“Achievement: Baby's First Quest

Look at you, you've completed your first quest.

Your reward is: Fifty gold.

It's more money.

Achievement: Like a Boss

You showed a boss who's boss.

Your reward is: ‘Like a Boss’ Bumper Sticker Decal

Put this on the back of your vehicle to show others you are not someone to be screwed with.

Achievement: Double the Pleasure

You managed to kill two enemies with one rocket.

Your reward is: Reduced reload time on rocket launchers.

When a rocket launcher is equipped to your vehicle, its reload time is automatically reduced by ten seconds.”

I stared at the menu screen as Tooty read out each achievement. “Wow. Those are all kind of lame considering what I had to do.”

Harvey took the chest out of my trunk and placed it on his workbench. Apparently when I drove over items, they were automatically stored in my trunk and could only be accessed at a garage. “Yeah well, that's how it is kid. When you start doin’ more impressive stuff, you'll get better rewards.”

Opening the chest and looking side, Harvey’s eyes grew wide. “Holy Torque. You got yourself a good haul here.” He reached in and pulled out a thick brown sack that jingled as he placed it on the bench. “That is a fair bit of gold.”

“Enough to pay you back?” I shut the door and walked over to the bench.

“We’ll see.” He reached in again. “Nice, haven't seen one of these in a while.” Out came a metal spool with a long slimy rope wrapped around it. As Harvey held it up some of the slime dozed off of it. “This is a Mimic Tongue Hook. Latches onto your target and is almost impossible to shake loose. I can definitely sell that.”

“For how much?” I asked.

Harvey shrugged. “Two thousand easily.” He put the rope next to the bag and reached in again. This time he pulled out a gatling gun that was at least twice the size of the chest, but he pulled it out easily and placed it on the ground. “Standard gun. Useful but not worth much. I'd give this to you but it's too heavy for you. Ah, but this you can have.” He reached in again and pulled out a thin white box, the same kind that shirts and dresses came in when unwrapped on Christmas, and handed it to me.

“What is it?” I tried to peek into the box but Harvey put his hand on the top.

“Sometimes bosses drop items like this. It makes you look cool.”

“Why would I care about looking cool?”

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Harvey shrugged and then pushed me towards the door. “Just do it kid. I'll sort through the rest here.”

I walked into the atrium where Havarti was sitting at her desk with a book in one hand and her burning stick in the other.

Havarti looked up from her book and caught me staring at her. “Yes?”

“Harvey wanted me to change into this.” I held up the box. “Which uh room did I use last night?”

Havarti glared at me and then took a long drag from her stick. “The Dryad Room.” She gestured up at the line of heads above the doors and pointed at the one that sort of looked like a Medusa-head. I thanked her and scurried away.

Inside the box was a jumpsuit similar to what race car drivers wore, only in the ugliest of colors. It was pale yellow with bright pink stripes spiraling down the arm and leg sleeves. If you looked up the word tacky in the dictionary, this jumpsuit would be the picture next to it. That being said, the material was soft and lightweight. I put it on along with a pair of matching racing gloves and looked at myself in the mirror.

It was while looking in that mirror that I realized a couple things. The first was how baggy the jumpsuit was. It made my lanky frame look like I packed on weight on random parts of my body. The second was that I wasn't wearing my glasses. How long had that been? I definitely had them on when I entered this godforsaken place, but I never even noticed their absence, especially since I could still see perfectly. Wherever they ended up, it didn't make a difference. With my baggy jumpsuit that crinkled everytime I moved and unbrushed red hair, I was far from the definition of cool.

Havarti intercepted me as I tried to walk back to the garage. “Harvey said to eat first. Better make it a good meal, cause it's the last free one you'll get.”

I looked around and finally asked a question that had been pestering me. “Where is everyone?”

Havarti glanced at me over the book. “It's a starter zone. You're lucky you got to chat with that girl the other night.” She went back to reading as if that was a satisfactory answer.

When I had finished I entered the garage and saw that Harvey had the beetle suspended in the air and he was tinkering with something towards the front of the car. He turned his head as the door shut behind me. “Damn kid, I wanted to surprise you.” His eyes darted up and down taking in my new outfit. “That don't look bad on you. Bound to get you noticed.”

“Noticed by who?” I asked.

Harvey waved his hand dismissively. “Nevermind. Just give me a few more minutes here.”

Even on Earth, watching mechanics do whatever they did to a car was like watching a magician. Harvey's hands glided across the undercarriage of the beetle with a grace that you wouldn't expect from a bull-man. As he worked, he began singing to himself. I recognized it as a rap song from when I was in middle school. It was one of those ones that had a censored version on the radio, but when the dj played it at the school dance we'd all yell the expletive version much to the teachers' anger. My friends and I quickly learned that it was better to be in the middle of the crowd when we yelled, so we couldn't be singled out by the teachers.

When Harvey finished he pressed a button on the life and lowered the car. He then motioned me to the front. “Another gift, " he said pointing to the bottom of the cowcatcher. I shook my head not seeing anything. “Exactly, your enemies won't see it coming. I installed two basic semi-automatic rifles into the bottom of your car. Each one fires five shots before you have to reload. Get in your vehicle and I'll show you.”

I got in and Harvey ducked down by the door and pointed “There's a switch now on the back of your control column. First position, rockets. Flip the switch down and you can fire the rifles. To reload push the button underneath the trigger. You got that kid?”

I nodded and practiced flipping the switch back and forth.

“You can pull the trigger too?” Harvey said. “Guns don't fire in a garage zone. Now about your debt to me.” I was about to say something about how the quest was supposed to be payment when he handed me the brown bag of gold coins from before. It was noticeably emptier, but still had some good weight. “Put that in your glove compartment. That there acts like a bank and stores your money. I already put it to your menu so you can see how much you have.”

Altogether, after what Harvey gave me and what I earned from my achievementsI had 353 gold. Part of me wondered how much that was worth in Earth money, but I knew it didn't matter since I wouldn't be able to bring it with me if I ever escaped from here anyway.

“Now, without any more distractions, I think it's time to explain to you the main quest of the floor.”

“Actually,” I interjected, “I need to know how to arrange these menus on my console so I don't risk killing myself trying to do it later on.”