We arrived at the dot on the map. It was on an ice shelf with nothing here. It took Celeste figuring out the 3D option on the pad to find we had to go down about 200 meters. Of course we had to dig. We tried heat from spells without much effect and eventually decided we would get better equipment or spells in Sand Bastion. An 8 hour drive wasted. I summoned and placed a 3 meter stone marker on the ice and we left for Sand Bastion.
It was a 7 hour trip, mostly over water. We swung by the Dread Trent dungeon, getting a shadow cloak and some experience and loot. Everyone on the crew had a shadow cloak and I wanted to have a few spares. We cleared the dread trent as well getting a magic wand that a small area snow storm spell. We drove to Sand Bastion and we went to the quest giver to turn in the wyvern head.
Quest Completed: Kill the Fiery Wyvern, return with the Head as Proof. Rewards: 6000 experience, +3 free stat points, one class specific item
The quest item for me was a void ring, space mage ring +1 aether/lvl, +1 channeling/lvl, +25 aether pool/lvl
I gave Luna my Braided Copper Ring, +4 Starship Mechanic Skill, +10 Intellect, +4 Agility, she added it removing the bonding to the shadow cloak. It was her second magic item which was her cap due to the level of her aether core. I equipped my new ring and added my stat points to stamina bringing it to 25. Celeste got some really nice leather boots, +3 to all primary stats, charm: silent steps. They were very fashionable and Celeste was thrilled. I told her not to let Red now the awesome rewards we got, he was the jealous type. She removed her White Gold Ring with Sapphire, +5 Starship Piloting: Corvette, +5 Agility, and equipped the boots. She was going to pass the ring to Luna but I said Luna had a high skill and Celeste was the backup pilot and could reequip the ring in an emergency. The quest giver said I had a higher priority quest and could not issue me a new quest at this time. It took a few minutes of questioning to find out the quest was the black book. I was a little pissed as I was hoping to get another dungeon location. I thanked him and said we would be back once we completed the quest.
I drove the SYSTEM terminal. They tried to charge me 19,000 credits to enter, 10k for me, 2k for each companion and 5k for the hover car. I went in with Celeste for 12,000 and Luna waited in the car.
Guy was there behind the desk. I made small talk for an hour before pulling out the loot. I turned in 100 poison sacks for the quest and the tooth of the feathered serpent.
Quest Completed: Gather 10 Poison Sacks of Marsh Serpent, 1200 experience, 500 credits
Quest Completed: Bring the Tooth of the Feathered Serpent, 2000 experience, +1 skill point, 1 potion
From the quests I got 14,000 experience, 5000 credits, 1 skill point and a potion to permanently increase my stamina pool by 100 points. Neither of us gained a level. Celeste got the same potion and we both drank them, tasted like a strawberry milkshake. The rest of the loot got us 103,500 credits. I asked about a food synthesizer. Guy showed me 3 options. One was completely power by aether, 100,000 credits and could produce any programmed item asked for a cost of aether, cost 5 to 7 aether crystals per meal. The second one was a mix of aether and tech. it required nutrient packets to facilitate the creation process. It didn’t require aether and the food was of good quality. The final one was a food printer, no aether but Guy said the quality wasn’t great. The second one cost 60,000 credits and 5 30 gallon nutrient tubs at 5,000 credits each. The last one was 20,000 credits and only had two nutrient tubs of 50 gallons at 2000 credits each.
Guy offered samples from each. I ordered Chicken Parmesan. The aether one was restaurant quality, perfect smell, texture and taste. The second one looked like a high school cafeteria food. The 3rd option was unappealing on all levels. I bought the first one, it was 2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters. Then Celeste how much each meal program costs. I missed that. Each one cost 500 credits. What? Guy showed me the back of the machine, there were 2000 slots for meals, so I could get that many food patterns. Each meal was between 1600 and 3000 calories and had dishes and utensils. The device had a recycler on it for the dishes. Ok I had enough for 17 items. Guy got us chairs and we sat down going through the options and they were customizable. After 5 hours my final list had 3 types of drink, 3 typical breakfast options then my favorite meals. I would have to get each crew to get my 4 or 5 choices for their favorites in the future to get chips for them.
