Merc was an endless fount of knowledge and experience.
The ghostly man seemed to know a bit about everything, that is when he didn’t know everything about something. He was decisive, and informational, and could explain concepts about magic, war, and combat that Ray was only beginning to understand. But it was his imparted knowledge about leading a territory and organization that really helped.
Which was why Merc’s suggestion to explore outside of the territory caught him off guard.
“Look here kiddo,” Merc said, jabbing his finger at Ray, “You need to find your people. You need to learn more about the situation surrounding your territory. You don’t have a lot of people, but you have a shit load of resources. Literally. All that loot from those beings that came and cleared your territory for you is just sitting in your inventory space. Open that shit up, outfit yourself accordingly, take a couple of Goblins and Nyx, and go find your folks. Derrick will do fine here without you, he has the fucking dragon.”
Ray sighed, knowing his newest advisor wasn’t wrong. “My issue,” he counter-argued, “is that with the Shop being… well now that it isn’t working and no one is here, we don’t have any ability to buy anything with our remaining funds. That includes the worker contracts that were supposed to make themselves available. I mean, shit, the Shop didn’t even get the upgrades that were promised. It's still stuck at level one. I can’t just up and leave when we don’t even have the people to defend the territory, much less lack so many capabilities and options the Shop provided.”
Derrick, Rivea, and Nyx watched the pair argue back and forth. While the debate didn’t seem to be going anywhere in particular, neither were outright incorrect. The Shop had shut down shortly after the Dimensional Node had come into existence and Merc had appeared. After they had come back from finding the new node and sealed off the tunnel, they had found an ‘Out of Order’ sign on the front hanging over the dark Open sign.
That had set off a whole new round of curses from Ray.
No one had a reasonable idea about why the Shop would have been closed, not even Merc. The only guess was that somehow the Dimensional Node had interfered with whatever access the Shop had to Trion. It was possible, even, that there was some way to restore that access. It was incredibly important that the group figure that out quickly. The resources available had been important, but at higher levels it became possible to hire other people directly. That was the function they needed most.
“Look guys, I know that things are looking a bit bleak here at the moment but you both have good points,” Derrick interjected. “To be honest, my personal opinion is that you need to get out there Ray. Taky Nyx and a few Goblins and explore. We ousted a few factions from our territory and have no idea where they went. There were people in that group. What if we can find other groups to join us? That would help solve our manpower problems.”
Ray eyed his friend and had to concede the point. They couldn’t all leave, after all, if they lost the Node they were fucked. But they needed information and people. Sitting here wouldn’t get them either.
“See? The engineer gets it!” Merc said even as Derrick reminded the ghost of his name. “Besides more beings, you can probably find a territory or two…. Uh, I mean a hex or two that you may want to take next. You were big on getting water access prior to the Integration right? Well maybe he should pursue that or think about going straight to air transport.”
Derrick shook his head as they had already played with that idea. “We already established that we can’t do that. I have no idea how to build an airship,” he said. “And Ray can’t just make one, it was stupidly expensive.”
Ray shrugged, “I tried. It was like… twenty thousand Power. It was crazy.”
“Oh yeah? How about you open some of those boxes and see if you can’t find a schematic or something? Or have you tried creating a skill book for making one? How about creating one of the vital parts and having our engineer friend build around it?” Merc countered. “There are lots of ways to get around an issue if you stop think about what you can’t do and start trying to figure out ways to make something work with what you have.”
Rivea raised a hand and Merc nodded at her, “Why would Ray go alone? Granted, if he dies I get to eat everyone here… but this doesn’t seem like a very tactical choice. Send our leader out into the unknown to possibly die at the hands of whatever overpowered creature finds him.”
