Ch 14 Once more into the breach

Smiling as I got home. I notice its past 4p. Not much time to do anything. I'm not particularly tired yet. But I'm pretty hungry. I pulled out my silverware and went to wash it. I should make a pristine wand for me. And have more silverware on hand. Maybe I'll buy a set just to keep in my inventory.

Thinking about it for a moment. Why not go all the way with table and chairs too? A folding table I can pick up would probably go in. Little camping stools? I can get a few of those. Maybe an actual set of dishes. Just to use in the dungeon. I snicker to myself. I have money to blow, and I think about how the last two runs I take a break having a meal in the dungeon. Yeah, I should do that too. I pick up my dungeon clothes. And pause. Yeah, they reek. I got scribble half a dozen pristine. Applying two to my shirt and pants, I then put them on. Maybe I'll find holsters at the store too. Would a knife holster work? Maybe I could pick up leather working. Could make bags that way too. Or tailoring. Or both if I level fast enough. Since it seems like I'll be running with parties for a while.

I scribble out a half dozen auto sizes while I'm at it. No need to purchase them if I can make them here and then sell to whoever I'm running with. I stretch. I have just about an hour and a half to get to the store, shop, then get to the dungeon. I should have time.

I got into my car and started driving. And then remember. It's almost 5oclock on a Friday. At this rate I'll be lucky to make it to the dungeon in time. So, I'll just head there. I can always buy camping gear through the system too. So, it won't hurt if I'm early.

**

Over an hour later I finally made it close enough to be reasonable to park. I'm nearly two blocks down and most of the parking is full. So, I guess I'm walking. Getting out I start towards the bus stop. There's crowds of people everywhere. Guards in uniform have created lines with barriers. Seems to me the crowd is moving quickly. With multiple guards at the front taking names and noting who is going in at what time. They're letting one group in at a time, but soon as they walk in another is right behind them. It feels like there's hundreds of people crowded down here. The street was blocked off the block. Everyone seems to be milling around waiting their turn.

I head to the terminal. I'll find out who I'm running with after I purchase my new stuff. I go through and select items. This time I selected furniture.

Item

Comfort

Surfaces

Decor

Plumbing

Storage

Lighting

Activities

Appliances

Non-human

What would camping gear qualify as? There isn't an outdoor section. Comfort? Surfaces? I select comfort.

Chair

Couch

Bed

Bench

Picking chairs brings a new menu.

Stool

5

Dining

5

High

5

Well. That’s not helpful.

Why isn't there much selection for chairs, I wonder? Beds certainly had more than enough choices. I guess I'll get stool. How many though. I guess I'll get three. Since I'll be running at most two people. They don’t materialize in front of me. I checked my inventory. Yup. I can carry them, nice. I go select surfaces.

Table

Counter

Desk

Shelf

Ok a few options selecting table another screen.

Coffee

15

Dining

20

Dressing

15

End

15

Bedside

15

Seems a little cheap, considering how much a bed was. But that’s fine. Not sure I can carry any of these though. I chose end table. A heavy wood end table with four legs appears in front of me, crap. I picked it up and tried to put it into my inventory. It’s a bit heavy. A screen pops up.

Warning! Attempt to store object over limit of carry weight! Can not proceed!

Well double crap. I can't take it with me. Not sure it would fit in my car. Guess I'm giving it away then. I pick it up by two legs and set them over my shoulders. Ok, so its heavy. That doesn’t mean I can't carry it. I walk to the guards standing around the barrier near the end of the line.

“Know where I can find sergeant Sorko? I'm supposed to meet him at 6. don’t think I could find him in this mess.” I asked him. The guard gives me a look over and pulls a radio from his vest.

“Segreant Sorko? There a civvy here specifically asking for you, says you're supposed to meet at 6?” he looks to me, “got a name?”

“Arthur Turner.” I told him.

“Turner, Arthur. Yeah? I'll let him know. At the barrier.” turning to me. “Sorko says wait here, and he's brining friends.”

I nod, then sigh. I step back from the barrier and the crowd. I waited roughly ten minutes for Sorko to show.

He does, with Retil and four new men with him.

“Glad you made it. We got a new lot for you. Retil is running again but outfit this lot and get paid in the end. Command says you're to get a check after this week. Don’t know for how much. But this counts as contract work.” Sorko says. Not bad. Guaranteed money at the end of the day. I nod.

