full load in one wave. Twelve high explosive missiles sent direct into the cavern. The moment I make my move, I see Capstan sprinting away. I take a short hop backward again and again, even as the Frakin open fire, tiny balls of plasma flashing from their stingers.
Then my missiles land and explode and the blast wave is enough to pick me up and throw me backward onto my butt. Sabre’s already cycling and reloading, but I don’t have time for that because the Frakin are rushing the entrance. Seated, I bring my hand up and open up with the Inlin, lobbing armor piercing rounds downrange as fast as I can target a new monster. Five seconds and I’m dry.
Lightning next, a spell that I’ve used so often, the spell formations are second nature to me. I feel myself reaching into it, altering the structure of the spell in a way that has nothing to do with the System, enhancing it with my Affinity, even as Ali ducks overs and helps. We throw electricity and death down the cavern hallway. All the while, plasma lands around us, burning through armor and circuity in search of my flesh.
We bring death, and for a time, it’s enough. The missiles killed a bunch. The electricity strikes stun and eventually kill the vanguard. When the vanguard dies, I wait a moment for the monsters to clump together again before I loose another wave of missiles, backing off a bit and hunkering under the blast wave before backing off further. I repeat the shoot-and-lightning process once more and start feeling light-headed, my Mana down to nearly fifteen percent.
Pain as plasma sears my skins, the temperature in the cavern so intense, it cuts through my battle haze. Without my Resistances, without Sabre, I’d be dead already. Sabre whines and cycles, attempting to fix itself and load my weapons, but there’s only so much it can do. I reach into my inventory with a thought and drop a portable shield generator, activating it with a flick of a hand before I run away. It lasts for three seconds before it blows.
By then I’ve dropped a second generator. Outside of the punishing heat, the second generator lasts seven seconds before the plasma bolts tear the shielding apart. Five thousand Credits each time, all gone. I can’t even mourn it as I hit the spot where the team planted the Chaos mines in the vain hope I could get there. Ali’s zipped right ahead of those, not wanting to get caught when I release them. I don’t want to be there either—Chaos mines are powerful but cheap. You never know what you’ll get.
“John!” Ali screams and flashes the map up to me as we take the next corner.
I see it—the others are caught, stuck in a bottleneck, unable to push past the monsters that clog the exit. I stick my head around the corner, back the way we came.
The Chaos mines go off and maybe we’re lucky, but they rip open a portal and tentacles of lurid yellow and pink stick out, grabbing and pulling in Frakin. There’s something in there, something that even with my mental resistances, I can’t see, can’t comprehend. Or maybe it’s because of the mental resistances that I can’t comprehend what’s in there.
“Shield up. NOW,” snaps Ali.
I comply, then suddenly my eyes are filled with notifications.
Level Up!
You have reached Level 30 as an Erethran Honor Guard. Stat Points automatically distributed. You have 6 Free Attribute Points to distribute. You have 6 Class Skills to distribute.
I’ve been saving my points, my Class Skills for a rainy day and for Level 30. I might not have much time to use it, but I’ll be damned if I don’t see what I can do. I slam my points into my Class Skills and feel the ice cold rush of knowledge and pain that hammers into my body as the System grants my wish.
Chapter 15
I come back to my senses in time to see Sabre’s shield fail. To see the damage icons, feel the heat radiating from the missed and blocked plasma bolts, to taste the dryness in my mouth and the smell of cooked flesh and ash. I come back to see the Frakin storming me, and I grin.
My friends are behind me, fighting their own battle in a desperate attempt to escape. I need to buy them time, time enough to break through, time enough to live. I find myself grinning, laughing as pain courses through my body, as new knowledge and abilities resolve themselves in my mind.
I flicker, one second crouched and the next behind my attacker, spinning to punch my sword through it. I step and kick out with Sabre, mecha- and System-enhanced strength picking up the Frakin and sending it bowling into its friends. Even as the monsters fire on me, their shots explode against my newly created Soul Shield. The translucent barrier of Mana absorbs the damage and covers both Sabre and me. I duck to the side, grabbing one of the Frakin by its tail and lifting it, using its body to shield me against more attacks while I wait.
Time. I’m fighting for time. I feel my Soul Shield flare, cutting off plasma blasts that slip around my improvised shield. When the Frakin stops twitching, I send it flying into its buddies, then I step sideways, giving myself a few moments to open up with the Inlin. I shoot to cripple even as the Soul Shield flares red.
“Corner,” snaps Ali.
I trigger Blink Step and cut across the corner. I snap the Shield off the moment I’m away.
“Sticky grenades!”
I pull and throw. I bounce three around the edges, following the lines of power that Ali drops into my vision. The explosion is muted, and for a few moments, silence holds as the creatures struggle.
“Polar zone,” is the next command from the diminutive olive-complexion Spirit who hovers and plays eyes for me.
I spin around the corner, raising my hand and casting the spell. The glue-cement mixture that makes up the grenades is already melting and burning in the residual heat. I let the spell loose, and the fires go out, the glue hardening again. Resistant to heat and cold or not, the Frakin aren’t used to sudden temperature changes and their carapaces shatter, exposing yellow flesh to the cold.
A mental command and the barely regenerated shield in Sabre flickers to life before me. I open fire with the Inlin, each shot shattering frozen flesh and scattering limbs. Bodies pile up and monsters die, but the next wave is already here, firing plasma bolts at me. I spin back around the corner as a plasma bolt burns through Sabre’s shield and its armor into my stomach. I groan, the fire quenched in my flesh, and I thank the vagaries of the System even as my health drops precariously. I trigger the potions, watching my health shoot up as my Mana refreshes itself. Unfortunately, the instantaneous potions only work a couple of times a day, after which they lose all effectiveness.
Between the initial health regeneration potion, my spell of Greater Regeneration, and my Skill Body’s Resolve, I can literally see my body stitch itself together. It’s a battle of attrition now, and even with all my Class Skills allocated and Ali watching and calculating, all I’m doing is buying seconds.
“Missiles!” Ali chants.
I snap around the corner, Soul Shield triggered. I open up with the missiles, my last full load, and watch as they fly out, shattering bodies and splintering rock. The dungeon’s walls crack and shatter but they don’t come down, and I snap back around my corner. The monsters are barely five feet away now. I skip back a few steps, wishing that the dungeon hadn’t reinforced the structure of the walls. It’d be so easy if we could bring the walls down…
One, two, three seconds as the monsters recover and race across the ground, skimming over the dead bodies of their comrades. I pull out my sword and set myself, waiting. Health about a quarter, Mana nearly all gone. I have enough Mana to trigger Soul Shield one last time and then... and then it’s over. I stop looking, knowing there’s no point. I can buy them a few more seconds, so that’s all that I can do.
“Incoming,” Ali intones.
I meet the first Frakin as it skitters around the corner, its legs attempting to find purchase as it makes the turn. Time to finish this.
The sunlight of the exit is the best damn thing I’ve felt in ages. I walk out, helmet down as I soak in the liquid happiness, under-armor burnt to a crisp on my body. Sabre is stored in my Altered Space, so damaged that its actuators no longer work. I look around, the Frakin scrambling left and right as they sweep the exit and the surroundings, and I shake my head.
“Best get moving, boy-o, you’ve only got another minute left,” Ali intones and I grunt.
“Give me a break,” I mutter.
Then I lurch ahead, the burnt shell of my right leg barely wanting to move. It doesn’t help that my balance is completely thrown off by the fact that I’m missing everything from my left arm down, the casualty of a too slow dodge. It’s only some Adventure-strength painkillers and a hell of a lot of willpower that keeps me on my feet as my body works to stitch me together. I pass right through the Frakin in front of me, the counter in my left eye ticking down the time I have left on the QSM.
As I told Capstan, I’ve got a few tricks left up my sleeve.
