Chapter 7: Confidence
I recover using the magic of corn-based snack chips. The others are cut and scratched, but nobody was as bad off as I was. Turns out you can share a bag of healing chips, you just get a percentage of the healing based on your consumption.
Also, these snacks mention HP, also known as Hit Points, but we don't have HP stats in our menus. We have Toughness and Constitution stats, but neither handles total health. Toughness makes you harder to damage and Constitution helps fight diseases, infections, poisons and controls your natural recovery. So I'm not sure how the HP recovery system works, but it does.
I have now gotten the gist of my new spells. I have used each several times. Now I'm doing some math.
“So Fire Bat costs 3 AP, and lasts 10 minutes. I have 4 AP. My Intelligence is 33 so I recover 33 AP per hour, or one AP every 2 minutes. If I cast, wait 4 minutes, then cast again, we have 2 fire bats for 6 minutes. Then as soon as the 1st one expires I can renew it. But the 2nd expires at minute 14 and doesn't come back for another 2 minutes.”
“Jun,” Theo says, “while you were doing math it became pointless.” He holds up a short sword that is shaped like a large dog tooth.
“We beat the other dogs like piñatas and we got a short sword, mace and 3 more dollar coins.” Brian holds up a black iron mace. The head of the mace is shaped like a dog skull. It's metal as hell.
Nat glances down at her broken glass shivs. They look like crap by comparison.
Jose puts a hand on her shoulder in consolation. “Hey I'm still unarmed, don't feel too bad.” He won't be unarmed for long. I have Fire Bats and MATH.
We look decidedly more ragged than we did half an hour ago. We're healed but our clothes are ripped and torn. And not in the "sexy romance novel cover" way. They're ripped and torn in the "I got attacked by wild dogs" kind of way.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
"We can do this," Theo assures us.
I'm increasingly unsure about that, but eh, might as well continue. I'm not particularly attached to my glorious life of retail drudgery.
The hall outside our break room connects to the manager's office and the pet supplies area. The manager's office is behind a large black door. The door frame glows red and is emitting fog. We decide to not enter the certain death room for now. I'd bet it's a boss. We're not ready for a boss encounter. We're more in the "fighting basic wildlife" stage of our adventure.
The pet supplies were nowhere near the break room back in what we're calling “the old store.” In the new store it's the only area between us and stairs down to the 4th floor. It's our only hope of getting out of here.
“Ah. Dogs from the dog department.” I say, sharing my revelation.
Theo looks at me with his supervisor “are you just catching up to the rest of us” look. It's a mix of incredulity and pity. I avert my gaze.
The tan hall opens up into a maze of giant dog cages, cat trees and a ziggurat made of square cardboard boxes filled with kitty litter. We hear scratching, whining, meowing, hissing and one single parrot saying “Lucky you, you get it!” which is our company's advertising slogan. This is going to suck.
“We move slow,” Theo says. “Take them on one at a time. Remember, this isn't an RPG or fair rules tabletop game. This is some Dark Souls murder ya instantly shit.” He shifts his grip on the dog tooth short sword and takes a small step forward. Brian has the mace. I've given myself and Jose both Fire Bats.
The second he inches a toe into the room all of the animal noises stop. There's an eerie quiet. All of us refrain from saying “quiet, too quiet” but all of us are thinking it. Theo takes another step in and nothing happens. He steps again and everything looks to be fine. The rest of us move in as well.
I creep up behind Jose and whisper, “I don't actually see any animals. Do you think that was just background noise?”
The parrot's creaky voice shoots out of the cages, “Just background noise! Just background noise!”
We all jump, but the trap is already sprung. I hear growling behind me and turn to see two dogs have circled us. How the shit did they get behind us?
Four bobcats appear at the top of the cat trees, their large bodies causing the trees to wobble. The parrot, black with a red crest and a goddamn eye patch flies overhead.
Normally, this is where we roll for initiative.