The Witch Tamer, Book 1
Page 19
There's a size able amount of blood from the kid that ran off wounded, who was the victim. But not so much, he wouldn't survive I believe.
And hopefully if he really was a dungeon adventurer, he might have some kind of health potion as a backup.
I don't know where he went. But even if I could find him, I don't have a first aid kit.
It was worth using my 1 charge of 'blind' today to rescue someone.
Within minutes the 3 bodies are completely gone.
I realized then, that 'they probably knew the dungeon would eat the kid's body' if they succeeded in murdering him here. This also adds to the fact that they might have previous murders. They wouldn't have known that if it was their first time!
But I should be watchful also.
If they'd had guns, I would have been in real trouble. My stun still isn't that great yet either, though I've become somewhat efficient with it.
Not long after that, I ended up going into the dungeon.
...
Working hard I did just a bit less than yesterday.
51 low level monsters killed, thanks to tons of my defensive enhancements stacking together to let me just plow through them. Of those, 36 were slimes. Most of the rest were kobolds. A comparable, lesser equipped adventurer with lower stats and no enchanted gear would have done less than 20% of that, I think.
I achieved 12 slime core loots. Then 5 kobold loots, which appear to be a variety of materials. My duffel bag was so full that near the end I couldn't sneak attack anymore.
This gives me a better idea of loot ratios also, which is why I tracked the numbers.
As I'm coming out I hear some interesting gossip while passing the lines.
"Hey did you hear? They are saying that someone taped a murder here by the bathrooms," I heard one saying.
"Oh shit," I almost said aloud.
They taped it?
I continued on my way, and kept to the alleys and behind the tienda style shops, hoping I wouldn't be questioned or recognized. (After today, I could change the color of my clothes maybe, to something else for a few days.)
But then I heard some tienda style tent stand store talk between buyers.
"So what can I use the slime cores for?" one guy is asking an alchemist.
"Believe it or not, if you have an enchanter combine them a few times with 10 others, you are supposed to be able to build a secret recipe from them," he said.
"What kind of recipe?"
"Hell if I know. I haven't tried it since it sounds risky. But its a low rank recipe, not a mid rank recipe if that helps any."
"Thanks," I heard him tell the shopkeeper, but also for the items he'd bought while they were talking.
I kept going.
Eventually I heard other rumors a few minutes later, while listening.
"Did you hear that one biker gang is roaming the area? I hear they have 3 people missing," one rumor was said.
(Shit! They already know?! I'd only been in the dungeon for about 4 hours!)
Another rumor was heard by listening to vendor talk.
"Hey come you guys don't use a lunchera truck like those Mexican food stand guys?" one guy is asking a tent stand shop dealer.
"Are you kidding? They are so expensive! If I had that kind of money I'd just live in an RV and use it to sell out of," one guy said.
It seems like a lot of dungeon people are way different than mainstream office guys in the early beginning stages. This fits also the ram shackle sort of parts yard style homemade gear that I see a lot of them wearing around. Like one guy has a breastplate made out of what looks like an old cast iron wood stove piece. Using motorcycle biker helmets for equipped head gear is common also. And I'm definitely not the only one that has a baseball bat equipped weapon, though not many think of using crow bars for some reason.
It also seems that, unlike normal office buildings and business attitudes to street shops, adventurers like and respect tienda style shops and tent or mobile shops. This is different from the main stream culture, but reflects that these people like to be free. Both adventurers and the merchants like to be free and less restrained, because higher stats and levels in the dungeoneer culture has made it that way. And facing the danger makes people not want to work for other people as much (though it does happen).
My crowbar looks shinier than the others. And sometimes I get the feeling people who haven't figured out how to mana sense are checking out my stuff, but don't know why they feel something is funny about me.
While waiting for Melanie to come pick me up I did some trading.
I finally figured out why people really want enchanters while probing the shops with questions.
"Hey do you buy adventurer loot?" I asked one shop that looks pricier than the others.
"Sure, but to be honest not a lot of loots people are bringing are any good," the guy said. "But I'll see what you have," he slipped in near the end acting smooth.
I positioned myself near the side of his booth, but within ear shot of the guy next to him, just in case he gives me a shitty deal.
He tried to wave me over to the isolated side, confirming my hunch that he's shady. This is partly why his shop stand looks more 'blingy' than the others and more colors; because he rips people off.
"I have these two daggers. Wondered what I can get for them for cash value," I brought out my two 'throwing dagger+2' items to show him.
