Chapter 13) The speed runner. Or, You just can’t help some people.

I was expecting another countdown for the next fighter trainee to start almost medially, but nothing happened.

York was gone without any sign of a new arrival, and I flew down the long hall to the entrance room to check if someone had showed up without any warning, but there wasn’t anyone there.

“Well… looks like I get a break for some maintenance. And I thought this job meant I didn’t have to do clean up anymore.”

I cleared out the remains of York’s opponents. Then set up an equipment spot in an alcove just outside the fighting room for a ghostly white roundish stone about half the size of the one I had made that York had used to kill the rabbit.

The club that had got added to the equipment list was different too.

The goblin club was a gnarled length of tree branch with the bark still on it, while the ghostly white version waiting for someone to arrive in the dungeon to make it real was polished and rounded, with a cut grid pattern on the slightly thinner end for a grip.

The staff, however, looked exactly like the spear without the metal poking part.

I put the staff up in the equipment room as a weapon, while the club got a spot in the hallway across from the alcove with the stone just outside the fighting room in case someone wanted to unlock them, but I didn’t think anyone would pick them out as one of the weapons they wanted to haul around.

Names for the weapons got carved into the walls above them as well.

As it appeared I had even more time to kill, I put instructions on the walls outside of the equipment room on how to unlock Singing and Calligraphy.

And outside the fire room for how to unlock Skinning and Cooking.

There was plenty of space out in the hall for instructions for any more skills that could become available.

...still waiting.

Up high in the equipment room, all the way over on the upper right hand corner of the wall you would see as you came in the gate I made an inscription.

1: Elaine York.

Then after a moment. I put down “Overachiever” as well.

Floating back, I had to wonder if there was room for all ten thousand people that were going to come through. But there was plenty of space up that high that I didn't think I would need for anyone else.

[ 10 ]

Oh good. The next customer.

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After the countdown hit [ 1 ] a big brute of a guy came out of the gate, fists raised and ready to fight.

“Hi-”

His head shot up to look at me, then he cut me off.

“All this stuff is mine right?”

Ah. “Well, yeah. I-”

“Skip.”

The man waved me away as he headed straight for the weapons, trying out the weight of the ax before dropping it to the ground, then trying out the mace with a few swings in the air and a growing look of satisfaction.

Rude. Well, I guess I'll let him ask for help.

Looking around the room I could see everything York had taken had been replaced, and the armor she had left untouched had been resized for Mr. Rude. Which made me wonder if I moved anything while in a body, would it stay after Rude left? Or vanish with him?

Lining the walls of the fighting room with various copies of the weapons and shields in all sorts of sizes might be interesting. Especially if I got what had felt like several hours between trainees.

Rude had pulled on the suit of leather with metal bands on it, and had strapped on a belt with a loop to hang the mace in and, the sheath for the sword, before turning and heading for the starter shelf. Where he grabbed and opened up the bag with Money engraved on the shelf in front of him.

He grunted and looked around for me. "Is there any more money?"

“No, but-”

“Skip.”

Well, I was going to suggest things like the notebook and ink would probably sell for something in the Planes of Slaughter, as would a few other items.

But other than looking around and grabbing a few odds and ends like rope and stuffing it in his bag, the man showed little interest in loading himself down with anything.

At the exit to the room, he stopped to look at me again. “The training rooms?”

“Well, you got four-”

“Skip. Just lead me to the first one.”

Fine. I floated to the swimming room. Where Mr. Rude just jumped in and splashed around as he tried to swim with everything on him until he gave up and began to strip down while still standing in the pool, dumping his soaking wet gear on the side before swimming around until he stopped to read something in the air in front of him. And grunted in satisfaction.

From there I wordlessly led him to the climbing room where he walked straight across and set to working his way up until he stopped to read and grunted again, then he followed me to the jumping room and unlocked Jumping.

He only spoke up again as I led him to the Fire Starting Room.

“Hey, I was told I only needed to unlock three skills.”

I stopped and floated there for a moment without saying anything until I could see him losing his patience.

Then I interrupted him before he could say anything.

“Skip.”

He looked surprised, then angry. “Fine. Explain.”

"I was given a list of four skills to make rooms for and told to help trainees to unlock three of them. But the first person was able to unlock all four. You can do the same or skip right to unlocking a weapon."

He took a moment to consider it, then grunted, “Yeah, I want it.”

I led him into the room, pausing by the fire starting box. “Flint and steel. Go start a fire.”

What he made was a pile of wood without anything small enough to ignite with the sparks from the striker and flint stone, and after a few tries he went back to the equipment room to grab a bottle of lantern oil which he dumped on the wood before showering it with sparks.

That got it going and gave him the skill.

“Next is fighting.”

I floated ahead to set him up with a will o' wisp, the only thing York had not fought, just to see what was involved.

Rude batted at it with his mace for a while, taking a few shocks of green trickles of electricity from it, until he got a solid hit that sent it to the ground and he stomped on it to finish it off.

Then he looked around to find me with a smug grin on his face.

“What’s up with these gates? I wasn’t expecting three of them.”

“The middle one dumps you in a city full of undead at dawn, with stronger ones coming out at night if you don’t make it out of the city. The right leads to a forest full of killer plants just after sunset that you have to escape before the more dangerous ones start waking up at dawn. The left one leads to a safe city surrounded by monsters that get tougher the farther out you go.”

He looked at the name of the gates I had carved into the walls next to them, then pointed at the words next to the right one the middle one.

“So you’re telling me to go to the Plane of Slaughter?”

“Yes?”

He flipped me off as he backed into the gate leading to the City of Tesero. Shrinking away and vanishing.

I did try to tell him. But some people just won’t listen.