Harvey was already waiting for me when I pulled into the garage. He was leaning up against the car lift with a smug look on his face. After I parked, I closed my eyes and waited for my pain and injuries to go away. As soon as they did, I got out of the car and slammed the door shut.

“You lasted longer than I thought,” Harvey said, clapping his hands.

“Were you expecting me to come back?”

“‘Course I was. No way you’d survive out there without some kind of weapon.” He eyed the beetle. “Truth be told, I expected the damage to be worse.”

“I hate this place,” I said under my breath. “Tooty said I could negotiate with you about upgrades.”

“You can.”

“So what do you want?” I asked.

Harvey shrugged. “Depends on what you want?”

“I don’t know. Something to defend myself. Something that’ll help me make it more than ten feet without being blown up.”

“Technically speaking,” Tooty said, “You traveled over a mile before you…”

“Shut up,” I yelled at her.

“Hey.” Harvey put up his hands in a calming gesture. “She’s only trying to help. Now, I got a question for you. Did ya’ manage to take out any of the minions while you were out there?”

I shrugged.

Harvey opened the car door and sat inside. He pressed a few buttons on the console controls before waving me over. “As I thought. Look here at your Social menu.” He pointed at the screen where a new menu icon had appeared. Achievements. Harvey selected it and a list popped up on the screen with Tooty narrating each one.

“Achievement: First Blood.

You have managed to defeat your first enemy.

Your reward is: Standard Red Car Paint.

This paints your car red. It can only be applied at a garage zone.

Achievement: Three’s a Crowd.

You have managed to defeat at least three enemies at one time.

Your reward is: Three gold.

Gold is money. It pays for things.

Achievement: Head On Collision

You defeated an enemy by ramming into them.

Your reward is: Rusty Steel Cowcatcher.

You know those fender looking things on trains. That’s exactly what this is. It helps push things out your way as you ram into them. This only works on enemies that have a combat danger of 2 or less. Any more and it’s like crashing into a brick wall. This can only be applied at a garage zone.

Achievement: Death by Nitro

You defeated an enemy using your car’s Nitro 1 ability.

Your reward is: Reduced Recast Timer.

One hour is reduced from your recast timer meaning you can now reuse Nitro 1 every five hours.”

Harvey whistled. “Four achievements. Not bad. And that cowcatcher…”

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“I have a question,” I interrupted. Harvey looked annoyed but nodded. “If this world has different races from different worlds, how come all the references Tooty makes are earth based?”

“Wow.”

“What?”

Harvey smiled. “Not many people notice. It’s just kinda funny. Anyway, everyone gets a different version of Tooty. Whichever realm you are from is which version you get. It’s like a personalized license plate.”

“Oh.” I had to admit, that was actually kind of cool.

“Now as I was saying. That cowcatcher can be pretty useful. ‘Specially with Nitro 1. I can install it for you for free. And the red paint so your car don’t look like a dumpster no more. Well more of one. Still, you probably want a bit more than that.” Harvey looked over at the corner of the room. “I happen to have something. It ain’t much, but it’ll do the trick for now.”

“What is it?”

“Let it be a surprise kid. And I’ll tell you my price once I’m done. Lucky for you, it’s in the same place as the teeth I need.”

The whole process took a few hours. During that time I got myself some food from the fast food looking restaurant and spent time in the biker bar entertainment room playing the pinball machine. When Harvey was done he came and found me and brought me back to the garage.

“Ta-da.” Harvey outstretched his arms and bowed. The beetle was now red with a rusted out cow catcher on the front and a god damn rocket launcher on the top. It was a miniature version of those square ones you see on ships with six holes that each held its own rocket. Harvey saw my stunned face and smiled. “Tooty, please give the kid the rundown on his new artillery.”

“Of course. Mr Walker, what Harvey has installed onto your vehicle is known as the Basic Six Rocket Rocket Launcher. The rockets are non-homing which means you need to aim well. To continue the explanation, please enter the car and take hold of the column.”

