Hotbar Interface Cube
Adds a single hotbar to your user interface.
Huh. I hadn’t seen a description for the hotbar cube the last time I’d found one. It had just absorbed into me the second I touched it. Now I’d been looking forward to seeing what this one said, only to find it rather... lackluster.
[That doesn’t explain anything!] I grumbled. Zapper glanced between me and the cube.
[Maybe you get one of those tutorial thingies once you use it?]
[It’s possible, though that didn’t happen for me last time. I still have no idea how to use it.] I shifted my gaze accusingly towards the little two-dimensional square I could see at the edge of my vision. Nothing happened.
[Hey, merchant, uh, thing,] I called out. The robot shuddered, its lights flickering back on. [I got a question for you.]
“Of course, customer. How may I be of service?”
[What does this do?] My nose jerked in the cube’s direction.
“One moment... accessing inventory protocols... searching... found.
[Umm... Maybe. Just hold tight for a bit.] I had a feeling we’d need him again soon. Turning back to Zapper, I said, [Well, we don’t know what it is, but it’s probably important. I got one out of a red loot box before, and it was the only item inside. Depending what else we decide to get, it might be worth picking this up to at least hold on to.]
My gaze swiveled to look at the price tag. [Then again, maybe not. Five rare cores is rather steep.]
[Huh?] Zapper tilted his head and gave me a funny look. [What are you talking about, Boss? It’s only one rare core.]
[What are you talking about Zapper?] I nosed the sign, which clearly read ‘hotbar interface cube, 5 rare cores’.
[Uh, are you okay, Boss?] Zapper sniffed the sign. [Nope, one core.]
[Okay, this is just—] I stopped, my gaze swiveling back to the robot who was idling nearby. [Why are we seeing something different?]
“One moment, processing request...” The robot’s head spun. “It appears that customer already possesses a hotbar interface. Adding additional slots will incur further costs.”
Huh. I glanced over at the skill upgrade core, which showed a price tag of ten rare cores. [Zapper, how much is that item for you?]
[Hmmm... it says two rare cores, Boss.]
Okay, so the robot’s logic appeared consistent, at least. Though the upgrade core price increase did seem pointless, given I couldn’t even use a second one at the moment. Probably better to get Zapper’s skill upgraded rather than sit on an item that might or might not be useful down the road. Though that did bring up an excellent question...
[What’s stopping us from just swapping items after we’ve paid for them?] I asked the robot.
“All items purchased from dungeon shops are soulbound to the customer.” The robot didn’t even pause before providing an answer. Had he been anticipating that one? Or maybe it was pre-programmed in.
Soulbound... I’d run into this before, with Crunch’s collar. I also remembered that it had lost its soulbound status once he’d died.
[So if someone buys these items, and then I kill them...] I began. The horrified expression on Zapper’s face brought me up short. I hastily added, [Hypothetically!!! I was just speculating!]
“Customer is correct. Soulbound status is removed upon a user’s death. Do you require any further assistance?”
[Just a moment.] I turned my attention back to the final item, the adventurer guide. It looked like an ordinary, everyday book. The little sign next to it listed the price at five gold.
Beginner’s Adventurer Guide
This handy guide provides assistance to its user with interface features and strategic planning up through level 25.
That... sounded really useful, actually. Even with the tutorials, I’d been stumbling along since the beginning, trying to understand how my interface worked. Heck, even if it just explained these hotbars to me, it’d be worth the purchase price.
Except that I didn’t have five rare cores. I didn’t even have enough to make 3.
Zapper must have noticed the look of longing in my eyes. He glanced from me to the guide and back to me again. [Do you want some of our earnings back from fighting those desperados?]
[Nah, that’s okay, Zapper. Besides, you need to buy some stuff for yourself. At the very least, get that upgrade core.] Given what it did for my ability, I knew we’d be glad to pick that up for him as well.
Still, I couldn’t give up on trying to get my paws on that guide. Turning to the robot, I gave a hopeful wag of my tail. [Any chance I can pay for items in installments?]
“Negative. However, this dungeon shop will take a limited number of items for purchase if the customer finds themselves short of funds.”
[Really?] Now my tail did some serious wagging. [How do I go about doing that?]
“One... moment... activating merchant protocol...”
A second later, a modified version of my inventory list appeared in front of me.
