Chapter 17. System Rewards.

As Silas opened the rewards chest, a System prompt appeared.

The rewards chest may only be accessed by you, or any companions that you’ve granted permissions to. A limited quantity of items may remain secured inside the chest, and the amount of storage space will increase as you gain higher Tiers and Ranks.

By interfacing with the chest, you may peruse its contents and sort which items you wish it to display. To retrieve an item, simply reach inside and mentally request what you wish to take. The location of your rewards chest may be changed through the administrative interface.

The chest itself appeared empty as Silas fiddled with the controls. There were two main settings that should work for now, and he could fine tune them later when had more stuff stored inside. For now, he had the chest list off any new items he hadn’t seen before, which in this case, was everything inside the chest.

Reward Chest, new inventory.

1. Copper coins, 50.

2. Silver coins, 5.

3. Gold coins, 1.

4. Rifle magazine.

5. Companion collar.

Interesting, it looked like simple coins were the main currency in this odd place, just like Gritvart had mentioned. Until he priced out some things, he had no idea how much each coin would be worth. It was too bad he only had the goblin merchant to bounce pricing information off of, the guy didn’t seem like the most up and up salesman he had ever run into.

Two other things, beside the coins, were inside the chest. The first item was a magazine for his rifle. Silas pulled it out first. It looked like a well-worn, basic aluminum magazine for his M16.

This one was a 30-round magazine instead of the smaller, 20-round ones he currently had. He was happy to see that it was also fully loaded, though the rounds looked a bit strange, with the tip of each round glowed a reddish-orange color. A System prompt explained his new prize.

Flame Strike rounds. This magazine contains 30 rounds of standard 5.56 ammunition that has been infused with flame mana. When fired, these rounds inflict a burning wound on the target, causing a damage over time effect that lasts for 5 seconds. This magazine is single use, and when the last round is fired, it will disappear. The magazine is not compatible with your Ammo Dump skill.

“Nice, Buster, it looks like we got the magic equivalent of white phosphorous rounds. This is for me, but it looks like you got something as well,” Silas said replacing a spent 20 round magazine from his bandolier and replacing it with the magic one. He’d keep a standard magazine in the weapon for now and reload his existing magazines before he left.

He pulled the collar out from the chest, receiving another helpful System prompt that explained the item.

Spiked Companion Collar. When equipped, this collar will reflect 10% of the melee damage that your companion receives back to the attacker.

The collar was a simple, black leather design with short, metal spikes around it. Silas tested a spike, and found that it was rather dull, but the effect was a magical one, so he would just have to trust that it would do what it claimed. He hoped that Buster wouldn’t get up close and personal with their foes that often, but at least the collar would help to penalize anyone that tried to hurt his buddy.

Buster nudged the collar in Silas’ hand, and it instantly equipped itself around his neck. The dog’s old collar clattered to the ground, and Silas scooped it up so he wouldn’t forget to bring it home. Buster seemed to like his new gear and strutted around the room like he was putting on a fashion show.

“Hold up there Zoolander, don’t forget to add that to your armory loadout so you don’t accidentally bring it home and have it destroyed,” Silas joked with his friend. Buster was smarter after gaining a class and followed Silas’ instructions by trotting into the armory and equipping his loadout on his own.

“Wow, you are a smart pup now, aren’t you, Buster. I wish Lisa could see you now,” Silas said. Lisa had always been trying to teach Buster tricks, but he never quite got the concept and would participate only for as long as the treats that Lisa liked to give him held out.

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A final inspection of his reward chest showed that he hadn’t missed anything. About the last thing on Silas’ agenda before he left this place was to visit Gritvart. He wasn’t all that excited about shopping at the goblin’s little stall, but it would be rude to not at least check it out. In addition, he could hopefully pick the goblin’s brain about this place and the System while he shopped.

Requesting his coins, Silas was happy to see that they appeared in a sturdy leather pouch when he retrieved them from the chest. He shoved the coin pouch inside one of the cargo pockets on his pants and headed back into the hallway. The door to his headquarters shut automatically, and the locking bolt slid into place with a satisfying thunk.

“Silas, come on down and show me some of that sweet loot you got don’t forget that I’ll buy anything you don’t want to keep!” Gritvart shouted down the passageway. Silas waved back his shouts as he strolled down the passageway toward the battered merchant stall.

“So, Silas, what can old Gritvart interest you in today?” Gritvart asked.

