37) Stick a fork in me

Between using up what Foraker had done for us, and pushing life into both of our wounds, I was up on my feet well before my hour on my own was up.

After straining my aching back setting the cart back up in case I needed the gun built into it, and finding my shotgun and reloading both of the guns, I get my knife out and start gutting the dead Imps to get their stones.

Of course, Wylina didn’t bother waiting for me. As soon as sealed up the cuts on her belly down to bright pink but closed up scores on her flesh, she was up and digging into the closet imp with her claws and teeth.

“You can have half of them. But it might be easier to let the guy with thumbs and a knife dig them out.”

She stopped to give me a long stare, then kept digging in. But I think she understood enough that she didn’t seem to be in as much of a hurry.

By the time I finally start digging into the remains and take a moment to try to keep my breakfast down, I see her pull something out of her imp’s chest and swallow it down.

After that, she seems satisfied to stand watch looking down the ramp instead of digging out more.

Maybe she had been that close to some goal for whatever spirit beasts have for classes and just wanted to hit it since we were still in a dangerous situation right now.

Speaking of which… well I’m pretty sure I leveled up as they call it. But I wanted to make sure all the pain, suffering, and scared shitlessness I had just gone through that still had my hands shaking didn’t go to waste.

The official team had been given the same sort of cameras I had seen some cops being required to carry.

All cores are supposed to be handed over to the government, and now they were putting measures into place to get every last one they could steal. That's the one thing the people in charge managed to get done on a national level.

So, no. I'll put being greedy and get mine while I can over being safe by taking a moment to check on my level.

Should I claim the bomb blew up the cores? ...no. I want more bombs.

I’ll tell them none of the ones up near the exit here had cores, I’ve read they sometimes the ones in the dungeons didn’t.

The theory is that the monsters the dungeons make grow their cores while in the dungeon and can't leave until they get one. So there are always some of the monsters still in the dungeon to defend the things while all the ones with cores go out and get killed.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Regardless, all the dead ones on the ramp, all seventeen of them, eighteen counting the one Wylina had dug into, had cores. They must have all been waiting near the entrance to possibly chase someone outside again.

...was that something the monsters had planned out, or was it like in the books people had written that the core of the dungeon was ordering them around?

In either case, I had just enough time to get all the imp’s cores, consider short changing Wylina since I wasn’t sure if she could count, and then offered up eight of them to her in a pile a few minutes before the hour was up.

She eyeballed them. Huffed, and pulled one of them over to herself before pushing the rest back toward me with her nose.

I stared at her for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on in her head, as she stared back with her paw resting on top of the one she had taken.

“I’m guessing you trust me to decide what to do with them?”

She huffed, then pushed the last one closer to me before setting her paw on it for a moment before sitting back on her haunches.

I collected the stone she wanted me to take. “But that one’s yours, and you want me to hold it for you since you don’t have pockets?”

She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes before sneezing and turning her head toward the entrance of the dungeons.

I pulled the last of the cores still sitting out, Wylina's, into my storage just in time to see the Smiling guy as he came striding into the dungeon, chemical beakers filled with something slightly yellow held in either hand with burning rags stuffed into them.

“God dam Harry! You liquefied them… Shame it shattered all their cores, huh?”

Turning his body so the camera hung on his chest was pointed away from me, he began pointing at the body and making flipping motions with his hands.

...what? I raised my hands to show my confusion. Which got him to make a pulling motion at his chest, and then point at the dead imps again.

Oh. The big holes in their chest might be a bit of a giveaway that I had made an effort to cut all of them open and he didn’t want that to be seen on the camera, but that sounded like a lot of work.

"Yeah, I went and checked all of them, but none of them had cores. No sign of them getting broken or anything, so there's no reason not to use a bomb again… and it's a dame shame I accidentally caught my shotgun on the trigger for the bomb I was transporting since I'm not supposed to use military weapons."

Smiley tapped the side of his nose as Beryl stood behind him rolling her eyes. Yeah, women, it's bullshit and a paper thing excuse for anything. But even implausible deniability is worth some effort.

Since I was barely standing on my feet after healing up the worst of my cuts and bruises, I decided to stay up on the ramp with my cart in case the other five had to head for the exit in a hurry.

Besides, no one felt like clearing enough of the mess on the ramp to get the cart through it, and I don’t think I could move around all that fast without it to lean on.

Not that I was going to admit it. The ‘guard the exit and can’t get the cart down the ramp’ was the excuse I was going with. So, "No Brea… Brad, don't worry about trying to clear the ramp. I'll just stay up here with the cart."

Stop trying to be helpful you big idiot.

“Yes, I’m sure. And you won’t be able to finish this if you throw you’re back out.”

Just frecking go dumb ass.

Beryl finally got him and the rest of her team moving.

A short while after they took a turn at the bottom of the ramp to the left, I began hearing gunshots echoing through the dungeon several times over the next hour. Mostly just one or two shots at a time, then very dimly several shots all at once.

Then a box appeared in front of me.

[ The Riotous Factory Core has been destroyed ]

[ 5 exp points awarded ]

[ The Riotous Factory Dungeon will be dismissed after all remaining team members have exited the Dungeon ]

I clenched my fist on the handle of the cart and grinned. It was finally over, at least for now.

Wait… I’m not part of the team, if they leave before I do, what happens to me?

"I mean…" Wylina looked up at me. "The boxes seem to have their act together, so I doubt either one of us would be trapped in here if they leave first. But let's not take any chances girl."

Not that I was going to rush out. I had said I would guard the way out. But I was out of here the moment they got to the end of the ramp.