Levi’s first instinct was to hide Skarm’s body behind his back. Because of course that was the problem with the scene.
“What is wrong with you?” the woman hissed, setting down a grocery bag and putting a hand on her hip. “Lurking around a park, doing things like this?” She waved the hand still carrying milk to indicate Levi. “You think it’s fun to terrorize people, is that it?”
“No.” He wasn’t sure how to deal with this.
“You can’t traipse around in public looking like you walked out of a zombie movie.”
“It’s a free country.”
“But there are children.”
Levi looked around. “No, there aren’t.”
“Of course not, because you’re terrorizing everyone with your getup!”
Once, Levi might have argued, defended his perceived honor. But pride meant something entirely different to him now. Prolonging the encounter would only waste time. “Of course, you’re right. I’ll go home and get changed. I’m sorry to have caused a disturbance.”
The woman pursed her lips in disapproval, but nodded. “Good.” Without another word, she gathered her groceries and stalked away, giving Levi a wide berth.
In that moment, he made a snap decision. He didn’t want to be tied down to the conventions of this era. He had more important things to do.
He’d find his own way home in his own time. This, plus the whole Gordon thing, made it plain how ill-prepared he was to interact with people.
Levi hurried away from the park, still carrying Skarm’s body tucked under one arm. He moved with speed and purpose, and though he attracted more than a few questioning looks, no one else tried to stop him or speak to him.
He found a gas station to look for a local map, only to be shocked by what he discovered.
Ohio? Why was he in Ohio? That was on the other side of the country!
It did explain why Gordon had mentioned an airport.
Things started to fall into place. If Levi was in Ohio at a hotel with other people from work, this must be a conference. A conference week in July, which meant Peter would be at summer camp and Irene would be off on some crazy adventure with her sister or visiting her parents. Perhaps both.
That made things easier. If they expected him to be gone for days, that gave him time to breathe before he had to make a decision about what to tell them and how to say it. He could give them a few more days of peace before tearing their world open at the seams.
He would spend that time well. The thought of how close he’d come to death against a single level 1 dungeon boss lit an angry fire in his chest. He —
“You in line?” someone asked, interrupting his train of thought.
Levi shook his head, moving away from the tourism display. He knew where he was now, and he still had the dungeon location maps memorized. He’d have to double check, but once he verified his map, he could plan a route through every dungeon between here and Alturas.
“Are you okay?” The voice was hesitant.
“On my way to an event.” Levi forced a smile that probably looked more like a grimace. “Like my costume?”
The other guy laughed nervously, muttered a half-hearted compliment, and shuffled past.
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Levi glanced down at his torn and bloodstained shirt and slacks. It really didn’t look like a costume at all, more like he’d been in several violent altercations.
Well, that he could do something about.
He asked at the counter for directions to the nearest sporting goods store, which ended up being within walking distance. He found an evergreen tree he could stash Skarm’s body behind to keep it out of sight from the road, since he’d need his hands free and didn’t want to answer the inevitable questions.
Levi hated shopping with a passion, so he was glad to find a collection of outdoors-y clothing at the front of the store. He went straight there and grabbed several pairs of rugged hiking pants, a large travel backpack to stash things in until he found proper storage bags from a dungeon, and three different jackets in the sturdiest materials he could find. None were proper armor, but together they’d at least slow a claw attack. He needed the checkout clerk to walk him through the process of paying with his phone, but thankfully his logins were all auto-saved.
Levi bundled it all into the backpack, then retrieved Skarm and added him as well so he’d be less conspicuous. Then he jogged in the direction of the next nearest dungeon.
He needed someplace to think, and a dungeon was the best option he could come up with. He’d never chased thrill for its own sake, but there was something that felt familiar and right about engaging in life-or-death conflict. All this walking around, visiting stores, simply purchasing what he wanted instead of fighting for it, talking to people with entirely different priorities and outlooks on life... it felt unnatural. Wrong.
In the dungeons, life made sense again. Everything was trying to kill him, and he wasn’t going to let it. Simple. Dependable.
He left the city proper and jogged through the suburbs, moving through ordinary neighborhoods and into a less reputable part of town. Surprisingly, the decline in cleanliness and upkeep quality made him feel more at home. Grungy alleys, suspicious and wary looks, the pervasive sense of just trying to get by. It all felt more familiar than anything the bright happy city center could offer.
He sent out a mana ping every few minutes, whenever his mana had recovered sufficiently. For a while, his ping returned the original dungeon and nothing else. Then he got nothing at all for a long time. Finally, it pinged back a mana entity strong enough to be a dungeon entrance.
He followed the ping and found the dungeon, practically invisible like the other one, this one hovering behind a dumpster in the alley by an apartment building.
It took a bit of climbing to reach but, as far as he was concerned, that was a bonus. Less chance of someone else beating him to it.
Destruction Dungeon: Level 1
The second dungeon bore almost no resemblance to the first, aside from the ubiquitous dark pitted walls that characterized most Destruction dungeons. This one was swamp-themed and had frustrating sinking hillocks that Levi had to jump from one to the next as they slowly vanished into the corrosive sludge beneath.
Worse, several times he jumped and his destination turned out to be a pile of slimy stones only barely held together by the drapery of moss. These didn’t sink, but shifted under his foot and scattered apart, giving him only split seconds to make the next jump before the collapse would plunge him knee-deep in the vile bog.
At level 1 the liquid wasn’t deadly. He could have waded through it if he had to, but that was a drain on health he preferred to avoid.
Still, despite the frustrating environment, Levi easily subjugated the first gremlin he encountered. He added it to his roster with the designation Gremlin Two. He had grown attached to Skarm, but as levels became harder to attain, he didn’t want to tie up too many of his limited minion slots with low-tier minions.
Until he found or leveled a higher dungeon, gremlins seemed to be his only option, but he knew he'd want more variety eventually. It would be nice to try at least one of everything to see how they scaled; most of all he wanted his roster to be flexible until he had sufficient information to optimize it.
He still wanted an ogre, too, even if subjugating one safely was currently beyond his capabilities. Maybe he should try for a non-boss ogre first. They should start showing up in dungeons around level 5. Or was it 10? Probably shouldn’t wait that long, then.
Gremlin Two resembled Skarm only superficially; his skin had a greenish yellow hue that accentuated his scrawny frame, with dark patchy markings down his side instead of Skarm’s mottled lavender. Also, Gremlin Two’s default initial stat point had been preassigned to Strength instead of Spirit, giving him a little more health at the expense of stamina.
That discovery made Levi wonder how dungeon minions got their level gains. Did the dungeon assign points for them? Or did they choose their own? Gremlin Two only squeaked in confusion when Levi tried to question him on the subject.
But, ultimately, the question didn't matter. If the dungeon monsters had assigned stats or randomized ones, that didn't change anything about what he had to do.
"Welcome to the team. Let's go kill all your friends."
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