29) Plotting and planning

No one had any hard numbers, but it seemed like the old people that were going into the dungeons, weren't coming back out.

At least not more than once or twice.

There just weren't enough groups that could handle going into the damned things. And most of the old people getting pressured to go into them were just too old.

Everyone over seventy five had gotten a class and could go in the dungeons, but the older they were, the less likely they were healthy enough, or willing enough, to do any such thing.

Even the promise of getting healthier, or even getting to live longer didn’t mean anything to someone who needed a walker to get around.

Even with all my health issues, I'm just in need of some extra time and a lot of pills to be functional and independent. I'm not quite in need of a cane let alone a walker, I can hear well enough to not need a hearing aid, and my glasses are mostly just so I can read.

I’m not some geriatric action hero, but I can still do normal everyday stuff. Just more slowly, and with more pain and exhaustion afterwards.

The people that are healthy and willing to go in… there are just too many dungeons for them to handle.

They are trying to do too much and group by group they lose people to health issues, their families talking them out of risking themselves, or to the dangers inside the dungeons.

I think things are going to a whole lot worse before they get better, and it won't be too much longer until geezers like me who are at least semi functional are going to be forced into dungeons.

Dungeons that are only going to be even more dangerous than they are now by the time someone is willing to commit political suicide by being the one who marched old people into the dungeons by force.

So… I got to go back in. Now.

I need to rack up those condition points to become more functional while it's still 'easy'. And gain those levels to get those points until I’ve bought off all those conditions, and can spend points on other abilities.

Level five, ten, at some point I’ll be ahead and some dungeons will be easy for me all by myself. And if the people around here can get ahead of how fast the dungeons get harder, we can keep them from getting too strong.

At least in my area.

So I, myself, can do something, here and now. Even if the rest of the country goes to hell, I can keep the dungeons around here weak. And make my land a place where the people I care about… the person I care about, safe.

Bea.

No way the politicians in California are going to force old people, or even let them choose of their own free will, risk their lives. And in seventeen days or so, the dungeons will get more powerful, then again twenty five days after that.

How long until things fall apart, how long until Bea’s mom can’t get herself and the kid across the country to whatever safe place I can make?

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…I got no idea how to figure that one out. But let’s ballpark guess it as sixty days.

With five days between each trip into a dungeon, that gives me ten trips I can make to kill things and give those stones to the coyotes, the green girl, and my land once it wakes up.

Plus any other things I wake up…

I'm going to need them, aren't I? More spirits animals, and more plants.

There was a retaining pond that Reed used to collect frogs from behind the old superstore. Can I wake up a spirit of the water as well as the land?

I checked the time, it was late, and I was tired.

Tomorrow I needed to make some calls and some plans.

Bright and early the next morning, I released the beasts into the yard and then had to feed them since the rabbits took off as soon as they heard me open the front door.

Selective adaptation in action. I guess I should let the beast out the back door tomorrow morning so they could sneak around.

The Elysian Assisted Living Facility had a number on their website, which of course didn’t have a live person available no matter how many buttons I pressed. Even when I listened to the machine and pressed the right ones instead of mashing a bunch of buttons at once to get a random person who could transfer me to the right one.

That used to work.

I don’t bother to leave a message with them, instead, I tried the one Blondie left me written on the old whiteboard next to the fridge.

PFC Stanley Johanson.

“Hello?”

“Johanson, this is Harold Bright. I need a lift to the Elysian ‘waiting for death’ place. I’m not checking in, I just need to talk to some people about our next trip into the evil monkey’s hole.”

There was a pause. “Call it a half hour Sir. I’ll have to talk to the captain, but I will call you if anything changes.”

He hung up on me.

...well, that's done. Can't change my mind now.

“Guess I should take a shower.”

The big squarish jeep looking vehicle pulled up on time, I headed out to meet them. I tossed a clean Mr Rodgers shirt over at the foot of the tree and the green girl picked it up and arranged it so she could squirm into it as she slipped out of her tree.

She handed me another apple after I finished loading up the pups who had followed me out of the house.

I smiled at her and tucked the fruit into the front of my hoodie since I had filled up a little on waffles and bacon that morning. Since I felt like I could handle real food again I wanted to test my limits, at least as long as I was pushing Life essence into myself without regard to how it would overflow out of me.

The Land was up to twenty one percent now because of that, all without me passing out in my backyard after feeding it directly. I had figured out that it was taking up most of the overflow. Which was going to make it a lot easier on me, if longer, to wake up the spirit of my land.

The other soldier, Blondie’s regular buddy, gave the surrounding area a last look around after I climbed into the back seat before slipping into the passenger seat and the car finally pulled away with a little green girl waving at us before slipping back into her tree.

I thought over my plan. "I'm not planning on going in today, the dungeon that is, just planning.”

Blondie nodded without looking back at me. After a moment he broke the silence between the three of us I had rather been enjoying.

"May I ask what changed your mind Sir."

I mulled that over. It might help him get on my side…

“I got a granddaughter. If the rest of the world starts to go to hell, I want to do what I can to make this place safer for her if she needs a place to go. At least for a while.”

Then his friend piped up. “Why not go to where she… Right. Kami. Linked to your land.”

Yeah, no shit ‘Sherlock’.

He laughed. I clenched my lips as I realized that had been out loud.

After a moment, I spoke up to beat them to the punch.

“I want your Captain to make some calls. I want to annex the old house to the other side of me, the burned down one. As well as the old store on the corner. The more land I got, the more my powers can make safe.”

The two men glanced at each other before Blondie carefully asked me. “Safe?”

...I don’t want to say I’m waking up the spirit of the land. I’m supposed to be the god of the land, why would I need a spirit? So what's my play here… "The land I own is bound to me. It can resist the influence the dungeons have on the areas around them. But it has to be recognized by others as my land and eminent domain squatter bullshit takes seven years and doing improvements to the property.”

If I had declared eminent domain on the abandoned plot next door way back when, and no one challenged me on it, it would be mine now. The government goes along with things like that because no one pays property taxes on abandoned land, or makes it look like someplace you would want to live near.

They looked at each other again before Blondie spoke up once more.

“I’ll talk to the Captain Sir. But it might be quicker just to buy it yourself. A fruit made out of magic by a frankly adorable little dryad kid would probably go for a lot of cash Sir. Especially if you film the girl doing the thing with her hands.”

That got him a weird look from his friend who muttered something about an “Uncanny valley...”

I huffed out a laugh. “Child Labor? I’m appalled Blondie.”

But… money would be nice. And getting the land without owing the Captain a favor would be even nicer.

I guess that's just one more thing I needed to think about.