After Tom and his companions had stopped near the entrance, Tom placed a hand on the wall next to the door and the image of Azroc giving a thumbs-up appeared under his touch.
"That never gets old. Azroc is one classy dude." James said.
"Feels a bit narcissistic to have your face on the mark doesn't it?" Derek asked.
"I don't know. Why don't you say something about it next time you see him?" Tom offered with a smile at Derek.
"No thanks. I think I'll stick to not poking a bear with that much power." Derek said giving up on his line of thought.
Leaving the building, the team hopped in the GS2 and drove back to the guild building. It was getting dark out now and the team was completely beat from the battles in the dungeon. It had been great XP though and Tom was getting close to leveling up again. Just a bit more and he would reach level twenty-six. Hopefully soon to add more attribute points.
The training they had been doing was effective at raising their individual stats slowly, but nothing beat a boost of ten attribute points from a level. Coming into sight of the entrance, Tom slowed to talk with the guard on duty. After some light banter, the man lifted the arm and Tom drove them into the parking garage.
Exiting the vehicle everyone walked back inside. Most of the party went their separate ways, but Tom, Derek, and James went to the security office to check on what everyone had been doing. This time, no one from the ranking team members was in the security office.
"Where is TJ at?" Tom asked, confused where the man was as he was almost always here watching the security of the guild.
"He went to get some dinner. You should be able to find him in the cafeteria." One of the security officers replied.
"And Brian?" Tom asked again.
"Not sure. He might have gone to bed. Said you all wore him down to nothing with all the torture." The guard replied.
"What a baby. Oh well, it was good for him. We'll try to catch TJ in the cafeteria." Tom said, bidding the guards farewell and thanking them for their hard work.
Leaving the room, the team walked to the cafeteria. Ready to sit for a meal anyway, they got in the serving line and waited their turn for food. When they reached the servers, a plate of rice and what appeared to be a bowl of vegetable stew was placed on their trays.
"No meat tonight?" Tom asked, curious about the choice of food.
"Not a lot of that coming in right now. So we have to ration it for meals. Sounds like they are working on the livestock issue right now, but until we get them set up and breeding, we have to deal with the meat brought in." A woman behind the counter wearing a hairnet answered him.
"Ah. That makes sense. Too bad. But I'm glad someone is working on the solution. Can you have Charlene come to my table when she gets a chance? Tell her it's Tom." Tom replied, picking up his tray, moving over to one of the tables, and sitting down.
When the others joined him, they ate their meal as they discussed the dungeons. Halfway through the meal, Charlene exited the kitchen and came to sit near Tom.
"What can I do for you, Tom?" Charlene asked, a kitchen towel thrown over one shoulder with stains of some kind from food preparation on it.
"I have some meat we can give you for now. Where would you like it?" Tom asked putting his fork down and turning to face her.
"We can put it in the freezer. How much do you have?" Charlene asked, curious where he had obtained this meat.
"Thousands of pounds of it actually. We killed a creature in a dungeon and harvested it due to its size." Tom replied, smiling slightly at her face when he said how much it was.
"What kind of monster? Are you sure it's safe to eat?" Charlene asked, trepidacious of any new foods to prepare.
"It was called a Goatamus. A cross between a goat and a hippo, but much larger." Tom answered.
"Okay, I should be able to work with that. It wasn't a creature that used poison or venom?" Charlene continued with questions.
"No. It had no signs of toxins." Tom replied.
"Well, alright then! In the freezer is great!" Charlene beamed as she stood up to show Tom back to the freezer.
Jerky appeared on Tom's shoulder as he walked into the back, not wanting to miss a chance to visit one of his favorite places. Charlene opened the door to the walk-in freezer and indicated a set of shelves across the back.
"Just stack them there on those shelves. Any overflow can just move to the next set of shelves." Charlene said, looking up and noticing Jerky on Tom's shoulder. "Oh, and Jerky, I have your meal in the kitchen. Why don't you come with me while Tom puts away the meat?"
Jerky nodded enthusiastically and hopped off his perch to follow Charlene back into the kitchen. Tom began to unload the meat he had taken from the Goatamus and place it on the shelves, trying to keep the meat together from where it was harvested on the creature's body.
The process took him almost half an hour and when he was finished, not only were all five sets of shelves filled, but the floor was also stacked up with meat that didn't fit in the shelving across the back wall. Leaving the freezer, Tom asked Charlene to be sure she was happy with the placement of the meat.
"Holy cannoli! That is a lot of meat, Tom!" Charlene gasped as she looked into the freezer.
"I did say it was a lot," Tom chuckled as they closed the door to the freezer.
"This will last us a least a week. We should get some teams to find more of these creatures." Charlene said, still in awe of the amount from one creature.
"That's gonna be tough. It's a unique monster in a dungeon. But we should be able to farm it if the people going in are careful. It was a pretty dangerous task." Tom replied, thinking of the trouble they had as a team bringing the raging monster down.
"If there is any way it could be done it would be so much help until we get the livestock producing," Charlene begged him.
"I'll talk with Brian and ask if we can have the backup teams go and farm the dungeon for the food," Tom said. "Hopefully they can just farm the first monster and leave."
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"Thank you, Tom. That will be a big weight off my shoulders." Charlene breathed out a sigh as she thought about having meat for the meals. "Some of the members of the guild were already starting to murmur about there not being meat in the stew tonight."
"You're doing an amazing job. But remember we need to get you out of here to level as well. Otherwise, you'll stagnate." Tom said to Charlene.
