16
Money and Adventure
The morning came and brought more questions. The interrogator decided to share a little about the situation with them, perhaps trying to build a rapport. According to the interrogator Nomed was a known threat but as time had gone on their power and influence had waned significantly. The loss of power infuriated the immortal and they redoubled their efforts in locating any and all information about magic. Even with their more aggressive approach Nomed hadn't gone so far as to directly take over people's bodies, until now.
Luke told them they had no idea why the notes were so valuable to Nomed but they were definitely old as they had come from somewhere lost to the world for centuries. That seemed to be what the interrogator expected. The police had recovered the notes from the people who had collapsed and they were now top secret and being sent to the king who would decide what to do about the matter. The people who had been taken over were expected to recover soon and with no serious issues.
AJ and Luke were given a device that would allow them to contact someone with authority in Turbeir if Nomed showed up again. It wasn’t said outright but the implication was that the device could be used to track the pair and the interrogator told them not to throw it away.
“We will contact you again if we need anything else.” The interrogator said as they stood to leave.
“How?” Luke asked
They just laughed and left them alone in the room. A few minutes later they were released back into the town.
“We need to get stronger… and work out how to hide until we do" Luke said
“How though?” AJ asked
“I need some kind of signal blocker like you have, then maybe I can upgrade the implant and get much stronger.” He thought a moment before adding, “and the helicopter could use some weapons"
AJ nodded, “There might be something like that around here, there’s no way they have no defense against hacking when all of their power comes from electronic implants connected to a global network.”
‘We can have a look, and work on figuring out how to make some money as well. Kevin is supposed to be here soon and if anyone has figured out how to protect from hackers it would be him, we have a week or so to kill"
They spent the rest of the morning window shopping. The town had a lively shopping district with everything from laser rifles to magic brooms to fly with. The first shop they visited dealt in magic. Inside the shop were shelves of USB drives. They asked the gnome managing the shop who explained that installing a spell was very simple, you just had to open the magic interface with the ‘Magic' command and plug the relevant drive into the port. The rest was simple instructions and even a small tutorial.
Luke tried the magic command but nothing happened, the gnome looked confused for a bit but then asked about the version Luke was running. Apparently magic like that required at least version 3.0, the gnome had never even heard of version 0.2. They had expected something like this and still browsed the spells on display, making a wish list in case they did manage to unlock the ability.
There were quite a number of amazing spells like flight, teleportation, mind reading, time stop, summon monster. Those spells also had a requirement for INT to be useable. Surprisingly the requirements weren't ridiculous, they asked the gnome about it and that was the minimum stat in order to achieve any affect whatsoever. More information on how the spells would scale with more INT was available but the prices deterred them. They really needed a source of cash soon.
Other more affordable spells included basic stuff like fireballs, ice spears, earth walls, and water jets. It seemed odd to Luke that the spells had such distinct elemental categories which he brought up to the gnome.
“Why aren't there any mixing of spells?”
The gnome looked confused, “What do you mean?”
Luke pondered for a moment before coming up with a good example, “Like these,” he pointed at a spell that shot a plume of sand into the targets eyes and another that blasted them with a jet of water, “if you load the sand into the water it would have much greater effect than either of the other spells”
“but those are different spells…”
Now Luke was the one confused, “Yeah… but why? Even if you can't combine them into one spell, can't you cast both at once to imitate that sort of effect?”
The gnome stood on their toes and leaned around trying to get a better look at something, “You got an implant right? You're not from the tower?”
“Tower? I’m not from any tower”
The gnome let out a sigh of relief, “Good, but how do you not know this stuff? Haven’t you checked your magic menu?”
What followed was several minutes of Luke fishing for information while trying to keep his outdated implant a secret. It turned out you had to choose an element for magic when you unlocked the ability. Each spell had a further requirement to learn it, you had to have the appropriate element. Some spells like flight had multiple possible elements like wind or gravity, whereas others would behave differently based on the element like summon monster which would bring a different monster based on your element. Some were just not learnable without the correct element and so it was impossible to load a sand spell into a water spell like Luke had imagined. Not to mention dual casting was also impossible.
Luke excitement for magic diminished a bit with that news, but he still planned on unlocking the ability at some point.
Their next stop was a weapon shop. The weapon shop was more like a mall. The building was taller than malls Luke had visited before being four stories but had a smaller footprint so still contained a similar number of shops. Inside there was every type, style, and size of weapon you could imagine. From simple sharpened wood spears, to automated laser turrets mounted on a hat.
