"Tremors? You made a graboid? How? A fly took 50 pounds of garbage! Those things are the size of a truck. Bigger even"

It isn't full size... yet. It will grow.

"How big is it?"

In response a 4 foot worm heat poked out of the concrete bottom of the garbage dumping pit. That's not very lore accurate, but the worm didn't seem to care. It is still lots bigger than the fly. How much garbage did Nola use?

"Hey Nola?" I started to pose the question when she answered. Perks and drawbacks of a mental connection. I will never get used to it

I used it all. You said I could. You can't be mad.

"I'm not mad, I'm just shocked. 2 yards worth of garbage was our bank account. We probably wont have that much again any time soon" I was very concerned about how much was used. And the problem it presented for me and Buddy.

I could take back some of the equipment we put around to make a house for Buddy.

"No, the place already looks sparse for what its supposed to be. You should use my car." It hurt to consider, but the dungeon master should stay with the dungeon. My car wouldn't be that useful I tossed the keys into the pit where the bounced off the graboids face. The worm chuffed at me and dove back under the concrete. "But I expect it back once we rebuild our stores" I said with an exaggerated finger wag. "But Buddy's in the back so not yet. Let me get him out and then we can take care of the car"

I wasn't gonna eat Buddy... besides, I don't even think I can.

"What makes you think that?" Who did she try to eat...

No people, just some regular bugs that flew in. I couldn't eat any of the live ones.

Good to know. Although I didn't like the implication that Nola had started hunting. But I guess bugs are ok. But lets try not to destroy the ecosystem.

I won't!

"Ok then. Lets get a house made for Buddy so we can get some rest for tomorrow. We have to get started bright and early to meet the junkers. You know what the shack I am thinking of needs to look like?"

'Do not enter' meets hidden 5 star hotel?

"Pretty close. Can you do it with just the car?"

Yes, but it will be close.

Alright. "Make sure you read and save the books before you absorb them"

I read and save everything I take in.

I was a little sad seeing my car disappear into the ground. But I'll get over it. Mostly I was excited to sleep.

----------------------------------------

The alarm on my phone said 5:45 AM

Time to start the first day of the rest of our lives or some other such inspirational crap.

Don't be like that. It will be fun!

"Yes it will. I'm just worried about everything that can go wrong. I probably will be till we get going"

Then lets get going! Go get the gate. I can't reach it yet.

As I walked away from my green lean-to Nola started re absorbing it to make the desk again. I used my extra awareness as a dungeon master to check on Buddy. Still in a coma. I'll need to make sure he gets some food and water before the end of the day. And another potion. See if I can get him to wake up.

I struggled with the old gate as I opened both doors as wide as they could go. The TBD recycling plant is ready to start working.

A junkman pulls into the yard before I fully open the second door, missing the driveway entirely and driving through Nola's grass. She was not a fan.

There is a path right there! I'm going to bite him with my flies.

"Fine by me, just don't kill him. We need the repeat business"

"Yo, little man! You Chopper's guy?" The junk man started getting out of his truck and walking towards me.

"We know each other. I take it he told you what we do here" Darn it, this is a solo operation as far as anyone knows. Keep that straight.

"Yeah, he told me. Seems a little too good to be true. It's totally free? No bs hidden fees your gonna slap me with?"

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

He doesn't seem to know or care about the recycling part. Fine by me. "Totally free all lines disposal service. Anything you can haul in, I'll take"

"Well all righty then. Lets get.." He slaps at his neck. I can feel a guardian being defeated "Ouch. Lets get this thing started so I can get back to it"

"You are already in position, you have a dump truck or do you need help unloading?" I want him out of here fast so I can discuss weather the flies are a good investment. Nola seems to think so, they just keep coming at him.

"I got the dump. Is there a daily limit?" The junk man said to me still waiting for the catch.

I put on my best customer service smile. "No limit. Bring your friends"

He hit the riser on his truck and whistled low "You are gonna be a popular man then"

I hope so my man. I hope so.

5 minutes later he was dumped and out the gate again. He didn't stick around for processing. Fine by us. I had Nola absorb everything without the pretense of processing it.

