Ch 19 Another Run
Getting home wasn't a problem. Traffic was light at this time. Everyone is still at Church on Sunday. Getting home around 1.20 was a little harsh though. I go grab everything off my bed. I power down my pc. I unplug everything. Thinking for a moment I pick up my desk chair. Sure, it takes two hands and a bit heavy. Setting it on its side however, I undo the bolt holding the top and the bottom. Now I'm holding each piece in one hand. I try and inventory the bottom piece, and it works, I do the same for the top, it works as well. Lucky me. I start pulling out all my clothes and shoes and inventory them. I could have done this sooner, but I didn't think about it. I pull all my extra bedding out. All my towels and such. I grab my toothbrush. There's something I didn't think about. I didn't pristine my teeth. Or mouth. I go into my pantry and pull out my box of trash bags. Not sure how I'll deal with it yet. But it would be good to have on hand. Ok what else. I stare around my apartment. It already feels neglected without the hum of my pc.
I turn off all the lights and lock the door. My keys laying on the counter. Standing next to my desk I try to picture the sidewalk near the DMC. I only get a fuzzy sense of it. I search on my phone for google maps and find it. A much better image. Scrolling around I find the other side of the parking lot and imprint it onto my button #4. #3 is reserved for the shop. Imagining what it looks and feels like this second how many cars would be there on a Sunday afternoon and such. Then I press the button.
**
Opening my eyes. I'm half on the sidewalk and half on the grass on the edge of the parking lot. The central building for DMC is in front of me, so I landed where I meant to. And not on the road, which is a plus. I walk through the cars towards the building. With a wave at the valet, I head to the front desk. Chipper is a good word for the woman sitting there.
“Carla, I presume?” I call out
“That would be me yes, how can I help you today?” she calls back when I'm closer
“I'm Arthur turner, I have the promised 24 tags here.” I say as I pull them from my inventory. “These are all sealants, I believe MR. Dumar said they were to go to ambulances?”
She smiles happily and nods. “Correct. Sealants are going to ambulances for emergency triage.” She pulls out a drawer of the filing cabinet below her desk, in which is a lockbox.
Handing the loose tags over feels unprofessional, so I try to straighten them a little. Feeling awkward as she hold them preciously. She puts them in an envelope into the lockbox.
“Thank you very much for bringing them to us. Is there anything else we can do for you today?” she smiles.
“No thanks, I already got payment, sorry about that. I'll be coming back tomorrow with a bunch of goodies though, mark my word.” I snicker.
She looks concerned. I wave it off and head out. Time to shop for a laptop then a dungeon to montage.
**
Porting to my dungeon spot, it's a little bit more crowded than expected. Apparently, people have been loitering outside smoking. After a few apologies it was waved off. Thankfully they were high and didn't seem to care if someone popped into existence.
It wasn't quite 2pm, I should let Sorko know I'll run late tonight, I think. First, I need to buy a laptop and e-reader. And everything I want on it.
“status”
Name
Level
Experience Gain
Credits
Arthur Turner
2
49.2%
12015
Yeah, I could live on credits alone now.
“Raven tell me about the highest capable laptop I can use please. I want to know my customizable options.”
“Confirmed, options include number of screens, screen sizes, mouse, keyboard choices, lighting options, elevation options, and distance options.”
“Okay one at a time them. two screens, same size, side by side, 26inches on a 16x9 ratio. Because that's what I'm used to. Trackball mouse, nice keyboard. Best lighting for my eyes and easy to see. Elevation equal to my head. Distance should be best for my eyes. That good enough?”
“Confirmed. Cost equal to 3500 credits, purchase?”
“Yeah, go ahead.”
“Confirmed deposited in inventory.”
“Okay tell me about the best e-reader I can get.”
“Confirmed. Cost 250, customize options include language packages, Font packages, formatting packages, lighting, note taking, and storage space.”
“Alright from the top, I want top ten most common language packages, the basic font and formatting packages. The lighting that is best for my eyes, with minimal strain or fatigue. I want note taking, and lots of storage space.”
“Confirmed. Cost 1500, purchase?”
I wince. “Yeah. It'll be worth it.”
“Confirmed deposited in inventory.”
“Okay, time to buy stuff onto the e-reader. What's available in store?”
“Available from Humans library is approximately 130 million books. Would you like a list?”
I think that was sarcasm. In fact, I know it was. I didn't know there were that many books though.
“How many of those in English?”
“Approximately 5million.” was my answer. Well shit. I could never read 5 million books. But I could try, but I won't.
“Select the best 1000 books to read before you die and buy them. Do it by comparing 100 books to read lists, please.”