"Where did you get this? You probably stole it didn't you!" he said loudly.
He thought I'd run. But I didn't.
Then he tried to swipe my two items.
"Not so fast, asshole," I told him.
"Guards!" he shouted.
Two guards came over.
"This man stole from me," he said pointing to me.
"No I didn't," I said.
He argued with them for a bit.
But then the other shop owner couldn't endure it seeing as it had stopped people from buying. With the threat of thieves, people don't help me out. But they do withdraw from the market, fearing being stolen from themselves. The withdraw of buyers from the area ironically forced the second shop owner to defend me.
"He didn't steal from you. He just had something you wanted thief. And you stole from me last week also. I have this whole thing on tape," the second guy said.
Within a few minutes, the crooked guy is arrested.
But its sad that the other shopkeeper wasn't going to defend me, until his shop also took losses; even though he knew all along I was innocent.
(I should probably stay away from both those two after this. Jerks...)
I then got 3 offers for the enhanced daggers.
$20 a piece from shop owner C.
$22 a piece from shop owner B.
The first guy, is the guy who rescued me. He's willing to give me only $19 a piece, but will give me a red health potion and order 20 of them from me as soon as I can deliver them.
My mind is crunching the numbers as I thought about it.
If they weren't daggers, I would get much, much better prices, I realized. Daggers and knives are just so common, and everyone has them. So the market is saturated with them. But at the same time they are a good item to have and yes an enchanted dagger is better than nothing, and will still get me a nicer price.
I stopped to look at my cell phone and look online.
"What would it cost me to replace them?" I wondered, while asking the merchant to stop for a sec and wait.
The one merchant gives me the lower price, but assures me he can give me a long term deal. The two other prices won't do another deal after this.
I found on my internet utility buying this X-Force WetCutter throwing knives 12 piece set costs 16 USD!
I feel relieved!
I can do this! This will also augment my dungeon income! I can keep buying the bare bones no enchant knives, then enchant them, and resell with a nice profit!
"I'll make a deal with you," I shook hands with the one guy.
+19×2 in USD.
Also, +1 red health potion.
I ordered 10 sets of the 12 piece throwing daggers online, to be sent to my address. With shipping this will cost me $160 dollars but I got free shipping from going over a certain amount. But because I'd asked to have them overnight shipped, it will cost me $20 dollars extra.
This will then let me enhance them faster!
I also was able to sell today's loot for about $168 dollars, because of some price fluctuations, while also keeping a small obsidian colored gem that was a drop. (I will try to make that into something tonight also, using my skills.)
Not long after that, Melanie arrived to pick me up.
"Whoa, traffic was terrible today," Melanie said smiling.
She looks radiant and happy, there to pick me up, as I hop into the passenger seat.
"Hey can we find a place to do another quickie in the truck, right before coming back home?" she asked.
"Sure."
...
We get back on the road around 7:30 PM.
I discover I have a notification in my status screen, which I opened while holding Melanie's hand in the big truck.
"Eh? I leveled up!" I said.
"Wow! Really?!" Melanie then kissed me on the cheek affectionately. "This is so amazing. Nice. I'm just glad you are safe hon. Its like everything was meant to be," she whispered.
It took long enough! Seriously, its really slow leveling in this world; I guess because its harder to collect mana particles from slain monsters.
Again, like before I'd been given 3 stat points to use.
Status
Name; Jay Williams
Race; Type 349F human hybrid
Magic job; Mind/Enchanter Mage
Level; 6
Health; 93/93 → 98/98
Mana; 49/339 → 49/349
Mana Regen; 21 → 22 (per hour)
Health regen; 3 (per day)
Element affinities; mind, enchantment
Str; 31Agi; 34Con; 41
Int; 100 → 101Wis; 91 → 92App; 101 → 102
Skills; athletics (+1 con), jogging (+2 agi), math (+2 int), physics (+1 int), mana affinity (enabled), defend, block, parry, (weak) Stun (3 seconds)
Magic skills; Seduce, Charm, Mesmerize, Enchant, Enhance
Passive skills; demon lord clan heritage (bonus starting mana +50), demon lord heritage (bonus mana; +2 mana points per level)
Gear list;
Health necklace +1 (per 6 hours, maxed)
Baseball cap
Jacket +2
Jeans (+2 defense)
1 long crowbar +2
Hoodie +1 defense
Flashlight (energy efficient enchant, blind 1/day)
Flashlight #2 (nothing yet)
Baseball Bat
Buckler
(+5)+3
Belt +2
Supply bag; 1 red health potion, 2 med gels, 3 pain creams (borrowed from the house)
Bank account; $752
....