Finding the group is easy—the rally point was the same spot we found ourselves the last time. I’m half-healed by the time I make my way to them, and as always, it’s the puppies who note me first. Shadow hits me so hard, he knocks me over, and I find myself being assaulted by wet tongues. Trust me, a pony-sized puppy has a very big and wet tongue.
Eventually the Huskies are pulled away and I’m dragged to my feet by my friends, everyone looking a bit shocked. I let my eyes survey the group, assessing the damage.
“Again, Richard?” I blink, staring at his missing foot.
He nods slightly, glancing at the stump of my arm, which is slowly reforming. Amelia is seated next to him, a pale pink shroud covering her upper body as replacement skin. She seems unconcerned by the pain, drinking from a water bottle, but her slightly too large pupils tell me she’s drugged out of her mind. Most of Mikito’s armor and clothing has been burnt off, the shreds not even covering her dignity. The normally reserved Japanese lady is so tired, she doesn’t even care. Rachel’s missing most of her hair and is dressed in civilian clothing while Aiden… well, Aiden looks fine actually.
As bad as the humans look, the remaining Yerick are even worse for wear. None of the Yerick seems to have any fur left, most of it burnt to a crisp, and Nelia seem to be missing one of her horns. Aron lies on the ground, bare-chested as his flesh slowly knits over exposed bone, the side of his face bandaged. Capstan, on the other hand, looks to have been in the blender. There’s so much blood, some of it still leaking from him, that I can’t tell where the injuries start and his skin ends. That he’s still standing is freaking impressive. When I raise an eyebrow at Capstan, he just shakes his head.
Thousand hells. I close my eyes for a second, feeling frustration boil out of me before I push it down. Not right now, we’re still too close. Later, later, I can process my feelings about losing another.
On the way back, my body curled up against the puppies in the back of the truck, I take the time to review the piled up notifications.
Status Screen
Name
John Lee
Class
Erethran Honor Guard
Race
Human (Male)
Level
30
Titles
Monster’s Bane, Redeemer of the Dead
Health
1420
Stamina
1420
Mana
1100
Mana Regeneration
77 / minute
Attributes
Strength
80
Agility
133
Constitution
142
Perception
45
Intelligence
110
Willpower
112
Charisma
16
Luck
25
Class Skills
Mana Blade
1
Blade Strike
2
Thousand Steps
1
Altered Space
2
Two are One
1
The Body’s Resolve
3
Greater Detection
1
Instantaneous Inventory*
1
Soul Shield
2
Blink Step
2
Cleave*
1
Frenzy*
1
Combat Spells
Improved Minor Healing (II)
Greater Regeneration
Improved Mana Dart (IV)
Enhanced Lightning Strike
Fireball
Polar Zone
The Body’s Resolve (Level 3)
Effect: Increase natural health regeneration by 35%. On-going health status effects reduced by 33%. Honor Guard may now regenerate lost limbs. Mana regeneration reduced by 15 Mana per minute permanently.
Soul Shield (Level 2)
Effect: Creates a manipulatable shield to cover the caster’s or target’s body. Shield has 1,000 Hit Points.
Cost: 250 Mana
Blink Step (Level 2)
Effect: Instantaneous teleportation via line of sight. May include Spirit’s line of sight. Maximum range—500 meters.
Cost: 100 Mana
I wince again at the low, low Mana regeneration rates. Gods, I’m going to have that get fixed at some point, but without increasing my passive healing, I’d be a lot deader. Thank the gods that the System has more than one way to get your body patched fully. I admit, I’m a little curious to see what Mana Shield is like, but I’ll need to dedicate my Class Skill points to Thousand Blades before I have chance to check it out. For now though, I’m happy enough to just chill till we arrive home.
We are a sad and sorry lot by the time we get back to Whitehorse. Most of us have lost our armor, and there are more than few missing limbs in the group.
As we reach the Yerick’s compound first, Capstan turns to each of us. “Tonight, we hold a memorial for Tahar. As blood companions, you are invited.”
Nods and assurances of our presence are given in short order before the rest of us make our way farther into town. Amelia and Richard head directly for the Shop, Mikito helping them along. Aiden breaks away, begging off to his apartment, and suddenly, it’s just Ali and me.
I stare at the buildings, watching people walk without seeing them. We lost. Again. Even with more people, even knowing what we were walking into, we lost.
“John,” Ali speaks, jerking me out of my morose brooding.
“Yes?”
“I grabbed a body. I want you to drop it off with Sally,” Ali sends to me, and I frown, looking at the Spirit. He doesn’t mean for us to… “Well, we moving or not?”
I consider just walking into the Shop to sell it. Going back in was insane. There are other dungeons, other places to explore. We already lost one, why go again? But refusing to do so is a good way to get Ali to whine, and I just don’t have the energy.
“John?” Sally turns from the counter as I walk in, looking at me then at Ali, sympathy etching her face. “Something I can do?”
“Yup, pint-size.” Ali flies over and floats above the counter. “I need an autopsy.”
“I’m an Alchemist not a Doctor. I wouldn’t really know where to start.”
Ali shrugs. “Yeah, yeah, I get it, and I’ll buy it off the System if I need to, but there’s something I need to know. Now, we good to go or not?”
I watch, bemused.
“Ugh… fine. Backroom, but I charge a hundred Credits an hour,” Sally replies and walks toward the back counter, holding up a finger. “And I’m not negotiating on that, Spirit.”
“Got it, pint-size. Just get me the information I need.”
I watch him float away to deposit the body. I sigh, rubbing my temples. He’s right, I know it. There’s something weird going on in that dungeon and we need to know what. I know that, but I find it hard to care right this second.
Chapter 16
That evening, we gather in the Yerick’s compound. A single brazier, no larger than an arm’s length, dominates the square. A small fire burns in it. Strips of cloth, colored red, blue, and gray, are laid alongside brushes and chest-high tables. Yerick move to these tables, where they write on the cloths strips before depositing them beside the brazier.
As the humans gather, Nelia walks up, inclining her head to us. Amelia and Richard have regrown their limbs, and all of us washed and dressed for the ceremony.
“All we ask is that you write a memory of Tahar on a cloth strip, one that has meaning for you. As blood companions, you will use the red strips. Place them in the bowl set aside for such strips. Before the burning ceremony, we will be Gifting his possessions within the clan. In two hours, we will burn the strips to remind Tahar that he is not forgotten, though he resides in the fields of Heaven. Any questions?” When she receives none, Nelia moves away.
The others move ahead and pick up strips of cloth to write.
Ali stays behind, floating next to me, his voice soft. “The Yerick traditionally only used two colors—the blue for family and lovers, and the gray. Blood companions—those the Yerick fought with—would open their arms, bleeding on the gray strips till they turned red.” I look at Ali, raising an eyebrow, and he shrugs. “I figured you’d be into it, boy-o. Being all melodramatic and all. Unless you’re done brooding?”
“Fuck off,” I answer.
“Guess not,” Ali mutters as he floats away to a pile of cloth.
I watch them move around for a while before I make my way over and find a red cloth. I stare at it for a time, wondering what to write, what memory to share. So much blood, death, and pain that we had faced together. Yet it’s not those memories that rise up the strongest.
Tahar, standing on a hillock, laughing as autumn sun pours down on him through a break in the clouds. Covered in mud, hands on his hips as he enjoys the absurdity of the situation—a powerful warrior covered in mud due to a simple misstep.
Three taps with a staff is all that is needed to bring silence to the soft-speaking crowd. The humans have mostly clustered together, though Yerick have come and spoken with us, drawing forth stories as we wait. It’s not all about Tahar of course; conversations turn to the dungeons, to Whitehorse as it was, and the food that we are given. It’s a wake, and there’s only so much that you can say about the departed before you realize it’s time to move on to different topic.
Nelia is standing beside the brazier, an older, gray-haired Yerick beside her. When we are all looking, Nelia speaks. “For Umbrak, a pair of throwing knives. May you learn to find your target.”
