by David Burke
They all stopped and stared at him but he maintained a stern face and one by one or two by two they all moved away and gave him some space. “Not you, Amelia and Jasmine. Can you two stay and talk to me for a minute.”
“Of course, chief,” Jasmine said, and he’d be damned if she didn’t positively radiate triumph. Amelia didn’t say anything but stood there and waited for the others to go away.
“So, there is no way that I am going to be able to deal with that every day and still be able to do what I need to do,” Jay said.
“That is why you need an advisor,” Jasmine said.
“Yes, his first teammate is his advisor,” Amelia said as the two of them glared at one another.
“Yes, Amelia is correct. She is my first teammate,” Jay began and for an instant he felt a dark mood of deep anger and depression settle onto him that he was barely able to fight his way through, “but there is too much work for any one person.” With that, the pressure eased up.
Jay looked from Amelia to Jasmine and took a deep breath. “So here is what I am going to propose, Amelia will be my advisor on all things dungeon-related. She will plan out the parties into the dungeon and help me know where I am most needed. She and I have trained together more than anyone else so she has the best grasp of my capabilities and I trust her to make sure that I have enough time to keep descending the dungeon as I need to.”
Amelia gave Jasmine that cutting smirk of hers as she said, “That’s right. I have been with Jay more than anyone else and gotten to see his abilities up close.”
Before Jasmine could snap back, Jay said, “I will also need someone to manage the non-dungeon functions. So, Jasmine, can you take care of the food supplies and make sure that everyone is staying productive? Our lives all depend on this, so there can’t be any more moping around scared. We can’t take resources from those who are working for those that won’t. So if they aren’t on a dungeon team, then they need to be doing the various tasks we need to turn this into a loveable camp. We need permanent shelters that don’t disappear every morning.”
With that statement, they all looked over at the bungalows. Jay had honestly expected there to be only two or three at the most left after the reset, given the reduction in population. Nonetheless, there were still five of the small buildings there. That didn’t make sense with how things had worked before. “I think we have to assume that means there are going to be others coming here,” he said as he pointed at the number of bungalows.
Both girls looked at it for a second and then nodded. Amelia said, “We need to get scouting parties to look for more invaders and get everyone organized to fight.”
At the same time Jasmine said, “We need to scout them out and find out what they may want. Maybe we can turn them to our side.”
“Yeah, I bet you tried that with Kenley, didn’t you. The only side of you that he was interested in was your backside,” Amelia snapped.
“Do you always have to talk like this? Not everything is a fight. Maybe we can work with the new people and if we can’t then we have Jay and you to kill them for us,” Jasmine asked.
“I just call things the way I see them,” Amelia replied.
“You two can’t fight all the time, not if you want to be my advisors. I am asking you to put this squabbling aside.”
Amelia said, “I will for you.”
Jasmine echoed, “I will for the group.”
“Do it for me or do it for the good of the group, but just do it.”
“Fine, so blondie, I mean Amelia is in charge of the dungeon parts and I will be in charge of the rest,” Jasmine said.
“Um, not quite. Keeping people training and busy is going to be a full-time job. So I am going to name Huong to be in charge of health-related things. She can consult with you about farming we may be able to do but you will be in charge overall. She will also come to you if she needs resources for a medical clinic or whatever that looks like with healing powers.”
While clearly not happy, Jasmine nodded and said, “Okay.”
“One more thing. I’m going to put Meikiyo in charge of orchestrating the sleeping arrangements each night. She will work with you and determine if we have enough credits to put everyone up in the bungalows and so on as well as assigning who will sleep in each bungalow. Again you will be overall in charge of the base camp but she will have control over that aspect.”
Jasmine seemed even less happy about that and looked like she was going to say something angry at first but then put on a smile that never touched her eyes and said, “As you wish, chief.”
“We will also tell everyone about what each of your responsibilities are and then let them know that if they want to talk to me about any of these things that they will have to schedule an appointment through one of you. Otherwise I will just reject their requests outright.”
“Makes sense,” Amelia said. “Now can we make these announcements and then get started on finding the newcomers wherever they may be?”
“Okay, Jasmine, you are really good with the group. Do you mind telling them? I need to go check on my gear and see about getting some upgrades.”
This time the smile seemed more genuine as she said, “Don’t worry, I will let everyone know the plan.”
Jay turned and headed for the terminal. He was shrugging to no one but himself. Leading this group might end up like sticking a bunch of cats in a bag. It was gonna be far easier to say than to do. He just had to put that out of his mind and try to focus on what was coming. He hoped it wasn’t another group of invaders like those sickos that Kenley had been leading. Another shrug and he realized, he would just have to wait to find out.
