Diane wiped the blade of her sword against her thigh, cleaning the blood off. “So… Do we get your share now for acting like a total pussy?” Diane asked Pablo.

Pablo’s face got crimson red, “If it weren’t for my dolls, that guy would have shot all of you.”

Alex sighed, “Enough. Let’s divvy up the loot and get the hell out of here.”

“How’s he doing?” Sarah asked, looking down at Grady.

“I’m not sure. He seems to be fine. Hopefully, he wakes up soon or we’ll need to find a doctor,” Alex said.

“Those healing potions really are magical. I thought he was dead for sure,” Sarah said.

Diane had been gathering the loot sacks and when she got to Billy, she saw the golden glow from his little construction site. “Hey, looks like we have another chest. It better have something better than the last one.”

Everyone perked up at that. “Let’s open the bags first,” Pablo said.

“Sarah, you want to do the honors?” Alex asked.

The soft-spoken fire mage smiled and began opening the bags. There were six total and it garnered them 300 Credits each.

Sarah began pulling a keyboard out of the first bag. “How does this even fit in there?” she asked.

Pablo shrugged, “We’ll be here all day if we start asking that. Anyway, I wonder how much those go for in the Shop.”

Alex held up a finger, “Let’s wait until we get out of here to discuss numbers.”

They all got the point. They were being watched by a lot of people and it might not be wise for them to flaunt how much money they were getting. They didn’t have a choice in some matters, but they could at least mitigate the damage when possible.

The other five bags contained a jar of playdough, a stack of pre-system cash, a portable DVD Player with a disc of Predator 2 inside, a roll of stamps that might have some collectible value, and a nice watch.

They decided to sell everything except for the DVD Player and the playdough. Sarah thought it would be a good idea to give it to one of the kids outside.

Grady woke up with a groan while Sarah was opening the bags, but still managed to wear a childish grin as she revealed what was inside.

“Diane, since you found the treasure chest and saved our asses, why don’t you open the chest?” Alex said.

“Just be ready with a healing potion in case it’s trapped and my arms blow off or something,” She said and strutted over to the chest.

Grady managed to hoist himself up into a sitting position to watch.

Diane opened the chest unscathed. Her breath caught as she looked inside. “Guys. This is… This is something,” she said and pulled out a large gold bar.

“It’s beautiful,” Pablo whispered.

“It must weigh twenty pounds.”

Rick, who was observing as usual, had been excited for them to open the chest. The gold bar Diane held was actually 27.4 lbs. “This should get some people throwing themselves at the dungeon,” he said. Only Luca was left to listen to him. And Penny, but she was sleeping next to the egg, keeping it warm.

“Let’s sell it right now,” Diane suggested. “Fuck waiting till we get out there — We’ll get mobbed.”

“Yup. Agreed,” Pablo said.

“Here, take it,” Diane said, handing it to Alex. “Sell it before I do anything stupid.”

Alex chuckled nervously, “Ok, I’ll sell it and then transfer twenty percent to each of you. Just try to play it cool no matter how much it goes for. K?”

“Whatever, just hurry up,” Diane said.

Alex’s eyes went vacant for a moment as he accessed the shop. His lips tugged tight at the corners as if he were fighting off a smile. “Done.”

The rest of the group’s eyes went vacant for a second. Grady was the first to break the silence, “Holy shit. We’re rich!”

Alex punched him in the arm but couldn’t hold off the smile anymore. Sarah, Diane, and Pablo all shouted their own expletives and cheered.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m ready to get the hell out of here,” Sarah said.

“Yup, time to go shopping,” Pablo said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down.

The rest of the group agreed and made their way to the door. Alex opened it and slammed it shut again. “I’m not sure how to tell you this, but we’ve unlocked another area of the dungeon.”

“Another what?” Diane asked.

“Area of the dungeon. It’s dark as hell. Should we take a look?” Alex asked.

“No way. We need to resupply,” Sarah said. “Let's just get out and check it on our next run.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Alex looked at the rest of the group and saw the looks on their faces. They all appeared to be ready to leave so he nodded, “Fair enough. Let’s regroup and recoup.”

“Shop,” Pablo corrected.

“Yeah — That,” Alex said and punched his hand on the keypad Jimmy had installed. He had shown them how to use it when they first went into the Auxiliary Room.

----------------------------------------

Rick sighed, “Sorry Luca. We’ll get you some action next, OK?”

The mosquito monster buzzed its wings but didn’t complain.

Soon, the minions and Billy began to respawn. Just as his Energy slowly ticked up passively, the damage in the environment from the battles was repaired slowly with no effort from Rick. It was as if he had an internal immune system.

While he reflected on the battle, he thought of how well the group actually did. That last room was a death trap for them. Billy and the minions could always come back, but these people risked it all. These were the kind of people that would reach new heights in this world. A ‘No risk-it, no-biscuit’ mentality.

If Rick were still a human, he would never risk himself in this place. How many people could possibly have the same mentality as the ones from Spell & Sword? He began to doubt whether he’d have Challengers lining up, even with all of the potential benefits.