A small Yerick child, barely above my hip, scurries forward at his mother’s urging to take the pair of throwing knives that are offered by the older woman. He touches the knives to his forehead then scurries back, embarrassed by the attention.
“For Inunuk, the glow-lamps of Askana that she so admired. May it brighten her evenings with her family,” Nelia says next with a slight gesture. The lamps appear, curving structures of crystal that glow with a pale purple-and-yellow light.
“For Logram, the training weights. Grow strong, brother.”
“For Oranda, the Ares bi-focal pistol that she craved. Remember, seat the battery!”
And on and on it goes. Most gifts are weapons or training equipment, all with a small personalized message. So many gifts, so many messages. I see that I’m not the only human looking surprised. The thought and effort astounds to us. Ali offers little help.
Capstan finds us passing looks of confusion and admiration between us. “Every item we buy, every item we earn or are given, we attach a message or note to it in the System immediately. It is a small Skill, one that is purchased at the Shop for every Yerick at their third rotation. All Yerick do so to ensure that the gift may strengthen the herd. We update the information as and when we need to, but the gifts are our legacy. Our deaths are written in the stars, but even in death, we can strengthen our herd.” Capstan’s deep, grumbly voice is soft so as not to disturb the ceremony.
I see a few nods, even a few questions about what the Skill is called, from my friends. I say nothing, do nothing as I watch the gifts keep coming. I see it now that it’s explained. I watch children given a new gift scurry away, murmuring to themselves. Watch as these children plan for their deaths, for the passing of these newly given items.
“For John Lee, a stash of chocolates. For his temper and our sanity.”
It’s only Ali’s mental hiss that makes me move forward to grab the chocolate that Tahar always seemed to have on hand to offer me when I was grumpy or quiet. I take the product, bowing to his mother, and find myself back at my spot with no memory of the in-between. I find myself saying nothing still, a single chocolate held in hand.
Capstan points at it. “Eat.” I look up and stare at Capstan, who nods at my hand. “Eat. Tahar would not want you angry at his wake.”
I nod and find myself pulling the wrapper apart. The chocolate tastes like ash in my mouth. I eat though, because Capstan is right. My blood sugar is low, and there is more to watch.
Chapter 17
Sally came through for us. The next afternoon, she contacts me with her autopsy results and I rush to the Shop for more details. What she found out confirmed the hunch we had—the Frakin aren’t smart enough, aren’t sentient enough, to plan and plot a trap like that.
Onlivik Spores
A parasitic being, the Onlivik Spores attach to lesser beings and invade their cerebral and nervous system, taking control of conscious mental impulses. Onlivik Spores showcase a rare split-hive mind with a main controller host and varying levels of sophistication and sentience dependent on the number of additional host bodies.
Quest Received—The Onlivik Spores (Shareable)
Destroy the Onlivik Spores that have infected the Frakin in the Two-Horn Mountain Dungeon.
Rewards: 50,000 Credits, 20,000 XP
There’s more, a lot more, in the information I purchased from the Shop, detailing everything from biological details to past encounters with the Spores. Thankfully, it seems that the Onlivik Spores can’t invade System-protected host bodies—at least, not any with any decent amount of Willpower and Constitution. Still, I’m not going to take a chance that we’re all clear, which is why perusing data at the Shop is kept to a minimum. I only stop long enough to get the details on the Spores and how to clear out an infection if there is one among us.
I come back to Earth amid turmoil. Outside the City Center building, the Yerick stand in a group. Capstan is in front, with Nelia standing next to him, and flanking them is Aron and another pair of Yerick I don’t know. Surprisingly, Xev is here in all its glory, maneuvering around in its own powered armor. Sally stands to the side too, arms crossed in anger.
Facing the aliens is a group of humans, made up mostly of the City Council and members of the hunters and butchering yard. Between the group are a very worried Amelia, Vir, and two more of the guards.
“What will you do about this?” Capstan growls, his voice so low it reverberates in my chest. His fur is standing on end, and I can almost see the anger rolling off him.
“Your accusations are unfounded and insulting,” Fred says, nodding to the butchering yard personnel, as he stands there in his pressed suit. He seems confident, standing tall as he opposes the aliens. However, he has his arms crossed and his grip on his upper arm is just a little too tight. “Our men would do no such thing.”
“Lie,” Nelia intones, her voice dispassionate.
“How dare you, you cow!” Eric snaps, his insult eliciting a series of growls from the Yerick.
I’m struck once again that when a Yerick growls, it’s significantly more intimidating than a human’s. Maybe it’s the way they hit lower, deeper notes, or maybe it’s the fact they tower over us mere humans. Either way, the human hunters shift the grips on their guns, which cranks up the tension further.
“Put the gun down,” Amelia snaps when one of the hunters attempts to bring it to his shoulder. She steps in the way, putting her body in front of the barrel. “No one is getting shot today.”
Vir, on the other hand, is speaking to Capstan, his voice low. “First Fist, this is not the way to do things.”
“We have been insulted. Attacked. Disrespected, and now, cheated. We have died for these people. The Yerick will not take any more of this,” Capstan snarls, his voice reverberating. “I demand these Goblin-children return the Credits they have stolen.”
“We have stolen nothing!” Eric snaps.
“Truth,” Nelia intones in that same cold, dispassionate voice.
“There! You see, even your woman knows we speak the truth,” snaps Fred.
“Lie,” Nelia says.
“What?” Eric yelps, eyes swinging between the two as something seems to cross his mind.
Capstan’s lips curl up, a low rumble beginning in his chest.
“Tell your woman to shut up,” Fred snaps.
Capstan moves, surging forward. It is only Vir who manages to make Capstan stop, his body braced against the larger Adventurer.
Fred’s eyes glint in triumph as he adds, “It’s all about violence with you aliens.”
“Enough!” I roar, making my presence known. Gods, I wish I had an Aura or something to make my point, but maybe my reputation of being a complete psychopath will do. “Capstan, you need to stand down.”
The First Fist turns to me, lips drawn as he snarls. “I expected more from you, Redeemer. You protect these humans?”
“If it’ll stop you from attacking? Sure.” I walk forward and watch as the non-human crowd parts around me. I see Sally standing there, arms crossed, and Xev watching me with its bifractal eyes, but my attention is focused on Capstan. “You are better than this.”
“They cheated us,” Capstan rumbles, eyes flaring.
“True,” Nelia intones.
“I heard.” I step forward, putting me in easy reach of the First Fist, and I look up, meeting large brown eyes. “Tell me what is going on and I’ll see what I can do.”
“True.”
Before Capstan can speak, Fred injects, “You have no authority here!”
I hold up a finger for Capstan then turn to meet Fred’s eyes. “Shut up. Or else I’ll rip your tongue out and make you eat it.”
“False,” Nelia says.
“Hey, Truth-shitter, we’re trying to help here!” Ali growls while Fred smirks.
“Fine, try this. If you don’t shut up, I’ll gag you and sit on you. I might even fart a little,” I snap, irritated.
“And he had beans,” Ali adds.
“True,” Nelia says.
Fred shuts up and I grin, absently noting more than a few humans smiling slightly. Yes, my threat was childish, but it’s effective.
“John…”
“You too, Amelia. I’m not going to kill him or hurt him. Just shut him up.”
Her lips tighten, but I note she restrains herself from doing anything. Thank the gods she’s predictable—so long as things stay verbal, she won’t step in.
“Now, Capstan?” I ask.
“We have learnt that you humans have been short-changing us. Your butchering yard men have been taking parts of the kills and under-reporting what we have brought back. It was subtle at first, but it has grown extremely blatant.”
“Truth,” Nelia says.
Fred and more than a few humans shoot her a glare. I can’t help but flick a glance at her then at Ali.
“You got it, boy-o. She’s channeling a Skill that lets her tell the truth of a statement. As the speaker knows it,” Ali explains.