Chicken Parmesan with Spaghetti and Fresh Baked Roll
BBQ Chicken Pizza with Chef Salad
Bacon Cheeseburger with French Fries, on the side mayo, ketchup, mustard, relish
Pitcher of Coffee with Side of Sugar and Light Cream
Pitcher of Coke Cola
Pitcher of Lime Margarita
Pitcher of Lager Ale
Pitcher of IPA Ale
Pitcher of Stout Ale
Scrambled Eggs with Bacon and Home Fries
Pork Fried Rice topped with Orange Chicken and one egg roll on side
Pancakes with Sausage, side of maple syrup and butter
Fresh Mixed Fruit with Vanilla Yogurt and Granola Cereal with Whole Milk
Grilled Salmon with Lemon Rice and Asparagus
Italian Grinder with Pickle and Potato Chips
Tortilla Chips with Guacamole, Salsa and Sour Cream
Salted Carmel Cheesecake
I wasn’t sure if this list would make everyone happy but we could always add more. I was broke but asked Guy’s opinion on the ice problem we had. After describing it he had an ice melt device to make tunnels, 75,000 credits or an ice magic spell that dispels ice for 12,000 credits. We talked for a few minutes before I added the food synthesizer to my space and we left. I had 83,000 Ballen credits. We took Carl to the scroll shop. We had 3 people following us.
We browsed for twenty minutes before leaving and going to a furniture store. I spent 78,000 credits on furniture for the ship. I had them add leg attachments so we could bolt everything down. My space was pretty full. I decided we were not going to hang around and we left the city and zipped cross the ocean. Celeste said a drone and vehicle tried to follow but we outdistanced them. We camouflaged the car and hoped any other pursuit was thrown off.
At the cave we unloaded everything. As soon as the food synthesizer was installed Cael loaded it with aether and the party was on. The orcs wanted to try everything and did. Red got two burgers, Cael got salmon, Vlad got a pizza, I got cheesecake and Celeste got Chicken Parm. I told everyone we could add food programs. Everyone would get 4 choices. Celeste asked for my SYSTEM pad so she could find some traditional glimmer elf meals. Luna said Celeste could make her four selections. I really hadn’t considered my companions but didn’t object. So I got an order for 32 more programmed meal chips, 16000 credits I needed to raise. After a nap we all worked installing the furniture on the ship. Then we had our next ship meeting.
Meranda said things were going well with the rebuild. The bots I got her really helped and the outer hull was done. All the computers were up and running but were password locked. Celeste had computers and Luna had hacking so hopefully between the two they could get them up and running. Vlad and Cael were worried about Andrew, Casey and Will. They had added three locals to their group and were spreading negative rumors about us around town. I had to go to town and would ask Bammi about it. Cael had the ship registered and salvage approved. We still needed to get the ship scanned at a Bastion Space Port. I told everyone about the quest on the ice shelf and digging through the ice. I was going to see if Bammi had something for it if not I would abandon the quest for now. Cael mentioned the food sythnesizer took aether crystals. We could lock it to just have the crew access but passengers probably didn’t want to pay in aether crystals. The aether tank on the synthesizer had a max capacity of 60,000. Cael said we should fill it before we leave. The average cost per meal was 6, so that was roughly 10000 meals. We had storage for 5000 physical meals. Passengers should be charged 10 credits for a physical meal and 30 credits for a synthesized meal. Crew would be able to get 4 meal units daily free and then be charged 6 aether crystal units per additional meal. No one disagreed and the policy was put in place. We retired to our rooms.
I added to my secret escape tunnel, adding 45 meters to its length before retiring with the girls.
