Chapter 99: Inflation

Up until this point, I had been selective in what I stored, taking only what I needed in the immediate term, or what I was asked to store, and otherwise letting the carriages take most of the burden of transport, because otherwise why even bother hiring them? Now, the circumstances had changed; with the city at war and resupply all of a sudden uncertain, I simply grabbed everything within reach, paying no heed to the slowly smouldering carriage to my immediate left. This was easier said than done, because many of the crates had been smashed by an immense force, presumably the shockwave from before, to the point that there was nothing useful to be found. A few of them still remained intact however, saving me from a futile excursion.

[Stored:

171 Apples

194 Pears

191 Plums

300 oz Water

14 Loaf of Bread

19 Salt Pork

40 oz Butter

800 Valkyrie Dust]

Five full crates later, and I finally began to feel the strain. I could probably have fit a little bit more from the wreckage, and there were at least two or three more crates left intact, but I didn’t really want to see what happened if I overstretched, and I also wanted to leave some space free in case I stumbled upon anything more valuable and wanted to grab it without having to unload a ton of fruit in the process.

[Inventory

* 4.5” Knife (Smooth/Serrated)

* 18 Loaf of bread

* 23 Salt Pork

* 181 Apples

* 204 Pears

* 200 Plums

* 340 oz Water

* 50 oz Butter

* 1000 Valkyrie Dust

* Changeling Skeleton

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

* Pumpkin the Cat]

Taking one final look at my inventory, I decided that this was enough; a good amount of product, far more than I’d expected to be able to store, in all honesty, while also not being too eye-catching. There was far more fruit and dust on hand than bread and pork, my only true complaint with the goods, but that was inevitable; the former filled the bulk of the crates since they were the merchandise and the cover respectively, while the latter was only meant for personal consumption and thus far less abundant in stock I did make one final attempt to store the entire carriage as a single item, only for it to be rejected just like when I tried at the outset of the journey, before leaving it at that.

“All done here,” I called out, stepping back from the row of carriages with borderline indecent haste.

The flames were nowhere near penetrating just yet, but I’d seen how volatile Valkyrie Dust could be when exposed to an open flame, so I intended to be far away by the time the remaining glass vials inside felt the burn.

“Same here,” Kyle was the first to reply, coming back out with a final bundle of fruit that he shoved into a coat pocket.

Unlike my inventory, the effect wasn’t instantaneous, meaning I got to watch half a dozen apples distort in plain view, turning into kaleidoscopic swirls as they vanished into a pocket far too small to hold them normally. I couldn’t see a name tag on the coat itself, which implied that this was part of Kyle’s ability as opposed to a separate magical item, but that wasn’t necessarily a guarantee either, since it could also be concealed from view by another effect.

“Let’s go,” Harvey concluded, the last to exit, carrying a small box in his hands. “Catch.”

I figured it probably wasn’t a trap, since he’d put in far too much effort bringing me along to kill me off as a prank, so I played along and caught it, storing it immediately.

[6 Throwing Knives stored.]

“You were pretty good with coins, so I figured you’d get good use out of those.”

“Thanks,” I grinned, happy to finally have a proper set of ranged weapons.

I had a few ideas how to use them, which may or may not have been viable in conjunction with my inventory, and I was pretty sure I’d have plenty of opportunities to test them out in the near future.

“Don’t mention it, their original owner might not be too happy with you,” Harvey chuckled, before lighting half a dozen cigars and scattering them on the two carriages that weren’t already on fire. “Right, let's get out of here before it blows. Follow me, and don’t get split up, I’m not coming back for stragglers.”

[Contact request from Kyle received. Accept? Y/N.]

Kyle’s request wasn’t too surprising, all told, and a good idea just in case we did end up separated, as it would let us keep in touch nonetheless. The Matron’s words of caution resurfaced in my memories, only to be quickly brushed aside; the situation was already entirely FUBAR, to the point where I doubted Kyle could make it much worse even if he did turn on us.

[Contacts

* Amelia Dawn - Level 30 Necromancer

* Harvey Miller - Level 10 Thief of Souls

* Kyle Erwing - Level 11 Sharpshooter

* Pumpkin - Level 4 Cat]

The Contacts were stored in alphabetical order, I noted, now having enough of a sample to know that for certain. Everybody had a last name except for Pumpkin, making me wonder how the concept functioned; back on Earth, names had been the responsibility of the General Registrar, whereas here the System seemed to do it all automatically. How did changing one’s name work then? Perhaps it went back to the Priest of the System, who might perform the role of a clerk in exchange for a donation, or maybe there was a way to do it directly from the user interface? I tried to think of a few probable phrases to bring up such a menu, receiving no response for my trouble, not even a System notification telling me I was on the wrong track.

Harvey began moving then, after freezing in place briefly much like I did, making me believe that Kyle had added us both as insurance. Kyle followed after him, and then I was moving too, and there was no more time to think.