Accessing the terminal worked the same way, but it came up as terminal 1.1 and showed the new options in gold print versus the older items in black. He narrowed his focus just to the new things.
Items that drew his attention the most fell across various categories.
Water Purifier 2- removes the aphrodisiac effect from 1 gallon of water. - 60 credits
Basic Birth Control- effective up to a level 15 male: 30 days duration - 200 credits
Standard Birth Control- effective up to a level 30 male: 30 days duration - 800 credits
Standard Weapons-
Dagger- 50 credits
Spear- 75 credits
Hatchet- 75 credits
Hand Axe- 125 credits
Mace- 125 credits
Shortbow- 125 credits
Longbow- 200 credits
Arrows- 8 credits/per
Light crossbow- 250 credits
Quarrels- 15 credits/per
Heavy crossbows- 400 credits
Quarrels- 20 credits/per
Short sword- 300 credits
Long sword- 450 credits
Leather Armor- 200 credits
Chainmail Armor- 400 credits
Wooden Round Shield 150 credits
Quality Light Buckler 175 credits
Metal-trimmed shield 225 credits
Standard Healing Potion: 30 days’ worth of healing instantly and regeneration +10 for 1 hour 200 credits
Standard PSI Potion: +500 PSI, +50 PSI/minute for 10 minutes
200 credits
Standard Stamina Potion: +500 Stamina, +50 Stamina/minute for 10 minutes
200 credits
The potions were expensive but he could see the value of them in a pinch. Gear seemed to be all more expensive but hopefully that meant that the weapons were stronger. The meals and housing as well as most of the personal comfort items remained the same.
The only real item that was shocking was the new level of birth control. Coming in at 800 credits it was staggering. There was no way that most of them could afford that even with the 1000 credits from clearing the first floor. He shrugged though. It wasn’t like he had to worry about many girls for that, just those on his team.
It also provided him an insight into what the likely thresholds were. Based on the information he had, he was assuming the next thresholds would
be 15 and 30. That would make sense as it was 5 levels, 10 levels and then 15 levels between thresholds. So each next step required an additional 5 levels more than the step before it.
For now he purchased chainmail, a new dagger for each of the team members, leather armor for the three girls, and a new spear for himself. The quality of the weapons were clearly greater than the original spear that he had but still fell somewhat short of the spear the girls had crafted for him. He also purchased 3 healing potions and an assortment of meals and extra clothing. Altogether it set him back by 2140 credits.
After that he started practicing his Body Modification again. He found that he could grow each arm or leg. He could thicken his bones or grow claws. It seemed to be beyond him to do an entire body transformation, but figured that was because his skill level was at four and it was his first day of practicing.
Two hours later, he sensed Amelia sneaking up on him. He waited till she was right next to him before he maximized precognition and enhanced speed. Then as she kicked at him he caught her leg, hooking his arm underneath it. Instinctively he pushed forward and hooked his leg behind her other leg, taking it out from underneath her.
At that point, her enhanced reflexes kicked in and instead of falling backwards, she was able to buck her hips and wrap her leg around him. Between the leg that Jay was holding and the leg that she hooked behind him she was able to hold her weight off the ground. He just smiled and pulled her close. The attack quickly turned into a kiss as their faces met and he pressed his mouth to hers. She responded in kind and opened her mouth to receive his tongue as she then began to apply a gentle suction, kissing him passionately.
Jay shifted his hands to better hold her up against him while she wrapped her legs tighter and he pulled her ass into him. The excitement of their little mock ambush game turned into an entirely different energy between them. She squirmed and moaned softly into his mouth and his body responded to her.
He knew that if he didn’t nip this in the bud right now he was gonna be out in the open and pushing far more than his tongue into her in a couple of minutes. The most challenging part of it was that she wasn’t slowing down at all. Apparently modesty wasn’t in her vocabulary as her hands alternated between running through his hair and fumbling with the buckles of her armor.
He pulled back his mouth, gasping for breath. “We need to stop.”
“Why? You started this.”
“But we are out in the open where everyone can see us.”
“I don’t care. I’m not ashamed. They will all just want to be me.”
“What about the invaders?” Jay asked. He was grasping at straws as his resolve even with Iron Will started to crumble.
“None of us found any. Besides the only invasion I’m interested in is you invading me. Don’t worry, I won’t put up much resistance.”
“Gah, woman. You are going to drive me to insanity,” Jay said as he hooked his arms down and through her legs and using his superior strength was able to push her off of him. He took a step back and kept her at arm’s length. “We need to prepare. Where did you find them?”
Amelia gave him that pouty face that she had perfected. “Fine we can talk about this, but you owe me now.”
“Deal, you just have to get in line behind Meikiyo.”