“Fred, your turn,” I say.
“I don’t answer to you,” Fred says.
I consider my next steps quickly. I could beat the florid politician till he tells me what I want to know, but I’m trying to stop violence here. On the other hand…
“Okay. It was more out of courtesy anyway. I’ll just buy it at the Shop.” I glance at Capstan, who inclines his head in agreement.
Fred frowns, but it’s Minion who speaks. “What do you mean, buy it at the Shop?”
“Everything’s for sale, idiot. I’ve told you before. All you need to do is be willing to pay the System’s price,” I answer, turning back to Minion. “This little scheme of yours? Real dumb. You might not have broken any Galactic Law, but you’ve not gotten away with it either. There’s no getting away with anything in this world—it’s always, always recorded.”
Eric snaps his mouth shut, blinking. When Nelia says, “Truth,” he flinches before he points at her. “How do you know she’s telling the truth?”
“Because that’s her Skill, and Class too I’m guessing. She could be lying, but the Yerick aren’t dumb. They know the System and know what an accusation like this could mean,” I say.
Minion’s lips firm even further. One thing about Eric, as annoying as he might be, he’s also smart.
“Truth,” Nelia says again.
I shoot her a glare. She’s doing that each time we say something that isn’t a question, which is actually becoming a little annoying. She must be a riot at parties when she does this.
Miranda’s lips thin, her eyes hard before she jerks her head slightly. “You’re saying we really cheated them?”
“You cannot be serious? You’re willing to believe this rubbish? What is the System? An all-seeing God?” Fred says, waving. “Come on, if the System knew all this, why’d it take them so long to figure out who burned down the Yerick’s buildings?”
“It didn’t,” Amelia says. “We knew who it was almost immediately. Hell, even with my own skills, I figured it out within a few days. We just wanted to make sure.”
“Truth.”
Fred sniffs. “Another damn alien lover. You all band together.”
Amelia opens her mouth to speak but is cut off by Miranda, who says, “Assuming what you say is true, what is stopping the System from lying to us?”
“Never been a case that that’s been proved,” Ali pipes up. “And trust me, with the way we use the System, we’d know.”
“Truth.”
A dark worm of worry gnaws at my gut at that pronouncement, but Miranda nods slightly. “Very well. I’ll go along with this. I had no hand in the cheating.”
“Truth.”
“Neither did I!” Eric spits out before anyone else can say anything.
“Truth.”
That’s not entirely surprising after all the protests before, but somehow, I’m still slightly shocked that Minion isn’t part of Fred’s little scheme.
While I’m dealing with my prejudices, Miranda continues. “Very well, First Fist, is it? Are you willing to discuss this matter in a more relaxed setting? Something a little less… aggressive?”
Capstan rumbles slowly, looking between Fred and Miranda and me, doubt on his face.
Vir speaks then. “May I offer my services in this mediation? I believe Lord Roxley would want this matter settled amicably.”
Fred opens his mouth to say something and I reach into my inventory, making a piece of rope appear. I hold it in front of him, and he shuts his mouth with a clack.
Amelia, on the other hand, rolls her eyes, pushing my hand down. “I will take care of the mayor.” She takes hold of Fred’s arm, her face professional. “We’ll be in my office.”
I consider objecting then decide to let it go. Not my place. Anyway, interrogating Fred for what he knows is probably something I should leave to the professional. She might object to more violent measures, but the police have been worming confessions out of suspects for decades without resorting to thumbscrews.
“You know, Ali, the other thieves are going to run,” I think to my friend, and I hear his mental snort.
“Where to?”
I consider his answer then smile grimly. He has a point. In an apocalypse, there really isn’t anywhere to run. Sally prods me in the stomach while I’m thinking, and I remember why I came out from the Shop. A moment later, she has the same information I do, which has her hurrying back to her store to do a quick check.
“Ali…”
“Some of us can multi-task. Already scanned and the group here is clear. Once the others are in range, I’ll scan them too.”
Guess that means I need to hunt down Aiden. The crowd is breaking up—Vir, Capstan, Nelia, and the Councilors headed into the Council’s offices, the hunters dispersing. Xev skitters up and over the buildings, probably back to its workshop. I sigh, rubbing my temples. At some point, we’ll have to let the others know in more detail, but at least for now, we should be safe.
“Again.”
Hours later, I’m in my living room in the dark, staring at glowing System screens of the battle. Thanks to the drones and Ali, I’ve got multiple recordings of the entire delve. I’ve been watching the recordings from start to finish, again and again, analyzing each moment, each interaction, looking for something, anything that can give us an advantage.
Sixty-seven Frakin stare at me from the screen, silent and eerie as when we first encountered them. They don’t move, don’t twitch, and yet, staring at the recording, I can see the marks of the spore infection on all of them.
“Pause.”
The screen pauses and I reach out, swinging footage from my desperate fight with the Frakin in the tunnels. I watch as I duck and weave, jumping and twisting between the Frakin. I watch as I trigger Blink Step, flicking out of sight and reappearing in front of the horde that streamed pass me, plasma bolts flaring all around.
“Again.”
I watch the fight, watch the dance of pain that I lay about me and the bolts of plasma that miss me by inches.
“Again.”
I watch as I Blink, then I see it, what my subconscious mind picked up and what has been nagging me. I raise my hands, backing both screens up to where I want them to start, then I twitch my hands again, pulling up my minimap. I set up a pair of maps, then I set the timelines to play at the right time.
“Start.”
It’s there. Just a brief flicker of movement, so small I can barely see it, but it’s there. A hesitation, a skip in the beat of attacks. When the Frakin are told to attack, the ripple happens at the back and flows outward to the front, the passage of the command so fast it’s barely noticeable even with my enhanced attributes. At the same time, I spot a stutter in the movements on the map. It happens when I Blink, when I shift positions in an instant. That stutter happens when the Frakin are attempting to reacquire me.
“Weird,” Ali says, and I nod slowly.
I stare at the screens in silence. I can see it—but I’m not even sure what I’m seeing.
“John?” Lana calls as she stomps down the stairs, sounding angry.
I look up from the windows, wondering what I did wrong. “Lana…?”
“Did you hear what Bill is doing?” she snaps, stalking in and throwing herself into a seat next to me.
“Uhh…”
“He’s started a strip club!” she snarls, gesturing with her hands. “The old motel he took over, he turned it into a strip club. And he’s selling drugs from it!”
“Oh.” I absently pull out a chocolate bar.
Before I can eat it, she snatches it out of my hands. I stare at my empty hands for a moment before pulling out another.
“Oh! Is that all you can say?” Lana snaps, eyes cold in the dim light. “He’s exploiting women! And selling drugs to everyone who goes in. We’ve been trying to keep that contained and he, he’s just selling them!”
“Have you talked to him?”
“Of course I have. We have. He’s saying he’s doing nothing wrong! Since Roxley is the owner of the city, it’s his laws that Bill’s abiding by and there aren’t any Galactic Laws against it. He says he’s providing ‘gainful employment’ for women and that we should be happy he’s contributing,” she growls, snatching my half-eaten bar again from my hand and chewing on it. “He’s… grumphff… such an… mmmm… ass. Is this nougat?”
“Yes.”
“I hate nougat.” She hands me back my mostly consumed bar and waits for me to deposit another in her outstretched hand.
“Well, it was mine,” I point out, and she just shoots me a look that makes me smile.
“It’s not funny,” she snaps, though with less heat.
“No, but he is right. The City Council, well, it really isn’t a real ruling body. Not in the System sense. And unless you guys are willing to physically force him to stop, there’s not much you can do.”
She nods, arms crossed. “I know. It’s just… I hate strip clubs. They’re so… so… demeaning!”
“And you don’t mind the drugs?”
