Ros stopped for the night by entering a room and Blinking to her usual bedroom. She did her workouts, doubling up on what was usually a morning routine in order to compensate for her weak but changing body. She had used two of the potions already, so she was 35 strength higher than she would have been with just cultivation.
Either because of her increased stats or all the hunting, she was too keyed up to sleep. She knew just what she needed and she knew just how to find him.
Ros showered, cast three Warrior’s Ease spells on herself, even though her health wasn’t low. She got dressed in a new slinky dress, did up her hair and face. Then she went up to the casino room.
He wasn’t a specific person, he was the man who was going to take care of her hormonal itch and not get clingy afterwards.
If there was one thing she’d learned in the Realms it was that the healthier a woman was, the hornier she became, especially high level Qui practitioners who were also women. She had seen and experienced many reverse harems over the years. One woman was often too much for a single man to keep up with.
She sauntered into the loud room and scanned for a likely mark. She spotted a problem with her plan immediately. She was used to the hard bodies of men who had been fighting for their lives for decades. The newly arrived Fourth Wave was still full of desk jockeys and gym phobics.
Her gaze rested on the bouncer in front of the VIP room. Not the same one. She hesitated. She didn’t actually mean to draw the attention of the first and second wavers.
She eased up next to the guard anyway. “Hi. Are you Sam?” That would make him the boyfriend of the last bouncer she’d spoken to here.
The man eyed her a moment. “Yeah.”
“Who is in right now?” She jerked her head.
He shook his head. “You’re not getting in there, they’ve already got dates. Try the 19th floor rec room if you want to hook up with a third wave sugar daddy.”
She grinned. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Things are still shaking out, most of the good hunters are either paired with each other or single. Good luck.”
“I’m always lucky. I’m Roslyn, Ros. You’re going to be glad you know my name, Sam.” She offered her hand and he shook it, a little reluctantly.
Brandon popped his head out. “Oh. Sorry. I thought you were Christine.”
Ros raised her eyebrows. He seemed excited to see Christine and disappointed she wasn’t her alter ego.
“Never mind. New friend with nearly the same voice.” He looked at her closely, then he Examined her. He smiled sheepishly at her suddenly narrowed eyes. “Carry on.”
Ros was slightly surprised that Brandon knew her from her voice. Maybe Christine should make another appearance. She mentally shook her head. Being close to the local power structure wasn’t her goal. Anonymity was her goal.
She took the main lift down to 19 and looked around. Exactly as she expected, the lift let out in a lounge with soft music and drinks stations that were just replicators with a more elaborate than usual drinks menu, a very limited food menu and if you knew how to access it, an interesting pharmaceuticals menu. She wanted to copy it.
She would save that for later, or maybe an empty version of the room. Like all the station sections this was identical to the floor 19 lounge in every version of the building plan.
Right now she needed Mr Right Now.
There were a variety to choose from. Looked like casual attire was the uniform of the day. The lift doors closed behind her with a little ding that cut through the rest of the noise. That was something she’d forgotten about. She felt the cool wash of a dozen Examines all at once.
Half of the people in the room looked up to see who had entered. She looked around. She was surprised how many of them she knew. She…
Four men left their separate tables and conversations and converged on her. She smiled and let them come. Two of them spotted the competition and backed off.
“Hello, beautiful.” Douglas Nolan drawled. The universal translator had eliminated his Aussie accent, but he still had all the charm.
“I’m sure I saw her first, Nolan.” Delmer Cairns laughed. She knew him too, half Samoan, half African American, he was a bit taller and a lot broader across the shoulders.
“No fighting, boys, there’s enough Ros to go around.” She laughed and grabbed their arms, turning them around and steering them towards the drinks machines. “Who is buying me a drink?”
“Anything you want, Ros.” Douglas drawled.
“She wants a Ringed Sun.” Del suggested.
“Too sweet.” Ros protested. “Glass of red wine.”
She could tell they were both surprised she’d tried the cocktail before. She laughed. “The same drinks menu on the 29th, you know. A few of us sampled all the unique cocktails. You have to try it to know what to ask for.” She subtly tickled them both and made eye contact with one after the other. Maybe she could talk her way into a threesome.
