Derek was wondering what to say to Misaki when his phone chirped.
He picked it up; a text for a new mission. He tapped the phone to call Travis back.
“The fuck are you calling me for?” Travis complained. “Just get your gear, meet me at the airport, fly to Hokkaido. Simple as.” His voice was ponderous and slow, like he had to explain something to someone that was catastrophically stoned.
“I’m on the list. Should I go?” Misaki looked up at him and frowned in confusion.
Travis fell silent for a moment.
“HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET ON THE LIST?!” His voice was so loud Derek had to pull his phone away from his ear.
“Nothing that can’t be explained by calling it in. You gonna make the call?” Derek asked.
“All right, all right, hold your fuckin’ water.” Travis complained, putting Derek on hold.
“Is it- are you-?” Misaki asked.
“Job in Hokkaido.” Derek replied. “I might not be able to go. We’re figuring that out now.” he replied laconically.
“Hokkaido? You’re really going?!”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” He replied.
“...can I come along?” She asked.
He gave her a baffled look, and then pointed at his phone as Travis came back on the line.
“Yeah, you’re cleared to come along. Hustle your ass to the airport.” He chuckled a laugh. “Using magic while you’re asleep. Man, the kids’ll love this one.”
He hung up before Derek could retort.
He let out a sigh, and then began to pack up his guns and boxes of ammunition.
“If you’ve got two to four weeks of vacation that you can take right now at this moment in time, then start making calls. If you’ve got sturdy camping gear, yeah, you’ll need that, too. If you’ve been trained on guns heavier than that pea-shooter, then you’ll be fine.”
Derek fired that all off as he packed his guns into a crate, shouldered a camping backpack and gave her an expectant look.
“I... “ She began, then shook her head. “Not right now. I can’t.”
He nodded. “I understand. I’m not judging you, either. You’ve got your job to do, and I’ve got mine. Let me see you to the door.”
He hustled her out the door, locked it, and started juggling the case, his backpack, and his keys as he started heading for his car.
“Where are you headed?” Misaki asked.
“Airport.” He replied, and she pointed at her car.
“...I can drive you.”
He raised his eyebrows, but didn’t argue, dumping his things into her car and stuffing himself into the passenger-side seat.
As they drove, he kept wondering about her silence.
“I left my swimsuit at your apartment.” She complained. “And the towels. And my gym bag.”
He snorted laughter. “How much was it? I can replace it.”
“Just give it back to me when you come back.” She decided.
“That’s a lot of pool time and batting cages and all that you’re going to be missing out on, you know.” He warned.
She grinned mischievously. “You can owe me.”
“Seems like you’ve made up your mind?” He asked.
She shook her head. “No, I don’t think I have. I have to think some more. I think I have to ask people about mages.” She brushed some hair back behind her ear. “And I think I want to come along on one of your hunts, to see what it is you do, and what it’s like.”
“That part’s dangerous.” Derek replied. “A Dungeon can suck you in and turn you into a monster. There are other reasons as well.”
“Like what?” Misaki asked.
“There’s monsters that roam around, outside of Dungeons.”
“Monsters? Actual monsters?”
“Animals, plants, and... and things that are turned into monsters by the Dungeon’s magic.” he explained. “Monsters are completely different from animals.”
“Hmmm.”
“So you’d have to be set up a good distance away from the Dungeon. It’d be like an ordinary camping trip for you... plus gunfire.” Derek offered.
“Huh.” She replied. “So where are you going in Hokkaido?” She asked, changing the subject.
“Well, we’re flying to...” He checked his phone. “...Tomakomai?” He offered, and then shrugged. “From there we’re driving to...” He trailed off. “It’s going to be a very long drive to get close to Mount Hakko. After that... find the Dungeon, raid the Dungeon, and then wait for the Dungeon to collapse properly.” He shrugged.
“How... long does that usually take?” She asked in a careful, neutral voice.
He grabbed the lever that let the seat slide back and slid the seat back as far as it would go so that he could be more comfortable, and then scratched his chin thoughtfully.
“Most Dungeons usually take a few days to raid. Maybe a week, tops. There’s also mop-up for stray monsters; that’s my job- I clean up the strays- and then there’s the wait for it to collapse, which usually takes a week to two weeks. Once that’s done, I can go home.”
“You keep talking about the dungeon collapsing.” She prodded.
Derek nodded. “It just goes away. Poof, gone. Solid rock. If it doesn’t collapse properly, we have to go back.”
The familiar sight of Tokyo International Airport filled his sight.