“Two big reasons,” Merc answered instantly. “The first is that Ray needs to get stronger using his abilities. He can’t do that sequestered away in a safe territory. If we had more beings we would send them with him, but the fact remains that the Dimensional Node is just as, if not more, important that he is right now.” Everyone nodded or muttered their agreement with that, even Ray. “The second reason is that if Ray runs into anyone that can join us he needs to use his fealty ability to gain their loyalty. Doing that in our base of operations, where they could possibly outnumber us, seems like a really stupid idea.” Again, no one could really argue with his logic. At least, not then and there.
Ray threw his hands up into the air in exasperation, “Fine! Fine. You make good points. I didn’t even remotely begin to think about any of that stuff about an airship. Making parts individually or even a skill book? Didn’t even remotely cross my mind. You are probably right about the exploration stuff too, so lets just plan on a short expedition for the first attempt. I do have one question though, why can’t Rivea fly me everywhere? It would let me stay out far longer and give me greater range.”
“Good question. You can’t find an answer to a question you never knew to ask,” Merc stated. “Sometimes it takes someone else to view the problem to find the right questions. But in this case, you ran face-first into it. To sum it up in a word, experience. The System doesn’t seem to hand out Power and levels without adversity. If you bomb everything from orbit I don’t think you would gain much.”
Derrick nodded. “He makes a point. You absolutely have to level up. Without you and your abilities in top form, we are screwed. And while I do agree with you Ray, this first run should be shorter. Maybe just one hex over? Our territory is clear, for now, and there haven’t even been any intrusions. That makes me feel a bit… worried?. Weird? Yeah, weird. It makes me feel weird about the total lack of undead we have seen but that may be part of claiming a territory or something. Regardless, let's use this lull to get as many people as we can here. Maybe you will find Grok or Gale? They could be that close and it would be hard to spot them from the sky if they were undercover or hiding.”
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Ray gave in rapidly after that point. Nyx suggested that three days would be plenty of time for their first exploration of the area. They had a short list of things to look for as well that would help them further develop their territory. Namely people and any waterways that they could locate. If Ray could find water, they could determine if they really were on Manhattan Island or not, and that would tell them what they had to work with geologically.
Deciding on the exact parameters of the search, the group broke down and started discussing the particulars of what would happen in their territory as Ray pulled items out of storage. There were boxes of resources, chests of loot, skill books like the one Merc had mentioned, and even a few taming tokens. The ghostly guide explained that those could be used to tame any captured monsters, although he wasn’t sure how useful they would be with Ray’s ability to bind people and creatures to him through the very System itself. Regardless, they could be sold using the Shop… if they could get it to function again that is.
Ray dove through the various reward crates, picking out several weapons and armor with the two Goblins that would be accompanying him. He also found himself a small, neat buckler that would allow him some versatility in his defense. Along with those new items he included plenty of food rations, some prefabricated barricades and boxes, camping supplies, and his trusty handgun. With that, the trio were set to head out. It was quickly decided it would be early morning in order to give them the most daylight to explore in.
The dead loved the night. And who knew what else had come into existence as well?
So far they had found giant bats, your generic undead, and even a Yeti. If that was any indication of the spread of creatures that could be encountered outside of their area, then it was as varied as it was going to be deadly. Very. They hadn’t seen any dead in direct sunlight really either. So it remained to be seen if that was still a weakness or not.
The group worked well into the night before calling it and heading to bed. There were no notifications of any incursions, and the guards didn’t report anything having happened during the late hours. Shift change for the guards came about early in the morning, and it was only a few hours later than Ray, along with Derrick, Rivea, two Goblins, and Nyx found themselves standing in front of the still-in-progress arcology.
“Don’t get too wrapped up in your little adventure,” Derrick reminded Ray as they made the final checks of their equipment and items. “If you run into a situation where you are in danger run away. Don’t pull any heroic bullshit and get yourself killed. I don’t want to be in charge.”
Ray snorted, “What do you mean? You would love to be in charge. Think of all the stuff you could do, if Rivea doesn’t eat you that is.”
