Jimmy eyed Marv in disgust as he left the dungeon. This guy made Gus feel halfway decent.

It all came together as Gus came striding toward Marv with a big smile. Marv smiled, showing yellowed teeth in contrast to the pearly whites Gus had. The men clasped hands while Erik tried to make himself small behind Marv.

“So, my brother answered my call for once,” Gus said with a smile. “You look like shit as usual.”

Marv guffawed, “I see you’ve turned this place into a personal playground. I’m not sure why you would need my help. Not afraid I’ll just take it from you?”

Gus glanced in Jimmy’s direction and back to his brother, “Let’s go somewhere a bit more private and get you a drink. Where’d you come from this time?”

“A drink would be great,” Marv rubbed his belly at the thought. “Got chased out of Denver.”

“Well, after that embarrassing display in the dungeon, I’m not surprised.”

The two men chatted as they walked out of earshot of Jimmy. He commanded one of his hummingbirds to follow the pair from a distance. A small wooden ball promptly slammed into it, sending the hummingbird flying.

Gus turned to Jimmy and gave a wink. Marv glanced back as well, raising an eyebrow. The way the two men looked at Jimmy made him feel insignificant. The hummingbird hadn’t been destroyed, it was merely swatted to the side, sending the message to Jimmy that he was out of his league.

With each passing day, Jimmy felt his place in this world slipping away. Even his relationship with Rick was growing further and further apart. Atrono had been more helpful and Jimmy couldn’t help but feel as if he were being replaced.

He needed to do something to make himself useful again. Gus said that he’d fix Rick’s Energy problem, but he hadn’t yet. I’m the Dungeon Attendant, dammit.

The world around him melted away as he wracked his brain. He couldn’t afford anything in the System Shop that might fix the problem. Bringing in trash was great and all, but Gus had more or less poached all of the scavengers. Rick would have to start paying Gus back, essentially making it a zero-sum relationship.

He also couldn’t forget that he’d seen the replica of their shop counter in the front from the broadcast. Jimmy felt sick that Rick had made it and he hadn’t even been there to thank him. No chance I’m going in there empty-handed.

Pondering over the dungeon, he kept thinking back to Luca’s floor. Although the minions needed the darkness, it was too dark. We’re living in a world of magic now. How can I add a bit of magic to the place?

“Okay, so solve the Energy problem without Gus’ help and add a little razzle-dazzle to Luca’s floor,” Jimmy mumbled to himself.

Jimmy had heard of bioluminescent mushrooms and even recently, scientists had found a way to combine bioluminescent bacteria with plants, allowing them to glow in the dark. However, he had no way of getting his hands on them. He might not be able to afford a fancy System gadget to give Rick the Energy he needed, but perhaps the shop had bioluminescent plants.

Switching gears, he opened the Shop menu and filtered for bioluminescent plant life. To his surprise, thousands of pages appeared. He messed with the filters adding terms such as “fast-growing” and “grows in the dark”. A whole lot of otherworldly fungus appeared on his list.

I know Rick isn’t a big mushroom guy, so let’s try this, Jimmy thought as he added “No Fungus” to the search. The list was still hundreds of pages long, so he thought he’d filter Rick’s favorite color of gold, but remembered that the treasure chests and Luca gave a similar glow.

Okay, maybe a darker color. Something that won’t overshadow the golden glow, but complement it. Purple would be perfect.

He added “purple glow” to the filter and the list was cut down to a mere 87 pages. He scrolled down reading the descriptions. A lot of the plants grew fast, but only had a flower that would glow. Most of the flowers themselves bloomed for very short periods of time, so even if the floor was covered with them, the glow would be sporadic.

Finally, Jimmy came across something that sounded familiar to him.

Creeping Talamalo: This plant thrives in low to zero light. An enzyme reacts with the plant’s mana signature to make the entire plant glow a deep purple. This fast-growing groundcover is popular to seed as early as one week before an outdoor nighttime event.

“Okay, that seems promising,” Jimmy mumbled. Even with the fast growth, it still wasn’t fast enough for Rick’s Energy needs. He already had the rapidly growing red clover on the first floor. There must be some sort of magical fertilizer out there in the multiverse, right?

With that in mind, Jimmy scoured the Shop once again, searching for Creeping Talamalo fertilizer and devices related to plant growth.

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The search paid off as he found a device that would not only help the plants grow exponentially faster but was within his price range. He’d need to tell Lazaro about these if the Cartel didn’t have them already.

Flora Boost Crystal: A crystal filled with Nature Affinity mana specifically designed to boost the growth rate of the local flora. This compact crystal is commonly used in greenhouses, or replacing small deforested areas.

Jimmy didn’t know how long the crystal would hold a charge, but if he spread the word about these crystals, the entire landscape of Earth could change for the better. Of course, the alternate is true as well. If the wrong person went out of their way to spread bullshit like poison ivy, then it’d be a pain in the ass.