“Uh… I think I see someone I need to talk to.” Del said suddenly. He disengaged and left the conversation.
“Was it something I said or something you did?”
Doug cleared his throat guiltily. “We’ve got a system. Two blokes who want the same girl open a trade and make an offer. A bribe to back off for a while. He took my bribe.”
She tried for just a moment to be mad about that.
She couldn’t help the giggle. “At least you were honest about it. Do you want a drink or should we get right to the lay? I’ve been hunting most of the day and killing stupid dogs makes me adrenaline horny.”
He looked surprised at her candor. “Drink first?”
“I’m good without.”
“Well… sure.” He led her to the north door, there were doors on all four sides of the room. She suddenly guessed that the Third Wave had colonized the entire 19th floor.
She wondered where Franklin and the guys lived. The balcony rooms were all empty after all.
Maybe the dome suites, there were several fancy homes outside the observation deck where they arrived, accessed from a dedicated lift from the first floor. She should check those out. If nobody was living there she might even find some good loot. There would certainly be some unique replicator patterns.
Doug’s room was a neatly kept queen bed room on the 19th floor. She looked around and smiled in approval. She also thought about the last time she’d been alone with a man and vowed internally not to kill this one outright.
Ros used a trick she’d perfected late in life, she popped her clothes right off her body and into her spatial ring. She kissed him and tried to climb him as he half carried her from the door to the bed.
….
“What did you give him?” She asked when the energetic sex was over.
Doug grinned sheepishly and rolled over to look at her. “Cerberus testicles. There’s a quest.”
“I’ve heard. Get one you get a potion to double your strength. Done that one?”
“Yeah, of course. There’s also a quest for ten of them to boost your strength by 50%.”
“And a third quest for a hundred to boost it by 25%.”
He looked surprised. “I don’t know anyone who has come up with ten. Once you clear out a red gym the beasts don’t respawn. You can only get nine more.”
“Until you get to the city.” Ros smiled. “Then you can get a thousand more if you try hard enough, and more if you’re willing to go to each remote station.”
“Two weeks per station? I don’t know about that.”
“Four, the train leaves almost immediately so you have to stay each place two weeks.” She smiled. “What else are we going to do?”
“We have a theory. They called this the First Realm. That means there’s more than one. We find another portal-“
“Gate.” Ros corrected.
“You know a lot for a squishy fourth wave chick.”
She shrugged. “Does it matter if I’m a spy in some kind of stat hiding disguise?”
“Depends on if you’re planning a hostile takeover or not.” Doug traced his fingers down her side.
“I’m not. I’m seeking information for the betterment of all mankind. Do you want to know where the gate to the second realm is?”
He blinked. “I mean… yeah.”
She shrugged. “There are a hundred of them. They are in the basements of a hundred identical Inns in the city. All called the same thing, The Inn at the Sign of the Open Door.”
He looked surprised.
“But don’t go there until you’ve killed your thousandth Moon Wurm. It would be a shame to stunt your growth.” She traced his barely roughened jawline.
“Sex again?” He looked down at himself.
“Sure. I could go again.” Ros rolled up to meet him.
….
Just before she lazily fell asleep in his arms, Ros remembered to start her Qui circulation, which now felt as effortless as a thought.
“You are gorgeous.” Doug was looking at her when she woke up, which was actually mildly creepy. “I have to go, or I’ll be late. Do you want to come hunting with us? We’re grinding orange gels in the power plant.”
“I haven’t even done the green ones yet.” Ros groaned.
He looked at her funny. “I thought you were some badass spy?”
“No. More of a seer. I’m Fourth Wave. I’ve just been having dreams about this place for years and so far everything I’ve dreamed has been right.”
“That’s… Damn, girl, it’s a wonder you got here sane. I can do greens with you. They’re annoying, too fast and sting like hell, but if you want company?”
She rubbed her nose, feeling the comfort of touching her ring. “I’m 45 Knock Dogs into the 50 for the quest.” She’d gotten slowed down by running to training class or she’d be done.
He looked shocked. “Fifty? My quest was 8.”
“It’s repeatable up to five times with increased dogs, one extra per time and five fewer points each time.”