Lana grimaces, looking at her hands. “It’s… not great. But it’s been getting worse anyway. Amelia and Vir had to shut down a drug-making operation in one of the residences because they nearly blew up the block. At least Bill’s is less… lethal. And he keeps rooms and places for them to use. We… I can’t stop them. This world, it’s just… it’s just hard.”
Hard. That’s one way of putting it. She chews on her chocolate bar in silence after that. I don’t break the silence, instead shooting a glance at the screens I was watching. Ali keeps silent, knowing better than to say anything.
“You know, the Council’s reforming itself.”
“Oh, really?”I don’t even bother to hide my disinterest.
“Yeah. After Fred’s… the incident, well, we’re thinking we’ll try, we will, involve the Yerick a little more. Maybe get them a seat or something.”
“Uh huh.”
“You want in?”
“In… what?” I sit up, staring at her.
“In the Council. I’m sure I could get you one.” Lana says, rubbing her nose. “God knows, Jim will back me. And probably Miranda.”
“No. Gods, no. I’d rather listen to Ali sing La Bamba, with his swings for a whole day than do that.”
“Oh God, you love me. You really love me,” Ali croons and I glare at him.
“Sorry. Sorry. I know, it isn’t what you want,” Lana says, slumping in the chair. She catches my glances to the side where my screens float unseen and frowns. “What are you doing?”
“Analyzing the delve.” I gesture her over. “Come here, look at this.”
She scoots over to my couch and sits next to me, leg pressed against mine.
For a moment, I just enjoy the closeness before I refocus on the task at hand. “Ali, share and show.”
“I should never have told you I could do this. I’m not a damn AI. you know,” Ali grumbles but he does as I ask.
“Oh, those things are disgusting,” Lana says.
“Yeah. Again, Ali.”
“Yes, master.”
“Again.”
“Again,” Lana replies almost immediately after it stops this time. “Wait…” Lana falls back, staring at the ceiling, biting her lower lip. After a moment, she looks at Ali, who dutifully runs it again. When it’s over, she nods firmly and looks at me. “There’s a stutter, isn’t there?”
“Yes.”
“Huh. So…?” She tilts her head, obviously expecting me to say something brilliant.
“So. Yeah, a stutter.” I shake my head and just talk because well, something might come from it. “The Spores are a hive mind, but they’ve got a single controlling host. It looks like that means they can’t focus on more than a few things a time. The Frakin, they can act autonomously, but if they get out of… of… script, well, they need redirection. When they need to start a new program, they….”
“They…?”
I blink, looking at Lana, and grin. “They’re a program. The Spores can’t control all of the Frakin individually, and the Frakin don’t really have conscious thoughts anymore. So they set up programs, certain behaviors. Break out of the program and the Frakin need to be reset.”
Lana nods, trying to see what has me so excited.
“Don’t you get it? It’s a program! And what do you when you want to break a program?”
“Pull the power cord?”
Ali snorts while I continue to grin. “Introduce a virus.”
It’s only a couple of hours later that I find myself speaking with a thin, bespectacled man. Leonard worked in the hospital’s analysis department before the System came, and he gained a rather weird Class called Bio-Technician. It’s similar to Sally’s Alchemist Class, except he specializes in the organic side of things. Like most people in the Yukon, when the System came into play, he had the choice of taking the System-generated “best” option or taking the hour to sort through and find something he could use. No big surprise that like most people, he went with the option offered to him. Few people had the time, ability, or desire to sort through the millions of options available. Mikito’s husband and Jason were the only two that I knew of for sure, though I’m sure some of the Raven’s Circle probably did too.
Sally was my first choice for this request, but it seems that small biological creatures are outside of her purview. Leonard was actually my third choice. My second—the Shop—turned out to be rather expensive. It seems I’m not the only one who has considered biological warfare, and the System Shop helpfully discourages that by pricing everything extremely high.
“Can you do it?” I ask Leonard as he peruses the biological information I’ve provided him on the Frakin.
“No,” Leonard says, ignoring me and continuing to talk to Lana. He’s been doing that the entire time we’ve been here. “I don’t have the Skills to kill off the Spores. I don’t even have the equipment to even start making something that could kill them.”
I snarl then force myself to calm down. Shit. The Shop it would be except… well, let’s just say Sabre cost less than the solution. By a few orders of magnitude.
“Isn’t there something we can do?” Lana smiles at Leonard and, I swear, bats her eyelashes.
“Well… ahem… maybe. I could maybe give them a bit of a cold,” Leonard replies, and I roll my eyes. He obviously picks it up, pointing at me. “A really bad flu. Something that would disorient, maybe even kill a few of them.”
“That’d be helpful,” Lana interjects, grabbing Leonard’s hand and drawing his attention again. He smiles as she continues. “How long would it take?”
“Well, this isn’t, you know, like hitting things. It’s complicated. You’ve got to create a basic model then make multiple versions of each and run them all through a simulator. It’d be better if I had an actual creature to experiment on…”
“How long, four eyes?” Ali says.
Of course Leonard doesn’t wear glasses anymore, but I have to agree he probably did wear them before the System.
“Two, maybe three weeks,” Leonard snaps at Ali.
Lana nods, squeezing his hand again. “Thank you. I’ll make sure to check in with you every few days.” She smiles at Leonard, who bobs his head excitedly.
I watch Lana flirt with him a little more before we finally leave, Leonard promising to get us the first sample as soon as possible.
Outside, I thank Lana, who just shakes her head. “Don’t. I’m just doing what I can to make sure you and my brother come back.” I nod and she adds, “It’s not enough, you know.”
“I know.” I exhale, staring at the setting sun. Disrupting them, making the Spores less effective will help, but there were still too many damn Frakin. We need something else, another edge. “I know.”
Chapter 18
When the snow comes to stay, it does so without warning. Overnight, the clouds dumped over three feet of snow on the ground. No big surprise, no one has taken the time to fix up the snowplows or the salting trucks. On the other hand, who needs snowplows when you’ve got muscle-bound warriors and mages?
I stand outside on one of our watchtowers we’ve set up around the house, watching as the Hunter teams work together to clear the roads. Most of them are just walking around with appropriated bulldozer plows, sometimes singly, sometimes in pairs, and tossing the snow onto unused lawns. On other streets, mages work by channeling low-grade fire spells to just melt the snow off the roads, letting the water run into the sewers while they stand comfortably on dry porches. Occasionally, the lack of co-ordination between the two groups ends up with one group being buried in a house or a flood of lukewarm water running onto cleared streets while people are still working.
A smaller group of citizens run from unoccupied residence to residence, ensuring that the water mains are turned off and water tanks emptied. I’m guessing they’re being managed by the newly-recreated General Council. Now, both the Yerick and Sally have seats at the table which should help matters. They’ve even finally added Lana to the table, though she’s a lot unhappier about Bill being included too. Either way, the new General Council finally seems to include everyone. I hear Roxley’s even given it his blessing by assigning Vir to mediate issues.
The more I see of Vir, the less inclined I am to believe that he’s just a promising lieutenant under Roxley’s service. I know, firsthand, how strong the First Fist is, and the fact that Vir managed to stop him was impressive. That Roxley is willing to give him free rein to chair the Council is another indicator that the Truinnar is more than he seems. I definitely need to keep a closer eye on the Lieutenant in the future.
Mayor-troublemaker Fred hasn’t been seen in Whitehorse since the blowout. Amelia has no idea what happened to him, and all Vir will say that he has been “dealt with appropriately.” When Richard heard that, he recommended we go look in the river. Myself, I think Roxley has better sense than to completely waste a resource. After all, I’m sure Fred could be sold for something in the Shop, even if it was just cheap parts. No surprise, there’s some grumbling about the high-handed way Fred was dealt with, but it’s been muted for the most part. Overall, while the Council hasn’t fixed things between the races, at least it’s a start.