The next morning I had scrambled eggs and bacon! The taste on these items was out of this world even if they didn’t give buffs I was happy. I remembered my cooking skill and told Cael to get a full cooking suite for the galley. Meranda was going to utilize the space for something else but I should have a lot of practice time for cooking and perhaps I could the crew some buffs. Cael was to buy ingredients for cheesy eggs, bacon, burgers, fries, chocolate cake, coffee, chilli, tacos, spaghetti and meatballs and pizza with various toppings. The larder was two 3 meter by 2 meter units, one fridge and one a freezer. Fill them up!
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
I left with just the girls to town. Bammi was helpful as always. An ice laser would be 50,000 credits and require a micro fusion generator for another 5,000. It would be about a day to make on the fabricator. I gave her my last 5000 credits as a down payment and told her I would be back in a few days to pick it up. I commed Vlad and told him I had a 50,000 debt at Bammi’s. I was going to run some dungeons but if he could pay it off before I got back all the better.
Now which dungeon? The Fiery Wyvern gave us the best return for our time. I was worried with one less party member how difficult it might be. Red did a great job stunning and slowing enemies. The beetle rider dungeon was out of the question. Maybe try a dungeon town? There were six on this continent. In the end Celeste convinced me to try the Fiery Wyvern Dungeon.
The ride there was fun. We attacked it as soon as Carl stopped. The first level goblin boss dropped a tier 1 spell, sleep. The feathered serpent on the second level dropped throwing dagger, +4 short blades, Charm: Invisible Throw, which Celeste took. The charm made the dagger invisible when thrown. Celeste had a thigh strap for a dagger and switched it in. We slowed down against the corrupted dwarves on the 3rd level but were never in any danger. The loot was a magic spear, +12 stength. We entered the iced lake next. None of us had to worry about getting pulled under the ice but we proceeded with Celeste in the lead. Her observant skill made it almost impossible to be surprised. We were actually doing better without Red. The croc boss wasn’t even that bad. Me and Celeste flying and Luna kiting it. The loot from the boss was a 300 aether crystal, two 100 health potions and a cuirass, +12 strength, Combat Action: Reflect Damage, cooldown 5 minutes. The reflect damage turned back 10% of the damage on the attacker, good, but none of us planned to wear a metal chest piece. So the wyvern. Should we attempt it?
After some discussion we decided to attempt it spread out. The ants were easy as after I cast fleet footed on myself we all had enough speed to keep distance. The wyvern focused attacked Luna this time. It couldn’t catch her with her superior speed and agility and after about 10 minutes it fell. The lot was great. A 1000 point aether crystal, 29 gold coins and a feathered serpent tattoo scroll, +15 agility, +15 speed, lightning breath, cooldown 10 minutes. This tattoo was small than the last two, 20 cm by 25 cm and pretty attractive. Red would like it. Celeste said she thinks she found the secret chest for the dungeon. Where? It was in a lava pool about 60 meters from the Wyvern. She saw the pool flash during the fight.
While we stared at the pool Luna said she didn’t think I had bad luck. What? She said she thinks Red was using he skills to divert attacks toward me. What made her think that. The monsters when we all were fighting, some had lined her or Red up for an attack but then diverted to attack me instead. She didn’t think Red was trying to kill me though, just using his abilities to keep the attacks on the tank for the party. It was something to ask Red about.
So how do we get the chest? Celeste cast her force screen and tried to wade in. she was protected from the lava but not the heat and turned back. I came up with a plan and excavated a deep hole nearby then created a channel to drain the lava from the pool into it. Success, the pool was very deep but a ledge 5 meters down held the chest. Ants suddenly started emerging from the pool. We started fighting and an ant tried to take the chest. Bloody thief! Fortunately it was only 3 worker ants and not the soldier ants. Our quick actions killed them before they got away. Luna grabbed the chest. Her synthetic flesh searing a bit. I moved it to my dimensional space and we used our stones to go back to the entrance.
