Tom, Derek, James, Kevin, Jay, and Kiera all walked into the conference room fully decked out in their new adventuring gear and ready to go. Brian was already in the room waiting for them. Sitting down at the table, the party waited patiently for Brian to tell them the news.
"One of the groups of survivors that you helped and sent back here has some very interesting information for us," Brian began. "They claim they have found a dungeon."
Everyone in the room perked up at this. For those who played video games, a dungeon was the ultimate find. It offered an opportunity to fight monsters in a way that would pay out loot at the end while offering a challenge that was usually unique from the rest of the gameplay. That one was found so early into the Grand System's integration meant they were very likely to be the first to explore it. Tom, Derek, James, and Kevin all knew this usually meant extra loot.
Dungeons were often created with a bonus for people who completed it for the first time. It could be later farmed for more loot, but it was never as good as the first time. The party was eager to hear more about this.
"I don't have a lot of details, but it was supposedly in the movie theater you rescued people from. We don't normally have basements here in Texas, but one of the survivors said there was a door that was marked as Dungeon and when he opened it, there was a set of stairs leading down." Brian continued. "No one went inside, so we have no idea what to expect, but we assume something is in there that will be worth exploring, and you all are the only ones I would remotely trust at this point to come back alive."
"We would love to take a look," Tom said. "Do you want us to make the supply run first then go to the Dungeon?"
"That would be preferable, yes. While we are not low on supplies yet, I'd hate for us to get to that point and there are a lot of people to feed." Brian replied.
"Don't worry about it. We will get the supplies first." Tom assured him.
"Thank you for understanding. Now if you would like to get going, you can move out as soon as you are ready." Brian said.
Preparing to head out, the party met up with another team from the security guards. One man with a clean-shaven head, leather armor, and an assault rifle walked up to the team and stuck his hand out in greeting.
"I'm TJ, it's nice to meet you all." The man said.
"Good to meet you TJ. I'm Tom." Tom said, taking the offered hand and shaking it firmly. "That is a nice weapon you got there. Did you get it from the vending machine?"
"I did!" TJ said. "We have been watching the perimeter and there have been plenty of goblins looking to come to the building. We have been weeding them out though so there have been less and less coming, but we were able to get quite a few monster cores before they started avoiding the center."
"I'm glad to hear they are starting to notice our presence and choosing not to come here. If we can keep it up we can hopefully make an area of safety." Tom said. "Are you all joining us on the outing?"
"We are. There are going to be a lot of supplies needed so Brian thought we could join with another vehicle to provide additional transport space." TJ said. "Plus, more people means more security. And we figure we can learn a thing or two from you all. You've already taught us so much."
"Aww, it wasn't that much," Tom said bashfully. "We just put a few things together that any gamer should have been able to know."
"That's just it though dude," TJ said. "Many of us are gamers, but we just played first-person shooters and sports games. This whole points system was never in those games. But you're explanations made so much sense. We can see what we need to do and are really getting to where we can handle ourselves now. And it's thanks to you."
"Well, we are happy we could help in any way we can. We all want to live through this." Tom replied. "We know it's not going back to the way things used to be so we need to stick together to find a way to make a new version of this world."
Tom looked TJ over again and couldn't help but comment.
"It still baffles me a little bit that they are offering us guns, but the armor we use is leather and metal instead of something like kevlar," Tom speculated.
"Oh, that's simple," Derek said, stepping up to offer a reason. "Kevlar is designed to stop bullets. The force from bullets is very different from that of a sword, spear, or other sharp object. So it doesn't offer the same kind of protection that leather or metal does. So while bullets are available as projectile weapons and offered because they were popular on Earth, kevlar is not because of the type of weapons monsters have. Or at least that is my working theory."
"That makes perfect sense. I don't have much experience with Kevlar or bullet-proof vests." Tom admitted.
"I used to be a police officer before being hired into private security for the Trammel Crow Center," TJ offered. "We have some bullet-proof vests in the security office if we need them, but Derek is right. It's not a great option against sharp weapons."
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
"Makes sense to me. Should we head out now?" Tom said.
"Time to hop in the Goblin Slayer 2.0," James said.
"Ha! I like that. Goblin Slayer 2.0 it is." Tom said.
A System prompt showed up unexpectedly in Tom's vision.
Name your vehicle?
Would you like to name the Tahoe Goblin Slayer 2.0?
Yes No
Tom stopped walking, staring at the message.
"What's up, Tom?" Derek asked, looking back at him.
"The System just asked if I wanted to change the name of the car," Tom said, slightly confused at the prompt. He moved over to the car and activated Inspect on it.