-Sellable Items-
(10) Waterproof Matches — 1 uc
(3) Safe Zone Generator — 3 uc
(2) MREs — 50 cc
(6) Potion of Effervescence — 12 uc
(4) Scrolls of Magic Missile Barrage — 4 rc
Chainmail of Icicle (lv 9) (+1) — 5 rc
Wand Of Float (lv 5) — 1 rc
“Please note that the
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[That’s fine. I wasn’t planning to sell it anyway. Am I allowed to sell a partial quantity of any of these items?]
“So long as they can be separated to do so, yes.”
[Okay.] I studied my list, trying to decide what I could part with. My matches had been with me since almost the beginning, but I’d never found a use for them in all that time. That said, they were only worth 1 uncommon core, hardly the windfall I needed. On the opposite end, my magic missile scrolls were worth a rare core each, but I wasn’t going to sell them until I had a chance to actually use them.
In the end, I sold off five of my Effervescence potions for a full rare core, leaving me with one in case of emergencies. I also sold the wand of Float, reasoning I wasn’t going to have much reason to go out onto water, like, ever, which netted me another rare core.
In total, I had two rare cores, one uncommon, and 276 common cores thanks to the mission downstairs. Just another 24 and I could convert up to everything I wanted.
After some serious soul-searching, I sold one of my MREs for 25 common cores. Why didn’t I just ask Zapper for some cores, you might ask?
[Oooh, I want this! And this! And thiiiiiiiiiis!] The little dog howled with delight, darting from one table to the next, tongue panting with excitement and exertion. He’d initially wandered off while I debated, and now he was in full shopping frenzy. I just couldn’t bring myself to take away from that.
A few inventory prompts later, and I handed my five rare cores over to the robot, leaving me with only a single common core to my name. That hurt, let me tell you. Not least of which because I still had three open rare upgrades available on my stat sheet. With level ten growing ever closer, I suspected I wasn’t going to get a chance to use them.
“Thank you, customer. The
Not a question I’d be getting an answer to quickly, however. When I tried to activate the guide, an angry message appeared.
Error: Initial activation of this item must occur from within a safe zone or outside of dungeon.
Okay, I could live with that. We were heading back to the safe zone after shopping, anyway.
Zapper, meanwhile, was still perusing the store. While he worked his way through several piles of potions and scrolls, I wandered back over to the bracelet I’d been looking at before.
Bracer of Doggerel
Level 10
For while rhyming couplets are not our strength
And our poems are of questionable length
You cannot deny the power of speech
Helping to forever increase your reach
So use this bracer and more than just dog
Will understand your barks and chat log.
It does something unknown unto your mind
while in your possession,
Humans shall understand your wit and obsession
and respond in kind.
Not to try and be a pedant,
but that’s really all there is to this.
No other skills does it grant,
No other secrets did you miss.
Seriously, isn’t getting to talk to humans enough?
Or are you the type that always wants more?
You’ll just have to try and be more tough
Purple monkey dishwasher albacore.
Wait... seriously??? If I understood the gobbledygook, it was saying this bracelet allowed dogs to talk to humans. Why hadn’t I checked everything over before spending all my hard-earned cores? An item like this would be perfect for finally communicating with Riley—not to mention any other humans we happened to come across. It wasn’t combat applicable, but potentially could change everything!
[Hey, Zapper, get over here, you need to—] Finally, my eyes noticed the price tag. Twenty rare cores. [Ah, never mind. Continue your frolicking.]
[Will do, Boss!]
A bit later, Zapper finished his running around. At my urging, he settled on purchasing the skill upgrade, along with a collar tag that would slowly heal his wounds, and even regenerate limbs if given enough time. Not as good as my triple-chance, but better than nothing.
There were still a few other items that perked our interest, not to mention that other hotbar cube, but due to lack of funds I had to promise Zapper we’d make a return trip after visiting the upper floors.
So, with no funds left to do any further shopping, we took our leave. My last sight was of the robot powering down as the doors slid shut.
As the elevator moved steadily downward, Zapper turned to me, panting happily. [This has been a fun day, hasn’t it, Boss?]
[It has been an interesting day, Zapper, I’ll give it that. Tomorrow will likely be even more of one.]
[Ooh, that’s right! Still two more floors to go!!!]
I resisted the urge to sigh. [Yep. Then hopefully we’ll be free. In the meantime, we need to rest and try to prepare how we can for what’s coming.]
On that note, I took a quick look through my own stat sheet. It felt like forever since I’d checked on my progress.
