Sam looked at Jen, and asked, “What now Boss?”
As Jen exhaled, her breath could be seen in the cold air. She rubbed her arms for warmth and replied, “We need more gear asap. Sam, what do you think the odds are on getting access to our storage rings through the concrete?”
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SYSTEM GAMBLING QUEST
Clean all the concrete from your storage rings within 48 hours and be able to access your stored items.
If you succeed, you will receive a five (5) pound steel bar.
If you fail, your storage rings will be destroyed.
Accept: Yes/No?
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Sam chuckled as he read the System message, and Tamako asked Sam, “What do you think?”
Pudding looked at Sam and the others, noticing the others reactions, and asked, “Did all of you get a gambling quest? I didn’t get one.”
While they and Pudding had taken a mutual gambling oath to keep the powers of each other secret, they hadn’t promised to disclose all of their powers. They all understood that was going to take more time to grow trust between them. As a result, without getting into the details of their AI and sharing of messages, Jen simply replied, “The gambling quest offers a five (5) pound steel bar if we can clean the concrete off of our rings and access our stored items within 48 hours. If we can’t, we lose our storage rings forever.”
Pudding’s eyebrows raised off the top of his forehead upon hearing of the five-pound steel bar gambling reward, and said, “On dis Deck, that amount of steel would buy you a small City! No! Probably a middle-sized city! Can you do it!?”
Jen gave Sam a questioning look, and he replied to all of them, “Yall know how much I like gambling quests, but No can do – declined.”
Pudding was still frustrated with not knowing how they brought the storage rings with them to the Oracle Deck, but when he’d asked, they’d simply told him the technique was a secret. However, he replied, “Well, even if de storage rings no work anymore, the steel rings themselves are worth a fortune, and even though we are Oracle hunters, the city’s merchants will be willing to trade for de steel.”
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Sam replied, “Good to know, but these rings aren’t for sale. And to get back to answering your question Jen, I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get access to the rings. I’ve been able to smooth the concrete that’s encasing the rings by rubbing it with my hands, but it’s hard stuff. I also can’t just bash at the concrete, or I risk destroying the enchantments placed on the ring. I can probably use my mana carving technique to cut off some of the concrete, but again, I have to be very careful not to alter the enchantments…especially with a mana carving blade. At least a week, but probably much longer than that.”
Jen frowned at Sam’s news, but according to what Pudding had explained to them, no two parties would be transferred to the same jump site on the Oracle Deck, as a result, their main security threat for the next few days would be any locals that witnessed their jump. Jen looked at Pudding and asked, “You said your roach-wolves would only last another day or two before they fell apart from the rot of death. Should we go out and capture some of the local beasts for you to turn into zombies?”
Pudding’s face twitched as one of his eyes closed while the other one opened wide, and he clenched his teeth to stop himself from gagging. He then paused a moment before replying, “No Ms. Jen, that ability have a one-week cool down before I can use it again. Plus, just de thought of the taste of de beasts’ brain-gore make me want to vomit! However, if Ms. Jen and Ms. Tamako can provide security, I can carve and activate de basic golems to do sum timbering and planking for us. We then sell de wood planks to de shop for credeets to buy more supplies and to purchase de Oracle clue.”
Tamako interrupted, and asked, “I thought there was a lot of gold on the Oracle Deck. Why don’t we have your golems mine for gold?”
Pudding nodded, “True Ms. Tamako, there be a lot of gold for mining that you can store in the shop for when you return to de Second Deck, but de Shop will pay almost no credeets for de gold. Most of de jumpers to de Oracle Deck won’t spend anytime hunting for de Oracle, but are here just to mine or steal de gold for when they return to de Second Deck.”
Tamako was surprised by Puddings comments, and asked, “What do you mean steal gold. How would they steal gold from the other jumpers if they are storing it in The Shop?”
Pudding gestured to the Deck around him and said, “Well, when you see de jumper from another party, you will get a system gambling quest offering you half their loot, gold, and credeets stored in de Shop if you kill dem.”
Jen interrupted, “Oh wait, that’s why all the locals want to kill the Oracle hunters? I’m surprised that there is hardly anyone alive on this Deck with such a System notice.”
“No Ms. Jen. Only Oracle hunters get dis System notice. Locals simply hate hunters, because de hunters will kill anyone they want, they just have to escape back to de Second Deck before getting caught. Remember, what I told all of you, if you don’t return to de Second Deck before de Quest ends, you will be a local forever and de System never lets locals leave dis Deck.”
Sam replied, “We’re getting off of this Deck before the Quest closes, no matter what! We’re NOT going to wait until the last second trying to find this Oracle.”