Item:
Chevy Tahoe
Name: {Undefined}
Item Type: Vehicle, Weapon - Upgraded
Durability: 95,428/100,000
Attack: 42-75 damage
Item Quality: Well-Crafted
Item Rarity: Rare
Upgradeable: Yes
Item Level: 6
Item Experience: 16,425
Experience to next level: 4,575
Item Skill: Upgraded Armor - This skill will upgrade the armor on the vehicle as it levels
"The Tahoe can level up?!" Tom exclaimed.
"It what?" Derek said.
"Inspect it," Tom said.
Derek did. His eyes went wide.
"How is this possible?" Derek asked.
"I have no idea. Maybe it has something to do with it being used in tandem with my vehicular manslaughter skill?" Tom asked.
"Your what?!" TJ asked.
"Yeah, it's a skill I got for running over so many goblins with my car," Tom said.
TJ looked at Tom with a mixture of horror and awe.
"I'm not sure whether to be horrified or impressed. Why did you decide to run them over? That seems like a terrible way to deal with anyone." TJ said.
"Look I just panicked the first time. We were on I-75 and there were people being slaughtered by goblins and I just stepped on the gas after we jumped in the car to get away. Then I saw it was working really well so I just kept going. Now it's kind of second nature to run the little bastards over." Tom said. "They killed children for fuck's sake."
TJ stopped and his look softened. He seemed to understand that this wasn't the old world where this kind of horror was something you saw on the news and talked about with your family, while you bashed the person who did it. But this wasn't that world anymore. Goblins would just as soon kill you and fuck your corpse as they would follow the laws of society that humans had set up.
Brian came out through the parking garage door.
"Did you have a chance to talk about the guild offer yet?" Brian asked.
"Yes, we talked about it and everyone agreed it seems like the right thing to do. And we want you to help run things before we just go letting anyone into the guild." Tom said.
"Very good. We can begin as soon as you get the guild setup." Brian replied.
"I need ten willing members. There's six of us and one of you. Who are the others?" Tom said.
"That would be us, sir," TJ said.
"How many of you?" Tom asked.
"Five, sir," TJ replied.
"No more of the sir. I'm not your boss. I'm some guy barely holding on like the rest of you. Just call me Tom." Tom said back.
"Sure thing, Tom," TJ said.
"Right. Then we just need a place to claim, which I guess is the center and a name." Tom said. "Anyone got any thoughts on a name?"
"Battleshits!" James called out.
"Anyone but James," Tom said, facepalming.
James made a pouting face and pretended to be upset as he put his hands in his pockets and kicked an imaginary rock.
"Anyone, just throw them out til we hear one we like," Tom said when no one answered.
"Rumble Maggots?"
"Battlehearts?"
"Chaos Wielders?"
"Electric Vanguard?"
"Super Legion?"
"Venom Sharks?"
"Fire Wolves?"
"Phobic Knights?"
"Lightning Shadows?"
"Vanguard?"
"Wait, what was that last one?"
"Vanguard," Kiera said.
"I like that one. OK, We will go with Vanguard, we will claim this center as our base, and we have more than ten members." Tom said pulling up his character sheet and going to the guild tab. There he found only a single option available, Form Guild.
Mentally clicking the button, the option for the name appeared. Tom input Vanguard into the field. Next was the invitation list. He sent an invitation to everyone present and all of them accepted. Last was the field for the Guild Building Location. Tom looked at a map of downtown Dallas and found the Trammel Crow Center. Selecting it, Brian received a notification stating that someone was trying to claim the building as a guild location as he was the one placed in charge of the building.
Brian mentally clicked approve, and the guild was created. The outside of the building gained banners at the entrance, the four corners of the building, and a flag at the top which all unfurled showing a white shield with a sword crossed over it on a red background.
Congratulations:
You have formed your first guild. You will need to make selections for guild leaders before any benefits can be given out. Once you have done so all steps will be complete for creating the guild.
Special Reward:
For being the first people on Earth to have created a guild, you will be awarded one special upgrade. Please refer to the Guild tab to select from available upgrades.
Special Reward? That was very interesting. They had been pretty fast to act on this, only being day one of the apocalypse. Tom decided he would look at the options later. He did, however, pull up the Guild tab and found he was already the leader, so he added Brian as the Guild administrator and gave him access to almost everything that he had the power to do.
"Make sure everything runs smoothly, and begin screening people for the guild. We can look at adding them when we get back from the supply run." Tom said. "Looking at the time we are likely going to need to wait on the Dungeon until tomorrow."
"Sounds good. I'll handle things here Tom." Brian said, turning to go back into the building.
"Alright everybody, let's load up and move out! We've got supplies to get and people to protect. Stay formed up, and have people watching all sides. I don't need any surprise attacks on what should be a simple mission." Derek yelled out as they headed to the vehicles.
Tom remembered one more thing and pulled up the message about naming the Tahoe. He selected yes for Goblin Slayer 2.0 and the prompt disappeared.
"Time to see if we can help this vehicle live up to its name on the way!" Tom said turning on the Goblin Slayer 2.0.