26)

So, “Identify”

Molly Hall

Copper Healer 1

About what I expected. Wait…

I didn't get a rank when I identified Iris. Double checking now showed her as Copper Martial artist two. I guess the system for Earth must still be undergoing a shakedown to adjust it for a new world. Either that or I'm just remembering it wrong.

Or maybe someone hit Silver rank and there is now a need to identify people by rank now? No idea how someone could have shot that far ahead though.

Meanwhile, the two ladies were back upstairs and now Molly was accepting a drink. Just a glass of the dark brown drink called coke. She claimed she needed the sugar.

From the way Iris grimaced whenever she took her first drink of it, I had thought it was some kind of medicine. I was going to have to get a sample of the stuff.

The two of them were planning their schedules together, which was not all that hard for Iris. When Kelvin showed up in the kitchen with a glass I had just created. Holding it up in both hands and waving it around in the direction of the large bottle of coke.

Molly seemed a little shocked. “It wants a drink?” Iris seemed more resigned. “Tark more likely, here you go. Nasty little bugger almost looks cute when he begs.”

The old woman filled the glass about three-quarters full then patted Kelvin on the head. The kobold froze in place, utterly confused. I told it, "Yeah, just let it happen little guy. It doesn't count as an attack.”

Buttercup stared on with narrowed eyes.

Since my champion counted as all jobs, including gatherer, I had him remote gather the coke by drinking it down.

After a moment, the little guy let out an extended rumbling burp with an astonished look on his face, then ran off while the two women stared at him in shock. Then they both burst out in laughter.

I looked at the glass I had called up in my human hand within the core dubiously, before taking a cautious sip. It burned a little but it was mostly just very sweet with a sort of smokey tang to it.

I would rather have a beer, but I had yet to see anything alcoholic in Iris’s house. Perhaps I should take a closer look around the neighborhood?

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The two of them settled on two runs on my dungeon per day. One in the late morning followed by a rest and lunch. Then another one an hour or so later.

I could easily restore the dungeon in that time period for at least four runs, but I didn't want to push. Let them decide at their own pace until they gained some confidence and let them make the decision on when they were ready to push themselves.

Then they talked tactics, which to be fair I shouldn’t have listened in on. But they had to know I could hear them. So why not?

Iris wanted to get a shotgun, which I had to look up to find out what that was. Oh, that was just neat. You could at least wound an entire passageway full of creatures with one of those, or at least the ones in front.

Molly however came from a hunting family and was able to tell Iris that shooting anything like that in a small room would make both of them deaf. And that even a handgun would be too loud unless they wore hearing protection.

That led to some more frantic page turning in the red books.

Fell, these people were so far ahead of us when it came to killing things without magic. I wonder if there were smaller guns one of my kobolds could use?

Molly finally made her departure since her boyfriend would return to their home from his own job fairly soon. Which led to a brief conversation over the old woman's concern about keeping my existence a secret. To which the healer assured her that the last thing she wanted to do was have her lover have another reason to bother her over his concern for her safety.

I was excited for their first fight the next day.

Then Iris settled down to her computer and began to make shocked and concerned sounds, turning to look down at her floor every now and then, before she came down the steps to look down to the entrance of the dungeons.

"They found another dungeon. I kind of guessed there had to be more of you out there Tark. But this one killed people."

Oh, dam it to Fell. They either didn’t get enough people to volunteer to run all the dungeons and made them anyways. Or someone made a commitment and still walked off the job.

I decided to go with the block of wood with the lettering scored into it and then filled it in with black tile. It seemed like my next words were something that needed some weight to it.

“Not all dungeons are people. Some either got seeded to grow slowly on their own. Or they were abandoned by the person who was assigned to it.”

Then I replace the block with another. “They are supposed to challenge people, but even with a person running it. They can overestimate. Without a person, they don’t know how to correct in time.”

Then one last one. “I am here. I will tell you if I plan to leave. The danger is real, but it will be as safe as I can make it.”

The old woman read each slab one by one without saying a word. Only reacting by twitching when Envoy stepped out from behind the last slab and held up a note, uncrumpled.

After a moment she gave it a nod and held out her hand for the note.

"I faced the same odds each time I went into a dungeon. I felt the risk was worth taking. Even after I stopped. Please destroy this note and tell no one of its content or implications."

Iris's eyes went wide for a moment before she took a deep breath and slowly headed upstairs. Once there she read the note again, then turned a knob on her stove to make one of the spouts on top let out flammable gas and ignite it. Then she set fire to the note and held it above her sink, turning it until as much of the paper had burned without scorching her fingers. Then she dropped the still burning remains in the sink.

“Thank you Tark. Thats… Something I can only think about. Not without… I can’t even talk about why I can’t talk about it.’

She turned around and leaned against her sink cabinet for a moment. “With or without Molly, I’m still going in tomorrow. If this makes her bail, I'll just stock up on first aid supplies and get one of those "I've fallen and can't get up" necklaces.

Inside my core, I felt something hit me in the forehead. Pulling my viewpoint back in from the core to look out of my human eyes I saw a crumpled up note lying at my feet.

“Second and last warning. - C”