“Confirmed. Processing. Purchased. 2000 credits spent.”
Not too shabby. 5000 credits left. Now to start buying for my new laptop.
“What can I buy for my laptop, games and such? Or movies and tv?”
“Confirmed. Anything currently available. Including streaming services. Or libraries of streaming services.”
“So, if I wanted to purchase all movies in English from the 80’s until now?”
“Cost 450 credits.”
Thats literally nothing. Sweet.
“Purchase it.”
“Confirmed”
“If I wanted all the tv shows in English from the 80’ until now?”
“2025 credits”
“Get it.”
“Confirmed”
I giggle to myself. Anything I wanted to watch is mine now. Just games left.
“If I wanted all pc games released in English from the 90’s to now?”
“6500 credits.”
Dammit. Maybe another time.
“For the last ten years?”
“1500 credits.”
“I'm good with that.”
“Confirmed.”
Everything I wanted is now on my laptop. It's just after 2.30pm. I head to the guard house. Before he starts his spiel. I wave him off.
“Can you tell Sorko that Turner will be late tonight? Won't be able to run til 9pm.”
He gives me a nod and radios it. Before I can head to the dungeon the guard calls out “Turner! Sergeant wants to talk to you!”
I walk back to him. He hands me the radio. I click it. “Turner here.”
Sorko replies. “Why dungeon running late? We have a deal?” he gruffly answers.
I click back. “Can run every six hours, I'm doing a run now. I'll be back out at 3pm.”
There’s a pause. “Or you could run or guy now and do your run later.” he demands. I sigh.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“yeah, I could, get him sent to me I'll get him set up.”
He clicks off, I hand the radio back to the guard.
Sighing. I pull out a piece of paper and draw two auto sizes. “Raven a gravity wand and a force bolt please. Then the scale mail shirt and leggings.”
“Confirmed. Deposited in inventory.”
I start walking to where the barrier is set between the populace and the guards encampment. I wait there a few minutes. Retil soon shows up.
“I'm supposed to meet a new face.” I tell him.
“Ah, shirt and wand then?” he asks.
“No full gear up. That way he can solo. I'm doing a montage today. Or tonight. Going to spend weeks or even months in the dungeon.”
He looks at me. Stares hard at me. “Do you ever talk with a professional about your depression?”
That startles me. I haven't even thought about it. I've been pushing myself since the system happened. It gave me something to do.
“Honestly no. The system is a shiny new toy. One that can support me. Couldn't afford a head doc in the last couple of years.”
He gives me a nod, settling down. “Think about it if you can, who know maybe a head doc got a system skill for it now.” We laugh for a moment. Maybe.
He pulls me along to one of the tents. “Whitlock! Front and center!” a moment later a man in his thirties is in front of him. “here’s a new friend for you, bring him home by nine!” With that he turns and wonders off.
Whitlock sighs and holds a hand out. “Call me Matty, I'm pretty sure you're a civvy.”
“Yeah, but I signed up to do something for the guard, so I'm doing it.” I shake his hand.
“And what is it you signed up for?”
“Gearing people and running them through the dungeon.” I answer.
He shrugs. “Alright then, gear?”
I pull out the scale armor and the auto sizes and explain. He goes and strips down to better fit. After putting them on and sizing them. I give him the spiel about the wands. We start walking back to the dungeon entrance. As we go, I tell him about the dungeon, the goblins and the hob. What we’ll see and encounter.
He takes it in stride. Very cool and professional. We go past the line for the dungeon and straight to the portal. After a moment we step through.
“Do you want to take the lead? I'll play back up if you need? You just need to practice with both wands in hand now. Which we can do in between rooms.” I say as we head into the first room. He steps past me and says in a quiet voice “mazut”. The first two goblins are down in just a moment. We head to the next room and it's the same. As is the next. The fourth room I have to step in.
“Want to take a break?” I ask him.
He shakes his head and starts towards the door. Well so much for that idea. I go to follow. He started with the hobs, so I go for the gobs. I take down the four and he gets the two hobs. So, it evens out I think. As the false wall clears, he heads for the portal. I sigh and follow through. So much for that. “At least he gave me the 150 credits already. I step through the portal. Into the daylight once more.
I call “status”
Name
Level
Experience Gain
Credits
Arthur Turner
2
82.3%
1180
**
Stepping out of the dungeon it was just after 3pm. I had nothing to do until I could run again around 9pm. Wondering if there was anything else I could buy, I check my bank account. Just over a grand. I could go buy another desk chair and put it partially together. Maybe sunglasses? For when I don't want to deal with the dungeon lighting? I could just sit in the tents then. Or a planner so I can keep track of the days? Thats sounds good. Maybe hit a sewing supply store to see if there are any more tools that could be useful? Yeah. Pulling my phone out I search for the nearest store under sewing supplies. Finding one around three miles from me I realize I'd forgotten something. I don't have my car. Sighing I port home.