Needed to buy gas for Melanie on the way home. It costs her about $10 a day just to and from picking me up with no other errands per day. We put $50 in her truck. (-$50 dollars from my account)
Chapter 14
FBI office
Magitek crimes unit, at an undisclosed location.
A young good looking young secretary in a skirt came into the boss' office.
"Sir, we've managed to find an incident. Putting a drone to monitor Jay before and after going into the dungeon was a good move," she said.
"So you found something?" his ears perked up.
"The techs are getting the video now. I haven't seen it yet. Only one guy has and he thinks its something good," she told him while nervous in her seat.
"I want to be there when you show it to me," he said while fidgeting around. He also pulled out a notepad and some paper to doodle on in case there was something important for notes.
Together it took them a few minutes to go down a level in the building to where the techs were working on the video.
The boss came in to a bigger room where others were also waiting to look at the footage also, just as they'd set a computer and screen projector to watch the footage.
Most of them had been hoping for a break through like this for some time.
"Are you ready?" the boss asked.
"We're going to look at it now. One guy says it can incriminate him," one said.
"Good. Let's have a seat. Someone have any popcorn?" he joked.
Some of the others laughed.
They sat and the footage began playing.
At first it was boring.
And it was footage of Jay Williams, the member of the family they were trying to prosecute.
"Wait, before we start, does this mean he's a dungeon adventurer now?" the boss asked.
"We believe so, sir," one replied.
That person then looked to another secretary.
"The data says yes. But we can't go in ourselves since we don't have the stats for it," the secretary woman said.
'This wouldn't have happened if we hired qualified people that knew stuff instead of rich peoples' kids,' the boss thought.
"OK, go on," he said.
They un-paused the footage.
Jay was going towards the shop stands where dungeon merchants had set up temporary stands outside the Los Angeles river dungeon entrance to 'The Tower', that never ended.
Right away you could see that it was a high traffic day. Despite the Los Angeles river looking so urbanized, it was out of the way for normal foot traffic. Yet even though it was a sort of hidden and rural like feel, there were constant streams of 'Murim' dwellers that came here to buy, sell, adventure, or even guard the Tower entrance.
They'd heard the stories, and how deep it went, but nobody was actually sure if it was true that it went all the way to a hidden world on the other side.
They did know that 'Murim' was a real world and real term. And Supernaturals also. But it was still some what of a big adjustment for them.
Now they saw Jay moving towards the porta potties, from the aerial drone camera footage high up and from far away but zoomed in. Jay went inside and shut the door. The aerial view also was quite well done.
"Hey, what's that? There's something going on behind the toilets," one guy said.
"What did you see?" someone asked.
"Not sure. Movement I think. But it didn't look like flowing movement, but more like action. And not calm."
"Can you zoom it towards that? What is that?" the boss asked.
"Sorry boss. The drone is trained to auto face the target Jay, no matter what. Unless he goes over there we can't see it," he said.
But then a few seconds passed.
Jay ran out of the bathroom suddenly. And he was drawing his weapon from a duffel bag, with a buckler over the other hand!
Then they could see the murder in progress! As the drone followed Jay it revealed 4 other people! A kid was surrounded by others!
Then the attack began! A kid was being mugged and in the process of being beaten to death by 3 thugs!
But then Jay intervened!
"What skill is that?" someone asked.
"Not sure. I'll have our consultants try to start identifying it right away."
"You do that! We need to know what skills he has for when we take him in for questioning," was followed immediately by, "on it, sir!"
"Well we know he's a mage now. That's confirmed," another said.
"Their family sure has a high percentage of mages. I don't like it. That's a lot of power right in one spot, while we struggle to recruit anyone good and have trouble competing with a good wage," another said.
"Oh wow. That had to hurt!" an agent said, watching the fight on screen.
They watched as Jay dispatched the others so thoroughly without a scratch.
"The kid might live! And Jay is saving him?! Wait, this won't put him away in prison! It makes him look like a hero. Tell that agent to pull his head out of his ass. This is exa
ctly the wrong kind of thing we need," one guy said.
"I don't get it. I was sure their family is some kind of crime lords? What is this?" another said.