“Want a table? I thought I could inventory it but nope.” I gesture to the end table on my shoulders. “I was going for camping gear, but it doesn’t seem to specify that. And this won't fit in my car.” sorko gives a laugh.

“Sure, I'll take it. But I'm not paying for it. We'll set it up for someone to use.” I nod. That’s fair.

Retil gives me a look. “So, another eight wands and fours shirts and four auto sizes, right? We might be able to get them leggings too.” he says. Then continues. “If we completely outfit them, we’d only have about 200 credits leftover though so maybe skip the leggings for now, I think. That gives us 370.”

I nod. And glance to Sorko. “This gonna be a thing, running new people daily?” I asked him.

He gives a nod. “At least three men a day, I think. Get enough people up to par we can get running ourselves. Get 6-man parties running the dungeon as many times as we can. To get enough credits to outfit more parties.” I give him a look.

“You know, you get the same amount of credits if you run solo. Or two man parties. And it's much less dangerous. I can run someone through without them even having to fight. Just stand back until the boss. Then all he had to do was aim for the goblins. So, he only needed one wand. If you were running two man parties, you wouldn't need as many wands. And they could run people through as soon as they left the dungeon as well.” He gives me a look. “Like Retil can run an unarmed man through. Then you have 300 credits. You can arm three people then. They could run three people each. Then Retil can run someone else through in ten hours and that’s another three people. Sure, they wouldn’t have armor. But the military stuff would be ok for a solo or 2 man run.” I told him.

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Sorko gives it a few moments thought. “We could run it solo and still get the same credits? No need to risk ourselves in larger parties?”

“Yeah, I figure the large parties is to gain more exp, not credits. I can solo this dungeon easily I can walk someone through pretty simply. Tomorrow I'm running two people through, but I'm arming them both. It's really simple.” I speak.

Retil and the others are looking at me. Sorko snorts.

“New plan. Retil you run Davis. Turner you're taking Brown. Garcia, I'm walking you through. Adams you're reporting this up command.” He turned to look at me. “We need three sets then. Two wands each a shirt and auto size, I think that will start as our standard. If they want more or better, they buy it themselves. My math is right, that’s 145. First run takes all the credits they get. Seems fair.” he snorts. Then he starts walking to the bus stop. We all follow along.

This will be much easier with only one person to account for. It was much easier with Lucas at least.

Reaching the bus stop I pulled up to the store once more. I purchased three shirts, three force bolt wands, and three gravity wands. I then pulled out three auto sizes I made earlier. Handing them over I again explain how the auto sizes work. It's becoming a spiel.

“After you have the shirt on, with little underneath it. Place the tag anywhere on it. It will feel odd as the scale mail readjusts to fit you, but it will become perfectly set to you.” I look at sorko. “They keeping these or shirts on loan?” I ask.

“Keeping them. That’s why they're paying for them.” he replies. Makes sense. It sucks having to buy your own gear but makes sense.

We start heading towards the dungeon. I pull on my equipment, including my duct tape wands. Outside the barrier because I'm with the guards. One thing for being known I suppose. Getting to the guards taking down names we make for the head of the line. Those in front complain about us, but quiet down when the guard greets Sorko as sarge. The guard quickly takes the notes on whose going in and the time. We stand in line to step into the gate, Sorko goes first. After a pause Retil goes, then it's me and Brown.

We step through into the now familiar hall. I started to explain to Brown how the wands work. How to set up a trigger word, and how it's just aim and shoot. He gives me a few nods to say he's paying attention.

“I'll show you how easy it is. The first room for a 2 man party is two goblins, then 4, then 6, then 8, then boss. The boss is 2 hobgoblins and three goblins. For solo its 1 gob then 2, 3, 4 then boss. I'll let you take out room two, so you know how to.”

He gives a nod. We stepped into the first room. I mutter “riposte.” holding my gravity wand in hand. Both goblins are squished into bits. Brown shudders little.

“You, ok?” I ask.

“Yeah, just wasn’t expecting that.” he replies. I look down at the puddle of goblin gunk and goo. Yeah, that’s fair. It's still a bloody mess. It shouldn’t be so normalized to me. But my skill made it so.

We step forward. Down the hall to the next room. Four goblins stand in a huddle in the middle.

“Got your trigger word?” I ask. He nods. “Then ready when you are.” I told him.

He steps forward and shouts. “Flabbergast!” all four goblins are caught in it and go down. I giggle a little to myself at his word choice but still. It works. He gives me a look, questioning me.