“Ugh.” He groaned.
“Don’t like flying?” She asked.
“I don’t mind it at all. It’s just... we just closed a Dungeon in Okayama, remember? It’s only been a couple of days. Long enough to restock my fridge and have a date with you, and that’s it.” He complained. “I’d like some peace and quiet.”
She raised an eyebrow, but pulled into the appropriate spot. “Message me when you have a chance.” She offered, and he nodded, hauling his stuff out of her car and heading to the plane.
Juan was immediately on him. “Derek, I heard you finally did some Dungeoneering. That’s cool man.”
Derek shrugged as best he could. “It was a trip and a half. Exhausting, too.”
“Man, I know. It’s the fuckin’ worst. Three fuckin days between Dungeons, right?” Juan lamented.
“For me, right. For you, it’s been like, what, more’n a week, right? How much pussy you smash?”
Juan shoved Derek. “Man, fuck you. You know mages can only smash mages.”
“What? For real? Is that on the List?” Derek asked, wide-eyed.
“Fuckin’ practically, bro. Like, they’re thinking that you smash with a Normal, she might have Mage babies, right? And you know what kinda shit’ll go down, they start taking babies outta cribs, know what I’m sayin?” Juan’s Guatemalan accent was thick, today.
“Fuckin’ shit. This is the first I’ve heard of it.” Derek replied.
Travis showed up as they packed their luggage into an ancient twin-prop.
“This thing even fly, boss?”
“It’ll fly.” Travis replied, and then added, “I dunno if it’ll fly well...” as the pilots climbed aboard.
“You kiss Misaki goodbye?” Travis asked, and Derek flipped him the bird.
“Guy’s get this shit onboard. Gonna have a word with Derek.” Travis called.
“What do you want?” Derek complained.
“I think we need some words.”
“So talk your talk.” Derek replied, irritated.
“Okay, so... that last Dungeon, you were doing just fine. You were breathing perfect, and you tapped the second Core while you were asleep like you’d between doing it your whole life. I think you did it. I want you in the Dungeon this time. I’mma have you in the back, so you’ll need both the shotty and the AK because you’ll be watching our asses.”
“I... passed out, though.” Derek replied.
“Yeah, but when I got back, you were sleeping just fine. No strangling, no choking. You were Resisting just fine.”
“I did it?” Derek asked, and Travis nodded. “I’m fucking certain you did it. It’ll be your first Dungeon with creepy-crawlies in it, so I want you to take it easy. Walk easy, breathe easy, watch our asses, take your time. Don’t think about controlling your magic, just let it flow out of you. If the Dungeon isn’t too bad, I’ll let you tap it. If it’s too tough, then it’s whoever gets it, gets it. Roger?”
“Yeah man.” Derek replied, an indescribable feeling of eagerness and relief rising in his chest.
Finally. He belonged.
The flight was horrible.
“So who’s Misaki?” Juan yelled over the drone of the engine.
“Derek’s Pocket Pussy.” Travis hollered back. “She’s Tokyo PD, I heard. Real looker, too.”
There was an eruption of cheers and jeers at this; Derek hurled his sleeping bag at Travis, who caught it easily.
“Julio!” Travis called.
“Yo!” Julio called back.
“You’re on Cleaner duty!”
“Man, fuck you-” Julio began, and then glanced at Derek. “You given’ Derek his shot? No problem, homes. No problem.”
Derek let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, lay back against the hull of the plane, closed his eyes, and napped.
She found it difficult to navigate the streets of Tokyo well.
People ignored her, which was just fine for her; she ignored them as well. The only one she was interested in following was her master, the one for whom she was intended.
Men followed her from time to time, men with things in their hands that they discreetly waved in her direction when peoples’ attentions were focused elsewhere.
Just as soon as she felt as if she were getting a handle on the confusing and conflicting streets, her Master suddenly started moving faster than she could. There was no way she could keep up with him, which made her grind her teeth in frustration.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Then, while she was trying to decide what she was supposed to do, she felt him go further and faster away from her than she could possibly hope to catch up to.
Vexing.
They touched down in some no-name town where a small truck was waiting for them. They tossed their gear in the back, climbed in, and drove through a long, narrow road for what seemed like forever. Derek didn’t even pay attention. He’d seen the maps. It was a long, long trip through a part of Japan that had been long abandoned. There were slow rising hills, forests of bamboo, and blue-gray mountains off in the distance, the very same mountains they were heading to.