“That’s what? Fifty more points in strength?”
She smiled. “Yeah. If the hall monitor will let you.”
“I…” he deflated. “I haven’t seen it since I got the Cerberus potion.”
“It will probably show up if you have enough to fill the quest. So nine. Also if you start applying the potions after your stat is as high as you can make it naturally you might have better results.”
He looked down at his body, which was clothed in a full set of trooper armor-6,000 coins per piece.
“Mind if I use your replicator?”
“Sure, of course.” He gestured. There wasn’t much reason to say no. She matched his armor and put it on.
“I’m ready to go.”
He looked at her funny. “How much money do you have?”
She grinned. “Ever kill a Moon Wurm? They’re over 100,000 coins apiece. I can show you how.”
He went pale. “Don’t even joke.”
Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.
“Maintenance tunnels. Want to see on our way to the green slimes?”
He looked frozen in indecision. “Prove it.”
She opened a trade with him and put in a Moon Wurm butt scale. He looked at it and backed out of the trade.
“Shit.”
“Yup. And I have more.” She tapped her skull. “Years of dreams.”
“But…”
“For the betterment of all mankind.”
He laughed. “Care if I follow you around for a while? We didn’t make any promises, so if you don’t want bed play again that’s nothing to do with wanting to be near the dreamer.”
“Sure. Keep it quiet though.” She suddenly noticed that her Qui was still circulating from the night before. That was so much faster than her progress had ever been. Although she’d been warned that the second time should be slower than the first, she wasn’t contending with shards of her former cultivation. It still seemed like it hadn’t been nearly enough time to need to transform her cultivating level again.
“Let’s meet with your team. See if they want to tag along.”
“Sure. We meet in the lounge.” He paused with his hand on the door. “I’m not saying you’re her, but if you go by Moira the Seer on the boards, don’t stop. The realm needs that information.”
She tilted her head. “The boards?” She lied. Pillow talk had completely wrecked her intention to hide her alter ego.
He shrugged and they left the room.
The lounge was full of hunters, male and female, in nice gear, eating their breakfast and shooting the shit.
Del from the night before and several other people joined them at a table when they got their trays of scrambled eggs and chicken breakfast burritos from the replicators.
“How was he and do I even stand a chance now?” Del smiled engagingly. “If you look around, you might notice we were 62 men and 38 women Third Wave, and all the Second Wave who were still around were guys. All of them went to the city, after the incident and only a couple came back.”
“The incident?”
“Half of the ten person Second Wave wiped to a Moon Wurm in one moment.” A woman across the table said. “Don’t mention it to Franklin, Brandon and Martin. Those people were their friends.”
“Oh. Right.” Ros started eating to keep her mouth full.
“Our boy buy you that suit?” The woman asked after a moment.
“She bought it herself.” Doug said defensively. “She didn’t even ask what it was called.”
Ros manifested her Energy Shield and put it in the groove on the armor sleeve. It clicked in place like it was meant to be there. She had six of the things now, she’d found four in Wurms. She didn’t even know which one was DeadEye’s anymore, they were identical, mass produced. She kept eating.
Doug inhaled loudly. “We’re doing Knock Dogs. Apparently the knock dog quest is repeatable.”
“Are you messing with me?” The woman demanded.
Ros wondered why she didn’t know this woman. Never met her. She must have been gone before the massacre.
“I’m Roslyn. Are you cross because you wanted Doug? I was just horny. Killing shit makes me horny. He’s a good lay if you’re horny cranky.”
The woman dropped the fork and steak knife she’d been using to eat a 30 coin filet mignon with broccoli and shrimp topper. “Are you shitting me. Doug?” She looked scandalized, almost offended by the suggestion.
Ros looked around the table. She looked a question at Del and Doug.
“She’s married and she’s hoping she meets up with her old man.” The skinny guy at the end of the oval table said.
“I’m hoping he never makes it here.” The woman said. “I’m Shirl. You’ve met Doug. That’s Del, that’s Axel.”
“Ros, Roslyn but Ros.”
