“Leg’s broken, but it’s just a fracture. I can see the break. If you don’t lose all your blood, you’ll be fine. He took his shirt off and wrapped it around Allistor’s calf and shin, using the two sleeves to tie it off. “Let’s get you into the truck. I’ll run you back, and we can return for this stuff later.
Allistor shook his head. “This is good enough. Give me some of that jerky you made. I’ve got water in my ring. It’ll be good enough to keep me going while you hook up the trailer. Let’s get this done. I’ll sit here and keep watch while you work.
Sam nodded, pulling some jerky out of his own ring and handing it to Allistor. He stomped off toward the trailer, grabbing hold of the tongue and pulling it forward with a little effort. A minute later it disappeared around the other side of the garage and Allistor could hear him hooking it up.
Max had chosen to stay with Allistor, lying next to him in the grass and whining. He kept sniffing at the injured leg and looking sadly at the human next to him. Allistor, still in a lot of pain, petted the dog to reassure him. It helped relax him a bit as he scanned the tree line.
The sound of the Corvette engine firing up was music to his ears. Sam let it run for a minute or two, then he pulled it up onto the trailer and shut it off. There was a bit of clanking and clanging, followed by the sound of first one ATV, then the other being started up and driven up into the trucks.
Roughly ten minutes had passed since Sam had bandaged his leg. Allistor had looted the canid at his feet and was feeling better, the pain receding a bit. The buff from the jerky had him feeling stronger. Still, he could see blood spreading through the shirt’s fabric very slowly. He knew he needed to loosen the strap on his thigh soon, to allow a little circulation. But he was hoping the wounds would have closed by now. With a sigh, he loosened the strap. The stains on the shirt grew more quickly. After about thirty seconds, he began to feel dizzy. He quickly tightened the strap again, grunting in pain. He grabbed the bottle and drank some more water.
Max whined, laying his head in Allistor’s lap for moral support. Allistor laughed in spite of the pain. He scratched the dog’s ears and rubbed his tummy, waiting for Sam to return. Another ten minutes passed in doggy-communing bliss before Sam walked up.
“Everything’s loaded. Except the safe. Going to need help to move that.” He extended a hand and helped Allistor to his feet.
“I might be able to help.” Allistor tested his weight on the injured foot. He didn’t feel much pain, as the leg was asleep from lack of circulation. He took a single step forward, and the pain was bearable. After a few more, he said, “Yeah, let’s do this.”
The two men walked slowly back to the garage, Max frolicking around them and barking happily. Sam just smiled at him and muttered, “Stupid mutt.”
When they reached the garage, Allistor saw that the vehicles were loaded, and more than a dozen long guns were stowed in the back of Frank’s pickup. Next to the empty gun safe stood a four-wheeled furniture dolly – basically, four lengths of 2x4 bolted in a square with a wheel at each corner. Sam said, “We can wheel it right up the trailer ramp on its side, if you help me tilt it onto the dolly.
Allistor obliged, gritting his teeth against the pain as they first lowered the safe, then pushed it up the ramp together. When they were done, he took a minute to sit on the stool by the workbench and loosen the strap again. This time there seemed to be less blood loss. Or the shirt was just so saturated he couldn’t tell the difference.
With everything loaded, Sam boosted him up into the pickup, asking no less than three times if Allistor was sure he was okay to drive. When Allistor finally answered, “Yes, mom, I’ll be fine,” Sam snorted and let it go.
“You’re a tough bastard, I’ll give you that.” Sam waved at him as he closed the garage doors, then he jumped in Frank’s pickup with Max. He pulled forward, the trailer with the Corvette and the gun safe following behind. Allistor pulled in behind them and let out a long sigh, ready to get back to the Warren and crash. He felt a slight twinge as he realized he was about to get some alone time with Amanda.
Chapter Eight
Money for Nothin and Your Skills for Free
The next several days passed uneventfully. Parties went out foraging, occasionally running across mobs. There were injuries, but no fatalities. People worked on their skills, trained their bodies, ate, drank, and got to know each other better.
The Mustang sold for forty-one thousand klax. The Corvette - still the only Earth vehicle on the market - went for an even higher sixty thousand klax. Ramon and Michael had returned with a box truck filled with wine and other usable items, including the grinder which was now installed in the crafting hall. Allistor had sold six cases of the best wine for two thousand klax each. Then he’d stopped putting them up for sale, wanting to allow time for the buyers to spread word about the quality of the wine. In a few more days he’d start putting up single bottles.
The old flintlock hadn’t sold. Allistor wasn’t sure why, but he intended to modify his write-up and put it back up.
A week after establishing The Warren, they were sitting on over a hundred thousand klax. Everyone had become stronger and more skilled in their professions. They had foraged more food and supplies than they could use in two months. They now had a fleet of three pickup trucks, a box truck, a Humvee, a tractor with several modules, three ATVs and a pair of dirt bikes. Things were looking up.
Allistor called a meeting as everyone was eating lunch. “Okay, folks. You’ve all been doing a great job! We’ve got food, cash, weapons, and a safe place to sleep. I think we should spend some of our moolah and make some improvements. The question I have for you is… do we add to the stronghold? Do we buy some scrolls for our various professions? Or do we spend it in some other way?”