Name: Bubba
Race: Canid (Advanced)
Class: Wildling
Level: 9
XP: 4,400/5,500
-Equipment-
Collar: Indomitable Choke Chain (lv 14) (G)
Triple Chance Dog Tag (lv 12) (+5)
Torso: Armor of Argyr (lv 14) (G)
Left Front Leg: Minor Skill Bracelet (lv 13) (+3)
Right Front Leg: Electrostatic Baton (lv 13)
Left Back Leg: Bracelet of Minor Replication (lv 10) (+5)
Right Back Leg: Bandana of Cleverness (lv 9) (+5)
-Racial Skills-
Skill 1: Night Vision
Skill 2: Enhanced Smell
Skill 3: Song of the Night
Skill 4: Pack Loyalty
-Class Skills-
Skill 1: Piercing Claw Slash (Rank 1) 1 (93%)
-Stats-
Power: 52 (+28)
Speed: 20 (-5) (+5)
Agility: 20 (+5)
Presence: 7
Mind: 25 (+18)
Points Available: 0
Rare Upgrades left: 3
Still a ways off from level ten but getting closer. I could only hope a windfall of wealth would come my way before then, because wasting more upgrades than I had already would just feel like biting my own foot.
I also noticed that the bar for my Armor of Argyr was over half full. Guess all those deaths while fighting Brad had done me some good.
The elevator shuddered as it reached the first floor. Zapper pranced forward. [I bet Riley will be glad to see us!]
[Just don’t get distracted,] I cautioned. [At the very least, make sure to assign those new points you got from leveling up.]
[Sure, Boss, I can do that—] Zapper stepped from the elevator and nearly stumbled over himself. Frowning, I followed after to see what was the matter.
Only to blink in surprise and nearly stumbled myself. We were standing in the lobby of the office building, our little safe zone cottage about twenty feet away. Riley’s face peeked out from a window, smiling and waving.
What in the ding-doo heck?
Turning around, I watched as the elevator doors closed. Those were definitely not the doors we’d gone through this morning in order to access to area with the slimes. Had the dungeon shifted?
[We can’t go back,] I said, as realization hit me. Zapper glanced over with a confused expression. [That’s what the bartender in Redemption meant. We can’t go back there. The dungeon collapsed the level, or deleted it, or whatever it does. That’s what he meant!]
Without waiting for Zapper, I hit the elevator button and darted inside. Sure enough, the button for floor two had gone dark again, though I noticed that both three and four were accessible. I still tried pressing it anyway.
Nothing. Not even an error message from the system.
Frowning, I padded out before the elevator doors closed again. Zapper watched me approach.
[Boss, everything okay?]
[Yeah, it’s fine, Zapper. Probably doesn’t even matter.] Just another quirk of the system. Still, I couldn’t help but feel bothered by it. Where did Redemption go? When the level collapsed, were all the people in the town... destroyed? Did they even really exist in the first place?
No. I couldn’t let myself go down that road. Turning, I headed for the cabin. Riley opened the door at our approach. She immediately began talking at a rapid rate, but I left Zapper to deal with her. My mind had too much occupying it at the moment. Too many dark thoughts.
So I did the only thing I could—focus on what was within my control. And right now, that involved getting a few answers about the system.
Locating the adventurer’s guide in my inventory. I activated it. The item winked away, appearing at my feet—or so I assumed. I didn’t actually see it anywhere, but it must have manifested nearby, right?
I swung about, looking for it first one direction, then the next. Nothing. Just couches, rugs, and a few abandoned boxes of cereal.
Wait. Something darted past my vision. I tried to follow, but it was too fast.
An insect? Had one followed us into the building and only now made its way inside? If so, I’d leave Zapper to deal with it. He loved snapping at flies, much to Riley’s delight and entertainment. I turned away.
The insect zipped in front of me again, coming to a stop right above my nose. My eyes crossed trying to look at it.
There was something wrong with it. I couldn’t quite focus on the little creature without my eyes starting to water. Like I was looking at the sun, or a particularly bright light. In fact, it seemed to be emitting light itself. Hadn’t I heard somewhere there were insects like that? Ones that blinked on and off to attract mates, I think. My system knowledge would probably fill in the gaps here in a moment...
“Are you just going to stare at me all day like some sorta furry buffoon?” the insect asked, its squeaky voice indignant. “Or are you going to start asking some questions? Because, honey, have I got answers for you.”
Oh.
I was beginning to suspect this wasn’t an insect at all.