“I’m cross because I disapprove of sex outside of marriage. It’s bad enough we’re here. God-”she stopped. “Who the hell knows what God wants of us here. I was Pentecostal. Yes I was married. Four kids. I worry about them every day.” She picked her knife back up and sawed at her steak.
“God or the gods.” Ros said carefully. “Want us to grow and advance. To rise to the level where we’re comfortable. If it helps, not all the people on Earth will join us here. Fifth Wave is a hundred million. Sixth Wave is a billion and then it will stop. As far as I can know, see, I’m a seer.” She sighed. She looked at Doug. “It’s oddly difficult not to mention things I can’t know.” It almost made her want to self isolate again.
Shirl tapped her fork on her plate several times. “A seer. Why the heck not.” She started eating again.
When everyone was finished with breakfast they stood and without discussing it further they all went down to the Orange zones to kill Knock Dogs. With five of them fighting together they split the first 36 dogs to the people who needed to reactivate the quest. They fought in a two floor shopping atrium, far from the main lift, where new spawns had to run down the escalators to get at them. The shops were all defunct, and seemed like an anachronism for a world that had replicators.
The group hadn’t even known the spot existed, but Ros wandered straight to it. It was on her list of replicators to steal patterns from. She’d been hitting a few each day.
After everyone had the quest, the spawn rate increased proportionally.
Ros fought with her blast gun in her left hand and a spear in her right. It wasn’t the same gun she’d found in a room early on, it was one she got from the armory vest that didn’t need charging. She had to change her tactics for the group dynamic, but she was very used to fighting in a group.
With five people grinding the quest the spawn rate was greatly increased.
Doug, Del and Shirl all fought using long swords. Axel had a bow and two different magical attacks he rotated as they cooled down. He tended to hide behind the others.
The dogs stopped coming suddenly. They all looked around.
“Anyone have an extra?” Axel asked. “I’m one short.”
“Yeah. Here.” Del said, trading one to the younger man.
“What’s next? Fenrirs and Cerberus?” Shirl asked. “We can help get you there, but the red gym is a single person dungeon.”
Ros nodded. “I know. Here. Tell me when.” Ros touched Doug on the forehead and repeatedly cast Warrior’s Ease on him until he nodded and stepped back.
“When.” He winked. “That’s handy.”
Ros did the same for Del, Axel and Shirl. She had been casting on herself all along.
“Can I see that spear you’re using?” Shirl asked.
Ros held it out.
“You have to know there’s better spears in the replicator.” Shirl said incredulously.
Ros smiled ruefully. “I do know. This one fits my hand.”
“How did you get it enchanted for return?” Shirl frowned at it.
“I… do you want me to do one for you? It’s a rune. I can draw them on anything. My skill is still low, but I’m learning.”
“Seer, RuneMaster, that gun. How many points did you get at the vestibule store?”
“I didn’t buy the seer trait at the store, and I’m not a RuneMaster yet, more like Rune Scribe Novice. I already had my Seer skills when I got to the vestibule. We have to be in a corridor for the robot to finish our quests.”
“Yeah.” Doug said. “We do.”
They entered a corridor and the droid showed up straight away. Actually, quest conversions were solo instances so five droids showed up and fuzzy walls went up between them.
“You have obtained enough Knock Dogs for the rest of the potions. You’re good at this. It’s going to take me five days to make these potions, and you should wait one day between taking each of them. In the meantime would you be interested in fixing a problem for me.”
“Yes, of course.”
“The gym on the fifth deck is infested with Fenrirs and I think there’s even a Cerberus in there. If you can clear out that gym, and bring me the horns of five Fenrirs and the testicles of the Cerberus I can make you a potion that will straight up double your strength stat. Are you interested?”
“Sure. Is there anything I need to know before I go in there?”
“The Fenrirs are deaf. If they can’t see you, a sneak attack behind the second spinal spike is a death blow. If they see you it’s a good place to attack anyway.”
“Good to know. Any more information relevant to the quest?”
“No more information at this time.”
“And is the quest repeatable?”
“Well… I’m not sure it’s worth repeating. To get a useful second dose you need to bring me 10 Cerberus ball sacks and 50 Fenrirs horns. The resulting potion will have a lot less effect, it will only add 50% of your strength stat to the total.”