In the distance, clear spaces in the schools have been turned into winter playgrounds with groups of children working to make the largest snowmen. Funny thing about System-enabled children—some of them are pretty damn strong and agile. Some of those snowmen have begun to top the buildings. Those never last long though, as children throw themselves off the roofs to knock the snowmen down amid screams of laughter and cries for more. I watch a kid, probably no older than five, pick up a snowball twice his size and toss it at another kid. The subsequent explosion and peals of laughter aren’t enough to stop a minder from running over to chasten the kid. I barely need the magnification in my helmet to see the grin on the kid’s face.
Overall, it’s a tranquil-looking state of affairs a few weeks after we had our asses kicked so hard. Tranquil, yet I can’t stop the worm of doubt in my gut.
Have you ever found something you’re passionate about, then realized no one else gives a shit? Yeah, that’s been my life for the last week. Outside of Ali and Lana, everyone else has given up on the dungeon.
When I brought up re-raiding the dungeon, Capstan said, “There are many more dungeons to clear. Sometimes, one must accept the limits of one’s current level and move on. The Yerick do not fight unwinnable battles.”
I’ll admit, I was almost tempted to bring Tahar up right then and there. Almost. I do have a little bit of a sense of self preservation. I was still disappointed, especially when he also added that they’d be spending a few weeks breaking in a new party member.
Richard and Mikito both nodded agreeably when I brought up the matter, but beyond that, neither seemed particularly interested in my explanations and theories. I’m not sure if they just figure I’ll do all the planning or that, like Capstan, they’ve already moved on. After the latest round of agreeable but non-productive discussions, I stopped talking with them about it.
Amelia has her work cut out keeping the peace, especially since Vir seems to be stuck in meetings half the time. The few times she and I have met up, she only complains about breaking in a new partner and mutters about “Rules of Force.” I’ve started avoiding her myself since she shoots me a dirty glare whenever she gets onto that topic.
Aiden flatly told me to get out when I brought up going out again, and Rachel, well, Rachel’s not much better. She’s been hanging out with Aiden more and more, teaching and training others, but has pretty much stopped going out on even simple hunting missions. Even I’m not dumb enough to push her—losing another party member right after losing most of her group was probably not the best return to hunting. The only time we get her to come with us on our excursions is when we head in to Carcross.
Everyone’s taken their eye off the dungeon, and I don’t blame them. Not really. We tried it twice and we got our asses kicked both times. Yet something tells me that waiting will just make it worse.
“Boy-o?” Ali floats next to me as I finish my cup of coffee. “We doing this?”
“Just finishing my coffee.” Sometimes, I hate being me.
Downstairs, I hold my hand and call her forth from my Altered Space. I can’t keep her in my inventory or she wouldn’t fix herself, so for the last little while, Sabre’s been sitting in my Altered Space except when I’m busy hunting.
Omnitron III Class II Personal Assault Vehicle (Sabre)
Structural Integrity: 82%
System Integrity: 94%
Damn but that last fight kicked her ass. The good news is that the adaptive armor has added a twenty percent resistance to plasma and high heat effects. The bad news is that it’ll take at least a few more weeks, assuming she doesn’t get damaged further of course, before she’s fully repaired. Thankfully, the only thing the repairs cost me this time was a whole bunch of materials, which I do have. Using Elementally-charged gold as a major component for replacements has added streaks of dark yellow to the armor plates. Thankfully, Elementally-altered gold isn’t as soft as the real stuff or else the bike would really come apart in my next fight.
I stand there stroking my bike, and I know all I’m doing is procrastinating. Thinking of stupid shit because I know what I’m about to do is dumb. Everyone else has let this go—why can’t I? I exhale, shaking my head, and glance at the bike one last time.
Hunii Dragonfly Drone (Scouting Type IV -Modified)
This dragonfly drone comes equipped with multiple visual and audio recording options and can update 3-D landscaping maps. Has been modified to carry additional storage items.
Operating time: 2 Hours
Storage: Bio-dispersal container
Leonard came through with the virus. Now the question is, will this work? There’s really only one way to tell, and that way requires me to head back into the dungeon. Let’s just hope they aren’t waiting for me.
“Boy-o,” Ali sends to me, flicking to me a video of what he’s seeing.
I slow down then come to a stop, crouching behind an insufficiently large tree while I review the footage. It’s a cat mutation of some form, a former housecat turned into a six-foot creature of spikes, scales, and fangs. I nod slightly as I stare at the monster just sitting there, watching the trail. Creepy but not surprising—cats are known to be ambush creatures after all.
“See it. Doesn’t look too hard.”
“Not that. That.” Ali manipulates the System and the video floats higher as he does so, giving me a clearer view as he highlights the spots he sees. Right behind the head, a small yellowish-greenish bump that I’d missed.
“Is that…?” I gulp.
“Onlivik Spores, yes,” Ali replies. “It’s spreading outside the dungeon.”
“How?”
“Don’t know. My guess—either the Spores were never part of the dungeon initially, or they just escaped the System’s controls because we’re not fully integrated yet,” Ali replies.
I find myself grunting. “How fast?”
“What am I? A silicone dummkopf? Fast. We’re about two miles out from the dungeon and it’s got scouts watching for problems,” Ali says.
I sigh. Shit. “All right, can we get a message back to the city? Package the video and send via one of the drones. We still need to get this virus into the dungeon.” If I die, the city needs to know.
“Do this, Ali. Do that, Ali,” Ali mutters as he focuses, sending the appropriate commands to one of our last drones. “Done.”
“Yeah, but it’s more fun to listen to you whine.”
I shut up after that, focusing on skimming around the cat. Better to find a way in that doesn’t attract any attention if I can. I’ll be making enough noise when I do get in.
Two weeks, and other than the snow, the area around the dungeon hadn’t changed a bit. Snow-covered slopes, heavily laden trees, and the occasional set of tracks from a snowshoe hare or some weirder, unidentified creature is all that marks the terrain. As always, the Yukon is gorgeous and scenic, but this time round, I’m more concerned about leaving easy-to-follow tracks than how pretty everything is.
Unfortunately, there’s not much I can do about the fact that each of my armor-clad steps is leaving a set of tracks a blind man could follow. The only thing that can fix that is a strong wind or another big snowfall, and the clear skies and dead air tell me I’m not in luck today. It makes my path into the dungeon a circuitous and slow route, but luckily, the Onlivik Spores seem more interested in setting up fixed guard positions rather than roving guards.
Interestingly enough, there aren’t any guards at the actual dungeon entrance itself. I’m not sure if the Spores are just that confident or just that dumb, but I’ll take it. Not that I expect my presence to be hidden very soon.
In the first chamber, I find nothing. It’s rare to find monsters hanging out in the first chamber of most dungeons. At most, you get a trap. For a moment, I wonder why that is before I refocus. Right. Horde of mind-controlled Frakin ready to burn me to pieces.
Finding a place to hide is a tense, stomach-clenching affair even if I’m not heading much farther than the first cavern. I know I can run with the QSM, but its five-minute charge makes it a trump card I can only play with care. That means good old Stealth skills are more important in everyday use, and luckily, all that time hunting solo has leveled mine up significantly.
Once I’m hidden, I launch my last two drones. I wish I had all three, but getting word back to the city was more important. Curled up in a small rock outcropping halfway up the cavern, I remotely guide the drones in while letting Ali watch out for potential bad guys. I keep the drones high and quiet, edging in deeper and deeper along the paths I can see. I need to hit as many of these Frakin as I can, but there’s only so far that I can guide them before the signal breaks down completely. After that, they’ll have to run on their own on-board programming.
That’s one of the reasons the Yerick don’t use drones much. Not only do you have to have someone watching the drones consistently to get the data you need, it’s often not as good as the information you could get from Skills. Add the fact that if you push them too far, they have a tendency to break down or get smashed by monsters and you can see why the Yerick just don’t see them as a good use of their money. Overall, I can see their points but then you get a situation like this.
