Beyond the five rows of shelving that led to the glass windows of the storefront, Rubio could see more broken mannequin parts. Along with them he noticed some large cicada bodies lining the street. Periodically, they all could hear the buzzing of large insect wings as more cicada’s arrived in town. Rubio leaned back behind a windshield wiper display end cap to address everyone else.
“Looks like the bugs and mannequins went to war last night. The street outside is a mess. I think it would be tactically foolish to go out the front door,” said Rubio to others behind the counter.
“That would explain why we didn’t hear much banging after we left the backroom last night. They must have been fighting each other. Why do those bugs want you so bad?” asked Elena, a look of confusion on her face.
“I have no fucking clue. I escaped one of them with Monty’s help and they chased me just before I found you. They’re monsters, who knows what’s up with them,” replied CJ wiping a hand over his bald head.
“If you had an analysis ability you could figure this stuff out. To get that, you’ll need to grow stronger by leveling up. You’ll get more class abilities that way. Skills will develop the more you use them. You can also find skill or ability books inside dungeons. They’ll augment your current slate of abilities,” Monty said casually.
“Huh? What does the rabbit mean Elena? I do not understand,” asked a confused looking Rubio.
“I think he means the slate screen, papa. Monty are you saying that the slate screen can give us more abilities like CJ has?” queried Elena looking to Monty for confirmation and getting nod from the bunny.
“Seems I need to go into more detail. Everybody back to the break room. I’m only supposed to have one human, now I gotta shepherd a whole gaggle of them…” mumbled Monty as turned back down the hall before trailing off.
Monty got them all to sit around one of the break room tables before hopping up onto the table himself. He paced back and forth with one paw to his chin for a few minutes before he began to speak.
“Let’s start with this. What level are you?” asked Monty.
“I’m level two according to my slate,” answered Rubio.
“I’m level one. Wait, why does my father have a higher level than me?” inquired Elena.
“He must have killed more monsters or completed more significant tasks since the return of mana. There are lots of ways to level up. The more you accomplish the more power you’re granted by the slate. The more dangerous or harrowing the task, the better the chance of leveling. Go ahead CJ, tell them your level,” Monty said this last part gesturing to CJ.
“I’m level three,” said CJ.
“How is the stage magician the highest level of us all? He barely did anything against yesterday,” complained Rubio.
“Green is a bad color on you Rubio,” sneered CJ.
“Ha ha, settle down boys. Does it have something to do with that king of monkeys you mentioned?” asked Elena.
“Yes and no. I’ve been fighting for my life since this whole thing started. I’ve killed a number of monsters and saved a lot of people. I even risked my life playing bait for a few weeks, so others had food to eat. Don’t get me started on how gamey that stew turns out to be. None of it was fun. I kind of understand Monty’s explanation. My class abilities are tailored toward things I did before the end of the world. I learned picking locks years ago for one of the tricks in my act. Now I have an innate ability to do so. Monty, you mentioned skills too. Can you tell us what the difference is? I don’t seem to have a list of them on my slate,” replied CJ.
“Skills grow in level with use and may take on enhanced functions. Abilities don’t have levels and only change through personal evolution. That’s more complicated than we have time for right now,” said Monty.
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“What about the books and dungeons? I can hardly believe I’m having this conversation. A month ago, I would have said you were all crazy, but the rabbit is the one explaining it, so maybe I’m also crazy,” sighed Rubio.
“We now live in a crazy world. You know how one of your first slate messages mentioned corrupted mana fonts? Well, they are a problem that can be solved by clearing dungeons. Supposedly there are many different kinds of dungeons. Once cleared they will help cleanse the mana. At least that’s how I understand it. Monty could clarify If I missed anything important,” added CJ.
“You are technically correct. Dungeons…” started Monty before being cut off by CJ.
“The best kind of correct,” said CJ.
“Do you mind not doing bits in the middle of my very important to life on this planet explanation about dungeons?” asked an angry Monty.
“Sorry.”