Outside in the cool air I pulled the chest out and let it cool. Luna searched it for traps and found one which she disarmed, a moderate explosive trap. Celeste then got the honors of opening it.
Companion Scroll, Tier 5. 250 gold coins. Golden scroll for the leadership skill. Two 5000 point aether crystals. Folding Boat, Tier 3. The folding boat fit in my hand but if I bound it would be able to expand to a 9 meter long craft for 10 people. The craft had a small amount of magic propulsion as well. It should worth significant SYSTEM credits at the terminal. We set up the tent and rested while eating a meal of fried fish I had put in storage from town. The conversation revolved around Red, Luna’s observation of him pushing monsters on me during our adventuring did not sit right with Celeste. She was quietly angry and it was the first time she had this emotion. She said we should sell the tattoo rather than give it to Red. I said that wouldn’t be right. We shouldn’t sell items that could increase our crews power. Celeste stood up, stripped, took the scroll from the table and applied it to her bare thigh.
I was speechless. The tattoo looked good on her thigh. I touched it and was happy her skin was soft. Like bird feathers. Thank god she didn’t add a porcupine tattoo or sex would have been painful. My touching of her thigh led us to a passionate session of sex with Luna.
After finishing Luna said I should use the leadership skill scroll. Her reasoning was it would make the party stronger. Celeste joined in pressuring me and I caved, learning the skill.
Leadership
1
Associated Stat:
Chr
Leveling Effect:
increases party members attack and defense, +1% per tier
Level 7 Boon:
Not reached
if in the leader role increases the entire party's attack and defense, max party 5
It was a very good skill for parties. We decided leveling the skill was a priority. So that meant another dungeon run. It was a good dungeon as we got 1300 in aether crystals and used about 500 for our weapons as we relied on magic and melee mostly.
On our next run the loot stacked up in my storage and we added the magic to the sale pile. Scroll for Tier 1 Spell, Growth. Sickle +11 strength, +4 survival skill. Two handed sword, +20 strength, Combat Action: Thunder Strike. Helm +10 intellect, +5 Spellcraft Skill. Scroll of the Ice Alligator Tattoo, +20 Stamina, +20% cold resistance.
The tattoos were definitely going through the monsters in the dungeon. I convinced Celeste the tattoo would be very uncomfortable for Red. A cold scaly leg tattoo, his sex life would be terrible.
I made some estimates on what I could sell the loot for. I was guessing on the magic items. Maybe 100k not including the folding boat or coins. Luna had counted the coins, 1,909 copper, 380 silver and 342 gold coins. Total value was 79,818 system credits. We would get at least 60,000 credits with another dungeon run. We were doing better than most dungeon divers as we took every piece of loot dropped because of my dimensional space. It took about 9 hours for the run and resting and eating 7 hours to recover. I decided we would rest and run it a third time then head to the SYSTEM terminal.
On our next run the loot maxed out in my storage and we added magic items to the sale pile. Scroll for Tier 1 Spell, Ice Dart. Mace +15 constitution, +5 running skill. Long sword, +18 stamina, +4 constitution, Combat Action: Swift Parry. Helm +10 Luck. Scroll of the Ice Alligator Tattoo, +20 Stamina, +20% cold resistance.
A second tattoo scroll of the ice alligator? Well if Red did both he would have 40% cold resistance. Ok we did well. We had enough funds. We hoped into Carl and headed for Sand Bastion.
I decided to look for the ingredients to my health fortifier potion. I lay on Carl’s hood while we zipped over the land. Celeste was driving and when I stop she slammed on the breaks and I was flung forward, falling 5 meters down and rolling into some stiff bushes. Celeste jumped out worried and rushed to me. I was hurting a bit but just started laughing.
Eventually I harvested the plants. As we continued Carl activated the hiden forward cannon. It gave me something to hold on to. It took 7 hours to find all the ingredients. I had enough with the black and gold truffle to brew 11 potions. In the back seat I rolled around with Celeste and the tattoo feathery sensation was actually a huge turn on for me.
