You have killed an Emerging Dungeon, you gain [error: data not on file]

Contacting central database [error: connection not established]

Accessing relevant information

Establishing equivalence to [error: no equivalent creature on file]

Contacting central database [error: connection not established]

Querry

Will Chuck Dorval allow deferment of experience gain until connection to the central database is established? Yes/No?

Well, I’m still alive, and those messages make it sound like I won. So I’ll take that and not complain.

Yes.

You have killed an Emerging Dungeon. You gain [deferred] experience point.

You have done [not on file] connecting to [action canceled: recurring error] [establishing background connection check to central database] [creating an alternate process for non-established actions]

You have killed an Emerging Dungeon. You gain [deferred] experience point.

You have done something unrecorded, congratulation.

You are rewarded with: Dungeon Core, inactive.

You are rewarded with: 10,000 dollars

You are rewarded with: stone sword x 4

You are rewarded with: Health and Behavioral Studies building

Do you wish to assign rewards to the entire party? Yes/No

Don’t you even think about it.

Yes.

What the fuck is wrong with you? You did the hard work. This is your reward, not those losers’.

Please assign rewards to be distributed

The building is easy. I’m not staying, so I open it for them to decide who gets it. The money I split evenly among us. The swords, like the building, I set for them to decide.

The dungeon core…

I don’t know what that is. And for once, I want to look it up, but I can feel the other’s eyes on me, demanding to know what’s taking so long. From what I can tell, they know we won, since the building stopped changing, but they don’t get the system message until I assign everything. If they can tell I keep something, this might turn ugly.

Who fucking cares! Have you looked at them? They want to start something, just kick their ass until they get the message you are the boss.

I keep the dungeon core. If the message tells them. I can explain I want to research it. Terry’s been on my case about being smarter about stuff. Well, Virgil seems like that too, so hopefully he’ll get it. If not…

You kick their collective asses.

I accept the assignment and dismiss the window.

Quest: Food for the Future, Completed

Harrisonburg is in dire need of setting up farms to feed its current and future population, but the best land for it is currently under an unknown threat. Remove that threat by any means you are comfortable using.

Quest Generated by the Town of Harrisonburg

Rewards: Improved relationship with the Town of Harrisonburg. 20,000 experience points, 2 attribute points, 3 skill points, 1000 dollars.

Consequence of refusal or failure: none

Return to the mayor of Harrisonburg for your rewards.

I dismiss the window, let out a breath, glance at my full willpower bar, and turn, readying myself for their assault.

They’re by the door, looking at me. The expression isn’t fear, but I can tell what it is. Confusion? Amazement? Anger?

“You’re not taking the building?” Virgil asks. “You know what being the system owner of one can get you, right?”

“No, and I don’t care. I’m leaving soon, so it’s not going to do me any good.”

“You could make a lot of money selling it,” Walter says.

“System ownership means you could turn this into the center of a settlement,” the orc says. “I’ve seen people kill each other when they thought they’d found one.”

“Then they can try to kill you.”

Virgil chuckles. “Only one of us can take it. You guys okay if it’s me?”

“Hey, if it’s your name on the deed, it’s you they’re coming after,” Walter replies, grinning. “Just make sure your will leaves it to me.”

“You’re lucky Jim’s still unconscious,” Janice says. “He would fight you for something like that.”

“How long until you can heal him back to consciousness?”

“Five minutes, maybe more, until my mana regenerates enough to heal him again.”

“The swords?” he asks them.

“We’re selling them, right?” Walter replies. “So it doesn’t matter who takes them.”

Virgil nods. “If not for the building, it would feel like a bad reward for everything we went through. I’d have at least expected there to be something dungeon related, since he talked about it.”

“Not a game,” Janice says, saving me from saying something that’s going to make them suspicious, “so you can’t expect everything someone says to be a clue to a greater quest line.”

“What’s a quest line?” I ask.

Walter takes some of Jim’s weight. “It’s a series of quests, all related to one another. You finish one, and the next one opens up. They’re used to guide you through the tutorial, or get you to explore the game’s story, culminating in a boss fight and big rewards. But like Janice said. This isn’t a game, so I doubt they’re a thing.”

“Last chance to change your mind about the building,” Virgil tells me.

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I shake my head and get a notification the rewards have been assigned. Virgil took everything.

I keep myself from breathing easier. Virgil’s not an idiot. He already said he thinks there should be more. He’s going along with this, waiting to ambush me. That’s probably why he asked about Jim. He’s the only able to move without me seeing it, and—

I notice the debuff in the upper corner. It’s pale and green, barely turning yellow, and I recognize the symbol. Me, surrounded by people out to kill me.