A local map said the mountain was an easy climb; several people had stalwartly denied the claim; it was a difficult climb, with five separate river crossings. Rakko-dake, Mount Rakko.
After getting as close as the truck would allow, they abandoned it, shouldered their gear, and began the long trek on foot, groaning and cursing and spitting and blaming Travis for every cut, scrape, bump, bruise, mosquito bite and inconvenience they could imagine.
It got worse when they found an old road that paralleled the river they were supposed to follow. If they’d been paying attention, they’d’ve found the road and had smooth sailing nearly all the way to the mountain itself.
There were a lot of raised voices, weapons cocked, threats of murder, sodomy, and various sorts of scatological and blasphemous promises when Travis announced that he’d head back down to the truck, back it up, drive it through the abandoned road up through the abandoned village, and up to where they were at. They’d hop back in the truck, and take it as far up to the peak as they could.
There was no cell service, but Derek took a few scenic pictures anyway.
Eventually, Travis appeared with the truck, and they all piled in, grumbling and threatening violence against Travis, who’d missed the road on the first pass. They passed through an abandoned town that’d likely seen the light of civilization back in the nineteen fifties. Nature was hard at work trying to reclaim it, and was probably doing a great job.
“Hey, you think we’ll get spotted if we use magic here?” Julio asked.
“Idiot, they spotted the Dungeon with a fucking drone, you damn sure better believe they would spot your ass shooting off a fire beam.” Juan replied.
“Bastards.” Julio muttered. “Can’t escape the All Seeing Eye of the Overwatch.”
“They’ll start breeding us, soon.” Juan muttered ominously. “Make better mages. Custom-tailored, educated from birth.”
“Man, you and your conspiracies.”
“There’ll be a war; Us versus the Normies.” he persisted. “We’ll have to participate. How could we just stand by, after all?”
Sven, a recent addition to the Core Hunters PMC sighed ostentatiously and grinned with teeth that looked like the blades of a power-mower. “You got problems, man.”
Sven looked like he’d been carved out of marble in the likeness of a Nordic god and then set free; when he wasn’t Dungeoning he was working out, rock climbing, doing everything to make himself bigger and stronger.
Once they reached the Dungeon, they set up a base camp, and Travis took Derek to the entrance.
“Remember: All you need to do is just let the magic flow out of you. Don’t control it, it’ll push back against the Magic Pressure on its own. Spells and shit will come later. All I want you to do is let the magic flow out.”
Derek nodded, and the two of them entered the instance.
The magic pressure hit, and Derek reflexively gagged and struggled.
“No no no, man. Let out your magic. Let it flow.”
“I fuckin’ can’t bro. I can’t even breathe.” Derek struggled.
“Yes you can. Just let the magic flow.”
“I can’t do it man.”
“Do it anyway.”
“I’m telling you I can’t.”
“I’m telling you to just do it.”
“This is fucking stupid. I’m going home.” Derek decided.
“You ain’t going anywhere.” Travis replied. “Look at me.”
Derek shook his head, but Travis grabbed him and forced him to look at him.
“Just relax and let out your magic. There’s a faucet. Open the faucet and let it flow. You don’t need a hose, you don’t need anything. Just open the faucet and let the magic drain out.”
“You keep saying this shit, but I’m telling you I can’t.”
“You keep saying this shit, but I know you can. I’ve seen it. I want you to do it again. Just stand here, looking like an idiot, letting the magic run out of you. Let it flow down your hands, your legs, pour out and puddle on the ground. That’s it, that’s all you gotta do.”
“I can’t fuckin’ breathe.”
“For a man that can’t breathe, you sure do bitch a lot.” Travis observed wryly.
“Eh?” Derek replied, and blinked, surprised.
“Shit man, you’re doing it. Not bad. Not bad at all. Keep it up. Just fucking stand there and do nothing at all. I’m gonna get the rest of the team in here.”
The rest of the team filed in, one by one, patting Derek on the shoulder as they filed past.
“Okay, formation. This one looks like it’s going to be plants, so I think we’ll see some orcs. That’ll make this tough. Usual rotation if we can. If not, then we’ll stick to guns.”
“Derek?” Sven asked.
“Derek’s getting used to the feeling of Magic Resistance for the first time. Let him stand there and remember how to breathe for now.”
Derek blinked a few times.
“No, no. I think I can do this, if we go slow and call out what I should do.”
“What kind of loads you got for the shotty?” Sven asked curiously.
“Flechettes.”
“Hot damn I knew you were on it.” Sven crowed.