Before they had visited the shopping district Luke and AJ visited the air docks and retrieved their packs and weapons since it seemed many people were carrying weapons. Luke went to a magic weapon smith to compare his spear with the ones for sale there. Finding the spear area Luke looked over the selection.
“ah ye got a good eye lad” The voice was like someone had taught rocks to speak
Luke turned to find what was clearly a dwarf smith. The dwarf was so like the image in his head of a dwarven smith that Luke blinked to make sure it wasn’t his imagination. The man stood three and a half feet tall and just as wide. He was a being composed entirely of muscle and beard, and you couldn't make out any facial features behind the great brown beard, eyebrows and moustache.
“ah thanks, I'm Luke" Luke said, offering his hand
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
The dwarf took his hand and shook once, “Seymour, you lookin te replace tha one ye got there?”
Seymour indicated the spear on Luke's back.
“I'm not sure yet, really I just wanted to see how it compared and what they ran"
Seymour grunted, “give it ere, I'll take a look at er for ye”
Luke hesitated but handed over his spear. Seymour tilted it this way and that, gripping it, balancing it, giving it a swing, he even sniffed it at one point, then handed it back to Luke.
“Aye at’s a fine piece o work there, an I don say at lightly. It ain’t dwarven, not sure who made it, but it'll hold up te anything ye see ere. Ye know ow to use it?”
“A little”
Seymour grunted again, “Heh, it ain't made for ye tho is it?”
Luke shook his head. Seymour grumbled and paced for a bit, while Luke and AJ looked at each other and shrugged.
Finally Seymour said, “Aight I'll do it"
“Umm do what?” Luke asked
“I'll make ye a custom spear o’course, wha ye think we been talkin bout this ole time?
“I just wanted to see how it compared to other spears" Luke said raising his hands
“An I told ye it’s good, good enough to be dwarven, even tho it ain't," the spear not being dwarven made seemed important to Seymour.
“Right… it’s good and I don't have money… so… I will hang onto it for now” Luke said backing away from the dwarf
Seymour shook his head, his long beard followed behind in a delay, “no no no, it's good aye but a custom dwarven made spear is far more impressive. AN I can give ye a referral to me wife, she's tha best enchanter in Tubeir she is. Got a waiting list to have somethin enchanted by er as long as me beard, but I’ll get ya right to the front o at line.
A Dwarven made spear custom made fer ye, at would best tha one ye got there, an at's before ye get tha best enchantin done. Ye won’ find a weapon better in this life.”
“I mean… it sounds great…” Luke hedged, “but we have no money"
Seymour worked his mouth sending ripples down his beard, “Tell ye wat, Come back in a week, I'll ave ye spear. While ye wait, make some money at the Adventurer guild or summin, give me alf a what ye make, and that spear ye got there. te ave to settle up wit me wife fer tha chantin urself, but I'll still get ye to tha front o tha line.”
That stopped Luke, he liked his spear, it had saved his life. BUT Seymour promised the custom spear would be a better fit and exceed this one even before the enchanting. Who knew how much the enchanting would cost though. They still needed to find a way to block signal so he could upgrade his implant AND find the money for it as well. Not to mention any spells he wanted to get before getting out of there.
Somehow even without any money the shopping list and attached bill kept growing.
“Why go so far?” Luke asked unwilling to let it go
Seymour crossed his arms and hummed for a moment before answering, “I ain’t never seen a spear could match dwarf work what wasn't dwarf work itself… I wan’ tha spear, wan' ta see how…”
Luke chewed on that for a moment before answering, “alri…”
“Throw in something for me," AJ interrupted
Seymour startled as if seeing AJ for the first time, “Eh? Wha ye wan little one?”
The little one comment seemed to irritate AJ but he didn't say anything about it, “I need something to fight with, I don't have any weapons.”
“Wha sort o weapons ye wan?”
AJ immediately pointed to a rack of daggers
Seymour considered before nodding, “Aye, bring back wha ye make from the Adventurer guild o'er tha next week. I take alf, wha ye get from at rack depends on ow much ye make. Deal?”
Once all was settled they shook on it and Luke and AJ left to find the Adventurer guild.
The Adventurer guild was actually across the street from the Traveler's guild. It was a medieval style building with two floors, the first held a barroom, and a desk in the corner. The desk was where adventurers would take and report completion of jobs, normally the desk was probably sufficient but the influx of people hoping to be selected for the Hero's party as well as the increase in monsters from the Demon Lord meant four workers were sharing the single desk.
The line took some time but eventually Luke and AJ met with the Adventurer guild representative.
“How can I help you?” The man asked haggard but still cheery.