I did as I was told. Next to the steering wheel was a control column similar to the one that I had used during the tutorial. I grasped it and Tooty continued.

“As you can see there is now an aiming recticle on your windshield. Your new Basic Six Rocket Rocket Launcher can move in a full 360 degree pattern. Please move your reticle past the edges of your windshield.” I did and as soon as the crosshairs passed the edge a second screen appeared on the corner of the windshield.

“When not aiming from the front, a window will appear on your, well window, and allow you to see around you. You can only fire each rocket one at a time with a thirty second cool down between each launch. A single rocket will reload every two minutes. ”

I steered the rocket launcher up and down and side to side, careful not to press the red firing trigger on the front of it. I didn’t want to mess up another one of Harvey’s doors.

Harvey appeared at the passenger side window and bent down. “I take it you like it.” I nodded. “Good, now here’s my price. Before I only needed you to get me a single pair of the Mimic’s Teeth, which would’ve been pretty easy. But now, you owe me double. And no that don’t mean two pairs of teeth. Now you need to complete the whole track and bring the Queen Mimiccycle’s Loot Chest. That usually has some goodies in it. You bring that and the teeth, and we’re square. The quest has been updated in your menu. Questions?”

“No.” I gripped the steering wheel. “Let’s just get this over with.”

This time I was ready for when the Dragon’s Minions showed up. As soon as Harvey opened the garage door, I sped out of there and headed straight for the Mimic’s Dirt Track. As I drove, I kept one hand on the rocket launcher column and kept my eyes on the road as well as the screen waiting for any signs of danger. It was awkward and I kept having to adjust the beetle so it didn’t run into the guard rails, but I was as ready as I could be to face the minions down. Except they never showed up.

I looked everywhere with the launcher screen, making sure I went slow so as to not miss anything, but there was no sign of the minions. No cars, no smoke and definitely no whistling fireballs. In fact, the crash site from my earlier fight wasn’t there either.

“Tooty, where are the enemies?” I asked.

“Do you mean the ones you defeated earlier, or the Dragon’s Minions?”

“Both.”

“Well, after you defeat an enemy the, for lack of a better term, corpse and wreckage are cleared away soon after you leave the area. That makes it so they don’t become an unnecessary hazard for the next driver. As for the minions, it’s as I said before, they know exactly where you are at all times. There just isn’t a mob of them near you at this time, but if you stopped your vehicle and waited they would eventually catch up to you.”

I pressed a little harder on the gas pedal and the engine roared a little louder in response. “Yeah, let’s not do that.”

According to Tooty, the entire trip from Harvey’s House to the Mimic’s Dirt Track was about twenty minutes. In that time I continued looking out for any of the minions, though none showed up. I had Tooty turn on the classical radio station to help make the time go by faster and calm my nerves. There was just something about the soft strings that allowed me to breathe a little easier.

—

“We’re here Mr. Walker.”

Tooty’s voice knocked me out of tunnel vision and made me hit the brakes to slow down. The tires screeched as we came to stop.

“There is such a thing as slowly coming to a stop,” Tooty chided.

I looked around and saw nothing that would indicate we had arrived anywhere. The GPS also indicated that we had arrived, but there was no door or exit road of any kind.

“You’re just messing with me aren’t you?” I asked.

“Of course not. Look ahead of you. Do you see it?” On the road was a blue plus sign drawn into the asphalt. I had noticed a couple of them earlier, but paid them no mind. “That is a dungeon opening. They can only be accessed if you have the dungeon key, which was programmed by Harvey. Please pull forward so that the right front tire is on top of it.”

I drove forward a few feet and stopped. At first nothing happened but then the road in front of me dropped out and formed a ramp. The words “Mimic’s Dirt Track,” displayed themselves on the windshield and faded away.

“Oh,” I said awkwardly. “Thank you I guess.”

“You’re welcome Mr. Walker. Now please proceed forward.”