"You're right. It's hard to get away when I need to help prepare the meals. But I know I should be training someone under me. Phyliss has been so much help and learned so fast. I'm sure I could leave her in charge when I need to go train." Charlene replied, seeming reluctant to give up control of her kitchen.
"I'm glad you're thinking of those things at least. We just want everyone to have every opportunity to learn to protect themselves should the situation arise." Tom folded his arms across his chest to show he was not taking no for an answer.
"I promise. I will go out and do some training." Charlene agreed reluctantly.
"Good. And keep up the amazing work here. You are one of the pillars we need. So I want you to stay safe." Tom looked at her with genuine thanks.
Going back to the table, Tom's food had gotten cold. But he ate it anyway as it was filling and delicious. Jerky walked out of the kitchen eating a piece of meat and hopped up on the table to finish it next to Tom.
"So, Squirrel evolved. Do you think Jerky will too?" James asked, looking at the small creature tearing off pieces of meat and chewing on them as he made happy little demon noises.
"I really have no idea. It would be cool though if he did. But I love him just how he is if nothing else. And he's become even better at fighting. I couldn't ask for more from him." Tom said smiling as he looked down at the little horned creature.
"I hope he turns into something badass. Maybe a giant demon you can fly on to get places." James added.
Jerky looked up at James and frowned.
"I don't think he likes that idea," Tom chuckled at seeing the time visage of disapproval on his familiar's face.
"I'm sure if Jerky evolves, he will be amazing no matter what," Kiera said looking at the little quasit with affection.
Jerky smiled at her and moved over so she could scratch behind his horns. He purred with pleasure at the sign of affection and began rubbing his head against her arm.
"Hey, guys! Glad you made it back safe." TJ said as he walked over to their table.
"Just the man we wanted to see. How is everything going around here?" Tom asked.
"Everything is moving according to plans. Though I think you may want to take a trip down to the basement to speak with Roland and Harold." TJ said with a wink.
"Harold?" Tom asked, confused as to who TJ was talking about.
"Have you not met him yet? He's another engineer that Herbert brought on. He worked in the government sector though. Weapons and all. So he has a few things he is working on for the Space Pirates." TJ said smiling wide at them.
"That sounds both fun and scary," Tom admitted.
"We have to have them. Can't just wait for them to land and hope for the best." TJ said, shrugging as though it was no big deal to be working on these weapons.
"Alright. I'll go find them. Can you tell Brian that I want to meet with him tomorrow when you see him?" Tom asked as he finished shoveling food into his mouth.
"Sure. I'll let him know." TJ agreed and then continued on to talk to another guild member.
Tom got up to go see about talking with Roland and Harold. Derek decided he should go too so he could keep up with where the plans were for all offensive plans. Everyone else excused themselves to get cleaned up and head to bed for some rest. It had already been such a long day.
Leaving the cafeteria and heading to the lobby where the stairs led to the basement, Tom and Derek descended them and entered the giant open area of the basement that had been created using guild points. Roland was hammering on a piece of metal, the clanging of the hammer blows echoing up the stairs as they walked.
Tom approached the large man and smiled up at him.
"Hey Roland! How have you been?" Tom asked, genuinely wanting to know how he had been doing as Tom had come to like the big man.
"Tom! So gut to see you! I have a little something for you. Vell, for your tiny demon friend, actually." Roland put his hammer down on the anvil and placed the piece of metal he had been hammering on, which had gone from glowing hot orange to a dull red, back into the furnace. Reaching into a crate on the floor, Roland pulled out some small pieces of armor.
"Tiny demon armor!" Roland exclaimed holding the pieces up for Tom to inspect.
"The craftsmanship on this is amazing!" Tom noted looking at the tiny filigree that had been placed on the chest piece.
"You make me blush. I have just been vanting to make sure that I gave you somsing for your little friend to stay safe in zis vorld. It was my honor. Please, try it on my tiny friend." Roland knelt down and motioned for Jerky to come try it on.
The little demon was standing by Tom and moved over to Roland as he deftly helped him put the armor on. When Roland stood back to admire the work, Jerky was wearing a small half breastplate over his chest that covered most of his torso, metal greaves over his shins, and metal braces over his forearms.
"Well, move around and see how you like it," Tom suggested as Jerky stared up at him.
Jerky took off running, first on two legs, then all four. He jumped, rolled, and flipped through the air. Finally, he tried his flight and was still able to glide around as he had before. When he landed, He looked up at Tom and nodded with a smile appearing on his face.
"He approves! Thank you so much Roland for this." Tom said reaching out and shaking the big man's hand.
"Of course! It vas my pleasure." Roland replied.
"Do you happen to know where Harold is at down here? TJ said I should speak with him." Tom asked.
"Sure. He is in the back. In ze opposite corner from vhere Herbert is set up." Roland said smiling.
"Thanks, Roland," Tom said, waving as they walked off to the back of the room.
A man was sitting at a desk over s sketchpad drawing something that Tom couldn't make out. He sat in the dark except for a desk lamp that clipped to the side of the elevated and angled table. As Tom and Derek approached, the sounds of their footfalls caused him to turn to look in their direction.
"You must be Tom. I've heard a lot about you." Harold said.
"And you must be Harold. I have heard exactly nothing about you, but that isn't your fault. I just have a lot on my plate." Tom said jovially.
"That must be the case. I don't envy you in the least." Harold replied, smiling as they approached, then standing to shake their hands.
"I've been told you have something you might want to show me," Tom said, hoping to get right to the business so he could go and rest as well.
"That depends. How do you feel about explosions?" Harold said, a devilish grin playing across his face.