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As Iris began to walk across the drop door, the boy grunted at her. Turning to look at him she seemed a little surprised when he poked himself with his thumb. "Me first, that the job you gave me."

The old woman slowly nodded and stepped back, gesturing for him to take the lead. Ernesto stomped his foot down on the flattened door before leaning in to look in both directions as well as up before stepping out onto the door.

From there the three of them shuffled into the room. The boy looked back for a moment. "We should have dragged one of those benches over on top of the door. Make sure it didn't close behind us."

Iris shrugged. “We would have dealt with it. But right now you’re just giving Tar… The dungeon ideas. So shut it for now. We can talk later about three houses away.”

I nodded to myself. At least it sounds like she planning on letting him live.

A few steps in and two blue kobolds and a rougher looking orange one came dashing out of a broad but low slot in the bottom of the angled outer wall at the bend of the room.

They each had a green plastic scalpel in either hand which made Iris stop and give Molly an angry look while the healer refused to look at her.

The orange guy had been a bit of a surprise. He appeared when I assigned kobolds to the room with a brown patch on each shoulder which had a long sharp spike in the middle of them. From what the manual said he was a random sport which could show up on rare occasions. I had identified it as a Spiked Kobold, which other than having two spikes and looking a little more built up was identical to every other Kobold.

Still, he had been free and the spikes made it look like he was the leader of the group. Nice for me since it made it look like that had been my plan. Rough for him because most people would figure that they should take him out first.

Along with the three of them came three fat hissing raccoons. Which the girls had grown used to dealing with, but made the boy look a little nervous. Little furry creatures aren't supposed to be aggressive. They are supposed to scurry off, not come after you.

Which they weren't. The three beasts and the three Kobolds arranged themselves with the raccoons in front, almost like cover, while the three scalpel wielders stood their ground in threatening poses. All one and a half feet of them.

Iris called out. “Bricks!”

The old woman let fly with the half brick she typically carted around, forcing big orange to jump aside to avoid getting nailed. Molly let loose and caught the raccoon on her side in the head, stunning the creature as it clutched at its head with both paws. Then the healer reached into her shoulder bag for one of the other two she carried around.

She did like her headshots didn't she.

The boy dithered until Iris yelled at him. "Get 'em Ernie." The boy winced and began to stomp forward. He begged "Please Miss Deslover. Not Ernie." as he caught a raccoon which had reared up on its hind legs to look bigger. He caught it center mass with a swing of his club and sent it flying.

I punched at the air in front of me. "Good swing." I wondered what his class was and remembered I had a spell for that and had recovered enough magic back to use it.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

(Ping)

Ernesto Ramirez

Copper 1 Survivor

"Ooooo..." I winced. What kind of hellish life was mining in this world for him to end up with a Survivor class? He had to be getting hurt multiple times a week, be on starvation rations, or all sorts of other abuse to get stuck with a class like that.

It did come with some nice abilities though. But I was going to have to send him home with some cash so he could quit the mines. Even working as Iris’s meat shield would be a better job.

The old woman followed up behind her future employee as big orange and one of the other kobolds closed in on the boy from either side while the middle raccoon waddled over at him from the front.

But Iris stopped short to kick the raccoon heading over at Molly, then dropped low and spun to kick the legs out from under the other blue kobold that had been heading toward the healer as well.

Molly in turn caught Big orange to the back of his head and shoulder with another half brick, but the blue guy on Ernie managed to stab the boy with both of its blades. Right into the Survivor's leg as he was trying to pound down on his raccoon with his club.

Ernie just grunted. I nodded to myself. Pain suppression. Called it. A dangerous but handy skill for a meat shield that I was still mad that I had never gotten. It was also dangerous as hell since you could be still fighting with bits falling out of you without ever noticing how hurt you were until you dropped, or tripped on your own guts.

I promised myself to remember to clue in Molly that she would need to monitor him as the group's healer. No letting them figure it out for themselves to keep an eye on him as a teaching moment.

Iris finished off her pair, while Molly closed in on the ones on the boy. Ernie only took one more light stabbing before the three of them finished off the last of their opponents.

I clasped my hand together and began rubbing one over the knuckles of the other. Since someone ended up bleeding I could consider this a challenging encounter. But I needed to add in some ranged weapons, or next time all three of them could just hang back and throw stuff once or twice before anything could get up close.

I grinned to myself. Or I could add in something that moved very quickly to rush them.

The old woman looked around at the assortment of dead creatures. "Where's the loot, is there something else left?" Meanwhile, Molly healed up the boy's leg while Ernie stared down with awe. As well as some other feelings since the healer had pulled down the zipper on her suit to cool off after the fight which left the upper part of her chest rather exposed.

Molly was built like many of the other women I had seen walking by outside. The ladies of this world seemed to be rather top heavy. Even the younger girls. Maybe there was something in the water?

Iris just rolled her eyes, either at the teenaged boy's staring or the twenty something girl's obliviousness.

The kid looked up to see the old woman giving him a look which made him blush while Molly got up and set off to explore the room. As she turned around the corner, she stopped and pointed. “Loot.”

Heading her way the other two spotted the cardboard box with the word "Loot" neatly written on it in black felt tip marker in large letters. It was sitting right in front of a doorway with a solid wall inside of it with the words, "Under construction" carved into it.

As they stood looking at the box, Molly wordlessly threw a half brick at it from ten plus feet away, hard. When the other two looked at her, she shrugged. "Mimics are a thing."

Iris looked confused, but the boy's eyes went wide before he held up a finger In front of his lips. "Shhh… It is listening." and pointed up at the ceiling.

Molly's eyes went wide as well.

My eyes narrowed. I needed to find out what a mimic was and how I could get one.

When the box did nothing, they closed in and Iris pointed at the box while looking at Ernie. “Well?”

He shrugged and open up the loosely folded over flaps concealing the contents and looked surprised when he saw the assortment of various colored Gator aides sitting in a plastic container full of partially melted ice.

Which in turn was surrounded by several copper coins, raccoon teeth, nails, and skins. There was also some meat that I hoped had come from the raccoons and a full sized knife with a green plastic handle.

Oh good a new magic item. “I wonder what that does?”

(Ping)

Knife of sharpness

10% increased penetration

I winced a little. "Nice knife, but I could have been identifying the rest of their stuff all this time.” Then I rubbed my chin. “Or I could trade some information for some kind of ranged weapon made for tiny hands."