“As fond as I am of meat, I don’t think Derrick qualifies,” the Drake snorted. “He’s mostly skin, bones, and… math. It’s hard to properly cook math.”
“You’re a goat with wings, you eat anything. I hardly doubt I am…” the engineer began before suddenly pausing. “Why am I justifying my flavor to you? Find something else to eat. Maybe we can get a meat farm going or something, I don’t know.”
Ray just rolled his eyes and closed his status screen. Everything was in order and they were burning daylight.
“Alright, that’s it. Everything is accounted for. We have food, weapons, basic materials for shelter, and everything else we may need,” he said, ticking off the list of items. “Derrick, you have authority over the territory while I’m gone. Feel free to make any changes you think would benefit us. We are only going to be gone for three days, so try not to burn the place down.”
“No promises,” Rivea said, eying Derrick like a tasty snack. He took several large steps away. “Noooo promises,” she repeated.
Ray tossed a wave over his shoulder and the squad headed down the road. According to his territory statistics, there weren’t any real threats within the hex. But he was going to believe that about as much as he believed he had a third arm.
He didn’t… so he didn’t.
They moved quickly but cautiously, the raucous sounds from their base of operations quickly getting lost as they passed between the large, vacant buildings, abandoned commercial spaces and shops, and even passed the occasional gas station. According to Rivea, they should reach the edge of the hex in roughly three to four hours if they took their time. They were moving a bit faster than that, giving Ray the idea, it would only take them two or three at most.
“Interesting. I had not thought the city would be this… quiet. It’s somewhat alarming and unnatural,” muttered Nyx quietly after a couple of hours of silently traversing the dead city.
Ray just shrugged. “The dead walking around while in the company of legendary creatures from myth and lore is unnatural. The quiet hardly…” he trailed off. In the distance, he could see faint green mist coming up off the pavement. “Do you see that?” he asked, pointing ahead.
The group stopped short of where Ray had gestured, eyeing the area in front of them. “Nuttin Boss!” squeaked one of the Goblins.
“I see a road!” said the other.
Nyx shook her head, “I don’t see anything there. What do you see Ray?”
“Some kind of green mist. Kind of like a fog, but only along the ground. And it looks pretty thin. I… I think it might be the territory border?” He looked closer, and upon further examination could faintly make out grey mist on the other side. He relayed that to the group, and they stood there for a moment as they thought about it.
“I believe you are right, that must be the territory border. As there are two different colors, it must indicate some kind of status or level of claim,” Nyx reasoned. “Green for claimed, or possibly friendly. Grey must either be neutral or unallied. I would bet you the next steak you find that there are several other colors. Perhaps red for hostile? Perhaps a color for an allied territory?”
Ray nodded to himself. That made sense. If territory could be claimed there had to be a way to figure out where everything started end ended. He walked up to the edge of the green mist and looked over his shoulder and said, “Probably some kind of notice we are going to get. We may even get attacked. Be ready.”
Drawing his blade, he stepped over the line where the green and grey mist were mixing. The moment his foot broke the barrier between the two he received a System message.
{EXPLORATION}
YOU HAVE FOUND A NEW HEX
{ENTERING HEX 1340}
{STATUS}
CONTESTED
{FACTIONS}
11
His eyes opened wide at the number of factions that were present in this hex. That was a crazy number of people, and probably monsters, that were here. It was also a departure from the quiet territory that he had just come from. He was about to ask what the others thought when both Goblins tackled him to the ground.
Cursing, he fell into a pile with the two short green guys on top of him behind a nearby vehicle. Nyx had taken shelter beside them. He was about to curse them out when moments after they hit the asphalt several arrows went whistling over his head and buried themselves in the remains of the car he had been standing next to.
“Hold fire!” a strong, smooth, and somehow delicate voice called out. A very, very familiar voice.
Ray raised his voice and hazarded a guess, “Verrick? Is that you?” The silence was both deafening and informative. It seems they had found their lost Aelvin contingent.
That hadn’t taken long.