38 ) Over and out

It took long enough for the other five to show up that I was starting to get concerned…

That something may have happened to them, which might mean I would have to go looking for them, or that they had already left the dungeon somehow. Like maybe another exit appeared wherever they were once the core was wreaked, or they got the option to just get magically popped out of the place.

Since I could look out of the dungeon through the transparent gray barrier at the top of the ramp, I walked over to it a couple of times and looked outside to see if there was someone I could ask, but the guards who had walked me into the old factory were nowhere in sight.

I was just thinking about typing a text on my phone to Johanson and trying to get Wylina to carry it out of the dungeon. Once she got outside it could get a signal to send the text, and then she could bring it back after a few minutes, hopefully with a reply. But that's when I began to hear voices from down below.

A moment later the grinning guy came around the corner, followed by the other four.

All of them looked like they had been put through the wringer.

Brad's arm was tied up in a sling, while all of them had bandages wrapped or taped on various parts.

Foraker could heal up a wound even faster than I could, but her class could also start the healing and then let it run on its own at a slower rate while she moved on to start healing someone else. And it looked like she had focused on getting everyone started on healing up before going around again to get all of them fixed up enough to move under their own power.

The grinning guy waved up the ramp at me even as he began clumsily making his way through the mess still on the ramp. “The boss was eight feet tall Harry. And it had four arms. Sucker just plowed into us even after we started pumping solid slugs into it, and I set it on fire. My Fear effect didn’t do jack shit to it, so loan me a coyote next time.”

I stared at him and remembered that anyone could use a core on an animal to get a spirit beast. But he was the last person I would trust with an animal.

Then I sighed. That information was already out. “We’ll talk about it.”

He looked a little surprised, slipped off balance for a moment on something that squished under his feet, then grinned again.

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It took the rest of them a bit more time to work their way up the ramp since they were taking a lot more care with their steps, and Saunders took a moment to stare at me before pointing at the cart.

“We’re down range Mr Bright, if you could please turn that firearm to the side please.”

“Whoops. Sorry.” Even I should know that much, but it wasn’t like I had the army rifle in my hands.

Grinner looked down at the gun as I turned it to the side. “Did you even get to shoot it?”

I shook my head. “Feel free to shoot up the place once everyone else is out, but I’m getting clear once everyone is up here.”

His eyes lit up and he became so focused on getting to shoot the gun, to the point of actually rubbing his hands together, he didn’t bother to ask why I was in a hurry to exit first, and I didn’t offer to explain.

Instead, I just gave Beryl, Foraker, Brad, and Saunders a few minutes to finish getting past the mess on the ramp, and turned for the exit. “Wylina, come.”

Pasturing for a moment in front of the faint gray wall between me and the real world, I stuck my hands up first, raised above my shoulders, and stepped out. "Friendly with a Coyote!"

A voice, I think Broadnax’s called back. “Hold fire. You and Wylina are recognized, Mr. Bright. Advance and move right to clear the field of fire."

A moment later the two women and Brad walked out and got the same instructions, as they moved over to where I was sitting on my reworked kitchen chair, my stomach grumbing loudly enough for them to hear.

“Damn. I need to start carrying around some snacks.”

Brad got a hopeful look on his face and then seemed to deflate, “Sorry Harry, I gave everything on me to Annie, she burned off a lot of calories healing us up.”

I stood up and set my hand on his arm. “Foraker, is this where the break on him is? I don’t know if my healing works better if I target the right spot, but I can’t see how it would hurt?”

She told me something about a fracture point on his arm where the boss monster had caught him and sent him flying, but I kind of drifted off from listening while I started pushing warmth into Brad’s arm.

Healing him was only going to make me hungrier, but I was guessing the army guys were going to feed us. They had to know by now that using powers built up an appetite.

Beryl meanwhile had walked over to where Broadnax had come down from the little room one story up that the line boss used to use to spy on the workers to make sure they didn’t slack off. He handed her a radio that she was using to tell someone that the dungeon was all clear.

I looked up at Brad to ask him something, but instead, he asked me, "Can Annie sit down on your chair, she’s pretty tired.”

Looking over I gave the Leech a head nod over to my chair which she shuffled over to sit with a sigh of relief. She was actually looking a little gray.

“What’s keeping the other two?”

Brad looked back to me from where he had been giving Foraker a concerned look. “Sam wanted to shoot the gun too, and was dismounting from your cart since he said he wanted to shoot it for real.”

I nodded in reply, then lifted my hand away from his arm as a wave of exhaustion washed over me. “Makes sense, and I’m tapped if I’m going to walk out of here.”

Moments later, the other two appeared from the dungeon entrance, with Grinner giving me a nod and a thumbs up. As soon as the two of them got a few steps away from the gray wall that marked the entrance to the dungeon, it vanished to show a shallow hollow beneath the pile of cracked up cement that had been pushed up into the air to surround the entrance. The pile immediately collapsed into a pile of rubble.

...So. It’s done. At least for another fourteen days when another set of dungeons are supposed to appear, or I get asked to help close another one somewhere nearby.

Pass. I got things to do. Like level up, fix some more things wrong with me, use my cores, and finish awakening my land.

But first off, I needed to eat.