It was good to be king.
It was also a metric shit-ton of work, more than he’d ever had back at the precinct.
On the other hand, he deserved this. In the sixty seconds between the end of the announcement and the tutorial starting, he’d gotten himself, his partner, the leader of the Raging Bulls, and two other cops he trusted to pick Hardcore. Then, he’d abandoned his partner and, with the others, clawed his way through the tutorial in just two days.
He’d spent the rest of the time putting the groundwork in place for Museumtown. His new class was perfect for the job, too. People saw only what he wanted them to see. They’d only ever seen what he wanted them to see. It was all about presenting the most appealing vision, following through enough to be trusted, and reaping the rewards—and he was good at reaping the rewards.
The Captain: Level Thirty-Seven
Class: Administrator
He hadn’t always been The Captain—even if he’d gotten the rank a few years ago, along with the precinct office he’d been striving for his whole career. Before he was The Captain, he’d been Officer West. He’d worked hard, and if nothing had changed, Captain was the farthest he could expect his career to go.
But a pile of money had a way of changing one’s priorities.
He had a deal worked out with the Raging Bulls, and if the end of the world hadn’t happened, the evidence needed to bring their boss to trial was going to go missing. Instead, they’d been thrown into the Hardcore Tutorial together, and the whole time, Saul had been politicking the other crooked cops and the gangster, trying to broker an alliance and get them to agree to his plan for the future.
Now, sitting on his ‘throne’ at the top of the Field Museum’s steps, Saul relaxed. It was good to be the king, and he deserved this. How could he not? He’d fixed the odds in his favor—just like he always did.
The door at the bottom of the stairs opened, and a single man entered. He cracked his neck, nodding in Saul’s general direction, and climbed the stairs. He looked terrible, even after the town’s only healer patched him up. Saul ignored the injuries for now. “How’d the push north go? Is Millenium Park clear?”
“Almost. The Bean’s a problem. We’re gonna need a second team to handle that one, but at least it’s another Field Boss, not a dungeon. We managed to get away,” the big biker said. He glanced behind the throne to the sealed and barred fog gate. “If we can’t clear The Bean out, I doubt we can handle Sue.”
“We’ll handle Sue when the time comes,” Saul said. “What hit you?”
“So, it was like this. Me and my boys stepped out of the Union Pier dungeon. We were worn out already, and these guys jumped us. One cold-clocked me with his hammer, then zapped me unconscious before I could recover. The boys ran back into the dungeon, but one of them caught a couple of class names. We’re gonna stop farming and hunt them down.”
“Who were they, Eddie?” Saul’s voice went cold, and his eyes narrowed.
“Voltsmith, Quartermaster, and Telekineticist,” Eddie rattled off.
“Rare-sounding classes. They’re Hardcore survivors,” Saul said. He shook his head. “You’re not going to hunt them down.”
“Like hell I ain’t,” Eddie growled. He pulled off his vest, revealing a wicked-looking, tree-shaped burn. “I got business with the Voltsmith.”
“So do I, Eddie.” Saul stood up. One of his squads cleared a dungeon, and his level ticked up. “We’ll both get our chance soon, but for now…Stick to the god-damn plan!” He screamed the last part, and Eddie recoiled.
As the idiot leader of the Raging Bulls fled down the stairs, a crude door screeched open beside Saul, and a man in a tattered cop uniform stepped in. Saul turned to face him. “Take care of this.”
At the sentence, a burst of magic surged from Saul’s eyes, and for a moment, his nameplate changed. Then the spell landed on his former coworker, shimmering around his fists. Saul looked up at his level and class and sat back down on his throne.
Yep, it was good to be king.
----------------------------------------
I left alone the next morning, sneaking out of Museumtown and heading northwest into Chicago. It felt strange not to have anyone watching my back, especially when I knew Eddie had survived, but there were some problems that only had one solution. I'd need more levels if I wanted to be ready for the Tier Two dungeons. So would Tori, but she and her step-mom disagreed about whether she should be clearing dungeons—and so far, Jessica was winning that fight.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
She was right. A fifteen-year-old girl shouldn’t be fighting monsters—not unless she had to.
But on the other hand, Tori was already stronger than half of the last Olympics’ weightlifters, and she had magic that was even more powerful. The world had changed, and the solution wasn’t to refuse to change with it.
I’d brought that up—my only contribution to the fight—and Jessica had snapped at me. “Hal, I am very aware that things have changed, but I refuse to send my daughter—“
“Step-daughter,” Tori interrupted again.
Jessica didn’t flinch this time. She kept going. “I refuse to send my daughter to her death. I just got her back, and I don’t want to lose her again. Is that so bad?”
It wasn’t. I hated to admit it, but it wasn’t so bad at all.
“You could come with us,” Tori said suddenly. “The four of us could thrash through a few Tier One dungeons and get some levels on you and Calvin. That’d help us out when we try a Tier Two.”
“No.” Something flashed across Jessica’s face. “No, I can’t leave. Too many people need me here.”