For a second Amelia looked like she was gonna protest but then she said, “Okay, fair’s fair. Just no adding more girls to Team Jay without us voting on it.”
Jay shrugged. What else could he say when his team was part babysitter and part wingman? “Now, where did you look for them?”
“I had half a dozen of us looking all around the clearing and up at the top of the ziggurat. We covered pretty much everywhere on this side of the hills,” Amelia said.
“So that means if they are coming from anywhere it is from the beach. That is good.”
“Oh, because we can set up an ambush?” she asked.
“Yeah, although let’s not give up on finding a peaceful resolution. Although I agree with you that it would be better to be prepared,” Jay replied. Then he added, “Here this is for you,” as he gave her the dagger and new leather armor he had bought for her.
As she started to change right, there she smirked and Jay went off to find Huong and Meikiyo before he lost his resolve. He heard peals of laughter coming from Amelia as he fought every instinct in him. Being responsible sure stunk at times.
Half an hour later, Team Jay was set up on an overhang watching the passage and soon saw a group of people moving their way. Amelia’s eagle eye was able to count them while they were still pretty far off.
“There are twelve of them, two guys and ten girls from what I can count,” she said. From there she kept giving a blow by blow while the group got closer. “They look pretty ragged. I don’t see much in the way of armor or weapons.”
“I think with that number, I should just go down there and meet them. Amelia can stealth down behind me and you two can provide ranged support,” Jay said.
“Are you sure that is a good idea? If they attack you, we may not be able to respond quickly enough,” Meikiyo said.
Huong added, “I don’t know that I can do much with roots. It is all rocky here and there isn’t much plant life.”
“I think I can handle them and my premonition will warn me before they attack. They don’t exactly inspire fear. Honestly they just look beat down.”
“I’ll be right behind you but they won’t see me,” Amelia said as she started to climb down.
Once Jay was down on the trail he started walking towards them with his hands up. When they saw him in his new chainmail armor with the spear strapped across his back, the guys got in front and one drew out a short sword and another had a mace.
“Welcome, I’m Jay. The cluster sent me here to welcome any newcomers. Is this all of you?”
The man with the sword said, “Maybe. Are you the only one here?”
Jay weighed his options and decided to be truthful. “No we have you covered but we would rather be friends than enemies. We just had a recent bad experience with some others who came into our cluster and killed half of our people.”
The two men and one of the women all put their heads together and started to whisper. Finally the man with the sword spoke up again, “I’m Tyler, and this is Miguel. Anne is the pretty girl who is a mean shot with a crossbow.”
“Thanks for making the point, but I’m not here to fight unless we have to. If it comes to it I’m not really worried about a crossbow,” Jay said. He didn’t want to be baited but he also wasn’t gonna back down either. This was his cluster and he sure as hell was gonna protect them.
“So how are we gonna do this?” Miguel asked.
“I think we all put our weapons away and then I walk back with you. The rest of my people will escort us back from behind. That way you all and I can have a nice friendly chat,” Jay replied.
They whispered again and said, “Okay that seems fair since it is twelve of us and one of you.”
Jay carefully schooled his face so as not to let a smug look show as he thought about the much tougher-looking opponents that he had handled yesterday. Instead he reached his hand to Tyler, who grasped it and they gave a firm shake to each other. They both squeezed harder than necessary but Jay stopped once he felt that the other guy had reached his limit.
Walking back he learned that they had lost many people the first two nights to creatures coming out of the dungeon. No one had organized them and very few finished the first quest until too late. Most of their money got spent on food and clothing and then weapons which were lost in the dungeon by others who tried to go in once it became apparent that was their only choice.
Jay tried as much as possible to listen to their story. At first some of the group seemed suspicious but once they got to talking, they wouldn’t stop. Obviously the experience had been traumatic and while Jay could easily see in retrospect the poor choices they had made which worsened their situation, he just listened.
; As they got it off their chest, the group started to talk more and more. Jay learned all their names: besides the first three there was Chelsea, Latisha, Chunhua, Areum, Elea, Kristin, Irina, Adelaide, and Maria. The walk back took an hour because of how slow this group was walking and that gave him an opportunity to learn a few facts about their background. Interestingly enough most of these were all from other countries unlike Jay’s cluster which had been mostly American.
“So wait, do you all speak English?” Jay asked.
Miguel said, “No, I’m speaking Spanish right now. Didn’t you realize that we all are speaking and hearing our own languages?”
“No, as far as I knew all of our cluster was from the US and so it didn’t seem odd that we would all be speaking English,” Jay replied.
“Interesting. No we learned the first day that somehow they have like a universal translation program going or whatever. It doesn’t really matter though, it hasn’t kept our friends alive.”