Or was he not giving them enough credit? Countless people throughout history have risked their lives for a promise of freedom and potential riches. Every so often, the human spirit is tested and this is just one of those times.

Soon, Jimmy entered the Auxiliary Room. “What’s up, Rick? Quite a Challenge, wasn’t it?”

“I have to admit, I was rooting for them. It’s just kind of shitty that I didn’t gain anything from it to grow,” Rick said.

Jimmy’s eyes twinkled, “No, but I saw you put your salesman hat on a few times during the broadcast. Good call with that gold bar at the end.”

“Well, they earned it,” Rick said.

“They did. I have something else I wanted to ask you. I don’t think you’ll like it,” Jimmy said, massaging the back of his neck with one hand.

“This doesn’t sound good. What is it?”

“So, a convoy came and surrounded us just outside of the defensive array. And when I say convoy, I mean tanks and shit,” Jimmy said.

“Gus and his men?” Rick asked.

“Yup. But, they say they’re not here to fight. They’re looking to negotiate with Lazaro and the Cartel,” Jimmy said.

“And the best way to do that is to surround us with tanks?” Rick asked.

“Yeah, well you know what they say about peace and bigger weapons.”

“No, I don’t.”

Jimmy stammered, “You know, ‘Carry a big stick and nobody fucks with you’, or something.”

“Yeah, that sounds right,” Rick joked.

“Anyway,” Jimmy dragged the word out. “They’d like to negotiate in a neutral area. Of course, Gus has seen the broadcast and thinks this is a good spot.”

“So you want to invite the man who captured my parents and casually killed half of the Cartel, into my domain?” Rick asked.

Jimmy sighed, “Yes dude, I know it sounds stupid. But if you could see it out there, you’d understand. They could kill us all right now. If that’s what they wanted, it would have happened already. People are scared, man.”

“Fine. But, I’m going to relocate Penny and they can go into the Auxiliary Room. I don’t trust either of those two if I’m being honest,” Rick said. “If they only have access there, then they shouldn’t be able to get to my Core.”

“I can also block access to your first floor until he’s long gone,” Jimmy suggested.

“Wait, did you ever find Deandre?” Rick said. “This could be a perfect time for him to steal all of the aircraft.”

“Nah, he hasn’t come up. I’m still looking for him, but we don’t have an opportunity to do that. Like I said, we’re surrounded,” Jimmy said.

“Damn. Alright, I’ll move Penny and we’re good to go.”

While Jimmy went off to do his tasks, Rick told Penny what they were going to do. She normally wagged her tail anytime Rick spoke to her, but she truly didn’t like it when he moved the Kaiju Egg. She whined as Rick moved the egg to the door and put it in the 2nd floor with Luca.

“Luca, please help Penny protect the egg. Oh, and don’t hurt Penny. She’s a very Good Girl,” Rick said. He wasn’t worried about Luca, despite how often the mosquito complained. He wasn’t even sure if his minions were capable of disobeying him.

Luca left her spot in the middle of the mucus maze and inspected Penny and the egg. Her antenna wiggled, “I can feel the power within this egg.”

“Yeah, well – whatever it is, it’s going to be your new roommate when it hatches,” Rick explained.

Luca’s wings buzzed excitedly, “It will be good to not be alone.”

Rick felt a slight twinge of guilt, “Yeah, it’ll be a party.”

Jimmy poked his head in. It was covered in a nervous sweat, “We ready?”

Rick quickly made a table and a couple of chairs out of grass and earth. If they started killing each other or doing anything else stupid, he’d bury them in a mountain of earth and grass and then encase it in a prison of bulletproof glass.

As Rick was mentally going through different ways to kill them, the two men entered. The tension in the air was palpable. Jimmy didn’t join them, which Rick was glad of. He’d hate for his friend to get caught in some kind of crossfire.

Gus looked similar to what Rick had thought up in his mind. His tanned skin had a leathery texture to it. He had thin, yet well-groomed blonde hair, and wore the typical country club attire. He flashed a smile with teeth much too white to be natural as he entered the Auxiliary Room. The air inside was likely a pleasant escape from the hot Arizona air. Despite his pot belly, he walked with his back straight and shoulders squared.

Rick used Identify on him:

Gus - Level 33 Death Novice

That’s odd, Rick thought. Jimmy said he controlled wood.

The two men glanced around for only a moment, not daring to fully take their eyes off of each other, and found the little table and chairs Rick had prepared for them. When they sat across from each other, Lazaro wore a perfectly intimidating frown.

Gus, on the other hand, wore a smug smile. The kind of smile that only some rich asshole could develop over years of looking down on people. Before addressing Lazaro, the man looked up, “Could we trouble you for a couple of glasses of water? I’m parched.”

“This, fuckin’ guy,” Rick grumbled but obliged his request.

Gus flashed a smile as the glasses appeared and gave only the briefest hint of a frown. “Ah, no lemon,” he tsked. “That’s alright, we can fix that in the future. God, I’d give anything for an Arnold Palmer.”

Lazaro held onto his intimidating gaze despite Gus seemingly unbothered by it.

“Let’s get to it, then,” Gus sighed. “So tell me, Lazaro, was it? What is it that the Cartel wants exactly?”