“Then let me go!” Tori screamed.
“It’s fine, Tori. I’ll see about bringing back something useful for you or Calvin. We’ll still be ready. In the meantime, try to talk to your step-mom—“
“I did that!”
“—in a calm, reasonable way. If you work on that, I’ll try to figure out a way to convince her, but if she doesn’t want you fighting monsters, I’m not going to argue with her.”
Finding an uncleared dungeon wouldn’t be too hard. I had a target in mind, though it was a weird one; The Riverwalk. Specifically, the boats by the Riverwalk. I’d had a good talk with Calvin, and based on what we’d seen as dungeons so far, they were going for iconic places. The architectural tour might yield the supplies I needed for my Voltsmithing, and a level or three would go a long way, too.
But when I got there, the dungeon was already cleared.
Its gate felt like an open mouth, and the boat sat there, bobbing up and down in the Chicago River. I touched the gate, and words appeared.
Tour de City: Cleared
Time to Reset: Six Days, Fifteen Hours
“Well, that sucks.” I’d been pretty sure this one wouldn’t be cleared. I had a backup plan, but it wasn’t ideal. It’d leave me exposed, and I couldn’t be the only one thinking about it.
I swung the Trip-Hammer over my shoulder and started walking.
----------------------------------------
The Bean had been busy.
I saw the first corpse just inside Millennium Park. It wasn’t Eddie’s—though I’d been hoping. It was a biker’s, though.
The boss sat unmoving on a concrete pad a hundred yards away. This wasn’t a dungeon; that was both a blessing and a curse. If this was too much, I could leave, but at the same time, I was exposed. Anyone could come along—and this close to Museumtown, ‘anyone’ included a lot of people I didn’t want to run into.
I took another look at the boss, taking a deep breath and getting ready.
Cloud Sentinel: Level Thirty-Five Field Boss
Impervious, all-seeing, and supreme in its domain, the Cloud Sentinel guards its territory tirelessly. The only thing stronger than its appetite is its inertia. Once settled, it can be almost impossible to move.
Field Boss - This boss has no dungeon. It stalks part of the overworld instead.
All-Inclusive - Attacking this boss will alert anyone nearby
That last bit was a problem. So was the bit about being impervious, and the part about its inertia.
I started working through a plan. The key would be getting it moving; once the shining silver statue that had once been The Bean got going, I’d try to maneuver it somewhere I could kill it. Perhaps Lake Michigan? Could I drown it? It didn’t look like it had a dedicated territory, but I couldn’t be sure. If it followed video-game rules, Tori could probably tell me, but—
The Field Boss [Cloud Sentinel] has been engaged!
A chiming sound rippled across Millennium Park. I had just enough Awareness to see something streak across the concrete pad the Cloud Sentinel rested on. A moment later, a dent appeared in the mirror-finish kidney bean. A man stood on the Field Boss’s far side, loosening his shoulders beneath a spotless white suit jacket, and flashed a grin at the boss.
He shook out his fist like the impact had stung. His voice sounded like a mix between a sports announcer and a social media star; every word dripped with excitement and self-satisfied bravado. “Bobby Richards, you have done it again!”
The gigantic kidney bean popped and rang like a bell as he rapped his knuckles on its side, listening intently. I watched, fascinated. He didn’t seem intimidated by the gigantic boss monster—just mildly annoyed that every tap sounded identical. I took a good look at his class and level.
Bobby Richards: Level 30
Class: Resonator
He kept tapping as he worked his way toward the Cloud Sentinel’s center. Then he stopped.
The dent fixed itself with a loud pop, and the Cloud Sentinel shifted into the air.
“Uh, whoops!”
The boss slammed into the ground. Concrete shattered, flying through the air. Some bounced off my shoulders; luckily, I was far enough away to avoid the biggest parts. Dust filled the air around the Field Boss. Rubble settled around it.
Then another dent appeared, marring its chrome surface. Bobby brushed a little concrete dust off his jacket; he was surrounded by rubble, but untouched aside from the dirt. He punched three more times, and a trio of divots appeared with an equal number of metal pings. I’d done dent fixes at Cindy’s, so I knew the sound well. The thing surged toward him. Concrete and rubble flew through the air as the Field Boss turned a circle to face the man with its widest spot.
The dents pinged out again, and the Cloud Sentinel slammed down.
This time, I actually saw Bobby rocket backward in a blur, then change direction. His movements were faster and more precise than anyone I’d ever seen, but even as he left a pair of new dents along the Field Boss’s surface, I knew it wouldn’t matter. He didn’t have the damage output, and if he couldn’t find the thing’s weaknesses, he wasn’t going to get anywhere.
Worse, if his attempt had warned any of Eddie’s folks, I wouldn’t have time for a second try at the boss. I groaned. I could try for a different dungeon, but we only had a couple of hours before the Tier Two dungeons opened. There was really only one option.
I pulled the Trip-Hammer from my inventory.