"Before anyone else shows up how much did we make on the flies when they were defeated?"

I got the emotion before I got the answer. The young dungeon was happy with the result

20%. ish. It seemed to vary per fly. But all of them were a big profit.

"That's excellent. We should keep at it with everyone. Flies are a constant fixture at the dump so no one will be surprised." 20% one each fly? Each fly being 50 or so pounds of trash. Each pound of trash that could be literally anything. It was like printing money.

That isn't all the good news. Something even better happened.

"Oh yeah, what else happened?"

There was a reward for me when he left after a 'unsuccessful delve'. Enough energy to make 300 pounds of matter!

It must have counted as unsuccessful since he left a bunch of stuff inside and came out with nothing. The recyclers will get a successful delve. I wonder what that would look like.

I think we are supposed to give them a gift. All your stories have that happen. Face a dungeon, get a prize.

"They're getting the prize. The processed garbage. Its worth twice as much to scrappers."

That's just loot. Its not the same. I can feel it.

"Ok. you have some ancestral instincts kicking in. I like it. What can we do as a reward? What if we....." I turned as I heard the sound of tires on gravel again. Our next delver had arrived. Time to be a good dungeon master and greet the adventuring party. "Nola, you brainstorm something. Make sure we can make a return on whatever the success gift is"

I signaled with my hand for them to pull up to the pit. This was definitely a scrappers truck. Mostly metal items and wire rather than household trash and furniture. Time to test out what success looks like at the garbage dungeon.

Please don't call me that. Recycling plant if you have to, but not garbage dungeon. It hurts my heart.

Ok. I'll be better.

"Hello gentlemen! I take it you are here to take advantage of our pre processing services for higher scrap prices."

"Depends. Can you do what he says you can do?" He spat on the ground as he tried to wave the fly away. Not gonna work my dude. That thing won't stop coming.

"Give me a chance to prove it to you. Pick something you got and lets run it"

They picked an old glass patio table. The tempered glass isn't worth much and there's only a few pound or two of aluminum in the whole set up, and that's if its not made out of painted steel. In either case, if it didn't work it wouldn't cost them that much in lost scrap. The upside of stripped paint is a higher sell price.

"How big do you want your pieces? Shreds, beads or shavings?" Not really much of a difference to Nola, but it might seem more believable if I tap a button or two on my phone first.

"Whatever gets me out of here quickest holmes" The same disbelief I saw on Charlie the other day. Time to make some believers

"Shreds it is" I tapped my phones blank screen. Nola took the queue to start the ramps to take up the table. The humming started and seconds later a small pile of ready to process material came out the other side and deposited into bins. The two scrappers went through all the stages of non belief just like Charlie did. Bewilderment. Questioning. Accusing. Anger. And finally Acceptance. The siren song of easy money probably helped.

They agreed to leave the junk behind. Plastic stripped off wires, paint, misc alloys that cheap products always seem to use and the other unrecyclables that always go straight to the dump. I'm just saving them a trip if they leave it here after all. A few minuets later I was helping them load full bins of metal shreds back into their vehicle. What used to be an overflowing pick up was now an nicely organized set of 8 bins, ready to process.

"Make sure you bring those bins back next time. And tell your friends." I shouted after their truck as they drove off. They'd be back.

Don't help anyone load anymore. We get more reward when they do their own looting. When you do it, its just... nothing.

Well that seems rude. But I guess the too busy argument could work. Two more vehicles pulled in. Time to be a good host again.

"What reward did you settle on? Also what did we get for a successful delve? I said to Nola as I started walking towards the next group

More than enough energy. And it was different flavored. 2 or 3 more and I can fix your car.

"So about a thousand pounds then. Damn." The opportunity this opened up was staggering. "And the reward?"

About 450 pounds worth of energy.

Ouch. High cost. "What did they get?"

Magic coffee, like you were wishing for earlier. They will be a little less tired and more well rested for the rest of the day. I figure it is less permanent than the stat buffs I could offer

Lucky ducks. "Any chance I can get that in potion form?" Also, stat buffs? I will have to look into that in more detail later

Not currently. That reward seems to only be available for delvers. And yes, I can't wait to look into this more

For now lets get through today.