Meg spoke up first. “I mean, I think we’ve got plenty of room here. Do we really need any improvements to this place right now?”
“We could expand upward?” Nancy offered. “Put some walls up. Make it easier to get some sunshine. And it would protect the crops we plant.”
Ramon, who had been spending quite a bit of time with Nancy and Chloe, shook his head. “That would be nice. But it presents a danger, too. Walls will draw attention. Until there are more of us, or we’re a lot stronger, I think it’s better if we remain hidden.”
Several around the table muttered agreement. Nancy sighed, but she let it drop. Lilly took her hand. “We can take Chloe topside for a little bit every day. Start with a small garden, maybe? Close to the gates. The sensors will tell us if anything is approaching in plenty of time for us to get back inside.”
Chloe had been enchanted with Max from the moment he arrived. And the feeling was mutual. The two had adopted each other and were constantly romping around the cavern together. For most of the week, the only time the girl had been outside was to let Max out to do his business. And her mother had kept her within a few yards of the gates. “She’d love that. Thank you, Lilly.” Nancy hugged her.
Michael spoke up. “I’d really like that Power Infusion scroll. I’ve been leveling my Blacksmithing, and I can make decent armor now. But being able to enchant it would go a long way toward protecting us while we’re outside.”
Allistor agreed whole-heartedly. He was hoping the group would lean toward personal improvement. They could always find a new Stronghold if they lost The Warren. As long as they were individually strong, and worked together, they would survive.
“Anybody else have something they want to learn? Or improve? With scrolls, I mean.”
Meg raised her hand. “A few more recipes would be good. For food buffs.”
Nancy added. “I could use a few alchemy recipes as well. Fast-healing potions especially. And… I need to spend some time outside gathering plants. Or start planting them in that garden. Or both. I can’t increase my skill level without ingredients.”
Ramon said, “I’ve been reading about the Scribe skill. It seems I can learn to make spell scrolls. But to do so, I have
to learn the spell first. So, if there are any affordable spells that would also be useful? I can learn it, write it down, and others can learn it too. We could also sell the scrolls for profit.”
Allistor replied. “You bring up a good point there, my friend. Let’s talk about our economic system. Within our group, I mean. So far, everyone has been generous in sharing the fruits of their labor. We’ve worked on sort of an informal barter system, or maybe more of a commune. Anyway, some of you may want to start building individual wealth. To purchase things for yourselves, or even branch out to claim a Stronghold of your own. And I don’t want anyone to feel like they’re being held back from that.” He looked around the table.
“I think we should set a certain goal. A level of development that, when we reach it, we can all begin to focus more on personal gains. Whether that is a certain population level, a certain defense level, whatever it is. Until we reach it, we continue as we are. All the crafting items we loot from kills or forage go into the pot for our crafters to use. In return, they give the fruits of that labor to others who can use them. It makes sense for now as we’re all trying to gain and increase our skills.”
“Once we reach that point, I propose a percentage of what we loot and forage still goes into the community pot. Say, twenty-five percent? The rest you can all use as you like. Whether that means gifting, trading, selling, or hoarding. There will be no price gouging amongst ourselves. Anything you sell to one of us has to be priced fairly, if not discounted. You can milk the bastards on the open market for every klax you can get.” His devilish grin brought some laughter. “Anybody disagree so far?”
Everybody shook their heads no. Sam added, “I think that’s more than fair. I myself have no plans to branch out. I’m in this for the long haul. We build a community here, add to it as we can, and defend it with everything we have. A year will pass by quickly, and I hope we control the entire county by then. If not the whole state!” Meg thumped a hand on the table, over and over again. One by one, the others joined in a show of solidarity.
A few more minutes’ discussion and they had agreed on the metrics for their economic structure, at least for the balance of the year. Everyone finished lunch and spent some time looking at the market for useful scrolls and giving their list to Allistor.
When they all went back to what they were doing, he began going through the list and searching the market. He’d been given a total of ten requests for scrolls. Nobody was being greedy, as they were aware of the costs.
He purchased Michael’s Power Infusion scroll for six hundred klax. And two Alchemy recipes for Nancy at a thousand each. One was a Common Healing Potion, the other called Regeneration that was supposed to speed health, mana, and stamina regeneration to ten times the normal rate for thirty seconds. He found and purchased a druid spell called “Nature’s Boon” that said it could heal for three hundred health points. It cost a thousand klax, but if it were for real, that could save lives. He’d get Ramon to learn and copy it for everyone.
He purchased ten cooking recipes, having found a bundle for sale for five hundred klax. They all used meat from the invading species they’d been killing - canid, lanx, and octopoid, as well as a few others he hadn’t run across yet. He hoped that Sam and Meg would be able to adapt them to beef and pork because they gave some solid buffs.
Allistor also found half a dozen tailoring and leatherworking patterns. Shirts, pants, boots, a good start for Lilly’s crafting. He also found a few for plate armor and chain mail.