I grin as the first drone comes across the first group of Frakin. There’s only a half dozen of them, most of them half-grown, which tells me they haven’t recovered completely from our last encounter. That’s pretty good news. I drop a quarter of one drone’s payload and keep flying, passing my last stand before the signal finally shorts out.
I swear softly, hoping it’s enough. Theoretically, all I need to do is ensure that the virus itself is spread around sufficiently, then it should propagate without a problem. According to Leonard, the virus is both airborne and System-borne—that is, the System helps the infection process. I’m not entirely sure what that means or why he gets grumpy when I call it a virus, but considering I never took biology and he insists on explaining everything in as many four-syllable words as he can, I’m okay with that. So long as it works, I’ll even forgive him for asking Lana out.
Not that I have a right to get angry that he did. It’s not as if Lana and I have done anything more than, well, talk. Irrational jealousy is irrational. So long as I realize it’s irrational, I can keep it in check. However, I do wonder if I should be asking her out…
I grunt, shaking my head, and refocus on the feeds. I need to stop thinking about this. Sitting in the middle of a dungeon, waiting for my drones to either get caught or do their job, is not the right time or place to think about dating. Anyway, I don’t have much to offer the lady—I’m a suicidal, hot-tempered mess of a man. She deserves better.
Thankfully, before I get even more morose and idiotic, the feed from one of my drones comes back. It’s the one I sent on one of the side paths that the Frakin used to flank us before. The moment it connects, the map updates and I let out a low whistle. Jesus—the pathway leads down to a chamber beneath me, which seems to store a huge number of the Frakin. They’re still doing that creepy, completely still thing, not even moving when the drone dumps its cargo.
I don’t have time to watch further though because Ali hisses at me, making my minimap bloom. Looks like the Frakin around me are scuttling now, searching. I guess the other drone got caught. A quick command sends the drone I have in control into hiding and hibernation mode in the vague hope that I can retrieve it later before I drop to the ground and run. Time to go.
Running out of this dungeon with Ali floating beside me is beginning to get very old. A few of the infected monsters charge in, blips on my screen that flow toward me, but I ignore them. I’ve got too much of a head start on all but the cat I’m running toward. Really, it’s stupid of the Spores to charge me—the cat doesn’t stand a chance as I behead it. Then again, we’ve established that the Spores aren’t that smart.
Yet.
Chapter 19
“A bigger, better man would take this opportunity to say I told you so pass him by,” I say into the stunned silence of the gathered great and powerful of Whitehorse after Ali finished his presentation. I let the silence linger for a few more moments. “I told you so.”
“John…” Lana says, her tone cool.
I flash her a smile, but I quiet down. Some are still pushing on their data screens, trying to make the information we presented say something, anything other than what it does. Others, having read it, turn to me or their respective leaders, waiting for an answer. No one provides one though, because there really isn’t an easy answer.
“Very well, Redeemer. You were correct. I expect you have a solution?” Nelia finally breaks the silence, staring at me.
I smile grimly and shake my head. “No, I don’t have a solution. I do have some suggestions. First, we send a team to wipe out the current scouts and guards the Spores have set up. That should slow the spread a bit since it takes a critical mass of the Spores to begin infection. Right, Leonard?”
Leonard twitches, obviously not used to being in this kind of company, before he jerkily nods.
“We’ll still need to deal with the Spores eventually, but taking out the scouts will buy us time. Second, we need an answer from the System, and we need it sooner rather than later. Are the Spores part of the dungeon or are they an invader? The first means we’ll constantly be dealing with their production, constantly having to destroy them as the System recreates the Spores. That means we’ll need a much more permanent solution to their spread.
“The second, well, the second is simpler. We just kill everything that has the Spore and burn it all down.”
“If you knew to ask that question, why didn’t you get the answer?” Bill asks, hands steepled.
I flash him a grin. “Because the answer to that question is about fifty thousand Credits.”
I see more than a few people suck in their breath at the price. No shit, it’s expensive.
It’s Jason, on the video-conference line, who asks the obvious question. “Why do we need to know? If we kill them all and keep them contained in the dungeon, won’t that be enough, even if the dungeon is creating the Spores?”
Vir leans forward in his chair. “No. Infected dungeons are unusual, but they are not unique. An Infected dungeon cannot be contained by just killing the creatures within—eventually, the infection will spread. There are Galactic procedures to contain such dungeons, but they are expensive and require significant time investment. John is correct—understanding what we face is important.”
I nod to Vir before looking at the group to see if there are any further questions. When there aren’t, I add, “Lastly, we’re going to have to clear that dungeon one way or the other. Like any dungeon, if we don’t clear it regularly, it’ll overpopulate and spill out. With an Overmind, that might happen sooner than we’d like, since there’s no in-fighting. We’ve got a week before the Spores feel the effects of the virus, and it’ll take a couple of days before it really gets going. Ten days, right, Leonard?” On confirmation, I continue. “Ten days, then we go in.”
I watch as people grimly accept the deadline, slowly running the numbers through their mind.
Jim frowns, staring into space before he looks back at me, his voice husky from too many cigarettes. “I’ll get a few hunting groups to the dungeon. We can’t contribute much to the attack, not and keep the city safe, but my group and another could help man the area.”
“That’ll be great, Jim,” Lana says, nodding for him to head out.
He gets up, offering a brief nod to everyone before he leaves to brief his people. I almost say something before I decide against it—Jim understands probably better than any of us how strong his hunting group really is. In the assault, they just won’t be that much help.
“We’re in, of course,” Richard says. “We’ve got a couple of Credits saved up we can add to the pot.”
Vir raises a hand, cutting Richard off. “The purchase will be handled by Lord Roxley.”
I nod, grateful for that help. I don’t know how deep his pockets are, though I’ve gotten the feeling they’re not as deep as he’d like us to believe. Still, I’ll take Vir’s word for it. “Thanks.”
Vir nods before looking at the ceiling. “While Lord Roxley is unable to arrive in time for the attack, I believe his guard may contribute a few additional men to the attack. I shall lead them myself.”
Capstan speaks next, his voice a low rumble. “The Yerick can send three Adventuring parties.”
“I’ll speak with Xev to see what it can contribute, but I can outfit a lot of people with potions,” Sally pipes up, her normally cheerful demeanor extremely serious now.
I watch this play out, and a part of me wilts at how mundane it all seems. A part of me expected orchestral music, grand speeches, and declarations of bravery. Instead, we get a boardroom with the clink of ice water and dry allocations of resources and studied consideration. On the other hand, as I look around, I have the feeling that this is a group I want to go to battle with. All but one…
“So, hillbilly, your crew coming?” Ali floats over to Bill, hands on his knees as he sits cross-legged.
Luthien snarls and I get more than a few looks that say the same thing—“control your Spirit.” I ignore them.
“We have warned you before, Spirit,” Bill says, raising a hand toward Ali, and a part of me wonders what he thinks he’s going to do. My curiosity almost lets me watch Bill hurt Ali, but that won’t get the answer I want.
“Ali, enough. Be quiet now.” Ali shoots me the most horrified, betrayed look ever until I add, “Because Bill is about to answer your question.”
Luthien turns to look at Bill, her lips parting slightly as she waits to see what he has to say.
Bill opens his mouth then glances around the suddenly quiet room before shutting it again. “We will not.”
“Thought so.” Ali smirks, floating back to me.
I sigh, sending him a thought. “Enough, let the others handle it. You got the ball rolling.”
“Yeah, yeah. Knew he was trying to get out of it.”
“Why am I not surprised?” Lana’s voice comes out frosty as she leans forward. “Did the part that the Spores are a threat to all of us not get through that thick skull of yours?”
“Yes. I also note that there’s more than sufficient numbers of you to deal with it.” Bill shrugs. “I see no reason to risk myself or my people in addition.”
“Except if we fail, we all die,” Amelia adds.
“So you risk everything on a single throw of the dice,” Bill says.