“All right, that’ll make this a lot easier.” Travis replied, laughing. “Orcs are plants that look like people. No faces. Fire will burn them, but we don’t have a lot of air in here. Flechettes will shred them up nice. I want you up next to me.”
“What else you think we’ll face?”
“Just about anything. Plants and animals both. Bugs too. Remember the rule.”
“A monster isn’t dead until it’s muck.” Everyone repeated.
“Let’s go.”
They clustered together and started moving forward.
“The bugs?” Derek asked, gesturing to the fist-sized bugs that glowed with an eerie light.
“If we’re lucky, they’ll just provide light for us. If they attack, just hit the deck. That’s it, just slap your belly in the dirt. This is your first Dungeon... with a team.” he added quickly. “You need to learn how the group works.”
Derek nodded.
They moved forward again.
“Every dungeon provides its own light. Bugs, rocks, torches, so on. When you tap the Core, they start going out. That’s your cue to leave.”
“Flower.” Someone called, and Travis eyed it carefully. “Machete.”
Sven came forward, his machete boiling with fire sliding all over the blade. He hacked at it, and the vine it was attached to writhed and slithered away.
“Should we go after it?” Derek asked, and Sven laughed. “Oh, we’ll see what it was attached to soon enough.”
“Likely a Verdant Mound.” Travis offered. “It’s a giant heap of plants that guards the Core. if it’s here, there’s probably a place where light can come in.” He sighed. “They’re nasty. We’ll have to save all our fire spells for it.”
“Orcs and a Verdant Mound. They really picked a good one for us, Boss.” a voice called from the back.
As if summoned, a gigantic green eyeless humanoid appeared in the gloom. It drooled from tusk-like wooden teeth that jutted from a shapeless mouth that gnashed and growled.
“Headshots only.” Travis called out, more for Derek’s benefit than for anything else.
Derek lined up his shot and fired, working the slide smoothly. His shotgun was a bullpup shotgun with two seven-round magazines. Each 12-gauge shell was loaded with nineteen steel darts that fired in a dense pattern, perfect for punching through foliage. Normal weaponry didn’t pack the stopping power to defeat a monster; the extra bit came from imbuing each shot with magic.
The first shell smashed through the orc’s growling face, exploding in a mass of platinum fire that roared like an inferno, consuming the head entirely. Derek, following his training, put two rounds through its chest as well. The monstrous orc immediately collapsed into sludge that flickered with ghostly flame.
“Holy shit.” Sven breathed. “I didn’t even get a chance to get a shot off.”
Derek let out a shuddering breath that he didn’t realize he was holding.
Travis let out a shaky breath. “Shit.” He breathed. “All right. Okay. I wasn't prepared for that, but damn, that was awesome. That’s some firepower you’re packing. Reload.”
Derek thumbed in four replacement rounds while Sven patted him on the back. “An Orc is usually a big deal, bro. You just... That was awesome.”
Derek gave him a shaky nod as the adrenaline drained from him.
“Stay sharp, men. Sven, if you’ve got Dragon’s Breath, swap to them.”
Sven ejected his rounds and slapped in the Dragon’s Breath shotgun rounds, rounds that set fire to anything they hit. Sven likely channeled fire magic into them, increasing their payload.
“All right. Where there’s one, there’s more.” Travis called.
“Chamber up ahead.” someone called, and they panned their gun lights around, trying to get a feel for what lay ahead.
There was a hollow grunt and suddenly more orcs appeared, tons of them, filling the tunnel from side to side, from top to bottom.
“Shit shit shit!” Travis yelled, falling back. Derek fell on his ass and opened fire, Sven taking a few steps back and working the slide on his shotgun smoothly, as if it was the most common thing in the world, as if he were shopping in the store.
An orc arm grabbed at Travis, hardened wooden nails digging into his flesh; Derek blew the arm off at the wrist and kept firing.
The others began opening up with their own guns, discharging their own magic shells into the orc horde.
The whole tunnel boiled with silvery flame from Derek and golden-amber fire from Sven.
“Back! Back! Travis yelled. “We gotta- we gotta fall back!”
“Fireball!” Someone yelled, and everyone hit the deck face first as a searing ball of flame the size of a beach ball sailed down the hall, through the mass of boiling flame and detonated somewhere beyond, creating a fiery backblast that washed over them.
After a few moments they started picking themselves up.
“Everyone reload. Wait for the fire to die out. We need to fucking see what’s ahead.”
The ghostly flames of Arcana eventually died down to a flicker, revealing large piles of sludge and char that filled the tunnel. Someone- Juan maybe- helped Travis up, while he struggled with the Orc arm that was still attached to him.