For himself, he purchased a couple combat spells. The first was a stun spell called Restraint that would incapacitate an opponent for three to ten seconds, depending on an incomprehensible formula that factored in the level of the caster, the target, the Will Power of each, etc. The second was a fire spell call Flame Shot. From the description, he could cast flame either in fireball form, or just a burst surrounding the target. They were a thousand klax each. He also purchased three copies of a Weaponsmithing related scroll called Metallurgy that was supposed to give him knowledge of base metals and alloys that should help him improve his crafted items. He’d give the others to Michael and Ramon. They were twelve hundred klax combined.
With Ramon in mind, he purchased the Scribe spell, plus two more scrolls for scribes. The first was called Calligraphy and it taught some form of lettering that was supposed to enhance the chances of successfully writing a spell and the power of said spell. That was an expensive one at two thousand klax, but if it improved Ramon’s scrolls, they’d make that back with just a few transactions. The second was called The Art of Ink which cost a thousand klax and was supposed to impart knowledge of the various herbs and powdered ingredients that made up inks that increased the power of the scrolls. It was also supposed to teach the user which colors were best for each type of magic.
Then he purchased a dozen minor spell scrolls for Ramon to practice on. Spells like Light which created a small light globe, and Dowse which allowed the caster to find nearby sources of water. Another was Night Vision, which was pretty self-explanatory. These were all a hundred klax each. He figured they’d be good spells for Ramon to reproduce and for everyone in the group to learn.
He found a spell called Grow for Nancy that would allow her to speed up the growth rate and size of whatever she planted. And a formula for fertilizer.
Lastly, he found a spell called Internal Analysis that, from the description, would allow Amanda to be her own MRI and X-ray machine. It would allow her to look inside a patient to assess their injuries better.
It almost felt like cheating, purchasing all these spells and the ability to reproduce them. As he considered how much of a cheat it would be in a game, he realized two things. First, this was real life. And if he had to cheat to survive and keep his people alive, he’d damn well cheat. And second, the amounts he was paying for these spells would normally be well beyond the means of a low-level player. The broken aspect of this system was actually the ability to sell rare items for massive moolah, and being among the first to discover and exploit it.
Completing his transactions, he retrieved the dozens of scrolls from the kiosk window and began making his rounds, passing them out. Ramon actually hugged him when he dumped the pile of scrolls on a workbench in front of him. Michael chuckled like an evil overlord gloating over his plan for world domination.
Amanda chose a more active form of thanks. When she read the description of the Internal Analysis spell, she instantly opened and learned it. Sitting patiently on her exam table, Allistor watched her zone out and noticed a faint flash in her eyes. He also detected a sort of wavy distortion field around her that resembled the heat waves you might see in a desert. He reached out to touch it, but it faded before he came in contact.
She turned to him, saying, “Thank you, lover. Now strip!”
Allistor chuckled as he started to pull his shirt off. “I wonder if Nancy and Lilly are gonna thank me this way…” She smacked the back of his head.
“You wish. I’m gonna test out this new spell. You’re my guinea pig.”
Pausing in the act of undoing his belt, he stopped disrobing. She could look through his chest. No reason to put his bare butt on the cold table for no good reason. “Fine. Go for it.”
Amanda mumbled something, then her eyes began to glow again. She stared directly into his chest for a minute or so. Then she took his hand and raised it, examining the hand, wrist, arm, and then shoulder. “Interesting,” she mumbled as she moved upward to stare into his head. Allistor felt a little creeped out.
“What’s interesting in my head?” He was actually a little nervous she’d found a tumor or something.
“Hmmm… what?” She blinked, and the light left her eyes. “Oh. No. Not in your head. As far as I could see it’s empty.” She smirked at him as he rolled his eyes. “No, what was interesting is your elbow and your shoulder. Though they have fully healed, and healed quickly because of whatever the system does to us, I could see the remodeling of the bone. Both the brea
k in your elbow and the dents that lanx put in your shoulder. Remodeling can often make a bone stronger than it was before the break. So… letting things bite you all the time, as Chloe would put it, might actually be making you stronger.”
She thought for a while, puttering around with his hand. “Makes sense, really. I mean, if you suddenly dumped five points into Strength and had the muscle mass to leap over a building, you’d need the bone structure to survive the landing. Assuming it didn’t kill you, each time you damaged yourself, you’d heal up and get stronger.”
She set down his hand and cast the spell again. This time looking through his jeans where he’d broken his leg. “Works through clothes, no problem.” She touched his thigh as she leaned down to get a closer look. “And there’s remodeling here as well. I wonder… I’d like to be using this spell on someone when they increase their constitution. Fascinating.”
She handed him his shirt. “As for the other thing, the thank you, come by my quarters tonight and we’ll talk about it.” She saw him grin and start to take his shirt back off. Holding up a hand she said, “Easy there, killer. You’ve got more scrolls to deliver.” and pushed him off the table. She shooed him out of the infirmary, already grabbing a pad to take some notes.
Before he left, he paused at the door and asked, “Can you do me a favor?”
“What do you think tonight’s going to be?” She snorted.
He chose to ignore the jab. “I noticed a sort of… wavy field around you when you learned that spell. I have a couple here for myself. Can you watch me once with normal eyes, and once with that spell going?”
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