No. Not this time.

I will it away at the cost of a fifth of my willpower. Not bad, but considering that it heads to red as the intensity increases. How much will it cost me to stop it when it’s red, or just orange?

And how come you noticed it this time and not the last one? My father asks. I think the system’s trying to con you into thinking you have some control.

I glance at that corner, expecting to see the icon back, because that’s exactly what paranoia would say, but it isn’t there.

Can I have paranoid thoughts without the debuff appearing?

“Chuck?” Virgil calls from the other side of the doorway. “You interested in getting out of here?”

That’s code for ‘get off my lawn’.

I head for the door. “Yeah.”

* * * * *

There’s something different with the air outside the building. No, the atmosphere. It’s the same overcast sky as when we went in, but it’s…

“You guys feel that?” Walter asks.

“It’s the sense of loss I’m experiencing,” Jim grumbles. He’s been complaining since waking up and looking at his system message. He bitched at Virgil about taking the building while he couldn’t make a bid for it, then spent the rest of the time in the building glaring at me for some reason.

Virgil ignores him, and I ignore the glare he gives me.

“Is it my imagination, or does it feel safer?” Janice asks.

“It’s definitely safer than what we went through inside,” Walter replies.

“That’s not what she means,” Jim replies. “It’s like some impending doom’s lifted or something.”

“The boss said he needed this area to go wild,” Virgil muses. “You guys think that’s what we were feeling these last weeks? This place getting ever closer to being wild?”

“The wild doesn’t feel like that,” I say absentmindedly.

“Maybe it doesn’t to you because that’s where you belong,” Jim snaps.

“Jim, can it,” Virgil orders.

With a snort, Jim leaves. “You know where to find me once you’re done looking to suck his—”

“Jim!” Janice exclaims, offended.

Jim’s name flashes in the party window, then disappears.

“I guess that with the mission done, there’s no reason to stay a party,” Virgil says. Janice and Walter leave the party and follow Jim, although they don’t catch up to him.

The orc looks at me. “It’s been… interesting.” He’s waiting for me to respond, but I don’t feel like it. He chuckles. “You’re not kidding when you say you’re not good at being social. That’s where you respond with something like. It was fun. Or I hope we can do this again.”

“I know that convention. I just don’t care about it. We both know this isn’t going to happen again. Not just because I’m leaving the city, but because I’m not someone you want to be around with. There isn’t a lot of good that comes from being this way. But one thing I do like is that I don’t have this need to be polite, or nice, or let people think I like them.”

“Ouch.” Virgil winces. It’s exaggerated enough I think it’s an act. “Not exactly wrong, but ouch anyway.”

I shrug. “I’ll tell you something I do mean. If you trust them, take care of them. If you don’t, don’t wait until Jim plants that dagger in your back.”

“He’s not—”

“I know his kind. He’ll be all nice. Anytime you call him out on something he says against you, he’ll play it off as a joke. They’re going to get ever more biting, and at some point, it’s going to get physical.”

“You don’t know him. Jim’s got problems, but he’s a good guy deep down.”

“Okay.” I turn and walk away. “Have fun.”

* * * * *

I’m attacked by three packs of animals leaving this part of the town. If it’s less wild, no one’s told them. They run off once a quarter of them are dead, but I now have the confirmation my Employee of the Month armor’s done for. I still check the vest to make sure.

System Query: Walmart Employee of the Month vest, bound. Quality: Trash

Only granted to those who have pushed themselves to the limit for their master. Absorb 20 points of damage per hit. Add more pieces for additional effect.

I query the system about quality.

System Query: Item quality

All items come with a quality assigned to them. The quality represents a combination of their durability and effectiveness. The qualities, in order of lowest to highest are: Trash, Poor, Okay, Normal, Good, Fine, Superior, Excellent, Masterwork, Legendary

Yep, it’s trash alright. The only piece that isn’t isf the mask, but by itself it doesn’t do me any good. Can something like this be repaired? Right, it’s no longer reading my mind. I ask the system.

System Query: Repairing items

Items can be repaired by someone with the appropriate skill(s) and material. Ordinary items require ordinary material, while enchanted items will require additional material and/or skills to repair. Repair will raise the quality level by one rank per repair session until it is at its starting rank. Repairs cannot raise the quality beyond its starting rank (see Improving Items)

Okay, so what would be needed to repair a dungeon made armor that’s definitely enchanted?

I pull the core from my inventory and look at it. It’s crystalline, somewhat cloudy with a bluish tint, and fits comfortably in my palm. I focus on it.