“I’m not sure, most of this stuff probably doesn’t exist on my world, or at least it would have a different function,” Silas admitted as he looked through the offerings.

“Can I make a suggestion?” Gritvart asked.

“Okay, here it comes, sure, Gritvart, suggest away,” Silas grumbled figuring the high-pressure sales tactics were about to be unleashed by the goblin merchant.

“Woah, why the hostility. Show me where some mean salesman hurt you back on your world,” Gritvart taunted back, his face scrunched up in annoyance at Silas’ comment. Silas immediately felt bad, the goblin hadn’t done anything wrong, at least not yet, and had been somewhat helpful. He’d give him the benefit of a doubt, at least for now.

“I’m sorry, Gritvart, my world does have some rather unscrupulous merchants, but you’ve been good to me so far,” Silas admitted.

“No worries, we’re all friends here. So, as far as products you might be interested in. Who doesn’t need a magical blade. I have this Iron Dagger of Sharpness that isn’t too costly for a new guy such as yourself. After all, that gear from your world isn’t going to last long here. I’m surprised it hasn’t seized up or outright broken so far,” Gritvart offered.

“I’m good as far as weapons so far. My class offers my gear some protection against spells and all that. Oh, that does bring up one thing. Do you think you can source me some ammunition? I can bring it from home, but I’m worried about how long it would last here, and would rather not have to lug it through the portal each time I came here from home,” Silas asked.

“Ammo eh, that’s a merchant’s best product. Why sell a guy an unbreakable sword once, when can sell him ammunition forever! Hmm, I’m not familiar with your weapons, maybe you can give me a sample and I’ll send it back for our product development team to work on,” Gritvart offered.

Silas was a bit concerned that by giving up a sample, he might be arming a future goblin invasion. From what the System had implied, anything that could fire modern ammo wouldn’t function very well outside of a specialized class like Silas had. Pulling out a magazine, Silas popped out a standard rifle round, a pistol round, as well as one of the new flame rounds.

“That’s some craftsmanship, there, Silas. I’ve got to get a peek at your world sometime. I bet you have some interesting things that’ll sell well on other worlds. Just so you know, the R&D boys will probably destroy the samples while they work, so I hope you can live without these,” Gritvart said as Silas passed him the ammo.

“I figured as much. How long do you think it’ll take your people to make some ammo for me?” Silas asked.

“Eh, not really sure, but I should have an update, if not a final product, by the time you return. As far as working on an ammo source for you, Silas, it’s not something I can do for free. I will need a deposit to offset the hourly wage of the goblin engineer assigned to the project. Considering we have the potential for future sales, I’ll make the deposit a nominal one, how about one silver. After all, I have to show my boss that I’m not working for free here,” Gritvart said.

“I guess that makes sense. Just how does the monetary System work, you know, how many copper coins make up a silver and all that. I’m putting some trust in you here, Gritvart, don’t make me regret it,” I said, handing over one of my silver coins to him.

“I’m as trustworthy a goblin as you’ll ever find. As far as the coins are concerned. It’s a hundred to one for each denomination. So, a hundred copper make a silver, and a hundred silver make a gold. With that out of the way, and our outstanding R&D department working on your ammo project, how about purchasing something that’s already in stock?” Gritvart asked.

I looked over the cart and wasn’t all that interested in the simple weapons like the dinged up shortsword or the dagger he had tried to sell me earlier. The food wasn’t all that appealing either, but I did feel kind of obligated to buy more meat sticks. At least the naga guy seemed to like them so maybe I could use them as trade fodder for the naga.

There was some ammo for bows or crossbows, which reminded Silas of the Montagnard crossbows that they had used to some effect back in Vietnam. He had no need of that, or for the rather small leather chest armor sitting on floor in front of the stall. There was that odd stone figurine which he was curious about.

“Gritvart, how much for some of the meat sticks, and should I even ask what meat exactly goes into making them?” Silas asked.

“There’s a good sale on those right now, and with your discount, I can do three sticks for five copper,” Gritvart offered. Silas paid the goblin ten copper and picked six of the meat sticks from the box they were sitting in. Buster whined, but they were heading home after this, and he didn’t want Buster to spoil his appetite on nasty goblin meat sticks.

“What’s the deal with the little figurine?” Silas asked.

“Ooh, you got a good eye for quality Silas. Tell me, buddy, how much would you be willing to pay to save your life?” Gritvart asked.