“As I was saying before being so rudely interrupted. Dungeons cleans mana after being cleared. They take in ambient corrupted mana and covert it to clean mana. By way of recreating their monsters, traps, rewards, etcetera. If dungeons aren’t cleared regularly, regularly being relative to the size of the dungeon, they will turn rampant. A rampant dungeon belches forth excess monsters as a byproduct of too much corrupted mana. That can quickly turn a region or continent into a monster infested wasteland. Am I correct in assuming neither of you have a slate message about dungeons?” asked Monty, getting head shakes from the Trinchars, “I see. This deity of fate is either incompetent or she doesn’t care. That’s bad news. I have a hunch that there is a dungeon in that park. CJ and I are going to clear it. You are welcome to join us if you like but we can’t force you,” finished Monty.
Elena and Rubio exchanged a long look. That’s when the sound of glass breaking reached all their ears. It came from the front of the store. They could all hear the buzzing of wings accompanied by crashing. Rubio was the first to move. He had his rifle up in front of him as he cleared the corridor. Looking down the hall he noticed something crashing back and forth in the store. One of the cicadas was being smashed into the shelving units buy a cluster of mannequin arms. That cluster of arms was attached to a long interconnected mannequin torso. It looked like someone spent hours human centipedeing the broken parts that were all out in the street.
“We need to get out of here now!” yelled Rubio before kicking the door to the employee bathroom open.
“No. Not in there… oh yea the ladder up. There is a ladder for roof access in there,” said CJ as he scrambled out of the break room.
“I know. I scouted this place while you were sleeping,” said Rubio as he leant over to snatch up the shotgun from the corpse before one handed racking the chamber.
Rubio shot the latch for the roof access hatch before tossing the shotgun back to CJ who bobbled it in his hands before finally catching it upside down. Elena walked past him shaking her head before she immediately pinched her nose shut, chainsaw strapped to her back.
“CJ, store that for me while we climb out of here. Should fit up your sleeve,” ordered Rubio halfway up the ladder.
CJ figured differing to the actual soldier in times like this was probably best for everyone. The butt of the shotgun barely fit through the cuff of his jacket before it disappeared entirely. That made CJ wonder if all he needed was a part of the object to fit through his sleeve. If that were the case, he could store tables and chairs as long as one of the legs fit up his sleeve. All kinds of things really. He was broken from his reverie as the corpse of a cicada flew past the doorway to the bathroom. CJ knew it was time to go so he snatched up Monty with one arm and struggled up the ladder.
Up on the roof Rubio began taking shots at anything that crawled. There were only a few cicada’s up here and one hell of a racket going on down at street level. Elena jogged over to the edge and noticed two blocks up the fire was still raging. This whole town was going to go up in flames. To her right was another store front. The gap of the alley was easily jump-able. She waived everyone over.
“Look we can jump to the next building and figure out how to get down from there. This building…” she was cut off as the roof buckled.
The amalgamation in the store was smashing its way through the roof. It wasn’t long before concrete and metal girders erupted from the roof exposing sunlight to the floor below. CJ tossed Monty over to Elena while Rubio picked off anything that tried to reach the second rooftop. Backing up to get a running start was CJ’s mistake as the many limbed monstrosity crawled out of the hole in the roof to grab him up. Two shots were fired by Rubio taking off an equal number of limbs. CJ began to panic. This thing didn’t have eyes. Just four individual mannequin heads facing four different directions. Smoke screen wouldn’t help. It didn’t have an esophagus so choking hazard wouldn’t work. He did the only thing he could do. CJ cast Half-A-Bitch.
The mana in his system sparked out of his outstretched hand as a blade of transparent force slid into the main torso the creature was balanced on. It was sliced cleanly in half with most of its bulk sliding back into the building, while the top half slumped onto the roof. CJ thought for a second it wasn’t dead as pieces of it began to move but it turned out that whatever was keeping it all stitched together had dissipated. All the individual pieces detached from the greater whole and lie motionless.