“It still sounds like something worth doing. Do you know anywhere else in this mining station where there are Cerberuses to kill?”
“Of course. That one had to get in somehow. There’s a maintenance hatch in the gym. It leads down to the fishery. If you can clear it out we can put more fish and crustacean dishes back on the menu.”
“And can I repeat the quest after ten testicle sets?”
“Are you sure you want to? For 25% increase in strength you need to bring me 100 ball sacks and 500 horns.”
“Yes. What about after that?”
“After that you would have to improve your basic physique to use the formula again, but the number needed resets to the original, 1 and 5 to double; 10 and 50 for 50%; 100 and 500 for 25% more. If you can manage a two star physique you can use the series again. I suppose if you are that eager to repeat the series I would trade a strength related physique boost for 1000 ball sacks and 5000 horns, but I doubt you’ll be that eager.”
“May I continue to get the potions to use later by killing the beasts now?”
“I don’t see why not. Three potions in a matched set every time you bring me 111 and 555 ingredients. Each set will take thirty days to brew.”
“Thank you very much.”
“If you don’t mind, I’m busy. Don’t tell people about getting more than one set, or I won’t be able to make any more for you. I won’t have time.”
That seemed very pointed, as if the robot was aware of her guide forum posts.
“Oh. Interesting. I will keep that to myself, if I can get the quest reset every time I finish it, so my team doesn’t know. I can go myself to get the additional materials.”
“Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. Would you like to buy anything?”
There were three items:
Knock Dog Scale Armor- 14,000 coins- matched set of armor made out of the skull plates of knock Dogs. 120% resistant to blunt force attacks. 1400 Damage Resistance. 50% Fire Resistance
Mysterious potion- 1,000,000 coins- unknown effects. No negative effects for potion failure. 10% chance nothing happens. 20% chance small effect, 60% chance medium effect, 9% chance large effect, 1% chance legendary effect. Luck stat plays major factor in success.
Slight Build(B)- 22,000,000 coins- Regardless of your strength stat you will always be slim, supple and easily underestimated. Allows you to edit your visible status screen against Examine attempts up to ArchDeity level. Permanent x2 to the calculation that determines your Hit Points. This is scaleable in that it multiplies the equation; not a one time effect.
Ros clicked on all three, she had the cash, but she had trade goods too. She tried to sell a Moon Wurm spike. The line throbbed for a moment. Then it was listed as 127,000,000. Ros pulled at her nose, a nervous habit she often had when considering the value of trades. She’d worn her ring in her nose a long time, and she could feel it there when she tugged.
The Slight Build Trait moved from B to A and raised in price to match. She checked the description, x3 to health.
Ros set three more spikes in the trade.
“How many of those do you have? Don’t you know you’re going to want 1,111 of them?”
Ros shrugged. “I had 30 when I started. How high can that slight build thing go?”
“For all 30 it will be SS grade; x10 to health calculation.”
Ros put all 30 in the screen. It was worth it. She felt the robot Examine her. She pulled the Alibi Dot off.
“Try again.”
Roslyn Atwood
Physique: Human- F Ranked
Qui Apprentice - Mid Mortal
Strength: 71
Endurance: 44
Recovery: 49
Soul: 57
Most of her strength came from the few quest potions she’d already used. The rest of her stats were raised by cultivation, especially her advancement.
The trade concluded and when Ros went to apply the Body Trait it was SSS grade:
Slight Build(SSS)- Regardless of your strength stat you will always be slim, supple and easily underestimated. Your wounds never scar. Allows you to edit your visible status screen against all Examine attempts. Alibi Feature- create and store up to 5 permanent, editable aliases, which will hold up against all Examine attempts. Permanent x25 to the calculation that determines your Hit Points. This is scaleable in that it multiplies the equation; not a one time effect.
Ros smiled as she applied it. This was exactly the kind of trait she’d been unable to equip when she could regularly afford the price tag, which was nearly four billion coins.
“A pleasure doing business with you. Anything I should look for in my traveling? Anything in the First Realm?”
“If you are gathering Moon Wurm Excrement I can refine it for you for 20% of the total, taken as a percentage of each component material.”