“We are new in town… I suppose that’s the story for pretty much everyone… Anyway we need a week worth of work to make some money.” Luke said
“Right, so the same story as everyone else? How much danger is acceptable, how well can you handle yourselves?”
“Umm.. by what metric? I can fight…”
The man pointed at a scale printed on a poster behind the desk. The bottom of the scale showed a toddler wielding a stick with the number one next to it, the top of the scale showed a demon wearing a crown riding a dragon with rocket launchers attached, the number ten was next to that image.
“That’s… a pretty drastic scale… I suppose we are… six? Is that a gorilla with a sledge hammer?”
The worker just nodded and wrote down something on a clipboard, “Alright how about a dungeon full clear, the dungeon is about four miles to the west in the woods. It's filled with orcs, led by a berserker chieftain. Any loot is yours to keep, bring the left ear of each orc you kill for three silvers each, the chieftain is worth three gold, and clearing the whole dungeon is a platinum. Any questions?”
“Yeah what abou…”
“Great I'll mark you down as on the job, if you don't return in five days you will be declared dead and another will be sent in your place. When you die please make sure to destroy any ears that haven't been redeemed so the next party can't claim them. NEXT.”
The next group pushed Luke and AJ out of the way.
“Well… I guess we are off to kill some orcs then…” Luke said to AJ
“Orcs huh? You don't suppose an evil wizard is raising an army of them to serve an enigmatic fiery eyed demigod do you?”
“What?”
“Nothing"
With the dungeon being so close and in the woods they decided to walk rather than try to fly there. Luke handed over the magic handgun to AJ and checked his spear before they headed out in the direction indicated. According to the adventurers they asked in the guild, dungeons were very hard to find, so each time they were found a large flag would be erected and the location would be mapped. Computers in the Adventurer guild had the locations of all known dungeons, including the one that they were assigned. It was clear by the list of dungeons that even with so many more people than usual, there would be no shortage of work clearing dungeons for the foreseeable future.
If they could find a way to protect themselves from Nomed and his puppets clearing dungeons and then repairing and rebuilding after the Hero defeated the Demon Lord would be a great way to gather supplies even if the currency wouldn’t transfer outside of Turbeir.
They made their way to the edge of town on foot where a gate allowed people through. There weren’t any gate guards so Luke wondered why they even had a wall and gates anyway, perhaps for an emergency but even then many people and monsters were capable of flight so it wouldn’t help much.
As soon as they passed the gate Luke felt a vibration and a loud beeping sounded from his pack. Digging out the source revealed the small device they had been given when they had been questioned about Nomed the day before. When he picked it up the sound stopped and a voice sounded.
“Why have you left town?”
“Hello? Who is this?” Luke asked it
“Answer my question, why have you left town?”
“Is this the really scary interrogator lady from yesterday? We took a job for the Adventurer guild we'll be back in a week or less”
Silence.
Luke was about to put the thing back when the voice spoke up again, “I’m not scary"
AJ leaned over, “I’m a robot and even I was sweating”
“Oh… well… come back safely… Word is that an official will be arriving with the Hero who wants to hear the story of what happened for themselves... I'm sorry for being scary I didn’t mean to…”
The lights on the device went dark and Luke put it away while trying not to laugh, he wasn’t sure if it would transmit sound still.
“Well we know for sure they are tracking us now” AJ said
“At least it doesn’t seem like they mean us ill. Just want us to report what happened to someone more important… what do you think they plan to do about Nomed?” Luke asked
“I don’t know and I don’t want to know. We need to get away from these big fish asap nothing good will come from the attention of people who are too powerful.” AJ said
“I’m with you there. Hopefully it works out that way but I have a feeling we will be close to this until it gets resolved or we gather enough strength to tell everyone to fuck off.”
“Let’s get there quickly huh?”
With a nod Luke and AJ began jogging to the dungeon where their next step toward more power would be. With their enhancements they covered ground quickly. It wasn't long before they could see the red flag that indicated a dungeon. Even with the speed of their travel, night was falling when they approached. The darkness was welcome though as orcs didn't have low light or dark vision, while Luke and AJ both did. Additionally Orcs slept at night and would leave only a small watch.
The pair waited and watched from the cover of the trees as it grew darker and darker. Eventually Luke's vision shifted into shades of grey that ignored the darkness and they continued to wait, giving time for the orcs to wander back into their shelter and start dozing off. Luke readied his spear and made to rise but AJ stopped him and held up a finger telling him to wait.
AJ was proven wise as the sounds from inside grew ever fainter as more and more of the orcs went to sleep. A short while later the watch also started to slump against the entrance to the dungeon and nod off.
Luke began to hope that this might actually be an easy night of quick money.