“It was the word choice, sorry. I'm flabbergasted. Really.” I giggle to myself some more. That was not what I would have expected anyone to pick. But it works, I guess. He rolls his eyes.

“Yeah, whatever. I watched too many British sitcoms, ok?” I snort. That would do it.

“Any trouble then?” I asked him more seriously.

“Nah, you're right. It's pretty easy. I should be able to solo this. Can I try taking the rest out? You as back up?”

“won't work, need two gravities and multiple force bolts when you get to 8 goblins. Also, you need to practice between switching between wands too.” I told him. He gives me a confused look.

“Two hands, two wands. I focus on which hand is in front of me. Then I can switch easily between them, just by pulling my hand back. I can double aim force bolt like that. You need to be able to switch between gravity and force bolt if you want to solo. That’s the mistake I made.” I speak. He gives a nod.

“Here is a good place, you can't damage the walls, and time basically stands still. So, we can spend as long as we want to.” I say, as he grimaces. I pull my water bottle from my inventory, along with all three stools. “I even have dinner if you like. And here’s a drink.” He looks like he's questioning my existence.

“I wanted to practice teleport while I'm here. Now seems like a good time, don’t you think? You get a meal and some down time. I get to practice and we leave its still been only half an hour. Sure, you’ll have been awake longer than normal, but you'll sleep well tonight.” I speak. He sighs. Then nods.

“Fine. As long as you feed me better than the scraps we get. No one has the free credits to purchase food from the system store yet.” he says as he sits on a stool. They aren't that bad. Wooden folding stool, just above knee height. I pulled the platter of alfredo from my inventory. And hand him the fork. He grins.

“Yeah ok, that’s fair. Now what's this drink you have?” he asks.

“Fruit flavor, nutrient add-in unlimited use water bottle. Was 60 credits in store. Its fruit roulette. Still worth it though.” I speak

“What? Fruit roulette?” he asks

“a different flavor of fruit each time, kiwi is surprisingly tasty as juice. Currant not so much.” I grin at him. Pulling out the potatoes. Having the spoon for myself can be annoying. Definitely need more silverware. And plates. Or bowls. I pass him the bottle and he takes a drink.

“Huh, tastes like, uh, fig, I think? At least fig newtons taste kinda like that.” he says. Not too bad.

We sit and eat for a few minutes. Then I finish eating and place the platter back into my inventory, Brown hands me the alfredo and my fork. All back into my inventory.

“If you’ll face that wall, I'll be over there.” I tell him. Pointing to opposites sides of the room. There was plenty of space for both of us. And avoid the blood dried in the middle. He goes to stand about five feet from the wall.

I go to the wall near the door way and face the opposite wall. Remembering the star trek mode worked best I try to imagine it again, but this time only three feet from me.

I blink a couple of times. Realizing I had moved. I turn back to the wall with the entrance door. About two feet. Going to stand back at the wall, I do it again. Trying to make the imagery in my head faster then before.

It doesn’t work. It fact it splutters part way and I lose it entirely. I take a couple of gasping breaths. Feels like I've emptied myself out. Ok, need to make it complete and level it before I can speed it up, I suppose. I can literally feel the mana of the dungeon refill me. Like water being poured into my soul. I shudder. Not entirely sure if it was a pleasant feeling or not. Certainly strange.

I stand back at the wall. I started the practice again but slow this time. Aiming for three feet. I blink and check, once more I moved two. Moving back to the wall I try again. Imagining the dials on the control panel, I set them for a different pattern. Like a lever pushed up, flicking different switches. I look again ahead of me. And aim for three feet. Instead of moving a screen comes to view.

Warning! Unauthorized exit attempt from dungeon! This method is prohibited!

What the? Huh? I can leave the dungeon with teleport? I think back to the skill description. And everything becomes clear. Return to previous location. My previous location was outside the dungeon. But then how was I moving about int the dungeon? Why was I able to move two feet if I focused? Did I pass by that spot? How was I supposed to know? Well. I didn’t need to drive anywhere anymore if I could get it to work. I sigh. Then check on how Brown is doing.

He seems to be trying to sharp shooting from his hip. It looks to be going fairly well actually. Might be a thing. I called him.

“I can't practice here anymore, you want to continue on?”

He stops what he's doing, and steps back. “Yeah, I’ve pretty much got this down. I think I can take the next room by myself. Mind if I try?”