**getting my car, relocking my door and driving to the store took an hour. The store was much larger than I expected. Walking in I was greeted with machines. I had thought io do all my sewing with my hands.
“Raven, does it count as handmade if I use a machine?”
“Negative. Use of machinery can be construed as circumventing the system.”
I sigh. Hand sewing it is. Iilook for any worker for help. Thankfully a little old lady comes to me first.
“Hello welcome to JoAnn's, how can I help you today?”
“Hi, yeah, I’m looking into making clothes and bags for some big projects. Problem is it all has to be hand sewn. I have a large budget and lots of time to spend to get it right, but I'm the only one doing it. I've gotten plenty of fabric, I think? Some buttons and zipper. Grommets and thread. Some simple patterns, I just don't know what else I need. I'm going to be pretty secluded, so I'd like to get everything today if possible.” I tell her, rushed, quite a bit anxious all of a sudden.
She gives a pause. “Well alright, starting from the ground up can be a nit hard, but we can get you sorted out. Now, do you have needles?”
I nod. “Several packets.”
“Did you get any curved ones or only small straight ones?”
“Just the small straight ones.”
“Alright, lets head that way first the. Do you want a thimble? So, you don't accidently poke yourself? A needle threader to make is easier? Scissors? Pins for the fabric? Clamps to hold it in place? A measuring mat to judge the size? Safety pins? A mannequin? Snaps? Eyelets? Rivets? Fabric glue? Tweezers? Seam ripper? Hooks? Clasps? Elastic band? Chalk? Pencils? Starch? Thread wax?”
As she goes on, my looks of despair encourage her. We go back to the front, and I grab a cart. We go up and down the aisle. She will grab something and explain it to me. What it's for and how to use it. And why I need it. So many things. One thing I did pick out was two project planners. I liked the look of them, both very flowery. But blue. As the cart was loaded with all sorts of goodies, I had no idea what I needed. We passed by the dress forms. I paused. Would I make it easier?
“Would it make it easier to have a mannequin? I only need general sizes and not perfect fit?” I ask her
She hums. “Well, it would help get the look right. But I try not to push them onto people who aren't going to be sewing long term. If you feel you’ll get your money's worth from it, get it. Also, you still need pocket liners. And maybe just lining in general. What kind of fabric did you buy?”
I blink sheepishly. “A lot of different ones? What is the best for lining? Cotton?”
She gives a small laugh. “No actually. Polyester and rayon are. On the cheap side at least. Silk is great if you can afford to take care of it.”
I grin, thinking about it. The suit was double lined and my pristine got the inside and outside. So, I could do silk. “let's buy some silk then. And rayon. I only bought fabric in plain colors though. So, the inside should be plain white or black or grey, right?”
“Hmmm, maybe? It would be hard to match fabrics so simple can be good. Just do shades of grey then. White would be bad and black might show through. How much fabric would you like to get? We have quite a bit of rayon, I'm not sure how much silk though.” I follow her to the fabrics. There are so many to choose from. She starts pull greys done. They look soft. I guess these are the rayon.
“All of it I can. Like I said I've quite a bit of a budget. I can go check out what I have now to make sure I've enough for the fabric though if that eases your mind?” I tell her.
She nods. “It would. We did load you up with quite a bit. You could go load the first batch into your car even.”
I give her a nod. “What time do y'all close? If I have time to go drop something off, I can come back with more money. It just takes me a little while to make.”
She glances at me. “We don't close until 9pm. I don't want no fussy business here you mind.” giving me a side-eye.
I put my hands up. “It's the system, I'm making equipment for a hospital. They pay well, it just uses mana so I have to recover. I just have to drive home first, and it takes me a bit to get there and back is all.” I smile sheepishly.
She gives me a hard look. “Fine. If you're honest about it I'm ok with it but know if you bring anything back with you, I'll bring hell done on you.” With this she pulls a pair of giant scissors from nowhere out. They glow with an inner blue light. I'm fairly intrigued by her skill.
I grin and wave. “I'll be back soon as I can, if you measure out all the grey rayon and silk, I'll be back within three hours to buy it.” With that I checked out and left.
**
Getting into my car. “Raven how much space do you need to make wands?”
“2ft by 2ft area.”
