CJ flopped down on his ass; legs wide as he let the potion do its work. He spun his left hand counterclockwise before a bag of chips appeared. CJ split the bag open letting the pleasing aroma of processed potatoes, salt, and oil drift up his nose. Five feet from him, in the waning daylight, stood a man transfixed on his quarry. Roger had spent months cooped up in that building preparing for the day he could slay the beast. Now that it was here, he just stood over its rotting corpse, both hands grasping the object he used to extract his vengeance. The tip of his makeshift spear was still embedded within the blackening fleshy mess on the ground. The vile soup it was now made of was draining into a nearby sewer grate.
Suddenly a sharp jagged crystal rolled away from the goop with a tingling sound. It rolled to a stop against Roger’s metal foot. He was about to stomp down on it but was stopped by CJ calling out to him.
“Pick that up. I’m pretty sure I know what that is and its valuable,” said CJ between bites of crisp snapping sounds.
Roger stared at the crystalline object for a heartbeat before he reached down to grab it. His eyes popped wide open upon reading the description his slate gave him for the item. The two remained silent for a few short moments before Elena and Monty joined them. Monty was now sparking with mana colored lights as his form shrank back down to his normal size. Sweat was running down one of Elena’s arms mixing with some dried blood from here various scratches during the fight with the skeletons.
“We should head back inside. If this is what this town is like during daylight, I’d hate to see it at night,” suggested Elena.
“Agreed. I’m sure everyone is hungry, and I’ve got a lot of snacks. I’m pretty sure people won’t be passing that CVS anymore. We should probably clear it out of anything we missed. In the morning of course,” added CJ, before offering his bag of chips to the others.
Only Elena took some chips. Monty shook his head, and Roger didn’t acknowledge the offer. He just stood there, crystal in one hand and sharpened pipe in the other. Roger barely took a full breath before CJ put his hand on his right shoulder. There was sorrow in Roger’s eyes mixed with hope. CJ gently turned the old sailor back towards the retirement home. Jenn was at the door peeking out at all the bones scattered around the street. They all went inside and closed the door behind them. Only then did CJ notice the bar that used slide across the door was missing. He surmised that Roger quickly converted the security bar into his flesh melting solution delivery spear.
Rubio came downstairs to meet with everyone. CJ got a dazed Roger into one of the lounge chairs before gathering together with his people.
“He seems out of sorts,” said Rubio.
“Looks like he finally got what he wanted and hasn’t thought much past that. We offered him a safe place to go but I don’t think it him until he killed it that that is what happens next. He may have considered it all a fantasy until then,” commented CJ, before laying out some snacks and more bottles of water on one of the unused tables.
“But it’s dead right? No more flesh eater?” asked Jenn, getting affirmative nods from everyone.
“That giant Monty spell was really cool. Could have used that back in the fight with the bikers,” said Elena.
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“And give them a bigger target? No thank you. It’s actually one of CJ’s class abilities,” said Monty.
CJ noticed a hint of disappointed in that last comment. The rabbit was still wiping bone dust off of his whiskers with both paws. Then it occurred to CJ that it was a class ability and Monty didn’t have access to those yet. He’d have to activate it every time for him currently. Noticing he had a slate message waiting for him, CJ pulled it up and a smile crossed his face.
You have reached level 6; you have one undistributed attribute point.
“Hey, did anyone else level in that fight?” asked CJ.
“Yea, I did. Level five, I’ve got a class point now and my health and stamina improved,” replied Elena.
“No. I didn’t get one either. I wasn’t very instrumental in the fighting. Do you think that has something to do with it?” asked Rubio.
“Well, I didn’t level but I did get a skill level in Alchemy. It came with a new recipe for a mana potion. I don’t think I have the ingredients for it though. Has anyone seen a purple Persian shield plant? They are houseplants. The leaves have green outer edges and a center stalk, but the rest of the leaf material is a deep purple. The recipe calls for those leaves ground up. I have pretty much everything else,” added Jenn.
“How much mana does it give you?” asked CJ, now paying close attention to what she was saying.
“Not sure. Its dosage based. The health booster does twenty health points only because I needed to split it between everyone. There wasn’t a full dose in each bottle. I also had to cut it with some children’s cough syrup. I was thinking after I made it that it would be cool if we could just dry the ingredients and make it a powder. Then we could dump it into a water bottle and shake it up while we were on the go. Instant health booster!” said an exuberant Jenn, she was smiling now and a little over excited.
“If I can recover mana without taking a beating every time, that’d be a game changer for me. Purple leaves you say, we should raid a Home Depot or Lowes. Hell, even a garden center. Just grab every bag of seeds we can find. Persian shield, Persian shield, Persian shield,” CJ began to mutter under his breath in an attempt to memorize the plants name.
“We should really talk about next steps. The dungeons,” said Rubio, grabbing everyone’s attention.
“Ooh, finally the dungeon talk. I’m so excited,” replied Jenn.
“Calm your tits, the first one we were in was relatively harmless. They won’t be the same every time. We may get separated and you’ll have to figure out how to exit on your own. We shouldn’t take the bolster dungeons lightly. You should always challenge a town or city dungeon in a party. Never alone. City dungeons typically have multiple locations that need to be conquered to complete them. That’s why they always have quest pillars like the one we unlocked back in Leaf’s Bend. I can’t stress this enough, that quest pillar should not have been a reward from a bolster dungeon. Now a bolster dungeon will most often reward you with a class specific item, spell, ability, or skill book. As long as you succeed in the basic challenge you should get something. No guarantee what that something is until you enter the dungeon,” explained Monty, after jumping up onto one of the chairs in the dining room.
“What about Challenge dungeons. I heard you mention those before,” asked CJ.
“Those are rarer. They usually grant access to something important. Grand schemes of the gods. They only want worthy people to get their hands on whatever the dungeon is protecting. This early into this integration. I doubt you’ll run into one. Then again, nothing is what I would consider normal with this integration. The amount of corrupted mana is staggering,” answered Monty before seeming to get lost in thought.
“I propose we get some sleep and try to tackle the bolster dungeon we assume is at the back of the graveyard in the morning. If that goes well, we can try the other one. Sound like a plan?” CJ asked his gathered compatriots. He received nods of acceptance all around.
Roger was deep in thought while they discussed things. He was only half listening. The crystal he had picked up from the dead monster said it was Boss Monster Concentrate. The remnants of that crystal drifted from the palm of his hand like ash coming off of burning wood. It floated to the ground before seeming to break apart into smaller and smaller particles. He kept staring at the notification in front of his eyes.
Mana Forge has evolved into ManaTech.