“Die,” Ali mutters so softly only I hear him.
“You have a better suggestion?” Richard says.
“For myself? No. There is nothing to be gained by joining you or staying if you fail. My duty is to my people,” Bill says.
Others begin to argue with him, all to be shut down by a light rap on the table by Vir. “Adventurer Cross,” Vir says.
Bill’s jaw clenches slightly, the muscles flexing as he readies himself for another attack.
“You own land in Lord Roxley’s domain,” Vir says. “You might not know this, but that ownership comes with certain obligations. One of which I will invoke now. You will join us in the attack, or you shall be declared Mujinae. I believe the closest human term is Outcast.”
Bill leans forward. “You can’t do that. This is a free country. There is no draft here.”
“I believe you have, repeatedly, informed the Council that you are not breaking any Galactic Law, that we are under Galactic Law here in the city. As such, Canadian or the City’s very own laws do not apply to you. Was that not what you said?” Vir’s voice grows colder and colder with each word. “Now, do you refuse the call to arms?”
Bill jerks his head as if he’s trying to get rid of a nasty crick in his neck but finally accedes to Vir’s request. Lana’s openly gloating, and even most of the human Council members seem quite happy. Of course, nothing compares to the smirk Amelia shoots Bill, obviously glad to see him finally dealt with. The non-humans ignore the entire interaction with aplomb though, obviously not wanting to get involved. Well, outside of Ali, who is grinning from ear to ear.
I stay silent—as does Bill, who sulks in his seat—as the others plan what we need. Names are thrown out—some familiar, some less so—as additional help for the fight is debated. All the while, I remember the hundreds of Frakin that wait for us.
“We don’t have enough, do we, boy-o?” Ali sends to me as he spots my face.
“No, not yet.” Not yet.
“It is unusual for a spy to request to speak with me directly,” Labashi says as we sit down at my fort, the grounds nicely clear.
One good thing about the System—it certainly keeps its side of the bargain. I paid for clear fields of fire and an upgraded, well-kept yard, and even through the snowfalls and monster wanderings, it’s done that.
“I’m an unusual spy.” I pour him more tea before sitting back.
It’s been a few days since the big meeting, and in the city, everyone is scrambling. Whether it’s hunting to get more Credits, training to get ready, or planning the attack, the city is buzzing. I guess certain doom is a good way to get everyone’s ass into gear.
Labashi sips on his newly filled cup. “This blackberry tea is quite good, as have been your reports thus far.”
“Glad you like it. And the reports. I’m enjoying the Credits too.” I smile at him, doing my best “innocent” look. Not that I even know if he can tell the difference, but you do what you can. “How’d you like to get information on the fighting groups—all the fighting groups—firsthand?”
“And how would you do that?” Labashi says, an eyebrow rising.
“Well, that’s a funny story.” I lean forward and fill him in on the last month or so. I drop all of it on him and end with our planned attack. “So we’re going in. All of us. Except it won’t be enough, I don’t think.”
“I know of this First Fist of yours, and Vir,” Labashi says, finger tapping the edge of the cup. “I believe you might be surprised.”
“Perhaps.” I stare at my hands and shake my head. “But there’s likely going to be more blood lost than I’d like. So I’m here. Asking to hire you.”
“And what do you have to offer, Mr. Lee? Our services are expensive,” Labashi adds.
I nod. “Yes. I figured as much. So let’s talk.”
I lean forward, meeting his gaze. This is a bad deal, a bad negotiation. I have no leverage, no way of making this come out good for me. On the other hand, if I’m dead, it won’t really matter.
Hours later, I watch Labashi walk away. I shut my eyes, leaning back. The negotiation was…
“Horrible. This is a bad, bad idea,” Ali finally speaks up, staring at me.
“Yeah, I know.” I exhale, shaking my head. “But it’s my choice. We need the bodies. Without more help, we’re screwed. And the Dwarves aren’t willing to help. Now come on, there’s someone else we need to speak to.”
Ali grumbles but says nothing as I climb aboard Sabre. I look back at the Fort. Gods, I actually enjoyed my time here—hunting, killing, being alone. No one to care about, no one to worry for. Just me and the Apocalypse.
“Oy! I thought you said we were going, boy-o.”
I snort. Yeah, enough with the maudlin nonsense. There’s work to do.
“Aiden.” I walk in as he finishes class. I’ve been waiting outside for the last ten minutes, practicing my own Affinity.
“John,” Aiden replies as he puts his notes on the table and turns to stare at me.
“Lana tells me you turned down joining us.”
He nods firmly. “Yes. I’m sorry, I know you need everyone who can come. I just… I can’t.”
I take a seat next to him. “Because of what happened last time?”
He nods, fear clear in his eyes. “I… I don’t want to die.”
“Few of us do. I understand. Thank you. For coming out when you did. For teaching me what you can. If… well, if we don’t come back, get the kids out. Head south. There might be something left back there.”
“What do you mean?” Aiden says.
“Dawson’s gone and Carcross won’t last if—”
The mage cuts me off. “I mean, if you don’t come back.”
“Oh. This is our final toss,” I answer, lips twisting. “We either win or we die. If we don’t stop the Spores, they’ll keep growing and growing, and eventually, they’ll hit Whitehorse and swarm us. We have to win this. Now.” He clasps his hands together, fingers shaking, as I continue. “So go south. If we don’t come back, get everyone that you can out.”
Aiden nods jerkily, looking at me before looking away, unable to meet my eyes. I give his shoulder a squeeze before I walk off, stopping only when he calls my name.
“How do you do it? I want to… I want to be braver, but I can’t,” he whispers.
“You’re asking the wrong person.” I don’t turn around as I stop in the doorway, a hand on the doorframe. “From my viewpoint, you’re plenty brave.”
He laughs bitterly, and I leave before he can recover and realize I never answered his question. I don’t have an answer for him, at least not the one he’s looking for. How do I tell him that it’s not because I’m brave but because I’m too fucking scared and angry to stop? How do I tell him that every time I stop and think, I see Haines Junction, or that damn village in the middle of nowhere, or Tahar?
I walk outside into the sunlight and shake my head. No, I have no answer for Aiden. His reaction is the sensible one. Mine—well, mine’s certifiable.
“We don’t have enough people,” Jim states again, his fingers tapping the 3-D map of the dungeon and the surrounding areas.
We don’t have a lot of the actual dungeon mapped, and all of what we do have comes from my drones which, frankly, is rather worrying. A major recent change to the area is the battlements and walls now surrounding the dungeon entrance, a hastily constructed series of defenses meant to contain any incursion. It won’t hold against a major push, but it’s sufficient to contain the occasional Frakin that wanders out and keep other monsters away.
“Even if we take my people off the walls, I see at least a half dozen different passages there. My people can’t stand up to these Frakin,” Jim adds.
“Yes,” Vir answers, rubbing his chin. “We might have to hit and pull back, drawing small numbers out to us.”
“Very dangerous work,” Capstan adds, pointing at the entrance chamber and the chamber beneath. “The Frakin could attempt to overwhelm us at any time.”
“What of the virus?” Richard asks.
The group shrugs.
“Might work, might not,” I answer before sighing.
“We sure the Spores aren’t part of the dungeon?” Richard says.
Vir answers that one for me. “Yes. We confirmed that via the Shop. The Spores are an invasive species, not dungeon owned. Of course, they eventually could be, but as of this time, they aren’t. If we wipe the dungeon, we can always sweep it later to confirm.”
Since the big meeting, a smaller group of us have been meeting more regularly, trying to work out a plan that will keep most of us alive. The group consists of Vir and Capstan, who have the most System-related battle planning experience, and Jim, who surprisingly is a former infantry sergeant in the army. Richard, Jason, and I drift into the conversation occasionally, throwing what help we can, but at the end of the day, we’re civilians trying to plan a battle. We’re mostly here so that we know what is going on.