“Alright pull the dowels from my inventory and start making them as I drive, please. As many pristine as I have six inch dowels”
“Confirmed.”
As I drove, the hour back to my apartment I thought, of how many long dowels I had and how long it would take to see them. “Raven, can you saw the dowels for me?”
“Negative. Not part of finished product.”
It was a good idea though, Raven can make them as I saw them at least. Finally getting home. I saw Raven had made 5 pristine wands. Not too bad. Should be more than enough for the DMC today. I lock up my apartment from the inside and press button #4.
I open my eyes on the sidewalk in front of DMC. I stride across the parking lot into the central building. Carla is on the phone this time and looks surprised to see me. I give her a wave and sit down as I wait for her to finish. When she hangs up.
“Good afternoon Mr. Turner, I didn't expect to see you again so soon.” She smiles at me.
“I didn't expect to need money for supplies again so soon. But here we are, I came here first this time.” I grin.
She smiles in return. “Well, what have you got this time? More tags?”
“Nope 5 pristine wands. Newly made, and ready to go. Can you vouch for them?” I say as I pull them from my inventory. They aren't as pretty as the store bought but they’ll do. I set them on the desk.
She falters a moment on seeing them. “That I can do, it was $1000 per wand, I can send the deposit right away sir.” she says as she pulls the same lockbox out from earlier. The wands she just settles into the bottom diagonally. “Anything else I can help you with today?” She is back to customer service smile. Damn I might have intimidated her. Oops.
“Nope all good. I'll try to bring more when I can. You have a good day.” I say as I left. My phone starts buzzing. Answering it. “Hello this is Arthur.”
“Good day Mr. Turner this is Henry with First national bank, we’ve received several fraud alerts on your debit card and were calling to check with you.”
“What alerts? I've been spending a lot the last couple of days.”
“Several deposits of several thousand dollars whereas before you hadn't, and now you are spending several thousands of dollars at once. We are concerned for your health and safety.”
I pause. “Wait is this because it came from a hospital?”
“Quite. Reckless spending is often foreboding end of life care. We are concerned.”
I laugh. Someone gave a shit. This was fantastic. “Ok no. Nothing has happened to me besides the system. I got a system skill that is very useful. I'm making equipment for the hospital, they are paying me for it. I have to buy supplies for the equipment. I have just a bit more spending to do then I'll be done for a bit.”
There were a few moments of silence. “Does this system skill pose a threat to anyone?” not what I expected.
“No, I'm helping the national guard here as well. I also plan on starting a guild here so I might need to open a business account soon. But I'm also going to be using credits for it. So, I don't know yet.”
Another moment of silence. “Thank you for your honesty. I'll flag your card as being upgraded to a different membership to be used for business spending. So, you can make larger purchases. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for you.”
“You can make a bank run on system credits for one. Currency can be bought from the system. And everyone can hold their credits on them so no need for debit cards or bank accounts. No need for safety deposit boxes when you can have a personal inventory or bag of holding. But loans and taxes are still a thing. Land ownership is still a thing. Housing will soon be a major problem.”
Silence again. “Thank you for the information, Mr. Turner. I'll let my supervisor know. Please have a pleasant day.” with that he hangs up. Thats a first them hanging up on you.
I concentrate on button #1 and port back home.
**
Time to drive back to the store. As I do, Raven is making pristine wands. No need to let time go to waste now. I might get a little woozy later though. I'll probably need a nap before the dungeon.
Going back in I'm greeted by the same little old lady, who hurries me to the fabric station. The piles of sorted fabrics astounds me, there was just so much grey. I loved it. We look at each other and I go back to the front for a cart. Then I start piling in into the cart. Then I go back for another cart. The fabric is soft and slick. So smooth it's like a dream. I can't wait to wear something that feels like this. I got denim right? I think I did. Maybe I should get more. Turning to her.
“I can't remember if I got denim, I should get some here.”
She sighs and goes to start pulling it out. Six rolls of different colors of denim. Looking at me. She starts measuring. I grin. Yeah, I want all of it. I take the first cart up to the register and wait there for a cashier. After she checks me out, I go outside and pile everything into my inventory. Then head back inside. Back to the fabric station.
Little old lady gives me a look. “What? I paid for the first cart.” she huffs at me and finishes up. I pull it onto the cart and lug it to the front. Cashier checks me out and once more I go outside and shove it into my inventory. I put the cart back then climb into my car.
Now do I want to park at the shop and wait or my apartment and wait? I can nap at my apartment, but there will be people at the shop. I still need to set a port at the shop. And I can't run til 9. It's not even 5 yet. Shop then home. I start driving.