“10%. Excluding indivisible or rare items.”
The robot whirred for a long moment. “17%”
“11%, I know how to do the refinement myself. It’s not difficult, it just takes a lot of time.”
“11%. Excluding indivisible, rare or single items. I keep the binding matrix.”
“I wasn’t aware the binding matrix was valuable. Do you want anything else off the Wurms?”
“Just the spines along the long edges, or the whole bodies if you can manage it.”
“Sure. No problem. Is there a way to call you?”
“Trade with me.” A trade screen opened. The robot gave her a small square device with a button on it. “Any time you’re in the yellow to red zones.”
“Thanks.”
“I will restock my trade goods before you return. It is my pleasure to assist you, Seer.”
“Seer?”
“In the important ways it’s what you are. Your party is waiting.”
The instance faded and the robot disappeared.
“Took a while.”
“There’s a place to grind Cerberuses in the section.” She smiled triumphantly. “I got some good information. I need to grind through the quests as quickly as I can if I want to verify all my information.”
“Sure, Moira.” Axel said.
Ros sighed heavily. “My real name is Roslyn Moira Atwood. The Examine skill doesn’t reveal middle names. I don’t think I’m going to be able to keep it from anyone who knows me well, but the last thing I need is someone deciding to knock me off just because they’re afraid I’m going to reveal something they’re using as a state secret, to get an edge over the competition.”
Shirl crossed her arms angrily. “I don’t know a single way a brand new Forth Wave could already have enough money for a sticky thread.”
“Moon Wurms are over a hundred thousand each. Three Wurms is more than enough.”
“Shit.” Axel and Del both said at the same time.
“I wasn’t expecting it to only be an extra ten grand to keep the posts untraceable.” She shrugged. “Do you want to sticky your family seeking message to the top of the seeking board? I’d do that for you if you’re my friend.”
Shirl looked like she wasn’t sure if she should be offended. “If you show me how to hunt Wurms, I’ll pay for it myself.”
Ros stuck out her hand. “Deal.” They shook. “I’ll show you all, before it goes online. Want to go now? The bodies are probably still decomposing. Unless there’s a respawn. I think a Wurm would eat another Wurm.”
“The little ones do.” Axel said. “I’m hungry. After lunch?”
“Lunch in a room?” Ros pointed to a door they were about to pass. They went in and ordered sandwiches and cola from the room unit. They sat on the bed, on the desk and Axel sat cross legged on the floor.
“I hate my husband.” Shirl said suddenly. “I like the kids, though. Do you really think we’re dealing with gods, plural?”
Ros stood from the bed, crossed to the terminal and pulled up:
Qui Cultivation (ArchDeity Tier) - 12,254,300,500
She pointed at it. Shirl looked over her shoulder.
“No shit. You think there’s gods and we could become gods.” Del said from behind Shirl.
“I don’t think very many of us will get that far. Think about it carefully. If you could live here forever, in a settled society. Would that be so bad? If the next Realm or the one after that was better? There’s no hunger here. The dangers are known and manageable. I could raise a family here. I won’t. I could. I am going on. I’m going to train my Qui as high as I can.” Ros made a quick purchase.
Qui Novice Gift Slip x4: 400
Qui Cultivation Manual x4: 4000
She passed them around. “It’s very difficult to navigate the Third Realm without a Qui body.”
“I didn’t know you could give someone a slip like this for a thing.” Axel examined the paper, then he used it and started reading the manual. Shirl was the only one who hesitated.
“This isn’t what I was expecting.” Doug said, after a few minutes of looking at his Qui. “Does anyone want to meditate for an hour or two like the manual says?”
“I’m on the verge of gaining Late Mortal.” Ros said. “I might be meditating for hours if we start.”
“Let’s go see the trick you have for Wurms, if we kill one we split the money in six and Ros gets two shares.” Shirl dictated. “Then let’s stop for the day.”
“If we do four you each have the first installment of the last potion in the quest series covered.” Ros said dryly.
They looked around.
“And there’s a possibility there won’t be any Wurms. It’s only been a day since I did the last set.”
“Show us.” Del said. “I have the quest active. I could spawn one.”
She nodded. “Come with me.”