We put on our disguises entering Sand Bastion. We went to the scroll shop first. I needed 7000 credits to get me and Celeste into the SYSTEM terminal. They offered 4000 credits for the three tier 1 spells. Crap. I pulled out one of the tattoo scrolls and the vendor fell off his seat. I learned the aether tattooist skill was a dual stat skill and you needed a half dozen other skills to make good tattoos. He examined the tattoo, good artistic quality, decent buffs. He said 105,000 credits. Damn. I asked if he had SYSTEM credits. Technically you weren’t allowed to conduct business in SYSTEM credits. The Ballium Empire exchanged them at a 1 to 1 rate but SYSTEM credits were worth twice. After a few minutes I got 15000 Ballen credits and 70000 SYSTEM credit chips.
I spent 19,000 to drive in with my two companions. It left me with just 1000 ballen credits but I was ok. I had a tier 5 companion scroll and lots of loot. I was going to be here awhile. Guy was behind the desk as usual. I started with small talk and found that Guy actually lived on another planet. He worked 12 hour days logging into system terminal there and monitoring this specific terminal on this planet. It was the same job as the other 30 billion people on his planet had. There were 30 billion terminals. Guy said there was closer to 100 billion terminals with about 1,000 new terminals being added every week. There were four planets that had staff that serviced the terminals, about 120 billion people. My mind was more than blown. I asked Guy why work as a terminal staff? The pay was good and after 70 years the retirement package was excellent. His assignment was also easy. He usually had 3 or 4 customers a day. Most people didn’t want human interaction.
I said I appreciated his help. I brought out my 70,000 SYSTEM credits. First thing was to order the food chips. I had all the specific requirements on the pad from the crew and got the 32 chips. I went through and got another 18 chips for myself. I then asked Guy if he had any meal suggestions. He produced a list of the top 100 chips for humans and top 100 chips for glimmer elves. I added the top 10 meals for Glimmer elves. Then I looked over the human list. I didn’t recognize any of them. It would be fun to get them all and sample them. I had spent 30 thousand credits already.
I needed to see how much loot I had. I pulled all the crap loot out. Guy tabulated it 130,590 credits. I asked about the other tattoo, 12,000 credits. Huh? The scroll vendor gave me a great deal then. Tattoos typically couldn’t be purchased at a terminal was Guy’s explanation for its value. Ok I kept it for Red. Celeste had the coins. 90,890 credits. I still had the boat and produced it. Guy scanned it in a second, 75,000 credits. I couldn’t think of a reason to hold on to it. 336,480 was my total bank, about half of that from the secret treasure chest we found. I got the top 100 human meals and added the top 30 human drinks and top 30 human deserts. 80,000 credits.
My mouth was watering while I scanned the list. I asked Guys personal top 12 meals and bought those chips as well. That should be good.
Next we needed the ice melter. Guy suggested a tunneling bot made specifically for ice. 150,000 credits. The robot was 3 meters high and 2 meters wide and 2 meters deep. It was an excellent bot that could also mine tunnels in earth and rock with a 40,000 upgrade. I thought about my escape tunnel and was tempted. The robot required 10 aether crystals per hour to operate. The earth and ice would be condensed to wall, making the tunnels safer. That sold me. I bought the robot. I had just 60,480 credits left.
I bought Celeste some power armor for 50,000 credits. It added +100 strength, +100 agility, +100 speed and was a self contained suit. It required 5 aether per hour to operate. The battle armor wasn’t overly bulky but Celeste complained it took her too long to get in and out of. I bought two new aether rifles for Celeste and Luna, costing 5000 aether each. And that tapped me out.
The companion scroll was last. Celeste immediately suggesting adding a new companion. One who had psionics. She was hinting at replacing Red. Luna said it would make sense as it would increase our combat power.