Hell, even Gus might implement the crystals to create a little oasis here. It’d be nice to see a little green in Phoenix that wasn’t a spiky cactus or palm tree. The crystals didn’t cost very much, so he bought two. Perhaps Rick could absorb one and create more if needed, but he wasn’t sure how it worked. Would it need to be charged by someone with that class or was Rick just that all-powerful?

In the end, it didn’t matter. These would be gifts that Rick could use or discard as he pleased and he wasted no more time before buying a pair of crystals for 500 SC apiece. They came in standard silver System containers.

When he purchased the plant, a dark tube materialized for him. He knew that the plant didn’t do well in light, but the regular System containers should have sufficed. Jimmy turned it in his hands, “Huh. Maybe it came directly from the seller.”

Initially, he hadn’t seen anything but on one end of the tube, there was a faint inscription. It was in an alien inscription. “Guess I’ll have to ask the horse about it,” Jimmy grumbled.

A flash of movement distracted Jimmy. Deandre was running toward his booth. Jimmy narrowed his eyes. Why hadn’t he thought of Deandre before when the man fit the exact description of his parents’ killer? Fast, unarmed – a loner. The man just made himself suspect number one in Jimmy’s eyes.

Deandre’s forehead shimmered with small beads of sweat. He smiled at Jimmy with bright teeth, “Nice to see you again. I’m not sure if they told you, but I joined the Spell & Sword.”

Jimmy nodded, unimpressed.

Deandre’s smile dipped at the reaction, but quickly recovered. “Anyway, they said to come ask you to let me into the Auxiliary Room when I was ready.”

“What have you been doing, exactly?” Jimmy asked, folding his arms.

Deandre’s smile vanished, “That’s not really any of your business. Even my group members respected my privacy.”

“It’s a simple question.”

The new Spell and Sword Member’s eyebrows shot up, “Does this have anything to do with the color of my skin?”

Jimmy scoffed, “Please. Don’t give me that shit.”

“I can’t think of any other reason why you’d be a dick to me.”

“I have my reasons.”

“Yeah, I bet you do.”

The two stared each other down for a moment before Jimmy relented. “Go on, then,” and opened the door.

“Thanks, asshole,” were Deandre’s parting words.

Once he disappeared inside the door, Jimmy mumbled, “I’ll be keeping my eyes on you. Fuckin’ prick.” Before he forgot, he made sure to dedicate one of his hummingbirds to keep track of Deandre.

Jimmy hadn’t noticed Erik had been leaning against the wall after Marv and Gus walked off. The timid and tired looking man had been watching the entire exchange.

“What?” Jimmy asked.

Erik shrugged, then met his eyes. The eyes were those of a broken man. All drive and fire had been extinguished. He briefly hoped that people didn’t think the same when looking into his.

“You some kind of racist?” Erik asked.

The question caught Jimmy off guard, “What? No. I just don’t trust the guy. He kept some strange company before latching on with the Sword and Spell. Just like you do.”

Erik nodded and looked down, “I think we’ve all done what we had to since the integration.”

“Yeah. What’s Marv’s deal anyway?”

The man’s hand trembled as he wiped sweat from his brow with a dirty cloth, “You’ll find out soon enough, I’m sure. Just don’t –”

Jimmy frowned as Erik appeared to be choking, “You need the heimlich?”

The man shook his head fiercely and dropped to his knees. A glob of black spit shot out of his mouth and onto the ground. He shuddered and used the cloth to pick it up, then put it in his pocket.

“What the fuck man. Wanna toss that in the dungeon? Rick will eat that shit right up.”

Erik shook his head again, “Contagious.”

Jimmy froze. That black stuff had been thrown all over the first floor. Atrono called it curse magic. Could it possibly hurt Rick or the minions long term? If that were the case, the centaur would have surely known.

“Not to Rick,” Jimmy said.

The dead eyes met Jimmy’s again, “I hope you’re right.”

“What were you saying before you started choking? Just don’t what?”

Erik signaled by flicking his dead eyes at something behind Jimmy, “Agree.”

“What do you agree with?” A jovial voice behind Jimmy sounded out.

Marv and Gus had returned.

“I was just telling Erik here how I don’t particularly trust one of the Challengers that hangs around here,” Jimmy said, hoping to cover for the man.

“Ah, Erik. What have I told you about speaking with strangers? You’ll get yourself hurt,” Marv said as he strode over and grabbed the back of Erik’s neck. “My brother here has a place where you can get cleaned up and rest. Lord knows you look it.”

Jimmy tried to act casual at the odd display.

“Oh, Jimmy. Please ask my boys to come pay me a visit soon, okay?” Marv said with a sneer and led Erik away by his neck. Within seconds, he and Gus were laughing and reminiscing.

What the fuck is he talking about? It didn’t matter. He needed to find out if Rick was okay or if that curse bullshit wormed its way into his core.