System Query: Dungeon Core, Quality: Normal, Type:

The Dungeon Core is where all dungeons start from. Cores can appear naturally when the concentration of the required elements is high enough, or be manufactured. To activate a dungeon core, it must first be primed by implanting a creature’s energy imprint on it. The higher the intelligence of the creature chosen, the higher the potential of the dungeon will be. Once primed, the core must be implanted with the environment to become the dungeon.

If the environment comes with delineations, the dungeon will begin its existence within those limits and will need to grow to expand beyond them.

System note: Dungeon can only exist in areas designated as wild. The presence of a dungeon makes it impossible for an area to lose the wild designation. Attempting to bring a dungeon into being in any other area will fail and may result in the destruction of the core.

Perception check successful: This core does not have an imprint.

That scientist was looking to put himself into that? I shudder at the thought of being a building. Is this how the Walmart happened? Was it someone before? It certainly sounded like a person.

How is an imprint put on a Dungeon Core?

System Query: Imprinting

Some items require to be imprinted from a living entity before they can be activated. Imprinting is performed by taking the entity’s life force and placing it within the item.

System Addendum: Imprinting Dungeon Core

To place a life force within a Dungeon Core, requires the core to be in contact with the entity when it dies. Imprinting success depends on the quality of the core.

I send the thing back to my inventory. Not that I want a dungeon—

Come on, how fun would it be? Imagine making a Walmart when you get home. Talk about easy power.

Not that I want a dungeon, but having to kill someone to make it work? Fuck that.

I look up, and the city hall is in sight.

I reach it and it’s a bustle of activities as people clean the damage I caused yesterday. Fuck. It was just yesterday? There’s an attempt to stop me, and I… move them aside. I might have been forceful about it. Then there’s someone running ahead and up the stairs each time it’s clear I’m going up one more flight. Then they’re before the door of the conference room, looking terrified, but they raise their fists.

“You’re serious?” I ask. The guy’s sixty kilos soaking wet with stones in his pocket. I’m going to break him if sneezing too hard.

“I can’t let you though.” His voice shakes hard enough to make what he’s saying tough to understand.

You’ve got to admire the stupidity.

Of course, you’d see it as stupidity. Fuck, the guy’s brave.

Just kick—

“How about you let the mayor know that Chuck’s back?”

He lowers one fist and knocks on the door without moving otherwise.

“What is it?” a man in a suit asks, frowning at the back of his head and at me.

“He says he’s here to see the mayor. His name’s Chuck.”

“Let him in!” Georgina calls from inside and I move.

The guy waits until the last moment to get out of my way. Georgina’s assistant is already back next to his boss. She smiles at me. “Good work.” She motions to the colored map floating over the dodecahedron hovering over the table. It’s a hodgepodge of colors. Greens, yellows. Oranges, all surrounded by red.

That’s what the scientist was looking at. The map of the city. And he was probably waiting for the area we were in to turn red.

“I was worried for a moment,” she says, indicating a block that’s orange, but turns a yellower shade as I watch. “It went full red for maybe a minute, but then it moved back toward being civilized.”

“So I’m done?”

“You’ve done the job.”

I get a window telling me the reward I get as she hands me a stack of bills. Money’s still paper? Will the system just fabricate more when I pull what it’s given me as a reward? As if to confirm it, instead of the bills going to their on inventory slot, the nunber in the one slot that’s been tracking how much money I have increases by the amount of my reward..

“Now,” she says. “I’m wondering if you—”

“No.”

She pauses and studies me. “Chuck, we could really use your—”

“No.”

“I thought you still had to wait until you can leave, shouldn’t you—”

“No.” I state forcefully enough her assistant reaches for something behind his back. Okay, bodyguard.

“Please tell me why you don’t want to help us.”

I take my time planning my answer, and it costs me willpower, but I have plenty of it and she deserved some civility.

“I’m tired of dealing with people. Anything you ask me to do in the city is doing to involve dealing with them. I’m going somewhere in the wild to wait until my bar’s ready.”

“I could find something for you—”

“No.” I close my eyes, control my breathing. Watch my willpower trickle down. “I understand what you’re trying to do. You want to help everyone here and you’re hoping to appeal to my better nature. But I don’t have one. Me taking the time and spending the willpower explaining this to you is the best you’re getting.”

The silence stretches on and I fucking hope she’s going to be reasonable, because I’d hate to have to punch her bodyguard while leaving.

My father laughs.

“Alright,” she finally says. “I don’t agree about you not having a better nature, but I can see you’ve reached your limits. Thank you for your help, Chuck. Be careful out there, and if you change your mind about helping, my door’s open to you. No one will try to stop you.”

I breathe easier, turn to leave, realize I’m forgetting something.

“Thank you, Madame Mayor.”