“Sure, I'll play back up with bolt wand in case any get close though.” I tell him. He nods to me. I pack up the stools and place them into inventory. We head down the hall to the next room. Six goblins shouldn’t be too hard for him alone.

I let him step through the door first. “Flabbergast! He shouts. I stifle a snicker. Only one goblin is still standing. “Flabbergast!” he takes it down. I don’t stifle the snicker this time. He rolls his eyes at me. “Yeah, yeah laugh it up.”

“Just wait til you're yelling that in front of the others when you run them through.” I tell him.

“Why did I think this was a good word? Why?” He moans.

I snickered again. “let's head on.” I say. He nods and we walk down the next hall.

“I'll let you try it again, but I'll use force bolt if any get close.” I tell him once more. He gives me a nod and stepped through. “Flabbergast!” five of the eight are down. “Flabbergast! Flabbergast!” two more down.

“Riposte!” I shouted and the last goblin. It was withing five feet of us so that counts as close enough. Brown sighs.

“Yeah, it was too close to us, I get it. Was still hoping id be able to get them all.” he says.

“It's fine. With luck whoever you're running will have at least one wand to them and can help with killing the monsters.” I tell him.

“we’re likely going to be running solo once a day and running someone through once a day. Enough credits to outfit two people, so they can run more people through. Don’t know how many credits command will want yet, but it won't be pretty or cheap. I can tell you that.” he says. I frown.

“You know there is a hospital that made an official system account. So, people can sell their credits to the hospital for real cash. The guard might have to make a system account and have that pay to outfit people and have them pay it back. Would have to decide who's in charge of it. But then you could purchase meals from the store at least.” I say.

Brwon looks thoughtful for a moment, then sighs. “Would be up to command, and no telling how they would set it up either. For now, we are going to do it person by person. We have a full company with three platoons. Nearly 200 men. It would take a while to get them all outfitted and geared up. Even running twice, a day.” he said. I did the math for it.

“Less than a week, though?” especially if everyone is pitching in to outfit and gear everyone else?” I asked him. He gives me a funny look.

“Six people a day? How is that a week?” he looks honestly confused.

“you're forgetting, those six can run a new set of six, plus the original three will be running three. So, nine more people. Those nine another nine. Now you have 18. This is only this is only four runs. Its exponential.” I tell him.

He slaps his face. “I always sucked at math. So yeah. Less than a week. But we’d need so many credits to outfit everybody. Like I can't even math that.” he says. I wince. Yeah, would need nearly 30,000 credits. Which they can make though.

“Let’s just focus on the boss fight for now. I'll tell sorko about the system account. I'm not sure how to set it up though.” I tell him. As we continue forward down the hall.

“I tell you it's two hobgoblins and three goblins?” he nods. “Aim for the hobgoblin. I’ll take out the goblins and go for the other hob. It works best if you aim for the legs first though.” I say. He gives another nod.

We near the door and then step through together. “Flabbergast! Flabbergast! Flabbergast!” I hear.

“Riposte! Riposte! Riposte!” three goblins down. The hob nearly to me. Aiming for the legs I shout some more. “Riposte! Riposte! Riposte! Riposte!” taking out a leg and downing it I turned to check on Brown, only to find he turned to check on me. I grin at him.

“let's finish these off. Takes two or three hits to the head.” I tell him. Walking forward. I mutter. “Riposte. Riposte. Riposte.” as I aim for the hob’s head scrambling in the dirt, still trying to slaughter me. After it dies, I walk to brown.

“You, ok?” I ask.

“Yeah, this was a bit harder than I thought. Definitely need more than two wands here.” he says.

“Yeah, that’s why you have to be prepared with back up. Preferably with someone who already ran the dungeon, but we don’t get that choice.” I tell him.

I wait for the false wall to fall. “There is a first time clear reward. All you’ll get is credits, but after that you get exp based on contribution.” I tell him.

First Time Clear

Reward

Cost

Personal Interface

10000

The screen pops in front of me and I dismiss it. Still can't afford it. The next screen comes into place.

Party-2

Clear Reward

150

Contribution

38%

Contribution Reward

27 Exp

Not too shabby. Did less got less. Seems fair. I'll check my status when I get home and start crafting seriously. Or should I nap first? I'll sleep first. Since I don’t know how long I'll sleep. Hopefully five hours again. Then craft until dungeon run. Then sleep again. This seems like my week is set for a bit. Still want to buy a camping table. Need to hit up the store for dishes too. Later then. We exited the dungeon.