“That was some shit.” Travis complained. “We got plenty more ahead, too.”
“And a Verdant Mound.”
“Fuck you.” someone in the back replied.
The cavern ahead was filled with charred piles of goo; the fireball was effective at clearing out whatever lay ahead.
Travis used hand signs to deploy his group as they advanced through the cavern and into the tunnel beyond. Derek stuck to Travis, getting familiar with his calls.
It was going to be a long week.
They cleared out nests of gigantic, mutated chipmunks, orcs, bats and rats, a horribly disgusting thing that was enormous, gray, slick, and pulsating, and for three horrible days they got pinned down by breaking into a nest of massive, dog-sized ants that hissed and chittered and clacked their mandibles.
Derek’s Arcana flames never seemed to consume oxygen, they just burned and burned until everything they touched turned to ash and sludge.
The ant queen was destroyed and her brood put to the torch; they climbed and navigated tunnels filled with rotting things and spoor, hunting down everything living. A Dungeon had to be cleared before they tapped the Core.
“Ammo count, guys?” Travis gasped out to everyone. “For the record I've got a quarter mag for the MP5 and then I’m down to my revolver and spells.”
“Last mag.”
“I’ve got a dozen in the mag, maybe a spare mag in my pack if I’m lucky.”
“Let’s hope you are. I’ve got three rounds and my revolver.”
“Revolver.”
“I’ve got a fistful of buck and then I’m down to my knife and harsh language.”
“Spells only.” Juan reported.
“Six rounds of buck and then it’s my machete and fire spells.” Sven called.
“Seventeen rounds of flechette, fourteen more rounds of buck, one extra mag for the AK, two mags for the handgun, and then I’m fucked.” Derek reported.
Everyone stared at him.
“The fuck are you doing?” Someone asked.
“...what?” Derek asked.
“How the fuck do you have so much ammo?” Juan yelled. “That’s bullshit. There’s no way you’ve got that much.”
Travis groaned and scooted over to Derek. He was cut and bandaged pretty heavily on one side.
“What’s the story, man?”
“I make sure my shots are on target.” Derek replied uncertainly.
Sven nodded. “I’ve seen him. He counts his shots. That arcana of his does the rest.” He shrugged. “I’m sloppy as fuck compared to him.”
“Well, maybe we all need to go back to boot and learn how to conserve ammo.” someone muttered sarcastically.
“Stop spraying your Uzi everywhere.” someone in the shadows replied, and there was a chorus of chuckles.
“Still, that ant nest took a chunk out of everyone.” Travis replied.
“I used the AK for that.”
Sven barked laughter. “You bastard. I bet that was in single-shot, too.”
Derek shook his head. “Giant fucking bugs? I went a bit nuts.”
Travis sighed. “Give Sven your buck. We’ll need it for the Verdant. The rest of you learn to fucking shoot.” He sighed. “I hope we’ve got enough fire to take down a Verdant.”
He lay down. “God, i fucking hope we’ve got enough for the Verdant.”
Derek looked over to Sven as he handed over the buckshot to the german born monster. “So what’s up with the Verdant?”
Sven sighed and grimaced at the feel of the magic in the shells. He’d have to overwrite Derek’s magic with his own to use them.
“It’s a monster. It’s huge. Fucking huge. It could fucking eat a bus and have room for more. It fucking rampages all over the place, flailing its vines all over the place. It’ll fucking kill you without realizing it’s done so. I’ve seen them in other PMCs. They’re... “ he shook his head.
He squatted and loaded his shotgun. “We’ve got your Arcana, but I don’t know if even that’ll be enough. We’ll be down to flinging fire and ducking out of a tunnel if we’re lucky.”
“Rest up, everyone. Your death might be just down the tunnel.” Travis muttered.
*****
Name: Derek Richardson
Age: 25
Occupation: Cleaner
PMC: Core Hunters
STR: 6/10 (he can carry his full gear)
DEX: 8/10 (He’s got great reflexes and can target monsters very quickly.)
CON: 4/10 (His stamina, while still low, has improved.)
INT: 8/10 (College educated, with two separate degrees in two fields)
WIS: 4/10 (He’s perceptive and clever, but lazy and indifferent.)
CHA: 6/10 (He’s got the charisma to banter with his team leader and not get fired for it.)
Magic Element: Arcana
Magic Gate: ??
Magic Pool: ∞ (infinite)
Magic Resistance: ??