Ros had a lot of experience getting to the cave airlock doors. She knew the stations like she’d lived there for years, because she had. She even showed them a maintenance staircase they had been unaware of.
Ros opened the airlock. The Grublings respawn rate was something like four hours. She used her two spear technique again. She led the group into the maintenance shaft and out to the first gate grate.
“So. The body is gone. That means there’s definitely another Wurm in the tunnel. They take 3-4 days to dust out. Respawn in 45 days. First you have to call it. Ready? Oh. Wait. This is important.” She held up the leaf spear. “See. No coupling.”
She showed how it was loose in the shaft.
“I’ll call it. Stand… this is the range of motion I need. I’ve never shown this to anyone.” She made sure everyone was back far enough for her to swing. “I call like this.” She banged on the bars of the grate with her spear haft. It reverberated loudly in the enclosed space.
“I feel it coming.” Axel said nervously.
The Wurm slowed as it sensed them. The red dot slowly came into view. Ros stabbed, jerking her spear back so the tip stayed in the dot. She rearmed it as the Wurm turned to get away from what was hurting it. The second dot came into view and she nailed it neatly too.
Obtained- 147,000 coins
While the Wurm deflated Ros pulled out four bags of coin. The bags were the worthless brown ones that always appeared when you needed a bag for coins. They accepted 30,000 each.
“So much?”
“It must have killed a bunch of people.” Ros shrugged, she hadn’t kept two shares and a round number was easier to produce in a bag. She wasn’t planning to follow Shirl’s proscribed loot distribution at all.
“Monsters that have killed people are worth more money. Time to gather the spoils.” Ros jerked her head towards the grate which was no longer blocked. She climbed down the crude hand holds, which were almost as obvious as a ladder, except there wasn’t supposed to be a ladder. This was a tunnel to nowhere except the Wurms.
They all climbed down. Ros put on her 10,000 coin rubber gloves. “This way. Careful of the claws. Like this. These are how they maneuver around the tunnels. By clawing their way forward. Here. See the rust red spots? I think there’s eight of them. They’re the honey spot. I’m not sure what kind of sense organ they are, but if you tag two of them it’s the kill. The Wurm has something like 250,000 hit points, but it can’t live without two of whatever these are. Don’t touch the blood.”
She warned because Axel was about to touch the wound.
“Your knife.”
“Rune of return.” Ros raised her eyebrows. “I’ve already got it back. Let me show you the butchering cuts I know. You look for this, the second set of hooks. I use my feet to find a lumpy… here.”
She made the cut and speared the appendix on her meat hook. She severed the gut and put it in her ring.
“We can open that later. Putting it in a spatial object neutralizes the blood and gore. This way. I try to find the intestine with my feet as I walk. Then when it gets rigid.” She stopped suddenly. “Uh… here. Everyone stomp here and feel how you can sense the end of the very valuable stool.”
“You want us to step there to feel the Wurm poop?” Shirl demanded incredulously.
“If you want a share of the Wurm poop profits, yeah.” Ros challenged back.
Shirl grumbled slightly but kicked at the Wurm. She nodded to say she felt it. Ros made the cut and led them to the anus and the spike.
“This is the quest item. You slice here, here and here.” She pulled it off. “Who wants the first one?”
Axel put his hand out and then snatched it back. “Roll it?” He pulled out a d20. Del got the spike.
Ros waited. “Then you cut here.” She showed them. She put the poop into her ring.
“Where are you hiding a spatial storage object?” Shirl asked suddenly.
“It’s up her nose.” Doug said. “And if I could make mine stay there I’d do it.”
Ros smirked. “It needs to be C grade or higher. I…” she broke off and walked six paces down the tunnel. Like all the caverns and tunnels, this one was illuminated by conveniently placed bioluminescent fungi and moss. She picked up another worm poop, this one calcified and hard, and rejoined the group.
On the way back up the body Ros dug out all the visible spines along the sides. “I’m done here. Let’s go. Do we want to hunt again? Or do you want to go meditate?”
“We’re here now.” Shirl said.
“Yeah, and there’s still old Wurms out here.” Ros said. “That one was more coin than any I’d seen so far. Up the wall.”